Well it's a little late to be read by some of you, but here's the update, and on Wednesday no less. Let's see how long I can keep this up. Thanks for all the reviews last chapter, I wasn't quite so sure about that one, so it was nice to know you liked it for the most part. Anyway, here's chapter eight.
"I see nothing here, we're wasting time."
"That doesn't matter, we need to look everywhere, we have no idea where to begin our search so we can't leave anything untouched," the man said, turning to his companion, "and what are you doing? Put your hood back on immediately, someone will see you."
The first waved him off, "I care not. If anyone here doesn't like what they see, I'll make sure they have very little time to express their disdain."
"That's not the point, we have to…"the second replied, trailing off as he turned to look down the road, "I think they're coming back. Let's hope they've found something."
"Yes, let's. I'm tired of sitting around doing nothing."
"Aren't we all…"
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
"It's possible."
Eliwood stared at Soren for a moment before speaking, "It is? You're sure?"
Soren tapped the book on the table in front of him, "Yes. From what it says in here, and from what you've told me, it's more than possible; it's likely."
Eliwood sighed and began to pace. It had been a week since Limstella's appearance in the castle. After that, Eliwood had called off the morph search for the time being until they could decide how to react to her message. Not that they even entertained the notion of compliance, they simply had no idea what they were up against. Oddly enough however, no morphs had been seen in past week, leaving Eliwood to assume they had disappeared for the time being as they worked on who knew what. With that momentary peace Eliwood had sent Fiora to the Nabata Desert in search of Pent and Louise. It had taken her four days to find them and then two more to fly nonstop back to Pherae, but she found what he had wanted, a book from the lost Arcadia. Upon arriving in Pherae she had given it to Soren, who had disappeared into his chambers for a full day. And now here he was, listening to what was the only halfway decent explanation to all of this.
"You're sure?" Eliwood said.
Soren twitched, "You haven't known me long, but you'll soon learn I find it irksome when people doubt me. Yes, I am sure. From what it says here, it is more than possible to use the quintessence of others to form a completely different being. The only prerequisite is that the creator must have known the person they wish to create very well."
"And why is that?" Eliwood asked. He could guess at the answer, but he wanted to hear it.
"Because, using the quintessence of a being to form that exact same thing is easy. All the necessary qualities are already in place. However, using something's quintessence to form something completely different is very hard because it needs to be molded to that creation's specifications," Soren answered.
Eliwood nodded, "So as long as Ephidel knew what he was doing, he very well could have created a new Limstella."
"Yes," Soren agreed, "That is the most likely answer to her existence, considering what you've told me about her demise."
"Well," Eliwood said, "thank you for helping me sort that out Soren."
Soren nodded slightly, "Of course."
At that he turned and left the room, giving Eliwood some much needed time to process what he'd just been told. After a moment the door opened and Lyn stepped in.
"Eliwood, Hector and I are going into town with Ninian, do you want to come?" she asked.
"What?" he asked, looking up as his train of thought abruptly derailed.
Lyn laughed, "I said you're coming into town with us, you need a break."
"No you didn't, you asked-"
"So you did hear me," Lyn interrupted, "and you are coming with us, everyone needs to take a break at one point or another."
Eliwood shook his head as Lyn grabbed his hand and pulled him off the throne, "No, who will watch the castle? And I have to-"
"Jaffar and Matthew can handle running the castle by themselves for the afternoon, now let's go," Lyn said.
Eliwood frantically stammered through several excuses before composing himself, "You know, you're right. Let's go."
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
Eliwood smiled as he walked through the streets of Pherae's castle town, his arm entwined in Ninian's, he hadn't done this in quite a while. The indiscernible sound of a thousand voices mingling, the children running back and forth in the streets, it was all actually quite relaxing.
"Is that…Ike?" Hector said, coming to a halt.
"Where?" Lyn asked, looking around for the tall, blue haired man.
"Over there. He's standing in front of that vendor," Hector answered, pointing to a building off to their right.
"Oh…you're right, that is him," Lyn said, "What do you think he's doing?"
