Falun
"So you're travelling to save your mother?" Taka asked as the group finished their lunch. Dust nodded.
"She's done so much for me…and now she's in trouble because of me," he sighed. "I have to do something."
"And in the process you're planning to take on the King of Falana and end this war for good?" Taka added, chucking an apple core over her shoulder.
"That's the idea," Ash shrugged. Taka let out a low whistle.
"You kids are crazier than I thought," she remarked.
"Hey, I'm not a kid!" Kim protested grumpily. Taka ignored him and dug out a whetstone to sharpen her knives.
"You've got guts, Shrimp," she smirked. Dust squawked in protest at the sudden new nickname but that also went ignored. "Kinda remind me of my sister."
"She as 'crazy' as the rest of us, then?" Dust pouted, still reeling from the nickname.
"She's gutsy," Taka corrected. "And has a very strong sense of right and wrong." There was a pause. "And maybe a little crazy."
"Sounds like someone I'd want to meet," Fidget said with a small grin. Taka smiled.
"Maybe I'll introduce you all someday," she offered. "She's a dab hand with a sword. Maybe you two could go a few rounds," she directed at Dust who shrugged. It wasn't a bad offer. "You guys were headed towards Falun, right?"
"That's the plan," Kim nodded. "We've got a meeting with a source of intel to attend." Taka frowned.
"Well, you two wouldn't make it past the gates, I'm afraid," she sighed regretfully, looking at Kim and Ash in turn. "Even after the campaigns on the other side of the mountains ended Moonbloods haven't been welcome at all in the capital."
"We had a feeling that was going to be the case," Ash winced.
"You two would be safer hanging out here," Taka suggested. "I can probably smuggle the kid in if we cover up enough of the white…"
"You heard about that too, huh?" Dust grumbled.
"Shrimp, there've been bounty posters with your description on every road signpost in the kingdom," Taka huffed. "I doubt there's a single person who doesn't know of the manhunt going on for a white fox Warmblood. You're lucky I'm not a bounty hunter, otherwise it would've taken more than your friend's pin-needles to stop me." Dust was kind of glad that the posters didn't seem to indulge in much more than his appearance.
"You want to bet on that?" Kim growled. Once again, the comment when ignored.
"So what's the plan?" Fidget asked. "Roll Dust in the mud?"
"Hey!" Dust protested.
"What? Gotta get rid of that white somehow," the nimbat shrugged. "Why couldn't you have had normal coloured fur?" One might make the argument that Warmbloods like Reed and Moska had wackier colours for their fur, but Fidget had a point — Dust's particular shade of white was pretty much as rare as you could get.
"I don't know the ins and outs of the whole Elysian Warrior shtick, okay?!" Dust snapped defensively. "I kinda assumed it was like that for people like me."
"You wouldn't be wrong, Dust," the Blade of Ahrah confirmed. "Beings bound to Elysium do tend to have certain…quirks about them."
"Well, the Elder was apparently your wielder way back when and he looks like any other two-hundred-plus-year-old Moonblood to me," Dust muttered grumpily ("How many two-hundred-plus-year-old Moonbloods have you even seen?" Fidget asked).
"Elder Grey-Eyes is a different case," Ahrah spoke. Nothing else was said on the matter.
"Getting a bit of dust in your fur might grey it off a little," Taka admitted. "But Falun's a stuffy place. Full of more snobbish pedigrees than a day at the races," she added with a distasteful grimace. "They wouldn't let you into the inner quarters…unless you don't need to go there?" she quizzed.
"We don't know where it is exactly we need to go in there," Dust admitted. "We weren't exactly given a lot of details." Taka frowned, pausing in thought.
"I can get you some traveller's gear," she offered. "The hat alone will cover your face and if I can find a big enough tunic it ought to cover enough of your fur to keep you decently disguised."
"Guess we get to see Dust in a stupid hat again after all," Fidget snickered gleefully. Dust was looking less than enthusiastic about the whole idea but agreed that it was nonetheless the best idea that they had. Taka mentioned that some of the the Sunrose bandits often carried around travellers gear with them given that they sometimes traded their goods in disguise within the city walls. Dust made a comment about thieving from the thieves again but this time he was shut down with a comment from Fidget that now was not the time to constantly be taking the moral high-ground.
Dust continued grumbling about the situation all the way up to the gates of Falun. He was now decked out in a severely oversized tunic, cloak and hat which might has well have made him look like a walking clothes horse. Taka had also kitted herself out with some travellers' gear but at least hers was sized correctly.
