Hi! Bozena here, and the next chapter is up! I just want to give credit to everybody whose help me out, especially Enzuru No Yami and Angel Eyes! Thank you, guys, sooooo much!

Thank you everyone who has reviewed so far! I love to hear from you, but I love your e-mail address more! I keep trying to e-mail you guys back to thank you some more, but a lot of the reviews are un-sighned!

Anyway, now the fic is finally getting a little rising action (well, more than usual)

Disclaimer; (sniff, sniff) sorry guys, I have to have a pity party whenever I write a disclaimer. *Sob* I know, I know! I don't own Escaflowne! T_T

On a lighter note, read on! (I'll send you a huge cookie if you review)

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Van stared, speechless. "No. It's not possible. It can't be true!" Twenty or so people surrounded the sturdy table in the council room. Van's advisors whispered to each other, and the echoes reverberated eerily in the hall.

Portraits of the Fanalian line hung behind Van, and his ancestors seemed to stare uncannily and imperiously over the young king's shoulder.

Dryden shook his head; "It gets worse."

Someone muttered in the background, "How can it get any worse?"

"The soldiers were all wearing Ziabach insignia," Dead silence filled the room. After what seemed like eternity, Allen shook his head in disbelief, "You've got to be joking!"

Van stood up swiftly, his fist clenched, "Why wasn't I informed? How could I not know?" He demanded.

Dryden gave him a level look, "Because everyone suspects that you are instigating the attacks."

"After all Fanalia has worked for peace?" Van charged.

"Don't you think that they have a right to be suspicious?" Dryden inquired coolly. "In the entire continent, every country had at least been assaulted, except Fanalia!"

"Dryden, wait. What about what everyone hasn't considered," Millerna cast an apologetic looked in Van's direction. "Fanalia's guilt is too obvious---"

"What!" Van interrupted furiously. Millerna held up a hand.

"Wait. Hear me out. If Fanalia was provoking these attacks (with Ziabach insignia?) wouldn't Fanalia make it a little less obvious, instead of flashing their crimes for everyone to see? Van isn't that foolish! (Allen grinned behind his gloved hand) I think…."

"Think what, Princess?" Dryden prompted.

"I think that Fanalia was framed."

"But who---" Van stopped in the middle of his question when Allen suddenly stood up. Selena, who sat beside him, started and tried to rise too, but Allen put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back into her seat.

"There is one way we can find out who these marauding mercenaries belong too, without further loss a life." Allen looked pointedly at Hitomi. Realization crept into Van's eyes.

"No! Gaea cannot depend on her powers! She---"

"Van." His name fell softly from Hitomi's lips and drifted downwards in the quiet room like a feather gently floating on water. Van fell silent. Hitomi looked warily at Allen.

"You don't realize what you are asking me. First, I haven't touched my tarot cards since I left Gaea, 3 years ago. I don't even have them here. And…What if I change the future again? What if my anxiety calls up an alternate fate? Do you realize---"

Her voice broke. "Do you realize how many people have died after I used the pendent and the cards? I want to help, but…" Hitomi's hands clenched in her lap, and she leaned back with a sigh against the back of the tall, velvet covered chair she sat in. Her eyes shot open when she felt someone grasp her hand.

"Millerna…"

"Please, Hitomi. Please. Aren't people are dying already?" Her huge amethyst eyes begged for her people's lives and loved ones.

Hitomi turned away from Millerna's gaze, "Oh, Millerna…"

Millerna's face hardened. Before anyone could stop her, she brought her hand sharply against Hitomi's right cheek. Hitomi looked shocked and brought her hand up to her stinging, red face.

"How can you be so insensitive? Don't you realize by not doing something, that you're causing more deaths?" Hitomi's eyes widened and all of the blood left her face in a rush.

Millerna raised her arm again for another blow, but suddenly Van appeared between them and caught her hand. Van didn't say anything, but shook his head slowly and deliberately. He dropped Millerna's hand and reached behind him to grasp Hitomi's. At first Millerna was shocked by Van's speed, but then her face reddened in frustrated anger.

"That's enough, sister!" Eris exclaimed, appalled. Millerna backed down with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. But our people are dying and losing everything, and I can't do anything about it."

"I may cause as much harm as I do good, but I'll try to do a reading, Millerna," Hitomi's voice came softly from behind her.

"Thank you," Millerna whispered.

