Barren Cross Ch. 9
A day had passed since our little skirmish, Sun still laid unconscious in Kiwi's store. While Jay and Xam had gone to ask help from the local sorceress trainer to hasten Sun's recovery, I sat beside her along with Anne and Nunnally. They both worried not only for Sun, but for my mental welfare as well. Suddenly we heard Sun groan and gain consciousness. As soon as she had opened her eyes. She began to cry. She grabbed hold of my coat weeping fearfully saying that she thought she was going to die. I felt awkward as she cried on my coat, and all I could do to comfort her was to have her cry on my as I patted her head.
By the time Xam and Jay returned, Sun had already recovered enough for us to be able to travel back to Saint's Haven. So we did just that. As soon as we opened the door, mother came running to greet us. She gave the three of us a warm hug and prepared for us a bath. Anne and Nunnally went in together first so I waited patiently and sat at the roof. It gave me time to think properly about all the unfortunate and fortunate events that happened to us. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.
I was in a dream. A dream so fearsome that I began to fear myself. Monsters were every where I looked. In the middle of them was a dark human-like figure. That thing began to kill all the monsters around it, every single one of them. After it had killed the monsters, humans arose from their corpses. Then walls surrounded them all and buildings came to form. When I finally thought that everything had calmed down, that thing began to destroy everything in its sight. I rushed to stop this thing and didn't want to believe what I saw as it lunged at me and the thing and I were face to face. It was as if I was looking into a mirror, but it frightened me. It frightened me because I had seen myself taking pleasure of destruction and murder. The look of ecstacy was written all over its face.
A rock hit me in the face. I opened my eyes and saw that the sky had begun to change colour. It surprised me as I looked at who threw the rock, as the children fled, she stood there with her enchanting smile. "Did you sleep well?" she asked me. I remember asking her this question as well. I nodded to her and leapt down to the ground. I invited her in the house as, and as soon as Anne saw her, she ran to greet her with a warm tight hug. Suddenly Sun had gasped from pain. The moment I smelled blood, I ran to see Sun's back and my assumption was correct. Her wound from the Ancient Archives I sat her down and began healing her back. Anne panicked and apologized over and over and over, I found it annoying and amusing at the ame time. Mother then came in the room to see what caused Anne to go on a ruckus and when was surprised when she saw me healing an elf. As soon as Sun's wound had closed, Anne apologized and thanked me repeatedly that I had to stop her.
Sun stayed for supper and got to converse with my mother. As we ate, mother asked a question to which Sun's answer surprised us.
"Elves live long lives correct? So how old are you now my dear?" my mother asked.
"I will be 18 years of age within a months time."
Everyone in the room fell silent while Anne looked at everyone's face wondering what was wrong. I forgot her that her knowledge about this world was verily limited. After we explained everything to Anne, she then took a notebook and started taking notes. She was so gullible that I told her that humans in this realm can live up to 200 years as I winked at everyone else without noticing. Then they all played along. In the end we told Anne that we lied about that part and she hit me continously with the notebook.
As time came to pass, Sun had to leave. I stood up and played the game of knight and queen with her once more as I bowed down to her and offered to escort her. She played along with me and gabve me an order to carry her on my arms to her house to which I agreed to do. Even though we were only just playing a game, that gave soon became a catalyst for that which is to come.
As I carried sun toward her home, she was silent. When she was about to aske me a question, she hesitated and shooke her head. Half-way to her house, she had me let her down so she could walk on her own. Then she suddenly invited me for an evening stroll around town to kill the night away. Our conversations started out with humour and fantasy. She even talked about the instance of a chance that if some one casts a spell on me and turns me into a woman. The night was young and only an hour had passed since we left the house so I went back home for a brief moment to inform my mother that I was going to be home late. I was going to invite Anne with me however, she had already fallen asleep with Nunnally.
Sun had been waiting for me at the plaza to go to a café. Her chouce of cafés intrigued me. Cold Snap. As JM was about to head for a nocturnal commission, he turned to my direction and gave me a crystal containing a commission message from a client. JM seeing me with Sun, he was surprised. "Wow. You really are just like your father." He inquired to which I didn't understand and then he left. Sun and I sat down and bought some wine. While we talked, a cheery person greeted me with a book to the face. Chicky was not very pleased to see me. She even engaged Sun in conversation just to spite me. In their conversation Sun had smiled quite a lot, so I had no problem with it at all.
