A hand was prodding at his shoulder. Without thinking, he reached up and swatted it away. Someone giggled.
"Lazy."
Elazul sat up in a rush. Ren's green eyes stared at him from a couple feet away. Behind her, a long way behind her, the treehouse stood lonely on the hill top, and even further, the edge of the woods. A familiar scene, but stretched. "Where is this?"
"It's called a lawn, El," Ren shook her head in mock sadness. "And people say I can't remember things."
He looked around. The grass was drifting gently sideways, but there was no wind. He thought he heard a child's laughter from the trees but even that seemed distorted, unreal. "I'm dreaming," he decided.
"Are you?" Ren glanced at him, slightly worried. "Am I dreaming too, then?" She pulled her knees up to her chest and rocked back and forth a bit. "I always thought I might be."
"Always?"
"Yes, from the beginning. Ever since I woke up in the woods that day, there's been something slightly unreal about the whole thing." Elazul's eyes widened, but she didn't seem to notice anything strange about what she was saying. "Like I shouldn't really be here, you know? But I thought, so long as people need me, so long as there's something for me to do, then it can't just be a dream. Especially you."
Elazul jumped. "Me?" He felt heavy, slow, like he wanted to say more, elaborate, ask questions, but he couldn't seem to force out more than one word. This is why I hate dreams.
"Yes, you." Ren didn't seem to be having the same trouble though. "There's something real about you. Grounded. Maybe it's because you have rocks for brains, like Rachel said." She laughed suddenly. "Oh, I don't know how to explain it. Whenever you're around I feel stable. Whole." She stopped, her face falling again. "But if you're dreaming too…"
Ren looked at her hands, holding them in front of her as if she expected them to disappear any moment. "Don't wake up," she said urgently. "Please don't wake up…I don't want to…"
"Don't want to what?" Elazul asked, but she only looked back at him, seemingly frozen. "Ren?" He reached out to touch her shoulder, and the image fractured. A red, clawed talon burst from the air and raked down his arm, tracing the pattern the wolves had left before. Elazul leapt back, reaching for his sword, but finding none.
"Well, well, well." The claw withdrew and shrank, reforming into an arm at the side of a man dressed in red. He stood perfectly straight and still, but around his feet the grass crackled and crumbled in on itself, burnt in a fire as intangible as the wind.
"Who are you?" Elazul asked.
"I was about to ask the same of you," the man replied, stepping forward, the circle of dying grass trailing in his wake. "Though I suspect my identity is far easier to discern."
The man's face was an enigma, neither young nor old, his features faintly curious and slightly mocking, but not enough of either to really be called an expression. Only his eyes were clear; red-tinted orbs that blazed with the anger of centuries.
"Drakonis."
"At your…service." The man leapt forward suddenly, as if driven by the downbeat of invisible wings. A tail that had not existed a moment before lashed out from the side and struck at Elazul like a scorpion. Pain lanced through his core and for a moment he thought…but nothing else happened.
He stayed where he had crouched to try and avoid the blow and glanced down at his arm. The skin was whole, unbroken, even though Sierra's summoned wolf had certainly done damage before. Drakonis' strike had simply mirrored the pain, and this attack had only called up memories of Sandra's strike. He put a hand to his core, hesitantly, but found it smooth, unbroken.
You're dreaming, he reminded himself, and straightened, facing Drakonis again. "I think I see your game."
Drakonis looked mildly irritated, but it disappeared swiftly. "I suppose I should have known that no one she called on for aid would be so easily swayed. Now, I am intrigued. Who are you?"
"None of your business."
Black eyes flared with a reddish light as Drakonis smiled briefly. "That was predictable. Surely you could come up with better?"
"I'm not here to entertain you. What have you done with Ren?"
"Ren?" Drakonis pretended to think this over. "Ah yes. The mana knight reborn. Ren." He laughed, suddenly. "So utterly trite, and perfectly in character." The red-lit eyes blinked slowly as he continued to regard Elazul. "I would give up on her, Jumi. She is mine and always has been. Body and soul. You can hardly expect to compete."
The hell…? Elazul tried to beat back a rather exasperated thought that persisted in wondering if he was cursed to have dragons for rivals at every turn. No, he's lying, or something close to it. Trying to get to you. In that case, there was nothing to do but ignore it.
"Do you really think you can fight me? Surely no mere woman is worth that much trouble," Drakonis persisted when his first statement failed to elicit a reply. The dragon, or whatever he was at the moment, seemed to be trying to figure him out. Elazul had no idea what he would do with the information if he had it. Probably nothing good.
"I have a debt to repay her," he said easily. It was, after all, true. "She's been fighting an enemy of mine, of my people. Without question, she's poured her heart and soul into fighting a problem that was never hers to begin with. Just as you are, technically, not my problem. So yes, in completely quantitative terms, I owe it to her to fight you."
"Well put, knight." Drakonis snickered, and flexed one hand. For a moment a huge talon shimmered there, firelight playing over half-transparent scales. "However, in completely quantitative terms, you are the equivalent of a very small insect in front of me. You don't stand a chance." The claw sliced through the air, trailing sparks behind it.
Elazul didn't move. He'd already called that bluff, and the fact that the dragon was re-using a blatant trick had to mean something. He's worried. Not frightened, necessarily, but worried. I'm an unknown variable, something he hasn't planned for, and however inconsequential he may find me, it bothers him. "Yes well. Quantity isn't always what matters, is it?"
