Alaia Skyhawk: Off they go to the Seal of Fire!
I don't own Tales of Symphonia so please don't sue me. I do however own Krishka, Dallinius (Dalli), Aluran, the Alurannai and any OCs, except Sanaro and Annule, who belong to Mr.Who2123, and Mika and Fiuras, who belong to WingedWithFireyMana, so please don't steal them...
Enjoy
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Chapter 14: Road to the First Seal
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The walls of the city of Triet Oasis faded into the dust veiled distance behind them, but the memories they'd made there remained strong in their minds. Three days of rest in the city, three days of stories and laughter as Tasha, Tia, and Vayla's other friends had talked about family and the places around Sylvarant they'd been. By the end of it any misgivings Raine had had about the obvious secrets that Tasha and the other newcomers were keeping was set aside. All people had secrets, and there were always reasons for it, and she could see that all ten of these new people were honest and trustworthy, so their reasons must be also.
Here, walking at the front of the group as Lloyd, Collette, and Genis chattered behind with Noishe in tow at the rear, Raine glanced sidelong at this representative of the Alurannai that was helping them... For the first time in many years, opening up at least a little to another.
"I've had so few people that I could trust, for so long, that I guess I'd forgotten what it was like to have so many friends. In the elven village where I grew up I was middle in age among a group of about ten children. I never lacked for friends or support. It didn't matter that I was a half-elf, no one in the village cared, but then something happened and my parents had to flee with me and Genis, who was only just a newborn at the time. Since we were separated from our parents I've found it hard to trust people. I suppose that's why I've remained so isolated all these years, even though my brother was willing to be open to new faces and people, and so made friends with most of the village children, though Lloyd and Collette have always been his best friends by far. I've had people I trust as acquaintances, like Phidra, Frank, and Aradine, but never any close friends. After seeing you so happy and relaxed with Tasha and the others, I realise now just how much I missed it."
Vayla put her hand on Raine's shoulder for a moment before lowering it again and looking at her, her eyes clearly showing she understood.
"You've obviously faced a lot of hurt and betrayal in your past, that you've realised though how closed off you've been, means you're starting to feel as if you can start trusting again... I'll be a friend, if you want me to." Vayla smiled at Raine's surprise. "I'm not just here because I was ordered to, but because I volunteered. I used to travel around like this, a long time ago. I was pretending to be human, disguising what I was from the outside world, but even before those I was travelling with found out what I was, I came to trust them and care about them as deeply as if they were family, and they felt the same about me. Learning what I was didn't change anything for them, because they already knew me. Still though, it was a big lesson about trust I learned that day... That if you give trust wholeheartedly, you will in turn receive it... I trust you Raine, and although there are things I can't tell you, the same as like how I hid what I was from my friends back then, that doesn't make my belief in you any weaker. I know you still have doubts about me at times, and I know you're still struggling with your past, but know this. Even though right now you don't completely trust me, I will continue to trust you no matter how long it takes you to feel I've earned the same." She smiled again, and then slowed so she could talk to the quartet behind. "I'll leave you to think."
Watching as Vayla began chatting to the three youths, Raine felt as if something inside her had shifted, as if something had fallen away. Turning her head to look at the dunes before them on this trek south-west to the Seal, a small smile showed on her face.
I don't think you'll have to wait, Vayla... my friend... Because I trust you already. You who have selflessly shown me support and understanding during these past weeks even though I never asked for it... I think... I think because of you will learn to trust people the people around me more. Yes, I could get hurt, my trust betrayed, but you've shown me the difference between my dark life of little trust and no friends, and the life where trust is given freely... You've shown me a life filled with happiness shared among others... A life I'd started to believe I would never have the chance to have...
Raine looked back at them again and whispered.
"...Thank you..."
A moment later she saw Vayla glance at her, a faint smile in her eyes, and knew she had heard it. For the first time in ten years... she had a friend.
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About seven bolts of lightning thudded down one after another across the sand, leaving blobs of molten glass where they'd struck. Picking one up, the heat not bothering him in the slightest, Lloyd idly began twisting the result of his spells like clay in his bare hands as the sun began to set over the dunes in the distance.
"Have you noticed how much happier Raine's been this last week? I swear on the way to Triet Oasis she tucked herself off to one side with her notebook as soon as we stopped for the night and barely said a word before it was time to go to sleep. Since we left Triet Oasis she's still worked on her notebook each night, but puts it away after a while and actually talks..."
Charging up a spell of his own, Genis focused on a sand battered stick they'd found and pushed into the sand as a target, a halo of extra collected mana making the air around him ripple.
