Chapter Nine
By Genavere
The night was almost over by the time Munto stumbled into the royal bedroom. Ryuely had gone to rest hours earlier, but Torche had stayed with him. Now older and stronger in his abilities to be able to maintain Ryuely's mirror after it had been created for him, he helped continue the search.
When they both collapsed due to exhaustion, he had finally sent the young trainee away and contemplated what more he could do. Over a week of searching, and he was no closer to finding her than the day she disappeared. It left him with emotions he had not felt since the Akuto Crisis before he had glimpsed Yumemi for the first time.
No matter how hard he tried, there seemed to be something blocking him on all sides, just like before.
Collapsing onto the bed, he turned and placed a hand on the side of the bed she normally used. The only signs of use came from him lying on the mattress now, but her scent was still there.
As a child, when his parents went back to the Akuto, he laid on their bed for hours, wrapped in the blankets they once used and clung to his mother's pillow as if it were her. He had kept begging them to come back, crying at the thought of being alone with the weight of everything bearing down on him.
After his tears had ceased and the realization came that they would never come back, his shell hardened then and he stopped smiling.
Feeling that same weight, he could not help but pull Yumemi's pillow from its place and wrap himself around it. He just needed this moment of weakness...to just imagine her safe in his arms without being in harms way.
The scent relaxed him, allowing his exhausted body a chance to rest, but his mind still searched. The memories of her childhood came forward, but they soon were replaced with her smiling and their times together. Together, they moved from familiar scenery to a darkness that surrounded them, their bodies turning to their respective gold and blue hues.
"Yumemi," he caressed her cheek gently. "I cannot find you. It is as if you disappeared completely."
She gave him a soft smile and touched his face. Leaning into her palm, his eyes closed and a pained look marred his features. How desperately he needed this touch.
"Yumemi, please." He opened his eyes to take in her features, but she was gone. The warmth of her hand with her. Panicked, he spun around. "Yumemi!"
She had to be close. He could not lose her again! Searching the darkness, he felt it begin to tighten around him and an air of claustrophobia hit.
"Yumemi!"
He stilled, holding his breath as a wave of pure Akuto energy suddenly filled him. There was only one source he knew that felt like this, even with the Lower World connected to the Heavens.
He turned quickly and saw a small pinpoint of blue light. His heart clenched.
Munto.
Eyes snapping open, he awoke. Yumemi!
###
She did it.
Finally, after so many attempts, of more needles being put in her legs and feet, the last wave of crystallization attempts had been enough. In relief, she let out a ragged breath through the pain in her chest.
The entire room was full of crystals. They sprouted all around her, some reaching for the ceiling, others towards the outer walls. Behind a large clumping, one large crystal had pushed through the wall and large cracks spread around it. The barrier that had kept her so isolated in this prison failed and could not pierce the bridge the crystal created by breaking through it. On the other side, she felt the presence she had craved reaching for her.
Munto.
"Crystallization has halted at forty-three percent, Commander," a tech reported a bit timidly. "Do you wi-"
"Enough!" This had gone on long enough and Gntarl was tired of this girl denying him. If he did not get her power, his own would be taken from him, and he rather risk everything than endure that humiliation again.
From the wall behind him, he grabbed the void staff and decided then that this was the final straw. If she would not obey, then he would take it all from her by force.
Yumemi!
She could not help the soft cry of relief she felt at hearing his voice, even if it was only through their connection. He had been searching for her this whole time. There had been no doubt in her mind that he would have, but with the barrier, she did not know what he would have been able to feel.
There was so much she wanted to tell him, to show him, but what she needed to do figure out what to show him for her location. Besides her cell and this room, there was nothing she had seen. The lack of windows left her in a prison without any sunlight, something her body and mind craved. There had to be something she could give him...
The guards, she realized. They always talked while she was in her cell at what she could only figure was night time. What they talked about gave her more information then they could ever know and she knew what to tell him.
