Author's Notes: Ok so I know this is about a week since the last update, but to be honest, this is probably going to not be a pattern. Maybe the next story I start uploading here will stick to an actual schedule, but for right now, it's not likely.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Legaia
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Chapter 35: Bolt from the Blue
Shera stretched in the sunshine as they reached the top of the stairs. She grinned at Vahn, closing one eye to see him past the shine of the sun in her eyes. He looked disgruntled and his hair was still all mussed.
They wove through the garden to the temple buildings. Shera admired the gardens and the way they created a space that both functioned as a garden for food, and looked gorgeous. The area between the temple buildings was cleared, and the monks there were doing their morning exercises.
An elder with a stern look on his face and a green robe looked over at them from the other side of the crowd of practicing monks, and started to walk towards a smaller building on one side of the training grounds. Gala nodded and gestured for them to follow him in the same direction.
The building seemed to be a meeting room that was partially open to the elements. The old man's severe look increased as the four youngsters stepped under the roof, though Gala and Shera both bowed before they entered. Vahn bowed jerkily; he must have forgotten his manners. Noa didn't bother.
"So, you are the ones that have been so persistent in trying to get an audience with me." Shera sat at the side of the table, subtly gesturing for Vahn to sit at the other end of the table from the old man, next to Gala. Noa sat across from Shera, suddenly glancing between the three adults she traveled with with a look of awareness that they were tense.
"Yes. We've been driving the Mist away to the south, and have been told that the monks of Biron know more about the Genesis Tree than anyone else in Sol." Vahn spoke carefully, keeping his hands on the table where the old man could see them.
"And what is it you want with the Genesis Tree of Sol?" Shera ran her thumb along the ridge of Mule's spine, amusing herself with the sensation of Mule's 'purr'. It helped her to stay calm and civil.
"We plan to awaken it, and drive the Mist away, as we have done with all of the other Genesis Trees that survived to the south." Vahn didn't sound surprised at the old man's suspicion. "We know that we are people you feel you must be wary about, because we have been able to walk throught the Mist without fear, and because of the Ra-Seru we bear." Vahn paused a little at that, and turned his head slightly towards Gala.
"Master Zopu ordered me excommunicated because I opted to wear a Ra-Seru, despite that I have mastered the Biron Arts to the point I was asked to become Master Teacher," Gala said calmly, and turned his head to look at Shera. She took that as her cue to take the token from around her neck and slide it to where the old man could see it.
"I earned this long before I met my Ra-Seru partner." The old man leaned forwards just enough to pick up the token and inspected it, the scowl staying on his face. "Vahn and I were both students of a monk named Tetsu who was trapped in Rim Elm because of the Mist." The old man looked between Shera and the token, then nodded, sliding it across the table back to her.
"The Genesis Tree once grew in the Warrior's Square at the foot of the tower," the old man started, sighing through his nose. "However...one hundred years ago, it wilted. A Genesis Seedling was found at the base of the old tree. Believing that the old tree's death had been because of a lack of light, we brought it to the roof of the tower. We have kept it safe ever since, though it has not grown much." Shera blinked at that and looked to Vahn and Gala, confused. Neither of them seemed to know how to react, either. "A prophecy from the time of the Holy Emperor Etora IV states that when the time is right, the Genesis Tree in the Warrior's Square will live again."
"A hundred years?" Gala sounded surprised. "Isn't that about when the monastery in Drake Kingdom was founded?" Old Deez. the old man, nodded, his scowl transforming into a thin smile. Gala noticed the confused looks on the faces of his friends and explained, "There were once monasteries all over the world. I'm afraid most of them may have been wiped out because of the Mist."
"Unfortunately, that is likely the case. I had thought us the last one until I heard of a man claiming to be a monk from Drake Kingdom." Old Deez's smile faded, and he stood with a frown, his eyes sliding past them. Shera turned to see what had gotten his attention, and popped to her feet as she saw the glint of metal past the carved wooden screens.
