The King's Reluctant Lover
Fanelia

Chapter One
Twist & Turns


Her eyes fluttered open slightly, but Van knew that she wasn't really seeing him by the blankness in her emerald eyes. Something in him twisted at each soft whimper of pain that escaped her. Hitomi was no longer thrashing as she had been earlier when he had managed to get over to her and, at the very least, she had to be on the edge of consciousness. He pulled her closer to his chest as he stood up.

The palace's regular guard had filtered into the dancing hall and he understood Allen's dislike for them. The Caeli Knight had never spoken very highly of the guard and before Van had always dismissed it as him being his usual egotistical self. The noise was annoying enough as it was, and he could hope that it wasn't enough to cause Hitomi further aggravation.

She was much too limp, and seemed to nearly sag against him. If it wasn't for the fact that there was something about the scream that had escaped her only a moment ago that chilled his blood then he would have not hesitated to hunt down Dilandau. As it was he had no choice but to add it to the ever growing list of just why the Dragon Slayer deserved Maximum Torture before death. He wouldn't have dared to go after either of those tigres, and he made a mental note to talk to both Dryden and Merle about the twins at a later date.

Right now, though, his primary concern was finding Millerna.

XXX

Everything was so loud. So unbearably loud. It abraded her nerves raw and if her throat didn't feel as if it was bleeding and if she had more energy she would have gladly given voice to the agony.

Never had the pain— had the vision— been this bad.

The images were nonsensical and she was seeing things that she could hardly understand. One moment she thought she saw herself, hair braided into neat pigtails with a colorful pinwheel in one hand, standing alone on an icy terrain. No. She wasn't alone. There was an older man that was stumbling towards her, dripping blood. Something about him seemed familiar.

It switched to something else, but the sight in front of her was horribly blurred and it was only when live flames were licking at her arms and legs that she was able to make sense of anything.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and she wanted to scream. She wanted to scream until there was nothing left. Scream until the pain that was threatening to rip her apart was gone.

By the Goddess, she didn't want to feel anymore!

Why couldn't she just die?

XXX

It was only the feel of the hilt of his blade beneath his fingers that was keeping him sane. Pride kept him from pacing around in the receiving room of Millerna's private quarters. Princess Eries had started to protest about the impropriety of men even being anywhere near the rooms of the princess, but one stern glare from her elder sister silenced any further objections. Nearly everyone that he was allied with was waiting in the room and it grated on his nerves in no small manner.

Her sudden convulsions scared him.

There had been no warning. When the whimpers had stopped he had assumed that she was finally unconscious enough that she could no longer feel pain. He certainly didn't expect, as he walked closer to Allen, for her body to stop start jerking wildly. He had nearly dropped her.

Dryden and Millerna had pushed their way through the suddenly gathering crowd, as Allen helped him set Hitomi on the floor as gently as possible. Suddenly the princess changed, shouting out orders to her fiancé and the surrounding Caeli Knights. She had knelt by the other woman's side, checking Hitomi's vitals as best she could.

She had muttered something about the best thing they could do for her was to keep her head elevated and the area clear of all objects, but that had all changed when Millerna had checked her pulse. She had paled and another curt order had found him and Allen carefully carrying her up to the princess' private rooms. She had only allowed Marlene and an old nurse to stay in the room after they had set Hitomi on the bed.

Van had been more than a little surprised to see Dryden, Gaddess, and Duke Mahad. Mahad's expression had been especially concerned. There had been an emotion in his eyes when they flicked over to Van that the Fanelian hadn't quite been able to read, and he tried not to think about it too much. He just needed to know.

What was happening to Hitomi?

XXX

She was vaguely aware of a cool, comforting hand pressing to her forehead, but it was hardly enough to numb the pain. She was quite certain that even if she was submerged in the ocean waters of the frozen lands in the North that the agony would still be fresh. She was so tired, so very, very tired.

She felt wetness on her cheek as she was presented with another nonsensical vision. They had stopped making sense a while ago, shortly after the flames had stopped licking at her arms and legs. Liquid continued to fall from her eyes and she knew from the pain alone that it wasn't tears. Even though she couldn't see it, she knew the color was scarlet.

The flames were gone now, but the blur of colors hurt and in the way it felt as if her very nerves were on fire she knew something was wrong.

XXX

The sun had just started to rise when the two sisters emerged from Millerna's sleeping room, but looking exhausted and unsteady on their feet. Marlene hobbled over to her husband, resting her cheek on his chest when his arms wrapped around her. Seeing the simple act that was filled with such tenderness Van had to look away. He wanted nothing more than to hold Hitomi at that moment, even after considering how impractical and improper it would be. She was a lady from the country of his enemy and she was so damn confusing!

