AUTHOR'S NOTES:
We're almost at the end of the introductory arc – or, as I like to call it, Kingdom Hearts III.9
We have got 1-2 chapters left to put all the pieces in the right places, and then we'll have our first confrontation. If this story was a rollercoaster, we'd be almost at the end of the first climb right before the first big drop.
Here we go!
CHAPTER NUMBER | SYNTHESIZE
It had taken Aqua the better part of a week to come up with something that might work as a suitable distraction, and during this time she found herself watching Kairi more often that not. Kairi and Axel soon fell in to an easy routine; they would train together every other morning, on account of Axel's struggle to rise before the sun. On their off days Kairi would train alone, rising early to run rings around the castle or drill her spells or practice combinations with her keyblade. Aqua would watch her from the castle window with a strange feeling that equal parts pride and unease. It left her unsettled.
"We need to talk about Kairi," she had announced one evening after Ven had dragged Axel to watch the star shower and Kairi had long since gone to bed. Terra had glanced up at her with a resigned expression.
"You're worrying too much," he said gently. "I've spoken to Merlin and he says that this is just how Kairi trains. She gives it everything she's got, just like you did when you were her age." She sat down heavily in the chair beside him and swatted his shoulder lightly.
"Don't say it like that," she huffed. "You make me sound old." He shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know why you're upset," he answered, sipping on his tea. "Lots of of thirty-one-year-olds would give their left foot to have a body that's ten years younger than it's supposed to be." She leant over to grab a biscuit and 'accidentally' caught him in the ribs with her elbow. He wheezed, spluttering tea down his front as he shot her a playful glare.
Despite Terra's apparent apathy on the subject Aqua found she wasn't able to let it go. She suffered more than one sleepless night because of it, and after a particularly bad nightmare (in which she saw not just Terra and Ven falling to darkness but now Kairi, too) she found herself in the lab where she was struck by a sudden surge of inspiration.
The next morning after breakfast she took her students through to the library and was delighted to find that it had just the reaction she'd hoped for. While Ven and Axel were otherwise unimpressed, having been frequent visitors here over the years, Kairi's eyes lit up with wonder as she ran her fingers over the dusty tomes.
"What are they about?" she asked, staring up at a particularly stall bookshelf.
"Just about everything," Aqua answered. "These books over here will help you if you decide to study for your Mark of Mastery exam the old-fashioned way. There are books on spells and magic, on matters of the heart, on maintaining the world order… And over here we have a collection of stories. Some are from this world and others have been preserved from the time of fairytales."
"This one is my favourite," Ven said, pulling out a particularly large book. He plopped it on to the table where it landed with a heavy THUD before carefully peeling the book open to his favourite spot, a beautiful painting set over two pages of a fountain in the centre of an idyllic town square. He ran his fingers over it with a fond smile. "It's the story of how all the worlds used to be one big world where everyone lived together before the great Keyblade War. Kinda cool, if you think abut it." Kairi nodded as she leant in closer to study the page, eyes drinking in the details. Aqua caught Axel's eye and they shared a small smile.
"I thought you might be interested in reading up on some of the theory behind being a Keyblade Master," Aqua continued. "Master Eraqus used to make us sit in here for hours sometimes to study." Aqua almost missed it at times; being surrounded by the books with barely a thought to anything other than the text before her. She loved the smell of books.
"What will we study?" Kairi asked as Ven slid his book back on to the shelf.
"Well Ven and Axel have already covered most of the books that I would recommend, so it's up to you what you'd like to read first," Aqua answered. "I'd suggest starting with something simple." Kairi nodded and after a moment's thought she headed back to the far corner of the library, disappearing in to the stacks. Axel sneezed and scrubbed at his nose with a huff.
"Why do they all have to be so dusty?" he growled. Aqua chuckled.
"You can clean them if you like?" she suggested with a smile. "They're long overdue… I don't think anyone has really taken care of them in years."
"Probably not since Terra and I last cleaned them," Ven murmured, though it was followed by a laugh. "Do you remember, Aqua? We were goofin' around and set your hair on fire so Master Eraqus made us clean the library from top to bottom." She couldn't help the laugh that rose from the memory; she could quite distinctly remember Ven's frozen panic as Terra tried to extinguish the flame, only to cover her in a torrent of freezing water that left her shivering.
