Well, this chapter was boring to write, but somehow I managed to write it all in one sweep just because of that. I'm not really satisfied with it – mainly due to the several jumps into the future – but doing it like that saves both you and me a lot of boring reading about things that aren't necessary for the story, not after Magus' Quest. Yes, I guess it's unprofessional of me to expect that everybody already read that one, but there is enough dialogue in this chapter as it is.
I'm also unwilling to keep Janus in a state of peace for too long, as I realize that he can become rather goofy if allowed to mellow. Thus, there will be more action soon, promise. We're also getting to the more interesting parts as soon as you've chewed your way through this one. Hope that it's more interesting to read than it was to write!
Chapter 7, No rest for the wizard
'I wish I could say I'm more surprised,' the Prince finally said.
'I must say that it feels almost like a relief,' Janus retorted with a silent chuckle.
He reached out and touched the big, almost silvery head. Molor made another strange purring sound, rubbing his forehead against the hand.
"After this," Lai slowly said, glancing sideways at Schala, "don't you dare claiming that I and Glenn are strange."
"But you do have your moments as well," the princess replied with a chuckle.
"Yeah, but we decide when we should be."
Lai somewhat hesitantly stepped forwards, closer to her fiancé and Molor.
"How do you greet a snake, anyway?" she muttered but then carefully reached out to touch the massive neck with a finger.
"'Hello' works," Molor commented, sounding rather amused.
"It really does help that you talk, you know," the young woman conversationally said, "I still fear that our queen will have a heart attack when Janus comes home with you, though he has brought a few weird things before."
"I never brought any of those damn assassins, they came to me," Janus protested, letting his hand fall.
Schala just shook her head and turned to the hole.
"Don't worry Cered, we haven't forgotten about you," she assured as she kneeled, "just wait a moment."
"Allow me," Frog offered, walking closer to the hole with one last disbelieving glance at Molor.
Schala followed his gaze and smiled slightly, but didn't comment. It wasn't the first time the snake made people nervous, and she understood the knight's feelings. Even the bravest tended to be shocked at the first sight.
The princess offered her hand to help Frog into the darkness, and though he was heavier than he looked she managed to hold him until he let go and dropped out of sight. Muttering a spell she opened her hand completely, a glowing orb popping out of her palm to spread its light over the cell.
She could hardly hold back an affectionate chuckle as she saw Cered blink at the visitor in confusion. He looked so cute when he was surprised.
'Lovely, here we go again…' a spirit dryly muttered, unheard by all but his mirrors.
"Though my guise speaks differently, I am human," Frog quickly said, somewhat tiredly, "I am merely the victim of a magician's twisted sense of humor."
He frowned slightly, regarding the chained, dirty man by the short wall. The knight couldn't put his finger on it, but the red-haired Cered looked strangely familiar to him.
The prisoner blinked again, then carefully smiled.
"I hath not heard any man nor woman speak my native tongue anywhere throughout history before," he said, "I must say to thee, 'tis quite uplifting though a simple blessing."
It was Frog's turn to blink. Then he smiled as well.
"'Tis surprising indeed, however I cannot claim it to be nothing but pleasantly so."
He unsheathed the Masamune.
"One moment, I will free thee."
Cered moved aside and helpfully held up his arms to stretch the chains, making it easier to cut them. As Frog looked up he noticed that the prisoner's gaze went upwards towards the princess who was watching the process. Pretending he hadn't seen by focusing on the chains binding Cered's ankles, the knight smiled to himself.
'Thou art not the only one with surprises for thy sibling, Janus…'
The thought was, in its own right, quite refreshing. Suited the wizard right for shocking his friends over and over again.
Cered stood, leaning on the wall as he did so. Seeing the tired and stiff body shake slightly as the owner tried to move, Frog quickly chanted a healing spell for Schala's companion.
"I thank thee, Sir…?" Cered gratefully smiled, with a hint of hesitation for the last word.
"Glenn, and I request no title," the knight kindly said, but added in a slightly dryer voice, "I bear the second name Frog due to the curse I suffer from."
"Then I shant let it touch my tongue," the more human of the two assured, "my name is Cered, though I believe Schala already told thee so."
"Aye, so she did," Frog said, looking up at the smiling lady past her illumination, "may we request aid to escape this accursed place, my friend?"
