| |
Once again, I was looking through the eyes of the archer priestess.
“Lady Priestess, will you be able to send the souls?” Asked the young yet callus woman who worked at the temple not too far away from the ruins of the Shrine City of Michi.
Michi, was a stone utopia with a shrine at the center that worshiped a goddess of light. Michi, north of Genzia and a little to the west. The country, Kremedkai, had many shrine cities as they were called. They had buildings of stone above the ground level and below, the shrine room was at the exact center, or the ground level. They used enchanted stones found in the area to light the undergrounds, which they called gifts from their goddess.
Now, the city was rubble.
The last remains of twilight were fading as I replied,
“Please call me Lady Zeru, for that is my name. And yes, I will be able to send the souls.”
“Why can’t you do it now?” She asked bitterly.
“The souls don’t want to be sent by a person who knows nothing about them or how they died, I am listening to their tales.”
“The dead cannot speak, how much can their souls possibly say with no body?”
“The dead only speak to those who listen for them, if somebody doesn’t give in to sin due to pain, and vows to stay pure, they could attain the ability to listen to the whispers of unsent souls, should they understand ‘purity’ is only an emotion.”
“Purity is a state of body and mind!” The girl, Lidine, argued. “A priestess should know the definition of purity!”
“Being a priestess means to fulfill the ideas of ‘pure’ to other, but never to have their own sense ‘purity’. Priestesses all through these lands travel for different reasons, only the priestess with no personal definition of ‘pure’ will hear the whispers of the dead. These priestesses will learn what ‘purity’ is once they understand those who have will risk their own souls for who somebody with both ‘impurity’ and ‘purity’ in their souls.”
“People who claim to be ‘pure’,” Zeru continued, “Are the most ‘impure’ for they are lying. As long as you classify yourself as what you are told you are without questions, you are ‘impure’ in the view of those who have learned of ‘purity’ and ‘impurity’ from leaving behind material bodies for they see that you’re too afraid of being judged ‘impure’ and cast away, that acting the part of being ‘pure’ is your only answer. ‘Purity’ is much like ‘fear’, it only exists in our minds.”
“Does your cult teach you that?”
“No,” Zeru replied spreading out her arms, “They do. They tell me of those who were classified as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in the human terms.”
“Priestess are supposed to be the most human out of all of us, though you speak like somebody who plays with souls.”
“Priestess are the least and most inhuman of us all.”
“How so? Aren’t priests and priestesses, those who don’t believe in war and bloodshed, the most human?” Lidine demanded.
“Because we are the least human, if we truly believe in alternatives to death and bloodshed. We are impure because out consciousness are not human, while our vessels are.”
“So you’re saying that killing and betrayal are the most human?”
“Yes.” She replied.
“You’re wrong, there’s a lot more than that! What do you have to say about love and trust? Those are human, but what do you classify them as?”
“If a man loves a woman, and is told they cannot be together what does he do?” She did say anything and Zeru continued, “He disobeys the one who is his superior, and causes friction which will lead to something greater in the near or far future. It is simple, no? There is nothing wrong with doing things that could lead to problems if they’re not in your lifetime, or effect you. Those who don’t think that way, continue onward in the world unhappy with a small shadow that may or may not disappear. If it does, than that is fine, but if one shadow causes other shadows, will those shadows also disappear? To every wrong and right done, there is a chain effect that could lead to prosper or disaster. There are few times the chain connecting the shadows are seen, whether it be by the people themselves or those dealing with them. It is all human.”
“Than everything we do is wrong?”
“Think of it this way, we all share a common silence that keeps us from thinking like this. We all share a common determination to forget things that we cannot understand. What I speak of, is one of the things you all want to forget. My life lies in those words, I listen to the whispers of the dead because I can. Please, leave me in peace to send the souls.”
She was silent before saying,
“Yes, Lady Priestess.”
“Before you go, was there anybody who you cared about who died here today, Lidine?”
