So the events of last chapter and this chapter are, truly and honestly, the reason I had the random month long break. There were just so many possibilities I had to sort through to figure out which ones would get the results I wanted. This chapter, for example, I had three different ideas for what I could do with Belius, two different ideas for how I'd manage Chase, two different ideas for what to do with Letha's shifting position in this world, and something I wasn't sure if I'd do now or a bit later. And, I assure you, all these ideas were evil and twisted.
...REALLY GLAD YOU GUYS DON'T KNOW WHERE I LIVE.
Yeah, still have the urge to run away and hide anyway.
Angelic:
We all use cliffhangers because the good stuff always demands a chapter break in order to leave the biggest impact possible. And it's funny. Like throwing fakes/mimics at an unsuspecting person.
Yup. Then it would be Vert. A less obvious name to go for would have been Midori, but why not bludgeon everyone who has basic knowledge of French over the head with it? At least I didn't name her Grune!
Powerless bystander:
Woot! Awesomesauce and swag! What fanfic writing ghostly air elemental could possibly want more?
Chase's appearance was such a delight to put in because he was both random and yet natural to the scene to me (I see a trope reference in your review!), and deserves the title "Child of the Earth" just as much as Letha does. And all the other twists and almost reveals I'm teasing you guys with! So shameless of me!
Verte is the new Nevi! Nevi does not like people trying to steal his spotlight! This. Means. WAR. ;) Or something like that. Someday the fairies will make sense.
x x x
Chapter 53: What Has Changed
x x x
"Estelle!"
"Uwaah!"
"What's goin' on?"
Shocked and angry voices were all yelling at once, exclaiming in confusion. I shut them out, intent on Estelle and only Estelle.
"Le-Letha?" the princess breathed, wavering, uncertain...betrayed. Blue-green eyes fell from mine to stare unbelieving at the point of the sword threatening her. Then a katana flashed before me, sweeping Oberon from my grip to tumble through the air and land uselessly far from my reach. My hand stung.
Yuri grabbed Estelle by the upper arm and pulled her back behind him, glaring at me with accusing eyes. "What the hell are you thinking?" he demanded. "Lying is one thing, but this is-"
"Yuri, wait!" Estelle stopped the swordsman's harangue while watching me with those wide eyes. Seeing the hurt in them made guilt stab through my gut. It was almost a good thing that my exhaustion was catching up with me, making my vision a bit fuzzy. Breathing was getting harder too, the ache of a mild bout of aer sickness (an unfortunate side effect of the Water Whip? It required more aer the longer I used it...) settling in with the assortment of injuries I'd picked up against Tison.
Dammit... What am I doing? Yuri could bitch slap me around the Coliseum with one hand behind his back right now. And that's if I even wanted to hurt them. I don't!
"Letha," the princess stepped forward again. I jerked my body into a half-hearted aikido homni, hands feeling heavy as they hovered in midair. "Please! I have to help her!"
"Please," I begged in return, "Don't make me do this. Just...please believe me, don't do it..." She's almost in my range, but I swear, if I'm forced to hurt her in anyway I'll...I'll...
She took another step forward, and I tensed involuntarily. "Are you...crying?"
Surprised, I touched the fingers of my left hand to my face, "I'm not..." But on the edge of my eyes I felt dampness. Pulling my hand away, I stared at my damp finger tips. And then at the fingerless glove I wore to cover the fairy's mark. A startling hatred for the gloves I wore welled up inside me so that I wanted to rip them off and set fire to them.
"Judy!" Yuri exclaimed, breaking my thoughts away from my sudden loathing for a few scraps of leather.
Not alarmed, I didn't look to see who it was when I sensed the presence of a person joining me in my stand. "So you already knew," Judith's voice was soft but clear at my side.
"Same to you," I responded unnecessarily. It was a simple confirmation of a secretly shared confidence. Now I looked over at her, standing with her halberd held in front of her. In front of us. Not threatening, but steadfast and protective. "And about me too, right?"
Her serene smile was answer enough before she even said, "Oh, so I was found out?"
"What are you two going on about?" Rita snapped.
