The tunnel was dark. Collin made a small glowing light orb but after a while got tired of keeping the spell up. They took turns, keeping a light going.

“Its really cold down here.” Will complained quietly. “This place gives me the creeps…” Will wasn’t the only one unnerved by this place. Things in the darkness kept skittering by, making noise… Watching them… Tella shivered.

“Shut up Will!” she squeaked and they moved on. They had been walking for a long time; no one knew how long. The tunnels were damp and rather cold,

“I wish we had someway of keeping track of time…” Will said. Collin blinked.

“Demus, can I see the key pad? It has a clock in it.” He said. Demus nodded, taking out the keypad and handling it to Collin.

“Do you think we could stop sometime soon?” Will asked.

“Why? You tired?” Tella asked. Will blinked, caught off guard a moment.

“No.” he said quickly. “Just, we’ve been walking for hours… That’s all.” Tella frowned. She wasn’t sure in this light, but Will looked pail. He was also breathing quickly, judging by the way his chest was rising and falling so quickly. She was about to comment but Collin interrupted her.

“Well, its noon.” Collin said. “but we’ve been walking since the middle of last night…”

“We could use a break.” The wanderer said sitting down on the cold hard floor of the tunnel.

“Think we could light a fire?” Will asked.

“…Maybe…” Demus said looking off into the dark, listening. He sighed uneasily. “There are… things out there.”

“Demus! Ugg…” Tella said shuddering.

“I would have thought we would have been attacked by now…” Demus continued, ignoring Tella, “But… the animals down here just watch us and stay back in the shadows… Like they are afraid…” he glanced through the shadows at Will, his eyes lingering on him. Will blinked, looking back, trying not to squirm under Demus’ gaze.

“Maybe they’ve never seen humans before.” The wanderer said. Demus paused, still watching Will, then turned his eyes away. He shrugged at the wanderer’s comment.

“Maybe.” He said, without much conviction in his voice.

“Ah, I’ve got something coming in on the computer.” Collin said, holding up where they could see. “It’s from Abbey.” The computer beeped softy as it finished loading.  Collin squinted at the small type and began to read to himself.

“… Its seems everything is alright there.” he said after a few moments. “In case any of you were worried over Gwineth, she’s alright. Abbey remembered her in time to have a search team go in and get her. She was in there for a while and inhaled some of the fumes, so now everyone thinks she’s delirious… Abbey says she’s going to find her a good therapist…” he laughed softly. “Good. And she erased the files on the database that had information about me…” Collin continued. “The only thing is that Mahito’s disappeared again. She says here that he was acting strangely before he left, and warns us to be careful.”

“Huh. Mahito acting strangely… Now that’s new.” Tella muttered.

“Hmm,” Collin said skimming over the message. “That’s about it.”

“Let’s sleep for a bit.” Will suggested. Tella shrugged.

“I guess we can rest.” She said sitting down. “But to tell you the truth, I’d really like to move through this tunnel as quickly as possible.”

“Yeah…” Will said, “I don’t like this place either… I prefer open sky and sea.”

“Hm.” Demus made a small noise, “I don’t know about open sky… Woods are better I think. Open sky leaves you too… vulnerable. There’s no place to hide…”

“… I hadn’t thought about it that way.” Will mused quietly.

 

 

                The tunnels, though they seemed dark and foreboding, were a resting place, the wanderer reflected. They sat around a small fire in silence. Tella and Collin had dosed off and were both curled toward the fire. The wanderer let her eyes wander past Tella and Collin, and down to her staff. She touched the little designs for the hundredth time.

“Do you know what that is?” Demus asked softly, pointing to the design the wanderer touched. She blinked a moment then smiled.

“What is it?” she asked. Demus moved closer, getting a good look at the small designs.

