So, again I don't own Escaflowne. Though, I wish I could at least own Van Fanel This chapter is the new chapter 9, much better than the last!

Chapter 9: And the Gears Begin to Turn

Van and Hitomi sat outside in the gardens watching the sun turn a deep purple and slowly blush to a pink. Both sat hand in hand talking about various duties that Hitomi was now required to do as becoming queen and on other more intimate details.

"Van there is something that I forgot to tell you about earlier last night."

"What is that Love," Van leaned over and kissed Hitomi's forehead as her checks grew hot from the new pet name.

"I meet Lady Serra from the Kasher Mountains last night."

Van turned to face her, "What did that woman say to you." The venom in his voice was obvious.

"Well, she had seen Ilya playing by the fountain and thought her to be insane. She was talking about how scientists could fix her." Hitomi watched as Van balled up his fists, "Then I had a vision."

Van put his hands on Hitomi's shoulder's, "What happened?"

Hitomi relived the vision to Van who nodded when she was done.

"Then when you found me out in the gardens I was checking up on Ilya. I saw her talking to the fountain again."

"I wonder if she is alright." The anger in Van's face slowly faded to concern.

"Well, if she is crazy then so am I because I heard the voice that she was talking to."

"What did they talk about?"

"The voice told her that she was being watched over, but Ilya needs to be watching over a key and . . . us. The voice talked about a royal couple, and well, so far the only royal couple that Ilya has been around are the two of us."

Van nodded in agreement, "I wonder who Ilya really is. I have been questioning her story for a while now. I had a couple of guards sent out to see if there were bodies to buried, but they returned finding or hearing of nothing."

"Hmm . . .Van, the voice also spoke about a draconian protecting her. Do you think that you are suppose to be protecting Ilya?"

"I'm the only draconian that I know of still alive, so that would make sense." Van looked away from Hitomi trying not to remember about Folken, but Hitomi knew better.

"You miss him, don't you Van."

"It would have been nice to have him here today." Hitomi leaned against Van's shoulder and squeezed his hand. But the comforting moment was ruined when shouting was heard coming from the palace.

"The guards are most likely worried because we weren't in our rooms last night." Van chuckled softly making Hitomi giggle as well. Reaching down Van gently kissed Hitomi's lips. Hitomi looked up when they broke apart, but found it hard to take her eyes away from him until a bounding cat yelling at the top of her lungs came towards them.

"Van! Hitomi!"

Hitomi smiled at the cat girl's enthusiasm, but when the girl neared the couple she could see the concern written on her face. Once she was standing next to the couple, she had to take a few moments to let her breath catch up. Van moved closer to Merle as she began to speak in ragged breaths.

"Castelo . . . Fort. …attacked last night…" Van was immediately in motion towards the castle with Hitomi hard on his heals. Merle was forced to follow their mad flight into the castle when they came upon a grim looking group, most still wearing nightclothes.

"Allen what happened?" Asked Van.

"I received information that Castelo Fort was attacked during the ball. I'm leaving immediately."

"I will accompany you," stated Van.

"As will I." answered Hitomi.

Van shook his head, "Hitomi you can't come."

"Why not!" Hitomi stood with her arms crossed around her chest. Not wanting her to feel hurt, Van gave a pleading look to the rest of their companions who began to walk away. Unable to find an eloquent way of making her stay out of harms way, Van just said what came to mind.

"Hitomi, it is too dangerous for you to go."

"The last time I was Gaea I wasn't told where I could and couldn't go. Why is now any different!" Hitomi's face was slightly flushed with anger.

Van sighed, she was right. "Hitomi, the last time you were on Gaea, you were a strange girl that had come from the Mystic Moon. I didn't realize how important you were to me, until you left. I never wanted to see you leave and if you were hurt during battle, I wouldn't be able to control myself."

Hitomi stood frozen to the spot. She could see turmoil in her lover's eyes Although staying behind would drive her crazy not knowing what was happening, she knew that she had to let him go alone. Moving closer to him, Hitomi wrapped her arms around his neck putting her cheek against his.

"Come back to me alive." she whispered.

"I will Love," Van kissed her cheek and then headed towards his room to prepare for the worst.

