whiteshade of blackness 'gaku june 21, 2007
# 16 Forsaken Colour
to see, to be seen
to find, to be found
I saw you in front of me with my unseeing eyes
You found me just by reaching out your hand
I accepted your hand as the weaver of my Fate's thread
but were you searching for me...?
There were several cases more found of the genocide-thing poisoned issue...three to be exact. Well, two were the same case as Odin's, one merchant and a domesticated beast. The other one was of another type of poison found in a type of plantation crops. The Charms were forced to sealed the whole farm so they wouldn't infect other things. Yuy was right about how the poisons worked, they changed the bodies in their base-form. If they were aware of the term, they'd say 'to the genetics level'.
Lyea, helped by a few healer-Charms, managed to extricate the neutralizer for the genocide-thing from Odin's blood, tinkered it with a few other domestic poisons, and they got the antidote. Actually, as Yuy had said before, there was no cure for it, so she guessed it was just a silencer for the poison's effect, not that it was terminated.
The wound in his righthand never really cured, though he said it was okay now. The open wound was gone, but there was discoloration left on where the Ogreish-'I''s tentacles seized his arm. A pattern of dim silver shimmers that was visible especially in the dark. The screeching-plant marked him as its, somehow. It disheartened Deia a little, not by the fact that he was less hers, but because he took no importance of it. As if it was of natural course.
May be it was... From the Ogreish-'I''s perspective, it gave its life for his account, then he should be part of it or make itself part of him. Something of equal trade...? Odin had said something of making two of his hemispheres into one world, but Deia never really comprehend what he meant, or what it implied. 'I be your live, you be my death' she could understand, but that's different, ofcourse. In her logic, that's something like cause-and-result rule, but what Odin said was something like adding the cause to result to neutralize whatever the outcome was; that just not... be..! If you add +1 in the future to the –1 of your past, that made you have zero in the present. But life's not like math, you didn't commit felony in the past because you know the future will judge you, and you're paying whatever the conviction was in the present. That's what this land taught her of living.
The openland of Eyränd was the closest neighbouring country to Archantra, but both lands were never really acquainted in a good political relationship. Eyränd's territory covered a very wide range of lands, and Archantra was a very small country not even as big as Eyränd's capital, or its second biggest city. In a more sarcastic view, Archantra was only a small white speck on the map. Ofcourse, when you put the OWL's attacks in the conversation, that map showed growing lines of sand-colour on Eyränd's territory marked from the outerside going inward. In reality, that growing sand-area only widened the separating desert of both countries more and more.
Unfortunately for that land's suburbian people, Eyränd's sovereignty was not a very considerate family, being given the tasks of governing such a large country had its disadvantage, right now they're short of good leader qualities. As much as they're short on human resources. The royal family lost their crowned prince at early age (some said it was a planned death), and with the King in a not very good health the monarchs were wrangling in lenghty disputes with each other over the throne.
As for the Charms who were being sent there, they could fullfill their jobs without any significant incidents, but still said something about better facing the OWLs than Eyrändist Monarchs. Groups of Charms were sent to aid others countries, each group had one Charms from the Special Force as the leader. 'Octonary' was the leader of the aid for Eyränd, somehow that made him had to make frequent contact with Lyea for disscussing political matters, which in the case was to be avoided.
'Thrice' was sent as the leader to Grandmongrel, 'Seventh' was in his group, who was making himself useful as his brakes. Since Grandmongrel was an autonomic trading city which mostly specialized in livestock-trades for a living. There was at least one rockheaded person who would bid for 'Thrice' in every two days, of which 'Seventh' would shoo them off rather politely before they got some unforgetable and rather traumatizing if not lethal retribution from a cold burning 'Thrice'. Well, it's natural for a beast to act beastly sometimes, right...?
'Alder' was sent to Furndeisth's territory, he was actually the field-leader of healer-Charms, to the city of Runeshine instead of Stegāto since Furndeisth's governments decided to just quarantine that town with their own magics. But still they accepted the Charms as medical aids.
Now for Rűdern, since their people never really trust magic-users, Howard could only sent some 'healer-practitioners' there. Of course when it came to the Charms, they needed to disguise their distinctive eye colors, because you couldn't just say that 'our healers are all blinds'...! To his incredulousness, despite their fanatisms to magic-users, that land had a very strong magic-repellent. Although it might just came naturally with the land's environments.
There were also helpers from other countries, some of faraway lands Lyea only ever heard from stories and not from maps. They're mostly from the northern-earth, passed the Great-Shark's Maxilla(1) to the damp lands. Incredibly skilled craftsmen and spiritual hermits, the reports said.
"Hermits...?" Lyea quipped. Now, why would hermits choose to aid faraway lands, crossed the untamed stormy icebarriers of the Shark's? Lyea rolled Skirr in her hand gently. Unless they had the same objectives with them. Then, that meant no good. No good at all.
"So the OWL's attacks had already spread to their lands, too...?!" the clear crystal in her hand didn't answer.
It was only two months passed from Odin's incident; they all referred it as that just to tease him. Yuy had joined the training for almost the same length of time. To anyone's astonishment, Commander Crüdeo was very good –underlined good- with children. Yep!! Marked children. The man lost his first born about 8-years ago, his wife visited him in the Castile once, when she was pregnant, and it turned out that the baby was a boy, and already dead when she delivered it. Another casualty in the Castile's expense.
And to Deia's sulkiness. Watching that goaty bearded man treating her Prussian like a long lost nephew, earned the Castile another series of happenstances. Still at moments like that, she couldn't just barge in to the soldiers' practice-court and say 'I wanna play, too..!' or something like that, with ashen heart hid behind her spring-worth smiles she had to admit to herself that she was a girl wearing a dress instead of a boy holding weapons in his hands side by side with the little Wildling that somehow looked a bit free-er since he joined the soldiers' trainings. May be he did feel free-er from her...
Deia often stole glances from faraway windows to the stone-field, finding his distinctive image among the croud of soldiers. Then looked away with a bruised heart she always hid from him when he had the time to be with her. Not knowing that each time she stared at him from afar, his senses centered on her, picking small signs and stored them in his to-be-compensated-later list. As Odin predicted, and others, Deia still wanted him to stay in her chamber, but he could only allowed the boy to get 'home' only for once a week. To everyone's astonishment, the boy had uncharacteristicly said "...I told you so,...mother hen..." rather coldly to Deia right after Odin told them that rule. Saved Odin from stating the reasons or excuses, though to his dismay, he saw the hurt of betrayal flickered in her eyes before she retorted with selsifh angry antics that had made Lyea and The Lord have to calm her down, she surrendered rather childishly. But that was just an act to keep 'Deia's mask' on her face, he could see it clearly now, the difference of her-self she hid under her shadow and the Deia-acts. May be others of her inner circle noticed too, it was as if someone that used to be hiding behind her started to silently stalking her instead.
When did it happened, he couldn't fathom. Maybe because the self was always hidden there instead of Deia. Now, who did he try to fool? Deia was never around, she's dead in her mother's womb before she was even born. Then that made the 'Deia' they always knew as who...? An illusion they all force-built together ? A sad rememberance of their failure they couldn't admit..?
A presence disclosed itself from Odin's senses, the General lifted his brows from their crease before he looked behind his back. A pair of prussian gems were almost shining in the shade of the stable, a fair face with the lower half covered with black armor, the unruly brown hair. A calm air around him. Not like his usual persevering air the man sensed from him before he joined the force.
He wasn't there a few seconds ago, or maybe a second ago...that's how fast he could ambush someone if he wanted to, the man realized.
"I see you've made friends with my warsteed here...he didn't allert me of you coming from behind my back!" Odin said with smile. The black warsteed only flicked its eyes to the man's face at its side, then back at staring forward. Perhaps staring at the boy, letting him enter its space, but he didn't come nearer from where he stood a good one and a half meters from them.
