Chapter 22
The reaper lay amongst the wind,
A/N: It's a past tense title for a reason, as this is an experiment in large scale flashbacks. I've never seen this style done on anything but TV shows and I want to try adapting it into pure writing format. I tried to give everyone a chance to shine this chapter... it's awful reflective but don't worry they'll be on the road and dealing with stuff again very soon. Does anyone besides me like the Taunt skill? Well Lloyd uses it, some humor within. I fell in love with the TOA (tales of abyss) opening, coupled with the song "falling into fantasy" that someone added to it on "you tube"... well something massive clicked and I now have the final battle scene DONE after writers block has plagued me on it. I lost the "Hurricane Thrust" scene word for word -the campus comp froze as I was saving- but I tried to transfer it from memory so we'll see if this slightly altered final fight blows your breath away like I hope it will. As always, pleasant reading. Next chapter will be set out as soon as I can. My beta and I are rather busy at the moment with school so we'll get to it when we can, as it is the slowness on my end is I'm trying to beat the wind temple and somehow incorperate the text in the temple to some type of legend/story thing that Colette tells to flesh out the church of Martel... I cut up one full fighting scene into five segments, each going over a different part -never would of known it would have been harder then just writing it out all at once I don't think I'll do that very often in upcoming chapters- and now that we're almost done with Asgard it's time to plan Luin,Kvar, aaaandrubs hands evily my last pre-made OC character's introduction (Syt for those who've read and liked DES enough to remember him). As for the cliffie at theend of the chapter (laughs) I'll leave it to your imaginations for a while.
The wind stirred around the deserted streets. It was a disquiet ghost that rushed over the open empty buildings and moaned between the cracks and crevices of stone. It howled, or perhaps it moaned, as it caught the edges of buildings and mars in the earth. Invisible, yet never unheard or unfelt, the wind made the slender, yet long ribbons pinned to his collar flare out behind him. The breeze plastered his red shirt to him and put painful pressure on his bandages. Still he did not move, only watched. The altar seemed like ice in the moonlight. Once a holy object so sacred the ancients had sheathed the mesa in the strongest stone while the motor they had used to hold it together had been of their own blood and sweat, and the ground's holiness made that blood and sweat as nothing... In recent times, error had made the altar an object of pain and suffering; in the present time, it was being desecrated. The people of the City of Ruins were having some sort of celebration upon the stone dais: dancing, drinks, and hammers were scattered round about, many falling into the hands of the less sober, so that chips of stone were being broken off. Every kind of enjoyment that their fear had denied them for so many months was now being released.
The winds sighed, a wiser thing than them all, it seeme. And though the tamed gale carried the sounds of laughter and joy to his ears the wind seemed heavy, subdued. Maybe the wind was as bewildered as he was.
The Asgardians' defiance was this show of joy. It was a pitiful defiance against the dead creature that had brought them so much pain. It was also the way of all humans, if you believed Kratos.
"Unable to defeat it themselves they sit upon the beast's corpse and make jokes and destroy the traces of evil. Chained by terror, now free of that chain, now free from the terror that once chained them, they will overindulge on that which their fear denied them. Once the knowledge that their freedom will not disappear occurs to them, I imagine some level of sense will return."
Kratos' lips had quirked into a rare smile and he had patted Lloyd's silky chestnut hair.
"Don't worry, everything will be alright."
Lloyd bit his lip, stared up at the slopes, and atthe concrete steps and the angel-made mesa that rested at the very heart of Asgard. The altar was lit by flame, by torch, by bonfire -- so much so that and it looked like a volcono... valcany... something like that. Somehow, everything seemed wrong. To his eyes the sun wanted to rise over that small mountain but couldn't.
"Lloyden... it's late out."
Lloyd didn't correct the man who had called him by that strange name. He didn't even turn to regard the speaker. He just stared at the black shapes that moved around that the white plane and stared at how that icy base was now wreathed in a murky red.
A hand, warm and human, fell onto his shoulder. Lloyd jolted under the touch, and after his shock died he turned to grin sheepishly at the mercenary.
"Sorry..." he said, releasing the handles of his twin swords.
Kratos smiled beforefrowning as he looked upon the celebration; he then knew why the boy hadn't returned.
"I promise, Lloyden, that everything is going to be alright. Though we are faced with a difficulty now it will be alri-."
"Your promise… was that to me, or to your real son?" Lloyd snapped, then bit his lip. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that I..." The younger swordsman cringed back from the older man, turned so that he was looking away, so that he was no longer facing the mercenary.
Kratos gently pulled the young man's shoulder. Lloyd went with the pull and was face- to- face with the man he'd just insulted. There was no pain in those brown eyes, instead, some dark humor flashed across those night-dark expanses that quickly winked out like a fire being doused. Or perhaps it was better to say that the humor winked out like a candle flame held to a gale. Having made the young man meet his gaze, Kratos said only one word; that word forgave and offered comfort when all others could not.
"Both."
"What?" It was not from confusion but disbelief that Lloyd squeaked that word out.
"I said those words to both and I mean it to both. Come, Lloyden, it's getting late, and tomorrow will be another hard day."
"Not as hard as today..." Lloyd sighed.
"Hopefully not."
Despite the fact that comfort really wasn't offered, Lloyd smiled and felt comforted. Yeah, Kratos was just stating a fact but... when he said it somehow it didn't seem like it would be all that bad.
The black-clad mercenary draped an arm over Lloyd's shoulders and the young man squirmed away from the overload of Colette-like cuddle contact.
Kratos stiffened, muttered something about adolescents, then relaxed. They both left the balcony walking side by side. As they wandered the gloom and rug choked inn off tune humming drifted from one of the rooms they passed. Kratos' hand immediately snapped over the hilt of his blade. At that sight Lloyd rolled his eyes.
"It's just Colette, Kratos. Sheesh, lighten up will you?"
Kratos snorted, "When I have a reason to lighten up, as you so crudely put it..." He winced at a particularly sour note. "... and when she learns to stay in key perhaps I shall."
"Oh shut up, she sings really good--" Lloyd ribbed the older man. "--unlike you, when you clean that sword of yours."
"I do not sing when I tend my gear!" Kratos growled, his brown eyes narrowing to slits.
"You hum, though there was that time during watch in Thoda where when you sang "Row, row, row your boat"."
"I had that damned song stuck in my head," Kratos hissed, "and the only way to get it out of one's mind is to--"
"Sing it really badly?" Lloyd snickered.
Kratos growled then draped his arm over the young man's shoulders. Sensing something was amiss, especially when the mercenary's grip tightened, Lloyd tried to squirm free. Kratos' fisted hand descended upon the adolescent's skull, running back and forth, messing up his hair - and well, it hurt. Yelping in pain, Lloyd tried to fight free, but he was tired and Kratos was a heck of a lot stronger than he was. Finally, he gave up, wincing at the burning pain and ruffled hair and let the mercenary swagger off ahead, letting him think he'd won.
Living with Noishe though had taught Lloyd a few tricks, and one of them was that you let 'them' think they won before pouncing on them at the first opportunity to get back. So Kratos thought he had won, well, at least until the man got to the green rug that rested on the dark-stained, wooden floor. Lloyd took a few steps then bent down. Kratos was just turning to see what was going on when Lloyd took the opportunity to rip the rug out from under the man's feet.
One Colette-step later, Kratos was now sprawled out on the floor. Laughing at Kratos, the Iselian swordsman suddenly stopped as the mercenary found his feet and favored him with the glare of death.
