Night Wind
By: Wilona Riva
Disclaimer: Butch Hartman does; I don't.
Sevens
Phantom trembled; gloved hands reached to open the large ornate doors into the star-strewn room beyond. This wasn't the Queen of the Night Stars' throne room, but a smaller audience chamber where she conducted more private matters.
"Enter, my little phantom," she called out. "You have nothing to fear in my halls."
Phantom wrinkled his nose slightly. Does she have to insist on thinking me a child forever?
He bowed formally to her, once he'd shut the doors. He wanted to shout at her, scream his emotions to the high heavens, but this just wasn't the time or place.
"You are not happy, my little phantom, to be home. Tell me how you came to be in the company of the humans and the ryu," Lunaris said, from her place near the moonlight strewn window. "I chose the Grove of Sevens for a more relaxing setting. You have permission to speak, my little phantom."
Phantom bowed formally once more, took a deep breath, and began.
Listening to her nameless Night Lord, Lunaris' reined her emotions in as she heard his report. Her little phantom had been investigating the portal at her request before he departure to the daylight realm to search for the sixth of his kind. The portal had activated and thrown both him and the ryu into a hunter's lair. Two hunters, he added, who had a daughter, who was "too smart for her own britches."
Lunaris smiled at his choice of words. "You see her as an older sister," she stated. "Perhaps we should bring her here. She could become part of our people."
Phantom shook his head. "I don't want her here. It's because of her that I'm stuck attending a human education facility and have to live in the lair of a hunter."
Lunaris paused. "I hear an 'other' in your words, my little phantom. What is it you are hiding?"
Phantom paused. "I sensed the sixth this morning, and the seventh as soon as I entered the school. Also, the humans are forcing me to speak with words, instead of signs. I have not been granted leave to do so by thee, my lady."
Lunaris nodded. "Then I will release you, the humans, and the ryu. They are of no value to our people. Go the way of the Veil."
Phantom bowed once more and turned to go.
"And my little phantom..."
He turned back.
"The Lethe fruit you have partaken of are special ones laced with Mnemosyne juice. They were designed by Shine and Shade to counteract whatever the Clockwork Chronos has done to you. You will lose some memories and gain others over course of the next few days. They did this on my orders. I hope you will forgive me."
He thought about it. The Queen of the Night Stars had always been kind to him and his kin. Of the Seven, he had been the first to wake, and it was to him the others had been revealed one by one. He bowed to her the final time and then exited the room.
Lunaris sighed and gripped the windowsill. Am I making the right choice, Father? It is time to end the time loop the Clockwork Chronos has entrapped us all within. My little phantom may be the precursor to the end of the Night Wind people, but what he will also herald the end of the Ryu Kingdom.
"It's out of my hands," Clockwork told the Observant, who had replaced L'orb and R'ye.
"Why?" she asked. Her name was Ain and was the third most powerful member on the Council. She was a good head shorter than most Observants with a slight sage-green tint to her skin and her singular eye was a yellow-green-a rare shade amongst her race.
"Lunaris has just changed the rules of the game," the Clockwork Chronos answered. "The future is obscured."
"You knew she would find a way to cloud your portals," Ain replied. "You took a risk when you bound Night Wind's servant to your will."
"To bring out the peace to both the warring ghost kingdoms," he objected.
"To meddle with the time stream like you always do when you're bored," she countered. "The boy and his kin are Night Wind. You cannot join two opposite forces."
"Opposites attract."
"True. What are you going to do?"
"Phantom will seek out the sixth of his race, Plasmius' daughter, as he has done countless number of times."
"That's nothing new."
"No, but the Seventh is also known, yet unknown, to Phantom. I think the Seventh could stand to learn a little sign language."
"Now, you're cooking!" Ain cackled. "Can't wait to see this."