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Chapter Fourteen

Hakuryuu's Promise

That evening during dinner, Kougyoku invites Morgiana to sit next to her. This works out well for Morgiana since Hakuryuu and Hakuei must sit at another table anyway, being the ones the welcome dinner is being held in honor of. Still, Hakuryuu steals glances at her from time to time to make sure she's doing okay and isn't too lonely on her own. Morgiana appreciates his consideration.

Kouha sits across from them and mostly keeps to himself through the meal, but when Kougyoku mentions Aladdin he perks up. "Aladdin?" he repeats with interest. "You don't mean a little kid with a red jewel here?" He points to the center of his forehead in demonstration.

Kougyoku nods. "Yes. That's him. But how did you know him, Kouha?"

Kouha grins. His peony eyes glint in the torchlight. "I met him on the road to Magnostadt. He was going there too. Cool kid."

Morgiana regards the pretty prince with interest. So, Kouha met Aladdin just like Hakuei. She's beginning to think Aladdin running into all of these important people is the work of more than just chance.

Kougyoku beams. "I met him when Hakuryuu and I were in Sindria. He was travelling with Morgiana." The princess gestures at her and Morgiana nods in confirmation.

Kouha turns his attention to her. "Wow, small world," he observes, leaning back on his palms. "By the way, I meant to ask but who are you exactly? You're not a member of big sister Ei's household, right?" He tilts his head inquisitively.

Morgiana shakes her head. "No. I have been travelling together with Hakuryuu—though I am not a member of his household either."

Kouha makes a sound of agreement in his throat. "I can see that you're also a metal vessel user," he remarks, pointing at her necklace. His eyes narrow suspiciously. "You aren't thinking of trying to help Hakuryuu steal the throne from brother En, are you?"

"Kouha!" Kougyoku admonishes, making a disapproving face at him.

Morgiana smiles. "No. I have no such intention," she assures him. "It is merely my wish to support Hakuryuu as his friend."

Kouha continues to eye her skeptically for a drawn out moment and then his eyes fall shut and he makes a show of shrugging. "Whatever. It's not like little bro Ryuu stands a chance against brother En anyway."

After that they fall back into easy conversation. Kouha chooses to stay engaged instead of going back to ignoring them and Morgiana thinks he might actually have decided that she's somewhat interesting. She's never had a conversation with Kouha before and she finds that he's actually pretty nice once she starts talking to him.

The rest of dinner passes uneventfully and soon Morgiana is being shepherded back to her room by the palace staff. She'd wanted to catch up with Hakuryuu after the meal but her maidservant appeared and swept her away before she could so much as make a motion to go to him. As the maid shuts the door behind her, Morgiana lets out a sigh and walks over to her bed.

It's strange and disconcerting to be on her own again, she realizes. She's traveled with Alibaba and Aladdin and now Hakuryuu for so long that she's become unaccustomed to being by herself. She steps in front of the dresser where she'd finished stowing what little clothing she owns a couple hours earlier and opens the top drawer. Inside, her worn white dress lies neatly folded. She figures it's probably safe to change back into it now so she removes it from the drawer and after several minutes' struggling with the white and gold dress that Hakuei gave her she pulls it over her head with a relieved sigh. As beautiful as Hakuei's gift is, it's nice to be back in her own clothes again.

Now that she's changed, she doesn't know what to do. She supposes she could just go to bed—it's late enough—but she's not tired. She wonders what Hakuryuu is doing now. Probably visiting with his sister or catching up with his cousins. Or maybe he's standing in his room and wondering what to do with himself just like her. It's strange, she thinks, how she no longer knows what to do with her time when he's not with her. It's only been a few hours and she already misses him. She's never been reliant on someone to this extent before.

She shakes her head to rid herself of such silly thoughts. She's always been just fine spending long periods of time away from her friends. She'll see Hakuryuu when she sees him. He's in the same palace with her—it's not like he's all the way off in another part of the world like Aladdin and Alibaba.

After a few more moments' consideration, she finally settles on exploring her bookshelf. It's small and the selection is meager but she finds a book with a pretty cover about garden flora and plucks it from the shelf. She takes it back to her bed and seats herself at the head of it, slipping her legs under the covers. She opens the book.

