Chapter 12: Little Sister

Locked in place at the entrance to Folken's laboratory Eries could feel the heat from the hallway's light pounding at her back as it flowed around her body and cast her shadow farther forward into the lab than she herself dared to go. Her shadow, uninhibited by any of the chagrin she felt, boldly stretched down the long walk until if Folken had taken a single step backwards he would have stepped on her head.

As it was he didn't even know she was there or, if he did, was making an excellent job of ignoring her. He worked diligently and quickly on repairing the enormous piece of machinery hung by thick steel cables from the ceiling all the while whistling a sad tune and somehow managing to keep his back to her.

It had been two days now since their brief and awkward reunion. Two days to let a million questions surface in her mind, to think up a world of things she wanted to say to him, ask him, tell him. Two nights to let it all brew knowing he was alive but never being able to talk to him.

That night she had dressed as quickly as she could, reflecting on the blush that had overtaken his face. In one moment she'd seen more emotion, more real emotion, from him than she had in the past six years. Not since their first encounter had he acted like that, letting his emotions go unchecked and uncontrolled. She had smiled about it as she vainly attempted to track him down.

At the time she hadn't even felt embarrassed about her brief moment of nudity, too stunned by his living presence to be modest. Considering the fact that she'd never exposed so much as a forearm to another person since the age of six she found it odd that she hadn't minded.

She did now, though. Too mindful of the fact and no thought at all to what she should say to him. All the things she'd gone over countless times in her head had fled leaving her with nothing but air rushing between her ears. If she only had been able to catch him that night surely she would have talked easily to him. Even the day after it still wouldn't have been this hard. But she hadn't been able to find him that night. And the subsequent days were busy for him as well as her.

Once, only once, she had caught him between the constant barrage of war meetings and lectures and managed to whisper more harshly than she'd intended: "Don't tell anyone." It sounded an absolutely foolish thing to say now and she regretted it terribly. 'Glad your alive' would have had a better ring to it though it took lacked charm. His eyes had widened slightly and his face regained the reddish tinge around his cheekbones. "I wouldn't dream of it, Hime. I'd be hung in a moment if anyone found out I'd barged into the princesses room while she was changing."

"Why did you?" Eries asked, another asinine question that was left unanswered for someone had loudly demanded Folken's presence and he'd hurried off with a lack of formality. Leaving Eries feeling rather bemused by it all once her brain took the time to register the conversation. She'd meant telling about her beastgirl qualities, but apparently that was not how Folken had taken her warning or chosen to remember the incident.

Eries tried to kick herself forward into his lab, but her legs buckled and her foot refused to kick itself. she reprimanded herself. What was she so afraid of? This was about keeping her secret, finding out how he'd escaped, how he'd made it to Asturia, why he'd left Zaibach - a million things but 'them'. He'd already said he didn't love her. Didn't he? She couldn't remember anymore.

"Eries Hime." A strong hand came down on her shoulder and stifling a scream Eries spun around knocking away the hand she expected belonged to Meiden. He was in that habit of sneaking up behind her, just his little way of keeping her on her toes. The merchant would be all over her for snooping on Folken. It wasn't him, much to her relief.

Instead it was Gaddes with his hands in the air like a surrendering prisoner and a look on his face suggesting she'd just tried to take a bite out of him.

"Geez, a little high strung today, aren't we, Hime?"

"You startled me," Eries said and he finally lowered his hands.

"I didn't mean to. Just have message for you from the boss."

"Allen?" He nodded. Enter a new contender for people she did not want to see right now. "What is it?" The whistling had stopped behind her, and she knew Folken was aware of her presence. Perhaps he'd come out to talk and she'd been free of trying to think up an icebreaker.

"He wants to talk to you. Something about a sister."

"Millerna's married, tell him to keep his hands off." Eries cast a glance over her shoulder not really caring what Gaddes thought of it. Folken was indeed looking at them, but he was making no move to approach.

"Millerna? Naw, she's old news, he proposed to Miss Hitomi before we went to Rampart. But she's no longer in Asturia. They think she's gone home."

"Oh, really?" Eries commented totally disinterested as long as Millerna was safe.

