Chapter 3: Starting Out

Marille covered her nose and mouth with a thick towel before she made her way into the house. She fingered the vial in her hand and slowly opened the door to her mother's room.

Traces of the scent tickled her nose, but they weren't strong enough anymore to affect her. She saw the shattered perfume bottle and noticed it was next to one of her mother's shifts. Carefully taking a pair of scissors, she cut a strip and stuffed it into the vial, using a stopper to close it tightly.

She left and hurried upstairs to the attic. Hardly wasting a moment, she found her father's old weapons and chose the strongest one. No, she hadn't exactly learned how to use this specific type of sword, but she couldn't waste time running back to her trainer for nothing but a practice weapon.

Marille went to her room and dug through her drawers for extra clothes, stuffing everything she thought she needed into a leather pack. As she started to leave, her eye fell on the small jewelry box with the stones inside. Hardly giving it a thought, the girl picked it up and slipped it also into the bag.

A minute later she emerged from the house and hurried back to the neighbors'. She ran into the room where her mother had lain for a full day and two nights, but at the sight of her serene, unflinching face Marille stopped short.

There was no change. She assumed the poison had been too strong and her mother had been in the middle of it too long. Hopefully this condition wasn't permanent…but it wasn't looking good and there wasn't a good healer for thirty miles in any direction. Their clinic was the best in the entire area.

The Castagnier girl sat at the desk in the corner and looked again at the badly-crumpled note there. It was an apology from her father that had arrived the morning after all this had happened. It didn't say much except that he wasn't coming back for at least a week. There were no names or places mentioned; not even what sort of threat would make him change his plans literally at the last minute.

Marille gave an exasperated and half-wild noise as she closed it in her fist once more and threw the paper on the floor. Of all the times to cancel on his family! Did he not care at all?

"I have no choice…" she said to herself, trying to keep her anger in check. "He needs to know what's happened to Mom and I need to find some kind of cure. Sending letters forever won't help. I need to go myself."

Cherry's parents had promised to take care of Marta as well as they could. At least she was able to swallow liquefied food despite being in a coma, so she wouldn't get dehydrated or starve.

Marille wrote a few lines on a paper and left it on the desk, then kissed her mother on the cheek with a sad goodbye. She didn't really want to go. Luin was all she'd ever known, and traveling with her parents was much different from traveling alone. Was she doing the right thing?

Marille has gained the title Reluctant Adventurer
But if she won't do it, who will?

%*%

The short mountain range posed no problem for her since she had often traveled the trail as she grew up. On the way she saw a giant bird flying low over the trees, possibly her father's simurgh or fenia, but it was too far away to be sure.

Marille checked the sword sheath to make sure the weapon could be drawn quickly at a moment's notice and her hand fell on her pocket, reminding her of the message inside it. She gritted her teeth with deeper anger as she recalled those words. They were burned into her memory from the moment she saw them: Hope you enjoyed the present, demon-family!

She had stopped by the clinic to leave a notice that it would be closed indefinitely, but she checked the donation box before leaving…only to find that. Marille had no doubt it was connected to the perfume, but that insult—that accusation—!

She picked up the pace, yearning now more than ever for her father. If only she could call his monsters! They watched the area around Luin and most would approach her when she had food (in fact, they were tame enough that anyone with food was able to attract them), but never was she able to touch them unless her father was with her.

Marille remembered riding them often as a child when Emil went on trips to the temples. He tried to teach her to connect with the monsters, but she simply didn't understand the technique he described to her.

The girl looked up as a cloud drifted over the sun. It would be too late to make camp by the time she reached the first pass. A better idea would be to find someplace within the next hour.

It didn't take long to find a clearing where others had bedded down, ideal being close to a spring of fresh water, and there was a large tree with wide branches where she could hide for the night. Some wild onions caught her eye and she gathered them after refilling her canteen. She had some dried meat in her pack and a few other vegetables she could mince up to make a stew of some kind.

