Disclaimer: I own Capcom like RebukeX7 owns Spiderman and Marvel. Which means I don't.

Chapter 7: Questions and the impossible

- Present - The desert of Strahta -

Every living being had its very own aura. It was a mix of the aura of the parents, together with a part that was completely new, generated by Ephinea's core, the Lastalia which was the origin of every soul on the planet. The touch of the Lastalia was at all times visible in every living being on this world and since there was no other origin of Eleth on Ephinea, these three parts were all that influenced the auras of life. The only exceptions were the Valkines-guardians themselves and their own offspring. They didn't show any relation to the Lastalia because the guardians and in turn their offspring had their origin in Fodra and its core, with the offspring receiving the soul from his or her parental guardian - or guardians in case of the minor-guardians. In days that were now long in the past, every form of life had shown at least a small touch of the big planet through the aura of their parents, but ever since the contact between Fodra and Ephinea had vanished, the touch of Fodra had faded into nothingness.

That was the way auras on Ephinea had developed ever since the Valkines-dragons had appeared thousands of years ago. Never had there been any other exceptions to this principle.

Therefore Duplemar, who watched the camp of humans only a few hundred meters away from the corpse of his child, was in a state of utter confusion when not only one, but five auras dared to prove him wrong. Four showed clear signs of being touched by Fodra, something that should have been impossible. Especially not a touch that signified that their very soul had been formed on the other planet and especially not with a touch that was identical in all four of them. Even more impossible was that three of these four also showed signs of being touched by the Lastalia, indicating that they also had a part of their soul from Ephinea. This should not have been possible!

A soul could not originate from two cores at once, it could always have only one origin! To top it off, one of these auras had a strength far greater than any mortal being should have, nearly rivaling the aura of one of the lower guardians. This strong aura also contained the colors of all three guardians which should not have been possible as well. There was no known renegade at this time and even if there was, there existed no being in the universe except Fodra that contained all three kinds of Eleth. The Valkines-guardians had seen to that after the last catastrophe that had made Strahta a desert and Fendel a land of ice. Duplemar shuddered at the memory of his last fight against Mandragos before his attention returned to the group in front of him.

The irony of the situation didn't pass the dragon unnoticed when he recognized the aura of the mysterious presence that had annoyed the guardian so much near these impossible four. The dragon could recognize the shades of blue, red and green that danced around the campfire, invisible for the normal human eye but as bright as the fire for the guardian.

The big beast took a few minutes to watch this impossible group before he made a decision. Their appearance raised too many questions inside the guardian to simply kill them. He would catch them and he would question them until the dragon knew everything he wanted to know. It had been a while since anything had looked so interesting to him. The revenge for the death of the dragon's child could wait. Duplemar would not let this chance go to waste.

- Two hours before -

The glimmering light of the fire drew long shadows over the sand. Calm silence rested over the camp Malik, Hubert, Pascal and Richard had set up. The bedrolls they had brought with them did their best to protect the group from freezing in the ice cold desert while the fire offered a pleasant warmth to those near enough to feel it. A black silhouette could be seen in a sitting position on a rock near the fire, watching carefully over the desert around. Years of training and experience had shown Malik Caesar never to let his guard down during night watch. He would be a fool to not learn from these lessons. Still, the desert around him showed no apparent sign of life and his attention kept switching to the restless movements of Asbel who seemed to be having a bad dream. The captain sighed. He had tried to wake his friend before, but the lord didn't seem to react to anything that happened around him ever since the dragon had left him unconscious.

'Let's hope he will soon wake up from his slumber,' he thought to himself, before he forcefully drew his attention back to the desert around him.

- ? -

Darkness was everywhere. It surrounded him, played with his hair, filled his lungs, filled his soul. There was nothing but darkness. It was absolute.

In this darkness, Asbel Lhant was running. He didn't know why, he didn't know what he was running from, but he was running as if his life depended on it.

