A/N: I just wanted to say sorry for the delay in uploading this chapter. I had some exams to study for, and there was also an...unfortunate "incident" with the Doc Editor...
(aka- it deleted about three days worth of edits...and I kinda lost my will to work on it for a bit.)
So...yeah. This chapter is a bit messy, late, and for that I apologize. Hopefully you'll still stick with me.
-A. Moth
Few who request my tales are searching for the mundane. None demand the simple daily happenings of life. They are far more interested in the swashbuckling rescue of a maiden in distress, the dramatic and fortuitous return of a loved one once thought dead, or the sugar sweet romance of a first kiss. Eventually I will get the chance to chronicle my tale of the most disastrously monstrous load of laundry to some wide-eyed scullery maid...but today is not that day.
Rest easy adventure lovers, I can assure you with utmost sincerity, all of those exciting events and more will soon came to pass! So there's no need for any fretting or brooding. You there, I said stop fidgeting! You're being quite a distraction, you know.
Ahem!
Bear with me, if you can, because before I can recount for you those most exciting times, we have something to discuss. It is an important lesson, mind you! Vital, even!
I can already hear the complaints ringing in my ears. The cries that tell me please, Montblanc, oh how we want to hear the truth behind the fall of the Kingdom of the Seven Gardens, the former beacon of light! And what a riveting tale it will be, too.
Yet trust me when I tell you that story will mean nothing if you do not first comprehend the importance of one very important letter, penned by yours truly that, as I was later told, had been stored for many years in an old brick laying manual. No offense to brick layers, of course, but I'll admit I had a laugh when I realized the item that would set forth the wheels of destiny, and mark the beginning of the end for an entire royal dynasty had been stored in something so innocuously dull. A letter painstakingly penned with intention to be the foundation of some future treasonous plot, stored at the start of a final chapter titled 'The Best Laid Plans...All about Brickwork', that eventually helped break down a tyranny of lies and deceit. Is there something ironic to be found there? Perhaps.
But it is about time now for me to explain. I apologize in advance for my coughing, and beg you not to transcribe it if you can. Everything else, though - every other word that comes out of my mouth you had better take down dutifully, young man!
...Do pardon me if my memory fails now and again. It was so long ago...
Though I suppose that's why you're making this record then, eh? So you can still be amused by my stories long after I croak. Ah, you're not laughing. Too grim? I understand.
Now listening closely. My only fee for my tale, of course, is your rapt attention and unending refills of this delicious cordial...
The goblet containing the last remaining swill of elderberry wine clattered against the rough stone as Beatrix leaned backwards into the wall, craning her neck upward at the barely visible constellations past the arching roof of the tea house.
"I'm going to resign, Montblanc. There's just no sense in it any more."
Stunned, the records keeper momentarily stopped to readjust his favorite fluffy orange pom-pom topped poof of a hat before managing to splutter out a response.
"E-even after all you've already given up to protect-"
Beatrix slammed her unwanted drink to rest on top of the wall and flicked her voluminous hair over her shoulder, making sure to reveal the heavy bandages plastered on the right side of her face.
"I am well aware of the sacrifices I've made."
Despite the patch covering part of her features and her one eye, there was no mistaking the ferocity in her expression.
"I gave my oaths to protect the people, not sit idly by while they practically handicap an innocent right under my nose! Then tell me it's somehow justified."
The wine had clearly gotten to her head, so Montblanc tried not to ruffle her any further. He rose out of his cushion laden chair and shuffled over to a desk cluttered with papers, fishing for something in particular, humming as he did so.
"I have no doubts you are serious. After all, your unwavering dedication to true justice is your most admirable trait, kupo."
The records keeper had an unfortunate recurring cough that pestered him something fierce. Despite a constant regiment of herbal teas, nothing really soothed it. But most had already grown accustomed to the chronic high-pitched squeaking addendum to his speech and refrained from comment.
Beatrix waited for his coughing to calm before she continued.
"So then you understand that a kingdom who would order something so...despicable isn't the same kingdom I swore to serve! I was tasked with keeping our people safe, and even though it cost a part of me I'll never get back, I never hesitated once."
She gestured sharply towards her missing eye.
Montblanc lowered his head, nodding along in agreement as he continued to search for something among the scattered parchment. Yep. The wine was talking.
"Then they tell me our future is in danger, and that one young girl is the only key to saving the princess' light. 'It's for the greater good', they argued!"
She yelled out, her face flush with the rosy hue of adrenaline and slight drunkenness.
"When I told her to go along with them I had no idea they were going to...change her. I don't know what they did to her, but she went with them a normal, albeit frightened girl, and came back out...unable to walk, unable to even speak! How is that justified!?"
Beatrix pushed away from the wall, slamming her fist hard into the stone. "If they think it is fair to idly lead an innocent to slaughter in order to save the kingdom, then maybe this isn't a kingdom worth saving!"
Montblanc took a deep breath and fiddled with the orange pom on his hat, re-positioning it over his wavy blond coiffure. "And the people in this kingdom, ignorant of that decision? Are they still worth saving?"
His question rattled her to the core and she slumped into a nearby chair, nearly knocking over the tiny tea table next to it. "They...are the only thing I will continue to fight for. And until I make things right with that girl...it must be reversible somehow! Surely?"
While her question was rhetorical, the records keeper considered it all the same.
"Perhaps."
It was only one word, but it snapped Beatrix's head upwards to rapt attention.
"What do you know? Tell me." Her voice was demanding and harsh but Montblanc was used to such things with her and didn't let it trouble him.
"I only have one...somewhat unfounded theory. Honestly, I know almost as little as you. Even though I am record keeper they kept me out of that experimentation room. 'No records!' they practically screamed at me. Shoved the doors shut. Still have the bruise to prove it..." He rubbed the side of his arm and squished his face up painfully. "I had to redact everything from the books—kupo!"
Montblanc momentarily paused to let out another hefty cough. "Yet it is possible there may be a way to remove the girl's curse, Bea."
"For the last time, it's Beatrix."
