When the heat of the desert melted away, he was sure he was dead. Cool, calm, and comfort replaced it as he drifted, and he felt at peace. Finally he could rest.
But death meant that he had failed and the thought of failure ripped away the comfort and left his nerves raw. He had failed to protect Estellise. He had failed to save Ioder. He had failed to save the Empire from Alexei. With death was the loss of all hope. It was all over. Everything was gone. He wasn't ready to die. He wasn't ready to just lay down and give up.
Flynn jolted into consciousness and was greeted by a cool breeze wafting through a room he didn't recognize, gently billowing curtains of softly washed blue and purple. He took a moment to look around at the quaint room. The other beds were empty and made and told him that this was likely an inn, but how had he gotten there? There was another question that was more pressing to him: Where was everyone else?
He threw himself out of the bed and his legs felt weak and limp as soon as his feet hit the floor. He took a moment to steady himself.
"Oh, you're awake." He didn't recognize the voice or face that greeted him from the doorway. The man was dressed strangely, in layered robes of a light material with a vest and numerous colorful sashes.
"Where are my friends? Were there others with me?"
"Your friends woke hours ago. They're probably out in the village."
"Thank you." As soon as he could stand on his own, he pulled on his boots and headed out the curtain covered entrance of the inn into a small village. It was just a cluster of buildings and greenery that sat crunched up against a rocky sound. It was serene and cool and a welcome change from the desert.
"Oh, Flynn! Thank goodness that you're awake!"
He turned to see Estellise and Rita standing out in the grass near the village well. It gave him a small reassurance that he wasn't dead just yet. "Is everyone all right?"
"Yes. We made it out of the desert okay somehow."
"Where are we?"
"From what the locals have told us, this is the village of Yormgen."
That sounded familiar, but he couldn't place the name. Rita spoke up. "That was the village named in the captain's journal on the Atherum. The thing is, that entry was dated almost a thousand years ago. If that's the case, how is this piddly village still here? Not even Zaphias has been around that long." She didn't give him a chance to comment, but he was getting used to that. "And there's no barrier here. Hell, I haven't seen a single piece of blastia anywhere."
"You must be going crazy without it then, Rita." Karol teased as he and Judith appeared, Raven slumping along behind them. From the supplies they were carrying, it appeared as though they had just left the general store. As soon as he was within range, Rita swatted the boy.
"It is rather odd," Judith added. "We wake up in a village without blastia that seems to date back before the age of the Empire. Even the people here are strange. None of them know anything about the world beyond this, but they are pleasant and simple folk. They couldn't even tell us how we made it here."
"That's all very strange."
"Things don't clear up much outside of town either." Yuri and Repede came up from a trail that seemed to lead out of town. "No one here has ever seen or heard of a monster like the one we faced. They said that the village sage might know, but we haven't had a chance to go ask him yet."
"Since we're already here, would it be all right if we looked for the Yuefan mentioned in the captain's journal?"
"I doubt she'd have waited a thousand years, but if that's what you want to do, go ahead. We can ask around while we head up toward the Sage's house." He motioned with his thumb over his shoulder to the largest house that sat just beyond the cluster of buildings.
He had to know that the likelihood that anyone even remembered a young lady from a thousand years ago was very slim. Even the written records kept by the Empire spanned back 800 years at best. Why would he let her do something that was obviously futile? Estellise must have known also, but she still approached a few of the villagers, asking after a woman named Yuefan. The response was surprising.
"Oh, you're looking for Yuefan? She spends her days staring out at the ocean. You can find her just up over there." the man pointed to a set of patios that stretched over the pebble covered shore and had feet planted in the water of the harbor.
Estellise thanked the man and they walked to the group of simple observation decks. There was a young woman among those that stood there, and she stared out into the blue waves even as they approached.
"Excused me, but are you Yuefan?"
"Yes, I am." She turned slowly. She was somber and serene, with dark hair pulled back in a simple bun and dressed in cool, pastel robes of green. "Who are you?"
