The Seer and the Dragon King
Chapter III
The mechanical beast began to move it's head twisting back and forth as if it were shaking off a sleep. The sight caused Hitomi to stumble backwards. Fear welled in her stomach as the beast, now looking very real to her leaned forward and almost seemed to sniff her. Was it going to eat her? Or what? The mechanical dragon pressed it's chilled nose to her cheek. It's green eyes flashed dangerously and Hitomi then felt as if she were falling. Though it was almost like a phantom feeling. She knew she was standing still but the feeling of falling was coupled with a wavering of her sight.
Once her sight returned to normal she noticed she was somewhere else in the castle as the mechanical dragon was gone. Also, there was something off about the castle it seemed and felt very, very different. The air of the place was far more alive, like it had been the night before, except not as desperate. Frowning Hitomi wondered for a moment if she was having a vision, before she started down the hall in search of someone anyone. She was rewarded by stumbling upon Van and an older man.
The older man had a scar on his face that looked very fresh and a gruff voice as he began to speak to Van. In the beginning their voices were muffled as if someone were covering their mouths but then Van looked to the older man his eyes worried. "We can't hold out much longer," Van put his head in his hands, and for a single moment Van reminded Hitomi of a child. A child who was scared of failing and wanted to be told what he was doing was right. The older man placed his large hand on Van's shoulder.
"Van," the man spoke in a grave tone, "you should speak to Asturia. Make a pact with them. They are also hurting from this war." Though his head was still in his hands Hitomi could see Van clench and unclench his teeth. He was wavering so unlike the king she had seen last night.
"But Asturia they," he paused looking up at the older man, "Balgus, Asturia is the ones who announced war upon all of us in the first place? How am I to conduct peace meetings when their king is responsible for my father's death!" His words sounded forced and Hitomi for a moment felt her heart pang for the poor boy.
"Van, they did not ask for your father to step in and join in the war. He did so because he believed it was the best way to keep Fanelia protected," Balgus, Hitomi assumed, replied with a terse tone. It was interesting to see a less cocky side of Van, but something else interested Hitomi. It had been thousands of years since the great country of Asturia fell to Zaibach after losing the Final War. At the time she lived in Zaibach ruled almost everything there were only a few countries that survived over the years and kept their independence. Her nomadic tribe had been one of the few independent tribes, but while it helped date the vision Hitomi wondered at which point of the war did Fanelia fall into a curse. A snort coming from Van returned her attention to the conversation.
"It didn't help it killed father and crippled Folken," Van replied regaining a glimmer of the arrogant and cocky attitude Hitomi was familiar with. "Fanelia is in worse peril because of that!" Balgus shook his head.
"Van, Fanelia lost a king but the gained another one just the same. A king who will be great," he looked directly at the young King his hand still on the boy's shoulder. "Just remove your emotions from the equation, and think about what would be best for Fanelia." Van looked away for a moment and Hitomi wondered if he was actually taking the words to heart, but she didn't know him well enough to say if he was or if he wasn't. For a moment she forgot she was in a vision and she reached out to touch the young king. Her hand passed through him, but almost as if he had felt her touch he looked up confused.
"I will speak to Asturia about joining forces to destroy Zaibach," Van didn't look at Balgus instead it felt as if he were staring at her, but that was impossible. It was merely a vision and in visions she couldn't interact with anything. She was simply a bystander to the action.
"They will want you to fight Lord Van," the man slipped in the title now. Van looked back at the scarred man.
"I know and I will for Fanelia," Van looked out of the window and as he did Hitomi's vision swam before her eyes.
Once more when it righted itself she found herself somewhere else, but it was somewhere she recognized. The dragon was still nose to nose with her, but now its green eyes were dull almost lifeless. Hitomi lifted her hand and stroked the metallic cheek of the dragon. It's eyes reawakened and she felt the falling sensation again.
This time she knew time had passed since her original vision. The castle seemed lonelier and instead of happening to come upon Van she was in a room with him. He was sitting on the edge of a bed, leaving Hitomi to assume she was in his bedroom, which caused a blush to stain her cheeks, even though she really wasn't there. He was shirtless at the moment allowing Hitomi to see his muscles he had seemingly gained since her last vision of his. He looked more like the man she knew now and he must have been at least two years older by how much he had seemed to age. Though it could very well be due to the haggard appearance he had. Still as he moved to dress she could feel the tiredness and something else come from him. There was a knock on the door.