"I thought he stuck to the lower levels." Her words made the other three turn, though Noa darted to the door to lean out and see Gaza better. "Somehow, I don't think he's here to embrace Biron's teachings." Shera moved her hand to adjust her armor, and had to bite back a curse as she realized she had neither armor nor weapons on her. The monks that had been training had definitely noticed him, and their formation was falling apart as more and more of them turned to see who had approached.
"Send out the ones that bear the Seru! You should not allow them to profane this sacred place." Shera exchanged glances with Vahn at Gaza's bellow. He looked just as grim as she did. The old master looked worried, pulling himself to his feet. "On the mighty Astral Sword, I swear their evil plot will not succeed!"
"I guess he didn't notice the Ra-Seru much the first time around," Gala said softly as he started for the door. Shera rolled her shoulders and followed, a grim look on her face. Vahn glanced back at the old man before following his companions out. The master of this Biron Temple looked concerned, sitting again with his hands on the table.
A large contingent of the training monks placed themselves between the old man and the travelers, though Shera had caught Noa's shoulder partway down the steps to the training yard. Vahn and Gala stood behind them, watching what was going on with tense faces.
"We have no quarrel with you," Shera said clearly, a small frown on her face. "We only wish to awaken the Genesis Tree and drive away the Mist." Vahn stepped down the stairs to stand at her shoulder. Noa glanced over her shoulder at the two of them.
As the monks moved between Gaza and the pavilion that Noa, Gala, Vahn, and Shera had emerged from, Gaza swatted them aside in a blur of movement. The monks lay silent on the ground, and the old knight stepped past them, sheathing his blade again.
"They are not dead. I used the flat of my blade. I do not take human life without reason. I have no ill will against you four as people, but if you wish to drive the Mist away and take the Seru with it, my blade will be forced to turn against you." Shera's hand tightened a little on Noa's shoulder as the girl crossed her arms with a pout.
"You're weird! If you hate the Seru, why do you want to stop us from making them go away?" Shera's mouth turned into a firm line. Mule hummed on her arm, and a wave of calm washed through her, just enough to take away the edge of panic that had been building.
"Your goal and ours are the same, there's no reason for us to fight." Gala sounded wary, but he hadn't given up on diplomacy, at least. Shera's eyes shifted around the training yard, trying to see if there were any weapons they could borrow. She could see where Gaza was coming from, though she couldn't say why.
"My entire reason for living is my sword, and the battle in the Mist. There is nothing more for me than the carnage where others fear to tread." Noa hummed angrily as she tried to understand what Gaza was saying. "My sword and soul were forged to battle, to hold the power of life and death in the lair of demons called the Mist." Shera sighed as she realized that Gaza had just put words to what she had seen in him that echoed with some small, distant part of her.
"Power of life and death? Lair of demons? Carnage? What is this old guy talking about even?" Shera took her hand from Noa's shoulder and flexed it behind her back, making sure that her knuckles were, in fact, healed.
"He's saying that he'll lose what he feels is the only reason he's alive anymore, if we take away the Seru," Vahn explained softly, looking at the old man with a look of pity. "It's not too late to find another reason to live, you know." That was directed to Gaza. Noa twisted to look back at him, frowning.
"That's too weird!" Shera sighed and tugged gently at Noa's ear, keeping her from protesting more about the twisted logic that Gaza was using, and possibly saying something that would insult the old man.
"The Mist can twist people's minds with its very existance." Shera had to force herself to not twitch at that. She had a feeling that Gala's eyes had settled squarely on her as he said that. She still remembered how often she had nightmares before getting to Jeremi, and how much of a difference that her Ra-Seru parner made.
"Enough talk! Let battle decide which of us is in the right!" Gaza unsheathed his blade and started towards them, each footstep echoing around the suddenly quiet training yard. Shera tapped Noa on the sohulder as she started off the side of the stairs towards what looked like a stand of decorative weapons. Those would be better than nothing.
