CH 5: Master's Teachings
The worlds' order
It's Terra's idea to stay at the secret garden post practice, a proposal he asks her about one morning after his invitation to that very spot. Spring brings forth clear skies and fair weather, enough that it would be shameful to stay cooped up in the castle rather than outside. Flowers are blooming in earnest, and there is a certain cheer that accompanies the growing warmth.
Aqua is apprehensive to say yes at first. She can still envision the glowing eyes amidst the darkness of the night, feel the dread that slithers into her senses from the unknown.
"It'll be fine," Terra says. "We're not too far from the plains, and we can always go before sundown. Just follow me."
He adds on how he needs help tending to various vegetables – rows of carrots, cabbages, leeks and peas – or so he says; Aqua finds out that very afternoon it's not so much her help he desires, but rather, her company as he works. Keen to be friends, she agrees and helps him carry off books to study during the daylight. They go about silently in preparation for their next lesson (which has unfortunately hit a dull topic of theoretical changes brought by magic at a subatomic level) – at least until they cannot stand it anymore, prompting Aqua to read aloud from a big book of stories instead.
This particular tale is a grand one, about rogue pirates and the untold riches stowed in a far-off place, a famed planet buried with treasures. In no time at all, Aqua reaches the last page.
"…when he looks up, he sees the gleam of the stars, twinkling above like the very eyes of that rogue who took off in jubilant laughter…"
Terra yawns contently in response as Aqua closes the book. Having watered and fertilized the crops, he carefully puts aside his whittling work, and lays down, disappearing within the groves of pansies and yellow trilliums. She can't blame him; today's a very lazy day, the sun welcoming them to doze on the smooth, tepid grass.
The block of wood he's been working away with is taking shape, but there are no discerning features about it yet. Aqua wants to ask, but she has a feeling that their friendship is still in its early, fragile stage. Much like a dandelion, she has to treat it with upmost care. She settles with pulling up another book she's seen him reading last night, handing it over.
"Why are you giving it to me?" he asks.
"I thought we were taking turns."
"Oh. Well…" A strange expression clouds Terra's face. "Wouldn't I be spoiling it for you?"
"I don't mind," Aqua says. She presses the novel to him once more.
Terra looks taken back at the book she hands to him. He passes it to and fro, as if he's unsure of how to even open it.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he affirms quickly. His left hand twitches as his finger glosses over the title of the book. "Anyway…"
Even as his opens the cover, flipping to the bookmark page, he makes no attempt to read the text aloud. Terra coughs before starting in a slow drawl.
"Erm, okay…the…the creepers of the grates were startled to find someone already there…"
Aqua looks over his shoulders to read alongside him.
"Terra?" She frowns. "It's says keeper of the gates."
"Right," Terra mumbles, before flushing red. He squints at the page again, hesitating a beat too long.
"Once the men saw that this stranger was no one else but the prince, they…ray-rep-"
"Rejoice," Aqua says helpfully, then immediately wishes she hasn't.
Terra stares hard at the words. Finding that she is right, he carefully reads the rest of the passage. Even though it isn't particularly hard, Aqua could see the relief that passes over him – that is, until he fumbles another word. She doesn't make another attempt to correct, but he pauses, knowing what he just spoke makes no sense with the context of it all. Terra shuts the book hastily, and Aqua fears that an invisible wall, one she thought they had overcome, is starting to thicken once more.
"You can laugh if you want," he mumbles.
"Er," she says, perhaps too quickly, "about what?"
Terra looks as if he bit into bitter melon.
"About the fact that I can't read," he begins hotly. "Read right, I mean. I can't do it as well as you.
He begins to thrust the book back to her, but thinking better of it, sighs and places it in her hand a touch gentler than originally intended. Clearly, he doesn't want to be the one to break the peace between them either, and it gives her hope – just a little.
"It's okay. Plenty of kids in Radiant Garden mix up their words too," she assures him. "It takes practice, that's all."
Terra nods slowly at this.
"I know. It's just–" He sighs. "I can read by myself, most of the time. Not a lot, cause then I get headaches, but I really can read well when nobody's, you know…listening."
