A/N: Here's the next chapter. I don't have much to say about this one other than I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I never will. D;
-0-0-0-
When one has one's hand full of truth it is not always wise to open it.
-French proverb
-0-0-0-
"You wanted to speak with me?" Kratos asks Yggdrasill. The blond man had sent one of the lesser angels to find the seraphim. The lesser angel had informed him that Yggdrasill wanted to speak with him, so Kratos had made his way to the throne room that Yggdrasill seemed to be fond of. Currently, the blond angel is lounging on his 'throne,' looking bored. He is leaning on the right arm of the throne, chin resting on his hand with one leg crossed over the other.
"Yes," Yggdrasill says. "How is Skye progressing with her training?"
It had been almost three weeks since Kratos and Yuan had started training Skye. She was a quick learner, but took to magic easier than she did to the sword training, but she was becoming proficient enough in both. Kratos had noticed that while she was learning defense techniques easily, she was hesitant whenever it came to attacking. She seemed to not like the idea of hurting someone else, not that anything she could do would hurt Kratos. The idea was nearly laughable. However, she was becoming stronger and her reflexes were excellent.
Yuan had told Kratos that the girl's magical affinities seem to lie with wind. She was able to learn wind-based spells much easier than anything else, and fire was nearly impossible. They attributed her inability to effectively use fire spells to the psychological trauma of the events in Ozette and the death of her brother. Her unique mana signature seemed to have no effect on her magical or physical training for the moment.
After Kratos explained the situation to Yggdrasill they became quiet, Yggdrasill because he was contemplating the new information, and Kratos because he was waiting for blond angel to speak.
"I'm going to send the Oracle to Sylvarant's Chosen in a few days. I want you and Skye to accompany the Chosen on her journey to ensure that it is successful this time," he says quietly. "If there are any preparations you need to make I suggest you start making them."
Kratos raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure it's a good idea to send her on such a long assignment? You know that the Chosen's journey is a perilous one, and she's only just begun her training."
"Then I suppose she'll just have to learn while she's down there," Yggdrasill says with no room for argument. Kratos wonders what Yggdrasill is hoping to accomplish with this new turn of events.
"Bring Skye here. There are things we need to discuss."
Kratos leaves the room.
-0-0-0-
Skye is in her room making some lunch when she hears a knock at the door. She can't leave the stove at the moment because she doesn't want to burn the food that's almost done cooking, so she calls out for whoever it is to come in. She turns around and sees that it's Kratos.
"Hey. You need something?" she asks. "I'm kind of busy making some lunch but you can have some if you want."
Kratos walks into the kitchen area incredulously. He's never seen her actually cook anything before, she usually just eats sandwiches or heads into the cafeteria, but he has to admit it smells good. "What are you making?"
"Chicken stir-fry. You want a bowl?" she asks with a smile.
He walks over next to her to look at the stove. It doesn't look too bad. "It looks good. I'd like that," he says.
"Alright. I'll warn you now though; I've never made it before. So I hope it ends up being as good as it looks," she says as she stirs it up a bit and goes to grab two bowls. She fills them both up and, after grabbing two forks, hands some food to Kratos and sits down at the table.
"So what is it that you needed?" she asks before she begins to eat. She did surprisingly well, she thinks. She was never a very good cook and Mistral did most of the cooking when he was home.
"Yggdrasill wants to speak with you. I came to bring you to him."
She thinks about this as they continue eating. She has hardly seen Yggdrasill since she came here, so she wonders what he might want to talk to her about. It's not that she doesn't like the man; he just seems too busy to want to concern himself with her, and she doesn't seek him out herself for fear of bothering him.
They finish eating and she takes the bowls over to the sink and washes them and the forks they used. "I wonder what he wants," she says hoping for a clue.
"You'll have to wait for him to tell you," Kratos says.
She dries the dishes and puts them back in the cabinet and the forks into the drawer. "Well, let's go then," she says as she turns around with a small smile. Kratos nods. They head for Vinheim, and as they walk she thinks about what life has been like for her for the past couple of weeks. At first, things were difficult and it was hard for her to get comfortable here. She's starting to get to know the other three seraphim better though. It's hard not to when she spends nearly all her time with one of them. She knows that behind Yuan's sarcasm-laced words and curt comments when he's instructing her that he's usually just trying to help her, and at rare times he'll even show her something resembling kindness. She's also begun to be able to read Kratos' expressions, but only when he allows her to. Sometimes, he's as stoic and cold as a rock – those times she can't read him at all.
But Yggdrasill is a whole other matter. She hasn't had the chance to talk to him as much as she has with Kratos and Yuan. She wants to, though. The man is intriguing, to say the least. She will admit though, that over the past few weeks she's begun to care about these men. She might go so far as to say that she considers them friends. For most of the time she'd been "living" here, she'd felt a bit out of place, but now she's beginning to see it as her home. It's not just a place she lives anymore.
