5.
Recycled Words
Auronmar's castle had moved once more. The fortress stood still only for a few hours at one time, usually to allow Gahn to train Reyna and Dante outside its walls. During such times, decoy castles were deployed to further prevent enemies for honing onto the real one. They were Illusions conjured up by Auronmar and held up strongly despite his possible thousands or ten thousands of miles distance from them.
The current location of the true structure was devoid of trees. Even the horizon held no promise of them. The scenery was a strange sight of only green and black like they were the only colors in existence.
Reyna sat alone on the grass, about a mile away from the castle's long walls. She was waiting, and had been for about five minutes, for Dante so they could do their planned one-on-one sparring.
An approaching pulse of Magika was felt, but it wasn't Dante's. It was weak, a wandering lower demon that hadn't chosen a side in the war. Reyna sat immobile, curious of its course of action. All that could be seen was a sea of green, but she could still envision the demon.
It was small and hunched over like a primate with arms webbed with wings that protruded like little sails by its sides. Legs, stunted and angled out like a goat's, quickly gave way to three clawed toes. Its head that bobbled with its run was triangular and framed by long, pointy-ended ears. When it finally came into view, its black fur could be seen covering its entire body.
As Reyna continued to watch, blue mist erupted from her and solidified around her body. It outlined her like an azure suit of transparent armor that gave a blue glow to her black and white baseball tee and jean shorts. The armor capped over her hair and facial features. Individual eyelashes, cracks in her lips, and even her cornea were covered with it but remained unhindered. It was all as natural as her own skin.
The demon launched at Reyna as soon as it saw her. She observed the fiend as it zoned in on her. It only needed to a few more feet. Still seated, Reyna threw her arm up and released a blue crescent blade the length of her raised limb. It raced and met the lower demon, splitting it in half from head to crotch. Upon hitting its target, the attack disappeared.
Reyna at last got up and walked to the demon. It momentarily stood, intact, on its feet before slumping to the ground with a soggy squish. The halves were cleanly sliced, including the odd colored organs that sloshed out. They stewed within the demon's purple blood like a grotesque soup.
"Why couldn't ya have done that at practice the other day, cutie?" Gahn's cheery voice was accompanied by his soft footsteps on the lush grass. He eyed the corpse. "Though that one doesn't count. It's too easy."
Reyna turned to him, unsurprised by his appearance. She had sensed his approach since before she even dealt the death blow.
The azure armor dissipated. "Yeah, I know," she said as her hand shot up to her neck. The choker Amon gave her so long ago no longer resided there. Its amulet had cracked and the necklace had fallen within months after her arrival to the demon world. Also gone was the bracelet around her wrist, probably a fallen casualty during her one of her training sessions. Reyna held no relics of remembrance of the past.
"What is it?" Gahn asked her, sensing her distress.
"When is Auronmar gonna tell us what's going on?" she abruptly asked. "He hasn't even shown his face to us for over a year! What's happening back home? When can we see it? What's the point of him even wanting to train us?"
"Ya know I'm ordered not to tell ya that," he softly said.
"Why?"
Gahn looked at her. "Ya know why. So ya can concentrate on ya training."
"Not knowing doesn't help." She crossed her arms.
"His orders. Sorry, cutie."
Reyna turned and walked away. He gave chase. "Ya did it again, didn't ya? Ya get grumpy when ya do."
She stopped, turning bright red, only to continue her pace.
Gahn gave a small grin, falling in stride with her. "Ya did."
The swinging arms by Reyna's side held balled up fists. "So what?"
He laced his hands behind his head and stretched while looking at the sky and said, "Nothing. I don't blame ya. It's understandable. I myself sometimes take one of the nicer looking upper demons and-"
"I don't want to know about that!" Reyna exclaimed as she blushed once more.
Gahn's laugh fully exposed all his fangs. When it died out, silence reigned over them. They had reached the tall and long castle wall, seen only to them, that encircled Auronmar's entire palace. Reyna sat down on the ground and rested her back on the smooth surface. Gahn stood over her, observing, waiting for her to speak.
She finally did. "Yeah, I did it. I shouldn't have, but I did." She sheepishly looked up at him.
"Again," he stated.
Reyna scowled and he smirked.
"Ya know it's cruel," he said, his smile fading away as a wave of seriousness took over his face.
"I know, but he still knows how I feel. It's kinda like we let it happen even though we know we shouldn't."
"Doesn't change how he feels," Gahn said as he took as seat next to her. "Dante still loves ya."
