"Nice to see you again Miss Tingel," Delita remarked. He handed the staff to Ophelia and advanced on Meliadoul. She was unsure of what this reaction meant, so she backed up slowly. He flashed her a slightly sadistic smile, and Meliadoul felt a chill run down her back. "I won't hurt you. You are, after all, one of the Shrine Knights. Oh wait, I forgot, you threw that all away to join Ramza. He is such a naïve fool. Always thinking that everyone can be saved."
"Maybe not everyone," Meliadoul said cautiously, advancing a step on her adversary. "But some people can. He saved me from almost certain death at the hands of Zalera. And the Galthanas were assassins before they met him. And the Vance sisters, the feral women kidnapped as children by monsters. All these people have rallied to his cause because he believed in them. He has unwavering faith in himself, and although it may be a sin, I can respect that."
Delita paused. "Are you finished?" he asked. "That was a rousing speech. I almost shed a tear. The truth is, my dear lady, that no one is worth saving. If evil is one's inherent nature, then they will be evil for the rest of eternity. No one can ever change."
"Well," Ophelia cut in, seeing as how Meliadoul and Delita were now inches from each other's face and looked like they were going to explode into a fit of rage and kill each other. "Now that we have the staff, we should probably go back to Goug. We'll stay at an Inn and take off in the morning."
"Very well," Delita said. "Now give me the Staff."
"Um, Delita," Ophelia said cautiously, wanting the staff but unsure of how to proceed. "I think the Staff would be safer with us. And besides, we wouldn't want any more targets than are absolutely necessary. You'd be needlessly putting your own life at risk." Meliadoul really marveled at Ophelia. She knew where everyone's weak spot was, and she knew which buttons to push, and where, and exactly how hard. She knew enough about Delita to know that he was mainly concerned with his own well-being.
"Fine," Delita said begrudgingly. "We will team up until we prevent Ajora's re-resurrection."
"So let me get this straight," Ramza said, trying to make sense of all the information he was getting. "We now have two enemy forces to deal with: Valdorna and her Acolytes and now Tara Richardson. Miss Sandross and her sister know more of these artifacts than we do. Perhaps Orlandu and his team found something useful in Murond."
"And from what you described Reis," Luna said, holding up the large volume and scanning a couple dozen pages. "It seems as if that cave was formally inhabited by a variety of mushrooms, some of which were hallucinogens. Your fall to the floor must have released the spores inside it. It released what you feared most. Well, maybe not most, but pretty darn close."
"What can we possibly know about these artifacts?" Drusilla asked. "We are just as clueless as you about this. Yes, we know that the Ring I wear is somehow connected to Ajora's rising, but that's it."
"We know that this Necklace also has something to do with it," Rafa continued. "Although we don't yet know what."
"Here," Christine walked forward, holding a tattered book in her hands. She opened it up to about halfway through and began reading. "It says here that 'First one must unlock the door with the Ring. Then, one must place the Necklace where the light meets itself. Then when the Mirror reflects the Light of God onto the Staff, his servant Ajora shall rise to cleanse the earth again.' So each artifact is like a piece of the puzzle."
"But what does the phrase 'where the light meets itself' mean?" Olan thought out loud. "It must be some sort of riddle. What helps something meet itself?"
"A mirror," Miranda chimed in. "A mirror reflects an image. Perhaps that's what meets itself."
"Ajora's Mirror?" Strawberry suggested.
"No," Olan contradicted. "The Mirror is already mentioned by name. They wouldn't go through all that trouble to mention something twice."
"What about the lighthouse," Balmafula suggested. "You know, the one over the Deep Dungeon?"
"Yes," Agrias concluded. "That makes sense. I mean, it was abandoned for a reason. That reason was lost to history. Maybe it was abandoned because it was too dangerous to keep people in it. It was left on the outer rim of the continent. And it has a mirror in it to reflect the light from the lanterns into a beacon leading the ships to shore. Bal, you're a genius."
"I do my part," she replied cockily.
"Now," Ramza said, ever the leader. "Dru, Kylie, Worker 8, I want you to stay on the Hindenburg and guard it. Mustadio, get your father to prep it for take off as soon as possible. I'm going to go find Valdorna. Musty, Agrias, Olan, Reis, you're coming with me. She wants a war? We'll bring her a war. Everyone else, saddle up, we're boarding the Hindenburg."
