Chapter 2, Emotional trap
The grip loosened, and Rydia spun around while taking a step away, raising her hand in anger.
"Edge, you'll get the worst slap of your life for that!" she growled.
He backed away with a small sneer.
"Oh, please spare me… even though my crime of scaring you, my lady, is absolutely unforgivable."
"You did not scare me!"
"Really? You seemed pretty nervous."
"It was the surprise, nothing else!" Rydia defended herself.
Edge smiled, but there was a strangely bitterness in his eyes. Rydia hesitated and lowered her hand, realizing that he hadn't meant to shock her like that. Maybe she had been too harsh…
"Edge, I…"
"I am certain, my lady esper," he interrupted, "your courage is too great to crack. Yet I apologize, and wish you good-night."
And with that he jumped straight up and climbed onto the rooftop without the slightest trouble. Rydia hadn't any time to stop him, and he ignored her call.
'Idiot!' he furiously thought, 'idiot! Fool! Are you completely out of your mind? What did you do that for?!'
He should have understood that it'd be too rough. It was not like they were lifelong friends…
The king of Eblan heavily sighed. He had really blown it this time. Totally. The best thing to do was to try to keep away from Rydia for the last three days he would stay in Baron. Best to go back to Eblan and kill all angry thoughts and regret with his work. And he had to find a wife…
His stomach felt cold as ice, and he almost missed the edge of a rooftop. By more than luck than anything else, he managed to keep balance and didn't fall to a certain death.
'Can't seem to do anything right this evening…' he thought, irritated.
Rydia clenched her teeth and ran after Edge, trying to keep him in sight even though the house's walls blocked her vision. But then he leaped over to a big building, and she was never going to catch up with him running around it. So all that she could do was stop and helplessly look up at the high wall.
She hadn't meant to snarl like that. She hadn't meant for him to believe that she'd really been mad. It was true that she had been angry, but that hadn't lasted for more than a few seconds. She had understood that it had been a joke; he hadn't…
"Damn!" she sighed, surprising herself.
She had to find him… sooner or later he'd go to his room in Baron… she couldn't leave him in the belief that she was mad at him.
Rydia hurried back to the castle, meeting a wide stream of guests returning to the inn and their own houses. When she finally managed to get inside of the castle, she found out that it could be hard to find workers of a castle when there'd been a wedding and crowning on the same day. Seemed like all of the servants and guards had gone to sleep. And she needed to ask someone where Edge's room was… there had to be someone awake! A castle couldn't be left unguarded!
After twenty minutes of searching, she finally gave up and went to her own room. And found that there where pretty sleepy guards by most of the doors in the guests' corridor. Why hadn't she thought of that earlier? Rydia almost smacked her forehead with the flowers.
"Excuse me," she said to the closest soldier, "could you tell me which room that's Edge's… the king of Eblan's?"
The man in the uniform yawned and said:
"It's the last one down the corridor, miss."
Rydia glanced in the direction that he pointed and realized that her room was only three doors from Edge's.
"Is he there now?" she asked hesitantly.
"No, I don't think so. Sorry, miss," the guard said.
"If he comes… if you see him, would you tell him that Rydia isn't angry with him?"
The man raised his eyebrows a little and smiled kindly.
"Of course, miss. I'll tell him as soon as I see him."
"Thank you."
Rydia went down the corridor and glanced at the door that was the one before Edge's room. Then she sighed and went inside her own place. She leaned against the door for a moment before she walked over to the window and looked out. From there she could see the lush grassland and forest that happened to be placed between Baron and the ocean. The usually blue line looked like a stream of gold in the sunset. It was beautiful, but somehow Rydia couldn't enjoy it. She felt miserable, and she was well aware of the reason.
"Edge, you moron…" she mumbled to herself.
She looked down at the flowers she held tightly in her left hand. He had given them to her… then something had gone wrong. But they represented what had been right, and she suddenly felt an almost strangling wish not to let them fade away.
Rydia sat down on one knee and placed the bouquet on the floor. Then she straightened up and took a step backwards.
"Powers of Water, I bid of thee to lend me thy power… send coldness with care…" she chanted and pointed at the flowers.
A bubble of light formed around her treasure. When the light ceased, it left a globe of crystal-clear ice. The flowers were inside, as beautiful as they had been before being crystallized. Rydia bent down and picked up her creation. The ice didn't feel cold, neither did it melt as she touched it. It was like glass; just as she had wanted it to be. She knew her powers well.
The summoner walked over to the desk by the wall and placed the orb there. She watched it for a while before backing off and throwing herself on the bed. The roof suffered a concerned glare. Rydia shook her head and sighed.
Three rooms away Edge sighed too, sitting in one of the armchairs of the guestroom. He hadn't wanted to take the risk of meeting Rydia in the castle, and therefore climbed on the walls and into his room through the window. Such things usually was fun, but not exactly now.
He was still trying to understand why he had such a stupid thing… sneaking up on Rydia from behind. What on earth had he been thinking?
For two months… no, even longer than that. From the first time he had seen Rydia he had wanted to embrace her. Everything she did, every movement and word caught his attention, so it had been from the very first moment. She was the first one ever to call him an idiot… now that had really startled him. He had been bitter that time, Rubicant had just defeated the prince with a wave of his red hand. Edge remembered his anger and burning wish to try again. Blinded by his own rage, he hadn't made the obvious conclusion; that he hadn't any chance to make it alone. But Rydia… called him an idiot, and that was true. Of course he wouldn't gladly admit it, but some part of him had known that she was right. So he had gone with her and her friends and… well, it had worked out fine.
So why had he been such an idiot again? Couldn't he just have put his hand on her shoulder instead? Then they could have talked, instead of… he would have given anything to turn back time and right his wrongs.
