Legends: Beginnings

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related, remotely related, or is in the game, Illusion of Gaia. It is owned by Enix and all related companies. All Original Characters, Stories, and anything that is not in, related to, or remotely related to the game, was solely created for creative and entertainment purposes. Thank you for your time.

Chapter Nine – The Ring Of Two Souls

Kat woke with a start, her eyes opening quickly to her head throbbing and the sunlight filtering through her tent flap. She laid there nearly ten minutes, her mind trying to wake up fully and figure out what she not only had such a head-splitting ache, but also why one side of her head was sore and possibly bruised and why she was still in her clothes from the day before. Sitting up slowly she looked around the tent, yawning as she moved her legs and stretched her arms above her head before she put them onto her lap. She was not surprised she was alone and had the use of the tent all to herself; Del and Chuck put up their own tent and -

With that sudden thought of Del and Chuck, Kat's eyes went wide and she pulled her right hand up to inspect it then her left one. With the only addition to her hands being the ring her father had given her, she still had all ten of her finger; she moved her toes to make sure that she still had all ten of those and her feet as well. The sounds of the knight's blade hitting bone had to be real but who had the knight struck: Del or Chuck? Before she had gone unconscious both were trying to get to her, the knight forcing them back but in the end it hadn't mattered. They had gotten to her but at what price? She knew he could not stay in the tent forever and there was only one way to find out.

Throwing the green blanket she had covering her body off, Kat staggered to her feet in several vain attempts to remain upright. It was only after the sixth attempt did she actually manage to stay on her feet and upright, the world taking a few spins after the last attempt. Her moving didn't help her head any and her stomach was more than in knots, her feet shuffling her to the tent flap. Gripping the canvas flap, she closed her eyes to brace herself to what she would see on the other side before she opened them again. In the best scenario someone would have located her father and brought him back here, the worst was that she had been left alone on this island and there were bodies of her companions waiting for her on the other side.

Whatever she had been expecting it was not what she saw as she pushed her way out of the tent and into the open jungle. From the light coming from the treetops Kat could tell it was about early afternoon, her eyes squinting in the light. She looked around the campsite; the majority of the belongings were still where the rest of the team had left them to be picked over by anyone that would be crazy enough to come back. Only Del's and Chuck's belongings were missing, as were Del and Chuck themselves. There was no trace of them or anyone else around besides herself and –-

"Morning," came the gruff greeting from next to a small fire where Del and Chuck had kept theirs. The knight looked up from where a small wild boat was stuck on a spit over the fire, his blue eyes watching Kat freeze where she was. He was still in his armor, his sword lying next to him as he sat comfortably on a log; he had just turned the nearly done boar around when Kat had come stumbling out of the tent. While he appeared to be relaxed, more than he had the first time she had seen him, he still could jump up quickly and end her life where she stood. Kat felt her stomach begin to be sicker.

"Erm," was all that she managed to get out before she covered her mouth with her hand and made a dash for the closest part of the jungle. As soon as she was far enough away from the campsite clearing, Kat bent over and emptied what little had been on her stomach from the last meal she had eaten. It took several minutes for her to stop emptying her stomach and dry heaving, stumbling upright again and away from where she had thrown up. That had helped her head some but not her overall feeling; she still felt like someone had hit her over the head with a rock. It also wasn't good that she was throwing up, not in a remote place as this and not where her father was. There had to be something for an upset stomach in one of the bags.

Walking slowly the short distance back to the camp, Kat tried to steady her nerves. The knight was still there after she appeared from behind a tree, his eyes watching her every moment as she sat down on the log opposite. For an instant Kat thought he looked sad but quickly dismissed that thought; it had to be the after effects of her body's experiences in the last twenty minutes. Although the boar smelled editable and delicious, her stomach did not seem to be eating something like that at the moment. Or the knight could be poisoning her to take the ring from her.

"Let me make this clear to you right now," the knight started, his eyes still not leaving her, "is that you are to do as I say and maybe you won't corrupt as fast or at all if it can be helped."

"Uh, what?" Kat stammered, clearly not understanding what the knight had just said. "Okay, look. I have questions to ask of you before you start explaining some things, like what you just said. Where are Del and Chuck? Where's my father, is he alive? What are you? Who are you?"

