"Rise and shine everybody," Ramza yelled, clanging the bell in the mess hall in an effort to wake up the crew. "We're at Goug."
Everyone groggily assembled on the main deck to yell at him, but after a few moments, everyone gave up and went back into their rooms to go back to sleep. Ramza's head fell into his hands and he groaned.
"Everybody, get back up here," he said, annoyed, and they turned around, equally annoyed.
"Ramza," Balmafula complained, unaware she was giving away her position. "We're all tired. Can't we have a few more hours?"
"Hey, when did she get on the boat?" Meliadoul asked, pointing at Balmafula.
"Um…" Balmafula started, and then turned around and bolted for the cabins. Meliadoul ran after her, screaming something about 'stowaways' and 'freeloaders'.
"Really Ramza," Ophelia said, yawning. "It's three o'clock in the morning. If you give us a few more hours of sleep, and wake us up at seven or eight o'clock, then we might be more receptive to your crazy demands." She yawned again.
"Fine," Ramza replied, crossing his arms and trying badly to hide the fact that he was very pissed off. "A few more hours. But I'll go and find this new mode of transportation."
"Good luck finding your way to it," Mustadio yawned. "We hid it in the outskirts of town somewhere. Father and I are the only ones who know where it is, and we're both going back to bed. If you want to find it, we wait until morning."
Everyone went back into their cabins to get some more sleep. Ramza saw his authority falling apart and ran up to Orlandu.
"Sir Orlandu," Ramza asked frantically, grabbing at his sleeve. "You agree that we must find Mustadio's new mode of transportation and get to Nelveska as soon as possible, right?"
"Yes," Orlandu said, and Ramza's eyes lit up. "However, I also believe that if your warriors are as tired as we are right now, they'll be useless to you. Let us sleep."
Ramza grumbled and muttered something about sloth being a deadly sin, but he eventually gave up and went back to his own cabin to get some sleep.
"Come now, you don't look happy to see me," Buremonda said, walking closer to Reis. "I figured you'd be happy to see your old comrade, Beow."
"Get out of here Buremonda," Beowulf said, and drew the fabled Ragnarök. "And we will spare you the defeat you so richly deserve."
"My dear Beowulf," said the fallen priest, moving closer to Reis, who looked like she was trying to set him on fire with her eyes, which she could probably very well do. "If you couldn't even defeat me when you were at your most powerful, how can you hope to defeat me now, even with this… riffraff."
This enraged everyone, and Kylie pulled out her double Chaos Blades that were thrown at them by mercenary Ninjas in the Deep Dungeon underground, Strawberry pulled out the Mace of Zeus, and Reis simply stood there. Beowulf pushed the Ragnarök in front of Kylie and Strawberry, and they looked at him in confusion.
"He's made some sort of deal with Lucavi," Beowulf said, looking back at Buremonda. "If he gives Lucavi the Holy Dragon, Lucavi will give him eternal life."
"Very good," Buremonda said, grinning. "Where'd you find that out? Oh, no, don't tell me, your local library?"
"Well, close," Beowulf said, putting the Ragnarök back down. "When Ramza went to Murond, I left and searched the libraries for any sort of clue to my lost sword, Hrunting. And I found a demon who's perks matched those I had seen so long ago when you turned Reis into a dragon. You sold your soul for the chance to get me out of the picture and be with Reis, but did you ever stop to think what the demon wants with the Holy Dragon?"
"He will devour her," Buremonda said, looking at Reis. "Which means he will get rid of the curse of the Holy Dragon. Which means it will just be Reis. Which means that I will be able to be with my Reis forever."
"You're insane," Kylie said in disbelief. Then, against Beowulf's protests, she charged forward, and swung both Chaos Blades right at his head. Both blades bounced off his skin harmlessly. Kylie looked frightened.
"Please," Buremonda said. "The Chaos Blade? It's a toy. Let me show you what a real weapon can do." He pulled a slender, sliver blade with two black orbs symbolizing the death of both man and beast on the hilt from his robes and waved it in front of Beowulf.
