I want things to be normal again. I want my life to be exactly the same way it was the day before the Day of Darkness. I want to return to my friends, to my family, and act as if nothing has happened. I can't do that, though. It's become impossible. When I arrive in Arcona Village, it hits me all at once. Things will never be the same, after what happened.
"Time to go get paid!" Natalia calls as she struts off the train. "Come on, guys, let's head on over to the Spiritguard HQ and get this over with."
"A-alright!" Kael calls and scampers after her. I walk off the train after him, with Kavella and Noah trailing just slightly behind.
"Don't forget to bring me!" Noah shouts, and he runs after the two. Kavella and I don't seem to have as much gusto when it comes to getting back. She doesn't know where she's going after this, so I don't blame her. And me? I just have a lot to think about.
"We should go with them," I say. "I wanted to go check in with my mother, but I guess we should take care of our mission first."
"Right," Kavella replies. "We should."
We all arrive at the Spiritguard HQ and it is around then I remember Ms, Borden will be in class teaching at this time. The new batch of recruits would have recently signed up, and now that us graduates are out of the way Ms. Borden is probably dedicating all of her time to class.
When we walk in, though, we see that is not the case. Ms. Borden is walking down the hallway, away from the classrooms. Now that I think about it, she never did spend much time with us in the first few months. It was mostly Mr. Copper.
Her eyes flash when she sees us and a worried smile crosses her mouth. "Are you…" she stammers.
"We did it." My voice comes out strong and valiant. Her worried smile transforms and she is absolutely beaming. The happiness and relief in her eyes is unlike anything I've ever seen.
"Thank goodness," Ms. Borden puts a hand to her chest and closes her eyes. "And you all made it back. Wait a minute, there's more of you now."
Noah steps up next to me and holds out a hand. "I'm the brains of this operation, Ma'am," he winks. "And the brawn. They'd have never killed Merava without me. I'm not a trained Spiritguard, but I practically had to babysit these four. I was wondering if I could get my certification real quick, and scadoodle out of here with some fat stacks of money. I'm a proud Spirit-killing machine. You can call me…Fox."
I try not to laugh. He's way too dramatic about this.
"Oh, really?" Ms. Borden states. "You four, is that true?" She's referring to Kavella, Natalia, Kael, and myself.
"Sort of," I comment. "He's a much better fighter than all of us, and he's had more experience than any of us have, even with the training. He knows a lot about Spirits as well."
"Eh," Natalia states. "He's a good kid. Doesn't know a lick of Animus techniques, though."
"He has what it takes to be a Spiritguard," Kavella affirms. "His capacity for Animus techniques is currently the same as Sigmund's, but I bet Noah here would be able to learn them quickly and easily. He's also much, much better than Sigmund at almost everything."
Hey, wait a minute…
"I'd recommend him," Kael finishes. "What he says is true. We might have all died if it wasn't for his intervention. At the very least, I think it would be fair to offer him some sort of test, and if he passes it, he can prove he's more than worthy to be one of us."
Ms. Borden looks us all over, thinking hard on the advice we've given. She then looks to Noah. He's standing proud and tall with his two menacing black blades at his side. He looks cool, and like a natural born Spirit-killer. I can't deny that.
"I'll give you a test, then. I'd say tomorrow, but I'll be busy with the class. In two days from now, then. I know just the place."
Noah gives a big grin and turns to us, then turns back to Ms. Borden. "Thank you so much, Ma'am! You won't regret it, I promise you! Whatever you have planned, I'm ready!"
"I am going to have you spar against Natalia," Ms. Borden states. "To see how you use your swords. I'll test your physical strength against Sigmund's. I'll make you do a puzzle against Kael, and I'll have Kavella teach you the technique to banish a Specter-type Spirit. If you have the technique mastered by the time you get to me, two days from now, you'll pass that test. The other three tests will be given in two days as well, if that's alright with all of you."
None of us object, because we'd all like to see Noah become a Spiritguard. With amazing talent like his, he deserves it.
"Natalia is a little injured, though," Kael frets. Natalia then promptly smacks him on the back of the head and closes her eyes.
"I'll be fine in two days, especially if my only competition is Noah."
"You're on!" he shouts back. He's been injured too, so at least it's a fair contest.
I make eye contact with Ms. Borden, and she gives me a light nod. "I'd like to talk to you quickly, Sigmund," she says. "And the rest of you, too, individually."
"Okay," I say. She leads me down the hall to her old office. I remember this place well, but it seems a lot smaller and more cramped than I recall. Oh well. I take a seat in the chair near the door, and Ms. Borden works herself over to her own chair behind the desk.