She noticed Gaza starting after her out of the corner of her eye, but Gala took advantage of his shift in attention to get in through his guard and striking at the joints of his arms and anywhere that he thought would be easier on his hands than hitting flat metal plate armor.
Shera had to test a couple of swords before she found one that felt more like Vahn's swords. Gala and Noa were more comfortable with fighting with their hands than Vahn and Shera had gotten, and there weren't many weapons on the rack that they'd be able to use without a thought. There was a spear with a simple blade, sturdy haft, and a small tuft of some sort of hair attached to where the blade met the haft. She grabbed that and ran back to where the fight was taking place, and tossed the sword to Vahn once he noticed her returning.
When she glanced back to Gaza, she frowned. There was a dent in his chest armor about the size of either Gala's fist, or Noa's foot. She couldn't tell which of her companions had been the attacker, neither of them looked like they were favoring a limb.
Shera dodged a slash from Gaza's sword, and whipped her borrowed spear around to strike him in the back of the knees. The old man grunted and staggered, but caught himself instead of falling. Shera backpedaled as he tried slashing at her again. This time the tip of his sword caught her shirt sleeve, ripping it.
While Gaza was focusing on her, though, the other three were taking advantage of his back being turned to them, and closing their distance. Gaza seemed to sense them, and turned to slash at Vahn. He must not have noticed that Vahn had gotten a sword, because his body language changed once his sword and Vahn's were locked together. Vahn stood steady, even as Gaza pushed to try to force him back.
Shera eyed the armor Gaza wore with a grimace. Unlike the armor that she and the others tended to wear, this suit didn't have many places where it was safe to stab that wouldn't blunt a blade. The man was good at covering his weak spots as well, likely out of long practice in the Mist.
The fact that he seemed to be aware of what the four of them were doing without looking at them suggested to her that he may have once had at least a small amount of training in the ways of Biron. Either that or he had stumbled on what Shera had learned while in the Biron Monastery in Drake Kingdom.
Noa kicked Gaza in the back and jumped back with a wince as the force actually shoved Vahn a little. Shera and Gala stepped in at that. Gala distracted the old man from pressing the advantage that Noa had accidentally given him, and Shera knocked the blade away from Vahn with a quick motion with the butt of her spear.
The crackle of lightning was all the warning they had to jump away from Gaza before Gala struck him with Ozma all charged up. Shera cringed a little as she felt the hairs on her arms stand on end with how close she'd been to such a surge of electricity. She rubbed her arm with her free hand to get rid of the feeling.
A sting of pain got her attention, and she darted backwards fast enough to avoid more than a scratch as Gaza thrust his sword between his arm and his side to jab at her. She felt a trickle of blood, but nothing that worried her too much. She swung the haft of her spear at Gaza's head, and was rewarded with a clang and a grunt, as well as her hands going numb.
"Vera!" Shera nodded her thanks to Vahn for the healing as she backed away from Gaza. Already she could hear the chatter of people on the other side of the gardens shouting, likely wondering what was going on near the temple. For a moment, she thought she heard several sets of wingbeats, but it faded from her mind as soon as the thought occured.
Shaking out her hands, Shera backed off, watching Gaza move. He was stiffer than he had been before, his movements not as smooth. Something in the past several seconds had changed that. Judging by how he was avoiding Gala, Shera guessed that it was the attack he'd made with Ozma. Unfortunately, that meant that he was focusing more on Vahn and Shera. She hadn't seen him so much as swipe towards Noa once.
"Enough of this!" Shera ducked as Gaza swung his sword in a large circle, and she noticed for the first time the fact that it wasn't the same sword that he had been using earlier. It was larger, and looked more like it was meant for bludgeoning damage than cutting damage. It left a shockwave when it was swung, it was that she had dodged. Noa was bowled over, and Vahn had skidded back several feet, wincing as he straightened and shook out his arms. Gala had dodged, the same as Shera.
