Eld was extremely grateful when Sarah finally found him; now he could maybe figure out what the hell happened. After a little more coughing he found his voice, though it was rather hoarse by this point.

"We were...attacked." He wasn't sure how much to say; Sarah and Emma didn't know anything about the Memories yet. He'd been trying to keep them (and Mayako) out of it so that they wouldn't be targeted by the people who were after him. "I beat one of them, but it left me like this...Etsu was helping me back when the other one attacked. She pushed me out of the way..." Even as raspy as he sounded worry was evident in his voice.

As Sarah dragged him back onto the road, he looked around for Etsu and Emma; he knew he'd be alright with some rest. What happened to Etsu was a much bigger concern for him.

"Fuck," Sarah intoned gravely, "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Sarah pulled Eld out from the tree line and back onto the road, holding him up with her arm wrapped around his back, practically tucking her shoulder under his armpit.

Once out, Eld would see the final conclusion of the battle he'd only heard before. Emma sat upon her knees just before Etsu, clad in a raincoat and had much like Sarah, checking Etsu's vitals. Etsu was only recently laid out on her back. The hair was pushed out of her face and her eyes were shut. When Sarah got closer, Eld would be able to tell a few details--details Emma had already ascertained.

"She's breathing," Emma whispered.

"Is she . . . stabbed? Cut? Knocked out? I don't fucking . . ." Sarah was exasperated. She hadn't dealt with this since her brother. Never again. Never, ever again.

Emma shook her head. "Everything's . . . everything's fine-- she's just . . ."

Not waking up.

Eld let out an audible sigh of relief upon hearing that Etsu was still breathing. He had not heard anything that suggested either she or Illorex had died, but with abilities as strange as the ones they were dealing with now it wasn't something he could rule out.

"Let me take a look," Eld instructed; while Emma was certainly intelligent and generally competent, he could probably tell a bit more. Assuming Sarah complied and brought him closer, he'd kneel down in front of Etsu and examine her.

"She's a bit cut up from the explosions," he mumbled, mostly to himself though the sisters would probably take an interest in that statement if they heard. "But it's all superficial. No signs of blunt force either. It's like she just collapsed for no reason. Unless..."

He suddenly felt his stomach tighten and fill with dread. "N-No...not that...he couldn't have..."

Etsu was . . . well, she was beat up, that was for sure. Her back and her sides were bleeding a little, but it was all damage from the force of explosions and debris. They were nothing life threatening; new wounds, perhaps a set of new scars, even, but nothing that threatened to kill the girl. Yet still, she wasn't moving.

Sarah and Emma remained away from Eld so he could have a better look at Etsu. Emma stood with her arms crossed, a look of worry and confusion across her face. Sarah, on the other hand, still felt urgent. She'd no idea what happened or why, but whatever caused this, she wanted to beat down with her bare hands. When Eld started to trail off, she snapped a look at him.

"What?" Sarah knelt down by Eld quickly, barely resisting the urge to shake him, "Couldn't have what?"

"I'm...not sure what exactly it is. But he's done it before...it's hard to explain..." Eld sighed, then shook his head. Maybe he was jumping to the worst possible conclusion; it was difficult to think straight at the moment. He was exhausted physically, mentally, and even spiritually.

"I don't know...I might be wrong. I'm too worn out to be sure. But...just in case, when we get back, can you do me a favor? Hide her naginata. It should be in my room."

He briefly considered asking them to look for Kageko if they had the time, but decided against it. He didn't want to risk one of the Memories coming to look for it while they were carrying it...he'd just have to find her himself once he recovered. Sorry, Kageko.

Chances were that Emma could support him; he might have been too weak to get far on his own but she wouldn't have to take his full weight, at least. Sarah could take Etsu to clinic, which was the most important thing.

"I . . . ugh," Sarah groaned, ". . . right."

Emma tried to think of what Eld could possibly be talking about. He mentioned a he, and something about the importance of hiding Etsu's weapon. Wait-- did this have anything to do with those people stricken with autonomous apathy? It felt like just last week, an entire family came down with that . . .

"Em, carry Eld," Sarah ordered.

"Hnn?" she snapped back to reality.

"I'll get Etsu."

"Oh. Uh. Okay," Emma bent down to Eld's side and put her arm around him, "C'mon--we have to get you to your parents."

"You're gonna have to explain to me what the hell you've got yourself into, Eld," Sarah demanded, paused to put her arms under Etsu's knes and shoulders, and continued as she stood, "If not now--then soon. Got it?"

Eld gave Emma a sheepish smile as she helped him up. He knew it was necessary, but it was still a bit embarrassing for him to need help walking, especially by someone her age. But alas, making sure Etsu got to the clinic was more important than maintaining what little masculinity he had.

"I'll explain everything once I've rested," he replied.

After all, why not? If he was right about what happened to Etsu, then what he intended to do would ensure they'd all soon forget anyway...

******

The next day, Eld ventured back to the same stretch of woods. He'd had to sneak out, actually--his parents would not have let him out willingly, as he still needed his rest, but he didn't want to leave Kageko out in the woods lest Illorex or another Memory return and find her.

Unfortunately, while he knew where Etsu threw it from (it was fairly easy to tell due to the area being marked by explosions) and in what general direction, he wasn't sure how far. Etsu wasn't exactly strong, but she wasn't exactly weak either.

