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Ch.27: The Calm Before the Storm |
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A few things before we begin:
1. Phoenix has to change bodies every 20 years or so.
2. Lelouch knows about his ancestry and heiritage, but he doesn't know about Phoenix.
3. Jareth doesn't know about Phoenix either. (Kind of sad since he was alive when Phoenix was cursed with eternal life.)
4. Keep an eye out for details about the similarities between Phoenix and Lelouch. (This one is very important, so remember to do it.)
That's all, so enjoy.
I woke up the next day feeling refreshed, like the way I feel after I've had a good cry and am just starting to recover. And indeed, it was a great day to feel as such because Melissa would return to me soon. However, I would not be able to make any progress in my preparations to celebrate her return until sunset; this was the time when I would most likely find Mat.
My day was spent organizing potions, cleaning up the grotto, and, most importantly, teaching Flotsam what little fighting magic I knew. If Lelouch dragged my apprentice magician into the fray, I didn't want him to be defenseless. After teaching him how to manipulate water between the states of matter (solid, liquid, and gas), we engaged in a battle of bending. [He was a quick student and never needed things told to him more than twice. This was why I chose to engage him in battle so soon.]
I pulled a mass of water from the pool (We were training on the shore of the grotto.) and evaporated it, enveloping the whole of our training space with fog. I circled around behind him, a ball of water ready to splash him 5 ft. away, but he was ready for me. He pulled the water away from my hands and splashed me instead.
I sucked the water out of my clothes and sent it out onto the pool, freezing it as I did so. I jumped onto my small island of ice and sent a wave of water crashing his way. He blew in the direction of the wave and it froze right in front of him. "Pretty good, wouldn't you say?" he said.
I sent a torrent of ice daggers towards him in response, all of which he turned back into water and sent a tidal wave back towards me except for one which knicked his right arm. I parted the wave and let it crash onto the sand before I ran to his side. "Are you all right?" I asked, concerned since that was the arm that was broken when I had first met him.
"It's fine," he said, smiling as he winced in pain. "Now we have matching injuries." He pointed to my upper left arm where Lelouch had wounded me with his sword. (Even after almost two weeks since our battle, the pain still ailed me; I had the feeling that it would leave me temporarily crippled for some time.)
I nodded as I bandaged up the small cut near his elbow. "This is enough training for one day," I said, "but from now on, a fighting session will be part of our regular lesson plan. I'm surprised that you progressed so much on the first day. It took me at least a week to perfect all the moves I taught you."
He stared at me, strongly flattered and amazed that the student had surpassed the teacher in ability. As I finished binding his wound, which I felt sorry for inflicting on him, Jetsam came up to us. "The sun is newly set," he said. "It's time to go wolf hunting."
We stepped out of the grotto into the dying sunset. It was an unusally clear night and I could see all my favorite constellations by the light of the full moon. We walked along the beach and down the secret alley to the theatre district. As we came upon the end of the alley, I felt movement beside me.
I looked around startledly and felt Flotsam move closer to me. I formed a mass of air in front of me in case the thing tried to jump us. I smelled something in the air, something familiar: sweat, excitement, the thrill before a battle. That smell was common among heroes, but this particular ratio of sweat to thrill could only belong to one person.
"Mat, I've been looking for you," I said as he came to a stop in front of us. "What happened to you? You look as if you've come back from the dead."
"I have in a way," he remarked, eying me and the boys with a quzzical eye. "Why were you searching for me in the first place?"
"It's because I wanted to show you this." I produced the purple orb from my blue cloak.
"Where did you get that? Don't tell me Aoi lost the Dark Orb again."
"I did nothing of the sort," said Aoi, popping up right beside Mat. (Ugh! People that have super speed are so frustrating like that.) "That one is completely different. However, I'm curious Ana. Where did you get that orb?"
"I found it while I was exploring in Lelouch's hideout. Jetsam said something about him dropping it in the water, like he wanted us to find it, so I came searching for you before I tried anything."
"Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa, back up," said Mat, still trying to take in all of what I had said. "Are you saying you found out where he lives?"
"On accident, and... uh... slightly on purpose too. Come on, I'll show you."
We walked across the square to Jareth's operahouse. Flotsam and I led the way up the steps and into the upper floor of the grand foyer. (I took care not to step on the hidden switch in the compass rose in case Lelouch was watching us.) To my pleasant surprise, Jareth was waiting for us.
He greeted us with a friendliness so thick it was almost saccahrine (sickeningly sweet). I got the notion that he wasn't really that happy that we were roaming around at this time of night. Jareth turned on his burgundy-slippered heel and led us into his office. 'This was where Erik said his managers belonged,' I thought with a smirk. 'Here's a manager who knows what he's up against.'
"How long have you known about this?" I asked him as I produced the purple orb from my cloak again. "Lelouch can't have been here forever. The merchant said that he ran into the abandoned operahouse in Sunset Town and never returned."
"That he did," said Jareth. "I left him alone for a few months so he could take in all his heiritage, but eventually he summoned me back for one final task: building this theatre as a tribute to him and his family; 'Make it just like it was in my great-great-grandfather's time,' he told me. I remained true to his design plans, from the statues and candleabras down to the wall hangings, curtains, and, as you found out, secret passages."
"So, he's been here for, like, 10 years or something?" estimated Mat.
