Author's Notes: Yeah, at this point I'm not sure if I will finish the story. With a lack of people reading there is lack of motivation really. I'll just have to see how this chapter works out to decide. Seriously, I've got so many other stories lined up in my head waiting for this one to play through, but if this isn't viewed, there really isn't a point to continue it right? Well… Enjoy it if you ARE reading it.

Shameless plug: A LOT of direct references back to Origins of Odin, but I KNOW no one has read that.

Chapter 4: Acceptance

Drew

Now that the GFs had finished telling their stories all eyes came to rest upon me. I could not hold back the heavy sigh. Great, they were all looking to me to see if I'd believe this damn ridiculous story. Were this spring and not summer I'd think it was all some elaborate April Fool's Day joke, but the look upon Corin's face is too serious for that. The way he has pulled away lately, back into himself, is almost disturbing, maybe even lending some credibility to his words, but not enough.

"I'm sorry. If you're waiting for me to break down and say I believe this then you really don't know me at all," I finally said, standing and smoothing my pants upon my legs. What kind of fool did they take me for? "This whole thing is far too far flung and flat out stupid to be possible. Now, I have a country to run, and I only came here to fetch my brother."

Once more Corin shook his head, a tired look in his eyes. I'm not totally sure how it came that he made it look like wings sprouted from his back, but he had a thing for holograms back when we were all younger, so that might explain it. But that pain there, that fatigue that was real. I'd seen it somewhere before, but where I couldn't quite remember…

"Now Reyn, it's time that you and I got back to our duties…"

"I'm not going Drew," he said, not even looking up at me. Ever since Tiamat had begun to speak his eyes had been downcast. Sadly I could recognize the slight signs in him that did not bode well for me. His hair hung down in his eyes, something he never allowed, and his fingers were laced together in his lap, his whole body hunched over a bit. When he finally looked up to me, our eyes meeting for the briefest moment before his attention moved to Corin I saw it, the same fatigue I had just noticed in the eyes of the Headmaster, except I knew this wasn't where I had first seen the look.

"I believe you Corin," my brother said slowly, almost as if he was afraid his words would fail him. "I always wondered why Griever and Tiamat let us live back during the war, why they didn't even fight, but I could never quite explain it. And it all kind of makes sense you know? I mean, it kind of explains the mark of Mercale on my gunblade, and how Darius freaked out when he learned about it and how every time something goes wrong we always seem to be picking up the pieces and making peace. And then there are those dreams…"

"So, the dreams HAVE come to you," Corin said, bowing his head slightly as his wings wrapped around him a bit as if he was cold. "What did you dream of?"

Reyn lowered his head even further, his brow creasing with thought. "A Prince. I remember a Prince named Drewel Loire. And darkness surrounds him everywhere. A woman in red comes to him, a sorceress, and all I can do is watch on as the balance is upset. Then there is a woman clad in white with for instruments that seem to radiate power. The two play the instruments and I finally see myself. I'm clad in silver and I hold a giant axe. I have wings too, and I'm not alone. The two disappear through a door while we turn to fight the sorceress. Feniux is there, clad in gold, and Greiven in bronze. Another one is there, Nysil in his great helmet that hides his features… And then…"

Something in his voice said that the dreams never got past that part. Corin moves to kneel before him and covers the hands of my brother in his own. "Those aren't just dreams, they are memories. They are memories of a past so long ago and how we helped the Smith and the first one that would become a GF…"

"Xera," I say, and the others all turn their attention to me. I don't know just when I'd reached the doorway of the room, but I was there now. "That was Xera, the Red Sorceress, Lady of Ruin. Right? The one you told us about in your little stories."

Tiamat looked sadly towards Griever, who nodded slowly. That was all the answer I needed.

"There was nothing more satisfying than sinking those claws of bronze into her flesh," my voice came, purring of its own accord. Of course I knew not where the words came from.

A smile touched the face of the lion guardian. "Well spoken Lion Cub."

Now Reyn's eyes fly to my face, shock written there. I can tell he's probably wondering why I denied their words if I knew this.

"I've had dreams too, but they are only that Reyn, dreams. None of it is real, just things placed in us by these fools…"

"And he opens his mouth and inserts his foot brother," Tiamat said with a sigh.

"Fine then," Corin said as he slowly rose, his hand lingering a moment longer against the flesh of Reyn's hands, "Refuse this Drew, and condemn them all, even your son Laguna and your beloved Sorceress. They are as tied to this as my Kalari, and Reyn's Leon. And if we fail them now then there is no hope at all. Xera will rise and win, and when Hyne comes he shall through them down and the world will be ruled by a cruel god because you refused to believe!"

