Chapter 15: The Decision, the Reunion, and the Wardrobe.
"Well children," Gerot began as he scratched the back of his head in an uncomfortable manner. Jaeger was glad that Jeff didn't object to being called a child for once. "Your caretaker is awake and she's told me...uhhh..." Gerot turned back to look at Ashley, who lifted a crutch off the floor to hit the back of his leg. "Well, she's sorted everything out and you are being put into her care for the time being."
"Really?" Kyle asked. While he did, Jaeger quickly snatched the crystal out of Nick's hands and hid it behind herself. "You're just going to let us out of prison just like that?"
"Prison?" Ashley demanded and Gerot blushed. "Is that your idea of keeping them safe? A prison cell? A dark prison cell?"
"I uh, don't know what happened to the light," Gerot protested as his face became redder, which looked odd when set against the rest of his tan-less skin. "I was sure I put a crystal in here, and it wasn't really a prison cell. I mean, I was just keeping them here till I could ummm...speak to my family about a fit punishment for...I mean....."
"Punishment?" Nick asked, while Ashley growled and the old man distanced himself from the reach of her crutches while he looked even more uncomfortable. Jaeger did not want to know what kind of punishment would be deemed 'fit' for people claiming to have anything to do with Darkness.
"Uhm...perhaps it is better that we not dwell on the past," Gerot said and motioned for everyone to stand up, "We should move forwards and leave unpleasant things that only might have been behind us. The sky breaking, children appearing out of nowhere, the Dark Warriors appearing to appear in our midst. I mean, at the time how were we supposed to know that Nick was unsta-"
Gerot stopped talking as Ashley threw her crutch at him and hit him on his arm, causing him to wince in pain. But he had already said enough. Jaeger had a better idea now about why they were being let out.
Unstable, she thought as she stared at Ashley accusingly. You knew. All this time, you knew there was something wrong with him.
"I'm taking the children and leaving as soon as possible," Ashley said with disgust entering her tone. "How far away is the next town? Is there one between us and Sasune?"
"Leaving? In your condition?" Gerot shook his head. "You'd never make it to the next town, let alone Sasune with the children. No, I won't hear of it."
"I'm sorry." Ashley paused as she used her crutch, and then backed Gerot into a corner while she stared into his eyes. "At what point did it sound like I was asking for your permission?"
Silence filled the room as Ashley stared Gerot down, and he slowly seemed to shrink into himself as he turned away.
"Right, I suppose I can't keep you here," Gerot rambled as he edged past her and went for the door. "You're welcome to stay of course, to heal your wounds. We harvest year round. More than enough food for everyone. Yes, more than welcome to stay."
"I'd prefer that the door remain open," Ashley said coldly.
"Yes, of course," Gerot laughed. He turned to leave them in the tiny room alone and after he was gone Ashley sighed a breath of relief and motioned for one of them to give her back the crutch she had thrown. Jaeger had moved first, but Kyle had managed to beat her to it and she sat back down.
"Why are you acting so weird?" Nick asked Ashley as she turned back around, and Kyle added, "Why do we have to leave? We just got here!"
After Ashley had both crutches again, she turned around and headed for the door. She glanced outside a few times and then shut the door.
"Weren't you listening to him at all?" Ashley said as she turned back towards the children. "About how he and those villagers were going to 'punish' you? Do you have any idea how much danger you and everyone else are in right now?!"
"Everyone else?" Jaeger thought to herself as a chill went up her spine. "You don't mean..."
"Right now there is nothing to stop the villagers if they suddenly decide to feed you all to the goblins, and if they wanted to they could put everyone who just suddenly appeared out of nowhere into the same category. Jimmy and the others are in just as much danger as you are, thanks to Nick."
"What I do?" Nick asked from behind Jaeger, which made her roll her eyes when she realized he still had no idea.
