Author's note: Thank you to my wonderful reviews. So sorry this chapter took a bit long to post, but it needed several rewrites. Hope I did alright. Please review.
Syaoran's head throbbed, again, but he did not dare open his mouth. For to complain now, after what he had done, would be a humiliation Syaoran was not sure he could stand. Instead, he gritted his teeth harder and pushed his heels into the horse's belly.
The travelers were still about half a day away from the harbor city of Durin. Nothing much had changed over the past days as they had been crossing the plains and hills to reach the Free Territories, other than a mysterious quietness had settled over every living creature, giving off a strange and uncomfortable feeling of foreboding.
At the very least, the weather had been kind to them, or "the fair Lady in the heavens", as Arutha said, referring to Mother Nature. Besides a freezing wind that made the travelers hunch up their shoulders and tuck their chins into their coat collars for warmth, the sun was shining and the snow had stopped falling, at least, for now.
Yet Syaoran was absolutely miserable.
After Hiyoshi and Syaoran had nearly come to throwing fists, they made camp for the night. Syaoran did not remember much, thankfully, for he had passed out and did not wake until morning.
However, it was not meant to last. For when he finally woke up, Hiyoshi's manner and curt replies to everything he said reminded him painfully of the huge mistake he had made with his magic. Arutha tried his best to act as a judge and peacemaker between the two of them, but he apparently had his own thoughts to worry about, for after an hour or so he had obviously given up and gone silent.
"Sir Syaoran," Arutha's raspy voice called, breaking Syaoran from his thoughts, "We might be able to reach Durin by sundown, if the weather stays like this." Syaoran nodded as Arutha turned his attention back to the trail they were taking.
'Even Arutha-san is acting different,' Syaoran noted, feeling a pain in his chest as though a small needle poked it.
"Sir Hiyoshi," Arutha continued, glancing to the tall boy from the corner of his eye, "How far can you see into the future?"
Hiyoshi shut his green eyes, Syaoran feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as the seer gathered his magic. After a moment, the feeling was gone.
"I can't really tell the time, but it'll be dark." Hiyoshi answered.
The prince's head bobbed up and down once, his curls bouncing with the movement of his head. "We only have about five more hours of daylight. What else did you see?"
"There were two guards standing in front of a door built into a tall wall."
For a moment, Syaoran saw Arutha's eyes light up in happiness, yet it disappeared just as quickly. Arutha did not say what was on his mind, instead saying, "That's Durin, alright. The wall surrounds the city. Pretty damn useless, though..." He left his sentence dangling; leaving Syaoran and Hiyoshi clueless to whatever danger awaited them.
Hiyoshi shot another glare at Syaoran, who did his best to ignore him, though his muscles did tense up.
It had been going on like this for the past few days. It got to a point where neither Hiyoshi nor Syaoran talked to anyone but Arutha. Large egos and incredibly pitiful communication skills did not help bridge the large gaps that were slowly forming between the three of them. Syaoran did wonder for a brief second whether this would place some strain on the mission, but brutally pushed the thought away as quickly as it had come.
'I want to go home,' Syaoran thought, 'I don't want to be here. I want Sakura.'
His chest tightened, making breathing suddenly difficult. The awful feeling of homesickness gripped his whole body, biting and nipping at his mind like wild dogs. He hated it.
Syaoran tried distracting himself with any other emotion. He found it. If there was any emotion that could override the homesickness easily, beating it down into a pulp -it was pure, absolute anger. For a moment, Syaoran was bewildered as to why this anger was there, before his mind brought up the memory of his ugly battle with the Elves, and the release of his magic, playing it tauntingly over and over in his mind. 'It's not my fault.' Syaoran thought bitterly, his head still throbbing. 'I don't know why I can't control my powers all of the sudden. It is not my fault!'
