I'm back again with a very long chapter. Again, slight spoilers for the chapters around LeCourt.
I capture the castle
chapter VIII
XX
The door was heavily shut, a dark red symbol flaring over the doors to the entrance. Beyond the door leading to the chamber where Ashura had sealed himself within, and the solar magnet; one could not forget that queer contraption, that construction of hope and misery.
They stood outside, powerless to enter, unsure of whether to approach the dangerous markings upon the door or not.
"I'm alright," Sakura assured her worried protector as he helped her stumble to her feet. To her side, Chi gathered herself up, remaining silent before the double doors and the dark red design burning upon it.
Fai tentatively inspected the large doors, scrutinising the deep red marks suddenly emblazoned upon it, brushing his fingertips ever so lightly against them lest they explode upon heavy impact. "It's sealed close," he murmured and made a face at this particularly perplexing puzzle.
Syaoran glanced at the sealed door, as if he could burn his way through with the heat of his eyes. "I have to get that feather!"
"I know," the wizard turned his back on the shut doors, smiling, "but for know, let's stop and review our situation."
Syaoran's fists clenched, his eyes burning into the door as he slowly nodded.
Fai smiled and felt Kurogane's scrutinising glare sear his back.
XX
The pool remained filled with crystal clear water since the day Ashura awoke from his slumber, the light from above made the surface glisten eerily. Around the circle of light, everything was painted in shadows - muted greys and dull dun-coloured walls washed in dirt and threaded with spider lace.
Sakura was starting to show signs of weariness. As she struggled to stay awake, Syaoran pulled her away from the pool's deceptive waters, clearing the dust away from the floor whilst he helped prop her against a crumbling wall.
Fai glanced around the hall as if seeing it for the first time. It had been so grand, he remembered. The icy domed ceiling would stretch far above him, arching like a sky of crystal, the walls smooth and shiny, and the floor glassy and untainted.
Everything was gone. The wizard wondered how Ashura must have felt suddenly awakening to see the great hall transformed into what it was now, how horrifying it must have been, and he, the cause of this terrible transformation, standing in front of the king with only his guilt.
Fai's hands encircled his pale throat, feeling the skin Ashura had touched, rubbing his thumb over the veins Ashura had tried to pierce. Chi sidled towards him and his hands fell away.
"Chi," Fai squatted besides his creation. "I'm sorry for leaving you alone for so long."
"Chi doesn't mind. Chi is happy that Fai is here now," Chi's tinkering voice echoed somewhere in the caverns in Fai's restless mind.
He petted the smooth curves of the living net. "I won't be for very long."
It was hard to gauge a reaction against something with no face but Fai would liked to have believed that Chi was at least a little surprised, maybe even a tad dismal that he would be leaving again so soon.
"Chi...could not help?" the net-like creature seemed slightly distressed.
Fai shook his head. "No, you were a lot of help," he pulled her closer, rewarding her with a more thorough petting to which the creature purred with content.
The wizard murmured praise into where he thought her ear might be, telling her how good she was. Chi moved closer, slipping slightly across the frozen floor.
"What should Chi do now?"
"Whatever Chi wants. Chi is free" he smiled and attempted to whistle, failing miserably.
The net-like creature cocked her body to one side. "Free? What is free?"
"It means that you can do whatever you want," he explained, though, when he thought about it, there was not much that she could do in that form.
He had transformed her, turned her into a barrier, a blockade to hinder Ashura's awakening, an obstacle to keep the king away from him. Cowardly and cruel, leaving her alone to over a hundred years to fester in the darkness as the castle decayed around her. He turned his eyes away from her strange form. Her loneliness had been his fault. It was the same with Ashura, was it not? Now it was the same with Kurogane too. It was his fault. Everything, somehow, always turned out to be his fault.
"Sorry, Chi, I gave my tattoo to the witch," he sighed. It felt particularly appealing to blame the dimensional witch for everything right now but he was neither quite weak nor stupid enough to sink that low.
Chi waved a limb, indicating a shake of her head. "Chi does not mind," she assured her master and creator. She would stay as she was, without features or a face forever. He could not allow that.
"No, I'll turn you back anyway," he stood, backing away from his creation. He made an odd sound in his throat; it sounded much like a cross between an attempted whistle and a sigh.
He had no staff, no tattoo either. Gone. All sold to the witch for precious items to carry him further through worlds, further away from Ashura. In the end, all they had done was hasten their arrival to Celes.