"I'm not going on that contraption," Dru said haughtily. "I won't feel safe."
"Look princess," Gene said sarcastically. "Unless you can conjure a boat out of thin air, either you're coming with us or you're staying here. There's simply no two ways about it."
"Besides," Miranda coaxed. "They saved my life. Isn't that worth something?" Dru grumbled, but she got on the airship with everyone else. Ramza headed into the building with his team to find the madwoman who started it all. Christine snuck into the building to find Malak.
Masahiro led Malak down the winding staircases of Nelveska Temple after defeating the two lovers in a higher floor. Seeing as how they were alone, Masahiro decided to ask him something he had wondered for at least since he had taken his female pupil under his wing over three years ago.
"So what's the deal with you and Christine?" Masahiro asked suddenly. "Are you two just friends or what?"
"Of course," Malak said, not knowing Christine was standing below him at this very moment. "There were some close calls, but I think that we preserved the teacher/pupil relationship. And cultivated a new one of friendship."
"Malak, if you don't do something about this soon," Masahiro began, trying to warn his friend of his impending mistake. "You'll be looking at a world of lady friends and no one special to call your own. If you can't see that she likes you by now, you're a damn fool."
Christine had always admired Masahiro, but he did have that tendency to be a little too blunt. She had wanted Malak to figure out her feelings for himself, but she supposed beggars couldn't be choosers. Masahiro's advice was enough. Malak shook his head.
"No, you don't understand," he argued, hoping to find a shred of evidence to support his argument. Malak hated to be wrong. "If she did love me, she would have said something by now. We have that kind of friendship."
"This doesn't come from me Malak," Masahiro retorted. They continued to walk down the stairs and Christine followed just in front of them to hear their conversation. "This comes from the experts: this comes from the gals. Pam, Rafa, Luna, Kylie. They talk, and what they say points to Chris having feelings for you."
'Wow, am I really that transparent?' Chris asked herself. The fact that she might be discovered dawned on her, and she ran to the Hindenburg before she was discovered.
Christine and Malak sat waiting inside the Hindenburg. He looked at her, and realized just how close they had become in the past couple years. He had seen her at her worst, and at what so far he assumed to be her best, and their strange, fragile relationship had held through all the trials and tribulations they had endured in the past few months. She had waited for him on the docks of Warjilis, and even now she was looking out for him. When he pulled her out of that hole in Nelveska, he saw a look in her eyes that he had never seen before. Now he thought that he was becoming interested in being more than friends with Christine.
"Malak?" Christine's voice snapped him out of his trance. "Come here, I want to talk to you for a moment." He obeyed, and sauntered over to her. She led him outside the Hindenburg, and they snuck off to a secluded area surrounded on all sides by ruined buildings. There was moss growing all around them, and the place was as verdant as spring even though it was closer to fall. Christine sat down, cross-legged, in the grass, and Malak sat down facing her.
"What did you want?" he asked, although he figured he already knew the answer.
"There's been something I've been meaning to tell you for some time now," she said, her blue eyes locking perfectly with his brown. "Ajora knows why I've been putting it off, but I decided when I got stuck down in that hole that if I ever got out I was going to tell you. Malak, we've been friends for a long time now and-"
Christine was interrupted when Malak grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her deeply. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he traced her slim, muscular form down to her waist. He pulled her closer to him, and leaned back slowly in the moss. She broke the kiss for a moment.
"We should get back," she said, removing her legs from either side of Malak. She stood, and offered him a hand. He took it.
"You're right Chrissie," Malak replied, standing up. "They're probably wondering where we are."
"Oh, about my name," Christine replied, slipping her hand into his. "Just call me Chris. The femininity thing is getting old. And besides, it's so much easier to say."
"Okay Chris," Malak said, entwining his fingers into hers. "It is an odd request, seeing as how not twenty-four hours ago you asked me to call you Chrissie."
"You'll adjust," Christine said smiling. He placed a tiny kiss on her lips as they walked back towards the Hindenburg. "Besides, I only did that because I thought you thought I was a guy."
