Disclaimer: i do not own LoM... etc etc etc

Fonts in italic are for character's thought

"Ange."

"Ange."

"Yes, Kain..?" I saw Ange turning around and faced me to see what I want to say to her.

"Uhhh… I was wondering if you want to go Leires with me." I asked her because it's been a while since I've go adventuring with her. I kind of missed our times together now.

"Yeah, sure. But one question though." Well, I've certainly relieved to hear her answer and now I signed for her to continue with her question.

"Why Leires though? Why not somewhere else?"

I pondered on her question for a while. I'm not thinking about the destination really so I can't really answer her question. She's right… why do I have to pick tower of Leires of all places…

"I dunno… Do you want to go somewhere else..? That's fine by me. I just want to go somewhere with you." I knew my answer was off and I saw her jaw dropped a bit. Maybe she's not expecting that kind of answer from me.

"That's odd… Usually you go somewhere with a concrete reason. Now you just asked me to go somewhere but not having a good reason to go there."

"Ange… I told you… IF you want to go somewhere else… it's ok with me." I found myself getting a bit angry at her statement, I knew that she's right about it but still I didn't like her making me like someone so cold and calculating that always do cold and harsh judgment on everything.

"Ok… you don't have to get upset about it… I'm sorry if I made you mad."

Looking at her, I felt really guilty at biting back her remark. Aghh… Why am I this hopeless… I asked her out not to made her feel bad…Man, I'm such a jerk.

"Ahh… right… Sorry, it's not your fault, Ange. I shouldn't get angry over something like that. So where to Ange?"

Seeing her face relaxed again made me a little bit relieved.

"Leires is fine by me too. I'll get geared up first then we'll head there okay..?"

She smiled as she strode to her room to pick whatever equipment she felt like using today. I nod at her and went to my room.

I wonder if I should bring any instrument today. I probably should, but which one… hmmm Wisp perhaps...? Yeah… I definitely have to bring Wisp. Hmm… maybe two more… I'll just bring Jinn and Undine I guess…and I'll bring that book too.

"Kain….! Are you done yet..?" Ange's voice broke my thoughts and I just grabbed at my instrument and things that I wanted to brought before I replied to her.

"Yeah… I'll be out in a sec."

We walked there while chatting about things that just recently happened to us. Like Larc trying to get her to hunt the windcaller. There's me that have to deal with Daena and Escad. We talked about all sorts of things, I just felt like, we haven't done this for a long time since we've been quite busy with our own life.

"Say, do you know what Bud and Lisa did yesterday?" She asked since I was out to Gato as usual.

"No, did they do something weird?" I asked with suspicion in my tone whatever the kids were doing, they must be up to something mischievous.

"Well, I don't think you would consider what they are doing as weird but maybe out of character…" She trailed and I know she's trying to pick my curiosity.

"And that was…?" I conceded to satisfy my sister and my curiosity. There's no harm anyway in knowing what the kids were doing.

"They're studying some magic book that you gave them earlier in the months. That's strange right….?" She asked while looking at me, I knew she's expecting some kind of reaction from me and I knew, I'll give her something to be very amused for a while. Laughter built up within me and before I knew it, I was bursting with laughter. Ange smirked at me and joined in the laughter soon afterward. We walked in laughter for a while and stopped not long after we saw Leires in the distance. I found that life was going to be great if things just continued like this.

--

Then Kain and Angelique had met Pearl in Leires Tower's entrance and she asked them to accompany her to the Fate's Room.

"Is there something that you wanted to do there, Pearl?" Kain asked her suddenly and it surprised her as she jumped a little. Blushing a bit, she replied softly to his question, "My past… I want to know my past…"

"Your past…? Do you forget about it?" Angelique asked Pearl after hearing her answer, since it was interesting that Pearl wanted to know her past. Her only answer was a sigh and more blush. They strode in silence, Kain protected Pearl while assisting Angelique defeating the monsters as they proceeded to the top level. When they reached the top level, Angelique asked Kain, what's that big door in front of them.

"That's the door of fate."

"The door of fate..?" Angelique's cluelessness was normal for him but what surprised him was when he wanted to answer her answer more clearly. Pearl beat him to it.

"It is the door that can tell someone what they wish to know. But only one. Be it their future, present or past… It is said only people who are ready and had strong will that can open the door."

As Pearl explained, Angelique just mouthed 'o' and nodded at the end of her explanation.

"Then… shouldn't you open the door, Pearl? You wanted to know your past right…"

Nodding, Pearl went to the door and tried to pull the door .It seemed that it could not be pull. She tried to push it but to no avail the door won't even budge.

