Probably riddled with errors, but I wanted to publish before my friends pick me up. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you like it! Also, Hi, Kender and Manna.
As Hector shifted uncomfortably in his brother's armor (Eliwood's idea, to make him appear more regal), he found himself appreciating – not for the first time – theimpressive frame of Uther; for Hector, with his own imposing figure, had rarely in his life ever before felt small. And yet, as the eyes of a hundred nobles keened ominously in the direction of his clattering, cumbersome plate, Hector, who had slain a dragon, suddenly felt as if the world had grown twice its size.
"The rulers of Lycia have always been nobles of Lycia," said Erik, emboldened by a roar of scattered applause. "And I promise you, my lords and ladies, Laus will not bow to some common whore from Ilia."
"Erik!" shouted Eliwood, his voice carrying a unique kind of respect that immediately silenced the entire chamber. Something about that stirred resentment in Hector. He hated feeling it, and wasn't rightly sure why he felt some ethereal presence of rage taking hold of his heart when the man who spoke in his defense was most certainly his friend. But why was it that Eliwood was so gifted in leadership? Why when he spoke did people listen? Hector was sure he could lead Lycia to the greatest prosperity it had ever known and still his audience now would never give his words the same thought and attention as they gave Eliwood's now. He wanted to take his friend by the collar, to shake him back and forth and scream so loud Elimine could hear him in the heavens, "You Lead! If you're so great, then you do this!"
But he tried to remember where he was, tried to remember the calm, cool tactics of his brother who always stood as stout and immovable as a statue, his words few, his actions great – so Hector breathed, deeply, once, trying to ignore the thunder in his chest.
"You forget yourself," Eliwood continued, "Let me remind you that the Marquess of Ostia – now our Lord Hector – rules all the Lycian League, of which Laus is a participating member. You would do well to speak more carefully of his would-be wife."
"Oh, and look who speaks in our good Lord Hector's defense," Erik twirled dramatically in the center of the chamber, trying to recapture the moment. He walked arrogantly up to Eliwood's face and send in a voice so soft and direct it was as if he was talking to him alone. "The proud Marquess of Pharae, who has already brought one foreigner into our regency, paving the way for another. Yes, what say you, Eliwood, please explain to us why a Pegasus knight is fit to hold the highest honor in all of Lycia."
There was a fit of commotion amongst the lords as all eyes turned towards Eliwood who, Hector was sure, would have provided a most eloquent defense for Farina, had Hector himself not instinctively spoken up for himself.
"It isn't an honor." He was surprised by the desperate sound of his own voice.
"So he speaks! Wonderful," Erik replied, "let us hear what our would-be Marquess has to say."
Hector, did not fail to notice the explicit usage of 'would-be' in Erik's choice of his title, but chose to ignore it all the same.
"I am not bestowing upon this woman some gift or honor. Yes, she will spend the rest of her life – a long one, I hope – as a Marchioness to the rest of Lycia, but I don't care about that. And neither does she."
"How beautiful, are you sure she won't be the Marquess?" Some scattered laughter as Erik stood smiling in the middle of the room.
"By Elimine, sit down, Erik." An elderly man who Hector could only distinguish by the Tanzian seal on his garb stood with the help of two nearby servants. "The presenting of the Marquess's bride has never been anything more than a formality. Whatever grudge you hold for Lord Hector are of no consequence in this matter. We Lycian Lords may like to think ourselves powerful in all things, but I don't believe any person in this world has sovereignty over love. And besides, who our Lord Hector weds does not change the fact that Roland's blood stills flows through his veins, and shall flow on in whatever children the good Lady Farina bring us." Hector noticed that he smiled warmly in Farina's direction. He suddenly felt astoundingly guilty for not knowing his name.
"Here, here!" groaned the Marquess of Tuscana, a man Hector would consider a friend if he saw more of him.
"Erik's as prickly as his father, what do I care who our Lord Hector beds? She's pretty enough, I say."
"Issac!" said an appalled woman to his left. Hector immediately identified her as his wife.
"Of course, what my husband means, Lord Hector, is only that this lady is very beautiful." She tried to look angrily at him but blushed through a rueful smile when he squeezed at her hips playful. They sat down together with him whispering in her ear. For some reason, it made Hector strangely happy.
"Fair, my lords," Erik replied, recapturing the attention of the room as Hector felt it slowly shift in his favor.
"but," there was an emphasis on the conjunction, and Hector knew from the smirk Erik flashed his way that whatever was about to happen, he wasn't going to like it. "I must express my concern that she might be…tarnished."
