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Mikleo continued his ascent up the mountain, looking over the familiar yet somber scenery. It had been at least a century since that battle, no? Yet few living creatures had decided to take up residence in the vacant territory. Mikleo himself was only there because of a promise, made in the immediate aftermath of the Age of Chaos. He looked behind him as the others caught up, aside from Edna who was, naturally, leading the hike. Even the rarely-serious Zaveid was stone-faced and silent for this yearly ritual. Mikleo's thoughts were interrupted when Edna spoke.
"You guys didn't have to come...but...so...thank you," she muttered. Her trademark parasol concealed her facial expression from view.
"A promise is a promise, Edna, same as when I made a promise to your brother," Zaveid replied with characteristic simplicity, self-consciously casual.
"Yeah, we're glad to come. It's important to you, so it's important to all of us," Mikleo reassured her.
"Yep! 'Cause we're all one big, happy, malevolence-cleansing family!" Always chipper, of course, was the Prime Lord of this merry band of misfits, Lailah.
Having arrived at their destination, Edna stopped in her tracks, a heavy-yet-quiet sigh escaping her. Mikleo bit his lower lip but decided to take the risk and placed a hand on Edna's shoulder. Much to everyone's surprise, he DIDN'T get hit with the umbrella this time. Instead, she placed her hand on top and, at a volume only he would hear, muttered, "Thanks...you people making me say that word..." Mikleo smiled mildly; when he had first met Edna, they'd clashed quite a bit, but he knew her well enough by now to understand that Edna made the comment to soothe her own pride and it wasn't really directed at anyone else at all.
The group stood silent at Eizen's grave, or, rather, the makeshift memorial site they'd dubbed his grave, on the peak of Rayfalke Mountain. In the decades since then, however, other actual graves had been erected. If a Shepherd or his Squires had somewhere to be buried at the end of their lives, that was all well and good, of course, but for those who had been of no stature or renown, Rayfalke had become the location that housed their mortal remains. Human life was so short and brittle compared to the Seraphim. Edna and Zaveid were closer to 1,000 years old than to Mikleo's age, and even Lailah herself had no idea how old she was at this point.
Lailah was the first to break off from the group. Slow steps led her to where the second Shepherd to this group lay buried. Or was he the third? She couldn't remember anymore, difficult as it was for very ancient Seraphim to keep track of time. To the right and left of Tobias were most of the Squires, though one living one remained, leaning on a cane for support, and even then still relying on Lailah's shoulder.
"How you endure livin' so long'll always be beyond me," muttered Ruby. "I couldn' 'ave it, watchin' e'eryone always growin' old an' dyin' and maybe if they're lucky like Mickey 'ere reborn as a Seraph..." She shook her head at no one in particular, poking Tobias' grave with her cane. She called out as if he'd hear her, "I'll be joinin' ya 'ere soon 'nough, Toby...soon 'nough...an' Seraphim watch o'er the grandkids..." Ruby had, in her youth, been so verbose it was joked that she was only silent in sleep and in death, and even that was in question. Now, however, her words were complete. She would, in fact, join him on that mountain in less than a month.
"The winter's always hard," Lailah said as quietly as could be, "We lost Rose and Alisha so close to each other, and Alisha was buried with the rest of the royal family, so getting everyone together, the permission to be there... And Rose...Rose. I think it was hardest with them because they were there at the beginning. Their deaths really hit Mikleo, because he really realized that Sorey would be outside of time as long as Mikleo had feared, and Sorey would never see his Squires again. Here they were dead, later Squires aged and a young Shepherd, and none of us looked a day older than that day Sorey freed Heldalf from his curse of eternal solitude."
The current Shepherd and his Squire, Helen, made no motion to any particular grave. Their personalities, quite different from each other, both didn't really handle moments like this with anything other than rigid stoicism. They'd been in their roles for only about six months at that point, so they oftentimes still felt like outsiders.
Mikleo and Edna had stood directly where Eizen had died, alone and silent, for at least an hour by Mikleo's reckoning, when Edna finally spoke.
"It was for him, you know," she said flatly.
Mikleo blinked once and replied simply with, "Hmm?" He guessed "him" referred to either Eizen or Sorey, maybe the current Shepherd, but Edna could be cryptic, especially in her rare introspective moments.
"I'm centuries older than you but you look now like you could be my older brother..." In all of this, Edna's eyes hadn't left the spot where the scorch marks remained. "I thought that if I stayed the same, if I never, ever changed, Eizen would always recognize me, and as long as he knew who I was, I wanted there to be hope, that he could be saved...saved the way I wanted him to be. I chose to continue to look like his little sister even after I knew it was a lost cause." Mikleo remained silent. "Maybe...I need to move on." Edna knew better than anyone the degree to which she hid behind looking like an innocent child, and Mikleo had borne the brunt of that.
"It's up to you. I can't decide your answers for you," Mikleo replied, looking towards Edna, "but you know we'll all support you whatever you decide. We've all been through the worst of the abyss together, and that kind of bond is hard to break." He was unsure what Edna meant by, "move on," so he kept his answer generic-yet-supportive.
Edna's answer in that precise moment was what passed for a grunt. In classic fashion, she abruptly changed the topic, "Have you checked where Sorey is lately? The Earth's healed so much I wouldn't be surprised if a vine grows on his head. You better not be slacking, Meebo!"
Mikleo chuckled; what had formerly been an insult had, after enough time, become almost a term of endearment. The current Shepherd, Elias, had tried calling Mikleo "Meebo" once when they'd first met. That mistake was not made again. Only Edna got to use that nickname. Zaveid had tried to get "Mickey-boy" to catch on, to no avail.
