Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. It belongs to the fine folks at Namco.

A/N: AU fic. This came partially out of frustration because there are no Forcystus fanfics, partially because of a quote from ToS and because I love the "what if"'s. Be warned lots of spoilers. I mean it's about Cruxis and Desians afterall.

The Good Aurion
Chapter XI: If You Trust Me

If there was one thing that Lloyd hated, it was when Forcystus was "uncomfortable" around him. Yes, he had yelled at the man but he was over three hundred years old. Couldn't he possibly grow up a little? He was nervous enough over the upcoming meeting without Forcystus practically giving him the silent treatment.

Lloyd sulked at he entered the small bedroom later than he usually did. He had needed a walk. There wasn't any hurry to get back with no one to talk to after all. Forcystus turned his head as he lay on the top bunk. He didn't say anything but he stared at him for an uncomfortably long period of time. Lloyd ignored him. If the half elf didn't have the courtesy to address him, he wasn't going to have the courtesy to pay attention.

He crawled into the lower bunk and borrowed his head in his pillow. Suffocation would have been more of a concern if he truly wanted to get up for that meeting tomorrow. However, the case was he didn't. He wanted to sleep through it, wake up, have it over and for Forcystus to STOP STARING AT HIM! He looked up quickly from his pillow at the half elf who sure enough had continued to stare at Lloyd with his head hanging over the edge of his bed. "Will you LEAVE ME ALONE!?"

Forcystus's good eye widened. He wasn't surprised as much as shell shocked by the volume. He seemed to enjoy that Lloyd hadn't grown out of his tantrums. "I was going to ask you what you were up to but..."

"I was out attacking whipmasters for no reason, of course and I thought I'd form a militia in Iselia while I was at it." Lloyd snapped.

"Fine you made your point." Forcystus rolled his eye. "How did you get so catty anyway?"

"It must be the human."

"You made your point." He said irritably. "I was asking because I was worried. You know Palmacosta actually did form a militia and with the Renegades it's dangerous for..."

"For what?" Lloyd was pushing it. He knew it. He wanted to. This whole human thing had pushed all of his buttons. He had earned the right to push a few of Forcystus's.

"For someone as young as you. You only have experience fighting with myself and your father to back you up. You don't have the necessary skills to handle a human hunter or Renegade ambush."

Lloyd sulked a little. He didn't and he wasn't. "What do you mean human hunters?"

Forcystus groaned. "It's an occupational hazard. Iselians sometimes hire hunters or low budget mercenaries to attack desian forces. It doesn't violate the non-aggression treaty because they aren't of Iselia."

"I didn't know there were people like that out there." Lloyd was surprised. He thought that Cruxis was handling the issue of human on half elf aggression. He knew that the humans still hated the half elves on instinct. He and his father didn't have that instinct, of course. Maybe saying it was nonexistent was wrong. It was addressed was a better way of putting it. They were aware of this and acted accordingly. The freelance humans didn't have the education to limit their instincts. That must be it. Cruxis simply didn't have the resources to control every human in both worlds with the Desians. That had to be it. "But you still ignored me for the last two days." Lloyd said irritably.

Forcystus grinned. "I'm sorry, Lloyd. I was just a little rattled. The thing with the guards wouldn't leave me alone."

"It hasn't happened since. I mean I mess up once and you teach me like I'm some kind of animal."

"I know, Lloyd. It's just hard..."

"Yeah, I get it."

"You'll understand when you're older."

Lloyd groaned. Typical answer if there was no answer. "The meeting is tomorrow."

"Yes, it is. Are you nervous?"

"I don't know. You said it would be fine." Lying right through his teeth.

"Terrified, huh?" Badly apparently. "You'll do fine. Just try to treat them a little nicer than you are with me. Pronyma isn't as forgiving."

"I've only met her a few times. She goes to Derris Kharlan more than most of the other Cardinals."

"Derris Kharlan, huh?" Forcystus mused. "Have you ever been?"

"Only once before I came to the ranch. It was... really different than the Earth. It was a lot less lively than I thought it would be."

Forcystus paused. "Lloyd, it's a sphere made completely of mana. Mana is the root of life. It was probably just crawling with it. It was the only place with enough of it to give birth to the elven race."