“No…” She replied, “How do you know my name?”
“The spirits told me.” Zeru said as she waited a moment before walking away, most likely more unhappy and unsatisfied as she was previously. Zeru waited until she was sure Lidine couldn’t hear her before saying,
“She lies, correct spirits? It is of no matter though, her words will bring one thousand sorrows, and one thousand smiles. That is how this world works, correct?”
She no longer had a katana with her, even though she placed necklace on the stone stair in front of her and watched it fade away before saying,
“If more people were like me, had powers like mine, and thought like me…than maybe this wouldn’t be necessary.”
I opened my eyes slowly to see it was completely dark, and that I had Kairi’s cat next to me. I felt Cloud’s jacket around my soldiers and un-instinctively smiled. I sat up, the wounds on my torso objecting, and looked around. Everyone was asleep, the fires in the town complete. There was still a haze of smoke over the city, but aside from that the air was basically normal. I saw Cloud leaning against one of the motorcycles, his sword shoved into the sand beside him a foot or two. He’d apparently nodded off when trying to stay awake, I’d done it myself an uncountable amount of times.
Kairi was curled up in a ball next to Niketa, who was asleep not far away closer to the rest of the surviving population of Myildaypain. I couldn’t help but wonder if Cloud was watching for Twi-LIGHT soldiers, or making sure I didn’t try disappearing again… I could me paranoid too, that comes with being stalked after all.
I looked at Cloud a second time before saying,
“You’re not asleep, are you?”
He opened his eyes saying,
“I figured you’d guess. It’s three AM, you should go back to sleep. We’ll need to leave at dawn, even though you’re in no condition for it.”
“About time you figured that out, genie ass.”
He raised an eyebrow at me inquisitively asking,
“Genie ass?”
“Genius. Slow it down and you get…?”
“Genie ass, if you change the U to an A.”
“Whatever.” I said dismissively, “Any ideas about what we’re going to do about Kairi?”
“Not really. Does Trenxi know Niketa is with us?”
“Yeah, he also knows that Rei is supposed to meet up with us tomorrow, well today now. Or at least your replica did, and if he knows it’s pretty obvious where he learned it from.”
“You don’t have to explain, I’m not that much of a genie ass.”
I stood up saying,
“I don’t know about that, and I think we should go to the city south west called Scixen, that’s where Maaya lived before she moved to Nioglow.”
“Who is this Maaya person? I’ve guessed she’s a friend of yours, but why are you looking for her? Does she know something about Twi-LIGHT, or have connections to higher-ups of some anti-Twi-LIGHT organization? Something?”
“That’s a long story.” I said picking up my laptop suitcase and walking forward than kneeling down next to him to root around in my backpack behind the first tear.
“I’m listening.”
“When did I say I was telling?”
“You didn’t but you don’t seem too ready to go back to sleep.”
“Doesn’t mean I want to play storyteller.”
“Well, since we’ll be traveling together again wouldn’t it make sense for me to know why we’re going where we are?”
“Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to be a wise ass?”
“I believe so, but I though I was a genie ass.”
“You’re a crab ass.” I muttered as I felt around in my backpack for the blasting extra battery for my laptop. Mine was almost dead…after sitting for over five years, and I needed to open up a GPS map and plot our coarse.
“Crab ass, am I? Is that some equivalent to jackass?”
“It comes from the saying, ‘colder than a crab’s ass in the middle of February’.”
“That’s pretty cold if it isn’t buried in the sand very deep.”
I gave him a look saying,
“Can we drop the crab, genie, and wise ass conversation?”
“Your brought it up. Even though, I was half expecting to be called a spongy circus peanut ass.”
“That’d be tricky, since they don’t have asses last I checked.” I felt my battery, and worked my arm out of the backpack and sat down to open the protective case. I tore the box open even though I didn’t shove the box in my backpack to be crushed yet. I turned my laptop upside down, pulled out the battery and snapped the fresh one in. I put the old battery in the box, then tossed it in my backpack to be crushed.
