Enter The Light

Part Fifteen: Interval Space

Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon characters, etc are not mine. Plot is. Go away lawyers.

Takeru awoke to find the light of dawn shining in his eyes and a gentle, warm breeze tickling his nose. He wondered if he was dreaming, because he didn't feel awake. He rolled over and shut his eyes again, aware of a soft, fluffy pillow and warm blankets. For a few moments, he was dead to the world.

Then, he heard a dull noise some distance away, and his mind was jolted into reality. Without even being aware of his movements, he sat up, rubbing his eyes and blinking in the brightness of the room.

Patamon was still asleep, curled into a ball at the end of the bed. Takeru moved his right foot and felt it tap against his partner's soft underbelly. Giggling in his sleep, Patamon rolled on to his back, his long ears spreading out beneath him. He mumbled contentedly, and Takeru found himself unable to resist the urge to attack the unprotected underside of the small digimon. He tickled him lightly with his fingertips. Patamon giggled more, rolled left and then right and then finally awoke, laughing harder. Takeru laughed until his stomach ached and Patamon stared at him, indignant.

The room was spotless and clean and appeared to have been untouched in the time he had been away. A gentle breeze wafted through the partly open window, rustling the curtains. Takeru saw that a freshly laundered set of clothing was at the edge of his bed and his digivice was resting safely on the nightstand. He swung his legs over the side of his bed and made his way to the window.

Below, the grass had begun to take on the greenness of spring. There was a damp smell to the air, the previous night's rain having only recently finished. Gardeners were already busying themselves in the courtyard below, pruning the blooming shrubs, planting flowers, removing the already strong weeds.

"They don't remember being asleep," Patamon noted, following his partner's gaze. "They lost eight days."

"I'm not sure if I ought to be envious…," Takeru replied, turning away from the window. He slid shut the heavy curtains and removed his night shirt. He yawned as he stretched his arms over his head and sighed.

Frowning in thought, Patamon watched his partner dress for a few moments. "You want to lose time?" he asked, confused.

Fastening the top button of his shirt, Takeru shook his head. "No," he answered immediately.

"So – what are you envious of, then?"

"Well…." He ran his hands idly through his hair, doing his best to neaten it. "I envy that they all stayed at home – that they all remember nothing of what happened." He shook his head and the hairs fell out of place again. "I get to remember things for the rest of my life, though."

Patamon flapped his ears enough to gain altitude and perched on his partner's head. "So you want to have amnesia?"

This elicited a chuckle. Takeru pushed back the curtains once more and then pushed open the window and took a deep breath. The trees were nearly ready to bloom, he could smell the faint scent of blossoms on the breeze. "No," he answered, watching a few people wander the gardens below. "I want – I don't know what I want. I don't want people to be sad, but I don't – I don't think I want to spend the rest of my life fighting, either."

"But… if you don't fight and then people are sad?" his partner questioned.

"If I have to fight to keep evil and darkness away from this place, then I'll do it," Takeru said then with conviction. "I just wish I didn't have to."

Miyako half-expected anger, but it didn't come, and in a way she felt worse because of that, for she couldn't defend herself or explain. Hikari had barely spoken, but she had a certain expression in her eyes that betrayed an inner hurt. Miyako had seen it when Vamdemon's evolution was finally defeated, deleting in a massive bright implosion caused by a full on attack by two of the most powerful digimon ever to appear to human eyes.

For a moment, they had all stared with gaping mouths and wide eyes, and then Koromon had appeared, de-evolved, and Tsunomon, and both Yamato and Taichi had forgotten their shock and given way to a proud sort of relief, running forward to catch their exhausted partners in their arms. Then, everyone else had felt relief and a sort of joy had overtaken the group, putting aside their exhaustion for a brief period of time.

Miyako had seen then, in Hikari's eyes, exhaustion more clear than anyone else's – and why shouldn't it be, for she had done more than anyone else, been at more risk than anyone else – and she had seen a sort of confused hurt.

Hikari knew, Miyako was certain. But in the days since they had returned home she had said nothing about it. Perhaps she had put it from her mind for the time being or even forgotten it, though that seemed doubtful.

She was also distant from everyone, barely making eye contact or seeming to pay attention to anyone who spoke. Takeru, Miyako, and Taichi tried their best to cheer her up or to at least determine what was wrong, but Hikari seemed entirely uninterested.