"Oh shit..." Dropping the rug he ran towards his room. If he got there first he could maybe lock Kratos out of their room. That'd keep him safe -- for a little bit anyways...
X
"This is a sacred artifact! How dare you woman, how dare you desecrate it with your presence! " The village elder howled, while his gold-tipped staff thumped against the stone steps. He looked ready to climb the steps of the altar and drag her down.
A foul wind howled, rising from the stones, whipping around her like a miniature whirlwind. Lifting an arm to fend off the reek of tainted mana and rotten meat, the white-haired man staggered back, his robes and cape flapping about him in the tainted wind like seraphim wings.
The girl, this is your Chosen? Rasped the wind in a voice of brittle leaves scrapping across the stone of a grave.
"Yea, oh servant of Martel." The village elder cried, fulfilling his part of the ceremony. "If pure her heart is, then I beseech ye to take her unto heaven in our name!"
"Wait!" Colette's voice rose up from the crowd. "No, you don't understand! The angels are supposed to take the Chosen to heaven..."
Blue eyes as chill as ice they caught the sunlight and gleamed like jagged ice. Hatred poured from the man and made him, despite his holy vestments, a creature hardened and embittered by his loss. The elder curled his lips into a sneer. He leveled his staff against the child before him.
"Fool! Blasphemous dog! Stand back!"
"The spirit of wind serves Martel, not this demon, can't you feel that it's unholy-"
"Silence!" The old man swung his staff, and a gasp rose from the crowd as a steel rapier caught and blocked his attack.
"Back off!" Lloyd growled, meeting the elder's eyes, undaunted. "Colette, go, help Raine!"
The Professor was wearily stepping back from a mass of green putrid winds, her staff raised in futile defense at the horrors within. Scared for Raine and for Lloyd, Colette ran up the stairs praying that Martel wouldn't make her trip. And for once it seemed her prayers were answered; for she reached the top of the stair without stumbling. Colette could feel the demon, she could feel it in the smelly winds, and in defiance she muttered a prayer and threw one of her razor sharp chakrams. It seemed to turn gold in the sunlight as it slashed through the chaotic winds. There was a scream, and the evil vortex turned upon her...
With slow, trembling hands, Colette stroked the steel in her palms. It looked like a dull silver in the light, yet all during the fight with the demons it had seemed to catch the sun's light and become gold. Perhaps what it was... depended on how you looked at it. Colette smiled. Yes, that made plenty of sense. Humming a tune, she wiped away the dull green ichor on the chakram and decided something important: Bugs were yucky, especially demon bugs, which were even more yucky because they were evil.
She was happy to have helped the people of Asgard to get rid of that demon bug, and the people seemed happy too, now that the monster was gone. They were celebrating and having a party and she'd even been invited. But she hadn't gone. She hadn't wanted to go, despite that she'd never really been to a party. Colette didn't want to go to a party where she was in the center of everything. She didn't want them to stare at her and thank her over and over again. She really hadn't done all that much, not really, and no one seemed to believe her when she said that.
The only people who didn't seem happy were Kratos, Lloyd, and the elder of the village. She knew that Kratos was always sad -that was something she was trying really hard to work on so that he'd be happy again- and she wished he wasn't. But Colette knew that when Lloyd and Kratos were together they both seemed to be a little happier; so if Kratos went to see Lloyd like she asked him to, then she knew they'd be all right in a little bit.
As for the elder...
He was sad; a kind of sad-angry-hurt kind of sad. No one would say why. When she asked Aisha and Linar, the two half-elves had looked all nervous and sad too. So she hadn't brought it up again. She thought she knew why the elder was sad though. They said that he used to have a daughter, a little girl, and perhaps she had danced that strange dance on the altar once long ago. If only she had started this Regeneration sooner, if only they had come to Asgard sooner, then perhaps everyone then could have been happy...
Unable to change the past and only able to hope for the future, Colette did so as she rested a hand on the holy crest around her neck and prayed for her Goddess' forgiveness.
X
Genis sighed, then glared at his door. Swordsmen were annoying sometimes, so noisy. The banging at the door across from his room stopped, and Kratos' rumbled threats tapered off. He set aside the history book he was studying, giving up on reading it with a sigh. He was kind of happy that Raine was off with Linar, dealing with her Ruin Mode there and not here... On the other hand, it was the first time they'd ever really been apart for any length of time. It was stupid -- illogical even. Often he'd turn to point something out to her or to ask her a question, only to find that she wasn't there. It was stupid, Genis rationalized, Raine would be back tomorrow. He was the one who'd been stupid, who'd gotten hurt; she was fine and she'd healed him as usual.
But that didn't change the fact that she left , and somehow, seeing her leave with only a parting wave, made him remember Iselia and when she'd left him there too.
Why was she always leaving him behind? Was he that much of a burden?
That thought made his eyes sting, and he gulped down the lump in his throat.
Stupid and selfish, his logic railed at him, you, Genis Sage, are being a brat. She went because she was needed. It was the same when you went to check on Marble. Did you think of how dangerous it was when you went there? Don't you think Raine worried, and wondered about you when you didn't stay in class or come home right after?
Honestly, he never had. He then wondered if it had been horrible, those days he'd been late and hadn't said why. Heck, even knowing that she was relatively safe and able to take care of herself...
He worried, and his worry sometimes made him do rash, hotheaded, Lloydish things.
"No!" Genis sprang in front of the descending claws of the monster, his kendama in front of him.
He caught the razor-sharp claws, nearly an inch in length, with the cross that made up the midsection of his weapon. Remembering how Kratos would kick at Lloyd when their blades were locked, Genis lashed out with a foot, and hit steel.
"Ouch!"he yelped, hopping back to waste a second nursing his foot. A quick glance showed him that the blade had not only cut him but ad ruined his boot.
"Genis!" Raine screamed, the monster drew back and he gritted his teeth and set his bloody foot to the ground. Claws smashed against his kendama again, and the thing hissed and wrenched its claws to the side. The young sorcerer wasn't letting go of his kendama. Ignoring his bloody foot, he dug in and blinked back tears of pain. He didn't dare let go no matter how much it hurt, because if this thing got through him then there would be nothing left between it and Raine.
The monster screamed, turned. Colette had fought through the crowd and had run up the steps.
"Genis, Raine, leave them alone, you bully!"
The monster hissed, forgetting him. Gliding on the stinking winds that had summoned it, its steel torso scrapped across the ground occasionally as the whirlwind around it strained to keep it afloat. Its bulk made it bob up and down on a reeking gale.
There was a clash of steel on steel. Kratos and Lloyd were fighting through the mess of priests that were defending the altar with their lives. He heard Raine chanting, and heard Colette's other chakram hiss through the air.
A thrown weapon against a creature that could control wind … If it was at least somewhat intelligent the beast would make the winds throw the weapon back. Genis stared at the creature, and saw deadly intellect gleam in those red, slitted eyes. He had to distract it, but how? Fire would be blown out, water turned aside, and his weak earth spells would be pushed away...
Sunlight glinted off the steel that made up the monster's torso. The monster was made of hard segmented insect hide. The skeletal frame thinned and shattered where the steel rushed out from the skin. It was as if a massive blade that was larger then him had somehow been thrust through the things torso. Thin strands of muscle and skin wound around the blade, but they were a pale green where the monster itself was a dull green-black. It looked to him like the paler stuff was newly grown and perhaps weak.
Mentally praying to Martel to not let him die because of this, he muttered a quick spell and lightning crackled around his hands. Gritting his teeth he lunged forward, bulling through the smelly winds. The creature only had time to blink as Genis' glowing hands slapped over the flat of the massive blade...