“Weren’t you intriguing be about Maaya, Spongy-Circus-Peanut-Ass-chan?”
“I was, until your mind wondered off to the gutter.”
“And yours was quick to follow.”
“Guilty as charged. Anyway, who is Maaya?”
“Maaya Nikoji, is how she introduced herself to Rei and me. Rei and me had been friends since we were very young, since our parents knew each other and since we were both roughly the same age, we got along pretty easily. When we were about eight, Maaya moved to Nioglow and started hanging out with us when I still went to public school.”
I turned my laptop and continued,
“At first, we made numerous attempts and wise cracks to get her to leave us alone. She was persistent, and didn’t take no for an answer. She followed us around for six months before we let her start hanging out with us after a water fight while listening to Nohinog rock. The other reason we let her hang out with us was because she followed us to the church once and heard the signing. We were friends after that, and after I dropped finished public school, I’d skipped several grades, I only did language studies since I had no interest in higher learning. When I was fifteen, Rei was seventeen, and Maaya was fourteen she disappeared.”
I opened up the maps of Ragnarok I’d downloaded and zoomed in as I continued,
“She came back on my fifteenth birthday, things were downhill from there on. She told us the truth about who she really was, and said that her family had started the rebellion group Exodus.”
“I’ve heard of Exodus.” He cut in, “They’re the most top secret anti-Twi-LIGHT organization there is going.”
“They’re not that top secret if a guy who doesn’t know what Aloe Vera knows who they are.” I said dryly, “Anyway, she also told that Exodus had a plan to steal Skyevi, should she ever fall into the wrong hands…” I paused before adding, “She told me that they already had a number of people infiltrating Twi-LIGHT to spy for them, and she told me that if I cooperated I’d become part of their plan…they’d been planning to destroy Twi-LIGHT from the start after all. Exodus believes Twi-LIGHT will be rendered powerless if they don’t have Skyevi, she also told me about what the spies were doing…”
“They’d gotten hold of Trenxi’s plans, and she told me they were going to start using Skyevi as a battery and power transformer and then when she was ‘fully charged’ and their armies were ready, they’d start their domination of Ragnarok and the rest of the continents in this hemisphere. They’re looking for all of Skyevi’s relics…and we’re both living proof Exodus is going to make their move soon, as is Twi-LIGHT.”
Cloud was silent for a moment before asking,
“So…this is only the beginning then?”
“Pretty much.” I said closing my laptop, out path set. I replaced it in the suitcase, and then back into my backpack of doom that a nasty appetite for laptop batteries…I already couldn’t find the dead one.
“More like a prologue, really. The battle doesn’t even start until we find Exodus. Now see why I didn’t want you and Niketa tagging along? Now not only do I have you to, I have a mini-human to worry about too.”
“Having Kairi to worry about is a problem, but I don’t understand what’s so bad about Niketa and me.”
“You’re only a stubborn pain in the ass, Niketa is a liability because she has no fighting skill whatsoever, and is annoyingly bright to boot.”
“She’s good at bandaging you up, you get hurt enough. How did you get that cut on your leg anyway?”
“I dropped my katana when trying to wedge it in blazing hot metal and I was I midair. Hence the burn on my hand. What does that have to do with anything, anyway?”
“Just proving a point.” He replied.
He stood up saying,
“Let’s wake the two of them up, it’s almost dawn. We should get going.”
He was right; the sky was getting brighter on the horizon.
“So the verdict if to bring Kairi along until we reach a city and find her family?”
“I doubt we’ll run into too much trouble from here Scixen. We’ll only be on the road for three hours if we do the speed limit.”
“And we’ll be speeding unless a cop pops up on my G-pus.”
“G-pus?”
“GPS.” I replied standing up, holding back a curse when I put weight on my left leg.
