*I'm sorry, but this is both short and unedited. I just finished writing after a long day at work, and I'm ready for bed, but I have some cleaning to do tomorrow and don't know if I'll have time to update, so I wanted to post this tonight. Please either review or email me if something is completely off, because I was practically unconscious when I was writing the last part. Sorry for any mistakes ^.^*
Chapter Six: You Hurt Me Because?
"Jesus, what happened to her?" I heard Nori demand when Clef walked into the palace with me in his arms.
"She went out there, with them, she went to war," Caldina answered softly. "What do you need?" she asked of Clef.
"In the gardens, pick some Belladona," Clef instructed.
"That's poison!" Nori shouted.
"Used correctly it's an agent of cure; your kind just hasn't figured it out yet," Clef answered and set me down on the ground. "Quickly Caldina, she's not going to make it much longer."
Caldina nodded and ran down the hallways toward the gardens.
"Hush Umi, hush, your struggling only makes it work faster. Please, try to relax," Clef coaxed, and I silenced and tried to stay still. He ran a hand across my forehead that had broken out in sweat, and I felt him check my pulse that was quickened. He shook his head and tried to keep worry from his eyes, tried to keep weakness from those crystal blue spheres.
"I'm fine Clef, I'll be fine," I muttered, trying to keep the visions away. "You know me, always getting myself into trouble, always forcing you to fix me."
"That's not true, I'm glad to help a Knight in need."
"A Knight," my laugh turned into a cough, and I coughed up black blood.
"Please don't be too late," Caldina whispered as she handed the flower to Clef who immediately tore the stem to pieces and put it in the wound. Gently he spread the petals overtop and began to recite words in another language, the language was so soothing to hear from him, Japanese.
"By the strength given to me, please let her be safe, let her be spared. Let this plant use its strength to kill in another way, let it heal."
A gentle purple, golden and green light wrapped its petals around me and enveloped me. When it was over I was sitting on the ground, and there was a purple flower growing in my stomach. I screamed and tried to move, but my legs were still too scarred.
"It's okay," Clef picked the flower, roots and all, from my stomach and told Caldina to replant it in the garden.
I fell back and breathed heavily, "There was definitely just a plant growing in my stomach."
"Yes, there was," he smiled. "And good thing for you that it liked your blood enough to want to grow there."
"What?" I demanded. "It was drinking my blood?"
"Just a little, it replaced some of the tainted blood with its life source so that it wouldn't reach your heart and stop it." Clef explained.
"How nice," I muttered dryly.
"Now, as soon as Hikaru and Fuu get back I'll do something about all your battle wounds. If I didn't know better I'd think that you charged through those monsters just to get to Ascot," he laughed.
"Never!" I protested, which brought a laugh out of all of them.
"Umi!" Hikaru and Fuu, followed by Ascot burst into the castle. "Are you okay?"
"Hai," I sat up and looked at them with a weak smile. "What about you guys?"
"We're a little battle-torn, but nothing that can't be fixed," Fuu smiled back.
Lantis and Ferio embraced the two girls and weren't about to let them go until Clef said they needed to be healed and put right again.
They subsided and handed the girls over to the Master Mage. Both knelt next to me and closed their eyes. A torrent of blue, red and green magic rose over us and Clef added some golden magic. It all intertwined and fell into each of us. When it was over my scars were lessened and the pain was almost gone.
"Arigato Clef," we all stood and bowed, and he bowed back.
"But I think I need to…" he seemed to be thinking, "regain my strength."
"Clef," I stopped him from retreating into his study and not ever emerging. "What are we going to do? Those things may come back! There was someone out there, someone smarter than those things! What are they?" I was in hysterics. I didn't want him to leave us alone with this; this was different than before. We didn't even know what we were fighting here."
He sighed heavily and knew that he wouldn't get his peace and quiet, "Come with me then, Magic Knights, everyone."
The three of us followed close while everyone else was wary. They knew that Clef needed his time for himself.
Once they were in his study he summoned chairs for them all, but conveniently forgot one for Nori. Nori cleared his throat, and Clef looked up at him, "Yes?"
"Um…" Nori looked around at everyone that was seated.
"Oh yes, of course," Clef's smile was malicious. "I forgot to say, everyone concerning Cephiro."
We stared at Clef in shock.
"Just why are you so hard on me?" Nori questioned with angry eyes.
