Chapter 8 - Ces't la Vie
Celeste's eyes snapped open as a beam of light shone through the treetops and illuminated her once beautiful, now filthy, face. Her thoughts were murky as she pushed herself up out of the dirt and decaying leaves that covered the forest floor. For a moment she sat and wondered just why she was on the forest floor, instead of in her bed back home. Then she remembered. She had no home. She lived in a crude barracks with a Rebellion that had no real name yet. She had been sent to retrieve the remaining moon crystals so they could have something to thwart the plans of the misguided Elders.
None of that mattered anymore. With another sudden flash of painful reality she realized the full weight of what had just happened. The silence in her mind reminded her that she was alone. She had lost her ship, but also much more than that. She had lost her only real friend. This realization hit Celeste with enough force to kill an arcwhale. Tylen was gone. Not just gone, but dead.
For the first time in her hardened life, Celeste wept.
**************************************
"Can you see anything Ry?" Leos' voice called from beneath him. Ryne delayed answering him for a moment, his eyes still scanning the horizon from his perch atop one of the larger trees he'd seen during their stay in the jungles of Ixa'Taka.
"Hey! Answer me you poor excuse for a looper!" Leos called after him again, at a higher pitch.
"Be patient, the jungle is a large place." Ryne answered, his concentration broken. He shook his head in annoyance. Leos had been treating him like this all day and his half brained insults were beginning to get a little old, though Ryne would never tell him so. He had too few friends in this world, and he wasn't about to lose the only ones willing to help him find his parents.
A sudden urge of excitement ran through him as he sighted a large scar through the tree cover. He was about to call down to his companions when he also noticed that the scar was south of him. exactly where they had come from two days ago. Great he thought I've found OUR scar.
He was about to shimmy back down the tree when he finally spotted it, about five hundred meters northeast of them. It was smaller than their trail of wreckage, but it defiantly wasn't natural. Ryne noted its direction carefully and climbed down the massive tree, hopping from branch to branch until he landed with a hard thud just in front of Leos, whose arms were crossed in impatience.
"Well?" He finally asked after seeming to study him in silence. "Did you see anything?"
Ryne nodded his head and smiled in spite of himself "Yeah. It's about 400- 500 meters northeast." He said, pointing in that direction. "I'd say it about another days hike, judging by how far we've come in the day and a half we've been at this."
Leos cocked an eyebrow at him. "How do you know how far we've come?"
Ryne shrugged. "I saw our trail of havoc a bit south."
Leos let himself show a grin and patted his companion on the shoulder. With a harsh yell of "Let's go." Leos corrected their path and began to sing an old marching song, his mood brightened, and his tone off. Ryne helped Jaycera with her pack and jogged to catch up with Leos, trailing behind Jay as she took off as well. Ryne fell back into their unarranged formation.
Ryne's mind wandered as he marched, following the person in front of him instinctively. His thoughts now always led back to the kiss. He felt as if it had happened to someone else and he was a mere bystander, but the look with which Jaycera gazed at him reminded him otherwise. She was sure of how she felt about him. Ryne on the other hand, was a ball of confusion. He wasn't sure what to think anymore.
He was attracted to her certainly, but he didn't want that to be all there was to it. At first she had seemed to him to be bipolar. Warm and caring one moment, then icy as the continent of Glacia the next. Until the night he had healed her on her deathbed. After that night, everything had changed. He and Jaycera connected. They had bonded on an emotional level that went beyond merely knowing each other. When their lips touched he almost felt that he was her. and that scared him more than the thought of never finding his family again. He was only six-teen, he wasn't ready to look for love. Though it seemed love had already found him.
*************************************
Celeste lay quiet. She didn't know how long she had been lying in the dead leaves that covered the forest floor. All she knew was the harsh reality of life. and how much she wanted to leave it. Her only thought was of how much she wanted to just curl up and die and leave this world full of its petty problems behind. She had nothing to live for. Her cause was doomed, her only friend was dead, and the elders were going to kill her anyway, so why not save them the trouble.
