***Pre-Story Notes***
This chapter has been reposted, this time with the triquestas ( '. . .'s ) preserved.
***Pre-Story Notes***
Chapter 02-04 "Sanguine Sun Rising" (Chapter Two: The Manipulator and the Subservient, Scene 04)
***January 2nd, Year 2 The Slums of Dorter Trade City***
The Rabid Couar: Tavern & Inn.
The sun had not yet risen, but the night sky had begun to transform from its twilight hue to a lighter tone. Automatically, Agrias' eyes opened, light tan irises murky in the dark. Mechanically, she dropped her left arm from the bed and found her sword's hilt. Instinctively, she scanned the room, even as her unresponsive body was still catching up with her consciousness.
Her eyes adjusted comfortably to the darkness as she identified all the silhouettes in the room with her. On the floor of her bed, to the left, where the closed windows were, lay Alicia, curled up like a kitten under her sheets, the squad's equipment which she was working on lay strewn around her in a ring, marking her improvised bed. On the right side of the floor, just clear of the doorway, was Lavian, still dressed in the light attire they wore underneath their armor, laying flat on her back without a blanket, contentedly clutching her wrapped shield as a pillow.
It was a silly precaution, but Agrias still felt the search necessary. Content that there were no intruders, and stifling the temptation to check under her bed, Agrias pulled her knees to herself as she sat up on the bed, the sheets slipping away from her, and the Holy Knight found herself chilled. Her sword lay on the bed with her, forgotten as she reviewed what they would do that day.
The knights and the mercenaries slept early in the night so that they would be prepared to leave the city at first light. Agrias wondered why the city's guard would let them go, seeing as it was the next best time for the 'culprits' of yesterday's brawl to make their leave. (Gafgarion should have a plan). . . Agrias considered.
She looked at her two soldiers, and wondered if she should wake them now. (They need their rest for today. . .) she worried, and she slipped off the bed, striding silently towards the window. Her body wasn't fully awake, and Agrias ended up almost stumbling and knelt down as she peeked through the shutters. (I woke up a little too early...) she thought
It would be two hours yet before they left, and Agrias knew that if she want back to sleep again, she would be late in her second awakening. (The extra hour of rest would be beneficial to them. . .) Agrias decided, quietly gathering her robes, her boots, her leggings, and her breastplate in several trips from the room, depositing them in the middle of the hallway. Finally, she took her sword with her and crept to the stairway, peering down around the corner at the bar below.
What she saw was Gafgarion dozing at one of the tables, sleeping while sitting up straight at a chair, while Rad was still nursing one of the drinks, and Agrias ducked back as he cast a look on her direction.
(Can I change here?) Agrias asked herself. She wanted her knights to have their rest so she did not want to disturb their sleep. But, she also wanted to be ready before them, so she could be helping the others prepare when the time to waken came. Banishing her fears asides, Agrias began to hike up a pair of snug linen pants. Finishing that, she now sat on the wooden floors and began to slip on and tie her boots.
Hearing steps coming up the stairway, Agrias stopped, and rose to her knees.
Three soft knocks rapped upon the banister. "Are you decent?" Ramza asked, staying two steps away from the top.
(It could've been someone else. . .) Agrias conceded, before softly responding. "Yes, I am." She paused for a minute, wondering about the annoying clinginess the boy seemed to project. "While you're there, would you please watch out for below?"
"Oh. . . of course," Ramza clumsily answered. He sat down on the top of the stairs, and Agrias saw his back, now encased in the dark purple- coated bronze armor that he now wore. "I-I'll be right here. . ." he told her, while keeping his head out of view. He began to hum, letting her know where he was.
The Holy Knight just shook her head. She cursed silently as she regarded the two halves of her breastplate on the floor - the breastplate itself, and the backplate, respectively. Hesitating, she stared from her strewn armor to the sitting Ramza.
"Ramza," she called, "could you help me with my. . ."
Predictably, the boy's head came around the corner a little too swiftly, and to his credit, he did not duck back in embarrassment. The soft smile he gave her as he nodded though was something Agrias did not know how to accept or interpret.
Without being prompted, Ramza presented the breastplate to Agrias, which she took and place against her chest while Ramza took the backplate and went around her. Patiently, Agrias waited as Ramza made sure the clothes she had under the armor did not ball up. "Does this feel fine?" he asked her as he began to secure the two pieces together, methodically slipping the leather straps from the backplate through the breastplate's clasps.
"Keep going. . ." Agrias told him as he tied on the straps, keeping the straps loose as he continued to adjust them to fit her. "I'll see. . ." she said as Ramza tentatively stepped back.
Ignoring Ramza, she began to move her arms and leaned forwards and back , testing her range of motion. "It's a little tight at the shoulders," she remarked, but there was approval in her voice. She wanted to thank the boy, but it felt odd, as if it were unnecessary. She hoped that Ramza would understand.
Nodding, and with an expression of amused commitment on his face, Ramza went back to work.
***
Agrias would've asked how Ramza put on his own armor by himself when she saw the extended leather straps that were strung along his sides. "How soon can we leave this place?"
Ramza shrugged and both of them began to walk down the stairs. "Entry into and exit of the city should be allowed by now. There aren't any walls, but there is a curfew."
Surprised, Agrias was led to a table where breakfast had been prepared for her. It was the same as the last night's dinner faire, but it was still a meal. Feeling awkward, Agrias began to dine, wanting to make sure she wasn't all the way full, but filled enough so that she wouldn't have to worry about another meal until later in the afternoon, or she would snack on the trip until dinnertime. Thankfully, Ramza politely ate with her, patiently taking a small loaf of bread and methodically tearing piece by piece off.
Feeling a bit of tension build up, Agrias let it out. "Why are you babying me?"
Ramza's shrug made her want to drop the subject before she was irritated. "That isn't a good enough of an answer."
"Because its what feels right. . ." Ramza finally responded.
Agrias thought for a moment before giving up. "All right, I can't really understand, but. . ."
"There's no use Agrias," Gafgarion threw in, striding to their table. To his credit, he did not take a seat uninvited or take from their meal. "Most of the time, he's right. . . his ends justify his means."
"And the other times?" Agrias dully took the bait.
"I usually had my own plan, so it ends up bailing him or us out," Gafgarion remarked, lecturing the younger mercenary. "He's too reluctant, too timid."
Grudgingly, Agrias grunted out her agreement. Meanwhile, Ramza simply sat there, being criticized and trying to find a way to stem the inevitable argument.
"But. . . at least he knows that violence is a way to resolve an issue," Gafgarion continued. "Its getting him focused and angry enough that's the challenge. . ."
This was where Agrias' opinions differed. "Vicious you mean. . . Was this why you were stricken from commanding the Touten Knights?" she in turn baited him, knowingly fully the reasons.
"Those who are too weak to use the sword when necessary and achieve total victory and a solid resolution over an opponent should not be leading soldiers whose job is to slay. . ."
"-To protect," Agrias interrupted.
"Don't be a hypocrite," Gafgarion remarked. "You are a woman of the sword as much as the cloth; you know that slaying is part of the job, as you know that deception is part of the faith. You may attempt to minimize the bloodshed, but you still end up slaying those you try to make peace with."
"My concept of 'total victory' does not entail executing those who are clearly outclassed." Agrias chose to let the church comment slip by, knowing she was miring herself deeper into an argument neither of them would renege from.
"It does when they are too stubborn to surrender."
"I know of your record, you've a history of executing those who have surrendered to you."
"Situational ethics," Gafgarion admitted. "I did not want to divert my assets to safeguarding prisoners when I needed all of my men to press the assault or to continue on."
"Yet how come only you in your knight order was the one who committed those murders?"
"Those men were as guilty as I for allowing their deaths," Gafgarion threw back. "Lack of action is the same as complacency. I was strong enough to do what had to be done to achieve victory. They knew that, but they were too weak-willed."
"Bastard. . . you violated the articles of war, and without those, its just slaughter!" Agrias spat out, before Ramza reached out and put his left hand on top of her right. Thankful and annoyed at the boy simultaneously, Agrias regained her calm.
"What did you think war was?" Gafgarion laid down. "Protecting the weak and innocent?" he remarked with cold cynicism. "Those are not tangible ideas in the field. . . killing those who would kill you," Gafgarion, "That, is something that is all too easy to grasp." His knowing smile almost caused Agrias to snap.
(How dare he imply that. . .) she thought.
Knowing that he was out of his depth, and he could not get into the argument, Ramza stood up and addressed the Holy Knight. "If you want, we can prepare the baggage chocobo, ma'am." She almost laughed at that, grateful that someone was looking out for her, as he pointed at the small cluster of supplies which Rad sat near.
Gafgarion nodded to her gruffly as she began to walk away. Rad took the cue and took out a list to check the inventory as he began inspecting the supplies.
As a final parting shot, Agrias made one more remark. "Almost all of the soldiers were disappointed with the terms of the treaty. . . but one thing they didn't regret was bringing those responsible for war crimes to justice."
Gafgarion scoffed. "If justice existed, I would have been executed, not simply stricken from knighthood."
***
"Thank you for pulling me away from that argument," Agrias told her self-appointed warden. The two did not spend much time on the earthen street, which was already beginning to fill with traffic of pedestrians in their drab clothing. Quickly, they strode into the stable adjacent to the tavern.
Ramza chose not to point out the obvious. "The two of you might have tried to kill each other in the next battle," he told her. "Gafgarion is a mercenary like I am, and. . ."
"I trust you enough Ramza, if that's what you're asking," Agrias remarked, her elation and fading anger once again turning into exasperation. "You told me why you're a mercenary, but its such a waste for you, not just of skill, but who you are. Well, I have to face this: I'd like to believe I am professional enough not to turn on an 'ally', but I do not want to risk losing my control in conflict. . ."
The chocobo was waiting for them, oddly enough, sitting down with its double-jointed legs splayed forwards, preening its left wing, its bulbous right eye watching them with impatience.
She felt thankful that Ramza understood, or at least, he accepted the facts and most importantly: he did not dig in the point. Still, the focus on her was something she wasn't very comfortable with. "Why are you with Gafgarion?" Agrias asked, walking over and stroking the chocobo along its head, wondering at the scaled, though silky, saffron feathers it possessed. "Of so many mercenary outfits in Gallione, why Gafgarion's band? Even if he did know who you were. . ."