"So how long has it been Beow?" Tara asked, circling around to his other side, and Beowulf followed her in her circle of death. "Five years? Ten? And not so much as letter? Come on honey, I thought we were closer than that."
"We've never been close honey," Beowulf spat, because his hatred of this gorgeous creature knew no bounds. She had always fostered the hatred between Buremonda and himself, and though they didn't know it at the time, her love of Buremonda was what drove the two friends apart. "I never liked you. And neither did Buremonda."
"You shut your filthy mouth!" She screamed, and launched herself at him. She pulled both swords out of her back sheathes and slashed at Beowulf. He pulled out the Hrunting with equally quick speed and parried her blow. As she flew past him, he kicked her in the back and she fell down into the dirt.
"Tsk tsk tsk," Beowulf taunted, sticking the sword in the ground and leaning his arms on the hilt. He looked at her with taunting eyes unusual for Beowulf. "You never did learn to control that temper."
She got up and spun around with murder in her eyes. She launched herself at Beowulf. Beowulf, who found that fighting enraged opponents was much easier than clear-minded ones, sliced her swords to the ground and hit her in the face with his elbow. She stood up, holding her bloodied nose.
"I've had enough of this," she said, angrily. "If you truly want to know what we're up to, come up to the top of the Lighthouse." She sprinted up to the lighthouse and ascended the stairs just as quickly. Beowulf sat down on the ground, a little out of breath. Granted, it wasn't exactly a difficult battle, but he was getting older. He couldn't hunt dragons all day like he did in his youth, or pretend to hunt them like he did in a much more distant youth. He was sometimes alienated from the group because of his age difference from them. Even Reis was about the same age as some of them, but he and Orlandu surpassed everyone else by at least five years, Orlandu by about thirty more. And besides, Reis had made friends with the mage Rafa, which was amusing because Beowulf suspected the young woman, and she was a woman as Beowulf had noticed, had a schoolgirl crush on him. It was harmless of course, but that made her association with Reis that much more unusual.
Beowulf felt something move underneath him. He immediately jumped to his feet with reflexes refined since he was a teenager. Suddenly, out of the earth, human-like creatures made of clay rose up and began to take a swing at him. He jumped out of the way, and the clay monster split the ground where Beowulf had just stood into pieces that flew into the air and then back into the hole created by the creature's great fist.
"What are these things?" he cried as the continued to come after him. There were about four or five. One launched itself at him, quite literally, and tried to encompass him in his clay body. Beowulf dodged to the left, and brought back his sword. He screamed out one of his Temple spells, and the creature slowly froze and turned to stone. Satisfied it was down for the count, he moved to the other four mud creatures. But it wasn't done. The stone monster slowly broke it's position and grabbed Beowulf by the cape. It pulled him back away from the others as Beowulf tried desperately to cast another Temple spell to incapacitate it, but it used it's other arm to bind his behind his back. He was being advanced on by the mud monsters and he figured he was done for. Then he remembered his brief training as a Black Mage, and he muttered an incantation for the most basic Black Magic spell: Fire. It worked almost instantly. Beowulf was surprised. Usually magic took time to charge, and by then, most mages were dead. Summons were even worse. But this spell worked with almost no time delay. One of the monsters caught fire and began to scream in an unearthly tone that almost made Beowulf's ears bleed. Two of the others went to beat it out.
'Good,' Beowulf thought. 'One I can handle. Four is a different story.' He pushed back on the creature ahead of him with his feet and toppled the rock monster behind him. Sure, it was almost invincible, Beowulf had a more refined type of Break spell that was harder than others, but that power came with the off-set of a very top-heavy being. It went down, and it let go of Beowulf. He used this opportunity to cast Sleep on the one charging at him, and it dropped back into the ground, harmless mud again. Beowulf smirked, and the other two that were beating out the fire on their companion got up and looked intent of beating on him instead. He cast Sleep on one of them, and it turned back into mud. Confident he had enough magical energy, he decided to try a different spell. He swung his sword, and the mud monster turned into a small yellow chicken and ran in the other direction. The flaming mud monster got up and slowly swung a flaming fist at him and he sliced it's arm off. Then he cut off the head and the other arm, and the legs. It fell to the ground, useless and dried and cracked. It broke apart. The rock monster charged at him and he jumped out of the way, and used up the last of his magical energy to cast a final Sleep spell on it. It turned into a harmless rock statue. He slumped down next to the defeated rock creatures and sighed.
