(-Sticks head out of bomb shelter door-) That wasn't too bad...
Disclaimer: Must I say this again? Ah well, I'll do it because copyright laws scare the crap outta me: I don't own Baten Kaitos, Namco does.
Chapter XVII: Lost Hope
Xelha's footsteps echoed oddly in the crudely carved tunnel leading from the palace to the Ice Cliffs. All the time questions buzzed in Xelha's mind like a horde of angry wasps. What her savior really Allyr? How did she get into the palace without being caught? Why was she wearing the uniform of Morjidza's followers? How did she know about this escape route?
Xelha heard voices up ahead and saw a light not far at the end of the tunnel. Silently praying that something horrible was not awaiting her there, Xelha broke into a sprint, running with the speed of someone motivated onward by desperation. As the light neared she could feel the cold draft, and see little snowflakes drifting lazily around the entrance to a cave, which Xelha was now running out of. Ahead of her, sitting in the two-foot deep snow, was a gold airship, with a wingspan of about thirty to forty feet. The engine hummed softly, like the purring of a giant cat. It was a smaller commercial model, meant to hold about twenty people, but if this was the rescue that Allyr had promised Xelha, that should be enough.
As she neared the airship, panting like a dog on a hot summer day, a pair of familiar faces poked from around the doorframe leading to the interior of the airship.
"Yo," said Folon, his blue face twisted into a not unpleasant smile. He winked at Xelha, "Long time no see, eh?"
"You comin' on or not?" asked Ayme, her arms folded across her chest, the wind playing with her bright magenta hair.
Xelha, finally deciding that she was saved, ran onto the airship. As she ran up the steps to the door on the side of the airship's hull, she craned her neck to look inside, to see if her friends were there. And indeed they were. The walls were covered in pipes, as if they were the veins carrying the blood of a great animal. As Xelha entered the airship, she saw Savyna was leaning against one of the walls. The huntress looked up and spotted Xelha first. "At least you're alive," said Savyna with a nod. "It's good to see you again."
"Xelha!" came the cries of everyone else in the airship: Her friends, the witches, and the island leaders. They all looked tired and physically worn down, but the prospect of freedom made them cheerful. She scanned the crowd of escapees, trying to find Kalas. She did not find him.
"Where's Kalas?" she asked aloud when she noticed his absence, anxious for his safety.
There was an uncomfortable silence. "He's not here," said Savyna, her face expressionless, "Supposedly, Allyr was supposed to bring him here with you."
"Well, we can't stay here much longer," said Ayme simply, "Or else we risk getting caught. And I for one don't want to get thrown into a jail cell."
"But what about Kalas?" pleaded Xelha turning to Ayme, "We can't just leave him! Or Allyr!"
Ayme shrugged, "Got a better idea?"
"Bird-boy can take care of himself," said Folon, looking impatient, "Right now I just want to get the hell off this ice heap before a certain nut job finds us."
Xelha bit her lip. Unfortunately, Ayme and Folon had a point; they could not just sit here waiting too long. Otherwise they would just end up back in the cells, probably with the new additions of Ayme, Folon and Allyr.
"I'm not waiting any longer," declared Ayme, after a long silence as empty as a vacuum, "We're getting outta here." She walked off in the general direction of the cockpit, Folon following close behind. Xelha watched them go, her face expressionless.
"Allyr promise that everyone come back safe…" said Mizuti to herself, looking down at her bright yellow clogs, "Allyr promise Great Mizuti…"
"Cheer up Mizuti!" said Gibari, giving the sorceress a pat on the back, "Like Folon said, Kalas can take care of himself, and if he's with Allyr, there's nothing that'll get in their way. At least not for long."
"But she promised the Great Mizuti…"
"Just that they'd come back safe," said Gibari, "And she'll do that. She'll just be a bit um… Late."
"Or she could have failed."
Everyone in the room turned to Savyna when she said this. "Savyna!" said Xelha, "Don't say things like that! Allyr and Kalas will be just fine!"
"We have to be prepared for the worst," said Savyna, her face and voice lacking emotion, "We can't afford to underestimate our enemy here. If Morjidza or one of his men see Allyr and or Kalas clearly trying to escape, they will try to recapture or kill them." Savyna looked over at Xelha, "I know how you must feel Xelha," said the huntress, though not unkindly, "But if one or both of them has become a fatality in this war, you'll have to be prepared to accept that."
"Now don't talk like that Savyna!" said Gibari, "Have a little optimism here!"
"Besides," added Lyude, "They could just as easily be alive, and possibly in hiding."
Savyna sighed, "It's not as if I want them dead," she said, "But at least pessimists are never disappointed."
"Of course they be alive!" piped up Mizuti suddenly, "Even Kalas not stupid enough to get killed!"
Savyna opened her mouth apparently to say that it was not a matter of intelligence, when Ladekahn, whom the five friends had completely forgotten with everyone else who had not yet spoken, said, "We should keep our minds away from such morbid thoughts. Lyude was right; they could just as well be alive as dead. Either way, we should be grateful that our own lives have been saved. And if Kalas and his companion have suffered some horrible fate, then we should not let their sacrifice be in vain."
The silence that fell then was filled as the airship's engine roared, and was soon in the air, the transition smooth as velvet. Xelha suddenly wanted to be alone then, she just did not want to share the company of her friends as they felt freedom. She turned from the group standing in the airship's halls and walked off without another word to anyone.
