The Ancient Curse

Part Twenty-Five: Meeting

***

Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all 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.

***

Hikari awoke in mid-morning to find that the sky was moving. Beneath her, the wheels of a small wooden cart squeaked steadily as they made their way over the dirt road. Above her, blue sky and white fluffy clouds passed over at a slow but steady pace.

She sat up, feeling disoriented. The last thing she remembered was falling to sleep in a small room in the back of the shop. There hadn't even been a bed to sleep on, only a pile of straw and a few blankets, but she'd been tired enough that she didn't care, and had fallen to sleep almost immediately. Apparently the shopkeeper had not wanted to wait for her to awaken, but had carried her to the cart and started off on their journey.

The chains which he claimed would hide her from magic were still around her wrists, and she saw now that they were also connected to a metal loop driven into the side of the cart. There were several other metal loops placed at intervals throughout the vehicle, some of which had empty chains dangling from them. This was a cart, she realized, which had been used often to transport slaves.

A shiver ran down her spine – a bit of fear. A short distance away, she could see that the shopkeeper was driving the cart munching on a loaf of bread as they traveled. "Is this necessary?" Hikari called toward him, rattling the chains as she spoke. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Just a precaution," he replied, mouth half-full. "Can't be too careful!"

"I'm sure," Tailmon muttered skeptically, and Hikari noted that her partner was not looking particularly pleased about the situation. It hadn't been easy to convince her to come along on this journey, and Tailmon was not very happy about the way things had turned out so far.

"It's too late to turn back now," Hikari told her, ignoring for the moment the shiver of fear that she had felt before. "I've already made a decision, and I can't go back."

***

Though she was still tired, Miyako found that it was quite difficult to continue sleeping when there was sunlight shining directly into her eyes from the grate overhead. After trying several times to return to sleep, she was forced to admit defeat, and sat up, yawning.

It was, at least, not very cold in the small room without windows or doors. Though she vaguely remembered having worn a cloak at some point in the recent past, it was no longer with her. The sleeves of her dress were ripped, and the skirt itself was also torn and tattered, covered with the dust of exploding brick walls, as was much of her skin.

She peered out past the invisible barrier, and saw that Ken was still asleep. He did not appear to have been injured in any way, though she would not have been surprised to find that he had a few small cuts (or even large ones) from his recent swordfight in the forest. He had, at least, been given a small, thin blanket, and he had pulled it over him while he slept.

Still, there was a bit of a chill, as there always is in the early morning, even in the warmth of spring. Miyako stretched one arm out before her, palm up, and shut her eyes. She focused her mind, gathering her energies, and manipulated the magic in such a way as to form a spark.

Nothing happened.

Miyako opened her eyes, frowning at the space above her hand. She curved her fingers in slightly, and then after a moment, twitched her thumb, forefinger, and the smallest finger inward in a well practiced movement designed to cause the magic to spark and form a flame.

Again, nothing happened.

Seeing clearly, Miyako could tell that the magic was going in the direction she wanted it to, but nothing was happening. Am I weaker than I thought? she wondered, and tried again. Again, there was no response.

She shook her head as though to clear it, and tamped down upon the faint sense of panic she could feel rising within her. Now she turned her hand so that the palm was facing outward, and willed the energy of her aura outward, towards her fingers, as was the way to form a shield.

This time, the magic didn't even attempt to flow in the correct way. It seemed, in fact, as though it wasn't responding to her directions at all.

I must be doing something wrong, Miyako rationalized, and thought back, remembering the basic beginnings of magic that she had learned some time ago. She calmed herself as best she was able, and focused upon steadying her breathing, relaxing. She could still see the magic, therefore it had not left her entirely.

She could see her own aura now, pulsing in and out with the beats of heart and the rhythm of her breathing. It was mostly clear, but with light threads of color floating in its mist. A bit of fear, a bit of worry, a bit of determination. Clearing her mind as best she could, Miyako shut her eyes and waited for her strength to return.

***

Around midday, the cart pulled to a stop, and Hikari peered over the edge of it to note a small cluster of tents in the middle of a wide, otherwise empty field. A few men were walking about, traveling between the tents. At one edge of the camp, a cluster of Monochromon munched upon the grass, of which there was plenty. At another end, a large tent stood.

As she watched, Hikari's eyes caught sight of a man, dressed in a long, dark brown cloak, as he crossed the camp. In one hand he held a leather cord, the opposite end of which appeared to be attached to a young man, who followed after him carrying a set of heavy bags.

"They're slave traders," Tailmon noted with a frown. She glanced up toward her partner. "It might be wise to be careful."

