Lovers Trust

Beta: CalliopePurple
Notes: I’m back! As you see.

This little piece of text was the first thing I wrote on my vacation, and I’m really enjoying myself. Now we’re where I wanted to be in the start of this hell of a journey.


16

[Seifer]
He started regretting coming to the village. They could just as easily have survived out in the wilderness or something.

The two Shumis hadn’t said anything else on the trip down. Except to ask him to put Squall in one of the chairs. Seifer had done that after a while. He didn’t trust these creatures and for every minute that went by, he trusted them even less.

Was someone waiting for them? Laguna or the gang or someone else? What would he do? Seifer knew he would be thrown in jail or something and Squall taken back to Esthar where he probably would be locked up in the memorial.
And what if the Elder knew about Squall?

What if the Elder had something to do with Squall’s state of mind? What if it was the Shumi that had done this?

A sudden surge of rage made his whole body pulse and his vision narrow to a tunnel, focused at the two Shumis present. Shiva suddenly floated up inside of him and the rage disappeared as sudden as it had come. Seifer deeply exhaled. No wonder Squall always had been able to stay cool in every situation. Shiva snickered in his head.

: : Lion cub already had the skill, you don’t : : she snickered and Seifer frowned.

: : You mean Squall already was a cold hearted bastard before you came? : : he growled without heat.

She pirouetted around. : : No. Lion cub is Lion cub : :

Seifer snorted. : : Well thanks for the “no information” : :

She disappeared down in him again and Seifer glanced at the lightly sleeping brunet. Seifer had to behave himself for Squall’s sake. If Seifer lost his head, he wouldn’t be too much use for the brunet.

The elevator suddenly stopped and the doors slowly opened. Seifer was on his feet in two seconds, not knowing whether to draw Hyperion or not. The two Shumis stood by the door waiting. Both calm. What was he to do? Shiva had told him to go here. Squall had before told him the Shumis were pacifists.

Reluctantly, Seifer lifted Squall and followed the two creatures.

Walking outside, he at first was blinded by the light. He’d heard the others talk about the village, but hadn’t really believed them. Trees, flowers and lakes a thousand foot under the earth? No way. But it was true.

The air was clean and smelled of flowers and clear water. Bird song echoed together with a gentle melody from an instrument Seifer never had heard before. Wherever he looked, he saw trees and grass and cave walls. What wondrous technology made it possible to blossom this deep down in the earth? What energy kept, whatever it was, the light strong as the sun running? And here he’d thought Esthar was the high-tech community.

Following the two Shumis, they soon came to the little village with the simple yet advanced houses. Squall twisted in his arms and blinked up at him. The brunet didn’t say or do anything, though. Drowsy, he studied their surroundings and let Seifer carry him.

They stopped in front of the biggest house.

“Elder is waiting,” the two Shumis echoed.

Seifer eyed them, the house, and Squall. Squall stared at the wooden door, but seemed to be listening more to the melody playing than concentrating on what was happening. Seifer sighed and went inside.

At first, the darkness made him blind again and it paralyzed him. Gradually, the bluish light from an aquarium tank made him able to see. Seifer inhaled silently as he saw the Elder.

Squall had tried describing the Elder for Seifer once, he hadn’t even been close. The large creature slowly rose from his chair and Seifer was close to backing a step. Large hands with abnormal fingers opened flatly.

“Welcome, Child of Ifrit,” the Elder said slowly with an accent that made the words rounded.

“Seifer,” he corrected. The elder nodded and closed the large hands.

Seifer eyed the tall creature. He couldn’t understand how Squall had been able to trust this thing. Seifer didn’t. Not with those black, black eyes, large hands and height. Those black eyes were currently resting on his lover. Blue eyes looked calmly back. The elder sighed.

“The Spirits told me what had happened, I didn’t want to believe it at first…” he said sadly.

Seifer frowned.

“The Sprits?” The elder looked at him.

“Those you call ‘Guardian Forces’,” he explained and Seifer arched an eyebrow.

“How? What do you mean they told you?” Seifer wondered lowly.

How could this creature get in contact with GFs Squall had had at the time? Seifer knew that Squall never let go of his GFs no matter what and if he did, the GFs never talked about him to the other carrier.

The Elder strained his lips in something that had to be a meek smile, but that reminded Seifer of a dog barring its teeth just a little.

“They told me that you had the gift, but ignored it too,” he said slowly and Seifer frowned.

He frowned even more when frustration rose.

“Whatever, I’m not here to listen to a bunch of rubbish. Shiva told me to bring him here and I thought this place was the only secure one,” Seifer growled and the Elder didn’t let go of that smile.

He nodded slowly. Squall suddenly whimpered and twisted in Seifer’s arms. He calmed down just as quickly, though, and kept staring at the Elder. When Seifer looked up, those black, black eyes were nailed at him. They captured him like a net and held him in bonds he couldn’t understand.

