FIC: Fallen Night ~ Chapter Two ~ Harry/Jack ~ T

[batsutousai]

Title: Fallen Night
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Radiata Stories
Chapter: 2 of 11
Author: batsutousai
Beta: tsuki_no_suzu
Rating: T
Pairings: Harry/Jack
Warnings: OoC, AU, slash, non-human arc
Summary: Harry slipped when he was standing a little too close, and the next thing he knew, he was far away from everything he'd ever known, with something like eternity waiting for him.

Disclaim Her: This story uses characters and settings owned by J.K. Rowling, her publishers, Square Enix and tri-Ace. No money is being made from the creation of this fanfic, and no copywrite infringement is intended.

A/N: So, I apologise in advance if you go to look something up on the wiki and don't find an answer there. I was distracted by Xerosis. And a Facebook game which Shara and her brother got me addicted to. (And I finally got some games on my PSP... ^.^")
Neeway. Long story short: I haven't touched the Radiata Stories wiki since I posted last chapter. Dunno if I'll get to it this week, either, since I'm visiting with my mum and magickmaker17 – and a friend or two that I haven't seen in six years... – so no promises that it'll be useful for next chapter, either.
Sorry?

-0-
Chapter Two - Humans
-0-

Jack groaned and took a seat on a nearby bench. He was trying to find Leonard to tell him he had a package in the supply store, but the man just wouldn't stay still! He'd already tried his room, the Captain's room and the training centre. The new recruits in the training centre said he'd gone to look for Lady Natalie, and Jack practically whimpered at the thought of having to climb all those stairs again. He was honestly considering the idea of killing his roommate, assuming he could find the man.

Jack leaned his head back against the wall, mind going back to an hour or so ago, when he found out about the plague that was running through the city. A plague that made people go mad. It was terrifying to conceive of, although a part of Jack wanted to meet someone with the plague on his own so he could karate chop them into submission. General Dynas had looked so cool...

Speaking of looking cool, that mage from the other day... Harry? He'd been pretty cool too. Not cool in the punch-your-lights-out way, but more in the bright-light-you're-dead way. Jack and his teammates had barely managed to scratch that blood orc – shallowly, at that – but Harry had popped out one spell and that orc was dead. It almost made Jack consider trying to become a mage, instead. But Jack liked the hands-on approach, and he was already a knight.

But, still. Mages were kind of cool. (Excepting, maybe, Genius, who was far too holier than thou to ever be cool.) Harry and Dynas were totally at the top of Jack's list of way-cool people.

Soft boots sounded around one of the curves of the castle and Jack glanced up, hoping it was, somehow, Leonard, even though the man usually wore the heavier, knight-issued boots. It wasn't Leonard, but it was someone Jack recognised. "Harry?"

The mage looked over from where he was eyeing the doors to the small tower stairs hopefully. He blinked for a moment, then said, "Uhm, Jack, right?"

Jack nodded and hopped to his feet. "Yeah! What brings you to the castle? Oh! Wait, the captain asked you to find out about the trade request, right? So, it was a no, wasn't it? Are you here to tell the captain that?"

Harry smiled in amusement. "Are you done?" he asked when Jack's flow of words halted. Jack nodded, so Harry answered, "I was told at Information to report my response to Lord Larks, but I'm not quite sure how to get there." He rubbed the back of his head. "I'm used to castles built in a square, not this hexagon shape."

"I can take you to Lord Larks office," Jack offered and started leading the way when Harry nodded. Then, curious, asked, "Square castles?"

Harry blinked. "Uh..." Crap. "Yeah! There's an old elven castle in the Ocho Region, Algandars, which is built around a square. Rectangle, really, but it's the same sort of concept." Harry laughed a bit. He generally avoided letting humans know he was from another world. Really, only the elves knew of his strange circumstances; it was safer that way.

"Huh. Never heard of it."

Harry shrugged. "It's been abandoned for a few hundred years. The story goes that the king married a human woman and both of them developed a horrible disease. To save his people, the king sealed the castle. The elves won't go anywhere near it, but a couple of the creatures in there can be harvested for useful things in one of the potions I make, so I take the trip down every once in a while."

