fic - the faithful and the brave : 35 [novella]
Title: The Faithful and the Brave
Part: 35
The Faithful and the Brave
Part 35
Duo cracked an eye open cautiously. When the coast seemed clear, he peeled himself off their defensive huddle and surveyed the field. "Shit," he muttered to himself. He was the only creature standing at the moment. The wargs all lay lifeless in the dirt, some with backs bent at strange angles. A bit farther, amongst the fallen goblins, were gory messes that his eye chose not to linger upon. And farther still, the center of the blast radius. "Heero!"
He glanced down to his friends quickly. Trowa was coaxing some life out of Quatre, who was groggy after pulling off a spell powerful enough to protect them from the energy that had leveled everyone else. Duo pulled Wufei to his feet and hauled him along as they stumbled to the last of their number, taking their eyes off his form only long enough to ascertain that the lumps they passed on the way were well and truly dead and unthreatening. Duo left Wufei behind in the last few strides and fell to the dust next to their friend. He pressed his fingers to Heero's neck and held his breath. "Got a pulse," he declared after a few long, tense seconds. He rolled Heero onto his back carefully, looking for injuries.
"Trant's dead," Wufei announced, concluding his quick examination of their foe. "So's the Stone," he added before turning around to assist. While Duo performed a physical inspection of Heero's condition, Wufei looked at him with his other senses.
Duo frowned over the catalog of Heero's injuries, but they were not alarming. He had accumulated a number of bruises and lacerations during the initial fight and then his mad charge. All run-of-the-mill, relatively speaking. Duo slapped his face lightly and said his name.
Wufei shook his head slowly. "He's..."
"What?" Duo bit out, double-checking for a head injury.
"Quatre," Wufei said instead. "What do you think?"
Already on his way with a liberal dose of help from Trowa, Quatre hobbled up the last few steps and squinted at Heero. "He's... Whoa, he's really messed up."
"What?" Duo repeated, with a bit more alarm.
Wufei huffed in exasperation. "As are you, my friend. Come, sit beside me while we look him over." He helped Quatre down and turned to Duo. "You. Go see if Yardrow is still possessed of a very fine cavalry. We need to get out of here. And take Trowa, just in case."
"Not until you define 'really messed up'!" Duo retorted, though he was already getting to his feet. He absolutely agreed with wanting to get out of there.
"I would love to if I could. His chakras are all out of line, to say the least, but at least he seems stable at the moment. Now would you please find us some birds?"
The sun was setting as they rode out of Yardrow. Duo rode double with an unconscious Heero in front of him, and took along an extra bird to swap for later. Trowa kept an eye on the woozy Quatre, and Wufei took the lead. It was nearing midnight by the time they were rapping on the door of a homestead on the lower slopes of Mt. Bervenia. It was far too late to be polite, but there was a lantern burning outside to guide guests in, indicating the healer's willingness to be woken at all hours.
Mage lights began to glow softly within. A woman opened the door, not too much older than they. She was sleep-mussed, but reasonably alert. "Wufei?" she asked dubiously.
"Sally," he muttered, turning to let the others in before him.
Her eyes sharpened as she caught sight of the others. "Business, then," she said, opening the door farther and stepping aside. With the murmur of a brief spell, the mage lights came to full illumination. Behind Wufei were two men, one apparently unconscious and held upright only by the shoulder of his companion. She slung the unconscious man's other arm over her own shoulder and guided them toward a table even as she looked behind them toward the last two men in the party. One looked a bit banged up, but he stayed behind a moment to tie up their chocobos. The mage that trailed them inside was visibly flagging. "Quatre?"
He nodded wearily but waved a hand to the ones in front of him. "I'm fine. Help Heero."
"Heero?" Surprised, she hitched her patient up a bit higher and got a look at the side of his face. She hadn't recognized the back of his head as it lolled in a limp slump. She tsked and got him situated on the table with the help of the man on his other side. "What are his injuries?"
"The physical ones won't kill him," Wufei said tersely. "He was attacked magically."
"Magically? That's really more..." She glanced over to Quatre, but obviously his resources were drained. "What sort of magic?"
