kale's Once and For All: The Takari Saga

by Eowyn the Fair

Book 7, the conclusion of kale's saga. Takeru learns of a plot against Hikari's soul from the forces of Hell, and alone journeys towards his decisive battle. But Kari follows, playing into the hands of the other side to pit the two against one another...

3. To Honor the Lady Hikari: The Battle of ...

T.K. sat straight across from Kiara in her great hall, his blue eyes narrowed on the girl (though not really a girl any longer, but instead a woman) as she explained all that had happened here since he, Kari and Davis had left those fifteen years ago. Fifteen years for the a'ladon, in any event. For despite his weariness at having traveled all day and most of the night, he simply could not bring himself to rest before learning all that had happened to her during that time.

Kiara, on the other hand, had been just as insistent about finding out what had happened to he and Kari and had been adamant that he be the first to tell his story. They had negotiated on this matter for a few moments, and in the end had settled on a quick game of 'rock, paper, scissors' to decide which of them would tell first. This game Kiara lost fair and square after T.K. had explained it to her... though some time afterwards the boy thought that he had caught her trying to puzzle out the concept of scissors.

And so the three a'ladon and one human sat and talked for several hours, listening to one another's stories and becoming better acquainted. Or rather, two a'ladon and one human talked, as Ailora was sitting off to the side during the entire time and did not speak so much as a single word. Eloan, eventually, calmed down around T.K. and was able to speak with him in a rather casual manner... much as his mother was. And after a time, it became clear to the boy that his mother's portrayal of this Paragon was much more accurate than that told in the old stories. He was not stern and filled with holy rage as the bards would have said, but in fact remained as a child in many ways... if a very wise and serious child.

It had long passed dawn and was headed towards noon when T.K. could no longer stifle the tremendous yawn that he had been holding in for the past several hours. Kiara smiled affectionately at the human, then rose from her chair. "Enough of this talking. You are tired, and it is time that you must rest." And when it seemed that T.K. would have argued the point, the woman raised a paw to silence him. "No arguments, young one," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "In this house, children are expected to obey their elders. You may finish speaking with the twins while I make sleeping arraignments for you."

T.K. bit back a grin and a chuckle as the woman rose and left the room. He had known her when she was just entering adolescence but the boy supposed that, due to the disparity of time between his world and hers, she was indeed his elder now. And so as she left he turned back to the younger pair. Eloan leaned forward, eager to speak with him as long as his mother would allow, but Ailora was quickly on her feet and after her mother without speaking a single word to excuse herself.

The young human's eyes followed the girl as she left, the sad appearance of rejection on his lips. Since he'd arrived, Ailora had yet to speak a single word to him. Indeed, she had almost refused to even look at him during the entire time that the group had been talking... though he had caught her staring intently at him a couple of times when she had thought that he wasn't watching. The boy didn't know exactly what to make of it, but it saddened him greatly. "I don't think your sister likes me very much," he murmured, leaning close to Eloan.

The young a'ladon sputtered in response to the words, a drink that he had just taken evidently having gone down the wrong way and set him to coughing violently. After a moment or so of gasping for breath and finally managing to compose himself, the red-haired creature looked up pointedly at the other. So much for omniscience... he thought to himself, wondering if he himself should correct Lord Takeru's misconception. On the one paw, he knew for a fact that Ailora certainly did not dislike Takeru, of course... indeed, quite the opposite. But on the other, neither did he want to humiliate his sister (and possibly Takeru too) by correcting him too vigorously and possibly letting something slip that was probably best kept a secret.

"I would not worry about it, Lord. Ailora's probably just a little overwhelmed, and maybe embarrassed, by what happened this morning, that's all." That much was almost certainly true, and didn't seem to give too much away.

T.K. looked sideways at the other as if unsatisfied with the answer, but still shook his head and seemed to allow his concern for the matter a rest. "Well she certainly doesn't hit like a little girl, that's for sure," he answered sadly, his eyes on the hallway that Ailora had left through. But after a moment, he looked back to Eloan and his voice was light again. "But if we're to be friends then you and I will have to straighten something out, Eloan. Something that even your father couldn't learn until we were at the end of our travels together. My name is T.K., and just T.K. No 'Lord'. No 'Lord Takeru'. Not even Takeru. The only ones that ever call me that are my mother and Kari... rather, Lady Hikari, and then only when I'm in a lot of trouble."

Eloan's face lit up in a relieved smile. Dread god of righteousness, indeed! As his mother had told him years ago, there was nothing terrible or overwhelming about the creature in front of him. The boy suddenly felt more at ease talking to him than he did when speaking with almost anyone else... even those that he had known for years.

Then, inspired to take the initiative by the comfortable atmosphere in the room, it occurred to the boy that they had yet to be properly introduced. And so he rose from his seat and thrust his paw forward, much as he would have to a friend of his own species and age. "Hello then, T.K. My name is Eloan. Very pleased to meet you."

T.K. smiled at the other and accepted the paw, shaking it once.

************

King Jeron leaned backwards upon the blackened tree stump on which he sat, removing his thin crown and rubbing at the matted fur beneath. Gods, how he hated to wear the stupid thing. It had never fit him properly, no matter how many times he had ordered it shaped and reshaped to fit his head, and it frequently irritated him to the point of distraction. Were it not essential to constantly remind people that he was the one in charge, he would hardly ever even wear the thing.

Leaning back to scratch his back against the stump, the king watched as one of the enormous Saurian warriors that he had 'acquired' lumbered by. Walking upright, it was plain to see that it was one of the more intelligent and civilized varieties... though among Saurians, both 'intelligent' and 'civilized' had to be measured accordingly. The creature gave an uninterested grunt as he lumbered past the king with a veritable boulder balanced atop its shoulder, one claw on the side to steady it. Once more Jeron shook his head in admiration at the staggering strength the creatures possessed. That particular Saurian was almost six feet in height and must have weighted close to three hundred pounds... yet the boulder that he had just moved from the mountain's entrance must have weighted at least half again that much. Such strength seemed unnatural to the lithe creature.

And then the king glanced briefly over to the far side of his makeshift camp to where the other lizard-like creatures were enjoying a noisy feast. Just what they were eating, he had little real desire to learn. The less intelligent cousins to this creature and his ilk, these creatures walked on all fours and were serving as mounts for he and his entourage. At first it had been a tedious chore to learn to control the beasts, but they had turned out to certainly be worth the effort.

Of course, such a gift on his counterpart's behalf had necessitated a comparable act on his part, thus the reason for--

"Pardon me... Your Majesty?"

Jeron looked up as Kueren, the sergeant who was in charge of the elite troops that the king had brought with him on this trip, snapped to attention. The aged soldier looked terribly uncomfortable, for some reason. "Yes, my old friend, you are pardoned. What is it now?"

Kueren cleared his throat once, his voice deep and earthy. "Your Majesty!" the creature replied smartly. "It is the... sisters." And then, as if having his military concentration broken by his brief stumble over the word, Kueren lost a great deal of his procedural formality and allowed his lips to curl into a vague grimace. "They have requested that you attend them."

Jeron leaned back on his stump, frowning at the other's uneasiness. "Not quite so politely, I'd wager," he answered, studying the old soldier before him. And he watched the other standing there and shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot, he realized what was bothering the man.

"Gods, Kueren!" he snapped, irritated after a moment of awkward silence. "Are you a child to be frightened so by those two? You look much as my son did when he was but a babe and his dear, departed mother first told him the tale of the Great Saurian under his bed who eats naughty little a'ladon!"

The sergeant touched his forehead with the first to fingers of his paw then quickly pulled them away: the sign made by the superstitious to ward off evil spirits. Jeron's frown deepened as Kueren's deep voice responded not with laughter, but with a warning. "There is something unnatural about those two, Majesty. Something has changed about them during the past season. Before they were harmless. Peculiar and reclusive, yes, but harmless. But lately, my men have been seeing and hearing strange things from them... and even Your Majesty cannot deny that there is a much different feeling about them than before."

"Pah!" the king spat at the other. "What? The witchcraft? Oh don't look so surprised, Kueren, of course I know about it. I'm not half so stupid as my subjects would seem to think, and one can only ignore so many dead toads dangling from the beltlines of his advisors before he becomes suspicious about such things. Forbidden under all of our laws, of course, but as long as their advice remains good something I'm willing to tolerate."

The taller creature continued to look disturbed, so Jeron continued. This time his voice was more coaxing... wheedling. Despite the authority that he held as a king, more often than not it came down to such a tone. He was far better at using it than he was at using royal commands, after all. "Kueren... my old friend. Listen to me. You and I have known Aine and Moya since they were both babes in their cribs, have we not? And all of that time we have both recognized that there was something unusual about them."

The king rose without awaiting a response (better to have the last word) and placed an arm about the furry shoulders of the soldier, walking him back towards the rest of the camp. The casualness of the gesture seemed to disturb the sergeant mightily, but he said nothing. He was much used to the old ways, where no authority figure would ever make such a display around his army. Such things weakened Jeron's already fragile authority to the rest of the men, authority that the king would have lost long ago if it were not for Kueren's brutal efficiency.

Jeron smiled as he switched the subject, speaking to the soldier not as a king, but as a friend. These Saurians, he said, brutes though they were, certainly knew their business and should have the entrance to the cave opened up in a matter of hours. And then, inside. To find...

He fell silent. Well, the truth be told, Jeron wasn't certain just what he would find there. Clear contrary to what he had told Kiara, he had very little idea why he was even here. He had no wish to go and pay homage to the memory of T'Kai... he hadn't even liked the little troublemaker. The truth was that he had sent T'Kai on this mission for the very purpose of seeing him dead and thus preventing the child from one day overthrowing the bureaucracy and reinstating the monarchy. The fact that his 'heroic' death had led to Jeron himself being installed as king was what Aine called, "One of life's little ironies."

The a'ladon soldiers all snapped to attention as their sergeant and king walked by. Despite having spent weeks on the trail getting to the far south of the land, each man looked well groomed and ready for action at a moment's notice. Their weapons and armor were all well oiled and polished, and not a single black fur stood out of place on their bodies. It pleased Jeron greatly.

