***Pre-Story Notes***
This the next sequence of 'original' scenes. Huzzah. Well . . . with a 'retelling' (not a flashback) by Ramza.
In case you were wondering, I will not be covering the in-game story scenes that do not involve Agrias and Ramza. Meaning, none of the vignettes in Igros Castle or Zeltennia.
Revisionary Notes: (Relating to the Prologue, not this scene)
Delita only had ONE Chocobo.
Agrias went through the monastery instead of around it.
***Pre-Story Notes***
Chapter 02-02 (Chapter Two: The Manipulator and the Subservient, Scene 02)
***January 1st, Year 2. En Route to Dorter Trade City***
The pursuit group of six walked at a brisk rate towards the first waypoint in their journey. Gafgarion walked confidently ahead on the raised dirt road, with Alicia and Lavian following behind in single file. Holding the baggage Chocobo, Agrias and Ramza walked together, side by side. It was Rad who brought up the rear. "We'll arrive just before the sun begins to set, but I won't be caught dead at night in Araguay Woods," the squire announced.
Gafgarion chuckled, "I forgot to tell you this little hole in your plan, Agrias. They may not notice you, but people might recognize me."
"It can't be helped, and you've been known to abandon-" Agrias began to reply dully before she was cut off.
"-Delay," Gafgarion interrupted, amused that the Holy Knight bit back.
"Irrelevent. None of us resemble Ovelia in the first place and the rest of you look like mercenaries."
Ramza joined in. "It would make sense. Agrias already looks like the principal," he pointed out.
Lavian looked back at her leader. "Alicia and I could be her guards while the three of you were mercenaries we employed."
Gafgarion took a look back. "Children . . ." he told them all. "At least it's a workable cover story."
Agrias' robes masked most of her appearance, even her face in the darkness of the cowl. Her light hands poked out of the silk sleeves of her blouse. Agrias had to change into a pair of lighter boots to complete the disguise. "We'll have to avoid our contacts in Dorter, but we should pass through without overdue attention."
"So long as they never see your armor underneath those robes . . ." Gafgarion warned. "Or draw your sword for that matter. Disguise or not, there's no hiding the crest of Lesalia."
The matter was closed, and they continued on.
***
Agrias caught Ramza looking at her over the chocobo. "Yes, what is it?" she asked him, wondering why he was interested in her.
"I should tell you about Delita . . ." he told her.
"Who?"
"The knight who abducted the princess," Ramza clarified. "His name was . . . is . . . Delita. Delita Hyral," he finished.
"How did you know him?" she asked, remembering the questions she wanted to ask him.
"He was my friend. The two of us were best friends ever since childhood. Even when I went into the academy, Delita joined as well, and the two of us worked and graduated together." Ramza knew that his past was something to be kept secret, but it interfered with information Agrias should know.
"Magical City Gariland?" Agrias asked, taking interest in the boy's tale. In the least it would make for a more comfortable conversation, and friendliness might encourage more honesty and information from the boy. Intimidation was not something she enjoyed using on supposed allies.
Ramza blinked, before looking down at his boots. "So you noticed my boots?"
"The way you wear your clothes underneath the armor, the style of swordsmanship," Agrias replied, "and the boots. I've fought alongside Gariland graduates before. Not the most martial academy in Ivalice, but the best in Gallione." His subtle reaction at the mention of the province's name intrigued her, telling her that he must have lived there, or left something important behind in that province.
Ramza nodded, before turning grim. "On the last mission of our first campaign, Delita became a victim. The nobility he worked for all his life betrayed him." He turned to face her, ignoring the others, who were obviously trying to listen into their conversation. "He died. . ."
"Yet he's alive now. He's switched camps?" Agrias guessed, overriding her feelings of compassion with her duty.
Ramza looked as if to argue with her point, but he conceded. "That's what I want to find out." He took a small breath. "If you wish to know what person he is, I can't tell you that. I don't know who he is anymore. When he was at the academy with me, he was striving to become a knight. He wasn't the best, but he was dependable."
"Ramza," Agrias began, her voice hardening, "if he opposes you . . ."
Coldly, Ramza replied. "If he threatens the princess, or any of you and your people, yes, I will fight him."
His admission confused her. Apparently Ramza did not have any true loyalties to the mercenary outfit he belonged in, yet he respected herself and her knights. "Ramza, what if he attacks you?"
"This one time I've decided to stop running," he told her. "I was part of the system that turned Delita into whatever he is now, and all I've done since then is run, but I've never gotten away. I owe him at least the chance to tell me the truth."
"Were you a knight?" Agrias asked him bluntly. His light nod affirmed her question.
"I trained to be one, but I was never ordained into the-" he trailed off.
On one hand she felt natural sympathy for him, but on the other, she was also wary. 'Ramza' was one of the fallen. Agrias could tell he had been on something he considered to be a just path, but somehow, either he had strayed or he had been pushed off. Part of her believed it to be the latter, but her practical side was wary of Ramza being deceitful, more so than he was being now. Even if he was telling her the 'truth', it wasn't the entire story, and thus, had the substance of falsity, or deceit.
The Holy Knight kept measuring the apparent runaway. All that's missing is the shield, Agrias thought. His bearing hinted at nobility, not learned through any academy. She considered herself disciplined in her stature, but noble? There was a difference there, she knew. Many families were destroyed by the Fifty Years' War, but the boy seemed too young, and even she did not join the fight until she was as old as he was now. Sensing the boy's increasing withdrawal, Agrias pressed forwards for the details she needed to know. "To what extent were you trained?"
"Enough to be competent wearing armor and wielding a sword," Ramza replied. "Along with being an archer, it taught me to find weak points and exploit them." At her dubious glare, he continued. "Enough to keep me alive."
Agrias grunted. In the end, its all that matters . . . "If you came from Dorter, did you also specialize as a chemist?"
Ramza shrugged. "I learned it, mostly from watching others in the field," he told her, mirroring her own experiences with that specialty. "Wizardry never interested me, so I didn't delve into that realm."
"A waste . . ." Agrias remarked, since Gariland specialized in churning out skilled mages.
"What about you?" Ramza asked. "You didn't train simply to be a knight, or a priestess . . ."
The Holy Knight shrugged. "I came from a martial family in Lesalia. My father was a priest, my mother a knight. Before I reached the age of accountability, I trained to be a priestess. As I got older, I saw that I needed to fight as well, not just shelter and heal, and I had been trained as a squire since a child. I followed my mother's path too, and became a knight in her order. Eventually I became skilled enough in both to mix the field, and I was inducted into the Order of St. Konoe."
Agrias repressed a sigh as Ramza's face dimmed in contemplation. "Pardon my small-mindedness, I can never see someone trained in the arts of war delving into the practice of faith." The boy seemed confused by what she was. "It's a dichotomy to me; killing and healing; destroying and sheltering; the gauntleted fist and the curing hand." Forestalling Agrias' rebuttal, Ramza continued. "There are many different ways to serve and protect . . . but taking opposite paths?"
"When the destination and the intent is the same, why not?" Agrias asked rhetorically.
The Holy Knight was thoroughly confused at the boy's timidity. In her eyes, his sentiments bordered on the hypocritical. He killed the archer twice over with ruthlessness displayed by a slaughterer, yet compassion and personal suffering permeated his being. It occurred to her, hypocrisy, dichotomy . . . there wasn't a significant difference between the two. Ramza had strayed from whatever path he may have been off, yet his intentions were still the same, his conscience was still there.
This made him dangerous in her eyes. Not because of his abilities, but his dysfunctions. The boy did not know who he was. Not in the sense most people were unaware of what they may be to themselves, but Ramza did not even have a real preconception of what he should be. The boy always seems detached, never looking as if he belonged to anything: a focus of skill, an order, or a place. He was still a child . . . innocent but cruel, unfettered by any obligations, only by his whims. But, there was no 'parent' there to control him, and Gafgarion was a poor substitute who barely held influence over him. Ramza followed a cause: his own.
