The Casting of Shadows

by Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 13 up! Rowen's dreams have escalated into a fullblown nightmare as the entire Ronin Warrior cast jump headlong into the final leg of an interdimensional battle that began eleven years ago and will end in a way that not the most far seeing prophet

13. Chapter 12: Ode to the Sandman

Look!  Another chapter!  We'll now take a short break for the collective RW/YST fandom to groan and throw tomatoes.

….

All right! ^.^;; Special thanks to the new reviewers!  And of course, the old hands.  Oh, and if anyone would like to translate 'the ronin dude's' reviews, I'd be mighty grateful.  If 'baka shinigami' is still hangin' about, I'm sure he'd love to indulge in his particular style of elegance once more…

And before anyone becomes irritated at me for snipping at reviewers, let me say this: I welcome the flames, and I realize they are just.  Every mark and quality of review at ff.net is to be expected, and that's what we authors should expect.  Because, while ff.net is indeed a plus to the fanfiction world, its still ff.net.  And that's why I continue to dedicate my time to Ninxa Ra'wen and all you other wonderful people as much as I do to baka shinigami and the ronin dude. 

And that's my spiel.  On to the fic!

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The Casting of Shadows

By Phoenix Cubed

Chapter 12: Ode to the Sandman

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Fillip walked up the drive of a shabby, aging home in a dying and desolate neighborhood.  The driveway cement was old with cracks that added a wrinkled look to the rough surface, and small ragged weeds lazed from the crevices in crooked, narrow angles.  In the dim glow of the streetlight, he noticed that the unwanted plants were of the same variety that grew in abundance here and there about the small front yard.  The house, also, was in a sorry state of disrepair.  The shingling was loose, or missing altogether, and the soft pearl paint was peeling around the door and windowsills, revealing a ghastly smoker's yellow. 

Fillip found this theme of blatant neglect very uncharacteristic of his former lieutenant.  Naiso had been famous for his meticulousness and obsession with order and cleanliness.  It was either age that was driving the man to lenience, or fear that his particular habits would lead to his discovery.  Either way, it didn't matter.  

Stopping at the front entryway, Fillip let out a long-suffering sigh.  It had been five miles to the former soldier's house; and while not at all strenuous, the action in itself was degrading.  Walking to the traitor's house, using the door like a common mortal.  But he and Jamten had agreed that using their abilities would be like waving a flag for that damned Tieran Yaw to find them.  It was already difficult enough to suppress their power to the point of depression, just to keep that obsessive bird away.  Though it wasn't enough, if the reports from the scouts were true.  As impossible as it should have been, they had spotted him speeding ever closer to their hiding place, a determination in his path suggesting he knew exactly where to look.  Such knowledge was at direct odds with his previous behavior.  He'd been blundering about the Dimensions for years now with no clue as to their whereabouts.   But now, not two months since Fillip and his clan's banishment into this cursed open range of Earth, it seemed there was not a secret he and Jamten could keep safe.  Their supposed plans for unpeakable greatness were tumbling down a mountainside full of pits and thorn bushes. 

Jamten was getting upset, and when Jamten was upset, he demanded blood.

Fillip turned the knob on the door and walked in.  Immediately he noticed the scent of Seracfruit and Cairobi mint as it drifted through the air, attaching itself to his senses and creating an atmosphere not found on the tiny backwater planet he was stuck on.  For a moment, Fillip allowed himself to stop and take in a deep, longing breath.  This was the smell of Faytelanria, residence of the One Path's beginning and end, and home to the elite Fate's Hand, ruling clan of Fate's legions; Fillip's own clan that he was currently sharing banishment with. 

Leaving the door swaying on its hinges, he found himself to be in a long hallway full of doors tightly shut.  Faded, tattered rugs lined the creaking wooden floorboards as he quietly trekked down the hall.  Despite the wear and ragged condition of the mats beneath his feet, Fillip recognized them to be extremely well tailored rugs from villages very far away.  Well disguised, of course, to a look that fitted a teacher's modest salary. 

