Love Unrequited
Dedicated to my kick-ass friend Nadia – one Beautiful, Talented and World Famous Lady in Japan. (Hey, winning 2nd place in Martial Arts in Yakushima is a BIG deal!) And to all the wonderful people at Shadow Hearts LJ Community. You are all First Place in my book!
This is a little Karin/Nicholai piece – if you haven't played the game through, then avoid this fic.
Nicholai walked down the hallway, his boot heels clicking softly on the tiles. He looked neither right nor left; the hall's rich wood meant nothing to him. That the German High Command had taken this French villa as theirs while occupying Lorraine meant nothing to him. What he concentrated on was his mission: to destroy a demon in Domremy. He flicked a finger through his long hair, remarking to himself it was nearly time to trim it again, and then straightened his pectoral cross before pausing at the doors and knocking. A guard inside opened the doors and he stepped in, instantly struck by living beauty.
She rose at his entry, a blaze of fire in military green. Who was she? Where had she come from? Heaven's above, she is beautiful, he thought, and then mentally shook himself as General Heimann introduced her.
"Lt. Karin Koenig. She will be your guide. Lieutenant, this is Cardinal Nicholai Conrad of the Vatican. You will accompany Cardinal Conrad to Domremy, and assist him in destroying that demon."
Karin wasn't surprised at the orders, but more dismayed. To revenge her fallen soldiers was one thing; but to act as guide for a priest? This was not the way she had anticipated returning to Domremy.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant. And please, call me Nicholai. Before we head for the village, I need to make a small side-trip. I would like you to accompany me to Apoina Tower in the Vatican."
"Y-you would? Why?" Karin asked, puzzled.
"It's quite simple really. There is something housed in the tower that will be quiet useful in dealing with ... the demon."
"I see. Well, of course."
A military car was waiting for Lt. Koenig and the Vatican envoy when they left military headquarters. Karin climbed in the back seat and Nicholai next to her and the ride to the airfield was in silence. Karin's mind was working feverishly on the ticklish problem of the demon of Domremy and her orders to assist in stopping it. Now "stopping" had so many definitions in her mind, she wondered what, just exactly, her commanding officer and the Vatican had in theirs.
She stole a quick look across her shoulder at the young Cardinal. It was unusual for a man so young to be in such a position, she knew; most Cardinals were in fact older men; this one was in his twenties and, dare she think it, handsome? His hair was a bit long and shaggy, needing trimming, and his face angular, somewhat Slavic in appearance, she noted. And his eyes... very round and deeply green, like emeralds. She turned her eyes away lest he think she was prying and let her mind concentrate on the mission.
That same Cardinal was also watching her. He caught her furtive glance, the careful analysis of what she saw. Good, let her see him, for he was certainly going to see her. In fact, he let his eyes rest on her fiery form, all properly military in decorum, but oh so hot within. He mentally laughed at himself for even having such thoughts, but this woman intrigued him. From her brilliant red hair to her regulation boots, this woman fascinated him like no other he'd seen.
The car pulled in an hour later to the airfield and a SPAD 13 was warming on the strip, her pilot dressed in his suit and holding his helmet and goggles. He was going over a map with an associate and when he spotted the lieutenant, he snapped to attention and saluted smartly.
"We are all ready for you, Leutnant. We've made room for you both, but I must warn you, we have removed our guns and our weight will be more than it should be."
"You're flying a French plane. Isn't that unusual?" Nicholai asked, eyeing the trim lines of the airplane. The SPAD 13 was a single engine rotor bi-plane that the French and Americans were fond of using. So far the French reconnaissance had used her successfully in spying out the German and Austrian lines, but the German's had apparently managed to capture one. Nicholai walked around the plane, tapping on the fuselage, pulling on the wing-struts, checking the condition of the plane.
"Not bad," he said to himself.
"Yes, if we crash we are spies," the pilot said, "but we are not going to crash, and this plane will get us into Italy, which is not our ally in this war," the pilot said with a frown then donned his helmet and tucked the map into his flight suit pocket. "If you'll both climb onboard, we can leave."