Hikari nodded in agreement. "You're right," she said, and sighed. "I'd forgotten about how much I don't like slave traders."

"I don't see why not," the shopkeeper said, interrupting her thoughts as he climbed down from his perch at the front of the cart. "We're all quite nice people, once you get to know us."

"I'm sure you are," Hikari replied with a bit of skepticism, deciding it might be best not to argue the point. She looked toward Tailmon, who shrugged absently.

A bright light surrounded her partner, and then she was Tailmon no longer, but an innocuous, harmless-looking Plotmon. The shopkeeper's Gazimon apparently found this amusing, and Plotmon glared in his direction, though the rabbit-like digimon pretended to take no notice.

"Not a bad idea," the shopkeeper noted approvingly. He was at work, disconnecting the chains from the edge of the cart. "If you're smart, you'll keep close to me, and be quiet," he advised, taking the end of them in his hand. "If they find out who you are…."

"I know," Hikari replied, frowning. "Are you sure my father is here?"

"If he's not, I haven't any idea where he is," the shopkeeper replied. He tugged on the end of the chains, indicating his desire to start moving. Somewhat reluctantly, Hikari climbed down from the cart and followed him, trying to observe the goings-on of the camp while at the same time attempting to be invisible. Plotmon followed along after her, frowning intently at the Gazimon, who walked beside the trader, occasionally glancing backward with a smug expression.

They stopped when the sound of another man's voice calling across the open space caught the attention of the shopkeeper. He called a greeting back, apparently acquainted with the man, and then changed direction abruptly, going to meet him. Hikari half-stumbled at the turn, unprepared for it, and had to hurry to catch up before she was dragged along the ground.

"Long time no see!" the other man was saying to the shopkeeper, patting him on the back in greeting. "It's been a while!"

"It has, it has," the shopkeeper replied, shaking hands with the trader. "I heard you made a fortune last year on that young one you got from Chu. Congratulations."

"It wasn't bad," the trader replied modestly. "Enough to buy four sturdy ones this year, and they'll probably make me more. Business is good. But what's this? This one doesn't look half-bad."

He stepped forward, looking more closely toward Hikari, who instinctively took a step backward, though she couldn't get far. She noted the frown the shopkeeper cast in her direction – apparently, in his eagerness to speak with an old friend, he'd forgotten about her. Though her second desire was to glare directly toward the trader with an expression of dislike, Hikari reflected that this might not be typical behavior for a slave.

Truthfully, she had never really seen a slave, nor studied their behaviors. Certainly Daisuke had been bound by the spell of one, but it was hardly his true nature, and she had taken pains to actively discourage anything that might be slave-like in his behavior. Everyone else around him had done the same, and that had done much to encourage him.

Now, she wondered if perhaps she might have considered further before walking into a camp of traders while masquerading as a slave, being as she knew almost nothing about what was acceptable behavior. She thought now that any sort of disobedience or willful desires might be frowned upon, and so she forced herself not to move any further away as the trader stepped closer. She kept her eyes downcast, partly because she did not wish to look at his face, and partly because this seemed to be the right thing to do. She thought she remembered that Daisuke had done something similar.

The trader took hold of her chin in one hand and lifted her face upward, studying her with the eye of one who was examining merchandise. Hikari found that it took most of her self control not to glare at the man with an expression of disgust or to pull back from his touch. At her feet, she could feel Plotmon tensing with a bit of protective fury.

"Nice, nice," the trader said, turning her head in one direction and then the other. "She's a fine one. Did you pay a fortune for her, eh?"

"A few thousand," the shopkeeper said mildly, lying easily. "I want to keep her here a few days while I collect some others. I've already got a buyer lined up."

"A lucky man," the other replied appreciatively, and finally let go of Hikari, who silently breathed an unnoticed sigh of relief. "Wish I had one that nice."

"Can't have them all," the shopkeeper replied with a light shrug. "Well, been good talking to you. I've got to get going."

"Right, right," the trader said, and clasped hands with the shopkeeper once more. "Hope to see you again soon."

When the trader had passed them by, the shopkeeper tugged upon the chains once more and resumed his walk across the grounds of the camp. "You're not half bad at pretending," he noted appreciatively in a quiet voice. "I suppose that might come from having a slave of your own, right?" He grinned as he spoke.

Hikari said nothing in response to this, but frowned in his direction steadily. The shopkeeper pretended not to notice, but continued their walk, finally halting in front of the largest tent.