Yuri looked highly ticked at us both, "Are you two going to explain yourselves, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?" I stared solemnly back at him, feeling as if a shroud had settled around me that set everything at a distance. I was tired, physically and emotionally, and all I could feel was resignation.
"If Estelle tries to heal Belius right now, she'll only kill her," I said flatly. Curiously, it was with detachment that I watched Estelle's eyes widen again in horror, watched her white gloved hands cover her mouth and her gasp, watched them clasp around each other as if in desperate prayer. Callously, I continued, "Poison and medicine go hand in hand, two sides of one whole. What can save one life will steal another."
"Poison...?" Estelle whispered, voice breaking. And then the emotions that had been strangely absent crashed down on me in a rush. How could I have said that to her? That is the singularly worst thing I could possibly say!
But it couldn't be unsaid. There was no reset button, no last save point one could go back to in order to pick the other option, the other response, the other path.
Life is a bitch.
Since I couldn't take it back, and any attempt to soften my words would sound like empty excuses, I turned instead to Belius. She looked terrible with that hole in her humanoid torso, but with gritted teeth and half shut eyes was bearing with it. The fact that she was trying to push herself upright again made me feel like a wimp to be complaining, even if only to myself, about my comparatively minor grievances.
Anxious, I begged her, "Oh! Don't move yet, you'll make it worse!" I frantically tried to assess how bad the damage really was. With the Entelexeia's physical make up was there even anything vital in the upper body? Or were the organs divided between the upper torso and lower centaurian body? Where were things like the kidneys located? Or her heart? Hell, she could have two hearts for all I knew!
"Please, Estelle," Judith pleaded from behind me, "You're not a poison, but you have to understand!"
"You both knew?" Yuri said slowly. It felt like my heart had dropped into my stomach and dragged it down somewhere around my feet. I tried to ignore that while ransacking the pockets of my vest and pants to dig up all the gels I had left. "Why didn't you say anything before?"
"...It wasn't my place to say," Judith said regretfully. "Even if it was, I simply don't have all the answers Estelle needs."
I almost didn't answer at all. But as I tried to urge a few apple gels on Belius, her eyes opened and I felt caught in their deep pools once again. There was a haze of pain over those pools, but they still filled me with awe at the age and wisdom they held. "Child..." her voice had a gurgling wetness to it, which I knew enough to recognize as a really bad sign. I nodded, a barely perceptible motion. Satisfied, her eyes closed partway again as the Duce carefully picked the gels from my hands with her teeth and swallowed them.
"Estelle," I called back, trying to keep my voice gentle and unaccusing. It wouldn't make up for before, but it was something. "Would you come here?"
"But I..."
"First you're keeping Estelle away, now you want her to come?" Rita broke in. "What gives you the right to decide?"
Belius had taken the last of my gels and looked better (as in, not about to kick the bucket), so with a deep breath to steel my nerves I faced everyone again. Judith looked less battle ready, halberd vertically straight with the butt end braced against the ground, but she still served as a barrier between us and the others.
"I have no right," I admitted, "Only, I don't want her to make a mistake in her ignorance that will haunt her for life."
The next question/accusation was easily predicted, and sure enough it came from Raven. "If that's true, why didn' ya say somethin' 'bout it sooner?"
"I..." my nerve was failing me as my guilty feelings gave me another pang of conscience. "I'm sorry..."
There was the sound of something large and heavy shifting around, and I became aware that behind me Belius had struggled to her feet successfully. Although the labored panting betrayed the effort it took on her part. "Rarely are secrets...an easy burden...to share." Concerned, I was turning back to her again when I paused, frowning at a sound that was gradually getting louder. And closer.
It sounds...like metal on metal? But not like a fight, too regular and...and rhythmic for that... I glanced around for Chase. He wasn't where I'd left him but near the edge of the arena. It looked like he had dragged Clint and Tison (Judith: one, Surfer Accent: zero) off to the side and was in a full blown argument with Nan. Near them and head hanging was a young man who I would stand to reason as being Harry, the Don's grandson. Obviously, they weren't the cause of the sound that was growing louder yet.
It sounds familiar... Crap! It's-! That was the precise moment when Imperial Knights began streaming into the coliseum arena from every entrance. "Merde," I muttered, "This probably won't be pretty..." A small group made a beeline for Chase and the Hunting Blades, saying something to him just out of my range of hearing. Nothing good, judging by the way my fellow Earthling blanched. And Nan's voice rose in a sharp retort.
