"Oh really? Then I best speak up."
"That is not what I meant," I said seriously. Basch just started to laugh at me, and I pushed him off of the bed. I cringed as I felt my stitches pull, causing me to gasp.
"Are you alright?" he asked, practically leaping off of the floor.
"I'm fine, my stitches just started to pull," I said, stretching my neck and shoulders, "They're probably ready to come out."
"Can I take a look?"
"Sure," I said, laying on my stomach with my feet on the pillow. I could feel the bandage peel back, pulling a hair along the way.
"It's just as you thought, they are ready to come out. You should be grateful you are such a fast healer," Basch fetched the sissors out of the first aid kit and proceeded to take the stitches out. When he was done, I stood up and stretched, happy to be rid of them when I heard the remote for Rinoa beep. I pulled it out of my pocket to find that the emergency alert was going off.
"Basch, love, will you please round everyone up while I get ready?"
"Of course, we'll be waiting in the foyer," he said, leaving the room. I dressed quickly and strpped my blades to my hips along with my pistol.
Everyone was waiting in the foyer, prepared to leave when I emerged from my room.
"What's the big emergency?" asked Ffamran, Kyath, and Amaran.
"Rinoa's emergency alert went off," Father sent me a look.
"That only happens when other ships are spotted on radar," he said.
"That is precisely why we must hurry, I have a bad feeling about this."
Jyrin saw us off as we went into the forest, my brothers blazing the trail. We ran the entire way incuding Father, which surprised me. Rinoa was anchored in a clearing. I quickly touched the warp stone to the bridge, assuming command.
Jeremy, Fang, Alix, and Gabriel immediately assumed their stations.
"Two Rozarrian warships incoming," announced Fang. Before I could give the order for a comm link the vid screen came to life. A man in Rozzarian armor stared at me.
" This is Commander Margrace, of the warship Kashmir. You dare wage war with us Archadian?"
"This is a privately owned ship," I said calmly, "Please leave us in peace."
"Liar! You are the infamous Mist Judge!"
"And I have a right to my own ship!"
"No one person can own a sky fortress!"
"They can if they designed it, you idiot!" I was starting to get annoyed. The comm suddenly closed.
"They're going to attack," said Kyath.
"Thank you Captain Obvious."
"They ready their cannons," announced Gabriel.
"Rozzarian cannons run purely on Mist, right?" I asked, turning to Father.
"Correct. They operate similarly to our Nethicite cannons," said Father. I racked my brain for a plan. Using myself to absorb the Mist should absorb the attack.
"I can absorb the Mist," I said to myself deep in thought, not realizing who had heard.
"Demia, that's insane! Use the paling!" yelled Ffamran.
"Twenty-five seconds to impact!" yelled Jeremy."
"There's no time to raise it, Balthier!" I yelled, throwing myself around Fran, knowing she needed the most protection. I popped in a mouth guard from my pocket, and removed the obsidian bracelet, handing it to Basch.
"Ten seconds! Six…five…four…three…two…ONE!" I braced myself with each number Jeremy shouted, before I felt it.
I bit down hard as I felt the Mist surge in my body. My muscles tensed, the fortress shook, and I heard someone scream. The few seconds it took felt like an eternity. An aura of Mist surrounded my body and I looked up to Fran.
"I am unharmed, little one," she said, I knew she could read me like a book.
"I am glad to hear it. Alix, would you show Fran to the Mistproof cabin?"
"Right away Strahlia!" he said seizing Fran's hand, "Follow me!"
After Alix left, I began to issue orders, "Ffamran, Amaran, Kyath, and Basch, go to the weapons floor and begin a complete barrage on them! Show no quarter! Gabranth! Drace! Prepare the infirmary! Father take my place in command!"
"Then where are you going?" asked Vaan.
"To hold an offence or defence from the roof."
"You'll get yourself killed!" yelled Penelo.
"You act like I've never done it before," I said marching off to the roof.
On the roof I could see everything. The warships were about the size of Laviathan and just as deadly. Every weapon was active, giving its all, putting them on the defensive. Some sort of tractor beam pulled me in the middle of the crossfire onto an invisible platform, and everything seemed to have stopped. The Rozzarian ships were crippled. Someone appeared before me, he looked no older than myself.
"So you are the infamous Mist Child. I'm Orion, your executioner." I looked at him and wondered how I get in these type of situations.