"Come on Reis," he thought aloud, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "Where are you baby? I need your strength."
Ramza and his troupe went back into the Nelveska Temple to find any traces of the Acolytes they might have left. Any clues to what their next move might be. Either fortunately or unfortunately for them, they got something even better. Or worse.
"Aye me pretty gal," a gruff voice came from the entrance. "Ah see ya escaped me pit."
"Nice to see you again, Gamling was it?" Reis said sarcastically. Apparently the dragon had taken over again. "I will be so glad to be rid of you." All of a sudden she spit a fireball from her mouth into her hand and threw it at Gamling. It bounced harmlessly off of his armor.
"Magic powers I have not," Gamling replied. "I'm not a fighter or a strategist. But my armor is impenetrable. Nothing can get through-"
An arrow suddenly whizzed through the air and planted itself into the tiny gap in Gamling's helmet. He dropped instantly dead to the floor, his armor clattering loudly, and Ramza looked back to see where the arrow came from. Ophelia looked up at them, her blue eyes glittering in the midday sun streaming through the tiny windows. She wore an expression of boredom, as if she could do this in her sleep, which was probably true. She still wore the outfit of a Mediator, but held a bow in her hands.
"What?" she asked flippantly.
In Murond, Meliadoul grabbed Ophelia by the arm and dragged her into an adjacent room with a powerful tug that only Agrias could have matched.
"Alright Kaishou," Meliadoul said gruffly but softly once they were alone. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"Do what?" Ophelia asked innocently. She did not like Meliadoul, and she did not like Malak. She didn't like Christine, or Pamela, or Strawberry. She didn't like anyone who she had to fight in battle. Like Delita, she did not put much in the fact that a person could change.
"You brought Delita here, didn't you?" Meliadoul yelled quietly. "I was getting some information out of Kletian and you ruined it all for your own petty rivalry with me."
"And what exactly were you getting out of Kletian besides a rise?" Ophelia asked cruelly. "Face it, you want him and you were trying to get him to want you too."
"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Meliadoul retorted. "I found out that Ajora has four artifacts: a Ring, a Staff, a Mirror, and a Necklace. Now, Rush has the Mirror and we have the Staff. If we can find the Necklace and the Ring-"
"You're just angry that Ramza likes me and not you," Ophelia barked at Meliadoul, and that was when Meliadoul snapped. She slapped Ophelia across the face, and her hood fell off her head and exposed her dark brown hair. There was an evil look in her eyes, and her top lip was twisted up in a scowl. Ophelia looked a little afraid and backed away a step or two.
"Don't ever do that again, Opie," she spat out Ophelia's name. "Or I will snap you like a twig." She put up her hood again and suddenly her demeanor changed back. "Sorry about that. Just, don't ever make a female knight mad, Agrias included."
As she walked away, Ophelia stood there rubbing her stinging cheek. Okay, so it didn't hurt, but she was still surprised Meliadoul had done that. Except in battle, she was usually a pretty docile person. Ophelia never knew she had such a dark side to her. Well, sure, she had the whole almost a Zodiac Brave thing going for her but Ophelia didn't think that was enough to make her evil. This was the first time that Ophelia began to worry about the state of Meliadoul's conscience.
"Ophelia," Orlandu called to her in his quiet way. She snapped out of her trance and ran over to her mentor. Well, he was her mentor and not her teacher. Orlandu was the oldest and wisest person on the team which meant that, unfortunately for him, most of the team came to him with their problems. It could not bode well with the Holy Swordsman's conscience.
"Sorry Orlandu," she apologized, and followed him to Delita's private boat. It was much faster than Jack's boat. Orlandu walked up to it and it took his breath away. It was gorgeous. The carving on the front was of a gorgeous mermaid that, now that Orlandu thought about it, looked a little like Queen Ovelia. His eyes continued down the ship. It was made of mahogany, a rare and beautiful but expensive wood at the time. Orlandu guessed that it was fairly new, considering Delita had only been king for a few months and he already saw his symbol, a white lion and a black lion back-to-back with a wolf's head above them both, uniting them, was already engraved into the right side of the boat. He was known throughout the Kingdom as the White Wolf because of his ferocity and his being the last surviving member of the Black Sheep Knights after the death of Barin Grims. The name "Alexa" was painted on the side.
