The people of the Mud Whale have a mass sand burial for those who died during the Skylos attack. Included among the dead is the wife of the Guard Captain; her name was Sienna. The Guard Captain asks a couple of women to cut him off a lock of her hair before she is buried. Afterwards he starts crying despite his emotionless demeanor. Guess he can’t completely bury his feelings for his dead wife after all…  Then his mother finds him – his mother being the Elder from an earlier episode who wore the strange hat and lectured Suou. She appears to dislike her son, Shuan, and even fear him, going so far as to call him a demon. o_o  Whoa.

Up in the infirmary, Suou comes to bring a medicinal drink for Ouni, and some children come with presents for the injured warrior. Suou tries to mend the bridge with Ouni’s female friend Kicha, but she shrugs off his apology. He promises that no one will ever have to fight again. Why do I have the feeling that this promise will eventually need to be broken…?

The Elders summon Suou to their chambers, and they take Lykos along for the meeting. One of Chakuro’s friends spots the trio walking, so naturally Chakuro and his snooping friend have to sneakily eavesdrop on the conversation.

Lykos relays to the elders some of her speculations about the attack and what might happen next. Note that the Skylos soldiers’ suicide into the sand ocean isn’t mentioned – either no one saw it or Lykos didn’t know that it could be an option.

Elsewhere on the Mud Whale Masoo is recovering. Kuchiba brings him some sake and Masoo proceeds to get drunk and mopey, much to Kuchiba’s dismay.  There’s not much meaning behind this scene but it’s a cute moment between two people who’ve known each other for a long time.

Chakuro’s furry friend unrolls the gift given to him by Nous Skylos (Olivines?), and it’s another furry creature like the one that was found with Lykos on her island. The creature jumps into the meeting room and darts off down the hall and around the Mud Whale. When Chakuro eventually catches up with it, the sun is starting to set.

While Chakuro is chasing the furball, Falaina is being boarded by the son of the Duke of Amonlogia, from the country of the United Kingdom of Siderasia. The guy has a nearly impossible name to pronounce and remember (Rochalito Anastenagmos Neie Imisukin Emarika Antipatros – seriously!!), but Suou is able to easily greet the stranger. Also Suou is naked because everyone on the Mud Whale had been bathing (a ritual performed during a drought to encourage rainfall), so him greeting Rochalito stark naked leads Rochalito to think that Suou is the chief of a nudist colony. xD

Rochalito wants to annex Falaina and make it part of his country, but Shuan interferes and uses his thymia to steal the weapons from Rochalito’s group. Before Rochalito can be convinced to surrender, one of his officials has a grumbling stomach and Suou immediately offers to cook for their group. Once everyone sits to eat Rochalito keeps complaining about the food, but he obviously thinks it’s delicious. On a side note: Kuchiba’s continued insults towards Rochalito are funny.  x3

Chakuro, Lykos and one of Chakuro’s friends are listening to Kuchiba’s conversation about the directionless Falaina from outside the meal hall, and for some reason Lykos gets upset and asks to be alone for awhile. Chakuro starts to follow her but his furry friend jumps out of his overalls and runs away. Chakuro chases it and he sees that it has brought him to Emma. Emma tells Chakuro that the creature is special; it’s called a kokalo, and it allows an island (nous) to be steered. Now for the first time ever, since its occupants are no longer in exile and its helm has been returned, Falaina can be directed onto a new adventure.  After the kokalo’s beautiful wings are sucked back into its body, Emma disappears in a whirl of light.

In the closing moments of the episode, Chakuro says that that night, everyone on the Mud Whale had a dream about a mysterious girl (who looks like Olivines) who sang a strange song inside their head and made a gesture like she was praying. The dream makes everyone teary when they awaken, and the girl flies out their teardrops and out the window before disappearing.

Oh and Liotari’s back, so there’s that. (I’m not happy about this. >:/  )


My thoughts:
We finally got a whole scene with Lykos’ brother, Commander Orka, and his harem of jesters. Liotari is still alive as I just mentioned, and still seems unstable. He only wants to return to the Mud Whale so he can “play” with everyone (read: kill them), but he can’t do so on his own. Commander Orka tries to convince Liotari to become one of his jesters (really one of his possessions), saying that if Liotari won’t become his to command then he can’t do anything for the pink-haired youth. Liotari is adamant that he won’t become a jester (it’s not clear why this scares him so bad), but time will tell.

Next episode looks like things are starting to come to a head, and Rochalito’s still around so I’m guessing he’s involved somehow. This is such a beautiful series, I don’t want it to end. ;~;

What does everyone else think of the season so far? I have no complaints, but how about you?