"There's something he holds against me. . ." Ramza admitted reluctantly. He had retrieved the chocobo's harness for its cargo. Together, the two began to secure the harness onto the bird, Agrias taking the head, and Ramza taking the body.
"He's the link to your past. . ." Agrias surmised, before she shook her head. "You haven't run away. . . you've only taken a rest from following that path. So its not only up to your former superiors to accept you back in, but Gafgarion is minding you for them as well?"
(You're as helpless as a child. . .) Agrias said in her mind.
"He never told me," Ramza replied, "but it was obvious that he was sent to find me. I tried to resist at first, working alone. . ."
(Now he's getting depressed. . .) Agrias noted, and as curious as she was, she felt the need to spare the boy's emotions. "Alone? Well, if it wasn't with him, its bound to have been bloodless."
Ramza's dumbstruck expression was Agrias' cue to continue on.
"Well," she urged, "tell me. . .."
***
Standing in front of the inn, Agrias and Ramza held the reins to the baggage chocobo. Traces of the sun was now obvious, with the lightening, though still dim, blue sky, and the ridges of a mountain to the right, highlighted in orange.
Gafgarion had already departed, saying that he would return with 'permission' from the guards to depart the city at dawn. Thankfully, it saved Agrias another confrontation with the man, so soon after their hostile exchange.
"From a knight to a thief. . . you have fallen," she mused. Helplessly, Ramza simply nodded, wondering why she was repeating such an obvious point. "I'm amazed you're as intact as you are now. . ." Agrias assessed, eyeing the boy in more than one perspective. "We'll have to talk about this again later."
"What do you mean?" Ramza asked, almost afraid of what the answer would be.
Agrias simply gave him a stern look. Turning the tables once more, she leaned forwards, her face only a handspan away from Ramza's. "Someone like you. . ." she began, "under the influence of someone like Gafgarion."
"I'm not so dangerous. . ." Ramza softly replied. "But, that's not the point. . ."
"Your first point is false, please," she started, "and stop trying to get my sympathy, if that's your intent with the 'I am worthless' ploy." Agrias had an innate sense of being blunt. Blunt, and harsh, yet fair, though the fairness was lost in the way she 'shared' her views.
She waved over to Rad as the other mercenary walked out of the tavern. "Can you take care of the Chocobo?" she asked him.
"Its what I came out here for," he quipped. "You can't travel through Araguay Woods in the dark; the canopy blocks out the starlight," he pointed out. "We'll catch him. . ."
It was curious that the other mercenary seemed clairvoyant as to what she wanted to know.
Agrias simply nodded as Rad took the reins of the Chocobo and performed his own checks on the harness straps and slings securing the cargo to the carrier. Agrias strode forwards, towards the bar, and with a flick of her left wrist, indicated that Ramza should -would- follow her.
"I'm tossed between envying you, or pitying you," Rad snorted towards the timid mercenary. As he saw Agrias stiffen in her stride, he pressed his luck. "Better do as the 'mistress' says," he remarked, making a pun of Agrias' status as their current principal client.
Ramza chose to ignore the taunts, being used to them, and followed Agrias within. There was nothing else to do. All the supplies and equipment they brought inside were stowed aboard the chocobo; only the other two knights had to waken and prepare.
"I'm sorry about earlier Ramza, but you evaded the subject," Agrias apologized, no regret in her voice.
Ramza accepted this. "I believe I would be more dangerous as a leader than as a follower. This way, I can curb some of Gafgarion's tendencies. . ."
Agrias shrugged, beckoning him to follow her up the stairway. "It was obvious that you were a squad leader, or whatever you called the trainee officers in Gariland. You're competent enough, so you're problem is your afraid of responsibility. . . ?"
"Moot point," Ramza pointed out, and Agrias agreed, dropping the thread.
"As to curbing Gafgarion. . . I'll believe that, if it wasn't for the fact that he'd be less harmless dead than alive!" she growled, as she shook her head. "You see the evils around you, yet you tolerate their presence," she accused. "I know you are a just person Ramza, but if you continue to do this selective 'righteousness', its hypocrisy."
Again, Ramza did not know what to say. Both of them had stopped at the hallway.
Agrias not only felt frustrated at Ramza, but at herself. In her zealous outburst, she also accused herself. The Holy Knight thought of the own imperfections of the Church. Not so much imperfections so much as blights upon what it stood for, and the way it contradicted what it preached. "This isn't over, you confused noble runaway-turned-valiant mercenary," she remarked lightly, with a sarcastic, though jovial, tone, "but I feel as if this isn't going to do either of us any good."
"Its just running away from ourselves to focus on the mission," Ramza pointed out, and as Agrias was about to snap back, he nudged his head towards the side, his left hand, the one that was away from the knights' room's door, gestured. "We'd simply get more distracted, and the issue would bother us in executing our duties."
Agrias gave him a blank look, agreeing. "Why must we share with each other things we already know about ourselves?"
As she was about to open the door, it opened, revealing the two knights within, Alicia already dressed, and with Lavian in the background, performing a personal check on the armor she now had equipped. "If you bottle it all in, you'll explode!" she exclaimed, taking a potion into her hands, shaking it, and popping the cork on the pouch's lip.
Agrias and Ramza both winced as potion fizz flecked their faces. Agrias broke the tension that built up by chuckling, sincerely amused. "Don't worry, I'll be quite busy handling my subordinates. . ."
To her surprise, Ramza smiled, not just in humor, but in recollection. "Memories. . ." he remarked, making a joke.
"Like the tides. . ." Lavian said, walking out of the room, brushing by all of them, quite brusquely in fact. Sighing, Alicia followed.
As Ramza and Agrias stood there, confused. Alicia had to refrain from rolling her eyes. "And just as thick as the coastal fog. . ." she added.
*** En route to Araguay Woods from Dorter Trade City
Attentively, even though they were quickly gorging themselves, the two other knights paid attention to the light briefing Agrias was giving them.
"Do you think we'll have trouble with the forest we're going to pass through?" Lavian asked, after hurriedly chasing down the mouthful of butter grease-soaked bread she inhaled. She stopped as Alicia let out a small belch. "Rad's mentioned it before as a real obstacle."
"Rad hates Goblins," Ramza tossed in. "Araguay Woods is infamous for their large population. . ."
"Do you too?" Alicia interrupted, her mouth dribbling out crumbs.
"She's from the country," Agrias said in monotone. . . "I should have mentioned that fact earlier."
Ramza could almost hear the silent 'Country Bumpkin. . .' that followed.
"So am I!" Lavian exclaimed, offended. "Just because we didn't grow up in the capital province. . ."
Ramza chuckled. It was funny for him to see Agrias' subordinates so loose and carefree around their superior, and Agrias seemed to have a sense of humor too. Reluctantly, he addressed her question. "I've had my run- ins. . . we respected their villages and people, so the only ones who ever engaged were bandits to begin with."
He caught Agrias' left eye catch his own. 'Death Corps?' she mouthed.
The Holy Knight added a slight look of interest that told Ramza that it was a topic they would discuss again, alone. . . for better of for worse.
Changing back to the main topic, Agrias continued. "Pardon us Ramza, but we don't have much in the way of 'local' experience." She phrased that statement carefully, implying that she wasn't familiar with Ivalice's provinces outside of Lesalia and Zeltennia.
Ramza nodded, showing her in his acknowledgement that he did not take offense, that he didn't think that Agrias was boasting of her service record.
"Normally we take the roads linking the villages, not 'cut-throughs' going across the remote areas.' Even in the war, this was true, and there was no remote area on the frontlines. . ." Agrias continued on, as Alicia and Lavian began to take their final portions. "Ramza?"
"Is he our liason with the mercenaries?" Lavian pointed out clearly, though politely."
"No point," Alicia threw in, "he's too different, and Gafgarion's the leader. . ."
Ramza allowed the slight toss-ins to continue before replying. "If you think Gafgarion and Rad will go goblin-hunting. . . they won't. If at all possible, we'll be the ones avoiding the goblins."
"Rad's mentioned before that it'll take us a day to get across the woods, can you make it any quicker?"
Ramza shook his head. "I don't know the terrain. . ." he admitted. "I've studied the maps last night with him and Gafgarion, but Rad's the pathfinder."
"Oh. . ." Agrias said, embarrassed.
"You'll have to trust in Rad to get us through as fast as possible," Ramza told the three knights.
The doubtful glares he received in reply was expected, though it still rebuffed him.
Agrias gave a curt nod. "That's all I can say, but we have to rely on the mercenaries for escorting us," she told her two subordinates.
"If there was only a woman to trust among them. . ." Alicia muttered, looking towards the tavern's front door, nudging her heads towards her it was slightly opened, implying someone was listening in.
Ramza refrained from commenting on what was just said. He simply stared as the three knights strode out in single file from the tavern, dumbfounded.
"Relax," the bartended called out to him as he was left all alone in the bar. "They're just saving face," he explained, shaking his head in pity as Ramza shrugged his understanding. "They got talked themselves in too deep, and they don't know how to apologize without making it seem awkward. With them," the bartender continued, "to admit wrong is a defeat, unless its by someone they consider a superior." The bartender continued. "Not that they don't respect you. . ." he said conciliatorily, as if it was a hollow statement.
"I understand," Ramza replied, a rueful look on his face. "Though their way of saving face inflicts even more damage. . ." Both shared a laugh.
"You don't seem to notice the abuse," the bartender tossed back.
Ramza looked back towards the man and nodded, unsure of what else to do. (Shouldn't we be working together? Pretending to at least,) the boy thought, before following the knights out into the dusk. (I need a drink. . .)
"Hatred or affection - if it isn't sincere, its nothing I take to mind."
***
With a minimum amount of words exchanged, the six set out. Gafgarion and Rad both took the point position, taking up half the street between them as the townspeople shied away. In a sharp contrast, Agrias and the other two knights kept together in a tight cluster around the baggage chocobo.
Leisurely, Ramza brought up the rear, following along from a small distance. He saw that though they were never a group, there was little semblance of alliance now.
