Chapter 5

Duo awoke slowly in the circle of Heero's arms and wondered what it was that had woken him. He was warm, comfortable, safe and still tired so he could not understand what had woken him. He took a deep breath and snuggled back into Heero to go back to sleep. "I suppose you'll have to do." A woman's voice said, "strange little creature that you are." Duo thought about it, there was no women in the catacombs of Sidi, unless someone had come in later, but at the same time no one could have evaded all of the pilots and not woken Heero, it meant only one thing, this woman, who ever she was, was dead.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"A lot of things." the woman answered, "I'll settle for the knowledge that for now you will help me."
"I won't help you if I don't know who you are." Duo said.
"My name is Achren." The woman said, she was handsome rather than lovely, with strong features and she wore a rich red robe that undulated around her as if she was underwater or that it was alive, her dark blonde hair was held back from her face by a diadem and she wore a heavy twist of gold around her throat that was almost identical to the one that Quatre had woken in. "I was lady of this place before my murder," she turned and twisted away from him, half of her face was skeletal but then she turned back and her face was perfect again. "I only wish you to find out who murdered me, and in return, for I realise that nothing is gained through altruism, I will offer my counsel."
"Eluneth guides me." Duo protested.
"Eluneth is a child murdered by a man who wanted her beauty for himself." Achren answered, her voice was even and firm, "I was a master of politics feared by many, I was master of the Garvem. I am aware of secrets that Eluneth could not be privy to. I spent my life on an equal footing with the emperors and kings." Her tone was almost insulting. "Both Eluneth and I could make you a great lord, Eluneth is very fond of you, she thinks of you like she was your mother or your beloved sister, I on the other hand while be your adjutant, I will guide you and she will love you."
"And if I don't want your counsel." Duo asked.
"The advantage of counsel," Achren said, "is it is only a guide, an adjutant is an advisor, I can no more make you take it than I could discover the identity of my own murder." Everything about her spoke of water, it coiled about her, the edges of her robe were like tentacles. Eluneth was more perfectly formed although sometimes it was possible to see the terrible wound that had killed her, but at the same time she did not have the half rotted look that Achren had when she turned her head. Also, judging by the fact that Eluneth wore a flight suit, then Achren had chosen the robes. It was also clear that Eluneth made herself look alive for Duo's comfort but Achren enjoyed the image of herself as a watery wraith.
"I am sorry, Madam phantom," Heero said cracking open one eye, and glaring in the wrong direction. "But it is late and I think you can speak to him in the morning."
Achren raised a single golden eyebrow in disdain. "I am not a senshi to be commanded thus." She said and flowed over towards them. "You are Tennosha," she told Duo, "you don't need to sleep nor eat. There are demons of the forest that bow to your will, the Ningyo," Duo thought of the deformed creatures that he had summoned from the Termigent, "the Shiko-me and the Youkai, you do not need such a Senshisha." She reached out and touched Heero's hair, "unless of course you use him for your pleasure, he is pleasing to the eye."
"I think that's enough." Eluneth said putting her hands on her hips. "Duo, send her away, she cannot return then without your permission."
Achren smiled and then laying a blessing kiss on his forehead, she vanished into mist leaving behind a faint trail of her perfume, something none of the other dead had done. Duo took a deep yawn and resolved to think about it the next morning, and went back to sleep in Heero's arms.

Wufei spurned sleep. Although he was tired he had questions that the other pilots were reserving the answers for. He wanted to know why the others had received weapons but he had only received jewellery. He was a warrior from a clan of warriors. He could defeat Heero Yuy when they sparred, a feat he could not hope to repeat in his Gundam. He climbed out of the bedroll that Sir Gereint had given him and went to the light in the next room, leaving Trowa and Quatre behind as he decided that he wanted answers.
Where were they?
Why were they here?
How had Duo known so much about MeiLan?

