Everheart: Chapter 15

Selah set the mug beside her on the bench after drinking the water.  She was no longer trembling or crying, but felt no less amount of shame or panic.

"Calm, now?" Ywain inquired, taking the seat beside her.

With a heavy sigh, she shrugged and looked to her old mentor.  "Please, just tell me what's happened."

"As you wish."

The guildhall was silent and empty after Ywain had ordered all students and trainers to leave so he could tend to his pupil, and the unnerving stillness only added to Selah's anxiety.

"Ginal found her way here after you two had your falling out.  She was despondent and sullen, in every way not herself.  Miounne and I finally got her to talk to us, and we encouraged her to set things aside, and return to you."  Ywain sighed, and stood.  "From what I could gather, on her way out of the city, the Wood Wailers sent out a call for help.  The Ixal were massing for an attack on E-Tatt's Spire.  They were trying to claim aetheryte that was being sent to Hyrstmill."

Selah clenched her jaw, "Aetheryte?  That's highly unstable when it's not formed behind a shield.  Oh gods--that's the explosion you mentioned!"

The Guildmaster nodded.

Selah was on her feet immediately, "What happened after that?  Why is she missing?"

"These two wandering marauders brought Ginal back, but I don't know for sure what's happened.  I can guess, though, that the extreme aether poisoning somehow...effected her, changed her."

"Into this 'Emerald Demon?'"

"A young miqo'te woman, eyes gleaming with ferocity and ablaze of emerald fire.  Long, wine-red hair that spills down her back in wild curls.  A sultry soprano of a voice, purred in a manner that suggests you've found your lover, or your worst enemy.  Sound familiar?"

Selah gripped the bench until her knuckles were red-hot, and she felt the tears returning.  "It's her...What has she done?"

Ywain hung his head, the sadness evident without even looking into his eyes.  "She's slaughtered the entire Ixal logging camp in the northern Shroud, murdered the poacher lord in his jail cell, and now she's roaming the region looking for someone named A'rikia.  She's also cut down treants that the Shroud has called up to stand against her, which will only anger the elementals.  She has become a true threat to us all."

The things you can set in motion through a single bad decision.  How much worse will all this become?

"Wait, A'rikia?  Oh, no..."

Selah retrieved her lance from against the wall and harnessed it to her back.

"Who is she?"

"Ginal's first girlfriend...and a very big reason why Ginal has so much pent up rage.  I don't want to know what Ginal might do if she finds her.  I have to find Ginal, and stop her myself.  Maybe I can still get through to her."

"Selah..."

"I have to try, Ywain!"  She shuddered as her vision blurred from tears.  "I did this.  I got so caught up in my past pain that I turned my back on what was important.  I lost myself to the very fears you tried to teach me to stand and fight...."

Her sobbing had taken control, and she had to fight to speak with a broken voice.  With an anguished scream she punched the wall, unconcerned with the pain in her now throbbing hand.  "I'm a disgrace to your teaching, and I'm shit for a spouse!  I have to try to bring her back.  I have to make up for what I've done"

Ywain rested his hands on his student's shoulders, offering the kindest smile he could muster from his normally stoic presence.  "Then hurry, while there is still some hope.  The Twin Adder has issued contracts to free companies to hunt her down. Last I heard, she was roaming the eastern Shroud."

Selah threw her arms around her mentor, offered her thanks, and was out the door.

I'm coming, Kitten.  I swear to you, I will make this right.

Late autumn in the Twelveswood was a beautiful painting of red, brown and orange leaves spread across the forest floor.  A beautiful time of the year, with the most perfect conditions. The air was cool, and the sunbeams that pierced the half-empty trees had grown dimmer, but this was about as far into a winter wonderland as this land would transition. The elemental spirits of the Shroud rarely ever welcomed winter. 

Suits me fine, anyway.  I'd much rather wear a nice sundress than a heavy coat.  I look too damn good to be so covered up.

So far, dear A'rikia was nowhere to be found, and it would seem that in wandering through the woodlands this last week, Ginal had finally provoked the Wood Wailers into trying to subdue her.  That went as well for them as she could allow.  As much fun as these new abilities were, she could admit to herself that it was difficult to pull her punches.

But then, if someone really wants to hunt me and attack me like I'm some monster, wouldn't it be rude of me to not oblige them?

Besides, not finding A'rikia is an excellent opportunity to go sightseeing.  We've heard stories about the old Sanctum of the Twelve in childhood.  Even if she isn't cooperating with me, I for one would love to see if it's as grand as the legends say.

After wandering through a great, hollowed tree that had become a tunnel, and pushing through some thick ferns, she found herself in a clearing.  There were natural barriers of thick brambles in some places, and in the immediate distance was a moss covered cliff.  A hill sloped up and curved, joining into the cliff.  She smiled to herself, imaging what such an old, grand cathedral would look like.

