19 — GOLD CLOTH
Back again.
Once more the high pitched beeps from the hospital.
Once more they all are hurt.
She was not.
Them all recovering laying in beds. She sitting aside them watching over their pains.
Even though she was resting on the bed, it was Alice the one trying to comfort her. She returned the compass in one piece, but Saori asked her to keep it. As a present.
"They're strong, Saori. We all are."
A repeated beep in the bedroom.
"But they still get hurt because of me."
"And we're still going to get hurt a lot." said Alice.
"If I could fight alongside you." tried Saori looking at her.
"You fighting alongside us wouldn't change anything."
"I would share your pains. I would share these hospital beds."
"Would that change the pain you feel when we get hurt?"
Saori was silent because it wasn't going to change anything.
"What abour your pains? Who share them with you?" Alice asked.
Saori looked at her relieved that someone there could understand an inch of what she felt, at least. She felt Alice's warm hand over hers.
"I do."
The door for the common room opened, Saori and Alice joined the rest of the group, silencing Seiya and Xiaoling's mess. Them all covered in bandages. Seiya and the others hated having to go to the Foundation hospital and decided from then on to receive care inside the Kido Mansion; which Saori agreed, as it was the least likely to attract the attention of the local press, given the events of the Galaxian War and the current tension and rumors about its closure.
Rumors grew even stronger while they were fighting in the Seas; the Coliseum where the Intelligence Center was located got consumed by fire. At least half of its outer structure was set ablaze; had it not been for the prompt response of the firefighters, perhaps the entire building would have been destroyed and reduced to ashes. But half of the Coliseum was saved and no damage made it to the inner bunker where the Intelligence Center was housed.
The news reported that it was vandalism beyond control from some hard core fans after a dawn of drunkenness. Two guys were arrested. And soon they were released, as the Foundation knew it wasn't them. The images from the indoor cameras before they were consumed by the fire made it clear that the work had been much more elaborate than the result of the drunkenness of nonconforming subjects.
"Are you feeling better?" she asked everyone.
Xiaoling with her mouth full answered for everyone there. She smiled at them.
"According to the Foundation's Intelligence Center, we should have a few weeks of peace. she began lightly, taking a seat next to them.
"But Miss Saori… the Coliseum was set on fire." Xiaoling said, worried.
"I wonder who is behind all this." Seiya asked himself.
"It's the Sanctuary Outcasts." Shun said.
"Yes. Apparently, the people who want the Gold Cloth are those who were once banished from the Sanctuary. They got together to seize the Cloth."
"And our Cloths as well, Shiryu." Seiya added, remembering that they were also targets.
"Perhaps these outcasts think they'll be forgiven if they take the Gold Cloth back to Greece and our lives as punishment for the Tournament."
"What if they don't seek any forgiveness?" Shiryu began. "They might just want revenge on the Sanctuary."
"That would be crazy." disasgreed Seiya.
He then got up from the sofa and walked over to Saori with a serious expression on his young face. As if he had finally worked up the courage to form a question that churned in his gut.
"Seiya..." asked Shun, trying to stop him.
"There's something I'd like to understand." he began anyway.
Saori looked at him and Seiya found in those young eyes an immense strength; she herself was older than them, but she still didn't have the depth of years that sank the color of adult eyes.
"The Gold Armor…" she guessed and Seiya nodded.
"The Gold Cloth is one of the greatest treasures from Greece and a legacy of the Sanctuary. How could it be here?"
The question remained in the air, fueled by the curiosity of everyone else in that room, because deep down Seiya voiced the doubt that distressed everyone there. Saori finally decided to explain to them, for after taking so much risk for it, they deserved the truth.
"My grandfather was an archaeologist and a scholar of the treasures of Ancient Greece. On one of his expeditions in the Aegean Sea he found the Urn of the Gold Armor in the deepest of the ruins, totally abandoned" She gently laid her hand on the Urn in the common room. "On top of that, there is an extensive research on it by our Foundation. There are accounts and scriptures that indicate that the Gold Armor has always opposed those who have tried to conquer and fulfill their own ambitions in history. The defeat of Napoleon, the riddance of Kublai Khan and even the fall of the Roman Empire; behind these and many other events, it is said that there is always a Knight wearing a Gold Armor."
In the hall, everyone was silently listening to Saori's sweet voice.
"So we can say that the history of humankind has always been protected by the Knights who fought in the past. And by the Gold Armor."
"Do you think the Gold Cloth has reappeared in our time because humanity might be in danger again?" Shun asked.
"Yes," she replied decisively.
They were all thoughtful on the room and Seiya spoke again.
"In that case, wouldn't it be better if the Gold Cloth were in the Sanctuary instead of…"
"Of being here with a spoiled girl?" Saori guessed it.
"Yes," he agreed.
"Seiya!" Shun shouted at him.
"She said it first!" he snapped.
"The Armor was found abandoned. If humanity is really in danger, we cannot rule out any hypothesis."
"What do you mean by that?" asked him.
"Do you think the Sanctuary could endanger humanity?" asked Shiryu.
"Like I said, I can't rule out any options."
"That's absurd. I trained there. I got the Pegasus Cloth from the Master Camerlengo himself."
Seiya's voice was incredulous with that possibility and, on the other side, Saori reacted with a lot of curiosity in her eyes as she stared at him in front of that revelation. No one saw it, but at the back of the room, Cygnus finally dropped his stance to give more attention to those arguing young people. Seiya went on:
"He is a good man and everyone in the village worshiped him almost like a god."
