It was incredible, seeing sickly, bedridden little Celica free from the Twelve Year Sickness at last. While Eizen slept and recovered from Edna's Sub Lord pact, Cellie darted around like an insect, running and jumping and swinging objects around for the sheer joy of being able to move freely; the way she buzzed about wasn't too dissimilar from the way she'd acted as a hellion. Edna was more than happy to step back and let Velvet be the mom when it was time to try to put the little ball of energy to bed.
"I don't want to sleep!" Celica shouted as Velvet tried to calm her newly-cured daughter. "I've done nothing but sleep for ten years! Sleep is for the weak!"
"Your brother is sleeping, Cellie," Edna heard Velvet reason as she walked away. "Do you think he's weak?"
"Well…no…"
Outside, Edna found Zaveid leaning against a wall, his expression unreadable.
"Well," Edna said to him, taking a place by his side, "all's well that ends well, I guess."
"All's well for Cellie," Zaveid stated. "But nothing has ended."
"Wow," Edna remarked, "you're really serious right now."
"I'm the Prime Lord," Zaveid shrugged. "I gotta be serious sometimes."
"Two thousand years in this world, and I can still count on one hand the times I was sure hell was freezing over…but I'm pretty sure this is one of them," Edna commented.
Zaveid chuckled good-naturedly, but nothing more.
"What are you thinking about?" Edna asked after a moment.
"Niko's power," Zaveid replied gravely, all traces of humor vanishing from his face once more. "You didn't come in until after Lady Calamity did her thing, but before you showed up…she was toying with us. See, when we got to the shore…"
The Prime Lord spent several minutes describing the encounter with Niko before Edna's arrival in detail - her disbelief that they were really the Shepherd and Prime Lord, how casually she'd summoned an army of rock golems, the revelation that she could cast and withdraw her domain at will, how she'd clearly intentionally softened the blow of her Mystic Arte just enough that it wouldn't kill Eizen outright, her remarks about Eizen's ignorance and how she didn't want to kill him until he found his answer. When he was done recounting it all, Edna was silent for a minute; though she was able to keep her face as passive as ever, underneath, she felt sick.
"Huh," she finally managed. "I didn't know the Grand Poobah of Calamity could control their domain…"
"Yeah, me either," Zaveid growled. "And it puts us at an even bigger disadvantage. She could lie in wait for us, then knock us all out at once, and Eizen wouldn't be able to escape."
"She said she won't kill him yet," Edna reminded him.
"Forgive me if I don't entirely trust the word of the girl who made Mikleo dump his boyfriend's dead body in the middle of town just to make a statement," Zaveid retorted.
Edna reached for the plushie dangling from her umbrella and gave it a squeeze, tryong to suppress her concerns; she couldn't argue with that. "Well," she said slowly, "if Eizen acquires the spiritual powers of the elements, it won't matter whether Niko can control her domain or not - that's what the trials are for, after all. And now that he knows what we're up against, Eizen won't argue about taking the journey…Have you told him already?"
"I can't," Zaveid said, his tone pained. "My oath as Prime Lord prevents me from talking about…things."
"You took the same oath as Lailah?" Edna asked, surprise wiping away her worry for the time being. "I thought the time for subterfuge was past, and you could take some other oath."
"It's the traditional oath," Zaveid explained. "Me, I wanted an oath that would shave a thousand years off my life, but that's not what I got. Besides, that was the oath I made to find the ingredients for the Omega Elixir, so, y'know, I can't make the same oath more than once…"
"Wait, what?" Edna exclaimed. "How does that work?"
"In exchange for the ingredients for the Omega Elixir being out there to be found, and for me dedicating my time to finding them, a thousand years got taken off my life," Zaveid told her. Noticing her alarmed expression, he added, "Don't look at me like that, I've taken several oaths to shorten my life over the last five hundred years, whenever I can find an excuse to do so. It's…a relief, to know I won't have to live as long. Not something I regret."
Edna couldn't speak. She'd known by now, of course, how Zaveid was always secretly in pain - how he struggled with loneliness and grief, laughing so he wouldn't cry - but…to think that he actually wanted to die…any concerns about Niko's power paled in comparison to this revelation. Even if Edna would never be his girlfriend, Zaveid was family, and to know that someone in her family yearned for death…
"The point is, I can't tell Eizen about…things," Zaveid continued after a moment. "I'm not allowed to. But there's nothing keeping you quiet. Maybe when he wakes up, you can…"
"Yeah, I'll tell him about the trials," Edna managed, keeping her tone neutral even as her heart was in turmoil. "And, I gotta say, I appreciate how you don't burst out into nonsense every other second under this oath like Lailah did."
"I'm a man who knows how to keep his mouth shut," Zaveid smirked. "No need to say something else to keep my tongue busy."
Despite herself, despite everything, Edna couldn't help but laugh, if only for a few brief guffaws before containing her mirth. Zaveid was anything but someone who could keep his mouth shut - as far as she could tell, he just vomited whatever nonsense popped into his head. His smile told her that he'd been fully aware of how she would react to this assertion, and she smiled back at him.