"I know," she whispered.
"And ya sleeping with him isn't helping this mess."
"I know!"
"Then why are you doing it?" His voice was lenient despite the heavy question.
"Because!" Reyna threw her hands up in the air. "Because I want to feel the touch of another human being. To know I'm not alone!" She stood up. "It all comes back to Auronmar. He's not telling us anything and it keeps pushing me towards finding a way to reassure myself that I'm not the only human left!"
"Whoa, cutie!" Gahn put a hand out in the universal sign to stop. "Don't go blaming your love life's shambles on the boss."
Reyna's desperate and frustrated eyes glared at him as she growled, "Well maybe if he'd tell us something!"
Gahn also stood and met her stare knowing there was more to it than what she just said. "Reyna," he said. She stiffened. He hardly called her by her name. "He's gone."
A heavy sigh racked Reyna's body. Gahn wasn't talking about Dante anymore.
"I was there when he made his decision," he continued.
The stillness that settled on them was painful and crushing. Reyna kept her head up to show him her eyes were dry. She gave up crying a long time ago, but though she saw Gahn in her sights, Reyna's mind registered a memory of long past that instilled the sense of abandonment throughout her entire core.
"I think I know why I go to Dante," she said.
Gahn waited for the answer.
"I know he won't leave me."
His face fell into a rarely seen sorrowful state. "Reyna, you can talk about it. You haven't said anything about that day."
She tucked a short yet stubborn strand of hair behind her ear and shrugged. "What is there to say? He chose to leave and it hurt. It still hurts 'cause I still love him and going to Dante is wrong, but I can't help myself."
Gahn sadly smiled. "There ya go."
"What?"
"Don't ya feel better?"
Reyna rolled her eyes. "Please. Like you're some expert on this."
Gahn didn't answer but kept his strained smile.
"Hey!" Reyna said and playfully punched his shoulder. "Don't give me that face."
Warmness spread over Gahn and his usual teasing surfaced. "Alrighty then. Maybe I should ask Master Auronmar to manifest some condoms for ya and Dante. Gotta be careful about that, cutie."
Reyna's face was clouded with red, but her confusion overtook her desire to kill him. "Manifest?"
"Yeah. How else do ya think ya got those fancy rooms and meals? Sometimes Dark Bloods excel at one form of Magika over the rest. Blethinette has superior Sight and Master Auronmar can actually manifest things out of Illusions and make them permanently real even when the Illusion is gone."
"So he basically makes things come out of midair?" she asked, her blush disappearing.
"Guess ya could say that. Takes a lot outta him when he does bring a lot of things out at once."
Reyna looked down, pondering on all the furnishings, clothes, accessories, and food in both her and Dante's room. And the monthly manifestation of birth control pills that would appear in her bathroom mirror cabinet. Again she blushed.
"Maybe ya shouldn't be so harsh on him," Gahn said, keen on her thoughts.
She pouted. "I guess."
"Come on, cutie." Gahn placed an arm around her shoulders with the intention of escorting her back into the castle. "Ya know, next time ya feeling frisky, ya can look me up if Dante isn't around."
Reyna pulled away from him and punched his face, knowing full well he could take it.
Though he was capable of dodging it, Gahn chose not to. He rubbed his already swelling cheek. "Not bad, cutie. Dante does worse though."
"I do what now?" Dante himself appeared before them, having passed through the wall that only allows access to a select few. His sword was plastered to his back over his shirt.
"Nothing!" an irritated Reyna fumed. She had not sensed him coming since the castle also hid all traces of Magika. "Just hurry up so we can get to our training!"
"It does me proud to see my pupils do their homework," Gahn teased with a smile.
"Shut up and go before I tear your head off!" Reyna glared at the demon, but she was only yelling at an afterimage. Gahn had already taken off.
Dante looked at the scowling Reyna with mild amusement. "Do I wanna know what happened?"
"No. It was just...Just come on. Let's get on with it," Reyna said and motioned for Dante to follow her.
They walked away from the castle. It was done in silence, and as they paced, Reyna released her armor to encase her once more. By the time they arrived at the desired sparring area, it had completely settled around her.
"It still takes a while for you to do that, huh? Dante asked, facing her.
"Yeah," Reyna sighed. "It takes a lot of effort to pull it out. I can't do it as fast as Gahn wants me to."
"That's what I'm here for." He grinned.
She returned it. "I am getting a bit faster. It takes less than a minute now."
"Okay so," Dante said and retrieved his sword, "I'll be attacking you to see how long you can keep it up this time."
