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 Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:28 pm
They arrived in Ellis’ room. Yvoire found it easier to have a homebase of sorts, a single point from which he came and went, rather than coming and going from wherever he happened to finish up each visit. This way he could reorient himself more quickly.
Yvoire held onto Reims’ hand a little longer than necessary, glancing around to assure himself that they had actually arrived, and that things hadn’t deteriorated so much since he was last able to get here that there wasn’t any hope of fixing it. The room looked a little more sad and dusty than he’d left it. Papers that had once been stacked neatly on the desk had been scattered. A few pieces of furniture had been overturned. A couple of the windows bore additional cracks; one had shattered, leaving shards of glass on the old wooden floors which themselves seemed a bit worse for wear.
“It’s not so bad,” he said—more to reassure himself than Reims. “It looked worse the first time I came here.”
Still, Yvoire frowned. He took a breath and let it out slowly. They’d both put work into this place. He didn’t like that it had been disturbed.
“Let’s find the Code piece. I thought maybe it would be in the dungeons, but…” He paused and tried to focus on his own power, like it could lead them to it. “I think it’s somewhere else.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:37 pm
Reims had agreed to go with Yvoire, of course. He wanted to. He wanted to try and etch everything he could into his memory in case he decided one way or another.
His jaw still hurt, although it was easy to ignore when he was busy focusing on other things. His hand was still tender, but he made sure not to flinch when Yvoire squeezed it.
It was those kinds of things that made him think maybe it would be better to have a fresh start. He didn’t want to burden his friends by figuring out where to house him, and he doubted he would survive alone on Ganymede for very long, even if Yvoire and Ganymede brought him supplies. He would get too anxious not knowing what was happening to his friends on Earth.
If you left, there would be a hole that would never fill up. You and Yvoire are really close, have you told him? …Or anyone else? I bet they would all try to change your mind.
He could still hear the upset in Dering’s voice, and closing his eyes didn’t help because he could see images of his friends’ starseedless bodies on the ground in front of him, instead.
But what scared him the most was not knowing if he was the one holding the starseeds.
“You think it’s somewhere other than-- wait, you really have dungeons in this place? Creepy,” he let out a quiet laugh but offered Yvoire a little smile of reassurance. Getting the Code settled first was most important. He would worry about everything else, later.
The room itself looked worse for wear, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed in time, at least.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:39 pm
“I don’t know,” Yvoire admitted. “I assumed there would be, in an old castle.”
Especially in one that once housed the royal family, even if that had been centuries before the immediate past. He’d only assumed dungeons because it made sense that they’d exist in a place like this; it had seemed to Yvoire that a location like that would be safe enough for something as important as a piece of the Code.
The longer he thought about it, the more he wondered if he might have been looking at things the wrong way. Thick walls and locked cells could keep it safe physically, but the Code was magic. Maybe they should be looking for a place that could keep it safe magically.
Yvoire took another breath. He let it out on a heavy gust. He shifted on his feet and tried to get his bearings, then closed his eyes to focus easier. If he tapped into his own power and followed it…
When he first came here, Ganymede had said he might see memories, that she knew so much about the past and what this world had been like because she could remember her past life. In a year, Yvoire hadn’t seen much of anything. Sometimes he heard whispers, or distant music. Once, he’d thought he’d heard laughter. A few times when he’d been cleaning he’d caught movement out of the corner of his eye, but whatever it was had been gone as soon as he’d turned to look.
But he felt something—some far away knowledge, kept out of reach by time or inexperience. He didn’t know if it was a product of this place or something that was locked deep within him courtesy of his starseed. He only knew that it existed—waiting, maybe, for the right moment to reveal itself.
This time when Yvoire heard music, he followed it.
“This way,” he said.
He kept hold of Reims’ hand, tugging him along slowly, carefully, following a path he had no memory of, but which his soul seemed to insist was right. They left Ellis’ room, trailed down the hall, and picked their way down stairs littered with debris. When Yvoire opened his eyes he lost the trail which beckoned him onward, so he kept them closed and relied on Reims to warn him and help him over any obstacles.