"It's Sun's day, shouldn't Lady Deia keep you in her bearhug till evening...?" Odin focused his eyes back to his brushing the warsteed's mane. There were no answer from the boy behind him, not even the slightest response. He lifted one brow inquiringly to him. "You two had a fight or something...?"
The boy shook his head slowly.
"You have something to talk to me about ?"
The boy blinked and shook his head again.
Odin smirked, "...you have some discussion with my warsteed..?". The stable workers reported to him that the boy frequently came to the horse and just stared at each other for a long time. The infamous horse let him close enough that he was literally under its muzzle was a big affair for them, since the warsteed usually never let anyone else get in its space, besides Odin, he did the grooming by himself, ofcourse when he had the time aside the general's jobs. An ignorant stableboy almost lost his whole arm once when he accidently reached out his hand deeper then necessary into the cubicle to add the food. The horse only accepted hand-feeding from Odin's hand, it would chew the food including the hand if it's not him. Anyway, who would dare to hand-fed a carnivoral horse...?
The boy blinked again. A look of wonder shone covertly in his prussian eyes, how a human being could think of so many thoughts at the same time never ceased his curiosity towards them. Shifting from one topic then to another, from one feeling and others, mixed and sorted, ebbing and overlapping, come and go. Almost like an endless lapping waves at a seashore. He blinked again, the man was watching him with an analytical stare. He widened his eyes a little, watching the man watching him. Comprehension dawned on the man's eyes and he just snorted. The boy blinked, comprehension of what? Of what he's doing...? Of his interest..?
"You're one piece of art, aren't you, Boy...?! Who made you like that?". That sounded like a rhetorical question, the boy noted, sometimes the humans questioned just for the sake of questioning. That was highly uneffective..!
...a question without answer wanted... kind of like himself... His spirit downed a little, he averted his gaze from the man and his warsteed in front of him, and stared at the warsteed's frontlegs fetlocks instead.
Odin sensed his change of mood and misunderstood the cause. "The reports said you're an adept learner..!"
The boy looked at him when he suddenly changed the topic, felt a cloud of remorse wafting from him. The warsteed snorted once and swished its tail a couple of times. He flicked at it then back to the man's strong back presented at him. "...I'm a one-time learner..., Colle' said.." he whispered silently.
"...showed once..or told once..or tried once... Like that?"
The boy shrugged one shoulder. "...his words..!"
Odin snorted, "...About that Collector...-!" and looked at the boy, who was shaking his head slowly, his eyes spoke a gentle forbiddance. The man shrugged indifferently, "...okay!".
"You liked him, didn't you..?"
A nod.
"Still do?"
"Yes.." straight answer.
"Did he mistreated you..?"
"That's just a matter of perspective.." indifferent tone.
Odin hummed low. "What did you mean by 'my half-humanity'..?"
The boy flicked his head as a shrug. The man felt like he was missing that gesture somewhat for he seldomly showed that beastly habits anymore, he stared inquiringly at the boy, waiting for his answer in any way of form.
"...I just said it because at the time...that kind of answer would be...approved-..? ..for you..."
Just an excuse, then. "So basically we don't share the same humanity..?"
"My humanity could be different from your humanity..." he whispered fluidly.
"Like what...?"
Another flick of head.
"You didn't answer my question before...You and Deia had a fight or something?" Odin smirked, his tone was lighter, tinged with curiosity, maybe even a little concern, the boy noted. So that wasn't a rhetorical question, afteral. It's relevant, he could answer that.
"...Human was trying dresses with Lady..." he whispered a bit sullenly. Odin made a sound of understanding. "They wanted you to tell them what you think of those, and you said something in the line of 'they're all fine' or 'adequate', and they threw you out...?!" he said with a grin. After that, Odin noted to himself that the boy looked cuter when he pouted, even though his half face hidden by the armor, his eyes showed his pout. He looked innocently humane, and that's sinfully enchanting.
"Clothces are clotches no matter how you see of it from any perspective. I lived unclothed for the most time, anything adequate would be fine...! You need something that serves its purpose; when you don't need the purpose, you don't need the thing !"
Odin blinked, so that's what it's like from his view. Very...practical ?
"Well, when females wanted you to tell them what you think of their appearences, you tell them what they wanted to hear instead, not what you really think...!" Odin said with a low chuckle. That kind of ritual really grated him, too, he told himself. That's why he couldn't stand women, speaking of in romantic relationship.
"...isn't that counted as lying...?" he sounded resentful, though his eyes shone with incomprehension.
Odin thought about it, "You would want them to feel good about it, wouldn't you? About themselves more than about you..! When you tell them what they wanted, they'll feel good about themselves, and that's not a lie, right...? Not your words, but your feelings." Ofcourse, that logic had so many flaws that could backfire at him, but for the boy Odin thought the reasoning would help a little.
The boy only stared him with a frown. "...that's... relevant..." he whispered after a long pause. His mind supplied him with the fact that that kind of rule didn't apply in his place before..you're lying when you lied, no matter for what reasons and feelings were invalid, and liars were to be punished. "Ofcourse it does..!" Odin smirked.
"...although..." the boy continued furtively, "Human is Human, Human doesn't have to be Lady or others..." as if said to himself. Odin stared him rather judiciously, the boy must have perceived it that Deia was not a girl from the start. "Circumstances and life...?" he tried. The boy shrugged one shoulder, "...not mine to judge..!". That's a closure to the topic, Odin noted.
"...What does 'more than hell' mean ?" the boy asked straightforwardly. "Human said that more than once...if not verbally, Human thought of it.. rather outragedly..!" he continued before the man could ask his reason of curiousity.
"About what ?" better be safe.
"...OWLs...!" the boy cocked his head, must be from Deia's habitual gestures.
"Hmmmm...that's kind of tricky to explain to you...!" Odin said more to himself. "May bee-... What do you think about our lives here..?" he watched the boy again, looking for his beastly-gestures he might showed.
"Sufficient..." that sounded final, Odin noted with dismay, he sighed to himself. Explaining would be easier than to make him comprehend the explanation. If he asked the boy about what his life was like in the OWLs place, he guessed he might just say 'adequate' for answer.
"Try other scale... good, bad...moderate, excessive...?"
The boy blinked. "Inefficient..?" he said flatly. Odin slumped his shoulder, this was harder than he thought it would.
"Let's try other approach. You like living here..?"
At the boy's nod Odin continued, "What is it that you don't like, not just here, talk about anywhere, anything."
He thought about it for a second. "Losing my-self.."
Odin stored that answer in the boy's data in his mind. "What do you hate?". This seemed to be on the right track.
"...to hate." Odin was a little surprised by the answer but he didn't show it.
"How about what you like the most, doesn't necessary have to be only one.."
This time he took longer time to think about it. "...deaths.." his first answer stunned Odin to frozen, he was sure it would be 'Human' first. "...sky...alive..." took another pause to think, "...alone..."
His eyes stared back the reality, "Alone..." he repeated with finallity to himself. Odin gaped, "...What about Deia..?" he couldn't help himself. The boy stared him with straight half-incomprehending eyes. Small frown. "...what I want..!" he whispered breathily, as if stating the obvious to an ignorant person.
Odin sweatdropped, cleared his throat to collect himself. "Okay, then what else do you want..?"
The boy only lifted his brows in another incomprehension. Okay, just Deia, then. Added another sweatdrop.
"Now...try to apply what you don't like and hate to what you like and want..!"
"They're irrelevant..!"
Odin stared him with perception dawned in his mind. That was the boy's self-protection system, separating his negatives in life from his positives, so they would never clash and turn his world to chaos. Reality happens, but would never interfere his world. He would never drown when his wheel turn him on the down-side, would never be choked by the height when he's on the up-side. The balanced ruins that could never be broken down by anything unless by himself...just like the weapon he made, the Genocide-poison…
"...Just try?" Odin said softly and gave him the time to tinker the subjects.
