Chapter 27: Bookends

It felt good to exit the tunnel that connected Valak Mountain to Sword Valley. Now that they had traversed the freezing region and ascertained the lay of the land, they were safe to fly from one end to the other, only stepping back into the snow if they had additional business to take care of.

Melia looked out across the valley, recalling the one previous time she had been here. Seeing her as a non-threat, the Mechon had made it a point to ignore her as she conducted trade with the machines. But there was no point in telling the others of this strategy - any Mechon would recognise the Monado on sight and either attack or flee, and if they were bold enough to attack Alcamoth simply because the Monado was there, it didn't take a genius to realise they would fight for every step through their home territory.

The question is, how safe is it for my craft to be in this area? It does have a minimal radar presence and no weapons, so it should not be considered a threat, but if all Mechon are on high alert they may very well fire at anything. Hopefully, we can find a few soft spots in their defences that we can use as launchpads, but if not we may be forced to continue through the entire region in one go.

"What's that?" Reyn pointed at a series of High Entia ships that were stationed not far away.

Melia was surprised. That is most unusual indeed. No one ever travels here; the entire sword is considered a no-fly zone.

"A supply convoy," Alvis stated. "It would be most unwise to proceed without restocking our supplies."

"You arranged this for us?" asked Shulk.

Alvis nodded. Melia almost nodded as well. The seer likely saw what day we would arrive here and suggested a convoy arrive for it, reaching as close as is safe into Mechonis territory.

Reyn jumped. "Hey, it's...!"

"Dickson!" Shulk started dashing towards the convoy. Reyn and Dunban quickly followed, while Sharla and Alvis sped up only slightly, and Melia and Riki continued at walking pace.

So this is the Dickson that Shulk, Reyn, and Dunban speak so highly of? It will be interesting to finally meet-

Melia stopped dead. Something was wrong. No, something was very wrong. And it was quite plainly obvious what it was: the blue-vested man that the others were now excitedly conversing with. Normally, she had to put effort into reading a being's ether signature, but this one's stood out like a sore thumb, demanding attention like a man wearing crimson red in a crowd of people wearing plain black.

Riki had also skittered to a stop, and turned to Melia once he realised she was staring motionless. "Riki can feel it too, Melly."

"You can?"

"Yes, yes. Riki is not sure what he is feeling. But is not normal Hom Hom feeling, no at all. It like...like old man Hom Hom is very very very much older than he looks."

"...I am unsure whether I would agree on that front, but there is most certainly something unusual about him. To me it feels more like..." She struggled to find applicable words; it was like trying to describe a colour she had never seen before to a blind person. "I can sense an alien resonance I have seen of no other species of this world."

"Oooh, yes. Like old man Hom Hom does not belong. Like old man Hom Hom supposed to be dead many years ago. Hmm, hmm." Riki shuddered a bit. "Riki no like to approach this Hom Hom. Gives Riki shiver-scares."

Melia looked back towards the group, which was just now starting to realise that two of their number had hung back. "I do not think we have a choice at the moment. The others are awaiting us."

"Oh...Riki understand." He made to step forwards but abruptly stopped again. "Riki and Melly keep this a secret?"

"...For now, I suppose. It would do no good to form a prejudice against a man that our friends have known for years. But I feel at some point we must voice our distrust."

Riki nodded and continued on his way. Melia followed slowly.

The remaining part of the conversation was not terribly interesting or insightful. Dickson had sold the party some expensive anti-Mechon weapons, after which he and Alvis returned to Alcamoth.

"Looks like it's just us." A tangible wave of relief washed over Melia. Just being near Dickson was incredibly unsettling. It didn't help that he made absolutely no effort to interact with her nor Riki, and Sharla seemed left out of the conversation as well.

"Right!" Dunban called. "We head for the hilt of the sword - Galahad Fortress."

"OK!" Shulk led the party westward.

