Author note: I do not own the Last Story. Nor do I own the song 'Somewhere Only We Know' by Keane, or the cover of the song performed by Max Schneider, Kurt Schneider and Elizabeth Gillies that inspired me to write this fic.
Warning: MiraniaxZesha, obvious LowellxSyrenne, a little Therius/Mirania friendship, takes place during the Last Story and post-game, spoilers
I know that MiraniaxZesha sounds like an extremely odd pairing, but this is more of an experiment as of if they had a chance (kind of like how I put Mirania with Therius together in my fic 'E.T.'). Mirania doesn't seem like someone who could fully hate anyone to me-maybe disappointed in someone for a bit, but she never truly hates anyone. And if there is anyone out of the main cast that Zesha would be more likely to bond with...Lowell and Syrenne wouldn't dare like him, considering the murder attempt, Yurick is out of the question (Zepha was killed by him, and Zesha would rather kill Yurick than be friends with him..), Zael and Callista are probably out of the question too, and same probably goes for Dagran. Therius might even still have bitter feelings over the war, especially that General Asthar was killed (even if Zesha wasn't his murderer, too). The only one left who wouldn't completely hate him is Mirania...and I wanted to see what could have happened if she ever got to talk with him following the war.
Constructive Criticism would be great, and I hope that you read, review and enjoy! Thanks!
Somewhere Only We Know
When Yurick threw the Memento Dagger straight into Zepha's chest, Mirania could only close her eyes and look away.
"...a curse upon the humans for all eternity!"
Zepha said no more.
Didn't Zesha say the same thing, when he was fighting her friends?
And then, he shot Lowell and killed him.
Mirania had every reason to hate him. She really did. This person, this Gurak being, had murdered one of her friends. He served Zangurak, who wanted to practically annihilate all humans-Zesha seemed to practically see the late Gurak King as a god of sorts, following his every command without question. Why didn't she hate him?
When Zael had left, it had taken a great deal of effort to subdue Zangurak's remaining right hand man. Every curse, every strike the East Wing and West Wing that Zesha made was becoming desperate, to fufill his duty to Zangurak. And then, after what seemed like an eternity of fighting and cursing and screaming...
Zesha finally fell onto his knees. He struggled to stand, to will his body to keep fighting, but it refused to obey. He collapsed onto his side, and rolled a bit onto his back, breathing shallowly as he kept trying to even sit up.
"Come on, let's go." Syrenne had been the first to speak up, glaring at Zesha through bitter tears. "Let's go help Zael." Her voice cracked, but she managed to keep herself from crying anymore as best as she could. She slowly walked away, and the others started to leave as well.
Mirania kept herself rooted to the spot, looking down at the fallen Gurak warrior.
"Mirania?" She looked up, seeing Yurick's concerned face. "Are you coming?"
Mirania nodded. "I'll catch up. Promise." She told him. The one-eyed mage nodded, before running after Syrenne.
She hesitated, before crouching onto a knee to look at Zesha's battered form. There were so many scratches, bruises...and she felt that she needed to have them healed. Just because his brother died didn't mean he had to die, too.
She slowly reached towards his face, seeing a large scratch across it. Yurick might have slashed at it with his dagger, or herself with her weapons-Mirania didn't know for sure, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know.
An icy hand snatched her wrist in a vice-like grip, and she stared into two dark eyes, filled with anger-or was it fear?
"What do you want, human?" Zesha's voice came out in cracks, on the verge of turning towards sobbing. "Finishing me off, aren't you, to avenge your fallen ally?"
Mirania shook her head. "No." She told him. "No. I refuse to."
The Gurak warrior let out a hoarse chuckle. "Why not? Do you want to watch me like this, so helpless and wounded? Is that what you want?" He guessed, his weak grin struggling to compensate for his wounded pride. His already tight grip went even tighter, and MIrania did her best to hide her pained cringe.
