The Ancient Curse

Part 21: Light

Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all related characters, etc, does not belong to me. Plot, however, does. In short, don't steal, don't sue, don't forget to moo.

Moo. Enjoy.

It was a quiet sort of thud that, lost within his own morose thoughts, Daisuke was not likely to have noticed. It was followed quickly, however, by a quiet but still audible gasp of surprise, and that caught his attention. He turned his head and saw that someone had apparently fallen to the ground a short distance away.

It appeared to be a young woman, though beneath the hood of her cloak he could not see her clearly. He wondered if his sister had sent one of the maids after him.

"Are you all right?" he asked, and, at the sound of his voice, she went very still, almost as though she was frightened.

He got to his feet, took a few steps forward, and saw her head bob up and down in response to his question. He took another step forward and held out his hand so he could help her up.

"Here," he said quietly, and she slowly lifted her head to look at him.

The moment Hikari's eyes met his, he froze. The hand he had been holding out to her fell back to his side and for a long moment of silence, nothing happened except that they stared at each other.

The rain pattered on, quietly tapping at their hoods. A gentle breeze rustled the branches of the tree and sent a few more blossoms flying, and shaking free a few water droplets.

"H-how did you…?" Daisuke began, and then dropped down to his knees in the grass beside her. "How did you get here?"

There was no one else there. The kitchen was not so far away, but the space between them and there was empty of people and digimon. Daisuke turned his head toward the house and then toward the stream, searching for some unknown person who might have carried her there.

"I walked," Hikari said. Her voice was quiet, but clear, and easily heard over the quiet pattering of the rain. Slowly, Daisuke turned his head back toward her.

His eyes were wide open, his face twisted into an expression of confusion. "Did you say…you…walked?" he asked.

She nodded. "I walked," she said again.

"How…?" Daisuke began, but was interrupted by a shout coming from near the house. Distantly, he could hear his sister calling his name across the grounds. He started to get to his feet, but Hikari took his hand, holding him down.

"Wait. There are things I need to tell you," she said. "Explanations. Things that you should know…that only you should know."

Daisuke shook his head, not completely understanding. "Is this…is this temporary?" he asked. "This…?" He waved a hand in her general direction, indicating that he meant her current state.

Hikari shook her head. "No," she answered. "It's not."

He stared at her for another moment, still not completely understanding, and in the silence, they could hear another voice calling from the house, this time perhaps Takeru. Once more Daisuke turned toward the house, and then he turned back.

"You're sure?" he asked, and she nodded. "Do they know?"

"No one knows," Hikari replied. "No one knows except you, and our partners."

"You're sure?" he asked again. "No one saw…?"

"I'm sure."

He glanced back briefly toward the house, and then nodded, as though coming to a conclusion. "Act as though nothing has happened," he said then. As he spoke, he shifted himself and reached forward, putting one hand behind her and another beneath, as though he was about to lift her. "Can you do that?"

"Pretend I can't speak?" she concluded. "Pretend it's an effort to keep my eyes open? I think I can manage that."

Daisuke nodded, and then got to his feet, lifting her as he did so. "That's the plan, then. For the rest of the day, pretend nothing has changed, and then, when we have a chance, we'll figure out what to do next."

He began to walk, and Hikari instinctively leaned in toward him as she usually did when she was being carried. "They'll think you took me out here, in the rain," she said, looking up.

He shrugged.

"They'll yell at you," she went on, lowering her voice to a near whisper as they came closer to the house. "They'll blame you…."

Daisuke paused a few steps from a side entrance to the house that he had led them to. "I'll handle that," he said. "Don't worry."

"There should be another way," Hikari disagreed, but he shook his head.

"You're all right, aren't you?" he asked, and when she nodded, he shrugged again. "Then I don't care."

Before she could say anything further, the door opened, and Yamato stood in the space. For a brief moment, there was silence as all three of them stared at each other, and then, at that precise time, the rain chose to increase its power, and a deluge poured from the skies.