Melia put a hand around the Imperial Staff resting on her belt, wanting to feel something comfortable to offset Dickson's unnatural aura. She had taken one look at the Anti-Mechon Rod that he had crafted and sold it back to the Homs operating the shop immediately for full price; she didn't need a staff appraiser or professional ethermaster to tell her that a staff of personal family history would always outperform one made of an unfamiliar metal by a shady stranger. True, it might handicap her damage output versus the Mechon slightly, but as team support was her primary objective in battle she didn't think it would matter much. Besides, if she badly needed full power against a Mechon foe, she could topple it by herself if necessary.

Shulk caught her eye. "You look really worried," he observed. "Is something wrong?"

Melia decided that there would probably be no better time. "I cannot bring myself to trust this Dickson."

Reyn immediately interrupted. "What? Can't trust Dickson? C'mon Melia, the guy's a legend! Helped Dunban with the Monado 'n' all! Helped win us the Battle of Sword Valley a year ago! Just let us have a pick of shiny new anti-Mechon weapons! Can't trust him? Pshaw, just you wait. He'll show up again later with even more new toys, he's uncanny with directions and knowin' his way around."

Shulk backed him up. "Dickson's the one who rescued me and took me to Colony 9 years ago. Since then, he's been a big help at the lab, and he taught me how to make weapons and shields and stuff. He's a hundred percent on our side."

Dunban nodded. "He and I have been friends ever since he immigrated from another colony. We've saved each other more times than I can count. I trust him with my life."

If Mumkhar is any indication, you have exceptionally poor taste in friends. Melia had to use all her willpower to not slap herself in the face for merely conceiving of such an insensitive remark.

Sharla had to insert her opinion. "I don't know him personally all that well, but he helped us cross the marsh when we needed to climb the Bionis, and he's known as a hero in both our colonies. You'll warm up to him."

"Do...do none of you truly feel the slightest bit uncertain?" Given how obvious it was to her, it was difficult for Melia to believe that even an ether-weak Homs could really be completely blind to the unnerving aura that surrounded Dickson.

"Riki shares what Melly thinks. Riki feel something not right with old Hom Hom."

"He's a bit of a clod, I'll give you that," Reyn said. "But you'll learn to deal with him. Shulk has, and he ain't gone wrong yet, has he?"

Shulk and Dunban laughed with him.

...I suppose that much is true. Whatever my personal issues with him may be, if he has been a surrogate father of Shulk's for fourteen years, and Brother trusts him enough to be a high-ranked member of the allied force, he must have some redeeming qualities.

Actually, that presents a relevant avenue of investigation. Does Brother feel the same unsettling emanations that I do? And if so, why does he provide him with such a position? Once we next return to Alcamoth I shall ask him about it.

I hope I remember to do so. Melia continued west with the others. It occurred to her that she had seen Dunban fight his way through the valley before, though from an extreme distance and no knowledge of what exactly was going on. She eagerly awaited his retelling of events as they proceeded forwards.

Shulk is such a fool. How can one be so brilliant in mind yet oblivious to reality?

It was an oddly calm thought to cross Melia's mind, given the current situation. But to be honest, she'd had similar dreams many times, to the point where falling from the collapsing Galahad Fortress was really no big deal.

Like all those born in Alcamoth, she had been trained as a child in the basics of skydiving just in case of ever falling towards the sea. It was second nature to open herself up and catch as much wind as possible in her flappy clothes, slowing her fall enough so that she was a ways above the others.

Dunban and Riki were to the west. With Dunban unable to slow his own fall very well, Riki had latched himself onto the Homs' right side to act as a surrogate arm. Sharla and Reyn had been knocked southward and seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit now that the initial shock had worn off, taking turns in performing acrobatic stunts. It seemed like the kind of thing they'd done before back at their home colonies, though with much shorter falls. Neither pairing seemed capable of altering their trajectory enough to meet up, even given how long the fall would be.

