Eika, V, and L traveled in relative silence through the "burning" city, hoping to take refuge in T's hiding place. Each of them wrestling with their recent experiences. V could not get the facts of the recent battle straight. A strange boy had showed up and touched his face, and then... No... before that the small man had crushed someone with a round alley piece.... wait, he crushed the boy, right? Then when did the boy pat Eika on the head? V took a deep breath and tried to steady his reeling mind. Whatever had happened, clearly the Mad Champions power was affecting his recollection ability. For her part L was barely holding together. Her hands were shaking, she could not calm her mind down. As she tried to breathe deeply, and regain control of her body and mind, all she could feel was terror and confusion. Her thoughts desperately tried to recall what she was even afraid of, but frankly, she could remember little about the events. The last thing she clearly remembered was fighting the small man, and realizing he was protecting his head. After that... fear and revulsion, and an overwhelming desire to escape.

Eika was strolling beside the two of them. She could tell by the expressions on their faces that she should just focus on helping them avoid the fire, and other hazards. She wanted to talk and make them feel better, but she herself was a tad confused. Eika was unsure of how or why the person who had interrupted the fight kept changing. She could not remember exactly what they looked like, but she knew they started off small, and then tall, and then got small again. She also wished she could understand if they were a nice person or not. Their attitude seemed to change a bunch during the confrontation.  As she listened carefully to the next street over, she also remembered that strange whisper she heard a little while before the strange person showed up. Did they whisper to her? Eika shook her head, she did not think so. The voice sounded familiar somehow. Either way, she was also thinking about being dead. She was worried something bad might happen. Like the God of The Dead coming for her soul or something. Eika was scared, but she had to keep paying attention!

The last leg of their journey was, by recent standards, uneventful. V had seen something out of the corner of his eye that looked like some sort of horrid bug crossed with a large cat, but it was gone when he looked toward it. As they opened the secret entrance to the hideout, merciful silence awaited them. V threw his sword onto the rickety table and collapsed into a chair. "Man, that went about as poorly as it could have." After moments pause, he tilted his head "Actually, I guess I did get a level up, and a second letter." He opened his status, and looked at the skill he recently gained.

┌——————┐
Skill: Insight
Grants the user Class information.
└——————┘

"Oh cool, another almost certainly useless level up. I had been hoping that since the last two were actually useful this one would, you know, also be useful." V sighed and looked over at L. Her hands had stopped shaking, but she was pale and her stance was unsteady. "Why don't you... uh... lay down or something?  Take a nap. Me and Eika will keep watch." Eika jumped up "Hay! Eika wanted a nap too!" V shrugged, well I guess you could, but I was going to tell you what had happened to you, and the crazy stuff you missed." Eika's switched quickly from pouting into an excited stance. "Ohhhh Eika wants to know! I was DEAD?! That is crazy! Tell me all about it!" V wondered if he would be able to be so cavalier about his own death, but then he considered the fact that he had died once already. He wondered if the removal of parts of the Champion's memories was to help them move on from their previous lives. Or deaths, as it were. "Well, what is the last thing you remember?" Eika put her hand on her chin and concentrated. "I remember standing in the square. I heard something and turned to see what it was..." V nodded, and began recounting the events that had transpired since Eika was struck.

"Woh! Really?!  Right in the heart huh?" Eika looked down her clothing at her chest. Carefully managing the improvised curtain clothing so it did not tumble off of her. "Doesn't look like it! I guess the life woman really did put Eika back to before she got hit. Or something!" She walked behind V, who was still sitting down. He started to turn his head to see what Eika was doing, "Nooo, I need to look at the different angles! Look forward for Eika! I am trying to remember something." V had no idea what she was talking about, but looked forward as Eika walked around him a few times. "Hum..." Eika made a few different thinking noises as she circled him. "Eika can’t remember much... but I think I remember a little of being dead." V raised his eyebrows, "Oh? That is sort of interesting. Why does walking around me help you remember that?" Eika paused a moment, V had never seen Eika so deeply in thought before. Even her ears seemed to be concentrating. "There was a strange shadowy man, I could only see his outline..." V spoke up "You mean a silhouette?" Eika jumped "Ah right! a sil-oh-het! I was standing with someone, and a strange sil-oh-het appeared. The outline reminded Eika of you. Maybe. The sil-oh-het asked Eika if I wanted to stay here. It said my body had been fixed..." Eika's face was a little contorted. V was frankly unsure if Eika was using all of her might to remember, or if she was in some sort of pain. "I... think Eika said that I wanted to stay with the person next to me. I think they were holding me." Eika paused a moment, a strange look on her face. "The sil-oh-het reminded Eika that V was still fighting. When I remembered that, I felt sad. The person next to Eika told me that it was ok to go back." Eika struggled for a moment before continuing. "We talked a little bit, the three of us. Eika does not remember it. Right before the sil-oh-het sent me back, it asked Eika if I was really ready to go back, it said it would be hard, that Eika might have to kill many people and do many difficult things... Eika nodded, and then it told me that it would send me back with a present, to help in the future..." Eika trailed off, after a time she spoke back up in her usual happy tone. "The next thing Eika knows, I’m on fire in the middle of the street naked!"