"I guess, I'm not strong enough…"

Looking downcast, Pearl looked like she wanted to cry, seeing her like this Kain went to comfort her that it is okay while Angelique breezed through them and tried to open the door. To her much disbelief, the door opened and she turned back to smile and dragged Pearl to the room. In the room, there was a big chair like those of the kings in the past and the murals in the floor was of battle long ago… There they saw a girl, clad in almost black but her hair was almost like Pearl but she had black pearl adorned instead of white pearl. Pearl rushed to her but the girl turned her head away when there's a black smoke appeared in the room.

"Watch out! It might be necromancy… Pearl, you stay there. Stay out of the battle." Kain screamed as he chanted some protective spell around Pearl and readied for battle. Then a big centaur like creature appeared and it seemed to be nimble enough to swipe them in one shot. They fought the battle intensely, dodging and attacking while they can. Angelique shot her arrow at his leg to try to slow him down a bit.

"Damn.. he can jump well…"

"Ange, can you stall enough time…? I'll try to cast some spell on him. I don't know what might hit him so I'll just weakened him then you can finish him." Kain yelled so that Angelique could hear him while silently he started chanting.

"For how long..?" Angelique turned her head to see his brother, and she saw him point out 2 finger.

"I'll try to hold out that long…"

For her that was one of the longest 2 minutes in her life until Kain yelled her to move back.

As light glowed around Kain, he finished the chant, "ave mor dulce ish… ishnah patrinum sedus quinte avoic, chains of darkness hear my plea… chain my enemy to thy bound and made him succumb to your power. Blind him, torture him, and made him writhe the agony of the coven mistress when it was the banishment of the witches. Oblivion's crucifixion."

Dark light surrounded Kain then it slowly moved to engulf the centaur. When it completely covered it, it howled painfully and when the black light diminished. Angelique saw the centaur to be bleeding a lot and she was astonished at Kain's spell effect but her amazement didn't last long before loud thud was heard. Looking at her back, she saw Kain writhed in pain, breathing raggedly, and coughed blood.

"Kain…! Kain… are you alright…? What happened…?"

Panic was all over her, she seriously didn't know why Kain became like this he was just casting some spell.

"Ange, finish him off quick… I can't hold it any longer. This spell was killing me."

At his word, Angelique nodded and charged to the centaur and finished him with her 'Main Gun'. After the monster had stopped moving and faded to nothing she rushed to Kain whose now being tended by Pearl.

"Kain… are you alright…? Why…? How…?" She asked between sobs. Angelique was worried for her brother safety and it pained her to know that Kain might die because he cast that stupid spell.

"It's just the effect of the spell. I know, it's going to be dangerous but I can't cast anything else in this room. There's nothing else that can be used…" Kain smiled a wry smile but he soon knew that he had made the wrong choice by using that spell. His face felt wet by something hot, he saw Angelique crying and Pearl looking very close to crying. He heard Pearl soft voice…

"If only I could cry… then perhaps…" Before she could finished her sentence. The door banged revealing a disheveled looking Elazul. Angelique looked up to him and tried to wipe her tears away. When he saw Kain was in Pearl's lap… Elazul strode to Pearl and almost grabbed her by force. If he hadn't seen Kain's condition then he would done so but when he saw Kain's condition then he stopped.

"Elazul, I'm sorry if I worried you…." Pearl's soft voice could be heard in the room.

"Just don't try to run off again by yourself… Let's go…" Elazul said that after helping Kain off Pearl's lap and helping him stand.

"Thanks…" Kain offered while giving Elazul a thankful gaze and a small smile.

"It's quite alright…" Then they descended the levels of Leires slowly so that Kain won't be hurt as much, stopping for a while when he excruciated in pain. They're quite thankful that Kain knew how to work the teleporting devices so they could save the trip and made their journey down faster. After a two hours trip, they finally reached the ground level, and by that time, Kain had recovered quite considerably, he had been able to walk although not very fast but he managed to stand on his own. Now, insisting that he didn't want to be a burden. They met with Sandra and her jewel beast at the entrance of the tower.

"Sandra…!" Kain shouted angrily, wincing in pain at the same time.

"Ahh… pleasure to see you again… although you look quite injured yourself but nevertheless, my business is not with you but with those two." Sandra cooed while she pointed at Elazul and Pearl.

"You will not touch Pearl. I won't let you harm her… I'm her knight. You've got to get through me first." Elazul said while he unsheathed his sword and brandished it forward.

"Ahh… such a bravado coming from a knight who lost his guardian quite often, don't you think…" She teased while it was clear to Kain and Angelique that it was meant to provoke Elazul.

