The Archades Interlude: Part One

Penelo twisted her hands together, threading her fingers intertwined and then tearing them about, rolling her wrists and wringing her hands.

She would not cry. She didn't even really want to. Penelo was not really the sort to cry. It always felt like she might cry too hard if she let herself get started and then she might become a burden on other people. It wasn't fair to make other people miserable.

Not that there was anyone she could talk to here.

Penelo picked up a fringed cushion from the 'daybed' in her suite. Penelo had never seen a daybed, which looked to her like a really big upholstered sofa with only one raised end so that people could 'recline' on it.

Apparently ladies in Archades did a lot of reclining. Penelo had attempted to practice reclining elegantly but had ended up dozing and rolled over and fallen off the edge striking her head on the rich embroidered Dalmascan style rug. After that Penelo decided that reclining wasn't really for her.

It had made Larsa laugh when she had told him about her reclining problems and that was good and exactly what she had wanted when she told him, because Larsa never laughed. He smiled plenty but he didn't really laugh.

Penelo thought this was an Archadian thing. She now knew plenty of Archadians and none of them ever really just up and laughed. Almost as though they thought it wasn't proper.

Penelo got up from her tense perch on the edge of the daybed, still clutching her cushion tightly to her chest.

She wished Vaan would hurry up and get here. Vaan would put her at ease and would probably make her laugh about all the whispering and the comments behind hands the other ladies made as Penelo passed.

How long did it take him to fly to Archades from Rabanastre anyway? Maybe there'd been some emergency and Ashe needed him to delay his holiday?

Penelo walked out towards the balcony of her suite, mind whirring with questions. Her mind bounced from thought to thought.

She remembered when she had asked the Bhujerban envoy if he had a balcony and a chandelier and imported furnishings in his apartments to make him feel at home.

He had given her a weird look and told her no, he didn't have any of the things Penelo had in her suite, none of the other envoys did. Then he had turned his back on Penelo and left her all alone and even more confused.

Larsa had told her it was custom to make an envoy feel comfortable by making up their rooms like home. Of course Penelo would have been more used to a bunk bed in a sundry shop backroom sharing space with bags of spices than this luxury suite but she was happy to adapt.

Touching the fine gauzy hanging drapery curtains at her balcony doors Penelo played with the gold tasselled fringe of her cushion anxiously.

It was really kind of pathetic. She knew they were insulting her. She knew that every woman in Archades whispered about her and all the men gave her looks that any girl who has lived on the breadline knows to recognise and fear.

Yet…yet….she wished she knew what trollop meant. She knew it was bad. She knew it was an insult, that was obvious, but somehow it made her feel so much worse not knowing exactly what they meant.

Trollop. There goes Larsa's trollop. There goes the whore of Dalmasca.

She knew what whore meant and it made her so angry to hear them say that. Penelo had been orphaned at fourteen, if she hadn't had Migelo, and even Vaan,…….who told her point blank that his friend wasn't selling herself to any imperial while he had anything to say about it,……well, Penelo knew a lot of girls back home who had been forced to do what a girl has to do when the only other option is starve.

She was no whore and she didn't think she was a trollop either. She wondered if Larsa knew what his people were saying? She didn't think so. He wouldn't stand for it.

There wasn't a chance she was going to tell him, though. Penelo was not a tattle-tale.

Still, she wished she had someone to ask, to talk too. She wished that she had a friend here.

Penelo was not used to having no one to spend time with. She was a friendly person, raised to be generous and welcoming to anyone she met. Give everyone the benefit of the doubt, her mother had always told her.

There but for the grace of Faram go you, my star, remember that.

That was what Mama had always said. Penelo could not help but wonder whether the stylish, well spoken, clever women of the Archades court who were always so nice when Larsa was around, would be able to turn the other cheek like she did if they'd lived through an occupation.