"I would like to see you try," I retorted. Just then a symbbol glowed beneath his shirt. He was a knockoff of me! "You're nothing but a cheap copy of yours truly." This made him extremely angry. He sent an easily dodged wave of Mist at me. "You are going to need better than that." My hands started to glow, sending bolts of Mist in his direction. I could see the beads of sweat beading on his forehead in concentration when he blocked. All of a sudden the platform flicked me off and I hit the safety glass of the bridge back first. I drew my blades and stepped into a Mist form. He moved like me but I had more experience. He caught me by the throat and squeezed. I felt the breath seep out of me when I cut off his arm. He bled Mist. An overwhelming pressure took over my head. It flet like my eyes were going to pop from their sockets. I fell to the ground in pain.
"Let me in, I can help, daughter of Cidofus. I can make you a goddess. You will have ultimate power,"
"Get out Venat!" all of my will went to pushing him away, and the pressure lessened. My boy felt like it was on fire from all of the Mist I let out in the process. The resulting explosion killed Orion, and I plummeted to the ground. I concentrated on flying when my desent stopped. I could fly! I went in the direction of Rinoa and entered through the roof. My head ached, and everything swam in or out of focus, and the room began to spin.
I walked drunkenly to the bridge, struggling to keep everyone in focus.
"The Rozzarians ran, Demia," said Kyath, "you scared them off, starting an explosion like that."
"Didn't you see the other person? He was trying to kill me!" I cringed, the noise making my headache worse.
"There was nobody else, Dem," said Ffamran. The pressure started again and I collapsed to the floor. I was too busy fighting off Venat to notice that I was writhing on the floor, and holding my head, screaming. When it was gone, everyone was staring at me, panting on the floor. I felt Basch slide my bracelet on while someone picked me up. I was barely conscious enough to realize that I was carried to my room, until I felt my pillow under my head.
I slowly became more coherent after I felt liquid pour down my throat. Everyone including Fran surrounded me, wearing worried looks.
"Don't worry. Venat just gave me a headache." The looks melted into relief, except Ffamran.
"What was that about Venat?" he asked. Everyone was staring at me.
"He tried to take over my mind," I said nonchalantly.
"WHAT?!" yelled my family in unison.
"No worries, my mind is still Venat free," I said jokingly. The truth was, I was terrified. I saw what Venat can do to people( i.e. my father) and I did not want that to happen to me.
"Glad to hear it," said Amaran. Ffamran stayed unusually silent. My brothers left, leaving me with Father and the rest of the party. Eveyone looked at me like I was about to die any second.
"Demia, listen to me. No matter what happens don't listen to Venat. He will ue you for your powers and you will become a Hume puppet."
"I know. That's what scares me." Everyone but Basch left the room, and I felt relieved. I didn't say a word, my feelings were too complicated to voice. Plus, my head still felt like it had been slammed into a wall repeatedly. Sensing this, Basch said nothing, instead he started cooking with whatever was in my refridgerator. He clearly heard of my history with kitchens as I saw him sniff the milk for freshness. I didn't even remember dozing off until I smelled melted cheese under my nose. Basch had made me grilled cheese! There were two sandwiches on the plate and the first was gone in seconds.
"Did you know that you have a bacterial cess pool instead of a refridgerator?"
"Oh…sorry about that, I barely ever use it so I forget to clean it," I said, finishing the second sandwich.
"Well that explains the month old milk," he said jokingly.
"Was it really a month old?" I asked, he nodded. I erupted into laughter at the look on his face. He gave me a look, but I kept laughing for minutes afterward.
"Done?" he asked when I finally stopped.
"I think so," I said laying back on my pillow.
Laying next to me he said, "You scared me earlier, Demia, when you flew into the crossfire. When you passed out, I thought— "
"— I know, but I'm still here."
"I…I can lose you, Demonalia," said Basch, pulling me closer. I laid my head on his chest.
"You're not going to."
I woke before we reached Archades with Basch's arm wrapped firmly about my waist. I was running my hands through his soft, silken blonde hair when his eyes fluttered to wakefulness.
"Good morning, love," I said, my hands still worrying his hair.
"Good morning," he said, yawning in the process, "Are we almost there?"
"Most likely," Basch looked at me quizzically, "I am content where I am right now." My annoying brothers burst into the room with Amaran jumping on top of the bed.
