XXI

I will never forget the feeling I had on the first night back at the Navel Falls View, sleeping in my own bed. It was relief mixed with excitement. The pain was still strong – to an extent, it still is – and eighty thousand Lucre could not erase it, but it was more than enough to get me to Yamauchi and to cover my studies, with some left over.

Thanks to the media, Nase had heard what had happened, and he visited me the next day. It was good to see him again. He came up to my room. I was lying on my bed and he was sitting lazily on my desk chair as we talked. He told me that he had been studying Business at Pandora University while I was “away”, the term we agreed upon that brought about the least amount of pain.

“There’s something I need to tell you, Dy,” he said suddenly. “It’s…kind of why I’m here.”

I sat up, propping my back against my bed head. “Has…has someone died?”

Nase nodded. “No-one we know, though. Did you get news while you were away?”

“None,” I told him, bemused.

“Right. The Guardian of the Water Palace died.”

“Sonao Endigo? Dead?”

“Yep. He’s dead.”

“How?”

“They say he was trying to formulate some new spell. One of his acolytes found him one morning, frozen bits of him all over the room.”

“Ugh…that’s horrible!”

Nase nodded grimly.

The Mana Guardians are an ancient order, revived after the events of the Fortress Resurrection, to prevent it from happening again. Those who were known as Sages became Guardians, and others were appointed to protect a particular part of Fa’Diel, such as the Guardian of Southtown, or an object, such as the Guardian of Wisdom, whose mountain-top cave in the Lofty Mountains holds copies of everything ever written.

It was recognised, however, that the Palace Guardians held an extremely important role. The Palaces of Fa’Diel are where the Seeds of the Mana Tree are kept, to help to channel Mana’s power into each of the eight Elements. The Seeds are also used to revive the Mana Tree, should it be destroyed. Therefore, the Palace Guardians were ranked above the other Guardians. Guardians who protected areas around the Palaces became answerable to them. The Guardians of objects answered to those Palace Guardians whose Seed was of the Element their object was aligned with (most of the time). Therefore, to have the Guardian of the Water Palace removed would leave all water-related Guardians and all eastern Pandoran Guardians leaderless, including the very important Guardian of Potos, protector of the Mana Sword.

“So, what’s happening about it?” I asked him.

“I’m the new Guardian,” he told me, flatly.

I looked at him with shocked silence. “Nase? Are you alright?”

He shrugged. “The other seven Palace Guardians saw me today. They looked through my Mana Development results from school. They told me to cast a few spells. I did. They declared me the strongest caster of Undine on Fa’Diel. The ceremony’s in two weeks.”

I stared at him dumbfounded. “But…but how?”

Nase shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“It’s a huge responsibility…why you?”

He nodded. “I’m still trying to figure out why I was picked.”

“I saw you cast Undine at school, remember. You know how amazed we were…”

“I knew I was good at it, but, not that good. Now I’m going to be one of the most important people on the planet because of it.”

I nodded.

“I’m worried about the responsibility, of course, but what scares me is that I could live for six hundred years. I’m going to meet people, see them be born and watch them die after living their lives, and I won’t have aged a day.”

We talked a bit more, until he had to go to do some preliminary work. I was dumbstruck. It sounded ludicrous, but it was true. My best friend during high school was now going to be the Guardian of the Water Palace!

I began to worry about whether or not his position would make him too busy for me to see me. And even if I did, and he was not busy, I doubted we would be able to hang out anywhere – he was going to be very well known, so he could no longer be anonymous going down a street. What would help this, though, was that I was going to be on Yamauchi, only seeing him every now and again. Yet, that was no help, because contact between the two of us would be stretched. I wondered if those around him would make him unapproachable.

I told myself to get a grip on things. He was my best friend and he would let me.

I was going to miss him.

The next two weeks were hectic. I was running around preparing everything, writing to Aunt Tia and receiving her reply. I told the embassy that I was postponing my date of immigration until after the ceremony. By the time I would get there, it would be about three weeks before the new year of university began. I guess I’m thankful that my Army experience that it lined things up well. I made my university applications – I would be studying Physiology and Anatomy, fast tracked, to get a Doctorate. I knew that I could not survive forever on my compensation money, and a job in that field interested me at the time. I paid my first set of fees – alone, all up, the fees would take half of that money. Once I became a citizen in a year’s time, I would be able to take out governmental loans for the fees, reducing the cost considerably, and saving me from spending all of it.

My parents had arranged with Syoro Toripe to postpone my lessons while I was in the Army – the only thing left to do was to tell him that I had returned and was leaving for Yamauchi. Fa’Diel has a telephone system much like other worlds, except this one relies on Mana rather than wires, so I called Syoro Toripe.

“Parano?” an unfamiliar voice answered.