The boy blinked and spaced out, his eyes darken with the unwanted probabilities he never pondered. A sudden jerk of body, visible shiver ran up his frame. He looked like he was tottering backwards, before he snapped and embraced himself with both hands and bended forward. Odin didn't expected the effect of just mulling some thoughts would be that corporal. He let the boy took all the time he needed to get his footing back and just watched him spaced out and in from the here and now.
Noticing that he had only stilling his small body for sometime now, Odin said silently, "That would be what a hell like to you...!"
The boy took a few breaths span before responding distractedly. "...but that would be...different for...everyone.."
Odin smiled to himself. "Yes, it would. I was just trying to give you the impression of what hell would be like...!"
The boy's head snapped to him. "...then it wouldn't happen, really..?!"
Odin gazed at the boy's pleading eyes. "...No..!" he said, I hope not. What ever your hell is like..!
The boy spaced out again, his eyes got even darker than before. "...right... Human wouldn't be me..." he whispered low to himself. Odin's brow arched at his deliberation. "...Human's not me..."
His hell is himself..?! Odin thought stunnedly. But before he could utter something, the boy fled from the stable in a flash, not even had the chance to blink he'd disappear from his sight.
The warsteed nickered and shook its head, tapped the stable floor with one of its frontlegs a couple of times, let out another long nicker.
"Yeah...that went well, alright! 'Guess I just ruined someone's perspective, hu...?" Odin said stroking the beast's muzzle. It just answered him with a snort.
---------------
Circa was a relative to 'Octonary'. You could say that he was his distant cousin. They're so distantly related that he had no endowment as a Charms at all, that's what he used to joke about himself to others. But someone close to him might notice his natural gift that he himself never really spoke highly of. For the most time Yuy shared a room in the soldier barracks, he recognize immediately that the teen human had a knack for inventing. He's very talented at that, in fact. His family pressed him to have achievement in the forces, being the only son and the eldest of six younger sisters. He never really enjoyed being in the army, but he marveled the absence of his parents' pressures in his ears directly.
"You're VERY early...!" he stated when he saw the boy entered the room.
"...I apologize...!" he answered distantly. That earned a deep frown from Circa. He extracted himself from the room's corner where he was building his newest project, and came to the boy's side on the lower bunk. Took the wooden chair and sat, folding his arms on the chair's back at his front.
"You had a fight with the Young Lady...?" he asked carefully but straightforwardly, indeed. The boy shook his head slowly, still distracted out of his reality. "You don't seem like you miss me or anything...!" he added with a smirk. At the boy's another shake, he popped some artery in irritation. "You don't have to be THAT honest, really...!!" he growled to himself.
"...what is hell to you...?" Yuy asked still distantly.
"Hell...?!" Circa repeated a bit incredulously. He snorted jokingly, "Well, hell for me would be like when yo-...". His jokingly exagerated voice faltered when he met Yuy's serious and darkened eyes. Wide, and he could say they're a bit...hurt.
"...Is this one of that high-philosopized moments..?" he asked flatly. Yuy averted his eyes to the floor again, "...maybe just a rhetorical question...", he whispered.
Circa snorted with a frown, "All questions should have answers to them...!"
Yuy's head snapped at his. "Yes...?" That was a bit too expecting, Circa noted. "Hell, yeah..!!". At the boy's frown he just shrugged, thinking that his way of speaking wouldn't add more confusion to him. Hopefuly... "Even in the form of 'I don't have the answer for that'..!"
"Then why would someone ask such a question...?"
Circa arched his brow, wasn't he the one who asked that kind of question to him? He scrutinized the wide deep-blue eyes staring at him. And gave a mental nod to himself. Yep, definitely one of those moments of high-questioned...!
"Because you know half the answer..." he started. The boy blinked slowly, his eye colour shifted to darker, then to lighter, back to darker shade again. Circa took note of the things his eyes could see hidden in those wide eyes. "...and.. you'd want someone else to agree with you...". Blacken shade. Bad things he didn't expected, then.
"...or to deny that..!". Confused stare, marked as stormy colour of darker and lighter shades. Hopeful stare, marked with the widening of the beast-eye pupils and waveringly fighting for that hope.
"...or add the other half of the answer?". Jackpot!! The boy's eye pupils widened to match a normal human's eyes. But in a second they're thinned to beast-eye slitted pupils again, like a closed window. A window to his soul.
A vulnerable window for a beautiful soul, he thought.
"Why would you ask such a question...?" he asked back.
"...because I don't want to know the answer..." That was almost sounded like a question rather than a statement. Maybe he was asking himself..
"This got to do with you coming back earlier than usual...?" Circa arched both brows inquiringly. Yuy shook his head again.
"Human was trying dresses with Lady...!" he said blandly.
"Ah! Girl's-things...!!" Circa messed Yuy's already unruly hair, "...Growing pains! You'll get the hang of it eventually...!" added a few gentle pats on his head, then got back to his project. Sensing the boy's eyes watching his every move.
He chuckled to himself. "...I have six younger sisters..!" and added passingly.
. . . . . . . . . "..You know a lot of pains...!"
At that Circa's chuckle broke to laughter. A merry laughter. He loved his sisters heartfully, with all the consequences he had to pay for loving them.
---------------
A steady burn of white flame...
burned his-self to non-existence
soaring to the sky
seeking deaths...
as it was adoring lives
alone...
but in its solitude the universe never left him unbothered
that's why he'd said it twice...
always having something, someone to be yearned for
but always being the only solitary soul
...his hell would be...
to hate his Human..
...I was to be Human's death... he repeated in his mind. Human wanted me so...
That hell would come with Time eventually..!
...yakusoku da yo...!
it's a promise !
---------------
Small trivial battles added to the happenstances in their lives, small insignificant skirmishes that were somewhat never ceased. Archantra was somehow left out of the major ones, unlike the neighboring larger countries. Perhaps the OWLs thought it was only a small whitespeck on the map of their battlegrounds that they could focus their attacks on it later when they already got the major lands in their claws. That irritated Deia a little bit more than necessary.
"They're underestimating us...!!" she half yelled in Lyea's study. Books and papers and report-scrolls and maps scattered unceremoniously everywhere. A high stack of books next to the bookrack on one of the corner avalanched at the sound of her voice.
Lyea sighed and smoothed her brows with her fingers. "Deia, please don't make more things to be tidied up in my study...!" she said blandly.
"...AS IF WE'RE OF NO WORTHY ENEMY...!!" Deia shouted to the ceiling, mostly just to drown Lyea's complaint. But another unbalanced stack of things toppled over somewhere in the room.
"Shouldn't we be grrrateful of that fact...?!" Lyea said pressing the 'grate' in 'grateful' as if saying 'you're grate-ing on my nerves now'.
Deia slumped her body to the chair rather roughly. It was hard enough to make another avalanche on Lyea's desk.
"They're really grating on my nerves, now..!!" she growled. Lyea stared her wideeyed, that's MY line...!! Her mind sneered, but she didn't show it on the outside. That's a politician to you...!
"Well, at least the HUMANS still count us in...!" she said instead.
"Oh, so you're going to go to Viricidia..!" Somehow Deia's mood brightened dramatically. Lyea stared her with half-lidded eyes of suspicions.
"...That's a drastic change..!!" she said flatly, she meant Deia's change. Deia bounced on the chair repeatedly with childish merryness. "Isn't it..?!" she asked brightly, "So, what dress will you wear..??"
Lyea sighed again. Picking up the strewn things from her desk on the floor and walked to the closed shelve to put them orderly. "I mean you...!" She couldn't get out of the Land for that long span of time, anyway, she was the Lady of the Land, after all..!!
"I'm...going to Viricidia...?" Deia took it differently with puzzlement.
"No, Deia. I mean your ch-...". Wait, that could work..!
"You're interested in political ball...?" Lyea asked incitingly.
Deia's bounce stopped. She had a deep contemplatory expression, chewing her forefinger's end lightly. "...I sure don't like politics, but I could use a party for a change...!" she mulled it seriously.
"Are you sure you wouldn't turn the HUMANS to enemies instead...?!" Lyea said half condescendingly.