"Hey," she said, poking him in the arm with her umbrella, "don't take any more oaths to shorten your life, okay? At least not unless I die? And I don't plan on dying anytime soon."
"Aw, Edna, babe, are you saying you'd miss me?" he teased.
"Surprisingly, yes," Edna replied flatly, though she kept smiling. "As family. So knock it off. How many years have you already cost yourself?"
"Um…about five thousand, I think," he shrugged.
"You idiot," she sighed. "Don't do it again. And, you know, you don't have to be miserable all the time."
His smile faltered, ever so slightly. He didn't respond, but Edna could hear what he thought of that, plain as day: Yeah, I do.
Silence stretched between them for a minute; above, the stars twinkled, as though they held the answers to questions neither of them could ask.
"Well…good night, then," Edna said. "I'm gonna rest inside Eizen for a bit."
"I'm going to stay out here and keep an eye on things," Zaveid told her, and he gave her a wink. "Sleep well, sweetheart. Glad to have ya as my Sub Lord."
"Yeah, yeah," Edna grumbled, but she smiled at him one more time before retreating into her unconscious vessel.
Misery can't be his fate, she thought as she drifted into a sort of sleep herself, surprised by how much she found herself caring for the pervy wind seraph - she really would never be his girlfriend, but she didn't want him to suffer, either. No one can be put on this earth just to be in pain. There has to be something…something…
~o~
Sleeping within a vessel wasn't the same for a seraph as sleeping while fully manifested; instead, it resulted in a sort of hybrid state between sleep and meditation, a semiconsciousness that was restful while still allowing for calm, reasoned thought. It wasn't quite as pleasant as real sleep, but Edna felt she needed to be in this state if she was going to sort out what to do about Zaveid. The fact that he'd opened up to her, however briefly, wasn't something she could ignore - he almost never showed his real feelings - and whether it was a cry for help or not, he was family. So, her mind calm and clear at the edge of sleep, she tried to sort out what to do.
There wasn't much to go on. Nothing from Zaveid's past could be undone, and sometimes Edna got a sense that there was even more to it than just the loss of his beloved Theodora, something she wasn't aware of. Short of agreeing to be his girlfriend, which she absolutely refused to even consider, though, there didn't appear to be any actual solutions. But maybe…maybe she could find a stopgap, at least, until something came up…
When Edna had finally had enough half-sleep and reached the only solution she could think of, Eizen was still unconscious, and she rose from within him to stand back outside the temporary home of the Rangetsu-Crowes. Dawn was breaking, and Zaveid was standing in the same position he'd been when she'd left him.
"How long until Eizen wakes up, do you think?" Edna asked, not bothering with greetings but starting on a neutral subject so as not to spook him.
"I give him a couple more hours at most," Zaveid replied. "Our boy's something special. You wouldn't happen to know why, would you?"
"I mean…I gave him my blessing when he was born," Edna shrugged. "Maybe that has something to do with it."
"You did what?" Zaveid gasped. "How come you never told me this?!"
"Does it matter?" Edna asked dully. "It's not as if I even know what my blessing is. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Hmm…" Zaveid smirked. "Maybe we should talk about how, since the treehouse is gone, my agreement to only flirt with you once a year isn't valid anymore? Because I could talk about that."
"You-!" Edna growled, but she suppressed her disgust; given what she was about to ask of him, the least she could do was be fair. "Fine," she said, "I guess that makes sense. No point trying to make home feel comfortable if we don't have a home anymore."
"Whoa, really?" Zaveid asked. "I expected you to put up a fight!"
"No, your reasoning is sound," Edna admitted. "It's unfortunate, but you're right. But since we're talking about breaking deals, are there any oaths you took to shorten your life that you can break?"
Zaveid flinched, but quickly recovered. "Nope," he answered, "they were all pretty cut-and-dry. Besides, I don't break oaths. That's not who I am."
"Zaveid the Oathkeeper," Edna muttered.
"That's me!" he said proudly.
Sounds from inside the priests' bunker told Edna someone else was awake, probably Celica, but she focused on Zaveid. "In that case, I want you to take an oath to extend your life, right now," Edna told him: "Take an oath that you won't take any more oaths to shorten your life, in exchange for living another three years."
"Three?" Zaveid repeated. "Why three?"
"Just to be safe," Edna replied readily, having anticipated some form of protest. "You're the Prime Lord now, idiot; we can't have you dying - or even struggling with the Call - in the middle of our quest to stop the Lord of Calamity. I don't expect our battle with her to last years, but you never know."
"Huh," Zaveid mused. "I guess that's fair." He sighed, as though the thought of living just a few more years was a tremendous burden. I have to help him, Edna found herself thinking. There must be something that can make him not hate being alive. "Very well," the wind seraph said at last, clasping a fist over his heart. "In exchange for three years added to my life, I give you my oath as a seraph, I will never, ever again make any oaths that cost me any amount of time in this world."