"Yeah, I checked. He seems to be aging, just as slow as you would expect out of a Seraphim. It's odd. I can't wait to ask him questions, what he 'saw,' perceived, knew, if anything. Seems there's so much we still don't know about what he's doing right now..." Mikleo's voice trailed off. He missed his adoptive brother, the human raised side-by-side with him literally since the day the latter was born too early, until that faithful battle. Mikleo clenched his fists--he would NOT cry.
He felt a hand on his shoulder now. "If you want to cry..." Edna kept saying that and he kept trying to act tough; the game was old by now.
Mikleo choked, "I..." and a few deep breaths to regain his composure, "I think of Sorey, of Eizen, of others...my mother, Sorey's mother, and I think of all of the pain malevolence has caused. It's how I find the strength to keep going, to keep fighting, to follow Lailah and her Shepherds wherever they go. I have to keep walking, for Sorey's answer and my own, for our shared dreams." He cleared his throat, "Sorry, you didn't ask for a lecture."
"It's okay; I think we're all the same, in a way, at least for the Seraphim," Edna replied with uncharacteristic diplomacy, "If Dezel were still with us, think he'd even be saying that by now."
Mikleo continued his earlier thought, "If things hadn't happened as they had...I wouldn't be a Seraphim, and Sorey and I would both be dead of old age by now. We never would've known Gramps, you, Alisha, Rose, Lailah, any of the others." He really couldn't picture his life without a single one of them; every one had left an impact, an imprint on the canvas of Mikleo's mind and heart, even Edna, who'd rarely said a serious thing to him in the hundred-plus years he'd known her.
"Yeah..." was all Edna had to say in reply. She poked Mikleo in the small of his back with her parasol, "Let's go, Meebo," her tone sounding like it was just a normal situation on a normal day.
Mikleo nodded and she and he de-materialized back into Shepherd, their current vessel. This Shepherd was an odd one, a member of the royal family of Rolance, the Crown Prince. However, he had forsworn his given name, his family name, his title, and any and all honors that would go with any of them, wishing only to be known as, "Shepherd," wishing to live and die fulfilling that duty of purifying the world of malevolence. He actually grew cross if anyone called him, "Elias." Shepherd was certainly dedicated, Mikleo gave him that much.
Mikleo also gave thanks that Shepherds couldn't read the minds of the Seraphim with whom they were contracted, because Mikleo's mind was still on, "Edna's 'moving on?' What's left to do, after so much time has passed? Allowing herself to age beyond childhood, maybe? How? Why?" He half-wondered if he misunderstood what she meant.
***
In the first weeks after that, Mikleo just figured he'd misunderstood her meaning of "move on," because Edna still seemed like her normal self in every sense of the word. Time, however, flows differently for the Seraphim, and Mikleo still found himself sometimes bound by the human sense of it, no doubt because spending his formative years around Sorey had required him to be so. In the months, maybe two years, following, Mikleo realized his original interpretation may have been correct after all.
If nothing else, he knew the spot on his back that Edna would poke with her umbrella was getting higher and higher until she was now poking him square between the top of his shoulder blades. "Hey, watch that, would you?" he sighed one day. It was a "lazy Sunday" type of day, the morning after a summer thunderstorm, the kind that left the earth and the water smelling like what the humans called "paradise." He shrugged the umbrella away, "Don't ruin a beautiful day."
Edna smirked, "When it's ME telling you to relax..." A human child ran past, giggling and oblivious to the Seraphim, but the child's dog stopped and barked at the pair on the riverbank. Mikleo no longer lost his composure around dogs, thanks to Dezel, but there was no mistaking it: Edna could tell he was still tensing every muscle in his body. Both the child to the dog and Edna to Mikleo said, "Easy there," though Edna of course had to add, "Meebo," at the end. A very unhappy puppy was pulled away by an equally frustrated child and Mikleo let out the breath he hadn't even been conscious that he was holding. "At least you didn't terrorize the poor creature this time," Edna offered in her dry sarcasm.
"ME?!" Mikleo blurted out. "ME????!" but the frustration was quickly dispelled when he realized Edna wasn't just smirking, but outright giggling. THA-THUMP! What in the world was that? Mikleo felt his face turn pink...or maybe it was just warm. He looked away, hopefully before Edna could notice. "I don't know why I put up with..." his voice trailed off. He tried to shut down the thread in his mind that realized Edna had aged into quite a beautiful young woman with a rather endearing giggle. She and Mikleo looked closer in age than before, that was for sure.
"I think the other Seraphim wonder why you HAVE put up with this for so long," Edna replied. She wondered if it was just warm out or if her imagination was playing tricks on her; was Mikleo pink? Blushing? Sunburned? Did Seraphim even GET sunburn?
Mikleo folded his arms across his chest and looked into the river, avoiding eye contact with Edna. He stammered out, "It's...uhh...only for Lailah's sake. And Shepherd's, the Squires, and the others. That's all!" Mikleo was convincing neither Edna nor himself.
Edna slid closer, invading his field of vision, "That's all, huh? You're really convincing there, Meebo."
Mikleo grunted, "Can't a man have his personal space?!" and he meant to just shove her out of the way, but instead she wound up in the river. Apparently, the earth Seraph couldn't swim. Mikleo bit his tongue before using some of the more interesting terms for frustration he'd heard from Hyland's soldiers, and concentrated until his staff materialized in his hand, the staff he'd "inherited," sort of, from his mother. "Twin flow!" he called as a braided cord of water spouted under Edna and threw her into the air, Mikleo dropping his staff and catching her before she hit the ground. Their eyes met briefly, leading to blushes and immediately looking away as Mikleo set her down gently. That was the first arte Mikleo had learned as a child. As all memories of "Gramps" did, the thought tugged at Mikleo's heart, but there wasn't time to dwell on it. He sat Edna back up as she coughed up and out water and whatever else was in that river. Mikleo pulled some seaweed out of her hair. "I'm so sorry, Edna..." he apologized, his voice tight with regret. He pat her on the back to help the water out, "I'm sorry..." Edna's body's last effort to expel the water was apparently to sneeze. Mikleo shook his head as the thought involuntarily came that that even that sneeze was rather adorable. He rummaged through his pockets and produced a handkerchief. It had been a "birthday" gift from Alisha ages ago. She'd been rather saddened and surprised to learn that Seraphim really didn't celebrate birthdays, and figuring out the day of Mikleo's birth in particular, well, that was an issue in and of itself. It had been the only time his "birthday" was celebrated, but he remembered it was a lovely party, though leaving Rose in charge of food had probably been a bad idea.