"So," she starts. "Tell me everything that happened. I want to hear it from each of you. Start from the beginning, if you would, and don't leave anything out."
"W-why?" I stumble. "Does that all matter?"
Ms. Borden gives me a serious look. "Yes, it matters," she states. "We know Vitarine was involved, and just because you didn't notice something doesn't mean that I won't. The more you tell me, the better. I already know about your dream, and I've done some research on the man you saw. I believe his name is Teumi."
"Yes, it is," I state. "How did you figure that out, though?"
"I'm not a Spiritguard and an Instructor for no reason, Sigmund," she smirks. "Well, go on then. What happened when you arrived in Greenwald Village?"
"Well, we got there super early in the morning, and we were told there wouldn't be another train until the next night," I start. "So we ended up spending around two days there. While we were there, I got this outfit to wear as a disguise, and I helped save a young kid from something called a Bugbear…"
"Right," Ms. Borden nods. "That corresponds with my report. The Bugbear appearing how it did was an anomaly in itself. That forest is not patrolled because Spirit activity is almost nonexistent. I believe the Bugbear's erratic appearance had something to do with Merava's awakening. I have something else to say on that matter, Sigmund. The reason the train took so long to get there was no mistake. Vitarine had something to do with it."
"Wait, what do you mean they had something to do with it?"
Ms. Borden gives me a dejected look. "Obviously, Sigmund, who do you think uses the trains more than anyone? Vitarine. They had a special train delivery set up to leave at around three in the morning. That's not suspicious to you? They also halted the trains from coming until the night after. Normally the train from Pearl City to Greenwald Village runs every day, sometimes twice a day. Go on with your story. Did anything suspicious happen on the train?"
"Not at all," I think aloud. "We did meet an interesting character on the train, though. I'd gotten a staff of some sort from the Bugbear, and given it to Kavella. There was a man on the train who was highly interested in the staff; his name is Cabel. He ended up being one of the people who made our mission possible. He joined us when we got to Pearl City, and taught us how to infiltrate the Vitarine building there. We met another person in Pearl City too, who helped us out…Portia.
"She gave us the key to the basement of the Vitarine building. We needed that key in order to lie in wait and ambush Merava. The whole thing was a failure, though. Merava ended up escaping from us in Pearl City, and she also managed to awaken another Spirit named Andrakias. Portia and Cabel went with us to follow her after that."
"If Portia had the key to the basement, wasn't she a Vitarine employee?" Ms. Borden scolds. "I told you not to trust those people. You're lucky she didn't betray you or have something to do with this…or did she?"
"She did," I groan. "But it was strange. I mean…we would have never caught up to Merava the first time, or the second time, for that matter. It's like she helped us out all the way through just to betray us after Merava was dead."
"Keep telling me the story," Ms. Borden orders. "I need to think about this."
"Ok. Well, we discovered that Portia was headed to the Northern Mountains in order to resurrect the Spirit King that was sealed there, so we went in pursuit of her. Along the way, we came across the house of an Alchemist that was about halfway in between Whitewind and Pearl City. While we were there, the Alchemist gave us all the power to be able to kill Andrakias and Merava, which made our lives a million times easier. We also befriended the Alchemist's son, Noah. He's the guy out there right now. He wanted to come with us, too, because he's…well, he's a good person. He didn't want to just send us off to possibly die, and he's confident enough in his abilities that he thought he'd save us all. He probably did save us, I mean…there was a point where I would have died if Noah didn't intervene. That was after we got to Whitewind. Kael and Kavella befriended a priestess named Laela as well, but I don't know much about her, other than she's got more skill with Animus magic than I've ever seen.
"When we arrived in Whitewind, we found the town swarming with Imp Spirits, and the entire place was on fire. We later found out that almost the entire population of that town had been decimated by the Imps, along with Andrakias. They were going through the burning buildings and killing whatever they could find. We were able to mitigate a lot of the damage thanks to Laela. She was putting out the fires and she stopped the entire town from being destroyed.
"We fought Andrakias there, and killed him, at the cost of Natalia getting injured. She might've died there, but again…Laela has an Animus technique that saved Natalia's life. We had to leave Natalia behind in what was left of Whitewind as we went out to finish the job with Merava. We figured she was headed straight to the Northern Mountain and we didn't have any time to lose."
I stop talking for a moment to allow Ms. Borden to get a word in, but she doesn't seem to want to say anything. She's invested in the story and she wants to hear how it ends.
