Disclaimer: I do not own The Vision of Escaflowne.
~***~
Chapter 12: Destiny
~*~
Allen stared at the black cat-girl in front of him in disbelief. "Did I hear all correctly?" he said. "You're neither from Gaea nor the Mystic Moon, but from a third world entirely. All three worlds are in danger of being conquered by this creature, the 'Kalryn's Devil,' and you're here to stop this 'Devil.' And Van and Hitomi are the sixth and seventh of this mysterious 'the Seven'?" He shook his head. "How do you expect us to believe all this? And when we just went through a war of our own."
Kirra's gaze was so calm that it was frightening. "That is precisely why the Kalryn's Devil is planning an attack now, because your planet is already weakened by a devastating war. Of the three worlds—Gaea, Earth, and Nya'tory—Gaea is the easiest one to conquer at this moment. Nya'tory already knows of his existence, so he cannot run amongst oblivious folk. And Earth has no beast-people, so he and his minions would stand out like a ruby amongst pearls."
"But what are supposed to do?" Celena asked worriedly, her eyes wide with fright. She looked at her brother sitting beside her. Allen had pulled them all into one of the rooms in the leviship to hear their explanation, and all had followed with little protest. Now he sat on one side of the table with Celena beside him, Hitomi on his other side, and Van beside her. Merle was bouncing in her chair next to Van, and, as usual, latched onto the king's arm. Across the table from these five sat the five Nya'torians, all with calm expressions on their faces, and unreadable messages shooting across their eyes.
"Find him. Defeat him," Kirra said simply, her voice as calm as her gaze. "It will not be easy. We have been trying to thrwart this crazed creature since the reign of King Ruakan. And I should point out that King Ruakan ruled over fifty years ago."
Van's jaw dropped. "You mean the Kalryn's Devil is over fifty years old? He has been at this for over half a century?" he asked, astounded.
"Oh, he is much more than fifty years old. He is more around a hundred years old; he has been attacking Nya'tory for at least that long. But his last attack, and his biggest, was about fifty years ago," Kirra said. "We thought we had gotten rid of him, but we had merely banished him temporarily. He has returned stronger than ever, because his source of energy is one that cannot be rid of." Her eyes clouded over with what Van could only guess was frustration. "Yjey fezm nedystf," she hissed under her breath, flattening her ears back on her head.
"How does someone live a hundred years and still be able to command an army?" Merle asked sensibly, starting to doubt the Nya'torians' claim. "That's not natural, unless you people are stranger than we thought."
"Merle, that was uncalled for," Hitomi admonished. Merle's response was to stick her tongue out at the brunette. Hitomi set her lips in a thin, straight line and fumed silently, her eyes still scolding.
Kirra turned her gaze to the pink-haired girl. "Ever heard of magic?" she snapped, her patience wearing thin. "The Devil is not like the rest of us. We are not sure how he uses his magic to last this long, but he has. And we know it is the same person because his aura has not changed in one hundred years."
"What kind of magic does he use, precisely?" Allen asked, trying to break the tension.
"If we knew, we would not be here. We would have defeated him the first time, whenever that was." Kirra's voice was as sharp as a pirana's teeth. "All we know is what he uses as his source of magic. And we cannot get rid of his source, unless we wish to have a bunch of drones wandering about. What do you call them? Oh. Robots. Pilotless Guymelefs. Whichever. Robots would be of no use to the Kalryn's Devil, but they would be of no good to the population, either."
"Besides, I do not think anyone has figured out any way to get rid of…his source," Urufu said slowly, casting a sideways glance at the black cat-girl.
"What is his source?" Celena asked, her growing curiosity slowly overriding her fear.
Kirra fixed a level gaze on the blonde. "Emotions."
"Emotions?" Gaddes snorted from the doorway. Everyone turned to face him. He was leaning against the open door, one leg crossed over the other, his arms folded. "How the hell can you use emotions as a source of magic? That's outrageous. What does he do, suck the souls of folk and use their remaining feelings?"
Kirra's eye twitched in irritation. "No," she said through clenched teeth. "Emotions release energy, you blockhead. He simply feeds off the energy released by those emotions. He used to feed off negative emotions, such as hatred, fear, and jealousy. But those feelings are easily amended, and they are not as powerful as the emotions he feeds off now, the positive emotions—namely, love." She glanced at Van and Hitomi, and added, "Especially the kind of love strong enough to save entire worlds from destruction."
Allen glanced at the two teenagers, eyes bulging. "You mean to tell me that…" His voice trailed off, and he whipped his head around to stare furiously at Kirra.
"Do I look like I am lying?" Kirra cocked one eyebrow, her eye still twitching in irritation. "Yes, that is why we came here in the first place. Van and Hitomi are the Sixth and Seventh of the Seven, the Mystical Seeress and the Royal Draconian. It is part of our destiny."
Gaddes cursed. "And he attacks now because Gaea is weak from war."
"But why Gaea? Why not the Mystic Moon?" Merle whined childishly, ignoring the murderous glare Hitomi gave her.
Kirra sucked in her breath through her fangs. She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her temples. Her hands dropped, and she slowly opened her eyes, fixing an impassive gaze on the pink-haired feline. "There are no beast-people on Earth," she said, her voice unnaturally pacific; Van had a distinct recollection of the calm before a storm. "All Nya'torians are beast-people, which means all of the Kalryn's Devil's henchmen are beast-people. And how are beast-people supposed to fit in on a planet devoid of beast-people?"
Hitomi gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth. "He wants to use Gaeans to take over Earth!" she cried, her eyes bulging like an insect's in horror. "His own henchmen won't have to do a thing, if he can make humans do his bidding!"
