Beneath the Sea

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Part Two: Souls of Darkness and Light

Dispeller of Time

"Hey... Hey...! You come back here, scoundrel!" She lunged after him, fingers outstretched and ready to claw at him. "You—! You just come back here and give me my doughnut! Hey! Are you listening to me?" She lurched around a corner as she chased his breezy cape. "Royalty or not, you just can't go and steal!"

"H-hold on, now... Fine, I'll give it back..." King Ladekahn handed over the light pastry, rubbing his stomach hungrily. "Begging your forgiveness, ma'am, but it was just sitting there..." A gurgle erupted from his stomach. "And I was so hungry..."

Planting her hands firmly on her hips, she cocked her head to the side. "That's right. Where's all the food around here? I had to save forever to get my hands on this."

"And you'd do anything to defend it, I've noticed... Your temper sure matches your hair: fiery and red."

She smoothed her Imperial uniform, scowling. "Was that an insult, Your Highness?"

"Ah, n-no..."

Lyude sat in the back of Savyna's ship waiting for the trip to begin. After they had defeated Geldoblame, the group decided that it would be safer to go further into Alfard. It would be less risky to go out in public with the Emperor dead, and even if they got caught, it was likely that their captors wouldn't have the motivation to keep them for long. After all, there was no longer any giant head to enforce the rules...

Lyude sighed, a familiar clingy feeling festering in his mind.

How can I live with myself... I killed my own Emperor... Is this supposed to be my destiny, this turning my back on all that I hold dear?

He groaned. "Nothing was supposed to go this way."

"...Lyude, is that you?"

He started and looked up. "Xelha?"

Her face appeared through a wall of shadows, faint and pale. "Kalas and I were just talking, and we thought we heard you..."

Nodding, the redhead leaned back in his seat. "Yes. It's just me here."

She smiled, and Lyude caught a glimpse of Kalas' face hovering by her shoulder. "Do you mind if we join you?" she asked.

"No, not at all. Please sit down."

The pair took their seats near him. Kalas looked around and said, "Kinda dark in here, don't you think?"

"Yes... I was trying to rest for the coming days, but I've found that I just can't sleep."

"What's on your mind?"

Lyude hesitated. "The fate of the Empire... I'm worried that something terrible will happen to Alfard without a leader."

Xelha's smile faded, but she spoke with hope in her voice. "I wouldn't worry about it, Lyude. I'm sure your people will come back to their senses once they realize that the Emperor is gone for good! And then maybe people will start working together again to rebuild Mintaka and Azha."

"That would be such a wonderful future..."

Xelha radiated kindness as she locked eyes with him. "Just keep faith, Lyude. It will all work out in the end."

Kalas snorted. "If Geldoblame doesn't come back, that is."

"Do you think he will?" Lyude asked fearfully.

"He said he would, so I wouldn't eliminate the possibility. Besides, just when you think someone is dead, they keep coming back..."

An unsettling silence descended upon them. Lyude, despite the warm presence of his friends, began to imagine that he saw swift movement in the dark. Ghosts, rising up from the dead... Soldiers, burning for revenge... Kill the deserter, kill the traitor. Pay back his treason. To think of helping the outlaws! One of our own...

"Oh... have I really done the right thing?" he asked aloud.

Xelha took his hand comfortingly. "Of course you have. If we hadn't stopped the evil that was growing out of the Empire, then the world would be in great danger right now. Besides, it seems that the Emperor has revealed new information... something about this 'Malpercio.' With this, we can erase the Empire's awful past."

"Xelha... thank you. But we must not erase the past; we must accept it for what it is. Only then can we make amends..."

Xelha walked down the streets of Mintaka with her friends. It felt like only ago days that she had last been there last... Walking the same streets with Kalas at her side, a gentle breeze slipping through her hair, rippling on her clothes. Maybe it was only days, or even hours — she looked up, and the same sun reflecting Kalas' hair in a bronze halo. She felt her stomach tighten.

Kalas.

Xelha, she told herself, there's nothing wrong with him.

"Xelha? Are you doing alright?"

He was staring at her, concern in his eyes again.

"Oh, no, I'm fine... I guess I'm just not used to being out in the sun all that much."

Kalas frowned and pointed out, "But you've been working in the Empire your whole life, right?"

She blushed. "Well, I worked indoors, inside the Imperial Fortress. I don't really get out much, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, yeah. That makes sense." He shrugged.

She let out the breath that she had been holding.

