'...' thoughts
/.../ telepathy
Daystar's Prophecy Part 22
The flight to the Attilion planes was very much uneventful. Prior to leaving the Solan Mountains and in deference to the fairy's condition, Josadia had taken them to the dragon hold that was located in a huge cave much deeper inside the mountain range. There, they were given several large blankets that were normally used to keep baby dragons warm after they hatched as well as other supplies to keep them through the long flight. Being careful of the fairy's injured wing, Heero had used the majority of the blankets to wrap the boy up securely, leaving himself only one to keep out some of the cold of the upper atmosphere that they would be traveling through. After that, he made sure the supplies were strapped to the dragon's side before mounting once again and they launched from a nearby cliff.
The journey itself took nearly two day to complete and, since they were in a hurry, Josadia allowed them only two stops during that time. Duo remained asleep most of the trip, only waking intermittently during the flight and a little longer on the second of their stops to eat some soup that Heero had heated up before slipping back into unconsciousness. Finally though, they arrived at the planes and Heero was treated to the sight of miles and miles of grasslands that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Once they had crossed into the planes, Josadia had dropped below cloud level, sometimes flying low enough for the dark-haired boy to make out herds of animals either grazing or running across the open space. Heero knew the dragon was doing this for his benefit and silently thanked him.
In no time, they had covered several miles and Heero could see a shape approaching on the horizon. Everything on the plane was flat so the object immediately caught the boy's attention and as they grew closer, he finally realized it was a very large building. Standing three stories tall and taking up what must be at least three city blocks, the brown stone building was the only structure that inhabited the area and as Josadia angled toward it, Heero knew they had reached their destination.
Gliding in after circling the building twice to lower his air speed and warn the inhabitants of his arrival, Josadia set down smoothly and gracefully on the flat roof before folding his wings along his side. Almost the instant he was settled, the door to what appeared to be a stairwell at the far corner of the roof opened and five elves poured out, looking intent on knowing why a dragon had just landed on their home. The sight of the elves immediately caused Heero to tense and he pressed both Duo and himself into the dragon's neck, but Josadia was quick to send the elves running by demanding in his booming voice that Lissia be sent to see them.
It was only once the elves were gone that Heero allowed himself to relax once again and a few moments later, he swung him leg over Josadia's side and slid to the roof, Duo's small body still clutched firmly in his arms. Then, moving to stand under the dragon's neck, he sat down and placed the fairy in his lap as he awaited Lissia's arrival.
Luckily, the other fairy did not waste much time once she was told that a large, black dragon was on the roof demanding to speak with her. Only a few minutes after their landing, she exited the stairwell, headed directly for where Heero was sitting. Lissia was small, the blue-eyed boy saw as she approached, no taller than Duo and maybe a few inches shorter with long light-brown hair that was tied back in a high ponytail. She was wearing a light yellow sundress that reached to just past her knees, the color perfectly highlighting her hair and soft figure, while her feet were completely bare. When she finally knelt down in front of him, Heero was able to see that she had hazel eyes and a very lovely and delicate face. Only giving him a cursory look before reaching forward, she gently began pulling the covers back from the form in his arms and, after a moment's indecision, the dark-haired boy started helping as well.
"Oh my gods, what happened?" she breathed once the covers were pealed back to reveal the blackened wing.
"Gaison." Heero growled simply, assuming she knew about Duo's problems with the dark mage. "He managed to catch Duo alone and did this before we could find them."
"Is this the only damage?" she asked in trepidation, not wanting to voice the real question running through her mind since she was more than aware of what Gaison wanted from the violet-eyed boy.
"Cuts and bruises mostly. We stopped him before he could...." Heero offered but was unable to finish.
"He also put a seal on his magic." Josadia added when the dark-haired boy faltered.
"By the goddess, he didn't...." Lissia gasped as her hands rose to cover her mouth.
"Duo said he drained some but not all." the dragon reassured her.
"Thank goodness." Lissia breathed but then shook her head sadly. "With his magic sealed like that though, he won't be able to heal himself properly."
"Can you break it?" Heero asked hopefully.
"Sadly no, only the caster can undo that type of spell."
"Then can you at least heal the wing?" the dark-haired boy continued.
"Yes, that I can do." She said with a nod and smile before wrapping the blankets around the violet-eyed fairy's small frame once again. "Bring him downstairs, the herbs I need are there." Lissia told the blue-eyed human before turning to the dragon. "I'm just guessing, but I have a feeling you don't want any attention drawn to the fact that you're here? Or should I say, any more attention."
"That is correct." Josadia stated with a nod of his large head, knowing as he did that their arrival would not go unknown by those inside the building. After all, those five elves had already seen him. He could just hope that Duo and Heero had escaped their notice.
