Filling In The Blanks
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy IX or any of its characters.
Chapter 85: Do or Die
Sweat poured down her face like she'd been running for hours. She was slumped forward, leaning on his wound more than putting pressure on it as she listened to the frantic rustling of people in the kitchen.
"The stormvine!" Freya stressed insistently; Dagger could hear the sour demand behind her voice. "Move!"
There was some shuffling as Steiner was shoved out of the way of the small kitchen. The two knights fumbled around Quina and Freya – one too large to stand at the counter, and the other the only one who knew how to effectively use the space and appliances still working in the kitchen.
"Freya, we need Gyshal greens."
"You are not getting any of them here," she spoke swiftly. "Gyshal greens are available at the market, but they do not grow native here."
"Do you have anything around here we could substitute it with?"
Dagger groaned, though no one was in the room to hear her. Steiner and Beatrix were trying to rustle up some sort of energy potion for Dagger, who wheezed and felt dizzy if she stared at the blood seeping through her fingers for too long. At first, the girl had been hesitant about the blood, squeamish and afraid she wouldn't save him because she'd never been faced with a powder that blocks ninety-eight percent of the cure spell from working.
Freya was assisting Quina in the mixture needed for his blue magic so he could extract the powder from Amarant's wound. The world moved too slowly, but far too quickly around the young girl, and she could hardly keep in check what everyone's jobs were.
She knew though, that everyone was frustrated. They were running out of time; no doubt whoever did this would be finding them soon. No amount of rain would wash away the trace that Amarant left – not even if they were lucky. Low on energy, the girl had to stop her constant cures and take over putting pressure on his stomach, hoping to stop the bleeding long enough for the two concoctions to be finished. But that meant too many bodies that were too stressed in one place, and she winced every time a sharp command to move came from Freya, or an ingredient demand came from Beatrix. Steiner was dangerously quiet.
They had decided early on that Eiko shouldn't have to handle this. She was bawling by the time they got Amarant inside, and Beatrix doubted she would be able to concentrate enough to cast any white magic anyways. She had disappeared shortly into the healing process; they were correct on the assumption that she hadn't seen an injury quite like this – first hand anyways – where someone might die, and Dagger had her rising suspicions it reminded Eiko too much of the way she lost her family, though she didn't know the story of the little girl's past.
The princess ground her teeth together determinedly. Amarant hadn't flinched in pain, despite half of her body weight being pressed against the wound, and he hadn't groaned in delirium either; that made her the most nervous. He hadn't showed any sort of response.
Any creak the wind made, or patter the rain played out caused Dagger to jump. Here in the living room by herself, she'd have time for half a scream before she was taken down if anyone found their location silently enough. She wanted to rub the fear away from her eyes to try and stay focused, but instead her fingers twitched against his cold wound in anxiety.
"We've got it!" Steiner yelled triumphantly, and she imagined him snatching the bowl off the counter.
Freya growled at him to wait however, and Dagger's muscles cried in protest at her demand. "Do not give it to her before Quina's mixture is done otherwise she will wear out again before she can do any good."
Steiner seemed fed up with this response and clattered into the living room, watching the girl with the strained face drained of all color lean heavier on the man unconscious in front of her.
"Steiner," she mumbled wearily and he was instantly at her side.
"Take a break I –"
"No," Dagger slipped out hastily. "Steiner what if…" She tried to begin but the words fell off of her tongue before she could say it. She tried again. "What he dies?"
Whatever consoling words the ex-knight was readying caught in his throat, and he gulped before staring down at the man for a moment. He wasn't sure which was more frightening – someone so strong with a face twisted in frozen pain, or the sunken face of his princess, frightened and doubting.
"Everything will be alright, Dagger," he nodded determinedly, trying to be brave for her, just as he had done many times in the past. "Everything will be fine."