It was easily as large as any tent Hikari had ever seen, and indeed as large as some buildings. Two armed guards stood at the entrance, and Hikari wondered absently if they were there to discourage theft or escape or both. They passed through the entrance flap without any sign of interest from the guards.

Inside, the tent was dim, with a few scattered lanterns providing light. Hikari was quite surprised (though she reflected immediately that she should not have been) to note that the inside of the tent was filled with metal cages, ranging in size from rather small to quite large. Each one held anywhere from one to a dozen slaves.

She had never seen anything like it, never even conceived of anything similar, and found herself staring at the space even as the shopkeeper led her a short distance into the tent to speak with what appeared to be a clerk. Hikari paid little attention to the words being said, but stared at the rows of cages with a bit of wide-eyed fear.

Most of the slaves appeared to be unharmed. Some were sleeping upon blankets on the ground, and others upon small cots with thin blankets thrown over them for warmth. Some were dressed in decent, well made, though plain clothing, and others wore what appeared to be only rags. She saw a few young men who wore little more than cloths tied around their waists and blankets thrown over their shoulders. They ranged in age, too, from young children to old men, though most appeared to be young adults.

Hikari was aware of a sharp tug on her wrists, and looked up to see that a tall, muscular man was pulling upon the chains that bound her. The shopkeeper was already making his way for the exit, apparently unconcerned with what might happen to her now. Though her first instinct was to call after him and demand an explanation, Hikari silenced herself. She had no choice but to follow the tall man down the row of cages, and as she did so she felt the eyes of the slaves watching her.

Near the opposite end of the tent, the man stopped near a small, empty cage, obviously designed to hold only one person. He reached out, and, with a key that dangled from a rather large ring upon his waist, unlocked the door. It swung open with a loud creak. Hikari felt the man's strong grip upon the back of her neck, and he pushed her forward through the gap and into the cage.

She stumbled through the opening and felt her legs give out beneath her and she sank to her knees at the same time that the door behind her closed with a loud clang. She turned back in time to see the large man head back the way he had come, keys jingling on his belt.

***

It was early morning when the carriage pulled up in the space where so many carriages often halted to release their passengers. Yawning widely, for it had been difficult to sleep in the carriage, Daisuke climbed down from the vehicle and held open the door for his sister.

"You wouldn't be so tired if you'd waited until morning to leave," she scolded him, the sound of her voice waking him from his half-awake state. "I don't see what the hurry is, anyway. Why did we have to travel at night?"

"Because it's safer," Daisuke replied, and then interrupted himself with a yawn before he could add anything further to this statement. He had, at several times over the last few days, considered leaving his sister behind, only to be silently reminded of Hikari's vision of her death as it appeared in his mind.

"Safer, safer, safer," Jun grumbled, shutting the door behind her. "You were never so concerned about safety before. What's changed?"

"Call me crazy," he answered sleepily, "if I don't want to see you killed." He yawned again. "I'm going to find a bed and take a nice long nap."

Jun looked as though she might be thinking of some not-so-pleasant comment to this statement as well, but before she could do so, she caught sight of a familiar person nearby. "Mimi!" she called cheerfully, for she had not seen her in quite some time.

"Jun!" Mimi called, and hurried over. Daisuke yawned once more, and immediately started for his bedroom. A conversation with Mimi was not high on his list of ways to spend the morning, especially considering how tired he was.

"Thank goodness you've finally come," Mimi was saying before she'd even gotten as far as Jun. "This whole place is a mess. No one has any idea where Hikari's gone, and I was beginning to worry something might have happened to you as well."

Daisuke paused, mid-step, and turned back toward Mimi. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"With all this talk about danger," Mimi answered, "I was told you were to arrive a few days ago, and when you didn't…."

"Not that," he said dismissively. "What did you say about Hikari?"

"She isn't here," Mimi replied.

"What do you mean she isn't here?" Daisuke questioned, taking a step forward. Jun had a confused expression on her face.

"Didn't she make it back here?" she asked.

Mimi nodded. "She was here," she replied. "She was here for several days, doing research with Sora. Yesterday, however, we woke up to find that she was gone. It seems that she took that teleporting amulet that Takeru used and vanished somewhere."

"Vanished where?" Daisuke demanded.

Mimi shrugged. "No idea. We were hoping you'd have some idea where she'd gone."

"Vanished," he echoed dumbly, and shook his head. "She was supposed to come back here, where she'd be safe. She was…she vanished?"

"Are you all right?" Jun questioned, for Daisuke was mumbling to himself incoherently, and looking a bit paler than before. "Maybe you should get some sleep."

"Sleep," he mumbled, and took a few steps away from them. "Sleep. This is a dream."