Exiting from the eastern side from the city, the three knights were surprised that the guards did not even stop them as they began to walk across the plains, towards the hilled woods they would have to travel through.
While the knights displayed alertness bordering on anxiety, the two other mercenaries seemed arrogant.
An hour into the walk, and nearing the forests' edge, Alicia slowed down, allowing Ramza to catch up to her. Politely, he declined the drink of water she offered him. It was still early in the morning, and it was still cool. "I've noticed that there was no one else in that bar with us. . ." Alicia said.
"People fear Gafgarion," Ramza told her, "even in Ivalice."
Alicia was taken aback, the look of her curiosity changing to one of fear as she stared at the brown-armored Dark Knight's back ahead of them on the dirt road. "I've heard stories. . ."
"He gets the job done," Ramza told her, "and human lives have value to him." It wasn't a compliment.
Numbly, Alicia nodded, the cheer she felt gone as both of them walked up to Agrias, Lavian, and the baggage chocobo.
"What is it Ramza?" Agrias asked, in a friendly tone.
"Gafgarion's reputation," he replied, matching her pace.
The Holy Knight took it in stride, giving the boy a sidelong glance, a rebuke in her eyes. (You dug yourself into this hole, even if they had to learn sometime.)
"There's no way..." Alicia said, her voice subdued, continuing to stare over at the Dark Knight.
Agrias said nothing, paying attention to the conversation, but staying silent as she lead the chocobo by its reins.
It was Lavian who commented. "I thought it was all a façade for his reputation. Why would we hire such a man?"
Feeling as if it was he who was being asked, Ramza shrugged. "Gafgarion was the one who took the commission, he said that it was important enough, even if it was an escort mission." At Ramza's admittance, Agrias' eyes widened, confusion filling her eyes.
Alicia finally addressed Agrias. "Both of you hate each other, so you couldn't have approached him."
Tiredly, Agrias replied. "He was assigned to us... our reinforcements were delayed first, and then diverted, so mercenaries were requested in their place."
"My group was chosen for its..." Ramza paused, "'expertise' in the local regions." The way Alicia and Lavian visibly recoiled in his implication caused Ramza to turn his eyes downrange, past the other mercenaries. Agrias gave him a light nod, neither affirmation nor rejection, simply acknowledgment. "We all have experience fighting other Ivalicians," he clarified.
"I was wondering how someone as young as you seems to have so much experience," Lavian observed.
"I'd like to say they made the right choice," Alicia murmured, looking sidelong at Ramza. The uneasiness between Ramza and the two knights rose as everyone realized that Alicia's stare was the same as the one she had when she was looking at Gafgarion. "I hope. . ."
*** Araguay Woods
Another hour had passed, and the six were in the forest. The transfer from the plains to the uneven terrain of the forest went smoothly, almost unnoticed. The tension within the group was what was tangible, not the supposed danger of Araguay Woods. Not a single goblin had been spotted.
Rad had ceased walking point, and the group traveled in a column. The knights learned that there was no formal trail, simply a host of landmarks that served as waypoints; the canopy hid the sky. Their weapons were sheathed. They were only passing through, and an overt show of aggression would only provoke an attack.
The bottled-up energy and nervousness within her waiting to be unleashed, Alicia stepped out ahead of the group. Before Gafgarion could berate her, she called out. "Hey! There's nothing here."
It was Rad that snarled at her. "Yes, and if you'll shut up, there won't be! Passing through is one thing, challenging them is another."
Alicia held back the 'coward' remark on the tip of her tongue. "Challenge?" she asked, reneging and walking back to the rear row of knights; Ramza brought up the rear with the baggage chocobo.
A 'wark' replied, but it did not come from the rear, but from somewhere out in front.
"Chocobo? Delita's?" Agrias thought out loud as Rad sprinted up ahead, scouting out the spot where the cry came from.
He gestured the group to approach. "I don't know. . . maybe, all I see are the goblins" he replied.
Ramza had secured the baggage chocobo and was now making his way quickly to the ridge of the embankment they hid behind.
"Goblins," Gafgarion remarked. "This should be quick."
Agrias wanted to disagree, but she wanted to see for herself if this was a lead. She took the right wing of the formation, and Gafgarion anchored the left; as Ramza reached the center of the group, they advanced into the open.
***
The scene was a classic hunt. Six goblins: five regular and one black -the obvious leader- surrounded a single chocobo, whose saffron down stuck out in the browns and greens of Araguay.
As Agrias stared across the shallow depression that the chocobo was across, she did not recognize it. Her burden increased as she was now committed to a fight that was pointless, except in saving the lone chocobo. "A chocobo? In this place?" she asked.
"Must be pretty stupid to wander into Goblin's forest!" Gafgarion remarked. The goblins had turned their attention to their group now, eyeing the six warily, gauging how much threat the newcomers represented. The Dark Knight began to turn around, and Agrias was about to protest.
She was caught between two positions. Gafgarion was in the 'right' since to not engage in this battle would save their time, and the chocobo wasn't vital to the mission. Yet, her inner core screamed at her to save the lone chocobo, even though she did not know the situation.
As it was becoming a habit, Ramza was the tiebreaker. "Delita said wild chocobos are stronger than tame ones," he brought up, pointing out the Delita link to rouse Gafgarion's attention. "I wonder if he's strong in a fight?" he added.
The Dark Knight was doubtful, wondering if he was being socially engineered by the armored squire. "You want to help him, Ramza?" Gafgarion shook his head, still keeping his weapon sheathed as he consulted his subordinate. "No money in that!"
Again, Agrias noticed how Ramza was able to manipulate Gafgarion. (So he can curb that monster. . .) Agrias thought. As she stared into Ramza's eyes, she knew that he was aware of why she did not want to leave. (Duty versus Conscience,) she thought as she followed up the opportunity he gave to her. "He may help us save the Princess. . ."
Everyone knew it was as much reality as fantasy.
Faced with opposition from his own troops as well as his current principal, Gafgarion reneged.
The goblins realized what was happening and already the five normal goblins were scrambling through the small clearing of the depression, passing the dried creekbed.
As Agrias and Gafgarion prepared to cast protective and augmentative spells on the main body of their group, Ramza charged forwards. As Agrias called out to him to slow down, Gafgarion gave her a look that cut her off cold. Smirking, he shook his head, as if to say Ramza was in no danger. That, or the boy could die for all he cared for his aggression.
Once more, Rad stayed to Alicia and Lavian as they advanced to melee with the goblin mob. Though Agrias had never engaged goblins, by the looks in Rad and Gafgarion's faces, she knew it would be slaughter; on the former it was channeled hatred, on the latter it was vicious anticipation.
Ramza continued to sprint towards the yellow chocobo, which had turned away and tried to run into the forest thicket to save itself from the goblin mob. It succeeded in making its way to the confined place at the foot of an old tree. One way in, and one way out, the chocobo could control the amount of enemies it could fight at one time.
One of the regular goblins tried to intercept Ramza, the short, stocky, ursine being altering its velocity not to cut off the mercenary, but to blindside him. It was forced off as Ramza slowed his advance and took a swipe at the goblin, forcing the ursine mammal, clothed in the same way humans were, to back off. This goblin stayed behind the other four charging in at the rest of Ramza's group, presumably to make sure Ramza didn't come back around.
Amazed, Agrias watched as Ramza broke through the enemy line. She was both cheered and frustrated by what he did. Crazily, he exceeded the enemy's own aggression, but he failed to exploit it and wreak havoc on their flanks. However, he was doing what in her heart she knew was 'right': saving the chocobo as fast as he could.
With Rad's subgroup 'protect'ed and 'haste'd, Agrias and Gafgarion began to engage the goblin's own flanks. She noticed how Gafgarion broke to the left, keeping the distance away from the enemy goblin. It was elementary that if you had a ranged way of attacking, you kept away from the melee unit you were harassing.
However, Rad, Alicia, and Lavian did not have that luxury. They took the rush of three goblins upon them head-on.
Rad and Lavian each slashed their aggressor, but they were struck backwards by the counterattacks of the goblins. Then the goblins lashed out themselves. Alicia and Rad were both stunned as a single goblin got between them and performed a spin-fist attack, using centrifugal motion to attack the both of them.
This goblin was dispatched when Lavian lowered her shield to knock away the blow of another goblin and impaled her own target. Fluidly, she twisted the blade as it screwed into the goblin's torso, and just as swift brought it back out, smiting the same goblin with her shield. Her foe was dead before its body hit the ground.
Alicia had dropped her dagger, and feeling smothered, she switched to her reserve; reaching into her pouch, she pulled out a dull, rust-colored sphere that was small enough to fit inside her closed grasp. Taking a small vial from a pouch built into the satchel's straps, she took off the cap and plunged it into a soft membrane on the underside of the sphere. Inverting the sphere, the powder in the vial mixed with the liquid within.
As the sphere began to bubble, Alicia took aim and hurled it several paces away from the goblin that had been hounding her. The substance within had already begun to eat away at the container's walls and it burst free when the sphere shattered as it struck the goblin.
The liquid mixture reacted with the air and burst into flame, the gel- like substance clinging to the goblin, whose fur was engulfed in the substance. Steeling herself, Alicia pretended to ignore the carnage she had caused upon another living being as she rushed back to render medical assistance to Lavian and Rad.
The screams were something she would never forget, as was the pair of severed arms she passed by as she made her way to Rad, who stood over the corpse of his skill, watching her own opponent burn. His smirk too, was something she wished she could deny the existence of. She avoided his eyes as she tended to his bruises.
Agrias had already dispatched her own opponent, as had Gafgarion; it had all been too easy.
The black goblin had got itself too deep, fighting the yellow chocobo as Ramza approached. Calculatedly, Ramza partially severed the goblin's head, its thick neck still attached by the front muscles. Falling upon the ground, the Goblin was in shock, its eyes turning milky as Ramza swiftly finished him, stomping down his left heel into its thick snout, shattering the creature's skull.
Less than half a minute to the fight, and it was already over. There were no survivors, and amongst Ramza's group, there were no serious injuries. The bruises were being attended to.
Agrias had watched Ramza dispatch the final goblin, and she hurried to him and the chocobo they had saved.
"W-wark!" the chocobo cried out as he was coaxed out of his hiding place.