The maps showed it's up there, so just another couple miles or so, and...where did the birdsong go?

Her ears twitched as she strained to listen, but all the birds of the area had become silent.  Then there was a faint chiming, barely audible at all, of a linkpearl.  Looking for the source brought her attention to someone stepping from the concealment of the thicket.

It was Ozalie, the hyur girl from her old mercenary band.  Raven hair, perceptive eyes, and a thin frame, all clad, as always, in the signature boots, gloves, skirt and vest of black leather.

"Holy shit..." Ozalie muttered, in awe of Ginal's appearance.  "Gin, is that you?"

"None other, sweety." Ginal purred. "You like the new look?"  Grinning, she twirled and bent forward low, her tail playfully twitching.  "I feel so yummy."

Ozalie smiled nervously, an arrow already notched in the longbow she held at her waist.  "Yeah, you look...great, Gin!"

Ginal pouted as her ears folded down.  "Let me guess,  you're here to hunt me, aren't you?"

"No, not hunt.  We're trying to find you before anyone else, so we can help you!"

"Help?" Ginal snorted.  "What could I possibly need help with?"

"Gin...You're on a rampage.  The Adder has issued bills for your kill or capture, and Tim, Ely, and I are trying..."

That was all she needed to hear.  Her tail whipped anxiously as she gathered swirling, black aether in her hands, which stretched out and coalesced into a shining greatsword.  The emerald flame in her eyes briefly flared in intensity as she looked upon her friend.

Not interested, honey.  Now back off."

Ozalie was moving back, and Ginal could smell the nervous sweat and hear the pace of her breathing quickening.  A predatory grin formed on her lips.  Ginal was the huntress, and her prey had unwittingly wandered right to her.  It didn't matter who had once been friend or foe, when all now sought to smother her fire.

Footfall behind her, and multiple figures were dismounting their chocobos.  Each of the great, yellow birds squawked or chirped as they were turned free and told to return to their master.

Ginal looked upon the gathered group and smiled.

"Is this a family reunion, Tim?"

Timothy, the fair-haired elezen man stood a short distance from her.  He was dressed in one of the fine, personally tailored black suits he always wore, with a large, leather bound tome clipped to his belt.

To one his left was a Lupe, the lalafell healer donning a simple white robe with the cowl over his head.  Further over was Aerick, the miqo'te man with peculiar green-tinted fur who was an adept thaumaterge, clothed in a robe of all black.

To Timothy's right stood Historia, the blonde haired, blued eyed miqo'te lass who fancied herself a lancer.  With her lance of dull-gray iron at the ready, she looked upon Ginal with a weary frown.  Ozalie had retreated some distance back, now, and Ginal saw she had three arrows notched and ready.

It's wonderful to see old friends.

"Ginal...please, come with us." Timothy urged, his voice and expression equally desperate.  "We don't want to fight or hurt you, and we don't want to see what might happen if some glory-hound adventurer or over zealous Wailer engaged you.  We're your friends.  Let us help you."

From right to left, and left to right she scanned them over.  "I already said..." she purred, raising her sword in a ready stance.  "I'm nobody's prisoner..."  Dark aether swirled about her palm, "Now get out of my way, Tim, before I forget that you were ever my friend."

Her old friends stood their ground, nervous, anxious, but clearly unyielding.  As was she.

"Fine." she growled.

She threw the dark energy toward Historia, who rolled out of its path.  Quickly and sharply, the air around Ginal grew as hot as the sun, and she dived to escape the sudden explosion of flame.  As she hit the ground in a tumble, she lobbed more dark orbs of energy that streaked through the air toward her attacker, Aerick.  On impact, he was thrown to the ground with an impact that ripped the breath from his lungs.  She allowed a smirk as her aether-forged blade cut multiple arrows from the air.  Her sights narrowed upon Ozalie, and she chuckled.

"Oz, get back!"  Timothy cried.  "Lupe, help Aerick!"

Lupe nodded and dashed to his comrade.  Reaching his side, he channeled aether of pure white around his hands and willed it to pour over Aerick.  "Get up, you lazy ass!" 

Ginal giggled.

It's just like the old days.

Historia charged forth with a battle cry and  locked weapons with Ginal.   Sneering, Historia uttered a guttural growl in warning as she strained to pushed her might against Ginal.

"Histy, sweety, please." Ginal purred.  "As if you have anything to offer."

Ginal twisted her sword to force the lance aside, and swung upward, slicing through Historia's studded leather armor as though it were paper.  The lancer stumbled back, clutching her chest as blood slowly seeped into the leather, and fell to her knees.

"Shit--sure would be nice if Grezel was back!" archer Ozalie complained.