They hadn’t gone far when Yvoire came to a stop: down to the ground floor, but on the same side of the castle. They stood in front of a pair of great wooden doors carved with vines and flowers. Unlike the doors which led out onto the bridge, these doors still stood in their hinges—solid and heavy, almost pristine, as if something had stubbornly kept them closed as the rest of the castle decayed around them.
“Do you hear that?” he asked quietly.
It wasn’t music he’d heard, but the low hum of magic.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:40 pm
Yvoire had a point about there usually being dungeons in old castles. He didn’t know much about castles to begin with, and only knew as much of Yvoire as his fellow knight allowed him to see.
He frowned at the idea of Evie walking around with his eyes closed, but made sure to be extra attentive when it came to obstacles. It seemed as though Evie knew where he was going, even without being able to see, so Reims only tugged on his hand once or twice, or warned him verbally about whatever littered his path.
Unlike Evie, he heard nothing. At least until they reached the door.
Reims stared up at it, in awe and wonder. The delicate vines and flowers carved so intricately seemed like it was an impossible feat, yet it stood solid in front of them.
And then… he heard it.
“What is that?” he asked, even though he knew. It gave him chills down his back, and he gave Evie’s hand another gentle squeeze for encouragement.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:41 pm
“Magic,” Yvoire said.
He opened his eyes to inspect the doors, though a part of him already knew what he would see. Even the handles of the doors, which seemed to have been cast out of some kind of metal and gleamed a brilliant gold, had been fashioned into vines. Yvoire reached out to grasp one of them. It was warm to the touch and seemed to hum beneath his hand, but when he moved to push the door open it remained stubbornly in place.
A frown pulled at the corners of his lips. Yvoire released Reims’ hand to grab the other handle, but had no better luck with that one.
“They’re locked. But…” He crouched a bit, peering around the handles. “There’s no keyhole.” He wouldn’t even know where to begin looking for a key if there’d been one. It could be anywhere in the castle—or somewhere else entirely, if Ellis died elsewhere and had the key with him when he did.
The lack of one wasn’t exactly helpful either.
Yvoire glanced over his shoulder at Reims. “Maybe that’s what the magic’s for?”
He could feel it, hear it, almost taste it. It wasn’t Chaos and it didn’t feel like the Code, though he was sure the latter was in there.
What else could it be?
Yvoire took a step back, glancing over the doors from top to bottom. He put his palm flat against one of them to feel the low, barely there vibrations. The doors were set in a frame of carved stone, which showed its age in how weathered it had become. A dark stain, maybe half a foot long and a few fingers wide, streaked one side of it at the level of Yvoire’s eyes. The stone was chipped in spots. A single crack splintered out from the top of the arched frame, but the walls themselves were thick and hadn’t fallen.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:41 pm
“Locked?” Reims repeated with an incredulous scoff. Not at Yvoire! But at the Wonder for being stubborn. Weren’t they supposed to be there to help it? Wasn’t that what the Code wanted? Couldn’t it give them a little extra boost or something to get them to where they needed to go?
“If there’s no keyhole… maybe it’s barred from the other side? Do you think there might be another entrance?” That was the only thing he could think of. Maybe they just had to circle around and find it but…
“Why would you feel the urge to come here if this isn’t where we’re supposed to be? I mean, you walked here with your eyes closed. For what? A dead end? Maybe they’re just stuck,” Reims suggested, taking a step forward so he could grab hold of the handle and--
Let out a yelp of surprise and hiss of pain as he was blasted backwards by some magical barrier.
“I’m really getting tired of being knocked to my a** by invisible ******** magic,” he whined, wincing as he scrambled back to his feet and rubbed at his hip.
He cursed pathetically under his breath, gritting his teeth and shrugging. “Maybe close your eyes again, I don’t know. Ow…”
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:42 pm
Yvoire gasped and turned, moving to help Reims back to his feet.
“Are you okay?” he asked helplessly, uselessly, not expecting to be answered since the answer was obvious anyway.
