The story should start to really pick up around now. I apologize if this chapter seems choppy or rushed, but I wanted to skip over parts that I felt were boring, unnecessary, or unimportant. Most of what I skipped is stuff that is covered by the game, so it's not like anything important is being missed. Hopefully no one will mind too much.
And I officially suck at writing action scenes.
Oh, and I found a new, awesome way to divide scenes! I found out how to insert the little mathematical symbol for infinity, so now I'm using that as a scene divider. It makes me really happy, and hopefully the site won't be stupid and will let me use it in the other chapters.
Disclaimer: I owneth not Tales of Symphonia, its characters, plot line, or locations.
Chapter III: The Mistrust
Be wary of your enemies,
Be cautious of your friends.
- The Scriptures of Martel
"...Sis? "
Genis spoke in a small whisper, as if he almost hoped he wouldn't be heard. He was. Raine looked up from her desk in a corner of the room. Genis was sitting on one of the two beds, his legs drawn up to his chest.
The Sages shared a room together in the Triet inn. The Chosen's group had decided that they were ready to head to the seal the next day. It was already getting late, and they should have been asleep by now. However, Raine had her records to look after, and Genis had something on his mind.
"Is something wrong Genis?" she asked, catching the slightly nervous tint to his voice.
Genis cast an anxious glance at the door, before asking, "You think that Yuan... is like us?"
Raine put down her pen, and slowly walked over to her brother and sat down next to him.
"You mean, is he a half-elf," said Raine. It wasn't a question. She sighed, "I think he may be, I'm not sure."
Yuan was an interesting specimen. She and Genis had met very few half-elves on their journeys. None of them had ever exuded confidence and power as Yuan. Most half-elves seemed scared or uncertain.
"Do you think he knows how to use magic?" Genis asked.
Raine shook her head, "We've never seen him use any magic before."
Genis seemed disappointed. "It was... I was kinda hoping that maybe he could teach me to use magic, you know, not just from a book."
It occurred to Raine then that Genis didn't know any other male half-elves. The only other half-elf he knew was Raine. She wondered what it was like; she had known many other half-elves, but they mostly chose to keep to themselves. Most half-elves already had enough problems without worrying about two random strangers.
But was Yuan the kind of person Raine liked around her brother? He hadn't done anything terribly suspicious. He seemed to be just as he appeared, a mercenary who wanted a job and pay. He didn't care about the implications or result of the journey itself, and fought for money, was that the kind of person Raine wanted her brother to look up to, even if he was a half-elf?
"It's getting late," Raine said, "Why don't you go to bed? You'll need your rest for tomorrow."
Genis, surprisingly, didn't object. Not even bothering to remove his boots, he snuggled under the sheets, and curled up, with a murmured "G'night Raine."
Raine watched him fall asleep; he looked so peaceful. He must think they were on a wonderful adventure. Raine sighed, neatened up her things on her desk, and soon settled herself into her own bed.
It took her an hour to fall asleep.
- ∞ -
"Wake up."
Lloyd rolled over, wishing the voice would go away. Something jabbed him viciously in the side. Lloyd yelped and sat up, to glare at Yuan, who had clearly already been awake for a while now.
"Is this going to happen every morning...?" Yuan asked, almost to the room rather than Lloyd, "Honestly, do you always sleep this long?"
"Huh? What time is it?" Lloyd asked, blearily.
"Three in the afternoon."
"WHAT?!" Lloyd jumped out of bed. His panic dissolved when he saw Yuan smirk.
"At least you're out of bed now," Yuan said, "Get ready to go to the seal. We will be waiting outside the inn." Yuan turned to leave, "And it's only about half-past six, if you must know."
Yuan left Lloyd to simmer with anger and indignation. One day he was going to get even with the mercenary.
It was a long and sandy half-day trek to the seal. Upon reaching the broken ruins of what had once been a city, Raine started to act uncharacteristically giddy. When they found a large stone slab near the center, her eyes lit up with a terrible glee.
"MARVELOUS!"