"That's my sword!" Beowulf yelled. "That's Hrunting!" This threw the five warriors into a frenzy, and they charged at one another. Reis breathed a jet of ice-blue fire at the black priest while Strawberry charged a summon. Buremonda swung the sword directly in the path of the blue fire and split it right down the middle. The flames went to either side of him, and he walked harmlessly through them. He swung the sword at Strawberry in an attempt to stop her summon, but Kylie caught the blade with her double Chaos Blades, saving Strawberry's life. She pushed the Hrunting upwards, and the blade flew out of Buremonda's hands. He growled in frustration.
"If I can't have her," he said, and jumped over Kylie and Beowulf to Reis. "No one can. She will be the fuel. We need the fuel." He grabbed her by the wrist, and looked her deep in the eyes. Reis smiled, and Beowulf looked like he might be sick. Then, Reis opened her mouth and a red jet of fire erupted from her mouth. Buremonda's entire upper body was engulfed in flame, and when Reis's attack dissipated, he merely blinked, and wiped a chunk of brimstone from his eye.
"Nice try my love," Buremonda cooed. "But burning me only makes me love you even more. You always attack the people you love, dear Reis. Come with me to Nelveska Island, and we will rule this world together, you and I."
He held her hands up to his heart, and gently kissed them. Then they disappeared.
"If you want her back sinner," the voice of Buremonda resounded throughout the lighthouse. "Follow me to Nelveska. I will kill you there and take back what belongs to me."
Beowulf picked up Hrunting and looked at it for a bit. Kylie and Strawberry walked up to him, looking apologetic.
"Beowulf," Kylie started, but Beowulf turned around.
"The Hrunting can hurt him," Beowulf said. "That's why he wanted it. He figures that he's safe holed up in Nelveska Temple, but we'll go for him. We're coming for you Verden Buremonda!"
"That's all very heroic," Kylie offered, sheathing her Chaos Blades. "But how exactly are we going to get to-"
Out of the lighthouse window jumped a young female a small, lithe but muscular form with milky white skin. She had a full-length, translucent blue skirt going down to her ankles. Her sleeves, starting at her breasts, were the same color and style and were outlined with dark brown leather. She wore fingerless maroon leather gauntlets and what appeared to be a bronze necklace with three sections of bronze with four spheres inset on each one. Her leather shoes were laced up to just below her knee, and her mythril sword rested safely in it's sheath. Her neat dark brown hair was mostly tied back into a ponytail, except for two wispy strands that refused to be tied back. But the strangest thing was the Ring she wore on her right hand. She stood up, strangely unharmed after jumping out of a hundred-foot lighthouse, and pulled her sword out of it's sheath and pointed it at the three heroes.
"Prepare to die Acolytes of Ajora!"
Christine awoke in a cell with a throbbing headache. She rubbed her head and looked at her surroundings. She was in a small, dingy cage with metal bars and chains strapped to the wall. She saw in the cell next to her knives, whips, head clamps, and all other manners of torture devices one could imagine. It filled her with fear, but she wouldn't show it. It wasn't her way. Which made the whole Malak thing even more disturbing.
But this wasn't even close to the time to think about this. She was trapped in, Ajora knows where, and she was in some sort of cell. And there were two woman lying next to her. One she recognized, one she didn't. The one she recognized was the young Dragoner, what was her name? Reis. Reis Dular.
'Soon to be Reis Kadmas,' she thought as she tried to shake her awake. Reis's cat-like dragon eyes snapped open, and she growled at Christine, and she backed off.
"Don't touch me!" Reis yelled, apparently having one of her trademark mood swings. Rafa had told her that Beowulf was having problems with Reis ever since she had turned back into a dragon. One minute, she was the happy-go-lucky, bubbly, slightly grate on your nerves girl that he knew and the next… Well, it was like she had regressed back to being the Holy Dragon again. Buremonda had damaged her irreparably. Other than these mood swings and her newfound Dragoner powers, no one quite knew the extent the effect of the sudden change from dragon back to girl that Reis underwent had on her.
The other girl that Christine didn't recognize wore the yellow and blue robes of a Calculator. She had brown hair, but her eyes were closed because she was unconscious. Christine went over and shook her too. The girl woke up and looked at her.
