Trail of Tears -- written by DarkMoon
Chapter 1-- The Arrival
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Note: Chapters will go up sooner on my site (accessible through my user profile) than they will here. Chapter 2 is up already there, for example.
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A year after the defeat of Melbu Frahma, things were finally settling down again. Most of the Winglies had come out of hiding; a lot of them were helping with the reconstruction of the Crystal Palace in Deningrad. Serdio had become a single, unified country again and the entire continent of Endiness was at peace. Well, most of it . . .
Dart sighed heavily. Glancing up from his late night chess game with Haschel, he could see that Albert and Miranda were still arguing. It had started as a simple discussion about politics, which, as they already knew, was a very bad thing to talk about with Albert around. The reasonably polite conversation had quickly deteriorated into the argument that was still going on. Dart, who had been trying to spend some time with a long-abandoned novel, had kicked the two of them out onto the balcony, so that there could at least be a set of doors (though only glass) between them and the rest of the castle.
"So how long has it been now?" he asked his friend, capturing Haschel's bishop. "You're in check, by the way."
"Almost two hours," Haschel said, moving his king out of danger. "Two hours of circular logic and pointless bickering. You'd think their voices would have given out by now."
Dart snorted. "Not likely. Albert's the king of long discussions, and Miranda yells all the time. They're perfect for this." He looked up as the hum of voices from the balcony stopped abruptly.
"Thank Soa! It's about time they stopped," Shana said from her place on a sofa nearby, where she'd been dozing with a pillow over her head for the past hour.
"Have you two been arguing about politics this whole time?" Haschel asked as the balcony doors banged open.
"We veered off track for a few minutes to squabble about who's country is best ruled," said Albert, who looked frazzled and worn out. "But otherwise, yes." He glared as Miranda stalked past him, most likely headed for her room. She threw a disdainful look over her shoulder before slamming the door behind her. Albert sighed and slumped down in an overstuffed armchair next to the chess table.
"She hasn't argued with any of us in a long time," Shana said quietly. "Not since Rose . . ." She trailed off. A hushed silence filled the room. The last time Miranda had gotten really mad at anybody was in the Death Frontier with Rose. That seemed like ages ago.
"You guys are still up?!?" a female voice asked incredulously. They all jumped. Meru was standing in the doorway through which Miranda had left, pillow clutched under one arm and a sleepy expression on her face. She had gone to bed shortly after the fight had begun, wishing to avoid a cranky Miranda.
"Yes, unfortunately," Albert sighed. "But not for long. I'm going to bed. See you all in the morning." A chorus of mumbled and decidedly mopey 'good nights' followed him out of the room. As the others left the room one by one, snow started to fall outside. A muffled stillness fell over the castle, and a lone figure approached the city. ******************************************************************************
The next morning, a thick blanket of snow had fallen. Meru was up before dawn, bundled up in multiple layers of clothing. She ambushed Albert in the hallway as he came out of his room for breakfast and tried to make him go outside with her. He politely declined and told her to go find Haschel. This she did, dragging not only Haschel, but Kongol and Shana as well, outside for a snowball fight, which Kongol won easily. Things settled down again around lunchtime, except for when Miranda finally showed up. There was a tense silence as she and Albert glared at each other, but she was apparently dealing with their argument by giving him the silent treatment.
They were in the middle of lunch when a group of puzzled-looking guards trooped in. They appeared to be surrounding someone.
"Majesty, we found this woman trying to climb over the castle wall. And, um . . ." the guard trailed off.
"Yes?" Albert prompted.
"We, um, we can't take her weapons from her. Sir."
Albert opened his mouth to ask why when a snort came from within the circle of guards.
"There's a good reason for that. And if you think I'm going to tell any of you why, you've got another thing coming," a derisive female voice said. Dart frowned. He'd heard that voice somewhere before . . . Albert's forehead crinkled in thought for a moment, then he waved a hand at the guards. They all bowed simultaneously and left the room.