When she looked back at Gaza, she was surprised to see that he was right in front of her. She could see his sword, he wasn't swinging it at her, so it was a surprise when something hit her hard enough in the head to make her ears ring. She stayed on her feet, barely, using the spear as a third point of contact with the ground.
The world seemed like it was spinning, though less after Vahn - it had to be Vahn's Spoon that healed her, there was a warmth to it that was never present in anyone else's spells - healed her. When she patted the side of her head, where she'd been kicked, she didn't feel any blood. She shook her head to try to clear it but the gesture only made her stagger again. There was another flash of warmth, accompanied by the beating of a Vera's wings, and her head cleared. She nodded her thanks to Vahn, who watched her with concern before turning back to heal Gala as he backed away from Gaza, hand covering a bleeding gash on his arm.
"I was not expecting that kick," Shera murmured to Vahn before stepping in to get Gaza's attention again by stabbing at his elbow joint. She actually managed to get a hit, but it glanced off, thanks to his armor. "And I think I'm starting to understand why Tetsu mentioned we should count ourselves fortunate that the hunters never deal with creatures that have proper armor." Vahn snorted a little at that and then sighed, rubbing his forehead.
"I'm starting to lose focus. I have a headache growing." Shera glanced at him, before turning her eyes back to Gaza just in time to deflect one of those huge swings that he had to take with his oversized sword.
Gaza was looking just as ragged and tired as the four of them were. Shera could hear him panting under his helmet. There was a section of his armor that was a different color, probably thanks to the heat that had come off of Gala's attack with Ozma. As Shera watched, she realized that he was favoring it, protecting it more than he was his other side.
Focusing, Shera backed up until she was as far from Gaza as she could be, switching her spear to her left hand as she held out her right, Mule glowing a bright blue. For a moment, she didn't think that her spell would manifest, because of the clash between elements and her lingering headache, but then a Viguro started to shimmer into existance just long enough to loose a weak shock towards Gaza.
The old man yelled at the shock and fell to one knee, unable to keep himself standing as he pressed one gauntlet to the place the shock hit him. There was a fading red glow there, and Shera was sure that it had to be intensely painful.
For a second, the four of them just stood there, panting, and then Noa started forwards to make sure that Gaza wasn't too badly injured, reaching into her belt pouch for the healing items that she always kept in there. Shera was sure that she preferred some sort of mushroom.
"Shera..." Shera rolled her eyes at Gala's warning growl, even as Noa bent over to check on the old man. Her free hand wove through her hair to clutch at her head in an attempt to halt the headache she had.
"I was barely able to get that one off, I doubt it did more than give him a mild burn," she replied. "Even with all the padding he has to be wearing under there. At least now we know that Viguro are hard for me to use. I still wish the fight wasn't needed, though. There are more important things to fight." She wavered, and set the butt of her borrowed spear on the ground again. Gala stepped over to her and moved her hand to look at the side of her head, concerned. "Vahn already healed me. Ow!" Shera flinched away from Gala's prodding hand.
"Your ear is swelling up." Gala dug in his belt pouch, came out with a couple of healing leaves, and crushed them in his hand before dabbing the juice on her ear. "That should do for now. Noa, is the old man alright?" Noa had managed to get Gaza's helmet off, though Shera couldn't see his face.
"He's still breathing. Is it alright for me to use the Vera on him?" Shera took the crushed leaves from Gala and carefully held it to her ear as she looked over at Gaza. Vahn was walking over as well, away from a monk that was now holding the sword Vahn had been using. Before anyone could answer Noa, a voice they had heard before boomed across the training yard.
"Have no fear, Songi is here!" Shera growled at that, one hand holding onto the spear to keep her balance, and the other holding crushed healing leaves to her right ear. She turned to see where he was, and paused as she saw the platform he was riding on, a smug smirk on his face. Mule buzzed with a certain amount of alarm, and Shera realized she could feel that the platform was a form of Seru. Monks that were just starting to pull themselves to their feet had to scramble to avoid getting landed on by it.