"We're just travelers passing through," Yuri answered.
"How odd. What can I do for you?"
Estellise held the case out to her and her eyes instantly lit up.
"Where did you find this? Does this mean that you met Longchi?"
"Longchi?" Estellise asked.
"Yes. He is my fiancee and the captain of the ship the Atherum." She folded her hands across her chest and Flynn could see a red cord tied in a knot on her left ring finger. It was most probably a sign that she was promised. "He set sail three years ago with a promise to return with the clear ciel crystal. I gave him this chest to carry it in."
"The clear ciel crystal? What is that?" Karol chimed in. Twice now they had heard of it.
"The sage of our village is a wise Krityan and he told us that if we were to obtain what is known as the clear ciel crystal, he could make a barrier to protect our town from monsters. Longchi volunteered to find it." She shifted her gazed to the largest building in the village that sat north on a hill and was decorated much the same as the other buildings. "But how did you get this?"
Estellise bit her lip, at a loss for how to explain the very odd and convoluted circumstances, but Yuri stepped in.
"We encountered the Atherum on the high seas. Your fiancee asked us to bring this to you with a promise that he would return as soon as he could."
It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't exactly the truth either, but Yuefan seemed relieved to hear it.
"Thank you." She pulled a long cord from around her neck and pulled out a key that had been safely nestled in her robes. With a click, she opened the box. Inside the velvet lined box was a crystal of massive proportions, shimmering blue and green with hints of gold refracting off its numerous surfaces. "Would you mind taking this to the sage for me?"
"Sure. We're heading up there anyway." Yuri took the crystal in both his hands and handed it off to Estellise, who cradled it carefully against her bosom.
She bowed and thanked them again and they continued up the hill through the village to the sage's house.
"Yuri, why did you lie to her like that?" Karol asked, padding alongside the guildsman.
"Sometimes a lie is for the benefit of the person being lied to." Yuri looked down for a split second as if remembering all the 'beneficial' lies he had told Karol over the years. "Lies aren't always meant to be harmful. Imagine how she would have reacted if she knew the truth."
"Speakin' of the truth, don't ya think her story was a little strange?" Raven changed the subject and Yuri seemed grateful for it.
"Yeah, now that you mention it. She said that the Atherum set sail three years ago, but the journal we found on the same ship dated back over a thousand years."
"She didn't seem like she was lying to us," Estellise said.
"I agree," Judith added, tapping her chin lightly with her index finger. "But even if she was merely mistaken, no one miscounts a thousand years."
"This whole place is pretty strange. I've never heard of a town this far into the desert, otherwise Kaufman would have her claws in it. The buildings are a lot different from what I've seen before, and the clothing the people are wearing, too."
"And there's no blastia. At all. What kind of town sits in the desert with no barrier blastia to protect it, especially over a thousand years?"
"Maybe this 'sage' will have an answer for us." Yuri mounted the steps of the sage's house and stopped at the front door. Everyone else assembled around him and he knocked firmly on the door, two sharp raps with his right hand.
It was a long moment before the simple handle moved and the door slid open, revealing someone they had not at all expected. Instead of a wise old Krityan, Duke stood before them, his red eyes scanning them cautiously.
"What are you doing here?" there was a tinge of surprise to the normally cool depth of his voice.
"We could ask you the same thing."
"No matter." He left the door open, but turned his back to them, allowing them to enter the cozy loft house that was decorated similarly to the other buildings they had seen.
"So you're here pretending to be the sage?" Rita was ready to immediately continue the discussion.
"Such a person no longer exists." Duke turned back. "Why have you come here?"
Estellise held up the clear ciel crystal. "We were told that the sage of this village requested this in order to build a barrier for the city."
"But only blastia are capable of such a feat. You can't use just anything."
Duke's eyes narrowed. "That must have cost you a great deal to get a hold of."
