Chapter 11
"Even I caught on that he's not the brightest," Raine said, "But I wouldn't go so far as to call him crazy."
Genis shook his head and grinned. "No, crazy cool. Like he can block elemental attacks."
Both Raine and Richter turned to look at him. "He has elemental resistance then? How is that anything different?" Richter asked.
"No, he... You'll have to see it for yourselves. We were going to work on it more tomorrow," Genis said and shook his head again. "He had to go home since it was dark out. But he punches my attacks and breaks them before they hit. Admittedly I was going easy on him, but still, I've never heard of anyone who could do that."
Aster and Richter exchanged looks. "Maybe it's because he's supposed to be dead?" Aster suggested. "Unlocked some potential in him that wasn't there before?"
"You might have something like that too," Genis said.
Sighing, Aster rolled his head to stretch his neck and shoulders. "I'm so far behind everyone else in the athletics department that its not even funny. Even if I did have some special power, I don't think it's worth the effort learning to fight just to develop it. Maybe if we manage to save the world I'll think about it again."
"You're not going to win that one," Richter said, "Someone's going to force you to learn how to defend yourself one of these days."
"And you're going to laugh," Aster gave him a side-eyed look.
Richter pushed his glasses up with a single finger, covering his mouth as he did so. Aster saw the smirk, though, and rolled his eyes.
"Unfortunately, we can't eat in the library," Richter said. "And I'm starving. You probably haven't even stopped for lunch, have you?"
"Ahh..." Aster's eyes slid towards Raine. She gave him one of those 'Adult Looks' as well.
"In that case, we shall pick up with this in the morning," Raine stood and began cleaning up her papers. "I'll speak with the librarian about reserving these books." She handed Richter her stack of papers. "If you would be so kind as to keep these as well, Aster."
"Yeah." He began picking up his mess on the table, putting together his scattered notes from various books he had been looking through and stacked them. "So what are we going to eat, Richter?"
"Whatever is available at the inn's restaurant," the half-elf replied, looking up from the papers he had been handed. "Although, I never realized Sylverant had any information on the flow of mana."
Aster nodded. "It would have brought us to Ratatosk months sooner."
"Not that it would have changed much in the long run," Richter added and carefully placed the papers into a folder pocket and handed it to Aster. He nodded politely to Raine before leaving.
Looking from Richter to Raine, Aster quirked a brow briefly, then hurried to catch up with his friend. Once outside, Aster cleared his throat. "So... Raine's kind of cute, isn't she?" He wasn't sure if it was the street lamp or not, but he thought he saw Richter color slightly. The redhead's expression didn't change though, which was disappointing. "She's really smart too. Has a thing about ruins. She got really excited when I was telling her about the various places we crawled through looking for Centurion cores."
Aqua faded in on Richter's other side, puffing her cheeks in a pout. "She's not worth your time, Lord Richter."
Grinning at her, Aster was about to speak when his stomach growled loudly. "Good thing I've got you around, Richter, I'd probably die of starvation."
"Hey," Genis called and Aster stopped to look back at the young half-elf.
Jogging up, the young man held out his hand. "Raine said to give you this."
Offering out his palm, Aster blinked as Genis dropped a gold bracelet with a red gemstone mounted on it into his hand. "Is this...?"
"An Exsphere and key crest." Genis smiled. "In case you change your mind about learning to fight. Just don't tell Lloyd." He turned and dashed back into the library.
Closing his fingers around the bracelet, Aster looked up at Richter, then sighed as his friend quietly laughed behind his hand.
...
The lights of Palmacosta glittered against the bay like fireflies in the growing dark. Actual fireflies sailed across the grass to either side of the path, sometimes crossing in front of her. She reached out and caught one as it flew close, then let it crawl to the tip of her finger and fly away. She still couldn't believe that Yuan had joined them for their trek into the temple of wind. It had been even more lucky that they'd hardly had to fight much of anything within. Emil had made some pacts with monsters, they had found Ventus's core, awakened him, and made their way back out all in under an hour. The winds had immediately calmed upon their waking Ventus, which meant that the area was considerably safer now. They had packed up and left shortly afterwards, and again, Yuan had followed.
Marta was still waiting for an explanation of why. She doubted she was going to get one, though.
Emil walked beside her, his hand brushing against hers occasionally. It was a familiar way to walk and her body was getting used to the pace he set, meaning that they were making better time now, even though it was going to be well past dark by the time they got to town.
"Are you all right?" Emil asked, breaking a silence that had lasted for hours. "I can carry you if you'd like."
She smiled up at him, knowing he would, and could do so without getting her sick. Marta shook her head. "We'll get there when we get there." She laced her fingers with his. His hand tightened on hers.
They entered Palmacosta like that; hand in hand with Yuan trailing behind. Marta sighed. "I'm not sure if I should introduce you to Daddy or not." She looked up at Emil.
"Probably not..." Emil admitted.
"It's because you look so much older than me," Marta said. "Although, we're mentally the same age. And Ratatosk created your body. Couldn't he... Do something?" She gestured vaguely.
"I could, but it wouldn't be as easy as she thinks. I would have to combine with you again."
