Chapter Eight

Return

He stirred to the sound of her voice as she stuttered out his name. She couldn't believe he was there and wondered just how long he'd been waiting.

"I thought you left." She poured him the tea she'd brewed and watched as he sipped it.

"Arrived this morning on the first train in." The bags under his eyes had darkened, showing he must not have slept much or not at all since she saw him yesterday. He seemed weaker, though his body had not lost any definition, and the tamed wild man had become even more solemn in the past 24 hours than most men do in 24 years.

"So you went and turned right back around?" He nodded to her question and poured himself more tea. Slowly, life was beginning to return to his face.

"I was actually only halfway back to my guild when I turned around. Luckily there was a night freight heading this direction."

Cana looked at him, pondering why he had come back in such a hurry.

"Where were you off to so early?" He asked her, breaking the small silence that had befallen them.

"I was on my way to the guild. I had to return those books to a friend."

"A tea drinker and a reader." Bacchus seemed amused by that. "You just keep getting more complex."

She chuckled at him, telling him that he was the complex one. "Why did you have to get back here so quickly?"

"I wanted to see if I left something here." The gleam that had temporarily returned to his eyes vanished when he folded his hands in front of his face and rested his chin on them.

"Left something? You mean this?" She pulled the comb from her pocket and showed it to him. There was a visible relief that relaxed his shoulders when he saw what she had in her hand. Strangely enough, he didn't immediately take it from her. He even seemed hesitant to take it back, putting his hand out for her to give it to him rather than taking it from her hand.

"Where was it?" He asked while he carefully tucked the item away in his carrying bag.

"In the front room near the wall. It must have been flung from the table when you smashed it in half." His eyes shifted at the mention of that.

"That so?" He spoke quietly, looking down into his cup. It was odd to her how he was acting. Upon first meeting him, he was a cocky and boisterous idiot who always had a greedy grin on his lips. But now, he wasn't much like that at all. This silent and solemn man at her table, drinking tea quietly with shame in his eyes was the furthest thing from the Bacchus she knew. At least, the Bacchus she thought she did.

"So where'd you get it?" Cana asked him, trying to lighten him up. "Some pretty lady in Yi Kai give it to you before you left?" But his expression didn't change.

"No, nothing like that." He was fixated on the window again.

A pause of silence came between them. He just looked so tired. Maybe he's avoiding sleep.

"Bacchus." She gently said. Dully, he looked over at her. "I heard it helps to talk to people about…" Her voice trailed; she wasn't sure how she wanted to word her thoughts and keep a more tactful grace about it. "About your troubles..."

He said nothing, waiting for her to continue. Taking it as a not negative response, she did. "So those dreams. Are they always about the sisters?" He shifted in his seat and glanced back out the window like he had the morning before.

"Not just them." He was speaking softly, as if treating this like another confession. It was painful for him to talk about this, she knew, so she let him speak at his own pace. "There's this dying woman in them some times. I don't know who she is, but in the dream, she has this exact comb and I pick it up. It's covered in blood," He stopped before looking back at her. "And for some reason, I keep it. Then I wake up. No comb, no idea if I actually have it or not, nothing."

"But now you have it." She could feel her hairs standing on end.

"It was part of a reward for a job I did. I didn't know that at the time I took up the request though. The job itself wasn't difficult, just had to protect this merchant and his shipment as he traveled from the port to the next town." His fingers tapped the table. "As I was leaving, he told me to wait a moment and gave me the comb, telling me that he had recently sailed from Yi Kai, buying up spices and cloths and the merchant there had given it to him. He figured since it was only a single item and he had no wife or daughters to give it to, he offered it up as part of the reward when he saw that I was Yikani." He grimaced then. "Ever since he gave it to me, the dreams have intensified."

"So you think there's a connection between the comb and your dreams?" Cana's curiosity piqued.

"It's likely there is, but for some reason I can't seem to get rid of it. There's something more to it like it's to tell me where I ought to go."

He reached his hand up to rub at his neck, but Cana paused. His words struck her, resonating in her head. She abruptly grabbed at the stack of books on the table, opening one with a thud. It startled him, making him nearly spill his drink.

"What are you doing?"

"I have an idea."

"Hm?" He leaned in, watching her flip through the pages.

"Here." She stopped, pinning her finger down on a magic circle in the book. Not sure what she was doing, he simply looked at her with a quirked brow.

"What will this do?"

"I need that comb back." When she looked up, their faces were only inches away. Flinching, she sat back down in her chair, allowing more space between them. Bacchus' eyes narrowed as he retrieved the delicate antique from his bag and set it in front of her. She quickly went to work reading the instructions and positioning the comb on it.

"Enchantment?" He seemed unamused by her actions.

"Shut up. It might work." She glared at him before continuing reading. Once she finished, she placed the comb in the magic circle drawn on the page, turning it so that it faced the way the book said to place it and concentrated.

"Vining divination enchant." The air around them changed noticeably in pressure. They felt it and looked at each other, though he didn't seemed to appreciate the smug look on her face. "Compass arrow." It was clear now that power began to emanate from the comb on the table between them as it started to tremble and wiggle on its own. "Show me where I must go." She spoke directly to it and watched as the delicate object shook violently and spun in place for a moment, gaining momentum. "Go forth!" When the final words were spoken, the comb immediately flung itself straight ahead of her and directly into the middle of Bacchus' bare chest, knocking him to the floor. All the power in the air had vanished immediately when he landed with a hard thud.

"Oi!" His voice rasped as he stood. "What was that for?" If he hadn't been annoyed before, he was now.