Outside, in the sun, Miyako tried her best to focus on meditation but her mind kept wandering back toward Hikari. It was some time before she was able to absorb herself in a meditative trance and keep her focus on her aura and the magic around her. She scarcely noticed someone sit beside her on the garden bench and was thus surprised when she finally opened her eyes and saw Hikari sitting beside her, watching her closely.

For a moment there was silence and then Hikari finally spoke.

"None of this seems real."

Taichi had been unfocused, too, despite the work that continued to pile in. He took a break for a moment, and escaped into an empty room where he could stand near the window in the quiet and feel the warm sun against his skin. For the moment, he emptied his mind and felt at peace with the world.

Movement outside, below him, caught his eye, and he saw Hikari, slowly moving through the short, growing grass wandering. A door behind him opened, but he didn't turn. He recognized the footsteps.

"I thought I might find you here," Sora said, leaning against the window beside him.

"There's been no luck?" he asked, turning to her then. "No sign, no further clues?"

She shook her head, frowning, not needing to ask what he was asking about. "None of the magic-users have reported anything different from what they sensed before. It's as though he's disappeared from everywhere."

"I'm not sure Hikari will be herself until he's found – until we've some word," Taichi said, looking again toward his sister below. "I think it's why she seems so listless."

"She won't believe he's dead," Sora informed him. "Whenever anyone has tried to suggest it as a possibility, she only says that he can't be."

Taichi pulled his gaze from the window and sighed deeply, folding his arms across his chest. "My mother was right," he concluded, and sank down into the window seat with another sigh.

Miyako smiled secretively. "Nothing has seemed real to me in the past year," she said, shaking her head. "A year ago, I had scarcely ever left my home and I knew nothing of magic. Now? Now I haven't been home in months and I'm learning to use magic."

Hikari yawned, though not out of disinterest, and Miyako suddenly saw exhaustion. She was about to suggest rest when Hikari shook her head. "It's not a tired feeling I have been able to cure with rest," she said as though knowing what the other was about to say. "I need you to teach me."

"Teach you?" Miyako echoed. She thought about asking what she was to teach, and then changed her mind, shaking her head demurely. "I'm hardly qualified."

"You're more qualified than me," the princess returned.

There was silence for a few long moments. Miyako stared for a brief moment, focusing her sight. Hikari, aware of some sort of scrutiny, was quiet, immersed in her feet.

"I did see," she said after Miyako had apparently finished and turned away and was thinking. "I saw when I tried to see – not what I wanted to see, but what I needed to see, I think. I want to try to see what I want. Do you know – do you know why I could? Why that sword helped me? It was you that told me I should…."

"I don't know what you know…," Miyako began hesitantly, then sighed.

"I know there is magic that was kept from me. That's what Vamdemon said, and, even though I'm not certain why he would tell me, it makes sense. I have no reason to believe he was lying."

Miyako sighed deeply. "He wasn't," she said gravely.

"Why - ?"

Again the young mage shook her head. "It's not my place to say," she answered. "Already I've told you more than I should – but you already know, so there is no point in keeping secrets." She shrugged lightly.

"And the sword – do you know?"

"It was a hunch," Miyako confessed. "You said it belongs to your family? Your mother, grandmother?" At Hikari's nod, she continued: "I shouldn't say this, I expect, but the magic you were told of is in your family strongest in the women. I thought that perhaps that might have been somehow in the sword as well. If it did help you, that may be why."

"Whatever reason, it did help – and I need help again. My dreams are – they are luck. I cannot control when I dream, and I have not for some time." She stopped, wrapped her arms around herself as though for warmth and looked out at the sky in the distance, not really seeing anything. "I want to find him. I know – I can't explain how, but I know that Daisuke is still alive, and I – I want to find him."

Shaking her head again, Miyako said: "No other wizard or mage here has had any luck at all searching for him."

"I know," Hikari answered, nodding without turning her head away from the distant sky. "I want to try, though."

Gabumon sat on a cushion on the floor, idly munching a carrot, his eyes flickering as he followed the movements of his partner across the room, but not otherwise moving. Patamon lounged beside him, on his back, eyes half-opened, ears flopped lazily at his sides, not really watching the sparring match.

There were few sounds in the room. The carrot crunched in Gabumon's teeth. Patamon breathed deeply as he hovered between sleep and wakefulness. Occasionally, one of the brothers grunted in exertion. The swords clanked metal on metal. Footsteps thudded on the ground, but softly.