"No," Drakonis almost grinned, but there was something strained about it. "Certainly I've seen a lot of Jumi passing by lately, but the quality has been rather lacking."
He striking blind now. "Don't change the subject," Elazul snapped, wishing fervently that he had a weapon of some sort. Whose stupid dream was this anyway? "Where is she?"
"You know where already," Drakonis said slyly. "It is an easy enough place to find. Everyone does, eventually."
Goddess, it's like talking to Viridian! Are all dragons just that obnoxious? Elazul didn't want to deal with this any more. He obviously was not going to get anything out of this dream-Drakonis, even if it really was him and not some warped piece of his own imagination.
This was a dream, a real dream and not some mana-spawned memory, which meant he could wake up when he darn well pleased. Pulling on that part of his soul that had kept away nightmares for years, he felt the surroundings waver.
Drakonis' eyes widened. "Running away?" he asked mildly, despite the surprise on his face. Elazul didn't answer, and the dreamscape shattered.
Elazul thought he should probably have woken up with a start after that, but he felt quite calm as consciousness returned. There was a humming in the air around him that chased away whatever fear might have followed him from the dream world.
Ah, the mana crystal. He opened his eyes to watch its measured rotation in the air nearby. He vaguely recalled falling asleep in the smaller glade, more because it was empty of annoying people than any desire to stay near the stone.
The area wasn't empty now. Vadise's unmistakable white bulk lay stretched on the other side, head against her claws, watching him through the misty light from the crystal.
"How long have you been sitting there staring at me?" Elazul sat up, cautiously, but everything seemed normal. "That's kind of, you know, strange."
Vadise looked perplexed. "I was monitoring the passage of mana between you and the crystal," she explained, as if it was obvious.
Elazul looked at the glowing stone. "That's not any less strange. Can't I take a nap without someone trying to run experiments on me all the time?"
The dragon didn't bother to dignify that with a response. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," he said, surprised to find it was true. Looking down, he found the damage done by the wolves had vanished without a trace. "What did you do?"
"I suppose you could call it…a mana transfusion. You needed it."
"Hmm." He stood up, stretching. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you sicced your crazy dragoon and her wolfpack on me."
Vadise ignored that as well. "You spoke to Drakonis in your dreams," she said, changing the subject with tactless but significant force.
"How do you know that?" Elazul turned to face her, surprised.
"The crystal showed me. You spoke first to Kesta, and then Drakonis. How is this possible, I wonder?" It was hard to tell if she was asking him, or herself.
"You're not suggesting I was plotting with him or something, are you? I thought it was just a dream," he said.
"After recent events?" Vadise raised her eyelid expressively. "You are more talented in denying the obvious than I thought. No, do not take offense," she held up a claw in warning and Elazul subsided. "I am weary of arguing for now. It was, in a way, just a dream. Dreams very often are an easy way for the not-quite-real to touch reality, however briefly."
"I thought it was a dream because it made no sense," Elazul corrected her. "Not because I wanted to deny it."
"No sense?"
"Nothing Ren said made sense, nothing Drakonis said made sense. It all felt fragmentary, the way dreams are."
"I could not hear what was said, only watch," Vadise explained.
"He said-"
"No, do not tell me. I do not care what he said." Her gaze was cold now. "Every word that comes out of Drakonis' mouth is a lie. It does not matter who he is talking to, I suspect he lies even to himself, out of habit." Vadise remained quite still, but a quick lash of her tail nearly uprooted a bush. "I am far more concerned as to how he contacted you, rather than what he had to say."
Elazul frowned. "The mana stone, I assume." He waved at the crystal. "How else? Didn't he drain the power from Akravator's?"
"An educated guess, but an incorrect one. I have been talking to your…" Vadise hesitated as Elazul glared at her. "To Blackpearl, and she has informed me that something about you does not sit right with her."
"The feeling is entirely mutual," he muttered. "You mean she's still hanging around?"
Vadise sighed exasperatedly. "Elazul," she said sharply, bringing his attention back from where it had been warily regarding the vine curtain. "Tell me, how did you survive that blow to your core?"
"What does that have to do with-"
"Just answer me." Vadise interrupted with forced-sounding calm.
"You said you did something, while I was sleeping." Elazul knew perfectly well that wasn't what she was talking about, but the whole subject made him defensive.
"Indeed, but there would have been no mana stone present at the time of injury." The dragon watched him intently. "Blackpearl insisted you were done for. She has seen many such situations, and I do not doubt her analysis, cold though it may be. So tell me, from what source mana?"
Elazul shook his head, his hand going automatically to his core. The crack remained, though the pain that had been increasing again over the past few days had dulled and retreated. Just like when… "Ren," he answered. "It had to have been. She said something about spirits, but she couldn't really remember. It felt the same as now…" he let the rest trail off, Vadise was clearly not listening anymore.
"Spirits," she said quietly. "The elementals? She was gathering spirits?"
"Yes, well, more like tripping over them," he said. "I don't think she deliberately went out to look for any."
"How many had she…obtained?"
Elazul thought back. Trying to put together Ren and the twins' often conflicting statements on the subject was no easy task, but he managed a head count. "Six?"
Vadise nodded, apparently this made sense to her. "I see. I said previously that I sensed the influence of the mana sword about you. Now I am not so sure. Perhaps it was merely the touch of the spirits, for they too are part of the goddess' soul…and yet…"
"And yet?" Elazul repeated when the dragon faded out. He felt nervous now, the strained tone from his core ringing so loudly in his ears he was certain even Vadise could hear. Something about this was not sitting well with him.