"Actually, we sort of happened on it by chance." Yuri added. "Do you know what this is?"
"It is an apathetia, and the sage was correct in saying that such an item could be used to create a barrier blastia."
"That's impossible!"
"It is no different than a core. It merely lacks an inscribed formula to conduct the aer appropriately." He reached a long, slender arm over and gently took the crystal from Estellise.
"So that's an apathetia..." Raven muttered from the back of the group.
"What do you mean?"
"An item like this has no place in the hands of humans." Duke set the crystal on the floor with a tender touch and drew his sword. The curved and strangely shaped blade began to glow, an ominous red aura swirling around it.
"Wait!"
Even Rita diving for the crystal didn't stop him from striking it with the tip of his blade and shattering it into a cloud of dust.
He stared at them as calm as could be while they gawked at him in a mix of shock and anger. He seemed completely unconcerned with what they thought even as the mage confronted him and Yuri and Estellise had to hold her back.
"There's no point, Rita. What's done is done. We should just leave."
"I don't understand. Why would you destroy that crystal if it was what they needed in order to protect the town?" Estellise asked.
"This village has been granted an eternal calm and has no need for a barrier."
"But there are still monsters nearby. What if something like Phaeroh were to attack?"
"You know of Phaeroh?"
"What do you know about him?" Yuri asked, surely seeing the look of surprise and recognition in Duke's eyes that Flynn saw as well.
He was silent though he regarded them quietly.
"Please... I need to know what Phaeroh meant when he called me a 'poison.'"
"There is a being in this world that possesses a power that the Entelexeia despise."
"You mean... me? But why?"
"This being is known as the Child of the Full Moon. And the answer is something safely guarded within the hearts of the Entelexeia." He turned away from them once more, lowering the sword so that its tip rested firmly on the floor. "Now leave. There is nothing left here for you."
"Wait! I'm not done talking to you!"
"It's pointless, Rita. If he doesn't want to talk, he's not going to." Yuri nearly had to pull the mage out of the house, and they were followed by the others. It seemed as though the general consensus was that their discussion had done little to remedy their confusion.
Rita huffed and pulled away from him, storming down the stairs. "Fine, but next time we meet that guy, I'll get the information I want out of him, so help me."
"So that was an apathetia?"
"What's up, Old Man?"
"Whitehorse asked me to look for 'em and here I had one under my nose this whole time."
"Gramps is going to tan your hide for that." Yuri turned back to the still fuming Rita. "You said something earlier about having more research you wanted to do?"
"Yes. I won't take up a lot of time. If you can give me until tomorrow morning, I think I can get it all done."
"All right. We'll stay the night and move on in the morning after we've had some rest. Is that okay with everyone else?" After receiving a collective nod, he looked up into the late afternoon sky. The moon could be seen, hanging near the horizon, just half full. Yuri sighed and looked over to Estellise. "Sorry, but it looks like we should put off our search for Phaeroh for now. If we leave tomorrow, we should make it back to Nordopolica just in time for the new moon."
"That's fine. Meeting with Belius and helping to save the Empire come before my personal wishes."
"Well, everybody get some rest. We still have to trek back across the desert."
"Aw man!"
"Did ya hafta remind us?!"
He wasn't ready to sleep yet. His skin was crawling with the strange vibe that this village gave him. The residents were all friendly, but the way they spoke, their mannerisms, and the way they dressed were all unusual. Something about this whole situation was odd. How had they gotten to this village of Yormgen and how, without a barrier, was this town still standing after apparently a thousand years? How could the young lady named Yuefan, who was mentioned in the Captain's journal on the Atherum, still be alive when her fiancee was a thousand years deceased? She had told them and seemed to honestly believe that only three years had passed since her love had set sail, but all other evidence indicated it had been far longer. What was going on in Yormgen?