Ophelia noticed the name too, but not quite in the same detail that Orlandu's excellent eyes did. The name Alexa did ring a faint bell to her, but she couldn't remember what it was.
"That's a pretty name," Ophelia heard Meliadoul remark. It snapped her out of her trance and she listened to Delita. "Where did you get the idea to call her Alexa?"
"It was my mother's name," Delita remembered darkly. Alexa Hyral. He didn't know her very well but from what Dycedarg had told her when he and Teta were young, before the Lion War, he was actually a rather decent human being, she was a beautiful woman. She had dark brown hair the color of stained wood, and deep brown eyes that one could drown in. Delita and his father never really got along, but his beautiful mother stuck out in his mind. No one else knew, but he had overheard Dycedarg and Balbanes talking about his mother. The last thing she did before his father contracted the Plague was put Delita and Teta in the care of Balbanes, who was still healthy at this time. She never really got the Plague at first, but she decided she wouldn't leave her husband. Ramza and Delita were seven, Ophelia was eight, and Teta was six.
At the tender age of six, Teta still didn't know much about her parents. Delita remembered Ophelia asking Teta about her mother once, and all she got was a vague "she was nice" whenever she asked about her. Ophelia did not learn tact until she was in her early teens. She realized then that pressing the question about one's dead mother is not a good idea. Better late than never, Delita always said. Anyway, Delita had overheard Dycedarg and Balbanes talking about what his mother was doing right before she gave her children up. She used the last of what little money they had to buy her daughter a little silver pendant. Delita could imagine the scene playing out in his mind.
His mother stooped down and kissed her young daughter on the forehead. She pushed a few locks of the child's chestnut hair behind her ear, telling Teta to be a good girl. She pulled the locket out of her pocket and slipped it over Teta's head. She patted her on the head and sent her off with her husband's Lord. Alexa Hyral was beaten as a child, and she promised herself long ago that she would not let anything happen to her children. She would never have told her children, but Alexa Hyral had to cut off much of her hair (given that he was only seven years old when he last saw her, Delita wouldn't have noticed the change) to pay for the locket she gave her daughter. She kept one of the locks, and placed it inside the locket and closed it tight so that Teta would not be able to open it until she was older and knew better than to open and close it constantly.
A few other people knew about the locket: Ramza heard about it from Alma, who asked Teta about it, and Ophelia and Dorothy, who were also friends with Teta, and obviously Delita, but that was it. Only a few people knew it even existed. Delita could feel it's cold silver against his skin, and he sighed at the memory of his dead mother.
'No time for nostalgia,' Delita thought to himself. 'I've got to get to the Deep Dungeon lighthouse.'
"All aboard for Deep Dungeon," he said, boarding his boat. "Who's coming?"
"I believe that Cloud and I will make use of this excellent training facility and spar a bit," Orlandu said softly, rising from his seat in one of the chairs. "I would like him to perfect and center his Icewolf Bite."
Meliadoul was slightly taken aback, although her years of Shrine Knight training allowed her to show no emotion. It had taken her many long and difficult battles to learn Icewolf Bite, and this, child, had already almost mastered it. Soon, he would have all of Meliadoul's skills, as well as Gafgarion's and his own, and she would become obsolete. This scared her more that just about anything. Most of all, she did not want to be useless.
Even Agrias was learning skills faster than she. Not at the same rate as Cloud, but still better than Meliadoul. She had already learned Dark Sword and was just about to learn Night Sword, arguably the most useful sword ability. Orlandu wanted to pass his skills on so that they would not be forgotten. Dark Knight is a dying job class: Gafgarion was one of their last, and no new ones were being trained by law of King Omdolia years before. She always wondered why he didn't just move away and start a school for people who wanted to learn his skills instead of encroaching on her territory.
Of course, she would never share these thoughts with anyone, but the jealousy was still there, rearing it's ugly head in the back of her mind. She guessed that most of the fear of being obsolete stemmed from her jealousy that Cloud had learned something in a few days that had taken her a good couple months to learn. She should be happy for Cloud, and she knew it, but still…
"I'll go with you," Kletian shrugged nonchalantly. "Got nothing better to do, besides sit around here and read, and I do enough of that at home."
