Shadow: OK, I'm feeling much better now. Sorry for the wait!
Spark: Yea, there's nothing worse than a moody, sleep-deprived authoress.
Shadow: You've got that right. Anyways, I've been debating over one pairing for this story. The great dilemma arises: lighthouse-shipping, or wind-shipping? I'm a fan of either pairing. I'd even pair Sheba with Picard if I felt like it. But I'm not going to, don't worry. Anyways, I've thought and thought about this.
Spark: And she's finally reached a conclusion…:drumroll:
Shadow: And the pairing is…:opens envelope: WINDSHIPPING!
Spark: Sorry lighthouse-shippers. But our other AU fic, Canticle of the Sun is lighthouse. Go read that. Plus, we're going to write some other stuff in the near future with lighthouse-shipping.
Shadow: Anyways, I know this is kinda early in the story for Wind-shipping, but it's not going to be really…what' the word I'm looking for…dramatic at this point. Plus, you guys requested more flame-shipping, so I must do as you ask of me!!
Spark: Thanks for putting up with Shadow's lack of sleep:
Lord Cynic: Hehe, that's a good idea for a fic!
Navy Blu: Sorry about the general lame-ness of that chapter. Hopefully this chapter will make up for it!
General Failure: Thanks for understanding!!! There will be some heavy-duty flame-shipping coming up, I promise. Shadow did get some sleep so this chapter won't be as sucky.
Daidairo: Yes, Shadow and Isaac shared that in common, lol.
Chel Bel: You should feel special! Anyways, thanks for reviewing!
Cerecquaza: I like the way you think…:jots review down on post-it note: We shall consider adding this to the story! It's a very good idea! Thanks a bunch for the review!
Shadow: Since I have more energy today and you were all so patient with me…COOKIES FOR EVERYONE! :tosses cookies to reviewers:
Chapter Five: Unspoken
"What do you mean you won't let us take any men?" Felix shouted. "Didn't you hear me?"
"Yes, I heard you perfectly well," Iodem replied coolly. "But I can't let Tolbi's finest be sent away to their death! Unlike you and your friends, they have no psyenergetic powers and wouldn't last one minute against another adept."
"But those 59 seconds that they do last may mean the destruction or salvation of this world," Felix explained in a firm voice.
"I'm sorry Lord Felix, but I cannot give you any men," Iodem said bluntly. "And that's final." Felix gave a snort, turned on his heels and stormed out of Iodem's palace. He was so overwhelmed with rage that he didn't even notice his own sister standing in front of him.
"Well Felix? What did Iodem say?" she asked as she ran to catch up with him.
"We have nothing," he grumbled. "That bastard didn't even give us one of his squires."
Jenna let out a frustrated sigh. "I told you that Isaac should have gone in and dealt with this! He said he knew Iodem better." By that point, the two siblings had caught up with the rest of the party in front of Tolbi Springs.
"What happened to you, Felix?" Garet asked. "It looks like you just stepped in rancid cat barf."
"Thank you for that lovely visual aid," Felix answered dryly.
"I guess he didn't give you the men," Picard said with a raised eyebrow.
"Isaac, were the people of Tolbi ever this rude? Or are they just plain stupid?" Felix asked caustically.
"I'm sure Iodem has his own reasons for not giving us the men," Isaac answered reassuringly. "Besides, Tolbi doesn't owe us any favors and I'm sure Iodem is still mourning the loss of Lord Babi."
"Well I certainly wouldn't," Sheba snorted. "Just being here makes me sick. I'm sure there are plenty of other towns and villages that would be willing to help. We haven't been to Kalay yet…"
"That storm on the Karagol blew us off course a bit," Picard explained. "But we can stop over in Lalivero and ask for aid there. You can pull a few strings for us, can't you, Sheba?"
Sheba gulped. It suddenly dawned on her that she hadn't returned home in over five years. She wasn't even sure if Faran would remember her. "I guess so," she stammered.
"So much for Tolbi then," Garet sighed as they headed towards the docks.
The sound of seagulls woke Sheba from her uneasy sleep. She found herself in an empty cabin, with all the other bunks made neatly. "Oh no! I've slept too long!" she whined as she leapt out of bed. Her feet slapped against the wooden floor as she ran to the window. A tall tower made of crimson bricks rose from the cliffs, an unfamiliar sight. The Venus lighthouse could be seen in the distance with its green beacon shining brightly.
Once she was dressed, she ran up onto the main deck where everyone was gathered. "Where are we?" she asked as she examined the tower once again.
"We're almost at port," Jenna answered.
"In Lalivero?"
"Yes. And I guess they finished building Babi's Lighthouse. Only they were too late," Jenna finished.