"You seem alright," Ramza said, tilting his head as he examined the bird. He immediately pulled it back as the bird darted its head forward to attack him.
Backing away, Ramza stepped back down into the downgrade of the depression. Giving him a strange look, Agrias passed him by to the chocobo, where she removed her right hand's glove and caressed the chocobo's neck. Silently, she nodded her appreciation to Ramza as she led the tense chocobo away.
Gafgarion laughed, sarcasm in his tone. "You're lucky," he called out to the chocobo from his side of the battlefield. "You should thank Ramza."
***
"What about the bodies?" Alicia asked, gesturing to the corpses, staring at the charred remains of her own kill.
"Leave 'em to rot," Rad spat out, taking his sword and wiping it off the fur of the one he had slain.
As a whole, the incognito knights of St. Konoe pretended that Rad did not exist.
"From nothing into nothing," Ramza said quietly. "They stay as they lay."
The ground wasn't stained with blood: there wasn't enough blood spilled, yet the terrain felt tainted now. The goblins' corpses almost blended into the scenery.
"Nothing, exactly," Gafgarion told the group. "Nothing left here to merit our attention. Let's move."
For once, there was no complaint.
***
The six people and two chocobo were near the forest's edge. The trees have grown more sparse and in between. They could see the sky once more. Surprised, Agrias noted that it was twilight, the sky already dark, the sun obscured in the west by the forest. Where the sky should've been shaded in blues, there was an orange scheme tonight.
The chocobo they had rescued nuzzled her side. His name was Boco according to the pendant he wore that hung from a woven cord around his neck. A soft ticklish laugh emanated from her, and she ignored the looks she received from the two other mercenaries, except for Ramza's.
His wasn't in amusement or ridicule, but from curiosity of her to confusion at Boco, who was actively hostile to his rescuer.
No one had spoken since the slaughter hours ago. They had kept on walking after that, eating on their feet, unwilling to make any more delays. No reason had popped up, but tensions ran high, fortunately there were no false alarms.
It had been a fast march throughout the day. Without taking a midday break, the group had been walking almost non-stop. Camp would be made as soon as they made it out of the forest, but they would be too tired to go farther in the night.
Gesturing Ramza over, Agrias calmed Boco, being firm as she caressed the down on his large neck. She found herself cooing to the chocobo, soothing the heated bird. Timidly, Ramza approached, wary of the chocobo. As Agrias again shifter her attention to soothing the chocobo, she saw something in its eyes. She saw recognition, and in that recognition, she saw fear, fear that translated to anger.
*** East of Araguay Woods
Alicia and Lavian joined Ramza and Agrias as they fed the chocobos. The baggage Chocobo enjoyed reclining on the ground, finally free of its load. Contentedly, it pecked slowly away at the sack of grains Ramza had placed on the ground, rolling down the sack's lip to make a lip for the chocobo's 'dish'.
Agrias was standing, along with the chocobo she was feeding. Ungloved, she held the feedbag with her left hand, and feeding Boco from her right. When the chocobo finished licking off even the grain dust off her palm, she gave the bird affectionate strokes from the top of its head, down its neck, and along its back all the way to its tail feathers. Her armament was laid down on the ground atop her discarded wizard's robe.
"Camp has been made," Lavian told them, giving her partner a sidelong look that was all too knowing.
"Camp? If you mean a couple of tents with no campfire in the first clearing we found, I guess you could call it that," Alicia added in her own opinion. She cocked her head towards Araguay Woods in the west. "Still, its better than spending the night there."
Shrugging, Ramza accepted their news. "We packed salted meat and bread for food. . . thankfully they don't need to be heated. Since there's enough feed for the baggage chocobo we can keep the chocobo we found." Ramza had some cheer in his voice, but all four humans knew the cost at which their new 'pet' came. The goblins paid with their lives, and the humans lost a little of their 'humanity'.
"Want to pet him? Go on," she said, lightness in her voice. Shrugging, Ramza held up his gauntleted hands. "All right. . . later then," she told him, letting Ramza know that he had not escaped his fate. She turned to look at Boco. "Hm, I wonder, how do you know him?" she asked the chocobo in a gentle voice.
"I don't think it likes me," Ramza said to her, and Agrias wondered if her whispering was heard.
"'It' has a name, Ramza: Boco," she corrected him, lifting up Boco's necklace.
Taking it, Ramza leaned down as Boco grew agitated. "Boco," he read. "I'm sorry," he told the chocobo. Flipping it over, Ramza winced to see better in the dying light. "There's something else on the back," Ramza told Agrias.
"What is it?" Alicia asked, curious.
Ramza looked up at the chocobo. Silently, he let it go silently. Turning to Lavian after he undid the latches on the underside of his forearms, he asked her, "Excuse me, could you please?"
"Gladly," Lavian replied, blinking as she helped Ramza remove his gauntlets. Her nose wrinkled as she began to unwind the protective linen wrap that covered his hands and forearm. "Do not be ashamed," she said, smiling in sympathy, "My own are probably just as ripe."
Ramza gave her an appreciative look that was all too effervescent, sincere yet ethereal, fading into numbness as he knelt down and proceeded to run his fingers under Boco's layer of down.
The chocobo had frozen, then loosened, not relaxed, but resigned. It tilted its head and neck, its left eye staring right down onto Ramza.
Agrias, Alicia, and Lavian found themselves likewise curious as to what Ramza was doing, as he began to run his hands softly in a shallow curve.
"You're a ghost too, aren't you? I didn't know your name. . ." Ramza told the chocobo first before turning to Alicia and Lavian in apology.
"Everyone has their secrets, but we can't understand unless you tell us," Lavian told him.
"That doesn't mean we don't like having you around Ramza," Alicia followed up. "So. . . what is it?"
Ramza touched the necklace again, "He belonged to Wiegraf. . . of the Death Corps."
Kneeling down besides Ramza, Agrias traced her hands alongside his. "A scar... something that only you could have given to Boco," she said softly, running her hand along. "Wiegraf you said, Wiegraf Folles?" she said.
"Yes. . ." Ramza said softly, locking in her eyes.
The questions in both Ramza and Agrias were traded silently.
"I knew his sister, Miluda," Agrias told Ramza.
His eyes dimmed, not in pain, but in sadness. Realization dawned in Agrias eyes as she dropped her gaze, examining Ramza's face, but no longer holding his eyes with her own.
In retrospect, Agrias would've been thankful about being distracted from Princess Ovelia. At that moment, she was torn between lashing out in anger at what had already transpired and feeling compassion for the boy. (Compassion for a killer?) her conscience accused.
Boco stepped back, exposing the two who had knelt beneath him. He continued to eye Ramza accusingly, no reconciliation made. Uncomfortably, Alicia and Lavian left the two, taking the two chocobo towards the stream by their campsite.
"This complicates things. . ." She told him, as they continued to kneel across each other. "Don't expect forgiveness from me," she said gently, "if that is what you seek."
"Only acceptance of who I am," Ramza replied in return.
"That is asking for even more than I can give; I'm not your confessor," Agrias told him, a touch of regret in her voice. "That is not my duty," she said sadly.
"And this is?" he asked her. He was taken aback when her look changed from doubt and sadness to an aggressive façade, frowning at him, her eyes seeking his, almost daring him to look away. Her own gaze wavered as he held her look, not challenging her, but not allowing himself to be dominated.
It was Agrias who shattered the tension that had built up between them. She was frustrated that she was feeling almost giddy within, especially in light of what Ramza had revealed, and what he might -in her mind- he was trying to do to her.
In the end, she refused to give him any initiative, any power over her, to influence her, to manipulate her. Yet within, her inner self was laughing at her.
Reaching forwards, and unsure of what to say, Agrias reached for the extended straps on Ramza's breastplate. "We'll talk of this later. . . when Princess Ovelia is in safety." Agrias wanted to stop all this, all the confusion that was being heaped upon her, the uncertainty, fascination, and concern she had for Ramza.
Ramza raised his arms as Agrias undid the clasps and pulled them back, his torso armor falling apart in two halves. He wanted to protest Agrias' dismissal of the issue, yet he was thankful all the same. It was a reprieve, a temporary one, but he treasured the relief it brought him. Reaching forwards, he began to undo Agrias' own armor. "After?"
"Yes," she told him firmly, "after I get you away from Gafgarion. Ramza - if I have to kidnap you, will be a knight of St. Konoe or another order in Lesalia, not the Hokuten."
"Is that a promise?" Ramza asked, staring up into her face as he was leaning forwards, undoing Agrias' shoulder straps.
"Now you're leaving it to me to decide your future?" Agrias asked in return. She moved her torso, rolling her neck, allowing herself to relax and to loosen the bunched flesh her armor had contained.
"I wouldn't say that. But I am tempted to throw my lot in with yours."
"You already have. . ." Agrias reminded him, looking up into the darkening orange sky.
The blood moon had risen
***
***Author's Notes***
Many, MANY things left unsaid there. I didn't want to get bogged down, and as it is, it is far too melodramatic as is now.
In case you were wondering, with the entire armor removal thing. . . nothing sexual was implied, though I'd be lying through my teeth (as would Agrias and Ramza) if I claimed that there was nothing else implied.
Lots of things are said between the characters, and frankly, its just REPETITIVE (not in the good way either of linking and repeating good traits into a nice melodic rhythm) to EXPLAIN all the goddamn nuances.
Again, I'm coming to a conflict between 'Moving the Story Along' and 'Lots of O-So-Good! Detail'. I lost the 'happy medium' along the way. . .
Sort of like the 'horror' stories of volleyball in high school, where you either DON'T make it over the net, or you pop it into the rafters (or ricochet it off the ceiling's beams onto someone's face ^_^). . .
Also, if you write, I recommend never mixing Goo Goo Dolls with Rammstein in your music mix. . . boy did I ask for the confusion I had when writing this!
***Author's Notes***
***Reader's Response Corner***
Umm, nothing much to say, is that a good thing?
In case you were wondering, there IS a bit of a soundtrack for the fic. . .
Once more, if anything wasn't clear, just ask away, or criticize away.
Its nice to know what I'm doing wrong (as opposed to just what I am doing right, but don't stop the comments! ^_^), well, not 'nice' so much as useful.
