Chapter Fourteen: Contacting the Will

Veneficus hurtled through her door, scaring her awake, "If I could, I'd send you to the Floor for this so that damn Mage couldn't touch you even if he wanted to!"

Umi immediately sprung to life and forced her exhausted brain to try and make some sense of what the Keeper of Magic was babbling about, his eyes flashing from one shade of red to the next, "What?" she whispered, and magic jumped to his fingers; magic he was sorely tempted to use.

"The Magic Knights of Cephiro are going to challenge the Will of Cephiro, the foundation of the Keepers, all in the name of undying love. For you! Have you any idea what that means?" he roared, throwing his hands into the air, sparks falling uselessly around them.

Umi closed her eyes and chose her words carefully, having Veneficus kill her would be no good for either of them, "Veneficus, you've never been in love, at least not that you remember, so how can you say love is wrong? How can you judge an emotion you've never felt? What if I said anger was wrong for the Keeper of Magic, anger makes you make irrational decisions, does it not? What then, would that mean you should be Punished?"

Veneficus opened his mouth but no words came out; he knew she was right, "I just don't want it to be like last time."

"Last time?" her eyes narrowed, and he nodded and took a seat by her bed as she lowered herself onto the deep blue comforter.

"A long time ago there was a Magic Swordsman who decided to fight the Will for Quies, Alianore then…"

Alliandre waited impatiently at Clef's door. The other two Magic Knights had returned a few hours ago, and she'd been stuck outside – again. Just face it, her mind growled at her, you're trying to replace their best friend and his lover, and you don't even have the Rune God to back you up. She tensed, subconsciously agreeing with herself, and Ascot squeezed her hand gently, sending her a thin smile. He was clearly worried about what the outcome of the situation would be. There was something mysterious going on in that room, and Alliandre was pretty sure it had something to do with her. Still, Selece's words hung in her mind – offer them thy sword and thy services.

She nodded at the thought and jumped back when the large white doors swung open, and the Master Mage of Cephiro walked out, "Alliandre, Ascot, sorry to keep you waiting, but Fuu and Hikaru's information was pertinent to your fate."

Alliandre tried not to gulp as she and Ascot followed the Mage inside. Fuu and Hikaru offered weak smiles, but the strain and emotional turmoil was as clear on their faces. She felt herself drawn to their pain, wanting to heal it. She'd always been that way, wanting to heal mental hurts. She supposed it came from being raised in an orphanage, surrounded by cases of abuse and abandonment. A real good way to forget your own pain was to lose yourself in someone else's, and there'd been plenty of that around her.

Still, she felt like she didn't need to hide from them, like she'd hidden from so many of her childhood friends. These two had seen pain, and they weren't afraid of it; they were willing to fight back. She gave them a comforting smile, and they seemed to loosen minutely, even if the Master Mage was hardly fazed. The anguish in his eyes went beyond her; it was so deep she could hardly believe he was still standing.

"Selece has contacted me, and conventionally, I should send you home with no memory, but," the Guru's eyes flashed to his student who was jumping forward in her defense, "this is not a conventional situation." He summoned chairs for them, and they all sat tentatively, "We have decided to face the Will of Cephiro, not only on Umi's behalf, but on the behalf of all the Keepers. For that, we are going to need all the strongest Wills in Cephiro, especially the Magic Knights."

Alliandre started to protest, to explain that she wasn't a Knight, that Selece had rejected her, but Clef stopped her.

"Selece said you weren't a Water Knight, he didn't say you weren't a Magic Knight."

Fuu and Hikaru jumped back at that, "But, how?" Fuu gasped.

"Sh-She can't be here to – to replace – one of…us, can she?" Hikaru squeaked anxiously, and Clef shook his head, so the two could calm some.

"Go into the Forest of Silence and pledge your sword to it; you will find your Rune God there," Clef instructed. "Be swift."

Alliandre nodded stiffly, bowed, and headed off, Ascot on her heels.

"There were four?" Fuu whispered, and Clef looked back to them and shook his head.

"There are four, the three Rune Gods have created another for this one reason," he answered and looked to the ceiling as if for answers. I hope we're doing the right thing.

"Just hold on," Blade begged, stroking Alianore's long blond hair protectively, his dark eyes framed with worry. "They're on their way; they're going to save us, love."