Gaddes misinterpreted. "Yeah, when we got back from Rampart she showed up on the bridge and royally chewed Van's butt. Got pretty upset and then this pillar of blue light came and carried her off. Now Van's gone missing too. His catgirl said he went to bring Hitomi back. Said he was in love with her. I always thought they got on better anyways, but I know the boss was pretty crushed by it. Not that he'd ever let it show."

"That's nice," Eries said absently. Folken was watching them very intently.

Gaddes cast glances back and forth between the two and catching Eries' eye gave a wickedly knowing grin.

"What?" Eries snapped at him feeling suddenly hostile at her invasion of privacy.

The smug look didn't leave. "Allen wants to talk to you. He asked if I'd take you to the cemetery now so you could talk privately. That's all I know."

Eries nodded her head reluctantly.

"I'll meet you with the carriage down in the courtyard. Don't be too long, Hime." He made an overly flamboyant bow and walked away shaking his head.

The whistling started up once again behind her. Damn, she'd have to put off talking to Folken yet again. Oh well, perhaps she'd think of something to say when she got back.

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

It hadn't been hard to find the Knight Caeli, but Eries took her time approaching him. He was kneeling beside a young lady at a grave she knew was his mothers. She, at least Eries assumed it was a girl, was a strange looking thing with very short pale blond locks and dressed in what appeared to be some of Allen's own clothing. Allen certainly wasn't taking his recent rejection to harshly if he'd found someone that fast.

Allen rose when she got close, but the girl remained kneeling sitting as still as tombstones that surrounded them. "Thank you for coming, Eries Hime." He tried to lift the girl to her feet but the pale girl wouldn't comply. So he just turned her head briefly letting Eries glimpse a pair of blue eyes before she turned back to the grave. "This is my sister Celena."

"Sister?" Eries felt a twinge of guilt at her hasty assumption, more for the sake of the sister than for Allen. She'd heard the story of Allen's sister before. The girl had gone missing some ten years back and no one had seen or heard a thing since. Everyone but Allen believed she was dead. "Can it really be?"

Allen turned to the girl. "It's been ten years but I'd recognize my sister anywhere. Poor thing, she doesn't remember where she's been all this time."

"She's lost her memory?" Eries gazed past him to the silent girl kneeling at her own mother's grave. Ten years, she would only be finding out now that her mother was gone. It must hurt her terribly. The girl turned her head to follow the flight of a passing butterfly.

"Eries Hime. Take care of my sister while I'm away fighting. You're the only one I can ask." He didn't even look at her as he spoke, but his gaze was not upon Celena either. His voice was edged with forced calmness.

Was he reduced to that? So alone in the world that she was only one he dared to ask? Eries stared at the knight and for a moment pitied him. All things aside, it taken a lot of courage to ask such a thing of her. But the memory of Chid's unhappiness still clung tight in her chest, unhappiness he was responsible for. She'd do it for Celena, not him. "Very well. She is the sister of a Knight of Caeli. I'll take care of her at the palace."

Before he could reply, Celena started to scream.

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

"Dilandau."

She'd met him before on the Vione. The pale young warrior who'd laughed at her and Folken. The boy with red eyes. Cold, wicked eyes.

"I'm sorry, I don't know a whole lot about his past, but it seems certain that the Sorcerers are behind him." Listening to Folken's voice, always so deep and calm helped to finally subside Eries's shaking. The whole experience, it seemed surreal now, like it had never happened. It could never happen. Celena's body writhing, growing and changing to the sound of the girls agonized scream. And when shed turned around... red eyes.

"They experimented on people?" Allen cried out, bringing her mind back into the room. "My sister ... Celena's..." He trailed off, a pathetically hopeless look on his face. Allen wavered for a moment rocking back a forth on the balls of his feet, his hand flexing on the hilt of his sword, seeming to decide whether Folken was truthful about his non-involvement or should loose yet another limb. Finally, he gave up and without another word to anyone left the room.

"A girl into a guy?" Dryden mused. "I wouldn't have thought such a thing possible."

"How can you talk so casually about something so immoral?" Millerna snapped at him.

