Chapter Ten: The Detective
"I have a visitor for you, Miss Seymel," the innkeeper called from behind the door. A confused expression crossed Baralai's face and he strode over to the door and opened it.
"Who is it?" he asked curiously, and Seymel listened from her bed anxiously anticipating who it could be.
"An Al-Bhed man. You know the one from the Sphere Break Tournaments – Rin," the innkeeper informed Baralai and his eyebrows shot up.
"Rin? What would he want with us? How did he even find us?" Baralai asked mostly to himself, before retreating inside a little way to give Seymel an imploring look.
Seymel shrugged before slowly pulling herself out of bed. She slipped and tightly grabbed Baralai, who immediately wrapped his arms around her waist for support and briefly stared lovingly into her tired eyes before focusing on guiding her to the doorway.
Reluctantly she took his aid and hobbled over to the innkeeper.
"Bring him in. I think I know why he's here," she told the burly man mysteriously and the innkeeper gave a nod and left the two alone.
Baralai looked down at his other half with a questioning expression on his soft featured face.
"Are you going to clue me in?" he asked her and she gave a mischievous smile. With a kiss, she whispered close to his ear, "Nope. You'll see for yourself soon enough," and started shuffling back to her bed to rest.
She sat looking pretty pleased with herself and Baralai became baffled.
"Do you know him? You've never mentioned him before," he questioned her and she shrugged.
"I've made reference to him before in the past, but I haven't personally spoken to him for a few years. I didn't expect him to even know where I was," she told him and Baralai turned to the door at the sound of a courteous knocking.
"Come in?" Baralai ventured and to his abject surprise Rin entered. His amicable face immediately brightened at the sight of Seymel and he largely ignored Baralai as he crossed the room and gave her a warm embrace.
"Little Seymel. How I have missed seeing you grow up," he said to her gently and she grinned as she looked at his tender expression as he sat on the bed next to her.
"I think I'm pretty much grown up now, Rin," she replied, then became serious,
"But, Rin, what are you doing here?"
Seymel's concentration on Rin at this point was broken when Baralai intervened at this point and thrust a hand towards Rin as the older man looked up at Baralai's strained smile.
"I'm Baralai. Seymel's... partner," he introduced himself and Rin gingerly took his hand, lightly shaking it.
"Ah, the Yevon man," he stated and turned to face Seymel, leaving Baralai feeling like an intruder to their conversation.
"You have a man of Yevon as a 'partner' as he likes to call it? No less the head of this New Yevon organisation?" he enquired with an edge of distaste that made Seymel feel the need to explain, her bright green eyes reaching out to Rin's likewise, if slightly aged, ones.
"Rin, listen. I love him with all of the fibre of my being, and he loves me with all his heart and soul. We're not to be separated and we will get married some day, but it's complicated. Now enough of that – why are you here?" she demanded, the courtesies gone.
"The Al-Bhed fire is still there," he grinned light-heartedly and gave a nod, "I shall answer you. I am here to help. I heard using my new profession as a detective about this atrocious incident," he fell silent and watched for Seymel's reaction.
"A detective? You can't be serious! You're a godfather, Rin, not some investigator!" she pouted and looked to Baralai, whose eyebrows rose and his coffee coloured eyes widened with piqued interest.
"So, you're her godfather..." he simply said with a tone of clarity and sat down on his chair off to the side of the room to watch the events unfold with interest. Seymel frowned at him and he gave her a haughty smile to tease her a little, making her secretly giggle inside.
"Just because I didn't tell you... men," she tutted, rolling her eyes with a sigh and faced Rin who sat looking about the room with feigned interest.
"Tell me what you think," she asked him, ignoring Baralai, whose third wheel status was beginning to grind with him, and Rin turned his eyes upon hers.
"I want to help you Seymel. You know I was named your guardian should your parents die when you were young... I promised to your father that if I could help you, I would. And here I am, looking at Ayden's child, Seymel, and she could have been potentially killed by this... mugger," Rin fell silent and looked into Seymel's similarly green eyes. She took in a heavy breath and gave a nod, her indecision finally quelled.
"Okay, Rin, you've got your detective case. But don't think that I'm going to just lie down and rest, 'cause I'm finding this guy now if it's the last thing I do," she said sternly and Rin nodded passively, a slight grave expression crossing his face.
"I understand. Will Mister Baralai be partaking in the investigations?" he asked, turning to see Baralai's determined expression stare intensely back at him in the shadow he sat in.
"Of course," Baralai told him, who stood and made his way to Seymel and gently took Seymel's hand, his eyes never leaving Rin's narrower ones. Rin gave a reluctant nod and extended a calloused hand to the younger man, who took it and gave a formal handshake, making Seymel burst into laugher she could no longer contain from the ridiculous behaviour of the two men.
"You two are so... ludicrous sometimes!" she said through the laughter, gasping for breath and the two men frowned at one another, as if it was the other's fault, making Seymel's laughter slowly fall away until she became reasonably serious. She reached out and pulled them both down, to their sit on the side of the bed
"Come on, sit down you two. What is it between you two? It's not like you've ever met before..." Seymel paused at this consideration and quickly glanced at the two in surprise.
"You haven't met before, have you?" she hurriedly questioned and Baralai took the initiative to answer, his eyes relenting from Rin's perfected steady stare to Seymel's wide eyes.
