26. HOMECOMING (ANGELA)

Where Angela had been able to blend in, in distant Elrand, there would be no such luck in Altena city proper, where everyone knew her on sight.

But they had to go.

Angela had taken pains to dress that morning, in Elrand. If she was going home, she was going home as who she really was, the Princess of Reason. Duran had kindly purchased and altered a sword belt for her, so the surprisingly lightweight Sword of Mana was strapped to her back.

The gates of the city were wide open - as if their arrival had been expected - but the group entered anyway. Her friends were all poised and ready for battle, waiting for any attack.

The preparation was all for nothing. Of all the responses she had expected, she had never hoped to be greeted with cheers.

"It's Princess Angela!"

"Princess, you've returned! We're saved!"

"The soldiers say you've become as powerful as Koren! Please, we need your help!"

"Monsters have taken over the castle!"

The last speaker, an Altenan soldier-mage, was the one she turned to first. "What did you say?"

"When Koren came back to Altena from the Mana Stones, the monsters started appearing..."

"Well, if that doesn't prove Koren is evil, I don't know what does," she whispered to her friends, too low for the crowd to hear.

"I thought we had pretty well established that," Hawk murmured back.

Another spoke up. "They've overrun the castle!"

"Monsters, their magic more powerful than our own!"

"The Queen is still inside!"

The Queen. Mother. Angela hoped fervently that her mother was captive, not ally. She didn't want to think of the implications of the latter.

Angela raised her hand for silence. The crowd shushed. She felt exulted, it was just as when Lise faced her troops; somehow she had gained the respect of her people.

"Why have you not fled?"

Silence, for a moment. "Well, your Highness... the strange part is, they left the town completely alone."

"But even if we left... there are monsters in the snowfield, more than ever before, we're trapped..."

"The best we can do is to stay and try to protect our children if they attack us."

"I'm scared!" cried a little girl, with purple hair like her own, the color common to Altena.

"A dark shadow will consume Altena and spread to the rest of the world!" A bent, withered old crone stepped forward. "It will be the end of life as we know it!" Murmurs trickled through the previously sedate crowd. She could sense panic starting to spread. Living under these conditions, it was not surprising the people were so volatile.

It was time for her to show what she had learned from her mother, and her friend. She turned slightly to look at Lise, whose imperceptible nod gave her the strength she needed to continue.

"My people," she began, as loudly as she could manage, "I have returned to you, more powerful than before, with these, brave warriors of many lands." And one little Wendelic girl currently poking at the flowers in front of the inn. "Together, we will free Altena from the curse that has been placed upon it, and our country will be stronger than before!" The anger that rose from her as she spoke was not feigned.

Just for good measure, she cast a fireball over the roofs of the town. It wasn't her best, but it did have the desired effect, as the crowd roared and panic turned to hope.

As she began to walk forward, Lise at one side, and Duran on the other, the crowd parted with low bows and deep curtsies.

Out of earshot, she spoke to Lise. "I have no idea what we are going to face here, or if we will be successful. How do you always look so sure of yourself?"

"Well, honestly, sometimes you have to lie," Lise replied. "If you don't seem to believe, then no one else will, either - and whatever you are facing is not half as dangerous as the way people will defeat themselves from inside."

--

They traversed the long, tree lined walk up to the castle's main gate. Strange to think that only a hundred yards of paving separated the town from a castle full of monsters.

Unlike the castle in Forcena, with its solid walls, Angela's birthplace had a delicate, ethereal beauty that made you look twice, like the woman herself. But Duran suspected that, also like the woman, there was a deceptive amount of strength on the inside.

The monsters rushed up to meet them almost immediately. The machine golems they had faced while searching for Undine. With his class change, he swept those away almost scornfully; Kevin's double punch took them out without help from anyone. Hawk was a blur, seeming to be everywhere at once. The unicorn heads, minor demonic creatures summoned from the underworld, were dispatched with slashes of Lise's spear and swings of Carlie's morningstar.