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It was early morning by the time Lady Serra's airship had landed back inside her fort. Despite the summer air in the Fanelian Forests, it was still cold winter in the high mountains. Lady Serra had changed back into her warm leather attire before walking out into splintering winds. Once she was inside she immediately went to her labs finding Philos waiting outside a specifically prepared chamber.

"Is everything ready?"

"They are both ready. Do you wish for me to start now?"

"Give me a few moments before you do your work." Philos nodded and let Lady Serra step inside.

Strange machines hummed all around the fast room. Chemicals burning in vials giving off gases left a vile taste in the mouth. Two tables were set up in the middle of the room. One each one was a person strapped tightly to the top. Tubes were hooked up in strange manors around and inside the people. The person on the right was unconscious from the events of her kidnapping. Lady Serra remembered when the history of the girl had been put in her lap. It was then she decided that she could start her plans. The other table occupant was wide-awake on his table, but kept his eyes away from the visitor.

"Hello mother." Tyrune spat.

Lady Serra just walked over to his table. "I'm really going to enjoy this. Once the operation is done my plans will be in full motion and there will be no one to stop me."

"Van will."

"Oh, your friend king? It doesn't matter because not even he could stop me right now. Soon I will have a son at my side. One who doesn't not spend his time worrying about the people who serve him and preservation of life."

"And what is so wrong with being kind to those who help you." Tyrune turned angry eyes over to Lady Serra.

"Then again, look who I am talking to. A woman who would put her own husband in the line I fire just so she would be in control once he died. A woman who puts her own son's life-"

Lady Serra bent over Tyrune "You are not my son! Once this operation is complete my true son will be born and I will have control over Gaea. There will be no one to stand in my way once the weapon is found, no one!"

Storming out of the room, Lady Serra nodded to Philos who urged his assistants into the room. Folken was laying asleep in his cell when two ear piercing screams could be heard through thick stone. Waking up with a start, Folken began to pray. Still on her rampage, Lady Serra nearly ran over the foreman that was trying to gain her attention. It was his seventh call to her that she finally realized that she was ignoring him.

"Yes, what is it foreman." She said sharply.

"My, my lady. The miners in the Northwestern caves have found something near the spot the pillars and stone slab were found." The foreman twisted his working gloved under Lady Serra's stern gaze.

"What did you find?"

"My lady, we found this stone statue, just a little bit shorter than a guymelef."

"My patience is thin, what was so interesting about this statue."

"My lady, we found more than one. There have been easily a dozen recovered and we have found even more."

Getting a little interested, Lady Serra backed off her glare. "Did you find anything on these statues?"

"Some writing, my lady, written on the sword that they hold. Also, there are discs attached to statues. We were able to get these from a few that were rubble when we found them."

The foreman handed Lady Serra three discs of stone each made with a different material. One was made of jade, another made of limestone, and the last was made of turquoise. This odd clue left Lady Serra wanting more.

"Foreman, I want you to have one of the statues sent here to my labs. This mystery may be solved yet."

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Hitomi and Millerna sat next to each other on the couch. Everyone left had gathered in Van's sitting room and began pouring over the scrolls and texts. Eventually, Ilya and Prince Chid became very bored and left the room to go find a place to play. Dryden and Merle say at a circular table with a mound of books every once and a while seeming to come up with something that ended being nothing. They were pouring over religious books, trader logs, and journal scrolls to still find nothing about the dragons' behavior.

Hitomi was determined to help in anyway and decided to learn to read their language. Millerna was helping her, but she didn't need to give much guidance. Quick to catch on to their text, Hitomi would only lean over every once and a while to ask what a word was. They had started looking through the texts immediately after the Crusader had left Fanelia and this was the closest Hitomi could be to helping. After going through several texts already, she was beginning to feel like giving up.

"Is anyone finding anything?" she said half-heartedly.

Millerna shook her head as she stood up and went to the bookshelf to find another scroll. Hitomi took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. For only looking for a few hours, she began to feel the fatigue of struggling to read as well as it being a beautiful morning outside, while the group was gloomy on the inside. Picking up a scroll from the pile on the table in front of her, she set out yet again. The scroll that she had picked was very yellow from the toll of years on it. The parchment was so brittle to the touch that Hitomi was afraid that it would crumble away in her hands. Slowly unrolling, the top of the parchment revealed a sketch of a pillar with words written below.

