"I shall be going out again," she said icily, royal purple eyes glaring at Mia and Nash.
"So?" Nash said. "Where's the problem?"
The sullen pout that had settled onto her features over the past year hardened into a scowl. She picked a nonexistant piece of lint off of the shoulder of her royal blue dress. "The problem," she said, voice pitched low, despite her harsh tones. She knew as well as anyone else that the main hall of the Magic Guild (even if she didn't directly recognize it as such) was not the place to get into a screaming match. "Lies in that you insist on having me followed. I have complied with your request that I do not leave the general reigon. Am I untrustworthy? Is that why you so choose to invade my privacy by having me followed whenever I leave your immediate presences? Am I not entitled to privacy? Is there something wrong with me? Besides the obvious, of course. I demand of you in the strongest possible terms: Stop having me followed!"
Without waiting for an answer, she rocked back onto her heels and spun, creating for a split second a glistening whirl of blues and silver. She then walked away at a speed which would make people doubt the height of her heels.
"She's right, too, you know..." Mia said softly. "We don't have any right to be having her followed..."
Nash nodded. "I do know. But there's something about her that just makes me always want to know exactly where she is, at any given time... You really have to wonder about someone who refuses to even mention her own name..."
Mia sighed. "I'm just worried that she'll get herself hurt wandering around in those ruins, and not bother to do anything about it. I mean, you saw her when we found her... She was like a living monument to personal neglect... I'm going to go after her."
Nash's eyes went wide. "After she just gave a tirade like that? No offense, Mia, but are you nuts?"
"Not at all," Mia said calmly. "I'm not going to follow her. I'm going to... try to talk to her. I think I have a class right away, though. Would you mind handling it for me? Please?"
"Of course, Mia, but..."
"I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't be here... I'll go now..."
"No, wait," she crossed her arms over her chest. "The hoops you must've had to jump through to manage to talk to me must mean that you have something at least worth hearing out. Unless this is one final attack from beyond the grave, in which case you're pretty stupid for waiting so long to do it, and then offering to leave, besides."
He shook his head. "No... being dead gives you time to think about things which generally discourage reaching out from beyond the grave. That's the interesting thing about it. As far as I can tell, the only hell in death is the one that you make for yourself. All the lies of your life are revealed to you, from the little white lies like 'Of course your hair looks good that way' to the huge, soul-wrecking ones like 'What kind of idiot would believe in that nonsense, anyways?'. And it's the last that causes the problems. Most are born with the highest intents, attempts to protect the mind itself from the damages that acceptance of reality will cause. But when you take the lies you tell yourself as truth, then therein lies the danger..." He paused, looked directly at her, then closed his eyes. "In the end, that was all I had left, my lies. In the end, I was not myself, I was what I had made myself into. Though I'm quite sure that what very little was left of what I had been knew exactly what I was doing, and wasn't too damn happy about it. Actually, it's not an 'I'm sure', it's more of an 'I know', because it seemed like every other minute, I was asking myself 'But what if...' And considering the state I had managed to degenerate to, I don't think that nagging questions like that would have come willingly upon me, so... Anyways, I know it doesn't count for anything, but I am really, really, really, really sorry for every last thing I ever did to anyone. Particularly you. You didn't deserve what I did to you..."
"Uh, Ghaleon?"
"Yes?"
"I've gotten the general idea of what you're saying, but you're babbling."
Ghaleon managed to look somewhat embarrased, then his tone took on a distinct whine. "Oh... I'm sorry... It's just that I like to talk, and when you're dead, there's no one to talk to, or even anyone to listen... It wouldn't even be so bad if there was just someone who'd listen, but there's no one, and--"
"You're babbling again. Get to the point or get out of my dreams."
He bit his lip. "Yes, well... One, I acknowledge, understand, and accept the fact that I am the greatest idiot that has ever walked the world. As well as that I am a terrible, horrible person. With that comes my sincerest and profoundest apologies for it all, even though I greatly doubt that counts for anything. Two, I come to you with a warning--and a plea."
"A plea? You certainly don't deserve to be making any of those, but I'll hear you out, at least."
Ghaleon nodded. "That's all I can ask--and more than I deserve. At any rate..." He began to pace, more or less randomly. "It has recently been brought to my attention that an old, very close... friend of mine who I thought was dead is not."
"So? That's a good thing, isn't it?"