We finally decided to head home after a few drinks so I walked with her to her home, and as we parted ways she thanked me for saving her life in the archives. She gave me a smile as she waved away at me. I was having such a nice night. I went back home to get my guild equipment for the commission I was about to do. I insertd mana into the crystal as I left the house. The crystal gave me instructions of what I needed to do. "I want this girl gone. As much as I don't like to hurt a pretty face like mine, I want her gone. She has hindered my plans for far too long." The crystal message said as the crystal directed me to the place in which the target was at. I was in shock. The crystal emitted a picture of the target and I didn't want to believe it… It was Sun.
I was hesitating to engage yet my body continued to move. The crystal disintegrated after the message was done. I wore my mask and good as I infiltrated Sun's house in the middle of the night. I entered through her window without fail and sound. Luckily for me, she was sound asleep. I pulled out my concealable blade and pushed the button to unconceal it. Having second thoughts and hesitation as what I was about to do to my friend struck me. Guild, conscience, these were the two things stopping me from killing her. She was about to wake from her slumber so I pinned her down with both her arms punned by my legs. He upper body by my left hand and her neck with my blade. The moment she opened her eyes and saw me, she was in shock. I felt her trembling in fear. Then she looked me in the eyes as tears began to roll from her eyes. I felt an ache in my chest. The same aching when Tris disappeared before my eyes. I couldn't do it.
Sun already had too much influence in my life that there was no way I would want to harm her. I got off of her and jumped back. She then sat up as she tried to look for her bow whilst covering her bossom with her sheets. The bow was lying right in front of me on the floor, and when she noticed she was in more shocked and began to question me, "Who are you? Why are you here? Why are you trying to kill me?" and naturally I couldn't answer. I concealed my blade and hid it in one of my pockets. I picked up her bow and arrow and threw it to her bed where she laid. She looked at me in confusion then I bowed to her and left through the window. This deed gave me most shame in my life.
The next morning. I woke up in shame. I didn't want to get out of my chamber. Then Nunnally barged in with Sorrow in my room and they both jumped on my bed. She cheered me up a little by keeping on persuading me to play with her and Sorrow. I went and put on my regular clothes and hid my guild equipment in my wardrobe. As I went to the living room, my head was clear of nothing but to spend time with Nunnally. However, all that calm and collectiveness disappeard in an instant when mother told me my friend from yesterday was waitinng for me in the entrance.
No matter how hard I thought of an excuse to explain what happened last night, my mind was filled with thoughts of guilt instead. I opened the front door and surely enough that it was Sun that was waiting for me. I anticipated a gloomy mood but instead I got the opposite. She greeted me with a smile across her face. "Aren't you mad at me?" I asked her to which she was confused. "What would I be mad with you about? Did you drink to much last night?" she asked me. It seemed like she didn't know it was me who tried to attack her last night. I was relieved but at the same time I wasn't. From that point on, I promised myself that I would find that commisioner who gave me such a mission, and see to it that he recieves the fate of his designated target.
Sun invited me and Nunnally to go to the festival. At first I was confused as to what festival she spoke of that was being celebrated, until I remembered that this day was the founding of Saint's Haven. Nunnally tugged on my coat and told me that she wanted to go. In the end, both Nunnally and Sun Dragged me around the festival. We went to shops and events that I became so unfamiliar with for being gone from this city for five years.
We stumbled upon a stall which hosted an archery game. The rules of the game was simple: knock down the desired prize. Sun had set her eyes on the enormous dog doll at the center of all the prizes so she played. 1 silver piece and 30 copper pieces for 3 shots. Unfortunately, as hard as Sun tried and actually hit the doll, it only nudged. Then Anne popped out of no whereand told me that she wanted to try. I paid for Sun, Anne and myself. Sun instructed me and Anne to fire a volley with her, so when she gave us the signal we released three arrows hitting the doll all at once. Yet once again it had only nudged. I became suspicious. I closed my eyes and felt the presence of many beings wandering the festival, and one of them was a man right behind the curtain supporting the large doll so it could not fall. I became upset. Then an idea popped up in my head. The three of us had two more arrows each. I asked Sun how accurate she could fire an arrow which was a very stupid question to an elf. She shot an arrow on a smaller doll and knocked it down to answer my question. I instructed her to shoot through the curtain behind the giant doll to shich the stall clerk became anxious. On my signal we fired another volley. Anne and I shot the doll whilst Sun shot through the curtain. Surely enough, Sun hit the man beneath the curtain and the doll had fallen. Sun was delighted for getting the giant dog doll. She was so happy that her smile shone brighter. She gave Anne the smaller doll and Anne caught her delighted behavior. For some reason I had been annoyed by the fact and I didn't understand why. Then they continued to drag me around the festival.