"Your path doesn't leave much room for failure. How many have gotten in your way, Agrias?" Ramza asked her softly, trying to stare into the darkness of her cowl, seeking her eyes. "The war . . . was it a crucible for you, or a forge?"
Feeling curious now that the boy was probing her, Agrias indulged his profound and intrusive inquiry. "I do not liken myself to a bar of steel, Ramza. Like my name, being in that war was akin to being chained down at the sea's bottom, its crushing depths exerting pressure and strengthening me to what I am now. Eventually, as the tide of conflict ebbed, my chains broke and I floated free. Parts of me may have been 'rot', and I came out of that war with my own fair share of scars." Agrias pulled back, recoiling at the poetic manner she spoke of her experience.
She was offended at the look of sympathy that came from the withdrawn young man. "I seek understanding if not acceptance, never sympathy . . ." she murmured.
Ramza continued to search for her eyes as she gazed into their milky auburn glaze. "I cannot understand what you have been through, but I feel compassion, desired or unrequited," he whispered, tenderness in his voice. It wasn't condescending, or patronizing, but humble, almost apologetic.
Agrias found herself growling low, feeling something stir within her; outrage. It was different from what she felt for Gafgarion, as her own conscience and emotions prevented her from giving Ramza a savage, though justified, rebuke. Feeling annoyed at herself, Agrias knew that she had some sympathy of her own for the boy. "Do . . . not . . . patronize . . . me," she let out gently, slowly, enunciating the individual syllables of each word she spoke.
Its your fault for revealing yourself to him, not his. Since when have you considered the desire to understand and have empathy malicious to you? Agrias' inner voice told her. Not for the first time in recent memory, Agrias questioned not what she had turned into, but which parts of her had been warped or 'rotted' in her
"I'm not . . . its what I feel," Ramza told her, raking her raw nerves even more with his weak apology. Weak in the sense of contradiction. It wasn't an admission of wrong-doing, but an acknowledgment of disagreement.
Naïveté, ignorance, or even kindness . . . Ramza's attitude irritated her more than Gafgarion. At least the Dark Knight's attempt at provoking her were intentional and measured. Ramza's tainted innocence annoyed her in how easy it would be to destroy him, but the same false-innocence he emanated kept her from doing so, as if it would be harming a child.
Walking over a small hill, the group saw Dorter Trade City, a hilled place surrounded by harbors on either side from where it straddled the Orbonne Peninsula. The center of the town held the better-looking houses, while the slums naturally ringed the flat outskirts of the city.
"I'll go on ahead and find some information," Ramza told them.
Gafgarion gave him an affirmative grunt, sending him on his way. "We've been at a fast march people, let's get our breaths back . . ."
Watching the boy jog away, Agrias felt dissatisfied. Who ran away in this argument? she asked herself.
Was Ramza arguing with you? her inner voice replied.
***
At the outskirts of the city, Gafgarion halted the group. "Here's Dorter Trade City. The first major crossroads he might have gone into."
Agrias spotted the various ships in the area's harbor. "Is there a way that he could have taken a ship?" she asked Ramza as he came back.
He shook his head. "Delita could have smuggled Ovelia onto any ship as cargo, but there aren't any ships out there whose charter takes them past Warjilis Trade City or Ft. Zeakden," he told them, and Agrias caught the momentary hitch in his soft voice. "The only ship here flying the banner of the Black Lion is taking a group of nobles to Igros Castle." He thought for a moment before shrugging. "He could have bypassed this place entirely, most of the harbors are on the western shore of the peninsula."
"There goes the route by sea," Gafgarion told them. "To begin with, remember, that knight is operating as a rogue unit at this point. Goltana may have had a hand in this, but he'll keep his involvement as minimal as possible. Either that boy makes it to their province by himself or he won't make it at all." Looking at Ramza. "I suggest we take the main avenue through the city. It's a cleaner place." By the way Gafgarion said the word did not mean the proposed route was spotless of debris, but that of outlaws.
Rad sighed, "He won't stay too close to shore, but he'll be parallel to the coastline. Either we cut him off tomorrow at Araguay Woods, or in two days at Zirekile Falls." He thought for a while. "Or he gets away in three."
"He'll lose the Chocobo in the forest," Ramza stated. "I know my way through these slums, and I think we should take the 'scenic' route," Ramza told the Dark Knight.
Agrias agreed. "Even if Prince Goltana can't allow himself to be active in Ovelia's kidnapping, he'll still have agents around." She added, "there are Hokuten in this city, and we don't want to be spotted by either side," she told them.
"Then we pass through and take the direct route," Gafgarion finished.
Ramza shrugged and followed the Dark Knight, leading the baggage Chocobo by its reins, dragging Agrias along. The Holy Knight was irritated by Gafgarion's callous disregard of the opinions of the group. Yet, this wasn't her arena. She had fought on Ivalician soil before, but not until today had it been against her citizens.
Thinking that she might have seen apprehension on Ramza's face, Agrias quietly asked him, "Is there something you fear here?"
Ramza moved his right hand, the one clutching the bow. "Archers . . ." he told her. "My class' first casualty was here."
The Holy Knight about the boy talking about his past to her, and how it they're viewpoints, while not opposing, aggravated each other. "How did it happen?" She wondered if his retellings were relevant or inane.
"Ambush," he replied, as he recessed into his mental shell, tersely scanning the tightly-packed houses along the main avenue they entered in.
***
At the base of a steep hill the avenue ran over, they saw a man with gray hair, wearing gold-hued armor covered in purple robes, talking to a man wearing loose green clothing with a feathered green hat. Looking down on them, the man with gray hair turned back to the man in the hat. "Ha, speak of the devil . . ." he said, loud enough for the group at the bottom of the hill to hear. "There they are," he told the man in the hat. "Get them!" he ordered loudly.
The thief meanwhile, looked down and took a double take at who the gray-haired man pointed out. "That's Gafgarion!" he exclaimed. "Damn!" he cursed, throwing down his hat. "Seven hundred was too cheap!" Still, as he swore, the rest of his gang arrived. Two male wizards, another male thief, and two more contract killers that made Agrias' blood grow cold: two female archers taking up positions at the crest of the hill.
Instinctively, Ramza, and Agrias took themselves and the baggage Chocobo behind the wall of the stone road at the base of the hill. Alicia and Lavian took the opposite side to the right, behind one of the houses.
Calmly, Rad and Gafgarion held their ground, almost daring the lone thief up above the hill as the gray-haired man in armor and robes left. "Ambush?" Gafgarion remarked loudly, "Going all out, huh?"
The man's arrogance further irritated Agrias. Before she could restrain herself, her words had already left her lips. "If you don't like it, you can leave!"
As she was performing a check on her chemist's satchel, Alicia winced as she heard her commander lose her temper. Giving her partner Lavian a knowing look, the two got ready, murmuring a small prayer to their St. Konoe that they would not have to charge up that hill.
Gafgarion shrugged, walking placing himself beside Ramza and Agrias. "I usually don't do freebies, but I'll make an exception!" he told the Holy Knight.
"You patronizing . . ." Agrias caught herself from snapping at the Dark Knight, for the most part.
The first arrow had been loosed, testing the range. It came in at a high arc, coming down from a steep angle several paces away from the clustered knights, Holy, Dark, and Lost. It was only a matter of time before the archers found their marks.
The three began to concentrate, and Ramza prepared his looted bow, knocking an arrow. He focused on accumulating his energy, focusing on his arms.
Gafgarion had begun to cast a spell. "Layer upon layer, make your mark now . . ." he began. "Haste!" he cried out, tapping into Time Magic.
Ramza allowed himself to relax, to welcome the aid, and he felt the effects. The air around him actually began to resist him as he moved. The pain he felt as he pulled back too fast on his bow told him to slow himself down.
To Ramza's left, Agrias began to do likewise, using him as the vertex of her spell. "Precious light," her voice rising from a low tone, "be our armor to protect us! Protect!" The air surrounding the three dimmed, almost misting over.