Mana crackled through the air as he bound himself to his vow, and Edna couldn't entirely contain a sigh of relief. "Good," she said. "At least we don't have to worry about you keeling over during our journey."
"Honestly, I don't think you did anyway," Zaveid remarked. "I'm only a little over two thousand years old, and I took five thousand off the end; it'd be pretty incredible if I only had barely more than seven thousand years to live when I first came into being, most seraphim live way longer than that."
"You never know," Edna repeated. "Isn't that what you always say?"
"True!" Zaveid chuckled.
The door burst open, and the little human whirlwind called Celica tore out of the building, hopping in place as she looked up at the seraphim like she couldn't bear to stand still.
"Uncle Zaveid! Auntie Edna!" she shouted; it was as though she had too much energy to speak at a normal volume. "Guess what guess what guess what? Eizen's awake! Come on, come see!"
Without even waiting for a response, the brunette girl ran back inside. Zaveid and Edna exchanged a glance, then followed.
Sure enough, Eizen was just sitting up as his seraphim came in. "Hey, guys," he said, tossing them a smile. "How long was I out?"
"Don't worry, it's only morning of the next day," Edna replied.
"Morning of the next day…That means we have a day and a half before Niko comes back," Eizen mused.
In the background, Celica was pestering Velvet to wake up, and the middle-aged woman rose reluctantly. "Cellie, dear, can you buy us some breakfast from the inn?" Velvet asked her chipper daughter. "Ask your uncle for some money, and to show you the way there."
"Wow, really?" Celica squeaked. Bounding over to Zaveid, she exclaimed, "Uncle Zaveid, can you show me how to get to the inn? I have to get breakfast for everyone!"
"Sure, I'll show ya the way," Zaveid grinned. "Try and keep up!"
He ran, and Celica sprinted after him, laughing. Edna smiled at how well Zaveid could handle a child with so much energy…then immediately stopped smiling when she remembered that that same man who was so good with kids was also so desperate to die.
"So…Cellie's all better, huh?" Eizen asked. "She really is…?"
"Yep," Edna replied, snapping herself back to the present. "It's a struggle to get her to stop moving, even to sleep at night."
"Good," Eizen sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I'm so glad she's going to be okay…"
"Eizen."
The Shepherd and his Sub Lord looked up to see Velvet, standing tall and wearing a loving smile.
"Listen," she told her son, "I'm want you to know that…I'm sorry. I know I've been useless since Niko turned. But you brought Celica back to me…to us, and I realize now that I should have had faith. Thank you. I won't doubt you again."
"Mom, it's okay," Eizen assured her, standing up to meet her eyes; he was almost taller than she was. "I know you've been through a lot, and the thought of losing your family again was…" He shook his head. "It's okay. I understand. And I'm glad that now you can breathe again, knowing that Cellie and I will be okay. I'll bring dad back next, and then Niko if I can. Everything will be fine, I promise."
Velvet nodded, then stepped forward into Eizen's hug, embracing him back as she smiled. She certainly looked more alive than she had in the last month or so, and Edna couldn't help a faint smile of her own. In saving Celica, Eizen saved his mother, too.
"Listen, baby brother," Edna said at last, breaking the peaceful silence, "there's something you need to know."
"What's that, big sis?" Eizen asked, pulling free of his mother's arms.
"You don't have the power you need to take down the Lord of Calamity just yet," Edna stated. "You have the blessing of Maotelus, but you'll need the blessings of the other Great Lords before you can combat a malevolent domain as strong as Niko's."
"The blessings of the Great Lords?" Eizen repeated. "But…wait, I'm confused. Am I the Shepherd, or not?"
"You are," Edna answered, "but you're more of a…a fledgeling Shepherd, I guess." She shrugged. "Traditionally, a new Shepherd would tour the continent, and in doing so meet the pope in the capital of the Rolance Empire, who would inform him or her of the ancient knowledge of the trials needed to achieve the Shepherd's full potential, but we don't have time for that. Zaveid can't tell you because he took the same oath as Lailah, but I know the deal. There are four shrines scattered across the continent, each one dedicated to either Hyanoa, Eumacia, Musiphe, or Amenoch; you have to go to each one with a seraph of the same element and complete a series of tests to obtain their blessings. Once you have all four, then you can stand up to Niko."
Eizen pondered this for a long, serious moment. "We don't have a fire seraph, though," he said at last, "and Uno can't join us or the barrier would break, so we don't have a water seraph, either. Is there any chance you know anyone who could help us?"
"Unfortunately, no," Edna replied. "You know as well as I do that all the Elysians are cowering in Elysia, and most of them are too soft to fight anyway. But maybe there will be a fire seraph and a water seraph in Rolance who will be willing to join us. In the meantime, the only thing we can do is take the two trials open to us now."
"Which would be earth and wind," Eizen nodded. "So, which of the four trials is the closest?"