She knelt down by the slab, stroking it lovingly with her long pale fingers. She started to babble about its composition, and how it related to the ancient Kharlan War.
"...Is she always like this?" Yuan asked tentatively.
Genis buried his face in his hands. This was so embarrassing...
Raine turned her attention to the oracle stone, foamed over that for a moment, and after Colette placed her hand on it, the slab retracted, revealing a flight of stairs leading underground. After peeling Raine away from the oracle stone, they proceeded down into the temple.
The layout wasn't terribly complicated, but there were more monsters than Lloyd, Genis, and Colette had ever seen in one place.
Yuan carefully observed Lloyd and the others as they fought the monsters. They were improving, he noted. At an infuriatingly slow pace, but improving nonetheless. Good.
Eventually they found a warp pad that led to a room with no other entrance or exit, not even a window.
It looked almost like the interior of a cathedral, a large space with a vaulted roof and decorative columns on the walls. Raine loved it.
At the end of the chamber opposite the little group, was a large round, flat structure, almost like an altar.
Raine and Genis tensed as they sensed a change in the mana in the air. It was a strange, powerful mana they didn't know.
"Something is coming," warned Raine. Everyone readied their various weapons.
A bright cloud of red light – like a glittering fog – swirled over the altar. The red light dispersed like mist in a sudden chaotic wind, and a figure was revealed.
It was shaped vaguely like a red tiger, but it was much larger, and had long spikes on its head. The guardian roared, the sound resonating with the very foundations of the building.
"W-what is that thing?" Genis's eyes were wide, he'd never seen anything like this before!
"What it is doesn't matter," Yuan said, "What matters is killing it quickly."
The guardian charged at them, its head lowered, ready to gore anyone too slow to avoid it. Lloyd and the others scattered like pins to avoid its charge. Yuan and Lloyd immediately tried to slash at its flanks, but had to duck slashing paws. Colette threw her chakrams at the beast, the disks cutting into its side as they flew by. The guardian roared again and thrashed in anger and pain.
"Genis, use water or ice magic!" Yuan yelled, backing away from the guardian, "It's weak to water and ice magic!"
"Uh... Right!" Genis called back. He swung his kendama as he prepared a spell, a dark blue spell circle appearing around his feet.
"Aqua Edge!"
The guardian roared as it was struck by the blades of water, and stumbled backwards, it was growing weaker. Lloyd chose this time to charge in, and try to take the monster down.
The guardian's tail came out of nowhere and knocked Lloyd off his feet to skid several feet until he came to a painful halt. Before he could even see where he had dropped his swords, the guardian was already upon him, its wide open mouth, ready to devour him –
And hesitated.
Yuan appeared next to it a moment later, and thrust his sword into the side of the monster's skull. It shrieked in pain and stumbled, and Yuan pulled his sword out, the blade covered in a dark orange liquid.
The monster shrieked again, and turned to attack Yuan, who ducked down and stabbed upwards at the monster, his sword piercing its jaw and stabbing into its head. Yuan quickly pulled his sword out again and stepped backwards until he was a safe distance away, but never dropped his guard.
The monster swayed, a dark orange substance dripping from its open mouth. With one final weak sound, almost a whine, it fell to the ground with a great thud, and lay still.
"...Is it dead...?" Lloyd shakily got to his feet, the image of the guardian about to tear him apart still vivid in his mind. It was weird though, how it had just seemed to freeze... Had anyone else noticed? Or was it just him?
Then the guardian's body started to... dissolve.
A red light appeared around the body, until it was bathed in a warm glow. Pinpricks of light drifted up from the body, as the glow started to fade. For a moment, the little floating lights looked like a glittering cluster of bright stars. Then the lights suddenly winked out, and died.
Yuan sheathed his sword, unaffected by the spectacle of the guardian's death.
A red light appeared over the altar, and swirled there, like a small galaxy. Colette approached the altar, and clasped her hands in prayer.
"Oh Goddess Martel, great protector and nurturer of the earth, grant me thy strength!" The small galaxy of red light dispersed, and vanished.