“Er, Parano, I’m after Syoro Dyluck Toripe? I’m one of his students, Dyluck Yoshi, and I–”

“Oh, yes, you’re the one who was in the Army. Right. I’m Dyluck’s brother Enorin.”

“Right.”

“I take it you have not heard the news.”

“News?”

“My brother died two months ago from a heart attack.”

I stood there in stunned silence.

“Parano?” he asked after a while.

“Yes, yes, I’m still here,” I mumbled.

“I’m sorry I had to tell you this.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Thank you. Cyado.”

“Cyado.”

I hung up and stood next to the phone, staring blankly.

My mother bustled past me. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

I looked up at her. “Syoro Toripe died two months ago.”

She looked downcast for a moment, then hugged me. She knew how much music meant to me – Dogo had deprived me of the pleasure when I started to play once, telling me to shut up and put it away never to be seen again lest he break my potosa – and now it was being deprived totally.

“Dy…don’t give up your music,” she told me. “If anything, do it for his memory, and do it for yourself.”

I nodded and we parted. I went upstairs. I got out my potosa and tried to play it, but I would not breathe out hard enough to form a sound. I put it away again. Music was a link with Ark, and a crucial part of that link had been taken away. I sobbed myself to sleep, missing dinner.

The day of the ceremony came around, the day before I left, and my family and I went to the Water Palace. It was the first time I had ever been there, and I remember being amazed by the sheer amount of water being moved through the Palace, and the architecture. The place is comprised of platforms connected by stairs above the abyss that appear and disappear via switches on the floor; fortunately, they were all locked to “on”. A wooden platform had been constructed over a reflecting pool, and I was annoyed that the “action” occurred in the distance above us. There was just no other space for invited guests to sit. Even most of the Royal Family was there, though they had entered with no fanfare.

Once everyone was seated, there was a fanfare of pakasi, the trumpet-like instrument of Fa’Diel, and all the Guardians processed in and up the stairs to where they would see the ceremony from, close to the stage where the Mana Seed was in its box. It was before that, at the base of the stairs, that the ceremony would take place.

As would normally happen in an ordination ceremony, the Palace Guardian would call upon the Elemental to reveal itself – since there was none, it was the job of the other Palace Guardians to do so.

For the rest of the ceremony, it seemed surreal, to see Her Eminence, Undine, the Water Elemental, with my very own eyes. I prayed to her, as many people on Fa’Diel do, but I never expected to actually lay my eyes on her. For those who do not know what she looks like, consider a mermaid, with sea-green hair, aqua skin, fins on the sides of her head, and ultramarine scales from the bust down. She wields a javelin, which she did that day as well. She is quite a beautiful Elemental, and even though I have seen her again since, I consider it an honour to have seen her that day.

She then called for Nase, and he entered up the aisle between the seats and up one of the flights of stairs, stripped to the waist. He seemed slightly uncomfortable by it, if I recall rightly. Undine then asked him what are known as the Guardian vows, including ones reserved specially for the Palace Guardians, namely that to lead his group of Guardians with dignity and to be a prime example of a Guardian for them.

Then she asked the other Palace Guardians to help her take part in the Blessing of Mana, which is a beautiful set of words spoken at many occasions, particularly weddings. It goes:

May Undine's waters always keep you in good health;

May Gnome defend you from harm;

May Sylphid keep your mind clear so that pure thoughts may blossom;

May Salamando's flames keep you strong;

May Lumina keep your path lit as you journey;

May Luna smile on you always, and bring good luck;

May Dryad grant you long life;

And when you leave this mortal plane, may Shade carry you on its back across the Darkness to Paradise.

Each line was said by its corresponding Palace Guardian, except in the case of Water’s, where Undine spoke it, replacing her name with “my”, naturally. Even though I had occasionally seen them on television before, this is what I consider to be the first time I saw Theutes Whalki, Guardian of the Fire Palace, which is in the Desert of Kakkara, and Shero Amanleo, Guardian of the Light Palace, the Tower of Gold City.

Then, there was a period of silence as Undine spoke to Nase telepathically, before she announced that he would receive his Vestments of Office. The Water Palace acolytes helped him dress in an elaborate costume of blue and white. Since this time, I have only ever seen him wear two sets of clothes – these ceremonial robes or his working ones. He took to his job seriously from the start.

After being robed, Undine told him to ascend the stairs to the Water Seed. He laid his hands on it, and there was a show of blue light. After it died down, Undine proclaimed him Guardian of the Water Palace. We applauded.

The rest of the ceremony was taken up by speeches. When they were over, Nase performed his first duty as the Guardian, dismissing us from the ordination. As the Guardians filed out, Undine disappeared. Nase led them, his face stern and obstinate, much like I would see on those future occasions when something bad was going on.

I tried to find him in the crowd outside, expecting there to be some sort of “meet and greet”. He was not there – after overhearing some of the Guardians, he had been whisked away already to begin his duties.

I never got a chance to say goodbye.