Jack shifted the heavy pack, trying to settle it more evenly across his shoulders.
"Jack, really, I can carry my own things," Lena said, but she still gripped his arm as though she needed support. It was the most she'd said in hours.
"It's fine, my lady," he said.
They'd set out mid-afternoon at Orin's suggestion. For all they knew, more members of the Brotherhood might have reason to visit the unholy place and the monk thought it would be wise to be far from the temple grounds come nightfall. They had waited for Lena to wake up, but when she did not - and couldn't be roused - Kane had taken her up on his back like a child, and Jack had stuffed her meager pack into his own. The guard was clearly angry, whether at the mage council's decision to send them away or at parting from the princess he obviously cared for, Jack couldn't say, but he had been silently brooding for the entire journey, delivering only one-word answers to all attempts at conversation until the others had left him alone.
When Lena woke a little more than an hour later, grumbling and disoriented, and Kane set her down, the first thing she'd done was ask after the princess. Kane said nothing, only turned and walked farther on, but Lena made a hurt face as though he'd slapped her. The guardsman and his father still walked ahead of them with Thad in their wake, exploring as he went. With Lena on his arm, Jack hung back, none too subtle about keeping a wide distance between them and the young guardsman's lingering anger. He focused on keeping his own mind calm, knowing Lena could read his emotions as well.
They were making for the bridge at the mouth of Lake Cornelia, walking along the vast lake's southern shore. Lord Redden had a map of the area among his supplies, but it wasn't needed yet; their path would follow the lake's edge for several miles. Lord Orin, who walked on Jack's other side, explained that the bridge had collapsed during one of the recent quakes, cutting off land travel between Cornelia and the harbor city of Pravoka, but it was supposed to be passable by now. The monk passed the time telling Jack elaborate tales of Cornelian history, including one about a battle that had been fought in these very grasslands.
Jack found the stories fascinating, but Lena didn't seem to be listening. She looked out across Lake Cornelia, and he knew she was distracted by the water, unreachable here. The lake's southern coast was rocky, with stones as large as oxcarts jutting out at steep angles from the shore. Jack sighed. If Kane's mood had been grating on him, he could only imagine how it must feel for Lena. He was going to have to have a word with the hotheaded guardsman about controlling his emotions.
Lena stopped suddenly and looked about, not at the lake now but at the grassy slopes on their other side, her fingers tightening on his arm.
"What is it?" he asked her.
"I feel something." She cocked her head as though listening, then she gasped. "Run!" she said. She sprinted toward the others. "Quick! Everybody! Climb that tree!" She pointed to a lone tree on the lakefront ahead of them.
He ran after her, Orin at his heels, though the monk had soon overtaken him. By the time he reached the tree, Lena was halfway up the gnarled trunk, struggling weakly for more height. Thad was already at the top.
"How did you get up there so fast?" Kane asked the boy from the ground below.
"Don't ask questions! Just climb!" Lena snapped, panting from her own efforts.
"But what are we climbing away from, my lady?" Jack asked. He'd never been good at climbing. He was sure he couldn't even have made it to the lowest branch.
A wolf howled in the distance. "That!" Lena said.
Kane rolled his eyes, drawing his sword. "Why didn't you say so before?"
"What are you doing?" Lena said. "Get up here before they reach us!"
Dark shapes loped across the hills toward them. Jack gripped his staff, standing close to Kane. On the guardsman's other side, Lord Redden had drawn his own sword. Orin gripped a fallen branch like a club. Thad, clinging to the tree high above Jack's head, looked at his companions in wide-eyed awe. "Are you seriously going to fight a pack of wolves?"
Kane nodded. "They won't be any worse than the strays we round up in the lower streets. Easier, since we don't have to worry about leaving them alive."
Lena gasped, horrified. "Don't you dare kill those dumb creatures, Kane Carmine! They're mad with hunger! It's not their fault!"
"How do you propose we go about defending ourselves, then?" Kane snarled.
Before she could respond, three of the wolves were upon them. Jack was able to ward off one of them with his staff. It yipped, backing away. Another leaped at Lord Redden and was stabbed for his trouble. Kane killed the third with a well-aimed slash of his blade, but more came behind it, an entire pack. They surrounded the tree, no sooner driven back than they would run in again, biting and snapping.
"Kane! Stop!" Lena pleaded from above.
"It's not that easy, you know!" Kane yelled up at her. "Don't they train you mages in combat?"
"Only in self-defense! Not in inflicting harm to any living creature on purpose!"