So he found himself foraging around the brush for it, hoping he could find it before his parents noticed he was gone and sent someone to look for him.

As Eld scrounged around through the brush, he'd find no scythe greeting him-- not submerged in mud or hidden by brush or any of it. Nearly an hour of searching ensued, before . . .

"Lookin' for this?" a man's voice would be heard from behind.

Followed, in short, by the familiar clank of a blade hitting the ground first, then the settling of the wooden pole immediately thereafter. Were Eld to turn around, he'd find the scythe set in the brush immediately behind him, resting upon the ground--cleaned, apparently. It didn't have a speck of blood or dirt on it at all. The blade even had a bit of treatment, too. Reinforced. Sharper.

And above it stood a tarp-clad man, tall and nigh distinguishable in detail, only that his body was covered in a tattered old cloth, hood up and over his face. His hands were visible, though, wrapped in red-soaked bandages as they were.

Eld whirled around, immediately on guard, for whatever good that would do. He could move, but he was hardly in any condition for another serious fight yet. Quickly snatching up the scythe, he kept in hand rather than sheathe it just yet, though he didn't go so far as to assume a battle stance.

He kind of wanted to, though.

"Yeah. Who are you?" It wasn't the friendliest greeting, but he was getting wary of anyone who was interested in Kageko for any reason. That the man before him was giving Illorex a run for his money in the category of looking out of place and suspicious wasn't helping matters.

"Heh. Volatile. Forgive me if I don't sound s'prised," the man replied.

He had a thick Ulsterian accent, probably one of the very few Eld ever heard in person. That probably only served to make his appearance even stranger, if not more worrisome.

Before even contemplating an introduction, though, he pulled back the hood from his face. He had a rugged appearance, he looked like he just walked the Xexorian sandals and never bathed after the fact. Part of his left ear looked bitten off and through a tooth grin, it could be discerned that he was missing a few teeth. He had a thin face, though, covered in stuble and half concealed in greasy, dirty blonde bangs.

"Name's Recheov. Nice t'finally meet ya, Eld."

That being said, he dropped his arms to his side and grinned a partly toothless grin.

"And this is when ya adopt a battle stance."

Eld's eyes narrowed. "Another Memory, I suppose. If you wanted the scythe you would have just taken it and ran, so you must be after me." He supposed that was technically a good thing, as otherwise he could have been searching out here for days without having any idea it was already gone.

However...he wasn't sure he had the energy for a fight. For some reason he'd practically collapsed yesterday even before Illorex showed up--perhaps he'd worked too hard trying to get the flood under control. Uncertain that he'd completely recovered, he didn't want to risk a battle. Besides...

"Sorry, but I have more important things to do than entertain you. Whatever I did to offend you, get your revenge some other time." With that, he sheathed the scythe.

"Heh," Recheov grinned.

Without warning or request, he walked by Eld's side, even going as far as to pat the young man on the shoulder roughly as he did. It was cute, being snide in the face of something that could most definitely end you. Kind of endearing, actually. He'd have mentioned this if it weren't for the fact that even in his head it sounded damn creepy.

"Ya still got time t'piss me off, kid. Don't worry. I ain't got anythin' against ya for at least ... two or three days, I'd say." Recheov nodded in affirmance, which would likely make him look even crazier.

He looked less like a Memory, like Illorex, Kyla, or Hugh, the only three Memories Eld ever met, than he did a crazy homeless man with a bad drinking problem.

Eld shrugged off Recheov's hand and put a little distance between them. He didn't seem to be attacking, but...he had just suggested that he get ready for battle. Just because he wasn't about to fight didn't he was putting down his guard.

He was about to just walk away and leave the man (who seemed a little out of sorts) when he thought of something. "As long as you're in a good for now, then," he began, humoring his delusion--or whatever it was, "let me ask you something.

"Where's Illorex?" That, more than anything, weighed on Eld's mind. While chances were that he'd show up in Hillcrest again sooner or later, this time he wanted things to be different. Once he recovered, he wanted to take the fight to him, not wait around to be ambushed again.

Well, well, that was quick and to the point ... Recheov smirked. He'd have loved to tell this kid thr whole story right now, but he knew that wasn't possible.

"Illorex? He's far, far away."

Recheov folded his arms and thougt of a good way to put it to Eld. Humans didn't often get it. They only thought in spatial dissonance. They didn't have the brain capacity to handle something beyond the governed laws of physics, and they especially couldn't handle being told about a city that didn't exist, yet somehow influenced their reality.

"Let's say ... Hm, ya think in miles, roight? Continent to continent an' such?"

Recheov didn't want to blow the kid's mind too early, after all. The last person he tried to explain it all to never recovered. Not that Recheov didn't expect that. In hindsight, that was a bit of a jerk move, but whatever. The guy was a crook and a murderer. He deserved it.

"Normally," Eld deadpanned.

Fortunately for the both of them, though, he was both pretty sharp and had gotten pretty used to thinking beyond the bounds of conventional reality in the past few months.

"Are you saying he's somewhere that can't be reached by thinking like that? Is that why he can just disappear?" He thought of how Purgatory worked, how while there he could sort of interact with the normal world, but not entirely. Was it something like that? Or was it even more removed?

In any case, it definitely couldn't be ordinary distance; if Illorex had the kind of speed that would let him be on another continent already, he could've killed Eld and taken the scythe many, many times over by now.