The Dragon Priestess
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Hello My wonderful readers! I know that I said I'd be updating more frequently but I'm really having some trouble with my chapters recently. I did have this one done I just didn't have the motivation to get it up. Since I'm having some major issues with motivation and writer's block I'm going to go on Hiatus with this story for the rests of the year. I'm hoping to be back in the new year but it might be closer to February. I know this is far from ideal, but I promise it will not be that long until I post again. I swear it! As always don't forget to review and I'll see you guys when I see you guys!
Chapter 22: I Got the Music
Last night everything had gotten to Folken.
The pressures of protecting her, having to apologize profusely for Dilandau setting a lower section of Palas on fire, the pain of having a sister like Kaydence's in his life. One who's powers were growing stronger by the day, who was already better than Kaydence ever was, and could hurl words like deadly daggers right through Folken's emotional armour and pierce his fragile heart.
And when Folken's armour crumbled he had turned to Kaydence and found solace in her arms.
Last night had been her first time, something she had been saving for Folken.
She didn't care that she could taste Vino on his lips.
She didn't care if he was using her to sweat out his emotional trauma.
All that mattered was last night she was in his arms, his lips covering hers, trailing burning marks down her neck and collarbones as they came together.
For those brief moment she swore she could see the truth in his eyes, his heart beating there. He loved her, she knew it, he was just denying himself for some reason.
In the morning she woke up to him still asleep beside her. His one good arm draped across her chest as he slept on his stomach. He just looked so content and handsome that she just couldn't stop staring at him.
However, once he started stirring, she moved. She didn't want to stay there and have him wake up and tell her it was a mistake, for she knew that was what he would do. She wanted to hold onto this good feeling for as long as she could.
So, she got up, got dressed and quickly exited her room. There was only one person that she wanted to see at that moment and she knew exactly where he'd be.
Just as she thought she found Dilandau in the map room, cup of coffee in one hand as he poured over the maps no doubt trying to figure out which way Van and Brooke would have gone.
"Morning," she said as she went to help herself to the urn of coffee he had brought to the map room.
He turned to her to say good morning back and then he paused. He looked her up and down before turning back to his maps.
"What's that smile?" Dilandau asked and Kaydence blushed again. "Seriously, what is going on with your face. Did… did something happen last night?"
"I supposed you can say that…"
Dilandau's eyes narrowed. "What happened? Something with you and Folken ah…. I mean…"
It sort of sounded like he was going to say again, but it couldn't be again, this was the first time this had happened.
"Well… you said you didn't want to hear…"
"No, I said I didn't want to hear about how cute his butt is and how much you wanna kiss him when you refuse to make a move," he said which was true. "Did you make a move?"
"No, he did," she said.
"Atta girl, make him work for it," he said for a grin. "Right, kiss and tell, right now. Give me all the details."
Kaydence bounced a little closer to him and he turned his eyes away from the maps to give her his undivided attention.
"Right… well you'll probably think this was silly, but he was rather emotional last night, I think he had a little bit too much to drink…"
"Oh my god."
"Oh shush," she said whacking his shoulder. "Well he came to see me, for comfort and well one thing led to another and… well… I'm not a virgin anymore!"
Dilandau was trying to hide his smirk but failing. "I can't believe you took advantage of a drunken Folken. Talk about the tables being turned."
"Oh it wasn't like that," she said. "There was a connection, I felt it right down in my soul."
"No sex is that good."
"Yeah says the virgin!" she said with a teasing smile and Dilandau scowled at her.
"Okay, never telling you another secret," he said. "But uh… I do have something to deal with do you think you could wait right here, like don't move from here, and when I'm done with it me and you will talk about everything."
Kaydence nodded and Dilandau practically sprinted out of that room. He couldn't believe this was happening so soon after the last time. He thought he had lost his chance but nope, he had done it again. And he seemed to be slipping up more and more quickly.
Now he just had to get to him before he tried again.
Dilandau went straight to Folken's lab because that was probably where he was going to be. Setting up for whatever it was he did when ever he and Kaydence slept together. And he found him, in the lab like he thought, going about preparing some sort of potion.
Dilandau hated coming to Folken's lab, it was filled with all sorts of machines that made him uncomfortable, including one that strapped a person into a chair and did things, things to their mind. Dilandau had been very interested in that one because it was the machine that did all the damage.
Course Folken was the one controlling the machine, so he was the real one causing damage.
