Never Let You Down

Chapter Twenty: Geoffrey, Part VI

--

I watched helplessly as the beautiful baby boy was to be executed. My son, the heir to the Crimean royal throne, was in the arms of Julianne, about to be killed as reparation for the murder of my three-year-old niece. By my side, my wife fought back the tears that were welling up in her eyes. She was the ruler of Crimea, a survivor of two wars and a rebellion meant to usurp her throne; she had watched as her best friend - my own sister - had nearly been hung by Ludveck's men. Surely, her people thought her to be too strong to cry. I put my arm around her shoulders, knowing that my efforts would do little to comfort her.

"Geoffrey," she muttered, her voice barely audible to me, "why are they doing this? He isn't the one to punish."

I ran my fingers through her hair, knowing that I was the one to blame for this. My wife had done nothing wrong; my son was completely innocent in my crimes - he hadn't even been born at the time when Kiana was murdered. This was all solely my fault. I had pushed my sister away; I hadn't helped her when she pleaded for me to save her husband's life. She had been captured, and her little girl had been killed due to my ignorance. Had I just accepted her husband in the first place, this would not be happening. "Elincia," I whispered in reply as her golden brown eyes stared up at me expectantly, "I'm so sorry. That should be me up there, not our son. Soren knows that I would gladly give my life for our baby, but that is not what he wants. He wants me - us - to suffer as he and Lucia have these past two years."

"You should have helped her," my wife said softly, moving out of my grip. She then leaned on the shoulder of her uncle as our son was handed to my brother-in-law. Soren cradled the baby in his arms, kissing his forehead before placing him in my sister's waiting arms. She held her nephew close to her chest as her husband opened his Tornado tome. His lips moved slowly as he chanted the incantation. Wind swirled around the three figures until it enveloped my screaming son.

--

I shot up from my bed, cold sweat dripping down my face. It was a dream. I glanced around the lightly furnished cabin on the ship to Begnion. "Just a dream," I muttered to myself, swinging my legs over one side of the bed, "...a nightmare." I thrust my feet into my boots before using the moonlight from the two windows in my cabin to lead myself to the door. I emerged on the deck of the ship, using the faint light that the moon emitted to guide myself to a figure in the distance.

I arrived to find Julianne leaning over the railing of the vessel, staring out at the vast sea surrounding us. The waves of the pacific Semper Sea crashed against the rocks that protruded in the water. Soft moonlight reflected itself off the waters. I sighed, relieved that our journey was nearly complete and that we would soon land north of Salmo. With any luck, we would find Shawn in Begnion quickly and begin the hunt for Mark soon after.

The blonde woman in front of me stared into the distance, a wave of calamity sweeping over her features. It was evident that she was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed me walk up beside her. "Julianne," I mumbled to her surprise, causing her head to suddenly snap up from the sea waters.

"Your Highness," she replied, her attention shifting back to the Semper, "I did not expect you to still be awake. Is something troubling you?"

"Not at all," I lied, taking comfort in the fact that she could not see my face in the darkness that surrounded us, lest I be betrayed by the worry I knew my eyes possessed. "It is obviously a different case with you, however," I commented, glancing toward the woman. "What's on your mind?"

My answer was greeted by silence from the woman as she simply stared straight in front of her. I was unaware of whether she had not heard the question or had chosen to simply ignore it. Minutes passed before she replied with a sigh. "Have you ever loved someone so much that you were willing to let them do whatever they wished - even if it meant causing harm to others?" she queried in reply to my own inquiry.

"Well, I suppose you could say that," I admitted, thinking of my wife and our unborn child. Elincia was my childhood friend - she was the queen of Crimea, I could not very easily stop her from anything she wanted to do, though I don't think I would have stood in her way unless it was meant to prevent great harm to her or others. I also thought of my sister, who I had let down so many times before. I couldn't imagine denying her any happiness she wished after everything she had been through.

"I figured as much," the blonde replied, her eyes never straying from the distance. "You know, I always thought my brother could do no wrong. He was always so perfect, so harmless...I never would have imagined that something like this could have happened. I was mortified when they wanted to kill that little girl, but I did nothing to stop them. My brother and Mark were so convincing that I couldn't see past that moment. I never thought about how it would affect everyone."

