"I must find a way to reverse this," she whispered.
For a half an hour she resorted to strolling along the castle halls pondering about her earlier meeting.
When she had exhausted all of her thinking, she decided to go for a ride to clear her head. Glancing behind her, she spied the guards, (now a total of six) following her at a close distance. She chuckled at their demeanor. Acting like I'm a criminal. Oh, Moranne must be terrible angry. She chuckled again. For a brief moment she wondered if she should seek out Moranne and apologize. But that would be giving in, and Melora there is no fun in that. With a sparkle in her eye, she sauntered over to a small bust of Zerapham on the left side of the hallway she was currently standing in. Waiting until the guards were in good hearing range, she looked down at the statue. It was the sculpture of king Zerell's grandfather, Zerapham. Her face darkened as she frowned at its visage. A shadowy look sculpted upon its face, a tilt of the head, with large knowing eyes staring right at its admirer. It was enough to make her blood turn cold. The whole family is evil, she concluded to herself. His grandfather, his father before him, and now Zerell himself. They're all wicked. Looking down at the inscription, she read it aloud.
"Zerapham VI, son of Zeraphim the Great, conqueror of settler of the kingdoms of Gerwaine and Atiop, king of Antiop and husband to Farra Fallal, father to Zerell I. May the Cetra's power be great always, as rulers of intelligence and supremacy."
"Hmmph." She replied to its markings. "Not a very kind or just ruler, don't you think?" She titled her head to see the guards out of the corner of her left eye. They seemed to be more jittery than usual today. Maybe Moranne threatened them a bit harsher?
She continued to peruse the artifacts and decor nonchalantly hoping that they would have learned their lesson about following her. She heard a soft noise. Turning her head partially she saw one of them begin to draw his sword. In quiet agitation, she faced them.
"Why don't we stop all of this foolish tailing? I'm not going anywhere."
Shocked that the princess addressed them so, it took them a minute for the middle one to respond. "We have orders to keep a very close eye on you, Your Highness. We can't just abandon our duty.""Orders by whom?" She crossed her arms and glared at them. The guards looked among themselves. Their leader spoke again.
"Moranne, my lady. We must uphold our promise." The guards looked at her nervously. The one on the right eyed her left hand,then squeaked, "You're not going to pull your sword on us again, are you?"
She held her fierce gaze. "I may. I don't wish to be bothered. Don't be troubled by Moranne."
She smiled slyly." She may act tough, but underneath all that anger, she really is a gentle person."
"We don't wish to use force, Highness." At the bold outburst they moved forward with a bit of confidence." At this Melora gave an amused laugh.
"Force? You wish to force me to stay?"
"W-We will if-f we must." One of the shorter guards stumbled. She stared at them all intently.
"Are you sure you don't want to leave me alone?" She asked once more, sliding her fingers delicately along the hilt of her sword. The leader firmly shook his head.
"Then suit yourself." She acted as if she were going to un-sheath her sword; however,
after tugging on the hilt, shequickly turned and walked swiftly down the hallway.
Surprised by the sudden change of character, the guards stood for a moment with their swords raised and waiting. After a few moments they started to run after her. She continued to walk quickly down the hall, around a sharp corner until she came to a portrait of her mother. She stopped and pulled the picture forward. Turning a knob behind it, she stepped back and before the guards had rounded the corner, she darted into the dark passageway that had suddenly opened up.
Chuckling to herself, she continued on her way as she could barely hear the muffled voices of the guards through the thick stone walls.
Walking a short distance she lit a torch and took it from the wall finding her way down a twisting of corridors and passing many doors until she came to a very thick, wooden door that seemed to be bolted from the inside. Pulling out the crystal that hung from her neck,
she placed it in a small hole to the left side of the door. It slid open effortlessly allowing her to follow the dark steps downward into a hidden basement chamber. At the end of the dark spiraling steps, she pulled the large door open at the bottom. Upon immediately arriving in he room she was greeted by her master.
"Good morning Melora. Giving your father any more trouble than usual today?"
Smiling faintly as she took great amusement in the way she was teased, she replied.
"No more than usual, Sensei." She spotted her master, Dario, and Garai standing on the opposite wall near an adjoining chamber. She half-ran to meet them giving Dario a playful punch in the stomach smiling at them broadly.
"Hey guys. Anything exciting happening for today?"
She was met by a warm smile from Dario. "Nope, not today. You got anything Gary?"
Garai looked between the two and shook his head slightly then looked away without greeting her.
She looked at him questioningly. She knew of his temperament. But lately, she could at best expect a faint smile that lasted a few seconds, or a brief morning greeting. Today, there was neither from him. Though out of the three he was by far the smartest and the most serious, he had become more and more standoffish to her in the past few months. She attributed this to the fact that they had all worked in such close quarters for quite a while. Although the topic of most of their discussions had been serious ones, she felt as if she truly was breaking past his stone cold exterior. She did not blame him for his behavior knowing full well the characteristics of his own father and the responsibilities that had been placed upon him as the only heir to the throne of Balderia. She herself knew of the burden of responsibility,
but, fortunately for her, was not half as serious about it as he.
