Disclaimer: Tenkuu no Escaflowne is property of Bandai and Sunrise, all rights reserved. I am in no way affiliated with these companies, and am not making a profit by writing this novel. Any similarities between my work and that of any other fan-author is purely coincidental. "Love Song" song lyrics are property of 311, all rights reserved.
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"Broken" - Chapter 7: A Post-Roman Culture Clash
By The Last Princess of Hyrule
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"Whenever I'm alone with you,
You make me feel like I am home again,
Whenever I'm alone with you,
You make me feel like I am whole again . . ."
-311, "Love Song"
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The Great Hall was in all stages of disarray when Celena arrived. Millerna stood on a footstool in the center of the room directing the activities of two dozen servants, who scurried like ants in a mad dash to have everything set up in the next few short hours. Even though it was early in Blue, equivalent of mid November on Earth, the windows were propped open to let out the heat of the heavy labor.
Strung up around the windowpanes were stylish garlands in crimson and gold. Bouquets of broad, dried leaves and late-blooming flowers festooned every open space, along with banners painted with red writing drawn across the Hall beneath the high domed ceiling.
Unfortunately, at the present stage of setup, this beauty was only partially impressive. Servants perched precariously on ladders trying to hang banners, shrieking and wobbling as they shouted across the room to their counterparts about lopsided corners. The air was filled with ceaseless argument as too many people tried to express their decorative opinions at once. Though she thought she was speeding the process along, Millerna's direction only served to make matters more aggravating.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Millerna shouted. "We've got days of work to do in only a few hours, so let's get going!"
/./There's no way I'm going to be able to stand this././ Dilandau moaned. /./We've only been in here for two minutes, and I already want to shove one of those stupid garlands down Millerna's throat././
/Oh, come on, it won't be that bad./ Celena tried to assure him, but she wasn't too sure of this herself.
"Hey, you!" Millerna turned the spotlight to one wayward maid spreading a tablecloth over a small rectangular table with ten chairs around it. Several such tables stood around the Great Hall in place of the usual long central table. All the tables were set up in one section of the Hall, with the other part empty. A bunch of scullery maids bent over the blue marble floor on their hands and knees, scrubbing madly to make it shine like glass.
"Where'd you get those tablecloths?" Millerna demanded, stepping down from her little podium to confront her wrongdoer face-to-face.
"The l-laundry, Your Highness," answered the maid, bowing low enough for her long braid to sweep the floor. "They told me to set them up out here."
"They were supposed to be dyed red before they came out!" Millerna insisted. "These aren't red, they're gold! How can you confuse gold with red? They're two completely different colors!"
"I beg y-your pardon, Your Majesty." The maid kept her head down for fear of what horrors she might see in the princess's face if she looked up. "I can't imagine how the request was mistaken b-badly. I'll take them away immediately." She started to fold up the offensive tablecloth, but Millerna stopped her.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. They probably don't have any red ones down in the laundry, do they?" the princess asked with a sigh.
"I wouldn't know," said the maid politely. "I can go check if that is Your Majesty's wish."
"No, forget about it." Millerna waved away the offer with her right hand. "Just set these up and make sure they're decorated with lots of reds, understand?"
"Yes, Your Highness." The maid dipped farther forward in her bow, and fluffed out the gold tablecloth once more.
As Millerna was walking away to retake her footstool, Celena took the moment to make herself noticed, and walked into the Hall toward the princess.
"Celena!" Millerna called, brightening considerably as she spotted her. "Thank Jichia you finally arrived," she said as Celena reached her. "Things are really crazy around here, if you can't tell." She gave a pitiable smile.
Celena looked around again. "It all looks so amazing, though. You really put all this together today? Plans and everything?"
"No, nothing like that," Millerna laughed. "Since last night."
Celena waited for Millerna to laugh again, but the princess was serious. "How?" Celena managed through her shock. "That's impossible."
"I have my connections, you know." Millerna winked. "I suppose there are a few perks to being a princess: like being able to organize an entire banquet of honor in only a day. Anything I needed was brought to me without delay."
/./Spoiled brat././
/Hush/
"That's great," said Celena with a smile. "But no one's told me yet what all this is for. What happened in the last day that's so important that you have to throw a party?"
"Hitomi's returned!" Millerna declared. "Don't you know what that means? We'll finally be able to rebuild this country."
Celena gave the princess a blank look. "I don't think I understand. What can Hitomi do to change things that everything else we've done can't?"
"Do you remember what she told us this morning about how she brought down the empire? About how she could call all those souls from death and get them to obey her will? They destroyed the Atlantis Machine and brought down the emperor's fortress because Hitomi told them to."
/./Unbelievable././ said Dilandau. /./She's actually going to try to make Hitomi change fate, or do whatever freaky thing it is she does to things better././
Celena's blank look turned skeptical. "I still don't see what Hitomi's powers have to do with the relief effort. But then again," she added, "I might just be missing something."
