§Hey All! Well, I'm gonna start this Author's note with a couple plugs. So…I've recently noticed that Rayearth is not the pumped up section it used to be, but there are still some very good authors running around in this place. . And these are only a few, I've unfortunately not had the time to read a lot of the stories I've wanted, but I figured I'd throw a couple plugs in there for some extra reading in case I forget to update again…heh…Anyway, read Worth by RaevanDawn if you haven't, and also Rayearth and the Legend Continues by Laminarose, both are new authors, and you all know how I feel about how new authors never get enough appreciation and love ahem…coughreviewscough…so I figured I'd throw the couple out to you! Anyhoo…here is the next chapter, and don't forget, new authors aren't the only ones who need love! Show some people!§

Chapter Thirteen: The Madness

Mokona puued happily, bouncing along in front of the two as Alliandre tore yet another bramble out of her blond hair, "Are we almost there?" she asked without a hint of whining in her voice.

"Why? Are you tired?" Ascot questioned, "If you are, we could stop for the night."

"No, no," Alliandre insisted, feeling the desperation of the situation even if she wasn't sure what was causing it. "I just was curious."

"Oh," Ascot looked around him as if taking survey of where they were. "I suppose…just nearly," he answered, and she smiled and took off running after the creature Mokona.

"Well then I'll race you!" she challenged, and Ascot groaned and chased after her despite his aching feet.

They'd retrieved the escudo easily enough; Alliandre said she'd been forced to face a foster mother she'd had for a few months before she was pushed back into another orphanage. That was after her temporary foster mother realized she had breast cancer and had problems big enough of her own that she didn't wish to expose to Alliandre.

Funny, Ascot thought to himself, she's so unlike Umi, almost as if she doesn't belong to the Water. She's more at home in the woods than by the sea. I…he shifted uneasily when the sand hit his feet, and he saw Alliandre staring out at the sea, unaffected by its glittering beauty.

He couldn't help but be drawn by her beauty, her quiet grace. She reminded him more of Fuu than Umi, quiet, reserved, gentle, but fierier, and darker. He supposed after living a life like hers he would be dark too. Yet, she smiled easily, laughed loudly and cracked occasional jokes. He didn't mind her company at all, she wasn't annoying or demanding, she had Hikaru's spirit and agility, Fuu's intelligence and Umi's beauty. There was nothing he could find that was flawed in her, but he assumed he was slightly biased. I really like her, she's like no one I've ever met before; he stopped and let himself ponder that thought while he took a spot on the shore and waited for the new Magic Knight of Water to emerge.

"Umi, you have to listen to me, you have to," Clef pleaded as Umi backed away, struggling to keep him out of her work. How did he find me here? She asked of herself as she looked at the stars around her frantically.

Picking one, she dove into it and realized, to her horror, that she had jumped into Clef's own dreams.

"Perfect," he whispered and followed her in, both caught up in his mind. He'd stolen her world for a few minutes, and he was going to make her listen.

"Clef, let me go," she begged, eyes almost rolling in terror.

"No," he grabbed her wrists and pulled her close to his chest until she stopped struggling, unable to tear herself away.

"Do you want me to go to the Floor?" she demanded, tears in her throat but not in her eyes, and the reminder almost sent him reeling in anguish.

"This is for Veneficus' benefit!" he shouted at her, and she pulled back from him, letting him speak. He nodded softly, and she crossed her arms.

"Quickly please."

He bit his lip and tried not to feel offended at her tone. He probably would have run and hid in his darkness if it hadn't been for the obvious torture in her eyes. What lie beyond those blue depths reminded him that she was still his Umi, and she still felt the same way for him as he felt for her. Nothing had changed; she was just trying to protect them both. His hands clenched, but he forced himself to go on despite, "Hikaru and Fuu are going to Foret de la Neige. They're going to find what holds the Keepers to their Punishments. They're going to find it, and we're going to fight it."

"What?" she whispered softly, and he smiled and took a step forward.

"We're going to win Umi."

She fell to her knees, and he imagined a carpet of downy gentian, a deep blue flower of velvet smoothness for her to fall onto. She laughed lightly and shook her head at him, wanting only to feel his skin against hers.