Angela busied herself counterattacking the black wizards, dark souls animated with the powers of deceased Altenan forces. Before the class change, they would have been too much for Angela, but with the power of an Oracle flowing through her, one spell after another attacked the dark magicians. He wished he could just watch her, it was like - well, like magic.

"The main throne room is a small building in the center of the castle courtyard!" called Angela. "Koren's just the sort of arrogant son of a bitch to be waiting for us on my mother's throne!"

Also unlike the Forcenan stronghold, the route through the Altenan castle was not direct, nor did the castle have any real symmetry once inside. As Angela led them through the twisted corridors of her home, he saw that where one would expect to find weapons or statues, there were books, books everywhere. Angela seemed to be leading them inward, not outside, but in the center of the building a grand, curving staircase led them up to the second story, and outside onto the parapets of the castle, into the courtyard Angela spoke of - and the throne room ahead. They strode forward, prepared for confrontation.

Angela's hunch was right. There, sitting on the throne, with one leg thrown casually over the side, sat Koren.

"You're late, Princess," he said, sneering.

--

The Darkshine Knight attended him to the right of the throne, but it was the woman laying facedown in front, violet hair like Angela's own, which caught her attention.

"Mother!" Angela cried. Valda's crown had tumbled off, and unadorned like that, her mother looked not like the Queen who Angela loved and feared, but a terribly vulnerable woman.

Valda opened her eyes. A brief moment of clarity shone. "Angela... forgive me..." she gasped, before her eyes drifted off again and closed. What had Koren done?!

She began to run up the dais, but she heard Koren's voice, cold as ice. "Stop right there," he said, and the Darkshine Knight put his blade up to Valda's throat.

Angela stopped in her tracks. Not even Hawk could reach Valda before her throat was slit beyond what healing magic could fix. And she knew Koren would be able to tell the instant she began to form a spell. She wasn't fooling herself, she wasn't as strong as him - yet.

"Well, Angela, this might be a good time to hand over that Sword." Koren waited expectantly.

"You... you little coward!" came a man's voice behind her.

"I'm afraid flattery will get you nowhere, Duran." Angela motioned for Duran to stay back. They all knew it would probably come to this.

Angela pulled the Sword from where it had been strapped to her back, but did not approach Koren. She stood in place, holding its point to the floor, her hands over the pommel. At least that got Koren to stand from her mother's throne.

He walked to her and stood face to face with her. He was a few inches taller than she was, and as much as she hated to look up at him, she forced herself to meet his eyes. His left hand covered hers on the pommel, and he leaned in very close to her. He whispered in her ear, but loudly enough for all to hear.

"Such power... such beauty. Only fitting that I possess it... I do like beautiful things, Angela." He leaned in as if to kiss her, but she jerked her head away, and the sharp daggers in her eyes seemed to make him think twice of it. She heard Duran's sharp intake of breath.

Koren instead reached up with his free hand and twirled a lock of her violet hair. Turning to where her friends stood, at the bottom of the dais, he spoke in a louder voice. "What do you think, Duran? It's killing you to think about this, I know. I think I will ask my master to save her for me. If you survive, I'll chain you up and let you watch while I ravage the woman you love." He turned back to Angela with an evil grin. "Why resist my charms, Princess? Your mother enjoyed them just fine."

Angela hoped he was only baiting her, feeling a knot in her stomach at the thought of Koren mistreating her mother that way. She did not turn to see her lover's expression, forcing herself to absolute stillness, focusing on maintaining slow, deep breaths. She would never give Koren the satisfaction of her fear. Please, Duran, she thought, don't try to protect me now, or my mother is dead.

"But for now... I think this is enough." His right hand felt for the hilt of the Sword, and Angela allowed him to pull it out from underneath her hands.

As he turned away, he didn't even make it back to the throne before the arm holding the sword began to droop visibly. "Suddenly... getting... so... heavy."

Angela could not hold back her laugh. She put her hands on her hips and watched the wizard struggle with the sword, now unable to lift it from the floor. Infusing her voice with scorn, she called, "Give it up, Koren! The Sword doesn't like you any more than I do!"