Sheba wrung her hands as the coastline grew closer. In her heart, she knew that she should be feeling happy at returning home again after such a long time. Instead, she dreaded returning to Lalivero. She already knew what was going to happen; she had seen it in a dream.
"Their port is too shallow," Picard said as the boat slowed its pace. "If I try to bring it into port, we run the risk of hitting a sandbar. We'll have to take the rowboats to shore."
Isaac and Felix dragged the covers off the long rowboats. They hadn't been used at all since the wood was still smooth and didn't show any watermarks. "We can only take six, three per boat," Isaac explained. "We'll use the extra room to stock up on provisions."
"I'll stay on board," Picard said, still gripping the tiller. Hama and Fehzhi also volunteered to stay on board. (They'll keep him company! :wink wink:)
By the time they had reached the rickety piers of Lalivero's harbor, a crowd had gathered to stare at the winged ship anchored offshore. The crowd let out a gasp as Sheba stepped out of the boat and faced them. "Lady Sheba! You have returned to us!" a woman exclaimed.
People shot questions at Sheba. "Where have you been for so long?" "Was your journey difficult?" "Did they mistreat you, milady?" "Did they just now release you?"
"I'm fine, don't worry," Sheba replied with a weak smile as she backed away from the crowd.
"Wait, isn't he the one?" a man shouted as he pointed towards Felix. "The one who kidnapped you?"
An old woman stepped up to him and stared him in the face. She squinted, her face wrinkling up as she studied his features. "He is!" she screamed, causing Felix to jump. "Arrest him!"
Men seemed to appear out of nowhere and seize Felix, grabbing him by the arms and binding his wrists together. He struggled to break free, but he was outnumbered. "Sheba! Do something!" he pleaded as he tried to kick them away. Isaac and the others tried to fight the crowd but it was to no avail.
"Stop it! He's my friend!" she shouted over the crowd. "It was a misunderstanding! He's my friend!" No one heard her. They were obsessed with dealing what they believed to be justice.
"No one kidnaps Sheba and gets away with it!" the men shouted as they dragged Felix away to the jail. He kicked and fought his way over, shooting helpless glances at his friends. But they were lost in a sea of people, at the mercy of their current. A wave of townspeople pushed them over to Faran's home, the last place Sheba wanted to be.
"What the hell is going on?" a maid shouted as she opened the door. Her jaw dropped when she saw Sheba standing on the steps. "Sheba!" she gasped as she wrapped her chubby arms around the girl and showered her with kisses. "Faran! Faran!" she screamed. "Sheba has returned! Lord Isaac has brought Sheba home to us!"
Only a few seconds passed before Faran burst through the doorway. Silence passed as Sheba and Faran stared at each other. Faran had grown much older, his dusty blonde hair flecked with gray. His moustache had grown into a beard which was a lighter shade than his hair. A few wrinkles could be seen on his face as his gape became a smile.
He too noticed how Sheba had changed. Her hair had grown longer, now down to her shoulders. She was taller and more slender; her travels had given her a muscular yet feminine figure. Her eyes still flashed that vivid hue of violet that her adoptive father found so lovable about her. "My daughter," he sighed as he wrapped her in a hug. However, Sheba's arms hung at her side as he embraced her. "Where have you been all these years?"
"I've been traveling with Fe-, I mean Isaac and his friends," she said, correcting herself. She didn't want to get him into any more trouble than he already was. Faran was about to say something before Sheba interrupted. "I'm sorry if I've worried you, but I know that this journey was my destiny. I've learned many things about the world, and myself."
Faran searched for the words, but they would not come. So instead, he said, "please, come inside." He gestured to the others and they graciously followed them inside, leaving the villagers to return to their chores.
He brought them into his seating room. The walls were lined with bookshelves and every blank space of wall was covered with maps and tapestries. He gestured for them to sit down. "I understand that you have completed your quest, Isaac," Faran said once everyone was comfortable. "Sheba played an important role, did she not?"
It wasn't entirely a lie: "Yes, she helped me and my friends get into Jupiter Lighthouse." Ivan looked at him imploringly, mind reading him to give credit where it was due. 'She helped Felix get into Jupiter Lighthouse,' he thought to Ivan.
"I see," he nodded, as he motioned to a servant. "And you have kept your word by bringing her home to me. You have my thanks. Whatever you need or want, you shall have."
They all exchanged glances. "I hate to sound imposing, but that's what we came here to talk to you about…" Isaac began.
"You're not imposing!" Faran laughed with a wave of his hand.
"We need you to give us your strongest men for a dangerous journey," Isaac said with a serious tone. "Weyward is on the brink of destruction again and we are searching for the strongest men we can find."
"How many men do you need? Lalivero has grown quite large over the past few years and our army is quite strong. Name a number and you shall have it."
"Are you really serious?" Jenna stammered.