Edna used the handkerchief, "You still have this? Surprised it's still in tact," Edna said. After a few deep breaths that convinced her any river water had really and truly been expelled from her lungs, she said flatly, "I screwed up there, you screwed up there, you saved me, so Meebo's even. Evenbo." She shook her head, "That doesn't work. Let's just not tell the others this happened, okay, Meebo?"
"Doesn't matter; I'm just glad you weren't hurt," there was that blush from Mikleo again. "Shepherd and the others would have my head if you'd gotten hurt." Edna sighed, knowing that Mikleo wouldn't be honest with that feeling with HER until he was with himself. Then again, she wasn't being totally honest with herself, either. She shook her head.
***
Not six months later, Shepherd received reports that bandits were trying to break into Camlann, supposedly for some old-fashioned grave robbing. Of course, those fools had no way of knowing that that was where Sorey was hidden, purifying a being nearly at the power of a god. It was taking time. Everyone trusted Mikleo's and Edna's seals of the area and all, but they also decided that it was still best to, how did the Squire Helen put it? "Powerfully and permanently dissuade 'em from this ill-advised course of action," while she'd twirled her bo staff, grinning like the devil.
They'd THOUGHT it was just a band of stupid humans, but when the group actually encountered them, they realized the grim truth: Hellions, and oddly powerful ones for how long Glenwood had been free of the Lord of Calamity.
"We HAVE to defeat these idiots, guys; there's enough malevolence here for another Lord of Calamity to arise if we leave even one un-quelled," Shepherd said to the others, his expression grim, "Any run off, Zaveid you chase them, got it?" Zaveid nodded as he "popped out" of Shepherd.
"Understood," Mikleo said from within Shepherd. "Shepherd, with all due respect, I want to be out there to handle this. The only living 'family' I have left is likely their target. I won't let them..." his voice somehow broke even when it wasn't materially speaking, per se.
"I'm coming out, too," Edna chimed in, with uncharacteristic determination. Shepherd thought he sensed...something...out of Lailah. Had she communicated privately with one of the other Seraphim?
Shepherd shook the thought from his head as he rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. He'd shaved his head, except for a black-haired pony tail, long and braided, right where his spine met his skull; the gesture in the royal family formally disinherited one. "All out who're coming out!" he summoned, as he pointed to the bandit camp with his sword, glaring at it with sky-blue eyes. "Since they're already hellionized, can't take advantage of them not being able to see you." He sighed as his voice trailed off. "This would've been a lot easier if it'd just been normal idiot humans," Shepherd muttered.
Edna started towards the group, replying dryly, "But then it wouldn't be YOUR luck, would it, Shepherd?"
The battle commenced and the camp, full of roughly 3 dozen bandits, was about half quelled and unconscious when the aforementioned "luck" kicked in. Mikleo mused that Edna's attacks had been much more spot on since she'd allowed herself to grow. Did a Seraphim's physical body have a connection to their magic that would explain it? There was no time to ask such questions, however! Edna had snuck behind the group, via clouds of dust kicked up by a combination of her artes and the battle itself, and was pointing her umbrella at the apparent-leader in an arte that Mikleo KNEW took a long time to cast, and she was rather immobile while it was cast. Sure enough, she was spotted, and when the henchman unleashed an attack of evil energy at Edna, Mikleo's limbs moved of their own accord, as he called out her name as loud as he could. He made it in front of her just as the attack hit, Mikleo blocking it with his body. He grunted in pain as he and Edna tumbled into the sand.
Another bandit's wind attack tossed them around to where Mikleo realized he was on...TOP of Edna??? He heard Zaveid, "Well-played, Mickey-boy, but do ya think you two could wait 'till AFTER the battle?!" Helen grunted her agreement as she blocked a sword with her staff.
The small piece of Mikleo's mind not in agony looked in Edna's eyes, which were filled with horror; Zaveid couldn't see that. Mikleo's mid-back-length silver hair had come undone in the scuffle, effectively hiding their faces from view. "I'm sorry I couldn't..." he started before coughing up blood, which he was able to aim next to Edna rather than in her face. He wheezed in another breath, and his world went dark as he collapsed onto her, "Edn-."
"MEEBO!" Edna shrieked. Their companions actually froze mid-battle for a brief moment. NO ONE had EVER heard Edna shriek before, not even Lailah or Zaveid, who'd known her longer than anyone. Edna looked Shepherd right in the eye. Her glare sent a chill down his spine. "Shepherd!" she barked out, "We are armatizing NOW!" The tone left no room for discussion.
Shepherd nodded and invoked Edna's True Name, "Hephsin Yulind!" The armatization summoned Edna into Shepherd's very being, leaving Mikleo in the dust. Shepherd felt like he could almost sense her desire for revenge in his blood. "I hope she'll be okay," he thought to himself, though even he could smell Mikleo's blood by this point. Lailah was trying her best to heal him, but it was difficult with all of the distractions.