***Reader's Response Corner***
This chapter has been reposted, this time with the triquestas ( '. . .'s ) preserved.
***Pre-Story Notes***
Chapter 02-04 "Sanguine Sun Rising" (Chapter Two: The Manipulator and the Subservient, Scene 04)
***January 2nd, Year 2 The Slums of Dorter Trade City***
The Rabid Couar: Tavern & Inn.
The sun had not yet risen, but the night sky had begun to transform from its twilight hue to a lighter tone. Automatically, Agrias' eyes opened, light tan irises murky in the dark. Mechanically, she dropped her left arm from the bed and found her sword's hilt. Instinctively, she scanned the room, even as her unresponsive body was still catching up with her consciousness.
Her eyes adjusted comfortably to the darkness as she identified all the silhouettes in the room with her. On the floor of her bed, to the left, where the closed windows were, lay Alicia, curled up like a kitten under her sheets, the squad's equipment which she was working on lay strewn around her in a ring, marking her improvised bed. On the right side of the floor, just clear of the doorway, was Lavian, still dressed in the light attire they wore underneath their armor, laying flat on her back without a blanket, contentedly clutching her wrapped shield as a pillow.
It was a silly precaution, but Agrias still felt the search necessary. Content that there were no intruders, and stifling the temptation to check under her bed, Agrias pulled her knees to herself as she sat up on the bed, the sheets slipping away from her, and the Holy Knight found herself chilled. Her sword lay on the bed with her, forgotten as she reviewed what they would do that day.
The knights and the mercenaries slept early in the night so that they would be prepared to leave the city at first light. Agrias wondered why the city's guard would let them go, seeing as it was the next best time for the 'culprits' of yesterday's brawl to make their leave. (Gafgarion should have a plan). . . Agrias considered.
She looked at her two soldiers, and wondered if she should wake them now. (They need their rest for today. . .) she worried, and she slipped off the bed, striding silently towards the window. Her body wasn't fully awake, and Agrias ended up almost stumbling and knelt down as she peeked through the shutters. (I woke up a little too early...) she thought
It would be two hours yet before they left, and Agrias knew that if she want back to sleep again, she would be late in her second awakening. (The extra hour of rest would be beneficial to them. . .) Agrias decided, quietly gathering her robes, her boots, her leggings, and her breastplate in several trips from the room, depositing them in the middle of the hallway. Finally, she took her sword with her and crept to the stairway, peering down around the corner at the bar below.
What she saw was Gafgarion dozing at one of the tables, sleeping while sitting up straight at a chair, while Rad was still nursing one of the drinks, and Agrias ducked back as he cast a look on her direction.
(Can I change here?) Agrias asked herself. She wanted her knights to have their rest so she did not want to disturb their sleep. But, she also wanted to be ready before them, so she could be helping the others prepare when the time to waken came. Banishing her fears asides, Agrias began to hike up a pair of snug linen pants. Finishing that, she now sat on the wooden floors and began to slip on and tie her boots.
Hearing steps coming up the stairway, Agrias stopped, and rose to her knees.
Three soft knocks rapped upon the banister. "Are you decent?" Ramza asked, staying two steps away from the top.
(It could've been someone else. . .) Agrias conceded, before softly responding. "Yes, I am." She paused for a minute, wondering about the annoying clinginess the boy seemed to project. "While you're there, would you please watch out for below?"
"Oh. . . of course," Ramza clumsily answered. He sat down on the top of the stairs, and Agrias saw his back, now encased in the dark purple- coated bronze armor that he now wore. "I-I'll be right here. . ." he told her, while keeping his head out of view. He began to hum, letting her know where he was.
The Holy Knight just shook her head. She cursed silently as she regarded the two halves of her breastplate on the floor - the breastplate itself, and the backplate, respectively. Hesitating, she stared from her strewn armor to the sitting Ramza.
"Ramza," she called, "could you help me with my. . ."
Predictably, the boy's head came around the corner a little too swiftly, and to his credit, he did not duck back in embarrassment. The soft smile he gave her as he nodded though was something Agrias did not know how to accept or interpret.
Without being prompted, Ramza presented the breastplate to Agrias, which she took and place against her chest while Ramza took the backplate and went around her. Patiently, Agrias waited as Ramza made sure the clothes she had under the armor did not ball up. "Does this feel fine?" he asked her as he began to secure the two pieces together, methodically slipping the leather straps from the backplate through the breastplate's clasps.
"Keep going. . ." Agrias told him as he tied on the straps, keeping the straps loose as he continued to adjust them to fit her. "I'll see. . ." she said as Ramza tentatively stepped back.
Ignoring Ramza, she began to move her arms and leaned forwards and back , testing her range of motion. "It's a little tight at the shoulders," she remarked, but there was approval in her voice. She wanted to thank the boy, but it felt odd, as if it were unnecessary. She hoped that Ramza would understand.
Nodding, and with an expression of amused commitment on his face, Ramza went back to work.
***
Agrias would've asked how Ramza put on his own armor by himself when she saw the extended leather straps that were strung along his sides. "How soon can we leave this place?"
Ramza shrugged and both of them began to walk down the stairs. "Entry into and exit of the city should be allowed by now. There aren't any walls, but there is a curfew."
Surprised, Agrias was led to a table where breakfast had been prepared for her. It was the same as the last night's dinner faire, but it was still a meal. Feeling awkward, Agrias began to dine, wanting to make sure she wasn't all the way full, but filled enough so that she wouldn't have to worry about another meal until later in the afternoon, or she would snack on the trip until dinnertime. Thankfully, Ramza politely ate with her, patiently taking a small loaf of bread and methodically tearing piece by piece off.
Feeling a bit of tension build up, Agrias let it out. "Why are you babying me?"
Ramza's shrug made her want to drop the subject before she was irritated. "That isn't a good enough of an answer."
"Because its what feels right. . ." Ramza finally responded.
Agrias thought for a moment before giving up. "All right, I can't really understand, but. . ."
"There's no use Agrias," Gafgarion threw in, striding to their table. To his credit, he did not take a seat uninvited or take from their meal. "Most of the time, he's right. . . his ends justify his means."
"And the other times?" Agrias dully took the bait.
"I usually had my own plan, so it ends up bailing him or us out," Gafgarion remarked, lecturing the younger mercenary. "He's too reluctant, too timid."
Grudgingly, Agrias grunted out her agreement. Meanwhile, Ramza simply sat there, being criticized and trying to find a way to stem the inevitable argument.
"But. . . at least he knows that violence is a way to resolve an issue," Gafgarion continued. "Its getting him focused and angry enough that's the challenge. . ."
This was where Agrias' opinions differed. "Vicious you mean. . . Was this why you were stricken from commanding the Touten Knights?" she in turn baited him, knowingly fully the reasons.
"Those who are too weak to use the sword when necessary and achieve total victory and a solid resolution over an opponent should not be leading soldiers whose job is to slay. . ."
"-To protect," Agrias interrupted.
"Don't be a hypocrite," Gafgarion remarked. "You are a woman of the sword as much as the cloth; you know that slaying is part of the job, as you know that deception is part of the faith. You may attempt to minimize the bloodshed, but you still end up slaying those you try to make peace with."
"My concept of 'total victory' does not entail executing those who are clearly outclassed." Agrias chose to let the church comment slip by, knowing she was miring herself deeper into an argument neither of them would renege from.
"It does when they are too stubborn to surrender."
"I know of your record, you've a history of executing those who have surrendered to you."
"Situational ethics," Gafgarion admitted. "I did not want to divert my assets to safeguarding prisoners when I needed all of my men to press the assault or to continue on."
"Yet how come only you in your knight order was the one who committed those murders?"
"Those men were as guilty as I for allowing their deaths," Gafgarion threw back. "Lack of action is the same as complacency. I was strong enough to do what had to be done to achieve victory. They knew that, but they were too weak-willed."
"Bastard. . . you violated the articles of war, and without those, its just slaughter!" Agrias spat out, before Ramza reached out and put his left hand on top of her right. Thankful and annoyed at the boy simultaneously, Agrias regained her calm.
"What did you think war was?" Gafgarion laid down. "Protecting the weak and innocent?" he remarked with cold cynicism. "Those are not tangible ideas in the field. . . killing those who would kill you," Gafgarion, "That, is something that is all too easy to grasp." His knowing smile almost caused Agrias to snap.
(How dare he imply that. . .) she thought.
Knowing that he was out of his depth, and he could not get into the argument, Ramza stood up and addressed the Holy Knight. "If you want, we can prepare the baggage chocobo, ma'am." She almost laughed at that, grateful that someone was looking out for her, as he pointed at the small cluster of supplies which Rad sat near.
Gafgarion nodded to her gruffly as she began to walk away. Rad took the cue and took out a list to check the inventory as he began inspecting the supplies.
As a final parting shot, Agrias made one more remark. "Almost all of the soldiers were disappointed with the terms of the treaty. . . but one thing they didn't regret was bringing those responsible for war crimes to justice."
Gafgarion scoffed. "If justice existed, I would have been executed, not simply stricken from knighthood."
***
"Thank you for pulling me away from that argument," Agrias told her self-appointed warden. The two did not spend much time on the earthen street, which was already beginning to fill with traffic of pedestrians in their drab clothing. Quickly, they strode into the stable adjacent to the tavern.
Ramza chose not to point out the obvious. "The two of you might have tried to kill each other in the next battle," he told her. "Gafgarion is a mercenary like I am, and. . ."
"I trust you enough Ramza, if that's what you're asking," Agrias remarked, her elation and fading anger once again turning into exasperation. "You told me why you're a mercenary, but its such a waste for you, not just of skill, but who you are. Well, I have to face this: I'd like to believe I am professional enough not to turn on an 'ally', but I do not want to risk losing my control in conflict. . ."
The chocobo was waiting for them, oddly enough, sitting down with its double-jointed legs splayed forwards, preening its left wing, its bulbous right eye watching them with impatience.
She felt thankful that Ramza understood, or at least, he accepted the facts and most importantly: he did not dig in the point. Still, the focus on her was something she wasn't very comfortable with. "Why are you with Gafgarion?" Agrias asked, walking over and stroking the chocobo along its head, wondering at the scaled, though silky, saffron feathers it possessed. "Of so many mercenary outfits in Gallione, why Gafgarion's band? Even if he did know who you were. . ."