He had no staff, no tattoo either, but he still had magic. As reluctant as he was to use it, he still had his magic, burning like wildfire through his veins. His fists clenched the fabric of his robes. He would use it now. He would, for Chi, he would.
Hesitating, he stepped forward again. Do it, he urged. Do it, he told his quivering heart. He had transformed Chi into what she was and now he had to turn her back. It was the right thing to do, right?
Picking up a stray stone, he etched a line into the floor. Scraping the sharp edge of the stone over the frozen floor, his lines became arches then circles, growing, blooming into spirals and squares, squiggles and wild strokes.
When it was done, Fai wiped his hands clean of dust. This would do. The power of the magical circle would help substitute the power he lost from his staff, it would help direct his energy and prevent any errors from occurring.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Take a deep breath and hold your arms wide, wide, wider still, as if you can embrace the sky, hold the heavens in your arms. Breathe in. Breathe out. Take a deep breath and let your magic sing.
The sudden eruption of colour within the gloomy hall threatened to eradicate all traces of shadow. Large tendrils of light spun around the magician, speeding around him before swirling around his creation. They enveloped her, forming a tight cocoon around Chi's body. In a second burst of light, they exploded, evaporating into the air and leaving behind only glimmers of their light.
Chi stood examining her arms and legs. Her golden hair fell past her hips, her furry ears twitching. There was surprise on her face, then happiness and then a look of content, going through as many emotions as she could, as if she had forgotten each expression. Her eyes were filled with warmth when she smiled at Fai, exactly the same as the day he had left her. Time had not affected her either.
He smiled. It was all so painful. Her face was the reflection of hope and innocence, bringing back memories of those happier times now lost forever in the recess of his mind, banished to remain only a memory.
Fai stepped away from his servant, leaving Chi in favour of the darker hallways and columns of crumbling marble.
"So that's transformation magic."
Fai turned.
"Kuro-chii..."
The ninja's hand shot towards him, seizing him by his collar. Fai felt his back slam against one of the columns, chips of marble coming loose under the sudden impact of his weight. The grip around his collar tightened and yanked him skywards, almost strangling him in a tick noose of wool and fur.
"Don't you dare use those stupid names on me! How can you even be so calm after what's happened!" the ninja seethed.
Fai glanced at the far figure of Syaoran, thoroughly absorbed in his care of his princess, and Chi, looking a little lost but not moving any closer or further from their point in the shadows.
"Kuro-sama, I - "
"Shut up!"
"Do you hate me?"
"What do you think?" Kurogane lifted him and slammed his back against the thick marble again. He brought his face close to Fai's, allowing the wizard to drown in the depths of his anger, his hatred, his hurt. "This is all your fault! Everything..." he paused, flinging Fai away from him, "everything...is your fault," he ended, though his voice seemed drained of its usual vigour.
Fai could not even comprehend how the ninja must have felt, to be betrayed in the most unimaginable way possible, how confused and angry he must feel. He could not even begin to fathom the idea.
He did not know why, but his vision was suddenly drawn to Souhi's hilt. He did not know why, but he suddenly wondered what it would be like to have a taste of that could steel.
He hated the thought of death and he hated pain even more but he wondered and wondered and felt himself becoming lost inside the fires of Kurogane's rage. It enveloped him and devoured him. It tore him to pieces.
When he spoke, his voice was strangely calm.
"Are you going to kill me, Kuro-pon?"
A momentary flash of surprise was quickly concealed by his usual scowl. If anything, his hatred was only doubled by the wizard's sudden suggestion.
"Don't misunderstand," he spat, turning his back on the lithe blond, "I don't care whether Ashura tortures you for eternity or if you die in front of my eyes. I just want to get that feather and leave this freezing country, preferably without you!"
"That's too bad," he picked himself up, wiping away the chips of marble that clung to his clothes. "I hate the cold as well," he smiled.
XX
Sakura's vision was blurry. She felt groggy and disorientated and weaker than usual. Her vision swamped into a great pool of light before dimming and sharpening into the view of the hall around her.
She sat up, holding onto Syaoran for support.
"Are you okay, Sakura-hime?"
"Just tired," she smiled then turned her attention to the unknown figure standing across the pool. "Chi?" she tentatively asked. The girl was clothed in ice blue, her blonde hair reaching past her waist in two voluminous branches of gold. The girl looked at her and smiled. It was Chi, she was certain of it.
