A Chance for Sunshine by Wordsworthy
Disclaimer: I obviously do not own the Suikoden series since obviously Konami does, along with all other references made over the course of the story. This is, after all, just a fanfiction written for the sole purpose of entertainment and not profit motive what so ever. So please just enjoy the story and do not sue me for this. If you wish to know more about the series, please support the companies producing them directly and purchase their merchandise if you like.
Chapter 2: Darkened Light
"Ugh… where's that brother of mine?!"
"That be the East Palace Queenie. You did order him to take the week off."
A piteous moan floated up towards the high domed ceiling of the Queen's chambers before something stirred under a sea of papers and parchments. Or rather, someone.
"Oh yeah…" continued that whiny voice before a melodic giggle added to the misery of the as yet unseen someone. Thankfully, a pair of fair and slender hands carefully picked the sheets of paper off a rather suspicious queen-shaped mould to reveal a familiar sulky pout.
"Makes you think twice about shooting your mouth off again, huh?"
"Be quiet Miakis! How was I to know that Brother takes on this much work every day!"
"Your Majesty… if I may…" started the other chestnut-haired beauty in the room hesitantly. "I think the number of duties the Prince attends to isn't… isn't normal. His Highness is… deliberately piling work onto himself and… using work to numb himself… it's…"
The girl faltered, unable to finish her sentence while a terse silence befell all three females. The Queen and her knight lowered their eyes to the table while the concerned courtier stood back, painfully aware that she might have overstepped her boundaries with that comment.
"I know… it's worrying. You're not the only one Luserina… Brother hasn't been the same since Lyon… well, you know…" replied the Queen after a thoughtful pause, unwilling to speak further on harsh realities. It's not like anyone can just tell him to move on and find someone else…
"Um…" hummed the knight solemnly in agreement, a complicated expression on her face as well.
"Brother has given so much to this country and lost so much in the process… it's so pathetic that I still need him, that all I can do for him right now is a week's rest." continued the young Queen self-depreciatively, laying her head on the table.
"There there, Queenie. We can't help it if we're woefully shorthanded at the moment. It was a good idea for him to take some time off at the East Palace, especially after he single-handedly managed the funeral proceedings and the diplomatic duties on his own."
The knight patted the sullen head of brown hair gently. "Come to think of it, you're pushing yourself rather hard as well."
"Miakis…"
The sound of a chair scrapping lightly on the marble floor made the two girls look up and across the table to see the courtier seated opposite.
"With your permission Your Majesty, please allow me to help out as well. I know it's not in my position to…"
"Luserina?"
"Y-Yes, Your Majesty?"
"By the power vested in me by the crown and my unmatched adorability, I hereby order you to drop all your formalities and get cracking."
The three of them looked at each other before giggling awkwardly, lapsing momentarily into the young girls that they were. It only lasted a brief moment though, when the enormity of the tasks at hand bore down unto them once again. Nevertheless, with gritted teeth and quills no less, the three of them managed to put to rest half of the existing sea of papers by nightfall. This was when a series of curt knocks made furrowed brows look up once again, half thankful for the brief reprieve from the chore at hand.
"Your Majesty, Sir Georg Prime requests an audien-…"
"Granted."
Some distance from the capital of the Queendom of Falena, a number of travelers found themselves in a fair bit of a trouble, having run into a bout of uncommonly foul weather. A sudden storm had just landed without any warning, the relentless torrent of rain seemingly weighing down their progress as it did their spirits. Heavy wheels crushed the waterlogged ground mercilessly under their weight, even though the rain-beaten carriage trudged on at a snail's pace. The accompanying escort of riders fared no better, the hooves of their mounts becoming increasingly mired in the mixture of earth and mud. The lead rider of the escort rode ahead for a distance before returning, pulling up alongside the large carriage. With near unerring timing, a silk curtain bearing Armes colors was pulled slightly aside, revealing a pair of sharp, wizened eyes.
