Chapter 3: Lucid.

'Oh…', Kayle managed one croak, her eyes out of focus as she leaned heavily against the door frame.

'Yes'. Justicar Michael pursed his lips.

Even he was aware of how miserable his offered condolence sounded.

'Why…?', Kayle managed to whisper, her mind in turmoil.

Michael hesitated.

On one hand, he was bound by certain oaths he had taken to not reveal classified war information. But on the other, Kayle was his protégé and he felt a certain degree of pity for her…

There were two roads he could take but perhaps… perhaps I can make another, between them, thought Michael, as a decision formed within him.

'Come with me.'

(break)

'Where are we going?', Kayle spoke up in an uncharacteristically demure way as she followed Michael down one of the many long hallways within the Institute.

Despite having been around the Institute for years such that it was almost a second home to her, even she had not travelled down this path. All the decorations on the walls were foreign to her and that, coupled with the fact that there was absolutely not a soul in sight, gave Kayle a cause for curiosity.

'You will find out', was the answer she got from Justicar Michael, who said it without turning back as he continued taking long strides forward. Kayle found that she had to actually go into a slight jog just to keep up.

Every now and then her mentor cast hurried glances backwards, almost as if he was checking to see if they were being followed. Kayle's curiosity only got larger.

Finally, after what felt like hours had passed, they arrived before a massive oak door at the end of a hallway.

It was unlabeled, unlike every other door she had seen in the Institute, although it had to be important, Kayle noted, seeing the Judicator's seal engraved on the wood before her. It sure did look very imposing, which meant something in of itself since Kayle was not easily impressed.

She looked at her mentor expectantly as he stood there right beside the door. He seemed to be waiting for something.

A moment passed and just as Kayle was about to ask him what was going on, Justicar Michael raised a knuckled-fist.

He knocked. Without skipping a beat, he proceeded to push the door right open.

And then, they stepped in.

(break)

Asri gazed intently at the girl sleeping peacefully below her, biting her lips.

Quietly, she set the breakfast tray down on the dresser in the opposite corner of the room, checking once again to make sure that the glass of juice was fully and well mixed before returning to the bedside.

Sunlight shone past lacy curtains, partly filtered of its glare to leave a gentle golden glow that fell on sleeping beauty's visage and gave her blonde hair a soft aura.

Pale skin framed by beautiful blonde bangs, a slender, beautiful neck leading past the young angel's chest to her relatively flat stomach. Then further down beyond Morgana's… covered nether regions, Asri gulped as her eyes were momentarily glued to the spot…

Then further, to where the girl's night skirt had ridden up to reveal young, creamy thighs that were just the right amount of thick. The thin blanket she had even bothered to pull over herself had slipped down and was now gathered around her petite feet. It was a vision of perfection and the older angel absolutely swooned.

So pretty…

Pretty, and truly a work of art.

Asri sighed as she reached out a hand to caress her sleeping angel's cheek, but stopped halfway, her outstretched hand barely an inch from Morgana's cheek.

Her gut always did flips whenever she was in her Ana's presence. Even though she knew exactly the reason why she was that way, Asri pretended that she did not, hoping that somehow doing so would make her pent-up feelings go away.

She had…needs. Needs that had to be met. Needs that, unfortunately, had to be by a certain someone.

The only problem was that Morgana was under-aged and Asri wasn't that desperate. But even if Morgana was of age, however, there were next to no guarantees that she would even reciprocate the older angel's advances. Not willingly, at least.

Asri sighed again. Why did love have to be so complicated? Or was it lust? Honestly, thinking about it at all only served to rile her up her up unnecessarily. Asri did not want to question whether her feelings for the girl was genuine; it made her doubt her own intentions, and there was no backing out now.

So instead, she settled for brushing a stray strand of blond hair away from Morgana's eyes, which suddenly flew open causing her to yelp and leap back in surprise.

Morgana stared at her.

'H-hi', Asri heard herself speak in a voice that was too high to be hers, 'I-I didn't know that you were awake.'

'I wasn't.'

'…'

'Oh…'

Asri gaped as she thought of things to say to not make it too obvious that she had been staring at the sleeping Morgana for almost half an hour and being a creep.

Morgana seemed to realize something as the silence dragged on.

'Oh… that's', she mumbled, her slightly slurred voice the only indication that she had just come out of sleep at all, 'that's just how I wake up usually...'

Asri visibly relaxed, although Morgana was still a little too bleary to notice.

'I brought you breakfast', Asri offered with a smile.

'Oh?', Morgana was pleasantly surprised. She sat up fully and gathered the blanket around her waist as her gaze searched the room for her promised meal.

As her eyes settled on the tray in the corner, she brightened up.

'Thank you!', Morgana exclaimed happily, clapping her hands in delight.

Asri only smiled. She walked over and returned with the glass of juice in hand.

With a smile, she offered it to her guest.

Morgana took it gladly and took a sip, scrunching her eyebrows together as she mulled over the taste. After a few seconds, after apparently deciding that it was absolutely fantastic, she gulped the rest down.