The boy stretched out his senses ever so slightly, exercising his Fate given abilities just enough to locate his quarry.  Naiso, like any other commoner at night, was sleeping soundly in what Fillip presumed to be his bedroom.  Fillip decided this to be the third door on the right, just around the corner, and headed in that direction.  Pictures hung on the walls of both sides, and simple flower stands and vases decorated the spaces between the doors.  Fillip surmised that such simplistic style must be the culture of the planet, and he gave kudos to Naiso for tailoring his disguise so well.  It could almost be a normal home of any human if not for the knowledge that a former soldier of one of the greatest armies in existence hid under its roof.  Not that Naiso was one of the greatest soldiers, or teachers, for that matter. 

Soon, however, nothing would matter for the former lieutenant.  Fillip knew that the best teachers had years of experience before they became great, and that was time that Naiso didn't have.  Jamten was demanding retribution for his spoiled plans and missing pigeon; and since Fillip hadn't volunteered, the pitiful scapegoat known as Naiso would simply have to do.  Besides, he'd been dreaming of a chance to wrap his hands around that simpering fool's neck and just squeeze for weeks now.  Fillip was very interested in the information he was sure would leak out. 

Very quietly, the intruder entered the room, opening and shutting the door without a sound to wake the sleeping teacher.  The man slept peacefully on his bed, unaware of life and the conspiracies around him.  A smile twisted Fillip's lips into an expression of vicious glee; he intended to change that.

He stepped up to an oaken table near the window where an expensive looking vase adorned a pristine white doily.  Fillip quirked his eyebrow slightly, examining the refined shape and exquisitely done artwork.  With exaggerated care he took it in his hands and brought the object to eyelevel for closer inspection. 

"Well done," he murmured admirably, "for a mortal." 

The vase hit the baseboard above Naiso' with a screaming force, shattering into jagged pieces that rained down on a suddenly very awake and sputtering old man.  Naiso sat bolt upright in his bed, grabbing at his chest and gasping for breath.  He was wild eyed and frantic as he whipped his head about, trying to calm himself while spotting the source of his strange and frightful awakening. 

"Oh do calm down, Naiso," Fillip said, waving his hand contemptuously, "I don't want your heart giving out so soon.  We haven't had any fun yet."

The aging professor was wheezing horribly as his eyes settled on the second room occupant.  "L-Lord Fillip," he gasped out, "you startled me."

Fillip rolled his eyes and flicked a sandy lock from his face, "that would have been the point, fool.  Now get out of bed before I decide to break something else—like you."

"Yes, milord!"  Naiso threw the sheets back and worked his frail body out of the bed.  Still frightened and shaking, however, the blankets managed to twist about his legs and impede his movements, sending him sprawling on the floor and to the feet of the object of all his nightmares, a boy who at first glance looked to be no more than a lad in his late teens. 

The commander shook his head; "whatever am I to do with you, Naiso?"

Naiso managed to untangle himself and stand properly, saluting in his best form while not moving an inch.  Slightly amused, Fillip began to slowly walk around the former soldier.  The General watched as the muscles throughout Naiso's body trembled, singing with tension and fatigue from holding a no longer familiar position too long.  Were he to ignore the spotted, wrinkled skin that hung lifelessly from the past-his-prime soldier's withered body, Fillip could almost remember why Naiso had been given such important tasks before his true colors had burned through.

"Such a perfect form, Lieutenant," he commended his toy.  "If you assumed it more often, people might actually mistake you for a soldier—" Fillip's hand swept out and rammed the base of Naiso's neck, sending the elder to his hands and knees, fighting for air.

"—Instead of the pathetic traitor that you really are."  The General snarled and kicked the down soldier in the ribs.  "Did you really think you could get away with it, Naiso?  That we wouldn't find out what you've been doing?  Well?"

"Sir," gasped the man painfully, "please!"