“That one,” he started, “The one that looks like a feather, that’s the symbol of the Soul of our World.” The symbol was surrounded by other small etchings, decorating the area around it. “And this one,” Demus continued, moving his finger to the other end of the staff, “Is the symbol of the Spirit of our World.” Will perked up his ears, about to go over and look, but decided against it. If he got interested every time his friends brought Fairien up they might start to wonder.

“It looks like leaves… Two leaves, bending…” the wanderer said squinting. Demus nodded.

“Why would they use such symbols?” the wanderer asked. “What do plants and feathers have to do with the spirit and soul?” Demus shrugged at this.

“Nothing really. But it has a kind of symbolism to it. Leaves, even if they are killed, every year, they come back in the spring… I suppose you could say that is spirited… And the feather… Hmm… What was I taught… I should know this…” Demus mused frowning. “I think it had something to do with the animal first created by the Soul of our World… He created the eagle… Supposedly they chose these symbols to represent themselves and we’ve used them in art ever since.”

Will shook his head sighing and tried to block them out. Now it was getting boring and he was tired.

Will, can I talk to you? He heard Fairien say to him. Will groaned, too softy for his friends to hear, but enough to voice his discontent to Fairien.

                Why? He asked. Just talk to me like this.

No. Fairien said stubbornly. Will sighed.

“That’s kind of interesting…” the wanderer said, turning the staff over, continuing her conversation with Demus, both of them ignoring Will.

“… I’m going to go pee.” Will muttered, getting up and stumbling off. The wanderer and Demus looked after him a moment, then turned back to the staff.

 

 

Will plopped down in the dark tunnel and caught his breath, pushing his hair up out of his face.

“Whadyouwant?” he mumbled.

“Hmph. I don’t know why you have to be ill tempered about it.” Fairien chided appearing next to him. Will grunted and let his head rest back against the tunnel wall, closing his eyes. Fairien frowned.

“Are you alright?” he asked. Will opened his eyes and looked at him, opening his mouth.

“Yeah.” He answered. Fairien narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t lie idiot.” He said reaching a hand out, touching Will’s forehead. Will sighed, defeated, and too tiered to argue.

“You’ve got a fever.” Fairien said quietly.

“Mm… Don’t feel that bad.” Will murmured. Fairien didn’t reply. He gazed steadily at Will for a long moment. Will opened his eyes and looked over at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Be quiet a moment.” Fairien said. After a minute his frown deepened. “That’s strange…” he said, “There isn’t any kind of virus or anything in your body… Nothing that would make you sick…” Will blinked, pausing a moment.

“… I see.” He said dropping his gaze from Fairien and closed his eyes. “That’s very strange…”

                “Yes…” Fairien sighed trying to think.

                Could he just have made himself tired… Or something to do with the caves… Or… Fairien shivered.

Minerva.

Could she be doing this? Is she making him sick? Fairien shook his head. Why would she do that? And if she was… I would know. There’s no way she could do anything to Will without me knowing…

Fairien sighed. Azrael was right. He jumped to conclusions much too easily.

The tunnel was silent except for the occasional plinking drips from water, hitting the small accumulated puddles. He sighed again, giving up.

“Fairien.” Will said, “You sitting there worrying aren’t you?” he laughed softly. Fairien frowned indignantly.

“So sorry.” He grumbled. Will laughed again, but it was softer this time.

“You worry to much.” Will said. “I get sick, it happens. I’m probably just tired. I don’t think I’ve ever walked through the night before. And I know I haven’t even gone this long without eating.”

“Then why don’t you eat something.” Fairien grumbled.

“Did. That old moldy junk Tella calls bread.” Will said.

“Eating mold? No wonder your sick.” Fairien laughed.

“Anyway, did you want to ask me something?” Will asked. Fairien blinked, his mind searching for a moment.

“Oh, yeah.” He said, “Wanted to talk to you about the talismans. Mahito’s gotten a hold of the Mirror.” Will nodded at this.

“Yes… He took it from Collin.” Will said. “Back in the wastelands.”