"No. Not that, either." She simply replied, doing her best to keep herself focused on the task she prepared to do. "I'm not going to leave until I know you won't die."
He went still, his facial expression turning towards disbelief. His grip loosened significantly, and she gently pushed the hand back down by his side, handling it so delicately as if it was a butterfly she was holding in her hands. Her hand went up towards his face again, and after brushing a few scarlet-stained strands of hair, she closed her eyes and focused on the wound.
As the healing continued, Mirania couldn't help but sometimes open her eyes. The Gurak warrior seemed to be taking the small bits of wounds closing up well, generally, save for a few cringes when his face wound was closing, flesh knitting flesh together. The two never said a word during the process.
The Gurak warrior fell asleep during by the end of the process, too tired from the fighting, screaming, and failure to stand afterwards. Mirania stood, looking at him quietly. She wished she had something to cover him with-at least he would be a bit warmer. Sleep was a great healer, but Mirania believed that being comfortable enough before sleeping was a factor in that statement.
She hoped, just a little bit, that he would never wake up. From the way things were going now, this world was too harsh a place for him to continue existing.
She walked away, to go help her friends, but not without looking back at least once.
Zesha woke up abruptly, to see the Last World crumbling around him.
What had happened? What was going on? It took him a few moments to piece together what had happened before he fell unconscious, and a few guesses as of what had happened afterwards.
The fight. Lowell being shot. The black-haired mage with that odd white symbol on her forehead, healing him when he thought she would have killed him.
He heard a few shouts-human voices. Did Zangurak fail? It couldn't be-it couldn't!
It could be. A voice whispered to his head. He did his best to ignore it, and thought of something else instead.
Maybe Lord Zangurak was already outside, waiting for him! He said he would wait, wouldn't he? Maybe the humans were trapped in this world-and all Zesha had to do was get out of this world and find Lord Zangurak. Zangurak might be unhappy that he couldn't kill all of the humans, but might congratulate him for his effort, just like he had acknowledged Zepha's death-that his death was not in vain.
Zesha knew he couldn't stay here any longer. He transported himself out of the Last World, without realizing that he left his East and West Wings behind, praying that his theory was correct.
It was completely wrong.
The peace treaty was made. Zesha did his best to keep a straight face during it all, but he didn't like it.
Lord Zangurak was dead. Zepha was dead. So many of his people were dead.
All he could do was pick up the pieces and do his best to support his people. So much had to be done, now. There was barely any room for him to really think about the whole situation-he was far too busy attending to his people's needs.
"Lord Zesha," A soldier spoke, "Someone wishes to see you immediately."
"Bring them here." He told him. "Tell whoever it is to wait outside the door. I will call them in myself."
"Yes, sir." The soldier left, and Zesha let out a breath as he glanced at several reports. Whoever it was, Zesha hoped that they would leave as soon as they came-he was busy, after all.
There was a small knock at the door moments later, and Zesha took a breath before speaking.
"Come in."
The door opened slowly, before a young mage walked in.
He stared at her in disbelief. She looked at him quietly, holding the West and East Wing in her hands. He didn't have to hear her voice to remember who exactly she was.
"It's you." He managed to say after a moment of silence. "You're that mage from before."
She nodded once. "I am." She answered quietly. "My name is Mirania, Lord Zesha. I came here because I thought you would like to have these back. My friends and I found them while we were departing the Last World, and you were not there. I thought it would be best to give them back to you after the peace treaty was settled." She extended both swords towards him without another word.
He stood, and walked around his desk. He stopped in front of her, and there was silence between them both.
"Why?" He finally asked. "Why did you heal me?"
Mirania said nothing for a moment, before looking him in the eyes and speaking. "I can't just let everyone die. It's not right."
He took the East and West Wing from her hands, and sheathed them, saying nothing.
"You did what?!"
Mirania ducked out of the way as Syrenne threw a bottle of alcohol at her face.
"You actually went to see tha' bastard!?" She shouted, her face filled with rage. "He nearly 'iled Lowell!"
