Une Fleuraison Constante
(A Constant Blossoming)

By Tenshi no Ai

All French translations by Hawk of Death

I don't own the characters and locations in the game that are presented in this work, Square Enix does.

Chapter Six: Zalbag, the Holy Knight

Zalbag Beoulve was not the sort of man prone to violent passions or outbursts of temper. Like his elder brother, he was virtually unreadable, though unlike Dycedarg this wasn't something he did on purpose. Zalbag, by all accounts, was far more warmer in demeanor once people got to know him. He was not a charismatic man like his father had been, but he was nice. He was an upstanding man who adhered strictly to the family values of honor and integrity; his duty and family were the most important things to his heart.

That didn't make him any more favored by God than anyone else; even he had bad days, and today was shaping up to be one of his worst.

He was fuming as he left the throne room, where Queen Ruvelia had summoned him two hours ago to appear before her. It was only nine in the morning, and the suddenness of the invitation cut deeply into his paperwork time. But the queen had no notion of how important his time was, and proceeded to prattle on about 'hoping she could continue to trust wholeheartedly in his loyalty.' He hadn't dared to interrupt her ramble, or even to lift his head and glance at the queen. Like the good soldier he was, he kneeled before the dais that her throne--and that of her late husband's--stood upon and kept his thoughts from straying to more important matters. For two hours he had to endure this as well as not-so-subtle attacks on his good character. He had sworn loyalty to the royal family, both as a knight and as a noble, and it frustrated him that some vacuous woman who was his age could so easily chip away at his integrity and all he could do was kneel there and take it.

And that was the third time in as many months.

Now he was going to try and push this whole annoying affair out of his mind. Failing that, he was going to rack his memory for anything, anything, that he had done recently that would be taken as insult to the queen. He already knew the answer though, but it couldn't hurt to at least try for the sake of his sanity.

He shook his head as he walked into the hallway that connected Lesalia royal chambers from Gallionne. Not five minutes had passed and he had already given up on trying to forget. Alma used to tell him that it wasn't good to worry so much; after all, Dycedarg never worried about anything and he was...well, she wasn't sure what he was, exactly, but at least he wasn't worrying incessantly. Zalbag smiled at his memory, then he frowned. Thinking about Alma led him to a line of thought that made him worry even more.

Seven days ago, he had sent Ramza and Delita to Orbonne in order to take their sisters back to the castle. The way he had calculated it, it would take three days to get to Orbonne. All four of them would probably spend the night at Sarai's house--he never liked thinking of her as a mother--and it would take them three days to come back. Six days. Not seven. This was grossly unacceptable to Zalbag. He had even planned to give himself some time off and spend it with his siblings, but what was the point when they couldn't even be bothered to come back at the proper time? Not only was he worried, he was angry, not to mention more than a little regretful. He really shouldn't have listened to Dycedarg's advice, not if Ramza and Delita couldn't be trusted to bring back their sisters in a timely fashion.

When he arrived at his office, there were two people waiting outside. One was vaguely familiar, and the other was a complete stranger. Graciously, he knelt down to the stranger--a little girl wearing the robe of a trainee white mage--and smiled. "Hello there. You are not from Gallionne, are you?"

The girl, who he estimated to be about seven or so, shyly shook her head. "No...I come from Murond. I have a message for a 'Mister Zalbag'."

A little odd, he thought, charmed as the girl glanced up at him with a pure, shining hope in her eyes as she waited for his response. She reminded him of Alma as a little girl, before she grew up and wanted to leave the castle and hadn't cared about what he thought of the idea. His disposition soured at the thought, but he tried to keep smiling. "You came here from Murond, hm? You must be a very mature young lady. What is the message?"

She beamed at his compliment. "Mister Rofel would like you to join him for tea. He said that friends should see each other every once in a while."

