Their Reunion [Quest; Alye and Zenshin]

"Sir! A letter addressed to you!" a new member of Sabertooth exclaimed as he panted and handed Zenshin a white envelope. Sir, I don't know how I feel about that. And a letter? I don't get mail he thought as he took it and thanked the eager young mage. He was a bit of a renown figure in Sabertooth at this point, training directly under its guildmaster for six long months. Zen took his finger and stuck it in the edge of the letter, quickly sliding it to the side, tearing it open and revealing the actual note inside. Slowly removing the letter, he hoped it was another person thanking him for saving their village, thank you notes really put him in a good mood. What he read wasn't that, on the contrary, it was a letter that seemed like more of an apology than anything else.

"Dear Zenshin, I hope you've been well lately. I know it has been quite a while since we've last spoken, but in these troubling times it better to have friends that you can count on than enemies. I would very much like it if we might see where we stand. If you're interested, there is a job in the Forgotten Desert that could use our talents. It could be a nice way to reminisce about the last time we were there! If you'd like to come, just meet me at the Airship Port in Era. I hope to see you there! Sincerely, An old friend."

Immediately, his brain recognized a few patterns. Old friend... must be a former guild member from Eclipse Soul. Can't be Kyll, I've already met up with her at my old grave site. This is also a bit of a flowery diction, must be a girl. There weren't many girls in Eclipse back then... so it must be Alye. I'm also curious on how we stand. I wonder if Iana would hold it against me if I went on a job with an old friend of mine that happens to be a female. Eh, I bet she won't he eventually concluded, getting off the chair and walking down the steps of the guild. Picking up his trusty straw hat off the table, he reminisced in the memory of how he got the hat. It was one of his first jobs with Alye. Of course, he was oblivious to the fact that she harbored a hate for him when he left, thinking that his note summed it all up pretty well when in fact, it didn't even reach anyone passed her.

A lot had happened in the time he left the guild to this point. For one, he was actually in a relationship, albeit it a dangerous one, it was still one nonetheless. If he'd stayed in Eclipse Soul, it might've been her that he'd try to get into one with, but his decisions and destiny stated otherwise. Other than that, he had spent six months on the Serene Cliff side with his friend and mentor, Aegis Bright, during which he learned many new things, developed new skills, and even gained a few new scars. He hadn't stopped to think about the damage he'd cause with his actions of leaving Eclipse Soul. Zenshin thought that his debt had been repaid to Zeno since he went all berserk and left him for dead in that dreaded castle. He wasn't aware that some people were hurt by his leaving of the guild that had betrayed him and limited his growth as a mage.

I guess I don't have much of a choice, looks like I'm going to Era he thought quietly as he shook his hat to clear a but of the dust off before putting it on and walking out the front door, his next destination was the Era airship docks.

Making sure that "Promise" was securely sheathed on his back, he set out through the guild doors and into the desert, where he'd traverse to reach the grand city of Era. After he was about halfway there, he stopped and waited, feeling the ground shake under him. A sand worm It came at him like a trait, its head slowly rising up out of the sand until its entire body was halfway submerged in sand. The worm let out a fierce roar and put on a good show, but that's all it really was, a show. Zenshin turned to face it, its distance was something he could only guess at due to recent events. Staring at it, he yelled "Stop!" No dice, it swallowed him hole, causing him to let out a sigh and simply fall throughout the innards of the beast.

Judging at the speed at which it swallowed me, I should be at Era in about ten minutes, assuming he doesn't go and change directions he thought as he removed his sword and dug it as deep as he could into whatever footing was under him. Zenshin jerked to a stop, only able to do so because of the sword that provided support. Three hundred one, two, three the seconds were counted off. Five hundred thirty nine... forty. As the final second was counted off, he pulled back on his weapon, causing a huge gash to form in the lining of the sand worm. Sand began pouring in through the wound, which quickly became much worse as it got scraped against the coarse granules that the beast was so famous for swimming through.

A few more cuts in specific places later, the monster was missing all of its hearts, and with that, stopped moving. Zenshin slowly trudged back up, careful not to cut himself on the bacteria ridden teeth that he narrowly managed to avoid on the way in. Hmm... I don't think I have a souvenir from this yet, I think I'll take a tooth. After cutting out one of its many, many, razor sharp, serrated teeth, he exited the creature. What a ride. I can't show up to the terminal smelling like this though, I'm sure some random Era noble won't mind a surprise visit a thought came to mind. Inside, everything smelled like dead pests, but now that he was out and around one of the most proper cities in Fiore, he could *smell* the difference. So, he made a quick stop at the first house he saw, intruding and using their shower as well as fixing up his clothes with a tailor lacrima that littered the houses of the wealthy.

He felt a bit bad about it, but then he got over it. What were they going to do? Call the Rune Knights on him? If he kept going down the road and all the way to the terminal, he would've disturbed many more than just a small household. Zenshin exited with his newly tailored clothes and thanked the family for this hospitality while waving goodbye and making a beeline for the terminal. A giant crowd surrounded the terminal, huh, somebody's popular he thought as he brushed up against different people to get to the epicenter of the commotion. Although he was a newly inducted Wizard Saint, Zenshin was still as unknown as street urchin in the Oak Town slums, just the way he wanted it.