While garden flora doesn't make for the most enthralling read, it's entertaining enough to pass the time. Each page contains information about a different species of plant native to the Kou region all presented alphabetically. Morgiana recognizes many of them—aster, azalea, bamboo, buttercup, camellia, carnation, chrysanthemum—but she pauses when she flips to the page labeled 'clover'. She takes a moment to skim over the page. Most of the information presented doesn't hold much interest for her. It's largely just facts about the climates clovers prefer and how to care for them. But her interest is piqued slightly when she reaches the small blurb about their meaning in the language of flowers. Think of me, the text says in neat print.

Morgiana stares down at the page curiously. She knows that Hakuryuu professes a certain admiration for this plant. He once told her he used to hide clovers around the palace for his siblings to find. She wonders if he's aware of their meaning or if he just likes them for the way they look. There is another blurb below the first that specifies clovers of the four leaf variety. The listed meaning reads, be mine.

It's interesting to Morgiana how people like to give meaning to arbitrary things. She doesn't see a practical purpose for such behavior, but then, it is humans' idiosyncrasies that set them apart from beasts, she supposes. Sometimes Morgiana wonders which she resembles more closely; a human or a beast.

She flips through the book for another half hour before she finally decides she's tired enough to sleep. She sets the book on the small table by her bed and blows out the lamp. The bed is large and soft and she burrows into the plush covers happily. Because of the rice paper windows, the room is very dark once the lights are out and Morgiana is reminded of her and Hakuryuu's trek through the great rift. As she closes her eyes, she can almost imagine that she's there, snuggling into her bedroll and wondering if she'll ever see daylight again. Out of habit, she reaches out her hand to Hakuryuu. "Still here?" she whispers as sleep starts to take her.

There is no answer, of course. Hakuryuu isn't here. It's the first time in many months that she's gone to sleep without him at her side. She decides in that moment, as her consciousness slips away, that she doesn't like it.

oOo

For the first time since before she entered Belial's dungeon, Morgiana dreams of the lost future.

She's in agony. Her head feels like it's going to crack open and her stomach is cramping like it's trying to eat itself. The pain is immeasurable. She thinks she might be screaming but she can't tell if the sound is coming from her throat or inside her head.

"Morgiana!" she somehow can hear Alibaba calling her name. "Hang on, okay? It's going to be alright! We're going to get you help!"

She's gasping and screaming and sobbing and she feels like her insides are melting. She opens her eyes but Alibaba and Aladdin's faces are just blurs hanging over her. She passes out.

When she regains consciousness sometime later, she thinks someone has turned off the lights because she can't see anything. The pain has diminished somewhat but her whole body feels numb and achy. She can tell she's not well. It's difficult to piece her thoughts together.

"Listen, Mor," she hears Aladdin this time. His voice is more controlled than Alibaba's was but he sounds scared. "You need to keep holding on. Can you do that? Hakuryuu is coming. He can help you."

Morgiana tries to open her eyes but even though she can feel the muscles working she still can't see a thing. She opens her mouth to speak but instead of words, a horrible cough rips from her throat and she feels fluid dribble onto her chin. Somebody hoists her up by the shoulders so that she doesn't choke. The movement causes her stomach to roil. "I c-can't see," she manages to whisper.

She hears a muffled curse and wishes she could tell who all is in the room with her. Her head feels like it's full of cotton but she's glad at least that the splitting headache is gone. Or she thinks it is. Everything feels muffled and distant. She thinks Aladdin is saying something else now but her brain is far away and she can't properly register sensory information. She slips out of consciousness again.

The next time she wakes, she hears sobbing. She can't focus well enough to tell if the voice is male of female but she thinks it's Aladdin. She can vaguely feel pressure on her hand. "What do you mean they haven't been able to reach him yet? We need him now!" a voice she somehow knows in her heart is Alibaba's comes from the space to her right. She tries to speak again but all she can produce is a soft gurgling noise.

"Gods, Morgiana!" his voice comes again. He must have realized that she's awake. "Please…please…" He sounds so broken. It hurts her heart. She wishes she could assure him that she can hear him but her brain is struggling to remember how to form words.