Penelo thought that Lady Irisa, Felicia, and Cordelia, three of the nastiest…..well, Penelo didn't like to say mean things about people……(spiteful cows!) that she had ever had the bad luck to meet would be eaten by desert wolves within thirty seconds of being dumped into Penelo's life.

Penelo sighed miserably (she could be as miserable as she liked on her own because it didn't hurt anyone else) and stepped out onto her balcony. Archades in spring was still cool, almost cold out. The early evening air so far up here in the Imperial Palace made the breeze even sharper.

For a little while Penelo just watched the sky cabs far below zip about from Nilbasse to Tsenoble and from the Grand Arcade to the Imperial Circle, where the Palace and the Senate and the Judiciary building were located. Night or day Archades never slept.

Penelo remembered her first ever visit to Archades five years ago (was it really that long ago?) She had been so impressed by the buildings that just went straight up into the sky like big, pointy red needles stabbing at the clear blue. She remembered how pretty the walkways and promenades were, all red brick and draped in greenery.

She also remembered how strange the people were. It was like a whole city full of Balthier's, she remembered thinking that so clearly. So many keen eyed, well-spoken, well dressed men and women who knew so much and yet didn't seem very happy for all that they were clever and educated and rich.

Penelo still thought this about Archades. That it was a city full of people who had never been raised to understand being happy and friendly and giving without expecting anything back.

But at least now Archades was changing and changing for the better and it was all because of Larsa.

Only yesterday Penelo had wandered down to Old Archades where the slum clearance was well underway and most of the vulgars' (Penelo had never liked that word; Penelo had known it for an insult and knew also, that, but for the grace of Faram, she could have been born an Archadian vulgar too) were now living in brand new bungalows and farm houses along the banks of the Archades river away from the stench of open sewers, and travelled into Nilbasse freely every day.

When Penelo had told Larsa she had gone down to Old Archades (though people were now calling it New Town and even some of the Ardents wanted to live there because of the new employment opportunities) he had pressed her for every detail and been so pleased when she told him that the people seemed so much happier than before.

Old Archades had been Larsa's big quest since becoming Emperor. He wanted to totally rebuild the slums and connect the alleys to the sky cab network so that the city was fully integrated as he put it.

It is the only way Penelo. Archades has been crippled by a caste system too long. I am Emperor to all not just those wealthy enough to live in the Rises.

Penelo remembered how he had paced back and forth in his open air office in the Imperial palace, the one with the big fish pond and the covered portico walk-ways, gesturing with his hands as he spoke.

Larsa had quiet and still when she first met him (so different from Vaan!) but now he was seventeen and taller than she was by a good head or so, and he moved about much more.

Larsa had smiled when she told him he was much more fidgety now than when they had met (she had also suggested this was her and Vaan's bad influence on him) and he had teased her back that he had grown so much in the last two years he had to walk about so as to get used to the higher altitudes.

Archades must have an Emperor who can stand tall on his own two feet and does not trip over every second step. If I don't practice all the other emperors shall laugh at me.

Penelo smiled at the memory. Larsa had a sense of humour and not cynical sense of humour or a spiteful one. Larsa liked to be happy and he liked other people to be happy too. Larsa even managed to chuckle at Vaan's jokes (which were always awful) though sometimes this was more out of politeness than anything else.

Larsa, Penelo grinned to herself, was ever so polite. But not just polite in what he said. Because anyone could say please and thank you and that didn't really a make a person polite. The ladies Irisa, Cordelia and Felicia were always very polite and proper to a person's face, after all.

Larsa however actually meant it. If he asked how are you? he meant it, he wasn't just asking because he was supposed too. He was even polite enough to take tea with her when she first arrived in Archades, even though he was tremendously busy.

Penelo remembered that day perfectly. She had just arrived in Arcahdes to take up her six month placement as official Dalmascan Envoy and Larsa had come to her suite as she was unpacking her belongings (which had seemed even more paltry and inexpensive surrounded by all the wealthy and 'opulence' of her new rooms).

