Light. Pale light. It was everywhere. The silent room was bathed in the streams of unwavering light, playing along the objects within the shrine. Olvin’s hand stayed, even now, outstretched to Decca, looking as if he wished to sweep her off her feet and dance. But the uncanny gleam within this creature’s eyes showed a much more profound air. Yet she kept walking. And as she did so, the image of Rydia--unconscious and lying upon the floor--came into her sight. Decca wished to run, to see if the Caller had been injured further than her elvin eyes allowed her to see, but she kept her calm facade, moving gradually, cautiously along.

As the elf neared him, his smile, which had been a rather broad grin upon her entering, was now only a faint smirk and indeed was vanishing with every step she took. The gem she bore round her neck was growing brighter, its pale rays now powerful piercing beams of fire to this sage. He suddenly felt a ping of regret for not having destroyed the crystal when he had the chance, but he would bother with the little details later. He had Rydia. And with the girl he would be able to make the defiant elf bend to his every whim.

“It shouldn’t have been this way. She shouldn’t have smuggled you off into this...hellhole. If she hadn’t, I would never have had to come here.” Olvin lowered his hand, realizing for the first time since she came in that he truly had it raised. “What’s done is done. We cannot undo which has been finished.”

“Who is she?” Decca stopped walking once she reached the steps leading to the dais. He could not tell if her question had been in curiosity or in a vain attempt to distract him.

“Asana...” Olvin answered, shaking his head, dismissing his thwarted gaze. “It is none of your concern now. Do not fret, Decca. Soon you will be home again with your own kind.”

“My own kind? What do you know of my own kind?”

“I am merely a creation of my master who is indeed part of something much greater.” Olvin’s smiled now returned upon his cloaked faced and Decca knew she would not receive an answer, at least not at this moment. He turned his back to her, resting his hands on the door behind him, flinching slightly in the same way he did upon touching the stone around her neck. Without regarding the elf, he stared at the wood beneath his fingers, as if his skin, wrapped within the glove's leather, could feel the glossy finish of the door. “Curious of what lies behind this frame?”

“Should I care? All you have been doing is playing games with me. You have me now, there is no need to keep Rydia here.” Decca was at the topmost step, kneeling over the Caller, checking on her wounds.

“You mock me. You are indeed curious of what lies behind this and you do enjoy the games I play. They only deepen as time goes on, bringing with them their own sense of...appeal.”

“Mot lech bècura!” Decca lunged upright, pulling out her dagger and holding it to his throat. It took her as much power as she could muster not to plunge the slender blade into his neck.

Olvin only laughed, raising his hands as if in surrender. “Don’t be foolish, elf. My power is beyond that of yours. You may have had the potential to be great, but this planet has slowed you down.” His eyes were dark, so...powerful and they locked with her own. “Tell me. If things were different, would you have wanted to come here?” The sage lowered his hands as Decca lowered her dagger.

“I don’t know where I came from. For all I know it was hell compared to here.” She knelt back down again, placing her hand over Rydia’s forehead, healing her of her head wound. But the girl still laid seemingly lifeless upon the floor.

“And it indeed is hell, Decca. But here is no different. Because things do not mirror their malice does not mean they are better. It hides behind false splendor. You can feel it when you run through your forests, you can breathe it when you are within its breeze...and you can see it when you close your eyes. It is all around us, just waiting.”

“It came with you.” She looked up to him, rage in her once lovely, emerald eyes.

Rydia opened her own, her head resting gently upon Decca’s lap. Once again her elvin guardian angel was watching over her, gazing now within her silent, aqua eyes. “Where am I?” She whispered, her words barely audible for Olvin’s ears, but Decca heard her quite well.

“You’re safe now.”

“Why lie to her? Her end will be as I planned it to be.” Olvin unsheathed his sword, twirling it carelessly within his gloved hand. His grip upon the handle was loose, as if the mighty blade would fall from his fingers and to the split and cracked floor. But to their surprise, his control of the weapon was with an astonishing amount of grace.

Decca rose to her feet, Rydia doing the same behind her. “Killing Rydia would be pointless now. You said yourself that you have no need to stay here. I thought you only wanted to kill her for amusement.”

“Yes, that’s what it was, all amusement. But you forget child, Rydia is still a mission. Whether important or trivial, I always finish my missions.”

From behind, Decca gave Rydia her smaller dagger, quickly fixing an arrow to her bow. “Then overlook this one!” She demanded, pointing the weapon towards him.

“Go ahead and shoot me. See how many arrows you can release towards me at once. I doubt any will pierce my flesh.” Olvin’s grip upon his sword tightened, the leather of his gloves squeaking with the handle’s gilded pommel. He charged for her, his trusty blade in hand.