Sir Gereint was sat at a desk by the golden light of a lamp, he was poring over the books that Duo had found in the chest, although they were blank there was a lot that could be learned from their manufacture. He was most interested in the embossed logo on the front which showed a snake swallowing its own tail. Each scale of the snake had been pressed with vivid attention to detail, in fact, it was almost possible to see the adder's diamond design on its back. "I've been looking at this too long." Gereint murmured to himself.
"Sir Gereint." Wufei said behind him.
Gereint jumped. "By the Lady, boy, do none of you make noise? I am going to find that batch of slave collars I found and give you all bells."
"My apologies." Wufei said, lowering his eyes, "I didn't mean to scare you."
Gereint turned in his chair to look at him. "I thought you were all sleeping and I got lost in what I was doing. You probably could have come in with a marching band and still would have scared me." He sighed. "Couldn't sleep?"
Wufei sat on the floor before him, "no, I have too many questions."
"You have questions?" Gereint said with a smile, "I'd love to know how five fifteen year old boys got into a tomb that's been sealed for hundreds of years. You all have artefacts that the histories have no records of, and at least one of you claims to be part of a race that doesn't exist. To add mayhem to misery there's the frieze in the tomb which could be a prophecy which means I'll have to put up with Sir Ectar going," he sucked his breath through his teeth, "I don't know." It was obviously an impression but Wufei did not know the man Gereint was referring to. "So my major question is how long do I wait before reporting a possible prophecy?"
"Before you said it might be a history." Wufei said.
"It might, unfortunately I'm not in a position to judge. Weapons I know, prophecies and the like they aren't for me. Like that sword your young friend has, I could tell you all about it's manufacture but I didn't know it had an inscription. I didn't know the name was inscribed in Darin. I mean that chain on your waist is a binasu but how to use it," he shrugged, as Wufei's fingers went to the chain that was looped around him like a belt, "You'd have to ask Tobin D'Cevni about that, he's the only other person I've seen with one."
The tone of the conversation made Wufei uncomfortable, so he decided to turn it back. "If it was a history you said it was the Paraiko war. What was that?"
Gereint looked at him, "you don't know?" He said. Wufei shook his head. Gereint shrugged again and took a deep breath. "All right, in the beginning there was the god-void and then it separated into god and the void. God then separated further into the Gods and created the universe. To manage the universe they created a loom and the Kindly Ones to manage it, one to measure the threads, one to weave the threads and one to cut them." He studied Wufei intently to make sure he understood. "They put the loom in the Atelerio of Atalantis and surrounded it with the Dread Termigent Forest to protect it but the city was populated. Then from the South the Paraiko came in great boats. They were winged and rife with magic, apparently," he scoffed, "and they took the cities apart from Meirin in the north. They were immortal and terrible apparently. Then over a mortal woman they went to war. It was messy and they were mostly destroyed. The forest became their safe haven after the mortals turned against them."
"but if they were immortal…" Wufei started, "how could they die?"
"There are rooms in the Academy that echo to the strains of that question." Gereint said sagely. "Some say it's because when they mated with mortal women to create the draimae they became part of the loom giving Lethe power over them. Others say they weren't immortal to begin with, just very long lived. They're extinct now, if they ever existed."
"What's a draima?" Wufei asked. He wondered briefly if he should be taking notes.
"They were witches, always women, very long lived apparently and they could read minds and control thoughts. The most famous was the Spider who apparently ruled Sidi, here, for about three hundred years." Gereint went to turn back to his book, "look, I know you have questions, but I'm not sure I'm the one to be asking, when we get to Dathyl there is another angel there, Sir Cameron, big man, huge beard, but also one of the brightest minds this country has ever produced, he would be a much better choice to answer your questions. All I'm telling you is what any child of Aatoria could tell you. This isn't my speciality and I'm clever enough to way beyond my depth."
Wufei nodded, "can you at least tell me about the dragon lords? You said I was dressed like one?"
"I can tell you a fairy tale, nothing more. Before the Paraiko the world was ruled by the dragon Queens, sometimes just called the Queens." He thought about it, "they were apparently incredibly powerful sorceresses, and sometimes excavations throw up pictures we think might be of them, they were blue and scaly and could turn into dragons." He paused, "anyway they each held a bit of land and the Queen of the gorge by the bay had a daughter so she sent invitations to all of the other Queens to come and bless the child, but one queen didn't get the invitation and seeing the other Queens massing assumed they were planning to attack her. So she created a curse, that they would destroy themselves and that the child they were gathered to honour would be their downfall. She put it into a mirror." He stopped again. "The long and the short of it is the other Queens at some point gathered that there would be an attack and turned the curse on her, she was trapped inside the mirror and the Queens were destroyed by the curse. But only female children became Queens when they were born and only the females died with the curse. The males became great and powerful warriors in the gap between the Queens and the Paraiko, these were the Dragon Lords, they were half-breeds, like the draimae. They were fearsome warriors, apparently, but they were wiped out. Not that there were many of them to begin with."
"Thank you for your candid answers." Wufei said.
"All of that you could have learned from a child." Gereint answered, "Sir Cameron has access to the histories in Halcyon, it's possible he will have more answers for you." He went to stand up, stretching himself out, "You have a good mind on your shoulders, lad, perhaps you might want to join the angels, rather than hanging around with the rest of them, bricking yourselves into tombs and the like."
"We didn't." Wufei said quietly, "we just woke up there, dressed like this."
"As the other boy said, strange things happen in the Termigent." Gereint shrugged away the answer. "But I'll tell you this, don't ever go into the Forest, for any reason. I may not understand a lot of these myths that have stuck over the years, and I think they probably had some grounding in history, but I've seen the Forest attack. It will kill you, and it will enjoy it too. Strange things happen in the Termigent. Now, it's late, if I'm to take you back to the surface tomorrow I'd like to get some sleep. I'd advise you do the same."
"Thank you." Wufei said with a bow of the head. "For being honest."
"I'm an angel." Gereint said, "I don't agree with misinformation, nothing can be learned from propaganda and lies. Now, goodnight, and may flights of naiads guard your sleep."