"Not entirely certain. What we know is that Heero, as it turns out, has an unfortunately high compatibility with some pretty dark magic, and it was used to tap into his channeling and force some sort of destructive spell through him. As far as we've been able to guess, Heero did what he could to minimize the damage. Focused what he could on the caster, back onto itself, down in to the earth, whatever he could manage, and opened himself as wide as he could in the process --"
"So the power would flow through him rather than getting tangled up in him, where it could harm him," Sally finished, looking down at Heero with a bit of respect. "Well, well. How long ago was this?"
"Late afternoon."
"And he's been out the whole time?"
"Yes."
She hummed in acknowledgment and started inspecting him with her non-physical senses.
When she murmured some arcane nonsense and Wufei answered in kind, Duo felt it was time for him to get out of their way. "Thought this lady was a chemist," he muttered, settling into a position next to Quatre, who had fallen into a chair. He hadn't questioned the move to Mt. Bervenia. It was generally known that geomancers loved its seismic and volcanic activity, and that chemists loved the variety of medicinals unique to its slopes, but that didn't mean there couldn't be any white mages among those that made their home here that could help. Not that they could afford to be picky. It hadn't been until they'd gotten to the right area and Wufei was more specific about what to look for that he'd learned a little bit more about their choice of healers.
"Graduates of the Academy study a variety of subjects," Quatre answered quietly. "She's a chemist foremost, but also studied the arts of the monks, as Wufei did. Most relevantly, however, she wrote a paper on Heero, or rather, channeling, as one of her senior research topics."
"No shit?" Duo blurted out, more loudly than intended. He glanced over to the pair bent over Heero and saw he had not distracted them. "That's, uh, handy." When he'd heard they were visiting an old classmate of theirs, his only concern was that she be competent and trustworthy.
Trowa limped in the door and leaned on his polearm. Duo squeezed his shoulder, silently confirming that he was okay. Trowa met his eyes and nodded, then flicked his chin in Heero's direction.
Duo glanced that way himself and shrugged carelessly enough, though there was anxiety in his expression. "Hey," he said abruptly. "This chemist has got to have some good brews for perking you two up, eh?"
"So... when are you boys going to tell me what kind of trouble you've gotten into, eh?"
"Don't know if there's been a day of my life when I haven't been in some sort of trouble or another," Duo piped up disarmingly.
It may have been the truth, but Sally wasn't buying it anyway. "Men that get into big epic fights like to tell tales. I've heard more than my fair share of exciting heroism and derring-do. But you boys have done nothing but whisper for a full day and night."
Well, that wasn't true in a technical sense, but close enough. Wufei coughed uncomfortably. "We don't wish to involve you, Sally."
"Long as Heero's lying in that bed, he's my patient, and long as he's my patient, I will do everything in my power to keep him from harm, 'involved' or not. You all, however, are not my patients." She pinned them with a very pointy look. "I can squeeze all of you for as much information as I like, and not feel a bit guilty about it."
"Squeeze all you like. We'll be out of your hair soon enough." Wufei said it defiantly, confidently, forcing it to be true through his words. They'd concluded that Heero looked much improved this morning. They thought he should be waking up soon. But it was early afternoon now, and they were still waiting.
"And where will you be off to? Where did you come from, for that matter? Mt. Bervenia is a bit out of the way, isn't it? In fact, I was doing the math this morning. Based on what you said the other day, about when Heero was attacked and when you arrived here. And where you could have been, that this was your best option for treatment." She let a short silence stretch out before continuing. "I spoke to one of my neighbors this morning. The bottom of the mountain has been buzzing with news out of Yardrow. News of a terrible massacre there. Not a soul left alive, they say. I don't know if I believe the bit about monsters and revenants, but the geomancers confirm... Some dark power struck the earth in that direction. Around the time of Heero's attack, I'd say."
There was no use in denying the connection. They had already spoken somewhat of the dark power that was at the source of Heero's affliction. "We did what we could," Quatre admitted pensively. "All we could do in the end was simply keep it from getting worse."
Sally regarded him with a faint skepticism. "Everyone died, Quatre. Well, I suppose the five of you survived somehow. Nevertheless, what do you mean, 'worse'?"
"At least it was confined to Yardrow."
She grimaced. "What were you doing up at Yardrow?"