Shera glared at him, aware that they all were battered and out of breath. Songi looked like he had spent their entire fight just watching, and hadn't fought for at least a week. She felt herself wrap her mental fingers around the information that summoned a Freed, but her headache was too intense to even create a glimmer.
"My, my. Gala, do you realize what you've done? You've killed a human being! And in a Biron Temple, no less." Shera growled, her grip on the spear tightening until she felt her skin pulling at the knuckles. Rage pounded at her head. Hadn't he just heard Noa tell them that the old man was still breathing?! "You're all a disgrace! Your cruelty puts the Mist's henchmen to shame! Bloodthirsty beasts!" It didn't escape Shera that he'd said the last part while looking directly at her.
"Songi..." Gala sounded like he was even more tired because of Songi's appearance than he'd been before the redhead had arrived, though there was still a touch of anger in his voice. Songi pretended that he hadn't heard.
"How could you murder this poor old man just because he was a little eccentric? Oh, the horror! Just watching it sent a chill through me!" Mule hummed on Shera's arm, tempering her anger so that it didn't make her pounding headache any worse as Songi continued. Gala started towards him, his shoulders settling for another fight. "Hey, wait! Wait, you simple-minded muscle-bound oaf! I will save the old man! After all, I've taken to him, and unlike you, I am a merciful person." Songi laughed, and Shera growled again, wavring where she stood.
She could see on the faces of the monks that not one of them bought Songi's words. She couldn't see if the people on the other side of the gardens thought the same, and they were the oned that people would be hearing from first. First impressions were usually what people went off of.
"I'll heal him, and help him recover. So stay alive long enough to see him get better! So long!" Songi gestured, and Gaza's form lifted off the ground to float alongside the platform Songi stood on. The two of them went around a rooftop and disappeared. Shera felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end for some reason, and the sense of both the Ra-Seru that Songi wore and the Sim-Seru that he rode blinked out.
"I get the feeling that's going to come back to bite us later," Shera muttered, and turned her head to see a monk standing next to her, looking concerned. She offered the spear to him, and he shook his head.
"We've medicine that may help you," the monk explained. Shera blinked a little at that. "It's stronger than most things that can be bought at a store or harvested from plants. You got hit the hardest out of your group." Shera shrugged a little, and limped over to the stairs to the gazebo with the monk's help to sit. Another monk, this one about as old as she is, came to take the spear, and she let him, resting her weight mostly on her knees.
Master Deez, the elder of this temple of Biron, came out of the gazebo where he had been watching the fight, and walked among the monks under his care, making sure that none of them were injured badly. By the time he was done with that, the monk that had offered medicine to Shera was back from finding the medicine he'd promised.
"I see now that the four of you have had a gread deal of experience fighting," Deez finally told Shera and Vahn. He looked genuinely impressed. "I understand that you travel with weapons and armor. Most would not switch between fighting armed to unarmed so gracefully." Shera scratched an itch behind her undamaged ear, shrugging a little.
"We've been fighting unarmed longer than we've fought armed," Vahn said. The monk dabbed the salve he had on Shera's injury, and then gave her a potion of some sort that made her grimace when she drank it. "We had more trouble with him because he was wearing so much armor, not because we weren't used to fighting unarmed."
"It's also the fact that we were fighting a human," Gala piped up. "It's rare that we encounter a fight that is so senseless in its reasoning. We held back to keep from killing him, and that was more difficult than simply fighting." Gala gestured for Noa to sit on the stairs next to Shera.
"It is good that even though you have traveled so far through the Mist, you still treasure human lives. There have been some, like Gaza, who fought in the Mist and ceased to see other humans as worthy of consideration. Come to me when you are ready to delve into the depths of Sol, I will give you the Genesis Tree Sapling then." Shera scooted over as Master Deez stepped down the stairs to the training yard, and across to the main building of the temple.
They were quiet for a moment, and watched the monks clean up, before Vahn stuck his hand out to Shera to help her up. She took his hand and let him help her up and stick close to her so that if her balance wavered she wouldn't fall.
