Episode 15: Into Chaos

13th of Ferventis

The sun itself hadn't yet completely risen from bed when the Heroes awoke. Laura, since she had the most recent watch, had already been awake for hours and she used that time to make breakfast for the group. As they began to eat, William noted, "It's been three months since Capital Lyoko fell, and I don't feel any closer to a conclusion now than I did when we knew nothing about the attack except that it would occur."

Yumi smiled. "At least we know our enemy, and we're ahead of Xana. We're doing well to save many lives."

"It just feels like we're on the wrong side of a losing battle." William said.

His statement hung in the air as not one of the heroes felt able to challenge its veracity. Xana knew they were still together and she was doing her best to kill them. What felt worse was that it seemed they were giving Xana the best path to each of the towns they visited. Still, at least those places were not caught unprepared. After a long silence, Laura took in a deep breath and smiled at Jeremie. In the friendliest tone she could manage, she said, "So, Jeremie, I was thinking that after we defeat Xana, you and I should get married!"

If the camp had been silent before, it was a vacuum then. Not even the fire dared to crackle. The group looked in anticipation to Jeremie, since this was a proposal no normal human would pass up, but everyone knew that Jeremie was in a relationship with Aelita. The Wise Man, however, was only aware of two pairs of eyes—Laura's and Aelita's. The proposal had come out of nowhere, and he could honestly say that he was unprepared.

Coughing, Jeremie covered his mouth until he caught his breath. "I'm sorry, what?"

Laura flipped her hair back, and she elaborated. "Well, once we have defeated the drow, we'll be war heroes, and we all recognize you as our leader. It is customary for war heroes to marry princesses anyway, so we may as well get used to the idea now."

Jeremie laughed nervously. "As much as I… appreciate the offer, Princess, I don't think even a title of war hero will endear me enough to the citizens of Lyoko for them to forget that I am the son of two scholars and not someone important like… I don't know; a nobleman or something."

"You're selling yourself short. Your heritage will be forgotten, and you'll be recognized as a hero of the people." Laura said cheerfully, and Aelita muttered something under her breath that sounded condescending. "Besides, you've shown yourself to be a great leader. Our union will be a strong one."

"That's… That's really nice of you, Laura, but I just don't think that it is a good idea to be discussing these things," Jeremie's face was turning bright red. "We should probably let our fathers deal with this."

"It's the age of the Guardian; pretty soon, no one will have their fathers arrange their marriages."

Ulrich snorted loudly. "Ha! That'll be the day."

Laura glared at him, and then returned her gaze to Jeremie, who had taken a sudden and overpowering interest in the fire. "Just promise me you'll think about it?" She suggested. The Wise Man grunted in a nonspecific tone and the Heroes started eating again, though the atmosphere was no longer the same.

When she felt it was safe, Aelita smiled weakly at Jeremie. "Don't forget that we agreed to go scouting together once we set up camp tonight, lethallin."

"I haven't forgotten." Jeremie replied, and he was happy to do it, especially since it meant getting away from Laura.

Dhaune flinched at the pool in front of her, having witnessed the entire scene. Even she had been shocked by Laura's proposal, but she was even more shocked to learn that Jeremie, who had never had trouble denying or deciding before, had been unable to reject her, even though it was clear he wanted to. "And he's supposed to be the Wise Man," She muttered with pity.

"What about the Wise Man?" Xana asked as she entered the war room. Dhaune jumped, nearly knocking over the pool of holy water. Xana sighed in frustration, fed up with the general. "This had better be good, Dhaune, or so help me…"

Flinching, Dhaune reported, "The Fair offered the Wise Man a proposal of marriage, even though she knows that the Wise Man is in a relationship with the Outcast." Xana seemed unimpressed, so she added, "As you know, the Fair and the Outcast do not get along at all. She's doing this to drive a wedge between the Outcast and the Wise Man, probably so she can take him for herself or just to hurt the Outcast, I don't know. But it can work to our advantage."

