The Dragon Priestess
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Well my wonderful readers, it has been a hot minute hasn't it? Hopefully I have some of you guys still around! I've written a bunch of chapters in advance so I'll be able to post every Sunday for a long while. The goal is to continue to post every Sunday until the story is done! I've also edited the previous chapters to make sure it's reading smoothly and to change Brooke and Van's age so it makes a little more sense in the long run when things start getting a little R rated. And trust me they will. So don't forget to leave a review, I'd love to see who's still around and I'll see you guys next Sunday.
Chapter 8: The Gallant Swordsman pt. 2
The soldiers all filed in, in two straight rows, two by two, with the leaders holding flags up with a crest Brooke hadn't recognized. She figured that was normal, but when she had asked Van he hadn't answered her. She didn't know if that meant that he didn't know or if he was just ignoring her. Could have been either one.
Van had been thoroughly upset by the appearance of these guys, which was fair because they had just torched their village, and Allen had wisely banished the two of them out of the room when these guys came into the little outpost.
Problem was, Van wanted to see them. And Van wasn't going to take no for an answer. He had barged his way in and was now standing at the sidelines watching as the leader spoke to Allen. And Brooke had gone with him, because she wasn't about to let him face this by himself.
"We request weapons, food and water," the leader said in a tone that had Brooke believing that it was not a request but an order. "We are engaged in urgent military maneuvers."
These guys looked like tin cans. Like literally, their armour looked like that fake plastic stuff you saw on cheap costumes, but she doubted it was plastic. They had rounded shoulder pads that stuck out a foot from their bodies, a coat like robe cut similarly to Allen's and weird boots that looked like elf boots. It looked like someone too a pile of Christmas Anime items and dumped onto these guys.
"Of course, we'll do everything in our power," Allen said carefully and cooly. And good on him cause Brooke might have sassed him if he used that tone with her.
"By the way, Sir Allen, you haven't seen a strange guymelef in the area, have you?"
Allen didn't even pause. "No, not that I know of."
Oh the little liar. Someone who could lie that well was dangerous.
"The guymelef wouldn't have anything to do with the maneuvers that require a floating fortress, would it?"
The leader in red hmmed at Allen like this was a trivia question before saying: "Possibly."
"Would it have anything to do with Fanelia to the west being attacked?"
Aw now why did he bring that up with Van here? This was not a good move. Immediately Brooke put a hand out to him, hopefully to give him some comfort, but mostly so that if he stalked forward to issue a challenge she could try and stop him.
"What? That run-down little country? Maybe its leaders were eaten by the dragons that seem to wander around that valley. It's a fitting end for such a backwards little country, don't you think?"
He had the nerve to act surprised. He had the nerve to insult Fanelia. Screw holding Van back maybe someone should hold her back.
"Well, at any rate, it was a country of cowards, led by a king who had gone into hiding." And then he had the nerve to laugh. Beside her she heard the start of Van's sword unsheathing, yeah not good, not good.
"Becoming invisible during a battle is what's cowardly."
And the silence descended on the room and the leader in red was staring right at Van who had been stupid enough to call attention to them.
"Oh burn," Brooke whispered to Van. "I mean not a super great idea because he's coming over now, but that was a good one."
She caught the slightest of smiles from Van before he turned his eyes back to the boy, and Brooke was calling him a boy because he had to be around their age and he was certain his voice hadn't dropped yet, who was making his way over to them.
But when he got there, he just shoved Van aside and focused all his attention on Brooke. And like… why? Why? It wasn't like she was the one who made the comment? Could he just not tell?
"What a pitiful excuse of a dress. Why… you look like a country bumpkin. Wherever did you come from little girl?"
What… what did he just say to her? Who talked like that? I mean really? And how dare he insult her dress, it was a nice dress, and green always looked nice on her. And okay so maybe she didn't know if it was country-bumpkin, but she didn't know the fashion of this world and Van said it looked nice on her.
