Sorry for the long update wait, I'm currently trying to juggle a lot of things at the moment.

Chapter 8

No matter how hard she tried, Rosa found that she could not dislike Akiko, her maid. Not in good conscience. There was something about the girl's boundless enthusiasm that she found hard to hate. It wasn't an active, bouncy kind of enthusiasm, but rather a more quiet joy and determination to serve her mistress as well as she could. The priestess tried to strengthen her resolve by thinking that the girl only did this out of a sense of duty and privately thought cruel things about her mistress. However, there was a sincerity in her actions and eyes that said otherwise. Ever since the maid had laid eyes on her new mistress, and quietly said how pretty the priestess was, she seemed to do everything she could to make Rosa as comfortable as possible.

Rosa's initial coldness had not put the girl off. Akiko had suggested activity after activity, brought new clothes, which the priestess refused to touch, and constantly suggested going for walks in the garden. When food was brought, she showed her how to eat it with the strange instruments, hashi – long wooden sticks that she had no idea how to use – and say what everything was. Rosa had finally given into boredom and let the maid teach her how to play Go, and the other girl's happiness was unmistakable.

That's what they were doing now. The priestess of Cosmos was still getting to grips with the rules of the game, but, looking up at the girl opposite her, she realised that she was developing a strong affection for Akiko. Cecil had been right when he had said that they were about the same age. Like most Jenovans she had seen, the girl had silver hair, which she pulled back into a loose ponytail. She had a slime frame, another common trait she had noticed about the native woman, and bright green eyes. She wondered if all Jenovans had such bright eyes.

Cecil also hadn't been lying about another fact; the girl spoke a little Celtic and she soon discovered how true the little part was. While they were able to communicate simple matters, more complex conversation was difficult. Her sentences were often wrong, but not necessarily beyond understanding, while gestures still played an important part of their communications.

Rosa placed one of the smooth, pebble-like piece, on the board taking one of her opponent's black ones.

Akiko smiled up at her. "Lady Rosa has winned."

The priestess smiled back, not having the heart to correct the 'winned'. To begin with she would always correct the girl out of spite, not that Akiko always understood what was wrong, but now she had warmed up to her. However, she'd given up trying to get the maid to refer to her as 'priestess' rather than 'lady', the Jenovan just wouldn't do it.

The door opened and a servant slipped inside. The new servant's eyes drifted to Rosa, a practice that the priestess was getting used to, before she spoke to Akiko.

"Onsen ha goyoui shimashita." Her voice was curt and she didn't wait for Akiko to respond before slipping back out of the room.

Her maid turned to her. "Lady Rosa can wash?"

The priestess was slightly taken aback by the sudden comment. She was about to object that she had no need of a bath when she caught sight of her robes. The once pure white cloth looked grey, the occasional stain spotting the front. Her hair hung limply around her shoulders, unpleasant to touch, and she realised that she must smell terrible. After all that had happened, she'd never really given a thought to the change in her bathing habits. When she was still in Zanarkand, she would have started each morning, at day break, by cleansing herself in the temple pool, followed by an anointing by a high priestess, so that her body and mind were clean for the day ahead. Rosa used to smell of incense and sweet oils, but no more.

The girl's throat tightened. She'd never smell those scents again, not in this new land with strange new smells. Everything she had grown up with, the smells of the temple, the ritual routines, the sounds of chanting, the bustle of the market and the sight of the guards. She closed her eyes against the rising nausea of homesickness. She wanted to go home.

"Lady Rosa?" She opened her eyes and looked up at her maid, watching her nervously. "Bath…please?"

Rosa nearly laughed. She must really smell bad. "Yes, I'd like a bath."

Akiko relaxed and, smiling slightly, she stood and led her mistress from the room. It must have been one of the first times that Rosa had been in the corridors since she had arrived. Everything was so different. She didn't think she'd ever seen so much wood in her life, and the use of paper everywhere turned her head. Lord Cecil must be a very rich man to be able to afford so much paper, and for such bizarre uses as well. It was a strangeness that made her nerves rise as she stepped further and further away from the comfort of the room she'd been staying in.

