Drunken Lullaby ::An Erk and Serra story::

Chapter 6: Bring Me Up

Was it too hard for us,

To start believing?

Is it too hard to trust

Your own creating

Make the connection, rewrite direction,

Make a bond to last

Create resurrection from execution

Rewrite ours sins so fast.

My son of Adam's core

My child from Eve's life

Bring me to before

Come, my dead wife.

-'Bring Me Up' Kuri

A/N: Italics are flashbacks

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"So, the white staff she wielded helped save the adventurers against their folly especially the green knight of Caelin's. His use of the sword against the lance became foolishness that she had willingly repaired upon his injured body. The mage that guarded her, waving his hands like crazy using the fire spell, grounding out his magic with each strike of the blazing magic. "

Each moment he spoke the illusive images of memory passed through his mind's eye. Details of a world he didn't really want to remember came unbidden to the master's call. His hurting heart, struck through with the dagger of anger, felt the hand of life, of living emotion, twist the handle. The dagger's hold upon his heart began turning.

'How I loathe my memories, now.' His thoughts turned inward as he watched the young spell caster within the rapture of the story he was telling. Time beginning to surface in the past of his mind, retelling events he could remember in words that was ambiguous to a fault. He didn't know if Reka had knowledge concerning Serra being one of the top members of the Lycian league, but his foresight told him not to tell anything that might give her or him away.

He wouldn't want the child to go boasting about it and then learn from some source what he should've learned from his parents.

Ready as ever, she raced towards the injured green knight. Her endurance coming out from the many times she had run from the abbey in Ostia, running away from the cloistered life of the sisters. She had never wanted to be so sheltered but she was along with many of the Ostian orphans. She held a lot of gratitude towards the sisters of St. Elimine but she was not ready to live in the smothering state, yet.

Another reasons she chose this to delay her journey. Her companion, a mage apprentice from Etruia, raced with her, holding back curses in his mind, she was sure, and chasing away any vagabonds who dared to come close.

Erk, as the mage apprentice was aptly named, decided then and there that the demon he was covering for, guarding, was the most insufferable woman he had ever met. A ditzy woman with a flamboyant edge for trouble was not his epicenter of knowledge. Instead he was highly troubled with how to keep her protected from the vagrants that followed them as she raced on towards a man on a horse, cavalier, and also how to keep them out of this battle so he could get rid of the mouthy wench.

"Let the light of the justifiable fire blaze you fiends!! FIRE!!" His spell came to his memory's bidding. His arms tracing the gentle arcs of the fire spell, the many training periods he had been through coming handy in this instance as the she-demon was attacked. The anima chant coming upon his lips as he whispered the tome of power's name. The book in his hand began the usual sensation of burning; the letters upon it in copper filigree of magical compress began their glow. The words across the page he had memorize burned away leaving the rest of the book unharmed as usual.

The wretched human who dared to attack met with the flames of life, from the tome within his hand. The flames consumed his corrupt and already scarred flesh; the brute falling down in a heap of stinking flesh. The axe the brigand had held became melted away, burning into liquid because of the explosive fury that Erk had put into his spell. Looking unto the fallen form of the green cavalier, he felt a frown take place upon his countenance. If she could hurry up they would be out of here quicker and back on their way to Ostia.

"Healing light of St. Elimine, through your caresses save this soul from his mortality." Her voice was light and airy of a pixie's, speaking nothing but a whisper that resounded with the force of her concentration. A wound, gashing down the side of the cavalier's side. A few broken ribs nothing more for the fallen man. The knight gasped in pain as he looked upon the angel that had saved him from certain hurt.

"Serra!! Are you done yet?!" His impatience caused the woman to concentrate even more. Standing his ground as he watched her, he felt a slight pride rise up within his breast but smothered it with the remembrance of his hatred for this bugging woman. Shaking his purple hair, he continued staring towards the curve in her back, his eyes roaming her figure, then slapping his mind mentally at what exactly he was doing. Sure. He would admit that the cleric had a body that would feel great in his arms but otherwise? Her personality was nothing he wanted to deal with anymore.

"Guard his soul against the demons of pain and anger who wish it for themselves." Her concentration increased tenfold, ignoring the intruding mage's question. Her name on his lips though sounded as if it was right. Mentally shaking herself away from those damning thoughts that the sisters looked highly down upon, she intensified her spell. St. Elimine's smooth based wand, glowing with the holy light of the saint's powers, started shimmering telling her to say the word of power that she had often been taught to say at the abbey whenever she was in the infirmary.

