Marche had gone to the Salikawood. Orsiny, Juris, and Ingg followed close behind, with Lutia and Cecille following at a distance. The group was there trying to find an emerald that belonged to the castle of the area.

So far, the group had been having no luck finding it. They had searched all around the nearby forest, the keep itself, and even the water, and they had no luck finding the emerald at all. Marche was beginning to see why the royal palace was giving up on the search, as the emerald had become inexplicably difficult to find.

So when they happened across a rather short nu mou during their search, they were not at all surprised. What they were surprised about, however, was that the nu mou was wearing royal garb. Seeing this, Lutia stiffened towards the back of the group. Cecille noticed this, and looked over to the nu mou, raising an eyebrow.

"Huh," she said. "I thought the palace had given up. And now they have someone here..."

"Not just anybody," replied Lutia, pointing at the nu mou. "The personal assistant of the prince! If what you have been saying is true, I hope Marche--"

"Halt!" cried the nu mou to the remainder of Marche's group. "These are grounds being inspected by the palace! What business do you have here?"

Cecille blinked nervously as Lutia trembled slightly. "I'm guessing it's too late?" she asked with a slight bit of trepidation.

"Oh dear..." Lutia replied, her voice even shakier than Cecille's. "I think I am ruined..."

The less royal viera shook her head and grabbed Lutia's wrist, coming close behind Marche and the others. The two of them came to a stop just behind Ingg, the group standing behind Marche.

"We're here because of a quest posted on the tavern, sir," replied Marche nervously.

"Someone left a rumor that the emerald of Salika Keep got lost, sir," added Orsiny a little more confidently. "The information at the pub said that you had given up, though..."

At this, the nu mou raised an eyebrow. "Preposterous!" he cried. "The prince has given no such orders! As it is, the emerald of Salika Keep is too important a relic to give up to mere commoners! Go forth at once and erase this error!"

"Yes, sir," replied Orsiny bowing lightly.

Lutia was twiddling her fingers nervously, her hands resting on her new summon staff as Cecille glanced over to the viera. Knowing exactly what Lutia was afraid would happen, the viera knew that she had no real cause to worry anymore.

However, the stranger suddenly took another look at the blonde boy in the front of the pack. Blinking, he took a step forward.

"Just a minute," said the nu mou. "May I take a better look at the boy?"

At this, Ingg shot the nu mou a curious look. "What makes you ask--?"

"Need I remind you who I work for?" interrupted the royal man. "Come, boy. I want to get a better look at you."

Marche sighed nervously, looking over to the nu mou. He stepped forwards, the shorter one looking over the human. Humming slightly, Babus crossed his arms in front of him, revealing a mace in one of his paws.

"You match his description," said the royal servant.

At this, the group jolted. Marche, however, thankfully knew better than to let himself be caught off guard for too long. "Who's description, sir?"

"Prince Mewt's," replied the nu mou.

At this, Lutia nearly lost her composure. If not for the fact that Cecille had thought quickly and had gripped Lutia's arm with great force, she most likely would have fainted. The two vieras simply looked on as Marche rose an eyebrow, trying to keep his over as best he could.

Before anybody could comment, the nu mou contined. "Mewt has been seeing strange visions lately and telling me about memories even he never knew he had," replied the nu mou. "Ad he believes you are the cause of his suffering."

"Suffering?" asked Marche. "I just want to go home!"

This sentence was out of his mouth before anybody could say anything to deflect that. The blonde boy quickly covered his mouth before Babus rose an eyebrow. However, the nu mou brought his mace in a fighting stance.

"I do not know what you just referred to, but I will not allow my prince to go through any more suffering!" stated Babus. "Guards! Get them, and give me the blonde boy! Call engagement!"

And then, a group of four bangaa leapt out, their weapons at the ready as they rushed towards the group. Before Marche could draw his weapon, they saw a judge materialize out of the air. The whistle was blown, and then an engagement began.