A golden light slowly floated down from the ceiling, and in a flash of light, it turned into the angel Remiel.
"You have done well, my beloved daughter," said Remiel, smiling.
"Thank you," Colette said, then she added, hesitantly, "...Fa... ther..."
"The guardian has fallen, and the seal has been released," said Remiel, as if he were speaking to a cheering crowd, "In the name of Cruxis, I shall grant you the power of the angels."
He raised his arm, as if in greeting. Colored lights spiraled downward onto Colette, and flashed white as they touched her. She flinched at the brightness of the light, then her eyes grew wide as she felt two wings grow from her back. Suddenly it was as if she had possessed the extra limbs all her life, and her eyes grew wider as she lifted herself off the floor with only a few gentle wing beats.
"The angel transformation will not be without pain," said Remiel gravely, "But it is for one night. Be strong, and endure."
Colette nodded, this is what she had been preparing for her whole life, "I humbly accept this trial."
"The next seal lies to the east, across the sea. Offer your prayers in that distant land."
Colette nodded again, "Yes, Lord Remiel."
The angel smiled one last time at the Chosen, before vanishing against in a flash of gold light and white feathers. Colette slowly drifted back toward the floor, looking over her shoulders at her new wings.
"Wow!" Genis was staring at Colette, his eyes wide, "You have wings!"
Yuan was the only one who didn't seem shocked. He seemed almost unimpressed.
Lloyd couldn't take his eyes off Colette' wings. "Wow..." he said, to no one in particular, "So I guess only some angels have solid wings..."
"Did you say something Lloyd?" asked Raine, who hadn't caught his words. Yuan looked at Lloyd out of the corner of his eye.
"Uh... nothing," Lloyd said. Then he quickly changed the subject, "Hey, Remiel said the next seal was across the sea! That means we'll get to go on a boat, right? I can't wait!"
Raine turned a little green, "A boat..."
Yuan smirked, then shouted at Genis and Colette, "Stop fooling around. We need to leave the temple."
Looking a little disappointed the pair, but they followed Yuan with nothing more than slight pouts.
The ruins were surprisingly vacant as they left. There were only about two or three monsters left slinking around, and none of them even attempted an attack. They watched the humanoid strangers pass without any particular interest.
The sunlight was almost blinding after the gloom of the seal. They emerged blinking and a little disoriented. It took only a short moment before they all acclimated to the bright sun again. However, Lloyd noticed that Colette still seemed unsteady on her feet, swaying just a little as she walked.
"Colette, are you okay?" Lloyd asked.
She nodded, and smiled a false smile, "I'm... fine," she said, not sounding fine. Then she collapsed onto the sand.
"Colette!" Lloyd shouted, kneeling at her side.
Raine bent down too, but with a little more grace than Lloyd. She helped Colette sit up, and examined the poor girl.
"Her lips are turning purple," Raine noted, worry evident, "We need to get her to a doctor."
"N-no," said Colette, weakly, "Remiel said... the angel transformation would hurt... I'll be fine... I'm sorry for worrying everyone..."
Yuan said nothing.
Raine sighed. Unfortunately, Colette was right. "We will camp here for tonight then."
"I think Raine just wants to cuddle with the ruins some more," Genis whispered to Lloyd.
- ∞ -
Nightfall came, a half-moon peeking over the horizon. The crew made their camp just south of the seal, closer to the shoreline. Yuan had built a fire out of driftwood, and it was crackling happily as Genis cooked dinner. The smell of food mingled with the salt water smell from the shore.
"I wonder what that seal guardian was?" Raine thought aloud, bent over one of her numerous notebooks, pen in hand, "It was different from the other creatures in the temple, that much is certain. Its mana..." There was a pensive pause, "...It almost seemed to be the seal itself..." she mused, "I wonder..."
Yuan watched Raine out of the corner of his eye, listening closely to her muttered thoughts. She was surprisingly keen for someone from Sylvarant. He would have to be careful around her.