"No, we have never met, but I know of Rin here. You run the Sphere Break tournaments, don't you?" he replied coolly and suddenly felt the situation had become rather uncomfortable.
"Yes, I indeed do. But you remember me from before, don't you Mister Baralai. You think of me as 'Mr. Patronage'. Seymel, you should know that anyone who wished to aid in the rebuild of Home was an enemy of Yevon. Plus the Al-Bhed blood was less than welcome, then," a small smile curled on Rin's lips and Baralai felt a streak of defensiveness course through him to protect his beloved group.
"No, it was because you sold items to summoner's for extortionate amounts on their pilgrimage and when Yevon complained you flew that damn hovercraft into Bevelle itself to demand an apology and nearly got lynched for your trouble," he retorted acidly, sinking into a bad mood. Seymel however looked shocked at Baralai's speech, swinging her head to gape at her godfather.
"Rin, you didn't? Were you trying to kill yourself?! I never knew you could be so reckless!" she exclaimed in complete shock over her godfather's actions, who appeared quite calm before her.
"Well, perhaps I had been a little rash back then, but I was so incensed by Yevon daring to accuse me of cheating customers, especially ones who needlessly sacrificed their lives for the Calm..." he drifted off talking and looked to the ground in remorse for the summoner's that had given their lives for what they thought was the greater good and Baralai's anger dropped in favour of becoming uncomfortable once more.
"We didn't know," Baralai said softly and Seymel put an arm around his shoulders, briefly laying her head against his soft white hair.
"We know," she told him quietly and gently pulled away to look at both of them sitting on her bed with expressions that told her they really didn't want to be in the company of one another and sighed heavily.
"You two have to sort out your differences, because I am having my godfather as my Private Investigator, detective, whatever... and Baralai isn't going anywhere, he's my pillar of strength though an unsure one at times," Seymel looked to the two men, Baralai watching her with chocolate brown eyes filled with mild apprehension and Rin slowly nodding, as if his behaviour had run away with him.
"You don't need a pillar of strength... you're one all on your only, Sey," Baralai mumbled, unwilling to let Rin hear more than necessary and Seymel gave him a small smile. She leant close to his ear and Baralai felt a tingle from her warm breath tickling his ear.
"'Lai, you do more for me than you realise. Maybe one day you'll find out," Seymel breathed into his ear and Baralai's mind floundered for a moment wondering what on Spira he did for anyone.
Seymel sat up straight and closed her eyes, making the two men look to see what she was going to do.
"I may be in bed, but not much longer. I am strong enough to hit you both with a Firaga spell if I have to, so you two better get along," her voice had become cold, her teeth gritted with her force of will. Seymel's hands began to rise off her lap to point threateningly at them and both men hopped off the bed and stood staring at Seymel in surprise.
"You wouldn't..." Baralai said uncertainly and a smile that glittered like a knife flashed.
"Is that a challenge?" she teased and Rin stepped forward.
"I pledge that I will make an effort to get along with Mister Baralai as best as possible. Please, Seymel, don't act so rashly," he pleaded and Seymel's eyes sprung open and focused on Rin with glee.
"Excellent! Can I give you the case details now?" she chirped and the two men shared a look where for the first time they were on similar wavelength.
"You did that so we'd work together," Baralai pointed out bluntly and she nodded while motioning for the two to sit back down. Reluctantly they complied and Rin began to take notes on what happened while Baralai listened gravely, his mind turned back to the unsatisfied need to destroy the man who hurt Seymel. It both repelled and pleased him of the idea of hurting the faceless attempted killer, but a thought played upon his mind wondering if the man got a face then he would find himself unable to do it. He'd never had such a strange, but immensely strong, passion for revenge and it disturbed Baralai to the point he couldn't bear to dwell on it anymore.
"...So the guy probably has some burns to show for the Flare I hurled at him. I must have been a little off my aim though because that spell would have blown Ultima Weapon himself up!" Seymel finally finished her recount with one final enthused burst and Rin made his final note with a flourish.
"Done, though I think you exaggerated a little bit," Rin told her kindly and Baralai shook his head, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"You'd think she had run into Sin the way she told it," he said, making Seymel mock pout and Baralai yawned, standing to stretch as he did. Rin couldn't help but secretly agree, though didn't want to openly admit, only giving a brief conspiratorial nod to Baralai when Seymel wasn't looking.
Little did Seymel, or Baralai, know of the problem that was about to arise with Rin's parting speech.
"I shall investigate these turn of events for you, Seymel. However, I cannot gather my personal team to aid me – they know of you and your following of Yevon in the days of Sin. They will not let bygones be bygones," he stated and left the now deathly hushed room as Baralai's eyes practically fell out of his head.
"You followed Yevon?!" he just about yelled and Seymel gave a nervous chuckle and reluctantly faced the love of her life.
"Well, uh yeah... about my hatred of Yevon..." she trailed feebly and she could feel Baralai fume from where he was standing.
'This could be quite the machina accident...' she thought hopelessly...
A/N: What's to come? Well, soon we shall hear the story of Seymel's past connection to Yevon in the next chapter - Nowhere to Run! Question is, how will Baralai take it and will this upset their relationship? Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Yuna-flowering for their review comments – it really spurred me on to finally finish this chapter! Thanks!