"Then you should go north to the Attilio Mountains." She said. "It'll take at least a day for Duo's wing to heal enough for him to travel again, maybe longer since his own magic can't help. I'll have the signal lit when he's ready to leave."
"Very well." The large dragon intoned, watching Heero pick the longhaired fairy's unconscious body up and follow Lissia into the stairwell before launching himself to begin his search for a place to stay.
********************
For the next two days, Duo drifted in a drug-induced haze as Lissia used every spell and herb she knew to heal the damage to his wing and body. Not wanting him to suffer needlessly, she made him drink a strong tea that contained a sedative, which both eased the pain and caused sleepiness. By the start of the second day however, the wing was mostly healed and she reduced the amount of tea, allowing him to slowly return to awareness.
For his part, Heero never left the small fairy's side during the process, only going so far as to sleep on the floor beside Duo's bed for a few hours after they had arrived. As the sun began to slide toward the horizon on the second day though, the blue-eyed boy found himself sitting in a straight back chair staring out the one small window in their room and did not see when those luminous violet eyes opened for the first time that day.
"Heero?" Duo's scratchy voice called softly, breaking him from his thoughts.
"Right here." The dark-haired boy returned as he moved across the room to sit on the bedside. Looking down into those beautiful eyes, he was relieved to see them finally clear of both drugs and pain and, knowing the boy's throat would be dry, he reached over to the small table situated near the head of the bed where he filled a glass with water before helping Duo to sit up and drink it.
"Thanks." The violet-eyed boy smiled after he had had his fill and settled back down onto the bed, giving the dark-haired boy a tired smile. Even thought he could tell his wing was mostly healed and the pain was completely gone, he still felt extremely exhausted and he could feel his eyes begin to slide shut once again. Keeping them open though, he gave the room a quick glace only to find them alone, before he turned back to the boy still sitting on the bed. "Where's Lissia?"
"She had an emergency to deal with a couple of miles away but she said she'd be back before nightfall to recheck your bandages."
"Oh." the fairy sighed and finally allowed his eyes to drift closed again.
"How are you feeling?" Heero asked softly only a moment later, keeping his voice low since he did not want to disturb the fairy if he had fallen back to sleep. The question and sound of concern in the boy's voice though brought a smile to the longhaired fairy's pale lips, signifying he was still awake.
"Like I've been trampled by one of those machines you told me about." Duo stated, his smile growing brighter at the thought. He opened his eyes once again and locked his gaze with Heero's before reaching out to take the other boy's hand, pulling gently as he scooted to the side, indicating that he wanted the dark-haired boy to lie down beside him. "But at least my wing doesn't hurt anymore." he breathed once Heero was settled and he had wrapped himself around the other.
Breathing his own sigh of relief at Duo's actions and the feel of the small body pressed tightly to his own, something they had not been able to indulge in since that night at the inn, Heero allowed his own eyes to close.
"You haven't been sleeping, have you?" Duo's question caught him just as he was about to fall into sleep.
"Hn." he grunted, not bothering to deny the accusing tone he could here in his lover's voice since it was completely true.
"Heero." Duo sighed in exasperation. "While I appreciate you wanting to watch over me, you can't neglect yourself. You'll be the one in the bed if you do."
"You were injured and unconscious." Heero stated in justification of his actions.
"Well, I'm much better now so go to sleep." the braided boy said, giving up the argument since he could tell by Heero's tone that it was a losing battle. "I'll guard you this time."
Only a few minutes later, as testament to the dark-haired boy's state of exhaustion, Heero was sound asleep. Duo simply lay and enjoyed the feel of the other in his arms as he allowed his own body to continue regaining some of its strength. It was almost an hour later, just as the sun was slipping below the horizon that a small knock came to the door, pulling him from his contemplation of everything that had happened in the last few days. Calling for the person to enter, he was please to see Lissia peek her head around the door before slipping inside.
"Good, I see you got him to sleep." she whispered with a smile on her face.
"Didn't take much convincing." Duo snorted. "He was so exhausted that the minute I got him to lay down, he was out."
The hazel-eyed fairy laughed softly at Duo's words even as she shook her head in exasperation. "I had a feeling that would be the case." she said before turning her attention to Duo. "So how are you feeling?"
"Just tired." he answered. "But that's to be expected, right?"
"Yes, at least until the binding spell is released; your body won't be able to recover completely 'til then."
"And getting Gaison to do that will be nearly impossible." Duo said sadly, the thought of what the mage would request in exchange for releasing the spell causing him to cringe.