Mimi and Jun both watched as he made his way down the hall, and then Jun looked over her shoulder in time to see the boy, Shijo, appear, having apparently tended to the Monochromon. "Go after him," she said to him, gesturing toward her brother, "and see that he doesn't fall down in the middle of the hallway and hit his head."

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you," Mimi said then when both had vanished around the corner and she and Jun were alone in the entrance hall. "It concerns your brother and the princess."

Jun frowned in confusion. "What's that?" she wondered.

"Have you heard that she's engaged?" Mimi asked.

Jun blinked several times. "I had not!" she replied in astonishment. "To whom?"

"That's the mystery," Mimi answered. "No one knows."

***

The small cage was only large enough to lie down in if Hikari curled herself up and slept upon her side. Stretched out fully, it was too small. It had taken her some time to find a way to sleep comfortably, and when she awoke, she had the feeling that she had not had nearly enough sleep. She felt stiff all over, and cold and dirty.

There was no way of knowing what time it was, as there was no light from outside within the large tent. The slaves apparently were unconcerned with time, for they made the same amount of noise at all times. At any given period, half of them were awake and half were asleep. Some of them talked quietly amongst themselves, some shouted loudly (though these, Hikari noted, had been silenced quickly), and some remained quiet. No matter what time of day or night it was, a percentage of them was always making some noise.

She had been given food shortly after her arrival, a bowl of some sort of tasteless gruel and bit of stale bread. A bucket of water was carried down the line of cages a short time after, and each was allowed a small gulp from a metal ladle that spooned out some of the liquid. Some time after that, Hikari had fallen to sleep, since there was nothing else to do, and she was a bit tired.

When she awoke, she saw that nothing had changed. The level of light within the tent was the same as it had been when she had arrived, as was the level of sound. She sighed and leaned back against the bars of the cage, wondering if she had made a big mistake coming here.

After some time had passed, she let her eyes fall shut again, and perhaps drifted to sleep for a few minutes, even though she had not laid down. She was awakened once more by the sound of a vaguely familiar voice a short distance away.

"Why did you come here?"

Hikari opened her eyes sharply and saw that a tall figure was standing a short distance beyond the bars of the cage. He was tall, covered entirely in a black cloak, so that he appeared to be only a shadow if one did not look closely enough. For a moment, a bit of fear gripped her, and then she pushed this aside and crawled forward.

"Father?" she asked. "Is that you?"

"Why did you come here?" he asked again. "You want to be a slave?" He waved an arm, gesturing toward the tent as a whole.

"No," Hikari answered immediately, shaking her head. "Please, Father, I need your help."

He was quiet for some time. "I can't help you," he replied then. "I am supposed to be dead, and dead men cannot help the living."

"Please, Father. You might be the only one who can answer my questions," she said quickly, before he could turn away and vanish into the shadows of the tent. "I need to know who might have cast an ancient curse on Motomiya."

There was silence for a long moment, but he did not turn to leave. Hikari had no other choice but to wait, and listen to the rapid pounding of her heartbeat in her own ears. "Why?" he finally questioned.

"Because I'm going to marry him," Hikari said, speaking quickly, "and you said you approved, didn't you? If I don't find out who cast the curse, and stop it, he'll die." She leaned forward and wrapped both hands around the bars of the cage as she spoke.

"Die?" the shadow echoed in a strange tone of voice, as though he found this to be an exaggeration.

"They plan to kill me, to kill his sister, to kill everyone of any importance to him," she went on, tightening her grip upon the bars. "I'm sure once they've done that, they'll kill him. I need to know who they are. I need to find some way to stop it."

He did not answer for a long moment. Distantly, the conversations and cries of the slaves continued, a quiet background hum that never ceased. Someone in the cage nearest to Hikari was sleeping, and his or her snores rumbled steadily through the crowded space like a roll of thunder before a storm.

"Please," Hikari said then. "Father…."

If he could not help her, if he would not or could not give her any information, then she had come so far, risked so much, for nothing. She waited in the silence. Each second that passed seemed as though it was an hour. Tired, for she had not slept so well as she would have liked, Hikari leaned her head forward to rest on the bars of the cage, and let her eyes fall shut.

"Otonashi," he replied quietly. "Otonashi."

She opened her eyes, lifted her head. The name sounded familiar to her, but she could not say why.

"It was many years ago," he said, "but he hated Motomiya, and would have done anything…."

***

My latest calculations estimate that this story will end at 35 chapters. No guarantees. Again, apologies for my lack of brevity and thanks for reading!