Chapter 12

Choral Castle had been built literally on the edge of a peninsula. While the others walked, Raine restrained a fast clip towards the rundown mansion, dilapidated and obviously abandoned. Vines grew everywhere and nearly everything was either cracked or broken. She could see how this was once suited a duke, but now, it looked like the perfect place to die in a pile of rubble that collapsed when you breathed wrong.

It was gorgeous!

Raine's eyes grew wide. Ruins! Forgetting restraint, she ran and threw herself over the torn off front doors. Everything inside was old and wonderful! She threw her hands up and lost track of everything else in the world.

"Oh! Look at this architecture! The carvings in the stone! This statue, oh the history it could tell." She reached out and touched it—

It came alive.

"AH!" Raine drew back and ducked as it swung a solid rock fist and the whole pedestal hopped, following her as she backed up. She turned and fled towards the others as the last person crossed the doorway inside. While Tear, Anise, and Ion looked shocked, Jade's face was as expressionless as if nothing he had ever seen bothered him. Guy watched her with horror.

She sprinted in his direction.

"That statue came to life, did you see it?"

"Y-yeah…" Guy sidestepped so she could run to the back of the party without touching him. Raine ignored him and turned around again, now safe behind everyone else. Of course, abandoned and forgotten places usually had something else move in. She just didn't expect it to look like a statue the size of a spirit seal guardian.

The statue monster hopped closer to them.

"Jade, is that thing natural?" Raine asked, doubtful.

"It's likely a fontech doll."

"Meaning," Anise said, "something's here someone doesn't want anyone to see."

"Hmm, it doesn't look like we can just slip past it," Jade said.

"Man, I was hoping to avoid another fight." Guy said, though his fingers rubbed his sword as if itching to pull it out. Perhaps he was anxious to find Luke, but Raine wondered if he didn't enjoy fighting.

Anise grabbed her face and wagged her body. "Oh, Luke! I hope he's okay. We'll have to brave these scary monsters to find him."

"Don't worry, Anise," Raine said. "They won't hurt him."

"You seem awful sure of that..."

Raine shrugged. "It wouldn't be wise to."

"Well, as long as we're all together," Tear said, "this should be nothing. Let's hurry up and find him."

Anise giggled. "Yeah. It's too dangerous for a young girl like me, all by myself."

Somehow, Raine wasn't sure that was true, especially with Anise's girlish smile lacking any hint of fear whatsoever.

"Anise," Tear said, completely ignoring her lack of actual fear. "If you're scared, stay to the back with Ion and Raine and leave this battle to us."

"What? I'm not really scared." What she muttered under her breath next, Raine missed entirely but the tone was unmistakable. Her feigning innocence had backfired, big time. All the same, she stood proudly in front of Ion defending her charge like she was supposed to. But where Anise didn't carry an obvious weapon, Raine wondered how she fought. When the ligers had attacked and taken Luke, Raine spent her time searching for fonons. But Anise had to have a weapon of some sort to protect Ion and survive her trip to Kaitzur without harm.

The spear appeared in Jade's hand. "Let's just get this over with, shall we?" The spear… Did Anise use a weapon like his?

Raine lowered her head and turned her back to them.

"What's the matter?" Ion asked her.

"Nothing." With her inability to use fonons, she cowered at the back with Ion, still disgusted that this was her contribution to the group, as Jade would call, "dead weight". At the very least, she could watch the rear and let anyone know if something came up behind them through the front door.

She sighed, wondering for the hundredth time, why couldn't she use the magic here? Each time, she tried feeling for the fonons, but she could only feel them when the others used them. This must be what it's like being pure human. But why could they use it and not her? Even Jade's tutorial didn't help much. She tried tugging at the energy several times and never felt any movement.

With the statue and its pedestal broken into pieces, the fight ended. She felt a sting of anger at more than her inability to help. At the same time as she knew the fontech doll was dangerous, it was also a thing of the ruins. Did they have to destroy it so completely?

"Raine, let's go," Ion said. She followed them, though she stuck closer than usual to their back.

They had only seen bats but thankfully not any other monsters, not even the ligers, as they walked the steps and halls of the mansion. It didn't take Raine long at all to return to her excitement of exploring ruins, though she maintained wariness of anything with an obvious face, stone or not. The place had definitely been cleared out of belongings. The fallen chandelier and the moth-eaten rugs were really all that remained of personal possessions.

Until they entered a room that looked like an old office.

Raine's eyes sparkled at the old carved desk with a few books stacked on top. She brushed past Guy who jumped back with alarm and she shoved aside Tear in her quest to check out the stack of books. Without much time to really peruse them, she grabbed a few and stuffed them into her bag. Jade raised an eyebrow and she noticed.

"What? This place was abandoned years ago. No one will notice."

"Oh nothing. Just making a mental note to tidy up my office before you come to visit."

"Yeah, like she would visit you," Guy said, laughing. "You're from Malkuth, remember?"

"Then what's the point of a peace treaty?" Anise asked. "If you're going to talk like that. Honestly."

"Oh yeah, huh?"

Raine actually found herself hoping. What kind of things did a colonel keep in his office that he'd want to "tidy up"? "If I'd be welcome..."