'Fool!' said a deep, old and bodiless voice behind him. Its sound filled the darkness and resounded in every fiber of Asbel's being.

'Fool! What have you done!'

He didn't know who was talking to him or what he had done, all he knew was that he needed to run. And that he needed to run faster when he noticed a fast approaching light behind him again like so many other lights he had outrun since he had found himself in the darkness.

'There is no running from it Asbel! Stop this pathetic display! Don't waste our time,' the voice said again, this time mixed with impatience.

Asbel didn't listen, he needed to run.

'What a pathetic excuse of a human. And to think you were the one who managed to defeat me. It insults me to think about it.'

An invisible wall in the darkness ungently stopped him. In a flash the light had reached him and surrounded him, robbing him of his sight with its dazzling brightness. Quickly he closed his eyes and covered them with his hand to protect them. Asbel remained in this position, unmoving and silent. For minutes he didn't dare to move a muscle until his eyes had adjusted to the new brightness and stopped hurting. They still began to water when he opened them, but he could ignore that over the sight that unfolded in front of his eyes.

He was surrounded by myriads of plants that all seemed to compete for the brightest and strongest shade of green. Mighty moss-grown trees, tall enough that he couldn't make out their peak and with trunks wider than he could embrace them stood around him. Below them, bushes, ferns and other plants competed for the small spots of light that got through the canopy of leaves. A snapped tree trunk stood in front of him and served as nourishment for other countless fungi and mosses. Not too far away from the idyllic scene the rippling of a river could be heard, mixing with the whispering of the leaves above him and the sounds of thousand animals and insects around him.

Asbel was in a forest. If he was right, it was a forest he had come to know very well. Though how this particular forest had managed to get into his dream was a miracle to him.

And Asbel was very sure by now that he was dreaming.

The sound of cracking dry branches behind him made the lord of Lhant spin around. In front of him stood a teal-haired small boy, only clothed in a white, unadorned robe. A discontent expression showed in the boy's eyes, which looked far too old for a child his age. The behaviour and expression of him was unsettling. He seemed familiar, though Asbel didn't know where he had seen him before.

"That you had to dream about this noisy forest of all places baffles me, human," said the deep, bodiless voice again that Asbel had heard before. At the same time, the small boy moved his lips, but Asbel didn't understand why. The voice couldn't possibly be...

"I don't even need to look in your mind to read the foolishness of your thoughts. It's astonishing how you could forget my presence, even if your dreaming state excuses your lack of memory."

This remark finally let Asbel recognize the small boy. There were not that many beings on Ephinea that loved to insult him with such passion.

"Lambda!? H...How? What are you doing here?" asked the lord, his bafflement clearly showing on his face.

"This is a question I would like to ask you, human. Why are you here? Why are you disturbing my slumber and my negotiations with Fodra? And what were you doing?" said the boy, still fixing Asbel with impatient eyes.

"Me? I didn't do anything! I just got here and I'm just as confused as you are. I just..." he stopped his mouth, trying to recall what had happened to him.

"There was this dragon," he began again, his eyes looking into the distance, "and we were on our way to defeat it to get to those other Valkines-guardians. We attacked it and defeated it, but it somehow stood up again and then I..." his eyes widened as he suddenly realized something.

"Cheria! What happened to her?! Is she ok?! Am I dead?!"

"Do not let yourself fall into such foolish desperation, human. We would not be communicating if you were not alive. But I do not know about your companion. You can look after her by yourself when you awaken. Before that, tell me, what enemy were you fighting that was able to do what I could not?"

Asbel could hear the sliver of irritation in Lambda's voice about the fact that the only person that Lambda had ever lost in a fight against, now had been beaten by someone other than Lambda himself.

His words however made the lord start brooding. Lost in thought he began walking around in circles in this endless forest he had imagined.

"I don't know. It was similar to one of those terrestrial dragons we fought before. You remember them? This one however was twice as big and its body had this strange blue glow. I've never seen a terrestrial dragon this strong before."