Xana smiled. "You are right. Have you been keeping a close eye on her dreams?"

"I have, Matron Mother." Dhaune nodded. "Though, her dreams are just faces of those she feels she has disappointed; those who according to all records and accounts are long since dead."

"So then, have her disappoint the Wise Man," Xana waved the general off and proceeded to leave the room. Dhaune looked back at the pool of holy water and sighed. Have Aelita disappoint Jeremie? How would she do that? She stared at the pool for many hours before an idea graced her mind.

The group had decided to stop early that night, as they were nowhere close to a town and none of them felt like walking. Ulrich and Aelita opened up the aravel, like they did every night, and the others began to set up their tents. Odd sat up and shouted, "Three men headed our way, heavy armor, swift pace!"

The teenagers dropped what they were doing and prepared to attack, but when the men approached, everyone but Aelita relaxed. Three magistrates had approached them. Ulrich placed a hand on her shoulder to ask her to calm down. "Travelers?" One of the magistrates asked his fellow knights. "Not many would brave the roads in a time where not even our king sends messengers."

"Capital Lyoko has fallen. We are spreading word to the towns across Lyoko so they can prepare themselves." Jeremie informed the magistrates.

A different magistrate held up a hand masked in a gauntlet. "It is of no matter. So long as you are in this region, the Knight Templar demands that we search your belongings for signs of blood magic."

Odd scoffed at the knights. "The only blood magic around here will be when those three finally synchronize." He joked as he pointed at the women in the group with his thumb. The girls stared at him with offended disbelief, but the boys were laughing as hard as they could. Even the magistrates let out a giggle.

The leader of the group of magistrates shook his head. "Nevertheless, it is demanded and we shall deliver. Now please, stand aside."

The teenagers had no choice but to obey, and the magistrates searched their belongings. They seemed to linger on the Codex, which Odd had so adamantly refused to part with, but they couldn't seem to conclude that it was connected to blood magic so they left it. The shortest magistrate thanked the teens for their cooperation, and Laura noticed from the corner of her eye that Aelita relaxed ever so slightly when they had gone.

The space between them was an abyss. Aelita stared over the cliffs, and Jeremie went between watching her and the sky as they walked. Once they had gotten about half a mile from camp, Jeremie broke the silence and asked, "This is about what happened with Laura, isn't it?"

Aelita furrowed her brows. "Oh, you think?" She asked rhetorically. "You should have said no, Jeremie."

"I don't know how they do it where you're from, Aelita, but in Lyoko, when a princess offers you a marriage proposal, you accept it." Jeremie explained.

"But you don't love her!" Aelita protested.

Jeremie laughed bitterly. "Since when has love had anything to do with marriage?"

"Surely your parents must've loved each other. Even a little?" She offered.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they were an exception. But for the most part, marriages are status-raising events. If Laura has chosen me, there's no way my father will deny her." He smiled at Aelita. "But even now it isn't a sure thing, Aelita. I'm not going to marry Laura."

"You should tell her that. She thinks that you're considering it."

"No, I don't think it's a good idea to tell her no. She is a princess, after all."

Aelita muttered something under her breath, and it sounded like 'shemlen.' Jeremie couldn't get mad at her for it—even he hated the idea of a loveless marriage.

They continued walking in an uncomfortable silence until they arrived at a pond near a waterfall. They'd passed it on the road and Aelita had wanted to check it out again, as something 'felt strange,' she had said. Now she examined the surroundings, especially the rocks. She called Jeremie over and showed him markings that had been carved in the stones, though the water had eroded most of them away, and then pointed to the strange rock formations at the top of the cliff. "In the days of Elvhenan, we had many places where we hid treasures from thieves. They were rumored to be sealed magically, and only magicians recognized by the Creator could open them. After the humans invaded, we hid these places better by masking them with water." She smiled at the human boy. "I'll bet that if we were to go for a dive, I could open the door. After all, I have earned my vallaslin, and now all I need to do is activate it."

