“Would you be able to find out what was so important that Amnur risked his life over it?” It was a sizable book, to read through it in detail would take some time.
“I can try, sometimes he leaves hidden marks on pages to indicate the ones he was looking at,” she replied; finding the marks required a sharp eye and she had located many of them before when reading the texts he kept. Crono left her to it and started gathering the supplies he’d need to make the breakfast meal and put them in a neat pile to one side. After last night, everyone was probably keen to have some extra rest. He then went up to the door and pushed it open, staring outside. It was bleak and the snow was still drifting in, but he could see no immediate signs there had been any trouble during the night. Shutting the door behind him, he set about to do some routine chores around the house while he waited for the others to wake.
* * *
Not long after, the others sleeping within the house began to stir. Ferdan woke and soon joined Sakura on the bed, enquiring about what she was reading. Meanwhile, Drake woke, only to find that Amnur had not woken up. He walked off to rest Amnur on a spare bed, giving Ciel a nudge as he passed by. Ciel jolted awake, giving Drake an annoyed grunt as he strolled past before turning his attention to Sakura. She still appeared disturbed about something, seeing that her whole body was tense and her fiery attitude was dulled. He wanted to talk to her, to comfort her but was unsure how she would react to him; she hadn’t rejected him last night but she also wasn't so quick to accept his embrace.
Ciel just sighed. Considering her relations it was a silly person to chase after, but he could not deny his feelings for her either. He knew his father would never agree to her, nor did he expect Amnur to agree to him.
Breakfast preparations soon got underway with the peculiar aroma of the marinated fish filling the air as it cooked over the fire. The new companions had not become used to the strange taste of the meat; it was sweet and salty with hints of bitterness, an odd mixture of flavours to have together. Ferdan tried to pry Sakura away from the book for her to eat but she was disinterested, a fact he was rather shocked by. In the short time Ferdan had been with them, the one thing he noticed was that Sakura would never deny a meal.
"What's wrong?" he asked in a whisper, not trying to actively alert the others. Sakura's hands tightened around the book, she took a deep breath before turning to Ferdan.
"Nothing," she snapped back, causing him to jerk back slightly. Her attitude was not hiding her worry well if anything it was making it more obvious. While she had been reading, there had been a voice reverberating around her mind, causing the shadows to dance and the words on the pages to swim. Sakura repeatedly tried to purge it from her mind, only succeeding for short periods of time before it started up again. With her father unconscious, she felt unable to talk to anyone currently here about it. Perhaps she should approach Ferdan over it, she wondered; his knowledge of magic might be able to help her. "I'm sorry, could I talk to you in private later?" Ferdan was curious over her sudden change in behaviour, as her voice was shaky with worry.
"Sure, whenever is good for you." Trying to reassure the shaken girl wasn’t a simple task, but he hoped to be of some aid. She smiled, setting the book down to one side and started prying the blankets that surrounded her off. "Ah, we had to remove your body armour," he admitted, causing Sakura to pause and blush. "Hang on, I'll get you something to cover yourself with."
With a swift movement, he dropped off the bed and moved over to Crono, who was shuffling around preparing some plates. "Excuse me, is there a spare top for Sakura?"
Crono stared at him for a second before silently walking off and returning with a cloth top, although it appeared overly thin for the weather outside. "It'll probably be too big for her, but it will last for now," he commented, handing the top to Ferdan. He had been surprised with the human's politeness towards him, as he didn't always even get such a thing from his own race. Ferdan bowed to the demon and returned to Sakura's side, handing her the top. He looked away out of respect while she pulled off the rest of the blankets and slipped the top over her head. The wide collar allowing her to get it on without catching her horns. Ferdan offered her a hand once she was done, helping her down to the floor where they sat next to each other at the fireplace.
Ciel watched on from a distance, resentment was building deep inside him as he watched her with Ferdan. She reacted to him in a friendly way, more than she had reacted to him during the night. Another strong nudge brought his attention back to Drake as he sat down next to him; blocking his view to stop him continuing to stare at her.