Hiyoshi's horse suddenly cut in front of Syaoran's, blocking his momentarily. Syaoran's fingers curled into a fist as they held onto the reins. Oh, how he wanted to hit Hiyoshi. The reason was not quite obvious in his mind but he did not dwell on it, only letting his anger direct his thoughts. 'I never heard what he said, and he thinks I am to blame for what happened? Me!' he turned the horse to the side of the trail and kicked his heels into the horse, speeding up to until he came side to side with Hiyoshi's horse. 'I can't control my magic. It was not my fault.'
"Bohdan."
"Li."
Syaoran refused to let his eyes wonder, fixing them on the back of Arutha's cloak. "What family are you from, Bohdan?" Syaoran asked, his voice dripping in venom.
If Hiyoshi wondered why Syaoran was suddenly talking, his face remain neutral, not showing any feelings he had towards the boy riding next to him. "Bohdan is Russian."
"Oh," Syaoran paused, "-You're from that family." The words had rolled off his tongue before he could stop them, and as soon as his lips closed, he immediately regretted them. Though shame made him want to vomit, Syaoran knew exactly why he said those words in such a rude manner. Why? It was exactly like hitting Hiyoshi, the same sting, the same awful, guilty pleasure his anger hungry craved.
Syaoran had been humiliated with his lose of control of his magic. He knew Hiyoshi knew that he was from one of the most powerful family of magicians in the world. To lose control of something he trained so hard to gain, it was frightening -and Hiyoshi had seen Syaoran in this state, scared and helpless. Therefore, in some sense of twisted logic, Syaoran wanted Hiyoshi to know what it felt like, feeling defeated, exactly like getting punched. So he burnt the seer in the only way he could at the moment, by ridiculing his family.
Syaoran could feel Hiyoshi's eyes on him, wanting to strangle him. Hiyoshi snapped his head away, and Syaoran kicked his horse to distance himself from the seer. 'First I lose control of my magic, now this.' Syaoran did not look back. He knew Hiyoshi's eyes were still on him, most likely envisioning daggers embedded in Syaoran's back. 'What is wrong with me? Why am I being like this?' His questions echoed loudly in his mind, only causing the throbbing to increase. Somewhere, deep within him, in a hidden pool of power, lay the answer. Syaoran wanted to reach it; he wanted to know what was happening to him. He needed the reassurance of his powers to function properly.
'When did this start happening to me?' He wondered, looking up at the gray sky, 'I've been unable to do magic properly ever since- '
He froze.
A slab of realization lobbed into his thoughts, stunning them for a moment, and then catapulting into a frenzied overdrive.
'-Ever since Messenger took over my body!'
The throbbing pain was forgotten.
'It must be that damn guardian! But why would Messenger do such a thing? Why would it mess up my powers and then send me to a world it wants me to save? What game is it playing?'
Somewhere highin the clouds, Messenger the guardian tracked the three companions with an interest deepening into what could only be described as fascination. It could feel the throb of interacting thoughts and feelings working within the heads of its charges; it prodded at the humming pain lodged in Syoaran's head, something the boy identified as a 'headache'. It surveyed first their physical environment - grass, air, flapping coats, lank hair lifting in passing breezes...Syoaran overtaking Hiyoshi after a bizarre exchange of ill-meaning feelings towards each other. He could feel them - sense them, really, because of the link it had established with them when it took over their bodies previously. As a result their thoughts and feelings were made plain to it, spread out as clear to the eye as objects spread out across an even surface.
In addition, their thoughts and feelings were also linked with each other, meshing and overlapping, sometimes tearing apart in accordance to their moods and actions. The guardian saw this, too, just as clearly as their individual thoughts.
'Simple Human has now begun questioning our motives.' It said to the clouds surrounding it. 'Such ignorant creatures...brilliant minds, but ignorant.' Messenger went off on tangent as it watched the humans. It knew with habitual confidence some of the events, which were bound to happen, the causes of which would not be the three humans. The matter was a difficult, tangled one. There were going to be things not only beyond the control of the trio of humans below, but acting independently of them - independently, as in, the continued survival of the Seer, the Simple Human and the Prince could not keep certain things from happening, such as war (just as their death would have no effect on this either). Guardian knew with just as much confidence that the thoughts and actions between the two events could change all the outcomes entirely, but these changes were all going to lead up to one, already ascertained occurrence it had foretold.
