Chapter 5: All Together . . . Sort Of "Faize, why are you crying?" Edge asked. Faize gently pushed Lymle back. "There is a feeling of urgency in the wind." he replied. He closed his eyes for a moment, as if listening. "New life." he said softly, smiling. "Really? You can tell that?" Edge asked. "I can tell more, but it would take some time." Faize looked back towards Peterney. "And I am not welcome out here anymore." He turned and walked back to the camp, returning to his tent. "See." said Sophia. "A coward." "Shut it, worm." Albel snapped. "He hides so the people nearby can go about their lives without fear." "Edge?" came a whisper from the tent. "Can you come here a moment?" Edge stepped into the tent. "Yes, Faize?" He noticed the other chest was open, and contained some rather odd pieces of clothing. "I'd actually like to walk around with you all today, but I need something other than my usual to walk in." Faize sighed, brushing out his hair. It was longer than Edge remembered, coming to under his shoulder blades, now. "What about your military outfit?" Edge asked. Faize paused. "I destroyed those ships my first day here, and I was wearing that. I haven't touched it since." "Oh." Edge shifted through the clothes. "What's this?" he asked, lifting a blue garment set that had wings on it. "Ah, the featherfolk set. That might do." Faize smiled, that soft, warm smile he used to use on the Calnus. He stepped behind a partition curtain and changed, but the outfit looked kinda silly on him. "Can you remove the wings?" Edge asked, trying not to laugh. Faize nodded, reaching back and unclipping the feathery appendages. "Better?" Edge nodded. "So, does anything need to be done about your hair?" A few strands fell in Faize's face. "A cut would be nice, but I haven't the luxury." "Here, I can do it." Edge replied. Faize nodded, sitting down and letting Edge cut away the long locks. He smiled when he realized that Edge had cut it back to his usual cut. "Thank you, Edge." When the pair stepped out again, there was another person. "And who's this?" Edge asked. "This is Maria Traydor." Faize introduced. "She flies the ship." "Ship?" Reimi asked. "Like the Calnus?" Maria snickered. "Not quite that old." she said. "I'm sorry. Fayt told me you were like Faize, from a different time." "Yeah, how many years away are we?" Edge asked. "It's the year 772." Faize replied. "If your dressed like that, I guess it means you plan on doing something outside your tent, huh?" Mirage guessed. Faize nodded. "I'm a little curious about that feeling from earlier." "Huh?" asked Fayt. Faize glanced around. "That way, towards the sea." he said, indicating towards where Crowe had gone after meeting them. "Ok." said Fayt. "Should we pack the tents or are we coming back this way?" "Packing is probably best." said Cliff. "We've been parked there for a while, and the mayor said we should move it, saying Faize was bad for trade." Faize turned towards his tent, and put his hand out, palm up, and closed his eyes. "What's he doing?" Baccus asked. "Just watch." said Fayt. Suddenly, lances of earth came up, knocking the support poles out of place, and a wind came and spun the tent around into itself. All the while, Faize's eyes remained closed, and he turned his hand in a small circle upwards. "I've always loved this next part." Albel said with a smirk. Faize let the now twisted and folded tent down onto the ground, spinning around to face the rest of the camp as more earth lances came up and toppled the poles of the other tents. At this point, his arms were out beside him, and the wind swirled past, kicking up a few leaves and flowers. Bringing his arms forward, Faize twisted his hands around as though he were trying to form a ball out of the air, and the tents were twisted and folded in a similar manner as the first. They came to rest on the ground. "Final act." said Fayt. "Huh?" Edge and Arumat asked. Throwing his head back, Faize lifted his hands into the air, and the chests used for transporting the tents seemed to fly open. Turning around completely once, the tents were lifted once again and placed into the chests. All the posts had been neatly rolled together by small ripples in the ground, and then, the wind died completely, and the chests closed. Faize opened his eyes