Chapter XXIV
Run Away, Never Look Back
"Three copies of your letter have been made and sent to King Edmund, informing him of the situation and your decision."
Zaow nodded. "We can only hope he gets the letter before he makes it to Acaria, or he may suffer the same devastation we did."
Princess Selphie folded her hands and sighed. Her father looked as tired as she felt, and she knew that it would be many hours yet before he could rest. Many decisions needed made, and the situation was too complicated for them to be made quickly.
Across the table from her, King Halt looked worried and unsure. He'd been confident enough before; putting on a strong face for his men in the uncertain hours following his father's death. And he had seemed confident as they marched out into Acaria. Now... he looked young. Too young to be in the position he was in.
"So the Torachians are going to retreat?" Halt asked.
Zaow nodded slowly. "Assuming King Edmund gets the letter. That's why three copies have been sent, each on a different raven. It's essential that he gets it. He needs to know what happened. Zinoro could have a trap set for him just like the one we walked into."
"Yes, yes... The Torachians are the only ones with enough men left. They can't be caught in a trap like this... we need those men."
Zaow looked to him uneasily, but said nothing.
"The wounded should be ready for travel by tomorrow," Selphie said. It sounded like a simple statement, but it was edging close to the real issue, the one Selphie wanted to address more than anything; which Halt seemed to be doing his best to avoid.
"That's good," Halt said. "There weren't as many wounded as it initially seemed. That's a good sign."
Zaow frowned, and Selphie knew why. It wasn't that it had seemed like there were more wounded at first; there really were. Many had been too injured to save, or had even died while waiting to be treated. There hadn't been enough healers to keep up. A few healers had even been killed in the early stages of the battle, before defences had been set up. And those that remained only had so much mana; healing magick was draining.
Her father said nothing about this, so Selphie kept her mouth shut as well. It was important that she follow his lead in this. If they said the wrong thing, it could ruin everything.
"So we can leave in the morning?" Halt asked.
Zaow nodded. "Assuming things stay stable until then. Zinoro may yet send more troops to finish the job. We're atop the hill, so if they appear on that circle, we'll have time to get ready. We won't be ambushed like we were earlier, but let's hope we can be gone before Zinoro returns to finish the job."
"Do you think he'll send more?"
"It's hard to say," Zaow said. "Zinoro is a difficult man to predict. But we know he's more dangerous than we initially believed. We had no knowledge that he could teleport an entire army like that... Who knows what other abilities he might have?"
Halt thought for a moment. He turned to the greying man beside him; the only Saetician general who still lived. "The Acarian prisoners... Have they been interrogated?"
"They have, Your Majesty," the general said. "They are silent. They say nothing, nor do they respond to anything we do to them. Underneath their helms they're... well it's hard to say, but their skin is far too pale. They don't even blink. It's very unnatural."
Halt turned back to Zaow and Selphie. "Back at the Elder Hall, you claimed Zinoro's army was made up of dead men he had returned from the grave with dark magick. You called Lodin's son up as a witness, and he denied your claims. He said we had nothing to fear from Zinoro, and he had no dark powers... And yet we walked into a trap where Zinoro used some kind of forbidden magick to warp his army kilometres away. An army of men who do not speak or blink."
Zaow looked uneasy. He didn't seem to like where this was going. "It's a complex situation. I don't believe the boy lied for malicious reasons."
"I met him briefly, back in Serenite," Halt said. "He insulted my father, and made claims that he could not be killed. Witnesses of the attack on Allma Temple back up these claims. This boy was there when the Acarians attacked Allma, and then when an agent of their appeared in my city, tainting my brother's mind with dark ideas. He was also at the town of Reven, when the same Acarian agent was captured and killed."
There was an uneasy silence while Halt's words settled in. Selphie looked to her father, who wore an expressionless mask.
"An assassin killed my father the night before we set off..." Halt continued. "Someone who was able to come and go without being seen. And this boy used magick during the battle to warp around; the same magick Zinoro used to drop his army on top of us. Do I need to go on?"
It was strange, Selphie thought. Halt now seemed to have regained his confidence.