Schala chuckled at his deliberately overdone speech and straightened up a bit, looking to her right.
"Janus, will you lend a hand?"
"Of course."
The wizard became visible as he sat down on his knees by the other side of the hole. Afterwards Frog was sure that he had imagined it, but for a second he thought that he saw a sparkle of recognition in his blue-haired friend's eyes as Janus looked at Cered. But then it was gone, and the man from Guardia lowered his right hand into the dungeon.
"Thank you for helping my sister on her journey," Janus conversationally smiled as Cered somewhat still unsteadily walked forwards, allowing Frog to lend him support.
"'Tis a welcome irony to be aided by the one we have sought for so long, I must say," the former prisoner said and reached up to grab a hold of the offered hand.
At that, Janus just chuckled slightly as if he found something amusing about what Cered had said. With little trouble he straightened up, hoisting the one he knew would be his brother in law out of the prison. To help Frog was hardly worth mentioning; the knight could leap high enough to bring himself out but grabbed the offered hands as he reached the surface and let himself be pulled to safety though he didn't really need it.
"They didn't treat you too well, I see," Schala grimly said, carefully lifting a heavy lock of Cered's fringe from his dirty face while Janus straightened up.
'I think I can live without seeing this again,' the Prince said, but his voice was far from as rough as he probably had meant it, 'if you excuse me, I have own matters to deal with.'
'Do they possibly pertain an empress whom you once mentioned?' Janus smirked.
'Don't push me.'
'You should know better,' the Pawn snickered, 'the kid has a dangerously good memory.'
'Kid?' Janus protested.
'Truly,' the Prince grunted.
Shaking his head, the oldest of the three faded away.
'I believe I'm superfluous here as well, though I must say that it was quite amusing seeing your version of Molor,' the Pawn smiled.
'Aye.'
Janus silently chuckled and backed off to let Lai greet Cered. On the way over the floor she gave Frog a friendly shove and order to "tell the big worm hi already". Molor hissed more of surprise than protest.
'Call me if you need help, but not against her,' the Pawn mildly snickered, 'she scares me.'
'With the full right, I'd say,' Janus smirked.
Chuckling, the Pawn's spirit left as well.
Frog was regarding the snake somewhat still warily, and Molor appeared to be making an effort not to appear threatening by calmly lying down on the ground.
"To call Molor a worm, 'twas something I did not believe anybody to do," Cered was telling Lai, throwing a glance at the animal in question.
"In order to avoid hostilities I will blame the power of habit," she somewhat gently replied.
Molor waved with the tip of his tail in a dismissive movement, though it was hard to see since his other end almost was on the other side of the room.
"Humans taste bad, don't worry," he hissed.
"You wouldn't dare," Schala said, calmly.
"No?"
"To anyone else I'd say that I'd love to see you try, but there are limits to how taunting I can be," Lai announced, crossing her arms.
At that, Molor laughed. It was a very strange, hoarse sound, but not wicked.
"Now that was something I believed I'd never hear from you," Janus commented to his fiancée and bent aside.
"Why art thou seeking thy own demise by the hands of thy love, my comrade?" Frog chuckled, rolling his eyes.
"Just to make Flea angry, of course," the wizard explained, ducking for another sweep.
Lai shook her head, smirking to herself as she turned to Cered and Schala again as she heard the princess speak.
"Are you sure that he's Janus?"
"I don't know, I didn't know him first," Lai chuckled, "ask the knight there, he's been trying to keep the darn wizard alive for years."
"Crying tears of blood, I assure thee," Frog dryly nodded.
Cered caught Schala's eyes.
"Thy brother has strange friends," he said.
Then his eyebrows went up when his traveling companion covered her mouth with her hand, trying to conceal the laughter that fought to break through.
"Did I say something funny?" the warrior asked in confusion, looking around at the smirks.
Schala tried to reply but couldn't.
Lai snorted.
"We're strange, eh?" she said in jocular irritation, "I'm not the one who's got half of Janus' arm down my throa- JANUS!!"
To be perfectly honest, the wizard's hand was barely resting above Molor's forked tongue, but it was still a rather creepy sight. Cered took a step backwards and Schala's eyes bulged as they saw what Lai was hysterical at while Frog just sighed, pressed a hand against his face and shook his head. He couldn't find it in his heart to be shocked, which was what saddened him.
