"Tsugiko-chan?"

Tsugiko opened her eyes weakly to see Yumi's face in front of her, eyes
twinkling slightly, before Yumi wrapped her arms around her and hugged
tight.

"Tsugiko-chan! You're all right!" she said as Tsugiko gasped for
breath.

"Agh! W--what happened?" Tsugiko asked as she attempted to remember.
There were eyes.. Gobstopper's eyes! "The last thing I remember is
looking into that thing's eyes, and--"

Nothing. A complete blank -- fears, green flames, anger -- she
gritted her teeth in annoyance. Why couldn't she remember anything?
"--nothing. I can't remember..." she murmured.

"It's all right," Tsugiko heard Yumi say in her comforting, cheerful
tone. "It doesn't matter. You're all right, Tsugiko-chan. That's all
that counts."

She smiled weakly as she thought about what Yumi had just said... She
did care, but why doesn't it matter what happened? She started to ask
her, "Yumi..." before she was interrupted by another one of Yumi's hugs.

She'd have to remember to ask her about that later when she could get
enough breath to speak. But now--

"Oh, so you are really awake," she heard. Yumi started and sat up, and
Tsugiko saw an old woman approaching... wait.

"Are you human?" Tsugiko asked. The woman chuckled and moved the bowl to
her mouth, and tipped it downwards.

"Open wide," she said. Tsugiko opened her mouth and drank the strange
purple liquid in the bowl. "Yeah, I'm human. Name's Patty, came here
with the last batch of priestesses, et cetera, et cetera. And you're
Tsugiko, or so I've heard." Tsugiko nodded as she finished the last of
the potion, before Patty started opening her eyelids and feeling her
forehead and such. Almost as soon as she started, she stepped back from
the cot. "Yep, all better."

"Good," she heard Kyouji say in relief as he appeared in her field of
view and grabbed her hand. "We were all worried about you," he said,
looking into her eyes. "You were out for more than a day."

"Really?" Tsugiko said, as she felt a flush of heat in her cheeks.
Kyouji was worried about her... well, it was just normal worry. He'd
probably worry the same about Yumi. Nothing special... more than a day?

Patty stood up straight. "Well, now that you're awake, we can get on
with business. I've got a lot to tell you, and not much time to do it
in. So lets get started."

* * * * * * * * *

The Starburst Crystal
By Ardweden

Legend Seven: A Taste of Knowledge
By Mechalink

* * * * * * * * *

Tsugiko sat up on her cot to face Patty, who had moved to the center of
the hut. Yumi and Kyouji sat down next to the cot and looked at Patty in
anticipation.

"Well, I'd be--"

"GIIIIKA!" Tsugiko heard before the carret jumped and landed on her lap.
Patty looked at the furry creature, before chuckling.

"So, you do have a guide. I was wondering." Patty let out one last
chuckle as Kit-Kat snuggled into Tsugiko's lap and she glared at it.
Kyouji chuckled weakly in relief: at least it wasn't bothering him.

"Well, now... what to start with?" Patty said to herself. "Well... let's
start with the important thing... Wintergreen." The Warrior Priestesses
(and Knight Protector) listened intently. Kyouji, with the hope that
maybe something Patty would tell them could help him protect Tsugiko and
Yumi. Tsugiko, with the hope that something she heard would help her win
the next time they fought. Yumi, with the hope that something she
learned would help protect everyone from Wintergreen's icky evilness.

"Well, the sorceress Wintergreen was once just an ordinary sorceress,
working for a emperor in a distant land. There wasn't much written about
her back then, except for a few mentions of ambition. The empire was,
although not a utopia, a decent place to live.

"But one day, the emperor died mysteriously and a new emperor came to
the throne, an evil emperor. Cruelty, militaristic intentions, the
works. And he waged war on all his neighbors. This was the first time
that Wintergreen showed up in a big way, as one of his advisors.

"Eventually, there was one battle that the emperor was in where he was
killed by an arrow. And when it came time for the new emperor to be
chosen, Wintergreen worked her way into the throne.

"From there, it was as you'd expect. Summoned monsters, created
monsters, legions of them fighting for her. None of the armys of the
world could stand against her overwhelming might, and soon she had
control over everything."

"How horrible..." Yumi said. Kyouji had to agree, after all, the number
of people that must have died...

"Yes... but then the warrior princesses showed up, and... well, they
were killed, although they managed to seal Wintergreen away, as you
know. And since she's returned, she's taken a different tack."

"How?" Tsugiko asked from behind him.

"Although doing a minor bit of taking over countries... the majority of
what she does is... play. She's playing with groups. Setting races
against each other. Civil wars, normal wars, whatever she feels like at
the moment, and using her minions to control unruly groups, or influence
others into doing what she wants."

Yumi nodded and mumbled. "That's what happened with the Sprees... she 
controlled
them... tainted them..."

"Exactly, Yumi. And that's just one story out of tens, hundreds..."
Patty shook her head sadly. "I'm just glad you all are here."