"I see what you're implying," Zaow said in a quiet voice. "I cannot disagree with you, not under this evidence."
"Zinoro has a number of acolytes, does he not?" Halt said. "And infiltration is a tactic he seems to prefer."
"I understand," Zaow replied, seemingly impatient with the topic. "What do you suggest we do?"
"Arrest him," Halt said. "Bind him and place a ward on him so he can't warp away."
Zaow nodded once more. "Very well. I'll have it done immediately."
Halt turned to his general, and said more quietly, "The Acarian soldiers won't talk, but this kid will. We may learn something of Zinoro yet."
Selphie looked down at her hands. She felt conflicted now. The very thought of Luca enraged her. He had betrayed her, and the cause the group had worked for, in the moment she had needed him most. He lied in front of Marcus and Edmund, and everyone else in the Elder Hall, and called both her and her father liars.
But on the other hand, he was still her friend, and she couldn't bear the thought of him being locked up and tortured.
"I believe that settles it, then," Halt said. "In your letter to Kind Edmund, you asked him to return to the Elder Hall?"
"I did," Zaow said, though there was a slight tone in his voice that suggested he did not agree with it.
"Good," Halt said, more confidently. "We'll all meet up again, and come up with a new strategy. Zinoro may have dealt a strong blow today, but we'll strike back tenfold! He'll see that the Alliance is not so easily beaten!"
The young king rose from his seat and left the tent, his general following after him. The few lords and captains who remained followed after a moment, leaving Selphie alone with her father.
She turned to him. "You're really just going to let them torture Luca like that?"
"No," Zaow answered, giving her a reassuring smile. "I know what I'm doing. Before, I may have been willing to give the boy over to Zinoro to spare my kingdom, but you talked sense into me. I owe his father, and now Luca himself, a debt of gratitude."
"What do you mean?"
"You didn't see it, but I did. He fought against the Acarians with passion. He struck down so many of them, and he confronted the man in charge, who rode the dragon. And when the Acarians were about to flee, he knew what was to happen, and warned us. He even personally saved at least a dozen people before the warp happened. Without him, the loss of life would have been much more severe."
"But we wouldn't even have been here if he hadn't lied!"
Zaow shook his head. "This war has been an inevitability for some time. Zinoro has been playing his cards, slowly luring us into his trap. The attack against Allma, the secret pact with Marcus' son that he intentionally revealed; they were meant to give the others reason to hate him. It worked, and I think that even if Luca had told them the truth about Zinoro, and urged them not to go to Acaria, they still would have."
Selphie sighed. "But we're just going to go back, aren't we? Halt won't give up, and neither will Edmund. We'll keep fighting this fight until we're all dead. You said you would try to talk him out of it, but you sent the letter to Edmund asking him to return-"
"To Torachi," Zaow interrupted.
"Wait, what?"
; "I lied to Halt. In the letter, I told Edmund of the losses we suffered, and I told him that we were all returning to our separate kingdoms. Edmund will take his forces back to Torachi, and some time in the days ahead, when we have the chance, we will break away from the Saeticians and march back to Sono."
"Father..." Selphie said, scarcely able to believe her ears. "You can't be serious... You're lying to them both. If they found out..."
"With a little luck, they will not." Zaow gave a sad chuckle. He didn't seem to believe that was possible. "The fact is that you're right. Halt and Edmund will not give up this campaign. Marcus was the only one with reason, and he's gone. Eliminating him was another part of Zinoro's plan, I'll bet. The only way to keep us all from marching to our deaths is by lying to them. We cannot afford to keep up this war, not after seeing what Zinoro is capable of. An army is not what we need to stop Zinoro."
Selphie saw his reasons, but she couldn't agree that it was a wise course of action.
"If we can-" Zaow started to speak, but he was cut off by a coughing fit. He covered his mouth with his hand, and coughed into it for a bit, then cleared his throat. "Excuse me, dear."
"Father, are you alright?" She was suddenly worried for him. He'd been strong through the battle, and after it as well, but he was a man of nearly eighty, and he'd been having health problems before he'd left T'Saw.
