|
|
Chapter Seventeen
No Rest for the wicked; a New Friend
Marium and Cadillac set back out on
the mission after their short stop at the town, Chimera’s Pride. “I can’t
believe that no one at that town had any leads about a silver cahlot.”
Cadillac shrugged, halfheartedly, and
continued to walk. The soles of his feet were beginning to hurt, and he knew
that he’d sleep well that night. “Let’s see if the next town closer to the
ocean knows anything.”
Reaching into his pocket, Cadillac
pulled out a world map made of weathered parchment, and unfolded it. It looked
as old as the guru actually was, and the sketching was rough, but Marium could
see that there had been additions to it over time. One of the newer marks was a
long river that stretched from the eastern tip of the main continent, to the
western end. It was labeled as ‘Merchesstia’s Teardrop’.
But what caught Marium’s eye the most
was the signature on the bottom of the page. C.B. “Who made this?”
“It was a gift to me on my coming of
age. The most renowned mapmaker of all time was the chief of my village. He’d
traveled all over the world before he settled down and built our tribe of
squirrelves. His name was Contour Blazer, and if I am correct… he had only one
living descendant. I don’t remember the person’s name, but he or she rules the
tribe now in Chief Contour’s place.” Cadillac announced, then sighed, a sliver
of homesickness showing in his voice. “I hope our adventures take us to the
village one day… oh well.”
“Let’s see here, the ocean is here…”
Cadillac’s short finger pointed to an ocean called ‘Tnaig Elddup’ in the
northern hemisphere of the globe. “It’s name means ‘giant puddle’. I think it
was named by a dwarvish or something…”
His finger moved down slightly and
stopped at a small dot on the map. “This is approximately a half a day’s
journey from where we are now.”
“That’s the closest town?” she
demanded, quietly. All she got as an answer were the random calls of this
world’s birds. “Well, if we keep going at this rate, we should get there by the
time it’s dark.”
“I hope so. Let’s hurry, I’m getting
tired, the last time I went on a big adventure like this was when… Altaire and
Faede were under my guardianship.”
“WHAT?!” Marium demanded, jumping up
suddenly from surprise. Cadillac blinked, face blank in mild confusion. Then he
covered his mouth with one hand and wrapped the other around his waist, trying
to steady his footing as his laughter erupted from the depths of his stomach.
“You never told me you trained both Altaire and Faede at the same time!”
Cadillac giggled a little bit more,
then nodded, wiping a tear from his eyes. “Yes, yes, Altaire and Faede have
always been rivals, even before they were divided by the powers of light and
dark. I remember those times very clearly. But now we should focus on getting
to that town before the sun goes down.”
Reluctantly, Marium nodded, and walked
at a faster pace. Cadillac had to almost jog to keep up with her, since his
legs were much shorter than hers.
Once Marium and Cadillac reached the town it was close to being dark.
Marium felt like she was being watched by someone, so she turned to Cadillac
and glared at him accusingly. “Guru, are you staring at me?”
“Why would I be staring at you? You
scare me, Marium.” Cadillac confessed, honestly, eyes scanning the inn’s
waiting room. He too felt an omnipresent being in the room, carefully noting
their every move.
“Well, we’d better get some service
here soon, or we’re leaving, and we’re taking our money with us!!!” Marium
called, certain that it would get favorable results. From a shadowy corner, an
overlooked figure stood, silently brooding.
“So
this is the girl, the great High Priestess Yin. Heh. She is merely a child, but
obviously a thorn in the High Sorcerer’s side. That’s apparent by her sheer
presence.” The invisible figure scoffed to himself, still gazing at Marium
from the shadows. “She is a unique girl.
That I can tell from her thoughts, but this won’t stop me from carrying out my
task.”
Cadillac continued to scrutinize the
room in weary alertness. He pressed his fingers together and held tight to his
magic beads in prayer. “Ygrene Dleif.”