"This was a stupid plan…" Dust muttered grumpily for the tenth time in as many minutes.
"Stop your whining, Dust," Fidget hissed from under the cloak. "It wasn't like anyone could come up with any better ideas."
"Fidget is right, Dust," Ahrah spoke softly from within the folds of the cloak. "We should not look a gift horse in the mouth." Some gift horse… Dust thought, grateful that the hat and scarf he was also wearing hid a childish pout. Doesn't change the fact that I look like a complete idiot…this is never going to work.
"Trust me, Shrimp," Taka smirked. "This is the best way we're going to get you into Falun to meet…whoever it is you're meeting."
"Can you stop calling me 'Shrimp'?" Dust asked sulkily. "I'm not that small."
"You're the smallest out of your little posse besides your flying friend," Taka pointed out (Fidget had already shut her down for calling her a flying mongoose earlier — she was still nursing the bite marks on her nose). "And that sword you're carrying is nearly the same size as you. It doesn't help your case."
"Grr…" Dust grumbled. He suddenly knew how Ivan must feel being the youngest of his siblings.
Remarkably, the group was actually able to enter the gates of Falun without much of a hold up, with Taka revealing she had an astoundingly quick and silver tongue as she explained to the guards that she was a travelling merchant visiting Falun with her younger, mute brother ("Take a leaf out of Matti's book and just grumble if people talk to you, Dust," Fidget had suggested earlier) to source some new wares. If Fidget was seen, she was passed off as a doll (Dust having left the actual doll with the Moonbloods back at the ruined cottage).
"It worries me how good at lying you are, Taka," Dust muttered out of earshot. Taka shrugged.
"I've been living by my lonesome for the last five years on a bandit-infested Plain," she said. "Comes with the territory." Dust made a mental note to ask Taka more about this later. "Now keep your eyes peeled — who's it you're looking for?"
"Someone who's probably not supposed to be out and about," Dust whispered back, still not comfortable with indulging all of the details with someone he'd only just met. "They're probably in as much of a disguise as I am."
"Surely she's not going to look that ridiculous," Fidget snickered. Dust retaliated by pinching the end of her tail. "OUCH!"
"Dust!" Taka hissed sharply.
"What?"
Dust and Taka wondered around Falun for the best part of an hour and there was still no sign whatsoever of the one they were meant to meet with. They'd looked around the shops to keep up Taka's story of being travelling merchants but things were so pricy that they wouldn't have been able to afford it even if they bartered.
"You were right about snobbish," Fidget muttered as she gazed longingly at a (in Dust's opinion) severely overpriced cupcake in a bakery window. "How do people afford to live here?"
"Exploitation of the working class by the bourgeois," Taka replied as-a-matter-of-fact-ly. "That's the gist I get of it."
Dust was less occupied with the prices of food and materials and more so with the talk that he had been overhearing throughout the city. While Taka had been chatting away to some of the citizens, Dust had been listening in on other conversations and he hadn't been liking what he'd been hearing.
"What kind of new warfare do you think His Majesty has come up with that surpasses Gaius' technology?" someone had said.
"I don't know, but it's taken fifteen years for him to develop it," someone else had replied. "It must be powerful."
"After the King's wiped out the Moonbloods…what do you think will happen next?"
"Well, it's going to make a statement. Falana would be a powerful ally to anyone who wanted one…"
The topics of conversation made Dust shudder in disgust. At least he was getting an idea as to why the campaigns had resumed after so long, but it disturbed him to think that the King of Falana would do so after so long at peace. It still seemed ludicrous.
"How many more are going to have to die before he's satisfied?" he growled softly and hatefully as the group stepped away from another overpriced store.
"I know this isn't nice, Dust," Taka murmured. "But we'll find a way to stop…whatever it is the King's doing now."
"We don't even know what this new warfare is!" Dust pointed out. "How do we fight something we know nothing about?"
"Like we always do?" Fidget shrugged. "Wing it and hope for the best?"
"I don't think that's going to be enough this time…" Dust sighed. "Especially with what the Elder said about the you-know-what…"
"I'm right here, Shrimp," Taka frowned. "You still don't trust me? And what do you mean by 'this time'? No way you've fought on this kind of scale before…"
"Like Fidget pointed out not two hours ago, you did try to kill us," Dust pouted. Taka shrugged — fair enough. She could understand if they didn't quite trust her. A movement caught Dust's eye from a couple of stands away. There was a tallish cloaked figure, head covered and face hidden. From what Dust could gather, the figure was female and maybe around Taka's height, but the cloak made it impossible to determine what kind of person they were.
