Jenova has spend several weeks living with Rion and his family working as a maid. She lived out back in her own little room but she got to eat with the family and Rion taught her a lot about math and writing as well as religion and politics. Jenova picked up everything he taught with remarkable speed and desire. She spend a lot of time in their library reading about history any anything else that caught her interest.
One day she over heard Rion's father discussing his distaste for some priest named Orrin's decision to mobilize a massive army. She decided it would be interesting to get involved in the discussion.
"Listen Rion. What the High Priest is doing, is not within his power. He does not have a say in what the military does." his father said.
"But dad. These rebels are powerful and need to be stopped. The military leaders as well as our own political system isn't doing anything so its about time someone has." Rion said.
"Um Rion, excuse the interruption but I agree with your father. We have a system that has worked for hundreds of years there is no point in changing it now." Jenova said shyly.
"Your friend is smart Rion, you should listen to her more often." His father said.
Rion hesitated for a moment trying to think up a response, then smiled showing that he conceded.
"Two against one isn't fair. I still stand by my opinion though." Rion said.
"That's my boy, stick to your guns. Go continue your training out back." His father said.
Jenova followed Rion to the giant back yard where three soldiers stood in full armor and a large assortment of weapons. He grabbed a sword and began fighting all three of them at the same time. Jenova had seen him do this hundreds of times, usually with more soldiers. Most of them got tired of losing so didn't bother showing up. One man would swing and Rion would spin and duck under the blunt blade and strike the man in the back then quickly move to parry two swings from the other two soldiers. The man he hit would have to step away because he lost. He parried a few more times before finally making two lightning fast reposts to end the bout. Rion hadn't broken a sweat. He shook each mans hand, talked casually, then went to sit next to Jenova on the steps.
"You come out here to watch me practice a lot. Would you like to learn?" Rion asked
"Me? Fight? No, ill use my intellect to talk my opponent out of fighting." Jenova replied
"well, if by some miracle you cant persuade them otherwise, I promise I will be there to protect you" Rion said.
Jenova couldn't help but blush. Rion was large for his age. He was sixteen and was 6'3 and built. All the girls in town were after him. He was also rich and very handsome that fit perfectly with his sense of humor and intellect. But despite all his stunning attributes, she still couldn't help but think about Kyrre. She felt stupid for thinking about Kyrre at a tender moment like this. Kyrre hadn't been around for years.
"…I would like that" She mumble back, and turned away.
"Good. Now we should go with my father to the church." Rion said trying to hide his blush. He got up and walked up the stairs and extended his hand for Jenova to take it. She took his hand and walked up the stairs with him.
His father was already in the carriage out front. The ride there was fairly short and quiet. Jenova sat next to Rion closely.
She was awed by the size of the church, it felt like a dream. A large man opened the door before they got all the way there.
"Evening counselor. I see you brought your family with you. How…pleasant" The large man said sounding disgusted. The man was huge and had a very deep voice. His hair was spiked and pulled to the back.
"My name is Sandro. I will escort you to the high priests chambers." Sandro said looking uninterested.
Jenova was amazed by all the fancy things inside the building. Paintings and banners lined the walls, expensive carpets and tables with elaborate vases covered the floor and bright chandeliers hung from the ceiling. Sandro led the group straight to the high priests room and opened the doors.
Inside there was an old man who must have been the priest. He kept looking at the shadows nervously.
"Hello counselor, I am glad you could come on such short notice. I see you brought your son. Who is this lovely young lady?" the priest said.
"Excuse me high priest my son and his friend wanted to come along for the learning experience. This is my sons friend Jenova." Rion's father said.
"Ah I see. I suppose they can sit in as long as they can keep what is said between us." the priest said with a kind smile.
Jenova sat down in one of the chairs that sat against the wall, Rion came and sat next to her.
"Why have you summoned me?" Rion's father asked.
"You know we are at war with the rebels. You are also aware that some of the clouds have joined the rebel force. However, the two clouds that we know of who have joined them are not normal clouds." The priest said.
"What do you mean not normal? What does this have to do with me?" Rion's father asked.
"Well they are very powerful elementals, the counsel of Sora herself. Thane is one of them." The priest said, glancing at the shadows in the corners again.