And then the pair reached the small tent that had been set up in the far corner of the camp, the one where Aine and her sister Moya (advisors to His Majesty) dwelt when accompanying him on a journey. Jeron made a motion for Kueren to wait for him outside. He and his men were already nervous enough around the sisters, and what the other would see inside would no doubt make them doubly so. But, as the king had told his sergeant, as long as their advice remained sound he was willing to overlook a few minor indiscretions on their part. Not to mention the fact that the young pair were among his most favorite mistresses.

It was dark as midnight inside the tent as Jeron allowed the black leather flaps to close behind him. After waiting a moment for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light inside and finding that they utterly failed to do so, the king inched slowly forward with his paws outstretched in front of him, groping for anything that told him that he was making progress. As he passed through a second set of flaps he damned these two and their recently developed affinity for the dark...

"Moya? Aine? Blast it, girls, where are the two of you? Enough games!"

Then the man heard the sizzling sound of a candle being lit somewhere close at hand and stopped short, nearly tripping over his own feet as he did so. Down on the floor one of the pair knelt... Aine or Moya, the man wasn't quite sure. It had been hard to tell the pair apart when they hadn't been dressing and acting exactly alike. Now that they were, it was practically impossible.

Jeron stood over the girl as she knelt on the dirty floor of the tent, her black hood dangling loosely over her head as she peered closely at something on the ground. The flickering candle in her hand cast the oddest shadow inside that hood, making it look for a moment as if there was something else sharing the space inside with her. He frowned impatiently. "Kueren said that--"

"Quietly!" the girl hissed, interrupting what she was doing for a moment to flash a venomous look up at the monarch with her dark eyes. Jeron drew back a bit. As much as he put on a bold face in front of his men, there was something about the pair lately that was beginning to startle him... not the least of which was the profound loss of respect that they were beginning to show him. He was the king, after all...

And then the girl glanced down once again, this time her eyes not quite so full of fury. Aine, he suspected. The one with the worse temper (by far) but also the one who calmed down more rapidly when she was through with her anger. With one paw she motioned for the other to kneel on the ground at her side and to look at the spot where she was.

Jeron was hesitant to be seen kneeling at anyone's behest, but after a moment did as the girl bade. Anyone brave enough to be in this tent without the permission of the sisters would have little enough respect for him anyway. He put his face close to the ground, trying to see in the dim light just what it was that she was trying to show him. But the harder the man tried, the more clear it became that what she was staring at was simply the dirt that covered the ground.

"But wait a moment," Aine (for it was she) whispered mysteriously, placing one claw upon her lips to call for silence. And then she took the king's paw tightly within her own and slowly moved it down the side of her soft, dark robes until together they entered a small pouch at the girl's beltline. Following her direction, the monarch picked up a small amount of a grainy-type substance therein and pulled it out.

Aine guided Jeron's hand around the small area of dirt by which they had knelt, together scattering liberal amounts of the black substance which they had pulled from the pouch onto the ground. And as the last few granules of the stuff was scattered into a surprisingly clear-cut circle upon the ground, the girl began to wave a single paw back and forth above it.

The king frowned a question at her. "Watch," she insisted, nodding her head down towards the blackened earth.

Jeron was becoming annoyed. From Kueren's tone, this had been something of the utmost urgency. He didn't have time to waste playing in the sand when he had the excavation of the collapsed tunnel to supervise... an excavation which was a direct result of this trip that Aine and Moya themselves had insisted that he make. This apparently hadn't even been the girls' invitation to a pleasantly distracting sexual encounter.

And then, nervously, the king watched as the circle upon the ground seemed to... waver. He didn't know how better to put it so that his mind would understand. As he studied it closely, the ground itself seemed to blur and become distorted in his view. It unnerved him mightily, watching something so firm and steady as the earth itself becoming subject to whatever powers the girl had stumbled upon. He felt in some strange way subject to the magic... and after an alarming moment Jeron felt so subject to it that he felt that he must look away lest he himself be drawn into the tiny circle. But despite his best effort the man found that, no matter how much he wished to, that he could no more avert his gaze than he could force his own claws to tear out his eyes.

And then... pain. Terrible, wrenching pain as he felt himself pulled farther and faster into the darkness of the circle. It was surrounding him now, tearing his body apart. His head felt as though it would burst from the pressure in his ears as he was pulled unwillingly into the black hole. He was dying, he was sure of it. Dying... horribly, painfully... until...

He felt a paw grasp his arm tightly, nails digging into his flesh as he was pulled back from the darkness and reentered the mortal world. "Careful, Majesty," he heard Aine's sibilant voice whisper a warning in his ears. "Not too closely. Just enough to watch..."

Jeron's paw clutched tightly at the girl's arm as his soul clutched at her voice in order to cling to the reality that they represented. He had to get out of this darkness that she had cast him into. Had to, and quickly, before--

But then it was no longer darkness. Now he was back in the valley of Ash and Tears, near Kiara's house that he had left the previous day. Now he was no longer in pain but instead felt strangely detached from his body as he was drawn through the place, not having enough time to really take in all that he was seeing. Almost as a ghost must feel, the man mused, as he drifted unseen through the woods and even through individual houses, his vision not impeded by their impermeability.

He watched, bemused by the journey and what purpose it served, until he came once again to Kiara's great house. Inside his soul flew, no longer encumbered by mortal restraints, and there his eyes became fixated on a figure lying on a bed beneath a light set of sheets. This was what she called to show me? the king mused, hoping that when he could get a better viewpoint that the body beneath the sheets would be young Ailora's.

But it was not to be. As the view shifted and became more perfect in the man's eyes, he saw that the creature on the bed was not even an a'ladon at all. It was large, lanky, and almost completely devoid of fur. The creature's sleep appeared to be far from restful as it tossed and turned upon the bed, as if trying to escape from something.

And then the thing sat up, blue eyes snapping open as it stared directly into his own face... though in truth, he wasn't certain that it could actually see him. "Begone, and away quickly!" the creature shouted its demand, thrusting a hand in his direction... a hand that looked to the king to be veritably aglow with gold fire.

"Takeru!" Jeron screeched in alarm, moments before he felt his existence thrown violently out of Kiara's house, back through the woods and again into the darkness ten times as quickly as he had come. And if he had felt pain in the darkness before, now it was sheer agony. The man screamed aloud, clutching desperately for Aine's paw... his only lifeline away from the hurt. But he had lost his hold and could no longer feel her, and was fading ever so fast...

"Majesty! Majesty! ... Jeron, open your eyes!"

The king did as he was commanded, feeling a pair of strong arms around his shoulders. As his eyes opened again into the dim light of the tent, he screamed once again and clutched fervently at the speaker and his strong, hearty voice. It was a jumbled mess of fur and terror as the king latched onto his savior like a drowning man, a babbled string of incoherencies pouring forth from his lips. "T... T... Ta, Ta... Tak..."

"What have you done to him, witch?" Kueren demanded angrily, the warrior having burst into the tent only seconds after hearing the king's cry.

Aine knelt quietly in the corner, affixing the soldier with eyes that might have seared him to ash if he had been paying any attention to her and nursing her tender cheek where he had struck her to the side. Before, the sergeant had been a minor inconvenience. But now... he would suffer for that blow. After a silent moment in which Kueren cradled the bawling king like an infant, the girl hissed back her response. "He'll be fine in a moment, soldier. He's just frightened. Take him back to his tent and get him calmed down... and tell those fools dragging that shale out of the mountain to be quick about it. Else His Majesty may truly have something to be scared of."

The sergeant snarled an incoherent response back at the girl as he helped Jeron to his feet, trying to get him to stop shivering so violently. He wanted desperately to get him out of this tent and the dark odor of death and decay... back into the sunlight... but he just could not do it with him in this condition. The soldiers respected him little enough as it was and that shriek of panic could not have helped any; if they were to see him in this terrified state, his reign could very well be at an end right here.

Aine, unseen by the other, smiled at his back as blood continued to fill her mouth. "You're right, sergeant, it can end here," she murmured to herself, though Kueren had not spoken aloud. She was well satisfied with the king's terror; terror that hopefully would redouble his efforts to get into that mountain. It was so much easier to be witness to another's fear than it was to concentrate upon her own.

Takeru! Here! The girl bit down on her lip, lest she be overcome by another fit of profanities. It was bad enough that he was still alive when by all counts he had fallen beneath a savage attack while in his own world several years earlier. But how in the name of all bloody and searing Hell had he become involved in this at this stage? The girl supposed that he almost certainly would have followed when Hikari was captured and brought here in chains, but by then it would have been too late. But now?

And Hikari already here as well! In the city of Kelmuir, some days' journey away. Moya had gone to see to that particular matter, which could well be to the sisters' advantage, but it was evident to each of them that their well-scripted plan was slowly being dissolved into chaos. This had been over a year in the making... to see it falling apart like this in under a week was particularly disconcerting.

Moments after Kueren had walked a just slightly less terrified Jeron out of the tent, Aine stuck her head out as well. "Guard!" she called shrilly to the black-haired a'ladon standing just outside the leathery flaps. The man snapped to attention at her voice, knowing that this one and her sister both held great sway with the king. Aine nodded once. "Once your sergeant is done with what he's doing, tell him to form a contingent of his soldiers and send them back down to the valley. Your king's very life depends on it!"

The other frowned. He was not used to taking orders from little girls (no matter how much magic they knew or who they slept with), but this was far from an ordinary situation, and he supposed that just delivering the other's demands to the sergeant would be harmless enough. "Aye, mistress!" he said, snapping to attention again for just a moment before following in a stately march after the rapidly departing pair.

Aine frowned, not at all certain whether that had been meant as an insult or not. Still, she supposed, it had been close enough, and mentally added another name to this list of those who would suffer when she had taken what had been promised her.

************

From his position perched atop Kari's shoulder, Patamon blinked rapidly in astonishment and to try to recover from the lingering effects of vertigo. A scant moment ago they had been standing atop a lonely mountain hillside just after noon, having followed T.K.'s trail to that very spot. After some moments of searching, Kari had become convinced that this was the spot from which the boy had left their world. A hurried 'conversation' with the Crest of Light had seemed to confirm this notion, and then with a brief (though violent) explosion of the Crest, he, Gatomon and the girl had found themselves in this dank, dusky (and thoroughly unpleasant, to Patamon's mind) city.

