The Dragon Priestess

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Happy Sunday my wonderful readers! Are you guys excited to see what's going to happen next? I mean, sooner or later the siblings are all going to meet one another and Van does have to be rescued after all. This chapter doesn't have any of that because it focuses mostly on Brooke and all the fun stuff she's been up to. But I promise, next chapter is going to have all the fun stuff you guys are waiting for! As always don't forget to review and I'll see you guys next Sunday.

Chapter 14: Seal of the Brothers pt. 2

Brooke was taken into a small room, which had to be Allen's office on the flying ship and then he asked her a bunch of weird questions. Wanted to know more about her powers and how they worked. And yeah. You know what, she'd like to know that too. Problem was, she had no freaking idea.

Eventually she took out her cards, had him sit down and told him that she was going to tell him things that she shouldn't know. All from the cards.

He had been skeptical but agreed.

So, they sat at that little table, she shuffled her deck praying to the fortune gods to bless her with a convincing reading. She let him take her cards and shuffle a bit before she laid the cards out in a specific pattern.

She looked them over.

"Right. The Fool. A life led in one's own way. Actions flying in the face of common sense. This card is for your father, it's his personality. His uh… shadow haunts and destroys your family. A family divided."

She glanced up to see if that hit it's mark but Allen just stared at her. She knew she was right though. His sister's disappearance and his mother's death… he blamed his father. She wasn't going to say that though and he was eyeing her carefully now, quietly waiting for her to continue.

Right guess she better move on.

"Justice, the card of judgment," she said. "In this position it's saying that, in the near future, you and your father may be reunited. But you will dwell on the past and hate him for it…" she glanced up and saw an angry look on his face. Oh shit… not good.

"Uh… this card…"

She extended a finger to the one in the far corner, a slight tremor in her hand more noticeable then she thought. Allen put out his own hand to stop her.

"That's enough Brooke."

Was it? Because of what she said about his father? He was going to fail her on that alone?

He motioned to Gaddes who brought him a map, one that he unfurled and then placed in front of her and on top of her cards.

"You Pass, now tell us Brooke. Where is Van Fanel?"

God, Brooke had never been so happy to get a reading right before in her life.

Thank you, gods of fortune!

Brooke had been at this for hours and her stupid necklace wasn't working.

She had once done this for a classmate of hers who had lost her cat. She had taken the map of the neighbourhood, laid it down on the lawn, waited for the pendent to hone in on one spot and she had been right. Her classmate's cat had been there.

But this time, this time it decided it wasn't going to work. The traitor.

"Do you really think she could find him with that thing?" Gaddes asked, clearly very bored. And very much a non-believer.

Merle shushed him immediately.

But she had been at this so long the sun was rising. Van had been with these people all night and the feeling of anxious nervousness hadn't gone away.

"Do you need to rest?" Allen asked.

He had long since abandoned his coat, he now looked normal-ish, and somehow hotter. If he rolled up his sleeves she might start sweating, like that kind of hot.

But Brooke didn't have time to marvel at Allen's attractiveness.

She shook her head. "No, please let me keep trying." He nodded to her and she sighed. "I just wish that I had something of Van's here."

Also true because when she dowsed for the missing cat she had it's favourite toy mouse.

"I've got something," Merle said right away. She showed her the bandage Van had wrapped around her arm, already going about untying it. "Here, remember?"

Brooke did remember. When Merle handed it over, she asked: "What else can we do?"

"Just uh… hold my hand and think of Van. Just uh… picture him in your mind."

Merle gripped her hand, and Allen put his hand on top of Merle's. Together they all thought of Van, or at least Brooke did, really hard. She thought of the first day she met him and how mad he made her. She thought of their night in Fanel where she stupidly kissed him under the stars. She remembered him in that cell back at Allen's fortress lost in thought.

And she was rewarded. A flash of images crowded her mind. First of the floating fortress, then of Van asleep in a bed, then of a clear mountain view, with the sun just cresting over the peak.

When she opened her eyes, her pink pendant was circling around a spot in the map.

"There," she whispered.

Allen opened his eyes too. "That's the spot where the wandering earth collects."

"Like I know what that means," Brooke growled. "Does that mean something? Like something important? Or that we can use?"

"Yes. Levistones, just like the one this ship uses, tend to gather there. It's a perfect place for a floating fortress to hide."

Then she really had found it. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

All at once a heavy oppressive tiredness came over her. Like now that they knew where they were heading and she could stop dousing, her body let all that stress and adrenaline wash away leaving her bone tired and unable to stay awake.

She slumped in her chair, not knowing that both Allen and Gaddes moved to catch her. Or that Merle cried out, wondering if she was okay. All she knew was darkness as she slipped into a very deep sleep.

Brooke woke up only when the flying ship began to drop. Because it did so rapidly. So rapidly in fact that it threw Brooke from the bed she had been sleeping in and caused Merle to land on top her.

"Are we crashing?!" she had cried once the ship had leveled out but as it turned out they were simply diving, catching the floating fortress by surprise, though it was clear when they got in there that some sort of explosion had gone off which helped to add to the chaos Allen was hoping to create.

But Brooke didn't know that.

Yet.

With Merle in tow she had rushed to the control center so she could look out the windows at the big giant fortress. She couldn't see any of Allen's men, though she knew they had boarded and were in the thick of things. So, she didn't know how things were going and it was the suspense was killing her.

She was worried.

Worried for Allen. For Gaddes and the other men she had learned to like. She was worried for Van, god knows what they had been doing to him, whether or not he was okay.

And then it happened.

This grating sense of fear, of apprehension and alarm overcame her. It was Van. Van standing there, and the boy in red was rushing up at him, sword in hand going for the kill. Van didn't notice in time to block the attack. The vision was so real Brooke swore she could feel the blade slicing through her back.

That was going to happen to Van.

That was going to happen to Van soon.

She had to get to Van.

"Oh god," Brooke said already moving away from the windows and Merle.

"What?"

"We gotta go."

"Go? Go where?"

"I have to warn Van!"

"Van!" Merle echoed and the chased after her as she rushed away.

Brooke hadn't really learned how to navigate this ship so it took her a few tries to find the bay the men had used to board the floating fortress.

But when Brooke and Merle got there and there was this huge gap between the ship and the floating fortress. Had to be like 8 or nine feet across. She couldn't jump it, she wasn't that good at acrobatics.

She could do bar rather well, but that would require a bar or something in its place that she could use to vault the rest of the way. And there wasn't anything there.

That feeling of worry washed over her again. It was getting stronger, which meant her vision was closer to coming true.

She needed to do something.

"What are you thinking?" Merle cried grabbing her and pulling her away from the edge. "You can't jump that. And don't even think of trying it! You'll end up flatter than a pancake!"

Brooke shot a glare at Merle. "I'm not that stupid, but Van's in trouble and I have to go warn him. Try and help me find a way across!"

But she couldn't find anything. No levers or pullies for her to try. But as she was looking, she came across a door. Or at least… It looked like a door.

It was a panel on the wall that lead to a room. A dark room she didn't recognize, but the pendant around her neck, her mother's pendant, her drowsing pendant began to heat up against her skin. In her mind she could clearly see the pendant swinging in the direction of that room.

That was the way she had to go.

Without saying anything to Merle she walked straight to the panel and right through it. For a moment it felt like she was underwater, she didn't feel wet or anything but she felt the same sort of heaviness one got when underwater.

But she held her breath and pushed forward and walked into the room on the other side.