The White Darkness

By Helbaworshipper

Lotis Theives Arc: The Wakamiya Aftermath

It was dark where he was. Dark was an understatement. Perhaps pitch black would be a better way of saying it. He slowly moved through it until he could see something in the distance. There was a light of some sort. It was foggy and hard to tell exactly what it was. From pitch black to foggy was some sort of progress. Reaching forward, the hand grasped what felt like a door. It was a heavy door indeed so he tugged at it until it pulled open enough for him to enter.

It was a lotis circle inside. It was glowing enough to show the inside of a similar throne room in his dream-

"Who dares to disturb Master Lotsuan's rest?" A figure in a mask spoke. He couldn't quite tell features from where he stood, but he could tell that the figure was standing in front of a throne of some sort. Beyond it he could see brown hair.

"Master Lotsuan? That's Alice Seno." He answered, the man in the mask not moving from his spot. "And she needs to come home."

"To what, promise breaker?" The man was like a wall, keeping him from Alice's view even if she was awake. "Master Lotsuan has made her declaration." He took a deep breath to take another step as the man calmly turned and picked up the figure from the throne. Green eyes opened a little as it looked towards him.

"Ah, the one who demanded..." She thought for a moment. "Is he intruding, Guardian?"

"Yes, Master."

"He's not entirely a lost cause as he didn't force himself in." Her voice was the same as before when that strange state had taken over her. "I shall let him have a chance." She spoke something under her breath as the circle began to glow again. Her eyes closed and leaned into the masked man. "I do not have a desire to make a speech this time." The man began to walk down the steps away as Kyo felt the back of his neck tingle. As the pain of whatever it was took him over, the symbol of the tree with the rabbit formed.

Kyo could only use one word as he woke up. Absolute agony. Well, that was indeed two words. He felt every move of his limbs practically scream at him to stop. He could speak in some way, yet he couldn't move at all. He vaguely felt a ton of Lotis power around him. It wasn't nearly enough to take away the absolute out of his word, but… He was glad it was doing something. He moved his eyes to understand where he was a bit more. He could see mostly that it was indeed a tent and there was an amount fairly good quality of furniture in it.

"Looks like you're up." A voice he vaguely recognized, but didn't quite remember. It was a figure that had just entered the tent. "You've been out for two weeks." His eyes widened a little at the news, the pain answering him back as he tried to move. A hand gently touched his head as he felt more Lotis applied around the tent. Maybe absolute was sort of leaving.

"Two weeks?" He asked softly as the man's hand move away. Without being asked, he helped Kyo begin to be cushioned to sit up while in the bed. It felt better than attempting to try and look around.

"Two weeks is pretty short for what you were hit with." The man's features were easier to see. He was darker in skin color than he expected. Not that it changed much in regards to how he saw a person by any means. It was just different in a way that he should have recognized the person in some fashion. "Pretty sure you don't need a rundown of what happened to your father."

"Yeah," Kyo nodded as he vaguely twitched one of his fingers. He carefully moved his hands to grasp the warm tea given to him. It took some effort, but he slowly sipped it up without spilling it all over the blanket. "I saw King Seno's situation… but not Queen-"

"She's alright," the man's eyes looked a bit wary. "Mayura's body is in horrible shape from even before coming to the kingdom."

"How? She was always… So strong."

"Well, as someone who has met a few Lotis masters like her, I can say it isn't abnormal. It's easy to get Lotis well when you are insensitive to any outside Maram unless it targets you. However, her powers are going to need to get used to the limitation." He seemed to be waiting for something.

"And do I have it?"

"You're oversensitive to both, which is a good sign for power." He simply answered. He could now take in the hair pulled into what looked to be multiple ponytails. "You aren't going to ask about her?"

"I just saw her again." This seemed to surprise the man in his tent.

"As in a dream?"

"Yeah, they've been pretty rampant lately." He moved the cup slowly towards the man. "This time I was in a deep fog and ended up in a throne room. Yet… It only had one throne." The man was silent, but nodded. "There was a man in the mask asking why I was disturbing Master Lotsuan's rest."

"Then it wasn't just a dream."

"Not just.."