"The closest trial to us is the water trial, a little to the northwest, that's the only one in the Kingdom of Hyland," Edna stated; "but without a water seraph, we can't take that one. All the other trials are along the far southwest coast of the Rolance Empire, each about as far from here as each other. Earth might be a bit closer."
"So we should head to Rolance now," Eizen concluded. He shook his head. "I don't like that we'll have to go such a long way, and take such a long time, letting Niko do Lords-know-what, even if it's to get the power to fight her domain…"
"We can't fight her now," Edna told Eizen; "Zaveid told me what happened, you know full well we can't stop her like this. We're lucky she went easy on you, then unleashed one of her little minions on us and left, and that that minion wasn't one of her dragons. I doubt we could take down a dragon with our current strength."
"Maybe not within her domain," Eizen admitted. "But if we could separate them, there might be a chance…"
"Listen, baby brother, you're really strong," Edna sighed, "and I know you've worked hard mastering your family's weird fighting style, but dragons and the Lord of Calamity aren't fights a single human can win, no matter how good they are with a sword. You need the full power of the Shepherd to save the world."
"I see…" Eizen said slowly, but he closed his eyes and assumed his thinking stance.
"Edna?" Velvet asked gently.
"What?"
"Can I…go with you?" inquired the Shepherd's mother. "Is there some chance…I mean…" She turned and grabbed her gauntlet from the nearby table. "I can fight. I've fought against dragons and gods before. May I join you?"
"You don't have the power of purification, mom," Eizen said tonelessly, still in his pose.
"Technically, a human who isn't a Shepherd can wield the power of purification by making a Squire's pact with the Shepherd's Prime Lord," Edna said, "but I don't think you're compatible, Velvet. You were a hellion once, so you're probably just as ineligible to be a Squire as you were to be a Shepherd. You can ask Zaveid when he comes back, but I doubt he'll say anything different."
"I see," Velvet said, setting her odd weapon back down with a heavy sigh. "It's just…it's not fair. I worked so hard, and went through so much, to be human again, but I'm still not human enough to save the world from my own child…"
"Anyone who knows what you went through has nothing but respect for your accomplishment," Edna told her drily. "But life isn't fair very often. Surely you know that by now."
"I do," Velvet admitted. "I just…I don't want my son to fight this battle alone."
"He's not alone," Edna stated. "I'm with him, and so is Zaveid. Besides, even if you could be a Squire, you need to stay here and take care of Celica. She needs a mom now that she's all better."
"You're right," Velvet conceded. "You're right, Edna."
"I'll be fine, mom," Eizen said, breaking his thinking stance. "Don't worry about me. Just look after Cellie."
Though she sighed, Velvet nodded. "I will."
"So, what have you decided, baby brother?" Edna asked him.
"We'll travel across the continent," Eizen declared, "and we'll stop at all the major settlements on the way, so we can give people hope and help anyone my sister has corrupted. The Shepherd's duty isn't just to quell the Lord of Calamity, it's also to protect the people from hellions and malevolence. Now that Ladylake is safe, I need to tend to everywhere else on the continent - the rest of the world is too far out of our way, we don't have time for the voyage, but at least I can visit the other settlements on Glenwood. Once we've been through Pendrago, we'll go to the shrines of Hyanoa and Eumacia."
"Sounds like a plan," Edna shrugged. "I'm game."
Two minutes later, Celica and Zaveid returned, the wind seraph actually using his powers just to keep up with the rambunctious child. Even when she ate, Celica couldn't sit still, and Edna was glad that they would be leaving soon.
Finally, with full stomachs, Edna and Zaveid bid their farewells and took their places within their vessel, and Eizen got to his feet.
"I have to go now," he told his mother and youngest sister. "I…don't know how long I'll be gone. You two stay safe here in the barrier, okay? Don't worry about me."
"You can't tell me not to worry about you," Velvet said, her eyes glistening. "Of course I'm going to worry."
"I know," Eizen began.
"Big brother?"
"Huh?" Eizen looked down at his youngest sister, who was hopping in place.
"Can I go with you?" she asked. "I'm not sick anymore, and I'm a Rangetsu - I know I can fight all the bad guys if I get a Squire's pact!"
"Celica…" Eizen smiled fondly and got down on one knee to be at her eye level. "I know you'll be a great wielder of the Rangetsu style someday," he told her, "but it takes a lot of practice. I promise I'll train you when I come home."
"Train me while we travel together!" Celica insisted. "Come on, big brother, let me go with you!"
Zaveid's fond chuckle echoed within Eizen, audible only to his vessel and Sub Lord, while Edna sighed exasperatedly. Eizen didn't waver.
"I wish I could bring you with me," he told his overeager sister, and it was hard to tell how much of a lie this was. "But right now, I need you to do something really important, something even I can't do."
Cellie was young, but not that young; she folded her arms and pouted. "I'm serious," she whined.