And more were coming towards us. Shock surged through me when I saw who was leading them. But-! It's supposed to be Sodia! The orange haired lieutenant, a second glance revealed, was part of the group giving Chase a hard time.
"More humans trying to have their way with my city..." Belius coughed. Then, mustering her reserves of energy, she reared up tall and bellowed, "Come! Face me if you dare!" It was such a roar that the words were barely distinguishable.
"Wait!" I tried to stop her. My efforts were in vain, she leaped and covered half the ground between us and the advancing knights in a single bound. The blond at the head of the knights halted them with a short command, and to my horror I could feel the aer on the edge of my senses moving towards him as he chanted. "O divine spear-"
"Flynn!" Yuri and Estelle both shouted, the princess adding, "Don't!" as she recognized the spell.
It didn't do any good. "-run my enemy through! Holy Lance!"
Spears of light fell from the sky, stabbing deep into the sandy pit and anything unfortunate enough to have been in their path. Including Belius, too weak to completely escape the spell's area of effect. No less than three of the lances struck through her. The Duce screamed her agony, and I could swear my heart stopped.
"No!" Judith was the first to run past me, on her heels was Natz, Estelle, Yuri and Repede. Karol, Rita and Raven brought up the rear in that order. I stayed rooted where I stood, one hand raised in a useless gesture. Of what? What could I have possibly done? Something! There must have been something!
"Lady Estellise, please stay back! It's dangerous!" Flynn cautioned fearfully as the princess and company approached. His shoulders were rising up and down as he breathed harder than normal, a sign of how the spell had strained his limits.
"Damn it, Flynn," Yuri seethed at the blond captain. He'd probably have punched his old friend if he'd been close enough. "This isn't some monster, she's the Duce of Palestralle!"
The confusion on Flynn's face... Judith and Estelle had both fallen on their knees next to Belius, the princess wringing her hands as for the first time she could not use her unique gift to save someone before her. And Natz was very vocally crying out, "Duce! No!" in such a bereaved tone... Comprehension and horror were dawning on Flynn.
"I-I was told that a great monster was endangering the Princess! I never thought-!"
Yuri growled, "Yeah, well maybe you should have!"
As a whole, the group was a lot closer than they had been before. Muzzily I realized I'd been walking towards them, my footsteps listlessly slow. Belius had begun to radiate a bright light, as if she'd become the center of a new star. Beside her Estelle was openly crying, apologizing over and over. "I'm-I'm sorry...If only I could do something!"
Belius raised a weak hand to brush lightly at the weeping princess' cheek. "Worry...not... The fault is not yours...or even yours..." she looked over the heads of those mourning her to the shell shocked Flynn. "You believed you were doing...what was best. Never lose your kind natures...or your desires...to protect others..."
By that time I had rejoined the group, standing in the haphazard semicircle around the Duce's head where it lay limply on the sand. The sands had absorbed enough blood to appear black in the night, and the proud Entelexeia's warm orange fur was a rusting red and brown. Feeling sick from the sight, I looked instead at her vulpine face, her deep black eyes distant. I didn't think she could even see us anymore, but somehow she knew that I was there.
"Child of the Earth...I regret that I...was of no help to you..." Her voice gave out.
"What?" Karol's voice practically cracked.
"Letha is...?" Estelle whispered wonderingly.
And Rita caught that as well, but seemed more annoyed by this new mystery, "What the heck is a Child of the Earth anyway?"
"Belius!" Judith begged, but with little hope, "Please hold on!"
A smacking sound from Yuri's position, suggesting he'd punched a fist into a hand or something similar. "Dammit!"
The babble of noise around me seemed trivial and unimportant. I just stood by Belius, bathed in the light of her death, feeling empty. I should have been the one apologizing to her! I failed to protect her when I'd vowed to keep her alive! But I couldn't find the words to tell her how sorry I was.