It didn't help that the servants all stopped to stare at her, their expressions a mixture of curiosity, wonder and disgust. They stayed away from her, but she could hear whispers as she walked by.

"Ano kata Cecilsamano gaikokujindesuka."

She knew they were talking about her and it made her skin prickle uncomfortably. She tried to hold her head up high, but hushed tones battered against her confidence. She tried to pick out what they were saying, but all she achieved was to make her more agitated at her lack of understanding. No matter how clearly she could hear the voices, she'd never be able to know what they said.

"Gaijin nominna wa konna ni iya na nioi ga suru no."

"Kimochi warui yo ne." Rosa turned her head, searching for the owners of the voices, but no one meet her eyes. All she saw were silver and pale blonde heads blending into the background.

"Cecil-sama no onsen ga yogoredarake ni naru hazu desu."

Recognising the Lord's name, Rosa once again tried to catch sight of the speaker. The name leapt out amongst the sea of nonsense. However, she barely had time to glance back when she heard another hiss behind her.

"Egetsunai gaijin."

The voice was filled with such disgust that it made her flinch, and she found herself drawing closer to her maidservant. They hated her, all of them. She hated this place, for all its strangeness and the way it made her feel so alone. She was beginning to realise how isolated she was. Akiko looked back at her.

"Is Lady Rosa well?"

"They hate me."

"Hate?"

"Dislike very much."

She seemed to understand. "Lord Cecil likes Rosa."

Rosa wished he didn't; she wouldn't be in this mess if that was the case. She wasn't looking forward to his return, an occasion that would hold much uncertainty, and yet…and yet part of her yearned for a friendly face. It was part of her that she couldn't accept, she couldn't trust her captor.

Akiko seemed to realise that her comment hadn't given Rosa any comfort and she continued.

"I like Lady Rosa."

She nearly stopped in her tracks at the girl's admittance. There was a slight nervousness in her maid's expression, as if wondering if she had overstepped her boundaries. The girl was so different to the other servants that Rosa couldn't help but smile. Akiko seemed to relax and returned Rosa's smile in a way that made the priestess very glad.

It was then that Rosa realised how very lonely she was. She had been so caught up with other matters that she hadn't realised how much, until now. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to have a friend by her. Akiko had been good to her, no matter how cold she was, and she'd never made the effort to repeat the favour. If she was stuck here anyway, then surely she deserved one person she could look to as a friend. With this in mind, the stares didn't seem quite so harsh or the whispers so intimidating.

Akiko stopped and slid a door back, stepping to the side to allow her mistress to pass. Rosa stopped, startled, this wasn't what she was expecting. The mention of a bath had conjured up images of a large stone room with a sunken pool, the waters heated by fires under the floor. The reality could not be further from the truth. She wasn't even indoors anymore. She could see the stars far above their heads and the trees reached above the tall wooden fences that marked off the area and gave the bather privacy. The bath was curious, it didn't seem to be manmade, but rather a large rock pool which let off a slight unpleasant order. Steam rose from the water.

Steam. The sight seemed to pull her towards the waters. If there was steam that must mean…

"The water is hot?" She'd never have thought the Jenovans would be able to heat their baths.

"Yes," Akiko closed the door behind them, "water of the mountain."

"Is all mountain water hot?" She never thought it would be.

The maid shook her head. "No, but…" Rosa recognised the look on Akiko's face. It was the look she had whenever she was looking for a word or wondering how to structure a sentence. "Onsen is hot."

It didn't explain anything to her; she just guessed that the bath was an 'onsen', not that it mattered. She let the tips of her fingers dip into the waters and pulled them back roughly from the heat. It really was hot. She lowered her fingers in slower, keeping them there till they grew used to the hot waters. She smiled. A hot bath sounded almost divine and her body seemed to beg to be submerged in the waters, to rinse away the filth and rest her mind.

Reaching up she unpinned her robes where it was held at her shoulders. The material fell away, and bunched around the cord tied at her waist.