"I'm pretty sure this would count as self-defense!"
"Not when you could all just climb a tree and wait for them to leave."
"It is no use arguing," Orin said, swinging his makeshift club viciously for a man of his age. "It is the way of the white mage. You cannot hope to understand."
"Oh, I understand, alright. I understand that she's just going to watch while we get eaten."
"If you look injured, I can heal you from here!"
Kane swiped at another wolf, slicing into its shoulder, and the animal howled in pain.
Lena, too, cried out. Did she feel that? Jack had wondered once before if Lena felt the pain of others the way she felt their emotions. She was certainly reacting to something now.
But Kane seemed unaware of Lena's distress. "Why do you even carry that weapon if you won't use it?" he asked.
"What weapon?"
"What? The massive hammer!"
"A hammer is not a weapon. A hammer is a tool with which a white mage may rebuild the world!"
"Are we really arguing about this right now?" Jack asked, using his staff to push at a snapping wolf. It leaped away from him, circling back on his other side, where Kane stood waiting. Lena sobbed when he ran it through.
"Enough of this," Jack said. He raised his hand in the sign of the staff, drawing on the aether, converting it to flame. The remaining wolves, six of them, yipped as their tails caught fire. They ran howling back into the hills from whence they came.
Kane barked out a laugh. "That was amazing!" he said, as Thad whooped in delight from his perch high in the tree.
"Come down, you two," Redden said. "We need to move on before they decide to come back for another attempt."
Thad scrambled down the tree as easily as a squirrel, but Lena seemed to have some trouble. Jack reached up to help her, but she ignored him, jumping the last few feet to the ground. He could see the tears running down her face. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Don't speak to me," she said. She turned her back on him and walked away.
Lena tried to get a grip on herself. She had known she was in trouble earlier in the day, the moment she woke up on Kane's back. The guardsman was a bundle of irritation too strong to ignore, and she had been too dazed at the time to close him out. It had only grown worse as the day wore on and his mood didn't improve. Now, she was angry at him, and she could feel that he was angry at her for being angry at him, which made her own anger worse.
Jack, too, was beginning to wear on her. Though she normally found the mage's feelings unreadable, she could read his manner all too clearly. He followed her at a respectful distance, not speaking to her as she had demanded, and the barest hint of his remorse pricked at her like a swarm of biting flies. Worse yet, she knew it was her own fault. She felt bad for speaking to him so harshly, but didn't know how to apologize.
Even Thad was becoming a problem. Feeling both content and curious, emotions Lena usually found pleasant by proxy, he walked ahead for the most part, occasionally running back to show her a stone or a leaf or whatever else a young boy found interesting, but his mood contrasted so sharply with that of the warrior and the mage that it was cloying.
She wanted to swim, the better to clear her head, but the coast was too rocky for her to reach the water. She had hoped it would clear up farther on, but it never did.
Just before sunset, they reached the bridge that would lead them north out of Cornelia, a thing of stone from the earliest days of the kingdom, broken in the middle but repaired with massive wooden beams. Lord Redden said something, she didn't hear what, and Kane stopped, looking back at the grasslands behind them, and she felt his heart break. She looked over her shoulder. To the south, the land sloped gradually down to the Aldean Sea and on its coast was the walled city, Kane's home, far, far behind them: their last view of Cornelia. She wanted to tell him she understood, that she too had once left behind everything she ever knew and loved, but when she reached him, he turned away, his anger like a spike hammered into her head.
They made camp not long after that. Lena sat silently on a stone just beyond the light of the campfire, as far from the others as she could get without losing herself in the rocky pass they'd entered, listening to the noises of the night. Too tense to eat, she waited for the others to go to sleep so that she could have a moment's relief. Instead, footsteps approached her. She didn't have to turn to know it would be Jack.
"My lady? May I speak with you?"
She felt tears pricking at her eyes and wiped them away. "You don't need to call me that," she said.
He sat on the stone beside her, close enough that they were nearly touching. "Yes, I do. I owe you a debt."
"I've done nothing," she said.
When he spoke again, his voice was quiet as always. "You vouched for me," he said, and when he said it, she felt how sincerely grateful he was for what, to her, had been such a simple act. "I need to apologize to you for my actions earlier."
She shook her head. He didn't need to say it - this close, she could feel how contrite he was, even while he kept his other emotions guarded. And besides, she was sorry too, for how she'd behaved, but she knew if she opened her mouth again she would only cry.
"Yes, I do. I know you need some time alone, but please know that I value our friendship. I hope you know you can talk to me if you have anything on your mind." He stood, and on that note, left.