Larsa had made tea, using the silver tea service Penelo had not even noticed sitting on the coffee table (her coffee table –Penelo had never had a coffee table –she had made a note to start drinking coffee so as to use it properly).

Penelo remembered that she had been panicking at the time over whether she should make the tea as he was the Emperor and she was just an envoy, but Larsa had insisted.

'You are my guest.'

He had smiled and Penelo had thought to herself that he really did have the loveliest blue eyes she'd ever seen; framed in long dark lashes his eyes were such a dark blue and endlessly deep but still kind of sparkly.

'Yeah, but I bet you don't make tea for all the other envoys.'

She had half teased him, wondering if that was an appropriate response. She was supposed to be acting as the official Dalmascan representative here in Archadia and she didn't want to do or say anything that would upset Ashe.

Larsa had looked up from his careful measuring of a spoonful of sugar into each fancy decorated cup and she had seen that glimmer of humour in his big, blue eyes.

' How do you know? I happen to be a very hospitable Emperor.'

Penelo had grinned and dropped down onto the sofa and taken up her cup, only to pause guiltily because she didn't know if she should wait for him to be seated and pick up his cup before she did.

Vaguely Penelo had wondered if there was an instruction manual for envoy-ing and whether Basch was still around so she could pick up pointers from him.

'Penelo are you well?'

Larsa had settled down opposite her and was looking at her with those big kind eyes and she had felt her cheeks flushing. It was amazing really, she could write anything and everything she was thinking or feeling down in a letter to him but talking to him was really difficult.

'Where's Basch?' She had stuttered.

'Landis. The Act of Autonomy has finally been ratified and Basch has been given sabbatical to see how the newly devolved government of Landis is getting on.'

Larsa had smiled slightly, smiled with happiness for his guardian Judge who was finally able to go home (his real home, sometimes it was hard for Penelo to remember that Basch was not Dalmascan…or at least not born Dalmascan.)

'Penelo, I have a little time to spare, would you do me the honour of accompanying myself and some of the court on a small hunting trip to the Uplands?'

Larsa had asked her and in no time at all whisked her off to do something new and interesting that was so much more fun than unpacking.

That was so like Larsa though. He had time for anyone and was generous with people even when he didn't have time to spare. Penelo often thought that Larsa couldn't really be Archadian because he wasn't like the other Archadians she had met.

Vayne: who had been a monster even before he grew metal wings and started shooting lasers from his hands; Penelo could not imagine how he and Larsa could have been brothers. They didn't even look alike in her opinion.

Judge Magister Zaagabaath: her favourite Magister (excluding Basch who wasn't really a Magister as far as Penelo was concerned) because he hadn't tried to kill the six of them when they were all fighting Vayne. He wasn't bad really, but he was so stiff and formal.

Jules the Streetear, that man would sell his own grandmother for a handful of Gil, no probably, he would just rob his grandmother for the Gil. He was Archadian and he certainly wasn't like Larsa.

Balthier, who was as posh as Larsa but they weren't the same. Truthfully Balthier was not as nice. Sometimes Balthier was more like Jules than Larsa, and Penelo felt she could say this (if only to herself….never to Balthier's face because he'd probably have a heart attack if she did) because she liked Balthier anyway, even if sometimes she thought he could be mean.

Larsa did not have a mean bone in his body. Penelo, coming in from the balcony when she realised how cold she had become standing out there staring into her memories, found herself considering Larsa's mean bone lacking body with a certain guilty appreciation.

That was the only problem with Larsa. He was wonderful but he was totally unattainable.

Plus she was almost five years older than him and while as it was okay for a man to court a girl years younger than he was it was different when the woman was older.

'It's not like I've ever been older though.' Penelo muttered for the benefit of the pillow scrunched against her chest who was, because Vaan still wasn't here for his visit, her only confidante.

'Even when we first met he was wiser and more knowledgeable than either me or Vaan. He was never a twelve year old boy. He just wasn't. Not in his mind.'

