Crossing Bridges
By Suzume
Written Nov. 23, 2007 May 25, 2008
Dedicated to Saishuu and Mithrigil,
Who both expressed interest in Lucretia back during the '07 Suikosanta
"That ship just came in from Falena," the fisherwoman told her son, pointing across the harbor to a three-masted vessel crawling with activity.
The chestnut-haired boy stood up and gaze past his mother's salty nets to the stream of passengers and screw scuttling off the ship. "Can I take a look, Ma?"
"Go ahead, but don't be long. I'll need your help to get all the mended gear back in the boat."
Her son did not stay long enough to hear the last few words. He was already off, clambering over the barrels of pickles being rolled off Old Man Johnson's unlicensed cargo boat. The stooping captain shook his fist at the energetic boy. "Watch your step or you'll break an ankle! And stay away from my merchandise!"
"I'll stay away from your stuff the day you get licensed with the port authority!" the scrawny boy laughed, knowing both events were far from likely. Breathless, he skidded to a halt, nearly colliding with a gentle-faced woman with boyishly short hair.
"Woah there!" she chuckled, back-stepping gracefully.
"Lelei, are you alright?" her more vividly dressed companion inquired.
Lelei nodded. "Yes, of course. We narrowly missed each other."
The colorful woman had tan skin and a mysterious glint in her eyes. She smiled a little as she gazed on the fisherwoman's son. He felt uncomfortable under that stare. "So, Lucretia Merces returns to Harmonia and you are all the welcome I get?"
"Uh, I..." he mumbled. He had no idea what to say to this. He had never heard of Lucretia Merces. He had never left Crona before; he barely knew the name of the regional bishop. "Sorry," he said.
"You're still more than I expected," Lucretia laughed.
"That's okay," the brown-haired woman replied, "You didn't mean any harm."
"I suppose we should go," Lucretia decided, "Though there are many things we could dally and see here, my family lives over a week away and I want them to be surprised when we arrive."
"By all means," her student agreed.
The boy did not notice the other Falenan travelers after this. He was too busy staring after the pair of women he had just encountered. They didn't seem like the kind of people you met everyday on the docks. They lived in a world he thought he would never know.
"Whatcha lookin' at, Peter?" his older brother, a dockhand asked as he passed by with an armful of coiled ropes.
Peter shook his head coming down from the clouds of wistful daydreams back to real life. "Uh, some women who got off the ship. ...But they're gone now."
"Well, stop blocking the walkway and get back to Mom!" his older brother laughed.
Peter was quick to obey.
"I know you can't mean this to be permanent move, my lady," Lelei frowned as she walked beside and slightly quicker than Lucretia.
"No, it's just a step on my journey," the strategist sighed, pausing on the stone bridge to look down into one of the city's many canals. A boatman snoozed contentedly in a glossy, red, canoe-like vessel tied to the jutting step that functioned as a dock here. Lelei stepped to the wall beside Lucretia and the sight of the sleeping man caused her brow to lighten almost unconsciously.
"My ultimate goal is...Well, I'm honestly not sure at this point, but it will be somewhere where you can continue to learn. I think seeing my father will help give me direction," the strategist continued, still watching the water flowing steadily through the canal. "He's a bit eccentric, but he's really a very sensible man. He was the only one who approved of my going to Falena. Most everyone else I spoke with thought it was a strange use of my talents, and considered Falena only a questionably friendly nation worth avoiding. ...They kept bringing up Saint Stephen."
"Saint Stephen?" Lelei ventured, raising an eyebrow.
"A martyr in the Falenan region over four hundred years ago," the blond woman shrugged, "It's basically the only story the less educated here have ever heard about Falena. Even if it's true, it's hopelessly outdated."
Lucretia began to walk again, and Lelei followed her down the wide and quietly bustling street. The flow of people was akin to the flow of the river through the canals- swift, subdued, and business-like.
The older of the two women, like the townspeople, knew exactly where she was going, but her friend could not help but gawk at the eye catching cathedral on the corner, glowing sun shining through the stained glass dome and illuminating the murals on the outer walls. While a few priests talked in the doorway, several smudgy-faced altar boys played marbles on the step.
The street narrowed and the houses grew. Flowering trees stood beside the white houses, scattering their fading petals on well-groomed gardens. It was obviously a very highclass neighborhood.
"There's our house," Lucretia pointed at a house much like the others but for a purple mailbox standing out beside a short hedge of box trees. A balcony on the second floor faced toward the river as it left the confines of the canals and joined back up and flowed southwest toward Dimasque. A blond man stood on the balcony facing away from the travelers.