The background is where he belonged, gathering information and the like. He had no need for the fame that status brought, but it was there regardless of whether he wanted it or not. As he neared her, he bumped into several people, it was like wading through a pool of butter. "Watch where your going pal!" "Shove me again! See what happens!" "The nerve of some people!" all the voices cried out, he ignored all of it. When he finally reached Alye, who was facing away from him, he outstretched a hand to her shoulder, attempting to surprise her from behind. "Assassin! Look out Lady Reyold!" another voice cried as a knife was thrown with near perfect accuracy. Although it was a pretty dead on knife, it wasn't fast enough to actually hit him. In a single movement of his upper body, he grabbed the knife as it was about to pierce his wrist.

"I don't reccomend throwing sharp objects at me. I'll retaliate next time" he said, staring at the man with his right eye, his left closed permanently. The sheer pressure of his words and tone were enough to scare the man into attacking him again. "Rune Knights! Mages! Their's an assassin going for Lady Alye" The drawbacks of anonymity when trying to greet a very highly regarded figure from behind. I guess I can see where the confusion would come from The knives were very well thrown, but because of their near perfect accuracy, their trajectory was predictable. Two were spinning towards his face quickly, faster than the last one he'd caught, but still not fast enough. Zenshin tossed the knife at one of the ones thrown, removing it as a threat while moving his right hand to intercept the other one, the one whose blade was mere inches from his good eye.

Knife magic. Huh. That sounds a little ridiculous, but then again, so does a magic where you can create anything from something that comes out of clouds he thought as he tossed the third knife down into the ground. Finally, the Rune Knights arrived to break up the commotion. "Finally, you guys are here! Arrest this assass- Hey! Let me go!" he exclaimed in confusion as they grabbed his arms from behind him. "We're terribly sorry about this. You'd be pleased to know he will be imprisoned for a very long time for attacking someone this nation is so proud to have" one of the arresting officers said. "But he's the-!" the man piped up before being silenced. What a nifty spell "Just get him out of here and explain the situation, I won't be blaming him for anything. He was just trying to protect the Lady behind me" he said, pointing a thumb backwards at Alye.

They nodded and took him off, and by now, everyone had abandoned the terminal except for the loyal conductor of their transport. "Surprise?" he said half heartedly to the most likely shocked woman before him, his right eye moving from side to side, exaggerating his nervous feeling. He wondered how she would react to such a start of their reunion.

It looked like Alye was much happier to see him than he thought she'd be while the crowd of people around them were a perplexed as to why she was so happy to see someone who's name they'd only heard of. "Zenshin? The Saint?" a voice piped up from one of the members of the chattering crowd. "Isn't he the guild master of Sabertooth? Brought it back from near expulsion from the legal guilds of Fiore I heard" another voice said, probably answering a question asked by someone else, Zenshin ignored it though, well, before he was assaulted by a member of the "Sorcerer's Magazine" photography and interview crew. "Of course I came Alye, why wouldn't I?" he asked before being blinded by the flash of a camera lacrima.

"Saint Zenshin! How do you know Alye? Are you two in a relationship? Are you two related? What is going on? Who was that man who just got taken away?" a woman in a very "business" suit and an equally as serious pair of glasses said. "So loud. Could you step back." he told her, not as a question, but more as a command. She did before asking more questions, again, he ignored them. Zen yawned and pushed through a crowd of people with one arm while leading Alye by her wrist with another arm, eventually getting past everyone and ending up inside the train car, which was much more quiet than the busy platform. "Much better. I don't know how your brother can do it, all those people taking pictures and harassing you, it's terrible. Oh well, at least there's peace in this train" he said before letting out a sigh of relief and sat down on one of the red leather seats.

"I mean skytram, I always confuse the two for some reason." Zen said before a voice came on from all sides. "The tram will be leaving shortly, thank you for your patience" said the skytram conductor. In a few more moments, the vehicle jerked and began moving along the metal "rails" above them. Back to the desert, brings back memories... like when I got this thing he thought as he took his hat off and stared at it, thinking of one of his first jobs, as well as one of the first with the now famous Alye Reyold. Some people would do *anything* just to get some face-to-face time with the famed Saint, but he wouldn't, he would just send her a message. No one could stop him from an audience with an old friend, no guards, no self righteous bystanders, no one. Well, except maybe Iana if she was getting jealous.

"So how's Eclipse Soul doing? It's been so long, and I've been trying to keep up with filling out all the dammed paperwork that comes with running a guild. I don't know how Zeno does it" he said while he moved his body and laid down on the rest of the booth. Honestly, he just wanted to enjoy this tram ride and rest up before having to travel through the hot desert as he had plenty of times before this one. It was like it was the only place that had problems, aside from the Spooky Forest of course. There was no mistaking that the forest had its own enormous set of problems.