Thank you everyone for being so patient. Here's a long over-due update. Enjoy!
I capture the castle
Chapter II
The snow outside was beginning to fall heavily now, turning from faint flecks that softly drifted downwards into large balls of snow, pounding into the earth.
The group settled down comfortably to hear the history of this strange, frigid country, this country called Ceres, and of the legend and myth behind the latest epidemic. The other townsfolk gathered around the table with cautious, wary glances at the newcomers.
"It's a well-known story," Kaede continued, resting her head in her hands. "Hundreds of years ago there reigned a strong, powerful king who gave peace to the land of Ceres."
Kurogane glanced at Fai through the corners of his eyes. The mage was smiling casually into the green liquid of the drink that they had been given, stirring it without a reason. The ninja took advantage of Fai's preoccupation to scrutinise the wizard further. Though Fai's eyes seemed focussed on his drink, they had a far-away look as Kaede's voice washed over them all.
"However, the king was also plagued by horrible dreams of destruction and ruin, which would have driven him mad, if not for the potions created by one of his wizards. A very skilled wizard who cared deeply for the king."
Syaoran and Sakura leaned forward, straining to hear. Kaede's voice whispered low, soft syllables that escaped her lips and floated skywards.
Kurogane did not take his eyes off of Fai, though he pretended to look elsewhere. He did not know what to think of the wizard. Fai was childish and immature, hopelessly clumsy and naïve, but then he was also wise beyond his years, serious, and graceful and focussed - a living paradox.
However, one thing was certain, the wizard was trying to conceal something, something that would no doubt prove to be important to them. Kurogane already had his suspicions about Ceres, though Fai had adamantly denied this Ceres being the same as the one he had come from.
Kaede continued, pushing her glasses to the bridge of her nose. "So the king continued to reign over Ceres, drinking potions to ward off the dream, until…"
"Until?" Syaoran asked, almost afraid to seem eager.
Shadows of the falling snow outside cast dark patterns on her face. Kaede frowned, her expression lost to the shadows. "The wizard who made these potions came across a strange ingredient, a very powerful one. Deciding that it would enhance the ward in his potions, he added it to them and gave this new potion to the king," she explained.
"W - What happened?" Sakura stuttered; she was every bit as enraptured as Syaoran.
Kaede shook her head. "This ingredient was indeed powerful, too powerful for the king to bear. It ended up having a reverse effect on the king. His majesty could not sleep and was forever plagued with dreams of ruin and damnation, Ceres crumbled and the king was driven almost to insanity."
"This is going to be a sad story, isn't it? I don't really like sad stories," Fai said with an awkward grin. His grasp on his cup tightened, though nobody noticed, at least he thought that nobody had noticed, hoped that nobody noticed.
Kaede, exasperated by her constantly slipping glasses, took the off and polished them. She looked tired, so tired that if she closed her eyes for too long they might not open again. Despite her fatigue, she managed to smile and continue.
"As for the wizard, he could not bring himself to kill the mad king. Guilt-ridden, he had no choice but to seal the evil power within the king and lock it up within the castle. They say that his ghost watches over the castle even now," she sighed, signalling an end to her story.
Silence washed over her audience like a spell that still held power, her diminishing voice kept them silent until even the echo of her words had completely faded away.
Then the spell broke.
"So what does all that have to do with what's happening now?" asked Syaoran.
"That evil ingredient is cursed. As the years go by, the seal is weakening and its evil power is leaking into the town, at least that is what we believe," Kaede said.
The townsfolk around her began to shift and mutter and come alive. "If the castle were to vanish, the curse would go too," said a voice from the crowd of faces.
"But no matter how hard we try, there's no destroying it," another said.
There was a collective murmuring of agreement, which broke into a fervent, whispered discussion about the castle and the legend of the king and the wizard, but that in turn died down as Kaede spoke again.
"It continues to loom over us, a constant reminder of that wizard's sorrow and guilt."
Night loomed over the land. It had stolen up to them so silently that no one had noticed it until the stars began to come out one by one.
Kaede let them stay in the rooms behind the tavern, a room, to be more precise. It was a simple, large, square room big enough for all four of them (and one white manjuu) lit by candles standing in clumps on wooden shelves.
The room itself was large and unadorned. The walls were white, the floor was cold marble, a double window let in the starlight and nothing more. There was nothing else. No furniture, no decorations, no ornaments, no fireplace, no hints or clues to the world's history or culture. The room was as bare as the white snow outside.