"Where are we?" She asked, pulling a hairpin out of her robes and putting her hair up in a bun like all Calculators like. Christine looked around and shook her head.
"I don't know," she replied wistfully. Reis stood up and shuffled over to the other two girls. Then she decided to find out who this girl was, and asked her questions in a pleasant tone. "Who are you and what did you do to the Acolytes to get thrown in here?"
"I might ask you the same question," the Calculator replied, pulling herself up off the floor and onto the small cot that served as a bed. "I mean, for all I know, you two could be dangerous assassins."
"You know," Reis growled. "That assumption is not that far from the truth."
"Reis," Christine chided. "My boyfriend, excuse me, my friend Malak had some sort of Mirror that the Acolytes wanted, and Reis, well, I don't know quite why she's here."
"Who's Reis?" the girl asked.
"Oh my gosh, how rude of me," Christine said, and her face turned a light shade of crimson. She held her hand out and introduced herself and Reis. "I'm Christine Vance, and this is Reis Dular."
"Miranda Sandross," the girl replied, and shook her hand. "My sister Dru stumbled on something, a sword with the crest of Virgo on it. She gave it to me, and I was kidnapped by an athletic red-head wearing mostly leather. I tossed it to my sister before I was kidnapped, and now she has it. She's probably coming for me right now."
"She better not be," Reis said, still in a tiff from earlier. "Or she'd better have help. Have you seen the defenses on this place? It's magically reinforced, and there are Tiamats guarding every entrance. And I think they rewired Worker 7-new. Neither Beowulf nor your sister will be coming for us. We've got to escape on our own."
"Did your Beowulf promise he'd come for you?" Miranda asked, not aware of the intense relationship Reis shared with her fiancé.
"He was challenged by an old enemy," Reis said, and both women realized she was not going to tell them who this 'old enemy' was. "But he won't come for us. Come on, they left us in a cage we could easily break out of."
"Probably on purpose," Miranda scoffed, and Reis looked death at her, so Miranda backed off. Reis blew a concentrated breath of fire on the lock, and it melted away and the cell door popped open.
"If you're afraid Miranda" Christine whispered as she walked out of the cell. "Just stick between us."
"Ah see ya got oot of me cell," a gruff voice replied directly in front of them. He was a stout, muscular man who was only about half Christine's size. He was covered from head to toe in forest green armor, complete with a green helmet with tannish horns, and carried a wicked looking axe that looked like it could cut through all three of them in one swipe. Naturally, they were careful of this tiny man. "But thas alright. It was made for yur escape."
Miranda shot Reis a look, and Reis was clearly not in the mood to hear the words 'I told you so'.
Fully rested after Ramza's early wake up call, Meliadoul rose from her bed and walked out onto the deck of the ship as the other walked off the boarding plank into the Goug City port. She decided to stick around for a moment and breathe in the salty sea air. It was so beautiful. She never understood how people could get seasick. The ocean was so soothing. Cloud had a major case of seasickness. He was still throwing up. And this was Orlandu's favorite, his 'prodigy'. Orlandu had been teaching his swordskills to Cloud, Agrias, and Meliadoul in the past few months. Cloud had already mastered the Dark Knight skills and was plowing through her own at an alarming speed. She and Agrias were still learning the most basic of Orlandu's skills: Dark Sword. Add Orlandu's power to Cloud's limit breaks, and he was one formidable opponent. This angered Meliadoul. She had trained for years to learn those skills, and this upstart was learning them in a few months. She and Agrias were becoming obsolete.
"Hey Mel," Agrias shouted back at her, and this snapped her out of her thoughts. "Are you coming to Mustadio's house or what?"
Meliadoul shook her head.
"No," she replied like Agrias was the dumbest person on the face of the earth. "I'm going to Murond."
Agrias nodded and followed the rest of the group going directly to Nelveska to Mustadio's house in the slums of Goug. When they got there, she was surprised at what she saw. Behind Mustadio's house was a great workshop, probably built with the money Mustadio sent home. He never kept any of his share of the loot when they defeated another clan or group of monsters, but sent it home to his father. Inside dead center of this gigantic behemoth of a garage sat a huge machine covered by a cloth.