"I know that! I'm just telling you it seemed dead to me. Like something had happened to push all of the life off of it."

Forcystus didn't say anything for a moment. "Maybe..."

Lloyd recoiled a little. Derris Kharlan was the birthplace of all elven life. It was sacred to all elven kind. "Sorry." Lloyd apologized. "I guess Derris Kharlan means a lot to you. More than to me."

"I does." He paused and rolled back so his head wasn't hanging over the edge of the bed. "It's fine Lloyd. We should get to sleep though. It'll take a while to get to the meeting tomorrow and I don't want you to be tired."

Forcystus certainly wasn't exaggerating when he said they had 'a while to get to the meeting'. It turned out that the meeting was all the way at the altar of light, called the Tower of Mana by the humans, if he remembered correctly. The point being that it wasn't on the same continent as Forcystus's ranch which no matter what was quite the trip.

Traveling was smooth enough until they reached the Triet Desert. It was the hottest place in both of the worlds and Lloyd hated it. He moaned as he and Forcystus trudged through what was mostly shifting sand. The only thing making it somewhat bearable was the breeze. Wind was an unmistakable event around Forcystus. As long as he was outside there was a breeze. Air seemed to be drawn to him no matter where he was. "Forcystus, can we stop?"

Forcystus looked back over his shoulder at the hunched teenage human. "We'll be late if he don't make good time."

"How come you aren't tired? I'm exhausted in this heat."

Forcystus sighed. "Well, we can't stop."

"Why didn't we take the Rhearids?"

"They're borrowed out to Rodyle's ranch."

"You gave him the Rhearids!?"

Forcystus laughed to himself. "You never were very good with heat."

"It's AWFUL!"

Forcystus grinned. "I see. Well, we can't stop." He turned to Lloyd again who was now sitting on the desert floor. He sighed again. "Hop on."

"What?"

"We can't stop and if you're not going to walk, you'll have to ride on my back."

Lloyd was appalled by the idea. He wasn't a child. He wasn't going to be carried through the desert. "No way! Just give me some time to rest. It's hot and..."

"And we don't have time for this." Forcystus said frustrated. He picked Lloyd up off of the desert floor and swung him over his shoulder.

The teenager wiggled in protest. Being carried was more than humiliating. It was degrading especially for someone at his age. "Put me down!"

Forcystus didn't seem to be paying any attention to him. He was busy surveying the desert. "Now which way to the mountains?"

"You know if you put me down maybe I could actually help." Lloyd said irritably.

Forcystus squeezed Lloyd's torso a little tighter. "Hold on." It really wasn't much of a warning considering what he was going to do. Forcystus charged forward and began picking up speed. Though saying he was picking up speed was a vast understatement. He was using his wind magic to push them along through the desert. He hardly had to run at all but the trouble with not using your legs and relying entirely on the wind was that you weren't sure exactly where you'd end up. The wind was haphazard and fickle by nature and relying on it was never very wise.

Forcystus charged across eastward. The wind had created a sort of mist of sand around them. Lloyd was screaming bloody murder. He couldn't see a thing with the sand swirling around them and he didn't know how Forcystus could either. Lloyd's scream lurched as they changed their direction. The sand dissipated as he charged up a large blue building and came to a stop. "Are you CRAZY!?"

"That's how I usually travel if I don't have the Rhearids."

Lloyd shook his head as he hung a little limp over Forcystus's shoulder. He was disoriented and frankly a little sick. "A little warning next time."

"I stopped because I'm thinking about something."

Lloyd cocked his head which hung upside down. "What is it?"

"Do you think I can jump it?" He said with a mischievous grin.

Lloyd felt a lump form in his throat. Forcystus was usually not the type to be immature about things. He pushed limited, or that was what Kratos said, not Forcystus. That grin seemed uncharacteristic. He turned to look at what he was talking about. Whatever the building was that they were on was wedged between two long cliff faces. The actually jump he was talking about was to a cliff face that lay in front of them. The cliff face was not a small distance probably half a kilometer. There was no way. "I take it back. You are crazy if you think you can make that."

"I think I can." Forcystus said calmly. "Don't you trust your old buddy, Forcystus?" Forcystus asked with a fake pout.

Lloyd rolled his eyes. He could see Forcystus grinning. He was teasing him. "It's too far. I don't care how good you are with your magic. You'd need wings to make that."