Ghaleon's expression changed to something that might have been a smile if it weren't so depressively sad looking. "It... had the potential to be a good thing. However, that potential was thrown out the window when I was killed. Don't get me wrong, I'm still of the firm belief that dying was the greatest thing I ever did, but the fact that I'm dead will not be, in the eyes of this person, be a good thing."
"Oh? Has this friend been living in a cave for the past six years?"
"Has it been six years? Already? Anyways, I should say that your guess is rather accurate, though the time frame is a little... off, shall I say? She was trapped in that cave for... a good long while, though I can't exactly say how long."
"'She'? And you were 'very close'? I thought you didn't believe in that sort of thing..."
"Remember what I said about those dangerous lies, and the reasons for their being. At any rate, the nature of my friendship with her is none of your business. Suffice it to say that I feel a great deal of concern for her. Now here comes the warning part. Her being alive and my being dead puts you and those five... people who helped kill me puts the six of you into a rather substantial amount of danger."
"Oh?"
"Mhaiera is a very, very odd woman. As well, she makes me look normal, happy, and well-adjusted."
"Troubled girl?"
Ghaleon sighed. "You understate it more than even she would. When she is alone and has herself under control, she seems perfectly fine, if a little... singleminded. When she loses control, however... How should this be put... Do you remember how I was?"
"Yes."
"She gets like that, only less megalomaniacal, more violent, and with less specific goals. I was at least trying to accomplish something. She'll only want to hurt you. Oh, and she's a little prone to random fits of crying."
"So? The way you're describing her, she sounds like an ordinary psycho, not someone who can do much harm."
"I think she'd rip your arms off if you called her a psychotic to her face. And what you don't seem to realize that she's very good at what she does. If she were to put her mind to it, the damage she could cause... But I can't precisely tell you what she would do, she's on the unpredictable side. And here lies my plea: STOP HER. Stop her before she does any damage, to herself, or to anyone else. And she will do damage."
"Just out of curiosity, why would finding out that you're dead set her off?"
Ghaleon shrugged. "That in and of itself might not. Knowing the circumstances would. As for why, you have to understand something about her... Once, she looked directly at me, and said, 'You are the only thing that makes my life worth living.' I have never, ever heard anything more seriously said than that in my entire life--or death, for that matter. And the look in her eyes when she said that..." He shook his head. "Completely ignoring the fact I am the last person who should have such a sentiment directed at them, she was very... dependant, which isn't the best word, but close enough, on me. Taken with the fact that she isn't the picture of mental health..."
"You haven't really given a lot of evidence to prove the last, but that could be one of those things that it's far better to see than have explained, so..."
"'It's still a dream until you see it. It's not real until you feel it...'" Ghaleon whispered.
"What was that?"
He shook his head. "'Seeing is believing', essentially. You'll hear that in its entirety before too long, I should think. Presuming that you do look into this... matter, of course. Which I hope you do."
She didn't say anything.
Ghaleon sighed. "Look... Just because of... what I did doesn't mean that I can't give you a legitimate warning about someone. I'm not even asking you to trust me. There's a good chance she could be in Vane's general area, you could make a trip out of it, go and see your friends and all. You know, stopping a mad killing spree might be a good thing..."
"How did you... find out that she was still alive?"
He smiled wanly, depressively. "Call it a... connection... Look, Alth-- Luna, it should be, shouldn't it? I'm not... out to get you, or anything. Anymore, anyways. All I'm asking is that you at least look into this... That can't hurt anything, can it? Please..."
Luna sighed. "All right, I'll at least look for this woman..."
"Thank you..." Ghaleon whispered. "And... you probably shouldn't mention to anyone who... told you this. I don't know, but something tells me that you telling anyone that you were told about some 'psychotic' by a dead Magic Emperor (and I'm willing to bet I'm being considered history's greatest monster right around now, too) in your dreams might do some damage to your credibility, no?"
"It might," Luna said, nodding.
"And... if you should see this through completely, and worst does come to worst, could you do something else for me...?"
"That completely depends on what it is..."
Ghaleon nodded, then his eyes grew distant. "Please excuse the further intrusion, but this is the only way I know of conveying this, in my current state..."