"Damn it!" said Cecille as she drew her bow. "Imposing these kinds of laws was enough, but calling an engagement over just seeing a face? This is ridiculous!"

"We'll have to save the complaining for later," replied Orsiny. "For now, we have to make sure these people don't catch Marche."

Lutia was just shaking her head rapidly. "Oh, God, I'm ruined..." she whimpered.

This recieved a prompt slap to the back of the head from Cecille. The more pretentious viera gripped the back of her head in pain. Before she could retort, however, Cecille glared at her.

"Calm down," said the normally more reserved viera angrily. "It's not the end of the world. You are not going to die. And you are not going to get ruined as long as we have something to say about it. So shut the hell up and be of actual use before I 'accidentally' shoot you in the foot."

Lutia was silent at this, Orsiny looking at Cecille with a look of shock on his face. Shrugging and seeing that his work had been done, Cecille crept forward a little bit, drawing her bow. She set her sights on one of the bangaa that was guarding the royal servant, and creeping forward she drew an arrow. As she crept forward, she could not help but notice that only then was Marche drawing his weapon as the group spread out a little bit.

Finally, the viera let her arrow fly loose, and it hit the bangaa right on the neck. This was enough to send the poor soul falling to the earth. It was not enough, however, as the guard stood back up, but by this point Cecille knew that her turn was finished, so she stored her bow and got into a position that she could easily dodge attacks with.

Orsiny's turn came shortly after that. Drawing his saber, he ran towards the bangaa that Cecille had shot; with a yell, he raised his saber high in the air. The blade came down on the bangaa, and shortly after, the guard fell to the ground, having been knocked out according to the rules of engagement. The light sped towards Orsiny as he recieved a judge point, and then Marche felt himself stumble forward, his turn beginning.

As his turn began, however, Babus came forward, holding his hand up.

"Hold," said the nu mou. "I have one last question."

Marche paused briefly, his blade taut in his hands. "Yes?" asked the boy.

"When you said 'home', what did you mean?" asked Babus.

The blonde shook his head. "This place isn't what you used to think it is!" replied the boy. "It's been fused with another dimension! And I'm not from this place, and neither is prince Mewt!"

"Preposterous!" cried Babus. "I have been serving Prince Mewt for my entire life!"

"It's not the prince Mewt you know that is in that body!" replied the human desperately. "Someone else is in your prince's mind, and he is living in this world as a fantasy!"

Babus let out a hearty laugh, however, with Lutia casting a sideways glance at the other five in her clan, who had somehow not flinched during this shouting match.

"This is precious!" gloated the royal servant. "I shall have you tried for insanity! The prince is not who I think he is! Guards! Once we capture this boy, we'll have him put on the stocks of Berevinia for his deluded ideas!"

"It's true!" cried Orsiny, trying to defend his clan leader. "Some of us have seen things you would never believe!"

"And they are all the most fantastic things you can think of!" expounded Juris. "Listen to him, for he speaks the truth!"

The guards only laughed at the blue mage and the sage as well, however, for they were past the stage of talking to the opposing clan. Marche shook his head, realizing how hopeless his situation was.

The clan would have to fight their way out of this particular situation. And they all knew it would not be a good day afterwards.

The human simply shook his head, jumping at Babus swiftly. The boy brought his blade down on the nu mou, dealing quite a bit of damage. It was not enough to make the nu mou unbalanced by any means, but any damage could do for Marche. He would have done more, but he knew that his turn had ended and he could not do much else. Thankfully, it was also Lutia's turn, so Marche knew he could at least get a little more damage, even if it was minimal at best.

The summoner looked rather afraid of what was happening, and she clutched her staff nervously as she came up slowly. Scanning the field, the viera decided to go after the bodyguards around Babus instead of the nu mou himself. And so, she raised her staff nervously, not sure what spell she wanted to cast. When she decided on summoning Ramuh, however, she muttered the chant ever so softly.