Montblanc adjusted the white frills of his jacket cuffs, accepting her brief scolding before holding aloft what he had been searching his desk for: a set of thick cards adorned with images of constellations and beautifully detailed illustrations.
"Ta-da!"
The general glared at him silently.
Montblanc merrily returned to his seat and settled his rump down into the soft leather. "Do you know much about fortune telling?"
Beatrix continued to regard her friend quietly before shaking her head. "Only that peddlers often use it to prey on the superstitious, and it takes real gods-given talent to be even remotely decent at the practice."
"Yes, well..."
Leaning over the small tea table, he spread the cards out for her to examine more closely. Beatrix leaned over and lifted one up after the other, admiring the hand-drawn images. The deck must have been crafted with painstaking effort by someone truly inspired. A real artisan's handiwork.
"I don't recognize many of these symbols, but I know the names of the deities marked on them. And while this is all very interesting..."
"Kupopo!" The records keeper cleared his throat, and pulled seven cards out of the deck to display side by side, already ready with the answers she craved.
"Behold! The intricate design of the seven suits of fortune. Each one represents a constellation and the deity associated with it. For example..." Montblanc trapped a card marked with a blazing red sun under his fingertip and slid it forward from the rest.
"Azeyma and The Balance, the constellation meant to bring, of course, balance. To correct injustice through ultimate, fiery judgment. One of your favorites, yes?"
Beatrix lifted heavy eyelashes at him. "Montblanc...please get to the point. I've had a trying day."
Montblanc suppressed another cough and pushed forward a second card, this one adorned with a blue pot of water. "The Ewer and the deity of Nymeia. Both represent the flow of life, and the energy and fate that connects us all together. Truly a mysterious, yet wonderful card I think."
"And…?"
"On the day they took Namine away for that...experiment, or whatever nonsense they did to her, a special guest was invited to the castle. I met her, briefly, before she was swept off elsewhere and I was shut out of the proceedings." Montblanc closed his eyes, recalling the memory like a picture in his mind. "She was a quiet girl, seemed very mature for her age. Didn't say more than a few words. Before we parted, she stealthily slipped me this deck of cards, with The Ewer in particular flipped inverted among the rest."
Beatrix lifted the card up from the table, giving it a second, more thorough examination. But she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. It looked perfectly normal. Or, as perfectly normal as a card from a fortune telling deck could look, anyway.
"Is there a hidden code written on it somewhere?"
"Not as far as I could find. But knowing the meaning of the card, I can't help but wonder..." Montblanc rolled his fingers along the arm of his chair, relishing in the even puttering sound it made.
"The meaning? You mean the water of life?" She brushed over the image of the cup on the face of the card, but Montblanc tutted.
"I believe the meaning goes deeper than that. Something that connects us together as living beings. Perhaps she wanted us to seek out someone connected to her, or connected to Namine."
Sinking back into her chair, Beatrix regarded the records keeper over her folded hands. "But what do you even know of this girl? Other than her being a fortune teller?"
The records keeper sighed and leaned back himself, snuggling into the pillows a bit. "I only know her name: Ellone. From that brief meeting I felt such a general melancholy about her, like she wasn't expecting the days events to end well for her."
A gust of strong wind rattled the roof of the tea house, bringing with it a sudden chill. The wind clawed at the rafters before groaning away, its voice full of sorrow. To the two unlikely friends inside, it seemed as though nature itself was bemoaning the times, disturbed and pained by the past. Montblanc leapt up to fasten the latch on the window before the approaching storm decided it wanted to drop in for tea.
Thankfully nearby they had a hearth merrily crackling away to keep them warm.
Once the shutters were securely locked in place, he returned sighed back down into his seat. "...Sure enough, I never saw that girl again. I can only imagine she also fell victim to this madness..."
Beatrix uttered a sound of disgust and flicked the card of Ewer back down onto the table. "Yet another innocent."
"Despite my best efforts—which you should know were quite thorough-our fortune teller has vanished entirely. Her name they ordered me to forcibly redact from every record. I don't know if she was killed, but they certainly wanted to kill her identity. If by some miracle she is alive somewhere..."
The general understood immediately. "Find Ellone, and she may be able to fix what was done?"
Montblanc shrugged. "It's all conjecture. But she must hold the key to it all. The Ewer is fate. Destiny. Memory."
He gathered the cards up and tapped on the top of them one more time. "If you want the answer, I believe you must look here. Beyond the logical, beyond reality, to what only could make sense within the realm of magic."
The general rolled her eyes and folded one of her long slender legs over the other, bouncing her foot idly in the air. "I much prefer something I can actually do myself rather than blindly trusting a pack of playing cards."
"A true woman of action until the end, kupo! That's what I like to hear!"
The wind rattled the roof again before hissing through the nearby trees. Something about the stormy weather and screeching gale made them both feel somewhat insignificant but at the same time thankful that they could shield themselves from it, as thin as the walls of their shelter were.
Unfortunately, not all storms were as simple to hide from.
Montblanc glanced towards the window, listening to some nearby branches clack against it under the rough winds. "My friend...I hope you are aware of the potential dangers that seeking these answers could bring, yes?"
Beatrix answered with her eyes, shining back at him clear and resolute. Both of them knew. To go against the orders of the crown, to attempt to dig up information that was purposefully suppressed was not going to be looked upon fondly. The king had ordered Namine taken away because he claimed it was the only way to save his daughter. And if picking at the scab of this wound would potentially endanger the princess again, any punishment they could receive for meddling would be magnitudes greater. Possibly life imprisonment at best, but far more likely...
Far more likely it would mean death.
"I have fought through hordes of darkness to uphold what I feel is true and just! I have clashed and defeated men whom I once regarded as comrades and felt their blood on my face!"
Beatrix rose from the chair, pushing her chin up elegantly into the air. Her will shimmering with the same light as the night stars above. It was obvious to the records keeper that her reputation was well-founded. The May Rose, a woman who was as beautiful as she was covered in pointed thorns.
"I fear nothing!"