His voice gives away to unexpected earnestness at the end, like he's trying to convince her to believe him. Although Aqua does trust him on this, the way it comes out is so unlike the cool, unbothered boy who she knows that it startles her. All she can offer is a lame "sure," which does little to reconcile him.
"I believe you," she states in a hurry. "I won't make fun of you for it, I promise."
Terra stops fiddling with the grass.
"But you can, you know. Everybody else did anyway."
Aqua edges closer at this. His voice has dropped so much it's hard to catch what he's saying.
"Who do you mean?"
Terra wets his lips, opening his mouth to give a proper explanation, but then clams it shut before turning away. A bell goes off in Aqua's head – of course, Master Eraqus had mentioned, the falling of Terra's home. Whoever he's thinking about is most likely long gone. Her mouth goes dry, and she is racking her brains to say something to save the little pleasantness left.
"Nobody made fun of anybody in the orphanage for not reading well. Otherwise we'll get in trouble. Besides, I don't want to do that either way," Aqua declares. "We're friends, right?"
It feels a bit silly to declare something as simple as that, but at this point Aqua couldn't be sure. They have stopped fighting, but the hesitation she senses before Terra confirms that yes, they are indeed friends, is enough to prove there's still more work to be done on that. Trying not to dwell on this small unhappiness, she offers to read the book from the beginning, which cheers him up considerably – she unravels the story with poise and is clearly appreciative of all the right parts that when they get ready to retreat back to the castle, their spirits are as light as when they first start out.
"Thanks for…you know…" Terra says, rubbing the back of his neck. Keeping his promise, the sun is casting the last of its rays before dipping behind the mountains as they edge out of the meadow.
"S'okay," she nods. "I've read to the younger kids before because the misses told me to – so I got a lot of practice out of it. If you want I can help you, um, read smoother."
"Really?" Then, perhaps ashamed he sounds so eager, Terra clears his throat and walks quicker to the castle's entrance.
"Really," she says, catching up to him.
He slows down some before they reach the dining hall. Maybe he's thinking of how to properly respond to this unexpected help, but being unable to fully express his gratitude, Terra is left giving her a sheepish grin.
"Same time tomorrow?"
Aqua doesn't hesitate, and a definite "yeah" leaves her mouth before she even realizes.
Things become exceptionally better as friends. By the time they hang around the garden for the fifth time, the hours seem to chip away until dusk settles, and they continue their companionship well past what is expected.
In exchange for Aqua's help reading, Terra suggests that they work together on techniques, during which he readily gives Aqua pointers on how to utilize the sides of her wooden sword better. She tries to copy his style of fighting, and quickly discovers she can't match his strength. However, Terra does not scoff anymore, and makes genuine attempts to help her improve her sparring. With the sudden increase in productivity, there's ample time to relax afterwards. They grow careless of their company, with midday chores made fun as they begin talking about everything, and yet nothing in particular. It slows down their progress of course, and sometimes Master Eraqus will give them a stern reminder to finish up their duties.
Aqua knows the Master isn't really mad; he's probably more relieved they can find a friend in each other. Still, it doesn't stop him from rebuking them when they grow lax on their lessons, and without the fiery competition they once had, Aqua notes how she and Terra face a different problem now – instead of quizzes and the like she's known in Radiant Garden, Master Eraqus makes it a habit to test them by popping the occasional question, sometimes aimed directly at Terra and his glassy face.
This happens during one particular lesson, when they are moving on from the collective history of the Age of Fairytales to the wider range cultures of that could be found from world to world. As established hierarchies of multiple worlds are being explored, Aqua can't help but feel sorry for Terra, as he blinks in alarm at the question.
"Yes Master?" he asks, snapping to.
Eraqus is not amused.
"I am asking you, Terra, exactly what importance a royal family – say from a place like Enchanted Dominion – serves in regard to the entrance of outsiders."
"Er," Terra intones, as Eraqus raises a questioning brow, "I-I don't know, sir."
Eraqus stares hard at Terra, enough so that even Aqua, who sits on the Master's opposite side, rights herself to be as straight as an arrow. Once properly ensuring Terra's attention, the Master proceeds to explain how the royal family bears the honor of knowing more than their subjects about the history and hearts of worlds, thus carry the responsibilities of enforcing the protection of their world's order.