"He lost his brother, Syrenne." Mirania tried to explain. "And he deserved to get his weapons back. They were his originally, after all."
"Idiot! I hate you!" Syrenne looked like she was about to cry, but her rage tried to compensate for it. "I hate you!" She shouted louder, banging her fists against the table and spilling more booze all over the floor.
As Lowell tried to calm down his beloved, Mirania could do nothing but shake her head once and leave the tavern, Yurick watching in concern.
Some of the Gurak seemed enraged that this human was slowly being befriended by their new king, but Zesha did not have the time or patience for their complaints. He continued to help his people, as he always did, but sometimes his work was interrupted by the day Mirania walked in and handed him the East and West Wings, now mounted on the wall of his chamber.
He glanced at the twin blades, running a hand across them. As the light of the blades revealed his reflection, he reminisced about the long talk they had after returning the swords. From the destruction caused by the Outsider's presence to the loss of those close to them, Zesha had slowly learned that maybe they had more in common than they thought.
Callista and Zael couldn't believe it, either, but at least their reactions were more understanding than Syrenne's was, albeit still slightly confused. No one seemed to understand her.
Sir Therius eventually turned out to be the only one to understand completely as of why Mirania had done this, and Mirania was glad that at least someone understood her. It was so kind of him to be there for her during this particular time, as she found it so hard to talk with her other friends because of what she had done.
"I'm not surprised by your actions." The white knight told her one evening. "You want to try to set things right, no matter the risk. And it makes sense that you would wish to console Lord Zesha-the both of you do know what it is like to lose someone close."
And me, too. Mirania thought he would say those words, after suffering the loss of General Asthar. He didn't, though, and it made sense-this wasn't about him, it was about Zesha and Mirania. Mirania respected that.
She was silent, and Therius continued speaking. "I don't know if I'm right, but it just seems that you never have the ability to fully hate anyone or anything. Yes, you can be disappointed, but you have faith in them that they will realize their mistake, at the least. It's good for you to stay that way, Miss Mirania. There are too many people that are not as compassionate as you are."
As the two continued talking, Mirania couldn't help but think that there could be something else that could be done. She just wasn't sure what it was.
"Why are you here again?"
Mirania didn't think she would be coming back to see Lord Zesha again, but now she was here in his office.
"I thought that...I thought that you might have been lonely."
He seemed to hesitate, before speaking.
"No."
She nodded, before turning to leave.
"Wait. I meant...not here." She turned towards him as he continued. "Not here. You can barely get any privacy here, but...I know a place."
He stood in front of her, and hesitantly extended a hand to her. She took it.
They were gone.
Mirania found herself standing front of a pearly-white tombstone, white flowers growing in front of it. Birds chirped as they flew above them, and the sunlight glimmered through the shady trees.
"...I don't think it ever seemed obvious, but Zepha used to like nature...before the war over the Outsider started." Zesha murmured quietly over the hum of the forest. "He has a grave in the Gurak Continent, but I made one here for him. I think he would like it better, here."
Mirania turned towards the Gurak King, nodding once in agreement.
"Yes. I think he would." She murmured.
They were not the typical romantic couple. That was what Zesha figured one day.
Zesha never had felt anything towards what the romantic books claim, with physically intimate scenes involved. No, he would rather just spend endless hours just talking with Mirania. Even being in her presence felt better than anything, if they had nothing to say. Kisses and close embraces were risky, for the Gurak Continent and Lazulis would give an uproar if they were ever seen. They didn't bother with such actions-Zesha saw them as meaningless.
Actions were merely an extension of feelings. Words were an extension of feelings. As long as they could show their feelings to another, nothing else had to be done.
Whenever they went to go talk to each other in private, it would always be somewhere only they knew of. Whether it be somewhere hidden away on the Vono Islands or at Zepha's forest grave, it was only a place where they would know of. No one else.
As far as Zesha knew, that was perfectly fine with the both of them.