"Usually the first questions are about the ring," he said more to himself then to her, looking oddly at her. "I suppose you do need to know how your companions and father fares this late in the morning, or should I say afternoon? They are fine, the two that were with you last night. They are already on the boat I assume you came in, they are heading for whatever port that can find medical treatment the fastest."

"Medical treatment?" Kat burst out, standing up quickly but soon found that action was not such a good idea. The knight, although relaxed as he was, made a movement towards his sword but stopped when Kat raised her hands in defense and sat back down again. Sitting down again did not mean that she wasn't scared or angered, nor had those feelings lessened; she just did not want that sword anywhere in or near her body. "What do you mean medical treatment? What did you do to them?"

"One of your companions left the island with a few less fingers. He was told to leave you alone, he didn't listen to me. He got what his actions were deserved of them." The knight's coldness towards her friends was not lost on her. "He will live, however he won't be back anytime soon. As for your father, as I said last night he is whole and he is alive. I have no need to use his body for anything when I have my own to deal with."

"How do I know you aren't telling me the truth to get me to relax?" Kat demanded, glaring at him through watery eyes. Blinking back her tears, she rubbed her cheeks; this was not the time to start crying. Her father would not want her to lose control, not when she could learn from what mistakes were made. "How do I know you didn't kill them?"

"You don't. I could be sitting here, telling you a tale that the only thing I did to your 'friends' was cut off several finger off of one and sent them on their way to seek treatment when I might not have." The knight put a small branch into the fire. "I could also be telling you that your father is alive and well when for all you know, I killed him too. I could tell you anything I wanted and there's not a damned thing you could do to me, not with the way you're feeling. Not the way you are now. And certainly not in the position you are in, either."

Kat sat there, her eyes moving to the fire and to the boar roasting above the flames. The knight was right, he could tell her anything he wished to and she would not know if he was telling her the truth or not. She also could not do anything to harm him, he had a sword and the best weapon she had on her was her mind. The knight also wasn't stupid and he knew she wasn't either; he could tell she was thinking of something to get out of the situation she was now in: try to believe what he was saying and maybe, just maybe, he could her get off this island as well, or brave the unknown wilds of the jungle by herself and have a smaller percentage on getting off the island. It didn't take her long to make the decision that while she didn't trust him she would have to believe him for the time being.

It also didn't take her long to put two and two together in that the knight and the statue back on the main island were one and the same. Kat had spent some time looking over the statue as much as she could and while the face of the statue had been worn and old, the curves of his chin and neck were eerily similar to the knight. The armor and sword were what stood out the most and was what made her put the puzzle the statue and the knight were the same being together. So many other questions popped up in her mind that was trying to overrule her need to question the knight, the only person between them that had seen her father the latest, but she could not find the best way to break the silence that had fallen over the fire. She was glad that the knight had been the one to break that silence.

"Maybe I misjudged you from last night. The first thing you wanted to know was how your companions and father fared," he said, poking the fire with a long, thick branch. "You also were quick to understand that while I could be lying to you about them, you have no choice but to believe me until you have further proof or at least able to get away. Am I correct?"

Kat nodded, not saying anything as she wrapped her hands over her upper arms.

"Am I also correct that you are more worried about them then really finding out more about me?" Their eyes met for a second before Kat looked into the fire again and nodded. "As you should be, but at the present moment you can do nothing for them. What you can do is learn from things that have happened."

"I know I can't," she said in a small voice. She took in a deep breath to compose herself as best as she could and looked at him. "Alright, so I'll learn. If I can't help my father or my friends right now, the best thing I can do now is help myself. In order to do that I need to know more about you and if I can really decide if you're telling me the truth. What are you?"

"I am called Freedan; I once was a knight in an old country that, sadly, no longer exists. You are Kat, one of your companions kept saying your name." He tilted his head to the side. "Odd name for a woman."

"Katherine is my full name, Kat only please," she mumbled, absently reaching out and turning the spit. "Not as odd as you are."