As if noticing her sudden need, he kneeled beside her and stroked her cheek with his thumb lovingly, brushing tears that weren't there, "Soon my love," he promised, and she nodded weakly and kissed the finger that touched her cheek, closing her eyes as he released her back to her duties.

Fuu, Hikaru, Ferio and Lantis galloped back to the Palace as fast as their horses would take them. When they were within a day, Fuu and Hikaru reined their horses in, staring at the Palace longingly, but knowing they had other things to do. The road for them was almost over, but the end of the path was the most important, and getting careless wouldn't save anyone, "Go on ahead, we need to find Blade and Alianore," Fuu told them, and Ferio and Lantis looked distressed but agreed. It only made sense; they were planning on fighting the thing that made Keepers, Keepers; it was only appropriate that they ask a couple former ones before they acted on their plan.

"Very well," Lantis bowed his head in submission, and Ferio gave Fuu one last kiss before the two turned and headed back toward the Palace to tell the Guru and the rest what they had learned.

Fuu and Hikaru watched them fade into the distance before heading back to their own search, "They wouldn't go into the Forest," Fuu said practically, and Hikaru nodded.

"No, I don't suppose they would, but I don't think they'd go far from the Palace."

"Then we should start with that village, right near here," Fuu turned her horse in that direction, and she and Hikaru headed toward it.

When the two entered the village, they were immediately received and ushered into a nearby tavern, where they were seated and instructed to wait by a young boy who could only be ten years old with a small, round face covered in freckles and sporting red hair.

"We're really in a hurry," Fuu began politely, but he shook his head and insisted they stay.

"No, the lady and the man wanted to see you," he told them, and Hikaru and Fuu exchanged glances and nodded. So they were here.

"All right, we'll stay," Hikaru told him gently, and he grinned, thanked them, and sprinted off in the other direction.

The boy hadn't been gone long when Alianore and Blade strode into the room, Blade the symbol of power and deadly grace, Alianore slightly disheveled and disoriented, almost as if she was unsure of her own skin.

"What…?" Hikaru began, but Blade shook his head.

"We should take this to a less public place," he announced more to the eager tavern goers nearby than to the Knights. They quickly agreed and stood.

"Thou shalt not don me," a powerful and slightly aggravated voice boomed from within a field of black.

"What?" Alliandre asked quietly. From the little she'd gathered from Fuu and Hikaru before she left, and from the stories Ascot had told her, this was not the greeting she was supposed to receive.

"Thine heart is not the heart of the water," the voice in the shadows informed her, and she pointed to herself.

"I…I know," she sighed sadly. "I don't hate the water, but I don't love it either. I don't know why I would be called here though…I mean…does this sort of mishap happen often?"

Her genuine questions and her courage to speak to him made him chuckle softly, which clearly caught her off-guard, because she squeaked and jumped backward, "No," he admitted, almost gently, if you could call that huge, ancient voice gently. "There is another destiny for thou. There is a war coming, and thou shall be the deciding factor. Go back to the Guru and the two Magic Knights, offer them thy sword and thy services and thou shalt be heavily rewarded in due course."

Alliandre shook her head unbelievingly as the doors to the watery temple flung open; and she was pushed back out onto the shore.

"Did you revive him?" Ascot demanded anxiously, "Your armor didn't evolve."

Alliandre shook her head, and he looked at her hopelessly, "What?"

"He said…he said I didn't have the heart to don him, because it's not water…or something. I'm not really sure; he just said I should go back to Clef and offer my sword and my services," she puzzled, and his heart fell out of his chest. Does this mean that Clef will send her home? Does this mean that she'll leave? There is no danger without Silvius…I mean…For some reason that thought scared him more than any threat that might yet come.

"We should go," she said softly, and he nodded, resigned, and they mounted and headed back to the Palace.

"What did you learn?" Alianore asked them anxiously as soon as they were in the door of the small house where Blade and Alianore seemed to have taken up residence.

"We found this," Fuu offered them a copy of the scroll they'd found, written in her own spiraling hand.

Hikaru fidgeted nervously while Alianore read it, allowing Blade to read over her shoulder. When they were finished, they both looked up with frightened yet relieved expressions on their faces.

