A/N: So this chapter is going to explain a lot. Don't skip this chapter or you might end up not understanding the rest of the story. As always I don't own Escaflowne, just the plot and a few original characters.

Chapter 16: Shedding Some Light

It was early morning when Yukari woke up. She and Amano were lying close together and she didn't want to spoil the quiet moment together. Ever since Hitomi had disappeared, their lives seemed to be in overdrive. First bumping into the professor and now finding the woman who, with out a doubt, was the same in the professor's photograph. Shortly after they had gotten her to the Professor's car she had passed out. It was a quick drive to the professor's home as the woman was seated between Amano and Yukari. The decision was to bring her to a safe place and that was the best they could do. Yukari and Amano insisted that they stay the night to make sure that she would wake up. After the Professor had given up his bed to the woman he offered the couch to Amano and Yukari along with a blanket to cover themselves. The Professor had taken vigilance over his sleeping charge by pulling a chair into the bed room to keep watch over her.

While lost in her thoughts, Yukari heard the soft padding of feet moving by into the kitchen. Regretting to have to leave Amano's embrace, her curiosity got the better of her. The kitchen was closed to the rest of the house by two sliding doors, one in the dinning room and another in the kitchen that lead to the outside. The sliding door in the dinning room was half opened with a dim light crossing the floor. Quietly moving the door over Yukari poked her head in to see the woman they had found standing over the stove. On the range sat a black kettle with the burner beneath it giving a soft red glow.

"Good morning. I thought we could all use something to wake us up. I will have the water ready for tea in a little bit. It took me a while to find some, but I was able to find at least some mint." The woman gave Yukari a tired smile before moving over to the counter and filling a tea strainer with mint leaves while the kettle on the stove started to steam.

Yukari stood flabbergasted. She couldn't think of where she wanted to begin. Instead of letting her jaw hit the floor so she said the first thing that came to mind. "Thanks."

"I would have asked at the park, but how did you find me?"

Yukari started looking for mugs in various cupboards to occupy her nervous hands. "Well, it's kind of hard not to spot a dragon flying in the sky."

The woman turned to her with wide eyes, "You saw the dragon? How!"

"I don't know. The first time I had seen a dragon was when this boy come out of this pillar of light. He said that he was hunting a dragon. I was really scared, but he hilled it, and then took a large stone from its chest. My friend Hitomi said that his name was Van Fanel and that he was from a different place."

The woman seemed to be in deep thought. "So you've met a draconian before. That explains it, but why was Van on earth?"

Tired of waiting for answers, Yukari spoke up. "Sorry to be rude, but who are you."

The woman looked over to Yukari. To the young adult the woman seemed to stand taller and look much wiser, "My name is Ilyssa, guardian of the gate."

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Lady Serra felt proud for her son's deceptive move. Even though he was a made son, it didn't matter to her. Seeing the crushed look on the young king's face as his best friend held a sword to his chest was enough of a reward for her efforts. Out of the corner of her eye Lady Serra caught something glistening down the side of Hitomi's cheek.

"So, young king, you have met my son, Dilandau."

"I truly do enjoy my new home," Dilandau sneered at Van, "Now I will have every opportunity to defeat you dragon. With your girl from the Mystic Moon in our hands you won't have a chance of escape."

"How could…" Van's voice trailed off.

Dilandau laughed, "How could you have been fooled? Easily, your heart is weak and so you wouldn't have expected your best friend to betray you."

"Now, now son we don't need to gloat any further." Lady Serra nodded to the guards at the door to hold Van. Hitomi watched as the guards held Van at the other end of the room with Lady Serra and Dilandau between them.

"What do you want with us Serra?" Van spat.

"Well, I had intended on prying your lovely fiancé to read something for me, but now that you're here I can make someone else do the work. Guards lets take them to the lower laboratories."

Van was roughly shoved out of the room first making it impossible for him to see Hitomi without receiving the pummel of a sword. Again they wound around the twisted corridors of the fortress progressively moving downwards. Van could feel the musty air from the basement as they descended their last set of stairs.

They passed rows and rows of prison cells all with people begging to be let out. Finally they reached the lab that held Lady Serra's project. In the center of the giant room was a stone slab with two pillars standing on top and another being raised into position. Off to the side stood three statues that were at least five heads taller than Van. By their poses they seemed to be asleep standing up.

"Here is how I will live out my dream."

"How can stone ruins give you any sort of control over Gaea? In case you have forgotten, Dornkirk was killed for his attempt to rule Gaea. What makes you think that you won't be stopped?"

Lady Serra moved closer to Van. "What you don't know is that this pile of rubble holds the key to an unstoppable army. Once I have control of this army, it will be my time to take over Gaea, but before I can do that I need to have the writing on these pillars translated. Dornkirk was a fool to let this opportunity pass him."

"You leave Hitomi out of this. Hitomi don't tell her anything!" shouted Van.

Hitomi was immediately silenced by the guard standing behind her who promptly found a rag to gag her mouth.

"Oh, what was that?" mocked Dilandau as he sauntered toward Hitomi, "Is there someone else who can read Draconian? Why yes there is why don't we bring him in?"

Guards at the door walked out quickly and returned with their prisoner standing with his head bowed between them. Van could barely utter a word at the sight before him. A laugh rose from Dilandau bouncing off the walls and stinging in their ears.

