Thank you so much to Fang and Lady Aegis for being the first to give me your reviews. I look forward to receiving many more, especially from all of those who enjoyed my first story, Dark Esper. I hope these pretty quick update satisfies you. Thank you and enjoy.
Visions, nightmares, and memories fled into the background of a pained mind as blazing light pierced her eyes.
Where have I been? How long have I been out? Hold on, who am I?
Fear and panic forced her eyes fully open and made her aware of where she was. She was in someone's bedroom, laying on the soft mattress of their bed. For just an instant she luxuriated in comfort that she knew she hadn't experienced in a long time, though how she knew that eluded her.
A moan of pain escaped her lips, and just that quickly someone entered the room. He was tall older man, with a thick shock of salt and pepper hair and a closely trimmed beard that had the same mix of silver and black as his hair. He was dressed in heavy brown pants, plain white shirt and a warm wool vest of royal blue. His eyes never left her, and they were filled to overflowing with compassion and sympathy.
"Where… am I?" she managed ask hoarsely.
The man's eyes widened in surprise. "Amazing. I only removed the crown not five minutes ago."
She tried to force herself into a sitting position, but the man came over and gently pushed her back down. She saw what she was wearing, a red jumpsuit in violet trim, with a skirt split up the middle for ease of moment, and high red heeled boots. She wanted to sit up but the man easily held her down.
"Not so fast, young lady," he said kindly, "You've probably out of it for a while. You're going to need some time to recover, and you're going to stay in that bed for as long as that takes. Or as long as you have."
The last part was said under his breath, she didn't think he intended for her to hear.
Her eyes closed in momentary pain. "Head… hurts," she breathed.
Once again she tried to sit up, this time nearly throwing herself forward. Her vision blurred and the room spun around her, but the man caught her and helped her remain upright.
"If you intend to be a stubborn fool about sitting up," he said softly, "then I guess the least I can do is help you."
"Thank you."
He shrugged. "Think nothing of it, my dear. I have a soft spot for strays," he said with a low chuckle.
After several moments, she finally thought herself able to hold herself upright in bed. When she was finally able to do so, the old man stood up and walked across the room to the chest of drawers, where there was something sitting on top of it. She looked at it closely.
It looked like nothing more than a simple brown metal circlet, with smaller strips of metal and wires arching over it, turning it into a dome shape. A shudder went through her as she looked at it. Fear, disgust, and hatred in equal parts flowed in and out, although for the life of her she couldn't understand why.
The old man looked at the… thing… in his hands with an expression of as much disgust as she felt.
"This is a Slave Crown," he said quietly, "a device the Empire uses on certain occasions. It's very rare. It's said that it destroys every original thought that the wearer has, making them a puppet to be controlled. This means that whatever you did here, you were completely under the control of the others who came with you."
"Whatever I did?" she asked nervously, then started shaking her head, her green ponytail flipping over both shoulders, "I can't remember a thing. Nothing! I can't remember!"
She felt sick, and she wanted to cry her eyes out. But for some reason, some inner determination told her should would not do either.
"Take it easy, dear," he said soothingly, "Amnesia is said to be one of the side effects of the Slave Crown. Everything will come back to you. I promise, I promise. In time, that is."
Memories suddenly flashed across her mind. Words, names, places, pain, fear, a medley of thoughts and emotions. Suddenly, one name stuck out clearly among the jumble.
She looked up and met the old man's gaze. "My name is Terra," she told him firmly.
Once again his eyes went wide. "That is absolutely amazing! Impressive! Remarkable! I've never heard of anyone recovering quite this fast. You are one very special young lady. Of course, the Slave Crowns are so rare, we hardly know anything about them. The Empire reserves them only for those that the Emperor considers most important to their plans."
That thought suddenly sent chills through her. It made her feel so small, insignificant, and very, very alone. She sniffed back tears, but it must have been clear to the old man, for he came over and held her gently, like a grandfather, rocking her back and forth.