Yet, none of this changed that something that he felt around her. It was that something that outweighed the many questions that kept him awake at night.

It was the fear that she was still convulsing, that her face was still contorted in pain and not knowing what the cause of it was, that kept him still.

Millerna moved over to Gaddess and Allen, speaking to them in hushed tones. Even though he knew that what she was saying concerned Hitomi he hardly took notice. He could only stare slack jawed at the blood that spotted the front of her bodice. Despite the question that was threatening to burst free, Van kept his silence and remained rooted to the same spot he had been at the past several hours, the hand curled around the hilt of his sword nearly cramping with the force that he kept it closed.

He forced himself to wait quietly as the princess finished talking with Allen. When she finally did step away from the two knights and turned to Van, her expression still serious, something was fairly itchy underneath his skin begging him to do something.

"Lord Van."

For a moment he wondered at her formality before realizing that they had never really been formally introduced. He nodded before stepping to the side so that she would at least have access to the chair next to him.

"Your Highness." He murmured as she sank into the chair, the look on her face one of relief. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to ask that simply question: was Hitomi alright?

It was times like this that he was extremely grateful for the innate and understanding nature that seemed to be an inherit part of the disposition of the fairer sex. He searched the Asturian's heir's face for the answer to his unspoken question, and it was only at that moment that he actually noticed the lines of exhaustions and tension at the corners of her mouth and eyes.

Her blue eyes studied him a little expectantly, and he knew what she was waiting for. Ever the stubborn Fanelian, Van kept his mouth shut. Millerna had seemed genuinely worried about Hitomi, and from what he had heard from the Duchess, the youngest daughter of King Aston didn't exactly approve of her father's position as far as Zaibach was concerned.

Which certainly made her concern for Hitomi all the more curious.

The only conclusion that he could come to was that, possibly, the two women had found some sort of common ground. They had found something that they could relate on, and because of it they had found some level of comradery—or as his mother once put it, he thought with a grimace, bosom companions. Bosom companions…something that went beyond the simple friendships and sense of belonging into something that no male could possibly understand.

It was enough to make a king nervous.

Millerna let out an irritated sigh as she leaned back in her chair. "My brother wasn't kidding, was he? You certainly have no intention of making this easy, do you?" She raised an eyebrow, studying him intently.

Brother? The word caused him to frown. To his knowledge Aston had never had any…then he noticed how her eyes flicked over to Mahad and he felt incredibly stupid. Ah, yes. Of course, after all, the Duke had married her sister.

Why did relationships have to be so complicated?

"I'm worried, Van." She said finally, after a rather uncomfortable silence had spread between them, the informality with which she addressed him a surprise. "I've never seen anything like this before. Her body is a complete mess. Frankly, I can't believe that she was able to fight off those brutes when you came across us in that alley a couple of days ago." Her lips curled up slightly when she noticed how his eyes seemed to darken with the memory. "I know that she's complained about headaches before, and I took her to my old teacher to give her some medication to try to help but…" Millerna shook her head, her golden curls shaking. When she looked back up at him her expression was serious. "I don't know what it was that Lord Albatou gave her but it's causing her immense agony, and nothing I've done seemed like it can stop it. If we don't stop it soon she may die."

It would have been a lie if Van were to say that he was completely surprised by that declaration. All too vividly he remembered watching Hitomi as she stubbornly trudged through one of the seedier parts of Pallas, foolishly clothed in her finery. Her emerald eyes had been glazed with something that he hadn't understood at the time, but he now recognized it as pain. Soft whimpers had occasionally escaped her as he followed her—stalked her, Gaddess had helpfully supplied later— and she had given such a horrible shuddering breath at one point that it had taken all of his restraint not to sweep her into his arms.

Hitomi was entirely too stubborn for her own good, that was what he had originally thought the first time that he had come across her, and it seemed that the same stubbornness might—

It was quickly becoming rather difficult to breathe. It was even harder to speak.

"What can we do?" It took him several tries to actually force the words out.

Millerna shook her head, her expression hopeless. "This is beyond my area of expertise. She complained quite frequently about a 'damnable tonic'—her words not mine," she said quickly when Van gave her a rather strange look, "that they forced her to drink. Supposedly it induced visions."

"Visions?" He echoed, his eyes wide. Even the rite to become king wasn't as bizarre as something like that.

"Yes. She told me she knew you before she ever came to Asturia." The princess smiled wryly at Van's expression. "She said she knew you even before—"

"Before what?"

"Sorry, Van." She shook her head. "It's not my place to say. You'll have to ask her."

What if she doesn't survive? Will you tell me then? He couldn't even force the words out and the very thought caused ice to lodge in his gut. Can I see her? Despite the blood that stained Millerna's dress he still couldn't find the words to ask that question.

