Rydia opened her weary eyes to the impenetrable darkness of the night. Its gloom found its way to her, no matter where she lied. The girl closed her eyes once more, dreading, for a mere second, her "saviors" and why they had taken her from where she was. Why did they save her instead of leaving her to the death she feared? The voices she had heard seemed faintly familiar, but to her exhausted mind they were no more than strangers that came when she wished to be left alone. Then, as soon as she thought of this, she shook her head. This was not Rydia. She did not wish to be left for dead to this godforsaken world.

She allowed her head to fall to the side of whatever she was lying upon, and for the first time since she had awakened she realized she was no longer on the cold, unforgiving ground, but the soft fabric of a bed.

Where am I? The girl’s mind cried for her to sit upright, but her body only responded with sharp pain. A bright light... Her mind grew vague and her eyes squinted in the remembrance of a brilliant light upon the darkness of a once weeping sky. A young woman...she did something...her magic...it wasn’t from here... Rydia gasped, flinging upward in her bed, despite her body’s cries of ache.

Am I remembering...last night? Rydia glanced to a small couch towards the far left of the room. The window behind the girl was open, allowing not only the cool breeze to find its way through, but the rays of a much more comforting moon. Its light drifted in shafts to the sofa, where an elf lay sleeping, her long pink hair falling around her face in small, loose ringlets. Though the moon still showed in the sky, so did the colors of a not so distant dawn, so Rydia’s guess upon the hour was around early morning. Is that the woman? She saved someone... Who was he?

“Kain?” Rydia did not realize herself that she had spoken his name aloud. I came to find Kain. Where are Rosa and Cecil? I thought I heard their voices. Tears formed in her eyes against her will, descending slowly down her blood stained face, leaving trails upon her cheeks. I even think Edge was here... Her last thought caused more amusement, but her dry throat only allowed her short coughs.

Rydia fell back again to the soft embrace of the bed, wiping her drying tears from her face, closing her eyes slowly to the dim room. But the distant rumble of the forgotten thunderstorm forced her eyes open once more; this time it would not be to the darkness of the room, but the brightness of a light stunning to her eyes. She blinked hard, a girl’s image in her view, now becoming clear amongst the intensity. Rydia covered her face from the piercing light, yet she was unable to tear her gaze away from the young woman. And when this girl's hand came out to grasp Rydia's, the Caller cried aloud.

“Côañel!” The girl’s grip on Rydia’s arm tightened, demanding her attention. “Calm down!”

Rydia, startled, blinked. Her breath caught, then she closed her eyes again, tears falling once more. When she was more stable, her voice still quivering, she opened her eyes and forced herself to look upon the woman. “The way the moon’s light was on you...”

Decca tilted her head to the side, her hair falling down her slender shoulders. “What are you talking about?”

“I thought you were an angel come to take me away.”

The elf scoffed, moving back from Rydia, allowing her to sit upright again. “I am no angel.” Decca averted her gaze and looked to the coverlet, which they sat upon, then shaking her head slightly, “you were dreaming, Caller.”

“Yes, I seem to be doing that a lot lately.” Rydia folded her hands and placed them upon her lap, covered in a mix of white bed sheets. She glanced back up at the elf, noting for the first time that she indeed was one; the young woman’s pointed ears were peeking out from behind her locks with no trouble. But Decca’s dark, gray-blue skin was what caused Rydia to question if she was in truth an elf, or simply another race she had never seen before.

“I...don’t mean to be rude, but what you did back there...” Rydia brushed her jade hair behind pale ears and cleared her throat as she tried to form words with her parched lips. But the young girl trailed off when the elf rose from the bed to the small end table nearby. Once she saw that Decca was pouring water from a silver basin into a small glass cup, the girl followed the elf’s own gaze out the window. “What’s the matter?”

Decca continued filling the goblet, the moon reflecting off the water as if she was catching its milky rays within each pour. “Nothing. I just feel as if something is watching.” She handed Rydia the glass, sitting back down before her.

“Thank you.” Rydia took the water from her hands like she had been given the moon itself. After drinking most of its contents, she spoke again, “I remember what happened, bits and pieces anyway. I remember him... He killed Kain.” As she spoke she felt a lump knot itself in her throat. “You saved him. You placed your hand on his chest,” Rydia mimed the gesture as if Kain lie before them both, “and he came back.”

“There have been plenty of well skilled magicians and wizards, especially in the white arts, that could save people from the brink of death. Why does this make you so surprised?”

