Fairy V: This is a little of the explaination you wanted on Kratos' condition... There will be a chapter later on (either 43 or 44 I can't recall right now) where the full paramiters of his existence will be explained, but in this chapter he does talk a little about how he preceives the world.
As for Lloyd talking you will get your fill of that in the later chapters, he grows into quite the chatter box.
Lady Serefina: I'm writing many stories on this site, though I am working primarily on DES and SoR there will be the ocasional odd fic I bring up. Just take a look at my profile, I add in stories every few days or so. I am glad you like my perspective on Kratos' relationship with his wife/family, and I'm glad you enjoy my stabs at establishing aSymphonia mythology, expect more of that in later chapters.
Ark Navy: ... Um I did not understand the first two paragraphs of your review for chapter 21... Alright... I take that back you have officially baffled me. Yes I live in the US, and don't feel too bad you aren't the first person to think I live in England.
Dirk in a tutu? I think that's more disterbing then Kratos with fluffed up hair... I know one fanartist put Kratos ina dress once, and that is somewhere were I will (hopefully) never go!
MoonCannon: Thanks... I take it you like action scenes, there should be a few more in this fic. My personal favorite is the flight/fight scene in chapter 31. That will be up soon enough, I plan on tossing up a few more chapters today since I have the time
Serrarted Darkness:I'm glad you are enjoying Syt, and thanks for the praise, when I have time I'll reviewyour fic.
Honesty with Friends
Chapter 23
He groaned, stirred, his mind had been conscious, but his body was paralyzed and unresponsive to his will for hours. Images, crimson stained like a Seraphim's wings, had been playing in his mind. It took him a while to realize that these were his memories, and when that realization came to him there came a fuller remembrance. He recalled every detail with super human clarity, every terrified heartbeat, and in the darkness surrounded by the light of dream memories, trapped he lay for hours. Mulling over his mistakes, considering everything in a colder jaded light. In the heat of the moment, in the passion he had stopped thinking had... He might have doomed his whole family. All it took was one word spoken from the right mouth and everything, everything, he valued, he cherished, would be destroyed. When he felt he could come back to his body, or rather when the barrier that kept him from working his body lifted he opened his eyes. A strange woman stood over him, smiled... And it took only a moment for him to remember that it was no stranger, but Syt's wife. She looked at him as if she expected him to... he didn't know what.
"Mrs. Issia... where.. where am I?"
"Home, our home lad..." Syt's wife's hands trembled, she dipped them in a bowl of what he thought to be water, Issia pulled out a rag "This is going to sting..." and with that warning shedispelled his illusions that it was going to be water. She put the rag down on his back, and he almost screamed, he gripped the sides of the cot and gasped profanities. "You got messed up rather bad, do you remember anything at all?"
"Bits, pieces." He lied, blinked sharply as tears formed behind his eyes. "I have a few holes in my memory."
"Aye, comes from havin' a boat fall on you I figure."
Kratos slowly lifted his head. His reflexes were dulled from being comatose, so the motion was a bit jerky. In an hour or so he'd be fine, he could feel that, his old reflexes were coming back to him.
"Really? Is that.. what happened?" He hissed as his doctor applied pressure on his back. "Issia stop!" His wings, they wanted to come out...
Issia hopped, drew away from him in terror.
"My God that hurt.. don't every do that again!" Kratos gasped, closed his eyes, and exerted what little remained of his control over himself, he ordered himsel not to get up and strangel Issia.
"I'm sorry Rui- err Krato- whoever you are!" Issia snapped in frustration, anger making her master her fear. "Anna told me to do that, to make you.. err extensions come out. Her orders not mine."
"What!"
"Aye, we know a little now, and we be wantin' an explanation. Anna told us to wait though till you heard everything so that you'd not be in the dark. Though she did say you'd remember it all your self when you'd wake up."
Someone shot an arrow at that ship Kratos. We found the damned proof of it, or rather your dog did, and he practically rammed it up the Mayor's ass when the man tried to claim it was all an accident." Syt gasped in pain. "Issia, me leg's killin' me, you have any more gels?" Kratos came back to himself, and took in the bruises and cuts that marred the cheerful man's face. Bandages were wrapped around the younger man's mid section, he was obviously nursing a broken rib or two. And his leg, it was wound up in a rough cast.
