Once the travelers arrived at the inn, they wasted no time in securing their rooms for the night. Castti normally helped to handle room arrangements, but the others suggested she stay back on account of the massive migraine she was still fighting off. Castti couldn't find it in her heart to protest their suggestion either; she didn't think she would have been much help even if she had been able to muster the energy to approach the front desk and talk about their plans for the rest of the night. All she wanted to do for the time being was sit in her room and hope all of this left her alone soon enough. The pressure felt like it was going to make something inside of her explode, and she had no idea how long she would be able to bear it before she snapped. 

She had already known coming into Sai that recovering her memories was going to be a bit of a struggle. How could it not be? She had forgotten everything about herself, and there was certainly a reason for it. After all, things like that didn't just happen for the sake of it. Castti had known there was likely some kind of trauma involved, and yet, nothing could have properly prepared her for what she saw when her mind's eye opened again to reveal that day atop the mountain in the rain. Castti felt like it had only opened up more questions than it had answered, and she was going to have to keep pushing and keep searching for quite some time if she wanted to get to the bottom of it all. 

"Come on, Castti."

She snapped out of her trance at the sound of her name, and she looked up to find Throné was standing just in front of her. "We've got our rooms now," the thief explained. "I think you should take the rest of the day to yourself. The rest of us will be able to take care of ourselves on our own."

Castti nodded, ignoring the way her mind felt like it was on the verge of bursting from the pain. She didn't even know if it was entirely a physical ache. If anything, it felt like it must have stemmed from the wave of emotions that had rushed out of her when she first began to uncover her memories of that rainy day. Regardless of what the truth was though, Castti knew that she wanted to be able to leave all of this to the side for as long as she could. She would feel well enough to pursue it in more detail later on. Until then, she needed to keep herself from completely unraveling at the seams. 

Castti walked into her and Throné's shared room as the rest of the group dropped their things off in their own rooms. Castti sat down on her bed with a heavy sigh, and her body felt like it was going to collapse from the weight of staying upright. The day had been eventful, and yet, the force of it didn't seem to hit her until after she was given the chance to truly sit with what she had remembered. Why was it that recovering her memories was more intense on her body than going out and working to heal people in an active war zone? Even the fight against the sand lion felt less trying than this. 

"Are you alright?" Throné asked after a few seconds had passed in silence. Castti looked up at her slowly, each of her movements feeling far more lethargic than it had any right to. "You seem... Out of it."

"I'll be alright," Castti assured Throné even though she wasn't entirely certain of how she was going to turn herself around enough to start feeling better. She wanted to more than anything, but it felt impossible with the way every muscle in her body felt like it was aching. "Remembering what happened to me before was just... Intense."

"What exactly did you remember?" Throné questioned. "You didn't tell any of us about it. You were just standing there, and all of a sudden, you went pale as a ghost. What happened? Did it have something to do with the purple rain?"

Castti nodded, and she found herself slowly starting to lean back on the bed until she was propped up against the pillow. The room around her was spinning like her body and mind were both viscerally upset with her for trying to explain any of this to Throné. Why was she acting like this? She didn't understand any of it, though she supposed she wasn't going to make any progress on reaching the truth as long as she was just getting upset with herself over it. "I was standing on top of a mountain with... With the other members of Eir's Apothecaries," Castti went on. "There was a man in a robe and a mask there, and he was standing next to a purple bonfire. I think it was causing the rain to turn purple too. I tried to figure out who he was, but I couldn't do it. I definitely did know him, and his voice felt familiar, but... Learning anything more than that didn't work. It was like my mind hit a wall."

"Well, that certainly explains some things," Throné hummed. "I was wondering why you got so agitated whenever it started to rain. It sounds like that could have something to do with the day you lost your memories."

"I don't know what any of it could mean though," Castti sighed. "I feel like I should be closer to the truth than I am, but I just can't figure out what happened that day. I know that man. I know who he is beneath the mask, but I can't remember it. The two of us knew one another, and yet... Trying to convince my mind to tell me anything about him just isn't working. I'm going to have to try and find another way to the truth."

