The Broken Doll

Chapter 15

The incident of the day before was forgotten by the next day, when Eliphas arrived. He was supposed to wait until Astral came back, but the death of his Key Owner was an unforeseen and rather unfortunate event that seemed to have affected Astral's ability to do his mission. Eliphas also would have transported him back without leaving, but both Astral and Dark seemed to want to talk before being taken back, so he rather reluctantly agreed.

They met downstairs in the living room while Akari did the chores and Haru talked with the funeral home. Since none of them could be seen, it was safe to meet there. Besides, Astral refused to meet upstairs, where Shing was hiding away in Yuma's room while Yuri and Dark Mist tried to get her to open up. Dark was pacing around impatiently while Astral sat on the end of the couch, his arms resting on the armrest. He seemed to be staring into space while waiting.

Finally, in a flash of light, a tall man appeared before them. He was the same sky blue color as Astral with blue and gold eyes. He had a golden armor and a golden helmet on with large blue gems embedded into them. From behind the helmet was hair a little longer than shoulder length in different shades of gold. The armor lacked sleeves, but his forearms were covered with blue fingerless gauntlets. They were trimmed with a gold color with a large blue gem in the center of the top of his hands.

"Eliphas!!" Dark exclaimed, immediately jumping on the tall man and hugging him.

"Hello, Dark," Eliphas answered, not even trying to push him away. He knew that was futile. "Hello, Astral."

"Hello, Eliphas," Astral, who could barely remember this man, answered blankly.

"You two said you wanted to talk before you came back."

"Yes. I would like to postpone our arrival until after the funeral."

Eliphas's face hardened. Through the memories Dark allowed him to see, Astral knew to expect this reaction, but he didn't care. "We have no time for this. The sooner you come back and prepare for another Key Owner, the sooner you can complete your mission."

"I know that, but I want to honor my friend by attending his funeral."

"Friendship is meaningless. If you don't complete your mission, we will never advance!"

Dark suddenly became calm and settled himself on the couch while Astral shot a fiery glare toward Eliphas. "It is not meaningless! I will attend the funeral, and after that, you can do whatever it is you will to. But it will not happen before, do you hear me?"

Eliphas didn't miss the sharpness and the hurt in his voice. He set his jaw. Human funerals usually took a long time to plan. By then, Astral's purity would be beyond fixable. It was best to go now rather than later. The look in Astral's face and his body language told Eliphas that it would also be best to wait, though. He would possibly lash out if he was told to leave now. After all, by the way Dark was now behaving, his emotional levels were high enough to make that possibility a threat.

Against his better judgement, Eliphas relented. "Very well. But I don't know the consequences of your decision."

Immediately, Astral calmed down. In contrast, Dark perked up and screamed loudly. "Stop doing that, Astral!!"

Astral ignored his twin and settled back down on the couch. "We'll call when the event is over."

"Very well." Eliphas opened a portal to leave, but he wasn't sure if he would he able to fix what was broken.

~.~.~

After a few days of endless attempts to get Astral and Shing to stay in the same room together without breaking out into an argument, there came the day when it finally happened. Shing was sitting up in Yuma's room, looking out the window, when Astral approached her silently. He knew Yuma wouldn't want any of his friends to fight, so he once again decided to be the bigger person and talk to her, at least for his late friend's sake.

"Hey," he called.

Shing jumped, whirling around to face him. When she saw it was Astral, she discreetly breathed a sigh. "Hi."

An awkward silence settled over them. They remained apart from each other, looking anywhere but each other. Finally, Astral spoke first.

"I'd like to apologize for my behavior. It was immature of me," he said, still clutching the Emperor's Key in his hand. "Can you forgive me for my behavior?"

Shing only stared at him for a moment, not really processing this information immediately. Did he just apologize? Well, they had been jerks to each other for the past few days since Yuma's death; one of them had to say something first, and that someone was apparently Astral. She nodded once. "I forgive you."

Astral nodded and sat beside her. "Yuma wouldn't want us to fight. I knew this, but I could not bring myself to speak with you after how you acted."

"I'm sorry for that," Shing sighed, feeling fresh tears brimming her eyes. "I just...I-I couldn't stand the thought of him just..." She trailed off.

"The thought that he would no longer be so animated?" Astral finished for her softly. His voice quivered only slightly, but his eyes showed his true sorrow. "That thought...it's difficult to grasp..."

Shing sniffed, nodding in agreement. She couldn't trust her voice, not with tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks. Astral saw this and reached out experimentally. To his surprise, his hand didn't simply pass through. Instead, he was able to touch her shoulder. With this knowledge, he wrapped his arms around the distraught girl as they both mourned for their friend.