Kratos trembled in rage, his eyes seemed to fill with fire. His breath came out in a hiss that was no way conected to pain. With those hell fire eyes and icy expression he turned to Syt, and the fisherman paled.
"What happened Syt?"
"Heh, Anna owes me some gald after all, little bet me and her had... The ship fell, you remember that, right?"
"Yes."
"Some crazy bastard decided that the world would be better with both of us out of it, shot the rope, and we almost got smashed to bits. You, you made your.. I don't even know what they are, they just appeared and you ripped the planking out with a bolt of light. Anyways you were all weird because of all the bleedin' you were doin' and I tried to get us to land." Syt tried to smile, but it was more of a grimace of pain. "Anna needs to feed you less, we didn't get all that far when the boat fell on us."
Issia tittered, but still looked very nervous.
"There has to be more..."
"There is." Syt shuddered. "Well some boys pulled us to land, but you'd know it, part of the boat got stuck in you, I wrenched it out, I thought you were dead on me Ruian, I honestly did. You were as pale as pale gets, and bleedin' more then I care to think about. An' don't worry, no one but me saw your... you know... watch-a-ma-call-em's. You pulled them in 'fore anyone got to us. Had to dunk you to make you do it." Kratos remembered that very well, he could still taste the salt water in his mouth. "Anyways you were on dock and Urik comes, wantin' a piece of my hide for makin' this all happen. He took one look at you and figured he should do a mercy killin'." Kratos hissed an oath and Syt laughed. "More or less what I told him. Tried to protect you, I did... Anna wound up protectin' us both."
Syt closed his eyes, rubbed his leg.
"He was gunna rape her Ruian, and she fought him off with everything she had." A cold pit fell into the Seraphim stomach, his lungs could not draw breath, a wild look touched him. Something that wasn't quite sane. "She did good for herself, got a few good licks in, was gunna slash the bastard's throat for him. He beat her bad Ruian, but that dog of yours damn!" Syt shuddered. "Never saw a man die before, much less like that. How do you honestly sleep well at night knowin' what that thing can do to a man?"
"Noishe?" Kratos shivered, but he pushed that thought aside. "Anna where is.."
"She's fine, napping actually, let her sleep she's had it rough." Issia swallowed. "Her legs broke, she's battered and bloody, but she's healing up well."
"How long have I been out?"
"A day, nah more like two days." Syt's wife left the Seraphim for a moment, and tended her husband. The fisherman sighed as the red apple gel was rubbed into his chest. "You're a blessin' me love."
"Don't you ever do anything that stupid ever again!" Issia smacked her husband on the back of the head.
"Yes dear..."
Kratos grunted, tried to get up, Issia looked at him, walked up behind him, then poured something on his back. Kratos collapsed, lost in agony.
"Disinfectant, you're slashed up bad Ruian. I'd not move, me wife has a rule, you don't get up 'till the wound's closed. And she'll make sure you don't get up Ruian. Says she does it to make sure us men folk don't get crazy ideas and get ourselves opened up again without thinkin' about it."
"It.. works..." Kratos managed, blinking several times to keep from weeping.
Xxxx xxx xxx
Anna sighed, looked up from her bed and blankets. Well it wasn't her bed, but it had been assigned to her. Kratos sat, he had made the long walk down the hall, legs twitching, fumbled with the door knob, and entered Anna's room. She watched as her husbands limbs twitched, watched as he colapsed into the chair. Two days had passed, two days where Kratos had evaded questions, had his wound tended, and rested as much as he could. There was no way to hide his strangeness, the limitations of his existance were now out in the open, and at least one family now knew he was not normal. He did not eat what meals they offered, did not drink more then a mouth full of water. He lay still, his eyes half open as he sought solace from his pain in a meditative trance, but never did he slip into true sleep.
He knew he was scaring poor Issia, she looked at him like she'd look at a monster.
