Author's Note: Making chapter titles is hard. And you can thank my friend suspiciouspopsicle for the fic even getting this far. If it weren't for her encouragement, I probably would have given up some time after chapter two.

Sorry for the weird perspective switch and then switch back early in this chapter. Sodia had a lot bigger of a part in this fic than I had initially intended.

Tales of Vesperia is the property of Namco Bandai.


Chapter 4 - Council

After the long journey, he was glad to be back in Zaphias. As much as he liked traveling to the world beyond the capital, the city held a very special place in his heart. He had grown up here. He and his childhood friend had had grand adventures down in the Lower Quarter. Even though life had been rough, they still managed. He joined the Imperial Knights, he rose through the ranks, he met Lady Estellise, and now was Commandant.

Flynn groaned a little when he thought of his childhood friend, Yuri Lowell. Part of the groaning was directly related to his black eye and swollen lip. He wished that he had asked Estellise to heal him, but she had been exhausted already and he assumed that his own injuries after their heated argument weren't too bad.

He tried to shake this off as he sat down at his desk. It was hard to get Yuri out of his head. He opened his desk drawer and looked down at the mass of papers there. Letters. Dozens of them that he had never finished and never sent. He slammed the drawer quickly and reached for a lower one. He pulled out a few sheets of paper. He needed to write up the report about what happened in Dahngrest outside of their fight while it was fresh in his mind. He pulled the pen out of the ink well and began to write.

After just a few moments, he found himself at a standstill. The report was going on just as normal, until he realized that he was no longer writing about the attack, but his fight with Yuri.

Frustrated, he stuffed his page in the top drawer with all the others.

"Sir?"

He turned sharply. He hadn't heard Sodia enter. She was standing there looking at him in concern the way she often did. He was never quite sure why she seemed so concerned, but he had never asked.

"Sir, are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm fine. Why?" he replied.

"That's quite a shiner you have." She indicated his bruised eye. It must have been darker now than it had been. "What happened?"

He groaned again, but not audibly, thinking about it. "I ended a bar fight with an idiot. It's nothing to be concerned about." Thinking about the fight once more, his thoughts drifted back to Yuri's clumsy, drunk attempt at a kiss and his face felt a little warm. Surely he had been trying to get a rise out of Flynn. He liked to do things every now and then just to get a reaction, and that must have been one of those things. He enjoyed seeing Flynn startled or shocked or rattled since it happened so rarely otherwise.

"Would you like me to fetch a healer?" she asked.

"No, that won't be necessary," he said. He would let it heal normally so that he would not soon forget how angry he was with Yuri.


Sodia knew when she saw the Commandant's face that it was not simply a bar fight as he said. He very rarely was seen in or near a bar. He did not drink, save a glass of wine with dinner. She knew that her rival had been in Dahngrest, and that, as ever, he had Flynn's attention. They must have had a fight. Yuri Lowell was the only one Flynn ever got very angry around. The dark haired man was so good at getting under his skin like no one else. Perhaps they had gotten into a very heated argument and fists had flown. Yuri was the only person that Flynn fought against with all of his strength, and yet, they seemed so close.

He once told her all sorts of tales, great things about Yuri, but after meeting him, she found so few of those things true. Perhaps the Commandant's eyes were clouded with childhood memories and he was unable to see the truth. Yuri Lowell was a troublemaker, a miscreant, a malcontent, and a vigilante. She was certain of these things. And yet, she knew that Flynn felt he could trust no one else as much, no one else could take Yuri Lowell's place in his eyes. Try as she might.

Her hands shook with a violent, guilt-ridden rage when she thought about him, and about the actions she had once taken against him. She still felt a surge of guilt when she thought about that day at Zaude. She worried that he would tell Flynn about her violent attempt to cut him out the Commandant's life, but he had not. She resolved that she would one day tell him, but she had not yet done this. It was hard to gauge how he would react. He was usually very even-tempered, but when it came to anything about Yuri, it was a completely different story.

"I actually came to inform you that the Council has called a meeting," she said.


He had just returned and the Council was already hounding him. He wondered briefly what it could have been about this time. He stood from his desk. This was not something that he wanted to deal with right after his return from Dahngrest, but he had little choice.

"Let's get this over with," he said, trying not to sigh.

The Council's conference room was down a few flights of stairs from his own room, and down a hallway that lead out of the currently unoccupied throne room. It was a large and richly decorated room, filled with tapestries outlining the Empire's history and the faces of many of the previous Emperors. The table within was long enough to seat nearly thirty, as it often did. The Council currently numbered thirteen men and ten women, and there were seats for Flynn and the four Knight Captains, and Their Royal Highnesses Estellise and Ioder.

The Council was already assembled. Estellise and Ioder were not there, and neither were the Knight Captains. Flynn was meant to be cornered by the Council, and he knew it.

"Commandant Flynn." The head of the Council, Iksar, nodded as he entered, and motioned for him to sit. "Now that you're here, let us get down to business."