"Heero's sister, Sylvia. She's been abducted." No sense in denying that, either. Heero would no doubt be shouting about it just as soon as he regained his senses. Perhaps even sooner.
"By people willing to use such vile magicks?" She frowned thoughtfully. "I recall Heero speaking of his sister with great fondness. Whatever I can do to help. And don't give me this 'don't want to involve me' nonsense. I will happily involve myself in helping to stop someone or something that would kill more than a hundred people in one fell blow."
She waited expectantly while Quatre and Wufei conferred with each other silently. Duo and Trowa happily sat back and let them deal with the tough chemist lady. She was their friend and former schoolmate, after all. Duo instead spent his time alternating glances between the others and the screen behind which Heero lay sleeping in his alcove, wondering if he could sneak on in while the others were distracted. Heero wasn't particularly great company at the moment, and watching him sleep didn't really do much to make Duo happier about the situation, but Wufei seemed to feel he needed to be chaperoned when sitting by Heero's side and he'd have been happy to snatch an opportunity to escape that scrutiny, just on principle. It wasn't the chaperone that had kept him scrupulous and gentlemanly this last day. Heero had kissed him, fair and square, and he felt that entitled him to a little hand-holding. But Heero had done nothing more than kiss him, just that once, with no promise of anything more, so he would go no farther than that.
"I don't suppose you know anything about Belias," Wufei said eventually. A mere request for information seemed harmless enough, far better than revealing a vast conspiracy to her.
"Belias," Sally repeated. "Gigas? Mesha Ascendant? A mistake of the gods, created in opposition to the Transcendent Loghrif?"
He stared at her. Quatre did, too. Duo and Trowa exchanged bemused looks. "Cúchulainn?" Wufei ventured tentatively.
"The Impure King," she responded promptly. "Vrishchika Ascendant, created in opposition to the Transcendant Nabriales the Majestic. Swallowed the corruption of the world and became corrupt himself."
"...Shemhazai?" He wasn't certain, but based on a footnote in the book Pargan had given them, he thought that might be the demon contained within the Taurus Stone found by the Sweepers.
"The Whisperer. Dhanus Ascendant. In opposition to Igeyorhm. Revealed the gods' weaknesses and was struck down." It was now Sally's turn to blink at them. "What does ancient mythology have to do with anything?"
Wufei seemed a bit thrown for a moment, but then he huffed irritably. "Was this another one of your obscure research topics?"
"I love obscure research topics. What does this have to do with what's happening?"
"Maybe nothing," he hedged. These demons claimed those names, but it didn't mean that they were the creatures of lore. Or that the lore was fact, for that matter, given their recent disillusionment with Church lore. "The names have come up, that's all."
Duo heard a rustle and distracted them all by rising from his seat and poking his head around Heero's screen. After a moment, he pushed it back. Sally joined him quickly.
Heero thrashed weakly as in the throes of a bad dream. A few heartbeats later, his movements became a bit stronger, and then stronger still, and he jerked upright, awake and gasping for breath.
"Whoa, easy there," Duo soothed, sitting on the edge of the bed to pat him reassuringly on the back. He was mildly smug that Heero leaned toward him. He casually adjusted his position so he was a little bit closer, and was mildly surprised when Heero leaned against him fully, head down and still trying to get his breathing under control. Well, who was he to deny a man in need of comfort? He let Heero settle into him and focused on that to avoid accidentally smirking at Wufei.
"Heero," Quatre said, touching his knee. "Are you alright?"
The contact seemed to help him calm down. "It's... It's as if... I can still feel. The other side." He lifted his eyes and looked soberly at his friend. "Reaching out to me."
"What other side?"
"The..." He shook his head a little, struggling for words. "The summoning side."
Quatre sent a bit of clean energy to him through his touch. "You'll be okay."
Heero saw Quatre's glance go past him briefly and he turned to look, pulling away just slightly in confusion. "Duo?"
"Hey," Duo answered easily, with a smile. Nothing to see here, move along.
"Alright, everybody out," Sally announced. "I have a patient to examine."
That made Heero turn to stare instead at the chemist, the befuddled crease on his brow deepening. "...Sally?"
"Shoo, already!"
Duo slipped away with the others and had the screen closed briskly behind him.
