Scott was indeed right about his luck; Eld had more power at his disposal than most people could ever dream of. But all it ever seemed to bring him was trouble; for every instance he managed to protect someone using his power, there seemed to be another two where it simply attracted more trouble.

"Ingest souls?" This sounded off; in fact, nothing Scott described sounded like the people he'd met. "Are you sure we're talking about the same people? With one exception, none of them even give off more Qi than a normal person, and I've never seen any of them use it--they seem as clueless about my powers as I am about theirs."

While he was no expert on the mechanics of Purgatory or the soul, he assumed that it was impossible to mess with someone's soul without some kind of Qi ability--after all, Qi was essentially the power of the spirit. Wouldn't their inability to use it prevent them from taking souls?

"Right; he didn't really know what he was doing. Only that it would "make him real," so he said," replied Scott. "And, of course, that the people he preyed on ceased to be."

If there was any doubt that they were speaking of the same people, it might all be washed out at this moment: the Memories had mentioned extensively the wish to become real. They seemed obsessed with the difference between reality and unreality, even in death.

"Now, you said you killed one of them?"

Etsu furrowed her brow. Eld did mention that, but she couldn't recall anything like that. To her knowledge, she and Eld had fought Toushikyo and were scared half to death of Illorex, but that was it. She was too stressed before to realize that Eld suggested that he'd killed a Memory before. She hoped it was Illorex.

That'd probably make life much easier.

"Is there a body? Personal effects? Anything we can use?"

For several moments Eld retreated inward again, as he'd often done in the past week. When he closed his eyes all he could see was a body fading away with a gust of wind, makeshift graves in a forest with no bodies, only three small items remaining...two buried in place of the people themselves, a third hidden in his room.

"No," he lied. "They disappeared when they died." Unlike his previous omission, this one would not be answered even if Scott called him on hiding something. Any further inquiries would only be met with denials or silence. He would not let what little was left of them be a subject for study. It was selfish, maybe even childish, but something he could not concede.

"To become real...what do they mean by that?" He'd heard it before, but didn't understand what it meant; they were as real as he was, and he still had lingering injuries and scars to prove it.

"Not a clue," Scott replied, but didn't dwell on that matter for too long. He was less interested in the reasoning of Ame Voleur than he was in the situations they presented people with. Etsu was a lot like him. "But . . . hell. They disappeared when they died? Didn't leave a thing behind? Fucking-- there goes one chance of finding this Memoria place. If we got something we can trace back-- that's all we'd need."

There was a sound of creaking coming from his end. Most likely he was in a chair, leaned back in frustration. He didn't say anything for awhile. Chances were he didn't know how to say it. To break the bad news to Eld and Etsu. The situation was grim enough as it was without this.

"Well, here's another spot of bad luck for you. And I hope you're sitting down for this one." Scott paused at length. "Protocol says--no, instinct says to send you backup. A specialist, for this kind of threat. But this's the bad luck. All outgoing transporters are down indefinitely. And they're probably going to be down for awhile. Zaki estimates a couple of weeks, if the techies work round the clock. I can send someone, but they got to go on foot, and there's an ocean between us, bud. For the next two weeks, you and Ets are alone."

Etsu felt a painful sense of dread at that moment. Two weeks? Was that really how long they were going to be without support?

"We can send small things back and forth, just with our own powers, but that's it."

"I see." This bothered Eld far less than it did Etsu; he didn't know about specialists or if Reapers often worked together, but he was used to handling his problems on his own. While he did far a from a perfect job, the fact that he was still alive after it all said something.

"Small things?" he asked aloud, thinking of what they could do with the little support they could get. "Could you send Etsu one of the ear-things?" He was referring to communicator Etsu used to have--he suspected he wasn't supposed to see it, but when they lived in the same room it was hard to hide anything from each other.

"These sunglasses are kind of inconvenient." Not to mention a bit silly looking.

"Ear things? Oh, those types of commu-links?"

Etsu had two types of devices during her first stay in Hillcrest: an ear-bud model and a glasses model. The glasses she had were not sunglasses, but more like prescription glasses-or looked it. Somewhat bulky, bookworm type glasses. The sunglasses were sleeker, smaller, and easier to carry around. She wore the ear buds when she was out, usually. At least, when she was out with some sense of duty. When she was in the house and the same circumstances applied, she wore the glasses--especially when she was in private.

"They'll do less good than the ones Ets has right now. The glasses model lets us get the vitals of a field Reaper. The ear buds are easier to carry around, easier to wear and not be noticed, and just overall quieter, but they've got a crap receiver, so you'd hear great, but we'd he a muss of mumbles; and again, we can't keep tabs on the person's vitals during it. They're only good for special situations. Anyways, you need Reaper level Qi to activate any of the models, so it's not going to do her too well to begin with."

"I can send you a pair, but don't use them unless you need to be covert about things," Scott relented rather casually; he didn't need any convincing, and was more than willing to do it from the beginning, but he wanted Eld to know the purpose of these things. "And for the love of Death, wear the glasses next time you call me."