"Right, then!" The records keeper cheered, bobbing his head up and down, jiggling the fluffy orange pom on his hat. "Treason it is! Oh, how very exciting!"
His childishly enthusiastic chuckle at such a grim time startled the general out of her ferocious stance. She covered her one good eye with her hand, sighing heavily.
"Must you say it like that? Out loud? This tea house isn't exactly the most...private place."
Ignoring her completely, Montblanc practically skipped over to his desk. He shuffled around the papers again until he found a small button hidden under a hollow rock on his desk and rapped it decisively. A compartment in the side of the thinnest drawer popped open and his pinching fingers skillfully pried out a letter from the narrow opening.
"Now, you stated earlier you wish to resign as general, yes? Perhaps I could convince you to stave off on that for just a while longer. I may be able to secure your transfer as a private guard for a certain young lady instead, after reconstruction efforts have wrapped up."
Beatrix furrowed her brow, and jabbed a finger back down at the deck of fortune cards still resting on the small tea table. "And what of Ellone?"
"I have already planted a seed. One that I hope will sprout into the mightiest of mighty trees, offering us the bountiful fruit of knowledge and-"
"Oh do stop it with that drivel. I'm not a giddy child listening to a ballad."
Montblanc huffed. And coughed.
"-Kupo! Fine, fine. If I'm succinct: we need to be very patient for my plan to work out. Patient and incredibly lucky. Because even if every piece moves as it should, there is still a chance the results will not be in our favor."
Beatrix flipped her hair over her shoulder, somehow looking even more determined than before. "I understand patience. It often marks the difference between victory and failure on the battlefield. It stands to reason that now the answers we seek will be closely guarded. But given a few years, vigilance may falter...and that is when we will be most able to strike!"
"Indeed! But lately they have been very wary of me in particular poking my nose in where I shouldn't be. Suggestions have been circulating of my...soon-to-be recommended retirement."
The records keeper allowed a touch of regret pass across his face, but he quickly shook it off with a wiggle of his head, bouncing the orange pom-pom on his hat back and forth almost comically.
"Then...you are to be replaced?" Beatrix surmised, her normal stone cold expression softened slightly.
"Eventually. But maybe this is for the best. Any replacement of mine will be under less scrutiny to investigate should he choose to." He jabbed one finger triumphantly into the air. "And! I already have my eye on my successor. Brilliant lad. Young and curious."
He rubbed his hands together eagerly. With a flourish, he then directed her attention towards one small volume amidst all the other dusty parchment in the corner of the room.
"I've already left him a tiny clue among the redacted sections of the history report. Should he come across it I have no doubt he is going to wiggle his way into the truth!"
The records keeper smirked and tugged on his green tunic as if proud of his himself, but the general looked far less than pleased.
"...And you expect me to sit around and wait for someone else to fish around for the answer, then hope that whoever it is decides to fill me in afterwards?"
Montblanc clicked his tongue and waggled the small paper he had fished out of his desk earlier up in the air, extending it towards her. "Thaaaat's where this comes in!"
"...A letter?" Her skepticism was palpable.
"Not just any letter, Bea! Within this letter is-" Montblanc caught the look on his friend's face and coughed nervously, "Beatrix. Beatrix is what I meant to say. Kupo."
He pushed the envelope towards her again. "You see, what this letter has is leverage. If you show the next records keeper, he should offer up any information you choose."
"...You mean blackmail?"
"The more personal the better! Like I said, I've been vetting my future successor, digging up all manner of nonsense he would particularly hate to be made public. I've worded it...carefully. From one records keeper to another. Kupo!"
She reached out and hesitantly accepted the envelope, raising it up to the light to try and spy on the contents inside. "Am I not to read it?"
"What do they call an imp with three missing fingers, now? A curious one." He tutted and tugged on his ruffled sleeves once more. "Your role in this is to wait patiently until you have reason to believe he may have something of interest to say. Mind you, it will only work once as surely he will burn this letter upon receiving it..."
Beatrix scoffed. "Lovely."
Despite her outward flippancy, she very carefully tucked the letter away in an inner pouch of her jacket. "So...watch and wait. And then?"
"Then, when you get enough answers, hopefully you can play the part of daring knight, and right the wrongs that so pain you, Bea."
She opened her mouth to correct him again, but paused. "Montblanc...if this works, I'll never bother you about that blasted nickname again."
The records keeper was so pleased his hat wobbled a few times with his cheery grin. "Wonderful! If it works I'll make you call me Monty! What an exciting time!"
"But I do have one question. Why? Why go through all this trouble for my sake?"
Montblanc's grin never faded, and he laid a hand on his now triumphantly puffed-out chest. "In all my life, I've always dreamed of being a deus ex machina. And now I finally can get a chance! We're in this together, you and I."
Clicking her tongue, and feeling quite finished with the matter, Beatrix stomped towards the exit of the tea house, making sure to snatch up her sword from its place leaning against the wall.
She was ready now to venture out into the brewing storm.
"You are dramatic and ridiculous, Montblanc."
"Oh-ho! Says the woman who immediately power-read through an entire chess master guide book because she lost a friendly match against me once!"
His retort not ignored, Beatrix directed one final flick of her hair towards him. "Exactly. Once."
As I said, that letter would only come to light many years after our conversation, but what a brilliant debut it made. My dear friend Beatrix, having suspicions that they knew more about Namine than their appearances would suggest, invited those two unusual knights she had been keeping an eye on up for a chat. Namine had been signing all of her fever dream drawings with the name 'Sora' and she was quite determined to finally get to the bottom of things.
In that meeting, Sora confirmed something that Beatrix had been greatly suspicious of for some time. But it all defied logic. Defied all common sense, really. And it was at that point she distinctly recalled a certain deck of cards, and a letter she had been saving for just this occasion.
She pulled it out of its dusty library prison with a dramatic flourish! Then the three of them marched straight for Ienzo's office, and set the whole thing in motion.
Why, if it weren't for my letter the three of them would perhaps have never weaseled out from my successor exactly what made Namine so special. Or about the poor girl with the power to fix it all who had been cruelly imprisoned in the temple basement for years.