After all, Penelo knew little boys. She had practically raised Kytes and the other orphan children of Dalmasca and Larsa was not like any of them.

Larsa at twelve had more maturity than Ashe had had during their trek to Mount Bur-Omisace (and yes, Penelo felt a bit bad about admitting that, but it was true. Ashe lost her temper a lot and became stroppy and Larsa never did, even when Ashe was stroppy at him.)

Larsa at seventeen was grown up enough for Penelo at twenty-one; completely and undeniably.

Penelo could feel her cheeks flaming even thinking this and felt both very foolish and guilty. Maybe this was what those other Ladies of the Imperial court meant when they called her a 'trollop'.

Was she being a trollop now? Was this trollop-y behaviour? Would Vaan know if she asked him……but that was a ridiculous question; of course Vaan wouldn't know. If Penelo didn't know then her best and longest serving friend wouldn't either.

Penelo finally discarded her cushion and flopped down on the sofa by the coffee table and contemplated making herself coffee. She and Larsa had tea together once a week and he had been introducing her to the wonders of the different varieties of tea and coffee with crumpets and scones.

Penelo also learned that it was alright to use a coffee table for something other than putting coffee cups on it. Basically it was just a table, but lower down.

Penelo was still contemplating her coffee table (not really hers, exactly, but hers for the time she was here) when the door to her suite banged open and Vaan bounded in with the ruddy cheeked enthusiasm that remained undiminished even now he was twenty-two.

'Hey, Pen –Elo!'

Vaan always did that, stressed the last two syllables of her name like that. She had always found it annoying, but never said anything. It wasn't like Vaan meant it to be annoying so she didn't bother getting upset about it.

Instead she bounded over to him as Vaan strode into the room, looking about him with that round, moon shaped face of his filled with a completely guileless appreciation.

'Wow, Penelo. You get to live here?'

Penelo clasped her hands together nervously before her and nodded, 'Larsa is very generous.'

She said awkwardly then cuffed him across the back of the head and clucked her tongue in her best motherly impression of annoyance to cover up for her embarrassment.

'Vaan! You're late. Is everything alright with Ashe, did you have trouble flying?'

Vaan, rubbing his head and giving Penelo an aggrieved look shook his head, 'Penelo I don't have trouble flying. I am the best pilot in Dalmasca.'

Penelo ignored this remark and led him further into the suite before she noticed his lack of luggage and frowned. 'Vaan where's your stuff?'

Vaan grinned lazily at her and went to flop down on the recliner, managing to recline without falling off the stupid thing and making a fool of himself like she had. This seemed somewhat unfair to Penelo.

'These guys wearing black and red uniforms came over when I finished docking the Veccara and took my stuff. They said they'd get me 'situated' so I could come see you straight away.'

Penelo interpreted this to mean that the Palace attendants had met Vaan and taken his stuff to a guest room after he docked the Veccara (the Veccara was Vaan's new airship as the Beirouge was mostly used for official state business and Vaan claimed he needed his own airship to do...well, flying about in.)

'Situated. I've never been situated before.' Vaan was grinning even wider as he rolled the word on his tongue.

Penelo rolled her eyes and moved over to slap his feet off the recliner. 'Your boots are all muddy, Vaan.' She snapped.

Vaan ignored her as his attention was already taken up by the bowl of Star fruit sitting neatly on the coffee table.

'Hey, I didn't know those grew here. I thought they were desert fruits.'

Immediately he leapt up, snagged one of the fruits and plopped back down, propping his feet up on the coffee table until Penelo knocked them to the carpet again.

'They do grow in the desert. Archades has them shipped in. Archades has lots of things bought in from all over the place Vaan.'

'Thaf'sss Goofdd.'

Vaan said slobbering his way around a mouthful of the sticky, moisture rich fruit. Penelo shook her head and gave up before even opening her mouth to tell him to eat properly. If he hadn't learnt that yet, then he never would.

