Chapter 4

What has happened to my wife?

"So she just showed up like this? No memory of having married me? Nothing?"

Panelo sighed and rubbed her eyes, then sitting next to Larsa while Vaan brought the baby to her for feeding. She had feared that Larsa would get angry about them not contacting him right away, but he didn't seem to mind the lapse in thoughtfulness. He had worried that his beloved wife had died or had run off with somebody else, and had been thrilled to hear that she was with their old friends. They had told him that her memory was very much damaged though, at first she could hardly remember who Larsa was at all.

"What could have done this though? Panelo and I have been trying to figure it out and we just come up short every time… She doesn't have a head injury, we checked that first. The healer thinks that she has some sort of spell on her, or a curse, but we can't identify it or even the caster."

Panelo sat quietly feeding Franzi, her eyes staring off into nothingness. At the sound of her name, she seemed to come back to the present. She looked at the baby and sighed. After she burped and cleaned her, she held the child out to Larsa.

"You want to hold her for a minute? Azier does all the time, and I know from her how much you love children."

Larsa took the baby and had to smile when he looked down at her. Large dark eyes peered back at him calmly, then squinted. The baby went completely still for a moment before letting loose a tremendous sneeze. Larsa laughed at the indignant expression on the infant's face when her mother rubbed her face with the corner of her apron. Larsa put his finger near her face and was surprised when the child reached up and caught it in one tiny fist. Suddenly his smile was replaced by a look of great sadness as he passed the baby back to her mother.

"We've been trying to have a baby too. But it doesn't ever seem to take…"

Panelo nodded and whispered to her friend.

"She wrote me last month. She said that she had been pregnant for a month, and then she miscarried. She was in a lot of pain then…"

Larsa sighed and covered his face with his hands in despair. He knew of the court and all it's intrigue and traps, he should have spotted what was happening long before anybody had gotten to her… They were trying to get rid of their Empress so that they could get a new one. One that could produce an heir, as many as she could, just as his mother had done. Or, he would have to take a second wife. He shuddered at the thought and lowered his hands to his knees looking more defeated than either of his friends had ever seen him.

"Larsa, it isn't your fault. She told Panelo and me that she had come strait here, after she woke up outside the palace. She thinks that she must have been attacked and whoever attacked her left her there for somebody to find."

There was a soft tap on the door, followed by Azier's voice floating through a crack in the wood near the wall.

"Hey, is Larsa in there?"

Panelo smiled and told her to come in, looking at Larsa and whispering "Well, while we look for a cure, you will just have to make her fall in love with you again. Shouldn't be too hard. Why don't you walk her to the Sandsea? That's where she's staying right now."

Larsa's face screwed up in confusion. He had never heard of walking being a form of courting.

"Walk her to the inn? Why?"

Vaan laughed silently, trying to keep himself from shaking and giving away his amusement in the emperor's confusion. Panelo smiled patiently and explained.

"She would like it. She thinks that things like that show you care."

Larsa was out of his chair and talking to the smiling Azier before Panelo could blink. After a brief conversation she took his arm and they walked out of the small shop, talking about the advantages of using a sword versus only magik. He had always been a sword user, and she had usually used a spear and her powerful magiks. Because of her considerable magikal might, she also could command many espers. He remembered the first time that he had seen her fight. They were trying to reach Mt. Bur Omisace, and the party had been attacked by a group of skeletal warriors, and after Ashe tried to cast a healing spell on herself, an elemental had joined the fray.

---Memory---

Ashe stumbled forward with an angry expression and pointed over her shoulder to an ice elemental. She moved her lips and throat, but no sound came out. She had been silenced by the magikal being. Fran continued to beat one of the armored skeletons with her war hammer, glancing over her shoulder and swearing loudly. She was their main fighter; she could not leave the fight with the undead to help her bespelled ally. She swore again, then saw a green and red shape flash by her, leaping over Ashe. Azier shouted a challenge at the elemental, who was concentrating on the muted princess.

Irritated at being ignored, Azier plunged her spear into the frozen ground point first and hauled back her arm, looking as if she was about to fling a stone at the creature. Then shouted again. This time, as she shouted, a light burst into life in her hand. The fire spell was enormous, and it had caught the attention of the elemental in question.

"Ashe, get away. I can handle this snowball."

Ashe nodded and ran to the edge of the high cliff face that surrounded them. Azier yanked the ornamental spear out of the ground and leveled it at the creature, running with a harsh battlecry that echoed off the walls around them. She thrust the weapon into the center of the ice elemental and halted.

"So you do have a center…"

She pivoted and sent the elemental flying, then cast another fire spell as it hit the wall of the cliff. The creature shuddered and fell to the ground into a puddle where it vanished. She turned to her friends, who were finally finished with the skeletons. She pushed back her hair with a long elegant hand and smiled.

"So, does this mean that I'm in this little group?"

---End Memory---