"Hey, Lloyd!" called Genis from the campfire, "Didn't you have the beef?"
"Yeah! I'll get it!" Lloyd went over to his pack and started mining for the carefully wrapped beef that had previously been entrusted to him. "Here it is!" Lloyd said, pulling the food out of his bag. It had been buried at the bottom of his bag, and as he dug, Lloyd had ignored his other things. Perhaps if he had been paying attention, he would have noticed the large book fall out of his bag, before it landed on the sand with a loud thud.
There was a silence textured with a range of thoughts.
"...That seems like heavy reading for you Lloyd," Yuan commented with a smirk.
"W-what's that supposed to mean?!" Lloyd shouted, trying to shove the book back into his bag.
He wasn't fast enough. Raine, with a scholar's curiosity and a teacher's suspicion, took the book from Lloyd and examined its cover.
"H-hey!" Lloyd said, unsure if he should try to get the book back from his teacher.
"This!" Raine looked down at the book, her eyes wide, "This is Boltzman's book! The ancient book of healing! It's not supposed to be real!" She returned her attention to a nervous Lloyd. "Where did you get this?" Raine demanded of her student.
"I..." Lloyd started weakly, "I can't... tell you..."
"Why?" Raine asked, suddenly serious, "Was it stolen?"
"I – I don't know!" Lloyd said, "Dad gave it to me, and told me to keep it safe! I don't know where it came from or what it says!"
Raine's suspicion and Ruin-Mode mania evaporated, "Oh... I'm sorry."
After a pause, Lloyd asked, "...What does it say, exactly?"
Raine seemed surprised, "Your father didn't explain?"
Lloyd shook his head, "It was important. That's all he said."
"It's an old book on healing magic," explained Raine, "It is supposed to contain many spells that have been lost for centuries." She looked down at the volume. "Do you mind if I look at it?"
Lloyd shook his head; suddenly he didn't want to even look at the thing anymore. "Go ahead."
Raine returned to the depths of Ruin-Mode, stroking and cooing at her newest acquisition.
"Your father gave you that book?" Yuan asked Lloyd.
"Yeah..." Lloyd mumbled, staring at the fire.
Yuan paused, and then asked, "What happened to him?"
Lloyd kicked some sand at the fire. "I don't want to talk about it."
"I see," Yuan looked away, "I'm sorry."
They ate in an uncomfortable silence. Lloyd didn't stay gloomy for too long, however. Unhappy with the melancholy silence, he started to joke around with Genis, and told Colette how amazing it must be to have wings! Did she think she could fly? Wouldn't that be great, getting to fly!
Colette smiled and nodded as Lloyd spoke excitedly. She thought she could feel tears poking at her eyes, but she forced them down. She didn't want Lloyd to see her sad. She also hoped he wouldn't notice that she hadn't actually eaten anything.
When dinner was over, Colette said she wasn't feeling very good and wanted to sit by herself for a while. Trying to ignore her friend's worried looks, she walked over to the edge of their camp, and just stood there, apparently content to stare out at the water, not one hundred feet away.
Lloyd glanced at the others, this was unusual behavior for someone as gregarious and bubbly as Colette. He stood up, and slowly walked over to her, knowing that at least Raine and Genis were watching him.
"Hey... Colette?"
She turned, and seemed surprised when she saw Lloyd.
"Oh, hi Lloyd!" she said with fake cheerfulness.
"Are you feeling sick?" Lloyd asked, remembering her plate of uneaten food, "You didn't eat anything."
"I'm just not hungry right now," said Colette. She looked down at the shoreline, and the waves that slid up the sandy beach. "...I think I'll go and take a walk."
"Can I come?" Lloyd asked.
Colette shook her head, "Sorry."
She walked down to the water, leaving Lloyd behind. She didn't look back.
"Ha-ha, you got RE-JEC-TED!"
Lloyd blushed in embarrassment, "Shut up Genis!"
On the beach, Colette struggled to breathe.