"For several reasons that need not be discussed with so many eyes," Clef always stayed calm, and it drove everyone insane. "As for now," he snapped and summoned a chair for Nori, "you may listen in on the conversation, only because you're involved with the Water Knight."
I put a hand on Nori's as he sat and tried to calm him, "He means well."
"Yeah," Nori brushed me off and turned his head, and I looked down. Clef tried to apologize with his eyes, but I wouldn't hear it.
"Those things that attacked you," he started instead, trying to play off what had just happened, but everyone had seen it. "They're monsters of the Dark Lords. They're called ???'s, and they hate all and wish pain on everything. They come from the hate of the people in the world; the Dark Lords have learned to conjure them. They breed people to hate and then say a few words and they're turned into these creatures, every person is victim to become one. They were once anything, from a simple farming boy who was rejected to a powerful official corrupted by greed and hate."
"Why did they…" Hikaru gulped, "eat each other"?
"Because," Clef looked at the ground, "when they consume another's flesh they become stronger. By consuming the others their hate grows, and so does their power. The spell increases its strength, and they're more successful in their consumption of the world."
"That's disgusting," I muttered and thought about what they had done to one another.
"So they really do hate everything," Fuu said so quietly it was almost to herself.
"Yes," Clef nodded. "And the warrior, on the eagle, that was the Dark Lord of Wind."
Fuu's head snapped up, and she stared. "Wind? There's a Dark Lord of Wind?"
"Water and Fire as well, you've already met the Dark Lord of Water though, Fire, she's illusive. She'll take her time and be gentle about it, delicate. Her time will come as well," he put his head down. "They want only one thing, to kill you."
"Why?" Hikaru demanded.
Clef looked first at Lantis and then turned his head toward Ferio who turned away, "Because they seduced the men you love and fell in love with them themselves. Now they only long to destroy you and wage war on Cephiro so they can finally be satisfied."
"What?" Fuu whispered, and Ferio tried to explain through her tears. "They can-change form. I thought that she was you I swear on it! We were together for a long time, and then one day she told me she had deceived me. She revealed her true form, and I rejected her. I only ever loved you."
"I can't…" she faltered.
"And you?" Hikaru turned to Lantis. "The same?"
He nodded, "It was on one of those long visits you took with Umi. We thought you were home early."
"I think I'm going to be sick," Fuu held her stomach. "And you thought that you'd never tell us and forget about it and it wouldn't come back? You thought that the Dark Lords would just disappear and that would be that? You lied!"
"I'm sorry Fuu-chan, I didn't want it to hurt you. It wasn't as if…"
"As if you cheated?" Fuu screamed. "You did! Whether you wanted to or not you were with someone else Ferio!"
I wanted to ease her pain, so I brought up something else, and let them battle it out later, "Clef that really doesn't have anything to do with me."
He looked at me and smiled weakly, "No, it doesn't does it?"
I shook my head, and he sighed, "I'm afraid that your story is a bit more twisted."
"Goody," I muttered dryly.
"The Dark Lord of Water was my student," Clef began.
"More than that," Ascot whispered hatefully and glared at the Master Mage who dismissed it with a shake of his head.
"She became my lover, but it wasn't expected. It was secret, and forbidden, as all love is to a Master Mage. After awhile I knew that I couldn't be with her any longer. She was getting strong, certainly not as strong as I, but too strong for me to be holding her. I sent her into the world, partly because she deserved to use her gift and partly because I no longer felt the same for her. She knew it; she sometimes had visions in the night. She saw it coming and at first didn't resist.
"Then she met the other two, and she fell in with them because she lacked the comfort that I brought her. She fell in with the wrong people; they had been scorned and shunned so many times that their hearts had closed. They began to beat upon each other, and use one another as punching bags. For awhile this was all well and good for them, and then they got tired of hurting each other because eventually they got hurt back. They turned to hurting others. They raided and ransacked, and finally, they manipulated the Head of the Guard and the Prince of Cephiro.
"All the while the Dark Lord of Water watched the other two have their fun and get what they craved. She was alone again, and shunned and embarrassed because she couldn't set foot in the palace. Then she saw you Umi," his eyes turned to me, and I was silent. It stole all my strength, trying to keep the tears in. "She saw you and became so enraged and jealous that someone should have my friendship, my protection, that she began to hunt you. She didn't want me to take another student and see me happy. She hated that, and so she longed to destroy you. She found the emptiness in your heart and preyed off of it, mostly to get back at me, to get back at all of Cephiro," his voice became soft.
