And here we are, again. Wow, I'm having less to say.
Anyways, the past circle of hell, as these people say, is the circle in which the greedy and prodigal are punished. The greedy push bags of money up the hills, and the prodigal push them down.
I am of course going by Gustave Dore's illustrations for the Inferno here, as in the original epic they only pushed boulders. I personally think Dore's illustartions are more clever, actually, as it only strengthens the irony of their situation.
And the next circle we're going into? That would be the fourth circle, where the wrathful and slothful are punished. The wrathful fight on the surface, of course. As for the slothful, they're under the water.
And this is where elements of Norse mythology come into play. Originally, the river that was the *fifth* circle of hell was the river Styx. But since the Styx got put elsewhere (I'm pretty sure I was overly vague with it, though; the Styx was the river that Ike woke up next to way back at the beginning of this book of the epic.), then I had to come up with a substitute. And Lethe had no place since it's a) the worst possible river to put in hell, b) the name of a character in PoR/RD, and c) out of place since it originally appeared in the second poem of the Divine Comedy (Purgatorio, to be precise). So I turned to the Norse version of events, complete with swan that carries everyone over the river to the land of the dead.
But anyways, that's enough of me yapping about the source material. Away chapter!
Chapter 10: The River Tuonela
As several people on the boat began to talk about the events that had been happening amongst themselves, Gregor looked out into the river on the boat that was driven by the swan. The river itself had rather dark waters, but that was rather difficult to tell because he saw a bunch of people fighting each other on the surface of the river. This brought quite a bit of water up in the splashing that resulted, but all of this fighting was still occurring a great distance away from the boat. Greil looked at the hawk laguz as he surveyed the river, and he brought it upon himself to talk to Gregor.
"This place..." said Greil.
"To be honest, sir?" asked Gregor, looking at the captain of his mercenary squad. "This place kind of creeps me out a little bit. I mean, are those people in the bottom of the river?"
"The slothful, yes," said Greil as Ike stood up and walked over to them. "Elena told me that once, as she did some patch-up work in this circle of hell."
"You mean my mom goes around making sure people don't escape?" asked Ike, Greil suddenly noticing his son's presence there.
"Pretty much, yes," said Greil. "The fortifications sometimes need a little restrengthening..."
"Fancy language for 'we need to make our systems run better?'" asked Ike.
Greil nodded in reply. "Pretty much." He then looked down towards the waters of the river Tuonela, thinking about something. "I remember that my wife was down in the seventh circle before all this happened."
Ike's expression took on an expression of shock, blue eyes widening as he heard this. "Is she okay?" he asked immediately.
"Your mother can handle herself in those conditions," replied Greil with a shrug. "I just hope that nothing is going horribly wrong for her..."
Ike opened his mouth to reply when something suddenly hit the boat from underneath. This startled everybody out of their conversations, and then they all looked around. Even Phlegyas looked around for a brief second, his eyes filled with worry.
"What the hell was that?" asked Fiordiligi, startling all of those close to her.
"Whoah, Fiordiligi!" said Maria, holding her hands out in front of her in a rejective gesture. "I never though I'd hear those words come out of your mouth!"
Before much more could be brought up on this subject, the boat was hit again, and this time Andrew stood up, looking around the area.
"Oh, dear, something's trying to get us!" cried Andrew.
"Andrew, it's coming from under the boat?" asked Soren. "The wrathful don't do this kind of thing unless they really have a wish to be sent lower in hell."
The boat was hit again by this, and by now Phlegyas had turned around, his swans having stopped in their tracks.
"I don't know, Soren," replied the ship's driver as he descended into the boat after tying his swans to the front of the boat. "I think he might have a point."
And then, a clawed hand struck the side of the boat, Fiordiligi and Agniezska being forced to jump back as the boat was sent floating along the river a few feet. And then, a figure splashed out of the water and presented himself to the group, Ike, Fiordiligi, and Maria all recognizing the figure instantly.
"Katchei!" cried the three in unison.
"Ah, so you three are down in this place..." said the lizardman evilly as he grabbed onto the boat and made an attempt at getting on. "Most interesting! Maybe now I can torment you forever!"
