Chapter 14

When they left Soreno’s shores, Cerise looked out towards the sea, her light feeling as buoyant as the waters and light-hearted as the seagulls flying above. She didn’t think that they’d ever leave there, though it turns out that they’ve gained a new companion on their journey as well; the mysterious battlefield medic nurse Viola. She wondered what she was like. The battlefield nurse had an unattainable air and beauty about her; her lime green eyes had a certain coolness to them that told others she wasn’t be messed with. She remained silent on their journey and even gave Cerise some powerful medicine to make sure that her seasickness didn’t appear. Life was good at the moment, and after Caspian bid them farewell alongside his sister, Nautilus, Cerise then thought that things came around full circle.

“Viola,” Cerise said, trying to get to know the battlefield combat nurse better. “What kinds of things do you like?”

Viola directed a cool gaze toward Cerise, before saying, “I like serving my Prince and only my Prince. However, since you’re an extension of the Prince himself, then I suppose that I have no qualms about it.”

“I see,” Cerise said. “Sounds like you’re really close to him.”

“I tended to him when he was just a babe, My Lady Cerise,” Viola said.

“What was he like as a child?” Cerise wondered aloud before Viola smiled a little bit at a fond memory.

“He was a quiet and calm baby. Though very sickly. The King and Queen of the Soreno Kingdom let me tend to him because they wanted him to grow up to be an Archmage of the Soreno Kingdom, alongside Princess Nautilus.”

“Sounds like he’s been through a lot,” Cerise said in wonderment before she confided. “Roselle had her magic Circuits closed off since she was a little girl because she had too much magical energy eating up her body on the inside. Do you think…there’s a cure for that?”

“It could be possible,” Viola said softly. “Her body may be mature enough to handle the magical energy that she couldn’t as a baby, though she will still be very powerful. She might cause a lot of destruction with her magic and has no fine-tuned control over it like Prince Capsian does. Her parents decided to keep them sealed, not because she was in danger of dying, but they were worried about what Roselle would do with such power. She didn’t have the maturity to handle a kingdom let alone magic, but it seems like she’s grown into a fine young woman after meeting with you, My Lady Cerise.”

Cerise felt as though there was something that Viola wanted to tell her, though that was interrupted when one of the sailors announced that storm was gathering round ahead. Lightning crackled in staccato flashes overhead, and the tempestuous winds swirled and lashed against their faces while the rain started to smash down in silvery skeins. Cerise was reminded of that stormy night when she first came to the Kingdom for help, trying to reach the King only to get in a marriage with a feisty princess and discover that the King too, had succumbed to an illness that was similar to her sister’s.

The air tinged with static, Cerise felt gooseflesh ripple across her arms when she noticed that a gigantic wave came towering above them, threatening to crush the ship down below with its monstrous, monolithic height. The wave crashed down, leaving everyone soaked to the bone, and Cerise shivered as she held onto the ship’s ledge for dear life. The medicine stopped working; Cerise felt the tumultuous tumble of the ship and nearly hurled over the side.

Cerise’s now fixed wand tumbled dangerously towards the edge of the boat, and Cerise scrambled towards it to grip it in her hand. Could she use magic to dispell the storm? But she didn’t know how did she? If only she paid attention during Prince Caspian's lessons…

There was some magical theory that objects could have magic stored inside of them with a person’s magical ability in a concentrated form. It acted as a medium of sorts to enhance the magical power of a user, Cerise remembered while she was in a fight with a dragon in the weapon’s vault that she unleashed her anger towards Roselle and caused a huge blast in the steel reinforced treasury wall because Roselle attacked the dragon that was protecting her egg.

But what focus did she have now for her emotions? She was frightened of the storm, and she certainly couldn’t concentrate her fear into a magical channel to dispel the storm. She thought they were done for when another whirlpool sucked them underneath the water and kept them below the surface in its own magical bubble protection. The jellyfish!

Cerise figured that it was Prince Caspian and Prince Nautilus helping them along their journey. They must’ve summoned the underwater jellyfish to guard the ship against the storm and make them travel underneath the storm rather than through it. It was a clever idea, and Cerise herself wished that she would’ve thought of it herself.

Once they made it on Alantia, their ship boarded onto a dock, Cerise and Roselle cheered.

“That was an amazing adventure!” Roselle said as she hugged Cerise tight. “Oh, Cerise, we’re so close on our journey to finding the stone…”

“Yes,” Cerise said happily. “I can’t believe that we’ve survived! I thought we were done for.”

“Prince Caspian would never let one of his own go on a senseless journey to their deaths,” Viola said quietly, to which Cerise and Roselle turned towards her.

“Hm? Oh right,” Roselle said in wonderment. “I know that big brother Caspian is always looking out for me…”

“We need to ask around town where Faust was,” Viola said. “He was at least last seen here in Altania. Though he might be long gone from the area, any trail of clues that wecan find for his whereabouts, we will be able to uncover it.”

“I’ll say,” Cerise said before she looked about the ramshackle town they were in. It didn’t have any of the splendor or wonders of Rozarre or Soreno Kingdom; it looked barren and like a ghost town. Were the peoples staying hidden, or did something cause them to flee?