The Diabolos had been following the gold airship for hours now. It longed to attack the ship, to make it fall from the sky, but it had been specifically instructed to leave it alone. Just follow and return when it reached its destination. For the Diabolos, that meant no victims today, and it had to actually resist its bloodlust, something it had never needed to do before. It hissed angrily as it thought about the task it had been forced to undergo.
The Diabolos did as its master instructed, it followed the airship at a distance, not taking its red eye off the ship for a second. For the Diabolos, the airship held an allure similar to a starving person looking at a set banquet table, heaped with piles of food. But once more, the Diabolos had to resist the temptation to attack the airship.
After several hours, the airship reached its destination and began to descend. The Diabolos stopped and hovered, beating its large gray wings rhythmically as it spotted the vehicle's destination: Mira.
It had done what it had been sent to do, now to return to Wazn and its master. As it turned around it spotted something below it that interested it. The Diabolos had been flying over the Ocean, and down by the rough surface of the water there was... The Diabolos had to squint its eye to see it better… A little blue light? Even with the monster's keen eyesight, it was hard to make out what the little light was. Whatever it was, it was moving quickly, for something that seemed so insubstantial, even from this distance.
The Diabolos chattered something in its own language irritably, what should it care about little strange lights anyway? It was irritable that it had been denied prey, and wanted nothing more than to get this whole damn mission over with. With a beat of its great gray wings, it changed direction and headed back to Wazn, back to its master.
The Diabolos was not the only one intently watching the gilded airship as it landed at the airship port at Balancoire. Half a mile away, sitting at the base of a tree where the forest began, sat an old man. His hair and six-inch beard were pure white. He sat at the base of his tree with his legs crossed, a walking stick made of an old, polished, gnarled branch rested across his knees. Resting his chin on his withered hands, he looked up at the gold belly of the airship with bright vivid blue eyes as it landed in the nation's capitol. His clothes looked as if they had once been very well kept and very expensive, but it had long since been reduced to shapeless gray rags that almost swamped the old man's thin frame.
As the airship landed, he quickly took something out from a breast pocket that looked like it was on the verge of falling off. What he took out was a silver pocket watch. A fine chain fell from the top of the watch, faintly catching the setting sun's last light. The silver watch had a detailed carving of an eagle with its wings spread wide on one side, and on the back of the watch, was a whale breaking the surface of the water. It looked very expensive.
The old man flipped the watch open and squinted at the watch face. The watch was clearly broken and made improperly. There was only one little black hand that did not move, and only the number twelve was on the face, and only black smudges marked where the other numbers should be, as if the watch maker had decided to rub off the numbers while the ink was still wet. The old man started at the watch face for a minute, then tilted it to one side, then the other, as if he were holding a compass, and wanted to make sure the little hand was pointing north. Right now it was pointing at the blotch where normally the number four would be.
After gleaning whatever information he wanted from the broken watch, he closed it, put it back in the pocket, and looked back over at the city.
"Ah, well, I wasn't expecting anything good," muttered the old man. Then, using his walking stick as a support, he shakily stood up. "Time to get me involved in this mess," he muttered again, "These people can't seem to get themselves out of their own problems. Oh well, young people now a days do need a push in the right direction anyways. And they are only human after all."
The giant gold airship was immediately the center of attention for everyone living in Balancoire. Ships from Alfard were not commonplace, and were therefore an oddity, and therefore good gossip fodder. Before the escapees onboard could disembark several Miran knights had to get the crowd to dissipate enough to let the escapees through. The ruckus produced when Duke Calbren got off was loud enough to be heard half a mile away. As soon as all of the escapees had made it within the relative safety of the manor, they began to relax.
"You woulda thought that the world was about to end with that crowd," commented Gibari.
"It still might," said queen Corellia sadly, "We haven't won the war yet."
Right then Melodia made her appearance, running down the quick flight of stairs. Then right as she reached the bottom she stopped. Would these people trust her as readily as Allry had? Then she spotted Calbren among the small crowd. Fears forgotten, she ran to him and embraced him tightly, "Grandfather!" she shouted, oblivious to everything else, "You're alive!"
"Melodia!" came Calbren's weak reply, "It's good to see you too."
"So… what be next?" asked Mizuti to the room at large after a pause.
"What else is there to do but wait?" said Ladekahn, shrugging. He winced as he got a stab of pain in his broken arm for his efforts.
"There but be something Great Mizuti can do!" persisted the sorceress, "Allyr and Kalas still need Great Mizuti's help!"
"They didn't come back?" said Melodia. A quick scan around the room confirmed at the two were indeed not there.
"They fell behind." Said Ayme blandly as she noticed Melodia looking around the small crowd, "Don't worry, Kalas is too stubborn to get himself caught."
"But we won't cry if he did get himself caught." Added Folon so only he and Ayme could hear.
Lyude sighed, "Like King Ladekahn said," Lyude commented, "There's not much else we can do but wait now."
That night, all was quite. The escapees slept in the guesthouse adjacent to the manor, so soundly that not even a bomb could wake any of them. The whole world was completely silent, as if everyone living had suddenly vanished from the face of the earth. All was peace, and silence, as sweet and innocent as a lullaby.
Then somewhere within that building, a woman screamed.
In short: Please don't hurt me for the short chapter and the second cliffhanger. (If you really want to call it a cliffhanger, personally I think it was too obscure, but that's just me.) Please review, and off to safety I go...