"Akiko-chan!"

The shout came from the other side of the door. Bowing to her mistress, the girl in question promised to return 'quick'. As the maid stepped towards the door, Rosa quickly stepped to the side and out of view. While she didn't mind Akiko being present while she undressed, she was used to bathing with her sisters after all, she certainly didn't want to be seen half naked by any passerby.

Rosa watched as the other girl disappeared back into the building. She hesitated for a moment, before swiftly moving back towards the door. She may not be able to understand what they were saying, but she could pick up on tones.

"…onsen ni haitteiru?," The new voice hissed, the deepest suggesting that the woman was older than Akiko.

Rosa untied the cord from around her waist slowly as she listened to the exchange.

"Cecil-sama no shoukyaku no desu."

"Gaijin na inpu desu." It was very clear from way the words were spat out that the comment was unpleasant.

If the older woman had been speaking to Rosa, than the priestess would have shrunk away from the tone, but Akiko stayed firm. Her voice held a determined edge to it.

"Roza-sama wa Cecil-sama no shoukyaku desu." The same words as last time, she was sure. Whatever she was saying, Akiko must think it was a very important point to base her argument on it.

The elder woman hissed something undetectable and, much to Rosa's relief, she could hear her walk away. The door opened and Rosa quickly removed her dress, not wanting to appear as if she was eavesdropping. She picked up the cloth as Akiko stepped into the room, holding it in front of her. The maid bowed to her once more and reached forward to take again the dress.

Panicking, the priestess quickly stepped away, clutching the robes to her. "I need them."

Akiko quickly shuffled past her, stopping by a small raised platform. She bend over a basket that lay on top, setting aside a large piece of cloth that Rose assumed was to dry herself with, and picked up a bundle. Turning she presented it to her mistress. In Akiko's hands was a dress, not the Jenovan clothing that the other girl wore, but a real Celtic style dress. It looked a little wrong, though she couldn't place how.

She had to admit that she was grateful for the girl considering her, if not a little surprised that she could find such clothes in Shinra, but she shook her head. Her robes were a mark of her order, she could not simple discard them to one side. Throw away her upbringing, beliefs and all she had worked for. Though a small voice at the back of her head pointed out that it hardly mattered what robes she wore. A priestess of Cosmos was a priestess of Cosmos. No, this robe was the only thing she had left of her home.

(&)

"For the love of the Great Goddess Ultimecia, if we do not stop to bathe before the end of the night, I will be forced to kill you," Kain growled across at his friend, shifting on top of his horse.

Cecil turned, not in the least perturbed by his friend's threat. "I am afraid that I have no idea where the closest town is. For all I know, it maybe four days rides from here."

"I do not see why we cannot just return to the river and ride beside it."

Here they go again. They'd had this discussion every other day since they'd parted ways with Firion.

"Because, the lord of these lands is a poor protector. The river is a common road for caravans, but it is also swarming with bandits. If we went that way, we risk having to fight our way down stream."

"But we would be able to bathe."

"Yes, but your clothes and horse would be stolen."

"At the moment, I am willing to take that risk."

Cecil smiled across at his friend. "Perhaps I should let you. It would entertain me no end to see you roam the Celtic lands naked."

Kain shot his friend a deadly glare. Apparently, he was not in the mood for jokes. "We can take care of any bandits."

"Perhaps, but if we have to fight every group of petty bandits from here to the Atlanta Sea, then our journey will take us six years, not six months and we would attract much attention. I would rather avoid pointless fightingin order to achieve our mission quickly and smoothly."

Kain looked ahead of them. "You may not get your wish, friend."

Following Kain's gaze, Cecil looked back down the dirt road before them. Three men had stepped out into their path.

"Let us hope that you are wrong."

The men watched as the mounted Jenovans drew closer to their human road block. Cecil and Kain pulled their horses to a halt several feet from the Celts.

"Good afternoon, strangers." Cecil switched to Celtic, keeping his tone friendly. "Perhaps you can help my friend and I. We wish to spend the night at an inn; can you direct us to the nearest town?"

