Meanwhile, back on the surface…
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Chapter 10: Angel's Brilliant Idea
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Angel was feeling pretty irked that she still wasn't getting anything more from her vibe. It was the only vibe that she could find and it wasn't telling her anything that she didn't already know. Something was wrong with the elder: that much was clear. She just didn't know what.
Maybe I should ask mom and daddy for help now, She thought and looked across the room at her parents. Their behavior was troubling her as well. Rosa hadn't spoken since they'd returned to the tower, and she looked very tired and worried. Cecil's eyes darted around the room constantly, never staying the same place for more than five seconds, and the slightest sound or movement caught his attention.
They're nervous, Angel realized, tuning into how tense the room now seemed. They're expecting something; I know it. What vibe are they catching? She wondered, combing the space around her for a new vibe. When she didn't find one she assumed that whatever her parents were catching was too small for her to find.
"What's going on?" She asked, breaking the seemingly eternal silence.
"What?" Cecil asked, somewhat sleepily, coming out of his stupor. "I'm sorry, Angel, I didn't catch that." He said, pushing his white-blonde hair out of his face.
"I asked what's going on. You and mom are catching a vibe and I want to know what it is," Angel explained.
"It's not a vibe," Cecil said and rubbed his eyes.
"Than what is it?" Angel asked.
"I don't know; it's just a feeling that something's terribly wrong. I got a vibe, but I only saw the elder. There was nothing else," Cecil explained.
"So you caught that one too," Angel remarked.
"What do you mean?" Cecil asked.
"I mean that I got that one too. Know what it means?" She asked. Cecil shook his head.
"By the way, way didn't you tell me about finding that vibe?" He asked.
"I wanted to test myself; I thought that that was a good opportunity to do it," Angel explained.
"Next time you pick up something like that, I'd prefer it if you told me or your mother," Cecil requested. Angel nodded.
"I'm scared about what it means. What if it's something really bad?" Angel said.
"Then we'll handle it together; like a family," Cecil told her.
Angel felt secure in this knowledge. If they all worked together as a team, a family, they'd be able to face whatever was coming.
Of that, she was very sure.
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Beneath the water, Sefi was having her own problems with Artiria. For a queen whose king had mysteriously vanished, had poison killing the populous, and numerous other things to worry about, she was making it a point to get as much information about the purple haired girl as she could. Sefi didn't really like people (or dolphins) prying into her life, especially when there was trouble at hand that she could help fix.
I thought she needed help with sharks. Now there would be a challenging task for me, she thought.
"I've never heard of dark archers," Artiria said softly. "What exactly do they do?" She asked.
"They're like dark knights, only the use a bow and arrows," Sefi said, trying to mask how irritated she was with the queen.
"What do you mean, bow and arrows? I've heard of a dark knight, but a dark archer? Is that possible?" Artiria asked.
"Of course, it's possible; I'm proving it. I invented it, and I'm doing it, aren't I?" Sefi asked angrily. This remark earned her a harsh slap on the mouth from Artiria's long blue tail.
"What on earth was that for?" Sefi demanded.
"I was just asking. I'm a dolphin; I'm curious by nature. If something is new, I immediately question it. Why get angry with me for wanting to know something that I don't already know? When I've asked you the same questions four or five tomes, then you can yell at me," Artiria explained calmly, but with an air that clearly said, "I am the queen. I am powerful. You do as I say or you will regret it."
"Now then," Artiria said, settling back down on her rock and looking Sefi squarely in her dark blue eyes, "Do you have a question to ask?"
Sefi thought for a moment, trying to figure out what the queen meant. Then she realized what she needed to ask.
"Will you forgive me?" She asked.
"Yes, I do. You are still a calf; I do not expect you to understand these things right away," Artiria said nonchalantly. To Sefi, the dolphin sounded a bit like Rosa. She wondered if Artiria had any calves of her own. Surely she must, if she's a queen.
"How would any other sea creature act if they were talking with me?" Sefi asked.
"Every type of marine life reacts a different way to things: we dolphins, as I said, are naturally curious. If something is new, we question it, ask about it, and learn about it. The fish take it as it is and go about things as if nothing is new. For them, it's, 'Oh look, something new is there. That's the way it is now. Be careful not to run into it'. The seagulls take one look at it and want it; they'll fight for what they want until there's only one left and he can't even remember what it was he wanted to begin with. And if the sharks want something, they take it.
"If the fish see you, they will ignore you for the most part; the friendly ones will say hello and ask for your name, but they'll mostly leave you alone. If the seagulls see you, they will crowd around you, and ask you to come away with them so that they can have you. And if the sharks see you, they will take you away, no questions from you or anyone else," Artiria explained to Sefi, who was wide eyed at this point. "If the sharks decide that they want you, they will take you, whether you want them to or not. And no one will come to help you. So, if you see a shark, kill it before it takes you away. Because no one will save you, and you'll never come back," She cautioned.