"I'll be fine," he insisted, wiping his hand on a rag and shoving it in his pocket too quickly not to be hiding something. She half-feared she saw red on that rag. She prayed it was just her imagination. "I was saying... if we can just return to Sono, recover from our wounds, and fortify our defences, we should be alright. T'Saw is an impregnable fortress. Zinoro's father learnt that, and he will learn it as well."
"And what if Halt and Edmund learn you lied to them, and unite against us?"
"I doubt they are foolish enough," Zaow said. "T'Saw was once the great Markiran Capital. Not even the fall of the two empires was enough to bring it down. And I may not be around forever to protect it, but I'm sure you and your brother will do me proud."
"Don't talk like that..." Now she really was worried.
"But let's take things one step at a time, dearest daughter," Zaow said with a smile. "Find the boy and tell him what's going to happen. Warn him, so that he can escape if need be. I'll have to send a few men to arrest him, to keep Halt from growing suspicious, but it will just be a show. As long as you get to him first, he'll know what's happening."
Selphie nodded, feeling a knot in her stomach. Too much unrest. Too much uncertainty. Her father was a man who took risks, and sometimes did things she didn't agree with, but he always had the best interests of his children and his kingdom at heart. She trusted him.
She got up, kissed Zaow's cheek, and left the tent to find Luca.
Luca finished dressing, and looked with disdain at the blood-soaked clothes on the floor of the tent. They were the same clothes he had brought with him from the unnamed village in Arimos. They had been through a lot, and been bled on a lot. Mostly his own blood; in particular there was a dark patch over the breast of the shirt where he'd been stabbed twice in the heart by Dreevius. But they were indisputably ruined now. He could no longer hold on to the sentimentality of them. It was time to let go of that part of his life.
The clothes he wore now were nothing special. A standard tunic and belt, with a breastplate over his chest. A little bit of armour would help, but he didn't like wearing so much. The breastplate was the same one he'd worn earlier in the battle, and while it was a little dinged up, it was still in working condition. His sword was sheathed and hung from his belt, and a pair of leather boots and gloves completed the outfit.
In the hours following the battle, things had eventually settled. They had climbed out of the empty lake, back up the long, narrow hill. Back in the smaller valley, they had set up camp and put scouts on the hills around them, to keep watch in case Zinoro sent his army back to finish the job. Not that he would. Luca understood what was going through the man's mind. Everything he did was tricks, traps, and subterfuge. He would wait for them to make the next move, and he would have some nasty surprise waiting for them.
Which made him wonder; what was their next move?
They couldn't possibly go through the pass. Zinoro clearly had scouts in the mountains with horns, ready to send the signal that would bring another army to trap them. Would they try to find another way in? Or would they turn around and leave? Were the losses too great for them to go on?
He would know soon enough, he figured.
Leaving the pile of bloody clothes where they were, Luca stepped outside the tent. He was eager to see Emila; he hadn't seen her since the morning before the battle. She had been among the healers, treating the wounded all through the long hours following the battle. He'd felt through the tether how much of her mana she had used up in the healing, though the magick was gone now, so she must be resting.
The sun would soon be setting. He'd lost track of time. The whole day had just been one long, chaotic blur; what time had it been when they'd started fighting? How long had the battle lasted? How many hours had they been resting?
Outside, he saw the now-familiar sea of yellow tents before him. The only difference was just how fewer there were. Even setting aside the large number the Torachians had taken with them when they'd left, the Saetician and Sonoian numbers were strikingly smaller. Reminded of just how many people had died, Luca felt the regret and guilt threaten to return and overwhelm him. He took a deep breath, and forced those feelings down.
It didn't take Luca long to spot Brand, standing with Tranom at the edge of the camp. He was relieved to see Tranom was alive, too. The familiarity of the sight of them was comforting, until Luca realised that Tranom's many students were with him. Luca approached them, and as he drew near he saw the students wore travel cloaks and had bags on their backs. He also saw that while a few of them had minor injuries, many of them were simply not there.
It would seem even Allma had suffered losses.
"You're leaving?" Luca asked Tranom when he reached him.
