Chapter 7: The great sea

"So that´s him?", a rather narcistic voice was to be heard from the other side of the room.

"Yes.", another voice, much deeper and cruler than the first one, said.

"The one with the power of Lorelei. Well, the brat doesn´t look like anything special." Again that narcistic voice.

"I don´t care what you think about his looks. The only thing you have to think about is how you manage to make a perfect replica of him. The outcome of our whole plan depends on that, Dist the Reaper."

"The Ro--!"

"Oppositions!?"

"No, commandant, sir!"

"Gut, then get to work!"

"Yes, commandant, sir!"

The little boy with short red hair who was lieing on a strange machine inside the cellar of his father´s vacation residence opened his eyes dazedly and looked up at the man with the deep voice who hovered above him.

"Master...?", the boy groaned.

"I need you... Asch...", the man whispered when the boy suddenly felt a sharp pain, the machine on which he was lieing now started. The pain became more and more, und the little boy screamed louder and louder, but his screams were not to be heard by anyone other than the two people inside the room who didn´t care about his agony...

"STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", Luke screamed and shot up, instantly awake.

"Whatsup?", A sleepy Anise murmured next to him, no awake as well. Luke, sweating like mad, looked around: He and his two friends were still on board of the cutter whose course was planned by a machine called fonon navigator to be Grand Chokmah.

"Nightmare...", Luke only answered, stood up, left the sleeping berth which consisted of old rags found inside the cabin and went towards the reeling. Anise grumbled something about `annoying redheaded aristocratic idiots´, rolled to the other side and was asleep a few minutes later again, while said aristocratic idiot was inhaling the night´s air deeply and looked up to the sky. "I... am Luke...", he whispered and thought back to the scene in his dream. "Luke... not Asch..." How long would he still have to see these memory parts of Asch´s memory? Since his unification with Asch which had saved his life back then and had prevented him from disappearing, he always saw memory parts of the dead God-General from time to time, all full of pain and torment. `I... had no idea how it had been for him...´, Luke thought und lay his head on the cool reeling. `Losing everything in an instant... everything... I think having to relive everything he had to go through is the right punishment for me... for everything I´ve done... for Akzeriuth... for the lives I´ve taking in the Tower of Rem... for everything...´

The next day began foggy and damp, and Grand Chokmah which lay far to east on Auldrant was still a ways away.

"Morning...", an Anise with totally messed up hair greeted Luke who hadn´t slept at all for the rest of the night. A rumbling from Luke´s stomach greeted her. "Yeah, I´m hungry, too.", she added.

"Sorry.", Luke apologized. "Is Florian still asleep?"

"Yeah.", Anise said, yawned loudly and then sighed. "You weren´t the only one who didn´t sleep well this night?"

"Hmm?"

"Florian had started to mumble and kick shortly after you...", Anise said and looked to the ground sadly.

"This whole situation caused to bring back painful memories, huh?", Luke said.

"Yeah. I don´t even want to know what they did to him when he was still locked inside Mt. Zaleho together with the other replicas of Ion."

"Hmm...", Luke hummed and looked to the ground as well.

Anise sighed again. "Let´s... Let´s change our course for the moment.", she suggested.

"Why?"

"We´re all hungry, right?", Anise said. Luke´s stomach rumbled again in agreement. "Engeve would be right on our way, wouldn´t it? Let´s stop there and buy food."

"And what about Gald? We don´t have anything with us.", Luke argued.

"Well, isn´t it good to have the Fon Master by your side?", Anise said. "Ever since I´ve fought my way to the top of the Order of Lorelei, I can throw with Gald the whole day and still be the richest girl on the planet!" She took out a bag from under her clothes and shook it. The inside jingled, full of Gald.

"Money, money money (!), must be funny (!), in the rich men´s world...", Luke sang quietly, but Anise heard him and punched his ribcage. "Ow!"

"It´s your own fault!", Anise snarled and went back to the sleeping berth to look for Florian.

Several hours passed in which the three friends weren´t able to do anything except arguing with each other since Anise had suddenly began to sing.

"... Ooooh, you touch my tralala, my ding-däng-do--"

"Argh! Just stop it! My ears are bleeding!", Luke snarled. Anise glared back at him and stopped.

Silence...

"Oh, I got it!", Anise suddenly said. "I tell you a colour and you have to guess! Blue!"

"The sea?", Luke said, annoyed.

"Wow, you´re sooo smart, Luke!", Anise teased.

"Well, I rather think the person you had the brilliant idea for such a game is the rather stupid one!", Luke said.

"Grrr!", Anise grumbled and jumped up, staff drawn.

"Please, don´t fight!", Florian pleaded.

"You stay out of this!", Anise yelled at him. Tears welled up in his eyes. "Oh, don´t cry, Florian! I´m sorry!" She took him in her arms and combed him through his hair soothingly. "I didn´t want to shout."

"R-Really?", Florian sniffled and looked at her with puppy dog eyes.

"Yes, really."

"Man, I really hope we´ll reach Engeve soon and get something to eat and drink. Otherwise, we´ll be killing each other soon.", Luke sighed when Florian suddenly screamed.

"W-What?!?", Anise asked, perplexed, whom Florian had screamed into her ears.

"T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", Florian screached and pointed at the cutter´s bow.

Luke´s and Anise´s eyes went huge: Their cutter was floating directly towards something giant and solid, evasion impossible...