"And unfortunately, your treatment log isn't going to be of much help since it's all stained in... Whatever that is," Throné finished for her, and Castti nodded once more. "Well, if nothing else, I think we've made good progress today. You were able to help stop a war between opposing countries too. You did a lot, and I think it's time for you to take some time to rest."

"But..." Castti tried to protest. She couldn't entirely figure out why she was objecting, but she felt like there was something else she should have been doing. Either she should have followed the rest of the group back out into Sai to find something else to do with her time or she should have been spending her afternoon helping those who had been injured in the war. No new soldiers would be coming into the tent as long as Timberain's general tried to ask for a peace treaty, but there were still people who needed her help. 

Deep down, Castti was hoping she would be able to do something else with her time so she could find a reason to get out of her own head. She didn't know what had happened in her past, but she could say one thing for certain: she didn't want to think about it. The weight of her history was too much for her to bear, and even coming close to remembering it made her entire body feel like it was being lit on fire in a way that only rain could douse. She didn't want to have to remember the past, and if she was there alone in her inn room for the rest of the night, then she wasn't going to be able to stop thinking about the past. There would be no escape for her, and she would simply have to deal with it. 

"No one's going to want you to come out of your room after what happened earlier," Throné said, clearly able to tell that Castti needed to have her issues rephrased. "You looked like you were on the verge of collapsing when you remembered all of that. So we're not going to ask you to come out of here and do anything else for the rest of the day. I think you should take some time to yourself and not push too hard."

There was a piece of Castti that almost wanted to call Throné out on her hypocrisy. Throné cared very little for her self-preservation, and she charged headfirst into dangerous situations without thinking about it for any longer than she needed to strategically. Part of it was because she had been raised to be a fighter as a member of the Blacksnakes, but Castti got the impression there was more to it than that. Throné didn't just struggle with this because of her history as an assassin; it was also because she genuinely cared very little for her health. She had never been given the chance to take care of herself, and so, she very rarely did. The Blacksnakes were brutal, and Throné carried that pain with her each time she took a step forward. Throné was asking Castti to rest, and yet, they both knew Throné wouldn't do much of anything to take care of herself unless she was given no other choice but to drop her guard for an afternoon. 

But Castti didn't let herself say any of it. She already knew this was on argument she wasn't going to win. Even if she was able to point out the way Throné behaved, she was just going to end up having to protest her point to the rest of the travelers, and that was bound to fall through just as quickly. Ultimately, it wasn't going to take her anywhere. So Castti sighed and nodded. "Alright." She cast Throné a smile even though it made her cheeks burn. "Maybe you should take up being an apothecary. You could use that authoritative voice in a lot of helpful places."

Throné's cheeks flushed pink in an instant, and she sighed as she turned away. Castti snickered under her breath. She normally didn't need to get too stern with any of her patients, but she had certainly seen the importance of having that voice as an option during her conversations with Edmund. He likely wouldn't have changed his mind unless Castti had been there to press him in the right direction with as much force as she had. 

Throné started toward the door, clearly desperate to get away from the embarrassment hanging over her head in her and Castti's inn room. "Is there anything you need?" Throné asked. "We'll probably go and have dinner at the tavern tonight, but I can come and get you before then."

"I'll be alright," Castti answered. "Thank you, Throné."

The thief nodded, and she disappeared through the doorway and out into the corridor. As soon as the door tapped shut, Castti's teasing mood faded away, and she was left with nothing to do but sit with her thoughts. It was every bit as dreadful as she had thought, and she sighed as she tilted her head up to stare at the ceiling. She definitely needed the break after the intense wave of emotion that had nearly brought her to her knees, but that didn't mean she had to like being forced into her room for the rest of the day. In fact, Castti could say with complete certainty that she hated it. 

There was so much about the situation she just didn't understand, and at this rate, she didn't know what it was going to take to understand it. She needed to go to Winterbloom in order to uncover more information from the people there, but she had no idea what she was going to find at the other end of this. Would Winterbloom be able to tell her who the strange man from her memory was? Why couldn't she remember anything about him? She knew him. She knew she did. But when she tried to think about him, nothing worked. She was running into a brick wall, and it refused to topple even when she battered her hands against it. 