Meanwhile, Shulk was to the north, mindlessly clutching the chassis of Face Nemesis, far below everyone else. It was impossible to tell at this distance whether he was doing anything other than just hanging on, but it seemed pretty clear he had no intention of letting go, even if he would need to in order to survive. As long as he landed in sufficiently deep water he would be safe, but the silver wreck looked to be heading for a large and shallow beach, far down on the Fallen Arm.

Having ascertained everyone else's positions, Melia began considering what they were going to do after their fall, which would certainly take some hours. From the looks of it, it appeared rather certain that the party would be split up for the foreseeable future. They would each have to try and guide themselves into deep water and then seek each other out on the unknown terrain.

Not much was known of the Fallen Arm. The unusual amount of vegetation present suggested that there were not many Mechon there if any, but its extreme distance from Alcamoth made it effectively pointless to investigate; its position was of complete strategical irrelevance, save for perhaps wreckage retrieval from the fortress overhead. It was an open question as to how the Mechonis had acquired a replacement arm; the process had been so slow that it was never really noticed across history.

Melia considered summoning the Illustrious Alighting in order to stop her own fall and subsequently collect the others, but further thought concluded that it wasn't really possible to do so. She could only summon the craft to her current position, so by the time it arrived she would be kilometres below. In addition, they were still in Mechonis airspace, and while the party had found a few safe locations on the sword they could operate from, there was no telling what sort of anti-aircraft systems could possibly be in place on the Fallen Arm. The party would have to meet up on foot.

Sharla and Reyn are paired up. Dunban and Riki are paired up. Assuming that the silver-faced Mechon remains inert, Shulk and I are alone. I appear to be the only one capable of aiming my descent to any reasonable degree, and also potentially the only one aware of where all of the others are. Therefore, I should pair up with Shulk, to ensure that none of us are alone.

Melia started guiding herself northwards and falling into a dive. It took quite a while to finally catch up to Shulk and the plummeting Face Mechon, but once she eventually did, she saw that Shulk was trying to break into it - prying at covers, jabbing at seams, and the like.

"SHULK!" She didn't expect him to hear her over the rushing wind, but it was worth a try.

As expected, Shulk continued blindly working away, probably completely unaware anyone else was with him. Jamming the inactive Monado into the front hatch, he couldn't get it open wide enough to remain open once the tool was removed. It seemed like he was also trying to talk to the hatch, or more specifically the person stationed inside that he was trying to extract.

Uncomfortable with maintaining her dive for too long, Melia pulled up and aimed to hang above the falling husk, allowing its wake to keep her close while still in her spread-eagle formation.

Stop it, you buffoon. Let her go. Either she crashes into the ground, or she sinks to the bottom of the sea. There's nothing you can do about it.

It was a surprisingly bitter thought process. She was a bit disturbed at how easily it flowed. She'd never met this Fiora, and now she was hoping that Shulk would come to his senses and abandon any hope of rescuing her? It was shockingly heartless.

Shulk had moved on to trying to get some other piece of the chassis free, about half the size of a surfboard. It was impressive how he was able to continuously work towards his goal despite falling at terminal velocity. Eventually, he got his target piece loose, and started using it to pry open the front hatch. As he did, the assembly started turning more northward, its geometry changed enough to alter its path.

Melia naturally followed along, remaining solidly in the Mechon's wake. It looked like it was now on target to land just offshore, enough that Shulk looked to have a fifty-fifty shot of surviving even if he remained completely oblivious.

His determination to succeed is truly impressive. It's like...a compulsion to save as many lives as possible. Certainly a noble undertaking, but he shouldn't be doing so at risk to his own life. Egil is still at large, and until he falls, we will need the Monado and its wielder. One life, even one with potential inside knowledge, is not worth-

With the front hatch now open to his satisfaction, Shulk tossed away the piece of metal he had been using to wedge it. It tumbled through the air and struck Melia flush in the face.