It was much later when she felt Kane approaching, his foul mood stinging her thoughts like a slapped sunburn. "Lena, I-" he began, but she interrupted him.
"Did your father send you?"
He was silent for a moment. "Why would you say that?"
"Because you're not sorry, Kane Carmine. Don't try to apologize to me if you don't mean it."
His anger flared hot, though he gave no outward sign of it. He stood, breathing deeply, for what might have been - and very likely was - a slow, deliberate count of ten, then turned back toward the campfire, leaving her alone at last.
Kane felt better in the morning, until he opened his eyes, saw his rocky surroundings, and remembered where he was. He looked around the pass where they'd made camp the night before. The air was cool, with a crispness to it that hinted at the possibility of rain, but it was a distant possibility, the clouds too scattered to pull together a storm. Shipman lay nearby, a snoring little ball of blankets with only the top of his head exposed. Lena was nowhere to be seen. He saw his father smoking his pipe on the camp's far edge, chatting quietly with Orin and Jack, but they stopped speaking when they saw him.
"Good morning, son," Lord Redden said. The monk and the mage busied themselves packing up the camp. Neither would look at him.
"Sure," said Kane, wondering what secrets they were keeping.
Lena didn't help clear the camp. She was off among the stones, being sullen, and didn't join them until all the supplies were stowed and Lord Orin had called her over so they could begin their walk. She didn't even carry her own supplies, Kane noticed. Jack still had them in his bag, though he couldn't fathom why the black mage was being so nice to her.
As they left the pass behind, they entered a wooded area, and his father at last consulted the map he had packed. "Only another mile or so," he said quietly to Orin.
"None too soon," the old man replied.
"Another mile to what? To Matoya's cave?" Kane asked, but the two men pretended they hadn't heard him. Fine, Kane thought. It isn't as if I have any control of this trip anyway.
It was less than a mile, in fact, when he saw a glimmer in the pine trees ahead of him, the midday sun shining off the waters of a secluded lagoon. "That's it," Redden said. "Jack?"
"Thad," Jack said, "Would you like a magic lesson?"
Shipman's eyes grew wide. "Really?"
He began to steer the boy away, back the way they'd come. "I'm not sure if you'll be able to learn it, but I thought perhaps you'd benefit from some basic instruction."
Lena stared after them, frowning in confusion. Kane, equally perplexed, looked at his father as the boy's excited prattle faded away into the distance. Redden looked toward Orin and nodded.
"Forgive me, my lady," Orin said, bowing politely to her, but at the bottom of the bow, he struck out at her, one of the open-handed fighting moves his people were famous for, and suddenly Lena was slung over the wiry old man's shoulder as he carried her toward the lagoon.
"What are you doing?" she screamed. "Orin! Put me down! Orin!"
"What-" Kane started to say, but then his father had grabbed him by the ear and pulled hard.
"Son, we need to talk," he said, dragging Kane some distance toward a fallen log and forcing him to sit.
"Ow!" he cried, rubbing the side of his head. "That hurt! What'd you do that for?"
In the trees, he heard a sharp shriek, followed by a large splash. Had Orin just thrown Lena into the water?
"What in Bahamut's name is going on here?" Kane shouted.
His father knelt in front of him, placing both of his hands on Kane's shoulders, looking him firmly in the eyes. Kane opened his mouth to say something else, but no words came to him. Finally, Lord Redden said, "Son…" He wasn't angry. His voice - and his eyes - were full of concern. Kane squirmed beneath that brown eyed gaze.
"I know you're angry, son. We all are. This situation isn't what any of us would have asked for from life, but you have to get a grip on yourself. You can't let your emotions get the better of you."
"Tell that to her!" Realization dawned slowly. Kane took a deep breath. "I guess that's what Lord Orin is doing right now."
"Son," Lord Redden said again. "She isn't angry at you."
"You could have fooled me!"
"Listen, boy, she's a soul reader." He removed his hat long enough to run a hand through his white hair, then replaced it again. "You were younger than Thad when we lost Lady Aliana. I don't know how well you remember her."
"Of course I remember Aliana! What does she have to do with this?"
"Son, soul readers… they don't feel emotions the way you or I do. They feel what everyone around them feels. Only what everyone around them feels."
Kane blinked. "What do you mean by that?"
"Just what I said. Lena isn't angry at you. She seems angry because she's reflecting your own anger back at you."
He frowned. Surely she's angry at me for killing the wolves? For killing those men at the temple? "That can't be right."
