As Hikaru thought, Gurmand hadn't intended any impoliteness towards her, he merely hadn't thought his suggestion all the way through. She saw how embarrassed he had suddenly become, so Hikaru gave him a warm smile an reassured him.

"It's okay Gurmand-san, I know that you didn't mean any harm."

Then she turned to Hotaru's ice sculpture staircase. Hikaru was again impressed by Hotaru's magical skills. The stairway was very beautiful, but as Yuki had observed, it also looked very fragile and delicate. However the choice of who must go first was clear to Hikaru.

"The door in the ceiling will only open for me, so I must go first. There's no need to worry, if anything is waiting for us up there, I'll be ready. Hotaru-san and Yuki-san, you two should come next, and Gurmand-san last in case anything tries to follow us from down here."

Everyone looked back at Hikaru as if they understood so Hikaru turned to the stairway and started up. Right away Hikaru noticed that the steps were also wet, so her footing was very tricky and great care was needed in order to avoid falling. About halfway up, she turned back to see that Hotaru was now starting up.

"Be careful Hotaru-san, the steps are very slipperly."

Hikaru warned her gently, but also suggested

"Maybe you should wait until I'm all the way up, so that there is only one person on the stairs at a time."

Hotaru seemed to understand this and stayed where she was until Hikaru reached the dark, circular portal in the ceiling. With her sword out, Hikaru reached up to touch the door with her left hand, but before she could touch it the door vanished, leaving the wide circular portal in the ceiling open. She walked up the remaining steps and stood upon the upper level. It was a large, wide hall with a low, vaulted ceiling. The walls of the hall were of a spotless, white crystal material and the framing of the vaults was of a dull gold or brass like material, extravagently styled in Baroque patterns. It was all very familiar to Hikaru ... the interior of the Castle of Cephiro. She looked around carefully and then shouted back down to the others.

"It seems quiet up here now, please come up quickly!"

Hotaru nodded & went slowly after Hikaru went up.

Yuki then heard Hikaru give the ok & went up after Hotaru. Then Gurmand followed right behind him. As soon as they were in the clear, Yuki took a look at his surroundings & had an uneasy feeling on him.

"Doushita, Yuki-sama?" asked Hotaru.

"It's quiet. Too quiet," he replied.

"I hate that cliche....." Gurmand mutters to himself as he comes up out of the hole. He looks around warily none the less. "You're right, Yuki. There should at least be some sort of guards or sentries. I smell a trap........"

"What now, Yuki-sama?" asked Hotaru.

"My guess is...the enemy is probably expecting us, so she laid out this trap to assume that there's nothing going on," guessed Yuki. "Next move...I say we spring the trap."

Like the others, Hikaru stood and surveyed the hall, looking for something that might been hidden there. She knew that with Alycione in control of the Castle the whole place was likely to be deserted, however like everyone else Hikaru was also suspicious of a trap.

"I too feel that something isn't right here. The Castle is under the control of Alycione, so I wouldn't expect to see any of the normal activity here, things are going to be quiet. However I feel that something else isn't right, but not quite like a trap. It feels like ... we're being watched very closely. Alycione is probably getting nervous because we've made it this far."

She explained, but before Hikaru could speak any further, the sound of a loud, shrill laugh filled the hall.

"Waaaah-hahahahahaaa!" Me? Nervous? Afraid of a little squirt like you Magic Knight??"

There was no mistaking the voice that echoed in the hall. Hikaru instantly recognized Alycione speaking to them from the distant nothingness. Her heart now beat strongly in her chest as she gripped the handle of her sword, ready for battle.

"Alycione! I have come to free Princess Emeraude so that she may return to her duties as Pillar of Cephiro! Release her to me now and end this conflict without bloodshed!"

Hikaru shouted back her demand. A few seconds later, a whispy, ghost-like figure of a woman with very long, raven black hair appeared before the group, directly facing Hikaru. She wore a very revealing low-cut armor of sleek black and a long, black cape to match it. On her forehead was a gleaming red jewel. At first she smiled at Hikaru, but her expression soon turned grim.

