Chapter 12

For love's sake

It was still dark as Cecil reached the town and hardly any wizards were out on the streets. No one noticed as Cecil hurried towards the Elders house, where a young black wizard stood guard in front of the door. As Cecil drew nearer, he saw that it was the young angry lad from the delegation. Obviously they had left Baron during his absence. The boy held his staff tighter, as he saw the familiar appearance with the long, silvery white hair approaching him.

"You again! Here to pin some more wizards on the wall? I heard you left your people at Baron on their own!" he shouted.

Cecil tried his best to stay calm. "Listen… I know that our meeting some days ago wasn't very "convenient". I guess we both could be taught some manners. But at the moment there are other problems. There are people who will die if you don't let me see the Elder right now! Is he there? I need to use the Serpent way! Please…"

Hearing a King saying "please" obviously impressed the lad and he moved away from the door wordlessly. "The Elder left Baron with us to check if everything was right at home. There - go in," he murmured after a second of contemplation.

"Thank you."

"But don't think that I've forgiven you..." the boy shouted after him. Cecil just ignored the other's tone of voice and hurried inside the building...

The Elder greeted him warmly. "Paladin Cecil! Where have you been? We all were so worried as you just disappeared that night. Queen Rosa was--"

Even if he had liked to know what was with Rosa, Cecil interrupted the old man: "Forgive me, Elder but there are more pressing matters at the moment. Baron is probably about to get attacked! You see..." He told the Elder in short was had happened on Mt. Ordeals.

"So the shrine is destroyed but you still can use your power... That is a wonder...And so there won't be more monsters coming from there?"

"I suppose so. The old mage seemed to have summoned them- only the monsters in Baron remain."

"I will open the Serpent way at once for you, Paladin Cecil!" the Elder exclaimed.

~*~

One hour later Cecil was back in Baron town. He carefully steeped out of the gate and looked around. The whole town was quiet.

"The people musts have fled into their houses."

As the castle came nearer, shouting could be heard and strange lights seemed to come from the direction- a sure sign for the use of magic...

Even from far away he could see a slender, green clothed figure battling some skeletons in front of the broken castle gate. It was Rydia, casting "fire" over and over again, the blazing balls of heat burning her enemies. Still there were too much - as Cecil came nearer he could see sweat pouring down Rydia's exhausted feature - she probably couldn't hold out much longer...

Cecil unsheathed his sword, a quick look proving what he already knew: Legend was still glowing in it's usual warm light.

"Aeeehy!" Rydia's scream echoed through the night as one of the skeletons closed its bony fingers around her arm, hindering any spell casting moves.

"Rydia!" Cecil charged forward into the group of monsters, Legend's light melting them like sun the snow. He managed to snag Rydia's other arm, whirling her away from her captor, while thrusting the sword into the skeleton's chest. With a loud clatter, its bones fell to the ground. Cecil held the gasping young caller close to him, steadying her as he lead her to a safe looking place near the castle moat.

Rydia looked at him with big eyes: "Cecil - you have come back! Where were you? All were so worried, and Rosa..."

"Rydia, later!" Cecil interrupted her friendly, but resolutely. "At the moment other things are important. What exactly happened and where are the others?"

Rydia had problems to follow him - everything was a bit too much for her to manage at the moment, but the calm voice of her friend and his firm grasp around her shoulders seemed to calm her. "Monsters suddenly attacked the castle again- just out of nowhere. First only a few, but then more and more. We all were concerned with your whereabouts and did not await another attack so soon. The repaired castle door couldn't hold the back. Edge, Yang and the other fought bravely but most weapons did not seem to work against the zombies and spirits - only my and Palom's magic, as well as Porom's and Rosa's white magic...We managed to hold the monsters back from out of the castle till now, but we are near the end of our strength. I am so glad you--"

Suddenly the loud cry of a familiar female voice rang out from inside the castle walls: "WHITE!"