Another memory flashed in her head, another man, with a beard and hair more blond than brown, dressed in a garish yellow longcoat, comforting her as the old man was doing now.
Suddenly the sound of dogs barking loudly came from the front room, and just after that there was a heavy pounding knock.
"Open up!" yelled someone, "Open this door! Give us back the girl and the Magitek armor!"
The man ran from the bedroom to the main sitting room, and watched as the front door cracked a little from the heavy pounding.
"Open this bloody door, Arvis! We want that girl! She's an officer for the flaming Empire!"
"Empire?" asked Terra quietly, standing in the bedroom doorway, "Magitek armor? But I'm not… am I… you said…"
"Look dear, I don't have time to explain," he said quickly, then led her back into the bedroom, "I have to get you out of here. You did some things tonight, while you were under the control of the Slave Crown. The guards want you dead. Don't ask why, it's better you don't know for now. Take this."
He handed her a short sword that he had grabbed from somewhere. Ancients knew if Terra had seen where he had picked it up. He opened the back door and tried to hurry her on.
"You have to move quickly, Terra," he said, "Make your way across the bridges over to the mines. There are escape tunnels there, you can get out of town that way. If I can I'll send someone after you to help. In the meantime I'll keep these brutes occupied for as long as I can. Go, hurry!"
The old man turned back inside and hastily closed the door. Not knowing what else to do, Terra began making her way across the bridges. The town was nestled into the valley within the mountains, and the bridges connected the higher levels of the mines without having to go through town. Unfortunately, they were in plain view of the roads within the town. And red was not the most inconspicuous of colors.
"There she is!" she dimly heard over the sound of rushing wind. Below her she could see at least a dozen or two guards in brown uniforms with facemasks to protect against the cold winds gather below her. She could only barely make out what they were saying.
"She's heading into the mines!"
"Do you think she knows about any of the exits?"
"Who flaming cares! We do! And we can flaming beat her to any of them! Move out!"
Around the guards were common townsfolk who were looking at her with disgust and hatred. A few of them even threw a couple handfuls of wrinkled old fruit at her.
Choking back sobs and a fury she couldn't understand, Terra raced forward into the mines. Oil lamps sat lighted within the caves, spaced intermittently to provide more than enough light.
With no idea of where she was going, Terra pushed on through the mines, fighting her way through the giant mine rats, many of which wore harnesses that spoke of domestication. The deadly mine vapors seemed have a life of their own, trying to choke Terra as she passed. Somehow her sword was just as effective a weapon against them as anything she could think of.
It wasn't until she'd been in the mines for over a half-hour that she ran into a group of creatures she hadn't seen before and couldn't imagine anything more ugly. They were hideous, gnomish men with hunched backs. Their oversized green shirts seemed to make them look comical, until the closest one knocked Terra back with the heavy wrench it was carrying.
Terra sprang back to her feet, slicing wide with her borrowed sword, killing that one. Two more came in and it took her some fast swordplay to prevent them from hitting her too much. She had no idea how to wield a sword, but somehow her arm moved with instinctive skill.
Suddenly she tripped on a rock, and the creature next to her landed a solid blow against her leg. As Terra fell over one more cut hewed the little thing's head. As she tried to push herself back up, the last little creature threw one of its wrenches at her, striking Terra squarely in the chest.
Anger boiled up inside of her, rage taking over her senses. Without realizing exactly what she was doing, a stream of fire shot forth from her extended hand. The little creature squealed as the flames engulfed it. When Terra's vision finally pushed past the red cloud of anger, she could see the charred husk of the little man. Looking down, Terra saw little wisps of smoke rising from her palm, although it didn't hurt and her hand looked unharmed.
What the bloody hell was that? she wondered, then instantly chastised herself for her language.
But no matter her language, Terra was still in shock at what she had unconsciously done. Somehow she knew that it just wasn't normal to shoot fire from your hand. Not normal at all.
She tried standing, but her leg had taken a bad blow from one of the creatures.
Burn me, I have to get up.