“Which is not good news for us.” Fairien said. He continued on in a softer voice, “That mirror can kill me… And it’s in enemy hands…” Will looked down silently. Fairien closed his eyes and sighed.

“I just wanted you to be careful. Next time you all see Mahito, he may try and use the mirror… If he does…” Fairien shivered and stopped.

“But, it would only kill you if you looked in, right?” Will asked.

“Or if you looked in…” Fairien murmured. Will leaned his head back against the wall and let his shoulders droop.

“Then I’ll just have to not look in.” he said. Fairien made a soft noise of agreement and sat up.

“You better go back or your friends will start thinking you have some kind of bladder disorder.”

“Eh?” Will frowned confused.

“You told them you were going to pee.” Fairien reminded him.

“Mmm… Right.” Will drug himself up and began to slowly trudge back toward the makeshift camp.

“Hey, rest alright.” Fairien told him as he left.

“Yeah yeah.” Will called back walking off.

 

 

To tell the truth, Will felt no better. In fact, as the days passed, he grew worse, developing a headache and losing most of his energy. However, he did a pretty good job hiding it from his friends. It was fairly dark and they rested often. At least, Will reflected, this place seems to drain their energy just as much as it does mine…

The stone changed as they progressed. Where the walls had been a dark brown clay it was now made up of jagged rocks. At closer examination you could see what looked like huge teeth marks. Tella, upon seeing these marks had freaked out, wondering what kind of animal made them. However, Collin, taking pleasure in her discomfort, had informed them that these marks were made by machines that had been used to cut the rock of the tunnel.

 

On what they counted to be the sixth day of travel they made camp as usual.

“We should be out of here soon…” Collin said sighing. By my calculations we should reach the end of the tunnel tomorrow.”

“Where exactly does this tunnel come out?” Tella asked. Collin shrugged.

“Abbey said it was going to be a subway tunnel going to Avrai… So maybe somewhere in Avrai… I don’t know.”

“Well, we’ll be ready.” Tella said. “Of course, once we’re in Avrai… We really don’t know where to go…”

“We’ll figure that out.” Demus said.

“You always say that…” the wanderer commented.

“Well, don’t we always find a way?” he asked. She nodded.

“We are a pretty lucky bunch.” Tella said. “Of course, it could have something to do with the deities that are watching over us.”

“Deity.” Will corrected.

“Well, as far as we know.” Tella shrugged.

“But we don’t even know if the Spirit of your World is involved in this…” the wanderer said. “We haven’t really heard from him at all.” Tella shrugged.

“He may be weak, but I bet he’s around.” She said. “He’s never let Betamy down.”

“I would have never thought you to be the religious type, Tella.” Demus said. Tella shrugged.

“Well, I wasn’t before this… But when you come face to face with one of the gods, it kind of helps, you know.”

“Speaking of the Spirit of our World, what about your sword Demus?” Collin asked. “Do you think it’s the Sword?” Demus shrugged, taking it out of its sheath.

“I suppose so. Mahito said we had all of the talismans at the time… And he seemed to know something… And we don’t have any other swords with us.”

“If it is, this could be a vital part of our journey.” Tella said, “I’m sure we’ll need it in Avrai. I just hope we don’t let anybody down…”

Through his haze Will looked over at the Sword.

Fairien, is that…. He thought slowly.

You’ve held it. How did it feel? Fairien asked him.

It felt… Will started thinking but was interrupted.

“We’ll be okay... I hope.” The wanderer said. “If we can find out what it is we are supposed to do…”

“Yeah…” Tella said, “I’m really starting to wonder.”

“It seems to me that-” Collin started. Will felt his stomach shudder and contract. He caught his breath, standing up. There was too much noise, too much talking. Everything was spinning and he could feel sweat rising from his skin.

“Will, you alright?” Tella asked. Will shook himself and smiled.

“Yeah, just feeling a little weird. I’m gonna take a breather, get some cool air away from this fire…” with that he walked slowly away, trying not to stumble.