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"Ace of Serpents. The Empress. The World; judgement card. Slayer of Dragons. The Death Card." Hitomi spoke in monotone as she laid down the cards in their order with her free hand.

Aronic had once again surprised them all. It had turned out, that by some strange twist of fate, the blinding white light that brought Hitomi back to Gaea had included the cards.

They had littered the ground where Hitomi and Van landed and only Aronic noticed them and thought to pick them up. While Hitomi had been worrying over the dilemma of a reading with no cards, Aronic had calmly pulled the deck out of her pocket and offered them to Hitomi.

Hitomi's face suffused with color when she remembered. She had been so shocked when Aronic tried to give Hitomi her tarot cards she had almost fallen out of her chair, and had only been saved by Van's supporting arm. Why did she persist in embarrassing herself?

Speaking of Van… He knelt beside her now, gripping her left hand in his. She had been surprised when she felt a delicate chain between their skin. Hitomi had looked down and saw the pendent. She had glanced up quickly to meet Van's eyes.

Its power has help us before, he spoke softly into her mind

It could be dangerous. Our anxiety could affect the future, switch it for an even more unhappy fate, she had replied, deeply concerned.

He had looked away, expressing wordless wonder and sympathy at the weight she had carried alone, three years ago. Back then, he had been completely ignorant of the struggle of right and wrong reading the future was, and now he had only the smallest clue. Guilt still rode him from the times he had carelessly asked her to use her powers against Ziabach.

It's all right. You were right. We'll need the pendent. I will need your help, Hitomi comforted.

Allen, Millerna, Eris, Dryden, Aronic, Selena, Gaddes and Merle lounged around the small pavilion they had chosen outside for the reading. Everyone except Merle and Aronic pretended not to watch Fanalia's king and Hitomi, but all of them were a rapt audience. A map was spread in front of Hitomi.

Slowly she had begun to draw cards. Without looking at them she knew the name face, and figure, even though the card was face down.

Concern and something that looked distantly related to fear flitted across Aronic face. She watched as the light and shines fled out of both Van and Hitomi's eyes, mirroring each other perfectly. Their expressions became dead and flat, like their eyes, and they both grew pale and stiff.

Hitomi paused. Last card. It belonged in the future position. She reached out her hand and touched the last card, instantly recognizing it for what it was.

The Blank Card. This one card she turned face up, so everyone could see the unmarred expanse of white. Then Hitomi began to speak, Van echoing her emotionless voice.

"In the past there was great courage, which will be need soon again. A great but forbidden and impossible love. War threatens peace once again. The death card. Many have died. Many will die. The dragon King leads the fight, that tips the balance of this," Hitomi gently touched the empty card.

" This is the future. A crossroad. The blank card represents an uncertain future, that can tip to destruction or to salvation," Both Van and Hitomi fell silent.

Hitomi had never been this certain on a reading before. To be truthful, a lot a readings were just guess work and translation, but this time….

She could feel Van in complete concordance. Their minds sang true together. She understood the exact meaning of each cards and it's position without having to decipher it, and through the pendent she could feel the gentle throb and pull of the cards in her hands.

Then all of the sudden, Hitomi's peaceful trance was shattered. She felt the world outside of her disappear. It was a vision, she realized, astonished. But for the first time ever, someone from the world behind her came with her.

"Van?" She gasped.

He gripped her hand tighter and answered, "I'm here. Where the heck are we?" He stared at the images swirling around them.

"It's a vision," Hitomi whispered to herself. All of a suddenly the vision around them solidified.

It was the Mystic Valley. Hitomi could feel Van's violent denial shake her. Atlantis erupted into flames! Blazing infernos swallowed people whole, and reached hungrily for her and Van. Abruptly two armies suddenly erupted from the flames, about to clash.

Van felt himself stiffen when he recognized the leader of the first army. It was himself.

"No! I'm tired of fighting! I don't want to fight!" He yelled in defiance.

Hitomi was watching the other army. She whimpered softly and buried her face in Van's shoulder. He turned and stared hard at the opposing side. Two draconians stood in shadow. It was impossible. All other draconians were dead.

He wrapped his arms tightly around Hitomi, daring the vision with a feral growl to try and take her away. The dragon in his consciousness stirred. Not yet awake but waiting for a chance, watching avidly.

But Van saw what Hitomi didn't. She had her face hidden. Van saw a single, solitary figure standing in between the two armies. Alone, standing futilely for peace.