Penelo watched her friend eat for a few moments and then decided to ask the question that was playing on her mind.

'Vaan, do you know what a trollop is?'

'What?' Vaan coughed around a mouthful of Star fruit that went down the wrong way as he almost choked in surprise. Penelo narrowed her eyes a little.

He did! He knew what it meant!

Vaan was giving her a keen look of his own. 'Where did you hear that?'

Penelo was not accustomed to lying and certainly never had to with Vaan before so she told him. She told him about the funny looks and the whispers and the comments that people made that seemed nice enough at the time until Penelo had a chance to think back on them and then she realised they weren't nice at all.

Once she was done, she watched Vaan as he thoughtfully juggled two Star fruits in his hands.

' They're jealous because Larsa loves you and not any of them.'

'Vaan!' Penelo's cheeks were on fire, heat rushed from the roots of her hair down her neck to her shoulders and all the way down to her toes. 'Larsa is not in love with me.'

It wasn't often that Vaan had the opportunity to give anyone a superior look, so he enjoyed himself right that moment as he battered Penelo into red cheeked submission with his dry incredulity (seriously hoping he looked just a bit like Balthier as he did so).

'Penelo he's been in love with you since he met you in Bhujerba. Everybody knows that.'

Penelo felt sure that a hungry family would be able to fry eggs on her cheeks because they were so hot. Heat, embarrassment and a crazy, wild excitement coursed through her as her mouth went dry and anything she might have said in denial flew out of her head.

Vaan, who had added another Star fruit from the bowl to his juggling act, was too busy keeping the three fruits in the air to notice. He started talking in that unconcerned way he had that completely missed (or possibly simply ignored) any awkwardness his audience might have about the subject.

'Anyway, you have to marry Larsa, Penelo, and become Empress.'

'What?' Penelo squeaked, feeling the need to pour herself a glass of water from the pitcher next to the fruit bowl on the coffee table.

Vaan actually bothered to look at her, which meant he took his concentration off the fruit, which summarily fell all over the floor and the coffee table. Her friend picked them back up somewhat embarrassed.

'Sorry.' He muttered sheepishly.

Penelo was more interested in what he had said then in bruised fruit. She was used to Vaan and his tendency to break, damage or maim things without meaning too. It was just him and she had long since lost interest in getting annoyed by that.

'What do you mean I have to marry Larsa? Vaan he's never said anything to me. We're just friends.'

Again Vaan gave her that don't play dumb Penelo, because I am so much better at that then you, look, 'Yeah, because he's Larsa, Penelo. Saying anything might upset you or something and he would sooner chop off his...er, well, anyway he wouldn't say anything.'

When Penelo could not think of anything to say to that and was almost drowning in the thunderous heat of her blood in her veins and the pounding of her heart, Vaan filled the silence.

'It's all because of the Star fruit, you know.' He said knowledgeable, like a person imparting great wisdom, which on Vaan just sounded wrong.

'Huh?' Was all Penelo could muster in reply as she nervously gulped from her glass of water.

Vaan nodded sagely and held up one of the fruits he had been playing with. 'Star fruits. It was because of a Star fruit that Dalmasca was liberated. None of this would have ever happened if I hadn't stolen a Star fruit from that vendor in the Bazaar back during the occupation.'

Penelo almost spat out her swallow of water and had to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand, spluttering, before she could speak.

'Vaan, what are you talking about? How did you stealing a piece of fruit liberate Dalmasca?'

Vaan grinned, clearly pleased with her question. 'I've thought it all out Penelo.' He told her proudly.

Leaning back against the recliner, he started throwing the one Star fruit up in the air and catching it.

'See, it all started something, me stealing that fruit. Because if I hadn't stolen that fruit I never would have seen that Imperial and stolen his Gil purse and then you wouldn't have got on at me and I wouldn't have felt guilty and decided to steal from the Palace.'

Penelo could say nothing as Vaan continued in an animated, impassioned rush of words, none of which made any sense to Penelo.

