The mood was a dark one around the Elements’ table as they watched their chosen Knight and her dragon fly back North. The mood between the two of them wasn’t any better; it was probably event heir mood that was reflected around the room. If they didn’t know any better, Air would have guessed that Blanchefleur was still in shock. She had been in shock the morning after her run in with the rogue Dragon Knight; she couldn’t even tell the monarch what happened until Robin had helped her relax enough.
Air wasn’t quite sure yet if it would have been better to keep her in shock a little longer. Anger and a thirst for vengeance had replaced the shock. She and her siblings were afraid that she would do something stupid. But all they could do was watch over her like they had done up until now. Blanchefleur wasn’t a dragon; she was still under Tien’s influence.
Light was the first to break the silence that had fallen over the room a while ago. “Do you think she might not be ready for any of this yet?” That was quite a somber thought for her, but Air was sure everyone had thought the same thing as some point.
“What would you have wanted us to do for her? She has already bonded with her dragon, she had started learning and Seelan has woken up,” Dark retorted. “The only thing we could possibly do would be to influence Nidhug, but he has become stronger and could more easily fight our influence now.”
Light sighed in defeat, knowing that her brother was right. Air leaned back in her seat as well, not knowing what they could possibly do to make this situation any better. The only thing they could do was watch as the events played out and just hope for the best.
“But Tien wouldn’t have chosen Blanchefleur for Zjarr if she didn’t think that together they could win this. And Varteni wouldn’t have chosen Robin,” Water reminded them.
It was almost as if the elfin Goddess had heard her name, because barely a minute later she threw open the door to the room, and strode inside with a determined look on her face. She closed the double doors behind her again and looking at the Elements. Her green eyes lingered briefly on Earth, Air noticed, much to her joy and then the Goddess went to stand and the head of the table.
“It’s nice that you put guards outside the doors, but right now, I doubt it is the best move. You aren’t the only ones worried, you know. All the others are too, and locking away like this isn’t a good thing,” she stated, putting her hands on her hips.
“How did you even get in here, in the first place?” Mind asked.
Varteni only rolled her eyes, moving them briefly to Earth. Air grinned across the table at her brother, wiggling her eyebrows but he ignored her completely. Instead, she sent a current through his hair, which had Varteni raise her eyebrows with amusement. Earth, long used to his sister’s games, let her do her wind thing and just turned his attention back to the table.
He didn’t know what to think of this entire situation; none of them had expected Seelan to do anything like that. They had all thought he would first rebuild his army before he would show up in any of the Kingdoms. So far, the rogue Knight had proven them wrong three times; first he had gone to Fullmåne where he had had his first run in with Blanchefleur, then he had raided the Archives and now this.
It wasn’t fun anymore; this guessing game needed to stop before he killed more people just to show off his powers to their chosen Knight. Pushing his seat back, causing all his brothers and sisters to look his way, Earth got up and walked to Varteni. He held out his hand and waited for her to place her hand in his.
“Let’s go see Tien; there is something that I need to ask her, we’ll go back to your meadow afterwards. I need some fresh air,” he told her before looking at the others and adding, “As does everyone else here in this room.”
Varteni smiled at him, taking him hand. He opened the door for her, closing it behind them again as they walked passed their guards, fallen dragons. Gods and Goddesses walked along everywhere outside the buildings, some still hadn’t processed the news of what happened in Tubig Libis. But Earth and Varteni both knew that Tien would be out on the streets. She would be at her own palace, watching their chosen Knight just as the Elements had but away from all prying eyes.
Tien lived in one of the bigger palaces, and one of the oldest, being one of the oldest Goddesses. Like Varteni’s meadow was surrounded by the trees that were home for her, Tien’s palace was in the darker part of the sky, glowing like the moon would on the continent. It was made with high and thin towers that looked out over all the other places in the sky.
Only the big door had been made out of a dark stone and stood out against the rest of the palace. There were guards placed in front of the door, but they did nothing to try and stop the two divine beings.
Together, Earth and Varteni walked through palace in search of the moon Goddess. When they did eventually found her, it was in the tallest of all her towers, sitting in a big comfortable seat, staring at a screen in front of her. The walls were lined with bookcases, and there wasn’t a doubt in Earth’s mind that the Goddess had already read them all.
The Goddess looked up, obviously not expecting anyone to come and find her here in her own viewing room. Her dark eyes glided from the Element to the elfin Goddess; no emotion was visible in them at all. It was almost as if she wasn’t feeling anything. But Earth had known her long enough to know she could hide her feeling very well. Right now Tien was most likely feeling the same as Blanchefleur.
