A/N: ch 12, rewritten.
Chapter 12:
Xahra carefully made her way to the backyard and saw Maddy kneeling on the ground with her back towards her. Her hand was moving as though she was writing something down.
"Hey Maddy," She called out as she walked over to the girl, crouching down to her right. "What in the world are you doing?" she asked in confusion, noticing the pieces of metal spread out before the girl. Each piece of metal had a circular design drawn on it, with interlocked triangles and a few strange symbols inside.
"Um. It's nothing. I was just trying to check something out." She shrugged dropping the piece of coal to look at her friend. "So what did Naomi say?"
"She wants me, Kurogane and Syaoran to go with her search party to look for the jewelstone."
"When do you guys leave?" she cocked her head to the right.
"At noon." Xahra answered
"Today?" Maddy's brow rose.
"Yup."
"So you're going then?" she asked as the two got to their feet and headed inside. Maddy did not bother to pick up the pieces of metal or coal. "I'll pick them up later." She said when Xahra gave her a questioning glance.
"I really don't have a choice in the matter." The raven-head sighed. "She runs this place. It would be better to do as she says then to get in trouble."
Maddy hummed thoughtfully. "Will you be okay?"
"I sure hope so." She responded, looking up at the sunny, cloudless sky.
-0-
Kurogane mounted his horse at the same time as Xahra climbed on hers. She adjusted her clothes before taking the reins in her hands. Syaoran did the same to his right, minus the clothes adjusting part.
Naomi and Ian along with the bald guard and the red-headed woman were waiting for the three near the city gates.
"Ready?" the grey-eyed commander looked at the three before flicking the reins of her horse, turning it around to face the exit. "Let's go."
Their group traveled in relative silence for the major part of the day, following a path next to a river that started somewhere in the mountains. Syaoran had told them that the place that housed the jewelstone was somewhere in the mountain range. Close to the path followed by the river.
They set up camp in near a small waterfall, somewhere around sunset, Ian announcing that they would leave the trail for a while in the morning in order to get to the higher ground. They had all had dinner around the fire to stay warm. However as soon as everyone had had their fill, Naomi got up from her place and walked over to one of the fallen logs nearby, sitting down with her face towards the darkness. The young commander was taking up first watch.
Ian spoke a couple of words with her before retiring to his tent that he was sharing with the bald guard whose name happened to Bald. The read-headed woman similarly went by the name of Red.
Did the author have something against them? The thought had formed in his mind when he had first heard their introductions but shrugged off the strange reflection with a shake of his head.
He spotted Syaoran walk over to Ian's tent with Mokona perched on his shoulder, while Xahra made her way over to where the young commander was. Bald and Red had already retired for the night.
"Naomi, can I ask you something?" he heard the girl ask.
"Yes?" Naomi responded.
"Why did you choose me to accompany you guys here?" Xahra asked as she sat down on the log next to her. "I mean I know you needed Syaoran to do the translations and Kurogane can take care of himself and all but why me? Why not choose Fai? Or Maddy?"
"Maddy?" Naomi repeated incredulously as she looked at the lavender eyed girl.
"Alright, well maybe not Maddy," Xahra chuckled softly, remembering just who exactly she was talking about. "But why not Fai?"
"Well, I can tell you guy don't trust us very much." the commander shrugged. "I didn't think your friends would have agreed to come if I hadn't left behind someone capable from your group."
Kurogane was not exactly amazed by the fact that the girl had picked up on that; after all she wouldn't be in a position of high power if she was not capable enough. He could tell that she was good at observing things. And she definitely cared about her comrades and friends, if her reaction about that Cloud guy was any indication at all.
She reminded him of Tomoyo-hime for some reason, even though the two did not have much in common. His princess was a Miko, a priestess, one who protected her people through her prayers and kekkai. This girl was a Gaurdian, a warrior, one who protected her people by fighting physically. But there were small similarities, like the fact that they were the rulers of their lands, and they held the devotion, love and respect of those under them.
