Author's note: I just love the Escaflowne soundtrack. Heck, I just love Escaflowne.

-

The Last Night of the World

Chapter 3

Visions of Destruction

-

Hitomi followed Merle, who led her through hallways festooned with tapestries boldly displaying the crests of the noble houses of Fanelia. They passed unicorns, serpents, and lions, all wielding or entwined with swords, spears or the house's historic weapon of choice. Others were designed more like symbols, like the stylized triangular dragon's head of Fanelia, ornamented with precious metals or gems.

Merle walked in front of her, her tabby-striped tail swinging slowly from side to side, as if biding its time. It poked out from under the skirt of a dark maize-colored dress that complemented her golden fur and accentuated a rather comely figure. She now resembled Naria—the cat-woman who tried to kidnap Hitomi for Folken, Van's brother—much more closely than the twelve-year-old kitten that Hitomi had known. It was amazing how much Merle had matured in the last few years. She wondered if Van had noticed the change, too.

Thinking of Van, Hitomi guiltily touched the ring on her left hand. Part of her clung to disbelief like a buoy in unfamiliar waters. There was no way this could be happening. It was far too similar to what had happened five years ago. Running and meeting Van in a sudden beam of light. Fanelia falling to an invisible enemy. Escaflowne. None of this was real; it had to be a dream. Some of the people had grown up, gotten older, but that was expected. Of course her mind would try to make Merle look like Naria. That was only logical. This had to be a dream, something that her mind, tired from the stresses of planning the wedding, had concocted from the recesses of her memory.

But as she trained her eyes on Merle's tail, watching its measured progress like a furry windshield wiper, she began to feel nauseous. A nagging feeling said that this wasn't a dream at all. The diamonds of her ring pressed into her palm. Yutaro… she thought, twisting it around on her finger. What am I going to do? she silently asked herself.

"I've seen it, you know," Merle said, all of a sudden.

Hitomi nearly choked, and squeezed her hands together to keep them still. "S-Seen what?"

Still facing ahead, Merle blew a disgusted sound through her lips. "Your ring, of course. Don't bother trying to hide it—from me, anyway."

Red-faced, Hitomi slipped off the ring and dropped it inside her purse, which had miraculously survived the transition from Earth to Gaea. She had lost her hat long before, sometime during her frenzied flight through Tokyo.

"Van-sama thinks about you a lot, you know."

Hitomi touched the jewel that hung from her neck. He probably hasn't taken off the pendant ever since I gave it to him. "I know."

Merle led her to a room halfway down the corridor, which was situated on the side of the palace that was opposite to the royal apartments, where they had started out.

Once they were inside, Merle confronted her. "So. When were you planning to tell him?"

"I…well…" She thought of how Van smelled when they kissed—earthy, like the wind blowing through the fields. Of his boyish smile, a rare sight during the war, when she brought up the pendant.She thought of Yutaro's laughter, which never failed to soothe her spirits, of the plans for the future they had only just begun to put into motion—their wedding in the garden, the house in Nerima, the names of their children who had yet to be born. "I don't know," she said finally.

Merle's back stiffened. "You don't know?" she said, nearly hissing. Her pupils were slits, dangerously narrow, and every hair on her body bristled. She bore down on Hitomi, who was forced to backpedal. "You don't know?"

"Merle, it's more complicated than you thi—"

"There's nothing complicated about it. The way I see it, there's only one thing to do: you have to tell Van-sama. And I'm not going to do it for you, so you can get that idea out of your head. You have to tell him yourself. Because," and here, she lowered her eyelids smugly and gave her tail a languorous swish, "there's something he has to tell you."

Something…he has to tell me? Hitomi felt her heart miss a beat. What…what does she mean?

Merle folded her arms across her chest. "In the cabinet by the window are some extra sheets and pillows, and to get to the bathroom, make a left and it'll be at the end of the hall," she rattled off curtly. "If you need anything, you can ring a maid using the pulley next to the cabinet. Please enjoy your stay." Before leaving, she looked at Hitomi over her shoulder. "And don't make me say it again. Stay away from Van-sama." She stalked out of the room, tail held high, and slammed the door behind her.

Hitomi sat down on the bed and put her head in her hands. Why is this happening? Why am I here? The pendant, dangling from her neck, bounced against the inside of her forearm. Sniffling, she wiped her eyes and bent her head to take it off, but not without remembering how Van had gently placed it around her neck. She let the chain fall in her palm in a delicate pool of gold, with the jewel lying at the edge like a rosy dewdrop.

She closed her hand over the pendant and pressed it to her forehead. Van…I don't want you to suffer…

It was in that moment that Kanzaki Hitomi had her first vision in five years.

-

"So you're telling me that as Fanelia was falling, there were no enemy soldiers. Not a single one."