Zalbag nodded at this. He was friends with the Pillar of Knowledge; Rofel was a very easy person to talk to as well as a true believer of the Glabados faith, two qualities that worked well with the Arc Knight. "That is true. Alright, tell him that I will see him after I finish my paperwork." He looked up at the second person, one of the maids for the Beoulve quarters and asked, "Where is this girl's guardian?"

The young woman looked very uncomfortable at the question. "Well, you see, Master Zalbag...it appears that the child came here by herself."

"... 'By herself'?" Zalbag repeated, stunned. The castle was very safe, true, but he personally felt that children shouldn't be walking around without adult supervision. He glanced at the very innocent-looking girl who not only reminded him of Alma in personality but in her blond locks and energetic smile as well, and thought about how he would feel if Alma went walking wherever she pleased without an escort. He didn't like the thought. "You came here by yourself, Miss..."

"Melianne," the girl whispered, seemingly sensing the man's mood change. "Mister Rofel said I was old enough to be a proper messenger. He also said that you were a..." she looked down, deep in thought for a long moment while Zalbag patiently waited, "a gentleman! He said that means you would not let a young lady walk around without an escort, so you would walk me back."

If I am a gentleman, what does that make him? Zalbag grumbled to himself. He had an inkling of why Rofel would do such a thing, and he had to admit that once he entered his office he probably was going to forget about meeting Rofel, like he had so many times before. However, he disliked being put in this position, and he especially disliked Rofel's method to get him to Murond. Either way, the child was still a child, and he now had a moral responsibility to return her to Murond, so he simply smiled and said, "Let me just write a note for any other visitors and then we shall go, alright?"

His day wasn't getting any better, but the girl's bright smile at his words wasn't making his day any worse, either.

-0-

There were no lavishly decorated rooms available to the public eye in the hall of Murond. That great man Ajora Glabados had taught that the true worth of a person was in their soul, not in the transitional beauty of their physical shell. Now, this had been a strange message for him to preach --by all accounts he was as beautiful as a woman right up until his death--but it was in line with the thought of the time, that it was only what a person could do for the immigrants as a whole that truly mattered. Beauty, in the scheme of things, was useless. Centuries and centuries later, that thought still held onto the Glabados faith and therefore affected all of Ivalice. It was what a person could do that truly mattered, not their looks--though by now image was starting to claw its way into the hearts of people as a somewhat nice thing every once in a while. In Murond, this thought even affected their rooms.

For a tea room, it wasn't impressive. It used to be a storage room, way back when guests were entertained in the comfort of one's own room. But sometime a couple centuries back there were enough complaints about shoving large groups of people into one's home, that no one wanted to use their own tea, and that the other halls had elegantly decorated tea rooms that the High Priest of the time ordered a room to be created into a place for meeting others and enjoying conversation and tea. To this day, Murond's tea room was small and virtually bare, with the exception of two small and stiff antique couches and a small and stout well-polished chestnut table placed between them.

Perhaps that was that High Priest's revenge for such a frivolous request.

Zalbag was familiar with the location of the tea room; he had met with Rofel there many times before. All the same, he allowed the girl Melianne to lead him there by the hand, as he wasn't sure if this child was the kind of girl Alma used to be and would scamper away if his attention was drawn away for just one second. He was relieved when she shyly took his hand and proceeded to stay by his side, somehow managing to match the pace set by his longer legs. The door to the tea room was already open, and Melianne wriggled her hand from his grasp and took the lead as the dutiful messenger, entering the room and bowing to the seated Rofel. "Mister Rofel, I brought Mister Zalbag," she announced, a cheer for herself rising in her tone.

"Good girl! Now, your reward," Zalbag watched as Rofel took two cookies, the diminutive name for tiny pieces of unleavened bread, from the table and handed them to the girl before patting her on the head. "Now, it should be about time for your reading class, so eat those before you enter your class."

"Thank you," the girl nodded before leaving the room, bowing quickly to Zalbag when she passed him. Still feeling a little protective, the Arc Knight watched her walk away before he entered the room. Rofel stood, clad formally in his golden armor and dusky blue surcoat, the hood of which firmly covered his hairline. The formality began and ended with his dress code, however.

