NOOOOO! Since the last chapter, I have discovered that Nintendo has moved the BKII release date (Which has been renamed Baten Kaitos Origins) from June to September 25! NO! I want to enjoy summer! Evil, evil Nintendo...
Disclaimer: If you haven't caught the pattern yet, I don't own Baten Kaitos, or its characters, etc. Happy?
Chapter XV: The Spirit Watchers
There seemed to be no transition, or if there was he could not remember it.
Suddenly he was no longer in the Shrine of Spirits, but in a different forest. A forest with an artificial path through it was made of a dark stone Kalas could not identify. There were strange voices and noises in the distance that Kalas could not make out. He recognized nothing. Not the place, not the voices, not the sounds, or even the people who sometimes wandered by, walking on the strange artificial path.
He was more scared that he had ever been in his life, or
afterlife. There was a big tree nearby, an oak by the looks of the
leaves, which seemed very much like the large tree back in the
clearing in Nekton. He floated up to it and stayed among its
thick branches, trying to figure out what had happened, and what he should do now.
He stayed there for days. Whenever someone passed by he hid, afraid of what would happen if someone saw a ring of glowing blue feathers sitting in a tree. He knew it was an irrational fear, but he felt it was best to be safe.
Then one fall afternoon, another person passed by his tree, but somehow she seemed to jump out at him. She was about his age, and had long brown hair, almost down to her waist. She seemed to be angry about something. She stopped walking, looked frustrated, then turned on her heel to go the other way. As she turned, she spotted Kalas.
He hid behind the tree trunk, just as he had when anyone spotted him. He heard the faint crunching of leaves as she approached the tree. She did not go away. Doing the equivalent of taking a deep breath to steady himself, he came out from around the tree, and looked down at the woman who had spotted him. The woman looked up at him, looking surprised and slightly confused. "Help me!" shouted Kalas, his voice distant and echoing, desperate for any help he could get, even from a stranger, who nevertheless seemed familiar, "Help me! Help me please!" After a minute of staring, the woman's eyes widened, as if in realization.
"Kalas?" she said tentatively, "Is that you?"
"This is it then…" said Allyr, unable to take her eyes off what had been behind her, "This is it, I've died and gone to Hell…"
"You are not dead," said the being who had been standing behind Allyr, "I can assure you that you are very much alive." The being grinned, "And as I said, you have not turned to stone, have you not?"
Allyr opened her mouth as if to say something, but all that came out was a weak sort of wheeze. Now behind her, Allyr could hear Kalas mutter, "…I said don't turn around. And what does she do? Turn around..."
The being smiled down at her, a slightly embarrassed look on its face, "Oh dear, this has not gone very well has it?" it said, sounding sheepish, "Pardon the shock you must have received, but we aren't very good at interacting with mortals."
"Um… 'we'?" said Allyr apprehensively, wondering which Hell she had landed herself in, "There's more of you?"
"Yes," said the being, "I'm one of The Six,"
Allyr tried to remember where she had heard mention of 'The Six' before, while asking, "Are they all… like you?"
The being laughed, "Are you surprised?" it asked.
"Yes," said Allyr a little more bluntly than was really necessary.
The being's shape was… undefined at best. It seemed to be made of light, a bright, turquoise light, floating directly over one point of the hexagram, which now contained Allyr and her partner. But the being's shape kept changing. Once it was a colored ball of light, then it was a large cat, then a woman, then a snake, then the light again, then another woman… it kept on changing. When it changed the light shifted, and Allyr had to stare at it before she realized what it was supposed to be. Then, just as Allyr figured it out, the shape would change again, just like when, if one stares hard enough, two faces suddenly become a chalice.
"Who… who are you?" stuttered Allyr, trying to wrap her brain around the situation.
The being seemed to smile, and something about the light suddenly and irrationally struck Allyr and Kalas as being feminine. "You know me," said the being,
"You know us all."
Allyr and Kalas turned around, to see another ball of light, shifting and changing as the first one did. This one was red, however. Red like fire, and whenever it took human form, it was always a man, or a boy in one case. "You have no reason to fear us," said the second.
"You should not fear any of us." Another being appeared, floating above another point of the hexagram, thing one a darker blue from the first.
Slowly, three other colored beings light appeared, each and every one floating above one point of the hexagram. One was white, one was, oddly enough, black, but black enough to make the surrounding oblivion seem gray, if that was even possible, and the last was green.
"…What's going on?" said Kalas, just as much to himself as to the other around him. Unconsciously, he and Allyr scooted a little closer together, taking some comfort in the other's presence. At least if they were in Hell, they were not alone in it.
"You have known us for a very long time," said the fourth, the shifting white light, "More than two years in fact."
"We have watched over you as if you were our own children," said the fifth, the dark light being, "Even if we were unable to do anything to help you."
