Ch 28: The Home That Once Was

The journey to Loralu has ended at last, and upon arriving Grey, Alexander, and Saria meet Fenrip Pascal, an old friend of Amelia. The time has come for a scattered family to return home.

            Walking the road to Loralu, the peaceful village in sight, Alexander, Grey, and Saria were at last arriving at their goal after a day’s travel. Irritated that they had walked all this way when they didn’t have to, Grey said, “You mind explaining again why we took a road trip instead of just hopping one of Claire’s portals?” Not looking back at him, Alexander replied, “As I explained, we are in no rush. Even if we take an extra day, Richter’s group didn’t take a portal either. They have to make a few days journey due to the magical and natural defenses around the dragons’ homeland in the Rusfa Isles, so even if we had returned a day earlier, we would still have to wait for them.” Still not convinced, Grey said, “We’d have had an extra day to look around if we’d taken the portal then. Sheesh, do you really have that big a grudge against Claire?” Alexander remained silent, and Grey simply let out a sigh of frustration as they kept walking. 

Having kept silent most of the journey, still feeling awkward after the unpleasant conversation she’d had with Grey, Saria finally said, “Um, why is it that I’m going to Loralu with you again? I thought we were traveling to Loralu to visit Alexander’s home, where he was going to tell Grey something.” As Alexander glanced back at him, Grey could see his irritated expression. After upsetting her, Grey had not been able to bring himself to discuss the truth with Saria. As she expectantly awaited an answer, Grey evasively said, “I’ll explain later. We’re almost there anyways…” Saria looked rather dissatisfied with his answer, but Alexander simply said, “Just be patient Saria. This journey is much safer than if you had gone with the others anyways, and I think you’ll find it worth your time. Though I cannot guarantee you will think highly of me once all of this is over…”

            Passing through the western gate of Loralu, as they stepped onto the cobblestone street, Grey started to look around. Situated near a mountain that formed a kind of half circle shaped wall around the area, Loralu’s location was somewhat ideal. Not only was there fertile soil for farmland, but a nearby lake and small forest as well. Even though it was an out of the way refuge for outcasts and half breeds, nowhere did Grey see homeless people who wore rags or looked malnourished. It seemed like a normal, peaceful town. The diversity of its inhabitants was reflected in the architecture, no building seemed the same as the last. Some buildings reminded him of those of the elven home of Vitaeris, some of the halman city Bolseil, and some of the Demonfolk capital of Daemonholm. There were also homes of unfamiliar design, no doubt belonging to some of the races whose lands he had yet to visit. As they made their way through the streets, Grey noted the lack of hover vehicles, and judging by the smoke coming from the chimneys of the many dwellings, he had a feeling the townspeople got by without some of the technological conveniences he had seen so much of here on the continent of Lacra. 

He also noticed many people started staring at them and whispering amongst themselves as they passed by. Noticing this as well, as she began to become unnerved by it, Saria said, “Why is everyone looking at us like that?” Not worrying about it, Grey said, “They can probably tell we’re from out of town. It’s a bigger place than I expected, but they probably don’t have a lot of sightseers come poking around. New faces like us probably stand out.” Seeming to quicken his pace suddenly, Alexander said, “I’m afraid that there’s a more tiresome reason…” Exchanging confused looks, Grey and Saria hurried after him. As they continued on their way, Grey said, “So where is this place?” 

Pausing a moment, Alexander replied, “Our destination is actually outside the town, over in depths of the Silver Forest, named so for the silver colored leaves of it’s trees. Passing through the southeast gate will put us on the road into the forest.” The three ventured on, and then as they were entering the town square, Alexander noticed something that made him stop in his tracks and moan, “Oh no!” Caught off guard by his outburst, Grey came to a stop too and said, “What’s up with you now?” Then following his gaze, Grey saw it as well and said, “Whoa, isn’t that you Alexander?!” Covering his face with his hand, Alexander muttered, “Kill me. Just kill me now…” Erected in the center of the square was an exquisitely crafted life size statue of Alexander, his sword resting on his shoulder in heroic fashion.