"She could motivate more people to volunteer to save on costs. Rebuilding is already terribly under-funded as is, without paying wages to the workers. At this rate, nothing's getting done." Millerna noticed Celena's appalled look, and hastily changed the subject. "It's not a big deal right now. Let's get back to work, okay?"
"Okay." Celena nodded with a smile, and forced her mind to focus on other topics. Politics and civil relations were concerns for kings and cabinet members, not ladies of society, as Allen had stressed to her time and again. She had to occupy herself by doing things a young lady of her status should do, such as interior decorating.
"Now then." Millerna folded her arms across her chest and tapped one finger contemplatively against her chin, gazing around the Great Hall. "I think the best thing for you to do is help set up the centerpiece arrangements on each of the tables. You should find all the materials at the other end of the Hall, along with some women making them. Is that all right?"
"Of course. I'm more than happy to help."
Millerna beamed. "Thank you, I really appreciate your help." Satisfied, she left Celena to her own devices, and swept down the Hall to chastise some errant scullery maids.
/./That woman is just annoying././
Celena could hear the disdain in Dilandau's words, but ignored it as she headed toward the place Millerna had indicated. The happenings around herthe bright sounds, smells, and colors of a great social gala in the makingwere much more interesting than his contemptuous commentary. /Come on, lighten up. This is going to be fun/
/./Fun? Heh . . . right. You just keep selling yourself that lie, Celena. I think I'll try to tune this one out. This could just be the most boring experience I've had yet. And you know, with those etiquette lessons, that's saying something././
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After the 'excitement' of that afternoon, Hitomi had decided to return to her room, and stay out of everyone's way. The palace was in an uproar when she and Folken reached it later that afternoon, and the last thing they'd need was her getting in the way. Besides, she really, really didn't want to run into Van. The thought of coming face to face with him again painted bright shame across her cheeks and pulled her stomach into a nervous knot.
A fire crackled in the hearth, hissing a little as it burned through a log still moist on the inside. Hitomi watched the flames dance merrily, and found herself reminded of Christmastime at home on Earth. There wasn't a real fireplace in the Kanzaki household, but she and her little brother, Mamoru, had watched enough Christmas specials on TV while curled up on the couch to knowa warm fireplace adorned with long stockings was one of those things that was a Christmas tradition.
This is going to be my first Christmas away from home, Hitomi thought. She gazed wistfully around the room at how dreary and un-festive it looked. I wonder if they even celebrate Christmas here in Asturia. Probably not. I suppose I could celebrate it myself, but there wouldn't be much point. I don't even know what day Christmas would fall on here.
She sighed. Folken once tried to explain the Gaean calendar system to her, but Hitomi still struggled with it. Blue was the month that signified the change of seasons from fall into winter, which was probably the same month as November. Black was about the Gaean equivalent of December. That much made sense, but converting days from an Earth calendar to a Gaean one remained a challenge. Each Gaean month had thirty moonsthirty days. Hitomi had tried to figure out when her birthday would be, but December ninth probably didn't convert to Black, Ninth Moon.
"I don't think I understand this," said Folken. His voice so startled Hitomi that she had to take a minute to realize he couldn't possibly be commenting on her dilemma of months.
They sat together on a small sofa before the fire, curled up under a thick blanket against the evening chill. Folken was reading one of Hitomi's schoolbooks, a dull, heavy text covering the classic era of world history, and appeared particularly immersed in it. At first, Hitomi wondered how he could read it, since the book was not only intensely boring, but written in Japanese, not regular Gaean script. After a while, she chalked it up to be something he learned while living in Zaibach, however unlikely that seemed.
"What?" She turned away from the fire and nestled closer to him, leaning against his shoulder to read the page he was on.
"Earlier in this book, it said that the classical Greek and Roman ideals were eradicated when the Roman Empire fell and the Dark Ages began," Folken explained. "But when the Renaissance began a few hundred years later, scholars suddenly resurrected the classic ideals again. This doesn't make any sense. A society that was growing so well through the Roman era should have maintained its growth through the Dark Ages, even with the fall of Caesar. If the Romans were so educated, how did they fall into an economic slump?"
"It's kind of hard to explain." The helpless look on his face made Hitomi giggle. "Why are you so interested in Earth history, anyway? It's really not that fascination."
"Of course it is," Folken argued. "The countries and cultures on Earth are a lot like the ones on Gaea, and yet the two worlds have developed in completely separate directions. For example"
Hitomi held up her hands, laughing. "Okay, okay, I get it." She shook her head, mumbling to herself, "Spoken like a true nerd."
Folken glared at her, and Hitomi was sure he probably heard what she said, but he didn't comment. He was about to return to his book when she decided to answer his question.
