A/N - This, I'm hoping, is much better than the last part. Just had to rewrite it a lot....
Log 28: Secret From the Past
Jason was waiting at the end of the gangplank when Kathryn at last stepped off the Ocean Spirit. The girl wasn't her energetic self - she was walking carefully, gripping Xariandagia in her hand. Jason noticed something different about the sword, an ivory pearl imbedded in the ruby crystal on the crosspiece.
"What is it, Kathryn?" Jason at last asked, taking the girl in his arms. He tried not to poke her with Suruiandagia - the uminchu, in all their years of existance, had never made a scabbard for it.
"He never said ... he would leave," Kathryn whispered. "Never...."
But I am still here, Kathryn, a familiar voice whispered in both Kathryn and Jason's souls. I can never leave you
Kathryn seemed undisturbed by the voice; Jason trembeled, remembering the dream that led him to the sleeping god-angel. This was the same voice that awoke him, made him find the body in the sea....
"He did not leave," Jason said at last. "He's still here. And ... he will still guard you. Now come on, James and Daisuke went ahead to get an inn. We have to catch up."
He let go, and a part of him was satisfied by the faint smile Kathryn wore.
Evening came quickly in the lands beyond the Flame Horizon, as did sleep. James had procured two rooms at an inn - one for himself and Daisuke, the other for Jason and Kathryn. They were furnished rooms, with beds comfortable enough for them all to sleep in immediately.
It was a few hours before midnight when a pearl of blackness seemed to fall from the sky. It entered a window in Jason's suite, posistioned itself between the two lounge couches that Jason and Kathryn slept on.
And, like the strange voice that the two mortals had heard in dreams, the dark pearl began to speak.
"Jason...."
"Hmmm...?" The boy woke up, finding himself in the room at his uncle's hourse. It was probably a few weeks in the past - the moon was as it was the day he found Keith....
But this voice was female....
"Jason ... why does he speak to you?"
"Who?" the boy cried out.
"The one who slept in the ocean. Keythedrian. My brother."
Astralægia, Jason thought; the dark god-angel who tamed and churned the sea. "I am head of the uminchu; I am sworn to protect him."
"No son of mine has any duty to Keythedrian."
"Then why has your uncle not spoken of his true relation to you?"
Images flashed - Trisander, finding a woman like the god-angel; the woman birthing a child; Trisander's shock whe he was left with the baby boy....
And then a curdling scream broke the vision, a scream in that voice that awoke Jason that night only days ago. Hiccoughing sobs interrupted the cry, followed by broken words.
"Another ... killed...."
Before Jason lay the angel Keythedrian, curled in a fetal position, expressing an emotion he knew he could never show to anyone. Blood of ivory seemed to trickle from a wound near a scar over his heart. Immediately Jason ran to the angel--
And saw Kathryn there, cradling the angel's head in her lap.
"You have no duty to him," Astralægia's voice whispered. "Let that angelborn girl care for his shattered heart - you have no ties to him."
Jason ignored the voice and walked to Keith's side. He held the angel's arms, not wanting to take the angel away from Kathryn's care.
"I will protect you, Keythedrian - that's what I swore as the head of the uminchu," Jason whispered. "It doesn't matter if I'm Astralægia's son or not...."
The angel turned his head towards Jason, and managed a smile on his pain-strained face.
{Ashita wa Motto and ending animation plays....}
The next episode will have (A) more Kayle fun; (B) more on Jason's buddies; and (C) an actual fight scene! More on that when it comes....