The only ones surprised to find out about Naomi's position of power were those two strange girls- Madiha and Xahra- claiming that how could someone so young be allowed to be a leader. Kurogane had merely scoffed at that. Commander at eighteen was no big deal. Tomoyo-hime had been working with Amtaresu even before she was barely thirteen. He himself had commanded battalions to fight off the demons that plagued Nihonean borders at sixteen. Why was this any different? Did they have laws in their world that dictated their king had to be older than forty or something?
Kurogane mentally snorted at that. Like age would make a difference if someone knew how to do the job.
Shrugging off his train of thought, Kurogane focused his attention back on the conversation.
"You didn't answer why you picked me to come, though." Xahra asked.
"You seemed like someone who could handle her own when in a tough position." Naomi replied.
"How so?" Xahra sounded interested.
"The way you move about." Naomi answered simply.
Now that the commander mentioned it, Kurogane's own attention was brought to the same fact.
He observed the perplexed lavender-eyed girl who was looking at Naomi as though expecting a further explanation but just shrugged and walked to her tent after a goodnight when she received no answer. His crimson-eyes followed her till she was safely behind the flaps of her small one man tent that Syaoran had volunteered to set up once he had heard that the girl had no idea how, since she'd never had the need to camp.
Kurogane's eyes narrowed as his thoughts focused on the lavender-eyed girl. There was something off about her. The way she moved, the way she handled herself, everything about her screamed power, even if the girl herself seemed to be unaware of it. Then there was the faint yet strange aura lurking about her, which for some reason felt familiar, like he had encountered it before. It felt like magic, natural magic or spiritual magic but it was different at the same time. He couldn't quite place his finger on where he had encountered it before, only that he had. One thing was clear though, it was in a dormant stage if Xahra was not aware of its presence.
She was not aware of it. That much was certain.
-0-
Soon after Mokona and the others had left, Fai, Maddy and Sakura found themselves in a strange predicament. With their magical translator gone, there was no way for the three of them to communicate. The Citadelians spoke a strange language that none of them could comprehend but that was not the only problem. The three couldn't communicate amongst themselves either.
Lucky for Sakura though, she normally didn't do much except sleep and recuperate. Xahra had mentioned Fai saying something along the lines of her needing more feathers in order to return to her former self since she was still weak.
Fai had found it interesting to note that he and Syaoran were not the only ones who knew more than one language. He knew about Syaoran because the boy had told Sorata that he had learned many languages on his travels with his father. It had been a requirement as the High Mage of the Celesian Court for him to sometimes meet with ambassadors from neighboring countries and in order to communicate more effectively, he had to learn several foreign languages. However Maddy had never made such a claim so when she switched from speaking complete gibberish to something completely different, he was a little surprised.
"Great," Maddy grumbled in English as she crossed her arms across her chest. "So now, once again, I'm going to have to flail around like a monkey on sugar to make myself understood."
"Monkey on sugar high?" Fai chuckled.
"You can speak English," she deadpanned. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"Because you didn't ask me to." He countered simply.
"Interesting accent," Maddy commented, as she slumped on the furs that served as the bed in the room she and Xahra had shared.
"Thank you Miss Maddy."
"Miss?" Maddy raised a finely shaped brow as she took off her spectacles and put them away.
"That is how I have been addressing you so far." He grinned.
"Well, don't expect me to start calling you Mr. Fai," She shrugged carelessly, leaning back so she was lying on her back with her arms resting behind her neck. "Way too formal for me."
"You don't use honorifics in your world." Fai asked as he sat down, leaning against the wall. The sun had set a while ago and Sakura was already safely tucked away in her fur-bed.
"No we don't." She answered, stifling a yawn. "At least not in the way you guys do. We don't attach them at the end of names."
"Then how do you use them?"