He looked up at her hatefully. "Oh, but you don't know everything, Angela..."

Angela leaned forward as he started to cast. She had heard of the spell, it was one of the old spells of the evil shamen...

"Antimagic," she breathed. Turning, she called to her friends fearfully. "He's taking off the Goddess's own protection!" Even as she spoke, Koren hefted the sword as lightly as Angela herself had.

The Darkshine Knight spoke in that deathly, booming voice. "The Sword of Mana is nothing more than a repository of power. By the will of our master, we will shape it into a dark blade... and we will first release the God-Beasts."

"Enough, Koren! You have what you wanted, now give back the Fairy, and my mother!"

"Well, about that, Angela... I'm going to need your mother for a little while longer. As for the Fairy, you'll have to take that one up with Bigieu... in Navarre."

"I knew she was still alive!" Hawk called angrily.

"Navarre? What does she have to do with this?" Lise's spearhead appeared at Angela's right.

"Well, she had a little problem with her Dark Prince. Something about him passing away when he tried to open the gate himself. Serves him right for trying when he had only unsealed one stone. We unsealed four, to be on the safe side. Anyway, I used the Stones to revive him, figuring I can easily eliminate him later, and in return, she agreed to take the fairy off my hands."

Angela was in shock. She hadn't foreseen her enemies conspiring together.

"You will, of course, be going to retrieve the fairy?" The questioning in his eyes was purely rhetorical. Somehow, Koren knew about the Goddess's instructions. Had he been there, eavesdropping, after grabbing the Fairy?

"I'll be waiting for you, Angela." Koren blew a kiss to her mockingly as he, Valda, and the Darkshine Knight disappeared. The shiver of Mana told Angela the teleport spell she had stumbled on to escape Altena was tragically well-known among their enemies.

Even before Koren had disappeared completely out of sight, Duran grabbed her with a force he never used on her. "He... will... not... have... you." She had never seen a look that frightening in his eyes. "I will die before that happens!"

She reached up to stroke his hair, letting his anger settle. "If it comes to that, I'd rather die myself." His anger blazed again, and even held still against his chest, Angela shivered.

--

With Valda missing, Angela was Queen, for the moment at least. It was a very strange feeling to her.

Practically speaking, though, all it meant was that she decided to take her mother's bedroom for the duration of their stay, just a day or two, and delegate some responsibilities to her mother's advisors.

Her own bedroom, she gave to Lise, showing her best friend to her quarters with a little bit of girlish enthusiasm. Lise threw herself backwards on the bed, squirming in happily.

"Angela..." Lise sighed. "I haven't had a bed this nice since we left Rolante."

"I guess we've both come home, then." The two women looked at each other. Lise's expression fell first, but it sobered Angela as well. Yes, their homes were safe now, but when would they be home for good?

Angela sat next to her friend on the bed. They talked for a long time, though avoiding the events of the day... Angela wasn't sure she had lost that unsettling feeling herself, and she definitely wasn't ready to discuss it.

But as she got up to leave, she turned to Lise with one piece of advice. "Let Hawk stay with you tonight, Lise," she said, her arm on the doorframe. "You never know when you might be taken from the one you love."

She left hurriedly, before Lise could be embarrassed by her frankness.

--

Lise tossed and turned on Angela's luxurious bed. Despite the comfort, she could not sleep.

She knew why Angela had told her what she had. Watching Koren leer at her, pulling close, that twirl of Angela's hair... it put fear into her own heart. She didn't know how Angela had managed to stay so calm.

And Angela was right. In what they were doing, they never knew what might happen next.

Climbing out of bed, she lit the candle on the writing table. A hastily scrawled note, and she summoned one of the servants with the bell.

"Please," she asked the young man. "I'm sorry to wake you - " she was always exquisitely polite, even with her own servants "- but would you take this to Hawk, the Navarrese man?"

As the servant left with a bow, she hoped she had made the right decision.

--

Hawk answered the knock from the young serving man, who bowed deeply.