The walls were made of thick stone, aged centuries since the castle had been built, now a dull gray. The floor was a deep, dark, rich wood polished and cleaned until it shined, scattered cushions and mats sparsely covering the surface. In each corner was a small table covered with candles, and a few sconces were available on the walls for further lighting. Now, though, it was day, and light streamed in from the large windows, facing a garden path that meandered lazily around the grounds.

Takeru wore a light green tunic, dark brown pants, and nothing more. His blond hair was tousled from the exertion, matted in parts with sweat and wild in others. Sweat beaded on his forehead in the warm sun. Yamato was dressed same as his brother, though with a dark blue tunic, and the effort of his movements showed on his face as he fought.

Patamon yawned loudly in the silence. From outside, idle chatter of people on the grounds filtered through the windows, but it was distant enough that it could not be clearly heard.

There was a knock at the heavy wooden doors, and then one creaked open. Iori's solemn green eyes peered around the door and took in the scene. Noticing him, both brothers halted their actions.

Yamato wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "Something wrong?" he asked, his brows coming together above his eyes.

Iori shook his head. "No need to pause the fight on my account," he said. "This is nothing that cannot wait."

Takeru sat heavily on the closest cushion to him, letting his weapon fall to the ground beside him. He lay back and breathed heavily for a few moments, resting. Yamato crossed the room and removed two towels from a small table. He wiped his brow again with one and then tossed the other to his brother. It landed on the younger boy's face.

"No, I think we're finished for today," Yamato said, also breathing heavily. "My brother is exhausted, and I need a bath."

"I'm no more exhausted than you!" Takeru countered, slowly getting to his feet. "I'm younger, remember."

"You never let me forget." He wiped his brow once more and then put the towel around his neck. "If you don't need me," he said to Iori, "I think I'll go take that bath." He bowed good-bye and left the room. After a moment of thought, Gabumon decided to follow.

Takeru sighed, shaking his head. "My brother has too much energy," he said. "I am tired. Don't tell him I said that though." He grinned.

Iori shook his head. "I won't," he answered, only the faintest of smiles appearing on his face.

Oddly enough, the younger Chosen's smiled caused Takeru to frown, but he said nothing. "I believe I could use a bath as well," he said, putting his towel around his neck as his brother had done.

He was half-way out the door, having taken Patamon with him, riding, still half-asleep, on his head, when Iori said, almost casually. "When you have time…."

Takeru paused, turned around in the doorway, and waited for Iori to finish. When he didn't, Takeru asked: "What does he want with me - ?"

Iori shrugged lightly. "Don't know," he answered. "I suspect it has to do with Hikari…."

Hikari stared blankly at her brother, seeming not to completely understand what he had said. Taichi waited a moment for it to sink in, preparing himself for – something. He wasn't sure what.

There was a light tap on the door and it opened slowly. Takeru, hair flat and damp against his head from his recent bath, poked his head around the door, a questioning expression in his eyes. Taichi waved a hand, indicating he should enter.

"I told Iori you didn't need to hurry," he said, and Takeru shook his head.

"No, I didn't," he said. A drop of water fell from the edge of his hair and landed on his nose, questioning the truth of his statement.

"I think you're right," Hikari said, and Takeru became then aware that he had entered in the midst of a conversation. Hikari didn't seem to be aware of him, at any rate. She was peering out the wide window of the second-floor room even while she spoke. Tailmon sat on the window seat, looking, like Patamon, as though it was a great effort even to stay awake, and Takeru wondered what she and Hikari had been doing to tire her so.

"I'm glad you think so," Taichi said, looking pleased. "You look exhausted, Hikari. A rest will do you good."

Hikari sighed as though she were exhausted, and turned away from the window, catching sight of Takeru as she did so. For a moment she looked at him as though she had never seen him before in her life, and then she said: "Are you to come with me?"

"Come where?" Takeru asked.

"To my mother," she said. "Near the sea."

The sky was cloud-covered and gray, but it was only clouds dimming the sun and for that Miyako was grateful. Takeru, dressed in a dark green jacket and dark brown pants, looked up at the sky while he stood on the stone steps. His face was a mixture of confusion and solemn acceptance.

"For Hikari's sake, I hope that if he is all right, that he hurries back here," he confided to Miyako in a low voice tinged with impatient annoyance. "Otherwise, I don't know what good her mother can do."

"She says he's alive, that he's all right, somewhere," Miyako told him at a similar volume. "I'm inclined to believe her."

"Why?" Takeru demanded, his voice still a whisper, but now with some intensity. "When all the mages and wizards have sensed nothing and there's no evidence for that." When Miyako gasped in surprise, he added: "I don't want him to be dead, but if he is…I hope he isn't but…."

