On Sapphire Wings
Chapter 4
Can you take it all away?
Can you take it all away?
When you shoved it in my face?
Explain again to me…Can you take it all away?
Can you take it all away?
When you shoved it in my face…
Albert sighed absently as Meru bounded into the Thrown Room, followed by Guaraha. He had a headache to die over. All this work was exciting, but there was just something…He had this feeling. Something was coming, and his inability to identify it aggravated him. It could be anywhere; it could be killing the citizens of Indels Castle and Bale at any moment…
"I brought the people from that coastal town here, you majesty." Meru said in mock etiquette.
He smiled lightly, thankful that his friend was here. "Thank you for your help. Where are they currently?"
"They were a dying population, only around fifty people, so I suggested they stay in the castle, begging your pardon." Said Meru's husband, Guaraha.
She laughed, "Can we lose the formality if no ones looking?"
Albert nodded with a grin. Standing, he raised an eyebrow slightly, a skill no king should be without. "Where are they?"
"With Emille in the Bedroom Chambers." Meru replied. "They are very tired."
Raising a hand to his aching head absent-mindedly, Albert sauntered down the carpet covered stone steps and out of the throne room. His Wingly friends followed.
It was true, the populace of the Wingly newcomers was disturbingly small; either something had killed a huge amount of them off, or there town had been slowly dying off, as if waiting to be found. They were mostly sleeping or staring off at things, all dressed in ripped articles of clothing cut short and almost slinky by human standards, and it was obvious that they were used to the tropical weather of the Serdian Coasts nearest Tiberoa. Each had the characteristic silver hair and their eyes seemed like jewels, fiercely brighter than human eyes. They were all also very well built and muscular and it seemed that they were used to work. Perhaps filling in for the lack of population. Albert gazed around for the leader, remembering that Meru had said that leaders were usually old descendants of the more powerful ancient Winglies.
Meru quelled the chance of approaching the wrong man by dancing over to an old man in a wool cloak and black garb and saying, "Let me introduce, his majesty Albert. Al, this is Curakan, he's the boss of these guys."
Curakan smiled and nodded respectfully. "Thank you for taking us in, King Albert."
"Of course." Albert gave his most winning smile and ran a hand through the lithe golden bangs that fell into his eyes. "It's the policy of the Serdian royal family to provide shelter to the winglies who desire it. If you so wish, space will be laid out for the constructions of your homes, and in the mean time, my home is your home."
"We are lucky to have this opportunity. Tiunrik." After saying this, some sort of blessing in the Wingly language, Curakan bowed and turned his attention to a white haired girl who was looking expectantly up at him. "Oh yes. This is Artewa. She wanted to ask you something."
Emille walked up behind the girl and gave Albert a questioning look before walking to his side. He gave her a quick smile then said, "Of course."
Artewa gazed up into his eyes and spoke in a voice so highly accented that it was nearly indiscernible. "Have you seen a woman named Lenus here?"
Something in his mind seemed to reach around and grab his throat. Of course he knew Lenus, but he wasn't sure he had the heart to tell this girl of her fate…
"Yes." He said slowly. "She aided a man in some – bad things…"
Artewa glared up at him and finished, "And she was killed."
"Yes." He said in an unsteady way. The metaphysical constriction on his windpipe tightened.
"You are a liar."
The complete belief in her words was striking. "What?" Albert stammered simply.
"Lenus would never hurt anyone, even if Lloyd told her too." Artewa said. "Lloyd was a swordsman, but he wasn't evil either."
"I…" Albert stuttered.
Meru sighed and bent down to look into the Wingly girls eyes, and then spoke in the fast and fluent Wingly language to her. Artewa listened, and then shook her head sorrowfully.
"I'm sorry." Emille told her in a slow voice. "How did you know Lenus?"
"I'm her sister."
Kyris' eyes burned from looking so long into the fire, and his body ached, but he ignored it expertly. Shifting from his cross-legged sitting position, he returned to looking into the wavering appendages of the fire, watching it's intense beauty as the light trembled around crazily off his face. He was deep in thought about a number of things.
Distantly, he was aware that Bardel had taken too long, but it hardly mattered to him. The man was an arrogant ass, and he annoyed him. Kyris was more worried about the other Wingly in the human city. There was something ominous about the couple of power surges he'd felt from the being, though they were few, as the individual was trained in hiding his magical energy. There was something far too professional about him, too – ambitious. Like this person was more than just a refugee.
His eyes flickered up as a stick broke just outside the clearing. Bardel blundered in, rubbing his head and walking shakily.