"Kiana's death was very difficult for my sister and Soren," I informed her. "She was their little girl - their pride and joy. More importantly, she was all they had left after the death of their other baby."

She turned to face me, a look of worry mixed with confusion spread across her face. "Other child?" she asked. "I hadn't heard anything of them having a child other than Kiana."

I nodded. "I hadn't known of it either," I admitted, "but Queen Micaiah told me that shortly before the invasion of the Grann happened, they had a boy that was stillborn. Lucia had never told me - in fact, I knew nothing of Kiana until the massacre began."

"I'm...so sorry," she muttered, no longer facing me. "I hadn't known that anything so awful had happened. Is your sister doing well now?"

"She appears to be," I stated, remembering the night that Elincia and I had met with my sister and Soren for dinner, "but I believe that she's just masking the pain. I don't think she is handling any of her emotions well, and with Soren in Daein now, I'm afraid that her condition will probably deteriorate. If she hadn't been forced to keep all of this a secret, I think she would have been able to handle the pain better. With only those on the rescue team knowing of Kiana - and a very select few knowing of their other child, I'm afraid that she doesn't have anyone to confide in."

"That's...awful," Julianne commented. "Why did you decide to keep from going public about the Branded Massacre? I figured that either you or Empress Sanaki would be more than eager to inform the world of what we had done."

"We called a conference with representatives from Daein, Serenes, Gallia, Goldoa, Hatari, and the Branded colony," I informed her solemnly. "Ultimately, it was decided to keep the general populace from knowing what had happened. We made the attack on the royal family of Daein public, as most had already known about it. We also stated that there had been a fatal attack on the Branded colony, but we blamed bandits, denying all reports that the attack was based on race. Stefan was outraged by this verdict, but Lucia and Soren were probably its strongest supporters. King Kurthnaga proposed that you and your companions should have been hunted down and tried for the murder of Kiana, but her parents declined."

"If they declined, then why are you looking for all of us? Clearly they do not wish for what happened to be brought back into their lives, so what is your point in all of this?" the young woman asked, turning to search my face for any sign of my intentions.

"I cannot just allow your deeds to go unpunished," I responded, averting her gaze. "I owe that to Lucia...and to Soren." I leaned on the railing next to her, gazing out as our ship was carried over the waters as swiftly as the crew could manage. Land could not been seen for miles around, and I couldn't help but feel placid as the night blew cool breezes around us. "It probably seems silly to you, but I want to prove to Lucia that I do love her and her daughter. I've never treated her as much of a sister or spent very much time with her...we were apart most of our lives, and the childhoods were spent caring for and protecting Elincia. Lucia's safety was always important to me, but I fear that her feelings were not."

"Just as her safety is your priority now?" she mused, shaking her head. "You want to capture us to keep your sister safe, not to make her happy. She doesn't want this, you know that. You only wish for assurance that we will not be able to return to harm her again, correct?"

I nodded slowly, amazed at how well this complete stranger could read me. Though I hadn't realized it when I embarked on this quest, my true motive was to once again keep my sister safe, not to relieve her stress or make her pain disappear. I didn't want to lose her - was there something so wrong with that?

--

I returned to my cabin the in the early morning hours of the next day, carefully considering all that Julianne had told me. I didn't want my sister to suffer, but I could not allow any of Chuck's minions to harm her. Still, what to do with them was her and Soren's decision, and if they did not want them to be brought to justice, then I should respect that wish. However, I did not see how I could sit around and allow their deeds to go unpunished.

As I laid my troubled head down to rest that night, one more dream flooded my mind. This new image was one of something that could never happen - of something that merely could have been.

--

I sat at the large desk in my royal office. Papers were scattered all about, waiting to be looked over and approved. Yesterday's day off had earned me an enormous stack of documents to read, but it was well worth it to help care for my sister's little boy. I dipped my quill in the inkwell to my right and effortlessly glided the utensil over the paper in front of me when I noticed that the door had been pushed open.

Looking up, I saw the curly, jet-black hair of my niece. She ran over to me, climbing into my lap and staring at me with those clear, blue orbs. "Uncle Geoffrey," she whined, "you promised to come play with me!"

"I know," I replied with a smile. "I was about to come...Kiana."