"If nothing else," Eraqus says, "remember this – it is crucial that we serve not just as warriors of the Light, but as peacekeepers. We are free to tread on any world in existence, but they are not ours to claim over. When we enter each world, we are considered outsiders and must obey the rules of inhabitants.
"In fact, some worlds are not entirely welcoming of Keybearers. It may be due to caution, fear, or perhaps rash assumptions of us. They know the Keyblade holds power, but they also know the terrible dangers it beckons. Even in this era of peace, the remnants of what happened a century ago, and the splitting of the world is retold, maybe more accurately on some worlds than others."
Aqua stops twiddling with the grass on her side. It has never occurred to her exactly how many rules there are in order to keep all the worlds safe. How to gauge, how to remain discreet, how go about getting an audience with those empower, and then, how to act when you finally do – the Master goes through it all.
Terra starts to drift off again, his expression slightly unfocused. Even she begins to feel the boring rigidness of Master Eraqus' explanation about surveying from a distance, like learning the rules of the world before blending in and prodding exactly how much the inhabitants know. The lecture goes on without anything notable aside from further mentions of Enchanted Dominion, specifically about the unusual abundance of Light from the rumored princess who should be about Aqua's age if the Master remembers correctly. By the time they are dismissed, the Master yanks Terra back to attention, and they are given one final tidbit of "if nothing else, remember this" about the dangers of a dark sorceress who lives in the shadows of that world.
"It's not fair though," Terra muses during their retreat back to the garden. "How come it's always me?"
Aqua bites down her smirk. Truthfully, between the two of them, she's more prone to daydreaming during the lessons, so it's crucial that she gives all the right cues on the right time. Judging the tone of Master Eraqus' voice, his pauses and gestures, she either nods or give the occasional hum.
"You just got to pay more attention."
"Says you," he remarks. Terra, somehow catching exactly how bored she is during their lecture, has agreed to keep it secret, justifying it with "well, I think it's pretty funny too."
Although they both respect the Master a lot, nothing stops them from making fun of him every now and then. His hard-earned wisdom, not yet comprehensible, earns them fits of laughter when they study together, as they take every chance to parrot his trademark phrase.
"If nothing else," Aqua says in her most queenly voice, "remember this."
"Ha," Terra snickers. "You sound just like him!"
Encouraged by each other, they continue to share their outrageous impressions, each more exaggerated than the last. Chuckling at their cleverness, they stretch over their toppled books to pore over the thicket that leads deeper into the woods.
"Hey Terra, do you ever wonder what's past those bushes over there?" Aqua points at the direction of the darkening, narrow road.
"More trees," Terra retorts, grinning at her unamused face. "It's true. Take a look."
He gets up to his feet, beckoning her over.
They have to crawl under the small opening of the bushes, as they were too thick to push aside, and the surrounding trees grew too closely for them to walk around. The tunnel is small, but wide enough for them to go through without too much difficulty. When they reach the end, Aqua has to brush some loose leaves from her head.
"Took me a while to make the hole big enough," Terra says, "but see?"
He points at one nearby, and Aqua can see a faint 'T' has been carved on its base. Terra takes the lead once more, and she follows him closely. The path they trend on is slight yet noticeable enough to mark it as well used. They pass by a couple of more trees with Terra's markings, some with wild flowers for company. As they edge deeper, she can hear the growing roars of moving waters.
"Careful, we're right above a cave," Terra informs her as they step over damp ridges of stone. "I got a bad cut from here one time."
Sure enough, peering from the hem of his shorts, she could see a white scar that trails to his calf. Aqua thinks she's finally got an answer to what Terra does when the Master is away. While Master Eraqus has been exploring, Terra has been making his own discoveries right here, on this very corner of the world.
"Wow," she breathes out, once the waterfall comes to view. Even grander is the lake the water spills out to, with more mountains in the distance. "You didn't say anything about this."
"I haven't really been past this point," he says, shrugging. "There's too much water. If we want to go further out, we have to find another road."
The stillness of the lake made it so that the horizon where water and sky meet are indiscernible. They break this illusion by taking turns skipping rocks, Terra a touch proud when his rocks fly out further, at least until Aqua's final stone skips past his mark.