“Squall is very, very sick, Seifer. You need to trust us so that we can heal him. You also need to listen to us and do as told. Do you understand?” There wasn’t anything joyful in the stern voice, neither was it lacking authority.

Not being able to find his voice, Seifer found himself nodding. The Elder nodded once and stepped up. Seifer had to clench his teeth hard to stand still. Squall whined and curled up under Seifer’s chin, clenching his eyes hard and probably pretending nothing was happening.

The large hand with the strange fingers stroked the brown hair and a pale chin. The black eyes softened.

“He is very sick, only the greatest of spirits will be able to help him now,” the creature murmured.

He tried taking the brunet, but both Seifer and Squall resisted. Squall wailed and clutched to Seifer and Seifer held harder. The black eyes stared down at Seifer’s and Seifer slowly let his burden go. Squall wasn’t strong enough to stay as he was lifted. He whined and sobbed instead and twisted to be able to get down.

The Elder turned around and started walking down a narrow corridor beside the great tank. Seifer followed.

Squall went silent and still somewhere in the middle of the corridor. When they closed in on the end and a greenish light, Shiva swayed up inside of him.

They stepped out in a circular cave. A green pool in the far right corner lightened it. To the left there were benches with soft madras’s on. To Seifer’s surprise, Squall laid still as he was put down and the Elder walked over to a little table. Squall curled up on his side and stared off at the green pool. Seifer stood in the middle of the cave, not knowing what to do.

Behind him, two Shumis suddenly appeared. One carried some sort of cream-colored robe, the other some sort of machine. As Seifer looked on, the Elder gave Squall something to drink.

Whatever it was, it made his lover drowsy and unable to do anything than lay there. Seifer stepped forward to protest as they started undressing his lover, but stopped as the Elder glanced at him.

Squall got undressed and changed into the robe. The machine had a bunch of wires that they latched to Squall’s chest, temples and hands. It glowed a soft blue as it started working. What it did, he didn’t know. Seifer hadn’t any urge to ask either. He was still torn between trusting and not trusting the Elder.

But Shiva calmed him and Squall had told him a lot about the trust he had felt for the Elder. Seifer sighed. What choice did he have? None.

When the machine was put aside and Squall lifted by the Elder, Seifer became worried again. Even more so as Squall was carried to the pool and put down in it.

“What’re you doing?” Seifer asked as Squall floated away on the surface.

“Joining him with the spirits,” the Elder simply answered.

Seifer swallowed as Squall sunk down in the green pool without resistance.

“But he’ll drown.” Seifer wanted to step down in that thing and bring his lion back up, but at the same time, he knew this was right.

The Elder looked up at him and then down.

“Return her,” he said calmly.

“What?”

“Shiva, let her return. She is not yours to have,” he explained.

Seifer blinked down. Shiva swirled around excitedly.

: : It is all right, Seifer. He is right. We do not belong to each other : : she sang and swirled.

: : But… what? Down in the pool? : :

At Shiva’s nod, Seifer frowned. But he did as told. He unjunctioned all the magic and skills with care. Too many times, he had carelessly unjunctioned a GF and lay sick for a day, sometimes longer than a day. And that had been week GFs with very few and weak magic junctioned. He didn’t even want to imagine the agony a separation with Shiva in that way would cause.

Seifer dropped his hand in the green pool and inhaled sharply. It was the coldest he had ever felt and in the same time the warmest. Then came the voices. The GFs.

He felt them, all of them. Ifrit, Quezacotl, Diablos, Cerberus. All and more. More and more than he had ever known existed. Everyone looking at him and Shiva. It felt as if he was standing in a gigantic room without walls and ceiling and floor and high above him, gigantic creatures looked down at him. Different forms and colors and sounds.

Then Shiva released herself from him. At first, she seemed to be his size, and then she grew. She swirled upwards in a gentle rotating movement. She grew the higher she went. A beautiful creature. Both human and inhuman. Among the others, she stood out as an blue icicle. Only the angry red inferno of Ifrit did not step aside for her.

Then he was back in complete darkness.

His body screamed in agony, his head was spinning, his skin felt raw and hot, his insides boiled. All he heard was his pounding heart and ragged breaths.

As his sight and breathing came back to normal, Seifer found himself lying in the lap of the Elder. Black eyes looked down at him with little concern in them.

“You have seen and felt and tasted. You will understand, too,” he said softly.

Seifer couldn’t answer. His body still screamed in agony, as if he’d run a hundred miles and fought a thousand red dragons. He was starting to freeze too. As he was gently lifted in the big hands, his awareness slowly melted away.


Author’s Whining:
Not so long a chapter, I think. I got a reprimand from my beta about stopping talking bad about myself, so I will.

I’m satisfied with this chapter. It helps to be sitting out on the country with nothing else but sun and fresh air and birds song surrounding you. It gives you inspiration, at least it gives me.