"That I cannot disagree with. I am far older then you think I am; what you could call 'immortal'. I cannot die unless I am willed to by my mistress, I have seen ages come and go like the tides," Freedan continued, after snorting at her claims of him being 'odd'. "I am human, and I am in my own body. I have not been willed to another's body, I have been out of my statue for quite some time now."

"That can't be possible, not logical," Kat breathed. "The stories from the natives, they tell you have to possess someone in order to walk the Earth. They are-"

"-utterly false. As you can see I am walking about, living and breathing as you are. While at times I have let my image and strengths to whomever had the powers to do so, I don't have to stay in my statue. I prefer it, but I don't have to. I can stay out as long as I wish to or for however long I am told to, whichever is greater," Freedan explained. "There are three other ways I can leave my statue: by the power of my mistress, by a considerable strength on my part that leaves me weak for several days, and by the Ring of Two Souls. The very ring you wear now is what caused me to be out of my statue."

"The Ring of what?" Kat looked down at her ring; it was the same as it had been at the fire the night before. The details around it were finer, more detailed around the stone, and the onyx stone had lost some of its dullness. In fact it had begun to glow some instead of looking like it was an old stone.

"The ring has begun accepting you as its new master; it hasn't had one in fifty years. Not since I was forced out of my statue and not since I was kept out of it. That ring, the Ring of Two Souls, was the cause of it." Freedan looked at the boar then back at Kat. "'Do you think you can stomach food right now? Or do you want to wait? Either way I can only give you a compacted story, it would take too long to tell you the full details of the history of the ring. Neither one of us has that kind of time at the moment."

"I think I'll hold off on food right now." Kat's stomach betrayed her, as it growled as soon as the words left her. At the present time she ignored it, she did not want to have a repeat of the morning's actions. "And we have time."

"Not as much as you think. If the ring hadn't suddenly disappeared fifty years ago, we wouldn't be sitting here today, having this discussion." Freedan sighed. "Your ring was forged the same day that the end of the comet came. It fell to the Earth right before the Earth began to change so it has had a lot of time to pass through different hands. How familiar are you of the Red Star?"

"It had been a creation of destruction and had changed so many civilizations into different monsters; that much I can remember. Aren't there two other rings?" She asked, turning the ring on her finger around several times. "I was not aware of a third. None of the storytellers on the island ever mentioned it, they just told of a great battle above Earth, that a dark creature was defeated, and that the Light and Dark warriors watched as the Earth transformed into its current form."

"You are more versed in that then I thought, it is not surprising since the tribe that lives on that island has deep, deep roots in the civilizations that were impacted by the comet." Freedan looked into the fire for a moment. "The Ring of Two Souls had been an accident, a side effect that had not been foreseen. With so much Dark Essence, it is not surprising that in a single moment of impact, the power of the two rings and the strong flow of Dark Essence came together for a split second. That second was all it took, no one on that battlefield knew it had existed."

"Where are the other two rings? And those two?" Kat leaned forwards, fascinated to be talking to someone that had seen as much history as Freedan claimed to have seen. "What happened to them?"

"The other two rings were for the two that were reborn whenever there was a need for them. Presently they are living on separate continents, apart from each other, completely unaware of whom or that they are. If we have a need for their powers, then they will remember. Their rings are tucked away for safe keeping, in case they are needed. The Ring of Two Souls, however, is a weapon as much as it is a piece of jewelry." Freedan paused to make sure that Kat did not interrupt him again before continuing on. "The ring was a manifest of those two rings, an occurrence that hasn't happened before nor has it happened since. When it came down it briefly bathed in the light of the comet, falling to the Earth sometime near the end of the great battle between the darkness and the two knights. I assume you are at least vaguely familiar with that story."

"Yes," Kat said, nodding again. She had heard the stories of two younger adventurers, a boy and a girl, and how they had defeated a great darkness. There had been different endings to their story depending on the storyteller, ranging from they had both died at the end of the battle to them living among the current population. If what Freedan had said was true then the pair was alive, completely oblivious to who they were. "So this ring, it was born from the power of these two rings, the comet, and what? Was the force of the battle that great that something just pulled everything together just right?"