"Kesta was no channeler. The powers of the spirits were never hers to command. As a child, many assumed she would take up that role, the spirits responded so easily to her, but she never tapped them. I believe she was always far more interested in them as personalities than power sources. As the mana knight, she spoke often to the spirits, took their advice, communed with them, but never once channeled a spell. Many assumed that it was out of respect. With the mana sword in hand and Viridian at her side, she needed no other weapons, and spurned such excess.
"But I was her friend, and knew the truth. She still could not. Though the goddess called her daughter and the spirits flocked to her like siblings, she could not draw upon their power. Not once. Not ever."
"But obviously she did."
"In order for that to be so, she must have changed in fundamentals. It is not something that could have been overcome by sheer desire or willpower, only a change in the basic make-up of that which determines what we are…both physical and mental, an alteration of the very soul."
Elazul realized he'd been pacing back and forth only when he stopped. "It can't possibly be a good change, not if it left her like that. The further involved she became with spirits, the less she remembered...and I think it was doing more than just mental damage. Whatever she did, it knocked her out for three days. The twins told me later she might as well have been dead." He frowned, thinking back. "It wasn't the first time either. I can't help but feel…" he stopped, noticing a strange look on Vadise's face.
"That is not good," she said, but almost thoughtfully. Slowly she stood up and took up pacing where Elazul had left off, a measured distance between the tree line and the mana stone. "No," she murmured, mostly to herself. "I see it, I see it now…ah, Kesta, what a tangled web you have woven for yourself!" Returning to the crystal she stood still for a long time, gazing into its depths, though the stone showed no change.
"Well?" Elazul finally broke into her reverie; his nerves were not up to this sort of stalling at the moment. Vadise looked up, but her gaze remained distant.
"It is, in a way, simple, and yet infinitely complex. You would see it too, if you were born somewhat earlier, you could not miss the connection."
"Yes, well, you're the one with millennia of experience. Just pare it down for me." Trying to get the dragon's attention away from whatever cosmic scheme she was looking at was a lost cause.
"Do you know how the Jumi were able to heal others?" Vadise spoke in an almost musical, story-telling voice. "Those stones you wear so nicely, that mimic the deepest formation of the earth, are formed of mana, the binding force of all life. It is bound to your body, your soul, and keeps you alive beyond the generations of any human-based life form."
"I don't need a biology lesson, Vadise." Elazul tried again, and finally she focused on him.
"I know far more about your people than you do. I have known your race from its conception to what I thought was its end. Do not tell me what you do or do not already know. I only wish I had the time right now to make you truly understand…" She waited for a moment, but Elazul only stared back, trying to will her to get to the point.
Vadise sighed. "I will be as brief as I can. When the Jumi cried, they divided their very souls, taking some of the mana concentrated in those stones and giving it to another. In doing so, they shortened their own lives, bit by bit, and gave a part of themselves to those they healed. A connection would be forged, however small, with each person revived. That is why the healing took the form of tears. Only those they cared enough for to bond with, to cry for, would receive such a blessing." She was watching him intently now. "And that is why Jumi cores cannot be healed by conventional magic. Only the gift of another's soul could repair such a gap."
Elazul couldn't find anything to say to that, his mind rather blanked at the implications. Luckily, Vadise was more than willing to continue. "Do you see? I think you do. Kesta was part of the mana clan, those who clung tightest to the great tree, who protected, tended and loved it. They were infused with the power of the goddess, who spoke with them and even lived among them at one time. Though Kesta was born long past that age, after the sorceress separated them from the tree, she still carried that legacy in her blood. To take such a shining, vibrant source of mana and place it in this drying, faded world? Of course the spirits were drawn to her."
"They were not lending her power, they were seeking it!" Elazul exclaimed suddenly.
"Yes, but listen. I did not draw the parallel to your own people for mere reminiscence. The spirits of this age are dying. They ran to her for healing, but in order to do so, she must be giving them part of herself. She is breaking her soul into fragments. Each spirit that finds her furthers the divide. Do you see? It does not stop at spirits either. She sends part to Viridian, fueling a rapid growth, an attempted return to former glory. And part she gives to one she loves, who otherwise would die."
"She didn't know," Elazul protested. "I'm sure she didn't know."
"Would it have made a difference, do you think?" Vadise tilted her head slightly, peering at him. "You do not accept another's concern easily, do you." She sighed loudly. "Perhaps I am simply a hopeless romantic, and she would have done the same for anyone. Believe what you will then, Jumi. The facts remain, I see no other explanation. That you have some sort of connection to her is clear."
"But that happened in that tower."
"Leires would have strengthened the bond, not created it. You will have to take my word on that, since you obviously do not want the long version. Then there is Viridian. The mana dragon fell in the war with the sorceress, struck down by Drakonis himself. That was never in question, it was witnessed by many. His rebirth in this time is puzzling, but it is obviously a true rebirth. He retains nothing of his former self, I have questioned him thoroughly. So why then does he retain his bond to his dragoon?" Vadise waited a moment before answering herself. "Because she willed it. She re-created the bond unconsciously, because she could not imagine being otherwise."
"And as he grows stronger, he draws on her? Just as the spirits?"
"He has matured rather quickly, do you not think?"