"So am I, Celica," Eizen stated, and Edna was surprised by the gravity of his tone as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "I need you to do something for me. If you don't, I might not be able to save the world."
Slowly, Cellie's pout faded, as Eizen's stern expression began to convince her that she wasn't just being shunted to the side. "What is it?" she finally asked.
"I need you to take care of mom," her brother told her. "Stay here with her, and keep her safe."
"But-!"
"Listen, Celica," Eizen went on, raising his voice to override her protests. "Niko tried to use you against me, and she's probably going to do the same thing with dad. If she has a chance, I'm sure she'd take mom and use her too. I need someone to stay here and make sure that that doesn't happen even if something goes wrong with the barrier." Celica's eyes widened. "You're the only person I can trust to look after mom, Celica, so can I count on you to protect her? Can your Shepherd entrust you with this task?"
Lifting her chin as high as it could go, Cellie clasped her fist over her heart. "Of course!" she promised. "I swear by my blades and by my blood, mom will be safe with me! I'll make sure nothing gets her, not even if the barrier gets taken down! I'll take on Niko and her dragons all by myself if she tries to take her!"
"Good," Eizen laughed while giving a sigh of relief that Edna didn't think was entirely feigned. "That's a huge weight off my shoulders; now, I can go save the world without worry. Thank you, Celica. I know mom will be safe as long as you're protecting her."
Even as he got to his feet, his sister started bouncing around the room again, delighted to have been given such an important task by the Shepherd himself. Velvet had her fingers over her lips; it was clear that she, like Edna, understood Eizen wasn't entirely just making up a reason to keep Celica out of harm's way.
"Eizen…"
"I don't know how long I'll be gone," Eizen said before she could say anything. "Please, stay within the barrier; I need you to stay safe. No matter how long I'm away, you can't come after me."
"I know," Velvet sighed. Grasping her left hand, she ran a thumb over the scar that slashed through her palm: all that remained of her own days as Lord of Calamity. Gazing at the old wound, her golden eyes were sad. "I know," she repeated softly. "If I can't fight by your side, then I have to stay here, inside the barrier, where…where Phi, and Celica, can keep me safe, so Niko can't capture me and use me against you, like you said." The middle-aged woman shook her head, squeezing her eyes against tears. "Niko…she wanted to become the Lord of Calamity to save Celica's life, but now that she's achieved her goal, she gambled Celica's life in hopes of breaking your spirit. She's not thinking like a human anymore…" Her grip on her scarred hand tightened. "I know what that's like, all too well. So I know, I have to stay here. But…" She lifted her gaze to her son again. "I'll worry," she whispered.
"I know," Eizen said, putting a hand on her arm. "I'm sorry it has to be like this, but…it'll be okay. I have to do this."
"I promised I would trust you," Velvet said. "And I do. Just…please be careful, sweetie."
"I will, mom," Eizen promised, stepping forward and enveloping her in a tight hug. She hugged back, not quite tightly enough to hide the fact that she was shaking. "You be careful too, though, okay? Stay within the barrier, and stay with Celica."
"I will," Velvet promised.
They parted, and Eizen started for the door.
"Eizen?"
"Yeah?" Eizen looked back.
Velvet's golden eyes glistened. "Remember the forgotten maxim," she all but whispered.
Eizen blinked, then nodded. "'Don't despair, no matter what,'" he recited. "I know. I won't."
"You say that now…" Velvet muttered sadly; clearly, like Niko, she believed Eizen's certainty was founded on his ignorance. They weren't exactly wrong, but Edna had to shield her vessel and Prime Lord from feeling her irritation all the same - would it kill anyone to have a little faith in her baby brother? I know him better than anyone, she thought privately, and if I thought there was even a chance the ugliness of the world would deter him, I would have talked him out of this from the start. Even when he figures out how the world works, he'll be okay. He won't end up like Shepherd Artorius, not even if Niko captures and kills Sadie and makes him watch.
In fact…if she did do that, it'd be good riddance…
"I love you, mom," Eizen was saying. "Stay safe."
"I love you too."
As Eizen reached out and turned the handle of the priests' bunker, his ears picked up on Celica's excited squeak behind him: "Hey mom, until dad comes home, how about you teach me some of your moves?"
Laughter followed Eizen outside. "Okay," came his mother's voice, her tone lighthearted and teasing as though nothing was wrong, "but I have to warn you, my techniques are formidable even for a Rangetsu!"
"Cool!"
Exhaling deeply, Eizen left his family behind. At long last, carrying his seraphim family, he started walking through Ladylake, heading for the gates. Though the journey ahead would be long, Edna knew, there was something refreshing about the beginning of a-
"Hey! Eizen, bro, wait up!"
At the bottom of the steps to the marketplace, Eizen turned to see his best friend David running after him, and Edna and Zaveid arose from within to meet the boy. David had a bright, handsome young face, with tousled brown hair and eager gray eyes. He was a nice kid by anyone's standards, if a bit hapless, and though Edna would rather ignore him and continue to the bridge, she couldn't begrudge Eizen for stopping for him.