"I'll remember that," Sefi promised. "It shouldn't be too hard, but I suppose that it never hurts," She added.
Artiria nodded. "Wise words, for a calf. You strike me as someone who's seen things beyond her kingdom… Perhaps things that one so young doesn't usually see," She mused.
"I have lived through quite a bit recently. It's a rather long story," Sefi said.
"Your friends are gone for a while, and there are no sharks about: I have time," Artiria said, settling into a comfy position on her rock. "Sit down and tell me about it," She said, flapping her tail on the rock.
Sefi sat down on the rock (it felt nice to be sitting after floating in mid-water for so long) and began telling the story of those two weeks, two months earlier.
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Palom and Porom found their way to a deep under-water valley, filled with large rocks, in very little time. They'd both expected something to happen, but everything looked pretty still, and didn't look like it was going to get interesting.
"So, what do we do now?" Palom asked his sister, who usually had a good answer to things.
Porom shook her head. "I have no idea. If something happened, then maybe I'd have something to work with. The well's dry right now," She said.
"Maybe we should try and move one of the boulders," Palom suggested. Porom nodded, willing to try most ideas that her brother had, and they swam closer to the rocky valley. They were both cut off and sent backwards by a strong protection spell, so they couldn't get in.
"Now what?" Palom demanded angrily to no one in particular.
"Palom, calm down. We'll think of something," Porom assured her fuming brother, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, you're right. We always do," Palom agreed.
"I wonder how everyone else is doing," Porom mused, looking back up to the top of the water, now nearly five miles above her head.
"If we know them (and we do), they're all perfectly fine. I wouldn't worry," Palom said.
"I know, but something doesn't feel right. Like that first time we went to Baron, and that guy betrayed us. Blast! I can never think of his name," Porom muttered.
"It's that bad, eh?" Palom asked. "I'm sure they'll be capable of handling whatever's up there; two paladins, a white mage and a dragoon can't be easy to beat," Palom reminded Porom.
"Yeah, but still…" Porom said, trailing off. They'll have to be good enough to beat whatever's coming. This feels really, really bad, she thought.
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Angel had been doing a smart bit of thinking about the whole situation. She was wondering if maybe, since Leviathan had something to do with things, they should somehow call Rydia to come and help. But Eblan and Mysidia were very far apart; it could take days for Rydia to get to Mysidia. And besides: Rydia was two months pregnant. Why trouble her over this? It wasn't her problem.
But she could be of so much help to us right now, Angel argued with herself. A connection to Leviathan could speed up the conclusion of this whole thing. But, then again, it would take her forever to get here; the reef's as good as gone, whether she comes or not. On the other hand, she knows some magic; maybe she could get here faster if she used it? Then again…
"Daddy, I need to ask you something," She said to Cecil, who was now pacing back and forth across the floor.
"Yes?" He asked, stopping in mid step and looking up at her.
"Do you think that we should call Rydia for help?" Angel asked, knowing that Cecil could end this tiresome debate with herself with one little word.
"That's a good idea. I think we should try it," Cecil said, clearly impressed with the idea. "I'll go and ask the elder if he'll help," He added, momentarily forgetting that something was wrong with the elder.
The elder had been in the kitchen, brewing a strange smelling tea. He was now leaning against the counter, drinking the substance greedily from a big cup. When Cecil entered the kitchen, the elder looked up at his and asked gruffly, "What do you want?" Then he went right back to the drink.
"Angel had an idea," Cecil explained. "She thought that maybe we could call on our friend, Rydia, for help."
"Why would you want to do that?" The elder asked, going back to his drink again.
"Because she's a summoner, and she knows Leviathan," Cecil said, thinking that the elder would have known that. The elder choked on his tea and started coughing hard.
He regained his composure and asked in a clam voice, "Now, why on earth would you want to do that?"
"Because, if Leviathan has something to do with this, and Rydia knows him, she could help us," Cecil explained, now very confused, and remembering that the elder wasn't quite himself right now.
"And who said anything about Leviathan?" The elder asked, eyeing Cecil suspiciously.
"The dolphin. She said that their king answers to Leviathan," Cecil explained, feeling vexed.
"Oh… Yes, I remember now," The elder said reluctantly. "But still: I'm sure you don't need her help. You're a paladin. You can solve this on your own," He chided, pouring more tea into his cup, even though it wasn't halfway empty.
"Yes, we do need Rydia's help. If we don't get her help, this crisis could last for a very long time," Angel reasoned.
The elder paused, and said, "Fine; there's a calling glass in my study, upstairs. Call on her if you must."
"Thank you," Angel said quickly, and ran up the narrow stairs, rousing Kain from his doze at the bottom of the steps.
"Wha-? It was Golbez, not me," He said, raising his hands in the air, as a sign of surrender.
"I know it wasn't you," Angel assured her uncle, and continued up the stairs.
"There's really no point in calling your summoner friend," The elder said from the bottom of the stairs. "There's no point in trying to fix this problem if you haven't succeeded already."