While she set about making a fire, Marille continued to fret over her course of action. Mizuho was the best place to go since Sheena and Lloyd had a network of resources all over the world. Surely they could help…but where was Mizuho now? Her father told her they were in the process of relocating about a year earlier and then she hadn't heard anything else since. Whenever Lloyd brought the boys to visit they never talked about home, too busy trying to get her into all sorts of trouble they called 'fun' to have a conversation about something so mundane as where they lived.

All she could think of was finding someone who might know the way there. The closest one lived in Craosolt, on the coast just south of Hima. He rarely left because his wife needed him.

Marille stared into the fire as her small pot of soup warmed. For some reason she couldn't get the temples out of her mind. She could remember going to them all, but not why. Her mother had never come and for some reason that seemed strange to her…both then and now.

For the first time a different possibility occurred to her: did her mother never accompany them because Emil had never told her where they were going? The prospect made her feel cold in an unfamiliar way.

She ate quietly and made sure the fire had enough wood to stay burning for another three hours or so, then she climbed into the tree and wedged herself into the crook of a branch, wrapping the wool blanket around her shoulders. Sleep didn't come quickly because her mind was too absorbed in trying to remember the temples.

When her eyes finally did grow heavy, she was dreaming before she even realized it.

Tenebrae looked at her with those great dark eyes and said many things she didn't understand. Still, she knew that he was not pleased and neither was her father. He stood between her and the Centurion as though protecting her. Tenebrae took a step back and said more things that made her father relax some…then she was lying down and the Centurion's tail hovered over her like a scorpion's, ready to strike…

%*%

Halfway to Craosolt, Marille found the remains of a caravan that had been attacked and burned no more than a week earlier, then the rest had been picked through by whatever travelers had come this way. An 'H' inside a triangle had been cut into the side of one broken wagon signifying it was a victory of the Heralds.

They hid along trade routes ambushing transports for supplies. They struck hard and fast, sometimes leaving only women and children alive and other times slaughtering everyone—but occasionally killing no one at all, just stealing everything. Some said they were half-elves, but others insisted they were humans using Exspheres. There was no way to know for certain without capturing them, but no one had ever done so. Emil insisted they were a small group or else there would be more raids, but they were deadly all the same.

Shrugging off the uneasy thoughts about the Heralds and their unpredictable ways, she continued on. For the rest of that day she imagined eyes peeking out from behind every tree and boulder.

Three days after leaving Luin, Marille wearily searched among the houses in Craosolt for one that looked familiar. She finally gave up and asked directions, only to have the nearest house pointed out to her. She walked up to the door but just as she raised her fist to knock, it swung open and three children barreled into her. They were followed by a man with red hair and a rather vexed look on his face.

"Kids, do you have to attack every single person who comes to our door? I told you before to wait until you know for sure they're traveling salesmen or Martel Witnesses, then you can tackle—" He stopped short as he recognized his children's newest victim. "Marille, is that you?"

"Hi, Zelos," she called above the racket the kids were making. They kept trying to bounce on her for some reason and their father had to rescue her.

"Come inside and see Karyn. She was just saying last week that we haven't seen you in nearly a year and a half." He held open the door as she entered. "Karyn! We have company."

A soft, almost flowery voice replied from the kitchen, "Let me put Rhonda's hair in a towel and I'll be right there."

The girl tried to keep her footing as the three children came surging back into the house to each tell their mother that it was Marille and their own version of what she looked like now. A minute later the woman herself came down the hallway wiping her hands on an apron. There was a child hanging from every side, all yammering together.

"Calm down, calm down! I'll see for myself how she's changed."

Karyn stopped a foot away and Zelos took her hand, gently guiding it to rest on Marille's shoulder. Her hands slowly felt along the girl's neck and face. The woman's blank, unseeing eyes fluttered as though she was surprised.

"You seem taller than I remember. Zelos, which door is Marille's?"

"Second bedroom," he supplied.

"No it's not! That's Rhonda and Trisha's. Hers is the door to the basement."

"Well, if you knew that already then why did you ask?" he wondered with a hint of teasing in his voice.

She chuckled as she led the way to 'Marille's door' and made the girl stand against the frame. Zelos used his knife to cut a notch in the wood at exactly her height and Karyn eagerly felt the distance between that and the mark from a year and a half ago.

