Blue Drop: Angel's Home: Chapter 4
Memories
The next time Ariel came to visit she brought a folder with her. ``Mari'il, I found this that we need to return to you.''
``Oh?'' queried Mari'il, her curiosity aroused. A faint light of hope entered her eyes.
``I found these when I was looking through the data that Zephrael gathered from you. It seems she had them taken from your room while you were out, looked them over, then just dumped them in a file instead of even thinking to return them to you. Let me return them to you now, with our sincere apologies.'' She handed the folder to Mari'il with a formal bow.
Mari'il took the folder, and opened it to look inside, hesitant with fear that her hope might be dashed. When she did see what was inside, her eyes filled with tears and she clasped the folder to her chest. ``Ariel. Thank you... Thank you!'' She stopped as tears of joy and relief overflowed, running down her cheeks. She blinked to clear her eyes and looked back up at Ariel, her eyes still full. ``Thank you, you don't know how much this means to me. Do you know what these are?''
``No, not beyond them being some papers you brought with you from Forime, ...I should say Earth, and that they seem terribly valuable to you.'' Ariel smiled back, very touched by the joy she was able to bring Mari'il. ``If you'd like to tell me, I would love to hear their story of why they are so precious to you.''
``You really would?'' asked Mari'il, an uncertain schoolgirl again.
``Yes, I really would,'' says Ariel, her gentle smile filling her face. ``Do you want to tell me now, or would you rather wait and tell me over a meal? ...Though maybe, in order to keep them safe, we shouldn't take them with us to a restaurant.''
Mari'il agreed it would be good not to risk spilling on them at the while eating. ``But I really do want to share them with you.''
Seeing the conflict between sharing and protecting fill Mari'il's face, Ariel ventured, ``Zephrael did have these all recorded for later analysis before `filing' them. If you'd like to go out to eat and talk there rather than here, we could take a recorder with those copies with us and leave these safely here.''
``Really?'' said Mari'il. ``That's perfect.'' She checked the time, and eagerly asked, ``Are you doing anything for lunch today? It's almost lunchtime.''
``That sounds good. I need to do a couple things at my office first and I can be back in time to...'' Tilting her head in thought, Ariel continued on a different direction, ``Or, if you don't mind waiting around for a little bit at my office, we could just stop by there on the way to lunch. That would save a little time and get us to lunch sooner.''
``I don't mind,'' replied Mari'il with a laugh. ``And I've always liked the guest-chair you have there.''
Ariel agreed, amused by Mari'il's enjoyment.
As Mari'il was putting the folder away, she noticed the keepsakes that Zephrael had not taken. ``Ariel, If you'd like to come back here after lunch, or some other time, I've got a couple more things from Earth that Zephrael didn't take. I can show you if you're interested.''
``I'd love to. You've piqued my interest. I think I'm free this afternoon, but let me double check when we stop by my office.''
ooo OOO ooo
The two made a brief stop in Ariel's office where she checked a few items on her terminal and sent a couple messages. Mari'il sat down in what she thought of as the ``reading chair'' as it was comfortable, spacious and had a shelf next to it where Ariel kept a collection of recorders she was working with at the time. Of course, for longer or more relaxed reading you could also use the headset reader she kept on the next shelf to display your book in front of you while you leaned back and the chair and relaxed. Mari'il felt that this ``clutter'' gave a more welcoming and lived-in feel than the regimented cleanliness of Loriel's office. She took the recorder Ariel gave her and quickly reviewed the recordings Zephrael had made of her things. She then sat back in the chair, resting her eyes on the nice mountain landscape Ariel had selected on the far wall while she thought over the images of her things. Ariel was soon done with her correspondence, and the two headed out to a small lunch café bringing the recorder with them.
.
At the café, while waiting for their food to be delivered, Mari'il took out the recorder and put it on the table. ``First are some pictures from our time on Forime.'' She showed the first. ``This is my—that is Mari's—grandmother. She took care of me after my parents died in the same incident that killed Blue's landing party. She also sent me to Kaihou Academy where I met Ekaril.''
