Disclaimer: The Vision of Escaflowne is owned by Sunrise and Bandai Entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended by this not-for-profit story, although the author would like to point out that this doesn't mean that others can freely copy this text and claim it as their own!
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Folken was gone all day. When evening fell and he still had not returned, Carenza began to feel scared, but the Heart of Fanel was still clear and bright, catching the firelight like a flame upon her hand.
'He'll be all right, my dear,' Folken's mother assured her. 'It's a long way to the part of the forest where the dragons live. He probably hasn't even found one yet.'
Carenza nodded. Queen Varie was a lot like her elder son, tall and graceful, but with long dark hair instead of silver, and sad violet eyes. Carenza wanted very much to get to know her better, so that she could find out more about Folken from the woman who surely knew him best, but although Varie was kind and unfailingly polite, her grief at her husband's death was like a wall between her and the rest of the world.
After a while the queen rose from her seat by the fire.
'We should go to bed. If Folken comes home in the night, Balgus will see that we are woken. Good night, my dear.'
All next day Carenza waited, but still there was no sign of Folken. She passed the time by helping Van in his lessons. He was just learning to read and write, and she kept him amused by folding paper into animal shapes and writing their names on them. His cat-friend Merle watched them for a while and then ran off with the paper mouse, growling at Carenza when she tried to retrieve it.
'Do a dragon next,' Van demanded.
'I'm not sure I have a big enough piece of paper,' she said. Dragons were not exactly her favourite creatures at the moment. 'How about a sea-serpent, like the ones we have in Asturia?'
'Oh, all right,' he said, sticking out his bottom lip to make it clear that this had better be nearly as good or else.
Carenza took out a sheet of greenish paper and began to fold it lengthways. She glanced down at the ring for the hundredth time that day, and her heart skipped a beat. The pinkish gem was cloudy, like a piece of glass that has been ground smooth by the tide. For a long moment she stared at it, hardly remembering to breathe.
'What is it, Carenza-san?'
'Nothing, Van. Please, excuse me.'
She ran off in search of Queen Varie. Perhaps she would be able to say if the change in the stone was the kind that Folken had described, or something else. She ran along the covered verandah and rounded the corner without looking - straight into Balgus. The swordmaster squinted down at her with his one good eye.
'What's the hurry, little lady?'
'I need to show the queen- have you seen her?'
'She's praying at the family shrine up on the hill,' he said.
'Oh no!' This was a bad omen, she knew it.
Without pausing even to thank Balgus, she ran off up the path towards the royal tombs. When she got there, Queen Varie was kneeling before a massive monument of dark grey marble; the grave of King Goau.
'Queen Varie! Your Majesty!'
The queen looked up.
'Good heavens! What is it, dear? Is Folken back already?'
Carenza held out her hand.
'Look at this.'
'It's the Heart of Fanel. What about it?'
Carenza looked down. The stone was as clear as ever.
'But...it went all dull...I saw it, I know I did.'
The queen smiled gently.
'I'm sure you did. But Folken is...not quite like other kings of Fanelia. The power is especially strong in him. It is possible that, were he hurt or simply in danger, the stone might respond.'
'It might?'
'Yes. I cannot be sure, of course - he has only been attuned to it for two years, and he has never been seriously injured in that time. But if the stone is clear again now, I think we can be sure that he is out of danger.'
'Oh.' She didn't feel very convinced, but this mystic bond between the kings of Fanelia and their guymelef was beyond her experience.
The Heart of Fanel remained clear for the rest of the day, and the day after that, and yet still Folken did not return. The queen was withdrawing further into herself, unwilling to admit that she might have been wrong, and Carenza was left to look after little Van.
'My brother's coming home, isn't he?' he asked for the hundredth time, gazing up at her with those red-brown eyes that reminded her so much of Folken.
'Yes, of course he is.' She wished she sounded more convincing.
'But he's been gone for ages!'
'I know it seems like a very long time, but it's a long way to the forest and dragons are not so common as they used to be.'
'My brother is a great warrior.' Van cocked his head on one side. 'Perhaps he is so fierce, the dragons just runned away from him,' he said cheerfully.
'Perhaps,' she smiled, and ruffled his dark hair.
She tucked him into bed, and Merle curled up by his feet.
'Will you read me a story?' Van asked sleepily.
'All right. Which one would you like?'
She picked up the book, and a lump came to her throat. This was the very book she had recommended to Folken, that first day that had met.
'Read the one about the magic wishing bird.'
'That's a silly story,' put in Merle. 'Birds don't talk, they squawk!' She giggled, and pretended to attack Van's feet through the bedclothes.
'Well, I've seen birdmen in Palas, and they can talk,' said Carenza.
