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Chapter Five

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Geo was a nice enough place, Faustis concluded, but he decided that he wouldn't want to live there. Geo was far too scholarly for his taste and it was annoying to have the Magic Academy's identical students scampering about underfoot all the time.

Besides, the only shades of green could be found on the students' robes—Faustis' normally docile Sprite instincts disliked the lack of hibiscus or any other plant life in the spacey avenues of Geo. He'd have taken the homey countryside beauty of Domina any time.

He stood on the balcony of the room they had rented at the local inn, staring at the view the city of Geo made in the early noon. He wondered with a certain amount of desperation where Farryn was, and with more than a marginal amount of anger whether the corpse-raising mage would be found in Geo or not.

He sighed, his thoughts reverting to Farryn once more. Where was she now? Faustis wondered, feeling an aching absence in his heart. This was all wrong. Farryn had always filled that emptiness—how could it have been taken away? Faustis felt the uncharacteristic urge to destroy something in his desperation.

He missed his sister. He longed for her gentle yet often wry and insightful humor, missed her intricate outlooks on life and her comforting presence.

Always, whenever they were off on their separate adventures, he had been able to sense her current emotions to some level. He may not have known where her physical body was, but he always knew that she was there, somewhere in his heart.

And now it was gone. Not a single thread of thought or feeling leaked in through their link. She was lost to him, like some amazing dream—a lingering memory. He clearly remembered her, but it all had the tenuousness of imagination.

But no. He would not forget her. And he would find her.

"Faustis," someone said in a quiet voice.

The Sprite turned around, wondering whether he should be pleased to be interrupted from his reverie. But there was nothing he could do about it, he supposed, short of throwing the Lapis Lazuli Knight out of his room, which he doubted Elazul would particularly enjoy. So instead, Faustis hurriedly plastered a bright face to shield his melancholy from the unfortunately perceptive Jumi.

Elazul frowned slightly when he caught Faustis' attempt to hide his thoughts but decided to say nothing about it, choosing give his announcement anyway. "Pearl and Lisa have gone to the Academy with Bud to speak with the Headmaster. Lisa seems to believe that he can wake Bud up, but she doesn't look too hopeful, which I don't understand."

Faustis laughed. "Mephianse—the Headmaster—had many run-ins with Bud, most of them unpleasant--for him, at least. But I doubt that he'd turn away a former student, no matter how wayward, but then again, that's just my Sprite's inability to think anyone would turn anyone away." He laughed.

Elazul stepped up to the balcony, staring out at Geo. "That could be it," he agreed absently.

Faustis also turned to look back at the city. "Where did Kestrelle go?"

The Jumi replied with some amusement, "She went off to have a look at the city."

Faustis smiled genuinely. "I'm glad she's doing that. Enjoying life, I mean. Maybe she'll loosen up."

"Maybe," Elazul smirked slightly. "I don't advise you to lay any money on it, though."

Faustis shuddered. "You're right, I think."

Elazul glanced at him. "I'm going to go visit the Jumi outpost here in Geo. Esmeralda. She might have some important information, especially since she's positioned in the Academy."

Faustis brightened. "You're right! We should go now!"

Elazul blinked and uttered, "We?" before Faustis dragged him out into the streets.

The Academy of Magic in Geo was the best place to go when one was seeking information. Along with being the prime center for education, the Academy also had a spy network threaded all throughout Fa'Diel, headed by the Headmaster. The information they gathered was always accurate, which was surprising, because they were garnered by the flighty students of Geo. Every student one met in Fa'Diel was actually an agent for the intelligence network.

Which was the logical reason for the Jumi to post one of their own people inside. Back then, they had disapproved of Esmeralda's desire to learn more about magic, but after the near extinction of their race, decided that she was strategically placed to garner the information picked up by the students, so they allowed her to stay.

The two warriors moved through the throng of newly dismissed students, meeting the Green Jumi loitering in the corridors with a book in each hand.

"Elazul!" Esmeralda cried, clapping her hands happily. "And Faustis! What are you two doing here? And where's Pearl?"

"Pearl is here as well," Elazul answered, unperturbed by the girl's gaiety. "She's talking to Mephianse at the moment."

"Whatever for?"

Faustis and Elazul exchanged a long look, debating whether to enlighten the girl or not. Elazul sighed. "You might as well tell her what happened. She could go report this to Etansel—maybe they'd have a few leads."

Faustis sighed. "You may be right."

Esmeralda tapped her foot impatiently. "Well? What are you two idiots talking about?"

Faustis grinned. "I don't know...It's a long story." He saw the girl's aggravation rising.

