Annora found herself running to the waterfront park on a request from a Moogle. Annora wasn't overly fond of Moogles, they were slightly annoying creatures. But this one had seemed to be desperate and needed a Heartless killed. Killing this Heartless would help Annora just as much as it would help the Moogle, so Annora decided it couldn't be that bad.

Arriving at the waterfront park Annora saw the Heartless the Moogle must have been talking about. It was about the size of a person and floating off the ground with small bat-like wings on it's back. Purple horns came off of its head and its tail had some sort of blade on the end. It held a sword in its right hand.

Facing off against this Heartless was another keyblade wielder. It was a boy with short silver hair that was a little messy, maybe from the fight or maybe just naturally. He wore a white shirt with a black short-sleeved jacket over top. He had a red scarf on and black gloves. His pants were brown and his boots black. He looked tired like he had been worn down from the fight. Annora doubted he would be able to win.

Annora darted at the Heartless from the behind. She brought her keyblade across the Heartless' back. The Heartless turned to face her, forgetting the silver-haired boy. The silver-haired boy smiled at Annora gratefully before dropping to his knees. He seemed to have picked a fight he wouldn't be able to finish. Annora attacked the Heartless quickly, hitting its chest area rapidly. The Heartless dropped it's sword and vanished into a puff of black smoke.

Annora let out a heavy sigh after defeating the Heartless before crossing the grassy area to the silver-haired boy. She crouched down in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and smiled again.

"I'm alright." He said. His bright blue eyes were looking at Annora in interest. Annora frowned at him, he didn't look alright.

"You sure?" Annora asked, removing her hand from his shoulder. The boy nodded standing up. Annora stood with him, watching him carefully. He stood perfectly fine, not showing any signs of serious injury. Maybe he had just worn himself out.

"Thanks, I guess I got a little cocky." He said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Annora crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. The boy attempted a smile at her.

"A little?" Annora asked. The boy grinned at her and shrugged. Annora felt herself smile despite the situation. This boy was light-hearted, and it seemed to be spreading on to Annora. Not that she minded. It wasn't a bad feeling to be able to laugh off such a close encounter.

"I'm Ephemer, from the union Ursus. Nice to meet you!" The boy said suddenly, holding out his hand. Annora took it without thinking.

"Annora from Unicornis." She said. Ephemer grinned yet again as he released Annora's hand. Annora wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

"Looks like we're on different teams," Ephemer said, pacing away. Annora nodded slowly, she had forgotten that unions didn't normally work together. It was always an afterthought for her, unions didn't mean that much in her eyes. "But I'm working on something other than my Union task today so think of me as Union free for today." Ephemer said, turning back to face Annora. He was still grinning broadly.

"What are you working on?" Annora asked curiously. It was rare to meet another who didn't put too much stock in unions. The last she could remember were the two lieutenants from Vulpes and Anguis.

"Hm, I guess I can tell you what it is since you helped me out," Ephemer said, resting a hand on his chin as he thought. He took a step closer to Annora and lowered his voice. "Can you keep a secret?" He asked. Annora nodded looking around. There was no one else, so she wasn't sure why Ephemer was lowering his voice so much. "The worlds we visit--the worlds of fairy tales-- are nothing more than holograms. You know projections. The light we collect there is actually this worlds light." Ephemer explained quietly. Annora looked at him in shock, her mouth hanging open just a bit.

"What?" Annora asked. Ephemer frowned tapping his chin in thought again.

"Um, to put it simply: There are a lot of worlds, right? And they're all connected by land. But it's impossible to go around to all of them. That's why there's a mechanism that projects all of those worlds here and allows us to collect lux from far away lands." Ephemer explained, being sure Annora understood him.

"Whoa. That's amazing." Annora said softly. Ephemer grinned hearing her say that. She assumed it wasn't often he found like-minded people. Especially with such a strange way of thinking that would even lead to discovering such facts.

"I'm gathering information trying to figure out how the whole thing works. My hunch is that the book of prophecies held by the foretellers is what's creating the holograms." Ephemer continued. He glanced at Annora to be sure she was still following his words. She looked to be lost in thought. Her eyes were narrowed at the ground. "Got it? Have I lost you?" He asked. Annora looked up at him and nodded.

"I can take a little more crazy, I think," Annora said with a grin. Ephemer grinned in return.

"Anyway, we're in this town gathering light that belongs to this vast world. Not just gathering, fighting over it, without knowing why. After a little digging, I discovered all the unions had different goals." Ephemer continued. He seemed glad to have someone to listen to him. This was so crazy everyone else would have just brushed it off. Not to mention they would consider it disloyal to their union somehow and probably pick a fight with Ephemer.

That wasn't the only thought to cross Annora's mind. The other was of her dream the previous night. The one of the man in the black coat and the Foretellers. Their roles, whatever that meant. Did that have something to do with what Ephemer was talking about? If it did, why was Annora having these dreams? She hadn't thought it possible until Ephemer spoke.

"That might explain my dream," Annora said, partly to herself. Ephemer looked up at her in confusion.

"Uh, what was it about?" Ephemer asked curiously. Annora looked up at him, she had momentarily forgotten he was there. She frowned, trying to decide if she should say what it was. She sighed, she might as well, she had already mentioned it.