"Dust," Ahrah spoke softly, barely audible above the hustle and bustle of the town square. "I have a feeling that this may be who we have come to see."
"Right," Dust murmured, making his way through the crowd with Taka following close behind him. As he drew closer, the cloaked figure caught onto his presence and looked up for the briefest of moments, showing a pair of violet eyes underneath the hood. Dust looked up just enough so that he made eye contact, pale-blue meeting bright violet. The figure beckoned him to follow as they ducked into a nearby alley.
"Dust, I really hope you know what you're doing," Fidget hissed.
"She has purple eyes, Fidget!" Dust whispered back. "It's a pretty standout feature." He ducked into the alleyway without further hesitation, Taka right on his tail with her hands hovering over the Starsheen Knives hidden in the folds of her cloak. As soon as they were out of sight of the square, the cloaked figure spoke.
"Are you the one the Elder spoke of?" she murmured, her voice soft and rich in tone. It sang nobility. Dust paused but nonetheless removed his hat, revealing his face.
"Yes," he confirmed. "I am Dust." The cloaked figure nodded in satisfaction and removed her hood, revealing a young lioness Warmblood with rich golden fur and hair of flame red. "Your Highness," Dust gulped, bowing as low as he could as soon as he saw the Crown Princess' face. Taka's breath hitched.
"You were meeting with the princess and you never told me?!" she exclaimed as softly as she could. Fidget gave her a dry glare, reminding her once again of the incident back at the ruined cottage.
"Dust, please. Call me Elissa," the princess sighed. "We are alone here. I do not mind if we drop the formalities." Dust rose from his bow. "Elder Grey-Eyes said that you were coming."
"Wow, news really does travel fast," Fidget muttered. She squeaked a quick greeting and introduction to Elissa, who broke into a small smile for a brief moment upon seeing the nimbat poking her head through Dust's cloak.
"He said you might be able to tell us something?" Dust inquired. "About my mother…and why things have gotten so bad so quickly?" Elissa's smile vanished as soon as it had appeared.
"I am truly sorry about your mother, Dust,"she said sincerely. "I will tell you that she is alive." Dust heaved a sigh of relief. He still had time…that was good. "She was brought before the court a couple of days ago. My father decided to keep her by his side…I fear he plans to use her to lure you out."
"Well, luckily for him it's going to work," Dust snarled, his fur beginning to stand on end and his tail swishing wildly. "I'm not going anywhere until my mom is safe."
"Dust, calm yourself," Ahrah said warningly. "The King is trying to make you act rashly. That would be highly unwise and would put everyone's lives at risk." Dust mumbled in agreement but he was still tense with anger.
"I never thought the King would stoop to such cowardly tactics," Taka muttered. "And against a child, no less."
"The tales of the Moonbloods' saviour is known throughout Falana," Elissa explained. "After the battle at Everdawn fifteen years ago, there were multiple sightings of the warrior's sword rising from the basin. Father never truly believed that the one who defeated his friend was dead."
"Guess that's why those soldiers were after you back in Falana," Fidget guessed. Dust was shocked…people had been looking for him since before he had been born again? Honestly, if that was the case, then he was surprised that he'd made it to thirteen without his life being thrown completely out of whack. Taka looked confused.
"Wait…what's she…?" she began but she didn't get the chance to finish her question as the princess began talking again.
"Actually, the hunt for Gaius' killer only began recently," Elissa contradicted when Dust voiced his thoughts out loud. "Father wanted to be sure that he could win against him, and now he feels that he has the means to."
"Hmph. Good luck to him because Dust has gone up against a deity and won," Fidget boasted.
"Fidget, that was fifteen years and a completely different life ago!" Dust protested.
"What are you talking about?" Taka frowned. Dust winced…whoops.
"I'll explain later," he muttered. "Is this means to fight me the new method of warfare we've been hearing about around town?" he asked. "Because it sure seems to coincide with the resumed campaigns against the Moonbloods." Elissa nodded sombrely.
"It is," she confirmed. "Father has been searching for it ever since he learned of Sen-Mithrarin. He never speaks of it to anyone, but what I can gather is that it is an ancient form of magic, and a powerful one at that." Dust's breath hitched and he could feel Fidget freeze up by his side and the Blade of Ahrah go cold in his hands.
"Has…has your father by any chance gotten his hands on a new jewel recently?" Dust wondered, his voice shaking with worry. Elissa nodded, asking why. "Ahrah…you don't think that…?"