The world instantly turned black. The rushing air stopped, replaced by the sensation of being in a sandy bath.

Realising her eyes were closed, Melia opened them to find she was laying face-down in the surf of a beach, only her head out of the water. Giant metal walls surrounded the sand. The sky was just starting to change from pure blue.

"Is Melly awake?" Riki's voice came from her right. She looked over to see that he and Dunban were sitting on the sand beside her.

"...yes." The unpleasant feeling of being wet while clothed now fully sunk in, Melia pulled herself out of the water and onto her feet. She felt a bit wobbly, and her face was rather sore, but she was otherwise fine.

Dunban nodded. "We didn't want to move you in case you had broken something."

"I am not injured." Melia looked to the east, where it made sense for the other three party members to be. "I last recall being struck by a piece of the silver-faced Mechon. What happened after that?"

"Ah, so that explains it," Dunban answered. "You started tumbling uncontrollably in our direction. Once you landed in the water, we did what we could to land as close as possible."

"I see." She couldn't bring herself to blame Shulk; after all, he had no clue she was there. It was her own fault for sitting in the wake of an object with fragmentation potential. "Do you know what happened with the others?"

Dunban looked towards the massive metal walls. "They're somewhere over that way. Shulk and the Mechon to the north, Reyn and Sharla to the south. But it looks like we may need to go the long way around to find them. There's no telling how long it would take to swim around the north side here."

"Then we should not waste any more time. Shulk is alone with a malfunctioning weapon, potentially in the company of a powerful malfunctioning Face Mechon, and from my estimate may not have reached the sea in time. We must find him with all speed." Melia set off in the only available direction.

Riki hopped up to follow. "Melly cannot call ship to help?"

"We know nothing of this land, and it may take much time for it to arrive. So no, it is not currently a viable option. Only once we have exhausted the possibility of a Mechon presence here will it be safe." And I hope that is the case, as my craft is likely the only way for us to return to the Bionis.

"Then I suppose we might as well get started." Dunban stood up to bring up the rear. "We can't have the young ones having all the fun of exploring this new land."

...hmm, yes, this is indeed the older half of the group. Melia continued on.

It didn't take long for her pace to slow. The sky continued turning orange as the other two eventually passed her. She opportunistically plucked some fruit off nearby trees, which she deemed safe enough to eat after a few minutes of experimentation, but it didn't much help her rapidly-declining stamina. Everything that had happened that day was catching up to her. But the thought of Shulk being alone in the world kept her moving.

"Friends stop for Riki!" The Nopon suddenly halted in place. "Riki very hungry! And Riki sleepy! If Riki not rest now, Riki not keep going!"

"We can't have that, can we?" Dunban looked around; there were some hostile-looking fish out in the deeper waters, but they had yet to see any land-dwelling creatures that could disrupt them. "We'll rest here before going any further. Melia, do you need to rest?"

"I am fine." She didn't even consider the question; she wanted to continue on to find Shulk and the others as fast as possible. But now that she had stopped walking, she found it quite difficult to get going again. Her tiredness seemed to be accelerating.

"Good! Break time!" Riki plopped himself down on the sand. Dunban quickly followed.

Melia didn't want to sit down; she could tell that if she did, she wouldn't be able to stand back up again any time soon. But it would be incredibly rude to remain upright while her companions rested. She reluctantly allowed herself to descend onto the sand.

It was less than a minute before she felt her body fall sideways. She was asleep before she hit the ground.

Melia felt like she had been trapped in a jar. She was hunched over in a ball and couldn't move a muscle, with a chilling metal surrounding her on all sides. Her experience rolling through the ductwork of Alcamoth wasn't enough to save her from an onset of claustrophobia.

"We shall soon see." The voice was familiar, but it took a moment to place - it was Egil. "Activate Amethyst Face."

A disturbing feeling washed over Melia's body. It felt like she was now standing idle wearing a bodysuit of sheet metal. Her eyes opened without her willing them to, revealing that she was in some sort of mechanical laboratory, though everything felt like it was half the size it was supposed to be.