Even with the mental defenses I normally had in place I could not help but recoil at his hard words and the mental lash that came with it. To my knees I fell, hands to my head, clutching it in pain.

"Corin!" Tiamat shouted, "Release your hold upon him!"

The red-haired male glared at Tiamat a moment before turning away. At the same instant the pressure in my head dulled and Griever was at my side. The hand of the lion cupped my face and a grim look dominated his feline-features.

"Look at what you have done," the earth guardian said as he rose, his hand under my chin forcing me up with him. "He's bleeding."

This was when I noticed the flow of warm down my upper lip. Quickly I pulled away from the GF and rushed to a mirror situated above a mantel. True enough there was blood trickling slowly from my nose. Somehow the strong mental lash of the Headmaster had caused the injury, but it was something else that stopped me further. Those eyes… Finally I found the set that Corin's fatigued red had brought to mind. And those eyes were my own. They were weary, and deep down some strength still caused them to shine despite the look that proclaimed they had seen far more than my body.

"Drew," Reyn said, his voice betraying the worry.

"I'm… Fine," I finally said, turning and taking the offered tissue from my sibling. Somehow he'd snuck up behind me while I was mesmerized by my own eyes.

Once the blood flow slowed and ultimately stopped I found myself back in my seat, guarded by the large anthropic-lion. Corin was by the fire yet again, a new emotion visible from the small crack that had formed in his emotional mask of stone, sorrow, a deep sorrow that knew no cure. Had I caused that?

Though I hate to say it, to sound repetitive towards the night we'd already spent together for so long, silence was yet again our master. Finally I let myself look up at the guardian standing beside me.

"My father always said that if there was no one I could trust in the world, I could trust my brother and Griever. Tonight they have both supported your words Corin, and in them I will place my trust for now. But keep in mind, I will turn back if things happen that I do not approve of…"

It took a moment for my words to reach those in the room, but Corin was up once he understood, "Does that mean…?"

A nod was all the response I needed to give. But I elaborated for his sake. "What shall we do first then, to stop this coming of Hyne and defeat yet ANOTHER Sorceress?"

For the first time in more years than I could count a smile touched the lips of the Headmaster of Balamb, and touched his eyes as well. "We find Forsaken and his avatar, the only one at his fullest power and the only one that knows everything that we need to know."

"And where, pray tell, are we to find them?" I asked, unable to keep the sarcasm from my voice.

"I… Don't know…" Corin admitted.

"Finding him is up to you Lion cub," Tiamat said. "For of all of those present, you have the strongest bond to him."

"And why do you say that," Reyn asked, moving across the room to where Corin was standing, though not seeming too much like he was heading there while he did it.

"Because like Tiamat and myself," Corin said, "They are bonded together on a higher level."

"Higher level?" I questioned.

"He means that when we are not upon the planet, Forsaken and I have always been marked as lovers," Griever said.

"Wait… Lovers?" Reyn asked, understanding what that meant about Tiamat and thus for himself.

Griever nodded. "Since before Yarrowen walked in our presence and after Ladys Galina and Runeath danced upon the young planet."

"So you mean that I should be looking for someone that I was involved with once?"

"Actually, no," Tiamat said. "This one was born before you all, and since they would have the temperaments of Nysil, they would not be likely to have courted one so much younger than themselves. It is likely they are someone you have known well enough though, and beyond all doubt they would have been married and a child would have been born of that marriage, a young woman… The Magus of the Oceans and the eldest of all of the Mages of Elements."

Griever nodded gravely. "Sadly, even we have never been privy to the comings and goings of Forsaken and his avatar, much less gain the knowledge of the Water Sorceress Beyond the Silver Doors… The only reason we could tell you the Elemental Mages we have is because they are born of our own lines, and are your own children…"

Soon the crackle of the fire was all that could be heard until it came to me. I shook my head furiously, "No, that is not possible…"

All of the others looked once more in my direction.

"Born before us, known by us all, with a daughter and married… You can't be serious…"

They looked confused at the shaking of my head.

"Guys, the only person I can think of that fit those requirements that I have any real ties to, that I could really associate with fighting Sorceresses and all of that shit…" And, though I'd not say it, the only one with eyes that had always been as sad and tired as ours now were, "That person is dead."

"Who?" Corin prompted. He obviously thought I was joking.

"And he's also the only one who I could really see as that angel in my dreams… His name even fits…"

"His?"

"Nida…" I said, and watched the shock on their faces.