"They're still alive!" retorted Lyanna, kicking Katchei in the face. "Now get back in the water, you overgrown lizard!"
Lyanna continued kicking the lizardman repeatedly, but no matter how many times she kicked him he would not let go of the boat, and he slowly stepped onto it. Eventually, Katchei grabbed a hold of Lyanna's heel; he held the appendage so hard that her ankle would have broken if she was not already dead.
"So much the better, then," replied Katchei cooly, sneering in Lyanna's face. "Because you're not going to do anything about it!"
Before anybody else could so much as intervene, the lizard turned around and threw the unfortunate woman out of the boat, the girl landing in the water about twenty feet away. As she landed in the water, Lloyd called out to her, but before anybody could move in her direction, there was a flash of light. When the light passed by, the group found that Ragnell was pressed to Katchei's throat, Ike knowing that Katchei could not bleed anymore but hoping that the lizardman would feel threatened by it.
"We're not gonna let you do anything!" cried Ike, hate clouding his normally calm blue eyes. "We didn't let you have your way on Magvel, and we're not letting you have your way now!"
"That's right!" chimed in Fiordiligi, gripping her staff hard with a determined air about her. "And this time I have a debt that needs to be repayed in watching you suffer! And besides, you're not wearing anything, you indecent cur!"
Katchei simply chuckled, brandishing his claws. It was at Fiordiligi's comment that everybody noticed the lizardman was standing in front of them stark naked, his muscles bulging out thanks to the water that added light to his scarlet scales.
"Indecent?" asked the lizard. "You do realize that in this place absolutely everybody is as naked as I am, right? And you also forget that I've grown bitter by the 'punishment' bestowed on me."
"Enough!" cried Andrew, proceeding to kick Katchei square in the chest to no avail. "You're going down, asshole!"
"Correction," replied Katchei, managing to flick Ragnell away from his throat and then stepping away before Ike could point the weapon at the lizard's throat again. "You shall be defeated."
And before anybody could reply, Katchei moved to grab Andrew. However, he ducked down into the boat, where Soren sent a wind spell at the lizardman, sending him reeling back just a little bit. Lloyd, mindful of the slight tilting that was going on in the boat, leaned back to balance the weight, something that he was only able to do with Greil's help. So then the boat was evened out.
Katchei took a swipe at Gregor shortly afterwards, and Gregor was barely able to jump back, the claws grazing his front though thankfully not leaving any damage. He leapt off the boat and into the air, where he was able to fly.
Maria, who was standing behind Ike at this moment, saw this. Her eyes went wide with shock, but before she was able to figure out how the hawk was still able to fly with his wings the way they were, the swipe of Katchei's claws was close to her and she noticed Fiordiligi ducking under Katchei's claws.
Linus, who had brandished an axe by then, was able to whack the lizardman with the flat side of the axe. However, the madman had leaned into the axe such that the blow did not send him falling back into the river Tuonela. He then managed to kick Agniezska away just as she was aiming to hit him with her staff. This sent her knocking into Linus, and then the two of them fell back onto the side of the boat that Lloyd and Greil were trying to keep in check.
This sent the balance of the boat towards the four of them, and as Ike moved to kick the lizard the woman from Elibe had somehow managed to roll to the other side of the boat quickly enough that the boat was back on its original distribution of weight. Ike's kick connected, but it only sent Katchei further onto the boat, such that he landed on his back where Fiordiligi was standing with her staff at the ready.
Without a second wasted, Fiordiligi bashed the lizard on the head over and over again in rage, screaming at the top of her lungs as she beat him over the head repeatedly.
"You! Are! Going! To! Die! Again!" A hit from her staff accentuated the yelling of each word that Fiordiligi screamed her rage manifesting itself again as everybody just stepped back and Greil and Lloyd rolled back onto the boat to balance the weight. It was at this time that Agniezska noticed that her swings seemed to be moving themselves in a pattern, and as all of the people that had been knocked around stood up, they noticed this as well.
Before anybody was able to comment on it, though, a magic circle hovered above Katchei much in the same way that it hovered over Roartz earlier in their journey. However, this time the circle snapped shut immediately, and Katchei was nowhere to be seen.
