To get adapted to my kind of fooling.
-Robert Frost ^_~
It was a great time doing this fanfiction.. Actually it's the first long series I ever completed… (But then, it's the first long series that I ever had a clear idea about the ending…) I want to thank everybody who read and reviewed, most notably Feye Morgan, Etowato, BlueAloe, Eboni, and even though she only read because I forced her to, Shy Violet. I also wanna thank Kawai Fox, because she listened to my inane ramblings about the fanfic when I couldn't hold the secret in no more, even though at the time she hadn't seen Escaflowne.
Just because I've got time on my hands, here's a few of the clues I left you, that you might have been able to see. Not all of them, because I want you to go reread it! But here are the things that you might not have been able to understand when you first read them.
Explanation of names, just in case you couldn't catch it, or wanted to know why.
Shy=Shesta… Whether it was because I was thinking of his name, or because I think he's so very cute, Shesta became Shy. Also I think Shy is a cute-sounding word. He's sort of shy, but not as shy as he would have been, had he not been a Dragonslayer.
True=Gatty… Gatty is True because he took the most abuse from Dilandau and still stood by him. From what I get through the series, I always considered Gatty to be the second-in-command type, which is why I gave him a leader role here.
Last=Jajuka… The last of Dilandau's soldiers, Jajuka made that his identity after death. He was the last to die, the last to serve. He was the last person to see Dilandau's face until he was reborn. His devotion for Dilandau has stayed true to the last. (How corny… Sob)
Gaze=Miguel… Miguel is called Gaze because when he first arrived, he was haunted by the gaze of his murderer, Zongi. Through the years after his death, he came to terms with it and Zongi. After death, there are no such things as grudges.
Care=Dallet… Dallet became Care because he cared about Dilandau at the very end. He was the one who first came at Van after their deaths, so proved by The Slayground, which is at , demanding that he not kill Dilandau. Corny name, but I was running out of ideas.
In the chapters where the Dragonslayers testified, I used their code names (and variations thereon) in the chapter titles. All except Miguel, because it would have been pretty obvious in that case. I had a hard time making Miguel and Gaze seem separate, since they were both pretty ruthless when it came to this trial. For those of you who hated on Miguel after Chapter 10, he was just teaching Dilandau the same way Dilandau taught him, is all. Anyway.
Chapter 6: Lies, True and Otherwise: The first one I felt I could make obvious, and since Gatty=True, I just did that. Just a note: Gatty was the one for whom, when I was writing the 'madoushi' segments, I found it hardest not to write 'Gatty' instead of 'True'… Heheh. The second hardest was Miguel vs. Gaze, probably because I let more of their personalities shine through. (Shesta's could have been hardest, but since his code name started with the same two letters, it was easier)
Chapter 7: Timid no Longer: Timid is a synonym for Shy… I didn't want to make the second one too obvious, lest everybody catch on right away. Comment on this chapter: It would have been vastly different if I hadn't chosen that particular poem for it. The poem reshaped my whole idea about the chapter.
Chapter 9: The Lasting Scars of Memory: I decided I could use the actual word Last in here, for Jajuka, but I used it in a different sense, so it wouldn't connect. I also thought everyone would guess Jajuka, cuz whenever he talks as Last, he says whatever it is 'gruffly' or he 'growls' it. Also, I almost forgot all about poor Jajuka… ^^;;
Chapter 10: Bereft: I thought Miguel would be too easy to guess, but maybe I was wrong. Still, I love this poem so much that I thought its title would be filling for the most depressing of the chapters.
And as for Care/Dallet, in retrospect I could have had him testify, and would have if someone hadn't reminded me to write with Miguel. The hard truth is that I didn't have any ideas about what to do with him.
Deleted Scenes:
Chapter 17: I cut this out because it didn't work. Folken started to reveal everything before I wanted him to! So I cut out the part where Folken talked about opposing Dilandau to get him to change, and I cut out the part where everyone in Dilandau's 'family' steps up to help him out, because I felt he had to do this thing alone. At the start of the scene, Dilandau's saying that he's weak.
"If I were strong…" Dilandau said.
"...you wouldn't have killed me." Van said.
Dilandau looked up, into the audience, surprised to hear a voice.
Van was standing, his eyes intense, "Or perhaps it was the other way around?" he asked with a crooked grin.
"If you were weak, you'd have killed King Van when you had the chance, three years ago." Zongi said.
"But that wasn't me, that was my mother. She's always been stronger than me." he dismissed.
"Strong enough to survive the torture of the Madoushi? Strong enough to kill instead of dying?" she said softly, "No. That was always you, my son. I could never have survived if it weren't for you…" her smile was welcoming, bright.
"Beyond that…" Zongi asked, breathless, "What else is your weakness?"
Dilandau couldn't break his eyes away from his mother, "My friends… I- I've never had any. I couldn't even keep the loyalty of the Dragonslayers, and they grew up with me."
"Now that's a dirty lie and you take that back!" shouted Ravi, real ire in his voice, "You can't even lie and tell me that I'm not your friend!" he was certainly angry, "You accusing me of lying when I got up on the stand for you?" he said. (This was the part that it killed me to take out… Ravi's so cute!!)
Dilandau looked at him, half-stunned. Slowly, gently… It dawned on him. And almost as if hearing his heart say what his mind was figuring out, he heard his mother speak.
"Dilandau…" she said, "The Madoushi can have no more power over you. They cannot have power over you unless you let them. That fear, that anger. They're all meaningless. Van said it, everyone deserves a second chance. But you can only have a second chance if you let yourself be forgiven." she swept her arms, "We've all forgiven you. Why can't you let it go?"
"Because." said Folken harshly from his seat in the prosecutor's chair, "He can't do anything unless there's something opposing him. It's your fault, too." he said, staring at Celena, "You've made things too easy for him. He has to compete."
Zongi looked straight at Folken, "No further questions." he said solemnly.
Folken rose with an almost eager alacrity, "So…" he said slowly, "Do you understand now?"
"Understand what?" Dilandau said.
"He still doesn't understand!" Folken said, a manic laughter in his voice, facing the audience, "Even they know…"
"Know what!?" Dilandau said sharply.
"That you don't know how to live unless you're fighting for it." Folken said, relishing the words, "They made it obvious how much they loved you, so you had to hate yourself." he said with a superior smirk.
Dilandau sneered, "Look who's talking…" he muttered in a mocking tone. It was curiously familiar for him to speak in this tone of voice, so much so that he felt along his windpipe to see if it was truly his.
Folken scowled at him, "So you're denying it?" he asked. (At this point it goes into the part in Chapter 17 where Dilandau gets out of the chair and says that he really doesn't want to hate himself anymore… But after that I got stumped. So this is more an alternate scene than a deleted one…)
I hope you can forgive me for leading you on for so long. So farewell. Thanks for reading along. I hope I shocked you. ^-^