V sat in the chair alone. Shortly after telling him about her fragmented memories, Eika went to sleep. Seeing no real reason to stop her, he simply sat and watched over them, alone with his thoughts. Eika could have been hallucinating.  Even if she wasn't, there was a good chance she got the facts of her "death" wrong. For the moment however, the only thing he could do was take her information at face value. He was unsure how "normal" death worked. Obviously when he died, he remembered it, speaking to the Mother Goddess, being sent here. It was all fairly clear to him. However, he had no idea if it was normal to remember the things that happened to you after death. Ontop of that, as far as anyone could tell, Eika was sent back with nothing on her. Being naked was a side effect of her clothing being "revived" by the Champion, but if the silhouette had the power to send people back from the dead, presumably whatever "present" it wanted to give her would not have been affected. Especially since, as far as he could tell, Eika's story happened after her body was "healed." In-fact that would explain her non responsive body. If she was, in real time, having a discussion with the silhouette, and whoever was "standing next to her," it would explain why her body seemed empty for the first few minutes of her revival. All that in mind, if it was not a physical present, but a "spiritual" one, perhaps it would display on her Status?

┌——————┐
Name: Eika
Age: 16
Race: RabbitKin
Titles: "Friend of the Elgorian Fairies"
Occupation: Slave (Dredge)
Class: Tracker Lv 7 (Basic class, no prerequisites, unlock requirements: Variable)
Skills: "Tracking Lv 4" "Hearing Lv 5" "Smell Lv 5" "ForestCraft Lv 4"
*&%*@)
└——————┘

Well, first off, Eika had apparently leveled up again at some point. Secondly, he wondered if Eika ever looked at her own status. If she saw the title she had every time she opened her status, he figured she would be celebrating every single time. Thirdly, V had figured out what the insight skill did. This was potentially useful in very specific circumstances. Seeing slightly more class information was nice, but he still would be unable to see it if the target had their status hidden. The information was not all that helpful either. Perhaps it would give him more details once/if the skill was raised to level two... Lastly, there was a set of strange symbols at the end of Eika's status. They were not "strange" in the same way that the specter's status was. The specter's status looked broken. On the other hand, the symbols being displayed here where orderly and seemed intended to be there. On the other hand, he had not seen anything like that up to this point. Was that the "present" given to her? If it was, V was forced to wonder if the silhouette was working with Eika, or against her. He tried to examine the symbols, like a class or an ability, but to no avail. 

┌——————┐
*&%*@)
└——————┘

Well, the only thing he could do for now would be to keep an eye on Eika, look for anything strange, watch for any aberrations in her behavior or abilities. Although, he considered, L and he had already discussed Eika's strange behavior changes in the past, so perhaps that was not a good metric to judge this new addition to her status by... As V pondered, without him even realizing, he drifted off to sleep.

"Eika would really like new clothing! I’m wearing curtains! Eika does not need fancy clothes, and the clothes I had before were nice for slave clothes. But this is too much for Eika, they are always falling off! Someone will see!" V jolted awake, Eika's voice was loud and exasperated. L was standing in front of Eika with a disapproving look on her face. "We can’t just charge outside to buy new clothing. We have no idea if the city is still on fire, or turning into ice, or whatever other wildly un-counterable assault might be going on." Eika stomped a few times, "I thought you liked honor? What about a lady’s honor? What if everyone sees Eika naked because I was trying to run somewhere while I was wearing curtains!" V smiled slightly. There was a certain truth to Eika's words. L and him often treated Eika like a child, but she was an adult, by her race’s standards. Of course she would care about such things. V stood up, causing both of the girls to look over in his direction. "Clothes or no clothes, we need to get an idea on how much time we were asleep, and what state the city is in." L hesitated before nodding "I believe it is early morning. You had been asleep for a long time. T never returned, I suspect he either died or moved on to some other endeavor." V was glad to see that L had regained her composure, although she still looked a little pale. "You and Eika can check the city out. I have matters of my own to consider, it was hard to think while the girl was yelling about clothes and boredom." L gestured to the entrance "Plus, I’m still a little worn out by the recent battle..." She trailed off, having nothing else to add.

"Is L going to be alright?" Eika asked V after they climbed out of the secret entrance. "Probably, she is already doing much better than before." He looked around. As T's secret base was built into the walls of the city, it was hard to gauge anything from their current location. "Let’s head a bit deeper into the city, keep alert." Eika nodded, her ears standing ready to scope out whatever sounds might be emanating from the streets.