"Hello Folken," he said. Folken looked at him for two second before he turned his attention back to whatever it was he was mixing up.
"Why are you so cheery, the Dragon got away last night."
"I know and that's terrible but I have something to be happy about," Dilandau said proudly.
"Uh-huh, you haven't seen Kaydence, have you?"
"Course," he said. "Are you going to ask what I'm happy about?"
"Fine, Dilandau, what are you happy about?"
"Why this very day! I've been waiting for this day for a very, very long time. Well not that long, maybe a month or so…"
Folken shot him a look that said that he very clearly thought something was wrong with Dilandau, and maybe there was. Kaydence was always saying that he did things that weren't normal, but he didn't care. All that mattered was right now and making sure it didn't happen again.
"And what is special about this day?"
"It's the morning after."
For a moment Folken was very still, he wouldn't look at Dilandau, he just stared straight forward his jaw pulsing away. Clearly Dilandau had hit a nerve.
Wonderful.
"What are you talking about?"
"You and Kaydence slept together last night."
Folken paused and turned back to him.
"That's right. This is the third time she's told me that you and her had your first night together. I don't know how many times you did it before then, but it's been three times since I came here. How many times do you plan to take that virginity from her by the way?"
Folken went this uncharacteristic grey color and that just made Dilandau bolder.
"Yeah, that's right. So, if she remembers that means you haven't stolen her memories yet."
He went to the machine, the memory remover.
He knew bare minimum about it and that was the problem. But he knew that Kaydence had to sit in it, he put some kinda of helmet on her and then he did something to pull the memories out.
There was some sort of fluid attached to the machine and a bunch of pumps but other then that Dilandau had no idea how to work the thing. So, he had no idea where her memories had gone or if they were gone forever.
"She can't remember you strapping her in there but she still gets nervous around this thing, she must have some latent feelings about this one, ones that she doesn't understand. I'm still figuring out how it works, but one day I will figure it out and get her memories back to her…"
"Why… why…"
"Why do I care? Because she's my friend and I don't like this game you're playing with her."
He stepped forward again, getting right into Folken's face.
"So, I know, I know this time, and if her memories go missing again, I will literally tear apart your lab to find where you've hidden them and when she finally remembers what you've done, over and over. And then! Then, I'll make sure you never see her again."
He then smiled that trademark cruel smile of his, all wild and pointy and then turned on heel and disappeared. Now he just had to make sure that Folken didn't slip Kaydence anything, even if that meant disobeying direct orders to keep her by his side for the next three days.
She had slept most of the flight. Arms loosely around him, resting against his thighs once she had fallen asleep. Her cheek had been pressed into his back the whole time. Why had that given him butterflies? It was silly, but it had. And now he could shake them. They kept moving, from his stomach up to his chest where it was tightening against the emotion as if trying to block it from going anywhere else.
By the time the sun had risen Brooke had been asleep for a good couple of hours, and Merle had joined her. She was sleeping using his lap as a pillow though she was holding one of Brooke's hands.
Van was getting tired too, he would have to land soon. Land to find somewhere to rest, and something to eat.
He knew better than to take Escaflowne into town though, he'd have to hide it somewhere and then they'd have to walk into town.
The first thing he did was actually find a town. He flew over it and then landed Escaflowne in the forest. Once on the ground he woke up Brooke and Merle, changed Escaflowne back into a guymelef and then hid it within the trees.
Then he headed back to the two girls who were waiting for him.
"Wait… is that…"
"Yeah, I grabbed everything, figured we'd need it," Van said, handing Brooke both the guitar Millerna had purchased her and her bag.
"Shouldn't we leave it here?"
"No, might be better to have our stuff in case we get separated."
Brooke had no idea what was in her bag that Van thought she'd need if they got separated but she didn't argue with him. She put the bag over one arm and the guitar on the other and then followed after Van as they headed into town.
As he walked, he was counting out coins. He may have been a king but he didn't have a lot of money left. He had clearly never had to worry about this before.
"Do you think we'd have enough to eat and get a room at an inn?" she asked and Van shrugged.
"We'd have to share a room…" "—I'd be okay with that." "… we wouldn't have much left for food though, but I'm more tired than hungry."
That was nice of him, but he was the one who needed to pilot Escaflowne and she figured he was the one who needed to eat the most. You know to keep his strength up.
They got into town and Van went straight for the inn. She let him talk to the woman in charge, he handed over a few more coins then he would have liked and then they were heading up to a room.