Actually why had she listened to Van, it would be just like him to put her in a dress that made her look stupid. Maybe not on purpose, but just because she had a feeling that he was the kind of boy who just knew nothing about clothes.
But she wasn't just going to let that guy stand there and insult her. Not when he just burned down Fanelia. Not when people died because these assholes were invisible and not fighting fair.
"Oookaay," she said carefully before putting her hands on her hips to glare up at this little moron. "Right, so… for starters, not a little girl. So don't call me that. And where I come from is none of your business. And while we're at it. I happen to like my dress and… and… well… those are some mighty big words from someone who looks like he fell into a scrap heap. I mean, come on, look at those things." She made a big show of gesturing to the shoulder pads. "I mean they got spikes on them, what are you worried a bird's going to land on you? And why a tiara? You gonna throw it at me like you're Sailor Moon? Moon Tiara Magic!"
A gasp rang out and all went silent. Brooke immediately inwardly groaned. Okay, maybe sassing the strange boy with the grey hair and the pink eyes wasn't a good idea. When the silence continued and he just stared at her with those angry red eyes her mouth opened up again.
"Is there something wrong with you? Cause… your hair… and you're eyes… Are you like one of them albinos?"
Oh my god, why couldn't she stop herself? Was she trying to get herself killed? She glanced over to Allen first to find his mouth open in shock and then to Van who looked like he was about to laugh.
"Why you…"
Brooke immediately backed away. "Hey, you started it."
His hand went to his sword belt and Brooke thought yep that's it. I'm going to die. And then Allen was riding to her rescue.
"Don't worry about her," he said coming to put his arm around her shoulders. "I found her in the east. Her name is Brooke."
He then lent in to kiss her and she almost fell over trying to get away from it. Did he just apply she was his personal whore? What the hell?
"Nope, no, that's not true. Nope, we're not doing that," Brooke said, and then pointed to Van. "I'm with him." And then she paused. "Nope, not like that either. We're just traveling together, that's all, from the east. Allen was right about that…"
The boy stared at her a little more but now she could see the concern drawing his eyebrows together. He probably thought she was crazy. He then turned to Van and looked him up and down. Oh, no this wasn't good, what if this guy figured out who Van was? Then what?
So, Brooke put her hand into his face. "But I'm what's really important here. You know, me, the rude one. Would you like me to insult your clothes some more?"
"Important?" he echoed.
"Oh yeah, I'm really famous where I come from." That was a lie. "Everyone knows who I am." Also a lie. "I uh… uh… I'm a singer."
Now why the hell did she say that? Maybe because once upon a time she had been? It was her family's trade after all. Her dad wrote songs, her mom played the instruments and the three girls sang. They weren't hella famous but they were popular. But that all went away after the accident.
She hoped he wouldn't ask her to sing.
"A travelling musician?"
"Nope, I don't play the instruments."
But he didn't hear her. "Then let's hear a song."
Aw, Sugar Honey Iced Tea.
"Oh boy, you know, I'm really tired…"
"Unless you're lying…" he said eyeing her a little more carefully now and she sighed again.
"Okay, let me talk to my manager and I will be right with you, okay?"
He waved her away like she was some fruit fly and then she grabbed Van's arm and dragged him away. "Okay, I need a guitar," she said.
"A what?"
"It's an instrument. It has like a neck and a base and strings and you play them like this," she said doing her very best air-guitar solo. "I need one of those."
"Are you actually a minstrel?" he asked her and she almost groaned.
"No, I sing songs," she snapped. "But I need a guitar and…" and then one of Allen's men shoved a guitar into her hands. Or at least it looked like a guitar. It was rather pointy and it didn't look like it would play what she thought it would, but she gave it a twang and it was passible… almost banjoishy. Kay, so she was going country.
And there was only one country song she had memorized because it was her older sister, April's, last song. But even then, she was probably going to get a lot of notes wrong.
She came out of the shadows with that instrument in her hands and while she practiced some of the chords to see if she remembered.