“Poor Will,” the wanderer said, “I hope he’s not feeling bad. And with how we’re going to Avrai probably tomorrow…”

“Oh he’s fine.” Tella said waving her comment away, “So anyway, about this…”

 

 

 

Oh they were noisy! Will held his head as it throbbed and squeezed his eyes shut. He tried to slow his breathing but he found that he couldn’t.

“Umh?” Will blinked straitening slightly at the sudden feeling of something cold against his forehead. He peered into the darkness, and saw Fairien watching him. He had dipped his cloak into one of the pools and was holding the damp cloth against Will’s forehead. Will smiled slightly in gratitude.

“Hey…” he said softly.

“You should have rested better.” Fairien said peering at him unhappily. Will sighed and rolled his eyes, immediately regretting it, as it sent a jolt of pain searing through his head.

“I don’t understand this…” Fairien said frowning, “You shouldn’t be sick! I mean, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you to cause this…” he sat back pondering. “… I been thinking about it… All this time, but I still can’t…” he trailed off.

“Don’t think too much about it.” Will said softly. Fairien looked up at him frowning.

And then it struck him.

I’m doing it. He thought, gasping in realization. His thoughts were coming quickly, but they seemed sluggish. I’m doing this to him… I’m draining him, so that I can stay in my physical form here in Area… That’s why it got worse as we moved closer to Avrai… He wouldn’t have felt it at first… I could still draw on the beings of my country at first… But when we entered these tunnels… I had to start relying on Will fully… And it’s… How could I have not realized this?!

“Will…” Fairien murmured, looking up and meeting his eyes. To his surprise, Fairien was met with an almost guilty gaze from Will. He blinked in confusion and realized something else.

“You knew?” he asked softly. Will bit his lip and looked down.

“Knew what?” he asked lamely. Fairien growled softly and leaned forward glaring at Will.

“You knew that I was taking your energy and making you sick! Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

“I… Uh…” Will paused, trying to think of something to say. “I thought you knew…” he said finally in a quiet voice.

“You’re lying! You knew I didn’t know!” he paused a moment, “Will, I am dense!! I don’t… I don’t catch on to things quickly sometimes…”

“I didn’t want you to feel guilty.” Will murmured. “It’s not that bad, really.”

“Yes it is. At this rate by the time we reach Avrai, your friends will be carrying you!”

“Well, it not like there’s any way to avoid it.” Will said stubbornly. “You told me yourself, you need foundings, energy from people with strong spirits to maintain your form… And Fairien… We need you here… So… You have to use my energy.”

“No I don’t…” Fairien said sitting back thinking. “I can draw energy from your friends too. Not much, they won’t even feel it, but it will take the stress off you, and make you feel a lot better.” Will paused a moment then nodded.

“That… That sounds good.” He said finally. Fairien smiled.

“You see, you should tell me things. Sometimes, I can do something about it.” He said. Will shrugged guiltily and smiled. Fairien watched him a moment then said quietly,

“Will… You don’t like these caves… do you?” he asked.

“Well, no but I’m not complaining…” Will said. Fairien nodded, still looking down.

 “Would you… Would you like to get out of these caves… just for a little while?” he asked. Will looked up at him.

“Well, sure… But there isn’t anyway… Um… Is there?” he asked. Fairien nodded quietly.

“I can take you to my sacred realm. Just for a little while. Your friends won’t notice that you’re gone… And it will help you feel better, I think…” Will gazed off into the dark a moment then nodded.

“… That sounds good.”

“I can use your friends as an anchor to get back, so we won’t have any trouble... And I think you’ll like it there…” Fairien stopped and shook his head smiling, “I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“Yes.” Will said, “… You seem nervous.” Fairien dropped his eyes to the ground and sighed.

“… I’ve never let anyone into my sacred realm.” He murmured.

“Not even Azrael and Minerva?” Will asked. Fairien shook his head. Will paused a moment then said quietly,

“Well, let’s go, then.”

