Okay… Now I have to stick my head out of the bomb shelter to deliever the next chapter.
Before that – Disclaimer: I don't own Baten Kaitos. Cool? Okay… onward…
Chapter III: As Fire Burns
The blue haired man was resting his arms on a windowsill.The window itself looked out at the city of ice. He was in the middle of one of the many corridors in the large palace. He was looking out at the city, but his eyes saw more that just the buildings beyond. He could not help feeling that something was not right with the man that was brought in. What was his name again? Morjidza or something like that. There was just something… not right about him. There was simply no other way to put it. He got up and stretched his arms over his head and yawned widely. What was it about Morjidza that bothered him so much? The man looked… unnatural. He looked and acted too perfectly to be merely human. That, and there just seemed to be some deep instinct that screamed at him to get away from Morjidza whenever they were in the same room. Something about that man seemed familiar as well. Though it was not a pleasant familiarity, like meeting up with an old childhood friend many years later. It was more like seeing someone breathing and walking, when the last time you saw them, they were apparently sleeping in a coffin of dark wood.
He looked to his rightwhen he heard footsteps walking towards him. When he saw that it was Morjidza approaching, he turned back to the window, pretending he had not seen Morjidza. Morjidza however, walked right up to him and asked, "How are you, Raven?"
"Don't call me that." Muttered the blue haired man not looking up at Morjidza.
"What's the matter?" said Morjidza tauntingly, "Why do you hate me so?" then bending close to the blue haired man's ear, whispered, "Are you jealous? Is it because your wife is friendly towards me?"
Something deep within the blue haired man snapped. He turned around and grabbed Morjidza by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against the wall, "You, shut up!" he snarled at Morjidza, "If I ever catch you doing anything to Xelha-"
"What'll you do?" taunted Morjidza, "Kill me? My, oh my, aren't you overprotective. Maybe even a little possessive, perhaps?"
The blue haired man let Morjidza go, and gave him a look that could whither plants. He turned on his heel and stalked off in a fury, snapping at any unfortunate soul who tried to talk to him or calm him down. Morjidza just stood and looked off in the direction the blue haired man went. He smiled to himself, pleasedwith theeffect his taunts had…
Allyr was woken the next morning by her alarm clock playing some obnoxious and bouncy eighty's song. The lump on the bed groaned in irritation. A hand extended from the lump and groped around for the alarm clock. The hand could not find it. "A little to your left," said a voice. The hand reached to its left and found the alarm clock, and a beating abruptly silenced the little device. It took Allyr a long while to remember why she was hearing Kalas's voice in her head. Then she groaned, today was going to be hell. "What's wrong?" asked Kalas, looking down at the lump on the bed that was Allyr.
She made a noise that was partway between a grunt and a yawn. She sat up in bed, brown hair tangled and messy from a long hectic night. Well, hectic as her life went. Trying to explain everything to Kalas, and trying to look as if she was not talking to thin air. On top of all that, she had tried to do her homework. Trying to explain stuff to a dead guy, taking biology notes, and trying to look sane all atthesame timewas harder than it sounded. She would not have been surprised if her mother or her brother thought that she was a little on the crazy side, considering how the last night went. She looked up at Kalas and said, "It's Tuesday morning, I've gotta go to school with a dead man in tow."
"Will you lay off the 'dead guy' jokes already?" said Kalas irritated.
"If you tell me what happened," said Allyr, "Then I'll lay off the jokes." She tried to give him a puppy-eyed look, hoping it would get Kalas to tell her what happened. She could already tell it was not working, "Can you tell me, puh-leeeeeeeze?"
"No," said Kalas bluntly.
Allyr sighed. She probably should not press the issue anyway. She swung her legs out of bed and walked to her closet, where she grabbed some clothes for the day. She turned to Kalas, "Wait here for me," she said, and walked off in the direction of the bathroom. Luckily, her brother had not gotten to it yet. After shoving her clothes on (a black and red striped shirt and a pair of plain jeans) she walked out of the bathroom feeling even more tired then ever. Though she almost died from an early heart attack when she felt Kalas floating in the hall outside the door. True, even she could not see him, so her brother and mother were not the problem with this. She was concerned about what Kalas was seeing. "What's the big idea?" she hissed at him, hoping no one was nearby to hear her loosing her temper at thin air, "I said wait!"
"I couldn't help it!" retorted Kalas, giving Allyr a message through their bond that was the equivalent of throwing one's arms up in the air, "I just felt drawn after you!"