He tilted his head when he noticed how Lambda raised an eyebrow at his words. The bodiless being seemed lost in thought himself for a moment. Then Lambda asked the lord questions in an icy voice that gave the lord the impression that his life depended on his next answers.

"Have the Valkines reacted strange in any way before these dragons appeared? And why were you looking for other guardians? Answer quickly human, we do not have much time left before you have to awaken."

"Yes, they have. How did you know? The guardians inside the Valkines have appeared and started to attack the capitals of Strahta, Fendel and Windor. We are trying to find other Valkines and convince their guardians to help us against them and stop the fighting."

This time the look in Lambda's eyes hardened before he asked his next question.

"Did you kill this dragon that you were fighting against?"

"I don't know. I was knocked out before the fight ended. But if I'm still alive I think the others have probably..." before he could finish his sentence Lambda interrupted him in a very rare display of raw emotion.

"FOOL! How could you possibly do such a thing! You have just declared war on the only being that might have helped you!"

Angry, he threw his hands in the air and started to walk in circles. Then he stopped.

"You have to go human. You are lucky none of them has found you yet, but that will not be for long. Warn your friends and flee if you are still able to"

"Wha...Lambda, I don't understand? What are you talking about?"

"I said flee, Asbel!" repeated Lambda, this time with a voice that didn't allow any back talk.

Before the lord could reply, the small boy turned his palms towards Asbel and hit him with the equivalent of an Eleth-blast.

- Present -

Crashing head first into the head of one of his companions after awakening with a start was one of the less desireable ways for Asbel to leave the bed. A small light exploded behind his forehead and joined a burning pain across his chest while he fell back onto the ground. The one who had tried to wake him fell backwards with a startled cry.

For a moment the pain made the world spin around for the lord and he had to fight for air until a hand was firmly pressed on his chest and forehead. Two blinding flashes of light appeared and calmed his muscles, relaxed his cramping diaphragm and lungs and numbed his pain. It took a few moments before something besides his heavy breath reached his ear.

"Could you try not to wake up so abruptly next time, Asbel?!" said a female voice that sounded irritated and relieved at the same time.

Another small flash of light revealed to him the face of the silhouette that kneeled in the cold sand beside him. But the lord didn't need the light to know who had just tried to wake him. Even if Asbel couldn't deduce by default who this female had to be, he would recognize this voice anywhere. The way it emphasized his name in such an accusatory way was so familiar to him by now that he automatically felt like he had committed a crime whenever he heard it. No one but Cheria was able to fill his name with so much affection and could at the same time make him feel so guilty even if he hadn't done anything wrong in the first place.

He took in another deep breath before he tried to sit upright again and answer her. His efforts were rewarded with another sharp pain from his chest. A hissed curse passed his lips.

"Argh..."

Immediately his wife had her hand on his chest again and pushed him back in his sleeping bag while light flashed out of them to relieve him from his pain.

"Don't move! Don't even try to unless you want me to seal your movement."

Asbel was still too bewildered by the sudden pain that had suprised him twice to say something, but a look into his eyes told Cheria what he wanted to ask her.

"The tip of the dragon's tail cut..." she gulped when the still fresh images of the event appeared before her eyes again.

"It cut through you chest. It damaged the muscles and some ribs, anything else is fine. Sophie and I tried to heal it but..." Cheria gulped again.

"Sophie could only heal the skin above the wound. It's like our healing-artes are blocked. We can feel that your flesh is healing, but we can't do anything to support it."

She waited a second before she continued.

"I don't think you can fight Asbel. At least not for a month, probably more"

The carefully spoken words formed a cold stone in Asbel's stomach. Being helpless or useless was one of the things he feared the most. His past was full of moments like this and there was always somebody who had to pay the price in the end for his inability.

'Looks like the dragon managed to hinder us even after death' he thought coldly to himself.