"What do you think we'll find within?" Jeremie asked as Aelita approached the water.

Aelita pulled of her shirt and her skirt, keeping on only her smallclothes and her bandages. Jeremie felt his face heat up, and he covered his mouth with his hand. "I'm not sure, but it's bound to be beautiful and powerful," She smiled, and then laughed at his flustered expression. "You do swim, don't you? I don't think many mortals, human, elven or otherwise, swim with their clothes on. Am I wrong?" He shook his head, unable to speak due to his swelled tongue. She waited in the shallow end of the water, and in teasing impatience, asked, "Well? Are you coming?"

Jeremie struggled to find his voice. 'I—I can't strip while you're watching!" She rolled her eyes, but turned so her back was facing him. Jeremie removed his shirt and checked to see if Aelita was watching him.

She wasn't, but he noticed scars that decorated her shoulder blades. They were long and thin, though it seemed that most of them had healed over with new skin long ago. He concluded they must've been from her time at Arak-Muna, though he knew that he would never ask and probably spend a long time denying he'd seen the scars. He removed his boots and his pants, and he gently grabbed Aelita's shoulder, being careful not to get near the scars. She turned and smiled at him. "Come on, if we don't hurry, the others will get worried, and I don't know about you, but I'd rather not explain why we're both in our smallclothes."

He smiled back. "No, I don't think that would be a comfortable situation for anyone," Jeremie replied as he dove into the water, purposefully splashing the Outcast.

"Hey!" She screeched happily, and dove after him. Now that she was underwater, she could hear the ancient humming of the elven runes. Their stories said that, like the language that dragons used among each other, the elven runes had a deeper meaning than just communication and when applied by a master, could sing to anyone versed in the tongue. Aelita searched for the source of the sound, with Jeremie close behind her. It was near the bottom of the pond, and though the sun was setting now, it provided enough light for the elf to see the pad where she put her hand.

Her palm left a white imprint on the pad, and it flickered before the light spread through the archaic designs. The entire pond lit up with white light, startling the fish that inhabited it. The stone opened, but just barely enough for the teenagers to swim through. Jeremie grabbed Aelita's wrist and pointed for her to swim up. They broke the surface of the water, and caught their breath. "See? Didn't I tell you?" Aelita asked.

He laughed. "I never doubted you for a second." They treaded water until they came to a dry platform in the air pocket, where the duo pulled themselves out. "So, when do we find this treasure you promised, and how do you know that it is still here?"

"Well, the door was shut, there's that," Aelita said, and she stood, almost losing her balance and falling backwards into the water. "Although the treasure can't be too much farther, I doubt it has any real value to anyone other than the People."

"Still, this is a good chance to learn something." The Wise Man said, and they walked into the darkness. Aelita pushed on a granite slab, which became indented and slid out of the way at her touch. Inside there was a brightly lit room filled with many items, all of elven make. Jeremie spotted a mirror twice the size of any he'd ever seen before, a pile of golden coins carved with the profile of an elf in a crown, a staff that was carved out of ebony and had a mithril blade and horsehair tuft at the end, and the skeleton of a person who had died in his armor and with his blade. "Gods above. This man died to protect these things," Jeremie said as he approached the skeleton.

Aelita nodded sadly. "Many died here, in case the shemlen broke our defenses and tried to steal our artifacts. The ultimate humiliation would have been to have died at the hands of something you created." She explained. She approached the skeleton and sang the elven dirge for him out of respect for his sacrifice.

Jeremie stood and searched the room. "Do you know what any of these things are?" He asked.

"Some of them, yes. The mirror is called an Eluvian. Every clan has one, and a person who maintains it." She cringed. "You don't want to be around a broken Eluvian. Actually, you'd better avoid that one, just in case it's passed its use-by date. Everything else here, I don't know. I've never heard of these things. Well, except the coins, but those are self-explanatory."

