A/N: Shorter than the other by far, but I'm still happy with it. A bit of French in this one, and again it's not historically accurate. French was developed, but it's ties to Vulgar Latin were still apparent. And it is hard to find any translated texts from it. I'll translate it at the end.

For all that she disliked him, Jane was always glad to see Gunther returned safely from those trading expeditions. Sometimes they lasted far longer than the usual two weeks or so. Those times she worried a bit, but her worry was never founded, he always returned.

Then she had to deal with his father again, but she could overlook that. It was always nice to know that your last words to someone before they left and were killed weren't an insult. She felt bad about that, sometimes, but he had yet to come back a corpse so she didn't feel too bad.

Gunther had been back for a few days now, and on the fourth day he was back, Jane awoke as normal. She dressed, as normal, but when she went to leave, she stopped. There, on the windowsill lay a shock of red. Approaching, she saw it was a small bundle. Picking it up, she just held a moment, her fingers moving across it. It was marvelous, it felt like water woven into cloth. But there was something hard wrapped inside it. Peeling back the cloth, she found a pure white crucifix in her hand, the figure detailed down to the face. She swore that she could even see a beard on His face. Running her finger along the side of the cross itself, she felt the texture-it was nearly like stone, but not quite. It was ivory.

Holding the two things, Jane's mind came to a screaming halt. There were two people who could get these things. And only one of them would have. Now the question was, why would Gunther Breech bring here these things? How had he gotten these things?

"Jane!" called a voice. She turned, seeing Jester down there. "I do believe that it would be Lavinia who should practice being the princess in the tower!" She made a face at him, not at all amused, and left her tower room, attending to her duties.

Gunther was helping his father unload the goods at the docks, that Jane knew for fact, she saw him there while patrolling. Or rather, Dragon saw him, she just accepted that as fact. How had he managed to get the little gifts to her window? How had he afforded them? They were clearly expensive!

These thoughts stayed with her the whole day, distracting her. Where had he gone? Where had he bought this? How had he gotten his father to agree to it? How?

But, there was no answers that could be given to her by her own mind, she needed to talk to him. And she would need to wait for that. As it was, she kept the crucifix wrapped in the red cloth, kept it tied and kept in her trunk.

Finally, after a week, Gunther returned to the castle. When he did, she found him collecting his lunch, off to wherever he ate it. She had seen him approaching the castle and fetched the small package.

"Gunther, can I talk to you?" she inquired, her tone clipped. Perplexed, Gunther nodded, setting his bowl down. He allowed himself to be pulled a ways away from the table where the others sat. She shoved the small bundle into his arms.

"You disliked them that much?" he asked, taking it.

"Why? How?"

He shrugged, unwrapping the bundle. "The silk is from Venice. Bought it from a Byzantine trader."

"Silk? You bought me silk?"

"You wouldn't want perfume, would you?" He pulled out the crucifix, frowning at it. "Did you not want this, at least?"

"I just want to forget about this. Take them back and let me forget, can you?"

"Jane," he said, his tone stopping her before she could walk away. Pressing the silk and crucifix back into her hands he said very softy and very seriously, "Ne te résous jamais à t'oublier." His voice grew more earnest as he continued, saying, "Où tu seras, je serai à tes côtés." And with that, he took his leave.

Jane shook her head very briefly and yet very violently, trying to dislodge the sound of the flowing language from her head. She had never heard it before and it had been…well it had been nice. And that was what she wanted to dislodge from her mind.

Returning to the table, she sat down the two gifts, staring into her soup. "What is that?" Smithy asked, drawing her to look up.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

"It looks too much like something to be nothing," insisted Jester, snatching it up and darting out of her grasp. Pulling out the crucifix, he let out a low whistle.

"It is beautiful!" gasped Pepper, looking over his shoulder. "Where did you get it, Petal?"

"It was a gift, both of those things. And I am still trying to figure out why they were given to me." And with that, she refused to continue the conversation.

She found Gunther later in the day, seated in a sunny corner, eyes closed and humming to himself. She sat down heavily beside him, making him jump. "Why did you buy those things for me?" asked Jane, not bothering with anything else. She didn't want evasive answers and she didn't want shrugging and she didn't want entirely different languages.

"Hello to you too," he said.

"Why?" was all Jane would grant him.

He shrugged, angering Jane. "I am not entirely certain. Perhaps because I thought you would enjoy them?'

"And when have you done anything for those reasons?" He nodded, accepting the statement as fact. He hadn't ever and he was not about to deny fact. "Why did you really?"

"Because I wanted to bring you something? Because I thought of you? Because I wanted to watch my father panic over where those coins went?"

"He panicked?' she asked, amused.

Gunther fought back a smile at the memory saying, "He decided that everything in Rome and Venice was too expensive and that we would never return. Calmed down, but it was still fun."

"How did he not know you bought these?"

"He knows I like to wander around Rome. I have friends there and he cannot rightly stop me from going anywhere. So I just brought some money with me."

"You were in Rome?"

"Yes, that is where the crucifix came from." He gestured vaguely to the bundle she held, hoping that she would still keep them.

Jane, on the other hand, was hating herself for it, but her curiosity prompted her to ask, "What…what was Rome like?"

Well. Fancy that. That was what Gunther imagined while tossing rocks into the Adige River, that was what he thought up while feeding the birds in Venice, that was what he had fantasized when wandering that market by St. Peter's when he had bought her that same gift. Damn him if he wasn't going to take the chance.

"Rome is…huge. It overshadows everything and everyone, it does not grow smaller for great men nor does it grow larger for lesser men. It is both above and beneath you. The Coliseum is absolutely huge and then there are the catacombs beneath, filled with Roman Christians and Jews. The Pope lives across the river, and you can go visit there. That is where the Basilica of St. Peter is."

"The what of St. Peter?" interrupted Jane. She thought she had heard the term before, but she wanted to make certain she knew.

And so he started telling about all that he knew about Rome. He was in the middle of describing how he had once wandered past St. Stefano's monastery, where the Sisters lived nearby the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the ground in front of them littered with drawings ranging from a drawing of St. Peter's to what Carciofi alla Giudia (Jewish Style Artichokes) looked like, when they heard the telltale sound of Sir Ivon exclaiming in pain.

"I should make certain he is alright," said Gunther, standing. Jane stood as he did, looking down at the drawing of a plaza in Venice.

"Gunther?" she started, making him turn. "You mentioned something…Gnostics?"

"Yes…"

"You were not very clear about it. Will you…will you explain it later?"

"…I believe I could." She nodded, walking off as though she hadn't just listened with rapt attention about how he had wandered catacombs in both Rome and Paris and about the bride in Venice who spoke Greek and Latin and that was it or the amphitheatre in Lyons or the different Rite in Milan.

As she left, Gunther couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face—it was just like he had imagined—nor could he help but notice that Jane had slipped the ivory crucifix around her neck, a spot of white standing out against her colorful clothing.

Yes, he was excited to tell her about the Gnostic beliefs as best he understood them. But to be honest, he was more excited about the prospect that he would have someone at home to call his friend, someone he didn't need to cross oceans to see.

French: Ne te résous jamais à t'oublier...Où tu seras, je serai à tes côtés.

English: Never resolve to forget...Wherever you are, I will stand beside you.

So yes, I really want to talk about the Gnostics of the era. So there will be another little story for that. It will be amazing.