Chapter 16: 5 Pineapple Gels

They reached the Irving's Residence without mishap. Initially, they assumed that Lloyd would be pursuing them, but perhaps they'd managed to throw him off their trail or at least he was confused enough to have no clue where they might have gone off to.

Cecil and Cathe told the others to stay outside so the rest of the group lounged out on the porch as the two girls told their mother of what had happened thus far. Leona didn't expect there to be yelling or throwing things and there wasn't, but she was caught off guard as the front door whipped open revealing a rather determined looking Colette, her hair tied in a low ponytail. Ludovic, the child who they'd forgotten about trailed behind her.

"So he's in Izoold?" she asked to the group looking towards her. All they could do was nod. "Ludovic and I will go there and bring him home. The rest of you, well you obviously want to help find Lucas. Raine and Regal are the closest, they went to the Triet Ruins. Oh, I do hope they're alright. Please, let them know what's happened. We should all meet up somewhere once again. Maybe someone's knows something we don't."

"Yes ma'am," they all murmured back. She didn't seem upset with them, which was always a plus. She was more interested in salvaging the situation.

"I'm so glad that you're all safe. We were all so worried about you!"

"We're fine, Mom, I told you," Cecil said quickly, "But do you really plan on going to Dad with just Ludovic?"

"Just Ludovic?" Colette said a bit confused.

"We both know you're not as powerful as you used to be and Ludovic…well, he's not the best choice if you want to fight someone."

"Fight someone? I'm not going to be fighting him—

"But you could. He's been…changed."

"And if that happens Ludovic and I will be ready. Isn't that right, Ludovic?" Colette said looking down at the boy.

His hair had finally been trimmed and Leona supposed he looked far more comely for it. Still he was quite shy and hid behind his mother. All he did was nod. She did notice that he wore not one, but two swords at his sides. Could the boy truly use two swords just like his father? Even Lucas hadn't bothered with learning that style.

Cecil laughed at this.

"Now don't laugh," Colette insisted to the girl, "Ludovic is all I need. I feel quite safe."

The poor child was blushing profusely now as she ran a loving hand down the crown of his head.

"Whatever—as long as you know what you're doing," Cecil said back.

"I do. Now go, help the others and warn them."

They parted ways soon after. It was clear to Leona that Cecil was a bit worried for her mother's safety, but Colette had seemed confident enough, Leona had reasoned to the other. She seemed to know what she was getting herself into.

Once again they were making their way to the ruins and once again there was a barrier at the entrance. Had Arcangela reconstructed the very same barrier that Felix had done away with before? Well, she knew better than to try to force her way through. It would probably be yet another trap.

As her hand felt the barrier she thought of Felix. Surely, he couldn't still be in there. Then again if he'd been defeated, then his body could still be there rotting away…She closed her eyes willing the terrifying images to disappear from her mind. She wanted to believe that he'd somehow gotten away. She wanted to believe that a weakened Felix had managed against the seemingly all-powerful Arcangela.

Who was she to even begin to believe that she alone would have been able to save Lucas? It was irrational and it had probably costed people their lives. Her parents must be quite ashamed of her at this point and she was about to meet them…

If they weren't at the ruins, then they would have continued on to the abandoned human ranch which would take another day to get to. All the while, Leona was becoming more and more anxious. Were they okay? Would they be disappointed with her? Cathe tried to comfort her, but to no avail. Her only comfort would be to get it over with already.

A day came and went and soon they made it to their destination. The place looked worse than the Triet Ruins, as if a bomb had torn it to shreds. There was not much of it standing, but it was enough left to still investigate inside. They passed through the gates and they did not have to go further as they beheld Regal; the blue haired giant was hard to miss. Judging by how he had little to no reaction to their appearance, Leona feared the worst.

"Dad…?" Leona said.

There was no light in his eyes, he simply stared at her.

"Where are the others?" she asked.

"Gone…" he replied to her much the same as Lloyd had. "Nothing matters anymore…"

"And Mom, what about her?"

"Into the forest…I told her to…run…"

"Run? Did something happen here?" Leona pressed.

"Something…but it doesn't matter…"

"Yes, it does matter. Now tell me what happened."

"I told her…to run…"

"Give it a rest, Leona," Cecil said finally, "He's just like Lloyd and we won't get much information out of him unless we feel like playing 21 questions for days. We should go look for your mom in the forest like he said."

"He's coming with us," Leona said at once.

Cecil looked to Cathe. "Are you sure? The same thing could happen."