"That was a power to connect. The fact you dreamt in a tent with this much Lotis and traveled somewhere without a mirror in your condition." He placed the cup down carefully. "If possible, do your best to heal up before you tell all of us the rest. You're safe in the camp somewhat, but we don't know who might have eyes on you."

"Ah..." He started to speak back as his mind felt tired again. Perhaps it was the effect of the lotis in the tea. As he started to go to sleep, he heard part of something.

"…Did she know he would be the master of this generation?"

He must have woken up and fallen asleep a lot more. By the time he was ready to even move from the bed of his own power, he was now sitting across from he supposed a once political enemy. In particular, he was sitting across from Frei Weilhausen. The two were quite awkward at the moment as they seemed to be waiting for something to be said in some way.

"I heard about Eric."

"He was your tutor as well?" Frei nodded as he seemed to be trying to understand something.

"Eric never did that neck thing with me. I remember being very uncomfortable, but never wearing a gem that dangerous around it."

"He also didn't teach you for over four years."

"I don't know what to think." He looked at Kyo with a bit more serious gleam. "True question is what will happen to your kingdom."

"I don't know exactly." He though to his mother for a moment. "I wasn't supposed to be home if my father's plan worked out. Now, I'm not sure I should be a royal king if I'm out to rescue Alice."

"What if I did it instead?"

"Did you have a bad dream or-" Frei's expression looked as if in realization for a moment. It went away shortly after. "She marked me in my dream and it's still on my neck." Frei looked confused and examined the seal.

"It's a seal for the Lotis power. If you break what promise was made, it will kill you." Frei spoke, his hand coming to the table.

"How do you know that?" He looked a bit confused when Frei moved his gloved hand up and revealed the same seal.

"Alice did it once to me without knowing it. I was confused that she couldn't remember."

"And… Did she ever remember around you?"

"No, but..." He looked at Kyo for a moment with a glare. "That means we're in a race. Just when I thought we'd be allies in all this."

"We're still allies for now. When it comes to the promise, that's a different thing."

He finally received word he could go out and visit some of the recovering allies. As he stood in front of the tent Mayura Seno was in, a part of him felt guilty. He took a deep breath and slowly took in the amount of Lotis coming from the tent as he opened it. It wasn't nearly as much as in his tent, but he assumed it was more or less Mayura wasn't hurt as much as he was at the time. No one wanted to be in that condition to start with.

What he saw at the moment was a figure sitting at one of the chairs in the room. At the moment her hand held a quill and it was studying something other than a Lotis book. He supposed with the death of King Seno, Mayura would have to take over as ruler sooner than later. He quietly approached and sat down as he waited. Seeing Mayura like this showed him that a part of him did get along with her. However, what did he think of Alice?

They were certainly friends, but… A part of him wondered how far that friend emotion went. Unlike Frei, who seemed to understand something more than he did, he felt odd. Still, he waited for her as her gaze lifted up. He expected her to be shocked, but she gently placed the quill back in. She silently wiped the ink off her hand as she looked at him.

"I have already declared our engagement on hold for awhile."

"At such a time?"

"There may not be a kingdom if it gets worse." She stated softly, her hands in her lap. "I'm not sure when all this started. All I know is that at some point I was unaware of the indirect Maram on me." She seemed to be in deep thought. "Whether that was the reason I treated Alice like I did or not, I still love her."

"Alice never doubted you cared for her."

"I doubted," her hand lifted up to her mirror. "My mirror is clouded at the moment as well. For all the powers I used and all the people I saved, the one person… The one person I truly cared about was most likely ignored."

"I heard about Kazuki," he spoke, seeing Mayura flinch for a moment. "I know you have a reputation, but you really liked him, didn't you?" She didn't say a word, but her eyes couldn't look at his. "I'm not saying I know what you'd do if this didn't happen. Still, he did at least do his job."

"Yes," she calmly stated, her hands trembling. "The fact Kayna killed your father..."

"I knew there was something going on. She just never said a word about it." He slowly put his hand on the one on the table. "I'm not going to say we should call it all off, but I need time."

"I need time as well. I want to save her, Kyo." He saw for the first time a very clear gaze. Nothing clouded by her need to make sure people saw her as a strong woman. She was almost more human than usual. "Once Alice is safe and this war is over, I'll make a decision."