THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICADED TO MY GRANDFATHER.
Willem de la Court 19/07/06

Tales of the Wizard

Ch.14 Dorr

Raiden and the others returned to Palmacosta.
They entered the office of the Govern-General.
"There's no one here," Lloyd said.
"No guards either," Raiden remarked.
Collete moved her head, "I think I hear voices from below."
Lloyd turned to the entrance to the basement "Really? I don't hear anything."
"We should head down to the basement," Kratos said.
"Yeah, let's go," Raiden agreed.

Voices were heard, "will Clara return to her original form?"
"Not yet. You still haven't paid us enough Gald. You've been paying us less and less."
"This is the best I can do! The tolls, the municipal taxes, the offerings to the Church of Martel…there's nowhere left to squeeze more money from!"
Raiden took a look, a Desian soldier talked to a man, presumely Dorr.
"Well, I suppose this will do," The desian said, "for today. I'm sure Lord Magnius will remove the demon seed depending on your next contribution."
'Demon seed?' Raiden thought.
"Father," a young girl said.
"Just a little while longer. Just a little more an…and Clara will be back to normal. I'll raise the fees on the pilgrimages and," Dorr muttered
"What's the meaning of this!" Lloyd had decided to intervene, "What's the matter? You look like you just saw a ghost."
Raiden rose an eyebrow as Genis spoke his thoughts "Um, Lloyd, that's a really clichéd line."
"Shut up, Genis!" Lloyd snapped.
"What are you doing here! Neil! Where's Neil!" Dorr said alarmed.
"I'm afraid Neil's not here," Raine explained
"So…Neil betrayed me!"
"If betrayed means revealing a trap against the Chosen, yes," Raiden spoke.
"What's wrong with your wife? Has she been taken hostage or something?" Lloyd asked
"Hostage?…Don't make me laugh. If you want to see my wife. She's right here!"
He pulled of a sheet, in the cell was a Monstrous creature.
Genis shouted out, "Wh-what's that monster?"
"She's crying…she's crying out in pain. You mustn't call her a monster." Colette said.
"You don't mean!" Lloyd said.
"That's right. This is what's become of my wife, Clara!"
"So that's why you told everyone she passed away," Raine realised.
"My father, the previous Governor-General, was a fool. Because of his defiant stance against the Desians, they killed him, then planted the demon seed in my wife as a warning. If I cooperate with them, they will give me the medicine to save her."
"But…that means you're betraying the people in this city!" Genis said.
"What do I care? We'll never escape the rule of the Desians anyway."
"You're giving up before the battle starts. If you train your men, you have an actual chance against the Desians. You wouldn't be giving people false hope," Raiden said.
"Colette will…the Chosen will save the world!" Lloyd said.
Dorr countered, "The Chosen's journey of world regeneration is not absolute. Don't forget that the last one ended in failure! Besides, the people of this city are satisfied with my way. They just don't know I'm working for the Desians."
"Shut up! What do you mean, you "way"! I'm sorry about your wife. But think of all those people who believed in you, only to be sent off to the ranch! Any of them may have wound up just like your wife!" Lloyd said
"Silence boy! Stop acting like your justice is absolute!"
Lloyd became angry, "Where do you get off? Don't even start spewing the word, "justice"! I hate that word! If you wanted to save your wife, you should have resigned your position as Governor-General and searched for a cure, or help, or whatever! You're a worthless jerk who couldn't give up his social status even for his own wife!"
"Lloyd, please stop! Not everyone's strong enough to stand up against the Desians. Please, stop this!" Colette said.
"Colette,"
"Lloyd is right though, You said you would build an army. You sent people to their death, saying you would safe the prisoners," Raiden spoke.
"What if we go and get the medicine you mentioned? Then you wouldn't have to side with the Desians anymore," Colette said
"You…forgive me for what I've done?" Dorr was surprised
"It's not our place to forgive you. That's up to the people of this city. But I know Martel will forgive you. The Goddess Martel is always within you, awaiting your own, personal regeneration," Colette said.
"Within me?"
"Absurd!" the child spoke.
She stabbed Dorr in the back.
"Killa, why?" Dorr breathed
"The Goddess Martel would never lend her aid to an inferior human being!" She said
"What are you doing!" Lloyd spoke.
"How could you do that to your own father!" Genis called out.
"That's a laugh," Kilia spoke, with a strange glint in her eyes.
She transformed in to a demon, "I am a servant of Pronyma, leader of the Five Grand Cardinals who rule over the Desians. I was merely assigned to observe the new human cultivation technique, developed by Magnius. There's no way that a superior half-elf such as I, could have a fool of a father like this!"
"A…fool of a father?" Colette stammered
Raiden thought for a while, he had heard that name before, "Pronyma, Pronyma."
"Just look at him! He didn't even notice that his own daughter was dead…because he was too busy chasing after medicine that doesn't exist…in order to save his monster wife! Hahahaha!"
" I remember now, that's the name of that bitch who threw me off the cliff."
That got the attention of the demon, "How dare you! Insulting Lady Pronyma. You will pay."
Killa attacked, when Raiden made a thrust with the staff he had received from Raine.
He forced her back, using the staff as a bo-staff. He deflected the attacks away and used the other and of the staff to do some damage to the Half-elf demon.
When Kilia attacked again, Raiden threw the staff back to Raine and took out the Phoenix blades to block the attack.

