15-Oct-2002
Twisted Fortune - An Escaflowne Fanfiction
By Bonnejeanne and Nixers
Contact: bonnejeanne@yahoo.com and nixerchan@aol.com
Warnings: Spoilers
Notes: Set a little over one year after Vision of Escaflowne's end.
Chapter Eighteen - Inside Vision
Part 42
As he stepped through the light barrier, he felt no resistance, almost a warmth to it that recognized him and sought to return the heat to his own skin. The relief and sudden rightness of his wings unconsciously unfolding and stretching as if they were called by him, was almost completely drowned out by the sudden sensation of emptiness. A crimson haze seemed to recede, far past what it had even with the energist removed from the guardian-god. Before the loss could even be registered, the two other connections to him suddenly snapped into crystal clear awareness.
Gasping, his wings beat reflexively as he turned, looking behind him with eyes wide and vulnerable, cleared of something subtle, the cinnamon almost a lighter, clearer, redder shade of crimson.
Freya on this side of the barrier had hazel eyes, as her irises actually were visible. The look on her face was now sad, reserved and polite; she actually resembled her brother. "We'll wait for the others, the boy and the girl to whom you share a bond haven't decided yet."
Van nodded, tearing his eyes back to her. "Freya," he said quietly. "I owe you a life. My debt..."
"Is not to me, nor my brother. It is simply the way things are, we will follow our youngest soon enough, it would be a foolish payment for something so temporary. Save your energy and concentration for other matters. It was your Guardian-God who guided your hands then. My hatred and blame is only on it."
Van bowed his head slightly but answered, "I asked for her power. It's my debt. But if I could speak to the one I owe, to all of them from that day, this would be my offered wergild. They all gave their lives to protect him. If I can be freed from my bond, I pledge another in its place. My life to protect what they sought to."
She paused, considering, then smiled. "I see why your line has been kings. That might satisfy," she acknowledged.
He bowed his head slightly lower and his wings furled. He made his acceptance and pledge silently, waiting for the next moment to follow.
Outside and unable to hear over the crackle, Dilandau could only watch the conversation and expressions. Between the wings and the look... Dilandau forcibly pushed his attention back to the remaining two, raising an eyebrow at both.
Allen smiled slightly at the look from the albino and walked through the barrier.
Gaddes lingered a second longer, eyes fixed on the floor somewhere halfway between himself at the open doorway. With a shrug more to himself than any audience, he followed a good distance behind.
Allen had paused, feeling slight wrenching and sudden sense of immediate vulnerability. In a momentary surge of doubt, he lifted his hands, looking at them closely and behind him, Gaddes heard a low sigh and softly muttered words, "...no blood..." with a distinct inflection of relief but some surprise. Allen continued to look at his hands for a moment, realizing that they did look different to him. Not the smooth, carefully manicured hands of the Knight of Heaven, they bore scars, never before visible but each one from an encounter he remembered. He reached up, touching his face lightly, wondering if it too bore marks not usually visible and tilted his head forward slightly, letting the fall of golden hair come forward.
A hand fell on the Knight's shoulder, attempting to distract momentarily. Gaddes moved beside him, the same hand turning slightly sweep the golden hair back over Allen's shoulder. The man himself had changed almost imperceptibly. His face had the cast of someone younger. The perpetual smirk was gone in favor of a serious, compassionate and almost refined look, more like an aristocrat's son than one of the typical crew of the Crusade. Dark brown eyes were looking at Allen with a clear mixture of worry and some edged doubt.
At the touch, Allen looked up, his face showing none of the scars he seemed to half-fear, but there were changes, lines of sorrow and grief, not graven into the skin but fresh as if whatever had created them was undimmed by time or distance. Like Gaddes, he too looked younger, vulnerability matched by a simple determination not yield at any cost. His blue eyes took in Gaddes's face and a momentary wonder was instantly mirrored there, followed by a warmth that was a little too naked to be comfortable, followed just as swiftly by some kind of self-admonition, and a momentary grappling for the determination.