"You told him that you were the Dark Warriors!" Ashley said quietly while a vein began to throb on her temple. "What were you thinking?! You could have been killed! You could have gotten us all killed! If he wasn't so gullible we'd be dead."
"Gullible?" Jaeger asked while she raised an eyebrow. Now that she thought about it Jaeger wanted to know what Ashley had told Gerot in order to get them out of here. Obviously she had told Gerot about Nick...or had she just been lying about that and she hadn't known? And how had she explained Jaeger's and Nick's armor or everyone's sudden appearance? Is that what she meant when she said he was gullible?
"It means I told him a lot of lies and he believed me because he's stupid." Ashley winced in pain for a moment and then looked Jaeger up and down studying her and the new armor. "Very, very stupid."
It took Jaeger a few moments to realize that Ashley had thought she was asking what the word 'gullible' meant. She opened her mouth to correct this, but by then Ashley had already begun to ask her own questions.
"Now, tell me what happened," Ashley said quietly as she looked at them. "Why we didn't appear with the others. Why you were left in the darkness and I was sent here. Where you got those armors. And tell me the truth, are you really the...Dark Warriors?"
"Well, Jeff and Kyle aren't," Nick answered almost immediately and very loudly, and Jaeger sighed before she finished Nick's sentence for him.
"But we are," she admitted as she held out the now broken crystal towards the caretaker. Ashley stared at the dead crystal for a short time, and then looked up and studied her armor and Nick's clothing.
"You know that I should call him back and have him arrest you," Ashley said. "You know I shouldn't allow you to walk about freely, not when I know what the prophecy says you will grow up to do. I should let you be taken away, before hiding you makes me and the others your accomplices in the eyes of the people." Ashley sighed as she leaned on her crutch. "Those are the things I should do, but I can't. I won't. I'm finally going to listen to the crystal," Ashley said sadly. "I'm not going to pretend I never heard anything it said to me."
"The crystal spoke to you?" Nick asked as he cocked his head to the side. "When?"
Ashley didn't answer at first and for the first time she looked small and insecure to Jaeger. She took out her crystal and stared into it deeply before she turned back to them.
"Weeks ago," Ashley admitted. She put her crystal on the bed and looked at it shine brightly. Jaeger edged away from it as best she could to avoid touching it. "It told me to gather all of you, and everyone in Canaan and to get them out of town. It told me that a flood, that the flood of prophecy was coming. It told me that the Dark Warriors were the world's only hope." The knuckles of her hand gripping her crutch were turning white.
"It told you weeks ago? " Kyle asked.
Nick soon added, "If you knew about this weeks ago, then why didn't you do anything about it?"
"Be quiet," Jaeger said to them, as Jeff sat with his hands behind his head and said nothing. He hadn't said anything since Ashley and Gerot had entered the room, in fact, which was a little surprising. Jaeger turned back and watched Ashley wobble on her crutch as she stared down at the crystal that she had carried. "You didn't believe it was true, did you?"
"I didn't want to believe it. I convinced myself some creature of Darkness had gotten its hands on a communication crystal and was trying to lure everyone out of town," Ashley said as she shook her head. "A part of me knew that it was the Crystal of the Wind talking to me...but I thought...I told myself it was just part of the ruse.
"It kept trying to convince me to leave, it even begged me once, but when it did that I simply contemplated throwing away the crystal, and the voice stopped calling me before I did." Ashley shook her head again. "If I had listened to the Crystal, no one would have had to die."
"Why didn't you throw the crystal away, though?" Nick asked. Ashley looked up at him and then back down towards the crystal. Though she was staring towards it, she was not looking at it and her eyes appeared unfocused. After awhile the silence became awkward and uncomfortable, or at least to Jaeger it was, and she decided to change the subject.
"We're not sure if everyone is dead yet," Jaeger said as she walked over and put a comforting hand on Ashley's arm and smiled. "Hallet might have been able to teleport everyone to safety."