The meeting room was a plain one, as stark and utilitarian of a room as Van had ever seen. The walls were naked, unpolished blocks of stone, lined with wooden posts that stretched upward and met at the center of the ceiling in a series of arches. Windows carved high in the walls allowed the passage of sunlight into the room, and whatever nature could not provide was supplemented by a low-hanging metal chandelier, no more than an iron circlet bearing a set of twelve candles, their wicks fueled by small pools of oil stored at their bases. The only decoration that the room had were maps and diagrams that hung nailed to the posts, heavily creased and ink-stained from countless mornings and nights of deliberation and planning. A long, heavy oak table stood in the middle of the room, flanked by equally heavy chairs whose cushioned seats were lined with velvet of deep maroon, the only luxury that was afforded in the midst of unrelieved functionality.

"That's right, my Lord," replied a man with wide shoulders and long, chestnut hair, nodding to the head of the table where Van was seated. "As buildings and houses were falling around us, we tried to predict the enemy's location, where they would strike next. But our blades swung at nothing but air."

A thin, reedy man with a straggly goatee folded his arms in his robes. "With all due respect, General Sabin, buildings made of brick and stone cannot be damaged without a cause. The enemy must have used projectiles of some sort, like the metal claws the Zaibach soldiers used in the Great War."

"I'm telling you, Doradeen, there was nothing of the kind. If the enemy were attacking with projectiles, we would have seen something—an arrow, a metal claw, a flaming ball of pitch. Our troops would have been attacked, too, or at the very least we would have gotten in the way. But there was nothing. It was as if the city was crumbling by itself."

There it was again; the same puzzling observation that General Maltek had made earlier. They made it sound as if Fanelia had a mind of its own, and was deciding to give up. But that's silly, Van thought. Cities can't think.

Councilor Doradeen, who Van had selected as one of his military tacticians for his level-headed reasoning, continued relentlessly. "Then the enemy must have a powerful sorcerer on their side. There's no other explanation."

"But even if that were true, that doesn't explain why our men were not attacked," Maltek, who sat opposite from Sabin, pointed out. "There's no point in attacking a city if you're not going to weaken its military force. That's basic military strategy."

But Doradeen was not to be dissuaded. "Unless," he said, holding up a bony finger, "the enemy had a completely different aim. For example, if they wanted to inflict damage upon the city and its citizens, thus weakening morale. Or if they wanted to confuse us, distract us in order to strike when we least suspect it. Both of which they are succeeding quite well at, I might add."

"All right," Van said, and lifted a hand to forestall any further discussion. "We have a possible motive and aim, but no identification of the enemy forces. Councilor Doradeen mentioned the possibility of a sorcerer. How likely is that, Garva?"

All eyes turned to Van's head of intelligence. A rock of a man with a square jaw and large hands, Garva looked like he belonged behind a plowshare instead of in a position requiring secrecy and cunning. But his appearance was probably one of his greatest strengths; ambassadors and diplomats of other countries were less likely to take him seriously, and Garva used their underestimation of him to his advantage. "The only known sorcerers on Gaea were employed by Emperor Dornkirk during the Great War. They dispersed after the war was over, and it is rumored that they are either dead or in hiding. It's possible that one or more of them has joined forces with another nation, since there have been many changes in the offices of several foreign governments. But we're only a few years out of the war, and people are more focused on rebuilding and restoration. Besides, the military forces on all sides have been so diminished that even if someone were able to launch a successful attack, there's no way they could hope to wage an all-out war."

"But what if they don't rely on their military power?" The sixth person in the room spoke up for the first time.

A wave of incredulous murmurs arose from the other men at the table. "What do you mean, Wellyn?" Van asked, his interest aroused, and the murmuring died away.

Councilor Wellyn was only a few years older than Van and lacked the gruffness and cynicism of the other men in the room. While reason and practicality abounded with Doradeen, imagination and invention were Wellyn's sphere of influence. The head of Technological Research and Development was a dreamer, but also a genius and a visionary, which was the reason why Van always included him in their tactical discussions. There was no question that the other men at the table were far more experienced, but Wellyn brought a new perspective, a different angle, to the table that Van found refreshing and, more often than not, highly useful.

"As everyone here knows, nations rule their subjects and keep the peace not by force, but by the suggestion of order and by the imposition of consequences for breaking the law," Wellyn said. "A warring nation can subjugate another nation as long as it can intimidate the government with its military power. Which is exactly what Zaibach did, but with one important difference.

"Zaibach burned Fanelia to the ground and destroyed several other cities in Asturia in a similar fashion," he continued. "But if you will remember, they accomplished all of that with fewer than a dozen Guymelefs."

"But Councilor Wellyn," Sabin protested, "you forget that they were using cloaking devices. As long as they remained invisible to our eyes, we were powerless to stop them."