'Fool…' he lazily thought.
He was an idiot. Hadn't he any common sense at all?
Edge massaged his forehead.
Nothing would be better if he only sat there, accusing himself. The only way to make things right would be to go to Rydia and… what? Ask her to forgive him? What if she wouldn't? What if she did just to cheer him up, but in reality kept her anger deep inside, turning her friendly snaps into true ones?
'Come on!' Edge thought, 'you're worrying far too much, you moron. Rydia isn't like that!'
But somehow, he couldn't bring himself to rise from his armchair, walk over to the door and out into the corridor, looking for Rydia. So he just sat there in the armchair, as if he was tied onto it. Sat there, staring at nothing until it was past midnight and he made the conclusion that he had to go to sleep. Maybe everything would feel better the next day… he could only hope that it would be like that.
But it didn't feel any better at all the next day. Edge awoke and was immediately attacked by another wave of guilt and regret.
With a moan he sat up in the bed, rubbing his face. Seemed like it was pretty early… but he figured there was no chance in the world that he would be able to go back to sleep. So he got up from the bed and went over to the small table by the wall. There was a decanter and a washbowl on the table; on the wall was a mirror. Edge moved the water between the containers and then threw a handful of the liquid into his face, trying to wake up completely and gather his thoughts.
The cold water burned his skin. He looked up into the mirror and met his own miserable reflection's gaze.
It would be so much simpler to just try to stay away from Rydia, but he didn't want to be such a coward. Anyhow, it wouldn't work. They'd run into each other sooner or later, Baron's castle wasn't big enough for playing cat and mouse forever. And then, when they met…
His head dropped.
He'd make a fool of himself again. He always did when he really, really wanted to keep away from it.
The flirt and joker… he had played them for too long. They were a major part of him.
Somehow he made it down to the dinning hall for breakfast about an hour later. By then the morning wasn't so early anymore, and several people were eating the day's first meal. Not Rydia, though. Edge wasn't sure if that made him relieved or even more depressed.
He fell down on a chair.
"Morning, prince or whatever," Cid grinned, "you look like an ogre trampled around on you while you slept."
"M'ning…" Edge grumbled and reached for the bread-basket.
"You sound like an ogre too," the mechanic merrily commented.
"Sh' up."
"What's up? You've never been this quiet for all the time I've had the displeasure of knowing you."
Edge sighed and shook his head.
"I'm an idiot," he muttered.
"Is that a problem when it comes to you?" Cid said.
"Have you seen Rydia?" Edge suddenly said, ignoring the mechanic's words totally.
Cid raised his eyebrows.
"Rydia?" he said, "nope, you missed her. Was here about half an hour ago, but then she went away. Dunno where she went, but I guess she's still around, somewhere…"
With a snort, Edge violently buried his teeth in the bread. It made him feel a little, little bit better.
"Tell you what," Cid said in an unusually friendly way, "I have no idea what you have done this time, but you seem to need to beat up something. Why don't you train a little with Yang or someone? Or go for a swim, there's great beaches to the east, if you want to be alone. The cliffs makes it nice and private."
Edge noted, in despite of his darkened mind, Cid's grin by the last few words.
"I take it you were quite interested in that privacy once upon a time, eh?" the king of Eblan smirked, for a moment able to escape his own misery.
"Aww, chucks…"
Cid smacked his right hand into Edge's back, almost forcing the king down on the table by the power and pure surprise.
"A few interesting memories," the mechanic admitted and blinked with one eye, "but you're far too young and innocent to hear about it."
"Oh, gosh…" Edge gasped.
The two men grinned at each other.
Edge had to admit that he felt much better. He and Cid argued all the time, almost like the king of Eblan did with Rydia. Though it wasn't the same, it cheered him up.
Swimming? Why not?
So a while later, he went for the walk to the beaches.
It was a pleasant walk. Since it was early summer, almost everything bloomed, butterflies danced through the air and birds sang in every bush and tree. Edge almost forgot his troubles as he passed the grasslands and entered the forest. The golden sunrays made everything it touched glow gently between the shadows of the trees. Edge even sighed as he saw the end of the forest ahead. The ocean took its place, a never ending, blue silk carpet.
There were two kinds of beaches; the once that were easy to reach and those that were a little more complicated. The first kind laid below sandy hills to Edge's right, only to walk down to. The others were white brown half moons beneath harsh cliffs; it was those that Cid had been talking about. Since Edge felt like he wanted to be alone, he strode along the edges of the cliffs. There seemed to be hundreds of beaches, all seemingly unreachable. If one didn't want to climb. Edge grinned to himself.
He made up his mind for one beach, just picking a random one. The cliffs went out a bit into the ocean, creating a bottle-shaped, great piece of water before the sand. It seemed nice.
Edge tied his towel around his waist and began to climb. About eight feet above the beach the stonewall had a naturally formed ledge leading down. But until that, he was left with his skills.
It took him a few minutes to reach the ledge, but as he stood secure he turned around to take a closer look at the place.
'Huh?'
He frowned and used his hand to shadow the eyes. Yes, there was someone in the water. Darn…
Edge froze and his throat thickened as a light body broke through the surface.
Long, green hair was kept against a fine back by the water.
Rydia.
Her back was turned at him. And since she hadn't called or hid, she obviously hadn't seen Edge.
'What should I do?' he helplessly thought.
It was probably only a matter of seconds before she would turn around and see him. Then what? Would she… could he… dared he to talk to…
But Edge had no time to sort out his spinning and troubled thoughts. There was something in the water by the gateway to the open sea, between the cliffs. Something big that moved fast.
"Good grief…" Edge harshly whispered and began to run down the ledge faster than he knew was really wise.