It came to pass when their stomachs began to growl. They had me fetch some food as they simply sat by the town fountain. During my absence from them, two men approached Anne and Sun persuading them to join them to have a drink. I approached as Anne looked at them disgustingly. The two men looked at me and asked me if I wanted to join as well. They made me feel uncomfortable and dead as a man. They came up to me and asked me if I was tired of wearing a man's attire and asked me something that completely ticked me off. "Are you free to celebrate with us lass?" I felt a loss in my pride as a mad and was enraged. I punched one of the men outcold. Seing this happen to his friend, the other man hit me.
The punch caused me to slide back a little but as it hit me on the shoulder. The man was furious. "How dare you hit a noble like us whore!" the man said as he kept on tryingh to hit me again. I was simply dodging his blows and waited for him to tire. I got tired of the charade and spoke to him on the deepest tone of my voice hinting that I was not what they thought I was. Unfortunately this noble was stupid to understand the situation. As I was dodging, I tripped on something and made me fall back. I closed my eyes waiting for a hit to land and that's when Sun interfered by kicking the noble out of my way. She offered me a hand to get up and looked at me with a radiant smile. I felt something weird in my chest.
Imperial guards arrived at the scene and took control of the crowd around us. The nobles were corrupt, but so were some of the guards. Instead of arresting the nobles for their mishap, they arrested me. I was thrown in jail for a short period of time and was soon released thanks to General Duglas. The two nobels were dealt with by the stripped of their rank and were banished from the royal court. As of then, they weren't nobles anymore. They were only plebians.
As soon as mother caught wind of the incident, she searched for me and Nunnally. She was worried sick yet she gave me a scolding and treated me as if I had just returned from war. As the day came to a close, Sun invited me to join her for a night commission in Liverwort Marina. I then took Lilith and informed mother of it. However, mother hesitated to allow me to embark with Sun. It took Sun and I an hour only to persuade her. We had to quell her anxiousness and worries that I might not return before she agreed to let me go. That was with one condition, and that condition was for me to return home alive.
On our way to Liverwort Marina, we saw a business man being attacked by kobolds. Being the kind-hearted person that she is, Sun rushed to help the man. The man was grateful for helping him. As a token of gratitude he insisted that I take a mount crystal. I had to refuse the offer to me since it was Sun who rushed in to save him and not me. In the end he gave Sun the crystal and went on his way to Saint's Haven without another word. However, we forgot to ask him something important, and it's going to bother the living hell out of me later. Both Sun and I had only one question in mind. "How in Altera do we use this thing?!" Luckily for us, our troubles with the crystal ended when we arrived at Lotus Marsh and consulted with the sorceress trainer Marisala, and for some miracle that just so happen to be there, Yuni was also there. As soon as she saw me in Lotus Marsh, she rant to me and held me as tight as she could. I was confused as to why the joy on Yuni's dace slightly faded when she noticed that Sun was also with me. I tried to ask her about it but she pretended like there was nothing wrong. From that point of my life, I regretted not being able to notice her.
Yuni dragged me and Sun to a hut outside of Lotus Marsh where an old woman and a young boy dwelled. To surprise us even more, Aregenta was also graced us with her presence. The woman was sitting on a chair and as soon as I entered the room, she looked at me with deletorious eyes. "Yuni my child, what have you brought in my home?" the old woman asked and gave me another cold stare. Yuni introduced Sun and me, with her introducing me as her brother. The old woman looked at me once more. "You-" the old woman was about to say something to me but Argenta had cut her off saying
"Yes. This is the dragon thaty turned one- third of Tel Numara into nothing but ruins."
The woman then turned to me with a surprised look.
"Tristitia, this is Kasarana and the person right beside her is her stupid slave." Argenta said.
"Hey! I have a name you know and it's Sidel you stupid old hag!" the boy said without hesitation then suddenly got flustered and apologized for being too rude.
Kasarana, one of the six heroes from the dragon raid 50 years ago. She was the sorceress of the group that led the charge on the Black Dragon, and in the process, she herself was cursed to have her life shortened. Now she leads the Astral Coven without an heir. With her was a young boy named Sidel. His parents were killed by a dragon cultists before he was even three years of age. Then he was adopted by Kasarana whom trains him personally. Now he strives to become a worthy "sorceress." So he says.