It watched its charges splash water on their faces in an attempt to clean themselves and thought, 'Humans are smelly.' It paused, remembering a word from some unimportant human it possessed for a short time before it found the Seer (she was a professor of some sort.): sarcasm, a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain. It knew what it said was funny, even sarcastic, yet it could not understand the connection humans made between the words and the humor.
After a moment of debate, the guardian decided turn off it thoughts and listen to beautiful silence.
"Well, now, sirs, this is the part that could get a bit tricky."
This statement, made by Arutha to Syaoran and Hiyoshi, did not help ease the feeling that they were complete idiots way in over their heads. Durin, the city of thieves, criminals, and killers, or, as Prince Arutha put it, "quite lovely people if you know their language." (Syaoran thought this meant money), was sitting a few hundred feet away. Lights from torches at the top of the wall that surrounded the city could already be seen.
Nighttime had already arrived, quite sudden really, bringing with it unforgiving cold. Syaoran held his hands to his mouth, blowing on them to stop the numbness (it did not work). He looked gratefully at the road they were on, patting his large, warm horse reassuringly. The companions had found the dirt road two hours earlier, which turned out to be a blessing of some sort. First off, it was a direct route to the city, making it much smoother and less rugged for the horses (Syaoran was especially grateful for that -his butt and lower back were getting increasingly sore with each hill), secondly, if they had not found the road that night, they would have had to search for it the next day, meaning another night with the rocky ground as a bed.
"Sir Syaoran," Arutha was saying, "You may not be used to this type of instruction, my lord, but I must ask you to keep your hood up as we go pass the guards." Syaoran raised his eyebrows in confusion, though he knew the prince would not be able to see his expression anyway. "Why?" Syaoran asked him.
Arutha clicked his tongue. "To put it lightly, you are going to be well liked by the women and whores in the city. Such a face as...yours is the one thing we do not need at the present moment. It is too easy to remember, and also too hard to forget." Syaoran felt his cheeks grow warm in embarrassment at the underlying meaning of Arutha's words. He said nothing and pulled his hood up over his head, making sure the brim covered his eyes. Hiyoshi snickered behind them, causing Syaoran to once again fantasize about hitting the tall boy.
As they neared the wall, Arutha explained the inner workings of the city. "The wall is more for show than defense, really, as are the guards, most of whom are working for one crime lord or another. There is a solider watch base in the center of the city, but by now they have given up all hope of keeping order in Durin."
Syaoran scanned the wall, now rising steadily in their eyes as they neared. "Are there any other ways of getting in the city?" he asked.
"Of course! This is a center for smuggling, after all. There are about a thousand different ways of entering and exiting the city, most of which are illegal. For instance, in Durin's early building days, the men constructed a network of waterways and pipes, carrying sewage and water in and out of the city. As time grew, the city grew and it built homes and temples and market squares right on top of the pipes, which eventually broke and became useless. However, there are some pipes which are not broken - the water has been channeled through more modern pipes." Syaoran could guess where this was leading up to. "So," Arutha continued, "the pipes have become a regular city themselves, some large enough to keep hundreds of people in them. Mostly they are used for smuggling, or for disappearing when one needs to."
Syaoran did not like the phrase 'disappearing when one needs to'. He wanted to ask what Arutha meant by that, but than decided it was better not to know. "How do you know this?" he asked.
"I have been here a few times through out the years. Smuggling goods, mostly. I've been in only the four main pipes, however. Unless you are truly desperate, you do not venture into the other pipes."
"Why?" Hiyoshi's worried voice squeaked.
Arutha's shoulders shrugged. "The pipes are not a good place for anyone. No one knows for sure how many of them are actually working, and of the ones that lead out of the city, they have either been broken, not discovered, or most likely, blocked by the various crime lords."