Looking down at his hands, remembering the claws that the monster had sank into him in response to his attack, Genis shivered and closed his eyes. The sight got stronger then, making Genis' dark violet eyes snap open at the nightmare he had seen nibbling at his mind. He wasn't going to sleep well tonight; he was going to have a nightmare if he went to sleep now. So he pulled open his book and decided to read. Maybe if he buried himself in the book and fell asleep over it, the nightmares wouldn't come...
Maybe.
X
Chosen, it hissed. Chosen, prepare for Martel's highest blessing. Shaking, her knees knocking together, she saw the angel's hand sprout claws. The green aura flickered and died, leaving the image of an angel behind, the being before her now in its true insectoid form. Smiling at her with a hundred and one jagged little teeth, it hissed. Those soulless red eyes gleamed, drooling for her blood as the hands lifted and pulled back...
"No!" Genis shot past the crowd, bringing his kendama in front of him like a shield and entangled the slender, yet lethal claws in his weapon. From a world away, she could hear Lloyd and Kratos fighting, she heard Colette's defiance. Roaring, the beast rocked on it's steel abdomen, Genis scrambled out of the way of that steel blade and the beast reached down. Genis was lifted then thrown aside like refuse. Still twitching from the effects of the lightning spell, the beast seemed as if it were going to kill the one who'd dare inflict such pain on it
Only after she had breathed her last would the thing dare...
She stood in front of her shivering brother, lifted the bead and feather shrouded staff in front of her, cursing the artifacts weakness and poor balance. She swung the jewel tipped weapon, and the demon took the hit and floated backwards out of range of her attack, hissing angrily.
"Leave my brother alone," she whispered, her violet eyes flashing with barely contained rage.
Needle teeth gnashed in response, while the slender clawed appendages that might have been called hands –though no hands she knew of sported only three fingers- snapped calling forth a reeking gale with a single gesture. Digging her staff into a crack between the stone, she stood against the attack, despite the savage invisible claws that seemed to hide in the winds and slash at her face and robes. Raine cried out in pain, gritting her teeth, and choking down the cry, swearing not to give the thing the satisfaction of knowing that she hurt.
Her lack of conveniently dying made the creature turn a darker shade of green. It hissed, flexing its claws to summon the wind again. Raine wearily wiped the blood out from her eyes and staggered forward, her staff leading...
She was too slow; the monster was finished with its spell! It leveled its longest claw at her...
"Guardian!"
Lloyd seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, almost like magic or an answered prayer. He stood there, calm, and almost at peace, his twin blades crossed before him, while the razor wind tried – and failed – to penetrate the blue shield. The mana died just as the attack faded, and the swordsman grimly took a step back.
"Professor, heal Genis and yourself, I got 'im!"
So she retreated, taking the bloody, battered Genis in her arms and coaxing his body to heal itself spell.
"Sis..." He coughed weakly in her arms.
"It's alright I'm here now..." She spent a moment to stroke his hair and he smiled, for a second both forgetting where they were.
The ring of steel on steel brought her back to reality. She gasped in shock as Lloyd rose both his blades over his head, taking the over hand chop of the monsters lower half with crossed twin blades. Grunting, Lloyd tried to stagger back, so he could uncross his blades, but hanging upside down, the monster reached out with one hand and wrapped its fingers around Lloyd's wrists.
"Hey, let go!" Lloyd tugged, while the demonic creature thurst out with its free hand, summoning a stream of violent wind that poured from its appendage. Lloyd managed to cry out once before he was literally blown across the altar.
He smashed into the stones at the very edge of the altar, grunting, as the wind was knocked out of him, Lloyd stared numbly at the world around him, ready to slide into unconsciousness. Silver blue light shimmered around him, granting him what appeared to be an angelic aura for all of a moment. Raine snapped her gaze over to Kratos, the mercenary chanted, with a wave of his shield hand the man dismissed the light.
"Keep your guard up, boy!" Kratos snapped.
"How am I supposed to guard against that!" Lloyd whined, his strength returning. He snatched up one of his blades from the ground, the other had gone over the edge and he didn't bother wasting time in going after it.
"Stop them, they are desecrating the altar!" One of the priests howled.
"Idiots..." Kratos growled to himself, then he drew in a great breath and roared. "People of Asgard, behold your so called angel!"
Then he cast his shield aside and mimed the throwing of a spear. Lightning laced from his digits, smashing into the wind, causing the wild air to cease its movements. The demon stood without its obscuring winds, while the priesthood of Asgard and its people, gasped in horror.
Screaming the monster rocked back and forth in agony, then hissing as it prepared to fight again, summoning another whirlwind.
"Hey, ax butt, over here!" Lloyd screamed and the beast turned on him.
"Ax butt?" Kratos' voice had a suspicious waver to it.
Genis laughed and Raine put a finger to her twitching lips.
As the winds rushed at Lloyd, Colette threw her chakrams at the monster. It yelped at the stinging pain, turning towards its other assailant, and Lloyd was able to use the second's distraction to leap to the side.
When the monster moved to attack Colette, Lloyd's catcall made it whirl on him in rage.
"You can't hit me, you're too slooooow!"
Another gust of wind missed. The creature was so intent on killing Lloyd that it had actually turned its back on the rest of them.
"You're so slow you'd miss a sna-!"
Lloyd was hit dead on with the next blast and smashed up against a pillar. The demon grinned in satisfaction.
Kratos and Raine winced, while Genis laughed evilly at the sight. Colette merely threw her last ring, which buried itself into the creature's back. With a scream the beast turned on the Chosen, Lloyd's antics were completely forgotten now.
"Oww..." Groaning the Iselian swordsman pulled himself to his feet. Raine sent a quick spell his way, so that he could shake off the pain a little faster. He caught her eye, smiled his thanks, then picked his remaining sword from the ground and staggered after the monster. Kratos had already charged and was taking the beast head on. Colette dashed around the altar looking for a ring that wasn't bent or shattered.
Raine's eyes darted around the ruins. All around, scrawled on every inch of pillar were runes: symbols of protection from an old order. This was a site of containment, and if they could get the creature to stand in the center of the altar where it had appeared, perhaps the spell, despite its decay, might force the demon back into slumber...
"Everyone if we get the monster in the center of the altar it might be forced back..."
"No. What if someone accidentally turns it on again? We're finishing this!" Lloyd snapped.
Kratos nodded, delivering a brutal two-handed swing that made the monster rock back on the tip of its ax butt...
Ax butt?
Wonderful, marvelous, Lloyd's word choice was starting to prove catchy...
(Spoilers about Sage heritage do not read if you have not gotten to Tethe'alla bridge scene yet)
"Ms. Sage?"
Raine shook herself, forcing herself back to the here and now, looking up at the indigo-haired half-elf. She somehow managed a smile, setting aside her text for the time being. She pulled out the chair beside her, offering it to Linar. Linar took it with a slight smile. He spent a moment going over her notes, then added his own to her pile.
"I'm sorry, Linar, my mind wandered for a bit." She rubbed her eyes as a bit of smoke tried to drift into them and make them shut.
"It's all right, Ms. Sage, it is nearly midnight after all..."
The room was dark, almost murky and lair like, the only thing not making it a lair was the multitude of books and papers. The sight of those things brought her comfort, telling her that as strange a place as it was, this cavern was a library. Amongst the multitude of books and warm candle light she felt more at home.
