Author's Notes: See chapter one for disclaimer and explanation.
Chestnuts and Cherries By Annie-chan Chapter Eight: Marketplace MeetingCerise Mariné stirred as the sun broke over the horizon, its first rays spilling in through the glass French doors that opened to a balcony and falling over the bed she lay in inside the room. The warmth and light roused her from her sleep, and she opened her eyes a crack. She closed them again immediately as she stared directly at the sun, and rolled over so she could see. Again, she opened her eyes, and this time gazed upon the sleeping face of her husband.
Viande Mariné, the man she had been married to for two years. He lay perfectly still in the bed beside her, his breathing soft and steady. He looked so young and innocent as he slept, so gentle and kind. When she watched him sleep like this, she almost believed she could love him.
She reached out and brushed her fingers through his hair, sighing as she once again remembered that she could never return his love. Try as she might, she could never think of him as more than her childhood friend. He sighed softly as her fingers smoothed over his cheek, tracing his jaw and then withdrawing. He loved her, and he always tried his very hardest to make her happy, to give her everything she needed or desired. She sighed again and sat up. The one thing she needed and desired most, he could not give her. He didn't even know about it, still under the belief that Marron had bewitched her. She didn't want to hurt his feelings, and so hid her discontentment as best she could. She wanted to hide from him the fact that she wanted free of him to live and love as she wished. To save Marron's life, she had gone to Viande willingly. It would only upset him greatly if he found out she had lied to him.
She pushed back the covers to the bed and got up and stepped into her slippers, the warmth of the sunlight through the glass doors beginning to warm the room. A small shiver passed through her as she walked to the wardrobe, but she paid it no mind. As she passed by the full-length mirror, though, she stopped and looked at herself.
Her looks hadn't changed much since she had married Viande, except for two things. Her blonde hair, which grew very quickly, was quite a bit longer and braided in a single braid down the back to keep it from snarling as she slept. She lowered her gaze to the other thing, visible through her long nightgown. She put her hand on her middle, over the child she was four months pregnant with. It was to be her and Viande's firstborn, and she felt a bittersweet emotion wash through her whenever she thought on it. The sweetness was because it was her baby, and she couldn't help but feel a mother's love. The bitterness, however, was that it was fathered by Viande and not a certain long-haired Sorcerer Hunter…
She closed her eyes and shook her head, vehemently breaking off her thoughts. If she kept thinking of such things, she may come to resent the child, condemning it to have a cold and uncaring mother.
She continued past the mirror, not giving her reflection another look. When she reached the wardrobe, she opened it, pulled out the pale green bathrobe that matched her fuzzy green slippers and shrugged it on. After tying it closed, she went through the French doors onto the balcony that overlooked a flower garden.
Leaning on the railing, looking out over the nearby town of Sucra, which nestled against the base of the high hill this mansion was situated on, she closed her eyes and breathed in the crisp morning air. This was her favorite time of day, when the world was waking up again after its nightly slumber. The night insects were finishing their songs, and the melodies of the early-morning birds were taking their places.
In two years, she had advanced greatly in her study of Western Magic. Viande, opposed to his father's opinion that it was dangerous for a Parsoner with her potential to study magic, had allowed her to continue her pursuit of her chosen path with little question. She had gotten a new staff, as her first one had been left in the woods with the Sorcerer Hunters, and the stone at the top had changed colors and shades several times, and was now dark blue. Dark blue was about one-third of the way to black, the color indicating the staff owner had achieved mastery. Most Western Magic students that managed to reach mastery did so in their mid-forties to mid-fifties. Advancement got harder and harder as you went along, and the color changes—which indicated the current level of knowledge and skill—got less and less frequent. The vast majority of Western Magic users never reached the top. She often found herself wondering if she was one of the few that had what it took to reach the status of master, and what she would do if she did. If and when that happened, she would have been training all her life, and would suddenly find herself not needing any guidance or advice from others. The idea was intimidating.
She stood there for a long time, her chin propped on her hands as her elbows rested on the balcony railing, letting her mind wander. Kind, warmhearted black eyes kept breaking through her thoughts, no matter how much she tried to keep them away, and she eventually gave in and allowed herself to focus on him. She hadn't seen him for two years, and she wondered how he was doing now…
For several minutes, her thoughts swirled around the name and memory of Marron Glace, the man she met and fell in love with so quickly…it seemed so long ago, and so far away, though.
A hand clasping her shoulder, gentle as it was, startled her. She gasped and jumped, spinning around. Viande stood behind her, the last vestiges of sleep lingering in his eyes. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to frighten you."
Cerise put a hand on her chest, inhaling and exhaling deeply, trying to calm herself and her pounding heart. She didn't think she was so deep into her thoughts that she wouldn't notice him come up behind her. She'd have to keep that in mind the next time she let her mind wander.
The look of apology disappeared from Viande's face, and he smiled. "Good morning, Cerise. Did you sleep well?"
"Yes," Cerise responded, "I did. Did you?"