There was a short moment of silence that seemed to pass between them, before Steiner slowly covered her hands with his, and she slipped them out from under his. The squelch of her hands falling away was almost enough to make both of them sick, but the black haired man was more concerned with the look of dazed loss on Dagger's face. He could tell just by her expression that she wasn't sure where to wipe the blood, but that she couldn't look at it anymore.
His lips puckered before he jerked his head towards the doorframe leading into the kitchen. The longer he spent in this Bermecian home, the more he decided it wasn't as peculiar as he first thought. The shapes were a little odd, and the colors and sense of nature inside were strange to him, but now that he was used to it, and not observing anything, it looked more like a regular home.
"Go into the kitchen," he broke from his distracted thoughts, "they have a pale of water. If they're done with it, wash your hands in there."
She nodded without another word and padded out of the room lightly. Movement stopped for a moment in the kitchen, and the sloshing of water was heard. Steiner assumed they saw her face and decided she could use the water, regardless of if they were done with it. They didn't need her shaken up and afraid like their only other white mage.
Steiner wasn't sure how much time had passed before his head snapped up at the new presence in the room. Freya entered first, carefully balancing the pool of liquid in the shallow bowl, before she fell into a kneel at Steiner's side, waiting for Quina to move to the other side of Amarant. He stared at them expectantly with his star-shaped pupils, and the Bermecian handed over the liquid.
"Quina do good," he reassured them as he started the spell. His eyes fluttered shut and his tongue was still, the lack of drool flinging around showing them just how nervous and afraid he was, though they hardly ever got to know what he was really feeling.
Beatrix and Dagger silently moved into the room as well. Dagger slowly sipped the potion, letting it revitalize her body and feeling the strength wash over her again. The tired film before her eyes seemed to lift, and her posture rose to her regular, unbarred stance again. They watched the blue hued light come forth to Quina's hands, and when he opened his eyes, his red pupils were glowing a deep sapphire.
The magic seemed to seep into the water, and slowly, he poured it over Amarant's wound, letting it soak into the skin around it. Steiner moved his hands away just before the first touch of water hit, and it was like the water itself was healing as well as removing the toxic magic powder. The heavy flow of bleeding seemed to halt for a moment, and the wound didn't look as harsh as it did the last time they wiped away the blood.
"Dagger…" Beatrix whispered, nudging her lightly forward.
She handed the bowl off to the knight and sat next to Quina, waiting for the brightness to begin ebbing away before she fired up her own cure spell. Sucking in a shallow breath, she concentrated as well as she could, letting the glittering light fall peacefully over his wound.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief as his body seemed to take the magic and absorb it.
But it was a short lived relief.
There was a yell outside; something angry and demanding, and most definitely not Bermecian. It wasn't gentle enough – too rough for this serene place of nature. Dagger's eyes flickered fearfully up to Steiner's, who was directly across from her.
They were right; Amarant's struggle to make it back to his teammates and save his life had brought trackers… people who knew who they were, and how disadvantaged they were.
Freya was at the window in a moment, peering out as a knot tied tightly in her stomach. She gasped. "It cannot be!"
"What is it?" Beatrix asked her harshly, kneeling low to avoid detection, though the curtains were all drawn.
"The woman from the prison outside of Madain Sari! The brunette who knew Amarant!"
"What?!" Dagger's eyes snapped towards the window, remembering how she had wanted to toy with her and Zidane, threatening Blank to get the blonde to do what she wanted.
"She is leading a fair group of soldiers down the pathway. All that is left now is for her to locate which house we are at." The Bermecian followed the watery trail of red with her keen eyesight. If someone were careful to look, the faintest stream of blood spatters led to Fratley's stone pathway up to the house. "It will not be long before we are discovered."
"We can't move Amarant now, though! His body took the cure, but not nearly enough for him to wake, let alone be moving!"
"Heal him again!" Freya demanded, trying to grind out an idea quickly and effectively.
"Out the back," Steiner suggested. "There's a cellar –"
"It won't do any good hiding!" Beatrix interrupted. "We need to stand and fight, or run or we'll never get out of here."
