A Little Reprieve

Nothing much had changed once they got to Merlin's dwelling, to spite her current anger at Riku, Sora swore that she was going to make him pay when he least expected it. Her threats were greeted by Riku's laughter and a 'bring it' gesture that earned him a death glare. Cloud and Leon were watching the seen unfold from a safe distance and were a bit humored when Riku got a foot in the back on one of his knees.

Sora acted completely innocent, but Riku knew better that was a 'you just wait till we get back to the island.' He knew it was all an act but he was still going to get it from her on the bridal style escort thing. Merlin had already given Sora the antidote for the poison and was now digging through his bag looking for a book no doubt to try and identify Sora's attacker or find out what happened to Sora.

You could hear the occasional 'no that's not it' and the 'I know its here somewhere' eventually he stopped bringing out books and started digging trough various scrolls. One in particular was about the old gods and there was one that had an inserting image, and when Riku saw that one he poked Sora and pointed it out.

Sora snickered at the text on it, as Riku was trying to hold in his laughter. "eh what's going on…" asked Merlin as he noticed the scroll in question and hastily retrieved it and shoved I back into his bag. "Well er!"

"Oh face it you were caught red handed." Said Cloud who couldn't stop laughing when he noticed the lettering on the scroll. "Besides what would an old wizard do with a female anatomy scroll anyway?"

"Hay I was serious when I said ALL written knowledge." he defended and walked over to Sora. "Besides this will come in very handy in the instance that this… " he poked Sora causing her to fall over. "…can't be reversed."

Sora just huffed at the old wizard. "keh this is nothing, I'm still going to be Sora." She said with a brad grin, proving her statement. There were a few coughs and a 'she's got ya there old man' witch probably came from either Cloud or Riku.

After digging some more Merlin found what he was looking for and almost threw it into the pile of scrolls when he stopped himself with a "ah-ha, well how about that Archimedes! Told you I had it!"

The old owl huffed, "just because you have a scroll that identifies the mysterious seal on Sora's back doesn't mean it will tell you anything about the kid's predicament if it could be called that. Advice to the wise girly, run before he starts using his magic!"

Sora and Riku laughed as the old owl retreated to his home before Merlin smacked it with his cane turning it into a birdcage with no door. Of course poor Archimedes was trapped inside, and he wasn't a happy bird.

Merlin snickered at the prank he played on the now very angry owl; he walked over to the table and gestured for everyone to fallow him. "Well now that the peanut galley has been silenced… lets see what this has to say about the seals origin shall we!" He opened the ancient scroll witch had acquired quite the bit of dust yet looked almost fairly new. Merlin skimmed the scroll for a while than pointed out a phrase that read 'to the Aeon of the Summoner's house a light will point' and a similar seal was beside it only it appeared to highlight a area on it.

"Normally as it says the Aeon of the house of the Summoner will be shown in the seal, but hers where we encounter our first issue with yours Sora. Yours isn't a tattoo nor is it on the arm. But saying as it was the Aeon's that made these seals it might be them that will know more about it. However I can tell you that this is not a curse cast but one broken."

Merlin than threw the anatomy scroll at Sora who cough it with a confused and slightly embarrassed look on her face. "you will need that more than I, Please do return it later thou. As for the Aeon there is one group living atop the clock tower they have taken to helping it be repaired and will live with in the tower, but your interest is in finding out about the seal on your back.

I will book a room for you at the inn I suggest you get some rest and head out to the tower tomorrow." Merlin turned to the boys, "Cloud I want you to patrol the town if you find any of throws things I want them destroyed, Riku I think it only suitable that you serve as Sora's Bodyguard Watch her back you got that."

Riku nodded and Merlin continued, "Leon Tell Yuffie that Sora has arrived, be sure to inform her of the Blade master's current condition we wouldn't want to surprise her. now that that's settled I'll meet you all here in the morning we will work our a traveling party later."

Sora and Riku took Merlin's advice on the room, mostly because they were confused, a curse broken that meant that for some odd reason someone sought to hide Sora in a rather humorous and deviously clever way. The seal not being a tattoo could mean that it was the Aeon's that hid Sora, and, well the way was too simple for a Aeon. Yet that's what made it perfect, no creator would dare suspect and Aeon would foresee the danger Sora was in and decide to hide the child as a boy.

Riku snickered and Sora just looked at him as if something was wrong. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"Nothing much," he replied "it just seams odd that a Aeon would decide to use a curse as a type of shield."

"You are going to have to run that one by me again" Sora stopped walking and grabbed Riku's arm turning him so he could look at her. "What do you mean an Aeon.

"Sora don't you think it's odd that an Aeon's Seal is on your back and it isn't a tattoo, none the less that it wasn't there before."

"Ya that does seem a little strange I suppose we are going to have to speak with my mother." Sora started walking again followed by Riku who was keeping a close eye out for any of the mysterious Black men.

"Speaking of why does you mother insist on you calling her by her name when she is in front of her friends?"

"Don't look at me; I'm still wondering why she never told me I was a girl!"

Riku broke out in laughter while Sora started to snicker, after that they agreed that the first thing that needed to be done after they got the hotel room was a silent agreement between the two of them so they didn't have to run into any unforeseen complications.