On the table, surrounded by papers, manuscripts, and charcoal transfers taken from the temple in Triet, Thoda, and the Asgard caves, she sighed. She loved her work, but so much had happened – and was happening -- that her mind couldn't help but drift back to the one glaring inconsistency. It pitted her current hypothesis against what she knew of the Angels. The demons that lay in each seal were there to test the Chosen's loyalty to her cause, but to place a demon in a town miles away from where the real seal was... That wasn't a test, it seemed almost like torture. To release the seal like normal, to go to the temple, tend Colette through the next stage of her transformation, then to return to find Asgard little more then a ruin...
It didn't make sense, if she was right it would debunk every theory on the angels that the people of Sylvarant cherished. She shied away from thoughts like that. Martel existed, her angels were real, so too must be her mercy.
"I need to thank you, for understanding the circumstances that surround my brother and myself," she said slowly, mentally stuffing her sacrilegious thoughts into the darkest recess of her mind.
"It's not a problem. I'm sorry Harvy almost uh... let the cat out of the bag. He's always blunt and takes pride in what he is..."
"Caution and discretion aren't part of his vocabulary." Raine smiled slightly. "I've noticed that myself, there's no reason to apologize, no one was hurt by his lapse."
'He always takes pride in what he is' what pride could be taken from tainted blood, from ancestry such as her and her brother's?
In her mind she saw the Desians, saw Magnius bloated on his cruelty and hatred. It was hard not to become like that, to hate those that hated them. It was so hard when their shortsighted bigotry made her angry. Taking a deep breath, she contained her anger then looked down at the notes. She had promised herself to get this done in one night and she would get it done in one night, no matter if she didn't get any sleep.
X
Lloyd paced up and down the room, his mercenary cape flapping in the small self-made breeze of his motion. Back and forth, back and forth. From his bed Kratos watched the restless pacing, listened to the damning rustle of fabric. He was slowly going insane -- not from the questions Lloyd pressed to the night air, but the damned cape! It never bothered him when he wore it, but the sheer repetitive, endless, snap of cape cutting through air was slowly driving him mad. He recalled another companion that had paced back and forth in their rooms, although the other man's cape was made so it was almost a two-piece cape, making twice as much racket. "Does she love me, will she accept me when I can't even accept..." It was almost as bad as listening to Lloyd challenge the very order of this world. Growling, he put a pillow over his head and even that did not muffle the noise sufficiently.
"Lloyd, stop," Kratos rasped, and Lloyd hopped in surprise. Yes, he knew it was dark, but the boy should have been more aware then to hop out of his skin when his "sleeping" companion suddenly talked to him.
"I'm sorry... I didn't realize I was keeping you up..." Lloyd blushed and Kratos sighed, pulled his head out from under the pillow so he could adequately rub his temples.
"You've kept me up for the past two hours. Why do you ask those questions when you can't find the damned answer?"
"Why shouldn't I ask when something feels wrong?" Lloyd snapped thensighed. "I'm sorry. It's just driving me crazy..."
"Really... that would imply that you are sane to begin with." Kratos smirked.
"Was that a sneaky dumb joke?"
Kratos chuckled, and was about to say that sane did not mean dumb...
"You jerk!" Lloyd flared and threw the pillow. Kratos rolled to dodge the attack but accidentally rolled too much and fell out of the bed. "Ha, you aren't a swordsman, you're a klutz!"
"What did you say?" Kratos snarled, pushing off the floor.
Even downed Kratos must have been intimidating because Lloyd gulped at his elder.
"N...nothing..."
"Hurmph." Kratos stood, and considered Lloyd. The boy's frustration and excess of energy could get him in trouble if he didn't properly give it a proper channel. Still, the way the boy was acting; it was like he didn't know how. "Enough playing, get your swords. We are going outside."
"Outside, swords, it's like..." Lloyd stared at the moon's place in the sky. "Five hours till dawn."
"Do you want to spar?"
Lloyd frowned then nodded. "Maybe that'll help. Sparring always seems to help." Lloyd grinned. "Kicking your butt all the time is kinda fun."
"Indeed." Kratos raised an eyebrow. "I see I have yet another illusion I need to break in you. And the proper word choice is kind of or enjoyable not kinda."
"Kratos, don't Raine-talk me too! You're as bad as the Professor and Genis!" Kratos only offered a flat stare and Lloyd squirmed under the intense scrutiny. "Alright… alright I'll work on talking all smart-like, does that make you happy?"
Kratos' face twitched, indicating he was not happy, nor did he appreciate Lloyd's humor.
Lloyd laughed sheepishly. "Come on Kratos, it was just a joke."
Kratos only crossed his arms in front of him and glared.
"Is this about the door, I apologized already!" Lloyd cried out, the mercenary only went to the door that had been locked earlier, and pulled it open. "Kraatoos..." Lloyd whined, but the mercenary only closed the door behind him. Even the hall he could still hear the boy running around trying to get his sword and gear ready. In the hall, alone for most of those in the inn were asleep, he allowed himself to smile. On foresight Lloyd's prank was harmless, a little annoying but...
All right, it was a great deal annoying, and despite the comradery between them, there were limits of what he'd tolerate. Once, long ago, there would not have been a limit, but time had passed and for good or ill he had reverted to his old habits. The door opened behind him, and his hand drifted to his sword. Turning he took a deep breath and released the hilt of his weapon. He turned only to stare at Lloyd, who was -to Kratos' immense shock- dressed in his mercenary blacks.
"What? My red shirts are dirty," Lloyd grumbled, then lost his sour mood almost instantly. "Come on let's go already!"
Warm –human- hands wrapped over his wrist and forearm. He was all but dragged down the shadow-choked the hall by an overly enthused Lloyd. Heavens knows where they were going (certainly Lloyd had no idea) but Lloyd's enthusiasm, while not catchy to the somber mercenary, was still a powerful force. It swept him up and took them both away to the star streaked darkness beyond the inn.
X
It writhed; thunder numbed its ears even as lightning danced in its blood and made it jerk spasmodically to the sky fire's song. Its voice a high-pitched whine that hurt their ears, the monster lifted its bloody and bruised arms to the heavens…
And from heavens came a reeking gale of corruption. The tainted storm picked up the dust and sand that threatened to clog the lungs and choke them all. Hacking, Kratos covered his face with an arm. His knees gave way and the stinging howling wind made his eyes squint shut and tears leak past the thin slits as he cringed behind his shield. His lungs burned, breathing hurt, and his voice to speak that pain, was stolen by the screaming winds.
"No!" Lloyd's scream cut through the gale, slashed into his soul and the pain in the boy's tone broke him of his paralysis. Gritting his teeth the mercenary pushed off ground, his shield scraping against the stone altar. His eyes burned as he forced his eyes to widen, staring at the twin shapes, the twin shadows, in the hellish brown mists…
Steel scraped against claws. Kratos staggered forward, his cape snapping out behind him, clogged with sand. Kratos cursed. The cape was slowing him down...
Kratos paused for only a second, shearing off the cape's collar tip with his sword. Once it was done, he trudged grimly forward, sword in hand, his eyes opened wide and staring into the air-born hell that this monster had brought down, that the Angels decreed befall the humans of this
city.
Damn them, damn them all, the humans, the angels. They denied him, slowed him down!
"Hold on, Lloyd, I'm coming," Kratos tried to call through the winds, but all he got for his efforts was a mouthful of sand and a vile taste as if someone had rammed a rotten bone into his mouth.