"By Elimine, you can't be serious, Erik." There was an astonishment in Eliwood's voice that still suggested surprise, like there was still a part of Eliwood that somehow believed Erik to be deep down a good man.
"It is a concern I am sure many of us carry, Marquess Pharae. It is a sad reality that stories of the bravery within the Ilian Pegasus Knights are not the only tales that make their way to this end of the world."
"Yes, Erik," said Hector, "it is unfortunate - unfortunate that so few of us share your excellence at maintaining virginity."
The laughter that followed eased the pain Hector felt at not being able to bury his fist in Erik's smug looking face.
It died at once when the Marquess of Araphen rose to speak, his face stoic and humorless. "How eloquently put, my lord, but I would actually like to hear what Marquess Laus has to say on the matter."
"My thanks, Marquess Araphen, it is good to have the support of one so respected in this court as yourself."
It was fitting to Hector that Erik made it a point to recognize the status of Marquess Araphen, who was indeed a long standing and respected member among Lycian nobility, along with his less-known characteristics of ardent xenophobia and chauvinism.
"It's just, and I mean this with all due respect to the lady," Erik made a grand show of acting pained in what he was about to say. "How can we be certain that, with tales of Ilian Pegasus knights being riddled with lewd stories of provocative exploits, how can we be certain that the woman before us today, she who would be our Marchioness, has not taken previous lovers? I worry that she may even be taking advantage of the good nature of our naïve Lord Hector who, let's face it, was never raised to rule."
Lovers. Hector thought grimly, his composure slipping as he felt his finger nails dig deeper into the palms of his hands.
He glanced over at Farina, dressed simply in a white dress with a blue sash, meant to accentuate the vibrant glow of her blue hair and eyes to try and draw the innate comparison with Ostia's own national colors. She stood erect, unflinching in the face of Erik's relentless slander with her arms crossed and a calm, collected look painted across her face.
Let them say what they will he heard her echo from the night before; it will not be half as bad as anything I've heard before.
She was strong. If Hector had not already known it, he would have found it out then, but he'd spent near a year with Farina already, so this instance only reminded him. Yet, it also reminded him that he was not. For as Hector looked on at Farina he found himself begging her to look over at him, to meet his eyes just once across the lonely chamber so that they could be united in this moment when Erik had the nerve to look arrogantly into Farina's past and call her past partners lovers.
But Farina was too strong. So, even as Hector was unable to handle the poisonous words of the Lycian nobility, Farina was unfazed, letting their words brush off her as she stood tall at the center of the room. He realized she didn't need him, but that he needed her.
"You-who, Lord Hector?"
"What?" Hector said dumbly. The whole room laughed, Erik the loudest of them all.
"I know the burdens of leadership can be quite boring, Lord Hector, but please, do try to pay attention. We were merely curious if you could offer any significant insight onto the history of this woman you have offered before us."
Suddenly, the wound at Hector's thigh roared with such a terrible pain that it sent Hector to his knees with an audible grunt of discomfort.
"Hector!" Farina shouted from the center of the room. In moments he felt her scared fingers on his shoulder.
"Hector," whispered Eliwood with equal parts guilt and sympathy, one hand hooked beneath Hector's elbow, "you need to stand."
And Hector tried, but the pain was so terrible and so vivid it was almost like being back in the moment, the cry of the dragon nearly deafening his ears as he threw Eliwood to the side, saving his life, but nearly sacrificing his.
"Hector…" Farina whispered cautiously beside him.
"I'm fine," he said through gritted teeth. He summoned every ounce of strength he had to stand and then walked gingerly over to Erik, pain agonizing his body with every step, realizing all too astutely that his injury was not getting any better, but that was a crisis for another time.
Erik defensively stepped back as Hector closed the distance between them.
"I don't know anything about her past," Hector lied, "I never cared to ask because it doesn't matter to me."
Hector swung his arms around the room, noticing Eliwood's disapproving grimace that suggested implicitly that this was a mistake. But Hector was tired of acting; they would see him for what he is was now so as not to be surprised when he took the throne.
"It shouldn't matter to any of you," he yelled at the room. Silence followed, some trying to look away ashamed, others, like the Marquess of Araphen meeting his gaze fearlessly.
He turned back to Erik and approached like they were the only two in the room, "So why does it matter so much to you?"
Erik swallowed, turning away to answer to the entirety of the room rather than meet Hector's direct challenge.
"Well," he began rather apprehensively, "I fear that should we allow this marriage, my lords, it might cause whispers in the common people. I mean it with as much concern to the lady, she might be ridiculed and mocked by her own subjects – "
"Don't you worry bout' me," Farina finally stated, uttering her first words of the procession.