Somewhere in the distance she could hear the call of some predatory animal, most likely telling of its delight of making a kill. She envied its prey. Its existence was over; it no longer had to feel the pain of loss, the worry of a next meal, or where it was going to lay its head at night. With the snap of those predators' jaws, it was released from everything. She longed for that release, though she knew it would not come yet. Something deep inside told her it wasn't over yet.
Reluctantly, she moved. Everything she once stood for might be crushed, but she was still alive. She could still make a difference. Weather for good or ill; she still had a part to play in all of this. Slowly, she pushed herself from the dirt, rising from the death she'd almost condemned herself to. As long as there was life, there was hope. Tylen had given his to save hers. She wasn't going to let him die in vain.
**************************************
Leos heard it coming. It was hard to miss the thundering footfalls in the silence that had enveloped them. That should have been his first clue. the silence. They'd been in the forest for over a week and there had never been a time where it was silent. It seemed the birds had known something he didn't. He wished he'd have taken their unspoken warning. His head barely had enough time to snap to the right to get a glimpse of the blur of green and black that was now lunging through the air toward him, white teeth bared.
Ryne, suddenly pulled out of his thoughts, instinctively reached for the large, light Silvite blade slung on his back. The animal was green and cat- like, with thick black stripes running down its back. Its head was wide and flat its enormous eyes set high, its jaws gaping and prepared to end Leos' life with one snap. Ryne wasn't going to let that happen.
Ryne pulled with more force than was needed, and the light blade cut through the air and wedged itself in the ground, the moonstone embedded in its hilt shining actively. His adversary seeing the immediate danger, and sudden new opportunity leapt at its newly discovered prey.
Ryne heard a scream and he didn't know if it was Jay's, the monster's, or his own. All he knew that his existence was swept into a vicious sea of green and black. Ryne felt a searing pain slice through his right cheek, causing his mind to snap to attention, and sending adrenaline coursing through his veins. In an instant he was on the ground, the flash of green over top him, though he was ready. In a smooth, rehearsed motion he pulled his legs up and arched his back, landing in a roll and kicking his opponent off of him.
Finishing the roll, Ryne landed back on his feet, grabbing his sword which was still planted in the ground, and held it loosely in front of him waiting for the next attack. though it never came. Ryne saw three flashes of light diaper into the forest, a yelp of pain, and then silence.
Ryne looked around, slightly confused by this turn of events and saw Jay behind him, grinning slightly. Clutched in the fingers of her right hand were two throwing knives, which were finding their way back into Jay's utility pouch that hung loose at her side.
"You get bored sometimes." Jay answered Ryne's unasked question. "Everyone needs a hobby, or you'll go insane."
Ryne nodded, his head feeling slightly dizzy. He could feel something warm beginning to trickle down his neck, and knew it was his own blood. Absentmindedly he wiped it off with the sleeve of his white shirt, Jay noticing with a look of shock, her hands covering her open mouth.
"Are you alright?" She asked quietly, almost timidly.
Ryne shook his head slowly, things beginning to blur slightly. "Yeah. I think so." He said, though he knew it wasn't true. He felt as if he'd gone a few rounds with a Yafutoman kick boxer. He didn't even do much. why did he feel so bad?
"Thanks for caring Jay, of coarse I'm alright." Leos grumbled, dusting the dead crumpled leaves off of his shirt. "I just about got eaten by a lunatic green tiger, but hey, no biggie."
Jay ignored her older brother, and tore her right sleeve off, tenderly dabbing the blood off of Ryne's face; flinching at seeing how deep the cuts went. It took Ryne all that was in him just to stay standing. His world was spinning, and imagination was beginning to collide with reality. The only thing keeping him anchored was the dim realization that someone was patting his cheek in a way that only his mother would. Finally, He could take no more. He felt the now familiar blackness rushing up to meet him once more, and he couldn't help feeling that it was here to stay.