“I have never seen that power before. I don’t even think it’s from Earth.” Rydia's eyes were fixed upon Decca and she said her next words carefully, as if they might burn her tongue. “Are you from Earth?”

Decca laughed suddenly, causing Rydia’s forehead to crease with bewilderment. “Of course I’m from Earth. For if I wasn’t, I would know. Unless elves are not.”

Rydia smiled a bit, relieved that it was merely her mind running away with itself once more. “I’m sorry. I just thought--”

“We better get you healed, unless you wish to go around scratched and bruised all day.” Decca placed her pointer and middle finger upon Rydia’s gashed forehead, causing the girl to flinch away. The elf sighed, a small smile edging her lips. “Do you want me to heal you or not?”

“I have never seen an elf this close before. How do you heal? Like our White Wizards do or is it that you have always known your spells and never been taught?” Rydia leaned her head to the side in lighthearted curiosity.

“I haven’t always known these spells. I was taught like any other wizard. I just...use them differently. Any other spell I’ve just known, I suppose. It comes as naturally as your Calling ability. But perhaps every wizard feels that way.” The elf again placed her cold fingers over Rydia’s injured skin. “Now sit still so I can heal you.”

A slight glow appeared beneath Decca’s fingers, and though small, its power worked well nonetheless. The injuries that plagued Rydia’s body as well as the tears in her outfit were restored to new, just by a simple touch of her elven fingers. Rydia did not comment through out the healing process, though questions ached inside her, pleading to be asked. Finally giving in, “How did you fix my clothes like that?”

“It’s a little trick my father--Valzer's father taught me. He trained both me and Valzer when we were children.” Decca took the cup from Rydia’s still trembling hands and placed it gently upon the end table, like she was afraid Rydia would drop the glass with her fidgeting.

“Valzer...” Rydia laid back against the support of the bed frame in thought. “The Black Wizard right? Where is he and Kain? Where did Cecil go? I thought they were here...”

“Cecil and his team left a while ago. We chose to keep you here, since you have risked your life trying to find Kain in the first place. We thought you would do best here with us. Kain and Valzer left some time ago and knowing them they’re at the tavern.” Decca saw Rydia’s slight smile and she grinned faintly herself.

“You said Valzer's father taught you. Didn’t your parents know the art of magic?”

Decca shifted awkwardly in her place and her eyes filled with regret for what could have been known. Rydia suddenly felt a tug of guilt for having ever brought the question to surface, but Decca answer before Rydia could retract it, “I never knew my parents. Valzer’s family raised me as far back as I can recall. He found me as a child in the Mysidian Forest. I still don’t remember anything before that, but I have no need to...” She looked back up to Rydia, knowing well her eyes had been on hers since she had asked the question. “So as you can see, I haven’t seen an elf before either. I’m the only one I know.”

“I barely remember my family...” Rydia began, starting on her own background, seeing as Decca had told hers so willingly. “My mother died when I was seven and I never knew my father. Though he was a caller as my mother, I suppose. But as a child in the Crystal Wars I was lost to the Land of the Summoned Monsters. I found out later that time happens to go by differently than here, and now I‘m eighteen, still trying to adjust to a world that has forgotten me.” Then a smile came to her face. "But I have learned many knew things there..."

The elf’s hand fell, surprisingly, to the young girl’s shoulder. “I guess we’re stronger than we look.”

Rydia simply nodded wordlessly. Then with a small grin, “How does Kain fit in?”

Decca leaned back upon the bed, her arms behind her hair and fingers now wrapping around the strands. A smile would always spread across her face with the mere mention of the Dragoon’s name. “He came here six months ago. He had said he was trying to escape his past in Baron. He’s been here with me and Valz ever since.” She leaned up again, eyeing the green-haired girl, “why were you looking for Kain?”

Rydia shrugged, sighing in remembrance of world underneath this one, where her home still lied. “Wizards from Mysidia would come to the Land of the Summoned Monsters from my invite. They desired aid to help destroy a powerful sage. As soon as Olvin sensed me, he wanted me as dead as the wizards wanted him.” The mention of his name caused her to shiver with the intensity Olvin had...or, rather, still did. “I don’t know why Olvin wanted to destroy me, I just know that he came here for something much more powerful...”

