Kain frowned. Jorhan had spent a good majority of the day "training" Decca, showing her things that the Dragoon couldn't see, telling her things he couldn't hear, teaching her things that he could never fully comprehend, never hope to fathom.

Magic. What good is magic? Kain scoffed, kicking at a small rock on the forest floor. He nudged it a few times, loosening it from its home on the damp, earthen ground. He was brooding over by the tree and had been for the whole time Decca was with that...monk. Maybe...she feels more comfortable with him because he is an elf. That thought had briefly crossed the Dragoon Knight's mind a few times the past hour, but he hadn't voiced it to anyone. Cecil was right. Jorhan hung around Decca too much.

Kain tried, at first, to pass it off as simply the result of Jorhan's guilt for having abandoned Decca when she was just a child. Perhaps the elf monk was simply trying to make amends before that curse of his killed him. Whatever the reason, Kain noticed that everything Decca did, everywhere she went, those strange, red orbs were following her. And what Kain hated most was the look in those eyes. He couldn't place that stare. If Kain couldn't understand it, he didn't like it. Especially when that "it" was looming over the woman he loved.

Rubin didn't care much for Jorhan either, but he tolerated him for Decca's sake. Right now the monk was their only way to Valqua, as well as Decca's only living link to her past. If Jorhan could clear something up for the warrior elf, answer a few unanswered questions here and there, then Rubin would hold his tongue for the meantime. Though he knew from the expression upon Kain's face that the knight would have a much harder time at doing that.

From behind him, the old wizard placed a strong hand upon Kain's shoulder. "We'll be leaving to the shrine as soon as Jorhan and Decca are finished here."

Kain regarded Rubin with a quick glance and an impassive shrug. "He's not a threat. He's done nothing to make us think of him as one, yet..."

Rubin nodded slightly, while pulling his tan hood over his white hair.

"I don't like the way magic is such a priority in Decca's life, Ruby. Her whole being is..." Kain narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow, as if he couldn't find the right words to complete his thoughts. "Her whole essence..."

"I know," was all Rubin said. If only you knew what Valzer and myself know, he thought, smiling sadly. "I know you are frustrated, Kain. I know you wish to understand what this is all about. Trust me, if I knew the whole thing I would tell you."

Kain turned around slowly, and Rubin's hand slipped from off his armored shoulder. "But you do know something, don't you? I know all of you--"

"Only Valzer and me, Kain. We are wizards after all. Rydia too, but she is still young." Rubin sighed and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he looked years older. "Inklings. That's all we feel. Perhaps a few dreams, here and there. Nothing solid. I wouldn't worry you when I only know half of the story."

Kain looked at the old man warily. Even though he trusted Rubin there was something he knew the wizard was not telling. Both him and Valzer. "But you know something," he repeated. Valzer had disappeared briefly some days ago; into the forest without word and back again just as unseen. And when Kain asked him of his whereabouts, Valzer simply brushed him off.

"We wizards cannot see into the future, Kain, even the most powerful. Some can see what may happen," Rubin sighed, glancing over to Decca and Jorhan, then back to Kain. "But there are so many things that can occur, so many choices we can make that can alter that possible outcome."

Realizing that he was getting nowhere closer to what untold truths Rubin had stored in that mind of his, Kain turned back around, watching Decca and Jorhan again. Decca was rising up from the grass, Aeolos playing with Will and the other chocobos over to the right of her. Jorhan nodded to the elf and then padded towards his house, where the others were coming out of, and squeezed past them and back inside. Perhaps Jorhan wouldn't accompany them after all. At least Kain hoped so.

"Where's he going?" Valzer scratched the back of his head, feeling strange without his wizard robes. When he noticed Decca coming towards him, he immediately brightened. "So, what's the news this morn, Lady?"

Decca smiled, white teeth showing bright against the shade of the trees and her dark, gray-blue skin. "Jorhan was just showing me a few things with magic." When she noticed Valzer's sudden falter in smile, she laughed, her voice sounding like a gentle song upon a warm breeze. "Nothing important, Valz. I'm ready to leave whenever you guys are." Without waiting for a reply, she left to where Will and Aeolos were.

