Chapter Twenty-Four: Origins Revealed
Hikari toyed with her Emerald pendent. Kai had resumed his phoenix form and was flying above her. The sky was a perfect azure blue dotted by a few silky white clouds. Kai screeched twice and landed on her shoulder. He stared at her with his beady eyes cocking his head from side to side.
"Sorry Kai but I just don't feel like talking to you right now." she told the bird.
Kai warbled twice and leapt onto the grassy ground besides her, transforming into a normal boy of about 15 as soon as he touched the ground. "Sure you don't want to talk about it?" he asked her. Hikari nodded.
Sora decided to intrude upon their small gathering at that time. "Hey Hikari something wrong?" she asked her younger sister, when she saw her forlorn expression. Hikari shook her head, her emerald eyes suddenly weary as tears collected within her eyes. She appeared suddenly older, as if she really had lived over a hundred. "I was just thinking about some things." She whispered softly.
Sora, still unconvinced that Hikari was fine, sat down next to her. "Want to talk about it?" she asked. Hikari sighed and walked away, her countenance that of the distant look of yearning.
"What's wrong with her? She seems really quiet today; I've never known her to be like this before."
"Me neither." Kai agreed. "I think I know what might cause it, but I'm not sure if she'll talk about it."
"Do you think it might have something to do with the Emerald of Dragon choosing her?"
"No, it has something to do with Haku."
"Haku? Wait did they find him or is he…."
"No, it's more related to Sakura's departure. I think one of these days we may wake to find that she left in the same way that Sakura did." Sora looked at Kai in surprise and shock.
"I'd better to go and talk to her." Sora ran after her sister while Kai watched.
"Hikari wait up!" Hikari stopped when she heard her older sister call after her.
She waited until Sora had caught up with her before saying, "Listen Sora, I really don't want to talk about it right now. I just want to think about some things undisturbed."
"Hikari if it has anything to do with…." Her sister left before she could finish. Sora shook her head and walked away.
Hikari silently walked to her room, her Emerald pendent dangled from her neck hidden from sight. They don't understand. She thought to herself as she entered her room and closed the door behind her. They just don't understand the pain I've been through, and now this. My life seems to be a journey of sorrow, one after another quickly dashing from one to the other never stopping. I really wonder what the point of living is after this, this life that I have lived if you can even call it that. Sometimes I wish I wasn't immortal, at least I would be able to journey to the other world and live in peace. Death really isn't so bad sometimes.
She looked outside to find her sister and Kai talking below her. Kai looked up at her and waved, she waved back unsure of what to do. Sora looked upwards and shouted, "Hey Hikari you sure you don't want to tell us what's troubling you?" Kai said something to her, but she ignored him.
"I'm fine Sora," she assured her sister, "really. I'm just thinking about something."
"Well okay then if something's troubling you, feel free to talk to us!" Hikari only nodded though she felt like killing Sora. I wish Sora would just leave me alone; she's more annoying now than she was before at least before I could deal with her.
Sighing she walked out of her room, she needed to be somewhere alone where she wouldn't be disturbed. A memory of when she and Kai snuck into the Royal Chamber to look at the Emerald of Dragons. Smiling to herself, she walked towards the chamber.
She bumped into Chihiro as she walked out of her room. "Oh sorry Chihiro," Hikari apologized sheepishly, "I wasn't watching where I was going."
"No it's okay," Chihiro replied, "I wanted to talk to you about something."
"What did you want to talk to me about? If it's not important then if you'll excuse me I have somewhere I need to go."
"I just wanted to congratulate you on your recent discovery; I also wanted to ask you some questions about the Emerald of Dragons."
"Ask away, I have nothing better to do anyway."
"I was wondering who would wield the Emerald of Dragons when the time came that we had to face the Evil One."
Hikari hesitated for a second before saying, "I'm not exactly sure, but I think you would wield the Emerald of Dragons as a temporary weapon until you find the opal pendent that you're supposed to inherit from Sakura."
"Then does the same thing apply to the Ruby of Phoenixes?" Chihiro asked.
"I'm not sure, but it's very possible. You may want to ask Kai first about both stones, he seems to know more about them than me."
"Okay then, well then I have to talk to your dad for some reason that I'm not entirely sure of. I think it might have something to do with Haku." Chihiro hurried towards the Central Chamber soon after.
Hikari soon arrived at the Royal Chamber a few minutes later as it wasn't too far from her room. There where two guards guarding the entrance to the room as she had expected. "I Hikari, last daughter of the Dragon King, seek entrance into this room." The guards parted as they had the last time and she entered the room.
Sunlight streamed through the screen doors, illuminating the room in a pale golden light. A few people sat in the room reading or discussing current events. Hikari ignored them as she sat down, most of those gathered were people with whom she was not familiar with or would not recognize her.
Finally a quiet place where I can relax without being bothered by Sora, I just hope she hasn't followed me here. She looked apprehensively at the door for five minutes before she finally calmed down assured that Sora hadn't followed her. Hikari fingered her pendent nervously as she recalled the events that happened to pass just after the Emerald of Dragons had chosen her.
I wish Sakura was here; at least she could help me understand more about the power stones. She couldn't help but think as she slowly removed the Emerald pendent. "Hey Hikari," Sora's sudden appearance startled Hikari, "I thought that it might be a good idea to follow you after you left your room, even though Kai disagreed."