Freya shook her head faintly though didn't say a word. There was no way out of this – there were too many.
Dagger watched her, and the crestfallen expression on her face. She bit her lip and stared around the room. Eiko was peeking out from the hallway, having come out in the scramble of noise when they mentioned Madain Sari.
"Eiko!" She cried, and the others flinched at her loud yelp. "Come heal Amarant!" She let on a shaky smile. "You can do this… I know it."
"Why aren't you?"
"I have something I need to do." She beckoned to the girl again, who hesitantly stared down at the redhead. It still looked rough, but nothing nearly as graphic as it had been with Kuja's powder festering inside of it.
The strong look came back into the young girl's eyes, and her courage returned when she watched Dagger's pleading eyes search her face. Eiko knew that the girl was up to something – something that nobody else was going to like.
The raven leapt up and steadied herself, flickering on some internal trigger to start gathering energy. Her hands warmed as magic spread to them. She steered around the others in the room, still arguing quietly about a solution. She reached the door before Steiner interrupted her.
"What are you doing?!"
"I have an idea!"
"Dagger –" but before anyone could stop her, she threw open the door and burst outside.
The tunnels got less stuffy the higher they went. There was no light – only Cinna's steadily burning mace, which he looked at every few moments and sighed softly in despair. Nobody blamed him; going weaponless into a dark tunnel didn't seem like a very good idea, even for him.
Vivi's hands wrung together nervously, making the faint sound of squeaking leather as he rubbed them. He led the group forward, foremost by a collection of broken memories and hazy dreams. His nervous yellow eyes continually darted towards Zidane, who strode, entirely relaxed, next to him.
He sucked in a breath, wondering if he would ever get a chance to speak to Zidane in private, and ask him how he had so much trust in the black mage. He could imagine the scene right now, the genome finding the perfect balance of telling Vivi that he was a little too insecure, and knowing that despite that, he knows that magic, confidence, or neither, he'd have his back.
"What's that light?" Despite his being the leader for the first time ever during a mission (or heck - scouting duty, practice, or even walking on leisure time) Marcus was the first to spot the light in the distance. There was an incline, outlined heavily by the dim light ahead of them, and the dimmer light of the burning weapon.
"It could be an opening," Blank decided, "but we'd better be careful. We have no idea if anything is in this cave."
Vivi watched them all break out into Tantalus mode, sneaking, nearly silent, on the rocky floor, while he stumbled along clumsily, flinching whenever his foot kicked a pebble that the others had ghosted over. Zidane took the lead now, his hand on the hilt of his dagger at his side. Vivi was shuffled closer to the back, towards Ruby, whose skirt was pushed to the side, revealing a long leg and a dagger sheath strapped to her thigh.
The small group found that they were coming up on the tunnel's end fast, and Cinna puffed out moist breaths, putting out the fire on his mace, trying (mostly in vain) to grasp the handle, in an attempt to make himself useful. Ruby pulled a short dagger from her boot and tossed it at him. He caught it in silence.
Zidane was the first to go into the light. They could see each other now in the darkness, and his eyes picked up on the greens of Ruby's skirt, or the dusty red of Marcus' bandana or Blank's hair. He bit his lip as he wandered into the cavern, seeing that the light was streaming through tattered magenta curtains, and something in his mind suddenly clicked.
The room was large and round, with a couple of sleeping mats to one side, along with a chest and a few stone shelves, where an assortment of things too intricate to make out in the dusty lighting sat. In the middle of the room was a round stone table, and to the left of that was a very well-off kitchen, though neglected as though it hadn't been used in quite some time. He laughed and turned towards the others.
"It's Vivi's home!"
It took only three words to coax everyone into the room, except Vivi, who still lingered in the doorway as the others snooped into his past. Zidane noticed after a moment of inspecting the table that the young mage had yet to enter.
"What are you doing, Vivi?"