As they make their way back to drier land, a rustle comes from the bush behind them. Aqua drops her stone in a jolt. The noise doesn't bother Terra, and he doesn't even notice her shrinking from behind him. Instead, he holds his arm out, as if greeting an old friend. A deer pops out, and with her, a young fawning. They also do not seem to be troubled by Terra's presence, although they do seem apprehensive to Aqua's.
"Why are you standing all the way over there for?" Terra asks, finally noticing her position. "Come say hello."
"Er," Aqua says, not moving an inch.
Terra laughs softly, and the sound tinkles in the air. "They don't bite, I promise."
Her foot snaps a stray branch as she steps forward. The deer rears back with her ears up, and her child follows suit. Terra has to hold out his hand and soothe them before Aqua could take another step.
"Sorry," she whispers.
Terra takes her shaky hand and moves it, slowly and gently, towards the nose of the deer. The magnificent creature proceeds to sniff, until at last it gives a small tentative lick. Aqua breathes out in relief, her hand still hovering in the air.
"You can pet them now," Terra says, smiling broadly.
She does. Their hair is coarser than she expects, and the fawn is both skittish and desperate for her attention. Aqua treats it much gentler until it proves it's overcome their fears completely. She pets its head carefully, and is rewarded with a deliberate closing of it's large innocuous eyes.
"I did it," she sighs.
"Yep," Terra says proudly. "Now they trust you."
When both mother and child leave, Aqua's hand is licked raw.
Terra and Aqua start their slow trek back to their meadow. On the way, he explains the troubles of having a garden out in the woods. He had to set traps and snares every so often to keep wild animals out, and one day without meaning to, his snare caught hold of a deer lurking nearby. With no resolve to dispose it, Terra freed it, and started making a fence to keep both prey and predators away. Ever since, he's come across various other animals but makes sure to keep to his own territory.
"It's amazing though," Aqua says once they are back in the garden, "with all the things you find here. A whole place to yourself."
"Yeah," Terra nods. He looks at her. "You really think so?"
"You don't?"
Terra gives a noncommittal hum. "It's not that I don't think it's amazing, I do. But being here, all the time makes me, I don't know…see things differently. I guess."
"There's still plenty of things we haven't seen yet," Aqua points out. "We haven't been around the entire world."
Terra considers this, but only briefly.
"Remember when we were learning about the Great Keyblade War from a hundred years ago? The Master said that when Daybreak Town split and all its pieces were left to form a world of its own, this place itself is what's left from the fountain where Master Ava told the dandelions to run."
Aqua nods, finishing the memory. "That's where all the Keyblade wielders gathered, and that's why we have all this Light to protect us."
Terra doesn't seem to be satisfied with this. He looks over all their toppled books, reaching for the one titling Radiant Garden's history.
"I like it here, but I can't help thinking about the chances of me being anywhere else," Terra says. "You're really lucky, since Radiant Garden is huge."
A strange, hungry look crosses his eyes, but when Aqua blinks it's gone. What replaces it is a wistful expression. Carefully mulling over the right words, he utters quietly.
"This world is just…too small."
A younger Terra, trampling around while Master Eraqus is gone crosses her mind. Training, reading, planting and getting hurt before picking himself back up again, alone.
"Sorry," he says quickly. "It's only because we keep talking about worlds, and I haven't been since Master Eraqus took me when I first came here."
"You got to travel with the Master?" she inquires.
"Only once," Terra admits. "It was a long time ago, when we were searching for someone, a friend of his, I think. The place we went to had lots of islands and grew star-shaped fruit. It was just that one time, and I don't think it'll be easy for the Master to take us both before we learn how to summon our Keyblade."
"Have you tried?"
Terra blushes.
"Sometimes, I guess…I don't know. It's hasn't come yet." He looks away, hand on the nape of his neck.
Aqua has an inkling that sometimes may mean more than Terra suggests. She had spent countless hours grasping at thin air in the privacy of her bedroom. The thought that perhaps Terra did too gives her some comfort. Besides, the Master did mention that it takes some time to summon one, and it wasn't so long ago that she came here. She tells him so.
"I've been here longer though," Terra corrects flatly, "and nothing's ever happened."