"Did you tell him this?" Elazul glanced uneasily towards the outer glade. "That he could be contributing to her problems?"
"No. I do not believe he has the maturity to handle such knowledge."
Elazul's eyes widened. And I do? Is that what you're saying? he wanted to yell, but exerting all of that supposed maturity he managed to stay silent. Vadise's gaze wandered now, drifting around the glade. She seemed edgy, defensive.
"I wish I had known!" she burst out suddenly. "If only I had felt something, sensed something, from the beginning. Drakonis knew, he knew and must have begun putting things in motion from that very instant! If he could know, why not I? I could have helped her, guided her before it got this bad!" She shook her head back and forth before staring at Elazul again.
"Well excuse me," he snapped, catching an almost accusatory look in her eye. "For not doing a better job of handling a problem I knew nothing about!" He spun away from her, staring at the mana stone instead. The crystal's light seemed harsher now, irregular and glaring. It hurt his eyes, but he couldn't look away.
If she had never gotten involved with us, with me and my problems, would she have found the spirits faster, been able to focus? If Sandra had never tried to kill her for caring, if she had never tried to heal a broken core, never climbed the moon tower again after Pearl…would she have been strong enough to resist Drakonis? Have I caused this, despite what Pearl said, despite what Sierra said…was Viridian right after all?
He placed his hand against the crystal, flat, as if he could block out the light that forced its way into his soul. I should have left. Should have left after that first trip to Gato, after Sandra showed up and Rubens died. I was going to! Why, why in all the convoluted idiocy of my mind did I follow her back to Domina? If I had taken Pearl and headed west, never looked back, perhaps things would be different.
At the very least, I would be off being useless somewhere else by now, and not knowing about it, instead of here, informed but still useless.
No, a cold voice of reason broke in. You'd be dead by now. You and Pearl both, because Sandra would have followed you and eventually she would have won. Without Ren to worry her, to be that unknown factor, she wouldn't have hesitated at all.
It was the same stupid analogy he'd used to Drakonis, off the top of his head, simply to throw the other off. That didn't make it any less true, of course. Looking past the surface of the stone, he almost felt he could see her there again, though he was pretty sure it was just his imagination this time.
Ren didn't seem to feel the need to stop and understand what was going on, she'd just barge right on ahead and figure it out on the way. She certainly wouldn't be sitting here, mentally whining about whose fault it was. He could almost see her now, yelling at Vadise to shut up and stop picking over things, then grabbing Sierra by the hand and jumping down the nearest gate to the Underworld.
The image was somewhat amusing, and Elazul only half-contained a burst of laughter. Goddess, only Ren could make me laugh at a time like this, and she's not even here. I'm going to have to do something about that.
Someone she called on for aid. Drakonis' words. Everything out of his mouth was a lie, Vadise had said, but Elazul knew the best liars interspersed the true with the false, so one never knew which was which. He suspected the dream-connection had been forged by Ren in the first place, and the red dragon had intercepted it. He wondered how she'd figured out how to do it, someone who couldn't remember the days of the week half the time.
Still, if Ren, who threw herself into his troubles with such gleeful abandon and never backed down, if she was asking for his aid in whatever way, who was he to say no? She believed in him, trusted that he would help, because she would. It was as simple as that. It didn't matter what might have been, there was no way in hell he could run away from this now. He didn't know if he could muster up Ren's complete disregard for logic, but he could stop wasting time feeling sorry for himself.
Besides, if he could find some way to fix this, maybe, just maybe it would make up for the fact that he couldn't give her what she really wanted. Despite the attempts of every other female in the world to insist otherwise.
"What is so amusing?" Vadise asked as Elazul stepped back from the crystal.
"Just taking a moment for a self-indulgent pity contest. I'm over it. For now."
"You are not taking this seriously." Vadise's eye narrowed.
"I am." Elazul matched her stare for as long as she wanted to hold it. Finally she looked away.
"We shall see," she temporized. "Meanwhile, if you are done making yourself laugh…?"
"I never cease to amuse myself. No, don't get angry," he mimicked the tone the dragon had used earlier. "I was thinking. I seem to do my best problem solving when I'm depressed. I see…a flaw in your theory."
"Oh?" Vadise still sounded mildly irritated.
"I don't have any trouble believing it. I can easily see Ren splitting up her soul among spirits, friends and generally anyone who asked, simply by virtue of being a ridiculously nice person." Elazul nearly smiled at the thought and hoped Vadise was too busy being annoyed to comment. "But she had problems remembering from the beginning. Before she met me, before even Viridian. Before any of the spirits. It was what drew me to her in the first place, people around Domina talking about some girl who'd lost her memory. So tell me, if the spirits made it worse…where did the problem start?"
The irritation drifted away from the dragon's face, replaced by an intense contemplation. "I…do not know." Elazul was startled to hear a faint undertone of falsehood in her voice.
"Don't you?" he pressed. Vadise frowned.
"I may have an inkling. A slight suspicion, but it will require more thought than I have time to give it. The end result is the same. She has broken down her own defenses and left herself vulnerable. Drakonis took advantage of that-"
"How?" Elazul let the previous subject drop and jumped on that one instead. Vadise glared at him, but he kept going, full of some propelling energy from nowhere. "That's what matters, then, isn't it? You said yourself that he must have planned this from the moment she reappeared. How did he know?"
"You tell me," Vadise sounded almost sulky now, and he really had to try hard not to laugh again. "You seem to be a decently intelligent person today."
