Warning: There will be spoilers in this fiction. If you haven't at least completed one run through of the game you probably shouldn't read this.

Notes: This will be a fiction where I toss Estelle and Duke together. If you don't want to read the pairing you probably shouldn't continue. Other characters will be around but I don't plan on tossing in any other 'pairs' romantically.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Vesperia or the character's thereof. I own original characters and I'd like it if you go nuts and decide to use any that you get permission - but I don't expect it.

Chapter One: Inscribed Solitude

"Our reason has driven all away. Alone at last, we end up ruling over a desert."

-Albert Camus

Blotches of gold, ivory, and garnet were strewn across a verdant landscape, other colors drowning amidst a dozen shades of green and brown. It was one of those places that you would normally only see in pictures, the land almost completely retaken from man. Only a small path and a weathered which was mostly overgrown with ivy remained as any proof that this place was sometimes walked by human society. Dew sparkled in the early morning light, more colors seeming to come to life with the rising of the sun and the waking of the forests creatures. A veritable Eden wrapped itself around her consciousness as she began to wake.

It was still blurry though, the light and colors not helping a already reeling mind to focus. She blinked several times to try to focus herself, her thoughts…to keep herself conscious. If monsters found her here there wouldn't be anyway she could defend herself if she couldn't even manage to look at her surroundings without balking. A pity too, such a breathtaking scene that she couldn't truly appreciate.

She pushed herself up just a few inches and was trembling so much it was all she could manage to sit up for now. She noted that the dress she was wearing was ripped along her stomach area and had turned into tatters along it's skirt- having grown short enough in it's disrepair that it was approaching the inappropriate but she was even less appreciating of the light scar on her skin underneath the torn clothing.

"I was attacked?" She thought groggily, doing her best to focus on anything other than the dark spots spinning around in the lovely dreamlike forest she woke within. "What happened? How did I get here…? I suppose I need to find out where here is. If I can manage to move…"

Her whole body hurt, mostly where she'd been laying on her half-back/half-right side but there were muscles that ached that she never knew she had before. It was so much that she didn't really want to try to get to her feet.

"How long have I been here?" Her thoughts at least seemed to be slowly clearing. The ground where she had been laying a moment before had an indent and the grass has been crushed from weight having been on it for an extended period of time. The indent though was several inches into the ground - part of what had made it so difficult to get up.

Then she realized she heard footfalls and raised her head to look around herself again, ignoring the spots still dancing over her vision. Then pausing to blink at the unique man approaching her. Surprised to see another person here at all.

His hair was such a soft white it almost seemed to let off a pale glow in the morning sun, the ivory bangs falling onto his face and flowing down to his lower back. He wore something akin to a crimson uniform with black and gold trim, a sable cloak broke in it's center just below where his hair fell and the two ends were left at the level of his calves. His features were smooth and also pale - though not nearly as much as his hair, almost elfish in nature. Blood red eyes were giving her a completely neutral stare as he walked up to where she was still gaping up at him on the forest floor.

"What are you doing here?" A deep baritone voice almost didn't seem to match him but definitely commanded attention. "Where is the rest of your group?"

"I…I'm…" she blinked, pausing as she tried to think of it. "I don't know."

"I can't remember…" She stared at her lap in silent shock as she wracked her brain, continuing to come up empty. "I don't know why I'm here…or how I got here. I can't remember anything…who am I?"

"You are injured." He observed, still not moving from his position. "This area is usually clear of monsters, did one attack you?"

"I don't know…" She repeated, shaking her head as fearful tears started to fill her eyes. "I can't remember anything…if there is a monster though we should leave."

She pushed herself again then, using the idea of moving as something to avoid thinking about the panic inducing emptiness of her mind, moving to her feet and then wavering as dizziness and pain slapped her respectively for her motion. Her stomach growled and if it hadn't been empty already there was a good chance it would have ended up that way. She stumbled and felt herself falling as the black dots expanded and pulled her back into the oblivion of unconsciousness.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

He watched the pretty young woman fall back to the forest floor, completely passed out from the extent of her injuries. Skin he remembered as a smooth peach was instead littered with small cuts and discolored a mixture of blues, browns, and blacks from the bruises that covered almost all of her back and right side. It was hard to tell but it seemed her hair didn't seem the same as it had once been, though it was caked with dirt and blood from her injuries what strands appeared clear of debris was a pale blue not the pink he recalled.

"You don't remember…" He remarked lightly, bending down with a sigh to pick her up from where she'd fallen. "A Child of the Full Moon falls into my back yard like this…I have to wonder what her young friends are up to."