"All right, I'll explain," she said, fighting to keep another fit of giggles at bay. "Yukari asked me the same thing right before we were supposed to take our midterm exam on this section, so I'll tell you what I told her.
"The classical ideals are a lot like a hot fashion item, like flared pants. For a while, everyone loved them and wanted to buy them, but then there was this lull where everyone thought flared pants were really lame. So they were lame for a while, and then everything 'old school' suddenly became cool, and naturally, flared pants came back in."
The helpless look on Folken's face heightened, turning downright pathetic. "Are you sure you don't have a textbook on modern Earth slang in that bag?" he asked. "It would be most helpful right now."
"Sorry," Hitomi apologized, trying to hide her laughter. "Sometimes the only way to get Yukari to understand something complicated is to explain it through pop culture references."
"That's the last thing I need," he mumbled.
"Okay, let me try again. I'll be serious this time." Hitomi took a deep breath, composed herself, and started over. "The Greeks and Romans were going the right way with their advanced ideals and government, but when the Roman Empire fell, it split into a whole bunch of independent kingdoms, each ruled by a new king. The only things these kings wanted were people to serve them who would expand their territories and never rebel. To accomplish this, the people couldn't know that there was a better way of life, so the kings abolished education. Roman ideals went out of style just like flared pants."
"But wouldn't the people of the Dark Ages stay in this uneducated rut created by the kings forever?" asked Folken. "How would they figure out that they were being oppressed if they didn't know what life could be like outside oppression?"
"Well, that's the thingthey didn't. All the kingdoms had problems with uprisings because the commoners blindly believed there had to be a better way to live, even though they didn't know what that way was. Rebellions were a major issue in the Dark Ages. I guess the Renaissance was its own big rebellion. It was really a whole bunch of monks and scholars going against the laws of the kingdom and trying to educate the populace. That's what brought the flared pants back into style. Make sense."
Folken nodded, but he wasn't done. "That's another thing I noticed. How is it that people connected to the Church were able to learn to read and study, even though the laws of the kingdom forbade it?"
"Uh, that's a tough one. I guess they don't have monasteries on Gaea." Hitomi sat back and ran her fingers through her hair, something she often did when she was studying. "Basically" A loud knock at the door kept her from going any further. Hitomi and Folken turned around as Hitomi shouted, "Come in!"
The door opened, and someone Hitomi never would have expected enteredAllen.
The knight bent forward in a deep, respectful bow, and Hitomi held her breath, waiting for him to speak. Her body went rigid. What was he doing here? A million thoughts and memories of Allen shoved aside thoughts of classic Roman ideas, searching their content for some reason why he had come to her room. Fortunately, she wasn't left in suspense for long. As he straightened, Allen spoke.
"Hitomi, it's good to see you again," he said. "I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you alone after breakfast, but you left so quickly." He met her eyes, looking serious. "I wanted to tell you . . ."
Hitomi took a shaky breath, waiting for him to continue. It was nothing newwhenever she was in Allen's presence, she always had to remind herself to breathe.
Allen saw her unease and smiled, trying to reassure her. "I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for the things I said to you the day you left. I know it was a long time ago, and you've probably forgotten about it, but I haven't. I haven't forgotten anything you've done for me."
Hitomi's worry increased, along with the blush in her cheeks as she got to her feet and walked around the sofa to face him. What was he saying? There was no way he was still in love with her after three months. Allen always moved on right after a relationship ended. He wouldn't just sit around waiting for her to return . . . would he?
"I don't mean romantically, Hitomi," Allen continued. "I can tell by the look on your face that you think I'm here to tell you I love you. I do love you, Hitomi, but more as the little sister I had lost for a long time. Even though Celena's back nowand I thank you for thatI still hold you in that respect." Suddenly, he smiled in his debonair way. "Although, if you're looking for more, I'll be willing to oblige." He winked.
Hitomi's blush turned downright crimson, and the room went silent. Allen admitted that he wasn't actually in love with her? Hitomi turned to look at Folken, to see what he thought of this, but his mask visage had gone up, and it was impossible to tell his thoughts.
"Um, thanks, and you're welcome . . . I guess," Hitomi finally said, turning back to Allen. "I'm glad you can be happy together. And about us, well"
Allen laughed, waving off her muddled response. "I'm glad to have your support, Hitomi, and that's all I need. But the real reason I'm here is to inform you that there is a banquet being held in your honor tonight, and Princess Millerna asked me to escort you to her room to be fitted for a dress."
"B-banquet?" stammered Hitomi. Two surprises at once was just too much. "For me? Why?"
"If there were more time, I would explain, but I'm afraid we're running behind schedule, and you'll have to come with me right now. Someone will fill you in later." Allen reached out and took her hand, leading her through the open door. Hitomi cast a pleading look back at Folken, but he shrugged, obviously just as confused as she. Without any other choice, Hitomi let Allen drag her away.
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TO BE CONTINUED . . .
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