Suddenly, zaps of light webbed across
the room, shooting through the darkness in the enclosed area. When the lights
dimmed down to normal, everything was gone. There was no hint of any kind of
presence, except for a small, weasel-like creature that lay curled up in a ball
on the inn counter. Marium’s delight was evident from the ecstatic squeal that
escaped her lips. “Look, a ferret! I’ve always wanted one!”
She rushed toward the animal, which
blinked in surprise as she wrapped her arms around it gently and held it close
to her. “What a cutie you are! I wonder where you came from! You weren’t here
before Cad cast his spell!”
Sighing, Cadillac shook his head and
frowned. Why did he have to get stuck with the only girl in the whole world
that acted this way? “It’s probably the innkeeper’s, but came out when it saw
the lights. Feerpts are attracted to shiny, bright objects, so it must have
been intrigued by the light show.”
Marium proved not to be listening to
him when she showed no sign of her recollection. All she said was, “What’s
taking the innkeeper so long? Even his pet found us before he did.”
Another worried frown made its way
onto Cadillac’s face, and his brow dipped in thought. “Marium, this town has
been way too quiet, even if it is night time. Let’s impose just this once and
check up on the innkeeper.”
With a slight nod, Marium set the
feerpt down and smiled. “Take us to your master, little one!”
“Rrrrrr!” the rodent-ish creature let
out an adorable call almost as if it was replying to her, and then took off up
some nearby stairs. Marium and Cadillac followed in hot pursuit.
After a few flights of stairs, and a
dark hallway that seemed to wind around the world three times, the priestess
and her guru ended up outside a locked door. “Hello? Is anyone in here?”
There was no reply, of course, and
Marium resorted to banging on the heavy wooden door with her fists. Cadillac
just watched her without any expression, then finally burst out in a small
chuckle. Marium was always making him laugh at strange things. He raised his
hands to the doorknob and closed his eyes. His lips moved in quiet phrases,
until his palms glowed with a pale orange flame. Abruptly, his eyes snapped
open and at the same time, the door flew from its hinges, and didn’t slow its
pace until it slammed against the opposite wall with a hollow THUD.
Cadillac gave Marium an all-knowing
smirk, then entered the room. After grumbling a moment or two, Marium followed
him.
And there, lying face up with a
terrible, tortured look fixed on his face, was the inn keeper. He was pale, and
his lips were tinted bluish purple. Marium quickly cupped her hand over her
mouth, to muffle her surprise. Cadillac’s lip quirked, and he cast his eyes
away from the scene.
The horror-struck priestess took a
deep breath to calm her nerves, then put her hand down. “Cad, what did this?”
Cadillac’s expression was one of dull
sympathy. “I don’t know exactly.”
“Fweeeeep!” the weasel like creature
seemed to be calling out to Marium to follow it. It bounded into another room
that branched off from the one they were in at the moment. “Fwepfweee!”
Cadillac stumbled into
the room, and gasped at the sight of the sword. Squinting through the brilliant
aura at the crude characters, the short guru muttered some words. He was
reading the letters.
“It looks like the Head Sorcerer’s
already after your head, Marium. He’s beginning to feel the heat after
everything that’s happened. And he should fear you.” Cadillac stated, smugly.
When Marium blinked in dumbness, he explained. “The High Priestess’s appearance
is the first step to his demise. And if he can’t kill you before you reach the
status of goddess, well… he’s basically done for.”
Marium was confused, but she tried to
understand. She fiddled with the snake ring that dangled with electricity from
the thin, threadlike silver chain around her neck. “That doesn’t tell me why
the inn keeper had to die. And who exactly did this? If I bring danger every
where I go, then I’m putting you in danger right now, Cad…”
The seemingly young guru just smiled,
gravely, and nodded. “Yes, but I’m prepared to risk my life for you, Priestess.
You see, the time of Yang has already past. The spiritual beasts of Yang all
gathered, and we resurrected the god. But something went wrong, and… well.”
He stopped, it looked like he wasn’t
going to continue. “I’d like to hear about that some time, Cad. Once this is
over, alright, and we heal Faede. Then I’ll expect a detailed explanation.”