Millerna was returning from finding more books when she looked up at Hitomi's astonished face. "Hitomi, did you find something?"

"I think so."

Dryden and Merle quickly left there studying to stand behind the couch the two girls were sitting on.

"Well, Hitomi read the scroll." Merle said impatiently.

"One moon passing after a king of Astoria had been crowned signifying the end of the war of the dragons, the miners of the Kasher Mountains came down to give a sign of peace to their neighboring country. The royalty family that presided over the miners presented the gift of a stone pillar. As ordinary as the pillar seemed they claimed the pillar to have been found in the Mystic Valley, though their own records of how it came into their possession was a mystery. The king had the pillar placed in the general courtyard so all may appreciate the gift. The writing at the bottom of the pillar is nothing that any scholar has been able to read thus far. Many of them say the writing is much like the old Draconian writing. Here is a sketch of the words written." Hitomi looked down at the washed out words and sighed. "I'm sorry, but the text is really faded here. Millerna, what was the war of the dragons?"

"Oh, that was a horrible war that happened about five centuries ago. It was war between several great families who were fighting over land. The house of Astoria and Fanelia were two of these. It was given the name war of the dragons, because the fighting was much like two dragons fighting over their territory. One dragon would end up killing the other just for the hunting grounds."

"My dear, I'm surprised you remembered all of this. I thought that you didn't take much interest in history." Chided Dryden.

Millerna gave him a playful swat to the arm, "Of course I know this because of my family lineage. I'm a direct descendant of the throne from the first crowned king of Astoria. Do you know how many times my father complained about not having any sons to pass on the royal blood line. You are the first king to sit on that throne that was not a son of the first King Aston."

"For which I am very grateful for, because if I had, marring my sister would be much too complicated." At the comment both Millerna and Merle began to beat Dryden up.

Ignoring the rowdiness next to her, Hitomi had continued to read through the scroll. "Hey, there is something else written here." Her three friends immediately quieted down.

"After the gift was presented to the king, a bad omen passed over the city of Palas. Two dragons flying in single formation flew over the courtyard. Many villagers were afraid and would not come out of their homes."

"Oh, I remember that omen now." Millerna jumped up from her seat.

"This bad omen started during the war of the dragon. Armies would look for dragons flying overhead. If they saw dragons flying in pairs they had all sorts of superstitions about how the battle would turn out. A single formation must have meant that the arm would fall in battle."

"Hum, this is most definitely new information." Dryden scratched at his stubbly beard. "I'll see what I can find on old army accounts during the war of the dragons"

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It was just before high noon that Van and Allen could see the smoke coming from where Castelo Fort had once watched the horizon. Landing in the spot where the Crusader always docked, they were meet with only a handful of survivors. The survivors that were unharmed and the crew helped those badly injured into the Crusader. A guard stationed at the fort was pulled to the side by Allen.

"Where is Celene?" His voice barely controlled the edge of fear.

The soldier shook his head, "I'm sorry sir, but it was Celene they were after. Once they got her, they began destroying the rest of the fort."

Van walked up to the soldier, "Who kidnapped Celene?"

"It was Dragon Slayers your highness."

Van and Allen exchanged glances before they helped the rest of the injured aboard. Van could see Allen growing angry by the second and decided to stay out of the way for the return trip to Fanelia. His thoughts drifted to Hitomi and her standing by his side during the battles with Zaibach. 'What if they had attacked here, waited for myself to leave and then attacked Fanelia.' The sudden thought sprung Van from his seat to the helmsman to speed the flight along.

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'What is this darkness? The last thing I remember was the battle that I was having with that dragon and now this darkness. Am I dead? No, I can still feel my fingers move, but why is it so dark?' Opening his eyes, the man laying on the table blinked a couple of times before his vision began to clear. A pain on the back of his head caused him to reach behind and rub at the sore spot. The small bit of movement caught the attention of workers in the room. A few hurried over to him taking off the straps that he didn't see holding him to the table while another went out of the room. Fighting off the workers from helping him to sit up, he looked over to the other workers who had just un-strapped a girl from the table next to him and were carrying her out. For some reason the girl looked very familiar, but before he had anytime to question two other familiar faces walked into the room.

They kneeled at the table, just at his side. "Master Dilandau, welcome back."

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