            As Grey and Saria walked up to get a closer look at the statue, Alexander tagging along reluctantly, a voice suddenly called out, “Haha! It’s true, you’ve returned!” Rushing up to them was a man with green eyes, pointy elven ears, black half-rimmed glasses, and brown hair that was long in the front and parted down the middle. He was wearing a black t-shirt and long black pants, both with wild green designs on them. There was a black wristwatch fastened on his right wrist, and strapped to his waist was what looked like a carrying case for art supplies. As he saw the man, Alexander said, “Fenrip Pascal, the town’s most prodigious half elf artist. So this is your doing then?” Standing there with a big grin on his face, Fenrip replied, “What do you think?! It’s one of my best works, if I do say so myself! The mayor commissioned me to sculpt it. He wanted to make sure you we properly recognized for founding our town. I knew it would make a great surprise for you when you finally returned, so I really put my all into it!” 

With a sigh, Alexander said, “It’s a nice thought Fenrip, but what on earth makes you think I need MORE statues of myself floating around in this world?!” Placing his hands in his pockets and admiring his work, Fenrip said, “One more shouldn’t hurt now should it? Oh well. I was really hoping you’d like it, but I guess some things never change.” Looking away from the statue, Fenrip’s eyes passed over Saria and Grey briefly, and he said, “So did Amelia wander off or something? Ah, but these two… It’s been about that many years, so I’m going to assume-” Quickly Alexander rushed forward and grabbed Fenrip by the shoulder, saying, “Shut up and come with me! I need to explain something to you in private.” As Alexander steered Fenrip over to a secluded alleyway, Saria turned to Grey and said, “Um, this is getting weird.” Faking a laugh, Grey said, “Yeah, must be related to what he needs to tell me or something…” 

As she stared at him suspiciously, Grey turned his gaze away from her, thinking, “Damn it, hurry up Alexander! Who is that guy anyways? And what’s this business of Mom wandering off? Could he be one of her friends and not know that she’s dead?!” The wheels turning in her head, Saria thought, “Somehow I get the feeling Grey knows something I don’t. I’d gotten used to Alexander acting weird around me, but now Grey seems to be in on it. The whole reason for making this trip to Loralu was strange from the beginning. Going to all this trouble to come here, just to discuss something? Why did I have to come too? What’s this about it being worth my time? It’s so confusing, and this place also seems… so familiar…”

            Clutching his head as he stood in the alley with Alexander, looking as though he’d be sick, Fenrip said, “How could you leave without telling me?! Without letting anyone know?! Amelia… I thought she’d gone with you!” In a solemn tone, Alexander said, “I’m sorry Fenrip. I had to get my children out of the area as quickly as possible. We barely got away as it was.” Shaking his head, Fenrip said, “I know… In fact it would have been very bad had you come here for help, it would have been a massacre!” Then he turned to look out at Grey and Saria and said, “It must have been so hard on them…” Pushing his shades up the bridge of his nose, Alexander said, “Neither of them remember. They were still so young…” Turning to him with an irritated look, Fenrip retorted, “That hardly makes much difference does it?! To grow up never knowing their mother, to know that she was stolen from them, all because of a battle they never asked to be any part of!” 

Unable to look at him face to face, Alexander quietly said, “They didn’t know. Saria still does not know.” Starting to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, Fenrip said, “Didn’t know? How could they not know?!” Turning his back on Fenrip, Alexander said, “After we’d escaped, I decided to take the battle to Alastor. I wanted revenge. I knew however, that I still had my children to think about. I didn’t want either of them to become involved in the nightmare born from my mistakes, but as the new He of the Infinite, my son was our ultimate weapon. I was not about to accept that though…” Turning to face Fenrip now, Alexander raised a hand and balled it into a fist as he said, “As absurd as it was, I pleaded with Serius to go to Mautau and pray for my son’s freedom, to beg Origin to choose another! But I already knew his answer. Origin does not exist to grant our wishes…” 

Letting his hand fall to his side with a sigh, Alexander continued, “I placed Saria in an orphanage here on Gaia. The head of the family that had been my ally in halman society, the Bloodrayne family, was already struggling with family matters related to his lack of a male heir and his wife’s weak constitution, and as much as I wanted to, I could not risk sending her to Lorem Academy. I went through a great deal of trouble to hide Vas Initio there, founded the academy myself under a different name, made a secret arrangement with the halman nobles in Xandaris to defend it and supply goods to the residents. I was not about to make things easier for Alastor by hiding both it and Saria in the same location.”