Turning back to Dario he gave her a big mischievous smile that she knew meant trouble.
Uh-oh. She thought to herself. What is he planning? She smiled back knowing that he would ease her boredom somehow. Whenever he got that smile, it meant that he had something fun planned. She was pulled from her thoughts by Master Benshe.
"Melora, I have convened with your father today." Her smile quickly left her face.
"So have I." She said begrudgingly. Dario glanced at her with a reassuring smile. She glanced at him then at Gary who had seemingly lost all interest in the conversation.
She shook her head slightly. Master Benshe did not pursue the subject but continued.
"You did well in front of the council. Better than I had hoped. Yet, it was not enough.
Time has been bought, but that time is precious and we must stay focused. Would everyone agree?" He looked each in the eye until he received and accepting nod.
"Good. I fear that although the Council has agreed to continue looking for more options away from war with the Jenova, but it will not be long until they are all swayed in favor of it."
"We are already losing the war," Garai spoke up in a monotone voice. "They are foolish not to see it."
"I well agree with you Garai. But we must continue to try to reach the Council's favor. It is the best we can do before we find what we are looking for."
The room turned quiet as they all contemplated their operations on Balderia. Though Melora had gone to petition them for help in finding the sacred Tahl jewels, it was little to their knowledge that the search had already begun. Jewels that most of the current Cetra culture regarded as legend, were in fact not legend. The were in possession of six. It had taken them a very long time, with many resources and much concealment, that this deed had been carried out. If anyone in the Council were to find out about it, they would all be hanged for treason The power the Council had received was uncanny. Thinking back to her earlier conversation with her father, she burned inside at the corruption. The people had elected them, and now they were turning blind eyes to the very people that needed them the most. It was sickening.
She sighed. "Then...what must be done today sensei?"
"Ah." He nodded. "You address half the issue. For today, we do nothing. We will all attend dinner tonight, (at this Melora started to protest, but was shushed by his stern looks)
because so many important figureheads will be there. Mingle with them and earn their respect.
Keep your minds open to any possibilities and don't let your guard down. I can't emphasize this enough. We will all meet in the dining hall this evening around eight." He glanced at Melora again. "Not that you will honor my request, but please wear something decent. In respect for our mission of course. To impress our peers." At this last comment he raised his eyebrows at her.
Melora crossed her arms sulkily, not meeting his gaze. She muttered something about not wearing a dress and Benshe smiled. He knew that she would do it for him. He would probably always be the only one she ever listened to. He shook his head at her slightly. She was such a head strong child, yet she was growing older and with each passing year he could see more and more of Ifalna in her. He mother had been headstrong and carefree when he had trained her also. He had truly felt for her upon Ifalna's death. Melora was young, yet she was very perceptive and it had taken a toll on her. She was bright and quick and even though the prophets had deemed her worthy of the Gushido spirit he knew there was something...more special about this child than any other he had ever trained. Something that even he, a Gushido master, could not comprehend. He turned his thoughts back towards his pupils.
"Are we all informed?" They all nodded yes. "Then enjoy your afternoon. I have some friend I must visit while I am here." He walked across the room to the door Melora had entered,
and picked up his blade. "And...don't get into too much trouble." With those last words and a knowing smile he departed.
"So what now?" Melora said plopping down in one of the armchairs in the middle of the room.
Dario shrugged. "I guess we wait." With a mischievous look in his eye he added. "Wait to see Melora actually put on a dress."
"I am not wearing a dress!" She exclaimed.
"But what about Master-"
"I don't care what he said."
"Yeah sure. You know you'll do what he says."
She looked away from him not saying a word. She wasn't going to argue. He smiled.
"Come on I was just teasing."
"She looked back at him and changed the subject. "So got anything planned?"
Dario shook his head no, then turned to Gary again.
"Hey man, why are you so quiet? What's up anyway?"
Garai looked between Dario and Melora. After a while of thinking he spoke with much effort.
"My dad and I got into an argument this morning. Said that I wasn't being a very responsible son by running around with the army."
Melora nodded. "Yeah I know how that feels. My dad was drilling me about the same thing this morning."
His eyes met hers and for a moment she thought he smiled.
"Well do you guys want to go for a ride? We could take some of our secret trails." She spoke hopefully that she would find some reason to get out of the castle. It was unnerving to sit around and do nothing all day.
Dario shook his head. "I thought I would just do some practice down here for a while. You wanna join me Gary?"
Garai stood. "No, I told my father I would meet with him again this afternoon. He probably wants to drill me about tonight. You know, with the dinner being such a serious matter and all."
"Alright. See you later. Mel will join me, right Mel?" She shook her head.
"Nope. I'm going riding." He shrugged.
"Suit yourself." Then he got up and entered to adjoining room. Garai started towards the door and she turned to follow him upstairs.
He silently held the door for her as they left the room. The whole way up the stairs and through the passage they said nothing to each other, which left Melora feeling very uncomfortable. Though she and Dario had grown accustomed to his quiet spells she still felt uncomfortable around him when he was in one. After a couple of attempts at conversation, they departed from the passage ntrance; Garai to his chambers and Melora to the stables.