"King Van, Asturia's princess has arrived seeking safety," a servant spoke softly. Hitomi turned around and looked at the person. There was nothing distinguishing about them, but they did keep their eyes averted from the king's topless form.
"Allow her sanctuary and anyone traveling with her," he commanded his face hard and his eyes burning with anger. Van stood once the door closed and the servant most likely rushed off to relay the message. Once more though, Van turned his head towards Hitomi as if he actually could see her, but unlike before his eyes passed through her. "Asturia is weakening. I need to awaken the dragon if we are to win this blood bath," he spoke softly to himself before arching his neck back and staring at the ceiling. "Father would you take Escaflowne in a time like this?" There was no answer to his pleading question, but Hitomi wanted to reach out and help him.
Yet as her hand touched his skin, his seemingly solid skin Van jumped and looked directly at her his eyes wide with shock and fear. His eyes darted back and forth before he uttered what almost sounded like a cry. "Father? Was that a yes?" he asked looking all around. Hitomi reached forward again trying to understand if she had just imagined touching Van or if she had. Once more the pads of her finger touched his warm skin, but then as she did her vision swam and she was once again standing before the mechanical dragon.
However the dragon was no longer face to face with her. Instead it stood once more tall and proud like it had when she first arrived, it was as if it had never moved. She stared at it a few more minutes before a noise shocked her into turning around. The man Van had referred to as Allen had stepped into the room and his blue eyes were wide with shock. His mouth dropped open and he looked as if he were to scream, yet no sound left his lips.
"Lady!" he finally choked out, "What are you doing in Escaflowne's chambers?" His face also seemed to whiten. "It is forbidden!" There he actually seemed to raise his voice. Hitomi looked to him confused.
"But, the cat girl. She led me here. I mean she, she was," the seer looked around the room but it was empty except for Escaflowne, herself, and Allen. The cat girl was nowhere to be see. "She was here," she was adamant on that particular fact. Allen looked at her sadly and nodded slowly.
"I believe you. Merle can be somewhat troublesome, but we must leave this room at once before the King finds us," he motioned for her to follow him and Hitomi wanted to demand when he was going to this room if it was forbidden for others to be in it, but she was not allowed to ask the question as the second Allen exited through the door, it slammed shut and there was a metallic clicking sound of a lock. A startled yelp came from the other side and then sounds of something pounding on the door began.
"My lady! Are you alright? Do not panic I shall get the king!" Allen's voice came from the other side and for a moment Hitomi wondered why she would panic. There was obviously nothing to fear in the room. The Escaflowne had been rather startling but nothing to cause her to fear. Still Allen's worry must be warranted? Turning back around she jumped as once more Escaflowne was leaning down its head near hers. A chill crawled down her spine as she felt something utterly ominous of the situation at hand. This Escaflowne was not like the one who had given her visions. It brushed against her and she had a quick spurt of a vision.
She saw flashes of blood seeming to leak heavily from a wound, part of her knew it was a wound she had caused. But when she looked down it wasn't her hands holding the blade. Strong, masculine, and tanned hands gripped the sword, and as if she were just a puppet in the body of someone else's, Hitomi watched as the sword was lifted and as it hacked through a screaming soldier's arm. A ghost like feeling of happiness flittered through her. Happiness that this soldier was getting what was coming to him, she had been and the body too had been too enthralled in the enjoyment in the carnage that a hot pain slicing through her forearm shocked her out of the vision.
Hitomi stumbled back still feeling the pain from the cut. Her arm went to where the mark had been caused and her body went still as she touched a warm liquid that was trailing down her arm. Pulling the hand back she stared at her blood covered palm. With wide fearful eyes she looked up at Escaflowne. She no longer felt safe especially when the mechanical beast lunged forward again. A scream ripped from her throat as she fell back.