Yvoire looked back to the doors while Reims was cursing and rubbing at his hip. This was where the Code was. Yvoire was as certain of that as he was about the fact that his name was Yvoire and he was a Squire of Ganymede. Somehow he had to get the doors open. They’d been sealed by magic somehow—not by the Code itself, but by something else.
When no obvious answer presented itself, Yvoire followed Reims’ advice and closed his eyes. He took another breath to settle himself, letting it out slow enough to ease the tension from the sudden fright. He put his palm to the door again, trying to envision what it might look like inside.
A voice crept through the back of his mind—not known to him, but almost familiar. Yvoire focused on it, tried to pull in forward, but it was drowned out by wordless shouts, deafening explosions, and shattering glass. He could almost see it, just there in his subconscious—a time long gone and the people who’d gone with it.
Quote: Ellis lurched down the hallway. Blood streaked his hair and slid down the side of his face. His shirt and trousers were drenched with it—his own, and that of another. He’d never killed a man before, hadn’t ever had any reason to, until tonight. Death was heavy, he realized now. It was chaotic and undignified. He still felt it—the resistance as blade pierced flesh and muscle, the solid weight of another body dragging him down. He drew in a great gasp of air but coughed as smoke filled his lungs. Yvoire was burning. The castle. The town. He could hear distant screaming, and orders shouted down the halls, but he couldn’t make out the words. Everything seemed distant, hazy. The world spun around him. The castle shook beneath his feet. He couldn’t catch his breath. His heart was racing, rising into his throat. The Sanctuary, he told himself. Get to the Sanctuary!Ellis stumbled down the stairs. Fire licked along the walls below, charring carpets and turning tapestries into ash. Bodies littered the floor but Ellis refused to look at them, didn’t want to know if he would recognize their faces. He heard figures approaching from behind and put an extra burst of speed into his steps, bare feet slipping in pools of blood. He reached the doors with their carved flowers and vines. Firmly closed but vulnerable to the fire, they could only offer so much protection on their own. Ellis brought a hand to his head where it ached the most, slicking his palm with his own blood. He left a smear of it on the doorframe and felt the hum of latent magic take hold. Golden light followed the path of the frame and bled down the seam, sealing the doors and the room beyond for anyone who was not the blood of Ganymede.
Yvoire gasped again and jerked back, nearly colliding with Reims. He stared at the doors with wide eyes, then glanced down the hall.
There was no fire, no golden light. There were no bodies on the floor.
“We can’t open it,” he said, voice quiet and unsteady, almost a whisper. “There was—... Something happened here. The castle was under attack. Ellis sealed it shut with blood magic.”
The smear of blood remained, so dark now he hadn’t realized what it was until the memory.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:42 pm
If only because he was still suspicious of the doors after they had knocked him back, he was ready to catch Yvoire once he’d been knocked back as well.
He wrapped his arms loosely around him, allowing him to step away once he was steadied, but there if he needed a moment to collect himself.
“Blood magic?” he repeated, although he felt a little silly doing so. He was pretty sure he was just repeating everything Yvoire said, only with more confusion. It wasn’t very helpful.
“I could try some of my blood,” he offered. “Ah, I already got hurt. Just… cut my hand. It’s okay, though,” he promised as he tugged off one of his gloves to show the gash across his palm. “It doesn’t hurt much,” he lied and shrugged. Sure, the blood was dry, but he hadn’t had a chance to clean and bandage it, so he could probably reopen the wound really easily.
Was that weird? That was probably weird.
“I mean, it would be pretty stupid if you’re the knight here and can’t get to the Code,” he pointed out, watching Yvoire to make sure any change in his expression was caught. He already looked like he was in some distress. Reims didn’t want to further that. Oh, maybe he should have been more careful about just showing him he’d been hurt then.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:42 pm
Yvoire took Reims’ hand, lifted it to look at his cut palm.
“What happened?” he asked.
First the bruise on his jaw, now his palm. Yvoire winced guiltily, remembering all the times he’d given Reims’ hand a squeeze. He touched it gently now, skimming the very tips of his fingers over the gash, ready to pull away the second Reims showed any sign of discomfort.