The teenagers rummaged through the old items. Jeremie found a gauntlet that opened into a sword, which he slid on his arm to get a feel for. Oddly, it added no weight to his arm, and he maintained some level of dexterity. "The elves seemed really advanced, contrary to our stories. The humans say that your people were savages."

Aelita didn't even bother to face him. "They still say that." She said flatly. She pulled a mask of a rabbit out of the pile. It was painted black with white and red designs on the middle of the head and around the mouth. "Doesn't this make you think of Yumi? This design looks almost Nihonjin in origin. I wonder if we borrowed the design from Nippon?" Aelita placed the mask on her face, but before she even got a chance to tie the strings, she'd vanished into thin air. Jeremie jumped, and Aelita reappeared, the mask now away from her face. They looked at each other for a moment before Aelita grinned. "That was awesome."

Dhaune had watched Jeremie and Aelita dive into the pond, but she hadn't bothered to investigate further into what they were doing. Instead, Xana's order floated in her mind. She scanned the area, searching for a way to drive a wedge between them.

Constructs were not an option. Dhaune wanted to prove to Xana that she could follow orders and not waste resources doing it. She could summon demons, but she couldn't imagine how that would drive them apart, and Aelita could sense them anyway. She discovered a bandit camp as she scanned the area, and an idea popped into her head. Aelita was a glass canon, and after three months on the road, Jeremie was still only slightly better at combat than he had been, and could easily be taken down. Bandits were sleazy people and they probably wouldn't kill Aelita, but they would kill Jeremie if they had the chance. Dhaune summoned a spell, which affected the bandits even though they were nowhere close to her. She showed them images of their targets, and she waited eagerly as they stood.

Jeremie and Aelita were headed back towards camp, and while they walked much closer now, they were still separated because of Laura. Aelita carried the mask while Jeremie carried the gauntlet and a book he insisted she enchant for him so he could take it out of the cave without the ink running. "Maybe with your help, we can translate these pages. Who knows? You may learn about your culture." The Wise Man suggested as he leafed through the pages. It consisted mostly of runes, though it also contained detailed pictures of monsters and what he could only assume were religious images.

Aelita mused aloud. "I wonder if it contains the origin of the lobster," When Jeremie seemed confused, she said, "My hahren Edna always hated lobster. She said that when the Creator designed the lobster, he decreed that it came out wrong, and had his guide Falon'din try it. When Falon'din decreed it a monstrosity, he sent it to the Destructor, who also hated it, and had her guide, Elgar'nan, try it. Well, Elgar'nan didn't like it either, so the Destructor said, 'okay, we'll put this at the bottom of the ocean where nobody will find it'." She held her head and laughed. "I don't know if that's true, but did I ever believe it."

Jeremie laughed too. "Leave it to the humans to find it and eat it, huh?"

They laughed, but they fell silent when they heard something in the thicket. Jeremie stepped in front of Aelita as a dozen bandits emerged from the thicket. "Well, well, well. What have we here?" The bandit dressed in looted iron armor asked, as he approached the teens. Jeremie drew his sword. "Feisty. This will be fun." The bandit laughed.

Jeremie and Aelita dropped the items they carried to prepare for the fight. Jeremie prepared his shield, and Aelita summoned ice between her hands. The bandits prepared their weapons, which ranged anywhere from morning stars to broadswords. Outnumbered six to one, Jeremie tried to figure out a way to avoid a conflict, or at least survive. The only option seemed to be for him to play defense while Aelita moved further away to take on more opponents. He communicated this to Aelita telepathically, and she nodded.

Aelita burst into butterflies and moved further away, and Jeremie sliced at the bandit leader to gain their attention. He was soon swarmed by the bandits, and he struggled to keep up with their repeated strikes. Aelita froze three of the bandits in a column of ice, and some of their adversaries turned to her. "Get 'er hands! I hear they can't do no spells with no hands!" One of them shouted.

