Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Paths of Destiny ❯ A Twilight Reunion ( Chapter 2 )

The young man walked carefully through the forest. A slight red vest hung loosely from his lithe frame, daubed with mud to act as camouflage in the dense woodland. A sword, concealed inside a dull blue sheath, hung at his side, and the young man's hand strayed towards it in seeming idleness at each step.

A snapping sound behind him caused the youth to stop. He lifted his head slightly, otherwise remaining poised and alert. After a few moments, the young man began to pace off again as he started humming a tune warily to himself.

After a few paces, he once again paused in his tracks. In one fluid movement, he drew his sword swiftly from its sheath, the sharpened blade flashing briefly in the moonlight, and spun quickly round, weapon readied as though to face an assailant, shouting "Come out! I know you're there!" his eyes focused intently in front of him, betraying little emotion.

After a short pause, a figure stepped out of the shadows of the forest. The young man looked quizzical for a moment, and then sighed resignedly.

"Celena, WHY are you following me?"

"Your Highness, I merely wished to enquire as to why you decided to depart from the safety of the city at night, when there are numerous beasts that..." Celena Schezar was dressed in shimmering court regalia, her flowing dress somehow kept gracefully clear of the ground she walked on. A hurried course in etiquette had impressed Celena with the art of decorum, and she held herself with dignity befitting someone of her rank. She opened her mouth to speak haughtily again.

"Drop the act, Celena. You're certainly not fooling me. I suspect no true dignitary would have understood the last sentence you said." The young man smiled wearily, and turned to continue through the bushes, re-sheathing his sword.

"Don't you DARE!" shouted Celena, as all semblance of nobility seemed to drain away and she slumped into a normal looking pose. "I want to have a word with you! VAN! VAN!"

Van Fanel turned his head over his shoulder nonchalantly. "Alright, alright. There's no way we're going any further while you're dressed like that. Think what your brother would say!"

"Ha ha, very funny. Let's go back to Fanelia then, Most Gracious One." retorted Celena, sticking her tongue out mischievously and walking back towards the distant lights of Fanelia, pausing only to shake her high heeled shoes off, flinging them into the undergrowth with a satisfying flick of her feet.

Van sighed openly, gazing wistfully at the isolation of the forest, and turned to follow Celena.

Celena Schezar sat with her legs crossed on her bed. As a guest of the Fanelian Royal Family - well, the King at any rate - she had been given lavish quarters close to the King's own. Being only a few months younger than Van, the two had grown quite close, despite a few weeks of frostiness resulting from the events surrounding Fanelia's war with the Zaibach Empire. Her grey-tinged hair was cut short, although not cropped close in a tomboyish fashion, and she had changed out of the gown she had been wearing to attend a ball to celebrate the election of the new hypnotist of Freid into less formal trousers and shirt. She toyed with her cuffs in boredom as she waited for Van to meet her.

Celena, although she retained a memory of virtually everything she had felt and done as her magically-engineered maniacal alter-ego Dilandau, was not exactly proud of her achievements on the battlefield. In order to atone for the damage she had dealt to Fanelia and its allies, she had offered to help with the restoration work on those buildings which had been burnt many months ago. Van had accepted the offer, with the proviso that Celena was to attend classes to teach her what she had missed out on whilst under Zaibach's control. In the course of the past few months, Celena had covered for so many of Van's mysterious absences (which invariably seemed to involve sitting alone in the country staring up at the sky, a practice Celena never really wished to join in with) that he became her friend out of gratitude, despite his qualms about her also being his arch-enemy of previous times.

A sharp knock on the door indicated Van's presence. Celena called "Come in! I'm decent!", unfolding her legs and shifting over to the edge of the bed.

The door opened slowly, and Van slipped round.

"You didn't bother to change for me? How sweet." Celena said dryly. "Anyway, sit down over there somewhere." She waved idly towards a chair leaning against the wall. "I just want a quick chat, that's all."