Not in my own words. Needing some way to express my grief, I softly sang:
"Lacrimosa dies illa
Qua resurget ex favilla
Judicandus homo reus
Huic ergo parce, Deus:
Pie Jesu Domine"
It wasn't beautiful, I didn't have the breath for the longer notes or the strength of voice to keep it even and clear. But there was plenty of that sorrowful emotion that had so touched me when I first heard it.
Belius' light had become a blinding brilliance that prevented me from seeing anything else. Her voice, from somewhere inside the light, murmured Natz's name. And then that light compacted in on itself until it was simply gone. Or nearly gone, what remained was a shining blue crystal. It was beautiful. I wished I had never seen it.
Still feeling too...too full of my emotions, I sang again. And, because I had indeed looked up the words and memorized one of the translations, I sang it in English.
"Tearful will be that day
on which he'll rise again from the ashes.
The guilty man waits for judgement,
so have mercy on him, O God;
compassionate Lord Jesus."
Noises and voices around me. None of them immediately registering in my numbed mind, the time between hearing and comprehension lagging. Wasn't Belius supposed to speak one more? Just once more, to request her apatheia be taken to Don Whitehorse?
Rita had exclaimed in shock, "It's...like from the ghost ship...?"
"An apatheia?" Karol realized.
There was no voice from the crystal. Unhappily, I bent over and picked it up. My breath hitched as I suppressed a hiss of startled reaction. The apatheia tingled and stung against my fingers, but once I grew used to the sensation it felt oddly warm in my hands. Sadly I turned and presented the crystal cradled in my arms. "Here..." I held it out to Estelle. "The cyano ciel. Take care of her."
"Oh..." she nearly sobbed as she accepted the crystal from me. Heedless of the blood and sand getting on her dress, she sank to her knees and held the apatheia close.
Raven sighed, "So this must've been what Harry meant."
"This..." Flynn wore an expression not unlike a lost child, an impression reinforced by him objecting, like a child bewailing an overlooked rule he had broken by accident, "But I was told...!"
"You made a mistake," Yuri told him gravely and the captain flinched. "What're you going to do about it?"
Flynn grimaced, "I..."
"Captain!" Sodia's shout from the sidelines (where Chase actually had a couple of knights hanging onto his arms, keeping him in place) snapped Flynn from his daze.
The blond shook his head and the set of his mouth firmed. "Lady Estellise, Yuri, hand over the stone," he commanded in a tone that was nearly barren of emotion.
"Are you kidding me?" Yuri said with disbelief. "Is this what the Knights are after? Dammit, Flynn, open your eyes and see what's wrong with this picture!"
"I have my orders," Flynn responded resolutely.
"Hey," Raven muttered in a low voice so that Flynn hopefully wouldn't hear. "If none of ya feel like windin' up in chains, we should scram right about now."
Our swordsman, however, wasn't listening. He wasn't done with Flynn yet. "Maybe you're carrying out your 'duty,' but you can't just go around doing everything by force. Didn't you join the Knights to change things like that?"
"We should really be trying to leave right now..." I whispered. But Yuri wasn't listening, Rita was protesting that we hadn't done anything wrong (despite Raven and Judith agreeing that it would be best to get out now), and Estelle was hugging the apatheia to her chest while weeping silent tears with a helpless Karol hovering at her side. And the Ace kept peering back over his shoulder at where Nan was fuming at her knight guards.
My head sank down as I wrapped my arms around each other. Hasn't anything changed? It's different, but it's the same!
"How's this any different from what I've come to expect from the empire?" Yuri ruthlessly demanded. "Are you gonna follow Ragou and Cumore's examples?"
Dropping those names backfired. Unsurprisingly. Flynn's eyes grew a little colder, "If I did, would you just kill me as well?" Angrily, he pressed on, "Would you do away with me like you did Ragou and Cumore?"
"Huh?" Karol blinked and looked to Yuri in confusion. "...What does he..."
And our swordsman, in the heat of the moment, started to say, "If you go and become a villain-"
My brain snapped. My frayed and tattered nerves together with my overclocked emotions grabbed my common sense by the neck and chucked it out the window. It's the only way I can explain it. "Ragou and Cumore?" I laughed bitterly. "Should doublecheck the names on your list. Yuri didn't kill Cumore."
"What are you saying?" Estelle had been torn away from her grief over Belius' death, at least part way, by the horrible revelations.