"Get in here!" Yamato demanded, stepping aside, and Daisuke hurriedly passed through the doorway and into the dry, warm interior of the house. Inside, the sound of water dripping from cloaks echoed off the tall ceilings of the hallway.

"What in the hell were you thinking?" Yamato questioned. "You're soaked. Both of you! Were you trying to get her killed?" Apparently not expecting a rational answer, he stormed off down the hall and rounded the nearest corner, then shouted for his brother at the top of his lungs.

If Takeru did not hear the shout, Daisuke thought, he must have something very wrong with his hearing, because it seemed as though it might be possible to hear Yamato from the other side of the kingdom. He glanced down at Hikari, who was looking at him with a bit of concern in her eyes.

Takeru appeared in the hall then, with Jun following behind him. He shook his head at the sight of two rain-soaked people dripping in the hall, and said nothing more, but Jun was a bit more vocal.

"Do you know you scared me half to death?" she questioned of her brother as Takeru helped Hikari out of the cloak, and then took her in his own arms. Beneath it, she was wearing only the nightgown she had been sleeping in, and it, too, was damp. The hem was covered with mud, and her ankles and toes as well.

Daisuke didn't answer, only took his own cloak off and hung it on a hook beside the door. He was wet as well, but not quite so mud covered. When his sister didn't let up in her death glare, he sighed. "I'm sorry," he said then, which didn't help matters.

"Sorry? What's wrong with you? You're soaked! Soaked through, and you brought Hikari outside as well? Don't you know it's raining? What were you trying to accomplish?"

She didn't seem to expect him to answer any of these questions, because she didn't pause between them to wait for a response. When she paused for a breath, Takeru, who had thus far concerned himself only with Hikari's health and not with shouting at Daisuke, said, "I think she needs a nice hot bath, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her."

Jun nodded, briefly shooting another glance toward her brother, which might have been murderous if looks could kill. "Come with me," she said then, "I'll arrange it."

Takeru glanced briefly toward Daisuke with a questioning expression, and then nodded, following after Jun with Hikari in his arms. Hikari glanced briefly back over his shoulder toward Daisuke, another concerned expression in her eyes.

He said nothing, and was careful to show nothing in his eyes, but he watched the three of them vanish around the corner. When they had gone, he saw that Yamato had been watching him as well.

"You've lost it," he said then, and waved a hand dismissively before following after the others.

Mid-afternoon, Mimi noted that the clouds were growing darker and thicker, indicating that perhaps the rain that had been threatening for several hours might soon begin to fall. She was glad that she had nothing of importance to do outside, though she wasn't thrilled about not being able to visit the market that day.

Instead, she ventured down into the lower levels of the palace to see if the wizard Koushiro had come to any conclusions. It had been several days since she had last seen him or checked upon his progress, for she'd been busy with several other things and had not made the time for it.

The wizard was half buried under a pile of books so tall that she had difficulty seeing him. He was muttering quietly to himself and occasionally scribbling notes down on a scrap of paper nearby. He did not look up at the sound of his door creaking open nor at the sight of his visitor, but Mimi was neither surprised nor insulted.

She crossed the room and took a seat on the unoccupied stool on the opposite side of the small table covered with books. A short distance away she noted the subject of the wizard's current project, a necklace with a red jewel in the center, a teleportation crystal disguised quite nicely as jewelry.

It was a plain enough stone, set in a serviceable but not overly gaudy golden surround. Studying it closely, Mimi saw that light reflected off the stone and bounced it to other walls in the room.

Tentomon had been napping upon one of the upper bookshelves, but he had noticed the presence of the visitor before his partner did, and now he roused himself and flew down to rest atop a pile of books.

"Have you come to any conclusions?" Mimi asked of the digimon, since Koushiro was still quite absorbed in his research.

The insect digimon shrugged. "It's old," he replied. "Older than we originally thought. It might perhaps go back to the founding of the kingdom."

Mimi squinted at the jewel in her hands. "It doesn't look that old."

"Looks can be deceiving, I suppose," Tentomon answered.