"I remember," she said. "It took weeks until I stopped smelling like burned hair, and it took forever to grow back." It had been well over a decade since the library was last cleaned then, as their little run-in had happened at least two (if not three) years before Aqua's Mark of Mastery exam, and she highly doubted that anyone in the Organisation would have bothered to clean it during its time as Castle Oblivion, if they'd even known how to find it in the first place. She ran her finger along a shelf and cringed at the trail she left behind in the dust, wondering if perhaps there was a way to clean the place with magic. She'd have to ask the Good Fairies; they had looked after a house whilst raising Aurora, so perhaps they would know a think or two about more domestic uses of magic.
Eventually Kairi returned with a rather heavy book cradled in her arms which she passed to Aqua. More Than Emotions: A Guide to Understanding the Heart had been written by Master Agnea who had been a scholar several generations before even Eraqus' master. Aqua had spent several hours studying the book after Ven's arrival, and whilst it certainly wasn't the easiest book in the library it would take Kairi some time to get through it in its entirety. Had it been anyone else Aqua might have suggested starting with a different book, but given that Kairi had no doubt chosen it for a reason Aqua merely smiled and handed it back with a nod. After all, who was she to deny the girl the tools she needed to heal her fractured heart?
Next Aqua took them in to the lab, a small annex that had been previously used for brooms and cleaning supplies but was now used for synthesis and item storage. Carefully she pulled out all four synthesis stations and guided the others through how to set them up correctly. The base came first, a large circular disc with four holes clustered together in the centre in a diamond. In to each hole she placed thin metal arm which rose for about an inch before curving outwards. When all four were in place they created a hollow in the centre. The last step was to carefully add a small dish to the end of each arm, connected by three delicate golden chains to keep the dish from tipping over.
"What does it do?" Kairi asked.
"You can use item synthesis to make potions or certain types of armour," Aqua explained. Axel frowned and folded his arms.
"How come you didn't teach me any of this?" he huffed. Aqua smiled at him, fixing him with a pointed look.
"It's never officially been a part of a the process to becoming a Master," she said, "but now that we know how to do it I can't see any reason not to pass the knowledge along." She saw understanding hit him and Axel stuffed his hands in his pockets with a smile.
"Then I'm all ears, Master," he said with a cocky grin that made Aqua want to throw something at him. Instead she handed him a recipe scroll and instructed him to gather the necessary supplies from the shelves – enough for them each to do several attempts.
"This is the same process that the Moogles use, although this is a much simpler version," she explained. "With this, we can make very basic items like potions, healing salves and sleeping draughts. Beyond that, we ask the Moogles for their help."
"And we have all the ingredients here?" Kairi asked. She was studying the synthesis station intently, her eyes alight with possibility, and Aqua couldn't ignore the rush it gave her to see her pupil so excited to learn. She stifled a smile as best she could, though she still felt it pulling at the corners of her lips.
"Yes, the ingredients for most basic level potions are pretty common," she answered. "More complicated recipes call for rarer ingredients like orichalcum and damascus."
"And more advanced equipment," Ven added. "Have you even been inside a Moogle's lab?" Kairi shook her head as Axel started unloading ingredients in to a pile in the centre of the workbench. Ven grinned. "It's great! They have these big furnaces and these walls full of buttons and switches."
"How do you know?" Axel asked.
"Sora went there one time, so I can remember it I guess," he answered. Aqua glanced at Kairi but she had picked up a mythril shard and was turning it over in her hands, studying it so intently she wondered if she'd even heard Ven's response.
Over the next few hours Aqua showed them the basics of synthesising ingredients. She started with the recipes and showed them where they were kept and how to read them to understand how many of what item was required. Then she showed them how to use the synthesis station, putting each ingredient carefully in to one of the four dishes. Once the first item was added a small light would begin to flicker in the hollow space in the centre, growing and shifting with each added ingredient until it was almost possible to discern the finished item spinning within the light. The last step was the hardest; to place both hands on the base and transfer magic in to the mix to make it all come together. Ven and Axel both rushed this particular stage, eager to reveal the fruits of their labours, and Aqua was relieved when Kairi took a moment to study the mix before she pressed her hands against the base. The light inside her station flared for a brief moment before revealing a perfectly-formed potion.
