Wishes and Lost Hope
Chapter Fifteen
Guilt and Innocence
"You... wouldn't happen to have brought your sword, by any chance?" Escad asked, casting a sidelong glance towards Elazul.
"No, I was pretty distracted by wanting to strangle you."
"Ah."
"You?"
"Shrubbery," Escad mumbled, as though the one word would explain it all.
The hungry beast lumbered towards them, while its eyestalks swerved to observe both at once. Before they could run, it seemed to pause and stare between them – and past them.
And sure enough, behind them by a yard and two thirds, stood a very surprised Poseidon. Upon seeing him, the reptilian monster set to charge, shrinking as it oozed out of the pond, and squeezing past Elazul and Escad, lumbered after the now-fleeing, boyishly squealing Poé.
It took a couple of moments for those left behind to comprehend this, shake on the lucidity, and give chase.
By then, Poseidon was on the latest sprint for his life. He did not quite know where he was going, and as such twisted this way and turned that way as the opportunities arose – running a distance and going nowhere. The hunt ended at the edge of the brush, and the base of a steep incline that led to the bluffs overlooking the ocean.
Over the rocky terrain, there was a small niche formed by two toppled slabs of granite. It was a tight hiding hole, but the furthest in was mostly out of reach. Pinched between the rock, Poé chanced to peek, and immediately wished he had gambled otherwise. While the optimistic part of him hoped that the creature – now lolling around in the rough – was dissolving due to some divine precedence, the rational part of him knew his life was never that easy. He struggled to free the rusty sword from his side, hoping it would act as a deterrent, but the motion faltered as he watched thick scales melted into soft flesh, the grayish-green color changing to something tawnier.
The shadowzero shook its head, clearing its vision as it took on its newest form. Human for all appearances, it sighed, discontent. It prowled to the niche, leaning forward to smile gaudily.
"Now, I was hungry…" it purred, just loud enough for the would-be hero to hear, "But I think I've found something I would prefer instead."
"Back off!" Poseidon shouted, inching further into his rift. The attempt did little, overall, to dissuade the shapeshifter. It only tsked and smiled,
"Spare me."
oOo
When Elazul caught up, Poseidon was standing over... himself, at the bottom of a steep hill. The fallen man was merely stunned, perhaps concussed, and the victor stood, sword in hand and almost at a loss as the Jumi caught up to the fight.
When Escad showed up, moments later and armed with the first workable branch he had found, he took the scene in stride. Without a word, he advanced, threatening. What he hadn't expected was for Poé to drop the sword and scuttle back in surprised fright, tripping over backwards in the process.
"How?" Escad demanded, stooping to pick up the blade.
"I was lucky; he just... I..."
"Forget it," Elazul growled. "What happened?"
Poseidon slumped, "Athena ran off shouting 'Eureka.'"
"Where'd she-?"
"Wait," the Jumi pressed, "What about everyone else?"
"I don't know," Poé admitted softly, "I was going after her. Just before she ran, she was yelling about how she had it, and sleep, and the ocean, and then I didn't know where she was, and there was that thing, and..."
With every word, the downtrodden man emphasized just a bit more. With every emphasized word, Elazul paced just a little bit farther. In no time, the Jumi was trudging up the hill. Escad noticed, and started to follow, imparting sound wisdom, as he understood wisdom to be.
"Don't just sit there moaning; come on."
oOo
Athena paced the length of precipice, trying to get the view just so. She left it here – or she thought she did – nearly a year ago. It was not something to move around, or, if it did, she would have to have a talk with it.
Aha! She found it; rather, maybe it found her; it was there and that was all that counted. Happy, she reached out to touch it, and was pulled back at the last moment by a determined pair of arms about her waist, "Hey!"
Squirming, she protested to the best that her limited leverage would allow. Once dropped a marginal distance away from where she was captured, she straightened her clothes in a manner befitting one rudely interrupted, "What was that for?"
For not all good intentions are rewarded, and Elazul knew this. The situation lent itself to a different mindset entirely, "The cliff, and the... Did you not see the cliff?"
Seeking support, he looked back to Escad. No support there - he merely watched as if he were setting a puzzle together, and absently toying with the rusted old sword. Poseidon, winded by the ascent, was alarmed but, to the Jumi, seemed too tired to do anything.
Elazul was wrong.
"This's your big plan?" Poseidon cried, suddenly lurching forward, "You're gonna jump off a cliff?"
"No," Athena scowled, "Of course not."
"No? Then what were you doing? A little swim, from a hundred-span above the water?"
"No," seething, she started to argue her point. But as Poé was not listening, she felt it better to show him. Spinning him about to face the cliff, she beckoned widely before them.
"If you look," she further insisted, "you'll see it."
