Ollen70: I've never gotten this many reviews so soon, so it's been a great motivation for me to keep going. Don't get me wrong, I'm very loyal to my stories and plan on finishing them no matter how often they get reviewed, but it certainly adds to the inspiration when you hear that people like what you're writing.
This has to have been the weirdest day ever. It snowed today, which probably doesn't seem all that spectacular to many of you, but it never snows this early in the year in my part of Oregon, so it threw everybody off. I'm stuck inside today, since they actually called off college classes because the roads were so bad, but I'm not complaining. At least I can get a little more writing done. =)
Disclaimer: The characters represented here don't belong to me. I mean no disrespect to their creator by writing this.
Chapter Three - - Under the weight of your life
* * * * * * * * * * * *
And I shall have some peace there,
For peace comes dropping slow. William Butler Yeats
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It was dark, so very dark that, in time, the light of the stars seemed invasive when the clouds broke away to briefly reveal them. The mystic moon never shone, given that the Asgard continent was so far away in the most remote, hidden part of the world.
Looking upward, Hitomi allowed herself a small parody of a smile, wondering exactly when it was she'd started thinking of it as the mystic moon rather than the earth. Very few things were the way they had been in the past, and there were even fewer that she bothered to deny any longer. She'd never expected to end up in this position, but it was rare for life to lead in a totally predictable direction.
Outside, even with very little light to confirm it, Hitomi knew it was snowing. She drew away from the thick panes of her window and closed the white brocade curtains. Her chamber, mostly metallic, held a lingering coldness despite the fact that it was truly quite comfortable within. Cold didn't really bother her anymore. It was one of the few constants in this barren place, secluded so far away from the rest of civilization.
After claiming the power of Zaibach, she had no choice. There was no way she could remain among the masses while the power of wishes was fresh in her - there was so much she had to test first, so much she wanted to do, but wasn't quite sure of.
This fortress, built into the ice and snow of the forgotten continent, was a safe refuge against the things she used to know. Not just Zaibach's wars or the places in Gaea, either. Here, she was safe even from the light of the mystic moon and the old responsibilities she'd left behind when she'd assumed what might have been Dornkirk's role, had he lived long enough or understood enough about fate to claim it.
* * *
Fanelia didn't tend to get as much snow as the higher lands like Chesario. Though it was often cold enough in the winter, the snow was usually only enough to keep the ground white and clean through the months, never deep enough to pose any sort of an impediment. It lay in a shallow layer, hiding any imperfections in the ground and adding character to the trees in the hills.
Merle stood on the walls, eyes on the darkened sky and the icy blanket below her. For the first time in weeks, she was at an absolute loss. With Lord Van gone, she felt absolutely, undescribably alone, lost amid this new sea of almost-familiarity. During the reconstruction, there were always things to occupy her time, especially that she was now a sort of head advisor to the king. Ruling a kingdom wasn't exactly something she had experience in, but Van needed support in more ways than one.
Ever since the fall of Zaibach, he'd been so different that it was hard for her to be near him. The old boyishness was totally hidden behind a hard, frigid wall of... something. Van spoke only rarely, even when Hitomi had been around and things had been marginally more normal, but his silence was so structured and almost what she wanted to call disciplined' for lack of anything other word. Like he'd been distancing himself from everything intentionally.
Millerna had spoken with her about it the day Van left for the old Zaibach territories, expressing many of the same concerns. Merle felt the hairs on the back of her neck rising slightly, remembering that appraising look the princess had given her, as if there was some reason for them to deeply pity Van.
He'll get over it in time. She'd said grandly, and Merle had been forced to grit her teeth to keep from punching the woman. He wasn't sick or weak, and he certainly didn't need anybody's pity. It's just one of those situations. He's going to have to figure it out for himself, and there isn't anything we can do.
Merle knew that Millerna only wanted to be useful - that's why she came to stay in Fanelia in the first place, following Van's departure - but that didn't mean Merle had to like her for it. No one had asked her to come, after all.
Letting her eyes rove over the hills without really taking in much of anything. Van would find what he was looking for, if they gave him enough time to search. For her, that was the hardest part. She missed him, missed what they had before the wars, missed everything about the old Fanelia and hated all the things about the new Fanelia didn't fit. She'd never, ever admit it even on the darkest night or in her weakest moment, but part of her missed Hitomi too.
It's not missing' her, exactly. She told herself, quietly, trying to rationalize the thought. It's more like, having her around would make Van happy. Satisfied that it was a logical and uncomplicated explanation, she looked back at the fortress.