"You like her, don't you?" Drake whispered after he had leant over closer to Ciel to keep the conversation private.
"Maybe.” He sighed, trying to avoid eye contact with the massive demon. Drake thought on the subject for a minute. He did not want to crush his friend's hope, but at the same time knew he needed to cheer him up.
"Have you tried directly talking to her?"
Judging by Ciel's reaction he guessed the answer to be no.
"Do you think it's worth a shot?"
"What do you have to lose?" he chuckled. Ciel knew he was right, there was no point just remaining silent.
"I'll talk to her later, let's eat first." Drake was agreeable to this suggestion, he was rather hungry after last night.
The food had been finished and was distributed between those present, along with a warmed berry juice drink. Light hearted chatter spread around regardless of the events of the previous night, although it still loomed deep within their minds. As the meal came to a close the discussion turned to a darker subject and the close bonds between them could only keep their spirits high for so long.
"Ciel and Drake will go along with the others on a scouting party," Crono stated. Ciel went to protest but was held back by Drake; he wished to stay behind and straighten things out with Sakura, but he would have to wait for later.
Soon after, they said their farewells and departed, leaving Ferdan, Crono and Sakura together in the room. Sakura had returned to browsing through the book, her visage was calmer now but Ferdan knew that snap earlier was not caused by hunger. Ferdan wondered whether to inform Crono, he knew the girl well enough to tell if she was prone to strange episodes like this, or if it was something new.
"Can I have a word?" Ferdan asked Crono, after following him off into a smaller side room.
"What about?"
"Is Sakura prone to strange or aggressive episodes?" He noticed the demon's surprised expression when he said it, evidently, this was news to him.
"It could be the stress of having her father injured," Crono tried to reason but Ferdan shook his head.
"It was more than that, she was rather freaked out." While he was watching her he felt fear, not worry. "I'm wondering if the weapon that injured her was laced with chaos magic," Ferdan stated, "such a thing could infect her mind." Crono gritted his teeth at the suggestion, he wasn't brilliantly versed in magic but he knew enough to know what the mage was indicating. Such a thing could drive her insane and she was a dangerous individual to possibly have turned against them. "I also have a feeling there is more to Amnur's wound."
Crono's face turned to an expression of pain as the thought of possibly losing both of them was excruciating. "Can you help them?" he groaned, no one could have foreseen this coming and it did not bode well for the future. Ferdan wondered himself; he had never come across anything like this before, his only experience came from books.
"I can always try, at the very least I could attempt to subdue the symptoms for now." Ferdan knew his first priority should be Sakura as her condition could quickly cause problems for them. Crono had hoped for a more solid answer, but it was better than a complete rejection. "Do you wish to join me while I talk to her?" Ferdan asked the large demon, but he hoped that bringing Crono along would not upset her. He nodded and the two of them returned to the central room.
They noticed that Sakura had moved from the bed, leaving the book proppe
d open on a certain page. She was sat by Amnur's side, holding his hand. Despite this, something appeared wrong, a view they both shared as they approached. Ferdan quietly knelt down behind her, resting his hand on her shoulder. Her expression was blank, her eyes were soulless. "Are you alright Sakura?"
Feeling his touch, her arm snapped around and grabbed his wrist tightly, shooting burning pain down his arm. Ferdan tried to pull it free but all attempts only made her grip tighter. The stare she gave him was cold and he could see the dark shadows dance within her bright eyes; it was not her controlling her actions. Crono reacted swiftly and bound her arms tight, causing her to release her grip on Ferdan's wrist. "She's not in control of herself, careful!" Ferdan shouted out in warning, his rapidly bruising wrist being the evidence of his claims.