"But your clothes are so different from ours," Van said, gesturing to her outfit: sweatpants, a long-sleeved shirt, a zip-up sweatshirt, and sneakers. Hitomi also knew he was thinking of her English sailor suit school uniform.
"Not everyone wears the same thing on Earth," Hitomi pointed out, her tone sharper than she had intended. "Maybe no one Gaea wears pleated skirts, sweatpants, or sneakers, but a sleeveless shirt, khakis, and boots would not be out of place on Earth—nor would a peasant's skirt and blouse. A princess' gown might look a bit odd, but if you remove the petticoats and hoops and manage to take the puff out of the sleeves, then it would look like formalwear. Even the jewelry would not be out of place. And if you take off a tunic and replace the hose with jeans or baggy pants, any man could blend in."
Gaddes muttered profanity under his breath, and Allen's sapphire orbs emitted angry sparks of white lightning.
"How are we supposed to stop him, then, if we don't know his weakness?" the knight inquired, his voice holding none of the anger and frustration that darkened his pale features. "You say you are here to stop the Kalryn's Devil, and yet, do you have any idea how you're going to accomplish this seemingly impossible task? You are merely a band of travelers."
At this, Merle jumped up, standing on her chair, and leaned over the table. "That's right!" she cried; and Van detected a glare of triumph flash across her eyes. "We haven't seen you do anything that proves you're something other than a bunch of beast-people from another planet—and some of you have some magic that's really weird, but what about—"
She was cut off as a flash of silver shimmied past her ear to collide with the wooden wall behind her with a dull thunk. Eyes widened, and there was a loud yowl from Merle, as the object was identified: The tip of a long, gleaming, recently sharpened throwing knife was buried in the wood, sunlight from the window bouncing blindly off its blade as it vibrated. Eyes were glued to the knife as the vibrating slowly halted, leaving the weapon dormant in the wall.
"Whoa…" Hitomi breathed, her gaze shifting briefly to Merle; the striped cat's fur was standing on end, and streaks of fear had replaced the triumph in her eyes. "All I saw was a flash of silver; I did not even see…" She paused. "Who…?"
The tap of wood on wood directed everyone's attention to Kirra. Gingerly in her fingers, she held the blade of a knife identical to the one buried in the wall, and was tapping the cloth-wrapped wooden hilt on the table. As everyone watched, she flipped the knife in her hand and caught it by the hilt. A quick, almost unseen flick of her wrist, and the knife joined its companion in the wall.
"I mentioned once before that our parents are members of the royal court of Her Majesty Queen Alakana of Nya'tory. What I did not mention is that four of us have fathers who are captains of divisions of the royal guard, and one of us has a father who is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the kingdom. We go nowhere without our weapons."
"Are you all knife-throwers, then?" Van asked. "For I do not see how you could conceal any other weapon, with the exception of magic."
"I am the only knife-thrower amongst us," was Kirra's denial.
"Impossible!" Gaddes declared with a loud snort.
Kirra's narrow eyes showed her irritation, but she said nothing; instead, she snapped her fingers. In unison, Aurelia and Urufu reached down the back of their tunics, and only then did Van notice that, underneath their matching gold cotton tunics, they wore white long-sleeved shirts, the collars of which barely peeked over the tunic. Each canine pulled out a long scabbard that was easily the length of their backs; but Aurelia's scabbard was straight, while Urufu's scabbard was curved. Van's eyes widened in shock.
They had concealed their weapons under their tunics? his mind cried in disbelief. From the look on the faces of the knight and Gaddes, they, too, thought along the same lines. Gaddes even looked a little ashamed of himself—something that Kirra, without a doubt, did not fail to notice. The young king turned to Nyoka and Muniya, wondering if they, too, had any hidden weapons. Muniya wore a gown with enough folds to conceal a number of swords and knives; Nyoka wore a bulky leather vest that seemed oversized, over a tunic with billowy sleeves joined at the wrists with thick cuffs. Who knows what they are hiding… Van thought uncomfortably.
Kirra glanced at Nyoka. The lizard boy unfastened the buttons on the cuff of his sleeve, reached into the billowy white clouds, and pulled out a long, thin arrow. He reached behind him, underneath his vest, and pulled out what looked like three sticks tied together with stiff string. He untied the string and flicked his wrist, and the three sticks snapped together to form an enormous longbow. He quickly strung the bow with the ease of a master and laid it on the table. Van stared at the weapon, dumbfounded; the bow was almost as big as the yeoman!
"A collapsable weapon?" Celena gasped. "How do you construct a strong-enough collapsable weapon? Do you use magic?"
"In this, we do not," Urufu said slowly. "This is our own skills. We do not use magic for everything." He sounded irked, as if he had found her inquiry offensive.
"So, at least you are armed," Allen interjected, changing the subject abruptly. "Now, the question is, what do we do next? Do we try to find this Kalryn's Devil, or do we wait for him to come to us?"
"Neither." Kirra's voice was shockingly soft, with none of the agitation or anger behind it. "We do neither. We cannot wait—by then, he would have manipulated half of Gaea's population, including perhaps your loved ones." Van was shocked at the softness in her choice of words. "Nor can we approach him. Remember what his source of power is. He is as aware of our presence as we are of his. Do you think he is not keeping an eye on us? Perhaps he is not watching our every move, or listening to our every word, but he is aware of our whereabouts." She paused, then continued, "We need to find his henchmen—no doubt they are stationed throughout the planet. Destroying them one by one would weaken his forces, and perhaps from his minions we can find out more about him. That is the only way to defeat the Kalryn's Devil. That, and destiny."
"Destiny…" Allen echoed under his breath.
~***~
The chapters are going to be a bit short for awhile. I am just warning you now, so do not be too disappointed. Eventually, when I have more time, I will write longer chapters.