It's been a while hasn't it. I'm so sorry, I've been drowning in assessment. Moving into Studio units in my animation degree means I have less free time than I used to, or maybe I'm just really bad at time management. I no longer have any chapters written before hand, so my mistakes are anything not picked up by word. Well I hope you enjoy this chapter. We get the first (and maybe last) appearance of Caius' P.O.V. I'm not too sure about it. It's hard to write "Lady Lythia", "their liege" and etc, but I tried. Tell me what you think!
Memories of Grief; Fears of Loss
The interesting thing about questions was the never ending supply of them. That isn't the only interesting thing though. Another thing to note is how much can be expressed with a simple question, such as pain, confusion and, in this moment for the group of nine who had gathered in Peony's rooms, a need to understand. Emperor Peony had tried to stall the questions for as long as he could, with bright smiles and rappigs, however, nothing on the scale that the blonde man was trying to ignore could truly be ignored.
Stories of the Witch Child are almost as old as Lythia herself. Twenty-four years old to be precise. For twenty-four years, the people of Malkuth had shared a tale as if it had been true for centuries. What was the great truth about the Witch Child? The inevitable question simply existed, no one had asked it, yet everyone in the room knew that it was on the minds the room's occupants. Save one.
Peony stared out of the windows in his room, out onto the courtyard where Lythia was instructing a group of children with wooden play swords.
"The Emperor's word is law," he murmured, gaining the full attention of the room. "I could say that in the council room and every man there would fall silent, knowing that what I have said should not be argued against."
No one dared to interrupt the blonde Emperor, not in his pauses, nor when he was speaking. There was nothing to be said.
"Lythia Kari Malkuth. That's not a name to her, it's the words that are just the simple beginnings of an order she fears. She knows the weight of the Emperor's word better than anyone else in Malkuth. Soldiers have been ordered to go to war, civilians ordered to surrender land, but Lythia? She has been ordered to kill prisoners in the most horrific way possible."
Peony turned around and held the gaze of Jade, almost accusingly.
"When she first appeared before my father, I'm told that in exchange for refuge she would offer her darkest artes. In exchange for keeping her identity secret, she had to marry me three months after she turned twenty-one. To remain hidden from Jade Balfour, she all but sold her soul to a man whose idea of justice was to have a nine-year-old girl summon forth the arms of the dead to execute criminals, and to have that same girl cast the same arte to affect the battlefield."
The last part was spat out at the brunette haired, red eyed man. Jade seemed to realise what arte Peony was talking about, as the man's ruby eyes widened slightly.
"I'm surprised she is still sane," Jade murmured. Peony responded with a snort, walking over to his shelves which he kept covered with sheets.
"Sane?" he asked quietly, lifting the sheet and removing an old child's toy from the shelf revealed. "Can she really be called sane when she deals with the trauma by building masks, one where she killed her own heart, and another where she denies any attachment to the name given to her by Emperor Karl? She won't even admit that she was simply his favourite pet."
And there it was; the truth that Lythia was trying to hide and that Peony was avoiding putting into words. Anise gasped as Peony finally voiced the revelation. The words left a sour taste in the Emperor's mouth. The toy that Peony had taken from the shelf was thrown at Jade. It was caught and recognised by the man. In his hands, Jade held a rag doll, just a simple yellow square of thick cloth that was crudely scrunched, wrapped and folded into something resembling a girl, held together with blue yarn.
"Did she really keep this silly little thing?" he asked, scornful tone almost masking some other emotion that no one could place.
"You wanted to know how she remained sane didn't you," Peony responded. Jade's gloved hand curled around the doll, fingers tugging almost harshly against the yarn that acted as the doll's belt. With a sigh, the crimson eyed man slipped the ragdoll into his pocket.
"Gailardia Galan," the Emperor said suddenly, turning to Guy. "Imagine my surprise when my Lady Sister returns and reports that the last living member of House Gardios is playing serving boy for House Fabre of Kimlasca."
The blonde swordsman stepped forward and knelt before Peony. With his head bowed Guy began to speak.
"I apologise," the blonde swordsman stated resolutely. "As heir to House Gardios, it was my duty to present myself before your Majesty immediately. However, I have ignored my obligations for some time to pursue personal matters instead. I am prepared to accept your censure."