            Simply staring at Alexander in horror, Fenrip finally said, “Alexander, you abandoned your own daughter and now you’re talking about it like you were hiding some object in a scavenger hunt?!” Glancing out of the alley at Grey and Saria, Alexander said, “Not just Saria. Varias, or Grey as he goes by now, was raised by foster parents in the world of Teramis. Energists are greatly discriminated against in today’s human society, their names, faces, and DNA all recorded and their freedoms limited. I knew if he was to remain undetected by Altera Veritas, he could not be placed on such records, and to accomplish that, I decided to use the widely abused power of the nobility to my advantage. The Greysons were nobles who governed the village of Aerennis, and with their name and influence, they protected him from detection by the Special Forces. I’d worried that he would remember me eventually, but I still stayed to watch over him until he was ready to fight. Yet in the end, it seems the attack on our home and Amelia’s death was all so traumatic that he never remembered anything…” 

As Fenrip turned away in disgust, he said, “All this cold, calculating logic does not excuse you as a parent from not raising them yourself Alexander!” In a tone that expressed he couldn’t agree more, Alexander quietly said, “I know Fenrip. However difficult, however scared I was, I should have struggled to find a way to keep my family together. I made a grave mistake. That’s why I owe it to them to do this, to set things right and tell them everything. That’s why we’re here.” Turning back to look at him, after a moment a reluctant smile crossed Fenrip’s face and he said, “After hearing that, I suppose I can’t really stay mad at you now can I? But you had better do it right. Do you hear me?” Smiling, Alexander said, “I hear you my old friend.” With a mischievous grin, Fenrip said, “Just a minute now! Did I just hear you call me old? You do realize you’re old enough to be a historical artifact?” Grinning right back at him, Alexander said, “Well I guess that just means I’m more valuable than ever!” 

Both of them burst into laughter, and as they finally stopped, Alexander moved to go as he said, “Well, I’d best not keep them waiting any longer. Drop by later if you want, we’ll be here for a couple nights at least.” Before he could go though, Fenrip quickly said, “Err, one moment, one moment! I’ll have to tag along actually. You won’t be able to get in without me.” Raising an eyebrow questioningly, Alexander said, “Why not?” Taking a moment to decide where to begin, Fenrip said, “It’s really the strangest thing. Once we realized you were gone, the town hired some caretakers to keep your garden in line. Recently though, they started seeing a dark figure skulking around your property. They were convinced it was a ghost or something and resigned from their positions shortly after. I went out there and locked everything up, and I even went so far as to put a seal on the gates.”

            After Alexander and Fenrip regrouped with Saria and Grey, they all made their way through Loralu to the southeast gate. Crossing the bridge over the river that flowed down from the nearby lake, they followed the road into the Silver Forest. As they made their way through the forest, Saria had a strange feeling of familiarity that kept growing and growing, and she thought, “Why does it feel like I’ve been here? This road, the silver colored trees, the smells in the air…” 

While she continued to follow along, lost in thought, Grey was speaking to Fenrip, asking him, “So I’m guessing that’s an art kit you have there Fenrip? You do a lot of art on the go or something?” Beaming at him, Fenrip said, “Exactimundo my dear Grey! It is an art kit, and yes, the ability to take my craft on the road is mostly the reason I carry it. I do quite a bit of field work painting landscapes of this area’s natural beauty, and there are times when I come across aggressive monsters. Unfortunately for them though, I can use it to deal with them as well!” Confused, Grey said, “Your art kit?” With a thumbs up, Fenrip simply said, “Never underestimate the power of imagination!” 