It confirmed every last theory they had, and gave them an answer on where next to turn.
We can all say, without a doubt, their subsequent treasonous actions changed everything. It sealed the fate of the former Kingdom. For only a few short days after my letter emerged from those dusty pages of the Brick Laying Manual within which it was kept, the Kingdom we had once all held so dear would crumble to dust.
And it would be no more.
But before we lay any hindsight-imbued judgment upon their souls, we must consider what bravery they must have possessed to rise against an entire kingdom. They all stood proudly, facing death itself to attempt to change the future by first unlocking the past.
Sacrifices of that nature will not be forgotten.
Now, before I get to the action you all so crave, may I please beseech you for yet another fill of drink? My flagon seems to have run empty…
...
-Excerpts from "The Lost Kingdom"
The Final Narrative Memoir of Montblanc Centurio,
Former Records Keeper of the Gardens
(As transcribed by his young ward, here unnamed)
"I am well prepared for my fate. It has been a long time coming. But you two..."
The former general glanced forlornly at the two knights lingering silently near the large bay windows that looked out across the fields of sunflowers. However, the current night air was so thick with darkness that none of the flowers were visible beneath the black swath.
None of the information the three of them had just learned felt like it could be real, but no amount of pinching was waking them up from this nightmare. Namine was the only one who seemed able to sleep through it, intermittently dozing off in her chair between doodling scratchy lines into her latest drawing.
Beatrix was glad to finally know the answer, but it left a bitter taste in her mouth. Simply knowing really was only the beginning.
"You two still have your whole lives ahead of you. If we are caught, it will surely mean death. There is no shame in it if you two wish to turn back now." She urged them to speak.
While Riku continued silently leaning up against the wall, arms crossed against his chest, Sora jumped up off the ledge, reinvigorated passion flowing through him as he bounced lightly up on his heels.
"No way! I'm not gonna give up that easily!"
Just as surely, though with far less animation, his friend agreed.
"As if we could go back to daily life, willingly complicit in burying the truth. Sorry but that's not going to work for me either."
Beatrix gave them both a second look-over. Young. So fresh and full of life and promise. But they had a resolve like no other. It was the same resolve that had caught her attention in the past when she was still overseeing and recommending promotions among the ranks. There had been something so unusual about them. And even though Sora in particular had not yet met the intended requirements for his final promotion, she had pushed for him to be granted one anyway.
It had been a gamble, but she had the distinct feeling they were both destined for something. And maybe now that time had finally come. She knew if this inane idea had any chance of working at all she would need their help.
"I will value your companionship. And fervently hope our sacrifice will not be in vain. If we die, we shall know it was for true justice."
She saw Sora's eager face diminish slightly and he scuffed his toe on the carpet. "Uh...is that really what we're fighting for? Justice?"
The former general tipped her head at him. "Did you have something else in mind?"
"Well...yeah." His eyes glanced towards Namine who had stirred a bit in her sleep and reached for one of her coloring pastels. She finally settled on one of a deep crimson hue and began scratching long swooping lines across the paper.
Reaching over, Sora gave Namine a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Justice is great and all, but we're doing it for her. And for Ka-...er...well, you know."
It didn't go unnoticed by anyone in the room that the young girl with sunbeam hair shivered at his touch, dropping her coloring pastel once more to the floor. She mumbled his name again and he hastily bent down to retrieve the wayward stick of red color now half buried in the carpet. As he handed it back, he wrapped his hands around her pale fragile ones, trying to offer some comfort.
"Soon, you won't have to suffer these awful memories any more. I'm sorry it took us so long."
He waited for Namine's gentle fingers to grasp the pastel before giving her another reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. But Namine didn't return to her drawing, instead setting it shakily down onto the table. Beatrix saw this one in particular, rather than depicting death and suffering, was a picture of two girls lying next to each other, as if sleeping. One with messy blond hair in a white dress, the other with red hair and a lavender colored one. Both sleeping children were being stood over by another girl in a lime green dress and brown hair. Blue lines traced between the three of them, connecting all of their forms together like a triangular river. Other deep jagged red lines cut across all three of them, like streaks of visible pain shooting like lightning over their bodies.
And for once, Beatrix had no confusion over what scene this drawing must have been depicting. Sora glanced down at the picture, also looking uneasy.
"Even though it will be hard for everyone, especially...especially for..." He stalled, and it was obvious who his thoughts were drifting to. But he shook his head to clear it and continued.
"If she can get her memories back then I think everyone will be much happier in the end."
Riku nodded towards him with a light smirk. "Maybe not that fiance of hers."
Stammering, Sora's face started to turn the same color as the crayon he had just fetched off the floor. "Y-yeah well I'm trying not to think about him right now. So thanks for that."
Namine shivered and leaned sideways against his arm, cutting off his complaining entirely. Her soft voice mumbled, quiet but still loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.
"...the rain is so cold."
A mournful expression crossed Sora's face; a mixture of pained sadness and regret. Yet another undeniable sign that within Namine's mind were hundreds of trapped memories, swirling around like an endlessly looping dream. And as Sora had claimed earlier, he had lived those memories. Scrawled on the papers were images of events he knew personally. He could recognize the figures, the faces, the places within. But they were not memories he had shared with Namine.
They were memories that never should have been inside Namine to begin with. Memories that had been forcibly crammed inside of her using the magic of a specially trained witch.
Sora lowered his head towards the trembling girl in the chair, trying his best to hide the sorrow on his face.
"Namine...I'm so sorry. Please just hold on a little longer, okay?"
Beatrix kneeled as well, making sure her eye patch was firmly in place before gazing towards the lonely princess with as kind an expression as she could manage. "We are going to find the one who did this to you, and make her reverse it."
Putting on a bright smile, Sora bounced back up to his feet, his energy returned. "I bet Seifer is gonna be so happy to hear about his sister, too! The minute he gets back from his trip home I'll-"
A sharp glance from Riku cut him off.
"You aren't to tell anyone a word of this."