Ginal cackled as she kicked the lancer over, and pressed her foot against her wound, reveling in the pained cry.  She noticed Lupe had turned his attention to Historia, and was gathering aether in his hands to focus some healing magic on her.  With a derisive snort, she swung her blade at the air, from which shot forth a thin stream of dark energy that hit the smallkin head-on, tossing him aside.

"It's just like Grez, isn't it?  To abandon you when you need him."

The fear in Ozalie's eyes was enough to make Ginal smile, but weakness suddenly crept into her arms as fatigue loomed overhead.  She realized that Timothy was reading something aloud from his codex while pointing at her.  Anger took hold of Ginal's heart as her vision narrowed on him, and the surge of adrenaline dispelled the magical weakness.

A sharp, piercing pain shot through her as she realized an arrow had bit into her shoulder.  Brandishing her sword, she deflected multiple more, and then ripped the arrow from her shoulder with a snarl.  The fire in her eyes flared its intensity as she roared the furious cry of a lioness.

The edge of her vision had turned red, and she felt her rage coalescing into a swirling black mass in her palm.  She hurled it at Timothy faster than he could react, and the explosion of the energies tossed him aside.  Growling, she lunged at Ozalie and cut the longbow in two, and twirled to plant her foot in Ozalie's gut, toppling her.

Behind Ginal, the lancer woman gasped as brightly glowing energies formed over her wound, and the sound of boots tramping the soil caused her ears to twitch.  Looking for the the spell-caster responsible, she found another elezen male approaching, dark of skin and hair, and clad in white and silver robe.

Kraio.

Others surrounded him, hyurs, miqo'te, roegadyn, you name it.  Some of which she recognized.

Elysande was there as well.  The tall, moderately muscled and bodaciously busty hyur woman whom she had recently been employed by stepped forward.   Her violot-dyed hair danced with the gentle woodland breeze, and Ginal freely admitted to herself that the woman's outfit of short-cut boots and form-fitting shorts and halter-top was most certainly a turn on.

Then there was Miku, the miqo'te woman of dark hair and fur, wielding a two-pronged lance of shining gray steel.  Beside her was Astania, another miqo'te with an ostentatious orange, yellow and red dye mix that was supposed to make her long hair look like fire, wearing gloves with iron studs on each knuckle,  Those two feline-women were almost always all over each other, such sickeningly stereotypical lesbians that it sometimes felt more insulting than sexy to watch them.

I might not like men, but at least I'm not a bitch about it.

There was the tall hyur man who called himself Six, in his armor of metal plates, sword and shield at the ready, and that horribly ugly green-dyed beard and scraggly hair.

You were an asshole.  How shall I repay that?

And what's this?

Samaria and Roric, the wandering marauders, stood just behind Elysande with axes at the ready.  And still others that Ginal did not recognize, of various races, brandishing different weapons and clad in a myriad of robes, hides and metal armors.

"Will she live?" Elysande asked of Kraio, indicating Historia.

Kraio was at Historia's side, his eyes closed in deep concentration as brilliant silver-white energies swirled around his arm and over her body.  Historia groaned and gasped as she clutched the healer's arm.

"Buy me the time to stabilize her, she's weak as all the hells."

Ginal shrugged, grinning and purring.  "Save her if you really want to.  I think she's learned her lesson, and it would be a shame to kill such a pretty and fiesty girl."  Ginal smiled brightly and clapped her hands as she looked over the assembled group.  "Looks like the gang's all here!  You know how to throw a party, don't you, Ely?"

"The eyes, the hair, the voice, the infatuation with the color green...It's you, isn't it, Ginal?" Elysande inquired.

Ginal planted her sword in the soil and grinned.  "Unless you know someone else who can look so good doing what I do."

"Well...shit." Elysande gave an exasperated sigh.  "Ginal...please, come with us.  We won't harm you."

"No, you won't." Ginal's reply came with dismissive snort.

"To the hells with this," cried an impatient lalafell man.  "You saw what she did to the others, we have to take her down!"  

The diminutive fellow charged forth, his lance forward.  Elysande called for him to stand down, but he was too lost in his recklessness to hear.  Cackling derisively, Ginal swiftly sidestepped, wrenched the weapon from his hands, and lifted him by the throat.

"Handsome, for a small man." she observed as she traced her nail across his cheek.  She smirked and swiped the nail across, eliciting a sharp cry and drawing blood.  "And foolish."  Over her shoulder she tossed him, and she relished the pained groan when he hit the ground.

"You were supposed to be my comrades..." she said to Elysande.  "My...friends."  she readied her greatsword before her, slowly scanning over the warriors and sorcerers assembled all around her.  Ozalie was supporting Timothy, and Lupe and Aerick were struggling to their feet.  "But you hunt me...threaten me...ATTACK me.  When I'm the one who has been wronged!"  The fire in Ginal's eyes flared, "You think I'm such a horrible freak?  You have no idea what I can do!"

