YamiPhoenixfire: Umm... Shouldn't you be updating?
Phoenixfire: Why? (continues to play Fire Emblem)
YamiPhoenixfire: Because if you don't, I'll tell your mom that...
Phoenixfire: Don't you dare even finish that sentence. (Cue anime-style aura of rage)
YamiPhoenixfire: (backs away slowly) Oookay… Hey, don't you need to tell them what the results of your poll was?
Phoenixfire: …what does this have to do with Fire Emblem?
YamiPhoenixfire: …you and your one track mind. Fine. I'll tell them
AstaraelxKalas – 4
KalasxXelha – 3
Of course… haven't talked to Selih in a while, but even if she does want KalasxXelha that will make things a tie. In which case… nothing will change, because we're going with the results we have now. Sorry, Selih… Personally, I choose to blame the fact that you're not coming to choir anymore…
Phoenixfire: In this chapter we do not own: Baten Kaitos, Mountain Dew, Evanescence, or the Presbetaryan Hymnal. (The very last song I use in this chapter is… Hymn 210, verse 4 if I recall correctly.) Now, chapter, chapter, must write chapter... damn.
Chapter Fifteen: Darkened Hearts
When Astarael woke up, she was shocked to find that she wasn't hurt. No, all that was wrong with her were the ropes that sorely restricted her movement. "What the hell is going on here?" she grunted, trying to move, succeeding only in squirming on the car seat.
"You, young lady, are going home with me," her mother said irritably. "And now, I am going to explain the consequences of your actions."
"Which ones?" Astarael asked, feeling the need to needle her mother for some reason. Hmm… perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she was currently trussed up in the back of the car?
"You can't just go waltzing out and challenging that young man again! He would have killed you if the rest of us hadn't been there to stop him!"
"And he would have killed you if he had chosen to stay! False reflection or not, he still has the powers of the Dark… he is not one to be trifled with," Astarael sighed. "Now untie me. Or I'll free myself."
"…Reflection? Astra, have you met this young man before?"
"...I did warn you. Hellfire," she spat, and the ropes burst into flames. She shrugged off the ashes.
"…the old bat was right. You have had contact with the Kaiten realm," Deborah Sanders sighed. "Your wounds heal too quickly. You can call upon your magic without using a full incantation. You managed to teach yourself the art of warding magic… which I am not amused by, Astra. You could have gotten yourself killed."
"Wouldn't have been the first time," Astarael muttered darkly under her breath.
"This is no time to be sarcastic! I don't think you understand the danger your actions have put you in!"
"Oh, I do understand. I'm finding myself wishing that I'd let Azil get run over by that damn car. Would have saved everyone a lot of trouble… come to think of it, this whole mess started because Azil was too stupid to look both ways before crossing the street."
"Leave your sister out of this," Deborah growled.
"You do realize that as soon as you stop the car, I'm going to jump out and fly away to confront the evil ones, and that you're too weak to stop me, yes?"
"You don't…"
"No, you're the one who doesn't understand! If I don't do something, we're all going to die!" Astarael cried passionately. "Don't you care about everyone else? Mother, this isn't about you and me anymore! This is about thousands of people! I might be able to save them!"
"…You truly are a Guardian." She stopped the car and put it in park, so Astarael could open the side door. "Go, and save as many as you can. You are no longer a child… and I'd rather not have you try to exit the car by force…" Astarael was twenty feet in the air by the time she had finished her sentence. Deborah sighed, got out of the car, and pulled the back door shut before getting in her car and driving homewards again.
Rana was unhappy.
Rana was very unhappy.
For the last four days, her eldest sister, Astarael, had been running around doing all sorts of important things, like putting protective wards on the house, the hospital, and a few other important buildings. Every time she came home, she got into a fight with either Mother (nothing new…) or Great-Grandma (since when did they even have a great grandma anyway?) After every one of those fights, Astarael would storm off into her room in a blazing fury, lock the door, and blast her Evanescence CD at maximum volume. The way she did this was strange. She would always play the whole CD through once, and then repeat a certain song three times.
I'm so tired of being here,
Suppressed by all my childish fears.