"That's really not the problem though…"

"What do you mean?"

"My father." Her eyes went to the floor and she bit her bottom lip. "He's going to be a problem. I'm sure that we've already received demands from Lord Dilandau requesting that we relinquish Hitomi to them."

Just as quickly, that that cold feeling in his stomach vanished at the mention of that bastard's name. His lips curled back in a snarl and all he could see was Hitomi and Dilandau as he had last seen them before the dancing hall had completely erupted in chaos. He could see that bastard pressing Hitomi hard against the stone column, touching her intimately, kissing her.

He could still hear her screams.

XXX

If the crown princess was unimpressed with his rather violent reaction to the mere mention of the Zaibach dignitary she didn't let it show. She merely raised an eyebrow and turned her attention away from him. If the Fanelian king was going to act like this every time she mentioned the word Zaibach then it was going to be a long night and Millerna wasn't entirely sure that she had the patience for it. She glanced over at her fiancé and was pleased to see that he had finally stepped away from the Duke. A little grudgingly she realized that she was thinking of him as her betrothed, regardless of how her father had practically forced him on her, and it seemed more and more appealing.

Discovering that he did not share the same love of Zaibach as her father did was certainly one of them, and that fact alone was enough to make her want to be a little more civil to him. Millerna fought the urge to shake her head at the thought. Right now was certainly not the time to be thinking of such matters. Even without Lord Dilandau's meddling she wasn't entirely sure that Hitomi would survive the night. It all depended on what her old teacher would be able to do once he got here. Not for the first time, she cursed her old fashioned father and elder sister. It really wasn't fair. As Freid's Duchess, Marlene was able to help her people in ways that the Asturian King would not approve of if he knew—regardless of whether or not he had a say in the matter—yet Eries and her father had forced her to give up her medicinal studies. If it wasn't for that then she would probably be able to do more for Hitomi besides stop the bleeding as best as she could.

She barely managed to catch herself in time from smiling when Dryden approached her. Really, she chided herself, it's because of men like him and Father that I am forced to learn how to embroider instead of studying about things that are actually useful. Hoping that she had schooled her expression back into a scowl that she generally reserved for him, she waited until he was close enough that he was nearly touching her. She directed the full force of her scowl on him as if to say well?

To say that she was more than a bit insulted when he completely ignored her and addressed Van was an understatement.

Van watched his ally, trying to school his expression into some sort of neutral expression as the merchant spoke.

"Van, it appears that Zaibach's ambassadors," he smirked slightly at the way Van's lip curled at the mere mention of Dilandau, "is being much more insistent than we had originally anticipated. Regretfully, His Majesty seems rather willing to comply with their demands."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that unless we make arrangements, and make them soon, then Dilandau will be taking Lady Hitomi back to Zaibach." Dryden's dark eyes narrowed, as if he was just struck by a rather unpleasant thought. "I highly doubt that she will survive the journey."

Van glanced down at Millerna and the way she was refusing to meet his eyes gave him the distinct feeling that there was something that she wasn't completely telling him.

"Mi-ght not survive?" He was thankful that Marlene and Mahad were the only ones left in the room. Allen would have never let him live it down if he had heard the way his voice caught. "What do you mean? Princess Millerna, you said that she—"

"If she's taken to Zaibach it will not be her fault that she dies."

"Dilandau?" He spat the name out as if it was the most vile of poisons.

"I won't know for sure until I have my old teacher confirm some suspicions, but it appears that the tonic that Hitomi had been complaining about for the past few days has been wreaking havoc upon her body. I think there has to be some level of toxicity in whatever it was that they're giving her to force those visions and that each time she consumed it, it was slowly eroding away her body. If they are able to force her to drink any more of it before her body has a chance to recover then she will not survive the next time."

"How can we stop them?" Van really didn't care for being left out, and he had a very distinct feeling that nearly everyone else knew something that he didn't. Millerna, at least, knew whatever it was and appeared to have the intention of giving him the option of avoiding talking to Hitomi and that was fine with him. He would prefer to hear the answers directly from Hitomi anyways.

Of course, that would be bloody near impossible if she died.

The look on both Millerna's and Dryden's face was nearly identical in its exasperation. Van merely returned the gaze with a glare. His head was too full for him to think about the finer details of something that should have been so simple. The golden-haired princess shook her head, smiling faintly, as she cast a sidelong look at her fiancé and the young Fanelian was suddenly struck by how much more comfortable she seemed to be around the merchant. He wasn't foolish enough to think that she had fallen in love with his ally, but there was a softness to her that he had never noticed before that almost looked like she was finally seeing Dryden for the first time.

