KURAIN

IRIS:
[Time: Earlier in Chapter 11... just after we last saw Iris in the previous chapter]

Iris had a stitch, and tried to stem her unladylike panting. She'd run so far, only to have her path blocked by boulders, and then Cousin Maya and Feenie had meandered right back into her path through some terrible shortcut!

Mystic Feenie was still all wet from his training, and Cousin Maya was now removing his training robes with far less efficiency than was necessary.

This was vile! N-not Feenie, of course, but the way Mystic Maya was pawing at him. As if she owned him!

"It's quite a sight, isn't it?"

Iris' feet lurched in terror, and she would have indeed again run, except that her path was blocked on all sides by boulders, Feenie, and old Mystic Maudred.

"No need to be shy, we all have our little 'vices'..." Mystic Maudred's tooth-missing grin smiled disarmingly. "And since his training regime, he has become steadily more... 'built', as they say..."

"W-what?" flailed Iris.

"Don't lie. I have mastered the Psyche-Lock." Mystic Maudred's tone was joking, but Iris' heart still palpitated so much that she was sure Mystic Maudred could hear it.

It was true. Errant Cousin Maya was running her hands along poor Feenie's exposed body, tracing all the defined abdominal muscles appreciatively in turn. Feenie had that old stupid expression on his face, the same one he'd used to have when he'd looked at that poisoned bottle...
Admittedly, Iris felt herself longing for the old, skinny, pathetic Feenie from his college days, this one was altogether more scary... B-but it was merely the Pretender Master's evil influence and her terrible mind control! Really, he'd be exactly the same after he was rescued!

Iris' eyes remained burned in place, unable to avert from the train wreck. (Though she wasn't one to stand transfixed by such cliched disasters, getting as far away as possible seemed the most useful impulse...) She wasn't close enough to hear whatever Cousin Maya was murmuring now to Feenie, but it was surely obscene.

W-well, sighed Iris, she would just have to endure such trials with greater faith and fortitude. She had failed so spectacularly at rescuing Feenie last time, that surely she owed him to rescue him from her questionable family THIS time. Though why, oh, why, did Feenie ALWAYS have to make himself so difficult to save? It... it just wasn't fair! The damaged flecks on her hands stung, and she could feel her irritation with Feenie's oblivion growing!

But no, she recalled ashamedly, it's all MY fault. If I had rescued him the first time, when the spirits' fate decreed, instead of being so weak, we would be together by now, and have already had our daughter, the True Heir.

As for her injuries, they were a Blessing, as The High Kristoph had surely saved her from a far worse fate! One of the High Elders, back in training in Azakurain, had explained to her about channelling and injuries, and advised her to Transform for her own protection if ever required, now it was imperative she stay alive to fulfill the Prophecy. Iris really hadn't understood the explanation, exactly. Some mumbo-jumbo about how since the cells moved and changed during the Transformation, a serious injury to the channelled body often separated into a multitude of tiny, less-serious injuries upon her return...Her head hurt as she tried to make sense of it. Well, the upshot was clear: The High Kristoph had surely saved her from certain death or horrific injury which would have surely occurred if she'd not transformed to his noble form!

And he'd benevolently delivered her to hospital; it was in a hospital bed that Iris had awoken. Her injuries were not severe and she could have been discharged sooner, except that the High Elders had advised her to stay as long as possible as she was 'safer' there. From what, Iris was unsure. She'd wanted to go home to Azakurain, but the Elders had advised there were 'problems' there involving the Pretender Master's evil Justice forces, and that staying in Kurain itself was actually most likely the best place for her and The High Kristoph's safety. But the way Pretender Maya and poor Feenie had just looked at her, Iris wasn't so sure. And she didn't think she could stomach any more of having to watch Feenie's misguided delusion. She wished she could go somewhere cold so she didn't die of heat exhaustion having to wear gloves all day. But the worst thing about all her little burn scars is that they obscured The Mark!

The Mark was still there, of course, but it no longer stood out amongst the others as should befit one of her Order. Would she have to get it re-scarred? The thought of doing so almost made her faint. Usually she'd ask The High Kristoph to take care of it while she was 'absent', but she wasn't sure if that would work with this particular task...

"I can lip read," Mystic Maudred had been hissing conspiratorially while she'd thought all this. "She said before ...Ooooh! She said... 'I love you'."

Iris felt nauseous. That was what Dahlia had said to Feenie. Iris gave up thinking of a way to escape and her feet simply fled, not caring if Mystic Maudred grew suspicious. She felt pins-and-needles in her Mark and effected the rest of the channelling of the High Kristoph's spirit into it. He never failed her!

They colluded discreetly. The High Kristoph benevolently agreed that surely it was time to get back to Azakurain by now. The People needed Him, after all. He'd already graced them with His presence through another channeller, but it was better the Princess of Destiny make her Triumphant Return and quash any rumours of her demise.

