Thanks, as always, for your comments.

Chapter Nine: Dragon's Eye

The next morning Nina found a merchant preparing to make a run to Shikk and willing to spare an assistant to drive back their sandflier, and the Imperial contingent came through the Causeway. They lacked the ubiquitous army uniform, as well as weaponry besides the odd dagger and one firearm, and before anyone realized what they were it had been explained.

"Excuse me, excuse me, good people of Kyoin!" called out the apparent leader, waving his hands about. One of his compatriots jabbed him in the side, and he hastily put the gun down. "We come from Chedo on the order of General Ursula." So she's a general now. "We've come to hire Purifiers. Would any of you know where we might find some?" He said this while glancing about the "street," well aware that Imperials requesting Purifiers was hardly routine.

"Deis says you might try Chamba. After they have finished eradicating the hex there, that is. It may take some time, however, and they may not be so enthusiastic about your proposition."

He nodded in Ershin's general direction. "Thank you, ah…" His prior aplomb dissolved. "Is it ma'am?"

"She says ma'am is fine."

"Alrighty, then. Thank you, ma'am." With that he picked up his gun and they marched up to the Imperial Kyoin outpost, with a few curious glances at Won-Qu and A-Tur, who stared back.

It's been two days. Ryu stood near the end of the dock, fingering the bell and watching as the merchant's sandflier dwindled into the distance. Two days already. The dream said six. How accurate was it? And why haven't I done something by now?

He knew the answer to the last question, at least. The previous nights they had been camped out in Mukto after fetching Won-Qu from Fou-Lu's tomb - Won-Qu had been told of Fou-Lu's impending demise and took it as terribly calmly as A-Tur - and at the Kyoin inn. Cray had never been away from Elina for more than five minutes, and when he hadn't been there Nina had been. They would want to know what Ryu intended, and his heart threatened to jump up his throat and out his mouth when he imagined explaining - inviting either incredulity or false hope - then trying and getting nothing. He feared getting no result regardless, but many fears became worse when you set them in front of other people.

She sat on the dock, between Nina and Cray. Her long dress did a fine job of disguising her half-grown legs, though her inability to walk was rather given away when Cray had to carry her. The dress was a cascade of floral print over the edge of the dock; he almost deluded himself into seeing a pair of shoes just visible under the wide ruffle. More ruffles at the cuffs concealed her folded hands. She stared with the eyes of an oversize doll. Beyond her Nina sat kicking her feet in midair and staring off as well, as if she were trying to see what her sister saw in the distance.

A few dockworkers hovered as close to Won-Qu and A-Tur as they dared; Ryu had caught them throwing glances - not quite as discreet as they seemed to think - in the direction of the sitting trio. Clearly, they dreaded the thought of yet more misfortune befalling the elder Princess of Wyndia.

They'd not made a secret of what had happened to her in the Empire, and as there wasn't much else to do in Kyoin they still readily explained to any who asked, though they took pains to explain that the man responsible was now imprisoned and it was highly unlikely that it would ever happen again. Also, they skipped everything concerning her death and resurrection. "They wouldn't understand," Nina had said in private. "They'd concentrate on only that, how it happened and who did it. She's coming home, that's what matters."

Sure, that matters. But doesn't coming back from the dead matter too? he hadn't said.

Now he said, "Should I get some more water?"

Cray said, "No, no, I'll do it." Ryu was surprised for a moment, then realized that constantly hovering around a mute shell who was supposed to be someone you knew and cared for had to become tiring after a while. "You - won't let anything happen to her, all right?"

Ryu said, "I won't," and sat down at Elina's side as Cray left.

He knew, roughly, where everyone would be. Won-Qu and A-Tur would still be standing guard. Scias wasn't much for the desert heat - he would be at the inn, pressing a conjured ice crystal to his head. Cray - getting water, maybe bumming some more ice off Scias. Ershin - with Scias, maybe.

Lay your hands on Ershin, close your eyes.

Ryu edged his hand toward the pool of gathered ivory in Elina's lap and delved into it, managing to find two of her limp fingers. From there he found the rest of her hand, which he held. Nobody noticed, and even if they did embarrassment would be nothing compared to what might happen if he stayed paralyzed by the fear of it. He had to finish what he most likely had started.

Ryu knew he couldn't have expected to be drawn into a mindscape the moment he shut his eyes, especially in his current condition and with no assistance from the Abbess, but he felt vague disappointment when it didn't happen, regardless.