I didn't expect Kasarana to look so old since sorceresses have a spell to maintain their youth throughout their life span. This must have been an effect of plague rains. A disease that causes certain death from being poisoned by dragon's blood. A disease received from being splattered, touched, or tainted by the blood of the dragons. It's equivalent to "cancer" on Earth. But my mind wasn't focused on that, I was more focused on the mount crystal. I asked Yuni about the crystal and she gave us instruction on how to use it. She even took the liberty of summoning her own mount which was a dire wolf. Right after she summoned the wolf, Kasarana ordered Yuni to put it away and scolded her. Kasarana told us to leve for the moment as she talked with Argenta. We were out in the open swamp as we conversed with each other. Sun tried summoning the mount and successfully summoned a horse. She gave the horse the name of Dalas. Now we had the problem of how to store the horse back in the crystal. Yuni was kind enough to teach us again and even gave a crystal containing instructions on how to use the crystal again. Then we continued to walk around the marsh.
Since Yuni was free, we asked her if she would've liked to join us with our commission and she gladly accepted the offer. Our destination was a village within the marsh. The cillage was a supposed tribe affiliated with the tribe that took care of me when I was a dragon for that brief moment. We were wrong, so terrribly wrong. Once I saw Edan and the others, I got that sudden chill that something bad was about to unravel. I drew my sword as we neared them. "Yahiro! We need your help!" Shian yelled out to us. Angelica slapped shian in the back of the head because they were listening in to a conversation in the tribe from the brush of moss. However due to Shian's loud voice they have been discovered. When I saw who had been talking to the tribe, anger filled my heart. A dragon cultist bishop had manipulated the tribe's chief and ordered to attack us. "Take care of them Tamparo." Was the bishops order as he ran to the ruins.
Everyone braced for battle while I only had one thing in mind. "Kill them all." I charged in without hesitation wiping out dozens of tribesmen. A mist suddenly covered the area as we fought through the area as we fought through the manipulated tribesmen. For some reason, they were strengthened by the mist. "AN ABYSS!" Yuni yelled out and somehow only Sun and I did not have a single clue what an "abyss" meant. As Yuni explained the details of an abyss I was enticed. I felt pleasure in killing each and every tribesmen. The fact that they were made stronger by the "abyss" made me very happy, happy because of the fact that I could go on a rampage. Left and right the tribesmen fell one by one by my hand and the others stood there. Watching, witnessing me taking pleasure from murder. As soon as the tribesmen ran out and we had reached the gate to the ruins, dragon cultists emerged to fight. Pleasure and anger filled me. Pleasure of being able to avenge my father and anger for my loss. I lost myself, I've become a sight no one had even expected. I went on a rampage and killed 2 cultists while the others killed the other four. I flicked my finger and produced a black flame while I approached one of the dragon cultists who was still alive. "Stop him!" Yuni yelled out to everyone, but they were a little bit too late. I had already engulfed the dragon cultist in flames right before Edan bound me. I watched the cultist burn, until he was killed by an arrow that came from Sun.
I couldn't move. Yuni walked up to me with watery eyes and slapped me. "You're not Yahiro, I get that you're mad for them killing father but that doesn't mean you should stoop to their level and commit a massacre… what happened to you? My Yahiro resents murder not taking pleasure from it." Yuni said to me angered and hurt then held me in her arms. She was right about that. I came to my senses. I lost myself to what Tristitia had predicted, and I resented myself. My emotions were lost, even after witnessing myself at such a horid state. A few minutes of rest and Edan released me from his bind then we went back on track. There was one problem in our way. A tall muscular man who looked like he was only in his twenties stoon in front of the gate to the ruins. His red hair and face annoyed me in that instance. We questioned him for a few moments until we got tired of his colossal ego, all except for Sun and Triana. At first I thought both of them weren't annoyed because they thought that this is how humans act, but I was wrong with one person. Sun admired the cocky bastard. That's when I felt a stinging pain in my chest
When the man finally noticed me, his smile quickly turned into a frown in which I was confused. Everyone else went ahead without me leaving me to talk to this man in private. I was uncomfortable and somewhat filled with anger. "Do you remember me?" He asked me to which I couldn't respond clearly. His face was indeed familiar but I still could not recall even with tristitia's memories in me. All of Tristitia's memories of this man was vague. I shook my head in reply. He then smiled arrogantly once more and disappeared without a trace but a scent. I was dazed for a moment until I realized that I needed to hurry and catch up with the others.