Did this mean that we had a chance? Did this mean that he cared for me? I could see the question forming in everyone else's minds.
"Of course," he added quickly, "that could never happen, not the way she thinks. But she's alone, and she doesn't want to see anyone happy. She doesn't want to see Ascot or Presea or Caldina happy, all she wants is misery, the misery she feels. That's why, she's hunting you. She knows the Magic Knights bring happiness to Cephiro, so while the other two are after Hikaru and Fuu she decided that she would go after you."
I closed my eyes and forced in the tears, regaining myself. "What should we do?"
Then the mood changed from solemn to war hungry, and Clef nodded and understood my question and change of subject. "You must wait."
"I won't wait here while they take over all of Cephiro and gain more of an army than they already have," I informed him. "I refuse to do anything like it."
"Me too," Hikaru threw in her part, and Fuu nodded in agreement.
"We must do something," she said softly.
"For the people we love," Hikaru turned to Lantis, and I couldn't believe her forgiving smile.
"Yes," Fuu smiled the same way at Ferio, and I must have had my jaw hanging because everyone stared at me curiously.
"Umi-chan?" Hikaru asked quietly.
I shook my head in disbelief, but wouldn't strike the argument with the others.
"There is no way to track them," Clef stopped our plans. "You will not be able to find them, but if you wait, I guarantee you they will come to you."
"And kill how many others in the process?" I burst out, and his eyes met mine head on.
"And in your absence while hunting a nameless force with no trace left behind you would have your dearest friends killed?" he demanded. "Think before you speak."
I glowered, but stayed silent because I hadn't thought.
"There must be some way," Fuu began.
"There is," a cruel voice said from the door, and we spun. Standing in the doorway was a girl that was a bit taller than Fuu, with dark amber hair that fell in waves down her back. Her eyes were olive green and held a deep malice toward everything.
"Stay away from her Iesada," Ferio hissed and dared her to come forward.
"Ferio," her voice was soft, then she turned to Fuu and glared fiercely, "you poisoned his mind!"
Fuu's mind was torn, but Hikaru and I had enough strength for her.
"You were the one that poisoned his mind!" Hikaru shouted and drew her sword. I followed suit, and then Fuu took the position and stepped in front of all of us. She drew her sword and it flashed from silver to green and then stayed silver. As her anger grew though it began to grow a deep green, and we couldn't deny the fear in the Dark Lord of Wind's eyes.
The Dark Lord raised her hands and summoned a deep whirl of green Wind to her fingers that flew at Fuu and knocked her to the ground, destroying her concentration. The Dark Lord then lunged; knowing all she had to do was to lay her hands upon Fuu's neck.
I lunged forward and pushed my blade into her arm. She screamed and backed away, nursing the wound. Fuu stood and there was murder in her eyes as she advanced. The Dark Lord inched away and then she disappeared, threatening Fuu as she went.
Fuu then crumpled into a ball on the floor and began to cry. She would receive no comfort from anyone, and only flinched with Ferio's touch. We took her to her room and stayed with her all night, but I'm not sure if she even noticed our presence.
All the while darkness crept in my mind, and I knew that Fuu and Hikaru felt it too because their expressions became grim and wary.
§§§~~~
"Stupid, going and getting yourself torn up, and it wasn't even by the right person," the Dark Lord of Fire hissed when the Dark Lord of Wind came back to them.
"You stay away from her Iesada, she's mine," the Dark Lord of Water hissed.
"I don't want that stupid brat Uchiyama," she spat back. "I was just trying to get to Ferio's little Princess and she stabbed me."
"That's what you get for being careless," the Dark Lord of Fire laughed.
"Shut up! Leave me alone!"
"Fine, then we'll let that wound get infected and slowly rot until you have no arm left and no strength. Come on Uchiyama," the Dark Lord of Fire pulled her up and started to walk away.
"No! Wait!" the Dark Lord of Wind protested. "Come back! Fix it!"
The other two laughed at her weakness and came toward her.
*I tried not to make this a cliffhanger at the request of Kaiya *grins*. Glad to know that I'm good at cliffhangers! Ja ne until next time!*