"This moment has been a long time in the making," said the sixth, the green light being, "And I am happy to finally see you two in person, if not in the flesh," it added with a nod at Kalas.
The hapless pair scooted even closer together, trying to understand what was happening and who, or what, these beings were.
"They don't understand," said the fourth, "I'm afraid we have jumped into things."
"Did you just figure that out?" said Kalas, his voice a little higher than it normally was, "Who are you? What are you? Why do you want us?"
"Are you going to kill me and take him?" asked Allyr, trying to find a hidden reserve of courage. She was not so much of being killed, as much as what would happen to Kalas if he was taken. The pair were unsure exactly why the beings scared them so much. It was hard to describe. Perhaps it was just because they had no idea what was going on, who or what these beings were, and what they wanted with Allyr and Kalas.
All the beings began to laugh, as if mildly amused by Allyr and Kalas. It unnerved the pair on a deep level. "Kill you?" said the second being, "Why would we ever want to do that?"
"Because that's been the recent trend," said Kalas, "People seem to enjoy trying to kill us."
"We have no desire to hurt you," said the second, "Why would we? When we love you as we would our own?"
Okay… Thought Kalas and Allyr almost simultaneously, a slight side effect of being bound to one another. They were both pretty confused by the whole situation.
"Perhaps an explanation would be useful," started the first.
About time, thought Kalas.
"As we have already said, you know us already," continued the first, "But we shall tell you our names, just to jog your memory." The first being seemed to straighten up, like a falcon proudly showing off its feathers.
"I am Air," said the first.
"I am Fire," said the second.
"I am Water," said the third.
"I am Light," said the fourth.
"I am Darkness," said the fifth.
"I am Time," said the sixth, the last.
"And we are The Six, the Spirit Watchers, and Protectors of the Guardians!" chanted all six at the same time.
Okay… Thought Allyr and Kalas, once more almost at the same time. They both still felt pretty confused.
Then it seemed to click: "I am Air, dispeller of Time!", "I am Darkness, hear my Voice!", "I am Water, dispeller of Fire!"
"You are correct in your thoughts," said the first, Air, seeming to read the pair's minds, which did little to make them feel any less nervous, "We do correspond to the Spirit Spells. Thought we have naught to do with the casting."
"… That doesn't really say much," said Allyr, "I mean… what do you do then, if you have nothing to do with the Spells? I mean," she searched for the right words, "Doesn't it seem kind of pointless to just… be there?"
"There needs to be someone to guard the Guardians, no?" said Darkness, "And that is what we do. And as for a 'point', does there need to be one? One could argue that life itself is pointless. Animals, plants, and all manner of mircoorganisms evolve and struggle to survive. And to what end? It is there, merely for its own sake."
"Can you be a little less vague?" said Kalas "Or do you enjoy talking in riddles?"
"It is not a riddle," said Water, "It is what we do; guard the Guardians. We have watched you ever since you first bonded, making you our responsibility. We could do nothing to aid you, nothing. Until recently, even speaking to you would have been impossible. Until now, we have simply been content to watch, as we always have, and after this meeting, always will."
Allyr, now that her fear was beginning to fade, was becoming irritated. "Can't you just give us some answers?" she said, "Like, what do you mean you haven't been able to do anything until now? If you're so powerful, does that make you gods? Or are you Immortals-"
"No," interrupted Time, sounding offended, "We are not one of them. Nor are we gods."
"Then what are you?"
"We simply are." Replied Time, a hint of a smile in his voice.
It sounded like the kind of answer Mizuit would give.
"Let me draw the distinction then," said Water, "How do you define a god?"
"An all-powerful being," replied Kalas for Allyr.
"And we are not all-powerful," said Water, "So we are not gods. What are Immortals?"
"… People that live forever." Said Allyr, feeling like she was either being quizzed, or on some interdimensional game show.
"Wrong," said Water, her form seeming to flicker, "They are not people."
"They are concepts, given flesh," said Fire, "In the Great Void, the universe from which Cor Hydrae hails, every concept ever imagined by any living creature is given form and independent life. They can die, however," added Fire, a grin seeming to spread across his face, whether he had one at the time or not, "But they only die when no one believes in that concept anymore. Until then, they are ageless, and cannot die. As many a dictator has learned the hard way: You cannot kill a concept."
One less mystery in the world, thought Allyr, Thought not very useful, unless I can get everyone in existence to stop believing in death. Then maybe that freaky little girl will stop stalking us, demanding Kalas's soul.
"As for your other question," started Light, "We have been unable to help you, or contact you because we are unable to go beyond the boundaries of this nexus, a sort of pocket universe, not quite in one world or another."
"So now we're somewhere between worlds?" said Kalas, trying to wrap his mind around the implications.
Light seemed to nod at him, "You are right, little Spirit," she said, "We cannot leave it. And you are only here because of special… circumstances."