"How do things look, Captain?"
"Not too good, Commander Valya. The paths ahead are faring no better than the one we are travelling on. The riders may still be able to make it for some distance, but I'm afraid it's impossible for a carriage this size…"
"I see… well, the storm doesn't look like it will subside for some time either. We're in quite a fix it seems. Quite a fix…"
"Don't you even start with your I-told-you-sos! You're the one insisting on having me return to that backward homeland of ours! How was I to know the shortcut through the forest would…" protested a loud, indignant voice.
"Yuma Valya, remember who is in your company." admonished the older man calmly yet firmly. Breathing a heavy sigh, he turned to face the person beside him before giving a half-bow in apology. "Please forgive me and my sister, Princess. My sister tends to forget herself when she becomes defensive."
"What do you mean by that-…"
A glare that promised many unspoken retributions quickly shut the heated retort, reducing it to mere grumbles about the stupidity of older brothers.
"None taken Shula. I share your pain with younger sisters. After all, I do have six of them as well." assured the honored company in the carriage with a melodic tone. "However, do refrain from calling me Princess. I am merely the eldest borne of a chieftain, as are you. We are friends after all."
"As you wish, Kayla."
Turning back to the captain of the escort, the leader of the entourage made a quick decision.
"Captain, I believe that attempting to carry on our journey in this weather would not be wise. Falena's East Palace is just a little way to the Northeast from here. Shall we set off towards it for the time being? I'm sure the men are in need of rest as well."
"As you wish, Commander Valya. On behalf of my men, I thank you for considering their welfare."
The captain of the escort accorded the commander with an Armes salute before riding off to relay the new orders, leaving the three esteemed persons to their privacy.
"You're being awfully nice to the men Shula. Have you mellowed since I last saw you?" asked the older lady in the carriage, an amused light shining in her amber eyes.
"Whatever do you mean Kayla? I have always been kind to those who are of use to Armes." replied the man matter-of-factly, returning the bemused expression. "I'm more surprised by you Kayla. Who would have thought that the free-spirited gallivanting girl I knew would become the new speaker for the Darja clan, let alone travel all the way to Sol Falena for diplomatic duty."
"Free-spirited and gallivanting eh? Don't you mean lazy? Besides, I hardly look like one dressed like this." The scarlet-haired woman gestured down the front of her exquisite ruby and gold Armes gown, her fingers lingering a little longer then necessarily on the generous amount of cleavage put on display from the slit across the chest. The two older siblings looked at each other before laughing silently with their eyes, some unspoken joke having passed between them. "Oh well, diplomatic duty is a fair excuse to get away from work at home and sightsee in former enemy territory. What's not to like?"
"Stupid older brothers and sisters…" mumbled the youngest one in the carriage, forcefully humbled by the overwhelming maturity overflowing from the two older ones. Their interaction managed to fall into a familiar pattern for some time before the carriage lurched forward and back suddenly, forcing the three occupants to grab onto some part of the carriage to steady themselves.
"Are you two alright?"
"Oww…"
"Yes, just a little surprised."
The man in the carriage nodded as he heaved a light sigh of relief. However, his ears pricked up soon after at the strained neighing of horses and the sounds of brandished steel.
"Commander Valya! Miladies! Are you unhurt?"
"Yes, we're fine. What's happening outside?" queried the commander quickly, as composed as always.
"We're under attack by a pack of large red beasts, sir! They look like a cross between bears and wolves!"
"Blood ulses… it seems like this really isn't our day…" mused the man a little ruefully, tapping the side of a cheek with his feathered fan.
"Now now Shula, don't go treating me like some shirking violet now. We are in the military you know."
A thin eyebrow was raised at the pair of curved Armes sabers that appeared from a hidden compartment under the floor of the carriage.
"It's as good a time as any to see if we've lost our touch on the frontlines."
The two exchanged similar wry smiles before grasping a blade each.