"Think about it, son. When Thad was afraid of the imps, how did she behave? She was holding his hand at the time. When you so bravely - and so recklessly - ran into that temple, she followed you. And now, when you've been angry, she has been as well."
He'd seen her being emotional, hadn't he? She had been frightened when they waited outside the throne room together on the day they'd met… or had Shipman been frightened? Had Jack? She had been terrified the night Sarah was taken… but wouldn't Sarah have been terrified as well? He hadn't known her more than a few days, but he couldn't think of a single circumstance with her where his father's words proved entirely false.
A cold dread started at the base of his spine, crawling slowly upward. "Father," he said. "Lady Aliana loved us."
Redden sighed, still kneeling before him, and the sadness in his eyes made him seem so old. "She did, son. She loved you kids as much as you loved her."
Only as much as we loved her. "It wasn't real?"
"Was your love for her real?"
Kane couldn't think. It was like he'd had the ground ripped out from under him. If he hadn't already been sitting down, he would have fallen.
"Son," Redden said, bringing him back to the present. "You've never been the scholarly sort - you don't live inside your head like I do. You never have. So please, listen to what I'm telling you. You have to learn to control your emotions. White mages draw their power from the purity of their souls - if she goes around reflecting your resentment and bitterness all the time, she'll be no good to us." He reached up with one hand, giving the back of Kane's neck an affectionate squeeze. "I'm not telling you not to feel things. Gods know, when you're feeling something, you feel it with your whole being. You've always been that way. Just try to think about what you're feeling for once."
Lena's laughter echoed through the trees. Whatever Orin had done seemed to have lightened her mood, at least.
Lord Redden stood, as if to walk that direction. "Think on it, son."
"Father?" He waited until his father turned back, looking him in the eye once more. "Does Sarah know all this?"
"No, Kane. She doesn't."
He nodded. "I think… I think I'll take a walk away from the rest of you for awhile, if you don't mind."
"I think that would be best."
It was several minutes after his father left him before Kane felt he was able to stand at all. He walked along the edge of the lagoon, away from his companions, until he could no longer see or hear them through the trees, and then he walked farther.
He lost track of time, thinking, as his father had advised him. Simply walking alone in the woods and contemplating why he was angry made it easier to let the anger go. He still felt it - he didn't think anything could soothe that away - but he hoped it would no longer overwhelm the soul reader.
Lena. He had to think of her as Lena, not "soul reader". She had thoughts and opinions and a personality. Were emotions of her own truly necessary for him to continue to think of her as a human being rather than an empty shell? He had trouble believing someone who seemed so unique, so alive, could be missing such a vital piece, like the monstrous mimics the veteran guardsmen described in some of their more colorful stories. But surely his father wouldn't have lied to him, not when the implications against Lady Aliana were so devastating.
When he did finally rejoin the others, any doubt he'd had about the truth of his father's words vanished the instant he saw her. She sat serenely in a patch of grass, hair still damp from her dunking in the lagoon, smiling brightly as Shipman excitedly described his magic lesson with Jack.
"Hi, Kane!" the boy said when he saw him there, and Lena turned that brilliant smile on him, her earlier anger seemingly forgotten.
"Could you leave us a moment?" Kane asked.
The boy scampered off, calling for Lord Orin. The others were just through the trees nearby, lounging in the shade. Jack had a book in his lap. His father was smoking his pipe.
Lena stood to greet him, as happy as Shipman had been. It really was my fault she was angry, he realized.
"Lena," he started to say, but she put her arms around him, standing on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.
"I know you're sorry," she said, stepping back. "You don't have to apologize. You feel so lost out here... But you're going to save the world, Kane Carmine. I know you are."
They set out again shortly after that. His father gave him the map and made a point of deferring to him when anyone asked which way they should go next. He didn't know when they had decided he was in charge.
The sun was well past its peak when they broke through the woodlands at last and were greeted by a salty breeze. They were on a narrow spit of land that fell away to the ocean on both sides. Ahead of them loomed a great hill of stone, yawning open at the bottom: the cave they had been seeking.
Author's Note: This is when the game starts, you know. Your cute little sprite party defeats Garland, rescues the princess, sets out with no idea where they're going next, and when they cross the newly-repaired bridge out of Cornelia, that's when the game starts. The title pops up, with an image of the Warriors looking back on Cornelia Castle in the distance, and you hear the best video game theme there ever was, an epic, sweeping song that makes you want to save the world right along with them. I'll never forget that first time: that was the moment I became a Final Fantasy fan.