"My goodness!" cried Persephone from where she and Hades had hovered close to Phlegyas throughout the entire fight.
"Did she just...?" asked Hades as everybody stared at the healer for a second.
Fiordiligi exhaled and inhaled deeply before noticing that Katchei was nowhere around her. Looking to her staff, her eyes bulged wide, realizing the implications of what she had done.
"Dearest me!" cried Fiordiligi. "I actually did it!"
"You were quite angry, though," offered Agniezska, straightening out her grass-colored hair. "That tends to boost the success of a sending spell. For now, that may be a one-time occurrence..."
"Still, it's better than nothing, right?" offered Gregor as he flew back with Lyanna in tow. "I found her off somewhere, by the way."
"Lyanna!" cried Lloyd and Linus, both running up to her. "Are you okay?"
"I've been through worse," said the woman as she rubbed her neck. "But it's hard trying to do anything when there are about fifty guys fighting each other right on top of you."
"Wait, the bigger question is, how is Gregor still able to fly?" asked Maria, pointing at the skeletal wings of the laguz. "There's no way he should be able to fly with his wings like that!"
"This is the underworld, remember?" asked the hawk with a wink. "I don't need the feathers anymore..."
"Makes me kind of afraid of what Tibarn would look like when he dies..." muttered Ike as Phlegyas grabbed the reins of his swans.
"Well, hopefully that'll teach that self-righteous bastard who's boss," said the boatman as he pulled on the reins and the boat moved again. "He was giving me trouble for a while."
"Really?" asked Lloyd quickly.
"I wouldn't be surprised," replied Ike with a nod. "He tried to take over Magvel. If me, Maria, and our friends hadn't come when we did, that place would be a no-man's land right now!"
Andrew did his best impression of a confused expression before crossing his arms. "So he tried to take over Magvel?" asked the burned youth. "Good thing he's down here, then."
"Nationalist," muttered Soren under his breath before a death glare from Fiordiligi and Maria silenced the mage.
"Anyways, let's get moving, shall we?" asked Phlegyas.
"Yes, let's," said Hades. "We've wasted enough time here."
And with that, nobody said anything else as the boat pulled along the river Tuonela slowly, the swans guiding the boat by strings to the opposite bank.
The boat was still moving along in the river quite placidly. By then, Katchei had undoubtedly been sent to the bottom of hell, and so the waters were as peaceful as they could be when there were still others brawling on the surface.
By this time, though, the boat had fallen completely silent. The encounter with the lizardman had sent quite a few people on the edge, and so they were on a constant look-out for anybody else that randomly decided to wade up to the boat and attack them. Thankfully, nobody seemed to be quite as daring as the lizard-man was, and so the boat sailed on in relative silence.
At this point, Maria was slowly beginning to get a little antsy where she sat. Aside from the fact that she was pregnant and travelling in the underworld, she was now wondering about many other things as well. However, the thoughts were only pervading at the moment, so she decided not to do much about the thoughts right then. However, she had the feeling her feelings would only intensify as time went on.
There was no doubt in her mind that Ike and Fiordiligi would listen to her; however, she decided not to burden them with a little something extra that would only plague their minds as well as hers. She didn't dare tell anybody else, as she knew they were only strangers in what would be a short quest. Thinking on this, Maria wondered how the four days that had passed since the start of the journey managed to go by so quickly. She felt there was something wrong with this passage of time and how fast things were changing, but she was not about to complain much at all.
It was when the boat rocked violently a few seconds later that she was jolted out of her train of thought. However, she was greeted by the sight of a pair of hands grabbing onto the edge of the boat, and then a figure got pulled up a few seconds later, looking at the group as Phlegyas stared at this.
"Oh, dear, not another one!" cried the boatman.
"Relax," said Agniezska, holding a hand out to the boat's driver as she looked at the rather large man who had emerged from the water. "This is not a wrathful sinner."
"You're certainly a new face," said Hades, shifting into his human form shortly after saying this. "What brought you here?"
"I was killed by a young lord who was accompanied by a mere child with an accent," said the man, blonde hair falling over his face as he wiped the strands from it. "They both defeated me, and I was sent here for not seeing reason."
