The sun was gradually drooping in the sky as Roni, Keylla, and Gemma rode along on their chocobos through the Vigoreaux desert heading southwest. The winds were picking up and rushed in between the sand dunes, blowing hot dry air and sand into their path and faces. Gemma was glad that she could hide her face for the most part from the onslaught behind Keylla.

Despite the potion she drank earlier, she still felt drained of energy in a way that made her mind drag its feet through the questions that buzzed around her mind. Questions of why the Empire was putting forth so much effort in chasing her from the forests outside Gelid to Vigoreaux castle and possibly to where she was heading now with her new companions.

It couldn't be merely because of her gift of magic because that man, Fload, could use magic too, could it? She sighed, resigning herself from the endless questions and tried stuffing them away into a little chest in her head to be looked over when she didn't feel so sluggish.

Gemma tightened her hold around Keylla's waist and rested her forehead against the part of her back that wasn't covered by her bag hanging from her shoulders. She closed her eyes and listened to Keylla and Roni's conversation as they trotted atop the sands.

"I've got to send a few messages once we get to the closest village, Ron," said Keylla over the sound of wind rushing past them.

"Yes, make sure to send word to Baron about what has happened," Roni replied.

"There has to be more to the situation besides the Empire trying to get that frozen ester and losing a few soldiers in the process."

"Perhaps it has to do with its reaction to Gemma…"

She felt Keylla shift in her seat on the chocobo's back, and kept quiet in hopes that they would think she was asleep.

Keylla and Roni's conversation turned to how things in Southwest Vigoreaux had been the last time Keylla passed through the city. The newspapers had articles on the Empire's movements on the Southern continent, and how they had taken over a city called Oranda with their youngest general leading the invasion.

"It's been about two weeks since I was last there. They've probably heard about the raid of Gelid by now," Keylla explained. "Word can travel fast when they rely on the coal trains making their weekly shipments."

"Or when the lack of shipments spur questions." Roni's voice sounded tight as if he was clenching his teeth.

"Yeah, if the trains are still running, it may take at least two or three days for word to spread about Fload's assault on the castle."

Roni sighed, "With my Vigoreaux underground, there will be no way for supplies to reach the city."

The men fell silent and they rode on in quiet for awhile. Gemma opened her eyes finally to see that the sky had gotten much darker and massive thunderheads were rolling their way east. Other clouds were enveloped in the brewing storm and spread like ink knocked over by a clumsy hand. The sandy horizon which seemed to go on forever abruptly ended and in its place came what looked like brittle brown bushes and dry grasses peeking through the little valleys the sand dunes created.

Gemma pulled her cheek away from Keylla's jacket and peered over her shoulder, dodging the tails of her many bandanas flying out from their knots at the back of her head. They were quickly approaching a mountain range with sharp ragged peaks stretching into the skies.

"We're almost to the caves, Gemma," Keylla turned her head back so to give the wandering witch a grin.

She felt a small smile come back at her. And Keylla was right because within the next few minutes of travel, the group reached a scrubby dried out clearing before the mouth of a cave leading into the mountains.

"King Roni!" A Vigoreauxan guardsman sitting atop a chocobo was standing near the entrance of the cave and saluted in greeting as they approached.

"Hello Meyers," Roni replied as he nudged his chocobo into a stop in front of his guard and dismounted from his bird.

"What brings you here, Excellency? I did not receive notice that you were travelling today." The guard noticed Keylla and Gemma as they came up beside Roni and before he could ask further questions, the king held up a hand.

"Fload has attacked the castle." The guard gaped.

"It's safe though!" piped in Keylla as she slid down from her chocobo's back and turned to help Gemma hop down.

The king nodded, "Yes, it dove down below the desert before any serious damage could be done, thankfully. I'm going with Miss Robberts to see Aaron at the Reigniter's hideout."

The guard bowed his head, "Is there any way that I can assist you, my liege?"