Something in the air around them seemed to break down inhibitions faster than any drink Gaddes had ever tried. He couldn't quite stop the nearly shy flash of hope and subsequent disappointment from his face, and when he returned his hand to the other's shoulder, he couldn't remember why, exactly, he'd want to let it drop.
Outside, Dilandau had watched the entry, only half able to see Van anymore and not the priestess at all, the fact that the strange doorway seemed to block all sound didn't help much. The two guards were standing at their post, one looking at him, one inside, waiting for some indication of whether to close the door yet or not. Ignoring both, one finger caught the chain of the pendant.
Uncovered by cloth, the gem gave of a brilliant flash of light, fed by the power so close. In that instant, as his eyes struggled to cope with the sudden radiance, his attention bolted inwards, long enough for a simple wordless, and foreign emotion to well up, acceptance. Whatever was done was up to him. As the gem cooled to a bright glow, he let it fall to the top of his shirt, not bothering to hide it again. Taking a deep breath, he pushed himself off the wall and stepped towards the entryway.
The moment Dilandau broke the barrier, reality for him gave a lurch and twisted. The air thickened becoming sluggish and stale, hard to move through without conscious deliberation, and the paper thin barrier of light became a tunnel that stretched miles in length. From one edge of it to another took eternity and an exhaustion in effort, and at the other side, everything washed out, becoming a simple world of red.
From the outside viewpoint, the change was possibly the most pronounced of any of them. As he stepped through, his features shifted like liquid. The painful and long shift had condensed into a sigh. Standing on her tiptoes, Serena stumbled as she was released, tripping over the too long pants and looking around with wide violet eyes.
Van felt the separation as if wires anchored in his soul had been struck and he returned to the entrance with a single thoughtless beat of wings, catching the one who moved off balance in his arms. He folded his wings around her protectively, grappling blindly for a sense of the other.
The sense was hard to get hold of, even with his heightened awareness, but then, that was probably the only thing that allowed him to pick up the other at all. With the first trace, the lines slipped for a moment into visible focus. The one he was looking for was wrapped easily around Serena a few times before centering in the pendant she wore, the brilliance of the second aura turning the stone white.
Still holding her against him, Van reached one hand around the stone, expecting to be burned, but needing more to strengthen his sense of the soul centered there.
An invisible jolt of white fire ran through his arm, as suddenly two souls brushed. Stripped of the usual veneers, Van could get an overwhelming sense of the other, a decade old saturation of fear and weariness intertwined and struggling with an absolute, involuntary trust, hope and love. The latter two seemed to have gathered layers upon them protecting a fragile core. Neither side seemed to gain an advantage over the other as one was too old and the other too strong to give ground. The consciousness however was missing, found curled upon itself, asleep through even this contact.
Reassured by the sense of presence, Van found he did not need or want to influence the balance, understanding the need for both sides in the one he knew. But he could not quite keep himself from sending a pulse of his own unfettered emotion, as pure as the white feathers that danced around them, simple, wholly accepting love. With his physical senses, he searched Serena's face carefully for any sign of fear or pain.
At first Serena had watched contentedly, breathing in the other scent, and looking, touching the new wings with wide-eyed wonder. Whereas Gaddes and Allen seemed to have lost a few years, her own features had the sense of being childlike. As the moments drew on, an emptiness caught her attention, which upon having it, grew into an ache. "Van," she whispered a little hoarsely, her voice carrying oddly in the room. "Give him back... I need..."
Eyes widening, Van took her hand and quickly placed it around the pendant, releasing it from his own touch, hoping instinctively this would help. The next action would be to carry her out and he'd no more idea what would result than she.
The pendant against the girl's skin caused an instant reaction. The pained, wild look in her eyes calmed again. Quirking a smile up at him, she let the gem fall against her chest and wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning full against him and reveling in the simple contentment of both of their presence.
