Shadowed Heart--Part 25
(see disclaimer in Part 21)
"Do you have the orb I was holding when I gave you the first prophecy?" Kumo asked me.
It had been a few days since his meltdown, and he was starting to recuperate. Since the majority of the Redwings war was going on along other fronts and the foreign army seemed to be at bay for the moment, Shara and I were staying with him for the time being.
"Uh, yeah." In fact, I'd kept careful watch on the little glowing orb from the moment that Kumo had dropped it. I dug through my pockets until I found it (see? Careful watch) and held it out.
The white-haired young man nodded, looking a little relieved. "This is called a sigil," he explained. "I was sent out with four empty ones." From seemingly out of nowhere, he produced three more, which I observed were a dull shade of gray. "When each Falgabird is defeated, his or her power is focused into one of these orbs, charging it with elemental power. With the aid of those who know the transmutation skills of alchemy, you can create ceffyls from them--and then a Spiritstone.
"Somebody'd better keep a close eye on these, because if they're lost I'm not certain exactly what you'd be able to do to spare your land." Kumo shook his head, his eyes darkening. "Chaos... was behind the demise of my own home."
I felt vaguely as though I'd been punched in the stomach. So we were right! Kumo had come from another world, but... one that had been destroyed? By something he called Chaos, that he claimed was now launching an attack on us? It was hard to believe, yet at the same time painful to see.
"Give it here," Shara said firmly. Blinking, I gave her a weird look. "I'd better keep that sigil thing, then. If you hold on to it for much longer you're just going to lose it, and then where will we be?"
"I will not!" I protested, but gave the jewel to her anyway. Kumo gave a sudden cough, but his smile gave his amusement away. I felt a brief stab of anger surge through my blood, then recede. I'd thought for a while that after recounting what had happened to his brother, Kumo might never smile again. This was good. I couldn't let my idiot temper get in the way and ruin the moment for him. And, okay, Shara was right about my lack of organizational skills. I probably would lose something so little, given enough time.
Clan life was going on, and Ujuidar was as big a pain in the arse as ever. Whenever we passed each other in the halls, he shot scathing looks at me, mumbled about weaklings, and tried to keep Ztir as far away from me as possible. His possessiveness, his elitist nature, and the way he looked down his nose at me absolutely drove me insane. Although what he said about my slight decrease in power was true, I knew that I wouldn't give up my ability to feel happiness for anything. Because of that... I almost had to pity him.
But I still didn't like him.
Nobody ever said I had to like him.
News of Redwings attacks was pouring in from every direction. Our own Clan Dragon had joined forces with Clan Angel, led by a human hunter named Datenshi Tengokuno. (A/N: I needed to catch monsters, so I turned Datenshi into a hunter. And left him there. Long-range sniping is fun.) He and Marche had hit it off well, and it was now common to see the two of them, along with Montblanc, sitting together over cider. (It was slightly bizarre, too, because Datenshi had an uncanny resemblance to Marche... they looked almost exactly the same, aside from the two black streaks in Datenshi's hair that framed his face.) Whenever I passed by their table in the pub, I caught snatches of horror stories--civilians murdered and raped, homes destroyed, smaller villages and outposts decimated.
Small groups of our clanmates were being sent out in threes and fours to join the battalions beating the Redwings back. Though Ujuidar and Ztir had gone on a few, I'd stayed in the Prancing Chocobo with Shara, Kumo, Babus, and Mewt. We'd been called on once for a relief shipment to the wounded, but that was all the action the five of us had seen.
All of Ivalice was in an uproar over the invasion that was looking to turn into a full-scale war. None of the major cities had been hit yet, and not a single Redwing had made it as far as Bervenia, but I had the sinking feeling that our time was running out.
But if we could collect the other sigils, and defeat the Falgabirds... then maybe there was still hope left. Just maybe.
I was distracted from my swirling train of thought when Shara let out a startled cry. Blinking, I turned to look at what she was staring at.
Once again, Kumo had clasped his hands over his heart, his eyes closed in concentration. From beneath his interlaced fingers came a soft bluish glow.
"Kraken Bolum, Falgabird of wave and water, has been seen at Nargai Cave. Your duty is clear! Godspeed." Shara and I exchanged excited glances. Finally! With a lead like this, maybe we could do something about the Redwings ourselves!