"Like you didn't pound the art of sweet-talking into me for years, Sister...!" Deia stared through halflidded eyes in irritation. Lyea chuckled.
"You're just considering of taking Yuy for a vacation outside..!!" Lyea said sounded jokingly, but she knew her sister would be considering that seriously now.
A half-stunned look showed on Deia's face, the expression of being caught-in-the-act kind of thing. That brought another laughter from Lyea. She knew Deia well enough. Maybe even more than enough...
---------------
Circa tried to pry the lever to move with a crowbar. This was certainly a malfunction, you're not suppose to operate a lever using a crowbar, even a fool would know that. He swore under his breath silently. The passing cold wind across the prairie chilled his anger a little.
"...excuse me..!" the soft melodious voice startled him, and his crowbar slipped and cut his right hand.
"Oh,...Young Lady!" half nervously Circa turned and found the 14-years old girl stood next to the tree shading his present workspace. His left hand sought the hand towel for his bleeding cut blindly.
"Yuy...?" she smiled with a knowing look that the soldier would know what she asked to him. This was Land's-day(2), and Yuy was suppose to have the work half-day. They settled for a horse-riding for the afternoon. Well, actually Deia wanted to go for a ride and Yuy as her well known guardian-beast (the title remained mostly since he showed his superiority to the other soldiers as a beast) would follow her wishes without needing to be asked.
"Uhmm..." Circa searched for the right words, a little unnerved by Deia's presence, not wanting to disappoint the famous Light of Archantra in flesh. But he decided being straightforward usually worked best. "...he's on patrol to the eastern suburbs. They didn't get the daily report from the village supervisor third time in a row for today..!" he ended with clearing his throat.
"Today isn't his patrol-shift...!" Deia frowned a little.
"Yes! He filled in for Ley, the second rank..? His sister gave birth to her first child..-"
"Mea shouldn't due until next week...!" Deia's brows creased deeper.
"Oh, you know her..!" Deia helped in the healer-Charms infirmary for most time of her days. "She fell off the stairs this morning." Circa informed her rather uneventfully. Deia widened her eyes. "No! Nothing too serious..! Both her and the baby were fine, she's just a little shocked by her fall, that's all..!!"
"Oh...that's great!" Deia sighed. "Here, let me fix that for you...!"
"You shouldn't..! This thing's fine, I'm working on it..!!" he gave nervous chuckle and grinned widely. Deia stared with a knowing look and a nice smile on her face. "I mean your hand...!"
"Oh, right..! No, really, it's just a small cut...-"
Deia took his bleeding hand and kept her hands on each sides of it in a respective distance. "I believe this is my fault...!" she said with a smile, letting out healing-wave now known as a new talent for the girls. Charms were known to boys, the discovery of the new talent was not until about a year ago when suddenly girls with healing ability started to popped up everywhere. Lyea suspected it had something to do with the scheme of the OWL's, perhaps the side-effect of some poison or something, but it made a good cover for Deia's real-ability so she wouldn't stand out or suspected. Still, it was too accurate to be called a coincidence...as if it was planned.
"I'll go look for him. Thanx..!" Deia excused herself once the cut was gone. Leaving Circa staring her disappeared from his sight.
---------------
"You're early...!" Fern said from his bed, staring his roommate entered their shared room. "I couldn't make the lever to move properly!" Circa placed his new invention carefully on the corner despite his upset words. "You seem happy to me, though. Or rather a little dreamy looking? You know, with that faint flush on your face like that..!" Fern said with a chuckle.
Circa stared him a little distractedly. "Lady Deia fixed my hand..."
"Really..? That's a waste, she should fix your head instead. You're always having new ideas that aren't working. Must be something impaired in your brain...!". Fern always talked too much, Circa noted, the opposite of their other roommate, the notorious guardian-beast of Lady Deia. They moved to a bigger room with three single beds instead of two-bunked bed of their first year training.
"What's with yourself having that not-so-faint flush on your face..?!"
Fern chuckled merrily, he turned in his bed to look at the ceiling. "Rhenaia gave me flowers from her garden in the infirmary this morning. She delivered them by herself here...!"
"I don't see any flower..!" Circa arched his brow surveying the room.
"I put them under my pillow so I could dream about her anytime I sleep!". That earned a jawdrop from Circa. "Are you stupid..?!". When the healer-girl find out what he did to the flowers she carefully nurture and all that...-
"I'm in love! No, in heaven..!!" That made Circa rolled his eyes. A series of faint tinkling sound heard from Circa's other new device that weren't a failure. It looked like a plate with an indicator of a half-circle in the middle, a small crystal ball half-planted in the leftside, a palm-mark on the rightside. A clear lens on the lower side of the indicator now gleaming red. Circa gasped and hurried to the device.
"What is it?"
"Call of emergence..!". Fern widened his eyes, "You hack the Charms' communication..?! Aren't you be court-martialled or anything?!". Circa scrolled the crystal ball with his left hand. "It's from Yuy's location. I'll show you the message..." With a few faint strokes of fingers on the palm-mark, the red gleam shot out and floated above the plate. It formed the report in writings. Fern read the red light behind Circa's back, mumbling the words to himself. "...'in eastern village of Ella-myrda, the 61st block, round 11nth, district 4'...!" In a flash he was at the door. "That's where Rhenaia's parents and twin-brothers live..!!" he half shouted leaving the door half open.
"Wait..!!" Circa ran after him thinking about cort-martialled or strictly reprimanded –that would be using too much luck from their goodluck-stock-, and such...
---------------
A girl about 19 of age landed on the damp dirt ground, her silvery light-green hair that length half of her back flowed gently in the teleportation lights, her healer cloak floated nicely around her. She was a teleportation-Spell user.
"Where..?!"
A soldier pointed to the direction the other Charms headed a moment before. She hurried without so much of a thankyou, but the soldier only showed concerns on his face. Just another case of casualties in the suburbs, he felt sorry for the girl. While she was dedicating herself for the others, she wasn't there for her family when they're butchered.
"Saffie..!!" she called out to a boy sitting on the damp ground, his hands were hugging himself tightly on his chest, his body balled against his knees. Splatters of blood had already dried on his body, his wide eyes were staring blindly to a spot in front of him. Several Charms were lashing out Waves from their open palms to break the barrier shielding the space he kept staring.
"Rhenaia..!" Fern called out softly by her side. She looked up from her crouching, hugging the ashened boy. He was about 10-years old, the younger one of the twins. "Yuy went in there.." he pointed the shielded space with a flick of his chin, the guardian-beast could penetrate the barrier without so much of an effort. To common eyes, the shielded space would look like normal woods, but the Charms or Spell-user could detect the anomaly.
"Sagé..?! My parents?" her eyes brimmed with tears. "...Along with the people of the whole village...-" Fern let his words faltered and just shook his head, they couldn't find any of them besides Saffie. Right after he finished shaking his head, as if on cue, the barrier broke, crashing down like a splattered glass. Shards of lights rained down to every direction. Rhenaia covered her brother with her body and cloak. The soldiers took covers behind trees. The Charms...they could only widened their eyes at the scene presented behind the barrier.
A high-tree(3) without so much of a leaf stood tall and resolute, its bough and branches coloured dark by dried blood. Dead bodies hung on the branches neatly. Started with the bigger ones at the inside, to the smaller ones at the smaller part of the branches on the outerside. All their eyes had been removed from their heads, leaving two bloody holes on each of their faces, their hearts were hung by their dangling feet. Dead animals scattered under the tree in circles as if worshiping it, the bigger ones like cattles and riding-beasts at the outerside, smaller ones like birds and fowls and even rodents on the innermost circles. At the top of the bough was a boy's body hung upside-down with his head missing.
Saffie's body slumped from his frozen state, his bended legs slowly slid to the ground, revealing the missing head in his embrace. Rhenaia who was still covering his body widened her eyes in horror finding the decapitated head just a hand-wide distance from her own face. She screamed...and everything felt like a slow motion...turned her head to the dark tree...saw the one body hung on the top..