"Yuck," the little creature murmured, inching up Kari's shoulder and closer to her head. "This place smells awful."

"I thought you were supposed to be all ears, not all nose and mouth," Gatomon snapped from her position at Kari's feet and looking up at the girl. "Kari's trying to think. Let her."

To be completely honest, Kari was thinking very little about just where the Crest had taken them. Almost at once she had seen the passing a'ladon, and that was enough for her. Since there was no evident danger, the girl was still taking time to remember what had happened just before they had left.

Nefertimon had carried both she and Patamon to the mountain from her own home after the three had taken only a few moments to explain to Tai (whose fiancee had absconded with their mother to do some last minute shopping for a bridal shower) where they were going. Or rather, she amended, she had explained it to him while Patamon and Gatomon had tackled the young man and held him down until she had finished speaking.

The holding down part had been necessary because, as Kari had predicted, Tai went into veritable conniptions when told what the trio was planning. It had taken some fast talking on the girl's part to explain to him why she was doing this and why it had to be her and her alone. Tai was only days away from being married now and had his own responsibilities, and it was time that he stopped treating her like a child. That if it was Sora that had gone away, he would be doing exactly the same thing.

Tai's struggling slowly died off as soon as he had heard that part, the words having shaken him as soon as he gave them an honest chance to sink into his head. The emotional part of him had almost instantly spoken without thinking and had fallen back on the old argument that something like that would be entirely different.

Why? Kari had demanded. Why was it different? Because she was his sister? Because she was younger? Because she was 'only a girl'? She had answers for these all ready and waiting for him to pose them; devastating answers that would crush his opposition the moment that she had voiced them.

And then she saw the affectionate (if concerned) look in her older brother's eyes, and knew that it was none of these things. Well, it may have been in smaller portions, but the main gist of it was...

The two siblings studied each other intently for a moment. And after a while, and after Tai had looked at her long enough to break through her facade and into her soul, he gave a weak smile. You really do love him, don't you? Boy, almost six years and a dozen adventures later, and it took me this long to figure it out. It never was just puppy love, was it?

Well... to be honest big brother, you never were that quick, she had replied teasingly, And then, so as to once and for all erase any lasting doubts that he might have, Kari's eyes shown with a sisterly affection as the girl played her trump card. I'm going to marry him, Tai.

Kari had the disappointed satisfaction of seeing two jaws figuratively (though not quite literally) hit the floor. Disappointed, of course, because she had been trying for three. Gatomon, however, had responded only with a look of feline coolness. In all honesty, her opinion of the other two had dropped a bit when they'd allowed their surprise to show. What, had they been asleep for the past five years?

It was a rout after that, as Tai couldn't honestly think of one single good idea why she shouldn't go or why he should. Well, actually, he could think of several dozen, but he wasn't going to speak them. He had seemed reassured that both Patamon and Gatomon were going with her, and did seem to agree that T.K. would need her there... though she had conveniently left out the fact that T.K. had, by all counts, left her a warning begging her not to follow. Very little point in bringing that up.

But in the end and with a tight, brotherly embrace, Tai had consented not to try to stop her or to tell their parents where she had gone. Being able to think of nothing else, he had extracted a promise from her to be careful and not to get into any trouble... promises that, if he had thought about it honestly, had already been broken the moment that she had decided to go. But after she had agreed to the promise, only a last and joint I love you had been spoken before their departure.

"You okay?" Gatomon murmured from Kari's feet to wake her from her reverie.

The girl blinked and then nodded quickly in response, glancing down at the Crest in her hand. Even the perpetual source of light seemed a bit darkened in this gloomy place, yet still it seemed to be struggling valiantly to come to brilliant life. But even worse than the smothering, dusky haze that obscured the Crest was the very feel of the city. It felt sad... hopeless. There was an almost tangible despair surrounding them there, the source of which none of them could exactly say.

Kari stepped back against the wall of the building by which they stood, motioning for Gatomon to do the same. So far it appeared as if none of the a'ladon in the streets had noticed their arrival... and for good reason, too. For each and every one of the creatures that passed them by had his or her head hung low, their eyes firmly fixed upon the ground and not for an instant pausing to look upwards. Most were, if not completely feeble, then certainly very weak and very filthy. Their fur, which Kari remembered was normally a lustrous reddish color, was more often than not a dull gray, sometimes even so dusky as to appear black.

The crowd pressed tightly together during their synchronized shuffling down the street, moving steadily without any sound or seemingly even any conscious thought. Kari thought that she had never seen anything so heartbreakingly painful in her entire life.

"Where are all the men?" Gatomon questioned as she, too, studied the large gathering.

The question pulled Kari out of her depression for a moment. "What?" she returned, no longer bothering to keep her voice down. No one out there was listening to her, anyway.

"I said 'Where are all the men?'," Gatomon repeated. "Almost everyone out there is a woman or a child. Did we stumble into a war of some kind?"

Her attention drawn to the fact, Kari too now noticed that there were very few male a'ladon in the crowd... and Gatomon's last question haunted her. Had T.K. left home to fight in some sort of war? That would certainly seem to be one explanation for the lack of adult males in the gathering.

The three now noticed the crowd starting to thin out as the main body moved away down the street, leaving only a few stragglers in their wake. Patamon began to fidget impatiently. "Well?" he whispered, looking down from Kari's shoulder. "Where too? Do we want to follow them? What does the Crest say?"

The girl looked to be deep in thought as she glanced down at the little talisman in her fist. Any light that it gave was noncommittal at best, and Kari wondered whether that meant that T.K. was a great distance away or whether something in the dark city was interfering with it. It was, after all, an object of goodness and light, and the gloomy feel of the crowd that had just passed might well have been obstructing its power.

So Kari took the lead. She had to find T.K., yes, but in the immediate absence of a way to do so she was also determined to find out what was wrong with these a'ladon. In the past they had looked upon her as a goddess and, whether they still did so or not, she felt a great sense of responsibility for them. "Come on," she said to Gatomon, stepping forward into the street once again. "Let's find out what's going on here."

The three fell in step behind the great crowd, even lagging behind the stragglers at the end. Kari's brow furrowed in concentration, not exactly certain which was the best way to do this: whether to wait to be noticed or to take the initiative and pull one of the creatures to the side. After a moment of silent debate the girl decided to wait until a better opportunity presented itself and so just followed along at the rear, sidestepping the shallow puddles of murky water that covered the cobbled stones of the street.

It was a sad but brief journey through the decrepit buildings and winding streets of the city until the procession came to a stop in a large, open-aired plaza of some sort. And if the city itself had been dark and ominous-feeling, this place had to have been ten times worse. Kari watched as the bushy tails of the creatures dragged along the ground as they entered, still not a one who bothered to look up at where they were going. Resigned to the object of their despair, it appeared.

"Kari, I don't like this," Patamon whispered into the girl's ear.

Kari nodded, very little point in verbalizing the obvious point that she didn't like it either.

The three stood at the very back of the crowd, but due to the fact that Kari was a foot or so taller than most of the creatures therein, they had a fairly good view of what was happening at the front. They could now see that most of the male a'ladon were indeed there, stoically lined up single file a good distance away from the remainder of the crowd and shackled tightly to one another. Patamon, his ears sharper than the rest, could hear poorly suppressed whimpers of sadness coming from the group in front of them as the men turned in unison to face the remainder of the crowd.

And then a separate, smaller group entered from the opposite side of the plaza, causing Kari's breath to catch in her throat. Saurians. Perhaps two dozen of the muscular beasts, each of them towering over the a'ladon and dressed in finery that made the garb of the smaller creatures seem like veritable rags. And at their backs glided a figure draped from head to toe in a jet black, silken robe. It was impossible for her to tell whether it was male or female with the cowl draped forward over its head as it was, but by the size the girl was forced to assume that it was another a'ladon and not a Saurian. Another moment and a bushy tail at the back confirmed that suspicion.

Moya turned slightly to her left, her eyes darkening as she felt the pairs of alien eyes boring into her back from the crowd. So, the Lady Hikari had made her way here... interesting. It would, at least, save her the trouble of trying to scour the entire blasted city for the child, but she had a fear that the human might well try to interrupt today's events. It had taken split-second action and the calling in of several long overdue favors to see that the girl's trip through the dimensional portal had brought her here to Kelmuir instead of to Takeru's side once she and Aine had learned that Hikari was intentionally coming back to this land.

Linked as they were, Moya wondered with Aine exactly what this portended. Certainly the arrival of the two back here just days... perhaps hours now... away from the time that they would need her could not be coincidence. Convenient, yes, but two more arbitrary factors thrown into this equation. And the girls simply hated arbitrary factors.

Well, Takeru was Aine's problem for now. Hikari, the judgment of these slaves, and the fact that Shay (blasted little brat) had vanished yet again were her own. Even as she marched onwards she was working on a plan to deal with at least two of these.

But then it was time. As the Saurian 'creditors' took seats in the very front of the crowd, Moya (advisor to His Majesty) stepped forward and removed her dark hood, calling to mind the words of legal sophistry that it would take to see this transaction done while at the same time keeping a riot from occurring. The laws expressly outlawing slavery in the lands of the a'ladon were among the first announced by King Mylam when he had first ascended to the throne some three hundred years ago. His people, at that time, had lived under bondage to the Saurian king for many years prior to that, so of course it was of great importance to the young king that such atrocities never happen again.

But the current monarchy had a different view of the trade. It was, in Jeron's eyes, almost a necessity to allow some a'ladon to be enslaved by the Saurians if the king of the lizards was to allow some of his own subjects to be forced into servitude here. Quid pro quo, as it were. After all, Jeron would never have survived this long as king if it were not for his Saurian legions. But since the slave trade was expressly outlawed, this legal fiction had to be carried out virtually every month. Moya shook her head. Fool that he was. Surely Jeron couldn't be so stupid as to not see why the Saurian king allowed his people to be 'enslaved' here.

"My countrymen!" Moya said, projecting her voice over the entire audience, who hushed at once to hear her words. She nodded in satisfaction. "My countrymen, I come to you today as the magistrate whom your lawful king Jeron has placed in authority over this region. For today, a complaint has been brought against these men," here she waved a hand to the dozens of disheartened-looking prisoners behind her. She paused for effect. "A complaint brought by these guests to our city!" Now she indicated the Saurians in the front row.