"All right." Elazul took the challenge, thinking out loud. "Which bond has he broken? Not mine, he didn't even seem to realize I existed until this moment. It startled him. One of the spirits? No…" Pieces began falling into place, clicking together like a well made puzzle. "Vadise! When Viridian, the old Viridian, bonded with Ren-"
"Kesta."
"Whatever. What form did it take?"
Vadise blinked. "A sword. A rather large, impractical blade with-"
"-a long hook on the end and a really fake looking red stone on top. A grand swordbreaker of a weapon that only a dragon would design, and only Ren would be obsessive enough to learn how to use."
"What are you saying?" He had her full attention now. Finally.
"The day she disappeared, the day she suddenly decided a trip to the Underworld would make a good vacation plan, she acquired a strange sword. No, Viridian did. Justified grabbing it in his warped little dragon brain, and brought it straight to her. She took it, wandered off and didn't come back. Coincidence?"
"Where did he get it?"
"Stupid rabbit-merchant."
"And where did he get it?"
"Who cares? It was obviously planted. Don't you see? Drakonis gave her that sword, lured her to the Underworld. Viridian's sword. A dragon's bond to his dragoon. And right after that, Viridian went crazy, tortured. A wrench, Sierra called it. Is this only obvious to me?" Elazul asked when she continued to look straight through him.
"No. To re-forge a bond broken long ago, warped and twisted by whatever powers he possesses now, to force his way…" Vadise looked slightly ill. "I do not like this. How could he have come by the blade?"
Elazul shook his head. "That's a little beyond me. You said Viridian was struck down by Drakonis. You assumed Re…the mana knight was killed as well. Perhaps then."
"A thousand years ago? And you think he held onto it all this time? As what, a memento?" Vadise was scornful.
"A trophy," he replied easily. "Surely you who claims to be so knowledgeable about Jumi could understand some peoples' need to keep a part of that which they kill."
"I cannot believe you would even make such a reference. I am beginning to wonder if you are suffering from a little overexposure to that mana stone…" Vadise broke off, sitting up. "Stones!"
"Yes?" he prompted.
"You just said, a red stone on the sword! Viridian bound his soul in green."
"Perhaps Drakonis wanted to match?" Elazul found the words slipping out on their usual bypass of mental filters.
Vadise hissed between her teeth. "Enough already! Pay attention! Have you ever heard of the Eyes of Flame?"
Elazul thought about this. "Right up there with the Sword of Mana, flammie scales, ancient summoning books, and well…mana crystals and such," he waved at the stone. "On every treasure hunter's impossible-dream list. That list has been rapidly narrowed for me in the last few days, so by all means tell me they exist as well."
"Most of the true Eyes have long been lost to time, used up, broken, or otherwise destroyed. Do you know what they do?"
"Not reliably. They were more the goal of power-hungry mages, yes? World domination, endless magic at one's fingertips. Not really my thing."
"No, I suppose not." Vadise looked calmer now. "The sorceress Anise created the Eyes from the mana tree itself, but their power was corrupted. Taken by force from the goddess, they were cursed, and whoever touched them became warped. They brought out the darkest recesses of the soul, expanded and glorified the evil, selfish desires within everyone. The process was subtle in some cases, and obvious in others, but none who laid a hand on the red stones remained unchanged."
Elazul kicked at the moss on the ground thoughtfully. "So Drakonis has found one of these Eyes?"
"He had it from the beginning. Most likely it was given him by the sorceress, perhaps as a gift to secure their alliance. Perhaps it was what drove him down a darker path, perhaps it merely amplified what was already brewing within him. I do not care. He has used it several times since then, in his various forays into human or faerie affairs."
Vadise glanced towards the outer glade. "I have always suspected it was the red stone that corrupted Sierra's brother. Its power was very much weakened at that point, but it would have been enough to draw an impulsive youth like Larc. However," she seemed to shake off that memory in favor of a better one. "I assumed it was drained completely when it did not show up in the battle that threw him to the Underworld. Apparently I was wrong."
"Maybe its power is being bolstered by the sword?" Vadise did not reply, but she nodded slightly to acknowledge the possibility. "What a mess," Elazul muttered. "If Drakonis is using the Eye of Flame to corrupt a half broken bond between Ren and Viridian…did he think of that on the spot or did he somehow plan this out for a thousand years?" He could feel his grasp on the subject drifting away. He shook his head rapidly. "Nevermind, it doesn't matter."
"I suppose not." Vadise looked like she was thinking about it anyway. "The important thing is, we must separate her from that sword."
"You're kidding me." Elazul stared at her in disbelief, trying to imagine getting Ren to let go of a weapon in the best of times. "What are you going to do, have Viridian float down there and ask for it back?"
"No. I think that is your job."
"You still think so, do you?" Elazul wandered over and retrieved his sword-belt. Goddess save me, I'm actually considering it. "Right, I'd last about ten seconds. Let's be realistic here." Vadise only shrugged in her odd, draconic way. "But…someone might be able to help."
"Sierra is quite skilled, but-"
"Actually, I was assuming she'd be busy staving off her brother, who I suspect will not like the interference anymore than Drakonis. No, I was thinking of Blackpearl."
"You would bring your guardian into such danger?" Vadise did not seem to be disapproving, merely curious.