As soon as he and Edna fused, however, Shepherd realized something that gave him cause for concern. He felt as if Edna was trying to control the armatized form herself. He remembered learning that a previous Sub-Lord had fully taken control of one of the Squires, in the name of vengeance, and Shepherd was NOT going to allow that to happen again. He directed his thoughts towards Edna and rebuked her privately, mustering all of the authority of a man born and bred to rule an entire empire, "EDNA! You WILL control yourself NOW or Lailah will do...whatever it is Prime Lords do, because I will tell her to. Am I perfectly clear?" Shepherd sighed inwardly and his tone softened, "I know you're worried about him, but he wouldn't want you to lose yourself for anything, especially revenge. You and I both know that." Edna didn't reply, but he felt that that "tug" for control lessen. They were working together once more. Armatized with what Sorey had once called, "the power of an Earth titan," the battle quickly turned in the favor of the Shepherd.
The leader was quelled with a powerful hit from Edna's mystic arte. His unconscious form hadn't even hit the ground yet when Edna broke the armatization and bolted for Mikleo.
"MIKLEO!" she cried, looking to Lailah for any indication of the Prime Lord's assessment of her Sub-Lord. It was the first time Edna had used Mikleo's actual name since maybe the day after she'd met him.
"I'm doing what I can, but I mustn't rush, Edna. I could hurt him worse if I'm too hasty," Lailah said, as gently and motherly as she was able under the circumstances.
"I'll help!" Edna said as she traced the runes of a healing spell in the sand with her umbrella. Zaveid and Helen exchanged glances with eyebrows firmly in the air, but even the resident comedians knew when it wasn't the time. Zaveid figured if you travel with someone for over a hundred years, you get to know what their buttons are and when NOT to push them. Shepherd stood off to the side, stoic. The lifetime of training a member of the royal family received in ensuring his emotions never reached his face was paying off. He grit his teeth, not wanting to give Edna anything or anyone else to worry about. Helen leaned on her staff, looking firmly at the dirt. Regardless, everyone let out a sigh of relief when Mikleo seemed to breathe on his own again.
"I think we can safely move him now," Lailah said, still being careful as to her tone. "He won't be able to use Shepherd as his vessel again until he regains consciousness, however." Without a word, Edna picked up Mikleo, and a combination of her and Lailah's positioning had him effectively piggy-back on Edna's back. Edna remembered Sorey telling them how he'd carried Rose away from battle like this, after she'd saved his life. Rose had been just fine then; Edna knew she'd give anything for that part of history to repeat itself.
The group walked back to their current hideaway, a series of runes that even the Celestial Record didn't include, which meant it was pretty much invisible unless one knew what to look for. Edna felt the warmth of her charge, and the wet feeling of blood. She refused to cry. Not yet, not now. Later. There would always be time for tears later. She refused to allow the others to see her cry. Zaveid picked up Mikleo from Edna's back and she cringed as she felt the blood trying to act as an adhesive. "I'm...going to go...clean up." she said, looking at the wall and holding back fear with the power of will only Edna had. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zaveid lay Mikleo down as tenderly as if he was laying down a child. Lailah commenced additional healing artes.
Alone in the bath, Edna was willing to allow the tears, but they still refused to fall. "What are you waiting for?" she asked herself, to no avail. Her hand moved though the water and cupped some in her hand; Edna stared at it for a good ten minutes. "Stupid idiot water Seraph getting himself hurt because of me!" she muttered as her hand angrily went back into the water. "If you don't make it through..." Edna curled into a sitting position where she could jam her knees into her eye sockets. She wouldn't allow herself to think that way. She couldn't. Not him. She refused.
***
Mikleo rubbed his head. He felt like Helen looked the morning after having too much to drink. He wondered aloud, "Where am I?" and smelled the smoke before he even looked up. Mikleo felt the blood drain from his face as he realized where he was. His stomach and heart sank. Camlann. He'd had had this nightmare too many times before, for one hundred years now, and knew his mother would be running by any moment now, except no, this couldn't be right. What was Edna doing here? And why was she running from a human soldier who shouldn't have been able to see her in the first place??! She seemed to be running towards what?
Mikleo leaned on his staff as he stood. He wanted to run towards Edna, but he could barely move. He called out her name, but the sound evaporated into nothingness as soon as it passed his lips. Everything burned inside as he forced his way forward. The logical part of his brain knew this couldn't possibly be real, but the emotions refused to listen. "I have to..." he started. The last thing he saw before the dream faded was a dragon-shaped cloud of malevolence descending on Edna; its tail slapped him and he fell unconscious once more. Mikleo's last thought was, "I couldn't protect her or anyone..." And he'd never gotten to tell her, never showed her... Regret consumed the last of his "conscious" dreaming.
***
It was three days before the fever Mikleo had developed broke, but even then, he still did not regain consciousness. The two Seraphim who had any healing artes were taking shifts by his side during the days and nights, applying their power, purging the malevolence had been forced into Mikleo yet somehow not taken root, hoping that his chest continued to rise and fall. The only breaks were when Zaveid, Shepherd, or Helen forced them to take breaks. In all that time, Edna had appeared virtually catatonic to everyone. She didn't speak, if she even blinked no one was seeing her do it. The Seraphim didn't need to eat, though they usually did so Shepherd and Helen didn't feel so awkward about doing it in front of them, but now Edna only ate when Lailah went into full "mother hen" mode on her. Everyone presumed that Edna was "just" shaken by the fact that Mikleo had sustained such injury defending her in particular.
"You can't stop living, Edna. He wouldn't want that, no matter what happens. You know that. He would hate to find out he saved you 'for nothing.'" Lailah whispered gently as she took over for Edna for the night shift. Edna looked Lailah in the eye briefly before walking away, still silent.
***
It was three weeks later, while Edna was keeping vigil during the night. She reckoned it was just before midnight when Mikleo vocalized, twitched a bit, and his eyes squinted then opened. He looked around and, when he saw Edna staring down blankly at him, he nearly jumped out of bed. Or, he would have, rather, if the movement hadn't sent a shockwave of pain from his stomach throughout the rest of his torso. "Owowowowowowowwwww!" he hissed out of his teeth before laying back down, "What in the abyss happened?" His face relaxed as he looked at the ceiling, almost contemplatively. "I remember battle and then that dream..." His eyes widened and he turned his head to look at Edna, and then his expression relaxed again, softened even, "Thank goodness you're okay. I didn't care what happened to me as long as..." And his eyes widened again as he realized his unguarded statement. "You're useful in battle, is all; Shepherd and the Squires need you, Lailah actually likes you..." Mikleo looked away again as he shifted himself, slowly and carefully, into more of a sitting position. He winced as much from self-inflicted wounded pride as from pain.
