Departure

"So she's..." Sven sat down at the table in his room, holding a piece of stained parchment in one hand, holding his head up solemnly with the other.

"Gone." Ignis finished, she too couldn't believe that Elise would leave the party like that. Weren't they travelling to train together? Why would she abandon them to train on her own? It made no sense.

"To train alone, why would she run off on her own when together we are stronger than we are apart? Was she upset at the slow progress we were making?" Sven wondered guiltily, he knew it was possible to level faster than they were now but the riskiness of leveling fast also meant possibly dying fast.

"I don't think it was that, she mentioned her own weakness as the reason and I can understand her pain a little." Ignis looked out the window glumly, she hadn't intended to **** these negative emotions onto the poor girl but she understood what she felt, her time at the academy was filled with events where students out did her, causing her to work harder to emulate those students. It was no different to Elise, except instead of studying together and pushing their limits as a group, Elise had instead opted to go the lone wolf route.

Focusing on the words again, Sven looked them over once again to truly take them in.

_Dear Sven and Ignis, thank you for shouldering me for the journey so far.
I've had a lot of fun and experienced things my younger self would squeal into my satin covers in excitement over.
However I can't help but feel useless now that Ignis has joined the party, I've had... dreams, apparitions of what I must do now to compete with Ignis.
If I don't leave the party now I'll never become my own person, I'll always be in somebody else's shadow and that thought kills me inside.
Sorry I couldn't tell you this in person, this way was just easier for me.
Please forgive me for what I must do, you most of all Sven.
Our paths will cross again some day, of this I am sure, and when that day comes I expect to be a better match for the party I love.
Yours faithfully, Elise Vaulder.

'For the party I love, huh.' Sven thought with a sad smile, at least this wouldn't be the last time they saw each other, the thought comforted him. Sometimes in life people had to do stuff like this, Sven's uncle had to get a second job to support his medical bills, he'd seen people sacrifice parts of themselves so that others could benefit, most of the time they did this alone. Elise was thinking of him when she left, the thought made him blush abruptly at the connotations. Did she like him like that? Or was the 'love' purely platonic, like brother and sister? He'd never had siblings so he wasn't sure.

"That silly girl should have stayed with us, she's going to have a hard time training all on her own." Ignis sighed, however a creepy grin curled its way onto her face at the sudden realization. "However now that she's gone, there's no one left to fight with me over master!~" Ignis latched onto Sven's back, rubbing her cheek into his neck like an overly affectionate cat. Sven sighed at her antics, the sadness that had filled him when he first awoke to the letter was diminishing by the moment - both by the nefarious imp on his backs antics and the assurance that this wasn't the last he'd see of Elise.

Standing up Sven lifted Ignis like a backpack, her feet dangling down to where Sven's knees were, this quickly changed as she proceeded to wrap her legs around his midsection too - now she truly did look like a humanoid backpack.

"We'll meet her again some day Ignis, for now lets train hard so that when we do meet again, we can match all of her expectations." Ignis chirped happily in his ear, probably too comfortable being this close to his skin to really understand or care what he was talking about.