Iris wasn't sure what he was talking about, but the Divine instruction was clear; so she and Butterfly boarded a taxi back to Azakurain.

###

AZAKURAIN

IRIS:

Butterfly still sat in the little bottle around her neck, concealed under her clothes. Even now they were through the 3rd layer of security gates, he didn't seem to want to come out. But he had been safe there, while they were travelling, and Iris liked the companionship. Perhaps he still needed his rest.

Iris' memories of Dahlia's bottle necklace weren't really very fond, but she wasn't very creative, and such memories had helped her with such a good idea of how to keep Butterfly with her. It seemed a very good hiding place. If Feenie discovered it, he would surely leave it alone as he would assume it contained poison like last time (she really wasn't very good at deception, but surely he had learned by now? Hopefully he wouldn't try to eat it!) Or maybe he would think it was pretty, since he was so attached to that bottle last time. Maybe Feenie was really attracted to bottles or something. Iris admitted she really didn't understand Feenie at at. B-but this was no barrier to true, destined love! Feenie surely couldn't understand Cousin Maya either or a word she said...

She miserably tried to block the demoralising memories. It had all been so encouraging, The High Kristoph and her Plan had really seemed to be weakening the Pretender Master's grip on his poor, captured mind, what with him spending more and more time away from her evil spell and them not all clutching at each other all the time like they weren't polite enough to keep their hands to themselves... But when she'd hurried back from the hospital, it had started being like it was before! One or both of them would be all upset or mad, even at each other, and then suddenly, without them even using words, they'd kind of touch each other and it was like they were okay!

It was as if they shared telepathy. It was like her beta butterflies knowing what to do in synchronicity with Butterfly. It was horrible! Then Iris remembered. It must be because he was held under Mystic Maya's spell of control, like The High Kristoph had said. Sort of like with Dahlia, who hadn't loved him either. Poor, silly Feenie.

But he doesn't make it easy!

Her mind unbiddenly pictured Pretender Master Maya touching him. It was - nauseating!

And she just couldn't forget that terrible moment when he'd pushed her into the spring. F-Feenie wasn't controlling his own actions then, of course, she tried to remind herself. Mystic Maya's evil powers m-must reach even further than we thought. S-still, if it were not fate, she would have definitely left Feenie to deal with his own problems by now. But it was decreed by MAI AMI, so she really didn't have a choice but to obey...

"Mystic Iris! Oh, Mystic Iris!" Mystic Dora's flubby arms hugged her crushingly the moment she'd finally passed through the fifth and final layers of security. "Oh, I was so worried! Evil Master Maya attacking you and trying to hold you captive! It is only by the grace of the High Kristoph you are saved!"

"C-captive? I... I d-don't think... I j-just awoke in the hospital" stumbled Iris, bowled over.

"Oh, The High Kristoph must have already rescued you before you'd awoke! Such a blessing are your High Powers! I would have been hopeless in such a trial!" A tear edged from Mystic Dora's bulging eye. "Oh, see your noble injuries! Have strength, sister, for the remaining burdens you bear - it is surely an Honour to suffer for His sake."

Iris winced and tried hard to absorb this wisdom.

"Oh, High Iris," Dora continued to heave concernedly, "where are your butterflies?"

"Oh! Butterfly is here. The others... Oh, the others!" Her voice degenerated to a whisper of shame.

"Did evil Master Maya kill them?" squealed Dora, clenching a fist.

"N-n-no..." Iris managed, barely able to breathe from the sudden noise. "No, b-but they grew tired, I could not control... some left to the afterlife... some faded... some...I don't know, they disappeared..."

"Excuse me, Fellow Mystics," butted in High Elder Mizuna. "Your familiars, Mystic Princess. Were they not clones of the one that remains?

"Y-y-yes..." managed Iris, still unused to the status of such free association with the Leaders of the Order.

"They 'disappeared'? When?"

"Some... some were just not here any more w-when I woke up from sleep...some were lost..."

"Never fear, Mystic." She smiled brutally. "The clones will always serve their Master. Likely they have willingly sacrificed themselves to have their power subsumed back to regenerate your remaining Butterfly. Nothing is really lost!"

"E-excuse me, High one," ventured Dora, "but why is High Iris' Butterfly still so seemingly exhausted then?"

"Allow me to see," directed the Elder. Iris obediently pulled out the bottle, and the Elder's beady eye peered in.

"I-i-it was my sister Dahlia's!" Iris admitted, ashamed the Elder know she was so weak as to not have her own proper Familiar. But thankfully the Elder seemed unconcerned. "Excellent! An audience with her will surely strengthen the familiar's power!"

"I don't know... if.. she'll... " croaked Iris.

But it was too late, the Elder had already commanded another Mark Channeller forth. And within moments that Mark had sprung to life. (Death?)

"You bastard! I said it was over! I'm not helping your little plans again!"