Valzer shrugged, rubbed his tired eyes and dragged his tired feet over to Kain and Rubin.

"Not much sleep?" Kain smiled when he noticed his friend's weary appearance. But that smile faded when Kain began to think. Is it what you know that makes you so tired? Lately, Valzer, you have seemed years older. You try to hide it, but I can see more than you know... He smiled again, but it was sad this time and did very little to hide his concern for his wizard friend.

"I'm fine, Kain." Valzer waved his hand. His messy, brown hair fell into his face again, hiding those tired eyes. "Just didn't sleep too well. Couldn't stop thinking. It's easy to shield your thoughts when you are awake, but when your mind's at rest it's hard to dismiss certain...unwanted thoughts." He grinned and walked over to where Decca was, gathering the chocobos together.

Kain knew what those unwanted thoughts were, as did Rubin, but when the Dragoon turned to face the old wizard he was already following Valzer. Kain watched as Rydia and Cecil joined them, mounting their chocobos and chatting away about Jorhan's tunnel home. Soon the monk was back outside his house, carrying something under the long sleeves of his robe. It looked like another book. From this distance, Kain couldn't tell if it was the same journal from the day before or yet another one from his assorted collection. The sun was now hanging directly over them and it fought its way well through the canopy of tree leaves, bathing Kain's companions below. The knight sighed, watching them from his spot still besides the tree.

He never felt more alone.

He felt betrayed, angry, worried and exhausted. Just what more secrets were they hiding from him? What more inklings did his friends feel, but did not tell out of their own misguided concern? Kain refused to think that they would hide such things from him. But Valzer was right; when your mind is at rest things never thought before come to light.

Kain watched Valzer and Rubin talking to each other with false smiles on their tired faces.

Rydia hung around Decca, chatting away about the books Jorhan had showed her and magic herbs that Rubin had given to her the days before. Cecil grinned widely, placing a hand upon the girl's shoulder and laughing with Decca.

Decca's laugh, her smile, her words, everything about her glowed this morning. She always had that faint glow about her. Kain would have guessed it was that way with all beings who could control the force of magic. But she was different from them. Her glow was more pronounced, more powerful. The elf seemed to shimmer and sparkle and as he watched her, it was as if Decca was a splendid dream, one that would soon fade from the world as time passed.

"Kain!"

The warrior snapped out of his musings and shook his head, longish black hair thrashing his cheeks as he did so. Decca was upon her white bird, waving to him. The rest of his allies were upon their chocobos as well and his own animal chirped in the distance, patiently waiting for its rider. Decca smiled to him, her lovely emerald eyes bright under the soft rays of the sun. He felt the edges of his own lips lift upwards.

***

The shadows moved along the castle's walls, stretching and curving, distortions of their real, solid selves. It made the tall windows even higher and in the reflected glow of the sun, the glass' many colors create a halo upon the stone ground. Those colors soon parted before the movement of a woman and her feathered duster. She was humming some long forgotten tune and gently brushing her duster over the various ordainments covering the walls and small tables of the hallway. She stopped before one of the windows, her pale face bathed in the glow of the sun and the red of the sky.

"Like the sun is bleeding..." She shook her head sadly, but she did not leave her place. A sort of calm came over her, as if a loved one had come up from behind and wrapped her in their arms. "Where have you gone, my Queen?" A single tear ran down her cheek, reflecting the assortment of colors from the window. Upon its glass was a depiction of the late queen in robes of flowing white, her arms spread around a small planet that represented Valqua. It had, like many of the things within the castle, been created in the time of Undene's rule.

Asana relished the time when she could walk down the hallways that had some sort of memento of the queen in them, especially the corridors that held windows and were flooded with the most light. They were a constant reminder of the beauty that had once thrived upon her world. Asana sighed and ran her fingers down the cold, glass picture of Undene. Her hand soon fell to the golden hook that kept the windows closed and for a moment her fingers lingered there. If she opened the window would she be surprised by what lied on the other side? Would there magically be a better world this time? A clear, blue sky? Endless emerald forests?