"She trusts Vayla now, that's why she's more open." He released his spell. "LIGHTNI... YES ANOTHER ONE!" His spell circle doubled in size, and a blade-shaped bolt of lightning struck the stick with smaller bolts spraying out from it. The halo of extra mana gone, absorbed into the level two spell. He grinned. "Thunder Blade! How many is that now?"
Lloyd looked up from the now dragon shaped piece of cooling glass in his grip, chuckling.
"You've 'learnt' all the technical type level two spells for the six elements you know. Ice Tornado, Eruption, Spread, Stalagmite, Air Thrust, and now Thunder blade... Unless you learn another element or widen your perceptions enough to use strike type spells as well, that's it until you learn enough and get strong enough to cast level threes."
Genis looked at the few tiny charred fragments that were all that was left of the stick.
"Aww and I was enjoying practicing until I got those new spells..." He sighed. "Well, anyway, about Raine. I noticed a long time ago how she finds it hard to trust people. Something must have made her change the way she sees Vayla, and make her trust her." He paused. "Come to think of it I've seen her laughing at Vayla's jokes as we walk during the day. I think they might actually be friends..." He smiled. "I'm glad. Sis hasn't had a 'friend' friend for as long as I can remember. Maybe never while we've been living in Iselia."
His dragon done, Lloyd saw his other blobs of glass were too hard to mould now and sent another string of lightning bolts down to melt them again after cooling his dragon until it was cold and putting it in the ver Vayla had given him along with a note from his father. It turned out that Alurannai children were given vers as soon as their parents, or in this case acting guardian, felt they had enough control over their ability to generate mana to maintain one without it having to draw on that in the surrounding area. Starting another sculpture, Lloyd picked up three blobs this time and combined them to make a larger one.
"Well, whatever the reason, it's nice not to feel like you have to walk around her on eggshells." Genis was frowning, looking at the remaining blobs of glass with an expression of puzzlement. "What?"
Genis turned his gaze away from the glass and up to Lloyd's face.
"I don't get it. You can only cast level one spells at the moment, but you can cast them instantly. It's like when Vayla called up that wind to move the blocks in the Martel Temple. I didn't feel her draw on the mana around her at all for the small stuff, and although I felt you do that when you first started learning, I don't feel you do it anymore either..."
Lloyd's eyes lit up with understanding as he stopped what he was doing and looked up at his friend.
"Ah... that. Remember when Dalli taught me how to compensate for the low mana levels so I could fly?" Genis nodded. "The 'bubble' I make is made up of mana I generate myself. Alurannai can all make a moderate amount of mana, it's an ability we were given by the Giant Tree when it created us, so that we could live and protect it but not have to draw on the mana of the world to survive. I remember my ata telling my myrta about it. The Alurannai are actually 'mana neutral', I think he called it. That is every spell used to grow food fast, heal, cook, do little chores, and all the other everyday stuff, we don't use mana from the world around us. Once we reach adolescence we don't even absorb mana from the air anymore to sustain us like all the other living things in the world do. So when I cast level one spells, I just use my own ability to make the mana to power it. It's faster than drawing it from around me." He frowned. "Plus Vayla told me to do it like that. Something about getting me into good habits for conserving mana when I start learning higher level spells."
Genis blinked several times before he managed to choke out.
"You can make mana?! No way! When Dalli told you how to do that bubble of mana thing I though it was from the air around you!"
Lloyd quickly finished twisting his rapidly cooling glass into a curled up approximation of an Arshis, cooling it and putting it in his ver. Walking over to Genis, he held his hands out in front of him, palms facing each other.
"Here, focus on the space between my hands and the air around me so you know I'm not cheating." The air between his hands began to shimmer lightly and then still. "Did you feel what I did?"
The silver haired boy poked a finger into that space with awe, feeling the tingle on his skin as it passed into the tiny area of saturated mana Lloyd had made.
"Yeah, you didn't draw from the air at all, and you're mana levels didn't drop either... The mana in there just appeared..."
Lloyd moved his hands, letting the mana there disperse into the air.
"It's really useful, but I, like the rest of the Alurannai, have limits. A basic measure of how much mana we can each generate is that it's enough to support the mana levels of ten people in an area of complete depletion comfortably, or fourteen for a short period. That's another reason I guess the Alurannai hid for so long. People would have looked at us as the mana faded and wondered why we didn't make more mana to stop it. There aren't that many of us, less than ten thousand. Ten thousand times ten, a hundred thousand people we could offset the mana for continuously, but that doesn't cover the mana used by the plants they grow to eat, and the animals raised for the same thing. A hundred thousand people, Genis, that's a third of the population of a place like Palmacosta and the surrounding farming towns that support it. It's practically nothing when you compare it to the population of the whole world and the creatures and plants in it. So little that the difference we could make would be totally unnoticeable. Why do you think Vayla's here? The Alurannai can't stop Sylvarant's decline by making mana, so we have to help Collette do it this way."