"More like what is Soren doing," Eliwood said, "Ike's blocking him from your view."
Hector and Lyn moved to their left and saw that Soren was standing in front of Ike, looking at something that lay on the vendor's counter.
"Let's go see what they're doing," Ninian said, heading off in their direction.
"Ike, what's going on?" Hector asked, stopping next to him.
"What? Oh, hey, we were just…exploring, I suppose, and Soren caught sight of this. He's been here for the last fifteen minutes examining it," Ike answered, "the owner hasn't returned yet and the man watching the counter isn't doing business until he gets back."
"Which is ridiculous, I might add," Soren said, not taking his eyes off the tome in front of them, "considering we have the gold right here."
"Hey," the man behind the counter barked, "I already told you no business until the owner returns."
"And I told you that's the most foolish thing I've ever heard, just sell me the tome and we'll be on our way," Soren replied.
"And it's been like that the entire time we've been here," Ike said ruefully.
"What is it Soren?" Ninian asked, looking over his shoulder at the tome.
"It's a Fimbulvetr. We don't have them back in Tellius and I'd really like to have a closer look at it," Soren answered.
Hector laughed, "Wow, you really pick out the good ones. Those are rare, nice find."
"Thank you," Soren said, his eyes flashing as he looked at the man behind the counter, "Now if this idiot would just sell it to me, we could get this over and done with."
The man didn't answer, but glared right back.
"Yeah," Hector said, his countenance becoming grave, "these tomes are really rare. We only have two in our royal armory. Where'd you get this, eh?"
The man's face paled as he looked up at Hector, "Found it."
"I'm sure you did. And I'm sure someone conveniently 'lost' it. Why don't you let my friend here 'find' it for himself, and pay you for it no less," Hector said, the counter groaning as he leaned on it.
The man laughed nervously, "You know, I guess he won't mind so much if I sell something just this once."
"Excellent," Soren said, dropping a bag of gold pieces onto the counter and sweeping the tome off the counter and into his robes.
"Thank you, Hector," Soren said.
"No problem," Hector said, pulling Soren into a head lock as he tousled the mage's ebony hair, "let me know if you need anything else."
"Let go of me," Soren replied, standing completely still, "for starters."
"Oh come on, where's your sense of fun," Hector said, ruffling his hair one more time before letting him go.
Soren said nothing as the group continued down the street, he was going to have to get used to Hector.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
"Aghh! Come on! This is the fifth little town we've visited! Let's find a large city!" the man said, throwing his head back in exasperation, allowing his hood to fall off.
"Calm down, there's a city coming up, try to show some patience," a woman next to him replied, "and put your hood back on!"
"It is uncomfortable," the man said, making no move to replace the light brown hood over his head.
"Let me remind you," the woman hissed, "that for the time being you do not have jurisdiction over this group."
The man stared at her for a moment.
The woman sighed, "Meaning you don't have control here, and we won't tolerate misbehavior."
"I am no child," the man said, shrugging his hood back into place.
"Then don't act like one! You know we can't get caught, we know nothing about the people here," she answered, "Besides, it won't be much longer, here they come."
The two looked up to watch as three figures made their way down the road towards them, two women and a taller man with white hair in between them.
"Find anything?" the woman asked.
"Yes," the white haired man said with a smile, "they passed through here on their way to that Pherae castle town we keep hearing so much about."
"Then let us be off to Pherae castle town," the first man said, heading off down the road.
The second man sighed and followed the first, "Has he been like that the whole time?"
"Of course," the woman answered, "does he ever act any way else?"
"No, I suppose he doesn't," he answered, "Hopefully he'll calm down when we find them."
"Hopefully…" she replied, trailing off before continuing, "But he won't."
The man laughed and continued to walk, it was true.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
The group watched in silent amazement as Soren continued in his examination of the Fimbulvetr tome. They had stopped for lunch and Soren had promptly sat down and begun to look through the arcane volume. Five minutes later, he'd stood up and cast the spell, freezing the tree trunk they had been sitting next to.