"Don't worry, I'm just trying to fix his voice so that he can speak without pain," the wizard absentmindedly said, narrowing his eyes at the back of the snake's throat, "powers of the world…"
Stars sparkled from his fingers and disappeared into the blackness. The wizard withdrew his hand and regarded the snake, who made a slight twitching movement with his head that traveled down through his entire body as a wave. Finally he coughed.
"I believe it helped… ah, much better," he hissed, his voice clearly less hoarse than before.
"One day, Janus," Frog slowly sighed, "one day thy actions will be the demise of somebody."
"I sure hope not, unless it's somebody like Flea," the wizard said with a slight chuckle, picking up his staff.
He straightened up to smile reassuringly at his still slightly pale sister.
"Shall we try to get ourselves and everyone else out of here, then?" he mildly questioned.
Schala just blinked at first. Then she glanced at Frog and Lai.
"Does he do things like that often?" the princess wondered.
"All the time!" the two warriors of king Guardia of the seventh century groaned.
"Oh dear."
Nearly an hour later the group of five humans and a snake stood beside the stair of the fortress, watching the former servants and soldiers hurry out onto the shore. Some of them smiled or at least waved slightly at their helpers, though most just seemed to wish that they could get away from there as soon as possible. Such was the general idea that the soldiers gave, if it was for fear or shame was hard to tell.
"That's gratefulness around here?" Lai dryly said, "some people in this era have no manners."
"Oh, but they know when to fear a woman like you, I'm certain," Janus commented, nodding at a soldier who's mask had turned at the group faintly but quickly turned away as his pace accelerated.
"Thus they are wise," Molor agreed.
When you're a snake, you're damn good at bending aside. Which was lucky for the reptile.
"Thou seem to have learnt well in a short time," Frog chuckled, having to leap aside to avoid the massive, white body's escape.
"Janus is a good teacher," the snake hissed, nearly toppling over himself.
Lai halted her pursuit at those words, straightening up and throwing a glance over her shoulder at the wizard.
"I guess that you are excused then, Molor," she said and turned around completely.
In a very bad defense, Janus crossed his pointing fingers at his fiancée; a sign against evil forces.
Schala watched all this happen, absentmindedly fiddling with the pendant which was back around her neck after they had retrieved it from the engine room of the fortress. A smile touched her lips as she saw her brother retreat.
"One would think she's put a spell on him," the blue-haired woman murmured, shaking her head, "I have a hard time seeing the sad little boy in that man. And yet…"
She chuckled at the sight of Janus pressing his back against the black wall.
Cered lowered the piece of purple cloth with which he had been trying to dry his dripping arms; a piece of Schala's right sleeve. Half her arm was bare now, but it was a sacrifice she'd done willingly for her friend's and her own freedom's sake.
The reason that the man from Garadia was drying his arms was that he'd tried to wash off the worst dirt with water from the ocean. Salt water wasn't the best, but magical couldn't help much when it came to cleaning off dust that was this stuck.
"'Tis perhaps in a twisted sense," Cered spoke with a short laugh, "but in my eyes he appears joyful."
Schala regarded her little brother as he suddenly turned the play fight around by easily lifting Lai by the waist which got him out of reach for her fists.
"You're just a coward," she claimed, placing her hands on his stretched arms.
Janus shook his head.
"You can swear that you'll make my life miserable, but don't blame me for fighting back," he stated.
"Do you mean you'll at last start acting like a man?"
"Now that hurt."
The last servants gave the fighting two strange looks as they ran down the stair, but apparently had no desire to ask stupid questions.
The princess of Zeal smiled strangely, thinking about the grown Janus whom she and her little brother had met in the snowstorm far below the magical kingdom of their birth. It felt like ages had passed since she had seen that crouching man and looked into the red eyes veiled with memories of agony. Even more distant it seemed as she now watched what that bitter warlock had created.
And she silently thanked him with all her heart.
Cered broke her out of her thoughts, placing his now fairly clean hand on her shoulder.
"We should search out our stolen equipment from the bowels of this foul creation before we leave," he pointed out.
"Of course," she nodded, turning to their shortest troop member, "tell me Glenn, which is the best way to break Lai from fighting with Janus?"
Frog looked up, smirking slightly as he caught her tone.