"No! I won't let you touch her!" Jeremie shouted, slicing at the bandit's knees, bringing him down so Jeremie could slice at his neck. This was a different feeling than the one he had experienced in Narza—he hoped he wasn't becoming indifferent to death. One of the bandits snuck up behind Jeremie and grabbed him, and before he even had time to scream, his throat had been slit, and the bandit pushed him down.

"Jeremie! No!" Aelita shouted, and suddenly he was entombed in an earthen pyramid. Aelita appeared, which he assumed by magic. She looked at him for a mere second before she placed her hand on his bleeding throat. A red light filled the pyramid, which had started spewing dust as the bandits tried to break in. Jeremie's neck and spine were filled with a burning pain, and he tried to scream. "Calm down! I'm only trying to save you!" Aelita said urgently, and soon, the light faded. Jeremie sat up and held his hand to his neck, which had healed over. Aelita summoned the mask that she'd found in the cave and placed it on his face. "Stay hidden. I'll finish them off."

Aelita sank into the ground as another bandit strike created a crack large enough for Jeremie to see through. He peered through it, unconvinced that he'd witnessed what he had just seen. Aelita had said that when she attempted healing spells, something went wrong. Perhaps that meant that they were painful, unlike the warm tingle of a typical spell?

Outside, Aelita sent boulders at three of the bandits, leaving five remaining. She sent a wall of ice after two of them, but they jumped out of the way. The bandit leader snuck up behind the Outcast, and Jeremie shouted in his mind for her to watch behind her. She spun around, and Jeremie could only watch in horror as the bandit plunged his sword into her gut. The Wise Man pounded his fists against the stones, screaming her name, but Aelita simply started to laugh.

From the center of her chest, Erahalam appeared blade first, and Aelita was cloaked in an aura of fire. The blade ran through the bandit leader's chest, and she pushed against it to draw the rest of the staff out. The Outcast yanked the blade from the bandit's chest, and she slammed Murray the Skull against his head. She stomped on his neck, sending him up in flames. "Witch! Witch!" The remaining bandits shouted in unison, and they swarmed her. The first one who got near enough to touch her had no time to strike, as she manipulated the earth to stand on eye-level with him. She grabbed his forehead, and within seconds he was screaming. His blood vessels grew red hot, and he fell, his blood having melted his insides like magma. Aelita immediately manipulated the blood of one of the three living bandits and forced him to attack another. She focused on the third and froze his blood.

When the bandit she'd manipulated killed his comrade, Aelita released him from her spell and sheathed Erahalam, as if giving him a chance to run. He charged her, and she reached forward and grabbed air. A black, demonic hand severed the Veil and snatched the bandit. She repeated the motion, and a second hand grabbed him. She furrowed her brows as if she were struggling to move her hands, and the bandit screeched. The hands clamped him tighter and ripped him into two pieces.

Aelita fell to her knees, clutching her still bleeding stomach. She closed the wound, clearly in pain, and the fiery aura faded. She was breathing heavily, though she managed to collapse the stone prison that had kept the Wise Man from harm. Jeremie, removing the mask, was without words at the sight before him. Aelita—sweet, innocent Aelita, the girl he'd protected and defended since Laura had first raised her suspicions—had not only used blood magic, but had summoned a demon. "By the gods, she was right," Jeremie breathed, his eyes focused on the stranger before him.

"Jeremie, please," Aelita managed through her pains. "You have to listen to me. I can explain everything!" She pleaded.

Jeremie stood and walked over to her, but he didn't offer to help her stand. "What is there to explain, Aelita?! You're a witch!"

She glared at him, her eyes flashing with a hundred different emotions. "I am not a witch!" She spat, and she pushed herself off the ground. "I am a blood magician, yes, but you have to listen to me!"

"No, why should I listen to you now, after you've lied to me for months about who you are?" Jeremie demanded.

"I never lied to you!" She said defensively. "I… just omitted the truth."