With a long sigh, Kumo opened his eyes, pale-faced and shaking. Opening his palms, he let the small spherical sigil roll between them. It now shone brightly with the same light it'd cast over his body moments ago.
"We've got to go," I said, breaking the tense silence. "If this Kraken thing is really at Nargai, we haven't got any time to lose. We've got to go now."
"Kraken thing?" someone asked behind me. Turning, I realized it was Ritz. "So what's up?"
"We know where the next Falgabird is," Shara said decisively.
"Good, let's go pound it," she replied happily.
"Wait just a minute," Mewt cautioned from the table beside ours. He'd been listening, apparently. "Remember what happened last time? We need to wait for Ujuidar to come back."
"Who needs him?" I asked indignantly, a little stung by Mewt's words. Did he think he couldn't count on me anymore or something? "We just won't underestimate it this time."
"Yeah. Besides, Ztir is still around, and she's a lot nicer than that obnoxious blockhead," Shara pointed out. I gave her a grateful smile, and she elbowed me in the ribs good-naturedly. "Come on. With Llednar coming along too, they'll be too busy fighting each other to deal with Kraken anyway."
I head-slumped. "No respect! I don't get it from my clanmates, I don't get it from Shara and Mewt, and I don't even get it from you, mister hot-shot flautist!"
Kumo blinked innocently up at me. "Whatever do you mean?"
I groaned, but said nothing. The unfairness of it all was overwhelming.
"HEY, ZTIR!" Ritz yelled to the red-haired hatred, making several people across the room look up curiously. "WANNA COME POUND A FALGABIRD WITH US?"
Wordlessly, she walked over to us, which we collectively took as a 'yes'.
"So who's coming, then?" Shara murmured, ticking names off on her fingers. "Me, Llednar, Ritz, Mewt, Ztir..."
"Count us in, too," Marche said with a wave, heading over with Datenshi following.
"Okay, with you two that makes seven," she finished simply.
"Where's Montblanc?" I asked, looking around. You'd think that he might want to come along for something like this.
"He's doing a relief run right now, I think," Marche replied. "So're Ezel and Doned, not that I'd want my brother along anyway."
"Yeah, he probably would just get hurt," Ritz sympathized.
"I want to come, too," Kumo said stubbornly, his green eyes intense as they locked with mine.
"Absolutely not," I replied sternly.
"But I can help," he protested, looking unusually childish for a moment. "And I'm not here just to pass along messages! I can fight just as well as any of you!"
"But you're still recovering," Mewt pointed out softly. "If you're injured now, it could be the death of you. We can't let that happen."
"Maybe next time," Marche said hastily as we all squirmed at the disappointment visible on Kumo's face. "You know, when your wound's fully healed."
Kumo said nothing.
«You will see your fair share of battle,» Ztir told him. «As will we all, so long as the Redwings are in this land.»
Kumo gave a small nod of acceptance, but I still tried to avoid looking him in the eyes as the seven of us left. I didn't want to see any more sadness there.
---
Kraken, it turned out, was a huge flan. The things looked like they were made out of blue goo, had extremely potent ice magic, and were barely susceptible to any physical attacks. Lovely. Oh, this would be wonderful fun. I wished we'd managed to grab Montblanc along; his fire spells would've come in great handy.
My Omega and Abyss spells might be able to dent its hide... but I didn't know. None of us were really spellcasters, except for maybe Ztir. She'd said she was a "reaper", hadn't she? Who knew what one of those could manage?
I didn't. I had no idea what to expect but a long, trying fight.
There were the obligatory trio of mog knights, as well. The Redwings sure did seem to like those.
"Let's go," Marche said softly.
Datenshi tapped Shara's shoulder. "Let's stay back to pick off the peons while the others take care of the flan. We need to play support anyway."
She nodded, taken slightly aback. "Okay..." Turning briefly to Marche, she asked him silently if taking orders from another clan leader would be alright.
Marche just nodded, then went back to staring at the flan. "Well, I can try casting Fire jutsu, but I don't know how well that'll work... we really should've waited for Montblanc to come back before doing this one."
Staring at Kraken and wondering grudgingly if we'd really wanted Ujuidar with us, I suddenly hit on the answer. "Hey, Ztir, can you take a monster's soul before it's been weakened?"