And he did. Before she finished the sentence, the air seemed to waver, whispering its secret to eyes that could see. Poseidon's voice caught in his throat. His first impulse was to drop to his knees, in an emphatic gesture of I'm not worthy! Instead, he stood in paralyzed awe.
"Uh..." Elazul's syllable was nothing more than a slight buzz. The questioning tone, however, was answered promptly.
"Yeah," Escad's flat-tone was in complete harmony with the Jumi's bewilderment.
Neither was prepared for the sight of Athena running off the edge of the world. As it happened, she grabbed onto Poseidon's wrist and made a running jump. Treading air as she dragged him along, but only for a moment before gravity reached for them, and as they began to fall...
...they vanished. Before the shock set in, but after their awkward companions had bounded forward, skittering on the edge to peer to the ocean far below...
They were gone.
In the instant, Escad was judging the distance, and he startled at the hand on his shoulder.
"You aren't going to jump, are you?" Elazul asked, disbelieving. Escad glanced back, pausing to stare at the Jumi, then over their shoulders and hissed, abruptly able to form neither a suitable word, nor curse.
"You?" he managed, tearing his eyes off the dark clouds fast staining the blue sky. Elazul made a little movement, half a shrug, half a nod, and neither at the same time.
He leapt first, and Escad followed on his heel. Everything in mind screamed that this was a bad idea, and then the world turned on its head.
oOo
Everything was green, and vibrant. It felt like the deepest forest, the darkest jungle, where the trees breathed and whispered nothings among themselves. The roots that made up the ground were covered in moss. This was the remnant of some forgotten dream, remembered as peace and nothing more.
Poseidon stepped softly upon the land, lest he wake to find it was all a dream. It was too surreal...
"Wait," he stopped, momentarily shaken, "Isn't this what he's after?"
"Yeah, but I have a plan," Athena replied, dreamily as her companion felt. He probably would not have been enthused if she mentioned it was more of a vague idea, but that was all right, considering he did not have to know, "Just don't let Kraols past you before I'm ready."
"Oh, that's all?" Poé asked, putting as much cynicism into his words as he dared while standing on the roots of the Mana Tree. Blinking, he looked to where Athena had disappeared between the massive roots and called, "How do I know when you're ready?"
The reply was distant, muffled, and there was no making out the words. Typical, the man thought, but at least he would die somewhere and in a way far more heroic than he ever dreamed. The gruesome imagery was driven from his mind when something heavy landed behind him.
oOo
"Why did you do it?"
He answered, honestly as he could. Had to follow, had to save...
"Escad..."
Then the grip tightened on his shoulder, and he felt the pin-points of her claws through his shirt, "No more heroics."
"But... I'm a... Ow!" Escad wanted to remind her that he was a hero, but it seemed neither the time nor the place. Place... "Where are we?"
The Mana Tree. The Mana Tree, he had to laugh. It was a good joke. Except no one was laughing, and it was the honest truth. He wondered if he had hit his head when he landed, because he would have certainly known if he were dead in the surf. That only made him laugh harder.
Daena could only shrug. There was no way she could answer for Escad, and she was not one to cover for him. He would never have had it anyway, so if he wanted to be insane, that was his choice. Meanwhile, Elazul was staring, and she herself was close to being overwhelmed by standing in a place of legend. Larc blotted his eyes, Pearl had her hands covered in a solemn prayer, and Sierra was the first to find her voice,
"Now what?"
There was a moment. No one knew. Poseidon started to venture a guess, but his words were empty, as they had run out of time.
Kraols appeared, as uninvited as they had been, and infinitely more unwelcome. The roots beneath his feet, the ground turned sickly brown as he drank in his first sight of the Holy Land. He thirsted for its power; for all his years of warring, conquering, hating, everything his was a beggar's penance... enough to barely live on in the desert of the world beyond the Sanctuary.
He strolled past, every step determined. Not a movement lapsed, only his grin twisted deeper as he flicked sand-fleas aside. Jumi; wolfman; human... He had seen them from afar, and could probably have remembered their names had he so desired. Her friends, all of them, and not one a match. He had little preference as to whether they lived or not, as they could not even touch him. So instead he walked past, gleaning some thin entertainment their shouts and oaths. He would destroy their havens, homes, and families, and come back for their insignificant lives when he felt like it, and not because they felt the need to claw at him so.
The only one to hold his attention, he knew well. And for Poseidon, he had only one cheerful word before he threw to the ground,
"Remember."
oOo
None of the sound drifted far enough to be heard in the cove of branches above. Athena skittered over the moss-covered bark easily, remembering the way after once or twice thinking it over. She had been here twice – once, nearly a year ago to confront a growing darkness; and once again, for curiosity's sake. Afterwards, she meant to close the rift but she never got around to it. Which was good, on retrospect, seeing as she misplaced the Sword of Mana, and her plan would only work with the power of the Goddess.