Keylla busied herself with securing both hers and Gemma's packs to their shoulders in turn while Roni answered, "Well, I would appreciate it greatly if you could take our chocobos to our spare stables. Poor things took quite a scare at Fload's firework show." He patted his bird gently on its huge beak, to which it chirped and nuzzled its head into his hand.

Roni rubbed his chin in thought some before continuing, "Oh! Do you happen to have any provisions you could spare, Meyers? I didn't have the chance to pack a bag. As you can see, I only have my pockets and crossbow!"

Meyers jumped down from his saddle immediately, "Of course, my liege!" he unbuckled a leather satchel from the saddle and gave it to Roni. Meyers opened the main compartment and showed that it contained some food, skins of water, a few articles of clothing, and some medicines.

Roni smiled, "I hope you have plenty for yourself."

"Oh yes! My saddlebags are stuffed full, sire! Please don't worry about me," the guard pulled a length of rope from one of his bags as he spoke and began to tie it to connect the two chocobo's reins to his own bird.

"Alright then, thank you Meyers. We will be on our way now." The king shook his guard's hand, "Be sure to send word to our other men on patrol of what has happened and stay safe!"
The guard dropped to his knee and bowed deep before he mounted his bird, saluted, and rode off into the desert with the spare chocobos in tow.

Roni pulled his bag onto his shoulders and turned to regard Keylla and Gemma.

"Well, we'd better get a move on then! Never know who may be nearby," said Keylla as he led the way into the caves.

The caves leading to the lands where Southwest Vigoreaux lay and all the little villages where the farmers tended fields of grains, vegetables, and livestock were very dark. Unlike what one would expect of dreary dank caverns and small tunnels, the air was warm due to one entrance opening to the desert.

According to Keylla, even before relations with the Empire started turning into sour milk, the caves were not used as a normal passage to the southern valley because travelers usually favored riding through the mountain passes which followed the train tracks that began in the mountains of Gelid and wound all the way around the kingdom to various stops for the unloading of coal and machinery. Those with plenty of coins in their purses could purchase seats in the carriages at the front of the train where the seats weren't covered in soot. But since their group consisted of two very unusual individuals, Keylla suggested they go through the caves to avoid too much notice.

In the first room of the cave, the ground dipped downwards at an uncomfortable angle, and made Gemma nearly trip into Keylla when her red boots tried sliding out from under her on the smooth stone.

There were large torches resting inside iron sconces nailed into the stone walls with blackened tips from use. Keylla went up to one and pulled a book of matches from her pants pocket and with a swift motion he raised the lit match to the tip of the torch, and soon it was sputtering little sparks.

A warm, orange glow blossomed from the wood and soon they could see the uneven rocks which made up the walls. Shadows waved out from the jagged stones as the fire crackled.

"Well Keylla, you know your way around the best, so lead us on!" Roni announced, putting a hand on his hip while he gestured dramatically with the other.

The thief stuck her tongue out before turning and walked forward to a narrow opening in the cave walls. Gemma quickly scuttled after, missing the king's offer of holding her hand as they went into the depths of the caves. The light from the torch swept through the darkness, bobbing along with Keylla's footsteps.

The light sounds of water dripping came from the shadows ahead of the group, and within a few moments, Keylla came to a stop and held out her torch to show her friends the spring from which the soft sounds came. Gemma came up to her side and saw their vague rippling reflections in the water. The fire was the main thing which could be seen and the light was bright enough to reveal something curious: an opening in the rock wall opposite them.

"Where does that go?" Gemma asked quietly, pointing. Was this part of the path they needed to go to reach the end of the cavern? She looked up at Keylla's face.

She shook her head at the recovering amnesiac, "No, it just leads to a different portion of the caves is all. I've only gotten to get to it a couple of times. Nothing really back there but dusty spider webs and a dead end."
Roni came up on the other side of Gemma, careful not to let his crossbow strapped to his belt graze her side.