"The emperor's library is far more fascinating than mine," Jade offered. "Perhaps you'd be more inclined to visit his instead."

"Still, it can't hurt reading up on as many books as you can when they're available," Ion said. Tear gave Raine a confused look, no doubt remembering her comment about not staying in Sheridan long enough to read.

"That would be my pleasure—" but then Raine remembered the emperor lived in Grand Chokmah, the city floating over water. All it would take was a faulty bridge and she'd be done for. "If only..."

"Huh? Did you say something?" Anise asked, heading through the next doorway. The others had started moving on already.

"No." But books, like old artifacts, might be well worth the risk...

"Well come on before we leave you behind."

They walked down a staircase leading into a massive cave beneath the manor where the ocean splashed in, thrashing against rocks and a small outcrop. The familiar smell of brine dumped Raine's excitement back into reality with sinking weight. The manor sat on the edge of the ocean. And now the ocean was right there.

Three flights of stairs separated them from a machine that filled nearly the full height of the cave. Across the cave, another flight of stairs led to the outcrop and the bottom of the machine and blocking any exits was Arietta and three ligers. The machine reminded Raine of an hourglass with no glass or sand. It was blue and gold with a giant obsidian sphere, and just beneath it, lay Luke with a young man wearing a mask standing next to him. From the mask, tufts of green hair splayed and he wore clothes of all black lined with lime green trim and white.

"Luke!" Guy reacted. He jumped down from the landing and drew his sword. As he swung, the blade clipped the young man's mask right off his face. He froze. "You!" The young man covered his face with his hand and backed away, dropping something on the ground.

Raine heard the ocean slapping against the cliff side. She turned and nearly felt sick from seeing it. The height, the jagged rocks, for a moment, all she could see or think about was falling into the water when she was a little girl. Riding in a boat that rocked, the waves smacking the boat, and her leaning over the edge a little too far. She wasn't anywhere near the wall protecting them from falling in, but she sure felt she was going to.

Tear and Anise leaned over it, though, watching the masked man take off, Guy in hot pursuit.

A middle-aged man floating in an opulent armchair soared away from the machine. "I'll leave them to you," he told Arietta. He cackled as he flew away, ducking the lip of the cave as he disappeared out of the cave's mouth, out into the open sunshine above the ocean. If Raine had seen some strange things, he was the strangest with white hair and painted purple lips.

As soon as Jade saw the machine, the color drained from his face.

For the first time since Raine met him, he lost control of his emotions. He stepped forward with wide eyes and tension in his face.

"Could this be...?"

"Colonel, do you know what it is?" Anise asked.

"No, I can't be sure," he said. Raine glanced back at the machine. Was that true? She couldn't tell what it was either, but his reaction to it... he had to know something about it. And he was the only one alarmed to see it.

Arietta hesitated and then held up her doll. "Attack them! It's time to punish them for killing Mommy!"

Guy had leapt down from the landing, but the others decided to take the stairs. Raine followed them, descending the stairs slowly, but her mind wasn't on the fighting. Why did Jade have such a severe reaction to the machine? Not to mention the water left her feeling a bit sick. Ion and Mieu stayed with her, as Jade, Anise, and Tear hurried across the walkway to Arietta and her ligers.

Raine picked her way down the steps and stopped when the staff clinked on the stone, waking her up to its potential again. She had used it before to hit things. Even if she couldn't use magic, she could at least use her staff to defend.

"Where are you going?" Ion asked.

"If I can't be helpful in one way, I'll be helpful in another." She inhaled a deep breath and stepped off the stairs to the platform lining the cavern.

"Tear!"

Mesmerized, or was it fear? She looked across the cave to see Anise riding a massive puppet, the doll from her back, swiping with a paw at a liger. The liger's eyes were on Tear who stood on the machine walkway, working on a spell to cast. Raine's curiosity would've been piqued, she would've been ecstatic to ask about it, if her excitement hadn't already fled from her fear. How did that happen? Wasn't it just a doll? She couldn't remember seeing it before when Luke was taken from them, but she was so focused on using fonons.

Raine reached the walkway, slightly dizzy from the splashing. The path around the machine seemed incredibly narrow. And the ocean sounded too close. A liger noticed her, but this time, she was prepared. She held her staff ready for a strike. But Jade had noticed the liger, too.

"Splash!"

"Eh?" Raine heard the rushing water as if it poured right above her. She knew the ocean beat against the cliffs of the peninsula, but to see the water pour from the skies was something else entirely. Genis could use water spells, too, but his were far less of a drown hazard.

Startled, she tripped backwards, slipping on the damp walkway until it was no longer beneath her. Before falling to her death, the only thing she could think of to do was to scream as if she could beg enough to stop the ocean from swallowing her whole.

A/N: I always forget these things when I post! But anyway, the next chapter is mostly ready, so hopefully the wait won't be too long, but I wanted to check in with ya'll. I'm kind of sensing that Raine is veering a little bit off, but I wasn't sure if that's just me or you guys are noticing it, too?

I'm trying to find that balance between the rub between her and Guy and who she is as a person, tolerant and respectful, and I almost feel like she's leaning the other direction too far. What do you think? Leave a review or PM me, either way is fine. I really appreciate your feedback on this. :D Have an amazing weekend!