Van hugged Serena tightly against him, closing his eyes, feeling the warmth of the pendant pressed between their bodies. After a while he leaned back, realizing that time was not going to stop even in this strange place.
When Dilandau had entered the temple room, Allen's attention had been caught, feeling the disturbance in a very faint and distant way, enough to pull his attention, and as he watched the mind-blurring occurrences, his hand had somehow fastened on Gaddes', finding the very specific anchor he sought instinctively.
As Van pulled back, Serena nuzzled him once, then complied, eyes darting around the room. As they fell on her brother she gave him a smile that held no hints of her usual grin, but the simple, adoring one he hadn't seen since both of their childhoods. Not relinquishing contact with Van, she studied what, to her, was the single newcomer in the room.
Allen accepted the smile from the girl in Van's arms and returned one in kind, the pure protective instinct and wondering devotion to the sweet, perfect gift his parents had given him. Something warm and clear fell down both cheeks, clearing his vision quickly. Whatever doubts he'd had about the entire situation were effectively evaporated forever by watching what had happened when Dilandau Albatou entered that room.
Van turned, eyes seeking the figure of the priestess. He drew Serena to her feet as the two young men came even with them.
Freya had waited patiently from all of them to adjust to themselves and each other, unobtrusively watching. As she felt their attention on her, she smiled slightly. "I called you here to tell you a story," she said. "One that you may be half familiar with." She looked at the blond knight and crewman. "You are familiar with Jecture?"
Allen's eyes widened slightly but he nodded.
To his side, Gaddes shrugged slightly, "Heard of it."
"Good," the priestess said, "Then you'll know enough. If I may start elsewhere, we sit above a wound in Gaea. Life flows beneath her soils as blood does beneath our skin. In every land, there are vital points, arteries of a sort, where the flow is the greatest and the pulse felt the strongest. Freid is, by the design of this temple, trying to staunch a mortal wound to the life that flourishes here. I hold hope in this." She paused, as if considering, or trying to organize her thoughts.
"But this is a small place, or point. The truly large ones had their own guardians, those who defended and kept such wounds from happening. They protect the life that feeds on these pathways, as well as keep tapped power from being twisted. Some are borne of this earth, others are borne of Ispano," Freya glanced at Van. "And some are both and more."
Not waiting for his reaction, Freya smoothed her robes and folded her legs beneath her to sit neatly in the center of the odd room. "I don't know if that made sense to you, but even here I can't put it better." She took another steady breath. "At one time, Zaibach was much like Fanelia. It was beautiful, lush and even then was inclined towards machinery, if more the sort for agriculture and building than war. It too had a guardian of Ispano nature and winged dragons were common sights in the early morning winds. It did not have a succession as pure... simply passing along by those of worthiness or royalty. It was a break in the contract with the Ispano, but so much time had passed that not even their name remained, much less the tradition."
Van found his breath going short for a moment at the mention of guardians, and then found himself drawn into the description of Zaibach of old. Somehow he found he could almost visualize the land as the priestess described it -- wide and open and lush, as Fanelia was forested and secret. At the revelation that Zaibach had once had a guardian like Escaflowne, he found his eyes drawn, almost unwillingly, to the girl beside him and then back.
For her part, Serena didn't notice the momentary regard. She had a distant sort of concentration, trying to listen for something that was always there before and receiving only silence in return.
"My story begins with the last pilot. He was perhaps as strong, but as is told, fully human. It is said that he could speak with the metal beast and would at times bear wounds that he, himself had not been struck. The man changed with every battle, some said becoming possessed, others called it superstition and merely the man's true nature being revealed. Who can say which was the truth? What can be said is the story ends with the blood pact, being broken as the energist shattered by the pilots hand. Bound by another connection to the land itself, rumors of the area tell of a moment where every dragon in the country roared, a mourning call. The dragons dissapeared then, dying one by one until nothing but their graveyards remain. The green leeched from the praries, turning them to deserts. The people became despondent, apathetic, living on the dredging of life both spiritually and physically, as the water was soiled and the land became barren.