Their first impression was an understanding of why the guards had been so baffled. The second impression was that the woman in front of them was a ghost. The puzzlement was explained by the fact that she was wearing loose-fitting, lightweight pants and a cropped tank top even though it was just barely above freezing outside. As for the weapons situation, they could see two sword handles sticking up over her shoulders, but they appeared to not be attached to anything but her back. And the rest of her appearance. . .
Mouths fell open throughout the room. The young woman in front of them looked exactly like Rose. She was tall and had long black hair pulled back in a loose braid that fell past waist level. Dart looked closer. She. . . she had the same eyes as him. He gaped speechlessly for a minute as she stood and innocently smiled at him, then he stammered, "You. . . you have the. . . s- same eyes as m- me."
"There's a good reason for that too, but I think I'll explain later. You're Dart, aren't you?" Striding past him, she sat down in an empty chair next to Shana, who shied away from her slightly. Dart nodded wordlessly, his mouth still open.
"Forgive me for asking what you may feel is a silly question," Albert said after a moment, "but who are you?"
She smiled again. "That's not silly at all. I wouldn't expect you to know who I am, as we've never met before."
Meru, who seemed to have finally found her voice, piped up. "Then how do you know who Dart is?"
"Charle Frahma told me about him. I've been trailing him for some time now, but he keeps managing to evade me at the last minute. I would have been here sooner, but the snow caused a bit of a delay. And in answer to your question," she said, nodding at Albert, "my name is Fiora."
Dart blinked. When he spoke, his voice seemed to have stabilized. "How long have you been following me?"
"You specifically? Only about a year, but I'd been following you and your companions since you left Ulara. I've only been a couple of days behind you since then." More silence followed this announcement. Fiora sighed. "I don't know what to do for you people. Most of what I have to say will be just as startling to you as what I've already said."
"Dart may have a seizure or something if you keep it up," Albert said dryly. Fiora ignored this, and turned to Dart.
"We're siblings."
Dart's mouth fell open again.
"Well," Fiora corrected herself, "half-siblings, anyway."
"B- But. . . who?" Dart stammered.
"Zieg." Fiora raised an eyebrow as several confused and slightly suspicious 'Oh' looks flitted around the room. "What?"
"How old are you?" Haschel queried.
She grinned. "Older than you. Older than all of you put together. Only about two and a half decades younger than--" She swallowed hard. "--Rose was."
"So she was. . ." Albert trailed off as Fiora's eyes took on a haunted look. "When?"
"A few months after the Dragon Campaign ended," she said, a slight catch in her throat. "But she'd already agreed to take on the task of immortality and the Black Monster, so she left me in Ulara with Charle." She paused. "I've had this-" she said, putting a hand to her throat where she wore a choker similar to the one Rose had had, "-ever since I reached the age I appear to be. Charle knew I'd want to try and find Rose."
"So you've spent most of the ten thousand odd years you've been alive looking for Rose?" Albert asked. "That seems like it would be awfully boring."
Fiora gave a wry grin. "It was. Charle gave me the job of Chronicler in Ulara, so I've been spending a lot of my time just observing, questioning, writing. . ." She smiled and shook her head a little. "As a result, Ulara has a more complete history of Endiness than anyone else. This city, for example, has changed less than any of the other 'big' cities, except maybe Ulara. I've been here a good hundred times, at least."
Albert nodded. "I believe that. About the only thing that has changed is the castle."
"Which is about four times larger than it was the first time I came here," Fiora said, grinning. "You just have to keep adding rooms for your books, don't you?"
Albert grinned back. Things became much more relaxed after that; Dart found his voice again, and once Shana had been thoroughly convinced that Fiora was not, in fact, Rose back from the dead to kill her, she engaged in the conversation too. They all took turns asking Fiora about all sorts of things, and kept talking well past sunset, when another visitor arrived.
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Author's notes: I just want to give kudos to my mom, who helped me edit this chapter. She caught stuff I had missed, and helped make Albert sound more like he should (like a scholarly, well-educated king, as opposed to somebody like Dart.) She also noticed that the argument in the beginning closely parallels the ones that occur in our house. ^_^
Chapter 1-- The Arrival
***************************************************************************
Note: Chapters will go up sooner on my site (accessible through my user profile) than they will here. Chapter 2 is up already there, for example.