"Rosa!" Cecil gasped. "Rydia- just stay here and don't move!" Rydia looked shaken and pale, but nodded in response to his orders. "Everything will be alright. I promise..."

The green haired girl nodded again, even managing a weak smile. Cecil hurried over the castle bridge, and spotted Rosa at once. The sight he beheld there was amazing:

Many knew of Rosa only as the mild and warm hearted Queen and healer of Baron castle, but Cecil had seen her often enough in battle to know otherwise -- she had quite a temper and was a fierce fighter if needed. As it was now. The young queen of Baron was facing five or more zombies and skeletons, her beautiful face flushed from rage and strain. Her white battle gown fluttered around her from the swirling magic energies she invoked.

"WHITE!" A glowing white ball emerged from her outstretched hands, sending the monsters flying aside as it exploded in their midst. Cecil wondered how often she had cast this extremely strenuous spell by now. Upon closer inspection, he could see that Rosa looked battered and shaken, too. Suddenly a yellow, but slightly transparent shape began to appear out of mid air behind her-- it was a spectre.

"Rosa! Behind you!" Cecil screamed, but the fighting noises were too loud. The spirit started to glow, preparing for some sort of magical attack.

"Dawn -- now we'll see if your trust in me was justifiable..." were Cecil's last thoughts as he started to ran into Rosa's directions, throwing himself between his wife and the glowing ball of magic the spirit had cast:

"WALL!"

For a moment there was silence- only the humming of the magical energy field in front of where Cecil was standing could be heard. Opposite to it, some glowing yellow dust lay on the ground- the remains of the spirit which had been destroyed by its own spell.

Rosa was lying on the ground, only slowly regaining her senses.

"Huff..." Cecil was breathing heavily. The spell he had just cast had took most of his strength. He saw some of his friends running towards him.

"Cecil! You are back!"

"Yeah... Later... Were that all? Is everyone alright?" The young paladin looked around him, spotting all his friends except for Kain.

"Yesss sir! " Porom said. "There were even more monsters, but it seems that your sword made them afraid and that they fled..." The little wizard pointed at Legend, which glowed brighter and warmer than usually.

"Yo man! Good to see you again!" Edge exclaimed loudly and patted the paladin on his back. "Nice work !" He  pointed to the shimmering wall of magic before them. "I didn't know that you could cast THAT high white magic, though -- the shrine sure did reload your powers, ain't I right!" He blinked at his friend in self-satisfaction upon his logical abilities.

A frowning look of the Paladin and the giggling of Palom and Porom made Edge realize that he had said the wrong thing at the wrong time again -- his specialty...

"No, the shrine was destroyed by a mage..." Cecil explained, "It is a long story - it seems that our problems just have started… But it least it turned out that my powers aren't bound to the shrine..."

"Uh... err- sure. I knew it from the start..." Edge tried to save the situation.

"Cecil?" The female voice sounded shaken and hesitant. Cid mentioned behind Cecil where Rosa had gotten to her feet again. The paladin gripped the hilt of his sword more tightly as to have some support. Cid motioned the others to leave their two alone for a moment.

Cecil slowly turned around, wondering what would happen now. "I do trust you, Rosa..."

As he looked at her he noticed that Rosa's face showed some deep lines - it seemed that she had cried a lot. She took a step towards him and for a moment it occurred to the paladin that his wife just wanted to fall in his arms. She stopped shortly before him.

"Cecil..." she started, "Where have you been? I was so worried about you..." She bowed her head.

"You were?" Cecil at once felt ashamed for this question as everyone could clearly see that she was grief stricken... Rosa looked up again, a dangerous sparkle in her eyes.

"Sure I was!" Her cheeks flushed red again, this time of anger. "Of course I was!" Rosa repeated. "First you act all wildly her at home for a few days; then you start spying on me and Kain and suspect me of treason; then your power vanishes and you get even more depressed, and after a big battle you just disappear without a word for several days! And you think I couldn't worry about that?!" She was still trembling with anger, but now tears were standing in her eyes, as well. Cecil didn't really know what to say, afraid any false word would lead to a quarrel again. He had never seen his wife like this before.

