Chapter 2

A grand entrance

"Rosa dear, where are you? We do have an unexpected guest!" Cecil shouted, as he entered the great hall of the castle, dragging a somewhat shaken looking Kain behind him.

"I am coming, darling!" a voice could be heard from somewhere near.

Kain flinched - it was Rosa's voice - her sweet, golden voice. Cecil felt his friend stiffen - he thought that Kain was excited and tried to reassure him: "Don't be nervous, Kain. Rosa surely will be very happy to see you!"

That she was - in fact she was overjoyed: As the young Queen noticed Kain standing behind her husband, she uttered a sound of joy and ran towards him; her long white gown fluttering in all directions. Kain's eyes grew wide as Rosa fell around his neck and planted a big kiss on one of his cheeks.

"Kain - you have come back! We all missed you!" Rosa was still beaming as she finally released her grip.

Cecil had watched the whole scene somewhat surprised - he had not often seen his wife so happy and spontaneous as she looked just now. Still he was glad she obviously held no grudge at all against their old friend - to meet him with trust and friendship was the first step to "normalize" things again. He gave Kain a supporting smile, and motioned him to say something. Kain was still staring wide eyed at Rosa.

"Well - err ... Rosa! Nice to meet you!" he stuttered. Cecil nearly laughed out loud - seeing Kain in such a state was a rare sight.

"Oh, come on Kain! Don't be so shy!" Cecil gave him a friendly nudge. "Don't look so afraid. It is only us - your friends. Surely you have faced more dangerous things on Mt. Ordeals – haven't you?" he smiled.

"Cecil - it is not the time to make fun of Kain!" Rosa scolded him and looked suddenly very concerned.

"Are you really alright Kain? You sure are tired, aren't you? I will have the maids prepare a room and meal for you - we can talk later..."

She called for the maid and began to pull on his travelers cloak. Cecil, who was still a bit disturbed by the scolding of his wife, gave Kain an apologizing look. He had seldom seen Rosa so hasty and was sure that Kain was feeling a bit "taken by surprise".

Rosa had finally succeeded in removing the cloak and now for the first time seemed to realize the change in Kain's appearance.

"Kain! Where is your armor?" The blond man just shook solemnly his head.

"He has thrown it away," Cecil informed her.

Rosa stared at him for a moment and then gave Kain a dazzling smile.

"Really? Oh that is so great - you really look good the way you are now!" She studied him from head to foot. Kain started to blush.

"Rosa, dear!" Cecil said and touched her arm softly. "The maid is coming. Don't you think we should allow our friend some rest?" He began starting to worry about Kain's unusual behaviour, too.

"Mt . Ordeals sure can be rough, " he thought as he studied the young , blonde man. " His expression has become so hard ... I wonder what he did experience..."

He thought of the time as he himself had climbed the mountain to become a paladin...

"Cecil," Rosa broke his thoughts: "I am going with Kain to see to that everything is right!"

She grabbed Kain by the hand and started to pull him away.

"But Rosa!" Cecil called after her. " Why don't you let the maids do it alone? The first guests will be coming every minute now !"

Rosa turned around: "Cecil dear - why don't you welcome our friends alone and tell them that I will be coming later? Surely you must understand that your best friend is important as well... Isn't this right, Kain?" She gripped his hand more tightly.

"Uh... sure!" Kain just shrugged with the shoulders as Rosa dragged him down the hall.

Cecil watched them, puzzled. He sure was glad that Rosa had coped with the return of Kain so well, but now she was acting a little strange... 

"…that your best friend is important as well !" she had said. He felt a great deal of sympathy for Kain, but it was not as it had been several years before. Besides they had not seen each other for a long time now and many things needed to be discussed. Surely Rosa could not have forgotten the things Kain had done - not only because he had been manipulated by the dark side, but also because these feelings of hate and jealousy existed within him.

"Maybe she only acts this way to hide her embarrassment ... I hope she is not too badly shaken..." Cecil decided to talk to her later about Kain - she sure needed just as he himself someone to talk - seeing Kain must have been a shock for her.

"Your Highness!" shouted a young guard excitedly as he ran towards Cecil. "The first guests have arrived - King Yang accompanied by King Edward of Damycan ..."

"Thank you, soldier !" Cecil replied and hurried out to the landing place for the airships.

~*~

"Yang! Welcome in Baron!" Cecil embraced the powerful looking King of Fabul.

Even though there was a great turmoil on the landing place with mechanics caring for Yang's airship - a gift from Baron itself- and maids hurriedly showing the crew its quarters, Cecil had at once spotted his old friend.

Yang wore the colorful clothing which Fabul was famous for and which suited his tall, heavy build stature very well. He had gained some weight though and laughter lines were showing around his sparkling brown eyes - probably the "work" of Yang's wife who was a lively and humorous woman in her best years.

"Cecil! It has been a long time, hasn't it?" Yang returned the hug friendly. "Well maybe it has not been such a long time, but it surely was too long for me!" He gave the younger King a bright smile.