Van hadn't told her in so many words, but she knew that Hitomi was part of what he was searching for. There was something else, something important, that she couldn't quite place her finger on, that he seemed to be after. She sighed quietly. Only time would tell, but in her heart, all she really wanted was for all of this blind confusion to go away and let the world run the way it was supposed to.
A voice called from further down the wall, back toward the fortress. Merle waved at the princess uncommitted, not really wanting to go back toward her but not having a real reason to stay where she was. One last look up at the sky and she went, wishing with all of her being for Van to find what he was looking for and then come home.
* * *
Though the Escaflowne shuddered in the force of the wind, Van kept his course without wavering. The snow was now so thick in the air that he was forced to wrap his scarf over most of his face to keep it out of his eyes, and even then a solitary flake would find its way through his defenses and make him jump a little.
The biting wind didn't bother him at all, which was odd. Normally he hated the cold almost as much as he hated the heat, but just now, it seemed more than fitting. There was an eerie sheen to the ground below him, like the moons or the sun were too close to the surface. He couldn't say which was correct, because the veil of gray overhead was so thick that nothing could be seen through it. Only the weak light told him that there was anything on the other side at all.
Whatever the pale beacon was, he was losing it quickly. Since he knew his overall destination, he was sure that once it was gone, it would be a very long time before he saw it again. The Asgard continent was forever concealed in darkness, a perfect refuge for any who might hope to hide from the world.
For the last two weeks, Van had done the best he could, speaking with as many locals as he could find about what could have possibly happened to Zaibach. Though he got no conclusive answers and many of the leads brought him to dead ends, there was a peculiar pulling in the back of his mind that drew him here again. It was ahead of him, in the darkened confines of the forgotten continent, that his mother had appeared to him and given him the power he needed to oppose Zaibach.
It had taken him so long to come to terms with the loss of his family, but it had finally happened. His mother's loss, and the ambiguous but assumed death of Folken had been dealt with, their monuments in Fanelia never without roses or laurels. It was hateful for him to go back to the last place he'd ever seen his mother, hoping against hope for some clue as to the whereabouts to a fallen empire.
The further he went, the darker the sky grew overhead. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was an odd familiarity here, something totally unrelated to the fact that he'd been there before. Something was definitely off, but he couldn't put his finger on what it might be.
Bright and shining in the chest of the armor, the Escaflowne's energist was like a star trapped on the ground, lending an eerie sheen to the snow. Under the strands of mist, Van could just barely make out an object up ahead, much too oddly shaped to be a crag or some other natural formation. There weren't any buildings on Asgard, as far as he knew, and he couldn't stop the hope and the dread from pouring into his throat as he watched it.
The dark structure was domed, an awkward black outline that gave him no real impression of what it might look like in detail. He knew what it was - he'd seen it before, but it seemed so grotesquely out of place that it was difficult for him to remind himself of that.
The Dilate? He spoke at last to the grasping silence of the eternal night. That doesn't make any sense! Why would there be a floating fortress perched on a promontory in the middle of this wasteland when even the foundation stones in the Zaibach capital were gone? He noticed now that the fortress was not the only thing out of place - below it, more buildings sprouted ominously, waiting for him with malcontent. Engaging the gears around him once more, Van set off with a newer will. Whether it made sense or not, he was close to gaining some sort of an explanation.
* * *
When she saw him in the screen, she rose. There were no surprises here - she'd been expecting this, and it was all coming to pass just as it should. In moments the guymelef would land and Van would find himself in the midst of Zaibach... *her* Zaibach, built with her own hands and her own wishes, paid for by this very confrontation. His arrival was her penalty for using the power to her own ends, but she'd been expecting that as well, and was prepared for it.
Gripping her pendant in white hands, she looked at the great machine suspended above her, slowly turning without concern for the rest of the world. They were very much alike, herself and the device. Standing here in the dimness, they waited together.
Ollen70: Odd place to leave off - sorry if it seems like I'm milking the whole cliffhanger thing, but I don't really want to rush the next chapter. I have a basic plan, but I want to take some time to develop it so it doesn't turn out badly. I promise I'll have it up in around a week, okay? So now if you'd please put down all those things you were gonna throw at me...
To Macky: To be totally honest, I hadn't even considered doing that. I only introduced one character in The Parts that Break the Whole, and I don't think she'd fit in so well with the context of this story. But I might give it a shot later on and see what happens. Thanks for reviewing.
And to Rai Dorian, Atari =), Wink57CS, Feathers of Snow, and burnt ashes, I have to say thank you so much for reading and responding.
I need to give a special thank you to Rai Dorian for featuring me as her author of the month, even though I don't deserve it. You're too good to me. =)