'That was tactless,' Karin thought as she climbed into the small rear cockpit and squeezed under the middle housing. Nicholai climbed in next to her but took the rear seat and let her lean back against his knees; settled thus she would ride out the flight to Italy and only worry is they flew low enough for the plane to take ground fire.
The flight, for all it was cold, bumpy and uncomfortable, was uneventful. Karin sat with her backbone pressed onto the cardinal's knees and wished she was more comfortable, not only with the plane but with him. Something about him was unsettling; maybe it was his careless words, or maybe it was his eyes, or maybe it was something else. Her grandmother used to say that the Sight ran in her family, but she had never experienced it. Maybe this feeling, this tingling at the back of her mind was that Sight – or maybe it was just her stomach doing flip-flops over the young cardinal. He was handsome, even if she didn't particularly like him. Behind her, Nicholai adjusted his legs, trying to get feeling back into his feet and he reached down to tap her shoulder. She looked up into intense green eyes and she shuddered with more than the cold.
She recalled to her mind the demon in the church, the cold dark eyes glowing in a blood-purple hue that had terrified her. She had been pushed aside to protect her from the demon's attack, one of her own men sacrificing himself to save her. But when her men tossed a grenade, surely it would have blown her to bits, landing as it did next to her supine form, the monster rescued her, covering her with its own body, surrounding her with its wings and lifting her up... she remembered how hard and strong those arms had been, how void of anger that demonic face had been and how sad those eyes seemed when they looked down at her. Had she imagined it?
In the last hour, before their fuel was gone, the plane finally set down just past the border and north of Milan. From there they took a car that sped them down the mountain roads, past fortifications and Karin wondered if the Italians were going to take finally, after so many months, a side in the conflict. She hoped, in a small corner of her mind, that they sided with the British; she did not relish dealing with the Italian army... they could be so childish at times. She chided herself for her thinking, knowing her own military were just as full of childish egos.
They stopped for the night in Florence, taking a room in the hotel next to a Diviner's shop. While Nicholai took care of 'private matters' Karin wandered around the City of Flowers, taking in the view of the magnificent old city. She took the turn out of the old walled city and made her way past the town hall. There, on her left a beautiful statue, erected in a city square, stunned her. It stood in a fountain, surrounded by horses riding the waves of the ocean, and rising above all, the King of the Sea, Neptune, in all his naked glory. Karin smiled at the work, seeing it for the magnificent art that it was and wondered at the dichotomy that was Italy, part frivolousness and part artistic glory. How they balanced that she could not fathom.
After spending a good hour admiring the art in the plaza, she returned for coffee at the nearby restaurant. And there she remained until closing nursing that cup of strong cappuccino with heavy thoughts on her mind. There was something about that mission that bothered her beyond the revenge for her men, beyond the chance to prove herself to her commanding officers. She had joined the army to do proud for her family, destitute and penniless in Austria. How little she had understood the constraints that military would put her under. A female in the army was one thing, a female officer – unheard of! Yet she strove to do her best in every situation, not minding the stupid orders given her because she was female; not minding working twice as hard as any other officer to prove herself.
She removed her white gloves and laid them flat on the table, smoothing them with her long fingers. Those same fingers were a lot stronger than they looked; she had learned some minor martial arts, hand-to-hand combat while in training, but she had excelled in swordsmanship. In her youth, her own grandfather had tried to teach her the basics and she loved him dearly for it. It was such a tragedy that the family had fallen on such hard times. Two years ago her mother fell ill, and her father, involved in the politics of the region, was killed, it had fallen to the children to be the support of the family. But her younger brother, Roth, who had entered the army before her had died just last year and now it was only she to bring pride back to the Koenig family.
She drank the last of the coffee, the strong brew now cold. She set the cup down and, tucking her gloves into her belt, went back to the hotel.
To be continued…