Ramza took the cue and leaned out from the corner of the wall. He locked up the first target he saw: one of the thieves, who was making his way downhill along the houses. For a moment, he switched his attention to the other enemies, but saw that they were outside of his range. Ramza released his hold, and his arrow flew in a shallow arc, striking the thief in the left leg. It wasn't enough to kill the man, but it did make him lose his footing and fall down, rolling down the cobblestone road that lead up the hill. Ramza had aimed for his chest . . .
Taking their cue, Rad, Alicia, and Lavian had already begun to hike up the hill, Lavian leading the way, her shield held up above her head. Behind her, Rad began to also accumulate his strength, holding his mithril sword's blade in his left hand as he focused. Alicia had her right hand in her chemist's belly satchel, ready to pluck out what she might use, while in her left was a mage masher-class of dagger.
The enemy wizards were walking down the hill, closing the gap. Those below were lucky; it would still be some time. But not for the enemy's two archers. The two women had also walked down, taking up positions once more as they concentrated on the group led by Lavian.
A single arrow struck the shield squarely on, while the other archer sent her own arrow up in a high arc, scraping along Alicia's left shoulder, causing her dagger arm to fall to her side, the dagger still clutched weakly in her hand.
Almost immediately, Alicia took a potion pouch from her satchel and drank the contents, lessening the agony from her wound as she then hurried to apply salve to the gash.
Gafgarion and Agrias had too, rushed out, heading up to meet the other thief.
Again, Gafgarion used the Night Sword technique while Agrias followed through with her own Crush Punch form, crumpling the last thief, causing him to pass out from the damage dealt, all by energy directed from a blade.
The two advancing groups had come into range of the wizards. Anticipating them, the two male wizards had targeted a band of land the two groups were bound to cross.
"Out of the ground," the left wizard cried, "raze all greenery with flame!"
Agrias was struck along with Gafgarion, but she was the one who cried out in agony while Gafgarion grunted in pain. A pillar of flame had swirled across the two, flaring quickly out, but burning the exposed flesh as well as singing the two knights, clad in their metal armor.
The woman's shriek from being burned jolted Ramza as he released his next shot, striking the wizard who had just fired. When the arrow embedded itself in his stomach, the man staggered back. He was hurt, but not slain, as he simply took a few steps back uphill. He fell on his ass before focusing on casting a follow-up spell.
Gafgarion had his revenge, as he used the night sword to leech the chemist's life energy into himself, finishing off the man Ramza had wounded.
Agrias took this time to cast another spell on herself as Gafgarion and she ignored the other wizard on the opposite side of the street, focusing on assassinating the enemy archers. It was the quickest -and weakest- of her curative spells. "Life's refreshing breeze, blow in energy," she cried. "Cure!"
Wind visibly wound around them gently and began to cure their injuries, gently sweeping out the burns. They were far from healed, but they were on the way. Agrias allowed herself to relax, some of her energy returned and the pain alleviated.
They were halfway up the hill.
Rad had fallen, succumbing to the lightning elemental spell cast upon his group. He lay writhing on the ground, with Lavian screening him as she advanced. Oddly enough, Alicia, their knight-turned-chemist, was the first one who made it to the wizard. Avoiding the swipe the black mage made with his thunder rod, Alicia extended her left arm as she cut his mace-arm with her mage masher, silencing him, preventing any other spells he may have cast.
At the base of the hill, Ramza had already begun his own charge, focusing on nothing else but sprinting up hill in a beeline. Either he would be ignored until he got within range of the uphill archers, or he would draw their attention. It was a grim and stupid choice, but Agrias and Gafgarion were almost in position, plus they had a man down on the ground.
The Holy and Dark knights were almost in range, and by this time, the hasted frenzy cast unto them faded, worn away by their uphill rush. The two female archers had stopped their fire, climbing up on several barrels to the cerulean tiles of the houses on the hill. One had taken the left, the other the right side. Gafgarion and Agrias went for the left archer, not wanting to split their portion of the force. Lavian was still only halfway up the street, securing the silenced wizard, who had dropped his mace and surrendered. She was drinking down the potion pouch Alicia had lobbed at her. Meanwhile, Alicia had doubled back to treat Rad and drag him into the safety of one of the houses' entryway. He had stopped his convulsions, and lay there next to where Alicia knelt, accumulating his strength.
Ramza charged past them, an arrow's fletching dangling from his left hand as he held the bow in his right. He fell sideways into the pavement as the rightmost archer tagged him, striking him in the right side of his chest, piercing his bronze breastplate, digging into his flesh, scratching his lung, but not penetrating. The shock made him want to flinch as he fell. He had panicked, letting himself fall when the arrow struck him as he saw it arc down, fortunately, he had not fallen on his front and driven the arrow deeper into him.
He recovered to his knees, locking up the enemy archer, who was knocking her next arrow. Awkward as it was, he fired, striking her where her right shoulder met her neck, causing her to drop her bow and stagger away. Ramza let himself lie down on the pavement and gently wiggled out the arrow that struck him. He saw the two distinctive flashes at the top of the hill on the rooftops.
Gafgarion and Agrias had neutralized their target, and unlike his, this archer had not gotten away. The Dark Knight secured the top of the hill, ignoring the frightened, though curious, townspeople who had now gone to their balconies.
Worried, Agrias saw Ramza on the ground as he sat up, examining himself after he made his way to Alicia and Rad. Her own singed skin still felt raw, but she waited until she was around both Rad and Ramza before she cast another, more powerful, curing spell now that she had time. "Blessing breeze," she prayed, "blow in energy!" Again the wind swept around them gently.
As Gafgarion made his way downhill, Agrias spoke to the group. "There's no time to waste . . ." she stated the obvious. "We must hurry and save the Princess!" she declared, excitement from the battle and the righteousness she felt catching up with her.
Gafgarion suppressed a rebuke towards her. Her 'knightly' spirit was bothersome to him. He chose to indulge her ranting. "Where are we going?" he asked her rationally. "Do you know where they went?"
Agrias nodded, dropping the cowl she wore. "There's only one place they could have escaped to!" she remarked. "Impregnable fortress . . ." she said, slowly this time, her voice trailing, "Bethla Garrison."
Ramza spoke up, having collected himself and his items. "Bethla Garrison . . ." he echoed.
***
Gafgarion looked back out at the uphill road and shook his head. "Ramza, is there any way we can get out of this?"
"The authorities haven't arrived yet, but someone has to have reported this," Ramza replied, taking in the corpses they left on the street. "There's no way we can get out of this city today after what happened."
Agrias protested. "If they sent someone to delay us, they must be desperate. We can make camp after we clear the city." Ramza shook his head.
Gafgarion ignored her, already walking back downhill. "There should be an some kind of tavern in the slums that won't ask the wrong questions of their customers."
"What about the prisoner?" Lavian asked, gesturing to the wizard hidden within his tattered blue robes and scarecrow's hat. The indifferent shrug Gafgarion gave made her open her eyes in alarm. Likewise, Agrias was wary.
"Ramza, what will you do to him?" she asked, surprised that she would ask him for something he was not in charge of.
"We knock him out and leave him here," Ramza told her as Rad came over and kneed the wizard in the head. Silently, the man crumpled, even as Alicia drew her dagger as she forced the mercenary squire away.
At Agrias' snarl of outrage, Ramza told her firmly, "We can't leave him behind." He kept himself from pointing out that this was not a war. "There is no one else supporting us. No one to hold him captive. He's only a burden to us, and a risk if we take him along."
Her sense of fair play stoked, Agrias reluctantly backed down. She had been out of line, but she would not apologize for what she considered was 'fair' in war. Even against Romanda during the war, certain rules had been observed on both sides.
Sitting up, Ramza left. Taking the hint from Agrias' two subordinates, Rad shrugged, jogging downhill towards where Gafgarion was waiting with the baggage chocobo.
"Is this why you weren't a knight?" Agrias acidly asked of Ramza as the boy offered her his hand.
