Final chapter!
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"This one."
She looked at the label on the bottle of burgundy wine and balked. Not just at the gold lettering, though that was certainly part of it.
"Albel, that's more than I make in a month."
"You defeated enough of those creatures to earn this," he said with worrying certainty, made more concerning by the fact that he was right. She paid for the bottle even as he took it from her hand and headed over to one of the tavern's tables. Pocketing what little remained of her money after the tavernkeeper took his due, she followed Albel. The two goblets on the table weren't subtle. What they were was deep and if Nox had his way, soon to be full.
"Nox, don't you think…"
She broke off, watching him. He was experiencing some difficulty trying to open the bottle. The gauntlet was out of commission and he didn't even want to use the claws as crude corkscrews, so he was stuck trying to hold it in the crook of his elbow and wrench the cork out. Sighing, she asked for a corkscrew from the tavernkeeper, got one, and returned to the table and Albel the Wicked, still being outclassed by a piece of porous wood. She held out a hand for the bottle. Scowling, he handed it over.
"Don't you think there's a better time for this?" she asked, beginning to prize the cork out of the bottle. "Your king thinks you're dead or a traitor."
"And that's a conversation you think I'm eager to rush into, Aquarian?" Albel laughed once, accepting the uncorked bottle as she handed it over.
"I think it's a conversation that should happen when you're sober," she said.
He filled his goblet but not hers. The dark eyes, near hidden under the bangs flicked up to her as his hand canted the bottle back, the wine slowing to a dark red trickle.
"My king is shortly going to learn that I am not dead or a traitor. I think he will prefer me warm and content and easily restrained. Wine or brandy, Aquarian?"
"What?" Her mind had tripped up on the 'easily restrained' and she had missed the thread of conversation. "Neither. One of us should keep a head."
He signaled the tavernkeeper. "Brandy."
"Nox. No."
"For your back," he said, taking an appreciative sip of the wine. "Medicinal."
"I didn't think you knew big words like that," she said, leaning back in her chair as the bartender filled her goblet with brandy. Filled it. There was no way she was going to drink that before a royal interview!
"You realize if you had poured that, I wouldn't even touch it," she told Albel.
He sipped at his goblet and nodded, setting the drink on the table with a gentle sound of metal meeting wood. They sat in silence for perhaps ten minutes, mulling over the old war. After that, they talked a little on what it had been like to travel in space to battle foreign masters of all reality. She was surprised, and not surprised, to find that Albel didn't think the man could really do all of what he said. Just a whole hell of a lot of it and could back it up with fighting ability.
They had one of the more clandestine tables and their conversation went on, off and on, for another half hour, as Albel worked his way through half the wine bottle and Nel through a fourth of the goblet's brandy. It took the Airyglyphian chill off in a way that artificial warmth and heavier clothing couldn't and her back felt less like a furnace.
Finally, Albel stood, his chair scooting back on the stone floor.
"Ready now?" Nel asked, following his example.
"Once you present yourself to the king, you can leave."
"Excuse me?"
"Leave for an inn, leave for home, I don't care, Aquarian."
Insufferable-! She stopped herself from responding and dipped her head politely, saying nothing. This had the intended effect of bothering him immensely all the way back to the Airyglyphian castle, constantly looking over his shoulder. Constantly almost-sorta-kinda wanting to ask her what her reaction would be, if she said it.
A far cry from the man she originally left Airyglyph with weeks prior.
The guards at the castle let them in without complaint because Albel strode in like a storm on the horizon, growling 'the Aquarian is mine' (apparently 'with me' was too complicated), and shoved open the door to the audience chamber with great force, sending it swinging inwards.
"Lord Albel Nox," an unfortunate crier said belatedly. Then, spotting Nel: "And the Crimson Blade, Lady Nel Zelpher!"
"Lord Albel," the king said without surprise. He had probably been warned. "You return."
"With the Lady Nel, head still attached. Even breathing." Albel gestured at her illustratively.
"No one thought you would kill her—"
"That is a lie," Albel retorted.
NOW the king looked surprised. So did Albel, face locking in a semi-paralyzed 'did I just say what I think I said'. It was too good to pass up. Nel nudged him.
"Sober, you wouldn't have done that."
"Hmph." The paralyzed look disappeared and he settled for bowing his head slightly, muttering about apologies.
"My Lord Arzei," Nel said, dropping to one knee (as Albel should have done and still hadn't). "Lord Albel and I have returned safely, though I am in need of some rest before I return to Aquaria. It is for this reason that I have circumvented the ruling about returning to Aquaria immediately. Lord Albel assisted me. Please don't judge him too harshly. If it suits you, I can write a letter to my Queen, explaining."
"Of course, Lady Nel. We are pleased to see you both alive and well. Evidence suggested otherwise." The monarch's eyes still drifted to Albel, puzzled and more than a little bemused. "Though we received reports of your arrival as early as an hour ago."
"A prior obligation," Nel said.
"You let him drink wine, didn't you."
"I assure you, if I knew he was going to insult you in that way—"
"I apologize, my Lord!" Albel said finally, as if breaking out of a minutes-long fugue. "And the Aquarian can go now."
Again, the king looked surprised. "I will need a full briefing from both of you and you did break in here, rather than me sending from you. This was a joint mission of both Aquaria and Airyglyph."