"This is Zaibach as you now know it." Freya concluded. "To give itself power through life again, they ripped open the seal here, and cyphoned it northwards, but as we are healing, Zaibach returns to its now ancient state."
Van's eyes widened and he flinched slightly. The mental image of the Zaibach king smashing the energist resonated with his own barely contemplated blasphemy of hope for freedom from Fanelia's guardian. Dragons dying... he barely heard the rest.
"I called you here, because that is not the only story I know," Freya spoke quietly, looking at the troubled expression on the King's face. "I would not have sent a letter just to tell you what not to do, even as important as it may be. There is another legend of it being done right. The land of Asturia had a guardian most suitable to water, it protected the fleets and comerse, as adapted to sea battle as to land. No one knows how, but metal became scales and Jecture now swims as freely as it breaths and the line of Asturia is still intact. Violence will only beget violence, you need to find what will beget peace."
The king blinked, trying to comprehend the idea and found a single thought spoken clearly in his mind. /But I only have one wish.../ No idea where it came from, or even exactly what it meant. His desire to protect Fanelia and assure his beloved land of peace and security, seemed to weigh against a desire for something he could not even allow his mind to grasp fully for fear it would be too fragile to survive even realization. Bowing his head, he strove to do the only thing he could see, though it came close the breaking his resolve. Van fought to simply accept the words and the meanings and release his own needs to the wind.
Freya stood up, looking over the assembled group as she did, before returning her gaze to her invited guest again. "This place will afford you some separation for a little while. Do what you will," she walked towards the two doors, rapping on them. The air of the room crackled as it diffused a little outward. "But do as you wish back home."
"Lady..." Van spoke, pulling his thoughts together. There were things in the preistess's words that were slowly rising in his mind like bubbles of information.
The priestess paused at the threshold, turning to face him again.
"The guardians... were set where there were... are? Places of power such as this...?"
She shook her head. "Not like this, it is too small, an outer ring at best," she said. "Zaibach, Asturia... they have much more power, but their guardians are still less than Escaflowne."
"Fanelia... has such power...?" Van whispered, the idea so far from his concept of his beautiful land.
"All bodies have a heart," she replied.
Van's hand rose to cover his own, unawares. Something still nagged at him, becoming more unsettling the longer it refused to come clear. "We thought... the sorcerers... were coming here..." he murmured, almost to himself, still not quite able to grasp it. Dryden... Dryden might understand. If only he could speak with the scholar... time was running like sand under the tide.
"Here?" Freya shook her head, "It's merely a trickle left, bled dry by the sorcerers. They would need another power spot to do anything sigificant. All they would be here are nuisances."
Van nodded, bowing slightly to thank her for answering. Almost unwillingly, his eyes were drawn to Allen's.
The blond swordsman's lips were pressed together. If they'd guessed wrong, they were losing valuable time... yet even the Heavenly Knight felt this experience was somehow one that was needed, perhaps even... fated.
Van turned from Allen to the young woman in the circle of his arm. His eyes roamed over her face with near-tangible longing. "Serena..."
Her gaze was downward and troubled, only flicking upwards at the audible opening of the doors beyond them. One of her hands moved up, resting on Van's forearm. Serena glanced up at him, trying several times to articulate a slow brewing thought during the woman's stories. "It can't be that hard can it?" she asked, not really having listened to the conversation that had gone on around her, "To find what you had before you met me? You said you had peace already, didn't you?"
Van gazed into Serena's eyes and smiled, unconscious of a quick fall of liquid from the corner of one eye. "Before I met you... I was waiting. With no idea what I was waiting for. Can I go back to waiting?" He shook his head gently. "Not back, Serena. Could you go back? Would you... do you want to?"