Genis saw the helpless look in Lloyd's eyes, as the young Nartu thought about all the suffering his people had been able to do nothing to stop.
"Lloyd, it's ok. Don't beat yourself up about it. It's nothing you guys could help so just let it go." He sighed. "Though it would have been nice if you could top up the mana around us when we fight. Right now it's getting harder and harder to cast ice and water spells. How am I supposed to fight fire monsters at the Seal when I can't use the elements they're weakest against?"
Lloyd grinned and began to chuckle.
"Now that is something I can help with. I hope you like the cold Genis... Watch this..."
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"What's the matter, Collette?"
Raine walked up to the girl where she some distance from the campfire, Vayla having a nap on the other side of the dancing flames having set alarm wards up to warn of danger should anything other than Lloyd or Genis come near the camp. The girl looked up at her, before looking over at the sleeping alurannai woman.
"I've been thinking... about becoming an angel... All I know is that it's special, and that it will give me magic and all the other special things angels can do... But I've also been thinking about..."
Her voice petered out, her gaze upon the flames once more.
Raine sat down next to her, thinking once again about that conversation she'd had with Phidra all those weeks ago.
"You're afraid, aren't you..."
It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Collette sighed, gripping her knees tightly as she tucked them up under her chin.
"I know my duty, and I accept it... but... I'm still scared. Scared because in the end I know I'll forget everyone. Mom, Dad, Grandma. You, Lloyd, Noishe, Genis, Vayla... everyone... I won't remember Iselia anymore, or this journey... all of it will be gone, and that frightens me..." Her hands began to tremble, but she tightened her grip to stop it. "People say you are your memories, so I guess that really means I'll die. Not my body... but me, Collette of Iselia. Friend of Lloyd and Genis, and lots of others. Daughter of Frank and Aradine Brunel... It'll all be gone... I think that's scarier than being dead dead, because I know that even when 'Collette of Iselia' is gone, 'Collette the Angel' will take her place and keep living... No matter how many happy memories I make on this journey... No matter how much I try to make every minute count... In the end it's going to be pointless, because it's all going to be gone... Gone..."
Raine couldn't believe what she was hearing. Couldn't believe that Collette, the girl who always said 'look on the bright side and smile', was sat here staring into the fire saying that there was no point in her trying to be happy and make more happy memories because she was going to 'die'. Raine grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing the stunned girl to face her.
"You're wrong, Collette. 'Collette of Iselia' won't die in that Tower, because 'Collette of Iselia' will continue to live in the hearts and memories of those that knew her. Those that will cherish and treasure every memory of her. Who will hold those memories in their hearts until the end of their days... Like every person travelling with you right now... That's a long time, Collette. Genis and I could live as long as a thousand years, and Lloyd still has almost ten times that before old age will eventually claim him... Never think that continuing to strive to find joy in everything you do is pointless, because no matter how long you have left, the ways you've touched the lives of those around you will continue to make a difference even after you're gone."
Those wide blue eyes looked up at her, filling with tears as the girl's lower lip started to tremble. Biting down on it to stop it, Collette remained silent until she'd mastered the urge to cry.
"Thanks, Professor... for everything... If it weren't for people like you and the others, I don't think I'd be strong enough to go through with this. But it's because of people like you that I want to, because it means that you all get to live in a world without Desian's for a time, without fear, and without famine and droughts caused by there not being enough mana. It's because of people like you that I'll keep going no matter what." She looked up, a small trembling smile just tugging at her lips. "And that I'll remember now that being happy isn't pointless, because it means being happy beside you all..."
Raine pulled this oh so vulnerable yet oh so brave girl into a hug.
"We'll always be here for you, Collette. You're not alone, and we'll be with you right up until the end."
Sitting there in the dying light of the sunset, the two of them watched the dance of the campfire's flames as the alurannai woman nearby slept on oblivious to the conversation that had just occurred. 'Look on the bright side and smile'... In truth that was all anyone could do...
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Alaia Skyhawk: Yeah this was a filler, but I wanted to put these scenes in before they got to the first seal. Raine's slow to trust new people, but not so closed off she won't eventually. It's the impression I got of her in the game so I decided to build on it. I never explained some of the little things the alurannai's ability to make mana lets them do, although I implied it, so I made sure to mention it this time (and about Lloyd's sculptures, they'll be explained later). Lastly is Collette's scene. When she 'talks' to Lloyd at the tower, she thanks him for giving her the courage to make such a sacrifice of herself. I built on that and put it here, because if Raine was really 'in the know' the whole time, Collette must have spoken to her about it at some point.