If there was anything Esmeralda loved the most, it was information, which was why she made the perfect scholar and the worst warrior. When the Jumi race assigned her to Geo with the assignment of gathering information, she had been ecstatic. Denying her information she wanted often came out with deadly results.

"I have time," she growled. "Tell me now." Her green eyes burned with a dangerous light.

"But as a student, your time surely must be—"

"NOW, YOU DUMB SPRITE!!" Esmeralda roared, green glimmers beginning to lance through her skin. The Mana rising off her essence was glowing in warning.

So, in danger of their lives, Faustis and Elazul told the nearly-raging Jumi what they had gone through. As soon as they finished, Esmeralda exploded, "Why didn't you take me with you?? I could have made an investigative report on the Mana outpour of the Underworld! Do you know how many units I could have gotten for that?"

Faustis didn't even bother to answer that one. "So do you have any information for us?" He deliberately dropped the word information, knowing that it was her key weakness.

She grinned cheekily at him, her rage nowhere in sight. "Of course."

There was silence.

Impatient, Elazul prompted, "Well?"

"What sort of information do you need?" she asked. Upon observing their exasperated looks, she protested, "What? Of course I'd have information! You can't expect to hole up in the Learning Capital without learning a thing or two and I'm a scholar. I eat information for breakfast. I digest intelligence during lunch. I excrete—"

"That's enough, I think," Elazul interrupted hastily. "Do you have anything that would give us an insight about the sudden uprising of the Dead? Any disturbance on the Mana Flow?"

Esmeralda pursed her lips, staring at the ceiling in deep thought. "Well…there are some things buzzing around about that recently on the campus..."

There was silence among them again but for the chattering voices of the students filing down the corridor.

"Esmeralda," Elazul made out through tightly gritted teeth.

The Jumi scholar let out a silvery peal of laughter and patted his cheek warmly. "I just wanted to do that, Elazul. It's fun to watch you lose your temper."

Elazul glared at her. "If you weren't older than me…"

"But I am, aren't I?" Esmeralda smiled at him. "Nothing you can do about that. Now you two follow me. I think we have some new reports in the library."

The three set off through the academy walkways, arriving at the library, which, Faustis noticed with some distaste, was distinctly cramped compared to the wide avenues of Geo. Scholars always seemed to feel the need to keep things as cluttered as possible.

Esmeralda went to a table piled with scrolls and sifted through the crackly parchment, scanning the headings with practiced speed. She eventually produced several scrolls from the pile and dumped them on another table that was only slightly less disorderly.

"Here," she said triumphantly, choosing one from the pile. "This one might help you if you run into the Dead later on. It's a definitive study about the Dead. Very general, covers all topics." She handed it to Faustis and picked up another scroll. "This one is a report about the recent tides of the Mana Flow throughout Fa'Diel. The current nowadays is very peculiar, leaning toward the Shade property more often than not, probably because of the recent activity of the Dead." She frowned. "It's not very promising—something's going on."

"We guessed that," Elazul said dryly.

Esmeralda shrugged and continued to pile scrolls in Faustis' arms, describing each one's headline and adding her own opinion every now and that. Faustis gaped at the growing heap of parchment with dismay.

Esmeralda didn't notice. "…And this one concerns the theories on the spiritual genesis of Mana—very effective, you see, as it maintains a vital influx—"

"Hold it," Faustis said with a hint of panic in his voice. "Esmeralda, I don't make any pretense of being a scholar and I don't know that Elazul does, either. I don't understand half of what you're saying."

Elazul arched his eyebrow. "I pick up a book every now and then," he objected. "Which is probably more than I can say for you. Besides, Esmeralda, I meant news information. Current events, not records. Has anything out of the ordinary happened? Something that we should know?"

Esmeralda scrunched up her nose, looking thoughtful. "Now that I think about it, yes. Last week, or maybe the week before that, there was a sudden and massive incursion of Mana south of Gato detected by our mages. Odd, since the Mana didn't display any of the regular properties." Her eyes darkened. "It's got most of the sages unsettled. Something divine…"

"But there isn't anything south of Gato!" Faustis protested loudly, earning a glare from the librarian. More quietly, he continued, "Nothing but rocks and dirt and—"

Elazul interrupted suddenly, "Faustis, do you remember the first time we met?"

"I like you, too, Elazul," Faustis replied cheekily, knowing it would irritate the irascible Jumi. "We're good friends, but this isn't exactly the time to reminisce about the good old days."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Elazul snapped peevishly. "I'm talking about what happened after we left Domina. With Rachel."