Ariel smiled. ``Her expression reminds me of my own grandmother. I guess all grandmothers are alike in the way they care for us.''
Mari'il agreed that they did. ``And these,'' she said flipping to the next picture, ``are my two best friends on Earth, Tsubael and Micchi—her full name is Kouzuki Michiko.''
Ariel raised a questioning eyebrow at Tsubael's name, but waited for Mari'il to say more about her, instead commenting ``They look like they would be very good friends.'' She smiled. ``And they do make a cute couple.''
``That they are.'' Mari'il had to smile, agreeing with both of Ariel's comments. She continued, ``Tsubael was an operator on Blue. She took care of all of Blue's repairs after the explosion and also watched over Ekaril and then both of us while we attended Kaihou Academy.'' Mari'il tilted her head and smiled at the memory. ``You know, she saved both of our lives more than once during that time.''
``And both of them are still back on Fori... on Earth?''
``Yes,'' said Mari'il, and her expression grew wistful. ``The two of them are working to try to find a peaceful resolution between Arume and Forime. We all wished things could have worked out that way from the start instead of having the open war and all the killing that ended up happening. ...Too many have already died.'' Mari'il stopped and shook her head. ``But I didn't come here to lament about useless might-have-beens with you.''
``Mari'il,'' said Ariel, ``you don't need to apologize. I'm glad your friends are working for peace, and I already know you regret those deaths more than you should. Please don't be so hard on yourself. That you were able to make friends like these and then came all the way back here to help us is something to be proud of, instead.''
``Thank you.'' Mari'il shook her head to clear it, and advanced the recorder to the next picture.``Finally, this is a picture of the two of us as we were walking around the school festival. That's the school uniform we're both wearing. I actually brought mine back here and still have it in the room..''
Ariel just looked at the picture for a bit. ``You two make an even better couple than ...Micchi and Tsubael do.'' Mari'il dropped her gaze and blushed at this. ``Seriously, you do. Just looking at it I can tell there's a special connection between you. I wish you both—both your bodies—could be here.''
Mari'il blushed deeper, then to cover her embarrassment flipped to the image of the cover of a pamphlet and showed the inside pages. ``This,'' she explained, ``is the script for the play that Micchi wrote for our school festival. It's titled The Girl of Orleans, and is based on a character from Earth history and legend. We, Mari and Ekaril, played the two leads in it. Sadly, Master Commander Shivariel's attack interrupted the play and we were never able to finish performing it.''
``May I?'' asked Ariel, inquiring if she could look through the script in more detail. She flipped through the pages when told go ahead. Her perusal was interrupted by the arrival of their food, so she turned off the recorder and set it aside while they ate.
``I wish I understood For... I mean Earth's language,'' Ariel commented as she began her meal. ``I'd love to read this. I'll bet not being able to really bothered Zephrael.''
``If you'd like,'' responded Mari'il, ``I could get you a translation, or at least clean up what the computer does. It's written in one of the Earth's languages known as Japanese''
``Please. If it's not too much trouble.''
``Sure.'' Mari'il laughed and paused to sip her drink. ``It's not like I have a shortage of free time now that Loriel is away and not talking with me.'' She turned her initial worry about Loriel being gone turned into a smile as she remembered how Tsubael's reading Micchi's copy of the play brought the two of them closer together.
ooo OOO ooo
After lunch, Ariel accompanied Mari'il back to her room where she took a package from one of the lockers. Showing it to Ariel, she explained, ``Here's the rest of what I brought from Earth.'' She pulled out a folded outfit and set it in front of Ariel, carefully smoothing the folds, relishing the touch of the old familiar fabric. ``This was the uniform we wore at Kaihou Academy, the school Ekaril and Mari attended with Micchi. It's what we were wearing in that picture of us together. Just taking it out and looking at it again is nostalgic.''