again, gasping slightly. He smiled, just before fainting. There was movement between them all, and suddenly Albel was holding Faize. "What just happened?" asked Myuria. "He packed up camp." said Mirage. "It's one of the things our Oracle can do." "Oracle?" asked Lymle. Cliff nodded, packing the poles and chests into a wagon. "It don't happen all that often, but he's been able to sense things around us. And his battle prowess is something else." "Really?" asked Lymle. "I wanna see it." "No, kid, you don't." Cliff corrected. "To have him fight is like asking a god to swat a bug." Faize looked back at Cliff. "I don't mind." he said. "Besides, if I don't practice, I'll get rusty." "You sure?" Albel asked. Faize nodded and stood, brushing his hand through his hair as if to move a few of the locks from his face. But Edge caught the light blush on those pale cheeks. "So, where to?" asked Cliff, taking hold of the wagon to pull it like the ox of a man he was. "Towards the water." Lymle said. "Faize said we were going that way, kay." Faize walked ahead for a while, stopping after a moment and putting his hands over his head. Almost instantly, Albel and Edge were there to see if he was alright. "We need to hurry." Faize said, his face looking flushed. "The life, it's fading." "Where?" Edge asked. "There." Faize pointed to a decent sized fishing shack sitting near the beach. There was smoke coming from the chimney, and screams of pain from inside. Edge looked at Faize a moment, then grabbed Lymle's hand and headed towards the house. "Where are we going, Edgie?" Lymle asked. "Faize said something was wrong here, that a life was fading." Lymle's eyes got wide, and then, they were at the door. The cries of pain were loud and desperate, and Lymle understood what was wrong. "You stay here, Edge." She knocked on the door before walking in. Crowe looked over at the intruder, even as he tried to help his wife. "Lymle?" he asked. "Here." Lymle put her hand on Elena's stomach and used a strong healing magic. "You stay beside her, kay? I'll help it get out." Elena howled in pain again, trying to birth. "Crowe?" she sobbed. She screamed again, and then the pain was over. Lymle pulled her hands back, and there was a cry from the little person in her hands. "Here. You have to cut the cord shorter, but the baby will be fine now, kay?" Elena looked at Crowe as he carefully took the baby. "A boy, Elena." he said, sitting next to her as the baby wiggled and cried. He noticed the bruise on the baby's neck and looked back at Lymle, who was cleaning a knife. "What was wrong?" Elena asked. "The cord was around his neck, so I had to cut it, kay? He'll be fine, now." She walked back to the door and opened it. "Ok, Edgie. It's all better, now." Edge stepped in, nearly dying from shock when he saw the shack's occupants. "Crowe?" "Hey." was all the red-head could say. Carefully, he wrapped a blanket around his son and handed him to Elena. "So, did you fall through the mirror, too?" Edge shook his head. "Faize brought us, before Dr. Leonne could do anything." He suddenly stumbled slightly, and Crowe started laughing. "Mya! I missed you, Edge!" "Mericle?" Edge asked, surprised. "House cat." Crowe snickered. "So, um, who's 'us'? You finally get together with Reimi?" Edge shook his head. "You'll see outside." A.N. - On the Cardianon ship that's crashed on the planet, Faize sounds depressed or sick when he mentions that the download is complete. At first, I thought this was when he first got infected by the Grigori (sorry for any spoiler, there). However, if you watch him while he's showing the others what happened to the ship, you can tell what really happened. He's already watched what happened to the crew of the ship, since he doesn't react to the events the way Edge, Reimi, and Lymle do. He seems depressed through it, and later, when they find the 'stone', he's already piecing together what the stone could be while Edge is muttering about it, he's just doing it quietly. I do have to give credit to Lymle, though, for trying the symbol stone, even when it seemed something was going wrong. And when it's discovered that the light from the destroyed Grigori also caused the bacculus patients to turn to stone, she doesn't blame them for it, but says that she's going with them.