The Aeon and the Star

-GoldenEagle

Author's Notes:Yay! This part came out sooner! *claps* This was a fun chapter, though I'm rather repulsed by one of my own characters... You'll know who soon enough. But, please review! PLEASE!!! I'm dying here! I'm going to start putting in little sections that tell what happened last time, all right? Just in case someone needs it...

Last time... Cassiel is pulled from the cage for unknown reasons while Evadne wakes up to find her rescuer, a boy named Evan. Traipsing around while he's asleep, Evadne finds that he's a Zaibach soldier just about the time he wakes up and catches her in her scavenging...

Chapter Seven

It wasn't until dawn of the next day that Nodin and Tanara were let out of the stuffy cage and allowed to look about. Tanara had bolted out of the confinement almost immediately, ready to find, and save, the girl from the Mystic Moon. Nodin, on the other hand, was strangely calm, stretching his lithe body out before he set out slowly after his female counterpart.

"Where is she?" Her voice was frantic, afraid, panicked. "Cassiel! Cassiel!"

"I'm right here- Shit, what the hell are you?" Tanara spun around to meet the tired eyes of Cassiel. Her jaw dropped. Nodin followed her gaze apathetically. The only sign of interest he showed was the raising of two white ears.

He then shrugged and went back to comb out the tangles in his hair with his claws. "Why am I not surprised?" He asked dully.

"Egh, I spent all that time stuck in a cage with... with... those?" Cassiel visibly shuttered. She was in a fairly long coat, and that seemed to be about all. It hung around her mid thigh. She was casually sucking on a cigar, something that only one of the bosses could have given her. One of the men came up behind her, a scruffy looking man in his mid thirties, and wrapped his arms around her thin waste before delicately kissing her long neck before smirking up to the two cat people. Cassiel carried one of her own little smiles, as well. She turned her head to the side slightly and gave the man a look. "Not right now, Ty. I need to talk to my friends." This seemed to amuse the other figure to no end and he left them.

"You, you slept with him?" Tanara asked, sounding quite horrified by the thought, as soon as the man had left the scene completely.

Cassiel seemingly ignored the question, circling the two felines, looking slightly appalled and interested at the same time. It was a few moments before she finally did take note of the catgirl's inquisitions. "Oh, not just him." She replied with an edge of pride in her voice.

"Hey, a traveling prostitute. How fitting." Nodin spoke sarcastically, smiling quite smugly up to Cassiel. Tanara seemed to be in some sort of a stupor, staring ahead dully.

The black haired girl snarled back at the catboy. "At least I'm not stuck in that horribly filthy cage with the likes of you."

"No, you're just stuck in the horribly filthy beds of scum. Way to go from a bad situation to one that's even worst."

There was a long moment in which a look almost close to that of shame crossed Cassiel's face, but then it was gone, and she was smiling serenely down on the two crouching cats. "You're just jealous. Jealous cause I used what I have to get ahead."

"Get ahead? How is becoming a whore getting ahead?" Nodin had finally lost his cool, and was now on his feet, facing the girl that was only draped in a coat.

This only seemed to make Cassiel more at ease. "Females have been below men since the beginning of time. The only way to pull ahead, from a low position to one that will someday be higher, is through our power over men. And the only power we have over men is the control of their sex drive, which happens to control a lot of a man's life. Here's an example. Some girl ends up in some place she's never been before as a slave, someone who would be sold time and time again, never free. One night, she's offered a chance to take advantage of her owners, to pull ahead. She takes the opportunity. Now, she's no longer a slave, but someone with the advantages of a partner. Next time, when she reaches a town, she's not bound like a slave, but rather treated and loved like royalty, and so she has the freedom to go where she wishes without any questions asked. She walks away in broad daylight, free. That simple. An escape. And then she has the chance to find a way home."

"You're disgusting." It was Tanara's voice, one filled with a deep disgust, and deep hate and resentment. "You're insane."

Cassiel laughed at her, but the noise sounded almost desperate to Nodin's ears. "Yeah, and now I'm in more control than you'll ever be. Though, I can't blame you. What man would want a cat?"