"But, it's his sister, shouldn't he-"
Riku only rolled his eyes, making his opinion on Seifer perfectly clear. "Seifer is even more hot-headed than you. If you tell him his sister is alive he is bound to do something incredibly stupid. And worst of all, unpredictable. That's the last thing we need: a wildcard just as stubborn as you but without any of the positives."
Embarrassed, Sora scratched at the back of his head. "Heh. Positives, huh? Like what?
"Well for starters, not everyone is a naive cinnamon roll like you."
"A naive cinna-" Huffing, Sora puffed out his lips in childish irritation. "Oh yeah? Well at least cinnamon rolls are delicious. If you were a food you'd be...I dunno...a cup of cold coffee or something terrible."
He seemed quite proud of himself, but Riku shattered his confidence immediately with a shrug of indifference.
"Great. I love coffee."
"W-well fine! Then you'd be brussels sprouts dipped in dark chocolate." Sora grinned again, as if sure this answer was going to be the winning jab. "Pretty terrible, huh?"
"Awful." Riku's stoic face cracked slightly into a smile. "Which is even better. Then I'll be less likely to end up as someone's dinner. "
Maybe she just didn't understand the joke, but she couldn't understand how the two of them could be smiling about something so stupid right now. Beatrix crossed her arms and cleared her throat to catch their attention.
"The point is, that no one can know about this. Are we in agreement?"
Sora hesitantly nodded. "Yeah, I guess so...but what is the plan, anyway? If we end up needing help or another set of hands I think we should go to him first."
"Fine." Beatrix closed her eyes and contemplated the situation carefully before speaking. "Now, the way I see it, in order to free Ellone we are first going to need to scope the temple out. Find exactly where she is being held and the most direct path there."
She lifted up a second finger into the air. "Next, we will need to borrow both the temple master key and the key to her prison room, make a copy of both, then return them before they are missed."
Another finger joined the two already up. "Finally, we use our copied keys to sneak in at an opportune time when the priests are least likely to set off an alarm and catch us before we can escape with her. Any objections?"
Riku, who had been nodding along with her plan so far, gave her a satisfactory grunt of approval. "None here. And if I remember correctly, Ienzo mentioned she was being kept in a place called 'Griever's Watch'. If my reference knowledge isn't rusty, Griever is the name of the god Rhalgr's pet lion. Not sure if that does us any good, but it might help us identify the specific key we need."
"A lion, huh?" Sora twisted his face up in thought for a moment before nodding firmly to himself. "Yeah, that scores up pretty high on the cool pets list. Not as cool as a dragon, but better than an ochu."
"But who would keep an ochu as a...ugh, what does it matter..." Beatrix opened her mouth to chastise him for getting sidetracked yet again, but a soft head shake from Riku made her hesitate.
"He's just like that. But don't worry, he's serious when he needs to be." Yet another smirk from the knight in the corner, and a beaming grin from the other left her just as baffled as before. What was with these two?
"I...I see."
Riku shrugged and motioned towards Namine. "At least he's always serious when it comes to saving girls. He's always been particular about that sort of thing."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Beatrix ignored Sora's complaint altogether and sighed into her hand. "As long as we get the job done."
"No problem! Get some keys, get back out. Easy! But, uh...one question." Sora's confident veneer slipped slightly and he uneasily glanced between the other two knights. "How are we even going to get into the temple in the first place? It's not like we can just walk in, right?"
Riku scowled a little, contemplating things. "It's a fair point. Knights aren't allowed in except for official business or as an escort. The last thing we want is to draw too much attention to ourselves before we can even get the keys."
Beatrix glanced over towards Namine who was bobbing her head drowsily in her chair, oblivious to the world.
"Actually...that may be exactly what we want to do."
For most girls, preparing for a wedding was supposed to be a momentous, dreamlike time full of excitement and giddy giggles while picking out dresses and flower arrangements. But there was never anything normal about her, was there? Perhaps in some way nightmares could be considered some type of dream...right?
Kairielis couldn't concentrate on anything about the pointless conversation. The priest kept prattling on about fortuitous days, about their opinions on which constellation they wanted to have overhead during their union, about which deity would be most able to hear their prayers, asking which ones they wanted to call upon in their vows...
None of it mattered.
Instead, her focus was locked on the steady drip of water from somewhere up above, casting light, barely discernible ripples across the surface of the tranquil pool. Each touch creating one wrinkled blemish after the other. It was infinitely more interesting than planning decorations for this farce of a wedding.
Hans, to his credit, was still doing his best to put on a devoted fiance persona. And while she herself was still going through the motions of formality, sitting through the required appointments, she had an obvious lack of enthusiasm. She was surprised no one had called her out on it yet, honestly.
Every speck of energy she had was being devoted to snagging the tiniest morsel of information about where her two knights had gone. But no one wanted to breathe a word to her. And the current stony golems assigned to watch over her now certainly weren't letting her go off on her own down to the barracks to chase after those two.
She yearned to see them again. She had rehearsed what she would say a million times, perfectly, over and over in her mind. Not that it would do her any good.
If she didn't do anything soon, it would be too late. Her body reflexively shivered at the thought of the looming ceremony. In desperation, her eyes drifted briefly towards the entrance of the temple, praying something would walk through the doors that could disrupt this slog of a meeting.
Anything but more of this...
She nearly jumped as she saw the large doors slowly creak open, answering her prayers.
Unfortunately, it wasn't in the way she was hoping.
Beatrix held the door open wide enough for Namine's wheeled chair to be pushed through and the two entered the open dome of the temple. Kairielis nearly shrieked, but managed to clamp her hands down over her mouth, muffling her cry.
Why was her cousin here!? If Namine saw her…
This is bad, this is very, very bad…
She searched for an exit, scuttling around behind a nearby pillar while both Hans and the priest turned to ogle at what had startled her.
"Beatrix…!?"
While Hans was spinning about in bafflement, the priest's furious exclamation left no room for misinterpretation that this was a problem.
The knight smiled with uncharacteristic sweetness. "Why, whatever is the matter? I always take Namine out to the gardens for fresh air. Sometimes she wants to see the pool."