"It's possible since a great burst of energy from that battle created that ring and it's now here after several decades of not being in use. It is a dangerous item that should have never been put into the hands of mortals. The last time any part of the comet came into contact with mortals, it created what you called monsters." The knight's expression was grim as he talked and continued to stare into the fire. "I mentioned before that is a weapon. The ring has powers that can only be harnessed by one person at a time; powers that often make mortals do horrible things. Only a few have been driven into that darkness, where they abuse the darker side of the ring. Once on that path a person cannot free themselves unless they throw the ring away or die. It can take weeks, months, or even years before this occurs. That is what is called 'corruption'.

"The ring cannot not tell who will or will not turn down that path, not everyone who uses the ring will corrupt. Delve into the powers carefully; the temptation can be too great to handle for some." Freedan looked directly at Kat. "I saw that ring when I was forced out of my statue. The last person to have it was a girl no older then you are, with red hair and green eyes. I knew right away she had not been turned into Shadow, my counterpart."

"The other statue," Kat breathed, looking at her ring. The stone had not yet lost all of its dullness but was looking less and less like it had yesterday morning. "What happened to the girl?"

"She corrupted faster than my mistress or I had expected, not like the others who were on the path of corruption. Not long after she had turned into an unspeakable horror, she threw the ring away and left it wherever she had tossed it. Years later she came looking for it again but by the ring had disappeared. It wouldn't have taken her back, not after what she had done to it." If Kat could read his voice and expression correctly, she would think he was grieving for the girl. "I can't know what happened afterwards but she left and hasn't been heard of since. The Underworld may have claimed her."

"So she's dead then?" Kat asked, reaching for the spit again and turning it twice. Freedan shook his head.

"No, there's a difference between actual death and the Underworld claiming a person. That conversation is for another time. What I'd like to know is how your father came about the Ring of Two Souls and didn't put it on himself." Freedan looked at Kat expectantly as though she could give him an answer. All he had been told by her father was that he had given Kat a ring for her birthday, for all he knew that was a lie just like Kat might think this was all a big joke being played on her.

In truth she couldn't tell him, for all she knew Michael had gotten it off another island somewhere, a black market even. It wouldn't have been the first time either one of them had purchased something illegally like this, although the items in question had not been instruments of destruction. If what Freedan was telling her was true, then how come no one knew what it was until the knight told her? Was this the reason behind her father's behavior for the last few days? If so then why give her it, knowing what the ring was, if he knew of its origins? Michael had always been careful in what he gave his daughter, so why stop now?

"I take your silence that you don't know either. Very well." Freedan stood up and gestured to the now cooked boar. "You have two hours to eat, change into something more comfortable, and do what you need to do. I cannot just leave this without telling Her and She would need to see you. Two hours."

Picking up his sword, Freedan walked into the other side of the camp and disappeared into the jungle, not even looking back at where Kat was sitting. When he did not come back after about five minutes, she assumed he would be leaving her to do what he had instructed her to do: get something to eat, get her supplies, then they would head deeper into the island. Or she could grab her belongings, what little she had ready, and head for where the beach was, or use the tracking device she had to locate her father. He had a similar device and he had not shown up to see if she alright, that would have been the first thing he would have done as soon as he met the knight.

Then she groaned and put her head into her hands. She could not believe that she hadn't even turned it on when they had gone their separate ways! That had been one of her lessons when she had received it: if they ever went into separate groups, or they got lost, they were to turn the device on. She hadn't even bothered; she had been so absorbed with everything else that she had forgotten! Would her father have found her before Freedan had, or come right after he had?

While she could turn it on now so that her father knew where to come look for her, it would not be plausible for her to get it from her bags. If what Freedan had said was true and he had met her father, she didn't exactly ask how the encounter had gone. What if Freedan had threatened Michael and would kill him in their next encounter? No, it was best to keep it off in case Crystal knew about the knight and wanted to go after him; she was obsessed with the statues and having the knight walking about was not the greatest thing. If Crystal met the knight there was no telling what would happen in that encounter.

