Ch9-3: Reunion
This is the place where they’re keeping Joran. I still can’t believe they locked her up. But I guess… what else could they do?
The walls of the Fabulian dungeon still groaned with the echoes of remembered battle, stretching tall over Ben’s head. This area of the fortress had been hit by the Crystal’s rage fairly hard and the structure complained of the fact. The Master Wizard strode down the stairs with one determination — he would be bringing Joran back up with him. It was just the question of in what way he would do it.
Either she is a traitor and a thief… or… this has all been some really awful misunderstanding.
Ben’s manner of thought came as a surprise to him. In the past, he could have seen himself raging down to the dungeon, completely ready to tear into the thief, no matter who they had been. But now, he realized, he wasn’t doing that at all. Instead, he was trying to find a reason. Trying to argue Joran’s case in the middle of everything he might have felt. Looking to hear her story rather than making up assumptions.
He didn’t exactly know why… or what it meant the change of heart meant. But it wasn’t a completely unwelcome way of thinking, either.
Maybe I took a good knock on the head during one of the last battles? Who knows? I’ve spent more time sleeping and in recovery since I’ve come to the Blue Planet than I have since I lived on the Lunar world.
This time around, Ben didn’t care to ask how long he had spent sleeping after taking the brunt of the battle in the Crystal Room. It was mostly his fault that he had fallen out to begin with. The Half Lunar had made the mistake of trying to tap into and control a Crystal that had gone way beyond its intended balance.
He could feel it, even now, as Incrytan sat in the pack at his hip. Ben didn’t dare to let it stray beyond the reach of his senses. Not after losing it once.
It’s the Crystal that I made. But it’s changed. Destroying the other Crystals has tempered it into something harsh and unfriendly. Unbalanced and Chaotic.
His pet project had become a weapon of war. Just as he had once been. The original reason for its creation was now far out of his reach, especially with the Blue Planet elements on the brink of disjuncture. Freeing his father from the depths of Mt. Ordeals could not be done with Incrytan… not with the way that it had become.
There may be a way to reverse the damage though. A way to restructure the other Crystals again… As long as one set still exists, there’s a chance I can right what has been put out of balance. There’s a chance I can still complete Incrytan.
Ben was pulled out of the depths of his thoughts at a soft tug at his sleeve. Peering down, the Master Wizard saw a furrowed brow under a shock of sandy hair.
“Chase?”
“It’s not that way, Ben,” the boy informed him. He pointed down a different hallway. One lined with torches that flickered intermittently in the shadows. “She’s down here.”
The Half Lunar never questioned the boy’s knowledge. He simply nodded and followed, trusting without knowing why. Chase had never led him wrong before. It was part of the reason why Ben had chosen to bring the Page with him into the dungeon.
I know he can’t speak Lunar. But there’s something about the truth that Chase can sense regardless of language. I have to know if Joran is telling me the truth… and after all that’s happened, I don’t know how much I can believe without some outside help.
Ben wanted to believe that there was more going on under the surface than was apparent. Afterall, Joran had rushed into the battle in the Crystal Room at the risk of her own life and saved him from the attack of O.M.E.G.A.
But she also seemed to know O.M.E.G.A. And by a different name. I wonder where she’s made connections to him before this?
So there was only one way to know for sure. He had to talk to her. To hear the story. And to have Chase confirm that she was telling him the truth.
It sounded simple enough.
So why are my hands shaking?
They made the final turn down the last hallway. The Fabulian guard glanced at the two of them for a moment, but said nothing. As if he had been forewarned of the Master Wizard’s appearance. He gave a polite nod as they passed and motioned to the cell at the far end of the hall.
Ben strode quickly forwards, holding his breath as he did.
It was well lit and kindly furnished for a cell, Ben observed. There was no cruelty in the way that Joran had been handled, aside from the set of mageloks that ringed her slender wrists. But that, he had learned, was a mandatory thing when capturing a magic user there on the Blue Planet.
He fought to find his voice as one hand took hold of the nearest set of bars. Green eyes peering through, he could see Joran’s pale shape sitting in the corner of the cell. He couldn’t tell if she was sleeping… she was silent and unmoving. Finally, after watching her for a long while, the Half Lunar worked up the courage to utter a sound.
“Joran?”
At first she didn’t seem to hear. Or maybe she really was asleep. So he repeated her name again, with more strength this time.
“Joran…?”
Her head bobbed in surprise at the sound. Instantly, bright green eyes flicked up, focusing on his face. Her lips parted as if she wanted to voice something in return, a look of hopeful longing. Then as if she realized that he was really there, that he was no illusion or dream, the expression changed. It shifted into a looming trepidation and overwhelming fear.
She was terrified of him. Or rather… of the person he used to be when she knew him before.
“Joran…” Ben said for a third time, schooling as much calmness as he could into his voice. He didn’t know if his face was gentle, but he was trying hard to make it so.
He realized it was breaking his heart to see her look at him that way.