"I'm sorry," muttered Allyr, "I forgot about that." And indeed, she had. When she had been his Guardian, she could not normally go to far from Kalas. Whenever she tried to go far, or when Kalas walked off, she felt a compulsion to follow that she could not resist. The one exception was when it was a real emergency like, say, if Kalas was lying in a ditch bleeding to death, then she could leave him long enough to get help. "That still doesn't mean that you get to stalk me." Added Allyr.
"I'm not stalking you!" said Kalas really annoyed now, "I'm bound to your soul!"
"That's true," said Allyr with a nod.
"Who are you talking to?" asked a voice to Allyr's left. She turned to see the familiar face of her brother, Takei.
"I'm not talking to anyone," said Allyr calmly, "Other than you."
"No, I mean, just a minute ago," said Takei, "You were telling the air that it did not have the right to stalk you."
"Do you think I'm going nuts?" asked Allyr teasingly, "Maybe you're the one going nuts, imagining other people are going nuts."
"I'm just worried," said Takei, "How do you know that you aren't mad, imagining that other people are mad imagining that you're going mad?"
"This is just getting confusing," said Allyr, "I need to go soon anyway, later Takei."
And with that, she walked past her brother and into the kitchen. As she devoured her breakfast with a will, Kalas went poking around the room. Occasionally he asked questions about such strange devices as the 'microwave' and the 'blender'. About ten minutes later, Allyr had grabbed her mother's car keys and walked out, with her backpack, to her mother's green car. As she started up the engine, she wondered vaguely what school would be like with a dead guy in her head.
Kalas had thought that Allyr's world did not make sense before. If her world was confusing, her school was a tangled mess of things that Kalas had difficulty grasping at all.
He had been to school when he was younger, but he had never set foot in one for the purpose of learning since Georg and Fee had died. The most he could do now was follow Allyr, particularly as he had to do that whether he really wanted to or not. Most of the time though, he could not help but stop and stare. Then, Allyr would wander off in the direction of one of her classes and Kalas would have to follow. Even with this limitation, he still found more than plenty to spark his curiosity. Everything was unfamiliar to him. Even outside of the classes, the way the people acted and what they wore was strange. Kalas had tried to ask Allyr about this and several other things thought the day, but her default response always was, "I'm sorry but you can't talk to me right now! If people see me talking to thin air they'll think I'm nuts and lock me away. And that won't do either of us any good will it?" This meant that the vast majority of Kalas's questions were left unanswered. So Kalas had to be content with just looking and speculating.
Then there were the classes themselves.
Allyr's 'English' class covered literature, plays, stories and authors that Kalas had never heard of. That really did not surprise him much, as he figured that was one thing that their worlds probably would not share. Even so, it was very, very confusing. Currently, they were doing a play written by some guy named 'Shakespeare' hundreds of years ago. The story itself was beyond Kalas, and when a couple of students were sent in front of the classroom to act out a scene, he had trouble understanding anything they said. Though judging from the number of blank faces in the rest of the class, Kalas figured he was not the only one that did not get it. Next was the 'French' class. Kalas could only guess at what was going on. He figured that this was some kind of foreign language class. Mainly because the teacher and all of her students were talking in such a way that Kalas could not even guess at what they were saying. This was one class he did not see the point of. Back in his world, language had long since been standardized. What was the point of learning a bunch of different languages, when everyone could just use the same language? Another class that gave Kalas some problems was Allyr's algebra class. In this class he knew some of the material. He had never really been that interesting in math though, and he had always been the kid that fell asleep in the back of the classroom. He did know some of the stuff still. Kalas challenged himself to try to follow what the teacher was talking about, thought lost track of it about midway through the lesson. By that point, he figured that his math skills were either really rusty, or he was just plain bad at it.
By the end of the day, Allyr looked as tried as when she had woken up. It looked to Kalas that all she wanted was to go back home and sleep for a full day. Kalas had hoped that she might answer some of his questions in the 'car' thing when they got there. Except it looked like she could not handle any questions at all. Allyr was walking over to her car, Kalas close behind, when she heard a voice behind her call her name. She turned around to see someone running towards her. The person was clearly female, with bright blonde hair reaching down to her shoulders, and bright brown eyes. She wore a pair of red shorts that Allyr thought inappropriate for a cold fall day. She did however wear a blue jacket over her bright yellow shirt. The newcomer ran to Allyr, panting rather hard. "Heya… Allyr…" panted the newcomer, "How's it… been…?"
"Um, Vivi," said Allyr, "Now's not the best of times."
"So you have… been avoiding… me!" panted the newcomer, Vivi.
Vivi…? Weird name, Thought Kalas. Why does everyone in this world have such weird names?