As Terra rested a hand against her leg, she was once again astonished as her hand suddenly seemed to glow with a soft green light, and after a few moments the pain vanished.
Okay, now I'm scaring my-flaming-self, she thought, this time without worrying about her language.
Picking herself up off the ground, Terra set her face into one of determination and began pressing on towards one of the exits she knew had to be there. But just as she was rounding a bend towards some brighter light, a Narshe guard came around from the other direction and saw her.
"Got her!" he yelled, "Sir, I've found her! Bring the others!"
"No!" she screamed, and then began running back the other direction. There had to be another way out of these mines, she could keep them back long enough for…
A squad of guards suddenly appeared in front of her.
"We have her boxed in!" yelled one of them.
"Keep her contained, get as many men as you flaming can to hold that bloody witch where she is!" ordered another.
Scared and confused, not knowing what to do, Terra kept backing up into a corner as the two squads of guards advanced on her.
"Now we got you," sneered one of the guards.
Just as he said that, however, the ground beneath Terra seemed to suddenly give way. She screamed as she fell, and didn't stop until she hit her head on the ground when she finally landed, and everything went black.
Sights and sounds wove in and out of her mind, images and the ghosts of memories bombarded her mind.
She was tied down into a chair, the metal walls of the room looked stark and cold. The gag in her mouth made it difficult to even swallow. A man came around into her vision, tall and dressed in bright colors, with ruffled sleeves and a high collar, he looked almost comical.
Almost comical.
"My sweet little witch," he said softly, grinning evilly as he gave a high-pitched maniacal laugh, "Now I finally have you exactly where I want you. You can't imagine what a struggle old Cid put up to keep you in the research center. He thought I was a danger to you. Vweee, hehehe! The fool! With this Slave Crown, I will own you! You will become the weapon you were born to be; my weapon!"
As the brown, wire-studded circlet approached her head, the image faded to darkness, to be replaced with new ones.
There was a village, it was burning. She could see people, running around, screaming. Why weren't they doing anything to stop this! Why were they so terrified? She saw a group of guards approaching her, weapons drawn and ready.
Wait. Stop! Why are you attacking me! What have I done! she asked desperately, and then realized it was only within her own mind.
The guards charged her wildly, as she looked down she saw a control panel with switches and levers. Suddenly a bolt of pure energy shot from her and vaporized one of the guards. Two more blasts ended the lives of the other soldiers.
A young woman was suddenly next to her, banging her fists against the metal monstrosity Terra found herself in. A few more buttons and a massive metal arm swung around and struck the woman, sending her flying into one of the burning homes. The rest of the building then collapsed on top of her.
Suddenly the painted man strode up next to her in an identical suit of armor. He was laughing hysterically. Remembering his laugh made Terra want to cringe.
"Good! Wonderful! Torch it all, my sorceress! Burn this village to the ground!"
And she did.
The memory faded, and more images flashed through her. They slowed again for her to see herself on the roof of some massive structure. The painted man was there, along with another man, just as tall, and far more regal despite the odd haircut, everything shaved but for a strip down the center. There was a woman there too, Terra couldn't see anything except for the snow-white cloak that hung from her shoulders.
And there was an old man there, too. He seemed regal and important, dressed in rich robes. He strode forward, addressing an audience that Terra couldn't see.
"Citizens of the Empire, today is a great day. For so many years we have been uniting our continent under one banner, so that the war that your fathers and mothers saw so many years ago will never again occur. Now we stand united! We stand strong! We are one people!"
Cheers overwhelmed her and forced the old man to stop. Moments later they finally quieted down, and he spoke again.
"Today we stand upon the brink of a major breakthrough! We now are poised to meet our destiny in the north. We have friends there, and many enemies, but we are strong and united and we will overcome them! My scientists have been hard at work and in the days to come we will see a total revival of magic! It is a force beyond reckoning, beyond imagination! It is our destiny, and ours alone as the sole unified people of the world, to take this mystic force and claim what is rightfully ours! With this new-found power, no enemy can stand in our way! We will destroy those who serve chaos and anarchy, and we shall unite the world!"
