Re: Yet to be named; a piece of a terribly long tale
Ok, SO. The eleventh chapter of this story is up on google docs.
I still haven't figured out an appropriate title for this story. Sometimes it can be harder than figuring out how I should fix a knot in the plot.
Aaand, here's chapter 10 for the people who live in the forum.
Thank YOU, ladies and gentleman, for tuning into this story. Hope you enjoy all the rest to follow.
Ok, SO. The eleventh chapter of this story is up on google docs.
I still haven't figured out an appropriate title for this story. Sometimes it can be harder than figuring out how I should fix a knot in the plot.
Aaand, here's chapter 10 for the people who live in the forum.
Thank YOU, ladies and gentleman, for tuning into this story. Hope you enjoy all the rest to follow.
Spoiler ShowFelicia opened her eyes. The sun was setting, coloring the sky in brilliant orange. She sat on her bed and looked outside the window. Several villagers were around, collecting firewood for the thanksgiving. She pushed the windows open. Some of the villagers saw her and waved their hands at her. She waved back.
The dusk was approaching fast, and more villagers began to gather as well. Some of them brought the best of their crop, some others with the products of their cattle. Everyone was so excited, but not Felicia. Felicia was happy.
She would miss Tena, and all the people she met in her dreams. But she was glad that it was all just a dream. And if all those people she met were real people, then she would meet them again in the future.
The night fell, and the pile of woods was ablaze into a pillar of great flame. The villagers sang and danced around it. She could see her mom, dad, and Hyacinth as well, their mouths wide with smile. Without her realizing it, she smiled as well.
The night grew late, and the festival came to an end. The villagers all went back into their homes, with wishes of great harvest. Calm veiled the village, and only the sound of crickets could be heard. Perhaps the moon was tired as well, as it hid itself behind the clouds. Still, its luminescence showed a little bit through the clouds.
Felicia hadn’t moved from the window. Her father, her mother, her village; she had missed them so much. Now she could sit there and watch them for hours. She never had to worry about missing them anymore. At least, not any time soon.
Finally, she closed the window and pulled the blanket over her. With the shy moon telling her goodnight, she closed her eyes, waiting for a new day in her old, but new life.
----------
Hyacinth walked to the next bookshelf and looked through it. He found the book he was looking for and put it in his pack. At the moment he was doing errands for Tena, as she needed some books from the Grand Archive. With all the books she needed in his pack, he walked to the Archive clerk and showed him Tena’s guild token. The clerk recorded the borrowed books under her name and he left the Archive.
He began following the street down to the guild district. The commotion from the Deeper Archive incident apparently calmed down, but his sister’s wanted posters still bothered him. After all, his sister was trapped inside a crystal.
Apparently the Watchers’ Headquarters was going through its own problems. No surprise there, as the commander of the garrison and gate security just vanished along with his lieutenant and several men. He probably did not tell anyone what he was doing, and now the Watchers were facing problems with replacing his vacant seat.
He entered the Binders’ guild; he had never come here so many times in such short time. He told the guild clerk what his business was and promptly made his way back to Tena’s lab.
“I got the books for you.”
“Thank you, Hyacinth.”
Tena answered, but she did not turn to see him. Hyacinth did not mind, and he put the books at a side desk by her main one. She finally glanced at the books, which she used magic to open up and look for the information she needed. Half a dozen books floated around her as she tried to create a magic to extract Felicia’s soul.
“Hyacinth, if you would.”
Tena handed him a tiny scrap of paper; another list of what she needed. He read what was on it and put it into his pocket.
“Is this the only way?”
“… It seems to be so from what I can tell. Unless there is a new breakthrough in one of these books, then that’s the only way we can save Felicia. Is it… difficult to swallow?”
“Nonsense.”
Hyacinth turned around to leave again. This time, he’s headed for the Merchants’ guild.
“I’ll do anything to save her.”
The door slammed behind him.
----------
Felicia looked upon the village from the tree she was sitting on. It was a new feeling to see the village like that. The wind tickled her face, and leaves brushed her skin as the flew by.
“Felicia! Come, it’s time for lunch!”
“Okay, mom!”
Having heard her mom, she got herself up to get off the tree. She jumped from the branch.
But before she landed on the ground, everything suddenly stopped. The wind, the trees, the birds, the village, the time. Nothing was moving. Felicia could move, but she could not reach the ground. She glanced back at her home, and her mom was still standing by the door.
“Wh-what?”
Suddenly, the colors began to disappear. Or rather, they started to turn into black, one by one. The red apples, the blue sky, the green leaves, all of them began to turn into jet black one by one. They turned into lumps of darkness that couldn’t be discerned.
“No… stop! Don’t take it away from me!”
The villagers began to turn into shadows. She looked at her mom, and she turned into shadowy darkness as well.