Here she deflates a little. The same memory echoes Master Eraqus' afterthought – it will still take some time – in some rare cases, even years – for a corporal Keyblade of one's own to emerge…
"I don't get it," Terra finally says. "the Master said I'm strong. I've tried, but no matter what, it won't appear."
"What about getting to know what's close our hearts?" Aqua recalls. "Maybe we need to start there."
Terra shakes his head and mumbles, "I know that my heart is strong. I just wonder if it's strong enough."
He goes quiet, holding his left hand with his right, gingerly studying something Aqua can't see. She considers his contemplation, while also thinking back to how, not long ago, they competed time after time, just to best each other. Frustratingly so, she cannot say that Terra isn't the most driven and unyielding person she knows.
"If it's not already," Aqua says, "it will be."
Here in the grove, speckles of light colors Terra's eyes in a golden hue. He seems puzzled by her declaration, but eventually accepts the support behind it. He gives a rueful smile.
"Thanks. One day when my heart's strong enough," he says, looking to the sky, "I'll go out there and see everything. Just like the Master."
The wind sweeps by them, shaking the trees and whipping their hair. When Aqua opens her eyes again, she finds Terra's has returned to their startling blue.
Every day since then, Terra and Aqua would edge just a bit further out around the lake, paving away a new path. They always have to stop before dark, so not much could be said about their progress on making it to the mountains on the other side. Regardless, they have fun hopping over stumps and walking over fallen logs. Terra insists they now carve 'T & A' over any noticeable landmark, and even hands her one of his special whittling knives to do so. Bolden by his sureness, Aqua begins to walk in stride with him. Once their day adventures are done, when night falls they take a trip to different worlds, with the help of books and the dim glow of a single lantern they share between each other.
Spring yields plenty of crops and sweet apricots, which Master Eraqus makes into pies once a week. Although both Terra and Aqua offer to help, neither has talent when it comes to cooking, and so under the Master's orders they dutifully retreat to wash up while he cleans up the now very messy kitchen. As they walk down the halls to use the sink in the small bath, Terra flicks some flour at Aqua, and she retaliates by smearing apricot juice on his chin.
"You got it in my hair," she grumbles, trying to swipe it clean.
"Yeah well," Terra smirks, thumbing the juice and licking it away, "you should've gotten it on mine."
And she would have too, if he didn't back up so fast and started running down the hall. They collided by the foot of the door to the bathroom in fits of giggles as they struggled, Aqua trying to reach over him and Terra grasping at both her wrist.
"Stay – still–" she grunts, aiming for his parted bangs. Terra's still physically stronger, but he looks surprised by her growth in strength.
"Okay," he laughs. "Okay! You win! Lemme go."
Cleaning up proves to be even more challenging as their fight does not subside. Terra flicks water at her, and she aims the sink's faucet squarely to his face.
"Aqua!" he cries, but her name is garbled by the water, which spills out and dribbles down his chin.
"What?" she says, a bit too innocently. "You're clean now."
They step back out the hall, the closet-size infirmary right across from them. As Aqua turns to go, she does a double take when a glint from something at the far corner flashes her. Now that it's daylight, she could see a reflective handle attached to an even smaller door that's right next to them. Perhaps that night she took Terra to the medic room she was so fearful that she didn't notice it before, but somehow that doesn't seem to be the case. The door is narrow and pale, nearly blending with the wall.
"Terra, what's that room over there?"
The boy pivots to track the direction of her pointing finger.
"Oh. That." Terra stares uneasily at the door. "It's an old room. I think it used to belong to someone, but Master Eraqus said they left a long time ago. It's not important – we should head back."
There's something about it, and the way Terra is fidgeting, resolutely trying to steer them away that has her curious.
"Have you been inside?"
"Yeah, when I first got here," Terra confesses, but then twitches his eyebrow in annoyance. "And come on, stop doing that."
"Sorry," she says. As much as she knows how Terra doesn't like it when she reads him, sometimes she can't help it. "I just want to check it out."
"Aqua–" Terra starts, but she has already opened the door and slipped in. He follows with less enthusiasm.
The first thing that hits her is the smell – that of stale dryness, which effectively hovers over a second, less prominent odor. It's musky yet sterile, kind of like a hospital room, purposely scented clean. Aqua wrinkles her nose.
