Chapter Three : Into a Dream...
The sun was setting on the faraway horizon.
Eilie stood on the western parapets of North Window Castle, her waistcloth drifting in the evening breeze. She knew that it was calling her again, the sunset, as it did every gypsy sine the dawn of time. Her birthplace, the Grasslands, was so far away that she couldn't see, further behind the receding skyline. Yet another home, one that was more precious than the place she barely remembered, lay stretched in front of her. The winding roads, the twisting rivers, the majestic peaks and serene lakes…it was home. She wanted to see more of it, to be part of it.
Not cooped up in this small, small castle.
Though Eilie did feel a bit guilty for thinking of the castle that way, she couldn't help it. Wanderlust was in the blood of every gypsy born and she was feeling its tug, which grew stronger and stronger with every sunset she saw. The world called to her blood, and she could only hold it off for so long. For a gypsy, any paradise soon turn into a prison.
Even if it held her heart, for the world held her soul.
The warm evening wind stroked her raven hair gently as Eilie bent down, her eyes focusing on the courtyard and the antics of everyday happenings. The archer Kinnison and his wolf-dog Shiro, sitting quietly under a tree yet with every senses alert. Her family Rina and Bolgan, chatting softly down below. Bolgan was making a face while Rina laughed, so she guessed that her sister had made a joke at his expense yet again, a harmless family ritual she haven't seen since arriving in this war-torn land. It happened quite often during their trek from the north, Eilie recalled. The two Kobolds, Gengen and Gabocha, practicing their swordplay on imaginary targets under the last lights of the day...their joys were so simplistic she envied them. For they require no more than living to be happy, and for her it was more complicated. She needed so many things...people needed so many things to be happy...the world, a hand, understanding, friendship, a place to call home...
Eilie tore her gaze away from the practicing Kobolds to another Star of Destiny that came into her view: Chaco the Winger. The mischievous little pickpocket was talking to the gate guards, looking around nervously, and Eilie shook her head with amusement. A prank again for Chaco, she thought as a smile touched her lips. Her mind went back to the mission in which they found him---a simple diplomatic negotiation with Two River for an alliance, and she had went along as there was no 'safety risks' of the later missions, as Riou had put it. It had gone somewhat awry, of course, but everything ended on a faerie tale note, with the population of Two River living in harmony and an alliance forged. All because of Riou and his understanding for the young thief...
Riou. That was 'Lord Riou' now, wasn't it?
Although her eyes were still on the courtyard, Eilie's thoughts went elsewhere. Riou, the mild-mannered, polite boy she'd met in Ryube, seemingly a lifetime ago. He'd changed a lot since then, as did everyone else. The war changed all of them, turned innocence into world-weariness, honesty into schemes. Eilie remembered when they first met---in a knife throwing act, in which he was the target. He didn't flinch even once, not even her daggers flew dangerously close, and she had admired his trust and nerves. That admiration had only grew as the war raged on and more sides of him were shown, until it had changed into something more. Eilie knew how her heart felt as if it was bursting when he went on those missions that he'd refused to let her to go along, and how light she felt when he came back safe and sound though usually a bit worse for wear. With that smile he gave to everybody.
Riou. The ordinary boy who wished for nothing more than a peaceful life with his sister and his best friend. Riou, the terribly stressed leader of the Allied Army of Jowston, the bearer of the Bright Shield Rune who bore the burden of a million lives on his small shoulders. Riou, who had lost the few people people that ever mattered.
The few that ever mattered.
Eilie could feel a tear flowing slowly down her face, falling silently to the courtyard below, unnoticed. Just as unnoticed as she. When she'd wanted to much to stay with him, to offer him a hand when he falls, to lend her shoulder to his burden, he never seemed to see. For Riou, she was only a friend, only a comrade. An unreplaceable, unexpendable someone he could depend on, someone he could trust with his life...never someone he'd share it with, never someone he'd value enough to be worth leaving everything behind. Never someone to say goodbye to when he left.
The world mattered to him, but the world didn't matter. Only three people did, and she wasn't one of them. Nothing more than one of the hundreds of stars in the sky.
Indeed, the first stars of that night had already shivered into being, and none of them showed sympathy to the girl's trembling, sobbing form as she cowered behind the parapets. It was the truth she felt, and it was *painful*.
Fool. She would live through pain. Through the fact that she didn't matter. She knew it made no sense, for her to feel like this. About Riou. About Nanami. About Jowy. About Genkaku. About herself. She knew it was ugly, that she was an ugly person for even thinking about them like that. A wicked, selfish person. Not worth enough to matter. She understood, how could she not understood? She herself had two people that mattered. She was truly sad when Dr. Huan told them it was too late for Nanami. She was shocked when Jowy turned to the other side. Yet it made no sense.
