"Now hold still."
Sadoul raised his hand in front of Kazyr's face. The white-haired mage shuddered slightly as the warm glow rose from Sadoul's hand. The light spread out as a tepid mist to Kazyr's ravaged features, smoothing them, and revitalizing the damaged tissue.
"Feel better?" Sadoul asked as the magic waned.
"In body at least." Kazyr sat facing the passage they had entered through, refusing to look back at the ashes behind him.
Sadoul stood, throwing back the cape on his new set of armor. "We should be going soon. I think I can revive Ghaleon now." He took a step towards the tunnel. "Coming?"
Kazyr swallowed and nodded. He stood up, matted hair rustling softly against the cloth of his blue tabard. He grasped his arms at the elbows as if to stave off a chill and slowly wobbled after Sadoul.
Few words passed between them as they made their way out of Pentagulia. Sadoul held Kazyr's staff still, its light guiding their way, but the darkness did not challenge them as it had before. Before long, the yawning mouth of the tunnel appeared in the distance, displaying a cloudless sky soothing the tortured earth beneath it.
"So," asked Kazyr, "what do you think?"
Sadoul glanced anxiously towards his friend. "About what?"
"About anything. About the fight we had."
Sadoul looked straight ahead again as they passed through the archway to the outside. "It was trying, more difficult to deal with than my old self would have found."
"But you're all right." Kazyr's voice took a slightly resentful tone. "You don't regret."
"Kazyr, that isn't true. Perhaps that woman was Elynthia, and if so I would have wished to stay with her. But if she was, she had changed beyond the Elynthia I knew. Just as she lead to my death when I had changed for the worse, I have returned the favor."
Kazyr shook his head. "I wish I could share your confidence."
Sadoul clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder as he handed Kazyr his staff. "It wasn't easy for you. I'll say no more. Some memories are best to let fade."
The white-haired mage nodded, taking the staff. He dimmed it with a word before sliding it away in his pouch. Sadoul waited until Kazyr had finished before raising his hands to begin the teleportation spell that would take them back to Lunar.
Kazyr halted him with his voice. "Sadoul? Do you like your new armor?"
Sadoul was taken aback by the question and relaxed his arms. He scratched himself on the head and took some of the cloth of his cape between his fingers. "The white armor is nice and all, but the cape? Pink really isn't my color."
Sadoul and Kazyr found a welcome reception awaiting them back at Lucia's tower. Solon, Jeal, and Lucia listened intently to Sadoul's telling of the story. The Magician of Fire left very little out of his own fight, but took care to avoid to worst of Kazyr's battle. The white-haired mage remained sullen for much of the talk, and Lucia did not press him for details, although she questioned Sadoul extensively about his encounter with Elynthia.
"I don't entirely understand why the Goddess Crest chose me, but it did," Sadoul concluded with a shake of his head. "It's given me its power. I feel it flowing through me, and it's the power to heal. I never thought that I could be chosen for a gift like this."
"The Goddess Crest is ruled by Althena's will, even in these years after her death," said Lucia. "Your trust in love back in Pentagulia must have decided it."
"But... It all seems so strange. I thought Ghaleon would-"
"Receive it?" Lucia asked. "The goddess knows best. Because I gave him Althena's Sword did not mean that he was to be the bearer of the Goddess Crest as well. I think you know yourself now. Whatever the Maker has in store for you, you will be able to face it with determination and strength."
"Thank you, Lucia."
"You deserve it, Sadoul," said Solon. "You've come a long way."
Sadoul nodded slowly. "Yes."
He walked from the small room down the hallway towards Ghaleon's resting place, knowing that the real test of his new power lay there. Lucia, Kazyr, and Solon fell into step behind him. Jeal slipped out of the room last and walked in the opposite direction.
"There is still something I would like to ask you, Lucia," said Sadoul.
"Go ahead."
"Why armor?" he asked, gesturing at the suit he wore. "Why did the Goddess Crest give me armor? For an instrument of healing, an ornament of battle seems unbecoming."
Lucia smiled lightly, as if remembering an ancient memory. "Armor protects the heart. It shields the body and preserves life. What better vessel does the power of love need? The will to protect and to heal an injured friend stem from the same source."
Sadoul nodded. "I see I have much to relearn that I had once believed in."
They came to Ghaleon's room and Lucia brushed open the door, gliding in first. Everything was as they left it. Ghaleon still lay motionless on the bed, swathed in the bandages Kazyr used in his attempt to set the broken bones. All his surface injuries had been healed with what little magic Lucia still possessed, but the deeper damage, the strained organs and splintered bones, remained largely untreated.
