And what was the deal with Zareth? He had been quiet all day, and she wasn’t sure what to think of him. He seemed like a very dangerous person to be around, like a time bomb ready to explode. But he had said his interest was not in the Sindar. There was something else too. She knew she had seen him before… she just couldn’t remember where.

The silence was fine for her though. She could care less if he spoke the entire trip. But she found herself beginning to miss Yori’s banter somewhat. He could be entertaining when someone wasn’t already annoyed. She sighed and picked up her pace. She wanted to reach the border by dark.

Meanwhile back in Muse, Yori and Sheena were just leaving town. They were already an hour behind, and Sheena had to stop to talk to another girl! Yori was beginning to regret his decision to hire Sheena; he really didn’t seem to care about anything except flirting with every girl he came across. “Sheena, we need to leave now! We’re already an hour late!”

Sheena just smirked. “We have plenty of time. Lorelai can handle herself, trust me I’ve seen her in action plenty.” He then turned to a blonde girl he had been talking to before Yori’s interruption. “So like I was saying, If you ever want to see Gregminster, just let me know. After all, I am President Lepant’s son.” The girl just seemed to roll her eyes at this statement.

Yori stepped in between the two and looked at the girl. “You have no interest in him what so ever do you?” Sheena started to object to this statement but Yori simply placed his hand over Sheena’s mouth. The girl simply shook her head no. “Fine, we’ll leave you alone.” The girl simply smiled, slipped something into Yori’s hand, and ran off.

“What did she hand you?” Sheena was looking a little angry. But his expression changed quickly. “Never mind, check out the brunette!” Before Sheena could even move, Yori had grabbed him by the back of the neck and began dragging him off. They were almost out of the inn/tavern now. He looked at the slip of paper in his hand. An address? He just smiled and stuck it in his traveling pouch. At least he had something in there now.

Back on the path to Greenhill, Lorelai and Zareth still had not spoken to each other. There had been few monsters, and what few had been brave enough to charge the duo had died practically instantaneously. Finally, without warning, Zareth finally spoke. “So what was that nightmare about last night?”

Lorelai glared angrily at the warrior. “I told you…”

Zareth interrupted her in mid sentence. “Please, I know better.” Glaring right back at Lorelai, he realized he probably wasn't going get an answer. “Fine.”

“It was about the Gate-Rune War.” The response surprised Zareth somewhat. “Sort of. It wasn’t about anything that actually happened. That’s what I dream about mostly, wars, battles, that kind of thing.” Lorelai fell silent. She usually didn’t say that much.

“You were in the Liberation Army weren’t you?”

How did he know that? She almost never told anyone that. “Yeah, but only because I was stuck there. I usually try to avoid wars altogether. I've never had too much luck with them.”

“Really? And here I though you were a professional warmonger.” Zareth had his same emotionless expression, as though he was speaking a fact.

Lorelai was beginning to get very upset. “Of course not! I was an orphan thanks to a war! I’d never want anyone to go through that again!” Lorelai had to stop herself from saying anymore, she realized Zareth was trying to push her buttons.

Zareth’s reply was immediate. “Hypocrite.”

Lorelai quickly drew her Tower from its resting-place. “What did you say?”

Zareth simply glared back. “I called you a hypocrite. Here you tell me you never want to see a war orphan again. Tell me Lorelai, how many orphans did you make in the Gate-Rune War?”

“That was different! Barbarossa was becoming a tyrant! We were doing a good thing!” Lorelai’s grip tightened around Tower’s handle.

“Oh really? Yes, I heard about his evil reign. He defended the country from Jowston, gave you a place to live after the Falfeena incident, overthrew that great emperor Geil Rugner, the list of horrors goes on and on…” He saw the rage building in Lorelai’s eyes. “That was sarcasm, in case you couldn’t see it from that moral high horse you’re riding.”

“It wasn’t all Barbarossa’s fault. It was mostly Windy and those two fools Kanaan and Kraze. But ignorance of your servants’ actions is no excuse.” Lorelai saw Zareth clench his fist slightly, then release.

Then she heard a noise she hadn’t heard in a while. It was the whistling from the Great Forest in Toran! Zareth simply nodded in agreement. “Let’s go!” Lorelai ran into the woods that comprised the Muse-Greenhill border, with Zareth giving chase.

After a quick dash through the forest, Lorelai came upon a large circular stone platform. The whistling was practically a shriek here. And the stone was too smooth to be a natural formation. Kneeling down she realized she could see her reflection in the surface. And she also could see the reflection of Zareth getting ready to bury his sword in her back! She rolled to the side and saw the sword strike the stone. She sprung to her feet and readied Tower.

Zareth smiled. “Prepare to die traitor.”


Sheena and Yori were finally on the path to Greenhill. They had managed to procure some horses, which was making the trek easier. If only Sheena hadn’t taken an extra thirty minutes to flirt with the stable girl they would have caught up with Lorelai by now. They were finally at the border checkpoint, and still hadn’t seen a sign of her. Seeing the guards Yori breathed a sigh of relief… at least there were no women here to distract Sheena. “Um excuse me. Have you seen a black haired woman wearing a blue cloak traveling with a individual in black armor?”

“Nope. No one like that has passed through here.”

Yori almost yanked Sheena off of his horse. “Where are they?!?!”

Sheena shrugged. “How should I know? I just followed the road.”

Yori was about to smack Sheena when he heard a slight whistling in the air. The Light rune on his hand began to glow brightly. “It’s almost too late Yori! We must hurry!”

Sheena looked at Yori in shock. “What was THAT?!?!”

Yori climbed back on his horse. “Never mind it. Let’s go!” As the pair rode into the woods they heard another sound besides the whistling… the sound of combat.


Lorelai was losing this fight badly. She just could not hit Zareth. She had already been wounded, and her strength was failing. Her Draining rune was refusing to kick in, and she couldn’t figure out why. Zareth charged at her with his sword over head. She never thought it would end like this…

And then she saw Yori appear out of nowhere, tackling Zareth and bringing him down. Yori’s right hand was glowing with a white light as he pounded Zareth’s face mask. Sheena came over to her and tried to help her get away but she shirked him off, readying Tower for another strike. That’s when she saw Yori and Zareth get struck by a blue lightning bolt, effectively separating the two. Lorelai looked up to see Neclord, back from the dead, hovering in mid-air. “You…”

“Yes, that’s right. I’ve returned to the land of the living. You can’t imagine how tired I am of hearing that.” The vampire looked down at Zareth. “Shame on you Zareth. The deal was you had to wait till we were done with her.”

Zareth looked up, struggling to get back to his feet. “I didn’t make any deals with you, demon.”

Sheena just looked around in shock. He could not figure out how the situation had degenerated this quickly. He tried to move toward Yori but Neclord simply blasted him with a huge bolt of electricity, knocking him off the stone platform. He went unconscious as he hit the ground.

Neclord smiled. “HIRAKU MON.” The stone platform split in half, dumping Lorelai, Zareth, and Yori into the abyss. Neclord glided down into the hole created with a smile on his face. He was close, so very close now.

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"Lorelai" and "Suikoden 2" are (C) Konami, 1999. This chapter was posted on December 4, 1999 This author no longer writes for Lorelai