She bellowed as a raging lioness and dashed forward.  Her blade sliced Six's shield in half, and more swirling orbs thrown from her palm struck his chest, sending him tumbling to the ground.  Astania,  and Miku ran forward together, and Ginal caught Astania's punch, pulled her forward and brought her own knee to the fiery-haird woman's stomach.  As Astania doubled over, Ginal caught sight of Miku's lance, but wasn't quick enough to completely avoid it.  Though a shallow cut, the pain of the slice along her side was enough to make Ginal snarl.

Looking down, Ginal finally realized that she had also been bleeding from her shoulder, though it seemed to have stopped now.  More than that, though, it infuriated Ginal to see that her dress was also torn in two places.  "You bitch!  You ruined my dress!"

Samaria, Roric and Six had taken position around Ginal, with Miku still directly in front.  Ginal's tail whipped about anxiously as she smirked, her heart racing and adrenaline flooding her system.

"Ginal, PLEASE, stand down!" Elysande cried.

"Oh, would you please shut the fuck up, sweety?"

Miku thrust her weapon forward with a growl, and Ginal locked their weapons in defense.  Seeing movement to the side of herself, Ginal's eyes flared.  The ground beneath her swelled and exploded with dark energy, and curved black spines shot forth from the soil.  Hearing a pained groan, Ginal glanced over to see that Six's leg had been impaled, while the marauder pair had jumped out of the way.  With a self assured smirk, she returned her focus to Miku.

"You know, honey, if you weren't such a bitch sometimes, I might like you."

Before Miku could respond, Ginal had twisted their weapons aside, and planted her sword into Miku's boot.  Her opponent howled in pain before Ginal backhanded her, and shoved her aside.  Astania flew at Ginal and landed a few solid hits to her midsection before knocking her sword to the ground, but as she spun around to kick, Ginal caught her foot.  With a predatory grin, she willed the black energies around her fist, and slammed it down onto Astania's knee.  The joint's break was audible, and Astania fell over in tears.

A battle cry, a blur of motion, and Elysande's boot firmly planted in Ginal's gut.  As the breath was knocked from her, Ginal cried out, and her nails met Elysande's cheek and arm.

"Leave me ALONE!" Ginal screamed.

Her heart raced.  Her tail swished anxiously.  Her fists trembled, and her vision was tinted red.  The ground again swelled with her black rage, stretching further than before.  An explosion of dark, furious energies engulfed the forest floor around her, and a spines of her indignation sprang from the ground in greater number.

When the energies has dissipated, bodies littered the ground.  A few of the mercenaries were still barely conscious, groaning in pain.  Others, she couldn't tell at a glance if they were alive or dead.

And she didn't care.

With a twig's snap, she whirled around, her weapon ready.  A young, and short hyur man was there, dressed in simple linens and a lance harnessed to his back.  His scraggly, blonde hair danced with the breeze, and his unusual red eyes gleamed with kindness...and understanding.

"Hello, Miss.  Be at ease, I'm not your enemy."

"I've heard that before." she snarled.  "Get away from me.  Now."

She growled through clenched teeth, her breathing rapid.

"I know you're not a monster.  You're just someone in pain."  He advanced at a deliberate pace, his voice kind and even toned.  His palms were outstretched and open, displaying no hostile intention.  "I know pain.  It can consume you, can't it?  Let me help you."

She searched his eyes for duplicity, and found none.  She watched his careful movements for anxiety or hostility, and saw none.  She lowered her weapon.  "You would seek to help me, after seeing all I've done here?"

"I would."

He opened his arms, offering a kind and gentle smile.

"What is your name?"

"I'm Ilyas."

"Well, Ilyas, you're an idiot."

His smile warped into surprise as orbs of darkness closed in on him, and struck him in the chest.  The small explosion sent him soaring, and tumbling over the ground.  He quickly struggled to rise, but Ginal was on top on him, her twin flames locked with his own eyes.

"I told you to get away, but you're just like the others!"

Gripping Ilyas by his shirt collar, she hoisted him and threw him against a tree.  He cried in pain and sank to the forest floor, raising his hand to yield.

"W-wait...I can..."

"SHUT UP!"

Her sword arced up, and lifted Ilyas from the ground.  He fell onto his back, blood smeared across his face and no breath left in his lungs.  Ginal stood over his writhing form, seeing that she had only cut the flesh immediately around his eye.

"Hm.  I missed.  Oh well."

Ginal willed the greatsword to dissipate, and looked about at her work.  She drew in a long breath, and slowly released it.  She closed her eyes and relished the gentle woodland breeze, patiently waiting for the birds to return to their harmonizing.  The scents of flowers, ferns and soil filled her nostrils, as did her favorite scent of all.  The scent of the one thing she loved most.  That one thing in all the world that could bring her pure, true happiness, or piss her off like nothing else.  She smiled and turned.

"Hello, beloved Selah."