Jack nodded, mind leaping from the mention of potions to the disease Harry had mentioned the last time Jack had seen him, then to the plague he'd just learned about. General Dynas had told him to not mention the sickness to anyone, but what if Harry already knew something about it? "Hey, Harry?"

"Hm?"

"You remember telling us about that disease you were making a potion for? The one you said affected all creatures that used magic?"

Harry eyed Jack curiously. "My life has practically revolved around that disease for the past twenty years; I'm not going to forget it anytime soon." Admittedly, it had been more like two hundred years that Harry had been trying to find a cure for algandars, but...

Jack blinked – Harry didn't look much older than twenty – then asked, "Are humans affected by it?"

Harry nodded. "Of course."

"Uhm... What are the symptoms? Do you know?"

Harry stopped, feet on separate stairs, and looked up at where Jack had stopped a few steps above him, suspicions forming rapidly in his mind. "In humans," he said carefully, "the disease starts by giving the victim abnormal strength and quickly progresses to making them mad with the need to kill other people. About a month after they go mad, they start trying to kill themselves, assuming they weren't killed in self-defence by a victim previous to that." Harry considered Jack's face, which had taken on an ashen sheen. "You've seen someone going mad," he deduced.

Jack swallowed and nodded. "One of the guards," he admitted. "He was raging about killing everyone nearby and did a number on one of the other guards before they managed to shove him in a cell."

Harry sighed. "Is he still in a cell?"

Jack shook his head. "No. Uhm..." He looked around suspiciously, then walked down the steps so he was next to Harry and whispered, "They're bringing everyone from the village who's gotten sick and running tests on them, or something. Trying to find a cure, I think."

Harry frowned. "They won't find one," he commented, then motioned that they should continue up the stairs.

"Why not?" Jack asked, starting back up the stairs. "And please don't tell me it's because you haven't found a cure."

Harry snorted. "I wish it was that simple. But, no. The disease isn't in the affected people, you see. As far as I can tell, it's the magic of the planet that's sick, and it's attacking those who..." He trailed off, frowning. "Actually, I don't know how it picks its victims, but they usually seem to be people who use magic regularly, or are constantly in contact with magic. Someone who uses a magical sword, for example, is just as susceptible to the disease as a mage who practises magic daily."

"So there is no cure?" Jack whispered, looking pained.

Harry shook his head. "Not unless someone can find a way to heal the planet's magic, and that's something of an act of futility. Although, I know that the disease suddenly picked up speed around the time the Water Dragon was killed."

"The Water Dragon?"

Harry sighed; he was far too used to humans not knowing the most basic things about the world they lived in. "There are four dragons that help keep the world in balance and each of them are born of an element: water, wind, earth and fire. About sixteen years ago, a knight named Cairn Russell–"

"My father," Jack supplied.

Harry blinked at him in surprise, then chuckled. "Brilliant," he muttered to himself, then, louder, "He attacked the Water Dragon when it attacked Radiata City and was infected by the disease, then killed by the light elves–"

"I heard he was killed by another knight."

"Ah, yes." Harry eyed the boy. "Gawain Rothschild found out about the light elves sending an assassin and didn't do anything to stop them. He admitted to a friend that he felt it was his fault that Cairn died and that friend told the general of the knights. Gawain has been in hiding since, as there's a kill-on-sight order out for him." Harry sighed and shook his head. "Anyway, when the Water Dragon died, the disease became more prominent and the water that used to fill the chasms evaporated. It was a hard few years for everyone."

Jack nodded thoughtfully and stopped a few feet from Lord Larks' office. "Why did they kill him?" he asked.

"Your father?" Jack nodded. "To save him," Harry said, looking away. "Cairn was... He was a good man and he made friends with everyone, no matter their race. No one wanted to see him suffer through the third stage of the disease, and we were all afraid of how many people would die if he was left unchecked during the second stage. He was an amazing knight before the disease, after..." Harry shook his head.