The man nodded regretfully. "We are. I hate to say it, but I was wrong. I thought things would be different. I was expecting it to be like the first Acarian war, where the enemy was easily beaten, and Allma Temple achieved glory. Things... were not like that at all."
Tranom looked regretfully to his students. Their eyes were cast down. They looked afraid. "Many of them died. And they died because I brought them here. They weren't ready; it was too much, too soon. As the leader of the temple, my duty is to keep the name of Allma alive. And I have to do that, even at the cost of my honour and my pride."
Luca didn't answer. He couldn't say anything. He understood all too well what Tranom had seen out there. He couldn't ask him to stay for more of that.
Brand was quiet. Tranom glanced at him, and said, "I made an offer to Brand. I wanted him to come with us, and to become one of the new masters of the temple. I would have made the same offer to Wiosna, but I haven't seen her."
Luca looked to Brand. "And...?"
"I declined," Brand said. "I won't leave. Not now."
Tranom frowned. "I know my old student well. Part of me already knew what the answer would be." A glimmer of hope returned to his eyes. "And how about you, Luca? You weren't with the temple for very long, but you trained under the great Master Dori. Only two other people can claim that honour. You're a very skilled warrior, and you have a magick I've never even heard of before. Not to mention that I once saw you shrug off a dagger through the heart. You could teach these kids a lot. So how about it? Why not pick up where Dori left off?"
Luca didn't even consider it. In another life, he would have. But there were more important things; like the person he felt through magick, waiting for him on the other side of the camp.
"I cannot. I'm sorry. I'm sure that the temple will one day return to its former glory. But I have other things I must do, other promises I need t
o keep."
Tranom nodded. "I had a feeling you would say that. Your father didn't want to stay with us, so I suppose its no surprise that you don't either. Lodin was an adventurer at heart, or so Dori used to say. And according to that old drunk you and him couldn't have been more alike."
Tranom offered his hand, which Luca shook. "Take care of yourself." He then turned to Brand, and instead of shaking hands, the two embraced.
"So long, my former student."
"Goodbye."
They broke the hug, and Tranom started off, his students following behind them. Luca looked to Brand, who for once didn't have a reassuring smile for everyone's sake.
"You should have gone with him," Luca said.
"I could have," Brand said, with a slight smile. "But that would be running away. I swore I would stick with you and the princess, and that's what I'm going to do. Until my last breath."
And then Brand walked away. Luca let him go. He looked like he needed to be alone.
Luca sighed, and returned to the camp. He made his way towards the healers' tents, passing various people as he went. He saw King Halt emerge from one of the tents and give him a strange look as he passed. A look of anger. A look of suspicion. Halt whispered something to the general at his side, and they continued on their way, keeping their eyes on Luca until he was beyond their vision.
It would seem that Halt didn't trust him, Luca figured.
He arrived at the small cluster of tents marked with red hearts, where the white-robed healers were still at work treating wounded soldiers. He looked around for a bit, but Emila was nowhere to be seen. He stopped a fair-haired girl as she passed, and asked about Emila.
"Oh, her? I haven't seen her since we made camp." The girl then excused herself and continued on her way.
Luca looked around for a few minutes, and asked a couple other healers, but no one had seen Emila since after the battle.
"Where else could she be?" he wondered aloud.
After a couple more minutes of futile searching, he gave up. He was just about to leave, when he saw a familiar face standing outside one of the tents.
"Ash?"
His brother looked up, a momentary change in his expression betraying his surprise. "Oh, it's you," he said in a voice that was neither relieved nor disappointed.
"Why are you here?" Luca asked. Ash seemed to be unharmed, aside from a few cuts and bruises.
Ash tilted his head to the tent he was standing beside. "Jared's in there. He took some wounds in the battle. His life's in no danger, but he needed treatment for a while. He's sleeping now... I've been waiting for him to wake up."
"What happened?"
"We were both with Selphie when the fighting started. King Zaow instructed us to protect her, and we fell back into the Sonoian lines. I did my best, but... well you know I can't fight for shit. Jared was really protecting the both of us. Eventually, however... some Acarians managed to break through a weak point in the defences. Jared took a few nasty blows and collapsed. I managed to help a little after that, but the truth is that Selphie hardly needed protection in the first place."