"Have you forgotten my dear?"

Alycione started politely

"That I still hold in my possession the mind of the Sky Knight? Soon the mind of the Sea Knight will be mine as well, and yet you insult me by making demands of your own? How incredibly foolish you are to think that you and your little gang of schoolyard hooligans would be a match for me! Princess Emeraude will never be released to you or anyone else!"

She finished her answer rather vehemently. Hikaru took a swipe at her with her sword, but as Hikaru suspected, the image of Alycione was only a projection, a shadow that she used to appear to them, but it vanished instantly. A moment later, a driving hurricane of wind started to sweep through the hall, but unlike a tropical storm, this wind bore a frigid arctic cold that began to coat everyone and everything with ice.

(OOC: I guess from now on I will be playing Alycione.)

Suddenly, Yuki's teeth started to slightly chatter.

"It's...f-f-f-fr-fr-freezing," he said. 'There's only one way to do this.' He turned to Hotaru & uttered, "Double team?"

"You got it," she said.

Both stood side by side, pointed their staffs at the hurricane.

"RASEN NO KAZE!" shouted Hotaru.

"HONOO NO INFERNO!" yelled Yuki.

Together, their attacks fused into one full flaming tornado, countering the ice attack, melting the ice.

"You're skills have improved my friend," said Yuki, smiling.

Hotaru tried to hide her blushing from him, as she didn't realize she was starting to have feelings for him.

As soon as the apparition appears, Gurmand instantly draws both his blades, placing himself behind and a little to the side of Hikaru, ready to watch her back. When the wind starts up, he crosses his blades before him, literally cutting the wind and lessening, but not eliminating, it;s effect on him.

Yuki and Hotaru's magic freed everyone including Hikaru from the accumulating ice, but its effects were only temporary and soon Alycione's ice magic started to bear down on them again.

"Alycione's magic is too powerful for them. We cannot resist it directly, so we have to get out of here now and escape its effects!"

Hikaru quickly realized. Then she looked and saw what Gurmand was doing. More than once in the past Hikaru remembered Fuu using a technique like this one which gave her an idea. She ran up behind Gurmand and gave him a nudge on the shoulder. The wind was too strong for her to speak to Gurmand so she pointed towards the end of the hall in the direction that the wind was coming from. Then Hikaru nudged him again and Gurmand started to walk into the wind with Hikaru close behind him. She turned back to Yuki and Hotaru and motioned for them to follow as well and the two of them joined Hikaru in marching behind Gurmand. Like the prow of a ship, his blade cut a path for them through the driving wind and ice until they reached the end of the hall. There was a broad staircase there that was as wide as the width of the hall and Hikaru indicated to Gurmand that they keep going and ascend the stairs. The footing on the stairs was treacherous due to the ice, so progress was slow at first, but after some distance up, the wind and ice abated and when they had reached the top of the stairs, on the floor of the next level, it ceased altogether.

Hikaru breathed a sigh of relief and added

"Alycione's magic was only cast on the hall down below, so we should be okay for now ... well at least for a little while. Eventually she will strike again ... we can be sure of that."

she warned everyone with concern. Looking around, Hikaru now found herself in a familiar place. This hall was even larger and grander than the first one that they had just escaped from. Its ceiling was as high and vaulted like a cathedral and the expanse of its floor was several acres of brilliantly mirror polished stone. No sound was heard despite the great volume of space in the hall - the four of them were the only ones there. At one end of the hall there were what looked like three monstrous doors, all of them closed, but Hikaru pointed at them.

"The main entrance to the Castle of Cephiro is there and this room is the entrance hall. Normally this place would be filled with visitors from everywhere that you could imagine, but Alycione has closed the castle and Princess Emeraude will have no guests today ... except for us."