"Father and I were going to make the big unveiling next week," Mustadio said. "But then we went to Orbonne and fought Altima, and now this whole business with the Acolytes, I think we should give you guys a special sneak preview." He walked over to a cord dangling at the side of the mysterious object.
"Mustadio," Besrodio said from behind Ramza. He asked him as if he already knew the answer because Mustadio was already there. "Would you like to do the honors?" Mustadio nodded eagerly, and pulled the cord. As it descended, it revealed a huge sideways balloon on the top with what looked like a carriage on the bottom for holding people. It was so large it took Agrias's breath away and left her with only a surprised smile on her face.
"Isn't she a beaut?" Mustadio said like a kid who just unwrapped his new Christmas present. "I call her the Hindenburg. Wanna take her for a test ride?"
Everyone piled on the Hindenburg, and Besrodio, who had come along to pilot the airship, opened the roof of the enormous garage and flew the Hindenburg into the skies.
Meliadoul stood on the deck of the boat that frankly she was getting pretty sick of sailing around in. She rolled her eyes as Ophelia walked up to her.
"Are you as sick of all this boring sailing as I am?" Ophelia asked, nudging Meliadoul in the arm, and she nodded wordlessly. "Well, I've got the cure for that. Haste!"
She slammed her fist down on the boat, and it glowed orange. The boat suddenly sped up and they reached the Murond Holy place before noon, at the cost of a few people's breakfasts.
Meliadoul stumbled off the ship and looked around. It hadn't changed much. It was still bloody from the fight Vormav had started here. All the priests bodies were still there. Funeral's body was probably still inside the Temple. She and Cloud followed Ophelia and Orlandu, the Byblos had decided to stay and guard the ship to secure their probable retreat, into the main chapel, most of them still the color of Meliadoul's cloak. The Chapel of the Temple was still the same as well. The table in the middle of the room that Meliadoul had always thought looked like a coffin, the golden candlesticks, the dim lighting. Everything was just as they had left it. It was a little eerie.
Meliadoul saw a shadow move into the next room, so she ran after it. Her hood fell off her head, revealing her raven hair that she kept pinned up on her head, but right now she had other worries. She made it into the next room and saw a familiar body in golden armor and a gray cloak knelt down by the fireplace. Her eyes flashed when she realized who it must be.
"Hello Kletian."
The sorcerer spun around, Mace of Zeus gripped tensely in his white knuckles, and then he relaxed when he saw Meliadoul. His brown eyes twinkled in the firelight, as did Meliadoul's.
"What are you doing here, Mel," he asked, more of a statement than a question.
"I might ask you the same question," she replied, raising an eyebrow and advancing on him, her hand on her sword.
"Come on Mel," Kletian said, taking a step forward. "Is this what we've been reduced to? Are we really going to fight? After all, we were friends once."
"I'm looking for clues to the Acolytes of Ajora," Meliadoul said, deciding that he could be trusted. "And also anything else of interest here."
"Such as…" Kletian implored subtly.
"I don't know," Meliadoul said, running her fingers through her hair before putting the cloak back over her exposed hair, the threat averted. "I just thought that since these Acolytes worship Ajora, and she was a big part of the Glabados church, maybe there was something here that could help us."
"Well, if you're willing to work with me I think I might have found something that could help," Kletian offered. "Your father said that if Ajora's resurrection didn't go as planned we should seek out the Acolytes." Meliadoul was a little shocked. Her father had never told her that. But then again, her father never told her about Ajora because he knew she wouldn't help him if she knew.
"I'm listening," Meliadoul said, hoping the others wouldn't find her and steal Kletian's trust. She knew that she was pretty much the only person left on earth that Kletian really trusted. If Ophelia, Orlandu or Cloud came in they could blow the only shot she had of finding out if Kletian knew anything.
"I was reading through the libraries in the basement," Kletian continued. Meliadoul walked up to him with an annoyed look on her face and she pulled his grey hood over his head. Kletian continued his speech as if nothing had happened, like he didn't even notice. "And I found that the Acolytes are demons in human form, like Celia and Lede, summoned from the netherworlds directly upon Ajora's death. They are powerful and dangerous, and their leader is called Valdorna. She's a dangerous assassin with a silk tongue. She's deceived a great many warriors to work for her by promising them power or acceptance."