Edna didn't even care about what he just said. She stood, leaned over, and threw her arms around him, squeezing. Then a fist bumped his head, "You idiot!" she hissed out. She also rebuked herself that NOW the tears were willing to show up, as if making up for lost time! Edna pulled away, keeping her hands on Mikleo's shoulders, and she shook him as forcefully as she dared, without risking reopening his injuries, "Do you realize what almost happened to you???!!!! If Lailah hadn't been there..." Edna felt her throat close in on itself. She practically threw Mikleo back into sitting up against the headboard, "IDIOT!" It was dark enough both knew to keep their voices quiet, but he could still hear the emotion even in whispers. She took several steps away and half-succeeded in not cry-pouting...or at least she told herself she was half-successful.
"I didn't mean...I mean I meant to...I mean..." Mikleo was rarely at a loss for words, but both were acting and talking around the proverbial elephant in the room, neither wanting to acknowledge it, even now. What felt like an eternity passed, and Mikleo decided to try and stand up. He'd very much become an, "I'll sleep when I'm dead," sort of man, ever since he'd had to seal Sorey away from the world. Edna helped him up, as he used her shoulder for support.
"Oh!" she remembered something and fished around in her pocket for it, "I made this while you were out," and handed him a new hair-tie. Yellow and blue woven together, Mikleo noticed, thinking it lovelier for the source. "I was just bored, Meebo," Edna said defensively, looking at the wall, "that's all. You're really boring when you're unconscious, you know that?" It was too dark for Mikleo to realize Edna was pink. She distanced herself physically once more.
"Th- thank you, Edna," he said, taking the hair-tie. He ran his hand through his hair a few times to get the worst of the mess out, musing maybe he SHOULD cut it, like Helen kept suggesting, but he'd promised himself not to cut it until he saw Sorey walking in the world and in time again. He didn't know WHY he'd vowed that to himself, but it seemed too important to break. Mikleo re-tied his hair and tried again in vain to brush his bangs out of his face. For the first time since waking, he looked down at his stomach. He could tell someone had tried to clean the blood out of his armor, more or less successfully, though it was obvious how bad the stain had originally been if one knew to look for it. "That arte impaled me?" he mumbled thoughtfully.
"Y-yeah, it did, Meebo. Turned you right into a Meebo-kabob," Edna snarked, still refusing eye contact, her arms folded over her chest. Moonlight streamed in at just the perfect angle for Mikleo to realize her eyes were wet, there were twin streaks reflecting down her face, and the tears were still flowing. "Zaveid changed you, don't worry. Lailah was worried you'd get sick or something if we left you in bloody clothes." She addressed the unspoken concern for modesty she knew Mikleo would have.
Mikleo chuckled, though there was a slight wince as the vibration went down his torso, "Meebo-kabob, huh? That's one of your better ones." He slowly walked over and stood in front of Edna. Mikleo knew what he wanted to do, no, what he HAD to do, before anything else could happen to either of them. The regret that stung in his dream would end now. He tried to muster his courage by recounting one of Zaveid's, "Be a man!" lectures. (The wind Seraph had apparently appointed himself Mikleo's older-brother figure, especially now that Sorey was abandoned in time.) He thought to himself, "You've been through thirty kinds of abyssal terror and THIS is what scares you? Man up, Mikleo!" The latter statement from Zaveid, said in Mikleo's own mental "voice," sounded as foreign to his mind as he expected it to, but it had the desired effect.
Mikleo stood straight, almost a bit TOO much like a soldier standing at attention, and he felt his heart pounding as if he'd just had a battle after running a marathon. He almost couldn't hear his own voice in his ears, so loud was that pounding drum of a heartbeat. "I'm sorry I made you worry, but I had to do it. If you'd been the one injured," his hands balled into fists as he summoned his courage to continue, "I couldn't live with that. I just couldn't." He knew what the next "step" was in this "dance," and he forced one foot in front of the other until he was right next to Edna. "You can do this! Just do it!" he barked to himself mentally. He gently placed his arms around Edna. She was only about a head shorter than him now, so it didn't feel as awkward as it might have a century ago, but she was still very slender and he held her as if she were a cherished piece of china that one may break. Almost as if acting on their own, however, his arms pulled her in as close as he could. "As long as you're safe, that's all that matters, even if it costs me my life."
Edna barely heard him over her own heartbeat, and she gasped audibly when Mikleo actually embraced her. THIS was the same shy, awkward Mikleo she'd met all those ages ago??? The same Mikleo that she and Zaveid used to tease, along with Sorey, for being so pure and innocent????? Though the modest gesture now threatened neither purity nor innocence. She stuttered, "A- and what would Sorey say to you throwing your life away like that? I know being reunited with that family, your brother, is what you want most in this life." She was muttering more or less to his rib cage, but he heard her fine.
"Sorey would say the same thing Gramps always did: that as long as I find an answer I can believe in, I won't go astray. That's how we had the courage to free him from Heldalf. Even before he was a Shepherd, Sorey had a strong urge to protect and defend others. That drive was why we met Alisha, why he wanted to leave Elysia to warn her about assassins; that drive of Sorey's is the only reason we met any of you." Mikleo knew it wasn't his most articulate answer, but it was honest. "Sorey would have been the last man to blame another man for risking everything to protect someone."
