"So whaddya think? Good plan?" My brother-in-law inquired, "Hmmmm, bribery with 50 Potch has never worked on the Highland Guards before, why should it now?" I sighed, my brother can be quite....dim.

"Well what do you think we should do?" Tai sat down and rested on a large rock, I too decided to sit down.

"Maybe you should distract the patrollers and I'll sneak into the Academy." I nodded, my voice was excited to try and fool Tai into thinking it was somehow beneficial to him.

"Yes, I'm REALLY gonna do that. I don't think so, my bro." He grinned, obviously realizing that rhymed. I threw a pebble at him and chuckled, I then shook my head.

"There's no way to get in."

"There's always a way!" Tai was always the optimistic one, I usually find it foolish, but enlightening at the same time. He had a nice innocence about him, when he wasn't scalping and gambling.

"Remember when we were kids in the academy?" Tai's smile widened,

"And when we were sent to detention by Jeanne? Remember what happened after that?" My eyebrow shot up, what was he getting at?

"I don't recall, no."

"Dontcha remember when we snuck through the window in the hall and found that doorway we never saw before?" He then started to look confused,

"You mean by the statue? The head of the founding principal of the Academy?" My eyebrow shot up,

"Yeah, whatever. But remember when I tried jump to jump behind it and I smashed into it?" I laughed, I knew the rest of the story and saw where he was getting at, but I let him finish.

"Then the head turned to a side and that door opened in the wall? If we find the back-path to the Academy, then maybe we can get in through that secret door." He was obviously quiet pleased that he had thought of that, trying to shrug off the embarrasing memory of flying into a statue.

"But there wouldn't be a switch for the door outside of the Academy, would there?" I sighed once more.

"Let's just go the back-way or secret-way or whatever and see what happens." He nodded in enthusiasism. I painfully agreed.

Tai Ho and I trudged through the back-woods of the Academy. We came across the hut that Mayor Teresa hid in during Muse's occupation in Greenhill. Tai Ho ran toward it,

"Tai! Don't get distracted!" I stamped my foot, knowing that he couldn't actually obey me for once,

"There's gotta be food and stuff in here? Right?" He turned to me and said it like I should know, and I probably should of.

"Fine, lead the way." Tai opened the rickety oak door as we catwalked in. There was a bowl of fruit on the table but that was the extent of any food I could see. Tai foraged around the loose paper and dust in the hut. I then noticed a ladder leading to the attic of the hut, I immediately got an urge to discover what was up there. I heard a soft noise coming from the ceiling so I knew I should climb up. I straddled up the weak wooden ladder and shot my head above ceiling level, in the corner I saw a small girl. Tai Ho shouted at me from below, but I didn't catch what he was saying. The girl curled up and shook more so than she did originally. I walked toward her and kneeled down, laying my staff on the floor in some gentle manner that was intended to be friendly.

"Are you a student here?" I inquired. After a few seconds of delay, the girl nodded.

"What's wrong?" She knew and I knew that I was sooner or later going to ask.

"Ther-" She sniffed as her head rose from its burrowed state.

"There was a guard..." More tears streamed down her face and she sniffed and snorted. Guards were always trouble, particularly Highland guards.

"My Mom was taken in..." She sniffed and burst out in tears once more,

"After they found her talking to..."

"To...rebels from...Muse." She snorted,

"I don't know what happened to her because..." She turned bright red,

"Because a guard chased me off when I tried to see..."

"What was going on. He threatened to...to...kill me if I didn't leave so I ran....and hid here." I turned around, seeing that Tai Ho was kneeling toward the girl right beside me.

"Who's your mother? Is it Teresa?" I thought that the Mayor would make sense, Highland detested her because she was obviously collaberating with rebels but they had but tiny strands of proof.

"She's....she was a secretary at the Academy." Another tear shed. I recalled Emilia was intent on becoming a staff member of the Academy after her Runemaster teacher said she would be an excellent addition to the school. Tai Ho butt into the conversation,

"Isn't Emilia a secretary?" I had forgotten, Emilia had sent me a letter a few years back stating that she had begun work as the head secretary of Greenhill. I then realized that this woman, thankfully, couldn't be her because there was no chance that she could've had a daughter of this age. The girl then twisted around to look directly at Tai Ho,

"Yes, her name is Emilia?" She wondered how Tai would know. I then collapsed, Emilia having a daughter? She would've had to be pregnant when our relationship boomed! And those guards taking her away?