"Alright, so… just for you, I'll give you a freebie. I usually charge a lot of my sets, but uh… we'll consider it part of your… requested supplies. Just cause you're so nice," she said flashing the boy in red a pointy smile. This just caused him to narrow his eyes at her, probably because he could tell she was being sarcastic.
Her sarcasm was going to get her killed one day.
But he couldn't say anything, because she had already started singing.
I told you on the day we wed, I was gonna love you 'til I's dead. Made you wait 'til our wedding night. That's the first and the last time I wear white.
She had everyone's attention now, literally everyone's. Van had not asked her if she could sing, and she could tell that he wanted to. There had been worry on all of their faces, the men who knew her and wanted her to be safe that was, before she walked out with her banjo thing. It was gone now.
So if the ties that bind ever do come loose, tie them in a knot like a hangman's noose. 'Cause I'll go to heaven or I'll go to hell, before I'll see you with someone else.
She had forgotten what this felt like. She had forgotten that she liked singing, had been good at singing. A natural her parents had called her. Good with any instrument they put in her hands, not an expert but passable. Voice like an Irish thrush. But she had forgotten all about it in her misery. Had put that all away because it reminded her of the family she had lost. And if she didn't have her family she didn't want anything to do with music.
Put me in the ground. Put me six foot down. And let the stone say:
Brooke wished her family could see her now. She wished with all her heart they could see that she had found it again, that spark in her that she had been smothering. That she was singing again and doing really well. She wished, for just that moment, for just that song that they were there to see her.
Here lies the girl whose only crutch, was loving one man just a little too much. If you go before I do, I'm gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig two.
There was a violin solo in this song. One that would have been her twin, Kaydence's. She was a violin prodigy. A good singer, not amazing like Brooke or April, but on the violin, she was an angel. Mastered 6 Caprices by Sciarrino by the age of five.
Brooke could hear the violin part, she swear she could. It was probably all in her head, or in her heart, but it felt like Kaydence was right there, right beside her, playing her violin for her.
I took your name when I took those vows. I meant 'em back then and I mean 'em right now. Oh, right now.
She finished her song with a typical flourish and got a round of applause from all present, all except the boy in red who, she figured, was hoping she'd fall flat on her face.
She smiled happily up to him as she handed the instrument back to Allen's men. "I take it that was sufficient?"
His eyes narrowed at her but he turned away from her and eventually walked away. "I'd say it was nice meeting you but it really wasn't!" Brooke called out to his retreating back. Though why she did was beyond her.
"Brooke!" Allen snapped, and immediately Van was there to deflect him from her. "What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking," Brooke said. "I was mad. He insulted Fanelia… he insulted Van and but when he insulted my clothes… oh… that's when I lost it."
"Remind me to never insult a woman's clothes," one of his men whispered.
"I think she was brave," Van growled. "Which is more than I can say for the lot of you."
"I mean I don't know what you expected them to do, but thank you," Brooke said, putting her hand back onto Van's arm now that the shaking hard started again. This could have ended really, really badly and she was lucky that they hadn't.
"They're going to have a lot to say about you back in the Zaibach empire," Allen said. "I don't think anyone's ever survived talking to him like that." He then turned to the man who had been trying to keep them out of the room. "Gaddes, come to my room after they're taken care of."
And well that would have been a nice end to an otherwise harrowing experience had it not ended with Allen's version of taken care of. Which was her and Van locked in a room.
When he heard Kaydence's violin, Folken had stopped doing all that he was doing and gone to investigate. Kaydence so very rarely played her violin anymore, but Folken had always loved her violin playing. These days she only played the violin for his birthday. And today was not his birthday.
Instead he found her in her room of scrying mirrors, mid song, and with her came a voice. A voice that sort of sounded like her if she could sing high notes like that.