He gave me a look before saying,
“Are you going to be able to walk?”
“I’m not a cripple.” I grumbled pulling out my belt and slid my katana and scabbard into place.
Where the hell am I supposed to put my gun when wearing shorts?
I looked at Myildaypain and thought to myself,
Things really are just beginning, and Trenxi just made the first move.
After numerous curses on my part, we got going when the sun was half-way above the horizon.
“Traveling with girls is such a pain in the ass…” Could muttered as he started his motorcycle up and Niketa and Kairi were jogging over.
“Since you said that in front of me, I’m assuming I don’t count as a girl.” I said idly looking at the time on my cell phone before shoving it in my pocket.
“Not really in that sense, you don’t procrastinate and complain about waking up early.”
“What about waking up early?” Niketa asked with a yawn.
Kairi ran over to me, her stuffed cat in her arms, smiling happily saying,
“Morning!”
I grabbed her open hand and pulled her up in front of me. Her feet hung level with my knees when she got comfortable. She could hardly see over the front controls, even though she saw my GPS and asked,
“Does that thing have games? I like computer games.”
I laughed saying,
“Afraid not.”
“What’s it do then?”
“It’s like a digital map, it tells you where you are and how to get to the location you want to get go. Since I’m terrible with conventional maps and remembering exit names, it’s quite helpful.”
“You didn’t grow up around here?”
“Nah, I grew up in the capital.” I said as we plowed over the jetties and on the road closest to the beach on Myildaypain.
“Nioglow?” She asked, “I was there once with my parents when I was baby, I don’t remember anything though aside from lots of lights.”
“Nioglow was a site to behold at night.” I said as we got on the parkway after a few turns on the back roads, or at least the ones that weren’t blocked with rubble.
“Nobody lives in Nioglow anymore, right?”
“Yeah…” I agreed randomly “Kairi, can I ask you a few questions?”
“I was in the building because I left my kitty there. All the orphans of Myildaypain sleep there, and we went out to get breakfast at the diner since there’s a waitress there that gives us free pancakes and milk every other morning. When the building caught fire, from the outside in, I was the only one to escape. I ran back to the old condo to get Megami, and than I got trapped.” She looked up at me a smiled saying, “Than you saved me.”
So she’s an orphan…
“Thanks for telling me, Kairi. Do you have any family?”
“Not in Ragnarok. If my grandparents are still alive, they’re living in Nohin.”
“Nohin, huh? We might be going to Nohin.”
She didn’t brighten at the fact since she said solemnly,
“Mommy and daddy got in a big argument with grandma and grandma, I never met them. My grandparents on my daddy’s side are dead.”
“Oh.” I said wondering exactly who her parents were. “Do you have any aunts or uncles?”
“I did, they’re dead though. Most of my family died of Evi poisoning.”
“I see.” I said aloud. “Just like Cloud’s parents…” I muttered to myself. Evidently she heard me since she asked,
“Your boyfriend’s parents died of Evi poisoning? Is that why he’s so distant and dark?”
“Yeah, even though I don’t know that much about him.”
“But he’s your boyfriend!” Kairi said a little indignantly, “You should both know everything about each other. That’s how it was with mommy and daddy.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I said tiredly. “I only met him like two weeks ago. The only reason we’re together is because we both have the same creep after us.”
“Why’s a creep after you?” She asked looking up at me innocently. I didn’t meet her eyes since we were on the parkway now, and I was paying attention to morning rush hour that had filled the roads. Cloud and Niketa weren’t too far behind me, only two cars though out of earshot.
“His name is Robert.” I said, since she’d know who Trenxi was, “He doesn’t like people who help out the innocent who he pulled into his personal affairs.”
“Doesn’t mean you don’t like him.” Kairi said stubbornly.
I sighed saying,
“He’s doesn’t mean anything to me.”
A little part of my mind mentally fidgeted, like it always did when I lied.
“So you say.” She said just as stubbornly. “My daddy’s name was Robert.”