"Which is as bad as lying!" He shouted. He narrowed his eyes, and his arms began to shake. "I defended you, over and over, and you never spoke up, and you never said anything. Gods, Aelita how long were you planning on keeping this a secret?!"

"I was kind of hoping it would just… go away."

"The truth does not just 'go away'!"

Aelita looked at him with a half-hearted smile. "I didn't say it was a good plan!" When his face didn't change, she turned her attention to her feet. Then, she looked back at him, determination on her face. "I may have turned to a form of magic that the shemlen consider evil, but if I hadn't, we'd both have been dead a long time ago!"

Jeremie shook his head. "And that makes everything better?" He shouted. "Aelita, if the magistrates find out, they'll hunt us until the end of our days, and as a citizen of Lyoko, it is my duty to tell them."

Aelita suddenly grabbed his hands. "Please, for the love of the Creator, do not tell the magistrates!" She begged. "You have no idea what they'll do to me! Please, don't turn me in!"

He snatched his hands away. "Then what do you expect me to do, Aelita? I can't just ignore this!"

Aelita took his hands again and guided them to his sword. She wrapped his fingers around it, and she took a few steps back so her neck was at the tip of the blade. "If you cannot allow me to walk free, then kill me where I stand. I would rather die by your hands than live in the shadow of your betrayal."

Jeremie shook, and Aelita closed her eyes and looked to the ground, as if she'd known she would die this way for a long time. Jeremie angrily threw the sword on the ground, and he spun so his back faced her. She looked up, confused. "Go away!" He ordered, unable to look at her. "Go away and don't come back! I don't ever want to see you again!" Aelita reached out to grab his shoulder, but he yanked it away. "I said, go away!"

Aelita sighed. "Ma nuvenin," She whispered. She turned and ran in the opposite direction of camp, and she shifted her form into one of a fox before she disappeared into the wilderness.

When he was sure she had gone, he turned. The road was empty; spare the remains of the bandits. He collected the things they'd gathered in the cave, and he made his way back to camp. He tossed the mask to Yumi. "Aelita wanted to give this to you. She said that it reminded her of you." He explained as she examined it. "It's enchanted. It can make you invisible."

Yumi smiled. "That's really cool,"

William shifted. "Where is Aelita, anyway? Weren't the two of you together?"

Jeremie took a deep breath. "Aelita is a blood magician. I sent her away."

Laura jumped up and celebrated. "Ha! I told you!" She blushed and she looked down at her feet. "I mean, you should have listened to me."

Ulrich glared at the Wise Man. "Let me get this straight. You let Odd stay, even though he's a werewolf, but you force Aelita to go away just because she's a blood magician?" He stood, anger written on his face. "Who cares if she's a blood magician? Aelita is a Hero, and she's our friend! Did you even ask her why she did it?"

"I didn't have to ask, Ulrich!" Jeremie said adamantly. "There is no excuse for blood magic."

He groaned, and he tore at his hair. "Ah! You're such a dick!" Ulrich shouted.

Laura smiled at Jeremie. "I, for one, am glad that you saw reason and sent the knife ear away. She wasn't causing anything but trouble."

Jeremie didn't know if he agreed. He looked up at Laura and asked, "Is your proposal of marriage still open?"

Everyone, including Laura, was startled by Jeremie's change of heart. Odd laughed nervously and said, "Uh, Belpois? Even I don't move on that fast."

Jeremie glared at the Scout then looked back to Laura without a hint of amusement on his face. Instead his expression was one of cold stone and seriousness. "I'm afraid I don't really have anything to give you, though the next time we go into a town, I promise that I'll buy you a ring."

Laura was stunned, but she smiled and said, "Yes, of course!" She moved from one side of the fire to the other to sit next to the Wise Man, who turned his eyes to the leaves of the trees. It had seemed that only this morning the leaves had been lush green, though now, the leaves were turning yellow. Laura smiled at him and said, "It's going to be a lovely autumn this year, I can feel it."

—SUMMER ENDS—