Amoro Revidi

Title: Customs and Formalities [Part Eighteen]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Part 18, gomen-nasai minna-san, I'm so sorry that this part took three months, but it was really hard to finish, and this is shorter than I wanted it to be anyway. It's missing like two pages that I guess I'll just put on the next part.

***

Seated before the High Bikathian in her private quarters, the tables have turned. Tristan sits tall in his chair, looking very formal and every inch the High Priest he has been bred and brought up to be, and Arik slouches like a scolded child, looking very out of place against the neat and orderly background in her rain and mud splattered clothing. Tristan, on the other hand, seems impervious to the state of disarray his robes are in around him, and regards Mot curiously. 'So this is the person that Arik is so afraid of,' he thinks to himself.

"It's a pleasure to be able to receive you, High Priest Tristan," Mot says very formally, bowing low, spreading her skirts around her. "I am only sorry we had to meet under such circumstances. Your mother was a very good friend of mine, and I was very sorry to hear she had passed away." For a moment the dark eyes flicker over to regard Arik, reminding everyone in the room just why the High Priestess Iona died.

"I guess it was just her time," Tristan says, staring straight into Mot's eyes. "No one could have known what would have transpired that day. Even she herself seemed surprised at what transpired."

"Still, your father shouldn't have been so harsh with her."

***

"I don't care if he is right, Hitomi, I don't like it when people insult you that way," Van responded. Jasper steps a little closer to the two of them, moving to draw them towards the refreshment table, but Van resists, pulling away from Jaspers gentle persuasions to go towards the tables to the side and stepping forward, leading Hitomi, to step out into the circle of guests.

Hitomi smiles apologetically at Jasper as the two of them move away towards where Chid is standing quietly near the empty thrones. "Duke Chid, how are you doing?" Hitomi asks with a cordial smile to the young prince of Freid.

"Quite well, Hitomi, and yourself?"

The rain outside seems to pick up for a moment as a gust of wind blows it against the windows of the palace, and Van turns his agitated eyes outwards to see a line of figures moving steadily towards the castle. As he watches, they are met by the palace guard and questioned, and without more than a moment's hesitation they are let through to enter quietly.

"I find it hard to tell the days from the nights, with all this rain," Hitomi remarks amicably, glancing anxiously at Van, only to find his temper nearly completely abated.

"It gets this way in Asturia, and sometimes in Freid, especially in the springtime. It's something Fanelia does not experience, being in a more temperate and slightly tropical area."

"I see."

The doors at the end of the throne room are opened and a messenger steps in, drawing the attention from the small conversations that had popped up around the room. The messenger coughs quietly and then begins to speak, "The contingent of Kathis have returned from their rescue mission, and all those that were abducted have been returned and are recovering."

"Really?" Hitomi says gleefully, taking a step towards the messenger, who smiles. Jasper wordlessly pushes through the crowd and moves off down the hallway. Hitomi starts to follow him, but Van touches her elbow gently and regains her attention. "What is it, Van?"

"Can I speak with you… alone?" He glances around the room and notes with some small pleasure that the other nobles are too wrapped up in the messenger's continuing ramble of a message about the status of those returned to be listening to intently to his questioning of Hitomi. 'It seems as though we are always alone together and can never speak to one another,' he thinks to himself as she nods, unblushing. 'I hate these gatherings so much.'

"If you'll excuse us, Duke Chid?" she smiles and curtsies to the young Duke of Fried. He smiles.

"Hitomi?"

"Yes, Duke Chid?"

"You will come talk with me again, before you depart Asturia this time, won't you?" His small, cherub-like face beams up at her, but even as she nods and smiles she finds that he's changed, grown taller, the chubbiness of childhood slipping from his face and body.

"Of course, Duke Chid."

"Then you may go," he says in a tone that nearly makes Hitomi shiver it reminds her so much of his surrogate father, Duke Mahad, but the warm smile on his face as he waves while Van leads her away melts the chill she feels from her body.

***

Jasper strides purposefully down the quiet hallway, the noise of his boots echoing against the marble floors dampened slightly by the tapestries hanging on the walls. Asturia is ever a showy kingdom, but then I suppose they can afford it, he thinks to himself as he heads down to where the messenger said the returning nobles were being tended to, and finds himself shortly in a small sea of people.

"More hot blankets!"

"Taa over here!"

Jasper pauses at the edge of the small parlor and frowns, looking across the fifty square feet of people bustling about, shouting and calling back and forth as they tend to the chilled and soggy noble children that had recently been returned.

After a moment Jasper decides to brave the crowd and look for Kira and Nil, but every time he tries to speak to one of the attendants they are called away. Exasperated, he is about to shout when a familiar hand catches his elbow. "Prince Jasper, she is this way."

He turns and finds himself looking down into Nil's brown eyes. "What?"

"Princess Kira," Nil replies, voice even and neutral. "She is this way." Without another word she begins to gently navigate her way back through the crowd, fingers gently cupping his elbow like a tug boat through the waterway of bodies to a small corner. Kira stands regally, somehow maintaining whatever noble aspect she was born with, despite her soggy gown and straggly black hair.

"Kira," Jasper says in breathless relief.

She turns her head to the side slowly, "Jasper."

He smiles and takes a step forward, removing his waist cloak and draping it around her shoulders on top of the fresh, warm blanket the attendants brought in when she arrived with the party and rubs her upper arms through the fabric. "Was it very terrible?"

"Only because some of our peers are more skittish than forest animals and look to any form of authority during a crisis," she says quietly, violet eyes not quite meeting his green ones. "I don't ever want to have to manage such impractical people as those again."

