ArissaMay: Yeah, you guys are so gonna hate me for this chapter. You're gonna kill me, then eat me. But... It's gotta happen. X.x
Chapter Seven
"So what's the plan now, boss?"
"..."
"You do have a plan, right?"
"Silence, Sabriel. Bring me the Eternal Swordsman... And I expect him alive."
"As you wish, Lord Jeremiel."
-----
"Well, I'm off to Mizuho!" Chirped Colette the following morning. In Raine's opinion, the blonde was entirely too perky for so early in the morning, especially considering she herself had only recently removed herself from the comforts of bed. Though that's not saying much, she supposed, since the half-elf had been out half the night. Or so it felt. Slowly the events of the previous night, or the previous night's dream, or whatever it had been, slowly it came back to her. The uncontrollable urge to venture into the forest, the being that awaited there, the troubling conversation... It would certainly help if I knew whether or not it actually happened, she thought dryly to herself.
Her gaze flickered inconspicuously over to Kratos, who sat in a chair in the corner, apparently immersed in a leather-bound book. The half-elf could tell, however, by the way his eyes never strayed, reading and rereading the same line again and again, that the book and it's contents were the farthest thing from his mind. For a fleeting moment, she considered asking him what was on his mind, but only for a moment. Raine knew that things were tense between them, and she didn't want to push her luck.
Lloyd entered the room just then, a slightly gruesome looking axe resting against his shoulder. He glanced at the blonde a moment, with a small pack in her hand, and disappointment flickered in his eyes. When she turned to face him, however, the swordsman greeted her with a heartwarming grin. She grinned in return, hopping delicately over to his side and pecking him chastely on the cheek.
"Well, seeya!"
And before anyone could respond, she'd bounced out the door. Raine indulged herself in a smile of amusement; ever since Raine could remember, Colette had been bouncing too and fro. It wasn't just an action, it was a way of movement... For the Chosen, at least.
Lloyd, who had been gazing out the window at her retreating form, then turned back to face the duo still remaining in his living room, though facing them both was a difficult task when they were on opposite ends of the room. Still, he managed.
"Um... Sorry to ditch you guys, but... we're running low on firewood, and I was just headed out to chop some." He shifted the axe slightly, apologetically. Raine nodded in understanding, but Kratos remained focused on his book. "Will you guys be alright here by yourselves?"
"I think, Lloyd, that at our ages, we might know what to do with ourselves for a few hours," replied Kratos dryly with a moment's glance up from his hardback. For a moment, the half-elf wondered if he'd give up his façade and put the book aside, but as that moment came to a close, his gaze fell back down to the lines of text once more.
"Alright, well, uh..." Lloyd glanced from Raine to Kratos and back in a slightly awkward fashion. "I'll be off, then. See you guys later!" And he as well was out the door.
The silence was heavy, deafening, and eternal… or so it felt to Raine. In truth, it probably only lasted five or ten minutes. As she'd come to discover, undesirable tasks seem to last far longer than those one enjoys. After the five minute eternity, she sighed softly in defeat.
"Kratos, when do you intend to quit hiding behind that book and talk to me?" Her voice was surprisingly weak, and she adopted a somewhat fiery look in her eyes to make up for it.
Without looking up, he replied flatly, "I have not even the slightest clue what you're talking about."
The hell you don't- "Tell me then, what's your book about?"
"The origins of the Summon Spirits." The seraph didn't skip a beat in his reply, but that didn't faze Raine any.
"Oh? That's an interesting topic to be found in The Compilation of Iselia's Monsters, is it not?" She replied, her eyes narrowed. The half-elf knew victory was near, especially as Kratos tensed at her words. After a moment, he too sighed in defeat.
"I don't know..." was his soft response, and she didn't press the topic. Instead, she averted her gaze remorsefully,
"Kratos, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have intruded-"
"You're right. You shouldn't have."
"I said I was sorry... What else do you want from me?" He grew silent once more, and, though she waited quite a while for him to respond, Raine found herself continuing to speak. "Why do you do that?"
"... Do what?"