And if you have to leave,
I wish that you would just leave.
'Cause your presence still lingers here,
And it won't leave me alone.
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
You'd cry I'd wipe away all of your tears
You'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
I held your hand through all of these years
You still have
All of me
You used to captivate me
By your resonating light
But now I'm bound by the life you left behind
Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase…
And so on, and so forth. Rana knew a hint when she heard one. Astarael was trying to tell everyone something, even though Mother and Father told her that she was just being silly, that the song was probably just Astarael's new favorite. But Rana knew that wasn't true… Astarael's favorite song was the one where the girl kept saying 'hello' over and over again.
Even more disturbing was the way Astarael now reacted to her old nickname. Every time someone called her 'Astra' now, she'd blow up in their faces. It was strange. She knew that the blue-haired boy who'd beaten up her sister that first day she got out of the hospital was somehow responsible.
That, and there was also Azil. Azil hadn't come home in four days… Rana was really scared. Even thought she didn't get along with Azil as well as she did with Astarael, Azil was still important to her. Maybe she got lucky and she's on the outside… somehow.
Rana doubted it, though.
"Hey, Rana," Astarael said as she plopped down on the couch. It was the fifth day since she had fought the white-winged boy. She looked haggard, weary, and frustrated. Every time she got close to the castle where (According to her) the boy was hiding, she got swarmed by monsters and driven away. Luckily, the monsters seemed to be content to simply guard the castle, they hadn't bothered to attack yet. The boy would venture forth from time to time, strike some unprotected place, and disappear before Astarael could come and destroy him. "Where's everyone else?"
"Out looking for you," Rana replied. "Want me to make you a sandwich?"
"No thanks," Astarael sighed. "Not hungry."
"Come on, you really need to eat something. If you don't take care of your body…"
"Rana. Who's the big sister here?" Astarael asked with a crooked grin.
"I… you're making fun of me!" Rana cried. Whenever she tried to give her big sisters advice, they would always bristle up and accuse her of 'patronizing' them. Whatever 'patronizing' meant, anyway…
"No, I'm not. In fact… I'm actually happy," Astarael replied. "No mater how crazy everyone gets, no matter how Mom and everyone else treat me, I can always count on you to be… you, Rana."
"I… don't know if I'm being complimented or insulted," Rana said, but was pleased nonetheless.
"Heh… Before Mom and everyone else comes home, I need to do a couple of things. First of all… I have a present for you." She pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to Rana, who took it. When she actually looked at it…
She couldn't help but gasp. Hanging from a piece of black ribbon was half of Astarael's favorite necklace.
"For me?" Rana asked, still surprised.
"Of course, silly. It's good luck. It'll protect you. Now, I'm going to tell you a story. It's an important story, so I want you to listen. Can you do that?"
"Sure! I mean, with school canceled and no TV or electricity, what else am I going to do?" Rana replied, sitting down next to her older sister.
"Okay. Once upon a time, there was an evil god…"
Selih looked up from her book as she heard someone hit the house's deck rather violently. A moment later, she heard her best friend's voice raise in a string of curses and couldn't help but grin.
"Tired?" she asked, poking her head outside. Astarael was dusting herself off irritably, but looked more or less unhurt.
"Hell yes. Do you have any soda?"
"Actually, we do. I think Iname knew you'd be coming." Selih fished a can of Mountain Dew code red out of the fridge and handed it to Astarael who looked at it dubiously.
"What? No lecture about how I'm ruining my health and rotting my brain?"
"Um… hello? I'm not Alys. You're old enough to do whatever you want. So, why did you drop by?"
"I'm here to drop something off." She handed Selih half of the necklace that she had given to Astarael years ago. "Hang on to it. It'll protect you."
"Where's the other half?"
"With Rana. Watch out for her for me, will you? It's pretty common knowledge that she has the worst temper of the three Sanders sisters. I'd never forgive myself if she did something stupid…" Astarael sighed and stared off into the distance again, silently sipping her soda.
"Don't talk like that. It sounds like you're not planning on seeing me again."
