Crown

Pirta Jorrāelagon-Flase Hope

Tobi and Astrid returned from their little excursion just as Raehar was making preparations for something. He was speaking quietly with Illya and Sora as they approached.

"We know that Henaer's motif is corruption. So I believe that if her lover does want some kind of revenge for her death, he'll most likely want to use someone close to us as a puppet to avoid suspicion."

"So we need a way to exterminate the threat even though we don't know who it is?" Stated Sora.

"Exactly!" Exclaimed Ray.

Illya thought for a moment before a light bulb finally went off in her head. "Ray!! We could use that!"

"Great minds do think alike!" Raehar mused as he pulled a bow with beautifully intricate designs out of a chest. He then pulled out an equally decorative arrow and handed it to Illya.

"What's that?" Astrid asked curiously.

Astrid being the resident archery fanatic naturally lit up the moment she spotted the impressive bow. Illya turned to face Astrid and held out the bow for her to see.

"It's called the Prophet. It's a bow that targets only magical energy. It requires a conductor for it to know the type of magic it's targeting and then based on the archer's will, it will prophesies the enemies that have yet to be revealed to us and eliminates all traces of the magic it was targeting. The only catch is that only someone with a pure spirit can shoot it. It was a spell that its creator put on it to prevent those with evil intentions from abusing its power."

Illya put a hand on Astrid's shoulder. "Come with us. We're going to use it to wipe out the remnants of Henaer. You spent a significant amount of time in Henaer's void without suffering corruption so you must already have an affinity for Henaer's magic. Tobi's already come into contact with purifying spring water and I'm not exactly pure and there's no one else who meets the necessary conditions we need so you'll have to fire it."

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Astrid followed Illya up to the observatory where they were greeted by Kain violently spinning towards them on his chair, his manic laughter flooding the room. Just as he was about to crash into them, Illya used her staff to gently push his chair away, causing him to slip off his chair and fall to the ground dramatically.

"Kain get up and open up the roof. Astrid's here to shoot the arrow," she said.

"Kekekeke! Queenie you're so heartless!"

Illya shrugged him off as he got up and made his way over to a rune stone in the corner of the room. He activated it and the glass roof parted to expose the mystical sky above them. Illya took the Prophet's arrow and pressed it into her hand, drawing blood. She spread it over the arrow tip and handed he arrow to Astrid.

"My blood should be a good enough conductor since Henaer and I have the same kind of magic."

Raehar lead Astrid to a small platform which Kain proceeded to make levitate. She was lifted into the air, just high enough to spot the horizon in the distance.

Raehar cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted up at Astrid. "Now just relax and aim at where the sun sets."

Astrid did as she was told and aimed at the horizon just as the sun was disappearing beneath it. She was still for a moment and everything was silent. For a split second she swore she heard soft whispers. It was as if the bow was speaking to her. She strained her ears to hear what it was saying but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't make out what was being said. The whispers grew louder and louder, yet it was still unintelligible. The louder the whispers got, the brighter the tip of the arrow began to glow. Astrid straightened herself and as naturally as she drew breath, she released the arrow.

It flew into the air and soared into the horizon just as the sun had completely set. Astrid was then lower back into the observatory. She couldn't help but feel that the whole thing was a bit anticlimactic. Raehar took the bow back from Astrid and gave her a thumbs up.

He laughed. "Great. Now we wait. At least it's one less thing to worry about."

•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Dez had, had enough of Sin. She managed to escape him while he was distracted with a conversation with Nikiro. She wandered into an area bordering the grasslands and a path leading to the geyser plains from the opposite side of the volcanic mountain. She strolled along the path, exploring the exotic land.

For a while she found that she was enjoying herself. That was until a rustle from the brush behind her caught her attention. She spun around and in true pirate fashion, she instinctively reacted in anticipation for a battle. She tensed up as whatever it was emerged from the bushes but was slightly disappointed to see that all it was, was a baby boar. She let herself relax and turned around but was immediately engulfed in adrenaline once again when someone jumped at her from behind a tree. A sharp gasp escaped her lips as she instinctively sent her fist flying right into the person's stomach.

"Sin what the hell!!!" She yelled.

Sin, having the wind knocked out of him, dropped to his knees. His mischievousness struck again as he made a wide swing with his hand grabbing Dez by her legs and knocking them right out from under her. Of course being that he had "never hurt a girl" drilled into him by his father, he caught her before she hit the ground. He looked down at her with a smug grin.

"Heh. What's this now? You act like you hate me but It looks like you're already falling for me! I think someone's a little shy!"

He laughed at his own joke and she groaned. She swung at him, which prompted him to let go and hide behind his tree again. She got up in a huff and threw a rock at him, which he jokingly dodged by ducking his head behind the tree.

"SIN! GET OUT HERE AND FIGHT ME!" She hollered.

Sin shot her a devious grin before sprinting back out from behind the tree, catching her off guard and making her fall backwards into the pond behind her. Sin smirked as he hovered on top of her, his hands on both sides of her head. She stared up at him for a while processing what just happened. He had moved too fast for her to register what had gone on.

"You know, I'm starting to think you just like me pinning you down against things."

Dez snapped out of it, looking up at him. For a moment she found herself getting lost in the way the sunset reflected on the water seemed to make him shine. She felt her face heat up and mentally cursed at him for having a face handsome enough to elicit some kind of reaction from her. She pushed him off of her and he helped her get up.

"Umm...am I interrupting something?"

The two of them turned to see Nikiro, awkwardly standing on the path with several flowers in his hands.