Author's Note: This is a very short ficlet based on Cid's thoughts following Balthier's appearance at Draklor. I've never submitted work here before, so I thought it better to start with something small. :) Although it's short, should you feel inclined to review, I'd appreciate it.
It wasn't as much of a shock as it should have been, watching the boy appear so suddenly, and yet his stomach heaved with feelings that hadn't burdened him for six years. What a bitter homecoming for the prodigal son, arriving at the culmination of that which had caused him to run. What a shame he should be drawn into that over which he scorned family and home. There was anger, pity, disappointment; oh yes, the disappointment was the greatest. The boy didn't even have the strength to maintain his abandonment. He had failed in his flight. Perhaps that was why his voice from the doorway came as no surprise; the boy's only constant success was in falling short of expectations.
Still, it was proper, it was right. Sons should bear witness to their fathers and their fathers' triumphs. The boy ought to understand by now; after all, he has also allied himself to a cause. Returning a dethroned princess to her rightful place. The deliverance of a nation, ha. The scope was too small; the boy's ambition had always been too small. He resisted his potential, when he could have been great. The boy could have shared in the victory. He could have been his father's son.
He knows what the boy has never known. He knows that they have ever always wanted the same thing. The manifestations were different (the boy never could see the big picture, always absurdly focused on the minutiae, the irrelevant), but the drive stemmed from the same source. The boy was his, at the heart of it. The boy sprung from his own mind, his own blood. In their essence they cried out for a singular desire. For them, everything that was done was done for the sake of freedom.
In the end, he knows what the boy will never know; that it was all done for him.