Syt was unsettled but was not terrorfied. He showed little fear save that his friend was ill treating himself.
Two days later, much to Syt families horror, the wound in his back was healed. Totally healed, he didn't even have a scar to show for what any other man would have called a mortal wound. He grunted, ripped off the bandages, and forced himself through a light regimine of exercise. He was healed, completely healed, but still horribly weak.
"Ruian shouldn't you be layin' down or somthin'?"
"No, I am fine." Kratos sighed, rolled his shoulders, and considered. No not now. He'd wait until Syt was out of the room. Quietly he regarded Anna, and she regarded him. They needed no words, only to see each other to find that peace, and they both needed peace sorely. For a long moment Kratos sat in the chair, then after that long moment he stood, using the wall as a prop he managed to get to Anna's bed, and sat himself down.
"Kratos..." She knew what he was going to do, she looked meaningfully at Syt.
"It doesn't matter now beloved, they know almost everything, one last truth wont kill them." He opened his hands, silver blue light arched between his palms, and he put that light to Anna's leg. there was an audible snap, a wet grinding sound. Syt cried out, tried to get across the room to stop what he thought was Anna's death. The seraphim sighed, then gently unwound the bandages that bound Anna's leg and ran a hand over it. He applied presure, and if her leg had been broke she would have been in agony. But she didn't cry out, only smiled, and reached up with a shaking hand to caress her husbands cheek.
Syt stood frozen, his mouth agape.
"What in the Goddess' name are you?"
"Does it mater?" Kratos sighed, moved to tend to Anna's ribs. Anna's glare made him stop.
"No more beloved, you're drained down to nothing."
"Damn it Anna I will heal you!"
"Forget it Ruian, I know that look you'd not be able to stand after you tended her. An' you fallin' on her, aye that'd kill her quick."
"Shut up Syt!"
Kratos closed his eyes, the world fadded away, blured as he dragged more mana out of himself. He did not hear the door squeak open, nor see Syt's eyes widen in shock. He missed how the other man paled, twisted out of the way, or as much as his leg would alow him to.A growl made him stop, come out of his trance. Noishe it seemed was going to take a side in this. Somehow two paws came to rest on his lap.The protozoan's lip were curled back reveiling very sharp, dangerous, teeth, less then an inch from the seraphim's face.
"Noishe, let me finish this!"
Noishe growled even louder, and glared on top of that.
"You're out numbered Ruian, an' me wifes gunna peal off your hide when she hears about this. Yon Anna was very specific on what and what not you should be doin' while you healed. Magic-in was one of the things your not supposed to be doin'."
"What all did you tell them!"
"Enough Kratos."
"Why she keep callin' you that Ruian?"
"Errm family pet name?" Anna managed, there was a strain in her eyes that betrayed she was lying.
"Huh, I ain't stupid Mrs. Anna, not by a long shot, an' I be wantin' the truth so I can protect my own. And I be wantin' it soon."
"You will have it." Kratos sighed as Anna's hand stroked his side. She wanted him to join her, and modesty aside he wanted nothing more to lay with his wife. To just hold her for a few hours, and maybe, if the Gods were merciful, sleep. "Could you leave us alone for a bit, we need to talk."
"Among other things." Anna chuckled, scooted as much as she could.
Syt flushed, and excused himself. Anna's laughter all but pushing him out the door. She sighed, then glared at him as she felt healing mana seep into her last injuries. Kratos smiled at her, his eyes were glazed, with little intelligence in them. Feeling much beter, just a bit on the woozy side, Anna scooted, and eased her husband down on the bed. She embraced him, nestled against him as he slid into slumber.
Xxxx xxx xxx
"You talk in your sleep, you know that?" Kratos cracked an eye open, Anna was playing with his hair. She yawned, snuggled against him, and he felt himself flush. Anna's hands slid across his spine, he couldn't help himself. He groaned as his wings slithered out of his back.
"Damn it Anna I did not want to bloody up their bed! This is not our home and..." He lost his train of thought as she nuzzled his throat, and found his lips after a bit of exploring. He tried to pull away, tried to resist. Sensing his hesitance Anna pulled away with a grumble.
