Note Book 10 Page 39-41

I do love the holiday seasons. Except that Mel has made it a tradition to hide my notebooks from me till she gets her Starlight Celebration gift. She hid them a week or so before time this year and then forgot where they were, so I only just recovered them recently. So much stuff I haven't been able to write about... But I think I'll write about the most recent thing that has happened first. Something strange and unsettling has taken place in the past few days...

After finally getting my books back from Mel I ran into Sparhawk right outside the residential area in Windurst. I apologized for an incident that had happened a few days prior and explained the situation a little better. I love the flower and the Icecap Rollandberry he gave me as a Starlight Celebration gift and he seemed happy that I liked them. He really does have a nice smile... Well in the next moment I was sent flying forward into the arms of Sparhawk after being crashed into by someone behind me.

Alberic, followed closely by Mai, had rushed out of the Mog House area like Wingrats out of Halvung. Alberic was in a huge rush and invited us to hurry out to Ifrit's Cauldron to rescue Kreoss, who was apparently out there visiting an alter of Promathia. I've never been too good with being in very hot areas for too long, I always end up feeling very faint and almost passing out, but I wanted to help. I hadn't noticed it then because I was a little dazed from being knocked over, but now looking back on it Sparhawk had been holding me in his arms the way he had caught me up until that point. It makes me smile a bit when I think of that.

Alberic quickly teleported us out to Yhoator, we all grabbed chocobos, and rushed off towards the volcano. Well, at least I had thought we had all gotten chocobos. Once we got to Ifrit's Cauldron I looked back for Sparhawk, but he was no where in sight. I waited for him for a few moments but he didn't show up. I couldn't wait any longer so I cast an invisible spell on myself and ran to catch up with Alberic and Mai. As we winded down the paths towards the center of the volcano it felt like Sparhawk was there, yet he wasn't.

Eventually we reached a point at the bottom of the volcano near the central lava pool where Alberic motioned for us to hide close to the walls of the cave we were traveling through. At the end of the passage stood Kreoss before a pitch black alter. On either side of the alter were two figures one an Elvan looking Dark Knight and the other was an eerily failure looking Mithra woman. I don't know if it was the heat of the area playing tricks on my head or what, but she looked a lot like my mother...

Another figure appeared moments later but I didn't really catch a glimpse of them. I was too focused on the Mithra. Even her voice sounded like mom's, it was uncanny. I wanted to summon my Carbuncle to see if he too recognized her, but if I had then our cover would have been blown. I sat there and watched as eventually the Mithra, Kreoss, and another figure disappeared into a cave further back in the Cauldron. I wanted to follow after them and see if that Mithra really did look exactly like my mom from close up, or if it was merely the heat playing tricks on me. But then I finally noticed the Dark Knight hadn't left and was staring directly at us.

We huddled close to the wall, trying our best to avoid the sinister gaze of our onlooker. And then the sound of something landing on the ground towards where the Dark Knight was. When I looked up there stood Sparhawk, standing between where we hid and the Elvan. He spoke very calmly, but he looked ready for a fight and when the Dark Knight and he drew their weapons I felt very scared for him. Surprisingly, the Dark Knight sheathed his weapon and walked back into the cave where Kreoss had been taken.

I stood up and ran towards Sparhawk, though I almost fell because the heat was really getting to me at this point. I think he saw that I wasn't doing well in that place, taking my hand and leading me back the way I had just come from. Alberic and Mai were talking quietly, he seemed to be trying to comfort her and keep her calm. Mai and I both wanted to go help Kreoss, go see those other people again, but Alberic and Sparhawk said that we shouldn't follow them. Though reluctantly, we both agreed and Alberic teleported us out of there.

We ended up at the crag of Mea, but there was something wrong.. Alberic was missing. None of us had any idea where he was but we decided to head back to Windurst and see if maybe he was there. Mai and I grabbed chocobos, but again Sparhawk vanished into thin air. Once back in Windurst Woods Sparhawk reappeared again, I do wonder how he does that... Mai and I were very worried about Alberic. He wasn't responding on linkshell and we didn't have a clue where he might have been at the time. Sparhawk mentioned that he might have been caught by the Dark Knight, neither Mai or me really wanted to hear that at this point.

Trys, a little Mithra girl we had met over the holidays, suddenly came up behind Mai and jumped on her back. Trys is always very hyperactive and bubbly and asked what he had been up to. We explained to her where we just were and what had just happened, about the strange people we saw. Sparhawk mentioned that the Mithra looked very similar to me, saying we had the same eyes and smile. (He looked a little embarrassed to say we had the same smile)

Mai mentioned that the Elvan looked like a person she knew named Brin. She seemed pretty uncomfortable talking about it. The person who I hadn't noticed apparently looked a lot like Lady Yve'noile. I didn't mention to the others that the Mithra looked like my mother, but these people we had seen all looked like people we once knew. The woman who looked like Yve'noile apparently seemed to be the one behind all this. Mai began searching around for a note Kreoss had sent her, which Trys plucked from one of Mai's pockets with ease.

Sparhawk asked to look over the note and said that it looked like Promathia worshipers. The situation seemed to be getting worse and we needed to find Alberic. Since it was late in the day we decided to rest a bit, hoping Alberic was okay deciding to go looking for him the next day if he didn't show up late that night or in the morning. I really hope things look up...