"Ramza would want me there too," Meliadoul chimed in, deciding to follow Kletian and see if she could get anymore out of him. "What about you Ophelia?"
"Well, I can Teleport, if I concentrate hard enough," she thought out loud. She stretched her hands out to their full extent, then pulled them back together with a clapping sound, dusting off her hands. "I think I'll go check on Ramza on Nelveska. Wish me luck."
She concentrated hard, and suddenly her whole body disappeared. Ophelia was quite a good teleporter in Meliadoul's opinion. She had come a long way in her magical skills since Meliadoul had first met her in Bervenia. Meliadoul had sure felt the sting then. Ophelia hit her full in the chest with a Flare spell, damn near killing her. That was what caused her to retreat. What was worse, their Archer Masahiro had snuck in and stolen her Defender right before she was hit. This angered Meliadoul at the time. Now she couldn't for the life of her remember why.
Delita, Meliadoul, and Kletian boarded the "Alexa" and waved goodbye to Orlandu, Cloud, and the Byblos as they sailed off for the Deep Dungeon Lighthouse. Meliadoul had already noticed that the "Alexa" was exponentially faster than Jack's ship, so they would probably get there in less than a day. She was feeling a little seasick.
Ophelia popped into view right in front of Malak and Christine as they walked back towards the Hindenburg. They jumped back in surprise, and Christine put her hand on her heart and began to pant heavily.
"My God Ophelia," Christine yelled. "Don't ever do that again."
"Sorry," Ophelia said, checking around to make sure she was all there. She had heard horrific stories of people who tried to Teleport before they were ready. Their limbs or organs were left back where they started and not carried with them to their new destination. Dismembered from their bodies. Once, Ophelia had experienced an embarrassing occurrence: she had teleported into her room from Ramza's, but left her clothes behind. She came out wrapped in a blanket when he knocked on her door with her clothes in his hands. She will always remember what Strawberry said when she turned up naked in front of her.
"Nice shade of red Ophelia," Strawberry had said, referring to the color of her face.
"Where is Ramza?" she asked. "I have a few things to report to him. We found one of the Weapons of Ajora. The Staff. I guess the Mirror is one of the Weapons too."
"We have in our possession right here the Ring and the Necklace," Malak said to himself. "And if Rush has the Mirror and the others on Murond have the Staff-"
"Rush no longer has the Mirror," the traitorous voice of Melissa O'Bannon permeated across the mostly barren and deserted plain. Christine, Malak, and Ophelia turned towards the source of the voice, and it was indeed Melissa. She was accompanied by who Ophelia assumed to be Beowulf's archrival Buremonda. "It is in our possession now. Should you wish to reclaim it, you will come to the lighthouse in the Deep Dungeon. Your friends will be waiting there."
Both villains disappeared with a puff of smoke. Ophelia turned to Malak and Christine and barked at them to get the vessel ready while she went in and got Ramza. As she ascended the stairs, she saw Ramza and some other standing in front of a stout man in forest green armor bragging about being "invincible".
'Let's find out how invincible you really are,' Ophelia thought, knocking an arrow in her Yoichi Bow. She let it fly, and it hit true to it's mark right between the man's eyes. Ramza and the others turned around and Ophelia looked bored, mostly for show.
"What?" she asked flippantly.
A/N: That's the last you'll see of Gamling, finally, but not the last of Melissa. She'll be back, as will Valdorna. Just be patient. Kletian and Delita will have more chapters from their point of view (hopefully) later on, and maybe a little will be made up, I mean revealed, about Delita's father. Let me know if you liked what I did with Alexa Hyral. Yeah, that pit thing still doesn't make sense but it won't matter much longer.
Anyway, Malak and Christine are finally together. Yay. But that means one less storyline to play off of. Damn. The whole rock monster thing just came out of nowhere. Random battle maybe. Oh well. Pretty soon everyone will be together again, and maybe I'll bring back all the people that are in Warjilis right now, even Alma. And more on Mustadio, because he hasn't done anything yet and I like him.