Luna nodded again, then said, "What? I can't--"
"Don't worry about it. If you ever end up in those circumstances, a monkey would be able to pull that off, provided it had the right information. You, not being a monkey, and having the right information, should have no problems excecuting that. Don't worry about it. The sheer flow of energy of energy around her should make any sort of spellcasting ridiculously easy, even by someone who usually isn't magic-capable. You won't have any problems if doing that becomes necessary."
Luna shrugged, clearly not buying it, but not really able to come up with any objections. "Oh..." she said, after a pause. "What does she look like? If I do run into her, I don't really want to miss her..."
Ghaleon made a sound that sounded vaugely like a laugh, though it was highly unlikely anyone would ever refer to that as such. "Oh, she's very recognizable... I doubt you'll have a problem with that... And by the way, be careful if you see her pull an old, wooden flute out of more or less nowhere... Her playing can be quite... spellbinding..."
Luna raised an eyebrow.
Ghaleon shook his head. "Of course, I'm not telling you everything. I have neither the time nor the inclination to do so. I'm afraid you'll have to discover most of the sordid details on your own. And that's exactly what the vast majority of them are. So you may not find them out at all. Which is fine with me. But, at any rate, unless you yourself have any pressing business, I should take my leave of you now..."
"Actually..." Luna said softly. "This is very petty and mean-spirited of me, but I'm almost... sorry to see that you're not... I don't know, suffering now that you're dead..."
Ghaleon's eyes went very, very wide and he just stared at Luna for a good long while. Finally, he said, in a barely audible whisper, "Oh, but I am... Very much so, and for longer than I've been dead, even... But more so of late, the... revealing of the self to the self is a very painful experience, to say the least..." he closed his eyes and half-sighed. "Though it is an experience everyone must go through when their time comes, so the only reason I'm suffering is because of myself..." He opened his eyes and stared unblinkingly at Luna. "But... why ever did you think... I wasn't?"
Luna wasn't given the opportunity to answer, because as soon as he said that, he was gone.
Mia carefully opened the door, not quite sure what to expect.
"Oh, it's you... I could have sworn I locked that door... Ah, well, just come in, then..." The tone was calm, unconcerned, vaugely apathetic.
She was lying stomach-down on the floor, legs bent at the knees and sticking up in the air from there on. Her shoes had been kicked off and now occupied opposite corners of the room. Surrounding her were various books and stacks of paper, as well as a teacup, a teapot, and a glass filled with something clear. Her head (propped up by her hands, of course) was turned to stare at Mia, deep purple eyes looking unconcerned, but boring into Mia all the same.
Mia's eyes went wide. Just the image before her struck a chord, gave her an incredible sense of deja vu, only she was completely sure she had seen something very similar to what she saw now, only a good long time ago. The only thing missing was the pen in hand.
"Well?" she asked cooly, pulling herself into a sitting position. "Is there a purpose to your intrusion? If so, please step further in and close the door behind you. It can get rather drafty otherwise."
Mia nodded, then took a few steps further into the room, then turned and closed the door.
"It seems that you have answered my question. What do you wish of me?"
Mia sat down on the floor and said, "Nothing, really... I just wanted to talk to you after you ran out like that..."
Her eyes flashed. "Which should have been a fairly good indication that I didn't want to be followed."
Mia bit her lip. "All I wanted to do was talk... I'll go after that..."
"Then talk."
Mia shifted uncomfortably. "First, you're right about how we shouldn't be having you followed... but there's something about you that... I don't know, just makes me worry about you..."
"Your concern is touching." Her tone said otherwise.
Mia bit her lip. "Well, really, you've... always seemed a little..."
Her lip curled from a pout to a sneer. When she spoke, her tone was pure, unaldurated arrogance. "A little WHAT? A little odd, a little nuts, a little crazy? Go on, say it, it's nothing I haven't heard before. SAY IT, damn you! I... I..." Her tone faltered and she closed her eyes, but more than a few tears escaped from underneath her eyelids. "I hate this, I hate this... Where... is he...?"
Mia drew back. "I... I'm sorry, I--"
"No, you're not. Why would you be? Just stop lying... Just shut up, and finish what you have to say..."
Mia looked confused for a moment, then said, "Well... could you at least mention your name? It's not really very easy only being able to call you 'you'..."
"Another lie..." she whispered, still crying. "I asked you to stop... But... you're not going to go away until I tell you, are you? Are you? M... Mhaiera. My name is Mhaiera. Now get out of here."