"My point exactly. Their military might arise not from numbers, but from their technology. We could not hope to defeat them unless we could come up with a counter measure. Which, in the end, we did. Using the power of Atlantis."

Van knew that Wellyn was talking about him, the boy-king who could see what could not be seen, even if he did not say as much. Everyone else at the table knew it, too. "So what are you proposing, Councilor?" he inquired, even though he was beginning to dread where the young inventor's reasoning was taking them.

"What I'm saying is that obvious military might is not necessary for waging a successful war. If one person on Gaea is able to harness the power of Atlantis, why not more than one? What if there is someone out there who is able to fell a city from afar by merely wishing it so? If there is no one else to fight such a nemesis, Gaea is theirs for the taking."

Doradeen scowled. "Don't be preposterous. No such force exists. The Zaibach machine that was built to control fate was destroyed years ago. The allied nations made sure that every bolt and screw was scrapped or incinerated. There is no one alive who possesses this power you speak of, which died long ago with Atlantis." Even as he countered Wellyn's argument, it was clear from Doradeen's wry expression that he reserved no little skepticism for mysterious, otherworldly powers, not to mention machines that magically controlled the future.

Maltek harrumphed, a rumble coming from deep within his throat, and crossed his arms. "Councilor Wellyn may have a point, Doradeen." He cast a shrewd eye on the king of Fanelia. "Didn't the Lady Hitomi from the Mystic Moon also have the power of Atlantis? Didn't she arrive on Gaea in a flash of light from the sky?"

Van had not told anyone about Hitomi's return, but Maltek had seen them together, as well as the beam of light. Maltek would have to be blind not to see what was in front of him. There was no hiding it now. He looked Maltek fully in the eyes. "Yes. She could see visions of the future, and she could see what we could not. Without her, we would not have been able to win the war and Gaea would have been destroyed. When the war was over, she returned to her home on the Mystic Moon." He steeled himself and looked around the table at his men. "And today, while we were being attacked, she arrived on Gaea in a beam of light."

Silence, heavy as a stone brick, dropped onto the table. Then, there erupted a sudden flurry of voices.

"Ah, Van-sama, so is it true that her love for you saved Gaea?"

"How fortunate for us, that she should appear at a time like this."

"She can assist us—"

"—why didn't you tell us before, Van-sama?"

"I find it very convenient, to be honest."

"If we have her on our side, we can withstand any enemy!"

"Practicality, Wellyn. Practicality should always—"

"We must keep her presence hidden. No doubt someone will try to—"

"We must ask her for her counsel at once!"

"—wonder if she's connected at all—"

"Are you sure it was her, Maltek?"

"—wonder where she is? Van-sama, you sly fellow, don't tell me you—"

"—to the source of the attack?"

"I tell you, I saw her with my own eyes—"

Van had been afraid that something like this was going to happen. After the war (and even during), Hitomi had become something of a legend. The girl from the Mystic Moon who could predict the future. The girl who possessed such power that she could freeze a Zaibach soldier in his steps simply by looking at him. The girl who slew Emperor Dornkirk using his own destiny-determining machine. The girl who could control the waves of the sea with a single thought.

"Everyone, everyone, settle down," Van said, vainly trying to raise his voice above the hubbub. To his surprise, they immediately fell silent. But they were not looking at him. He followed their gaze to the doorway, where Hitomi stood, clutching the frame, trying to catch her breath. "Van…the city…walls…"

An irate palace maid ran up behind her and curtsied hastily. "Van-sama, please forgive the intrusion. The foreigner girl ran through the palace screaming something about the city falling and said she needed to see you urgently. I tried to stop her, but she was too fast for me."

Hitomi dropped to her knees, and Van leaped from his chair to catch her before she fell to the ground. "Hitomi, what did you see?"

She lifted her face, and her eyes were glazed with tears. "The city walls…they're going to fall."

There was a collective murmur from the table.

"And the land dragons…Fanelia will be overrun with land dragons. There are soldiers still out there, Van! You need to call them back! They'll die if you don't!"

"Our men are more than equipped to handle land dragons, girl," Sabin said reassuringly.

"Not these," she said. "There are too many. They're coming in packs. And they're hungry. They're going to attack everyone they see."

Garva pushed his chair away from the table to get a better look at Hitomi. "Did you see who attacked the city wall?"

"No, I didn't."

"What about the land dragons? Is someone controlling them? Leading them on, perhaps?"

"I didn't see anything."

"Did you see anything else? A crest, a flag? Weapons of any sort?"

Hitomi held a balled-up fist to her mouth and could only shake her head silently.

Van gave the head of intelligence a significant look. "Garva. Not now, please." He rose and addressed the two generals. "Sabin, Maltek, I need you to call back the troops stationed in the city right away."