"No, I haven't been avoiding you," said Allyr apologetically, "It's just… something's come up and-"
"Something's always up!" whined Vivi. Then she brightened up, clapping her hands together, "Is there some way I can help you with it?"
"No, I'm sorry," said Allyr, and she sounded like she meant it, "I really can't accept your help with this thing. It's… um… kinda… complex!" she said suddenly, "That's it! It's um… kinda complex and it would take ages to explain-"
"You know I'm the patient type," interrupted Vivi, "You can explain everything to me and I'll wait for however long it takes!"
"If she's the patient type I'm the queen of Anuenue." Muttered Kalas. Allyr quickly gave him a look that told him to shut his big mouth.
"What did you say?" demanded Vivi to Allyr.
Allyr gave Vivi a seriously surprised look, "I didn't say anything," she said.
"YES YOU DID!" shouted Vivi, now waving her arms in the air with more energy then Allyr thought she could ever muster at the end of a school day, "ARE YOU MAKING FUN OF ME?"
"Vivi, calm down" said Allyr, putting an arm around her friend's shoulders, "I didn't say anything. I'm sorry that you feel I did say something to offend you." Allyr had been hoping that this would diffuse her energetic friend, and it did.
"All right," said Vivi, calming down significantly. "Are you sure you don't need any help?" she added, looking up at Allyr.
"I'm sure," said Allyr, "And this is something I can guarantee that you don't want to get mixed up in."
"I was sure you had said something though…" said Viv, changing the subject, "It was like, 'if she's the patient type I'm the queen of… something'."
Allyr gave Kalas a look he could not read. "Um, did you hear me?" said Kalas.
Vivi suddenly gave a yelp and clutched her head. "I'M HEARING VOICES!" she shouted. Everyone in the parking lot and others in the immediate vicinity looked over at Vivi, "I'M GOING MAD!"
"Come on," said Allyr quickly, grabbing Vivi by the elbow, "Come with me, there's something I've got to explain." Hoping that her friend would not lose her sanity, Allyr quickly led a very submissive Vivi to her car, and shoved her into the passenger seat. Ten minutes later, Allyr was driving down one of the many streets of the city, with a very scared looking Vivi in the passenger seat. She was gripping the leather seat as if she was on a roller coaster ride that did not have seatbelts.
"Um, Vivian," said Allyr, using her friend's full name for the first time, "This voice you heard, was it a guy's voice?"
"Y-yeah," said Vivian, stuttering a little, looking out the window of the car, "It was."
"You didn't see anybody who could have said it?" said Allyr, "You know, maybe they were walking behind you and-"
"I don't know where it came from," admitted Vivian, "I just sorta… heard it."
"Did you hear me Vivian?" asked Kalas, hoping he would not set her off again.
Vivian gave a whimper but did not otherwise react. "There it is again," she muttered, her voice alittle bithigher than was normal.
Allyr sighed. "Just my luck," she muttered, "Vivian," she said in a normal tone, eyes still glued to the road, "I'm going to explain something to you. It's going to sound crazy, like I'm nuts, but trust me. This will explain everything." And thus she launched into a summary of what had happened when she had fallen into a coma, traveled to another world and so on. During her summary Kalas noted that she did not say anything about his fall. He did nothing to correct her. In fact, he was very grateful towards Allyr that she did not bring it up. Considering her current state, Vivian did not look like she could take something like that and trust Kalas if she heard about it. Then Allyr told Vivian how she had met up with Kalas's spirit in the park, and bonded with him. "Which brings us up to now," she said, "Now I'm just trying to balance my life out, and get Kalas adjusted."
Vivian was silent for a minute. "You're kidding me right?" she asked sounding skeptical, "I'm not schizophrenic, because you're bonded to some dead guy you met up with years ago?"
"Um… more or less," admitted Allyr, shrugging.
Vivian was silent for a minute. "How'd he die?" she asked quietly.
"It's sort of a sensitive topic," said Allyr quickly, "He doesn't like talking about it."
"I can speak for myself thanks." Said Kalas, feeling a little irritated. He did not want Vivian to interrogate him about his death, even less then Allyr.
"Awww… come on," said Vivian to Kalas, thought she did not have the faintest clue as to where exactly he was, "Why don't you tell us about it?"
Kalas's opinion of Vivian was taking a nosedive. "I just don't want to talk about it," he said, "Lay it off already!"
"I bet you started hanging around with the wrong people and one of them bumped you off," said Vivian confidently. "Or maybe he-"
"Kalas is a lot of things," interrupted Allyr, "But dumb as dirt isn't one of them. Can you just leave him alone? He really doesn't want to talk about it. Just because he's a dead disembodied spirit doesn't mean you can trample him."