X
"Hey--" A hand poked him. Kratos growled, and swatted the annoyance aside. " --Sylvarant to Kratos Aurion, it's Lloyd Irv-"
"I am awake," Kratos snapped, his distant eyes seemed to flash as the awareness behind them focused on the here and now. "I was distracted by my thoughts, that's all."
"Umm, how does that happen?"
Kratos stared at the black-clad child and raised an eyebrow. "You are serious about that question I see," he muttered. How he'd managed to keep the young swordsman in a mental state comparable to mere infanthood despite fourteen years having passed...
The thought was unfair to Lloyd, a bit cruel perhaps: but there were times when Lloyd still seemed only to be five years old.
"How do you deal with a problem?" Kratos asked.
"How's that make any sense?"
"Just follow the idea. It will make sense in a moment if you actually exercise some patience."
"Hehe.. sorry…" Lloyd rubbed at the back of his head, his red gloved hands disappearing in the nest of chestnut-hued locks. "So how do I deal with a problem? Well it depends on the problem."
"Imagine a serious problem, a large, serious, possibly life threatening problem." Kratos sighed, annoyed that he had to basically walk the boy through a concept that he had had an answer to since he was twelve. "How do you handle it?"
"Is it threatening me or someone else?"
Kratos checked the impulse to pull his hair and snarl a few profanities towards Dirk. How could Dirk have made so many mistakes while parenting Lloyd that the dwarf stunted this child's mental development? The only outward sign of his gathering anger was a slight tightening of the skin around his eyes and ever-so-slight cooling of his tone.
"Both. First you than someone else."
"Well if it's just me I deal with it on my own. If it's someone else and there's time, I'll go to someone else who's smarter and can think faster than me to handle it. If not, then I'll handle it."
"Define handle." Kratos sighed.
"Well, if it's a problem that needs to be fought over, I'll fight over it, if it's not I guess I'll try to talk."
"'You guess you'll try to talk'?" Kratos' tone turned the statement into a question. Lloyd frowned, staring at the mess of rocks that served as the ground outside the inn.
"I've never really been in a situation where swords or fists weren't the answer."
"Is that because swordsmanship is really the only answer, or because you cannot comprehend an answer besides violence?"
Lloyd winced at that.
"It's not like you can reason with a Desian, like you can reason with someone who's beating up someone else!" Lloyd snapped, anger replacing shame in a heartbeat.
"Have you ever tried?" Kratos whispered. He met those angry eyes that once could have been the twins of his own. Lloyd lost his anger as he stared at the new –and startling- idea in the face.
"You can't reason sometimes, sometimes you have to do something." Lloyd protested.
"Knowing when to act and how to act is important, Lloyden, more important than any action by itself. Your rashness has led to death, and it has offered life and hope to those without either." Kratos looked pointedly at the altar. The fire had gone out long ago and only greasy smoke hung over the air. "As I said before: action without strength or thought -no matter how good intentioned- will lead to tragedy."
"Can lead to tragedy--" Lloyd too stared at the altar "--may lead to tragedy, and sometimes it doesn't."
"Would you trust the lives of others to mere luck?"
Lloyd swallowed, and looked a little sick.
"I don't want to, but well… Come on Kratos, you're smart but that's just not me. Genis, you, Raine, Colette -- even Noishe -- are smarter than me!"
"I learned to read and write when I was twenty-one. I was more ignorant than a child about the world around me. Cold-blooded, calculating, I could manipulate people with my blade and strength of arm. I was content with that until I realized just how much I didn't know, how weak my not knowing made me, how crippling ignorance really could be--" Kratos' lips quirked into a dark smile as he looked back to a time he could only see. "--I was the mirror image of my sire. There wasn't a beast in the world or under it that he couldn't bring to its knees if he only swung his fist hard enough. He learned better, however, after stabbed a knife into his back."
Lloyd's mouth sagged open in shock. "You… killed your Dad?"
"He had just killed my mother. I thought the action… fitting at the time--" A hint of steel crept into the mercenary's tone. "--and that… man wasn't my Father. The swordsman Clarn was. I met him after I had turned in a group of brigands that had been an annoying thorn in the northern region's side. He trained me as a swordsman and hunter. During one of my jobs, I learned how to read from a client that could not pay me the proper amount of Gald."
"Kratos…" Lloyd was torn, between horror, shock, and sickness. How could someone kill their own father? But then again, how could someone not avenge their mom after they watched her die? What are you trying to say?"
"You would be surprised how the knowledgeable learn, how the wise become wise. It might not be a matter of how much your mind can hold, that might not be it at all…" Kratos turned from the child, unable to look Lloyd in the eyes after what he'd just confessed to. "It's not what is known, or unknown, but what you make of what you have. Using both, striving forward, you will find either damnation or salvation. Remember?"
That word brought to them both the scent of winter touched wind on a spring night, the image of a shadowed grave behind a dwarf's house, and the talk that had occurred there. Seeing the thoughtful look balancing the look of horror Kratos nodded in satisfaction. He wasn't needed any longer, so he began to walk out of Asgard.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"If you need me you'll know how to look for me," Kratos snapped, eager to get away from those damning, innocent eyes.
X
They eye of a storm is deathly still. Surrounded by chaos, there is one point of utter calm: it is the calm of broken sanity; the shattered remains of the mind. It was the calm of the dead, an icy repose. In the gales' heart, he found the customary stillness broken.
Lloyd rolled to the side, even as the monsters' bladed abdomen came crashing down, shearing into the stone less than an inch away. Freezing, lone blade in hand, Lloyd seemed to shake himself and he made a slow retreat. The thin sword was raised over his head to catch any incoming blows as he tried valiantly to get some room to deliver any form of counter attack, while trying not to step past the boundaries of stillness and get lost in the howling winds.
"Demon Fang!" Lloyd sent a rippling wave of silver power from his sword across the ground.
Hissing the beast pushed off the ground -lacking legs while having an abundance of wind mana served it well in that regard- it spun through the air, so that its blade would land first with all its formidable weight behind it. Lloyd locked his legs and braced himself.
Pulling a dagger from his belt, Kratos lined up and threw. The creature turned, writhed in agony, and missed its target by mere millimeters. With a cry of shock, Lloyd staggered back, blade falling from numb arms, landing on his rump.
Jaws parted, the lipless mouth opened to reveal a mess of saliva, slick teeth, and a fire-red tongue that fit well with the creature's hellish eyes. With a snap of its claws, it summoned another gust of cutting wind.
Growling, Kratos lowered his head, charging into the monster's spell, his blade leading. Somehow, defying all nature, he caught a fragment of the cutting wind, carrying it under his blade. By will and sheer perseverance he took spell after spell, ignoring the red lines that now ran down his sword like stripes. His sword glowing a brilliant emerald green as it pierced through the exoskeleton even as the winds rushed through him and ripped the wound wider than it should have been.
Unfortunately, the small gale he summoned with the blade and mind, did not push them apart. Kratos lifted his shield and staggered back as the creature's slash that was aimed for his face went through the steel and drew lines of crimson down his shield arm.
The beast stiffened as a rapier slid into its lowered guard and made a green-tipped point prick out from where its heart should have been. Staggering back in horror, Lloyd released the hilt of his sword staring at the monster even as the beast stared back at him. The demon let out a shrill whine that made its shoulders bob up and down with what only could have been mirth.
Grunting, the beast ripped the sword out of itself and tossed the length of steel aside. With one final scream it pointed to the ground and the runes nearest to it, hissingas aweird green light spilled from them. The light became a small storm, like boiling water would jet from a geyser, while biting wind flowed from the earth and rose and spread out from the beast in each cardinal direction.