“Go..Golbez?” Joran finally gasped, both hands spreading protectively over her chest.
He could feel a welling of intense emotion, all jumbled up behind the light in her eyes. She looked like somewhere deep inside, she wanted to cry… but time had changed her, too. She had a strength now that didn’t allow for tears. Still, her anguish was deep and terribly sincere.
“It’s alright,” he told her quietly. “You don’t have to be afraid. No one is going to hurt you.”
Joran swallowed, still staring at him as if not quite believing what she was seeing.
“I’m here to talk about what happened.” Then Ben added, “I’m glad that you’re not hurt.”
The girl gave a broken sound, caught somewhere between hope, relief and distress. The sound alone made him want to pull back the bars… come to her… and do everything in his power to comfort her.
What am I thinking… I haven’t even found out what really happened..?
Ben grit his teeth, tightening his hold on the bars.
But she looks so crushed… She feels like she’s been through so much. How can I prod her and make things worse.
“Will you…” her voice cracked slightly, somewhat hoarse sounding. “Really listen to me..?”
“Yes, of course I will,” Ben nodded. “You didn’t think I would?”
“I didn’t know what you would do,” Joran admitted, eyes falling to the floor. “You have the right to be really angry at me. I know I did a terrible thing…”
The Half Lunar froze, staring at her bowed head. His memories shifted to a time when he had bowed his head before his own brother, still dressed in the armor of the Dark Lord, and spoke almost the exact same words. And though at that moment there hadn’t been complete forgiveness… there had been mercy.
For him. The once Dark Lord. A man with the blood of many on his hands.
And now Ben stood, hearing the same words spoken to him. From one that had once been his only friend… one who had offered him love… even if at the time, he hadn’t recognized what a friend was. Or how she felt about him.
“I’m not angry,” he assured her. “I just want to know what happened. I don’t understand why you took Incrytan.”
Joran nodded for a moment, looking like she was trying to collect her thoughts. When she began to talk, it was slow and collected. A rather grown up way… a way he had not heard from her before. And what she said was not at all what he had expected.
The girl told about how Sparrow, the messenger from the Trine, had come to her. How she had warned Joran about the danger of the power of Incrytan. And eventually, how she was persuaded to take the Crystal, at the order of the Trine, in order to keep him from becoming a slave to its power.
He listened as she detailed her escape to the Blue Planet. How Joran had been tricked into believing the other Elemental Crystals needed to be destroyed in order to keep him safe. How she had been warned that Ben would hunt her down for taking Incrytan. That she would need protection… which was arranged for her in the form of the Daear.
“Things started to get really out of hand at that point,” Joran choked slightly, voice heavy. “I did what they told me to do… I destroyed the Crystals. And people died.”
There was a thick, heavy silence in the room. Chase peered up from behind Ben’s elbow, golden eyes observing the conversation intently. Though he couldn’t understand what was being said, there was a look of pity written on his face. It was enough for Ben to know that the girl was telling him the truth.
“I didn’t want to hurt anyone, Golbez.” Now she looked as if she might really cry. But still, she held back. “But once I started… they kept pushing me to keep going. There was always a reason that I couldn’t stop destroying the Crystals. I was so scared… there was no one there I could trust… I was all alone except for Kip. And now, even he turned out to be just like them. He was just manipulating me.”
“Kip?” Ben asked quietly, sensing her pain on the issue.
“Yes. The man who attacked you in the Crystal Room.”
“You mean O.M.E.G.A.?”
Joran swallowed and nodded, “I was sent to wake him up. He was in cold sleep, in a sunken chamber in Zot. They told me that he could help me. I didn’t know he would attack you.”
“He claims to know me from the past,” Ben frowned and shook his head, “But I don’t remember him.”
“It doesn’t matter…” she sighed, leaning back with a sad look. “He did nothing but lie to me anyway.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
Joran gave him an incredulous look. “No… I’m sorry. I was the one that made this mess to start with. You shouldn’t be apologizing for anything. I knew what I did was wrong… and everytime I wanted to turn it around and bring the Crystal back to you, someone persuaded me to do something else… or told me how angry you’d be… that I’d get hurt.”
He blinked at her, throat tightening, “Were you really that scared of me?”
“I…” she paused, squinting across the bars at him. “I was. But… you’re different, now… somehow.”
“Different..?” Ben pursed his lips.
The way she said it… made him feel good. That Joran could see something that was actually positive within him.
“Yeah,” the girl nodded. He was surprised to hear that she spoke that particular word in Common. Something she must have picked up somewhere during her time there on the Blue Planet.
“You’re different, too,” the Half Lunar told her with a slight smile. Then he turned abruptly, heading back down the hall.
“Golbez?” Joran called after him. Her voice was worried.
“Just hold on,” Ben assured her, looking over his shoulder before continuing on. “I’ll be back. I’m going to talk to my brother. I’m going to get you out of here.”
If he had stayed for just a moment longer, he would have seen her tears of relief finally break through.