Eld refrained from pointing out that he had mixed feelings at best towards Death. "Well, it's kind of obvious we're up to something if we're wearing sunglasses at night," he pointed out. Which was the reason he figured the earpiece would be easier.

Still, it was going to be a pain if he was only one that could talk to Scott; he might be more knowledgeable and communicative, but Etsu knew more about the Reapers, what aid they could potentially offer, and what they'd want to know. He was invariably just going to treat Scott like he did anyone else.

"So, do you have any advice on where we should go?" Cizok would let them blend in easier, but there was also a civil war going on, which would present dangers of its own. They'd stand out like sore thumbs anywhere in Algeroth, he figured, and he didn't know much about the world outside those two countries and Greoul, where he was intending to go to school before his life turned crazy.

"If you're serious?" Scott asked.

He paused a moment to think. There were so many decent places in the world to hide out for awhile, but only a few that were in Eld's immediate area. Sure, Cizok was an option; it'd be easy for Eld and Etsu to blend in there, but Eld had the problem on the nose: Cizok was currently in a state of civil war. Eld and Etsu would undoubtedly get caught up in that. Especially since Etsu had family in Cizok. She'd probably be tempted to go visit them.

Which probably wouldn't end well.

"Xexoria. No one will ever find you in that sandpit," Scott replied at last, "Looking at this map here . . . you'd . . . hm. Yeah. You'd go from Galaens to Feiyan, then straight east to a border town called . . . Brakston, then into the sand pit. Fair warning, though: I know you're tucked away in a cozy nook in Algeroth, so you've probably never seen much out of the ordinary, but there are plenty of predators out in those sands. There's some shit there that guys in your country would call monsters."

A sad smile crossed Eld's face. "That's fine..."

Predators he could deal with; they didn't think, didn't feel, at least not the same way people did. If they were beset by monstrous beasts he could strike them down without remorse.

"Besides...there are some in this country that would call me a monster, too..."

The village knew something was up; despite his best efforts he couldn't entirely hide the fact that there was something strange going on, something beyond the ken of normal people, and that he was at the center of it. He was on good terms with most of his neighbors anyway, but he knew there were some that looked on him with suspicion, even if they didn't say so.

"...Well, we need to start packing. We'll try to contact you around this time every evening." While he could presumably contact Scott whenever he needed to, if the device required Qi to function then the reverse wasn't true; well, not unless he wanted to wear sunglasses constantly. In any case, it was probably best if they checked in regularly to reassure him that they were alright.

"Sounds good. Take care of Ets out there. She's a sweety and you don't sound too bad yourself; I'd hate to have to hunt you down if something bad happened to her, y'know?"

And that was that. Scott didn't leave any opportunity for Eld to comment on that before closing their connection. Chances were he'd make good on that threat, too, making at least two people who'd hunt Eld down and kill him if he hurt or allowed Etsu to be hurt.

Etsu was staring at Eld. She had a lot she wanted to say. She had a lot she wanted to apologize for. But she couldn't find the words to do it just yet.

"We . . . pack now and r-reave tomorrow?" she asked. It was a rhetorical question. Honestly, she knew the answer was going to be yes. Eld would want to say his goodbyes before he skipped town for awhile, and everyone was probably getting ready for bed right now--and they were tired, personally, and would probably be best off getting some sleep before taking on that kind of journey . . .

Scott hung up before Eld could reply to his threat. It was as pointless a threat as the one before it was; if anything happened to Etsu, he'd either be dead or out to send the person responsible to hell himself. In either case he wouldn't exactly be around to be a target for their rage.

"Yeah," he replied to Etsu. Though he wasn't sure he was going to say any complicated goodbyes; after all, if all went well this would only be temporary. He was considering just leaving a note with a bare-bones explanation on it. After all, with people after him the less anyone knew of their plans the better.

He put the glasses in his pocket, figuring if he was the only one who could use them he might as well keep them. "But we'll be back." He stood up and offered his hand to Etsu.

Etsu nodded to Eld and reached up to take his hand. She stood with his help and released his hand shortly thereafter. Just as she had many times today, Etsu stuffed her hands into her coat pockets. This was going to be a tedious couple of weeks.

She wasn't too fond of the idea of going to Xexoria. Honestly, she'd have rather gone to Cizok. But Etsu wasn't going to question Eld's judgment. If he thought Xexoria was the better of the two options, then all right. She hadn't much of a choice but to follow him. Well, in reality she did have a choice, but she wasn't making it; she was going to go with Eld whether he liked it or not. If there was something-- anything --she could do to help him, she would in a heartbeat.

But first, they needed to get some sleep. Traveling was going to take a lot out of them, especially if the desert was as harsh as all the stories she'd heard about it.


Eld's experienced with Kageko that night was . . . strange. Non-existent, yet there. As if they were laying in bed, laying together in darkness, with closed eyes and closed mouths, simply breathing out from their noses. It was calm, it was mellow, but it was paralyzing. There was no movement. No thought. Only the act of existence cut down to a bare minimum. Reduced to something. Something intangible. Something frightening.

Something unreal.