"So, what did you need me for so desperately that you would send a child to fetch me?" Zalbag asked, a touch more annoyance apparent in his tone than he would've liked to show. By the way Rofel was smiling, it was also apparent that the elder man chose not to care.

"She did not tell you? Perhaps I should have withheld a cookie," the Divine Knight chuckled, gesturing to the other couch. "Sit, please. I only wanted to talk, but I had not accounted for the fact that you would be in such a mood so early in the morning."

The other man said nothing, only following the request and sitting down, an action soon followed by Rofel. After the tea was poured into delicate, eggshell-like cups by the other man, Zalbag deigned to speak. "I know it is your motto to do whatever you can to fulfill even the smallest objective, but..."

"You dislike it."

"Well, yes."

Rofel paused, the lip of the cup at his. "Well then, I do apologize."

"Sorry, I have been..." Zalbag sighed, trying to recall the appropriate word, "stressed."

"More than usual?"

"Hm. Well, there is nothing to be done about that." Setting down his cup on the matching saucer, he poured himself another cup of tea. "More to the point, while I am here, I would like to see your 'Pillar of Morality' again."

"Beowulf?" Rofel took the teapot away from Zalbag, aiming to refill his own cup as well. "Why, if I may ask?"

Zalbag raised an eyebrow at this. Usually the other man was not so dense. "You know why. I intend to find and destroy the Death Knights now, while they are still inactive."

There was an inscrutable look on Rofel's face, one that set off something inside Zalbag's mind. "Oh?"

"What?"

"No...I am thinking that, if he had nothing to say before, what would a second time garner for your investigation?" Rofel helped himself to a cookie. "We would not support anyone with ties to terrorism."

"Oh, is that so?" The words were smeared with sarcasm. "With the aftermath of Limberry village, it was surprising that your commander was silent on condemning the masterminds, especially considering they were your own knights."

"You will forgive me, but that is something I cannot discuss. It would suffice to say that, while they were once affiliated with the Lionel Holy Knights, they had cut off their ties prior to that...incident."

Zalbag, already irritated following the events before this meeting, tried very hard to rein in his rising temper. "Fine. After all, Marquis Elmdor is recuperating nicely, and Zeltennia has done their part in housing many of the indisposed villagers. But, I would still like to question that man." He noticed Rofel's brief sigh before taking a sip of tea and already knew what the answer would be.

"I apologize, but he is not here right now. He is hunting."

"Alone?"

"He is a grown man. Surely he can be left alone for a few hours," Rofel chuckled at his own words, an action which didn't help Zalbag's temperament any.

"It is so easy for you to trust your men, but some of us cannot afford that luxury," the Arc Knight snapped, losing his tenuous hold on his self-restraint. The Divine Knight was good at doing things like that, nudging a person around until they had completely lost their balance. Zalbag knew this, and he cursed himself at losing his control. Rofel was a friend, but Zalbag had always hated how the older man could find his weaknesses so easily.

"There is someone you cannot trust?" Rofel asked, now watching Zalbag carefully. The younger man grunted and decided just to get over it.

"Over a week ago, I had my younger brother and his friend go to Orbonne, so that he might bring back our younger sister and her friend. Yet, the normal amount of days it would take to go there and return have passed and they have not returned yet. I am...worried," he finished gruffly. It was all well and good to acknowledge to himself that he worried over his family, but he did not care for anyone else knowing that. He continued with, "I thought I could trust my brother to do this with a minimum of worry on my part, but perhaps I should reconsider his eligibility as a Hokuten knight."

"That may be a little harsh," Rofel responded mildly. "You had only sent your brother and his friend to Orbonne? No guards?"

"Why would I send guards?" Zalbag grumbled. "In the times before the Death Knights began lurking about and harming innocents, we could freely leave the castle and travel where we pleased."