As gently as he could manage he put one arm under her back and the other he began to put under her thighs but drew his hand back suddenly when touching her bare skin shocked him. She wasn't heavy but he didn't want to cause her anymore pain than necessary in moving her somewhere else, a few animals were lingering nearby sniffing at the new addition to the small forest he shared with them but not being as friendly with him as they might have been normally. He considered her passed out face and shook his head once, preparing to lift her from her thighs again when a sudden pain in his right arm drove him to his knees.

His crimson gaze widened as his arm twitched and it seemed as if someone was pressing a hot poker into the muscles of the appendage, as if someone had shoved it into a fire and was holding it there. He grit his teeth, he recognized the power curling around him - it felt very similar to how aer felt when it was used to power artes. Then as fast as it had begun it was over and he pulled back his shirt to look at a fresh tattoo covering his arm from wrist to elbow. A complicated series of circles that covered the flesh in a dark blue coloring.

He glanced back at the still resting princess and noted that a similar sigil covered her thigh where he'd initially touched her to pick her up, she was sweating now and the peaceful features she'd had moments before were drawn with lines of discomfort.

"What did you just do to me?" He spoke aloud though still softly, she couldn't hear him but somewhere along the line it made him feel better to hear even just himself in his solitude. "This can't bode well…"

He stared at the complicated circles that had been branded into his flesh, they looked too much like an aer formula for his tastes…with the aer under control had the Child's powers changed? It wasn't as if he'd taken much time to know the group that had saved their world. "Perhaps my separation from society does have it's flaws."

His arm still ached a bit but not as it had when the tattoo had first appeared, he was hesitant to touch the girl again but took a breath and reached down under her thighs to pick her up. He was too stubborn to just give up and he couldn't let her just stay, a fever had been added to her list of problems…likely one of her many wounds had gotten infected during her vacation on the forest floor.

He lifted her then, ignoring the shooting pains from the clothing rubbing on his raw brand and walked off toward the cabin he'd built for himself, a lot of the animals still were following from a distance but just as many had continued their daily lives unaware of the plight of their 'friend'.

He only had a single bed and he settled her there. It wasn't as if he'd ever planned on housing guests after all. He started a couple lamps and opened his windows to allow him light to look her over - more than the forest floor at least.

The bruises were nasty and indicated that she had a fair amount of internal bleeding underneath her marred skin, she didn't have many open wounds but there was a gash along her stomach area that was still open and didn't appear healthy…he would need to clean it and close it up.

He'd worked with medical needs on the field of battle in the war and had a good idea of how to perform many field operations - he'd never advocated the use of blastia after all. He took off his overcoat, revealing a short sleeved black shirt and simple matching pants underneath, gathering the tools he'd need and filling his bowls and other things with as much clean water as he could muster. He would have to replace his bed after this.

He began with cleaning the wound, and while she moaned and seemed in pain at least she was still unconscious for it - he didn't recall sewing people up while they were awake favorably. Once it was clean he got the needle and thread and prepared to close it carefully. It wasn't the best tools for the task, but it would do until she got a little better and could travel to a more practiced doctor.

He was about to begin when the tattoo he'd been branded with flickered with light and glowed a moment, leaving him to stare as her wound began to close and her bruises started to fade. He could sense a connection that the tattoo had forced on him and began to feel weaker.

"So that's how it works…" He mused as he looked on, unable to pull away from the process and not having the will to stop the process of healing the woman in front of him just yet. "It draws from my energy to replenish hers."

It was a formula that was similar to the one he'd planned to use to kill the Adephagos, it drew from his energy to power a healing effect on her. Though he was a little insulted he knew she hadn't inflicted this on him on purpose. It was different than when aer was such an issue for the world, the power diffused more as it gathered than aer did.

He couldn't guess with just a few instances just what this formula was capable of, though he didn't like having it there he couldn't currently do anything about it. He was through sacrificing others to solve his problems so he simply needed to wait for it to finish and the girl to wake.

It was several minutes before the glow subsided and the woman resting on his bed was completely changed, she was fully healed, not the slightest mark remained to show her injuries. Though she was still covered in dirt or blood in places, the magic had removed all of her injuries.

He blinked a bit, settling his hands on the edge of the bed, it had drawn more energy out of him than he expected…a wave of tired didn't just hit it - it more bowled him over. He settled his head on the edge of the bed, he was losing the fight with sleep and he considered the princess silently for several moments before his eyes slid shut.

"I have a feeling a whole new set of problems is about to occur." He muttered idly just before his body went limp.

End Chapter

Okay so it ended on a semi-sweet note. Let me know if you think that I have Duke ooc. I suppose I could have made him more of a jerk but after the end of the game I figure he'd lighten up a bit. Thanks for reading.

-Nera

P.S. Reviews float my boat!