"David," Eizen greeted formally. "It's good to see you, my friend, but I have to go."
"C'mon, man, don't be like that," David chuckled. "I know you're the Shepherd now, but we're still buds, right?"
"Yes, of course," Eizen said, his tone still unnaturally stiff. "But it is my duty to protect the people, including you. I must-"
"Seriously, dude, cut it," David said, punching him lightly in the arm, and at last Eizen broke his tense stance and allowed himself to smile. "Drawing that sword from the altar didn't make you fifty years older all of a sudden."
"You're right," Eizen sighed, still smiling. "But listen, as much as I'd love to hang out, I really do have to go. There are some things I need to do before I can take Niko down, and the sooner I take care of her, the better."
"Let me go with you," David said.
"Huh?" Eizen blinked.
"I know that Shepherds can have Squires," David told him. "Why don't you make me your Squire? I can fight, you've taught me a few of your old man's moves, and-"
"No," Eizen stated, taking a step back. "No, David, I won't have any Squires. No one else should have to suffer for my sister's madness."
"I'm serious!" David insisted. "Come on, Eizen, let's take this journey together, whatever it is you have to go do. We always do everything together!"
"Not always," Eizen said wistfully.
"Then let's make up for the times we didn't!" David said. "You're my best friend, man. Don't leave me behind."
"I just want you to be safe," Eizen told him.
"I can take care of myself," David responded.
Sighing heavily, Eizen turned to Zaveid. "What do you think, uncle?" he asked.
Zaveid frowned very seriously and walked right up to be nose-to-nose with the human boy. He stared silently for a minute, then walked around the nervous David slowly, appraising every inch of him. Finally, the wind seraph lit a white ember in his hand and placed it against David's forehead; David flinched, but didn't pull away.
"His resonance is a bit low," Zaveid said at last. "It might take a little while of sharing your resonance before he can armatize. But he is definitely pure enough to be a Squire, there shouldn't be any trouble forging the pact if you decide to do it, and with the minimum resonance being more than enough to see seraphim nowadays, there shouldn't be any real danger to you from the bond either." Stepping back at last, he folded his tanned arms. "I say it's up to you, Shepherd. I'll make the pact if you ask me to."
"Come on," David pleaded, "let me fight with you."
For a moment, Eizen didn't reply; he didn't take his thinking stance, but Edna could tell he was calculating. Finally, he turned to Zaveid.
"Uncle," he said, "give me the Sacred Blade."
"Huh?"
"Give me the Sacred Blade," Eizen repeated.
"Uh…okay." From within his semicorporeal being, Zaveid drew the dull, ancient sword and handed it to Eizen, clearly as clueless about where this was going as Edna was.
"David," Eizen said, "if you can fight well enough, I'll make you my Squire. Here." He drew his precious katana and held it out to his friend. "You take my sword, and I'll use the Sacred Blade as a handicap. We'll spar, and if you can beat me, or last more than two minutes without me disarming you, you can join me."
"Sweet!" David spared one grin as he carefully took hold of the katana, then steeled his expression and took a defensive stance. "You're on!"
Eizen crouched, preparing himself for battle. For a moment, he was all but still, shifting the sword in his hand as though testing its weight and balance, while David stood ready to counterstrike. The kid's form wasn't bad, Edna thought, but having seen what Eizen could do when he went all-out, she didn't have to watch to know what the results would be.
Suddenly, Eizen stepped forward, swinging the Sacred Blade a bit wildly, obviously unused to controlling such a heavy weapon. David managed to block it, but Eizen stayed on the offensive, quickly adjusting, and six clashes of metal on metal later, the katana was on the cobblestones, the Sacred Blade at David's throat. Eizen wasn't even breathing heavily.
"So," David panted, "all those sparring matches…you were just going easy on me, huh?"
"I'm sorry," Eizen said, holding the pose. "But if you can't hold your own against me, you won't be anything but a burden in a real fight. You have to stay here, where I know you're safe."
He's taking this whole "standing alone" thing a little too seriously, Edna thought. Not that he's wrong, but…
"I understand," David sighed. "We made a deal, and I couldn't deliver. It's fine. You…you go and be the Shepherd. But I'll be here cheering for you every step of the way."
"Thanks," Eizen told his best friend with a genuine smile. "That means a lot to me."
"Hey, hellion-spawn!"
The sudden, furious voice broke the moment, and from the top of the stone steps, a young woman with curly golden hair tied back in a knot and a two-headed battleax at her hip stormed over to where the two friends were parting. Edna couldn't contain a sigh of irritation, and not just because of her low opinions of the girl; how many people were going to stop them before they managed to leave the city?
"What do you think you're doing, attacking one of our citizens?" Sadie demanded of Eizen as he lowered the Sacred Blade. "Have you already turned your back on the Shepherd's duty? Typical of someone like you," she spat.