He stared up at the thief with wide eyes that were afraid. He was so afraid that he wouldn't find what he was looking for, and desperate not to ruin his dream that maybe things were okay. Ruby threw open the tall curtains, letting the moon's light seep into the room.
Concerned, Zidane's feet slide along the textured floor about the dwelling, trying to get a good feel of his footing. "What's wrong?"
When the blonde was close enough, Vivi gripped his hat and pulled it tighter down on his head, his whole body quaking a little. "I'm afraid."
The genome let out a care free sounding laugh, catching the brief attention of the others. But before long, Blank wandered out onto the balcony, and Marcus inspected the kitchen, snooping for any sort of provisions he could find. Cinna and Ruby stared around at the décor, leaning forward to get a look at the details of ornaments adorning the walls and shelves.
"You don't have to be afraid!" Zidane tried, back pedaling a few steps before gesturing around with his arms. The mage still stared at him, a hesitant expression deep in his eyes – this wasn't something he was going to shake so easily.
So the thief moved closer and knelt down to Vivi's height. "I know you're scared you're not going to find what you're looking for." He sat on the floor then, and gestured for the mage to sit with him. A small smile spread lightly across the genome's face, and a look of honesty swept across his features. "Your grandpa is very important to you. We all know; that's why we're here. But that's the thing… We're here with you."
"Nobody understands but you," he knew he sounded like he was whining, but he couldn't help it.
"Everybody has lost something in the war, and not many people get back what they lose. And if they do, it's not always the same." Zidane shook his head, that carefree look never quite leaving his features, even though his tone was serious. He leaned back and felt the rigidness of the rock below him poke at him through his dirtied gloves.
He wiggled his feet a little as he thought about his next words, shaking his tired legs out as he did so. The mage thought he looked so relaxed that he tried to mirror the thief's position, but Zidane abruptly moved again, tucking his legs underneath him.
"Don't think that you're such a burden on all of us, Vivi. I know that you think they're coming here just because I promised you that you could, but they care. Maybe they don't understand the way our minds sit a little off kilter," he laughed at the odd expression, "But they understand that it's something we need to do. Everyone wants you to find your grandpa again; and I know, even more so after hearing what Quale told you, that he hasn't forgotten about you. Maybe you won't find what you're looking for here, because you won't find your grandpa. But you'll find it in a way that says he's still out there looking for you, and he hasn't just given up and come home."
The mage was stunned. He fiddled with the worn edge of his hat, and stared at the ground for a long time, pondering Zidane's words. It wasn't often that he had a long speech like that to make, but it always seemed to be Vivi he was willing to lend those words to.
"You're right," the shorter of the two decided after a few moments of consideration. "I'm lucky," he nodded. "And it's not fair for me to hold back while everyone worked so hard to get me here."
Zidane didn't answer, instead stood up and offered Vivi a hand. "Let's have a look around. Maybe it'll trigger a memory, or maybe we'll find something from your grandpa."
If he could have seen the black mage smile, it would have made him laugh. A sense of hope lingered in Vivi after talking to Zidane – as always – and he moved forward, vaguely wondering how the blonde stayed so optimistic for everyone.
When the genome found his old home, it was different. The memory was barely there, and he found things he didn't even realize existed. Terra was so far away from his present life, and he hadn't lived there since he was only three years old when his parents were murdered. To find the place he was born at was a great discovery, but it meant very little to him.
Vivi on the other hand, had spent his entire life in this dwelling with his grandpa. He wasn't very old, granted, but it was this very place that he spent most of his time. His grandpa had been his only companion before he met Zidane in the dream Alexandria, and being back there made him realize just how much he missed it.
His eyes began to haze over, misted with unshed tears as he walked into the large dwelling. While it probably felt a little cold and peculiar to the others, it was incredibly homey and familiar to Vivi, and this wave of emotions he couldn't quite peg came spiraling back to him. He stopped and stared around, mystified, remembering short flashes. They weren't really memories, because he didn't recall any particular events, but a strange feeling washed over him, like a feeling of familiarity and suddenly he remembered what Quan's most spectacular spice was to put on smoked fish, and that they used to give thanks to Gaia's stars for their luck in this world.
