Ayla
Greetings all.
All I can say is that I am glad that the weekend is around the corner. Finally finished the gardening book, and a short survival piece, so I have some time to relax this weekend!
Today, I want to introduce Ayla from one of my favourite games Chrono Trigger. Ayla was a huge inspiration in how I developed Saita's unique way of talking when I first introduced her as a character. Recently I have picked up the game again and Alya is still one of the best characters to run around with.
But enough with that. A bit of a longer update today. I didn't want to cut the last part of the story out, as it builds on a very important relationship that starts. Enjoy today's update!
Saita had eventually accepted her role as the Princess to the humans, but she found herself unwilling to do many of the things she was being forced into doing. She despised the history lessons that were forced on her by Meedus. The only reason she had not managed to sneak away from those lessons was that Beatrice was always with Meedus, making sure that he was able to compensate for her language growth. Human history was littered with wars of their own making. If they were not fighting each other because of their religions or their skin colours they were banding together to fight other creatures for the exact same reason. A glorious waste of time and energy.
Since most of her knowledge was limited to what she had picked up from her time of arriving at the gravestone Aleux made it his life’s mission, meaning he was skipping school, to help her catch up on what she should know. The knowledge was overwhelming and often her frustration resulted in her setting a textbook on fire, whilst someone else was holding it.
During these times it was Gaylum and Doran that would take over her lessons and work on the control of her abilities which seemed to be growing at an alarming rate. One week she was using fire, the next force, the week after some kind of telekinesis and this week she had managed to copy Gaylum’s own ability much to his own surprise. Though able to use a wide variety of abilities her control was severely lacking, which added to her own frustrations.
Gaylum tried to be patient, but he had never taught a child before and her inability to follow any other order besides ‘stay’ was his biggest frustration. Doran, who had been teaching his youngest to control his abilities as of late sat Saita down one night, after a rather disastrous training session, that left Gaylum slightly charred and more than furious, to speak with her.
“Saita, can we talk?”
“We are talking.” She sulked as she drew her knees to her chest.
She had opted for the much shorter hair as at least once a week there was an incident where flames would shoot out of her ears in frustration, much to many people’s amusement.
“What is wrong?” He sat down in front of her.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing.”
“I have known my wife for a good many years and I know ‘nothing’ means something. Gaylum is at least a shade darker than what I left him an hour ago. What happened?”
“Angry.” She muttered.
“You have the words now. You should use them.”
“Makes me so angry.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
“Even me?” He grinned.
“Sometimes, yes.” She admitted. “I don’t understand anything.”
“Join the club.” Doran laughed.
“It’s not funny.” Saita fixed him with a glare.
“You are frustrated. You are working hard. I understand that this is very difficult for you.”
She stretched her legs out and joined her hands so that the fingers were against her palms. “I don’t want this.”
“You are going to have to be a little more specific, Saita.”
“Mother and Father...no, Karesh and Myla, I can’t call them those titles. They are King and Queen and I, as a human, should bow to them.”
“Have you seen me bow to them?”
“No, but…”
“Saita you are their daughter now.”
“But…” She started but fell silent.
“But?”
“I’m not their real daughter.”
“Does that matter?”
“And these stupid lessons, so confusing.” She added lamely.
“How do you feel about Aleux? You didn’t mention him.”
Saita beamed. “I love him. He gives the best hugs. Learned it from his mother.”
“Your mother.”
Doran noticed how uncomfortable Saita became and he said. “You are uncomfortable with the attention.”
“Why me? There must be thousands of other children that would be better suited to this role.”
“The King and Queen didn’t choose them, they chose you.”
“Because I luckily appeared one day at the grave of their son? Because I torched four Lizards and accidentally saved the King? Because I felt the need to protect Aleux from a Black Scale?”
“Do they need any other reason? What are you so scared of?”
“I’m not scared!” She covered her ears and shook her head.
Oh great, here is her temper tantrum, thought Doran. He debated whether to get up and leave to allow her time to work through this or to continue sitting when she lowered her hands.