“Why didn’t you say anything? This looks like it hurts.”
He looked into Reims’ eyes, concern etched across his face, the doors and the memory momentarily forgotten. His heart pounded, his mind whirled with what he’d seen, but Yvoire ignored it. Reims was hurt, and he didn’t seem to care if he happened to hurt himself further, so long as it helped them.
Yvoire couldn’t ask him to do that, didn’t want to. He didn’t think it would work, in any case, but he wasn’t sure how to explain how he knew, wasn’t even sure how he knew it himself.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:43 pm
Reims felt his heart flutter and his ears burned. Yvoire didn’t have to look at him like that. Like he was so concerned and worried and nothing else mattered right then. That wasn’t what Reims meant to happen. He just wanted to help Yvoire with getting this weird blood magic unlocked.
“Eh, I just cut it on something. I don’t even remember what. It doesn’t hurt,” he lied and flashed Yvoire a smile to prove that he was perfectly fine.
“Come on, we’ve gotta get this Code piece figured out because you’re gonna help me with mine, yeah?” he hummed, hoping it wasn’t too obvious how flustered he felt about Yvoire’s concern. There have been too many people caring about what happened to him recently. He would have to remember that the next time something happened, and keep things to himself better so as not to worry them.
“It’ll be fine, I promise,” he insisted and gently pulled his hand away. He used the pointy end of his cufflink to reopen part of the wound. Just enough so there were a few drops of blood! Nothing crazy.
This time when he touched the door--
“Son of a--” Reims hissed and cursed as he was knocked back again, this time not bothering to get up. He just laid down on the floor.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:43 pm
“Reims!”
Yvoire went to him and tried to help him up. Guilt worked its way into the concern on his face. He should have warned Reims not to try, even if he didn’t know how to explain how he knew. Yvoire felt horrible—first that Reims was injured, then that he kept getting himself knocked back trying to help.
“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” he asked again, kneeling down next to Reims to fret over him. If Yvoire had noticed any part of Reims being flustered before, it’d already flown out of his mind. “I don’t think anyone else can touch it. Whatever happened, Ellis didn’t want anyone to get in. I think it needs a specific type of blood. You know, like, from specific people.”
He mumbled the latter part. From the memory, and from what little Ganymede had told him about this world and what she knew of the past, Yvoire was certain he knew what kind of blood was necessary, or whose. The blood of Ganymede. Not the Senshi, otherwise Ellis’ blood wouldn’t have worked, but blood of a specific family, which both Ellis and the Ganymede of the past had been a part of. Blood they shared.
Without it, the door would remain sealed.
But… Yvoire had been able to touch it.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:44 pm
“I’m fine,” he promised as he groaned, pushing himself up so Yvoire didn’t have to fuss too much about him. Although he had to admit that it was nice being fussed over. A little addictive. Not that he was going to start doing dangerous things just for the attention, but… -- he wasn’t! Really. But it was nice to know Yvoire actually cared. Others, like Dering and Evan, too. It was just… weird.
“So Ellis put a blood seal on the door that keeps the Code safe,” he frowned and then sighed.
“At least you know no one can get to the Code piece? Do you think going back and talking to the Code on the Moon would help? Or… I guess seeing if Ganymede knows? I can’t imagine where you’d be able to find blood of someone who’s been dead for so long.”
Reims looked up at Yvoire then, and frowned at the expression on his face.
“What are you thinking? Have you already figured out a way in?” He looked like he was thinking hard about something. He was smarter than Reims, so he definitely would have an answer before him.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:44 pm
Yvoire shook his head.
The Code wouldn’t know. Or maybe it would, since it seemed to know a lot of things, but Yvoire doubted it would be able to help. This magic, though it had been used to protect the Code piece here, had nothing to do with the power offered to them by the Code. This was magic from the moon of Ganymede, passed down through generations.
“Bloodlines,” Yvoire whispered.
It seemed so stupid to say it, to suspect or to know without any proof beyond an obscure memory and gut instinct.