"Yes, in those times. It is a bit different now."

"Now? There has been a reprieve from their acts of terror."

Rofel said nothing immediately afterward. It was that pause that caught Zalbag's attention, for the elder man was not prone to forcing lulls in the conversation. Warning flags went up in the Arc Knight's mind, and he sat up and fixed Rofel with a piercing gaze. "There has been a reprieve by the Death Knights, has there not?"

The Divine Knight only sighed. "What would prompt the commander of the Hokuten to make such a claim?"

The wording did it. Zalbag set his teacup down and leaned forward, quickly arranging his thoughts. "The Royal Knights claimed such a thing. As there have been no attacks since Limberry had been invaded this winter, I felt that this would not be such a wrong thing to believe." He frowned, thinking of the decisions he had made following the attack. "The Hokuten are unable to roam the country. I sent half of them to Limberry to assist the Aegis Knights, as you well know. I should be able to trust the reports from the royal hall, but you seem to know something they do not."

"Well, the Lionel Holy Knights are only under the jurisdiction of Cardinal Draclau and the Lionel region," Rofel began, "but we do keep watch on Orbonne as well. And Orbonne is very close to Dorter. There have of the Death Knights converging in Dorter, skulking within the shadows of the slums, that sort of thing."

"Why?" Zalbag asked, confusion marring his face. "No one with an impure heart can breach Orbonne. What is there that they would act so desperately to get?"

"...If you do not know, then I am prohibited from telling you," Rofel said, shaking his head. "I am sorry."

All his life, Zalbag Beoulve had held himself to the standards of one born to one of the greatest knights in one of the most prominent knight families of Ivalice. Every part of his life had been strictly regimented so that he could grow up to become a man worthy of the Beoulve name. He had stumbled a few times, as unbridled perfection did not pump through his veins, but he was proud of who he was now. It was unusual for him to not achieve what he had set out to do, and he was unaccustomed to the heart-pounding shock of realizing that he had made a grievous mistake.

Until now.

"Oh, God." He stood, fear making his hazel eyes wide and unseeing as he relived sending his brother out on what should've been a simple mission. He had been berating Ramza in his mind, and all along...! "If...if what you say is true..." he started, gritting his teeth in an effort to calm himself down and to think rationally.

Rofel stood as well, his face creased with sympathy. "I am sorry to bear such news."

"Not as sorry as I," Zalbag muttered. "I must go." He did not wait for a response before walking out of the room. By the time he reached the hallway that led to Gallionne he was jogging, trying to out race the memory of watching his father waste away from pneumonia and knowing that there was nothing he could do.

No. He had promised himself that he was never going to stand by, helpless to do nothing else but watch. Not again.

Never again.

-0-

By the time noon rolled around, the sun curiously watching the events from the apex of its daily journey, the Hokuten commander had assembled together a group of thirty knights in front of the Gallionne stables. In the back row of the arrangement there was a line of healers, chemists and white mages both. The mood was grim despite the shining beauty of the day, the men and women having gauged their commander's mood and assessing the seriousness of the mission by this.

It was a mission of the highest priority, if they were reading his demeanor correctly.

Zalbag stood before his assembled troops, the very model of tightly reined emotions and dour disposition. There was a subtle air of desperation crackling around him, but no one would dare question his ability to lead based on that. "Everyone!" he shouted, sparking the automatic military reaction of ramrod-straight backs and complete attention to the briefing. "Approximately seven days ago, cadets Ramza Beoulve and Delita Hyral were sent on a mission to retrieve clerical acolytes Alma Beoulve and Teta Hyral from Orbonne Monastery. It has come to my attention that, despite previous information to the contrary, the Death Knights have been active since the Limberry village attack. They have been seen in Dorter village.