"Melissa…" Meliadoul said wistfully and Kletian furrowed his brow as if to ask if something was wrong. Meliadoul shook her head. "It's nothing. Was there anything else? Like what we should look out for or how to defeat them?"
"Well, I don't know about that," Kletian replied, pulling a book out from the stack and opening it up to a book marked page. "But I found this passage from 'The Story of the Zodiac Braves Volume XIII: Altima' that might be helpful. It reads: 'Should the Holy Arch Angel ever fall in combat, her angels will bring her weapons to her resting place and she will be resurrected. At that time, her angels will be blessed, and she will bring peace to the world.' It goes on to list the specific details of the resurrection, but that's not something we'll need unless we want her to come and destroy the world again."
"Why didn't Vormav use them the first time?" Meliadoul asked because her father had not told her much of his goings on with the Shrine Knights. She went where she was told, and killed who she was told to kill. "You were more keyed in to these things than I was. Father never told me anything."
"I don't know," Kletian pondered, noticing his hood was up and pulling his hood back down off his head. "As you no doubt remember, Rofel was the one in charge of the information department. He was the one doing the research, and he must have had a good reason for keeping it from us. Stop putting my hood up. It's so damn annoying. It messes up my hair."
"Is your hair really that important?" Meliadoul said, shooting him a look and raising an eyebrow. "Look, it's disrespectful to God to wear your hood with your hair showing."
"Only if you're a woman," Kletian shot back, and Meliadoul shot him a death look. Kletian swallowed and backed off. Meliadoul decided that it was time to focus on the mission again instead of her pet peeves.
"So, what do you think these 'four weapons' are?" Meliadoul asked, and she saw Ophelia advancing on her position. She obviously saw Kletian because she went back for Cloud and Sir Orlandu.
"Well, the clues indicate that they aren't really weapons, but just magical objects," Kletian said, flipping through the manuscript. "It said that there was a Mirror, a Ring, a Pendant, and a Staff. The Mirror was hidden in the Deep Dungeon lighthouse but it was moved by Elibidis to one of the deeper floors, the Ring was given to a prominent Zarghidian family called the Sandrosses, the Pendant was hidden in the Nelveska Temple, and the Staff is supposed to be here in Murond."
"But you haven't found it yet," Meliadoul asked. "We should go look for it."
"No need," a voice said from behind them. He was standing in the doorway with Ophelia. Orlandu and Cloud were nowhere to be found. The figure wore golden armor with a red surplice. His brown hair was slicked back and his brown eyes were commanding and powerful. He held a wooden staff topped with a skull in his hands. "I just found it."
"While you were in here flirting with Kletian," Ophelia said, spitting after she said the name Kletian. She must have picked it up from Agrias and Meliadoul. "We explored part of the Temple and found him. King Delita." Delita bowed his head in their direction.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Rafa and the others appeared right in front of the Temple, the place where they found Worker 7-new the first time they were here. Rafa remembered because she had come to look for the Ultimate Javelin and the Golden Escutcheon. There was one thing here that she didn't recognize however. She saw that there were an unusual amount of flowers growing in the courtyard that weren't there before. The others followed behind her and walked into the shrine where Worker 7-new had been found. There they saw a small necklace in the shape of a blue teardrop. Rafa knew she had seen that somewhere before. She shook her head, but decided that it was pretty and she was going to take it with her.
'No sense leaving it here,' she thought to herself as she clasped it around her neck.
"What a bad girl she is," a voice behind her said. "Stealing from the dead." Rafa whipped around and saw a tiny dark-skinned woman wearing a blue dress with a golden plate on her shoulders for protection. She held an oaken staff that glowed with the light of a light blue jewel on its tip. Her helmet was the color of the ocean, deep blue with a hint of green.
"Perhaps we should punish her," another voice boomed next to the mage. It was a giant man with flaming red hair and fiery armor. He carried an enormous flaming sword on his shoulder. His black boots commanded respect. Malak and the others ran up behind them.
"Rafa!" Malak shouted, trying to see past the two strangely dressed people. She stood on tiptoe and waved to him to tell him she was alright. Then she looked at the two new warriors standing in front of them.