"And Selphie is...?"
"Unharmed. She went off to take care of business with her father. She was really worried about Jared, though. She asked me to stay with him and make sure he's alright." Ash had a slight grimace as he said the last part.
"I see," Luca said.
An awkward silence settled over them. They said nothing for a while, the only sounds being the voices of the healers and the occasional groan of someone wounded. Ash's eyes were elsewhere, doing their best to avoid Luca.
"I'm glad to see that you're okay," Luca said finally.
Ash looked back at him, his expression unreadable. After a long moment, he grunted and nodded.
Figuring that was likely the most he was going to get out of him, Luca moved on to the next thing. "Umm... have you seen Emila around?"
Ash thought for a moment. "I know she was healing during the battle, but I haven't seen her in the time I've been here."
"I see," Luca said again. It was what he'd expected, but he was still a bit disappointed. "Thanks anyway. I, uh... I'll see you around."
After a moment, Ash nodded. Luca turned and left, and Ash watched his brother leave.
Luca felt himself growing a bit worried about Emila. Despite his efforts to remain calm, he felt his heart starting to beat faster, and his breath was short. It was getting a bit harder to tell, but he knew she was okay through the tether, he just couldn't use it to figure out where she was.
"Excuse me, sir?"
He stopped. A soldier carrying a spear and wearing Sonoian armour stood before him, blocking his path. Luca had been so focused on Emila, he hadn't noticed him at all.
"Yes?"
"Come with me. King Zaow requests your presence."
Luca frowned. "He does?"
"A royal summons is not to be questioned. Come with me."
The soldier started walking, not caring to see if Luca followed. He did, wondering what in the world Zaow wanted with him.
"There's something familiar about you..." Luca muttered.
The soldier said nothing.
"That's right. You were the guy who took me up to the Elder Hall, all those days ago. I guess your job is to fetch me whenever Zaow or Selphie needs me."
"I do have other jobs," the soldier said in a low voice.
Luca was led to the far edge of the camp, to a quiet area away from most of the people. He realised that they were actually walking away from the tent that Zaow had gone. Something felt wrong about it all, and that confirmed it. Discreetly, Luca's hand drifted to his sword. He had his warping magick now, so he could easily escape from any kind of trap if he needed to. Still, he was curious. He wanted to know what this was all about.
Tension grew as the soldier led him farther away from the camp, into the hills. Luca said nothing, and neither did his companion. The man had to realise by now that Luca was well aware that they weren't going to meet Zaow. But he still said nothing, so each was waiting for the other to make the first move.
The sun was beginning to set, and the hills cast long shadows. Finally they stopped, in an area that was far too dark for Luca's tastes.
"So what's this all about?" he asked. "Has Zaow decided to betray me after all?"
The soldier turned around, and gave Luca a low, almost disappointed stare. "You really have no idea, do you?"
Luca narrowed his eyes, and kept his hand on his sword. They seemed to be alone, but he knew enemies could be hidden in the shadows.
"I suppose that means I'm good at this, then," the soldier said. He then tossed his spear aside, and pulled the helmet off his head. A mane of grey hair spilt out, and suddenly, what was before a generic and unremarkable face was one Luca had seen before.
"Gordon."
The Acarian nodded slowly. "I told you I would meet you again at the Elder Hall, remember?"
"That was you who took me up those steps..." Luca muttered, unable to believe he hadn't realised it before.
Gordon nodded again. "It was."
"Why didn't you tell me who you were then?"
"I meant to," he said. "But after you returned from the Elder Hall, before I could take you somewhere private to do so, Princess Selphie, and then King Marcus and his son appeared. To maintain my disguise, I had to wait. Since then, I've been waiting for a safe opportunity to reveal myself. Unfortunately, I waited too long."
"Wait... you could have warned us about the trap!" Luca lunged forward, grabbing Gordon by his collar. "How many people died today for your damn disguise?!"