********************************
Jay gasped as Ryne's full weight suddenly collapsed atop her unexpectedly. He'd lied to her. He'd told her he was going to be alright. Slowly, she eased herself into a sitting position, placing Ryne's head in her lap still holding the piece of sleeve against his cheek. Leos looked over, an unreadable expression on his face.
"What's wrong with him?" He asked, almost mocking. Jay didn't look at him, not wanting to meet his gaze.
"I'm not sure. He just passed out." She said coolly, trying not let any emotion show through. Leos nodded and knelt down beside her, placing his fingers on the side of Ryne's neck, counting slowly to himself. Finally, he took his fingers away and shook his head, uttering a curse.
"His heartbeat's slow." Leos said carefully, choosing his words. "My guess is poison."
Jay nodded, all of it seeming ethereal. They had made it through so much together already. To lose him now just seemed unfair. Small tears began to run down her soft face, her expression never changing. Leos sighed deeply and collapsed down in defeat.
"Remember that time when you were five years old and you said you were in love with the deck boy Daiyan?" Leos said, finally breaking the awkward silence and sitting up to face her. Jay laughed, in spite of her self.
"Yeah. Dad fired him the next day.."
"He was just trying to protect you, you know."
"I know"
"Just like I want to protect you."
Jay looked down at the boy in her lap, realizing that her free hand was now stroking his white hair. She didn't care anymore if Leos saw her.
"Ryne's not like that." she said softly. "He'd never hurt me."
"You don't know that sis. You've known him for what now. a week and a half?" Leos said sarcastically.
"You wouldn't understand."
Leos sighed and laid down, staring at the midday sky. "You're right. I wouldn't."
Jay didn't pursue the matter any longer. She merely contented herself with cradling Ryne's head in her lap, and crying softly to herself.
***********************************
Celeste dodged another hard nut that came careening toward her face. Angrily she began to climb faster and harder. She didn't know if it was some small primate that hurling nuts at her, or the tree itself expressing its own anger at her presence, but she was really beginning to annoy her.
Finally, she found herself at the top of the tree, the mid day sun causing her to squint. One of her hands found its way off the branch she was clinging to and went up to her forehead to shield her eyes.
She didn't know exactly what she was looking for. All she knew was that she had to look for something. anything. Her eyes scanned the lush forest beneath her. As she turned her gaze toward the direction she had come, a small gasp escaped her throat. There she could see Tylen. or what was left of him. All she could see was the smoking mass of destruction he'd left in his wake. In the center she could see a small black orb, no longer the silvery color he'd once been. The emptiness that still nagged her in the back of her mind was a constant reminder of her loss.
Fighting tears again she turned the other way. Then she noticed something else. Another line of burnt trees stretching even longer that her own, though she could tell it was older, due to the fact that the trees had already begun to reclaim the lost space. A cold rush of excitement ran through her as she realized that she was not alone. There were others here.
She made a quick mental note of its direction and started her long climb back down the tree. She was ill equipped for such a journey, but she had a better chance of survival if she started moving. Who knows? Maybe they were on their way to find her as well.
*************************************
Jay concentrated. Her brow began to sweat as the power of the green moon allowed her to connect with Ryne. Her left hand was clasped in his right, as she tried to pulse the healing powers of the moon through to him. Frantically, her mind searched for his, his mind being elusive and shirking away from her touch. She needed his senses to find out where the poison in his body was so she could isolate it and try to counteract it.
Finally she collapsed, the link broken and her efforts broken. Her slender shoulders heaved as she tried desperately to pull in enough air to keep her alive. Her body trembled with a grim truth that she held. Ryne was dying.