"Who are you?" Rafa asked, trying to hide the quaking fear in her voice. "And what do you want with me?"
"We want your necklace," the woman said simply. "As for our names, why don't you defeat us and find out." She charged up a spell in her staff and blasted Rafa into the wall behind her with a torrent of water. That was when all hell broke loose. Luna unleashed her Life Drain spell on the mage while Masahiro knocked an arrow in his bow. Gene sort of ran away and hid outside. Rafa got up, soaked to the bone.
"Fine, you want water?" she said charging up a spell. "I'll give you water! Leviathan!" A large sea dragon materialized behind her and rushed a torrent of water against everyone else. Everyone but the water mage was knocked back. She laughed.
"Foolish human," she said with a sneer. "You can't defeat me with my own element." She broke the wave with her staff, and all the water around her froze in a eerily beautiful ice sculpture. It consequently froze all the others in their spots. No one could move except the water mage, and now the fire warrior who had melted the ice around him and escaped his icy prison.
"Well, perhaps you want to give up," the water mage said cockily, sauntering over to her captive prisoners. "Or maybe you'd like to give us the necklace and we'll let you go."
"Never," Rafa said, spying Gene out of the corner of her eye and trying desperately to draw the attention of the two warriors. "Because you forgot one thing: There were five of us."
Gene threw the spear he had held in his hands at the water mage, but the warrior pushed her out of the way just in time and it pierced him through the shoulder. He winced in pain, and the mage knelt down to cradle his head. He pulled the spear out of his chest.
"Jeriacor," she said, terrified at the thought of losing him. "Sh, it's okay. Here, I'll heal you." She held her hand up to his chest, and his wounds healed. The mage looked like she was in pain as she healed him. Rafa surmised that she was giving of her own life energy to heal her companion. She guessed that they must be lovers, from the way she rushed to his side, and also because of the clear blue crystal set on the warrior's forehead was the same color as the jewel on the mage's staff.
"You," the mage said as the air around her thickened and became moist. "You will pay for hurting my Jeriacor." She thrust the staff in the direction of Gene, but he ducked out of the way just in time and the spell bounced off some of the ice and redirected itself to the back of Rafa's head. Rafa felt her lungs fill up with water. She knew this type of spell from her studies in Riovones' vast libraries. This was an ancient torture spell, lost to most archives, but the Riovones libraries were almost as extensive as the libraries in Orbonne. Her lungs would fill with water over the course of a few hours, and then she'd drown.
The mage smiled sadistically and vanished into thin air as the ice melted around the captives. Malak ran over to his sister and watched her choking to death.
"I've read about this sort of thing," Luna said, running over to her also. "I think it's an ancient torture spell. Vianthan if I'm not mistaken. It's a water-based spell that slowly fills the victims lungs up with water and they drown. Not over a matter of minutes, like normal, but the pain is drawn out to hours. If we can find the source of that Water Mages' power and destroy it, than we can save Rafa."
"So if we kill the mage than we save Rafa?" Malak asked bluntly, and Luna nodded and started to speak, but Malak had already started to sprint towards the enormous tower spiraling to the sky. It disappeared into the clouds.
"Malak!" Malak…" Luna sighed. "Gene and I will stay will stay here with Rafa. Masahiro, you follow him, keep him out of trouble. I'll do my best to keep her alive as long as possible. Just help him out and we'll yell at him for being rash tomorrow later."
Masahiro nodded and ran after Malak as Luna waved her hands over Rafa's lungs as she tried desperately to breathe.
A/N: Wow, that was long and involved. Before I forget, I want to draw your attention to two motifs that I'm trying to work into this story. Watch for the color silver, it's been touched on in the earlier chapters, and also watch for Meliadoul and her obsession with the Shrine Knight hoods, both Kletian's and her own. Try to figure out what they best represent. Prize for the first to get it. Not sure what it is yet, but I'll figure something out. I'm trying to make my writing smarter by putting symbols and motifs and all those other neat literary stuff in it.
I really wasn't planning on expanding this story as much as I did. There will be even more to follow, and I'll resolve some of these cliffhangers.