Wishes and Lost Hope
Chapter Twelve
Of Knights and Guardians
Elazul hung his head.
"Isn't that something," the gruff voice beside him was soft, in its way. The Jumi nodded his consent, a sense of morbid curiosity drawing his sight to the scene below.
oOo
She knew it would come to this. Perhaps she had forgotten, intentionally, so as to save herself the trouble."I, umm, had a bad dream," she answered warily. Yeah, that would work. She would not tell him of the dream – of how he mocked her, ridiculed her indecisiveness as a pawn of Irwin… but that was fortunate, as he failed to ask at first. Instead, Escad merely stared at her, incredulous.
"You killed somebody…" no use mentioning himself yet, "because of a bad dream?"
"Mhm!" as though glad he understood, Athena perked up, eyes shining brightly, "But see? I made it all better now."
There was an awkward pause. Athena fidgeted in her chair, swaying from side to side in some off beaten rhythm. Escad wished he could sit down in shock, but refused the only, rather undignified option of flopping on the floor amid a flurry of papers, parchments and books.
Auspiciously, he did not have to resort to such foolishness. There was a rapping at the door, and, in light of the situation, he allowed himself the luxury of being the one to answer it.
oOo
"Oh!""Uh."
An awkward moment, to say the least.
"Hi."
"Hey."
Daena's ears had flattened, betraying a slight anxiety. Escad hasn't missed the reflex, unaware that he, himself, was holding his breath.
"Athena home?"
"Yeah."
The knight moved just enough that they lady-cat could move around him comfortably. Even so, she kept her back to the wall, and he kept a cautious vigilance as he closed the door.
"She's in the… um," Escad gestured towards the study door, and Daena inched in that direction, making deftly sure that not once did she turn away from this once-friend. She slipped through the door, hurrying to Athena's side and the relative safety of the other side of the chair.
Athena startled awake at a touch. Had she been human, Daena might have paled at the condition her friend was in. The mercenary smelled of malady, faint but wrong. The clamminess that met her fingers, the fever-sheen over staring eyes...
Daena shot Escad a demanding glare, and it fairly screamed, "What did you do?"
The knight held out his
hands, helplessly. The best thing he could do in his own defense was
to send the look of, "What?"
The clumsy shift of communication was graciously interrupted. All three were diverted by yet another visitor knocking at the door. The heavy sound took one small pause before resounding in force.
"I'll get it, shall I?" Escad asked, forcing the question into the realm of the rhetorical as he stepped off to do just that. Athena clambered up to follow, and was barely caught by Daena as her leg gave out.
oOo
At most times, coming nose-to-nose with one that might be seen as a rival to the affections of the occupant of the house that he were to be presently seeking sanctuary from might have been a discouraging turnabout. As it were, Elazul was simply too proud of himself to care. Catching sight of Athena, she lingering safely on Daena's arm, well behind the stranger in the doorway, the Jumi grinned brightly."Look what we caught," he insisted, stepping aside to reveal…
"Larc?" Athena quipped, sounding eerily distraught for such an act, "You caught Larc? How could you? He's a sentient creature!"
"Behind Larc," the Jumi amended, his eyes narrowing slightly. And behind Larc was a girl, followed by Pearl… or, more accurate to the moment, Blackpearl.
"You caught Pearl?"
And it came to mind that there was no reasoning with some people.
Resigned, Elazul sighed, retreating to the darkest corner of the room and inviting himself for a sit-down on the stairs. His sulky stare caught Athena's eyes a moment before she turned away. With a forlorn huff, the young Jumi flicked his gaze across the mottled gathering, lingering a moment on Escad until Larc's thick voice drew his attention.
"We thought she was you… at first," the dragoon said, breaking the silence. "Although she does try, doesn't she? I figured maybe she was supposed to serve as a distraction of some kind..."
"No," Athena corrected simply, "Replacement, not distraction. Where's Sierra?"