"The relationship between knight and guardian was born for the battlefield, was it not?" he asked, more to convince himself than anything else. "She wants to help Ren as much as I do. At least, Pearl does, and if the only way she thinks she can be useful is by dredging up that past self, I can't deny that to her. Not when I… " Elazul broke off. Not when I know what it's like to desperately want to be strong enough, and find yourself lacking. He really didn't feel like laying out all his thoughts on the subject to the dragon. "Anyway, we need all the help we can get. I might have some issues with Blackpearl, but I can hardly make any arguments against her skill."
"I do not think force is going to solve this," Vadise cautioned.
"You think I like the idea of trying to corner Ren into a fight?" Elazul snapped back. "By all means give me a better one!"
The dragon sighed, an almost pained sound. "I cannot."
"Then we might as well go with it and hope something better shows up along the way." Elazul tightened the belt buckle and looked up again. "I think you should ask her, though. She doesn't particularly like me, and you seem to know her from before."
"Not very well, and I do not have time to explain it," said Vadise quietly. "If it is even my story to tell."
"I wasn't asking." Elazul wondered why everyone assumed he wanted the long version.
"She is not such a horrible person, though."
"Well let's see, the first time I met her, she pretty much told me to go kill myself. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Still," Elazul shrugged. "I might have been willing to forget it, practically had forgotten it, if she hadn't persisted in bringing it up again the second time. That, I'm afraid, really sealed it." He finished messing with the fastenings on his cloak and stood waiting, but Vadise remained immobile. "Or maybe you think I'm taking it a bit personally?"
"She has walked a longer and harder road than you," the dragon said, but without criticism. "You of all people should not be surprised that she acts harshly."
Elazul nearly flinched, remembering his earlier tirade against Sierra, among other events. "That doesn't make her any easier to get along with."
"I know," Vadise said as she stood. "Possibly it is an overall Jumi trait." With that, she left the clearing, leaving him to wonder if her tone had been jokingly sarcastic or deeply bitter.
Blackpearl apparently hadn't moved in however many hours Elazul had been sleeping; she was still standing by Vadise's tree. Next to her, Sierra was talking in a low voice, and occasionally the tall Jumi nodded in response. As he approached, Blackpearl turned her head and watched him. It was one of those 'something that crawled up out of the sewer' looks. Ah, I can see this is going to go well.
He tried to remind himself that she probably wasn't disgusted at him, per se, just at herself for ever having been weak enough to depend on him, but it didn't really help. He had seen that look of dismissal before, and oddly enough it had been a Jumi that time as well. Elazul allowed himself half a not-very-nice smile at that thought.
Blackpearl's eyes narrowed. "What is so funny?" she asked.
Elazul shrugged. "For a moment, you reminded me of someone."
"Who?" She frowned slightly.
"You really don't want to know."
Obviously she did, but she had too much pride to make an issue over it. Instead, she turned to Vadise, but the dragon ignored both her and Elazul, and spoke directly to Sierra. "We need to talk."
The dragoon hopped off the tree root and trailed after Vadise to the far side of the glade, leaving Elazul and Blackpearl pretty much alone. Blackpearl immediately decided this would be a good time to examine the canopy in detail and proceeded to studiously ignore him.
Thanks, Vadise, for that rousing show of support, he thought. I hate dragons. His eyes wandered over to the last occupant of the glade, curled into a relatively small ball nearby. Viridian's eyes were open, but he was staring glassily at the trees opposite him, lost in thought, or possibly just lost. Elazul thought about trying to cheer him up again, but that would just be sadistic. What we need to do, I bet, is get him and Ren back in the same vicinity. Maybe it would spark something.
Or maybe it would destroy them both.
Elazul took a surreptitiously deep breath and turned back to Blackpearl. "I need your help," he said, before he could change his mind.
Blackpearl looked down from the leaves like he'd just sprouted a second head, and possibly a third. "Oh?"
"Yes." Two people could play the single syllable game.
"Because I owe you one?" Blackpearl asked derisively.
"No, because I'm asking for it," he retorted. "But if you absolutely have to put everything on scales then, yes, you owe me one. Or six. Or twelve, I've actually lost track. I wasn't planning on bringing it up at all!" Elazul sighed. He should have stuck to one word answers.
"I have little love for this world," Blackpearl said quietly. "Or most of the people in it. Why should I help without some sort of reason?"
"Because I don't have the time or the mental energy to think of a good reason right now! Apparently Ren's got some sort of crazy mind-warping sword, and I will freely admit to not being good enough to get it from her. You might be, though. There, does that pad your ego enough to get you to try?"
Blackpearl stared. "It might have been, if you had left off the last bit."
"Yes, well, I wanted Vadise to ask you," he muttered.
"The white dragon? The one who lent aid to the Jumi for centuries, and then withdrew her support at our most critical moment?" Blackpearl shook her head slowly. "I do not think she would be a more effective bargainer."
Elazul found himself at a loss for words. "Somehow," he managed at last. "She failed to mention that."
"I care not. I have no quarrel with her. In fact we have already spoken at length, though I noticed she avoided the subject quite neatly." Blackpearl shrugged. "The past that far back no longer concerns me. In fact, very little concerns me at this point, save finding Florina, and possibly removing that traitor Alexandra from the population. Do you really want someone who does not care to fight for you?"
Elazul looked away, to the side. "Pearl would care. Does that mean nothing to you?"
"I am not her. She is shade of my past, a person who no longer exists."
"Obviously she still exists," he hissed back. "You changed to her for a reason, something you can't just shut away and pretend never happened." Blackpearl gave another one-shouldered shrug and went back to watching the leaves. "Let me talk to her."