Perhaps her problem was the fact that she didn't really want to know what was on the other side. Castti needed to find out, and she was fully aware of that. She had something that needed to be done, and she could feel that even if her words escaped her in other ways. Castti was chasing after more than just her memories here; something else was waiting for her, and she had to find it... But she was terrified of what she was going to find along the way. What was the secret her mind was keeping from her? What was she missing about that day that made it so impossible for her to understand? Everything simply ached when she thought about it, and her very soul felt like it was going to be ripped apart if she didn't take the necessary time to breathe... But how much time was enough? How much was too much when she had no idea what it was she was missing? 

Castti pressed her hands against her eyes. She could remember that specific moment on the mountain, but she couldn't recall anything that had happened directly before or after it. At one point, she had been in a village also being assaulted by the purple rain. Years before that, she had been in Sai to help the soldiers who had been injured in the war. After her time on the mountain, she had been placed in a skiff by Malaya and cast off into the sea. There was no way for her to line everything up beyond that though. What little she could remember was disjointed and detached, and the space between each of her individual recollections was impossible to fill. 

Castti knew there was one person who would be able to help her with this more than anyone else: Malaya. Surely the woman who appeared in all of her memories would be able to fill in the gaps she was unable to explain on her own. Malaya had been there when she was on the mountain. She had been with Castti when they traveled to Sai too. In each and every memory, Malaya was there... But she had left. She had been given the chance to stay with Castti to help her to recover the truth of her past, and yet, she had walked away. She had known Castti wouldn't be able to do this alone, but she had left her behind anyway. 

Castti couldn't help but feel a deep sense of betrayal when she thought about Malaya. She wanted to understand why the other woman had left her in Canalbrine, and yet, she was afraid of what the answer to that question could have been too. Surely there was a piece of this picture she was missing, but Castti had no idea of what it could have been. Only Malaya would be able to explain her actions to Castti, but Castti couldn't search for her as long as she didn't know where to look. Malaya had been in Canalbrine quite some time ago, but by the time Castti regained her composure, she was gone. Castti hadn't seen so much as a trace of her since then. Malaya didn't want to be with her for whatever reason, and Castti was going to have to chase her retreating back all on her own as a result. 

Castti was certain she and Malaya were going to see one another again though. There was no way they wouldn't cross paths if they had spent so many years together. Castti had no idea what it was that could have led to Malaya putting her in that skiff and then abandoning her in Canalbrine, but she was going to get to the bottom of it. One way or another, she would meet Malaya again, and she would understand everything beyond her odd behavior. 

Until then, Castti's only choice was to wait and rest. She wanted to pursue her missing memories as much as she could, but there was very little she could do as long as she was there in Sai. Her only other clue for the truth was all the way in Winterbloom on the other half of Solistia, and Castti couldn't go that far out of her way at a time like this. She would be able to investigate more about her faded memories when the time was right. Until then, she needed to be patient, and she had to take care of herself to make sure she didn't completely lose her grip when it was time for her to learn more about her past again. 

Castti let out a slow breath and let her eyes fall shut. She was exhausted, and she could already tell she wasn't going to be able to stay awake for too much longer with how droopy she was feeling. Perhaps she would just need a little bit of rest to start getting her energy back. It would certainly serve her better than sitting in her room for the night and staring at the ceiling. When she woke up, she could think in more detail about how she was going to tackle all of this. 