'So, if I hadn't gone to the Palace I wouldn't have met Balthier and Fran and then Ashe in the Waterway. You wouldn't have been kidnapped, we wouldn't have been in Bhujerba when Ashe went to get Raithwall's treasure and then we wouldn't have gone all that way and seriously kicked Vayne's ass.'

Penelo carefully sipped on her drink while she tried to think of a kindly response to Vaan's lunatic idea, her friend watched her with bright, keen eyes.

'But Vaan a fruit can't do all that.' She said gently.

Vaan shook his head, 'No, but I became like the Star fruit. I was the Star fruit of the whole deal.'

'You became a fruit?' Penelo asked steadily. Sometimes, even after most of a life time knowing him, Vaan could still astound her. Truly she wondered what went on his brain because it clearly wasn't logical.

Vaan picked up on the fact that she was teasing him and glared huffily, 'Penelo, I'm serious. This is good stuff, so you gonna listen to this or just tease me?'

Penelo grinned, 'I'm listening.'

Vaan, too eager to explain his complex theory to his friend to be irritated by her lack of due solemnity, continued.

'Yeah, so as I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me.' He groused. Penelo sighed and mouthed I'm sorry, waving him on to continue.

'I'm like the Star fruit because I'm the guy whose not important. See, I'm the one who, like a hundred years from now, people will be saying 'what's so special about him?' and that's because I'm not special or anything. I don't marry the Princess or be the hero or anything, but if I hadn't been there then maybe none of it would have happened. You would never have met Larsa, Ashe would never have met Balthier, Basch would never have been freed. You see?'

Penelo played with her intertwined fingers and really thought about what Vaan said. There was a weird sense to it. She couldn't say he was right, but...she couldn't say he was wrong either.

Vaan must have seen the realisation in her eyes because he put on an expression of all knowledgeable superiority, all at least tried too, and pointed meaningfully at the bowl of fruit in the bowl.

'Yeah, see; Star fruit. The simple things change the world and because I'm like the Star fruit in, you know, our lives, I say that you have to marry Larsa. Because then I'll be the most important person in all Ivalice and people will say, 'look at that guy, he's the Empress' best friend and he introduced Queen Ashe to her husband.' I will so be a god among men.'

Vaan absently threw each piece of fruit back into the bowl and gave her a poignant and meaningful look, for a moment the two friends simply stared at each other, then as one, they fell about in screaming fits of laughter.

Penelo staggered up from the sofa and went to Vaan, tears of laughter streaming down her face; she hugged him fiercely around the neck.

'Vaan, I love you so much.'

She gasped out when she could breathe again. He was the best friend she could ever have. Who else could make her feel so happy and secure when she was surrounded by people who thought they were better than she was just because they were Archadian and rich and she was Dalmascan and born poor.

Vaan, grinning like a boy, his mission to raise his friends spirits accomplished, nodded and pointed once more at the bowl of fruit.

''Course you do. It's the power of the Star fruit.' He said with the utmost solemnity.

'And the Star fruit commands you to seduce Larsa Solidor and become Empress to make your best friend happy.'

Penelo, eyes shiny from laughter tears, snuggled into her friends return hug, still giggling.

'Oh, really, huh? Then I guess I'd better do it then; can't upset the god of Star fruit.'

'Damn straight.' Vaan said firmly reaching for another of the fruit and taking a healthy bite out of it.

So that, basically, was how it all started, Penelo would always claim later. That was how a girl from Low Town decided to make herself the empress of a huge foreign kingdom and win the heart of the finest emperor who ever lived.


A/N: Arrrgggh! This was so hard to write! I've never written Penelo before and wanted her voice to be different from the regal Ashe or well-educated slightly snide Balthier.

Also I wanted to shed some light on Vaan and what exactly he thinks about things...who knew he was a fruit flavoured philosopher? And also it's completely true...go back to the beginning of the game and you'll see Vaan eating that mystical fruit! ;)