Mintakans strutted past them rapidly, snorting the steely, dusty air of the city and studying the gold that highlighted their city. Several who walked past them were apparently gossiping about the recent incidents, and it seemed that the elite soldiers of the Empire did nothing to hide the Emperor's condition or his second demise. Scandal resounded through the streets, and one chain of thought was picked up by another halfway across the street.

Hey! Did you hear what happened to the Emperor? They say that he reappeared in the desert near Azha, but some mercenaries killed him for a nice big pile of gold. Have you seen those golden beetles that come from Anuenue? They say that they were paid with those, hundreds of them!

Yeah, but I heard it was a squad of assassin who came, and that the weren't paid but did it in the service of a secret order.

Just why did anyone want to kill the Emperor, anyways?

It's said that Emperor Geldoblame had a secret plot. You didn't hear this from me, but he's said to be a really sneaky and suspicious guy. He doesn't even trust his closest men. The first time they thought he was killed was in an experiment that he went to oversee. The second time, just yesterday, he was apparently found wandering in the desert. Do you think there's some kind of secret plot?

Oooh, that would be sooo exciting. You know what I heard? I heard that he grew into a giant, and that he was walking around underneath the world with only his head poking out at the top!

That's silly. Where did you hear that? Purely ridiculous, I tell you. I heard, from a very reliable source, mind you, that the Empire was going to use a secret weapon to begin expanding our borders. That's right — actually take over other islands! That way, we'd be able to unite the world underneath our obviously superior blood. I think it's a masterful plan.

So Geldoblame planned to unite the world?

That's what I heard, alright!

Xelha nearly shivered. Evidently, the Emperor just would not stay dead. He kept breaching the barriers of life and death to come back and haunt, of all people, Kalas...

Their party continued to walk through the crowded streets of Mintaka. Traffic was at its peak, busy with workers commuting to and from their various jobs maintaining weaponry and battleships. Lyude led them through the crowds easily, though, his uniform marking him as a respectable servant of the people, one whose life work was considered to be among the most valuable to the Empire, one who warranted no suspicion.

Finally, he stopped in front of a fat building. Several golden cylinders characteristic of the Empire lined its face in great shining bands, well-worn silver gleaming in the shadowed background. Lyude stepped in front of the door. "I welcome you to my home, friends." He turned the knob and vanished inside.

Xelha and the others traded expressions and ventured forth. It took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust to the dim firelight light of the room, but then everyone took a good look around. Everything was neat, not a thing out of place, not a piece of furniture out of position. A fire crackled unnecessarily in the corner, but it served to add a mite of comfort to the room at least. Lyude motioned for them to follow him to what looked like a bedding area and gestured for his guests to sit down. "Please take a seat wherever there's room. There are no strangers here, only friends." He perched himself on the edge of one of the beds.

Mizuti sat cross-legged on an adjacent bed and Xelha moved beside it. Savyna, preferring to stand, leaned up against a wall, watching the light slowly filtering in from a half-open window, Gibari had reclined in a chair.

"We should be safe here," Lyude stated, regarding his companions in turn. "My brother and sister should be working at this time of day, and my nurse Almarde must be out shopping."

Gibari nodded. "Great. Now let's get right down to business. I think we all have a question in our minds at this point." He shot a look over his folded arms at Kalas, who had taken a seat beside Lyude. "Hey, bud, care to explain what all that was back there about 'End Magnus' and 'Malpercio'?"

Kalas shook his head. "Hey, I'd tell you if I knew. I'm just stupid as you guys are about this Malpercio."

"Gibari, you have to remember that Kalas might have some amnesia," Xelha began sympathetically. "Before this, he was knocked out in the Lava Caves near here. He doesn't even have any recollection of the islands rejoining the Earth!"

Gibari nodded and faced the others. "Right. So does anyone here know what this Malpercio thing is?"

The room was silent.

"...I guess not..."

"The only thing I can figure," Xelha said, "is that Malpercio was some sort of project. Maybe a code name, or something?"

"Yeah," her blue-haired friend agreed. "Everyone heard the gossip out there — supposedly the Emperor died once before, while overseeing some work in the Lava Caves."

"You weren't around then, were you, Kalas?"

"Nah. I must've come later, but I don't remember hearing anything about a project."

Savyna snorted.

He scowled. "What, do you have something to add? Or you just don't believe me?"

"I don't have anything to say."

Kalas narrowed his eyes. "Hey... Savyna. You were part of the Empire once, right? And you, too, Lyude. Did you guys ever hear about the Empire's project?"

Lyude spoke for the two of them. "It's probably safe to say that Savyna's been absent from the Empire long enough that no such news would reach her. And, unfortunately, my rank was too low for me to hear any information of a highly secretive nature..."

