Chapter 8: Would not, Could not

A/N: I flew across this continent plus a two hour layover on Tuesday and am currently 3,000 miles away from home without a working cell phone. In short, technical difficulties.

Warning: I tried, I really did, but the last scene is just plain depression.


It was sheer luck alone that saved Lukas a night's worth of scouring Anrufen for Matthew. He had just arrived in the city center, leading a very-winded Pansi loosely by the reins past various buildings. His original plan was to wait for nightfall, which was only an hour away, and head straight to the prison first. If he wasn't there, Matthias had a few other choice locations he'd held specific prisoners in the past that would take the rest of the night to search. So maybe he'd lied a bit to Emil about how long it would take but it was always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

The sun was just setting when two very familiar blonde heads filtered through the crowded streets. He'd never seen Matthew before but if the whole "doppelgänger" thing really was true he didn't have to.

The only thing on Lukas' mind at the moment was why in Check they were even outside. Matthew was a prisoner wasn't he? In the grand scheme of things, at least to the knight, Matthias' reasonings didn't matter so much as it allowed him to figure out exactly where they were going.

Lukas wasted no time in following them once they turned a corner, keeping close but not too close to their almost casual walk through the streets. It didn't take him long to realize they weren't going back to a prison of any kind but to the palace of all places.

What's your angle here, Matthias? Theory after theory came and went as he observed from the sidelines. Too far away to hear or see them properly, whatever they could have been talking about was a complete mystery.

The sun's final rays disappeared and once they were gone Lukas began systematically avoid the guards while breaking into his ally's castle. There weren't many guards, a few at the corners, the front gate, and spread throughout the yard. The thing about living with the same type of people for several decades was that eventually everyone's habits and strategies all blended together, regardless of which side they were on.

No plan was perfect. The false conviction that one was, that was the biggest weakness. It was never curiosity but confidence that killed the cat. Confidence in the idea that a versatile mage with nothing to lose would never attack the castle.

With a simple spell that made anyone virtually asleep on their feet, it was almost too easy. The only problem was that he had to get close, really close.

Creeping up behind two stationed in the south tower, they didn't know what hit them.

"Hypna." Two more down for the count. Now hopefully it was smooth sailing to whichever room Matthew was in. As easy and safe as it would have been just to kill them, he still wasn't in enemy territory and it would not look good in the others' eyes.

What was behind door number one? Locked, of course. That could always be remedied but if he had to check each and every locked door in the entire building it would take all night. It was safe to assume that any bedrooms wouldn't be on the first floor anyway.

The only real hindrance was Lukas' lack of knowledge of the floor plan. Whenever he made the trip north (which was rare regardless) he never wanted nor needed to go past the conference hall. Eventually the shifts would change and in a perfect world they'd be halfway to the ocean before anyone raised the alarm.

But it wasn't a perfect world and he had thirty minutes max before all hell broke loose.

Finally making it up the fourth flight of stairs, an orange glow at the end of the hall offered at least some clue that this wasn't a wild goose chase. The glow, as it turned out, was a candle burning softly on the nightstand.

The only occupant of the room was curled up in a nest of blankets, dead to the world. There was no lock on the door, no guard posted outside, and even a balcony that wouldn't be impossible to escape from.

What in Check…? Lukas had come expecting the man to be half dead and in need of therapy. But this? He was living like a freaking prince! Something definitely wasn't right here.

Well… here goes nothing.

Lukas crouched down and gently shook him awake. "Matthew, come on. Wake up."

Bleary violet eyes failed to focus on whatever interrupted their sleep for half a second before bugging out and causing their owner to fall backwards off the bed. "W-who are you?"

Your knight in shining armor. "Here to rescue you."

Matthew stayed exactly where he was, not moving an inch. "That didn't answer my question."

"Do you want to go home or not, Matthew?"

He must've said something wrong because the ace went from scared to absolutely terrified. "Matthias!"

Shit. Guards would be there any second now, including his supposed ally.

"You're Lukas right?" Matthew was half paying attention and half scouring the room for a weapon. He was not getting kidnapped again.

Said presumed kidnapper was incredibly confused. What exactly had Matthias done to him? "I am." Already he could hear the pounding of many pairs of feet in the hallway. "Look, I don't have time to explain everything. I can send you home by tomorrow morning, guaranteed. Are you coming or not?"

"What? But-"

"Yes or no?" They really, really didn't have time for this. Why the hell wasn't he jumping for joy right now?

Oh fuck it, "Hypna." And down the ace went.

Lukas wasn't a strong person, he didn't have to be because he excelled with magic. Which was exactly why he wanted to avoid knocking him out if he could. But there was no time to lament, the guards were here and they had to go.

