Zak/Zeke: HI!
Zeke: We won the fight!
Real Pent: ouch…
Hahaha he got beat up by a couple of five year olds…
Real Pent: I was going easy on them!
Generic Pent: -rolls eyes- w00t…
I agree, Generic Pent…he is a retard. Nice black eye, by the way, Real Pent.
Real Pent: -scowls- shut up!
Well, anyway…review replies!
Cool-Chan: it didn't really take that long at all XD you're probably one of my most amusing reviewers, so thanks!
Montblancerkerk: interesting name o.o lol I love their personalities, too…they're fun to write with. And I'm sure you're not a bad author. Not compared to me, anyway!
Paladin2007: Yes, Raven and Iris make an adorable couple heehee…(Real Pent: I don't like you, either!)
Serra's Evil Twin: no, I really don't like Kent…he's icky! XD
Lord of Swords and Waffles: XD your name still cracks me up…Kent is just…blahhh…I really can't stand him; Sain's way better! I torture characters I hate. Actually, I torture characters I love, too. Right, Pent? (Real Pent: -glares- I hate you.)
Generic Pent: w00t! (Translation: Psychotic does not own any aspect of Fire Emblem or any of its related characters. They actually belong to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. And I'm cooler than the Real Pent. He can't even take on two five year olds.)
Chapter Eleven: Confession
Erk swallowed, looking back up at Pent, who was waiting patiently with a tranquil smile for him to begin.
"Well?" Pent inquired further, his smile widening. "Who is she?"
"Um…Iris?" Erk began. "This is Pent. Pent, this is Iris…my er…sister."
"Sister?" Pent seemed mildly surprised. "Hm…interesting. Is she younger or older than you?"
"She's two years older than me…seventeen," Erk added before Pent could wonder how old he 'really' was.
"Seventeen?" Hector, showing up randomly from nowhere, echoed enthusiastically. "Awesome! Are you single?"
"Ah. So…where are you two from?" Pent inquired, shoving Hector out of the way.
"…" Erk didn't say anything.
"Where are you from?" Hector demanded. "Tell me or I'll kill your girlfriend!"
"Shut up, Hector," Pent snapped, pushing him away again. "Take your time, Erk. Just ignore this idiot."
"Kuivanen," Erk muttered.
"What's that? Speak louder, I'm unable to hear you," Pent said innocently.
"Kuivanen…we're from Kuivanen," Erk responded.
"Bless you," Hector said. Iris shot him a nasty glare and he wisely shut up.
"Really?" Pent said (having ignored Hector as usual), his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline. "Were you on holiday or something when the city was attacked?"
"…We're Marquess Kuivanen's children," Iris growled, glaring at him as well. "We're the two little children whose bodies were never found…because we're very much alive, thank you."
"Right, right…I knew that…you know, Erk, I wish you would've told me that earlier. I mean, it would have been a lot easier to explain to Count Caerlon that Priscilla wanted to marry a noble than having to pull all those strings and pretend that you might be noble. Seriously. That would have saved me a lot of trouble."
"Oh, shut up, Pent," Hector said, shoving him out of the way. "So, Iris," he started, wiggling his eyebrows up and down flirtatiously. "How you doin', babe?" Iris glared at him.
"Don't talk to me," she said shortly. Hector looked rather taken aback, but Pent shoved him out of view again and resumed his questioning.
"So, I'm guessing Erk isn't your real name, then?" he said, implying another question.
"Er…maybe?" Erk replied, reluctant to say anything else. Pent gave him a look that said plainly, 'get on with it, loser'. Erk took the hint and went on. "Okay, my real name isn't Erk. It's um…Emmanuel."
"What does the 'R' stand for?" Hector inquired curiously.
"Restricted." Erk replied. "You have to be accompanied be eighteen or be accompanied by someone who is eighteen in order to see an R-rated film."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Hector asked incredulously after everyone was done staring at him.
"Good question," Erk remarked.
"I meant, what does the 'R' in 'Erk' stand for?"
"Oh…well, why didn't you say so? That's my middle initial." Erk informed him.
"…What's your middle name?"
"I plead the fifth."