Crono laid her against the floor, using his weight to keep her from moving. With his good hand, Ferdan placed it on her head and began a mild suppressive spell, hoping it would be enough to pull her mind free of the torment she was experiencing. Her body tried to move away from him but Crono was pinning her completely. She began to growl but Ferdan ignored it and carried on. Sakura shouted in some incoherent language before her body fell limp, her aggressive shouting replaced with desperate panting.
"This is going to be a problem." Ferdan let out a long sigh, cradling his injured wrist. Crono released his grip on her, happy that the incident had passed for now. The one advantage he had was that he could subdue her easily if he could get close to her.
Sakura glimpsed at Ferdan’s wrist and felt ashamed, as she was still conscious enough to have been aware of her body’s actions during that. “I’m sorry,” she spoke; her voice was unstable and her body was shaking, causing her to wince due to Crono previously putting pressure on her.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Ferdan speedily replied, “though I can’t deny the pain in my wrist.” Crono sat down and dragged Sakura up to his side in an attempt to comfort the girl; without her father, she would not cope with such a thing well. “I can try to subdue it while I work on permanently curing you of this.” Ferdan acknowledged his uncertainty was causing her to worry more; he too hoped that he could be more certain with the whole thing. From one of his pouches, he pulled out some coloured inks, before deciding on a light blue colour and returning the others to the pouch. “It’ll be easier to see while I prepare the spell and it’ll disappear once I’m done.”
He dragged himself closer to her and untied a small paintbrush that was bound to the ink phial. Popping the cap off the bottle, he dipped the paintbrush in and held it poised and ready. “The ink is rather viscous, it shouldn’t drip down,” Ferdan remarked to Sakura’s sceptical expression, though he knew another fact of the ink was the thing that was likely disturbing her more. It smelt awful, an unfortunate side effect of the materials it was created with.
He began painting an intricate connecting pattern of runes and branches across her face and around her head, wherever he felt necessary to create the most protective seal he could. She watched on silently, her eyes following the paintbrush as it went. The ink mask was not needed in order to perform the spell, but it certainly made it easier to cast it. When Ferdan had finished, he wiped the paintbrush off on a small cloth and repacked the phial, returning it to his pouch.
“Whatever’s plaguing your mind is likely to fight what I’m about to do now.” He turned to face Crono, who took the hint and gently bound her body with his arms. Sakura flinched but knew it to be the best option and after a short while, she nodded at Ferdan for him to continue. He placed his hand upon her head and took a deep breath, preparing himself for whatever came next.
The soft chant began, causing the ink pattern to glow with a bright white light. Sakura cried out in pain as the residual chaos magic fought back against the soothing waves of Ferdan’s magic. Finding her body unable to move she bit down on one of Crono’s fingers, trying to make him let go. Crono, however, was unfazed as her teeth were barely even scratching his tough skin. He remained gripping her while Ferdan continued, the ink was almost completely gone now and it was nearly over. The light faded from the pattern and it soon became invisible, only to be revealed when it was touched by magic.
Sakura’s body once again went limp. She did, however, remain biting into Crono’s finger; the process must have been excruciating for her. Crono ran his other hand delicately through her hair, feeling her relax as he continued.
“How are you feeling?” Ferdan asked, watching her eventually release her jaw. Sakura stared at him for a while, before collapsing down. She was exhausted.
“Tired,” Crono commented, picking her up off the floor. He stood up and strolled over to his bed, settling her head against the pillow and slipping the covers over her body. They left her to rest for now and turned their attentions to Amnur, who was still unconscious.
“Without him awake it’ll be hard to tell exactly what’s wrong,” Ferdan explained to Crono, symptoms like Sakura’s would only be obvious when he was awake.
“What can you do then?” The whole subject was past his field of expertise, he normally relied on Amnur for that.
“I can take a sample of his blood to check if there’s anything untoward with his mana,” Ferdan revealed a small covered blade from another one of his pouches.
“You’ll need more than that.”
“I’ve cut demons with it before,” he remarked before pausing, realising just how bad that had sounded. Crono raised an eyebrow before bursting into laughter, allowing Ferdan to relax. “I would like your permission, though, Crono, since I doubt Amnur would let me do this normally.”