Jack was quiet for a long moment, then asked, "You were there when they sent the assassin?"

Harry swallowed, then looked up into the sad brown eyes. "I was a part of the council that sent him," he said steadily.

Jack nodded, then pointed to the door to Lord Larks' office. "This is it. Can you find your way back out, do you think?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

Jack shrugged and started off down the hall.

Harry chewed his lower lip for a moment, then called, "Jack?" The boy stopped, but didn't turn around. "Your father was a wonderful man and a good friend. He didn't deserve his fate." Then Harry turned and knocked on the door Jack had pointed out.

Jack swallowed and whispered, "Thanks," then hurried off down the hall.

-0-0-0-

Harry bit back an unmanly giggle that tried to erupt as he stepped onto the moving stairs in the Vareth Magic Institute. The stairs had been built by an enterprising president about one hundred years ago and every time Harry stepped onto them, he remembered Ron's first reaction to an escalator back on Earth – he'd stared at it in shock for almost five minutes, then proclaimed, loudly, that muggles couldn't do magic and so he would not be getting on those stairs, lest they break. Hermione had smacked him and forced him onto it to prove it was safe, but Ron had spent the trip up hyperventilating and refused to get on it to go back down.

Harry jumped the last few steps and strode into the office, calling, "Afternoon, Ray."

An owl sitting on the back of the president's chair made a disgruntled sound and looked down at Harry. "I thought you weren't going to come back for another six years."

Harry grinned and waved a visitor's chair over for him to sit in. "I had to bring a message to the castle, so I thought I'd spend a couple of days here and raid your library."

"You may not sleep in my office again," Ray told him.

Harry blinked innocently. "What made you think I was going to ask that?"

"Because you always want to sleep in my office."

Harry shrugged. "Where else would I sleep? It's not like I keep dagols on me or anything, so I can't pay to stay at an inn. I suppose I could sleep in the library..."

"There's an abandoned building on the Path of Insanity and Fanaticism," Ray snapped before Harry could actually seriously consider sleeping in the library. "The thief guild has been using it as a short cut, but they shouldn't mind you sleeping there as long as you don't tell any of the guards, which I doubt you'd do, since they'd then want to know how you found out."

"Actually, I'm more curious about how you found out," Harry commented. "It's not like you could have gone in after them to find out what they were doing in there. No hands, you know?"

Ray muttered grumpily under his breath and Harry laughed. "Shut up. This is your fault!"

Harry shook his head. "Nuh-uh. I told you not to try the spell. You're just lucky you're stuck as an owl and not something like a dormouse."

"You're the one who told me about it!"

Harry snorted. "I distinctly remember telling you only elves could do that spell safely. I also recall, when you suggested trying it, telling you it was a really stupid idea and if something went wrong I reserved the right to laugh. You tried it, it went wrong and so I laughed."

"Don't even," Ray warned when Harry's lips twitched with a smile. "You've had your laugh and I will peck you if you do so again."

"Again," Harry muttered, rolling his eyes. After Ray had pecked him the first time, Harry had sworn to leave for twelve years, which was the approximate life-span of the owl he was stuck as.

Although, really, Harry should have known better than to show a human an innate magic spell. They always wanted to prove him wrong when he said it wouldn't work for them. Honestly, humans were so thick-headed.

Ray ruffled his feathers and shifted on the back of his chair. "How long are you staying?"

Harry shrugged. "Dunno. I want to see what new books you've got and a friend of mine gave me some things to try selling. Why?"

Ray motioned with a wing and a date book drifted off the desk and into Harry's hands. "I know you like coming in and telling everyone they're doing magic wrong," he offered drily as Harry perused the class list.

"It's not my fault humans like to blunder about with magic," Harry retorted, lips quirked with an amused smile. "Any classes I'm not allowed to annoy?"

"Any of Dimitri's classes," Ray said without a pause, having expected the question. "Also, I would appreciate it if you tried to avoid Ardoph; he doesn't complain about every little thing like Dimitri does, but you'd probably set him off and I don't want my office smelling of dead things for a week again."