"Scatter!" Kratos roared, snatching up the boy's rapier, hoping that with the earlier storm calming, he might be heard. Cries from the Chosen and the elves, told him that he had been heard by those who mattered. As for the humans of Asgard, he did not care, for they brought their fate upon themselves. Cursing, Lloyd skidded to a stop less then five feet from a pillar with the image of the spirit of wind. The logical move would have been to go around or dive to the side. Of course, Lloyd -never one for relying on logic when bull headed stubbornness would suffice- ran up the pillar. Eventually, gravity would bring him down, setting him less than three feet from the beast.
"Lloyd!" Kratos threw the rapier and prayed that the boy would catch it hilt first for an impossible strike...
"Lightning!" A child's voice cried out, a thread of silver snapped across the space between one side of the altar to the other in a heartbeat. The monster -who had raised one clawed hand to catch the blow and had set the other to meet the wild and reckless attack with a thrust of its own- hesitated.
Roaring out the words of a lightning spell, Kratos sent a bolt of mana. and with perfect precision hit the edge of Lloyd's descending strike. With all the force of his jump behind him, sword blazing with Kratos' spell, Lloyd buried his sword into the monster's skull with the ease of a knife passing through a tattered cloth.
Spilling green blood and other unidentifiable substances upon the holy altar of the angels, the demon spread its arms in a mocking benediction. Then the green fire that licked at the runes went out, the storm stilled, and the tainted mana along with its master at long last died...
(spoilers, don't read if you haven't finished the game!)
"I'm not mad, I just… I need to think it over that's all."
"Lloyden…"
Colette's greeting to Lloyd froze in her throat. She stood by the door way leading from the stables –and a much more groomed Noshy- held in total stillness by her shock. The Chosen was startled to hear Kratos' voice filled with such a soft unspeakable emotion, and shocked that she had not heard him before since the gift of her father allowed her to hear everything else. Unable or perhaps not wanting to move, she listened with ears that felt too keen to be her own.
"I expect no less from you. Honestly, I would be disappointed if you calmly took the fact that I murdered my sire in stride and accepted me with no reservations. If you want nothing to do with me now that you know I will under-."
"Kratos." Lloyd's voice was serious! He was using his serious tone, the one that was a little scary sometimes! Colette cringed into the darkness despite the fact he wasn't using his serious tone on her. "Shut up. I said I was going to think, not turn on you. It… bothers me, but then again, a lot bothers me." Lloyd let out a dry laugh that sounded really Kratos-like. "I have to figure it out, but then I guess you do too huh?"
"I've figured it out already, Lloyden, a long time ago."
"Well then it's my turn." There was a shrug marked by a rustle of cloth, maybe a cape. Unable to see from her hiding place Colette could only guess. "I'm gunna turn in, are you…?"
"Not yet."
"Then I'll leave the door open, or maybe I won't." Lloyd's tone had an "I'm smiling" sound to it, and maybe it was catchy because Kratos chuckled.
"If that door is locked you'll have to buy a new one after I turn the old to tinder."
Lloyd yawned. "Whatever, Kratos."
Colette heard heavy bootfalls tromp past her hiding place. Lloyd's shadow stretched out and blended with the gloom of her hiding place, and right before it would have drifted out of the range of her vision, Lloyd stopped.
"Ya know, I don't hate you. I don't understand, not fully, but I don't hate you. I won't turn on you and I won't take back… what I said yesterday. Not ever. So, sorry if that disappoints you."
"Lloyden…" Kratos' voice had a hint of strain to it. Though what made Kratos' voice sound all strange, Colette couldn't tell. "Lloyden--" Again with the soft name, the gentle tone filled with sadness. "--you should not act so rash, you should consider…"
"I have. Asatha'lle Kra'sean."
"Asatha'luse Lloyden."
Lloyd's heavy footfalls tramped up the stairs and Colette could hear the mercenary shift around. Kratos' sword clinked, his cape rippled and stirred through the slight breeze brought by shifting from foot to foot, and there was the sound of a small chain brushing against cloth. There was a click from the other side of the inn, a creek of a door turning on rusty hinges, when that door squeaked shut Kratos cleared his throat.
Wincing while feeling horrible for accidentally eavesdropping, Colette slinked out from the darkness and cringed under Kratos' unblinking stare.
"Good evening, Chosen, or rather, good morning, Chosen."
"Asakanna'lus, Kratos," Colette murmured, staring at the wooden floor which at least didn't silently judge her with that intense gaze. "Mer phan, mereth…"
"You don't need to apologize. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is all, and mischance is rarely a sin."
"Eavesdropping is." Colette blushed and she heard Kratos shrug.
"As if I care what your Goddess sees as a sin? You should go to bed, Chosen One, tomorrow we will learn of the next seal and be off."
"I... can't sleep," Colette whispered, still staring at the wooden floorboards. Having said it, the words came out again, this time choked by a muffled sob. "I can't sleep."
Kratos shifted and Colette looked up, the mercenary's normally emotionless face was marred by a slight frown. He opened his mouth to say something cold; there was a hardness to his black eyes that told her he was going to be mean. But then by the starlight she saw something worse than meanness. The man's look was calculating and cruel, and the heavens shed their magnificence to illuminate the man's face so that she could see it at long last.
Kratos looked like a Desian.
Shivering, Colette took a step back, her hands closed over the inner side of her chakrams. All it would take would be one tug then they'd be free and she would be safe -- or safer, anyways.
Kratos' eyes glittered in the starlight, but they did not gleam with a hint of warmth as they would when the man talked to Lloyd. For a heartbeat, the light was as cold and impersonal as a shard of flawed onyx catching the light just right. The moment passed and soundlessly Kratos closed his mouth to stare at her. To stare at the weapons that she in her terror had drawn.
The man's words hung between them, unspoken but somehow known.
Go back and try. Don't bother me with your stupidity. Just lie down and be still if you can't sleep. I don't have time to deal with you.
I don't care enough to even try…
"Chosen-" He wasn't a half-elf: he was a human. That didn't mean he wasn't a Desian though. "-what is wrong?"
"Stay away!" She lifted her razor-sharp throwing rings and stepped back wearily.
He did not follow, only stared at her in shock. Seeming to shake himself Kratos' eyes narrowed.
"You are ill, distressed. I will fetch Raine."
"What are you?"
"I am a mercenary, Chosen One, a swordsman."
Colette felt her knees knocking together, wanted nothing more then to do then collapse in terror. Something kept her standing, though. Maybe it was the same courage that kept her standing when she knew that a monster would come from the light of an altar; maybe it was the same courage that made her accept the trials of the Chosen without flinching. Somehow, she kept on her feet and Kratos only stared at her with his unblinking black eyes.
"You're lying," she whispered, her lips trembling as she blinked back tears. Never had anyone lied to her -not anyone she liked- and it hurt now like nothing else had ever hurt before.
"I do not lie. Your illness makes illusions that you take as truth." Kratos shifted a bit, angling himself in her general direction. To what? She didn't know why. She rolled the flat part of her lucky chakram in her right hand, her fingers stopping at the thicker part of the inner circle of the ring.
"You pretend to sleep like me, but you don't. I've never heard you sleep," Colette whispered, her hand clenching.
"I sleep." His face was cold, distant, and maybe it was the way the light caught his hair, or maybe it was because she finally realized that the courage she was drawing on did come from the monsters that the angels set against her for her trails, but for whatever reason, she felt something come into the light, something that was maybe never meant to come into it.
