Kind

Kyril knew something was up when Yohn tugged on his shirt and pointed at somebody in a most urgent manner. "What is it Yohn?" he asked quietly, shuffling through the items that Seneca had handed him not too long ago. Mega Medicine, Cyclone Bead... He glanced up at the enigmatic horned being, whose eyes glowed a most beautiful blue - and he knew. Kyril replaced the items on the floor, and stood up, making his way through cliques and past the fire - towards the blue-eyed man who went by the name of Lazlo, and the man beside him.

It was the other man who raised his head first, but Kyril had training, and Kyril knew that Lazlo had long spotted them heading in his direction but had not spoken up. "Kyril?" the man asked, curiously staring past him at Yohn - he didn't fault Snowe, really. Yohn stood out amongst them all, even when she was treated like one of them.

Kyril nodded at Snowe and turned to Lazlo, nervously. He hadn't really done this for a long time - only once before, yet... He swallowed and turned to Yohn, closing his eyes when he felt the familiar bath of blue, serene magic wash over him. "Midas," Kyril said, testing the name, hesitant as he did, "Midas." Eyes flickered open, and he gazed upon Lazlo's face - the surprise, and the shock.

Midas...

"Midas," he whispered a third time.

My son.

He echoed the voice inside his head. "My son. My son, Midas, how you've grown - how you've grown..." So Lazlo really wasn't his real name, Kyril thought faintly. Aloud, he said, "It has been so long, but I have always been watching over you. Ever since... that day."

Lazlo -no, Kyril thought, Midas was speechless. Speechless and vulnerable, a state that Kyril had never seen the other in before. Snowe took a step closer, and Kyril found himself smiling faintly at the concern and wary that was in the other's face.

"The pirates came... and I was far too weak to stop them."

An memory entered his head - a ship, a lady, an insignia he was sure he had seen somewhere before... Kyril flinched as the image turned white, and the screams of death deafened his ears.

"I had sworn not to use it, but you and your sister - I had to protect the both of you..."

A sharp intake of breath.

"No," Lazlo hissed suddenly, "no. I - I..." His eyes were wide, as if he had understood something. "Oh... I - no, I..." He was unsure, Kyril realised - though it was the voice inside him making the deductions, he was confused. He didn't know what to believe...

It's not your fault.

"The rune," Kyril continued, "the rune had always wanted you. I could hear the whispers in my head, telling me that my son were to be taken as their next sacrifice, their next punishment. I could not allow it - so I made with them a bet. The rune would not go to you, until it had to.

"It... nearly did, once, but the man came - he came and took you away, and the rune took him in place of you."

"Glen," Midas whispered, painfully.

"Yes, Glen."

"Then you - you were that light."

Kyril offhandedly observed that those blue eyes had hardened. He wondered who Glen was and the voice showed him - a middle-aged man who was obviously well trained with the sword that held a caring face and kind eyes.

"I could do no more."

"I -"

The voice interrupted. You could have stayed away from the tower; those were his orders. He could have followed his orders, and you wouldn't have...

Pain. Worry.

"But," Kyril said, "I know why." The voice - no, the woman was smiling now, and Kyril found himself facing Snowe, the latter shifting uncomfortably. "Take care of him. Take care of my son, as he has -"

"Mother," Midas stressed suddenly, breaking the woman's words - and it took a few seconds for that one word to sink in. "Mother," Midas went on, when it seemed no one wanted to say anything, "what about..." His eyes deflected to somebody behind Kyril, and there was a familiar cough - and another familiar voice whispering to another, asking why her father looked so pale...

Flare, he recognised, and King Lino.

The voice caught that thought and - he saw a photo. A man, a lady and two babies - he saw Obel. He saw...

Lino.

"L-Lino," Kyril said, his voice trembling at the disrespect he was addressing the King with, "Lino, you are here, aren't you? Let me... see you..." There was movement, and King Lino stood beside Midas, Flare on his other side; one tear ran down his cheek.

