A/N: Remember from the previous chapters that Khetala told the caravanners: "If we are to destroy the source of the miasma, it will cost all of us our lives." When it came time to scatter into the miasma before Raem caught anyone, David was fatally wounded by a death-knight; Lydia curled up under her shield and waited for death there; Khetala simply ran until she couldn't run anymore; Anais Nin got knocked out and tumbled down the slope of Mount Vellenge, never to come around. But what of Dimo Nor? Has he discovered something that even wise Khetala overlooked?
Lilty Stroke of Brilliance
Dimo Nor had no idea how he remembered the moogle nest that lay in the crevice underneath the bridge, only that he now seized the myrrh-bearing crystal chalice and ran toward it as fast as his feet could carry him, hoping that the demon Raem was not on his heels this very moment. Once inside the safety of the moogle nest, however, the usually iron-willed Lilty broke down and wept. No one who knew his tale would have blamed him, for he was now the only caravanner from Tipa to have come to what many thought to be the end of the world and lived. He wept now for the friends he had lost: David and Lydia, two Clavats whose quiet perseverance served to inspire fortitude in all the caravanners during hard times; Khetala, the seasoned Yuke woman who seemed always to know which path the caravan needed to tread; Anaїs Nin, the Selkie adored for her high spirits and her quick wit.
Eventually the Lilty lad cried himself into a fitful slumber, from which the resident moogle of the nest in which he hid did not wake him. It was more than a full day before Dimo Nor woke, so disoriented that he had no idea why he was in a moogle nest to begin with.
"You were running, kupo—you came in here to hide from the big dragon living on the top of the mountain," the moogle, named Ivy, explained to him at last. "But the dragon's gone now—I think it's gone to find some other prey."
The explanation refreshed Dimo Nor's memory: the dragon was Raem, who fed on the memories of anyone who came to Mount Vellenge to try and cut the miasma off at its source. When he and his caravan dealt the blow that destroyed the Meteor Parasite responsible for covering the world in miasma, they had awakened Raem—meaning that they had to scatter before Raem could catch any of them. For all but one of them—and it happened to be Dimo Nor himself—this meant running away from the crystal chalice's protective field in the hopes of dying from miasma poisoning before being caught. But now, even if Raem was no longer looming over Mount Vellenge hoping to find him, plenty of monsters were still on the prowl—Dimo Nor would never make it back to the Tipa caravan's wagon alive.
"I'll never make it back to the wagon alive…" he murmured.
"Yes, you can, kupo! I can carry your chalice for you, kupo, so you can fight if you need to!" offered Ivy, picking up the chalice.
Dimo Nor pulled himself to his feet unsteadily, wishing that he had some kind of food to eat, before crawling out of the moogle nest with Ivy in his wake. There were no monsters in sight when he emerged, so he searched the skies, prepared to hide if he saw any sign of Raem.
"Hey, kupo! Look over there—is that someone else from your caravan?" called out Ivy, appearing to indicate a body on the ground about thirty yards from the moogle nest. Dimo Nor followed Ivy's indication to see that the body was that of a Yuke—it was Khetala. She lay on her front, limbs spread out at odd angles, her hammer a foot away and partially buried in mud.
"Khetala…" breathed Dimo Nor as he spotted what appeared to be a magicite stone that had slipped out of one of Khetala's many pockets. He knelt beside her and picked it up—a life-giving stone that would revive the fallen. Vaguely he remembered the words of some member of the Shella caravan: "Do not despair when a caravanner falls if you possess a stone of Life, for so long as there is a body to which the spirit may return there may be revival."
As far as he could remember, though, Dimo Nor had never cast a spell in his life—magic had never been something at which the Lilty people excelled. But as if she heard this thought in the sigh that escaped Dimo Nor's lungs, Ivy offered words of encouragement: "It's worth a try, kupo!"
Indeed it was worth a try, even for one magically inept. Finally Dimo Nor stood up, clasping the magicite stone close to his heart with one hand and raising the other hand to the heavens, crying out, "Revive, revive the fallen! Khetala, revive!"
Even as a wave like a thunder shock swept through Dimo Nor's small body and made him collapse to his knees, a wide beam of bright light shone down upon Khetala's fallen frame. Slowly, feebly, the Yuke stirred.
"What happened?" she moaned, trying to sit up as the light diminished.
Dimo Nor knelt down beside Khetala again, supporting her with one arm. "We're still on Mount Vellenge," he explained to her, "but I hear that Raem's moved off since everybody scattered."