"What do you think?" Hikaru asked tentatively, and Alianore sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of a nearby couch, perched like a hesitant, terrified bird, ready to take flight at any moment. It was as if something was chasing her, and she only had enough time to stop and get a breath before she was forced to plunge into flight once more.

"I think that we're going to need a lot of Will, and a lot of cooperation, but I think it can be done."

"In fact," Blade echoed, sitting beside his lover and taking her hand gently in his own, "I think it has to be done."

Umi could barely concentrate on her work as she floated through the dream world, smiling slightly. They hadn't forgotten her; they were going to save her. And, even better, they were going to save all the Keepers! She could barely prevent the smile from overwhelming her, but she managed and kept her mind on her duty.

It's not any different, the thought crossed her mind, my being in love now versus my falling in love while I'm working. It's still a distraction, but I get the work done. Anyone that was devoted to Cephiro would be, and those who live here have to be. All the more reason for the system of Punishments for the Keepers to be ended, if the Keepers themselves were vital to Cephiro, at least they should be allowed to live in relative freedom.

At the end of her long night, she fed herself a small bone and granted herself sweet dreams for the couple hours she would be permitted to sleep, fell into her silk sheets and drifted into a beautiful dream world where she was with her lover and nothing had changed. She wasn't a Keeper or a Magic Knight, and he wasn't a Master Mage. They were just themselves, two people in love.

He grinned as he threw a snowball at her head, and she dodged it easily.

"You'll have to do better than that!" she challenged and ducked behind a nearby tree as another snowball came whizzing at her head. She poked her head out from behind the tree just long enough to stick her tongue out at him before another snowball came her way.

Grinning mischievously, she packed a snowball into her mittened fingers and was about finished when something cold and wet fell onto her head and dripped down her back. She looked up in mock horror, and Clef stood in front of her, smiling widely.

"Oh, you're so dead," she whispered and tossed her snowball right into his face, which sent him sputtering.

He grabbed her wrist and knocked her into a nearby snow bank, and she tumbled into the soft, wet powder, laughing and screaming her pleasure. Surprisingly, he curled up next to her and placed a soft kiss on her neck that had her tingling in pleasure and warmed her cold blood, "Lovely," he whispered near her ear, and she turned and looked into his beautiful blue eyes. "Do you want to call it a day?"

She grinned at him and nodded, "Sure, I could use a warm fire and a nice, cozy bed."

He laughed and stood, brushing himself off as he did and then offered her a hand. She took it delicately, and he scooped her up into his arms, spinning her around quickly, so her long blue hair whipped behind her, ending with her cradled in his arms, her head tucked safely in the nape of his neck, "I think that can be arranged," he mumbled into her hair, and she curled up closer to him as he carried her inside.

"Has to?" Fuu looked at him curiously then looked back to Alianore who seemed on the edge of insanity.

Blade sighed heavily and stood to pace the room, a habit she smiled at – Ferio had the same one. He ran a hand through his black hair and then faced them, his eyes unreadable because of their night coloring, "I can't really give it an explanation, I suppose that there's an additional Punishment dished out to Keepers who choose Banishment. It's never really been explained, well, I don't suppose it could be. There's…a madness…"

"A madness?" Hikaru's eyes darted quickly to Alianore who was shaking on the edge of the couch, tears racing down her cheeks. Blade looked at her and nodded behind her back though Hikaru didn't think she'd notice if he'd done it right in front of her.

"It…affects Keepers in different ways, after they've chosen Banishment. The longer the Keeper was in the Village the quicker it sets in. I…I wasn't there as long as Alianore. Or, well, I was, but she donned her cloak long before I did. We were childhood sweethearts, but they took her almost three hundred years before they took me. It's…" he shook his head and sighed again. "Hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there. The power is – intoxicating, for different reasons. The power itself is breathtaking. You have the ability to change the world as people know it, for better or for worse. That's an astounding feeling, and knowing that you're the only one who can keep things running smoothly is an emotion that nothing else can replicate. Yet, not everything we Keepers see is beautiful, and knowing that you have the power to change it but sometimes can't…it's haunting. That's what you remember when you leave the Sacred Village. That's what Alianore remembers – how many people she sent to the Floor, how many people she couldn't save through dream messages. Soon it will set in on me too, and then we'll perish or turn, as Silvius did. Silvius, he wasn't an evil Keeper, he was just curious, much like Veneficus. Veneficus was taught by Silvius; they are, were, a lot alike. It wasn't him that attacked you; it was the madness, that's why you could never reason with him," while Blade spoke, Alianore's eyes glossed over, fading in and out of reality, and Hikaru's heart went out to the girl who had been fragile before she'd been forced to relive every terrible deed she'd ever voluntarily or involuntarily committed.