"Think of it this way," started Darkness before either Allyr or Kalas asked the inevitable question, "Beings from the same worlds tend to attract beings from the same world. Like a magnet in reverse, if positive attracted positive and negative attracts negative."
"An attraction to a being in another world is a rare thing," added Air, "And deepens into the bond that a Guardian and their charge shares, their souls directly bound to one another."
"Back to the explanation," continued Darkness, "The man you are after, Morjidza, he is a summoner, as you both already know. With profane rituals he can summon and bind to his will monsters from your world, Spirit, or monsters from the Great Void. He has done this so much recently, that it is upsetting the balance of the universe. While it will do nothing as serious as bring the universe to the end, it allows beings, like the one following you, Death, to move about worlds freely. And has allowed us, with the help of the Great Whale to bring you here."
"Morjidza is the last of a dying breed," added Time, "When he dies, the worlds will heal, just as everything does after a hurt."
"Wait a minute," started Kalas, as Darkness's explanation produces new as many new questions as it solved, "You said the Whale had something to do with bringing us here?"
Water laughed, "You have many questions," she said, "That is understandable. And we have plenty of time for explanations. As for the Whale, when your airship fell into the Ocean, he came to save you. He knows of us, and with his powers, sent you here. Because, the Whale is, after all, a god."
Kalas fell silent, and Allyr sensed that he was somehow disturbed by this news. Though she could not tell why.
"As you seek to kill Morjidza," said Light, "And he has done so much wrong, we will help you defeat him."
"As you Kalas, already know," started Time. Neither Kalas nor Allyr were really surprised that The Six knew their names, "Morjidza is not human."
Allyr glared over at her Guardian, who now looked slightly guilty under her angry gaze. "When did you fail to let me on in this secret?" said Allyr, clearly angry, thought doing a reasonable job at keeping it at a minimum, or at least at not going postal right away, "Or are you taking to habit to not tell me important things like this?"
"Um…"
"Cough it up. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I… I didn't think you'd believe me."
Allyr was about to retort when she really thought about it. She decided that she probably would not have believed Kalas if he had told her. "I'm sorry," she said, a little sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it." He said, "Now you know, that's what's important, right?"
They both suddenly became aware that The Six had been watching them intently through this whole short conversation. "At least they have not attempted to harm one another," commented Fire, "That is good. We have seen Guardians or their partners reject the other. I can assure you, it is not a pleasant sight."
"And they trust each other so much," said Time, more to himself than to any other, "I think, the only time I have seen this sort of trust was between Sagi and-"
"Do you still wish to learn how to defeat your enemy?" asked Air. Kalas and Allyr nodded. "Good," said Air, "Morjidza was once human. Many years ago, he heard of a place called the Lava Caves, a place where an ancient power was said to sleep. Lured by the rumors of power, he went to the Lava Caves, and meditated there for forty days. There, the power of Malpercio bent, warped, and twisted him. He has become a servant of the god, a puppet for Malpercio and his will. When Malpercio died, Morjidza's only aim became to avenge his fallen master. And to do that, he had to slay his master's killer." Air looked down at Kalas, "You, my friend, were killed only for that purpose. To avenge the death of the fallen god."
"I knew why he killed me," said Kalas, sounding a little irritated.
"So you must be careful, to never underestimate your opponent." Said Light, apparently ignoring Kalas's remark, "When the time comes, fight him as you would Malpercio, if the god was resurrected."
A lot of good that'll do us, thought Allyr sarcastically.
"The world is still spinning," said Time, "And we cannot stand still long. I imagine you wish to return to your mission?"
"Yes," said Kalas and Allyr at the same time. They wanted nothing more than to get back to a place where other stuff existed.
"Good," said Time.
"There is one last thing you must know," said Air, "Tell me: How often has a pair like you, ever played both roles?"
Neither Kalas nor Allyr had thought about that. How many others had been in a situation similar to theirs, being cast in both roles?
"None," said Fire, when Kalas and Allyr failed to come up with an answer, "Your situation is unique. Never before has a pair been as you are now. Guarded and Guardian both, that is something special. Take heed, as this will no doubt affect you when this is over and done. We do not know how, but as long as you keep your trust in one another, all shall be well."
"Now," said all six at the same time, "Return to your home and your quest!"
Then before either could react, the ground seemed to vanish from beneath Kalas and Allyr. With cries of surprise and terror they began to fall into a black endless pit. They fell, hoping that they would stop falling, and yet hoping that they would never hit the bottom. They kept on falling…
…And falling…
…Falling…
...Not the most inspired ending/chapter ever, but that's good enough for me.
And this is the last time I'm going to have any flashbacks in the beginning! It's going to be an interesting change, jumping right into the story and not a flashback.
So please, review. Every single one is much appreciated.