Chapter 27: Old Memories, Old Friends
Author's Note: I have something to say. I will say it once, and only once. Before I say it, I would like to say that I'm starting to get back on my authorial hot streak. I hope you enjoy it. Now, I would like to say what I want to say:
Ahem.
TWO CHAPTERS POSTED IN TWO DAYS! BOOYAH!
Mariko slowed enough to let Lloyd catch up with her. She eyed him thoughtfully. He was uneasy. She couldn't blame him. She'd be a touch nervous in his place.
His face was good. Not exactly handsome, but good.
His walked flowed with the coordination of a fighter. The easy balance he kept reminded her of Athan.
Mariko shook off her analytical thoughts. "Tell me about yourself, Lloyd."
"What has Sheena told you already?" he asked carefully.
"Enough to give me an idea of what to expect. You're idealistic, and circumstances have put you in a position to spread those ideals. You work hard. You're on a quest to rid the world of Exspheres. You come from a little farming community in Sylvarant. She met you when she was trying to kill your friend Collette."
"That's right," Lloyd said, but privately he wondered what was so idealistic about his beliefs. To him, working for a world without needless sacrifice and discrimination was the only thing he could do. He continued. "But what do you want to know about me? I don't know where to start."
"Everything," Mariko said at once, then she held in a laugh at his expression. "But, first, I'd like you to tell me about Sheena. Why do you love here?"
Lloyd risked a smile. "She's…well…she's a lot like me." He realized this sounded like something Zelos would say, and elaborated. "I mean, so much of what bothered her or hurt her feelings was stuff that I knew about and had felt. And so much of what pi—made me mad, she understood and could make me feel better about it."
"Based on understanding." The woman smiled. "That's a better way than most."
"Even when she said she was my enemy, I kept seeing her doing things that weren't bad. Like playing hide-and-seek with kids in this one town. And seeing her pray at a House of Salvation. We fought her, yeah, but we saw her more times than when she was attacking, and she backed off each time. So…I though she wasn't as bad as you'd think an enemy would be. Collette thought that, too, and kept trying to make friends with her."
Mariko couldn't help but chuckle at that. "That must have confused her."
Lloyd grinned. "Yeah, I think it did."
Mariko turned a corner in the bare path between the neat patches of crops, walking along a pea garden's length. "What do you want in life, Lloyd?"
She watched him think about it. "Marry Sheena and be happy. Get rid of the Exspheres. To be able to convince someone of something without fighting them over it."
"Have you thought about children?"
He hadn't, she could tell by the look of panic crossing his face. She had to laugh. "You're such an innocent, Lloyd."
He tried to stammer out a response, but Mariko shushed him gently. "Don't worry too much. It's a bit early for that. But not too early to think about it," she added critically. "I'd like some grandchildren to spoil, and I'm sure your father would, too."
"Which one?" Lloyd asked without thinking.
The question threw her. Lloyd's brain caught up with his mouth and he explained. "I was raised by a dwarf. But my…real dad is Kratos. Did Sheena mention him?"
"Swordsman? Tall, she said he wears purple?"
"Yeah, him," Lloyd said. "So, I have two fathers." He stayed silent for a moment as they walked. Finally, he said, "Did Sheena tell you how the worlds were rejoined?"
"Yes, some. I heard more from the account that came through the monastery. I'd like to hear more, though."
Lloyd spent the better part of the next hour sketching in the events they'd gone through. Mariko proved to be a good listener, interrupting only when she wanted more details on this point or another—usually on something Sheena had done. Their circuit took them in a complicated loop around several fields, in the cavern heavy with the humid smell of growing things. As Lloyd finished, they were passing through the few dozen trees of the orchard.
"That's quite a story," she said, awed when he'd finished. "You did more in less than a year than most people do in their lives." She glanced up as a leaf from a low brushed grazed her head. "How about a snack?" She plucked a couple of apples from the laden branch.
Lloyd took his. "Yeah, I guess it is. But it's so...weird. It feels like it happened a million years ago. Like...ancient history." He bit into his. It was good, he noted. Not completely ripe, but the sour tang was still good. "So…what about you?" he asked.
Mariko genteely wiped a bit of peel from her mouth. "I keep myself busy. I've lived a good life so far, all things considered."
Lloyd took another bite. "How…wh--…" he trailed off, not knowing how to phrase the question politely.
Mariko smirked. "Just say it. I promise not to bite."
"Why did you leave Sheena at Mizuho? H…how did it feel, having you leave your kid with strangers?"