I smirked at Yuri and Flynn, "What about another name, huh? Garista." Both men froze, staring at me with faces gone pale. It's possible Yuri was even more strongly affected, since as far as he knew I should never have had the opportunity to hear that name before. Hell, I tried not to even think about it if I could help it. Knowing the events of First Strike would do nothing but get me in trouble. The twisted smile slipped away from my face, "The two of you share that one, don't you?"
"Garista...? I know that name," Rita said slowly, "I thought I'd heard he died in a blastia explosion... An accident!" There was some shouting from the knights, Sodia barking commands.
"And while we're on the subject of names and duty," I was taking a perverse enjoyment from this, "what about one Nylen Fedrok, hmm?" Yuri's right hand gripped the blastia on his left wrist. Subconscious reaction, most likely. "He followed orders, and lost his family. You don't stop regretting that." Both men were paling as I mercilessly dug into their shared history. "Then he went and disobeyed Alexei's orders, and, well, you should know as well as anyone how that turned out. But I'd dare say he had no regrets at the end."
"How do you..." dark eyes stared at me with uncertainty...and maybe fear. If Yuri Lowell could ever be afraid of someone, it might be me. Finally, it had finally been really hammered home that he didn't know who I was under the lies. And I knew more about him than I should.
Flynn swallowed and attempted to regain his composure. "...I never thought you'd tell anyone about that," his voice managed to stay level as he addressed that to Yuri. Most logical assumption for him to make. Meanwhile the knights were still in a uproar over something, not that I cared what.
"Idiot," I scoffed, though I didn't entirely mean it. But then again, I did. Dammit, Flynn was just on a streak of idiocy since setting up that blockade! "No one told me. No one needed to tell me. I can think for myself! And how about you, aren't you bright enough to do that?" My hands spread apart, palms upturned, in a nearly subconscious questioning gesture, "Good God, man, did you forget? When Nylen sent you to ask for reinforcements in Shizontania? And Alexei just told you to wait!"
"Enough..." the blond muttered.
"Captain!" Sodia called urgently, trying to get his attention.
"Hell, Flynn, isn't it obvious which would be more important? Protecting a town or attending a ceremony? Shouldn't it be obvious that orders aren't always right?"
"Enough!" he shouted at me.
"And let me tell you something!" I went on recklessly, "Your Commandant Alexei is-"
Something brown blurred in my peripheral vision, and before I realized what was happening a hand was clamped across my mouth.
"Christ, Letha, and here I thought you were being stubborn about not saying anything!" Chase's voice came lightly from somewhere next to my ear. I tried to squirm out of his grip, but another arm wrapped around me and partially pinned my arms down as he started pulling me back. "You guys really need to get out of here," he said more loudly, to Brave Vesperia as a whole. "Keep dragging your feet and there won't be a way out of town."
"R-right!" Karol shook off his astonishment. Somehow, Chase's appearance and calm warning was enough jolt to kick them into motion again. Yuri's jaw clenched as he reached over to Estelle, taking her by the arm to help her up onto her feet. And then Chase had me turned around towards the exit and started pushing me out ahead of him.
On a good day, I'd shake off Chase and feed him some dirt. But I'd been running on fumes and my second wind was wearing out. I let him half guide me, half shove me down the corridors.
"Why?" I sniffed, "I tried so hard. And you even came in with your plan As and Bs... So why hasn't anything changed?"
"Sorry..." the pressure of his hands against my back eased up a bit, and in that small space of time Yuri ran past us with Estelle in tow, holding her by the hand and wrist to keep her going. She was still clutching the apatheia to her. "Sometimes things...don't change the way you want them to. But at least now Estelle doesn't have someone's death on her hands."
That's right. That's different. Estelle's power didn't cause Belius to die. She isn't responsible. "But will she see it that way?" I wondered aloud.
x x x
Belius' Death
Karol: Belius... How could something like this happen...?
Yuri: There was still so much we needed to ask...
Karol: ...Yeah. Think of all the knowledge that only an Entelexeia would have.
Yuri: Not to mention her perspective as the Duce of Palestralle. Why couldn't we have met her sooner...?
Karol: Yuri...