"Your orders are this: retrieve the Hokuten cadets and their charges. Their condition is irrelevant. If there are any Death Knights, engage in combat at your own discretion. However, this does not override the primary orders; this is a search and rescue mission." Zalbag paused, surveying his troops for any negative expression regarding the personal nature of the mission. There was none, and he was inwardly relieved. He had some ethical considerations regarding using his rank in such a matter; he was sure that Dycedarg would not have done the same. "Then, let us be off."

The company mounted the chocobos set aside for their mission and gathered in the proper formation, flanking the Arc Knight while he rode in the front. This was a formation started by the castle's 'Holy Trinity' of the last generation, who were often criticized in their time for their dangerous antics and shows of bravado. However, a younger Balbanes Beoulve had argued back, asking who would follow a leader who hid behind his troops and was only good for screaming orders?

Who, indeed, Zalbag thought, his eyes scanning the far countryside for some sort of movement. He was not expecting to see anything until they arrived in the area surrounding Dorter, and that would not be for days.

Therefore, he was surprised when, just twenty minutes later, he noticed a group heading towards him.

He heard the murmurs behind him as the rest of his group noticed the same thing he had; four people on chocobos, and another four walking beside them. "Be on your guard," he announced, urging his chocobo to keep at its steady pace. Hope was tingling over the bare skin of his face, distorting his vision and making him think that he recognized some of those people as his own siblings...

He vaguely saw one of the people sitting on a chocobo raise their arms. "Brother Zaaaal-baaag!!" this one cried in a shrill voice, and he instinctively lightened his harsh expression in recognition of the voice as relief flowed through his body.

Thank God, he thought in his euphoria, they are alright.

"Well then," Zalbag stated, something of a smile starting to appear, "you have your--"

Green. There were two people in green...Death Knights? He nearly scoffed at himself. Who else would wear green? However, these particular Death Knights were walking with the group his siblings were in. He quickly decided on a course of action. "Left flank, follow mission orders. Right flank, with me. We shall apprehend the Death Knights."

"Sir Zalbag?" A woman of the left flank spoke up. "There are unidentified individuals, a woman in blue and another in white. Do mission orders extend to them?"

The groups were close enough that with a glance Zalbag could identify at least one of the named individuals. "Lesalia Royal Knight, Holy Knight. I do not know who the woman in white is, but it is safe to say that mission orders should extend to them. You have your orders." With that, he and his flanks broke away to tend to their duties. Like flocks of birds heading south for the winter, the Hokuten troops quickly arranged themselves in the proper positions to best perform their duties. The left flank reached their targets and brought the medic units ahead of them, protectively surrounding the group they were ordered to go to while still maintaining a friendly disposition.

On the other hand, Zalbag and the right flank cut off the Death Knights from following the others, surrounding them within a tight circle. Zalbag approached the knights before frowning, his eyes flickering in recognition. "Hmph. What a surprise to see Death Knights daring to approach the castle. Why, was Limberry not enough to sate your bloodlust?" he snapped, his earlier relief now replaced with a slow burning anger.

The male Death Knight shook his head, his eyes bland as he stared up at the Arc Knight. "I assure you, we are not here to attack. We have come in peace to warn you of the Death Knights' plans."

Zalbag coldly looked down at the man. "You can explain it to the executioner. He hears such talk all the time."

"I have not done anything wrong," the man coolly responded, glancing at the woman beside him before returning his attention before him. "I only did what I believed was right. I was not responsible for Limberry."

Fury danced within the Hokuten commander's light eyes. "You were not responsible for Limberry? You were not? Who else is ultimately responsible for the Death Knights' actions than you, Wiegraf Folles?!"

"You would be surprised," Wiegraf answered in the same cool tone, just as the woman beside him placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

"I dislike your tone, Zalbag Beoulve," she stated angrily, completely ignoring the restless knights that surrounded her. "You don't know what we've lost to come here, and you would have us executed to fulfill your justice quota?" She unsheathed her sword, her masked face conveying her rage as she screamed, "You ignorant, dishonorable bastard!"