"Well, when we're talking to an elder or someone of high status or a person who deserves respect we use the word 'Ap' while talking to them but for friends or people of your own age we use 'Tum' instead."
"So if I were talking to you in your language, I would call you Maddy-tum?"
"No," she laughed with a shake of her head, "the words are used separately in the sentence, not necessarily after the name." she yawned once again. "Although, I think Xahra would be a much better choice if you want a better explanation."
"You're sleepy." Fai commented with a grin, watching stifle yet another yawn as her eyes watered.
"Ah, you noticed." She replied, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
The mage merely kept on grinning.
"Anyhow, I'll probably end up seeing you in the morning again," Maddy said pulling one of the furs over her head, "So goodnight Fai."
"Goodnight Miss Maddy." Fai took that as his cue to leave. After all, it would be better if he got some sleep too. He walked back to his own allotted room and settled under the fur covers.
Maybe tonight, I won't have any dreams and sleep peacefully for once he thought hopefully as he shut his eyes.
Not a moment later, a pair of amber eyes flashed in his vision for a fraction of a second, accompanied by a soft echoing laughter in his mind. He heaved a sigh as the apparition vanished, taking the haunting laughter with it.
Maybe not. He sighed, pulling the fur closer to his body.
-0-
She was standing in a grassy lawn outside someone's house. Before her was a pair of young boys, attacking a pale skinned woman who had her nose buried in a book. Yet she was dodging and countering their attacks with ease.
The boys were no older than ten, with messy blond hair and piercing gold eyes. The woman on the other hand had dark hair which were finely braided and pulled back in a ponytail. She wore lose fitting pants and a long white sleeveless shirt.
"The foundation of alchemy is a circle," the woman read from the book as she blocked one blond boy's kick, "the circle shows the nature of the power" she dodged around the other's punch, "and you may activate that power by writing alchemical formulas there."
Alchemy? Maddy thought, her mind reeling back to the dream conversation she had had with her grandfather in the previous world. Mini-me used this term too. Maddy turned her attention back on the woman and the two kids. She watched in silence as the woman deflected the hand coming for her face before knocking the other one aiming for her stomach, her eyes never left the book in her hand however. "By understanding the flow of power and the laws of nature, you can apply it to everything."
Is she tutoring them in something? Maddy thought, finding the woman's behavior strange.
"In other words," the woman threw the book in the air, grabbing hold of the boy's leg who had tried to use a flying kick on her. "Understand your opponents flow of power," she flipped the boy in the air, "and use it against them." she finished as she slammed him on the ground.
"That is also the nature of power," she grinned all of a sudden when the boy rubbed his bruised head. Her gaze travelled to the boy who was still standing, "It's better if you experience it first-hand."
A couple of seconds later he was on the ground with his brother.
Whoa! I wouldn't wanna get in her bad books. Maddy whistled softly before clapping her hands on her mouth. Now she was going to be visible to them. How in the world was she supposed to explain her presence?
However the woman paid her no mind as she pulled the boys to their feet and led them closer to the house. She sat down on a wooden crate and pulled up a first aid box. "One who understands and accepts the flow of power, and constructs using that knowledge," the woman got up from her place and walked over to the boys, crouching next to them, she tended to the golden-eyed boy's injuries, "is called an alchemist."
She stood up, resting her hand on top of the boy's head, her eyes taking on a sad gleam, "the world is basically functioning according to this flow. Life and Deaths of humans are a part of this flow as well." she narrowed her eyes, her mouth nothing more than a grim line, "that's why you should never, ever try to revive a human being."
What the hell is she talking about?
Maddy watched in amazement as the woman turned her back to the boys, talking about time for lunch and tough training and high caloric food, snapping at the two brothers to revise what they had been taught while she made lunch.
Maddy leaned against the wall of the house, feeling her attention drift away until the younger boy mentioned something that had her listening very attentively, "But master, you transmuted just by putting your hands together."
