The Aegis Awakens
//Chapter Seventeen; Garfont Part Two//
Maddie knew full well Mythra was very unhappy with her at the moment, but she honestly was not sure if she even cared at this point. Outside of sharing the same element, the two practically had nothing in common outside of one other thing that Maddie refused to think about. Most of her happy memories were with Ant and Regan, but now it was painful to even think about.
At the moment, she was luckily dealing with Pyra. She had to admit, she enjoyed Pyra's company much more than Mythra's. Of course, she knew full well that secrets between Pyra and Mythra were practically non-existent since the two shared memories. That meant that just because she was more comfortable with Pyra, it did not mean she could say things she would never say to Mythra.
"Mythra wants to know why you didn't inform us about Regan... I have to admit, I'm curious about it as well." Maddie made eye contact with the redhead for a moment, and Pyra offered the blonde a smile in response. The Flesh Eater flushed a little when Pyra smiled, "Though, Jin didn't really seem that surprised. You notice that?"
Maddie nodded, "Yeah, actually... Then again, you did say that Jin witnessed her get injured and not regenerate."
The redhead looked down at her lap, "Yeah..." They were all silent for a moment before Pyra suddenly spoke again. "Y'know- back on the Maelstrom- she talked about her mother. She was that Elf that traveled with you guys right?" After she received a confirming nod in response, she continued. "And she is Regan's mother, so she's dead isn't she?" Pyra almost appeared to be sad as Maddie gave another nod.
"I remember her from Auresco...and from the Titan's Core. You two were were quite the team, and I'm quite jealous."
The Flesh Eater's eyes widened, "Jealous! Of me and Ant? You gotta be pulling my leg here, Pyra, or aren't you?" Pyra's expression was one of sincerity, so Maddie came to the realization that she was actually telling the truth.
"We were both awakened by the same person, but you found someone that you actually care about...someone that you chose to bond with of your own free will." Maddie shot her a look of bewilderment.
"But you and Jin-" Pyra shook her head before Maddie could even finish.
"Mythra and Jin." She corrected before she looked down at the floor. "You know that his bond with Mythra is something I could never hope to compare to..." Maddie honestly felt a bit bad for Pyra at that bit of information, and she suddenly felt the urge to comfort the redhead.
Reaching over, she was about to place a comforting hand on Pyra's shoulder when the redhead all of sudden looked up. Pyra's eyes were now gold and with a quick flash of light, Mythra was now sitting in her place. Her eyes narrowed as she realized that Maddie was trying to comfort her, and Mythra jumped up from her seat and shot a nasty glare in the Flesh Eater's direction.
"Don't even think about it." Mythra snapped.
Maddie stood up and backed away a few steps before she raised her hands in defense, "I'm sorry... I just wanted to-" Mythra's death glare swiftly got Maddie to be quiet.
After a moment of silence between the two, the both of them sat back down on opposite sides of the seat they had been on before Mythra had gotten pissed off. Maddie was silent for a few minutes before she finally looked up in surprise as Mythra spoke to her again. "Why are her eyes blue?"
"Huh...?" Maddie was a little confused as she felt the curiosity in Mythra temporarily dominating over the anger and rage.
"Her eyes... They're not typical of Elves."
Maddie nodded, "Yeah, so what?"
"Maybe...Ant wasn't such a good person and cheated on her husband with one of the few remaining Tornans after the war. After all, the people of Torna were known for their blue eyes-" Maddie's shoulders shook as she abruptly interrupted the other blonde's jabs at the woman she considered to her best friend.
"Ant never cheated on Julian. Don't drag her name through the dirt."
Mythra smiled, "You sound so very sure of that... Perhaps, you already know the real answer, don't you?" Maddie visibly flinched as she was stared down by Mythra's golden eyes. Fortunately for Maddie, Akhos interrupted before the blonde Aegis could get any more info out of her.
"We're nearing the Urayan Titan." The Flesh Eater gave a small sigh of relief as Mythra swapped places with Pyra. She knew that Mythra was not going to give up on the information, despite the fact that it would not help her in any way. Then again, Mythra always loved to taunt so she supposed it could have to do with that.
"This isn't over." Pyra's eyes glowed golden as she said this before her eyes turned back into their normal fiery red.
"Maddie, you and Akhos go on ahead." Pyra said once they were ready to leave the Monoceros and enter the Urayan Titan. The blonde sighed and knew better than to argue at this point. Mythra was already pissed enough, so it was definitely not worth it to make her any more angry. While Pyra was the more gentle of the two, Maddie doubted she would tolerate any refusal at the moment.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•
If he was honest, Rex knew they were losing. Despite it being four on four, all four mercenaries were of greater skill. Then again, they did seem to holding back. From what little he could tell, not one of the mercenaries ever went for a finishing blow.
He noticed that Regan seemed to fighting mainly Ethan. When she stumbled a bit, he could not help but worry. He was unable to offer her any help before she was back to swinging Zenobia's Greataxe at Ethan. Nia and Tora we're on focusing individually on Yew and Zuo and seemed to getting tired.
"It that really all you've got? Are you the Aegis' Driver or not?" Vandham asked as he swung his Blade's Duel Scythes at the fifteen-year-old. Barely managing to dodge out of the way out of the continuous blows, Rex did not respond and instead chose to send a slash of dark ether the Urayan's way. To his dismay, Vandham simply stepped to the side at the last moment.
"You gotta do better that. C'mon, give me your best."
Getting annoyed with the taunts, he sent a few more slashes of dark purple ether in the man's direction. Rex huffed as the mercenary leader continuously dodged out of the way but made no moves to attack him back. Unbeknownst to Rex, the constant slashes of ether he was sending Vandham's way was causing his affinity link with Malos to become weaker.