She finished sadly her voice eching in the emptiness. Hikaru knew many things about Princess Emeraude that most likely the others did not. She knew how much anguish and sorrow the Princess had borne since becoming the Pillar of Cephiro and now Alycione was forcing her to endure yet another episode of anguish, all because Princess Emeraude cared so deeply for the land of Cephiro. In a moment Hikaru began to sense a familiar feeling and turned away from Gurmand, Yuki, and Hotaru. She started to walk away from them in the direction opposite from the main entrance doors, but only partly because she wished to continue onwards. Mostly it was because she didn't want everyone else to see the tears that were now forming in her eyes.

Hotaru noticed Hikaru's expression after they managed to escape Alcyone's attack & her face softened.

"Daijoubu, Hikaru-san?" she asked, concerned.

When Hotaru asked her question, Hikaru stopped where she was. Princess Emeraude was a subject that Hikaru really didn't like to talk about, but seeing that it was their mission to rescue her, Hikaru really didn't think that there was any way to avoid it completely. She wiped her eyes a bit and then turned to face Hotaru.

"I'm sorry Hotaru-chan ..."

She apologized

"... I was just thinking about Princess Emeraude and how sad she must be right now. It's hard enough for her to be the Pillar of Cephiro, it's a very lonely responsibility, but now she's also Alycione's prisoner, locked up in a room by herself with no visitors ..."

Hikaru paused because she had begun to get all teary-eyed again. Everything about Princess Emeraude seemed to bring sadness to Hikaru, but she just couldn't bear to dump all of that on Hotaru, Gurmand, and Yuki. Slowly Hikaru gathered her resolve and straightened up again. She reminded herself of the urgency of their mission and that enabled Hikaru to contain her feelings once again. Then looking at everyone again, Hikaru continued

"We have to rescue her from Alycione as soon as possible. I don't know which room of the castle Princess Emeraude is being held in, but I have a good idea. The most secure place in the castle is the Crown Room which is at the top of the highest tower. I also have a good idea of where we'll find Alycione as well. Let's get going."

She finished and when Hikaru saw that everyone seemed to understand, she turned and started to walk across the great entrance hall towards the stairs at the back of the hall. The stairway was a broad, sweeping, spiral staircase that wound around a great central pillar, reaching up into the higher levels of the castle. Carefully looking around for signs of any attack, Hikaru hesitated at the foot of the stairs. When everything seemed quiet, she started to ascend the stairway.

Gurmand also saw Hikaru's discomfort, and made a motion as if to go to her, but he stopped himself.
"don't get too involved. The time may come when you have to do something they will not understand, and if you get too attached you will be unable to act."
He thinks fiercely to himself, but deep inside, his heart says something else.............he shakes his head as if to clear it, and presses on, concentrating on the task at hand.
"Damn.....whoever designed this castle should be hanged.......it SCREAMS ambush.......It's making me nervous........

As Hotaru & Yuki followed Gurmand & Hikaru through the castle, Yuki had that uneasy feeling again.

'A place this big is supposed to have some type of trap. But I guess that's determined onto who created it & what they would use besides magic to conjure a trap...unless that's the only way they could conjure a trap,' he thought.

As the two kept close, Hotaru then tapped Hikaru on the shoulder. "Ano...I know you seem upset w/the Princess being held prisoner & all, but...I'm sure we'll be able to find her," she said. Then...in a low tone, she whispered, "And...there's something personal that I need to talk to you about after this is over."

As Yuki looked around & behind, he used an orb that belonged once to his master to help display the map of the castle & where they were at the moment. Luckily for him & his friend, they could see it & the enemy couldn't. Yet something about it troubled him. He couldn't pinpoint the exact location of where the Princess was.

"Doushita, Yuki-sama?" asked Hotaru.

"I can feel her aura...it's strong...so is the enemy's...yet...I just can't seem to pinpoint the exact location. The enemy's presence seems to be spreaded in segments throughout the castle," he explained.