“Can I ask what you are doing here?” Tien asked, her voice strained.
“Well, I needed to get out of there, and there is something that I wanted to ask you,” Earth said, holding Varteni’s hand tightly in his. He wouldn’t admit it out loud but with the moon Goddess didn’t show her emotions she scared him; he never knew if she would attack them in the blink of an eye. And he most certainly didn’t want her to hurt Varteni.
But Tien only cocked an eyebrow at his words. “What do you want to ask me?”
“It’s about Seelan,” Earth started hesitantly. Seelan always had been a touchy subject with Tien as she was his former Goddess. “This guessing game of what he might do next is no longer interesting to watch; it is downright dangers. Since you were his Goddess before, I wondered if you might get a hold on him.”
Tien sighed and waved the hand across the screen, making it go blank before it disappeared. She got up from her seat and walked to the window on their left. As she looked outside, Earth could see her gaze up at the stars, as if they would hold the answers she was looking for. Then, finally she turned around, her eyes now sad and sorry.
“When he started leaving the path that I had slowly been building for him, I tried to get a better hold on him, to make him do the right thing; I even appeared to him, telling him to trust me and assuring him that things would get better,” she said. “He didn’t listen to me, didn’t want hear anything I had to say. He didn’t believe me, and the angrier he got with me, the more I lost my control over him. Believe me, I tried to keep him in check but he rejected me completely. His heart was broken; I can’t say I blame him for being angry with me.”
Earth glanced down at Varteni, who squeezed his hands. In her eyes, he could see the pity and the sorrow she was feeling for their fellow deity and he felt the same way. But just because Tien felt so sad talking about this didn’t mean he would drop the subject. In fact, now that she was talking about, it was the right moment to keep the talking going.
“I don’t want you to try and get him back under your control; I realize that that might not be possible. What would help us at least a little would be keeping an eye on him. That is what I want you to try doing; find him, listen to what he say and warn us if he prepares another attack like he did a few days back,” Earth said firmly.
Tien looked at him confused at first but then she seemed to understand what he was asking of her. “Is that even possible? Can you keep an eye on the dragons that leave your area of influence?”
“Sometimes we can, but usually they call to us otherwise we leave them alone. It is our choice. Now you have to make the choice to search for him.”
The moon Goddess stared at him just a little longer before she turned away and walked to one of her bookshelves. She squatted down and paced a slim pale finger over the spines of many books before she pulled one out. Earth had no idea how she knew which one she needed since none of them had titles but he figured Tien knew what she was doing. Taking the book with her, she sat down in her seat once again and started flipping pages, and as she browsed through the book, the images on her screen changed rapidly.
Then she stopped and looked up at the other two Gods. “Well, what are you still doing here? Get out, I’ll send for you once I find him; this might take a while,” she said.
Earth grinned, bowing as Varteni did the same, before they turned around and left the Goddess to her things. As they walked down the stairs the same way they had come, Varteni looked up at the Element at her side.
“What?” Earth asked once he finally noticed her looking.
“That was a good idea,” she smiled. “Why would we only follow our champions and not keep an eye on Seelan.”
“I just hope she can find him.”
“I’m sure she will,” Varteni reassured him, squeezing his hand. “I think she is still blaming herself for everything that he did, so the subject it sort of touchy.”
Earth knew that there was truth in that; he could still remember how Tien insisted that because Seelan was from her Kingdom, the one to fight him should be too. It was the least she could do, she had said, choosing a hero from amongst her people. He was sure someone would have told her by now that it wasn’t her fault, but at the same time, he had heard some of the minor Gods and Goddesses whisper about Seelan. Then again, none of them had enough power to do anything about him.
“Now what do we do?” Varteni asked, though they were walking into the general direction of her secluded meadow.
“I don’t really care, as long as it doesn’t involve anyone from the prophecy; I need a break from that right now. Everyone is so focused on it and it is putting us all on edge; even the minor Gods have been stirring anxiously. Some relaxing will do us good; the last thing we need right now is a war up here too.”
“Don’t you think it isn’t entirely fair that we can just do that?” Varteni asked Earth as they sat down in the grass and she leaned against him. “I have been keeping a close eye on Robin and most of the time he wished he could just take a break from it all; sometimes he goes as far as wishing they had never triggered the prophecy. I doubt Blanchefleur’s thoughts are much different from his. And here we are, temporarily forgetting about it all while they can’t.”