Harry rose an eyebrow at that. "Now I'm curious."

Ray glared at him. "All I know is that he likes dead things and always smells like them. I don't like it when he comes to my office."

Harry hummed and set the datebook back on the desk. "I saw a couple of classes I might pop into. I'm sure you'll hear all about it shortly after my visits."

"Wonderful," Ray muttered.

Harry stood, shouldering his pack. "I know a spell that might help with keeping the dead smell from hanging around for so long. Do you want me to cast it?"

"Please?"

Harry nodded and whispered the spell. Almost immediately the air freshened, and Harry blinked, not having realised that the air had been so stale. "You need a window up here, Ray. Seriously."

Ray huffed as well as an owl could. "Is that one of your special spells that us normal humans can't learn?"

Harry smiled. "Sorry."

"One day, I'll figure out why you can do some spells the rest of us can't."

"Someday," Harry agreed and waved the chair back against the wall. "I'm sure I'll see you again before I vacate town."

"Yeah, yeah. Get out of my office."

Harry laughed and stepped onto the down stairs.

-0-0-0-

Harry was just making his way towards the Vancoor Square after finishing selling off the last of the items he'd brought to Jasmine, the owner of San Patty Accessories when he heard his name called. He turned and blinked in surprise to see Jack running towards him. Once the boy had reached him, Harry said, "I was under the impression that they liked to keep knights locked up in the castle."

Jack's smile turned into a disgusted frown. "The Captain and I were fired."

"Fired? Why would they–?" Harry paused. "Right. Humans. Ridley is nobility, isn't she?"

Jack blinked. "Yeah. She's a Silverlake."

Harry shook his head, disgusted. "Humans."

Jack gave him an odd look, then said, "I'm in Theater Vancoor, now."

"Congratulations," Harry offered sincerely, having heard plenty of good things about the warrior guild over the years. "What about Ganz?"

Jack shook his head. "He didn't make the cut. When I saw him last night he said he would try the other guilds. Also," Jack shuffled his feet, "he started to tell me something about his father, but never continued. He said it didn't matter."

Harry shrugged. "Does it?"

Jack considered that, then shook his head. "Not to me, but I think it bothers him? Maybe."

"It's possible he believes his father killed Cairn," Harry allowed. "Everyone else certainly does, even Gawain himself. Next time you see him, you could always try bringing it up. I take it neither of you mentioned it before that?"

"No. I mean, we were both aware of it, but..." Jack shrugged. "Anyway! Why are you still in town?"

Harry smiled. "I'm raiding the Vareth library and annoying the crap out of the professors there."

"How?"

"Elves use magic in a different way from humans and since I've spent so much time around them, I've picked up their thoughts on magic. So I visit classes, tell them they're wrong about this or that, then get into an argument. It's a fun way to pass time."

Jack laughed. "Yeah? But I thought Vareth was on the other side of town?"

Harry nodded and motioned that he'd like to keep walking, and, once Jack nodded, did so. "Yeah, but one of the light elves gave me some magical accessories that she wanted me to try selling for her. I just sold the last of them to San Patty." He shrugged.

"I thought light elves were against trade."

Harry snorted. "Sure, the majority of them, although, really, a lot of that is that it's humans asking, and they hate you lot. But you've always got the odd one out who's like, 'I want to try that!' even though the boss is like 'Holy shit no!' It's fun to watch."

Jack laughed at how Harry changed the pitch of his voice for each of his fakes-quotes. "So, now that you're done with that, are you going to leave town?"

Harry shrugged. "Don't know. I've still got a few more books to read in the library, and there are professors who I haven't yet sufficiently annoyed..." He grinned at Jack and got a grin in return. "There's this one professor that Ray – that's the president of the Institute – told me smells like death. Something about how he likes to work with the dead? But I don't buy it."

"No?"

Harry shook his head. "You don't develop the sort of smell Ray was talking about just from working with the dead."

"You think this guy is dead?"