Transmute. Yeah, mini-me used that word too.
"I understand that your hands act as the circle," he clapped his hands together looking down at them, "But where is the formula?"
"I'm sort of acting as the formula," the master explained.
"I don't get it," the other boy clapped his hands this time, an annoyed expression on his face.
"How do you do that?" the first boy asked curiously.
The woman heaved a sigh, looking up at blue sky, "You can probably do it when you gain true knowledge."
The world around Maddy dissolved in a grey mist leaving behind the bank emptiness of the dark world in which she had seen that pulsing ball of light and that strange young girl. But the grey haze surrounded her again, and when it Maddy found herself in a dark cavernous room with a really high ceiling with the only source of light being a fire lit on one side of the room.
A rift opened in the space next to the fire and a silver haired woman emerged from it, lazily dragging something behind her.
"The demons have leveled the village," the woman announced taking up a strict pose, letting go of her baggage which Maddy recognized as the girl she had seen emerge from the pulsing ball of light in her dream in the previous world. "Only the boy survived."
"Good," A hoarse, gravelly voice responded from the darkness. "Lord Vainington, your weapon is here as promised."
"It is indeed," a man agreed in a wheezy voice.
"And do you remember your price for our little bargain?" the first man asked.
"Yes, of course," Lord Vainington answered as he stepped into the firelight. Madiha could see wrinkles beginning to form on his face, but apart from the graying hair, she couldn't discern much else about the man. "Valeria will fall and naturally, the twins of misfortune shall become a reality."
"Very well," Maddy saw the back of a man wearing dark robes vanish through the rift which closed after him the silver haired girl had followed him, leaving behind no traces of its existence whatsoever.
The scrawny lord moved towards the unconscious four year old. The man procured a long jag-edged knife from his pocket, a hungry look in his eye as he put the knife to the unconscious girl's right cheek. Maddy could see her small chest heaving in rattling gasps. The man ran his thing bony finger across her face before using the knife to trace an intricate pattern on the girl's right cheek. The pattern bled, but the crimson liquid glowed softly for a while but soon it turned pitch black when the man muttered something under his breath and breathed on her face. The black began to snake along the girl's skin, like poisoned veins making her whimper in discomfort, the thin lines snaked lower along her body, vanishing beneath her shirt, appearing on her wrist that poked through long sleeves.
The girl's eyes snapped open, the lavender in them bled over by a pitch black which was rimmed by a bloody crimson. The girl screwed them shut again as her tiny frame writhed and jerked in agony but no sound escaped her mouth. That is until, the man removed his knife.
A shrill cry of pain escaped the girl's throat which was enough to make the seer bolt upright in her bed.
-0-
The group of searcher woke with dawn next morning although it had taken some shaking and a lot of poking on Naomi's part to wake Xahra up. Red had suggested throwing a bucket of freezing water from the river on her but luckily for Xahra, the lavender-eyed girl woke up without resorting to such a thing.
She was the only one who was stifling yawns every now and then so either she did not sleep very well last night or she was not used to waking up this early. They set off once again after they had packed their camp and concealed all evidence of having used the spot as camping grounds.
They covered a lot more ground but were still not close to their destination and had to spend the night in a moderately sized cave. Ian, Syaoran and Naomi had a meeting over maps and the stone tablet. The ninja had chosen to stay uninvolved, while Xahra had requested Bald and Red to practice some basic defensive moves with her. Which was something that confused Kurogane; the girl's movements held much more fluidity and refinement than those of a beginner yet she was still an amateur. The stance that she had assumed while fighting off that group of punks in Hanshin was a testament of that.
In the end, Kurogane decided that the girl did not know who she was. Not in the literal sense however she seemed ignorant of her abilities. But at least she was aware of this ignorance. Maybe this lack of knowledge about herself was the reason behind her wish at that witch's shop.