"You kept your promise and brought Sheba home to me," he continued as he wrapped an arm around her. "It's the least I could do."
Isaac and Faran began negotiating as they leaned across a table. For him and the rest of the group things were working out as planned. However, Sheba felt extremely uneasy. Ivan noticed this and began a 'conversation' with her.
'What's wrong?' he thought. His voice in her mind snapped her out of her daze.
'It's nothing,' she replied.
'Don't lie to me!' He focused his thoughts and searched the deeper recesses of her mind. His eyes grew wide when he stumbled across a certain fear of hers. 'Do you really think he's going to make you stay, do you?'
'I saw it in a dream,' she insisted. 'I haven't been wrong in any of my predictions yet.'
'For your sake, I hope you are.'
"So you want one-hundred and fifty?" Faran asked Isaac. He replied with a nod. "Then it shall be done. It will take about three days in order to ready the ships and my men. But you are welcome to stay with me in my home."
"You're forgetting one thing," Ivan interrupted. All eyes were focused on him. "Sheba's coming with us too."
"Ivan!" Sheba hissed between clenched teeth. 'I can handle this on my own!' she scolded.
"I cannot allow that," he stated plainly. "I will give you my entire army and even money to hire mercenaries. But I will not hand over my only daughter!"
"We can't leave without her," Ivan insisted. "She's one of us!"
"Ivan is right, Faran," Isaac began. "Sheba is a valuable ally of ours."
"Well," Faran replied with a huff. "I'll make you an offer: you can have the soldiers, or you can take Sheba. Take one or the other."
"Stop it!" Sheba shouted as she stood up from her seat. "Is that all that I am to you? Just some item for you to barter with?" Tears welled up in her eyes as she glared at Faran. "And don't call me your 'only daughter'. I'm not your child!"
"Sheba, wait!" Faran cried as he watched her run out of the room. He turned to face a room full of worried Adepts. An uneasy silence fell over the room.
"You should go to her," Ivan said.
"Me?" He hung his head and sighed. "I've tried and tried all her life to be a father figure, but she's always been able to see right through me. You are her family now; one of you should go."
Ivan silently rose from his seat and walked down the hall. Once everyone had recovered from the shock of seeing Sheba storm out of the room, Jenna spoke up. "I need to speak with you about my brother," she said to Faran. Her voice had a sharp edge to it, making Faran flinch. "The people of Lalivero threw him in prison!"
"Why did they throw him in prison?" Faran asked, playing stupid.
"For no good reason!" Garet and Isaac exchanged nervous glances. They should have warned Faran about Jenna…
Sheba leaned against an old tree that stood behind Faran's house. She was utterly oblivious to the screams and shouts of Jenna and Faran coming from inside. Her eyes were fixed on Babi's Lighthouse, but she wasn't looking really looking at it.
"Sheba?" Ivan's voice snapped her out of her daydreaming and caused her to jump. "I have a feeling that you need to talk to someone right now."
"Ivan, don't do that to me!" she shouted as she blocked her mind out from Ivan's. She turned her back to him. "It's no use talking to anyone."
"But you can't let your emotions eat away at you," he began.
"How could you possibly understand?" Her back was still turned to him, hiding her tears.
"You're the one who isn't understanding," Ivan corrected, his voice as calm as ever. "Haven't you realized, or should I say remembered, that our childhoods were very similar?" Sheba bit her upper lip to stop her crying.
"I always knew that Master Hammet wasn't my father and that I was living a lie. I wanted my real father, not some replacement. But when I looked at things more closely, I saw that he loved me more than anything, even if he wasn't my real father."
Sheba wiped her face with the back of her hand before turning to face Ivan. Her eyes were red and the skin around them was blotched and red from crying. "But you know who you are. You know that you had a family and that you have a sister. You know where you came from! I don't know anything about my past!"
Ivan placed his hands on her shoulders. "Why does that matter? The past isn't as important as the present is. As long as you know who you are, you don't even need to know your past."
'When did he get so tall?' Sheba thought to herself as she looked up at him. "Thanks." Ivan pulled her in closer and wrapped his arms around her. He rested his chin on her head. Now Sheba really did feel short.
"There are things that remain unspoken," he whispered to her.
'What do you mean?' she thought to him.
Before she received an answer, Ivan slowly and reluctantly pulled away without saying another word. It didn't matter to her what Faran said to her now, she was leaving. And that was final.
Shadow: OK, I lied. Maybe it was just a teeny bit dramatic…I don't know if that was too early for me to start doing it, but whatever. This is my first attempt at wind-shipping, so I hope I don't screw things up.
Spark: And hopefully that chapter was long enough for you. We're trying to make the summary of the story for the lookup page more interesting, but we can't figure out what to do. Suggestions are appreciated.
Shadow: Thanks a bunch!!