Fai and Kurogane joined her by the waters and Sakura suddenly felt inclined to edge away. She had no idea what happened whilst she was with Kaede or Chi, or even if such a change had occurred whilst she slept, but they seemed different. Electric tension filled the space between them, ready to explode at a moment's notice.
The two seemed not to notice her sudden apprehension. She was not scared of them; of course she was not. Rather, she was scared for them. What had been casual and natural were suddenly forced and artificial. Fai's ever-bright smiles, Kurogane's perpetual frown, each and every nuance seemed to take a great deal of energy and strain to create.
Sakura shook of the foreboding feeling for now. More pressing issues pressured her to her feet.
"The thing in that chamber," she said as she shakily rose, "that was causing the epidemic. It's sucking the life from the land."
Fai stared at her. "What do you mean?"
"Chi told me that in order to give warmth, it has been draining the earth!" she explained, remembering her time in the chamber where the Solar magnet lay.
Fai turned towards Chi, eyes slightly wide.
"Chi was alone for a long time," the girl replied to her creator's unspoken question, "a long, long time to think and realise."
The magician nodded. "The Solar magnet is..." he coughed, suddenly loosing his great talent of speech. He broke off abruptly. "Then...then Fei Wong Reed...he..." Fai trailed of, seeming to speak more to himself than to any of his fellow travellers.
"Is there any way into the chamber?" Syaoran pressed, still insistent upon retrieving the feather as quickly as possible. Fai glanced at him. He too wanted to get the feather and move worlds as quickly as possible. He wanted to run again. Run as far away as possible.
"If Ashura-ou has sealed it with magic then the only option would be to tackle the source of the seal," he began pacing back and forth, suddenly restless, suddenly unlike himself. "Don't worry, Ashura needs my power before the thing inside reacts so nothing will happen unless I am in the chamber as well."
"Where do we find the source?"
He shrugged then as an after thought remembered that he should be smiling. "Who knows? Most likely, there will be a good deal of magical traps set up to protect it."
"So all we have to do is look for wherever the magic is the strongest?" Syaoran caught on.
Sakura watched Fai nod, feeling groggy again. Mokona jumped onto her shoulder, snuggling into the crook of her neck as she felt sleep take over again.
XX
Syaoran left his sleeping princess in Mokona's watchful care. The castle was big but not so big that they would be unable to understand each other without Mokona's presence. The girl Fai had transformed, Chi, made to follow them then had paused and decided against it.
They followed Fai's lead, going wherever his 'magical intuition' took them. Of course, this meant passing by the same column five times in a row, much to Kurogane's annoyance, sure the magician was only doing so to irritate him.
However, after travelling down several flights of crumbling stairs, identical icy passages and around that 'damnable column' a grand total of twelve times, they finally seemed to be nearing their goal. The sudden springing of traps and attacking wooden mannequins was a sure sign of that.
"Well, at least we know that we're getting warmer!" Fai grinned and managed a semi-whistle whilst he dodged a swift uppercut from one of the mannequins.
The traps that lay dormant for years suddenly sprung into motion with vitality. Every single defence in the castle seemed suddenly intent of stopping them in their tracks. Souhi flashed and Hein roared in flames, cutting and slicing, sweeping steel through all obstacles. Fai leapt away from harm, whistling and cheering them on.
Syaoran was unsure how far they had travelled into the castle's dingy depths or for just how long they had been running until Fai called them to a halt. Without a word, the wizard led them into a small, dark room.
Hein's flame produced the little light for which they navigated in and out of the broken furniture and fallen trappings. The room was small and cold, a little box of darkness. In the light of the flames, Syaoran could only just make out the etching of a dark grey seal on the room's chilly floor.
"Is this...the seal?" he asked as the wizard crouched next to it.
"Sort of," Fai replied, looking highly amused.
That the magician was finding any sort of entertainment in their near-death experiences irritated the ninja even more. "Sort of?" he narrowed his eyes at the blond, perhaps hoping he could stab the man with his gaze alone.
"I guess that I should've known," Fai rose his sunshine shield in defence. He pointed to parts of the charcoal seal. "See these lines? It's rigged so that when the first seal breaks the doors will be sealed shut with a second, stronger seal."
"Is it possible to break the second one too?" Syaoran crouched besides him, inspecting their latest obstacle.
"We would have to search for the source of the second seal and seeing that I didn't stumble upon it first, its magical presence is probably hidden."
Kurogane glowered at the wizard's back. "How do I know that you're not making this up?"