She turned to me, slight uncertainty in her always hooded eyes. «Yes... however, there's a much lower chance of success. It would see me coming.»
I let my small smile spread. "Okay. I've got an idea."
"Well, at least somebody does," Ritz replied, whacking Marche on the shoulder. "Let's hear it."
"Shara and Datenshi can take care of the Mog Knights easily. The rest of us need to attack Kraken with everything we've got."
"That's not going to do much," Mewt said critically.
"Wait... I think I see what you're after," Marche told me with a nod. "That's a really good idea."
"Thank you. We're attacking with absolutely everything we have so that Kraken won't be able to tell it's just a cover. What we really want is for Ztir to get behind it and rip out its soul. If it's distracted enough by us, it'll never have a clue what happened. Mewt, cast protection spells on everybody; I think I'm the only one who'll be able to actually get through this thing's damn spirit shield, so we'll need to be prepared in case it just bounces our attacks back at us."
"Well, we can try it," was Mewt's response. He shook his head at me and smiled reluctantly. "What part of my mind do you have, that you came up with a crazy plan like that?"
"The best part," I replied impudently, planting my hands on my hips. "Now hurry up, or we're gonna have to send a runner back to base for one of our mages to help us."
Mewt sighed but cast the protections; Marche, Ritz, and I ran straight for Kraken as Ztir walked casually along the hemicircle to where she'd be right behind the big flan.
Crossing his Ayvuir swords, Marche slashed at Kraken's side. As I'd expected, his swords bounced off an invisible shell around the thing's body.
"It's like your damn Fortune law all over again," he said disgustedly, then dodged the monster's lazy swipe at him.
I hadn't thought of that before, I realized as Ritz attacked Kraken with similar results. This was sort of like the protection of Fortune that the queen had put on me not so long ago. While Fortune kept all attacks I received from doing any damage to me and a spirit shield never let anything get through, they were sort of similar... while spirit shields were supposed to be self-generated, what if someone had laid that sort of protection on these monsters?
My turn. Instead of attempting a physical strike, I closed my eyes, sighed, and tapped my inner reserves of power. Marche and Ritz both yelled in surprise; still with my eyes closed, I took a step towards Kraken, whose spirit I could sense now, and plunged my hand into its core. Opening my eyes, I briefly saw the three other images of my split self, then stepped back and faded together again. Kraken squalled and lashed out; I barely leaped out of the way before huge ice crystals began to form right where I'd stood.
"What was that?" Marche asked, staring.
"Biskmatar technique," I replied smugly. "It's called Heart Render for a reason." (A/N: So true. I have seen all of Llednar's attacks but Furycircle; they're all absolutely awesome. This one time, I broke his weapon and just sat my units there, letting him do whatever he wanted because he wasn't really strong enough to do any serious damage. Hehehehehe.)
Kraken squealed; Ztir was right there behind him, her own hand sunk deep into the gooey flesh. She drew back, holding a pale blue flame in her hand.
«It's been corrupted,» she reported. «What could be causing such corrosion?»
"I have no idea," I replied. "I just know that that's two Falgabirds down, and that was really cool how you were able to pull that off, Ztir."
She turned to me, and for a moment, she almost, almost smiled. «Ujuidar was wrong. You still have all your old power... and you are still quite worthy of being one of us.»
I didn't know quite what to say to her, standing with my face flaming bright scarlet.
---
It didn't take us long to get back to the Prancing Chocobo, passing the news to everyone we met that another Falgabird had been destroyed.
"Although seriously, you and Ztir should get all the credit," Shara told me, rolling her eyes. "It was your good idea, and she was the only one who actually did any damage."
"As if your taking out the Mog Knights didn't matter?" I retorted. "Don't be so modest."
"Hey..." Blinking, Shara pointed over to the corner of the room.
"What is it?" Curious, I turned to look.
Kumo was standing there, talking in hushed tones to a figure swathed in dark robes. Whoever it was, their face was shielded by the garment's cowl, and at my current angle I couldn't see anything about them at all, except for the fact that they were slightly shorter than he was. As Shara and I headed closer, the person gently touched his shoulder and turned to go.
When I passed them, they spared me a brief glance, and I was able to see a woman's face beneath the robe's heavy hood.
She smiled at me, and left.