"That's amazing," Hector said, "It took Erk an entire day to master that spell the first time he used it. You're sure they don't have those in Tellius?"
"They do not," Soren said, tucking the tome back into his sleeve.
"Well then maybe you should talk to Pent…I'm sure he'd love to meet you," Hector continued.
"Perhaps, but-"
Soren was interrupted as a man came around the bend in the road and stopped abruptly, looking up at them.
"Are you mercenaries?" he asked, his breath coming in sporadic bursts.
In a heartbeat Ike was on his feet, Ragnell on his shoulder, "Yes."
"Oh good," the man said, "my town is being pillaged by bandits, I thought I might not be able to find anyone, I'm so glad I found you!"
At that he turned around and ran back down the road, Ike following with Soren close behind.
"Well…"Lyn said, looking over at the other three.
"What are we waiting for, let's go!" Hector bellowed, grabbing his axe and tearing off after Ike and Soren, not waiting for the other three to catch up.
After twenty minutes of hard running they reached the village. It was small, with a narrow wall running around its borders. When they arrived they found the gates had been barricaded, and the small thatch houses were in flames with bandits running around amidst the chaos, burying their axes in anything that moved.
"Soren!" Ike yelled, leveling Ragnell as they ran.
Soren nodded, leaping atop the flat of the blade and Ike gave a grunt as he hurled the mage into the air. Soren landed atop the tall barricade and pulled out a bolganone, summoning the explosive spell underneath the wooden planks that impeded their progress. As the ground beneath the barricade exploded the others made their way through and into the madness as Soren ran swiftly along the length of the village's walls, casting spells as he went.
After a few moments, the maddened laughter of the bandits changed to cries of confusion as what they assumed to be some of the villagers began to fight back, cutting them down without hesitation.
"Rally to me," one of them shouted, "we'll finish them and show them why we're bandits to fear!"
"Of course you are…" Soren muttered softly, taking out an Arcwind and separating the bandits as they tried to form some sort of ranks.
In a few more minutes it was all over, with Hector desperately pulling on his axe that had embedded itself too deep in a man's chest.
"Let go of it," he grunted as he heaved, placing a foot squarely on the man's torso as he pulled, "Gonna give me a hard time even in death, is that it?"
With a loud crack he pulled it free and proceeded to wipe it clean, "Well, that's that."
"Yes, I suppose it is…" Soren said, pausing as he caught sight of Ike. The pile of dead bodies behind his commander was shifting oddly.
"Ike!" he shouted, throwing himself into his friend as a bandit emerged from the corpses and made a grab for Ike.
Instead he grabbed a hold of Soren as the mage careened into Ike, pushing him out of the way. The man looked slightly disappointed that he'd missed his intended target before pulling a dagger from his belt and placing it on Soren's neck, "Not the one I wanted, but it'll work. Listen, I'm going to walk out of this town, and if you try to stop me he's going to die."
Ike made a move for the man, but stopped as the dagger's tip pricked Soren's neck, causing a crimson rivulet to trickle down his neck. Soren shook his head as he eyed Ike, "Don't bother."
The bandit's grin widened, "That's it, now come on, we're leaving."
No one moved as the man slowly backed out the village's back entrance and headed for the trees. Ike's temper flared, it was maddening how one man could keep them all in check.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
The white haired man sighed deeply, "Ah, there's the village, we should be close to the castle town."
The other members of the group looked up; it was about time they reached their destination.
"Finally, perhaps now we can sort this out," the other said, drawing murmured agreements from the others.
"Look, there's someone coming out of the gates," one of the women said, pausing to get a better look as she pushed her purple hair from here line of sight.
"Where? Oh, I see him!" said another, beginning to wave at the figure that was slowly backing out of the gates.
"Hopefully he can-"
The man stopped talking, tearing off his cloak and throwing it to the ground, staring at the figure in the distance.
Another woman dropped her hood, her purple gaze piercing the distance between them and the man at the gate as if it were nothing, "I see it."
"That man…he has the little tactician!"
At that the man was off, leaving his companions behind as he bolted for the gates, his movements strangely quiet for such a large man.