Rydia averted her gaze from the elf, remembering well what Olvin had said about Decca. “The wizards knew of Olvin's attempts to enter the Land and came down to warn me. I left my home in some desperate attempt to save them, for I feared if I stood down in the underworld, he would come and slaughter everyone.” She scoffed, shaking her head slightly. “What I didn’t know was that he couldn’t enter the Land of the Summoned Monsters. I guess it’s hard for true evil to enter a place of good.”

“The wizards told you of Kain, for they were the only ones who knew where he was. You wanted to get him to help you.” Decca nodded, finishing the girl’s thoughts with what was plainly obvious. “Well, he found you and you have us to help you.”

“He’s after you, you know that, Decca. You are his original mission, or at least part of it. His master wants you for something. I was just Olvin’s little side task so he would not tire himself of Earth while he searched for you.” Rydia’s voice threatened to sob, but with what strength she had left, she willed it away. “I just wish I knew this back then.”

“You know it now,” Decca squeezed Rydia’s shoulder and smiled, “and we could use a powerful Caller to help aid us in his defeat. He’s not taking you or me. I promise.”

Rydia grinned back, little beads of content in her eyes. She was with allies again, fighting for good to conquer evil. Just like old times. She sniffed, wiping away unshed tears with the back of her hand, suddenly laughing. “And we have two others with us, and one of them dropped me, come to think of it.”

“Yes, Valzer. He has the agility of an elephant and the grace of hippo.”

Rydia closed her eyes for a time, then said, “You love him, don’t you?”

Decca snorted, flopping back on the bed again. “Valz’s my brother. Of course I love him.”

Rydia shook her head, then smiled again. “I meant Kain.”

That caused Decca’s brow to raise and she shot upright, eyes shifting to the right. “Uh, well... Yes...” then she grinned and crossed her arms before her chest. “Like Valzer.”

“Like Valzer!?” Kain’s voice called through the door to the inn’s room, followed by the hushing sounds of Valzer, accompanied by more grumbling from the Dragoon Knight.

Decca tilted her to the side with Rydia, eyes fastened on the door. “Kain? Valzer? Now you two wouldn’t happen to be spying on us gals, would you?” When there were no answers by their fellow warriors, the elf rose from the bed’s end and placed a pointed ear to the door. Then turning to Rydia, “you think I would have heard them.” She threw open the door, the two men falling flat on their faces in a pile before Decca’s feet.

“Uh...hi?” Kain peered up at the smiling elf, her foot pushing against Kain’s shoulder.

“Explain yourself, warrior.”

He smiled timidly under her intense gaze, shoving an elbow into Valzer for assistance. But when his wizard companion did nothing more than shrug, Kain rose to his feet, smoothing the wrinkles out of his gray colored shirt. “Well, my elf, I--we have come to...”

“Check up on Rydia,” Valzer nodded with his lopsided, cocky grin, joining his ally as he stood next to him. “So as you can see, our excuse passes quite well.”

Decca plucked a pillow from the few on the bed, clutching it in her grip and grinning widely. “Is that so? You have come all this way from the bar to sit outside our door and listen to our conversation?” She backed Kain into the side wall, near the couch, her pillow in hand.

“Wait a minute! You make quite an assumption to think we came from the tavern.” Smiling slightly, the Dragoon placed his hands upward in surrender, as if she bore a large ax. “And who says we were eavesdropping?”

“Yeah. We were simply debating whether or not to grace you with our presence.” Valzer folded his arms before his lavender, button-up shirt, which was open slightly to reveal a plain white shirt beneath. He watched with delight as Decca threatened to beat Kain over the head, but instead Decca flung the pillow towards the wizard, knocking him again onto the floor.

That sent Rydia in an uproar of giggles and she covered her mouth as she attempted to speak, and when she wearied herself of laughing, she looked upon the wizard. “Thank you for your concern, Valzer, but I am very well thanks to Decca. And if you don‘t mind, we would like to finish our conversation.”

“But I wanted to hear the rest of what you were talking about. I mean, do you love me or not?” Though Kain passed himself off as teasing, there was some truth behind him asking it and he did want to hear the rest.

But before either him or Valzer could receive a response, Decca was shoving them both from the room to the doorway. “You can come back when you are no longer interested in prying into our discussion.”

Now in the hallway, Kain huffed, placing an arm around Valzer. “Come, Valzie. It is fairly obvious we are not welcomed here.”

“I am not coming with you if you insist upon calling me "Valzie".” Valzer eyed the Dragoon as Decca slammed the door on their faces.