*****************************************
The council room of the Elders was bustling with electricity. Vaulrik could feel the tension in the room; could smell it, could taste it, he could practically breathe it in. Elder Capitus made his way into the room slowly, his ageing body begging to finally slow down. The rest of the Elders were impatient, though they held their tongues. Finally Capitus sat down in his overly padded chair, and called the meeting to attention.
"And now for our first order of business." He said, his seemingly frail voice booming through the chamber. "Elder Vaulrik, how are things going on the military side of things?" Vaulrik stood, his unusual black hair falling into his eyes. He brushed it away in annoyance and cleared his throat.
"We're a bit behind schedule. The Shrine Silvite girl is causing problems again, and without her silver crystal we can't use the Zelos fist to its full potential. If we try to fire upon Rixis as we had planned we will kill the girl, losing the potency that her life gives the crystal."
"What do plan to do to remedy this?" Elder Prime asked, his green eyes always burning.
"We are preparing to put the Arcadian thorough heavier torture, as worked the last three times. However I think she has been calloused to this process and the pirate seems to goad her on not to listen. It is my advice that the council give me permission to have him executed in front of her, to break her will."
The council room erupted into a flurry of protest. Elder Prime Capitus called for order, calming most. all but Philia.
"I will not allow such a blatant disregard for human life."
Vaulrik glared at him. "What do you think we'll be doing when we reclaim Arcadia? Herding them onto reserves? Banishing them up here like the Shrine Silvites did to us? They're going to fight, and some of them will die. It's an inescapable fact of life. Where there is life there is death. Why try to put it off when death can serve an end?"
"Sometimes I think the Resistance fighting for a just cause." Elder Philia said softly, drawing the burning stare of Elder Capitus.
"THAT, Philia, is treason."
Elder Philia set his jaw and looked back with a look of final peace on his face. "Indeed, it is."
********************************************
Celeste ran. She could the high pitched whine of tiny darts hurtling through the air after her. She'd never even had the chance to see her assailants. She'd been running ever since a tiny dart had logged itself into the long sleeve of her outfit. She'd been thinking about tearing them off at the time.
Her legs were burning. The boots she wore were beginning to wear the calluses on the back of her feet into bloody sores. She knew she couldn't run much longer.
Suddenly she felt something bite into the back of her neck. She only had time to reach back and pull out the small pin before her world collapsed around her.
*************************************************
Leos lay in the grass watching the clouds roll over the sky through a hole in the forest canopy. His life had gotten so complicated within the past couple of weeks. How he'd found himself tangled into this mess he could quite remember. Now his reason for even getting into it was almost gone. Something about this just didn't seem fair.
Leos took a long breath and let it out slowly. His life just wasn't fair. His parents had been stolen from him at a young age, he had to be a father and a brother to Jaycera. something he felt like he was botching up already, and now his ship was gone, and he was left with a dying boy. Something inside of him just wanted to scream.
Then something did. Leos jumped up off the ground, pulling out his Nasrulian blade, only to see Jay, staring out into the forest, eyes wide and fearful. At first Leos couldn't see them. Their bodies were unbelievably tanned and covered with something that looked like crushed leaves. But the thing that stuck out the most was the white clad girl, hanging upside down from a pole, carried by two of them. She might have been beautiful underneath all the caked mud.
Finally, one of them stepped forward. His features were sharp and angular, with high cheekbones and dark eyes. A headdress of green feathers were set upon his head, casting green accents on his black hair. He didn't say a word. He just looked at Leos as if sizing him up. Leos snarled at him trying to make himself look fearsome, though his insides were churning as if trying to turn out butter and that was exactly what he felt like. The Ixa'Takan merely cocked his head in a display of amusement and made a sort of clicking sound with his tongue.
Leos' attention was stolen away from the head-dressed Ixa'Takan as two warriors lifted what looked like long hollow shafts to their lips. Leos, lifted his blade into a ready position, not sure what they were going to do. The last thing Leos could remember was the sound of rushing air, and a prick of a pin in the side of his neck.
