Kojyou: The Five Passions

Part One: Joy

Chapter Two: Shadows in the Water

Prontera Culverts

Huh…huh…huh…

He tried as best as he could to mask the soft sound of his breathing, to strain his ears beyond even that tiny noise and peel away the layers of darkness that prevented him from seeing anything. Lapping about his shins was water that reeked from too much time away from any sort of light source, so there was no way for him to track by smell. Not that the creatures he was following even had a distinguishable smell, not when they did not want to be detected.

Penomena were much like their smaller, less mobile cousins, the hydra, in appearance. About two feet high, with a pair of freakish not-eyes that glowed red as they attacked, penomena had tentacles that stretched to unbelievable lengths and could easily penetrate bedrock. None of this mattered, of course (except the bit about the tentacles), because the assassin could not see them. Fortunately, he was accustomed to working in total darkness; he had other senses than just sight. Unfortunately…

"Ouch!" A few moments passed. "Oof!"

The assassin whirled on his friend in the darkness; she stumbled into him and yelped, stifling it too late.

"Kayley, go away, I can do this by myself. You're just making trouble for me, and you're bird's no use here, anyway."

She pouted, and somehow, he could tell. "But Kiyoshi…"

Something in the water nearby shifted. He slapped a gloved hand over the huntress' mouth and listened. The same sound, almost lower than their breathing, cried out to him again from the darkness. Droplets of water sprayed against his boots, and he threw himself away, bringing Kayley with him. They rolled to the side, and silence reined once again in the culverts. Slowly, he removed her hand, and Kayley thrust herself away into the water. "'The hell's is wrong with you, Kiyo? You'd think those things were attacking us, or something!"

All around them, hideous facsimiles of human eyes began to open, to glow with a devilish, mindless, red light. Kiyo stood up and glared at the hundreds of penomena through the shadows. A swift movement, and his twin Damascus daggers, forged for him by Jenna the Hammer herself, were in his hands. "I think you'd better wake up your bird, Kay. He might come in handy after all."

Tan, we need you. Now.

Tan, we need you. Now.

Etansel Waterson had never heard that particular tone of voice come out of Kiyoshi's mouth before, and it disturbed him even more to hear it over the guild network. Kiyo, what's wrong? Responded the priest as he raised another short-lived barrier of energy to keep the frenzied movements of penomena from reaching the inner keep of Creamhilt.

No questions, just come.

Tan looked over to their guildmistress, Hale, question in his eyes. The tall knight nodded.

"Go, they need you more than we do. Sean and Michael are heading back; they can fill in for you well enough. Life's light never fade, my friend."

"Shadows flee the stout heart. Hale, are you sure you'll be all right?"

"I keep potions, love. It's why we have a resident alchemist. Now get moving."

Tan bowed, and then called upon what vestiges of light he could gather. From within his robes, he procured a small, blue gem, uncut, and poured his energies into it. It took a few moments, but the stone cracked, then crumbled, falling to the ground. A fountain of blue light appeared in its place. With a last look for his guildmistress, he stepped into the light.

He materialized at the entrance to the culverts, right next to an over-curious novice, who had been peering curiously into the dark depths. She fell backwards onto her rear when he appeared, splaying her hands out behind her to catch herself. Tan ignored her, and entered. The novice pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"How rude!" Curiosity took over, however, and she gathered herself up to follow the priest inside.

Kiyo was in a bad way. His left arm was nearly useless, pocked with wounds given by the penomena. He was fast, but there just was no way to avoid the tentacles every time they struck, especially when there were so many. Beside him, a light-stick clenched in her teeth, Kayley fired off volley after volley of arrows, but he could tell that she was beginning to flag as well. Dodging a peno's attack, he uncorked a bottled potion of healing liquid and downed it, all in one swift motion. He could feel the wounds to his arms close up, but he had no illusions that they would stay that way.

Kayley's hawk, Nicodemus, was doing his job with a will, diving in to scratch at the penomena. He also carried a light in his beak, giving Kayley the means to hit targets beyond her normal range of sight. Nicodemus had no trouble weaving in and out of the forest of be-tentacled monsters, and in that respect, he was doing much better than either of the humans. Still, he could not cause much damage.

Am I going to die here? The assassin asked himself as he slashed open yet another semi-sentient plant. It retaliated by rapidly inserting a tentacle into his shoulder and ripping it out just as swiftly. Kiyo hissed from the pain, but returned the sally by slicing the monster into rough halves. The tentacles ceased to wave. Just as he started after the next one, though, a terrible shriek of pain erupted from his partner's mouth behind him. He checked his body's movement mid-run and swung around just in time to see Kayley go down with a wound to her leg.