"Skrimir!"
"Leave him be Lethe, he's lost for the time being," the white haired man said, shaking his head.
"I know that Nasir!" she snapped, "but I'm supposed to control him! He's going to get Soren killed!"
"What? What's wrong with Soren?" the girl asked, looking up at the others.
"Look, that man's holding a knife to his throat," another said, pointing in the distance, "Come on let's go, there might be more. Mist, stay here."
"No, Ike might need me," she said, heading for the gate.
"No, you're staying here. Besides, boss put me in charge…next to Titania of course," the woman said, pushing her white head band farther up as she drew her sword.
"Mia! That was back in Tellius, Nasir already said he doubts we're still in Tellius!" she protested.
"It doesn't matter, you stay here. Besides, we can't have you getting hurt, we might need you later," Mia said.
"…fine," Mist said dejectedly, "I'll wait for five minutes, then I'm coming whether you like it or not."
Mia grinned, "That's all I'll need!"
With that she was off, running down the road with Lethe at her side, leaving Mist and Nasir behind.
Mist looked up at Nasir, his white hair blowing in the wind, "Why aren't you going?"
Nasir smiled, "I can't risk shifting where people can see me, more so than those two, and I'm less than helpful fighting like this."
Mist sighed, "I know how you feel."
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
Ike's mind raced as he tried to decide what to do before the man disappeared into the trees. Suddenly, his gaze was distracted from his friend by a man, running towards them, his bushy red hair a dead giveaway.
"Oh no…" he muttered, measuring his reaction carefully, he couldn't let the bandit realize he had spotted someone behind him.
"Who is that?" Hector whispered as he sidled up next to Ike.
"You know what; I'll tell you later," Ike said, lowering Ragnell's tip as he watched, hoping it would distract the bandit. It did.
"That's right, accept it, I'll make sure he doesn't feel a thing," the man said, his already impossibly wide grin growing larger.
Ike raised his eyebrows and said nothing; Skrimir was almost on top of the man, his body glowing as he leapt off of a small knoll. Ike couldn't help but smile as the laguz shifted, it always amazed him. He was just glad no one in the village was bothering to look outside and see what was happening. Eliwood and the others, however, were having a hard time keeping their mouths shut.
"Hey, what are you smiling abou-"
The bandit stopped as a Skrimir dropped on top of him, tearing the arm off that held the dagger to Soren's neck and pinning him to the ground. His eyes widened and he began to scream as he stared into the face of the lion. With a swipe of his paw, Skrimir buffeted the man's head; a loud crack resonated through the area as the bandits neck bent at an odd angle. After that Ike really didn't know what to say. Skrimir dragged the body off into the woods and returned a few minutes later, shifted back into his human form.
"Ike," he said loudly, "You were very hard to find, it looks like I arrived just in time though."
"We arrived just in time," Lethe said, emerging from the trees as she shifted back.
Ike nodded, "Ah, yeah, thanks. I'm kind of confused though. How did you get here?"
"We came through the magic circle," he said, picking Soren up from where he sat on the ground, staring at Skrimir with a look of relief and horror.
"Came through the Scouring circle did you," Soren said, pulling his arm away from Skrimir and brushing it off, "Then where is he?"
"Who?" Skrimir asked, thoroughly confused.
"You're obviously not a dragon, so who came through with you? Or did they just open it and send you on your way?" Soren said, clarifying the question.
"No," said a voice, "I came along to. Kurthnaga thought it best if I did."
They looked up as Nasir too emerged from the foliage, shortly followed by Mist.
"Ike!" Mist shouted, running over to her brother.
Ike's smile quickly disappeared as he saw the look of anger on her face, and he barely dodged the crystal ball on the end of her staff as she swung at him haphazardly.
"Whoa! What's this all about?" he said, holding out his hand to catch her staff.
"It's about you disappearing without a word and never coming back," Mist said, struggling against her brother for a moment before giving up and settling for a kick in shins.
"Are you done?" Ike asked, looking down at her.
"…yes," she said, pulling him into a hug.