When Elazul wanted to charge, Angelique calmed him down by retorting to Sandra with her sweet voice.

"While it is true, that he may lost sight of Pearl at times. He always in the end found her and save her from danger every time so he is entitled to that kind of bravado don't you think, lady jewel hunter." Angelique had seen this woman once when she and Elazul had adventured for the first time. She heard about the jewel hunter from Kain and inspector Boyd whose always hot on her trails. She had decided that she's not going to like her. Firstly, because she had made Kain had a major problem on trusting his ability for a short while. Secondly, she tried to harm her friends. With that said, it was enough for Angelique to brand Sandra her enemy.

Sandra laughed at Angelique's statement and fled after she left her order to her jewel beast. Angelique and Elazul tried their best to fight the monster while Kain helped them with supportive spells from the back while protecting Pearl. They made a good combo, while Elazul hacked the beast with powered slash, Angelique evaded its attack with grace and countered with quick slash. They managed to finish it off when Kain was able to stun it with a binding spell. After the fight, they panted heavily, while Kain slumped to the floor unable to stand because he had wasted all his power just to cast a simple binding spell. He saw Angelique and Elazul casting smirks and smiles to each other.

"You're not half bad…" Elazul said in between panting and ragged breath.

"Of course, I am not half bad. I'm good at these kind of things." Angelique said while looking at the blue orbs. Silently telling herself that she liked those color and she liked the way that eyes fired with life.

"You're quite good yourself…" She continued when she noticed that she'd been staring Elazul for some time… blushing, she cast down her glance to the floor suddenly finding it interesting.

"Uhh… yeah.. thanks…" Elazul replied then Angelique kind of feel awkward silence for a while before she looked at Kain to saw that her brother was asleep in Pearl's lap. She kind of relieved when she saw that Kain was still breathing and alive after what they've been through since she seriously thought that after casting that suicidal spell, Kain wouldn't last very long if things going to hinder them more to reach home and got some decent treatment for Kain. Suddenly, she felt the urge to stand up, she stood and offered her hand to Elazul which he took gratefully and smiled his thanks. Elazul helped Angelique to support Kain's weight on her shoulder. So they walked together with Kain in between and Pearl at their back sometimes switching their role. As the journey was quite long and Kain haven't gained consciousness at all even after when they reached Kain and Angelique's home. As they put Kain in the bed, Elazul and Pearl bid their farewell to Angelique.

"Uhh… I don't think it's wise to be around us anymore…. Since Sandra is hunting our core and we couldn't really involve you more into our problem so I guess we won't be seeing each other again. Goodbye." Elazul said while looking quite sad. When Angelique saw this she didn't know why he seemed so sad when he said that but when she wanted to reply Pearl added Elazul's farewell speech.

"Please tell Kain that I'm sorry for making him wounded so bad. And please tell him too, that I'm grateful for his help. Angelique, I know we barely knew each other but thank you for your help and I'm sorry for troubling you and Kain. I'm really thankful that I've met you two."

Pearl ended her sentence in somewhat very very glassy eyed but somehow the tears just don't come out. Then Pearl turned her back and started to walked which is so unlike her. Elazul only gave Angelique one last smile, and said, "It's nice to meet you and have adventures with you… sorry we couldn't do it again."

Hearing this just made Angelique torn up inside, she liked Elazul and Pearl, they've been a great company to have. In those times, that she and Elazul go to search for Pearl together, she discovered that she liked the way Elazul wanted to protect something greatly. She admired him for having so much determination. She don't want this to happen. Why they're saying goodbyes now? It's far too soon to her liking and she didn't like parting like this… So she yelled at their backs…

"We'll definitely meet again, all right…. And Next time, we'll have lots of adventure again, right…" Silence was her only answer she got. Angelique sobbed quite shamelessly, she didn't even stop when Bud and Lisa came and comfort her. She felt like part of her was being ripped and it was leaving for good. After Kain had woken up, Bud and Lisa had told him what happened and Kain was quite saddened by the fact that he won't be seeing Pearl again but he decided that he's going to be not so affected by it and try to console Angelique since she was quite a mess right now. He didn't know for how long she would continue to be like that but he know that she'll get over it. She's a strong one and he knew that she wouldn't let fate ruin her life. She would fought fate to get what she wanted in life. Kain just knew that his sister will be fine. Time will heal the wounds of the body and love will heal the wound of the spirit. He will let Angelique have those, even if he can't heal her wound completely, at least he will made sure that it won't bleed anymore.

If u notice then, I made a change in this chapter onward, I cut it shorter :D

Thanks for reading!