"I swear, I knew nothing about it!" Gordon exclaimed. "I've been away from Acarienthia for so long, I have no knowledge of the traps he'd set! I had no idea that he could teleport his army like that!"
"Why should I believe you?"
"It's the truth!" Gordon pried Luca's hands off him, and took a few steps back. "I told you back in T'Saw, remember? Zinoro has been hiding things from me f
or years. He keeps things from all of us... even Serpos. He only tells us what we need to know."
Luca let out a breath. He paced back and forth a few times, thinking back to his meeting with Gordon in T'Saw. "But why did you wait so long to come to me?"
"Like I said, I wanted it to be safe. If anybody caught me... anyone at all, it could ruin everything. An Acarian would tell Zinoro, and a Saetician or Sonoian would tell their own king. I would be captured and tortured for any other information. Even now, I'm taking a huge risk revealing myself to you, but after what happened, I couldn't wait any longer."
Luca then remembered what Gordon had wanted of him, and he sighed. "I'm sorry. I couldn't take the Rixeor Fragment in Eccador. It wouldn't accept me."
"I suspected that," Gordon muttered. "When we spoke at the Elder Hall, I ask you how one could fight someone with a Rixeor Fragment. I was hoping you would say you could kill him, because you had one of your own, but you did not. Still, I prayed that perhaps you had attained it and were merely keeping it secret."
"I'm sorry. I couldn't get the sword in Eccador, but right after the meeting at the Elder Hall, I spoke with Marcus and he promised that I could use his blade. However..."
"Yes," Gordon said in a low voice. "An assassin stole into his tent and killed him in his sleep, taking his sword with them. Almost as if they knew... It was Verra. I would bet my last gold coin on it. Zinoro would have known Marcus had a Rixeor Fragment, so he sent her to take care of that possibility."
"Who is Verra?" Luca asked.
"The last of the five acolytes," Gordon said. "She's a magus who uses reverse-healing magick as an assassination tool. She is no fighter... no, she's far more dangerous than that."
"So soon Zinoro will have two Rixeor Fragments..." Luca muttered. "Damn. It just gets worse and worse."
"We have to plan our next move," Gordon said. "We have to find a way to stop him. You saw what he is capable of today. That was only a taste. If you hadn't destroyed Serpos' orb, he would not have fled, and what was a grievous blow would have been a mortal one. We have to find a Rixeor Fragment, and you need to challenge Zinoro. You're the only one who can beat him!"
"What about this Verra woman? Perhaps if we find her we can..." Luca trailed off, because he suddenly felt sick to the stomach. His chest tightened up, and he was suddenly struggling for air.
He faintly heard the sound of Gordon calling his name, as though he were underwater. He fell to his knees, coughing violently. Red specks of blood stained the brown dirt below him.
It was a familiar feeling. He'd felt it before; once, a very long time ago. But it was so much worse now. Like a muscle gone too long without movement; the thing being strained was so used to how it was, that it did not want to be broken.
He started to crawl, feebly, like a pathetic infant, it the direction of the dried lake. But he wasn't moving fast enough. The other half was moving away from him faster than he could move towards it.
The line - which he could now feel so strongly - was strained; farther than it should have been able to. For one sick moment, Luca felt like it couldn't possibly break, and he would have to be dragged along for the rest of his life.
But then it snapped.
Luca heaved up, vomiting a mouthful of blood on the ground. Then he shuddered, feeling like a naked child in the snow. It was cold. So cold. So very cold.
He hated the cold.
Breath came back to him, very slowly. A few long minutes passed - which felt like hours to him - and he gradually began to feel like himself again.
But something was missing. He felt alone, like a chunk of him had just been ripped away. He wanted to start running, to find her and wrap his arms around her and squeeze her until they were one person again.
He stood up, on unsteady legs. Gordon was staring at him, confused and terrified.
"Are you alright?! What just happened to you?"
"Em-Emila..." he said slowly.
Gordon simply stared at him, frowning. "Who...?"
Luca turned, to face the direction that he had felt the connection. It had trailed far away, down past the valley, and in the direction of the Grey Wasteland.
"Why?" he said aloud.