"Fool," Eilie whispered, her lips trembling. "Fool."
The prison might held her heart, but her heart was no longer in one piece. The world held her soul. The world...the harsh, brutal world yet kinder than the stone prison of friends and cameraderie.
She would not wait. Not for a moment longer.
A few moments later, after the uncontrollable sobbings have subsided into silence, Eilie stood up and made her way to the stairs down, at guard tower. The stone still felt warm against her feet while the night wind was cool, offering a calming contrast of heat and cold. The tower itself appeared deserted, Eilie noted and thought it strange. Someone or another---usually Futch, Sid or Chaco---would still be up and looking at the starlit sky at this time in the evening. She hadn't heard the dinner gong from the mess hall (or as some people like to call it, Hai Yo's restaurant) yet, and there was no sign of a sudden staff meeting.
Her interest piqued, Eilie slowly crept down the stairs, making as little notice as she could. She couldn't even hear anything from the courtyard, which was doubly strange as it was usually bustling with people until deep in the night. But it was so quiet...unnervingly quiet. When at last she'd reached the wooden door and unlatched it, Eilie pushed it slightly open and peeked outside.
The sight that greeted her chilled her blood. People...everyone…lay on the ground, unmoving, as if dead or in a deep sleep. Unable to think of anything else, Eilie kicked the door open and with a cry, rushed out and frantically scanned for her Bolgan and Rina. When at last she found them sprawling in the same location she'd seen from the parapets, she immediately ran to their side.
"Bolgan! Rina!" she cried, touching their faces for any signs of life. Eilie could feel her fingers shaking as she checked for a pulse, for a breath, for anything to indicate that they were alive. Their skin still felt warm, how could they be dead? And it was only moments since she entered the guard tower from the parapets...they couldn't have died! Nothing, nothing, nothing could've killed everyone in such a short time! Yet they were not breathing...
"Breath, Rina, breath, I beg of you," Eilie whispered, her voice choking with fear and genuine terror. "Don't die on me, sister…Bolgan! Don't you leave me alone…" Death? Is this…
"No…" she took a step back. "Don't die…don't…leave me alone…"
-----------------------------------------------
"Mistress Leknaat," Luc bowed as he stepped into the small, cluttered room lined with bookshelves. Jars and other odd apparati filled the breadth and width of the single table inside, apart from a small globe marked in several places by pins. The blind sorceress herself sat on a chair among the books, her fingers tracing the lines in one volume as if she was reading it. Upon hearing his words, she smiled and closed the tome.
"Ah, my apprentice," Leknaat began, her voice almost silvery. Luc knew by instinct that she was building up to something, and that something wasn't very fortunate. "I am glad that you are able to come, though I worry that I might disturb your rest hours."
Rest hours? Mistress knew he could go on for a few weeks without sleep. She was definitely hiding something. Or perhaps not quite hiding...merely probing his reactions. "It is nothing, Mistress. An apprentice would do well to heed the words of his teacher, would he not?"
A light, mysterious smile touched Leknaat's lips, and Luc decided that he didn't like the connotation. Abruptly the smile faded, and the sorceress spoke "Very well, Luc. There is something you must see. Come this way."
Leknaat put the book back on its shelf and began to probe one of the few places that was a blank wall. The expression on her face showed that she was concentrating hard and, finally, a smile broke through as it seemed she had found what she'd sought. Twisting her fingers in a pattern too fast and too complicated for his eyes to catch, Leknaat had opened a small niche cleverly disguised in the wall. Cliché', but well hidden. She reached into it and produced a small pouch. "This is the object."
"What is it, Mistress?" he asked, well aware that things are not necessarily what they seem in his profession.
There was a pause, and that mysterious smile again. "A dream..."
-------------------------------------------------
Sobbing, Eilie felt all the more ugly about herself, how could she be so uncaring, so insensitive? How could she have felt the loss? How could she understand? She'd understood, yes, but she never did, in a way. How, in times like this, all she could think of was herself? Rina and Bolgan...why did they stop breathing?
"Rina..." she whispered, her voice cracking. Then she heard a sound from behind, at first a mere rustle, like that of wind on the leaves, then a murmur, then a word and a voice. Eilie jumped up in alarm, her daggers whipped up and readied for combat.