"You're no fun, you know that?"
"Not when I'm in someone else's house, with children about, and fatigue plaguing me."
"I feel fine..." She caressed his wings, and they of their own accord wrapped around them both. With a smile Anna snuggled into them, her hands became lost in the silver blue mess of feathers. He shuddered a bit, delicious tingling assaulted him every time she touched his wings. "Is something wrong?" She leaned back against his wings, he almost drowned in the sensation.
"I... I am fine... My wings, they have... never acted.. like this before..."
She pulled away, or rather tried, his wings had other ideas. They gently pushed her to him, and she now lay on him, held oh so gently down by the silver blue light. He shivered, then stopped breathing as her heat assaulted him. He felt heat, in over four thousand years he felt heat! With wondering hands he caressed her, lost for the longest moment in such a primitive physical sensation. Touch, his sense of touch was always muffled, dead, he had always fumbled through any task that required any dexterity. And if he could not see what he was doing all he would feel was a slight tingle under his hands. The sensation was unpleasantly like having a limb asleep, and it was like that for him all the time.
"K..Kratos..." He could feel her shake, she was scared, not cold. She was scared for him.
"I am alright I..." He closed his eyes, and allowed his hands to caress her. To just feel her heat, to feel her. "Anna I can... I can feel heat again!"
She stared at him, not understanding.. he had never told her about this, or rather he had and she had not fully understood. But then she smiled, and she embraced him, held him. He felt as if he was drowning, euphoria picked him up. His wings held her, caged her, even as his hands gently pulled her to him. She trembled, but neither from cold, or fear. Ecstasy had taken them both, and the world was soon forgotten to them both.
"My God." Anna trembled, her eyes closed as a phantom of their pleasure made her ache. "My God... We need to do that more often."
Kratos flushed despite himself, trembled in a mix of fading passion and embarrassment. To him, no mater the wars he fought, the enemies he defeated, in maters of the body, in maters of love... He lived in fear, a fear of messing up, of causing pain, or misinterpreting Anna's thousand and one signals. It was lesser now, that fear, he was beginning to savor it more then fear it. To grow out of his fear, but he doubted it would ever leave him, not fully. But it felt right, it was right, perhaps the rightist thing in all the worlds.
"Yes.." He closed his eyes, and tried to call in his wings. They were too busy humming, and he could not exercise any control over them right now. She laughed, quietly, and let her hands caress his wings. The humming, which he had only felt, became audible. Anna giggled, both of his wings slid around her, and she obligingly scooted closer.
"Your wings, I think they like me a little too much."
"Do they now?"
"Yes they do, you know it's strange, I always thought you controlled them."
"Technically I am supposed to be able to."
"But you looks so surprised now. So I'm guessing that this wasn't fully your idea."
"It was not. Not that it was a bad idea, mind you."
"So they're smarter then you, ouch."
He chuckled wrapped his arms around her, and his wings with a whispering sound kept them both together through out what remained of the night.
Anna sat, no longer hampered by bandages, or cast, she sat on the edge of the bed. Her eyes dreamy as she combed her long brown hair. She looked out the window, watched the sunrise. Her husband's orders, he was so shy sometimes about stuff so simple. It was one of his few boyish qualities that were absolutely adorable. Not that she'd ever say that to him, it'd hurt his pride too much.
Xxxx xxx xxx
"Well thank you for last night." She said, and felt him freeze. She knew that if she looked over her shoulder she would see him in the process of putting his pants on. He always did that first. For a long moment she considered turning around, then decided against it. "For the healing and everything else."
"I should be thanking you beloved."
"Hmm well if we did that we'd never stop thanking each other, it'd make breakfast tedious and awkward to say the least."
Kratos laughed, unfroze, and went back to getting dressed.
"Can you still..." She left it hanging, hesitant to bring up something so delicate.
"No, well not like I did. Inanimate objects just don't seem to provide enough stimuli for my altered nervous system to..." Anna's eyes felt like they were glazing, and somehow Kratos seemed to know that. He snorted, muttered something about the Sylverant education system being worth nothing. "When I touch you, yes I feel heat, anything else.. well as far as I can test, I get no response. One of the joys of being a Seraphim I guess."
