"How are you feeling today? Is the pain any better?" Merle sat beside me and cradled my pendant like she was protecting from further damage. Truth be told I wasn't shocked the thing was breaking. I'd been dropped, exploded and everything else. Gods knows I've got to have bashed it around like you wouldn't believe…
"I miss my home, Merle… I want to see my mother. She has to be so worried and I was mean to her before I left… I wish my father and nana were alive. Father would have come her himself to get me and Aunt Vari would have known the way…" Merle shoved out of her seat and twisted to look at me. It was hard to look at her as high up as she was on the bed but I could see enough to know she was shocked about something.
"Lady Vari… I have to go get Van!" Merle was gone and the door slammed as she went. I was forced to stay in the bed having been told a lot of time would be needed to heal and only a week had gone by since I had been stabbed. I'm still not exactly sure why that man, the Praktu tried to off me, what from what I heard later, Van was ready to kill him whether I lived or not. Allen protected King Chid's rights which nearly broke out in the two fighting and Millerna had thrown them out until they could think about what was really important.
While I waited for Merle to return I did the only thing I could. Stare. I watched the curtains billow and some birds fly by outside. But the bored me and I daydreamed of days not spent in a bed or running for my life. That was short lived… story of my life.
"We're back. Tell Van about Lady Vari at once." I looked at them both like they were out of their minds, but Van was short of breath and Merle looked ready to burst. It was the first time I'd seen her so animated that I started talking about my Nana from Earth.
"Well, Aunt Vari was a friend of my grandmother's… I only met her a few times… she was fantastic... She was the one that taught my grandmother how to read tarot… She stayed with us for a short while because she lived overseas I think. The pendant had come from her and grandmother gave it to mother…"
"What did she look like?" Van moved closer while I stammered about trying to describe a woman I haven't seen since I was a child.
"She was tall and lean… to be honest, she was gorgeous… Dark straight hair even though she was getting older and she had the oddest birthmark… she circles just above the brow… I tried to tell her she was dirty and I had to clean her face… She had laughed so much… She said… she said her son would have gotten along well with me…...Van…?" Van was motionless. If I thought I'd felt naked with the Praktu in my mind I sure did now.
"Impossible… That's not possible." Normally I'd ask, but two things occurred to me then. 1: I had a feeling I was going to have this explained to me and 2: I'm not sure I wanted to know anyways.
"Lord Van… Is it her?" Van shook his head while staring at me. I kind of wanted to curl into a ball and hide somewhere.
"Vari is the name of a Draconian woman who married a man named Goau. He was the last King of Fanelian before me and my father. The woman you just described went in search of my brother Folken, after failing to return from retrieving the heart of a dragon on the Mystic Moon… She never returned and has never been seen since." The room was suddenly too hot and my jaw hurt from grinding my teeth. "You said she gave the pendant to your grandmother. The same woman that came to Gaia and then gave to Hitomi who also came here… Did you not think this important?" He raised his voice and was actually frightened. I didn't think he'd hurt me or anything really, but in that moment. I was afraid of him. What came out of my mouth next seemed to take the heat out of the room and doused it in ice.
"Your part draconian." He looked almost hurt then. Like I'd called him a bastard child or kicked a puppy or even a box of puppies.
"Yes, but I'm not like the ones you saw in your dream." I didn't want to know anymore. I found that either my breaking point was lowering or I hadn't recovered from the other shocks in my life just yet. "The black wings on a draconian means that they are dying… and you said they all had black wings."
"I want to see. I want to see your wings." He was taken aback by that and Merle looked ready to lunge at me and I was bed-ridden with a stab wound.
"You don't believe me, do you?" He was slow… sometimes painfully slow at realizing that I was only human. Wings on a person… it's a must see.
"Use your head for one second. Do you think when my mother saw your wings and was shocked that it was because some winged people supposedly were demons or something and hurt us? No. It's because people on Earth don't have wings. I want to see them is all. You don't have to get your feathers in a knot."
"Hold you tongue. You are talking to the King of Fanelia." I was going to thrash Merle when I got the chance.
"He's not my blasted King so back off! Better yet, leave… I'm sick if you didn't notice, stabbing and all. I'm just going to try and heal if you don't mind badgering me some other time about things I didn't know where of relevance to your precious King of Fanelia." Van straightened up and managed to look guilty. Merle was smoldering. I didn't care.