"I hope we have not taken too long," said Sadoul.
The others stepped back as the Magician of Fire raised his hands over Ghaleon's comatose form. Sadoul closed his eyes, calling on the strength of the armor around him. It infused his being, entering through his heart, flowing through his chest, and gliding through his arms to emerge as a faint red heat from his fingers and palms. In his mind's eye he could see the most lasting of the damage, the shock to Ghaleon's brain that locked him in a sleep normal magic could not awaken him from. His brows furrowed in concentration as he willed the scars to heal, for the growth of new tissue to begin.
The warmth in his hands increased as the damage gave way and Sadoul's mental touch traveled down Ghaleon's body, bringing the rest of him into a healing alignment with his brain. The shafts of broken bone came together, shards slipping free of the surrounding muscle and joining in the invigorated growth of healing tissue. Sadoul felt Ghaleon's heartbeat quicken as consciousness returned to him and he quickly made a final sweep over his friend's body, smoothing out the new bone and gently warming his organs. Satisfied, Sadoul let the magic leave him.
Sadoul opened his eyes in time to see Ghaleon wake.
"Welcome back," he told him.
Ghaleon looked to either side of him as he sat up. He saw Kazyr and noted the new set of bracers. He saw Lucia and Solon, the both of them looking relieved. And he saw Sadoul, wearing a new white suit of armor and a pink cape.
"What happened?" Ghaleon asked, bringing a hand to his head. "How long was I out?"
"In answer to your second question, I'd say about a day and a half," said Solon. "As to what happened, Sadoul and Kazyr managed to retrieve the Goddess Crest to heal you."
"The Crest?"
"Sadoul's wearing it."
Ghaleon smiled wearily. "I wouldn't have chosen pink."
Sadoul folded his arms in front of himself. "Neither would I, but it's what's left of the Goddess Crest after all. Besides, there is a certain bit of pride I have to have after being chosen by the goddess."
Ghaleon's smile became more sincere as he nodded deeply. "Yes, there is."
He pushed aside the sheets and swung his legs out of the bed. Ghaleon stood up hesitantly, but his legs held his weight, having been none worse for wear from his incapacitation.
"It's good to see you whole once more," Kazyr said softly.
Ghaleon heard the sorrowful tone in Kazyr's voice, but did not endeavor to ask more when Lucia spoke up.
"Come," she said. "We must meet with the dragons before the Maker arrives."
"How close is he?" Solon asked.
"Two days out, perhaps three. It is not much, but we must be ready!"
Lucia's sense of urgency enveloped all of them, lifting even Kazyr from his reverie. She looked each of them in the eye before drifting outside and down the hall. It did not take long for them to follow.
She lead them not to the chamber above where she first greeted them, but instead to a large outcropping from just above the base of her tower. Here the cloudy sky filled everything in view above the shelf, and the sea whipped around the rocks below, sending spray up behind the cliff's extremities. The ledge branched from the main trunk in four directions, three each inhabited by one of the dragons and the last by Jeal.
"We welcome your return," Jia's voice boomed, disrupting the stillness of the air.
"You have been successful. I admit I almost didn't expect it of you," added Crystan.
Jeal stepped forward, nearly meeting the ledge's trunk so that he could be heard above the roar of the surf. "And now that the Goddess Crest has been both retrieved and bestowed, we dragons have our final gift to offer."
Onyx raised his claws, eyes turned towards Ghaleon. Suspended between his talons was the Black Dragon's Crest. "It is said that the black dragons of Lunar have been the most sensitive, most fragile of mind of the Dragon Tribe. But that sensitivity does not come without reward, for we are more attuned to the ways of nature and the magic of the world." Onyx's young voice gained determination with every word he spoke. "Ghaleon: hero then bane and Lunar's champion once more, to you I give the strength--no, the heart --of the Black Dragon's Crest!"
The Crest shattered into a magnificent spray of dark mist. It gathered itself into a cloud and spiraled up around the stalwart form of the former Magic Emperor. Ghaleon's eyes lit with sudden empathy as the mist settled about his head. The enchanted spray disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a circlet of the darkest night with a blood red crystal embedded in its brow.
"Ghaleon," said Onyx gravely, "the black dragons in ages past have been the strongest of the four. The heart of that power is now yours. Your magic truly reaches the status of an immortal now. That circlet will amplify the strength of all the spells you cast and awaken talents long hidden."
Ghaleon bowed deeply. "I am honored."
"Good," said Onyx, his youthful expression returning with a smile. He swept Ghaleon up in a furry paw and additionally awarded the former Magic Emperor with a messy slurp of the tongue. "Now you have the power you need, and I gave it to you just like I wanted."