"What happened to you, sunshine?" Kianako asked with a small smirk.
"There was someone with the girl." Bardel muttered, sitting down beside the fire on a flat rock.
Nyisann cocked an eyebrow. "Why didn't you kill him then?"
"He was strong…" Bardel gave her an injured look and added, "A Wingly."
Kyris would have said nothing, but something about this aggravated him. Without looking up, he asked: "Didn't you sense him earlier?"
"No…"
"What's that?" Nyisann demanded suddenly.
"What?" Bardel asked her incredulously.
"On your face!"
Kyris froze, staring into the fire like a statue. It couldn't be…
His fears were confirmed. On Bardel's face was a scar, dark scarlet fading to black, of a diamond with a moon shape in it.
"What the friggin hell is that?" Kianako demanded. Bardel blinked, unable to see.
"A scar." Kyris told him. "It's Rowan's signature."
"Rowan?" Nyisann asked curiously.
With the calmness of a parent, Kyris said, "He was a mercenary back at my home a few years ago, before the Serdian War. Apparently, he was very difficult to work with."
Kianako rose an eyebrow. "So, we kill him. Boom, problem solved, right?"
"It's not that simple."
"He may have been able to beat Bardel around a bit, but he's only mortal. We can take him."
"Come on, Kian. If he's enough to jitter Kyris around, then I think he's a little harder than that." Nyisann prompted softly. She looked at Kyris, and her blue-green eyes were gentle and trustworthy, resembling twin oceans. "But do we have to kill him? He is one of our own…"
"No." Kyris could tell his voice was softening for the woman. She was young and was almost too peaceful considering the feat awaiting them, but he was fond of her. "He was apparently really – enigmatic - about his actions. He may just as easily want to stop us as help us."
"So what do we do?" Kianako asked.
"We wait and see." Kyris stood up and reached down to pick up the shoulder strap of a silver engraved sword sheath. Putting his arm through the strap, he hoisted the heavy blade onto his back and said, "Let's go now. Don't take anything but weapons."
Without any remorse to the dying fire, the self-appointed leader of the four Winglies poured water from a wooden bucket onto the flames while almost simultaneously rising into the air. Nyisann followed almost immediately, a willow stave clutched in one of her hands tightly.
"Do you have it?" Kyris asked, looking at her pocket as if it would jump out at any moment.
She nodded with a frown. "Kyris, you know how I feel, so I'm only going to ask this once. Are you sure you want to do this?"
Of course she was against it, she'd been raised that way. But Kyris was set on his plans, he wouldn't be abated from his path by her blissful ignorance. He'd promised himself to make a special effort to make her happy after this was all done, and he would. She'd see…life would be better…
"Yes." He said simply.
"Okay then." She drew a silver, uncut stone from her pocket. It was strange looking, translucent like a ruby, but a rich grey colour.
It was the stone made by Shishai, the first and as far as Kyris knew only Wingly Dragoon. She had mastered and bent the Divine Dragon to her will, and in her dying will had taken away a huge amount of the power they shared and placed it in an ordinary stone so that if and when the King of the Dragons turned against the Earth, he would not be able to destroy it.
Now, they were going to turn it against the humans who had brutally forced the Winglies into submission, and free their kind again.
"Come on!" Kianako grinned wickedly. "Let's go kick some butt!"
With a small smile, Kyris turned and flew west into the sunset. Bardel, Kianako and Nyisann followed.
The silver jewel fascinated Kyris. As if like a living being, the stone refused to operate for anyone besides Nyisann, as she was the one who first found it. Unfortunately, that meant he had to rely on her to perform the task of summoning the its power, and the tall Wingly hated relying on people. Worst of all, he didn't know exactly what the thing would do.
Winglies had long since perfected the skill of hovering in the air without using any concentration, and it was very helpful now. Nyisann had her eyes closed and was floating in the air with occasional wingbeats, focusing on unlocking the powers of the stone. Kianako and Bardel were keeping an eye on the city, which left Kyris to wait.
Seconds past. Then minutes. With a sudden jerk, Kyris realized that his heart was pounding, and he was tenser than ever before. They were actually going to do it…
More minutes, like hours, past by. Anticipation built as the fateful results of Nyisanns prying into the 'mind' of the stone drew nearer.
Once again, Lloyd and Shakahna were alone. Lloyd lay back against the plush couch and closed his eyes, deep in thought. He wasn't sure what he would do now. He'd considered going back home, but he didn't think he could without Lenus. Perhaps he could do some travelling, look up the condition of some of the places he'd hurt…
'Where are you?'