Gurmand takes a look at Yuki's map, and upon hearing his explanation, a worried look crosses his face. "Hikaru, I think you better have a look at this....."

Just as Hikaru was called over, Yuki then closed his eyes, and for some odd reason, caused the orb to float in mid-air. Hotaru noticed this & decided to follow suit.

'Doko desu ka? Hime-sama?' he wondered. Yuki then felt his apprentice's presence with him as well. 'Heh...I knew you'd follow suit.'

'I just want to be able to keep you company, Yuki-sama,' she put cheerfully, causing him to slightly blush. He then began to see a faint light in the middle of the orb and then figured it out.

"Not absolutely sure about this, but...from what I've seen, she might appear to be..." he started, but then his senses then screamed, "danger!". 'Shimatta!'

He whirled around and noticed ice needles heading towards his apprentice. Raising his staff, Yuki then shouted a spell that somehow rang a bell.

"CRYSTA!" A barrier formed around the group shielding them from the attack.

"Daijoubu desu ka, Yuki-sama?" asked Hotaru.

"Hayaku, nigeru!" he shouted.

"Demo..." she started.

"Daijoubu. Hontou ni daijoubu," answered Yuki, turning to her, while his staff was still in the air. "GO! I'll hold it off as long as possible. I'll join with you guys later. Go!"

Gurmand drew his swords and stood next to Yuki, taking a defensive posture.
"No offense, but if you think I'm going to run off and leave you to die, you can stick that staff of yours where the sun don't shine."
he looked over at his shoulder at Hotaru and Hikaru.
"You two go on. We'll keep them off your back as long as we can. Hikaru, you're the only one who can save Princess Emeraude. You're the only one of us that matters in the long term. Run, now."
he then turns back to the ice needles pounding Yuki's barrier. "How long can you hold that thing?" he asks the man.

Yuki just gave a quick grin at Gurmand.

"Not to create any competition between us but...my mental stamina is pretty good," he said.

'I'll need to think fast of creating a fire spell the split second I let off my barrier. Perhaps...wait...a barrier...a fire barrier just might do the trick.'

Hotaru then looked at Hikaru and said, "We should go." As she looked back, she quietly whispered, 'Kioutsukete...watashi no tenshi.'

Once Yuki found a way to create another barrier, he then prepared his next spell, which was a teleportation spell to escape the oncoming ice daggers.

"Blazing fire, encircle! Honoo no barrier!" he shouted. No sooner had he said the spell, that his barrier became one of flames, while still encircling both him and Gurmand.

Then, thinking quickly, he said, "Uthe sastos!" A magic circle appeared below both Yuki and Gurmand, and teleported them to another floor of the castle. However, it also dissolved the barrier, yet also stopped Debonair to continue her assault.

When they teleported, they were on the 3rd floor of the castle.

'Well...that wasn't so bad...I think,' he thought.

Gurmand blinked, surprised at their change of location not sure why....you knew he was a mage.....

"you....DID make sure the girls got out before you made us, and I'm assuming your barrier, go 'poof' right?"

a rock clatters off to the left, and before Yuki can start talking again, Gurmand makes a motion for silence, pointing in the direction the sound came from, and signing with his hands to move quietly as they go to check it out.

'Yeah...it disappeared once I made that attempt,' he thought, after a sudden "clank" was heard. Sighing, he thought to himself again, 'More problems. Great.' Yuki then follows Gurmand to check out what it was.

Meanwhile, Hotaru and Hikaru were running to make sure that they weren't attacked by any more of those ice daggers. Hotaru herself was becoming increasingly worried about Yuki. 'I hope he's all right,' she thought to herself.

When the area seemed clear enough, the two decided to take a bit of a break. Hotaru turned to Hikaru and said, "Um...Hikaru-san...I know I'm still a beginner and Yuki still has to help me now and then...so...I'm sorry if I'm being such a hindrance. Though...I...I just hope that Yuki-sama is all right." With that said, her voice suddenly began to break, as tears began to stream down her face.