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Part: 35
The Faithful and the Brave
Part 35
Duo cracked an eye open cautiously. When the coast seemed clear, he peeled himself off their defensive huddle and surveyed the field. "Shit," he muttered to himself. He was the only creature standing at the moment. The wargs all lay lifeless in the dirt, some with backs bent at strange angles. A bit farther, amongst the fallen goblins, were gory messes that his eye chose not to linger upon. And farther still, the center of the blast radius. "Heero!"
He glanced down to his friends quickly. Trowa was coaxing some life out of Quatre, who was groggy after pulling off a spell powerful enough to protect them from the energy that had leveled everyone else. Duo pulled Wufei to his feet and hauled him along as they stumbled to the last of their number, taking their eyes off his form only long enough to ascertain that the lumps they passed on the way were well and truly dead and unthreatening. Duo left Wufei behind in the last few strides and fell to the dust next to their friend. He pressed his fingers to Heero's neck and held his breath. "Got a pulse," he declared after a few long, tense seconds. He rolled Heero onto his back carefully, looking for injuries.
"Trant's dead," Wufei announced, concluding his quick examination of their foe. "So's the Stone," he added before turning around to assist. While Duo performed a physical inspection of Heero's condition, Wufei looked at him with his other senses.
Duo frowned over the catalog of Heero's injuries, but they were not alarming. He had accumulated a number of bruises and lacerations during the initial fight and then his mad charge. All run-of-the-mill, relatively speaking. Duo slapped his face lightly and said his name.
Wufei shook his head slowly. "He's..."
"What?" Duo bit out, double-checking for a head injury.
"Quatre," Wufei said instead. "What do you think?"
Already on his way with a liberal dose of help from Trowa, Quatre hobbled up the last few steps and squinted at Heero. "He's... Whoa, he's really messed up."
"What?" Duo repeated, with a bit more alarm.
Wufei huffed in exasperation. "As are you, my friend. Come, sit beside me while we look him over." He helped Quatre down and turned to Duo. "You. Go see if Yardrow is still possessed of a very fine cavalry. We need to get out of here. And take Trowa, just in case."
"Not until you define 'really messed up'!" Duo retorted, though he was already getting to his feet. He absolutely agreed with wanting to get out of there.
"I would love to if I could. His chakras are all out of line, to say the least, but at least he seems stable at the moment. Now would you please find us some birds?"
The sun was setting as they rode out of Yardrow. Duo rode double with an unconscious Heero in front of him, and took along an extra bird to swap for later. Trowa kept an eye on the woozy Quatre, and Wufei took the lead. It was nearing midnight by the time they were rapping on the door of a homestead on the lower slopes of Mt. Bervenia. It was far too late to be polite, but there was a lantern burning outside to guide guests in, indicating the healer's willingness to be woken at all hours.
Mage lights began to glow softly within. A woman opened the door, not too much older than they. She was sleep-mussed, but reasonably alert. "Wufei?" she asked dubiously.
"Sally," he muttered, turning to let the others in before him.
Her eyes sharpened as she caught sight of the others. "Business, then," she said, opening the door farther and stepping aside. With the murmur of a brief spell, the mage lights came to full illumination. Behind Wufei were two men, one apparently unconscious and held upright only by the shoulder of his companion. She slung the unconscious man's other arm over her own shoulder and guided them toward a table even as she looked behind them toward the last two men in the party. One looked a bit banged up, but he stayed behind a moment to tie up their chocobos. The mage that trailed them inside was visibly flagging. "Quatre?"
He nodded wearily but waved a hand to the ones in front of him. "I'm fine. Help Heero."
"Heero?" Surprised, she hitched her patient up a bit higher and got a look at the side of his face. She hadn't recognized the back of his head as it lolled in a limp slump. She tsked and got him situated on the table with the help of the man on his other side. "What are his injuries?"
"The physical ones won't kill him," Wufei said tersely. "He was attacked magically."
"Magically? That's really more..." She glanced over to Quatre, but obviously his resources were drained. "What sort of magic?"