"And now you're standing there, saying nothing... Has it come that "far" between us?" Rosa's voice trailed off.

"Have I worried you that much...?"

CLANG! Legend fell to the ground.

"No, it hasn't..." Cecil opened his arms. His wife flew in his embrace at once, clinging hard to him, burying her head in his shoulder. The paladin stroked her soft golden hair, his eyes closed -- it felt so good to hold her again...

Between some sobs Rosa seemed to regain her composure.

"Cecil- it was all a big misunderstanding..." The paladin shoved her a bit away from him so that he could look in her eyes.

"A... a misunderstanding?"

"Where have I heard that before?"

Cecil took a deep breath. "Lets not waste our time with chitchat. Rosa - I must ask you a question and no matter what your answer will be: I promise that I won't be angry but will accept it: I love you more than anything else. Everything during the last days has been so confusing- I am sorry for the inconveniences I have caused, but I guess I am back to my old self. Still, I have to ask: What's the matter with you and Kain?"

Rosa looked at him for a moment, her eyes showing no sign of anger or fear:

"Cecil- while you were away, I came to think that I, too caused you "inconveniences" by my behaviour, so let me ask first: Do you think that Kain and I are having an affair? Please be true..."

"No." Suddenly Cecil felt very sure of that. Rosa suddenly beamed at him happily.

"Cecil! I knew you would trust me- even after all this! Thank you!" With a sigh of relief she fell back in his arms. This was a good thing, as that way, she could not see Cecil's deep red face: "I knew that you would trust me... What an idiot I have been..."

"Err...yes!" he said, "Sure... Still you haven't told me why you behaved so strange..."

"Oh of course!" She stepped back to take a better look at him while talking. "You know, as I said before that everything was - partly a misunderstanding..."

"Partly?"

"Well.. where shall I start?"

"Maybe with what you and Kain always had to discuss without me?" Cecil asked impatiently, but as he saw Rosa's eyes glittering again, he continued in a softer tone: "I don't want to sound aggressive, but even now your behaviour is unusual. We used to tell us everything..."

"You're right.. but I am not supposed to speak of this normally... You see, Kain was so surprised of the warm welcome you gave him at his arrival - he thought that you would have been more angry on him after all this with me and... Well you know..."

"He should know me better..." Cecil was hiding the fact for now, that he had in fact been  angry with his former friend.

"Are you sure? I myself was not sure how I felt as I saw him again..."

Rosa's remark irritated Cecil. "But you looked so happy..."

"Maybe, but everything came so surprising.. I guess I didn't really know how to behave..."

Cecil remembered how he had felt, as he had seen his friend again:

"Yes, I understand very well!" He smiled.

"Well, as I brought him to his room I suddenly felt that something was wrong... He spoke only little, looked shyly at me now and then... I even began to feel a bit afraid. There was something... desperate around him..."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, with our friends coming I thought that you were occupied enough. You work so hard!" She was silent for a moment, then continued a bit sheepishly: "...I also thought that Kain would open to me more easily... You know that he likes me..."

Cecil said nothing.

"Slowly he did open up- he told me that he couldn't stay long and that he wasn't deserving any of this. I tried to explain that his actions were history, but then he told me about Mt. Ordeals..."

"So there did happen something on the mountain..." Cecil murmured.

Suddenly it became clear to him: "Wait- did he tell you something about an old man named Claudius?"

Rosa looked at him puzzled: "I do not remember names, but yes- he told of an old man... How do you know?"

"I will tell you that later...Please go on..."

"As he just was about to break with his old life, this man appeared and brought forth his doubts again... I wanted to know what this "doubts" he spoke of referred to exactly, but he only told me that he was afraid of committing something bad again and that he had the feeling that something horrible was to happen... As I suggested to talk with you he declined- he begged me not to tell you anything... He said he didn't want to upset you and that he feared that you would throw him out of Baron if he told you everything..."