Merle looked up, her eyes wide, then she harumphed and curled up with her back to them. Van looked about to say something, but Carenza raised a finger to her lips, opened the book and began to read.
'Once upon a time, in a land far away, there lived a little prince...'
On her way back downstairs, she heard raised voices. It sounded like Balgus and Queen Varie. She didn't know whether to walk straight in and pretend she hadn't heard anything, or go up to her own room and leave them to it.
'Your majesty, you have to give the prince time to complete his Rite of Dragonslaying-'
'It's been three days, Balgus. What if my son is lying injured in the forest somewhere? '
'We have no reason to suspect-'
'Prince Folken left the Heart of Fanel with his sweetheart, and she saw it change.'
'Why didn't someone tell me?'
'It only lasted a few minutes, it seems. I thought...a passing danger, or an injury...it might react more strongly to Draconian blood than to that of humans...'
Draconian blood? thought Carenza. Is that a fancy name for dragon's blood? She inched closer.
Balgus growled something.
'What was that about my husband?' the queen asked.
'Nothing, your majesty.'
'I know my husband's decision to marry me was not popular with any of his advisors,' Varie murmured. Carenza strained to catch her words. 'But it was prophesied. We were fated to be together...if only for a short time.'
Footsteps approached the door. Carenza slipped along the side corridor and let herself out into the garden. She had heard too much to be able to sleep for a while. So Varie was not Fanelian. Well, there was nothing very unusual in that. Most royal families were obliged to marry outside their own kingdom, generally in support of political alliances. Cynics might even accuse Folken of wanting to marry Carenza for her father's money; Fanelia was not exactly a wealthy country. But during her time at court, Carenza had sat in on most of Marlene and Eries' lessons, which included learning the royal families of all the surrounding countries, and she didn't remember seeing Varie's name on any of the pedigrees. Perhaps it had been a love-match, then. Varie had the grace of a noblewoman born and bred, but there were hundreds of noble families in Gaea and no-one could be expected to know them all.
She wandered around the garden for a while, stooping to brush her hand along the step where she and Folken had sat - was it really only three days ago? She shivered. It was getting cold, and the Mystic Moon was high above the western mountains. Time to go to bed.
When she got to her room she found a note on her pillow.
'My dear Carenza,' she read. Scanning down to the bottom of the page, she spotted Queen Varie's signature. What was this all about? She hastily read on.
My dear Carenza
I am going to look for my son. I cannot wait for Balgus' consent any longer, but I do not have the courage to defy him to his face. Please give me time to reach the forest, or he will try to stop me.
Look after Van for me. I hope to be back soon, with my our beloved
Folken by my side.
Yours
Varie de Fanel
Carenza followed the queen's instructions, and did not alert Balgus. Next morning the servants reported that the queen was missing. Fortunately for Carenza, Balgus easily guessed where Varie had gone, so she was spared having to show him the note. Not that she dared to. The scarred swordsmaster was in a foul temper, though more, she thought, with himself for not anticipating Varie's actions than with her for concealing them. Instead she took Van for a walk in the garden whilst Balgus assembled the Fanelian knights and organised search parties.
They returned around sunset without either Folken or the queen. Carenza had left Van with a maidservant for a couple of hours, afraid that her growing anxiety would upset the little prince. She lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to breathe slowly and calmly, though every nerve in her body was stretched to breaking point.
There was a knock at the door. She started, then sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.
'Come in.'
Balgus took a step into the room and just stood there, arms folded.
'I think you should leave.' he said at last.
She stared at him.
'But what about Van? I can't just leave him, with no family-'
'I can look after the prince. He needs a man to look up to, not women tying him to their apron sleeves.'
'But-'
'There's a merchant caravan leaving in the morning. They're heading across the border into Asturia; I dare say you can find someone there who will take you on to the capital.'
She didn't know what to say. She just couldn't go, not with Folken missing, and yet she could hardly stay in this foreign land when she had been openly told to leave. It was hopeless.
It's never hopeless, came the reply from her memory.
'I won't give up,' she whispered.
'What did you say?' asked Balgus.
'Nothing. It doesn't matter.'
She looked down at the ring, deceptively bright on her hand.
'You should have this back,' she said, holding out the Heart of Fanel. 'It belongs to Van now.'
The swordmaster grimaced, twisting his scarred face into a terrifying mask.
'Keep the accursed thing. It has already brought death to this family - I will not see the prince mislead by false omens.'
With a certain amount of relief she slipped it back on her finger. It was all she had left of Folken. That, and a bundle of letters in her desk back home in Palas.
Home.
She didn't feel like anywhere was home any more.
END OF PART ONE
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Part Two of this story coming very soon!