He staggered forward, truly in awe. It was like he was waking up from a horrible dream, and this was the place he remembered and felt safe at. He was home. Tears pricked his vision as his dirty glove slid across the ancient table.
"I remember this place…" he murmured to himself.
Zidane watched him slowly reacquaint with his past for a brief moment, before turning and walking out to the balcony where Blank was, hoping to give the mage some privacy.
"What do you want?!" Her voice sounded strong over the boisterous thunder. A rainstorm had found them suddenly, and now the thrashing whip of lightning and quaking voice of thunder wouldn't leave them for a moment.
But Dagger heard her own tone waver, and she wondered if she'd have the confidence to pull this off. She knew Steiner had stumbled to the doorway after her, but something inside must have caught his attention, because he was clearly torn between yanking Dagger back in and retreating inside himself.
"You!" The woman at the front of the brigade twirled her axe like it was effortless, before cleaving it into the soft ground and leaning on it. "I wouldn't have thought the Princess was traveling with some snake like Red!" She sneered. "You must have other influential party members with you! No doubt that rotten blonde Dreamer everyone is going on about!"
Dagger's eyes hardened. "Why are you in Bermecia!?"
"Are you really in the position to be demanding answers, Princess Garnet?!" She laughed and the men rallied behind chortled along with her.
The white mage did a quick headcount. There was no white and gold armor, and she figured that was a good sign. These guys weren't so tough, and if she had enough stamina left in her, she could do this. She only had to keep Lani talking for a little longer.
"Humor me!" She called in a mocking tone.
The woman snorted and heaved her axe out of the grass, flinging clumps of dirt up in the air. "What do you think?! I'm tracking my lost prisoners! Though there's one less now I'm sure to track! Red must be kicking himself in the afterlife for letting me get him so easily! I thought he was better than that! Running around in circles with you guys must have made him weak!"
Dagger ground her teeth together, clearly angered at the woman in front of her. How dare her. Who did she think she was? Kuja's henchmen had no honor - that she was certain about.
"And besides," she jerked her thumb backwards, "Someone has a little vendetta against that rodent you travel with! Seems to me when she slaughters an entire scouting team, she should make sure they're all dead!" Thunder boomed on her last word, and a twitchy man in the back jumped a little, bringing himself to Dagger's attention.
She recognized him; Freya had told the story. When she fled Bermecia, leaving behind her king and Fratley she was on her way to Dali when she came across the scouting party, all lounging around the fire loudly in the woods, like they didn't have a care in the world. But there was one – the one who had come after her and Vivi in the prison outside of Madain Sari. He was still looking for revenge, not dangerous on his own, but with others to back him up…
Still the raven stood tall. "I never took you for someone who would act out simply on personal grudges!" Dagger tried to taunt, attempting to remember the ways of trash talking Zidane and the rest of Tantalus had tried to teach her months ago. It had been a hoot, and she never thought she'd actually use it. "But I guess that's all Kuja's men do!"
The woman's face scrunched up like she'd tasted something sour as she stormed forward. "Oh that's not the only reason we're here, cupcake!" She spat, clearly riled up.
Dagger felt her hands prickling with power now, tightly fisted at her side. She only needed a little more time. She could feel worried eyes behind her, but she tried to ignore it. Whoever it was debating if they should come to her assistance knew well enough that Dagger had a plan.
"We heard Bermecia's prince is hiding out here!"
Dagger blinked in surprise, almost letting her focus slip. She hadn't expected to hear any important news from the brunette.
"We've come to kill him! If we can't get to the King, then it's the next best thing, right boys?!" They all cheered behind her, but suddenly, Dagger lifted her hands too quickly for them to even think, and released the magic she had built up.