Van wouldn't say he was enjoying the sounds of his servants scuttle around afraid to be seen in the light of day, but he preferred their company rather than Allen's now frantic rush towards him. He knew something was off the second Merle had walked past him a smile on her strangely gaunt face, he hated seeing her so pained, but seeing Allen come running he knew it was something very bad.
"What is it Allen?" he asked. The blond man looked at him and sucked in a breath before replying.
"The Lady Hitomi is locked in the room with Escaflowne. Merle lured her in there and as I was about to lead her out the door closed and locked," Allen explained. Van's blood chilled. Escaflowne, now that the curse was settled, was rather dangerous just like the curse had dictated it should be, and for a moment while his throat seemed to dry out and close in upon itself, Van wondered if he would lose the girl to the curse in a way that no other had been lost in. Bolting up from his seat he almost ran to the ceremonial room.
Behind him Allen followed, though Van was sure it was with half worry and half curiosity. No one but him knew what was so dangerous about Escaflowne, the others had just been ordered not to enter the room. Of course Van wasn't daft enough to believe that everyone would automatically follow his orders when something so mysterious was presented before them, but at least he hadn't lost anyone to that part of the curse.
Van rounded the corner and there down the hall almost taunting him was large stone door that lead to Escaflowne. He sucked in a deep breath and moved purposefully towards the door, Allen still trailing behind him. The other man's presence at that very moment was somewhat annoying to Van's fraying nerves. When he opened the door what would Escaflowne present him with? Would she be alive or dead? Would her body be mangled or would she look peaceful except for her face that would be set in terror. His stomach lurched as he touched the cool stone. The very stone began to heat beneath his touch and behind him Allen gave a gasp.
What exactly had happened to him because of the curse had never been discussed or shown. Van felt his body quiver as the heat radiated from him. The sound of the lock releasing allowed the relief to swarm into Van's belly only to be stilled with the chill of fear at the sight of the young woman curled up on the floor her body leaking a precious fluid. The most noticeable wound was a gash on her left forearm. A mirror image to the very scar that was on his right. Tentatively Van stroked the ever puckered scar tissue, before shaking himself out of it. With a growl he twisted around to see Allen's horrified face.
"Tell Millerna to get her things ready, she has a patient," he commanded in a booming tone he hadn't used since the war. Allen's eyes snapped to him first before he nodded and rushed off to the only person who had a decent amount of medical training. Once Allen was gone Van dropped to his knees not even caring that the blood seep. In the long run it was all his fault for if not for his behavior back during the war, then the curse wouldn't have happened and Hitomi wouldn't have been attacked by Escaflowne.
Scooping her into his arms, Van cradled her fragile body. He wasn't sure the exact amount of blood that was in the human body but he was sure that Hitomi had lost too much. Hopefully the magic would take effect and begin to stitch her up enough before Millerna had to get her hands on her. Hitomi whimpered as he began his slow walk down the halls to where Millerna had set up her things for when he had been hurt so badly that by the time he arrived back home the magic had yet to stitch him up fully.
The guilt was still ripping into him by the time he put Hitomi down on a cot. Luckily the second she had been out of the Escaflowne's room the magic had begun to take to her. She was no longer as pale and she seemed to be coming into consciousness. He watched as her lashes fluttered before revealing her shockingly green eyes. Her hand shot up and grabbed his right arm, right where his flesh puckered. Her fingers still stained with dried blood traveled over the scar and Van watched as her brows furrowed and then her eyes widen with some sort of realization.
"You," she whispered. The look in her eyes gave Van a sense of unease as if she knew something more than she should. There was too much knowledge in her eyes. It took most of his practiced control to keep himself from stumbling away from her in fear of what she knew. "It was you," she whispered again as her hands retreated and went to her own bloodied gash. "You killed. And you liked it." Her words shook Van to the core of his being and no matter how much training and practice he had, he couldn't just stand there and listen to her tell him how much of a monster he was. How did she know? Was that another power that Escaflowne now possesed? To show the past?
Hitomi watched Van take a few steps away from her. What he was thinking his face didn't show, but his eyes told the whole story. For the first time she saw that his eyes were what gave him away. Fear and contempt moved through out those garnet irises. Who was that contempt for? Hitomi wondered silently. Was he angry at her for saying it? Or himself? Or maybe even someone else.