A few angry mutterings were heard from some of the crowd members and from a couple of the male a'ladon standing behind her, mutterings which the dark-haired girl silenced with a single, deadly glance. In a moment, the only sound that could be heard was the comforting whisper of a mother as she tried to quiet her simpering infant. With an agonizing and overstated slowness, Moya reached into a pocket of her robes and withdrew a small scroll. On it was written the 'crimes' of which the prisoners were accused, though of course she knew them by heart.

The girl cleared her throat. "It has come to our joint and lawful attention that each of these citizens," she indicated the a'ladon men, "have separately been provided with certain sums of monies by these visitors to our city," now to the Saurians, "and that each of them has subsequently defaulted on the agreed upon terms of repayment."

Moya turned her back on the crowd, facing the men and her voice becoming stern. "I need not remind all of you," she said, in a voice loud enough for the crowd to hear as well, "that this is an offense which is looked upon with absolute seriousness by the Crown. Each of these foreigners has provided documentation sufficient to prove your crimes. Do any of you have the means to dispute these charges?"

The ragged men glanced back and forth to one another, each hoping that his neighbor would have something to say that would forestall what was about to come. That perhaps the man standing next to him would be more educated and could conjure up some vague point of law that would nullify the contracts which they had signed, and subsequently defaulted on.

Moya suppressed a grin. How many times had she seen this. The hope in the eyes, slowly fading to despair and then finally to acceptance. Oh, every so often one or two of the fellows would step forward and protest that he had only borrowed the money to feed his family when the price of food had climbed to exorbitant levels that spring. That, even then he would have had the means to pay it back if a random financial disaster had not come upon him when the loan came due. That all he needed was a little more time...

The girl ever wondered if the simpletons in the city ever wondered just why food prices seemed to climb so high on such a regular basis. If they ever wondered why these disasters that made them debtors in default seemed to always strike them at just the worst time. She didn't really care, but she did wonder sometimes.

Moya gave a forced sigh when her question was met only with silence. "Very well then," she said, trying to sound disappointed. "Since I take it that not one of you will dispute your guilt, I am forced to rule in favor of your creditors. But instead of the normal prison sentence of five years which would do nothing to abrogate your debt, each of these men has generously accepted a compromise by which you will be bound in service to them for a like period. Each of you will become a servant during that time, after which your debt will be considered paid in full."

The audience let out a collective groan as they heard the girl pronounce that which they had to have known she would have. For the past three years, the circumstances, crime, and sentences had been virtually indistinguishable. For the past three years the women and children of that city had watched their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons chained up by the a'ladon guards and taken down to the docks, where they would be boarded onto Saurian ships and taken across the ocean... not to be seen again for half a decade.

Gatomon looked up at Kari. She knew, after several years of association with the girl, that she was unlikely to react well to what they had just heard and was probably wouldn't do the prudent thing and just stay out of this situation. Like a brief calm before a storm, a brewing tempest was about to explode all around the little feline.

"Stop it!" Kari's voice, clear as a bell, exploded from the back of the crowd.

Gatomon hated being right all the time.

No less than two hundred pairs of eyes turned to the human girl and the two digimon. Moya, unwatched by anyone else now, winced. This was likely to be very dicey, and her mind worked quickly to try to turn what was about to happen to her advantage. Quickly... quickly now...

"Who speaks?" Moya called, feigning confusion and furrowing her brow as if she was scanning the crowd for the speaker. It probably mattered little, since not a single eye was on her at the moment, but nevertheless she would like to maintain the illusion of astonishment as long as possible.

When a time passed without an answer, the girl clenched her fists tightly. "Who are you?" she demanded once more. "Do you have evidence to impart in this present dispute?"

Patamon and Gatomon exchanged helpless looks with one another as Kari stepped forward, the Crest of Light upon her wrist aglow with a gentle silver nimbus. "I do," the girl said calmly, reassured by the rightness of her actions. At that moment, even T.K. and his plight were pushed to the side as she acted to avert the wrong which was about to occur.

Down below, the Saurians looked to one another and started murmuring in low tones. This was unexpected. The 'trial' was supposed to be simply a show for the families, as in the past. As their king had agreed to with the king of these creatures, these men had been formally bought and paid for...

Now that the a'ladon gathering had gotten a good look at the girl and the pair of creatures with her, a steadily increasing murmur was beginning to rumble through the crowd. Now and then an excited creature's voice would rise above the crowd and be heard to address the girl as 'The Lady Hikari' or as 'LightBringer', her title of old among the creatures. Patamon's long ears even caught his own name (horribly mispronounced) being mentioned once or twice. He smiled.

"Silence!" Moya screeched at the crowd, her temper beginning to act up. The girl tried to catch the words as they left her mouth but failed miserably... and in the end, it mattered little anyway. Again, no one was paying attention to her now. Raising her voice over that of the crowd, she demanded for a third time, "Who are you?"

Kari was calm, her face impassive. "My name is Kari," she called back down to the black-robed counselor. "Sometimes here called Lady Hikari, sometimes called LightBringer. And I do have something to say to you about this matter."

The girl continued to move forward, holding her talisman up for all to see. The crowd, still murmuring with excitement, parted before her to allow her access to Moya and the prisoners.

Moya began to sweat as the girl approached, her paws itching with the nearness of the child. Take her now, or wait? Her eyes shifted uneasily to the girl's protectors, watching the crowd and particularly the Saurians uneasily. She could defeat the two of them if it should come down to a fight, she was certain, but losing control right now and abducting the 'goddess' of these people could deal many of their best laid plans a great blow. Things were coming to a head anyway, but was now the time...?

Aine would act. Aine would recognize that there was unlikely to be a better time. The human girl was only steps away, helpless and ready to be snatched away without Takeru here to guard her. Aine would not hesitate...

Moya bit back her defiance. That was her sister's way, not her own. Assuming a deferential pose, she removed the dark cowl and curtsied deeply before the girl, her black hair shading her equally dark eyes. "My Lady," she almost fawned, purposefully instilling awe that she did not feel into her words. "You have returned to us."

Kari wondered that the apparent leader of this gathering, and perhaps of many more, did not seem to question her identity even for a moment. At another time this might have concerned her more, but at this moment she had to stop this before it went any further. She looked Moya straight in the eye, then to the Saurians on her left, then back to the a'ladon girl. "It may be that I have been away for a long period of time, magistrate," she said calmly. "So perhaps you will enlighten me. When did your leaders begin to allow Saurians to purchase your people?"

Moya blinked, aware that every eye in the plaza was on her now. Not an unusual circumstance, but one which the girl suddenly found exceedingly uncomfortable. Nevertheless, she forced a smile. "We do not, of course, my Lady Hikari. But these men have been found guilty of a crime, and in the interests of all those involved in--"

"Do the laws enacted by Mylam the first still exist in these times?" Kari interrupted.

Damn her... "Yes, of course they do, My Lady. They are the laws by which our nation was founded." She could see where this was going. None of these yokels from this backwater would ever make the connection that this human was about to make, however. Two stupid little words...

"Then, as I recall," Kari continued. "Mylam in his first act as king expressly outlawed any sort of slavery or indenturing here. That it is forbidden for an a'ladon to ever be unwillingly bound in service to any creature who is not the reigning monarch of his kingdom. It has been a long time, of course, but that is how I remember him phrasing it. Is that edict still in existence today?"

Damn legalisms... "Ah... yes, Lady. I believe that it is."

Kari's mind was focused now. That civics course in school was finally going to pay off! "Then it seems to me that, whatever their crime, these men cannot be sentenced to serve under a Saurian," she glanced at the creatures as she said, "slaver," then back to Moya, "unless they agree to accept that as a sentence. Or am I mistaken?"

Several hundred held breaths seemed to anxiously await the next words of the king's representative, and Moya could feel all of them ready to crush her if she should say the wrong thing now. Before now, she would always have been able to overwhelm the yokels in attendance with her superior intellect and legal jargon. But it was clear that this human girl was, unfortunately, educated enough to save the lot of them from her intended slavery. Unwillingly bound... Before no one had even stop to think that such language could be interpreted to apply to a criminal punishment as well. Damn them all...

"It... may be that you are correct, Lady Hikari. I do not believe that it has ever been put that way before." A cheer of hope went up from the crowd from the adults, understanding the possibility of victory where their children did not. "But we will have to have our scholars examine the records for certain, and possibly even have a decision made by King Jeron himself." That should buy her some time, anyway. She turned to the men shackled at her right. "You are all still under conviction, but your sentence will be forestalled until Lady Hikari's challenge can be reconciled with the law. You may return home to your families, but you are charged not to leave the city for any purpose whatsoever."

And now a cheer went up from all of the a'ladon while the Saurians in the front row began to growl angrily and started to rise from their seats. But after a moment, it seemed to occur to them that they were outnumbered about fifteen to one. And then, when they caught sight of Gatomon rubbing her metal claws together and causing tiny sparks to appear, they decided as a group that they hadn't really lost... yet... and that discretion was almost certainly the better part of valor.

And then, as the guards unlocked the chains of the men and, one by one, sent them back to their families, Moya shuffled forward in her black robes to more formally greet Kari. She bowed. "Lady Hikari, let me once again offer you my most humble greetings without the burden of so many eyes upon us. May I offer you the hospitality of my king's house while you are here? I am certain that such an extraordinary event such as your return to us is something that he would want to hear about most promptly."

Kari was hesitant, now quite anxious to get on with her search for T.K. But there was something about the voice of the young a'ladon girl that made her think that she was one who could be of some help. If she was blindly following after T.K. into a war or something of that nature, she certainly should follow well-informed. And after such a long day, the digimon almost certainly were in need of a rest.

"Okay," she said, smiling and taking the other's proffered paw as the joyous familial reunions continued all around them. "I'd be glad to. But you already know my name. What's yours?"

Moya tried not to look taken aback by the girl's sudden change in demeanor. When she had argued for the freedom of the villagers, she had seemed totally intent on a confrontation. Now that the matter had been resolved, at least for a moment, she sounded as genuinely friendly as anyone that Moya had ever met. She blinked, biting back her surprise while still remaining conscious of the distrustful looks that the creatures with the girl were directing towards her.