"Miluda, no!" Wiegraf shouted, grabbing her arm, but it was too late. One of the Hokuten knights rushed forward, smashing the hilt of his sword against her unprotected temple. She cried out and slumped over, unconscious from the blow. Wiegraf drew his own sword then, holding his sister's body against him as he held out his sword before them, as if to warn the Hokuten that he would not go down so easily, but Zalbag could see the desperation in the Death Knight's eyes.

"Apprehend them," the Hokuten commander ordered, "and take them to the dungeon. If either resists, kill them. They are traitors to Ivalice and shall be treated as such."

As Zalbag left his knights to their own devices of capturing the leaders of the Death Knights, he did not feel any sense of victory. Indeed, he felt as if nothing had been won. He didn't know why, but it didn't matter anyway. He had his duty, and he had his family.

And that was all that mattered.

-End to Chapter Six-

And that is that. Not exactly the shocker of the new year, and I'd suspect that a fair number of you already predicted it, but I never was quite that good with the whole 'OMG teh surprise' part of writing. But considering how straight and narrow I write, well...

I've decided that this will become a weekly serial after chapter seven, mainly because I still need to make chapter summaries. Don't worry, though, I do have all major/minor events plotted out for each of the halls and important people, so I'm not too disorganized.

-The title comes from the name of Zalbag's theme in the OST. Just to clarify, there are two kinds of Holy Knight: a general of an army (seikishi) and the job class. The former is in kanji, the latter in katakana.

- 'Cadmus and Lenneth': Cadmus is the name of a Greek hero (WHW readers may be familiar with the note about that), while Lenneth is the name of the heroine in the PS game Valkyrie Profile. I wish I owned it, it's a rare game.

-As an aside, every reviewer noted something about Lenneth/Miluda. I found that very interesting and somewhat odd. But, for what it's worth, I'm really happy about that.

Reviewers!

You know what, Luna? That was a really nice way to give your opinion on the updates. I really appreciate it. Izlude shall get his chance later, but let's see if he doesn't screw it up.
Hm. I had thought that, since you were an AP student, you'd be going for some sort of scholarship program to go out of state with. But yeah, nowadays college tuition is horrendous.
Bah, let the cheapskates pay for the Laruku DVD instead of getting it off of some site. 'Preview'...ha. Funny people.
It's totally cool for you to ramble here. This is the rambling fic...alright, it's the purple prose fic, but I'm too old to stress about it as long as you comment on something in-fic. :)

'Ello, Hawk of Death. All I have to say is...heheheh. Heh.
I do have a name for Izlude's moogle! But Izlude himself will have to wait until this arc is over before showing up again. Well, if you say so, then I'm going to depend on you for translations. Glad that you're willing to help!

Hi, TruebornChaos! Glad you liked the chapter. Actually, I based Lenneth/Miluda off of Kain Highwind from FFIV, particularly his helm. I guess it's just FF dragoon/lancer style to cover oneself in full armor and...jump in it. Yeah, because that makes sense.
Thanks for your opinion, by the way. It helped in my decision.

Yo, The Burning Misery. You can suppose all you want, I haven't really thought about using the cemetery again. Well, I suppose it'd have to show up again, right? Hm, maybe I am disorganized.You know, I really need to stop writing Izlude as the cast off son who is looked down by his father and feels inferior to his accomplished older sister...maybe. I mean, despite that, he's one of my favorite characters and I hate torturing them...I think. But if someone can relate to Izlude, that's a good thing...eh, actually, no it isn't. Sorry, I'm muddled.
The only thing Agrias was sensing was her own paranoia. Though, I will admit that her 'bodyguard-sense' was right in realizing that the Death Knights she was traveling with were stronger than they looked. I'm kind of wondering...is Zalbag really so suspicious? I mean, we are told the reason why Zalbag sent R and D on their own in chapter one. Well, it was a long time ago, but I've just been wondering in regards to your other comments in earlier reviews. Oh, and I must thank you for your review of Ragnarök. It was all kinds of awesome.