"Please?"  Fillip sneered and began to circle his quarry once more.  "Please what, have mercy?  Forgive you for your wrongs?  Shall I kiss your wounds and make them better, Naiso?"  Hot, angry energy clouded under the old man and sent him flying upwards and against the bed pole.  The world went white for a brief instant as pain lanced its way across the side of his face.  A warm copper liquid washed over his tongue as he pushed off the bed, struggling to breath.  Rough hands grabbed him, turning him around and throwing his back against the bedpost once again.  Naiso stared into the eyes of his manic leader, painfully aware of the iron knife pressing against his skin. 

"Or should I simply end it all right now?"

Naiso choked back a wet sob and shut his eyes in terror, trying hard to fight the urgent need to cough out the blood filling his lungs.

The deceptively calm voice of Fillip whispered softly into his ear, "answer me now, Naiso.  Did you really think we wouldn't find out who was tipping off the Phoenix's pet warrior whelps?  That we wouldn't find the beacon drawing the Tieran Yaw ever closer to what should be a secret location?"

The teacher's eyes flew open, "the Tieran Yaw is coming?"

Fillip's expression became slightly disbelieving, "don't tell me you didn't know of the Ice Raptor's approach."

Panicked, Naiso shook his head rapidly, "nothing, oh Great One!  I swear it!"

Fillip thoughtfully tapped the flat of the iron blade against his cheek, "you seem rather adamant about this, could it be that you are sincere?"

"Of course, my Lord, of course!"

The immortal's eyes focused sharply on his toy, "do you deny aiding the Ronin Warriors in their obtaining of the Fire?"

"No, sir!"

"Yet you know nothing of the Tieran Yaw."

"As you say it, oh lord!" 

For a moment, Fillip studied the frantic man's face, searching.  Finally, he moved away, letting the soldier relax slightly.  "I see you are telling the truth.  How unfortunate.  You've just complicated my job, Naiso."

Naiso fell back to the floor in a submissive position, "a thousand apologies, my commander."

A rumbling filtered through the house, and the foundation trembled as thunder crashed through the air and a sudden light flooded the room, causing both men to look out the window.  Sky born tears began to patter against the glass in a rhythmic pattern, beating out a steady cadence.  Fillip turned back to the withered fool cowering on the floor.  "Well, it can't be helped, I suppose.  We all knew that he'd find us eventually.  However, we can't let that distract us from your real crime, can we?"

A high, crackled moan came from Naiso in dread anticipation of the next moment's events.  Fillip smiled slightly and began to walk a loose circle around the fallen soldier.

"We gave you such a simple task, Lieutenant.  Distract the Ronins; keep them away long enough so that we could complete our plans.  It was good of you to tell us of them when we arrived; they were easily incorporated into our scheme.  But now, despite it all, that plan is ruined.  Years of hard work gone because you became soft in your old age.  Fate is not pleased with you, Naiso.  We are not pleased with you.  Jamten, especially, is upset."  Fillip smiled and drew a hand across the window, darkening it like a thick curtain had slid across the pane.  "And we all know what happens when Jamten needs to be placated."

"Jamten is fool," Naiso's trembling voice bounced off the floor as kept his head down, letting the blood drip from his mouth to the floor as he poured the last of his strength into his courage, "you all are."

Amused, Fillip let the man continue, encouraging his words, "and how is that, dear Naiso?"

"It will not be she or he that brings you down this time."  Naiso coughed, and something thick hit the wood flooring with a wet splash.  "They will pass the choice down to the children.  And it will not be made in your master's favor." 

"Fah."  Fillip delivered a swift kick to Naiso's midsection.  "You speak nonsense, the choice was already made, old fool, and that is why Master Cromer comes to collect what is rightfully his."

Naiso could only cough and roll back to his stomach.  Fillip spat on the old man and continued to block the room from any wandering eye's view.  The tapping of the rain grew silent and muffled.  Suddenly no sound could be heard in the room save a low mumbling that tumbled from Naiso's lips.  Fillip was surprised the geezer could still breathe, let alone dredge up the will to continue speaking.  Leaning close, Fillip blinked as heard the soft utters of a prayer. 