Syaoran wanted to hear more about the city, but they had finally come within hearing distance of the guards, and with a quick look back to make sure Syaoran had his hood over his face, Arutha lead them to one of the gates. The gates were almost forty feet high, with the stonewall on either side of the doors reaching fifty or sixty feet. Guards with torches and lanterns march to and fro at the top, while other at the bottom stood still as travelers entered or left. Along with Syaoran, Hiyoshi, and Arutha, there were five other people walking to get inside the city. The guard's eyes moved from under their metal helmets, silently inspecting every person that came close. Once or twice they moved toward someone, looking them in the face, asking some questions, then moving on. Syaoran kept his eyes glued to the ground as they neared the entrance.
A large, burly man with bright blond hair and a thick beard waddled to them. His small, beady eyes glanced twice at Hiyoshi, who towered over everyone on his horse. He glanced at Syaoran momentarily but moved on to talk to Arutha.
"What be ye' business, sah's?" the man asked, eyes roaming over their horses and packs in the dark.
"We are tradesmen." Arutha said, his voice stern.
"Of what?" The guard asked. Arutha hauled out a smaller bundle that had been hanging from one side of the saddle; out of this he pulled a small wooden knick-knack, a hand-carved figurine of a horse.
"Wood carving." He replied, his voice unassuming and neutral. The man looked at them skeptically and Arutha repeated, "Nothing more than simple men with trades." The prince had apparently thought all of the answers before hand.
The man looked from Arutha to Syaoran and Hiyoshi, letting a roar of a laugh. "You be who you say, but these two whelps-" his large head nodded toward Syaoran and Hiyoshi, "-are hardly men." The button-sized eyes glimmered at them in a way that expressed disbelief at Arutha's words. The guard knew most people going through this city, if not all, used second identities - but he did not care for knowing the depth of Arutha's lies as long as it did not create problems on his watch.
"This one," the prince pointed toward Syaoran, "is my brother, while the other is my cousin."
If the man noticed the different in height between Hiyoshi and the prince, he could not say, for he was still roaring with laughter. He jerked his thumb toward the gate, saying a "Yer go on through, yer whelps." between fits.
Arutha lifted his hand to his temple and gave a small salute to the man, then rode through the gates; Syaoran and Hiyoshi close behind him. Once they entered, they stopped by one of the soldier stables and gave their horses to them for safe keeping while they were in the city. "Most people also sell their horses here if they come to stay," Arutha noted as he lead them through a twisted maze of streets and alleys.
From what Syaoran had heard Arutha describe of Durin, he expected to see masses of people, haggling and selling goods, fighting and drinking or whatever else one did. However, he was greatly disappointed. For one, there was hardly anyone out on the streets, doors were shut with an odd quickness as the trio neared, and voices were kept barely above a whisper. "What is going on here?" Syaoran asked the prince, who he could see in the dim light had his brow dipped in thought.
Arutha looked at him, and sighed. "It's you." he said simply, than put his finger to his lips for silence.
'Me?' Syaoran thought, wondering why the prince said such a bizarre thing. 'Why does he think I caused this?'
Arutha led them skillfully through the city, pausing every so often to look behind them. Cobblestones and half melted snow made their movements slow, the steady thump of boots walking in slush creating a dull, shortlived echo that followed them through the streets. A wind of unusual power breathed down Syaoran's neck, causing his skin to tingle with magic. He glanced from side to side, searching for the cause. Just as his head turned, the shadow of a 'wall' suddenly moved. Syaoran lowered his hand over his sword hilt, tapping his feet faster to catch up to the prince, who was five steps head of him.
"We are being followed." He murmured, quietly enough that his companions caught it but without letting the remark float beyond their ears.
Arutha nodded. "I think I know by who." He suddenly made a sharp right, into an alley. The alleyway was very small and skinny, only allowing two people to walk side by side. Tall buildings rose up on either side of the companions, causing Syaoran to grip the sword tighter. 'Narrow space, most likely hand-to-hand combat. Only one person. Light footsteps, means they must be small, probably thin as well.' Syaoran calculated, watching the prince for any signs. 'Hiyoshi is worthless with the bow right now, too little experience. As for the prince, he is too preoccupied. Too emotional. So that means I'm the best defense.'