"It's okay, Lyude. We understand," Xelha said, smiling. "But does anyone know anything about the Empire's activities lately?"

At last, Mizuti spoke up. "Children of the Earth sense great disturbances. Believe that world in be disruption, then black castle is appearing. The Great Mizuti be here to stop the Emperor's evil ways."

Kalas scratched his head. "Mizuti, just what is a Child of the Earth, anyways? And why did you come here?"

"Child of the Earth just is. The people of the Great Mizuti pray that someone save the world from destroying itself. So the Great Mizuti is here!"

"You mean your people knew that there was a calamity about to befall the world?" Xelha asked.

"Leader of Great Mizuti's people be gone. Great Kamroh didn't returned after black castle disappeared. That's how the Children of the Earth know."

"The Great Kamroh?" Kalas repeated.

"Correct. He say, 'If anything should happen to the Great Kamroh, then a warrior' — oh, the warrior be Great Mizuti, by the way — 'a warrior should go out and get Sword of the Earth.' I be following his words. With flair and style, the Great Mizuti will save the world!"

"A sword from the earth, huh?" Gibari said. "I've never even heard of that. I don't even know how that castle got there. I think the soldiers in Diadem called it 'Cor Hydrae,' and they were probably mimicking King Ladekahn." He heaved a sigh and rubbed his face. "Well, anyways, we should probably turn in for now. We didn't get any solid answers to our original questions, but at least the Great Mizuti is a little less weird now."

It spun its propeller at him furiously.

"Well... slightly less weird. Anyways, I think tomorrow we should head back to Anuenue again. The Queen might be able to tell us about this Malpercio project, and she'll be glad to know that we got rid of Geldoblame. And we should warn her that there's a possibility that he might come back, even though he's been killed twice already." Gibari laughed at the thought, then continued, "I'm going to bed for the evening, folks. Lyude, you got a mat or something I could sleep on?"

Lyude had a vague half-smile on his face. "Here in the Empire, we're always ready to set up camp."

That night, Xelha couldn't sleep. Again.

She was busy watching him.

His eyes glistening in the soft firelight. Sparkling, jumping, like embers. Focused on one person across the room.

She followed his gaze to the Great Mizuti. Frowning, she clasped her hands beneath her chin and wondered about the distinction between truth and falsehood.

The old gardener hobbled outside and took a deep, deep breath. The kind that, he believed, reaches down to the deepest pits of your lungs and makes your body feel like a clean rush of air. He stretched and let the sunlight warm him over. Wind tickled the swaying plants around him, their orange and pink stalks whistling gently. The morning sun was beginning to peer over the edges of the island, swelling up around the sides like an ocean and engulfing him in a glowing light. What a beautiful morning...

He continued to amble down the path, keeping his hat tilted over his head, watering his plants. His daughter would be home from Pherkad this afternoon, filled to the brim with stories to tell. They would be epic and exciting, he knew, because she'd always had a knack for storytelling. He stretched again, and he picked a handful of flowers to inhale the scent. Heavenly... As he started again down the little path to his home in Cebalrai, he squeezed the flowers in his hands. He'd put them in a pot for his daughter!

All of a sudden the leaves began to tremble around him. He stopped curiously, feeling no breeze. He felt his hat began to vibrate and hop on his head, and then it shook and fell to the ground.

Then he felt the rumbling. His eyes widened in horror when the sun sunk back down beneath the edge of the island. He heard a scream from the distant fields:

"W-we're going back up!"

Dedicated to Holyknightsteve, inner peace, and yogurt.

Hey look, I updated! I feel a bit iffy about this chapter, but I can always go back and edit later. Which is what I intend to do with this whole story, actually. If scenes start disappearing/appearing or showing up in random places, it's because my writing powerz are at work. The great thing about this is that it's a living story, and it will grow and change as long as I continue to love it.

Anyways. I have a confession to make.

IreadsomereviewsOOPS!

I've decided that I'll allow myself to read the reviews for a particular section of the story once I've completed it... hehe. For example, now that I've finished part one, I can read the reviews for that section. That way, I can gauge the reactions of my readers and yet not be totally influenced by them. Works out fine, doesn't it?

And just wow. There's so much I'd like to say about where this story is going and what I have in mind for it... But I guess I'll let you find out on your own. I know most people are completely confused at this point, but here are a few hints: This story is AU. Five heroes sacrificed their lives to seal Malpercio. Then something went wrong.

Well, I guess I'll see you again at the end of part two then. Parting is sweet sorrow and stuff.

Have a nice day!