When he got into the doorway, he saw that his Kaydence was not alone. Across from her was a girl who looked exactly like her and yet nothing like her at the same time. The girl across from Kaydence giving off the soft other-worldly glow was an inch taller than Kaydence. Her brown hair was shoulder length with a slight wave to it. She was in a Fanelian green summer dress and she was the one singing. When she opened her eyes he could tell right away that her eyes were wrong. She was rounder too, not in the sense that she was curvier or heavy, just that her features were more rounded, where as Kaydence was more pointed.
And he liked her that way.
But it didn't explain what he was seeing, because he knew Kaydence enough to know that her family was up on the Mystic Moons so there was no way he could be seeing her twin, projecting a semblance of herself to Kaydence, wearing a green Fanelian dress.
When the song finished and Kaydence put her violin down, he found himself clapping for her. He shouldn't have, she liked her privacy, she didn't like playing for audiences, unless it was him and predictably when she turned around, she had a blush on her cheeks.
Though that could have been because she always blushed around him. She loved him, and he knew this, but he was a broken man with no future, and he knew that. He wasn't going to drag her down with him, no matter how much he wanted her, no matter how much she tempted him. He would not sully her and ruin her.
"Folken… I… I'm sorry, I didn't know you were there."
"That's alright. Was that your sister?"
"Yes, yes it was… she was singing to me. I…"
"You knew that song."
"I do, it's April's. I'm surprised she was singing it."
April was her elder sister. "And… you're certain she's on the mystic moons?"
"Well… yes… why?"
"Because that dress she was wearing… it was Fanelian." At this Kaydence went still. "Maybe you could look in to it," he offered. "See if you can spot her."
She nodded and he took his leave of her before he did something he wasn't supposed to. He, instead, waited the return of Dilandau. He could see from where the Fortress was currently anchored that the place wasn't on fire, so… things must have been going better than expected.
Folken had told him not to set anything on fire this time around, but Dilandau rarely listened to him. In fact, Kaydence was supposed to go down to that little outpost with him, but Folken had nixed that almost immediately.
When he let Kaydence get inducted into Dilandau's little band of soldiers it was the explicit understanding that Kaydence was first and foremost Folken's student, and that any ties to Dilandau and his men was in name alone. She got to wear the uniform, she got to exercise their power and contacts, but she was to never see battle. Not that it would matter. Her powers weren't strong enough for battle, though they practiced every day. She had only managed to maintain a low level of power, meager attacks, weak shields, even weaker elemental control. She couldn't project anything to save her life, and if she was projecting, it wasn't very far and for very long.
But she could scry. She had the ability to pull anything into her water and mirrors. Future events, past events, current events. She could pull them to her mirrors as easy as she could breathe. Everything except her family. Try as she might she couldn't get anything on her family, and never anything about her twin sister, which was the person she searched for the most.
He knew, even as he asked her, that looking for her sister would bring them nothing. Something to do with the power of the mystic moons affecting her, shielding her family from her. But those scrying powers were how he knew that the legendary guymelef that they were looking for was at that little outpost. Well, they knew the beam was there, but for some reason, as of a few days ago, she couldn't get a grip on the guymelef, and she could no longer scry for its pilot either. Something she had been able to do with no problem up until a few days ago.
He was not surprised when Dilandau came back from the outpost empty handed saying that the leader of the outpost had told him that they had seen nothing. Had no idea what he was talking about.
It was a lie, obviously, so the plan was to post scouts and wait for them to slip up.
"Hey… where's KayKay, I want to talk to her." Dilandau said.
"Don't call her that. She doesn't like it."
Dilandau shot him a playful smirk. "How do you know?"
This was Dilandau's new favourite game. Pretending he knew Kaydence better than Folken did even though they had only met this year and they were friends. Friends! Just friends. He probably asked her to confirm her relationship status with Dilandau at least once a week. It was distressing how possessive and pathetic he was over Kaydence, when he had absolutely no right to be.
"Because I know her. And she doesn't like it."
Dilandau's smirk remained unchanged. Instead he waited for Kaydence to join the,.