It didn't take long to realise what was going on.

"No!" The unconscious shout was distorted and mechanised. She held her hands in front of her face to see two thin gauntlets attached to purple-hued Mechon arms.

A sigh of Egil's passed through a speaker. "Disappointing. This specimen is quite resilient to the erasure process. Another round will have to be done." A slight pause. "Deactivate the Face."

Melia whirled around to rip all the cables and restraints from her giant Mechon body. She spotted an equally giant staff attached to the wall and tore it free, sensing that her own staff had been encased inside. She blasted the doors open with a staff strike and began running, with no plan other than escape.

After running though an uncountable set of identical-looking corridors, she came upon the Fortress Depths, the room from which everyone had fallen. Yaldabaoth was waiting for her.

"Do not waste your energy attempting escape," Egil's voice taunted. "Be grateful that I saw fit to keep your biological body intact, to fully harness the ether powers you possess."

Melia knew that if Face Nemesis could barely even hold off Yaldabaoth, she had very little hope. But on the other hand, Egil appeared to have no control over her at the moment, and there would certainly be tighter security next time around. She had to take this chance.

It felt as natural as ever to summon a bolt and cast it at the enemy, even though the resulting elemental was doubled in size just like the armour she was trapped inside. It struck the gold-faced Mechon to deal substantial damage, staggering and knocking him back slightly.

Another disappointed sigh. "Very well."

Egil fired a red ball of energy from his palm that Melia was unable to avoid. She instantly felt herself become disconnected from her Mechon body. She was back inside the jar, blind and helpless.

"Foolish."

Melia woke up in a cold sweat. It was the middle of the night; with overcast skies, there was no way to estimate the exact time. She quickly stretched out every muscle that she had, ensuring that she had full range of motion. It wasn't the first time she had a dream about being turned into a Face Mechon, but it was the first in which Egil himself had appeared; the previous times had all featured a taunting Metal Face. She wasn't quite sure which was worse; Metal Face's attitude was rude and disparaging, but the Egil version seemed much more real.

Dunban and Riki were both asleep. They apparently had grilled fish; about a quarter of a fish was sitting over the embers of a fire. Melia was slightly hungry, but decided not to eat any; it would delay her from going back to sleep.

Now quite chilly and uncomfortable from laying on the beach, she clapped a copious amount of sand off herself and pulled the sleeping bag out of her travel pouch. She didn't care if it would reveal she had woken up in the night; she wanted a soft surface more than anything to offset the cruel hardness that had manifested in her dream. She wanted to have the best rest possible for the resumption of the search for Shulk and the others.

Melia closed the book with satisfaction and immediately grabbed her staff, summoning three winds in record time. She could feel the breezy power of the elementals flow stronger than ever, sure to deal more damage than before the next time they were to be used in battle. She picked the book back up and looked over it once more, pleased that she had now squeezed even more potential out of another one of her arts.

There was a knock on the bedroom door. Fiora's room had been set up to host all three girls, but Melia was the only one there at the moment. The group had decided for this to be a personal day, where everyone could just go and do what they wanted without feeling pressured by anything else, and she had chosen to stay in and read.

"You may enter."

Shulk's head peeked through the door. "Um...is this a bad time?"

"Actually, it is a perfect time." Melia held up the book in her hands. "I have just completed this book, and was about to decide which one to read next."

"Oh, okay. That actually works out great." Shulk stepped into the room and offered the book he was holding. "I heard you saying you were looking for some good books. Which I guess is what you were reading just now. Well, I rooted around in the lab and found this one. One of my old favourites, actually, I didn't read a lot of stories but this was one of them. Might be worth a borrow."

The illustration on the cover was simple - six piles of stones in a sandy circle, with a larger rock in the centre. The book was titled The Saga of Mata Nui, by Smeg Farshtey.