Koushiro was quickly scribbling down some words upon the paper. When he reached the end of his sentence, he set down his pen and leaned back in his chair. It was only then that he noticed Mimi, still looking at the jewel.

She glanced up after a moment, feeling his eyes. "The founding of the kingdom?" she said. "Is it really that old?"

"It seems to be," the wizard replied, "providing that I've cast the spells to determine age correctly. I've been trying to determine what powerful, wealthy wizards might have been around at that time, but, I'm afraid, records going back that far are a bit scarce and muddy."

Mimi frowned in thought. "The kingdom was founded by the First King," she recalled, digging in her memories for any recollections of her history lessons. "He united the people and drove out the barbarians who lived here before. With strong magic and the loyalty of his associates, he founded the kingdom and ensured the safety of everyone within his borders." She paused in thought a moment. "Do you think maybe the First King could have made the crystal?"

The idea was exciting, but Koushiro immediately shook his head. "It's not the right sort of magic," he replied. "According to magical history, the succession of the Kings of Yagami is assured by the presence of a certain type of magic. That type of magic isn't the sort that was used to create that crystal. The First King couldn't have made it."

"So it was someone else at the same time as the First King, right?" Mimi concluded. "Maybe someone the First King actually knew?"

"That's a possibility," the wizard admitted. "There isn't really any way to know for certain, but I might be able to narrow that down if I had any idea which of the First King's nobles was a wizard. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to find a list of them which doesn't differ from every other list in existence, and it's hard to determine which of them is right."

"It is a task for an historian," Tentomon stated. "Not a wizard."

His partner sighed in agreement.

"Are there any around?" Mimi wondered. "Historians, that is?"

"Not very many I would trust with something this important," Koushiro admitted, and sighed. "There aren't many interested in history nowadays." He frowned in thought. "The only one who ever cared much for history around here was the last King."

The rain began to let up in the late afternoon, and by the time the sun began to sink, it was beginning to be visible between the clouds. A single Piyomon, messenger carrier, paused to catch his breath upon the rafters of the house before flying down to enter through a window.

Daisuke was rummaging through his bedroom, searching for a clean, mostly not-wrinkled shirt. At his sister's insistence, he'd taken a hot bath and changed clothes, and now he was searching through his wardrobe for one that was not in awful shape. Halfway through the pile, he gave up and settled on a long-sleeved tunic instead. He pulled it over his head, and then saw that a Piyomon was watching him, having entered through the window while he was dressing.

"A message?" he asked aloud, and the Piyomon nodded.

"I'm searching for someone named Takeru," the bird digimon replied. "It hasn't been easy to find him. I originally searched at Kido, and then at the palace. They told me there he was at a house on the West Coast, but by the time I got there they told me he had come here." He sighed, then coughed a few times. "Is he here?"

Daisuke nodded. "He is," he replied. "I'll take you to him. Where do you come from?"

"Hida," the Piyomon answered, and then coughed a few times more. "Would it be all right if I rested here a day or so before heading back?"

"Take all the time you want," Daisuke answered. "You sound tired, and it's probably not a good idea to fly in the cold rain with a cough like that."

"Nothing to be done about it," the Piyomon replied with a sigh. "The message had to be delivered."

They'd been walking while they talked, heading down several flights of steps, and now they were at the ground floor of the house. Though he didn't know for certain, Daisuke guessed that Takeru would still be with Hikari, making sure that a good soaking in the cold rain hadn't caused further damage, and so he led the Piyomon in that direction.

He was right. Takeru, Jun, and Yamato were all in the room with Hikari. Yamato and Jun were anxiously and quietly discussing something (Daisuke guessed that it might be him), and Takeru was sitting in a chair near the window, absently peering out at the sunset, lost in thought. Hikari was sleeping, or perhaps only pretending to be.

When the door opened, all four of them turned their heads and eyes toward it, and Daisuke noted that Hikari briefly opened one eye as well. He suppressed a smile, for it seemed she was indeed only pretending to sleep.

"This Piyomon is looking for you, Takeru, and it seems he's gone through a lot of trouble," he said, stepping aside so the bird digimon could enter after him.