Edna nodded; she knew the truth of that, and had even poked fun at Sorey in the past for being so...so goody-good! But Mikleo was the same way and now here she was, so Edna supposed that the joke was on her. She rubbed her face dry of tears and looked up at Mikleo, "You're both idiots," she whispered before returning the embrace, burying her face in his chest. Edna finally allowed herself to muse upon Mikleo having become quite the picture of masculine chivalry over the past century, which made quite the sharp contrast to Zaveid.
"And you're holding and being held by an idiot; what does that make you?" Mikleo chuckled. Edna's reply was to squeeze just hard enough to be uncomfortable. "Ooph!" escaped Mikleo's mouth involuntarily. "Okay then," he murmured quietly, "An answer we can both live with."
Neither of them realized Zaveid was "just taking a midnight walk" and had glanced into the room. The biggest smirk he'd made in his life pulled on one corner of his mouth, glad to see that THAT mess was finally resolved. He'd figured out forever ago why Edna teased Mikleo so much, and why Mikleo just sat there and took it, teasing her back when he could. "Just kiss her already, ya' lug!" he thought as he walked away.
Mikleo did just that...on Edna's forehead. He suspected that Zaveid would cry in pain if he'd known that it had been so "tame," but that didn't matter. Slow and awkward was just the way it was going to be, and for the first time in a long time, Mikleo had a vision of the future that didn't involve solely exploring runes, with or without Sorey. For Edna, this was the first thought she'd given since Eizen's death as to what she would do when she was no longer required as a Sub Lord anymore. A future where she and Mikleo weren't Sub Lords and could just BE, together.
Edna squeeze-hugged Mikleo again, her mouth silently forming the word "Idiot," to both of them.
***
THWACK! Helen brought down her bo staff again, hoping to make contact with Zaveid. He was, by far, the fastest in the group, and she wanted even her slow weapon choice to be able to handle that, so they had practice spars fairly often. She growled as he again nimbly got out of her way. "Hey, Zaveid, mind I pick your mind on something?" she bantered, hoping to relax herself.
"I always have time for a lady friend," Zaveid winked with his reply, to which Helen replied with rolled eyes. He dodged and countered; she'd almost gotten him! Their spars were as much verbal as physical.
"You noticed Edna, Mikleo, anything weird there the last month or so, since he woke up after that bad injury, almost killed ‘im? Blasted Seraphim, pretty sure that would've killed Shep or me..." Almost...just a little bit faster, was all she needed. AH-HA! She stopped short of actually attacking, but her staff made tapping contact with Zaveid's left flank, accidentally exposed. She grinned, expression full of mischief. Her successes were rare, so all the more to be cherished.
"All right, all right, let's see if your defense has gotten any better," of course the wind Seraphim brushed it off, though he was proud of her improvement, and too proud to tell her so. He sent a blade of wind towards Helen; any attack that hit would knock her on her back, no more. Helen had joined Edna in Zaveid's mind as a surrogate little sister, but he wasn't going to go easy on Helen just because of that.
Helen dodged out of the way, as nimbly as one could with a two-handed weapon, "You didn't answer my question, I've noticed," she said with mild teasing in her voice.
"What're you asking me for? Why not ask them yourself?" Zaveid deflected both her question and her counter-attack. Better, but still not good enough.
"Because you're the only one here with any sense--or experience--with that business," Helen protested with a mildly-amused tone, "And if I ask Edna, you know I'll wind up impaled on a rock spike, right? Mikleo, I'm always wondering if I'm going to scandalize him, make him blush, whatever; takes nothin' to accomplish either." Helen was certain she'd just lost some hair on that wind blade. Not good enough!
"Did your mom ever tell you why little human girls and boys tease each other?" It still wasn't an answer, but at least he was now taking her question seriously, or at least as seriously as could be expected.
"Yeah. Never believed her," Helen's reply was almost as flat as Edna's voice. She scowled at Zaveid as his pendulum wrapped itself around her wrists. "Alright, alright, I still have room to improve." Again the sparring switched sides; Helen always thought best when she was moving, fighting, anything like that.
Zaveid mentally compared Helen to Rose and decided that Rose relied on instinct far more; Helen's face showed just how hard she was thinking, concentrating, analyzing intellectually. Rose never did any of that. "Would you believe me if I tried to tell you Edna's always smacked him with that umbrella just because she wanted his attention, and she's just too shy to get it any other way?"
"Didn't it used to make 'im furious, though? What did that accomplish? And since when in the abyss was EDNA ever shy about ANYTHING?" Helen didn't understand relationships at all, past a certain level of complexity.
Zaveid shrugged, "Negative attention's still attention. And you'd be surprised, when a girl's in love."
"Uhhh.....I guess? I'm just positive I've caught 'em smilin' at each other when they don't think anyone sees ‘em; best part is Mikey lookin' all doe-eyed at Edna," Helen shrugged, just as Shepherd found them.
"You two playing nice?" he asked. If he'd heard anything of the prior conversation, he didn't acknowledge it.
"Aww, c'mon, Shep, you know I'm always nice to the ladies!" Zaveid chuckled. Shepherd hated when Zaveid or Helen called him, "Shep," (that had been a Helen thing at first,) but it wasn't a battle he was willing to fight. It was still better than being called, "Elias."
"The bruises I'll have by tomorrow say otherwise," Helen commented. Zaveid coughed, to puzzled expressions from both Shepherd and Squire alike. Zaveid knew the joke was best unexplained if even Helen didn't get it.
Shepherd got down to business, "Came here to confirm that we're leaving for the peace centennial tomorrow. Back to Rolance. Wonderful." Helen winced, knowing that visits to Rolance always meant problems with Shepherd's mother, the Queen.
"We'll be here for you, don't worry!" Helen tried to be cheerful, though somehow even that came out sounding sarcastic. Ugh...
"What th'lady said, man," Zaveid put an elbow on the shoulder of the shorter human, smirking in a most exaggerated manner, "Helen'll run interference like she did last time."