Once they were in there, he handed her the coins. "Get you and Merle something," he said softly. Like he wasn't just handing over the last of their money.
"What about you?"
Van's weary eyes turned to the bed. "I just want to sleep, is that okay?"
Brooke nodded, letting Van get into the bed. She watched him pull his boots off and get under the blankets. She already had half an idea forming, so she left the bag but kept her guitar slung over her back.
She stopped by Van's bedside, to just softly push his hair back. "Good night," she whispered which just had Van swatting her hand away because he didn't want her touching him.
"Come on, Merle, lets go," she urged. She glanced back as she shut the door behind them, to find that Van had a sort of sleepy smile on his face and she liked to think that was from her soft touch and not because he was excited they were leaving.
Merle, however, complained the whole way through the inn and out onto the street. But she followed Brooke though so that was good.
"What do you think?" Brooke asked her. "What could we get for this."
She showed Merle the coins and the cat girl shrugged. "Probably something small for you."
"Okay but what about for you?"
"What about me?"
"I'm supposed to get food for both of us Merle, I'm not going to just get food for me," she snapped.
"Then we're not gonna be able to afford much. We're better off getting one big thing and sharing."
Okay that wasn't so bad. But then Merle looked down to the coins in Brooke's hand and said: "Well, maybe one medium thing."
Yeah, they didn't have a lot of money.
Brooke put the money back into the little velvet change purse Van had given her and then looked around until she found the kind of stall that sold little earthenware things.
"Right, I've got an idea, come on," she said, leading Merle to that stall. She looked at all the little decorative clay things before settling on a medium sized bowl and purchasing it.
Merle was understandably livid.
"You spend our money on a bowl?" the cat girl hissed as Brooke moved away from the stall. She needed to get somewhere with space.
"Trust me," Brooke said but Merle merely huffed at her, which told her all she needed to know about how Merle felt about that.
Once she had found a suitable place to stand, she handed Merle the bowl and the little velvet change purse that only had a few silver coins left.
"When the time comes, start waving that around," Brooke said as she brought her guitar forward.
She didn't really have a song in her mind, but she had a few lyrics circling around that she figured she could use. No one had to know that she didn't have a fully formed song to sing them.
The played the first chords of the melody she had on the guitar to get everyone's attention and then she started singing.
Ain't gonna fight it 'cause it's useless, I can't get this music out of my head. It's like the beat is taking over, weight off of my shoulders, dancing instead.
Merle was looking at her like she was crazy but already she had people turning to look at her, already heading over. Soon she wouldn't think she was crazy, not when the gold coins started pouring in.
Everybody here we go. This thing is unstoppable. Haven't felt this in a minute, it's incredible.
They had a good crowd around them at this point, but Brooke was going to have reign in her expectations. This wasn't like busking on a busy corner street, this was a small town.
I got the music, back inside of me. Every melody and chord. Can't stop the music, back inside my soul, and it's stronger than before.
People were clapping along with her music, all smiles. And Merle, the little genius, began to go around, holding that little bowl out. Change went flying at her, dropping into the bowl, more than they had started with any way.
This was working out quite nicely, she just had to hope that Van didn't get upset.
I got the music. It won't let me go. I got the music. Just like a radio. I got the music. Streaming from my soul. And it's stronger than before
By the end of the song she had a whole circle of people around her asking for more songs to sing, and the bowl was about half way full.
Now they could afford whatever they wanted to eat… for both of them.
Folken had been too afraid to leave his lab after Dilandau's threat. He knew that Kaydence talked to Dilandau about a lot of things but he had no idea she had told him they had slept together… more than once.
How had the boy stayed quiet when she had forgotten the other times?
Granted it had only been twice before last night, no matter what Dilandau said, but he knew that Kaydence wouldn't see it for what it was if she were to find out what happened.
Folken had only done what he thought would hurt her less. It was only supposed to be once, she had been stunning at her last birthday and she had gotten herself plastered thanks to Dilandau. She had practically jumped him, bearing her heart and soul to him and he, being the weak man that he was, had crumbled to her advances.
He took her memories because he couldn't give her what she wanted. He couldn't be the man she deserved.
But again, it was only supposed to be once.
Taking her memories, making her forget that night, making sure she didn't bring a baby into this uncertain world, was all to save her the heart ache of knowing he couldn't settle down with her.