"Alibaba," another voice—this time Morgiana can tell it's a female's—calls to him. She sounds torn apart as well. "The report I received said the town he was most recently sighted in suffered a particularly bad outbreak. There's a chance…" she pauses to swallow a sob, "There's a chance he's already…"

Morgiana knows what she's trying to say. There's a chance Hakuryuu is dead. Just like she's about to be dead.

"Shit!" Alibaba curses. She can hear the tears in his voice. He's crying too now. "Damn it!"

Morgiana doesn't even remember falling unconscious again, but when she next wakes she knows a lot of time has passed. She can't feel anything anymore. She can't smell or taste either.

"Listen, Morgiana," Alibaba tells her softly. The rage is gone now. He just sounds tired. "This isn't goodbye. We're going to see each other again. You, me, Aladdin…we're all going to go on adventures again together someday, you hear me? And Kougyoku and Hakuryuu and everyone else, too. We're all going to live happily ever after. I want you to remember that when…when you close your eyes again. Just picture it in your head, alright? Just picture it and don't let go of it, no matter what."

Morgiana is having trouble thinking much of anything now, but she tries her best to do this. She imagines a wide savannah—like the one she can just barely recall from her childhood—and she pictures all of her friends there. They're laughing and smiling. Alibaba and Aladdin are discussing something stupid and pointless and Kougyoku is giggling into her sleeve and Masrur is eyeing Hakuryuu who has just come out of a hut carrying platters heaping with food. Everyone she's ever met is there; Yunan, Muu, Nanaumi and King Takeruhiko…even Sinbad and Ja'far and everyone from Sindria. The sun is shining. Everything is peaceful. This is a good scene, she thinks. She'd be happy to pass on with this image in her mind.

The next time Morgiana falls asleep, she doesn't wake up again.

She doesn't know how much time passes. She thinks that if this is death, it's not very interesting, but at least all the pain is gone.

"There is somebody who wants me to wait a little while before collecting your rukh," a gentle voice speaks to her from the aether, surprising her. "I've decided to honor this man's wish as you are very dear to the little master. I'm very sorry, but that's all I can do."

All at once, Morgiana becomes aware of footsteps approaching. She still can't see anything, but she hears them come to a stop right beside her. She can tell from the creak of a chair that the person has sat down. She wishes she could open her eyes to see who it is. Her question is answered a short moment later however when the person lays a warm hand on her cheek and says, "Lady Morgiana…"

Morgiana is unable to move or give him any kind of response so she just waits. She wonders if he is living or if he is a spirit like her. She never did get to find out what happened to him.

"I'm so sorry," he apologizes. "This—everything is my fault." She feels a warm, wet drop land on her cheek and smells salt. At least as a spirit she can smell and feel again. She hears him take a shuddering breath and more drops follow the first. They roll down her cheeks and soak into her pillow. "Morgiana, I'm so, so, so…" she feels his forehead come to rest on hers. The smell of his tears is overpowering this close. "…so sorry."

She feels his arms wrap around her head and he holds her tightly. He is shaking. He continues to hold her and cry for a long time. She wishes she could let him know that his words have reached her. She wishes she could tell him that none of this is his fault. He's worked harder than anyone to make up for his mistakes and nobody blames him anymore. Rather, she wishes now that she'd told him this when she was still alive. The guilt never really stopped eating at him, did it?

Finally, he takes another deep breath and pulls back just slightly. There is a shudder as he exhales. He brushes gentle fingers through her hair just above her ears and then presses a kiss to her forehead. "I'm going to fix this," he promises. He takes her hand and holds it as if it's a lifeline. "I swear I will. I'll do whatever it takes."

Morgiana can't help but find this statement somewhat ominous. As far as she knows, you can't 'fix' death. But Hakuryuu never makes promises he doesn't intend to keep. Once he's set his mind to something, he will see it through or he will die trying.

She doesn't want him to sacrifice any more of himself for her sake. She wishes more than anything that she could tell him that. She can't say anything though, so she just lies still and waits. He's still holding her hand when she slips back into darkness.