She whimpered in her hallucinations, the delusions were becoming too much for her to handle; he knew she was going to die if they didn't hurry. Come on Knights, he begged in his mind. It's hitting her fast and hard, because it's hit her before. Please…Hurry…

"The father of the one you call Lantis, met her when they were both young, and she bore him two sons before she was summoned to the Sacred Village. In our terms she was too old to train, so we had to give her some of her years back, and she took the form you see her in now. The Magic Swordsman wanted to face the Will for her, but he was too weak because he fought alone, and the Will crippled his spirit during the battle, so he left his two sons by themselves in Cephiro. In retribution for her tears shed outside of duty, the Will came to the Keeper of Magic and instilled in him the power to create the Floor and added new Punishments to all the Keepers. Quies spent her first hundred years in the Floor; she was its first victim, and when she rose, she had only faint memories of her past love and her two children. Slowly, she began to forget everything except for the fact that her two boys existed somewhere. Noctis stole her heart," Veneficus explained in a solemn tone.

Umi's eyes widened in amazement, so that was why Lantis knew of Quies; she was his mother…

"Alianore, you've forgotten me," the voice was so low it was almost inaudible, but it made her heart leap into her throat.

"No," she protested as the night clad figure emerged in the swirls of mist.

"You have," he countered and strode forward, his huge frame dominating her small one, his dark contrasting against her light. She had always loved dark men. "You've forgotten me and moved on, so now you cannot even warn them of what they face. I have died in vain."

Alianore closed her eyes when his large hand moved to cup her face, and she remembered, "I loved you, but I love Blade too," she tried to get him to see, but she knew that he never could. There was no way he could ever accept that she had a new lover when he had died to try to get her back.

He smiled lightly then, something very rare and cherished in her heart, "You think I don't understand."

She nodded, and he shook his head at her.

"I love you Alianore, I always have, and I always will. I only envy the man who stole your heart away from my memory; I don't mourn for you. I wish you to be happy, because you have lived for years in solitude, and your spirit was never one to be void of love. What angers me is that you have forgotten to warn the Master Mage what he will face," he looked behind him, and Alianore searched the mist for something that would give her any clue to her problem. "I cannot stay."

"Please, what do I do?" Alianore begged, tears springing to her eyes, tears that she no longer had to hold back. He looked back at her and smiled warmly; a smile that lit his eyes.

"Tell him, that's all, wake long enough and fight this madness to tell him."

She nodded firmly as he faded, and fought her way through the dark memories that plagued her, clawing her way to the surface.

"Blade," she threw her eyes open, and he sighed heavily and thanked whatever had pulled her back. "I don't have much time before it comes back," her eyes swung the room in a paranoia that couldn't be feigned. "You have to warn Clef; you have to go to the Palace and warn him."

"I won't leave you," he started stubbornly, but she put a hand to his lips and silenced him.

"This isn't just about you and I anymore, but you will lose me if you don't warn the Master Mage what he will face. There will be tests, for all of them, but for him most of all. You have to tell him that no matter what happens, no matter what he faces in the Will, he must remember that Umi is still captive, and she is still waiting for him to save her. He must not be fooled by anything; he has to keep his goal, and his love, in mind. Tell him- tell him it will be harder than anything he's ever faced, and keeping his love in mind might sound easy, but it won't be. It'll be anything but. Tell him, he has to do this, or the Keepers will be Punished instead of saved. Tell him that…" she stopped, there were no more words, she had done all that she could.

"I love you," Blade whispered softly as the madness swallowed her again. He turned from her, tears in his eyes, grabbed a black cloak, and headed to find the Master Mage of Cephiro.

Alliandre laid her sword at the base of the first tree in the Forest of Silence, refusing to waste time, "I pledge my sword to the Forest and to the Earth and to the Rune God that waits for me. I pledge my services to the spirits of Nature and Healing. I pledge my life to Cephiro," she had no idea where the words came from, but they sounded vaguely magical when she spoke them.

"Ah," a light voice, much younger than that of the Dragon she'd encountered laughed in her mind, and she searched for it. "You've come, I didn't think you'd ever come."

"Ascot do you hear that?" Alliandre asked, and he shook his head. "I think it's my Rune God, but it's not speaking in the medieval language."

"Well, I wouldn't, now would I?" the voice she now realized was in her head jested, "Since I've just been created."

"Created?" she inquired; and the voice laughed again.

"Come inside, and we'll be properly introduced."

Alliandre looked hesitantly at Ascot, told him with her eyes to stay there, and entered the forest, following a strange beam of light.

When she was sure she was in the center of the forest, the beam disappeared, and she was faced with a large tangle of Japanese honeysuckle and multi-flora rose, an impenetrable barrier, but in the center, was a large 'K' created of flowers. She touched the K, being careful of the thorns, and the wall opened, granting her access to a large room, the ceiling made of vines, the pillars made of large trees. She gasped; she had never seen anything so beautiful, and in the center, stood a large unicorn, pure white with an ivory horn. There was a necklace of roses around its thick neck and a small morning glory vine creeping up its horn, "Hello, Earth Knight, my name is Kirin."