Within minutes, Tai slumped my unconscious body over his back and climbed down the ladder with Emilia's daughter. They ran toward the back-wall of the academy. Tai Ho threw me on the ground as he stroked his chin, trying to find an outside switch for the entrance to the Academy.

"Where's my mom!" The girl suddenly shouted, Tai Ho sat her down on a flat rock and leaned over,

"We're trying to find her! Meanwhile, what's your name?" He shrugged,

"I'm Tipa." Tipa, what an appropriate name for her. It doesn't mean anything, but somehow it suits her.

"Tipa, do you know where the guards took your mother?" He sat down on the rock too. Tipa nodded,

"A-huh!" She pointed toward the Academy,

"She took her from her desk at the front of the school and took her down the steps and....I don't know what happened after that." It was then that I recovered from my unconscious state and sat up.

"What...?" I was puzzled, trying to figure everything that was going on. Tai Ho stood me up.

"Emilia's in the basement of the Academy. There's two secret switches both inside of the building. One of them has to lead us to her." Tai Ho nodded at his own idea,

"We still need to get into the Academy without alerting the guards." I stroked my chin once more,

"Tipa, how about you head back to that hut and hide in the attic like before?" I tried to sound reasonable, she violently shook her head and clung to my kimono.

"I wanna find mommy!" She started to cry. I limped over to Tai and whispered into his ear,

"The guards out front will surely recognize her, what should we do?" I rarely seek advice from my brother, but in this case...

"This is ridiculous, get your water rune! We're gonna fight our way through!" He flew through the forest heading toward the front gates of the Academy,

"No, no, no!" I abhored the idea of risking all of our lives. I really hoped that I could convince Tipa to go back to the hut. It's not like me to devise an evil scheme, but this was an exception.

"Tai, you fight your way through and I'll..." I unlatched Tipa from my leg and ran toward Tai Ho,

"You fight your way through and I'll get Tipa into the attic of Teresa's hut. Okay?"

"By myself!" Tai Ho squeeked,

"Here, take the freakin' rune!" I threw him my aqua blue water rune. Tai caught it and violently knocked on the doors of the Academy. I lead Tipa by the hand back to the hut,

"Why are we going back here! I want mommy!" She screamed, I flapped my hand over her large mouth, she tried to bite me.

"Don't have a fit! I left my...errr....sword in the hut, I need it to bash those bad guys!" She pulled my hand away from her face, I got her to go inside the hut.

"I left it in the attic when I found you." I tried to get her to go up the ladder but she wouldn't budge. I had another plan. I hastily climbed up the ladder and started to pretend to forage around the floor for my "sword." I started to make panicky noises,

"Tipa! It's too dark, I can't find it. We're running out of time, can you help?" Tifa shouted back,

"Wait a minute!" She shot up the ladder and started to brush away cobwebs from her face. I ran toward the hole in the floor, climbed two or steps down from the ladder and sealed the hatch firmly. I slipped the key to the hatch from the table and locked the wooden panel. Tipa started screaming and pounded on the floor board. I felt really guilty, but I needed her out of the way so I could get to Emilia.

I rushed to the now open gates of the Academy. Guards tailed me quickly but I managed to get to the cubby of the main hall that had the statue head that could activate the shifting panel on the wall. I twisted the head of the statue to no avail, how come Tai Ho could do it but not I? Maybe they had sealed it. I shiftily looked around the room, seeing if any guards could find my presence. I shrugged, then sighed, then jumped onto the statue, slamming my face against it's. The head moved with a rustic creak and the panel on the wall of the cubby rose only half way. I got on my stomach and slipped under the half-open, half-closed panel. From the inside, in a dark hallway, I pushed the panel downward, trying to conceal my presence in the empty, abandoned hallway. I heard a loud creaking, and then another. I started to panic, was it Tai? Was it the guards? Something else? I took a candle from a small mantle protruding from the dank wall, using a lighter I stole from Tai after he started to smoke once again, I lit up the strand attached to the candle. Light burst from the flame, I could now see the dingy green walls of the unseen part of the Academy along with its cobwebs and dust collections. The creaking came closer to me, it was then I realized it wasn't creaking, it was moaning...