“I’m scared I will wake up and it is all gone.” She whispered as she drew her knees to her chest again.
Beatrice had told them that sometimes Saita would tell her about nightmares she would occasionally wake up from. It was always the same thing, over and over and over. A dark, cold, small room with nothing that can be seen. Sometimes there was no noise, other times there were loud sirens, but the room never changed. Always dark, cold, and small. As she had no recognition of this place there was no way to help her deal with the situation other than trying to get her to talk to them.
“The room?” He asked.
“What if all of this is a dream? What if I am so far gone in this experiment that my mind has created this world to make sure I don’t slip into more madness?”
He scooted closer to her and put his arms around her shoulders. “I can tell you that I am real.”
“I’m sure the other delusions all feel the same way.” She said as she buried her head in her arms.
Doran pinched her upper arm and she yelped. “What was that for?”
“Are delusions and dreams painful?”
“They are now!” She got to her feet and glowered at him.
“Saita, I can tell you that I believe that I am a true person sitting before you. I cannot make you believe that.” He grinned a little. “But if your world is such a nightmare would living in this world be so terrible?”
“That is not the point. I can’t wake up to that place.” She rubbed at her arm. “To get close to people only to wake to a nightmare. I can’t.”
“Girl...have you been remembering?” He frowned.
“Yes...no...I…” She balled her hands as purple flames danced up to her shoulders. “Pain.”
“What about pain?”
“That is what I remember. Pain.” She tried to slap the flames out, but they continued to grow with her emotions.
Slowly Doran got to his feet and brought his own orange flames to his hands with a soft mutter before running them along her flames. Flame killed flame and he continued until none of her purple flames remained.
“Why tell me? Why not tell Myla or even Aleux?”
“Weak. Pathetic.” She said in a mocking tone.
She looked him in the eye and said. “I can be weak with you. I have been weak with you.”
“You are not going to let me live that down, are you?” He sighed as he gripped her shoulders.
He lowered his face until he was at her level. “Do you want to get stronger Saita?”
“Yes. Weakness invites death.”
“Then you need to control your emotions. Your powers are heavily dependent on your feelings. Control your feelings and you will get stronger.”
“But how am I supposed to feel? I don’t understand.”
“You really are stunted, aren’t you?” He sighed. “I think Beatrice needs to convince you to go to therapy.”
“I am wrong.” She said as she fought back tears.
“We are all wrong, Saita, some people more, some people less.”
“Why adopt something wrong?”
“Why not?” Countered Doran.
Her tears immediately stopped, and she looked at him in confusion. “Excuse me?”
“Why should they not adopt someone who thinks they are wrong?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Myla fixes things, she has her entire life. You have been fighting so hard against her trying to help you that it is confusing her. She thinks that you don’t like her. That is a difficult thing for a mother.”
“But if this is a dream…?”
“Then enjoy it while you are having it. A break from hell is better than living in a constant hell, don’t you think?”
A ghost of a smile came to Saita’s face. “I guess.”
“You want to make Myla happy?”
“More than anything!”
“Then tell her about your fears. Talk and try to control your emotions. Don’t fight, cry when you want, yell when you want but don’t bottle it all up.”
Myla had been planning the coronation when Saita had asked to see her. More than anything the Queen wanted the girl to be less formal with her but for now, she would allow it. This was an odd time for most people. When Saita asked for privacy, she knew it was serious. The Queen chased everyone out of the room before showing Saita where she could sit. Before Myla could ask anything, Saita started with her stumbling language. It didn’t take long for the tears to come as Saita expressed emotions that Myla hadn’t been aware of. The girl would constantly be wary of her flames if they sprouted but every now and again her tears frosted on her cheeks. It was in the middle of one heartfelt sentence that Myla had stood up, walked over to her, and just hugged her head to her chest.
“It is okay.” Whispered Myla.
“It isn’t.”
“As long as I am here it will be okay. I am here.”