At first, he didn't even realize that he'd heard anything, but slowly it became louder. A voice, calling out to no one in particular. He looked around awkwardly, taking a moment to realize that the words he heard were not spoken by the lips of any person. It was someone's thoughts.
'Come to me. Awaken from your sleep…' The voice called into the darkness it had came from. Lloyd listened curiously. It sounded like some sort of incantation…
'Yes, there you are. Come out, rise up. Yeeees…'
Lloyd started violently as, with shocking ferocity, a new voice replied to the firsts beckoning.
'What do you want?'
The other voice, soft and much more mortal then the vicious one, paused, then continued triumphantly.
'I found you. Awake from your dormancy! Reclaim the world that was taken from you!'
The inhuman voice roared, 'Who are you?'
'Your faithful servant. Come to me! Take your vengeance!'
'You are freeing me?'
Lloyd's entire body, even his heartbeat, seemed to stop as he listened. 'Yes. Use my body to return to the lost world of Endiness!'
The inhuman voice bellowed out a earth-shattering roar that sent Lloyd straight to his feet, and then the softer speaker cut off suddenly.
"What's wrong?" Shakahna asked, giving Lloyd a funny look. He ignored her and ran out of the door. Something was very wrong.
The chill nights air blasted against him as he went outside, but it was the least of his concerns. The soft voice had been a Wingly, and it had known the methods of summoning and drawing power from things, an art long since forgotten by the Wingly culture. What that meant, Lloyd was unsure of, but he had a horrible feeling about it. He had to find the summoner immediately.
It was too late. He could feel the thought-enveloping pull of the power of the summoned thing, and it brought him to his knees, his entire being exploding in pain. The source of the orgasm of magic was a single body, meaning that the summoner had accomplished what it wanted and now Lloyd and everyone in Deningrad was at its mercy.
He flew as fast as he could towards the host of the One with the Demon Voice.
Kyris exhaled sharply as Nyisann's eyes snapped open, and they were wide and extremely distant, like she was no longer in control of her own body. Kianako laughed in triumph.
Nyisann stayed motionless for a moment, and it became apparent to Kyris that he'd been right, the jewel had bore a living thing, and that thing had taken her body. A shudder of pleasure went down his spine. This was going excellently.
Taking in everything hastily, Kyris put a cold hand on Nyisanns arm and whispered.
"Aim for the city."
As if coming back to herself, Nyisann turned to the human city of Deningrad and spread her arms wide.
Cold, chilling fear burned through Lloyd like fire. The feel of the summoned creature was far too familiar and he could almost feel the mortifying sensation of small things crawling over his body as he recalled it. The spirit of the Divine Dragon had been called forward.
He cursed aggressively into the wind and fairly crawled his way through the air, beating his wings as hard as he could. He had to stop the Dragon from destroying everything.
He saw her standing on the air, arms outstretched, like a wicked silver angel of death. She wore an expression of blank rage, and was preparing to hit the city with the incredible might of the King of Dragons.
Beating his wings until they felt like they were seizing up, his hurled himself towards the Wingly woman and hit her square in the stomach. Clutching her to him in a tackle, he drew up all the magic he could from inside himself and cast it into vulnerable woman's mind, hoping to absorb the attack fated for the city.
The woman made a banshee cry and her expression turned very less vacant as she began to claw at Lloyd's arms in surprise.
And then they both hit the ground with a crack that he could only hope hadn't came from either of them.
And blood began to pour.
Kyris lunged towards the ground at the sight of Nyisann's sudden attacker. The two were both lying stunned on the rocky ground, and one or both of them was bleeding.
The little cynical voice in his head was laughing mockingly at him. Why had he forgotten the mysterious Rowan so quickly? The bastard was going to ruin everything.
He pulled Nyisann up in one quick motion and shouted, "Keep going!" With a slice, he pulled his saw-bladed sword from his back and held at Nyisann's attacker's neck.
A steel-toed boot knocked into his ankle, twisting it, and he fell over. Rowan leapt to his feet and stepped on Kyris' wrist, and he automatically let go of his sword.
The wind sung as his own blade met his neck in a similar way as it had a moment ago on Rowan. The silver-haired attacker glared down at him with eyes that seemed unable to smile anyway, and he said, "Don't move."
Kyris looked past his shoulder, and just managed to roll out of the way before Rowan fell where he'd been with Kianako sitting in a crouching position on his back. The Wingly smiled viciously to Kyris and gave him a thumbs up.