Jasper smiles with a faint chuckle. "You must be hungry, would you like to come with me and see what we can scare up?"

"Anything," she says quietly, "just get me out of this crowd."

***

Mot smiles faintly to herself as she watches the High Priest and Arik move towards their chamber in her mind's eye. The young Priest had been more inclined to protecting and favoring his Kathis than she had dared to hope before they arrived. She was slightly displeased at Arik's reaction to the entire scenario, however, and felt that the girl would do much better to remember her duties as a Kathis, given the alternate fate that had awaited the girl from her somewhat unfortunate birth.

She opens her eyes as a knock sounds on her door. "Enter, Sotet."

The door opens with nothing more than the quiet woosh of air as the thick wooden mass pushes in to admit her son. "I bring news of King Ouran."

She closes her dark eyes in a wince of pain to hear his name on her son's lips, but forces herself to say evenly, "What news?"

"Apparently… he has requested a meeting."

"I am allowed no contact with Daeluzito keb Ouran."

"It isn't with you that he has requested the meeting," Sotet says quietly. "He has requested it with me."

Shocked, moments pass and Mot says nothing, fear wrenching at her insides and causing sharp, stabbing pains to her stomach. After so much time he finally desires to see his son? I wonder what has changed so that would make him want to see the 'bastard half-breed' I birthed.

"Mother," Sotet says in the barest whisper, "what shall we do?"

Mot looks down for a moment and then back into the flames in the fireplace before her. "We ask the council, it is neither my place to tell you no, nor is it my place to tell you yes."

***

Jasper checks to be sure that the blanket is secure around Kira's shoulders as the two of them walk through the halls, Nil moving quietly behind them near the walls. "Thank you," Kira says quietly, looking down at her feet as they walk, knowing she must look an utter and complete mess.

***

"Yukari?" Amano asks his fiancé quietly as she enters the apartment.

"Yes, Amano?" she replies, hanging her coat up just inside the door and changing into her slippers.

"Where were you?" he returns to the drafting on his table, glasses being pushed up his nose slightly as he slides the t-square along the table.

"Checking on Hitomi's house," Yukari says evenly, and then pauses, glancing around the apartment and falling very still and silent.

"Oh? It's all ok, right?" Amano asks absently before turning to glance at her. Once he rests his eyes on her he sets down his pencil and takes off his glasses, crossing to put his arms around her reassuringly. "What's wrong?" he coos in her ear.

"I just miss her, is all…" Yukari begins.

Amano cuts her off, "No, you feel guilty. You hadn't seen her in, what was it, four years?" Yukari nods and ducks her head slightly. "Look, Yuka, it's not your fault, you know that right?"

Yukari weakly leans forward and buries her face against his neck. "I miss her, and I'm worried about her, Amano."

The phone rings in the background, but Amano lets the answering machine pick it up. "Susumu residence, we are unable to take your call at the moment, please leave a message after the tone."

"Amano, Yukari, I know you're there, please pick up." The voice on the other end of the phone is hoarse and scratchy, but the two of them freeze as they recognize it.

Amano glances down at Yukari for a moment and the two of them break apart to pick up the phone.

***

"I've been meaning to talk to you about this for some time, actually."

She turns slightly to regard him, her face blank as she does so, and glances behind them for anyone else around. "What-" she begins, but he cuts her off, hushing her, by lifting his fingers to her lips.

"Just let me say this, please? I don't know how I'm going to work up the courage to say it if you don't."

Her eyes widen slightly and she blinked as he lowered himself to one knee. She started to speak but he took her hands in his and squeezed them once for silence. His eyes pleaded with her to hold a moment.

"I think… that now you can guess what I'm going to ask."

She does not respond, staring at him blindly.

"Will you marry me?"

***

"These are your quarters, High Priest, and yours as well, Arik," Sotet says, opening the door and stepping aside to let the two of them progress into the room. As soon as they do, he closes the door behind them swiftly, locking it.

"What the-?" Tristan begins as he surveys the room and takes in the setting of it. He glances at Arik a moment to see her passive expression and then turns to beat on the door. "What's the meaning of this!" he exclaims.

"It's no use, Tristan," Arik says quietly, stepping over to the only piece of furniture in the room and sitting down upon it, slipping her boots off.

"What do you mean, it's no use?" he turns on her. "Why are you being so casual about this? Don't you know what they mean by…" he waves his hand vaguely about the unfurnished room, and then looks stricken as he motions to the bed she is seated upon, "all of this!" He turns to pound again on the door, but Sotet has long since left the corridor.

"Yes, Tristan," she says in a calm voice. "I know, and I've always known. Why do you think I was so reticent in bringing you here?"

He stops pounding on the door and turns to look over his shoulder at her. "You… you knew?"

She inhales deeply and lifts one hand to the collar of her cloak, unbuttoning it and slowly slipping it off. "In your heart, you did too."

He flattens himself against the door, back pressed firmly up against the thick reinforced wood of it, grasping for a handle that doesn't exist. "Arik…"

"There is no help for it now, Tristan," she says quietly, her head lowering so that her hair falls over her face, concealing the slight flush to her cheeks. "Unless you want me to die."

"No!" he exclaims again, taking a step forward in his excitable state. "Why would they? I mean it's not you who won't…"

"It is a part of my duty." She pauses a moment, and then as if reciting she says, "Any Kathis unable to fulfill their duty must be removed from service and replaced."

A hopeless look comes to Tristan's face and he looks up at her, something forlorn in his crystal blue eyes. "Arik, I…"

Wordlessly, she spreads her cloak on the floor and kneels down upon it. "It cannot be helped, then."