"That I can," the central man said, obviously the leader, "but it will cost ye more than a few coins."

"Then I am afraid that we have nothing to offer you. We are simple travellers, carrying little money."

The man on the right snorted. "On such strange animals? I think you lie; what do you think, Padraig?"

The first man, Padraig, smirked. "I think you are right, Gairdh. What do think, Iain?"

"I think men with such lordly bearings must carry a lot of gold on them." The voice came from behind them and Cecil turned his head to see that three more men had come up behind them.

"How kind," Kain muttered dryly.

"If you have no money," Padraig called to them, "then we can take that spear as payment."

"The only way you will have my weapon is when it impales your body," Kain growled, his eyes narrowing dangerously, as his hand grasped the spear handle.

If Cecil let this continue, then they really would be thrown into a blood bath. He wanted to avoid that, no matter how one-sided it would be.

"Then we shall continue on our way."

Cecil was about to kick his horse forward when Padraig interrupted him again. "Not so fast. There is a tax if you want to pass through my land."

"Your land?" Kain's question was tinged with amusement. "Times must be hard for the lord of these lands to be reduced to such pitiful work. I must apologise, I thought you a petty thief."

The thug's eyes narrowed and Cecil kept his exasperation from his face. It looked as if Kain was determined to draw them into a conflict. If this continued, Rosa would get her wish and he would never return home due to Cecil catching a nasty case of death.

He switched back to his native tongue to speak to Kain. "I was trying to avoid a fight."

"I know," Kain curtly replied, "but do you truly think we can avoid this fight?"

"I can try."

"Hmph, then you are a fool. Even if they take our money they will try to kill us."

Cecil didn't take Kain's jibe to heart; he didn't really think that Cecil was a fool. His eyes slide back to the men standing behind them. The centre man, Iain, carried a heavy sword by his waist. Cecil sniffed disapprovingly at the rust coating the blade. To his right was a redheaded man with an axe, while on the left was a young boy looking nervous.

"There are six of them, but we should be able to charge straight through the ones before us."

"Oi, what are you talking about?" They ignored Padraig.

"Run away from this scum?" Kain all but sneered. "We can crush them easily."

"We are here to look for the sacrifice, not to rid the Celtic lands of bandits when its lords are unable to."

Kain grunted, but didn't argue.

"I asked you what you are talking about?" Padraig was shouted this time, clearly annoyed at being ignored.

"Silence when we are talking, peasant," Kain snapped in Celtic at the startled thug before switching back to Jenovan. "Are these men really worth sparing?"

"Perhaps not, but are they worth fighting?"

Kain rearranged his grip on his spear handle, ready to strike. "Then the leader is mine."

He kicked his horse into a gallop, not waiting for his friend to respond. Cecil drew his sword, prepared to follow his friend into another fight. He saw the leader fall under Kain's lance as his own sword flashed and down went the man on the left of the late Padraig. That should have been the end of the matter, they should have galloped off, leaving the thugs to bury their dead and return to their terrorising of travellers. Instead he heard Kain cry out.

Cecil spun his horse round, his eyes scanning the area for his friend. Kain's horse saddle was empty, but the horse was still moving. The other man's helmet lay in the road and, not two feet away from it, was the spear. It took a second to realise that Gairdh had managed to grab his friend and drag him from the horse, another second and he realised that Kain's foot was caught in the stirrup, dragging him behind the horse.

Cecil barely registered Gairdh rolling to his feet, his attention on his friend as he pushed his horse forward to cut off Kain's. The horse reared, startled as the general appeared in its path. In one swoop, Cecil had taken hold of the rogue horse's reigns. He tried to calm the creature before it trampled his friend, but on the edge of his vision, he saw Gairdh sprinting towards him.

"Kain." The general's tone was warning.

"I know," the man snapped back, "I am working on it."

Gairdh was nearly upon them now, but until Kain freed himself he was defenceless. Cecil did the only thing that he could think to do to save his friend from an untimely death: he threw his sword at Gairdh. In retrospect, while the sword found its mark, sliding through the Celt's throat, this wasn't the smartest action Cecil could have taken. Now, he was weaponless with three Celts advancing on them, the boy, the redhead and that man Iain.