***
Every year, the Kingdom of Hyland and the Empire of Rolance held a week-long celebration of the anniversary of the truce between the countries, thanks largely to Shepherd Sorey and others. The current Shepherd and his associates alternated which years they spent with which kingdoms, naturally, and this year it was Rolance's turn. The normally-stoic Shepherd approached his homeland with his face as grim as if he was approaching the undertaker.
"Pendrago's so BIG!" Helen commented, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. "I'll bet there's going to be all sorts of fun places to eat and be and dance, whatever! Hey, Shepherd, think I could pull a dance out of you during the party tonight so I'm not by myself? I don't want to get us in trouble for...fending off creeps too forcefully." She figured it'd also give Shepherd a break from the Queen. Speaking of the devil, Helen and the Seraphim winced in union.
"THERE YOU ARE, ELIAS!!!" a shrill voice called across the plaza. Helen saw Shepherd mouth something...and quickly hoped his mother couldn't read lips! A stout woman grabbed Shepherd by the ears like he was still a child. "NOW will you come to your senses about this entire farce??? Have you finally come home to take responsibility for your blood? Mark my words, Elias, I should've told you as a child that you weren't REALLY hearing Seraphim!"
"Mother, that's not my name anymore; you know that, and a shaved head is final." Shepherd took a breath and tried his best to remain neutral, "You and Father, my tutors from the Shrinechurch, always told me to follow my heart to determine what was best for the Rolance Empire. You realized early on that I could see the Seraphim, communicate with them. The tutors were the ones who first told me of when the gentle Shepherd Sorey had visited so many decades past. Learning his story convinced me that the single best thing I could do, for the peace and well-being of Rolance, Hyland, and all of Glenwood was to follow in his footsteps, continue his mission. I consider myself blessed that the same Seraphim who aided him have deemed me worthy of their aid as well. I can save far more lives, help people, do more good, than I ever could've just keeping a throne warm!" The last line came out harsher than he intended. Shoot.
"Ruling an Empire is far more than just keeping a throne warm, Elias!" his mother was shrill. Storms brewed. It was like this every time they came to Pendrago, so the group usually preferred to celebrate in Lastonbell, when they celebrated in the Empire. Lastonbell also had symbolic significance to the Seraphim, as the last place they had rested peacefully before confronting the Lord of Calamity.
Helen's face flashed the, "Oh no!" look and she slid between them as naturally as if noting was going on. "Hey, Shepherd, I'm starved; can we check out that cafe you were telling me about?" She was bluffing, of course. In her mind, she begged Rose, wherever the woman's spirit had gone, for aid. "And you promised me a dance once the music starts!" Helen teased the last part, sing-song.
Shepherd looked confused for a nanosecond before he felt Edna's umbrella poke his shoulder blades and he realized what was going on. "Oh, right! It's in the Eastern Quarter!" He bowed towards his mother, "I apologize, Mother, but trust me, you don't want to see Helen famished. She's as scary as malevolence itself!" BOP! Umbrella to the head. He knew he deserved that, but didn't care.
"I suppose this is as close as you'll ever get to a date." The Queen begrudgingly ended the conversation. "Be well, son, m'lady," she nodded at Helen. "I presume I may tell your father you said hello?"
"If you must." The nanosecond his mother's back was turned and she was out of earshot, both humans and all four Seraphim let out a collective breath.
"And here I thought you were uptight," Edna's tone was just a bit too chipper, on purpose.
"You've all met her before. Can we just...go somewhere now? I don't want to think about it," Shepherd sighed. He supposed he was fortunate the Queen would never be a mother-in-law; Shepherd couldn't picture any woman being good enough, to her, to be his wife, throne or no.
Lailah clapped her hands once, "Your reply reminded us all of why you're the Shepherd."
"Yeah, ain't nothing to be ashamed about," Zaveid added, to furious nodding in agreement from Helen.
Mikleo paused before replying, "When Sorey's with us again, he'll be glad to hear what you told her, I promise you. You think like him, in many ways." Mikleo was really the only one who COULD say such a thing.
"Yeah. I know." Shepherd rubbed his temples as he started walking towards his favorite place to get food.
Later on that night, the group had scattered around Pendrago for the fireworks show. Rumor had it Lailah was going to engage in some pyrotechnics of her own at the end, for the Seraphim in the city and any human with enough resonance to see it. (Helen secretly suspected Lailah would use that detail to scout out potential additional Squires.) Mikleo and Edna naturally met up, after having separated with the others. Neither wanted to be "caught" by anyone else; Edna was by far more concerned about it than Mikleo, though.
"Humans do have some cool toys, even if they can't use seraphic artes," Edna commented looking up.
"Don't sell them so short. The Shepherds and Squires are humans...and I used to be one," Mikleo walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, resting his forehead on her hair. Her side pony-tail was a bit past her shoulders now, but he still found it adorable. One of Edna's hands, not holding her umbrella, rested atop Mikleo's hand on the opposite shoulder. The new armor Helen had insisted on getting him still felt stiff, but the Squire had insisted that keeping armor with such a large remnant of such a large bloodstain was "gross and creepy."
They watched in peaceful near-silence for a while before Edna spoke, "I guess...and it's not like humans become dragons when totally consumed with malevolence. They just become uglier hellions. Like that former Shepherd when Sorey did the Water shrine trial."
"I was nervous when we went in there, but by the time we got to the actual test, I'd cast the same arte so many times that I was exhausted, even a little bit bored," Mikleo reminisced. He chuckled, "The way you scared off that beast at the Earth shrine. It messed us up, but after the fact we could laugh. I'm still surprised they let us back in either shrine after what Ruby did..." There was more near-silence for a while.
"Eizen...Muse...Rose, Alisha, Sergei, Sorey in a way...wish they were able to see this peace," It wasn't a very Edna-thing to say, and caught Mikleo by surprise. The litany of names was clearly etched on both hearts.