Kairielis shivered against the narrow stone pillar, but it was far too small to hide completely behind. She locked eyes with the knight, and expected Beatrix to show a flicker of recognition. If Beatrix knew she was here, she would take her cousin and leave. Immediately. She wouldn't want to risk her cousin having an uncontrolled fit again.
...Right?
But to her surprise, Beatrix focused straight on her.
And smiled.
Kairielis had no idea what words the knight whispered in her cousin's ear, but it only made Namine's head snap up. Her cousin's eyes widened, her body shivered. If Beatrix had been making an attempt to soothe her it didn't work in the slightest.
No, no, no…
Backing away, Kairielis tried to distance herself from her cousin, internally pleading to whatever was out there that her cousin wouldn't suffer. But Namine's wispy body began to shake more and more violently as she wrenched herself back and forth in the chair as if trying to get away. Shrieks ripped from her throat, echoing across the water and up into the rafters.
By this time Kairielis had long abandoned her shelter behind the pillar. Pain rippled through her head and she gulped, shrinking against the temple's far wall, hoping to get as far away from the crying as possible. All the priests, and even Hans rushed over to try and usher Namine out of the way, to calm her tears.
Out of the noise Kairielis could hear them questioning Beatrix, arguing. But of course Beatrix would have had no idea that it would be a problem for Namine to come to the temple garden today. It wasn't like Kairielis regularly came here to chat with priests about wedding details this time in the afternoon. Obviously no one had thought to tell her that. Or maybe they had and she just forgot.
It didn't matter why they were here. She had to get out of this room. She had to get away.
Turning, she bolted down the hall, pulling open doors and fleeing further, deeper down into the temple, on and on towards the center. She had no idea where she was running to, just away. Eventually she stumbled down a hallway she had never even seen before, but she didn't even care to stop and navigate. She just kept running.
Yanking on the next closest door, she slipped through and slammed it shut behind her. Was she hyperventilating or just winded? Ugh...
Closing her eyes, she tuned out the world entirely, and focused only on a few, calm, steady breaths. In. And out.
When her heart finally stopped racing, she dared to open them again and glance about her surroundings.
The room was rather dusty, and full of what looked like abandoned or forgotten personal belongings. It would probably be best not to touch anything just in case she accidentally disturbed the stacks upon which everything was precariously balanced. She had no idea how any of them could find what they were looking for in this haphazard mess.
Curiosity got the better of her, now that her cousin's cries were slightly muffled behind the door. And, still wanting to escape a bit further away, she started to walk deeper into the room, past a few bookshelves towards an antique writing desk piled high with parchments.
For some reason she felt the need to draw even closer to this place. Not so much the desk, but the wall directly behind it.
It was a thick stone. Cold to the touch. Not particularly unusual. So why was it alluring somehow? Some thick dust soaked curtains were draped along one section and she ruffled them slightly with a brush of her finger.
Something still urged her to pull them aside and look. Something else urged her to step away. Caught between both emotions she fumbled backwards, bumping her hip into the side of a shelf. It teetered and she gasped, whipping around to steady it before she caused any massive destruction in her wake. The shelf jingled as it swayed, and she turned to see rows upon rows of keys hanging from various hooks, all individually labeled. Thank the gods she hadn't knocked the whole thing over. She never would have been able to hang them all back up correctly.
As she centered the shelf once more, she heard one thick metallic clang.
Oops...
Whatever key that fell must have been fairly hefty from the sound, but she couldn't see it anywhere. Bending down, she searched on her knees for a moment underneath the shelf. Her fingers brushed across something somewhat sharp and she carefully dragged it out to get a closer look. It was a rather thick brass key, and stood out from all the others still hanging up on the hooks.
It was remarkably ornate, the handle full of fine twisting curves of metal bent around one another in the shape of a lion's head. Was it even meant to be a key or just decoration? Of course it was a key. There were a few unmistakable teeth jutting out the opposite side as the lion's face, meant for a lock that surely must also be just as hefty and detailed. She couldn't imagine a key this fancy would go to a plain nondescript lock.
What could a key like this even go to? In all the time she had been in the temple she had never seen anything that would match a lion's head. Then again, it wasn't like she really had ever thoroughly explored the place. Despite it being necessary for her to go there every morning, the priests seemed wary of letting her wander unsupervised.
She wrapped her fingers around it and hesitated. It was surprisingly heavier than she expected. Better to be careful in case she dropped it again. Turning to hang it back up on the hook, she steadied herself and did her best simultaneously to ignore the curtain standing out in the edge of her vision. There was no label on the hook, giving her no clue about what the key belonged to. Just as she slipped it over the top of the hook, she heard the door behind her creak open and she gasped, fumbling with the lion head. The key tumbled back down to the floor with an echoing clatter.
"A-ah! I'm so sorry! I was only trying to..."
The person who had entered the room wasn't a priest.
Very far from it, in fact.
And judging from the look on Riku's face, he hadn't been expecting to see her there either. While the surprise didn't last long, his silence did. When she finally gathered herself enough to stop gawking, she fiddled nervously with her bracelet and tried to at least form a coherent sentence. But all the preparation of what to say that she had done in her head earlier dissolved faster than a sugar cube in a hot cup of tea.
"I'm...surprised to see you. What...are you possibly doing here?"
It sounded much harsher than she intended, but maybe there really was still some slight resentment hiding inside of her that had not yet been shed out of her with all the tears.
He only stared, and she noticed his eyes drifting to the floor where the strange lion head key was resting.
"S-so you are...doing well, then?"
It felt odd being so stiff around him, and he seemed to be very purposefully staying at the other end of the room. It looked like he was only focused on the key at her feet. Maybe he was wondering what it was for himself, because he certainly wasn't answering any of her questions.
She chewed at her lip a little, hoping he would at least speak.
"Is...is Sora-"
"I need that key."
He pointed down to the metal lion at her feet, completely ignoring her again.
And triggering her ire.