Ellis may not have had children, but somewhere over the centuries from some other branch in the tree, the bloodline must have continued.
Yvoire thought of Daddy alone in the woods, a hand reaching into his chest for his starseed. Had it been through him? Had he been a knight, too, decorated with the same symbols? Could he have been Yvoire before the mantle passed to Énna? Daddy might not have had Ellis’ starseed, but if he somehow had his blood…
Or could it have been the egg donor he’d never known? A young woman somewhere on Earth who’d made it possible for Dad and Daddy to make a family. Had the blood of Ganymede come to him through her? Could she be here, too, guarding some other ancient Wonder, communing with a different piece of the Code, unaware of what had become of the tiny spec of a cell she’d parted with sixteen years ago?
Yvoire looked from Reims to the doors. He rose slowly, heart pounding, sending a wave of nausea up his throat. He glanced around until he found something to help—a piece of glass from one of the broken windows. Yvoire took it and, cringing in anticipation, cut into the fleshy part of his palm.
Blood welled out of the wound. He hissed quietly, holding his hand close to nurse the sting. When the initial flash of pain wore off, Yvoire put his bleeding hand to the stone frame, smearing a bright streak of blood on the side opposite the one left by Ellis.
Golden light erupted from the seam between the doors. It rose up through the arch, so bright it was almost blinding, and once it faded Yvoire grabbed onto the handles and pushed.
The doors creaked open.
“Oh, wow...”
The Sanctuary was a garden. Or it had been once, before time had withered its flowers into nothing. The garden beds were empty of all but rot and the thin, gnarled trunks of decaying trees. All that remained intact was the architecture—carved stone columns and the decorative frames of raised garden beds. The walls were glass, except for the one which held the doors. The ceiling was glass, arching high above them, allowing the sun’s light to fill the entirety of the space. Most of the floor was stone, but the very center was cut through with an aisle of glass which looked onto the river below.
At the very center of the aisle was a stone pedestal.
Above the pedestal floated a small piece of the Code.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:45 pm
Reims watched curiously after Yvoire, contemplating the word he whispered.
Bloodlines…
He pressed his lips together. His bloodline had caused him so many problems. It made him an outcast, forced him to be different from the rest of his family. So much so that they didn’t even consider him as part of their family, he was slowly starting to realize.
But it was different for everyone, and as Yvoire picked up a piece of glass and approached the door, Reims stood back up so he could watch. Mostly, he waited to be able to catch Yvoire in case the doors decided to knock him back just like they had him.
That didn’t happen.
Instead, the doors were pushed open and the Code was there waiting for Yvoire.
“Well… I think this is probably better than a dungeon,” he said as he stared around the glass enclosed garden. It certainly looked like it had seen better days, but…
“Maybe… maybe this could be your next project? After you. Uh. Do your thing with the Code I mean.”
Reims felt his ears burn again, feeling bad for suggesting Yvoire fix up the garden when he didn’t know if that was what he wanted or not.
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Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 6:45 pm
Yvoire stepped into the room and turned on the spot, staring around at all the various features. It looked almost drab now, decrepit and gray, but long ago it must have been awash with color. Through the ceiling they could see into the clear blue sky. Through the walls they could see how Ganymede itself lived on, shedding brilliant leaves as fall slowly transitioned into winter. Yvoire could only imagine how pretty the Sanctuary would be when it snowed—like standing in the middle of a snowglobe.
“You’ll help me?” he asked, turning back to Reims. The pain in his own hand had already been forgotten. “When we’re done here, and at Reims. When everything’s back to normal. We can clean up the beds and plant some new flowers. I used to—”
Yvoire stopped himself, suddenly hesitant. He used to garden with Daddy, planting shrubs and flowers in the front yard to add some color to their rundown street. They would pick weeds over the weekends while Dad cut the grass, making wishes on every dandelion…
Yvoire swallowed the lump that threatened to clog his throat. He forced a smile onto his face, looked around again to recapture some of the wonder he’d felt the moment the doors opened.
“I wouldn’t want to do it alone,” he admitted.
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