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Cerise said before Roselle seemed t be enamored with the idea of a ghost town.

“I never saw it before, an actual ghost town,” Roselle said in wonderment. “Does Faust, perhaps, have something to do with this town’s barren state?”

“Alantia was known for its prosperous city,” Viola said. “Full of life and cheer. Though something must’ve happened here to the people.”

Cerise felt as though she were being watched, though she couldn’t put a finger on it. No one was at the vendors, and no one was inside their houses peeking out from decrepit windows; but what was this sense that she felt? She felt as though someone was watching her from behind, and whenever she cast her gaze towards somewhere, whether it’s a nook of a cranny or behind her, there was nothing. Yet that sensation; she could sense some kind of magical aura here.

The only thing that she saw was her own shadow, which elongated and swelled in the afternoon sun.

“Hm,” Cerise said. “I think that the villagers are still here somehow. But maybe they can’t show themselves…for whatever reason.”

“You mean like spirits or ghosts,” Roselle said with a delicious shiver down her back. “I guess we’ll have to explore more to see where they could’ve been taken.”

Roselle, Cerise, and Viola searched the town, though couldn’t find any clues at all. They sat together at a fountain where they gathered their thought processes, trying to figure out where this was all going.

“So you think that Faust is behind this?” Cerise asked while Viola nodded in her conjecture. “He is said to appear on battlefields and other places. I was following him for a while before I lost his trail for Prince Caspian. There is no doubt that this must be his doing. But he’s as elusive as ever.”

“What do you think that his plans could be?” Roselle said before Viola shook his head.

“He was obsessed with immortality; I was under his tutelage, actually. He was one of the world’s greatest doctors before he became obsessed with the Philosopher’s Stone. He became so obsessed with it and extending his own lifespan that he couldn’t think of anything else.”

“So that’s why he’s hoarding the stone for himself,” Cerise said. “Often feels selfish, doesn’t it? That he’s trying to extend his own lifespan instead of saving the patients that he devoted himself to.”

“He’s changed,” Viola said. “Though I feel there may be a chance of redemption for him.”

“Everyone has a chance of being redeemed,” Roselle said. “That’s what I’d like to believe, anyway. However, let’s have some lunch before we continue on. I’m starving.”

Roselle unfurled the picnic basket that Caspian prepared for them. Elegant sandwiches and some tea and cookies and crisps for them to enjoy on their journey. They all ate ravenously, and once they were satiated, Cerise got to thinking again. What was she sensing again?

“Guys, I have a feeling that something isn’t right here,” Cerise said uneasily before Roselle and Viola turned to look at her.

“Cerise!” Roselle stated. “You look awfully pale! Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Cerise said, and before she realized it, she collapsed on the ground.

“Cerise?” Roselle said, before panic manifested on her features. “Cerise! Oh no, what’re we gonna do?”

Viola knelt down to where Cerise was and sensed her pulse. After that, the combat medic nurse said in a succinct tone, “Looks like she’s got anemia. Something is draining her energy and cutting her red cell production. At least, that’s how I guess it, anyway.”

“Something is draining her energy?” Roselle said with a thoughtful look before she wondered how they were going to take care of Cerise now. Cerise was a higher priority than Faust; or at least, that’s what Roselle believed. She then gingerly put Cerise’s head on her lap while stroking her hair soothingly, humming a lullaby that she knew ever since she was very small.

“That’s a very enchanting melody,” Viola said. “Where did you learn it?”

“Oh, just something that my Mother hummed to me when I was a child and I would have a hard time sleeping,” Roselle said with a flush.

Cerise woke up to the sound of Roselle’s humming, and she blinked tiredly as she let out a yawn. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“Something is draining our energy,” Viola explained simply, while Roselle nodded.

“Hm,” Cerise said. “I sensed something before, though now it’s gone. I wonder what it could be.”

“Oooh, I don’t like this place now,” Roselle said with a shiver. “It’s taking a toll on my poor Cerise.”

“I think that there’s…a shard somewhere,” Cerise said weakly, to which Roselle and Viola looked excited.

“You can sense Shards of the Philosopher’s Stone, Cerise? Well done! This will prove useful, I think,” Roselle said.

“I sensed my sister’s presence,” Cerise said. “Well, I dreamed about her. And I had a conversation with her in my dream.”

“Go on,” Roselle said, to which Cerise relayed her tale to Roselle and Viola.

“That’s very strange,” Roselle said. “You say that your sister said that her soul was stolen? Is that…what could’ve possibly happened to my father?”

“I don’t know, Cerise said, before she heard the sound of something furtively stalking their way. A chimera. “Everyone, look out! There’s a chimera!”

Roselle and Viola readied their battle stances. Indeed, there was a chimera, another monstrosity that came out of the woodwork and stalked towards them on wolve’s paws. It looked lean and hungry, and it just found an appetizing course for itself. Cerise took her wand in her hand, prepared to strike at the creature should it target any of her friends