Faustis frowned, trying to remember. After he got separated from his sister… "You mean when she gave us that artifact after you threatened her to tell you where Pearl was?"

"Elazul," Esmeralda clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "You threatened a little girl?"

"Damn right he did," Faustis said gleefully, seeing the growing irritation in Elazul's eyes. "Scared her right out of her fairy wings."

"Did not!" a voice interrupted indignantly. "And I was not little!"

The three turned around and saw a student glaring at them, hands on hips in a surprisingly feminine gesture, seeing as the student was male.

"Little children should be seen, not heard," Esmeralda reprimanded.

"And eavesdropping isn't very attractive," Elazul remarked darkly.

Faustis, however, grinned. "Hello, Rachel." Laughing silently at the stunned and disbelieving looks on his companions' faces, he went on, "Elazul, Esmeralda, meet the new and improved Rachel."

"What?" Both of his Jumi friends took a double take.

The student scowled at them. "Yes?" she said belligerently. Or he, Faustis supposed. My, it was all confusing.

Faustis observed Rachel's mannerism, noting that Rachel had definitely changed in more ways than the physical. Marcus and Jennifer would have an apoplexy to see their dear little angel turn into a sourpuss.

"You're not Rachel!" Elazul vehemently declared in a whisper. "For one thing, Rachel is a girl!"

The student whose mind was Rachel's own looked slightly pained. "Well, yes, that was one of the drawbacks to this body switch," she admitted. "I couldn't find any girl who'd want to trade bodies with me. The student whose body I now possess was…queer, but he was the only available choice." She grimaced.

Faustis laughed, but seeing the bewildered looks on the others' faces, said tiredly, "Another long story. Not particularly pretty."

Esmeralda blinked. "I don't think I'm really curious about it," she hastily put in. "So you don't have to tell me now. Maybe next week. Or next year." She paused. "Or never."

"Same," Elazul muttered, blinking wildly as well.

Faustis grinned. "Ah, you Jumi people are too fastidious. Too uppity to see the other side."

"No," Elazul replied. "We see the other side just as well as you do. We're just not so blatant about it."

Faustis shrugged. "Your loss." He turned to Rachel then. "Stay for a while," he inveigled. "I've been meaning to ask you a few things."

"All right," Rachel said grudgingly. "After all, I have you to thank for saving my sanity. I swear, if I had to last another day being babied and I really would lose my wits. But make it fast. Professor Kathinja is going to give us a lecture about the Faerie Wars."

"Oh, that?" Esmeralda said flippantly. "I could tell you all about it. After all, I was there myself."

Rachel gave her a wild-eyed look.

"Didn't you know?" Faustis grinned. "I suppose these learning institutions don't give any thought to learning things through observation much. A pity."

"Faustis," Elazul said edgily. "Stop badgering the girl and hurry up."

"You ruin all my fun," the Sprite sighed. "All right, since old Mr. Uppity over there wants us to hurry up, I will."

"Ask away." Rachel shrugged.

Silence.

"Well?" Rachel and Elazul almost snapped.

Giving Esmeralda a quick wink, he drawled, "I can see why you do this so much. It's delightfully aggravating, isn't it?"

Esmeralda grinned. "It gives me something to do in my spare time."

Faustis laughed and turned to Rachel. "Do you remember when you gave us the Jade Egg?"

She nodded, eyes wary. "And?"

"How did you know it would help us? And where did you find it in the first place?"

"Here and there," she answered evasively.

"Spill it, Rachel," Faustis commanded. "Or I'll send Marcus to summer in Geo."

The student's eyes widened in alarm. "Don't!" Rachel begged. "He'll force me to either change back or wear girl clothes! And I'm a boy now!"

"Who's this Marcus?" Esmeralda asked curiously.

"Her father," Faustis said with an extra dramatic flourish.

"Her father?" she repeated in incomprehension.

"I prefer to think of him as my sire," Rachel said snippily. She paused. "How is the old beetle doing, by the way? Has he noticed anything yet?"

"He's as unmindful as ever, Rachel," Faustis responded. "And stop trying to change the subject. Answer my question now. Where and when did you find that egg?"

"When?" Rachel repeated impertinently. "You didn't ask me 'when' a while ago."

He gave her a look. "And I meant it about the vacation. Marcus could stay at the inn—or rent a room in the dormitories."

Rachel paled slightly. "I found the egg by the brook. Several years ago."

"Where is this brook?"

"Gato Grottoes."

"There are no brooks in the Grottoes. Just the waterfall."