It wasn't until the third day that they had finally gotten close enough for Naomi to pick up on the vibrations sent out by the earth-jewelstone. Her explanation had been quite long but the gist of it had been that all stones had somehow been designed to resonate with each other's energies and since she carried the fire-jewelstone, naturally she would be able to tell when they were close even if she was the Guardian of fire and not earth, but she was a Gaurdian all the same. At least that is what she claimed.
A couple of hours before sundown, Naomi led them all up to a dead end. Xahra tried to keep the disappointment off her face but it still showed through. There was nothing more than a really high waterfall with foaming waters in front of them.
Or it was just that until, the young commanded instructed Red- who was the only archer in their group- to shoot an arrow at a small, barely noticeable indention at a height of ten feet or so on the cliff face towards the right of the fall. Once the head was safely embedded in the instructed place, the ground began to shake and to the dimension travelers' astonishment, the top of the cliff face, where the river fell from the precipice to the sloping ground below, jutted outwards, effectively moving the waterfall so that a gap was created behind it. Naomi dismounted from her horse and the others took it as their cue to get off as well. She nodded towards Ian who was immediately followed by Syaoran as the two made their way towards the newly created space. Kurogane, Xahra, Bald and Red followed the three at a more sedate pace.
There wasn't much to look at except for a couple of pillars as tall as the water fall. They must have been really grand when they had been created but now, almost a thousand years later they had withered with age, the corroding effect of water clearly showing. According to natural laws, they shouldn't even exist anymore but they stood proudly with nothing more than a blank cliff face in between them. Obviously, some unnatural force was still holding them together like this.
Almost unreadable runes, similar to the ones Kurogane had spotted on the ancient stone tablet, ran down their entire lengths in circular columns. Syaoran was currently observing the lower columns of the pillars with a fascinated expression on his face. Almost an hour later, with the sun considerably closer to the horizon, the boy had crouched near the base of the pillar, his hands running over loose stones in a small mosaic tiled pattered surrounding the whole pillar.
He jumped to his feet with excitement clearly showing in his amber eyes as he rushed over to the second pillar, all the while muttering things out loud. Unfortunately for them, the teen was speaking so fast that none of them could make neither head nor tail of what he said, but Syaoran was not aware of that. He fingers traced the runes on the second pillar as he read them, his eyes widening with realization before he crouched down once again, running his hands over the identical mosaic like arrangement of loose stones at it base.
"Amazing," he breather as he finally turned to face them. "It's a really fascinating and rather complex mechanism." He explained. "We have to simultaneously move the loose stones at the base of these pillars in the same manner in a specific pattern, which will work like turning the key in a lock."
"What will happen once the lock in unlocked?" Xahra asked.
"I'm not quite sure," he admitted sheepishly, "the runes are too high up for me to read but I suppose it will provide us with and entrance to the temple."
"Ian-san," he addressed the dark haired teen, "Could you move the stones in the right pillar? I'll handle the left one."
"Sure, just tell me what to do," he nodded, moving towards the pillar in question so he could work. After a brief explanation in which Syaoran demonstrated the pattern in which the stones had to be moved, the two of them squatted down, moving the rocks with little effort. Once the last stone had been moved, the ground began to shake once more, before a low rumbling sound was heard, like the grunt of a giant awakening from a long slumber. The rock face between the pillars began cracking starting from the top and moving towards the base until the crack met the flat surface of earth. However it did not stop there as the crack continued till it vanished into the frothy water of the falling river.
Smaller crack began branching from the main one, spreading across the entire cliff between the two columns. A small piece of stone dislodged from its position in the rock face, pushing inwards, leaving behind a gaping black hole in its place. Slowly at first but then gaining speed, the other cracked pieces also pushed inwards, mechanically moving sideways until a tall gaping doorway stood in its place. There was nothing but darkness inside but Naomi sensibly lit up a bright but small fire in the palm of her hand, casting eerie shadows inside.