The cheers were deafening, she couldn't even have heard her own thoughts, if she'd had any. It was inspiring, it was a noble goal, it was… horrific what they were willing to do to achieve it.
As the memory-dream faded to blackness once again, Terra's last though was a question as to what horrors she had done to help those people fulfill that goal.
Arvis paced back and forth in his sitting room. The guards had thoroughly searched his home, but fortunately hadn't found the slave crown hidden in a space below the floorboards of his bedroom.
The Marshal had been quite furious when the guards didn't find anything, and swore to come back and make Arvis tell everything he knew. Arvis wasn't too worried, even if the Marshal had the stomach for what he said he'd do, torture was not something Elder Kendrik would ever condone.
"You said it was urgent," said a voice.
Arvis spun around to find a young man with light brown hair sitting lazily in the chair. He wore blue denim pants and a similar vest over a plain white shirt, with a blue bandanna tied back over his head and fingerless gloves on his hands.
"You're late," replied Arvis with a feral grin, "So, how goes the robbing and plundering trade?"
The youth leapt out the chair with a look of shock and indignation.
"I prefer the term treasure-hunting, if you don't mind," he said quietly.
Arvis let himself have a hearty laugh at his young friend's expense, and was gratified to see the hint of a grin on his face. "Semantic nonsense, Locke. You above all others should know how little words mean to people."
Locke nodded. "Yeah, I do. But it's not nonsense. There is a huge difference. Stealing is taking something that belongs to someone else. Treasure-hunting is taking something that doesn't belong to anyone."
The older man held up his hands in mock surrender. "Whatever you want to call it, kid. It just sometimes seems that your treasure is anything that isn't bolted down."
"Look, Arvis, you're the one that sent for me, remember?" commented Locke, "So do you need me for something or should I go out and find myself some treasure."
The older man's face turned deadly serious in an instant, and Locke dropped his entire playful manner. There were times for jokes and humor, and there weren't. This was apparently one of the latter. Arvis forced himself to take a deep breath.
"There's a girl that I would like for you to meet," he said diplomatically.
Locke blew out his breath. "A girl?" he asked, exasperation clear in his voice, "You called me out of the inn after what happened last night, with bloody Ancients knows how many guards dead, and you want me to meet… wait. This better not have anything to do with that Magitek-riding, Imperial… witch!"
Arvis extended his hand, and Locke took what had been in it. A brown circlet with wires and metal knobs in a dome shape. Locke gasped and felt his blood turn to ice. He almost threw it to the ground as though it suddenly burned him.
"Is this…?"
"A Slave Crown," finished Arvis, "Yeah. The girl, Terra, she was wearing it when I found her. As you can see, the thing is fried, I don't think we'll be able to figure out how those flaming things work, but take it with you. If she was wearing that, then you can be bloody well sure Imperial troops will be after her, and that, and get them back. And as we clearly saw last night, this town is no match for the Empire."
"This can't be real," muttered Locke, "I mean, last we heard, the Empire had, what, four slave crowns? Why would they go wasting them on a girl?"
"I don't think it was a waste," replied the older man, "She came to very quickly after I removed the crown, and she remembered her name a few moments later. She clearly wasn't the one in control of her actions. She was just a puppet on Imperial strings. We must get her to understand our dilemma. Narshe can't survive against the Empire. We have to convince the Elder's Council and particularly Elder Kendrik to ally with the Returners."
"All right, all right already," sighed Locke, "You're going to be the death of me. You know that, don't you?"
"Yeah, and why do you think I've gone gray so early, kid?" replied Arvis with a grin.
Locked nodded. "Then I guess I'd better go and help her. Where is she?"
"I sent her into the mines just as the guards showed up," explained Arvis, "She probably doesn't know where any of the exits are, so look around on the first few levels. You can't miss her; bright green hair and a red silk dress. You have to get her to Banon as quickly as possible."