But when he saw first hand what Dilandau had done to his beloved homeland, he became that weak man again. Like the flames of Fanelia had been trapped under his skin and when Kaydence came to comfort him, he crumbled once again.
He told himself that would be the last time, but last night he had broken again. Brooke had reminded him that Fanelia was his land, and it had been his fault it burnt, him who had sent Dilandau to Fanelia that night. He didn't know how she knew it but she did, and she had hurled it at him in darkened song form.
Kaydence had come to comfort him again, and just like before he crumbled. She made him weak, she broke down his defenses and then would put him back together again.
He had told himself that this would be the last time. Really and truly this time.
The last time he slept with her, the last time he stole her memories.
But Dilandau knew, and now he couldn't make her forget because he believed him when he said that he'd find wherever Folken hid her memories and give them back. Because of course Folken couldn't just get rid of the memories, he had kept them.
They were too precious to him to destroy.
When he was finally brave enough to search out Kaydence, he had the contraceptive potion in hand. He could at least make sure that they didn't bring a child into the world.
He found Kaydence in the mess hall, he made sure to check if Dilandau was around before approaching her. The boy was a live wire, there was no possible way to predict what he'd do or if he'd keep his word.
He approached her with caution, being sure to discretely offer the vile he had prepared.
"What's that?" she asked, her voice soft and sweet. She had a pink tinge to her cheeks and flirtatious blink to her eyes.
"This is for… for you to…" he said and then Dilandau appeared and slapped it right out of his hand.
"What did you do that for? It's not… it's for… so you know… she doesn't…"
Kaydence knew exactly what it was for. "So, there wouldn't be an unwanted consequences."
Dilandau blinked his eyes. "Oh wait… so you're… you're with her but you don't want to her to have your kid?"
"That's not… we wouldn't be ready for that…"
"Yeah, Dilandau, I don't want a kid," Kaydence said as she picked up the vial. She went about cleaning it with her robes so she could drink it.
"Oh, okay, but later right? When the divine destiny is in place and you ascend to where you're supposed to be, you'll have kids then. Right?"
"Why would you assume that? Folken asked not noticing that Kaydence's shoulder's slumped when he asked that. Like his very words, the tone he had used had managed to disappoint you.
"What do you mean why? Aren't the two of you… together?"
Folken turned to Kaydence wondering if that was what she thought but she was bright red. "You know that he had I haven't talked about that yet…"
Yet, but she was expecting to, and he was going to have to tell her the truth. That he liked her, loved her even, but he wasn't ever going to marry her. They could never be together.
And then she'd cry and he'd crumble and he'd make promises he couldn't keep. He couldn't let someone as vibrant and perfect as her become tied to his dark future. She deserved so much better than him.
"There's nothing to talk about. This was nothing but a… uh… momentary lapse in judgement."
Now both Dilandau and Kaydence were staring at him with wide eyes. That was not the answer either of them was expecting.
"Uh… excuse me?" Dilandau asked for her, clearly acting as her spoke's person. "Lapse in judgement? Really? Then why did you sleep with her? What were you bored?"
"No…"
"Okay, so what you thought she was someone else?"
"No, of course not?"
"So, sleeping with her was a specific decision then. So, what is this nonsense about a momentary lapse in judgement?"
Oh my god, Dilandau had managed to outmaneuver him in a battle of wits. See, you see how weak Kaydence made him? All because he didn't want to hurt her feelings.
"Okay, so clearly, clearly you two have unresolved feelings…" "—No." "… Yes. All you two need to do is talk it out…" "—NO!" "… Why is this no? What is your problem? Why are you fighting this so hard?"
"Because she means nothing to me!" Folken shouted startling both of them. "She will never mean anything to me!"
For a second, they all stood there in silence that followed those words. Folken's chest heaving, Kaydence looking stricken, Dilandau just looking… shocked. Like he hadn't been expecting that at all.
And to be fair, neither did Folken because it was a lie. Kaydence meant everything to him, he just couldn't tell her that.
Then Kaydence burst into tears. She said nothing, just covered her face in her hands and ran away from them. Neither of them called out to her, instead they both just watched her run away and that was it.
Once she was gone Dilandau turned. Folken knew what was coming without even having to look at him.
Dilandau's punch knocked him down to the ground and he didn't say a thing. He just lay there, his jaw aching, spitting out blood, as Dilandau ran after the woman that Folken loved more than anything but didn't deserve.
God this was such a mess.