Listening to them, Alexander chuckled to himself as he said, “You’ll see soon enough Grey. The gate is right up ahead.” They arrived at a tall wall made of stone bricks, set in the side of which was a set of large, sturdy looking metal doors as well as a wrought iron gate. Seeing both the gate and doors closed, Alexander said, “You really did lock up tight. I don’t remember ever feeling the need to close the doors as well.” Reaching for his art kit, Fenrip said, “Yes, you had a tendency to invest in home security, both practical and otherwise. Anyways, I just felt we couldn’t be too careful. In the worst case scenario, whoever was lurking about here could have been part of a tribe of bandits, scouting out the place to assess its worth.” 

Having been dumbfounded by the great wall, which looked like it went around a large area and was lined with decorative archways, Grey said, “Alexander, you’re telling me this is the entrance to your house?!” With a mischievous grin, Alexander replied, “Technically it’s the entrance to the grounds around my house. Don’t be so surprised, or did you forget that I’m considered by many to be a god? In all honesty, had I not been so charitable with my fortune, I could easily have been the owner of a much grander abode.” Before Grey could come up with a response, Fenrip withdrew a sketchbook and began flipping through the pages while saying, “Now where is it? Where oh where did I put that key?” Hearing this, Grey and Saria both looked at him strangely, both thinking, “He keeps a key inside the pages of his sketchbook?”

            Turning to a page with a drawing of a key on it, Fenrip grinned and said, “Ahah, there it is!” Standing before the gates and holding the sketchbook up before him, Fenrip channeled EDE into the sketchbook and Grey and Saia witnessed an amazing sight. The image of the key seemed to rise from the page like it were rising from a pool of water, floating into the air as a fully three dimensional key that looked absolutely real. Then taking hold of the key, Fenrip turned the pages again to a sketch of the very gate that they stood before, except with a little keyhole drawn on it that was different from the one on the real gate in front of them. Moving to put the key in the drawn keyhole on the page, as he inserted it, the key passed into the page. Turning the key, there was a loud click, and a glowing layer of energy that had made up the seal around the real gate became visible and then began to disperse. 

Closing the sketchbook, Fenrip said, “That should do the trick!” Glancing at Alexander, he added, “I’ll let you all go on ahead I guess.” Debating with himself a moment, Alexander said, “I suppose after you’ve come all this way, the least I can do is invite you in for a visit…” While Alexander began to rummage in his pockets for the keys to the gate, Grey’s curiosity compelled him to ask, “Hey Fenrip, what was that you just did? I’ve never seen anything like it!” Laughing to himself as he overheard, Alexander said, “You’ll find there’s as many manifestations of an energist’s power as there are people Grey. Though I will admit his is particularly unusual, even for a psychic user. He’s great at parties.” 

Holding up the sketchbook, Fenrip said, “I’m a psychic and water user, thank you very much. I can basically bring my art into reality by channeling EDE into my special water based drawing utensils, bringing out what I draw in a process like you would usually use to summon an Anima Weapon. Sometimes, like with the gate here, I can even use it to affect real places or objects. There’s a slew of complicated limitations, but I won’t bore you with that.” Unlocking the metal doors, Alexander said, “Yes, you’ll have to save that for a rainy day Fenrip. It’s time to do what we came here for…”

            Stepping through the opened gates, as he came out the other side, Grey felt his breath get taken away. A walkway lined with stepping stones and rows of flower bushes on both sides leading up to it’s front doorstep, a very wide three story mansion was erected at the other side of the enormous garden, which was grander than any he had ever seen with its countless trellises bearing flowers of all varieties and artificial waterways that ran down through the garden from the two beautiful fountains near the front of the mansion. Looking around at it all, Grey thought to himself, “I was raised here for three years? I know I was young, but how the hell did I forget a place like THIS?!” 

Suddenly the image of a woman with short pink hair and brown leather armor flashed in his mind, a shadow cast over her face in the waning light of the sun as she stood in the middle of a forest with a bow just like Saria’s in hand. A strange feeling of joy and sadness washing over him, Grey thought, “Mom…” Standing there spacing out, Grey suddenly heard Saria say, “What… is this?” Turning to look at her, he saw her staring at the mansion in shock. Starting forward slowly, as she walked past them and looked around the area in disbelief, she said, “This place, I remember it now but… Why? Alexander, this is…!” Mustering his courage, Alexander said, “Yes Saria. This is your home. Our home…”