If she tried too hard, then she started coughing, feeling like she were choking. She gently touched her throat, then her hand wandered down to the cold surface of the Crystal. At first it had just felt like a stone that had been glued to her skin. It was cold now against her skin, and she thought she could almost feel it sucking away her body heat. She looked down at her hands, and felt a little sick. She almost did feel sick, like when she had the flu when she was small. It was like there was something inside of her that was slowly eroding her, body and soul.
She coughed again, after trying too hard to inhale. She didn't feel light-headed though, nothing to suggest she was short of breath.
"What's happening to me...?" Then she coughed again, silently praying the others couldn't hear her.
- ∞ -
The next morning, Colette said she felt better. No one believed her, but they had to keep moving. Staying too long in the desert could easily become dangerous. They could only carry so much water at a time. They could discuss Colette's condition later.
They spent one last night at Triet, stocking up and preparing to journey across the rest of the desert to Ossa Trail, which would bring them to the east coast, and the best place to get a boat.
In the morning, Raine was bent over a map of the desert, trying to plot the best route through the desert. She knew they would have to travel quickly through this leg of the journey. There were bandit gangs to avoid, as well as sandstorms, and always more monsters.
She didn't hear him walk up behind her, she had been too intent on the map, but she recognized the voice easily enough.
"Plotting a route through the desert will not be easy."
Raine sat up and turned in her chair to look at Yuan, who was looking down at her, his arms crossed.
"I am familiar with this area," he said, "I know the quickest and safest route from here to Ossa Trail."
"Have you traveled here often?" Raine asked.
"...I take it you are still suspicious of me," Yuan said dryly, "However, I would like to point out, that it is unlikely the Chosen would be able to succeed without my assistance. Lloyd and Genis are hardly capable protectors."
"Then why did you let them come along?" Raine asked levelly, "If I recall correctly, you said they had 'potential for some power'?"
Yuan frowned, "Potential does not equate to actual skill. They keep the Chosen happy. It is important that she keeps her cheerful disposition if she is to complete this journey."
Raine would not admit out loud she did not trust Yuan. Morale was a fragile thing, and division among their small group would only make things more dangerous. If they could not trust each other, then what would they do when they had to fight? This should not be something the children should worry about. Yuan was right, they needed him.
Yuan chose to interpret her silence as a concession.
"We will meet outside the inn in ten minutes," said Yuan, "Then I will show you the way through the desert."
He left her room, without any special haste or sluggishness. Raine frowned at the door, the looked down at her map. She neatly folded it up, and packed it along with her other things. She tried hard not to look at the door as she prepared to leave Triet.
- ∞ -
So far Yuan seemed to have chosen well. The route he followed seemed devoid of anything but a few stray, weak monsters. As he explained, most of the bandits and monsters would be on the path that cut straight through the desert, as that was the path most traveler's took.
Yuan's route took them near the rock formations on the northern end of the desert, many miles from Triet. Mountain-like formations of sand-colored rock seemed to grow from the desert. They remained silent for the most part. There was no wind, and the air was thick with heat and silence.
Then a sudden shout cut through the desert's quiet:
"HALT!"
Men in armor and uniforms seemed to sprout from the rocks and the dunes, all of them armed with crossbows trained on Lloyd and the others. Their sudden appearance completely caught Lloyd and the others off-guard.
"Desians!" Lloyd shouted, drawing his swords. There were so many of them! He thought they didn't have a base in the desert!
"If you remain calm and do as we say, then we will not hurt you."
Lloyd and the others turned and saw Yuan standing with the Desians, perfectly at ease.
"What's going on?" Lloyd asked, "What are you doing?"
"We are not Desians," Yuan continued, blatantly ignoring Lloyd, "If you want answers, and a way to end the cycle of rise and decline in Sylvarant, you will come with us peacefully."
"What...?" Lloyd stared blankly at Yuan.
"Why should we trust you now?" Raine demanded, glancing at the soldiers out of the corner of her eye.
Yuan smirked.
"Because there are currently twenty-six crossbows pointed at you, and you aren't dead yet. Doesn't that make you feel important?"