"Wait, you don't do the actual sentencing?" asked Fiordiligi, turning to Hades.
"No," he replied simply with a nod of his head. "I just run the underworld; there's somebody else who judges the wicked."
"Hm..." said the visitor as he grabbed onto the boat a little harder. "So you are the king of all this."
"You bet he is!" cried Maria with a point of her finger.
"Maria, it's not polite to point!" cried the blonde woman.
"Don't worry about it, Fiordiligi," said Hades with a dismissive wave of his hand.
However, something sparkled in the stranger's silver eyes, and for a second he pondered.
"What is it?" asked Andrew quickly.
"Fiordiligi..." said the man. "That sounds like a name that the boy with the accent said before we engaged in battle..." said the man.
"Viordilegi?" asked Maria, doing her best to immitate the kind of accent found in the streets of Alexandra.
"Why, that was it!" replied the man, holding her hand out to the laguz.
"Wait a minute, you met Willie?" cried Fiordiligi, leaning over the boat to look the man in the eye. "Oh my God! He found land!"
"Well, that's always a good thing," said Ike. "At least we know Willie's okay."
"You knew his name..." said the man. "I guess you are his friends, then..."
"Yes," said Ike. "And you are?"
"I am Zephiel, the former king of Bern," said the man, looking sadly into the boat. "I had lead a large war on Elibe in an attempt to return the continent to the dragons..."
"What?" cried Agniezska, Lloyd, and Linus in unison, all of them equally shocked at this. "So you're..."
"My god..." said Linus. "You're prince Zephiel! The one the Fang was supposed to kill in its final days!"
"What?" asked Ike quickly. "You never said anything about killing a prince!"
"It is good they did not, though," added the former king of Bern quickly as he pulled himself so that his forearms were inside the boat. "My father tried to kill me several times. And on the last time, he almost succeeded..."
"And that was when you lost your mind..." finished Lyanna with a small sigh.
Zephiel shook his head sadly. "Please do not use that wording in my presence; it makes me feel all the worse in the bottom of this river."
"So you met Willie then..." said Fiordiligi, leaning closer.
"Not met, but yes, I did know him for the last few minutes of my life..." replied Zephiel.
The woman from Jericho looked down at the boat, her mind wandering for a brief second. When she looked up, a tear was seen running down her cheek as a sincere, relieved smile came to her face.
"Thank you for telling me this," said Fiordiligi, grabbing his hand tenderly and clasping both of her hands around the hand as if she was in prayer. "I... I was worried about him... And it kept nagging at me... So thanks. Even if you did cause a giant war that reigned destruction all over, I... I don't know what I would've done without knowing about him... So thank you..."
Zephiel smiled at the woman,
"For once, I have done something right," said the king of Bern. "You're welcome, milady. And thank you; now I'll have something good to remember during my punishment."
There was a mutual silence as Fiordiligi nodded, her tears of mixed joy and relief running over Zephiel's hand as it slowly slipped from her grasp.
"So, anything else you want to tell us before you go under?" asked Hades. "Because, you know, the longer you stay out here, the more likely you are to get a harsher punishment. And since that wouldn't be good..."
"I know..." said Zephiel. "I just wanted someone to talk to is all. It gets rather lonely down at the bottom of the river."
"So that was it?" asked Andrew, his head tilting to the side as his voice told of wonder. "And to think we got a lot more than that out of it."
"I should drop back now," said the imposing man. "If ever you should see your friend again, send him my greatest apologies."
Fiordiligi nodded, too happy to express anything in words.
And after this affirmation, Zephiel let go of the boat, and then he sank back into the waters of Tuonela, and a calm took over all people onboard as they thought of what just happened. Finally, Ike shifted where he sat and looked to where Zephiel just was.
"Well, at least we know Willie's okay," said Ike. "Now that leaves Kuranga to be seen."
"He's okay..." said Fiordiligi, looking up to the darkened sky with brightly shining emeralds.
"Hm..." said Andrew, a smirk coming to his face with the exposed muscle tissue making it all the more hideous. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're getting feelings for this 'Willie' person that we didn't know until just now."