Giving the boy a helpless expression mixed in with disappointment and sympathy, Alicia and Lavian passed by him as they followed the other mercenaries.
As Ramza began to say something, Agrias moved past him, leaving him behind.
Silently, Ramza followed, taking the rear position of their group as they entered the slums.
***
Gafgarion had found a tavern where the group would stay the night. Immediately, Agrias and her knights went upstairs while payment was being arranged with the bartender / innkeeper.
"One room for the three women," the bartender repeated, "but what about you three?"
"How many drinks?" Rad piped up.
The bartender shrugged it off. "I'll let you three stay here for . . . six steins each, plus food."
Gafgarion chuckled. "Bartering, bartenders . . ." he said, creating a pun, " . . . where would the world be without them?" He pointed at Ramza to the bartender. "He doesn't drink . . ."
"Split his share?" Rad remarked.
The bartender regarded the mercenary squire. "People like you are the reason why people like me will never be poor." He slid out the first two of the eighteen drinks to be consumed. Shaking his head at Ramza, he passed the boy a stein filled with something else besides ale. "There's some grape juice . . . careful though, it may have fermented."
"Even better!" Rad interrupted for the third time.
Ramza had gone over to a table where a plain girl had taken him. Spotting the pale trace of a scar running down her exposed forearm from the brown and gray blouse she wore, he looked into her eyes. "I was a squire for a while . . ." she told him. "I didn't last long in the war."
Ramza nodded, and told her gently. "At least you've found life outside of fighting . . ." He gave her a soft smile. "I envy you that . . ."
She smiled back at that remark. "If only you were a few years older . . . right now I feel like a cradle-robber." She laughed at Ramza's shocked expression. "I don't know if that's real or not . . . but it's . . . well, cute." She left Ramza staring after her, confused.
"She's right," Lavian told her, now out of her armor, sitting down in front of him wearing a plain linen robe. She leaned forwards. "Is that really how you are?"
Ramza shrugged, unable to say anything.
"I think I understand why Agrias is angry at you. You seem so innocent, but you're probably as ruthless as your mercenary buddies over there," she pointed, to where Alicia had taken several steins away from the two. The chemist-knight ignored their protestations as she carried the steins, two per hand. She held them up to her chest, and as she reached Ramza's table, took a moment to sip out all of the froth from one of her steins before giving the rest to Lavian.
Ramza was surprised to hear the two knights laughing. They were serious, but nowhere near as Agrias. He understood though, being a subordinate gave you more freedom in relaxation even while on duty. "Its who I am . . ."
"There," Alicia pointed out, "she hates that. Most of us find it annoying. Look, either apologize or tell us off . . . just make a stand, Ramza." She took a sip of her drink as the food was brought over, little more than boiled and salted meat with this morning's bread. "We, Lavian and me, are able to relax when its time, but you . . . you're always out there . . . tense and still dense at the same time. Plus, we've seen you snap."
Lavian took over as Alicia began to tear into the side of meat with the cleaver that came with the rack. The chopping didn't jolt either her or Ramza. "Your outbursts are dangerous. They look unstable. Whatever your holding back, that's what keeps us from trusting you all the way." She pointed towards the two other mercenaries and the bartender were ogling herself and Alicia, even with her partner trailing bits of meat from her mouth. Lavian let out a small belch, which if anything, enticed the males even more in their gawking. "We know they are bastards who work for coin, but you don't. But, even though you care and have a conscience . . . we can't figure out just why you are like you are . . ."
"I'm a hypocrite?" Ramza brought up.
Alicia shook her head as she chewed. "Nrmph!"
"She says 'no'," Lavian clarified. "We appreciate your support, but you scare us Ramza. We've seen people like you in the war . . ."
Finally swallowing her food, Alicia jumped in after washing it down with some ale. "They're all dead . . . all of them were stupid enough to keep going along their paths like you did."
Again, Ramza did not know what to say.
"He's just as bad as her . . ." Lavian remarked to her partner, who nodded back.
"Speak of the devil . . ." Alicia spoke, tilting her nose up towards the stairs.
Unlike Alicia or Lavian, Agrias came downstairs armed, wearing only a linen robe like them, but carrying her mithril sword in its scabbard. It was pointless since the only people that wasn't in their group was the bartender and the waitress.
Warily, and cajoled by the gestures of the two other women, Agrias came to sit at the table, 'coincidentally' across from Ramza. "Good evening . . ." she told him coldly.
Ramza had been eating his own portion of the 'meal', taking out a dagger the knights did not know he had and using the serrated edge to cut himself off his portions. He nodded back politely, finishing his chewing. "Good evening, Agrias," he addressed her. "Sorry about the lack of food."
Alicia kept from groaning as Lavian rolled her eyes.
Wordlessly, Agrias paused for a moment to give a prayer before she herself dug into the meal. Ramza took the hint and ate quietly, and Agrias noted his mannerisms. She tried to dismiss the anger she felt around the boy, but found that she couldn't let go. It wasn't his entire fault, and that frustrated her all the more. The boy ate like a noble, while even Agrias was gruff with her food, she was trained compared to her subordinates. I'm supposed to be angry at him . . .
She looked over them and asked. "I don't know why you two are always so happy."
Alicia shrugged, "There's wisdom in being happy."
Ramza smiled softly at that. "It was the same way with me . . ." he told them, referring to Agrias. "Its one way of dealing with it. May not solve anything . . . but it does get your mind away from battle. People like us take things too seriously . . ."
He stopped when he saw Agrias glaring at him, cold fury churning in her eyes. He saw her hand hesitate at her stein, wondering if she would take a swig or throw it in his face.
Predictably, Alicia and Lavian chose to leave then, leaving Agrias alone with Ramza. "Lady Agrias," Lavian whispered, "please, whatever he's done to offend you . . . settle it now,"
Alicia settled to give the now-nervous Ramza a reassuring pat on the back. "Don't disappoint us," she whispered in his ear, almost sighing as Ramza struggled to understand what she might be trying to tell him.
Ramza's tan eyes met Agrias' matching pair. The Holy Knight wanted to leave, but felt that she had been irrational.
From the bar, Gafgarion stared at them from the corner of his eye. "Hopeless . . ."
***
***Author's Notes***
On the bright side, I think I'm almost done with the FIRST DAY of the story . . . in comparison to the months it took me months to write out just several hours of one day at the Masaki Residence in 'Giri to Kiyone.'
Chugging along slowly . . . hopefully when school begins I'll be more focused.
***Author's Notes***
***Readers' Responses Corner***
Well, erm, yeah. Here's another miscellaneous section.
Yes, I DO plan to continue this story. I'll post my retirement should I choose to stop working on this piece and I will announce the shifting of assets should I leave this one on the back burner.
As to Ramza's choice in jobs, well, truthfully, any job class outside of Squire and Knight isn't really following the storyline. As it is I violated that by making Ramza take the Archer - Thief - Lancer (Dragoon for the purists. . .) jobline.
But. . . I didn't want to make him follow the full-on Knight line since Ramza shouldn't know the Eastern Arts (Monk) and as I pointed out before: he's not a tree-hugger (Geomancer).
Ramza's abandonment of that jobline mirrors his path in life. As he is generall unspecialized (Squire), he also delves into the less honorable, but still 'martial' jobline, that of the Archer.
It marks his departure from training to be a Hokuten, to being independent (which admittedly, he is not, even at this point in the series). Too bad he's never shown using a spear in the series since he was never meant to be a Lancer.
Two Swords? None of the characters (Ramza, Agrias, Rafa, Mustadio, etc.) will be taking the Samurai or Ninja jobs.
It would make them too Uber.
I'd like to make Agrias a Dancer ^_^, but no. . . that's on the Archer and Knight Jobline, not Priestess. Yes - In my first run through the game, I DID develop her to dance around the battlefield. . . stupid since there's only one animation, but still!
Agrias may know how to use a bow, but to be a Thief?
Post more questions as you find them, and please, questions and comments ARE appreciated.