The power ripped from her stomach, despite all that was built up in her hands. She cried out as she let it tear out of her, draining her far more than she thought it would. She hadn't realized until then just how exhausted they'd been since Lindblum – since leaving on their mission in the first place, really. Slowly, all of the stops and the constant danger were ebbing away at them, and she could really feel it now.
Every ounce of her body fought against being ripped away, as the blue shadow of a woman appeared before Dagger. Her long azure braids were tied up in a ponytail, and the details of her icy breastplate and deep sapphire skin markings appeared. When her crown materialized and her boots were set in place, the rain around her freezing before it hit her blue-tinted skin, her eyes opened, revealing a deep cobalt sheen of ice.
The princess staggered back, sucking in a sharp breath as the summon was completed. Dagger knew that the Ice Queen Shiva would defend her until she was too exhausted to keep her summoned forth, even without vocal command.
As Shiva stood, she saw Lani and her crew take an intimidated step backward from the eidolon in front of them. A hum started on the wind, before a whirlwind of ice particles began whizzing up around summoner and summon, and Dagger knew that she was releasing her most dire attack. People could say all they wanted about the myths of eidolons, but they were faithful to their masters, and knew when they were most in need. This was Shiva's silent way of saying Dagger was free to run.
She stumbled back, almost too in awe to move.
"Dagger!" It was Beatrix at the door who raced out and grabbed her by the shoulders, steering her back into the house.
Steiner was helping Amarant stand, the man clutching his stomach like he was going to be sick. His face was still pale and his eyes seemed distant, but he was awake. Eiko sat, still exhausted, on the floor. Freya bent down next to her and picked her up, maneuvering the young girl onto her back.
"Dagger has given us our only chance," The Bermecian nodded. "We must move!"
"But to where?"
"Anywhere but here," she nodded, leading them out the back door into the yard. It seemed cold, offering no protection as they listened to the soldiers out front yell, and the sounds of swords clashing with Shiva's diamond dust attack.
"Are we leaving Bermecia?" Eiko asked, clutching her tiny hands around Freya's neck.
"No, we cannot."
"Are you crazy?" Steiner asked her as he lugged Amarant awkwardly out the door. "We're going to be found!"
"We have business still here so long as the Prince is in danger!"
Dagger's head snapped up. "So you think what Lani was saying was true?" She bit her lip as she leapt the fence and the group maneuver their tall redheaded friend over the wooden barrier.
"I have no doubt that the King must have sent Puck out if he believed it would be safer for him. Which means something has happened to the King." She sucked in a breath, trying to remain calm as her eyes flickered across the deserted yards of overgrown grass. "Which means it is an absolute necessity to keep Puck safe."
"Where would he be?"
"Probably in town, blending in with the densest population of Bermecians they could find for him."
"The most dangerous spot for us," Beatrix commented, her tone hard.
"We have no choice," Freya countered, before breaking out into a full speed run, leaving no more room for argument.
It took them a long time to get the materials to hide themselves as they entered downtown. An hour had passed in their hasty retreat before they even got close to blending in, but with energy running low from over half of their company, it was decided that the lame disguises they had snatched from forgotten laundry lines and peculiarly open windows, had to do. The townspeople would help them if they could, that much Freya was certain about.
Many of the soldiers had abandoned their posts once they saw the ice storm brewing in the more deserted part of the city. That left the townspeople to gossip, wonder, and spread the details of who exactly was in the city without having to be careful.
It was Beatrix, surprisingly, who was spotted almost instantly. Freya, with a change of clothing, blended in better with her kin, especially since she hadn't been seen in over a year and a half in these parts of the continent. But the ex-knight's long brown hair was hard to keep under a hood, especially drenched as it was. She was short, and of course, human, and so stuck out more than Steiner, who was dressed more like Kuja's soldiers than he cared to admit, and Quina, who resembled slightly, under the strange color cloak he adorned, a fat black mage wandering without any obvious purpose. Dagger was hidden enough (they made sure of this) where she looked like a small Bermecian bundled in clothing, while Eiko hid under Quina's large cloak and hat.