Do you hear me we've met I'm a friend of your sisters and uh could you come back now because everyone's getting worried. Please?

How must he look, sitting here with his eyes squeezed closed and clutching Elina's hand as if he, not Cray, was the one who loved her.

He called to the power that had once been his. Don't you remember me I'm the Yorae Dragon at least I used to be and I know I got rid of you but could you please come to me for a bit longer, there's someone I've got to save.

Someone speaking, with an inquisitive lift at the end of the sentence. Was it Nina, had she noticed what he was doing? He shut it out, leaving only the dark behind his eyelids and his pleas - were they going somewhere or did they only ricochet around his mind?

Let me help you I can't very well leave you like this.

More voices - Nina explaining to Cray, best as she could, what was going on? He didn't know. He couldn't afford to pay attention to that.

Oh please come back if I'd known it would mean leaving her like this if I knew it meant killing Fou-Lu I never would've done it I swear I -

He fell and Nina screamed. The sound seemed to propel him forward, and he was unsurprised when no sand met his face. Ryu tumbled, lost his grip, suddenly incredibly cold, at no point contacting anything else until his feet met a surface and stayed there. Only then did he open his eyes, and then continuous light from right, left, downward, upward and forward blinded him so much that he might as well have kept them shut.

He turned around, keeping track of each directional shift. Directly behind him, as far as he could figure, was what resembled a giant mirror, seemingly floating in the light that came from behind it, framed in dark metal with glowing blue symbols. When he looked into it he saw Nina standing on the dock and leaning forward, speaking rapidly and inaudibly. Ryu himself was sprawled below, motionless, the bell still on its cord and glinting against the sand - instinctively, he reached for it, and found it there. Beside him, her hand still twined with his, was Elina, the skirt of her dress scattered outward. Cray had jumped down from the dock; now he removed his fingers from Elina's wrist, where presumably he'd been checking her pulse, and gently pulled the skirt back down over her knees.

What was this, Ryu wondered, and he knew. It was a metaphor, of sorts, for the gate back to the living world. If he passed through it, it would wake him up again. But he shouldn't do it quite yet.

Ryu turned forward again, stopped and listened. If he kept absolutely quiet he could hear a sound far away. He set off towards it at a run. The bell jingled.

Ryu guessed he had been running for roughly an hour. Now he was close enough to know it was a woman's voice, high and frantic, its actual words still indecipherable. He had yet to tire - in the mind there was only mental fatigue. The fatigue, maybe, was what caused the double echoes; he wouldn't pay any mind to the sound of his feet hitting the unseen ground but for the fact that he seemed to hear it twice each time. Maybe that was a quirk of traveling in mindscapes, though he hadn't remembered this with Deis.

He thought he could see a brief shadow beyond the light. He thought he could make something out of the voice. What was she saying?

"Get away, go away!"

That was hardly encouraging.

"There's nothing for you here, go away!"

He wasn't going this far, and he wasn't worrying everyone as much as he doubtless had, collapsing off the dock like that, just to run right back without doing anything. He ran on.

The light ended with no warning. His momentum propelled him a ways past before he hit someone from behind. She cried out and fell.

"Sorry. Er." Should I call her princess? I haven't called Nina that for a while, and it seems odd to call one princess and not the other. But I barely know Elina. And if I do, should I call her just princess or… oh, forget it. "Ma'am?" Unless you were talking to a man or a child, you rarely went wrong with ma'am.

She stood up and drew herself to a little bit taller than Ryu. Now they were both suspended in blackness instead of light - he couldn't call it darkness, he could see her quite well. As it was in the last place, there was nothing else but black, but he had a feeling that this space was a good bit smaller. "You can't leave well enough alone can you!"

He'd certainly heard her voice before. It was the tone that startled him. The Elina he had met had been so very calm. Calm as Won-Qu and A-Tur were now, in fact. "Ah - what do you mean?"

"You can go back and tell him that if he wants an Endless he can try it on himself next ti - oh!" Her eyes widened. "I'm sorry - you're Nina's friend, aren't you? Ryu, the Endless?"

"That would be me. But I'm not exactly an Endless now. I came here to -"

"I know." She clasped her hands. "I'm sorry - thank you for coming so far, but it's been a waste of your time. Goodbye."

He swallowed. Had he come this far to discover that she was locked out - or in, as the case might be? "Why is it a waste of my time?"

"I asked Cray to do it for a reason," she whispered, bowing her head. "It might sound vain, but I'm not coming back to - to that. There's no way that I would even fit in the castle."

"Er. Your legs should be done in maybe three, four days at the most. And they're normal size far as I can tell."

She looked up and lifted a hand to her mouth. He was reminded of Nina. "How do you mean?"

He understood. "All those giant organs and whatnot? They're not yours anymore. They're rotting back in Astana. You're back as you were - at least you will be, like I said, when your legs get back."

"You must be joking, or mistaken."

"No joke."

"Just as it was before?"

"Unless you're going to grow flippers instead of feet, it looks like it."

"But how did…?"

He shrugged. "I'd like to know myself."

"So then… you're saying I could come back?"

"Yeah. That's what I'm saying."

Her head went down again. "I don't know. Is it right? So many dying every day and me of all people - I don't know."

Ryu was fairly sure he shouldn't be feeling so exasperated on a rescue mission. "It's not as if you'll keep on not dying. Just put it up to really good luck, all right? And Cray and Nina and everyone're going to keep on waiting for you to come back no matter what, now that they've seen you're alive on the outside at least, so why do this halfway?"

"And… he…the one who…"

"Yuna's in prison, and if I know Ursula she'll do everything she can to make him stay that way. And she's a general now, I bet she can do a lot. Now. Can you come with me?"

She simply nodded. They stared at each other for a while longer before Ryu, feeling foolish, turned around, and they walked back into the light. The mirror was before them - it seemed to have followed him. In the image now he lay on a bed in the Kyoin inn, his sword leaned against one of the bedposts, still holding Elina's hand; she was on another bed, which had been pushed close to its twin, maybe so their arms wouldn't be stretched excessively. The group had gathered around them.

"It's not what it looks like. I mean… ah… I couldn't think of any other bit I could… er…youknow… touch…?"

"I know," she said. "One more thing. Who-"

"Yes?"

"Never mind, it can wait." She stepped up beside him. "Cray," she said. "Nina." Then she sprang forward with her arms flung out and faded through as if it were an upright pool. As the distortions faded, the Elina of the image jerked and let go of his hand. Nina's mouth opened in an unheard shriek and she ran forward, Cray just behind.

After he was satisfied that she'd made it, Ryu pressed his hand to the surface, which gave easily, rippling as it did, with a slight shock of cold. He prepared to jump through himself. I've done it. I've brought her back. At least that bit's all right now -

Someone grabbed the back of his shirt and twirled him around, throwing him to the ground, inasmuch as there was one. As he fell everything changed - he couldn't point out subtle gradations of the light or any such thing, but everything felt different, more familiar. It was a soft landing, at least. When he looked up Fou-Lu stood above him.

"What are you doing hanging around in her mind?" he said, his indignation temporarily superseding any other emotion. "And what was that for?"

"I hath been behind thee. I apologize. But now that we art only with ourselves, I must know why!"

He was what Elina saw…? Ryu's spine clenched; for a terrible moment so did his throat. "Should I have just let her rot while she was still alive, then?"

"For mine other half, thou dost understand painfully little. I didst not speak of her, but of us." Fou-Lu leaned forward and grabbed Ryu's wrists, then his arms, pulling firmly but gently all the while until their faces were inches apart. "End this farce."

Ryu struggled to regain his footing; it was only Fou-Lu that was keeping him from falling back down. "What farce?"

"We are the Yorae Dragon. We are one. Why dost thou hold back from joining the two of us once more?"

Ryu craned his neck to see the mirror to their left, began to figure out when the best time would be to run, then wondered why he was doing it. He'd been trying to get in contact with Fou-Lu for some time, and here he was now and all Ryu could think of was getting away from him. "Because I don't want to kill you."

"Thou dost not wish to kill me?" Fou-Lu laughed. It hurt Ryu's ears. Lying at the center of a hex and seeing the bell fall and laughing and laughing…

"Wouldst thou condemn me to a full span of meaningless life, simply to assuage thy conscience? I hath given you the last thing I hath to give, and thou hast rejected it out of hand. I am nothing."

"You're something," said Ryu, "else I'm talking to myself."

He laughed again. "Thou art talking to thyself, or should be, by all rights. End this, Ryu, make us truly one so that I might take my leave of this world."

"Not if I can help it."

"Thou canst not help it. I didst hear her speak - thou art only delaying the inevitable."

"I only need to delay it until I can get you out. And I will."

And again. "'Tis unlikely such is within thy means." Ryu winced. That much was true. "Even if thou hast, I will not go. There is nothing more in this world that I might be a part of."

"There's got to be something. There's us, after all."

"Thy friends are thy friends. They hath nothing to do with me. As for her -" Fou-Lu glanced at the bell still hanging around Ryu's neck and shuddered. "She is dead. There is nothing."

Ryu decided not to argue with this. "But Won-Qu and A-Tur…"

"… are now thine to command. They hath known this might come to pass, as long as they hath known me. Hath they not told you this?"

"Yes, they said that, but that's not the point-"

"Enow." He let go, and Ryu reeled backward. When he stabilized himself Fou-Lu's sword materialized in his hand with a flash; he nearly dropped it. Fou-Lu smiled and tipped back his head, exposing his throat. "Come, come hither, thou who art me." The image seemed to shiver for a moment, then held fast.

If I kill him now will he really die? Yes. We're both… representations, running around in a symbol, laid on and joined up to whatever's underneath so we can figure out more easily what we're doing, what to do. If I kill him then in "real life" all of what's him is going to merge with me all at once, and that'll be it. At least it'll be quick…

No.

Ryu flung out his arm and let go of the sword. As it vanished before it hit the invisible ground, he dove through the surface of the image. The chill came, and he shut his eyes, prepared for another fall, or maybe this time it would be a rising. Instead he stopped, suspended. Arms were wrapped around him, just above his waist - Fou-Lu had gotten hold of him before he was completely through. He flailed, trying to find something to hang on to, some kind of leverage.

Voices from both sides bounced around and struck his ears.

"Elina, I'm sorry-"

"Oh, Elina-"

"Ryu, hold. Hold!"

"Let go!" he shouted back, but his words seemed to die as they emerged.

"Why canst we not attempt waking the Young Master?" I thought I told you not to call me that. "Surely his business hath been completed with her revival."

"She says, not necessarily. She says, forcing him awake will be detrimental to his mind."

"Can't we talk to him?"

"She says she fails to see how that would be a problem."

"All right, thank you. Ryu?"

"Ryu, can y-you hear m-me?"

"Come on, come on!"

"Wake up," said Elina. "Please. If it's going to be your life for mine then really I-"

He was being drawn back, in spite of his struggles. Fou-Lu would keep him here, then, until either his physical body wasted away and they both died, or until he finally killed Fou-Lu, as was his wish. This can't be how it ends.

He slid back through into a heap. Fou-Lu released his legs and helped him up. He could see everyone clustered around his bed, Elina seated with her face in her hands and Cray with an arm awkwardly draped around her shoulders, Nina leaning over him - was she crying- before Fou-Lu stepped in front of him and blocked out the image.

"Why is it," said Fou-Lu, "that we must always disagree on such vital matters?"

He shrugged. "It's too bad."

"Indeed. Let us put an end to such disagreements now. Thou hast only to concede this last one to me."

Fou-Lu smiled. The sword reappeared in Ryu's hand. All over again.

This can't be how it ends I won't let it be. I want to live I want both of us to live. I don't know what to do.

But I have a guess.

He hefted the sword best as he could with his arms shaking. Fou-Lu didn't seem to think anything was amiss - he knew Ryu didn't want him to die, so of course Ryu would be afraid to finally do it.

The sword sliced the air, and the flat side struck Fou-Lu on the side of the head. Fou-Lu echoed its arc and fell to the side, temporarily stunned. Ryu dropped the sword and threw his arms around his other half, pulling him half-upright, then jumped forward with him in tow. Just before they met the surface of the image, just before Ryu shut his eyes again, Fou-Lu's smile began to fade.

Leaving was many times worse than entering. Ryu tightened his grip on Fou-Lu, who thrashed like a fish and shouted something that was no competition for the mental typhoons that screamed around them, jumbled with more voices. "Hang on," he called; his words fared no better. "Almost there," he called, reasoning that he didn't know if it wasn't true.

"He's moving!"

"He's moving!" said Nina. "Do you think he heard us?"

"She says that is unlikely."

It was strange how short a time they'd had to celebrate Elina's true return before they turned to fretting about Ryu; it seemed to Nina that he had rescued her sister by giving her his own consciousness. As they looked on, his back arched and his mouth opened, moving silently for a while before it closed and he lay still once again.

A knock on the door. "Excuse me?" It was the innkeeper again. "Would you like something to eat now?"

As they looked at each other to figure out who would be the one to decline for the ninth time in as many hours, Scias cut in. "Yes,

please." The food was brought in and the innkeeper left, after a wide-eyed glance at Elina, who smiled and nodded back. "W-what?"

Cray put his free hand to his face. "This isn't a time for food, Scias." His stomach audibly disagreed.

"It… it's n-not j-just f-for us. W-when he w-wakes up he'll b-be hungry, w-won't he? H-he's skipped just as m-much as us."

"Thou hast a fine argument," said Won-Qu.

Cray hurriedly turned to Elina as the implication struck him. "Are you - do you need to…"

"Oh no, it can wait. I -"

A-Tur yowled. Nina looked and saw Ryu begin to float up from the bed, surrounded again by an aura akin to what had surrounded him during his transformations, which expanded as he rose until he threatened to hit the ceiling - that hadn't happened when he'd started . She opened her mouth, then closed it - with all the shrieking she had done over Elina's not-nearly-as-dramatic return, any sound now would seem pathetically anticlimactic.

The others seemed to feel the same way, and they looked on in silence as Ryu drifted back downward to his original position and the aura continued to hang in midair, glowing all the brighter. As he met the sheets his eyes opened and he sat up. "Thanks, Scias," he said. "Are there any eggs?"

"Y-yes, they're -" Scias got out before the aura exploded.

Technically Nina knew it was impossible to be knocked backward by an explosion composed only of light, but she fell over regardless as a multitude of spots blotted out her vision for a few seconds.

"… h-hard b-boiled," Scias finished.

She stood up and rubbed her eyes while Elina said, "Oh, don't worry, Cray, I'm fine."

Cray said, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, absolutely sure."

Nina fetched the platter with eggs cut in slices and brought it over. "Are you all right?"

He reached for a slice. "Fine, just… tired." Another yawn threatened to crack his jaw. Then his eyes widened slightly as he focused on something behind her. "Er. Could you turn around and tell me if you see what I see?"

She nodded and turned around, then stifled a gasp. "You see Fou-Lu, right?"

That was what she saw, anyway, maybe a little fuzzy around the edges but it was him, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. There was a chorus of shocked murmurs as the others saw him as well, and then Won-Qu and A-Tur dashed past, curbing their enthusiasm after one of Won-Qu's paws inadvertently passed through him. He looked up and nodded at them in acknowledgement.

"I saw him before," said Elina. "He was standing behind you, but I thought… I guess I thought you knew…"

"I know. That's right. 's good." Fou-Lu - would you call him a ghost? He wasn't quite dead, was he- turned from Won-Qu and A-Tur and glared. Evidently he did not think this was good, for whatever reason. "At least he's out, even if there's nowhere to put him… just yet… Mmm." Nina turned around. He swallowed his slice of egg, smiled at her, and promptly dropped back to the bed, his eyes closed once again. She found his pulse after a few seconds of frantic scrabbling.

"Deis says it was probably the strain. She says he will likely be recovered tomorrow."

She clutched at his wrist, desperate for the confirming beat of the flowing blood. "He'll likely be recovered?"

"She says that she will not be blamed if it happens that he is not."

"Th… that's v-very encouraging," Scias half- muttered.

She looked at the phantom, who stared back before he leapt forward and through her. This time she did cry out, and when she turned she saw him staring down at his legs, which had sunk through the mattress. As he looked down they rose up so that Fou-Lu stood on the bed, and then he knelt and grasped at Ryu's hands, which passed through his own as Won-Qu's paw had. He tried again several times, then looked up, noticed his audience and vanished - she had expected fading or dissipation, but he was simply not there anymore.

And Ryu's sword, leaned up against the bedpost, glowed. They all stared at it as the glow reached a crescendo and then faded to a faint shimmer, almost invisible. Then Ershin said, "She says it will not be as simple an arrangement as with us, but it might work for a time."

Cray said, "You mean now he's… I don't know, possessed the sword?"

"She says it is so. She says it can be very confusing for a spirit with no anchor."

Scias said, "I… I j-just hope it d-doesn't start t-talking after he leaves it. N-no offense."

"She says, unlikely. I was animated by her Endless aura. And now, as you all know, there are no more Endless."

Nina whispered, "I know."

And is it a good thing or a bad thing?