"Duo." Lissia started, pulling his attention back to the present. "I know you're only now recovering but I have to ask, did you retrieve the sword of light before you came here?"
"Yes, but how did you know?"
"Since it was Josadia who brought the two of you here, it was the only logical guess."
"Oh, well, yes, Heero has it now." Duo explained. "Why?"
"Heero has it?" the fairy asked with a look of surprise on her face but continued before he could answer, "And the other weapons, have they all been found and chosen their masters, too?"
"All but the scythe." Duo said in confusion, crawling from out of Heero's arms and sliding from the bed to stand before her. "Why Lissia, what's all this about?"
"Duo...." she started before shaking her head and grabbing his arm, pulling him from the room. Once in the hall, she turned back and gave him a searching look. "Are you really determined to find it?"
"I have to, you know that." the violet-eyed fairy stated softly. "Unfortunately, Jo won't tell me where it is even though I'm pretty sure he knows."
"He won't tell you because he cares about you Duo, and doesn't want to see you get hurt." Lissia stated, lowering her eyes to the floor. "He's not the only one either."
"What do you mean?"
"She means, she know where it is." Heero's voice stated from directly behind Duo, causing both fairies to start.
"Heero!" Duo exclaimed at seeing the blue-eyed boy out of bed. "You shouldn't be up, you still need rest."
"I woke when you left the bed." the dark-haired boy informed him. "When you didn't come right back, I wanted to make sure you were alright."
"I can take care of myself, you know." Duo huffed.
"Yes, but if anything were to happen, I'd have one pissed off elf and an even more furious dragon to deal with." Heero deadpanned causing the longhaired fairy to laugh and shake his head, knowing the other boy was right.
"Ok, you win." Duo conceded before turning back to Lissia. "So, is Heero right, do you know where the scythe is?"
"I have a theory." Lissia hedged, earning her twin glares from the two in front of her. "There's a legend concerning the six weapons." she went on since she could tell that they were not about to allow her to skirt the issue. "It was written before Daystar made his prophecy and from what we've managed to learn about it, we're pretty sure the ancients were the ones who wrote it."
"Ohh, what does it say?" Duo asked, the excitement of maybe finding something from the lost race causing him to bounce slightly in anticipation.
"It's probably best if you read it yourself." she said before turning and beckoning them to follow.
She then proceeded to lead on a circumspect route to the third floor where she quickly took them to one of the many rooms on that floor. Along the way, she explained to Heero the layout of the building, which was built on a very straightforward design. Due to the wide temperature fluctuations associated with life on the Attilion Planes, ranging from highs of one hundred degrees during the long summers days to below freezing on the dark winter nights, the actual living quarters and care wards were located in the second floor of the structure. This then left storage and the kitchens on the first floor while administrative type rooms and recreation rooms were on the top.
The room she showed them to was not much bigger than the one they had just left but here, all the available wall space was covered with shelves that were then stacked with what appeared to be paper scrolls. In the center of the room, there was a large wooden desk and its surface was covered by the scrolls as well except for the very middle on which one of the scrolls had been unrolled and pinned down using weights.
Continuing across the room once the door was shut behind them, Lissia motioned for the two to join her on the other side of the desk as she pointed toward the open scroll, "This is the legend, I pulled it out last night since I had a feeling you'd be going after the artifacts. It describes them as well as whom we believe were their first owners."
"Reestlin." Duo breathed as his eyes caught the spirit's name written on the scroll.
"Duo?" Heero questioned.
"This name," the violet-eyed fairy explained as he pointed to it on the scroll. "it's the name of the spirit that inhabits the sword of light."
"How do you know that?" Lissia asked, her brows in confusion; she was sure Duo had never seen the scroll prior to that moment.
"I met him when I was transmuting the sword; he gave me a test that I had to pass before I could finish it."
"What type of test?" Heero asked, causing Duo to turn and stare at his lover in apprehension since he did not know exactly how the boy would react to the events that had happened in his mind. The look on Heero's face though told him he would not be able to shrug it off and so, he quickly gave them a condensed retelling of the test; conveniently leaving out the fact that he had unconsciously chosen Solo's life over Heero's.
"That would make sense." Lissia said with a nod of her head once his story was finished. "It says here that the light could only be release through a test of humanity."
"But that doesn't make sense; I'm not human." Duo protested.
"No, but the ancients were, mages to be exact." the brown-haired fairy explained. "Or at least we think they were from what we've managed to uncover."
"Mages?" Duo asked in disbelief, the color slowly draining from his face.
"It's just something we've deduced from our studies." she warned quickly, trying to allay his fears. "But you've talked to the spirit of light, you should know whether he is or not."