"I was in a room in the foretellers tower. I saw a guy in a black coat talking to all the Foretellers. I couldn't hear him very well, something about roles. I tried to get closer but was swallowed by darkness." Annora explained. Ephemer looked very interested by this. He crossed his arms and looked to the sky.

"Really? Interesting." He said, trailing off. He suddenly smiled and looked at Annora. "Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't you come with me?" He said. Annora shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" She said, grinning at Ephemer. Ephemer smiled even more.

"Great! Let's head to the place you saw in your dream." He suggested. Annora nodded in agreement.

The two of them ran through the town, passing by other keyblade wielders and common civilians. Annora felt herself wanting to laugh as Ephemer looked at her in challenge. She wasn't totally sure, but it seemed like he was challenging her to a race. As if to confirm her thought Ephemer ran a little faster, pulling ahead of her. Annora grinned, adding more speed so she was in front of Ephemer. They kept that up, trading places until they finally reached the bridge in front of the foretellers tower. They stopped and burst into laughter.

After they had calmed themselves down, Ephemer looked up at the tower.

"So you don't know where the room is?" Ephemer asked. Annora shook her head.

"Nope." She replied. No one really knew where anything inside the tower was. As far as she had heard no one but the foretellers were allowed in there. And they weren't there very often anymore, only for meetings that happened occasionally. Something had made the tower seem almost ominous.

"I've been here a few times. But I haven't found a way in." Ephemer admitted. Annora had a feeling he was in trouble with the foretellers a lot. He didn't seem to put much stock in the rules. More of a go with the flow type of person, just waiting to see where the day took him.

"That's unfortunate." Annora said, half to herself. She supposed hoping they could walk right in was asking too much. Things didn't usually work out so nicely.

"Alright, let's split up and see if we can find a way in." Ephemer said, turning to Annora. She smiled and nodded glancing around the area. The town was huge, there could be an entrance anywhere. This was going to take a long time.

*<3*

Jax bit his bottom lip as he flipped through the blue book in front of him. The pages weren't making much sense. They were cryptic warnings about a grim future. Riddles that really could have meant anything. But there had to be something that made sense. Something that actually meant something.

"You know, you really shouldn't be looking at that." A calm voice said making Jax jump. He turned and closed the book. Behind him was Gula, a hand on his hip. He was grinning at his lieutenant.

"Gula, I didn't hear you coming." Jax said. He glanced nervously over his shoulder to the book. Gula had just left it where he could easily read it. But he knew that no one except the Foretellers were supposed to read the book of prophecies.

"Obviously," Gula commented. He crossed the room and stood beside Jax at the desk. He opened the book and flipped through it idly. "What are you looking for?" He asked, not looking at Jax.

"Anything that might sort out this mess." Jax admitted. He watched Gula flip through the pages calmly. Gula seemed to only need to briefly skim the pages to know what they contained. He had probably read the book more times than he could count.

"You think you'll be able to discover the traitor through this?" Gula asked, motioning to the book. Jax shook his head slowly.

"No, I'm hoping to find where the Master went to," Jax admitted. Gula looked up at him in surprise. The traitor was more of the focus of now, it had been a long while since someone had suggested looking for the Master. Gula looked back to the book with a frown.

"The Master is gone." Gula said softly. Jax could almost hear the hurt in his voice.

"But if anyone could stop this nonsense it would be him." Jax insisted. Gula shrugged, pacing away from the book. He frowned, thinking of what Jax said. Perhaps the Master could stop this. But there was no way to find him.

"He left us each with a job. I think if we each adhere to that job we should be fine." Gula said after a pause. Jax frowned. This was the first he was hearing of these jobs. But just giving others jobs wasn't going to solve everything, they had to follow these jobs.

"Someone might have strayed," Jax suggested. To his surprise, Gula smiled slightly at the suggestion. Jax had expected him to get angry.

"I'm counting on it." Gula said, his voice soft. Jax tilted his head to the side.

"What do you mean?" Jax asked.

"The master knew about the traitor. He entrusted me to find them before it was too late." Gula admitted, looking towards the ground. Jax looked back to the book. He hadn't read a thing about a traitor. How did the Master know then?

"There's nothing in this book about a traitor." Jax said, looking to Gula for an answer. Gula stopped his pacing and sat a little ways away on a stack of boxes. He kicked his legs like he usually did.

"No, there isn't." Gula agreed. He reached into his robe and pulled out a piece of paper. It looked like a page from the book of prophecies. "It's here." He said.

"What does it say?" Jax asked, stepping forward. Gula sighed, holding the page out to Jax.

"Read for yourself," Gula said. Jax stepped forward again and took the page from Gula. He read over it. The words were just as cryptic as the rest of the book. It held no clear answers. But it did seem that whoever was the traitor was going to break away from their role unintentionally.

"This doesn't make sense." Jax said. Gula laughed bitterly.

"No, not really. But it's what we have." Gula said.

"We?" Jax asked confused.

"You'll help me? Won't you?" Gula asked, sounding almost afraid. Jax grinned and looked back down at the page in his hand.

"Of course." He said. Jax always did like a challenge.