"I'm sorry Keori." Van shoved his hand outwards to silence Merle's rebuke. "I have not been myself and forgot… I have shown you the very worst of Fanelia which I will make amends for… for now, please mend quickly…" Van left and was followed my Merle. Their near head on collision with Millerna went duly noted and she was kind enough to not ask.
"You are feeling better? Ever one is worried about another attack while you are injured… I have not seen Chid so beside himself with agitation that it worries me… You are having a hard time with Merle aren't you?" She smiled while she lifted my shirt and managed by bandages. "Your mother waited a long time to get used to Merle. They became great friends. Merle was shocked when Hitomi said she had to return home… Merle though she was going to stay with Van. We were all rather shocked honestly… Merle is a good woman… you need only get used to her… She's your age after all…" I sat up and regretted it.
"I thought she was older! She's younger than Van? Oh…" I laughed through the pain of laughing. "She was acting all high and mighty… what a faker…" Gritting my teeth, Millerna scolded me for pulling three stitches and Chid and Allen came to see me. I could tell it was Chid who actually wanted to talk to me, but Allen tagged along with the King as if I might jump from the bed and thrash he boy for nearly killing me.
"You are feeling well I see…" Chid's right hand was balled into a fist. He looked ready to cry almost. He fought it well enough. It was all that stopped me from being sarcastic and telling him all humans take near death experience like a champion.
"Yes. It doesn't hurt… that's why I keep pulling stitches." The boy saw my lie and remained silent a moment.
"I wanted to inform you of the things you have missed since becoming… ill. We are under the impression that an army of Draconians are coming to Gaia… Van has collaborated with Draconians having black wings and at this time we are trying to understand its significance… Van has made a personal request of Freid… the Guymelef Alseides which was formerly piloted by… Lady Celina…" My jaw dropped. Celina… as in Allen's sister… the sweet and gentle… I watched Allen's agitation and knew it was her.
"Celina piloted a Guymelef? Allen's sister… You can't be serious." Chid understood my denial and explained further.
"The Lady Celina was under mental duress at the time and went under the alias 'Dilandau'. It was fortunate that we could recover her intact." They thought she was intact? They were out of their minds.
"Speaking of which… I would like to see Celina… Being that I can't do nothing but argue with Merle and that Millerna is busy… I would like someone to talk to…" Before Allen denied me I have him a reason he would not refuse. "I wanted to apologize for abandoning her on the airship and for the incident at the Dancing Flower." Allen swallowed hard and almost glared at me. In front of his King he could do little to displease… Had I not been in pain I might have made it worth my while for having chased me around in his Guymelef…
"I will ask the Lady so long as she agrees…" Chid was ever so sweet in offering that condition and I chuckled; again to my regret.
I felt like a donkey's rear at this point. I knew what I was doing, but Celina never seemed to have a clue… When she came to my room and sat beside me, her face wrinkled at the corner of her eyes with worry, I almost abandoned my plan. Almost.
"Celina… It's not as bad as it looks. I swear… Did Allen tell you why I asked you to come here?" She shook her head and I smiled. Allen was far too nice of a guy. "Well, it's for a small list of things. Don't worry. I'm not asking you to do anything for me or such… First: I'm sorry for using you to escape the airship and then for what Kaen did. Second: When the time comes, I need you to agree to pilot the Guymelef Alseides…" Celina furrowed her brows.
"I cannot use a Guymelef… I'm sorry Keori…" I leaned forward and bit my cheek to stifle the scream at want to burst out of me.
"I need you… to remember then. I was just told that you piloted that machine… Allen and your King told me so... Van wants you to operate it again… You don't remember because you were sick then… I need you to stop living in your brother's shadow. Stop living under his guiding hand, because Celina… You're not alive. You're not living at all. You've been a passenger in your own life so far and you need to take control…" Celina looked taken aback, more than for what I just said to her.
"King Van came to me yesterday… and he said he did so without Allen's permission… At first I thought it was odd that he would not ask Allen first, but then he explained that, that, was not right… That no one should speak for me… ever… That since I was found on the battlefield in Zaibach of all places, that I have been like a sleeping person… unaware that this is not dream and that my life was wasting away… You sound so much like he did then…" Celina glanced at the door as if frightened then and clenched her hands together tightly. "Who is the man Dilandau?" Her eyes locked onto mine so tightly and so fiercely that not telling her never once entered my mind. Instead I began dreading other things.
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I was going to get in trouble for this. I knew it without a doubt.
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