"Not entirely certain. What we know is that Heero, as it turns out, has an unfortunately high compatibility with some pretty dark magic, and it was used to tap into his channeling and force some sort of destructive spell through him. As far as we've been able to guess, Heero did what he could to minimize the damage. Focused what he could on the caster, back onto itself, down in to the earth, whatever he could manage, and opened himself as wide as he could in the process --"
"So the power would flow through him rather than getting tangled up in him, where it could harm him," Sally finished, looking down at Heero with a bit of respect. "Well, well. How long ago was this?"
"Late afternoon."
"And he's been out the whole time?"
"Yes."
She hummed in acknowledgment and started inspecting him with her non-physical senses.
When she murmured some arcane nonsense and Wufei answered in kind, Duo felt it was time for him to get out of their way. "Thought this lady was a chemist," he muttered, settling into a position next to Quatre, who had fallen into a chair. He hadn't questioned the move to Mt. Bervenia. It was generally known that geomancers loved its seismic and volcanic activity, and that chemists loved the variety of medicinals unique to its slopes, but that didn't mean there couldn't be any white mages among those that made their home here that could help. Not that they could afford to be picky. It hadn't been until they'd gotten to the right area and Wufei was more specific about what to look for that he'd learned a little bit more about their choice of healers.
"Graduates of the Academy study a variety of subjects," Quatre answered quietly. "She's a chemist foremost, but also studied the arts of the monks, as Wufei did. Most relevantly, however, she wrote a paper on Heero, or rather, channeling, as one of her senior research topics."
"No shit?" Duo blurted out, more loudly than intended. He glanced over to the pair bent over Heero and saw he had not distracted them. "That's, uh, handy." When he'd heard they were visiting an old classmate of theirs, his only concern was that she be competent and trustworthy.
Trowa limped in the door and leaned on his polearm. Duo squeezed his shoulder, silently confirming that he was okay. Trowa met his eyes and nodded, then flicked his chin in Heero's direction.
Duo glanced that way himself and shrugged carelessly enough, though there was anxiety in his expression. "Hey," he said abruptly. "This chemist has got to have some good brews for perking you two up, eh?"
"So... when are you boys going to tell me what kind of trouble you've gotten into, eh?"
"Don't know if there's been a day of my life when I haven't been in some sort of trouble or another," Duo piped up disarmingly.
It may have been the truth, but Sally wasn't buying it anyway. "Men that get into big epic fights like to tell tales. I've heard more than my fair share of exciting heroism and derring-do. But you boys have done nothing but whisper for a full day and night."
Well, that wasn't true in a technical sense, but close enough. Wufei coughed uncomfortably. "We don't wish to involve you, Sally."
"Long as Heero's lying in that bed, he's my patient, and long as he's my patient, I will do everything in my power to keep him from harm, 'involved' or not. You all, however, are not my patients." She pinned them with a very pointy look. "I can squeeze all of you for as much information as I like, and not feel a bit guilty about it."
"Squeeze all you like. We'll be out of your hair soon enough." Wufei said it defiantly, confidently, forcing it to be true through his words. They'd concluded that Heero looked much improved this morning. They thought he should be waking up soon. But it was early afternoon now, and they were still waiting.
"And where will you be off to? Where did you come from, for that matter? Mt. Bervenia is a bit out of the way, isn't it? In fact, I was doing the math this morning. Based on what you said the other day, about when Heero was attacked and when you arrived here. And where you could have been, that this was your best option for treatment." She let a short silence stretch out before continuing. "I spoke to one of my neighbors this morning. The bottom of the mountain has been buzzing with news out of Yardrow. News of a terrible massacre there. Not a soul left alive, they say. I don't know if I believe the bit about monsters and revenants, but the geomancers confirm... Some dark power struck the earth in that direction. Around the time of Heero's attack, I'd say."
There was no use in denying the connection. They had already spoken somewhat of the dark power that was at the source of Heero's affliction. "We did what we could," Quatre admitted pensively. "All we could do in the end was simply keep it from getting worse."
Sally regarded him with a faint skepticism. "Everyone died, Quatre. Well, I suppose the five of you survived somehow. Nevertheless, what do you mean, 'worse'?"
"At least it was confined to Yardrow."
She grimaced. "What were you doing up at Yardrow?"
"Heero's sister, Sylvia. She's been abducted." No sense in denying that, either. Heero would no doubt be shouting about it just as soon as he regained his senses. Perhaps even sooner.