"W-what?" asked Fiordiligi, turning to face the burned man. "Th-that's just silly! W-w-we're just great friends is all!"
"Hm, it sounds like someone's in denial here," said Gregor playfully. "And Andrew's not the kind of person to deny anything about his love life."
Almost instantly a blush formed on Fiordiligi's cheeks. "Just what are you suggesting?" asked Fiordiligi.
"Ha ha!" teased Andrew, standing up and pointing at the woman as he started dancing on the boat. "You are in lo~ove! You are in lo~ove!"
A harsh smack resounded over the waters, and the slap was so hard that there was a brief second where all of the wrathful looked to Phlegyas' boat for a second before resuming their own fights. Lyanna brought her finger up to Andrew's face threateningly, but before she could say anything she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Lyanna, calm down," said Lloyd. "They were just playing around!"
"Well, isn't that what always gets them in trouble?" asked the branded female.
"It's not like it matters much anyway," said Maria with a shrug. "Anyways, aren't we under a bit of a time stress here?"
"Oh!" cried Phlegyas, who had not dared to move the boat after this touching scene. "Of course!"
And the boat was back on its track. Fiordiligi's eyes kept tracking the spot where Zephiel had grabbed the boat until it was unseeable, her mind far away from the conversation that had been struck shortly after the boat set off. She looked up at the sky again, her eyes shining at the thought of being able to see Willie again in the world of the living. The only regret she had about the scene that had just come to pass was that Willie did not get the same assurance that she, Maria, and Ike were alive as well...
After a while of relative calm, the other side of the banks of the river Tuonela were finally visible. As they saw this, everybody smiled, rather happy to see land again.
"Finally!" exclaimed Andrew, jumping up gleefully. "We're at the other side!"
"About time, too!" said Hades as the boat slowed down to a stop. "I was wondering when those encounters would end!"
"What, all two of them?" asked Fiordiligi with a playful wink. "I guess you're quite cranky now."
"Hey!" cried Hades. He would have shifted into his human form had Persephone not hovered in front of him.
"Relax, dear," said the queen of the underworld quickly. "She was just playing."
"Indeed she was," said Soren, who was the first one onto dry land. "You seem to be rather cheerful right now."
"Well, I guess finding out your friend is alive does that to you," said Fiordiligi as a smile graced her face once again and she stepped off of the boat next to Ike and Maria.
"You mean 'friend and possible lover', right?" asked Gregor with a wink.
"You too, Gregor?" cried the lady rather perturbedly, staring at him as Andrew fell onto the ground in a fit of laughter. "What is this? Mock the concerned friend day?"
"I believe you're forgetting something..." said Agniezska jokingly as she, Andrew, and Gregor all stepped off of the boat at the same time.
"Ugh!" cried Fiordiligi, stamping her foot against the earth as the rest of the passengers stepped off of the ferry.
Ike patted the woman's shoulders without any real emotion in mind. "Oh, come on, Fiordiligi, it can't be that bad," he said. "I mean, after all, what's the worst that could happen?"
"But what if Willie doesn't return the feelings?" asked the woman.
There was a brief silence as everybody but Soren, Hades, and Persephone stared at her, a mischievous glint in their eyes.
"What?" asked Fiordiligi, feeling everybody's stares burn into her soul.
And then all at once, everybody entered a whoop at the lady, which quite surprised the blonde greatly.
"D-did I miss something?" asked the lady.
"Other than you indirectly admitting your feelings, no," replied Maria as she patted Fiordiligi's shoulder. "Thanks, Phlegyas!"
"No problem!" cried the ferryman, who then set his boat on a course back to the other side.
It was then that Fiordiligi managed to figure out what she had said and how she had very subtly been told off. As everybody walked right past her, her face contorted, her brows arching horrifically over her eyes as her hands balled into fists.
"Why, you--!!!" she exclaimed furiously at the top of her lungs.
Everybody just laughed before continuing on, almost as if expecting his reaction. The lady decided that losing her temper at such a point was not warranted, and rejoined the group while giving everybody a glare of death as they continued on into a land where smoke seemed to be rising up from the ground.