Cadillac’s tail drooped, but he
nodded, and then glanced at the sword again. “It’s from an assassin. From the
Sorcery Guild. It says ‘keep your trust in check’. That means… well, I don’t
know, really.”
“C’mon, Cad. Don’t worry about it.
I’ll protect you, let’s go find a place to sleep. Then you can tell me about
Faede and Altaire’s childhood training together.”
After the two had found a room with
two beds, and a door that locked tight, they settled down for the night. Marium
plopped herself down on the bed, rubbing her feet tiredly. Little Weasel, their
newest companion, curled himself up in a corner and closed his eyes, happy to
get some sleep. Cadillac fluffed out his tail, then laid face down into his
billowy bed.
Marium’s gentle voice floated up to
him. “About Altaire and Faede.”
“Oh, alright.” Cadillac
grumbled. “You’re as bad as they used to be. Always griping at me and nagging.”
“The story, Cad.”
“Yes, yes, I remember it
like it was yesterday. Faede was just a little boy. Thin, lanky, with shoulder
length jet black hair, that he always wore in a tight ponytail. Back then, his
eyes were big and bright, and always had a carefree light in them. Altaire was
a little taller, more built than Faede was. In fact, if it had been his
destiny, Altaire could have been a very good magi-knight. His hair was always
short, with his bangs wild in front of his eyes.
“Well, as I was saying,
they were rivals. They’d always spar, Altaire with his plain wooden staff and
Faede with his leather knuckles, or even bare hands. It soon became apparent
that Faede was getting too good at hand to hand combat. If one spends too much
time on the body, the mind will weaken.
“I took away his knuckles,
and placed him with a wooden staff, like Altaire’s. He detested it
automatically. Always being like Altaire, now I remember those times, and
regret my actions. I was trying to make them too much alike.” Cadillac paused,
sighing in his own memories of his two pupils.
“Faede was excelling in
the dark magic, dappling here and there, but I only taught white magic. The
black area was completely uncharted to me. So I punished him when I found him
with scrolls and booklets on the black powers. Now I realize it was his nature.
There was nothing he could do to stop his destiny.”
“Quit it. Faede chose his
own path. It wasn’t predestined.” Marium snapped, hand on the ring again.
Cadillac glanced at her, and stared. She followed his gaze to her own hand on
the necklace, and let it drop down and rest on her chest. She smiled,
sheepishly.
“In any event, Altaire
was always attentive, and grew more and more enept at the white powers. He was
the most talented pupil I’d ever had. And that was for good reason. The day Faede’s
father came to take him away, Altaire tried to fight him off. But he was just a
child, and the Sorcerer was too strong, even then.” Cadillac was quiet, and
Marium got the impression that the rest was secret.
Sighing, she stretched
out on the bed. “Do you know exactly what kind of training Faede had to undergo
after that?”
The short guru remained
silent. Finally, as if planning his words, he replied. “I’d heard rumors from
the capital. Traveling sorcerers would say how talented the young heir was, and
how flexible. He was being put through the hardest tests there were, since he
was to uphold the family honor one day.”
“But you don’t know the
details, right?”
Shaking his head, the
guru closed his eyes and lay back against the pillows once more. “It’s late,
Marium, and we’ve got to search the nearby beach tomorrow for any clues toward
the Cahlot’s lair.”
The next morning,
Cadillac woke to find Marium up, brushing her hair with a comb she’d found in a
room next door. She was absorbed in a painting on the far wall, just staring at
it.
Cadillac looked in the
direction she was, and saw why she was looking at it. There was a sparkling
silver, giant phoenix with its wings spread, calling out to the heavens,
painted with entrisic details. “Cad, isn’t that a cahlot?”
“Yes.” He stated, moving
to get a closer look at the surrounding landscape of the painting. On the
bottom, in tiny symbols, the date and place was written. “It looks like your
guess was valid. It says ‘The Legendary Cahlot of Tniag Elddup’. So, let’s
check our equipment and stock up with medicine before we charge out there.”