"Two inches…and a quarter! You must have hit another growth spurt, Marille. Unless you're wearing high heels, that is," she said with mock-suspicion.

"I wouldn't have made it here if I had."

The family grew silent almost simultaneously. Karyn's blind eyes almost seemed to be searching for something while Zelos immediately started drilling her. "Are you saying you walked here? Why? Where are your parents?"

"Zelos, calm down. Can't you see she's exhausted? And here I am measuring her, of all things! Come into the drawing room and sit down. Once you rest a little and have something to eat then you can talk—no matter what a certain man might say."

Karyn's no-nonsense attitude produced the effect Marille had been looking forward to for days. The children practically dragged her into a large, comfy chair and put her sore feet up on a stool while their mother made tea and some quick sandwiches in the kitchen.

Once her appetite and thirst had been satisfied, the pacing Zelos was finally able to ask his questions again. Slowly the tale came out…

"So you need to find Mizuho. It was moved into the mountains south of Triet. If you get within two miles Sheena's scouts will take you straight to her."

"Thank you," she breathed, for the first time beginning to feel as though things weren't all depending on her. "I didn't know who else to look for, and my father could be anywhere."

The former Chosen drummed his fingers along the back of the couch behind which he was standing. "If you had to you could go to Izoold. The villagers are going to celebrate World Reunification and wanted as many of us there as possible. Sheena and Lloyd will most likely be there, Regal, Raine...and your father might drop in too, though our family can't attend. It's been nineteen years ago this month, you know."

"Yes, I heard about it but I can't wait another week to find a cure for Mom…if there is one… It's been too long already and I need to leave as soon as it's morning."

Karyn leaned toward her husband and whispered something. He lit up and said, "We don't have a wagon or any animals you can ride, but you will need provisions and we can help with that at least."

Marille gave them a tired but grateful smile. "I suppose in return I stay here with the little ones?"

"That might be a good trade." The woman sitting opposite her seemed to have a gleam in her eye. "After all, I can't go out alone and Zelos would get all the wrong things if I wasn't there to keep tabs on him. No matter how good of a cook he pretends to be, he can't haggle worth a handful of beans."

"Don't worry. They'll be safe with me while you're out."

Zelos took a rose-colored jacket off a peg by the door and started to put it on, but Karyn clicked her tongue. "Take it off."

"Take what off?" he asked a little too innocently.

"You know what. Off."

He sighed and put it back. "I don't know why you care so much about what color my clothes are if you can't even see."

"Appearances are still important, and not everybody is as blind as you, dear," she said with a smile that spoke of a private joke. "The shops will only be open a little while longer, so we'd better hurry."

The door closed behind them and Marille sat down with the four children in a circle as they showed off their toys. Trisha, Lauri and Chelt (the only boy) proudly produced small weapons their father had made for them. They took turns attacking the miniature figure of a stuffed hydra.

Rhonda was the youngest and was the least interested in weaponry. Instead she busied herself by running her hands over objects pulled from Marille's pack and trying to figure out what they were. When she stood up once, everyone else leaped up too to make sure she didn't trip on anything because Rhonda was also blind.

While they continued to assault the innocent monster, Marille played with them and couldn't help wishing she had younger siblings.

Karyn has gained the title Pink is for Girls
Someday I'll alter that jacket to make an outfit for Trisha.

A/N: I couldn't help including someone I think Zelos would have fallen for. Sorry to all you ZxS fans, but I just don't buy their relationship. Here's a short version of their history.

Because she was blind, Karyn's family considered her useless and neglected her, but thirteen years earlier Zelos met her by chance in Sybak. He volunteered to take her someplace where she could make a decent living away from everyone who had been so cruel to her. She naturally leaped at the opportunity.

Zelos had always worn a mask to keep people away (in my experience, womanizers are often hiding insecurities), but Karyn could see straight through it since she wasn't distracted by his looks and could easily detect the insincerity in his voice. After the first wave of shock and discomfort, he was able to stop putting on a front and could actually be himself around her.

By the time they reached Craosolt, Zelos had realized not only that he didn't want to go back to living a farce, but that he enjoyed being there for someone who really did need him. In less than a year he proposed and she accepted, and they lived there ever since.