But besides his growing feelings of frustration his mind began to tell him something. Something very important. Something he had just heard, but forgotten. What was it?

'Dragon...dragon...dragon..." his thought stopped when he finally realized what he should have been doing the moment he had woken up.

"Dragon! Cheria we have to leave! One of the bigger dragons is on its way to us! If it gets to us now we don't stand a chance!"

He tried to get up again but the burning pain in his chest reminded him that his upper body had other ideas about that. Another flash of light appeared and relaxed his muscles again. He could feel another hand grab his, but it wasn't the hand of his wife.

"Asbel, what's going on?"

Sophie's voice was filled with relief, but her father's sudden behaviour frightened her. He was breathing heavy again but started talking.

"I can't explain right now, but we have to leave. Now! Or we'll be finished!"

Around them, the rest of the camp had begun to awaken by the sudden ruckus caused by Asbel's talk. Three pairs of eyes threw tired and questioning glances in their direction while a tense Malik didn't even seem to notice him, his eyes looking for something far into the distance. He thought for a moment to try to catch the captain's attention when Cheria stood up to start talking again.

Or at least she attempted to.

A second after she stood on the cold sand a sudden strong gust of wind threw her back to the ground, making her wince in pain while she touched her ribs. A large shadow darkened the night sky as it passed over them. The earth shook from the impact of a heavy body and carried Cheria who had just managed to stand up, again off her feet, followed by another sound of pain. It didn't need the deafening roar of the beast to know what exactly had just landed near the camp, even if they could barely see the vast shape in the darkness.

Malik was the only one quick enough to react to the undesired company. With precise movements he began to draw in the Eleth around him to form one of his most powerful spells. In the few seconds he was busy casting, Hubert sprinted to his Dualblade and moved towards the giant monster together with Sophie. Later the lieutenant would ask himself how ridiculous their attack must have looked in the dragon's eyes, since they barely were the height of its claws. But none the less, their attack was powerful enough to buy them some time. Diving under or side-stepping several attempts of the dragon to cut them with its claws, they struck at every place of the dragon's body they could reach. The attacks were mostly reflected by the incredibly thick scales. The impact of the attacks however got through and at least distracted the giant long enough until they could hear Malik's powerful voice behind them.

"Dragon Slayer! Holy Sword!" A giant red sword appeared over the shadow and tried to pierce its heart. Before it could hit the beast however, it raised its head and picked the sword out of the air with its teeth. Another deafening sound echoed over the sand when it crunched the powerful Eleth-blade between them.

Every other attack that they wanted to initiate was immediately stopped by a second deafening roar.

They had barely recovered from that roar when blue orbs of water started to engulf the group. It was everywhere, forcefully entering them through their mouth and nose, drowning their lungs, flooding every hollow part in their bodies. Soon after the water had surrounded them it had also successfully invaded them as well as sealing the movements of their limbs. Immediately their instincts took over, contracting every muscle to remove the unwanted fluid from the body. But the moment the muscles relaxed, the water forced its way in again. This process repeated itself over the minutes until their bodies had accustomed to the unusual amount of fluid. Only then did they notice that, disregarding every logic, they could breathe in the water. It would have been a very interesting discovery, if a moment of realization didn't hit them soon afterwards: The fight was over. They had been caught.

They had lost.

Hubert Oswell was trembling with anger. If he wasn't encased by water that somehow made moving impossible, he didn't know what he would have done. But it would have been painful. Being caught by the one being that he hated like no other and wanted to kill so badly humiliated him to a degree he didn't know was possible. There had been a time when he had hated his brother, a feeling born from envy because he as the first child had always been one that got special treatment. It hadn't helped the matter that Asbel was somebody that easily made friends and was liked by everybody, even though Hubert surpassed him in every aspect.

But this hatred was different. This hatred was born from pure desire for revenge. The mere sight of these deep, calm eyes that betrayed no emotion was enough to make him feel like he was burning with anger.