"Let's have a vote," Cathe said.

"No," Leona said crossing her arms. She was trying to keep her frustration and anger in check. "He's coming with me and if anyone has a problem with this, then we will part ways."

"Hold on," Zeph said, "We understand that's your dad, but Cathe was just worried about all of our safety. We had to leave Mr. Lloyd behind…"

"Yes, but he's harmless now. The moment he isn't…just let me deal with him, alright?" Leona said.

Almost all of them used swords and she didn't want her father being hurt unnecessarily by them. She could take care of him…she hoped. In the end, Regal came with them and they travelled into the forest, but they didn't go far before meeting up with Raine. A very tired looking Raine who probably needed to rest.

"So you've seen him," Raine said at once. It was the first thing she said and obviously the thing she was most concerned about. She didn't bother looking at him; she must have known full well what he looked like. "Regal was worried about you, Leona, but there was never a doubt in my mind that you were safe. You can defend yourself and you have a good head on your shoulders and just as I thought," she said looking at the rest of them, "Everyone else is with you."

"Mom, I'm so sorry for running off like that—

"What's done is done and there was nothing you could have done to prevent any of this. Your actions may well have been necessary. Sometimes I forget how old you are. Perhaps we should have included you all in our plans from the very beginning…but it's fruitless to dwell on the past. Your father, I have no idea what's wrong with him, but had he not insisted on going in first, then I might have wound up like that as well."

"It's Lucas," Leona began.

Then they told her of Lucas, Izoold, and Lloyd. Raine was stunned by the news.

"But that's impossible. This Arcanagela woman must know some powerful magic to manipulate people as she does. Lucas is human as far as I know. This change that's occurred in Regal and Lloyd…it's magic-based. How could Lucas have been responsible for it?"

All Leona could do was shrug. None of it made sense. Judging from Raine's surprise of their information, Leona doubted her mother had anything new to bring to the table and especially not where Lucas might be. It was clear that she hadn't even seen him.

"Mom thought it was a good idea for us to meet back up again after we told her what happened to Lloyd," Cecil said.

"That would be a good idea if we weren't so scattered already. We gave ourselves a week to search in our respective areas. Zelos is in charge of scouring both Palmacosta and Asgard. Presea and Genis went to Sybak and Meltokio. Regal and I were supposed to look here first. The Triet Ruins for some reason is blocked and then go to Hima and Luin. As you already know, Lloyd went to Izoold and then he was to go to Martel Temple. Then we were all to meet back up in a week's time in Asgard, Sheena as well. Between all of us, we were certain that we would have picked up something. I suppose, in a way, Lloyd did find something, but were you all not there, we would never have known what happened."

"So I guess we wait for a week?" Eros asked.

"You might have seen him, but we still don't know his whereabouts. At the very least, we know that he's alive. Let them keep looking, they may stumble across him perhaps with better luck than Lloyd and Regal. After all, you were able to escape and so was I."

"But…wouldn't it be better to inform the others?" Leona asked.

Raine looked away from her. "I want to help Regal. As you tell it, an entire village is in the same condition. There needs to be a way to reverse the effects. The thing is we don't have enough information and we don't know exactly what Lucas is planning to do or his timeline. We also don't know exactly where everyone is. Let's do what we can now. It's a bit late in the day to keep traveling…"

Leona could tell that her mother wanted time to heal Regal if that was even possible. Had there been an easy solution, she was certain her mother would have already taken care of him. They set up camp and Leona watched as her mother continually examined her father. She must have moved her hovering glowing hand about the entirety of his body countless times before even an hour was up. She gazed at him intently. She sat back and became lost in deep thought and then repeated the cycle multiple times. Leona was becoming concerned that perhaps her mother was expending too much of her energy. Sweat beads began to form on her temples, but the look of determination did not leave her face.

Her friends had broken off into little groups; the twins sat together and then the two sisters. They were all restless, but there was nothing more to be done that day. Then Leona heard a rustle—a sound that immediately drew Raine out of her ruminations and Leona's attention. Raine was the only one who leapt to her feet when the newcomer showed himself. Everyone else knew who he was: Felix.

Leona's heart skipped a beat when she beheld him so suddenly. He was alive and he still brandished the very same ring she'd given him upon closer inspection.

"And who might you be?" Raine asked. It probably had not escaped her that she was the only one who was thoroughly surprised by his presence.

"Felix," he said simply. "And here I thought you kids liked to travel unchaperoned."