Why would she go to Acaria? It was the one place she swore she could never go to; what could possibly be in there for her?
"Luca, say something!"
He turned to Gordon. "I have to go to Acaria."
The man looked at him like he was insane. "Why?"
"I don't know why she's doing it, but Emila is going there... I have to go to her. I have to protect her. She'll be killed on her own..."
"Luca," Gordon said slowly, approaching him carefully. "You have to remember what's ultimately important. This girl may be important to you, but think of how many thousands of lives will be lost if you can't kill Zinoro. If you go to Acaria without a Rixeor Fragment-"
"To hell with that!" Luca shouted. "I'm going after her! You said I'll need you to get into Acarienthia, right? If that's true, then you'd better come with me. But with or without you, I'm going after her."
And then he started off, in the direction he knew Emila had gone. Gordon stared at him for a moment, then sighed and reluctantly followed.
"Luca!"
Selphie ran, rushing past the various men in armour making their way around the camp. She had been searching for Luca for nearly an hour, without so much as a sign of him. Now she ran, having caught a glimpse of familiar white hair.
But then the person turned, and she saw it was only Ash.
"Selphie..." Ash said. "Did you think I was my brother?"
"I'm sorry, I did." She really was sorry. She knew he didn't like being compared with Luca. Looking around, she saw tents with red hearts, and robed healers tending to injured soldiers. She was at the medical area. She had been so exasperated she hadn't even realised where she was.
Selphie noticed Ash was standing beside a tent with his arms crossed. Now that she thought of it, Jared had been injured, and she'd sent Ash to look over him. So much had been happening, she'd completely forgotten. Suddenly, her worries resurfaced.
"Is he... okay?"
Ash nodded. "He's sleeping."
She let out a relieved sigh. That was one thing she didn't have to worry about.
"You're looking for my brother?" Ash asked her.
"Yes, I am."
"Well, I saw him briefly a while ago. He was looking for Emila. You know that wherever she goes, he follows."
"Indeed," Selphie said. Those two were inseparable; almost literally.
Ash scoffed. "Well, you might want to send out a search party. One of the scouts passed by a few minutes ago, and he said that he saw Emila making her way down into the valley."
"What?" Selphie exclaimed. "Why would she do that?"
"The battle probably left a bad taste in her mouth," Ash said. "She doesn't seem to have much of a stomach for bloodshed. You remember when we fought Trunda in that one town? She cried for hours after that."
'Hours' was a bit of an exaggeration, Selphie thought. Emila had sworn never to kill anyone, and then broke that vow to save Luca's life. Her tears were justified.
"If she's running away, you know my brother is going with her," Ash said. "We'll see soon whether he talks her into coming back, or she talks him into running away together."
Selphie frowned as she thought about that. Perhaps her problem had solved itself. The battlefield was no place for a person like Emila. And Luca needed to get away from Halt as it was. If they ran away together, it would be for the best for both of them. Really, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.
They could take care of each other. Selphie looked to the tent that Jared slept in, and she left out another sigh. She was actually envious of them. They were free in all the ways she was not. Free to do what they wanted, to go where they wanted, and to be with each other; just as they wanted.
"Good for them, then," Selphie said. Ash blinked, a bit surprised to hear that
response.
"You're not angry?"
"No. Things were about to get bad for Luca here. That's why I was trying to find him, so I could warn him. But if he and Emila have left together, then that's great."
"But... I thought you hated Luca for betraying you at the Elder Hall."
"I was angry, sure," Selphie said. "But my father talked some sense into me." Funny, that. Just a few days ago it had been the opposite.
Ash stared at her with a strange look on his face. Selphie suddenly felt uncomfortable. She was about to excuse herself and leave, when she heard the sound of a voice groaning. From within the tent, a voice was calling her name.
She gasped, "Jared...!"
And then, the mask came off. Her emotions flowed freely, and she threw open the flaps of the tent and ran inside. Relief at concern that she'd hardly realised she was burying flowed forth freely, and tears ran down her face as she embraced him.
And outside, Ash stood by himself, trying to ignore the sounds Selphie made as she embraced Jared. He clenched his fists in a jealous rage, and walked away.
