"Yeah," Lea said. "Or if I hadn't been so dense. Or if any one of a hundred things had happened differently." He sighed. "I dunno. Maybe we were just all screwed from the get-go. Just a couple of dumb kids from Radiant Garden getting mixed up in stuff that's way over our heads."

"I mean, I know I sure as heck don't understand half of what's going on back home," he said. "It all seems so crazy when I stop an think about it. I mean, we were going up against what amounted to a cult led by an ancient psycho who literally wanted to end the world. Even now, knowing we beat him, I still can't get my head around it. It's too insane. Too huge."

"That's why I think I opted to stick to just the fighting angle," he said. "Yeah, I needed to train, but more than that... fighting is something I can understand. I just have to let someone smarter than me point me in the right direction."