“Isn’t that one of the perks of being us?” Earth joked, though he understood exactly what Varteni meant. “I think we are allowed a break once in a while, after all, this isn’t the first time we have had to deal with Seelan, and we do other things as well.”
“True,” Varteni agreed as she relaxed back against Earth. One of the things he shared with his element was the fact that he was solid as a rock. He could handle a lot and his nerves rarely snapped. He was one of the steady forces that had managed to keep the others together and undivided for centuries now. “We do deserve a break,” she mumbled as she pushed herself up and turned her head so that she could kiss her Element, feeling him smiling into the kiss.
..~~.. ~~...~~.. ~~..~~..
Zjarr landed in the courtyard, careful not to step on any of the guards, not that they hadn’t already ran to make enough room for her. Next she lowered herself enough so that I could easily jump off, which I did, flexing my knees to break the fall when I landed. Turning to look at the gates of the castle, I watched as Robin and the two Princes came in and stopped as well.
Stable boys went up to them, taking their horses by the reins and pulling them to the stables the moment they had dismounted. Robin did the same before he walked over to me, looking tired and worried. I felt a little guilty; all the way from Talon to Sablier Zjarr had flown as high as she dared with me on her back, making it impossible for Robin to talk to me in my mind. And when we were on the ground for the night, I wasn’t exactly very talkative.
“How are you doing?” he asked me right as Zjarr pushed off, probably to go hunt down her meal before heading to the Dragon Knight quarters. “Zjarr told me you were silently brooding.”
I shrugged and told him, “I don’t really know what I’m feeling. I feel angry, still, but at the same time I feel kind of numb. Though, I think it would be better if I went to bed right away; I’m afraid I’ll snap at someone who doesn’t deserve it, which is not something I want to add to my problems right now.”
He nodded and took my hand, leading me up the steps to the castle. The Princes were already there, talking to Kevin, greeting him and whatnot. When he saw me, the Prince of Sable Sucré come over and smiled as he gave me a hug, then he turned to Robin, greeting the elf as well.
“You have been inviting people to my home and yet the host was nowhere to be seen,” he grinned as he turned back to me. “Come on, you must all be hungry. The others were just sitting down for dinner.”
“Kevin, I doubt that is the best idea right now. I’m kind of in a bad mood and…” I started before he shut me up with a sharp look.
“Ron got here yesterday; he has been in a bad mood ever since. Maybe you should sit next to each other so that you can be mad together,” Kevin joked.
“Only if you want them to kill each other,” Robin interjected.
“Kill each other? Don’t you mean that Blanchefleur will kill him; I doubt Ron would stand a chance. Zjarr is pretty protective of her Knight; she wouldn’t let him come close to her.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Kevin and Robin. “There are a lot more people in there than only Ron though; a lot more than I expected honestly.” Kevin looked down at me with an impressed face and said, “Did you know Lynn from Emeraude came with her brother. We were surprised at first but when we saw her kick ass the next day in the arena we fully understood; it was like watching a younger you.”
“Ha, ha,” I said dryly as I pushed his arm, making him take a step to the side.
“That’s not all though. When the elfin Princesses showed up, we were surprised to see that there were more than two elves. And I don’t mean anything by that,” he added for Robin.
“Don’t worry; I know exactly what you are talking about.”
“I don’t. Why would there be more than two? And wait, Anila is here two? No offense to your Princess but I would have never imagined that she would actually agree to this,” I added to Robin.
“Well you don’t need to understand Elfish to understand why she came. Anyway, you came the right evening; Rosalinde is here too. I know she would just love to see you again, as would Maëva.”
“Tien, I didn’t even get such a warm welcome in Fullmåne. All I got there was the news that my cousin might get the throne,” I grumbled, just as we rounded the corner, the dining room right ahead.
The door was open, allowing me to see all the people inside; this really didn’t seem like a good idea. I wasn’t in the mood to be around so many people. The thought that I would be around all of them at Istana Pasir was daunting enough. But I couldn’t back out of this; Robin had sneakily placed a hand on my lower back and was now pushing me forward almost effortlessly. Kevin, nor Lioba or Ivan seemed to notice anything and just kept going.
“Come on, you can do this; you know them all and you have done this before. Besides, there are no serious consequences if you mess up,” Robin encouraged me.
He had a valid point there, and that one was just the right one to remind me. So, I forced a smile onto my face as he let me into the room. There, sitting around the table were the royals that we had invited over the last month or so and they all looked our way when we came in. Most smiled, Ron scowled, but there were four faces in the mix that I hadn’t expected to see.