"That's perfect, Kairi," Aqua encouraged as Kairi plucked it from the centre to examine it carefully. Axel leaned in closer, scrutinising her endeavour with a critical eye.
"How comes yours just works?" he asked. He turned back to his station where his ingredients had formed a semi-sentient sludge which was currently crawling up one of the arms. He prodded it with his finger and recoiled when it tried to prod him back. "I think my mixer's broken."
"That's so cool that you got it on your first try!" Ven exclaimed, watching as Kairi swished the potion from side to side in the little jar. The magic binding the potion together looked like glass, and when Kairi tapped it with her nail it made a small clinking sound.
"I just felt it," she answered, "like it was telling me how much magic it needed." Ven stared at his own station, staring at the ingredients which had yet to leave their bowls.
"Guess I was being a bit too careful," he murmured. He closed his eyes and pressed his hands against the base, waiting a moment this time before pressing his magic into the mix. The ingredients flickered for a moment before disappearing in to the light where the potion began to take form. He opened his eyes and grinned from ear to ear.
"I did it! Aqua, I did it!" The light faded and he plucked his potion from the stand, holding it up to his eye to examine it further. The potion cast a wash of gentle green light over his cheeks.
"Very good, Ven," Aqua said brightly before turning to her final student. "Axel?" He pursed his lips and folded his arms, watching as the little green slug finally gave up on sentience and let go of its form, rolling back down in to hollow below and leaving a trail of green slime along one of the arms. Axel's nose crinkled.
"I don't think this synthesis stuff is for me," he said, leaning back in his chair. "I'll stick to the Moogles from now on."
"If you're sure," Aqua replied.
"Dead sure, and besides," he added, plucking Kairi's potion from her fingers swilling it from side to side, "if I need anything making up in the meantime I can come to little miss potions master here." Kairi flushed at the praise and reached up to take her potion back.
"And who says I'll help you?" she asked with a coy smile. Axel clutched at his chest and sank in to his chair, his eyes wide like a wounded puppy.
"You wouldn't leave me in pain, would you?" he whimpered. "I thought you promised to always take care of me!" She rolled her eyes and nudged him with her shoulder.
"If you're in pain, there are faster ways to heal you than to make a potion from scratch," she retorted. She tapped her chin and pursed her lips with a thoughtful hum. "Although you'll have to be extra nice to me."
"I'll say 'please'," he offered.
"Pretty please," she countered with a grin. He nudged her back with a smirk.
"With a butterscotch-covered cherry on top."
Kairi and Ven synthesised a few more items to make sure they'd truly gotten the hang of it before Aqua showed them how to clean, pack and store the stations. Then she showed them the shelves of ingredients, all of which were roughly sorted in to boxes, bowls and dishes before finally leading them to the store cupboard to deposit their successful potions.
"It's dusty in here too," Axel spluttered as he coughed in to his elbow and made a hasty retreat. Aqua rolled her eyes and glanced at Kairi.
"Is he always this dramatic?" she asked, earning a giggle in response. When the coughing continued in earnest she glanced instead to Ven who was closest to the door. "Will you see if he's okay? Kairi and I will finish up in here." Stifling a laugh Ven nodded and quickly unloaded his potions in to Kairi's arms before ducking back out of the cupboard. Turning back to Kairi she took a couple of the potions that looked as though they were ready to tip out of her grip. "Did Merlin show you how to identify different potions?" Kairi nodded.
"I know the basics," she answered. "Potions are green, ethers are silver-blue, and elixirs are the gold ones. The bigger and brighter they are, the more powerful they are, generally speaking." Aqua nodded.
"There are some others you might not have seen before," she said stacking the potions on a nearby shelf. Once Kairi's arms were clear she rummaged through a shelf on the other side to pull out a tall phial of shimmering gold and a small jar that shimmered like liquid diamonds. "This one is a refocuser," she said, handing Kairi the golden phial. "It's useful to help focus your mind and it can sharpen your skills. We can synthesise a basic version here, but the Moogles have Hi and Mega refocusers that really give you a boost if you need it. This one is a sleeping draught, like the one you had on your first night here." She swished the shimmering crystal-like liquid from side to side, watching as Kairi's eyes followed it carefully. She smiled and reached over to take back the refocuser to place them both on the shelf.