Below him, Kain finally managed to get his foot free. At least the man could look after himself now, Cecil needed to get his sword back. Throwing his leg over the saddle, he leapt over his friend. Gairdh fell to his knees, his eyes wide and his hands rose to feebly batter at the sword, trying to pull it out. That, Cecil could help him with. As he dashed past the man, he grabbed the sword and pulled it roughly from the throat, causing blood to spurt forth from the gaping wound.

The men were upon him. Swinging his blade up, he met Iain's rusty sword. As they locked blades, the red head ran past them and straight at Kain. The young boy, however, hung back. He seemed realise that these were not helpless travellers they were dealing with. He broke away from the attack and Iain swung his blade down again. Cecil easily side-stepped the heavy movement watching as the Celt stumbled under his own momentum. How amateurish. Cecil lightly pushed the man causing him to lose his balance and crash to the floor. Stabbing down, he ended Iain's life.

That was easy, surprisingly so. Jerking the blade out of the body he looked at it in disgust. It was covered in the blood of a man barely worth killing. The last time it had been covered in blood like this was…

He cut himself off there, pushing the memories of Zanarkand to the back of his mind where they belonged. He needed to check on his friend. Turning, he saw his companion walking towards him with a murderous expression; the red-head man lay dead at the feet of the horses. Cecil knew he wasn't the person Kain was making his way to; it was the boy standing to the side. The adolescent was backing away with every step Kain took towards him.

"Kain, he is just a boy," Cecil tried to reason with his friend, but the words fell on deaf ears. The other men had attacked them, but this boy would run without afight. They couldn't justify killing this child. He wasn't sure how many more innocents his conscience could take.

Losing his nerve, the boy turned and ran. Kain shot forward, scooping up his spear as he went. The boy had a head start, but despite this, and Kain being battered and bruised, the child was no match for the Jenovan. Grabbing the collar, he threw the Celt to the ground, the tip of his blade tickling the boy's throat. Cecil's heart skipped a beat, he wouldn't…no, he would. He was running to them before he knew it, reaching out to pull his friend's spear arm back.

"Listen boy," the blond growled out. "I am tired. I am covered in dirt, sweat and blood. I want a bath." Cecil stopped by the pair, trying not to burst out laughing, in relief as much as humour. This really was an excessive measure. "I will let you live, if you tell where the nearest inn is."

"Border town," the boy blurted out, on the verge of tears.

"Border town?" Cecil repeated curiously. "A strange name."

"It is the last town in these lands; the other side of the river is Radiant Garden."

"What is this Radiant Garden like?" Kain asked this time.

"I do not know."

"How far is this town and the border?"

"Half a day, just follow the road."

"So close, and yet you have never crossed in those lands?"

"No, sir, the region is patrolled and they deal with all bandits they find, especially since Zanarkand."

"You know about Zanarkand?" Cecil wasn't sure why this matter distressed him so much; it was only to be expected that news had spread this far.

"Everyone knows that the Holy City fell in a night. Since then the patrols have doubled in Radiant Garden. So, it is impossible for us to…" he cut himself off before swallowing, "work. The Lord looks after his land and those within it."

Inspiration hit Cecil. "What do they do with the men from Zanarkand they find?"

"I do not know, but I heard that they are taken away to the capital and cared for. Padraig thought that we might be able to fool them into thinking we needed aid as well."

Kain and Cecil shared a knowing look. Kain withdrew his spear. "Get out of my sight."

The boy scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

"What do you think, friend?"

Cecil turned to Kain at his question. "It sounds hopeful, the first piece of information that we have to work with. It would be stupid to completely ignore it."

Kain nodded and looked down the road. "To Radiant Garden then, but first, I will have that bath."

End of Chapter 8

Blah. I hope you like it. The more I go over this chapter the less I like it and the more I think that I should have just skipped it. Well, we go back to Radiant Garden in the next chapter.