Flynn had long ago grown tired of sleepless nights. He was on the verge of sheer sleep deprivation at this point, and the only thing keeping him going was the hope of returning home soon and stopping whatever Alexei had planned. He couldn't let himself think of what state the capital was in or how Ioder was faring as it only made him feel the chill of fear settle in his limbs. He only hoped that they wouldn't be too late.
He wrestled himself out of his bed and quietly left the room where the rest of the party was sleeping soundly. The open air of the village was of little comfort, but at least it wasn't freezing cold like the Sands of Kogorh had been after the sun went down. In comparison, this place was beautiful and peaceful.
The streets were empty and the stark silence of it made him feel for a fraction of a moment like he was the only person on Terca Lumireis. He swore that he could feel the warm imprints of those that had walked those streets before him. Although he wanted to be alone, he had never felt more lonely in his entire life. It was as though he was left walking the places where people had once been, many years before him, many lives beyond his own.
As he rounded out of the cluster of buildings that made the town proper, and started up the hill, he spotted Yuri standing on one of the wooden patios, looking out across the bay. Flynn had noticed on the ocean the way he always seemed restless. He must have been just as put off by the environment where they found themselves as he was. Flynn was still tentative about approaching the dark guildsman, but the mere presence of the man made the universe feel just a little less empty.
"You can't sleep either?" He must have heard Flynn approach, but he didn't turn to look at him.
"No. Something about this place unnerves me."
"This town is pretty weird."
"How did we even get here?"
"You remember the dragon we saw in the Weasand of Cados? It was the last thing I saw before I passed out. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with it."
"Oh," was all Flynn could think to say. Something about the dragon that they had encountered once before didn't sit right with him. It had seemed like it was going to attack them, but had instead calmed the aer krene that had been raging out of control and now even Yuri suspected it may have been involved in their exodus to this strange village. "Do you think it could have been Duke?"
"I doubt it. He seemed as surprised to see us as we were to see him."
As that topic of conversation trailed off, Flynn found himself almost enjoying the first moment of quiet solidarity between them and it made him remember something that he had been meaning to say. It needed to be said, even if Yuri brushed it off or ignored it. "Thank you."
"Wait. What?"
"You have my thanks. You saved me in Nordopolica by taking that hit from Zagi."
"Oh that. Whatever. I was just in the wrong place at the right time." That was pretty much the response Flynn had expected, but the depth and breadth of the scar must have been sitting heavy and tight with new skin across his shoulder. He never seemed to take credit for the things he did, only quietly bear the scars that they left him with.
"If you're the kind of person who would endanger his own life to protect someone that he bears mutual hostilities with, then why?"
"I don't think Estelle would ever forgive me if I let you get skewered by a maniac like that." He was hiding behind another excuse.
"If you're such a good person, why do you kill?"
"I don't understand why it's so hard for you to wrap your head around it." Yuri looked at him for the first time in their conversation and his half-lidded eyes were calm and remorseless. "The world is a better place without people like Ragou, whether or not you agree with what I've done. If that makes me a monster in the end, so be it." His monstrous acts seemed to be something he had no problem taking credit for.
"But Cumore was different."
Yuri tensed but tried to hide it.
"You went after him because of Niren, didn't you?" The implications of that were far different. Flynn assumed that revenge had motivated Yuri there, not for those that Cumore had ordered hung from the gallows, but for a single man that Yuri called his friend. Yuri could not say that it had been for the good of others, for the good of the world if that were indeed the cause. If what Flynn assumed was true, his motivation there had been his desire for blood and retribution.
A disgusted look passed over the guildsman's face, but he hid it behind a sickened half-smile. "Looks like you've got me there." Had he not realized it at the time, or even earlier than this moment? Had he been caught up in the inevitability that he would be taking Cumore's life one day, sooner or later, and revenge had clouded his brain? "These are the choices I've made and there's no point in regretting them now."
Before Flynn could reply, Yuri turned and walked off, leaving Flynn feeling even more alone than he had only moments before.