Celeste's eyes snapped open as a beam of light shone through the treetops and illuminated her once beautiful, now filthy, face. Her thoughts were murky as she pushed herself up out of the dirt and decaying leaves that covered the forest floor. For a moment she sat and wondered just why she was on the forest floor, instead of in her bed back home. Then she remembered. She had no home. She lived in a crude barracks with a Rebellion that had no real name yet. She had been sent to retrieve the remaining moon crystals so they could have something to thwart the plans of the misguided Elders.
None of that mattered anymore. With another sudden flash of painful reality she realized the full weight of what had just happened. The silence in her mind reminded her that she was alone. She had lost her ship, but also much more than that. She had lost her only real friend. This realization hit Celeste with enough force to kill an arcwhale. Tylen was gone. Not just gone, but dead.
For the first time in her hardened life, Celeste wept.
**************************************
"Can you see anything Ry?" Leos' voice called from beneath him. Ryne delayed answering him for a moment, his eyes still scanning the horizon from his perch atop one of the larger trees he'd seen during their stay in the jungles of Ixa'Taka.
"Hey! Answer me you poor excuse for a looper!" Leos called after him again, at a higher pitch.
"Be patient, the jungle is a large place." Ryne answered, his concentration broken. He shook his head in annoyance. Leos had been treating him like this all day and his half brained insults were beginning to get a little old, though Ryne would never tell him so. He had too few friends in this world, and he wasn't about to lose the only ones willing to help him find his parents.
A sudden urge of excitement ran through him as he sighted a large scar through the tree cover. He was about to call down to his companions when he also noticed that the scar was south of him. exactly where they had come from two days ago. Great he thought I've found OUR scar.
He was about to shimmy back down the tree when he finally spotted it, about five hundred meters northeast of them. It was smaller than their trail of wreckage, but it defiantly wasn't natural. Ryne noted its direction carefully and climbed down the massive tree, hopping from branch to branch until he landed with a hard thud just in front of Leos, whose arms were crossed in impatience.
"Well?" He finally asked after seeming to study him in silence. "Did you see anything?"
Ryne nodded his head and smiled in spite of himself "Yeah. It's about 400- 500 meters northeast." He said, pointing in that direction. "I'd say it about another days hike, judging by how far we've come in the day and a half we've been at this."
Leos cocked an eyebrow at him. "How do you know how far we've come?"
Ryne shrugged. "I saw our trail of havoc a bit south."
Leos let himself show a grin and patted his companion on the shoulder. With a harsh yell of "Let's go." Leos corrected their path and began to sing an old marching song, his mood brightened, and his tone off. Ryne helped Jaycera with her pack and jogged to catch up with Leos, trailing behind Jay as she took off as well. Ryne fell back into their unarranged formation.
Ryne's mind wandered as he marched, following the person in front of him instinctively. His thoughts now always led back to the kiss. He felt as if it had happened to someone else and he was a mere bystander, but the look with which Jaycera gazed at him reminded him otherwise. She was sure of how she felt about him. Ryne on the other hand, was a ball of confusion. He wasn't sure what to think anymore.
He was attracted to her certainly, but he didn't want that to be all there was to it. At first she had seemed to him to be bipolar. Warm and caring one moment, then icy as the continent of Glacia the next. Until the night he had healed her on her deathbed. After that night, everything had changed. He and Jaycera connected. They had bonded on an emotional level that went beyond merely knowing each other. When their lips touched he almost felt that he was her. and that scared him more than the thought of never finding his family again. He was only six-teen, he wasn't ready to look for love. Though it seemed love had already found him.
*************************************
Celeste lay quiet. She didn't know how long she had been lying in the dead leaves that covered the forest floor. All she knew was the harsh reality of life. and how much she wanted to leave it. Her only thought was of how much she wanted to just curl up and die and leave this world full of its petty problems behind. She had nothing to live for. Her cause was doomed, her only friend was dead, and the elders were going to kill her anyway, so why not save them the trouble.