"Yuma, stay in the –"
"Yeah yeah yeah…"
Back in Sun Palace of Sol Falena, the eyes of the three female courtiers went wide with shock, their expressions aghast from the mere suggestion that the departing knight had just worded.
"Sir Georg! What are you suggesting? Surely you jest!?" exclaimed Luserina anxiously, being the first to find her words after the bolt from the blue.
The knight slowly raised his head from the knelt position in which he made his proposal, his sole good eye solemn and grave, startling the three women in the room even further.
"It's just as I said…" sighed the knight wearily before continuing. "The Prince is dying. If he stays here, he will surely be lost."
A frenzied howl of pain found itself drowned out by the combined chorus of the pelting rain and the sound of battle that raged on around the carriage. The battle itself was not going too well for the travelers; the number of blood ulses seemed to grow at every opportunity, drawn in by the scent of the blood of their fallen kind while the ten Armes riders that formed the escorting entourage had been reduced to a mere half-dozen through injury. The two soaked aristocratic bureaucrats found themselves pressed back to back against each other as well, a little winded after having fell a fair share of the feral beasts.
"Times like this make me wish that the Fire rune was not the standard issue for Armes soldiers." exhaled the frail-looking commander as he sought to regain his breath.
"Point taken. I'll be sure to do something about that…" returned his muddied bedraggled partner of the friendly banter despite the circumstances. Crimson irises narrowed at the tell-tale signs of an impending attack from the four blood ulses circling them. "If we survive this of course… heads up…"
The two nobles raised their blades as the four wolf beasts simultaneously leapt off the ground and lunged straight at them from above. However, the animals never made it that far.
"Shula! Get down!" ordered a commanding voice from a distance.
Midway in the wolf-beasts' jump, the moist night air seemed to cackle with bright bluish-white energies before a large ring of electrical energy appeared under them. A barrage of white lightning bolts descended from the heavens, impacting directly unto the beasts, causing the bulk of the electrical energy to spill over and discharge itself as a sea of lightning, electrocuting everything caught within its area of effect. Fortunately, the Armes ambassador had heard and reacted in time to his name to drag his fencing partner down to the muddied ground, thus avoiding the same fate as the masses of charred limbs and singed fur that fell around them.
"What in the – was that a Soaring Bolt?" asked the newly muddied redhead.
"Aye. Amazing power isn't it?"
The pair of aristocrats stayed prone on the ground for several moments more while the air just overhead cackled further with electrical energy. In a similar manner from before, four spells insignias of a slightly varied make and design appeared beneath the remaining groups of the wolf creatures, bursting open into a collective maelstrom of electrical energy that rained lightning continuously upon the blood ulses that surrounded the carriage. The Armes riders stood awed at the scale of the magical attack before them, unsure which to be more fearful of; the dreadful sight of the pitiful canines twitching uncontrollably as their fur, flesh and innards fried in plain sight, or the man capable of summoning the lightning tempest responsible for it.
Heavy hooves made themselves known as their unexpected reinforcement emerged into view. Perched on the back of a charging black stallion was a man with flowing silver tresses and the signature black and gold armor privy only to Falena's finest warriors. The emblem of a jagged lightning bolt had yet to fade from his right hand when he pulled up alongside the two Armes nobles.
"Shula, it really is you. What are you doing here?" queried mounted newcomer familiarly.
"Your –"
Before Shula could respond, his sharp eyes darted quickly at a fleeting shadow to the right. That slight reaction was all the cue the Falenan knight needed as he reached for the hilt stowed on his left. In one fierce fluid motion and a sway of silver hair, the knight had whipped his blade out in a violent arc, catching the blood ulse that pounced on him unawares, severing the front limbs of the canine beast, muscle, bone, sinew and all. Before the ulse could even keel over, the Killer rune on the knight's right hand emitted a purplish red glow and slashed upwards almost on its own accord, tearing the creature vertically into halves.