People stared at them as they headed back down to the inn. Shera could hear them whispering, but she couldn't bring herself to care. By the time they got to the inn, she wanted nothing to do besides sleep. She ate a small bowl of porridge before heading to take a shower and took a nap.
When she woke up again, she felt much better, even if she was stiff. She'd only slept for a few hours, but her sense of balance had returned. The others looked relieved to see her alright, and Gala made her sit so he could look at her ear to make sure that it was healing. There was a knot on the side of her head that hadn't been noticable before.
A few of the men from the casino came in to check on them around supper, and the only one that came off as even a little skeevy was Sain, who was largely ignored. Vahn found a tankard of something alcoholic pressed on him, but was thankfully able to hand it off to someone else. Shera also was able to keep from being pressured into drinking, and the men wer at least conscious about how young Noa was. Gala wasn't even bothered about drinking becuse of his past as a monk.
The next morning, Shera got up before the rest and started to stretch. When Vahn finally stumbled out, he looked like he hadn't completely managed to avoid drinking. Shera went and got a pot of the tea the innkeeper had made for them in the past and handed a mug of it to Vahn.
"Morning." Gala looked more aware than Vahn when he came out, and smiled sleepily at Shera. "So how many more days do we have until that tournament?" Shera sat on one of the tables to rub at her calf muscles.
"Three days. More than enough to heal up, I think." She plucked at her shirt. "Though I think I may need another shirt. I was wearing one of my newer ones yesterday." Gala winced at that, and then turned to look back at the room they'd been sleeping in when there was a crash. "Sounds like Noa is awake."
Sure enough, Noa came out, rubbing her shoulder with a frown. Shera waved to her and went to help the innkeeper carry their breakfast out of the kitchen. Some food improved everyone's mood, despite how stiff they all were. None of them had done much stretching the day before, and they all felt it.
They stayed at the inn for most of the day before going out and finding someone to mend the shirt Shera had been wearing during the fight with Gaza. Shera at least overheard several rumors about them having killed Gaza, and several more people rebutting that it was unlike them to kill someone. No one bothered asking them, though.
The four of them spent most of the day up on the roof, stretching and soaking up the sun's rays among the plants. Shera watched the clouds scudding by overhead, and wondered if any of them would make it all the way to Rim Elm. She had never dreamed she'd be so far from her home.
By this time of year, no doubt the village smelled of foods being prepared for the winter ahead, and the children were probably shooing birds away from the racks of drying fish. If Shera had been there, she would have probably been put to weeding the small gardens that Mei kept, when she wasn't out helping the hunters.
Drake Kingdom, all in all, would be feeling a little tight on food this winter anyhow. Most of the farming towns had been destroyed in the Mist, and Rim Elm was a fishing village. Maybe someone from the castle would be able to restart some farming, but it would take a while before there were enough people even living to return the economy to what it must have been before the Mist came, if it ever got back to that state.
After watching that play about the war between Sol and Conkram, she was glad that Drake Kingdom didn't have any warlike neighbors. That may have changed had they not freed Saryu from the Sim-Seru he'd been forced to wear, but once he was free of its influence, he'd been just as peacable as King Drake. Vidna hadn't had many farms, just enough to keep its people alive, so they were likely to have just as hard a time getting back on their feet as Drake Kingdom.
Shera didn't know enough about the kingdom of Sol to even venture a guess. The people in the Tower were largely alright, because of the amount of farming space that had been made on the rooftop, but it did feel cramped with how many people were crowded into the back hallways. At the very least, people here would know how to farm, and hopefully enough to teach those that didn't already know while increasing how much farmland they had.
"Well, you've got something on your mind for sure." Shera blinked at the voice and realized that Sain had found her and was looking down at her with a wry smile. "Still, I'm glad to see you're recovering nicely from the fight I hear you and your companions had up here." Shera sat up with a sigh and waved her hand at him.