"No." The dark eyed knight looked down again.
"What?"
"I said no. I will not let you take the easy way out like that. Convince me. Prove to me there is something worth fighting for."
Elazul took a step backwards, then made himself stop. Everything was just some sort of test from these people, wasn't it. Fine, you left yourself open. "Florina," he said slowly, and watched her focus on him immediately. "If you found her, all concerns of Sandra aside, what would you do?" Blackpearl didn't answer, but he didn't really expect her to. "She was dying, was she not? Could you change that?"
Her eyes narrowed, but he plowed on ahead. Either she would help or she was going to kill him, but he figured it was the only way she'd even listen. "Would you bring her back to the same world Alexandra stole her from? Take her back to that dead city? Let her cry out the last of her soul over the shadows that live there?"
"You do not know her," Blackpearl finally spoke. "You should think very carefully before you try to use her name like this."
"Think?" Elazul snorted. "I've been thinking. It is, believe it or not, something I do a lot. You already told me you don't care about anything else, and now you're trying to silence me on the one subject that matters? I'll just take that as a good sign. So think about this. Ren has…some sort of connection to the mana sword."
Blackpearl sighed. "All that to throw a fable at me?"
"It's no fable," Elazul shot back. "Though I was headed towards that opinion myself until recently. It's real, or it was, and if we can get her back, maybe we can retrieve it," he continued quickly so she couldn't interrupt. "And if we can use it to bring back the goddess' tree, then maybe Florina could be brought to a place where she could revive."
"That is a thin line of reasoning to throw my hopes behind."
Elazul sighed. "That's not the half of it, though. If Drakonis gets his way," he hesitated, realizing he actually didn't know what Drakonis planned in any detail. "Well, to listen to Vadise talk, there might not be much of a world left, in any condition. Then there would be no point to any of it, would there? What would Florina do in a world destroyed by a dragon's wrath?"
Blackpearl was silent for a long time. "Try to save it," she said, in the softest tone he had ever heard from her. "And disappear." Elazul waited, but she seemed lost in the past somewhere.
"Well?" He asked, trying to break into her thoughts. "There you have a reason, and part of another one, if you can bring yourself to think about the rest of the world for a minute. Will you take it, or will you continue to hide behind your better half and hope that next time she calls you out, it will all have gone away?"
"My better half?" Blackpearl remained surprisingly impassive at that. "Are you trying to insult me into helping now?"
"Merely voicing an opinion. You're welcome to disagree. If you really want to." Elazul waited for a second, but she didn't respond. "Look, either you're going to help or you're not. If not…I'll just have to do it myself."
Blackpearl looked mildly skeptical. "You'll die."
"Yeah, probably." Elazul nearly grinned. "But I'm not going to fool myself into thinking you'll feel terribly guilty about it. Besides, if what Vadise says is true, I should have been dead a while ago, right? Everything since then is just borrowed time."
The other Jumi frowned at that, and for the first time, Elazul thought she might be seriously considering. "She was…interesting, that friend of yours," she mused. "I couldn't quite place it, but there was something intriguing about her. I will help if I can," she concluded abruptly and started to cross the glade to where Vadise and Sierra were still talking. Elazul let himself breath normally again.
"I bet you did this to a lot of knights, back in the day," he muttered, following her.
"How could you tell?"
Elazul figured that was a rhetorical question and ignored it. "You were training Alexandra when she snapped, weren't you."
Blackpearl whirled around, cold fury in her eyes, but it faded as she regarded him for a moment. "Pray you turn out better than her," she said quietly, and turned away again.
"He will not listen to me, Vadise!" Sierra was insisting loudly. "It would be best for you to go…"
"I cannot leave the stone," Vadise replied. "I agree that Jajara would hear me better, but there is no help for it. Tell him you speak for me, as he well knows." She glanced up as Elazul and Blackpearl walked over.
"So you think Drakonis will go for the other crystal first?" Elazul asked.
Sierra sighed. "We are not certain, but it seems likely. Jajara's fortress is better defended than the forest, but he himself is weaker than Vadise in his current state."
"Current state?"
"When the other dragons and I defeated Drakonis, Jajara used too much power and nearly followed him to the Underworld. Drawing on the spirit of darkness, he managed to hold himself back from that fate, but he remains…half alive. He is something like the zombies that wander areas where the walls between our world and the land of the dead are thin."
"An undead dragon. This just gets better and better. Are you sure he's not in league with Drakonis?"
"Yes," Vadise sighed. "I believe Drakonis tried to recruit him, a long time ago, but Jajara knew he would never share power for long. He is…temperamental, and only gets more as time goes by. Due to his nature, his powers were weakening faster than mine or Akravator's, and it has made him quite defensive."
"Then there is the matter of his dragoon," Sierra added.
"I would suggest you avoid that one if at all possible, he has grown even stranger than his master over the years. I will open the portal directly to Jajara's chambers, so hopefully it will not be necessary to pass through him at all."
Sierra snorted derisively. "If there is a power trip to be involved with, Irzoile will not be left out. It is far more than I can hope for not to have to deal with him again."
"Irzoile?" Elazul had heard that name before. "The last of the Enaanshalc line? The one they called Deathbringer?"
"Is not that a little before your time?" Vadise queried curiously.