“Mom! No!”
The black void engulfed all things one by one, and eventually all she could see was only herself.
“Why? Why is this happening!”
Now, she could not even hear own voice, and her hands began to fade into the darkness as well.
… it work?
Instead, she hears someone else’s voice.
I think she’s coming to!
She thought she had her eyes open, but she opened it again. Her eyes focused to clear up the vision. She saw Tena and Hyacinth looking down on her.
“Fel? Can you… can you hear me?”
Her dream was over.
Why? Why did you pull me out?!
Her voice refused to listen to her. She could not speak for some reason. And everything felt so convoluted and monochrome, like she was still missing some colors.
Tena cast a spell, and their minds became linked, allowing Felicia to talk to her directly in her head.
‘Felicia, can you hear me?’
‘Te…na? What’s going on? Why did you stop my dream?!’
‘We… we pulled you out, from this thing.’
Tena showed the Soul Binder to Felicia.
‘Why… Why!’
‘What are you talking about?! Of course we had to bring you back!’
‘… To live this nightmare?’
‘Felicia, this is the real world! I don’t know what fantasies you saw while you were in there, but they are all they are, fantasies!’
‘Not to me. They were reality for me.’
Tena couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Realizing something was wrong from her expression, Hyacinth opened his mouth.
“What’s wrong? What did she say?”
Tena shook her head.
“Not now, Hyacinth. Here, Felicia. There is… something you have to know. About how we brought you out.”
Tena reached her hand out to her. It was then that Felicia realized something was terribly wrong; Tena’s hand was enormous, so much that she could fit in it.
‘What… what is this?’
Tena grabbed her and began to carry her somewhere. She stood before the mirror. What Felicia saw, in Tena’s hands, was a pup of a grey wolf.
Tena stood there, waiting for Felicia to accept the situation. She found out that a soul in the Soul Binder could not be extracted without a vessel. And since her original body, now in possession of Fenrir, was nowhere to be found, another vessel had to be found. She thought that Felicia could be taken out into a wolf pup, and that wolf pup can be bound into her original body again to put her back in her place.
But she had not expected Felicia’s mind to be torn down so much.
And it shattered when the reality coiled her mind.
Tena winced as Felicia’s mind, her very soul, began to scream. The emotion, the howling of her soul, was hardly humane; the very form of denial and anger and terror.
“What’s wrong?!”
Hyacinth quickly came to her and held her. She ignored Felicia’s howl and cast a spell to put her to sleep.
“… Huh? Why… why did you do that?”
Tena sat on the ground with Felicia in her arms.
“Hyacinth, what should we do? She’s… it doesn’t seem like she’ll be able to accept this.”
Hyacinth saw a drop of tear flow from Tena’s eyes.
“What… what should we do…”
Hyacinth held her, and whispered to her.
“It’s okay, Tena. It’s not your fault. We’ll… bring her back.”
His eyes also began to pour out tears. If he had known that his sister’s single mistake would lead this far, she would’ve stopped her with whatever means necessary.
He grasped the scarf on his neck.
“Dad told me I need to protect my sister.”
His voice shook from the overflowing emotion inside him
“I will. I must. I’m going to save her, no matter what.”
----------
3 days since Felicia was taken out from the Soul Binder. Tena placed Felicia in a vacant room of her lab. She woke up, but she hadn’t spoken or moved at all. She didn’t eat as well, and Tena began to fear for the worst. Hyacinth, on the other hand merely watched his sister in the room, occasionally talking to her. He too, hadn’t moved or eaten yet. In fact, he probably hadn’t had much sleep either.
Tena carefully opened the door and peeked inside. Again, Felicia not willing to do anything and Hyacinth merely gazing at her.
“… Hyacinth, can I have a word with you?”
Hyacinth turned her gaze to her. She could see how tired he was from his eyes. He got off the chair, but he almost fell down as he hadn’t moved for days. Tena helped him stay up, and they left the room.
“This… won’t fix anything, you know.”
“I need to keep her company.”
“That’s one thing. At this rate, both of you will starve to death. Especially her.”
“I… I know.”
“We need to do something about her.”
“… But what? She won’t listen to us, she won’t reply to you, she won’t move, she won’t eat, she won’t live! All I can do is sit by her, talk to her, and tell her that I’m still by her side!”
Tena disagreed, but could not say it. Because he was right; there was nothing else that they could do. Just hoping that she would come to her senses.
Then someone knocked on her lab. A person in a cloak entered alone.
“Who are you? Did you not meet the guild clerk on the way in?”
“The clerk? Oh, you mean that girl at the front. Yes, I did.”
“… Then you should know you can’t come in here.”
“Well, unless she was dead before she told me that.”
“She… what?”