Dryden looked at her over the rims of dark glasses. "I never said it wasn't. I was only thinking if Zaibach can do that without Hitomi's presence in Gaea then we're in more trouble than we previously thought. War is about to start; the ships are massing here and will leave for Zaibach's frontier soon. We should talk with our allied leaders."

"You aren't going to tell them about Celena, are you?" Millerna asked as Dryden turned to leave. "Haven't they gone through enough?"

"I wasn't going to mention it. No point in panicking the nobles over something like that. I doubt they'd believe me anyway. Probably send me to the nuthouse. That wouldn't do much for my reputation." He left and Millerna looked over at Eries with a desperate look in her eyes.

"Believe in him," Eries said. "Dryden needs you now. He needs your support."

Millerna nodded slowly and followed Dryden out the door leaving Eries alone with Folken. He stared directly forward at nothing, his face so grave he looked like he really had just come back from the dead.

"Folken," she said not knowing quite where to start. "You used to be a Sorcerer, didn't you?"

His eyes flicked over to her.

"Did you ever exper..." she stopped herself. That would be a cruel and pointless question. "Was that why you left and became a Strategos?" she asked instead.

He nodded and sat down in the windowsill.

"Oh. That's good." She sat beside him, but not too close. It was uncomfortable enough already.

"It's not good," Folken said. "I left because I objected to the practice, but I did nothing to stop it. I left those children to their fate so it doesn't really matter whether I did the experiments or not."

"That's not true. You didn't hurt them, you didn't turn Celena into Dilandau."

"I may not have know about the cases specifically, but I knew enough. And I did nothing to stop them. In the end there is little difference."

"So I guess that makes me a bad person, too? I didn't help them."

"You didn't know." Folken closed his eyes. "I did."

"But you were working for a better Gaea, weren't you? Trying to make things better for everyone?"

She looked over at him, at his face. The purple tear that had always marred him expressed everything he could not. So much sorrow, so much sadness but he was only able to express it through pain. Pain he inflicted upon himself over a guilt he could not let go of.

"You're not a bad person, Folken. Whatever you've done, or haven't done, it doesn't matter now; you're working to set things right. A bad person wouldn't do such a thing."

"You don't know the things I've done. You don't know what kind of person I am."

Eries looked away. "No, I don't. But ... I'm a bad person myself, aren't I? I betrayed my country and poisoned my king; I helped bring about the destruction of this city and Fried and soon Gaea. I'm a horrible person." She laughed bitterly and mirthlessly. "But I've been trying to set it right, do what I can. I want to pay for my trespasses so I may, one day, be forgiven. I want to do good; I don't want to be a bad person forever."

"My sins shall be ransomed with my life," Folken said darkly.

"I won't allow King Aston to kill you. Besides, Dryden is in charge right now; he won't have you killed. He thinks it interesting to have someone else of high intellect around." She tried to smile but failed. "I, too, may pay the ultimate price for my sins. But we're still breathing now, aren't we? We're still alive. It's not too late."

"A person can be dead on the inside, even when the body lives."

"You aren't like that," Eries said. How could she make him believe it? After a moment she added: "Who's Naria?"

Folken seemed to struggle with himself for a moment. Eries waited for him to talk. "She, Naria, was someone I cared about deeply. A girl and her twin sister I found as children. They were catwomen." He didn't say more.

"Oh, so that's why you mistook me for her," Eries said.

"I've seen a lot of their qualities in you. Even before my discovery last night. I miss them."

"Are they in Zaibach?" Were they waiting for him there? Or had they been loyal to Zaibach and not Folken.

"They died."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I. I wanted to give them a better life, change their fate, but I didn't make things much better. And I could have ... so easily ... but I failed. It's always like that. I failed them and I failed you." He looked down at her, his face so sad. "I'm sorry I didn't help you." Cold metal fingers brushed her cheek tenderly. "But maybe it's for the best. You would have ended up like them and like me."

Eries didn't say a thing as he pulled her close. Not to kiss her, just to hold her. "It can be a dark world, Eries. And I'm tired, so very tired." He didn't say more and didn't let go. She rested her head against his side with his heavy arm around her shoulders and gazed with him in silence at nothing in particular.