Somewhere in the distance she could hear the call of some predatory animal, most likely telling of its delight of making a kill. She envied its prey. Its existence was over; it no longer had to feel the pain of loss, the worry of a next meal, or where it was going to lay its head at night. With the snap of those predators' jaws, it was released from everything. She longed for that release, though she knew it would not come yet. Something deep inside told her it wasn't over yet.
Reluctantly, she moved. Everything she once stood for might be crushed, but she was still alive. She could still make a difference. Weather for good or ill; she still had a part to play in all of this. Slowly, she pushed herself from the dirt, rising from the death she'd almost condemned herself to. As long as there was life, there was hope. Tylen had given his to save hers. She wasn't going to let him die in vain.
**************************************
Leos heard it coming. It was hard to miss the thundering footfalls in the silence that had enveloped them. That should have been his first clue. the silence. They'd been in the forest for over a week and there had never been a time where it was silent. It seemed the birds had known something he didn't. He wished he'd have taken their unspoken warning. His head barely had enough time to snap to the right to get a glimpse of the blur of green and black that was now lunging through the air toward him, white teeth bared.
Ryne, suddenly pulled out of his thoughts, instinctively reached for the large, light Silvite blade slung on his back. The animal was green and cat- like, with thick black stripes running down its back. Its head was wide and flat its enormous eyes set high, its jaws gaping and prepared to end Leos' life with one snap. Ryne wasn't going to let that happen.
Ryne pulled with more force than was needed, and the light blade cut through the air and wedged itself in the ground, the moonstone embedded in its hilt shining actively. His adversary seeing the immediate danger, and sudden new opportunity leapt at its newly discovered prey.
Ryne heard a scream and he didn't know if it was Jay's, the monster's, or his own. All he knew that his existence was swept into a vicious sea of green and black. Ryne felt a searing pain slice through his right cheek, causing his mind to snap to attention, and sending adrenaline coursing through his veins. In an instant he was on the ground, the flash of green over top him, though he was ready. In a smooth, rehearsed motion he pulled his legs up and arched his back, landing in a roll and kicking his opponent off of him.
Finishing the roll, Ryne landed back on his feet, grabbing his sword which was still planted in the ground, and held it loosely in front of him waiting for the next attack. though it never came. Ryne saw three flashes of light diaper into the forest, a yelp of pain, and then silence.
Ryne looked around, slightly confused by this turn of events and saw Jay behind him, grinning slightly. Clutched in the fingers of her right hand were two throwing knives, which were finding their way back into Jay's utility pouch that hung loose at her side.
"You get bored sometimes." Jay answered Ryne's unasked question. "Everyone needs a hobby, or you'll go insane."
Ryne nodded, his head feeling slightly dizzy. He could feel something warm beginning to trickle down his neck, and knew it was his own blood. Absentmindedly he wiped it off with the sleeve of his white shirt, Jay noticing with a look of shock, her hands covering her open mouth.
"Are you alright?" She asked quietly, almost timidly.
Ryne shook his head slowly, things beginning to blur slightly. "Yeah. I think so." He said, though he knew it wasn't true. He felt as if he'd gone a few rounds with a Yafutoman kick boxer. He didn't even do much. why did he feel so bad?
"Thanks for caring Jay, of coarse I'm alright." Leos grumbled, dusting the dead crumpled leaves off of his shirt. "I just about got eaten by a lunatic green tiger, but hey, no biggie."
Jay ignored her older brother, and tore her right sleeve off, tenderly dabbing the blood off of Ryne's face; flinching at seeing how deep the cuts went. It took Ryne all that was in him just to stay standing. His world was spinning, and imagination was beginning to collide with reality. The only thing keeping him anchored was the dim realization that someone was patting his cheek in a way that only his mother would. Finally, He could take no more. He felt the now familiar blackness rushing up to meet him once more, and he couldn't help feeling that it was here to stay.