She inhaled. She'd hoped she'd have a good answer for this. "I…couldn't keep her. Her ability to summon made her a target. People offered to buy her. Some threatened. Some pleaded for the knowledge that could be gained. I think Athan told you about that." Lloyd's nod showed no harsh judgment. "My husband, Evan, was adamant that she not be raised as a mere tool, for research or power. He believed that would make her…less than human. An oddity, at best. He insisted that we didn't come to the Monastery, because she'd be raised as exactly what he feared—and that's no kind of way for a child to live. My husband had been to Mizuho on business for the Monastery, and they didn't seem as…fixated on magic. In the few weeks before he died, he told me often that if he did die, to take Sheena to Mizuho." She noticed Lloyd's expression. "My husband's family had a history of sudden heart attacks. But the healers have said Athan's fine, praise Martel." She noted the pure relief spread across his face. "As I was saying, Evan thought Mizuho would be best for her to grow up. Hidden, but aware of the world, and where her talents wouldn't be of much interest." She wiped at an eye. "He wasn't quite right, was he?"
"That's…sad," Lloyd said quietly. "She ended up getting what you tried to save her from."
"It worked out for the best," she reminded him. "If she hadn't become a summoner, she wouldn't have joined you and your friends and the world would be split. I think things worked out for the best. When I think of it like that, I feel better." She stared at her apple, not really seeing it. "But I wish I could have been there for her in her life." She pulled herself together. Straightening, she gave him a smile, and chomped off a large piece of the apple. She said in a voice eerily like Sheena's, "I'll just have to make up for it, won't I? Get used to seeing me around, Lloyd. I'm going to be an active mother-in-law."
Lloyd grinned, and the response came without him thinking. "Whatever you say, Mom."
She fought back outright laughter, with the result of a piece of apple flesh snorting up her nose. She wiped her nose to rid herself of the fragment, and snapped a mock glare on you. "Look what you made me do! Robbing your elders of their dignity, you should be ashamed." She couldn't hold her mock severity in face of his grin. "Why don't you take a few of these for your friends?"
So they spent the last few minutes of their first meeting picking through, finding some of the choicer apples from the half-dozen or so laden trees. Lloyd was given a basket to carry them in.
Mariko watched him go, satisfied. Sheena had done quite well for herself, she thought. And Mariko was looking forward to a life spent doing more than tending plants, as much as she loved them.
That thought brought her back to reality. There was some work to be done, there was always some work to be done. She went from trees to tree in the brightly lit cavern, inspecting each for any of the myriad of problems that preyed on fruit trees. She hummed while she worked, and some of her nearby brothers and sisters of the order looked up from their tasks and smiled to see her moving with a definite sashay.
Lloyd, Athan, and Sheena walked along the hallway. The siblings were downing an apple each. They'd been waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. They didn't say much. They didn't have to. Lloyd was feeling content—he felt like a part of their family. Lloyd's family for most of his life had been a single, good-hearted, sometimes surly dwarf. Then he'd gained friends, and, eventually, knowledge of his real father, along with respect for the man. But he'd never had quite this feeling.
After a long while, Athan asked, "When do we leave?"
"I guess when we find everybody."
"Any idea where we'll go?"
"Over to Meltokio. I want to check on the bridge."
They didn't talk for the rest of the route through the seemingly identical hallways of the Monastery, but Sheena leaned her head on Lloyd. When they came into the training room of Athan's order, they found half their work was already done.
Raine was sitting at a small table that was practically hidden under the load of books covering it. Her guide—a hawkish-looking man Lloyd didn't know—was leaning against a wall, watching the exercises in the center of the room with some amusement.
Lloyd could see why. The second-rank monks were jumping in place. About two thirds of the way through the line, Elpida was between two of them, keeping up jump for jump. Lloyd noticed that even though she was the short person there by about six inches, the top of her head was level with theirs at the height of their jumps.
Athan ambled over to Raine's guide, and talked quietly with him. He came back a minute later. "Tern says he said Zelos and Ribs in the Order of Perse's section of the monastery." Seeing the blank looks, he said, "They do a lot of art. Want to come?"
"Sure," Lloyd said, wanting to see what the two would be up to.
"I'll pass," Sheena said. She nodded at them, and then got at the end of the line of jumping monks, and started keeping pace with them.
A few minutes saw Athan leading Lloyd around the perimeter of the second floor of the library. "Just on the other side of the library from us. It's easy to get to."