Syaoran held his breath, listening intently. Hiyoshi and the prince moved in front of him, their footsteps were quick, and light. The magic continued to tingle the back of his neck, Syaoran's fingers twitching to scratch it. He closed his eyes.
At the beginning of the alley, another pair of feet slapped onto the stones. Syaoran slowed down his pace.
The person crept up closer...hard, uneven breathing...closer and closer.
A pair of ruff hands gripped Syaoran's shoulders, snapping his whole body out of the alley. Syaoran flashed open his eyes to see the tired face of Arutha.
"You need to open your eyes, Sir Syaoran," the prince whispered, grinning. Arutha lifted his forefinger to his blue lips, than opened his hand, all five fingers exposed.
The shuffle of feet was only ten feet away. Getting closer...
Arutha ticked one finger off.
The person's breath seemed loud, another finger went down...closer...
Syaoran saw a dim shadow from the alley grow larger and larger, until it was indistinguishable from the darkness surrounding it.
Arutha's last finger ticked off.
With a blast of speed, Syaoran shot out of the alley, throwing himself toward the person. His right shoulder collided with something solid -and bony- knocking the person to the ground. In the shock of finding this person suddenly on top of them, the person struggled half heartily, wheezing out, "Ay meant no harm! Ay meant no harm!" between breaths as Syaoran pressed his knee in-between the person's shoulder blades.
Syaoran held him there until the other two of his group rejoined him. Arutha sneered at the cowering pile Syaoran dug his knee between the shoulder blades of. "Why goodness gracious!" Arutha growled, rapping the man on the head. "If it isn't my dear, kind friend from the smugglin' days, Revelin the Rat!" The man whimpered loudly when he heard Arutha's voice. Arutha bent down and lifted the man's chin off the ground. "Last time I saw you, you were on the other side of the river, leaving me in the water, swimming for my life." The man whimpered more. Arutha groaned in annoyance. "Let him up," he said to Syaoran. "This good old chap'," he turned toward Revelin, "-will be helping us."
When Syaoran got off him, he could barely see the man's features in the dark. The man was very small, very skinny, with bags of clothes draping off his bony limbs. Though Syaoran could not see much, he heard Arutha pick the small man up and half lead, half drag the man out of the alley. Hiyoshi and Syaoran obediently followed, figuring it was best not to ask questions until later.
Arutha knew the city like the back of his hand. After ten minutes, they soon came to a large, run down building with a sign swinging over the door, 'The Ari Inn,'
"Still same old Durin," Arutha muttered. "The eagle is the symbol of the Free Territories," he explained. "On account of it can fly where ever it wants."
They entered the inn. Arutha told Syaoran and Hiyoshi to wait here, and gave a glare at Revelin, whose head bobbed wildly up and down. Now that they were in the inn and there was lots of candlelight, Syaoran could clearly see the man he had tackled. He now understood why Arutha called the man a rat. For that was exactly what he looked like.
Revelin had a skinny face with high cheekbones. His eyes bulged out of their sockets; his lips were nothing but a thin line across his face. His chin was nonexistent, his face rounded off a centimeter or so below his lower lip, than curved downward to a large Adam's apple. His facial hair also resembled that of a rat; whiskers and small, pathetic sideburns accompanied an almost baldhead, the remaining hairs were grasping on with a death grip. Revelin the Rat had large ears, making him look ridiculous. His body was so skinny, and he could have fit into his clothes fivefold.
Arutha came back shortly. "One room, three beds. Let's go." Rat started to shrink to the back of the line, but Arutha's hand whipped out and grabbed the cuff of the man's collar, tugging him up the uneven stairs. "What you doing in Durin, my good friend?" Arutha asked, his feet stomping the stairs harder with each word. Though Arutha's voice was light and merry, Syaoran could see the prince had a deep loathing for the man he was dragging up the stairs.
Rat whimpered. "Ay be not a friend of yours? To what reason must one have to see a friend?" His voice was soft and whiny, like a squeal of a piglet.