She materialized in front of that body, screaming in hysteria when she hugged the mutilated boy, one hand tugging vainly at the red thread tying his feet to the treetop. It felt like so long and yet so short of occurance, she fast lose her hysteria and just sobbed hardly hugging her brother's body. Wailing with broken cries...
They spotted Yuy standing upside-down on the underside of a branch's end, looking at his down-side. An infant's body in his hands, he was holding it as if not letting that smallest body to dangle by the thread around its neck.
"...Yuy..!" Circa called him breathily, still too much in a strength-draining shock. Yuy jerked in surprise from his trance, he was only snapping his eyes to him but being his roommate for two years he could recognize his small gestures easily. ". . . . . it's just an infant..." the teen-beast whispered distractedly, staring back the smallest body in his hands.
Fern moved slowly to the lone survivor still on the ground, a light touch on his hair jolted him to hug his twin's head again. His movements was jerky and erratic. His wide eyes still blind to his surrounding. "Rhenaia..." Fern called softly. "Saffie needs you down here..!"
The girl took quite a moment to respond to that logic, but even tranced with grief and shock, she teleported herself down again. Slumped bonelessly when her feet touched the ground. Fern caught her upper body halfway in its fall, she'd stopped sobbing and wailing, but her tears fell continuously. Their parents must be among the dead villagers up there, he thought.
Circa glanced at the Charms nearest from him, then called out again. "Yuy...!" this time his voice didn't betray him. In the next second Yuy was standing at the front of the shocked spectators, looking down at his hands. Crusts of dried blood dirtied his black gloves. "...hatred.." he whispered.
"Hatred for their unshed tears... that's why their eyes were all removed..."-except Sagé's eyes still attached to his head."...punishment for their state of being alive..."-that's why their hearts were subtracted and hung by their feet, something to say that even dead-men didn't walk on their hearts. He looked at the field-leader Charms, silently asking for permission. The Charms looked back at him, then to his partner near him. The other Charms only shrugged one of his shoulder. The field-leader frowned in thinking for a few seconds, then nodded to Yuy.
The teen-beast turned his whole body to the tree slowly, letting his black-armor slithered off of his half-face to his neck like a mock turtle neck shirt. Took a guarded breath. Then started to sing a very slow chant...
Circa thought he heard a word similar to 'euthanasia' in the enchanting foreign language, but that might be just his mind thought so. They could feel the negative feelings lingered in the scene started to accumulate and wafted to the boy. They're mostly of hatred, the Charms recognized. The removal of the eyes was the retribution for empty longing. Of whose longing they had to investigate.
The humans couldn't see it with their eyes, but Yuy could see perfectly, the hatred and longing and hunger of vengeance left in the space. Wafting stormy coils of dark and bleeding colours, crawled in the air towards him, like Shadows of Unforgiven clawing their way from everywhere to devour him. He tried to ignore the freezing feeling started to seize him from his feet up. A ringing sound so loud it deafened his ears. But he had to clear the space, or else the lingered feelings will poison the Land...
Two slender white arms suddenly bursted out from the accumulated waft of clouds floating in front of his chest, clutching his head in a deadlock. Yuy jerked a little and froze, ended his Voice with hopefully not an awkward cut that would raise anyone's suspicion. His eyes were two bipolar vertical-lines in a widened whiteness, recognizing to whom those arms belonged to. A red head followed those arms, broke out of the clouds with a miserable deep and long wheeze, like a drowning person broke off the water surface. It gasped hardly for several times, with the visible upper body from under its chest arched backwards, making the head dangling behind inhumanely.
Suddenly that form snapped forward almost hitting his face with its. ((...Miss me...?!)) the 'voice' reverberated his brain. ((I sure do miss you, Deity...!!)) it whined harshfully.
((...It's not fair that I'm the only one longing in vain !!)) That's the answer the Charms wanted..! The entity floated the rest of his body out from the clouds that soon dispersing when he's completely visible.
...the spirit-Kylle...! His mind alerted his consciousness almost trancedly. The black-armor abruptly covered his lower half-face just before the entity meshed his own lips to his closed mouth. Roughly. Desperate hunger he could sense like blades...as if devouring him right then and there. Feeling the entity's limbs clutched his body tightly. A hand circling his head, pushing it forward to his starving mouth. The other gripping his throat, as if fighting with his own desire of breaking his neck. His legs circled his lower body, one at his hips, another seizing one of his legs like a snake. His crotch disturbingly at the same level with the entity's as he'd grown almost twice the height he'd last seen that airy figure.
He squeezed his hands tightly on either sides of his thighs. His mind reiterated, ...don't show it...don't show it...half panickly.
"Yuy...?" Circa noticed his sudden awkwardness. The teen just nodded stiffly once, knowing the Charms would start to do their jobs of evacuating the bodies at his sign. The other soldiers spread cloths for the bodies on the grounds, and not for long, Circa decided to join them too.
Another healer-Charms walked carefully to the boy on the ground. He yelped when a surge of power burned his hand by a slightest touch, and fell backward on his butt. Yuy jerked once feeling the same surge, only it was from the source sticking himself to his body like a leech, despite his effort for hiding the entity's presence.
"..whaa-...-i don'...y'laii...kh...it..." the boy started to speak brokenly. His words were too broken almost incomprehensible. "...did...fo'... yhuu..." he tried between choked gasps. "..thossse...whohur'th you..."
His wide eyes got even wider, a crazed smile on his face. His dry blooded hand sought Yuy's black shawl's end, gripped it tightly almost using his weight. The other one still hugging his twin's head precariously. Hard gasps. "...smaa'illle fo'mhee...!"
((Smile for meeeee...!)) the entity reverberated in the teen-beast's brain lasciviously.
The possessed boy jerked and whined as if in pain. His other hand clutched his head, letting his twin's head rolled on the ground, that woke his elder sister to react. "...smillle... fo'..." he whined out feeling the pain.
A loud slap stopped his pained gasps, his blood-splattered face stunned in empty shock. The hand gripping the black shawl fell limply. Followed by the body lifelessly, to his twin's head on his sister's laps.
Rhenaia embraced him protectively. "...what...evil.." she hissed, "...have you brought to this land...?!"
That village was the village where he'd been hunted down to the Forest, caught by the villagers and mercenaries and got abused, almost starved to death, and they did let him bleed to his demise. This was the village where his blood had wetted its grounds. The village marked by his marked life...
---------------
Deia widened her eyes in horror, staring at the dark tree still with a few bodies to be evacuated. She fast searched the people in the scene, and spotted Circa covering a body with a cloth almost hidden by the low trees.
"Where's Yuy..?!" she asked him not caring at his jump of surprise.
"He..." Circa took a deep breath for his surprised lungs. "He was... taken by 'Thrice' to the Temple..!"
"Which Temple ?!"
"Uhh...the Second...?", he said half-consciously asking himself.
"Why?"
"For questioning...or something-.."
"Questioning him for what..?!" Deia got impatient and lashed out a little.
Circa blinked, feeling his world still turning him upside-down over and over. "Milady...!" he pleaded with a deep sigh. Deia stared him, then snorted. "Sorry. Thanx, Circa..!" then fled.
"...'welcome, Milady..." Circa said stunnedly, watched her dissapeared from his sight the second time that day. Half realizing that the Lady had called him by name. A logical part of his mind that still working pointed to him that she even knew low-ranked soldiers' families and relatives.
---------------
The Six-Stalwarths were natural 'towers', if you could make a good use for them. Three made as temples, the other three made as forts, even though he'd never been informed of what kind of temples and what kind of forts they were. If you put a line connecting the temples, and a line for the forts in different colours, you'll get a sign of a hexagonal-star made from two triangles. Then, if you could see it from a higher view, you'd realize that it was more like a general magical-seal sign; sealing the whole land, hidden by the canopy of the Stratus.