"Of course," she said smoothly, regaining her composure after a split-second. "My name is Moya, and I am advisor and counselor to His Majesty King Jeron. And occasional magistrate, as you have already seen. Please, come this way with me. Doubtless you have as many questions for me as I do for you..."

************

Eloan was lost in thought as he stared down the road that led from the front door of his house away to the north, the words of his father echoing in his brain as he silently strummed the strings of his instrument. Though Takeru had not yet spoken of it, T'Kai's words to his son had implied that the great Paragon had come to once again fight against evil in some shape or form. And those same words had instructed him to join with the holy creature in whatever battle was to come.

The boy smiled thoughtfully. What would his mother say to that?

A voice at his shoulder interrupted his contemplations; a condescending yet oddly harmless and playful voice that shook him at once from his reverie. "Let me guess. Takeru again?"

"Hello, Shay," the boy answered in a distracted voice, his eyes still focused down the road as if hoping the magical intuition that he had inherited from his father would give him some clue about what was to come.

The silvery-haired boy grinned, much too anxious to resume his merciless teasing of his friend. He lowered his voice to a deep baritone, standing up straight and taking a deep breath to assume the role of the 'god' of the a'ladon. "Eloan! Elooooooan! Beware of treacherous tree branches which would bring you great harm! Beware of oaks in elm's clothing! And for heaven's sake, watch out where you're going when I'm talking to youuuuuu!"

Eloan gave a single, polite chuckle, then turned. "He's come back, Shay. He's here."

The other looked serious for a moment, blinking his auburn eyes. After a quick glance from side to side as if to make certain that no godlike figure was standing at his side, the teasing smile reappeared on his lips. He winked. "I knew it. You've finally cracked."

"If I have, then mom and Ailora cracked right along with me. He's inside, asleep right now."

Shay returned a cynical stare. It was unlike Eloan to play a practical joke or anything of that nature, or even to tell so blatant a lie. He mentally ticked off possible responses. Not joking. Not lying. Hopefully not crazy. After eliminating the other possibilities, he was left with but one that he could not immediately eliminate. That Takeru was actually... but then, that was just not possible. "Why?" was all he could think to ask.

"I don't know yet," the other answered, his eyes still far away. "He hasn't said. But it's something deadly serious, Shay. And I'm to go with him... Father told me."

"You?" Shay was incredulous. "To fight?"

Eloan looked down to his folded paws and then, without taking his eyes away, pulled from a baggy satchel at his waist the broken hilt of his father's sword that had been presented to him the night before. He handed it to the other boy. "I'm not sure, and he hasn't really said. But that may be what this means. It was father's."

Shay was serious now, taking the hilt from the other boy and examining it closely. "Was this the one that he used to kill--?" He trailed off, fascinated by the almost religious artifact in his paw. And for one of the rare times in his life a bit... perhaps just a bit... of the boy's mischievousness fell from him. He began to feel that something momentous was about to happen, and that his friend was evidently going to play some role in it. No matter which stories were taken into account, all agreed that the one known as 'Lord' Takeru never came into their world except in times of very great deeds. He almost felt jealous.

The front door opened at their back and Ailora emerged, looking once to Shay and then to her brother. "He's awake, Eloan. Mom says its time for us to talk."

The red-haired boy snatched the hilt of his father's sword back from Shay and was inside in a heartbeat, not bothering to excuse himself from the others. Ailora stayed for a moment, torn between a terrible need to go back inside to see the Paragon and an self-conscious desire to stay as far away from him as possible. The result of the girl's indecision was an awkward silence as Shay stood, watching her.

"Ailora?" The tone of the boy's voice was a genuine, tender one, one that few but the girl had ever heard him use honestly. But at this moment, even that failed to stir her from her thoughts.

He had not left her mind for the entire night. Takeru. Lord Takeru. Since long ago, his example had been the basis for manhood among the a'ladon. It had been to his temples that fathers had taken their sons when they had been ready to leave their boyish ways behind and become adults. And some of those adults would later kneel there again to be consecrated into the priesthood. It was his words that, even to this day, men spoke in order to propose marriage to their prospective mates. The most valiant of warriors prayed to him alone before battle, asking to be endowed with his strength and his righteousness. A pungent herb that those same men used to increase... she almost blushed... sexual potency was unofficially known as 'Takeru's Lance'.

"Uhm, Ailora? Hoi?"

If the girl had had precious little chance to see many grown men during her life, now there was an overpowering example of manhood sleeping right beneath her own roof. And not only of manhood, but of honor. Or valor, and sanctity, and honesty. It was said that he would never speak a lie. Her own father T'Kai, named in honor of Him, was ofttimes called 'Little Keeper-of-the-Promise'. Takeru was said to be indomitable in battle, and incomparable in peace.

Perfection. That was what he was, and Ailora could not seem to either contain or control the suddenly wild emotions aroused within her.

"Hey! Too much more of this and you're gonna hurt my feelings!" Shay protested.

Now Ailora unwillingly pulled out of her reflection before any more damage could be done. She knew that these feelings were wrong, even bordering on evil, but simply could do nothing to contain them. She turned to look at Shay. Before she had always thought him handsome, if in a roguish, naughty sort of way. He had been her playmate for several years now, and lately she had thought that they might even be moving beyond that. But now--

"Are you still mad at me?" the boy asked, genuine guilt showing in his eyes where she was almost certain that he would not want it to be seen. And almost as certainly, no one but her would have recognized it hidden back there. Shay was much more deep than he let on... if one took the time to find that out.

Ailora straightened her back as she caught herself about to do something that she really shouldn't. That would be mightily unfair. Comparing him to Lord Takeru. No one could possibly measure up to that standard.

"Mmm? What? Mad...?" The girl exhaled a deep breath, pausing for a moment. "No, I guess I'm not, Shay. I think I ought to be used to all of that from you by now. I'm sorry I snapped at you like that."

The silver-haired boy nodded absently, looking away for a moment. In all honesty, he felt as though he too should apologize... but that was something that had never come easily to him. It had just been a stupid little snide comment anyway, but it did kind of irritate him the way that the girl never wanted to talk about anything but Him. Like she was trying to turn him into some sort of religious convert or something.

"Eloan said that he's really here," Shay said, long after the silence had become awkward between two for whom it rarely had.

Ailora bit down on her bottom lip as she bowed her head. Shay blinked. That was one of Ailora's 'self-conscious' looks, one that he had seen from her very rarely and most others never at all. If Takeru had indeed come to her home, the boy supposed that she should have been dashing about in unrestrained delight and whooping loudly enough to be heard back in his own hometown. That she would be dragging the entire population of the valley here to meet him and finally have her faith in him justified. But no. Instead she looked almost... hurt. Perhaps he was not what she had expected?

"Do you think I could meet Tak... Lord Takeru?" he asked, trying to draw an answer as to what was wrong out of her.

Despite her distraction, Ailora noticed the way that Shay's paws were idly fidgeting around his beltline. That usually meant that something was upsetting the boy, something that he had no control over. She hid a smile. If it was something that he felt that he could control, he usually started taking steps to correct it almost immediately.

"Sure," Ailora finally managed to respond, taking the boy's paw and leading him inside. While she didn't really know for certain if she could stand to be near Takeru much longer, she most certainly did want Shay to see him. He had teased her about her unwavering admiration for him long enough. It would be gratifying to finally be proved right.

************

Nero rocked back and forth with the awkward gait of the Saurian creature beneath him as he turned his head and looked back over his shoulder at the company of men that he and Kedar had been given to command. He frowned and his eyes narrowed at the motley bunch, all roaring with laughter at a rather vulgar joke just told by one of their comrades. Something about this did not sit well with him.

Irregulars. These men were not even real soldiers, just a bunch of scruffy hirelings picked up along the way to bolster the size of their troop since necessity had demanded that a great deal of the king's men had stayed behind in the capital city. Handpicked by the king's witc... er, advisors, the man corrected himself mentally.

Though dressed in the finery of the royal army, these men were a disgrace. Ragged, flea-bitten, undisciplined... they would have made a better mob of criminals than soldiers. But then, clearly they did know how to use the weapons that they had been given. Though Nero was uncertain if that made him feel better or worse having them at his back.

And what an odd assignment! Back to the valley of Ash and Tears that they had left only the day before. Told of a threat against the king's safety, yet not having been told what the threat was. Even Kueren, who had delivered the order, had seemed somewhat circumspect about it.

Yet here they were. Looking for what? An unnamed someone (or thing) following them on the road from the valley, told to stop them whatever the cost. Nero could not help but feel that this decision had not come directly from the Sergeant but from Jeron, or perhaps one of his counselors.

He would have felt better if it had come from the king. A notorious coward, the man had been developing a rather annoying paranoia lately, but at least then Nero would feel that the command was mostly harmless, if wasteful and lengthy. If it had come from Aine and Moya... that would be something else entirely. He wasn't sure what, but he was certain that it would not be anything quite so benign.

Eh, well, as he had told Kedar often enough, they were soldiers. They did as they were told, like it or not.

Nero swished his bushy tail around to clear the air around him of flies as Kedar pulled his own mount closer. "You as nervous about this as I am, Nero?"

The darker of the two snorted in response. "Name of Takeru and Hikari and the rest of the pantheon, Kedar, grow up! Or lay down your sword and pick up your cane, one or the other! I can't decide whether you sound more like a mewling babe or my aged grandmother these days. Danger? Hah! Danger enough for Jeron to wet himself would be nothing more than an angry hornet on his trail. Calm down."

The other looked shamed, his ears drooping, but still the nervous flicker of his paws continued. Nero rolled his eyes. "Kedar, we've just left the Valley! Did you see anything more dangerous there than a mischievous bunch of little children?"

When a long moment without an answer passed, Nero turned away with a snort. It was easier to mock his friend's misgivings than spend too much time on his own. He chanced a quick look back at the soldiers trailing them, all of them still guffawing loudly at one another's crude humor. Once or twice he thought he saw the particularly large fellow at the front studying him closely, not joining in with the merriment of the others. But then the next moment he was certain that it was only his imagination, as the big a'ladon joined in with his comrades.

He was certain that it was only his imagination...