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Allen paced back and forth in the captain's cabin while curing a certain king's name. When he had woken up that morning to find Van's bed empty there was no question where he had gone. Now all of his friends waited on edge with their next course of action to be decided. Dryden watched Allen's ranting knowing full well that the actions were for a concerned friend. He sat at the table with a glass of wine in hand only half gone. He had to break the news to Millerna that Van had gone off on his own. After convincing her that she needn't do the same he joined Allen in finding their next move.

A soft knock at the door stopped Allen's movements. He walked over to open the door to let whoever in. Merle stood with a laden tray of food with worry written all over her face. "Millerna said you should eat instead of frying your verves or drinking yourself into a hole."

Dryden promptly found the window and dumped the liquor outside. "Is little Ilya awake yet?"

Merle set the tray of food down and began arranging it while shaking her head. "She hasn't moved since last night. Millerna is with her waiting to see if Van told her anything last night."

"I can't believe that he would go out and do this after we had decided not to do anything until the morning." Said Allen.

"But don't you?" questioned Dryden "I can remember a very hasty knight who would have liked to have destroyed half the country side looking for his sister."

Merle stood fidgeting with the hem of her dress as Dryden talked. Allen saw her nervous movements and walked to her. "Is there something wrong?"

Merle's lip quivered slightly, but she held back all of the tears that threatened to come, "Do you think that Van and Hitomi are alright?"

Allen put a hand on the younger girl's shoulder, "Even if he has gotten himself into trouble he is taking care of her right now."

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Yukari woke up the professor and coaxed him to the table for some tea. She had figured that he would want to hear Ilyssa's story and ask his own questions. Ilyssa was already pouring tea by the time they had stumbled in.

"I'm glad to see you awake." Professor Tomoe smiled to his visitor. She smiled back and handed him a cup of tea.

"If you had not found me last night I would have had a very uncomfortable morning. Waking up on a dirt bed does not sound appealing."

After getting her cup from Ilyssa, Yukari sat down next to the professor. They had only taken a few sips before the air seemed to thicken with unanswered questions. Just before Yukari opened her mouth the professor put a hand on her arm. Confused by the professor's actions he urged Yukari to look over at Ilyssa. Glancing over at her Ilyssa had yet to take a sip of her tea. She held the white steaming cup close to her lips while staring at nothing.

"Ilyssa." the sound of her name caused the woman to jump slightly before looking over at Yukari.

"Ilyssa why are you here?"

"Something has gone terribly wrong.

The professor scrunched up his grey eyebrows, "Will you tell us what is going on? I have a feeling we are only getting a part of the story."

Ilyssa set her cup down on the table. "Things have been set into motion that should never have happened. I shouldn't have been so hasty.""

"Why don't you first tell us why you have come here?" Professor Tomoe reached over and patted the lady's hand.

Taking in a deep breath Ilyssa began to speak, "I came here because we are running out of time. The stone tablet, the one I sent you, needs to be translated as soon as possible. It seems that events have taken place that I didn't plan on happening."

"Why do you need to table translated?" questioned Yukari.

"The tablet holds the final incantations to a gate that has long been forgotten." Ilyssa picked up her cup again, "How much do you know of Gaea?" Ilyssa turned to look at Yukari and Professor Tomoe.

"I've told him everything that my friend has told me."

"I should still give a short history lesson before I try and explain anything, if that's alright with you Professor Tomoe?"

The old man smiled. "I may be old, but I can still learn a thing or two."

"To begin the story, there used to be an ancient civilization called Atlantis. . ."

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"Folken, you're a-alive?" stammered Van.

Folken looked at his brother with lifeless eyes that seemed to gain a glow. "Van!"

"Oh what a touching reunion," said Dilandau sarcastically.

"Why do you need him Serra?"

"Don't you remember Van? Folken was Dornkirk's right hand man, he told everything to Folken, including how to read Draconian and his research notes."

Lady Serra walked towards the ancient stones motioning the guards to move the prisoners closer, "You see Van, this is part of a weapon that the Draconians made to rule Gaea."

"As you can tell by the two holes there are two more pillars left for this to work. Dornkirk had found all five of the pillars, but he thought the use of them since it would have been too straight forward of an approach for him. As far as we know he wrote the location to the five pillars in his journals."

"I will die before I tell you anything written in those journals." Folken stated, venom coursed through his words.

"Oh my dear Folken, you will because I have one thing that will make you do anything." Lady Serra pulled out a dagger from her belt and stood behind Hitomi with the blade lying across Hitomi's throat.

"Don't hurt her!" Van struggled against his guards. Taking action they quickly knocked him out.

"You see Folken; if you don't cooperate I will kill the one thing that is important to you, your brother's will to live." Lady Serra cut the gag from around Hitomi's neck like a hot knife through butter.

"Van!" Hitomi watched as Van shook his head trying to regain consciousness.

Folken's expression was one of a broken man. "I'll do what you say."

"Good, now here is the text with the location of the next pillar." Lady Serra opened up a book of bound pages to the image similar to the pillars and placed it on a table. Guards shoved Folken forward to look at the text. Folken read the words carefully before he gave the news to Lady Serra.

"Your next pillar cannot be reached by any mortal, but by a draconian. It seems that Dornkirk had made it there some how."

"Made it where!" said an impatient Lady Serra.

Folken smiled "To the Mystic Valley."

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Yes this was awfully short for the long time that it has been due, but there were a lot things that I felt needed to be explained before I went into more action. Sorry I have been going through student teaching so I have very little personal time. Thank you as always for reviews.

-EmpKaylenatye