Alwyn, Ortwin, Darwin and Oberon were all grinning at me. That was, before Haizea leaned forward and blocked them from my view. She grinned broadly and waved, but before I could go to her, Robin steered me away to the other side of the table so that I was following Kevin once more. Looking over my shoulder at him, I shot him a questioning look.
“I am not going to let you sit there, right between my friends and Anila; I think that might be a little too dangerous. Besides, Kevin said there was someone who wanted to see you, didn’t he?”
“Oh yeah, Rosalinde is here,” I remembered. I had already forgotten!
Rosalinda smiled at me, and as Kevin sat down on one side, I sat down next to her on the other side. Robin sat next to me, turning briefly to his friends, offering them a smile before he turned back to me. It didn’t take long for Kevin’s fiancée to start talking enthusiastically with everyone around her, and I soon found myself relaxing and smiling.
“See, it isn’t that hard, is it?” Robin whispered to me, leaning just a little bit closer.
“It’s easier when I don’t have to do all the talking,” I admitted to him before reaching for a fruit.
“So Blanchefleur,” King Brant asked, forcing my attention onto him, “I think that we are all wondering the same thing but I’ll be the one to ask you. When do you think you are going to the castle in the Desert?”
“You mean Istana Pasir? I don’t really know; I guess that we could go as soon as tomorrow.” I wasn’t sure yet if it was a good idea to go tomorrow but at the same time, I didn’t want to impose all my guests on the King any longer.
At the same time, I wanted to at least give Ivan and Lioba a day to rest, the same for Robin. If we could stay a day longer it would also give Zjarr and me the chance to fly over the Desert and actually find the castle. It would be easier to find the place if there was actually one of the undead Knights to show us the way.
I wondered if Sofia would be back by the time we got there. Honestly, aside from the fact that I needed to get the royals there I didn’t really know what was expected of me. We would have to fight Seelan and his army of shadow creatures but I had no idea where we could find him. I wondered if even the Gods and Goddesses knew where he was hiding. Maybe there was a spell that could help me find him.
“Do you want to get rid of us so soon, father,” Kevin teased with a smile. The King looked at his son, surprised at first, but then he returned the smile.
“Of course not. You can stay as long as you need, though if you do stay, I would request you go and see one of Sable Sucré’s Mages. Her name is Sloane and she has been writing me some disturbing letters recently. But, don’t let that ruin your evening; we will talk later.”
I nodded at him, and watched as he started a conversation with his wife, who was sitting next to him at the head of the table. I turned my attention to the rest of the table, and found myself listening to all the snippets of conversations. Next to me, Robin had turned to talk to Lassa, but was at the same time having a conversation with Alwyn a bit further down the table.
As I watched him talk with Lassa, I was reminded of the sudden pain he had felt during a dinner in Emeraude. I hadn’t thought about it up until now, but now that it was back in my mind, I wondered what it had been about. I didn’t want to ask him though; he would tell me if he wanted to and otherwise I would respect his decision not to tell me. It wasn’t like I always told him everything.
“Blanchefleur,” someone called me out of my thought, forcing me to turn my eyes away from Robin. I hadn’t even noticed that I had been staring at him. So looking up, I found Oberon waving at me. “How has the fighting been going?”
I rolled my eyes, not having forgotten that my last fight had been against him, right before I saw Ahiga and Sofia. “Well, we ran into bandits in Emeraude, which was fun,” I told him sarcastically. “And I have been fighting shadows in both Teixeira and Tubig Libis. Oh, and we had a training session in Mataharie. So I guess you can say that the fighting goes okay.”
He looked confused but nodded nonetheless, adding a smile, before turning back to Alwyn with whom he had been talking before. I turned back to my plate but found that I couldn’t eat any more. The fatigue was catching up with me, and I honestly only wanted to go to bed right now. Before I could excuse myself though, someone entered the dining room.
“Excuse me, your Majesty, but another Dragon Knight has just landed in the quarters. He said he would like to speak to Blanchefleur as soon as possible.”
“What is this Knight’s name?” I asked when the King turned to look at me. I doubted it was Priam; he would have happily walked into the room and have dinner with us.
“His name is Caden, I think,” the messenger said, not sounding sure at all. I couldn’t blame him; it wasn’t exactly a common name nowadays.
I nodded, and pushed myself to my feet. “I guess I’ll go up then. I will see you all tomorrow,” I smiled before leaving the room. Barely had I gone up the main staircase did I hear footsteps behind me. Looking behind me, I wasn’t really surprised to see Robin coming up with me.