Can't Put it Off
Yuri: You two care to explain what all that was about earlier? You sure know a lot about us for people from another world.
Letha: Damn...I really went and blabbed all over the place...
Chase: I'll say. I didn't think you had it in you.
Letha: ...
Chase: Yeah, now isn't a good time for this. We'll talk about it on that ship of yours.
Yuri: Damned right we'll talk. Don't think I'll forget about it.
x x x
There were knights posted all around the hallways of the coliseum. With the element of surprise on their side, they were successfully rounding up all the Palestralle members and restricting the movements of ordinary citizens. The citizens were anything ranging from frightened and meek to pissed off and rebellious. Guild members were just pissed off and rebellious. But the knights allowed no opportunity for them to organize a resistance. And with the news of Belius' passing already filtering through the city the resulting shock and grief of her people sowed confusion.
"Damn, they've blocked up this hall too," Yuri cursed. We'd stopped running almost immediately once we'd outdistanced Flynn's shouting and Sodia trying to run us down (and holy crap, how persistent she is when Flynn never gives her an order to stop!). Rushing headlong down the halls would have guaranteed the attention of all the knights on us, so for the time being we were trying to sneak through the halls unnoticed.
Cl-clang!
Crash!
I winced at the noise as Yuri and Judith signaled the all clear and made a mental ammendment to that thought. Unnoticed, and ambushing smaller knots of unsuspecting knights that won't be missed right away. Well, what good was being unnoticed if we didn't get through fast enough to escape the city?
"The route to the harbor seems to be the least guarded," Judith observed as she detached the two halves of her halberd and hooked them across her back, "At this point the Fiertia may be our best option."
Karol wasn't entirely confident with our hasty escape plan. "What'll we do if they've blocked the harbor off?"
"Not like we can go back to the Weasand of Cados at this point, so what else?" Rita flicked a finger so an ember of fire shot out, "Our best bet is to break through out of the harbor!"
The swordsman nodded, "Exactly," and gave the whole group an assessing once over. Perhaps I was looking for ill omens that weren't there, but he seemed to avoid looking directly at me where I stood slightly apart from the others. Most of the others. Judith didn't mind standing by me. Chase, on the other hand, I'd made a point of putting distance between us. "Once we're out of here we can talk about what to do next. And we're definitely gonna need to talk," a few furtive glances towards Judith and me from Karol and Estelle, and openly hostile glare on Rita's part.
The aggressiveness dissolved as the mage blinked and looked around again. "Hey, where's the old man...?"
Yuri just shrugged it off, "If it's him, he'll turn up soon enough."
Judith smiled and added, "He's the sort of guy who shows up as soon as you start to feel relieved he's gone," to lighten the mood.
Maybe it worked a little. Rita rolled her eyes and Chase made a sound suspiciously like an amused snort. I just closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall I'd put my back to. It felt good to rest there, if even for just a moment or two...
"Letha?" I peeled my eyes open and found the princess standing before me. She still had the cyano ciel in a protective, almost motherly hold. Seeing me watching her wordlessly, Estelle reached out with one hand while the other continued to cradle the apatheia, "You're hurt..." But she stopped and pulled her hand back abruptly as if she'd been shocked, looking down and away uncertainly. "I'm-I'm sorry, I forgot..."
I frowned at the timid expression on her face. Pushing off from the wall so that I was standing properly, I reached up with both arms and clapped my hands to either side of her head. She squeaked in surprise (such a funny sound that normally I would have had to fight not to laugh at) and then I knocked my forehead against hers. Not hard, oh no, it was more of a light bump than a headbutt. We were the same height, so doing this brought us eye to eye and blocked everything else from her field of view.
"Listen to me now," I held her eyes with my brown ones, staring straight into them. "I may have been going on about medicine and poison before, but that hardly means I think you're dangerous. Hell, you're a top candidate for 'least threatening person I know'. You simply have an ability, a tool, that's rarer than most. What I've been trying to say is that you need to take responsibility for the tools you have at your disposal and learn when and how it's best to use them."
"But-before-" she stammered, "With your sword-!"
I had to roll my eyes at myself at that, "Yeah, that was pretty drastic of me. I'm sorry for scaring you like that, but I was kind of at the end of my rope." Still was, for that matter. I would kill for a chance to crawl into a bed and not get up again for three days.