"…And let my wrongs be righted as the Light guides me on my final path.  And may the Darkness cradle me as I lay down my head.  I have seen the wrongs of my ways and now walk my own choice.  Forgive me as I hope to forgive others.  Estuana niche—I walk in the light—may She embrace me…"

The tight corners of Fillip's mouth loosened slightly as they curled upwards in a frosty grin.  "You really think that will help you, Naiso?  Let us find out, shall we?"  Fillip waved his hand once more and a thickness settled over the room.  "Jamten has forbidden us to use serious magic.  But very little should be needed to muffle your screams.  All done?  Very well, let us begin."

A high keening of pain cut through the air, before shutting off abruptly as Naiso's bedroom door slammed closed, proving Fillip's words true.  But Fillip's challenge still hung in the air as the last bit of Naiso's prayer filtered through and echoed throughout the night.

"I will walk with the Light…"

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Ivory woke with a start from her peaceful slumber.  Somewhere in her sleeping mind someone had been screaming.  The sound frightened her very much, but the sweat that dripped from her temples to run down her jaw did not come from the high sound alone.  What bothered her most was the sick and tormenting laughter of someone who had enjoyed the pain and misery behind the wailing.  Worst of all, she was sure she knew the maker behind that sadistic cackling.  But the face behind the name eluded her, drifting as no more than a hazy image among many others against a background of unenlightened gray. 

The girl shivered and carefully manipulated the blankets more securely around her.  The bandages made her cumbersome, but they also padded her sore limbs and gave her support where her muscles had all but atrophied from lack of use.  Ivory brushed a hand over her cheek to relieve an itch, nose wrinkling as the smell of aging bandages caught her senses.  Her new keepers seemed to be rather clumsy and disorganized.  It wasn't likely that the dressings would change some time soon.  Though Ivory was willing to accept that fully, because while none of them seemed particularly fond of her, they were kind and gentle in their attentions.  In the brief time she had been with them they had dressed her wounds, provided a warm meal and a deep, soft bed to sleep in.  What's more, the big cat kept watch at the foot of her bed, one ear following her every movement despite his state of deep dreaming.  Like the one boy had said, for all his size and power, he was as gentle as his infantile cousins. 

Their constant demonstrations of kindness made the girl wish that she could force the thank you off the tip of her tongue and to their awaiting ears.  She wanted so badly to be able to echo the familiar tone that they used with her name.  Or at least, she wished that she didn't have to flinch away every time they moved just a little too fast, or spoke a note too loudly to each other or to her.  But something held her too close to her fears to be comfortable.  Like a child to its teddy, she clung to her fright and hoped that her reactions would keep her safe from the strange people that surrounded her; keep her hidden from the pain that struck every time she ached touch the familiar auras that surrounded her keepers.

A soft rustle of clothing made Ivory glance up.  Her watery blues settled on a boy who slept peacefully on the chair at her bedside.  Azure locks fell raggedly over his closed eyes, lending him an unruly appearance that matched the attitude he had shown when she had been awake.  But the lines of his face were soft and pale in the room's dim light, dimming the memories of his harsh words. A dark blue blanket covered his body and draped over his shoulders, hiding everything but his face and forearms.  His head was tucked in the crook of his elbow, slightly turned so that his sleeping gaze faced her.  Ivory watched him for a moment, caught between the upsurge of fear at his closeness and the atmosphere of safety and comfort that exuded from his very presence.  It was a paradox that Ivory, still tired from events that she couldn't remember, did not have the strength to deal with. 

The girl yawned suddenly and her eyes began to droop heavily downwards.  Tired, and lulled the feelings of warmth, and security; Ivory settled back down into the bed and drifted away from consciousness. 

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"Is she asleep again?"

Sage concentrated for a moment, "quite," he finally replied.

Rowen let out a relieved breath and flopped onto the mossy ground of the meditation field.  "Whew, that was a close one."

The warrior of Light nodded, his face showing his confusion.  "I wonder what it could have been."

Kayara shook her head, "a mind tremor, of sorts, I believe."  Her words came out in spacious breaths and her body trembled from the rush of power that had slammed into her body and washed over her aura like a tidal wave of negativity.  "Whoever the creatures are that once held the Phoenix, they seem to still hold a connection with her.  Her mind must have felt them and reacted to their energies."