"Mind moving out of my sunlight? And yes, I am recovering fairly nicely. We had to rely more on our agility than anything else. He caught us without any of our weapons or armor." Sain frowned at that, but moved out of the sun so she wasn't in his shadow anymore. Shera glanced at Vahn and saw that he had noticed Sain and was frowning at him.
"Wait, you didn't have your armor on when you fought him? And you all survived? How?" Shera snorted at how surprised he was and hooked her elbows around her knees. "I mean, I know the monks fight without armor and usually without weapons, but..."
"I was trained by a Biron Monk. He was trapped in my village when the Mist came. As was Vahn, actually. Gala was an actual monk in the monastery in Drake Kingdom. The only one that wasn't trained in the Biron martial arts was Noa, and she learned how to fight from a wolf." Shera saw that incredulous, disbelieving look on his face, and smiled a little. "Literally, a wolf. I'm not kidding." The look of disbelief only increased.
"So you and Vahn are childhood friends?" Shera tilted her head to the side and waggled a hand back and forth. "Not really? Childhood sweethearts?" Shera scoffed, stretching in the sun again.
"Childhood rivals. We were trained by the same monk, along with another boy in the village. He and I sparred rather often. I was the last of our group to get a Ra-Seru, but I was the first one to join Vahn on his trip. I actually had to chase after him to catch up to him in the middle of the night." Sain gave her an odd look, and she shrugged. "My sister's fond of him, and I know better than to think that someone traveling alone through the Mist is safe." Sain frowned a little.
"I had no idea you were so selfless." Shera outright laughed at that. She managed to keep from laughing too long, though Sain was still looking at her with some concern by the time she got her laughter under control.
"I wouldn't say I'm selfless. I wanted out of that village more than anything else. I may have grown up there, but I wasn't born there. For some reason, that made the village elder more determined to see me act like how he believed women should act. Which, to him, means submissive and compliant. I don't think I've ever acted that way. Nor do I think I ever will." Shera grinned widely, though it wasn't a pleasant smile. As Sain stared, she realized that it probably looked more like a wolf's smile.
"I have definitely never met someone like you," he said at last, carefully. Shera shrugged at that and turned her attention to a bumblebee that was buzzing around some of the flowers next to her.
"Is the honey that the bees make here any good? How much do they make? They're so tiny, I can't imagine that there's much." Sain sighed as Shera changed the subject. Shera didn't really care what he thought, she wasn't comfortable with him asking private questions of her.
"I don't know. I don't actually spend that much time up here. I do most of my training in an apartment that was set aside for fighters to train in." Shera tilted her head to the side at that. Were the fighters at the casino discouraged from training near the monks in case more of them left to join the monks? That's certainly the feeling she got.
"Shera, here you are." Shera blinked up at Cara as she walked up. "The innkeeper told me you all had come up here for some sunlight." She glanced at Sain before stepping past him and finding a place to sit between the plants Shera was sitting by.
"Yes, we all decided that it was better to come up here to relax than try to do it really anywhere farther below. We're all a little jumpy after the unexpected fight yesterday. None of us figured that it would be a good idea to try to relax around so many people." Cara nodded, approving of that thought.
"That sounds like a good idea. You four aren't from anywhere that's nearly as crowded as Sol. Up here is about as crowded as my village ever got, but I've managed to adjust to Sol over the years. None of you have managed that yet." Shera noticed Sain sigh and leave out of the corner of her eye.
"To be honest, I'm not sure I want to get to that level. Sol is too busy for me, and you can't see the ocean from here." Shera rubbed her forearms and then stretched her hands with a grimace. "Too much noise, too many people. I don't mind living in a quiet place so long as I have the ocean nearby." Cara tilted her head to the side at that.
"That's right, Rim Elm is a little fishing village, isn't it? I've never been there myself, but it's at least known. Mostly because of its genesis tree." Shera nodded and switched which hand she was stretching.