"That must be my brother," the Merces woman commented.
"Harold," Lelei responded. She wanted to show Lucretia that she remembered very clearly everything the strategist had said about her family.
Lucretia nodded approvingly, her mysterious smile playing over her pink lips. Suddenly an unknown bit of information arose tantalizingly in Lelei's mind. "I don't think you ever told me- did your family ever meet Lord Godwin?"
"Only Harold did," Lucretia replied, her voice growing colder again. She almost seemed to retreat a few steps with the statement.
"And he disapproved?"
"Of course," the glint was quick to return to her eyes. Harold was no longer visible on the balcony. The effect of speaking about her brother was an enormous lightening of her mood. "Harold was only in Falena to sight-see anyway. He wasn't trying to gauge the political situation. It wasn't his place to judge. But Father trusted my judgment without meeting Marscal. Serena had misgivings, but wouldn't stop me. ...Harold has always thought he knows what's best for all of us." She smiled openly this time. "You will like him, Lelei. Both of you spend far too much time being concerned about me."
The purple mailbox was labeled "Merces" in orange letters, elaborate Harmonian beneath the common alphabet. The door opened almost immediately after Lucretia knocked. It was answered by the same green-clad man from the balcony.
"I thought it was you," he bluntly told Lucretia. He reached out and took her hand, holding it between his. "It's good to see you well. After the way we parted, I hate to tell you this, but I missed you. You were gone far too long." His gray eyes shone, but it was nothing like Lucretia's mischievous sparkle. It was the sheen of sunlight on tears carefully held back in the eyes.
"Lucretia," he whispered and hugged his adopted sister. Lelei was relieved that her friend hugged him back.
Harold broke away, wiping his eyes quickly on his sleeve, and called into the depths of the house, "Father! Serena! Come down! Lucretia is back!"
He belatedly let the pair of women into the house and took Lelei's pack and Lucretia's valise. "Harold Merces," he introduced himself, shaking Lelei's hand. Her grip was stronger than his.
"My friend, student, and former prison guard, Lelei," Lucretia announced.
"You were in prison?" Harold wondered, his eyes narrowing as his mouth fell open.
"Lucretia!" chirped Serena, dashing ahead of her father as soon as her older sister was in sight. She threw her arms around the wayward strategist, but did not neglect to say hello to Lelei as well over Lucretia's shoulder. She had blue eyes and neatly trimmed blond hair, paler than her brother's golden tresses that pointed messily in several different directions from his head.
Frederic Merces was last to speak but arrived only a few seconds behind Serena, leaning slightly on a simple wooden cane. He was blind in his right eye, but his left held a strong and intelligent gaze. "Miss Lelei, Frederic Merces- pleased to meet you."
"Oh, the pleasure is all mine," Lelei chuckled. She had a feeling that Frederic was the one who had picked out the mailbox.
"Serena, don't squeeze her to death now that she's just arrived home," the mostly gray-haired Harmonian sighed theatrically.
The rosy-cheeked girl let her arms drop and scooted a half step away from Lucretia.
"You look wiser," the Merces patriarch declared, "But you haven't brought me any grandchildren either." His wrinkles deepened as he laughed. Lelei added, "laughs often and easily," to her list of guessed or assumed qualities of Frederic Merces.
"So, you got tired of Falena?" he asked.
"Falena didn't need me anymore," his adopted daughter answered enigmatically.
"I'm sure you did what was right," he nodded and stroked his mustache.
Harold bit his lip.
"You still do that?" Lucretia observed her brother's action. "It can't serve you very well as a strategist. Your face is very easy to read."
Serena stifled a giggle.
"But I'm only an armchair strategist anyway," Harold snapped, "No one cares if I bite my lip at a time like this. I've never had a job as a strategist and my chances of getting one now don't look any better. I work part-time at the cathedral translating documents."
"You've always been good at that," Lucretia's attitude sobered, "Did you ever think working with old Harmonian might be your true calling?"
His face reddened. Lelei hoped there wouldn't be an argument. She wanted Lucretia's homecoming to be happier than that. "It's not," Harold whispered, forcing any anger he might have momentarily felt to dissipate. "I trained to be a strategist the same as you. I want it. ...Lucretia, I'm so jealous of you."
"All the lives I've held in my hands... It's nothing to be jealous of."
"Are you back to stay, Lucretia?" Serena asked hopefully.
"No, not yet," she replied.