"That was some reaction," Sage murmured, "If you hadn't been here with the staff, Kayara, we might not be here at all!"

"Maybe this is a hint," Rowen said, "and we should get outta here."

"Rowen," said his blonde friend shortly, "we can't just leave.  I'm sorry if this is making you uncomfortable—"

"Uncomfortable?"  Rowen's voice went up an octave.  "I'm sitting here, running around the shattered mind of a supposedly invincible creature that just so happens to be my aunt, and you think I'm uncomfortable?  Whatever for?  After all, this could be normal in some people's books."

"Cool it, you two," Kayara intervened calmly.  "This is a dangerous place to be, and flinging about such emotions could set off another wave of…whatever that was, again.  I don't know if I have the strength to shield us a second time."

Sage closed his eyes and allowed the memory of the energy wave to flow over him once more.  He could still see it, like a fast moving bank of fog roiling through the hills, phasing out everything it touched.  The embodiment of Ivory's mind, where the three now rested, had recoiled from the caress as much as possible, but left the trio of explorers horribly exposed.  What Sage had said earlier was very true: if Kayara hadn't been there, the invading energy would have sucked them up and drained them dry.  The warrior of Light shuddered at the thought of the graying fog touching his fair skin with its ice-flecked tendrils.  Very much like Ivory's mind, there would have been nothing of him left.

Sage opened his eyes and stretched out his senses, forcing himself to see the true imagery of the crippled Phoenix.  From the looks of it, that fog was a common happening; habitually creeping through the withered remnants of her once boundless essence to draw power from what Sage thought was a bottomless source.  But when consulting with Rowen, the boy had shaken his head.

"Even the Phoenix needs rest," he'd said. 

So the empath readjusted his thinking, trying to think of the flaming raptor more as a rechargeable battery that hadn't been given a chance to replenish.  This brought to mind the questionable issue of the trio's invading presence.  Sage wondered if by being where they were, he and the others were inadvertently taxing the decrepit creature's already waned health condition.  He knew by the crumbled remains of the weak mental barrier they had passed when entering the area where the Phoenix's mind rested, that Ivory's mind was unused to visitors.  But the once impassable mental shielding had been torn down years ago, by the looks of it; and the constant energy rape the girl was going through had pushed her beyond the body's ability of self-healing.  So Sage walked about, looking for a way to unplug the girl from what was draining her energy with such incredible but slow efficiency, but doing so without hurting her any more than she'd already been.  He wanted to give her a chance to heal and recover from the inside out; as Kayara had said that would be the best way. 

After a bout of heavy thinking on the part of all three trespassers, they had finally come up with a means to a temporary blockade to invasion.  Combining their powers and knowledge of the meditation field into the Ancient Staff, Kayara and Sage began building a thin wall around the Fire Raptor's mind.  Rowen put space into the equation, thickening the barrier and sliding a thin, but dark veil around the wall to conceal it from even the closest of scrutiny.  When all was said and done, the Phoenix's presence dimmed considerably.  Only when they stood right next to their creation could they feel it at all.

Kayara smiled in satisfaction.  "Well done.  In a moment it will thicken to become impenetrable; only those she knows and freely admits shall pass through it.  And, if all goes well, when her strength returns, she should be able to simply shake it off and rebuild her own to replace it.  Is that not correct, Halo?"

"You'd know more about this than I would, Kayara," Sage responded, but his voice was reflective and his eyes were distant.  "Look."

Obediently, his companions turned to see what Sage had found, and were surprised to see another foreboding gray fog bank rumbling close.  It swept towards them at a rapidly increasing speed, obliging Kayara to step forward and raise her staff to ward it off once more.  Like water off of cliff rocks, the fog crashed against her shield, surging upwards before recoiling away and regrouping.  It flowed away from them a distance before surging forwards again, this time crashing into the newly erected barrier.  The wall shuddered, but held, causing the trio to let out a collective sigh of relief.  The fog bank welled against the dark wall, lapping moodily against it before losing interest and roiling back towards Kayara's barrier.  Kayara, however, was becoming tired, and her shield momentarily wavered.  Sage frowned and stepped forward to help his comrade, placing a hand against her barrier as the thick masse of fog pressed against it.  After the briefest of instances, Sage's hand began to glow the gentle green of Halo and the fog lurched away.  It churned in a compacted cloud shape for a space of breaths before drifting away once more in the direction it had come from. 