Decca pushed Rydia one way and ran in the other direction herself. The Caller scrambled to her feet and threw the dagger; the weapon in her hand whisked with a tremendous amount of force past Olvin's hooded head. It did not leave his cloak stained with blood; however, the sharp object did manage to rip the side of his hood, revealing one hostile eye.

Olvin turned away from Decca, lifting up his hand in the direction of the Caller. At first Rydia thought his gesture was meaningless, but when she noticed the area around her flooded with red light, she threw herself upon the floor, shielding her face from falling tongues of fire. Olvin’s attention was soon brought back upon the elf when one of her arrows lodged itself within his right side. He swung around, ripping the arrow from himself and gripping it within his crimson soaked fingers.

But instead of hurling it within one of the girls’ direction, he simply tossed it aside, making his way for Decca. The elf stood her ground, shooting another arrow towards him. This time, though, he caught it, throwing it again to the side. She kept firing at him; some of the slender darts being stopped by Olvin's own hands, others finding their way into his flesh. Still, no arrow hit its desired target: the creature’s heart, if he indeed had one.

When Decca finally ran out of arrows, she threw her quiver and bow to the ground, now holding one of her longer daggers; its pointed tip gleaming in the sun’s bright rays. He wasn’t set on killing her, for it was quite obvious that he needed her for something. But just as he had said earlier, his master wouldn't mind if she was damaged. Olvin charged forward again. The sound of their weapons were all that made noise now as they smashed against each other, each parry and each swing almost a rhythmical beat. Grunting slightly, Decca thrust her dagger into his stomach, his sword coming up to block her actions too late, leaving Olvin with the blade piercing his abdomen and Decca with sword through her right shoulder blade.

Decca pulled the blade from out her body--slicing some fingers as she did so--and held it within her own hand, ready to strike him again. Though now as the sword stood tall within her left hand, her right arm hung freely by her side, the blood of her shoulder wound trickling downward and creating a puddle of crimson upon the shrine’s floor. “Down so fast, sage? I would have thought better...from a master.”

Olvin was on all fours, bringing up his hand to his stomach, clenching the dagger within it. “Tired, child?” He laughed, despite his own injuries, taking the blade from his flesh and throwing it aside to where many of her arrows now laid, stained in scarlet. He rose to a trembling stand, shaking from his own pain and loss of blood. From the palm of his right hand, he formed a sword of dark energy, his own energy. “I think...sword to sword, we are now...matched.”

It was quiet and for a small, fleeting moment, and the silence was nearly peaceful. The light was upon them in shafts from the shrine’s open stain glass windows, glistening off their crimson covered bodies. Both warriors drained, tired, vastly wounded... The breeze cooled off the overheated fighters as they panted heavily, each gasp of air a sharp pain to inhale.

Olvin groaned as he lifted the power of his own blade, the sword’s mass still much against his weakened body. He charged again, this time faster than before, his blade smashing into the sword within Decca’s hand. Olvin pushed his full bodyweight against his weapon, still matched to the elf's, her feet sliding back upon the upturned gravel and blood on the floor. Decca summoned what little energy she still had left and focused the power into the blade of her borrowed sword. The force was enough to knock the sage backwards, just a bit, so she could break free from his weapon’s power.

She ran towards Olvin with her sword pointed outward, her actions a bit lethargic due to her massive blood loss. The sage smiled slightly, vanishing before her at the very same instant the tip of her blade touched his chest. For a time, Decca was a bit stunned, scanning the room for a trace of Olvin.

Damn... Where is he? A small droplet of blood fell onto her cheek, causing her to turn her head upwards. And there he was, hovering over her from behind, his energy sword falling down upon her in, what seemed to be to the elf, slow motion. She could feel his sword’s heat and as he thrust his weapon downward, between her arm and her body, Decca plunged her sword into Olvin.

It was deathly silent, and at that instant Olvin merely stood there; the sound of his boots hitting the ground was all that filled the air of the vast shrine. His eyes were wide, hollow orbs of blue, his face ghastly in its pallor. Turning around and jumping back as fast as Olvin fell to all fours, Decca watched the sage. She was hunched over slightly, but a grin of victory spread slowly across her face.

Wiping the dripping blood from her mouth, Decca threw the sword down before him, his own energy blade dissipating within his fingers. “And here...I thought it would be hard to defeat you.” She spat on the stone before him, mumbling something in elvish and walking off to where Rydia was, watching with hushed awe.

Decca’s smiling face greeted the startled Caller and she reached out a hand to Rydia, pulling her up to her full height. “By my breath..." Rydia whispered. "I thought... When he came up behind you...” Both girls giggled a little, which then turned into laughter, which caused Decca to start coughing. Rydia’s eyes went serious.