"No!" he shouted, and ran to catch her. She fell into his strong arms gasping for breath and trying to force down bile from the shock.

"Kiyo, I think this is it for us." She whispered. Nicodemus dropped his light and keened mournfully.

He nodded solemnly, and bowed over her limp form, waiting for the final blow.

It never came.

Both of them raised their heads as brilliant, sapphire light erupted into existence around them. Kayley, recognizing the sign of a Pneuma barrier, gasped with relief. "Tan made it!" she breathed, and Kiyo felt moisture seep down from her cheeks.

"Of course I made it." Said a cocky voice from just down the way. Tentacles struck at the form that approached, but invariably went astray as they railed against Etansel's barrier. Healing light flowed over Kayley and Kiyoshi, and they stood up. Tan, surrounded by two light spirits to banish the darkness, grinned at them. "Now, would I ever let you two die? We still have to get you hitched, you know."

Kayley deadpanned, and Kiyo allowed himself a chuckle.

"Tan!" Kayley's voice was more than a little scathing. The priest just laughed.

"Now Kayley, I was only trying to lighten things up. We all know you and Kiyo hate each other."

"That's it, buster!" exclaimed the huntress as she drew an arrow back and fired it into a peno. "You're so not getting to do the ceremony!"

"Noooo!"

From there, it was pretty much just clean up.

Castle Creamhilt, Prontera

Hale Marlene Ambrose paced back and forth before the huge, golden crystal that was the symbol of her guild's power. Twilight had controlled Creamhilt for the past two years, and she had grown to love this great castle and its great, sweeping columns, lavish carpets, and tapestries rich with history that dated back to the time of King Tristan's grandfather's grandfather. In short, Creamhilt was home.

"Hale, would you cut that out? I can't concentrate when you pace like that."

Standing just to the side of Twilight's guildmistress was one of the guild's wizards, a woman by the name of Terradi. In contrast to Hale's long, lithe form, Terra was short, and almost husky in a way. Her cream cloak flowed out behind her so she could sketch magical signs into the air. The results of her arcane gestures were currently fluttering around above Hale's head in butterfly form.

"Terra, sometimes I think that breaking your concentration might not be such a bad idea." Hale snapped. Terra just looked back at her calmly, never stopping the motions of her hands. From below, a voice echoed up.

"Why don't you break her head while you're at it? Be doing the rest of us a favor, in my opinion."

The sound of Sean's deep, resonant voice made Hale smile. She was always glad to see the crusader; they often trained together, and though he was much stronger than her, she was always faster.

Terradi, on the other hand, had a very different reaction. Squealing, she raised over to the edge of the staircase and leaped off, presumably expecting Sean to catch her. Instead, she fell only a few inches onto a glowing platform of white energy. Hale peered over the edge and saw that Hikari accompanied Sean, along with Michael and Jenna. The young priest's hands shown with the same pale glow as the barrier he had created to hold Terra up. As the wizard beat against it, the others made their way up the stairs casually. Jenna waved beneficently to Hale as she came up, and the knight smiled in return.

"It's good to see you all safe." She told them. Sean snorted, Hikari rolled his eyes, and Michael just brooded. But then, Michael always brooded. Hale sighed.

"Where is everyone?" Hikari asked, one of his dark black eyebrows rising in a way that Hale wished she could emulate. Terra continued to wail in the background.

"Liss is on healing duty, and I sent Satay with her to back her up. The should be fine, they were going to meet up with Miya's crew. Tan went to help Kiyo and Kayley, they've been reporting regularly."

"And Faia?" Sean asked.

"Research." Hale responded promptly. Jenna took pity on Terra and helped her back onto the platform, where the wizard promptly collapsed into a pile of robes, tears, and incoherent babbling. "I think he's been trying to find out what exactly happened; he's been in the library for hours."

"What exactly did happen?" Jenna asked, a frown marring her normally smiling face. "Penos in the Culverts? That's definitely never happened before. Don't need research to find that out."

Hale shook her head. "I should really wait until everyone else gets back to say anything."

"Stow it, Hale." Sean said brusquely. "Hikari almost died today. If you know something, tell us."

The crusader stood apart from Hikari, stoutly obeying the orders that Hale herself had passed down. Turning, Hale removed her left gauntlet and reached up to touch the Emperium.

"The castles have turned against us."

Author's Note: Thanks for the review, Tom. Normally, I would agree with you about the attack shouting, but in the case of Grand Cross, I think it's very appropriate. Sean's definitely pompous enough to shout out his ultimate technique. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

As for you people who haven't read/reviewed this. DO IT! XD Give me love.

Truewind