Quest for the Eighty-Eight Keys

Chapter Thirty-Two: Talk with Scorpio

WARNING: MENTIONS OF TORTURE, DEATH, AND SELF-BLAME!

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Lucy looked out the window of the train as it rolled along to their destination: a forest town called Jasmin. Her thoughts were almost entirely centered on Rufus' kidnapping. How could she let it happen? How could she be so blinded by herself that she didn't notice Terra, Lust, and Nyx being at la Cour de Velors?

Her bandaged finger rubbed against one of the long scars that ran up her upper arm from her elbow to her shoulder. The sleeve of her shirt raised ad fell slightly with the movements of her fingers. How long had it been since she lost wore the clothes that she used to enjoy wearing? She couldn't remember. It seemed that the only clothes she wore were jeans and normal shirts, not shorts, skirts, or cropped tops.

Lucy's brown eyes closed and her mind returned to Rufus and his kidnapping. She couldn't do anything right, could she? What was next, she would lose one or more of her spirits somehow? Her stomach twisted with a nauseating feeling, making her body tense and her arms wrapped around her midsection as she struggled to keep back the urge to vomit.

What was happening to Rufus at that moment? She couldn't stop the question from rising. A picture of Rufus, tied to a chair and being tortured by an unseen torturer who was dragging a burning hot, metal rod along his bare chest flashed through her mind. Lucy's eyes snapped open and she flinched at the sound of her friend's pained scream that she could clearly hear in her ears, albeit short.

Her arms tightened around her midsection and she gritted her teeth. She had witnessed Yukino being tortured in that same way. It was sickening, the sight of the torture and the sound of her screams, and it was something that Lucy knew she would never forget, among other things that she had witnessed.

Lucy jumped once again when she felt a hand rest on her knee. She snapped her eyes over to the man who sat across from her. She found Freed, sitting right in front of her with a large book open in his lap. He was leaning toward her with his hand resting on her knee. Lucy blinked a few times before she made her body relax as much as she could and gave a small, slightly strained smile, hoping that her guildmate would be put to ease even a little bit by it.

Freed's sea-green eyes softened and he gave her a small smile of his own as he retracted his hand and leaned back in his seat. He picked the large book in his lap back up and asked with a soft tone, "are you alright?"

Lucy's eyes shifted back to the window as she answered, "as alright as I can be."

"Worried and scared, I suppose." When Lucy silently nodded, Freed added, "I understand. I am too. Angry as well."

A stretch of silence followed, but was quickly broken when Lucy looked down at the book in Freed's hands and asked, "have you found anything?"

Freed sighed. "No, nothing, unfortunately. After this one, there will only be one more book. I'm losing hope of learning anything about these three."

Lucy also sighed and looked down at her hands in her lap. "I'm not very surprised. To be completely honest, I wasn't expecting you to find anything. I'm still disappointed, though."

Freed resumed flipping through the book, responding, "I did have some hope, but I suppose that I shouldn't have had any."

"Where did Midnight go?"

"He wanted to go for a walk through a few of the cars. He seemed to be stressed."

Lucy nodded. She could understand why Midnight was distressed. Being faced with an ally being kidnapped by dark mages while you're a reformed dark mage yourself couldn't be easy. She knew that it wouldn't be easy on herself. She looked back out of the window next to her, the darkness of the night preventing her from seeing anything.