"It does give one a tantalizing feeling, though! Gemma and I have not seen what lies within, Keylla, so I wish that we could visit it." Roni rested his hand on Gemma's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

Keylla bent down and asked Gemma to get the empty bottles out of her pack so she could refill them.

"The water is pretty cool, so let's drink up while we can," she said as Gemma sat the bottles by his side on the ground. She knelt and helped the treasure huntress dunk them into the water. Roni did the same, but stopped after a moment, squinting at something in the spring which was making its way towards the group.

The figure turned out to be a rather large turtle swimming to them, and instead of merely watching, it came right up to Roni's hand and smacked its head against him.

Keylla saw this with quirked eyebrows, "What's that thing's problem?"

The turtle let out a loud rasping noise and wound up his head to hit Roni again, and oddly enough, Roni did not withdraw his hand from the water. He smiled down at the creature with a tender look.

Gemma furrowed her brow, "Do you know this animal, Roni?" The turtle turned its head to look at her now, but did not swim over to hit her too. It remained where it was in front of Roni.

"He's just an old friend is all," Roni replied before patting the turtle on the head and standing up, taking a bottle of water with him. Gemma and Keylla shared a confused look before following suit and continuing through the cave. They went through low passageways and around bends in the path and eventually came into a large room where stalactites dipped down from the ceiling and large stones came up from the ground, hiding much of the path from view.

Gemma saw steps carved into the rugged ground leading to other openings in the cave, "Can we try going this way?" She pointed to one of the tunnels.

Keylla stopped, "Why not? It'll just take a moment." She smiled at Gemma as she passed by her, leading the way.

Inside the passage was an old wooden bridge leading across to a little landing where a chest tucked into a corner with its brass latch rusted and cracked sat.

"What do you think is inside?" the young woman asked, looking from Roni to Keylla.

Roni replied, "Go on and try opening it, my dear!" He gave her a little push, to which she went ahead across the little bridge with careful steps and reached down to the latch. The lock fell apart after she pulled at it and she found a big bottle of green liquid with bright yellow leaves suspended within. Gemma came back across to her companions and held it up to them.

"That looks like an antidote, nice find! That'll come in handy if either of us eats something we shouldn't have." Keylla explained before gesturing for them to leave the chamber and continue on through the cave. The mage tucked the bottle into a side pocket on her pack as she followed Keylla and Roni out of the cavity. Gemma saw old chipping torches sitting in their holders at various points in the cave walls as they passed and another set of stairs, but they did not venture up them.

KLUNK!

Keylla fell over sideways with a yelp, one arm flailing outwards while the other tried to catch the ground, his torch following him, sliding on the ground with a sizzle. The culprit turned out to be a large wrench.

The odd fellow who threw the tool emerged from the shadows with a sneer. The ragged work tunic he wore somewhat covered his bouncing belly and with every step, his mouth widened, exposing whatever brown cracked teeth remained in his mouth.

"My, my, my." The fellow extended a hand, "You look very familiar!"

"Jeez that hurt!" Keylla shouted, rubbing at her cheek bone.

Roni moved in front of Gemma swiftly, watching the stranger with narrowed eyes.

"I know your face well. Get to see it all the time plastered all over those coins I get for my pay!"

"What are you doing away from Southwest Vigoreaux?" The king demanded.

Keylla jumped to her feet, "Yeah! Shouldn't you be at work?! You look like one of the steam engine repair men!"

The man spat sideways, still advancing on the group. He grabbed at another huge wrench on his belt and brandished it like a sword, aimed at Roni, "Pah! Don't like the pay. Boring work! This kinda job is way more fun!"

He swung the wrench in a wide arc towards Roni's face, though the attack was unevenly delivered and missed by a couple feet when the king took a step backwards. When the ex-repairman went to swing his tool again, already sweating with exertion, it was met with Keylla wielding the other wrench with a clang.

This blow made the repo man drop his wrench and shout out in pain, clutching his hand as if it was cut in half.

"This guy really is a newbie. How does he expect to steal anything?" Keylla laughed as he looked from the amateur thief to Gemma and Roni.