As for Amarant, they had stolen a cart from a front yard on the outer district of the city, and covered him with any leftover material of every sort that they could get their hands on. They decided that those who could walk straight should do just that so that if soldiers came at them, there wouldn't be a worry of hauling everyone out of the cart to fight.
Beatrix' fair face confirmed the rising suspicion that part of the resistance was in the city. She tried to pull her hood down, but could not conceal herself while keeping a keen eye on the dark alleys, searching for danger the others were too tense to pick up on.
The streets, no matter how many people were about, were surprisingly quiet. Freya figured that it was because part of their company was dressed similar to the enemy, but maybe it was a good thing no one was approaching them.
That changed though, as they passed a large group of houses stacked on top and around each other, atop the shops on street level.
"Might you be part of the resistance?" A younger Bermecian with long silver hair down to her waist approached Beatrix, holding the Alexandrian flag that Kuja had torn down when he first took over the kingdom.
Beatrix didn't wait for the others. She would recognize that flag even if she was half-dead. She nodded, and hasty words tumbled from her mouth. "Can you help us?"
She nodded quickly and flicked her wet hair from her face. She grabbed onto the brunette's hands with long, slender fingers, and her emerald-tinted skin shone slick with water in the dim light. She had been waiting for them.
Inside they all went, and Steiner suavely plucked what he knew to be the bundle containing Amarant out of the cart, and Quina helped haul him inside. The door was shut and locked instantly, and before anything else was said, they were ushered to the upper levels, out of sight from the streets below.
"Who are you?" Beatrix asked, so grateful that they had found a place in all of their tramping around.
"I am Dystria. My uncle was in the Dragon Knights with Sir Fratley for just a year before he quit to travel the world, but a strong friendship grew between them in such a short amount of time, and I knew as soon as I heard the rumors that I must help you when I could."
"We are indebted to you."
Freya pulled off her hood and turned to see the young Bermecian. She wrung out her hair and nodded to the youth. "Thank you."
"Y-your –" she stammered, bowing slightly. "Freya Crescent!"
Freya let on a hardened smile before she turned towards the window, shielded with wood and curtains. It seemed that those who dwelled in the home didn't want any more openings to the outside than necessary. "It frustrates me that we cannot stand and fight like we once might have been able to do."
"We are wounded, and we are weak," Steiner said, "No one came to Bermecia prepared for a fight."
"Where have you come from?" Dystria asked, pushing herself into the conversation again.
"We've just come from Cleyra," Dagger started, but stopped politely when Freya shot her a sideways glance.
"Tell us about yourself first. Who are you here with? Tell us the status of the city, and anything of the Prince if you can!"
The girl blushed, the pink hue strange against her forest-green skin. "I apologize! You have picked the right company, for the Prince is above you," she pointed up with a smile rarely seen in the glum city for years. "Puck is up there with my two younger brothers. They are nearly identical, so everyone thought it was the perfect place for him!"
"Everyone?" Steiner asked, his voice laced with skepticism.
She nodded, "You are not the only ones who have thought to start up a resistance, though yours is far older than our own. However, we do quite well for ourselves."
"Another resistance?" Dagger gasped as she hung the last of the cloaks close to the small fire they had going.
She confirmed this again with another nod. "We heard what you were doing months ago, when you arrived in Lindblum. Word spread from one of our Bermecian spies in the city that the Tantalus hideout was being used once more, and one of our allies – Adrianna of the old Tantalus – confirmed it for us. We've been gathering people so your job might be easier when you eventually descended upon Bermecia."
Then suddenly a childish grin broke upon her face and she gave a slight bow to those in her presence. "We've been waiting for you for quite some time now."
A/N: Well! That is certainly unexpected, even for me! There's lots of drama up ahead, so be ready for anything! :D I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think!
-zesty-