"He doesn't understand what the problem is," Emil reported.
"Why are you telling her things I never said?"
"Because that's what you meant."
"I don't want to be stuck like this," Marta said, grasping both of Emil's hands. "But no one would accept me suddenly being seven years older. Right now, only Richter and Aster know Emil, they wouldn't care what his apparent age is. And since it doesn't really matter to you one way or the other, Ratatosk..." She leaned in on her toes. "Please?"
"Ugh. Why does she make everything so difficult?"
"She's actually trying to make it easier," Emil pointed out.
"I'll think about it. Quit bugging me."
Emil smiled. "He'll do it. But not right now. He's got to pretend it was his idea first."
Marta sighed, then laughed, throwing her arms around his shoulders to pull down for a kiss on the cheek. "All right. I'm going to go home, you and Yuan head to the inn, I'll see you in the morning." She withdrew slowly, hands sliding down his arms to lace fingers with him again.
"Good night, Marta," Emil said.
"Ugh. I begin to regret encouraging you two to form a romantic bond," Tenebrae said from the shadows.
"You say that all the time," Emil said and squeezed her hands before releasing her. "But I think you're secretly proud of yourself."
Giggling, Marta dug the toe of one shoe into the cobblestones. "Good night, Emil." She forced herself to turn and head back to her father's house. While she had wanted to walk them to the inn, Marta knew that she might not have been able to talk herself out of just staying there for the night and that was just unacceptable behavior. She sighed at herself. "Why do I always have to be so responsible?" she bemoaned.
At her door, she paused and took a breath before entering. Brute looked up from his papers spread out on the table, Hawk looked over as well.
Marta cleared her throat. "Hello... I'm home?"
"How did it go in Asgard?" Hawk asked. "You're back sooner than I was expecting."
"We found someone to help and didn't run into any trouble," Marta said, relieved that they weren't going to make a big deal about her coming in so late. Setting her pack down beside the door, she went to the sink, washed her hands and got a cup to have some tea with the two men. "The monsters hadn't had enough time to get extremely aggressive, which meant that getting up to the stone dais was easy. Ventus's core was there, we woke him and headed back out."
Brute folded his arms on the table as she came to take a seat. "Who did you find to help?"
"Yuan Ka-Fai, he's one of the guardians of the new World Tree," Marta said. "He had some information regarding the ah... time warp." She looked down at her cup sadly.
"Well?" Brute asked.
She could tell he was mad and hated it, but there was nothing she had done that she was going to apologize for. Lifting her head, she looked at him. "He said the time warp wasn't complete and was going to fade eventually. Meaning that anyone the warp had brought back to life will die again as the proper events of time reassert themselves." Marta glanced at Hawk briefly.
"Meaning me," Hawk said and looked down at the table.
"And everyone who died the first time here in Palmacosta," Brute added and sat back in his chair. "Then what's the point of an evacuation plan?"
Marta pulled a couple of the papers over to look. "Emil and I think it would still be a good idea to save everyone we can for now. The people who died in Luin didn't return to the mana cycle and Yuan said there was magitech that could take and store mana. Alice and Decus are undoubtedly up to no good and we need to keep them from getting anything more." She sighed. "We might not be able to save everyone, but that doesn't mean we can't try to save as many as possible. Even if it means forcing the timeline to change... somehow." She looked up and met Brute's eyes, then looked to Hawk, who was still staring at the table. "I'm going to get washed and go to bed. It's been a long day and tomorrow might be longer." Finishing the last of her drink, she took the cup to the sink to rinse, then headed for her bedroom to find some clothes to change into.
...
"We only have a double room left," the innkeeper said. "Is that all right?"
Emil looked towards Yuan. The other man shrugged. "Yeah, it's all right. Thank you." They were each handed a key and together, trudged up the stairs to their room just as the front door opened.
Yuan headed into the room as Emil paused long enough to see Aster and Richter coming up the stairs.
"Hey Emil!" Aster said cheerfully.
"I hadn't expected you back until tomorrow," Richter said.
"There wasn't any trouble in Asgard," Emil explained and glanced at Yuan as the man put his pack down and sat on the foot of his bed to remove his boots. Deciding that was Yuan's way of saying he didn't want to be involved in catching Emil's friends up on business, he dropped his bag just inside the door and closed it. "Well, not trouble in the way of monsters at any rate," he said.
Aster bit his lower lip, "Uh oh. Sounds like you have bad news."
"Yeah."
"Should it wait until morning?" Richter asked.
"I'd rather go ahead and tell you," Emil said and shook his head.
Richter gestured for Emil to follow and all three headed to another room on the hall. Opening the door, the half-elf gestured for Aster and Emil to enter. Heading in, Emil found a chair to sit in and leaned his elbows on his knees as he suddenly realized how exhausted he was. Richter closed the door and leaned against the wall beside it.
"Yuan met me and Marta in Asgard. He's the new World Tree's guardian. He said that the mana from the Kharlan tree's roots was used to cause the time warp and the only one with access to that is Ratatosk. I don't remember him doing that. He doesn't remember it either and neither of us know why he would for that matter."