"Gee, thanks Allyr," said Kalas sarcastically, his mood taking a swing in the direction of 'bad' as Vivian went on about the many possibly ways he could have died.
"Maybe he was murdered by a rival or something," speculated Vivian. Allyr vaguely wondered if Kalas even had a rival at any point in space and time, "Or, or maybe," continued Vivian, oblivious to the look her friend occasionally gave her, "Maybe he got too close to the wrong woman. Or-"
"Before you get too excited," said Kalas, his voice clearly carrying his irritation, "I was not murdered by anybody. I died from the plague all right? There was an outbreak and I caught it. I can tell you right now, it was a long and very painful death. Happy now?"
"Oh…" said Vivian. Then she muttered something that could have been an apology. "I thought that maybe someone had killed you on purpose, and would come here to hurt Allyr because you hadn't really died." She muttered, "I mean, he's not like… gone."
"That's rather elaborate and spontaneous," Said Allyr turning a corner, "Life isn't a T.V. drama."
"I'm sorry for bringing it up," muttered Vivian. Allyr noted however, that Kalas had not commented. She shoved this in the back of her mind for later.
"Here we are," said Allyr, parking in front of a rather old looking, four-story apartment complex. It was made from dark red bricks, with mortar that looked very old and a little on the crumbly side. The walls were covered with long strings of ivy like a living carpet of leaves. They had been beaten away around the first and second story windows, though any attempt at removing them completely from the walls had clearly failed rather miserably. "Time to go home Vivian. And I will see you tomorrow." She added when she got a look from Vivian. Vivian gave Allyr one last look that could have been anything, before getting out of the car and heading towards the apartment building.
Allyr parked her mother's green car in the driveway fifteen minutes later. After getting herself, and her backpack out, she started walking in the direction of her house. She unlocked the door with her house key, walked in, and removed her shoes and so on. When she got into her room, she practically slammed the door behind her. She dropped her backpack on the floor and glowered up at Kalas floating about three feet above her. Kalas guessed from the accusing stare she was giving him that this would not end well. "Tell me the truth!" demanded Allyr, thought she kept her voice down, so someone would have to press their ear to the door to hear her, "Were you murdered?"
"What?" said Kalas, a little lost, though he had a vague idea of where this was going.
"You lied to Vivian about dying from the plague!" accused Allyr, "I could even feel it. Was she right? Were you murdered by some loon who just might come over here to take a shot at me so you'll really die?"
"Okay, I didn't die from a plague," said Kalas, "But no one's going to come here to hurt you. As far as I know, they do think I've gone on and all that. Besides, there's no way for them to get over here."
"You're sure about that?"
"Positive."
"Absolutely sure? No doubt whatsoever?"
"Nope. You're in no danger from them."
Allyr let out a relieved sigh. "Wait a minute," said Allyr, realizing something, "Then you were murdered!"
"Why can't you just drop this?" snapped Kalas. "For gods sake, what part of 'I don't want to talk about it' is hard to understand? I might be bound to you, but that doesn't mean I have to tell you everything!"
"Kalas," she said, looking up right at him, "I understand how you feel. You've been thrust into a world totally alien to you. Everyone and everything you love isn't here, it's back there. You can't even touch or feel anything or anybody anymore. I understand how painful it is-"
"NO YOU DON'T!" shouted Kalas suddenly. Allyr looked at him as if he had just slapped her across the face, "My whole damn world could be falling apart and I'd have no way of knowing! Anything could have happened to Xelha and the others, and I don't have any power to help them! I didn't even want to come here in the first place! You don't have a damn clue HOW IT FEELS!"
Allyr just kept staring at Kalas as if he had struck her. "Kalas…" she said tentatively, as if afraid of angering him again.
"Leave me alone!" he said, sharply. She felt him float away from her, up to the roof of the house, where their bond would not force him back. She hung her head, embarrassed that she had prodded him after he had asked her to lay off. Kalas looked around the neighborhood from his vantage point on the roof.Looking at the strange buildings and listening to the unidentifiable noises of people and machines in the distance. And like a pain that will not be diminished or ignored, they constantly reminded him just how far away from home he is.
Wow I'm really tired right now. That's what I get for staying up late for too long writing.
So once again, please review. The more reviews I get the more motivated I feel to update. I'm going to sleep now. Oh, and please don't throttle me in my sleep. I can't update if I'm dead. Now for the good stuff... Zzzzzzzzzzz…