His definition of easy and Lloyd's were far from each other. Lloyd could keep his bearings in the library, but he hadn't learned to differentiate between the hallways, as Athan apparently could. The stocky fighter led Lloyd through several turns and hallways, eventually coming on a set of double doors at the end of a corridor.
He motioned Lloyd to be quiet, and eased one of the doors open soundlessly. He put his eye to the crack and looked inside. Lloyd heard him chuckle. Athan moved over and pointed at the crack.
Lloyd put his eye to it. He was looking down an aisle between tiered rows of seats. On either side were people bent over broad desks. At the bottom, in a half-circular space of level floor, in identical poses, were Zelos and Ribs. The skeleton was without his disguise, standing in the same stance as Zelos—hand on one hip, weigh on one leg, head turned slightly to left, slouching a bit.
"Let's wait for them to finish," Athan whispered into Lloyd's ear.
Ten minutes later, the dedicated of the order left the room, filing out. The pair went in.
Zelos and Ribs were at the bottom. Ribs was pulling on his coat, Zelos was saying something when he noticed the pair. "Oh, hey, Lloyd! Why're you here? Did you come admire the perfection of the two Great Handsome Warriors?"
Lloyd's mouth twisted into a crooked smile. "What was that?"
Ribs and Zelos, in near-perfect unison, put an arm around the other's shoulder and extended a hand with two fingers raised into a V. "We are the Great Handsome Warriors!" Zelos declared flippantly. "Masters of combat and the pinnacle of beauty! I am Zelos Wilder, and this is my bud, Ribs!"
He held the noble expression for a moment, before his 'hurt' face spread. "What's with that look?" he asked.
"I thought I was your buddy," Lloyd asked innocently.
"I'm sorry, Lloyd, but you're now a knight, and knights can't be buds with people. Your prestigious position of Zelos' Buddy has been filled by Ribs."
"And the great beautiful fighters-whatever?"
"You wouldn't know beauty if someone hit you with a sack of it, Lloyd," Zelos said airily. "But it turns out that Bones was a pretty good specimen. Not as good as me, of course."
"How'd you'd find that out?" Athan asked curiously.
Zelos grabbed a piece of paper from a desk, and passed it over. "The art master tried to work out what Ribs looked like, from the shape of his skull. Ribs says it's pretty close to what he remembers."
The pair looked at it. The face—head, actually—was drawn from several angles. It was sharp—a fine blade of a nose, striking cheekbones, a cleft chin, eyes large. It had an aristocratic look—a bit imperious, but good-looking in a pointy sort of way.
Ribs gently took it, and produced a pencil. He leaned on a desk, and his pencil blurred. Then he handed it back.
Hair and eyebrows had been sketched in. The hair didn't hang as far as Zelos's red cascade, but the tied-off tail would have touched between the shoulder blades, by Lloyd's guess. The eyebrows were fine curves. The set of them altered the face a bit, making the expression one of resolution and haughtiness.
Lloyd handed it back, nodding. "Very cool. Who knew that you could do that from looking at bones?"
Zelos nodded. "So what do you want?"
"We're going to leave tomorrow. Are you two coming?"
The pair glanced at each other, then again struck the pose. "Stay here on the frozen rock and deprive the world of seeing the Great and Wonderful Handsome Swordsmen Buds?" Zelos asked incredulously.
Lloyd couldn't help but laugh.
The next day, Brodelaw woke them up early, by Lloyd's request. The request also included that buckets of cold water not be involved in waking them up. Ever the gracious host, Brodelaw settled for rousing his more sleep-inclined guests—Lloyd and Zelos—via the simple expedient of lifting one side of the bed so they rolled onto the floor.
As they prepared to leave, there was a knock at the wide double doors in the training room. A monk opened it, to let in Ellis and Monlio, both looking tired but triumphant.
Ellis had had a bath, and she wasn't wearing the heavy protective gear. She went straight to Ribs, to hand him his sword and shield.
The customization had been thorough, Lloyd could see. The shield, its faced previously marked with so many scrapes and scratches and its rim with the odd notch taken out of it, looked like obsidian. Ribs turned it over in his hands. It looked about half its original thickness to Lloyd, but the back was a web of supports done in mythril, with strange, curving letters engraved into it. Ribs slung it on his back, and took a moment to appreciate the sword sheath.
It had been covered in leather, with flowing designs impressed on its length. He drew the sword, and everyone gave an appreciative stare.