"Wings, huh?" Forcystus adjusted Lloyd's torso on his shoulder. Before Lloyd could stop him, he formed an air pocket beneath him and charged froward across the domed building and off into the air. About halfway through the jump, Forcystus shot a burst of air downward to thrust himself up to a ledge on the cliff. He turned his head toward Lloyd. "I guess I have wings then."

Lloyd looked back at the ledge they had been on only a moment ago. "That was amazing!"

Forcystus grinned. "If we go straight over the mountains, we can cut a lot of traveling time. Most people go through the Ossa Trail. I always thought that was a waste of time and it's full of bandits."

"Wouldn't the bandits know to leave the Desians alone?"

"You'd think so but not usually. Kvar has no end of trouble with bandits. They always think it's a good idea to attack him for some reason." Forcystus looked up the cliff face. "You holding on?"

Lloyd turned his head toward Forcystus. "Yeah."

A burst of air shot from what seemed like the base of feet and he jumped upward from one ledge to another. Lloyd had a hard time not thinking about how long it would have taken to scale the face without Forcystus's wind power. It was not unlike flying. It took almost no time at all to reach the top. "Let's take a break." Forcystus set Lloyd down. "I need to restore some mana before we keep going."

Lloyd moved to a sitting position next to Forcystus. The half elf was tired and his breathing was somewhat heavy. He couldn't blame him. They had just crossed an entire desert and scanned a cliff with nothing but the wind of his magic. "That was amazing. I didn't know elemental magic could do stuff like that." Lloyd said grinning.

Forcystus turned to him with a flattered smile. "Wind can be pretty useful like that. Magic isn't just a weapon. It has a lot of functional uses too."

"Yeah but you were flying. Who knew. I thought that only the angels could fly. I mean Pronyma floats but it's not like that at all. Why do you even use your cannon if you have magic like that at your disposal? I wouldn't bother with it."

Forcystus thought for a moment. "I guess it's because I used a sling before I used magic. A cannon seemed the next natural step."

Lloyd thought that made sense. A cannon was easier to aim and fire than a sling. "So did you start using a cannon after you lost your arm?"

"No. I was using a cannon before that. I stopped using the sling as a kid earlier than you. I learned in Asgard. They use a lot of slings around there."

Lloyd smiled. "No wonder you're a Cardinal with those powers, though. I'm surprised you aren't in a higher rank or the leader of the Cardinals."

Forcystus looked at him surprised. "I'm not really interested in a promotion. I just kind of got this job after I avenged a group of half elves. It just kind of fell into my lap."

Lloyd looked at him surprised. Cruxis seemed to be consumed by a series of individuals who were all about being promoted and gaining power. Lloyd had always hoped to become a Seraphim because he thought he had to want it. He was an elite and the only way was up.

"Promotions are for people like Kvar. He loves the thrill of all that. It's not something I'd want though. It's too much pressure and malice because you got the job. It's not for me."

Lloyd thought that made sense. Forcystus didn't want the power. He took things as they came but he didn't invite it. "Is that why you formed the non-aggression treaty?"

"Hey Lloyd, look behind you." Forcystus said quickly.

Lloyd turned around. There was a valley in the mountain range with an old dead Linkite tree in the center. "Wow, a Linkite tree. That was probably the last of it's kind. They're so rare and in this mana."

"I found it when I first scaled this mountain. The tree is ancient to say the least."

Lloyd peered down at it. "It would probably take Gnome to revive it."

Forcystus nodded. "It's the tree of Aska."

Lloyd turned quickly. "This is the tree of Aska!" Lloyd peered down more carefully. "My father mentioned this from the Kharlan War. It would be 4500 years old at the least!"

"It's not dead. Just very weak. It's the lack of mana."

Lloyd looked down at the tree sympathetically. "I see there will be more than one good thing from the Chosen's regeneration."

"What's the other thing?" Forcystus asked a little confused.

"You didn't forget did you?" Lloyd asked annoyed.

"Forget what?"

"You promised that you'd come and I'd take you on a tour of Tethe'alla. We were trying to find you a girlfriend remember."

Forcystus blushed crimson. "You actually meant that!"

"Goddess, Forcystus! How am I supposed to trust you if you don't take me seriously?"