Chapter 8
There was one man sitting on a chair next to the window. His face was turned away, staring outside, as Relm and her grandfather came in. Awkwardly they stood for a moment, as the man did not turn around. Strago coughed.
"Relm. Strago." He said after a moment. "I have…so much to explain." He sighed. Relm recognized that thin and raspy yet deep voice.
"Shadow…?"
"Yes." He had no mask, his black clothes were gone. He was instead wearing a simple blue shirt over long grayish pants. He covered it all with a brown cloak, and on his feet were soft leather boots, reaching nearly to his knees. Relm's lips parted slightly, as though she knew something was going on, but she wasn't sure exactly what, like foreshadowing in an eventful play. Shadow's hair was light brown, she noted, so pale it was almost gray. He got up from the chair.
"Strago, please leave us." The old man was startled for a moment, but left without question. The door shut quietly behind him. Relm licked her lips nervously.
"Relm…you were brought here today to discover some important, if not possibly disturbing, news." He turned around to face her with pale, icy blue eyes and skin so pale it looked translucent. Relm casually looked him over, then gasped.
"The… the pale man in the brown cloak…"
"You remember?" He smiled sadly. "Yes. I was dressed like this that day…when I left you in the hands of your 'grandfather'…"
"Who are you?" she whispered.
"Relm, I'm sorry." He spread his hands. "I… It's a long story."
"My real name is Clyde. I was… a thief. Working with Locke. We stole a million GP… chased down… and Locke was caught." He looked around searchingly and began again. "I fled after that… and ended up in Thamasa. Relm… I… I met a woman there. Sig… Siglia. A blond woman…"
"A blond woman!" Relm started. "Did she… did she wear part up it up, and leave the rest of her hair down…?"
"Yes… you remember a lot, don't you? She was an artist. She always begged to draw a portrait of me… she used her magic to bring certain…qualities…to her paintings. This woman and I…we fell in love." He took her hand. Relm gave a short, minor shudder. Shadow… that is, Clyde… had rarely touched one of them. "Fell in love… it's such a simple way to put it. It was a strong love, a cherished one… but… a blind one. We should have never… not in Thamasa. I was not one of your mages. I was an outsider. There was almost a… a hostility towards me.
"But… we had one child." Relm cringed. She could see where this was going. But it couldn't be! She hung on longer, to wait for the glimmer of hope that it wasn't what she thought it was… "Imperial troops… came to Thamasa, killed many villagers. Sig was missing that night. She had gone to the house of our friend… Strago Magus. But on the way back…" He half-closed his eyes. His long lashes were darker than the rest of his hair, and curtained his pale blue eyes.
"I found her later… dead." His voice became slightly wild and bitter. "The damn dogs had raped her! They… shot her after that…after using her like a rag to wipe the floor!" He put a hand to his face. "God… I can't stand to think of them… touching her…" He shuddered.
"My wife was dead and after the Imperial troops had killed half the town, there was more hostility. We'd driven them out with magic, and since it was just a small village far from other civilization, they didn't bother with it. I was an outsider, and they blamed their problems on me. Said I'd given them away to the Imperial troops…" He shook his head.
"I left Thamasa. But I left my young daughter, in the hands of my wife's friend, Strago Magus." He looked steadily at her. She shook her head wildly, three times.
"My daughter was already showing talent in art, like her mother Siglia, that apparently had something to do with magic… for her portraits… they often came to life."
"No—"
"My daughter's name…" His voice became more forceful.
"Stop!"
"Is Relm Arrowny." There was a heavy silence. Relm fought to process what he had just said. Living for all these years with her 'grandfather'… he was not her grandfather at all! She had tried to tolerate Shadow while they fought together, to hide her dislike of him, and she had done so quite well. But this cold man, who killed so easily, who cared for nothing but money, if even that… This assassin, this cold-hearted solitary emotionless irresponsible bastard had kept such a secret around her for a year…and dumped her in the hands of some kindly village mage… and hadn't shown himself in the entire year after Kefka was killed…
"You…! How dare you!" she hissed. Clyde flinched.
"Relm, I'm sorry…"
"You're sorry? I… your daughter was in Thamasa! That should have been reason enough to stay, as responsibility as her father, instead of depositing her in the hands of a friend and deceiving her…" She shook her head hopelessly. "No, you aren't anyway…you're lying…"
"The memento ring." He slipped a ring off his finger and lay it on the table. "A token from my wife."
"You can't be part of me…" she whispered, clasping a hand to her chest, one finger on her own memento ring. "You can't be… I hate you, you cold-blooded bastard!"
"Please, Relm…" she had never heard such sorrow, such pleading, such weakness in his voice.
"Let me out!" She screamed. She threw the door open. There was no guard. Blindly, she ran from the pale man in the brown cloak. She ran and ran, and she was three again, and the pale brown-cloaked man was standing quietly beside a grave, and then he turned around and began running in the other direction. She cried as she saw the brown cloak flap in the wind, but the brown-cloaked man continued to run.