Despite Rex's obliviousness to what his actions were causing to his Blade, Vandham's eyes were focusing intently on Malos. After dodging a few more attacks Rex sent his way, Vandham suddenly smirked as he watched the dark Aegis before Rex raised Malos' sword above his head. Rex was alarmed as the sword appeared to deactivate itself, and he heard Vandham chuckle.
"Finally reached your limit, huh? Now, take this!" Rex cried out in surprise as Vandham lunged at him, one of the Duel Scythes coming dangerously close to his throat. He was sure he had lost, that the man was going to kill him and claim Malos as his own. After all, if he did not even realize the struggle he was causing Malos, did he really deserve to be the Aegis' Driver.
Vandham let out another chuckle, "Y'know, if you're a Driver, you are a new one for sure." The man stated before he got up and sheathed the Duel Scythes he had been fighting with. Confusion hit Rex as he noticed the other three people Vandham was with put away their weapons as well.
"Huh, what is this?" Rex asked before he heard a thud come from behind him. Turning around, he was greeted by the sight of Malos on his knees. The Blade looked thoroughly worn out, and he was breathing heavily. "Malos...? I didn't mean to-" Vandham interrupted before the kid could say anything more.
"The first thing a Driver should learn is their Blade's limits. Even as powerful as Malos is, he's gonna run out of energy before long when you keep pushing him like that."
The fifteen-year-old looked horrified at that, "I didn't realize..." Vandham nodded at that before he looked at Malos.
"Need a hand up? You look like you just got ran over by a herd of Armus." Malos let out a half-hearted chuckle at that.
"No thanks, I'm good." He stated as he managed to get up on his own; however, his struggle was very evident to everyone there as they watched him.
Vandham looked at all of them, and his eyes fell onto Regan. She had already given the Greataxe back to Zenobia, and she appeared to be listening to their conversation. Crossing her arms over her chest, she looked back at Vandham when she noticed his attention was now focused on her.
"Can't say I expected to see the Elvuenian Princess in Uraya of all places." Regan uncrossed her arms after she searched his expression for any sign of hostility and found none.
"You know who I am?" She asked as she stepped closer to him.
"Took a few months for Ethan to finally convince me that he was on friendly terms with a princess. He told me all about you."
"I see." She gave Ethan a side glance, and he gave her a smile in response.
"Nothing too embarrassing, I promise."
She quickly pinched the skin of one of her fingers, which caused Ethan to visibly flinch. Offering Ethan a falsely innocent smile in response, she then dropped the smile as Vandham spoke to her again.
"Outside of that, we don't get many Elves here. It's pretty rare to see them leave Elvuen alone unless they're mercenaries." Regan nodded her head at that, and she held out her hand to him. Honestly, Vandham seemed trustworthy enough at the moment.
Stepping forward, he accepted the gesture and shook her hand with his much larger one. "Nice to meet you, Vandham. Can't say that Uraya is my favorite place, but I much prefer it over Tantal."
"That's fair." Vandham responded before he looked back to Rex.
"Gotta name, kid?"
Rex was still wearing a guilty look on his face as he was still looking at Malos. The fifteen-year-old turned his head to look at Vandham, "It's Rex. That's Kaevan, Nia, Dromarch, Ursula, Tora, Poppi, and Zenobia." He answered before he looked at Ethan.
"You must be the friend Regan told me about." Ethan nodded before he offered the fifteen-year-old a smile.
"Yeah. She's told me quite a bit about you too in her letters." He responded before he suddenly looked towards Regan. His eyes widened a bit as he saw her fall forward, and he managed to react quickly and catch her. At first, he thought she may have lost her balance until he noticed she was unconscious.
"What's wrong with her?!" Rex asked as Ethan quickly picked the other Elf up.
"No idea. C'mon, Garfont Village is close."
•°•°•
Laying her body down on one of the cots in the inn, Ethan checked her vitals. "Everything appears to be normal." He commented to himself before he was caught little off guard by Nia walking into the inn as well. The Gormotti walked closer and looked at the covered wound on his right temple. Nia did not comment on it at first, and she instead focused on Regan.
"How is she?"
Ethan looked back down at Regan and let out an annoyed sigh, "She's fine, far as I can tell. I've known her for twenty years now, and I have never seen this happen to her before." Her temperature was normal, so he knew a fever did not have any cause in what was wrong with her. "Exhaustion, maybe? That's the only thing I can think of."
The Gormotti shook her head at that, "She didn't seem all that tired to me." Nia seemed to think about it a bit more, "Now that I think abou' it, she didn't deny having nightmares." Ethan nodded before he rechecked Regan's pulse just to make sure it had not changed. To his relief, her pulse was still normal.
"Let's jus' wait a little while and see if she improves." Nia said, and she suddenly pointed at his right temple. "Now, you wanna explain how how you got that...and why it's in the exact same location as on Regan." The Gormotti then motioned towards his bandaged arm, "Tha' is also in the same location as a cut Regan got earlier."
Ethan simply watched her for a moment before he finally answered, "She hasn't told you?"
Nia shook her head in confusion, "Tell me wha'?" The Elf looked away from her and shook his head.
"She's going to have to tell you that herself, alright? After, I'll tell you whatever you want." When Nia just huffed, Ethan let a sigh. "Look, you can ask her about it when she wakes up. For now, let's go get some food." He noticed she was not following him, so he added. "It's really good, I promise." After a moment of silence, Nia finally followed him out of the inn.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•
*I just want to apologize for the late update. Two bonus scenes will be included in the next chapter. Thank you for reading.*