"Ah, it's been great talking here in the hall, but could you young folks do my old joints a favor and move this reunion into a room where I can sit down?" Frederic interjected.
"Of course, Father," Harold headed into a strangely decorated sitting room.
Lelei glanced around from the smooth wooden floor to the shelf of miniature ships in bottles to a Calerian urn full of peacock feathers. Even the places to sit were a mixed lot: a soft couch which Lucretia beckoned Lelei to sit on beside her, a woven wicker chair with a white cushion on its center, two intricately carved wooden chairs beside a white side table, and what seemed to be an erstwhile piano bench without its piano.
Frederic sat on the wicker chair, hooking his cane over its arm. Harold put Lucretia and Lelei's thing on the piano bench and sat down beside them while Serena situated herself in one of the carved chairs.
It seemed to Lelei as if there were far too many things to look at here. She wondered if all the items had been acquired through Harmonia's healthy trade both inter-regionally and internationally, or if some member of the Merces family other than Lucretia really liked to travel.
"Father, I'd be happy to fill you in about the things I've done since I left that you weren't able to read about on your own, but I'd rather save that for a quiet talk between just you and me. I don't plan on making this too long a visit because the longer I stay, the harder you're going to make it for me to leave," the visiting woman announced, "You can understand that, can't you, Father?"
Frederic understood her feelings. "I used to have that wanderlust too. I probably wouldn't have met you without it."
"You probably wouldn't have picked up that limp either," Harold teased.
"Don't interrupt me," his father ordered in a soft but stern tone, "I have the rest of my life to chat with you, but once Lucretia's gone, who knows how long until I'll see her again?"
Harold looked down, his jaw tight, his eyes betraying his shame.
Lucretia did not comment on Harold's small disgrace, but allowed her adoptive father to pick up where he left off. "I mean, Harmonia's a great place to live and study, but unless you're prepared to work for the bishops the only place for a strategist is teaching at school. And a fine tactician like yourself should do all your teaching in the field until you're old and gray."
He paused and looked at Lelei, "But don't wear this patient friend of yours out by running all around the globe, Lucretia."
Lelei laughed, "I have plenty of energy to keep up, Mr. Merces."
"Well, you'll need it," he chuckled as well. "Thank you for looking after my daughter back in Falena."
"It was my pleasure entirely."
"Where did you two meet?" Serena piped up.
"She mentioned something about prison," Harold blurted out nervously. Obviously the idea was very troubling to him.
"I was arrested by the queen to keep Lord Godwin from executing me," Lucretia explained nonchalantly, "And Lelei was one of my two guards."
"Oh my gosh!" Serena worried, "Did you get enough to eat there? Was it hard on you?"
"She was treated well," Lelei assured the concerned young woman, "The queen made sure it was not as harsh as it might've been. The other guard, Cius, and I did our best to look out for her."
"You took very good care of me," the strategist agreed. Her smile was small and sly, her arched eyebrows suggestive.
Lelei blushed a little and looked away. She preferred at this point that Lucretia's family see their relationship as entirely platonic. After all, for the most part it was, but there were tensions beneath that smooth surface- a brush of hands, a meeting of eyes, a softly whispered word- that threatened to turn it into something else. Sometimes that was what Lelei wanted, but other times she worried about it, fearing any change to their current relationship. Couldn't she be happy with things as they were? "I suppose that's the nature of life," Lelei thought to herself, "Things change, whether you want them to or not, and no one can be completely satisfied with what they have."
"So, if you're not staying here, that means you have a destination in mind," Harold said.
"I want to take Lelei up past Camaro into Tulaine and Gifu. From what Cathari tells me there's some need for mediation up there and I'd prefer that it's someone other than our fine government tending to that."
"As long as it's Gavelle and di Sihlo sitting on that border, I don't think we'll be invading the Nanaifu anytime soon," Harold tempered her concerns with the reality of the Harmonian situation.
"Enough politics," Serena stopped Harold before he launched into a lengthy diatribe about things Lucretia probably already knew. She seemed incredibly well informed about the goings on in the country despite her prolonged absence. "Lucretia, what would you like to have for dinner? You're back from such a long trip you should get to have anything you want! There's got to be something you missed during your sojourn in Falena."
"Well, I really liked most of the Falenan dishes I tried. They reminded me of things I ate when I was quite small back in the Grasslands. I think it was the kind of spices involved."
"Oooh, come on," Serena laughed, "There's got to be something!"
Lelei looked curiously at Lucretia, wondering what her response would be. "Well...Cream puffs. It's been a long time since I've had a really nice, fluffy cream puff."