That's what the sky's eyes told him from the beginning. What kind of thing would such a grand-sized seal adequate for...? That was what had intrigued him to enter this land, the smell of longing that was older than himself..
'Thrice' teleported them to the Second Temple's grounds. He'd left Grandmongrel and other countries around it to 'Seventh', besides, he's not very good at maintaining political relationship, or avoiding it. Whether it was a good or a bad relationship. Being an indifferent individual himself, although some people would realize it now that he could be open only in the presence of 'Seventh', and he'd be more closed in the presence of 'Octonary'.
In the absence of both of them somehow made him like...colourless. Like a silent passing wind.
"This place is forbidden for commoners..."
Yuy watched the teenage-Charms opened his left palm to the Stalwarth's direction quite a few meters from its bough, a whitelight appeared and formed an oval shape of mirror a little taller than himself. The surface was liquiscent and flowed in shimmering whites.
'Thrice' turned and walked to him. "...You don't get out. Unless you have the permission...!" he said passingly near Yuy's face. A light breeze passed them and swayed his bangs from covering his face. Yuy watched him sidelong when the teenage-Charms passed him. His burning-gold eye stared him like a predator's, but he found it oddly soothing. The Charms found himself a nice spot to sit on the parts of the Stalwarth that were protruding from the grounds. Somehow they were almost looked like human made carved-decorations of transparent structures, outlanders would find it hard to belief that they were grow naturally. Specks of multicoloured lights randomly shone in them, as if giving bits of colours to him.
He said nothing more, closing his eyes, and shut off his surrounding.
Yuy stared him for a little while, his mind wanted to say anything, perhaps questions, or defensive statements, or excuses...but he could formulate nothing, not even a word. Not really understanding what the Charms in front of him took him for. Enemy? Traitor? He could still feel the slap he gave him a couple of years ago after he massacred the OWLs outside. Or perhaps, he was only a nuissance..? Like a rock thrown into a stillwatter and disturbed its calm surface.
The kisses the spirit-Kylle gave him trailed to his left ear, licking and purring. A deep chuckle. The entity seemed like he was in his own world, satisfying his two years hunger of not beable to devour him in any way and form. The teen-beast sighed mentally, not that he needed someone to cling to in this kind of situation. Might as well faced the perils this land stored for him, and his Human. Better him than his Human..!
He extended his right hand to the oval-light, feeling it solidify on the touch of his palm, a flash of light and the surface turned glassy. Reflecting the spirit-Kylle who was attaching to his body for a mere glimpse, felt a sharp tug on his hand, and suddenly he was falling forward.
He collapsed on a solid surface on his knees, feeling out of breath and drained from energy. Drained of life and awareness. The place he was at was of different space, thicker in consciousness and more intangible in substance. He felt the blackness from the craftplate took over his vital organs, forcing him to compromise. A part of him grateful that the thing existed in his body, somehow he knew he wouldn't beable to survive in that place by himself.
The absence of an entity attaching himself to his body alerted his mind. He straightened his head slowly and surveyed the place. It was only a hollowed space used as a room, a round stone-floor with marks of spell-circles, some signs like the Order's succession he saw when his Human showed him the Land's map to him. He stared at them for sometime.
...Order of...Millenium... his mind read, remembering something his Human said about 'Order of the Year' back at the time. Some intricate designs of curves and styles made a sign of a hexagonal star on the outeredge, its pointed ends passed the outer circles. Above each of them floated a hexagonal column about a couple of meters from the floor. The wall was made of roots intermingling themselves into solid structure. Everything was shimmering dim light that illuminated the room. He looked up, finding the hollow ended in nothingness far up.
Stood up, turned in a full circle to inspect the room. Noone besides himself was around. He was at the outside of the circles, so whatever those circle used for likely not to be used for sealing him. Unless... Right, there's no exit in the room. So the exit could be in the middle of the circles, or up there. Though he doubted the later, he wasn't sure it would be the previous too.
Redfire ablazed on the middle of the circles right after he finished his thinking. Floated in about the same height as the columns above the floor. It was bigger than a human's form.
The circles and signs on the floor burned a molten lava colour from the innerside, when it reached the hexagonal star's ends, the columns turned into burning pillars of redfire. Redlight shot up from the fire pillars marking the air with some hexagonal-star based form, piercing the blazing redfire in the middle. A long high pitched sound reverberated the room, as the fire turned into humanoid form, ended as a fierce scream of pain and anger from a Wild-faced spirit-Kylle baring his teeth to him, sharp long fangs carved with red marks on them. The two redlines at either sides of his face burned like the molten lava, bled his face. His hands tied flat to his body at his backside by the redlights. He was screeching ferociously in maddened fury.
Yuy took a step back. His ears could perceive the faint almost inaudible voice in the screeches, a reiteration of 'die' in an alien language, must be something of an ancient language. He furrowed.
"I'll free you if you-..."
A presence materialized from the air behind him. He turned fast and froze. Finding an angelic smile he hadn't seen for about two years. The ends of a long white shawl that brushed the floor lightly, he'd kept that same shawl two years ago folded neatly under his pillow, only to find it missing the next morning. He knew noone had took it, for noone was able to touch it into form. The Air had taken it back, that's what he thought.
"You shouldn't do that...!" the calm voice said. Kylle walked slowly towards the circles. His light movements made him looked as if he was drifting. Passing the teen-beast as if he wasn't there. "We are to protect the Land, not kill its inhabitants...!"
That made the screeches even more fiercer, his long pointed ears pricked to the back. Yuy blinked. He heard the reiteration of 'die' turned into...he searched his catalogue of feelings, it's not a word he could translate into another word. It was... akin to... 'mercy'. No...'love'..? No, this hollow feeling told him something like... 'negative-love'? His furrow got deeper.
"Please excuse him..." Kylle said silently. "He wanted to hurt anybody just like this land had hurt him..!"
Yuy stared the human-Kylle a little stunnedly.
"You should go now...It should be already dawn outside..!" Kylle added breathily. That earned another blinked from the teen-beast, he searched his inner-clock. No reading of Time. This place must be running in a different time, he might as well get out of it when he'd given the permission to.
A longer and poisonous screech heard. He flicked to the ensnared entity up there. A feeling of betrayal directed at him seared his consciousness, he jerked a little at the mental attack. Looked closely at the human-Kylle staring his spirit-twin-self with a smile still on his face, ignoring his figure at his side.
...not mine to judge... his mind whispered at his consciousness. He lowered his eyes dejectedly, and took a step back.
"Master Yuy..." Kylle whispered breathlessly, "...I'll be around.."
That was sounded like a warning. Then another tug sucked his body backward before he had the chance to do or say anything, he felt the short fall and braced himself before he fell on his butt. A short moment of darkness, and a rather stunned reflection of himself blinking at him on the glassy surface. A flash of light, liquiscent flows. A presence of a teenage-Charms behind him. He turned back as the oval-light dispersed into the Air. Finding 'Thrice' still sitting at the spot he was before. His inner-clock told him that indeed it had already turned to dawn, that meant the Charms had waited for him for a night and half-day.
The said charms unfurled himself from his pose, refusing to look at his eyes, and just asked his hand with his own so that he could teleport both of them again through the Forest. His mind supplied him with the fact that the other Charms would not use teleportation to get out of that Forest. They materialized exactly outside the said Forest, and without a say 'Thrice' flashed in a blur of whitelight leaving him.
A cold wind welcoming him on the wide prairie. Something felt hollowed in his consciousness. He stared at nothing for some moment, then decided to go back to the Castile. His Human most likely was waiting for him. A smile crept to his face, knowing his Human had grown from Human's exploding habits in time of anxiety. Some part of him who hated himself and wanting to hurt him in any kind of form missed that rituals, his Human was someone who could inflict damage as easy as giving him life.
---------------
Harsh gasps, agonized moans. A human-face exactly the copy of his own floated to his front, only a breath away from his pained face. He gave a poor mewl, then whimpered long and sorrowfully, as if begging for mercy. The face in front of his still smiling.