********************************
Jay gasped as Ryne's full weight suddenly collapsed atop her unexpectedly. He'd lied to her. He'd told her he was going to be alright. Slowly, she eased herself into a sitting position, placing Ryne's head in her lap still holding the piece of sleeve against his cheek. Leos looked over, an unreadable expression on his face.
"What's wrong with him?" He asked, almost mocking. Jay didn't look at him, not wanting to meet his gaze.
"I'm not sure. He just passed out." She said coolly, trying not let any emotion show through. Leos nodded and knelt down beside her, placing his fingers on the side of Ryne's neck, counting slowly to himself. Finally, he took his fingers away and shook his head, uttering a curse.
"His heartbeat's slow." Leos said carefully, choosing his words. "My guess is poison."
Jay nodded, all of it seeming ethereal. They had made it through so much together already. To lose him now just seemed unfair. Small tears began to run down her soft face, her expression never changing. Leos sighed deeply and collapsed down in defeat.
"Remember that time when you were five years old and you said you were in love with the deck boy Daiyan?" Leos said, finally breaking the awkward silence and sitting up to face her. Jay laughed, in spite of her self.
"Yeah. Dad fired him the next day.."
"He was just trying to protect you, you know."
"I know"
"Just like I want to protect you."
Jay looked down at the boy in her lap, realizing that her free hand was now stroking his white hair. She didn't care anymore if Leos saw her.
"Ryne's not like that." she said softly. "He'd never hurt me."
"You don't know that sis. You've known him for what now. a week and a half?" Leos said sarcastically.
"You wouldn't understand."
Leos sighed and laid down, staring at the midday sky. "You're right. I wouldn't."
Jay didn't pursue the matter any longer. She merely contented herself with cradling Ryne's head in her lap, and crying softly to herself.
***********************************
Celeste dodged another hard nut that came careening toward her face. Angrily she began to climb faster and harder. She didn't know if it was some small primate that hurling nuts at her, or the tree itself expressing its own anger at her presence, but she was really beginning to annoy her.
Finally, she found herself at the top of the tree, the mid day sun causing her to squint. One of her hands found its way off the branch she was clinging to and went up to her forehead to shield her eyes.
She didn't know exactly what she was looking for. All she knew was that she had to look for something. anything. Her eyes scanned the lush forest beneath her. As she turned her gaze toward the direction she had come, a small gasp escaped her throat. There she could see Tylen. or what was left of him. All she could see was the smoking mass of destruction he'd left in his wake. In the center she could see a small black orb, no longer the silvery color he'd once been. The emptiness that still nagged her in the back of her mind was a constant reminder of her loss.
Fighting tears again she turned the other way. Then she noticed something else. Another line of burnt trees stretching even longer that her own, though she could tell it was older, due to the fact that the trees had already begun to reclaim the lost space. A cold rush of excitement ran through her as she realized that she was not alone. There were others here.
She made a quick mental note of its direction and started her long climb back down the tree. She was ill equipped for such a journey, but she had a better chance of survival if she started moving. Who knows? Maybe they were on their way to find her as well.
*************************************
Jay concentrated. Her brow began to sweat as the power of the green moon allowed her to connect with Ryne. Her left hand was clasped in his right, as she tried to pulse the healing powers of the moon through to him. Frantically, her mind searched for his, his mind being elusive and shirking away from her touch. She needed his senses to find out where the poison in his body was so she could isolate it and try to counteract it.
Finally she collapsed, the link broken and her efforts broken. Her slender shoulders heaved as she tried desperately to pull in enough air to keep her alive. Her body trembled with a grim truth that she held. Ryne was dying.