"It's alright, Mom," Leona finally said, "He helped us escape Arcangela."

"Yes, you mentioned him before. Then I suppose I should thank you."

Yet Raine still remained wary, Leona could tell. She'd not let her guard down at all, but just as Leona thought, Felix was unperturbed. He sat down with them about the fire as if it were perfectly natural. Then she began to see it, his once immaculate clothes now torn, his skin glistened with sweat—he was quite exhausted. He let out a weary sigh as he made himself comfortable.

"The chances of meeting you here in this forest…quite infinitesimal. Perhaps it is fate."

"You believe in such things as fate?" Raine asked clearly amused.

"Well, I don't wholly discount it," he replied nonchalantly.

"How did you get away from Arcangela? Or did you defeat her," Leona asked—it was a burning question.

"Defeat her? You must think very highly of me indeed," he said with one of his devilish grins. "I'm a far better healer than a fighter. I know a few tricks here and there. I pretended as if I was dead, very convincingly I might add. Then she left—she's not one for getting her hands too dirty. And this ring that you loaned me," he said holding up the hand which bore it, "Without it I don't believe I would have gotten very far. Since the natural world has undergone some changes, there are certain moves which are too draining to do any longer, but I was able to use them with ridiculous ease. Here," he said removing said ring from his finger—it fit him perfectly even though it was designed for the small fingers of a girl, "I realized what it was well after you gave it to me. Faerie Rings are a bit of a rarity these days which is a shame. The very thing needed for its creation grows more and more scarce every day."

Leona had to move a little closer to him so that she could receive it. "There was never a doubt in my mind that you'd be able to bring it back to me."

"Your confidence is…startling considering the odds."

For a brief moment, he laid eyes on her. His striking, intelligent eyes very easily drew her in and she found herself staring until he returned to gazing into the flames. Because he had simply dropped the ring into her waiting palm, there was no chance for skin contact like last time. She wondered if the same phenomenon would occur. Maybe she'd simply been imagining things last time—she had been under duress after all.

"So you managed to escape the belly of the whale," Raine said, "Did you find out anything interesting about this Arcangela?"

"As a matter of fact…" he began with a tone of measured excitement, "I didn't find out much about what exactly she's planning—she hardly ever wastes her breath on those she plans to kill in the next few minutes, but we have some history, I was able to goad her into telling me something, but it was about Lucas. She needs his power to realize her goal. Whatever it is that he does—she was not very clear on that—whatever it is chips away at his life force. What I'm saying is that it's detrimental to his life the more he uses this 'power'. On the one hand, this is probably terrible news, but for her, she needs him alive for as long as possible so she'll only use him sparingly until she gets what she wants. She'll focus on the cities where there are a lot of people."

"Izoold," Zeph said at once. "Lucas is going to travel to every city and subject all the denizens just like Izoold. Meanwhile, he's unwittingly killing himself. All of this because of Arcangela…"

"I wouldn't say unwittingly," Felix said, "It's not out of the realm of possibility that she's somehow convinced your Lucas that this thing that she needs is so important that it would require his life. She can elicit that kind of devotion."

"How is that?" Eros asked.

"That is a conversation for another time," Felix said wearily.

"Everyone who's in a city right now is in danger," Raine said thoughtfully, "At the very least this narrows our search radius. She didn't happen to tell you where Lucas was, did she?"

"No, unfortunately. I'm sure it would have solved a lot of problems at this point."

For once, he was no longer gazing at the flames. Something else had caught his interest; her father. The entire time they'd been there, her father had said nothing and stared at nothing in particular. He seemed more like a statue than anything else. Perhaps Felix had finally caught on to his strange presence.

"That fellow over there. There is something drastically wrong with him," Felix stated as a matter of fact.

"And how do you know that? He could simply just like to stare a lot—maybe he's simply petrified of meeting new people," Raine said back.

"Oh, no," Felix said in a knowing tone, "That's not it at all. I would know."

"You can tell just by looking?" Raine asked trying to hide the surprise from her voice. Leona could tell, however, that she'd been caught off guard.

"Of course. I'm a healer. It doesn't take much for me to notice when someone is in need of help."

"Then do you know what's wrong with him?" Raine asked cautiously.

"Someone's tinkered with his mind in a very extraordinary way, in a way that only magic can. He's ripe for receiving commands and following them, but not just from anyone, but from the one who put him into that state. But you see, he won't just follow these commands, he will believe that this is something that he must do and passionately pursue its completion. This kind of mind control is quite beautiful in a way."

