Chapter Four: Love and Healing
...One Year Earlier (continued)...
There was a heavy sorrow draped upon Prontera the following morn. All of the new graduates felt completely ashamed of themselves, having either been out of the city or just getting smashed at a local tavern to celebrate their promotions. The six flaming houses had burned themselves to ash before any wizards could come and put it out, seeing as every single one was so "conveniently" preoccupied with their own promotion ceremony up in Geffen for all of the new wizards. Knights had secured the scene, eventually, and had found no trace of who had caused the chaos...
Meanwhile, at the city's hospital that is run by the priests and priestesses from the church, Kyson began to stir in his achy slumber. Nightmares of the previous night etched the entire situation into his mind forever. His parents hadn't a chance to escape. They had two choices: die within the flames, or die by the hands of that violet-haired assassin. The events played through his dreams once more, but as the final two fire bombs burst the last two houses into a fiery abyss, Kyson's eyes shot open and he found himself drenched in a cold sweat.
The knight stared straight at the ceiling. Judging by the overly white looks of it, the sounds of the building, and the feel of the bed that he was in, he deducted that he was lying in a bed at the hospital. His entire body ached, especially his back and side which bore the four dagger wounds. It hurt him to even try moving his left arm to wipe the sweat from his brow.
"Don't you even think about it," a female voice said, rather sternly.
Right as he heard the voice, Kyson obeyed and lowered his arm back down onto the blanket. Right away he felt a cloth wipe the sweat from his face. He could probably get used to this kind of treatment, if only getting wrecked in a battle didn't have to come first.
"There, better?" the voice said more tenderly this time.
Kyson let his head turn toward the speaker, ignoring the slight pain that shot up his neck as he did. He was greeted by a wizard, who was just placing the cloth down on the nightstand next to his bed. The girl looked very familiar, probably since he met her very briefly yesterday. She gave him a little smile when he didn't answer her question, hoping to probe a reaction.
Kyson could feel the blood rush to his cheeks as he blushed, "Yes, thank you, Miss... Celina was it? Congratulations on your wizard promotion."
"Thank you very much. Oh! You don't have to call me Miss, silly. You get points for remembering my name though, seeing as Thane only said it once," she paused for a moment and glanced at the door, "Speaking of my brother, he's probably out there hitting on the priestess who patched you up..."
Kyson felt the hair on his arms and head stand up a bit when he saw her right arm crackle with magical energy. Yea, she was mad, and it was probably some lightning spell from the current that was being produced; plus, as with what she did to Thane yesterday, he could tell she was rather proficient with electricity.
"Some crusader he is... I bet the church will revoke his promotion in less than a month," Celina said in a rather ticked-off tone.
"I know just how you feel," Kyson said laughing, "but he does his duty well and that is what has kept him in the church's favor so far."
"Well, I guess I should go fetch him. He was the one who had asked me to watch over you until you woke up," she flushed a slight red before hurrying out the door.
Kyson laughed inwardly to himself, having noticed her face's change of color, and grinned as Celina pushed Thane into his room. Thane stumbled in but grabbed the doorway for support as he spun around to try and get one last look at the priestess that he was flirting with.
"Hey, Ky, you think I have a chance with that 'walking potion'?" Thane asked, sounding rather desperate for a relationship.
"Well, for starters, I think calling her a 'priestess' and not a 'walking potion' would grant you a better chance," Kyson paused when Thane turned to face him, revealing his patched right eye, "I guess your right eye got hurt more from all that sand?"
Thane took a seat in chair positioned at Kyson's before he said anything, "I just need to wear this damn thing for a while; that's about it. You though... you were really thrashed up last night." A large grin settled on his lips, "Also, it seems my sister wanted to sit extremely close to our once-sleeping knight right here while he was out cold."
"Oh really?" Kyson sputtered.
Thane chuckled, "Even though she's never met you before, she has had a crush on you since she first saw a picture of us in our swordsmen days."
"Now that's quite a long time," Kyson said in disbelief, "She is quite good looking herself..."
Thane started to make himself look rather idiotic by making little "kissy" noises, "So do I already hear wedding bells in the future?"
"Um, hello? I've known her for less than ten minutes!" the knight barked back.
All of a sudden, a knock was heard right behind Thane. The crusader pretty much stopped breathing because he could pretty much guess who it was, and that she wasn't happy. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he cocked his head back to confirm who was right behind him. Sure enough, it was his sister with a sphere of Jupitel Thunder spinning in her right palm.
"Shutting up now," he said, and quickly darted past her and out of the room as fast as he could.
Celina shook her head gently; her brother really wasn't very bright. Closing her hand she let the sphere of thunder dissipate before using her other to shut the door behind her.
"Guessing you heard what he was saying?" Kyson asked.
Celina grinned at the knight and began to play with the cape of her wizard's garb, "Perhaps it was for the best... I was too shy to tell you on my own..."
Kyson laughed softly, frowning a bit after, "Maybe it was..."
The wizard's cheeks flushed at those words but she grew confused after seeing his sad face, "...what's wrong?"
"It's just," the knight paused, "Aside from my parents... Thane's been the only other person in my life until yesterday. Now that Mom and Dad are gone..."
