Chapter Four

Morning dawned a bloody red, hanging clouds tinged a depressing hue. Judith stood at the ship's prow, gazing into the sky.

"'The sky mourns, tears of gold and blood in grief for a beloved lost.'" she recited. "'You who grieve below on land tinged dark with death. Cry 'sacrifice' for peace as we bleed.'"

Rita came forward from the back of the deck. "Pretty sad poem, what's it from?"

Judith did not turn. "It's from a collection of poems written in the last war. That particular one was written by our current queen, Hosenka."

"Yuri's mother?"

"Yes."

Rita leaned against the rail. "You seem to know her."

"I do, Hoshino and I were very close growing up. I spent half of my days in the palace, she made a point of watching over us herself."

"Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard you call him Yuri."

Judith gave a her companion a small smile. "I made it a point not to. I recognized him right away, but he has such a good poker face that I couldn't tell if he knew it was me or not." she said softly, turning around. "I'd better help him get ready, we will arrive in less than six hours."

Rita shook her head. "Six hours? Why start now?"

"He's wounded, ill, and not going to be able to move quickly. We have to start now or we'll be rushing later."

Down below Yuri was just waking up. Estelle and Karol fussed over him as he blearily raised his head from the pillows.

"Yuri, how are you feeling? Are you hurting anywhere?" asked Estelle. "Do you need anything?"

Yuri only swatted blindly at her, as if batting away something, mumbling incoherently. Judith laughed and patted his face with a damp cloth. "Ohayo Hoshino-kun. Wake up sleepyhead."

"Ara? Juu-chan?" Yuri blinked, and sat up slowly, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "What's going on?"

"We'll be in Dhangrest in a few hours, you need to get ready to meet the guilds. Do you have anything presentable to wear?"

Yuri yawned widely and flicked his wrist, a bundle of dark fabric appearing in a flicker of light to his hand. He dumped this cloth in Judith's hands and repeated the procedure twice more, one other cloth parcel and a decorative wooden jewelry box.

Raven raised a brow. "What was that?"

"'Hammerspace'." said Judith. "Don't ask me why it's called that, but it's a fold in space around a person that can hold innumerable items. You only need a measure of mana control to access your personal space."

Raven laughed. "So that's why the kid never loses his scabbard when he flings it away the way he does, and how you always have things ready out of nowhere."

"Exactly, how do you think I carry my spears?"

Judith did a similar thing and pulled out three spears cheekily before a wooden box, two large bundles of clothes, and a standard medic's case.

Using the medic's case first she redressed Yuri's wounds and bound them tightly, then gently coaxed his wings to recede into his back once more. It wasn't a pleasant procedure, with nearly as many cracking and wrenching sounds as when they emerged, and seemed to cause Yuri just as much pain as before.

That done Judith gave the swordsman a potion for the pain and set about combing his impressive dark hair.

Rita and Karol looked rather ill from the horrid noise Yuri's wings made, but they were still curious.

"Hey Yuri? How do those huge wings fit in your back?" asked Karol, prodding ever so gently at the now noticeable ridges behind Yuri's shoulderblades. "Is that normal for Umourians?"

"Yes, they're normal." replied Yuri, his voice low. "Hardly any of us are born without them. They are partially made of our mana, so their physical mass is very low. It gets easier to fledge the more you do it, but living in Zaphias doesn't go well with flying."

Rita made a face. "So that nasty cracking sound is because your wings are stiff? That's a bit extreme."

"Think of it as fragments of bone joined by 'muscles' of energy. If you haven't mastered flight there isn't much power holding your incorporeal wings together, so it takes more energy to reform them." said Judith. "Late fledging like Hoshino's is painful, with so many untested muscles and raw nerves. The bloodloss and aer poisoning didn't help either."

With Yuri's hair tamed and in a loose tie the lancer helped him into a set of beautifully worked robes over dark pants that created a long and flowing silhouette. An over robe of even finer quality went over it, the bell-like sleeves long enough to brush the ground and the wrist length enough to obscure his hands.

"Wow, where on earth did you get those clothes?" asked Estelle. "They're beautiful."

"My younger brother Yue brought them to me when he visited me last. These clothes arewhat I would be wearing to my duties as Umoujin Crown Prince."

"Really? Do you have a crown?" asked Harry, the guildsman. "I've wondered if the Umourian royalty was anything like the Empire."

"Hardly. The royal family doesn't wear crowns, we wear heirloom ornaments that are restricted to only us. As Vesperia, only I can wear the royal dark diamonds."