"This is it guys, let's go." she said, bravely stepping inside the unknown. "Kurogane, kindly keep a lookout and mind the horses while we observe the insides of the cave." Her voice rang out from the hollow inside. The ninja grunted incoherently, watching as without a second thought, Ian followed his commander. Moving in closely behind him were Bald and Red. Syaoran blinked a couple of times as though recovering from a shock of some sort before he shot the ninja an apologetic look and hurried inside.
"Have fun with the horses," Xahra grinned playfully as she copied Syaoran and got swallowed by the darkness.
-0-
The next afternoon, with nothing to do, Fai walked out of the stone house and looked around for bespectacled girl, with the auburn-haired princess right on his heels. Maddy had mysteriously vanished after breakfast. Fai felt a strong surge of foreign energy building up in the farther end of their backyard. It felt similar to the energy that had surrounded Maddy when she had used her Kudan in Hanshin and when she had been enveloped in that bright blue light in the forest where the earthen wall had protected her and unconscious Sakura from a barrage of deadly arrows.
"Miss Maddy is in the backyard, Miss Sakura." He told the curious princess, pointing in said direction to clarify his point. The girl nodded to show she had understood. The two of them quietly walked around the house only to find Maddy crouched on her knees in front of something they could not see since her back was hiding it from view. She clapped her hands and put them on the ground and once again Fai felt the foreign energy surge through her body, flowing towards the palms of Maddy's hands.
A bright, electric blue light outlined her body before fading away along with the energy.
"What the heck is that supposed to be?" they heard her groan in exasperation. "I'm pretty sure I saw mini-me draw this circle." She muttered loudly, "Or perhaps…" she trailed off thoughtfully, hurriedly moving her hand on the ground as though she was drawing something, "It was something like this."
Once again she clapped her hands and put them to the ground. Like before the energy flowed through her arms, appearing in the form of a bright light before fading away.
"Gah!" the brunette cried in frustration pulling at her hair, "Why isn't it working? What am I doing wrong?"
"Why isn't what working Miss Maddy?" Fai decided to walk over to the girl who immediately stiffened, a look of mortification on her features.
"How long have you been watching me make a fool out of myself?" she asked, her back ram rod straight. She had yet to turn around and face him.
"A couple of minutes," Fai answered lightly as he and Sakura came crouched on either sides of Maddy.
"Mu… tahw si taht?" Sakura asked looking at the object lying in front of Maddy with something akin to confusion.
"What are you trying to do with that crooked iron rod and a piece of coal?"
"I was trying to make a blade," Maddy answered dully as her shoulders slumped. She dropped the coal from her hands and climbed to her feet with a wince. She took a couple of unsteady steps and then stopped, bending down to pick up another oddly shaped piece of iron.
"But every time, I get something like this," she held it up, "or that." She pointed to the rod lying on the ground. She heaved a sigh before throwing it down, searching the numerous pockets her asymmetrical skirt for something. Fai crouched down beside the scraps and oddly shaped pieces of metal, his blue eyes taking in the intricate yet somewhat crudely drawn designs traced on their surfaces with charcoal. He frowned, picking up a piece with a particular design. He remembered having read about a distant, forgotten branch of magic that used symbols like this back when he was still training. But… This girl did not even have the faintest traces of magic inside her. At least, not the type of magic that he was proficient in using. But that foreign energy that surged through her body everytime she pulled a trick like this… Could it be that…?
Looking back towards the girl that was still busy digging through the numerous pockets in her clothes for something, Fai bit his lip. Should he? Casting one more glance in the direction of the oblivious girl, Fai picked up the discarded piece of charcoal and turned his attention to the piece of metal in his hand. It was only missing a couple of defining symbols and one of the already drawn ones was slightly misshaped. Satisfied with his work, he placed them back on the ground, idly wondering why he had even bothered drawing it in the first place. It wasn't like he could ever activate it anyways. He had never trained in that particular branch, even if he had learnt that book by heart. It was just like healing… he just couldn't do it.