"Why should I throw him out?"

"You should ask him yourself, I guess- he got slightly hurt in one of the monster attacks, but sure will be up tomorrow, I think... I felt that Kain was hiding something before me, so I wanted to talk to you about it, but then you started to act so aggressive at the dinner..."

"Rosa- you don't mean that everything went the way it has just because I have insulted this old...err I mean your mother?" Cecil stared at her in disbelief.

"No- not exactly... After you did explain everything to me that night, I decided to talk to you the next morning, but you were so occupied with making preparations for the ball again! On top of that I spotted Kain how he was about to leave the castle..."

"He surely must have had something on his mind..."

"I thought so, too. I'd never seen him like that- so weak- although he tried to act as cool as he could. He said that he feared to destroy everything with his presence again. He is our best friend, Cecil, so I just thought I had to help him and I convinced him to stay a bit longer. I thought that we could get things right again... I was so happy that he appeared on the ball, and as I know that you don't like dancing--"

"And your gown?" Cecil interrupted her.

Rosa looked at him, a blank look in her eyes. "My... what?"

Cecil felt slightly foolish. "Oh, I just remembered the red gown you wore at the ball. It looked really nice..."

Rosa felt irritated by this remark: "Yes... thank you... I ordered it especially for the ball - I wanted to surprise you, but you did not seem to notice it at first... But why..."

"Oh nothing..." Cecil responded hastily not wanting to talk about this nasty matter any longer...

"As the accident at Agart happened both Kain and I thought that it was not the right time to talk about what had happened on Mt. Ordeals."

Her voice got quieter. "We didn't know that the prophecies of the old man would come true and Kain didn't want to upset anyone..."

"Well, but he did; after all..." Cecil sighed.

"I know- In truth you weren't only concerned with the actual problems but with me and Kain- you did not only behave so strange because of the happenings on the mountain but because of us... Am I right?" Rosa looked at him with searching eyes.

Cecil nodded. "Yeah- you are right. You suddenly behaved so distant. I am so used to you being by my side during hard times that I didn't realize that you had problems of your own... You seemed to have had a hard time with Kain, too...I am sorry..."

"I must apologize as well. You're right.. I should have helped you more. I did feel guilty for my absence but I knew also that you were strong enough without me and that I myself would get along just fine without your help, too. In the beginning everything went just fine..."

"Yes - until that delegation came. I guess this was too much for me."

"To tell the truth I think everything went over my head, too. Still I was so sure that I could help Kain... You were right that one day: I guess I tried to bring the past back and didn't realize how I was destroying the present..." Rosa suddenly admitted, softly.

Cecil shook his head. "You were right, too: I was aggressive and you sure had a hard time with me... Still I would like to know--"

His wife blushed a bit as if she had read his thoughts. "Oh -- the embrace. I was worried that day - not only about Kain but about you... Kain thought that everything was his fault and so he tried to comfort me... For him this may have been more, but for me it was just an embrace with a friend... And then you came and everything... Well I just lost my nerve. I couldn't believe that you suspected me of treason. I mean.. I know you and I..."

Cecil held up his hand "Please stop! I should never have even thought of that. I guess we both overacted the last days- that's also why I just disappeared that night. Everything went wrong and I thought the fault lay in me..."

"So you went on an one man trip to set things right... That's really just like you..." Rosa sighed. "Living with a Paladin sure isn't easy..." She smiled.

Cecil smiled back. "Who's speaking - who tried to set things right with Kain all alone? And about the last part... I know that Kain is a really good dancer, but..."

"Cecil!" Rosa laughed "He may be a better dancer, but you are the man I love and will always love... So - who is luckier?" She took his hand. Her touch was more gentle than ever.

"So do you want to tell me everything now, or--" Before she could end the sentence, Cecil already had embraced her tightly and kissed her passionately. "Later..." he whispered.