"Somewhere near there, then."

"Do I have to drag every single detail out from you?" Faustis demanded exasperatedly.

"All right, all right, fine," Rachel grumbled. "Southeast of Gato, or south of Kilma, me and my overbearing parents were vacationing in the house of my aunt in the dustlands."

"Aunt…?" Faustis prompted, receiving three dirty looks from the others. "I'm kidding," he muttered.

"Go on, Rachel." Elazul nodded.

"All right. I finally managed to escape my father's surveillance, since I wanted to look around the dustlands. I was roaming around the foothills when there was this enormous explosion somewhere. Its force pulled back the trees and knocked me to the ground." She made a face. "I was such a weed back then, but it's just as well, since it started raining objects."

"Objects?" Elazul inquired, looking slightly baffled.

She nodded. "Artifacts, actually."

"Really?" Faustis exclaimed.

Rachel bobbed her head slightly. "I was hidden under a rocky ledge when something burning suddenly hit the ground in front of me. It was the Jade Egg.

"I looked up and saw all the other objects in the sky, but they weren't falling like this one. They seemed to be moving on their own, heading out in different directions."

Elazul asked her urgently, "Did any other artifacts fall in the general vicinity of your hiding place?"

The student's face frowned. "I think so, but I didn't see where it landed. I wasn't able to go look for it, anyway, since my parents were looking for me. Didn't let me out of their sight for a week."

"Damn," the Jumi Knight swore.

"Why are you all so interested in these things, anyway?" the misplaced girl asked them.

Faustis slowly answered, "Do you know what these artifacts do? What they stand for, I mean."

Rachel shook her head, looking disgusted that she didn't know.

"Well," Faustis paused, scratching his stubble-free chin absently. "I'm no expert on what really happens with the process and all—that's Farryn's expertise, and as I said, I'm no scholar. I'm just guessing."

"So spit it out, Faustis," Elazul pressed. "When it turns out that you're wrong, the most you'll get is a round of everyone's pointing and laughing, but that's about it." He paused. "Of course, we'd probably do it for quite some time."

"Funny," Faustis replied dryly. "Very funny. For your information, I'm inclined to believe that my theory about it all is right." He grinned. "After all, Farryn helped me think it up."

"So what is it?" Esmeralda asked with the tiniest hint of irritation in her voice.

Faustis shrugged. "An artifact, for Farryn and me, is kind of a focus for a certain place. A key. It's like a beacon, since we can't see it."

Esmeralda's eye twitched. "Get eloquent, Faustis. You're not making any sense."

The Sprite paused momentarily, thinking it over carefully. "All right. Let's take the Egg for an example. I'm willing to bet that Elazul had already heard of the Mekiv Caverns—been there, even."

Elazul nodded. "Pearl and I went there some time before I met you."

Faustis was glad to hear it confirmed. "But I never knew it was there. I mean, before we had our first artifact, Farryn and I didn't even realize that there was anything outside our Tree other than dirt and rocks. Sure, we had our books, but we didn't believe them. We knew all about Mekiv and Domina and even Lucemia, but we thought they were just stories."

"So what you're saying," Esmeralda said slowly. "Is that all an artifact does is reveal places to people who can't see them?"

Faustis shook his head. "Not just that, I think. Tell me, Elazul. What were the Mekiv Caverns like before we triggered the artifact?"

The Knight thought about it. "To tell you the truth, they weren't much. Just a monster-infested honeycomb of rock."

"And after the artifact?"

Elazul was silent for a few moments. "It was as if…" he hesitated, then plunged on. "It was as if there was a sudden explosion of Mana. Life."

"Exactly," Faustis grinned. "Imagination is Mana as well, and using ours colored the place a bit."

Rachel's brow furrowed. "So what an artifact does is to sort of renew the Mana flow that runs through a certain area if it has a designated artifact with Mana-induced imagination?"

"That's my guess," Faustis shrugged. "Of course, your guess is as good as mine."

"No," the student sniffed.  "If I had one, it would be better."

"Funny."

Suddenly, a loud detonation rocked the air. It wasn't an actual explosion coming from a bomb. It was an explosion they only heard in their minds, an explosion of Mana.

"What was that?" Rachel squeaked, clinging to her hat.

Faustis concentrated his focus on the focal point of the disturbance and came up with a very familiar echo.

"Wouldn't you know?" he grinned, laughing. "Bud has finally decided to join us!"

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This chapter was fun to write, but not much action going on. Is it shorter compared to the others? Because it feels like it. But more action will occur later on.

And isn't it fun to have Elazul ticked off? :D