"Beautiful?" Raine asked a little put off, "I would say the exact opposite. Regal, he's…a shadow of himself. He doesn't acknowledge me, he doesn't acknowledge anyone anymore, and he doesn't seem to care about anything. Watching him like that for even a few hours…" Raine looked away, "I am beyond horrified, beyond angry."

"I see," he said simply.

"You seem to know so much from simply looking at him whereas I had to spend quite a bit trying to assess what was wrong with him—can you help him?"

"It is beyond me, but I've seen something similar to this. I'm sure I'd be able to find something in that library, the one back in Heimdall."

"Heimdall…" Raine said warily.

"Yes, I studied there and from the looks of things, you still have much to learn."

"What?" Raine said taken aback, "I may not have studied in Heimdall, but over the years I have become quite proficient on my own."

"You're adequate at best. A healer should be able to look at person and know if there's anything wrong with them from physical to mental injuries and they should be able to heal at least the supernatural injuries within seconds."

Raine's expression had become hard. "Well, I didn't have the benefit of being trained at the esteemed Heimdall for obvious reasons."

"I noticed. Upon meeting your daughter, I wondered about her strange mix of blood and now it all makes sense. Little wonder that even at this age she knows so little about magic when her teacher is one who was self-taught. Tragic, really. Such potential in mother and daughter alike."

"And, of course, with your superior training, you can look down on us from some high, unreachable pedestal and pity the common folk, the despicable half elves."

"I don't think I've ever met a despicable half elf, but if I did, I probably would look down on them. Either way if you want to help this man, you will have the consult the texts only found in Heimdall. I know of no other place with more reliable information."

"For an accomplished healer such as yourself—I find it hard to believe that there's nothing you can do for him," Raine said with a frown.

"I don't like to do things based off of hunches. I need confirmation first. But this should serve as a warning to just how formidable Arcangela is. Once she has her mind set on something, it is difficult to stop her. I might even venture to say impossible. She's always one step ahead and she's likely thought of all contingencies."

"It sounds like you know her quite well," Raine said, suspicion entering her tone.

"Oh, I do," he said, but he did not expound. "And that's about the only advantage you have at this point."

"Do you know where she lives?" Raine asked.

"She never showed me as much. She kept a lot of information to herself."

"Then how are you an advantage?"

Felix laughed at this. "I don't think anyone's ever found me useless nor have I been to you. I'm sure you'd have more to feel sorry for than a nonresponsive mate—something that's fixable. After a certain time period, death is irreversible."

"I've already thanked you for that—did you want a trophy," Raine said back.

"I hate trophies, but I'd settle for some pineapple gels."

"Because orange gels are so beneath you?"

"No, because orange gels are inconsequential unless it's in large amounts and it is quite tiring to take all that at once."

Raine was already rummaging through her bag to find said gels. "How many do you require?"

"Five," he said simply.

Raine paused and looked at him incredulously. "Five? Are you storing some for later?"

"I suppose that would be a sensible thing, wouldn't it? But something tells me it would be better to be at full capacity."

Felix seemed unconcerned with her look of surprise. Then again, he seemed unconcerned about many things. Leona supposed that she should be surprised as well. She didn't know anyone who actually needed five pineapple gels to be at full capacity. Leona was suddenly glad that he was on their side. She believed her mother to be the best healer ever. Then Felix came and blew all such notions out the window. Raine eventually handed the pineapple gels to him, but he did not use them immediately.

"Before I forget to say it," Felix said stifling a yawn, "I am willing to teach both of you the proper use of magic—for a fee, of course."

"Of course," Raine repeated sardonically, "And what makes you think I would ever accept your offer?"

"Darling, just because you were never afforded the opportunity to really understand the uses of your magic does not mean your daughter must suffer the same fate."

The decision was up to her mother and Leona didn't think her mother would approve especially not from a stranger even if he had saved two of her friends' lives. Leona also didn't want to undermine her mother's authority—that was one way to supremely piss her off, so she remained quiet obediently. Her eyes averted her gaze from the two adults and looked to the ground.

"Felix, I will allow you to teach my daughter when the time is right."

Leona was quite shocked to hear this.

"Something tells me you have no physical credentials I can check so I will be present at every session and we will see if you can do more than just talk."

"That's reasonable. I do have such credentials, but they are inaccessible at the moment."

"Convenient. I suppose you hail from Heimdall." He nodded so she continued. "So then you must have taught there, all full blooded elves."