"D-Dahlia? It is I... Iris?"

"WHAT? Not you. I hate you! Get that straight!"

The words stung. But maybe that was merely poor tortured Dahlia's best way of showing affection, trapped as she was in whatever hellish purgatory or torment her soul was now suspended.

"Your b-butterfly," Iris tried to explain. "It g-gains strength from seeing its Master, the E-elder said..."

Butterfly was indeed adhered magnetically to the Mystic's Mark, pulsing anew with pinkish waves of translucent pink power.

She hoped Dahlia wouldn't ask for it back! Selfish as it was, to leave her with no companion in her hellish afterlife. B-but then Iris would be all alone too! Please, Dahlia, grant me this small part of you to be at my side. There was her friend Dora, and her Guardian, but it wasn't the s-same... "I know B-Butterfly likes me," she pleaded.

"Butterfly? Simpering idiot, getting attached to a PET! Maybe that's why you liked Feenie. He was like a stupid little dog!"

"S-so I can keep it then, S-ister?"

"What butterfly? I don't CARE! I don't need anyone. Least of all you. Traitor!"

The guilt poured forth as usual. S-she'd betrayed dear Dahlia, f-for Feenie...

N-no. She'd THOUGHT of betraying dear Dahlia for Feenie. Then she hadn't, she'd run away with her morals intact... but Dahlia had felt even the thought was a betrayal anyway and now hated her...

Her life was so hard!

A new thought occurred to her. "I'm sorry, Dahlia, I was just trying to obey Mystic AMI's fated p-plan..."

"You believe that garbage? I thought you 'hated channelling'! I don't have a sister. DON'T CALL ME AGAIN!"

The Mark faded with an abrupt pink implosion.

###

Iris sobbed for a long while. She wasn't even comforted when Butterfly alighted with pulsing new energy next to her broken heart. Mystic Dora faithfully stayed and tried to console her.

"D-don't cry, High Princess. She will come around! She will understand in time! It is all evil Mystic Maya's doing... Oh, we have had such dramas after the Pretender Master's evil attack! I was so worried about you! But it was ever so dangerous here for you. The High Kristoph told us of your exile, and that you still lived in her evil captivity! I kept the faith!"

Iris' soggy jaw dropped. She didn't really understand what had happened, but it was making her feel better, though part of her wanted to tell dear Mystic Dora she shouldn't believe in her... Feenie wasn't ever worth losing her sister! B-but it was all Cousin Maya's fault, as Dora had said.

"And the Pretender Master send her corrupted Law enforcers to search the community! But The High Kristoph warned us, so all our brave fighters were not there when they came to take them. Oh, but it is all true! She commands the evil Human Law to do her bidding! The House of Kurain is Fallen Indeed!"

"Indeed", sniffled Iris obediently, as ritual demanded.

"But the danger is passed. The High Kristoph has deemed it so, else he would not have sent you back! See our brave heroes returning today! They'll surely get promotion... I'm so jealous I wasn't chosen..."

It seemed Mystic Dora was correct, as Iris did find several new companions now joining her at the High Elders' Table at dinner. Everything was getting soporifically back into routine until one evening, mid-exhausting-chew, the terrible air raid siren went off.

"AGHHHHH!" screamed Mystic Dora's voice from the end of the long table. The air left Iris' lungs and she fell to the floor. She could still make out the pounding of the security guard's feet as he ran from his watchtower into the hall. "An enemy helicopter! A plane! THE PRETENDER MASTER SENDS A HELICOPTER!"

"It is as the High Ones foretold," decreed an Elder along the table. "THE PRETENDER MASTER IS DROPPING A NUCLEAR WARHEAD!"

There was chaos. One of the armed Enlightened Ones grabbed Iris like a sack and hoisted her into the nuclear fallout shelter. Good thing too, as Iris was paralysed with fear, unable to function. It was clearly true, as she could see some of the invasion as he ran, branded with the evil Police force logo - the Fallen House of Fey's evil minions! Churning 'copters and hideous peels of gunfire! The world was maybe ending.

But clearly The High Kristoph had not abandoned them. From her place in the furthest part of the bunker, even with the other Members sitting on her, Iris could hear the drone of the divine tones of the High One, channelled in someone else's Mark. He was giving a wonderful commentary. Master Maya had invaded and was trying to destroy them, with her evil attack forces of the Law. It was clearly Divine Warfare, but they were in the Right and would triumph! There was so much gunfire and screaming, that even stuffed under whatever the members were using to further shield her, Iris was petrified, and she was not sure whether to a mundane faint or Divine Transformation she soon lost consciousness.

###

NOTES: Feenie: ...I ate it. (3-1)

Iris: [ (she really wasn't very good at deception, but surely he had learned by now? Hopefully he wouldn't try to eat it!)]

Too late, 'he' already tried in chap 10 :)