*************

His grip had tightened on her wrist, a sharp pain that jumped up her arm and clouded out all her senses. "Please, please don't kill me..." It was a pathetic whimper, one that Evadne couldn't repress.

Evan blinked at her once, twice, before releasing her and grabbing the sword from the ground where she had dropped it. "Now why the hell would I do that?" He asked, sounding extremely tired. He reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers as he placed his sword on the ground, on the opposite side of his body from Evadne.

"You're a Zaibach. Why wouldn't you?" Asked the silver haired girl quite quizzically as she rubbed the wrist that had been in his grip just moments before.

He glanced up at her sharply. "Just because I'm a Zaibach doesn't mean I'm going to chop every innocent person I come across into tiny, unidentifiable pieces. I only do that on my bad days." He smiled up at her quite lamely. "Besides, I'm Asturian."

She stared at him as if there was something wrong with him. "Asturian? But what are you doing with Zaibach?"

"I wasn't kidding you when I told you I was of the Asturian Corsins, though we're not even close to being nobility. I used to fence and other such stuff for money at the festivals in Palas. A man, a recruiter from Zaibach, stumbled across me and offered me a chance to join their army. Said that if I passed a few special tests, physical and mental, I could even join a growing group of elite soldiers. I was rather doubtful. I knew how to read quite well, and I read enough things to easily pass the mental tests, but I was paranoid because of all the stories I had heard about Zaibach and the horrible people there. It was another month before anyone else came out to try to recruit me. It was this girl, a beautiful, smart, brilliant, sexy girl named Catylin Morin." He seemed to daze off at this slightly, looking up to the brightening sky. Evadne had forgotten she was cold and seemed to be listening very intently to his story. "She told me of the new cause of Zaibach, of how the new emperor, Emperor Damar, was currently working to bring together his divided kingdom, of re-industrializing their country. She gave me papers, gave me proof, and then told me that if I joined, I would become part of the Privileged, led by a young, new, brilliant man named Keahi Laramie. Strategos Laramie."

"The Privileged." Evadne spoke quietly, her gaze focusing in on Evan's. "The Dragonslayers, of coarse." She spoke rather sharply.

Evan again looked up to her, leaning back on his elbows, looking completely at ease. "A lot like the old Dragonslayers, yes, with fifteen, but nothing like that. We don't go to conquer lands, we're trained to protect Zaibach, to settle feudal battles among the small states our emperor is trying to bring peace to. We're not training for war, Evadne Schezar. Quite the opposite. We're training on how to avoid wars from ever beginning."

"We?" She asked skeptically. "So, you chose to become one of these 'Privileged'? And that's where you're heading?"

"Yes, to take my reserved place among them. And," he gave her a sly, blissful, content smile, "you know that girl, Catylin Morin?" Evadne only nodded. Evan shifted a bit and brought up one hand, his left hand, and dangled it before her. A simple gold band, or perhaps even of a lesser metal like copper, was slid over his ring finger. "As soon as I get to my reserved destination, I'm going to make her Catylin Corsin, of the Corsins of Asturia." He grinned at her without holding back, looking like the overjoyed fool he was. Evadne stared at him, dumbstruck.

"You're marrying her?"

"Oh, hell, yes." He said quite gleefully.

Evadne's forehead knotted in confusion. She could almost believe him. Almost... "But what about Palas?"

He seemed to awaken from his daydreaming, but the smirk wouldn't leave his face. "Palas? I might go back after I marry Catylin and go through the first few steps of training. I'd like to let her see everything that was important to me-"

"No," interrupted Evadne persistently. "I mean, you say Zaibach isn't focused on attacking other countries, but then why did they attack Palas?" Her voice was rising as the smile on Evan's face was falling. "If the cause for Zaibach is supposed to be so great, then why the hell did they attack Asturia, why did they-"

"Hey, woah, calm down." Evan said, his eyes a little wide as he watched her. "Now, start from the beginning. What are you talking about?" His tan skin had paled considerably in the early morning light, and he looked almost sick.