“…Alright.” Fairien said, standing up. He raised a hand and smiled.

“Here we go.”

 

 

The fire had settled down, now only a pile of glowing coals. Demus at poked the coals absently and sat back. Everyone seemed to always make him the night guard, he reflected. Not that he minded… Well, maybe a little. He glanced down at Tella who was smiling in her sleep. He rolled his eyes remembering how earlier in the evening she had begged him to stand watch, even though it was her turn. The wanderer and Collin were also asleep. Will, of course was still gone. Demus frowned. He was very curious as to what Will was hiding. Just when he began to feel comfortable around Will, something would disturb him. For instance, whenever he looked at Will, Demus would feel his ears ring until he looked away. This had only started to happen within the last couple of days, and Demus had said nothing about it to the others. However, it made him even more wary and curious as to what was really going on. Demus sighed, giving up for the moment.

 

 

There were black forms around him. Collin shuddered, recognizing the nightmare. He stumbled through the darkness, trying to get away, but he knew he was being hunted… And soon… He started counting down the seconds, he knew it would come, it always did, exactly like this, every time… He jerked around, turning in every direction. He hated the feeling of being hunted.

NO!

He was being pinned against something and now…

 

 

“Uhn!” Collin’s body jerked back, hitting the tunnel wall. Demus broke out of his thoughts and looked over at the boy as he awoke. Collin sat up slowly, rubbing his back where he had knocked into the hard rock wall.

“You alright?” Demus asked.

“Yeah, just bumped it…” Collin muttered, rubbing his eyes. Demus nodded and looked back into the coals. He waited a moment before asking,

“Nightmare?” Collin stiffened and didn’t answer. Silently he cursed the perceptiveness of Hailians.

“No.” he muttered.

“Ah.” Demus answered, his voice unchallenging. Collin got up stiffly and stretched, making his way off into the darkness.

“Where are you going?” Demus asked.

“… Nowhere.” Collin answered.

“Don’t wander off Collin,” Demus said. “There are things out there…”

“Will gets to go off.” Collin pointed out. “I’m much more able to defend myself than…” Collin cut off slowly, deciding not to finish that sentence. Demus rose, ignoring Collin’s comment.

“Do you mind if I come?” he asked. Collin frowned hunching his shoulders.

“What do you care?” he asked quietly.

“What do you mean?” Demus asked.

“You keep messing with me.” Collin said, “I mean, you don’t need to feel like you have to look after me. I can look after myself. Why do you even bother?” Demus paused looking at him.

“You want to know why…?” he asked. Collin stared back. Demus sighed and shifted his eyes away. “You remind me of myself at your age.”

“Huhn.” Collin said folding his arms and began walking off, further into the dark. “I doubt that... You could have never been like me.” Demus followed stubbornly.

“Why not?” he asked. Collin stopped and turned to face him. Demus blinked, wondering it was seeing this right. Collin’s eyes held within them a very strange expression, a mixture of anger and fear… But before Demus could be sure he had seen it, Collin turned away, his face hidden in the darkness.

“You wouldn’t understand.” Collin said softly. Demus drew closer to him and watched the boy.

“Is that true?” Demus asked, “… Or are you just afraid?”

“What would I be afraid of?!” Collin shouted.

“Keep your voice down.” Demus reminded him. “People are sleeping.”

“Hmph…” Collin leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.  Why did Demus have to talk to him now? Now, when he was having a hard time thinking and keeping his defenses up… It was that stupid nightmare! It had unsettled him… He just needed a moment to compose himself and-

“You are afraid of Mahito.” Demus said softly. Collin felt his entire body tense, and his chest tighten. He struggled to mask his discomfort, but knew that it was probably in vain. Stupid Demus!

“Please don’t talk to me.” Collin whispered, afraid to raise his voice.

“You carry a deep hatred for him.”

“Shut up.” Collin said.