"...you don't do that..." Kylle whispered silently, "...Kai...".
At the sound of the name the entity gave a sharp sob, continued with weak whimpers, ebbed to soundless gasps. A slender arm sneaked out from under the shawl, brushed the contorted face with its airy fingers. The white fingers dispersed into wafts of cloudy air before they could feel the spirit's skin.
"Mother had punished you for letting the mercenaries into the Barrier two years ago...that you had directed them to abduct Lady Deia and the Beast...But that's not allowed..!" Kylle brushed his forehead up and down to the entity's ever so slowly, without being able to thouch it. He stopped and closed his eyes. "Because of what you had allowed to get in, the poisons had managed to enter...!"
Kylle stared at nothing with his drooped eyes, feeling that he couldn't feel his entity's form no matter what. "...I know you didn't mean it..". A long whine turned into sobs answered his breathless words. "Mother didn't think so, though. I'm sorry...!"
((...pleeeeasse...)) he whined sorrowfully.
Kylle let out a deep sigh, pulled back his head shaking in negation. "...you shouldn't worsen your punishment by butchering Mother's children only because She'd separated us..!"
((...but you die...! You diiie..!!)) he cried brokenly. A sad furrow appeared between Kylle brows, despite his everpresent smile. He took a moment, "...I can take that..-"
(( I CAN'T...!! )) the entity snapped, the bleeding colour from his eyes spattered to the empty air. His eyes wide with fury and madness. Kylle extended his arms to enfold the entity's head without touching, knowing it was vain to try. '...Kai..', he mouthed desperately in defeat.
Kai's anger melted, and lowered his head to his human-copy's shoulder as far as the ensnaring lights allowed him to. Sobbing.
((...I'll avenge you...!! I will ! ..I'll avenge you...)) he reiterated in his cry. A bleeding colour dripped from Kylle's redmarks to his shawl, colouring it a blood shade before the colour dissipated by the whiteness of the cloth. Just like the Land's whiteness dissipated their self's-colour. His arms still guarding his spirit-self's head in loose untouchable embrace.
His smile never leaving his face despite his bleeding tears...
---------------
'...You must have cried a lot, too...your tears bled your face..'
---------------
....'You are one mean and possessive land,...Mother'... Yuy recalled his Human's thought in his mind. Feeling such a longing and vengeance that so very literally could poison a land, he never understood why such a system were still maintained to regulate a land in physical and mind.
More than hell...that could be different for everyone... from his outlander's eyes the Land's system was about the exact quality of those words for some of its inhabitants. They just never realized it..! Because they never had the chance to live outside this corrupting land...
He had seen many living-systems of so many different organisms, to him this land was more like a giant symbiosis of plants and other living beings. The fungi they called Stalwarths were the hosts, they gave the other beings their necessities, in atmosphere form, in energy form, even bodily forms. In turn they're the ones recycled into the fungi's food...like cattles bred in a closed farm. That's it...they're just the Land's food supply and energy storage..! Like the cells in one's body living and serving their purposes to their fullest literal meaning. Now he was aware of the Air's oppression on his being again.
What was life and death in this Land...?
...deaths didn't mean anything when you didn't have the souls to die with...when you didn't have the life to lose...when you weren't alive to begin with.... He felt like needing a share of his Human's life. Now...!
---------------
Deia sat with her knees folded on her front, her hands were hugging her feet loosely and draped over her ankles, her white dress and white skin were in contrast with the only black velvet cushion of the chair. Staring at the half opened glass door to the terrace outside, the multicoloured lights from the Stratus accompanied her with their pre-dawn displays. The soft transparent curtain blown by the breeze sometimes caressed her gently, as if coaxing her to be more patient waiting for her Beast.
Truthfully, she was more than patient. She felt almost nothing inside, only a steady burn of expectation she protected with her faith, like a frozen water waiting for that one stone to ripple its surface back to life, she saw the universe as something inconsequential, something that had nothing to do with her nor her existence. It was the universe without her Beast besides her. Only one mattered, and that One wasn't around. All she had to do, all she could do, was waiting. When everything had no meaning, she just had to wait till someone who meant everything to come back and bring her Life.
A blur of white flew a couple of times crossing her window, it landed silently on the banister of her terrace. A soft wind blew the curtain to reveal the creature staring at her with its jet black eyes, the dark lines resembling tear tracks running down its sides of face, the slender long neck with a line of necklace-like black, a symbol of grief on its forehead. It crooned softly to her. A sad song of lamentation of the deads.
She stared the Relic-prayer apathetically. The bird kept singing silently, as if afraid other people might heard it. A couple more birds landed at each side of the first one, they joined the singing with the gentlest voice, staring her inanimated figure with their wisened eyes.
She stared...
A distinctive presence-signature rippled the Castile barrier through the Air, and she knew her Beast had arrived, but she was still frozen in her pose.
The Relic-prayers flew to the tower roofs around her chamber, joining their pack back watching the one terrace and its inhabitant. A blur of black leaping from roof to roof landed soundlessly on that terrace, the black shawl flowed behind his figure like a shadow's tail. He entered the half opened glass door slowly and kneeled in front of her. They stared each other for a long time. The wind sometimes teased them to move with the soft curtain. The birds kept watching...
"You okay...?" Deia broke the silence with a silent whisper.
"...I'm fine..!" Yuy answered with an almost inaudible whisper.
"You're hurt..." That's not a question, "...inside..." she lifted her right hand to brush the Beast's cheek ghostly with the end of her forefinger, tracking a line down his left eye as if folowing a tear path.
"I have to report to Master Howard..."
Deia nodded once. "I'll go see my father.."
He rested his forehead on his Human's feet, her left hand opened readily to cup his face on her feet, the black armor recognized her touch and left his face. Her right hand stroked the brown head lazily.
"...I'll be waiting for you here.." he whispered breathlessly.
"...you do that..!" Deia said, but neither of them seemed willing enough to move and detach themselves from their positions.
Now it felt like as if the wind teased them to part.
---------------
"...-this is the first case in this century...!" Howard said tiredly upset.
...so this had happened before... Yuy watched the old-Charms, who seemed to get a lot more older these past couple years, closely.
"The last one occured when I was still an inexperient pre-Charms, so I didn't get the details much..!" he snorted.
...that means he's a lot older than he looks... he stored that analysis in his head.
The old man swore under his breath, the teen-beast could hear it clearly. A deep sigh, "...puzzles are frustrating when they're not meant to be solved...!"
...actually since you already knew the answer...you just not meant to reveal it.... his prussian eyes didn't betray his thought.
"What do you think of it...?" Howard asked, his black spectacles lowered half his nose.
...here comes the rhetorical ritual....
"...the youngest human was a newborn...!" he whispered flatly. He recognized the infant's smell, he knew the similar smell before, it was the (4)poor-young-Heron's child. Must be his younger child since he was expecting his first one when he bit the human's hand off four years ago.
"So who ever did it didn't do it to avenge you...?" the old-man seemed to know his train of thoughts.
"...why wait for four years..?" –if it's for me.
"I don't know...not my reason..!" Howard shrugged his shoulder a little rigidly. "You have any idea ?"
Yuy stood still for several seconds. How these humans could deceive themselves of the truth sometimes amazed him in a disturbing way. He thought to himself that it was part of their ritual to keep the surface calm, and he didn't want to be the one who ripple the still layer since he didn't want to jeopardize his Human. So he decided to just shake his head, and let the old man to interpret as what ever he wanted of it.
Howard seemed to know his thought yet again, he averted his eyes from those deep prussian orbs with another deeper sigh. Waited several heartbeats, "...I lost my whole family in the last case...!" he said as if reminding himself. "I know what it's like to...skip the pains."
...you mean 'truth'...
" And overlook the failure..."
...'failure' means death..!