***Readers' Responses Corner***
This the next sequence of 'original' scenes. Huzzah. Well . . . with a 'retelling' (not a flashback) by Ramza.
In case you were wondering, I will not be covering the in-game story scenes that do not involve Agrias and Ramza. Meaning, none of the vignettes in Igros Castle or Zeltennia.
Revisionary Notes: (Relating to the Prologue, not this scene)
Delita only had ONE Chocobo.
Agrias went through the monastery instead of around it.
***Pre-Story Notes***
Chapter 02-02 (Chapter Two: The Manipulator and the Subservient, Scene 02)
***January 1st, Year 2. En Route to Dorter Trade City***
The pursuit group of six walked at a brisk rate towards the first waypoint in their journey. Gafgarion walked confidently ahead on the raised dirt road, with Alicia and Lavian following behind in single file. Holding the baggage Chocobo, Agrias and Ramza walked together, side by side. It was Rad who brought up the rear. "We'll arrive just before the sun begins to set, but I won't be caught dead at night in Araguay Woods," the squire announced.
Gafgarion chuckled, "I forgot to tell you this little hole in your plan, Agrias. They may not notice you, but people might recognize me."
"It can't be helped, and you've been known to abandon-" Agrias began to reply dully before she was cut off.
"-Delay," Gafgarion interrupted, amused that the Holy Knight bit back.
"Irrelevent. None of us resemble Ovelia in the first place and the rest of you look like mercenaries."
Ramza joined in. "It would make sense. Agrias already looks like the principal," he pointed out.
Lavian looked back at her leader. "Alicia and I could be her guards while the three of you were mercenaries we employed."
Gafgarion took a look back. "Children . . ." he told them all. "At least it's a workable cover story."
Agrias' robes masked most of her appearance, even her face in the darkness of the cowl. Her light hands poked out of the silk sleeves of her blouse. Agrias had to change into a pair of lighter boots to complete the disguise. "We'll have to avoid our contacts in Dorter, but we should pass through without overdue attention."
"So long as they never see your armor underneath those robes . . ." Gafgarion warned. "Or draw your sword for that matter. Disguise or not, there's no hiding the crest of Lesalia."
The matter was closed, and they continued on.
***
Agrias caught Ramza looking at her over the chocobo. "Yes, what is it?" she asked him, wondering why he was interested in her.
"I should tell you about Delita . . ." he told her.
"Who?"
"The knight who abducted the princess," Ramza clarified. "His name was . . . is . . . Delita. Delita Hyral," he finished.
"How did you know him?" she asked, remembering the questions she wanted to ask him.
"He was my friend. The two of us were best friends ever since childhood. Even when I went into the academy, Delita joined as well, and the two of us worked and graduated together." Ramza knew that his past was something to be kept secret, but it interfered with information Agrias should know.
"Magical City Gariland?" Agrias asked, taking interest in the boy's tale. In the least it would make for a more comfortable conversation, and friendliness might encourage more honesty and information from the boy. Intimidation was not something she enjoyed using on supposed allies.
Ramza blinked, before looking down at his boots. "So you noticed my boots?"
"The way you wear your clothes underneath the armor, the style of swordsmanship," Agrias replied, "and the boots. I've fought alongside Gariland graduates before. Not the most martial academy in Ivalice, but the best in Gallione." His subtle reaction at the mention of the province's name intrigued her, telling her that he must have lived there, or left something important behind in that province.
Ramza nodded, before turning grim. "On the last mission of our first campaign, Delita became a victim. The nobility he worked for all his life betrayed him." He turned to face her, ignoring the others, who were obviously trying to listen into their conversation. "He died. . ."
"Yet he's alive now. He's switched camps?" Agrias guessed, overriding her feelings of compassion with her duty.
Ramza looked as if to argue with her point, but he conceded. "That's what I want to find out." He took a small breath. "If you wish to know what person he is, I can't tell you that. I don't know who he is anymore. When he was at the academy with me, he was striving to become a knight. He wasn't the best, but he was dependable."
"Ramza," Agrias began, her voice hardening, "if he opposes you . . ."
Coldly, Ramza replied. "If he threatens the princess, or any of you and your people, yes, I will fight him."
His admission confused her. Apparently Ramza did not have any true loyalties to the mercenary outfit he belonged in, yet he respected herself and her knights. "Ramza, what if he attacks you?"
"This one time I've decided to stop running," he told her. "I was part of the system that turned Delita into whatever he is now, and all I've done since then is run, but I've never gotten away. I owe him at least the chance to tell me the truth."
"Were you a knight?" Agrias asked him bluntly. His light nod affirmed her question.
"I trained to be one, but I was never ordained into the-" he trailed off.
On one hand she felt natural sympathy for him, but on the other, she was also wary. 'Ramza' was one of the fallen. Agrias could tell he had been on something he considered to be a just path, but somehow, either he had strayed or he had been pushed off. Part of her believed it to be the latter, but her practical side was wary of Ramza being deceitful, more so than he was being now. Even if he was telling her the 'truth', it wasn't the entire story, and thus, had the substance of falsity, or deceit.
The Holy Knight kept measuring the apparent runaway. All that's missing is the shield, Agrias thought. His bearing hinted at nobility, not learned through any academy. She considered herself disciplined in her stature, but noble? There was a difference there, she knew. Many families were destroyed by the Fifty Years' War, but the boy seemed too young, and even she did not join the fight until she was as old as he was now. Sensing the boy's increasing withdrawal, Agrias pressed forwards for the details she needed to know. "To what extent were you trained?"
"Enough to be competent wearing armor and wielding a sword," Ramza replied. "Along with being an archer, it taught me to find weak points and exploit them." At her dubious glare, he continued. "Enough to keep me alive."
Agrias grunted. In the end, its all that matters . . . "If you came from Dorter, did you also specialize as a chemist?"
Ramza shrugged. "I learned it, mostly from watching others in the field," he told her, mirroring her own experiences with that specialty. "Wizardry never interested me, so I didn't delve into that realm."
"A waste . . ." Agrias remarked, since Gariland specialized in churning out skilled mages.
"What about you?" Ramza asked. "You didn't train simply to be a knight, or a priestess . . ."
The Holy Knight shrugged. "I came from a martial family in Lesalia. My father was a priest, my mother a knight. Before I reached the age of accountability, I trained to be a priestess. As I got older, I saw that I needed to fight as well, not just shelter and heal, and I had been trained as a squire since a child. I followed my mother's path too, and became a knight in her order. Eventually I became skilled enough in both to mix the field, and I was inducted into the Order of St. Konoe."
Agrias repressed a sigh as Ramza's face dimmed in contemplation. "Pardon my small-mindedness, I can never see someone trained in the arts of war delving into the practice of faith." The boy seemed confused by what she was. "It's a dichotomy to me; killing and healing; destroying and sheltering; the gauntleted fist and the curing hand." Forestalling Agrias' rebuttal, Ramza continued. "There are many different ways to serve and protect . . . but taking opposite paths?"
"When the destination and the intent is the same, why not?" Agrias asked rhetorically.
The Holy Knight was thoroughly confused at the boy's timidity. In her eyes, his sentiments bordered on the hypocritical. He killed the archer twice over with ruthlessness displayed by a slaughterer, yet compassion and personal suffering permeated his being. It occurred to her, hypocrisy, dichotomy . . . there wasn't a significant difference between the two. Ramza had strayed from whatever path he may have been off, yet his intentions were still the same, his conscience was still there.
This made him dangerous in her eyes. Not because of his abilities, but his dysfunctions. The boy did not know who he was. Not in the sense most people were unaware of what they may be to themselves, but Ramza did not even have a real preconception of what he should be. The boy always seems detached, never looking as if he belonged to anything: a focus of skill, an order, or a place. He was still a child . . . innocent but cruel, unfettered by any obligations, only by his whims. But, there was no 'parent' there to control him, and Gafgarion was a poor substitute who barely held influence over him. Ramza followed a cause: his own.