She nodded and they began.
Though Reyna's armor was not as durable as Dante's own natural skin, it was still a formidable substance. It was also an unusual one. Gahn had been the one to suggest Reyna try to cloak herself with her hybrid power. He had noticed the blue matter, whenever summoned, would always coat a portion of Reyna's skin. Regardless of its form as or how it was being handled, the blueness would cover whatever body part had summoned it forth.
Gahn pushed Reyna to keep the cobalt skin on her even when not summoning any weapons, shields, or projectiles of any kind. Eventually, she had been able to drape her entire body with the odd element and mastered bringing it forth and holding it. The next step had been to maintain it for long periods of time and to reduce its summoning time. It was soon discovered the two came hand in hand. The longer Reyna could keep it up while in combat, the shorter it took for her to fully encase herself in it.
After about six minutes of barrages from Dante's sword, Reyna's armor finally cracked under the pressure of a swing to her shoulder. The next blow shattered it and it exploded in a shower of blue crystals. Reyna stood with her right chest, shoulder, and arm exposed while the rest of her body was still covered with cracked armor.
"What did that reduce the prep time by? Two seconds or something?" She laughed.
Dante stuck his sword into the soft dirt. "Maybe. What did you last longer by this time? One or two minutes?"
"I don't know. I think we'll take a break for now until we start our next little interval," Reyna said and released her azure armor.
He laughed. "Feeling lazy today?"
She dropped to the ground. The cushion-like dirt caught her fall comfortably. "The ground here is so soft. I wonder what makes it softer here than other places," she said and spread her arms like wings.
Dante laid down next to her. "Too bad the view of the sky is so bleak."
"Yeah. Bleak."
"So," Dante said as he cushioned his head with his laced hands, "did Gahn talk to you too?"
The sigh Reyna released was heavy. "That jerk," she mumbled.
"What?"
"Yeah, he talked to me too."
A small grin spread on Dante's lips. "Did he offer you condoms as well?"
Another sigh. "Yes."
He laughed.
The quietness that settled was a mist of unsaid thoughts each knew the other wanted to say.
"You know, you don't have to be sorry for it," Dante finally spoke. His eyes were on the sky. It was deep and felt like it could absorb him any minute.
Reyna's eyes were also glued on the darkness above. Through her sight it was a dwindling mass of black that was so far away. "I shouldn't let it happen."
"I can stop it too. I'm the one that...looks for it anyways," he sneered.
"I'm sorry."
He turned to her. "That wasn't for you. It was for me. I mean, I know how you still feel."
"And that's why we shouldn't be doing it. It's not fair."
"But I like it."
Dante's bluntness caused Reyna to turn to him. Their eyes locked.
"And I can guess your reasons for going through with it," he added "It's understandable."
"You know that I don't feel anything out of it, right?" she asked slowly.
"Yup'" he immediately answered.
"But you still want to do it? Still did it all those times even when you knew all that?"
He shrugged. "I see it as another way of being with you."
"Isn't that kinda terrible?"
"Isn't your reason kinda terrible too?"
Reyna's eyes returned to the sky as did Dante's. She giggled and Dante joined her.
"Wow," she said. "We're terrible."
His eyes scanned the void above him. "Well, our situation isn't all that great either."
"But just know," she softly spoke, "that my feelings towards Mundus are still-" Reyna stopped and gasped.
Dante bolted up and looked over her. "What is it?" he asked her in alarm.
She couldn't talk as an overly familiar sensation crawled and consumed her chest. It was hot like her heart was trapped in a chamber of coals that was being dipped in lava. Reyna's hand shot up to her chest but by the time her hand grasped her shirt, the sensation was gone.
Dante's concerned face hovering over her own was finally noticed. "I'm fine," Reyna said and forced a smile.
He backed away from her as she sat up. "You sure?"
She nodded. "Yeah. It was just a weird feeling. I'm sure it won't happen again."
*********************
Author's Note: Hello once more! ^^
Eeep! Sorry for the lengthy wait for this chapter. Like I said, I had company this weekend, and they took up most of my writing/typing time. Haha.
Well...I'm sure we're getting closer to the meeting we are all waiting for... In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this chapter...even though it was a bit of a filler one.
On another note, I tried to draw Reyna with her pixie haircut. She only has one eye 'cause I suffer only-one-eye-will-look-cool-while-the-other-one-looks-lame syndrome. My phone camera didn't even capture her eyelashes all that well. :/ Hope you still like it! ^^
Thanks for all your support!