Rosa Rubicundior, Lillior Candidor [Hollow Bastion - Closed]

[seventhcrown]

For several days, Kairi's unmanned body laid within the circle, still and silent as the grave. With out her dismissal, sculpted elemental forms swarmed and stalked within the circle's confines, seemingly guarding her body until she was returned. While her body was still, her eyes wide with the sense of fear and surprise she had felt as she had been

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[livre_du_coeur]

As Belle left the library, a few minutes after Vincent, she remembered a promise she'd made to Kairi days before. They were going to make plans together for Kairi's formal presentation. I really have to keep better track of these things, she chided herself. With that in mind she made her way up to the girl's room, hoping to find her there

[madkefka]

Kefka dropped the spoon with a curse as the doors to the kitchen banged open. Or rather it would have been with a curse, had he not starting coughing as the soup he had been eating went down the wrong way

[livre_du_coeur]

Belle was obviously flustered as she turned to face the pale mage. Her words nearly tripped over themselves as she attempted to explain.

"She's in there, not moving, won't answer." She stood aside and pulled Kefka toward the door. "Look for yourself, I don't know what's wrong."

The curtains had been opened to allow more light into the room, but other than that and the battered candlestick everything was exactly as when Belle had entered.

[madkefka]

Kefka tried to survey the room, but got annoyed at the dim light.

"Light!" He said, clapping his hands before him. Obediantly, the ceiling became infused with a pale glow that offered a surpising amount of illumination.

Kefka took in the room, from Kairi's motionless body to the bubble that surrounded her to the protective circle. His confident look slowly changed into one of perplexity. "what on earth..."

He turned his head, half looking at Belle. "My lady, there should be a book in the room. an open book. Eight-pointed Star is the title. Help me find it, quickly, and mark the page." Contradicting his own words, he opened himself to the room, letting his magical senses flow outward...and immediatly pulled them back in again, a quick intake of breath following it.

"Be careful..." he warned.

[livre_du_coeur]

Belle searched quickly, but was careful to avoid the middle of the room where the magical bubble continued to glitter and arc with power. The desk was covered in papers and scrolls, but no books. The carpet had been moved back and all the furniture pushed to the edges of the room, so it took her a minute to find the book lying open on a chair. She tucked a parchment scrap in the crease to mark it, and carefully lifted it just enough to read the cover. Eight-Pointed Star, just as he'd said. She left it exactly where she'd found it and turned back to the mage, who seemed to be in the middle of a spell. Perhaps a probe, or some sort of counterspell, she couldn't begin to speculate.

"It's right over here," she said. "I've marked it like you asked."

[madkefka]

Kefka hastily took the book, opening it up to its marked spot without a word. He read over the passage, recognizing the procedure instantly. Kefka looked from the book to Kairi, then back to the book. He looked once again at Kairi, taking mental note of the shapes the elements took around her, before his thoughts began ticking off what could have happened.

Again, he extended his senses, more careful this time, tentativly touching the vast streams of power that ran thru the room and met at the glowing bubble that surrounded the girl. Could she have actually have... "no...she couldn't have bent them like that...she'd have to be..." he murmered before trailing off.

It was sudden, like a whip to his mind, the sort of thunderstriking eureka that comes once in a decade. His maddness took an intuitive leap, offering him a solution to the question he had only half asked.

'she'd have to be powerful of heart...like a Princess'His temper flared, and he began yelling at Kairi's motionless form. "Idiot girl!! Do you think such a piece

[livre_du_coeur]

Kefka's outburst startled Belle, but his words quickly turned that to anger. How could he be that callous?

"You're really going to just leave her like this?" Belle demanded. "How can you say that? You're the only person who can help her."

[madkefka]

"A fact i am well aware of, my dear lady." He turned to her coldly. "Tell me, and tell me truthfully: Is she a Princess of Heart? Is she the 7th Princess of Heart? Because if she is, she most certainly neglected to tell me!"

His temper was molified somewhat by his outburst, but by no means pacified.

[livre_du_coeur]

Belle saw no reason to lie about it.

"Yes, she is. We only just discovered her, and we haven't had a chance for her formal presentation. But why should that matter now?" She didn't mind answering the question, but she wasn't too pleased with his attitude about it.

[madkefka]

Kefka took a step towards the Princess, a serious fire burning in his eye

[livre_du_coeur]

Belle bristled slightly at his condescension, but he was right. She stifled her annoyance and tried to stay calm. It was the best thing to do if she wanted to help.

Her sense of alarm grew as he continued his brief lecture, though. From what she could gather, Kairi was acting as a sort of pipeline for enough energy to level the room, if not more.

"What's to be done then?" she asked. Her voice reflected her change in demeanor. It quavered slightly, and no longer held the fire it had a moment before.

[madkefka]

Kefka shook his head, at last coming to a calm he needed.

"It is most interesting...Her body is here, but her mind is trapped within the layline, because she pulls the layline to her. But she pulls the layline to her because she is grabbing onto the power of the spell she tried to perform. And she continues that spell as long as she remins in the layline."

"It is a cycle with no natural end." He looked at Belle, a determined glare replacing the heat of anger. "I have the knowledge, though i have never attempted such a spell as necessary."

He grinned suddenly. "But then, there are many things i haven't attempted."

He turned abruptly towards Kairi. "You may stay, but please step back."

[livre_du_coeur]

Belle didn't understand a word of it, so she simply nodded at his explanation. Then he warned her to step back, and she hastened to do so, putting herself in a far corner of the room. She made sure she had a clear view of what was about to happen, though. If they were all going to learn magic eventually, she needed to be well aware of the hazards.

[madkefka]

Kefka, for his part, then tuned out Belle's existance, talking thru the process to himself.

"a simple disturbance at any branch of the spell should cause her to wake, and break down the self perpetuating cycle, allowing her to awaken. But to strike at laylines would be useles..." he circled Kairi, never coming closer than two feet from her protective barrier. His head tilted side to side, and his moves were dance-like in their smoothness.

"Perhaps an interruption of her spell...yes, and that would allow the laylines to be released. yes." He nodded curtly, stepping back a few feet quickly, and raising his hands

[seventhcrown]

It was like being ripped out of the grave by a cold, barbed hands. The power, the sensation of being so much and so little and so gloriously lost disappeared. She was tossed back into the physical plane and back into her body very rudely.

But it wasn't that that made her turn over and curl up into a ball for a while, it was her eyes, dried out from days of not blinking. But under the stinging pain, her nerves were firing like a strobe, muscles constricting and cramping from the sudden release of energy. Her throat was dry, her back hurt from laying down in an odd angle. All in all, it could've been worse.

So she breathed, trying to surpass the pain.

[livre_du_coeur]

Belle nearly held her breath throughout Kefka's arcane incantations. She glued her eyes to the girl in the center of the room, looking for the smallest sign of life. And suddenly, it happened. Kairi began to gasp for air and curled around herself. Belle allowed herself to exhale and called out to her.

"Kairi!" Belle caught herself, not wanting to distract Kefka by talking too much. Instead she continued to watch Kairi, concern written plainly on her face. She waited for a sign from Kefka of what she should do next.