Her voice was soft. "You never trust anyone, Kratos, you're always acting like everything's fine, or like nobody's good enough to know how you feel. You always push away anyone who tries to help you! But Kratos Aurion, you are going to be the loneliest person on the planet, because after you push someone away again and again, they might just decide to give you your way."
Her eyes widened and locked on him in surprise, to find his eyes upon her as well. The mahogany orbs were burning with as much hurt and passion as she'd ever seen them hold... And then, a second later, it was gone, replaced by an eerie coldness.
"I'm going to take a walk," he muttered, rising to his feet and hastily striding toward the doorway. Refusing to let the conversation escape her so easily, Raine leapt to her own feet, rushing to intercept him and planting herself in the doorway, jaw set in determination.
"No, Kratos. You're not. You're going to sit down, and you're going to talk to me."
The mercenary seemed equal parts surprised and expecting, as if he'd half expected her to do this exact thing. Their eyes locked, and the half-elf and seraph were locked in a fierce stare-down... For a minute.
All of a sudden, a commotion erupted from behind her. Raine stumbled forward in alarm, scarcely avoiding a collision with the seraph she was formerly regarding, and whirled to face the hallway. Lloyd was leaning heavily on the door, pale and out of breath.
"Lloyd?" She demanded, alarmed.
"Lloyd, what's going on!?" Kratos added, the dispute forgotten.
The twin-swordsman heaved a couple more unsteady breaths before wheezing out, "chased, angels!"
"Angels? What about them?!"
Lloyd turned to Raine, breathing heavily for another few moments, before he managed to force out a couple of sentences.
"I... chopping wood in the forest, and... angels came out of nowhere, chased me... I lost them, but they're heading this way!"
"Lloyd, go down into the pantry, get into the darkest, smallest corner possible, and don't make a single sound," Kratos ordered, his voice guardedly even, though Raine could see the hint of panic in his eyes. Eyes wide with bewilderment, Lloyd stumbled into the kitchen, and a moment later, the pantry door snapped shut. Without a second to spare, either. Within the minute, a sharp crack split the air, and the door fell in two from it's hinges. Raine staggered backwards, a hand over her face to protect from the flying splinters from the door. Slowly, she lowered her arm, and the door was no longer. In it's place stood two unnaturally tall and muscular bodies, crimson wings at their backs.
"Well, boys, you've found me," Kratos offered grudgingly, and Raine looked to him in alarm. Surely he didn't intend to get himself caught!? But to her relief, she could see the shimmer of fight in his eyes. Unconsciously, she reached for the staff against the wall just inside the kitchen door.
"Don't flatter yourself, Kratos," sneered one of the angels, and the other adopted a similar expression.
"Yeah, we're not after you." This was the second angel, his black hair a dark contrast to his redheaded companion. They stepped forward in unnatural unison, toward the pair standing in the hallway.
"We're after the boy," elaborated the redhead. "Tell us where he is, and we won't be forced to hurt you."
"Break you," chimed in the second seraph under his breath, and their smirks grew slightly.
Raine's eyes widened in bewilderment, and she turned to gaze at Kratos. His own gaze was emotionless, and he stared evenly back at the duo before him.
"Over my dead body." And his voice at that moment, that snarling growling death-glare tone, was the most serious and frightening she'd ever heard him use. The scholar found herself cowering backwards slightly out of the way of his wrath, though only subtly.
"That can be arranged," 'offered' the redhead, his hand tightening around the hilt of the sword at his waist. The second angel put a hand on his arm to stop him, however.
"Remember what the boss said," he murmured, and they hovered a moment in indecision. Then the redhead grumbled something incomprehensible but quite obviously mutinous and removed his hand from his sword.
"If you two won't tell is where he is," the black-haired seraph stepped forward, taking control of the conversation, "we'll just have to find him ourselves."
With this, they swept into the kitchen, closely followed by Kratos and Raine, who positioned themselves in the center of the room. The redhead went left, and the other seraph went right, tearing apart the room without a care in their search for the Eternal Swordsman.
