Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia or the characters.
"Where are we heading to next?"
It had been a few days since we had brought Mithos to the hospital. They treated us well, but I could sense that they were getting anxious.
"We're pretty far from anything," Yuan said. "At least, in Tethe'alla. The closest temple is..." As he put his finger on the map, his face went pale, and he shook his head. "No. That can't be it. Not this early."
I took a glimpse at the map, and I understood. The next temple was the Temple of Water. Dear Yuan had been afraid since he was a little boy. It was why, he would later tell me, he had chosen to fight with lightning magic in the first place.
"The next closest is the other side of the continent," I said. I wanted to help him, I really did, but I knew that it would be so much more trouble. Not to mention that we were planning on making pacts with all of the summon spirits. We had to face them at some point.
He was quiet for a moment, then he sighed. I think the look that Martel was giving him- what some might call 'puppy dog eyes'- helped too. "All right, we'll go this way. But I'm gonna roast some monsters when we're there." I gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder as he mumbled, "Perhaps I'll work up the courage on the way there."
"You've got a couple days," I said, and I glanced towards the door. "The boat buying place is right outside." He let out a groan.
"I'm sorry," the man at the counter said, though he didn't look very sorry, "we don't have any boats left. Not for..." He didn't need to finish that sentence. We walked away, and I saw the hurt in Martel's eyes. I may not have had the excellent sight that she did or the magic, but I didn't have to feel the pain of being rejected because of my race.
"I thought that you could get us stuff," Mithos told me gently. I just shook my head.
"We're pretty far from the castle here," I explained. "In fact, we're approaching the border. Pretty soon, we'll be in Sylvarant territory." Mithos turned away. I looked away, and that was when I noticed the two men approaching the counter.
"We'd like a boat, please?"
They were unmistakable, even though I had only seen them a few times. Tall, dressed in white, similar red hair. The only difference between them was the smile on one of their faces. I tugged on Martel's sleeve, pointing her to the two men.
"Remember how we were talking about Aurion's sons?" I nodded towards the two men. "Those are them." She frowned. I doubted even she could tell them apart. Then she smiled and walked over to them. I don't know what she said, but the man with the frown turned and said something that made the man at the desk go pale.
"Yes, sir," he said. "One boat for you and your friends right away." Mithos was staring with wide eyes. Martel bounced over with the two men in tow. The smiling man waved at us.
"And you were just saying that Tethe'allan power couldn't get you anything here!" Mithos said, laughing at me. I felt a blush come over my cheeks at his words, but the frowning man- okay, I'm just going to call him One; his smiling sibling we'll just call Two- let out a small laugh.
"Not because I'm a knight of Tethe'alla, my friend; it helps when the man realized I was carrying a sword." Mithos looked wide-eyed at the sword at the man's hip. I had had my sword hidden. Figures.
"We were heading to the Temple of Water ourselves," Two said. "It's the way that most people cross into Sylvarant. Why are you guys heading there?"
We exchanged a glance. Should we tell these powerful men about our journey to end the war? Should we tell them how close we were coming? Well, close was relative...
Mithos spoke up, "We'll talk about it on the boat." And he bounded off to the boat that we were going to take. The twins shrugged, and we were on our way.
I was sitting at the front of the boat, lost in the memories. It had been a boat like this that I had first come to Tethe'alla. I thought to change my life once Yuan had left and Kratos had gone away.
"Care for a spar?"
I looked over to the man, One, and grinned. It had been a while since I had gotten my chance to actually practice with a sword in a spar; not since we had left the castle. "You're on."
Soon, we were sparring. It felt exhilirating, moving with my sword, moving with my sword, fighting with someone who matched my moves. I knew I was pretty good with a sword, but he was just as good.
I noticed after a while that a crowd was watching us. In particular, Mithos could not take his eyes off of One. Finally, One threw up his hands in surrender and sheathed his sword. "Good match, Lady," he said with a good natured grin. I took a bow for the crowd.
Immediately, Mithos ran up to One. "Can you teach me how to do that?" The man looked over to Martel, who nodded.
"All right, Kid. I'll show you some moves once we get back on dry land. I'm a little worn out now." With that, he headed off. I just sighed and looked back out.
"You?"
Yuan had holed himself up in a cabin when he had walked on. He had hardly seen anything, but now he saw One leaving the cabin. One looked at him in surprise and then turned to me. "You're travelling with him?"
