Nascent

Disclaimer be in Part I

Author's Note: Oh my gawd, there's actually an FF:U topic! At last! Someone got to the stack of emails begging for one! OMG yay!

The fanfic recommendation will be a quick one. Today's Story to Plug is "Crystal Heart" by Inexorable. I didn't think much of this fic when I first read it, but days after I'd set it aside, I realized that my mind had been going back to it a lot. It's tragic, but more than that, haunting... almost painful. And it does a good job at delving into Kumo's psyche; I could so see him having this complex. ...Anyway, in Inexorable's fic, the supposedly perfect relationship between Kaze and Kumo is crumbling. Our dearly beloved Rock-boy is neglecting his spouse to search for a mysterious item called the Crystal Heart... in fact, he's obsessed with finding it. As the days go by and the situation gets worse, Kumo starts to wonder if there is truth to Kaze's claim that he would sacrifice everything to get it, and teeters on the edge of a catastrophic decision... if shonen-ai doesn't bother you, you absolutely have to check into this. It's a rare gem of a one-shot.

So, the characters' secrets are beginning to unravel. Muwa ha ha. This chap should be pretty short; we're just trying to get everyone to Melmond anyway... there the real fun will begin... (evil laughter)

---

(Lisa)

Now that Kumo has recovered enough to move, we're on our way back to Cornelia.

Aura reasons it out this way... since we've failed miserably in trying to get news of a crystal here, maybe we can go the opposite direction of the one we started in and find something else.

Besides, perhaps something will come of our parting gift from the elves.

In exchange for giving them the Jolt Tonic, the people of Elfheim granted us the use of their master key. According to them, it's able to break even the oldest, strongest locks; they've told us that the depths of Cornelia and the Chaos Shrine are only accessible with it.

I'm still a little shocked by Aura's confession. Although I know that she can see well enough now, it had to have been awful for her... I'm surprised she's able to act so strong in spite of everything. What Garland did to me, as well as what happened in the village, has left me shyer than I have been in a while.

I know that they can all tell how I'm trying to hide my past. Maybe I'll be able to tell them the truth about my magic, and... my other powers... someday soon. Maybe...

And maybe I'll become strong enough to assist them, when they've done so much already for me...

---

Cornelia was just as peaceful and quiet as before, although this time around, the citizens recognized their ragged party and gladly offered their assistance in the quest, allowing them to stay at the inn for free.

"We've got to go talk to His Highness about this key thing," Aura told Lisa as she and Kaze stood up, preparing to leave. "The three of you should just stay here and rest."

Rest was exactly what Lisa felt she needed. It seemed like they'd been journeying forever, and not only hadn't they accomplished the point of their quest, they'd spent all their time out endlessly getting sidetracked. She retreated to her room, resolved to get a bath later, and slipped out of her shift, collapsing on her bed. How she loved soft sheets. Her last thought before drifting off was vague annoyance at the sobbing moans that came from a nearby room in the inn; could she ever get some rest without being interrupted by some hot-for-it couple?

But before she could complain to herself further, she was asleep.

---

Some ten or fifteen minutes after Lisa had hit the hay, Kumo and Kiri ensconced themselves firmly in the inn's bath chamber.

Like Pravoka, Cornelia's inn had a wide bath chamber fed by the presence of an underground river. The difference was that the spring beneath this town wasn't a normal one. It was a hot spring.

"I love hot water," Kumo murmured softly, stretching luxuriantly in the bath, wearing nothing but his skin. "I love hot water, I love hot water, I love hot water..."

Kiri laughed, stepping out of his pants and loincloth and depositing them on the pile of red cloth and leather that he'd been wearing not long ago. "Cheh. I know what you mean." He grinned and pointed at the water. "If it was any deeper, I'd cannonball in." The pool was only about three feet deep at its lowest point; even so, it was enough for them to soak in, sitting up to their shoulders at the side.

Once Kiri had joined him in the water, Kumo headed over to him and snuggled into his side, hugging him around the waist.

Kiri's smile quickly left his face. "Kumo-chan..." His little brother looked up at him. "Your wound... it isn't healing."

"Wha...? ...Oh, you mean this." Kumo looked down at the angry mark on his belly. "No... it hasn't been. But it's not bleeding and it doesn't hurt, and it doesn't look like it's gotten infected, so... maybe this is as healed as it's going to be."

Gently, Kiri touched the patch of rough, scarred skin, probing softly with the pads of his fingers. Before he could stop himself, Kumo winced, squeezing his eyes shut tightly in pain.

