"One sun rises over the water as it has for countless ages. Another soars over the water which only reflections can see… An army rises with silver and green banners on a backdrop of ruins and ash… Three times have they seen their homes destroyed. Three times have they been driven back into blackness between the stars and they now march from a place you cannot attack to a place you cannot defend…. A circle that needs mending… a tower that lays broken… blood…and…" Keori's eyes rolled back and a trail of blood snaked down her face.
"Release her!" Allen shouted at the man, but his eyes had rolled as hers had and he succumbed to whatever was happening.
"Hurin!" Merle ran to the Praktu and shook him. He spat blood from his mouth while trying to convey what he'd learned.
"They are coming for her… she can set them free…" His hand passed over his own face and he instantly died in Merle's arm. Keori began to cough as if she had been under water for too long.
"No Country has the colors of silver on a green background… we do not know who this enemy is." Allen shoved forward and held Keori by her shoulders.
"Keori… Tell me something visual. A landmark, a scene, something anything." His finger wiped the blood from her nose and mouth while she searched her mind for anything useful.
"Blood….. and black feathers…" Kaen pulled her up and became to run forcing Merle and Allen to chase after them.
"Kaen! Stop!" Merle could not get to him and he jumped over a fence that Allen was forced to go around. Only Merle could still follow.
"Kaen… what are you doing? Put me down." Despite that I held on to him frightened like I didn't know I could be. Everything else until now was nothing compared to him now as he ran, breathing hard and holding my like I might fall and break.
A thunderous sound cut me off from telling him more forcefully to put me down. A cloud of smoke flowed out from a crater that had become of the garden just before us. Wind blew the smoke away, but nothing was there. Nothing, but a hole in the ground, but Kaen put me down slowly and dragged me behind him as if the very air was his enemy.
.
A moment passed with the smell of fire and dirt, smoke and oil…. On the air. For a second a blinked and that had been all it took. Kaen was suddenly not before me be being shoved to the side by absolutely nothing and then sent flying.
"Kaen!" I took a step and then I noticed the ground shook.
"Keori!" Merle paused a good 15 feet behind me and she did not move any closer. I didn't want to think it, but I knew there was actually something in front of me and I just couldn't see it.
"I can't…" I managed to run maybe five feet and the thunder roared while shaking the earth and lifting me up off the ground. I just wanted to help Kaen. He wasn't moving. He was twisted on the ground in a position that wasn't normal, that wasn't right.
"Keori!" Merle moved, but she knew as I did. You can't fight what you can't see. I hovered in the grasps of something I could feel, but not see. It was like a car covered by a protective cover and I looked down to see I was an easy 20 feet off the ground and then I was moving.
"Merle!" She stood and watched and then got smaller and smaller and all I could hear was what a factory might sound like.
"Let me go!" I pulled an arm out from my side and punched something that was metal. I had only seen one this on Gaia that was made of steel and that was Allen's Guymelef. A shockwave moved through the metal and into my bones and the Invisible Guymelef stopped.
"Release Keori." Allen was piloting Scherezade and had a huge sword drawn.
"Allen…" I take back everything bad I thought about you. Just save me.
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Van pointed at the land off in the distance and the smoke the was now billowing up and outwards over the city.
"What the hell is going on in Pala?" A sudden wind nearly took Van right over board. He pulled himself upright and swallowed the saliva in his mouth.
.
Flying over the water, unpiloted and heading towards Asturia was Escaflowne. He would have known even if it hadn't nearly blown him over into the sea. There wasn't a single thing that made sense to him now. Merle had left without him, Hitomi's daughter had come to Gaia and Escaflowne was acting of its own will as it disappeared into the distance in dragon form.
"What was that thing?" A crew man held his chest as if fending off a heart attack.
"That was a lot of trouble if this ship doesn't turn around and head into port somewhere else…" Van pushed his sword out from the fabric that shielded it from sight and yanked the rest of it away. The crewman back away as Van pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it into a puddle that Escaflowne has slashed up when it had flown over them.
"What are you doing man? Are you mad?" Van gave the man a smirk and jumped ship. White wings sprang from his shoulder blades and he heard the entire ship gasp and shout as he pulled away from them. It had been a while since he had used his wings for anything other than getting to the roof the hung over his Guymelef in Fanelia. They would be sore later if he ever got the chance to wind down long enough to notice…