"Hey, take it easy!" David exclaimed, stepping in to push her away from where she was trying to get in Eizen's face. "I asked to be his Squire, and he told me he'd make the pact if I could last in a sparring match with him for two minutes or longer, that's all. He wasn't attacking me."
"Oh really?" Her brown eyes turned on Eizen again as he handed the Sacred Blade back to Zaveid and retrieved his katana, an icy flame igniting in their depths. "Is that your challenge, then? Anyone who can last in a fight with you can be your Squire?"
"Uh…"
"Then why not take me on?" Sadie sneered, drawing her battleax. "I'm up for the challenge. Make me your Squire!"
"Sadie, I, er…"
"No one would trust you with this world's safety," the golden-haired girl sneered; "take me as a Squire or admit you're useless. Is it true that the Lord of Calamity threw you around like a ragdoll yesterday?"
Eizen winced, and Edna stiffened. "That wasn't his fault," she told the belligirent human coldly. "As Lord of Calamity, Niko exudes a powerful malevolent domain; we seraphim are rendered unable to manifest within it, and any human bearing the flames of purification is affected likewise. If you'd been a Squire, you wouldn't have fared much better."
Sadie's contemptuous expression softened as she turned her icy brown eyes on Edna, and her tone was polite as she said, "Be that as it may, Lady Seraph, clearly this hellion-spawn isn't strong enough to stop the Lord of Calamity by himself. Surely, the more help you have, the better?"
Disturbingly, Edna couldn't argue with that. Beside her, Eizen shook himself, and Edna winced; despite accepting Sadie's rejection, she knew he was still crazy about her, though to this day, she couldn't fathom why. "It's…it's not that simple," he managed at last. "Zaveid, help me here, would you?"
"Sure thing." Zaveid strode forward, and Sadie put away her weapon, straightening up nervously.
Once again, Zaveid said nothing as he appraised Sadie, first from the front, then walking around her to look her up and down, though Edna thought he took more than a little longer than he had with David. Then, he lit a silver flame in his hand and placed it against her forehead, in response to which she jerked and gasped.
"She's got good resonance," Zaveid remarked, "more than Davey-boy over there; she should armatize just fine. And she's not generating any malevolence, either, which is kind of surprising for someone so judgmental."
Sadie opened her mouth indignantly but didn't speak.
"Apart from her nasty personality, she'd make a fine Squire!" Zaveid concluded as he stepped back. "But, it's up to you, Eizen."
"Edna?" he asked, turning to her for the first time. "What do you think?"
This was not an easy question to answer, and Edna pondered it for a minute. As much as she disliked Sadie, as the girl herself had said, some real help in battle would never be unwelcome, considering what they were up against. And really, what were the odds that this uppity bigot could stand against Eizen in battle for more than two minutes anyway? "You might as well give her a shot," Edna answered at last. "Same rules as with David, but you get to use your katana since she has her own weapon. If she can last that long, well, we need all the help we can get, so long as it's useful."
Eizen nodded. "Very well," he stated, turning to Sadie and drawing his katana. "I will give you an opportunity to become my Squire. Draw your weapon."
Sadie smirked, pulling out her ax once more and flipping it over the back of her hand. It was a one-handed weapon, though the double-sided head was massive; it crossed Edna's mind that Sadie had probably trained with that thing a lot to twirl it around so effortlessly. But a few cheap tricks won't win a fight.
They stood still for a long minute, neither of them moving. Then, Eizen slowly took a step to his left. Sadie mirrored his movement, and they circled each other, both their faces frozen in concentration.
"Clock's ticking!" Edna called from the sidelines.
"Not it's not, we haven't started yet!" Eizen countered, sounding alarmed.
"You're moving, aren't you?" Edna pointed out.
"Grr…" Eizen's jaw clenched, and Edna wondered if he really had it in him to swing a blade at his crush. A moment later, her fears proved groundless, as he darted forward and slashed with his katana.
Sadie lifted the side of her ax and blocked his blow effortlessly.
With a shout, Eizen started swiping at her, dancing with his blade so fast that Edna couldn't see him. What Edna could see, however, was Sadie blocking his swings with her ax - though she wasn't quite as fast as he was, she was still remarkably fast, and her weapon's wide head gave her an advantage. After a few more seconds of blocks without a single counterattack, Edna suddenly understood what Sadie was doing: running out the clock. She didn't have to disarm Eizen, she just had to last a certain amount of time, so she was focusing on that instead of taking risks. She's clever, Edna admitted privately. And we need a human on our team who doesn't only think with their weapon in the middle of battle.
Silently, despite the human girl's judgmental heart, Edna found herself rooting for Sadie as Eizen grew frantic, his blows becoming sloppy as he desperately tried to get through Sadie's defense before time was up; Edna wondered if he understood what the older girl was even doing. In any case, blocking him just got even easier, and Sadie defended herself stoically, always keeping her ax between herself and Eizen's sword.