Gemma peeked around from behind Roni, confused at how quickly the scuffle was over.

"Maybe we should get a move on."

They left the man behind in the dark once Keylla gathered up the torch, which had lost much of its length when it fell out of his hands, though thankfully it was still burning. Gemma went ahead and whispered "fire" to herself, willing a ball of fire of her own to help add to their light, hoping that this would help the group see any more people lurking around in the darkness.

Soon enough they came to the exit where Keylla blew out his blaze with a big puff and set it up against a corner in the rock wall.

Dusk had come with more large blankets of clouds obstructing the skies above the high grassy valley falling away from the mountains.
"Well Miss Treasure Hunter, where's the closest village?" Roni asked with a flip of his golden ribboned ponytail and a grin.

The thief looked up to the sky, calculating the direction by the point the sun sat peeking out from behind some wisps of cloud. She rubbed her chin, and after a moment, pointed southwards.

"It should be about a couple hours this way," she declared and started to march on.

Before they reached the village, Keylla brought up a problem they needed to fix before it was too late. Roni was a king.

He looked like a king, dressed like a king, and even smelled like a king.

"But this is the newest rose water from Shenar!" Roni cried as Keylla shook her head after having sniffed her friend over. Yes, he smelled a bit salty and musky due to their travelling in the desert sun, but that new rose water was strong. Which at least meant that it achieved the goal for which it was mixed. It was supposed to increase its scent the more somebody sweated.

"We've got to disguise you and Gemma the best that we can before we reach the village! The Empire has spies everywhere, and since they saw Gemma, they're going to be on our tails like a cat following a fish merchant." Keylla pulled a couple of ribbons from Roni's ponytail and unraveled them to see how wide they were.

Gemma nodded and started to untie one of her scarves from around her waist and wrap her golden curls up in a bun. She then got her dark gray cloak out and fastened it around her shoulders, making sure to hide her pendant from view. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to conceal the necklace, but she had a creeping suspicion that Fload would recognize it.

Meanwhile, Keylla was attacking Roni's clothes with dirt to make his denims look more rough and travelled. She even pulled a short knife from her belt to cut off some of the king's auburn hair.

Roni smacked Keylla's hands away, "No! This is one of my trademarks as a monarch!"

"You're being ridiculous!" Keylla snapped, trying to push against and past her friend's flailing arms.

"Hey, maybe we can just change the style and hide some of his hair beneath bandanas?" Gemma suggested, to which Roni agreed very loudly at Keylla's face, spit flying.

Keylla glared at him, then at Gemma, giving up the struggle at last and pocketed her knife.

"Fine, but if you try to act like a freaking king when we reach the village or Southwest Vigoreaux, I'll knock you into next week and chop that stupid hair off!"

Gemma grabbed one of the ribbons Keylla had stolen from Roni's hair and went up to the king. "It must be hard to act like somebody else, Keylla."

The king stooped down with a little smile so Gemma could reach his hair.

"Maybe you can do most of the talking when we arrive?" she asked as she tugged Roni's ponytail down some to let it set looser on the back of his neck and tied the ribbon with a twist around it.

Keylla grumbled an agreement and got one of her spare bandanas from her wrist and helped Gemma hide Roni's hair beneath it.

The three agreed to purchase more clothes once they reached Southwest Vigoreaux so Gemma wouldn't stand out so much with her golden dress and boots. And Keylla convinced Roni to dye his hair a darker shade and let his beard grow out.

"I'll need to get a new pair of glasses as well. I can wear those everyday because I need some to see things up close anyways."

Gemma giggled as the little white bird nestled itself into her cupped hands, seemingly content with the bread crumbs she had given it. She stroked at its fluffy feathers with one of her thumbs.

"Ow!" Roni had been trying to help feed the birds too in the large coop, and quickly found that the little white doves and pigeons did not like either the crumbs he fed them or the smell of his hands. Gemma couldn't figure out which reason it was. Two of the birds snapped at his fingers and got a good bit of his skin off, though luckily, without too much blood.

