The Forgotten Zodiac

Bermuda returned the hug, closing his eyes. He could sense how Verolen shook, and patted the demon's back. He tried to laugh, but it came out as strangled, nervous sound. "I... couldn't leave you all behind. After... what happened in Oceania, I don't... eve want to be seperated from you guys again." He shuddered and took a deep breath. "I..."

Verolen hugged Bermuda all the tighter, still trembling slightly. "Yeah...I don't want to be separated, either. That...that ocean..." He shook his head, then let go of Bermuda, sniffing a bit. "Let's avoid splitting up for now. No one should go anywhere alone."

Something in Bermuda's gaze had shifted, and he didn't look up at Verolen. "...my brother's dead," he murmured at last. "The senators... split him from his spirit and took it, and he died. That's what they... were trying..." he glanced down at his hand, studying the runes that had been branded into his arm. He grimaced, taking a shuddering breath. "They took Dredge, and they can... can use him to track me. I'm safe here, because there's interference from the sanctuary for about fifty miles, but after that, I..."

"They'll come..."

"Heh...come with what, exactly? That's miles from their comfort zone. We have the whole forest...if they tread on our land, it'll basically declare their side on a war that they've tried hard to take no part in. 'Sides, what can they come with? An army? We have Rush back. That's at least two armies." Verolen smiled a bit, then wrapped his hand around Bermuda's wrist, covering the branding. "I'll protect you, Bermuda. I will."

Bermuda sighed a smile, reaching up with his other hand to rub at his eyes, forcing back the tears that had pooled in his eyelids. "I'm... going to hold you to that," he said.

"You'd better." Verolen nodded, smiling a bit. "I'll do something about all this. Don't you worry about a thing, Bermuda." Closer inspection would reveal that Verolen had been near tears, too. "You know, Bermuda...a few of the times I woke up in that ocean, I thought of you. I wondered when you were going to come save me...and then when I saved you, it was such a relief. And I'll do it again in a heartbeat, you know."

Bermuda smiled at Verolen, then grabbed him in another quick hug. As he pulled back, he said, "You don't know what that means to me."

"I think I have an idea," Verolen smirked a bit, then turned back to their room. "Come on. We don't have to tell the others, seeing how I'm just going to rewrite this future of yours, anyway."

((I'M GOING TO STOP THIS, YOU KNOW

IT WILL NOT BE SO.))

((YOU SURE?

THIS IS THE WHOLE REASON I CREATED BERMUDA.))

Bermuda smiled and followed Verolen, feeling much better than he had when he left the room.

L'arc had curled on his side, asleep. Nearby, as usual, sat Sylas, and next to him was Kendra. Bermuda quirked his brow and shook his head, then went over to his bed and pulled out a book, reading it.

((DEATH WAS THE WHOLE REASON I CREATED VERDI, AND LOOK AT HIM NOW))

"Hey, Sylas. What's goin' on?" Verolen questioned, sliding in next to Sylas.

"Eh? Oh, uh...I'm just showing Kendra how to fledge an arrow." Sylas blinked. "Would you make me some arrow heads? Here," He reached into his bag and pulled out a small sack of broken or unused metal items. A mug with a hole in it, a broken locket, all kinds of things.

"Sure." Verolen sat back, fiddling with the objects until they conformed to the shape he wanted. "You don't even have a bow again yet, do you, Sylas?"

"No, not yet." Sylas sighed. "I was going to visit the armory to find a suitable one..."

((TOUCHE.))

Kendra watched Sylas and Verolen intently, looking up and giving the demon prince a nod as he came over. "You lost your bow?" she asked.

((QUITE.))

"Yeah. When Rush was attacking me." Sylas nodded. "I was hitting him with my bow, and it snapped..."

"Sorry about that." Rush blinked. "Did I hurt anyone?"

"Nah. No lasting damage, don't worry." Sylas shook his head. "Thank goodness Bermuda was here, though. Who knows what we would have done without his spells."

Bermuda smiled at Sylas, saying "Glad I can be of help."

Kendra glanced over to Bermuda, then back to Sylas. "Is he your Seer?" she asked, her voice a murmur as she tried not to stare rudely at the Oceanid Prince.

"Yeah," Sylas nodded. "I guess you can call him that. He hasn't had any visions recently, though. I suppose I should be thankful for that."

"Hey, Bermuda. Since L'arc's asleep, wanna come with me to the armory? I was going to find a new bow for Sylas, and a lance for Byrne." Rush requested, smiling.

"Oh... I suppose," Bermuda said, closing his tome and sitting it aside. "It's probably best that someone comes with you; have to make sure you're all right, you know?" he added, standing up and moving over to the door.

"Yeah," Rush nodded. He stretched before following Bermuda out. The armory awaited them, just down the hall. "So, what kind of staff do you use, Bermuda?" Rush asked casually. "I know it's a magical staff and those things are really hard to come by, but...I was thinking. Maybe I could make you a new one. I feel like you having a new staff would be helpful to the whole group."

"Well, I prefer Hammerne staves, but I can make do with anything," Bermuda answered. "Hammerne staves are really rare, but they're versitile. But like I said, anything works," he nodded.

"Right..." Rush nodded thoughtfully. "I'll see what I can do." He grinned, then opened the door to the armory. It was organized well; armor in a side walk-in closet, weapons on display here and there. Rush made a beeline for the bows, picking out a sturdy looking longbow. It was made of white wood and was lined with iron so it would keep its shape, even if it was needed for a hasty melee attack. "Ha. This is exactly what Sylas needs. A nice long-range tool that can be used for clubbing up close, in the case of an emergency, and still be used as a bow afterwards. What do you think?" He showed Bermuda, smiling.

Bermuda looked it over and smiled. "It looks very nice," he said. "I think Sylas will like it. Seems durable, too," he said with a nod. He looked around, trying to locate the lances for Byrne. "Do you think he'll still be able to handle a weapon?" he asked.

"He's handled lances before. If he needs help, I can give him a few pointers." Rush shrugged. "He should stick with Sylas either way. It's not that he's not a good fighter; we just need someone watching our archer's back. We haven't done much talking about battles; honestly, it's a little ridiculous. Every time we get in a big fight, we fall apart like butter because we don't have any structure to our fighting. Sylas should be much further away from the action, and he needs to be guarded if he's going to be of any use. Israel and I would give air support. Verolen, Eve, and Kendra would be our forward. You should be somewhere close to Sylas, but I'd suggest L'arc as a guard for you. He's not too shabby at fighting, but he can't be in the thick of it like Verolen and Eve. But the way we usually fight...well, it doesn't end well."