"What are her powers?" Tsugiko queried. "If we're going to fight her,
we'd better know what she can do."

Patty hmmmed. "Well, there's the Spear of Mint... but I believe you
already know about that. She can also summon monsters, but prefers to
rely on her other powers. Some basic blasts of magic, and the like. Some
protection and enhancement stuff too, most likely. It's tough to get a
catalog of her powers, since not many see her and live."

"Does she have any weaknesses?" Kyouji asked. Patty chuckled.

"Lad, if she had any weaknesses we knew of, don't you think we would
have killed her by now?" Yumi laughed too, while Kyouji blushed.

"Kyouji-san, you're so silly," she said, making him blush even more as
he looked at her beautiful face, into those intelligent, bright blue
eyes...

"If you two are done..." Tsugiko said loudly, as Kyouji started and
quickly turned to face Patty, who had a wide grin on her face.

"Glad to see some things don't change," she said. "Now, to talk about
her--"

She was interrupted as an explosion came from outside the hut.
Immediately all three of the heroes were on their feet, with Kit-Kat
Gika-ing and jumping into Patty's arms. "You'd better go." Kyouji nodded
and turned to the girls, to find them already gone, and then rushed out
the door behind them.

* * * * * * * * *

Tsugiko ran through the streets of York, the panicked screams echoing in
her ears as she ran towards the sounds of the explosions, Yumi running
right alongside her. She was ready for action, after a day of
unconsciousness, and nothing was going to keep her from taking out a bit
of frustration. As she got closer she could smell smoke and flames.

She turned the corner and saw a large red creature burning down building
after building with flame balls coming from its hands, and two very familiar
red and silver haired summoners floating above the creature. "You two!"

The Twixes turned to face Tsugiko. "Ah, the wimpy priestesses are
here... where's your boyfriend?" The female Twix said.

"Hiding behind a pair of little girls, perhaps?" the male one taunted,
before being hit in the chest by a poppy. "Gah!"

Kyouji came up from behind her and stood by their side. "I don't need to
hide from you two." The male Twix brought his hand up from his wound,
and looked at it.

"Hmm... blood. I think you will have to pay for that. Atomic, attack
them!" The red beast turned his black eyes to them, as the Twixes
teleported away.

"Atomic... FIREBALL!" it said, a ball of flames coming from its hands
and the three of them scattered. As Tsugiko rolled to her feet, she
started running at the beast, hammer in hand, a beam of pink light
lanced out and hit it in the face.

As it roared in pain, Kyouji came up and swiped at it with his sword,
only to have the blow glance off its shoulder. "It's tough... watch
out!" he yelled, as Tsugiko drew back her hammer for a strike, and hit
the creature square on the head with a satisfying CRACK. "Yes! Got it!"
she yelled.

As the red monster fell over and Tsugiko swng her hammer at it again, a
pink beam of Yumi's light hit it in the side, leaving a black scorch
mark. As Tsugiko's hammer fell, another dented crack was made in the
creature's face, a red liquid slowly falling out of it. As it stood up
slowly, its face dripping, a fireball erupted from its hands, barely
missing her because she jumped back just in time. Kyouji jumped back as
well, poppies flying towards the crack in its face.

Unfortunately, the poppies disintegrated when they came in contact with the
creature's blood. Kyouji cursed under his breath, and attempted to call
on that technique he used against the Nestling... and couldn't. The
power just wasn't coming.

Meanwhile, Tsugiko leapt forward, bringing her hammer down onto the
creature's head once again, and once again a loud cracking noise was
heard as the creature collapsed to the ground and Tsugiko hefted her
hammer into the air in triumph.

"Tsugiko, look out!" she heard, before Kyouji tackled her to the ground,
and a fireball passed through the space she just occupied, and a scream
of pain rang out.

Yumi saw the Atomic's fireball graze Kyouji's back, and as she yelled
his name, almost before she even had time to think about it, let loose
with a thick beam of light, completely removing the creature's head,
causing it to explode, blood flying all over the place, lighting small
fires wherever it fell.

Tsugiko was attempting to catch her breath after the quick and violent
battle, when she realized that the scream of pain was Kyouji's. "Kyouji,
no!" she yelled, attempting to get out from under him. However, before
she could do so, he pushed himself off of her, falling on his stomach.

"I'm... fine..." he said weakly, as both Yumi and Tsugiko looked at his
burns.

"Third degree..." Yumi said, as she pointed her wand at his back, and
bathed it in light. Tsugiko watched with mixed feelings of relief and
jealousness as his back started to heal.

"Hmmm... an Atomic, eh?"

Tsugiko turned around to see Patty walking up and looking at what was
left of the beast. "Haven't seen one of these for a thousand years." She
looked over to Kyouji, whose back was mostly healed.

"We'd better get back... it's starting to get late, and a woman my age
needs her sleep," she said.

"Ugh..." Tsugiko turned back to Kyouji to see him sitting up off the
ground, Kit-kat already in his lap.