'That would be what a hell like to you...!' Odin's words two years ago replayed in his ears. He stared the old human with his beast eyes. "...that would be different for everyone..." the answer he gave Odin for those words unconsciously whispered out. As the old man's eyes snapped at his, he realized he'd spoken it out.
He blinked. His face didn't betray his heart.
Howard looked closely the teen-beast, he'd grown almost a head taller than Deia in the last two years. A small voice in his old heart missed the boyish features now almost gone from the teen in front of him, he looked sterner and stronger since he joined the forces. Howard just worried that may be the teen pushing himself too hard, and it's not for his own sake, to add to the fact.
"...did you report this to Lady Lyea?" Howard asked with a little lighter tone.
"No, Sir. You said Lady already had too many problems to mind, and to report anything important to you." Yuy whispered flatly. Howard nodded once, and reclined to his chair's back.
"You know how to act among politians...?" he asked conversationally. "Human politicians...!" he added.
Yuy blinked at the sudden change. "Just act polite and don't join their talks." He said seriously. That brought a long bursting laughter from Howard. He stared the old man with a little crease between his brows.
"...you think Lady Dee could act like a politician among those politicians..?" he asked half outbreathed once his laughter ceased.
"Depends on how the politians act..!" another serious answer. Another deeper laughter from the old man. "You think she'll singe their heads if she ever lash out..?!"-perhaps he should 'when'. He sounded like actually he's expecting that to happen.
A deeper crease. "I hope not. Human won't be satisfied with only scorching their hair when that happens...! Might as well blow the whole hall, instead."
Seeing the old-Charms didn't seem to cease his another episode of laughter, he asked eventually. "Is that funny...?"
Howard tried with a few breaths, "...That..." –chuckle-, "...would be your responsibility, Yuy, milad...!". At his incomprehending frown Howard add. "You'll be escorting her to Viricidia to attend the invitation for a ball..!"
Watching so many humans bouncing together on the dance hall with the music was not very interesting, to his opinion.
"...You say that to their faces and we'll have some other wars to attend to...!!" Howard said seriously albeit still with laughter. Yuy had this expression saying 'then why (us)' on his face. "Lady Lyea can't. And you know that even though it's an invitation for a ball, it would be a party for gaining allies to stand against the OWL's attacks..!" Howard added.
The expression on the teen-beast's face turned to 'THEN WHY US?!', knowing they both had the patience as long as a nail's end –not his long pointed nails- concerning politicians and such nonsense. Might as well scratch their faces with those nail ends literally…! Perhaps along with hissing and teeth baring….
"You realize that some humans don't consider Archantra people as humans...?" Howard asked flatly with a smirk. Outside, they're called the Archant, just for information. They're sometimes classified in tangible-non-human races such as the sprites or fairies, or Rynks -one of the magical-creature races that looked like humanoid-chimeras-; that even in some cases people would add them to the Wilds classification.
He'd thought about it.
"It won't matter who we send, they most likely would not see us as their associate..! What you have to do is at least make them want to not make us their enemy..-"
'THEN WHY US' plastered on Yuy's incredulous face, it made Howard bursted with laughter again. He lifted his right hand open to calm the teen-beast before his anxiety baited Deia's protection-instinct and make another explosion in the poor old Castile.
"Now, now..." Howard tried, "...Lady Dee could be whatever she wanted if she ever determine it, you just have to make her motivated..!"
Yuy blinked, not convinced the slightest.
"Look...!" Howard sighed, he didn't really like the idea of releasing her outside, either. "I'm-...WE..! Trusting her to your hands, I believe you have more experience than any of us inlanders outside. As for the reason we send her and not anybody else...We're kind of short on good hands right now, as you can see yourself..!"
Yuy blinked again.
"Lady Lyea CAN'T..!! She's the Lady of the Land now that the Lord is in his current condition, and...YES..! We're sending her to sweettalk some vultures outside but I believe you're more of a predator than they are and you can be a conqueror if you want to !"
"No insult intended...!" Howard added as an afterthought.
"None taken..." Yuy said rather apathetically but his expression still said that he's not convinced. Then Howard stared him widening his eyes inquiringly. Yuy stared the old man with a deep frown, when he eventually answered his submission Howard thought he saw a little pout on his lips. "...Human can live up to your expectations, and more...but I guess...Human's...self..can not...!!"
That lifted Howard's brows to his supposed hairline. "Not that Human's self is not reliable or anything...it's just that..." Yuy looked uncomfortably bothered for a moment, "...I don't want to expose Human's self to..." he searched his mind, "...false...wind..!"
Howard blinked as he digested the teen-beast's words. So he didn't want to let the real-one behind Deia's mask to a 'temporary' freedom and cage her in this land back. For all he knew, the teen-beast probably saying that he would not bring Deia back and just take her someplace else only the sky knows where for good. He guessed if he ever in the teen's position he couldn't resist the temptation himself.
"You could..." Howard pondered it a bit stunnedly, "...do...what you might see best..!". A little part of his heart wanted Yuy to do just that, instead.
"But serve this Land its rights first...!" he ended firmly.
They stared each other for some time.
"How many people you'd want to take along as escorts during the journey...?" Howard asked seriously, knowing the trip to Viricidia would take at least two weeks on land. Yuy shook his head.
"The less the safer, I wouldn't be effectively guarding too many people." That was, might as well meant 'on the way back'..!
At that exact time two tails of flowing long scarf at the room's corner near the open window betrayed the Charms who wore it. "Shouldn't you asked permission first...?" Howard turned his head to 'Thrice'.
"Emergency report from outside, Chieftain...!" 'Thrice' answered indifferently staring at nothing on the floor. Howard snorted softly, then nodded to dissmiss Yuy. "You'd be going on the third day from now..!". Yuy stared him with an unreadable stare, then nodded to excuse himself, and got out of Howard's study. Knowing 'Thrice''s eyes were on him through his third-eye's perspective.
"What is it ?" Howard asked with flat face. 'Thrice' didn't move, but he opened his Harmony-link to the old-Charms and reflected his report. Howard closed his eyes with a guarded sigh, "..we lose Eyränd's aids...!" he said to himself almost soundlessly. 'Thrice''s face didn't change.
"You know what to do..! And for others as well !".
'Thrice' bowed his head a little to that command, and teleported himself to his tasks. The smallest part of his consciousness whispered to his mind that he was suppose to be a little relief now that 'Octonary' might be gone, but a reflection of that smallest part wondered of his wellbeing, as if losing something to be bothered with. May be he just didn't want to feel more empty... Knowing that he wouldn't beable to leave this incarceration even if everyone else depart.
---------------
---------------
(1) Great-Shark's Maxilla; a natural gigantic ice barrier formed like the upper jaw of a shark stabbing the icy-land on the southern earth. In a wider view, it's more looked like a barricade of cages with a bridge-like top, bent in a great arch. The ice-stormy winds blew even fiercer through the gaps between each 'tooth' that make it impossible to pass through. If someone would pass it, they would have to use the upper bridge on the top-side which of course had even more freezing temperature.
(2) Land's day; () saturday. saru use the term from Saturn's day, the god of agriculture, and that equals 'land'. in this fic saru use the term as like this:
sunday Sun's day
monday Moon's day
tuesday Strive's day (now, it should be Mars day, the god of war, but saying it war's day sounded weird)
wednesday Messenger's day (from Mercury/Hermes)
thursday Thunder's day (from Jupiter)
friday Love's day (from Frigga)
had considered of using sanskrit/javanese calendar once (just for the sake of considering) and laughed when it stuck on "Jum'at-kliwon"...! Bwaaahahahaa... or may be "1 suro"... might as well write someone playing "jelangkung" in the fic..!!-if u're not javanese u won't get what made saru laughed- Thinking of it, Oni-tan might have a "primbon" to go along...heeheeheeee (scratch!!)
(3) there're two kinds of trees in Archantra; the usual sized trees, and giant sized trees. The giant sized usually called high-tree or tall-tree
(4) from the first chapter...it was how the villagers had reffered him with, so it stuck to his mind as that