"Oh!" One of her hands raised up and patted the side of my own face in turn-
"Huh?" I articulated intelligently.
-which was followed by the flash of light and ringing sound that came when she used her healing artes. An immediate wash of relief flooded me as all the aches and bruises from fighting Tison up and vanished. I was still tired, from the drama as much as the physical exertions, and the aer sickness was still a nagging presence lodged somewhere in my chest, but those were bearable complaints without the persistent pain of injuries. I stared at Estelle with a dumbfounded expression as a tentative smile appeared on the princess' face. "Healing you is still fine, right?"
I stared at her for a good while before I even realized that my mouth was hanging open slightly. Then, with a choked laugh, I wrapped my arms around her in a hug (made somewhat awkward by the apatheia between us). "Aww, Estelle, don't ever change!" Er... "Wait, that contradicts what I was just saying, doesn't it..." Hesitantly, her slender arms hugged me back.
From over her shoulder I could see that the others were watching our exchange. I bit the inside of my lower lip, and decided to try to break the ice forming between us. "What? Haven't you guys seen two girls hugging before?" Chase grinned broadly from his spot near the back.
Yuri tilted his head away carelessly, "Just be glad the old man isn't here to ruin the moment. He'd probably ask to join you two." I had to snicker as I let Estelle go. I can imagine that.
Rita made a face at the thought. Then she pinned me with another hostile look, though this one was a bit less threatening and more calculating. "That reminds me," How? "Why did Belius call you a 'Child of the Earth'?"
Chase raised a hand, "I'm one too."
"Ehh? Really?" Karol gawked at him as if the Earthling had sprouted wings or an extra head.
He shrugged, "Yeah, though Belius wouldn't have known that."
"She did," I corrected. That startled him.
"Really? How-or wait, did you-"
"But anyway," I interrupted, "we've stayed here long enough. We can get the talking out of the way once we're safe on the Fiertia."
The mage crossed her arms and pulled a peevish expression, "And just who's been holding us up?" I think my eye may have started to twitch. Well, sorry! You didn't seem in much of a hurry just now!
"Let's get moving then," the swordsman took the lead again, Judith and Repede joining him at the front of the group.
x x x
Still Not How It Works
*Karol and Rita staring intently at Chase and Letha*
Chase: Wh-what? You're starting to creep me out.
Karol: You're really a 'Child of the Earth'?
Chase: Last I checked, yeah.
Rita: If the Children of the Earth have anything in common with the Children of the Full Moon, wouldn't they have unique abilities of their own? Hmmm...
*Letha backs away slowly*
Rita: Ha! *Punches Chase*
Chase: OW! What the hell was that for?
Letha: Rita, if the permeability thing doesn't work when you surprise attack me, it's not gonna work on Chase either.
x x x
We were so close to the docks, just round another bend and we'd be homefree. Of course, that was when we heard a familiar woman's voice shout out behind us, "Yuri Lowell, this is the end of the line!"
"Tenacious, that Salt woman is," I grumbled.
Chase raised an eyebrow at me as the group collectively stopped to look back (we could have kept going, but reacting when someone calls your name is a conditioned response, you know?). "Salt?" he asked in an undertone.
Sodia and a trio of knights had nearly caught up to us, and a weird little kid was at the lieutenant's side. It was a boy who looked practically lost under the folds of a white robe, staff, and packed full bag that looked about to burst. Who? Oh, right. Witcher, the mage Flynn picked up in Aspio.
"Really Chase?" I mumbled back, "Sodia? Sodium Chloride? Salt?" He continued looking at me with a blank expression and I sighed, "You slept through chemistry classes, didn't you?"
"Hey, my teacher had the worst droning voice-"
"Lady Estellise," Witcher tried to sound commanding , but came it came off more like a childish whine than he probably realized, "you must return with us. Captain Flynn is worried about you."
"...But I, I..." Estelle looked down at the apatheia she still carried. Even when Karol had offered to keep it in his bag she'd politely turned him down. I wondered if it might be because I'd told her to take care of the crystal.