"Unless there was something he absolutely wanted to prevent," Aster said.
"But why go back seven years?" Richter asked and shook his head. "That's not all the bad news, is it?"
"No," Emil stared at the floor in front of his boots. "The time warp wasn't complete. It only affected our world. Derris-Kharlan is still seven years distant, the new World Tree is still seven years old... and as the mana used to cause the warp drains away, the proper timeline will reassert itself. Meaning that anyone who was dead before will..." He heard Aster gulp. "On top of that, the people who died in Luin didn't return to the mana cycle. Marta, Ratatosk and I believe Alice has some way to collect the mana of those she's killed. We don't know why she would be, but it can't be for anything good." Forcing himself to lift his head, Emil looked at Richter. "Also, something came through the Gate of Nifelheim just as the warp happened. Or maybe right before it."
"Maybe that's what Ratatosk was trying to prevent?" Aster asked.
"Except whatever it is... is still here," Emil said. "And it has some way of sucking mana out of places so thoroughly that it leaves dead patches. Yuan has seen a couple, I haven't, but he said they were completely devoid of life."
"Couldn't that be Decus or Alice?" Aster asked.
Emil shook his head. "Yuan sent Lloyd after it and said Martel can't sense this... thing. Its not from our world."
Aster collapsed backwards across the foot of the bed. "But it's stealing our mana when we really don't have any to spare." He sat up, propped on his hands. "We have to get rid of Alice and Decus first. We can do something about that for certain. We'll save who we can from Palmacosta, just to keep those two demons from stealing their mana. We can figure out how to save them more permanently later. There's got to be a way." He grinned. "We just need courage."
"Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality," Emil and Richter said in unison.
Exchanging a look with Aster, both the blonds turned to find Richter with his hand over his face, glasses dangling from between his fingers. He started chuckling. Emil lowered his head and began to laugh as well. Aster sighed. "I guess I trained you two well. My job is done."
A shiver ran down Emil's back.
"What's wrong?" Aster asked.
He realized he was standing, hand on the hilt of his sword and glanced around.
"What's wrong?" Richter demanded and stumbled when Emil shoved him aside, heading out into the hall.
Something was wrong. Something dreadful and he couldn't pinpoint what it was. Aster and Richter followed him down the stairs and out into the street. Pelting through the fog at full speed and still trying to get dressed, Marta nearly collided with the trio, panting for air.
"What happened to Ratatosk?" Marta asked breathlessly. The core on her forehead glowing.
"Emil! Come to me!"
Throwing his hand out, Emil opened himself fully to Ratatosk's power, opening a portal to the Ginnungagap. Without hesitating, Marta sprang through. He nearly collided with Aster as the blond followed.
"Wait!" Richter called, but the portal closed as soon as Emil entered.
Rolling as he was flung to the ground of Ratatosk's chamber by the portal, Emil drew his sword and sped towards the man with a large sword that stood facing Ratatosk. The Summon Spirit dodged the man's strike, but his blade cut into the monolith that centered the seal on the Gate.
Slashing the man's back, Emil sent him staggering and followed with another upwards cut to send him into the air.
The stranger twisted, flipping his feet over his head to turn and face Emil in time to block the next attack and sent them both flying to other sides of the chamber.
"Photon!" Marta called, sending a blast of light across the room to strike the stranger.
"Ain Sof Aur!" Ratatosk cast, sending a blast of light right on the heels of Marta's spell.
Sword raised, the stranger held the flat out just in time for the attacks to strike. Blue lightning arched around the blade and man. In a flash of blinding light, both attacks disappeared and the man lowered his sword with a smirk. "Like I thought. You'll do perfectly," he pointed his sword at Ratatosk. Emanating from the crosspiece, blue lightning crackled down the length of the man's blade and exploded.
Emil grasped his chest in agony as Ratatosk was struck. The Summon Spirit's form exploded into fragments of light, core hitting the floor with a single bounce and roll.
Marta was moving before he could catch his breath, scooping up the core. "Emil!" she called and slung the core his direction.
Forcing himself to move, Emil straightened and caught Ratatosk's core, immediately absorbing it.
"You." The man growled. "Give me that," he pointed his sword at Emil this time.
"Go back to hell!" Emil shouted and flung his hand out.
The monolith suddenly cracked; showering them with sharp rocks and shaking the entire Gate structure as the damaged spell abruptly failed. Black fog flooded the room. Dark shapes crept across the walls and through the mists. Claws gripped Emil's leg.
"Emil!" Marta cried and slashed at a black appendage that tried to wrap around her throat.
"Destroy it all," Ratatosk found the strength to whisper. "That's the only way to protect the world..."
Closing his eyes tightly, Emil gripped the hilt of his sword in both hands, blade pointed down. With a shout, he took all of Ratatosk's remaining energy and focused it to a point as he slammed his sword downwards. The platform beneath him shattered, cracks spreading.
"Ah!" Aster yelped as the ground collapsed out from under him.
"Emil!" Marta called again. He saw her reach for him as he began to fall into the darkness below.
He reached for her hand, knowing the distance was too great. Tears stung his eyes. "I'm sorry!"
She disappeared into the black mists.