The lady was crying.

Oh, Lino.

Lino swallowed, and whispered, "Ae-Aegle?"

Oh, Lino... Our children... All grown up... We used to laugh at the days when we would become old and watch the grandchildren play, but I... I was never allowed to watch my daughter grow up.

"Mother," Flare murmured, looking confusedly between Kyril and Midas. "Mother, then... you mean..."

My son, she replied sadly, my son - I could not keep it away from him. The dreaded rune... But I glad that he is alive, standing before this boy - giving me this chance... to speak like this...

"Then Lazlo is -"

My son. My one and only son. Your brother. Your son.

"T-that's impossible," someone - Kyril, his head spinning, none too sure who - opposed. "Lazlo was born in Razril - wasn't he?"

"No," Snowe said, "Lalzo... was found by Commander Glen as a child."

"Snowe's right." Paula, maybe Jewel... Or...

"My son," Lino repeated, sounding dizzy. "My son."

Midas, I wish I could have given you another childhood, another -

And Midas, softly, spoke up, "I've already forgiven and released you." There were mumblings. "Haven't... I? Inside... here." He moved to remove his glove, and Kyril knew.

The insignia - the battle magic, the rumours.

They say the leader of Jiyuu wielded a strange magic, that held this strange shape and...

"Do you think that's the Rune of Punishment they were talking about?"

"Andarc, it's gone a long time now... Since the little boy who destroyed an entire village..."

"Thank you."

And when the voice was gone, Kyril found himself looking into the moon.

§

A knock on his door; Kyril sat up and found himself looking right at Lazlo. Not Midas, because as Lazlo had said - everybody knew him as Lazlo, the boy who had been in charge of Jiyuu, not Midas, Prince of Obel. It had been three days since Yohn had let Aegle, former Queen of Obel speak out, and still both Lazlo and he himself seemed out of it.

"I'm not disturbing you, am I...?" Lazlo asked, cautiously taking a step into the room.

Kyril had to remind himself this was the Prince of Obel. Smiling, he shook his head.

Lazlo was now by his bed-side. There was silence, until the prince said, "I never knew my mother, nor my father - I was... found in a small boat, I think. The villagers of Razril took me in, and Glen, Commander Glen raised me like his son. Snowe, Tal, Keneth, Jewel, Paula... They were all my friends there, all the people I had close to me. There were the villagers, but they looked up to the Mayor and his son, and I was always with his son..."

Tal didn't look the kind to be almost royalty. "Keneth?" Kyril asked curiously.

The prince laughed gently. "Snowe."

"Snowe," Kyril repeated disbelieveingly. B-but - Snowe was too humble. Too quiet. Too...

"We were new Knights, given a mission to follow a ship to protect the crew against pirates... We met up with pirates."

"Kika, or -"

"Brandeau."

The name was familiar; Kyril drew to mind a rowdy pirate, who once stood beside Kika. A man... A kind man...

The tone of his voice turned bitter. "Things happened quickly. I turned my back on our captain and ordered the ship to attack the pirates, to protect the ship - we were boarded. Brandeau and I dueled and... He used it." Lifting up his left hand, Lazlo revealed the rune that hung there. "He used it, and killed everybody - everybody but... me... A light shielded me, and the next thing I knew, I was back in Razril when I awoke."

"Brandeau died. They told me Commander Glen found me and Brandeau, and Brandeau died. We didn't know then... that Commander Glen had received the rune."

He blames himself for it; he blames himself for not being able to gain the rune to protect his commander's life. Kyril's head left heavy with this knowledge, and with the story that was being shared.

"The pirates attacked again. Commander Glen... ordered everybody not to go here the rooftop. I found out that no one had since then seen the captain whose orders I had betrayed since the battle begun, and I... feared, so I ran to find him."

'You could have stayed away from the tower; those were his orders. He could have followed his orders, and you wouldn't have...'

