Oh, I know it's been over two weeks and I'm sorry. That's why I'm posting two chapters, but they're not so good and I'm sorry about that too. It's my senior year in college, so I'm getting pretty beat up with work. It's amazing I can still write a sentence with like a verb and subject. So forgive me, and I hope you enjoy these two chapters despite all that. I have two weeks left, one of them is finals, so I don't know if I'll post anything soon.

La Ruota della Suggestione

The room extended beyond him in its semicircular way, the dark wooden desk below him and below that the colorful arabesque carpet, and finally the cold marble floor. Sitting on top of the desk was a stack of paper, thick and stiff, which he had avoided as long as he could. He flipped through the text-filled pages—all five-hundred of them—once, but stopped near the end when his thumb had become sore already. It never got easier. Every time a lengthy proposal ended up on his desk, he would want to leave the post right then. He was good at his job, but reading through these dry words—he glanced at the due date on the corner—in one week was torture. Someone should have included this part in the praetor job description.

The title read, Charter 541.2 Continuing Development of the White Lands West of the Moonflow. The project had been started nearly a year ago with the purposes of building a great technologically advanced city, and they had recently decided they wanted to expand. He forced himself to continue reading. He needed to make sure exactly why they wanted to expand and whom it would actually benefit. He was glad for any distraction, like a hangnail or a passing noise. He was quite childish about it, but he had agreed to be praetor to make sure that Vegnagun and any other weapons like it stayed buried, or destroyed, or whatever they could manage. He hadn't seen this as part of the picture, and though he had been doing it as New Yevon's political faction leader for a while, he still despised it horribly.

"Praetor," Ellil, his secretary, entered the room after a brief knock on the door.

"Oh Ellil, thank you for the interruption," Baralai told him with a boyish smile.

"You do need to read that eventually, but I have an unexpected guest for you," Ellil said, clearing his throat and cocking his head at him. He was an older man, always robed in dark blue or black, and extremely efficient. Baralai didn't know much about him outside of work, but he didn't like to pry. Besides, Baralai would have never survived as a leader without him.

"Who is it?" he asked. He certainly wasn't expecting anybody any time soon.

"Castalia, the owner of the Spiran Triune," he said and Baralai searched his mind for any reason that might bring her to his office. He juggled in his mind whether it was better to deal with the media or a five hundred-page proposal.

"Let her in." She was an old friend, so it couldn't be that bad. Castalia came in, bright in her light blue dress, and her short dark hair glistening. She was as graceful as usual, but had that sort of devious smile on her lips, which meant she was definitely after something.

"My darling Baralai." He stood up while she moved past his desk and around to hug him.

"To what do I owe your sudden visit?" he asked after she sat down in the wooden chair in front of him.

"Oh, I'm sure you could guess. I was going to send a reporter here instead, but you would have sent him packing right away. It's harder for you to say no to me, for the most part." She spoke with that cool Bevellian accent, emphasizing all her syllables, but slurring her r's.

He really couldn't imagine why she was here. He tried to think if there was anything special on the Public Council or the New Yevon Council, but it wasn't really anything big enough for news or a personal visit from her.

"Actually, I have no idea what could interest you so much," he said, still searching his mind for something he may have missed. It was never any good if the media noticed potential news before the actual subject of the news (meaning himself) did.

"You're kidding?" She smirked amusedly. "Well, you're always a bit dense when it comes to that sort of thing. After all, I nearly had to hit you across the head to get one date." She brought up their past relationship and ever since they had cut it off a few months ago, very civilly, she hadn't mentioned anything about "them" since. Not ever.

"Oh no, I can sense a really bad question coming," he said, anxiously running his fingers through his silver hair.

"Don't be too nervous. It's just one simple question," she paused for effect while he stared at her. "What could the Praetor and a High Guardian, the youngest High Guardian and the prettiest, be discussing over dinner?" He laughed, partly out of embarrassment and also out of annoyance.

"That's hardly any news," he told her with a smile.

"Oh, you can't charm me out of this one. Honestly, are you two an item?" she asked, her lips pursed with anticipation. Baralai cleared his throat, feeling the redness creeping up to his cheeks and trying his best to find a distraction.

"Well, you're certainly not subtle," he added to by himself some time. She raised her eyebrow at him, but he shook his head. "It was all business, and I don't even see how that would be newsworthy. Last time I checked, you weren't the gossip type."

"Baralai, darling, you must know that if Al Bhed royalty, as she is, were to couple up with the Praetor of New Yevon, it wouldn't just be news, it would be like a revolution," she paused and then outlined an imaginary headline with her hand. "The best thing Spira has seen since the defeat of Sin."

"Now you're exaggerating." He placed the large proposal charter in his drawer. It gave him something to do, and it temporarily distracted him from his ex-girlfriend questioning him about another woman. Of all the mortifying situations he could have imagined undergoing as Praetor, this one certainly never made it to his thoughts.

"You're pretty nervous about this," she commented amusedly.

"I have no more to say to this," he said with a serious tone. Castalia's features softened as she sighed.

"All right then, off the record," she said, and he shook his head.

"How off the record?" he asked with a dubious glare.

"We're old friends, and just look at that smile at the mention of her," she pointed to his face. His brow tensed. He hadn't been smiling. He had been thrown off and possibly acting awkwardly, but smiling?

"I don't know what you're talking about." The room became warmer by the minute. He could handle a billion Youth League dissenters and overzealous senators, but he could not handle an ex-girlfriend. He laughed nervously in spite of himself.

"My, you do like her, don't you?" she asked and then pressed her hand against her mouth, regarding him like some helpless being. He was speechless. Rikku was very beautiful and admirable, and of course, she had helped save him during the Vegnagun fiasco, but that couldn't possibly amount up to what Castalia was implying.