"Found it!" Maddy's triumphant declaration brought him out of his musings as he looked up to see her withdrawing a thin silver, rectangular box, no wider that two of her fingers. She inserted a black wire in its side, the wire parted into two, halfway down it length and ended in two black, circular buds. She pushed a pinhead sized black piece protruding from the flat side of the rectangular box with one hand while her other hand inserted the black buds in her ears.
"What are you doing?" Fai observed her curiously.
"About to listen to some music," She answered carelessly as one side of the silver box, lit up in a bright blue color.
"Using the silver box?" he was looking at said object very closely. How could she listen to music using such an odd looking object? It did not have any visible mechanism that most instruments used to produce melodies and even if he concentrated really hard, he could not pick up any magical signals from the object.
"Silver box?" she repeated incredulously, "you've never seen an mp3 player before?"
"I guess not," he shook his head. Despite his urge to frown, he plastered a grin on his face as he asked the next question. He had not seen anything like this before in his life and even though he could hear a faint noise being emitted from those black buds, he could not, for the life of him, understand how it was being produced. It was possible they were cloaking the magic in the device to make it undetectable. But why would someone go through all that trouble for just a box to produce music? "Do people in Miss Maddy's world have magic too? Is that how it works?"
"No, my world didn't have magic. We have something called technology, like the things you saw in Hanshin."
"Ah. I see." The mage nodded in understanding. Having spent his entire life in a place that heavily relied on magic for pretty much everything, it had been quite a shock for him to find himself in a world that used science to perform the same tasks. Thankfully, his companions had been just as shocked to see such a vast application of science that his surprise had been well hidden. He had been curious about why these two girls had not been so surprised at the time but if their world was similar to Hanshin, it explained quite a lot. Including their knowledge on how to operate those moving closet-like rooms called the elevators.
"But," She shot him a slightly worried look, "you guys did have music, right?"
"Of course," he laughed in response, "we had a lot of travelling musicians. Then there were court musicians too." He added scratching his chin with the finger of his right hand.
"Court musicians," she repeated, looking surprised and slightly awed as she quickly took the right bud out of her ear, "As in Royal court musicians?"
"Yes." He responded, racking his brains for some sort of distraction. Discussing his life back in Celes was the last thing he wanted to do.
"So you're a prince of some sort?" she asked inquisitively.
"Prince," Fai laughed, hoping she did not notice how desperate and fake it sounded. "No. I'm not a prince." he shook his head to make his point clearer, "I was the High Mage back home. Anyhow, how does this, um… mp3 player, right? What kind of technology does it use?"
"High Mage." she whistled softly, "Wow. That sounds like a pretty big post," her expression was a mixture of curiosity and amazement, "Oh, if you were the High Mage, you had to have had apprentices, right? And you probably had a lot of... other important High Mage-ly stuff. So," she asked trying to keep her tone light. Fai inwardly prayed she did not ask the inevitable question. "Why did you leave?"
"There's someone back there that I don't want to find me." He figured if he was going to be traveling with them, this question was one he would eventually have to answer.
"Oh," she nodded, a sly grin appearing on her lips, "so you're running away from your angry girlfriend."
"I-I… wait. What?"Angry girlfriend? This was the last thing he had expected Madiha of all people to come up with. From the brief time he had known her for, the girl did not seem like the type who'd be interested in 'juicy gossip' as someone back home had once told him conversationally.
"Well, from all the shameless flirting I've seen you do over the past week," she shrugged casually, the teasing glint in her eyes tugging rather painfully at his heart as it reminded him of the last person on earth he wanted to remember. "I'd be surprised if she wasn't out for your blood. I can only imagine what you used to do back at the court."