"Have you met any of the people at the Institute? They're all either obsessed with one thing, or just plain weird. You've got Genius, who's obsessed with his own self importance, and one professor who's obsessed with money for projects in the black arts, and a student who likes lying to people, just to see their reactions. Oh! And there's one professor who I've been forbidden from talking to because I'd upset him too much."

"You'd upset him too much?" Jack repeated.

Harry nodded. "From what the students tell me, he believes everything he knows at this moment is the way of the world and anything outside of his knowledge is wrong. He has a tendency to make a big deal out of someone correcting him about something simple, like the day of the week."

"That must be a joy."

Harry snorted. "I'm half tempted to talk to him, but Ray'll end up pecking half my hair out again, so I've been good. Maybe when I'm ready to leave..."

"Ray is... not human?"

Harry coughed. "Ray...had an accident with a spell about six years ago and is now permanently stuck as an owl. I'm the one who introduced him to the spell and even though I told him not to try it, he did anyway. And I laughed at him when he got stuck, so he pecked me."

Jack stared at him for a moment, then shook his head. "Mages are weird."

"You have no idea."

-0-0-0-

Harry whistled to himself as he made his way towards the cafeteria. He'd just finished reading the last new book in the library – okay, so there had only been four new books that were correct enough that Harry bothered picking them to read, the other eight were wrong and Harry wasn't even going to bother, lest he be tempted to write corrections in the margins – and he felt he'd sufficiently annoyed the crap out of every professor. He'd met Ardoph just that morning and, after amusing himself with guessing why the man smelled of death – and he did, even the human nose could catch it if you stood close enough – he'd said the name of his species and gave himself a point when Ardoph had been shocked. (They'd then proceeded to have a very long and involved discussion about how Harry might have known about a species that hadn't been able to get into the area since the water in the chasms dried up, during which Harry evaded the truth like the plague and Ardoph got progressively sneakier at trying to drag an answer out of him. Harry was old enough – and knew his species well enough – that he didn't fall prey to any of the traps, but he was still glad when a student had shown up.)

All told, it had been a fun trip, but Harry was ready to get back to the Forest Metropolis and people who actually understood what magic was. He'd miss some of the humans, like Jack, who he'd spent some time around town with when the boy wasn't out on missions for his guild, but they were far outweighed by the annoying humans.

"Hey, Harry?" Jack asked, falling in next to Harry in the lobby.

Harry glanced over at him, curious about the slightly troubled look in his eyes and the paper crumpled in one hand. "What can I do for you, Jack?"

Jack chewed his lip and held his silence while Harry ordered two lunches and found them a seat. Once his tray was placed in front of him, Jack passed the paper he'd been clutching across the table.

Harry picked it up and looked it over. "Hm. Smilodon fangs? Nasty buggers, those." He passed the paper back over. "They are used in a panacea, which can be pretty expensive because of how rare smilodon fangs are."

Jack nodded. "I figured that bit was true – it wouldn't have gotten past the chief if it wasn't – but... I don't know anything about medicines and I'd like it if I had someone with me who did."

Harry considered that as he chewed a couple of beans. "Are you asking if I'll come with you?" he enquired, wanting to make sure he understood properly.

Jack nodded again. "Yeah. And, uhm, how nasty are smilodons?"

Harry shrugged. "Nasty enough, but you should be able to handle them fine, especially if you have a couple of people with you." He took another bite of beans to buy himself time to decide if he wanted to go on an adventure. On one hand, he was looking forward to getting back to the Forest Metropolis. On the other, the smilodons had mostly migrated to the Ocho Region and that was a bit too close to where the orcs lived for Harry to be comfortable sending Jack out alone. "Yeah," he decided. "I can come with you."

Jack relaxed and grinned. "Thanks. I, uhm, haven't gone to see the client yet, though. I don't think it's against guild policy to bring you with me, but..."

Harry shook his head. "It's never been against Vareth policy, so far as I know, and the guilds all usually share the same policies. I can come with you, sure. I'd like to see this man who is hiring Vancoor to bring him smilodon fangs."

"Why?"

"Because he's either a saint, or very, very greedy."

-0-0-0-

Dwight, as it turned out, was of the very, very greedy variety.