Cecil and Yang got along very well - Cecil liked Yang's sincere, honorable and trustworthy way - as everyone had doubted him a year ago, Yang had been one of the first people to trust him fully.

Yang, on the other hand, thought very much of the paladin - though Cecil was much younger than he was, he had very soon become a respected leader and ruler. Seeing during their travels how Cecil had changed from a Dark Knight to a paladin had pleased Yang greatly - he respected Cecil and his views and was happy to see that the other was well.

"Well, Cecil!" a soft voice could be heard behind him: "You must know that Yang only comes to Baron because of your beautiful maids! The Karate fighters at Fabul aren't so lovely ..."

"That's not true Edward!" Yang grinned, but was not offended. " I have the most beautiful women of the world at home! You still know Edward, don't you Cecil? I decided to give him a ride to Baron before his lute gets full of sand on a hovercraft ride!"

"Very funny!" the young man with the delicate features replied, slightly insulted. As he faced Cecil his eyes started to glow of joy: "Cecil - you look very good! You sure have become a great King!"

Cecil laughed, "Don't overdo it, Edward! You should look in mirror yourself. Castle Damcyan is nearly rebuild and from what I hear more beautiful than before!"

"Yes, with your help, Cecil - I do not know what we would have done without you..."

Edward admired Cecil very much for the inner strength the white haired half - lunarian seemed to possess. "By the way - where is Rosa?"

"Oh - I nearly forgot!" Cecil admitted sheepishly. "She will welcome you later. You see Kai--" The rest of his sentence was swallowed by the overpowering noise of another airship approaching and the screams that emanated from the vehicle:

"You little brat! You have scorched a hole in the deck!"

"It is not my fault you big oaf - you wanted our arrival to be spectacular!"

"Palom - apologize at once!"

"I won't - he pushed me intentionally as I was preparing my spell!"

Puff!

"Ouch!"

"That serves you right you would-be-wizard: I will show you how to do it correctly!"

"NO! DON'T !"

"Don't worry - it is only a smoke ball - we will land in Baron in a cloud of mist and then I - the great King of Eblan will step out of the shadows and ..."

"NO! DON'T THROW IT - it is not a smoke ball but a grena--"

BOOOMMM!

An explosion rocked the ship, followed by a smoke cloud. Trying not to panic, Cecil called some of his men to him - just in case for whatever...

"Cough , cough! Well - there is your smoke, you dummy! Now look at the hole you've made!"

"Ugh - I knew from the beginning that it had been a mistake to take you with me - I am giving you the honor to ride on an airship to Baron and how do you repay me - instead of casting some fireworks you nearly destroyed my ship! Kids! Nothing but trouble!"

"Now look who's talking! I at least can distinguish between a smoke ball and a grenade!"

"Palom!"

"What's going on here? Are we here yet?"

"Whoops! Master…"

"Err, Elder is everything alright?"

Obviously the airship possessed a very skilled captain -- so it could not be Edge as Yang remarked-- and made a very smooth landing despite the "problems" on deck.

Edge was standing on solid ground first, clothes slightly burnt and his face full of ash.

"Uh hello!" he shouted. "Great scene, hmm?"

He blinked at the three men which were looking at him with wide eyes.

"Hey - er... where's Rydia?" Edge asked, and sounded somewhat disappointed.

"Master Edge - you really are impolite!" scolded the little girl named Porom as she climbed down the ladder. She carefully tried to clean her hands and face as best as she could with a little handkerchief, before she joined Cecil and the others. She politely addressed each one of them and thanked for the invitation: "Please excuse the behaviour of Master Edge, but you know how he is... I just hope Palom..."

"HEY - long time no see, dude!" a child's voice shouted behind her. A little boy, also covered with ash from head to toe, shoved Porom aside, grabbed Cecil's hand and started to shake it wildly:

"Great show, huh! I bet you sure are glad to see me again man!"

"Palom – it's Your Highness !" hissed his sister.

"Sure, whatever !"

"...I am in fact glad to see you all whole and healthy after this... accident in the sky!" laughed Cecil, while he was desperately trying to clean his hands from the dust. Luckily, Porom gave him a helping hand .

"Edge - nice to see you too! Rydia will arrive tomorrow - you know that the journey from the underworld up here is a difficult one..."

"Yes, I understand…" Edge muttered. "She could have asked me. I'd gladly given her a ride!" he said, sounding hurt.

"It is good that only we had to witness your great scene, Master Edge!" a very old and wise sounding voice uttered: "I should have taken the Serpent Road as planned!"

The Elder of Mysidia joined the group of friends. After a short exchange of compliments between him and Cecil, the group went into the castle, chatting lively.

After all had their rooms shown, Rosa finally appeared, followed by Kain, who now seemed to be in better spirits and even smiled a bit. All reacted very friendly towards him - even Edge who normally was not very gentle. Cecil was glad that all had taken the Dragoon again in their middle so fast. Rosa did not leave Kain's side for a minute and looked as if she would kill anyone insulting their friend right away. Her husband secretly wondered if she didn't exaggerate a bit - surely Kain could take care of himself and no one here wanted him something bad...