"So...? What do you think?"
Luca stared down at the circle in front of him. Carved into the ground, it stretched out for nearly half a kilometre in each direction. Half a day ago, the Acarian army had been warped from some unknown location to this very circle, and had almost wiped out the Saeticians. Now, however, there was nothing. No horn was blown as the two figures had descended the long hill and crossed the empty lake. And no mana had swelled up when they stepped on it.
Gordon patiently waited for an answer to his question.
"I'm still new to this," Luca told him. "I don't really know how these circles work. All I had to go off was one my father had sketched on a piece of paper that I haven't seen for months. So I have no idea how to use the teleportation spell to follow it. However..."
"However?"
"I'm not sensing any mana in this at all. I should be able to feel something, if it's an artifact that's used for magick weaves. But there's nothing. Not even a hint of resonant mana."
Gordon thought for a moment. "They must have disabled it. Serpos knows you can use the teleportation spell from seeing it in the battle. He would have told Zinoro, who would have severed the link to prevent you from using it. The circle is big enough that you could have used his own tactic against him, and warped a whole army through."
"It makes sense..." Luca replied.
Speaking of severed links...
He turned and looked out over the Grey Wasteland on the other side of the empty lake. Save for the mountains far in the distance, and the vague outline of ruined cities, it was empty. Nobody lived in Acaria. Only monsters thrived in such desolate places, living in holes and emerging at night to hunt humans or - more often - each other.
The tether was only supposed to be able to hold for a kilometre, so at the time it was broken, Emila shouldn't have been much farther from him than that. But she had left as soon as the camp had been set up in the hills, which was hours ago. Therefore, the tether must have grown stronger since they had last tested it. Which made sense, as it had hurt a lot more breaking than the time when he'd first met her, and he had tried to run away.
It was strange, no longer being linked to her like that. He had grown so used to the constant sense of partial company he felt. He was left starkly alone without that, even though there was an actual person standing only a few metres away from him.
And if he hadn't felt vulnerable enough already, he knew that now that the tether was broken, he no longer had the invulnerability to death he'd had before. He could be killed just like anyone else.
"We're not going all the way to Acarienthia," Luca reminded Gordon. "If we can catch up with her, and bring her back with us, then we might not even encounter a single Acarian."
"Let us hope so. Without a Rixeor Fragment, you can't possibly beat Zinoro."
Luca turned back to Gordon. "That's kind of strange, though. Someone with a Rixeor Fragment can't possibly be invincible, because the swords pass to new masters. If someone with a Rixeor Fragment was unstoppable, then nobody else would ever be able to obtain it."
"That's true... but you haven't seen what Zinoro is capable of," Gordon said. "He's the greatest swordsman I've ever seen. Serpos is a deadly fighter for sure, and he could never come close to beating Zinoro. How many of the acolytes have you beaten?"
"I killed Dreevius," Luca muttered. But even that had a silver lining. A weakling like Dreevius had managed to stab him through the heart twice. A normal person would have been killed twice over. Trunda had beaten him three times; in Serenite, by the waterfall in Reven, and at the inn. He never had been able to match him. And Serpos; he had needed the help of Brand and Wiosna to beat him, and even then they had just barely managed to destroy the orb. The man likely could have beaten them all in a straight fight.
"Even with a Rixeor Fragment, it would take a greatly skilled warrior to beat Zinoro," Gordon said. "Now there is the prophecy, which is why Zinoro was so determined to kill you before... but it's only a potential future that you kill him. It's not a guarantee to rely on."
Luca put his hand on the sword at his side. "I've got my father's blade, the teleportation spell he left me, and his unique style of swordplay. Essentially everything I have was left by him. My father killed Zinoro's father; and then Zinoro killed him. If history is to repeat itself, then I will be able to beat him."
"Let's hope so... because I feel a conflict between you two is inevitable."
With those words hanging in the air, Luca and Gordon continued on their way, headed towards the Grey Wasteland in pursuit of Emila. And as they went, Luca continued to ask himself the same question. Why was Emila going to Acaria?
What could possibly be there for her?