Ghaleon grimaced and rubbed his face with his sleeve. "'It' being slurping me, or giving me the circlet?"
Onyx gave him a toothy grin and set Ghaleon back down.
"He has a case of hero worship for you," said Jeal, though he couldn't help smiling. "You can't blame him."
"Maybe." Ghaleon uttered the words to a wind spell and proceeded to blow-dry his hair.
"So," said Solon, turning to Lucia, "are we ready now?"
"Soon." Lucia's eyes grayed with immeasurable sadness. "You will go tomorrow, to fight for this world as you never have before." She turned to glide away from them, back into her tower. "Nothing can compare to what is about to come. But if we are the children the Maker believes us to be, then we must grow up and learn to live without our parent."
Lucia stood on a balcony from a chamber on the largest spire of her tower. High up as she was, the wind could blow through her hair and dry what tears may form. The chamber behind her in days past could have been called a bedroom, but she had not used it, not since the Blue Star was restored. She often came to this balcony whenever she felt the need to think and remember. The sun had set now, revealing the whole of the night sky to her. But she had no eyes for the stars, preferring instead the reflection of their light against the waters below.
She heard quiet footsteps behind her, purposefully loud enough for her to hear, yet soft so as to keep her mood. Lucia made no indication of hearing him nor how she felt about his presence. Her gaze remained on the darkened sea and the mysteries it promised.
"You miss him," said Ghaleon.
"Always." Lucia did not lift her head or turn to greet him. "But sometimes I can almost see him. The feeling is so real I think could reach out and hold him. But I know if I do, he will not be there."
"It is a burden being immortal."
"I have little choice," she said quietly. "Too many people depend on me. But every time heroes rise, every time a battle is fought for peace--I can only think of him."
"Hiro was a good man." Ghaleon stood beside Lucia, eyes on the horizon rather than the waters below. "I'm sure you enjoyed what years you had with him."
Lucia nodded. "But I mustn't dwell on him now. He wouldn't want me to, not when so much is at stake. If we stop the Maker here, we not only save Lunar and the Blue Star, but all the other worlds yet unaffected by the Maker."
"I find it hard to imagine what a battle with him would be like."
"You must be careful, and you must be confident in yourself. Otherwise you may fall into a similar trap as Kazyr and Sadoul." Lucia looked up at him. "I didn't tell them, perhaps to spare them, but the Maker is fully capable of reclaiming the stuff of reality. It is only too possible they truly fought the corrupted essence of Mira and Elynthia. I feel it's better to let them possess the doubt that enabled them to win their battles--especially for poor Kazyr. That is why I've told them that they will fight tomorrow despite the Maker's proximity to us."
"Where is the Maker now?"
Lucia lifted a pale hand and pointed to the sky. "That star, that light, it is him. Tonight he is only a star to us; tomorrow perhaps a sun. The day after he will be as close as Lunar."
"It is odd that this of all battles should be the one least visible by the people both worlds."
Lucia shook her head. "Ignorance has protected them this far, but as you already know, the Maker does not have to be on either world to begin his plans. He will not wait until his arrival before beginning his rebirth."
Ghaleon let out a frustrated breath. "Where shall we head tomorrow?"
"Over the sea and yet further east than this tower. There is a small isle there guarded by creatures of the Blue Star and Lunar that he has managed to corrupt. The Star Dragon was sadly not the only one to turn from Althena's light. Those on that isle possess a beacon that is guiding the Maker to the Blue Star. He will arrive here without it, but it may serve to delay him long enough for me to recover some of my strength."
"And then?"
"And then you will go to him. The final battle will take place."
"Lucia..."
She lifted a hand as if to offer something. "You will need a weapon." A sheathed sword with a golden hilt carved in the likeness of a dragon appeared in her hand. "I retrieved Althena's Sword for you after you lost it atop the tower."
Ghaleon took it from her and fastened it by his side. "I will endeavor to be worthy of it this time around."
She nodded solemnly.
A glow to the west caught their eyes. It was a brilliant trail of sparkling lights flowing up through the sky towards the stars, towards a particular star. Though the sight resembled the travel of millions of stars, Ghaleon found it unsettling. He spoke a word, and the crystal in his circlet glowed softly.
A vertical layer of haze appeared before them, a scene unfolding on its center. They beheld the countryside of Danek. But the rich forests were waning, their greenery fading into the skyward light. Tree trunks withered and turned to stone the color of the gray infertile soil beneath them. The sky, though filled with the life of the land, turned an ugly black between the light of the stars.
"It begins," said Lucia. "Lunar and the Blue Star are dying."