Viande nodded and answered in the affirmative, then fell silent, watching her. His hazel eyes seemed to be searching for something, but she hadn't noticed. She had turned around and was looking out over the town again. This was the first time in a long time that she had allowed herself to think about the love she left behind, and a sharp sadness had settled within her. It happened like this every time she let her thoughts travel to him, and she avoided it as much as possible. Viande stood there silently for several moments, looking at her back, then again reached out to take her shoulder, this time using both hands, one on each shoulder.
"You're thinking about him, aren't you…?"
Cerise barely forced down a gasp, her eyes widening. Was it really that obvious? She stayed perfectly still as he drew her back and into his arms, hugging her from behind. His head was bowed forward, so his lips were close to her left ear.
"Don't dwell on him," he whispered. "Don't think of him. I won't let you think of him…he'll only pull you in again." He took a deep breath, giving her a squeeze. "He'll only poison our love again."
Our love. Our love. He always spoke of his desire for her as if she returned it. Indeed, she wanted him to think so, to spare his feelings, but something in his voice didn't sound right this time. She knew he dreadfully wanted to believe that she really had been enchanted by a meddling Eastern Magic user, that the love she felt for Marron really had been false, and had been broken when she made the decision to leave him. But, there was a tremor in his voice this time. Was it…desperation? Was he having doubts? He was an intelligent man, and she always knew in the back of her mind that her ruse would eventually come crashing down, but she dreaded that day, and wanted to postpone it for as long as she possibly could.
"Cerise?" he asked. "Did you hear me?"
She half turned in his embrace and met his eyes. As she gazed into the hazel-brown depths, she felt dismay creep over her. He did indeed have a spark of insecurity shining far back in them. He was beginning to realize that all was not right with his wife's feelings, and he was desperately trying to quell his suspicions.
"Yes," Cerise answered. "Yes, I heard you just fine." She closed her eyes as he leaned down and kissed her, accepting and returning the kiss, not wanting to do anything to feed his doubts. But, now, she felt like her reciprocation was inadequate, transparent, like he could see though her ever since they married. She had a sudden urge to get away from him.
"Cerise?" he asked again.
"I'm fine," she responded. She gently disengaged herself from his arms. "I feel like going into town today. I want to visit the marketplace and let myself disappear in the crowd. It's been so long since I've done that, and I'm starting to feel lonely up here on this hill." It had indeed been a couple months since she had gone to town just to wander the streets and mingle with the crowd like she had all the time as a little girl. It was a good enough excuse to distance herself from her husband for a few hours.
"All right," Viande nodded, pushing back his recent unease. "Would you like to go by yourself, or have me come with you?" He knew that she sometimes liked to be alone when she went to town, and he never asked questions about it when she did. He trusted his wife, like be believed any man should, so he never felt the need to ask questions. He understood that she was a pensive young lady, and didn't want company on all her outings. It was the truth, so Cerise never felt guilty when telling him so. She didn't want to lie to him any more than she already was.
"I'd like to be alone," Cerise replied. She opened the wardrobe again, this time to look for clothes to wear today.
About an hour later, she was dressed and ready to go. She used to take about ten minutes to get ready for the day, but not since she married Viande. As the wife of a Sorcerer, she had to look "presentable" when going out in public, especially since she herself was a Parsoner. Most of Viande's relations turned up their noses at her, not wanting to associate with her. They didn't care that Viande's father had arranged the marriage because of the potential their children could have. They saw she was a Parsoner and thought she should be way below Viande's interest, almost as if she wasn't even human. At least looking like a Sorceress, minus the contrary triangle on the forehead, kept them from openly scorning her presence in the family. She looked herself over in the mirror, then decided she looked all right. She always dressed as Parsonerish as she could while still staying in bounds of what was "proper" in the Sorcerer community, as she didn't like having to dress up to keep the family happy. Viande sympathized with her, and for that, she was grateful.
She pushed those thoughts out of her head as she walked down the winding path that led to the town, opting to go on foot this time. She wondered what sort of sights she would see in the marketplace today…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Marron, are you sure you wanna do it this way again…?"
Marron looked over to Carrot, who was finishing breakfast in the common room of the inn they were staying in near the center of this town called Sucra. Marron had already finished his, and was standing near a window.
"Yes, Carrot," Marron replied. "I've answered that question several times already now." Their group of four was getting a break from their Sorcerer Hunter duties, and Marron was taking the time to search for Cerise. Carrot had come along to give his younger brother a hand, but Tira and Chocolat had gone to Saint Hordic Mountain for a little rest, as their last job had given them a hard time.
Carrot swallowed the last of his pancake and put his fork down on his plate, picking up his glass of milk and taking a drink. "I know you want to find out if the Sorcerer that lives up on the hill is Viande Mariné," he said, putting the glass down again, "but why don't you just ask somebody in town who the Sorcerer is? If you don't and we go up to check it out and then find out it's not, we've just wasted time we could have spent looking somewhere else. I mean, we can't just waltz up to the mansion and ask who lives there. Viande or not, I don't think the Sorcerer would accept two Sorcerer Hunters very cheerfully. We're gonna have to do a little sneaking if you wanna find out who lives there."
