Complications
by Aizhen Aschenhimmel
As flat as a hammerfalled disclaimer could be: I own not RO.
Prologue
"Your Excellency, you're suggesting utter madness."
She wished with all her heart that she really did said those words to Belfan Despar, cardinal or no. No doubt the old man rarely heard being accused of stupidity - the look on his face would've been enough compensation for whatever verbal barb she was going to suffer as a result. Unfortunately though, the old cardinal had twisted her arm, so to speak, and she had been too stunned for her own good.
If it's only not for the house, she thought dully. If it's not for a friend. She'll have to throttle Fau for this.
It's so damn big.
And it looked so small from above ("Maybe I should've looked at it longer...but it's so high...")
Stepping out of the airship port building, the sights and sounds of the town assaulted her at full force. Aldebaran sprawled before her, a strange place, an unknown place, its people streaming past in a brisk pulse and for a moment her brain simply went blank at the realization of what she has to do. The whiteness of the town and the distant splashing of water was a change from the airborne sights, and before that the dark, magical and ancient walls of her hometown. And there were so many people, so different and lively, Schwartzvaldian and Midgardian mixing so freely that hostility seemed to be only an overrated prediction.
But if the hostility wasn't real, she wouldn't be here in the first place.
"This is madness," she whispered to herself, grasping back the bits of her composure. Well, she was here now. It felt more stupid turning back. With a resolute tug at her bag strap she began to trudge along the cobblestoned street, letting the crowd carry her, without a destination in mind and fully aware of it.
How am I going to find one man in a town this big?
She stared at the stones beneath her feet, drowning in the hubbub of the town, the mixed accents of brisk Midgardian and fluid Schwartzvaldian, more questions resurfacing. The cardinal had been so sure he'll be in Aldebaran. The why of it he knew and, to her dismay, refused to tell her. Normally she wouldn't agree to his request (or command), but it was her childhood memories at stake and the old man had the advantage. As sickeningly sentimental as it may sound she wasn't willing to have them reduced to a pile of ruins.
She bit her lip in quiet frustration. Why go here, Fau? Why Schwartzvald of all places?
And why me?
...
A/N: Finally. Reviews will be cherished :D