Munto, the disap-
Her eyes widened in shock.
Gntarl stood right in front of her, holding the staff she had seen the first day. Lower lip quivering, she stared at the top of the staff as it was pushed further into her midsection, just under her ribs. The white fabric around it blossomed with red.
She let out a small cry, her body shaking. Slowly, her eyes raised up to meet his.
They looked at each other in confusion.
His confusion turned to suspicion and he stared at her stomach, where he had aimed to stab the tip of the staff. When the tip had come close to the skin there, it had felt like a shield had deflected the weapon until it came just under her ribs.
A soft glow ebbed away under the wrap that covered her, but there were enough tears and holes in it now, he had no issues taking a piece and ripping it from her to expose her stomach.
The Akuto magic he felt there made his lip curl. "What is this?"
A memory came to him through his anger. He had been watching the royal couple and preparing for his attack, and he had seen Munto do something to her that night. He had seen them do quite a bit that night.
The realization of what that spell meant made his blood boil.
"You're pregnant..." He snapped his eyes to her face, watching her pant through her shock of being stabbed. "Is this the reason for your disobedience?"
His hands tightened on the staff. "No matter, your actions have forfeited both of your lives this day unless you give me your power."
The staff was pushed deeper and he triggered his own Akuto to activate its power.
Throwing her head back, she gasped, unable to breath, to scream. A cold suction inside of her seemed to take any warmth she held. The magic around her womb struggled to stay, to keep protecting its valuable treasure. "M-Mun-to...!"
An unsettling cold and darkness crept over her and a true fear of dying gripped her heart. Death could not come yet!
Dropping her head, she stared at the clear container that had previously held only Akuto shards in it. A brilliant light shown from it now, illuminating her and Gntarl in the golden light. It brimmed full of the pure Akuto from her core even as he pulled more from her, determined to take every last drop.
Snap
Her eyes caught the sight of a small crack in the glass and some of the energy began to seep from it. Yet, it seemed she was the only one to notice.
After a minute, the staff was pulled from her chest and warm liquid began to ran down her stomach.
"Yes...Yes!" Gntarl clutched the staff in front of him, staring in awe at the captured essence he had been striving to get his hands on for so long. It was finally his! "Take her back to the cell. We have what we needed from her for now."
Techs moved around her and pulled her from her restraints. Hands pressed a bandage to her chest and began wrapping it to keep her from bleeding out.
Through a hazy eye, she watched him wave the staff around himself, performing moves similar to what she had seen her brother do with a new toy. The weapon he held, though, was stronger than what any of them could fathom, and that cold feeling in her chest intensified.
She could not let him have that...Using what she could, she clenched her hand quickly, ignoring the needle, and urged an illusion on the crystal container to look empty again.
The cuff was snapped back on her ankle just as she finished.
The bright illumination of the Akuto faded slowly, startling Gntarl. Bringing it closer to his face, he looked at the crystal, trying to see where his power had just gone, but there was nothing. Just the Akuto shards from before.
Disbelief welled inside of him. It had been there. He had seen and felt it, but now it was gone! Only one person had the power to take it away from him yet again.
He glared at the girl. "What did you do? What did you do?!" His rage boiled over and the techs quickly scattered as he charged towards her with the staff held high.
It came down hard on her leg then again on her shoulder. She could only manage a whimper as she tried to curl around herself. The tip cut her arm deeply and she wondered if he would beat her to death. There was nothing she could do if he decided to do so.
"Commander!" One of the techs shouted from their hiding spot, they were all hiding in fear. "Please restrain yourself, that staff is extremely dangerous, even without the Akuto power!"
The blows stopped, but the ragged breathing above her expressed how on edge he truly was.
"Take her back to the cell," he growled, slamming the end of the staff down by her head. A clear threat she understood too well. As hands gripped her, she tried to reach out for that comfort she felt earlier, but even with the opening, she had nothing more to give to grasp it.