"Certainly," Flynn replied, sitting in the dark wood, straight backed chair at the end of the table that was his place of honor. The Council sat in a semicircle at the other end of the table, a few seats distance between them. Their influence and their alliance to each other was strong, and many of them disagreed with Flynn being Commandant at the age of 22, when people who were previously in the position were hardened soldiers at the age of 40 or more.

One of the members of the Council stood among his peers. He was a young man compared to many of the others, even with his grey hair. Flynn knew that he was sharp and was not afraid of pushing his power around. His yellow eyes scanned the room, and then fixed on Flynn.

"As you know, Commandant," Councilman Idaizeus said with the barest traces of a hiss. "We are trying to colonize Yurzorea. Our main objective with this colony is for the abundant natural resources that this continent has to offer. But we have a problem. The people report that there have been monster attacks day and night, and rather than requesting reinforcements, the acting magistrate, Councilman Loandr, has hired a guild to protect the city."

"This is a time of peace between the Guilds and the Empire. Can we not act in accordance and work together?" Flynn asked. He was getting a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"The problem is not in our unwillingness to work together, so much as blatant high treason!" The Councilman spat. "Are not our Knights, your Knights, a shining example of law and order in our government, and he still hired this fledgling guild?" He was trying to get Flynn angry. It wasn't working.

"I do see your point, Councilman. Our troops should be backing up our people. With this in mind, I will send a brigade to assist our colony and I will personally contact Magistrate Loandr to ascertain the situation." Flynn maintained his calm.

"And why would he hire a novice guild, no less? I have never heard of this 'Brave Vesperia'," one of the councilwomen said, chatting with her colleagues.

Flynn cursed to himself. He should have known that Yuri would be involved wherever there was trouble to be found.

The meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter, and Flynn walked through the palace to the barracks, where he knew that he would find the person for this job. All of the knights stopped what they were doing and immediately saluted him as he entered the room. He saluted back, and pressed onward to the officer's lounge.

He could hear a great bellowing voice as he moved on. He entered the officer's lounge and saw LeBlanc seated, playing cards with Adecor and Boccus.

"How in the hell do you keep winning?!" He slammed his cards down.

"Sorry to interrupt, gentlemen." Flynn cleared his throat.

The three of them jumped to attention, but he waved them at ease before they could properly salute him.

"Commandant, what brings you here?" LeBlanc asked, his voice, as always, a little louder than was needed for normal conversation. He was a huge ape of a man, heads over most knights, with a neck as big around as tree stump. He was not the most competent of the captains, but Flynn knew him well, and knew that he could entrust him with any task. This was the main reason he had made him Captain after Schwann resigned shortly after Alexei's defeat. This was a task for which he needed someone who he could trust, and it didn't hurt that LeBlanc and Yuri had a bit of a history.

"I need to speak with you privately, Captain," he said.

"Of course, Sir!"

Flynn allowed LeBlanc to follow him out of the barracks. Through the long, hollow sounding, polished palace hallways they walked. They went all the way up to Flynn's state room where he shut and locked the door behind the Captain.

"Please, have a seat," Flynn said.

"Thank you, Sir." LeBlanc sat on the couch. It seemed amusingly miniature compared to his stature.

Flynn stood. If he sat, his legs would be moving endlessly in nervousness. "Captain LeBlanc... I need you to keep this in the strictest of confidence."

The large man listened intently.

"I have a mission for your brigade." Flynn started pacing across the dark blue carpet a bit. He tried to resist. "You and your brigade will be going to Yurzorea, with the intention of reinforcing the current troops at the colony of Vonael. You will deliver two letters that I am to write. One of these letters will be for Magistrate Loandr. The other will be for the guild working in the colony." It was best to tell him straight so that there was no surprise at all. "Specifically, the letter is for Yuri Lowell."

LeBlanc was visibly taken aback by this.

Flynn continued, "I need you to keep an eye on the Magistrate there. This is very important. There are some rumors going through the Council regarding the very serious crime of high treason. I need this very thoroughly investigated. I need to know what is happening there in Vonael."

"You can count on me, Commandant." His voice was quieter than normal. He could tell that this situation was dire.

"I know," he replied. "I will draft the letters. Please prepare to leave before dawn tomorrow with your brigade." He couldn't say it, but he was relying on LeBlanc a great deal.

"Yes, Sir." LeBlanc stood. "If I may be excused."

Flynn nodded and moved to his dark, wooden desk and started the letters. The letter to the Magistrate was long and professional. It asked about the current status of the new town, and, among other things, about the hiring of Brave Vesperia. He wanted to understand what had motivated this rather than jumping straight to the treason conclusion.

The second letter to Yuri was much harder to write. Politics came pretty easily for Flynn, but dealing with Yuri was quite a different story. It took him two rough drafts before he was able to perfect what he wanted to say without saying anything stupid or that he would regret.

He sealed both letters with his official emblem in red wax. He locked them both in a drawer in his desk.