"They'd all be, Sorey one day WILL be, happy to see how the world has known such peace. Muse, Mother, gave her life, Sorey's giving his all, for that answer, for that world, and--" Mikleo couldn't ever not-cringe when a human walked straight through him and it interrupted his thoughts, "I will NEVER get used to that..."
"Yeah you will; give it another 300 years or so," Edna flicked her umbrella and the man who'd walked through them stumbled on a pebble, muttering something about having had too much to drink, apparently.
"Edna..." Mikleo shook his head. Telling Edna not to pull little jokes like that would've done about as much good as telling Mikleo not to geek out at every set of runes he saw. "What am I going to do with you?" he muttered, his hands moving from her shoulders to actually fully embracing her from behind.
"Don't know, Meebo; you tell me," Edna replied with an impish grin. "Idiot." That was her go-to line whenever she wondered why this Seraphim cared for HER, of all people. Edna knew she wasn't the prettiest, not even close to the nicest with more sharp edges than a hedgehog, and she'd more or less been alone from when Eizen had become a dragon, until the day she met Sorey, Mikleo, and the others. "Such an idiot." she muttered quieter.
Mikleo was feeling about as relaxed as he had since--he tried to think--since before he or Sorey had ever left Elysia, probably. That long? At some level, he'd felt a near-constant state of stress since then, as much because of his "Type A" personality as because of circumstance. In recent times, it had only been with Edna that he felt peace. "Idiot, huh?" and he snuck his head around and kissed her cheek.
Edna's exasperated sigh was NOT the reaction Mikleo was expecting! She grabbed her umbrella, poked the tip square into the middle of Mikleo's ribs, and walked forward until his back was against a wall. That grin returned, "Yes, Idiot-Meebo," and Edna got on her tip-toes, grabbed his shoulders, and wasted no time planting her mouth firmly onto Mikleo's. The kiss was as intense as it was brief, and when she pulled away, sure enough Mikleo was redder than a tomato. Edna couldn't stop laughing. Laughter seemed foreign to her, and only Mikleo seemed to bring it about from the heart.
Mikleo huffed, folded his arms across his chest, and looked up. The humans had ceased paying any attention to the sky, so whatever he was seeing in the sky now must have been Lailah's doing. "That was--" he started to talk. Mikleo coughed and turned a bit redder as his heart pounded like a timpani in his head.
"You're over 100 years old, Meebo," Edna teased. Of course, she was conveniently hiding HER face behind her parasol, her back facing him.
"I was going to get around to doing that!" he protested. Quieter, he added, "Erm, one of these decades." This, Mikleo's and Edna's first kiss, would be another story Sorey would have to hear someday. Sorey was also probably the only person Mikleo WASN'T afraid of having learn about him being with Edna. Edna with Mikleo...his mind still couldn't wrap around it. SHE LIKED him, really, really LIKED him! He figured that, aside from a sense of justice, (one that was probably oversized in him,) he and Edna had nothing in common, except for friends, some experiences, being Seraphim, but no actual personality traits, really. Mikleo sighed, spun Edna around, and kissed her again, properly this time though at a normal level of "intensity," knowing he was blushing the entire time. Her face felt just as warm to him.
Life, the universe, whatever it was, really had a sense of humor. Edna and Mikleo practically FLEW apart when they heard Helen's laughter from a distance. It wasn't just her laughter, it was the laugh that said she'd, Mikleo wanted to be polite, "quite enjoyed herself" that evening, probably drinking as much of her dinner as she ate. They noticed that Shepherd was with her, looking a lot more relaxed than usual as Helen half-leaned onto him.
"That was a MARVELOUS dance, Sheppy! Can we do that again in Hyland next year? You lead in dance like you do in battle!" Helen was very "happy," no doubt about that. Edna and Mikleo looked at each other and rolled their eyes almost in sync. Helen waved way overly-obnoxious to Edna and Mikleo, as Shepherd tried to hold her arm down; it looked to most humans like she was waving and yelling at the air. "Heeeeeeyyyy, you two! Stayin' out of trouble?" She was obviously somewhat relying on Shepherd to remain vertical.
Mikleo opened his mouth to reply, but Edna beat him to the punch, "Got in less trouble than you, I'll bet." Mikleo and Shepherd exchanged glances, and Mikleo was surprised that Helen may have actually persuaded Shepherd to have one single drink; Shepherd's face just had that look to it. He must've been more rattled from his mother than anyone else realized.
Mikleo asked, as lighthearted as he could, "Sounds like you two had fun; dancing, Shepherd?"
Shepherd coughed, "Um, yeah, Helen can be forceful...persuasive. I don't need to remind any of you of that fact," but despite the disclaimer, Edna and Mikleo both thought he looked like he'd truly enjoyed himself, forgotten the burdens of birth and office, for an evening. Goodness knew he needed it.
Mikleo and Edna looked at each other, nodded, and de-materialized back into Helen, this time, mostly wanting to try and keep her out of drunken trouble. This turned out to be a mistake, depending on one's point of view. She thought at them, "Hey guys...something goin' on y'all spent the evenin' t'gether? What's up? Something you wanna tell all of us???"
In unison, the Seraphim yelled back, "NOTHING!!!"
"Right. Now let's go find Lailah and Zaveid!" Helen spoke aloud. Shepherd nodded and lead the tipsy Squire by the elbow, making his way to the inn. The remaining two Seraphim already knew to meet there anyway.
After the humans were asleep, Edna and Mikleo materialized again and made their way to the inn's roof, just to watch the stars and the moonlight. They talked some, spent a lot of time silent, just enjoying the night and the company. Morning found Edna asleep in Mikleo's arms, his head resting on hers. Lucky for them, morning was the ONLY thing that found them that way.
Someday they would have the courage to be open to the others. Someday.