"But Van-sama, the enemy—"

"There is no enemy. We need to recall our men, or we'll lose them to the dragons."

"As you say, Your Highness," Sabin replied. The two men bowed and lumbered out of the room.

Not long after the generals left, there was a deafening roar, like the sound of a massive landslide. Everyone rushed out of the room, and from the large windows in the hall, they saw a cloud of dust rising from the borders of the city. Hitomi watched in horror as the flags which flew high above the city walls toppled like they were made from matchsticks, exactly as her vision predicted. The setting sun made it seem as if the city were set ablaze, even though there was no fire. The air rang with the snarls and howls of dragons, which poured out of the forest in a flood of tawny scales and claws. The sky was filled with the flapping of many wings—messenger pigeons, relaying the generals' orders to their troops. But they would not get there fast enough; the cries of the dragons were soon joined by the shouts of soldiers fighting for their lives.

Hitomi thought of Ardonis, a boy barely old enough to shave, whose armor was several sizes too large for him. He was probably out there, and he was going to die. No, she thought, clutching her head. No, this can't be happening!

"Hitomi?" The last thing she saw, before blacking out, was Van's worried face, wavering and blending with blood-red sky.

-

When Hitomi awoke, she was lying on a couch with a damp towel on her forehead. Van was sitting by her head, wringing another towel over a small tub of water on his lap. The room was dimly lit by a muted fire in the fireplace, a dying flame on a bed of embers. It seemed that she was back in Van's sitting room. Merle was perched on a chair opposite to her, catlike, watching them.

"Ah, you're awake," Van said as she removed the towel from her forehead.

Remembering the land dragons, she quickly sat up in alarm. Her head began to feel woozy, and she groped the back of the couch for support.

"Don't sit up so fast," Van said, steadying her with one hand. "You're going to make yourself pass out again."

"The soldiers. What happened to the soldiers?" Her head throbbed. All she could hear was the alarmed cries of the soldiers echoing in her mind.

"Most of them made it back to the palace safely, thanks to you. We lost the ones who held the dragons at bay while the rest of them retreated."

Her arms, trembling like wet noodles with relief, buckled under her and she would have collapsed, were it not for Van holding her up. "And the dragons? Won't they come up to the palace?"

"They shouldn't be able to. We've closed the inner city gates. Besides, we're on top of a plateau, and the stairs are too narrow and steep for them to climb. The townspeople have taken refuge in the caves. There's an underground stream, so they will have water. There should be enough food stored away to feed them for at least a week. In the meantime, I've alerted Asturia about our situation."

"Van…I'm so sorry…"

"There's nothing to be sorry about. You saved us, Hitomi."

"But…Fanelia…you worked so hard to restore Fanelia…"

"The city is just a city. As long as Fanelia's people are safe, we'll be all right."

Hitomi blinked and dashed the tears from her eyes. Even though he didn't look much different, Van had changed in the last few years as well. He seemed…older. Much less hot-headed than the boy she had known back then. Perhaps it came with being a ruler of a country, or maybe it was the influence of his more seasoned advisors.

But if he could be strong, then so could she. Straightening, she said, "Van, whatever is happening here, let me help."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I must have been called back for a reason."

He smiled, the second time she had seen him smile that day. It was a beautiful thing to see; it transformed him completely. She suspected that other people rarely saw this side of him. "When you're here, Hitomi," he said, taking her hand, "I feel like anything is possible."

His sentiment was so unexpected that she did not know how to respond. Five years ago, it would have made her girlish heart flutter. But now…

Her eyes strayed to their hands. Thank goodness she had taken off her ring earlier, for he had grabbed her left hand. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of red coming toward her, and something landed in her lap.

"My purse!" she exclaimed, and turned an accusing look on Merle, who had thrown it.

"You dropped it when you were running," the cat replied, and stretched lazily.

"Thank you, Merle. I—"

"Oh yeah, you dropped this, too." Merle tossed something at Hitomi that sparkled in the light of the fireplace as it arced across the room.

Hitomi caught it with both hands, and when she saw what it was, her stomach sank. Cradled in her hands was a band of gold whose two ends, instead of meeting in a complete circle, were slightly offset and overlapped, the space between them bridged by a diamond flanked by two smaller ones. She looked back at Merle, who gazed back placidly with an expression as immobile as stone.

"What's that?" Van asked curiously.

How did the saying go? Curiosity killed the cat. Or the curious cat killed…

Trapped between Merle's knowing stare and Van's innocent question, Hitomi could avoid it no longer. "Van, there's something I've been meaning to tell you." She took a deep breath and slipped the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand. The diamonds winked like three crystal eyes, mocking her for her indecision, her hypocrisy. "I'm engaged, Van. I'm engaged to someone else."