Astarael smiled a sad smile. "Stay safe, Selih." She finished off the can in one gulp, tossed it aside, and took off. As she flew away, a scrap of paper fell out of her jeans pocket. It got caught in an errant gust of wind and blown into the trees. With a grunt of frustration, Selih dashed after it, wasting fifteen minutes trying to catch it. When she finally did, she wasn't disappointed.
I think it's time to end this game of cat and mouse. Meet me in the graveyard of the Clearwater Presbyterian Church at four o'clock, alone. I'm looking forward to seeing you. I think you're aware of what will happen if you disappoint me.
The note was unsigned, but it needed no signature. "Hey, Iname! I'm borrowing your car!" she shouted, scooping up his keys.
"Uh-huh," he replied, his attention fixed on his Gameboy advance SP and his brand new copy of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. (Because after all, the world was ending. Who cared if he 'wasted time' on 'trivial things' like video games now?) Then, as the car tore out of the street that they lived on…
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU'RE BORROWING MY CAR?"
Both of them were breathing heavily. His left leg was sporting dozens of lacerations, dragging uselessly as he attacked, slowing him down considerably. All the magical work she had done in the last five days was finally catching up to her, making her spells weaker, her reaction time slower. He managed to score several hits, and her black clothing was soaking up blood. They were surrounded by the wreckage of aged tombstones, some of them dating all the way back to the early eighteenth century. Periodically, an aged bone would be sticking out of the upturned dirt. Astarael bit her lip and hoped that the church had a record of who was buried where. They were probably going to need it to fix the graves when everything was finshed…
He cursed eleoquently as she managed to disarm him and ruin his left hand with a jerk of her whip. The dagger went sailing off into the murk. He tried to retrieve it, when he was suddenly enveloped by black talons that rose from the earth.
"W-what… I was not told of this! Let me go!" he gasped.
"No. This shall end. We're going to die together," she said with a smile that wasn't altogether sane. "Isn't that what you wanted?"
"NO!" he cried, thrashing against his bonds.
"I am Despair, the dispeller of Hope!" She cried. He was encased in a green barrier, and suddenly the talons started to squeeze the life out of him even as the inside of the barrier shot lances of chronos energy through him. Astarael watched him writhe and scream for a few moments with the dispassionate detachment of someone who fully expects to die. She then opened her mouth again and finished the incantation with the last of her strength. "Guardian Spell: Shattered Requiem!"
The shield imploded with a sound like a thousand glasses shattering simultaneously and an earthreal wail that can only be described as the sound of a dying soul. The talons ripped cleanly through his flesh. He couldn't even scream as he was torn to shreds and his ruined corpse fell to the ground.
He was followed later by a second thump. Astarael, strength exhausted, collapsed. Her wings flared, and nine beams of light shot from her and arched off into eternity. Once the glow had subsided, her wings were completely clear, and instead of closing with unnatural speed as her injures had been wont to do, the bled more profusely than ever before.
It was in this state that Selih found her best friend, lying near a huge pool of blood and a sword with which she had become all too familiar in the past days. However, despite the fact that he must have lost every drop of blood in his body, the false Kalas was nowhere to be found.
And a world away, in the Shrine of Spirits, eight beams of light shot from the deck of a blue-haired swordsman, scattering his Magnus and knocking him unconscious. As the light faded, his companions heard a familiar voice singing a song that would have sounded like disconcertingly like a prayer.
"Time an ever rolling stream,
Soon bears us all away.
We fly forgotten as a dream,
Dies at the opening day."
They roused Kalas and scoured the entire cavern. Soon all but eight of his Magnus had been recovered.
The Spirit Magnus were gone…
Phoenixfire: ARRRRRGH! Writing this chapter was like pulling teeth, and it still didn't come out the way I wanted it to!
YamiPhoenixfire: I blame Fire Emblem.
Phoenixfire: (socks YamiPhoenixfire)
YamiPhoenixfire: X-x (Faints)
Phoenixfire: I'm just too drained to deal with reviewer responses right now. (I know, I have no excuse.) However, I want you all to know that your reviews are much appreciated and give me the support I need to keep writing this. So please, continue! I shall respond to all of your reviews in the next chapter. (Which, hopefully, will be better than this one.)