"There's something he holds against me. . ." Ramza admitted reluctantly. He had retrieved the chocobo's harness for its cargo. Together, the two began to secure the harness onto the bird, Agrias taking the head, and Ramza taking the body.
"He's the link to your past. . ." Agrias surmised, before she shook her head. "You haven't run away. . . you've only taken a rest from following that path. So its not only up to your former superiors to accept you back in, but Gafgarion is minding you for them as well?"
(You're as helpless as a child. . .) Agrias said in her mind.
"He never told me," Ramza replied, "but it was obvious that he was sent to find me. I tried to resist at first, working alone. . ."
(Now he's getting depressed. . .) Agrias noted, and as curious as she was, she felt the need to spare the boy's emotions. "Alone? Well, if it wasn't with him, its bound to have been bloodless."
Ramza's dumbstruck expression was Agrias' cue to continue on.
"Well," she urged, "tell me. . .."
***
Standing in front of the inn, Agrias and Ramza held the reins to the baggage chocobo. Traces of the sun was now obvious, with the lightening, though still dim, blue sky, and the ridges of a mountain to the right, highlighted in orange.
Gafgarion had already departed, saying that he would return with 'permission' from the guards to depart the city at dawn. Thankfully, it saved Agrias another confrontation with the man, so soon after their hostile exchange.
"From a knight to a thief. . . you have fallen," she mused. Helplessly, Ramza simply nodded, wondering why she was repeating such an obvious point. "I'm amazed you're as intact as you are now. . ." Agrias assessed, eyeing the boy in more than one perspective. "We'll have to talk about this again later."
"What do you mean?" Ramza asked, almost afraid of what the answer would be.
Agrias simply gave him a stern look. Turning the tables once more, she leaned forwards, her face only a handspan away from Ramza's. "Someone like you. . ." she began, "under the influence of someone like Gafgarion."
"I'm not so dangerous. . ." Ramza softly replied. "But, that's not the point. . ."
"Your first point is false, please," she started, "and stop trying to get my sympathy, if that's your intent with the 'I am worthless' ploy." Agrias had an innate sense of being blunt. Blunt, and harsh, yet fair, though the fairness was lost in the way she 'shared' her views.
She waved over to Rad as the other mercenary walked out of the tavern. "Can you take care of the Chocobo?" she asked him.
"Its what I came out here for," he quipped. "You can't travel through Araguay Woods in the dark; the canopy blocks out the starlight," he pointed out. "We'll catch him. . ."
It was curious that the other mercenary seemed clairvoyant as to what she wanted to know.
Agrias simply nodded as Rad took the reins of the Chocobo and performed his own checks on the harness straps and slings securing the cargo to the carrier. Agrias strode forwards, towards the bar, and with a flick of her left wrist, indicated that Ramza should -would- follow her.
"I'm tossed between envying you, or pitying you," Rad snorted towards the timid mercenary. As he saw Agrias stiffen in her stride, he pressed his luck. "Better do as the 'mistress' says," he remarked, making a pun of Agrias' status as their current principal client.
Ramza chose to ignore the taunts, being used to them, and followed Agrias within. There was nothing else to do. All the supplies and equipment they brought inside were stowed aboard the chocobo; only the other two knights had to waken and prepare.
"I'm sorry about earlier Ramza, but you evaded the subject," Agrias apologized, no regret in her voice.
Ramza accepted this. "I believe I would be more dangerous as a leader than as a follower. This way, I can curb some of Gafgarion's tendencies. . ."
Agrias shrugged, beckoning him to follow her up the stairway. "It was obvious that you were a squad leader, or whatever you called the trainee officers in Gariland. You're competent enough, so you're problem is your afraid of responsibility. . . ?"
"Moot point," Ramza pointed out, and Agrias agreed, dropping the thread.
"As to curbing Gafgarion. . . I'll believe that, if it wasn't for the fact that he'd be less harmless dead than alive!" she growled, as she shook her head. "You see the evils around you, yet you tolerate their presence," she accused. "I know you are a just person Ramza, but if you continue to do this selective 'righteousness', its hypocrisy."
Again, Ramza did not know what to say. Both of them had stopped at the hallway.
Agrias not only felt frustrated at Ramza, but at herself. In her zealous outburst, she also accused herself. The Holy Knight thought of the own imperfections of the Church. Not so much imperfections so much as blights upon what it stood for, and the way it contradicted what it preached. "This isn't over, you confused noble runaway-turned-valiant mercenary," she remarked lightly, with a sarcastic, though jovial, tone, "but I feel as if this isn't going to do either of us any good."
"Its just running away from ourselves to focus on the mission," Ramza pointed out, and as Agrias was about to snap back, he nudged his head towards the side, his left hand, the one that was away from the knights' room's door, gestured. "We'd simply get more distracted, and the issue would bother us in executing our duties."
Agrias gave him a blank look, agreeing. "Why must we share with each other things we already know about ourselves?"
As she was about to open the door, it opened, revealing the two knights within, Alicia already dressed, and with Lavian in the background, performing a personal check on the armor she now had equipped. "If you bottle it all in, you'll explode!" she exclaimed, taking a potion into her hands, shaking it, and popping the cork on the pouch's lip.
Agrias and Ramza both winced as potion fizz flecked their faces. Agrias broke the tension that built up by chuckling, sincerely amused. "Don't worry, I'll be quite busy handling my subordinates. . ."
To her surprise, Ramza smiled, not just in humor, but in recollection. "Memories. . ." he remarked, making a joke.
"Like the tides. . ." Lavian said, walking out of the room, brushing by all of them, quite brusquely in fact. Sighing, Alicia followed.
As Ramza and Agrias stood there, confused. Alicia had to refrain from rolling her eyes. "And just as thick as the coastal fog. . ." she added.
*** En route to Araguay Woods from Dorter Trade City
Attentively, even though they were quickly gorging themselves, the two other knights paid attention to the light briefing Agrias was giving them.
"Do you think we'll have trouble with the forest we're going to pass through?" Lavian asked, after hurriedly chasing down the mouthful of butter grease-soaked bread she inhaled. She stopped as Alicia let out a small belch. "Rad's mentioned it before as a real obstacle."
"Rad hates Goblins," Ramza tossed in. "Araguay Woods is infamous for their large population. . ."
"Do you too?" Alicia interrupted, her mouth dribbling out crumbs.
"She's from the country," Agrias said in monotone. . . "I should have mentioned that fact earlier."
Ramza could almost hear the silent 'Country Bumpkin. . .' that followed.
"So am I!" Lavian exclaimed, offended. "Just because we didn't grow up in the capital province. . ."
Ramza chuckled. It was funny for him to see Agrias' subordinates so loose and carefree around their superior, and Agrias seemed to have a sense of humor too. Reluctantly, he addressed her question. "I've had my run- ins. . . we respected their villages and people, so the only ones who ever engaged were bandits to begin with."
He caught Agrias' left eye catch his own. 'Death Corps?' she mouthed.
The Holy Knight added a slight look of interest that told Ramza that it was a topic they would discuss again, alone. . . for better of for worse.
Changing back to the main topic, Agrias continued. "Pardon us Ramza, but we don't have much in the way of 'local' experience." She phrased that statement carefully, implying that she wasn't familiar with Ivalice's provinces outside of Lesalia and Zeltennia.
Ramza nodded, showing her in his acknowledgement that he did not take offense, that he didn't think that Agrias was boasting of her service record.
"Normally we take the roads linking the villages, not 'cut-throughs' going across the remote areas.' Even in the war, this was true, and there was no remote area on the frontlines. . ." Agrias continued on, as Alicia and Lavian began to take their final portions. "Ramza?"
"Is he our liason with the mercenaries?" Lavian pointed out clearly, though politely."
"No point," Alicia threw in, "he's too different, and Gafgarion's the leader. . ."
Ramza allowed the slight toss-ins to continue before replying. "If you think Gafgarion and Rad will go goblin-hunting. . . they won't. If at all possible, we'll be the ones avoiding the goblins."
"Rad's mentioned before that it'll take us a day to get across the woods, can you make it any quicker?"
Ramza shook his head. "I don't know the terrain. . ." he admitted. "I've studied the maps last night with him and Gafgarion, but Rad's the pathfinder."
"Oh. . ." Agrias said, embarrassed.
"You'll have to trust in Rad to get us through as fast as possible," Ramza told the three knights.
The doubtful glares he received in reply was expected, though it still rebuffed him.
Agrias gave a curt nod. "That's all I can say, but we have to rely on the mercenaries for escorting us," she told her two subordinates.
"If there was only a woman to trust among them. . ." Alicia muttered, looking towards the tavern's front door, nudging her heads towards her it was slightly opened, implying someone was listening in.
Ramza refrained from commenting on what was just said. He simply stared as the three knights strode out in single file from the tavern, dumbfounded.
"Relax," the bartended called out to him as he was left all alone in the bar. "They're just saving face," he explained, shaking his head in pity as Ramza shrugged his understanding. "They got talked themselves in too deep, and they don't know how to apologize without making it seem awkward. With them," the bartender continued, "to admit wrong is a defeat, unless its by someone they consider a superior." The bartender continued. "Not that they don't respect you. . ." he said conciliatorily, as if it was a hollow statement.
"I understand," Ramza replied, a rueful look on his face. "Though their way of saving face inflicts even more damage. . ." Both shared a laugh.
"You don't seem to notice the abuse," the bartender tossed back.
Ramza looked back towards the man and nodded, unsure of what else to do. (Shouldn't we be working together? Pretending to at least,) the boy thought, before following the knights out into the dusk. (I need a drink. . .)
"Hatred or affection - if it isn't sincere, its nothing I take to mind."
***
With a minimum amount of words exchanged, the six set out. Gafgarion and Rad both took the point position, taking up half the street between them as the townspeople shied away. In a sharp contrast, Agrias and the other two knights kept together in a tight cluster around the baggage chocobo.
Leisurely, Ramza brought up the rear, following along from a small distance. He saw that though they were never a group, there was little semblance of alliance now.