Before she joined Dilandau's men, Kaydence wore robes similar to his, now she wore Dilandau's choice in armour. Though he let her pick the color. She had chosen a hunter green, which didn't really go with Dilandau's red, or his men's dark blue. Though Folken enjoyed it on her, yes it wasn't as form fitting as he would have liked, but the color brought out the green of her eyes.
She hastily approached Dilandau who was all together to happy to see her. In fact, Kaydence, too, seemed to be smiling a little more happily now that he was there and he didn't like that either.
"Hey there KayKay!"
"Ew, no, I don't like that," she said immediately and Folken had to turn away to hide his smile. He had been right. He wasn't sure why he was surprised, he did know her bests after all.
"Fine, I'll think of something else," he said.
It was something he was doing, trying to find a nickname for her. She called him Dilly. She was the only one who was allowed to. She was the only one allowed to do a lot of stuff to that boy, anyone else who tried would be run through.
So far, though, he hadn't managed to pin a nickname down on her. Probably because the only nickname she could tolerate was Kay, and the only one allowed to call her that was him.
"Okay, now to the really important thing. You are not going to believe what I saw today."
"Alright, what did you see."
"A girl. A girl who looked just like you except she was super rude and a much better singer."
Both Folken and Brooke paused. Folken turned all the way around to link eyes with Kaydence who looked just as shocked by this.
"She was with this rude boy too. Black hair, brown eyes, dressed like a peasant. Said he was her manager? Not sure what that meant, but with her attitude I figured he was there to somehow keep her in line. He just wasn't very good at it."
And that sounded like Van, the pilot of their legendary guymelef. Great so it really was there, and Van wasn't alone.
"Dilly, this is very important, what was the girl singing?"
His eyes narrowed in confusion before saying: "Uh, some sort of love song."
If you go before I do, I'm gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig two.
"Yeah that's it, except she sang it much better."
Folken scowled, Dilandau didn't need to go on like that. She was alright, her sister was obviously a better singer, but Kaydence wasn't terrible, either.
However, that wasn't what was important at that moment.
"Oh my god, that was Brooke. Brooke is here. Brooke is here?"
Evidently she was, he wasn't sure if that was a good thing, or if, maybe, Kaydence would be happy to reunite with her sister, since she hadn't seen her in so long. But Kaydence only seemed to be upset by the news of her sister's appearance.
She gasped loudly and then covered her mouth with her hands. "That must be why I can't scry. She's blocking my scrying, she must be."
Folken found his eyes narrowed. "How would she know how?"
"Brooke as always been better at everything, I bet she sent me that projection just to taunt me."
But he wasn't sure that was it either. Kaydence hadn't known about her ancestry, her abilities, or the fate that could be hers when she first came to this world, he doubted that Brooke would know either.
But it did mean that the fate they had been grooming Kaydence for was in jeopardy. Fate seemingly had another plan for them.
The room that Allen had locked them into sucked. They had bales of hay that were covered in sheets, a meager carpet, no pillows, no windows… in fact the walls weren't even coated anymore, there were big chips where the brick was exposed.
So much for star accommodations for the King of Fanelia.
Brooke had been daydreaming. It seemed silly to daydream about Allen when he was literally the reason she was locked away right now but he was just so dreamy that she couldn't help it. When she first dreamed of this place, her dream had ended with a man with wings flying down to save her from falling. What if that man was Allen? It could happen… right?
She pulled herself out of her daydreams because she couldn't afford to be that foolish considering everything that was going on at that moment, and her eyes fell onto Van. He hadn't said much to her since they had been thrown in there. In fact, he was sitting on his own bed of hay, knees up, deep in thought, a permanent scowl on his face.
Brooke watched him for a bit and then decided that she was being awful selfish. Poor Van had lost his home, his kingdom, all his friends, and now he was here and these people were holding him and his guymelef and not letting him leave. Her problems seemed kind of trivial compared to that… and she probably should have been paying better attention to him.