"How?" Hitomi watched his eyes narrow and a sort of rage and confusion blot out the fear. "How did you find out?" She was about to answer him put his fears to rest when the door slammed open and Millerna entered a bucket in her hands and a person that Hitomi wasn't sure she wanted to see at the moment, the cat girl-Merle. Though Merle did look rather guilty, Hitomi still couldn't believe she had lead her to her near death.
"Oh Hitomi," Millerna cooed her face still rather macabre and it became worse as the sadness came over her face. It was like watching a corpse trying to feel bad for someone, and even though Hitomi knew Millerna meant nothing but good things the look still sent an unwanted chill down her spine.
Millerna leaned over her and Hitomi watched as she began to soak a piece of cloth in an oddly smelling basin. The water most likely had something else mixed in it and Hitomi knew it by the time the cloth touched her still open wounds. A burning sensation pricked at the skin and Hitomi gritted her teeth hoping that she didn't cry out. She had been through worse when she had been in the nomadic tribe. Surviving this would be a cinch. Plus it was probably to help make sure there wouldn't be any infection.
Still as she suffered through the ministrations, Hitomi caught Van talking rather heatedly with Merle in the corner of the room. She seemed to just listen to him at first but then Hitomi's attention turned back towards Millerna and her concoction from hell. She was digging into the gash on her arm and right then Hitomi could reel back the cry that leapt from her lips. Millerna winced and drew back her hands slowly.
"Sorry," she said as she dipped the cloth back into the basin. Hitomi, close to passing out, turned her and gave her a half-hearted glare, while out of the corner of her eye she noticed Van and Merle were back and staring at her. Van's face appeared to hold some sort of emotion until he looked back at Merlel. They then began to converse telepathically, at least that is what it seemed like to Hitomi as neither of the duo spoke before Van gave a swift jerk of his head. He then turned his heel and left the room. Merle stayed for a few moments before glancing back with a face the said a mix between "I'm sorry" and "I really don't want to do this" but Hitomi supposed at the moment she'd take that apology because Millerna was still prodding the gash.
"Ow!" Hitomi reared up.
"Sorry!" Millerna once more apologized.
Hours later, Millerna returned to the servants' quarters her nearly dead on her feet despite the fact that she was once more back to normal. Her hands shook and she nearly fell bonelessly to the warm comforting bed, except Dryden, Yukari, Amano, and Allen were all in her room looking to her as if she had called them all together. Taking a few moments Millerna wondered if she had and had just forgotten about it while she helped Hitomi. The poor girl would now have a scar on her arm despite the magic working.
"Do you have any idea what Escaflowne did?" the first words that raced out of Yukari's voice stunned Millerna for a moment, she had been use to their welcoming silence. Instead of talking she shook her head.
"How could she?" Allen snorted, "You can't exactly tell exactly what happened from wounds. Van won't even allow us to see the room so we don't know if she even moved around or not."
"Weren't you in the room Allen?" Dryden asked arching a brow before turning to Millerna and asking, "How bad was it." This time she couldn't reply with a one word sentence or a shrug. Looking tiredly at the man she still considered a lothario even after these years she sighed.
"She's going to scar. Even with the magic and myself working on the wound something happened. Maybe it was his doing or something else," Millerna shrugged her tired shoulders and so that the rest wouldn't ask her where the scar was she merely pointed to her left forearm. "The King was irritable but it's nothing out of the ordinary from him. So, don't get your hopes up that she's the key to breaking this curse. Whatever this curse might be."
"Very well then," Dryden spoke up first and looked at the rest of the group. "We'll see you later Millerna." And with that he led the rest of the group away.
Folken stood his eyes gazing out at the night sky. Was it the same sky that the rest of the world or had the curse kept that stilled as well? He didn't know how far this curse extended and while he had tried to test its limits, Van had become more and more suspicious of his doings. It would not do for his brother to do something irrational, so he'd stopped. Plus a horror had already happened today. Escaflowne had awakened. It had reacted to the girl and now the clock was ticking, not for him though. But time was going to soon go quickly.