"You what?" Pent said blankly.
"The fifth what?" Hector said, extremely confused.
"The Fifth Amendment," Erk replied, as though this was obvious. "From the Bill of Rights? 'No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.' "
"…I didn't even know what half of that meant," Hector remarked, shaking his head in wonder.
"…What…the…hell…" Pent said after staring at him quite a bit longer. "Is that supposed to mean?"
"What?" Erk said. "What'd I say?"
"If I could repeat it, I would…I'm still trying to process that in my brain," Hector said weakly.
"Oh. Well, whatever. I'm not telling you my middle name, and it is my constitutional right that I don't have to." Erk rephrased.
"What constitution?" Pent snorted. "And since when do you have rights?"
"That's the trouble with our society," Erk sighed sadly.
"…You're crazy," Hector decided.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Erk shrugged.
"Okay, before that happened," Pent continued, quirking an eyebrow at him. "What exactly happened at Kuivanen? Do you remember anything?"
"I relive it every night in my nightmares," Erk said in a rather depressed voice.
"This might take a while," Hector mused, then climbed up effortlessly onto the counter and sat, waiting anxiously for him to begin, like a little child on Christmas. "I like stories," he grinned when Pent quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Well, if you insist upon hearing it…" Erk sighed, his eyes downcast as he fiddled with the fastenings on his cloak.
"We do," Hector assured him.
"All right, then," Erk said, taking a deep breath. "The fall of Kuivanen…something everyone's been trying to forget for a year and a decade now…help me out, will you, Iris? You probably remember it better than I do…"
It was a day like…well, like every other day. A little girl frolicked happily in the garden, her violet pigtails bouncing as she skipped around. The child's mother sat in a chair beneath the shade of a tall oak tree, cradling a small boy in her arms. Everything seemed peaceful until the back doors of the castle flung open suddenly, causing the children's mother to look up in alarm at the person who had just entered: none other than her husband, the marquess.
"Come; there's no time to explain, my love, but we need to get away from here," the man said hurriedly to his wife, scooping up his tiny son.
"Where are we going, daddy?" the little boy inquired sleepily, having just been awakened from his nap.
"Not now, Emmanuel…just keep your voice down and do exactly as I tell you, all right? Come along, Iris!"
"What's happened?" Marchioness Kuivanen asked her husband urgently in a low voice, pulling Iris along by the hand as she followed after him. "Is there trouble in the city?"
"Bandits," her husband replied grimly, looking wildly around for a place to hide. "I can't imagine what they could want, but we have to get out…"
They had been running aimlessly around the castle for several minutes, searching for a way out, but the marquess knew that all the entrances must have been blocked by now. He stopped in the middle of a corridor, biting his lip nervously as he tried to think of a plan while, in the distance, people were shouting, screaming in terror…the only thing he could think of was the
safety of his children…there had to be something he could do…
"We're going to have to separate," he decided. "Emmanuel…Iris…go find somewhere that no one has ever found you, and stay there. If anything happens to us…then I want you to run somewhere, and don't tell anyone who you really are unless you're absolutely certain you can trust them. If you can, go find Count Reglae; he'll take you in…goodbye, my darlings…we'll see each other again, I promise…" at this, he took both of his children in his arms, holding them for what he knew would most likely be the last time. After a while, he straightened up again and drew his sword from his side.
"Daddy…" Iris said hesitantly, looking up at him with wide, frightened eyes.
"Iris…darling, it's going to be all right…just go…and don't hide with your brother; if they find both of you, I don't know what I'd do…" her mother said to her, her eyes glassy with suppressed tears. Iris and Emmanuel looked at each other, confused, as their parents hurried off to face the unknown.
"What's going to happen to us?" Emmanuel asked his older sister, who, after all, was older and probably had a better idea of what was going on.
"I don't know!" Iris sobbed, then flung her arms around him. "I don't want to die…and I don't want anything to happen to mummy and daddy! What are we going to do? I'm sorry I thought you were an annoying brat! If we live through this, I'll go through everything to try and find you…"
"You thought I was an annoying brat?" her little brother replied, sounding rather hurt.
"Er…no?"
