A few days later
Alexandria Castle
4:57 A.M. Gaian Standard
Mitheithel's Point of View:
I woke up with a start. The room was dark except for a small lamp on the table across the room. I had no idea where I was. My arm had some feeling in it now. It was carefully wrapped with bandages. My body didn't feel numb, either. I was alive. But those horrific images that haunted me even after I lost consciousness bothered me. I saw Kuja sitting in a chair. He was looking at the window so intently, that he didn't notice me wake up. I think he knew about my gift. (A/N: Ever seen the Dead Zone?) After a few minutes, he looked at me.
"Ah, your awake," He said.
"How long have I been asleep," I asked.
"Five days," Kuja answered. I shook my head. Five whole days…
"What happened to me?" I asked.
"We found out that Raamalooke had poisoned you at the last minute, but Garnet managed to treat you. By then, you weren't responding to anything. We feared you dead," He explained. I thought I was dead. Yet, another question hit my mind.
"What kind of poison was it?" Kuja closed his eyes for a second and nodded.
"It was designed to weaken people's muscles," He replied calmly.
"That's why I felt numb. Now, how am I supposed to get back on my feet again?" I muttered.
"No rush. It'll be a few more days before that arm will heal anyway." A few…days? That's not possible. It wasn't fair! I couldn't afford to say down this long. I started to get out of my bed and nearly swooned in the process. Kuja got up and helped me out of bed carefully. I clung to him tightly, my balance not exactly perfect. It was then that I noticed my claws were short.
"You trimmed my claws," I muttered. Kuja shrugged.
"You kept scratching us and we were afraid to bond your hands, so we trimmed them," He said. Oh well, they would grow back. Kuja carefully pealed my hands off of his arms and handed me some clothes. I took them and blinked as Kuja exited the room. I put the clothes on slowly, to avoid moving my left arm. It seemed that Garnet really did like me. She gave me a shirt with sleeves almost down to my wrists and stylish black pants. It hid the bandages on my arm slightly. And it made me feel much better.
I sat there for a moment, thinking. That's when I noticed that my hair had been wrapped up in a neat bun. I must have been pampered while I was asleep. Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," I said. Kuja poked his head in the doorway.
"There is something you might want to check out," He said grimly. I walked towards the door, having regained my balance, and stepped out into the hallway. Kuja slipped a cloak on my shoulders and led me outside. It was slightly chilly, which was strange since it was in the middle of summer. Kuja seemed to pay it no heed. At last we arrived in the square. It was filled with people. As we came near, the people stepped to the site letting us both in. What I saw next unnerved me. There was a dead man on the ground, broken and bloodied, with some kind of symbol on his forehead. I knew immediately that it was a sign of evil. Raamalooke's sign, only tainted. Kuja looked at me solemnly.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"That sign is evil," I replied. Zidane looked at me.
"Great, now there's evil afoot in the city," He muttered. I didn't want to tell him how nasty this could get. If in fact, we found out that it wasn't Raamalooke, we could have a serious demon on our hands. I could feel a dark presence in that sign, coursing with something unknown. Maybe I could reveal something about this…
"Stand back," I ordered. Kuja, Zidane and the city-folk obeyed immediately. I extended my right arm, focusing on the sign. My hand began to glow blue as I started walking towards the body. An unknown force resisted mine, turning the color of the energy at my fingertips red. All of a sudden, a dark force snuffed out my energy and forced me back into Kuja. That sign was unidentifiable to my charms.
"Raamalooke's good. Really good. I can't bring anything else to light," I said.
7:02 P.M. Gaian Standard
Alexandria Castle
Mitheithel's Point of View:
Despite what happened with me and the sign, Alexandria slowly returned to normal. I sat in the commons room, letting Kalya and Kulusindi in my hair a little bit. They were rather quiet children. I supposed they like having me around as someone to come to other than Kuja. I wish I knew what happened to his wife. Maybe I could have prevented her death. Maybe I could have prevented thousands of things myself.
Now Raamalooke was after the Royal Family. Zidane and Garnet wouldn't be in danger; they had the army. It was just Kuja, and me that was vulnerable. And with my arm still in the healing process, I couldn't use my swords. It seemed like I was waiting to die.
"Mitheithel, what are you thinking about?" Kalya asked softly.
It's something you wouldn't understand," I said. Kulusindi laughed.
"We don't understand our father sometimes. I think we can handle it though," She remarked.
"Strange things are going on Alexandria," I said.
"Father is really worked up about that," Kayla commented. Why wouldn't be? Raamalooke was after him. Someone had to have a run in with Kuja in order for the assassin to have a reason to kill him. A loud scream rattled the windows outside, sending poor Kalya and Kulusindi into a panic. I stood up and walked to the window, slowly. I didn't see anything weird or gory. Perhaps it was a false alarm. Yeah…maybe. There were small puffs of red light coming from the city. I needed to take a closer look. But Kuja and the others were out of the castle. And I couldn't leave the twins alone.
"Kalya, Kulusindi, come with me," I commanded. The twins did as I said, staying rather close to my legs. I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. It was quiet and deserted. Not unusual, but nevertheless, the twins were afraid. Our footfalls echoed off of the walls as we continued on. After a few minutes, we reached the commons room. By the time we reached the windows, whatever caused the red puffs was gone.
"Well, that's strange. Let's head back upstairs," I breathed. But when I turned around, a horrible roar filled the air. The windows shattered, forcing me to put Kalya and Kulusindi in front of me. Shards of glass rained down on our heads. The girls screamed. A cold and mighty wind rushed in, blowing various objects around. I uttered the only spell I could think of: Dispel. The winds died down instantly, leaving a mess of debris in its wake. Kalya and Kulusindi clung to my leg, crying loudly. The whole affair had scared them, not to mention me.
"It's alright," I said soothingly, "nothing is going to hurt you. Not while I'm around." Once I got the two calmed down, I set about surveying the damage. Glass and furniture were everywhere.
"What happened here?" Someone asked. I turned around and saw Kuja, Garnet, Zidane, and Steiner standing near the doorway. I walked right up to Kuja and slapped him.
"Where were you?" I asked angrily. He looked at me with surprise.
"We were out in the square again," He answered carefully.
"Kuja, we could have been attacked," I snapped.
"You had your magic, Mitheithel," He said calmly.
"What if I couldn't protect Kalya or Kulusindi? What would you do? Call on your wife?" Kuja's eyes narrowed. I had struck a nerve. Garnet and Zidane, seeing the deadly silence between us as unstable, took the twins out of the room.
"Don't talk about my wife," Kuja snarled.
"Face facts, Kuja! She's gone! Dead! Don't endanger your daughters because of your foolishness!" I screamed. Kuja's eyes narrowed further. I could feel the rage building in him. Then without warning, he swung at me with his fist. There was no way I could grab that with my right hand. Ignoring the pain in my left, I reached up and grabbed it. I slapped him again in response to his attempt. He returned the slap quickly and I felt myself falling back. I caught myself before I hit the ground and called one of my scimitars psychically. Before he could get another shot in, my scimitar appeared in my hand and I quickly pointed it at his chest.
"I don't understand you. Let go your past, Kuja," I said. When Kuja didn't reply, I continued.
"You don't need my help," I muttered as I headed toward the stairs.
A/N: Ooh...what do you think? Good huh? R&R, if you think so!