"SERRA!!! Watch it!!!" Becoming aware, Erk felt the air hiss with the sound of metal cutting through it. The dense air, from the magic accumulation, seemed lighter as her magic bubble from her spell began wavering almost. Falling away from the bladed foe, evading the attack, he saw who the intended target was. His foe had a guilty expression, as if asking St. Elimine to forgive his transgressions against a woman underneath the Saint's protection. The counterattack coming in with a sweep towards her head. Erk watched almost as if in horror, a screen that replayed in his mind over and over after that ordeal had been done.

"HEAL!!!" Uttering her word of power, a bright light came into the area, imploding into its center where the sapphire of the crescent, luminescent towards the eyes of gods, a beacon, became a sun towards the every day humans. Serra scrunched her eyes closed focusing upon the healing part that caused her to learn it blind. She felt the green knight's broken body, along with his horse's, twisting the magic that accumulated towards the focal point of his injuries, knitting his bones back together with a needle of her will, and the threads of his skin coming together once again causing no scar to be left.

Once finished, she felt as if her heart would stop from the immense strength she had put in. Her spell was normally bright or that strong in power. She had prayed to St. Elimine to save her while she healed a man. In doing such, the brightness of the spell causing the man to blindly attack her had done what was needed to save her as she finished the spell. Sweat coursed down her forehead. The spell's double edge sword had cost her though. She hoped that the man had healed well and that her guardian would come and help her soon.

Her fingers itched as the power of the sapphire went away with the presence of St. Elimine. The warrior that had attacked her as she finished her spell blindly went around trying to attack her. None of his blows came close though so she had nothing to fear as she waited for the knight to get up straight upon his noble steed. That light was not normal for the spell, especially that bright, but she wrote it off with a slightly satisfied smile that she was in St. Elimine's favor.

"Light of the million stars burn my enemy to the ground and save those I love around!! FIRE!!" Erk had found his tongue at last as he watched the miracle unwrap around his charge. His eyes seared with the burning sensation of light passing through them. He hoped and prayed silently that he could see another vision of that cheerful expression enough to send her on her way to Ostia. His hands practiced the art of his simplistic mage spell, the book burning up once more. The fires of a burning sun coming through his skin, prickling his skin as if it were a harp to play on.

The book's page dissipated into nothing, causing the spell to be completed as an inferno came and swiped the speck of life from the vagabond they were fighting against. The smiting of his life, ashes spreading unto the wind from the spell caster's sorcery, created a sense of sorrow in Erk's mind as he felt his target's life energy return to the earth. Searching blindly, he felt small smile come over his face, the gentle energy of the holy sister was there in the area where he last felt her presence.

She was safe and well.

"Thank you sooo much Erky!!" Serra rushed up, her arms wrapping around the mage's torso. She had seen the small smile on Erk's face but said nothing about it. Her tackle had caused him to go back onto the ground as he was just coming from it. Her limber branches seemed weak as she fell on him. He could feel her heat, higher than normal from the high concentration of magic that she had held while praying for the Saint's gifts. Her body seemed weaker and as he glared somewhat, touch seeming too foreign for him, he easily raised the two of them up to a sitting position.

Her sweat beads told him much. She had nearly lost all control of the magic that St. Elimine had given her. He hoped that she could continue and secretly he congratulated her with his eyes searching into hers. She nodded softly, a cheery smile coming over her face. With his sash, Erk wiped off her damp forehead, pausing for a moment as no bandits were near them because of the cavalier's attack on defending the creature that he allowed in front of him. Her smile increased as he had shown her such kindness. Allowing her to breathe for the moment, his eyes conveyed the sense of waiting for her. She nodded to his unasked question.

"Whatever. Hurry up and help the others, Serra." Finally he answered her thanks. An enigmatic grin on his head as he got up, pulling her up with him gently. Serra gladly went off, seeing that the red knight was in trouble with a broken wrist. Waiting a few seconds behind, Erk readied a few memorized pages from his tome and raced after her, using his magic to protect the outspoken cleric. His body not so far that in case she fell or stumbled he could help her back up to do her duty.