Despite this, however, a bright light still came out, and from above a very old man appeared. Lighting then coursed down on the group of guards that Lutia had summoned, greatly damaging two of them and managing to knock out one of them as the bolts rained down on the guards. Lutia felt a slight bit of confidence seeping back into her being as she saw this, and the light rushed from the judge to her as she felt a little more confident.

She still earned a well-placed glare from Juris and Ingg, however, both of whom were clearly not amused at how timid Lutia had been.

And they had good reason to, for then the bangaa guards had their turn. Being as far away from the group as they were, they were only able to move during their turn. However, they stopped short, and one of them actually had the chance to hit Marche with a spear. The attack missed, but the group knew they were in bad hands if they moved.

And then, it was Babus' turn. The nu mou grinned wickedly as it looked to Marche.

"You shall pay the price for your insolence!" he cried as he raised his mace high in the air.

The royal servant promptly began to chant loudly as he pointed his mace at Marche. As he chanted, however, a growing sense of dread began to fill Cecille, wondering what spell the nu mou was chanting up.

Her question was answered promptly, however, for then as soon as the nu mou stopped chanting, the entire area dakened considerably. Clouds reigned supreme, with bands of multi-ccolored light meandering their way in between the clouds. Cecille's eyes widened considerably, knowing that whatever came next would probably do quite a bit of damage to the whole group.

It slowly began to get colder, however, and then a strange kind of crystallic rain began to fall onto the group. Looking up, the sniper suddenly noticed a heavy shroud of darkness falling upon them, such that the aurora above faded out of existence. And as soon as the darkness took over, Cecille felt a very strong force hit her in the side. She stayed put from the pain, but suddenly, she found herself frozen in place gradually.

And when the darkness faded, she looked down to her horror to see that she was frozen not by ice, but by time standing still. She was unable to move even her eyes to glance up from the ground so she could see if the rest of the clan had survived the attack without finding themselves in a similar predicament.

It also left her to try to piece together exactly what happened as she heard the sounds of people taking their turns. She thought she was able to hear Juris cast a spell at one point, but exactly what spell it was evaded her given that she could not see what was happening. She heard to bangaa groans as well on two separate occasions, and she desperately hoped that one of the bangaa that had been taken down was not Ingg.

She then heard a nu mou groan loudly in pain, Cecille desperately hoping it was not Juris or anybody else. She thought she could feel the spell that had stopped her being used again, and indeed when the darkness took over she realized that she was going through the spell again. She only hoped it would not add to her being stopped already, and she hoped that everybody else had made it out of the spell without having been stopped.

And after hearing a particularly loud groan of pain from the nu mou, Cecille found she could move again.

When she looked up, she noticed that Juris and Lutia were both stock still, the sniper guessing because they had been affected by the stop. Ingg, Marche, and Orsiny were still moving, however, and the two bangaa guards that were left had been taken down. The sniper looked at the bow in her hands and realized that it was her turn.

Seeing Babus, the viera realized she had to do something to bring him down. Orsiny would not move unless she did first, and she knew from a cursory glance that Babus was close to being taken down. Thus, she drew an arrow, and crept around the field slowly. Babus' side was facing her, and she knew that if she just took a few steps away, the nu mou would not see the projectile coming since she would be aiming at his back. And thus, it would be more likely for her arrow to hit.

And so, she took those few steps in that direction and aimed her bow at the royal servant. She hoped that things would be all right, and then she let the arrow fly.

The arrow hit Babus in the back, the nu mou not turning fast enough. The servant then fell to the ground, and he did not get up for a brief period of time.

As soon as the light of a judge point was heading towards Cecille, the judge cried out that Clan Nutsy had won the engagement, and then promptly vanished.

"Right," said Orsiny. "Now let's get out of here before they wake up!"

As Juris and Lutia unfroze quickly, the group of six bolted away from the middle of the Salikawood as fast as their feet were able to carry them.


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As soon as they were a good distance away from the royals, Marche turned to the rest of his clan.

"That was close," stated the boy.

Ingg looked back to where they had just run away from. "That won't be the lassst we'll sssee of them, that'sss for sssure..." he replied.