Was he trying to make her angry? It certainly seemed that way! He was going to leave her behind without a single word, then come waltzing up out of the blue, refuse to even do her the courtesy of saying hello and then demand her to do something for him? Certainly not!
"Oh? This key?" She stomped heavily down on the end, pressing it into the floorboards and locking it securely in place. "Oopsie! Looks like it's stuck under my shoe right now. Maybe if you play nice I'll consider moving."
Riku furrowed his brow, but still said nothing. All the fire of her anger melting away any shaky insecurities she had before. She forged ahead, hoping he would be more cooperative now.
"Why did you leave? Without even saying goodbye! Why didn't Sora just tell me he-"
"The key. If you want to help Sora you'll give it to me."
She leaned harder into the foot pressed against the key and glared.
"Oh? Well maybe you should answer my questions then. I'm not giving it up that easily! Why are you here?"
Silence.
Riku was definitely not an easy person to manipulate, because he usually had some sort of hidden ace in his sleeve. However he didn't have anything today but his sheer stubbornness. And stubbornness wasn't going to get him what he wanted.
She really wanted to ask him why he was being so difficult, but she knew that question wouldn't get an answer either. Every second of his silence only worked her lingering temper up towards the surface.
"If you won't give me a reason why would I give this to you then? Somehow I feel like once I hand it over you'll run off and leave me without a second thought. Again." Fury shook her shoulders. "Well...I suppose you were only following Sora, weren't you. He's the one who left. If Sora wants this key he is going to have to come get it from me himself!"
Riku closed his eyes and his shoulders drooped slightly. "If you really need an answer, you should consider exactly what you told Sora to do before you start throwing blame around."
"I..."
Gods, he always found a work-around to win arguments, didn't he? Even ones where he had said barely three sentences. But that didn't change the fact that he was right. She knew he was right. Too many tears had already been shed because of how much she regretted half the things she had said to Sora that night. Being in denial about it wasn't going to help anything. The air in the room was so dusty and stuffy it was starting to make her feel a bit drowsy.
"I know. I know what I said. I asked him to stop following me."
"Ordered him."
She trembled again, but knew it wasn't out of anger. When he was cross, his words really cut through to the bone.
"Everything just got so out of hand. If you see him, p-please..."
And here she was, thinking the tears had long dried up already. But the unmistakable swell of water blurred her vision.
"Please tell him it was a mistake. Tell him I changed my mind."
She wished she could undo her 'order' because it had brought her nothing but misery. If there was any way to take back seeing him kneeling in the dirt in front of her, to let him know that she wanted him to call her Kairi again, she would do it in a heartbeat.
Riku eyed her coldly and said nothing. What was he waiting for? Did he want her to beg? She would if she knew it meant her words would reach wherever Sora was.
"Please, Riku! I don't know what else I can say. I know I never should have gotten so emotionally involved, but I did. Somehow, before I knew it, I was swept up in it all. Maybe we both took things a little too far, and..."
The rage in his glare choked her into silence.
"So let me get this straight, princess. You want me to tell him you changed your mind? That it was all a mistake? Is that really what you think?"
"I...wait, that isn't quite..."
While it was true, she had said all of that, now that she was hearing it reflected back to her she realized just how...wrong it sounded. Gods, it wasn't like she wanted to reset everything! Just the last bits.
"I don't-"
His eyes flashed with a deeper anger than she had only ever seen once in them before, when he was facing down that witch at the end of the hallway.
"What is he to you then, just a childish infatuation? Some exotic taboo plaything for you to irritate your father with?" His words were furious, but he never shouted. Not even once. Instead, they were cold shards of ice launched at her with calculated precision. "If that's really the case, you can keep the damn key."
He spun stiffly to leave and she shrieked after him, not caring if anyone outside heard her.
"No! That's wrong!" She didn't even care to wipe the tears away as they left wet streaks across her face, her voice surprisingly steady despite the furious thumping of her heart. "That's so utterly and completely wrong!"
True, there was a lot that, logically, she shouldn't have done in the first place, but having lived through it already she wouldn't give it up. It was all far too precious.
She gasped, spitting her words out amid shameful sobs. "I still care about him more than I have any right to! Nothing is the same any more without him here."
"So...you would still want him by your side?"
"More than anything! I never should have pushed him away! That's the only thing I regret and I'll regret it forever. I will never change how I feel about him. Because..." It was easier to pinch her eyes shut than continue fighting through the unbearable sting of salt anymore.
"I know I may never see him again. And that we are never meant to be...anything more than nothing. But I don't want the last thing I ever say to him to be something so painful! Tell him that I...that despite everything I still...even if I have to marry against my will, my heart will only ever be..."
"Stop. There's no need for any of that."
While the words themselves were frosty, there was a distinct thaw to his voice. It was much softer, more somber than before. And also sounded closer. Her eyes burst open in shock. Riku must have been slowly approaching her the whole time during her blind soliloquy, and was now standing just one arms length away.
"W-what? Why?"
"He already knows you love him."
And he smiled.
Smiled with that slightly cocky, sarcastic smirk of his when he was intentionally being snarky. She was almost too stunned to even breathe but seeing that look almost made her burst into tears again.
"Now, unless you are going to ask me to tell him something actually surprising, I'll deliver the message."
"Y-you..." Kairielis hastily wiped down her face first before pressing her fists into her hips in a shaky attempt to sass him back. "Y-you don't have to be s-such a jerk about it! I'd have thought a love confession from a princess would be worth something."
She never thought she would be so relieved to see that smirk of his again, and almost laughed at the absurdity of it all.
He clicked his tongue and shrugged. "It's only worth something if you tell him yourself."
Was he forgetting the part that they had resigned? Surely not.
"I...would if I could. I've been trying for so long to even find you two, but everyone keeps trying to block me from reaching out." The dusty air was starting to get to her again, and she felt her head droop. "M-maybe if you tell him everything then he will want to come back...if he doesn't hate me too much now..."
Riku shook his head and ran his fingers heavily through his hair. "Look, he didn't resign because he wanted to. He only did it because he needed to. In order to help you."
