17 Restoration.

"This is awesome! How does she do this?" A member of the crew aboard the Beth 12 frigate ship squealed laughing as he stared down at the rushing waters beneath them. Havillah smiled at his reaction and turned to walk back into her cabin. In sooth they were they ones that were cashing. The frigate ship with all its crew within it and the water, relatively still apart from the occasional ripple and small waves that were formed by the blowing of a cool midday breeze.

"Havillah!" Killion's voice reached her ears and she turned back to face him.

"Who's at the wheel?" She inquired with a concerned look on her face.

"That's what skippers are for. Plus, I am sure if we had any trouble, the crystal would alert you."

"Something like that." Havillah shrugged even as she mentally checked the strength of her mindlink to the football sized Hope Crystal she had established at the very helm of the frigate ship. "So, how can I help you?"

"Would you like to have a cup of tea as I attempt to iron some things out?"

Havillah's brow furrowed as eyes narrowed at the young captain.

"What kind of things?"

"I'll tell you." He smiled back cheekily. "Come on now, let's go." He added before pulling her hand even as he went below deck after spotting a furious Calla Barrageway heading down their way.

"Hey, what's all these about?" Havillah protested struggling to remove her hand from the one that had gripped hers.

"Come on!" Killion tagged her hand again and she rushed in after him muffling a giggle with her other free hand.

"Why do I feel like we are running away from something?" she laughed.

"Because we are." Killion looked away sheepishly and at once Havillah connected the dots.

"The female Sergeant?" Killion nodded. "She's your girlfriend!" Havillah accused.

"No!" The captain cried out in horror as Havillah stifled yet another giggled. "We grew up together and she followed me everywhere..." Killion added as a faraway look found its way into his eyes. "Then she lost her grandmother and it felt like I had to look out for her from that point onwards. My mother encouraged it, but sometimes it's really hard to shake her off, especially when you need to have some time alone." He ended with a torn desperate look that made Havillah pity him just a bit.

"Okay..." Havilalh laughed awkward ly. "Fine! Let's go then before she catches up!" . she added just to lighten up is somewhat dampened moods. All of a sudden, a new thought came to her and she pulled at their still linked hands before she started out running the other way and down the corridor.

"Havillah!" Killion complained when the girl's long hair swished and swashed behind her, smacking him hard right in his face. "Do you even know where you're going?" He questioned, trying to remove some stray strands that had gotten in his mouth.

"No!" She laughed. All of a sudden she grinded to a halt and the young Captain's legs gave out as he stumbled into her back.

"Are you okay?" Havillah turned to asked him with a smile.

"I am now." The Captain laughed, righting himself up before taking up the lead once again. "I guess that's what I get for not banking on how problematic little sisters can get."

"Sorry. I was just trying to help." she responded sheepishly. "When I was a kid, playing hide and seek was a favourite pass time of mine."

"Right until I got Elder Lionel for a mentor and everything turned to hell" She thought sourly to herself. "I am sorry; I got carried away in the moment."

"It's okay. The mess is this way." Havillah nodded and followed the Captain into an almost empty mess hall. Tables and benches had lined up every wall, filling up every available space and leaving just a narrow walkway in the middle of it all. They took the walkway up to the counter and Killion hollered for the cook. A lanky man with a greyed beared on a friendly face ambled up to the counter, wiping out his hands on a white apron and Killion gave out their order. One pot of tea, English muffins, buns and a doughnut.

"I could have asked him to have it brought down to the cabin, but all hands are on deck and we wouldn't want to distract them from their present occupation." Killion joked even as the cook's assistant; a scrawny boy of almost Randon's age brought out their tea and buns.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Havillah asked him after the young boy had disappeared back into the kitchen.

"Yes!" Killion dropped his stirring spoon to looked into her brown eyes. "Tell me how did you do it?"

"Do what?" Havillah brow scrunched up in confusiom even as she took in a sip of the scalding hot cup of cinnamon tea.

"The Terrors. Gabriel said that when the dragon took you, you started mumbling gibberish before the light exploded from within you."

"Sorry...What?" Havillah sputtered into her cup as she turned to face him. "I don't remember saying anything let alone mumbling gibberish."

"Okay...what more can you remember? It could be helpful in formulating a new plan to vanquish the terrors, when and if they come back."

"I don't know." Havillah cried out in frustration. "All I remember is thinking that I was going to die and the next thing I know the dragon is fleeing before my very own eyes."

"So you thought you were dying?" Killion asked the wheels already turning in his head.

"Yes, that's what I just said and to think that the Great and Eternal Light heard me? That's a miracle." She ended with a smile.

"The what?"

"The Great and Eternal Light. The source of all life, the Creator of Time and Space?"

This time Killion furrowed his own brow as he thought on that those words. After some moment of silent thinking, his face brightened up as he turned back to adress Havillah "That's it!"

"What?" A confused looking Havillah questioned him.

"I am thinking three things." He said enumerating each of them with one his middle fingers. "One, it was your fight or flight response to the danger. Two, maybe the Great and Eternal bla bla bla....heard you..."

"And three," Havillah asked looking mildly displeased by his blatant disrespect of the deity.

"Both." He replied taking in another sip of his tea as he regarded her closely. "Why do I get this feeling like I have said something to offend you?"

"Because you have. It's Great and Eternal Light not bla bla bla!"

"oh sorry. My bad. You see, we don't have deities here so I am not so well versed with how I should behave towards them."

"What about the temple? I saw it." Havillah retaliated.

"They have been lying abandoned for the last four hundred or so years."

"They? I only saw one." Havillah inquired her interest now piqued.

"They are more. All over the world. Personally I have only seen three, but the reports reach us even here. Wherever they are, there are these mysterious and abandoned mansions and no one seems to know why."

"No one?"

"No one. Once my mother told me that they used to belong to the priesthood, but they left once the terrors appeared."

Havillah thought on the words that Killion had told her for their rest of their journey. That is until the ship lurched and Killion informed her that they had arrived at port. Slowly and still thinking on that matter, Havillah followed him out of the mess and up to the deck where the crew and the rest of the soldiers stood waiting. Out of the periphery of her eye, she could also see the female sergeant approaching but she paid her no attention. Her focus remained solely on the crystal at the helm of the ship that she needed to disengage before any of the crew could disembark the ship.

Like she had down back then with the little sailing boat, Havillah reached out hands towards the helm and murmured some words in her native tongue. Slowly but surely the wisps of light sorrounding the ship slowly disentangled themselves from its hull before withdrawing into the huge football sized crystal at the centre of the wheel. With each strand that returned to the mother crystal, the crystal seemed to glow and pulse even more until the crew could no longer look at it and the men had to shield their eyes.

"It's like a small sun." one of the crew members mumbled to another and Havillah smiled to herself. It was beautiful and it reminded her of the Hope of Triberias and she was glad to have it even though it was just a small piece of her home, right within her. As the last strand of light embedded itself back within the crystal, Havillah brought her palms back together and pulled it towards her, until it touched her chest and exploded into a shower of lights. A choir of gasps rose up all around her and Havillah turned to face them with a questioning look on her face.

"Your robes Havillah." Killion sputtered. "They've turned red." And as surely as he had spoken, Havillah looked down at her clothes and found that the familiar black and gold had now turned to the original colour of her old Triban robes.