"I think this is hardly something I should be discussing with you," he said, standing up, ready to either escort her out or run out the door. She laughed.

"Don't be so childish. Like I said, we're still friends." She stood up. "You know Baralai, if we were worlds apart, then you and her are universes apart." She told him, her face nostalgic and serious. Baralai could think of nothing to say as she turned toward the door.

"But then again," she said in a low tone just as her hand touched the door handle, "I've never seen you smile like when you saw her that day in the lobby."

After Castalia left, he pulled out the charter from his drawer. He looked at it and then glanced back up at the door. His thoughts rambled from what she had said to the small period of time he spent with Rikku. It had been so short. No one could possibly form an opinion like that so soon, could they? He placed his elbows on his desk and supported his head with his clasped hands.

"Oh Yevon," he muttered. Why had Castalia gone and said that? She had no idea the kind of emotions she had stirred up.

---

Baralai paced around the room, occasionally glancing at the comm sphere on his desk and then looking around the walls as if he had lost the color in himself and were searching for it there. He had read only to page fifty of the new charter on his desk, and had to stop, because he realized that the man heading the development was Cid, Rikku's father. After that, he couldn't read a damn word without thinking of her. Since Castalia's visit yesterday, he hadn't been able to concentrate fully on anything else either. His mind should have been busy with thoughts on how to help the instability of the newly formed senate or how to try and appease the New Yevon council without stepping all over the Youth League. His life was a constant struggle of rebuilding through compromises amidst dozens of arguments that seemed like they would never resolve. Nooj was incredibly strategic and confident, but Baralai was pragmatic. He had that air of laboriousness needed to keep a religion and newly formed political faction from falling apart.

But where was he? Oh yes, the problem behind his lack of concentration, which was a simple problem a man like him should have been reasonable and unfazed by—a girl. He couldn't stop thinking about her, and he began to wonder whether he had really felt this way all along or whether the mere supposition of it by Castalia had caused it. It didn't matter in the end, because in truth, he had no idea exactly what he felt. All he knew is that his worry over her safety had grown over night (and continued to, exponentially), or rather it had been more apparent to him, and his urgency to see her overwhelmed whatever ambivalence he had at the beginning that kept him from inquiring about her.

Baralai poked his head out of his office and into Ellil's. The old man sat diligently at his desk, revising documents and taking notes.

"Sir?" Ellil's glare remained unperturbed from the set of papers he was scanning over.

"I'd like you to make a call," Baralai said in a decisive tone, and Ellil lifted his eyes from his work and turned toward the praetor with an inquisitive stare. Baralai changed his mind immediately. It was too cowardly of him to have Ellil call for him instead.

"To whom, praetor?" Ellil asked, and Baralai shook his head.

"Never mind, I'll make it myself." He went back inside his office and shut the door. He sat at his desk, staring at the comm sphere in front of him. "This is ridiculous," he muttered to himself. He simply wanted to make one call to Djose to make sure everything had gone fine and that Rikku was okay. It wasn't unreasonable for him to make sure that the spheres had arrived safely and whatever else. He took a deep breath and touched the comm sphere. A map of Spira glowed in the screen, and he pressed the label of Djose. The screen whirred and became hazy with snow until a person came into view.

"Drec ec Ty eh Djose," a young Al Bhed said, and then widened his eyes at the screen. "Praetor Baralai, I'll get Gippal for you right away."

"No, wait. You can probably answer my question. Did the Lady Rikku arrive safe there with the spheres?"

"Oh yes, absolutely," said Ty with an eager nod. "She's working at the temple right now." Baralai was a little confused. Had Gippal asked her for labor in exchange for letting her use the spheres? It did sound like something Gippal would do.

"Would you like me to go get her for you?" Ty asked, and Baralai stared for a few seconds. A simple shake of the head would have been sufficient, but against his own reason, he found himself nodding. After a few minutes of waiting and some indistinct Al Bhed speaking in the background (of which he understood a good deal, but not quite fluently), Rikku showed up on the screen. She was wearing a blue jumper suit with a tool in her hand and wide grin on her face.

"Baralai!" She waved. "You keeping track of me?" she asked with a devious gleam in her eyes and one hand on her hip. Baralai laughed it off.

"Oh no," he said and chuckled nervously. "Just wanted to make sure everything was okay and that things had worked out with Gippal." She smiled again, and then nodded.

"Everything's just fine. Gippal is, of course, enslaving me in return for keeping this a secret, but it's no problem, I can handle him." She gave him a thumbs-up for emphasis. He couldn't help but smile at that.

"Okay then, I'm glad for you. You should come to Bevelle afterwards. I want to hear all about it," he said and mentally whapped himself. He might as well have hit on her. What was he thinking? What would she think?

"Absolutely." She smiled, and swinging upwards on her tiptoes.

"Well, then you're pretty busy so I better let you go," he said and she waved.

"Thanks for calling. I'll see you soon!"

The comm sphere went blank, and Baralai fell back against his chair. He began to play the conversation over in his head a few times, wondering what he should have said versus what he did say, as well as remarking some of her facial expressions and other details he could think about. It took him a knock on the door by Ellil to remember that he still had a lot of work to do and a meeting in less than an hour.

"Just to remind you, you have a meeting to prepare for," Ellil said and then raised his eyebrow at him. "I see your call went well."

"Why do you say that?" Baralai asked.

"Well, with all due respect, praetor, you seem very pleased, smiling and all." Ellil shook his head with little chuckle and closed the door again.

Baralai's attention moved to what he had actually been pondering for the last half an hour, and he grimaced at the realization that stemmed from it.

"Oh Yevon, I do like her," he said, inwardly spiting Castalia a little for bringing this to his attention.