"Roni man, you really gotta be nicer to these little guys," Keylla muttered from her place by a large window without glass where she was scribbling on a small piece of parchment with a stolen charcoal pencil. One little pigeon was standing near Keylla's arm, watching her hand silently as if it wondered what the weird little squiggles meant.

The thief was writing in code for his message to his fellow Reigniters, letting them know that he was making his way to the hideout with a couple of interesting people along for the ride.

Roni scowled and left the chirping birds on their wooden perch and walked over to his friend. He quickly read the message, "What on earth are you writing about pumpkins for?"

Keylla let out an annoyed sigh, "It's a code Aaron made up okay? 'Throwing them into the street' means 'We're on our way as fast as we can.'" She continued scribbling down more supposed code before folding it up into a little rectangle and picked up the brown thread she had gotten from who knew where and tied it around the note so it wouldn't unfold while the bird flew away with it.

"You know as well as I do that if the Empire intercepts any of our messages we're all screwed." Keylla busied herself with securing the paper to one of the pigeon's legs and snapped his fingers three times. The bird let out a little chirp before beating its wings and took off into the night.

Gemma didn't really listen to the men's debate because she was too busy wondering if she could take the little bird with her. It seemed to really like her and all, so maybe the man who regularly tended them wouldn't mind parting with just one little dove…

The king left the coop after telling the two about how he needed to rinse off his fingers the birds attacked. Keylla stuffed the pencil and left over papers into one of his pockets and started to follow Roni out.

"C'mon Gemma, we'd better go get some rest. You can come back and see your new friend tomorrow morning, okay?" Gemma smiled at the little bird and gave it a kiss on its puffy head before sitting it down on one of the any perches in the coop.

The village was really nice despite how small it was. There were eight families in all, each with cozy looking brick houses, some with flower beds on either side of the front doors, and others with vegetable gardens out back. There was a big fenced in space off to the western side of the village where livestock where divided up to keep the pigs and cows in their own spaces. A large barn held fully grown chocobos and their young.

And behind the village was acres and acres of wheat growing in neatly tended rows. The village was called Sunnay after the man who originally founded the place over a hundred years before. His family passed down the name, making sure to give the name to at least one of the boys they gave birth to. According to Keylla, each generation of that family made sure to have at least one boy so they could have another to carry the name.

Apparently, the current family had trouble making a boy and had to keep trying seven times before finally getting a boy. All of the daughters didn't mind though, their parents trying so hard for a boy. They knew it wasn't anything against them because this tradition was merely a tradition. The eldest girl was about sixteen now, and every time Roni passed her in the dirt road, she fluttered her eyelashes at him coyly, to which he smiled that smile of his.

Gemma saw this display three different times so far during their stay in Sunnay, and each time wondered what on earth it meant. The last time she saw it happen, she whispered to herself wondering what it was, and Keylla must have heard her because he leaned his head down to her ear and said, "She's making the eyes at Roni, poor thing."

"What does that mean?" She came to a stop.

Roni stopped too, "She wants to have a little date with him, have a cup of tea, enjoy his smiles so she can think of them later on."

Gemma looked confused. "What's a date?"
This made Keylla cough and advert her eyes suddenly, unsure how to explain the ways of courtship.

"Well, ah, it's when people like each other a lot and want to spend time together. Privately…"

"What's so special about that? You and I have spent time together alone, and you and Roni have spent time alone too."

"That's not what I mean!" Keylla shoved her hands into her pants pockets. "It's a different thing than friends hanging out, Gem."

Gemma was still confused, but decided to leave their conversation at that, and went along the road, following the path which led to the little inn where they were spending the night. She heard Keylla kick some dirt up with her foot before she started following her.

There had to be a reason why Keylla's face turned a bit pink while they talked. Maybe it was because of the chill in the air.