Asri waited with barely concealed anticipation as she saw the glass empty down her guest's throat. Morgana, of course, did not take notice of this.

'So… how did you sleep last night?'

'Well…', Morgana lied, 'thank you!'

'Mm…'

The young angel got out of bed and sheepishly walked past Asri, who was now just sitting at the edge of the bed staring at her.

'The bathroom's down the hallway to the left, right?', she asked, even though she had already known the way.

'Yeah.' Asri nodded, still staring as her ward left to wash her face.

Soon, she heard the sound of running water.

Asri could hear her own heartbeats thumping erratically in her chest. The anticipation was almost too much for her to handle. And yet at the same time, she herself knew that this was the most important part.

The water ran for a long time.

After a good ten minutes had passed, Asri decided that it was safe to go.

She found Morgana passed out on the bathroom floor, body prone, one hand outstretched as if reaching for the door. She was probably trying to steady herself as her vision blurred and her world began to go dark. Poor dear, the older angel mused, she must have been so confused.

Asri smirked as she hoisted the girl up and carried her bridal style to her own bedroom. There was no need to lock the door.

Morgana would be asleep for a long time, and there was only one person who even knew that she was at Asri's. However, the chances of Kayle dropping everything to come look for her sister was slim at best- Asri had observed how fervent the girl was about her training and knew that Kayle would not miss a practice session just because her sister came home just a little bit late.

Asri licked her lips. She couldn't help herself.

Morgana was just so… perfect.

(break)

'There is… a war going on.'

'…'

'…'

'Am I supposed to say something, Justicar?', Kayle asked by way of an answer.

Justicar Michael shrugged.

Kayle furrowed her eyebrows as she folded her arms across her chest. She was usually not so… unlike herself, but recent events had made her rather irritable.

'You say that, Justicar, as if it explains everything.'

'It doesn't?', Justicar Michael asked, puzzled. He seemed rather clueless. Men…

Kayle was about to snap right then and there but something held her back. Perhaps it was the mental discipline she had developed over the year, or the huge reserves of patience she had worked up living under the same roof as her wayward younger sister. But anyways, she did not end up screaming at her mentor and only gave a very long, very drawn out, very exasperated sigh.

Kayle was indeed aging prematurely. Her sighs made it clear.

'Who are we even fighting?', Kayle asked impatiently as she followed Justicar Michael up some steps. Before them was what looked like a…pool? There was a bright green glow coming from it, one that illuminated the whole room.

She got no answer from her mentor who continued walking until he was right at the wall of the pool thing. Curious, Kayle followed.

It's not a pool…Kayle thought. It's a… map?

And indeed, it was.

Before the two of them was a gigantic map of Aerilion, although it took her a moment to fully locate where they were on the map but only thanks to the help of the jagged ranges of the Dark Mountains, to the west of which her city lies.

What puzzled Kayle the most as she continued surveying the glowing map, however, was the fact that it seemed to be alive and moving and not only that, but also the fact that the initial green she saw wasn't the light of the whole map.

In fact, the green light only came from some areas of the map, mostly near and around her city. With closer inspection one would say the green was barely half the whole of Aerilion. Upon even closer perusal one would have been alarmed to see that the red areas of the map were almost encircling the green ones, although what the distressing red was Kayle did not know and thus, could not tell.

'Judicator Arianna has been keeping it away from the people', her mentor spoke, startling Kayle. He had been rather silent as he stood beside her, waiting patiently as she tried to make sense of what was essentially a war map. 'News of the war, I mean.'

'Who are we fighting?', Kayle muttered, barely audible. Her eyes were on the red patches. All north and south of the Dark Mountains, the red was blanketed like a sinister veil.

'We are fighting the...um-', Michael hesitated as he bit his lips.

Part of him knew that there was no easy way to put it, but in the end, the girl's parents had been sent and she had a right to know. She deserves to know.

At least, that was what he told himself as he tried to convince his own mind that it would be a good idea to tell Kayle that there was a civil war raging not too far away from the city's gates.

Now that was a mistake Justicar Michael should not have made.

(break)

Morgana resurfaced from a dream of being torn apart by hooded beings to the biggest fucking headache of her life and she hated it. Not only that, she was incredibly groggy, which would have made her suspect a hangover had she the presence of mind to form a coherent thought. What hit her the hardest, however, was the fact that her body ached all over.

As it was, she was barely able to open her eyelids, noticing the first thing that came to her being the fact that she seemed to not be in her own home.

Disoriented, she tried to focus on the objects in the room.

She saw Asri sitting by her bedside and was a bit startled. What was her mentor doing here?

'Hey.'

'…'

'You're awake.'

'Wh-where am I?', asked a confused Morgana.

'You are at my house. You came to stay over last night.'

'Oh.'

'Are you alright? You were out of it for a while… I don't know why', asked a worried Asri as she tentatively placed a hand on Morgana's forehead. When Morgana did not shy away, she rested her hand fully on the girl's forehead to test her temperature. Asri seemed almost hesitant to touch Morgana, as if she was afraid she would be pushed away.

Morgana herself didn't mind. The coolness of her mentor's hand was a welcome relief to the burning heat of her forehead.