"I fear that it is so, Dust," Ahrah agreed. "King Julius may very well be the one who stole the Eye of the Life Thread from its shrine."
"What's the Eye of the Life Thread?" Taka frowned. So many questions…no way was she going along with this unless she got some answers and pronto.
"An artefact that can control the souls of the dead," Fidget explained quickly. "Which is kind of a big issue for us."
"Why?"
"Later," Dust said quickly. "But Fidget's right…if the King has the Eye of the Life Thread, who knows what he'll do with it? Whatever it is, it's bad news for us."
"Why are you telling us all of this, Princess?" Taka asked. "He's your father, after all. Why are you helping his enemies behind his back?" Elissa took a deep breath as if contemplating her answer before speaking.
"I have never understood my father's reasons for hating the Moonbloods so deeply," she explained. "For centuries they have been dying out, more so since my father came to power. He is a good king to his subjects when it pleases him, but he is ruthless to those he despises. For whatever reason, the Moonbloods fall into this category." She paused again. "I doubt that I will ever understand his reasons for wanting them dead," she said softly. "And I fear that if this continues, there will be no Moonbloods left for me to repair relations with once my father's reign ends…Long live the King," she added almost sadly, with her final statement almost coming as an afterthought.
"I want to avoid too much bloodshed," Dust admitted. "I just want this all to stop…I just want to go home."
"And home you will go, Dust," Ahrah promised gently. "But we will need to move swiftly and stop King Julius from using the Eye of the Life Thread, before he has a chance to. Once it is out of his control, it may be possible to negotiate." Dust nodded in agreement.
"I'll try to find out whatever I can about my father's plans with this…Eye," Elissa decided. "And everything else he has been researching…it has been fifteen years, after all. He must know more than simply the location of the Eye and what it can be used for."
"Thank you, Your High…I mean, Elissa," Dust stammered over his words. "But how will we get messages from you?"
"I have a friend…he's more of a younger brother to me…who can get out and about far easier than I can," Elissa explained. "His name is Jarin. He's the Marquess of Ivydale, son of the Duke of Abadis. His father is close with mine, and he should be able to give you more information about my father's battle plans."
"Never realised Ivydale had a Marquess," Fidget muttered. "Where can we find him?"
"He is in town," Elissa replied. "The Duke was visiting my father before he left…he never said where they went to to, but he would have told the Duke. Jarin's good at gathering information, so he should know a thing or two. I will warn you, though, he can be…a bit of a child."
"What do you mean?" Dust frowned.
"I mean that for a boy of his position of responsibility, he can act more like a street urchin," Elissa grimaced. "In fact, I'm fairly sure a lot of his friends are street children."
"Wonderful…" Fidget grumbled. Dust had a sudden flashback of when he'd visited Mudpot with Fidget in his previous life, and how one young girl had wanted Fidget as a pet. He snickered at remembering how Fidget just didn't do well with small children.
"I'm the only one he'll listen to half the time," Elissa sighed. "I'm actually rather hoping that you will inspire him to mature a little, Dust."
"How old's this kid exactly?" Taka blinked.
"Fourteen."
"Drat…" Dust grumbled. He'd been hoping to be older than at least one person he'd meet on this journey. The pickpockets in town didn't count. "I can't make any promises."
"I do not expect you to," Elissa reassured. "I just thought that it would be best to warn you."
"I appreciate it, thank you," Dust said. "I think I can deal with it…Fidget, maybe not so much."
"I am telling you now, Dust," the nimbat mumbled grumpily. "You are the only kid besides Corbin and Colleen that I have ever been able to deal with."
"Well, Corbin and Colleen weren't exactly childish themselves," Dust remembered fondly. "We should go find Jarin," he decided. "Thank you for your help, Elissa."
"I am only doing what I can to make my kingdom a better place…for all of its inhabitants," Elissa smiled sadly. "Good luck, Dust."
As the group exited the alley, Elissa left them with one last phrase to say when they saw the rebellious marquess. With the phrase committed to memory, the group set off to the outer market where Elissa said Jarin was likely to be found.
Really sorry that I've missed the last three update slots! Most of last week, I had little to no internet at home (I'm talking slower speed than dial-up! I'm not even kidding), which thankfully has been fixed now, and I also have a truckload of university assignments to work on over the next few weeks. I apologise in advance for any missed updates in the future, but I'm going to update both tomorrow and Friday to catch up with the chapter schedule.