"No," she admitted, with a guilty look towards her brother, "I'm sorry, oni-san. That wasn't really living."
"I know," Allen said softly. In that place, there weren't any traces of the anger, or even the fear. "I know now. Serena... do what you need to do. I only want you to be happy."
She smiled at him, nearly beaming, "I know. You always had."
Allen smiled back, his hand still twined with that of Gaddes. Then, with a more sober expression, he asked, "Serena... where... is... he?"
She frowned, getting that listening expression again. "Outside," she said. Her other hand moved to cover the pendant on top of the oversized shirt. It didn't seem to carry any of the burning sensation, just reassurance.
"It's strange. I've never been alone before." She managed to pronounce 'alone' in the same manner anyone else would lonely. "Not that I can remember anyway."
Allen smiled again, a touch of sadness in his blue eyes and he lifted her hand and kissed it gently. "It's not very easy to be," he said softly, remembering how he'd felt when she had disappeared as a child, when his father left... mother died.
"No," she agreed, gaze darting over to Van quickly before qouting him with an impish cast, "Sucks."
Van smiled in recognition. His eyes fell on the pendant behind her protective hand.
Allen tilted his head, and then drew back a bit from the two, giving them a bit of privacy by turning his attention away.
His eyes caught on the face of the man beside him and he looked up, meeting Gaddes' eyes with his own, unguarded, perhaps even slightly questioning, though the question was not one he could have formulated even in his mind.
Gaddess caught the attention on him again and drew a step or two away from the young couple, not relinquishing his grip on the other man. A few soft tugs brought the Knight as far aside as could be afforded in the smallish chamber. He closed the proximity between them, both an attempt to hold a quieter conversation, and Gaddess admitted, for a less localize contact. "I hope you're buying tonight," he said, the emotion behind it honest enough to be free beneath the words, "Because if you don't need the drink, I do."
Allen smiled, a bright, untainted expression as unlike any other the crewman had seen on his captain's face as a much younger Allen might have been unlike the practiced Heavenly Knight of the Asturian courts. "I'll buy," he said softly, "You pour."
"I think that can be arranged boss," Gaddess said with a rather lopsided grin.
Allen grinned back, and then something made him drop his eyes, a faint blush tinting fair cheeks.
The second hand didn't make a comment, or pretend he didn't see. He just managed to appear a little more hopeful and a degree more releived and at ease.
Van cupped his hands around Serena's face and he lifted her chin and kissed her gently. "I don't have very long," he said quietly.
She seemed to slump a little in his arms, "Until what?" she asked, thinking of too many barriers to choose which one it might be this time.
"Until we have to leave here," he answered. "Who... who will meet me on the other side of that door..."
"I don't know... I can't ask." Her hands slipped around his and she looked up at him. Unable to stop what normally would have never gotten considered, she asked, "Who do you want to?"
His eyes met hers. "I need both of you," he admitted. He smiled. "I... love... both," he added, almost shaking his head for the sheer impossibility of it. "You've never been alone before... I think I always have, until you. Both of you."
"Companionship in your enemy," she mused. She gave a sigh, "I'm glad, for both of us."
Van bent and kissed her again, urgently, his wings folding around them in a softest of protective embraces.
Serena curled her arms around his neck as she met his kiss, finding some of her unfocused worry and tensions soothed out of her muscles.
In a little while, they broke apart a little, and Van twined his fingers with hers. Confirming only by meeting her eyes, he moved towards the portal.
Serena braced herself at the threshold and stepped through. The warmth radiating from the pendant actualy became cool, then frigid as it lost its competing radiance in seconds. Despite the dead cold, a different, more familiar warmth swept over her skin, seeping under it to fill an unfamiliar hollow. Distantly, even as she slid backwards gracefully, she felt her body react with a smoothness she hadn't imagined in the span of two uncertain steps.