"Damn Mithos for doing this to you Kratos."
"Anna, that is enough. I signed up for this, I knew what I was getting into... I have to be adult enough to live with the consequences."
"Adult enough?" She turned and smiled, he had frozen again, with a mess of belts in his hands. She grimaced at his mercenary outfit, she hated when he wore that. It meant they were leaving again. "You're more then an adult, I can testify to that!"
"Anna!" He blushed.
"I know what you mean. I just wanted to have a little fun with you, that's all."
He muttered something, focused on the belts.
"You need to come with a sign so that when you do that I can read what you just said."
"Very funny..." He rummaged through their packs, and fished out his black short sleeve tunic.
"Kratos, it's cold out today, you probably want to wear something a little more heavy."
"After our meeting with the Syt's, we owe them an explanation."
"How far do we go Kratos, how much can we trust them?"
"I'd trust Syt with my life, I had to as a matter of fact. He, I know can take it, all of it. But his wife, she is not as strong."
"She's not weak either, don't worry beloved, they'll help each other get through it."
"Their children?"
"They're too young, lets let the parents break it to them when they are older. Syt's grandmother, we can leave the Syt's children and Lloyd over with her for a few hours."
"But the assassin..."
"If he has any brain in his head after that little show yesterday he'll be out of town and running. If he isn't Noishe will be with them, no one in their sane mind is going to attack Lloyd with Noishe around."
"Alright then. Considering what to tell them... I have to tell them what I am now, there is no other option in that.. but Yggdrasil, how much of that do we mention?"
"Tell them the church and the Desian's are connected, but it is not the pastors themselves but the higher entities that exist within the church. That should be enough."
"The split worlds? No.. not even an option... But I think they might want to know a little more about the Regeneration journey, a little of the truth behind it. After all I will be participating this time, we may cross paths again, so they need to know why that is."
"Derris Kharlan?"
"No, let us not totally destroy their faith Anna. They have so very little left... We need to persuade them to leave Izoold, we need to find a way to get them, and us out of here fast. To let them live here is to see them dead in a month."
"Yes, that will be the hardest. They've lived here their whole lives you know. Leaving all that will be rough on them."
"they will live, if they stay they most certainly will die. If not by the hands of our assailants then by those who will avenge Urik."
"Why would anyone avenge that monster?"
"Greed, he paid them to work after all, and unless someone takes that task this place will fall in desperate times. That can be done much easier with our absence."
"I don't understand..."
"I know, it's one of the viler facet of the human nature. Do not worry too much about it. I will make Syt and his family leave Izoold before worse comes to worse, even if I have to tie them up and carry them somewhere safe. Do you have any objections to going to Luin?"
"Several." Kratos turned to Anna surprised by the hate in her tone. "None of them mater though, and I need to pay that visit to my family anyways."
"You were born in Luin.. I remember that in the paper work, but you never mentioned it yourself.."
"I have reason to not mention it." Anna shuddered. "Several reasons. Come on lets get this little talk over with."
Startled by her sudden business tone Kratos looked at her, tried to read her. But her shields were up over her soul, and all he could sense was a deep pain in her.
"One of these days you will tell me why you bleed Anna, one of these days you will tell me and I will try my hardest to heal away your pain."
"Not today beloved, I'm not strong enough right now. But when I am I will tell you, I promise."
Syt and Issia trembled when Anna more or less explained that what they had been raised to believe was nothing more then a lie. They took the truth of the Regeneration grudgingly, and all but exploded with Anna told them that the Desians and the Church of Martel were interconnected. Kratos sick and tired of the fighting finally left his bed, and came into the room. His wings made a grim backdrop to the truths he told them, they made it real, and in the end it was his presence that bent them. that made them begin to believe.
"I was a research project, some random Desian test rat, tortured, beaten. Urik was nothing compared to what they did to me." Anna shuddered. "I was supposed to be part of the Angelus project, I don't know what it was, but Forcystus, a Desian Lord from Iselia, took me from Kvar. Or rather that's what I thought..."