Somewhat speechless, Melia carefully reached forward to take the book. She had never read a Homs novel before; it felt a bit weird to flip through the pages and see so much Homs lettering. She knew nothing about it save the title, yet it had completely captured her attention.

Shulk was busy staring at the cover of her recently-completed book, carefully passing over each letter in sequence. "...Waker of the Winds?"

Melia was surprised out of her trance. "Yes, by Nohansen Dragmire. When did you learn to read our alphabet?"

"A bit here and there." He pulled a folded and crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and tried to smooth it out, revealing a handwritten chart for converting between High Entia and Homs lettering; the letter J was the only missing piece. "I started with your name, because it was pretty easy to pick out from the headlines and stuff. From there I just compared what I knew to other things and filled in the blanks."

Melia couldn't really relate to Shulk's learning of a second alphabet; she was natively bilingual, and for as long as she could remember had been able to read both languages in both scripts. But her instinct was that it must have been quite difficult for a monolingual person to even advance this far without help.

She reached for a nearby pen and inscribed the Erythscript J into the chart. "There."

"Hey, thanks." Shulk looked at the final letter, its perfect inked shape standing out from its neighbours' graphite scrawl. "I'm feeling a bit dumb now. Why didn't I ask for your help with this in the first place? I guess I figured you wouldn't have time for something like that."

Oh Shulk, I always have time for you. The spontaneous thought made it difficult to keep a straight and unflustered face.

"So how many other books have you read lately?" Shulk looked sideways at one of the piles, trying to read the spines with vertical text. "I mean, that's a pretty big pile you have there. They all part of a series or something?"

"Several." Melia looked down through the pile of completed novels. While a variety of informational non-fiction books were the catalyst to her first round of art-related inspiration, she had found much more success towards a second leap in ability within the realm of fiction. "Waker of the Winds chronicles a child who sailed the seas to defeat evil. Path of Radiance follows a mercenary who is the catalyst of a kingdom's restoration. Echoes of Aether shows two parallel worlds fighting over a shared source of energy. Russwall looks into a community in the wilderness beset by siege. The Thousand-Year Door is a tale of friendship against an ancient curse. Nightmare in Dream Land follows a lone hero of many talents in a world of dreams. Uprising is the journey of an angel fighting battles for his goddess."

Shulk nodded and reached out to take one of the other seven books that had yet to be named. "How about we trade? Trying to read one of these books will help me practice your letters and stuff."

"I have no objection." Melia noted that the book Shulk had randomly picked was The Subspace Emissary. "That one in particular might be a little challenging; I myself had some difficulty parsing some of the popular culture references."

"Well I can always come to you for help then, right?" Shulk raised his eyebrows in a "hah I've got you there, eh?" fashion.

Melia could feel that her face was a bit redder than it was a moment ago. She tried to hide it by reading the back summary of the Homs novel.

This island has been a paradise for as long as anyone can remember. Tropical seas, wild jungle, broiling mountains, bountiful lands, endless desert, and pristine glacier all formed a land where anyone could live as they choose. But the stars tell prophecies that peace will not last forever, and it has begun. A sickness is covering the land, turning docile creatures into rampaging beasts, and it feels like the very earth seeks to swallow us. Our only hope may be that legendary heroes of untold might descend from the heavens, casting prophecy against prophecy in a war predicted eons ago. Which foretold events will come to pass, and which are mere rumours? We cannot know until it is time.

To Melia's surprise, once she had finished reading the summary, Shulk was still there, kind of staring off to the side.

"Are you...all right, Shulk?"

"...um, kind of. Maybe." He looked down before looking sideways again. "I was...I was thinking about Dickson. About how...how you and Riki could tell there was something wrong with him the moment you met him. And we just ignored you, figured that you just had to get to know him more and the weird feelings would go away. And...and you ended up being right."