***************************************************************************
A year after the defeat of Melbu Frahma, things were finally settling down again. Most of the Winglies had come out of hiding; a lot of them were helping with the reconstruction of the Crystal Palace in Deningrad. Serdio had become a single, unified country again and the entire continent of Endiness was at peace. Well, most of it . . .
Dart sighed heavily. Glancing up from his late night chess game with Haschel, he could see that Albert and Miranda were still arguing. It had started as a simple discussion about politics, which, as they already knew, was a very bad thing to talk about with Albert around. The reasonably polite conversation had quickly deteriorated into the argument that was still going on. Dart, who had been trying to spend some time with a long-abandoned novel, had kicked the two of them out onto the balcony, so that there could at least be a set of doors (though only glass) between them and the rest of the castle.
"So how long has it been now?" he asked his friend, capturing Haschel's bishop. "You're in check, by the way."
"Almost two hours," Haschel said, moving his king out of danger. "Two hours of circular logic and pointless bickering. You'd think their voices would have given out by now."
Dart snorted. "Not likely. Albert's the king of long discussions, and Miranda yells all the time. They're perfect for this." He looked up as the hum of voices from the balcony stopped abruptly.
"Thank Soa! It's about time they stopped," Shana said from her place on a sofa nearby, where she'd been dozing with a pillow over her head for the past hour.
"Have you two been arguing about politics this whole time?" Haschel asked as the balcony doors banged open.
"We veered off track for a few minutes to squabble about who's country is best ruled," said Albert, who looked frazzled and worn out. "But otherwise, yes." He glared as Miranda stalked past him, most likely headed for her room. She threw a disdainful look over her shoulder before slamming the door behind her. Albert sighed and slumped down in an overstuffed armchair next to the chess table.
"She hasn't argued with any of us in a long time," Shana said quietly. "Not since Rose . . ." She trailed off. A hushed silence filled the room. The last time Miranda had gotten really mad at anybody was in the Death Frontier with Rose. That seemed like ages ago.
"You guys are still up?!?" a female voice asked incredulously. They all jumped. Meru was standing in the doorway through which Miranda had left, pillow clutched under one arm and a sleepy expression on her face. She had gone to bed shortly after the fight had begun, wishing to avoid a cranky Miranda.
"Yes, unfortunately," Albert sighed. "But not for long. I'm going to bed. See you all in the morning." A chorus of mumbled and decidedly mopey 'good nights' followed him out of the room. As the others left the room one by one, snow started to fall outside. A muffled stillness fell over the castle, and a lone figure approached the city. ******************************************************************************
The next morning, a thick blanket of snow had fallen. Meru was up before dawn, bundled up in multiple layers of clothing. She ambushed Albert in the hallway as he came out of his room for breakfast and tried to make him go outside with her. He politely declined and told her to go find Haschel. This she did, dragging not only Haschel, but Kongol and Shana as well, outside for a snowball fight, which Kongol won easily. Things settled down again around lunchtime, except for when Miranda finally showed up. There was a tense silence as she and Albert glared at each other, but she was apparently dealing with their argument by giving him the silent treatment.
They were in the middle of lunch when a group of puzzled-looking guards trooped in. They appeared to be surrounding someone.
"Majesty, we found this woman trying to climb over the castle wall. And, um . . ." the guard trailed off.
"Yes?" Albert prompted.
"We, um, we can't take her weapons from her. Sir."
Albert opened his mouth to ask why when a snort came from within the circle of guards.
"There's a good reason for that. And if you think I'm going to tell any of you why, you've got another thing coming," a derisive female voice said. Dart frowned. He'd heard that voice somewhere before . . . Albert's forehead crinkled in thought for a moment, then he waved a hand at the guards. They all bowed simultaneously and left the room.