The sudden appearance of a voice in his head still took him by surprise, but nowhere near as much as any of his companions.

'You posses auras that none of you should have. One of you even has my own. You enter my realm and strive through my lands. You attack my child and slaughter it in my own desert. And you attack me, Duplemar, guardian of the Valkines of water. What do you have to say about this?'

The 'sound' was calm but domineering. The strength and kindness it radiated was nearly enough to to make Hubert question why he fought the dragon. Soon enough, his negative feelings were in control again and he returned to staring at the monster with all the hatred he could muster.

'Do not waste my time.'

This time the voice was accompanied with a small earthquake as the right front-leg of the dragon slammed onto the ground. Right then and there Hubert wanted to give him his answer with everything he was thinking about, but the fluid was stopping every sound he made.

'You need not talk. Think your answer clearly, that will be enough.'

The barely notable amusement in the voice made the lieutenant shiver in anger. Slowly he closed his eyes and recalled the pictures of all the people he held dear in his heart.

'Natalya, Brayden, Salene, Marian,...'

'You're not answering my question, human,' interrupted the voice without any kind of emotion showing, only stating a fact. Slowly the big creature lowered its head, focussing its sight on Hubert with eyes that spoke of complete inner peace and calmness, but also seemed emotionless. This lack of emotion only served to further increase the lieutenant's rage. Not even the depth of its gaze that seemed like he was looking directly at Hubert's soul managed to calm him.

'What do you know about reasons for fighting, dragon? You don't seem that experienced considering I showed you all the people that were dear to me and that you slaughtered on a whim. They are more than enough reason for me to fight you. To fight all of you and your children just to make sure what I experienced doesn't have to be the relived by someone else.'

Though Hubert tried to remain in control, he slowly but surely talked himself into further rage.

'I have suffered so much because of you. I could care less if you had only sent my father to his grave. But my step-mother didn't deserve this! Natalya and Brayden didn't deserve this! They were innocent! They had nothing to do with anything that could have affected you. You killed them anyway. And they were just one of so many others you murdered. The whole world lies in ruins because of the actions of your kind. Millions have died. And what's most amusing is: They don't even know why!'

The sarcasm in his thoughts reflected the pain he had felt ever since Yu Liberte's destruction.

'What do I have to say? I'm happy that I managed to kill at least one of your brood before it got to another village.'

Hubert was prepared for any reaction he would receive after his words. What he wasn't prepared for was no reaction at all. The eyes of the dragon were still directed at him, still showing a lack of emotional reaction that made Hubert's blood boil, still conveying a myriad of unspoken words in them that the being didn't share. They stared at each other for what felt like an eternity to the lieutenant.

'Human kind is facing the results of its own actions. Your kin did what is unforgiveable: They stole the eleth of the Valkines'. Extinction is the punishment for this crime.'

The calmness in which Duplemar revealed this information was shocking by itself. The fact that he immediately continued as if what he had just said was not of importance felt absurd.

'You did not answer completely. I will ask another question: How can you have a soul from Fodra and the Lastalia?'

The complete change of topic met the lieutenant unprepared, but he thankfully accepted this distraction to his thoughts. He had known all along that the dragons were out to destroy humans. Still, that Duplemar had said so casually that their goal was extinction was shocking. He didn't want to think about it right now, so he occupied himself with this new question.

Souls? Fodra? Lastalia? What was this creature talking about?

After a few moments of silence, the dragon averted its gaze towards Pascal, just to calmly stare at her the same way it had looked at Hubert. The lieutenant's head turned just in time to notice the serious and determined expression in Pascal's face. It was obvious she was talking to the dragon, but what was she saying?

Another moment of silence passed before the telepathic voice of the dragon echoed again through their minds.

'Are you sure that you can make that deal, Amarcian?'

She hesitated a moment, then she nodded.