"That's about right. I was asked never to betray his secret to anyone, particularly die-hard fans of his forebearer's legacy. However, that didn't stop me from keeping an eye on him. (Again, you are spying Jareth!) I'm curious to see as to what he wants us to see about him now; he hasn't produced one of these in a long time."
"What is it exactly?" asked Aoi, indicating the orb which Jareth was carrying over to a stand in both his hands.
"It's a star-gazer. That's what I call them anyway; Lelouch creates them to show tangible versions of his future. They don't usually happen in the way he portrays them, but I've been wrong before. Let's just see what he has in store for us this time."
He beckoned us over to the crystal ball stand and placed his hand on the orb as we gathered around him. Since only his magic could activate it, the star-gazer must have been a strong thing indeed. (I tried to touch it, but it shocked me away.) The purple ball began to swirl with colors, a kaliedescope of delusion and disarray.
As the colors settled, Lelouch's cavern appeared. And there, there was Lelouch inside his bedroom, laying bare-chested in bed with his hands behind his head. Melissa was lying against his chest, her back devoid of clothing. (Uh-oh! Don't tell me this means I think it does.) Did I hear a quiet moan escape her lips as Lelouch turned over so that he was on top of her? The covers slipped down, revealing his bare hips, as he surveyed her as he had me in the Realm of Dreams.
I turned away and rubbed my eyes, pretty sure that what I had seen was an illusion. Mat let out a roar so loud that it made me jump, and when I turned around he stood there in his werewolf form, only this time his fur was jet black with red streaks. This must have really made him mad because Mat didn't transform indoors at night.
Aoi grasped my shoulder and turned me back to the unwanted vision. This time, I actually heard Melissa laughing as she lay there with her demonic lover. "Past all thought of right or wrong," I said aloud. "One final question. How long should we two wait before we're one?"
"Lelouch... why?" Jareth said as he averted his eyes to the heavens. At those words, Lelouch turned his gaze so that he was staring directly at us. "Jareth, b*****d," I heard him say. Melissa pulled the covers around her, frightened and embarassed (Did she know we were watching too?). Lelouch splayed his hand and the crystal shattered into glittering dust. He didn't want us to see anymore, he didn't need us to. Jareth grabbed his handkerchief from his desk and crossed the room to the door. "I'm sorry," he said, trying to hide the tears in the corners of his eyes. "I desire solitude."
If this was enough to make Jareth cry, I knew we were in pretty deep. I gazed at the purple dust of the orb that once had been. 'It was a tangible version of Lelouch's future, right?' I asked of myself. 'Surely, it won't happen in that way. No, it can't happen. It just can't.'
A sigh from the doorway aroused me from my thoughts. I turned around and there was Phoenix Rose, dressed all in purple, my favorite color. "I feared the worst for this angel," he said as he crossed the threshold and came over to me and my friends, "and now, it is most likely possible if we don't take action."
Flotsam closed the door before we began negotiations in the hopes of lowering Lelouch's chance of hearing us. "It's obvious he created that star-gazer to scare us," said Aoi. "I'm not particularly affected by it, but it seems you and Mat are Ana."
"That's because Lelouch doesn't know about you," I told her. "He doesn't know that you're the secret weapon that's going to help us win back Melissa. I just hope you're able to train your voice in time."
"If only my friend had had the friendships that you have," Phoenix remarked ruefully. "He never would have been without support to carry him through the darkness."
"What friend?" I asked him.
"Just an old companion I met on my travels. He told me that he had been in love with a chorus girl at the Parisian operahouse. His innamourata had spurned his love for another and he grew irascibly (easily irritated) envious."
"Sounds a bit like Mr. Rochester's situation with Celine Varens in Jane Eyre. (That's one of my favorite books.)"
"Indeed. However, unlike the noble and sardonic Edward Rochester, he sought revenge against his rival for stealing his girl away. What's worse was that, unbeknownst to him or her, he had impregnated her before she had saught solace in the light with her new lover.
"His deeds caught up with him the night that he had almost killed his rival. He found his love too great to bear any hatred towards his coquette's choice, so he let her go with her beloved, never to be heard from again. It was after she had left his world that higher powers punished him by granting him The Curse of Calypso."
"What's The Curse of Calypso?" asked Flotsam. I had read the Odyessy and therefore of Calypso, but I hadn't known there was a curse with the same name. I leaned forward in my chair attentively.
"I thought you would ask, Flotsam. Calypso was a nymph who lived on the island of Ogygia. Heroes that had lost their way washed up on the shores of the island. They all left eventually with new knowledge gained from Ogygia, but Calypso always tried to make them stay even when she knew it was their time to go. Why did she make such efforts, even though she knew it was useless? She loved them, in some way or another.
"My friend would be cursed with eternal life, for Calypso was immortal and could not die. And keeping true to the legend, women would come to him, women he could not help but fall in love with in some way, but he could never have a serious relationship with any and all of them.
"I empathized with him for I am under the same curse, and therefore have the same limitations placed on me. We must change bodies every few years in order to keep up the illusion that we are living. However, there is one advantage to having eternal life."
"What is it?" I asked as he turned to take his leave through the door.
"You can change your appearance." He turned his head to us, pity in his eyes for the company before him, and then left. As he turned his head away... maybe it was my imagination, but his eyes flashed a brilliant blue. I looked towards the locket around my neck and thought, 'No. It couldn't be.'
 srs diva 2011 xxl · Thu Apr 23, 2009 @ 08:38pm · 2 Comments |
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