"If it isn't our little sister and her manlylove!" he shouted in a sing-song voice. I rolled over and hid under the covers and my pillow to hide my embarrassment. Basch tried to defend me but nothing of consequece happened. I could hear Ffamran trying not to laugh and failing miserably. Suddenly the bedcovers disappeared along with my pillow. I tried using Basch as a shield but he got up and left! I opened my eyes and saw Kyath holding my blankets and pillow.
"Give them back!" I whined "It's cold!" Ffamran walked over to the edge of the bed, and I thought he was going to give back my blankets when he tipped over the mattress and I fell in an ungraceful heap on the floor! I pushed the mattress off and got up when they took off running. I gave chase, racing through the whole fortress after them, and found a freshly cooked spread of food in the galley. Everyone was eating, and laughing at the look on my face.
"All of that just to alert me to breakfast!" Everyone laughed, knowing what had happened. I was too distracted by the delicious food to care anymore.
"I told you the way to her heart is through food, Basch," said Amaran.
"You make me sound like a pig!"
"No, just a food enthusiast. Of course this could be from your lack of culinary skills," said Kyath.
"Hey! No fair! You guys had lessons while I was locked in a room all day!" Everyone cringed visibly, and I realized my slip. I quickly finished my meal and left for the bridge.
I sat in my captain's chair working on a engineering workbook on my desk when I heard footsteps. I reached for the dagger I kept in the drawer, ready to attack when I saw familiar looking blond hair emerge from the corridor. It was Gabranth again.
"What do you want, Gabranth," I asked, irritated. I placed the dagger in the drawer, waiting for his response.
"My name is Noah, Deimos; or should I say, Demonalia."
"What is this about, Noah"
"Basch wanted me to check up on you."
"You can tell him that I am perfectly fine, just working on my airship engineering."
"You are lying."
"Prove it."
"You always throw yourself into working on something when you are distressed."
"Oh? How do you know that?"
"I was your mentor, Demonalia. It only makes sense that you would pick up some of my habits."
"I am turning into you, am I? Fantastic." The auto-pilot beeped, signaling we were in the highlands, as close as we were going to get to Archades. Everyone grouped into the Strahl and we flew into the aerodrome. We went into the palace through a discreet entrance only meant for the guard and judges, proceeding to Larsa's chambers.
Larsa's face lit up when he saw us and the thirteen year old hugged us each in turn. Drace chided him playfully about being inappropriate. He looked at me thoughtfully before speaking. "All of Archades has been sending me complaints these past few weeks. It seems that I was not doing a good enough job in searching for most of House Bunansa. When I heard Rozzaeia attacked an Archadian ship, I feared the worst. Fending them off has left us in a difficult political position."
"I apologise, Your Grace. It seems I have complicated things again," I said. I stretched my neck, feeling a pang of pressure in my head from Venat.
"Nonsense, you did your job. The Rozzarians should have never attacked. There is a Ivalice United meeting next week. I would like you to be there to give testimony. Now enough of business, who are these two men besides Ffamran that look to be related to you?"
"My brothers, Your Grace," Amaran and Kyath stepped forward.
"I am Kyath Bunansa, Your Grace."
"I am Amaran Bunansa. Also known as Judge Magister Zalera."
"I have heard of you. My father looked fondly upon you." Eveyone leftt except Father, Amaran, and Kyath. I went to the gardens with Ffamran. His face was unusually drawn and I could tell that something was bothering him.
"What's the matter Fam-Fam?" I asked, putting an arm around his shoulders, "Can't decide where to take Fran for dinner?"
"It's not that, Demia."
"Then what is it? You can tell me."
"I'm scared for you, Demonalia."
"Venat?" Ffamran nodded in admission.
"Sooner or later he will find a way in. I know it."
"Ffamran," I started, pulling him into a hug, "I know he will, and I'm terrified, but I will keep fighting, no matter what." Ffamran hugged me tighter and I saw Basch staring at us. When he finally let me go, he looked a bit happier, but his eyes still held a worried look.
"I think Basch wants you, Demia. I could feel him staring a hole into my back."
"I think he does. He has be looking over here for the past five minutes." Ffamran smiled at me when I left and walked over to Basch.
"What is it, love?"
"Walk with me," He almost asked, taking my hand. We wandered through empty corridors, running into the odd servant. "What are you doing for Winter Solstice?"
"Staying home, and watching my brothers fight over who got the most presents. It's quite entertaining. How about you and Noah?"
"We've been planning to go to Landis. It has been…a while since we've been home."