"Yes," Ashley said, as she smiled very strangely, and she sounded so sad as she agreed with Jaeger that she felt her own smile crumble. "Hallet might have been able to save everyone. Of course he could." Jaeger sighed as she realized how childish her belief that Hallet could have saved everyone truly was...
Everyone jumped as the door opened and Gerot, who was carrying a small bundle of some kind, entered with a younger man with black hair and even paler skin.
"Hello," Gerot said, as he tried to hand the bundle to Ashley, and when she couldn't take it he awkwardly put them on the bed. Jeff kept his mouth shut, like he had been trying to do ever since Gerot and Ashley had entered the room. The last thing they needed right now was for him to annoy everyone without meaning to, and the younger man looked as if he was already upset over something. "We weren't sure if you were still ah, in here."
"What were you talking about?" the young man asked as he stared between Nick and Jaeger. The younger man had black hair and was about six feet tall, but other than that he looked like a younger version of Gerot. As the son studied their armor he began to rub his chin and pace about the room.
"Not that it's any of your concern," Ashley replied after a moment as she kept her eyes on the two men, "but we were discussing how long it would be till we left."
"You can leave tomorrow if you wish," Gerot said as he coughed and looked at the ceiling. "But we've decided that you can't possibly leave without an escort, in your condition at least," he added a little late.
"I don't want anyone's help," Ashley began but Gerot was already shaking his head furiously and raising his hands placatingly.
"After all you and those kids have been through? My wife wouldn't even let me dream of it," he argued as his son stopped pacing and started nodding his head along with his dad. "No, you'll stay the night and join us for dinner. We'll have all the food you'll need to make it to Sasune prepared and my son has agreed to guide you."
Jeff didn't like the idea of staying another night, and he didn't need Ashley to tell him that this could be a trick of some kind. But at the moment he didn't see what they could do or what the trap was. They couldn't leave without food or the others.
"Now, why don't you go get changed and meet us in the dining room," Gerot said. He gestured to the pile of clothes he had brought, and then he left the room with his son following him. The younger man looked at Jaeger and Nick one last time before he shut the door with a frown.
"All in favor of making a run for it, say I." Kyle said after the door shut again. "I."
"I," everyone except for Ashley said at the same time. It was weird for Jeff to hear everyone agree, even after everything that had happened and changed in the last few hours.
"We don't need to make a run for it," Ashley said. "Not as long as we're careful,. Besides, we wouldn't get very far if we did."
"I don't think it will be that easy," Jaeger said as she reached for the bundle suddenly and threw the clothes about. The bundle was filled with normal brown wool pants and sweaters that were too big for them, but would fit over their normal clothes for the most part, and there were socks and gloves as well. She grabbed one of the wool gloves in the pile and suddenly threw it on. The moment that she put it on, the glove was transformed into a dark blue and black gauntlet. Jeff could feel his mouth hanging open after that, and he shut it again after a moment.
"He told us to get changed for dinner," Jaeger said. "But neither me or Nick will be able to do that."
"Well..." Ashley began after she recovered from the surprise. She looked to be in deep thought as she considered what they had to do. "We'll tell them that you didn't want to get out of the armor you found. It kept you safe in the wilds."
"You really think he's going to believe that?" Jeff asked as he raised an eyebrow and snorted. "What kind of a pinhead do ya think he is?!"
"I don't know if he'll believe it, but at this point we can't afford to make a run for it!" Ashley said through grit teeth. "We'll just have to find a lie he'll believe."
"How about the clothes didn't fit?" Nick said as he picked up a wool sweater and held it up in front of himself. "Actually....now that I look at it they are kind of big."
"You're all allergic to wool," Ashley said finally.
"All of us?" Jeff asked. "That's just stupid."
"At this point," Ashley said as she looked defeated, "anything we try to tell them will sound stupid."
"Then why don't we run away?" Kyle asked. "Or just not go to the dinner?"