She unhooked the latch and parted the windows. But the same blood-red sky watched her back, like the strange ghostly face of a dream.

"What were you expecting, Asana?" A voiced asked from behind her.

She did not jump in surprise, nor did she feel anger and annoyance as all the times before. For once she was happy to have him there to talk to. Then again, he always seemed to appear when she needed to speak, to clear her mind of all that troubled her.

"It will always look this way." He sounded strangely disappointed.

"Why do you care, Olvin?" Asana did not turn to regard him, but if she did, she would have seen that his hood was no longer covering his face. "I thought you liked the color of blood." There was some bitterness to her tone, but the sorrow overwhelmed it.

"Indeed I do... It is a beautiful color. Though I heard that the skies were once blue here, as they are on Earth." Olvin cocked his head slightly to the side, like he was trying to see those blue skies in the forever-red sheet of Valqua. "You know, I never did see a blue sky before I traveled to Earth. It was strangely...enchanting. The sunrises, the odd assortments of colors at dusk...almost like this window." His finger was tracing the patterns etched upon the glass.

At those words, Asana finally turned to face him, slightly stunned both by what he said and that now his hood was no longer covering his face. His profile was outlined in the faint glow of red, causing his blond hair to look nearly rose. She had seen him without his hood only a few times before, but each time she did she was still shocked by his appearance. Asana had always thought him to look as dark and as ugly as he acted, but instead he was light; his eyes were blue and pupilless; his skin was a pale peach, not unlike her own; his sun colored hair was long and tied back somewhere down the middle of his back. He looked almost handsome. He looked almost human.

And he resembled Lord Akin in some ways. He was, after all, his creation. Olvin was nearly Akin's son, though the king would never refer to him as his child and would even go as far as become enraged when a brazen servant would slip and call Olvin "his son".

"That's right..." Asana finally said. "You never did see Valqua when it was beautiful."

"I wasn't born back then, now was I?" Olvin closed his eyes. He had only walked this world for a short fourteen years, though with the body of a grown man and the mind of an ageless warrior. But as to how Olvin was created by Akin was unknown to him and to anyone else. Perhaps Lord Akin would create more like Olvin. The Sage could very well have been a simple experiment to see if the creation process would work or not. But Olvin would not entertain that thought; he dreaded thinking of himself as a simple experiment to pave way for something much better.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Asana's strangely soft voice broke through his thoughts.

Barely looking towards her, he asked, "What does?"

"Being born into an ugly, hate filled world and knowing that you can never stray from that path or abandon it for something better. You're not allowed to. You can't choose." She almost smiled, a sort of bitter smile, though it was not directed towards him this time. "Oh, don't feel sorry for yourself, Olvin. Pity is for the weak, isn't that what you believe? Besides, it's that way for everyone. You cannot choose where you are born, who you are born as, who your family is..." Asana glanced to him and noticed that his eyes were locked with her own at that moment. "But unlike us, you can't shape you're own future. No matter what you feel now and no matter if you change your mind about who's right and who isn't, you will always be Akin's servant."

Olvin's eyes narrowed, but his expression remained the same. "What makes you think I will change my mind? Lord Akin is who I serve--"

"You forget, Olvin. You may have been created, but you will still grow like any other being. As you see more battles and as you meet more people your opinions and views will alter. Each of the people here has a story, Olvin. And whether you like it or not, you will listen to them and then...maybe you won't be so blind anymore."

Olvin drew a breath sharply and turned away from the window. "My feelings will not change."

Asana cast her gaze forward again, sounding nearly disheartened when she spoke next. "Yes, I forgot that too. You have no emotions."

Olvin grunted, pulling his hood back over his face, allowing the shadows to embrace him, shrouding him once more in a world of eternal darkness. And as his footsteps left down the long hallway, Asana finally realized just why he wore that hood. It was not to make him look more foreboding, more dark. It was so that he could hide behind it.