"Naturally, all full blooded elves. All of them except one," he said his eyes growing distant. "A little girl. One could assume that she was simply abandoned by her parents. She showed up at the gates of the village. You know the village's custom, she was not permitted to enter—not at first, anyway. It became obvious, however, that the child had nowhere else to go. She sat there for days and days until she began to starve. The Elder did not have the heart to watch someone so young die right on his doorstep. Grudgingly, he allowed her entry. Orphanages do not exist in Heimdall so the responsibility of caring for her fell to the Elder—the one who had made the decision to bring her in. All of this I learned from the Elder when I asked one day. Admittedly, I do become far too wrapped up in my work to worry about the current news. She, like every other child in the village, came to the academy that I, at the time, taught at. Professors would not teach her; it was completely in their right to deny her, such were the laws in the village. She continued to transfer from professor to professor until she wound up in my class."

"And let me guess, you accepted her," Raine said, her tone not at all impressed. "Poor little half elf girl must have been grateful for your odd charity. I find it hard to believe that somehow you thought differently from your colleagues."

"Will you let me finish? I wasn't even planning to say any of this. You should consider yourself quite lucky."

"Alright," Raine said relenting, "Continue."

Felix sighed and then did as Raine suggested, "I may not have been aware of the news but I was not wholly ignorant to the new student. She caused quite an uproar and then for the first time I was able to hear my colleagues' thoughts about half elves. They were irrational prejudices. Professors, intelligent people, were brought down to such levels. I could point the finger at them, but these were things that were cemented into our minds long ago. I wanted to see for myself if these things were true. I did it not because I was somehow different from everyone else, but because it was simply my way to hypothesize and experiment. What better opportunity than this? I allowed her entry into my class because I was curious and you know what they say about curiosity."

"You really are quite cold," Raine said looking away from him, "To think of a living breathing person as an experiment…"

"Yes, well, it has served me well over the years. It allows me to look at things objectively without the clouding, misleading effects of emotions. Were it not for that, I would be just like those other professors, unwilling to give her a chance. Truthfully, I was excited about the prospects and from the first day she entered my class, I studied her closely but not in a way that was obvious. The best test subjects are those who do not know they're being tested. I wanted her to act naturally."

"And how was she?" Raine asked when he did not continue immediately.

"She was a solemn individual, understandably so. She always sat somewhere in the back with the most uninterested expression I'd ever witnessed on a child's face. Even before I began the class she was like this. I wasn't exactly put off by this. Outward appearances could often be misleading. Those were simply my first impressions. She kept to herself probably because she did not want to give anyone a reason to notice her and further belittle her—again understandable. She stared out the window and did not write down a single thing on the first day and I did not call on her to answer questions or read passages. It was as if she wanted to not really exist. She wanted to be someone invisible. When the class was over, all the children left as quickly as possible as is always the case, but she stayed back. The first thing she asked me was 'Why did you let me stay in your class? Do you like half elves?'. It seemed like she wanted some reassurances so I gave it to her—I lied. Told her she was no different from any other student and that I hadn't the slightest gripe about half elves. That seemed to satisfy her. She didn't ask me why this was so, she simply accepted it at face value."

"She was persecuted at every turn. I watched her inside and outside school. Everyone pretended as if she didn't exist. Many times she was blatantly ignored by everyone even by her peers. Anything said to her was of a belittling nature or a denial of some kind when she was asking for a favor—something she didn't do often. Despite these obstacles, despite this hostile environment or anyone rooting for her, she excelled in my class with surprising ease. I might have been guilty of giving out a bit more tests than usual, but it was only so I can read her responses to my questions. They were innovative, clever. She wasn't trying to simply get the answer right, she was trying to convey her own opinions and I would always leave my own comments in the margin for her to read—a silent dialogue began between us until such point that it was no longer enough."

"She absorbed information like a sponge, she was the student that every professor hoped to teach one day. Then I was no longer observing her from a distance. I befriended her. We spoke at length outside of class and it became a natural thing to do and I was given a far more intimate view of her life. She would ask me to buy things for her because she did not want to deal with the idiotic shopkeepers. She would come to my house to hide when she no longer felt like dealing with the silently berating looks of everyone else. I came to know her far better than anyone else in my life, she felt the need to divulge information to me that she would tell no one else, could not tell anyone else."