"That's okay. I'm sorry I called you a bossy whore."
"…You what?" Iris replied dangerously. Just before Emmanuel could open his mouth to reply, a loud crashing noise reverberated throughout the hallway, sounding not too far away from them, followed by angry men's voices and heavy footfalls. The two children looked anxiously at each other, then took off running, hoping beyond hope that they would somehow make it out of the castle alive. Their father's voice rang out clear and strong as they ran, challenging the bandits.
"You're cowards, every one of you! There's not a soul in this city that you have destroyed tonight that could have struck back at your blows. Let's see how you compare to those who can fight for themselves!" at this, metal clashed upon metal as the marquess and his wife fought to save their lives and protect the hallway where their children would be hiding. Not a soul had been left alive; the castle hadn't had many guards, as no one would have predicted that anything like this would befall the peaceful city of Kuivanen.
The pair fought bravely and tirelessly against the endless onslaught of bandits, and even their leader came to realize that they would all be killed if this went on much longer. They were powerless to defeat the two, and immediately sought a way out. The bandits' chief bellowed instructions to his unpleasant crew, trying to defend himself against the marquess' attack as he did. One of the ugly assassins bent down to the ground, struck tinder to flint, and within seconds, a ring of flames erupted around the valiant pair that had been unstoppable—until now. The thugs' leader cackled with glee as the inferno roared and grew higher, consuming everything around it—there was no escaping for these nobles.
"Those bloody cowards!" the marquess roared in frustration. "Why did it have to end this way…?" he dropped his now useless sword to the ground as the flames drew nearer and embraced his wife for the last time. "Goodbye, my love…we'll be seeing each other again soon, I presume…we can only pray for their safety now…"
"My, how sweet," the bandit leader sneered. "May they both rot in hell!" he seemed to think that this was funny and started cackling again. It was starting to get really annoying.
"Boss," one of the bandits, who had several teeth missing and had a bit of a speech impediment, said in a panicked voice.
"Boss, we's gots to get out of heres. That fire's gettin' real biggish."
"Not now, Crap-For-Brains, I'm doing my victory cackle," his chieftain replied snappishly. "Besides, they had children! We have to dispose of them, or this whole thing would be pointless, because they would come back and rebuild, despite the fact that there's no one and nothing left here for them."
"…What's 'dispose' mean, boss?" another dim-witted bandit inquired curiously.
"I'm surrounded by idiots," the leader said sadly. Then, the fire decided to eat him for supper. The rest of the bandits, seeing this, ran away screaming before they got charbroiled.
"Those kids won't last long in this," one of the smarter bandits, who had been the late leader's right-hand man, reasoned as they ran. "They're as good as dead without their mom and dad to take care of them!"
The thick, stupid, brainless bandits would never realize how wrong they really were.
Marquess and marchioness Kuivanen's children were at least a hundred times smarter than all of the bandits put together, and even the bandits knew that if you see smoke and fire, you're supposed to get away from it. So, obviously, both children were able to escape—a little sooty, but very much alive. Neither of them knew that the other had survived, but both of them watched helplessly from a distance as their home was destroyed before their very eyes, somehow still believing that somehow—some way—their parents might conceivably be alive and miraculously emerge from the smoldering dwelling, alive and well, and embrace them and comfort them like they were always there to do before.
However, when morning came, this hope had been destroyed along with the castle. Both believed that they were the only survivors. The little boy left not long after dawn's pale light shone over the horizon with only a hope of something better somewhere else, but his older sister stayed long after daylight had fully come, staring out at the smoldering ruins. After a while, she cautiously approached the shattered remains, picking her way through scorched stones and tiny, unrecognizable pieces of the former beauty contained within the castle's walls. After a period of fruitless search, something beneath the rubble glittered in the sunlight, its many facets shining out in reds, greens, blues…
Curious, the six-year-old girl brushed aside all of the ashes and gravel concealing the entirety of the gemstone, eventually revealing many more stones like it. All of them were embedded into something silver, and further excavation revealed the hilt of a sword…her father's sword. With trembling fingers, the small girl gently pulled out the entire length of the blade…it hadn't been touched by the fire by some miracle; all the engravings artfully crafted into it were still intact. Of course, it was very heavy and was almost as tall as she was, but she decided to take it with her…someday she'd be able to use it…perhaps to avenge the death of its true owner, wielded by either her or her brother…if he still lived. She didn't know, of course, whether or not her little brother had managed to escape, but she had promised to find him…and she would. Someday…
She was about to leave this place and journey to anywhere—someplace where she was sure that the bandits that had destroyed her home, family, and future wouldn't be able to find her until she wanted to find them—, but something else in the wreckage, far off in the distance, caught her eye. At first, she dismissed it as merely a piece of glass, but curiosity finally won her over and she approached it. She realized as she looked around that this had been Emmanuel's room. Not much more than ash, stone, and broken glass lay here now, and she never would have guessed it if she hadn't already known the relative location.