For what felt like a long time Peony stared at the son of one of his former nobles. The Emperor looked conflicted, before he closed his eyes and released a small sigh.
"If I were my father, you would be dead," Peony commented. "But I am not my father. I am not reproaching you. With your family's estates in the imperial treasury's control, all you need to do is ask and I can restore your title to you."
If the atmosphere had been anything other than the sombre and almost depressing, Anise would have jumped on the prospect of Guy being rich; however there was something in the way the Emperor spoke that kept everyone silent.
"Your majesty," Guy spoke after a moment. "I am afraid I cannot accept, however selfish this may be, I have something else I must do with Luke and the others. I would like to continue travelling with them."
The emperor's eyes narrowed slightly, before he presented a letter to the blonde.
"That is fine, you must have your reasons," Peony said, his expression returning to a more neutral look. "I won't force titles upon you. However I must ask that you give that to my Lady Sister… when you aren't in Grand Chokmah anymore."
Peony then left the room, muttering something about untrustworthy councilmen, with a dark expression on his face. The room he left was silent.
They were ready to leave for St Binah in an hour.
"Sister, you cannot continue accepting this!"
"Lord Brother, it is not like you to simply call me 'sister'"
"Stop avoiding me Lythia! The council hates you and they do everything to make it known."
"Do you really expect anything less? I threw whatever plans they had away when I_"
"Yes, I know. But that doesn't excuse an assassination attempt! What if there's more?"
"It's the third."
"What?"
"That last attempt was the third try on my life. This month."
"This… month… This month!? How long have they been trying for?"
"A year."
"And you never told me?"
"Wouldn't your life be easier if I was dead?"
"Lythia…!"
There were somethings that Caius believed that he would never do, and after learning that his liege, Princess Lythia, was the Witch Child, he had added willingly following his liege anywhere to that list. However, here he was, doing just that, walking behind his Lady Lythia, beside Arya, quite willingly, as they walked through St Binah, not bothering to wait for Colonel Curtiss to meet them and order a start to the evacuation.
Out of curiosity, Caius looked towards his liege as she talked to a man who had questioned her command to evacuate. The Malkuth woman's violet eyes were compassionate, but stern as she explained the situation. Arya was watching Lady Lythia intently, most likely observing the way that their liege interacted with her people. The young handmaiden was intent on helping Lady Lythia with the tasks that their liege had to complete as princess.
It was this that confused Caius. Where was the daemon that Dr Gneiss had claimed was the Witch Child who had taken the memories of Caius' childhood? The brown haired teen recalled a name that Lady Lythia had said when she had ranted about Dr Gneiss; "Dist." The young teen could only assume that his liege meant the Reaper God-General.
Caius' thoughts were cut short by Lady Lythia calling his name. Looking up again, Caius noted that the Guy was standing next to Lady Lythia, and that the blonde swordsman was holding the letter that Emperor Peony had bid him to deliver. The young teen walked up to the Malkuth Princess.
"Yes my lady?" he asked.
"Gailardia and I have things to discuss," Lady Lythia stated, pointedly ignoring the protests of the blonde. "I need you to come with us. The reason for this, I shall explain once we are alone."
Curiosity thoroughly perked, Caius followed his liege and Guy towards one of the previously emptied buildings, where the three of them entered. Once there, Lady Lythia broke the seal on the letter and read the first couple of lines. Carefully searching the small pile of papers, the Ward Princess removed three pages and handed them to Guy.
"That is addressed to you, Gailardia," Lady Lythia indicated, looking at him with expressionless eyes. "Read that and then tell me your answer, because the council has been untrustworthy as of late, and this does affect you, no matter if you are Count Gardios or not, and Caius is here as witness to our meeting."
It was just minutes later, Caius would note to Arya on the Albiore II, when the city started to sink lower than the ground it was already on. Guy, Lady Lythia and Caius had finished their discussion and had returned to helping the citizens evacuate St. Binah. While the Princess was talking with General McGovern and Colonel Curtiss the ground cracked and started to fall. Caius and Arya were with their liege on the falling land. Princess Lythia pulled the pair of them away from the edge of the land as it started crumbling.