Angel turned and glared down at the elder, a disbelieving look on her face. "Give up?" She shouted, knowing that this couldn't be the elder. "No way! There's a way to do this; we just need a little help," She said and kept running.
"But," The elder began, but Angel cut him off.
"So you want this to go on?" She asked scornfully. The elder opened his mouth to say something, but he snapped his jaw closed and mumbled,
"Go about your business." Then he stormed back to the kitchen.
Probably to drink more of that tea, Angel thought.
"What was that all about?" Kain asked, confused and a bit drowsy.
"It's nothing," Cecil dismissed, and followed his daughter up the stairs. "We'll be back later," He said over his shoulder, and he and Angel vanished through a door.
The study walls were lined with bookshelves, with all manner of old, leather-bound books. There was an unlit fireplace by the back wall, with a high-backed chair in front of it. In the corner was a big, wooden frame of some kind, with a big glass plate standing on it, like a mirror.
"That would be the calling glass," Cecil said, pointing to the wooden frame and walking over to it, beckoning Angel to follow him. She trotted after him, marveling at the structure. The wood was a deep, dark brown color, and the clear oval glass was so white against the wood that it was almost painful to look at. However, the more she looked at it, the more she could see a slight flicker a white magic in the glass.
I wonder what we're going to do, She thought.
Cecil began chanting a spell beneath his breath; Angel wasn't sure which spell it was though. She knew that her father's knowledge of white magic spells was limited, and she couldn't guess which one he'd use on the calling glass.
"Sight," Cecil said in a clear voice, laying his hand on the glass. The magic in the glass flashed brightly, almost reluctantly, and the glass fogged up so thickly that Angel felt as if fog were clinging to her skin.
"Show me Rydia, the summoner queen of Eblan," Cecil requested the glass in a voice that was still clear, but a bit more relaxed than when he'd cast the sight spell. The fog began to shrink away from the glass leaving the surface clear and sparkling once more.
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Rydia was gazing out of her bedroom window at the sparkling blue expanse of the sea, which lay less than five or six miles away from the castle. All around the island, there was nothing going on. No monsters, no storms, no wars, nothing.
And that was Rydia's problem: there was nothing going on. And even if there was something going on, no one would have let her help because of the baby. She was bored out of her mind, and it didn't look like her day was going to get any more exciting than it was now.
The door opened, and one of the castle maids walked in. "My lady, the calling stone in the white magic lab is requesting your presence," She said, but that was code for, "Someone's calling you".
"I'll be right there," Rydia said, turning away from the window and moving slowly to the door; having her equilibrium so off kilter was strange, and she was still getting used to it.
"Do you need any help?" The maid asked, knowing that several flights of stairs lay between Rydia and the white magic lab, and that stairs weren't the queen's cup of tea right now.
"Oh I'll be fine," Rydia assured the maid, and began chanting under her breath. "Teleport," she said, and disappeared.
When her world stopped spinning she was standing outside the white magic lab.
I knew that I re-learned that spell for a reason, she grinned to herself, opening the door and walking in.
All the mages in the room looked up from what they were doing and bowed to the queen. "None of that please," She told them all. "If I told you once, I've told you all one thousand times," She added as the mages stood up and went about their business. The head mage came forward, and escorted her to the other side of the room.
"It's only protocol, you know. And we white mages take protocol very seriously," He reminded her.
"I know, but I've never really gotten used to everyone treating me like a princess whenever I walk into a room," Rydia said, blushing a little.
"But you're a queen! What did you expect?" The head mage asked.
"I don't know," Rydia said, feeling flustered. "I just… Give me some room to make no sense: I'm pregnant. Isn't someone calling me?" She asked.
"Yes; I think it's the king and princess of Baron," He noted.
"Really?" Rydia asked, wondering and worried about why they would call her.
"Come right this way," The head mage said and led her to another room, where a calling glass hung on the wall. In its reflection, she could see Cecil and Angel look into the glass.
I wonder how long they've been waiting for me; they look anxious, She thought.
"I'll let myself out," The mage said, and left the room.
Rydia came closer and walked to the glass and looked into it. "Can you two see and hear me?" She asked.
"Bright and clear, as always," Angel said, grinning.
"You both look worried; what's going on?" Rydia asked.
"Something's happening in Mysidia, and we think that Leviathan can help us," Cecil explained. "How fast can you get to Mysidia?" He asked.
Rydia's eyes lit up and she said, "Faster than you can blink. I'll be there before the day's out." She quickly left the room to tell Edge that she needed to borrow Falcon.
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Yay! Rydia's back in the story! Don't you just love that?
So, anyways, things are about to get suspenseful; both above and below the water. You're all going to love it!
And I'm sorry that it took so long to finally finish this chapter. I've had serious writer's block, and I don't get time on the computer every day. My mom's having a baby next month, so I have a lot of cooking and cleaning to do solo. It's not a Cinderella story, but it does takes up a ton of my time
So, off to another exciting chapter! Hasta la Vista, babies!