"That's awful," Fuu shook her head, glancing once more at Alianore, but the sight scared her. "Why would anyone leave?"

"For love," Blade answered quietly, "because there are things that the Sacred Village can't offer."

"Oh gods," Fuu whispered softly, and Hikaru looked at her, alarmed. "Are you saying, if we don't fight this- this…madness, that Umi will come out of there like…this?"

Blade nodded slowly, and Hikaru's jaw dropped.

Ascot made no move to walk any faster than he had to, certainly not as fast as Alliandre was pushing them.

"C'mon Ascot!" she urged, "We've got to hurry; Selece said there was something coming."

Ascot smiled bitterly. I can't believe Selece would betray Cephiro for the memory of Umi…That thought had been plaguing him. That had to be the reason Selece wouldn't let her revive him. There was no other plausible explanation. Of course Alliandre had a water heart; she wouldn't be here if she didn't. She was the next candidate for becoming the Magic Knight of Water, and the fact that Selece would see her put back into the terrible place she had come from, infuriated him for some reason. And now he was trying to trick her into getting sent back to the Palace, and Clef was just going to sigh and send her home! Clef certainly wasn't going to argue with Selece's decision not to allow another Water Knight to take Umi's place.

He slowed a little more, "Alliandre, don't you realize that when you go back Clef is just going to send you home?" he ventured to ask, and she spun and looked at him with eyes so openly afraid he could barely stand to look at them.

"What?" she demanded, and he walked toward her, taking her shoulders and delighting in her actions when her hands rose to meet his.

"Selece loved Umi with all his heart, and now he's not letting you don him because of that love. When you go back, Clef will have to send you home and try someone else. When a Magic Knight fails to don her Rune God, she's sent home with no memory of the event," he explained gently, and her bottom lip began to quiver.

"No memory?" she shook her head, "But-but this is the best experience of my life! I don't want to forget it!"

He was taken aback by the fierceness in her voice. Coming here was the best experience of her life? "Alliandre, I…"

But she didn't let him continue, "I've met so many great people and friends. Ascot, I've never had friends like you, and I…" she blushed and turned her eyes downward. "The last few days have been…perfect. I don't want to forget them, and you."

He pulled her chin up with three fingers and looked into her hazel eyes gently, "Then don't go back, and I won't."

She gasped and pulled away, afraid by his words, almost as afraid as he was for speaking them. His whole life was at the Palace, had he just offered to run away from that? For a girl he barely knew? It was ludicrous, yet…he didn't want to take it back.

"Ascot, we can't," she choked. "I don't know how, I just know that we can't. We have to go back. I'm sorry, I want…" a tear slipped down her cheek, and he stepped forward boldly and wiped it away.

She threw herself into his arms and sobbed into his chest, "I'm so scared," she whispered, and he clutched her tighter. "I think that something bad is going to happen, and I don't want to lose you, but I need to go back. I need to do this, and I don't know why. I don't understand anything anymore, I'm so lost."

He stroked her hair gently and kissed the top of her head, "It's okay, I'll be with you. Maybe- maybe we can convince Clef to let you stay."

She laughed groggily through her tears, "Yeah, it'll be like getting a green card."

"A what?" he asked, and she shook her head against his chest.

"Never mind."

He marveled at how open she was, almost as open as Hikaru, she isn't a water element at all, he thought to himself, and for the first time since they'd left the Water Temple, began to think that maybe Selece was telling the truth.

§Oh…I had a question too, does anyone know if songics were banned from I really really wanted to write another one, sorta like Rubies and Gold…I actually started it, but if they were banned I don't wanna get in trouble and not be able to finish or something, so if someone could let me know I'd be greatly obliged. I got so behind in reading the notices that it would probably take me another two years just to get caught up. Hahaha, anyway, I'll try not to be long in the next chapter if you're not long in reviewing!§