"BE AT PEACE, GIRL. I WOULD NOT HARM YOU." The voice said in a low snarl.
"You...you killed everyone, didn't you!? Why would I believe you!?" Eilie yelled. She was literally shaking from head to toe, her fear palpable enough to become substance.
A pause. "THEY ARE NOT DEAD."
"Lie! They aren't breathing! Their hearts do not beat! Do not tell me such incredulous things, murderer!" she shouted, one of her daggers instantly loose and flying in the direction of the voice. It plunged into the ground, hurting no one but the unfortunate blades of grass that grew there. A disembodied voice...what is it, a demon? I have encountered Runes made flesh and creatures of the wild imagine, but…a voice? How can one hurt a voice? How can one fight a voice? How can one take revenge on a voice?
"THEY ARE ALIVE, GIRL. I MERELY WISH TO KNOW. THE ONE WAS HERE. WHERE BE THE TWINS?"
"The one? The twins? Start making sense! I don't know what you're talking about!" Eilie cried, feeling more desperate. The wind began to pick up, whipping her waistcloth and blowing dust everywhere. It was like a storm, and she was in the middle of it.
"IF YOU TRULY DO NOT KNOW, THEN YOU SHALL JOIN THEIR FATE."
Panic leapt to her throat, and Eilie started throwing daggers everywhere she thought the voice was hiding. Tears came unbidden to her eyes as she thought of dying, of Rina and Bolgan, and of the world and its calling. It wasn't fair. What was she supposed to know? It wasn't fair!
Rina. Bolgan. The world.
Nanami. Guiltiness. Sadness. True sadness.
Riou.
I don't want to die! I want to---
And then everything went black.
-----------------------------------------------
"It is...interesting, Mistress Leknaat. How does it fit into the whole picture, if I may ask?" Luc said, fingering the object with no small amount of dubiousness.
Leknaat smiled and made a gesture with her hands. "Like this."
The master of the True Wind Rune stared. Yes, it's got some definite possibilities... "I see, Mistress."
The sorceress merely smiled.
----------------------------------------------
The wind felt warm. The grass tickled. Laughter. Voices. Familiarity. Touch. A shake. Warmth. Heat...wait a moment.
"FIRE!!" Eilie yelled as she got up, literally leaping away from the grass she'd been lying on with superhuman speed. Light smoke was rising up from the spot uncomfortably close to where her face was, and Eilie looked up at the culprit---Bolgan, grinning with all the youth he could muster. Eilie stared at him crossly.
"Did I ever tell you, Bolgan, never to do that?" she asked, making sure her voice was sharp and her question edged. She could see that her brother was trying very hard to keep his smile intact, satisfyingly so. Maybe she should try this big-sister-little-kid approach more often.
"Eilie overslept. Bolgan woke Eilie. Bolgan did right…right?" he said with puppy-dog eyes and it was her turn to try hard to keep herself from grinning back.
"No you didn't. Since when did waking someone up include torching their beds?" she replied. Realizing something, Eilie started to look around. They were in the courtyard, under Rina's favourite glade. There were several other people sleeping and otherwise yawning and stretching all around them. "Come to think of it, is it morning, Bolgan?"
The hulking firebreather scratched his head before nodding happily. "Yes, Eilie. Morning, morning, big sunrise. Pretty." He grinned even wider. "Eilie forgive Bolgan? Uh-huh? Bolgan is sorry for lighting fire. Forgive?"
This time she couldn't help smiling. "Yes, you're forgiven." Looking at her surroundings again, she couldn't help but mused "How come we are sleeping here, I wonder? I could've sworn..."
---------------------------------------------
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First off, thank you for all the reviews! *cries* It means a lot, especially when your native lang is not English and you get C's for writings in your own language. You don't know how much support you've given me. ^_^ College sure is busy. I never would've thought so. That said, anybody think I went a bit overboard with Eilie? One thing I don't like in the game is that Eilie is always pictured as liking Riou but nothing is shown on his side, even if her intentions are quite obvious. And she never reacted either. But maybe what I wrote is a bit too much. I worry again of going OOC…(it's a fetish of mine)
About the supernatural occurences in this chapter, they were supposed to enter the story much, much later originally. But then I notice that the pacing of this thing is slower than a snail's and decided to goose up some of the stuff. And in case you're wondering, Eilie's escapade wasn't a dream, and it doesn't really have much to do with Leknaat…yet.
I'm getting the hang of writing while in college, but the midterms come soon. Thusly, expect an update in two months or so, unless a magic writing-flow moment come unbidden one day. (Not very likely)