“And when I wake up?” Saita ground her teeth.
“Then I will come for you.” Myla made Saita look up at her. “This decision was not made lightly. You would not believe the political outcry there was about your adoption, but it was made. We are not going back on this.”
“What if this is all a dream?”
“Then I will make it the best damn dream you have ever had my dear.”
“Can I still call you Myla?”
“If that is what makes you more comfortable then yes.”
“Okay.”
The day of the coronation was drawing closer and closer, and everyone was nervous except for Saita who had finally made peace with what was happening around her. Though her training had shown a marked improvement there was still the lingering feeling of her existence. Though as the weeks rolled over into months, almost six to be exact, she felt that perhaps this dream was real, and she allowed herself to relax.
The Lizards had come forward, rather apologetically, once the humans accused them of making attempts on their King’s life on neutral territory. They had explained that there had been a rogue assassin that had been acting on his own and they could not be held accountable. Most knew they were lying through their teeth to save their own skins but with no living assassin to be found it became very difficult to prove. Though the event became old news it was not forgotten, especially for Saita whose arm would ache every time it was jarred during training.Though she bore no ill will to the Lizards themselves, the assassin was one she still thought of with growing anger.
Even though the whole planet had been scoured the perpetrator was never found and it was widely thought that it had escaped during the confusion and left the planet. Saita did not believe so and made sure she stuck close to Aleux whenever he went anywhere, even at the expense of her own lessons. It annoyed multiple people but it set the King and Queen’s minds to rest. Saita was quickly starting to control her powers. That said though, they insisted that she did sleep in her own room and not guard the boy's bedroom. Even then security often found her in Aleux’s room well into the night.
“The guards patrol the living quarters and check the rooms before any of us enter.” Explained Karesh one evening after Saita had nearly bitten a guard.
Saita sullenly nodded her head and muttered an apology to the guard who viewed her with distrust.
“And you need to get some sleep. The big day is tomorrow. Aleux and your mother have been asleep for several hours already and I did not appreciate being woken up to calm this situation down.”
“Sorry Karesh.” Said Saita.
“You may call me father, you know.” He said softly.
“Hmm.”
He had learned early on that this was a sound she made when she was indecisive about something, and he just smiled. “Go to bed. You are right next door. You can hear if something happens, but I doubt anything will. There is too much security involved with the coronation. Go to sleep.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you.” Said Karesh to the guard. “You may continue with your duties.”
Then to Saita. “And biting is not a valid response to your protectors trying to protect you. Your words have come a long way. Use them.”
“Okay.”
Saita made her way to her room, which the guard gave a once over, before biding her good night with a slight grin on his face. It hadn’t been the first time that she had tried to bite him, and it still amused him greatly.
Saita lay on her bed in the dark for a few minutes before saying softly. “You do not have a manifestation, but I do feel your presence.”
A soft hiss of a laugh echoed close to her ear, but she forced herself to lie perfectly still. Neither she nor the one she had attacked so long ago moved.
“Now what?” She asked.
“That depends entirely up to you, Princess.” Said the voice.
“Don’t call me that.” She hissed as she rolled and tried to focus on where the assassin was.
“That is true. Only tomorrow will the crown be bestowed upon you. For now, you are just Saita.”
“You are invis….invis...damn it, I can see through you.”
“Invisible and no not quite.”
She jumped back as a shape materialised next to her bed. It was by the help of the lights that partially shone through the curtain that she could see the tall lizard before her. It raised its hands and chuckled. “Calm, see? No weapons. Completely unarmed.”
A mixture of confusion and anger arose in Saita, but she stood still, not quite sure what this creature wanted.
“Do you know what I am?” It asked.
“I know what they call you.” She said cautiously.
The creature turned its head a little and spoke. “Well then, this is interesting. You said they. Curious.”
It walked to the window and opened the curtain a little. Saita caught a glance of black scales on a humanoid-like lizard, all without a tail.