"There's one more I want to show you," she said, circling the small room slowly. Her fingers traced the dusty edges of shelves until her eye caught a gentle purple glow. She reached for it, only to pause as she spied a handful of rings of dust on the shelf where potions had been recently removed. She stared at them for a moment, trying to remember what had been there before.
"Aqua, are you all right?" Kairi asked. Aqua looked back over her shoulder and smiled.
"Yes, I was just thinking." Probably one of the others had come to grab a potion or two after training. How it would have made her journey easier to lift the aches and pains with a potion at the end of each day. She pushed the thought aside and reached for the lavender orb.
"What's that one?" Kairi asked.
"Panacea," Aqua answered. "It's helpful for removing lingering attacks or side effects. It's too complicated for us to make here, but it's worth having one on hand just in case." She passed it to Kairi who looked at it carefully, her eyes wide with wonder as she watched the magic shift back and forth inside the orb. Aqua meanwhile glanced around the room and sighed; it was a wonder that anyone found anything in amongst the chaos.
"Is everything okay?" Kairi asked. Aqua took the panacea back with a small smile.
"Just realising how messy this cupboard is," she sighed. "It used to be so neat and tidy, but now…" She shook her head and placed the panacea back on the shelf.
"I could tidy it up, if you wanted," Kairi suggested as Aqua led them back in to the lab.
"Tidy what?" Ven asked. Axel was lounging against the bench, pounding his chest to clear the last of the dust from his lungs. Ven rolled his eyes and shouldered his side with a grin.
"The cupboard," Kairi answered. "Aqua said it used to be easier to find things." Ven flushed and rubbed his neck with a nervous grin.
"Yeah… that's probably my fault," he confessed. "I maybe don't always put things back where I found them…" Aqua folded her arms and arched an eyebrow.
"So maybe I should make you reorganise it," she said. His face fell instantly.
"Aw, c'mon Aqua, Terra does it too," he whined. She laughed and reached out to ruffle his hair, earning a goofy grin in response.
"I honestly don't mind," Kairi said.
"She really doesn't," Axel wheezed. "One time she rearranged Merlin's books because they were all over the place. Sorted them by author and title and a hundred other ways until she somehow managed to find a logical order to put them in, which meant they made no sense at all to Merlin."
"Really?" Ven asked. Axel chuckled.
"Oh yeah," he said. "He spent the next few weeks trying to figure out where everything was until he finally just started summoning the books with magic. Nearly took my eye out once." Ven dissolved in to a fit of giggles at the thought and Axel rubbed at his temple with a fond chuckle. Aqua bit back a smile as she looked at Kairi who merely smiled in response. It was an easy enough job, Aqua supposed, and it would keep her from spending too much time in the arena. She seemed so happy to jump in head first to something as mundane as tidying that Aqua found herself wondering at it. Maybe it wasn't some kind of burning dedication that kept her going back to the ring; maybe she was bored.
"If you're sure," she relented. Kairi smiled and nodded.
"Absolutely!"
"Then I leave it in your capable hands." Kairi beamed and Axel rolled his eyes with a grin. Aqua folded her arms and pursed her lips as she glanced at the others. Ven was the first to notice her calculating stare.
"Uh oh," he murmured.
"Master Eraqus used to make us tidy and clean the castle all the time," she said slowly. "At the time I thought it was just to keep us out of trouble, but now I think it was because the castle needed it more than we did."
"I don't like the sound of that," Axel mumbled, standing up a little taller. "What are you going to make us do?"
"I haven't decided yet," she continued, glancing between the two of them, "but it doesn't seem fair that Kairi would be the only one doing any tidying up around here." From the corner of her eye she saw Kairi's smile falter slightly as she shifted her weight uncomfortably.
"Really, I don't mind," she mumbled as Ven groaned, rolling his eyes dramatically.
"Aqua-a-a-a," he moaned. She pursed her lips to keep from smiling.