Hopefully, she would have an answer for it then... Though somehow, she doubted it was going to be that simple. 

~~~~~

Once the rest of the travelers had left Castti in the inn, they headed toward the main room at the front of the building. They didn't want to talk too loudly in the hallway just outside her room and disturb her when she was struggling enough with relaxing as it was, so instead, they chose to dedicate their attention to something else. Temenos wasn't entirely sure of what it was they were going to discuss though. As far as he could tell, they were going to have to spend the rest of the evening in Sai, but none of them had any plans for how they were going to fill that time. None of them could have known how long their quest to help Castti learn more about her past was going to take, and they hadn't thought to make any other arrangements for what they would be doing once she hit her limit. 

Temenos didn't think too much about it though as he pressed his hand to his chin. Instead, he was lost in thought thinking about the purple rain. He hadn't heard of such a thing ever happening... Well, at least not in a way that he thought was possible. He had heard whispers of a town that had been engulfed in purple rain at one point, but he had thought it was all just a figment of people's imagination or a trick of the light. No one had ever heard of colored rain before, and it seemed like it should have been impossible. If Griff's words were to be believed though, then purple rain was most certainly real, and it was seemingly dangerous too. 

It wasn't just Griff's testimony that had Temenos pausing though. He couldn't stop thinking about Castti's reaction to hearing about what Griff had said regarding the purple rain. She wouldn't have responded in the way she had to the mention of the purple rain unless it was significant. She had gone so stiff in the span of an instant, and her eyes glazed over as she focused on something far away from Sai for a few minutes. Temenos didn't know what it was she had remembered since she hadn't wanted to talk about it any longer than was necessary, but he could tell by the look on her face that the purple rain was real. He hadn't ever seen Castti looking so rattled before, and that was proof enough of something being horribly wrong. 

"So... What are we going to do with the rest of the day?" Ochette asked, tilting her head to the side. "I don't know when we were planning on leaving Sai, but we probably can't do it today. Castti is in a pretty bad place right now, and I don't think it'd be a good idea for us to drag her out onto the road after all that."

"I agree," Throné nodded. "I think it would be in our best interests to wait here for the rest of the night and see how she feels in the morning. If she has recovered enough, then we can ask her to see how she feels about traveling. If she isn't up to it yet, then we can stay in Sai for another night and just be as careful as possible to make sure we keep Hikari out of trouble."

"If nothing else, I'm glad to know the war Sai was fighting had nothing to do with Ku," Hikari frowned. "The desert has been prone to war for a long time, but it was generally self-contained. If Sai was fighting with Timberain, then that means we're at a much smaller risk of being caught by any soldiers from Ku. Hopefully, we'll be able to make our way back toward Conning Creek without any other issues as long as this is the case."

"I hope there's no one else interested in starting up a war between Sai and Timberain again... I don't want the king to just ignore everything that happened today," Agnea murmured. "It's horrible that people were fighting against each other over something like this. If they had just been kind enough to accept one another, then they wouldn't have ever been put in so much danger."

"It really is mighty awful... But I think we're in a good place now for puttin' a stop to it," Partitio told her. "We're just gonna have to trust that Griff knows what he's doin' when he goes back to Timberain to talk with the king there about everythin' that happened here today. If it all goes well, then we'll never have to worry about any of this again."

"I'm glad Ku wasn't caught up in everything going on too," Throné hummed. "I was worried we were going to have to turn tail and run without Castti's memories when I heard there was a war going on here, but I'm glad to know I was wrong. Instead, she learned something, and we were able to stop the conflict too."

"I can't stop thinking about the purple rain," Osvald admitted, though Temenos could tell there was something else on his mind too. Temenos figured he would push the point later on though. For the time being, he was beyond curious about everything to do with the purple rain too. "I had never heard of such a thing, but it must have been significant if Castti reacted that way to hearing about it."

"I'm surprised the rumors about it were true," Temenos said, and everyone turned to face him in confusion. "I heard a few reports from members of the church saying that people had come to them speaking of purple rain. I can't say for certain where they heard about the purple rain, but it felt like it must have been a sign of something else at the time. Many people thought it was simply a trick of the light or a strange aurora that had settled over a specific town in the Flatlands, but if Castti responded that way to hearing about it... I wonder if there was something more to it than that."

"So the incident happened in the Flatlands..." Throné murmured, pressing one hand against her chin. "I didn't hear anything about it at the time, though I guess I probably wouldn't have. I was a bit... Occupied at the time."