"He's kind of scum, isn't he?" Jack asked as they were leaving the Olacion Order building.

"He is that," Harry agreed. "A lot of people who need that medicine can't get it because the price is so high, and a lot of rich people who don't need it but, rather, think they do, go out and stockpile it, which only makes the price go higher."

"Have you ever made this medicine?"

Harry considered that. "Yes, but it's been a while. It's simple to make, but a number of the ingredients are hard to come by, not counting the smilodon fangs. Why?"

Jack grinned. "Well, I've agreed to bring him two fangs, right? What if I were to run into more than one smilodon? No point in letting those fangs go to waste."

Harry chuckled. "Yeah? Sounds good to me. Is it okay if we make a stop in the Septem Region, then? Oh, and a quick run through to the Desneuf Region, though you may want to sit that one out."

"Sure. For materials?" Harry nodded. "But, why might I want to avoid the Desneuf Region?"

Harry was silent for a moment, trying to come up with a gentle way to mention the blood orcs. Eventually he just said, "The orcs' home, Borgandiazo, is in the Desneuf Region."

Jack swallowed. "Blood orcs?"

"More recently, yes. They used to live in the Dichett Region, but a couple of years back they decided to invade as many places south of Radiata as they could. The Knights and dwarves mostly managed to fight them off, but they did kick the green orcs out of Borgandiazo."

"So there's a chance we could run into some?"

Harry nodded. "Very likely. I've seen a few in the Ocho Region, as well. Just a warning."

Jack took a deep breath and nodded. "We'll be fine," he decided. "You can handle orcs, and I've gotten stronger." He grinned.

Harry sighed. "Okay. Let's go take down some creatures, then."

"Yeah!"

-0-0-0-

"That was...a lot of fun," Jack gasped when they got back to Radiata. It was still a little early and the gates were closed, but they leaned up against the side of the bridge and took a break, both pulling out water skins to sip from. "I never have that much fun on missions."

Harry laughed breathlessly. They'd made a game of taunting their prey and running between trees and cacti, mocking the creatures. Then they'd made it a race to see who could get back to the gate first from the far end of the Adien Region. Upon reaching the bridge, Harry had cast a water spell over both of them to help them cool off.

"It was a lot of fun," Harry agreed, fanning himself with the bottom edge of his tunic. "I haven't raced through a region like that in..." He paused to consider that and, upon realising it had been almost a hundred years, settled for, "A very long time. Wow."

"It was like being a kid again," Jack said, sliding down to sit on the ground. "We used to tease the monsters around Solieu Village like that when I was really young. We'd make forts and mock the monsters from inside them and hope they'd stand up to any return fire." He laughed. "They never did. One of the adults would always come out and save us, then berate us."

Harry smiled and turned around to watch the sun rise. "That must have been a lot of fun."

"You never played with forts?" Jack asked, glancing up at him, brow furrowed. "Don't tell me you spent your childhood being trained to be a mage like Ridley was a knight."

Harry shook his head, still smiling. "No. I... was raised by my aunt and uncle, my mother's sister and her husband. They... didn't like me. Bad blood between them and my parents. I was made to do all the chores, so there was never any time to play."

Jack looked away. "Sorry."

Harry shrugged. "It was a very long time ago." He looked away as the sun finally showed over the hills in the distance, not wanting to be blinded. "The gate should open soon."

Jack nodded. "What are you going to do now? Make that medicine?"

"Probably. I was going to go back to the Forest Metropolis anyway, and this just gives me more of a reason."

"You're leaving?"

Harry glanced down at Jack, frowning at the stricken look on his face. "There are some components for the panacea that I can get in the Nowem Region, and all my equipment is there. And..." He shrugged. "I'm sort of done dealing with human mages for a while. Elves are much more sensible."

Jack sighed. "Will you come back?"

"To Radiata? Most certainly. I'll have to bring back the panacea once it's done," Harry reminded him. "Why?"

Jack shrugged and looked down to pick at his magical tunic. "I'll miss having you around."

