Disclaimer: Odin Sphere is not my property.

Pairing: Mercedes/Ingway

A/N: dialogues in italic are inner thoughts.

Solitude by the Window

Mercedes raised in the amber light of afternoon sun that filtered through the window that she was sitting by with one leg propped on its sill her hand that was adorned by the ring, Titrel. It was the symbol of which she had fulfilled her late mother's will. It was the insignia that will remind her subjects as they spot it encircling her ring finger to never look down their noses on her and doubt her leadership capabilities ever again. It was the spoil of war which the mere sound of its name will laud for ages the details of how the Vanirs had subdued the Aesirs, how they had brought their ghastly Demon Lord on his knees. Legends will be passed on through the ages how the Vanirs' young Queen had rendered to fragments with the fire of her Ribalm the Demon Lord's gargantuan Balor - the once strongest psypheres of them all.

"Ingway..."

Her arms reflexively flew to cushion her face as it dropped despondently on her bent knee, as the ache that accompanied the resurfacing of that name slashed like a scalpel her heart that began sobbing longingly as the image of his face was recreated in her psyche. Not even her military and political achievements that had garnered her the respect and adulation of her people was able to diminish the emptiness that she felt inside after being separated from him. Nor the luminous beauty of the ring as she pivoted it back and forth under the fiery light of the sun could ever distract her from daydreaming about how their union that he had promised her to occur one day will be like...

Her dim claret eyes that peered above her folded arms shut as she once again tried to soothe and divert herself by visualizing the expression that his features will settle into as she animatedly narrates to him the details of her victory, and what his comment will be like afterwards. Will he chuckle and say something along the lines of "Didn't I tell you you were going to be a great queen?!" and gets her to blush as she fidgets uncomfortably like a bashful maiden? Or is he going to smirk as he taunts her condescendingly like he used to do when he was still wearing the frog's skin that "Well, you still got a long way to go, little queen!"and elicit an indignant retort from her?

She opened her eyes; as much as she preferred to get the earlier response, the latter one seemed the more believable of the two. Ingway was a cynical realist who intentionally puts people down for their own good, not some sentimentalist who would pat you on the shoulder as he showers you with uplifting words of encouragement.

"As long as I get to see him, hear his voice and have him promise me that our meetings will keep recurring, his pragmatics wouldn't matter to me."

As those lingering thoughts once again enflamed her urge to go and initiate their promised meeting, she once again quickly contained it before it took over her senses.

"No..."

She turned her sight towards the floral scenery out of the window that was punctuated by the wandering fireflies that heralded the approaching dusk.

"He had mentioned that he had some matters to attend to - he's not some hopeless romanticist who would be impressed by how my yearning and impatience had driven me to abandon my duties as queen. I can actually imagine him thinking of me as some nuisance if I had just shown up while he was in the middle of something. Besides, my land still needs me and I haven't yet found someone who can fill in for me in my absence. What would those who stood behind me all the way after Melvin usurped the throne think when they find out that I just dropped everything in my hands to venture for a love that may not be requited?"

As the possibility of her affections being unreturned added to the despair that was clutching mercilessly at her heart, she wondered now where her feelings for Ingway were leading her to. An intimate relationship of some sort between a fairy and a human was unheard of, and on top of that she was a queen that was looked up to, not some commoner who could love whomever she chose.

Will he find the aspect of being desired after by a member of another species laughable? Revolting?

As she buried her face in her folded arms again she felt she'd rather die than find out that that was actually the case!

"Queen Mercedes!"

The addressed queen's head jerked upward in startle as the doors to her chambers were flung open, and the intruder froze as he viewed the trail of tears on his queen's cheeks that glistened in the late aftrenoon light. "Is something wrong, your majesty?"

"Nothing Mathui!" She hurriedly dabbed her eyes and stood to her full height. Her mother told her as she was drawing her last breath that she should always keep her head high no matter what, but she came to realize that she could never keep her head high in the face of this love, no matter how much she tried. The expression on her face turned serious as she inquired. "Did something happen?"

The old dwarf shook his head to clear it from the image of his saddened queen and declared with urgency. "The valkyries, they've infiltrated the forest and killed many of our warriors. They must've come for the ring!"

"Over my dead body!"

Her mind cried defiantly as she picked up her Ribalm that she had previously leant against the windows and rushed flying out of the door. The following thought empowering her.

"Those who have come for the very evidence that I have lived up to Ingway's expectations will have to slide it off my finger by force!"