Waiting for him to catch up with me, we went the rest of the way to the Dragon Knight quarters, together and in silence. Once upstairs, Zjarr was nowhere to be seen but since I couldn’t feel her close by I figured she must still be out hunting. On the other hand, there was another dragon staring at us when we came through the door. A huge golden dragon was staring at us with one tired eye. The dragon looked like he was the same size as Ahiga, with spikes even sharper than Zjarr. However, at the end of its tail was something that looked like a flail.
The longer I looked at the dragon, and the longer the dragon looked at me, the more I was sure that I would have never dared approached this predator, even if the bonding pull had been forcing me forward. Caden must have been brave when he bonded.
Talking about the Knight, a door opened and Caden’s somewhat familiar face appeared from inside one of the little houses. He had a towel on his head and I could see that his shirt was wet, making me wonder if I had only put his head in the bathtub or if we had interrupt his bath.
“Blanchefleur,” he nodded. “Come on in.” He signed for us to approach and go into the house before he turned to his dragon.
Once Robin and I were seated inside, he closed the door behind himself and dropped down opposite us, a cup of tea standing on the table in front of him. He looked beat, honestly, and I could imagine that he wanted to get this conversation over and done with. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but ask, “What’s your dragon’s name?”
Caden briefly looked over me with tired us, but then smiled and said, “Vasuki. He prefers to sleep outside so you might want to warn your dragon that he is here.”
I nodded and relayed the message to Zjarr, who grumbled in response but assured me she would be quiet when she came back.
“So, you’re the elf from the prophecy?” Caden said casually to Robin, not having noticed yet that I had finished talking to Zjarr. There was nothing judging in his voice, only curiosity. “I have to be honest with you; I doubt I could keep you apart from the others. You all look too much alike; and I was never really good with faces.”
“That okay, I doubt you are the only one.”
The two exchanged a quick polite smile before I decided to cut in again. “Zjarr will try to be quiet when she gets back. Now, why did you want to talk to me?”
“I guess it could have waited until tomorrow but I wanted to get it over and done with before I forgot. One thing that didn’t change over time was my bad memory; luckily Vasuki’s memory is a lot better than mine,” he grinned into his cup of tea before taking a sip. “Anyway, Sofia wanted someone to escort you back to Istana Pasir. I’m sure she would have preferred Priam to be the one to do it but he isn’t entirely finished at the archives yet so he should meet us in a few days. So, since I was closest I came instead and now it’s my job to get you all settled and start with the training.”
“Training?” I exclaimed.
“Well, even if the elves trained you I doubt you’ll be at Dragon Knight level. And even the others can use some training. From what I heard, you ran into some shadow creatures right?” I nodded. “And how was their fighting?”
“Very slow and hard, it was almost as if they were having trouble moving.”
“That is because Seelan hasn’t finished the entire process to create his army. Once he will be done they will be a lot more skilled, and faster. And you wouldn’t want your already limited forces to be cut down even further, now would you?”
I shook my head; I most definitely didn’t want any of those royals’ deaths on my mind. If I could all let them go home intact afterwards that would be great.
Caden smiled. “Well then, little Knight, get going and get some sleep. When I wake up tomorrow we are moving. However, I doubt that it will be before anywhere late afternoon. Still, you better be well rested by then.”
With that he stood up, and went to the door, holding it open for me and Robin. That message was clear, and I was quite happy to comply. I wanted to go to bed probably as much as this Dragon Knight. Robin followed close behind me as I maneuvered my way around the sleeping dragon. Once inside the same quarters as where I had slept last time, Robin dropped on a couch, looking as tired as I felt.
“Excited?” he asked before yawning.
“Not really. I’m tired and nervous and just want to get this all over and done with,” I stated before looking his way. “How about you?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he said after a silence. “I’m feeling all kinds of things but I’m not sure what is what yet. I guess it will develop as we go along. Say, do you mind if I just stay here? I doubt I could lift myself up, much less make my way to my bed.”
I shrugged, turning my back to him and walking to my own bed, “See you in the morning.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So between the flooding in my house, being sick and tons of homework, I have to admit that I'm quite happy with what I put up.
Now, I already kind of know what I want to do with the next chapter but I'm going on vacation next Wednesday for two weeks so I won't get much writing done then. And when I come back I'll have more exams waiting for me. Fun. Not.
Anyway, I hoped you like it and please be patient. =)
~~ Bye ~~