"Your path doesn't leave much room for failure. How many have gotten in your way, Agrias?" Ramza asked her softly, trying to stare into the darkness of her cowl, seeking her eyes. "The war . . . was it a crucible for you, or a forge?"
Feeling curious now that the boy was probing her, Agrias indulged his profound and intrusive inquiry. "I do not liken myself to a bar of steel, Ramza. Like my name, being in that war was akin to being chained down at the sea's bottom, its crushing depths exerting pressure and strengthening me to what I am now. Eventually, as the tide of conflict ebbed, my chains broke and I floated free. Parts of me may have been 'rot', and I came out of that war with my own fair share of scars." Agrias pulled back, recoiling at the poetic manner she spoke of her experience.
She was offended at the look of sympathy that came from the withdrawn young man. "I seek understanding if not acceptance, never sympathy . . ." she murmured.
Ramza continued to search for her eyes as she gazed into their milky auburn glaze. "I cannot understand what you have been through, but I feel compassion, desired or unrequited," he whispered, tenderness in his voice. It wasn't condescending, or patronizing, but humble, almost apologetic.
Agrias found herself growling low, feeling something stir within her; outrage. It was different from what she felt for Gafgarion, as her own conscience and emotions prevented her from giving Ramza a savage, though justified, rebuke. Feeling annoyed at herself, Agrias knew that she had some sympathy of her own for the boy. "Do . . . not . . . patronize . . . me," she let out gently, slowly, enunciating the individual syllables of each word she spoke.
Its your fault for revealing yourself to him, not his. Since when have you considered the desire to understand and have empathy malicious to you? Agrias' inner voice told her. Not for the first time in recent memory, Agrias questioned not what she had turned into, but which parts of her had been warped or 'rotted' in her
"I'm not . . . its what I feel," Ramza told her, raking her raw nerves even more with his weak apology. Weak in the sense of contradiction. It wasn't an admission of wrong-doing, but an acknowledgment of disagreement.
Naïveté, ignorance, or even kindness . . . Ramza's attitude irritated her more than Gafgarion. At least the Dark Knight's attempt at provoking her were intentional and measured. Ramza's tainted innocence annoyed her in how easy it would be to destroy him, but the same false-innocence he emanated kept her from doing so, as if it would be harming a child.
Walking over a small hill, the group saw Dorter Trade City, a hilled place surrounded by harbors on either side from where it straddled the Orbonne Peninsula. The center of the town held the better-looking houses, while the slums naturally ringed the flat outskirts of the city.
"I'll go on ahead and find some information," Ramza told them.
Gafgarion gave him an affirmative grunt, sending him on his way. "We've been at a fast march people, let's get our breaths back . . ."
Watching the boy jog away, Agrias felt dissatisfied. Who ran away in this argument? she asked herself.
Was Ramza arguing with you? her inner voice replied.
***
At the outskirts of the city, Gafgarion halted the group. "Here's Dorter Trade City. The first major crossroads he might have gone into."
Agrias spotted the various ships in the area's harbor. "Is there a way that he could have taken a ship?" she asked Ramza as he came back.
He shook his head. "Delita could have smuggled Ovelia onto any ship as cargo, but there aren't any ships out there whose charter takes them past Warjilis Trade City or Ft. Zeakden," he told them, and Agrias caught the momentary hitch in his soft voice. "The only ship here flying the banner of the Black Lion is taking a group of nobles to Igros Castle." He thought for a moment before shrugging. "He could have bypassed this place entirely, most of the harbors are on the western shore of the peninsula."
"There goes the route by sea," Gafgarion told them. "To begin with, remember, that knight is operating as a rogue unit at this point. Goltana may have had a hand in this, but he'll keep his involvement as minimal as possible. Either that boy makes it to their province by himself or he won't make it at all." Looking at Ramza. "I suggest we take the main avenue through the city. It's a cleaner place." By the way Gafgarion said the word did not mean the proposed route was spotless of debris, but that of outlaws.
Rad sighed, "He won't stay too close to shore, but he'll be parallel to the coastline. Either we cut him off tomorrow at Araguay Woods, or in two days at Zirekile Falls." He thought for a while. "Or he gets away in three."
"He'll lose the Chocobo in the forest," Ramza stated. "I know my way through these slums, and I think we should take the 'scenic' route," Ramza told the Dark Knight.
Agrias agreed. "Even if Prince Goltana can't allow himself to be active in Ovelia's kidnapping, he'll still have agents around." She added, "there are Hokuten in this city, and we don't want to be spotted by either side," she told them.
"Then we pass through and take the direct route," Gafgarion finished.
Ramza shrugged and followed the Dark Knight, leading the baggage Chocobo by its reins, dragging Agrias along. The Holy Knight was irritated by Gafgarion's callous disregard of the opinions of the group. Yet, this wasn't her arena. She had fought on Ivalician soil before, but not until today had it been against her citizens.
Thinking that she might have seen apprehension on Ramza's face, Agrias quietly asked him, "Is there something you fear here?"
Ramza moved his right hand, the one clutching the bow. "Archers . . ." he told her. "My class' first casualty was here."
The Holy Knight about the boy talking about his past to her, and how it they're viewpoints, while not opposing, aggravated each other. "How did it happen?" She wondered if his retellings were relevant or inane.
"Ambush," he replied, as he recessed into his mental shell, tersely scanning the tightly-packed houses along the main avenue they entered in.
***
At the base of a steep hill the avenue ran over, they saw a man with gray hair, wearing gold-hued armor covered in purple robes, talking to a man wearing loose green clothing with a feathered green hat. Looking down on them, the man with gray hair turned back to the man in the hat. "Ha, speak of the devil . . ." he said, loud enough for the group at the bottom of the hill to hear. "There they are," he told the man in the hat. "Get them!" he ordered loudly.
The thief meanwhile, looked down and took a double take at who the gray-haired man pointed out. "That's Gafgarion!" he exclaimed. "Damn!" he cursed, throwing down his hat. "Seven hundred was too cheap!" Still, as he swore, the rest of his gang arrived. Two male wizards, another male thief, and two more contract killers that made Agrias' blood grow cold: two female archers taking up positions at the crest of the hill.
Instinctively, Ramza, and Agrias took themselves and the baggage Chocobo behind the wall of the stone road at the base of the hill. Alicia and Lavian took the opposite side to the right, behind one of the houses.
Calmly, Rad and Gafgarion held their ground, almost daring the lone thief up above the hill as the gray-haired man in armor and robes left. "Ambush?" Gafgarion remarked loudly, "Going all out, huh?"
The man's arrogance further irritated Agrias. Before she could restrain herself, her words had already left her lips. "If you don't like it, you can leave!"
As she was performing a check on her chemist's satchel, Alicia winced as she heard her commander lose her temper. Giving her partner Lavian a knowing look, the two got ready, murmuring a small prayer to their St. Konoe that they would not have to charge up that hill.
Gafgarion shrugged, walking placing himself beside Ramza and Agrias. "I usually don't do freebies, but I'll make an exception!" he told the Holy Knight.
"You patronizing . . ." Agrias caught herself from snapping at the Dark Knight, for the most part.
The first arrow had been loosed, testing the range. It came in at a high arc, coming down from a steep angle several paces away from the clustered knights, Holy, Dark, and Lost. It was only a matter of time before the archers found their marks.
The three began to concentrate, and Ramza prepared his looted bow, knocking an arrow. He focused on accumulating his energy, focusing on his arms.
Gafgarion had begun to cast a spell. "Layer upon layer, make your mark now . . ." he began. "Haste!" he cried out, tapping into Time Magic.
Ramza allowed himself to relax, to welcome the aid, and he felt the effects. The air around him actually began to resist him as he moved. The pain he felt as he pulled back too fast on his bow told him to slow himself down.
To Ramza's left, Agrias began to do likewise, using him as the vertex of her spell. "Precious light," her voice rising from a low tone, "be our armor to protect us! Protect!" The air surrounding the three dimmed, almost misting over.