“Aren’t Lizards meant to have tails?” She asked before she could stop herself.
“Noticed that huh?” The Lizard grinned and allowed the curtain to fall back into place. “I don’t have one.”
“Will it grow back?”
The Lizard chuckled once more then said. “That may be true for most of my brethren but not me. When you are born without something there is no way to get it back.”
“Are you not worried about the guards?”
“Should I be? Are you going to scream?”
“Do I have a reason to scream?”
“You know what, I like you Saita, you amuse me.” The Lizard made himself comfortable in a chair at the window and watched the girl for some time.
“I don’t understand.” Said Saita after some time as she sat on her bed.
“You need to be a little more specific.”
“You. You attack Aleux and now you are here. What do you hope to achieve?”
“I came for a deal.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“Are you mentally slow?”
The Lizard knew he had crossed the line there as Saita growled at him. He raised his hands and grinned. “Okay, not slow, something else. You don’t understand my motives, yes?”
“Motives?”
“The reason I do things that I do.” Now he was a little confused. “Were you raised in isolation or something?”
“Hmm.”
“Well then, you want to know my motives. It is simple. The King of the Cold Bloods released a name, didn’t he? Stating all of this was because of a rogue assassin.”
“I don’t understand your words.” Admitted Saita after some silence.
“Oh boy, okay you are seriously sheltered.”
“Insulting me because I don’t understand you is not going to help your cause.” She snapped.
“Fair enough, look, yes, I was the one that attacked the King and the boy. You took a sizable chunk out of my arm so I can’t exactly deny it.”
“So, you admit you are this, what was that word? Rogue assassin?”
“Yes, no, wait, hold on just let me explain.”
The Lizard took a deep breath and started once more. “Let’s start over.”
“My name,” he started as he tapped on his chest. “Is Saseric.”
“Sa-se-rick.” Saita sounded it out slowly as if trying the word for the first time, although she did recognise it. It had been the name of the assassin.
“Close.” The Lizard was in no mood to try and explain it to her more than what he had already. “I was charged with killing the King and the Prince.”
“So, you are not in charge.”
“Very observant of you, no, I am not.”
“Then there can only be one other person who is behind it. The Snake Lord, Anguis.”
“Well, well, seems I have once more misjudged you horribly. You are not slow at all; it is your words that are slow.”
“Why are you here? It was rather widely believed that you had escaped already.”
“That was the plan, but you threw a spanner in my works.”
“It was a knife.”
Saseric was momentarily stunned by the response but stopped a nasty retort when he realised, she did not understand the idiom. “It means you got in the way of my plans. The knife you so casually mentioned damaged muscles that needed to heal before I could make my move, but it took longer than I expected and now the security around the spaceport is such that I cannot move without being noticed.”
“How did you get in here?” Saita looked around her and frowned. “The guard couldn’t see you.”
“Neither did you. You walked past me twice today.”
“Why are you here? As in my room and not attacking the King or Prince?”
Saseric took a deep breath and slowly let the breath from his lungs, this had proved to be much more difficult than what he had previously thought.
“What is wrong with you?” He snapped suddenly. “One minute you grasp the situation and the next minute you act like an idiot!”
“Saita?” Came a voice from the door. “Are you all right? I heard voices.”
Saita raised a finger to her lips and then went to the door to open it a little. “I woke from a nightmare Aleux, go back to sleep. Karesh has already been woken once tonight and would not like to hear that we are both awake.”
“Did you bite the guard?”
“Almost. I’ll get him next time.”
“Okay then. Sleep well.”
Saita closed the door and waited till she heard the click of the door next to her room. She sighed heavily before saying in a softer voice. “I am not from here. I am learning the language. There is a lot I don’t understand. Either be patient or get out.”
“Then I am going to make this short and sweet. I will give you the evidence that you need to make sure the Lizard Royal family is implicated in the assassin attempt of the prince and king.”
“Because I have no stake in this?”
“You get it. Yes. I am not here for you, and I am not interested in killing the males of the Royal family anymore.”