Temenos nodded. "I heard about it around the time there was a major storm in the Flamechurch area. The reports of the purple rain appeared the following morning, if I recall correctly. At the time, there was a massive storm that blew through the area, and a lightning strike shattered the glass that was used in the stained glass atop the cathedral. The purple rain report followed shortly afterward. I must wonder if perhaps it was the same storm... It's not uncommon for rain to blow in from the Crestlands and then reach the Flatlands after the fact. For all we know, that could be where it all came from."

"Then when along the way did it turn purple?" Ochette asked, and Temenos frowned. He didn't have an answer to that, but he was going to have to find one sooner or later. If he wasn't the one who figured it out, then he was certain Castti would have to get to the bottom of it eventually in order to recover her memories in full. "I don't think that's natural. Something about this is bothering me. I've never heard of rain turning any color other than... Well, water."

"I don't think it would be possible for an aurora to stray that far south from the Winterlands either," Osvald said. "Most of the time, auroras are exclusive to the north, and if they happen to stray southward, then they would be noticeable from the Crestlands too. It simply wouldn't make sense for the sky to change the color of the rain, especially since most of the time, auroras aren't visible at all if there are clouds in the way to block them from view."

"I'm sure we're going to find an answer to all of this soon enough," Agnea told the group with a smile. "I don't know what's going on with the purple rain either, but I'm sure we're not going to be in the dark forever. Sooner or later, we're going to get to the bottom of it, and we'll be able to help Castti learn more about everything she forgot too. I just know it's not going to be out of our reach forever."

"We'll just have to wait until we make it to Winterbloom to ask more questions, I suppose," Throné sighed. "Until then, our best course of action is to try and stay focused on what we need to do now. I think we have as much of a plan as we can have for the next leg of our journey. We're going to make our way to Conning Creek to make sure Osvald can investigate everything to do with his family there. Once we're finished, we can figure out what else it is we need to do. We've been putting off what we need to do in Conning Creek for far too long... Not that it was ever really our choice to do it, I suppose."

"I'm sure Winterbloom will tell us everythin' we need to know," Partitio agreed. "What are we plannin' on doin' for the rest of the night? There's gotta be a few things we can do to fill up our time. Maybe we can ask around and talk to the locals about what's been goin' on in their lives. Now that the war has been put on pause because none of the soldiers wanna fight, maybe we can help out in other ways too."

"I think we can split up and look around the town for any supplies we need to buy or anything else we wish to do with the rest of our evening," Temenos agreed. "There's bound to be something for us to do here while Castti recovers. Later, one of us can go back and check in on her and see how she is feeling. When we do that, we should be able to figure out if she can come with us to the tavern for a meal or if someone should simply resolve to bring it to her later in the night."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Throné nodded. "I'll see you all later then. I'm going to explore the town and see what I can find."

Temenos nodded, and he watched as the rest of the travelers branched off from the group to explore the rest of the town. Soon enough, he was the only one left in the inn, and his lips began to tip downward in a frown. Temenos couldn't stop thinking about the purple rain regardless of how hard he tried. He knew he wasn't going to be able to find anything as long as he was lost in thought in a place that had very little information for him, but it was still bothering him. He felt like there was something more going on with the purple rain than met the eye. 

After all, Castti wouldn't have reacted so negatively and strongly to regular rain if everything to do with the purple rain had been normal. Perhaps he needed to go back to her room and ask her for more information about her newly recovered memories. If he could hear something from her, then he would have a much higher chance of putting a few pieces together. Even so, he felt like he was missing something significant, and he doubted he would be able to find it there in Sai. Since Griff had gone all the way back to Timberain, Temenos couldn't ask him either, not that he thought Griff had any other information for him than he had already shared with Castti. 

Temenos hated it deeply when there was a mystery he couldn't solve properly. He always wanted to find the truth, and that remained true even now... But as long as he couldn't get to the bottom of this case just yet, he was going to have to be patient. Surely everything would come together when the moment was right. Until then, he would support Castti with all he had. She clearly needed it if her struggles from the last few days were anything to go by. 

Everything would come to light when Castti was ready. Until then, Temenos would do everything he could to assist her. It was the least he could offer both as a cleric and as a friend. 

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Yay! 

I don't have all that much to say about this chapter honestly. It's a nice one to take a breather with before we get into the depth of everything to come with the rest of Castti's chapter two arc and then with Partitio's first Scent of Commerce. I think it's nice. That's about the most I can say about it since not too much happened. I can say though that I am building up to something special in the next few chapters since I think it is warranted here for narrative reasons. You can look forward to that... But I'm not going to tell you what it is yet. My secret.

So I'm going to leave things here and probably go back to playing Octopath 0 for a while. Until then. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital