It was Castle Ostia, no... I ran a hand over the smooth stone walls. Pherae. I was in one of the long halls that lead to my own chambers. I ran a hand over the smooth surface, and walked unsteadily down the hall. I pushed open the door to my sleeping chambers, and found it has empty except for a mirror, and some clothes laid out on the floor. They were battle worn, and splotched with blood. I found a dagger lying on the chest of the tunic. It was my dagger. I bent to pick it up, and found the metal too cold to hold. I shook my hand, and looked around the room again.
I caught sight of my reflection in the mirror, and gave a start. I was wearing ornate clothes meant for a feasts, or perhaps a wedding. The thin cloak draped around my shoulders was held on by a flashing brooch with Pherae's symbol on it. I brushed a hand over it, and shifted it uncomfortably. Even my boots were worked with silver, and the clothes felt stiff. The clothes looked familiar, as if I had seen them somewhere before...
My face paled, and my stomach clenched. These were my coronation clothes. The crest of Pherae was also worked into the tunic above my heart. I shook my head, and stepped back from the mirror. The only thing missing was my circlet. No, I could see my circlet in the reflection, but it was smeared with blood, and mud. I glanced around quickly, and found that the door had shifted, and was now to my left.
"In such a hurry to leave? I think you should stay a little longer." My own voice rang in my ears, and I snapped around to look at the mirror. My reflection looked at me smugly, and rested its chin on a fisted hand. It was sitting in a plain wooden chair. "Honestly I thought you would be more appreciative then this."
"This...this is impossible!" I snapped taking another step back. "You can't talk, you're my reflection. You're not alive."
"Hmm.. How do you know you are not the reflection, and I am 'real'?" I yelped as my lips moved with the reflection. "You seem to be moving when I move, and not the other way around." A room seemed to have appeared behind it. It was my room, at least how it had looked before I left to look for my Father.
"Eliwood! Are you ready yet?" Hector's voice startled me. I whipped around, but he wasn't there.
"Hector? I'm ready." I replied to his question. No, I didn't, my reflection did, unless I was the reflection... "Just let me get something, and I'll be there." I turned back around, and reached for the dagger lying in front of the mirror. "Ready." The dagger slipped up my sleeve, and rested cold on my flesh. I strained to see what was going on behind me, but couldn't move. This all ends soon now Hector...
The thought startled me. Anger and hate flickered across my mind, the dagger was replaced in my hand. I was real! I wasn't someone else's reflection! I was not! My hold on the dagger shifted, and the silent cry for death reverberated in my mind. This should have ended years ago, it's past time for your end, 'friend'.
That thought startled me as well. Dread wrapped around me, and my breathing quickened. No! Stop! The dagger shifted, and my hand was raised. HECTOR! I whipped around by my own power, and the dagger flew out of my hand. The mirror shattered, the glass fell onto the floor with a deafening ring. The crash echoed in my ears; pain lanced across me. I ran. I dashed for the door, and threw it open.
The halls were empty. My feet beat out a pattern as the slammed into the stone floor. I finally stopped, gasping for breath. I winced, and looked at all the tiny cuts on my hands and face. Blood was seeping through my clothes. It was almost as if I had shattered instead of the mirror.
I shuddered, and leaned against the cold stone wall. The solid reality of the stone gave some comfort, but it was soon diffused by the slick warm blood. An archway opened across from me, and a thin man stood in it. His hair was black streaked with grey, and a wearied smile was on his face.
"The eight General's defeated the dragons with eight powerful weapons, and then, they, they..." My own faltering voice met my ears. I shuddered again, the memory of the reflection keeping me from venturing to see where my voice came from.
"Then what Eliwood?" The man asked.
"I-I don't remember..." My voice admitted slowly.
"Ah, I see..." The pity in the man's voice was infuriating. He had no right to talk like that!
"I read it! I really did! I just can't ever remember it." I took a step forward, as the man walked forward.
"I know you did, but I didn't expect you to remember it, you never do. You should apply yourself more." The man's voice was stern.
"I do try! I do! I'm trying my hardest but it's just not working! I can never remember it no matter how many times I read it." I protested. "I am trying!"
"Aah, don't worry..." His voice trailed off, too low for me to hear. I heard footsteps retreating, and the loud latching of a door made me jumped. I walked hesitantly into the room, and froze. I stood looking at a thirteen year old boy with vivid red hair, and teary blue eyes.
"I'm not worthless, he's lying." The boy snapped viciously. His sleeve was rolled up, and a dagger lay in his hand. "I am not worthless!" The dagger flashed, an angry spray of red flew down the boy's arm, and then the other. "Look at me and tell me I'm worthless! Tell me that!"
"Eliwood," A laughing voice sounded from beside the boy, Hector was standing there, as a boy, a smile on his face. "You're worthless, you know that?" Hector's expression changed. "You're worthless! Leaving me to hold my own against those four! You should have come and helped me!"
"H-hector..." The boy's face crumpled. "Hector help me... please." A smile spread across the boy's face. "Hector please help me."
"Eliwood, stop smiling like an idiot and try to be serious." Hector reprimanded. The boy held his arm up, the long cuts bleeding freely. Blood spilled down his arms, covering the floor.
"Hector help me! Please! Hector! Help! Don't leave me alone like this anymore! Help me!" The boy's voice rose, and became frantic, but his smile only widened. "Please don't leave me like this..."
"Come on, we'll be late for class." Hector gave the boy a jovial smile, and walked away. The boy smiled.
"Hector you lair, you lie just like he does. You think I'm worthless to, but I'm not! I'll show you, I'm not worthless." The boy started after Hector. "I hate you. Can't you see that?" They both disappeared through another door, and left me standing alone. Blood dripped off my fingers. I brushed blood off my forehead like water, and walked back out into the hall. My footsteps faltered, and I stopped again.
The soft, and distant strains of a flute reached my ears, and I pushed off the wall. The song was cheerful and refreshing. I walked numbly down the hallway, beckoned by the flute music. The notes were perfectly clear now, and the playing was familiar. I knew someone who played like that, but I couldn't decide who. I didn't know many people who played the flute, but my mind couldn't put a name or face to the playing. I found myself standing in front of a stairway. I started down it, and came to the bottom quickly.
The floor splashed as I stepped, and looked up. My heart stopped, and my breath hitched in my throat. The flute player looked at me serenely, red eyes haunted with shadows that went beyond the child's face, and lithe fingers that portrayed no falter at my appearance. Blood coated the floor, dark rich blood that smelled strangely. The blood around the child dragon's feet was frozen.
Someone else was in the room as well. Pain clenched around my heart, and I stared at her. Her small feet, clad in slippers froze the blood before they touched it. Her face was expressionless. Her eyes were dead. Her body was whole, but she had the face of the dead. Blood had dried on one side of her lips, and she paused in her dance when she saw me. The sheer scarf hanging around her arms billowed behind her, and added to the wind like appearance of her dance.
She moved slowly, and twirled by me. She stopped in front of me, and her dead face smiled. The flute never stopped playing, the notes the same cheerful tune they had been before. She reached up a hand to touch my face. I tried to step back, but the blood had frozen around my feet. Her hand was cold, colder then frozen water, and it burned. I gasped, and my body flinched away from her touch. She drew her hand back, and bowed her head. Blood was now smeared across her hand, but she didn't seem to notice. She began her dance again, forgetting me.
"Ninian?" The girl didn't pause in her dance. "Ninian, I thought, I thought I killed you!" She didn't look at me, and her dance continued. "I killed you with the Durandal, you're dead!" My voice cracked, and I tried to take a step back. I wanted to run, but my feet were still stuck in the blood. My knees were week, and the thin cuts were burning. "Ninian, please let me go." The flute shrieked in protest, but Ninian still danced the same. I needed to get away.
"Having fun Eliwood?" Hector's voice startled me. I turned as much as I could, and saw the axe wielding lord standing on the last step.
"Hector!" My voice held relief. "Hector I'm stuck, I can't get loose!"
"It would seem you are." Hector raised an eyebrow at me. He leaned casually against the wall, as if he was enjoying what he saw. "Though I would think you would be enjoying this. You can watch Ninian dance from there."
"I don't want to, I want to get away from them Hector! I can't stand this, she's dead! I killed her, she shouldn't be here." I yanked at the ice, but my feet remained stuck.
"You can't do that on your own, can you?" Hector asked.
"No, Hector I have to get away from here. I-I..." My hands were shaking. "Hector please help me."
Hector scoffed. "Why should I help you? You hate me don't you Eliwood?" I stared at him, shocked.
"I-" My knees buckled, and I fell. The blood covered my hands, and burned. I yelped, and yanked my hands out but my hands still burned. There seemed to be more blood then there had been before.
"No, I think you owe it to Ninian to stay here. She loves you after all." Hector turned and began to walk up the stairs.
"Hector come on!" Lyndis called. She stood at higher on the steps. She waved to Hector, and didn't seem to notice me.
"Hector! Don't leave here!" I struggled against the ice that closed over my legs. "Hector help me!"
"Hector! Hurry, we have to go now!" Lyndis called, coming down a few steps. Hector looked between us, and stood staring at me. He frowned, and Lyndis grabbed his arm.
"Everyone is waiting Hector, come on." Hector nodded, and turned to follow her.
"Hector!" The ice crept up my legs. There was a hiss, and something slammed into my chest. I gasped, and looked down. A hand axe was buried in my chest, blood flowed from the wound, spilling to join the blood on the floor. I tried to choke something out, but blood filled my mouth. My vision darkened, and I saw Hector smile at me. My heart lurched, and I fell backwards...
"Hector!" My head slammed into something, and landed back on a pillow. I groaned, and gingerly touched my head. A lump had already sprung up there. I snapped my eye open, and found myself staring at one of the shelves in Merlinus' wagon. I rolled out from under the shelf, and sat up. I wasn't alone in the wagon. Nino looked at me with wide eyes.
"Were you having a bad dream Lord Eliwood?" She asked. Her large blue eyes were almost painfully innocent.
"I think." Already the dream was fading. "How long have I been unconscious this time?" I asked, rubbing the lump on my head.
"Only a day, we'll be stopping for the night in another hour or so." Nino chirped. We must have been traveling at a very fast pace if Nino was riding in the back of Merlinus' wagon. Matthew was sitting in the diver's seat with Merlinus.
"That's good." I nodded my head, and paused when it throbbed. I didn't know much about the cheerful green haired girl. She had been with the Black Fang, and was very young. The youngest of our group. She didn't notice my scrutiny, and continued straightening up several things around the wagon. She would pause sometimes, and mouth out something on a tome.
After a while she frowned, and ran her fingers over a tome's surface. "E...l.. fire. Elfire." She smiled again, and placed the tome away. The wagon lurched, and a shower of elixirs, and vulenarys rained down on me. I yelped, and brought my arms up to defend my battered head.
"Ah dear!" Nino whipped around so quickly she fell. "Lord Eliwood! Are you alright?" I looked at her worried and surprised expression, and laughed. I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth to stifle them, but they came. Nino dissolved into giggles as well. I finally stopped, wiping tears from my face. Nino giggled once more, and rubbed her cheek.
"What did you two do?" Matthew asked, twisting around in his seat.
"Lord Eliwood was attacked by the healing supplies." Nino reported dutifully. Matthew raised an eyebrow, and looked at the pool of vulenarys and elixirs around me.
"Indeed." Matthew grinned, and turned back around with an innocent whistle. I sighed, and began gathering up the spilled goods.
"Oh! You don't have to do that Lord Eliwood. I'll do it." Nino reached for the nearest vulenary, but I shook my head carefully. It still throbbed.
"I'll do this, you finish what you were doing before." Nino nodded, and went back to her work. I carefully began putting things away. I rubbed my temples from time to time, lessening the growing ache between my ears. Slowly images from my dream surfaced as I worked, they rose through the pain of my headache like bubbles. The mirror, the boy, and Ninian. I shuddered. My hands froze in their work, and I looked at the worn wall of the wagon. My hands lowered to my sides, and I stared harder at the wall.
My hand knotted around an elixir. I bit my lip, and closed my eyes. My throat burned, as did my eyes. My hand closed tighter around the bottle. Without warning it shattered. The shards embedded in my hand were instantly washed with healing salve, and the skin healed over them. I yelped, and jerked my hand up, causing more pain. I bit back a curse, and looked at my hand.
"Lord Eliwood? What happened?" Nino looked over curiously. I grimaced and looked at the oddly shaped lumps on my hand.
"Nothing that can't wait for nightfall." I assured her. I grabbed another vulenary with my uninjured hand. Nino nodded, and went back to her work. It took me till we stopped for the night to stack up the healing supplies, and make them stay with one hand. I thankfully lowered myself out of the wagon, and staggered a few steps to the protest of my knees. I looked around, and found no healers in immediate sight. I sighed, and hoped it wouldn't be Serra I found first. She was the last thing my head needed.
Thankfully the first healer I saw was Lucius. "Lucius!" I called. The bishop turned around and smiled warmly at me.
"It's good to see you're awake Lord Eliwood." Lucius gave me a neat bow, and swept a stray strand of hair behind his ear. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Actually there is." I held out my hand for examination, and explained the injury. Lucius frowned, and turned my hand to see better in the dim light.
"I see." Lucius released my hand. "I'll need to get a knife. Wait here please."
"I have one." I reached down, and pulled the Ostian dagger from my boot without thinking. Lucius took the knife, and pressed his lips together.
"I lost my boot dagger so Hector lent me his." The lie rolled easily off my tongue. Lucius nodded, and left to get some water and bandages. The other members of our group looked tired as they passed. The horses walked with their heads down, and even the pegasai stumbled as they walked. I watched the weary people go about setting up tents, and talking to each other. Lucius came back, saying it would be better to treat my wound in a tent to prevent infection. I watched Matthew walk by, pestering Guy. The swordmaster gripped his killing edge, and clenched his jaw as Matthew began pulling on his braid.
"Lord Eliwood?" Lucius gave me a questioning look.
"Oh, yes?"
"The tent is this way." Lucius gave me a slightly worried look, his brows drawing slightly up, and his lips thinning.
"Oh, yes, sorry. I'm just a little... preoccupied today." I smiled.
"Of course." Lucius gave a half bow, and lead me off. I held my hand carefully, and caught a glimpse of Hector talking to Lyndis. Hector saw me, and frowned slightly, the turned back to Lyndis. My heart clenched, and my throat burned again. I half expected to hear the deadly hiss of a hand axe, but it didn't come. I followed Lucius into one of the tents where he had set up a bowl full of hot water, and some bandages. The dagger lay in the hot water, and it had probably already been washed.
I sat down on the makeshift bed, and Lucius began working on my hand. He carefully began cutting out the pieces of glass, and I clenched one hand around the sheets. Blood dripped off my hand, and onto a folded piece of cloth under my hand. Lucius had finished cutting the glass out of my hand when the tent flap came open, and Hector walked in.
He sighed. "Eliwood, what did you do this time?"
"Nothing to serious." I smiled sheepishly. "I'll be fine." Lucius nodded in agreement, and bandaged my hand.
"It should be fine in a few days." Lucius gathered up his things, and bowed to us both. "I take leave of you, Lord Hector, Lord Eliwood."
"Go then." hector waved a hand at the Bishop, and the blond walked out calmly. Hector turned to me. "Feeling any better?" My head was still pounding.
"No." I smiled, and looked at my hand. "Not much."
"Maybe you should eat more and you wouldn't pass out so much." Hector suggested. He posture stiffened, and his voice gained a threatening edge. "Eliwood..." I followed his gaze, and it landed on the Ostian dagger. His dagger.
A/N: Ergh, The dream did have pupose and meaning. Yeah for cliff hangers... I think. Thank you for the reviews, and for the corrections in spelling and grammer. Both are appreciated much, and needed much. Jaa ne!