Tniag Elddup was half a
days walk away, and all the other buildings in the town housed nothing but
corpses. Cadillac and Marium realized that who ever the Head Sorcerer had hired
to follow them was good at his job. He’d wiped out an entire town, with
seemingly nonchalant ease.
“Let’s take Little Weasel
with us. He’d be helpless here, and what if that horrible person comes back?”
Marium demanded. Cadillac eyed the feerpt in apprehension.
“I doubt a hired merc
would take any heed to a feerpt. It’s just another mouth to feed, Marium. We’ve
getting low on provisions as is…”
Marium sent the guru
giant, puppy eyes, and hugged the feerpt close. “Cad, how can you be so mean to
a helpless little creature?? Can you see he’s scared??” she held up Little
Weasel for Cadillac to stare into its eyes. There were nose to nose… and that’s
when it happened. LW grinned wickedly, and bit Cadillac’s nose. Marium hadn’t
been watching.
“AUGH! That little rat
tried to take my nose off!” he exclaimed, leaping backwards.
“Cadillac, I didn’t think
you’d stoop so low as to LIE… LW would never do anything like that! He’s
sweeter than apple pie!” she stated, rocking LW in her arms happily.
“Rotten apples, maybe.”
Cadillac muttered, glaring at the feerpt. It glared back.
So they started out, the
guru, a high priestess, and a little feerpt, different thoughts running through
the other’s heads. “Cadillac, cahlot’s blood isn’t the only ingredient, is it?”
“No, there’s also some
heraldic herbs, and a few animal organs… nothing too hard to find. But the
cahlot’s blood is the hardest, so we should get it first.
“There’s a town where we
can get all the other stuff at. It’s more inland, though.” Cadillac stated,
thinking about other things.
Marium sighed, and looked
at the ground. Her fingers were wrapped around the ring Faede had given her.
“Faede… hold on, we’re trying our best…”
The little guru glanced
at her from the corner of his eye. “Did Altaire ever tell you about the
prophesy of Yin?”
This question caught
Marium off guard. “Um, no, no he didn’t. Not all of it anyways. Why?”
Cadillac continued
walking, eyes downcast as he did. “What did he say?”
“He told me why I was the
Priestess Yin, when… when I was in doubt.” She finished. Cadillac nodded, then
was silent for a while.
His sigh was low, and
Marium just barely heard it. “You see, the story of Yang isn’t a happy one. But
neither is the story of Yin. Or it won’t be… the two tie into each other, and
will continue to bring sadness to the god and goddess, unless it is some how
stopped.
“The time has come. This
world… our world, Pallas, the last world of magic, was created by two beings of
enormous power. Actually, they fused the sky and earth out of the power of
their love for each other. But they would always be separated. The goddess’s
place was in the earth, and the god’s was in the heavens. There was nothing
they could ever do to change that. Until destiny prophesied the time when they
would be together again.”
Marium was surprised at
this. “The god had always had everything the easy way. He was born a celestial
prince, anything he wanted, he got. But the goddess had always had to go
through trails, and work to get where she was. So the only way to make it so
they could be together, was if they both lost things they loved. If they were
both put through trails, then they would be on equal ground. Neither would be
greater or weaker.”
Cadillac took a shaky
breath. “Altaire is your equal. You are the priestess of Yin, the earthly
embodiment of her spirit. Altaire is the incarnation of Yang. It’s only right
that you two be naturally bonded, and attracted to each other. But there were
always other gods and demi gods.”
“The two deities had
companions. Knights, if you will, even before they were incarnated on Pallas.
Six minor gods each. The two major deities created animals in their honor, so
that they would be forever remembered among the people of Pallas.”
“Ox, snake, goat, rabbit,
rooster, and pig for Yin; rat, dragon, dog, monkey, horse, and tiger for Yang.
They volunteered to come down and be incarnated at the same time as their
deity, so as to help their deity on the quest.”
Marium was stricken into
silence. “Cad, but that means that… what does that mean exactly? That these…
knights of mine, will they arrive to help me? What am I supposed to do
exactly?”