I went in the ruins in search for them but the path was blocked by a very huge door. I sensed a lot of entities on the other side, six of them were Sun, Yuni, Edan, Angelica, Shian and Triana. The door was strong. I only managed to blast a hole big enough for me to fit through. I entered the chamber and found them surrounded by monsters. I knew I had to act quickly. I summoned multiple chains and impaled most of the monsters, the agression quickly turned to me. Yuni was closed the protals which spawned the monsters. Seeing this I gave the others the order to protect Yuni and the relic until she figures out the way. After killing what it seemed like two hundred monsters, Yuni successfully closed the protals using the relic at the center of the room. The sigh of relief on everyone's breath felt great. The door opened and we were finally free from the hordes of monsters; we were finnally able to quickly make our way to the center of the ruins where the cultist bishop lay waiting for us. He was baffled about the fact that we were able to get out of that situation alive. So he decided to attack us. A frightening enemy casting spells with no care of striking ally or foe.
Hordes of monsters entered the class once more and we were outnumbered thirty-one to sseven. The fight was fierce, and we had to figure out a way to kill that wretched bishop. I couldn't wait. The thought of that oversized bishop being able to slip through our fingers again irked me. I wanted to just kill him… and that's exactly what I aimed for. I rushed in to take a blow at him, but it only proved fatal to me. The moment I got as close as ten feet from him, he struck me with lightning and sent me flying; making me knock down Edan with me. I was pissed. I was on the verge of losing it again and I could not afford to. I casted chains aimed for the bishop's head but I only managed to hit the sphere underneath his seat. But then he panicked. By the way his reaction was to that, I already knew what to do. I notified everyone to target the sphere. I didn't see the bishop's face when he began to target me, but he was pissed. We consecutivelyhit the same exact spot and made him fall to the ground helplessly. The one to issue out the final blow was none other than me. I pierced through the bishop's body with a chain. As soon as the bishop died, the monsters began dying of one by one like flies. This became a sweet victory for me.
We went back to Kasarana's cabin to report what just happened. She wasn't very pleased at the very mention of dragon cultists. She dismissed after we told her everything, even about the man we encountered. I went back to that ruined village all by myself in search of clues of where the tribe chief may be. Also, I was hoping to meet that man once again. Sure enough when I had returned to the scene were I found him, there he was with a native girl this time. It was weird, because I'm pretty sure I've seen both of them before. When he saw me approaching, he had a prideful smile. "Come to see my greatness again have you?" He asked me
"Kalahan, who is this grotsani girl?" The girl asked, I was offended.
"First of all that's not how you greet a person, second is that I'm a guy." I informed them, "I'm in search of the tribe chief of the dromaji."
"What do you know of my grandfather?!" she asked me furiously then Kalahan stepped in.
"If you want to help and serve my awesome self and search for him, then be my guest." He said.
"Kalahan, are you sure this misunderstood grotsani can be trusted?" the girl asked him and he assured her thatit was her choice to trust me or not. In the long run… she didn't.
After their discussion about medicine, the native girl Zulie went to report to her friend leaving me and Kalahan alone. He was staring at me in an uncomfortable manner. I began to walk away until he told me that he could help me find the dromaji chief. However, there's a catch (There's always a catch when doing deals). He would help me in exchange for absolute trust in him which I thought was stupid, and to do him a favor. He informed me of a group of dragon cult sorceresses posing as Astral Coven ones were hiding in one of the ancient temple ruins here in the marsh. He wanted me to kill them as well as the monsters residing in them.
I went ahead and told Yuni and Sun about the information I received. Sun wanted to do it, but Yuni said otherwise. She asked me about the man who told me all of this information and her face grew grim. Once she heard his name, she was shocked. So she accompanied us in order to make sure of all of what was said was true. On our way there, Sun had already determined that the sorceresses in the ruins were indeed cultists. We were wrong… and now the blood of the innocent laid on our hands. Yuni couldn't believe that those sorceresses were cultists. I had my doubts too but my mind was clouded of the thought that I'm actually cleaning up actual cultists. In order to clear her disbelief, she ran back to Kasarana's Cabin and confiremed everything with her. As for Sun and I, we went back to were I met the man. As always he was there along with the dromaji girl. Sun was captivated by Kalahan. But everyone knows Kalahan swooned just about anything from humans to animals. Even with that knowledge, I felt the urge to trust him as Sun trusted him. However, fate likes to screw with us sometimes.
Kalahan made us hunt once more, this time for the dromaji traitors. The act was finished, the deed was done, and be it as it may, we were still un aware of the truth. Since Kalahan provided us with unquestionable evidence of his accusations, we acted on his threads. You could even say that we were his puppets at the time. I lost count of how many sorceresses and dromajis I've killed while doing his bidding. All that ime, all I had in my mind was that I was doing something right.