"Peace, man," he said, "if I didn't know Angela, I'd probably be stealing your wallet on the street."

No response to that. It appears he would be treated as an honored guest whether he liked it or not.

"A message, sir, from the Queen Rieszella." Hawk was always surprised hearing that name in reference to the woman he only ever thought of as Lise.

But reading the paper, he was even more surprised. Throwing on one of the luxuriously thick Altenan robes, he was out of his room in a hurry.

--

Duran had never been like this with her; it felt like he was marking his territory, claiming her.

Under the circumstances, she didn't entirely mind. She didn't know if Koren had been bluffing about himself and her mother - maybe she would never know - but she would not put it past him to take first mother, then daughter. Duran's rage made her feel safe somehow in a way that no magic, no swords ever could.

It must have been an hour or two later when they lay together, in the Queen's bed. He looked at her with both love and pain. It seemed Koren had affected him even more than her in some ways.

She tried to soothe him. "It's the Queen's bed," she said, teasingly. "If I'm Queen, then are you my king, or just my latest consort?"

She expected a shocked response, or maybe a joke worthy of Hawk. But the look she saw, she only had truly seen once before.

And not on Duran.

"I want her all the time." Hawk had said. "I can't stop thinking about her. I want her so much it hurts, I want her more every day."

Now that same expression was gazing on her. Duran did not have the grasp of words Hawk did.

"Angela..." he began, but didn't seem to know where to go from there. "Whatever you want... or need..."

A year ago, those words might have made her laugh and scorn the man for his neediness. But it had been too long, too many nights, too many days, too many near-death experiences with this man.

Even as the depth of his feelings always seemed to take her by surprise, she knew she would give him whatever she could as well.

--

It was within the hour that Lise opened the door to Hawk, leaning against the side of the doorframe with an exaggerated casualness that she knew concealed nervousness.

They looked at each other for a long moment, wistful sadness floating between them. "I could try," Hawk finally said.

In his right hand was her note, her writing clearly visible. Could you stay the night with me, if we did nothing more?

She opened her arms to him, and he stepped inside her - well, Angela's - room, shutting the door with his foot. Encircling her in return, they stood for a long moment.

She couldn't help it. She started to cry. With him, she could feel safe enough to do so.

He seemed to know just why she was upset. He usually did, sometimes before she knew herself. "Don't be afraid, Lise," he whispered. "Koren's a sadistic bastard, and one day he'll get what's coming to him."

He was right, and it comforted her. As her sobs slowly faded, he gently led her to the bed, pulling the blankets over her.

He waited until she was comfortable before slipping in beside her, one arm around her, their heads close. It was like their stay in the frozen snowfields, his presence comforting. She had shared that tent with Hawk so Angela could be with Duran, but it was out there in the snow that she thought of what Angela and Duran were doing with their privacy, wishing she could share the same but afraid to ask.

Feeling him next to her now, Lise realized nothing would ever change the fact that they had been lovers, if only for a moment.

As she fell asleep next to him, one thought ran through her mind. I've denied how I felt for so long, Hawk, about you and about so many other things. If we can ever be together, I will never fight the way I feel again.

--

Carlie was so excited. There was snow right on her balcony! She shaped it into balls, making snow-rabites.

Kevin kept her company for a while; he didn't say much, but had been perfectly content to play in the snow with her for a while. The beastman now sat inside by the fire, kind of watching her the way Heath used to, though she knew she was a bigger girl now and she could take care of herself.

Who was that bad man today? she wondered. She knew his spell, though... antimagic... She had lost her own chance to learn it, when she chose to become a Priestess, but she knew how it worked.

Wendel's Enchantresses had developed the spell. It was some demon magic stuff, but they had figured out how to make it safer. It could take away the Goddess's Mana power, or that of any other magic user. She knew it was pretty dangerous, but in order to protect the Goddess, they sometimes needed to know things that were dangerous to Her.

She didn't think the sword was such a big deal, but the Fairy... She hoped they found the Fairy soon. Carlie would really miss her otherwise.