"Good. Now someone please tell me, what are you all doing here?" he said, looking around at the familiar faces.
"You've been gone for a while now," Nasir said, "and Titania was a bit concerned. She got an audience with Kurthnaga and he too agreed that perhaps it was time to look for you. So we did, they still are back on Tellius. It's nothing major; we knew you were fine, we just wanted to see what was holding you up. Eventually we found that Scouring circle, and while finding you by going through it was less than likely, we decided we might as well try. As you know, Kurthaga's very liberal compared to his father and was all for trying to use it. Of course, there were a few stipulations…"
The group turned to look at Skrimir.
"What?" he said, "The gate was in my kingdom, I have the right to know what's going on in my own land."
"And thus, going against all the advice he was given, Skrimir came along," Lethe said.
"I'm surprised you left Gallia," Ike said.
Skrimir waved the remark away, "Ranulf is in charge, it will be fine. Besides, I couldn't rest until I knew the little tactician was safe."
Soren gave him a look, "Thank you, but in the future I advise against acting so flippantly."
"So that's it," Nasir said, "we decided to check it out and ended up here, after Titania decided to send Mist and Mia with us."
Ike frowned, "Mia?"
"Yes," Nasir said, looking around, "she was with us just a moment ago."
"Oh…" Ike said, slowly looking over his shoulder at the woods to his back.
He quickly dropped to the ground as an orange blur shot from the bushes, and was surprised to feel the sting of sharpened steel on his forearm. Mia had gotten faster. He rolled to his feet without a word and leveled his sword as she came in for another strike. With a flip of his wrist he turned her sword away and lunged forward, causing her to back off.
She smiled, gesturing to his arm, "I win boss, first blood."
Ike shook his head, "Nonsense, I've gotten hurt worse than this helping Oscar cook dinner."
Without a word Mia hurled herself at him, her blade seeking his unarmored sword arm. Ike quickly turned and met her sword with his armored side, leaving him free to strike. He smiled as he took the opportunity, she was using a silver sword, and if it was the same one he'd given her before leaving the company then this would be over quick.
As Ragnell came down Mia's sword snapped in two, and Ike quickly followed with a blow to the chin. As Mia careened back into a tree he stuck Ragnell into the earth and crossed his arms, his cape billowing in the wind behind him. That had felt good.
Mai sat up and shook her head she got to her feet.
"You still got it boss," she said, gingerly touching her bleeding chin while waving Mist over.
Eliwood and the others stared as Mist casually healed Mia and the swordswoman grinned, "That was fun, but one of these days I'm gonna get you."
"As long as you're willing to fight I'll be willing to beat you down," Ike said, "So, I'm assuming you'll want a duel at dawn tomorrow?"
"Of course," Mia said, "but for now, how about you tell us what's going on? We've all been dying to know."
"Sure," Ike said, looking over at Eliwood, "We should probably go back to the castle though, right?"
"Yes," Eliwood said slowly, "We have been gone for a bit too long. Perhaps on the way you can introduce us to your friends?"
Ike nodded as they group headed back towards the castle, "Yeah sure, but first, what did you do with Alondite Mia?"
Mia snorted, "Pshh, like I need that to take you down. Actually, I gave it to Zihark before we left."
Ike sighed then laughed; of course she would refuse to fight him with it. It was a very 'Mia' thing to do. Either way, it was good to have his friends back, and he had a feeling that the coming months would leave them in need of all the help they could get.
And then there were seven. Characters from Tellius, that is. Before you string me up and beat me with a stick until candy comes out, I wish to point out that Ike's ending said it was the last time they seen in Tellius, thus making this whole situation canon, or hypothetically canon I suppose. Anyway, I hope you like the characters I brought in, and for those of you who caught Ike's Brawl taunt, kudos, I couldn't help throwing that in there. This chapter was rather long, so I hope it held your attention the whole way through, and I really hope the scenes with the Tellius gang weren't too confusing before I revealed who they were. As usual, if there was anything you especially liked or didn't like, go ahead drop me a review. Thanks, until next update.
Twilight Rurouni