"We traveled to the Northern Mountains. We probably would have been gunned down by the military up there, but Portia let us know what their patrol schedule was. Apparently they stop patrolling there at around two in the morning, and they continue again at around ten in the morning. We were able to take advantage of that window of opportunity, and we fought Merava then. Portia was still helping us, as strange as that seems. We took out all of her Imp familiars and eventually killed her, but we couldn't kill her until she summoned the Spirit King. We…we managed to take out the Spirit King too, because of Portia. She is the one who killed him. Cabel and Noah were incredibly wounded after the fight, and Laela again saved their lives.
"After that, Teumi showed up. The same man I saw in my dream here in Arcona Village. Portia's personality completely changed when he showed up. She became mean and menacing, and she flocked to his side. They kidnapped Kavella, and they said she was…from some strange family. Maderas?"
"So it's true," Ms. Borden narrows her eyes. "When I first saw that girl, I noticed there was something in her eyes that was different from all the others. Her yellow hair is a giveaway, too. She's Kealie Madera, isn't she?"
"Um…yes," I reply. "That's what she said her name was, but I still think of her as Kavella. That's how I've known her for the past two and a half years."
"Go on."
"Right. Portia and Teumi took Kavella hostage and ran off in a carriage he'd brought. Noah and Cabel were in bad shape, and Laela had to heal them. She couldn't just leave them like that. So Kael and I were the only two who were able to follow after them and get her back. Since they were in a horse-drawn carriage, finding them was pretty hopeless, until I got an idea. I let myself fall asleep and I had a dream about Teumi and Portia. I saw where they went and I saw where they parked the carriage. Kael and I traveled for almost the entire night to go after them.
"When we finally found them, there was a battle. Kael and I were extremely exhausted but we took on Teumi, while Kavella managed to get free and fight Portia. Eventually, the two of them were losing and they managed to escape. Kael, Kavella, and I were able to reunite and we made our way back to Whitewind. We met back up with Noah, Cabel, and Laela while we were there, as well as Natalia. We waited a few days for everyone to recover, and we came back here."
Ms. Borden furrows her forehead. "Are you sure you're not leaving out anything important?" she asks. "I…this is making sense, somewhat, but I can't figure out one thing. Why would Portia help you if she was working for Vitarine? Didn't Vitarine want the Spirit King to be revived? Isn't that what this was all about? I'm…I'm baffled by the fact that she, Portia, was the one who killed the Spirit King. I would figure she'd have let him destroy all of you and then do whatever she needed to do with him."
"I don't understand it either," I say. "The only thing I can think of is that Portia actually cared about us, and the friendships we made…at least I'd like to think that."
"When you say 'us', do you mean 'you', Sigmund?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean this. Did she help because of her relationship with you?"
I pause for a moment. "It's true that she had romantic feelings toward me," I admit. "She made many, many advances. But it was one-sided. I thought she was pretty and interesting, but my thoughts never got past that."
"Well then. Thank you, Sigmund," she smiles. "I still need to talk to Kael and Kavella. I'm assuming there are hidden details within this story, and by hearing all three of you speak I can piece it together and figure out what is really happening here. You're free to go. I'll see you in two days for Noah's training. Make sure he sticks around, I need to talk to him as well."
"Understood. Thank you for everything, Ms. Borden…um, what do I do for work now? When do I start my normal work?"
Ms. Borden holds up two fingers. "You'll start after the test. Take a two day break, Sigmund, you need it."
"Alright. Take care, Ms. Borden."
"Take care."
On that note, I leave. Kael walks in after me to speak to our old Instructor. I see Noah, Natalia, and Kavella standing by, waiting for their turns.
"Hey, you guys," I grin. "I want to go say hi to my mom. I haven't seen her in a while, and I never got to tell her where I was going. Kael's probably going to stop by his house when he gets out, too. I'll see you back here in an hour or so? We can all get lunch or something."
"Sounds good," Noah gives me a thumbs up.
"Okay." Kavella's voice comes out dull and uncaring. I wonder what's gotten into her so suddenly. Is she thinking back to what happened? Or maybe the memories from her past are coming up. She knows she has to tell Ms. Borden about her real identity. I can understand the stress there.
I begin my walk home. It seems to go by much longer than I remember, for some reason. It's like I live miles away from the Spiritguard place, all of a sudden. Maybe it's my anxiety about being there. Maybe it's because…no, I can't say. I think one thing is certain, though. My mother probably won't even be there when I get back.