************

"Strange that you should mention it, Tekay," Kiara (for that was how she pronounced his name when speaking informally) was saying as Ailora and Shay entered the room. "That area has been quiet ever since the three of you departed last time. But it was only early yesterday evening that the king himself, Jeron, came to get permission to go into the mountain. I would have stopped him, but--"

The boy cut her off with a frown. "Jeron? The elder from T'Kai's village? He's been crowned king?"

Kiara nodded a confirmation. "Over a dozen years ago."

T.K. was deep in thought, scarcely having heard the other's reply. He had briefly met the a'ladon in question the last time that they had come, and had not liked him even then. He had felt that the man showed a distinct lack of concern for T'Kai's safety, wanting to send him alone on the perilous journey that would eventually create the child's legend.

Eloan watched as the hands of the human balled slowly into fists, though the expression on his face did not change. What was it that he saw in those eyes? Anger? Determination? No... Perhaps, but not quite. Sadness? A bit. But really more like...

Resolution. Yes, that was it. Resolution. As if the boy god were caught up in something that he did not like, but at the same time could not ignore. To see the look on one such as he surprised the young a'ladon to say the least.

Kiara looked at the human as well, concerned, when her daughter entered the room. "Ailora, Shay," she motioned. "Come. Sit with us."

The two did as they were bade, each staring with uncertainty at T.K. as they moved into a pair of vacant seats next to the woman. But though Ailora continued to stare at the human, after a moment Shay looked over to Kiara. He sounded concerned. "Did you just say that the king went to Cypress... into the mountain itself? Is that what he was doing here yesterday?"

The other nodded her response. "If I'd had enough sense I would have stopped him somehow. I've had the feeling all day that he's not on the innocent pilgrimage he would have had me believe." She paused for a moment, as if a revelation had suddenly dawned on her. "That's right, isn't is Tekay? That's why you've come back. Something evil is going to happen over there..."

T.K. didn't even hear the question, though he had half expected it. Kiara had always been a very wise girl, and had to have known that his sudden appearance here signified no good thing. All he could hear at the moment was the last warning that the demon had given him before he arrived here.

But first they would have to have a mortal -- a mortal acting of his own accord, no less -- to remove the barrier to the body.

No one could get into that mountain. It had been sealed off by an earthquake of historic proportions and wards set against it by Cheyne the Archangel before they had left... seals that only one with Kiara's permission could breach and even attempt to enter. But if Jeron had managed to command, coerce or otherwise wield the permission from Kiara and if he had taken with him the means to somehow remove the almost innumerable rocks covering the entrance...

"I've got to go after him," the golden-haired boy murmured to no one in particular, his eyes far away as if he could almost see the pending disaster about to occur.

Eloan and Shay leapt to their feet in unison, Eloan's chair tumbling noisily to the floor. "Me too!" they both exclaimed in chorus, then turned to look at one another.

Kiara flashed both a'ladon boys a scathing look that silenced them and made them both take their seats again, then turned back to T.K. "Is this something you should tell me about?"

The human nodded, if reluctantly, a few strands of blond hair falling in front of his cerulean eyes. "He... he's going to free D'assan, Kiara. The thing's body, at least. I don't know if he's being tricked or if he's been promised some sort of reward for doing so, but that's what's happening." He paused, as if wondering just how much of what was about to happen he should relay to the woman. "But... but there's another Power that's going to be there when he does free it. Something even worse that's planning to inhabit the body. And when that's been done, that thing is going to go after Kari."

Kiara looked grim, almost fierce for a moment... but then allowed the glare to soften until it had actually become a smile of sorts. She almost looked... what? Proud?

"Then I almost feel pity for the wretched creature, fool that he is. Threatening the Lady Hikari with her champion still about in the world."

T.K. had the grace to glow with a faint blush. But then Kiara turned to Eloan and Shay. "The two of you, however, are staying out of this. 'Tis bad enough that Lord Takeru has to go into that damned place and fight yet again. He doesn't need two children underfoot as he does so."

Ailora didn't hear her mother, paws clasped together under the table as she stared at T.K. How noble! How incredibly heroic! He's willing to go and stand against such terrible evil simply because it's threatening... but here she trailed off with a frown. ...someone, she finally managed to finish lamely.

T.K. noticed the girl staring at him as Kiara lectured the boys. He turned a bit, responding with a friendly smile.

The young a'ladon's heart almost stopped as her eyes locked with his. She desperately wanted to look away; indeed, almost felt as though she would faint if she didn't, but for one reason or another she found that, as long as he was watching, she could do little more than stare back. She could hear the blood pounding out a frantic rhythm in her ears and hoped that he could not hear the thunderous beating as well, lest he wondered what it meant. She had never felt so wickedly passionate in her entire life.

"Mother... I have to go," Ailora heard her brother say, his voice uncharacteristically firm as he interrupted his mother's tirade. And finally, thankfully, Takeru turned away and allowed her to do the same. An anxious silence fell over the room before Eloan continued. "I've been told that I must." And with that he produced all that remained of his father's great sword.

The golden hilt would have been very large even for a human. In the smaller paws of the a'ladon, it looked almost unmanageably so. The light reflected in an odd manner from the old, scripted runes running lengthwise across the pommel-guard, and T.K.'s eyes were drawn to these instantly.

T.K. wasn't exactly sure what the glyphs meant, though he had a guess and the Crest of Hope certainly would have translated if he'd cared to find out. But ignorance did nothing to dull the electric thrill that traveled down his spine when he studied it, and he knew instantly where he'd seen it before. The exact same lettering had been scrawled upon Michael's Sword of Ages when he'd spun it into being from his Crest. The form of the runes was very special to the boy, and confirmed what the younger a'ladon was saying. When T'Kai had died the hilt (all that remained of the great weapon) had been burned on the pyre alongside his body, incinerated by the divine fires that Cheyne had called up. Now, apparently, the Paragon had returned it to his son as his emblem.

But to have Eloan with him... T.K. didn't know what to think about that. He was on a journey that was diabolical in its dangers. Last time, though their positions had been reversed, this same battle had led to T'Kai's death. He didn't know if he could willingly place the boy in such circumstances, particularly as it was evident that he was no warrior.

Kiara, however and somewhat surprisingly, seemed to have no such misgivings. She nodded, accepting her son's story as true at once. Very little point in denying it, as T'Kai had appeared to her with the shattered blade in his paws before. And anyway, she would sooner expect the sky itself to fall to the ground before she would believe that Eloan would tell such a lie. And though her face was set and her voice proud, there was an unshed tear lingering in her eye as she said, "Very well. Your father has told you that you must go and therefore you shall. I believe that I had always known this day would come..."

And then she turned to Shay. "And you, child? Do you also have some sort of relic from days past to show me to convince me that you, also, have been told to journey with Takeru?"

Shay shook his silvery head, his eyes closed. He looked very serious... almost sad, and certainly no longer the carefree, charming boy that they were all used to. Something that had been said had apparently been grievous enough to turn him from lighthearted to anguished in just that little time. "But I do not journey because of the Lord Takeru," and here he gave a bow in the human's direction, causing Ailora to blink once. She had never before seen him honestly genuflect to anyone. Yet that gesture, she would swear, had been sincere. "I simply travel to the same place as he does. My reasons are... my own."

Kiara stepped back for a moment and looked at the pair, still side-by-side. And as she looked, she saw something that had been escaping her for some time. They were no longer children. Not adults yet, but certainly no longer children. They were not dashing headlong into this fight because it sounded fun or in order to prove that they were grown up or something foolish such as that. No. Both of them were wanting to go because of a purpose, if she wasn't exactly sure what that purpose was.

T.K. was about to interrupt, to say that this was something that he had to do alone, when there came an unwelcome voice from inside his head. Exemplar... it hissed, reminding the boy that he was not precisely alone in this venture. You tarry here too long. This place is no longer safe. We have been discovered, and even now my Brother moves against us.

The boy was about to once again snap at the creature to begone before he heard the other continue, Even now they approach, with orders to raze this settlement and all they find in it. I suggest that you flee.

T.K. was on his feet in a second. "No!" he exclaimed, guilt washing over him as he heard the words of the demon echo back within his head. He had been here too long, and now had placed the lives of Kiara and her family in danger.

The three a'ladon turned to stare at the human, who in turn looked to Kiara in mortified anger. "We're in danger. Do you have weapons here?"

The other blinked in surprise. "Danger? Who... where...?"

"Weapons, Kiara! Quickly!"

The woman nodded once. "Your staff. I kept it all this time. In the case beneath the picture of you and Lady Hikari at the other end of the hall." And she turned and gestured at her back, then turned to her daughter. "Ailora, you know where. Bring it."

The girl dropped to all fours and was off in an instant. "But that's all," Kiara continued, deep concern in her eyes. She did not know how Takeru knew that they were in danger and had no idea why it should be so, but she did trust him.

Eloan stood firm. He was ready to fight. He did not know against who or what they were about to face, but he was as ready as he could be. He felt almost proud... he would go into battle at the side of his father's friend Takeru.

T.K. saw the look on the boy's face. Saw it and knew it for his father's. Evidently the other boy, the one called Shay, had disappeared when his back had been turned, for there was no sign of him now. And then came a frightened pounding at the front door, and a shrill voice rang out, "Miss Kiara! Miss Kiara!"

The woman ran towards the door, T.K. and Eloan on her heels. "Eloan!" the human demanded as he pulled the Crest of Hope from beneath his shirt and noticing the whistle bouncing from a leather strap around the boy's neck. "Did you inherit your father's ability to compose the Holy Symphony?"

The two darted past Kiara, who was now embracing a clearly terrified Delia just inside the doorway. In another moment the two were past her and burst out into the bright midday sun where a horrifying scene met their eyes.

A group of a'ladon, much larger than any of that race that T.K. had ever seen before, were running amok in the village. They were armed mainly with long cavalry swords, though the boy did notice that the largest of the group (and what a giant he was!) was wielding a long scythe-like weapon, very similar to the one that Davis had tried to use the last time that they had come here. In addition, several four-legged Saurians, from whom the a'ladon had apparently just dismounted, were also tromping unrestrained about the area and were attacking with their tails as deadly whips.

Eloan's teeth snapped audibly together. "I can play the music, Lord," he murmured, feeling at the same time both frustrated and ashamed. "But I cannot control the magic."