'We need to get you something cool to drink… give me a moment.'

And with that Asri quickly left the room. She had not been gone two minutes before Morgana was already missing her. For some reasons, she felt unusually needy at that moment. She wanted to hold, or rather, to be held.

Asri returned with a glass of what Morgana guessed was orange juice. As she tried to sit herself up in bed a restraining hand was placed on her shoulder. Looking up, Morgana saw a kind smile bestowed upon her.

'Sit still', was the gentle command as her mentor towered over her, looking down.

Nevertheless, Morgana complied, eyes wide as saucers as she stared at her mentor who was bringing the glass to her lips, wondering what was about to happen as her cheeks flustered in a very uncharacteristic, definitely non-Morgana way.

The cool juice lapped slightly at her pursed lips and Asri squeezed her shoulders a little. It was an unspoken request. Open your mouth.

So Morgana did, and Asri fed the refreshing, cool, very, very well-mixed orange juice down her sweet little Morgana's throat again.

Morgana leaned back, a pleasurable chill running up and down her spine. The sun framed her mentor's face beautifully. Blonde locks were golden, almost, in the light of dusk. Asri brushed stray strands of hair out her eyes and Morgana had the weirdest urge to reach up with her hand, grab that hand, and pull her mentor into a kiss.

However, she found that for some strange reason the strength had left her body and she was barely able to move her head as she saw her mentor's head coming closer and getting larger and larger in her darkening vision.

I'm so sleepy….

What's Kayle doing right now? Fading sunlight streamed in from fully open windows. Even that was getting darker by the second. Strange, I could swear I had just woke up… why am I so sleepy again?

'Ana? Are you alright?', from the end of a long, dark tunnel, Morgana heard her mentor's voice call out to her. It was full of concern. How nice. How endearing. I like her…

What happened last night?

As darkness rose to claim Morgana once more, it occurred to her to realize that Asri's hand had moved down from her shoulder and was now slipping into her night skirt, holding her close. Soft murmurs came from somewhere. Probably Asri.

Why? was her last thought.

And then Morgana was gone.

(break)

Kayle was angry. No. Scrap that. She was furious.

'What do you mean with other Sefiro?', she paused, thinking furiously for one second before assaulting her poor mentor with another barrage of questions, 'does that mean we are having a civil war now? So my parents are now fighting their own brothers and sisters? Why would Sefiro fight Sefiro? Is that what the red is? Did we lose that much Aerilion to those Sefiro already?'

'Kayle', Michael held up two placating hands, 'please. Stop for a second. I know you are frustra-'

'-you know nothing!', Kayle interrupted him, her voice rising to almost a shout. 'You do not know what it is like to lose family to the war, you do no-'

'Kayle!', Michael snapped, then quickly regained his composure as he shot his pupil a pained look. Before him, he saw a frustrated youth. That was not what Kayle was supposed to be. 'My sister was in the army.'

Kayle was taken aback.

'…was?'

'…'

Justicar Michael sighed as he turned his back on his student and began walking out of the map room. He paused for one second mid-stride, a signal to Kayle that she should follow. Wordlessly, she did.

As the doors to the room closed behind them, Michael spoke again.

'She was a healer in the battle for Irongate.'

Kayle nodded solemnly, not knowing what else to do. Irongate was the only Sefiro city in all of the Dark Mountains and it was named thus because it sat right at the beginning of the large canyon that ran right across the whole mountain ranges forming an unbroken road from the Wanderer's Seas to the capital, the Citadel.

Control of Irongate equaled control of the entire Dark Mountain ranges.

A brief glance at the map just now had revealed Irongate to be way deep inside the red, the meaning of which was now just beginning to dawn on Kayle, giving her a cause for much consternation, not that she let it show.

Her mentor had spoken of his sister in the past tense. Kayle did not wish to imagine what it must have been like. Her mind was becoming a mess too soon she couldn't even keep track of her thoughts.

Gingerly, she reached out to place a comforting hand on her mentor's shoulder ahead of her. He did not shun her and Kayle was relieved, a little. Anything she could do to comfort her mentor now was good enough for her. After all, the pain of losing family members must be immense…

And then it hit her.

'But Justicar, what of my parents?'

Michael did not turn around. He was afraid that if he did, the girl would see the pain on his face and would immediately know. She was a smart girl. She would be able to easily connect the dots.

Sometimes he wished his protégé wouldn't be so perceptive.

But alas, it was not to be.

'Justicar…?'

(break)

Support Velkoz's note to my lovely readers: Sefiro are immortal once they reach full maturity at the age of 30. However, until then they age at half the rate of humans. That means that a 13 year old Morgana in this story according to Sefiro years is actually already 26 years old in terms on human years. I leave it to your own imagination to figure out the story as you will. I just grinded 50 games (37 wins) of nocturne jungle from silver 3 after my placements to gold 5 where I am now. I'm playing 10-12 matches a day so writing is done very slowly. Once again, I ask for your forgiveness. Be kind like Kayle and forgive Michael. Or don't. Drama is nice.