"Doesn't hurt, huh?" Kiri asked, his voice gaining an edge. "And look at this." Unable to help it, Kumo stared at the tiny wisp of what looked like red smoke in the water. "You're still bleeding, all right. The only thing you're right about is that there's no infection. Kumo, don't lie to me. You're still hurt. I thought you were in pain earlier, but I knew better than to ask... you never tell me the truth about things like that. But when I saw blood on the sheets..." He shook his head. "Your immune system's still weak from dealing with the poison and Matoya's potion. It's just been one thing after another for you on this journey, and it's starting to scare me. I don't want to lose you, okay? I hate seeing you in pain like this. I want you to trust me enough to tell me about this. ...Otherwise, I just worry without knowing..."

Kumo hung his head. "I... I just didn't want to trouble you..."

"You idiot," Kiri said softly, affectionately. He gave his brother a swift, tight hug. "All you've ever done to trouble me is give me stuff to worry about like this. It scares me when something's wrong and you don't tell me. It reminds me of before."

"Niisama..." Kumo stared up at him out of big, pained jadeine eyes. "I'm not losing my soul, you know that! You shouldn't worry! It's just taking a long time to heal, that's all!"

"Just shut up," Kiri replied, still holding him tightly. "It might not be the same thing, but if it keeps on like this, you could lose your life to it all the same. Likewise, if anyone finds out about the crystal growing in your body... just be careful, dammit. I never want to feel fear like that again."

"I'm sorry," Kumo said softly, clinging to his brother. "I really am sorry..."

"Don't apologize," Kiri told him, smiling a little. "It's not your fault."

"I know... I'm sorry."

Kiri shook his head and kissed Kumo's cheeks, ruffling his hair. "Silly. C'mon, let's finish up. After that, I'll bandage you up again, and we can get some rest while we wait for Kaze and Aura to come back. Okay?"

"Unn," Kumo replied with a smile, scrubbing at a grateful tear. "Kansha suru."

---

"So, this dwarf... could get us out of the loop we're stuck in?" Aura asked, intrigued.

"Yes," the king of Cornelia replied. "Nerrick of Duregar wants to create a canal to open up a passage for shipping. You'd be able to get out of the Minor Sea and into the Major... into the ocean. That way, you'd be able to search the far lands for these crystals, and reach the ports near the Crescent Lake, where the man who foretold your coming, Lukahn, has headed."

Kaze finally spoke, a shrewd look on his face. "If he wants to create this canal, then why has he not made one already?"

"Nerrick needs to obtain a substance called nitro powder in order to create the kind of explosion that could open up the earth like that," the king explained. "I believe there is some locked in the dungeons beneath this castle, but those rooms were sealed long ago by the elves so that the items inside could not fall into the wrong hands."

Aura smiled slowly, and flicked the key from her wide sleeve. "Sealed by the elves...? I think we have a way to remedy that."

---

A piercing shriek echoed through the room.

Kiri and Kumo leapt up, all traces of sleep gone. They knew that voice... and the terror in it froze their blood.

"Lisa..." Kumo said softly, exchanging alarmed glances with his brother.

"We'd better go," Kiri replied, tugging on loincloth, boots, and greaves. He grabbed his sword from where it stood beside the door, then padded into the hallway. Kumo hesitated briefly, then yanked on his own underclothing and followed suit.

Kaze and Aura were already in the small chamber, on either side of Lisa, who was sitting up in bed and clutching her covers to her chest, trembling.

"What happened?" Kiri asked in a low voice, his battle stance easing.

Aura shook her head. "I'm not sure. We'd just gotten back, and then... we were coming up for bed when Lisa here..." She spread her hands wide in the universal gesture for puzzlement.

"Everyone..." Lisa whimpered into her hands. "It's burning... everything is burning... everyone... everyone... everyone...!"

She barely stifled a sob by choking it with her sheets, then abruptly slumped sideways, relinquishing the sweaty linen in favor of Kaze's travelworn black cloak. Her shoulders shook, but she made no sound.

Kaze stood poleaxed for a few moments, then gently put a hand on her shoulder.

"Nightmare," he said softly, taciturn as ever.

Everyone relaxed, knowing that there was no one trying to attack them.

"Why were you so late?" Kiri asked Aura in an undertone. "I thought you were just visiting the royalty...?"

The silver-haired girl crossed her arms. "Oniichan and I learned about a dwarf who was trying to make a canal that would open a passageway to the outer waters. We got the materials he needed here, then went off to help. We'll be able to make for the towns along the Major Sea tomorrow... Oniichan said that Melmond would probably be our best bet before we head on to Crescent Lake. It was a while there and back." The corner of her mouth twitched as she shifted her weight. "You're hanging out a bit there."

Kiri's face flamed furiously. "Wh-what!"

The crooked smile turned into a crooked grin. "Heh. Just kidding. Although it definitely is close. You, my friend, need to get a bigger loincloth. Kumo, fix yours. You may not be in your brother's position size-wise, but if you don't tie or sew that seam, you'll be falling down there."