The Piyomon entered the room, then took flight and perched upon the bedpost nearest to the window so he could easily see Takeru and speak to him at eye level.

"Looking for me?" Takeru echoed, and got to his feet. "A message?"

"From Hida," replied the Piyomon, and held out a small, waterproof container in which he carried a small roll of paper. "It was hoped," he began, and then interrupted himself with a cough, "it was hoped that I would find you sooner than this."

Takeru frowned briefly at the Piyomon, noting its cough with the ear of one that had studied (if only briefly) a bit of the healing magics. He opened the container and unrolled the paper, reading the words upon it. His eyes grew wider as he did so, and then he sat down in the chair.

"What's wrong?" Yamato asked, and Takeru shook his head.

"There's an illness in Hida," he replied. "This message is a few days old, but it seems that some of the elders have become very sick, and some of the young children as well."

"That's how it started," the Piyomon agreed, clearing its throat. "When I left, some of the young men were becoming sick as well. The doctors have been giving them every cold remedy they know, but none of it's doing much good. Lord Hida said that you had learned some healing magic, and so they sent me to find you." He paused, coughing once more. "I was healthy when I left."

"Flying in the cold rain probably hasn't helped matters," Jun noted sympathetically. "Can you help them, Takeru?"

Takeru stood up again, setting down the message, and placed one hand upon the head of the Piyomon. He was quiet a moment, frowning in concentration, and all eyes in the room were upon him. Tailmon and V-mon sat up, interested, and Hikari forgot about pretending to be asleep and watched as well.

If any of them had possessed magical sight, they would have seen a faint glow surrounding the Piyomon as Takeru assessed what was wrong with the bird. He could tell by way of magic that the lungs were tired from coughing, and tired further by the exertion of the journey. He easily found other problems as well, tired joints and bones that would only become more tired with time, and a tightening of vessels in the head that would cause a powerful headache in time. The lungs and throat were beginning to fill with a mucus that the bird digimon's tired coughs were not enough to expel.

"It's like a cold," Takeru mumbled quietly, almost to himself, "but not exactly. Something is different about it." He frowned in thought, and then shifted the focus of his mind toward remembering the healing spells which would aid the problems. He gave a bit of strength to the lungs so that the Piyomon might breathe more easily, and a bit of energy to the bones so that the aching would not be so great. Easing the headache that had not yet begun was simple enough as well.

"The rest," he said when he had finished and removed his hands from the bird digimon, "will require rest."

The bird digimon nodded. "That, I think I can manage," he replied, already looking as though he was quite ready to get to sleep.

"Can you help them?" Jun questioned once more. All eyes in the room were upon Takeru now.

"If they're all sick of the same thing as this Piyomon, it won't be too hard," he replied, "though if it's the whole village, it might take some time."

Yamato had been watching his brother with a serious and thoughtful expression. Though there had been some suspicion and speculation about the nature and existence of his magical ability, it appeared that Takeru did actually know something about healing magic. "It will take some time to get to Hida, too," he pointed out. "At least three days from here, maybe more."

"We could fly," Patamon piped up.

"Even that would take a day or two," Takeru reminded his partner with a frown. "It's too bad that Piyomon couldn't find me sooner. By the time I get there…."

"Teleport," Daisuke interrupted before he could continue down this thought towards a rather pessimistic conclusion. All eyes in the room turned toward him now. "You'd be there in an instant."

Takeru shook his head. "I gave Taichi the crystal I had, remember? To give to Koushiro, in the hopes he could figure something out about where it came from."

"There's another one," Daisuke replied.

surprise. this story has passed twenty chapters.

i have planned an ending, and i am nearly there. if you have been reading, i hope you are not eager for an end, because there will be at least nine more chapters. perhaps more. if you are not eager for the ending, then i am sorry but all things must end eventually.

i am sorry to report that there will be some more (badly written) mushy, gooey, emotional stuff in the near future. my advice would be not to eat anything sick and heavy before you read chapters in the future. consider that your warning.

that's enough babbling from me. thanks for reading.