"When they left the battle towards the two leaders, Lady Seras, and Lady Lyndis, did he notice that she was already giving their powers into the help of the other band. Personally, the mage was enraged since he wanted to hurry and give the woman away to the city of Ostia. She would have none of his protesting."

He stomped away in his dark leather boots, angrier than when they had first started out in the battle. That……….THAT woman!!! He growled underneath his voice, inhumane, much like an angered animal ready to lash out for the control it didn't have. He could feel the onslaught of a twitch coming underneath his eyes as so often happened when he was highly annoyed, angered, or embarrassed. The dark tinge of red upon his pale face didn't help him any as he tried to conceal the fact that he hated the decision that impertinent woman had made for both of them!!

"Aw, c'mon Erky!! Having someone powerful in your debt is something good." She totally didn't have the sense to stay away from a very angry mage, especially one that would be soon ready to lash out with a fire spell if it weren't for the fact that his fire tome might be completely gone before he would have another chance to buy another. Turning abruptly on his hell, he surprised the woman behind him, whom in all regards of life was trying to cheer him back up. A tight-lipped frown along with a small twitch from his eye caused her to almost rethink her decision. Of course, this was Serra and all she did was dismiss that notion and smile brightly.

"No it isn't. You already delay us well enough. We do not need some ill-made band of ruffians to continue leading us away from Ostia!!" Not only the fact that Serra was a troublemaker herself, though she tried her best to make others happy, but the other fact that impeded him from dropping her into Ostia as soon as possible was having to travel with a band of righteous simpletons from Caelin. Sure he had heard about the ascension to the Caelin throne and all, but that was all it was, rumors.

Until they had to step in and heal a stupid green knight, who had been trying to pick up on his charge more than once and join their band of renegades. He could almost feel the nausea rise up from the pits of his stomach. The stress from this woman and her mentality almost caused him to slam the fire codex into her brain.

"I heard that they might be going to Ostia and besides they'll need a healer. Besides, if it wasn't for you dallying along like usual, we would have made the trip to Ostia and Etruia ten times oveeeer." 'Okay, she could really be cute when she wanted to be but why now?' He paused in thought with a glare towards the cleric. She stood there all puppy-eyed asking for forgiveness almost. The unspoken plea won out as he just shut his mouth as soon as he was going to say something. He didn't want to be rude.

"………" Really, he didn't. He knew that she could pay for the entire trip three times over his fee and he knew that her knowledge was quite usable especially when he had gotten his wrist caught in that stupid trap. (She had insisted he save the poor rabbit that was in it.) All in all, he was ready to be rid of the witch. Glaring, he caught her pained expression, if for only a moment before she exclaimed out to him.

"Aw, stop being sooo pouty, Mr. Grumpy-Mage." Her arm wrapped around his, grabbing the thin limb from his side to hers. She put on her brightest smile and hurried them towards Lyndis and the others. The green knight running forth-spouting poetry towards the new woman in his sight. He blinked towards her actions, remembering the pained expression she used before deciding to hide it away.

"…………" She greeted the green cavalier, amusing herself with chattering away incessantly, blushing at his comments which made her guardian merely glower in thought as his mind went back to the last phrase she mentioned to him. It was then that they heard the sudden sound of a scout scream forth about the enemy coming.

"Oh, look!! We need to go help!! WE'RE COMING!!" Turning to look back, Serra smiled brightly, happy that she was needed. Erk, being as aloof as what could be called normal for him, watched her slender form rush onwards towards the ensuing battle. Her hands raised towards the tactician. Merely shaking his head, Erk placed a small frown on his face.

"……..Mr. Grumpy-Mage?" It had been the first time he had ever been insulted about his demeanor, or teased about it at least. With a small smirk, enveloping his lips secretly, he shook his head with the mere thought of her insult. 'Is that all you could come up with?' A small chuckle escaped his face as he followed his charge onto the battlefield.

"So in all, that was how Lyndis got her top healer and mage to help her to regain her castle from her uncle."

"Wow!!" yawning, Reka leaned his head on the master sage's chest. He had been sitting in the sage's lap since he had dried off and gotten into his sleeping tunic and underwear. The sage had fabricated a wonderful story about Lady Lyndis, the Marquees from Sacae and her top two magic users, a healer and a mage.