Arutha snorted. "Of course. How could I have forgotten?" They reached the door. Arutha glanced twice around the hallway, opened the door with a skeleton key, and shoved Rat in. Hiyoshi walked in next, without glancing at Syaoran.
To someone who had not felt the softness of a pillow for almost a week, the room was a heaven. Though the beds were small, creaked, and would not be normally compared to anything Syaoran was used to, there was a blanket on each of them, along with a pot beside each bed. Syaoran quickly claimed one, by the window. His mind was perplexed as to why a pot was next to his bed, but after a moment of thinking, his face cringed in disgust.
"Now why would a handsome, honorable fellow like you be doing back in this small place? I thought for sure you would be living a nice, clean life with a misses and five little ones." Arutha was saying, when Syaoran had finally settled.
Rat's big eyes widened more, and he tried grinning, but it did not work (his lips were chapped and the most he could try was a lopsided smile, which was not pleasant, on account of his crooked yellow stained teeth.)
"Ay...ah," he paused, obviously thinking hard, "Came back. City of second chances, ya know."
"Right." Arutha said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. He reached over for Rat's collar once more, and in one swift movement, lifted the tiny man into the air and crashed him into the wall. Rat let out an anguished cry as he head snapped back and hit the wall. "Remember that conversation we had about truth, Rat? Oh, fun times, they were. Such a honorable man as you are who surly never stoop so low as the dogs in this city and-" he gasped, mockingly, "-lie?"
Big, fat tears sprouted in Rat's eyes. "Alright! All right! Ay tell you!" he cried, "Just don't hurt me!"
The prince did not take his hands off Rat's collar, his blue eyes lost in thought. "Hiyoshi-san?" he suddenly said.
Syaoran once again felt the air tingle with magic as the seer closed his eyes and flew into the future. He glanced to Hiyoshi, who's whole body rocked gently.
"Wha's that?"
Syaoran looked up at the sound of Rat's voice. Rat's wide eyes were glancing around the room and settled on Hiyoshi. His hand reached up and scratched behind his big ears.
"Where didja find a magician, Arutha?" Rat asked in an awed voice as he watched Hiyoshi.
Syaoran bolted upright. 'How did he know-' he thought, than paused; remember the conversation the prince had with him the day he fixed his arm. Syaoran glanced at Arutha, who facial expression did not change at all. 'Of course,' Syaoran thought, 'Arutha-san would not be worried. He already knew everyone has magic.'
Something pricked Syaoran brain. He felt uncomfortable, seeing as how easily Rat was able to detect Hiyoshi's magic. On Earth, there were only a few thousand magicians, he being one of the best among them. On this planet, however, there were billions of people, and whatever other strange magical creature this world created, that had and could use magic. He had not thought of it much as he was in the prince's company, but now that he was in the city, that fact became quite obvious. Now that he opened his mind to such a frightening thought, he noticed the very air tingled with magic. Hiyoshi's small amount of magic dominated the surrounding ones; yet the magic of millions of people in the city meshed and mixed, causing the very air to always have some sort of lingering power.
'Why is Hiyoshi's magic so powerful when compared to the others?' He wondered, but than answered his own question. 'Because no one else is using magic right now.' He remembered Arutha's words about how people would not choose to use their magic because they would like die with too much use. 'The city is like a sleeping dragon. The people have so much power, yet they have pushed it all away. I wonder what could cause them to use their powers again.' He could already see the picture; the colors of hundreds of different auras, burning with power, rising up. 'This place is a power keg.' he realized.
Hiyoshi opened up his green eyes again. He nodded towards Arutha, smirking. "He'll tell us everything."
At this, Arutha turned to Rat. " He's just a jolly friend I found in a tavern, never you mind. Now, Rat, tell us how please how life has been treating you."
Rat, once again, was scared by Arutha, and shrank to the floor. "I tell you, Arutha. I said I tell you, and I will." Sitting himself on the edge of the bed, Arutha nodded for Rat to continue.