A villager stopped by with food and bedding, apologising that they would have to sleep on the floor for a night before hurrying out, leaving the four of them and one white manjuu alone in a large, cold room.
"Well that was certainly interesting," Fai stretched himself out against his bed roll, yawning. "I have a feeling that this will be like Jade."
"Find the truth behind the legend and you'll find the feather, right?" Kurogane grunted. He sat with his back against the wall, arms folded across his chest, far from the others, though not too far as would exclude him from their conversation completely.
Sakura struggled with her blankets. There seemed to be a dozen duvets and sheets necessary to keep out Ceres' nightly chill. Kurogane watched her teeter under the weight of the bed stuff until Syaoran graciously lent her a hand. The ninja then turned to the mage lazing about on his pile of blankets, fixing him with a cold glare.
"So mage, what is the truth behind the legend?"
Fai almost let a shocked expression surface from beneath his mask, but covered it almost instantaneously.
"Eh? How am I supposed to know?" the wizard feigned innocence but that only irked him even more.
"Do I have to beat it out of you? 'Fess up! What are you hiding?" he shouted.
Sakura dropped her blankets and Syaoran was looking at the nervously but Fai took everything in his stride. Digging into the pockets of his coat, the wizard produced several items from their depths.
"Hmm? Well I have a bar of chocolate, a yoyo I found in the last world, a really shiny pebble…" the mage rambled on, pulling out stranger and weirder things each time.
It was either incredibly stupid or incredibly smart. However, Fai's dodging tactics did not amuse Kurogane the slightest; in fact it had just the opposite impact. Reaching for the nearest hard object, his hand found a tray the villager had used to bring them food and threw it at the mage's head.
Fai ducked just in time, though a few blond strands were severed from his head. The tray spun through the air and shattered against the opposite wall.
Sakura, who had just gathered up her blankets, dropped them again in surprise.
"Kuro-muu, that was mean, you could have hit me!"
"I was trying to hit you!"
They must have been on the verge of physical conflict, because Syaoran had taken it upon himself to intervene. Granted, he helped Sakura with the blankets first but Syaoran never left his princess in danger. Sakura had been perilously close to being smothered by all of the feather down duvets and sheets.
"Kurogane-san, Fai-san, please don't fight!" Syaoran implored them. He had such a serious expression that Fai would have laughed but Syaoran turned towards Kurogane instead and said; "If Fai-san doesn't want to tell us anything then we should respect that. Either way, as long as we find the feather, it doesn't matter."
Kurogane said nothing. The gruff ninja studied the boy's face; it always seemed so serious and determined.
"Whatever. I can't stand to be around this guy for too long," the ninja shrugged and the tension visibly eased, though accusing Kurogane of having a soft spot for the younger boy would have instantly caused an immediate elevation in tension.
Thankfully, no one thought of voicing any allegations to the gruff, battle-hardy warrior becoming 'an old softy' and the group managed to slip into deep slumber without anything else being broken.
XX
A floating castle was quite a sight to behold. Shimmering almost eerily, the luminescent wings of the castle was the only thing that had withstood the years of weathering, they unfurled in a dazzling display of luminous lights, shinning and shimmering in the grey of the morning.
The group stood captured in its shadow, gazing up at the crumbling spires and worn battle turrets. Long flights of steps wound around the floating fortress, steps missing here and there as it was limply suspended in mid-air.
"It's guarded by magic," Syaoran murmured as he stared at the ruined castle.
All of them had come to the conclusion that the castle was the treasure chest concealing all the clues and secrets that would lead to Sakura's feather, the only problem was in finding a key that would fit the lock. In other words, finding a way in.
Kurogane watched his breath come out in short wisps of vapour. The arrival of dawn did not make the air any warmer or the snow any less cold. If he were the sort of person who cared about these sorts of things, he would have called it a miserable day. Clouds constantly overcast the sky, the snow mounted on and froze over, and the sun bestowed upon them a pathetic grey light.
Just as he was about to snap about something and suggest moving on, a small, white snowball bounced on top of his head.
"We could call Yuuko for help!" it spoke, and Kurogane realised that the snowball was actually their little, annoying inter-dimensional tour guide.
"What would we give her though? I can't think of anything of value I have left, except…" Syaoran trailed off, glancing doubtfully at the sword sheathed by his waist.
"You'll need that," Kurogane threw Mokona into a pile of snow. Hopefully, the thing would get lost amongst all that white.