“Tena, get behind me!”
The figure leapt forward and swung her arm at her. Hyacinth quickly stepped forward and stopped the blow with his rapier, but he couldn’t handle the impact and got thrown into a wall.
“Hyacinth!”
“Ah-ah, look who’s talking here. You have to listen.”
The figure grabbed Tena by her neck with just one hand and lifted her up. She lowered her hood with her other hand; she had a long red hair, along with a pair of feline ears on her head.
“What… you…”
“Are just like the wolf girl, no?”
Tena’s eyes constricted.
“What?”
“Oh, I had a mishap with her. But never mind that. What I want are Vain’s scrolls. You have them here, don’t you?”
“How… how did…”
The cat girl snickered and tightened her grip.
“Where. Are. They.”
Tena struggled to get her off, but she was too strong. Then Hyacinth quickly lunged and forced her to get back.
“Wow, you’re still conscious. What a surprise. Haven’t seen too many humans as durable as you are.”
Hyacinth glanced back at Tena and stared at her, like he was trying to tell her something. He then charged forward and lunged his rapier again.
“Oh, so we’re playing this. Sure, I’ll play along for a while.”
The cat girl, amused, stepped to the side and dodged his attack. He swung his rapier while it was in movement, but she dodged that was well. The next thing he knew she was already standing behind him.
He twirled the rapier and stabbed behind him under his arm, but he only pierced the thin air. The girl was in front of him again, and she slashed him twice with both her arms in a cross shape. Blood splattered around him as he fell to the ground. The cat girl licked the blood on her claws.
“Huh, I think I heard a dog bark just now. Oh well, doesn’t hurt to have fun once in a while. Now, as for-”
She suddenly stopped as she felt stinging pain on her ankle. Hyacinth had a dagger in his hand, and its blade had cut through her feet.
“Make sure your enemy’s dead before you do something else, wrench.”
The girl screamed and grabbed her ankle, crimson liquid flowing out of it. She then began kicking him with her other leg. Hyacinth coughed up more blood, the impact breaking through his ribs and stomach.
Hyacinth lied there motionlessly when she finally stopped, her breathing heavy from her rage. She then turned around and dragged her injured leg to Tena. She wondered why she hadn’t moved from her spot.
However, just as she approached her, Tena suddenly vanished from sight. She was a conjuration made from magic, and Tena was already long gone by then.
Hyacinth saw that Felicia’s door was open and let out a sigh of relief. Tena was probably on her way out of the guild building.
His vision started to blur due to loss of blood. He saw the cat girl scream with rage. He chuckled; at least he taught her a lesson. She turned around and glared at him, and marched towards him with her arm outstretched.
‘Well, I guess… this is it for me. It was fun, Felicia. You… keep moving on.’
----------
Tena urged her horse to run faster. She did tell the Watchers what had happened, but if they knew about her having the scrolls, then she knew she could not be safe in the city. When she stopped and turned around, the city was so far on the horizon that she couldn’t even see it anymore.
The sun was already dozing off. She had no choice but to stop for the night. She got off the horse and sat on a rock. She opened a small pack on her side and carefully peeked inside it.
‘Felicia, do you hear me?’
However, all she could hear from her was the same thing from before; ‘Hyacinth’.
‘… Felicia, I’ll be completely honest with you. It’s partially your fault that your brother died.’
Felicia reacted to what she said. Her body twitched, followed by an extremely distressed voice.
‘Why would you say that?’
‘Because you’re still being like this. Had you snapped out of it, hell, if you know why Hyacinth did that for you, then you shouldn’t be like this!’
‘Did I ask to end up like this?’
‘No, but do you know what your brother went through to save you? He even ended up losing his life, just like he said. And, what, you’re just going to morn about it? He doesn’t need pity, Felicia. He needs you to live.’
‘But I-’
‘Are you serious, Felicia? Do you even know what state he was when he stayed behind and faced that girl?’
Felicia could not answer.
‘He lost an arm. At the tower of Nemesis.’
‘He… what?’
‘He lost an arm. And to top it off he spend several days, not eating and sleeping, to watch over you. And then he charged in to fight that thing, so that we could make it out alive. He wasn’t in any shape to fight anything.’
Felicia saw tears in Tena’s eyes.
‘And you… you’re just… being so pathetic! Why, Felicia, why?’
‘… I’m… sorry, Tena. I was just… too tired.’
‘I know Felicia. We know how hard it’s been for you. But now… we need you to push just a little harder.’
It was then that the fact that Hyacinth was gone started to ripple in Felicia’s mind. Tena laid her on her arms, and she began to cry her heart out. Tena began to cry as well. How far had Felicia’s adventure had come. Perhaps she should’ve listened to him when he stopped her.
But it was too late to turn back now.