And then Two walked out of the cabin, and Yuan jumped back in terror. "He's multiplied!"
"You three know each other?" Martel asked; I wondered if she knew which one was her missing friend. Neither of them had looked at her like they recognized her.
Yuan gritted his teeth and then turned away. "We fought, when I was a soldier for Sylvarant. I suppose I didn't realize there were two of them."
"They're twins-" I started to say, but One just went on arguing.
"You abandoned your people? What else should I expect of a child born of Sylvarant," One said, turning away. I had known Yuan so long, but I had never seen anger like that.
"I left because I was tired of the bloodshed! I left so that I can do something to end this stupid war!" he snarled. "And we're on our way. That's why we're here." Well, I guess the debate about whether we were going to tell them or not was over...
"Oh?" Two walked over to him. His eyes were bright as he examined him, and then he asked, "What exactly are you going to do? We lost our parents fighting," my heart hurt at his words, how casually he said them; it was all too common an occurrence, just like me; "if there's a chance that we could help end this war..." Even Yuan seemed stunned by his words. For a man who he had once fought against, he had a certain... I'd dare to say innocence about him. Kindness.
"Will you help us?" Yuan asked quietly, and Two looked towards his brother.
"We will do what we can."
"Well, it looks like we only have thing left to do," I said, trying to be cheerful. "Make the pact."
And so we began on our way.
This temple was far easier than the Darkness Temple. Yuan wasn't kidding when he said that he was going to roast some monsters. As we went into each battle, he was the first on the battle, smashing away with his strange sword, his lightning flickering around him. The twins fought side by side. Rarely did one move two feet away before his brother would try to smash in the monster's face.
As we came to Undine, she was already waiting for us. Mithos bowed before the spirit.
"We must battle before we make a pact."
"Undine, will you allow my friends to battle alongside me?" Mithos spoke up. "They do not carry the blood of summoners, but it is them who hold the dream which I fight for."
"If they are willing to fight alongside you, then I will allow it." And we all let out a sigh of relief.
And thus the battle begin. We all jumped forward, swords drawn. I jumped past the water thrown my way, which Yuan was zapping as fast as they were coming, and headed for the spirit herself. I noticed the sword in her hand, and I drew my own blade. Good thing I had gotten in practice.
She swung her sword over Mithos's head, but I brought my own up, blocking her path. At least I could hit her.
The battle was quick. The sixth of us weren't quite in tandem, but we managed to get the job done. And Undine stood before our summoner and said, "Make your vow."
"I vow to use your power to protect the world," Mithos said, and Undine was gone. We all let out a breath. Three spirits down, five to go.
And Two turned to us with that ever bright smile and said, "You know, I hear this is a popular destination for tourists. I think we deserve a rest."
As Yuan and Mithos went off to find a hotel, I went to look at the geyser. It felt like it had been a world ago when I had last been here. I couldn't imagine that I would be here trying to save our world; how was I to imagine that we'd be well on our way to it? I was just a girl with a dream of becoming something; I thought my dream had come a lot closer when I had been here last, and the man I called my husband had asked for my hand. Goodness, when was the last time I had seen him? Or my child? They had been away from the castle, and I had left.
Martel came up to me. "Isn't it pretty?" I smiled at her. "Sorry, did I disturb you?"
"Not at all. I was just thinking about my family. It's been a long time since I've seen them. It reminded me of them."
"Why would here remind you? Aren't you from Tethe'alla?"
"From Sylvarant. It was a number of years ago, actually. I loved my home, but I needed to get away." Why shouldn't I have? "Yuan was training to be a knight; I didn't know where his brother had gone off to. His family... My family- their parents had taken me in when I was little- was good to be. But home was empty without them. So I left. I wanted to find my own place. And I went to Tethe'alla, where I met my husband. And there I stayed and had my own little family."
"That does explain a lot. Yuan didn't tell us a lot about himself; I didn't even know he had a brother." We all had a personal stories, painful secrets that we didn't need to tell the world. I just shrugged.
"I was thinking of my husband. He proposed to me here." I looked out to the geyser, as beautiful as it was. "And my daughter." She was young, younger than Mithos. "I wonder if I'll get to take her here, when the war is over." Privately, I wondered if I would get to see them again. I didn't want to say that out loud, lest I make the fear come true.