"I think the genesis tree is the only reason it survived the Mist. It kept us safe until the Wall was built. Though, I can't say that I remember what it was like before the wall was built. I washed up after it was done." Cara stared at Shera for that, and she smiled lopsidedly. "I literally washed in on the tide one day. I think I was about eight? No idea where I'm from, either. I don't remember much of anything before that." Cara frowned at that.
"Well that's unnerving. Are the boys the only ones in your group that are normal?" Shera and Cara shared a laugh. Still, Shera couldn't deny that there was something to that. Noa couldn't exactly hide that she wasn't raised as most people were, not with her still learning all the social niceties that most people had learned long before they hit puberty. Shera at least could blend in some, if she bothered to dress differently, but the real strangeness of her, the fact that there were no clues as to where she came from, that wasn't something easy to tell.
"Pretty much. Though from what I've heard, Vahn has been reckless at least since he was five years old." Shera's eyes slid over to Vahn and she grinned as she saw his ears turn red with embarressment. "I never did hear from his dad exactly what it was he did. I just know that it's the reason children are never left attended anymore." Cara giggled at that.
"And I'm sure Gala has some amusing stories from his past, as well. You know what, I just realized that I'd been starting to think of you four as having always been the age you are now. It never really occured to me that you all were children at one point. That's probably the same thing as what lots of people you've met think, too." Shera blinked a little.
"Are we really that unusual? Okay, I guess we are a little because of our Ra-Seru partners, but really, we are still people." Cara nodded, and Shera sighed a little. "No wonder we get stared at whereever we go." Cara winced a bit at that.
"I may have a little to do with that, here in Sol. I told a few stories about you four before you arrived." Shera blinked at that. "Surely you've noticed how desperate people here are for anything new." Shera sighed at that.
"And we've been a pretty steady source of that, between my taking part in the casino, Noa winning that dance competition, and yesterday." Cara nodded, and handed Shera one of the flutes she'd brought with her.
"But for now, it's time for another lesson. You can worry about gossip later." Shera laughed a little at how easily Cara had noticed she was feeling a little distressed about the thought of being as a source of gossip and figured out how to distract her.
~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~
Shera sighed and did one final check on her armor before heading out and walking up to the casino. People moved out of her way, but she heard the whispers following her. Noa was ahead of her, carrying her spear. Vahn was already at the casino, either signing up to take part himself, of making sure that she wasn't disqualified in case she was even the tiniest bit late. Gala was likely on the roof, getting some medicine from the monks, just in case either of them got hurt badly.
A few of the casino machines had been moved out of the way to allow for fighters coming in and getting ready for the fight. Shera saw Sain with a gaggle of women around him already, grinning and showing off his muscles. If he wore a shirt under his armor, she couldn't see it.
Shera checked in at the counter and then found a place to sit, setting the small cloth bag down for the man that came over to inspect the items that she was going to be bringing into the ring with her. None of it was picked out for being against any of the rules, even the crown that Zalan had given them a while back, so Noa started to braid Shera's hair the way the innkeeper had shown them a day ago. Noa used a strip of cured leather to tie off the braids, and then tucked the ends of that into the braid she'd made. It went all around Shera's head, cushioning the crown that Shera usually wore so if it hit it wouldn't dig into her scalp.
Shera stuck her fingers through the braid to scratch at her scalp once Noa was done, and started to slowly, carefully stretch. She was already a bit warmed up, but she knew from experience that such a small warm-up wasn't enough for a tough fight.
More than once, she saw Sain glancing at her from the corner of her eye. She ignored his looks, ensuring that her enchanted items were put in places where they wouldn't recieve a direct blow. Her most prized possession, the Deep Sea Jewel that she'd had for ages, was tucked under her armor, where it was safe and sound.
~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~
End Notes: Starting to tie up loose ends in the Sol arc, and then it's going to be more plot. I got a little stuck on this one, thanks to the fact that I changed Gaza's dialogue. Ye Olde speech just doesn't fit in this story.