“Do whatever you need, he won’t argue with me.” He knew Amnur would dispute it, but he would respect the fact the mage had asked permission first, though.
“Alright. It’ll take some time to see any results, or at least I would hope it does.” If anything showed too quickly then he knew something to be terribly wrong. Ferdan took the blade out of its cover and ran it across the demon’s wrist, creating a thin line of blood. He collected the blood with a small tapered flask, allowing it to fill up about half way before sealing the cut closed. With an equally small bung, he sealed the flask and gave the contents a slight swirl, watching the liquid intently. The consistency was fine, though for a mage’s blood the colour was dull. Mage blood usually held a lighter colour than their non-mage counterparts due to the high concentrations of mana within the blood. Ferdan settled down to begin the multiple different tests he could perform on the blood, in the hope one would give him an answer.
* * *
Ciel, Drake and the others returned after half a day of scouting and from what they were holding, gathering. Outside from the howling wind and perpetual snow they had seen nothing strange, which was stranger than anything. After the attack on Amnur and Sakura yesterday they had expected to see something or at least evidence that something had been around. Ciel had noticed Sakura on the bed so he quickly deposited his spoils and went to her side, something which did not go unnoticed by those around him.
“Evening Sakura, how are you feeling?” he whispered to her, nudging her shoulder. She began to stir and wearily opened her eyes, staring at Ciel’s deep red eyes; for such a fierce colour, his eyes carried much emotion.
“I’m sorry about earlier, I hadn’t meant to be so cold to you. It was just…” She trailed off, what had happened to her did not need to be brought up now, her mind felt clear and calm. “Ferdan sorted it, don’t worry. It did exhaust me rather, though, that’s all.” Ciel returned her smile as she evidently did not feel like talking about it. Her apology was welcome words to his ears; even if it hadn’t been her he had the problem with, it would explain why she was talking with Ferdan though.
“I have something to tell you, but I’m not sure how,” Ciel said. She looked at him curiously; he was nervous, glancing around to see if anyone was watching. When he was happy that no one was, he took a deep breath and calmed himself. With a swift movement, he brought his face next to hers, deliv
ering a single, sweet kiss on her cheek and departed as quickly as he came.
Sakura was stunned; she watched him flash another smile as he left, leaving her alone on the bed. She didn’t feel angry or upset if anything she felt quite warm, as well as confused. Part of her wondered if she had indeed woken up or had just dreamed that episode. The girl sighed, evidently he was anxious to display affections for her so openly; a fact she couldn’t blame him for either.
Kicking her feet out in silent frustration she clipped something and remembered what it was, the book she had been looking through previously. She had left it open on a certain page before her mind had become overwhelmed, what she had been reading had eluded her, though.
Propping herself up, Sakura grabbed the book and looked at the preserved page. A scrap of paper lay pinned within its spine; a hastily made bookmark from her father. Time slipped by as she read the pages in detail, absorbing every little bit of information presented.
“I think I’ve found what my father was so interested in,” she announced aloud to the chatter-filled room, obtaining everyone’s attention. They gathered around her, sitting before her like young children. “There’s quite a bit to it but I’ll try to summarise.” Sakura used her hand to mark her position on the page as she started. “Nether plane; a dark and twisted plane that connects to our own. Mana is rife within its enclosed sphere, far greater than the levels of our own plane,” she spoke in a clear voice, glancing up to see if anyone had anything to say before she continued. Ferdan waved her own, signifying that no one did right now. “The creatures that exist in this plane thrive by channelling liquid aether through their bodies. They contain no normal organs and as such if the flow is disrupted or solidified the creature will die.” She knew this line would pull some reply, it was a keynote to have.
“All the creatures we’ve seen have had crystalline, solid mana, though,” Ferdan stated, obtaining a nod from Ciel and Drake as they listened to him.
Crystalline Chaos Page 9