Marron sighed. "If we ask around who's living up there," he replied, looking back out the window, "then the Sorcerer will hear of it, of course. Sorcerers are extremely paranoid, and they always have lackeys around the towns they live near to report if any strangers are looking for them. The report will no doubt include what we look like. And, if it is Viande living there, he will most likely know who we are and do everything in his power to keep us away. I want to delay a confrontation between us as long as possible. We have to keep a low profile until we know whether or not it's him up there."
Carrot sighed and downed the rest of the milk. Marron was always the brother that thought things through more thoroughly and took more precautions, but he was being a little ridiculous now. In fact, every time they found a Sorcerer's mansion that they didn't know who owned, they went through the same exchange of words. It was getting old, and Carrot thought they probably would have found Viande and Cerise by now if they had done things his way, but he always came along to help Marron, not tell him how to operate. Still, he harbored the thought that maybe it was Marron who was paranoid. He was "taking precautions" and "thinking things through" way more than he used to, and this only happened when they were looking for Viande and Cerise, never on missions. On missions, he was the same as he ever was.
No, that's wrong, Carrot thought. He's different than before, but not if you're not looking for it. It's all underneath, except for the clothes he wears. After Gateau's death and the loss of Cerise, Marron had worn almost nothing but black Parsoner clothes for several weeks. He had since gone back to wearing the attire of an Eastern Magic user, but it was all black, not all white like it used to be. Eastern Magic users normally wore white, but they also wore their distinctive clothing style in any other color, so what Marron was doing was not so unusual. What worried Carrot was that he chose to wear black. Marron tried to convey that he had gotten his life back on track, but the wearing all black all the time seemed to object to that. It was as if he had never gotten out of the mourning period. Of course, Carrot may be drawing conclusions in the wrong places for the wrong reasons, but the thought wouldn't leave him alone.
There was also the uneasiness Marron's eyes gave him. Ever since childhood, the younger Glace brother had always had a meditative shine in his eyes. He was much more of a thinker than Carrot, and it wasn't unusual for him to be literally lost in thought, and all the others could do was wait for him to snap out of it on his own. However, for the past two years, Marron had had a darkness in the back of his eyes, overshadowing that meditative shine. It made him look perpetually sad, deeply depressed sometimes, and it was present even when he smiled the most genuine smile. It was as if all his thoughts were centering around the fates of Gateau and Cerise, and Carrot knew that dwelling on such things for this long was unhealthy. Trying to find Cerise was all well and good, but letting his sorrow take over his life was not.
He blames himself for what happened, Carrot thought, looking down at his empty plate. And, no matter how we try to tell him otherwise, he won't believe a word we say. After a few moments more of silence, he stood up and walked over to Marron's side.
"Come on," Carrot said, nodding toward the door. "Let's go to the marketplace and people-watch. I don't like the sight of my little brother acting all depressed like you are. In fact, you do it all the time, and I'm getting sick of it."
Marron let a smile grace his fair visage. Carrot was never an eloquent speaker, but he knew his older brother was just trying to cheer him up. He was grateful for that, he followed Carrot out without protest.
It was still relatively early, so the marketplace wasn't as crowded as it would be in a few hours. Carrot kept talking, wandering from this subject to that. He wanted to keep Marron's attention and not let him start getting all doom-and-gloom again.
"Cerise and I ran into each other in a marketplace before I brought her to meet the rest of us," Marron said softly when Carrot paused. He chuckled slightly. "Literally. I had just turned a corner, and she came charging into me before either of us knew the other was there."
Carrot smiled, thinking he wished he could have been there to see that. It wasn't often Marron was caught off-guard and floored like that. He let his eyes scan the crowd, wondering if there were any particularly pretty girls out this morning. His eyes fell on a young blonde lady, her hair done up in braids and her dress looking like it would fetch a pretty penny.
Hmm, Carrot thought, I wonder if she's already taken. After being beat up by enough boyfriends and husbands, Carrot had finally gotten it through his head to at least steer clear of the women who were already with someone. He felt a prick of disappointment when she turned a bit and he noticed she was four or five months pregnant, and he looked back up to her face…
"Uh…Marron…?" he said, not taking his eyes off the girl, but reaching over to his brother and snagging his sleeve. "Look over there…do you see who I see?"
Marron looked over toward the girl Carrot was pointing at and felt his insides freeze up for a split second. Was…was it really her…? Yes! Yes, it was! He had found her…after two endless years, he had finally found her!
By chance, Cerise glanced over in their direction, meeting surprised black eyes. She stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. "Marron…!"
To be continued…Author's Notes: I almost made this chapter late, too. -_-;; Sorry. I hope I get back into my writing routine soon. Anyway, do you like this chapter? I, for once, don't have much to say, as I didn't have anything extra before the chapter, and I don't have anything to ramble about after the chapter. Surprising, huh? ^_^;; Anyway, let me know what you think in a review or an email to mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu!