***

It was nearly dusk when they reached the Shrine of Amyl. No more of those sky creatures came back and Rubin spent a good majority of the afternoon probing Jorhan to see if he had ever encountered such a being before. The monk simply said that creatures of that sort were a common on Valqua and were obviously sent by Lord Akin. So the conclusion was that either Olvin failed to report of Undene's recent disappearance and his master was still searching for her, or Lord Akin had other plans. Decca, still in the lead, slowed her chocobo's pace once they broke the forest's seemingly impenetrable wall of trees to the small clearing the shrine stood within.

Cecil had offered, without complaint from any of the other travelers, to let Jorhan ride with him, since they were short one chocobo. Kain suspected that the King of Baron did that not out of his usual civility, but of his ever-growing suspicion. Kain had to admit that he felt a bit relieved that his friend decided to keep an eye on Jorhan, though he believed that most of his comrades were already doing so.

Aeolos had stood in the lead with Decca, disappearing periodically and coming back just as unheard, sniffing the air and laying his ears flat upon his head. Once they came upon Amyl, his ears shot up once more and he shied away to the back of the procession, nearest the chocobo Jorhan rode upon.

Decca dismounted almost in unison with Valzer and they both approached Amyl, neither speaking but both seeming to know exactly what the other thought and felt. Rydia was behind them and at once she closed her eyes, as if sudden weariness had taken over her and she needed a moment to regain her strength. Kain watched her curiously and finally realized what she was doing. The young Caller was making sure, with the best of her magical abilities, that no evil dwelled within the walls of Amyl. Opening her large, aqua eyes, the girl nodded to the elf and wizard.

"All clear." Valzer said, his voice echoing in the forest's hidden depths.

They stood silent for a time, as if waiting for the echo to fade into nothingness. Finally, Rubin came from the back of the small group, joining Valzer, Decca and the Caller upon the steps. He pulled down his hood, scratched the back of his head and sighed softly.

"So this is what the Shrine of Amyl is like..." His voice was but a whisper and barely audible for those who still had not approached the shrine fully. "I can see why you were so drawn to this place, Decca. The power is...quite profound."

Decca did not answer him, and simply placed her hands upon the doors' mighty frames, almost like she was contemplating whether to enter or to simply abandon this foolish quest. She straightened her stiff shoulders more so and pushed open the doors with the aid of Valzer. She had made up her mind a long time ago. There was no turning back now. Too many things had happened, too many things had been uncovered to just forget it all and go back to her almost normal life.

And her friends, this strange little family that had formed along the way, were behind her through this seemingly endless journey. She couldn't let them down, no matter what she felt.

Decca could feel Kain's hand upon her bare shoulder once she was inside the dark embrace of the shrine and she was suddenly less worried about what was to come. The elf smiled, though no one around her could possibly see in the shadows surrounding them. She moved forward and as she did Kain's hand slipped away from her shoulder, leaving it cold again.

Jorhan stepped in soon after and breathed in deeply some fragrant perfume that only he could smell. "Home..." He chuckled softly, his left hand brushing against the soft fur of Aeolos, sitting besides him. "Been a long time, eh, boy?" The wolf shook his fur coat and trotted deeper inside, as if he too was excited about seeing his once beautiful land again.

Rubin was the last to enter the darkness and as he did so he closed his eyes and coxed the warmth of fire from within him to come to his aid. Opening those strange red orbs of his, the room immediately lit in the bright colors of crimson, orange and yellow, each ghastly shaped touch alit with renewed energy.

The room appeared even emptier than before. And each lost soul from battles long past, each wandering spirit floated about, trying to find their way home again. Rydia shivered and Valzer placed an arm around the girl to keep her warm. She smiled shyly her thanks to him. The wizard merely grinned his lopsided grin and glanced to Decca to see if she was all right.

Decca was wandering ahead aimlessly, as if in some sort of daze. Seems like yesterday... she thought, smiling still. "I wonder what became of me after I left?" The elf continued her slow pace to the center of the room, which would then lead her to the back door and to her forgotten home. Home...

She didn't notice at first, but as she walked Kain was besides her. And soon their hands brushed against one another and their fingers intertwined. They were no longer alone. Whatever they would face, whatever was to come, they would face it together.