Van pulled the chair closer to Celena's bed and sat down wearily, dropping one hand resignedly into his lap, the other going to his pocket. "This had better be quick, Celena," he sighed, looking faintly exasperated. "You interrupted me while I..."

"Was busy pining over you-know-who?" Celena flopped back on the bed, staring up at the ornate decorations of Fanelia's history on the ceiling. "You are so predictable, you know that! Every few days you pull the whole I-must-be-alone-and-gaze-in-sorrow trick, and it's really beginning to annoy me! You both said you'd never forget each other, right?"

"EXACTLY!" shouted Van, rising passionately to his feet. "How can I forget her? How can you know how I feel? I might never see her again..."

Celena sat upright again, her eyes blazing in anger. "How do you think I felt when you murdered the Dragonslayers? They're gone FOREVER!"

Van fell abruptly silent, simmering with rage. Celena locked shocked for a moment, then bowed her head.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have said that."

Van breathed deeply, saying nothing for a while. Celena looked at him briefly, trying to gauge her friend's mood, and then turned slightly away. Both looked distant, distracted from each other as they tried to avoid their glances. The grandfather clock opposite Van, decorated with wooden patterns, ticked relentlessly. Lights passed outside the window as the palace staff performed their final errands for the evening, as maids snuggled close to porters for warmth in the chill night air.

Light footsteps padded down the corridor outside Celena's chambers. They stopped outside her door, and a quick, polite rap came at the door. Neither Van nor Celena answered, yet the door was pushed open from the other side.

A small, furry face peeped round the door, asking "Celena? Are you here?"

Catching sight of Van in the corner, the face filled with joy, and the door swung open fully as Merle ran in, dropping the bundle of towels she had been carrying, crying "VAAAAAAAAN!" as she leapt at her long-time friend.

Merle had decided she ought to do something useful with her life rather than hang on to Van's side at all times. Seeing as she knew absolutely nothing about politics, Van had recruited her as a part-time ambassador abroad when dealing with others of her species, and as an overseer of the many restoration projects of Fanelia. Of course, Merle relished the chance to boss as many people about as possible, and had proved adept at her role, managing a few acrobatic methods of building that would have foxed any ordinary foreman.

Merle buried her neck in Van's shirt, seemingly oblivious to the tension about her. Van stood stiffly, as though slightly embarrassed, although Merle had done this so often in front of Celena she would normally hardly notice.

Merle glanced up at Van's face to speak, but then stopped when she saw the stony look in his eyes. She withdrew slightly, her tail twitching in concern. Then she leapt onto the bed next to Celena, landing on all fours and thrusting her nose in Celena's face.

"Big fight, huh?" she asked frivolously, causing Celena to laugh in spite of herself. "Let me guess - the Hitomi Issue? If only he could look past that spoilt brat and see the wonderful, lovely me…" she sighed in mock wistfulness.

Van opened his mouth to berate Merle for making fun of him, but stopped short. A pink glow seemed to be emanating from his pocket. Drawing out his hand, he was shocked to see Hitomi's pendant shining with iridescent light.

"What on Gaia?" Celena gasped, having never seen the pendant as anything except a stone on a string, although she had learnt of its mysterious powers when Hitomi had used it against her cloaked Guymelef many times.

Van laid his palm out flat, and the pendant began to lift up into the air, heading towards the centre of the room. Floating higher and higher, it began to shine ever brighter, turning blue. Light suddenly exploded forth from the pendant, flooding the room in a bright flash. Celena and Merle screamed, grabbing each other in shock, while Van looked up towards the pendant with a strange, wistful expression on his face.

A whispered fragment of two voices entwined in songs echoed around the room. One was unknown to Van - a woman's voice, chanting ethereally. The other was all too familiar - "Escaflowne…Escaflowne…"

The light cleared slowly. Merle withdrew from Celena, her fur standing on end, blinking to clear her eyes. Celena looked around, and gasped in shock.

Lying on the floor of the bedroom were three people she had never seen before. And the other had been her worst enemy in recent times - Hitomi Kanzaki, the Girl From the Mystic Moon.