It was Hitomi.

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Merle knelt by Van, shaking him and crying. Millerna pushed as hard a she could on Hitomi's chest, while Aronic bent by her head, breathing into her mouth and pushing waves of blue light into the fallen sprawled bodies of Van and Hitomi.

Selena gripped Merle's shoulder hard. Merle turned, quick as a cat, snarling and spitting.

"Van-sama will be fine, Merle. He's still breathing! Hitomi's lungs have stopped," Selena said in the calmest voice she could muster. She was frantic. The one person, the reason she stood here today with her brother was technically dead. Ferocity bit off her words into curt monosyllables.

"Look!" Allen cried. A dim light slowly dripped out of the previously dead pendent and two hands that were held in a death-grip twitched and gripped. Hitomi let out a racking cough and Van bolted upright, panting.

Merle gave a squeal of delight and licked Van's cheek with a will.

"Merle, cut that out!" Van exclaimed in exasperated affection.

"We were so worried, Lord Van!" Merle cried. Hitomi coughed harder, her shoulders heaving. Van carefully pushed Aronic's hands out of the way and gently started rubbing Hitomi's back as her cough subsided.

Hitomi shaded her tear-filled eyes against a stray sunbeam that had wandered in the garden pavilion, and rasped to Van, " I think we need a safer hobby."

Dryden threw his head back and burst out laughing. Allen glared at him, and Hitomi wondered if they had ever resolved their differences while she was gone. She guessed not.

"What happened, Hitomi?" Millerna demanded. Even Eris looked ruffled and worried.

"I----We had another vision. War is coming, and our enemy is not quite…" Hitomi paused searching for breath and words.

"Ziabach hasn't been reborn…it's been recruited," Van stepped in.

"Impossible!" Allen protested. "What alliance would be able to swallow the entire Ziabach Empire?" Van shook his head.

"We don't know," Hitomi answered for him. "But two…people are coming to try overthrow Fanalia from the inside! They're coming soon! How will we know who they are?"

"I have it!" Everyone turned to Dryden in surprise. Dryden grinned and he turned to Van. "It's time to improve Fanalia's social graces and throw a party!" Millerna looked at him if he were insane.

"Come on, it's perfect!" Dryden continued. " If their coming soon, have the party in all visitors honor. It would be the perfect opportunity to spy on them and they won't even know what hit 'em!"

"As much as I hate to admit it, Dryden's idea has merit," Eris mulled over the thought as she spoke.

"Yeay!" Merle exclaimed in excitement. She loved parties. Allen looked extremely apprehensive. Hitomi noticed the expression.

I wonder…..she thought and instinctively reached to Allen through the pendent.

What she saw was amazing, and left her speechless. Barley visible strings bound everyone in the small garden deck to each other.

One strong brilliant beam of light connected her to Van. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Hundreds of small child-like glowing bonds connected Merle to Van.

What shocked her most was almost the same light that connected her to Van, connected Allen and Millerna. But it was terribly twisted and knotted.

I don't believe it, she thought. Allen and Millerna are still in love. I guess Allen really is the only man for her!

(A/N; there we go again! From the 6th volume of VoE, last episode. "Millerna, Allen is the only man for you" Dryden looks shocked…hehe)

She snapped her 'eyes' out from the pendent and sent a thought hurtling toward Van

I have to show you something! I want you to see this. Van ignoring the still debating people around them and sent her an inquiring glance. She took his hand and 'guided' him to look through the pendent. Van's hand slackened in shock.

Look at the light between Allen and Millerna. I guess they're still in love, Van shook his head slightly

But why….how…. I didn't know, His confused thoughts spilled into her head. Hitomi put a hand to her aching head and without realizing it, slipped into sleep, with Van tenderly holding her head.

Aronic, unnoticed by everyone surrounding her, gazed up at the sky. She had seen Hitomi fall asleep in the King's arms. She recognized their vision----and she wonder just what Rianne thought she was doing.

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Hey, guys! It's me again! How did you like it? Good, not so good? Coming over to my house at night with torches to throw me into the Pacific Ocean?

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I'll mention again the sadly I do not own Escaflowne, just everything else (One day you'll be mine, my pretty and your little dog too!) *Bozena cackles evilly*

The next chapter is coming up soon so bear with me. ; ) The more reviews you write, the inspired I am!

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