Cadillac glanced at her,
age old wisdom gleaming in his large eyes. But then he just shrugged, and sent
her a grin. “Only you can choose the ultimate end to everything. The options
aren’t nice, and the easiest way isn’t always the best. Remember that.”
“Oh, and about your
companions. I believe you’ve already met one of them already.” He just smirked
at her again, and continued to walk toward Tnaig Elddup.
“Stupid squirrelf.” She
muttered, confused as she was in the beginning. What she didn’t notice was that
her armor, the armor of Azure, the blue dragon of Yin, was faintly gleaming.
But under the bright sunlight, the gleam was barely recognizable.
Cadillac and Marium, and
LW, all stopped at the beach, on the coast of Tnaig Elddup. They sat down to
have lunch under a strange, purple leafed tree that had branches thicker than
Jonah’s four and a half inch wide wrists. The shadows that the foliage cast on
the group was just dim enough for Cadillac to notice the soft glimmer that was
being emitted from Marium’s armor. “Hm. I wonder what that means.”
“What’s wrong, Cad? Don’t
you like your lunch?” she asked, rubbing her tired feet diligently. Cadillac didn’t
stop to answer her, instead, he just moved closer to her chest armor, squinting
at it. Marium blinked, and glanced down at the midget squirrel boy that was
just centimeters away from her breast guard, examining her chest.
“CADILLAC!” she
exclaimed, bringing her hand back to smack him across his cheek. But the guru
jumped up at the warning of her voice, and evaded her swing. “What were you
DOING?!!”
“Your armor’s glowing! I
swear, I wasn’t looking… there, I was looking at your chest plate!” he was bright
red from embarrassment, and his squirrelfish tail was standing straight out in
surprise.
Marium looked down at her
chest plate, and found the glimmer to be too bright to ignore. “What does it
mean, Cad?”
“I don’t know. Well, I
have an idea, but I’m not sure…” he started. Marium eyed him in exasperation.
“Right. It might mean that another elemental dragon is around here somewhere.
Close enough to get a reaction from the dragon spirit in your armor.”
LW, who had been absent
for the current conversation, ran up to the two, crying out in surprise. Marium
gasped when he leapt up into her arms and curled up around her neck, shaking
with fear. “Little Weasel, what’s the matter? What scared you, huh?”
Cadillac’s high pitched
voice let out a curse that brought Marium to her attention. She looked up to
see a giant, silver bird with its huge wings outstretched, standing right in
front of them.
“Oh my god… Cadillac…”
Marium was as white as a ghost as she gazed, eyes wide in shock, at the
legendary cahlot.
“Shh. Don’t speak or
move.” Cadillac muttered, managing to move his lips only a tiny bit. His tail
hung motionless in the air, and his breathing seemed to have halted.
So Marium held her breath
too. And shut her eyes against the breath of the great reflective cahlot. It
came close to her face, as if it knew she should have been there, but couldn’t
detect her.
Then, as if it was
satisfied, it turned and beat its enormous feathery wings to get airborne. It
swooped away into a nearby cave and disappeared into it. Marium found herself
clutching Cadillac out of relief. “It didn’t see us!”
“Shh! Cahlots have
enhanced hearing, Marium!” Cadillac scolded, silencing Marium instantly.
“Alright. Check your equipment. Anything missing? Here, carry some of these
herbs. I can’t fight physically, and you aren’t too great from the little
training you’ve had.”
“But we have to try! I’ll
go for a frontal assault, you stay in the background, cast all the spells you
can, don’t get tired out, okay?” Marium commanded. She turned to face the cave,
and placed Little Weasel on the ground. “You stay out of harm’s way, alright
LW? Leave the fighting to me, I’d just die if you got hurt.”
“Marium, let’s go. We’re
almost there, but be prepared for the worst.” Once Cadillac had spoken these
words, Marium felt her hand close around the snake ring necklace Faede had
given her. “Let’s look out for one another.”
“Silly
guru, I’d back you up no matter what.”