"Sora," Hikari told her sister, annoyed, "just what are you doing here? I came here to relax and think over a few recent events that have been troubling me for a while now."
"Sora," Kai said nervously, "we should really think about leaving. Obviously Hikari doesn't want to talk about it."
"Kai will you stop being so nervous! I came to find out what's been worrying Hikari and I won't leave until I find out."
"What if I don't want to tell you what has been troubling me so?"
"Then we'll stay here and annoy you until you're willing to tell us." Hikari frowned and walked to a different part of the room away from Sora and Kai. Fortunately, Kai convinced Sora to not follow her. Hikari smirked as Sora grimaced at the aspect of her sister's thoughts being undisturbed when they troubled her so. She slowly fingered the glowing Emerald before putting the pendent back on.
Hearing footsteps creeping closer towards her, Hikari turned around to find herself staring at Kai. "I thought you wouldn't mind the company." He told her as he sat down next to her.
"What do you want?" she asked. "Sora didn't convince you to interrogate me did she?"
"No, I just thought that you might have some unanswered questions about the stones am I correct?" Hikari didn't reply her eyes fixed on a certain spot in the room never moving. Her pendant's glow lessened a bit.
"How did you guess?" Hikari asked her voice barely above a whisper. Her dull green eyes adverted their attention towards Kai.
"Well you seemed a bit…uneasy, almost as if you were nervous about some sort of impending doom that you knew would come upon you within seconds."
"I guess you could say that, though I should point out that it's a really awkward way of putting it."
"I've never seen anything like it before, and thought that you wouldn't know what I'm talking about." Hikari chuckled at the thought of Kai; the wise scholar that he was, being left speechless was absolutely hilarious.
"What's so funny? Well at least you're laughing, go on laugh. You kind of freaked me out being so quiet and such. You usually aren't like that." Hikari blinked. The feeling that she had when she had gone with Kai to the Royal Chamber slowly returned. Suddenly uncomfortable knowing that they were starring at each other, she looked away.
"Um are you feeling okay?" Kai asked his expression that of great perplexion.
"Yeah I was just thinking about some things. So…uh…could you explain the powers of the stones for me then?"
"Sure I guess, you sure you're feeling okay?"
"I'm fine Kai! Stop acting like Sora already!"
Kai grinned, "She's just worried about you, but I know what you mean. Well then I guess I should start with the Emerald of Dragons since it's the one that choose you and the one you're most influenced by. Let me start with the origin of the power stones. There were three of them as far as I am concerned the Emerald of Dragons, the Ruby of Phoenixes, and the Great Opal. There may be lesser stones that are in some way connected to them, may it be the intensity of their powers or the things that these lesser stones affect. The three power stones were made by spirits and were named accordingly so the Ruby was made by a phoenix and the emerald was made by a dragon. As you know the Great Opal was made by the first Dragon of Nature whom you will recall as Chihiro's ancestor. The Emerald was created by one of your ancestors, who also happened to be a ruler of dragons. During his reign there was an uprising among lesser known of his people they were tricked into believing that he was a tyrant whose only goal was to the benefit himself and let those under his command suffer for this. Of course this was not true and to make matters worse they were turned into the Lord of all Shadows' servants, this spirit was the predecessor to the Evil One if you did not know already.
"Because of this a long a bitter war arouse between the forces of good and darkness. To his disappointment this particular king's forces were losing, they just weren't powerful enough to defeat to opposing forces. Unable to think of any else to do, he summoned all his forces into an assault on his opponents. As you can expect they were losing badly towards the end of the battle, but just when things seemed hopeless he spotted a large emerald lying on the ground. Remembering the ability of stones to multiply the amount of energy put into it as it would search for links between the input energy and other energy sources; he summoned all of his energy as well as the energy of his forces and put them into the stone. It must have been a wondrous sight to behold as the emerald glowed with all of the powers it contained, and that ancestor of yours used the Emerald to win both the battle and the war by containing the Lord of all Shadows."
Hikari fingered her Emerald shard, "So that means that I was related to the creator of the Emerald of Dragons, and Chihiro is related to the creator of the Great Opal. Does that mean that you're related to the creator of the Ruby of Phoenixes?"
"No I'm not. Another spirit named Kasumi is though she was also chosen by the Ruby."
Sora walked over to the two friends at that moment, "Hey guys what are you talking about?"
"Ask Kai." Hikari snapped.
"It's nothing that concerns you." Kai told her calmly.
"What if I want to know anyway?" Sora snarled. "Could you at least hint at what you were so enthusiastically discussing?"
"Kai's past," her sister sighed. "He was telling me about his childhood."
"Did you find out anything really interesting?"
"Not really…"
"Care to share what you learned?"
"No, besides he's right behind you so you can ask him what you would like to know." Sora stared at the two sitting in front of her and walked away.
"My past, was that all you could think of?" Kai asked Hikari after Sora left and reached over to lightly punch her arm.
"It was the first thing that came to mind," Hikari replied innocently, "besides the fact that you aren't related to spirited who created the Ruby of Phoenixes does count as a portion of your history." Kai shook his head, hoping desperately that Sora hadn't overheard their conversation.