"Continue," the Marquess of Araphen said, completely ignoring Farina's outburst. Erik nodded.
"There is a very…stringent hierarchy to the construction of our world and I just worry about what might occur, what others in the region might expect if we allow a poor woman from far away ascend to the highest honor we can bestow. And that aside, what will our neighboring nations think? I can hardly believe that Etruia will favor such a move, Bern – already an envious country – might even consider us weak for allowing such an event."
The room erupted when Erik finished, all orderly manner of discourse was abandoned as lords and ladies shouted at one another in every direction. Hector could not decipher in the upheaval on which end of the spectrum the majority lied, but weary from the wound on his thigh, and wearier still from having to swallow the indignity of having to present Farina like an item to be sold, Hector realized that he no longer cared.
"Enough!" Uther shouted, or was it him? It must have been him because everyone was staring.
"I have entertained this archaic and ridiculous custom long enough. You've all said your piece, we know full-well now that few in this room approve of my bride, but that's all you get. It's over now. We're still getting married, and when I am coroneted you can count on the fact that this will be the first policy I look at abolishing. You can whine and cry about whatever I do for the rest of my tenure as your leader, you can even hate Farina for all I care, but you have no say in where I place my love."
He paused and immediately some members of the chamber began to protest, but Hector held up a hand.
"It's over. Everyone get out."
People began shuffling to towards the exit, some awkwardly glancing in Hector's direction with disapproving faces and whispers while others only left with a yawn and a stretch, probably happy to be leaving a dank dark room they had spent hours in with people they generally disliked. Ultimately, Hector was sure he made no more or less enemies with his actions, and; therefore, wasn't all that interested in the fact that Erik eyed him angrily all the way out. Many, he was sure, did not care about his prospective union, and others would get over it, in time probably finding something else to complain about – maybe his politics. Only a select few like Erik, who bared against him some other grudge, would hold this event a personal and vindictive slight against the honor of Lycia. He could deal with that.
Yet, the Marquess of Araphen still made it a point to pause as he passed by Hector on his way to the door. Uttering in a menacing tone, "That was ill done, my lord." Hector only stared back.
When everyone had left, Eliwood, with a concerned look on his face immediately spoke up, "The burn, are you…"
Hector cut him off. "Not now. It's fine. I'll have Serra look at it again tomorrow." But he knew it would be no use. She'd already told him several times that she didn't know what to do, there was no protocol in the order for handling dragon's fire.
When Oswin approached from his guard outside, signaling that they were finally alone, Hector immediately collapsed onto a bench nearby.
"Well," he said, sweat falling from his forehead, "I think that went well."
Oswin crossed his arms. "Why do I doubt that?"
"No, really!" Farina replied earnestly, "Lord Hector handled himself quite nobly if I am any judge."
"What are you talking about?" Eliwood asked, eying Farina with a dubious suspicion. "He exploded on a room of nobles before telling them to 'get out.' All you did today, Hector was confirm everyone's fear that the younger brother of Uther is a reckless lout unfit to rule the country."
"What did you want from me, Eliwood? You heard what they were saying."
"I know," he looked away, rubbing the back of his neck absently, "but we talked about this, they were trying to get a reaction out of you and they did."
"You call that a reaction?" Farina said incredulously, "Do you know Hector? I mean, I was surprised he didn't immediately pick up an axe and start throwing it at people just because the chairs weren't comfortable enough."
That broke Eliwood's grim expression. "Well, I suppose you do have a point there. I'm sorry for what they said to you, Farina."
"You kidding? That was a good day at one of the taverns back in Ilia. You lords are so delicate, even when you insult people, it's kinda cute." She nudged Hector who smiled back up at her.
"You are an extraordinary woman, Farina," Eliwood laughed, "I can see why he fell for you."
"Easy there, Marquess Pherae, I don't want to see you eyeing up my woman too intently." Hector pulled Farina onto his lap, hugging her tightly as she erupted with laughter.
"I'm a married man myself,"Eliwood blushed. "But you should know Hector, there are some who won't take that outburst lightly, there are traditionalists in Lycia and you just found a pretty direct way to insult every one of them."
"Probably won't be the only time,' Hector grumbled, already tired of the annoyance of leading.
Eliwood smiled, probably knowing it was true. "Just be careful, Hector."
He looked off into the distance as the smile faded from his face.
"Pride makes people do terrible things."
Ended up getting away from where I wanted to take this, but I think future chapters will be better. Thank you so much for reading, I would love to hear any and all opinions you guys and girls have if you have the time. Thanks again!