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When Rydia awoke the
next morning, she felt as if she had been asleep for a very long
time. It felt good– she was recharged enough, at least, to cast
magic again, and her head no longer felt as if it were detached from
her body. Her eyes were swollen from the crying, and she ran a
finger across them to feel the added puffiness.
She dressed quickly, stripping the white healing robes off, and was
pleased to see that someone had washed her leather tunic. It no
longer bore the stickiness of the dried blood from her arm, nor the
grime from the forest floor, and she felt a rush of gratitude to the
person who had gone out of their way for her. Pulling it on made her
feel good, and leaving the healing chambers, she felt more like
herself again. There was no sign of the Turks or the Elder, so she
walked slowly through the stone-lined corridors until she came upon
the wide central receiving hall.
"Oh, good!" Porom exclaimed, upon seeing Rydia enter. The girl rose
to her feet, ponytail bouncing with the movement. "You are awake!"
"You look like hell," Palom said, scrunching his nose up a bit as he
took in the slight bulge on her arm where the bandages lay, and no
doubt the swelling in her eyes. Rydia shrugged.
"I could look worse," she pointed out, and enjoyed the way the boy
mage's mouth quirked upwards slightly. "Have you seen the others?"
"You mean, the ones you came in with?" Porom asked. Rydia glanced
between the children to the ground where they had been sitting.
There were books there, some half-open and stacked upon each other,
pages yellowed and curling. They looked just like the old tomes in
the Land of Summon's library had, full of ancient wisdom and
mystical incantations. The comparison was almost too strong, and
threatened to bring another onslaught of tears to the surface, but
Rydia forced them down. She knew, deep inside, that crying would not
bring her beloved home back, nor would it right the wrongs of the
universe in taking the honey-comb caverns away from her. She gave
Porom a watery smile, wrenching her eyes away from the twins'
homework.
"Yes," she said, nodding. "Are they around?"
"Somewhere," Palom said unhelpfully, and when Porom smacked his arm,
he glared at her. "Fine, they're outside, by the river."
"They're strange," Porom commented. "Where are they from?"
"Not here," Rydia said, because in all honesty, she didn't know
where they were from originally, nor the name of the city they
called home. The answer seemed to satisfy the twins enough, at
least, and Rydia started to leave the receiving hall, moving towards
the double doors at the end. She heard a rustle behind her, and
then, when she looked back of her shoulder, Porom was gazing at her
with a decidedly neutral expression.
"What do they do?" the girl mage asked. "The strangers, I mean."
"They-" Rydia started, and then stopped. "They hunt people down."
Porom took this stoically, merely nodding and turning back to the
crumpled pages of her homework lessons. Palom was already back down
on the floor, moving the pages with the tips of his fingers in
obvious disdain, sighing loudly any time a figure moved past their
station. Rydia waited only a few seconds before moving again towards
the door, and then paused as Porom's voice rang out just as her hand
was hitting the large brass door handle.
"Cecil did that once, too, didn't he?" the girl mage asked, and
then, when Rydia had whirled around to decipher the expression on
her face, Porom was already bent down over her homework again,
scratching onto the parchment with a feathered quill, and she said
nothing more.
------
Palom's answer had been somewhat of a lie- only one of the Turks was
out by the river, sitting in the long-capped water reeds that dipped
low over the grass, and it was the one Rydia wanted to see the least
of them all. She had half a mind to turn back around and simply
re-enter the Elder's Tower, but she prided herself on rarely being
one to back away from a challenge, and it seemed an affront not to
steel herself and continue forward. She took a deep breath, setting
her face as neutral as she could, and approached him.
"You don't seem permanently injured," she said, as he turned to
greet her, gesturing at his stomach, and to the light pink that
still stained his shirt even after the healers had washed it. "The
poison must not have gotten you too bad."
"I had a dream about being fried in an oven and eaten by giants last
night," Reno quipped.
"I retract my statement," Rydia said with a nod. There was a moment
of silence, and she could hear the breeze whistling through the
water reeds as they swayed. "Where are the others?"
"Getting supplies," was the answer, accompanied by an easy shrug.
"Supplies?" Rydia asked. "Wait– you're leaving again?"
"Goin' underground," the Turk said, pressing one finger into the
moist dirt that surrounded the moat. "The Elder said there were
disturbances in the stream down there again."
Her heart felt as if it were hammering on the outside of her head.
She couldn't tell which she was more upset about– the idea of them
going back to where the Land had been, even though the corridors she
remembered were no longer there, or the fact that had she not
ventured outside, it was doubtful they would have alerted her to
their departure. It was obvious they were not planning on taking her
with them.
"Well, I'm coming, too," she said, before he could say anything
more.
"Don't think so," Reno said, and though he smirked, the action
seemed forced. "Tseng says it's just us."
"Tseng says, does he?" Rydia huffed. "Well, I think that it's a load
of rubbish, and I'm the best bet you have to making it through
alive."
"Look, all I–" he started, and then stopped when she moved forward
in one quick motion to jam her index finger against his collarbone,
pressing in painfully and glaring up at him.
"I'm the only person who knows that area like the back of my
hand, even if it's not there anymore," she snapped, digging
into his skin with her nail to accentuate the words. "I'm the
only person who knows any sort of magic, I was the
only one who could withstand the dark spell on the mountain, and
you're stupid, chauvinistic principles will not keep
me from going there with you!"
"Ow," he said meekly, and then she poked him again, hard.
"Got that?" she hissed.
"I'm not the one you have to convince," he said, looking half
apologetic, probably because her finger was still rammed into the
sensitive skin of his neck. "Tseng is the one in charge of this
operation, yo."
"Then convince him for me," she told him pointedly, giving
him one final jab for good measure. "I expect you all to be ready by
the time I get back from the Mage quarters inside, out by the front
gate."
She turned back towards the Elder's Tower, feeling far better than
she had when she'd left it, and as she walked away she heard him
muttering to himself about "tetchy women".
------
Reno must have done what she asked, at least a little, for when she
returned to the sunshine outside with a new pack and supplies, the
Turks were waiting for her just beyond the structure leading through
the Serpent Road. Tseng and Rude looked impassive as usual, but
Reno's face was dark, and he glared at her when she approached the
trio.
"Are we ready?" she asked, pointedly ignoring the looks he was
sending in her direction. "We can take an airship down through the
tunnels at Agart to read the stream below."
"I don't think it's a good–" Tseng started, and she cut him off with
a dismissive wave of her hand.
"There is a reason I was sent with you," she said, in the voice she
used while disciplining the Apprentices. "Cecil trusts my abilities,
and he trusts that you have need for them, and I know the Underworld
better than almost anyone."
Tseng glanced at the other two. Rude gave a short nod, and Reno
shrugged, and finally the dark-haired man turned back to her. He
didn't look happy, but he didn't look particularly angry either, as
if he were somewhere in the middle between the two emotions, and he
sighed.
"Very well," he gave in. "Let's go, then."
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