T.K. scarcely heard the boy, already counting the invaders. At least twelve, he thought, though he did notice that a pair of the better dressed ones were already down and apparently injured... perhaps dead. But that still left ten. We can't fight that many, he scowled, as the knowledge that his presence had brought this group here haunted him. If the words of the demon were to be believed, of course.

The human boy saw the carnage about to happen. This host was clearly bent on razing the little village to the ground, and all of those here were children and were already scattering about and screaming for their lives. There was no one else to resist and he knew that, if he did not act, there was no hope that any of them should survive.

No more fighting! Once more against the demon, and then no longer! his promise to himself nagged at him in the back of his mind.

He did not want to fight this fight. He did not want to have to kill again. He wanted no more blood, even if were tainted blood, on his hands. He wanted to be a child again... for just a little while.

Meanwhile the Crest of Hope pounded out a rhythm of righteous anger against the boy's chest, past cloth, skin and bone and through to his heart. Just give the word! it almost begged, and it would turn each and every one of these invaders into a living torch with its holy fire. It begged him to recast its form into the Sword of Ages, to skewer these beasts like rabbits on a spit and to save the innocent. It pleaded with the boy to once again don the Armor of Paragon! To fight! Not to just stand by and do nothing!

The screams in his ears died away as T.K. sunk into a kind of trance, his unseeing eyes glazing over. He needed reassurance. He needed Hope. What would the Most High do? Would He fight? Had He fought? He needed to know... needed to remember...

T.K. snapped awake in an instant, the right answer having come in response to the right question. Yes! He had! He would! But not with holy fire, and not with weapons of divine temper. The boy was not ready to surrender his soul to immortality just yet, and as he was dared not try to reforge the Sword of Ages. But he would fight.

The boy snatched the plain, heavy staff from Ailora who stood at his side... who apparently had stood at his side for several moments now... and dashed into the melee, whirling the weapon over his head wildly. With a mad shout he plowed his body into that of one of the invaders who was pursuing one of the Valley children, slamming it to the ground and ramming the butt end of his long rod into the surprised face of the creature before it could rise. It was hard to say which blow was more devastating: the one that T.K.'s weapon delivered to the other's face or the one that came when the creature's head subsequently collided with the ground. In either event, it knocked the raider into a senseless oblivion.

The boy was back on his feet in less than an instant, only to hear Ailora speak her first words to him. "Lord!" the girl screamed, her paws clutched tightly together. "Behind you!"

T.K. ducked the murderous thrust that had been aimed between his shoulder blades and caught the a'ladon warrior in the midsection, wrapping his arms tightly around its waist and locking his fingers behind its back. Sword now rendered useless, the a'ladon bit deeply into the boy's shoulder, tearing through the cloth and into his flesh. But T.K., ignoring the pain and straining mightily, still managed to hoist the surprised creature up by the waist and drop it backwards over his shoulder and to the ground. The boy turned, ready to fight, only to see that the creature had landed awkwardly on its head, twisting its neck about in a grotesque way. But he could waste no time to berate himself for killing again. Time enough for that later.

However now the invading a'ladon had apparently gathered themselves into some sort of organized band, ignoring the scattered children and advancing on the one true threat. T.K. turned, wrenched the blade of his fallen opponent free of his already stiffening claws and slid it off in Eloan's direction. He hoped that the boy had some sort of skill with a sword... or at the very least that he could feign as though he did.

The a'ladon were still approaching, if nervously. Even their giant of a leader seemed cautious. Stories and legends about T.K. were prominent in every facet of these creatures' literature and fables. Not a one of them, even the most undereducated, failed to recognize him for who he was.

And then there came an armed figure to stand at his side, and to T.K.'s surprise it was not Eloan who held the sword that he had garnered, but Ailora. The fur on the girl's back was bristling and her tail almost twice as bushy as normal as she stood at his side, slightly in front of him and snarling at the attackers with bared teeth. The weapon in her paws was pointed straight at the others. If she did not truly know how to use it, she could certainly bluff well.

The big creature which led the others twisted his face into an ugly grimace at the armed pair in front of him. T.K. watched him warily. The creature was even taller than he was, truly a giant among the creatures who were considered very large at just five feet. "Get them," the monster snarled, staring at the two but addressing his men. "Kill them both, else it'll be our heads in the basket at Curinow Square."

The mob seemed shaken and ready to advance at this, but then a shrill cry of 'Goring Gambit!' from their backs made them turn as one. Too late, as it happened, for even as they turned one was cut to the ground as the razor-sharp blade of a sword ripped through his throat; his neighbor falling as well with an equally sharp blade thrust through the muscles of his upper leg.

The newcomer moved like sliver lightning through the group, the late afternoon sun glinting off of a loose-fitting breastplate and fresh blood falling from each of his twin swords. His arms and legs were free of armor, his movements unencumbered by any additional weight or by constrictive attire. Atop his furry head was a solid-looking, silvery helm; around his waist he wore a loose cloth kilt.

Ailora blinked, the point of her sword falling to the ground at her feet. "Shay?"

And Shay it was, but so unlike the boy that the family had ever seen before. Now there was no playfulness about him, no mischievous glint in his eye. Now his fluid movements were not for dashing madly atop tree branches or for playing tag with the children of the village, but were for a deadly (though beautiful) method of fighting. In all honesty he looked simply... heroic.

Shay's deadly sword dance stopped only when he had came to a halt alongside T.K. and Ailora, breathing heavily. The remaining invaders looked alarmed as they started inching backwards away from the armed trio, each glancing back over their shoulders as they kept their weapons at the ready. It was as if they were waiting for something.

Shay took a moment to look back at T.K., who saw the glance and returned a nod. He had been in battles before, and knew exactly what the other meant. And so without a word passing between them both started after the group, rushing forward in tandem to the attack.

Ailora blinked in confusion, in her inexperience not seeing what the pair had. "But... wait!" she cried at the two, anxious for the fighting to be over with. "Stop! They're leaving. We've won!"

Shay looked back over his shoulder, sounding somewhat piqued at the girl's ignorance. "They're... not... leaving!" he panted, trying to catch his breath while still keeping up with T.K. "They're going back... for... the Saurians!"

Kiara and her children saw the truth of it as the largest of the group, the leader, caught onto the halter of one of the lizard-like creatures and pulled it to a stop, vaulting into the saddle with almost the same motion. T.K. and Shay slid to a stop in the wet grass, not daring to pursue the other any longer now that he had such an advantage. That one was going to be difficult to battle anyway... now mounted and wielding such a large weapon it looked to be near on impossible.

Kiara looked around, satisfied to see that the children of the valley had all successfully scattered or found sanctuary in the trees. They were, at least for the moment, safe.

Eloan clenched his paws tightly into fists as he watched Takeru, Shay and Ailora stand facing the invaders, ready to fight. The boy was humbled greatly in his humiliation. He was the one who had been ordered to go with Takeru on his mission, to stand by his side in battle. And now he was the only one who was not involved in the fight. Even his sister was there!

In frustration and almost unconsciously the boy grabbed at the wooden reeds dangling from the leather strap at his neck. What he had told Takeru had been true: any serious attempt that he'd ever made to use the power of his father's music had met with disaster. Recent legends held that T'Kai had been able to bring about any number of amazing effects just by playing the right notes on any instrument that he'd had sufficient practice on. But Eloan had no idea which song would accomplish what magic or even how to make it abide by his wishes.

Then he chanced to look down upon the golden hilt that he held in his paw. Evidently he had grabbed it sometime during the battle, though he knew that he could not, of course, fight with it. His father's weapon. His father's flute. Both useless to him without his father's courage or his father's skill...

But then the reeds were lifted from his paw by some invisible force and hung suspended in the air before him, just dangling there above the ground without any justification. And now, his eyes looking past the oddity for a moment, he could see the battle joined: Shay, Takeru and Ailora against the six remaining a'ladon, now all mounted upon their Saurians.

The boy tried to focus his concentration on the reeds. Something was happening here. Something important, he was certain, if only he could understand what...

And then the light came; a soft, golden light like that which had always accompanied his father, shining upon the second reed from the left. It held there for a moment before vanishing and leaping over two reeds to the right. And as the boy's eyes followed the golden light a clearly discernable pattern began to emerge: the second, the fourth, the second, the fifth, the first, the first, the fourth and the third. And as Eloan's eyes watched his brain translated the lights into the sounds that he knew would come when each of the notes were played. Then he blinked, brow furrowing in doubt. "Takeru's Lament?" he queried, as if to the inanimate instrument. "You want me to play Takeru's Lament?"

It was a simple and straightforward, though also very sad and poignant tune, really meant for funerals of those who had fallen in laudable causes. (According to legend, the bards of ancient times had composed this song when the seers had described a young T.K.'s grief as Angemon had died defeating Devimon. The truth of that legend may never be known.) But it was also one that Eloan knew quite well and could play flawlessly...even if his fingers were trembling as greatly as they were at the moment. And so without another moment of delay he snatched the reeds from the air, placed the mouthpiece to his lips, and started to blow.

T.K. ducked as the huge, scythe-like blade of the monstrous a'ladon went whistling over his head. A foot taller or second slower and he likely would have been decapitated. But as he tried to recover from the motion his right foot slipped on the moist grass. It was just a little slip, but one that proved disastrous. Disastrous, for at that moment the a'ladon's Saurian reared back, lifting a single front claw and planting it squarely in the center of the boy's chest and knocking him forcefully to the ground. All of the air was forced from T.K.'s lungs and his weapon went clattering to the side as tears of pain flooded his eyes.

The young human gasped in breathless pain, helpless upon his back as he waited for either the a'ladon's blade or the Saurian's foot to come down upon his chest to end the fight. But neither of these blows ever fell. For at that very moment he heard in the distance the sound of a mournful melody being played, a sound that he was almost certain was coming from the set of reeds draped around young Eloan's neck. And as the song played on and carried through his ears and into his mind, T.K.'s spirit suddenly felt as though it were taken far away from this fight.

He thought of home. Of his family and his friends. Though he had just left the morning before, he suddenly missed them terribly. He once again was tormented by his frustration with all the fighting and killing and with the grave burden of being Paragon. Hope fled from the boy, taking his strength with it as he was drawn into the heartbreaking melody. A heavy veil of melancholia, not unlike a fog, covered the immediate area as the sorrowful tune continued to flow from the reeds of Eloan's whistle.