'So be it. Your friends shall live for another day while we have a nice, long...talk'

And with these words, the bubbles of water that had imprisoned the group fell to the ground, the water quickly disappearing in the dry sand, leaving behind a drenched and confused Hubert with five equally drenched friends. The moment the water disappeared, the instincts of the group took over again, forcing them to their knees while their bodies seemed to cramp up everywhere to get rid of all the excessive fluid. Hubert could feel the gust of mighty wings as he threw up another load of water. And he could feel the sand swirl up around him, sticking to his wet skin and clothes while he could barely do more than breathe.

He kneeled there for a while, propped up on his hands, fighting for breath while smaller amounts of water still left through his mouth. But he forced himself to look up, to watch the amarcian as she and her captor moved further and further away from him.

The moment he finally managed to stand up there was only a dark coldness inside him.

Pascal and the dragon were gone.

Lost archive - Database

Entry: Eleth aura

Last edit: ...DISPLAY ERROR...

For quite some time there has been the established theory that every creature by itself emits eleth in form of radiation, barely measurable through conventional means but undeniable existant as shown by several papers. This is also true for parts of the body that have been seperated from the main body. As long as there is eleth in them they will continue to radiate it. Recent experiments show however, that not only does the composition differ between different species but also in between different individuals of the same species. Combining this with past papers that claim a similarity between the radiated eleth and eleth emitted from Fodra's core might give us a clue how the core of every being, its eleth core, is created. However, there a... UNABLE TO DISPLAY FURTHER ENTRY

AN: I'm really sorry that this chapter took an eternity to upload and that it's shorter than the last one. I will have to slow down the timing in which I release chapters immensely, because my semester just began again and it's eating a tremendous amount of time. Considering that I barely get enough time to read to my hearts content (well, I'm reading the heck out of RebukeX7's stories atm) it's a bit difficult for me to write. Especially when I simply can't get in the swing for writing with all the university stuff floating somewhere around my head. Therefore, please bear with me that this story will take a while. Do not fear, I will not abandon it. One of the reasons I won't is because I simply won't be able to buy another 'Tales of'-game before this is done. I fear I'd lose the focus if I did and re-playing the old thing is simply too much fun.

I ask all of you to watch out for the concept I planned out as background for this story. As I said in the past, I wrote this to fix up all the lose ends in ToG, including why Strahta is a desert with a water Valkines, why Fendel is a continent of ice though there's a fire Valkines, why Lambda doesn't know who he is, what Lambda actually is (I mean, dafuq? Nobody really knows!) what the heck Fodra and the little Queen are, why Lambda's dad told him to go to the Lastalia and what his true goal with the way he treated lambda was and so on and so on. I guess I will make a small explanation-chapter after the epilogue in case it's not too well understood but still: Look out for the moments I present you the expanded background of ToG ^^

Small note to self: Holy guacamole. I actually thought I'd be...dunno, finished with 30% of the story by now... it's more like 15% at the moment. If this goes on like this this story is gonna have like 40 chapters o.O. And if it also goes on like this I'm going to have to write at least three more Oneshots to accompany this story. No you won't find out who Natalya or Brayden are in this story. Those two are planned for another Oneshot, though I bet at least a few of you can guess what their relation to Hubert is.

Small Update: I forgot to mention it: I'm starting to assign genders to the guardians. Why? Just imagine for a second how much I'd have to think over the dialogues I will write to avoid using "it" when, for example, Duplemar talks about the other guardians. Or how crappy the dialogues would look like if I didn't. I loved the idea of genderless guardians and I will try to still maintain some of that idea, but I don't feel like putting up with that much work just for the heck of it. That's not worth the time for me. From the outside perspective from Hubert etc. I will still maintain the "it" part because they don't really know anything about genders of the dragons. But the paragraphes from Duplemar/Forbrannir/Gloandi's perspective will be with the gender.

For your interest, the genders will be: Duplemar = male, Forbrannir = male, Gloandi = female.

Anyway, reviews appreciated.