(OOC: I'm sorry everyone for being so slow to respond v_v I'll try my best to pick things up again.)

As they began to ascend the spiral staircase, Hikaru took note of Gurmand and Yuki's comments and realized that they were both correct. This part of the castle had been designed for show and not military strategy. The stairway wound like a corkscrew around a huge central pillar, so it was closed off on one side but the other side beyond the railing it was open to a precipitous drop back down to the floor of the entrance hall below.

"If we are attacked here, there isn't much room to fight and no chance of escape."

Hikaru thought to herself which immediately brought a heightened awareness to her senses and began to look around warily, looking for a surprise. For probably ten minutes or so they climbed the stairs without incident. When Yuki got out his magical orb, Hikaru was rather intrigued by it at first, but she did not allow her attention to be captured by it for more than a moment - danger could approach at any time so Hikaru continued to keep a watch around them. For a moment she felt a warm sensation about her, like the sun momentarily peeking out of the clouds and shining on her and then going back in again. Right then apparently Yuki had found something with his orb and Gurmand called her attention to it as well so Hikaru stepped over to Yuki and the orb just in time for him to issue a warning of danger. Hikaru whirled around to immediately see a storm of ice shards, like tiny but pencil sharp icicles bearing down on them.

"Acck ... I should've known! As soon as I turn my back ..."

She reproached herself bitterly and immediately raised her sword in a defensive position. It turned out to not be necessary as Yuki was able to raise a defense shield in time to prevent the initial onslaught of ice shards from hurting anyone. However they were all now trapped and unable to proceed any further up the stairway. Hikaru started to formulate some sort of plan, but Gurmand and Yuki were quicker, giving Hotaru and Hikaru an opportunity to escape.

"This isn't right Hotaru-chan, we should not leave them behind ..."

But just as she looked back at Gurmand and Yuki, the magic summoning circle appeared beneath them and they vanished. Where they went Hikaru did not know, but where ever it was must have been out of the range of Yuki's magical abilities because the shield rapidly dissipated as Hotaru and Hikaru ran up the stairs. Fortunately the storm of ice shards seemed to be concentrated only on that one place where they had been and did not follow them. At that point Hikaru stopped to take a rest.

"Alycione's magic didn't follow us, so we should be safe for the moment Hotaru-chan. Erm, just before the attack came I felt an odd sensation like the sunshine touching me. Hotaru-chan, what exactly is that orb that Yuki-san was using? Could Alycione have felt it too ... like I did?"

she asked her companion who Hikaru had just noticed was quite a bit more winded by the expedited stair climb than she was. So Hikaru indicated that they should sit down and they both took a seat on the steps next to each other. However instead of answering Hikaru's query, Hotaru apologized and clearly seemed upset over the brief incident especially their separation from the guys. Being caught up in the excitement had Hikaru's adrenalin still rushing, but the sight of Hotaru's tears quickly calmed her and then she too began to feel some trepidation over the separation. Hikaru had become used to Gurmand being nearby she realized. Even though he'd always been quiet and somewhat stoic, Gurmand was a very capable and dependable ally and not having him there almost reminded her of two other allies that had also been absent from her side for quite some time now. She embraced Hotaru ...

"I'm sorry Hotaru-chan, I know how worried you must be. Yuki-san will be okay, I ... uh we will make sure of that."

Hikaru let go so that she could look face to face with Hotaru.

"You didn't get to meet them yet, but two of my friends are missing too. There are two more Magic Knights like myself, you heard Alycione mention them - the Sky Knight and The Sea Knight. But to me they are Fuu-chan and Umi-chan and they are my best friends, like my sisters. But Alycione used a mind trick of some kind on Fuu-chan and now she is in a lot of trouble. Umi-chan stayed behind to watch over Fuu-chan while I came here to confront Alycione."

Now, Hotaru wasn't they only one with tears welling up in her eyes. Hikaru's distress over her two best friends had been kept in the back of her mind since beginning the foray into the castle, but now all of her feelings were coming back to her.