"Fai-san, Madiha-san," Sakura's voice interrupted Fai before he could respond. The princess looked confused as she looked at the two sitting on the low but comfortable stools, "Tahw era ouy gniklat tuoba?"
"Sorry Sakura," Maddy shook her head, "Mokona's not here. I can't understand what you're saying. Can you, Fai?" she turned to the blond magician.
"Nope, me neither." He shook his head, letting a soft grateful sigh in relief at having something to distract the girl. He'd have to be more careful with what he said.
"m'I yrros, tub ouy era gnisufnoc em." She looked from one to the other, an apologetic look on her face. "tahw era ouy gnikeaps?"
"Guess, English isn't part of her language arsenal," Maddy muttered quietly but Fai heard her anyways.
"Maybe we can teach her!" the mage exclaimed in a happily. That would definitely throw her off her current train of thought.
"What?" Maddy yelped. "How in the world can we do that when she probably doesn't even know what we are saying in the first place?"
"Hmm… You have a point Miss Maddy." He pretended to look thoughtful for second. "However!" he brightened up instantaneously, "Nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it."
"Putting you mind to something doesn't make all things possible you know," Maddy shook her head.
"Yes it does," he countered with a playful grin.
"Does not." She replied stubbornly.
"Does too."
"Does not."
"Does too."
"Does not." She huffed before stopping. "Hey, wait a second." A scowl settled on her face as she threw her right hand in the air in to show her annoyance. Fai merely observed her with barely concealed amusement. "Why in the world have I started acting like a six year old? Less than half an hour with you and my brain is already fried. You're just as bad as Xahra…" turning her back towards him, she bent down to retrieve the scrap of metal he had just modified the circle on. As her amber eyes scanned the pattern, seemingly trying to make out the changes that Fai had subtly made, she murmured, "Definitely not good to be around."
"Your words wound me deeply Miss Maddy." The mage put a hand to his heart in mock hurt, grinning widely at the now distracted girl.
"They're meant to," The girl quipped simply shooting him a glance over her shoulder. "By the way," she continued turning her attention back to the metal in her hand. Fai stepped closer to stand beside her, observing her face as she studied the circle. "You might be correct about putting your mind to something and making it happen part but," the look on her face grew a bit pensive as she traced a particular symbol with her fingers, "there are a few things in this life that can't happen no matter how badly you want them to."
"And what would those be?" he asked as she withdrew her finger, reaching out for the bud she had removed from her ear earlier to stuff it back. She hit the black button on the mp3 player once again and faint sound and beats reached Fai's ears, making him wonder how loud she liked to listen to the music.
"Well, for starters there's the glaring truth that the dead can't be brought to life," she pointed out, once again staring contemplatively at the design in her hand, "No matter how badly a person wants to, no one can bring them back." She heaved a barely audible sigh and then muttered under her breath. "A lot of people learn that the hard way." She had probably not intended for him to hear the last part but maybe the music pounding into her ears had fooled her into believing that she was only just murmuring the words to herself. Fai's plastic grin faltered a bit but the girl was now fully absorbed in her thoughts so she did not notice his little slip. The princess of the desert country chose that exact moment to return to the land of slumber as she fell to the ground in an unconscious heap. The brunette looked at the unconscious princess draped across the floor before turning her gaze to Fai. A sly smile formed on her lips.
"Could you please put sleeping beauty back on her bed, Mr. Fai?"
A/N: Hmm… I wonder what power Xahra is harboring…Writing in Kuro's POV was quite difficult and I hope I managed to keep him in character. Same goes for Fai. I decided to add a bit more in his POV too. With Mokona gone, I had to develop some means for those left behind to be able to communicate so yeah, Fai happens to knows English. He has a bit of an accent but if it were upto you, what sort of accent would you guys say he has? I think it's Russian but I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. The reason why he didn't use it in Hanshin was because the thought never occurred to him.
Cookies for anyone who can guess the identity of the person the silver haired woman was talking about in the dream.
Ciao!