Miyako sighed, put her hand on his shoulder. "I know," she said. "You want to protect her. So would Daisuke. Still, she has her reasons. Let her believe it, for now, at least."

For a moment, he was quiet, and then he, too, sighed and shook his head. "I don't think that I could say anything that would convince her otherwise."

The door behind them opened and Hikari appeared. Like Takeru, she was dressed in clothes suitable for traveling – it would be a two-day journey to the ocean's edge where they would find the Queen. She wore a simple dress in dark blue – a solemn sort of color for her that she did not often wear – and the edges were tinged with a similarly solemn maroon color. As she had for the past few days, her mind seemed ages away, as though she was only half-present.

"Are you ready?" Takeru asked, even though he could see that she was not, and might not ever be ready for anything ever again. He held out a hand, and she took it. She looked at him, again, he thought, as though seeing him for the first time and not really knowing who he was. He helped her down the steps.

There was no one else present, for it was still early morning and they had said other good-byes the day before. There was only Miyako to see them off, to watch as they entered the carriage and Hikari peered back as though she was seeing something entirely different from what was there.

"I'm sorry I cannot come with you," Miyako felt the need to say before the door was shut. "My sister – the baby might come any day and I need to be here, with her…."

Hikari nodded absently. "I shall make do," she said, and then briefly seemed to actually see Miyako for the first time. "I have not given up hope. Last night, I dreamt."

The room was small by the standards of the ancient palace, but comfortable. Momoe Inoue, quite a bit pregnant now and so disinclined to move very much, was seated in a comfortable chair, her tired legs resting on a stool in front of her. She wore a dark blue and purple nightgown and a pale pink robe – the most comfortable thing she had to wear. As she was not interested in going to any parties or dancing, she didn't bother to squeeze into less comfortable clothing. She was reading over the latest bit of correspondence from her husband, who was planning to arrive within the next few weeks – hopefully in time for the birth.

Now she sat near the window, looking out at the gardens below which were beginning to bloom. A bit of cloth to embroider was in her lap, but she had been doing little more than sewing and knitting in the last few months and was taking a slight break.

Mimi sat in a chair across the room, which was not nearly so far a distance as might have been expected, her mind fully occupied with the cloth that she was working on, her hands working steadily to make each stitch in precisely the right place. She wore, as usual, a pink gown, and her long hair was partially pulled back with a number of pink ribbons. A few braids dangled along the side of her face.

Miyako, like her sister, was more interested in peering out the window, and as such her own work – which she had never had much interest for in the first place – was not quite so impressive as that of any of the others.

For some time there was silence, as each young woman was involved with her own thoughts and work.

Abruptly, Mimi set down her work, sighing just loud enough to indicate her frustration. "I'm tired of sewing," she said bluntly, and stood. "I'm becoming stiff from hours of sitting."

Miyako felt the urge to yawn and did so despite her best efforts to avoid it. "I don't know why I should feel tired," she confessed when the others both looked at her with some surprise. "It's not as though I've done much today."

"I think your mind is tired from being in two places at once – or is it three?" Momoe told her sister. "I'm not much interested in sitting inside today. It's so nice out. If you would both help me up, I think I would like to go out to the gardens and enjoy the sun."

Mimi was immediately cheered by such an idea, and so crossed the few steps to Momoe's chair before anyone could do so much as blink. "I would very much like to be in the gardens today," she said, taking Momoe's hand in her own. "I would like to take comfort in life."

Miyako thought to finish Mimi's sentence with one of her own, but thought better of it and instead helped her sister to rise. It was a difficult task, but not impossible. With both to lean on, Momoe had no problem making it across the room. They helped her into her shoes, but she wasn't interested in changing clothes.

"Pregnant women can walk about in their robes," she said. "It's too much of a hassle to dress. Let me enjoy this while I can."

She made it down the hall without a problem, but needed some help to navigate down the stairs. Once outside, she was content to relax for a bit on a bench. Mimi wandered a short distance away to admire some tulips that were beginning to poke through the soil. Miyako sat beside her sister and looked up at the sky. It was a clear blue, with only a few big, white, puffy clouds floating lazily past.

Momoe gently poked her sister. "Where does your mind wander?" she asked.

"In the sky," Miyako answered. "It seems a safe place to journey."

Um. Yeah. This is one of those chapters where nothing happens, so I filled it up with unnecessary descriptions.

More to come soon.