Earthbound: Champions of the Future

Chapter Fourty Five

~Emi Naoko's POV ~

Azura led the walk for fifteen minutes before she stopped, her fingers tightly gripping the material of her dress. "There it is," she announced. "That is what my mother saw in her vision."

I glanced towards the house, raising an eyebrow. "It doesn't look that impressive." I commented. "Why would Ciar want to use this place?"

A small gasp escaped my lips as the ground beneath us began to tremor. It was weak, but it had caught us so off guard that both Akuro and Trudeau fell onto their backs. Gaius had taken hold of a nearby tree branch and grabbed Kireina's arm, pulling her close to him. S'yan did something similar with me.

"I-Is everyone alright?" Azura asked once the aftershock of the earthquake had stopped.

"Y-Yeah..." Trudeau groaned, holding up a shaky thumbs up. "Perfectly dandy..."

"That wasn't just any old earthquake." Gaius said. "That was psychic energy. A move called PK Ground, to be more precise." Gaius paused when he turned towards Kireina, noticing that she was glaring at him. The thief grinned. Kireina sighed angrily and ripped off the branch Gaius used to keep himself stable and whacked his arm with it.

I turned away from Gaius shrieking in pain and looked back towards the house. A section of the roof had collapsed in on itself. Lights of red and white flashed through the windows. "Something big is happening in there." I muttered. "We should hurry."

"But we should also remain vigilant." S'yan warned. "This could very well be a trap set up by Ciar."

I turned towards him. "You mean that 'vision' we were told about was a trick?" I asked.

S'yan hesitated, turning back towards Azura. She was too occupied with helping Trudeau off the ground, paying no attention to the two of us. "We may have trusted the priestess too easily." S'yan continued. "She and Ciar could be working together, creating this machination to lure us into a false sense of security."

"That does make sense." I agreed. "Thinking about it, hasn't Trudeau mentioned once or twice that Ciar works for a woman?"

S'yan nodded. "We could very well be walking straight into a trap."

"I'll keep that in mind," I nodded. I hoped it wasn't the truth; Azura's mom seemed like a pretty nice person. On the other hand, appearances could be deceiving. I turned back towards the others, who seemed to have recovered from the earthquake. "Let's get moving." I called out to them. "We don't have a lot of time."

The others picked themselves up and Trudeau led the walk towards the mansion. The trek was silent, the only exception being Gaius' flirt attempts and his cries of pain when Kireina retaliated with the tree branch.

~ ~ ~

When we reached the house, Trudeau pressed the side of her head against the scorched door. Her face creased as she stood silently. "I don't hear anything," she whispered. "No shouting, no breaking... nothing."

I bit my lip. "Laurent..." I said softly. "That dimwit better be okay."

With assistance from Akuro and Gaius, Trudeau pushed the door open. It didn't creak like I expected it to. "Someone's been keeping this place in good condition." Gaius commented. "Kept the doors oiled and everything."

"I wonder if that mirror I broke is still here..." Trudeau muttered.

"What?" Akuro gasped. "You broke a mirror?"

"U-Um..." Trudeau stammered, beginning to sweat nervously. "N-No, of course not. That'd be... bad. Let's just look for Laurent!"

I rolled my eyes and immediately left the group. If anyone was going to find Laurent, it had to be me. I had no idea where I was going, but it was generally easy to figure out each room's purpose just by looking. There was some kind of dining room, which didn't contain Laurent. I quickly glanced inside the conservatory, although that was mostly empty.