I hope that no one thought that I had forgotten about this fic! I still have every intention of completing this story, and remaining a player in the Sheelos fandom. And I hope that you're all still with me!!

Disclaimer: It may be difficult to believe, but even since the last update, I still don't own Tales of Symphonia.

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/Just Tell Me/

Chapter VIII: Familiar Name, Mysterious Face

When I awoke the following morning, my mind was completely vacant. I had automatically risen with the sun as I always had while living in Mizuho. It was almost amazing how I could adjust my habits as a simple result to a change in surroundings. I decided to lie in bed until the quickly-rising sun shining through my window caught my eyes and prevented me from properly relaxing any longer. I regrettably rose to my feet and made my way to the main room of my home. As I travelled there, I nearly tripped as my foot rammed into an object on the floor. Thankfully since the object was not very heavy, I merely ended up kicking it forward, through the doorway in front of me. I followed it into the room and then looked down in dismay as my morning calm evanesced. The information folders lay in front of me; the ones detailing the lives of Zelos' family. My stomach twisted.

I crouched down and went to lift the pile of folders with one hand; I found them to be too heavy. I did not recall them feeling so heavy the night before. With reluctance, I used both of my hands to heave the folders into my arms. I decided to immediately return the folders to their storehouse, despite the fact that I should have eaten breakfast first since it was unhealthy to skip it. That morning, I did not feel as though I would be able to force myself to down food without my stomach contorting even more as a result, so I simply ignored whatever negative consequences my lack of breakfast would have.

In order to enter the storehouse, I needed the key that only Kuchinawa, Orochi, and the vice-chief had access to; therefore a trip to see Kuchinawa and Orochi was necessary. When I arrived at their home, only the younger of the two brothers was there. "Morning, Kuchinawa," I greeted him, intentionally leaving 'good' out of the phrase. He stared emotionlessly at the folders that I hugged tightly against my chest. "I read them," I told him, understanding what he had planned on saying before he even said it, "Now I know why you were so concerned. Tha..." I subconsciously found myself biting my lower lip to stop the phrase before it came out. Deep down, I felt that I should have thanked him; but even deeper down, I didn't want to. Those feelings that were concealed even to me managed to hold the words back. Kuchinawa ignored it.

"Then I'd imagine that you want these files returned?" he asked me, to which I nodded in response to as I suddenly held the folders out as far away from my body as I could. He casually grasped them and pulled them away from me. "The vice-chief asked Orochi and I to set aside some time today to help in harvesting some of the crops, since the seasons seem to be changing already," he said that statement so spontaneously that I knew he had some ulterior motive for bringing it up, "But we have a lot of work to do today already. You can consider the harvesting task now your concern."

He spoke rather arrogantly, but I didn't even think of blaming him for his tone of voice. Nonetheless, the extra burden of work would prove to be rather overwhelming at times. Breathing out a sigh of exasperation, but sounding more relieved than annoyed, I said, "Of course," and bowed respectfully before walking away from his home.

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"Things carried on like that for quite some time. Either Kuchinawa or Orochi—most commonly Kuchinawa—ordered me to do something for them, and I obeyed, and no one said a word to the Vice-Chief."

Colette appeared reflective as she took in Sheena's words. "And it never bothered you...?" she asked at last.

Sheena had to hold back a snort of laughter, "Of course it did!" she exclaimed, "How could it not?" Colette merely shrugged, her face flushed from embarrassment at her own question. "Sorry," Sheena quickly apologized upon notices the angel's actions, "I didn't mean to insult you at all, Colette. But... things were difficult. There were times when I wanted to vent all of my frustration out on Kuchinawa and Orochi; however not in a thousand lifetimes in Mizuho would I do something so daring." Sheena shifted her sitting position slightly and stretched out her left leg that had grown numb from its previous arrangement, "For months, I found myself being—to a certain degree—a servant to my old friends. If they found themselves with even a little too much work, they would dump it onto me. Kuchinawa especially took advantage of my unfortunate situation," Sheena looked down towards the ground and began poking at the dirt, carving abstract art into it, "Now that I know how he feels about me, it was undoubtedly out of spite, and had nothing to do with a punishment for what had happened in Meltokio."

Sylvarant's Chosen went back to her role as listener and nodded to whatever Sheena had to say, intently absorbing every word. The summoner carried on.

"After several months of simply pulling my weight within the village, Orochi began to send me outside for certain tasks. I must have regained his trust, if I had ever even lost it, because he sent me on quite a few of these errands alone..."

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The first time that Orochi had sent me out alone, I found myself in a state of shock. I wondered at what exact point he had decided that I was responsible enough not to do anything foolish while outside; what it was that I had done that encouraged him to let me off of the leash that Kuchinawa had tied me to, and to trust that I would return on my own. Before that moment, I had practically grown to disregard why exactly Orochi and Kuchinawa were always commanding me to do certain tasks. After that moment, however, I remembered, and was infinitely relieved that all of that work had had a positive outcome: the return of Orochi's faith in me.