Harry sighed. "Jack, I'm only going to the Forest Metropolis. If you really wanted to visit, there's a pig just around the corner."

"It's not the same."

Harry lowered himself to sit next to the boy. "What's wrong?"

Jack shrugged. "People I've become friends with keep falling out of touch," he admitted quietly.

Harry considered the boy for a long moment in silence. When he heard the gate opening behind him, he stood and held out a hand to Jack. "Come on. Let's get some breakfast."

Jack nodded and let Harry help him to his feet. They made their way into the city and through Yellow Town of Sun and Glory to the Begin Eatery, where most of Theater Vancoor stopped for their meals. The two put in their orders and found an empty table up on the second floor in a corner.

Once they'd settled in, Harry said, "Jack, I don't like Radiata. It's fine to visit, but I really don't care for the city as a whole. I did live here for a while, but I prefer to only visit anymore. It's like... would you want to go back to Solieu Village and live there again?"

Jack considered that, still looking glum. "No," he decided. "There's more to do in Radiata. I can't imagine going back to that boring existence."

Harry nodded. "I prefer the quiet of the forest, never mind the people who think of magic the way I do." He smiled as that managed to get a faint smile out of Jack – Harry had complained often enough about the idiots at Vareth and their ideas about magic.

Their food came then and they both tucked in, famished after their journey.

When they were done, they sat back to let the food settle and Harry quietly said, "It's in our nature to fall in and out of touch, Jack, just as it is natural to continue to meet new people and become friends with them. You'll make more friends while I'm gone and spend some time around them. I'll be back in a week or so with some of the panacea and we can have lunch together or something."

"Yeah, okay."

"I'm only a pig away," Harry added, earning him another faint smile. "Come on, let's go see that greedy bishop and give him his fangs."

"All the while laughing to ourselves because we're about to fill the market with the panacea for free?"

Harry chuckled and touched his bag, which held enough materials for about eight hundred bottles of the panacea – they could have gotten more, but Harry had suggested they leave some smilodons so they could repopulate. Harry would be spending the next few weeks brewing constantly to use everything up, only taking breaks to bring finished products to Radiata, but he was okay with that.

As they made their way out of the eatery after Jack had paid, Harry asked, "Are you sure you're okay with not making any money from this venture? I have no use for it, but I'm not sure how your finances are."

Jack shook his head. "I'm fine. I get enough money from my guild work to cover food and the occasional splurge on a new weapon. And if I start running low, I'll just take a trip outside the city and take out a couple monsters."

Harry nodded. "Okay. Forget I asked."

"Why?" Jack wondered.

Harry shrugged. "Selling the panacea for even five dagols a piece would help fill anyone's pockets, and your average person who needs the panacea could easily afford it, especially since it would mean they wouldn't have to buy three other medicines for what the panacea would heal."

"Huh. Didn't think of that." Jack shook his head. "Money is nice, but I'm living comfortably enough right now, and going out and fighting to earn more keeps me fit, so I can't complain."

"Good point," Harry agreed. "Didn't think of it like that, myself. But I'm a mage, so keeping fit isn't a problem I've got."

"All you have to do is remember a spell."

"Exactly. No need to be swinging a sword all the time."

"But sword swinging is fun."

"You're such a boy."

Jack grinned unrepentantly. "Someone has to be."

"Oiy!"

Laughing, Jack hurried through the streets to Olacion, Harry on his heels.

-0-0-0-0-0-

-0-0-0-0-0-

A/N: For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Ardoph's species is never explicitly stated, but we know he's not human and comes from a land beyond the Radiata borders. (We also know that Nyx, a member of the Void Community, is of the same race, though they look different.)

Cheers!
~Bats ^.^x

Chapters:
Prologue - Falling
1 - Elves ||| 2 - Humans ||| 3 - Let It Go
4 - And If It Returns ||| 5 - It Was Meant to Be ||| 6 - Ways of the Dragons
7 - To Build an Army ||| 8 - Power Over Life ||| 9 - Arbitrator
10 - Blood-Filled Days ||| 11 - Hic Sunt Dracones

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