Kingdom Hearts X(cross): Cadunt ad Caelum

It's a bitter, bitter pill to swallow, but... you just don't see how you can justify lying to Dallben and Coll after they saved your life. Even with the former all but telling you he wouldn't mind, you would. You've already messed up the mission about as much as it could be possible to mess it up, what's the worst that could happen from telling Dallben what he probably already knows? You sag slightly against Coll. It feels like his arm is the only thing keeping you upright.

"I'm... not from Prydain," you admit at last. "I'm from somewhere far away. A place where I learned how to fight like I did, use magic like I did. A place where I was sworn and trained to fight the forces of darkness."

"You're from the Summer Country?" Coll asks, baffled and incredulous and a little awestruck all at once. Your brow furrows.

"What's the Summer Country?"

Coll blows air into his cheeks. "(You really aren't from 'round here)," he mutters. "The Summer Country is a land that lies far across the sea, over the horizon. It's a place of magic and eternal light, ruled by the folk that journeyed here once in ancient times to free us from the Horned King's tyranny. Their descendants - that's the Sons of Don - have ruled here ever since."

You chuckle drily. "If that's not the way Prydainians refer to where I come from then that's an awfully big coincidence, I must admit. But we call it Daybreak."

"I saw you use a key like a sword, turn it into a whip then conjure lightning from nothing, kid," Coll replies simply. "I'll believe anything you say."

You snort. "It is a lot to take in, heh." Your brow furrows again just as quickly, your shoulders sagging. "I'm not fully trained, though. And I'm not supposed to be a front-line soldier in the first place. If you hadn't showed up, I'd have been a goner."

"I can think of few who could have fared better in your place," Dallben reassures you. "The Huntsmen of Annuvin are the lesser-known but far deadlier threat in the Horned King's armies. If anything you should be proud that you were able to deliver Hen Wen home safely against so many. Although I must ask - on a quest of such import from your foreign land, why stop to protect a lost pig in the woods?"

Dallben strides forward to open the front gate for you and Coll while you think about what to say next. You grimace as you cross the threshold and enter the yard.

"Well, heh, while I'm being honest," you reply ruefully, "it's a bit of a tangle. My mission was to find a special artefact in this world, something capable of gazing into the past, present and future - or near enough. I didn't know what Hen Wen was capable of when she came to find me, but she used her powers to show me this place so... doesn't take a genius to work out she's what I came for." You try to find your footing, politely extricating yourself from Coll's grip to make it the rest of the way on your own.

"Were you charged to take her back to your master, as the Huntsmen were?" Dallben asks, evenly and without accusation.

Coll goes forward to get the door. You stop just short with Dallben and shake your head. "I was meant to discover the truth about what the item was and act accordingly, whether that meant taking it or just reporting back. But I'm charged only to interfere with the affairs of another world when absolutely necessary so... as far as I can tell, only if the artefact turned out not to belong in Prydain." You chuckle bitterly. "Of course I've already interfered enough. It'd be against my code to take Hen Wen even if I wanted to."

Dallben rests a gnarled old hand on your shoulder. "It was not meddling," he says kindly. "Hen Wen came to you for help and you proved her trust was well-placed." He glances to the door. "Coll, could you please fix our guest something? I must go and see to a certain matter."

"Hm? Oh sure." Coll stands in the doorway, one hand outstretched to keep it open, and beckons you inside. "There's not much on offer, but I've got a bit of stew left in the pot I can resurrect for you."

"Anything at all would be wonderful, thank you," you say gratefully, hurrying inside and beelining for a chair to take the weight off your shivering legs. It's all you can do not to groan in abject relief when you do settle down. The interior is a modest affair, just one room vaguely sectioned off into a kitchen, a dining room, and a 'bedroom' with two beds on either side. Coll stokes the fire back to life, peering into whatever lies within the flame-blackened pot dangling over it and muttering to himself. He tries to sneak a look at you as he crosses the room to a cupboard, only to lock eyes with you instead.

"You can stare," you say. "I admit I'm kind of a curiosity."

"Nah it's not that," he replies, rummaging around in said cupboard. He seems satisfied once he retrieves a fistful of carrots and a little wrapped-up meat, returning to the pot and fiddling with it. "Just that you seem awful young to fight the way you do."