Southwest Vigoreaux was a large and beautiful city, with tall buildings made with both wood and metals for support, many different shops, pubs, inns, and ships docked at the southern part of town. Once the trio dismounted from their chocobos they had borrowed from a family in Sunley, Roni took in a deep breath and smiled.

"There's nothing like visiting my city! I haven't been here in months!" The king took off into the cobble-stone streets at a near jog, looking at everything he could before going into the nearest inn to book them a room for the night.
Keylla busied herself with taking the birds to the stable that was at the edge of the town, "Hey Gem, you can go on ahead with Ron. I'll be there in a moment."

Gemma nodded and walked along the wide street, avoiding bumping into some of the city's people along the way. There was a group of men near the entrance of the inn, talking in low tones about some town down on the Southern continent which was destroyed recently. A man with blond hair glanced up at Gemma as she reached out to open the large door to the inn, and did not look away, his face changing from impassive to almost recognition.

Gemma ducked inside quickly, unsure of what that look meant and why it made her uneasy.
Roni was at the wooden counter, discussing with the innkeeper what all they required for their stay in Southwest Vigoreaux, explaining that he needed a copy of each different newspaper because he hasn't been in the area in quite awhile and wanted only to catch up on the local gossip please.

"Well alright sir, so with the single private bathroom, three beds, six newspapers," the innkeeper paused, looking up with raised eyebrows for a moment before resuming his typing on the typewriter, "and the laundry service, your total comes to three hundred gil a night." With the last word, the innkeeper pushed the printing mechanism at the top of the machine to the other end, causing it to let out a ding and pulled the paper out from its place, blowing on the ink before placing it on the counter for the king to sign.

Roni picked up a pen from the cup next to the vase full of daffodils and signed.

"Sounds fair to me!" he smiled and pulled out his coin purse and withdrew the money.

Gemma came up to Roni's side as the innkeeper was putting the three large coins in the cash register and wrote up a receipt. She noticed that he wrote the name "Niro."

"Thanks Roni, Keylla will like a bath. She's been talking about her messy hair for a while now," she whispered, smiling up at the king.

"Yeah I know. We could all use a nice bath after all of this travelling." Roni took the key and receipt from the innkeeper and led Gemma up the carpeted set of stairs to the third floor. "And after we get settled in our room, we can grab a bite to eat. There's a specific pub my men have mentioned from time to time that I'd like to try."

The carving on the head of the key read twenty-four and once they reached the matching door with the number carved into a brass plate nailed in the wall next to the door handle, Roni unlocked it and held the door open for Gemma to step inside first.

The room had a polished wood floor with circular rugs placed under each bed so that when one got out of bed, their feet would not slide or feel the cold floor immediately. There was a table off to the right with two chairs at either end with a vase of fresh flowers in the middle, a fireplace at the back of the room with a box with the materials for starting a fire if they desired, and a door to the left which led to the bathroom.

Gemma went up to the bed nearest to the bathroom, sat her travel pack on the floor next to it, and climbed into the covers, slipping her feet out of her boots as she adjusted herself on her side, letting the shoes fall onto the floor. She let out a sigh. She hadn't realized how tired she was until her head hit the huge feather pillows. The sheets smelled clean, like the pine trees out in the forests around the city.

With her eyes closed, she listened to Roni get his bed ready, set his bag down, coins jingling in his pocket, the key thudding on the bedside table.

Then she heard Keylla enter the room, recognizing her from her familiar grumbling about how Roni could've waited downstairs to show her which room they were staying in.

"Oh thank gosh we have a room with a tub!" Keylla cried, tossing her pack on her bed and hurried into the bathroom, nearly slamming the door behind her. "Dibs!" She called from inside.

"Leave Gemma some hot water so she can take a bath after you!" Roni yelled back, sitting down on his bed heavily.

Gemma smiled into her pillow, slipping off to sleep, looking forward to seeing all of Southwest Vigoreaux after they had a meal in that pub Roni wanted to go visit.