With a relieved sigh, Kayara dropped her ward, and the staff clanked and jingled as it was brought to rest against her shoulder.   "I won't be able to repeat that."

"I don't think you'll have to," Rowen told her, "looks like Sage scared whatever it was away."  Rowen, still sitting on the comfortable softness of the ground, eyed Sage as he watched the last few tendrils of the offending cloudbank fade into nothingness.  "What're yeah thinkin', Sage?" 

"I'm thinking," he replied slowly, "that I knew that energy."

Kayara looked at him, the fatigue on her face mingling with intrigue.  "By what means, Halo?  How would you know such a dread feeling?"

The boy shook his head, "I'm not sure, but it was familiar to the touch.  When it pushed against me, I recognized it and could push it back…I shouldn't be able to unless I've felt it before."

"That's strange, buddy, " Rowen replied, "there's no one we know that nasty that can come here and—" he stopped suddenly, and both boys' eyes flew to meet.

"—Fillip," came the simultaneous reply.

Kayara blinked owlishly and stared at her companions, "pardon?"

Rowen quickly began to fill the Ancient in, "one of the people who were keeping Ivory.  In fact, I think he was one of two in charge.  Jamten was the other one.  They don't do much, but you can feel it when you're near them, in the back of your mind."

Sage nodded, "they have power, a good quantity of it.  But they seem reluctant to use it."

Kayara shook her head slowly, "I have not felt such people, are you sure?"

The Ronins' eyes widened slightly; "you can't feel them?  That's impossible!"

"Apparently not," she retorted crossly, "if they have been around for so very long and stayed from my notice."

Thoughtfully, Sage propped an elbow in his hand and began to rub his chin, "actually, Rowen, this supports your theory.  Kayara, how do you find a person, say…Dais, if you needed to."

Surprised by the question and slightly off guard, the Lady of Cruelty answered, "If I wanted to find Dais?  How I find the rest of you, I suppose, I feel out your energy and follow it to you."

"You mean our auras?"

"Something like that."

Sage nodded, satisfied.  "But what if Dais played down his aura just enough so you couldn't detect him, then what?"

Kayara twitched her eyebrow upwards, "Dais doesn't know how to do that."

"But if he did."

"If he did, then I would have a demon of a time finding him.  That man already knows how to blend in better than grass in a valley."

"Exactly.  Do you see?  Jamten and his people are playing down their energy.  Most looking for him would sweep right over his hiding spot."

Rowen thought about this for a few minutes, "and those that are sensitive to such imbalances would never feel anything suspicious, since they're not supposed to be here in the first place.  Either way, they stay safely incognito."

"So the questions that remain seem to be: how long have they been hiding, and why do they come out when they do?"

The blue haired Ronin looked at his friend, quirking his lips.  "I bet I know where to find the answers."

Sage looked at him, "where?"

"The same place we haven't found anything else we've looked for."  Rowen spread his hands wide, "right here."

"Rowen," Kayara lay her forehead on her hand, letting her water colored bangs flow through her fingers, "you're not helping."

"Never said I could."

Sage sighed, "There's got to be another way."

"How did you come about the knowledge of these new beings in the first place, Sage?"  Kayara asked, recovered from Rowen's bout of humor.

The blonde frowned, trying to think back.  "I'd say our first encounter was when they came to the school as students.  But meeting them happened outside the dojo when we were going for dinner."

"The memory does not appear to be a fond one."

"It wasn't," interjected Rowen.  "They showed themselves as bad and proud of it.  For all that they're trying to play themselves down, they're too used to acting man on top.  And it shows."