Brooke sighed, wondering if there was something she could do to cheer him up. She reached into the little pouch that was sewn into the fabric of her skirt and pulled out her tarot cards. When she originally packed them into her dress the day of the coronation it was because she was nervous. She didn't think she'd need the cards, but they were the only familiar thing she had that made her feel comfortable.
Now she might be able to use them to cheer him up.
She quickly took them out, surprised that they were completely dry when she had literally ended up in a river a night ago, and began to shuffle the deck carefully while thinking all about Van.
"Hey Van… I know things are rough right now… but… let's try to cheer up huh?"
Geeze, even she could hear how pathetic she sounded. Cheer up? His kingdom just got burnt to the ground and his people scattered, he had every right to be sulking. Even before he got thrown into this dungeon-like room.
Van turned his eyes to her, that scowl still on his face, watching as she carefully placed the cards in a cross like position.
She flipped the first one over. "Oh see, you got the Hermit. So the cards are saying that you just have to be a little more patient."
That was kind of stupid, of course they'd have to be patient they were locked in a room. These cards better show her a good fortune or she was going to make things worse.
"Oh yeah?" That was pretty sarcastic. Brooke was willing to let that go though, she kind of deserved it. "What're those?"
"There my tarot cards. They can tell you your fortune."
"A bunch of cards can't tell you your fortune."
She flipped over the other two but they were pretty much just past cards. The Dragon, which she figured was Van, and then the Tower, which was probably their beam of light trip out of Fanelia. All that was left was the bottom card. The future.
"I know that," she said as she absently flipped it over. She hadn't even looked down yet. "It's just… I unno… I'm not saying I'm always right, but I'm usually pretty close. And… I was just trying to cheer you up… I'm sorry I…"
And then she stopped. She stopped because she finally realized what card she had flipped over. The Death card? She flipped over the freaking death card?
But… but… and then she wasn't in that room anymore. Death's face moved on the card, it's red eyes glinting at her. It swirling around her, depositing her in a barren wasteland that was on fire. But even she realized that it was Castelo, the little outpost they were in and just like Fanelia it was being burned by those strange guymelefs. And with them she heard that red-armoured boys laugh and she swore she could see his eyes.
And there was something else… someone else… someone that might have been…
"BROOKE!"
Van's hands gripped her shoulders, his face replaced the death's face and she was no longer in that terrible vision, it all faded away.
Brooke blinked her eyes at him. She managed to stutter out his name and then she was hugging him. Hugging him because she had been afraid and he had rescued her. He held her back a bit, his voice soft when he asked: "Are you okay?"
She didn't even get to say that she was… now… because there came the sound of a shovel. Coming from under their floor. Van had her up and away from the noise before she could say anything.
"Just stay back behind me," he ordered as he drew his sword.
The two of them waited on bated breath for something, anything to happen. And after a few grueling minutes they were rewarded when a shovel broke through to the surface. Brooke was right behind Van now, peaking out from behind his shoulder. Together they watched the shovel retreat and then a head popped up.
This person wasn't facing them but even she could sort of recognize who it was.
"Ugh… didi get the wrong room again?"
Brooke yelped and the man turned around, as if happy to spot them. "Uh! It's you again! The attacker!"
"Attacker?" Van echoed. "He attacked you?"
"No, sort of. Really, I just wanted the stone."
"What?"
When the man in the hole didn't say anything Van turned to Brooke who shrugged. "I can't really say, he jumped out at me, we fell in the water and that's all I remember."
"Got me with the ice you did, thought you might have run me through, but you didn't," he said.
"Again with this ice thing, I don't remember doing anything with ice," Brooke said but Van just shook his head.
"You gotta way out of here?" Van asked, sheathing his sword.
The man nodded. "Just follow me," he said disappearing down into the hole. Brooke didn't think this was a good idea, but Van was already moving. Well… guess they were going to escape.