Melia was not prepared for Shulk to bring up a serious subject. She felt the best way to proceed would be to downplay herself. "Shulk, I could only sense that something was not as it seemed to be. I had no way to determine what it could be."

"But you had a guess, right? I mean, there's only so many things that you can tell just by looking at a guy, isn't there?"

"...I suppose you are correct." She considered for a moment how to explain. "I have seen many things and people in my life. Over time, it becomes easy to notice patterns in beings' ether signatures. At present, I find it second nature to determine what species a particular ether signature belongs to, without needing sight."

"Really?" Shulk now leaned forwards with interest. "That's pretty cool. So...so I guess you knew before we did that the Face Mechon had people in them?"

Melia had to think about it. "Not really. It is a sense I often have to consciously invoke. There was...a lot of other things going on at that time."

"Oh, right. But you noticed whatever Dickson was right away, it seems."

"Indeed. I saw a Homs standing before me, but could feel something altogether different that even now I cannot place. It was such a jarring disconnect that it could not be ignored."

"So...so you think that Dickson is not a Homs?"

"I do not know what other conclusion I can draw. His ether signature is not that of a Homs, High Entia, Nopon, Machina, any combination thereof, or any other race I know of." She paused for a moment before deciding to continue her thought. "That is the only reason I distrusted him. I had no reason to believe he would turn against us."

Shulk nodded but didn't respond, preferring to let silence fall for a moment.

Melia was left to consider her own words. Did she truly believe that Dickson's species was the only thing suspicious about him, or did she say so just to make Shulk feel better? She wasn't sure. It was difficult to recall her thoughts about him before the events of Mechonis Core. In theory, if she had had any specific misgivings serious enough to consider voicing, even though she never did so, she would be able to remember them.

With Dickson in mind, Lorithia quickly followed. Melia had to admit that if she were to be told that there was a traitor in the upper echelons of the ministry, Lorithia would be her first guess, what with her haughty attitude and always seeming to know too much. She could thank the immoral scum for one thing, however - without the Illustrious Alighting that she had put so much work into, the party would be a woefully underequipped mess with little help from a bare-bones Colony 6. That said, if she didn't have the chance to work on such an advanced craft, maybe she wouldn't have been able to have enough freedom during the production of the Havres to make the vehicles Telethia-in-waiting.

"What do you know about Alvis?" Shulk's eyes turned away from the wall and back towards Melia. "I've been meaning to ask for a while, actually, but...never got around to it I guess."

"About Alvis?" She didn't expect the question, but her own thought process was beginning to veer in that direction, so it wasn't hard to answer. "Very little, unfortunately. We have employed his bloodline for untold ages, with each seer providing critical visions to forewarn the emperor of terrible riots, terrorism, catastrophes, and other critical moments before they became part of history. As part of respecting such a vanishingly rare power to ensure they would never move their allegiance elsewhere, the seer and his family was always granted almost unequivocal freedom across Alcamoth and the Bionis, and no questioning was ever made into the nature of their gift of foresight."

"Right, okay, but what about Alvis in particular?"

"I...cannot say I know much about Alvis as a person. We only ever interacted a handful of times before I met you. But..." Is this the proper time to tell him of the vision of our meeting, and us "changing the world together"? ...No, not today. "But the few times we did meet, he had my best interests in mind. He once personally delivered me a piece of information that saved my life. I...find it difficult to believe he would...if he...that he would..." She shook her head, trying to straighten out her thoughts. "If Alvis were truly loyal to Zanza, and Zanza were truly fated to return regardless of whatever happened, why would he continue to shape the future by revealing his visions?"

"Exactly." Shulk's hands started gesturing at random. "Alvis has helped lead us along a certain path. If all paths led to Zanza, why would he bother? It really doesn't seem like he just wants to mess with us in particular, so why would he put in all that extra work if he gets the same result either way? That's why I think he's somehow still on our side. He's helped me way too much. He's...I think he's helped us enough to give us a chance."