"I'm just saying, maybe it's time we brought back cleaning penalties," she said with a shrug. Ven's horrified gasp left her feeling immensely satisfied.
"Not cleaning penalties! C'mon, Aqua, I thought you were cool," he grumbled, folding his arms with a frown.
"What are cleaning penalties?" Axel asked. Ven huffed.
"Master Eraqus used to set us a challenges sometimes," he explained. "Whoever won the challenge got out of whatever he decided needed cleaning."
"And the castle was a lot cleaner then than it is now," she said. Ven stuck out his lips and turned his large eyes towards her, batting his eyelashes and whimpering dramatically. She sighed through a smile and reached out to nudge his cheek with her knuckle. "Fine, no cleaning penalties, but we'll all have to start pulling out weight a little more when it comes to tidying up a bit." Ven grinned and sidestepped towards Kairi and Axel, reaching out to grab their hands.
"Quick, let's run before she changes her mind!" And without waiting for a response her darted out of the room, dragging them behind him. Aqua caught one last glimpse of Kairi's bewildered face before the trio disappeared out of sight, the sound of Ven's laughter echoing back along the hall.
Over the next few days something changed, though it took Aqua a while to put her finger on what it was.
She noticed it first in Axel, in how he laughed more openly and smiled more readily and seemed somehow more at ease than Aqua had ever seen him before. It was almost as though the hardest parts of him – the parts he'd fostered since Kairi's disappearance – were finally starting to melt away, thawing out a warmer, brighter Axel who'd gone missing some time ago.
The next thing Aqua noticed was the changes in herself. She woke one morning, well past sunrise, to the pleasant realisation that she had spent all night asleep in her bed. No terrors in the dark, no urge to swaddle herself in blankets, just a peaceful night's sleep. One of many, in fact, as it dawned her on her that she had enjoyed the pleasure of several undisturbed nights in a row – a feat that had been rare enough before Kairi's return.
And it seemed that Kairi was the source. Aqua found herself watching the girl closely, noting the way she seemed somehow more at ease since she had taken on the task of reorganising the store cupboard (and, once that was done, the rest of the lab as she volunteered to clean it from top to bottom). Whilst her mornings were still spent in the arena, some with Axel and some alone, her evenings were often spent in the library or the lab. On more than one occasion Aqua caught her pouring over her book in a quiet nook of the library or hunched over a station in the lab practicing item synthesis.
"I promise I'll replace all the ingredients I use!" she had hurriedly exclaimed one night when Aqua had found her synthesising a collection of sleeping draughts and ethers. "I just wanted to make sure I really had it right."
"They're more useful to us as items anyway," Aqua said before helping her put them away in the (now very well organised) store cupboard.
Even Terra seemed somehow lighter than he had been since Kairi's return. They would often come in from their morning lesson to find him humming in the kitchen as he made lunch. His classes had taken on a slightly slower pace, allowing him to dive deeper in to topics of strength and strategy which had always been among his favourite topics. Whilst he still denied that he ever thought there had been anything wrong with Kairi, Aqua couldn't help but notice that he too seemed delighted with her recent shift in focus.
In fact, it seemed as though the only person whose spirits hadn't been lifted by the bright mood that had settled over the castle was Ven. He hid it well enough around them, masking it with goofy grins and wild gestures and bursts of lighthearted mischief, but Aqua caught him nonetheless. Sometimes, perhaps when he thought nobody was looking, his smile would fall and his shoulders would slump and he would stare up at the sky with such sorrow that it made Aqua's heart ache.
So when Roxas, Namine and Xion called to invite Kairi and Axel to Twilight Town for ice cream, Aqua encouraged them wholeheartedly and wasn't in the least surprised when Terra joined her.
"You've both been working so hard recently," he said. "It'll be good for you to get away."
"I'm sure they miss you both very much," Aqua added. "Do you know the way?" Axel had grinned at that, throwing an arm around Kairi's shoulders and leaning heavily against her (much to her chagrin as she'd been in the process of putting on her cloak).
"Like the back of my hand," he said before staring at his hand and frowning slightly. "Shame I had a shower this morning… Hey, Kairi, has that mole always been there?" Kairi had rolled her eyes and ducked out from beneath him, leaving him to stagger sideways.