Their first impression was an understanding of why the guards had been so baffled. The second impression was that the woman in front of them was a ghost. The puzzlement was explained by the fact that she was wearing loose-fitting, lightweight pants and a cropped tank top even though it was just barely above freezing outside. As for the weapons situation, they could see two sword handles sticking up over her shoulders, but they appeared to not be attached to anything but her back. And the rest of her appearance. . .
Mouths fell open throughout the room. The young woman in front of them looked exactly like Rose. She was tall and had long black hair pulled back in a loose braid that fell past waist level. Dart looked closer. She. . . she had the same eyes as him. He gaped speechlessly for a minute as she stood and innocently smiled at him, then he stammered, "You. . . you have the. . . s- same eyes as m- me."
"There's a good reason for that too, but I think I'll explain later. You're Dart, aren't you?" Striding past him, she sat down in an empty chair next to Shana, who shied away from her slightly. Dart nodded wordlessly, his mouth still open.
"Forgive me for asking what you may feel is a silly question," Albert said after a moment, "but who are you?"
She smiled again. "That's not silly at all. I wouldn't expect you to know who I am, as we've never met before."
Meru, who seemed to have finally found her voice, piped up. "Then how do you know who Dart is?"
"Charle Frahma told me about him. I've been trailing him for some time now, but he keeps managing to evade me at the last minute. I would have been here sooner, but the snow caused a bit of a delay. And in answer to your question," she said, nodding at Albert, "my name is Fiora."
Dart blinked. When he spoke, his voice seemed to have stabilized. "How long have you been following me?"
"You specifically? Only about a year, but I'd been following you and your companions since you left Ulara. I've only been a couple of days behind you since then." More silence followed this announcement. Fiora sighed. "I don't know what to do for you people. Most of what I have to say will be just as startling to you as what I've already said."
"Dart may have a seizure or something if you keep it up," Albert said dryly. Fiora ignored this, and turned to Dart.
"We're siblings."
Dart's mouth fell open again.
"Well," Fiora corrected herself, "half-siblings, anyway."
"B- But. . . who?" Dart stammered.
"Zieg." Fiora raised an eyebrow as several confused and slightly suspicious 'Oh' looks flitted around the room. "What?"
"How old are you?" Haschel queried.
She grinned. "Older than you. Older than all of you put together. Only about two and a half decades younger than--" She swallowed hard. "--Rose was."
"So she was. . ." Albert trailed off as Fiora's eyes took on a haunted look. "When?"
"A few months after the Dragon Campaign ended," she said, a slight catch in her throat. "But she'd already agreed to take on the task of immortality and the Black Monster, so she left me in Ulara with Charle." She paused. "I've had this-" she said, putting a hand to her throat where she wore a choker similar to the one Rose had had, "-ever since I reached the age I appear to be. Charle knew I'd want to try and find Rose."
"So you've spent most of the ten thousand odd years you've been alive looking for Rose?" Albert asked. "That seems like it would be awfully boring."
Fiora gave a wry grin. "It was. Charle gave me the job of Chronicler in Ulara, so I've been spending a lot of my time just observing, questioning, writing. . ." She smiled and shook her head a little. "As a result, Ulara has a more complete history of Endiness than anyone else. This city, for example, has changed less than any of the other 'big' cities, except maybe Ulara. I've been here a good hundred times, at least."
Albert nodded. "I believe that. About the only thing that has changed is the castle."
"Which is about four times larger than it was the first time I came here," Fiora said, grinning. "You just have to keep adding rooms for your books, don't you?"
Albert grinned back. Things became much more relaxed after that; Dart found his voice again, and once Shana had been thoroughly convinced that Fiora was not, in fact, Rose back from the dead to kill her, she engaged in the conversation too. They all took turns asking Fiora about all sorts of things, and kept talking well past sunset, when another visitor arrived.
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Author's notes: I just want to give kudos to my mom, who helped me edit this chapter. She caught stuff I had missed, and helped make Albert sound more like he should (like a scholarly, well-educated king, as opposed to somebody like Dart.) She also noticed that the argument in the beginning closely parallels the ones that occur in our house. ^_^