Kayara considered this a moment, "did they know who you are?"  The question was carefully worded, almost as if it were rhetorical, with no real answer.

"It would be impossible to have as much ability as they did and not be able to detect it in others."  Sage rolled the thought around in his mind a time.  "I think they knew who we were, but weren't quite sure…almost as if they were testing us without caring about the answer."

"They do not consider you a threat, then."

Rowen furrowed his brows, "not yet."

The girl looked at him, "yet?"

Rowen nodded, "yet.  These people are scary, but we can be scary too.  Only we're the good guys, and we don't usually show that."

Kayara smiled at her friend, a warm gesture and full of promises yet untold.  "That, Strata, I am grateful for.  Thankful that you are good and will always be such."

Slightly confused, Rowen gave a half smile and scratched the back of his head, "I guess we wouldn't have it any other way, Kayara."

"Rowen," said Sage, "why don't you try the barrier.  If its solid I'd like to pull out of here; being this close only helps Fillip find her again, and I'd rather not stress the shield anymore than it needs to be."

Rowen blinked, "why me?"

"It makes the most sense for you, Rowen," Kayara told him, "she knows you best.  As she recognizes you when you touch it, you should feel no more than an unpleasant tingle.  But do not let yourself go through it, though the offer may present itself."

Sage kept his face neutral, "just touch the barrier, Row, and let's go."

Suspicious but compliant, Rowen turned to the wall.  Lifting his hand and laying it closely parallel, he could feel how solid it had become in the short while it had been up, like water to ice.  Kayara said, in theory, the barrier wouldn't hurt him; it would just be like a limb waking up from a loss of circulation.  And that was if she remembered him.  He didn't fancy the idea anything stronger than pins and needles should Kayara's idea fall through.  But then, that sensation running through his entire body if he crossed the barrier completely wasn't exactly enticing, either.  Sucking in a breath, Rowen pressed his hand to the barrier.

Nothing happened.

"Well?"  Came Kayara's anxious voice.

"Nothing," he said flatly.  Rowen struggled to keep his voice and face from giving any of his emotions away.  His skin prickled under the humming energy of the shield and he could feel the solid, unwavering strength that suddenly concentrated in the area of his hand.  Tentatively, he pressed his weight into his palm, then drew in a sharp breath and jerked his hand away when a sharp, hot pain lanced through his nerves.

He turned back to his friends, cradling his aching limb,  "absolutely nothing.  The wall ain't movin', let's get back."

The ground under their feet began to tremble slightly and the air around them sighed.  Brushes of heat crept down their arms and across their faces.  Sage and Kayara became alert, surprised by the sudden activity in normally passive cavity.  Rowen looked about cautiously, searching for another cloudbank. 

"Do you see anything, Row?"

He shook his head, "no.  But I think she's getting restless.  She wants to wake up."

Sage hummed softly, "She shouldn't be able to rumble like this, she's too beaten up to protest."

Rowen's eyes became very dark and very serious as he let his still smarting arm drop to his side, "never, Sage, underestimate what the Phoenix can do.  Ever."

For the first time in a very long while, Kayara turned an appraising eye on the night versed Ronin.  He stood his ground with his cryptic remark still hanging in the air, and for a brief moment, his usual countenance slipped and his face became a contorted mask of pain and anger.  Very suddenly, she wanted to go home to her world and sit in familiar surroundings, far away from this lone warrior. 

Sage must have felt something similar, because he quickly shook himself off and nodded to his friend, "I'll remember that Rowen.  But right now, let's just get back.  All right?"

Rowen nodded, and a smile spread across his face as the previous moments slipped by to be forgotten.  "Sure thing, Sage.  I'm gettin' kind of hungry."

The blonde shook his head, glad to be past the serious Rowen; "Kento Junior strikes again.  Let's go then."

Kayara laughed and Rowen glared.  "I'll get you for that, Sage."

He gave a wane smile, "perhaps.  But I won't hold my breath."

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Urk.  That took a while, didn't it. ^.^;; I wonder if I've confused anyone, yet.  More still coming!