The blade wasn't as wide or as thick as it had been, but lengthened. Its black surface was perfectly smooth, a black mirror. That narrow blade came to a paper-thin edge, and a point like a needle. The crosspiece had been replaced with a cup-like basket guard that surrounded the hand, again worked of mythril and inlaid with strange designs, but the curving script on this piece were inlaid with white. Ribs twisted it through the air, putting it through a graceful circular motion as he felt out the balance. He made a couple of passes, then his arm shot out in a lethal thrust.
"A rapier," Zelos said, impressed. "But that takes a different style than you know, right?" Ribs shook his masked skull, and handed the weapon over. Zelos looked at it in surprise. "It's heavy," he said in obvious confusion.
Monlio bowed gracefully. "Thank you. It was difficult to force morglin into a denser state, but, I dare to suggest, it is worth it."
My first weapon was a rapier, Ribs said. Zelos waved it slightly, marveling at the balance, then handed it over. Ribs sheathed it, and bowed to the pair responsible.
Once Ribs' gestures were translated, Ellis said, "Something that good needs a name."
"Oo! Oo! Oo! I know what to name it!" Elpida was doing a little excited dance.
Ribs turned to her. Everyone else did, as well. Ribs shrugged, and handed her the lethally sharp rapier. She took it. "It is heavy," she noted. "This feels like a Niri Vaur Laeln if I ever held one." To the surprise of everyone, she tossed it into the air and caught it with her other hand, the movement a blur. She passed it back to the revenant. "Niri Vaur Laeln it is, then."
Ribs took Niri Vaur Laeln and sheathed it gravely. Zelos's lips were moving silently. Finally, he said, "Elpida, that's angelic language, isn't it?"
"That's right," she said.
Zelos tried to translate. "Shadow…bright…ah…something the Bright Shadow?" He asked.
The small woman gave him a bright smile. "Study up on it and try again later."
"It sounds like a good name, though," Ellis said. "It's got a good sound to it, too. Niri Vaur Laeln."
It was, they agreed, a good name.
But once they'd gotten away from the Monastery, Ribs doubled over. No one knew what was wrong until he started slapping a knee. It slowly dawned on them as they watched his quaking shoulders and his erratic efforts to steer the Rheaird.
Ribs was laughing.
It was nearly dark when their Rheairds touched down on the Meltokio side of the bridge. Their arrival caused a stir among the few dozen workers at the bridge's mechanism. Eventually, a short figure extricated itself from the toil and came forward.
"Lloyd!" Angus roared. "Good to see you!" The dwarf slapped Lloyd on the back. "Whaddya think of what me and the lads have done?"
Lloyd looked up at it. He couldn't make head or tails of it. "I don't understand any of it. But…you've been getting work done, right?"
The dwarf's beard twitched as he smiled. "Aye. We're giving it a general tune-up before we put the new mechanism in. Two weeks, three at the very most, and this'll be open."
"You rock, Angus," Lloyd grinned.
Angus thumped his chest, making a hard flat sound like a slightly organic clack. "I do try to keep myself fit. Thank ye for noticin', lad." He grinned so widely his teeth could be seen through his beard. "Wanna take the tour?"
"Thank Angus, I don't understand any of this, and we want to get to Meltokio."
"'S your loss, lad. These surface boys are making me change some opinions. You should see them workin' from sun up to noon, then they're down just long enough to fill their bellies and wet their throats, and then they're back up there until dark. And here I was thinkin' humans were all lazy."
Lloyd beamed with altitudinal pride. "Thanks, Angus."
"Well, if you have to go, then go, lad." Angus punched him in the arm. It was like being hit with a rock. "But just you be here when we finish."
"I will," Lloyd said, thinking of the Exspheres being collected from the bridge. "And I'll have some friends, too." One with silver hair and a knack for magic, he thought. Blowing up Exspheres in one move was faster than destroying them one at a time.
The night was in full swing when Lloyd and his friends touched down outside of Meltokio.
The streets were practically empty, and the friends had an easy walk through the city streets, up to Zelos' mansion.
When Zelos led the way inside, though, someone shouted inside. "They're here!"
It took Lloyd a moment to recognize the voice. Genis. And the half-elf sounded worried.
Lloyd pushed his way in past Zelos. "What're you doing here?"
Regal and Presea were coming into the room. All three faces showed a lack of sleep.
Genis said, "Lloyd, Palmacosta was attacked! They took so many people away!"
"What the hell?" Lloyd yelled.
Regal nodded. "I am afraid it's true, Lloyd. Palmacosta was attacked. And the raiders had Exspheres."