"Commander Glen was there... He called me an idiot, and the rune... entered me. I fainted, and when I woke up... I was told that I was being exiled."

Kyril felt his eyes flash angrily. "Because of the rune?"

Lazlo smiled strangely, a smile that didn't touch his eyes. "Because I was accused of murdering the Commander."

"That's ridiculous!" Kyril cried. "You could have told them - you could have... told them..." It hurts him, because he thinks he did. That's why he never said anything; that's why he let them exile him...

"I was exiled," he continued quietly, "but Jewel and Keneth followed me. They snuck on the ship -"

"Tal and Paula? Snowe?" Kyril asked, confused - they were his friends, right? They were still his friends, so...

The smile thinned slightly - but Kyril caught it. "They... remained in Razril."

"Did they... believe that you were innocent?"

Lazlo hesitated, but there - he nodded. Too slow, Kyril thought sadly, too slow - there was something that the other was hiding, surely... He closed his eyes and sunk back onto the bed as Lazlo's voice drifted softly into his ears. "They snuck on the ship with Chiepoo -"

Chiepoo, Kyril recognised as a Nay-Kobold who made his home on the Deserted Island and sold lots of fish.

"And eventually, we were found by a passing ship that belonged to Obel."

He let the tale of exploits and adventures wash him over, of how the captain that Lazlo had betrayed came back continuously to attack them despite all the losses he was to face. He laughed at the mischief that people came to do - bit down his lip to stop laughing at Hervey's conversation with Sigurd and Helmut about Dario, and Nalleo's behaviour in the bath. Silently, he admired Lazlo's acts of forgiveness towards the man who had done him so much wrongs - Lazlo ended the list of his recruitment drive with Snowe, and how they had found him adrift in the midst of the ocean, bringing the man quietly back into the picture after not mentioning him for the entire of the story; the Kooluk defeated at El-Eal, Lazlo set to sea in a coma that he would not wake from and, when awoken, rescued by another passing ship...

When the tale was done, it was noon, and as Lazlo moved to leave, Kyril stopped him for one final question.

"Who," Kyril asked, "who was that captain - that man you betrayed?"

And Lazlo was smiling, though Kyril swore he could see the pain in those eyes, and Lazlo whispered a name that Kyril found himself knowing - a name that made all the pieces of the puzzle fit.

Lazlo whispered Snowe's name.

§

She was sitting on the deck of the ship when Kyril approached her - she greeted him normally, and turned back towards the stars. "You know," she started, "when he was... in his state of sleep and he was sent off the ship, I made a wish on one of the stars that he would come back..." She paused. "I'm jealous. Mother loved him - I could tell... And now that we all know, dad's happy that he's got his son back. And, you know? He told me once he didn't have family, so I left him mother's music box, and I... never knew..."

He didn't know what to say, how to react. "Lazlo," Kyril tried to start, "he's... very kind."

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes. I know. He's very kind. He's a good person." Proudly, she added, "He's my brother."

He agreed, and left her to her own thoughts.

§

Aegle. Brandeau.

Lazlo, formerly Midas.

Kyril closed his eyes and tiled his chin upwards, glancing into the bright sky.

Why, he asked the twinkling stars, why the kind people? Why do we let them suffer?

He counted to a hundred and eight before he fell asleep.

owari.

Notes: I have not finished Tactics, so this story is slightly off-canon, Tactics-wise. Midas is the name that I have designed Lazlo's true name - for Lazlo is, really, the name that the villagers gave him: Razril, Lazlo, sound the same? They should. Why Midas - besides the fact he was the man whom the God gave the power to turn anything he touched into gold? It was the first name I gave HeroIV when I first played Suikoden, and also because - Lino is a Greek name. :)

For Aegle - well. It's Greek as well, and it means 'light, brillance, radiance... etc'. I thought it fit her. The Army is called Jiyuu - freedom in both Japanese and Chinese. I could think of nothing better.