Forced to ignore Rowan a moment, Kyris looked up to Nyisann, who had returned to her position in the air. Her white skirt and black jacket billowed on the wind that had appeared suddenly, and she began to speak in foreign words.
Something was wrong. She began to shake a little in the air, and a scream emanated from deep in her throat as a blinding white light that seemed to swallow all sight flashed through the air like the wrath of the gods. Sounds like a hurricane deafened him, and he fell to his knees as all sight and sound disappeared.
And then it passed. Not far from him, Deningrad lay in ruin, victim of the wrath of the Dragon King.
And Nyisann was motionless on the ground.
"Nya!" Kianako cried. The two of them both ran to her side as one, but it was far too late.
"What happened?" Kianako demanded, his eyes wide and his tone hysterical. "She was just supposed to – she should be okay! What the bloody hell happened to her?"
"No Nya…" Kyris crouched beside her, his face eerily calm though his mind was in a state of chaos and shock. He reached out and turned her face towards him. Blood was flowing from her in innumerable amounts of places. Her expression was deadpan, her beautiful eyes, and Kyris's last link to the ocean, closed. She was dead.
Guilt washed over Kyris like freezing water. This wasn't supposed to happen.
"What have you done?" Came a gruff, dusky voice from behind him. Kyris whirled around to hit his face against the cold steel of a sword blade. The glaring eyes were now full of a seething rage hotter than the fires of hell. He fell backwards in submission, landing on his rear end on the ground.
"You killed them all…" Rowan said slowly. "You goddamn shit, you killed them all…"
Kyris's initial shock was swallowed up by rage at the Wingly who stood before him. Of course! Rowan had distracted Nyisann, and the spirit of the silver jewel had overtaken her!
"It's your fault she died…" Kyris said, his voice the exact same tone of shock and unsustainable rage that Rowan's had been.
"Shut your mouth." Rowan commanded. Bardel, who'd recognized the Wingly as his aggressor from earlier, snarled and began to come up behind the mysterious Wingly, and with a movement so fast it hardly looked like he'd moved at all, Rowan whipped around and sliced through his thick flesh. Blood splashed against the three of their faces and clothing as he died before he hit the ground, and the corpse fell over backwards in a position that caused something in Kyris's stomach to turn. Seething red eyes caught his own angrily.
Purely on instinct, Kyris punched Rowan as hard as he could in the face. His head snapped back, and then slowly returned to staring at Kyris.
The two of them looked each other down a long time before the enigmatic man growled, slow and menacingly, "You're lucky I don't kill you both now."
"Stow it!" Kianako spat, raising his weapon, a pole arm, up towards him. "You slimy piece of shit, you killed Nyisann and Bardel!"
"You seem to forget that hundreds of people in Deningrad are now slowly dying because of you." Rowan shook his head. "You don't even deserve to live."
"Oh yeah? Then why don't you bring it?" Kyris's last standing companion demanded.
Rowan shook his head. "I need to help who I can now." He held his face close to Kyris's, and eyes that scalded into the night with an outraged fury challenged him. "I suggest you run now. If you go fast enough, you might just live to see tomorrow."
He threw Kyris's sword to the ground in disgust and rose up, disappearing into the night.
Beside him, Kianako looked at him once and then collapsed beside Nyisann, cursing and speaking in a frenzied burst. Kyris blinked away all the anger and remorse and spoke his last two words to the Wingly woman's carcass. "I'm sorry."
Kianako looked up at him and shouted, "Is that all? This is all your fault, you frikkin idiot! If it wasn't for your head being so far up your ass, Nya wouldn't be dead now! What's wrong with you?"
Choking down all the sorrow, Kyris glared at him and said, "This stuff happens."
"So that's it? You just killed her and now you're just going to leave her here? You SHIT!"
To prove his point, Kyris reached down and pulled the silver jewel from her cold fingers, and put the blazing hot stone in his pocket.
Kianako watched with wide eyes, then in a deadly voice said, "Go…"
Without a word of reply, Kyris turned and walked away from the disastrous events of the night.
Kianako let loose an enraged cry to the heavens, and watched him go with murder glinting in his eyes.
A/N: No! Lloyd swearing? What is the world coming to? Lol, thank you so much everyone for reading, the story is finally starting to turn into an action/adventure =P
Ps: Don't worry; Dart and the others will sooner or later fit into the story, lol. Hey, I got Albert and Meru in at the beginning, right? Go Al! Yay!
Pps: Lol, post post script. I just realized I forgot to put a lyric in Chapter 3. Oh well. -.-