Lutia instantly threw up her arms in despair. "I'm ruined!" she cried. "I'm ruined!"

"Oh, bloody hell..." replied Cecille, shaking her head. "Lutia, you are not ruined yet! You will be if you ditch the clan here. So unless you want to ruin all of us as well, shut up, and take it like a proud viera would!"

Silence permeated the group as Cecille shot a glare at her fellow viera. Intimidated by a combination of fear the glare that Cecille was giving her, she raised her arms up in defeat.

"Thank you, Cecille," said Orsiny. "Now... the palace will definitely come after us after this incident. Now that Babus knows that we exist, I don't think there is a limit to how low the palace can go to get us..."

"That's true," said Marche. "But I don't want to trouble you guys. So if anyone who wants to leave now can do so. And I won't get mad at you."

At this, the other clan members showed varying expressions of shock at the human. Orsiny looked at Marche wide eyed, with everybody else shooting glances at the human in surprise.

"Now what makes you say that?" asked Juris.

Marche shrugged. "Well, it's me he wants, so you all would just get caught in the crossfire..." he replied.

Ingg was quick to retort. "Nonsssenssse!" he proclaimed. "We've already been ssseen helping you, ssso we can't jussst run off like that!"

"We would be a larger danger to everybody else if that was so," pointed out Juris.

"That might be true..." replied Marche. "But it doesn't change a whole lot for the clan that wasn't with me today... Actually, I should just leave you guys."

"And what good would that do?" asked Cecille.

Marche looked to the viera. "It would keep you all safe while I try to get my world back the way it was!" he replied. "I can't just be a burden to all of you! You're not even part of my world, so I'm not sure why you're still keeping your feet in my matters!"

"Look," said Cecille. "Just because you miss your home doesn't make any of us lower than you, okay?"

Marche blinked, dumbfounded at Cecille's suggestion. "I'm not saying that at all!" he cried. "I just don't think you should be doing something like this!"

"And why not?" asked Cecille.

"Because Ivalice is your own world, and I have mine!" he said. "And I think I'm the only one with enough knowledge to do that, so I should hound out all of the spots on my own! Why can't you just leave me alone and respect my decision?"

"Because we're your friends."

The simple reply from Orsiny caused heads to turn in his direction. All eyes were on the blue mage as he crossed his arms and kept an intent gaze on Marche. The former student of the Cadoan academy nodded.

"See, we trust you Marche," continued Orsiny when he noticed nobody would give him a counter argument right away. "And part of that trust is that we know that you will tell us what's wrong and why your life sucks. We already know that. But the thing that separates a true friend from a false friend is that true friends always stay by the sides of the people they feel so strongly about. And frankly... this isn't something you should handle by yourself."

"Orsiny has a point," added Juris. "We have already seen and heard much more than any other clan on Ivalice has up to this point. And we know that this is not just your problem; it is a problem for all of us as well, given that the mind of one of your friends from this world has posessed the mind of the prince to our detriment. So unless we aid you in finding a way to bring back our world as well, we are at as much of a loss as you could be if you went alone."

Ingg raised his hands in the air. "Besssidesss, we've been together sssinssse the beginning," he added. "That would be a big problem if we left you now, of all timesss, essspesssially sssinssse we "

"So please, just let us help you," finished Orsiny.

Marche looked around to the clanspeople that were around him. Seeming lost in thought, he smiled a small smile as he looked to everyone.

"I guess we're in this for the long haul..." he said.

"Yep," replied Cecille. "That would pretty much sum up the situation..."

The boy nodded. "Okay," he said. "I'll stay with you guys then. And I'll let you help."

The others nodded. "A better choice," said Juris with a small smile. "Come on. Let's go see what else we can find in our search for clues..."

And with this, the group of them left the Salikawood entirely. Lutia was a little bit hesitant, but remembering some of what Cecille said, she followed along, even if it was with a little more trepidation than everybody else in the clan.