The jewelry box contained hairpins set with purple diamonds and platinum, a pendant with the Vesperia star crest, several rings, ear clips, and hair beads. Judith worked his hair into a high tail and put in two of the hair pins, clasping the long locks at the side with silver tube beads. With the hair done she opened her own jewelry box, which contained cosmetics, and carefully covered a dark red welt that marred his right cheek.

"What's with the makeup?" asked Karol. "I can sorta understand covering the scar, but what's the black for?" he said, pointing out a disk of black makeup Judith had pulled out.

"That's eyeliner." she said, putting down the foundation and picking up the black. "Both men and women wear it in formal occasions, it brings out the intensity of eye color."

Several minutes of careful, delicate work and Yuri was ready. The finished look was spectacular, long flowing robes of dark, deepest violet with shimmering patterns of silver, his hair rich and glossy with diamond ornaments shining dark purple, and his eyes outlined with the thinnest lines of black that made the color, same as his diamonds, stand out.

The only comment came from Raven.

"Damn, he cleans up nice."

Rita smacked him.

-xXx

True to Judith's prediction they pulled into Dhangrest's river harbor six hours after her initial statement. Stepping out onto the decks, the group's appearance stunned all in the vicinity.

Judith had dressed herself in a swallowtail skirt over dark blue leggings and a long sleeved version of her normal top, but the front of the bodice was more conservative. Her lilac hair was left in a high tail to trail to her hips, and the streaming strands of blue gathered into it as well. Her krytian ears were revealed to the group to be extensions, her real ears only half the standard length, coming to delicate points. She outlined her eyes in thicker lines of black than Yuri, and put rich pink color on her lips.

Together she and Yuri looked stunning as a pair, every inch Umoujin nobility. The harbor master nearly lost his composure before sending his fastest runner with a message to the Don.

'An Umourian envoy has arrived, and they look important!'

The party walked slowly through town, a pace set not to aggravate Yuri's extensive injuries. By the time they reached Union Headquarters the Don was well prepared to receive his guests.

Coincidentally there was also Imperial presence. Ioder was working with the Don on the treaty.

Ever gracious, the Imperial Prince bowed respectfully to the visitors before noticing Estelle with a start.

"Estelisse! What are you doing with an Umourian envoy?" he asked, stunned.

The Don also voiced his confusion. "I'd like to know as well, what's a princess like yourself doing with these people when you're supposed to be with Yuri Lowell's group?"

Estelle remained silent, only glancing at Yuri shyly.

"I am Yuri." he said, stepping forward. "The name Yuri Lowell is an alias I have used for ten years. I am Hoshino Vesperia, crown prince of the Umoujin royal line."

Ioder faltered. "Excuse me, you're a...prince?"

The Don, however, rumbled a laugh. "Heh heh, I should'a noticed before." he chuckled. "If it weren't for your colorin' you'd be the spitting image of your mother. Great woman, Hosenka."

Yuri quirked a brow in question. "You've met my mother in person?"

"Yep, I got to visit your city a couple years back. Now, what're you here for, dressed up like that?"

"One, I am returning your grandson." said Yuri, waving Harry forward. "He has something to confess to, and I have bad news."

"Harry? What have you been doing?"

Harry looked positively miserable. "Grandfather, I've made a horrible mistake." he said. "I heard from Leviathan's Claw that a monster with apatheia had captured Belius, so I hired the Hunting Blades to help rescue her."

Whitehorse's eyes widened. "You didn't..."

"He did. Your grandson did not know Belius was an Entelexia, and neither did the Hunting Blades. They attacked the Coliseum on the first night of the new moon. Half of Palletralle's forces protecting the city fell in the battle, mostly to guildsman blades." reported Raven solemnly. "I nabbed the kid here on our way out."

"Is Belius alright?"

Yuri hung his head and motioned to Judith. She brought out a wrapped parcel, and undid the binding to reveal the cyan crystal that was Belius's apatheia.

"No...is that...?"

"Belius died in battle." said Yuri. "I was wounded in the fight, and princess Estelisse attempted to heal me, not knowing her special power resonates dangerously with apatheia. The reaction drove Duce Belius out of control, and she went feral. I...I was forced to put her down."

Judith rewrapped the crystal in it's covering. "She died quickly, and still in possession of her own mind. There was no way for us to reverse her feral state, we had no other option than to honor her last wish."

"Than the actions of Altosk led to a guildmaster's death...this isn't good. When did this happen?"

"The night before last."

Ioder blinked. "That soon? How on earth did you make it here so fast?"