They arrive at the teleporter to Vinheim and step onto it. She can't get used to the feeling of using it, and doesn't like it. It feels a bit like she's being deconstructed and pulled through a tunnel, only to be dropped abruptly at the end. It's uncomfortable. They continue up the stairs and through the door.
When they arrive in the throne room, Yggdrasill is standing in front of his throne with his back to them staring up into the purple sky of Derris-Kharlan. Skye thinks that he looks almost peaceful, if it's possible in this setting. She doesn't really want to disturb him, but Kratos speaks up while she's hesitating.
"I've brought the girl," he says.
"I have a name," Skye mutters under her breath. She's ignored.
"Excellent," Yggdrasill says. He turns around and looks at Skye, his ocean-blue orbs meeting Skye's light blue. "Come, walk with me," he says as he holds out an arm.
Well this is different, Skye thinks. What she says is "Okay."
Skye accepts the offer, wrapping her arm around his own. Immediately there is a flash of light and she feels the same feeling that she gets when she uses the teleporter, but different. If she had to compare them she would say that it's like the difference between red grapes and green grapes; they're both sweet fruits and they have similar looks, but they just aren't quite the same.
She sees trees! She's standing on grass! There's a light breeze and she looks over to Yggdrasill. His hair is moving slightly in the breeze, and he's looking off into the distance towards what looks like a small village.
So much for going on a "walk," she thinks. "Where are we?"
"Sylvarant," he replies. "On the outskirts of Iselia. The Chosen will be receiving the Oracle within a few days, and I think that aiding the Chosen on her journey is the perfect assignment for you."
Skye gapes at him. "Already? Isn't that kind of a large task to trust me with?"
"Kratos will be going as well," he explains.
"Okay… but what are we doing in Iselia right now?" she asks, confused.
"You don't appreciate being around nature again? I was under the impression you didn't care much for Derris-Kharlan," he says smirking, sapphire eyes amused. "Something about how you can never tell what time it is, and how the 'damn purple sky never changes'?"
Skye blushes a bit. She was going to have a serious talk with Kratos and Yuan about not repeating the embarrassing things she says. It did earn her a clock for her room, though. "Oh, so you heard about that, huh? It's not that I don't like Derris-Kharlan… After all, it's my home now; it's just that it's a hard transition to make. I admit, I did miss Aselia. It's nice to see some trees. Thank you for bringing me here."
"You're welcome," he says. There's another flash of light and then he's standing there in normal traveler's clothes, hair now tied back in a dark ribbon in a practical way. "Why don't we go see if we can catch a glimpse of the Chosen?"
-0-0-0-
After walking down to the village, Yggdrasill and Skye just wandered around for a little bit, eventually finding a shop near the middle of the village that was also functioning as a small inn and sitting down at a table inside, next to a window. The village was actually larger than Skye had thought from first glance. It was a quiet bustle of activity, with children playing in the streets, shopkeepers doing business, and some people farming on the outskirts. Yggdrasill had already showed her who the Chosen was, although he warned her not to approach the girl. She couldn't take the chance of being recognized later when she had to come back with Kratos.
"So that girl is going to save her world? She seems so young," Skye comments to Yggdrasill. The Chosen is a small blond girl, looking somewhere between fifteen and eighteen. They can see her from the window, and she seems to be hanging around with a teen around her age wearing red, and a smaller boy with silver hair. They're laughing and the teen in red takes off chasing after the silver haired boy after something he seems to have said. The blond Chosen just laughs, following after them at a slower pace. The three seem to be good friends.
"She's sixteen," he says.
Skye thinks that it's a heavy burden for a girl who's practically a child to carry. Skye remembers being sixteen. Although she's not much older than that now, at twenty, she has matured mentally since she was sixteen. She didn't think she would've been able to handle the duty that the Chosen bears at that age.
Almost as if he could read her mind Yggdrasill says, "I would advise you not to feel too much sympathy for her. It will make the journey harder than it needs to be. The Chosen will go through many trials on her way to becoming an angel, and though not pleasant, they are all necessary."
"No promises there, but I'll do my best," Skye says. They are quiet for a few moments, before Skye thinks that maybe she should use this opportunity to get to know this man a little better.
"So, Yggdrasill, what do you like to do for fun, other than whisking strange girls away to giant purple comets?" she says jokingly, not really expecting an answer from the fairly serious man. He may not be as serious as Kratos, but she's never really seen him crack any jokes like Yuan occasionally does.
"Panpipes," he says.
Skye's mouth opens in a bit in shock and she raises her eyebrows. "Really?" she says.