Fai turned towards him, smiling softly. "Would I lie at a time like this, Kuro-chi?"
"Who knows?"
"The doors won't shut immediately. There will be a pause before the second seal takes effect," Fai explained, turning away from the volatile ninja.
"Give me five minutes. I'll be by the chamber by then," Syaoran stood, ready to retrace his steps to the chamber that Ashura-ou had so unceremoniously flung Sakura and Chi from.
"Wait," Kurogane halted the boy in his eager tracks. "I'm going too."
XX
Even as Kurogane ran, he found that he could only think of the past and the man he had left alone in that small room. Why had he not killed Fai yet? He wanted to and yet he did not want to. He told himself that it was his curse; killing someone so pathetic would not be worth the loss in strength that he would suffer thereafter but that was a lie and he knew it.
At least punch him, he thought, but he had not done that either. He wanted the man to suffer but could not find the energy to do it himself. One small, almost hidden side of him reasoned that Fai had had no choice in making the demons, that he had not been the one who sent them to his world but the larger portion of his brain ruled out that fact. Fai had created them. He had started it. It was his fault.
Unsure of what to think, he ran on. Every passage looked the same, every trap seemed to spring again and again, and every guard seemed a clone of the other. He was lost in this strange world and lost to himself. He did not know what to think about Fai, about anything and so his anger raged wildly, directed at everything and anything within reach.
Souhi sliced through another mannequin, bringing down one after another. He destroyed each one like something possessed. Every dumb, wooden body must be cleared from his sight.
Something lithe and blonde moved in front of his path of destruction. Kurogane let out a cry of surprise; barely managing to stop himself before his sword sliced the figure in two.
"Chi-san?" Syaoran looked bewildered
Kurogane scowled at the girl. "What the heck is it now?"
"You're going the wrong way," the net-turned-girl spoke softly, almost inaudibly, with a sugary-sweet voice that irritated the ninja. "The way to Ashura-ou is that way," she pointed to a second passage, one that twisted away from their trail.
"The door that the king passed through is this way," Syaoran pointed to their original path.
"The way to Ashura-ou is that way," Chi insisted.
Kurogane examined the girl. Her strange furry ears and impossibly long, blonde hair framed a cute, innocent face. Though he knew better than to trust someone on looks alone, her eyes only spoke of unwavering loyalty to the one who had created her and did not seem capable of lies. If Chi was indeed telling the truth, that could only mean one thing.
"That bloody wizard! He lied!"
"Fai-san wouldn't - "
"Like hell he would!" he snapped, trampling towards the passage Chi had indicated. He was so busy seething and fuming and plotting just what he would do to that damn wizard when he saw him again that at first he did not notice the dainty footsteps hurrying after him. He stopped and tuned. "Why the heck are you coming?"
Chi stared at him with unblinking amber eyes. "Do you...do you not like Fai?" she asked with only simple curiosity in her voice.
"I hate him," he muttered and stalked away. Chi followed.
"Hate?"
"It's when you really don't like someone."
Chi's neutral expression turned into a sad frown. Great, why was he suddenly the bad guy?
"Why?"
"Eh?"
"Why do you hate"
"Because - " Kurogane began, tired of having to explain each and every thing, but found that he had no answer to give. Exactly why did he hate the wizard so much? Would he have hated the wizard any more or less if he had found out when they were still very much strangers, unacquainted and new to the business of dimension hopping? Did he even hate him at all?
"Is hate close to love?" Chi interrupted his thoughts.
Kurogane scowled. "The complete opposite!"
"Then why do people find it easier to hate the people they should love?"
He stopped and turned on the tiny blonde. He had not thought it possible, but he had finally found someone more annoying than Fai and that damn manjuu put together! Why did she have to constantly ask him such stupid questions? Why him? More importantly, if her questions were so stupid, why did he have no answers?
"Chi-san," Syaoran interrupted, sensing the ninja's increasingly foul mood, "may I ask a favour? Please, could you look after Sakura-hime?"
"Chi!" she nodded.
"Thank you!" the boy grinned and Chi stopped to watch him and his surly mentor disappear down a twist in the passage.
She waited for their shadows to pass the bend and their footsteps to recede into the distance.
"Chi is very sorry," she apologised as she walked back. "However, Fai said so himself, that Chi may do whatever Chi wishes."
Went back and corrected a few typos, though I reckon there are still a few lurking around in there. Thanks to those who pointed them out. Anyway, as always, comments are always appreciated.