Kat moved her hands down her face and stared at the boar and fire in front of her. Freedan had given her a two hour head start; if she gathered the basic supplies for survival, plus her own tracker and hand-held seeking device, she could put some distance between her and him. She calculated at least a half hour for to get the supplies, an hour and a half to find her father and the other part of the group. She could get away from all of this, her father and anyone else who wanted to leave, and not return. But even if she left now without any supplies, how far would she get before the island closed in on her? How fast could Freedan get to her when he realized Kat was gone? She didn't even know where he had walked off to!

Then there was the ring. It was a tale she had expected of the storytellers back on the main island, if not the younger ones who were learning from their elders. Then again the statues were a story in itself and one of them was islands away, with its supposed inhabitant having just gotten up and walked steps away from her! If she had proof, living proof, that these stories were true, why couldn't this one be? Kat had so little information to form any conclusion for herself and not run away. She needed more to satisfy her lack of knowledge and there were few places she could go where Freedan wouldn't find her. How did she know he couldn't get to the main island to find her?

"What am I doing?" Kat asked herself as she got up and began to look for something to get the boar off of the spit with. The knight had appeared to have done a decent job with setting it up and cooking the meat, it had to have taken several hours to do that work. What he had been doing all that time while waiting for the animal to cook she didn't want to know and she didn't care to, either.

By the time the two hours were up, Kat had gathered what she had believed she needed: her tracker, her 'seeker' device, two changes of clothes, water, several knives, a compass, sunscreen, bug repellant, a spare hat and sunglasses, and a blanket. She also put a first aid kit into a big backpack someone had left behind, along with her new supplies; she had been surprised to find aspirin among the kit. She was very thankful for that, as soon as she had eaten a small chunk of meat she washed down three of the aspirin for her headache. So far, after twenty minutes, she had not emptied the contents of her stomach; that was a good sign; she did not need to be doing that along the way. Her headache had also disappeared, one of the things she did not need was her head throbbing with pain. She only managed it with her conversation with Freedan so she could learn more.

By the time Freedan emerged from the jungle, Kat had extinguished the fire and was cutting the boar up into smaller portions. She did not know when she would get the chance to eat this kind of meat again, or eat at all later, or if Freedan would let her hunt on the island. When she looked up at him from her kneeling position, she watched him move from where he had entered the campsite and headed to where she was. Offering him a piece of meat, she tried to smile at him as he sat next to her.

"I see you didn't run," Freedan observed as he took the offered meat and began to eat it.

"I couldn't just leave," she said, looking at the part of the boat she hadn't cut up. There was no way she could take the entire thing, so she gathered what she had and placed it into a plastic storage bag. Once she had, Kat used water and soap to washer her hands and the knife she used.

"Or you realized you had no choice," Freedan said once he had finished eating. Kat briefly nodded as she started to dig a hole for the boar's remains with a discarded shovel but the knight stopped her. "There is no need or time for that. In the unlikely event you'll return to this spot, the wildlife on this island wouldn't have cared how well this boar was buried. It would've been dug up eventually."

"Okay, so that'll save some time. Where are you leading me? It's not far, is it?" Kat asked, dropping the shovel with a shrug. Freedan stood up, his eyes sweep the area around them; Kat took this as a sign that they were about to leave. Putting the heavy backpack on her shoulders, she waited for Freedan to finish looking around.

"It would take until tomorrow morning to reach the spot we need to go if you walked. By then whatever dark cloud is hovering on this island would've found us and the ring. It already knows I'm awake, active, and possibly have possession of the ring." Freedan looked at her. "Get on my back; I'm faster than you are now."

"You're kidding me, right?" Kat laughed. When she didn't even receive a smile on return she stared at him with an eyebrow raised. "How can you –"

Kat didn't get the rest of that sentence out before she was grabbed by the arm and swung onto Freedan's back. Grabbing onto the shoulder blades of his armor, Kat gasped as Freedan took a step forwards then launched forwards. Her eyes widened as the knight moved fast through the jungle; what would've taken her ten minutes to walk only took half that time. Whatever screams she had died in her throat: he moved quickly through the underbrush, around trees, and through vines. Had she not been holding onto him as tightly and as scared she was, she would have fallen off by then.

Where he was taking her Kat didn't know, the last thing she had to trust on this island may just be the last person she thought existed.

Until Next Time