"News of you coming back reached the city only a few days ago. Apparently, your bag of money was not enough to keep Alf silent. I am not in the best of company right now. Hardly have a cent to meh name, but never you mind. "
"Who else knows I'm here?"
Rat scratched his ear.
"Come on, honorable Rat." Arutha made a movement to get off the bed, but Rat's answer was already spitting out before the prince could unbend his knees.
"There's a price on your head!" Rat whined, scratching his ear more. "I never meant to turn you in, I...I came to warn you!"
"Really? Now, who would want lil' old me?"
"Some of the lords in the pipes. They've been looking for you ever since you disappeared in the river. Knew you could not have drowned, or died from some cut, for you use your powers like some crazy magician!" His eyes flashed towards Hiyoshi, than back to Arutha. "I don't know why they want you, really, I don't! The most I was able to pick up was they found out something about your history before you came to Durin."
Arutha's face paled slightly. He kept his head, though, and Syaoran doubted Rat noticed anything. He asked Rat another question.
"Why are there guards at the gate?"
Rat looked perplexed at Arutha. "Has magic-usin' gone to your head? I figured you would be one of the first people to notice. Strange things have been happening that's got people into a good scare." Rat's eyes became unfocused as he recalled. "It all happened a few days ago. A huge...thing! Huge, amazin' and powerful! It was all pure magic energy, I swear on my life, pure magic that came from the south. It swept over the city, making people stop right in their tracks. Babies cried, mothers ran, men rallied.
"We don't know what it was. It could not have been any mortal. That magic could have wiped out the city. It's been causing panic. People don't go out at night now. The crime lords are putting guards by the gates to protect us. Mostly its bait. They figure, if whatever was powerful enough to make that magic came here, it would devour the guards first and the others could get out. Everyone's scared, Arutha. I am."
Arutha looked at Syaoran, who froze as he listened to Rat. At last Syaoran understood. He understood the uncomfortable stillness of nature, Arutha's reply, and why all the doors were shut so quickly when they passed. It was all because of him. The people of this city felt his magical energy being released the day he fought with the Elves. He caused the panic, he shook up everything upside down, and it was his entire fault.
He felt the little bit of food he ate earlier fighting its way out of his stomach. He felt so many things at once; embarrassment, anger, homesickness, and numbing, blinding exhaustion. He wanted quiet, wanted to shut out Rat's whiny voice, wanted to sleep. But he could not since Arutha asked another question and he felt he needed to hide is true physical state. "How are things going about with the war?" Arutha grilled Rat.
"Nothing now. Both sides are tryin' to find out what made all that magic. For the first time in months, there has been no fighting." Rat answered. "It won't last long, my friend. I know that. Dark Creatures are moving south. Durin is only supplying protection for cargo to the front line. But," he lowered his voice, as though someone could overhear them (which Syaoran now knew such a thing would not be impossible.) "People are whispering things."
"Like what?"
"A few more years. That's all this war has to live. Than the Dark Creatures will break from the mountain of Sumarr, they'll come and overrun our cities." Syaoran noticed how Rat already said the Dark Creatures would win. And when he looked into the small man's eyes, he saw that Rat believed every word with his soul. It sent a shiver down Syaoran's spine. He could not take anymore. Syaoran quickly stripped down to pants and a shirt, then climbed into the bed, not caring if they were not done talking, not caring if Rat or Hiyosih saw how truly worn of travel and upset he was. Arutha would be sure to relay everything in the morning. Until then, Syaoran realized, he just did not have the energy to care.
Luckily, it seemed neither did the others. Arutha and Rat continued to talk for a while afterwards, but Hiyoshi followed Syaoran's suit and climbed into bed (his legs did not fit, leaving his feet hanging off the bed post). Hiyoshi blew the candle out, plunging the room into darkness and silence.
Syaoran did not go to sleep immediately go to sleep though, instead spending the time thinking and wondering about Sakura, praying she was okay. 'I come and get you, Sakura.' he thought, 'I swear it. Please wait for me. I love you.'