"I've been training since I was fourteen," you reply. "I'm sixteen now, and this is my first ever solo mission in another world. You can uh, kind of tell."

"Must be one heck of a prodigy," Coll remarks.

"Not really. I actually became a cadet a little late." You lower your gaze, drumming your gloved fingers on the rough-hewn tabletop as you cast your mind back through the years. "Usually you're chosen by the Keyblade as a preteen, thirteen at the latest. Sometimes kids as young as ten manage to summon one. The younger you are the purer your heart. Once you turn teenager things get a little... messy."

Coll pauses. He half-turns, staring at you over his shoulder as if trying to work out of you're kidding. You meet his gaze guilelessly. Long seconds of silence pass, and he returns to the stew. Hands as rough and tough as leather pat the sides of the pot to check how it's heating, and a wooden spoon swirls through the mysterious mix to make sure the new gets cooked in properly with the old. You start to worry. Did you offend him somehow? You should break the ice, try complimenting him.

"You were amazing out there too," you say at last. "You took them all on like you do this every day, and they were absolute monsters. You could give one of my teachers a run for their money with technique like that. Where'd you learn?"

Coll sighs. "Well, I wasn't always a farmer. Once upon a time I was a young fool. I went to war, and I was good at it. Very good. Came a time they called me a hero for it, but I never felt like one." He glances back at you again. "Be thankful you only fight back the dark. Even if that's a war you can never win, it's a war you can fight day after day for the rest of your days and know you're doing the right thing. Wars between men? Well..."

He sets the lid down over the pot with a soft clank. "Sometimes you have to fight, but so often you don't. Helping you today, I felt more than I did in years on the campaign trail. It was the right thing to do, no bones about it. I just wish I could make Taran see it that way."

"Is Taran your son?" you ask.

"Hm?" He seems to double-take. "Mm. Dallben and I do our fair share raising him, but he's not mine so to speak. A foundling, he is. Dallben found him out wandering one day, years ago. Brought him in from some nameless battlefield and asked me to help bring him up right." He half-smiles. "Hey, maybe you could be the one to knock a little sense into him? He might actually listen to someone his own age."

You smile slightly in return. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind if I happen to see him."

Coll leans against the fireplace, arms folded, and thinks for a moment. He takes one more glance at the pot. "You know, why don't you go out and find Hen Wen?" he says. "Fire still needs a minute to wake up, and in all the excitement I didn't have time to put her back in the pen properly. She's probably worried sick about you too."

You nod, slowly rising from your seat. You're not quite recovered yet, but you're no newboard foal staggering and stumbling about anymore, so there's that. You thank Coll again for the help and hospitality, and let yourself back out into the sun and the breeze.

The minute you're out of sight you rake your hands through your hair again, gathering up the sweaty tangle of wavy midnight-blue locks and sweeping them all back tight enough to tug painfully at your scalp. What are you supposed to put in your report after all this? What will Chirithy say? Probably nothing too bad but... still. You wonder if the only reason you aren't already getting a lecture about preserving the world order is because they don't want to risk being spotted. You walk a circuit around the farmhouse, head tipped back and staring at the sky, wishing you could just go back and do today over again. If only you'd gone to Paradise Falls instead. Or just not had that stupid nightmare in the first place, and been well enough to grab the mission in La Cite De Cloches.

"Oink!" says a familiar pig from shin-level. You stop tugging your hair and let your hands fall, looking down to find Hen Wen craning her little neck as far as it will go to look up at you. She gives a little jump for joy as you make eye contact, letting out a symphony of porcine jubilation as she nuzzles your leg. You can't help but giggle.

"Alright alright, calm down!" You sink into a crouch and pat the seer-pig. "It got pretty scary there, but we both made it out alright. You are alright, aren't you? Didn't get hurt with all that running?"

Hen Wen snorts and shakes her head, curly tail wiggling. You quickly realise that crouching is the last thing your aching legs need right now, so you steady yourself with your free hand and take a seat on the grassy incline in the farmhouse's shadow instead. Hen Wen flumps down beside you, chin resting on your thigh. You idly scritch her behind one ear.

"Y'know what's funny?" you say. Hen Wen grunts in a conversational sort of way. "You're probably the first friend I've ever made who wasn't in my Union or my cadet class. Certainly the first I've made going to other worlds. And... you're a pig."

Hen Wen gives a subtly offended snort. You give her more scritches to appease the savage beast. She accepts the humble offering.