I walk up to the house and I find that the front door is unlocked, so I take my liberty and I walk in. When I do, I see that my mother is in fact home. She jumps when the door opens, but when she sees me her eyes soften and she jumps up to give me a hug.
"Hey!" I blurt out as she squeezes me lovingly.
"Oh my god, Sigmund, where were you!?" she's frantic and ecstatic all at the same time. It's nice seeing her so lively and full of joy. Once she started working extra late nights at Vitarine, I didn't see much of that energy before.
My mom and I sit down and we talk about everything I've been up to. I don't inform her of the critical details, though. I leave out anything incriminating about the company. Ms. Borden told me not to trust Vitarine employees with any information. Unfortunately, that includes my mother. I…It's not that I don't trust her. This information could get her hurt, though, and there's no need for that at all.
We spend way more time than I thought we would catching up. She explains to me that she's been under so much distress since I left that she's currently on a paid vacation for the week, and her hours will be shortened. Now that I'm back, though, she's claiming that she will jump right back to work because she's so happy now. When she says this, I feel guilty. I'm upset that I caused so much turmoil for her.
Almost as quick as I came, I have to leave. I did make plans with my friends, after all. "I'll be back early tonight," I promise. "And we can talk as long as you want then."
"Okay, Sigmund." Her eyes are starting to sparkle with tears. She looks happy, but I can see that she's torn up over losing me again. "Be safe, alright? I…I don't know what I'd do if I lost you. I love you, Sigmund."
"I love you too," I reply. "I'll see you soon."
On that note, I get up and leave. I hope it's not too sudden, but I have to get back. I don't want to hold up my friends any longer than I have.
When I get back to the Spiritguard Headquarters, I see that everyone is done with their interviews and Ms. Borden is gone. For a moment, I think about asking everyone how the talks went. I decide not to, though. I want to make the rest of my life as normal as possible, and the first way to go about that is to push all of this damned Merava stuff out of my life once and for all.
"Is that Kael and Sigmund and Kavella!?" I hear a high-pitched shriek. I turn down the hallway and see none other than Mira, Mira Beger, the girl we graduated with. She sprints toward us and jumps at Kael to give him a massive bear hug. After that, she hugs me and then Kavella. She hugs Natalia too, but the two of them were never particularly close. Natalia thinks she's annoying.
"Where have you three been!? Everyone thought you died, because you just went up and disappeared. Do you guys remember Zach Windzie? He graduated at number one in our class. He got arrested!"
"Arrested?" Kael raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah! Apparently he's a total pervert, and he was following one of the new recruits around and trying to get her to…you know. She went to the law enforcement and he was thrown in jail. Crazy, right!? I always thought he was a good guy, not some sort of creepy predator."
"And, and…" Mira is as full of energy as always. She's talking about everyone, and how their lives have changed over the past two weeks. I'm amazed at how much has happened. Most of the people have moved on and returned to their own villages by now, and yet quite a few have stayed. I'm surprised by this, but Mira is working in the Spiritguard Headquarters now. She's an assistant to Mr. Copper. I never thought I'd see the day when Mira was working in education.
"So who are you?" she holds out a hand. "I'm Mira!"
Noah looks at her like she's insane, but he shakes her hand anyway. "You can call me Fox."
"Yeah, this is our friend Noah," Kael corrects. "Noah here was on an adventure with us, and now Noah wants to become a Spiritguard."
Noah shoots Kael a rather dirty look, but he eventually bursts out laughing. The four of us go out to get something to eat and spend our time filling each other in on what's new with our lives. Mira especially takes an interest in Noah. I don't know if it is because he is new to her, or something else, but she's definitely staring him down while we eat and smiling a lot.
This is sort of nice. The five of us sitting in the diner and not worrying about anything else. It gives me hope that things might yet be normal for me.
After we eat, I bid everyone farewell. It's only fair. I should spend time with my mother, after all she's family. She's the only family I have. Kael says he is going home too, but that leaves Noah in an awkward position. Kavella and Natalia are going to stay at the Spiritguard barracks. As graduated Spiritguards, they have that right. Noah doesn't have anywhere to go, however.
"I have an extra bed in my house," Kael offers. "You're welcome to come with me." I stick my tongue out at Kael when he makes that offer. Hopefully nobody notices. Kael just rolls his eyes at me.
Noah takes him up on that offer and everything is settled, so I proceed home. I hope today has set the pace for the rest of my life. I'd like it if this was my normal.
It's more than likely just wishful thinking, but it's all I have.