“What is the...what does Aleux say? Catch! Yes. What is the catch?”
“You make sure I don’t get caught leaving during your coronation.”
Saita frowned. “What reason do I have to trust you?”
“I came here with no weapons and we both know you are more than capable of ending me with nothing but your teeth.”
“I don’t understand.” Saita shook her head. “You tried to kill Karesh and Aleux now you want to run away. If you could sneak into the castle so easily why not complete your mission?”
“I don’t have a reason to.” Admitted the Lizard. “Assassins that fail become scapegoats. My life is forfeit, irrespective of whether I complete the mission now or not. The human royals know my name, but they don’t know my face, you do.”
“Then why expose yourself? It makes no sense.”
“Ever heard of ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’?”
“A favour for a favour?”
“Yes.”
“What do you offer? Because as far as what I can see I hold all the cards here.”
“You think that I will be the last assassin to be after their blood?”
“Likely not.”
“I will feed information about any potential assassinations planned in the future to your,” he chuckled, and air quoted. “Intelligence people.”
“Thought you said you were a scapegoat. I guess you will not be able to return to your planet. How will you feed us anything?”
“I am not without my own connections mammal, I will know.”
Saita sat on the bed once more and yawned, she was getting tired now but did not trust the creature that sat before her. She rubbed at her eyes and asked. “How exactly am I supposed to help you?”
“Security will be tight around this castle...hospital...whatever this place is, keep it that way till tomorrow night.”
“You say that like I actually have any power.”
“Look, just, make a scene or something so that I can get onto a transport out of here.”
“Is your word worth anything?” She asked, trying to suppress another yawn.
“Excuse me?”
“Should and can I trust you?”
Saseric scratched at some scales and simply said. “Likely not a good idea to trust me.”
He watched the tired girl flop back onto her bed with her arms splayed out as she emitted a low groan of mental agony.
“But if you do then I will return the favour one day.”
“Swear that you will leave them alone.” She whispered, not looking at him. “Swear it.”
“If I make it off this planet you will never find me stepping foot on it or any other owned human territory for as long as my life continues.” He swore.
“Dock 18, a freighter is leaving early tomorrow morning, round about 5 in the morning.” She sat up. “I heard the guards talking about it. Something about medical supplies being delivered to some colony...I didn’t hear everything. It is a private dock so getting in will be tough but once you are in you should be fine. I can’t guarantee anything more than that.”
“Dock 18, 5 a.m., more than enough time.” Saseric rose to his feet. “This will be the last time you see me.”
“I hope not.” She whispered. “You seem far more level-headed than how Karesh talks about your kind. Perhaps if someone like you were in charge peace could be made.”
Saseric had to hold his breath to not laugh at the silly notion of peace between mammals and reptiles, but the girl had been so blatant in her feelings he just could not bring himself to be that rude. Instead, he smiled. “That is a nice pipe dream young one, but you are not old enough to know how deep this hate runs.”
“Maybe not in our time but in the future...perhaps.”
“I will dream of that during my winter sleep for it seems like a perfect world.” The lizard assassin opened the window and glanced around before pulling his head back into the room. “And thank you, Princess. You will find that everything will be sent in the morning as soon as I am far away enough to be tracked.”
“Saita. There isn’t a title.”
“Yet. Goodbye, Saita.”
She barely saw him glide from her room or heard the soft click of the window. She knew that she should probably be worried but as soon as Saseric had left her room, a feeling of peace settled upon her. He had been truthful in his words. The hunting would stop from Saseric, and warnings would be fed to them about other potential assassins. Myla’s family would be safe once more. Saita’s eyes burned with fatigue, and she lay down in her bed once more knowing she had done the right thing.
Saseric ends up playing a crucial part in Saita's life, and he's not done yet! But, you will have to join on Tuesday to see what happens next, when the rest of the royal family makes an appearance!
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|Part 9 - You are here||Part 10 - Update on Tuesday|