"I don't get it. The item is supposed to show the caster where they want or need to go by turning like a compass."

"Maybe you didn't do it right." He put the comb back on the page. Cana sat back down in her seat, rereading the text trying to find her error.

"Vining divination, assists in leading where the caster ought go, place item in circle, top facing cardinal north, so on and so on, after correctly placing the item on the circle, activate it with the following words: vining divination so on and so on." Her brows knotted together. "It seemed simple enough." She looked up at Bacchus who had also retaken his seat. He was leaning back in the chair, his eyes fixated at the ceiling.

"Where the caster ought go." He repeated, looking strained as he pondered. "It's pointing in the direction the caster wants to go, not the owner of the item itself, then."

"Good point." She felt the heat creep up her face then, glad he wasn't looking her way. "You try it then."

When he returned his attention to her, he sighed and spun the book around to face him and read the instructions for himself.

"Vining divination enchant." The pressure changed again. "Compass arrow, show me where I must go." As before the comb began to wobble then start to spin rapidly. "Go forth." It stopped abruptly, pointing in the direction of the window above the sink. South? When she looked at the way his fist tightened, it occurred to her then what he had been looking at so often. He's been looking south this whole time.

"It would appear I am supposed to go south." Bacchus laughed then; a light chuckle that might have erupted into something almost hysterical had he the energy.

"So it would seem." Unsure of what it meant for him, she stayed quiet, hoping he would enlighten her. When he calmed and said nothing, she simply rose and pulled a bottle of wine from her cabinet. Interested in her decision, he watched as she poured herself a glass and left his empty.

"Let's go." Cana said outright. It was useless to pretend to be coy at this point.

"Go?" The man across from her tilted his head, giving her a questioning look.

"The comb pointed where you need to go. So you're going aren't you?" She sipped from her cup, noticing how his eyes never left it. "Take me with you."

"Bribery?" He was returning to his old self by the way he grinned at her.

"I'm offended Bacchus." She took a long drink, finishing the contents and poured another full glass. "You think I'd try to bribe a guest?"

"There's a difference between thinking and knowing." It was obvious he was doing a poor job of resisting the drink. "Besides," He eyed her and slightly cocked his head to the side. "I might not even go."

"You can't fool me, Bacchus. I know the divination wasn't a surprise to you. Why not just go back?" She was confused as to why he hadn't done that in the first place. Bacchus' cool smile fell as he took a moment before answering.

"I can't." He finally said reaching for the bottle, but she slid it out of his reach, and began drinking from the bottle itself.

"Can't? Or won't?" Something like anger seemed to flare in him briefly. She wasn't sure if she wanted to deprive him much longer, but she couldn't give in yet.

"Those who leave the way I did, are not allowed back." His jaw flexed.

"The way you did?"

"When I left for Fiore, it was not necessarily in the most glorious of ways." He was grinning bitterly now with his gaze shifting from the wine to the window. "It was in the black of night, on a little boat, and with nothing but the clothes on my back."

"What are you sort of exiled prince? An outlaw?" The smile on her lips helped to lighten the dim mood that had come between them.

"And if I am?" His eyes narrowed and teeth flashed from the thin sly grin he gave her.

"Tch. That's why I'll go with you." She said flatly. He didn't seem to know how to react to that other than with a quirked brow.

"Go with me? To Yi Kai?"

"I can smuggle you in."

"Smuggled me in? Hah! You smuggle me in? That's a laugh."

"Are you going to just repeat everything I say as a question?" She was getting impatient with him now. "Yes, I'll smuggle you in. It'll be easy." The smile on his face left as quickly as it came. Tossing back the last few sips of wine she carefully placed the empty container back on the table. Knowing they were going to need something heavier, she stood and retrieved a bottle of stronger alcohol.

"How long have you lived in Fiore?" He asked as she opened the second bottle.

"All my life, but what does-"

"All your life. And have you even been outside of it?"

"Well not many times, but what does this have to do with anything?"

"Fiore and many of the other kingdoms here on Ishgar are of the few countries in this world that has rid itself of more old-fashioned ways. Yi Kai is not one of those countries."

"So it's a strict country."

"It is an old country." His tone had darkened when he corrected her; as did the look he gave the empty cup in his hands.

"Why does this matter to us?"

"Because there are still laws there that are not as fair as those here in Fiore."

"Laws like what?"

"Cana, I am an escaped criminal, an outlaw." Bacchus paused to gauge her reaction, continuing when she gave none. "There's hardly a captain alive that would take the risk of illegally trafficking in a rare beast to Yi Kai, let alone me. Plus, after all that effort it took to smuggle me out, why would I want to be smuggled back in?"

"You mean besides that the answers you've been looking for are out there?"

"That still doesn't explain why I ought to take you." She concluded that she would have better chances of convincing him while he was drunk and poured him the first serving from the bottle and watched as he eyed her carefully before sipping.

"Oh that's an easy one." The alcohol was warm as she felt it wash down her throat and into her stomach.

A/N: Hey everyone, hope you've all had a great week! I also have some good news! I am officially finished with the semester! Whoo! However, I will be partaking in a carpentry apprenticeship starting in June that is very demanding time wise. But never fear! I will still do the best I can to update every week and hopefully with the single free week I have before leaving, will get as many chapters as I can finished for a SUPER MASSIVE UPLOAD NEXT FRIDAY! And by super-massive, I mean up to possibly 4 chapters! Anyway, hope everyone did well on their exams if you had any and if not then at least have a wonderful weekend. As always, thanks for the views and favorites! Until next week, Betty B.