Ivy dropped the crystal chalice beside the two caravanners and told Khetala all that she knew of what happened, from seeing them scatter to Dimo Nor taking refuge in her nest and crying himself into a deep sleep. "And I watched over him, I did, kupo—I only left once, and I saw the dragon fly away…and then he didn't think he could, kupo, but he revived you!" she exclaimed eagerly. "And now you two can go bring back the others!"
"So Raem is gone in search of other prey," assessed Khetala when she was able to stand again. "Then we should go and see if the bodies of the others are still salvageable for revival."
"I hope so, too, kupo," answered Ivy in agreement, picking up the chalice to carry it for her and Dimo Nor.
Khetala and Dimo Nor found David next. "I saw a monster cut him up—I'm sure if you can revive him, he'll still have scars," said Ivy. Indeed, David had a gash that ran a curve from one shoulder to his breastbone through his ragged clothing. But even as Ivy dropped the chalice, shuddering, Khetala took the life-giving magicite stone from Dimo Nor and cried out the spell to revive David.
"I never thought I'd be scarred this badly in my life," complained David at last when he finished assessing the damage that spells had failed to fix. "But I swear, if those monsters cut up my sister half this bad, I'll kill them all with my bare hands."
"That's the spirit, kupo!" cheered Ivy.
The caravan from Tipa searched up and down the slopes of Mount Vellenge for nearly two whole days, with barely any food to eat or water to drink, until at last they came upon Lydia. Of all of them she alone appeared to have died in something resembling peace: she lay near a large boulder, curled up into the fetal position and cowered under her shield. She must have tried to think of something pleasant awaiting her in afterlife as the miasma took her.
David hung his head in grief at the sight of his little sister as he thought of how much pain she had been in when she died, but Khetala wasted no time in shouting out the spell to revive Lydia. "How is it that we're all still here?" the Clavat wondered aloud.
Ivy explained again as she had done for everyone so far as Khetala lifted Lydia to her feet: "I saw everyone scatter, kupo! You were all running in every direction—I saw the Lilty boy grab the chalice and run to hide in my nest. He cried himself to sleep there and slept for a long time, and since the big dragon didn't catch anybody, it flew away, through the miasma stream. When the Lilty boy woke up…"
"Dimo Nor found me first when he tried to make it back to the wagon with Ivy, the moogle, carrying the chalice for him," Khetala continued. "He saw that I had dropped a stone of Life and used it to revive me. We found David and brought him back, too, but he was attacked by monsters as he ran, so he has a scar now—and now we have brought you back as well."
"And Anaїs Nin?" asked Lydia, noticing her Selkie friend's absence.
Dimo Nor hung his head, as did Khetala. "We searched three days and nights after reviving your brother before we found you, and we didn't see Anaїs Nin—not a trace of her," answered the saddened Lilty. "I think the monsters must've torn her in pieces by now."
David looked at Ivy. "When you saw all of us scatter into the miasma," he began to question, "did you happen to see what became of a lavender-haired Selkie girl who wore a fine suit of mythril armor and a worn pair of strapped sandals?"
"Something lashed her on the head, kupo, and she rolled down the steep mountainside, but I never saw what happened to her after that," Ivy replied, "no blood or anything like that where I thought she ended up, so I have no idea what happened to her while I watched over the Lilty boy."
"We should go back to the wagon, since we haven't a chance of finding Anaїs Nin anymore," Khetala sighed heavily. Even so, she laid one hand on her heart for a moment, allowing the pain of the loss to show. At last all four remaining caravanners made their way down Mount Vellenge to climb aboard their wagon—but as she inspected the wagon, Khetala noticed that something was amiss. "This is odd…" she mumbled.
This mumble had caught Dimo Nor's attention. "What is it?" he asked.
Khetala sounded hopeful, but not sure whether to trust in hope, as she explained, "I thought for a moment that bandits came to loot the wagon, but strangely, only some of Anaїs Nin's belongings are missing."
"That doesn't make any sense," said Dimo Nor, "unless…"
"Unless another caravan found her while you were hiding in the moogle nest," Khetala finished for him. "But how they crossed the miasma stream, and why they took her away once they revived her, without searching for any others, I don't know."
David blinked as he digested all of Khetala's speculation. "And if she really was found…then why did she leave the wagon, if she thought none of us would return to it?"
"I don't know," answered Khetala. "Anaїs Nin was not the one to grab the chalice and hide, so she should have given up hope of our return—but by the behavior of the papaopamus I would judge that she fed it before departing with whoever found her, it doesn't seem as hungry as it should be. And all the same, which other caravan would've…but we should leave this place. Remember that we need one more drop of myrrh yet."