"Well, actually, I didn't pay much attention to him." Duo hedged, earning him a look of disbelief from the brown-haired fairy and a glare from Heero. "Well, first he was so busy telling me I wasn't worthy of the test, and then there was the test itself, which wasn't a lot of fun let me tell you. After that, he kinda just sent me back so I didn't really get a chance to chat him up, ya know?" the boy retorted.
"Only you Duo," Lissia snickered with a wry shake of her head. "but it doesn't really matter since, if our research is correct, you should be meeting another of the spirits when you find the scythe."
"Which one?"
"The spirit of darkness." Lissia stated softly, turning her attention back to the scroll. "It says here that 'the scythe shall come to reside within the heart of innocence until such time as the light shall set it free.'"
"What does that mean?" Duo asked in confusion, while he could guess that the passage spoke about him since it mirrored the prophecy slightly, he did not understand how it could lead them to the scythe's hiding place. "You know I'm not good with riddles."
"This isn't a riddle Duo." Lissia stated. "None of these passages are; they've all been very straightforward and easy to understand."
"But that would mean...." Duo trailed off as the implications stuck home, causing him to blink in shock.
"It means the scythe is inside you, and always has been." Heero said softly, wrapping his arms around the smaller boy as he noticed Duo swaying.
"But, that's not possible is it?" the longhaired fairy breathed, still trying to wrap his head around the idea. "And even if it is, how am I supposed to get it out?"
"You have to search deep inside yourself." Lissia answered. "You remember the meditation techniques I taught you to help with your healing?"
"Yeah, but I was never very good at them as you recall." Duo retorted.
"I have a feeling, now that you've found the other five; it won't take much to find the scythe or more specifically, the spirit of darkness." the brown-eyed elf stated.
"But not here." Heero stated emphatically as he noticed the thoughtful look on Duo's face. "It's not secure and I would prefer that at least Wufei, Quatre, and Trowa were there when we tried."
"We?" Duo asked, perplexed. "Who's we?"
"I'm going with you." the blue-eyed boy stated.
"Heero--"
"No, Duo, I won't let you go in alone. I don't care what I have to do; I'll find a way to go with you." Heero said. "Besides, the legend says that the light will free the scythe, and I'm the light, correct?"
"Yeah but...." Duo started, but the look Heero gave him caused him to stop his protest.
"Hn." Heero nodded at seeing the fairy's capitulation. Then turning to the hazel-eyed fairy, he said, "Could you signal for Josadia please, I think it's time we left here."
"Yes," she agreed with a nod of her head as she quickly rolled the scroll and handed it to Duo. "I'm not sure how much help this'll be since I'm sure you'll be able to ask for yourself soon, but take it, it might come in handy." she said before turning back to Heero. "I'll go light the signal, I'm afraid that some of the elves here are becoming a bit too curious about the two of you anyways. I told them you were elves traveling from the sea villages that are across the planes, but one or two managed to catch a peek at Duo and it's difficult to mistake him for an elf."
"Hn." Heero nodded again before they followed her back to their own room on the second floor.
"I'll come get you the minute Josadia arrives." she said then left them alone again.
"So now what?" Duo asked after Lissia had gone and the small tremor in his voice caused Heero to turn to look at him. The longhaired fairy was standing in front of the small window that looked out over the planes; his arms wrapped tightly around himself. Heero could see the small shivers that seemed to pass through the boy's thin body every few seconds and immediately walked over and wrapped his own arms around him.
"What do you mean?" Heero asked, not sure if Duo was talking about the trip to Howard's stronghold, or the issue of the scythe.
"I mean, what happens now?" Duo asked again. "How do we get to something that I'm supposed to already have inside me, especially since I never even knew it was there?"
"We do like Lissia said, we try the meditation she taught you." the dark-haired boy said. "If that doesn't work, we'll just try something else."
"But what if I can't find it, no matter what we try? What then?"
"We have to take it one step at a time, Duo. Only once we've exhausted all the possibilities will we think about what comes next." Heero explained and was relieved when the fairy nodded his head in answered and relaxed into his arms.
Nearly twenty minutes later, Josadia was once again perched on the roof and Duo was making his quick goodbyes to the hazel-eyed fairy. Several of the elves had also made their way onto the roof, and with one look at the braided fairy, a few had hurried back downstairs, presumably to contact the council. Knowing his time was running out, Duo promised he would come back to visit as soon as everything calmed down, then he quickly took his place on the dragon's back in front of Heero. He would be riding for the journey since his wing was not completely healed yet and therefore could not withstand the long flight that awaited them. Then, with a mighty push, the black dragon launched himself into the air, circling the building once before finally turning south.
TBC...
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