"Methinks the only way would be a well placed blow to the back of her head. However, I will not be the one earning her wrath, for 'tis a horror which I fear I would not survive."
"Then I suggest we simply leave them here as guards," the princess said with a chuckle.
Cered looked at her with his eyebrows raised.
"It appears to me that whatever curse surrounds thy brother and his friends has caught thee as well, Schala," he commented, his lips twitching.
"Aye," Frog said, shaking his head, "the air of madness is a foul and powerful plague that touches all who dares to come near the royal wizard of Guardia."
"Why does everybody blame me for everything?" Janus called, still holding Lai at an arm's length.
"Thou bring it upon thyself, poor fool!" the knight snorted.
'Happy your teacher and friend isn't here?' Molor chuckled, silently.
'I thank all higher forces that be,' the wizard replied, mentally rolling his eyes.
"Be nice now, girl," he said aloud, taking the risk to put Lai down.
"Fine, I'll get you later," she promised, but the vague smirk was more of a smile this time.
"Let's go and find your things then," Janus nodded at his sister and Cered, "then we can think of a way of destroying this overgrown cottage and decide our next step."
The sun was starting to set, its last rays dancing over the waves of the seemingly endless ocean that had swallowed an entire kingdom. It also glistened on the dully black walls of Dalton's fortress.
Standing on top of a massive sand dune, a man raised the staff he held in both hands, pointing it towards the ground. His long blue hair waved peacefully in the somewhat chilly winds of the evening; a sharp contrast to what he was about to do. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes.
"Na sela uloro worch netal vonodra kchar!" the royal wizard of Guardia roared, burying several inches of his staff in the sand.
At first, it seemed as if he had done nothing but ramble gibberish in a very loud voice. Nothing happened.
Then, without a sound, the black fortress by the water simply disappeared, melted into the golden sky, the sand and the ocean. The only trace that remained of it was the holes it had dug up by pushing the sand downwards with its weight.
And Janus fell backwards with a heavy sigh, getting caught by strong hands and a massive, white head however. Cered and Molor carefully helped the wizard to lay down on the ground as he without force pressed his hands against his burning forehead.
"Na matala sela," Frog gently murmured, sending several waves of healing light over his friend.
"Well, that was interesting…" Janus muttered as the pain began to subside, waving at the empty space where the fortress had been.
He smiled slightly as Lai caught the raised arm and hung it over her shoulders to support him.
"You really are a masochist," she muttered, shaking her head.
"I just do what I have to… urgh…"
He pulled a face and rubbed his forehead.
"Do you get a headache every time you use Shadow magic?" Schala concernedly said, hunching down beside her brother.
As she after some searching in the fortress had found the clothes she had worn when Dalton had captured her and her friends, she had managed to startle a couple of people. Her brother had pretended to be surprised as well, but having seen her in the alternate future he wasn't too surprise. Her older version had been a bit more modest, but the short skirt and the sleeveless shirt was very similar.
"Somebody said Shadow didn't work well as my element," Janus said, his face almost completely hidden behind his hand.
"They were right, I believe," his sister said, frowning, "Shadow doesn't suit your personality. Maybe as you used to be when you were a child, but…"
She shook her head.
"Not much to do about it, I guess. I'll just have to deal with it…" the wizard shrugged and started to get to his feet, but was stopped by a quick and democratic vote.
Settling in the sand, Cered nodded.
"Well then, my friends," he said, "what is our next course of action?"
"Dost thee have any pressing matters?" Frog asked with quite a bit of hopeful hesitance in his voice, looking at the three newest parts of the group.
Schala and Cered exchanged glances.
"During our journey we ran into a few disturbing discoveries," Schala finally said and smiled at her brother and his friends, "but with the power of time travel at our hands I believe that cleaning up history is something that we can deal with later."
"As long as it's nothing that you believe is pressing, I would like to say that going to Guardia is desirable," Janus said with a nod, "time might not pass normally in the way we travel, but I would like to deal with the problems we were aiming for before stumbling to this place."
"In other words he's itching to punch Flea's lights out, and I'm agreeing," Lai helpfully translated.
Schala softly chuckled.
"Fully understandable," she smiled, "and I do look forward to seeing the era that managed to corrupt my little brother so gravely."
Janus looked at Molor, who did his best to look indifferent.
"You are on my side, right?" the wizard questioned.
The snake just laughed.
Traitor.