"Are you sleepy now?"
"My concern for your health overrides any need of the moment." Kratos' hand slipped over the hilt of his blade. He had her trapped, the wall was to her back and he was slowly closing the distance between them one step at a time. "I apologize, Chosen One, but your hysteria is so advanced that I must knock you unconscious so you don't hurt yourself during my absence."
Colette shivered. So cold, so dead were Kratos' eyes. They had the same eyes, empty, cold, Kratos and Remiel…
"You don't eat," Colette continued. "Don't take one more step or I'll…" she lifted her weapon and Kratos froze at the threat.
"You don't eat," Colette repeated slowly, staring at the being before her in terror, "and when I stopped being able to you made sure Raine gave me smaller bits of food so I could hide them easier."
"I don't eat," Kratos admitted with a slight quirk of his lips."Or rather, I do not eat as much as your companions. And whenever Raine cooks I make sure everyone gets smaller pieces of… the substance she passes off as edible."
"When anyone cooks…"
Kratos remained silent, than let out a deep breath. "I saw that you were incapable of eating. I knew you were getting sick when you tried. So -to answer your question- yes, I helped you by offering you smaller servings."
"In Palma Costa, you threw away both our food. That wasn't an accident. At the geyser, everywhere, you do the same thing."
Kratos nodded, pulled the hair out of his face and she could see the ironic smile curling his lips.
"What of it, Chosen? What does it tell you?"
"I… I don't know."
"No, you don't want to know-" Kratos shrugged "-that is your decision." He stared at her with his hard, distant eyes. "Go to bed Chosen."
Back at the beginning, back to where they started, a Chosen and a Desian talking to each other at the Fresco Inn. Colette didn't want it like that, didn't want to travel with someone who was a Desian. She was supposed to forgive and accept -- all Chosen's were supposed to -- but she wasn't a good Chosen because she knew in her heart that she could not accept traveling with someone horrible and evil.
"I can't sleep." It came out as a soft croak.
"No, I imagine you can't."
"I can't go to bed if I can't sleep, it's too noisy and still, and it hurts…"
She heard Kratos' breath hitch, she saw for just one second a flash of remembrance, of understanding, then the mask came down and all emotion was hidden again.
"Did you expect trials to be easy, Chosen?" Kratos' voice twisted darkly to match the sneer on his face. "Did you expect life to be easy for you?"
"I expected…" She gulped back her tears, nearly choked on them. "That you would care… because…they did this to you…"
The ice broke. He visibly cringed at that and stared at her with shame in his eyes. It didn't matter, nothing mattered except the Regeneration. And if she didn't matter to him... well, he didn't matter to her. She sobbed and sank to her knees crying. Colette was horrified by the pure selfishness of her last thought, sickened by the fact she might have actually hurt Kratos… Suddenly, warm hands wrapped around her shoulders, pulled her up a little so that she rested her chin on a shoulder. She bowed her head and cried all the more, her chakrams slipping through her fingers, hissing as the razor edge sank into wood.
"Mer… phan…" Colette croaked out amongst the few tears that could make it past her eyes.
"It's alright, Colette…" Kratos murmured. He rocked her back and forth slowly as if she were the youngest of children. "Everything is forgiven. I was being a bastard. If anyone should apologize it should be me."
"I... wasn't very nice either…" Colette gulped.
"I, however, started it, and I will hear no more attempts on your half to apologize. So, you can not sleep?"
"N…no, I can't…"
"You would be surprised how common an ailment that is," Kratos' murmured, smoothing down her golden locks with a trembling hand. "When I cannot sleep I count the stars. No life -I've found- is long enough to count them all."
"You count the stars every night with Lloyd."
Kratos sighed, released her.
"Yes, well… that is different."
"Does it make you sleep?" Colette whispered, hope shinning in her eyes.
"No." Kratos swallowed. "Nothing does. I haven't slept for as long as you've lived child. I will never sleep, and I probably never will until long after you've died."
"Oh…" Colette shivered. Looking at him now, Kratos' didn't seem very Desian-ish. Maybe he wasn't a Desian -or like the Desian's- after all.
"If trouble comes, call out." Kratos stood, and she hesitantly took his hand. "My ears are as keen as yours, perhaps more so. Life on the edge-" Kratos' lips quirked into a mocking smile as he soundlessly laughed at all the others who didn't understand, "-you understand?"
Colette nodded. She understood in all the ways he asked her to understand. While Kratos' smile wasn't a completely nice smile, she found her lips had curled up too.
"Good." Kratos went to the stairs and at the base of them paused. "The heavens are yours, Colette: the golden streaked birthing of dawn; the sapphire blue day; the hazy, fading pallet of twilight, and all that comes after. So says the prophecy of your Book. Asatha'lle, Chosen."
"Asatha'luse, Derris fa Gothson."
Kratos twitched and glared at her. She only smiled, gave him a twinkling wave of one hand, and then slipped outside. But even with the door closed he knew she could hear his grumble. "Do I have a shovel? Do I adore plants?"
"No," Colette giggled, "but that would look funny."
She knew he heard but he didn't respond save for an annoyed "hurmph".
X
(Spoilers done)
"Ceeri, sananah suva derrisee?"
"Quenen sanan suva derris." Kratos corrected.
"It was really close though, Lloyd!" Colette chirped.
"Why do I have to start on some dumb hymns?" Lloyd huffed. "You know, when I learned dwarven it was just normal talk that I learned."
"Say it right and we'll go on," Kratos growled, rather worn out with the whining and griping that Lloyd was showering them both with.
"Lloyd's too dumb to learn Angelic, Kratos," Genis sighed. "I don't know how Dirk did it, but Raine's been trying to teach Lloyd fractions for years and he still hasn't picked it up."
Lloyd muttered something under his breath and Kratos' eyes widened.
"Tell me you are jesting."
"Wha.. umm, no. He made me skip meals until I got it right." Lloyd winced as the mercenary's eyes grew steel sharp. Taking one look at Kratos' ticked face he knew that the only way to keep both Dads was to keep his Dwarf Dad away from his Adopted Human Dad. "Really, it was only two meals out of three, and on hard lessons I'd only lose one meal out of the day if I got it wrong…"
Kratos muttered something in advanced Angelic and Colette paled.
"Kratos, that wasn't very nice!"
"I'm not nice most of the time, or have you failed to notice?"
Lloyd blinked; it was the first time ever that Colette didn't call Kratos 'Mr. Kratos' or 'Mr. Aurion'. Well, that was nice, they were getting along, since Colette being formal with someone meant that she wasn't comfortable around them. Now that she was acting more normal around the mercenary, that meant she was happier around the black clad man, which in turn seemed to make everyone else warm to Kratos a little more…
Unfortunately, what wasn't nice was every time he thought of something not angelic related during lessons his ex-sphere shocked him. Just like… ow! Damn it, that hurt!
Colette and Kratos were arguing about using "bad words" in a holy language and whether it was blas… blos… unholy or not. Since everyone was busy -Kratos and Colette were arguing and Kratos' use of swear words was making Colette sputter and Genis was on the other side of the room snuggling with the green furred "couch" with a handful of notes on hand that the "couch" was reading- Lloyd spent a moment talking to his tormentor.
"Stupid rock…" Lloyd flexed his fingers. "Let up would you?"
A thin pulse of warmth tinged with a hint of electricity told him he better get on the ball or he'd get shocked even more.
"You know, Genis' ex-sphere isn't nasty with him."