A few tears slid from Kyson's eyes and landed on his pillow, since he was still lying down. Almost on instinct Celina was sitting on his bed and holding his hand in an attempt to comfort the injured knight. Taking the cloth from before off the nightstand, she wiped his tears of his face, leaving him with a gentle smile.
"You may be a fiery one, as your brother says, but you do have a pure heart," he returned her hold by placing his other hand, as annoyingly painful as it was to move it, onto hers. He instantly saw he blush when he did so, but she smiled after and that made him so joyful that he couldn't help but smile as well.
...One week after the events in the hospital...
The sounds of swords clashing together could be heard somewhere in Mandragora Forest as anyone left through the east gate of Prontera. The sounds led to a clearing that was just dashing with sunlight on this lovely winter's morn. Some may have called them insane for being out in the cold weather, but Kyson and Thane knew they had to be in the best shape that they could be to do their job effectively. The two boys had been at it for almost an hour now, and their sparing showed no sign of slowing down any time soon.
Thane met the knight's overhead slash with the shield on his left arm and quickly brushed it aside, trying to make room for his own attack. Kyson saw the crusader's blade coming in from his left side and quickly readied his parry at the last second. The block was successful and with that he shoved back on Thane's sword which made the other boy loose his balance, leaving the knight open for a counter-attack. Kyson dropped down onto his right hand and knocked Thane down to the floor with a sweeping kick, quickly then spinning back to his feet as the crusader fell onto his back. Instantly, before Thane could even react, Kyson had his claymore above the crusader's throat and he had a large grin on his face.
"Good match, Thane. Good match," he said as he pulled Thane back to his feet and then placing his claymore back into its scabbard.
"You do realize that I've yet to beat you at all right? Aren't you the one who should still be resting?" Thane asked quizzically.
"That is exactly what he should be doing, my young crusader," said a new voice.
From behind them, a blonde-haired man dressed in the garb of a high priest stepped forward. It seems that he had watched their little "show" before finally revealing himself. Both of the boys knew exactly who he was, and why he was a tiny bit unhappy with Kyson. The high priest looked in his late thirties, but it just happened to be that he was actually the youngest high priest ever to be ordained by the church in a very long time. He has held this position for more than ten years already.
"Father Kura... I'm sorry for disobeying your order as the head of the hospital, but, as you can see, I'm feeling perfect again," Kyson said while looking into the priest's eyes. His own eyes showed the sincerity and dedication of a knight of Prontera.
Father Kura merely chuckled and quickly cast a small amount of his healing power onto both of them to fix up whatever small wounds they may have scuffed up during their sparing, "There's no need to get defensive, Son. I can see that you're well now but it still is a good idea to get some rest after sustaining an injury like you did. Healing magic can only go so far, my young knight, and the rest of your recovery is up to you. I just want to make sure you're as fit as a fiddle before you go into any real combat."
"I thank you for your kindness, Father, but with the care of my friends I'm feeling just fine now," the knight replied.
Right after he had finished speaking, a sphere of lightning flew from the bushes nearest Kura and pegged Thane square in the chest, sending him flying back eight feet and onto his back.
"And I thought you crusaders are supposed to be on alert at all times!" giggled Celina as she burst from her hiding spot right after the sphere had made its impact. She jogged over to Kyson and held him on the arm while he looked over at Thane who was glaring comically at his sister. Kura hung his head down at the trio and quickly healed Thane once more.
"You three..." he was going to dissapline them, being the head of the church, but he figured he would just let it go, "Have a good time. I'll see you all later, but not so soon I hope. I spend most of my time at the hospital dealing directly with the patients so I should hope that you won't be getting injured again for a very long time."
With that said, he smiled at them and quickly chanted a teleportation spell that sent him back to the city. Thane got back to his feet and looked like he wanted to hit Celina right in the face, but she ducked behind Kyson who looked at his friend and shrugged before ruffling up the girl's hair a bit.
"I'm gonna get you back for all this one day, Sis," he threatened jokingly.
Celina laughed, "You can't hit me because I'm a girl! Boys can't hit us because it's not nice. Right, Ky?"
Celina tugged at his arm and smiled. The knight looked back and forth between Celina and Thane, rather awkwardly, "Well she is right, you know."
"Great!" the crusader said loudly, "She already has you turned against your best friend!" He laughed at the couple and grinned when he saw their eyes widen at his words, "How like love."
The little trio walked back to the city of Prontera seeing as the cold was finally getting to them, and since the sparring session had been finished for quite a while. Kyson always looked down the length of the city at where his house and those around it once stood, but never since that day has he gone anywhere near it. Thane's house was in the complete opposite direction and the crusader had been nice enough, seeing as he is his best friend, to give him a room of his own for as long as he needed.
"Well, home sweet home," Thane sang as he walked through the door, "I'll start cooking up something for..." he stopped speaking as he turned around and looked through the doorway to see Kyson and his sister kissing each other in a passionate embrace. Separating their lips, the two stopped, rested their foreheads together and just gazed into each other's eyes.
Thane was happy for both of them. Kyson had a family again with Celina and himself, while Celina now finally was with the swordsman, now knight, that she had been dreaming about since the beginning of her mage training. He laughed to himself and turned around and headed toward the kitchen, "I'll just go make some dinner and leave you two alone."