Exiting from the eastern side from the city, the three knights were surprised that the guards did not even stop them as they began to walk across the plains, towards the hilled woods they would have to travel through.
While the knights displayed alertness bordering on anxiety, the two other mercenaries seemed arrogant.
An hour into the walk, and nearing the forests' edge, Alicia slowed down, allowing Ramza to catch up to her. Politely, he declined the drink of water she offered him. It was still early in the morning, and it was still cool. "I've noticed that there was no one else in that bar with us. . ." Alicia said.
"People fear Gafgarion," Ramza told her, "even in Ivalice."
Alicia was taken aback, the look of her curiosity changing to one of fear as she stared at the brown-armored Dark Knight's back ahead of them on the dirt road. "I've heard stories. . ."
"He gets the job done," Ramza told her, "and human lives have value to him." It wasn't a compliment.
Numbly, Alicia nodded, the cheer she felt gone as both of them walked up to Agrias, Lavian, and the baggage chocobo.
"What is it Ramza?" Agrias asked, in a friendly tone.
"Gafgarion's reputation," he replied, matching her pace.
The Holy Knight took it in stride, giving the boy a sidelong glance, a rebuke in her eyes. (You dug yourself into this hole, even if they had to learn sometime.)
"There's no way..." Alicia said, her voice subdued, continuing to stare over at the Dark Knight.
Agrias said nothing, paying attention to the conversation, but staying silent as she lead the chocobo by its reins.
It was Lavian who commented. "I thought it was all a façade for his reputation. Why would we hire such a man?"
Feeling as if it was he who was being asked, Ramza shrugged. "Gafgarion was the one who took the commission, he said that it was important enough, even if it was an escort mission." At Ramza's admittance, Agrias' eyes widened, confusion filling her eyes.
Alicia finally addressed Agrias. "Both of you hate each other, so you couldn't have approached him."
Tiredly, Agrias replied. "He was assigned to us... our reinforcements were delayed first, and then diverted, so mercenaries were requested in their place."
"My group was chosen for its..." Ramza paused, "'expertise' in the local regions." The way Alicia and Lavian visibly recoiled in his implication caused Ramza to turn his eyes downrange, past the other mercenaries. Agrias gave him a light nod, neither affirmation nor rejection, simply acknowledgment. "We all have experience fighting other Ivalicians," he clarified.
"I was wondering how someone as young as you seems to have so much experience," Lavian observed.
"I'd like to say they made the right choice," Alicia murmured, looking sidelong at Ramza. The uneasiness between Ramza and the two knights rose as everyone realized that Alicia's stare was the same as the one she had when she was looking at Gafgarion. "I hope. . ."
*** Araguay Woods
Another hour had passed, and the six were in the forest. The transfer from the plains to the uneven terrain of the forest went smoothly, almost unnoticed. The tension within the group was what was tangible, not the supposed danger of Araguay Woods. Not a single goblin had been spotted.
Rad had ceased walking point, and the group traveled in a column. The knights learned that there was no formal trail, simply a host of landmarks that served as waypoints; the canopy hid the sky. Their weapons were sheathed. They were only passing through, and an overt show of aggression would only provoke an attack.
The bottled-up energy and nervousness within her waiting to be unleashed, Alicia stepped out ahead of the group. Before Gafgarion could berate her, she called out. "Hey! There's nothing here."
It was Rad that snarled at her. "Yes, and if you'll shut up, there won't be! Passing through is one thing, challenging them is another."
Alicia held back the 'coward' remark on the tip of her tongue. "Challenge?" she asked, reneging and walking back to the rear row of knights; Ramza brought up the rear with the baggage chocobo.
A 'wark' replied, but it did not come from the rear, but from somewhere out in front.
"Chocobo? Delita's?" Agrias thought out loud as Rad sprinted up ahead, scouting out the spot where the cry came from.
He gestured the group to approach. "I don't know. . . maybe, all I see are the goblins" he replied.
Ramza had secured the baggage chocobo and was now making his way quickly to the ridge of the embankment they hid behind.
"Goblins," Gafgarion remarked. "This should be quick."
Agrias wanted to disagree, but she wanted to see for herself if this was a lead. She took the right wing of the formation, and Gafgarion anchored the left; as Ramza reached the center of the group, they advanced into the open.
***
The scene was a classic hunt. Six goblins: five regular and one black -the obvious leader- surrounded a single chocobo, whose saffron down stuck out in the browns and greens of Araguay.
As Agrias stared across the shallow depression that the chocobo was across, she did not recognize it. Her burden increased as she was now committed to a fight that was pointless, except in saving the lone chocobo. "A chocobo? In this place?" she asked.
"Must be pretty stupid to wander into Goblin's forest!" Gafgarion remarked. The goblins had turned their attention to their group now, eyeing the six warily, gauging how much threat the newcomers represented. The Dark Knight began to turn around, and Agrias was about to protest.
She was caught between two positions. Gafgarion was in the 'right' since to not engage in this battle would save their time, and the chocobo wasn't vital to the mission. Yet, her inner core screamed at her to save the lone chocobo, even though she did not know the situation.
As it was becoming a habit, Ramza was the tiebreaker. "Delita said wild chocobos are stronger than tame ones," he brought up, pointing out the Delita link to rouse Gafgarion's attention. "I wonder if he's strong in a fight?" he added.
The Dark Knight was doubtful, wondering if he was being socially engineered by the armored squire. "You want to help him, Ramza?" Gafgarion shook his head, still keeping his weapon sheathed as he consulted his subordinate. "No money in that!"
Again, Agrias noticed how Ramza was able to manipulate Gafgarion. (So he can curb that monster. . .) Agrias thought. As she stared into Ramza's eyes, she knew that he was aware of why she did not want to leave. (Duty versus Conscience,) she thought as she followed up the opportunity he gave to her. "He may help us save the Princess. . ."
Everyone knew it was as much reality as fantasy.
Faced with opposition from his own troops as well as his current principal, Gafgarion reneged.
The goblins realized what was happening and already the five normal goblins were scrambling through the small clearing of the depression, passing the dried creekbed.
As Agrias and Gafgarion prepared to cast protective and augmentative spells on the main body of their group, Ramza charged forwards. As Agrias called out to him to slow down, Gafgarion gave her a look that cut her off cold. Smirking, he shook his head, as if to say Ramza was in no danger. That, or the boy could die for all he cared for his aggression.
Once more, Rad stayed to Alicia and Lavian as they advanced to melee with the goblin mob. Though Agrias had never engaged goblins, by the looks in Rad and Gafgarion's faces, she knew it would be slaughter; on the former it was channeled hatred, on the latter it was vicious anticipation.
Ramza continued to sprint towards the yellow chocobo, which had turned away and tried to run into the forest thicket to save itself from the goblin mob. It succeeded in making its way to the confined place at the foot of an old tree. One way in, and one way out, the chocobo could control the amount of enemies it could fight at one time.
One of the regular goblins tried to intercept Ramza, the short, stocky, ursine being altering its velocity not to cut off the mercenary, but to blindside him. It was forced off as Ramza slowed his advance and took a swipe at the goblin, forcing the ursine mammal, clothed in the same way humans were, to back off. This goblin stayed behind the other four charging in at the rest of Ramza's group, presumably to make sure Ramza didn't come back around.
Amazed, Agrias watched as Ramza broke through the enemy line. She was both cheered and frustrated by what he did. Crazily, he exceeded the enemy's own aggression, but he failed to exploit it and wreak havoc on their flanks. However, he was doing what in her heart she knew was 'right': saving the chocobo as fast as he could.
With Rad's subgroup 'protect'ed and 'haste'd, Agrias and Gafgarion began to engage the goblin's own flanks. She noticed how Gafgarion broke to the left, keeping the distance away from the enemy goblin. It was elementary that if you had a ranged way of attacking, you kept away from the melee unit you were harassing.
However, Rad, Alicia, and Lavian did not have that luxury. They took the rush of three goblins upon them head-on.
Rad and Lavian each slashed their aggressor, but they were struck backwards by the counterattacks of the goblins. Then the goblins lashed out themselves. Alicia and Rad were both stunned as a single goblin got between them and performed a spin-fist attack, using centrifugal motion to attack the both of them.
This goblin was dispatched when Lavian lowered her shield to knock away the blow of another goblin and impaled her own target. Fluidly, she twisted the blade as it screwed into the goblin's torso, and just as swift brought it back out, smiting the same goblin with her shield. Her foe was dead before its body hit the ground.
Alicia had dropped her dagger, and feeling smothered, she switched to her reserve; reaching into her pouch, she pulled out a dull, rust-colored sphere that was small enough to fit inside her closed grasp. Taking a small vial from a pouch built into the satchel's straps, she took off the cap and plunged it into a soft membrane on the underside of the sphere. Inverting the sphere, the powder in the vial mixed with the liquid within.
As the sphere began to bubble, Alicia took aim and hurled it several paces away from the goblin that had been hounding her. The substance within had already begun to eat away at the container's walls and it burst free when the sphere shattered as it struck the goblin.
The liquid mixture reacted with the air and burst into flame, the gel- like substance clinging to the goblin, whose fur was engulfed in the substance. Steeling herself, Alicia pretended to ignore the carnage she had caused upon another living being as she rushed back to render medical assistance to Lavian and Rad.
The screams were something she would never forget, as was the pair of severed arms she passed by as she made her way to Rad, who stood over the corpse of his skill, watching her own opponent burn. His smirk too, was something she wished she could deny the existence of. She avoided his eyes as she tended to his bruises.
Agrias had already dispatched her own opponent, as had Gafgarion; it had all been too easy.
The black goblin had got itself too deep, fighting the yellow chocobo as Ramza approached. Calculatedly, Ramza partially severed the goblin's head, its thick neck still attached by the front muscles. Falling upon the ground, the Goblin was in shock, its eyes turning milky as Ramza swiftly finished him, stomping down his left heel into its thick snout, shattering the creature's skull.
Less than half a minute to the fight, and it was already over. There were no survivors, and amongst Ramza's group, there were no serious injuries. The bruises were being attended to.
Agrias had watched Ramza dispatch the final goblin, and she hurried to him and the chocobo they had saved.
"W-wark!" the chocobo cried out as he was coaxed out of his hiding place.