Raiden looked at the others, "You can help me anytime you like."
Lloyd smiled, "It looks like you have everything under control."
Raiden smiled , "I thought you might get bored."
His swords turned red, "Don't you love it when things go boom, PHOENIX REBIRTH!"
An explosion erupted from Raiden, it threw the Desian demon a few metres back.
Raiden walked to his friends, when Kilia called out, "Wait, this is not over yet!"
She powered up and stingers appeared.
Raiden looked at her, "Let's go, guys!"
The group attacked the powered demon.
Now that she had 10 more weapons, it was trickier then before.
Raiden noted that Colette had grown wings.
The group surrounded her, they attacked from all sides.
Lloyd attacked first with Rising Falcon.
Raine used photon, Kratos a couple of fireballs, Colette threw her chakrams, which stayed in the air.
Genis used his magic to attack with Flame lance.
Raiden attacked last with his Rock Wave.
He then called out to Genis, "Do it again."
As the fire attack was fired, Raiden threw another Rock Wave.
Both shouted out, "MAGMA WAVE!"
The earth melted by the extreme heat of the lance.
Kilia grunted and fell to the ground.
"This can't be… Fine…then, I'll set this monster free and let it kill you!"

She unlocked the cell of the creature, then she suddenly vanished.
It walked slowly out of the cell.
"No, not again…! Do I have to kill another innocent victim?" Lloyd muttered.
Raiden looked at the creature and took a defensive stance.
The creature prepared a swing with it's arm.
"Stop!" Colette shouted.
The creature stopped, and walked away.
"W…wait!" Genis called out
"Is Kilia safe?" Dorr asked.
"Kilia is.." Genis began.
"Don't worry. It seems your real daughter is fine," Lloyd looked at the fallen Governor-general.
"Lloyd," Genis said
"I see. You…your name's Lloyd?" Dorr coughed up blood
"Yeah.."
"Professor Sage, please, help him!" Colette said
Raine focused her powers, "It's not working."
Another hand grabbed hers, Raiden looked at her.
"Let's try it together."
Both Raiden and Raine tried to heal Dorr.
"It's difficult, his lung has been punctured."
"Please…please save Chocolat. That poor girl…she was just used as a tool to lure you out."
Dorr gave Lloyd a Card Key, "The passcode is…3341."
"Got it."
"And…I know this is a selfish request, but…if you somehow find a way to save my wife, please, help her return to her human form. When my daughter comes back, I don't want her to be all alone."
"What do you mean, you aren't going to die!"
"Please."
"Okay. I promise," Lloyd spoke.
"Thank you."
Dorr suddenly thrust a second dagger in his chest, and died.
Everybody looked shocked.
"Let's get going," Kratos said coldly.
"Kratos! How can you just say that!" Lloyd said.
"Settle down, Lloyd. What is it that we must do now?" Kratos asked.
"Rescue Chocolat, then defeat Magnius, the leader of this region," Raine said
"Exactly."
"Yeah, I know. You're right. I'm sorry," Lloyd said
"Let's go, Lloyd. Let's defeat the Desians," Genis said.
"My healing arts cannot even save one single life?" Raine muttered.
"Professor Sage? Did you say something?" Colette asked.
"No…it's nothing."
"Let's return to Neil, he must be told," Raiden said.
"That's true," Raine said.

The group left for the ranch, Raine and Raiden in the back.
The ninja looked at the healer, "It's not your fault."
"Tell that to my conscience," Raine bit back.
"He chose to die, he had the dagger."
"I couldn't heal him fast enough, I just wasn't fast enough."
"At your current level, you couldn't have healed him. The wound was too large."
"What do you mean?"
"I told you about his lung, the knife was poisoned and it hit the heart. No doctor could keep him alive for as long as we did. Even you can't do everything."
"But.."
"Tell you what, I'll train you, so you can prevent these things in the future. okay."
"All right," the female Half-Elf nodded.
Neil looked as the group approached.
"No. Don't say anything. From the looks on your faces, I can imagine what has happened to Dorr."
"But Dorr did say this: He wants us to save Chocolat," Colette said.
"Governor-General… I understand. Please take me along to carry out the Governor-General's last wish," Neil said.
"All right," Lloyd said
"At any rate, let's see if we can find a place to use that key we received from Dorr." Raine said.
"But you know…even assuming we can open the door and get in, I don't think we're going to be able to just go in and out as we please," Genis thought
"We need to be properly prepared before taking action." Kratos spoke.
Raiden agreed, "Let's go.
They entered the passcode on the computer console and entered the human ranch.