Melia nodded and reached out to grab one of the other books she had recently completed. "This is the final entry in the Glenny Poller series, The Tethers of Passing. It features a character whose true alliance has seemed to switch back and forth between two factions over the course of the narrative, never squarely on one side or the other. Upon appearing to make the final decision of siding with the dark forces in the previous volume, it is ultimately revealed that they have been on the protagonist's side all along, even during the times which they committed the worst acts. And it is only with this knowledge that the hero succeeds."

"Yeah, that's...that's a lot like what Alvis has done. He's on one side, but he has to play both to stick around long enough for things to turn out properly."

"I agree. There is however one thing that worries me. Zanza made mention that he has been reborn many times in a cycle. Alvis is no more than a Homs with foresight more limited than yours, born no more than thirty or thirty-five years ago. What could he possibly do to aid us beyond this point?"

Shulk shook his head. "Alvis isn't just a Homs. He's...something else, something greater."

Melia couldn't stop a scoff from escaping her nose. "Shulk, he is as much a Homs as you are. Of that I am certain."

"Are you sure?"

She was about to respond with an "of course I'm sure", but she was forced to consider it for a moment. "There is indeed a small part of his ether signature that is not part of the typical Homs pattern. But as I have no other information to work with, I must conclude that it is related to his foresight. And..." ...am I seeing things, or am I getting the very same sensation from Shulk as of this very moment? "And I can also sense a very similar feeling from you." How long has that been the case? Has it always been there, obscured by the Monado? Or has Shulk's signature changed as a result of recent events?

Shulk nodded slowly. "Makes sense to me. Thanks, Melia."

"Oh no, thank you. I...I must admit that the subject of Alvis has been eating at me ever since he left our side. It...was very difficult to believe he would serve the imperial family with such loyalty, only to join Zanza at essentially the first opportunity. It is a relief to discuss this with someone else, and come to an agreement that he may still be with us in some fashion."

"Well...that's why I'm here. Why the rest of us are here, really. Friends talk about things." He thought for a moment. "Dunban once said that problems are like butter. Tastes terrible in a big block, but once you spread them out, they're just another condiment on life. Or maybe he said peanut butter. Could've been either." He shrugged. "I hope you enjoy that book." With that, he left.

Melia listened to him walk down the stairs and exit the front door. The vision of them meeting came back to mind. It was becoming ever more difficult to believe that it was meant as a marriage prophecy, given that they had already quite gravely changed the world together as friends. But then again, it still felt firmly within the realm of possibility - if no one could solve the problem of Fiora's body, Shulk would surely gravitate towards her once he was ready to move on.

No, stop using a friend's imminent death as a way to rationalise affection towards another friend. She was disgusted with herself for being so continually desperate for Fiora to just expire, despite her being just as much of a friend as the others. Yet she couldn't stop herself from thinking about the night in Junks, where she came closer than she probably ever would to confessing her true feelings towards the unconscious Shulk, remembering the tiniest details perfectly except for whether her kiss had actually connected before she pulled away. Her brain was grateful for having another skilled companion to fight alongside, but her heart was aghast that it felt like her one true companion was so set on an existing love that he effectively (though unknowingly) initiated the destruction of the world simply to avenge it.

It sometimes felt like the hardest part of being entranced by Shulk was that there was a perfectly serviceable way to resolve the situation - a three-way relationship akin to how the emperor would take two consorts - that the two Homs were sure to not understand nor accept. After all, Shulk remained completely and impressively oblivious; it would surely be incredibly difficult for him to believe that she held any feelings for him at all. And as cheerful and easygoing as Fiora was, it was equally difficult to believe she would stand for sharing her boyfriend with a relative stranger, even if she had effectively given said stranger permission to take her place if necessary.

Melia clenched her fists and violently shook her head, sick of this train of thought that kept coming back no matter how hard she tried to keep it away. At least for the time being she had one way to stall it: she opened the borrowed novel to the first page and began to read.