"The Sanctuary is much larger than just one man." said the voice of Cygnus in the background.
"He's just like the Pope!" Seiya replied. "If there really is a danger to humanity, if Sanctuary's Outcasts really are banding together, I'm sure the Sanctuary could help us!"
"You have betrayed the Saint's Oath, you are not even welcome in the Sanctuary anymore." said Cygnus again.
"If we take the Gold Cloth back, perhaps our mistakes can be forgiven."
"Well now you're talking like an Outcast." Cygnus finished.
"Which side are you on anyway?!"
"Calm down, Seiya!" Shiryu tried, holding the boy who was already rushing towards him.
"The Armor was found abandoned." Saori said calming the tempers. "And it won't leave this place." she finished.
Seiya broke away from Shiryu, not satisfied.
"That's not what I came to talk to you about." Saori spoke again. "Like I said, we'll have peace for a few days. But we believe that after the attack on the Coliseum, this Mansion will be the next target. The employees have all been laid off indefinitely and we will be in a refuge near the mountains. Just like the Gold Armor."
"I won't go." announced Cygnus, to everyone's amazement again. "I will return to Siberia, where I trained, to speak with my Masters. Siberia is the place where most of those who have been banished by the Sanctuary are sent to serve their sentences."
"Do you think you can find something there?" asked Saori.
"If there really is something going on, they'll know." he said.
Saori stared at him in that hall that had a lower light and no one dared to say anything.
"I'll arrange the transport." she just said.
"Miss…" Shiryu began, putting herself in front of the group as well. "In that case, I'd like to go back to China to see my Master as well. He was part of the Order of the Sanctuary for many years as a watchman. Maybe he might know something."
After allowing Cygnus to return to his Masters, Saori knew whithin herself that she couldn't deny that to Shiryu. And how could she? She had promised herself to let them live their lives, even though she was scared for them.
"And I'm going with Shiryu!" Xiaoling said cheerfully, to a confused look from her friend. "I'm homesick, let me be. Will you make me dumplings?"
Shun and Seiya looked at each other before he announced.
"Then it's decided. Shiryu and Xiaoling go to China, Alice and Shun will stay with you in the mountain woods and I and mister Cygnus here are going to be cold in Siberia."
"Seiya?" Saori did not understand what he wanted with that plan and Cygnus let out a mocking smile.
"Don't you trust me, Pegasus?" asked Cygnus, bringing back the tension in the room.
There was no response.
"I don't need you to trust me." he said. "She does."
And then Cygnus walked out of the Common Room through the door leaving everyone with an elephant in the room. Seiya wanted to go out and punch him in the face, but Saori cut the mood by announcing that she would leave to organize all the transports. Not before grabbing the last pudding on the plate. Xiaoling was crazy with her.
As soon as the lady left, Shun went straight to Seiya.
"Are you crazy?"
"I need to understand who this idiot is. Either we understand each other or we kill each other." said Seiya, taking a deep breath. "And besides, I don't even know if I trust him the same way I trust you all."
"You're going to end up freezing to death." Xiaoling said.
Shun and Shiryu laughed at him.
The night dawned bringing the cold of the mountains.
Shun opened the glass door to a balcony and experienced the coolness of a moonlit night. The moon was reflecting enormously in the water lake that was beside the mountain refuge where they went to hide. A comfortable house, far from civilization and very hard to come by. Covered by treetops, the house was hidden in the woods. Only that water mirror was out in the open.
A night spectacle for Shun, still heavy at heart, but also tired of the madness that were the days inside the Mansion. The silence comforted him.
His gaze was beyond the trees, where a mountain range rose. A familiar horizon that brought a chill down his spine beyond the low temperature of the night. It was where the battle with the Black Saints had been and where Ikki, his sister, had fallen. Shun looked for the pendant on his chest and remembered that he had left it in her grave as a gift.
"That's the life of a Saint." he said, noticing that Saori was looking for words to start a conversation with him. "It hurts, but it's the life we have."
"It wasn't the life you chose." said Saori.
"It doesn't matter anymore. Now we have to make the best of the life we have." Shun replied, with a slight smile on his face. "Now, you better get inside, or she won't calm down."
Alice was sitting completely erect in the armchair, clearly pretending not to pay attention to Saori, but very worried about her being out of the house. Saori looked at Shun and smiled. He didn't understand that look.
She walked back into the house, Alice looked at her and turned her attention to a book she pretended to read. Saori surreptitiously grabbed a super fluffy pillow from a nearby armchair and threw it in Alice's face, who raised, outraged.
"Saori!"
Saori's face was priceless, Shun had never seen such a big smile on her face.
Alice picked up the pillow she was sitting on and threw it in her friend's face. Then came another, which Saori dodged and the two exchanged pillows for each other to Shun's despair. Saori laughed and Alice tried to contain her laughter, ashamed of Shun, but clearly at ease with her friend.
They looked at each other between contained laughs and if Shun had his Cloth, his Chains would feel the danger.
For the next moment he was the one being attacked by the two armies of plush pillows.
ABOUT THE CHAPTER: Another 'resting' chapter where the protagonists reflect on the events. Saori tells about the discovery of the Gold Cloth and Seiya suggests returning it to the Sanctuary, it was curious to create this dialogue to remove some inconsistencies. Keeping the tense atmosphere between Cygnus and the others is also important for the group to build up little by little. And it was a delight to write Shun with Saori and Alice. Shun is great!
NEXT CHAPTER: TO OUR MASTERS WITH LOVE
Shiryu and Hyoga arrive at their training sites to meet their Masters.