"But I am glad you found me," you go on. "I wish I'd been strong enough to fight those Huntsmen without Coll and Dallben, but... I'm glad I managed to save you."

Hen Wen bumps against your thigh a few more times, grunting and lifting her forelegs. It takes a few tries before you realise she's trying to climb up. You give her a bit of a boost from the back end and she oinks appreciatively, squirming the rest of her weight forward until she's plopped comfortably across your thighs like a plump, pale pink pillow. She's still splattered with mud and dirt from her frantic chase through the forest, but you don't begrudge her a bit of grime. You just smile and stroke her back, listening to the happy oinks. The world is silent and still, even the sounds of Coll moving about working on lunch muted by the wall at your back. It reminds you of the way the Citadel feels on your favourite days, just early or late enough when it feels like you're the only one awake. Like a pleasant dream.

"Hen Wen has remarkable intuition, you know." You try not to jolt too badly for fear of upsetting the pig, but you turn your head and there Dallben is, right beside you like he was there this whole time. You glance past him - there's a small outbuilding with a window and a door. His own little piece of the farm?

"Not long ago she could not stand remaining on the farm another moment," he goes on. "Perhaps she received a particularly vivid premonition, or perhaps the forces of darkness drew too close for her to bear. Either way, by the time I returned with her bowl to attempt to scry the danger, she had vanished. That she would feel so safe in your presence does as much to vouch for you as your honesty."

"I, ah, hope I live up to such high expectations," you reply a little awkwardly, wishing you didn't have a pig cuddled up on your lap while speaking to a powerful wizard. "Oh, if I may ask, Coll mentioned something about another person living here named Taran? It's just that I saw his bed in the farmhouse but I haven't seen him anywhere yet."

"Unfortunately you missed him by quite some time," Dallben replies. "The boy is Hen Wen's keeper, and the one person she trusts more than you. Unfortunately he was caring for her when her visions drove her to flee, and when I returned he had vanished in pursuit."

"And he's not back yet? That's awful, who knows what could've happened to him!" You glance down at Hen Wen, then back up at Dallben. "I'm not fully recovered yet, but do you want me to go looking for him when I am?"

Dallben smiles slightly, shooting you a look you can't quite read. "I have faith in Taran, for all that he can be... difficult at times. I believe we shall see him safe very soon, but I thank you for offering. May I ask when your superiors expect you to return?"

"It's suggested pretty heavily that you at least return to the Citadel at night and resume your mission in the morning if you must," you reply. "But otherwise it takes as long as it takes. I have the means to send messages back if something comes up. Why?"

The silence stretches on just a little too long. Dallben gazes down at you, and the longer he looks the deeper those eyes seem to reach. Drilling through, layer by layer, until he can see your heart itself. You pat Hen Wen again, more for yourself than for her.

"Hen Wen is not what your superiors spoke of, even if putting her in your report would satisfy them," Dallben says at last.

"I'm sorry?"

"Powerful as she may be, she still cannot hold a candle to a Book of Prophecy."

The wind itself seems to die. The air goes still as ice. Your hand freezes. Hen Wen senses the sudden tension in your body, cracking her eyes open and craning her neck with a worried oink. You stare up at Dallben and he meets you gaze calmly.

"... but I never-" you start.

"I can tell you what it is you were truly sent to find," he goes on. "Even show you, if that is what it will take to convince you. But you must swear to me you will not speak of it, write of it, or otherwise betray its location and true nature. Do you accept these terms?"

Hen Wen oinks again. You give her a somewhat shaky pat to calm her and yourself. Thoughts whirl and dance madly in your head, bouncing off the insides of your skull and each other. How could- but he- if so then- but he mentioned it by name! How else could he know what a Book of Prophecy is if he weren't telling the truth? You feel like you just tried to put your foot on a phantom stair in the dark, your stomach lurching up into your chest.

[ ] Swear. Dallben is starting to seem like the greater enigma of this world than any oracle-pig, and you can't in good conscience just turn him down and run off back to the Citadel. You need to know more.
[ ] Don't swear. It's not that you don't want to know. You do, obviously you do, you're Anguis. But you don't want to have to lie to everyone back home, potentially even to Chirithy if they're not listening in. You feel like letting things lie will save both you and Dallben a whole lot of grief.