I felt sick to my stomach, and I was breathless. I would've shouted for Tai had I the strength, but I could only sit and watch as some sort of apparition closed in on me. The spirit's groaning turned into a string of words,

"Where is the food? Where is the food?" I assumed this is what the ghost was saying, but I could only guess. I didn't think of it at the time, but this phrase made sense, it was probably the unsettled ghost of one of the soldiers of Muse or one of the civilians of Greenhill during the Greenhill massacre during Highland's occupation.

I still couldn't speak, yell or even move. I was completely paralyzed, I couldn't recall ever encountering any sort of undead creature of this caliber. I heard my name being shouted out in the echoing halls of the basement.

"Yam Koo! Yam Koo, where are you?" I knew it was Tai Ho, he loved to rhyme my name with everything. I tried to shout back, but the spirit closed in on me more so then before. Then, Tai Ho slid from behind a wall and confronted the spirit and I. He shook his head in disapproval,

"Yam Koo, you still haven't learned?" He tapped his foot violently,

"Spirits can't hurt you! Come on, I think I've found Emilia." My ears perked when I heard her name. I still couldn't move, which was strange since most of my fear was gone. I couldn't even move any of my limbs! Then I realized I couldn't even blink! Tai Ho continued to shout at me, but I realized that the Spirit had used some sort of Paralysis spell on me. It was the only way to harm a mortal from an undead state unless it was something like a skeleton or a vampire. The spirit continued to groan as he searched in my satchel for food, but unfortunately for him, he couldn't undo the button that sealed the contents of my pouch, since he wasn't really there.

Eventually Tai left me, thinking that I wouldn't move for a long time, but then I could feel myself blink again. The ghost was long gone and I was free to catch up with my darling Emilia. I ran through the halls of the basement/dungeon, vaguely remembering each nook and cranny from my childhood. I then discovered the Academy's make-shift dungeon, I presumed that Emilia was definitely be there. I poked my head around the corner and quickly retracted it. Several guards with swords and axes were holding my brother-in-law to the wall while their commander threatened the love of my life, Emilia. Something inside of me burst, my eyes flared up and my hair stood right on end, I curdled blood with my scream of anger. The guards leaped up in fright and confronted me while flashing their blades. I heard a loud, long, thumping sound getting closer and closer to where I was standing. I remembered this occurance happening before when I was young and a bandit group of kobolds attacked Tai Ho and knocked him out. Surely enough, the same thing happened. Water came gushing through the cracks in the wall, carrying the soldiers of Highland and smashing them to the wall, unfortunately, Tai was dragged along with them. Emilia was shackled to the wall and floated above the water. I doggy-paddled over to her, she fainted and I lifted the shackle-key from one of the unconscious guards. I crammed the key into Emilia's metal embrace and released her. I slung her over my shoulder and swam toward Tai. He was half-awake and managed to murmur something. He got up and started swimming with me to the entrance of the Academy basement.

After the guards regained consciousness and the flood died down, they tried to tail us, but Tai and I managed to dodge them and navigate our way through the backwoods and back to Mayor Teresa's hiding spot. I didn't hear any noise from the attic and presumed that Tipa either stopped trying or fell asleep. I unlocked the panel and got Tai and Emilia safely up the steps. I awakened sleeping Tipa. Her eyes were half-open when she yelled,

"You!" But she wasn't so angry when she saw her mother on the floor. She dashed to Emilia's side. Emilia obviously wasn't going to awaken for another few hours, but I wanted to speak to her immeadiately. I foraged around my satchel for my water rune, so I could heal her with Kindess Rain or some healing spell such as that. I then remembered giving it to Tai,

"Tai? Where's my Rune?" I nudged my brother, he looked puzzled, and then disgusted,

"It fell...off of my wristband..." He looked at his boots,

"I need it! Now!" I pulled his head up by the hair,

"I'll go get it, just calm down!" She climbed down the ladder and ran out the front door.