``That looks nice.'' She reached out to run her fingers over the cloth. ``And I like the way the fabric feels. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to see you model it later. I think you looked good in it.''
Mari'il blushed at the complement, and agreed to do that sometime. ``And these two feathers are...'' Mari'il held them up, blushing and swallowing to clear the lump in her throat. ``They are from the surveillance remote which brought Ekaril's consciousness to Mari.'' Tears filled her eyes, and she gave the feathers the gentlest caress with her other hand. ``They're all that is left of her.''
``That must make them especially precious to you.'' Ariel smiled, seeing their true importance. ``I'm glad that Zephrael never touched them. They mean far too much to allow them to be handled by uncaring hands like hers.''
Mari'il nodded, unable to get any words past the lump in her throat. [[ Don't worry, dear, ]] Ekaril reassured her. [[ I'll always be here for you. Nothing can separate us now. ]]
[[ And I'll always be here for you too. I will never forget all that you sacrificed for me, all that you've given me. ]]
Ariel reached out and touched Mari'il's hand, careful not to touch the feathers. ``Thank you for showing me these treasures of yours. I'm honored.'' She gave her a gentle smile. ``Let me see if I can get you a secure box to keep them in, one that Zephrael can't get into, so you don't have to worry.''
``Thank you,'' replied Mari'il, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. ``It would be nice to know they're somewhere safe.'' She smiled back and rubbed the feathers over Ariel's fingers, explicitly sharing Ekaril's touch with her. ``And thank you for being a friend I could show these to, someone I can share these memories with.''
ooo OOO ooo
A while later, Ariel and Mari'il again shared a meal. Ariel had finished reading the translation of The Girl of Orleans which Mari'il had given her, and they arranged to talk about it while they ate.
``Your friend Michiko is certainly a good writer,'' began Ariel. ``Even though I don't know the Fori... Earth story of this Jeanne d'Arc, the characters and their feelings came across very well. All of the characters are also well defined individuals. ...You say that Michiko was only a high-school student? How old would that make her?''
Mari'il agreed that Micchi was a good writer, and explained how old she was and that she'd been writing her own stories since she was a small child.
``That is young to show this much talent, or is that typical for young Forime. I wonder whether our longer lives affect us in that regard.''
``No, Micchi really is exceptional. Normal Forime her age don't have this much talent either. She did start writing at a much younger age than most. I wouldn't say that Forime seem to mature any faster than Arume, though sometimes I wonder about adult Arume who act immaturely. ...though there are plenty of adult Forime like that too.''
Ariel laughed, agreeing that such immaturity seemed to be universal.
Mari'il then gave a brief description of the legend and history of Jeanne d'Arc on Earth.
Ariel found this both interesting and surprising. ``It almost sounds like Jeanne had telepathic abilities, and maybe even those beyond touch. There is an Arume legend or two which also point to that kind of telepathy, but I've always thought they were fiction.''
``They may be,'' answered Mari'il. ``I can imagine that the desire for telepathy would be something shared among all sentient beings.''
``The other thing that seemed special to me is how Michiko depicted the relationship and interaction between Jeanne and the schoolgirl. It seems like that echoes what you've told me about the relationship the two of you had in school there.''
Mari'il smiled. ``Well, the better pieces of it, for the most part.'' She then added, ``We later learned that it was a conversation between the two of us and Tsubael's image-shift that gave Michiko the inspiration to write this play. She never saw Tsubael's image, but seeing us talking to `someone above who wasn't there' made her think of Jeanne d'Arc and her visions. Thankfully we were far enough away that she couldn't hear anything said, and didn't know that we were actually looking at and talking to someone.''
``So then this play really is a gift from her to you. I'm glad I was able to return your copy to you.''
Mari'il smiled, agreeing with the aptness of this description, though she added that Michiko thought the play was a gift from them, specifically Tsubael. The two continued talking about the play and other happenings on Forime for the rest of the lunch.