The two Armes diplomats looked on thoughtfully at the clinical way the knight dispatched off the beast. Nevertheless, even their experienced and usually imperturbable minds skipped a beat when he turned around, his silver hair dyed crimson with the blood of the canine, red streaks running down the ridges of his face. Almost as fleetingly as it came loose however, the pair quickly stowed away their emotions and recomposed their smiling facades.
"Well fought, Your Highness."
"Come off it Shula. You would have had it covered if I hadn't." shrugged the knight as he dismounted, preferring to be on level ground with his good friend and important ally.
"Your Highness?" queried the female diplomat.
"Allow me to do the introductions. Kayla, this is His Royal Highness Prince Freyadour, Commander of the Queen's Knights of Falena. His Highness, this is Kayla Varna, head of the Varna family and the newly appointed speaker for the Darja Clan of Armes. She is here to send King Jialaat's personal condolences to the Queen, so I guess you might have missed her due to your duties. I was going to escort the lady back to Armes via Lordlake and Sable when, well, this happened."
"Lady Kayla, please accept my sincere apologies for your troubles. I was returning to Sol Falena myself when I heard the sound of fighting." said the Prince with genuine concern. "I hope that this unexpected turn of affairs has not diminished your impression or goodwill towards Falena."
"Rest assured that it hasn't. As a matter of fact, I feel privileged to be able to witness the skills of the famed Queen's Knights of Falena first hand, particularly that of the renowned Prince no less." replied the lady pleasantly, not at all concerned about the her muddied appearance.
"Is that so? You flatter me milady." deflected the Prince deftly of the praise. Formalities aside, he turned his attention back to the cries of the retreating ulses before addressing the pair of Armes nobles once again. "The blood ulses seemed to have retreated for now, but to be on the safe side, I will go make sure they don't turn around. The East Palace is just a little over half an hour's ride away, so please allow me to extend to you the hospitality and warmth of our modest castle."
"You are most kind, your Highness."
"By your leave."
The two Armes aristocrats saw the Prince off as he galloped off towards the forest, before turning around and walking back towards the carriage.
"So… that's the Prince you mentioned."
"Yes."
"I see… no wonder our forces lost so lost so resoundingly. Jidan Guisu and Maha Sparna aren't nearly up to par against someone of this stature... Shula, I believe your judgment is correct. Armes would do well to stay away from stirring Falena's ire at the moment. If the Prince reflected the state of the nation, their civil war might have actually strengthened the Queendom in the long run. Falena will become a strong nation, and I would prefer her as an ally much more than an enemy. However…"
"Yes… "
"The Prince of Falena is as formidable warrior as you described; possessing both immense magical ability and a flair for fighting skills. However…" The image of the dark angry eyes under the head of bloodied silver hair flashed before the back of her crimson eyes once more. "There is also no longer any hesitation between his movement and his intent to kill. He is like a length of newly tempered steel, awaiting its first cut. It won't be possible for us to let our guard down completely when there's someone of this dangerous calibre and temperament here in Falena..."
"Such are the scars of war and loss…"
The two weary bureaucrats finally reached the carriage at the end of their slow, pensive walk. Upon opening the door, both of them couldn't help but smile at sight of a certain younger sister, curled up among the plush cushions, despite the heavy heart and truth that they shared.
"I really can't hate spoilt little sisters if it means they would grow up without knowing them."
"Aye."
A/N: I've added a new character into the fold, Kayla Varna. Think of her as a counterpart to Shula Valya, and the person who came into power over the Darja Clan after the disgraced Jidan Guisu and Maha Sparna were defeated by the Falenan forces during the game. Like Shula who actually had command of the Armes Western Marine Corp, Kayla had taken over the Armes Southern Mountain Corp and reformed the Darja Clan in the wake of the invasion debacle. I'll develop her along the way, just to add a little Armes flavor to the story.