The mental argument in my head started when the cynical part of my mind with devil horns thought,
He doesn’t mean anything to me, and that’s how it should me. I’ve only known him for two weeks, damn it! Why does everybody make such a freakin’ big deal out of it? I certainly have no feelings for him, it’s just convenient to have another combatant tagging along.
So you say.
…why does my brain sound like a stubborn eight year old?
I was pulled back into reality before I could stew over this disturbing observation that I evidently haven’t grow up that much in my mind when my cell phone rang.
“Great…I taunted the bull, and here’s the horns…”
I answered saying in a false brightness,
“Konnichiwa Rei!”
“Where the hell are you, you horse’s ass?” She demanded, thoroughly infuriated. “And why the hell didn’t you tell me about Myildaypain?”
“Don’t curse so much Rei, there’s a minor in the vicinity. And I’m a wise ass, Rei. Not a horse’s ass.”
“I don’t give a shit what kind of ass you want to be-wait, did you just say a minor?” She said losing track on her rage, “Did you pick up a stray?” She asked accusingly. “I still have Rufus, Hitomi, Amaya, Shinji, Gray Davis, Sango, Dimey, Cosmos, Shion, Riku, Tidus, Oreo, Blackie, Kel, Neal, Merric, Owen, Chubbier, Twix, Sammy, Haley, and Nirameh!”
“Wow, you still have Rufus?” I said pleasantly surprised, no sarcasm for a change. “That was the first stay cat I ever had you keep! We were like eight when we found him, right?”
“Yes, I still have Rufus…he barfed in my slippers before I left too, it looked like a partly digested spongy circus peanut.”
I cackled saying,
“Yeah, I played hero again.”
“And this time you picked up a kid. You’d better plan to get ride of it, you can’t go around getting shot at with a brat! Tren-”
“Relax.” I said plaintively than adding in Nohinog, “She doesn’t know who I am. I know, I plan on heading to Nohin to get her back to her family ASAP.”
“I can’t believe you picked up a kid…” She replied in Nohinog, “You had to play hero.”
“You’d of done the same thing, don’t be so cold-hearted. You saved half those cats after all. Cosmos, Shion, Riku, Sammy, Haley, and Shinji were all from the pound.”
She did acknowledge that, she preferred act liked a heartless fighter, though she was far from it.
“You’re still with Cloud and Niketa, right?”
“Yeah.” I replied.
“When I see you again, I’m going to kick your ass for disappearing like that.”
“I found out some important shit though.”
“Important shit or not, you shouldn’t-oh, never mind…where are you going now?”
“Scixen.”
“You’re going to get yourself into a world of trouble if you go looking for Exodus. If they want you in their ranks, they’ll find you. By now, they must know you’re alive. Maaya would make sure of that.”
“I know, I know…look, let’s continue this conversation at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Scixen, okay? We’ll be there by the time you’re there. See you then.”
“Later. If you don’t show up, I’m going to have to find some Macaroons of Doom to come get you.”
“Don’t steal my thunder.” I said matter-of-factly. “Sayonara.”
“Sayonara.”
I switched back to my normal language saying,
“And an army of Macaroons of Doom wouldn’t come close to conquering my army of Spongy Circus Peanuts of Doom!”
Rei sighed, and hung up.
I hung up too as Kairi asked,
“Were you speaking Nohinog so I didn’t understand you?”
“I was speaking Nohinog so Cloud couldn’t understand me.”
“Your supposed to trust your boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I said for what felt like the hundredth time.
|
Help Us Stop Plagiarism -
Nearly all works at PnP are original. However a few people choose to plagiarize.
To check, choose a phrase from the work, then either drag and drop to the search box or copy and paste.
click on search and works at Google will be shown which match. Just to be sure, please do this before
you recommend or rate the work highly...
|
 |
|
|
|
Select a Random Book
|
|
Welcome !