"I was head of the ranch, the master of both the Desians and Cruxis made me head of the ranch. I have served him for an eternity, once long ago as a human, and now as a Seraphim, one of the guardians of heaven." Kratos swallowed, looked away. "Except it is a lie, almost everything you know is a lie. There is a heaven, a higher power, but we of Cruxis only pose, mimic it. We are not angels, none of us, just a handful of half-elves and humans who have gone under intense torment to become what we are now. That was how it was... Now our leader takes people throughout the ages, and offers them immortality for their souls. All the Chosens who have failed in the regeneration, they are now agents of Cruxis. Empty of heart and soul they exist as lesser angels, guards, and citizens of that which you think of as holy. There is a Goddess, or a God, I am not sure anymore, but there is a higher power. The writ of Martel is not wrong, the ethics, the ultimate ends, it was all a religion that existed far before your, or even my, time... It was twisted, the Spiritia, and the Regeneration, were added in, as the leader of Cruxis took a flowering faith and twisted it to be a vessel of resources."
"Is there really a Martel, a sick Goddess?" Issia whispered.
"No, not a Goddess, but a woman who was so much like a Goddess that few could tell the difference. I had the honor of traveling with her four millennia ago, to learn from her, and it was on her ethics I coached the church, that I broke it from it's brutality that the leader of Cruxis wished to fully poison it with. Not one of the pastors, not one of the priests, know of what exists. They do not know the truth, and those who stumble on it are killed. Look to your Pope, look to your highest religious authority, and you will see the one man in the world who probably knows what is going on."
"The Desian's..."
"Pawns." Anna shook her head. "Persecuted by humans in ages past the half elves joined together, waged war on humanity, and lost. Cruxis gathered them up, gave them weapons and power, and let them loose on the people. As I understand it they were once equals now Cruxis is in charge."
"Anything else you wanna throw at us?" Syt managed, his eyes were a bit wild.
"I am perhaps one of the most powerful entities..." Anna ribbed him.
"He is one of the most powerful men in Cruxis, second in command, and trying to weaken his leader's power so that Cruxis can undo everything the Desian's and Cruixs have done to the people."
"I was lead for centuries by a false promise, by a fixing of this world, the re-mending of the reality that has been destroyed. When I learned, and had proof that this promise was but a lie I came here, where I met Anna. together we have been trying to find what answers we can to destroy the mad-
man who runs Cruxis. Unfortunately we got sidetracked..."
"Lloyd is not a sidetrack!" She mock smacked him and he rolled his eyes.
"And we decided to break here for a few years, unfortunately one of our foes has come after us. And because of our friendliness with you you too have been targeted."
"Your not in deep, you're buried!" Syt managed after a moment.
Kratos sighed, rubbed his eyes, and nodded.
"Yes, we are, and because of what you offered. Because you offered your friendship, you too are now trapped with us. We will help you, establish false identaties for you, settle you down somewhere else. You can not stay here Syt, you will be killed if you are lucky, or dragged off to a Ranch if you are not. Your family will be exterminated, your name crossed out of every record, you will never have existed." Kratos eyes were grim. "I warned you my friend, I did everything I could short of telling you the truth to keep you away. And you were very stubborn, I relented, and I am sorry for that."
"Don't apologize for that!" Syt snarled. "How'd the heck you think you'd make it, alone all the time like you was. You, Anna, and Lloyd, you need people around you, friends, people you can trust, and you have that in us." Syt's friendly eyes had a hint of steel in them. "you keep my family safe, you guard us like you do Anna and your boy, and we'll help you out anyway we can. We stop this nutcase of Cruxis, and fix all that need fixin', and we do it together. You hear me?"
Kratos mouth sagged open, after all of this he expected rejection, had been prepared for it.
Anna only laughed, told him that he owed her twenty gald then hugged Syt.
Issia nodded her head, she was shaking but she agreed.
"Now what all can we do? fixin' a world sound mighty complicated and all."
"Oh that it is." Kratos managed after a few false starts. "For now though we flee, that's all we can do right now."
"Well then stop gawkin' we need to pack an' all don' we?"