"Aha! I found him!" Cried the redhead in triumph. Raine's stomach lurched sickeningly, and her gaze darted from the black-haired seraph to the pantry on the opposing side of the room in horror at Lloyd's imminent confiscation and possibly death. But to her alarm and dismay, the redhead was standing nearly ten feet away, his gaze fixed on her expectantly. A smirk slowly started to form on his face. Her eyes widened wider still, and she realized that he had been waiting for her to give it away this entire time. Raine's dignity ached, metaphorically of course, at the thought of them targeting her as the one sure to give away their target's hiding spot, but it didn't ache as much as her head as she mentally beat herself for her idiocy.
The redhead gestured to his companion, and they both made their way toward the door to the pantry.
"No!" She cried, throwing herself across the table and against the pantry door with a painful thump. The redhead's smirk faded in annoyance, and he raised his fist to strike her, a blow which Raine turned her cheek welcome... But before she could blink, he had an arm around his neck, and was wrenched sideways into a battle with the angriest mercenary in Aselia. The second angel, on the other hand, recoiled from her slightly, as if afraid to touch her. Her gaze flickered to Kratos, to find him on the ground on his back, a single arm holding him semi-upright, the other over his face as a shield.
Kratos! Before she could even think, she'd leapt over toward him, swinging her staff like a mace. The redhead's eyes widened, and he leapt backward away from Kratos, but it still managed to connect with his shoulder. He hissed in rage and whirled on his companion, as if ready to murder him for letting her interfere, but to Raine's further horror, the pantry was wide open, and the black-haired seraph was dragging a struggling Lloyd up the steps. Kratos leapt to his feet, hand on Flamberge's hilt.
"Draw your sword, and we'll kill him," hissed the redhead as his companion joined him in restraining the twin-swordsman. Lloyd growled slightly, swinging his leg and sweeping the redhead's legs out from under him and almost sending him to the ground. "For goddess's sake, put him out!" he seethed angrily, and the black-haired seraph took a nearby pot from the countertop and swung a glancing blow at Lloyd's skull. And the Eternal Swordsman went limp in the arms of his captors.
"Ciao, ladies," mocked the black-haired angel, and they took wing out the doorway without a backwards glance. Kratos gazed after them, his eyes clouded with despair. He stepped slowly toward the door, a hand slightly extended, as if intending to reach out and snatch back his son. Raine stepped forward equally slowly, and her extended hand was to comfort him.
Yet he whirled on her, the sadness in his eyes replaced with an equal dose of pained rage.
"You're useless! All you had to do was keep his location a secret, but you practically pointed them to it! And in case you hadn't done enough damage, you let them walk right in and get him!" He raged, hand on the hilt of his sword once more. Raine stumbled backwards, hurt and bemused.
"You think I didn't try, Kratos?" Her voice was weak and shaky, and she didn't even try to mask the pain. She couldn't help it; her eyes began to burn as they filled with tears, yet she refused to let any fall. "You're not the only one who cares about Lloyd! You don't even know him! You weren't the one who taught him for ten years. You weren't there for his first broken bone, his first triumph, his first friend. I was. I was there for all that and more. So don't go there, Kratos Aurion."
It was Kratos's turn to be taken aback. His eyes widened, yet he was rendered speechless. There was a painful silence, not too lengthy yet long enough to feel the effects of. After a few moments, the mercenary looked to Raine, his eyes asking, almost pleading for a truce. Yet she 'hmph'ed and looked away, refusing to accept his peace offering. And thus brought on another pressing silence, this one more pained than the last.
And for quite a while, the only sounds were their breathing, slow and troubled.
"We have to save them," Kratos softly murmured, and after a moment, Raine nodded slowly. She was still quite displeased with him, yet she wasn't stubborn enough to disagree to spite him.
"So you intend to help me? I'm going to need all the aid I can get," he continued, relieved slightly at her compliance. Her eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Surely you don't intend to leave now?"
"If we wait any longer, they'll have killed him by the time we get there," he explained, glancing somewhat worriedly to the doorway. She shook her head, refusing to allow his train of thought.
"If we leave now and fight them as we are, we'll be killed!" She objected, but Kratos swiftly replied:
"We might not."
"Well I for one would prefer to avoid premature death, thankyouverymuch," she replied, her voice almost daring him to press the matter. He hesitated a moment, gazing at her appraisingly, before sighing and rubbing his temple.