"Thane?! You mean the cloud that was your employ and killed thousands of people?!" Rion's father shouted.
"Calm down. We still have the advantage. I need you to go on a diplomatic mission with a squad of our best soldiers to help persuade the last available elemental. She is located in a vast wasteland filled with things you should try to avoid." the priest said.
"…I suppose I can do this for the church" he said.
"glad to hear it. You are doing your church a great favor." the priest said
"Wait dad. This mission sounds dangerous. I don't want you to go" Rion said and stood up.
"Rion the best soldiers in the city will be accompanying me. I will be fine." he said but he didn't sound very confident.
Rion sat back down, still upset. Jenova tried to comfort him the best she could.
The rest of the meeting was spend discussing the location of the elementals fortress, the fortress was said to be made out of pure ice which made sense since she was suppose to be an ice elemental.
They left the temple and headed home. He was suppose to leave tomorrow morning.
After they arrived Rion went straight to his room. Jenova followed. When she got there Rion was packing cloths and things into a bag.
"Rion, what are you doing?" Jenova asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Rion said. He couldn't look at Jenova.
"You cant go with your father on this mission." She said.
"Why not? I'm a great fighter. Probably better than any man escorting my father" Rion said, still looking down and avoiding her gaze.
"than I am going with you" Jenova said.
He stopped packing and looked at her shocked.
"Yeah right. You cant go ha-ha" he laughed then stopped when she wasn't laughing. "You're serious." he said, shocked again.
"you are a good fighter and I am a good diplomat. Good combo. I am coming." she stated matter o' fact. She left the room to go pack.
The next morning the soldiers showed up at the house and gathered in the back yard.
"We have brought a magician who specializes in transport spells. He is also our best defense against the elemental attacks if we encounter a hostile elemental." one of the soldiers said.
Rion's father didn't say anything.
The magician approached with extra soldiers. Their faces were concealed behind masks. Probably assassins. One of the soldiers was large, obviously male. The second was much smaller and thin with an hour glass figure, more than likely a girl. All the soldiers gathered in a circle around the magician. A stream of light connected all of the soldiers to the magician.
"It will take a couple of minutes for me to connect to the right location." the magician said.
After several minutes of tense waiting the beams of light grew brighter and brighter until the light completely blinded everyone. When the light vanished they were in a vast wasteland in front of a massive ice temple.
"So I'm guessing that's the ice elementals temple?" one of the masked guards said.
No one answered the rhetorical question. They all stood in aw of the massive building.
Rion's father started forward toward the door. When they got close they could hear loud noises coming from inside. Dark laughter and a sudden scream. They opened the door slowly and snuck inside quietly. The two masked guards waited outside.
XxXxXxXxX
Jenova and Rion removed their masks outside the ice elementals temple.
"Jenova I don't want you to come with me. I don't know how dangerous it will be." Rion said.
"That's crap, I'm coming." Jenova said getting mad and walked inside. Rion following.
XxXxXxXxX
Thane and Tyris gathered themselves after the fight they had just been through.
"That was terrifying" Tyris said. "I don't ever want to see that again."
"I…cant promise that." Thane said.
"Then I do everything in my power to stop you from going dark again" she said.
They both stopped as they heard a large amount of people walking through the halls outside the room. Thane closed his eyes and viewed them through the shadow.
"It's the priests men. Probably here to convince you to join them. Lets entertain them" Thane said and vanished into a shadow.
A dozen soldiers charged into the room along with one magician and an unarmed man.
"Are you alright? We heard a lot of noise" the unarmed man said.
"How dare you enter my domain" Tyris said with a smirk. "I should kill you all right now"
"Relax, im just here to talk." the man said again.
Shadowy tendril wrapped around all of the soldiers and the magician.
"You brought a transport magician to battle me?" Thane said appearing out of the floor.
"Thane!?" the man cried out
"The one and only" Thane said and crushed the soldiers and the magician.
Rion and Jenova ran into the room.
"You!?" Thane shouted at the Jenova.
Jenova stumbled in surprise
Thane just grimaced
Author: gonna have to wait for the next chapter to discover their fate. Sorry I was on a time constraint and thought this was a good place to leave a cliffhanger.