"All of this was quite controversial. The closer I got to her, the more the people who I worked with treated me as if I were an outsider as if I was somehow not the same person as before. My teaching methods began to be questioned. Administrators would visit my class to see how I taught my students. Were I not someone with an abundant amount of confidence in my own skills, I might have been made nervous by their constant presence. No professor is perfect and they eventually found something to call me out on…the fact that I gave too many tests, expecting too much from the students, causing some to repeat the grade. Something along those lines. Under normal circumstances, something like that isn't enough to have one's license and credentials revoked, but these were abnormal circumstances and I was kicked out of my lifelong profession. These things happened quickly, all within a school year. The girl was no longer able to attend school. I adopted her and continued her education. I am a professor of magic not of everything else like English and Math, but I knew enough to teach her. In order to be a professor, one must go through rigorous training including being more than adequate in all other subject areas. She essentially became my daughter. I'd sacrificed my life's work for her and I realized that I would gladly do it again."

"Where is she now?" Raine asked.

"Well, not with me," he answered vaguely.

"You mean you left her in that village?"

"No, I would never do such a thing…"

"Then—

"Following an unfortunate series of events, she was killed," he said. This made Raine quiet.

Leona who had been listening intently finally spoke. "Arcangela had something to do with that," she stated rather than asked."

"As I said before," Felix said looking at her, "Arcangela is a crafty woman who would use even children if it would further advance her goals. That would be an even longer story to explain and I don't feel it's necessary to recount."

"We understand," Raine said drawing his attention back to her. "Now that I've heard all of this, I think I feel a little bit more comfortable with you teaching Leona—it would be my honor, Dr. Felix."

"Please," he said cringing at the added title, "Felix will do just fine."

"Is that what you had your students call you?" she said in an amused tone.

"As a matter of fact, yes, and it worked out quite well."

"Trying to sound younger? I know of someone who just hates being called 'mister'."

"I don't care whether I sound old or young. I simply do not need a title to convey mastery over a subject area. Besides, students don't need to be constantly reminded of such things when it's plainly obvious. Others need that kind of security; I do not."

"I see," she said dragging out the last word a bit. "So by your logic, Leona should be able to just call me by my first name since it's so obvious I'm her mother."

"Yes, but you have your own logic that you go by so it seems extremely unlikely you'd follow my example. In other words, it simply wouldn't be natural for you to do such a thing."

"Let it not be said that you don't always win debates and whether anyone wants him to or not, he will get his point across."

Felix chuckled at this. "Very accurate."

The two of them continued on like this as Leona listened intently hoping to glean even more information about Felix, but it was Raine's turn to speak of herself, stories which she already knew about. Leona knew that her mother kept out a few details and truncated many events, but in the end Felix knew of Raine's struggle early on in life and how slowly she began to regain her footing in society. The two adults and Leona were the last ones up that night. Felix was the first one to drop off having by then consumed all five pineapple gels, then Leona after a few moments and finally her mother.

Leona worried about her father and these feelings transferred into her dreams. She saw him standing there on a precipice and judging from the crashing waves there was water down below. His back was to her. All she could see was his long, vibrant hair being tousled in the gentle, but relentless wind. She kept walking towards him, but she could never reach him. She tried calling out his name, but her voice couldn't work.

Then he turned around to her. Immediately she could see the frown upon his face, an expression that was a rarity for him. He very easily crossed the distance between them and looked at her steadily.

"You disappoint me. Look at Lloyd's condition, look at mine. We have been made prisoners of our own minds, our values twisted and perverted, ready to follow any command that Lucas gives us. Were it not for your silly, rash decisions, it would not be so. The only thing you've succeeded in is giving Arcangela more pawns to use. She's been using you since that party and now she still controls your actions."

He lifted her up very easily by the collar and suddenly she found herself dangling off the very same precipice he'd been standing at before. Time and space seemed to hold no bearings.

"Dad, please don't!" she cried out, her voice now working.

Yet he said nothing more to her, his eyes no longer holding light within them. He simply released her and Leona found herself falling and falling. She wasn't yelling, but she continued to see the silhouette of her father in the distance and that distance did not change the entire time. She felt the wind ramming into her back as if she were falling and she began to panic until her heart was beating a mile a minute unable to stop herself and unable to find an end to her plight. That was when she awoke.

She sat up with a start, her breath heavy. It took her a moment to realize that everyone else was still asleep and an even longer one to realize that it was still night; she'd woken prematurely. The sound of crunching immediately caught her attention and she turned to look behind herself. There was Regal standing there all of his own accord.

"Dad?" Leona said cautiously. It was difficult to see him; the fire had gone out and only the stars lit the sky.

"You must die."