"Damn stubborn half-elf..." He muttered under his breath.
Her normally icy-blue eyes snapped to his, a fire like no other in their depths. Kratos then realized what he'd said, or the implications of it at least. His eyes widened, and he shook his head hastily.
"Raine, no. I didn't mean-"
"I think your meaning is perfectly clear, Kratos." She interrupted icily. After a moment, she turned on her heels and stormed from the room.
The moment she got outside, Raine broke into a run, away from the house, away from the day's horrific events, away from Kratos. The tears that had formed in her eyes forced their way from her eyes, rolling swiftly down her cheeks. Yet she made no move to stop them.
When she found herself lost, the half-elf decided she'd run far enough, and she seated herself on a large, somewhat flat boulder. And the tears continued to fall.
"I hate Kratos, I hate him! After all I've tried to help him, after I maybe even started to care about him, I was always just a dirty half-elf to him, wasn't I!?" She fumed amidst her tears, drawing her knees up to her chest and planting her face in them.
Jeremiel... Were you right about him? Has he been lying to me this entire time?
Silence.
Jeremiel, are you out there somewhere? I... I think I need you now...
"I am here, Raine Sage."
And suddenly, a pair of strong, warm arms wrapped around her from behind, and the distinct contours of a face presses into her hair. Normally, she would have jerked away from the sudden touch, the melodically perfect voice, the immediate calming sensation that swept over her mind... But at the moment, it was all she had.
At first the solitude had been killing her. Now, it was the companionship that ate away at her strong wall of emotions, bit by bit.
So she found herself relaxing into the embrace, allowing the fear and anger and hurt and tension to fade into nothingness as his artificial calm dulled her emotions.
"I trusted him..." Her voice was just shy of a whimper, but she managed to keep her dignity in some degree.
"As did I, once..." Replied Jeremiel, his voice a mere whisper in her ear. "He was my closest ally... Yet this time, it was you that he hurt, not me, and for that, I want him to suffer in the worst way possible..." And for the first time, she found herself believing him, sharing his pain. Half of her cursed herself for her weakness, yet the other half... The other half found itself trusting this miraculously kind and beautiful stranger more than she trusted even herself. And she realized that she didn't even for a moment believe this trust was of his sinister planting... And this faith in such a stranger scared her most of all.
"Raine... You still enchant me, with your beauty and your intelligence, and with the strength of your heart. I still can't even begin to explain to you how strongly I feel for you... I'm not even sure a mortal is capable of feeling as such for another. I... I still love you... And my offer still remains. If you are ready now, if you need no more time to think…"
'Raine, come away with me. I can't stand living in fear that he will hurt you. He'll hurt you eventually, if he doesn't find me. He'll hurt you, knowing it pains me equally, knowing it will draw me to your aid. Let us escape him.'
The previous night's request replayed in her head, and his eyes filled with sorrow, as if he as well remembered his words.
"I knew he would hurt you somehow, Raine..." He softly murmured into her hair. "I wanted to take you from his grasp before he could do that. But I could not. I... I just thank the heavens that the damage wasn't worse..."
"I'll do it."
"You... You will join me?" The formerly sad face of the blonde seraph lit up in an unmatched joy. And, despite the pain in her eyes and the tears streaking her cheeks, she smiled as well, nodding softly.
Slowly, he rose to his feet, taking her hand to draw her up with him. She obliged, letting him turn her to face him. Their eyes met, and in that moment, seeing the look of complete rapture in the eyes of the seraph before her, she was left without a single doubt in her choice. Slowly, he pulled a silver circlet with violet chunks of mana itself from within the pouch at his waist.
"Sois un ange, Raine," he vowed, setting the circlet gently atop her head.
"What does that mean?"
And he whispered, "be an angel."
And all at once, in a sudden rush of happiness, liberation, and mana, she was.
ArissaMay: Sorry it's short, but I didn't plan much for this chapter aside from the whole pissfest between her and Kratos… And I'm proud to say I got 12 reviews on chapter 6 as of yet. :3 THANK YOU ALL. :D Again, 10 reviews hurries me up. :P