Ramza took the cue and leaned out from the corner of the wall. He locked up the first target he saw: one of the thieves, who was making his way downhill along the houses. For a moment, he switched his attention to the other enemies, but saw that they were outside of his range. Ramza released his hold, and his arrow flew in a shallow arc, striking the thief in the left leg. It wasn't enough to kill the man, but it did make him lose his footing and fall down, rolling down the cobblestone road that lead up the hill. Ramza had aimed for his chest . . .
Taking their cue, Rad, Alicia, and Lavian had already begun to hike up the hill, Lavian leading the way, her shield held up above her head. Behind her, Rad began to also accumulate his strength, holding his mithril sword's blade in his left hand as he focused. Alicia had her right hand in her chemist's belly satchel, ready to pluck out what she might use, while in her left was a mage masher-class of dagger.
The enemy wizards were walking down the hill, closing the gap. Those below were lucky; it would still be some time. But not for the enemy's two archers. The two women had also walked down, taking up positions once more as they concentrated on the group led by Lavian.
A single arrow struck the shield squarely on, while the other archer sent her own arrow up in a high arc, scraping along Alicia's left shoulder, causing her dagger arm to fall to her side, the dagger still clutched weakly in her hand.
Almost immediately, Alicia took a potion pouch from her satchel and drank the contents, lessening the agony from her wound as she then hurried to apply salve to the gash.
Gafgarion and Agrias had too, rushed out, heading up to meet the other thief.
Again, Gafgarion used the Night Sword technique while Agrias followed through with her own Crush Punch form, crumpling the last thief, causing him to pass out from the damage dealt, all by energy directed from a blade.
The two advancing groups had come into range of the wizards. Anticipating them, the two male wizards had targeted a band of land the two groups were bound to cross.
"Out of the ground," the left wizard cried, "raze all greenery with flame!"
Agrias was struck along with Gafgarion, but she was the one who cried out in agony while Gafgarion grunted in pain. A pillar of flame had swirled across the two, flaring quickly out, but burning the exposed flesh as well as singing the two knights, clad in their metal armor.
The woman's shriek from being burned jolted Ramza as he released his next shot, striking the wizard who had just fired. When the arrow embedded itself in his stomach, the man staggered back. He was hurt, but not slain, as he simply took a few steps back uphill. He fell on his ass before focusing on casting a follow-up spell.
Gafgarion had his revenge, as he used the night sword to leech the chemist's life energy into himself, finishing off the man Ramza had wounded.
Agrias took this time to cast another spell on herself as Gafgarion and she ignored the other wizard on the opposite side of the street, focusing on assassinating the enemy archers. It was the quickest -and weakest- of her curative spells. "Life's refreshing breeze, blow in energy," she cried. "Cure!"
Wind visibly wound around them gently and began to cure their injuries, gently sweeping out the burns. They were far from healed, but they were on the way. Agrias allowed herself to relax, some of her energy returned and the pain alleviated.
They were halfway up the hill.
Rad had fallen, succumbing to the lightning elemental spell cast upon his group. He lay writhing on the ground, with Lavian screening him as she advanced. Oddly enough, Alicia, their knight-turned-chemist, was the first one who made it to the wizard. Avoiding the swipe the black mage made with his thunder rod, Alicia extended her left arm as she cut his mace-arm with her mage masher, silencing him, preventing any other spells he may have cast.
At the base of the hill, Ramza had already begun his own charge, focusing on nothing else but sprinting up hill in a beeline. Either he would be ignored until he got within range of the uphill archers, or he would draw their attention. It was a grim and stupid choice, but Agrias and Gafgarion were almost in position, plus they had a man down on the ground.
The Holy and Dark knights were almost in range, and by this time, the hasted frenzy cast unto them faded, worn away by their uphill rush. The two female archers had stopped their fire, climbing up on several barrels to the cerulean tiles of the houses on the hill. One had taken the left, the other the right side. Gafgarion and Agrias went for the left archer, not wanting to split their portion of the force. Lavian was still only halfway up the street, securing the silenced wizard, who had dropped his mace and surrendered. She was drinking down the potion pouch Alicia had lobbed at her. Meanwhile, Alicia had doubled back to treat Rad and drag him into the safety of one of the houses' entryway. He had stopped his convulsions, and lay there next to where Alicia knelt, accumulating his strength.
Ramza charged past them, an arrow's fletching dangling from his left hand as he held the bow in his right. He fell sideways into the pavement as the rightmost archer tagged him, striking him in the right side of his chest, piercing his bronze breastplate, digging into his flesh, scratching his lung, but not penetrating. The shock made him want to flinch as he fell. He had panicked, letting himself fall when the arrow struck him as he saw it arc down, fortunately, he had not fallen on his front and driven the arrow deeper into him.
He recovered to his knees, locking up the enemy archer, who was knocking her next arrow. Awkward as it was, he fired, striking her where her right shoulder met her neck, causing her to drop her bow and stagger away. Ramza let himself lie down on the pavement and gently wiggled out the arrow that struck him. He saw the two distinctive flashes at the top of the hill on the rooftops.
Gafgarion and Agrias had neutralized their target, and unlike his, this archer had not gotten away. The Dark Knight secured the top of the hill, ignoring the frightened, though curious, townspeople who had now gone to their balconies.
Worried, Agrias saw Ramza on the ground as he sat up, examining himself after he made his way to Alicia and Rad. Her own singed skin still felt raw, but she waited until she was around both Rad and Ramza before she cast another, more powerful, curing spell now that she had time. "Blessing breeze," she prayed, "blow in energy!" Again the wind swept around them gently.
As Gafgarion made his way downhill, Agrias spoke to the group. "There's no time to waste . . ." she stated the obvious. "We must hurry and save the Princess!" she declared, excitement from the battle and the righteousness she felt catching up with her.
Gafgarion suppressed a rebuke towards her. Her 'knightly' spirit was bothersome to him. He chose to indulge her ranting. "Where are we going?" he asked her rationally. "Do you know where they went?"
Agrias nodded, dropping the cowl she wore. "There's only one place they could have escaped to!" she remarked. "Impregnable fortress . . ." she said, slowly this time, her voice trailing, "Bethla Garrison."
Ramza spoke up, having collected himself and his items. "Bethla Garrison . . ." he echoed.
***
Gafgarion looked back out at the uphill road and shook his head. "Ramza, is there any way we can get out of this?"
"The authorities haven't arrived yet, but someone has to have reported this," Ramza replied, taking in the corpses they left on the street. "There's no way we can get out of this city today after what happened."
Agrias protested. "If they sent someone to delay us, they must be desperate. We can make camp after we clear the city." Ramza shook his head.
Gafgarion ignored her, already walking back downhill. "There should be an some kind of tavern in the slums that won't ask the wrong questions of their customers."
"What about the prisoner?" Lavian asked, gesturing to the wizard hidden within his tattered blue robes and scarecrow's hat. The indifferent shrug Gafgarion gave made her open her eyes in alarm. Likewise, Agrias was wary.
"Ramza, what will you do to him?" she asked, surprised that she would ask him for something he was not in charge of.
"We knock him out and leave him here," Ramza told her as Rad came over and kneed the wizard in the head. Silently, the man crumpled, even as Alicia drew her dagger as she forced the mercenary squire away.
At Agrias' snarl of outrage, Ramza told her firmly, "We can't leave him behind." He kept himself from pointing out that this was not a war. "There is no one else supporting us. No one to hold him captive. He's only a burden to us, and a risk if we take him along."
Her sense of fair play stoked, Agrias reluctantly backed down. She had been out of line, but she would not apologize for what she considered was 'fair' in war. Even against Romanda during the war, certain rules had been observed on both sides.
Sitting up, Ramza left. Taking the hint from Agrias' two subordinates, Rad shrugged, jogging downhill towards where Gafgarion was waiting with the baggage chocobo.
"Is this why you weren't a knight?" Agrias acidly asked of Ramza as the boy offered her his hand.