“I’m all right... I just need to...rest...for a while.” The elf leaned against one of the pillars of the room, breathing heavily. “I guess Kain and Valzer aren’t coming...” She tried to grin, but it turned into a frown as she slid down the column.

“We have to get out of here, Decca.” Rydia kneeled besides her, resting a hand on her shoulder, her fingers now covered in the elf's blood. “Are you okay?”

Decca nodded wordlessly, looking down at her blood covered hands. “I don't think I have the energy...to heal myself.”

“It was well worth it. You saved us, you know?” Rydia’s smile brightened when Decca returned the well-meant gesture.

From behind Rydia, Olvin staggered to his feet, swaying slightly as he did so. Finding a pillar as well, he leaned against it, his weight--and the fact that he and Decca had been fighting near it--caused the marble of the structure to crack beneath his hands. Rydia turned around when she noticed the wide-eyed expression of Decca before her. The Caller gasped and her body refused to listen to her mind's pleas to move. The sage pulled himself up further upon the column, causing pieces of debris to fall upon the blood strewn ground.

“I am not...that easily defeated...Decca...” He closed his eyes, as if trying to summon a healing spell. Since most of his energy had been used in the creation of his sword, the most he could do was seal up a few cuts and bruises. “It will have to do.”

Decca tried to stand with Rydia’s help, but it was quite apparent that she had used the expansion of her energy to its limit. Gripping her right shoulder in a futile attempt to stop the blood from seeping out any farther, she limped over to Olvin, grunting with each step, each short, demanding breath.

Olvin picked up his old weapon, surveying the damage done upon its blade by the swordplay. When he looked satisfied with his inspection, he sheathed the mighty blade, not bothering to clean off any of the blood upon it. “Decca, you are in no shape to battle. Allow me to take you where you belong and I shall not harm you any more.”

The elf scoffed, shaking her head, still walking lamely towards him. “You’re not looking so grand now yourself, sage.”

“No, I am not. But there is a difference between where you and I stand at this moment.”

“And what’s that?”

“I have some power left.” Olvin’s fingers curled into a fist outlined by a faint circle of white light. “Whereas you have none.” The sage held out his hand to her. “I need you as much as you need me, child.”

Decca sneered as she glared at the hand before her. “Why do I need you, Olvin?” Upon her lips was a small smile and a sparkled in her eye that mocked the sage before her.

“I need you to break the seal upon that door,” Olvin nodded in the direction of the shrine’s back door, where the topmost part of the dais met with the stone of the wall, “you need me to tell you of your past. It’s a simple proposal that I find quite fair.”

“Well, sage, allow me to make a little proposal,” Decca stopped moving, licking off the blood of her bottom lip. “You let Rydia go, and I open your door.”

“You are in no position to make demands, elf.”

“And if I happen to die before you in a bloody heap, getting your door open will be a difficult task.” Decca’s eyes met with his own again, locking in an intense gaze that seemed to be their minds intertwining for a brief moment. Perhaps each one was doing a quick sweep of the others’ thoughts to see their dark truths.

After a brief pause of considering options and a heavy sigh of irritation from the sage, Olvin gritted his teeth in what appeared to be compliance. “Very well. The Caller may leave.”

“I’m not leaving you here, Decca.” Rydia held onto her arm, pulling Decca closer to herself. “His energy is unstable now. If I battle him a little, maybe the rest of his energy will be completely drained.” The Caller looked to Decca in sheer desperation, hoping that the elf would agree with her. But as Decca shook her head, Rydia felt tears come to her eyes again.

“Rydia, it’s all right now. You can go find Kain and Valzer...”

“No. I’m not losing another person close to me. You’re my guardian angel, and guardian angels don’t leave the ones they protect.”

Decca smiled faintly, not realizing the bond that had been growing between them. In fact, the elf’s eyes went soft in remembrance of another relationship of hers that was much deeper than she had thought possible. “Even angels fall sometimes.”

“Come, Decca.” Olvin began walking up the steps of the platform, turning back to the two girls once he reached the door. His own movements showed that with each step he was losing his energy. The sage would not stand too close to the frame of the door; in fact, he seemed to be sure that he remained as far away from it as possible.

The elf nodded her reassurance to a tearful Rydia as she slipped her arm away from the girl‘s grip. Rydia could only stand and watch as Decca strained herself to walk up to the dais, climbing its few steps to where both Olvin and that door lied.

Damnable door... Decca’s mind trailed off as she looked upon it. Placing her hands over the surface of the wooden frame, she could feel what Olvin was so afraid to touch. It’s so...cold.