"Yuki-san will be alright because ... Fuu-chan and Umi-chan ... will be alright ... too ... they have to be ..."

Hikaru's voice began to break up as bowed her head down and started to sob quietly.

(OOC: Daijoubu, Hikaru-san. Just post when you feel like you want to. )

Hotaru looked into Hikaru's eyes and said, "Arigatou, Hikaru-san."

---

As Yuki took out his orb again, he then noticed something interesting. Now it was not only the princess' presence he felt, but also 2 others. He then noticed a blue and green aura.

'Those must be Hikaru's companions. Only question is...how to get to them without getting ourselves killed,' he thought. As he moved, so did his orb, considering it floated in mid-air.

Once he reached the area where the "clank" sound was...he looked around and saw nothing at first. Then he heard that sound again...only...it was above him. Looking up...he then saw a familiar bird, a blue bird that looked similar to a phoenix...it was also an old friend.

"Roran?" wondered Yuki.

The bird happily chirped and landed on his right shoulder.

"How'd you get here?" he asked.

The bird then made a series of chirps, to which Yuki managed to get.

"You were staying in a garden...that had a fountain?" he asked. 'Hmm...interesting.' "Did you happen to find anyone?"

The bird chirped a short series of chirps and Yuki's eyes widened in surprise.

"What? Allies? What kind?" he asked.

It chirped twice.

"A blue knight?" he asked. Then it hit him.

"A blue knight?"
Gurmand asked, recalling something Hikaru had mentioned.
"That sounds like the Sea Knight, one of Miss Hikaru's companions."
he walks over and examines Yuki's map.
"If we take this corridor" he points, tracing the line with his finger "it'll put us on a direct intercept course with those dots, which I'm assuming are the Sea and Sky knights. Chances are the enemy, this sorceress who's been giving us so much trouble, will expect this, so we're in for a fight. Are you up to it?" he turns to look Yuki in the eye.

Yuki looked Gurmand in the eye.

"I hardly turn down a challenge," said Yuki. 'I just hope Hikaru and Hotaru are all right.'

Snapping out of his quick thought and back into reality, he then noticed his little bird friend had gone ahead of him.

Turning to Gurmand he said, "Ikou!"

Gurmand nodded, checked his swords, and took off after Yuki.
"Is this right? Am I really doing any good here? We've run into more magical threats than physical...and I'm fair useless against magic...after all, you can't cut a spell...."
He thought to himself as they ran. These, and other nebulous doubts had been running through his head since they'd entered the castle. He wanted to help Hikaru and her freinds, but was he really helping, or just adding one more person for them to protect? He shook his head to clear it.
"Mind on the job, greenie"
He could almost hear the voice of his old commander on his first patrol assignment, when he'd felt much the same things. He came back to himself, just in time to see sections of shadow detach themselves from the walls all around them. He barely had time to shout a warning to Yuki before the assassins struck, roughly shouldering the mage out of the way of a thrown dagger, and cutting down the first of the growing crowd of men.

As Yuki was running, he couldn't help but think of Hotaru. While doing so, he heard a faint "clinking" sound, and remembered of the little pendant that was given to him when his old master was still around. Back then, he and Hotaru were really good friends. But ever since the various attacks from enemies within the castle of Cephiro and the Princess being captured, things have been tough. Yuki tried to encourage his old master to stay with them, but he sacrificed his own life in order to protect theirs. The last words he heard him say was "Protect Hotaru".

'Demo...doushite?' he wondered. Suddenly, he noticed his little bird friend coming back and it was chirping like crazy.

'Doushita, aibou?" he asked.

A sudden rumble within the castle gave him the answer.

'Something tells me we're not alone.'

Meanwhile, as Hikaru and Hotaru continued up, Hotaru couldn't help but ask, "Hikaru...there's something that I've been wanting to ask you?" She paused for a moment before continuing. "Have you ever been in love before?"