Giving the boy a helpless expression mixed in with disappointment and sympathy, Alicia and Lavian passed by him as they followed the other mercenaries.
As Ramza began to say something, Agrias moved past him, leaving him behind.
Silently, Ramza followed, taking the rear position of their group as they entered the slums.
***
Gafgarion had found a tavern where the group would stay the night. Immediately, Agrias and her knights went upstairs while payment was being arranged with the bartender / innkeeper.
"One room for the three women," the bartender repeated, "but what about you three?"
"How many drinks?" Rad piped up.
The bartender shrugged it off. "I'll let you three stay here for . . . six steins each, plus food."
Gafgarion chuckled. "Bartering, bartenders . . ." he said, creating a pun, " . . . where would the world be without them?" He pointed at Ramza to the bartender. "He doesn't drink . . ."
"Split his share?" Rad remarked.
The bartender regarded the mercenary squire. "People like you are the reason why people like me will never be poor." He slid out the first two of the eighteen drinks to be consumed. Shaking his head at Ramza, he passed the boy a stein filled with something else besides ale. "There's some grape juice . . . careful though, it may have fermented."
"Even better!" Rad interrupted for the third time.
Ramza had gone over to a table where a plain girl had taken him. Spotting the pale trace of a scar running down her exposed forearm from the brown and gray blouse she wore, he looked into her eyes. "I was a squire for a while . . ." she told him. "I didn't last long in the war."
Ramza nodded, and told her gently. "At least you've found life outside of fighting . . ." He gave her a soft smile. "I envy you that . . ."
She smiled back at that remark. "If only you were a few years older . . . right now I feel like a cradle-robber." She laughed at Ramza's shocked expression. "I don't know if that's real or not . . . but it's . . . well, cute." She left Ramza staring after her, confused.
"She's right," Lavian told her, now out of her armor, sitting down in front of him wearing a plain linen robe. She leaned forwards. "Is that really how you are?"
Ramza shrugged, unable to say anything.
"I think I understand why Agrias is angry at you. You seem so innocent, but you're probably as ruthless as your mercenary buddies over there," she pointed, to where Alicia had taken several steins away from the two. The chemist-knight ignored their protestations as she carried the steins, two per hand. She held them up to her chest, and as she reached Ramza's table, took a moment to sip out all of the froth from one of her steins before giving the rest to Lavian.
Ramza was surprised to hear the two knights laughing. They were serious, but nowhere near as Agrias. He understood though, being a subordinate gave you more freedom in relaxation even while on duty. "Its who I am . . ."
"There," Alicia pointed out, "she hates that. Most of us find it annoying. Look, either apologize or tell us off . . . just make a stand, Ramza." She took a sip of her drink as the food was brought over, little more than boiled and salted meat with this morning's bread. "We, Lavian and me, are able to relax when its time, but you . . . you're always out there . . . tense and still dense at the same time. Plus, we've seen you snap."
Lavian took over as Alicia began to tear into the side of meat with the cleaver that came with the rack. The chopping didn't jolt either her or Ramza. "Your outbursts are dangerous. They look unstable. Whatever your holding back, that's what keeps us from trusting you all the way." She pointed towards the two other mercenaries and the bartender were ogling herself and Alicia, even with her partner trailing bits of meat from her mouth. Lavian let out a small belch, which if anything, enticed the males even more in their gawking. "We know they are bastards who work for coin, but you don't. But, even though you care and have a conscience . . . we can't figure out just why you are like you are . . ."
"I'm a hypocrite?" Ramza brought up.
Alicia shook her head as she chewed. "Nrmph!"
"She says 'no'," Lavian clarified. "We appreciate your support, but you scare us Ramza. We've seen people like you in the war . . ."
Finally swallowing her food, Alicia jumped in after washing it down with some ale. "They're all dead . . . all of them were stupid enough to keep going along their paths like you did."
Again, Ramza did not know what to say.
"He's just as bad as her . . ." Lavian remarked to her partner, who nodded back.
"Speak of the devil . . ." Alicia spoke, tilting her nose up towards the stairs.
Unlike Alicia or Lavian, Agrias came downstairs armed, wearing only a linen robe like them, but carrying her mithril sword in its scabbard. It was pointless since the only people that wasn't in their group was the bartender and the waitress.
Warily, and cajoled by the gestures of the two other women, Agrias came to sit at the table, 'coincidentally' across from Ramza. "Good evening . . ." she told him coldly.
Ramza had been eating his own portion of the 'meal', taking out a dagger the knights did not know he had and using the serrated edge to cut himself off his portions. He nodded back politely, finishing his chewing. "Good evening, Agrias," he addressed her. "Sorry about the lack of food."
Alicia kept from groaning as Lavian rolled her eyes.
Wordlessly, Agrias paused for a moment to give a prayer before she herself dug into the meal. Ramza took the hint and ate quietly, and Agrias noted his mannerisms. She tried to dismiss the anger she felt around the boy, but found that she couldn't let go. It wasn't his entire fault, and that frustrated her all the more. The boy ate like a noble, while even Agrias was gruff with her food, she was trained compared to her subordinates. I'm supposed to be angry at him . . .
She looked over them and asked. "I don't know why you two are always so happy."
Alicia shrugged, "There's wisdom in being happy."
Ramza smiled softly at that. "It was the same way with me . . ." he told them, referring to Agrias. "Its one way of dealing with it. May not solve anything . . . but it does get your mind away from battle. People like us take things too seriously . . ."
He stopped when he saw Agrias glaring at him, cold fury churning in her eyes. He saw her hand hesitate at her stein, wondering if she would take a swig or throw it in his face.
Predictably, Alicia and Lavian chose to leave then, leaving Agrias alone with Ramza. "Lady Agrias," Lavian whispered, "please, whatever he's done to offend you . . . settle it now,"
Alicia settled to give the now-nervous Ramza a reassuring pat on the back. "Don't disappoint us," she whispered in his ear, almost sighing as Ramza struggled to understand what she might be trying to tell him.
Ramza's tan eyes met Agrias' matching pair. The Holy Knight wanted to leave, but felt that she had been irrational.
From the bar, Gafgarion stared at them from the corner of his eye. "Hopeless . . ."
***
***Author's Notes***
On the bright side, I think I'm almost done with the FIRST DAY of the story . . . in comparison to the months it took me months to write out just several hours of one day at the Masaki Residence in 'Giri to Kiyone.'
Chugging along slowly . . . hopefully when school begins I'll be more focused.
***Author's Notes***
***Readers' Responses Corner***
Well, erm, yeah. Here's another miscellaneous section.
Yes, I DO plan to continue this story. I'll post my retirement should I choose to stop working on this piece and I will announce the shifting of assets should I leave this one on the back burner.
As to Ramza's choice in jobs, well, truthfully, any job class outside of Squire and Knight isn't really following the storyline. As it is I violated that by making Ramza take the Archer - Thief - Lancer (Dragoon for the purists. . .) jobline.
But. . . I didn't want to make him follow the full-on Knight line since Ramza shouldn't know the Eastern Arts (Monk) and as I pointed out before: he's not a tree-hugger (Geomancer).
Ramza's abandonment of that jobline mirrors his path in life. As he is generall unspecialized (Squire), he also delves into the less honorable, but still 'martial' jobline, that of the Archer.
It marks his departure from training to be a Hokuten, to being independent (which admittedly, he is not, even at this point in the series). Too bad he's never shown using a spear in the series since he was never meant to be a Lancer.
Two Swords? None of the characters (Ramza, Agrias, Rafa, Mustadio, etc.) will be taking the Samurai or Ninja jobs.
It would make them too Uber.
I'd like to make Agrias a Dancer ^_^, but no. . . that's on the Archer and Knight Jobline, not Priestess. Yes - In my first run through the game, I DID develop her to dance around the battlefield. . . stupid since there's only one animation, but still!
Agrias may know how to use a bow, but to be a Thief?
Post more questions as you find them, and please, questions and comments ARE appreciated.
***Readers' Responses Corner***