"She said you'd say that," Blade laughed roughly, his voice scratchy from a hard pace and lack of sleep. He hadn't realized mortals needed to sleep so much; they spent most of their short lives dreaming! It was so impractical. He sighed heavily at the thought and tried to focus his attention back on the Master Mage who was proclaiming it was virtually impossible to forget that he loved Umi and he needed to save her. "She just said it would be hard for you to remember, but that you had to. She said…if you don't, it will mean more Punishments for the Keepers."

"What do you mean by that?" Clef inquired curiously, wondering at the sudden strain in Blade's dark eyes.

"I believe I can explain that, Guru," Lantis bowed to them both, and Blade's eyes widened.

"I can't believe I didn't see it before," he mumbled, and Lantis gave him a half-smile.

"You had other things on your mind before."

"What are you talking about?" Clef snapped, and Lantis began to explain the mysterious story of his heritage.

"Well, now isn't that interesting," but Clef didn't doubt it, because when he looked into Lantis' eyes he saw Alianore's staring back out at him.

"Father lived for two years, trying to struggle with the memories, but what he lost and what the Will had made him see killed him," at one time in Lantis' life he would have been bitter, but since meeting Hikaru, he'd learned that those on whom the blame fell were generally innocent.

"And what did he see?" Clef leaned forward, but Lantis shook his head.

"If Zagato…" he shrugged, "I can't tell you, he never divulged in me, and I was too young to remember it myself."

"It will be horrible," Blade told him frankly. "I hate to tell you this, but Cephiro is not as merciful as we would wish it to be. The Will is a living thing, but it doesn't have emotions like humans do. It will accomplish whatever it sees best for Cephiro; unless you prove to it, it should do otherwise."

Clef chewed the inside of her cheeks and nodded, contemplating, "Then we shall simply have to beat it."

Blade grinned and nodded emphatically, glad to see that the Mage wasn't giving up in light of what he'd learned, but then, he didn't plan to either, "I will help you with this Guru. Alianore is unfortunately being tested in her own way, but I will be here, to take a test of my own."

Clef gripped the shoulder of the former Keeper of the Night in a grim alliance. They both knew what it felt like to lose a loved one to the Punishments of the Keepers, and all they had to do was look at one another to see their own eyes reflected in the other's. They would be dangerous enemies to the Will of Cephiro.

"So you are my Rune God," Alliandre smiled in appreciation of the beautiful creature, which nodded and came forward, nuzzling her hand gently. She grinned and pet the nose of the Unicorn, breathing in a light floral smell that was uncharacteristic of horses, but then, this animal was far from a horse.

"But please, we have lingered long enough, return to the Palace and call me when you have need of me."

And as easily as that, the animal disappeared, breaking into a ghostly spirit and slipping into the ovum on her hand; the sapphire quickly replaced with amber, and her armor evolving as well, shedding all of its watery characteristics and gaining a more earthy nature. She grinned and skipped out, ready to face anything.

Everyone that had ever come in contact with the Magic Knight of Water was packed into Clef's study, each with hard set, determined faces, and unreadable eyes. They sat in a circle, ready to face what would come, and Clef closed his eyes and pushed his magic through all of them, digging through the core of Cephiro, past the Keeper of Magic, past Mokona, into the very heart of Cephiro. Once he was there, he anchored his magic, and sent the world an image of those around him, letting it know who its challengers were.

Thou wish to challenge me? A powerful voice, sexless, and as old as time itself boomed, but Clef didn't shake or shy away; he stayed strong, and answered.

"Yes," he replied calmly, "For the ending of the Punishments, and for the return of the Water Knight."

Very well, then those who wish to challenge, will be tested.

Just as quickly as that, Clef's magic snapped back to him, and he was no longer in his study, but the Sacred Village, in a strange room, decorated in blues and blacks, staring at the back of the most beautiful creature in the world, "Umi," he choked.

"Pull that door shut quietly

Darling what are you doing?

We don't have time for this

I'm crazy, what are you then?

Give me an hour and I'll give you your dream

Don't make a sound

Hush and listen

Keep your head down, we're not safe yet

Don't make a sound, and be good for me

'Cause I know they're waiting, somewhere out there

Leave it, I won't go back

We have to do it 'cause there's nothing left here

Don't care, what do they know?

I've seen it baby, and I know it's real

Short time, I knew they'd come

Are we having fun or what?"

Frou Frou, Shh…