He nods, bangs swishing a little as he does so, but doesn't elaborate.
She imagines him sitting at the base of a tree somewhere with the wind blowing gently, eyes closed as he plays. "Interesting," Skye says.
Yggdrasill wonders what she's thinking as he stands up from his chair and says, "We should leave. We've been here too long. People might remember you when you come back."
Skye is confused by his sudden change of mood but rises as well and they leave the shop and begin to make their way out of the village. They walk in silence, Yggdrasill always staying a few steps ahead of her and walking a bit faster than her. When they've gotten far enough away that no one will see them, Yggdrasill grabs her upper arm a bit harshly compared to the friendly way they had linked arms on the way to Iselia, but not hard enough to hurt her, and they teleport back to Vinheim appearing outside the throne room. Yggdrasill is back in his regular clothes.
He drops her arm and walks into the room and shuts the doors. She stands there for a few moments, trying to figure out what just happened. She then hears footsteps behind her, and turns around to find Kratos there.
"Where did he take you?" he asks.
"Iselia. We saw the Chosen," she says. "She's so young and normal. It seems crazy that a girl her age is going to regenerate Sylvarant," Skye says, a bit in awe. "After she becomes an angel, is she going to live here with us? It might be nice to not be the only girl around," she says half-jokingly.
"… We'll most likely be headed there in a couple of days. If there's any preparing you need to do, do it soon," he says his expression unreadable as he ignores her and walks past her into the throne room.
What is with these guys today?
-0-0-0-
"Do you not intend to tell her the full truth about the Chosen's journey?" Kratos asks the blond angel. He knows that the girl will be upset when she learns the full reality of it.
"No," Yggdrasill says quietly.
"Why?"
"She's not ready to hear it."
Kratos agrees with him but says as a warning, "She will most likely find out while we're on the journey." He doesn't know why Yggdrasill wants to wait, but he'll go along with it for now since he knows that she will find out eventually. As long as he's not the one who has to tell her, he isn't really concerned with the details of how she learns of it.
Yggdrasill is silent, not giving away any of his thoughts on the matter.
-0-0-0-
Skye decides to go find Yuan; she doesn't want to go back to her room and be alone yet. She makes her way to Yuan's place, because if he wasn't there she figured she would have almost no hope of finding him. She knocks on his door and waits for a response. After a few moments he opens the door.
He raises one eyebrow as he notices exactly who has appeared at his door. "You lost?"
"No, just looking for someone to provide me with some semblance of normalcy," she says as she walks in.
Yuan steps aside to allow her in, but rolls his eyes. "Oh, please do come in. I'll prepare some tea," he says sarcastically.
"Well, you're still just as sarcastic as always, so all must be right with the world," she says with a grin as she walks over to sit on his couch, actually a little relieved. She didn't like the tension that Kratos and Yggdrasill were throwing out in waves. Now that she's here, however, she wasn't really sure what to do. She didn't want to actually bother Yuan, she just wanted some company. But I guess if he didn't want to be bothered he wouldn't have answered the door in the first place, she thinks.
"I went to Iselia today," she says. "With Yggdrasill," she adds when he sends her a questioning look. "I saw the Chosen."
"I see," Yuan replies.
"She seems rather… young. I expected someone older. When I think of someone who is supposed to go on some extensive journey to regenerate her world, I don't really think of a sixteen-year-old girl," she explains.
"If it makes you feel any better, Tethe'alla's Chosen is a man. He's twenty-two," Yuan explains. "He's quite popular with the ladies, as well," he says with a smirk.
Skye rolls her eyes and chooses to ignore the latter comment. "That's better than sixteen at least… It just seems unfair to place such a heavy burden on the shoulders of a child," she says solemnly.
Yuan isn't really sure what to say, so he changes the subject. "You're leaving for Sylvarant soon, but there's an important thing that you haven't learned yet," he says.
Skye has really started to enjoy all the training that Yuan and Kratos have been giving her, and she's eager at the prospect of learning something new. "What is it?" Skye asks, forgetting about the topic of conversation that they were on previously as her eyes light up in excitement.
"How to use your enhanced angel senses," he explains. "Why don't I teach you now? You might need them while you're on the journey."
Skye accepts immediately. She spends much of the rest of the evening learning about her new abilities from Yuan before retiring to her room and preparing for her departure to Sylvarant, even though she knows they probably won't leave for a couple of days yet.
She's excited to meet the Chosen. She's also ready to become an actual useful member of Cruxis. She knows that she owes a lot to them for saving her life, and she's ready to begin repaying them.
She sleeps well that night.
-0-0-0-
A/N: Thanks for reading. If you like the story leave me a review! Constructive criticism is very welcome! :)