The next time she wakes, she opens her eyes to a green ceiling decorated with peacocks and lotus blossoms. She's back in her room in the imperial palace.

She blinks. The light coming through the rice paper windows is dim. She can tell that it's very early in the morning. She attempts to sit up but her arm catches on something. She frowns and looks down to find none other than Hakuryuu slumped fast asleep against the side of the bed. His head is bowed over his lap and his right arm rests atop the mattress. His hand has a firm grasp on hers.

She flashes back to her dream as she looks down at him in confusion. Why is he asleep on the floor in her room? She scoots closer to get a better look at him and gets a glimpse of his face. He looks exhausted. She frowns.

Her first thought is to wake him and ask him what he's doing here but he looks so tired that instead she carefully frees her hand and slips out of bed. He doesn't even stir when she lifts him from the ground and deposits him onto the bed. He falls onto his back and Morgiana pulls the covers over him before sliding back in on the other side. There are still some hours yet until she imagines he will need to be anywhere. She's spent enough time in the imperial palace to know that meetings and the like don't usually start until mid-morning. He looks like he could use the rest.

As she lies next to him and watches him breathe evenly she's struck by a thought. This is the same Hakuryuu from her dream. This is the same Hakuryuu who held her corpse and cried for her and promised to make things right. And he's still doing his best to fulfill that promise even now. Because of him, she and millions of other people are getting another shot at life. Hakuryuu, who once cared about nothing but revenge and his sister, turned out to have the hugest heart of anyone she's ever met.

"I'm not the only kind person in the world," Alibaba's voice echoes in her head.

No, she agrees. Hakuryuu is also a person overflowing with kindness. She supposes he is the kind of person who is incapable of feeling anything halfway. Rage, happiness, sorrow… he takes all of these feelings into himself and makes them a part of him. It's probably impossible for him to ever detach himself completely.

Morgiana furrows her eyebrows and sets her face into a determined expression. More than ever, she's overcome by the feeling of wanting to protect him. She wants to be his strength so that he can fulfil his mission of protecting the lives of all the people killed by Arba's curse. It's her mission too, after all. But even if it weren't, she would still feel the same, because when it comes right down to it, what she really wants is to give back to him everything he's given to her. She'll continue to stay by his side until she feels like she's done that.

At some point the early morning silence and Hakuryuu's rhythmic breathing lulls her back to sleep. She dreams about typical nonsensical things as the sun rises over the mountains and beyond the walls of the palace birds rouse and begin their morning hunt for breakfast. She finally wakes again a couple hours after drifting off when a hand shakes her gently. She opens her eyes to find Hakuryuu awake and looking at her.

"You're awake," she observes. Maybe now she'll find out what he was doing on her floor earlier.

"Yes. Sorry…I meant to go back to my room but I guess I fell asleep," he says. He blinks tiredly and brings a hand up to stifle a yawn. He still looks exhausted.

"Why were you on the ground?" she questions. "You know I don't mind sharing a bed."

Hakuryuu shakes his head. "I only meant to see if you were still awake. I was going to leave if you weren't, but then you seemed like you were having a bad dream, so…" he trails off as he yawns again. "Sorry. I was up late preparing some things for Judar."

Morgiana blinks. "Is he here?"

He shakes his head again. "No, not yet. I was just taking a little preliminary action."

She frowns. She's not sure she's comfortable with the idea of Hakuryuu sneaking around right under Gyokuen's nose. She doesn't like the thought of him putting himself in danger where she can't help him. "Be careful," she warns. "It would be bad if Gyokuen became suspicious."

He chuckles at that. "Don't worry," he assures her. "I was very discreet. That's part of the reason it took so long." His expression turns thoughtful then and he reaches out to her. "By the way, what were you dreaming about? You looked like you were in pain."

Morgiana tenses. Should she tell him? He's looking at her with a touch of concern. His pale eyes are bright and curious. She debates with herself. Finally, she decides to keep her dream to herself. Hakuryuu doesn't need to be reminded of troublesome things. Not when he's finally started to let his ghosts go. She smiles disarmingly. "It was nothing," she tells him. "I was just dreaming about the time Alibaba rescued me from a giant plant monster. It was…very distressing."