Slamming the door shut and sparing the second to lock it, Lukas dragged Matthew over to the balcony. Well, it wasn't the most pleasant drop but it was the only escape they had without encountering guards. The balcony overlooked a hill anyway, so instead of a five story drop it was two stories, and there were massive pine trees everywhere. A rather convenient escape route, out of every room in the castle if it was an absolute necessity, which it wasn't.

Instead of trying to scale a tree while lugging 120 pounds of deadweight in near-total darkness, there wasn't much of an option but to defend against the guards. Lukas instantly regretted leaving Pansi so far away, even if they got off the balcony it would take at least a half hour to get back without being seen. If he had to knockout the whole city he could, but that was worst-case scenario- he'd be dead on his feet with exhaustion.

Nope, definitely didn't plan according to circumstance. To be fair he hadn't expected the supposed prisoner to be practically brainwashed into believing Matthias was actually helping him. And that was the only explanation for what had happened not five minutes prior, as ludicrous as it sounded.

It took about as long as it did to lock the door as it did to break down the door. But the guards probably hadn't expected dreamland the second they crossed the threshold. Lukas was not a fan of close combat, he preferred range and being able to move around when needed. That didn't mean he sucked at it though.

The guards ended up defeating themselves in the end, rushing in too fast to avoid getting hit by the sleep spell and dog-piling in the doorway. Others were bound to hear the commotion but surprisingly no one showed up, including the bishop himself.

With a sigh of annoyance mixed with exhaustion, the knight carried/dragged Matthew back down the stairs and out the way he came in, completely ignoring the obvious convenience of it all. Thankfully, the initial victims were still out but the walk to the inner city would not be a fun one.

But at least Matthew was finally on his way home.


Emil was not the happiest rook on the planet. Once again he had to stay back because it was too dangerous for him, he would get in the way, blah, blah, blah. How was that even fair? He was smart, he could fight, and he knew his way around Anrufen as well as the next guy.

Plus, he was good backup should anything happen. And something was always bound to happen when plans had to go perfectly.

Should he have been asleep? Probably. But he wanted to be the first one to chastise Lukas for leaving him home alone. So he was sitting (pouting) on the throne, glaring at the wall, and listening for the sound of hooves on the gravel road.

By the time the sun rose the rook had contorted himself to somehow fit his entire body on the seat of the chair and manage to sleep. At least until someone shook him awake.

A servant silently pointed to the windows out back where a very familiar horse stood in the grass. Emil nearly crashed into the wall in an effort to get outside as fast as possible.

Upon reaching outside he had to check if he was still dreaming. A zombie-esque Lukas was straight dragging some blonde guy through the grass toward the back door, not caring about the man's well being in the slightest.

One exhausted glare told him everything he needed to know. Not now, I'm sleeping for a week. Wake me up and you won't live to regret it. He didn't even bother to finish dragging the blonde inside, just left him at Emil's feet as if to say 'You take care of it.'

The knight shuffled off to his room and Emil just stared down at the man who must be the infamous Matthew.

"Well what am I supposed to do with him?"


Feliks,

Going to Anrufen today, will be back tomorrow evening with Matthew. This will all be over by the end of the week.

Lukas

"You couldn't be bothered to write the date, Luke? Like, seriously? This tells me nothing." The morning after Allistor and the others had arrived this glorious status upstate arrived. He didn't know when it sent, when it was written, or how long it took to get from Lukas to himself. For all he knew Matthew could've been home by now.

But that wasn't what the westerners wanted to hear.

So Feliks kept quiet about it and instead immediately wrote back about their unannounced visitors coming to do the job for him.

Sitting outside a bakery in downtown Carthage, the sailor uniforms made it easy to pick the westerners out from the rest of the population. At the same time though, they blended in so well minus the gawking-like-tourists part. They were people mingling with other people, the only difference was their place of birth.

This isolation from each other, barely acknowledging that the other exists, it was pointless. They couldn't blame their lack of quick ways to cross the ocean anymore; couldn't ignore each other anymore. Even before but especially since the past month. Just because one had renounced the other didn't mean they weren't still connected.

But whatever, it wouldn't matter much once everyone was back on their respective continent. Or at least that's what the other royals would say. People weren't big fans of change. They'd say they would not, could not live with it.

As much as he didn't want to get up, he had to get Allistor on the road to Lukas or else he would have come all the way to Chess for nothing.

It turned out he'd be playing host to twenty foreigners while the rest took six of his beloved ponies east. Yes, he saw where they were coming from. He would be beyond upset if their positions were reversed. But still, what did they plan on doing with five soldiers over there? They didn't want Matthew in Chess anymore than the next guy, it wasn't like they'd have to fight the knight for him.