Finally, Eizen stepped back, panting, as Sadie's lips curled into a sneer. He closed his eyes, focusing, then one-two-three, he struck the ax, feinted, and jabbed the point of his sword against Sadie's throat.
"I win," he said, breathing heavily.
"Yeah, but she won the challenge," Edna stated.
"Huh?" Eizen turned back to her, his golden eyes wide with alarm.
"It's been a least two minutes," Edna remarked tonelessly.
"Even if you take out the part when you weren't exchanging blows, she definitely won," Zaveid added. Edna wasn't so sure of this, but she didn't question him.
"I defeated your challenge, hellion-spawn," Sadie said haughtily. "Now make me your Squire. Or are your vows as worthless as your blood?"
"My vows are bound by my blood," Eizen stated, though he couldn't muster a cold tone even in response to Sadie's nastiness. "As you wish. Zaveid, how does this work?"
"Each of you, give me one of your hands," Zaveid instructed. "Eizen, once I finish my incantation, give Sadie a true name in the ancient tongue, and the pact will be complete."
Eizen nodded, and Sadie held out her hand almost nervously as Eizen clasped one of Zaveid's hands with determination. Zaveid took Sadie's proffered limb, then closed his eyes.
"A new bud forms on the holy branch," he intoned, his dramatic disposition lending itself well to the ritual. "Its flowers bring fruit. Its fruit begets seeds. The circle of destiny turns once more! Give life unto the will of the Shepherd, and let it be proof of their bond. Thy true name as a Squire shall be…" He turned to Eizen expectantly.
"Er," Eizen stammered, his ears pink, and Edna got the sense that he wasn't prepared for some reason. After stuttering a few more moments, he managed to blurt out, "Bimiuv Kau!"
Really? Edna thought as the pact was sealed, mana passing over the new Squire. "Bimiuv"? That was really the best you could do? You'll never hear the end of this…
Once the power of purification was sealed into Sadie's blood, she stormed over to Eizen. "Did you just call me a cow?" she demanded.
"Uh…Bimiuv Kau," Eizen corrected. "'Kau' means 'Sadie' in the ancient tongue."
Sadie frowned in thought, and Edna could almost see her doing the math in her head. "So it does," she grumbled at last. "What about 'Bimiuv', what does that mean?"
"Er…" Eizen's face flushed a deep red. "It, uh…Well, you see, it, um…it, er, means…um…'warrior'," he stammered.
"Seriously?" Edna asked flatly, stepping over to stand by his side. "If you're going to lie that badly, you might as well tell her you don't know what it means. But more importantly…" She turned to the belligerent human. "How do you not know the ancient tongue?" she demanded. "I thought you said you trained your whole life to be a Shepherd."
"I did!" Sadie exclaimed defensively. "I trained very hard! And I do know the ancient tongue, I…I just can't translate it off the top of my head very well."
"It's a good thing you didn't draw the Sacred Blade, then," Edna remarked. "Imagine if you'd become the Shepherd and found someone you wanted to make your Squire, but couldn't because you couldn't come up with a true name for them on the spot."
"You're right," Sadie said, bowing her head. "I neglected that aspect of my training. I beg your forgiveness for my transgression."
"Since you're not apologizing for your actual transgression, apology not accepted," Edna snipped.
"Aw, don't be like that," Zaveid told Edna, and he turned a grin on Sadie. "Welcome aboard, Bimiuv Kau; it's good to have you."
"The pleasure is all mine, my Lord Seraph," Sadie told him.
"The name's Zaveid," Zaveid told her, "and this here is Edna."
"It is an honor to serve you, Lord Zaveid," Sadie said, only bowing even more, "and you as well, Lady Edna. I will do my very best to be worthy of the power you've granted me, and to serve you with all of my being."
"Uh…" Edna and Zaveid exchanged a look, one that made it clear they were both thinking the same thing: Oh great, she's one of those people…
From the sidelines, David laughed, and he walked over to cuff Eizen on the shoulder. "Good luck with that, man," he told the young Shepherd. His smile faded, and he added, more seriously, "I mean it. Good luck. With everything."
"Thanks," Eizen responded. "Please, stay safe. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Do what you gotta do," David said. "See you."
"See you," Eizen said as his best friend trotted off.
"Well," Zaveid cleared his throat, "we should get going."
"Where are we to go?" Sadie asked him.
"We're going to stop by Marlind, then head into the Rolance Empire," Eizen answered; "once there, we'll help anyone who's been having trouble with the Lord of Calamity, then head for the shrines of earth and wind to take the trials of Eumacia and Hyanoa."
"Trials?" Sadie questioned as they started walking for the gates out of Ladylake.
"I'll explain on the way," Edna told her. And if we're lucky, I'll get to teach you about more than just the trials of the Shepherd…
Trophy earned for this chapter: [image of a battleax] "The Girl With Golden Hair" - Proof that a certain someone has joined you for your quest. She doesn't like you very much right now, but maybe battling together with her will bring mutual understanding.