But after a few terrible moments of misery, T.K. was able to pull himself together. Almost angrily the Crest of Hope flared brightly against his chest, fighting back against the lethargic feeling. With power it pulled him to his feet and slapped him smartly across the face, scolding him fiercely at the feeling of self-pity the song was trying to arise in him. He knew what his task was, the little relic admonished him. And he knew why he had been chosen to do this.

The sluggishness fell away at once as T.K. snapped to attention, his back stiffening and his eyes bright once again. But everyone else within the hearing of the song was not so fortunate as to have such divine power on their side. Of the six remaining invaders, four had tumbled limply from their mounts and were now in various states of crying fits. Two of these were embracing one another, apparently trying to gain some comfort from their companionship. One had his back against a tree and his face buried in his arms, his body racked by evident sobs. Yet another was face down on the ground and pounding away at the dirt. As for the other two, including the giant of a leader, they were nowhere to be found.

Eloan seemed to be lost in some sort of trance as he continued to play, his eyes closed and his claws moving seamlessly over the instrument. T.K. felt, if he looked closely enough, that he could even see the magic emanating from the opposite side of the reeds and covering the entire village like a heavy blanket. He felt that he must go and speak with the boy about this, but before that, he had to take advantage of the magical despair that had gripped the battlefield.

T.K. walked calmly up to each of the four attackers and relieved them of their weapons, picking up the two that had been dropped and taking the other pair right from their owner's paws. The boy moved quickly, seeing that not only the enemy but also Kiara, Shay and Ailora as well as most of the village children had been caught in the overwhelming sadness of the magical song. And then, after he had secreted the swords he'd taken behind a bush outside Kiara's house, the boy pulled the Crest of Hope from underneath his shirt.

He walked over to Eloan and placed a hand upon the young minstrel's furry shoulder. "Okay," he said, murmuring the word into the boy's ear. "That'll be enough. Don't get scared by what happens next."

The young a'ladon did as he was bade and allowed the tune to trickle off into silence, wondering what the other's last warning had meant. And then he watched as the Lord Takeru marched, slowly and purposefully, past both Shay and Ailora and back towards the unarmed a'ladon warriors.

T.K. had to keep a devious smile off of his face as he walked, his eyes narrowing upon the scruffy creatures before him. At the last moment, he remembered to throw a stern mental warning at the Crest of Hope and of Heroes upon his chest. This was no longer a battle, he punctuated firmly. What was needed now was not power, but guile. And while T.K. had always prided himself on being honest, this was one time that he felt quite at ease about making an exception.

The four a'ladon were staring wide-eyed at him now, trembling with the thought of what was about to happen. If it had occurred to them, they might have risked a scattering flight or a joint (if unarmed) attack. But as they watched the human approach (as T.K. had counted on) the old tales about the Lord Takeru were beginning to formulate within their minds.

T.K. wished he had Matt's flair for the dramatic. He supposed that he'd just have to extemporize.

Now, he thought to the Crest.

In an instant the talisman resting against his shirt revved up and burst into golden flames, catching fire with a blinding radiance that dazzled the four and made them step back in wide-eyed alarm. The looked on the T.K.'s face as he stared at them was terribly stern, bordering on furious, and the light flared and danced about the young human's chest as if created from his anger alone.

And then, with the explosive sound of an inferno being born, the brilliant fire engulfed T.K.'s shirt and torso from his waist all the way up to his golden hair. As the a'ladon, both friend and foe, watched on in horror, the boy's shirt disintegrated to ash before their eyes and left him bare-chested while the holy fire continued to dance about on his flesh, licking him affectionately as a pet does its master without once causing him any grief.

"What is this?" the boy demanded in the most powerful voice he could accomplish while the Crest (trying to be helpful of its own accord) accentuated the last word with more explosive sound effects. And now the golden flames surrounding him had become a veritable inferno, engulfing the human and swirling around him in all directions. With a sudden flair of creativity, T.K. raised a hand and threw a ball of the fire upward and into the heavens. Then he bit his lip. With any luck there wouldn't be any inoffensive birds flying overhead at the moment.

The four a'ladon dropped to their knees as one, three of them beginning to babble senselessly and the last becoming violently ill and crawling to the side to vomit. This was the Lord Takeru that they had heard about in their youth. The great god. The slayer of devils and tamer of angels. The righteous judge and maker of heroes. They were absolutely horrified.

T.K.'s shirt had long since crumbled to dust when he noticed the flames getting a little too close to the ground for his liking. Not the pants, he thought at the Crest, who, apparently miffed at having to stay out of the actual battle, was beginning to have more fun than was entirely appropriate in this little game. Now and then, more to show off than anything, it started to create images inside the flames rising from T.K.'s head and shoulders. Now a phoenix appeared to rest upon the boy's shoulder; then an angel standing in the air over his head; now an enormous, ferocious dog bristled at his feet.

"Answer me!" T.K. shouted, his words once again punctuated by a thunderous boom. The boy wasn't really sure all the noise was really necessary, but he supposed that it didn't hurt much. "How dare you to attack these people?"

Now the a'ladon warrior that had been vomiting swooned and fell away into a dead faint, and two others fell facedown on the ground and started to weep. Only one remained still, though he still trembled violently. "P... P... Pleeze L... Lord T... T... Takeru! S... S... Sp... Spare us. We waz only doin' as we waz told, yur Honor!"

Don't hurt them, T.K. warned the Crest, seeing the golden fire getting a little too close to the creatures. The holy fire of the talisman was harmless to a Paragon, of course, but thrust upon any but the purest of hearts it would instantly see through to the evil in their souls and incinerate it with great prejudice. Unfortunately, this would also mean the cremation of the body as well.

"Told? You are creatures of free will and purpose! Who has the power to demand that you attack a village inhabited only by women and children?" He was particularly proud of that line.

The eyes of the speaker were bulging almost out of their sockets now as the inferno surrounding T.K. seemed to be coming right out of the human's eyes and mouth at him. It wasn't, of course, but the creature imagined that it was, and it terrified him anew. He wished that he could faint as well.

"J... J... Jeron... Jeron, Takeru!" the creature spit out. "'Twas the king hisself and his witches who gave the order. Said it was them that'd be dead or else 'd be us!"

Now, dramatically, T.K. extinguished all of the fire in an instant and stepped forward, still bare-chested, to take the creature's paw in his hand. And with a finger beneath the chin he lifted the other's face so that it would be forced to stare into his soothingly cool eyes. His words, no longer shouted, were gentle. "Jeron? The king? He told you to attack this place?"

The other's breath was coming at a frantic pace and the boy could feel his pulse coming at an equally rapid one, but he still managed to nod. "Well... to be 'onest, yur Honor, his kingship jest teld us all to come back 'ere and to keep the roads free of travelers and the like. 'Twas the sisters who teld us that t'd be better t' wreck the place." He nodded at the first two a'ladon, the ones upon the ground that had already fallen before the battle had even begun. "Ol' Nero and Kedar, they's tried to stop us. Guess big Jarriman didn't pass the word onto them, 'cause 'e killed 'em when they's started to argue with him."

The young human nodded, wisely. These men had acted out of terrible cowardice, obeying the most depraved of orders to save their own wretched lives, but he could hardly wish them dead simply for cowardice. The evil of the 'witches' that this one had mentioned and the one called 'Jarriman' (who T.K. presumed was the massive leader of this band)... that would be another story entirely.

T.K. stood and pulled the creature to his feet by the fur of his collar. And the a'ladon could not look at him, for he felt that he was, for the first time in his life, in the presence of true greatness. "Very well," the boy said calmly. "You have done evil but may still be forgiven. Now listen, and obey. You are to take these three others and find the Saurians that you have set loose in this valley and recapture them. Then you are all to leave this place, taking those who have been injured, and go to the crest of Mount Cypress. Take the long way, from the north, so that you never see your king again. At the peak of that mountain you will present yourselves in service to the sisters who guard the holy temple there."

"It will be hard on the six of you. Indeed, once you arrive you may become ill. But stand fast, because your illness will not last. As your sin falls from you, so will the pain. And I charge you: Whatever the sisters ask of you, that is what you will do. You will work, and will hold nothing back. It may be in time that you will meet in that place one who is called Cheyne. If you should, speak with him. Listen to him, and let him be your guide."

The other was still trembling but seemed almost hypnotized by the boy's tone and words. His mouth hung open. "You... yore not goin' ta punish us, Lord Takeru?"

The boy smiled gently. He could not hate something that was not evil, and there was no real evil here. "It is not for me to punish you," he said, shaking his head, "but it may be for me to forgive and to bless you. But after I forgive, no longer may you call me 'Lord'. If you should meet Cheyne, ask him of the Truth. Tell him that I have told you to ask of it. Ask him... ask him to tell you of the first Paragon, our Most High. And He is the one that you will call 'Lord'."

And T.K. could see the words sink in to the creature's consciousness... could almost see it as if the words were a tangible thing, and then he spoke to the other two who were still awake and, between them, picked up the third and turned to leave. And the boy felt a great weight lifted off of him as they went, somehow knowing that what he had just done had been perhaps the best thing that he had ever done in his entire life. He had fought against evil and carried the banner of good for such a long time... yet those few simple words had a power even greater still in them. They would, in time, change this world for the better long after everything else that he had ever done had been forgotten. Just a few... simple... words...

And then the boy turned back to the others. The Valley children. Eloan. Ailora. Kiara. And Shay. And as each looked at him, each had a different expression on his or her face. T.K. could only take in a few. Eloan looked happy, knowing in his heart that great good had been done here. Kiara looked proud, nodding in satisfaction that T.K. had come through as she knew that he would. Shay... Shay looked angry, furious almost, digging the point of one of his swords into the ground, though T.K. was almost certain that the boy's anger was not directed at him. And Ailora...?

T.K. had a hard time recognizing the look on the girl's face, though it struck him as one that should have seemed quite familiar. At the very least, it did not seem like anger. The boy had, the entire time, been afraid that the awkward silence from the girl had meant that she didn't appreciate his arrival in her world. For some reason, the look she was giving him put him in the mind of Kari when she was satisfied that he'd done well.

He smiled. Well, whatever it was that she was feeling, she could hardly have picked a better one to emulate...