"No can do. Imperial patrols are too heavy south of Figaro."
"Then get her first to Figaro, talk to the king, maybe he can help the two of you out somehow. Good journey."
Locke nodded his thanks and slipped out the way he'd come in, through the back door. In the early morning sun, most of the people of Narshe were trying to clean up from the massacre the night before. Even the two guards stationed at the mine entrance were too busy looking at the mess in the town below to pay him any attention. Locke easily slipped past them and into the mines.
He wasn't a particularly skilled tracker, but even Locke could make out the heeled boot marks in the gravel floor made from decades of mining.
A child could have followed her through this place, he thought with a grin.
Farther into the mines, Locke found the bootprints of men, a lot of them. He followed them back into a corner where the light was swallowed up by a deep hole. The heeled boots had led right there. It was too tight a fit for anyone in armor, but for Locke it was doable.
"Burn you, Arvis," he whispered as he squeezed himself into the hole, "you owe me for this."
He continued to push and climb his way down, until he had descended what had to have been at least three levels of the mines. Suddenly his feet were kicking about wildly in midair. Locke continued a little slower, until he could see below him. It looked like a natural cavern, large flames hung in mid-air along the walls. Below him there was a form of red and green.
Locke let go and landed lightly. He turned to the girl. She was breathing lightly, but there was a nasty bump on her head.
"Now how do I flaming get you out of here?" he asked himself.
"Marshal! Sir! We've found a new area!" yelled a voice from the other end of the cavern.
"Take a few squads and see what you can find!"
"Yes sir!"
"Wonderful," muttered Locke, "There's a whole flaming bunch of 'em."
"Kupo!"
Locke spun on his heel, and nearly jumped back in shock. Almost a dozen small, white-furred creatures with tiny wings surrounded the girl. They looked up at Locke, then several looked down the cavern. Quickly chittering to themselves, they formed up in three groups, one group immediately went down one of the pathways towards the guards.
"Kupo!"
A second group was looking up at him expectantly.
"Moogles?" he breathed, "Are… are you saying… you want to help me?"
"Kupo!"
The third group, he saw, still surrounded Terra, and a couple were doing some kind of strange dance. Shrugging his shoulders at the madness of it all, Locke turned back around and led the Moogles down another one of the paths.
The guard squads were composed mostly of kids younger than Locke. Most of the older guards had probably been killed the night before, he realized with disgust. The fights were over quickly, as the Moogles were fierce combatants with their own weapons, but both they and Locke did their best not to kill anyone. Farther away, Locke could feel the cavern shake with what had to be cave-ins, though he didn't realize why that would be happening now after the mines had existed for so long.
Finally, Locke and his team made it to the other end of the cave, where he was shocked to see the Marshal-Captain of Narshe's guards there waiting.
"Who the bloody hell are you!" he asked.
"I'm with these Moogles, who are defending their home grounds," he bluffed, "you're men are mostly unharmed, but you have to leave, the Moogles will bring the injured back to the upper levels of the mines when they're certain you've gone."
The Marshal suddenly smirked as he drew his sword. "What nonsense. The Imperial witch is back there, isn't she? Stand aside rogue, this is not your business. If you leave Narshe immediately no harm will come to you."
"I can't do that," said Locke firmly, even as he became aware that his dagger was pitifully small compared to the other man's sword.
"As you wish."
He sprang forward, and Locke was hard-pressed to prevent the Marshal from killing him in the first pass. Alone, the Marshal would have had Locke's head on a pike inside a minute. But the Moogles turned the tide, their small spears and swords whittling away the Marshal's ability to fight. After several minutes, Locke finally managed to solidly plant his dagger in the man's right shoulder, then knocked him out with a fierce punch.
"Ow! Bloody Ancients!" he cried out, holding his hand.
The Moogles chittered among themselves, and Locke was certain they were laughing at him. They quickly met up with other group, and together they returned to the girl. The Moogles that had stayed with her seemed to just be finishing up, the bump on her head was now gone.