It was truly a sign of Arya's youth when the girl's eyes widened as the situation sunk in, and the black haired child curled into a ball to muffle her scream. Caius crouched at her side to comfort her, looking up at Lady Lythia who was staring at her brother, as the man held back Luke fon Fabre from doing the stupid thing and jumping after them. There seemed to be a silent conversation held between the siblings as the Princess turned to the soldiers who had been caught on the falling ground with them and started barking out orders. It was going to be a long wait, she was saying, but they had to trust Colonel Curtiss to find a solution.
It took a few days for the land they were standing on to fall below the surface. Arya, Caius and Princess Lythia stood back to back in both wonderment and horror as they saw the true state of the world's heart. The miasma sea below them looked ominous and foreboding.
"So this is Hell then?" Arya asked softly.
"Nay," the blonde princess breathed. "This is a sign of a world dying, and Akzeriuth's fall set it off."
The sound of fon technology made everyone look up, to see a machine flying in the air, circling above them. They watched in wonder as it landed and a hatch in the side of the machine opened revealing Luke, who jumped out and beckoned everyone on board.
Lythia ignored any stares that were being sent her way as she pulled her brother into a hug. There had been a forcefully supressed fear sitting at the back of the violet eyed woman's mind when the land was falling, the fear that Jade would fail to get there in time, the fear that she would not see Jade again.
"Why do you do this, Lythia?" came Jade's question when Lythia didn't let go after a full minute.
"I've already lost you twice before, dearest brother," she murmured into his tunic. "I cannot lose you again. I cannot."
Jade was oddly silent at this, and when Lythia looked up, she could see his eyes closed, and his head turned away.
"You chose to run away," he stated, almost inaudibly. Lythia sighed, stepping back.
"We both did, in our own ways," she replied. "We did twenty-four years of running."
Jade pulled the rag doll that Peony had handed him out of his pocket and looked at it. His crimson eyes met his sister's own violet ones. The two siblings were silent for a moment, both almost assessing the other. Finally Jade spoke again, breaking the silence.
"In the end…" he murmured. "We both lost something that day, didn't we? Something we cannot get back."
"Aye brother," Lythia agreed. "That we did."
Jade handed the doll to Lythia with a small smirk, not saying anything as his sister's eyes widened, staring at the object with shock. Then the two siblings went to the cockpit of the ship to talk to everyone else.
So it went back to Lythia's P.O.V at the end. This chapter didn't turn out the exact way I planned it, because I ended up deciding that I wanted Lythia, Arya and Caius to see the Qliphoth.
I also had Arya's reaction to the land falling there because I needed to both remind myself, and you, my readers, that she is only ten years old. I need to remember this when I am writing, and if I ever write something for Arya that a ten year old wouldn't in any world be doing, please tell me.
So that's all for this chapter. I don't own Tales of the Abyss, I wish Arietta could be my actual daughter, and I sometimes wish that I was Lythia, but I sadly don't own the world. Caius belongs to Defiance-of-Fate. Lythia and Arya are mine.
Please read and review, your reviews inspire me! Until next time!
~Icetail~
Unimportant notes:
With the ragdoll... you won't be able to find any images anywhere of it. I tried finding an image on google, but unfortunately it doesn't exist. Maybe it does, I couldn't find it. It is an actual thing, I own one that my mum made at a history reenactment event. The doll is something from the medieval era that young girls would have made. It is literally a square of cloth that is tied together with yarn/wool to create a crude representation of a person. I'll get a picture of it onto my deviantart page eventually.
The scene with Peony and Guy is a heavily modified version of the scene from the anime! Emperor Karl the fifth is never mentioned in the anime! (he might of been mentioned once... but that's not important) Due to Lythia being existent in this world and the subject matter of the conversation before Peony spoke to Guy, I felt that Peony's words would be darker and more reflective of times past.
The letter that Peony addressed to Lythia will be resolved next chapter. It will also finish outlining the Malkuth Imperial council that I have created. It isn't the same council that I have for my crossover fic that I am writing for Abyss.
Last note, this chapter was slightly rushed, I hope it didn't show.