"Outside, keeping watch," Larc answered. Silence fell over the question no one wanted to ask. It finally broke – a squeaky little voice, not of a brave and broken in warrior, but of a scared little child.
"Replacement?"
All eyes locked onto the girl. Bored and off to another mental topic already, Athena's eyes locked onto something else entirely – the door still open; the newcomer blinking in the fading light; and the stare of absolute shock.
With a squeal of unearthly delight, she flung herself off Daena. The man in the door, possibly the only man who could ever sidestep the mercenary's affectionate attacks with a record high of never failing, did as much with practiced ease. In her state, Athena barely managed to catch the doorframe. Even so, she grinned giddily and squealed again.
"Poe!"
The man, uneasy, crouched beside her as she slipped down the wall. Wide eyed and nervous to an art form, he stared at the various shapes and forms and asked Athena in hushed tones, "Who are all these people?"
"Friends," the woman chirped in response. Poseidon's face grew dark as he scowled.
"You know better tha-…" He stopped as she blinked, and he shook his head with a sigh. "Never mind. Kraols is here. We gotta get moving."
"Some help you are," Athena sniffed daintily, "I already met him."
"You… what?"
"I went up and I met him and I thought I wasn't going to win and I didn't but neither did he and so it's all worked out fine!" the mercenary managed in one breath before falling back into a coughing fit.
"You didn't..." the imagery to his mind, though more embellished with combat and romantic ideals of fighting large battles, clicked on one key point.
"Atha," the use of her name muted, hissed to seriousness, "You know he uses poison."
Whispers for secrecy, but there was little use to it. In a room of held breath and strained ears, Poseidon may as well have been booming for the world to hear. Gasps, growls, and mews, all soft so as not to impede on any hint of word, real or imagined.
It was Elazul, in the brazen impudence of youth, that leapt to confront this stranger and his evasion. The Lapis Knight brushed past everyone standing in the straight line between himself and his best friend. Kneeling at her side, he glared at the man so currently threatening to come between them.
"What are you talking about?" he demanded, ignoring Athena's peep of, 'Oh, hi Lazuli!'
The quiet, bug-eyed stare that met the Jumi's own was openly candor, if nothing near pleased.
"Kraols uses a poison. Comes from a kind of trap flower... similar to lullabuds, if you must know."
"Death pollen," Athena offered helpfully.
"Yes… well," Poe groused, "You see why I'm concerned?"
"Well maybe we can help!" Not willing to take no for an answer, Elazul pressed on, "I can surely help."
"You can't," Poseidon insisted, calmly and deliberately. He might have appreciated the offer, but all the same...
"No, he can't. But I can."
Authoritative, quiet, solemn. The most Blackpearl of Pearl. And something strange...
You know me.
The quiet nod of agreement, and Poe nodded. "Let's get her upstairs."
oOo
The healing was difficult. The venom had taken root, and was spreading swiftly. But even the darkest poisons of the world had strings to their undoing. At length, Pearl returned to those waiting anxiously at the bottom of the stairs. There she sat – not a word was spoken, but she protected the serenity of the bedroom. It was the peace that Athena now needed to fully heal.Upstairs, old friends spoke softly of many things. The graveness of the matter was at once the genuine concern.
"We have to destroy him, once and for all."
Athena still insisted, and for a time Poseidon was willing to concede. But doubt lingered.
"Do you really think we can?"
"Of course!" Athena chirped, then settled down a moment, "Do me a favor?"
On guard, the man asked cautiously, "What favor?"
"I never told them."
His first instinct was to iterate how they never told. Unfortunately, he knew her too well. He sighed deeply, "You always leave me with the easy tasks, don't you?"
She beamed, "Thanks Poé."
"Yeah, yeah… just stay up here, okay? For just a little while..."
Poseidon got up to complete this favor, and was halted by the innocent query,
"He'll come here you know?"
"Yeah, I know, thank you."
Some days you just didn't want to get home from vacation...
Downstairs, he found himself the center of attention. And under such, it seemed, was perfect for storytime.