"Kupo!" they cried as they disappeared into the cavern's shadows.
"Thanks Moogles," Locke said softly, "Couldn't have done it without you. All right sweetheart, let's get you out of here."
With that, the young rogue picked Terra up and carried her over his shoulder. She was very lightweight, and Locke had no trouble navigating through the lower caverns and up into the more familiar mines as he made his way to one of the secret exits long forgotten about.
He gently laid Terra on the ground and then went over to one of the walls.
"All right, now which bloody switch is it?" he mused, then spotted it, "Aha, I think this one'll…"
Pulling down on the lever disguised as any normal thrust of stone activated the hinges. A section of the wall slid back several inches, and then swung open, revealing a long dark tunnel.
"I'm never gonna be able to carry her through…"
"Ohhh."
Locke turned to see the girl beginning to stir. She shook her head, obviously trying to clear the cobwebs, and her vibrant green curls shook back and forth. She really was quite beautiful, Locke finally realized. He came and knelt down next to her.
"So, you're finally back with us, now?" he asked.
"Who… who are you?" she returned, her voice still a little shaky.
He grinned. "The name's Locke, adventurer and treasure-hunter extraordinaire! I came down through the mines after you, help you get out of Narshe and to somewhere that's safe."
Her emerald eyes were filled with confusion. "You, did you save me from the guards? All I can remember is the ground opening beneath my feet, and then… falling."
Terra suppressed a shudder as the memory of those dreams came back to her. The painted man who put the slave crown on her seemed to be sneering at her. She shook her head again to clear the man from her eyes. The young man, Locke, was watching her intently. Not like he was studying her, for his eyes were compassionate, but he was definitely curious.
Locke shrugged again. "Not by myself. You should save your thanks for the Moogles. They did more than I could have. You had a pretty nasty bump on the head that they healed."
"Moogles?" she questioned, and a half-remembered image of a small white-furred being flashed briefly in her eyes.
"So, what do you have that Empire wanted so desperately?" wondered Locke, "All I can see is an attractive girl, sure with a weird hair color, but I don't see anything else about you that they'd sacrifice a Slave Crown for."
Terra swallowed nervously. She wasn't about to reveal the flames shooting from her hand or the glow that had healed her leg. So she settled for a little white lie.
"I… I can't remember anything," she said, "past or present. Not where I come from, not what I've done all the years of my life, not even how I ended up here in Narshe."
"Amnesia?" muttered Locke, and suddenly his own mind was filled memories that he wished he could forget. Memories of his beloved Rachel, falling in the cave, losing her memory of their love, and his failing her. Ancients he wished he could have saved her.
"There was a man in the town," said Terra, interrupting his thoughts, "he said that my memory would come back."
Locke nodded, this wasn't the time to dwell on his memories. "That would be Arvis. He's a good guy, he's the one that sent me to find you and help out. Give your memory some time, he only removed the crown this morning. You'll be safe with me. I give you my word of honor that I won't leave you at least until your memory returns. I swear it on all the treasure in the world."
Her smile was radiant in its gratitude. With a smile of his own, Locke extended a hand to help Terra to her feet. Holding her hand to be sure to stay together, Locke plunged down into the dark tunnel, that was only sixty or so paces long before he pushed aside the false rock face and brought the two of them into the late morning sunlight.
As Terra emerged he found the outside control lever and switched it to its original position. The outside rock face suddenly slid back into position, and Locke knew that the same had happened inside the mines.
"By the way," he said, "you may want to remember about this secret entrance. Narshe has about a half a dozen of them scattered throughout the mines, but this one has long been forgotten. This little outcropping here is the control switch. So try not to forget about it."
He said the last with a wink and a grin, and Terra couldn't help but smile. Nothing seemed to bother Locke, and she liked him.
"Where are we going?" she wanted to know.
"I'm going to get you far from Narshe," Locke answered, "the safest place I can think of. Figaro."