The object that she had seen seemed to also be metallic, as it was reflecting the sun's faint light off of it. It was sitting right on top of the rubble as though it was meant to be found all along, and she picked it up. It was a small, circular object, made of gold with intricate carvings of wonderful, fantastic things—celestial objects, mostly. It, too, was perfectly preserved: the fire hadn't touched it. Tiny gold hinges on one side revealed that the top on it would snap open. Tenderly, she flipped its lid open, and immediately a tinny little melody started to play within it…the tune of the lullaby her mother had sung to Emmanuel. This, after everything that had happened, finally brought the tears that she had refused to cry to her eyes, and she let the tiny music box sing out its song into the chilled morning air as her mother's voice sang along inside of her mind, never again to sing…
The last few notes rang out clear and strong in the tent, leaving a long, pensive silence in its absence. Iris shut the music box with gentle fingers and set it back down on the floor with a small, dejected sigh. No one said anything for a long, long time. Many more people had gathered while Erk and Iris had been telling their story, and not one of them had said a word throughout the whole thing.
"So…" Erk sighed after at least five minutes of silence. "That's pretty much it. Both of us wandered around for ages…luckily for me, father was right about Count Reglay…eight years of wandering, and then Pent and Louise took me in…and here I am today. It took eleven years, but Iris finally found me, so I guess that's the happy ending…or beginning, depending on how you take it. Is that enough for you, Pent?"
"…Wow," Pent replied weakly, looking rather sympathetic.
"We weren't really going to kill you, by the way…and this whole 'trapping Iris in the tent and telling her that she'll be sentenced to death' thing was a plan to get you tell us that." Hector remarked.
"Nice," Raven said bitterly, making a face. "How did I fall for that?"
"People do crazy things sometimes when they're in love," Iris smiled weakly.
"That's probably why, then." Another long pause followed this remark.
"Are you two ever going to go out and kill all of those evil bandit people?" Guy, who had wished that there were more action in the story, inquired anxiously. "Fight fire with fire? Take blood for blood?"
"They're probably all dead by now…they were a danger to themselves with their stupidity," Erk replied dryly.
"Oh," Guy said, disappointed. "Wouldn't you like to, though?"
"You don't know the half of it," Iris laughed humorlessly, sounding very bitter.
"What about Kuiva-whatsit?" Hector inquired. "Think you'll ever go and rebuild it?"
"Man, those bandits would be pissed if they knew you two were still alive," Heath commented. "The entire future of the city…I can't believe they didn't make sure you were killed."
"Well, I'm glad they didn't!" Priscilla exclaimed. "Then what would I do?"
"Didn't you say you were betrothed to marquess Kuivanen's son?" Pent reminded her, smiling a bit at the irony of such a situation.
"Hey, that's right," Louise grinned. "Isn't that strange?"
"We were almost betrothed," Priscilla corrected them. "We don't have to get married."
"Well, it's time to get back to bed now," Hector declared to everyone present. "Come on, we've got to get an early start tomorrow. Is that groaning I hear? Good! That'll teach you all not to stay up so late!"
Sorry that took so long to post…I had some family issues to attend to.
Generic Pent: w00t?
Okay, yeah, it was also due to laziness. And my idiot brother hogging the computer.
Zak: That means she'll work even harder on the next chapter!
I never said that! O.o Well, see you all next chapter…