Aqua and Terra walked them down to the bottom of the great staircase and watched closely as Axel let Kairi open a portal to the lanes between. It took a moment for it to open, during which Aqua couldn't help but hold her breath. Eventually the portal appeared, and in the blink of an eye Kairi had mounted her glider and disappeared. Only then did Aqua find she could breathe out again.
"Honestly," Axel chuckled as he mounted his glider, "you look like a pair of proud parents." She had folded her arms and pretended to scowl at him.
"Don't be home too late," she said.
"Sure thing, mom!" he called over his shoulder as he disappeared through the portal.
It seemed they took something with them when they left, for as the portal closed Aqua found a tightness wrapping its way around her heart. Warm fingers found hers and she glanced up at Terra as he linked their hands together.
"Ven?" he asked. He didn't have to expand upon his question; she understood everything he didn't say and nodded firmly.
"Ven."
They found him on the bench atop the mountain path, curled up in the middle with his chin resting on his knees. Wordlessly the slid in on either side of him, squeezing in together on the bench. For a moment he didn't acknowledge them at all and Aqua shared a concerned look with Terra who answered with a light frown. Eventually Ven would tilt sideways, leaning heavily against Terra while his hand sought Aqua's, gripping it tightly. She ran her thumb over his knuckles and squeezed it back, bringing a small smile to the corner of his lips.
"What's on your mind?" Terra asked. Ven's eyes remained fixed on the horizon and he drew several breaths before finally speaking.
"When can we ask about Sora?"
The unease around Aqua's heart tightened and she tried not to grimace. She glanced to Terra then, taking advantage of Ven's blind spot to shoot him a helpless look. He nodded his head by the smallest fraction.
"It's difficult, Ven-"
"I know," he sighed. "I didn't want to ask before because I was scared she wasn't ready, and I don't want to ask now because she finally seems like she's starting to recover, but how much longer?" Aqua squeezed his hand again.
"Sora will be fine," she said firmly, if only to try and convince herself. "If Kairi thought he was in some sort of danger then surely she would have told us by now."
"So you think she knows something?" Terra asked.
"Of course," she answered. "If she didn't, she would have asked about him." Ven sat up then, his eyes desperate
"But then why hasn't she told us?" he asked. "If he's okay, then why hasn't she said anything?" Aqua's throat ran dry as Ven voiced the thought she'd been running from since Kairi's return. She was saved when Terra reached around to tap Ven's heart.
"What do you feel, Ven?" he asked. "Do you still feel connected to Sora?" Ven sat back heavily against the bench, drawing his knees up to his chest again and wrapping his arms around his legs.
"I think he's in trouble," he said quietly. His breath hitched and Aqua rested a hand on his elbow. "I think that Kairi hasn't said anything because… because maybe she doesn't think we can save him."
"And what do you think?" Aqua asked. He looked up at her then, holding her gaze for a moment before his eyes slid closed. He clasped his hands over his heart and bowed his head, resting his forehead on his knees for several long minutes before he finally answered.
"I think that everything we've been through… it was only the beginning." He looked up then, his eyes turned towards the sky as she sun began to set. "I just have this feeling that it's not over." Terra placed a firm hand on his shoulder and he nodded firmly.
"That's what I feel, too," he said. Aqua sat up taller at the confession, fixing him with a surprised look.
"You do?" she asked. He nodded, lifting his gaze to meet hers.
"For a few weeks now," he answered. His head tilted a fraction as he looked at her. "You don't feel it?"
"I… I guess I've been so distracted with Kairi…" Both of them were staring at her now and for the first time their attention made her uncomfortable. She drew herself up tall and took a deep breath, closing her eyes and widening her senses.
She supposed she'd been feeling it for some time, if she was truly honest with herself, but Kairi's recovery had been such a convenient distraction that it had been easy to overlook it. It felt like the calm before a storm, a deep breath before a scream; like the time they'd all jumped off the cliffs and in to the cold ocean below, a feeling of weightlessness right before an icy plunge.
Little did she know that it would start with a phone call.
Anyone else just feel better after a good tidy? Like the world just feels that little bit better when everything is in its place. It's just a really good chance to ~take stock~ and make sense of the world… Just saying…
See you next time!