Dust looms heavily in this place, even more so than the treasure room. A thin sliver of the evening's dying light makes its way through the curtains, but only just.
Aqua can now tell exactly why Terra is so uncomfortable here – whereas the treasure room may be filled with discarded items of other people, rich with sentimentality and hopes from each individual, this bedroom gives no tragic imprint.
Instead, what is left behind brings up more questions than answers. Littered on the floor are loose pieces of crumple notes, pairs of thin rubber gloves, and alarmingly curious, a dull scalpel. Picking up and unraveling a note, she sees it's a page detailing the human anatomy, specifically, the heart.
There's a low ticking coming from a metronome on top of a shelf over the bed. Lined up against it were several hourglasses, in which each grain of sand within has already reached the bottom. Still, the metronome ticks away, marching along with time with or without its owner.
Certainly, someone has slept and used this room before, but Aqua can't tell what sort of person they were – it's as if they tried erasing their own presence completely.
"What is all this?" she whispers.
She traces the parchment of notes tacked up against the wall, the writing too frantic and faded for her to read. There is a bold circling on a certain key aspect. Who made it was so excited about what they discovered that their pen, tracing the circle over and over, has left a slight tear on the paper.
"I don't know," Terra replies. "Whoever was here really likes writing their own discoveries though. I think they might had been a Seeker – half of this stuff is about Kingdom Hearts."
Eyeing the circled scribble, Aqua can make the words out now, and it does indeed say that. Terra edges himself away from a stack of books by the foot of the bed. When she turns to face him, a table with beakers and flasks, set right in the middle of the room, obscures her vision of him. With such an angle, she sees the whole of Terra's body through the glass of a small test tube.
The tube, having been cleared from substance, isn't exactly clean. She sees stains of inky blackness pooled at the bottom, from the same glass Terra seems to be encased in.
Touching the glass, she finds it's as cold, if not colder, that the rest of the room. She feels a prickle on her neck, but when she turns around, the only thing she sees is the empty sockets of an intricate goat mask.
"Hey," Terra's reflection says, "let's go."
Aqua tilts her head up to see Terra beckoning her over.
She feels like how he looks – Terra's back is aligned to the wall, as if he doesn't want anything to sneak up from behind him. Although nobody else is in the room with them, Aqua can't shake the feeling of being watched, and she's becoming keenly aware of the now insistent ticking of the metronome, which might be growing louder with each swing unless her ears were deceiving her.
Careful not to knock into anything, as well as show her hastiness, she joins him out in the hall. She clicks the door shut from behind her.
"That was…" she pauses, not sure what to say.
"…Interesting," Terra finishes.
That wasn't the word she would use to describe it. The room, in her opinion, is hauntingly mysterious. Someone was tinkering with something, wildly uncovering a secret only to take it with them when they left. Still, Terra isn't wrong – the whole thing is interesting in its own way. Putting it in such an innocent perspective is impossible, however, and the rising goosebumps from their arms proves it.
Wordlessly, they both speed down the corridors trying their best to shake off this uneasiness without really showing it.
Back in the kitchen the pie is almost done baking. The sweet aroma wafts into their noses, and the Master welcomes them back to a pristine kitchen.
"You two certainly took your time," the Master notes. He wipes his hand clean from the last of the mess.
"Sorry Master," Aqua says. "We got distracted."
"Oh?" Master Eraqus raises a brow. "If nothing else, remember to keep the mess at a minimum next time. I would appreciate both my helpers to aid more and wreck less havoc if they insist on assisting."
Terra and Aqua dare not to even look at each other. She's fairly certain that the cough that came from Terra is to hide his snicker. She had to bite down her lip to hold in her smile.
"Yes Master," they both say.
Pulling out a chair, they three of them sit down to enjoy the rest of the evening's ray and the sweetness of the apricot pie. Master Eraqus drinks his tea. Aqua talks about the candy she gets after dinner sometimes in Radiant Garden. Terra finishes his slice of pie, swiftly cutting himself a second piece just as Aqua is still on her first. The clinking of silverware swallows up whatever pauses in between.
Here, the warmth of spring reaches them so strongly that Aqua forget the chills of the mysterious bedroom altogether.