Van stood, wingless, still bare to the waist, his eyes turned back to meet those of his companion... and raising slightly to meet the taller figure's gaze, watching the purple swirl of color settle to true garnet in those eyes. His only reaction was to tighten his grip slightly.
Dilandau glance from Van, to the guards and back, with a clearly disoriented expression. As it faded, he let out a breath, his other hand pausing halfway to his temples, "It's... over then?" Before Van could answer, a simple answering agreement welled up from somewhere not quite definable.
Van added to that with a nod. "That part is," he said simply. "But... I think we... might have come to the wrong place, to find the renegade sorcerers." He shook his head trying to get a better grip on his thoughts. "Fanelia..."
The albino took a second to respond, attention divided. He frowned, displeasure evident. "But this IS the power spot, isn't it?" he asked, wavering with a certainty that Jajuka's information was always solid.
"It seems there is more than one," Van said, a little at a loss. "Zaibach had one once. Asturia... Fanelia... And this one is too depleted to be of use..."
"Then why not Asturia?" Dilandau asked. It would have been simplier anyway. If he happened to take out peices of the countryside there, he didn't have to care as far as he was concerned. Things beginning to focus where they were was unsettling in altogether different ways.
Van shrugged. "I don't know... could be," he said doubtfully, glancing over at Allen who had come through the doorway with Gaddes. "But... Asturia... would be protected..." A sudden blaze lit cinnamon eyes tinting them scarlet. "I need to go home!"
The sudden change in the air around the king brought a nearly instinctive reaction in the Captain. He scowled and freed his hand to cross his arms. "Talk to him then," he said, indictating Allen, "He's our ride."
Van turned to Allen, who was already pulling the information together. "Gaddes," he said, his voice carrying such a bare hint of something outside normal command tone that only the second in command could have detected it, "Get the ship ready to fly. I'll speak to the Prince. An hour?"
"If ya need it," Gaddes said, stepping away with some lingering hesitation, "She'll be ready in half that."
Allen nodded with a flash of teeth, half grim, half grateful. "Let's see how long it takes me to get through protocol," he said, with a bare inclination to Van and Dilandau. "I'll meet you on board as quickly as I can."
As both left for their respective duties, the doors behind the were finally pushed shut with a final clang. Dilandau glanced back at the guards who were shuffling back to their posts and studiously ignoring the guests of the temple, then back to Van. "I'll ask later," he decided out loud.
Van reached out and captured the other boy's hand without hesitation and pulled him along in the wake of the other two. "Ask now."
Dilandau paused for a second before shaking his head, "What the hell was that?"
Van took a breath, trying to think of how to answer something he didn't entirely understand. "That place... showed... something... truth, she said. She was able to speak plainly. When you went in... she, Serena... came through the other side. But you were there..." he said, touching the pendant with a fingetip. What... it occured to him suddenly, what might have happened if he hadn't given Serena the pendant?
Dilandau stared down at the gem, unnerved. He could still feel the fading cold of it through the thin cloth. It was too easy a habit to simply not think about what was evading his grasp. "I should have asked later," he said dryly. After a bit of debate, he glanced at Van, red eyes a little more open for the volume of curiosity there. "So... what was it like?"
Van shook his head. "It was... not bad," he said, not sure how to explain. "But it wasn't... it wasn't my dream," he said, dropping his eyes.
Dilandau's hand tightened and relaxed around Van's quickly, the words bringing about a subdued feeling echoed from inside. With a quick glance back at the guarded doorway, he took a step into the hallway, hesitating before taking the next, "Go back," he said indistinctly.
Van frowned slightly, confused. "Dil...?"
The other looked back at Van, the half attention there, then vanishing again. "Mmm?"
"Go back?" Van asked.
That caused a blink, then garnet eyes completely focused on him, "To the Crusade?" he said, "You have somewhere else to go first?"
Van shook his head firmly and turned to find their way back to the airship.
THE END OF PART 42!