“… I wouldn’t pry into this Collin but…” Demus sighed, “I don’t want this hatred to kill you.”

“What do you know?” Collin growled.

“If I’ve learned anything from my life it I that nothing good can come from hatred. It doesn’t matter what someone has done to offend you, if you let yourself become consumed by it, you will die your self. Perhaps, not physically… But then, that’s not what really matters.”

“I don’t want to argue with you. Let’s just stop talking about this.” Collin said. But Demus turned to face him, looking down on the boy.

“Collin, don’t let yourself hate him so much! What could he have possibly done to deserve this?”

“I told you I don’t want to talk about it!”
                “I admit he isn’t the most likable person but there is absolutely no reason for you to hate him like this.” Demus said. Collin’s cheeks flushed redder and redder in anger.

“Shut up!” he screamed. “You know nothing of this!”

“I know nothing of it because you will not tell me of it!” Demus shouted. Collin glared back in fury, but as Demus stared back at him, Collin wavered, until his head dropped down to his shoulders. He turned away from Demus, trying to hide himself.

“Collin?”

“I… He… Mahito was…” Collin paused and then continued in a quiet voice, “…he hurt me when I was younger.” Demus sighed.

“Be that as it may, you must learn to get over the past. I know that a beating can bring forth hatred but you must learn to control it.” He said.

“No you don’t understand.” Collin tried to say. Demus growled in impatience.

“Collin listen to me! I know what I am talking about. If you act on your hatred for a simple beating-”

“He didn’t beat me!” Collin screamed. “He…” Collin choked on his words and stopped as he realized he was crying. Demus blinked, uncertainly.

“Collin?” he asked quietly and touched his shoulder. Collin flinched at the touch and said nothing at first. Then,

“He didn’t beat me.” he repeated softly. Demus frowned in confusion, trying to understand what Collin meant. Mahito’s attack hadn’t been physical? Then…

“Collin…” He said finally, unable to think of anything better to say. Collin breathed in deeply and let out a trembling sigh.

                “Bran worked at the Senate where he met a lot of important people. One of the people he met was Mahito… He and Mahito became friends and Mahito even got to meet me once… But…” Collin shuddered.

                “Collin, you don’t have to-” Demus started.

                “You asked to know. I’m telling you.” Collin said, his voice cold. Demus nodded, spell bound and listened silently.

                “It was about that time that Bran proposed to Abbey, they were… So happy. I was happy… Everything was starting to come together but then…” he paused for just a second but forced himself on, “Mahito started acting strangely. He… He was hearing voices and stuff like that… The government had him loaded up with so many drugs to fight his insanity… But it didn’t seem to help… I think that’s why he… attacked me. He… broke into the apartment one day while Bran was gone and found me there alone…” Collin sucked in his breath, trying not to stop, trying not to cry, “He forced me down and hurt me… and then used magic to try and kill me… I guess he thought he succeeded, because he left after that.”

                “Collin…” Demus breathed. Collin squeezed his eyes shut and sat there for a long moment.

                “After it happened,” he said finally continuing, “Bran tried to have Mahito convicted… But the Senate wouldn’t do it. Bran resigned then… And he… he got a lot more paranoid… I did too… And Abbey too, I guess… They didn’t know what to do… Bran had to find a job, he couldn’t just stay with me all day… And Abbey had to work… Bran didn’t want to stay in Avrai… Mahito was in Avrai. So he found a program, in which we could become spies for Area and go to Betamy… Even though it was an enemy country, we felt safer there… But… We had to leave Abbey. She couldn’t come…” Collin trailed off into silence. Demus watched him a moment, then bent down and pulled Collin into a hug.

                “Don’t feel sorry for me.” Collin said scornfully.

                “I can’t help it.” Demus said and held him tighter. Collin let his head rest against Demus’ shoulder and allowed himself to be hugged. It was warm, like when Bran used hugged him. Collin felt his chest tighten again, but ignored it this time.