Jeff and everyone looked at Kyle so suddenly that he jumped a little.
"Are you sure you don't want a different room?" Gerot asked while everyone except Ashley and Jeff hid underneath the covers and pretended to be asleep. Jaeger kept one eye open very slightly though so that she could watch everything happen. Jeff was wearing the wool clothes over his own and was giving the impression like he was going to bed on the floor, while Ashley was standing near the door with the aid of her crutches.
"They said they were already settled here, in your little 'prison'," Ashley said as she nodded her head toward her crystal that she had put on the stand to let it provide light for the room. "Besides, most of them are already asleep."
"Well, all right," he said as he looked at Jaeger and the others perturbed. "I'll bring them their food in case they wake up later. But you wouldn't mind-"
"Of course I wouldn't mind joining you and your family myself," Ashley interrupted. "And the others will probably be just as happy, but these kids have been through too much. We should just let them rest." Ashley exited the room.
Gerot looked around unhappily and then he took a step towards the bed as if to throw off the blanket, and stopped, turned around and left.
"Well," the mayor said slowly. "You won't object to having breakfast with us tomorrow would you?"
Ashley didn't answer him before the door was shut, and Jaeger sat up and sighed. It was only a matter of time before Gerot pressed the issue and his suspicions.
"Well, now what?" Kyle asked. "We can't avoid him tomorrow. He and who knows how many other people might come to see us off."
"I don't suppose we can all go outside wrapped in his sheets?" Jaeger asked rhetorically.
"That seems like a great idea to me," Nick said. "I mean, it'll be really cold out there anyways."
Kyle sighed as he stared at the door. "We can't wear his sheets to breakfast. Can't you guys just turn off your clothes or whatever?"
"I don't know, can we?" Nick asked.
"It would certainly help," Jaeger said as she put her hand to her chin. "But I don't even know where we'd begin."
"Great. So the Crystal sends us to a place that might kill us for looking like the Dark Warriors, and then makes it so that you can't stop looking like them," Jeff said angrily.
"The more I hear about the Crystals, the more I think that we should just forget about them and let everyone else take care of the Djinn," Kyle said bitterly and then looked at Nick and Jaeger. "Really, if we can't even walk into a small village, how are we ever going to get into Sasune or anywhere near that Judge looking like this?"
"Well, we have to try," Nick argued. "Or at least I will. You guys don't have to come if you don't want, though."
Jaeger was silent for a short time as she listened to Kyle and Nick argue, and honestly she agreed with Kyle. They would be killed at the city gates long before they got anywhere near the judge. And it wasn't impossible for ordinary people to stand against a Djinn, or at least so the stories always said.
But as Jaeger sat in the bed, she turned and looked at Ashley's crystal as it spread light over the room, and she remembered what had happened an hour ago. How she had picked up the crystal and how the Light had tried to destroy her. It had tried to consume her, and it had failed. Could Jeff have survived without the power of Darkness to shield him? Could Kyle have? For that matter...who else had ever seen the Light like that? Had anyone else ever been attacked like that, and if they had, then why had she never heard of it? Could it be...
"I'm going," Jaeger said out loud without thinking, and Kyle turned towards her in shock. Jeff sat up from his position on the floor to get a better look at her.
"Why? That's just insane, we'd be killed at the city gates," Kyle said, trying to make her understand that she wouldn't make a difference even if she went.
"Probably," Jaeger admitted. "But the Crystal told us to go there and stop the Djinn. And it told us to stop the Light. You didn't see what I saw when I touched that crystal," she said as she took it out from underneath the covers and showed it to them.
Kyle didn't look as if he believed her, and she hadn't expected him to. She got out of the bed and then gestured towards the crystal on the table, making sure that she didn't touch it herself.
"Pick it up," she told him.
"What?" Kyle asked as he tried to back up into the wall. After she had told him what had happened to her, Jaeger could understand why he would be reluctant to touch the crystal himself.