Hakuryuu's brow furrows slightly. He touches her cheek lightly before moving his hand to thread his fingers in her hair. The gesture is unexpected and Morgiana watches his face curiously. She finds out the reason for his odd expression and behavior when he says, "You probably miss Alibaba a lot, don't you? I've been selfishly keeping you here, but if you want to go to him…"

She narrows her eyes and pegs him with a hard look. He can't possibly think she would abandon their mission just because she misses Alibaba. "No. You and I have an important duty to carry out. I don't intend to do anything like abandoning it or you, so kindly refrain from saying such foolish things, please."

Hakuryuu stares at her wide eyed for a short moment and then smiles and shakes his head. "You're right. I apologize." He moves the hand in her hair to her shoulder and his smile wanes slightly. "I just worry sometimes that I'm keeping you from being happy by asking you to stay with me. Now that your memories are back, you must want to return to Alibaba's side, right?"

Morgiana lowers her eyes and bites the inside of her cheek. She does want to see Alibaba again but not for the reason Hakuryuu thinks. She's well accepted now that her feelings for him have changed. Of course, that doesn't mean that she doesn't love him or wish to continue to support him, but she no longer thinks of him as a potential mate. Right now she just wants to focus on defeating Arba. "Alibaba has his own mission to worry about right now," she says firmly. "I am not in any way unhappy accompanying you and in fact there are many promises I have made to myself that I would be unable to keep if I were to leave you. You do not need to concern yourself with my happiness. It is not an issue."

Hakuryuu closes his eyes and breathes out a chuckle. "Alright. I'll leave the subject alone." The left side of his mouth quirks up and he moves his hand back up to cup her cheek. "Just promise to let me know if I'm ever keeping you from something you want, okay?"

She puffs out her cheeks. Hakuryuu really does worry too much, she thinks. He could benefit from taking all that consideration and applying it to himself. But she can't change the way he is so she just says, "Understood. I will do that."

He smiles and retracts his hand to push himself up into a sitting position. "Then, I guess I'd better get back and prepare for the day." He stifles another yawn. "I don't have any business at the palace today so if you want, maybe we can go into town?"

Morgiana's face lights up. She'd been wondering what to do with herself today. She's glad that Hakuryuu will be free to spend it with her. All at once, a thought occurs to her. "Would it be alright if Kougyoku came too?" she asks. After how kindly the crimson haired princess treated her yesterday Morgiana feels like she should make an effort to be social with her.

Hakuryuu shrugs. "That's fine with me. You can invite anyone you want."

Morgiana nods. "Then I will ask her."

Hakuryuu slides off the bed and makes for the door. He stops in front of it and turns back to her. "I'll meet you by the training grounds in an hour?"

She smiles and nods again. "Sure."

Hakuryuu nods as well and then opens the door and quietly slips out. Morgiana watches the door close behind him and thinks about all the delicious food waiting for her outside the palace walls. It's been a very long time since she last ate Kou's famous barbecued quail. Her stomach grumbles at the thought of the delicious roasted meat and plum sauce.

She slips out of bed and, with a skip in her step, begins to prepare for the day.

oO0Oo

Wow! An even longer chapter this time. Go me.

So, now we've finally seen to the end of the scrapped future. Morgiana's feelings are becoming more clear as well. It's been really difficult to write scenes between her and Hakuryuu lately because my brain won't stop saying, "They should make out now. This is a good place for a make out session. Yes, making out would definitely resolve this scene." I'm like, "Shut up, brain. Your input is not welcome."

Seriously, though, I got really emotional writing this chapter. It turns out I can't handle my own feels. Legit, I almost cried because I'm such a pansy.

Thank you as usual to all of you who continue to support me and an extra special thanks to Noviembre de 1997 for leaving me such nice comments on every chapter. You rock.

Next chapter: Pythons. Everywhere. Like, the whole city is full of snakes. Morgiana punches every single one in the face. She is crowned king of Kou and she uses her new title to bring about world peace. Sinbad is like "well fuk that" and takes up farming.