She gave him an odd look. "You should know. You would know. Why do you think you found me in the middle of a swamp? I escaped Palas before they destroyed it completely. There was a fire, and Alseides, and a sorcerer, I believe-"

"Is this your idea of a joke?" Evan was growing mad, his hazel glare sharpening on her. "Look, even if I did believe you, Zaibach doesn't even use the Alseides model anymore, and the sorcerers have all but left."

Tears clouded Evadne's vision. "I'm not lying! My mother was there, and so was my uncle, and my friends! You don't believe, well, that's fine. But I am telling you the truth. Palas is conquered."

The soldier stared at her skeptically and grimly before sighing and nodding. He stood and she averted her gaze from his form, only in his undergarments. "Hurry up and get dressed." He said as he was pulling on his pants. "We're taking a small visit to Palas." **********

It took them a day and a night to reach what remained of Palas. Evan refused to stop, even for the smallest rest, and it was by moonlight that they came upon the desolated city. Evadne's nightgown hadn't been very suitable for travel, though that was what had been worn during her escape, so she was now clad in the soldier's clothing. It fit her quite well, Evan being about her height and weight, though his clothes were a little tight on her hips and his boots quite a bit larger than her feet. She was asleep, her head resting between his shoulder blades, her arms loose around his waist, when they reached the top of a hill that overlooked Palas and all her fallen glory. It was the stiffening of Evan's body and the slightly skittish prances of the horse beneath them that woke Evadne.

She looked down upon the debris left from the attack. She could smell the burning and rotting flesh of humans upon the once salty breeze. It made her want to cough and choke upon her own breath, but she didn't do so. The quietness that had settled over the area was almost tangible and held a complete sacred feeling to it. To break the silence seemed impossible to Evadne, and horrible. Perhaps it is all a horrible dream, thought Evadne, closing her topaz eyes, tears leaking from the corners as she pressed her head into Evan's back. If I don't speak, if I don't acknowledge, perhaps it will fade away. If I say anything, make any noise, it will seal this to reality.

"Evadne... This couldn't... This is not the work of Zaibach." His voice was breaking despite itself, the rage and despair in it seeming to rape the air of her solitude. The only reply she made was to press her face further into his back, her arms tightening around him. He smelled like the places she used to be surrounded by. He smelled like the training room of her uncle's estate, where the knights would practice their skill till they had no more power to execute the maneuvers. He smelled like Asturia used to, a salt breeze that was now filled with the stench of death. He was Palas, as it used to be, when Queen Millerna and King Dryden held her in peace. He was the smell of Asturia, with a little pinch of some other scent... Zaibach.

"Let's go." She whispered into his body. Evan could feel his shirt growing wet where her face rested. Saturated with her tears. He glanced back at her, his own gaze glazed over as he tried not to cry at his demolished home.

"We should go in." He said, his voice strangely calm. "If this is not Zaibach's work, I must see whose it is."

Evadne pulled away from him suddenly. "No." She said in a voice that was cold as ice.

"No?"

"No, there's nothing to see. No one's there. Let's just leave." She whispered quietly.

He stared back at her, over his shoulder, quietly, before shaking his head. "I have to do this. For me, Evadne. But I can't leave you here." She just glared back at him before laying her head back against him, tightening her hold.

"I don't want to see. You can go, and I'll go as well, but I won't look. I don't think I'd make it." Her voice was collective now, as if she were being very rational about it.

"You're a lot stronger than you can imagine. Everyone is, to a point." Evan's voice held a strange, brotherly pride for the girl latched on to him. "Just don't look, breath through your mouth, not your nose. We may have to draw back soon, anyway, because it may not be safe to breath the air any longer. Okay?"

"All right."

**************

They only made it a few yard through the North gates of Palas before they had to turn back. The rot was so thick in the air that the two could taste it, and their mount began to stumble blindly ahead, as if the stench overpowered all its thoughts. Evadne was still pressed tightly into Evan's back when they crossed back through the gates, both gasping slightly, and a great deal paler.

There was no warning of the attack until it was upon them.