"Well yes, I suppose, but most cities were still wrapped up in sweeping the remains of his armies out of their streets when I was young. Younger," he corrected, as Blackpearl shot him a look. "I thought he died with his empire."
"One could only wish it so," Sierra muttered, and jumped off the tree root she'd been sitting on. "Well, it is very nice to hear you know your history, but we have things to do." She paced quickly to the entrance to the crystal glade and stood waiting.
Blackpearl followed her without comment, but Elazul waited for Vadise. "Did I hit a sore point?" he asked.
"You do have a talent for it." Vadise sounded slightly amused, though her face was still drawn in worried lines. "Try to keep your silence around Jajara, he is not so tolerant of such things."
Suddenly there was a scramble of claws and scales in the corner of his vision, and Viridian shot between them and the smaller glade. "I'm going too!" he shouted, with far more volume than necessary.
Elazul wracked his mind for a good excuse, but Vadise was quicker. "You must stay," she said easily. "I may very well be wrong about Drakonis' next choice. If they come here first, we must defend the crystal."
To Elazul's immense surprise, the green dragon subsided immediately, though he still looked unhappy about it. "Fine," he muttered, and his eyes roved over to the Jumi. "Try not to screw it up this time."
Elazul just stepped around him and brushed through the curtain.
There were no complications with the portal this time. It opened easily into a large, dark room whose air smelled faintly of something dead. Just enough light to see by sprang from weak lamps high on the walls, but it didn't do much to brighten up the place. Even the glow from the mana crystal behind them seemed dull and subdued, illuminating nothing past a small circle around it.
"Nice place," said Elazul.
"I happen to like it," a deep, rasping voice came from directly behind him. The three newcomers spun back towards the crystal, as a dark shape uncrouched from the other side.
It was obviously a dragon, as the pale light from the stone briefly touched its hide in passing, but as unlike the others as could be. Jajara's form was birdlike, resting on powerful hind legs, with a long, flat tail balancing a square short-necked head on the other end. Tattered, spiny sails seemed to aspire to being wings on either side of his spine, but did little but droop listlessly and add to the overall image of decay.
His hide was patchy, overly taut in some places and sagging in others, and the yellow of old bone showed through at several joints and along his spine. Despite this, the dragon's steps were surprisingly silent, and his black eyes glittered clearly in the lamplight.
Jajara's gaze wandered over Elazul and Blackpearl, dismissed them as unfamiliar and unimportant, and settled on Sierra. "I suspected you would show up soon. I felt Akravator's death, and knew it could not be long before Vadise decided I would need…help. Deathbringer and I were taking bets on how long it would take."
"Stop calling him by that ridiculous title." Only Sierra could get away with scolding a dragon, Elazul thought. "He is your dragoon now, and no longer an emperor of any sort. You will only encourage his tendencies towards-"
"I will encourage whatever I wish, little pup. Just because you see nothing to admire in Irzoile's ambition, does not mean it is not admirable at all. Come, Sierra," The dragon paced around her, nearly in a circle. "This is an old argument. Surely Vadise did not send you here to gripe about my choice of dragoon?"
"No." Sierra took a deep breath. "We suspect that Drakonis' dragoon and his new ally will come after your crystal next-"
"Ahhh, that would explain my recent problem with…vermin," Jajara mused into the middle of her sentence. "You are late, and your aid is not needed. They are here already, I have trapped them in the bowels of the fortress…Deathbringer will deal with them there."
Elazul saw Sierra's stance shift slightly, as if she wanted to run from the room and check, but she stopped herself. "This is not so simple a matter, Jajara. Larc's companion is Viridian's former dragoon."
"The mana knight? Whatever her name was…" Jajara laughed now, a low wheezing sound that seemed to catch in his throat at every breath. "Do not think you can trick me. Such things are long, long past. Vadise was always a fool, clinging to Viridian and the tree while the rest of us went out and tried to make something of the world. Now she brings back her favorite shades to try and haunt us." He swung his tail in an idle, mocking manner. "I am not so nostalgic."
Elazul started forward, but Blackpearl laid a hand on his shoulder and pressed downward, halting him. When he glanced back, she was fixed on Sierra, but she shook her head ever so slightly.
"She has slain Akravator already," the white dragoon insisted. "What other could do so, so easily? Viridian stands reborn in Vadise's forest, and if that doesn't herald the return of a greater power, what does? Only the chosen of the goddess could bring back the dead, a thousand years later!"
"Viridian has returned? Been reborn?" He shook his head in amusement. "I see Vadise's plan now. She will take this 'new' dragon, set him up as a leader once again, a young, impressionable leader so she can be the true voice behind the throne. Threatening us with the supposed power of the goddess…perhaps Drakonis is not behind this at all."
"Jajara!" Sierra looked truly alarmed now. "I did not think it was possible, but your dragoon must be warping your mind! That is Deathbringer's reasoning if I have ever heard it!"
"And why not? Are not dragon and dragoon supposed to be of one mind? No, save your attempts to argue for someone interested," Jajara flicked a foreclaw at her. "Go back, Sierra. I did not aid in Drakonis' downfall only to bow before Vadise's demands."
"I will not go back. Even if you have decided not to take this seriously, I do. I came here to stop Larc, to stop Drakonis, and I will not leave until I have accomplished that!"
"Well," Jajara snarled. "Far be it from me to interfere in your little family quarrel. You only had to say." He switched languages suddenly, a rapid firing of words under his breath, and suddenly the floor dropped away beneath them, plunging everything into darkness.