"Van," Dryden finally said, dryly, "can you honestly think of no other way or country for Lady Hitomi to find sanctuary with?"

Van scowled. Of course, he could. He wasn't a complete twit, but he just didn't want to give word to it otherwise that strange feeling that was forming in his gut might almost be considered hope.

Unfortunately, as he studied Dryden's bland face, the king was of the most distinct impression that the merchant was going to give him little choice in the matter.

"You want me to take an ambassador from Zaibach into Fanelia. You want me to take the woman—" try as he might Van was unable to summon the appropriate amount of contempt to color his voice, "—who led the Dragon Slayers and told them how to attack my home. You want me to take her and offer her shelter in my city?"

The corner of Dryden's mouth half kicked up into a sort of wry grin, as if he was amused by the lack of real conviction in the Fanelian's voice.

"Considering that you have already saved her on more than one occasion I did not think it would be such a tall order." His dark eyes studied the brash king over his spectacles. "Besides there is a great deal more to this than you know. Regretfully," he continued quickly when Van opened his mouth to demand to know just what else it was that was at stake, "as my princess said before, that is something that you will need to discuss with Lady Hitomi. Maybe you should give her the benefit of the doubt, Van. I find it hard to believe that you would so easily dismiss the woman that you went to all the trouble to plan a day that would please her. Think past your prejudices Fanelia, and admit what you really want. What you discover may surprise you."

Personally Van didn't think he had any prejudices. No matter how strange he felt at the thought of her dying, and no matter how he really was unable to completely comprehend her actions in the garden earlier that night, nothing changed the fact that Hitomi Kanzaki was his enemy.

Maybe if he kept telling himself that then one day he might actually believe it.

Dryden stepped away intent on getting back to his fiancé who had left the door to where Hitomi was resting slightly ajar.

Knowing full well that either of the royal couples would continue to be tight lipped he made his way towards the door, stubbornly ignoring the stares that he just knew they were giving him. Stopping only to make sure that the door was firmly closed and locked—if they even thought for a moment that he was going to leave the room if they started making a ruckus and demanding for him to unlock the door then they were going to be severely disappointed He walked towards the bed with it's cream colored sheets and stopped at the foot of it to look at Hitomi.

Her breathing was as harsh as it had been earlier and her skin looked almost unhealthy. He could still see the faint stains of blood that Duchess Marlene had been unable to completely wipe off. The sheet and blankets that covered her trembled slightly with the violent shaking of her body.

Van was hardly aware of the way his eyes softened as he took in her form, and he moved over to the stool that had been placed at her bedside. He didn't reach for her hand, instead he reached out and wrapped a caramel brown curl of hair that had become stiff from hair product, rubbing his thumb against the strands absently. When he spoke it was soft, because while he certainly didn't wish to cause her pain neither was he in the mood to talk to her face to face. At least not yet.

"Who are you, Hitomi?" His gaze rested on her face and her parted lips briefly before he had to look away. He didn't like seeing her so contorted with pain and she was much too pale. Instead he chose to study the way the candle light almost made her hair seem bronze. "I mean who are you really? You have visions. What is it that they gave you…how do you know me? The princess said you've seen me before and I still remember the time you said that to me. I doubt that you do. Remember it, I mean. The others want me to take you and offer you the protection of the Fanelian crown. I want to, it would give me an excuse to be near you, I guess. You certainly would have no choice but to answer my questions. Still…"

His eyes were unseeing as he continued to touch her hair. It was difficult, more so than he had thought it would be to say this to her.

"I don't know if I should trust you. I don't know if I can. You work for Dilandau, for the Empire. You even admitted it to me that your visions are what nearly cost me that village. So many people died that night Hitomi. Do you feel that weight? Do you feel the weight of the hundreds of men that have died because of you? Do you even care?"

It came out harsher than he had intended, but it wasn't like she would ever be able to recall his words. He knew her well enough, at least he liked to think so, that he could confidently say she was affected by the men the Dragon Slayers had massacred that night.

Yet, there were too many questions he needed to ask her when she finally awoke, and he was much too uncertain of what her response would be.

He couldn't find any more words, but the silence that filled the room—disturbed only by her harsh breathing—was not unpleasant.

It wasn't until he heard the familiar sounds of commotion and heavy armor that he stood up to leave. He paused when a whimper reached his ear and turned to look back at Hitomi, surprised to see her suddenly curled into a ball. Turning back to the door he released the lock and stepped out into the main receiving room.

He recognized the gleaming armor with the royal crest of King's Aston's personal guard. Squaring his shoulders, he waited until the leader spoke before stepping forward. A fierce rage heated his blood, and his hand went to the hilt of his sword.

"You will not touch her."