Both Kain and Valzer stood there for a moment, dazed as they watched the door, only a few inches from their faces. The Dragoon nodded and exchanged a glance with his wizard friend. “Well... I’m going back to the tavern.” He breathed in, mumbling as he stalked off.

“It can get mighty lonely over there, so perhaps I should join you.” Valzer followed along, joining Kain at the inn’s exit.

***

Olvin collapsed onto the ground, his armor charred, as was his skin; blackened and wounded by the power of another. Behind the shadow that cloaked his face, he frowned, not one of rage, but of deep disappointment (as well as intrigue).

Not too far from this fallen creature lay a scar upon the earth’s surface, where vast flames once dwelled. He rose to his leather clad feet, a smile returning to a hard face yet again. The new sky became alit with the color of dawn’s first showing, the sun flooding the heavens with its fire, so much so that Olvin was forced to cover his eyes from its brilliance.

He lifted his head into the daybreak’s sky, the breeze telling the secrets of a group that had fled. “She’s that way...” Olvin began walking again, and as he did so, the wounds that scarred his skin healed themselves. That Caller... I should have done away with her when given the chance.

The trees and the forest vegetation among the Master Sage seemed a jade color under the departure of the moon’s watchful gaze, letting down streams of fading light, which made even Olvin appear human in them. The heavens above were split: one part bathed in the coming sun, the other still shaded with the night's moon.

“Mysidian's inn...” He said, approaching the village. Olvin’s gloved hand squeaked as he curled his fingers into a tight fist. “I’ll have to bring them to me.”

***

“Such a beautiful necklace.” The image of the blue stone shimmered in the eyes of Rydia as she fingered the amulet around Decca’s neck. “Where did you get it?”

Decca smiled, taking off the necklace and giving it to the hands of the curious Caller. “Valzer discovered it near me when he found me. I suppose it’s someone’s.” The elf watched as her own figure appeared in the jewel, sudden flashes of a life once lived glowing in her eyes.

Decca blinked hard, realizing that the stone she bore in reality was glowing, not just her mind toying with her. She gasped silently, glancing to Rydia to see if the girl had seen what she thought she merely imagined. “Rydia...”

“It's...glowing? What does that mean--” Rydia’s hands raced to her temples, pressing against them as if she had just received a fairly troublesome premonition. Squinting as the pounding in her mind grew stronger, she whispered through clenched teeth, “he’s here...”

“Who’s here?” Decca rose from her seat on the edge of the bed, watching intently as the pain in Rydia’s mind grew more immense, even to the point where she cried aloud.

“Olvin.” She managed to gasp out. “I can feel him... Don’t you?” Rydia turned around in her bed, placing her hands on the window ledge behind and peering outside to the forest around the town. “He’s there.”

“Calm down,” Decca placed a hand forcefully on the Caller’s shoulder, pushing her down from out the windowpane’s view. “Stay low.” Rydia watched in question as the elf left her side to the sofa once more, taking an arrow from her quiver and carefully looking it over within her grasp. “Open the window wider, Rydia.”

Without asking, Rydia did as she was told, pushing the glass upward to reveal the rest of the outside world from the broader opening. Decca placed a finger over the tip of her arrow--as she did before not too long ago--and the metal lit in a modest spark; small, but enough for lighting their way through the darkness of dawn. Aiming with her bow, the elf released the slender object into the air, listening carefully as the instrument gave off a reassuring thwack, slamming into a nearby tree.

Both of them now peered out from the open window, the soft wind bowling back their hair as if they were streamers. A section of the woodland’s end alit with the fiery sprays, both girls now searching desperately within the maze of the forest for a man thought to be barely alive. At least he was, when they last left him.

“I’m telling you I saw him.” Rydia's voice began to rise in panic.

Decca squinted in the dull glow, wishing that dawn would come along faster, bringing with it more light. But within the dimness her keen elvish vision made out a shadow of a cloaked figure in the distance. “That’s him.” She grabbed Rydia’s arm and before the girl could protest, “we need Kain and Valzer, for if he was still alive when three of us battled him, I dare not think of what only two of us can fail to do.”

Running down the hall and slamming a few people from their hurried pace, Decca and Rydia made their way outside.

Panting, Rydia lingered behind, “Where is the tavern?”

For a moment, Decca found herself looking about through the scattered crowds of early risers and late sleepers, trying to shake last night's hangover. “This way!” Decca pulled Rydia’s arm in her direction. The Caller glanced back over her own shoulder to where the arrow was still lit. Olvin was gone.