Rita stepped forward. "Our ship's engine blastia was recently replaced with a new model. I examined the new formula, and found it to be highly unstable and incomplete. The formula reacted with the apatheia to boost the engine's output by a factor of ten. The engine is now being dismantled because of possible aer anomolies caused by the unstable formula, similar new formula blastia are just as much a danger all over the empire. Aer fluctuations are dangerous to the balance of the ecosystem and cause massive discrepancies in the normal function of everyday occurrences, the monster surge attacks last month for instance."

Whitehorse raised a brow. "You're positive of this?"

"Yes. The Aer Krene, the sources of the world's aer, have been over-producing aer in response to the increased drain. Low levels are one problem, but overabundance is even deadlier." Rita said, voice grave. "I still have more tests and observations to make before I can predict certain kinds of effects of this phenomenon, but I am certain of the danger this poses."

"The Hermes model blastia are a danger to the stability of our world, but we have more immediate problems to deal with." said Yuri sharply. "This matter of Belius' death must be resolved before more lives are claimed here."

Judith tapped him on the shoulder gently. "Hoshino, you should sit down, you're looking very pale. Don, can we move this discussion to another room, Hoshino needs to rest because of his injuries."

The guildmaster nodded. "We can talk in the meeting hall." he said, getting out of his chair and leading the way. "Our prince here doesn't look so good."

The large group relocated to the much larger room, furnished with a massive conference table. The Don gracefully offered Yuri his larger, more comfortable seat at the head of the table and ordered that a Umourian master healer be found as soon as possible, as well as refreshments for what would surely be a very long discussion.

-xXx

Hours passed, arguments flying back and forth as more guild leaders and delegates were brought in.

Eventually Yuri got tired of the bickering and made a loud thunderclap sound with a snap of mana, shocking the hall into silence.

"Enough, we aren't getting anything done here. The fact remains that a guildmaster is dead because of the actions of no fewer than three guilds, and Pallestralle's numbers have been halved in the massacre." he bit out, voice sharper than his blades. "Leviathan's Claw gave Altosk incomplete and misleading information, that a 'monster' with an Apathea was in Nordepolica. Altosk contracted the Hunting Blades to assist in killing this monster, but without verifying the information received from an obviously dubious source, while the Hunting Blades went on in their usual bull-headed fashion killing everything in their paths. While the three guilds triggered the events that lead to the Duce's death, the actual act of her execution was carried out by myself as her last sentient request."

"Wait, you killed the Duce?" asked one guildmaster. "Then shouldn't we be seeking retribution from you?"

"No. Prince Hoshino was acting on Belius' wishes. Entelexia cannot recover from such deeply feral states, and would rather die than become senseless monsters." Judith said, silencing the chatter that the guildmaster's comment incited. "Given that the Duce has had a close relationship with the Umoujin royal family for decades, a copy of her Last Will should be in the royal archives, this document will be brought before you in a few weeks time and the matter should be clearly outlined. Please be patient until the Will can be safely brought here, and keep in mind that the royal family is also involved, so normal guild procedure is void in this situation."

All the gathered guildsmen backed down, even the more volatile of their numbers were cowed by the sheer pressure of politics. In the silence, the Don stood up.

"If we're done discussing the subject, I have another topic of interest." he said, getting everyone's attention. "I have heard that the prince here has a guild of his own, isn't that right?"

Yuri nodded. "Yes. I intend to make this a warrior's guild for my people, a regiment of fighters in this time of unrest. Brave Vesperia will also serve as a point of contact between the guilds of Dhangrest and the Umoujin, something that has not existed before. Do the guildmasters have any objection to this?"

There was a general murmer of agreement, and the matter was accepted, a motion made and carried to recognize Brave Vesperia as the new master guild in replacement of the now defunct Blood Alliance. With that taken care of the meeting was adjourned and everyone was dismissed. Once the hall was cleared the guildmaster of the healer's guild, called Blessed Ring, approached.

"Your highness, are you well?" he asked, taking Yuri's hand and feeling his pulse, face reflecting his concern. "You are feverish and your heart is beating irregularly, what in the god's name have you done to yourself?"

Yuri chuckled quietly. "Aer Poisoning would do that to a person master Tachi, but yes, it's nice to see you again too."

The guildmaster, Tachi, met Yuri's eyes with a rueful smile. "Well met my prince, but we must take you to more comfortable quarters, I need to examine you properly. Master Whitehorse, may we use the guest rooms on the ground floor?"

The Don nodded and sent a servant to get the rooms prepared. "No problem, don't think he should be climbing stairs anyway if he's looking that pale. You look like you lost a lot of blood prince."

"You don't know the half of it."

-xXx