What she expected to find, she was uncertain. She hoped that the Goddess had been restored to the glory as when Athena was young, before she herself had become the human incarnation on the world that would become Fa'Diel. And what she hoped had to be, seeing as there was no winning otherwise.
And instead, the cell was empty. The sky hovered low, darkening along with the situation. But it was not over, oh no; the Goddess had to be here somewhere. Were there any rocks? Goddesses could hide under rocks, right?
The frustration was enough to make the young woman howl in despair. It's not fair!
"It rarely is, is it?"
His was a soft voice, yet she would have heard it through the fiercest storm. She turned to behold the boy – green hair, green eyes, an oversized brown tunic... he might have been one of the branches, at first glance, covered in leaves. But he was a child, not a tree, and he had a name. She knew his name.
"Keahi."
oOo
That he was a coward was possibly the only reason he was still on his feet. Kraols had passed by him, reminding him of another time, long ago...
Which he could not think of now, if he was going to get his job done. Retrieving the sword from where Elazul had lost it – and it had gotten around in the scuffle, he gave it that much – he faltered after the man that was his torment. At best, Athena had a dagger concealed. Chances were likely she had simply left without, forgetting on her way. She had not brought her spear, or he did not remember it. Still, the favored odds were Kraols'.
Poé did not know where she was, so he followed his enemy, who certainly seemed to know where he was going. After what seemed like hours of hiding in the shadows and climbing quietly – stealth, at least, was familiar – his mark stopped. From where he was, the younger man could see Kraols' expression change to something triumphant, and his blood ran cold. It was now or never.
"Athena!" Poseidon screamed, daring to rush past. Kraols turned his head, and Poé knew this was his greatest mistake. The sword flew from his hand as he was lifted off his feet, his own momentum knocking the breath from him.
"How touching," fingernails digging into his throat, "Noble," he struggled to breathe, "I never expected it from you." His vision darkened dangerously, "I imagined you the first to fall at my feet." I remember, Poseidon wanted to scream, "Standing by in cowardice to watch the world burn." I remember, I remember! "But if you long for death, far be it from me to keep you from it." Anything. He wanted the pain to end.
In the end, he was uncertain as to whether he lived or had died. He hit the ground... branch, he hit something, and could not feel it. Before his mind slipped away from him, he saw Kraols' heels, and, just past, Athena warily stooping to recover a rust-encrusted sword.
oOo
In touching the weapon, she had changed. Not Athena, not Atha, and not something of an in-between – she was the Mana Goddess incarnate. Not the self she had fought, subdued, the thing that had been created, warped and twisted, as Atha had withered the Mana Tree with malignancy, but the Goddess, whose children mimicked her in pale imitation. She alone was Priestess and Knight in one.
And Athena, little Athena, watching from beside herself and dreaming again, finally understood. She was no match, alone, and her Knight was little more than a coward with good intentions. But she loved him dearly, despite the torment she put him through, and he had always been there for her. Her friends, people she met and saved incidentally in this brave new world, and grew to care for far beyond mere passers by. All that she was... rather, the Goddess, was drawing upon.
Even now. Every spell cast fizzled before hitting the deity; every blow she brushed aside with her fingertips. Kraols was enraged, and that, too, fell as softly as snow. His assault ended in his astonishment. Perhaps he thought it would be easy, to capture the power of creation...
She held out her hand. After all of that, the woman held out her hand. Offering peace? Redemption? Something else...?
Kraols took it as fair opportunity. It was a foolish thing to do, perhaps, to take the hand of a Goddess under pretence. He thought he had her at long last. In all his long life, chasing what he saw to be fragile, and gossamer as a dragonfly.
There he felt it, as the first stirrings of emotion eons ago buried. It fractured his mind, with every drop of blood demanding an accounting for, an explanation or apology for his having ordered their death, or ordered them to their death.
Before him, even she fell away from him, blinking with no comprehension. His disciple, and greatest achievement. Before he could say a word, he was scattered on the wind, a piece of him gone with each and every one of a millenium's worth of souls, free of the hatred and demanding nothing in revenge. But his guilt, and love, weighed on them all, and together they turned to ash.
It was done.
The power of the Goddess gone, Athena, herself again, fell backwards, through the leaves of the Mana Tree.
Those far below, barely recovered themselves, crawled, stumbled, and limped forward. There was tautness to their movements, as seen by the observer aloft, and he only relaxed and dared to breathe when they did. One looked up, Pearl, with all the innocence of one unknowing, and beckoned to him with a kind smile.
Far above, Poseidon desired to crawl forward with them, but there was something inherently wrong with a knight that could do nothing to protect his charge. For him, victory was bittersweet. No more running, at least.
Cradled in the protective branches of the Mana Tree, the sproutlings were staring.