"Help me?" Again, he said something so absurd she wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry. "How is being apart from me helping, exactly?"
"We needed more freedom of movement, mostly. But he also didn't want to put you in any danger."
"D-danger!? Wait just a moment, what are you two doing that is so dangerous!?"
As she suspected, he once more irritatingly ignored the question he didn't want to answer. He just pointed down to her shoe, and the key still wedged beneath it.
"If you give me that key, I can't guarantee there will be a happy ending here. But I can promise you that Sora is doing everything he can to grant your wish."
"My...wish? Wait, what did I-"
There was a light echoing of voices from outside one of the nearby halls, and she recognized it immediately as her two guards, searching for her. Most likely the matter with Namine had been resolved, and everyone was now wondering where she had squirreled herself off to.
All amusement dropped from his face now, and Riku lowered his voice. This was serious. Urgent.
In all likelihood he wasn't meant to be here.
It was dangerous, just like he said.
"The key. Give it to me and he is going to do what he can to save you. There's no more time left."
She scooped up the brass key from the floor and squished it hard into her palm. The lion's head dug a little painfully into her skin. If she handed over the key now, she had no idea what was going to begin. But somehow, they were going to try to save her. This was her last lifeline, and if she rejected it now she had a fairly good idea what would soon await her in the future.
A gaudy, unnecessary ceremony with a power hungry duke.
The unstated question kept endlessly circling her mind, repeating itself: was the princess going to be selfish and fight for her own future, or was she going to do what is safe, secure, and what duty demands of her?
She trembled, the lion biting down harder into her palm.
No.
There was another option. The only real option that she even wanted to consider.
"Trust me." Sora had asked of her, the last time she had seen him. Yet trusting a knight with no title and no real accolades, whom she had only really just met a short time ago would be one of the most illogical possibly foolish choices she could make.
It could possibly throw her entire kingdom into chaos. Or worse, it could fill the entire land with darkness that she could no longer hold back.
What she set in motion she would have no idea until later, of course, but even looking back there was no way she could regret her choice this time.
Some may say it was a choice born from innocent and pure love. Some may say it was a foolish choice from a petulant child not wanting to accept her destiny.
But she did it anyway.
Only a few moments later, the two guards of very few words burst into the room, relieved to finally find the princess alone and unharmed in the dusty study. She murmured a simple apology and shuffled out, shutting the door tightly behind her.
Neither of the guards noticed that among the shelf filled with various keys, the one hook without a label where there once hung a single ornate brass key in the shape of a lion was now empty.
The little farmhouse stood quiet, solemn in the dusk. A sour stench hung upon the air and Seifer nearly gagged, kicking at a toppled milk pail on the floor in frustration.
"Why the hell did she send us to this backwater cesspit? And what happened to the farmer? Did he just run off? It's not like this is a war zone."
Still following silently behind him, the large raven merely glared, and batted his wings at the knight's head, refusing to entertain a single one of his questions.
"Tch. Whatever, bird-brain."
Venturing further into the house, the signs of disarray grew more and more evident. A whole table had been keeled over, and the stench only grew fouler. Turning the corner, Seifer gagged, and stumbled away from the sight before him.
A black plant, looking like it had been born from ink and sap had burst through the bottom of the floorboards, twisting itself around the furniture in the living room, leaving bubbling sludgy goop in its wake. There was also something limp, half crushed, entwined among its thorny branches.
"Ugh..." He winced and turned away, trying not to retch again. "Answers one question of mine, at least..."
Unperturbed by anything it saw, the raven hopped forward and cawed, clacking its talons repeatedly on the floorboards.
"Guess it really is already beginning..." The knight gawked at the massive plant until the raven cawed at him with more intense fervor than before.
"Give it a rest, will you! I'm working on it..." Seifer reached into his side pouch and yanked out a special clay jar, tied shut with a thick charm-imbued twine. "You give me any more sass and I'll stomp you so hard your little mistress is gonna need to remake you from scratch. Then maybe she'll design you less ugly next time."
The raven narrowed its eyes and clacked its beak several times, but Seifer snorted at the weak threat.
"I might've agreed to help out, but I ain't your minion. Don't you forget it!"
The knight turned his attention back to the twisted foul-smelling weed. "Now, to be honest, I'm a little surprised this 'seed' thing actually exists. But I guess it confirms that your master isn't totally full of it."
Flexing his fingers momentarily, he twisted off the lid on the jar and extended it towards the plant, keeping a cautious eye on the vines flicking around near his feet. And he waited.
Whatever spell had been in the jar soon began to work its magic. A thin line of smoke danced out towards the stem of the plant, circled it and tapped on some sheltered dark spiny pods lodged under a mess of thorns. The pods cracked open, and the plant gave a weak screech. Even darker and spinier spores ejected themselves from the pods and were immediately sucked into the jar by the smoke. The lid then closed itself with a satisfying pop, sealing the contents up tight.
Seifer blinked, dumbfounded at the procedure, but eventually just shrugged and returned the now full jar to his satchel.
"You know what? I don't care. So long as your master upholds her end of the bargain, I really don't care."
And the knight, eager to get out of the foul house, turned to leave, the one over-sized raven hopping rigidly after him.
Neither looked back, even as the plant continued to lightly screech, and grow upwards, stabbing its way further into the ceiling.
In less than a days time it was going to undoubtedly burst through the roof.
And soon it would consume the former home entirely.
The twisted roots of darkness were already beginning to make their appearance, closing in from beneath everyone's unsuspecting feet. At that time, no one knew exactly how far they stretched beneath the earth. Or the price it would take to turn them away.
As it was said, the darkness hungered to swallow the light, and would never stop seeking it. Restlessly it had been waiting below, growing and seething for a chance to burst through and take back what it thought was owed.
No one expected the darkness to fall again so soon.
But only because they had it wrong the whole time. It wasn't falling down. It was growing up.
Now, as promised, I will recount the adventure. The daring rescue of the mysterious Ellone! Their brave attempt to save all those suffering. The beginning of the end. The...oh, enough dramatics and I'll just get on with it then, shall I?