Allistor couldn't possibly blame the knights for Matthew's disappearance, could he? They were the only ones on the entire continent that were on their side. Maybe it was just precaution though, better to be over-prepared than under.

…Or maybe they brought three entire crews to Chess for something else entirely.

Feliks glanced between the road they had left on an hour ago and the stables that held his last pony. "Damn it."


Yao was tired. He'd finally gotten sleep (if one could count a night of waking up each and every hour for the past two nights sleep) and was taking a break from work. Well no, Alfred kicked him out of the castle for the day to "get a massage or something" and every guard was in on it.

So he was glum. Very glum. Alfred had even taken his sword away and locked it in his room. With nothing else to do, and having already been turned away from the armory, barracks, docks, and blacksmith, he decided the beach was the lesser of five evils.

It was fall, so it wasn't brutally hot out but the sun still had no mercy. He wasn't exactly dressed for the part either, traipsing dejectedly through the powdery sand in high boots and a jacket with too-long sleeves.

The beach wasn't too crowded, only a few families here and there, but there were still people. After a while the sun disappeared behind afternoon storm clouds and Yao hadn't moved from his position on the sand. People began clearing out, not wanting to get caught in the rain, but he didn't care.

"Mr. Yao?" A little voice said from behind him. He turned to see a little blonde girl with pigtails standing there with a beach towel trailing behind her. No family was in sight.

"Hi there."

The girl took that as an invitation to sit and carefully spread out the towel on the sand next to him and crawled onto it. "Why are you sitting alone on the beach?"

He chuckled lightly at her bluntness and sighed. "I don't really know."

She frowned and looked up at the blackening sky. "You know it's gonna rain right?"

"I do. But I don't care, it's just a little water."

"But you'll get wet!"

He turned and smiled at her. "Weren't you just in the ocean? That's wet too."

She looked down at her baiting suit and laughed. "Yeah but that's different! You're supposed to get wet in the ocean."

The jack just shrugged in response. Suddenly the girl wrapped her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she could. "You look sad." She said before he could ask, "Mommy says that when people are sad hugs make them feel better."

Still getting over the shock, he just let her do what she wanted. No harm done anyway. "Your mommy is a smart lady then."

"Why are you sad, Mr. Yao? Is it because of the rain? People shouldn't be sad because it rains."

Yao hesitated before answering, a small voice asking why he was telling her anything. "I'm sad because people I care about are going away."

"People shouldn't be sad about that either." She said firmly. "Mommy says that people you care about never really go away because you always have stuff to remember them by."

It was amazing how intelligent children could be sometimes, how they saw the simplicity of the world and never dwelled on the bad. "I guess she is right." It started to sprinkle, the water peppering the sand with tiny holes as it came. "Bye, bye, Mr. Yao. I have to go home now."

After watching her disappear up the hill, the weight of her words finally sank in. So he stood and brushed the sand off, finally deciding on a destination.


It wasn't the happiest place to visit, not by a log shot but it was special. It was home. Walking slowly amongst the rows of engraved cement, some names were harder to read than others. Most of the occupants were ones he knew closely but some were just letters on stone he'd collected over the years.

You always have stuff to remember them by. It wasn't a big house, or a nice house, but it was a house. Yao's house. Not much of it was still standing after many long years exposed to the elements but the important parts weren't washed away by the rain.

No one else knew but he still came every now and then. Just to say hello really, wipe off the dust, and replace the flowers. No one was buried there but their placeholders meant all the same. Here they meant something, they weren't just names on a rock surrounded by thousands of other names on rocks.

In a chest, safely hidden from time, was that stuff to remember them by. There was a plush rabbit that belonged to his younger brother with the strangest hair curl, a mirror shared by his two sisters, and other little trinkets here and there. Two of the newest occupants of the chest, in a box of their own off to the side, were still vibrant with color.

A little brush with roses painted on it shared a name with its owner and a burnt, crumpled scrap of metal that glinted gold in the sunlight if he held it the right way. They always told him he was a workaholic, that he never set aside time for himself, but he didn't want to. Because when he did this was what came out of it.

With a sigh he put the rabbit back in the chest and locked it tight. This was definitely not what Alfred had in mind when he'd forbade Yao from the castle. They would tell him to stop moping around and feeling sorry for himself. They would tell him he'd survived this long for a reason and he didn't have nothing to show for it. They would tell him to get off his ancient arse and go do something about it.

So he did.


A/N: By the way (I wonder how many actually read these) we're over halfway done here. I've planned up to thirteen but it probably won't surpass fifteen chapters. Also there might be temporary hiatus (Temporary!) before the next update because I have no backup chapters left.