"Estelle's not going back with you!" Rita underscored her words with a fireball she flung at the pursuing knights. Witcher proved to be an advocate of the "fight fire with fire" philosophy as he grabbed his mage's staff and shot another fireball back. His was smaller but at least as accurate, striking Rita's spell dead center. And his might have been a touch faster than our mage's, since despite getting his casting off after she did they met in the center of the space between our groups.
The spells collided in the air, resulting in a burst of flaring light and heat with a percussive bang.
"Let's hurry!" No one needed any more encouragement, seizing on the distraction to cover our last sprint for the boat. Or so I thought, but a glance back to see if they'd caught on yet showed me that Chase hadn't moved yet.
"Chase!" He only waved at me to keep going. I couldn't help but watch, though, as he made a fist in the air. Sparks and small arcs of electricity were starting to dance on the back of his hand. Quickly, he dropped to one knee and pounded his fist against the ground.
"Bolt Cage!" All the electricity that had been charging up in his hand spread out in front of him in a latticework that hung just an inch over the ground. Roughly six, maybe seven feet in diameter, it was just enough to block off the street behind us. Chase spun on his heel and sprinted off after the others, me belatedly falling into step beside him.
"What in the world was that?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Er," he looked a bit embarrassed, "Could you do me a favor and not tell Al I did that? He made me promise not to use it anymore."
I shot him a sour look, "If I ever have a chance to talk with Alastor, tattling on you would probably be the last thing on my list of things to bitch about."
"Ah ha ha, guess I should've known..."
We both jumped over the side of the Fiertia, landing on the deck of the ship. Yuri had already pulled out Tokunaga from wherever he'd been kicking back while waiting for us, and Rita was snapping off orders to Biggs and Wedge. "You men, raise the anchor!" They scrambled to prep the ship for a speedy departure.
"Yeah, men, raise the anchor," Raven dropped onto the deck at the other end of the ship, turning around and pointing down in a 'come here' gesture to someone standing on the dock. Harry gave him a scathing look, but obeyed and jumped onboard beside his grandfather's right hand man.
"Pretty quick to come back this time," I observed wryly.
"Raven!" Karol exclaimed, "Where did you come from?"
The archer nodded at the blond young guildsman standing in his shadow. "Don't s'pose it'd be too much trouble ta take one more with us."
Karol's brow creased for a second before his expression lightened with recognition, "Hey, that's the guy-!" Rita elbowed the Ace in the ribs hard as a cloud of gloom seemed to draw over Harry's features.
Tokunaga was fiddling around with the ship's controls and blastia, Rita butting her way into the work as a matter of course. They'd have it running soon, and I looked back to see how much time we had before Sodia and company joined us. Chase's little light show trap wouldn't work for long.
A flash of color drew my eyes. Standing as if untouched by the chaos around her was Verte, a center of calm just inside a partially shadowed alley. My hands tightened on the Fiertia's railing, as if wishing they were around her fairy neck.
She looked in our direction, in my direction, and with a disturbing certainty I knew our eyes met despite the distance. That her lips curved just so in a not-quite smile, and that her mouth was forming words I couldn't hear. But I could almost see the shapes of the syllables...
My hands were leveraging me up as I pulled first one foot, then the other up onto the railing.
I stood, balancing precariously as the ship rolled and swayed.
We were already drawing away from the docks.
No, I didn't want to leave...
I wanted to go back...
"What are you-Letha, stop!"
Who is Letha...?
I jumped into the water.
x x x
I'm sure you all hate me now. Or at least are very put out with me.
If you look up translations for Lacrimosa (which is probably more like "mournful" but "tearful" works too), you will find a bunch of different results. But the overall meaning is pretty much the same for each one, and what we have here was what seemed easiest to both understand (grammatically) and fit to the music for "Lala's Lullaby" without forcing it.
First Strike references. Oh hell yeah, I went there. Anyone who hasn't managed to watch the movie yet and don't entirely get what that was about, I will be getting around to explaining the significance of those references sooner or later...probably later though...
In the game Witcher called Estelle "Lady Estelle" and that doesn't make sense to me. "Estelle" should be the name friends she makes along the journey call her, while anyone tied to the empire would more likely call her "Estellise" and try to handle her like a fragile glass sculpture that needs to be protected.