"That's more like it!" her younger sister cheered, "Who needs a good dinner! Harold, you make some tea and I'll run over to the Canal Corner Bakery for a dozen cream puffs!"
"Oh," Frederic sighed happily, "This is just like the good old days!"
Harold reluctantly went to boil some water and Serena skipped out the door. "Sit up with me tonight and we'll have a good, long talk. I may not have done much in your absence, but we still have a lot of catching up to do," the elder Merces told his adopted daughter.
Lelei had always tried to eat fairly healthy meals to stay slim and fit for both her job and her looks. This was a rare and enjoyable -though not entirely guilt-free- indulgence for her. "I can't believe we don't have these in Falena!" Lelei laughed, "They're just so amazing! The prince would love them! And Georg and Bernadette too!"
"Who would've guessed you'd be such a cream puff enthusiast?" Lucretia giggled, daintily wiping a dab of off-white cream from her lips. "And you can find them in Falena, but I think they're more of a Central Harmonian thing. I've always most enjoyed tasting regional specialties in their native environment."
"Like those fish cakes you had everyone eat when we visited Erghpor'?" Serena remembered.
"They were gross," Harold grimaced.
Frederic stirred his tea, melting the two sugar cubes he had dumped into it. "Just like old times," he repeated pleasantly to himself.
"Please, don't wait up for me," Lucretia instructed Lelei. "Father and I may be talking a very long time. You can sleep in my old room." As the strategist opened the door, Lelei found herself growing glad with anticipation. This had been Lucretia's room! "Take whichever bunk you want." Lucretia put her valise down on a chair.
Lelei set her bag on the ground beside the table. "Why did you have bunk beds?"
"They've always been here. You'd have to ask Father. Serena used to come in here and sleep in the other bunk. We had a lot of fun staying up at night talking. I would read to her or tell her my ideas... She was always a great listener."
"That's nice," Lelei answered, but she was already distracted by the furnishing of the room. How much of it had been left this way by Lucretia upon her departure? What had she been like as a young girl?
"I hope you rest well," Lucretia said at last, leaving Lelei to her thoughts. Frederic was downstairs waiting for her and, regardless of what he said, she knew he didn't have the energy to wait up forever.
Lelei sat down on the bottom bunk and stroked the patchwork quilt lying there. There were a number of various brightly colored baubles on the desk and shelves along with books and journals. Perhaps to discourage family members from opening them, the journals were wrapped tightly closed with carefully knotted ribbons. "I suppose she's always liked writing down her thoughts. And she's always liked beautiful things."
At first Lelei found it hard to relax she was so excited to be experiencing secondhand a portion of Lucretia's youth. But gradually, the strain of continuous travel wore down her energy, and she fell asleep peacefully in the bottom bunk of Lucretia's bed. She did not know, but Lucretia had always like the top bunk best.
The two women left early as the sun rose through a veil of pink clouds. Lelei wasn't sure that glassy sparkle on the horizon was the crystal of the capital or if she was merely imagining it as she glanced back over her shoulder.
Unlike the bridge they had entered Riverway by, this one was heavily ornamented, as much artistic as functional, the sides carved into curling vines and flowering blossoms. One of the larger canals lapped peacefully as its poles. "This is Dedication Bridge, right?" Lelei inquired, stroking the smoothed wood.
"Yes, built as a gift in the nation's early days to speed the path of friends to the capital." Lucretia traced a wisteria-like vine with her fingertip. She doubted the ancient bridge would ever speed her way back to Falena...though someday to her family again, perhaps...
"Did you cross this bridge when you first came to live with Mr. Merces?" the younger woman asked softly. She imagined her companion as a young girl in Karayan attire marveling at the sights of Harmonia while an equally eccentric but more energetic Frederic watched her awe with a lesson and a laugh or two. Accurate or not, it was a charming mental picture.
"We did cross this bridge," Lucretia admitted, "But it was dark and I couldn't see that it was anything special. As I recall, I was very tired at the time." Her hand dropped from the carved wooden railing and she moved onward, her colorful robes mingled with the blues, browns, and greens of other casual passerby.
"I liked your family," Lelei said. "They seemed very nice."
"Father liked you too." They crossed the bridge onto the packed earth of the Old Tol Highroad. "I think you'll do well in Tulaine. You'll have the objective eyes of an outsider," Lucretia added.
Lelei nodded and looked back over her shoulder at the glistening city. Underneath Dedication Bridge, the river rolled on.