The little swordsman blinked, then suddenly realized her point--the seam at the side of his loincloth was coming undone; it was lopsided, with the ripped side slipping down his hip to reveal his navel and a gratuitous amount of soft, fair skin. "Ah!" Both hands dove for the tear. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! How embarrassing!"

Aura's grin turned into a chuckle as the flustered Kumo's fingers slipped in the middle of knotting the garment's side, letting it fall right back open again. She walked over, pushed his hands out of the way, and tied it firmly for him. Out of danger, Kumo sighed, his entire face hot pink in humiliation.

"And you tell me that I have no sense of propriety," Kiri grumbled.

Aura simply smiled and gestured in the direction of Lisa and her brother. The formerly bereft young woman had loosened her death grip, and was even giving a watery giggle.

"Get some new underwear while we're in town. Neither I nor Lisa want to see you two, shall we say, 'exposed'. You're impossible... always so hard on your clothes." Kiri grumbled something else that Aura chose to ignore.

Lisa's giggles continued. Kiri and Kumo chose to avoid her eyes, as well as those of the others.

Kaze simply shot his sister a look of deep gratitude, to which she gave no visible reply.

---

They set out for Melmond the next day.

Considering the fact that the canal had just been created the previous night by blowing a huge hole in the strait that connected the ring of southeastern continents, the water was very calm. Kaze and Aura stood in the prow, staring out towards land, while Lisa sat near the mast with her legs drawn up to her chest. As before, Kumo had commandeered the crow's nest; Kiri had taken the helm and was once again steering.

Sighing in relief, Lisa allowed herself to take small pleasure in the fact that she was actually on a boat, skimming across the water. She had only sailed before on the tiny fishing crafts down the river near her home village... sensing a danger subject, the black-haired girl grimaced and skimmed away from the thought.

She was lucky that the others hadn't gotten nosy about her nightmare. If they had, she'd have had to tell them everything, and she wasn't sure she could just yet. She was beginning to earn their trust; if they knew what she'd been keeping from them all along...

But then again, they had their secrets too, didn't they?

Feeling properly ashamed for every reason and no reason at all, Lisa tried to think of other things the rest of the way. It was enough already that her brain was guilt-tripping her about Aura's confession... she didn't need any more little blessings.

The port was simply an old, rickety wooden dock, to which Kiri and Aura lashed the ship with only a little difficulty. That done, the party disembarked and headed towards Melmond, where they'd planned to ask around and restock on supplies before heading to the crescent lake where Lukahn, the man who'd prophecied their arrival, was rumored to have gone.

After only about half a mile inland, with Melmond already in sight, Aura stopped dead and glared at the horizon with distaste scrawled across her oval face. "What the hell is that smell?" she complained, curling her lip just slightly as she spoke.

Everyone else stopped as well. Lisa, looking around and trying to discern what it was about the landscape that jarred her nerves. It wasn't a smell, she decided, so much as a feeling of something being not quite right. And it was very annoying.

Kiri paused and scented the air, much in the same way as a wolf might, which amused Lisa slightly. If she put her mind to it, she could definitely see brash, opinionated Kiri Madoushi as a four-legged, furry animal--he certainly had the bad attitude for it. But now wasn't really the time... "It smells like... like something that's been dead for a while," he said frankly. "Like something rotting. But I can't think of anything that would smell like this rotting... it's obviously not food, or meat..."

Kaze stared across the vast plain with a sad, distant look in his cerulean eyes. "The earth..." he said softly, so quietly that they might've missed his words.

---

(Lisa)

We have arrived in Melmond.

The town is in a pitiable state. Its buildings and walkways are decomposing, sinking steadily into the ground, and the smell of dearth and decay is everywhere. I myself feel as if I will choke on the thickness of the awful stench. I simply can't stand it any longer...

Kaze is right, it is the earth itself that's rotting--it squelches beneath our feet as we walk, a muddy, slushy, smelly mess. I keep half-expecting insects to appear and start feeding on it at any moment.

The townsfolk claim that the soil beneath them started to decompose when a creature claiming to be one of the Four Fiends who are rumored to cause destruction and death wherever they go arrived in a nearby cave. They look to us for help, seeing the crystal around my neck and proclaiming us the heroes who were foretold in legend to come and save them from the slow and steady death of the land around them.

Strangely enough, Kaze seems to be more affected by this than the rest of us. Not minding the mucky mess clinging to his clothes, he has knelt in the midst of the horror, pressing his left hand deeply into the ruined soil and staring fixedly at the ground with an expression of deep, aching sympathy rather than his usual calm, apathic one.

It makes me dizzy to stay here... and the pain of the spirits is making my heart hurt.

I hope that we can leave here quickly.