"By people willing to use such vile magicks?" She frowned thoughtfully. "I recall Heero speaking of his sister with great fondness. Whatever I can do to help. And don't give me this 'don't want to involve me' nonsense. I will happily involve myself in helping to stop someone or something that would kill more than a hundred people in one fell blow."
She waited expectantly while Quatre and Wufei conferred with each other silently. Duo and Trowa happily sat back and let them deal with the tough chemist lady. She was their friend and former schoolmate, after all. Duo instead spent his time alternating glances between the others and the screen behind which Heero lay sleeping in his alcove, wondering if he could sneak on in while the others were distracted. Heero wasn't particularly great company at the moment, and watching him sleep didn't really do much to make Duo happier about the situation, but Wufei seemed to feel he needed to be chaperoned when sitting by Heero's side and he'd have been happy to snatch an opportunity to escape that scrutiny, just on principle. It wasn't the chaperone that had kept him scrupulous and gentlemanly this last day. Heero had kissed him, fair and square, and he felt that entitled him to a little hand-holding. But Heero had done nothing more than kiss him, just that once, with no promise of anything more, so he would go no farther than that.
"I don't suppose you know anything about Belias," Wufei said eventually. A mere request for information seemed harmless enough, far better than revealing a vast conspiracy to her.
"Belias," Sally repeated. "Gigas? Mesha Ascendant? A mistake of the gods, created in opposition to the Transcendent Loghrif?"
He stared at her. Quatre did, too. Duo and Trowa exchanged bemused looks. "Cúchulainn?" Wufei ventured tentatively.
"The Impure King," she responded promptly. "Vrishchika Ascendant, created in opposition to the Transcendant Nabriales the Majestic. Swallowed the corruption of the world and became corrupt himself."
"...Shemhazai?" He wasn't certain, but based on a footnote in the book Pargan had given them, he thought that might be the demon contained within the Taurus Stone found by the Sweepers.
"The Whisperer. Dhanus Ascendant. In opposition to Igeyorhm. Revealed the gods' weaknesses and was struck down." It was now Sally's turn to blink at them. "What does ancient mythology have to do with anything?"
Wufei seemed a bit thrown for a moment, but then he huffed irritably. "Was this another one of your obscure research topics?"
"I love obscure research topics. What does this have to do with what's happening?"
"Maybe nothing," he hedged. These demons claimed those names, but it didn't mean that they were the creatures of lore. Or that the lore was fact, for that matter, given their recent disillusionment with Church lore. "The names have come up, that's all."
Duo heard a rustle and distracted them all by rising from his seat and poking his head around Heero's screen. After a moment, he pushed it back. Sally joined him quickly.
Heero thrashed weakly as in the throes of a bad dream. A few heartbeats later, his movements became a bit stronger, and then stronger still, and he jerked upright, awake and gasping for breath.
"Whoa, easy there," Duo soothed, sitting on the edge of the bed to pat him reassuringly on the back. He was mildly smug that Heero leaned toward him. He casually adjusted his position so he was a little bit closer, and was mildly surprised when Heero leaned against him fully, head down and still trying to get his breathing under control. Well, who was he to deny a man in need of comfort? He let Heero settle into him and focused on that to avoid accidentally smirking at Wufei.
"Heero," Quatre said, touching his knee. "Are you alright?"
The contact seemed to help him calm down. "It's... It's as if... I can still feel. The other side." He lifted his eyes and looked soberly at his friend. "Reaching out to me."
"What other side?"
"The..." He shook his head a little, struggling for words. "The summoning side."
Quatre sent a bit of clean energy to him through his touch. "You'll be okay."
Heero saw Quatre's glance go past him briefly and he turned to look, pulling away just slightly in confusion. "Duo?"
"Hey," Duo answered easily, with a smile. Nothing to see here, move along.
"Alright, everybody out," Sally announced. "I have a patient to examine."
That made Heero turn to stare instead at the chemist, the befuddled crease on his brow deepening. "...Sally?"
"Shoo, already!"
Duo slipped away with the others and had the screen closed briskly behind him.
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This entry was originally posted at http://turnippatch.dreamwidth.org/158283.html.