*****************************************
The council room of the Elders was bustling with electricity. Vaulrik could feel the tension in the room; could smell it, could taste it, he could practically breathe it in. Elder Capitus made his way into the room slowly, his ageing body begging to finally slow down. The rest of the Elders were impatient, though they held their tongues. Finally Capitus sat down in his overly padded chair, and called the meeting to attention.
"And now for our first order of business." He said, his seemingly frail voice booming through the chamber. "Elder Vaulrik, how are things going on the military side of things?" Vaulrik stood, his unusual black hair falling into his eyes. He brushed it away in annoyance and cleared his throat.
"We're a bit behind schedule. The Shrine Silvite girl is causing problems again, and without her silver crystal we can't use the Zelos fist to its full potential. If we try to fire upon Rixis as we had planned we will kill the girl, losing the potency that her life gives the crystal."
"What do plan to do to remedy this?" Elder Prime asked, his green eyes always burning.
"We are preparing to put the Arcadian thorough heavier torture, as worked the last three times. However I think she has been calloused to this process and the pirate seems to goad her on not to listen. It is my advice that the council give me permission to have him executed in front of her, to break her will."
The council room erupted into a flurry of protest. Elder Prime Capitus called for order, calming most. all but Philia.
"I will not allow such a blatant disregard for human life."
Vaulrik glared at him. "What do you think we'll be doing when we reclaim Arcadia? Herding them onto reserves? Banishing them up here like the Shrine Silvites did to us? They're going to fight, and some of them will die. It's an inescapable fact of life. Where there is life there is death. Why try to put it off when death can serve an end?"
"Sometimes I think the Resistance fighting for a just cause." Elder Philia said softly, drawing the burning stare of Elder Capitus.
"THAT, Philia, is treason."
Elder Philia set his jaw and looked back with a look of final peace on his face. "Indeed, it is."
********************************************
Celeste ran. She could the high pitched whine of tiny darts hurtling through the air after her. She'd never even had the chance to see her assailants. She'd been running ever since a tiny dart had logged itself into the long sleeve of her outfit. She'd been thinking about tearing them off at the time.
Her legs were burning. The boots she wore were beginning to wear the calluses on the back of her feet into bloody sores. She knew she couldn't run much longer.
Suddenly she felt something bite into the back of her neck. She only had time to reach back and pull out the small pin before her world collapsed around her.
*************************************************
Leos lay in the grass watching the clouds roll over the sky through a hole in the forest canopy. His life had gotten so complicated within the past couple of weeks. How he'd found himself tangled into this mess he could quite remember. Now his reason for even getting into it was almost gone. Something about this just didn't seem fair.
Leos took a long breath and let it out slowly. His life just wasn't fair. His parents had been stolen from him at a young age, he had to be a father and a brother to Jaycera. something he felt like he was botching up already, and now his ship was gone, and he was left with a dying boy. Something inside of him just wanted to scream.
Then something did. Leos jumped up off the ground, pulling out his Nasrulian blade, only to see Jay, staring out into the forest, eyes wide and fearful. At first Leos couldn't see them. Their bodies were unbelievably tanned and covered with something that looked like crushed leaves. But the thing that stuck out the most was the white clad girl, hanging upside down from a pole, carried by two of them. She might have been beautiful underneath all the caked mud.
Finally, one of them stepped forward. His features were sharp and angular, with high cheekbones and dark eyes. A headdress of green feathers were set upon his head, casting green accents on his black hair. He didn't say a word. He just looked at Leos as if sizing him up. Leos snarled at him trying to make himself look fearsome, though his insides were churning as if trying to turn out butter and that was exactly what he felt like. The Ixa'Takan merely cocked his head in a display of amusement and made a sort of clicking sound with his tongue.
Leos' attention was stolen away from the head-dressed Ixa'Takan as two warriors lifted what looked like long hollow shafts to their lips. Leos, lifted his blade into a ready position, not sure what they were going to do. The last thing Leos could remember was the sound of rushing air, and a prick of a pin in the side of his neck.