"Are you worried I'm going to report on you?" Nel asked in an undertone, glancing over at the man as the king went on. Albel's gaze had shifted to the dark shadows behind the throne and stuck there. Due to the unusual way in which he had entered the chambers, his katana hadn't been taken by the guards and was still at his belt. The claws at the end of the gauntlet twitched, though the strain in his neck made it clear the motion was anything but intentional. Nel sidled closer to him.
"Nox. Safe ground. Don't pull a sword in here."
"Shut up, Aquarian." Still, he forced his stance into a less hostile one, brought his hand away from the hilt of his katana. Yes, he had been worried about her telling the king about his behavior. If even he was capable of recognizing it in himself, it was a problem serious enough to warrant telling the king and he didn't want her to.
All the same, the king was watching them with interest. Nel sidled away, suddenly realized how intimate it must look.
"My Lord Arzei, I can explain—"
The king waved a hand lightly. "No need, I have seen this behavior before in some of my best and most trusted warriors. I know you Aquarians have your care houses and we Airyglyphians used to use it to its advantage. Lord Nox, a new gauntlet will have to be devised for you. Until that time, I am removing you from duty, patrol or mission-based, and confining you to the city. Do not blame Lady Zelpher, it is something I have been aware of for some time. I shouldn't have let you go on the mission at all but," he sighed and Nel knew what that sigh meant. "It is a strain to have you trapped in the city."
The man's eyes went narrow and angry. He refused to look at Nel, his next words a reluctant hiss.
"I'll die of boredom."
That was his own business; the topic of 'death' had reminded Nel that they had come very close to it from another source.
"My Lord Arzei, it will be included in our mission briefing but I would like to say now that no further contact should be made with the Marquis."
"The great dragon? We didn't plan to make any further contact with the beast." The king looked puzzled—again. Understandable though, as the flow of the conversation had been anything but logical.
"I do not recommend doing so. Ever again," Nel said.
"You bothered him, didn't you." Another question not meant to be answered, accompanied by a deadpan expression. Oh to be the beleaguered ruler of Airyglyph…
"The worm is the reason the Lady Nel's back is so badly injured and why she must stay here for the next few days until it is repaired," Albel interrupted, the words emphatic and yet steeped in conviction; this was what had to happen, what would happen. Both the king and Nel stared at Albel. The man gestured dismissively at her.
"I will die of boredom, Aquarian, and you go swanning off right back into the fray? Hardly fair."
"Swanning—I have responsibilities, Nox! And I bought you your damn wine already. My obligations here are done."
Airyglyph was a decent town—things were cheap here, the beds warm, and several of Aquaria's doctors were already here, teaching the Airyglyph doctors who were willing to learn the basics of runeology—but it wasn't a vacation. And if she accepted this proposal, Clair and her subordinates were never going to let her hear the end of it.
"My Lord Arzei, please let me know when we can give you our briefing." She bowed. "I will be at the inn, preparing a report for my Queen and yourself."
"Thank you, Zelpher, you are dismissed."
As she shut the door behind herself, she heard the lecture begin.
#
The reports more or less wrote themselves and ended with a pretty statement like "as a result, relations between Aquaria and Airyglyph have improved, though our asset in the form of air dragon Lord Crossel i.e. the Marquis, has been irrevocably damaged, likely beyond repair. This is Albel's fault."
She crossed out the last line. Wrote it in again. Crossed it out.
Play nice.
She left it crossed out. Once more, she calculated how long it would take her to get home if she left tomorrow morning.
Albel had already been by this evening. He hadn't appeared to want to come and there was good reason: he wore a long-sleeved unfamiliar coat, one sleeve of which hung distressingly empty. The constant wind played with it.
"The sentimental fool said to say thank you," he said when she opened the door. Since all inns required payment in advance, a couple of the rooms had doors to the street to facilitate guests' coming and going. Hers was one of those, which had pleased her, given her profession and the fact that the castle had paid for her lodging.
She blinked a couple of times. Given that it was Albel, the sentimental fool could be anyone from a small child playing in the street to the king. She opted for the latter.
"You're welcome."
"Safe journey."
She lifted an eyebrow, really surprised now and opened the door a bit wider, letting the light out into the night street.
"He said that too?"
"…"
"I'm joking." Then, because the wine and the life-saving and everything might have muddled it: "Thank you, Nox. Whatever you did during the war, you weren't the worst, and you're helping us now. You have saved my life and I'm grateful for that."
He stood there a moment, as if digesting her statement, then said:
"You don't even want to kill me anymore. How boring."
"If I did, you'd be dead," she said, crossing her arms. She allowed herself a smile too. Albel the Wicked was voluntarily passing the time with an Aquarian and nobody was dying.
"A worthy opponent," he said. "Go home."
"I thought you wanted me to stay?"
"I was drunk and you annoy me. Come back often enough that I don't get bored, fool."
"How often is that?" she asked, curious despite her better judgment. A year? Two years? How often did Albel get bored and how often was he going to stir up trouble to prevent boredom?
"You'll know when I show up in Aquios," he called back, sneer in his voice. Nel sighed. Maybe, if she was really, spectacularly lucky, she wouldn't be seeing him at the (obligatory) Holy Festival of Apris with its 48 royal ceremonies and long prayers and hundreds of devout Apris followers who still feared Airyglyph and the Wicked take-no-prisoners fiend it had spawned. Maybe he wouldn't come.
But she wasn't going to count on it.
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That's all there is, there isn't any more. Thank you for reading! I'm glad I could contribute this to the world of Nelbel. Conflicting personalities never really get old for me. If you enjoyed it, please do comment, as I'd love to hear from you. :)