The first venture outside had no negative consequences, other than extreme fatigue from all of the travelling involved to go anywhere outside of Mizuho because we are so isolated. I returned home unharmed, and had not for a second been deterred from my mission; so I was sent outside more frequently and for longer periods of time. At times I would merely be gone for a day, and at other moments I would not be heard from for several weeks. I was never sent to Meltokio, however, and with good reason; but that does not mean that I was never reminded of my time spent in Tethe'alla's capital city.

On one occasion, I had been sent to Sybak to retrieve some supplies needed for a research project that Mizuho was doing in conjunction with the Imperial Academy. The time in the city itself hardly took any time at all, but because of the distance between Mizuho and Sybak I only ended up returning home late into the night the day after I had originally left.

Nightfall enshrouded the area, and a pale moonlight peered out through the grey clouds that were scattered across the sky. The plain was practically empty as I made my way towards Mizuho. No one was around – no people, no monsters, no animals. At that moment I enjoyed that tranquility, as opposed to the bustling of my own village, or the constant crowds of Tethe'alla's imperial city when I had been there. I could see the image of Mizuho growing larger and clearer ahead of me as I approached it, although the flickering lights in windows of distant homes still looked like candles whose flames were steadily growing. I huffed out a frustrated sigh as I stared at the village so far away. "Ugh, my feet are killing me..." I had complained aloud with a groan, ignoring the fact that no one was present to care. After a quick glimpse to the side of the pathway, I kicked off my boots and dropped down onto the grass, allowing myself to smile as I stared into the sky. I gripped my throbbing left foot in my hands in some futile attempt to suppress the pain. It wasn't long before I simply gave up and lay down tiredly once more, letting the blades of grass graze any skin that was left bare on my body. "I'll get back to the village..." I thought to myself, "...eventually." Feeling my eyelids grow heavy, I closed them and let the silence sink in. Even though I knew that there were always reasons to be disquieted, I couldn't help but let myself indulge in the peace that that plain brought at night.

I heard a rustle and instinctively shot upright, turning my head in all directions to find the noise's source. My heart felt as though it had stopped altogether as I feared that perhaps it was one of the monsters that made their presence known from time to time. Or maybe it was Kuchinawa who had come out to find me, to warn me that it was far too late and that I would have to do yet another chore to make up for it. Which was worse at that point: a monster or Kuchinawa? Any anxieties faded abruptly, though, when I saw a pre-adolescent girl step out into the moonlit pathway. "Y... you," she wheezed, "Didn't get back to your village yet, eh? You're going to regret that." Despite the apparent toughness in the girl's voice, she looked rather pitiable. Faded red hair fell over her pale face, veiling cold, steel blue eyes. Beyond the overdone noble-fashioned clothes that she was wearing, I could tell that her body frame only added to her frail appearance... Still, she was persevering; I would grant her that. "You're going to regret taking advantage of my brother, you witch!"

Her final comment made me jolt in surprise, "Wh... what? I don't know what you're talking about..." What brother? And... 'taking advantage of'? The girl must have been delirious. That wasn't like me at all.

"Don't lie!" the girl challenged back, taking a few steps towards me, "He's even admitted that you've seduced him! You can't deny it!"

"Deny what?" I asked, completely stunned – so much for a fragile little girl; she was persistent, feisty, and seemingly stubborn beyond belief. "I don't understand! Who are you? Who is your brother? I... I've never 'seduced' anyone!" By the end of my phrase my face must have been illuminated red; the idea of my seducing someone was beyond my understanding. The young redhead before me sulked, her eyes narrowing into a glare. She was clearly not about to say anything that she did not want to, and this was making me lose my patience. "Listen, I don't have time to deal with your fairytales, kid; you're not even supposed to be in this area."

The girl clenched her hands into fists, continuing to glower at me, "My name is Seles!" she shouted, "And what I'm saying is anything but a fairytale! You... Don't hurt my big brother!" I planted my hands firmly on my hips, simply staring at this Seles with the same determination that she had shown prior. "I swear, if..." Seles paused for a moment, seeming to hate the words that she was speaking as she spat them out, "...if you do anything to take advantage of him, or if you ever leave him in misery, I'll do the same to you and it won't be in emotional pain, either! You..." she continued to stutter out warnings and accusations, "...you seducing witch!" With this final insult, she turned around and dashed off while huffing, puffing, and coughing... but she didn't slow down for a second. I could only stand there and watch with an utterly blank mind, and before I knew it, that unyielding girl had run out of my sight.

As I stood there, I simply couldn't bring myself to budge. What had just come to past made absolutely no sense, and yet I couldn't help but feel that there had been a degree of truth to what Seles had shouted at me. 'Seles...' I recall musing, "Why do I know who that is...?"

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This chapter isn't hella long or anything, but I didn't think that I should make it any longer because 1) that would mean that it would've taken longer to post, and 2) I need to consider where to go next. I have my destination set; I just need to decide which road to take to get there. Oh, so difficult... I'm going to do my best to update as soon as I can, but don't expect anything too soon. I'm in college now, and although the workload is seemingly smaller than in high school (What what??) I still have little time for things like writing, unfortunately. You'd all better hope I get struck with some inspirational lightning! (For this, and the art history paper that I should've been writing as I wrote this chapter...)