"I can always get another one," Syaoran said, though he also seemed reluctant to part with Hien.
Kurogane gave a small, contemptuous snort. "A true swordsman would not part with his sword so casually."
"That right, remember the huge ruckus Kuro-min put up when he had to leave his sword?" Fai piped.
"You don't have to pay straight away."
All four of the roving group of travellers turned to Mokona, which was rather hard, as the only thing really visible amongst the snow was the red jewel on its forehead.
"Yuuko-san doesn't do it often, but sometimes you can pay after the service has been granted," Mokona explained, nodding wisely, or at least trying to.
XX
"Though I was surprised," Fai murmured as they began climbing the steps towards the castle. "Usually we have to give up a personal item but this time we're giving her something that does not even belong to us. Unusual, isn't it?"
"I wouldn't put it past her," Kurogane muttered. His attempts to barter with the witch had gone appaulingly wrong and now he was in a foul mood, fouler than usual. "In the end, that witch will probably take something we really need. We're letting her walk all over us," he spat.
"Kurogane-san…" Syaoran began, but the irritated ninja did not let him finish.
"You heard that dimension-hag! She gets whatever she wants in the castle!"
"We all agreed to this," Fai happily skipped along the crumbling steps, he seemed to have no qualms in the prospect of entering the castle. "You should have protested when you had the chance, Kuro-rin, or maybe you can't protest," the wizard pulled a face at the ninja, accelerating up the long flights of stairs in order to dodge Souhi and Kurogane's gratuitous cursing.
Climbing up the stairs took longer than they expected. With breaks in between when Sakura, no matter how much she denied it, could no longer take any more climbing, the sun had risen and fallen and the snow began drifting towards them as they finally reached the double doors that would allow them admission into the castle.
The oak doors were rotting before their very eyes; the intricately carved floral pattern had been worn until it became something indistinguishable that it practically fell apart under a touch.
A cloud of dust rose into the air. Cobwebs hung from corner to corner and laced in dust. Shadows obscured the path forward. The group of hapless travellers glanced at each other once and stepped into the ancient castle.
The floor was as cold as ice. Their footsteps banished the coast of dust and grime, leaving a trail behind them like footprints in snow, echoing softly. Though even with the gloom, dust, dirt and cobwebs, there was no masking its grandeur. Columns of marble spiralled into an infinite domed ceiling, ice blue markings danced across the glassy walls. There were no sharp angles here, only smooth contours and curves that made up the architecture of the building.
Fai suddenly stopped. Kurogane could feel the wizard's presence halting before the grand hall.
One by one, they all stopped and turned towards the motionless wizard.
"Fai-san?" Sakura looked at him curiously but either he could not hear her or he chose not to reply.
Kurogane glanced at what Fai was staring at, what had halted him so suddenly, what had transformed him from his usual, amiable self into something empty yet tense.
Not more than six feet ahead of them, the hall opened up into a much larger chamber. Light shone from a hole in the roof, picking out a sparkling pool in silver light, shunning everything that lay beyond the spotlight. It was a miracle that the water had not dried up over time. A net-like thing arched over the water, perfectly poised in the act of embracing the water.
As if someone had suddenly let go of the traps binding Fai's feet, the wizard lurched forward, almost stumbling as he raced past them.
"Fai -san?" Syaoran called, his voice echoing across the hall.
The wizard ignored him.
Kurogane did not know why he ran after Fai when he did. There was no explaining the premonition he was having of something inexplicably bad about to occur.
Fai had come to a halt by the pool and was staring into its depths. As Kurogane caught up to him, he skidded to a stop but could not quite see what was in the pool behind the net.
"Hey! Don't go running off like that!"
"It was wrong."
Fai was looking at something Kurogane could not see; his expression was hidden by his blond bangs but he spoke with a soft, slightly trembling, tenor that shifted the webs of dust.
"Kaede's story…it was all wrong," Fai said.
Mokona hopped towards them and jumped into the air. A projection of light shot from its forehead and an image of the dimension witch was cast along the far wall.
Yuuko's hair tumbled over her shoulders in a mass of black locks, her smoky eyes were unreadable and her lips ruby red.
"My payment," she gestured to them, and for some reason seeing those lips part into a smile broke the bars of the cage in Fai's chest and set his fear free to rage throughout his body.
The story can sometimes prove false. What is it the Yuuko wants? Find out in the next installment!