He could have sworn, just for a second that a woman laughed, and a feeling of pleasant warmth ran out from the stone and took away the pain. Then, just to remind him that he should be paying attention whenever Kratos talked, the stone sent a teasing small shock down his arm.
"Alright… I'll be good… but don't get mad at me if I get it all wrong."
The sense of laughter and warmth increased and kind of buzzed in the back of his mind, which made focusing on the lesson harder. But at least the stone wasn't zapping him now.
X
"All right," Kratos hissed, "bare basics. We'll start with basics and skip sentence structure, history, and contagions, throwing all logic to the winds! If that's what it takes to make you stop whining, then fine!"
Kratos was ticked, Genis cringed against Noishe and the dog whined at Kratos as if to protest.
"You deal with this for hours on end. My Gods boy, you are stubborn. I've never met anyone who's out stubborned me before."
Kratos pointedly ignored Noishe's argumentative "Bark!" and the "Yip whine whiiine" comment.
No one however could ignore the next string of "sounds" from Noishe.
"Whiiine yip baba bark, whine bark bark!"
Genis stared up at the dog shocked.
"Lloyd, is that the "two love birds in a tree" song?"
"Huh?" Lloyd looked up from his notes and looked at Noishe. "Oh yeah, he barks it every time I, uh, stay after school to hang with Colette. Ignore him, he'll shut up eventually."
"That or I'll make him," Kratos hissed. The man's brown eyes seemed red in the fire light, but that might have been the effects of the faint blush around the mercenary's cheeks.
"Whiine!"
"One more word and I will throw a fire spell."
"Yipe!" Noishe put his paws over his head and cowered.
"So when's Raine coming back?" Genis gulped, a little nervous since Kratos's death glare was fixed on
Noishe and Genis was being clipped by it.
"The note was vague, evasive, and it read she'd be conducting a cross examination of the meaning of the tablet with the scriptures Linar unearthed."
Noishe helpfully whistled two teasing notes through his fangs.
"So it is my guess..." Kratos speared the dog with a look filled with promised violence at a later date. "... three or four days at most."
"A ruin nutty teacher in a ruin filled town," Lloyd grumbled. "We're going to be here forever, how can you just say four days?"
"That's the amount of time I will remain here, any longer than that, I'm leaving and taking the three of you with me."
"Whine!"
"Fine, the four of you with me…"
"Why would you take us?" Genis frowned.
"Imagine a lecture, Raine in full ruin-mode, with hundreds of ruins on hand and the intent to make a tour of it for 'educational purposes' with her beloved pupils in tow."
Genis, Noishe, and Lloyd, shuddered in horror while Colette looked at them all in confusion.
"Does it have to be four days? How about a day?" Lloyd protested.
"That's a tempting preposition… add on to it…" Kratos' eyes glittered with a bit of humor.
"What -bribe you-? Well, how's twenty gald sound?"
"Hardly enough to compensate for the Raine-ing I'd receive if I were caught," Kratos' lips were twitching. "Triple it and maybe I'd consider."
"Genis…" Lloyd sighed.
"I don't have enough, even if we pooled our gald we'd be twenty short."
"Damnit…"
Colette giggled. Genis and Lloyd were just being silly to her. Perhaps out of all of them, only Kratos -and maybe Noishe- knew just how serious Lloyd was about getting away from the "Professor" while she was in ruin-mode.
"Ne corl, Lloyden, mereth-ea wa congonnan."
"Huh?" Lloyd stared at Kratos.
"It means…" Genis pawed through his notes. "Umm... don't know the third word… don't know the fourth, but something about "plan" and "don't"…"
Lloyd's eyes lit with understanding and he smiled. "Magni gar'sel, Kra'sean."
"You're welcome, Lloyd." Kratos flipped through the small booklet he'd borrowed from Colette on the language. "Hurmph… is this all prayers Chosen One?"
"Of course!"
Kratos sighed. "Of course…"
Genis stared at Kratos then at Lloyd in bafflement,. Both swordsmen grinned and muttered a few words in a language that wasn't angelic. Wondering what just happened, Genis leaned against his "couch". Noishe looked over them all, lolled his tongue, and wagged his tail, accidentally smacking the small elf with the furry appendage.
"Hey, no bad! Ouch quit it! Stop, it stings!"
Lloyd laughed, which was really helpful as it made the tail wag harder.
Genis suffered the tail wagging for a while until Kratos at last composed himself from a fit of suspicious coughs and escorted the dog out of the room and back to his stable.
Only Colette heard the "I'd say 'bad dog' but it would be wholly insincere" that Kratos muttered into one of those large ears on the way out. Well, to be honest, not only Colette heard it. Noishe, who's fluffy tail went back to wagging like mad, did too.
"The dog or the mercenary... I don't know which is worse." Genis rubbed his aching head (where the tail had hit the most) and glared at the two who were departing. "You know, I think Kratos found it funny and he's secretly on Noishe's side!"
"Not a chance." Lloyd rubbed the exsphere on his hand, recalling the door incident a few days back and how Kratos almost kicked it down and wrung his neck. "You know Kratos, nothing's funny to him."
Thinking on what she just heard Colette giggled and the boys stared at her in confusion.
"Something funny, Colette?" Lloyd asked.
"Just a thought."
"Thinking about thoughts, which is new for Lloyd since he doesn't think." Ignoring the loud "hey" from Lloyd, Genis continued. "Can someone sneak a spare Kratos cape for our... you know?"
"I already got one." Lloyd smirked. "My costume, remember?"
"And I got one of Raine's coats," Genis chuckled.
"And I've got the mop head," Colette chimed in. The smiles from all the children were wide and had faint hints of evilness to them.
"So then, what code were we using this time?" Genis rubbed his hands in glee.
Colette rolled over on the mess of blankets she'd laid down t oget comfortable .Certain that Kratos couldn't hear anything, she pulled out a small booklet from the pink blanket and read through the mess of dwarven, angelic, and elf script. "Conflict KR stories, code mania K, and study R."
"So then, who takes who?"
"Kratos!" Lloyd smirked, nabbing the mercenary first before Colette could.
"I'll get Noshy!" Colette chriped.
"And I'll guess I get Raine..." Genis sighed. "All right, tommorow?"
"While we're in town." Lloyd nodded. "Out of town we almost got caught."
"That was kind of funny," Colette chirp.
Remembering the stern conversation about wearing gender appropriate clothes, and the look of silent horror on Kratos' face when he'd stumbled on Lloyd getting out of his Raine costume, was definatly not a funny moment in Lloyd's book. It was actually kinda scary because Kratos had been giving him veiled looks of silent panic for days after.
When he finally came back from "escorting" Noishe, Kratos was greeted with three smiling faces and a sugar sweet "Hi, Kratos!" timed so perfectly it could have been one voice and not three.
Instinct made Kratos' hand snap over the hilt of his blade, as he expected anything -from that demon rabbit from Palma Costa to an army of Desians- to appear out of thin air. When nothing happened, he stared at the children long and hard. They only smiled at him sweetly and the mercenary's frown deepened when Lloyd's lips began to twitch under the scrutiny of the death glare.
"I.. need a drink.. I'll be.. back..."
Lloyd managed to get one closed door between himself and his friends before he broke out into loud howls of mirth.
"I'm never giving him the script again..." Genis growled to Colette.
Colette only gigled in response to something that she knew.
Worried, Kratos' hand seemed to have pernamently wound around the hilt of his blade. The too sweet tones, the far too toothy grins, and Lloyd's "fit" offered him little comfort.