"It won't hurt you any more than it hurt Ashley. No one else has ever been attacked by a crystal, and if people had, nobody would ever use them. They'd know the truth about the Light," Jaeger explained. "The Light was terrifying. It wanted to kill me, and maybe everything in the world. It has to be stopped, and I think that me, and...maybe Nick are the only people that can stop it. Because I can go to that place where the Light is rampaging. And maybe, that's the only way to stop it.
"And that's why I'm going to go to Sasune," Jaeger explained. "I'm going to listen to the Crystal and stop that Djinn, find the other warriors, and then stop the Light. Because we might be the only ones who can."
Kyle looked at Jaeger blankly as she stood there, gesturing for Kyle to get out of bed and to touch the crystal to prove her point for her. Nick smiled as he got out of Kyle's way and after a moment he sighed and got out of the bed. Kyle joined them as they stood over the crystal, while Jeff watched from the floor with a blank look on his face. Kyle reached out and put his hand over the crystal, but he didn't touch it and let his hand shake nervously.
"Are you sure it won't do anything?" Kyle asked quietly.
"C'mon," Nick said as he grabbed Kyle's hand and pulled it down on top of the crystal. Kyle jumped away from the crystal as quickly as he could and looked around in terror waiting for something to happen, and when nothing did he smiled.
"Nothing happened," he said, but Jaeger shook her head as she stared at Nick, who was standing still with a blank look in his eyes.
"Not to you it didn't," she said as she tried to shake Nick back to reality.
It was like plummeting into the sun the villagers had always told him about. He felt as if he was one with the universe for a moment, and the room vanished as everything became hot and bright. It tried to crush him and tear him apart, it tried to burn him and blind him. He couldn't breathe as waves of pressure went past him and tried to end his life.
Nick struggled against the Light as he lifted his arms protectively and looked around trying to figure out what was going on. Was this what Jaeger had talked about? This was a thousand times worse than she had made it sound. As the Light passed through him, suddenly a figure appeared in front of him. It was an elderly man who looked at him with contempt.
"A child? You are the cause of the fluctuations and darkness?" the old man snarled as the light intensified its attack. "The Light will consume and destroy you!"
How did Jaeger escape from this trap again? Nick thought to himself as he could feel his body and the Darkness inside struggle against the Light. She had found the crystal that had brought her here and broken it, he was sure. Looking around, Nick couldn't see anything unusual near him. The longer he looked, the more the Light tried to burn him to nothingness.
"Over here," a quiet, timid voice called out to him. As he looked up, Nick saw the small blue light burning in front of him and to the left. It was so small he must have missed it from before.
Nick stepped forward, each step causing the Light to become angrier and attack stronger, but Nick ignored the burning and the Light and reached out to the crystal, and then clenched his fist and slowly the crystal crumbled in his grip. Was this crystal stronger than the other or had it taken Jaeger this long to break hers too?
"Show everyone what you can do," the timid voice said as it grew distant. Nick nodded his head as the crystal shattered into nothingness.
"He's not snapping out of it!" Jaeger said as she pulled Nick's rigid body away from the crystal, and Jeff had already started to slap him. While Nick's body moved from the blows, he didn't respond or blink. Jaeger looked back at the crystal and considered going in after him, when suddenly the light in the crystal died and Nick gasped out in surprise.
"Nick, are you alright?" Kyle asked as he shook Nick, while they were once again lost in the darkness.
"I'm okay," Nick said as he sat up. "But I think I broke Ashley's crystal." Jaeger sighed in relief. If Nick was worried about Ashley's crystal then he couldn't be that hurt.
"You didn't even touch the crystal and you still went crazy?" Jeff asked as he picked up the now broken communication crystal and sighed. "It's gonna get cold in here tonight."
As a knock sounded on the door, they suddenly all remembered that Gerot was coming to deliver their food, and they had a second broken crystal on their hands.