"You seem alright," Ramza said, tilting his head as he examined the bird. He immediately pulled it back as the bird darted its head forward to attack him.
Backing away, Ramza stepped back down into the downgrade of the depression. Giving him a strange look, Agrias passed him by to the chocobo, where she removed her right hand's glove and caressed the chocobo's neck. Silently, she nodded her appreciation to Ramza as she led the tense chocobo away.
Gafgarion laughed, sarcasm in his tone. "You're lucky," he called out to the chocobo from his side of the battlefield. "You should thank Ramza."
***
"What about the bodies?" Alicia asked, gesturing to the corpses, staring at the charred remains of her own kill.
"Leave 'em to rot," Rad spat out, taking his sword and wiping it off the fur of the one he had slain.
As a whole, the incognito knights of St. Konoe pretended that Rad did not exist.
"From nothing into nothing," Ramza said quietly. "They stay as they lay."
The ground wasn't stained with blood: there wasn't enough blood spilled, yet the terrain felt tainted now. The goblins' corpses almost blended into the scenery.
"Nothing, exactly," Gafgarion told the group. "Nothing left here to merit our attention. Let's move."
For once, there was no complaint.
***
The six people and two chocobo were near the forest's edge. The trees have grown more sparse and in between. They could see the sky once more. Surprised, Agrias noted that it was twilight, the sky already dark, the sun obscured in the west by the forest. Where the sky should've been shaded in blues, there was an orange scheme tonight.
The chocobo they had rescued nuzzled her side. His name was Boco according to the pendant he wore that hung from a woven cord around his neck. A soft ticklish laugh emanated from her, and she ignored the looks she received from the two other mercenaries, except for Ramza's.
His wasn't in amusement or ridicule, but from curiosity of her to confusion at Boco, who was actively hostile to his rescuer.
No one had spoken since the slaughter hours ago. They had kept on walking after that, eating on their feet, unwilling to make any more delays. No reason had popped up, but tensions ran high, fortunately there were no false alarms.
It had been a fast march throughout the day. Without taking a midday break, the group had been walking almost non-stop. Camp would be made as soon as they made it out of the forest, but they would be too tired to go farther in the night.
Gesturing Ramza over, Agrias calmed Boco, being firm as she caressed the down on his large neck. She found herself cooing to the chocobo, soothing the heated bird. Timidly, Ramza approached, wary of the chocobo. As Agrias again shifter her attention to soothing the chocobo, she saw something in its eyes. She saw recognition, and in that recognition, she saw fear, fear that translated to anger.
*** East of Araguay Woods
Alicia and Lavian joined Ramza and Agrias as they fed the chocobos. The baggage Chocobo enjoyed reclining on the ground, finally free of its load. Contentedly, it pecked slowly away at the sack of grains Ramza had placed on the ground, rolling down the sack's lip to make a lip for the chocobo's 'dish'.
Agrias was standing, along with the chocobo she was feeding. Ungloved, she held the feedbag with her left hand, and feeding Boco from her right. When the chocobo finished licking off even the grain dust off her palm, she gave the bird affectionate strokes from the top of its head, down its neck, and along its back all the way to its tail feathers. Her armament was laid down on the ground atop her discarded wizard's robe.
"Camp has been made," Lavian told them, giving her partner a sidelong look that was all too knowing.
"Camp? If you mean a couple of tents with no campfire in the first clearing we found, I guess you could call it that," Alicia added in her own opinion. She cocked her head towards Araguay Woods in the west. "Still, its better than spending the night there."
Shrugging, Ramza accepted their news. "We packed salted meat and bread for food. . . thankfully they don't need to be heated. Since there's enough feed for the baggage chocobo we can keep the chocobo we found." Ramza had some cheer in his voice, but all four humans knew the cost at which their new 'pet' came. The goblins paid with their lives, and the humans lost a little of their 'humanity'.
"Want to pet him? Go on," she said, lightness in her voice. Shrugging, Ramza held up his gauntleted hands. "All right. . . later then," she told him, letting Ramza know that he had not escaped his fate. She turned to look at Boco. "Hm, I wonder, how do you know him?" she asked the chocobo in a gentle voice.
"I don't think it likes me," Ramza said to her, and Agrias wondered if her whispering was heard.
"'It' has a name, Ramza: Boco," she corrected him, lifting up Boco's necklace.
Taking it, Ramza leaned down as Boco grew agitated. "Boco," he read. "I'm sorry," he told the chocobo. Flipping it over, Ramza winced to see better in the dying light. "There's something else on the back," Ramza told Agrias.
"What is it?" Alicia asked, curious.
Ramza looked up at the chocobo. Silently, he let it go silently. Turning to Lavian after he undid the latches on the underside of his forearms, he asked her, "Excuse me, could you please?"
"Gladly," Lavian replied, blinking as she helped Ramza remove his gauntlets. Her nose wrinkled as she began to unwind the protective linen wrap that covered his hands and forearm. "Do not be ashamed," she said, smiling in sympathy, "My own are probably just as ripe."
Ramza gave her an appreciative look that was all too effervescent, sincere yet ethereal, fading into numbness as he knelt down and proceeded to run his fingers under Boco's layer of down.
The chocobo had frozen, then loosened, not relaxed, but resigned. It tilted its head and neck, its left eye staring right down onto Ramza.
Agrias, Alicia, and Lavian found themselves likewise curious as to what Ramza was doing, as he began to run his hands softly in a shallow curve.
"You're a ghost too, aren't you? I didn't know your name. . ." Ramza told the chocobo first before turning to Alicia and Lavian in apology.
"Everyone has their secrets, but we can't understand unless you tell us," Lavian told him.
"That doesn't mean we don't like having you around Ramza," Alicia followed up. "So. . . what is it?"
Ramza touched the necklace again, "He belonged to Wiegraf. . . of the Death Corps."
Kneeling down besides Ramza, Agrias traced her hands alongside his. "A scar... something that only you could have given to Boco," she said softly, running her hand along. "Wiegraf you said, Wiegraf Folles?" she said.
"Yes. . ." Ramza said softly, locking in her eyes.
The questions in both Ramza and Agrias were traded silently.
"I knew his sister, Miluda," Agrias told Ramza.
His eyes dimmed, not in pain, but in sadness. Realization dawned in Agrias eyes as she dropped her gaze, examining Ramza's face, but no longer holding his eyes with her own.
In retrospect, Agrias would've been thankful about being distracted from Princess Ovelia. At that moment, she was torn between lashing out in anger at what had already transpired and feeling compassion for the boy. (Compassion for a killer?) her conscience accused.
Boco stepped back, exposing the two who had knelt beneath him. He continued to eye Ramza accusingly, no reconciliation made. Uncomfortably, Alicia and Lavian left the two, taking the two chocobo towards the stream by their campsite.
"This complicates things. . ." She told him, as they continued to kneel across each other. "Don't expect forgiveness from me," she said gently, "if that is what you seek."
"Only acceptance of who I am," Ramza replied in return.
"That is asking for even more than I can give; I'm not your confessor," Agrias told him, a touch of regret in her voice. "That is not my duty," she said sadly.
"And this is?" he asked her. He was taken aback when her look changed from doubt and sadness to an aggressive façade, frowning at him, her eyes seeking his, almost daring him to look away. Her own gaze wavered as he held her look, not challenging her, but not allowing himself to be dominated.
It was Agrias who shattered the tension that had built up between them. She was frustrated that she was feeling almost giddy within, especially in light of what Ramza had revealed, and what he might -in her mind- he was trying to do to her.
In the end, she refused to give him any initiative, any power over her, to influence her, to manipulate her. Yet within, her inner self was laughing at her.
Reaching forwards, and unsure of what to say, Agrias reached for the extended straps on Ramza's breastplate. "We'll talk of this later. . . when Princess Ovelia is in safety." Agrias wanted to stop all this, all the confusion that was being heaped upon her, the uncertainty, fascination, and concern she had for Ramza.
Ramza raised his arms as Agrias undid the clasps and pulled them back, his torso armor falling apart in two halves. He wanted to protest Agrias' dismissal of the issue, yet he was thankful all the same. It was a reprieve, a temporary one, but he treasured the relief it brought him. Reaching forwards, he began to undo Agrias' own armor. "After?"
"Yes," she told him firmly, "after I get you away from Gafgarion. Ramza - if I have to kidnap you, will be a knight of St. Konoe or another order in Lesalia, not the Hokuten."
"Is that a promise?" Ramza asked, staring up into her face as he was leaning forwards, undoing Agrias' shoulder straps.
"Now you're leaving it to me to decide your future?" Agrias asked in return. She moved her torso, rolling her neck, allowing herself to relax and to loosen the bunched flesh her armor had contained.
"I wouldn't say that. But I am tempted to throw my lot in with yours."
"You already have. . ." Agrias reminded him, looking up into the darkening orange sky.
The blood moon had risen
***
***Author's Notes***
Many, MANY things left unsaid there. I didn't want to get bogged down, and as it is, it is far too melodramatic as is now.
In case you were wondering, with the entire armor removal thing. . . nothing sexual was implied, though I'd be lying through my teeth (as would Agrias and Ramza) if I claimed that there was nothing else implied.
Lots of things are said between the characters, and frankly, its just REPETITIVE (not in the good way either of linking and repeating good traits into a nice melodic rhythm) to EXPLAIN all the goddamn nuances.
Again, I'm coming to a conflict between 'Moving the Story Along' and 'Lots of O-So-Good! Detail'. I lost the 'happy medium' along the way. . .
Sort of like the 'horror' stories of volleyball in high school, where you either DON'T make it over the net, or you pop it into the rafters (or ricochet it off the ceiling's beams onto someone's face ^_^). . .
Also, if you write, I recommend never mixing Goo Goo Dolls with Rammstein in your music mix. . . boy did I ask for the confusion I had when writing this!
***Author's Notes***
***Reader's Response Corner***
Umm, nothing much to say, is that a good thing?
In case you were wondering, there IS a bit of a soundtrack for the fic. . .
Once more, if anything wasn't clear, just ask away, or criticize away.
Its nice to know what I'm doing wrong (as opposed to just what I am doing right, but don't stop the comments! ^_^), well, not 'nice' so much as useful.
***Reader's Response Corner***