"Gika gi!" the carret said happily, as Yumi scooped it up.

"Now, now, no bothering Kyouji-san," Yumi said, as she gave Patty the guide.

"You gonna be alright, boy?" Patty asked Kyouji. He looked up and nodded
weakly at her, before collapsing against Tsugiko. "I guess not. Come on,
girl, let's get him to my house and let him sleep it off." Tsugiko
nodded and helped Yumi lift him off the ground.

And with one arm wrapped around Yumi's shoulder, and one around
Tsugiko's, the victorious Warrior Priestesses walked back to Patty's,
the Knight Protector stumbling along with them.

* * * * * * * * *

Tsugiko opened her eyes and sat up to see Patty, Yumi, and Kyouji
sitting at the table, eating breakfast. "Good morning Tsugiko-chan!"
Yumi said, before eating another bite of something that looks like eggs.
"Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah... great," Tsugiko replied, before rolling out of bed and walking
over to the table. "So, are we going to get moving today?" she said,
automatically eating the plate of food Patty set in front of her.

"Well, I had a question first," Kyouji said. "I tried to access my
powers yesterday... and I couldn't. I mean... I've made thousands of
electric poppies, and a large sword strike... but I can't duplicate that."

Tsugiko nodded. "I have the same problem with my flames." Patty stared
at them, almost incredulously.

"Ya mean you haven't figured it out yet? It's emotion."

"Excuse me?" Yumi said.

Patty looked at each one of them. "Emotion. You know... when you think
someone's gonna die, or something makes you angry, or whatnot... then
you can access your better powers. Well, at least at the beginning,
until you learn how to access them on your own." Tsugiko nodded, that
explained why she couldn't access her flames when she wanted to.

"Well, that answers that question," Kyouji said, as he pushed his chair
back from the table. "I'm done."

"Yeah, me too," Yumi said, as Kit-Kat jumped onto her head with a happy
"Gika!"

"Well, then, I'll tell you about where the next crystal is," she said,
as she pulled out a map from somewhere and pointed to a city south of
York.

"This is the Gumdrop Palace... in it, King Ju'Jube has posession of the
Starburst Crystal. He used to keep it as a national treasure... but I
believe he made into part of his crown."

"So, we've got to steal a king's crown, is that it?" Kyouji said.

"Well, not exactly..." Patty said. "The witch has her claws in this
situation as well. Specifically... the King, who is cruel, is fighting
his daughter for possession of the throne."

"Let's help his daughter win!" Yumi exclaimed.

Patty shook her head. "No, no... she's as bad as he is. And
Wintergreen's backing her."

Tsugiko took another bite of food. "So, neither side will help us at
all... this doesn't sound good."

"No, it's not. But, if you wait any longer, the daughter, and, in
effect, Wintergreen, will have control of the entire nation, and
there'll be nothing you can do."

Tsugiko finished off her food and stood up. "Well, then, let's go!"
Kyouji and Yumi stood up as well, and Patty nodded.

"Indeed, priestesses... you'd better get going. But first... Tsugiko, I
need to talk to you. In private." Tsugiko blinked, walked over to
Patty, who started to whisper in her ear.

"I wanted to tell you about your cracked crystal. Basically, it means
that your powers could fail or give out if you stressed them too much.
And if you break it, you won't have any power at all."

Tsugiko opened her mouth to speak but Patty stopped her. "No, no
response. We both know that if Kyouji knew that, he'd never let you
fight. Oh, and the Spirit of the temple might know what to do... but I
don't. Sorry."

Tsugiko nodded and stood up. "Thanks, Patty." She waved her hand in the
air dismissively.

"No thanks needed... just as long as you take care of Wintergreen.
That's thanks enough," Patty said angrily. All three of them voiced
their agreement.

"Well, then... get going! Wintergreen isn't gonna wait for you!" Patty
said, before shooing them out the door. "And don't hesitate to come back
if you need more help!" And then all three were outside the hut.

"Well. That was abrupt," Kyouji said.

"Yeah," Tsugiko agreed.

"Giiiiika."

"Well... let's go then!" Yumi said, before skipping down the road, to
the sheepish looks of Tsugiko and Kyouji.

"Yeah... let's go." Tsugiko and Kyouji said at the same time, before
both of them burst out in laughter and started walking towards the
Gumdrop Palace.

* * * * * * * * *

Well... that was fun. A week of projects and tests, and SC due at the
end! After a few skips! Wai!

I'd like to thank Falc and Cham for making me write when I'd rather play
video games, and my college for making this as difficult as possible.
And Yonjunni and Ravi for last-second prereding. And Ard for writing the
story (I still plan on killing ya, Ard-chan. ;P) And Todd for
everything. ^_^

Sorry if this isn't exactly up to the story's standard... bnt there was
a lot to deal with, and not enough time to do it in. ^_^;;

Anyway. Baio!

Mechalink (mikey44@hotmail.com)