Nuzzling his face into Erk's dark tunic, Reka closed his eyes peacefully. Just the thought of the Lycian League had brought a smile to his face. The nuzzled sage smiled down towards the boy, slipping a casual pale hand into the boy's lavender tresses. A secretive smile taking over his face as he watched the dozing child upon his lap.

Erk had also changed into a deep red tunic that covered his arms. His pants though casual were meant for the wear and tear from the road. They had settled down on the bed seeing as it was the most comfortable to tell a story. Erk, his eyes twinkling down at the sight of his own flesh and blood, smiled a genuine smile that was barely ever seen on the said sage's face.

Setting the boy into the bed, alongside his body, Erk had went back to the rather annoying and somewhat longing thoughts he had for the boy's mother. Serra, sweet angel of healing, and yet a devil with her tongue, had still kept his son from him, yet she was giving their son a chance to choose. He hoped deep down that if Reka chose to go to Ostia that Serra, the vixen of his torn heart, would also come along too.

It had been nearly a day since their reunion from eight years before. Much of his anger was misplaced in a way yet all of it was still true in its own right. The woman had been selfish and had not given him a chance to prove himself capable of loving any creature from her womb, less of all her.

Then again, he had never given much thought back then to her other than signing her off as another annoyance.

The truth was deep down; he had forgiven her because he saw that in that situation, he had been wrong. Through her assumptions, he saw the awful truth he had held for her for years. He had treated her no less than she expected and he supposed that it was true that he might be aghast at the mere thought of having a child with the woman he used to abhor so many years yonder.

Looking upon the face of his seed, he didn't want to think why he even would chase Serra away. The creature that slept alongside his warmth, his own flesh, was a miracle. In truth, he never thought he'd be willing to die for anything really, but this child, with only a few hours with him, had his life to protect its own flame of light.

Overall, he loved his son.

With this in thought, he wondered if he could ever love the woman who bore his son, though their situation was quite differed than those of their peers from the Lycian League.

Of course, with Reka at such a tender age, he knew that the boy wouldn't understand at all. Sighing, holding the boy close to him as he started falling asleep, he wondered about his kiss with Serra.

He didn't exactly hate her. He was angry with her, but that was only caused because of the deep hurt and broken trust she had in him. For the past eight years, he had imagined their child, growing up whether or not it was a boy or girl, but just growing. He could see Serra's cheerfulness everytime he closed his eyes to remember the images he had for his child those last eight years.

Their kiss though sent a shiver of excitement down his spine. Blinking wearily in sleep, he thought upon the feel of her lips, plush, delicate, strong, and exuberant then of her soft hands pausing to brush his skin causing a storm of lights to dawn in his heart.

Erk, a sage and knowledgeable man of his own right, had no idea what love was, but he certainly did not know that if Serra asked him then and there as he lay with his arms around his son, Reka, if he could answer that he loved her.

In fact, how could he say he was in love when he didn't know it?

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Bending over the dirt, Erk wondered how Serra could have ever done this sort of work. The Serra he remembered had asked him how to know when bananas were ripe. He shook his head at that memory merely because of the image him trying hard to explain while Matthew was there.

The dirt was well tilled and the garden was well grown. Vegetables seemed to take to the soil fervently, making the pulling job a little hard because the roots were so deep. His son, picking up his load of vegetables, worked hard at the job. It seemed to be natural towards Erk, though he would never actually picture himself helping in a garden before this.

The boy was nearly done when Erk decided that he should try and bond with the child. With that idea came a surprised venture towards his own stash of books. Fimbrviltar, Ragnorak, and Elfire tomes stashed in the wrapped saddlebags upon his gentle horse. He could try to teach his son the Elfire tome. He seemed to be ready to burst with such magical prowess, having already mastered the fire tomes and the thunder tomes.

Erk could not help but feel proud of his son. The boy had such a strong and perfect control over his magic it seemed, leaving Erk to wonder if Serra had taught the boy her tactics with magic use. If so, the boy just needed to train hard for at least seven years. Calculating in his mind, the sage paused in his work.

It would take Reka until he was twelve if he was as studious as Erk had been, otherwise until he was fourteen to become an accomplished mage.

"Hey, Master Erk?" Reka interrupted his thoughts. He had noticed from what Serra had told him of Reka that her son wanted little of a father though she could sense that he did want his father. She had reason to understand his patience in his mother. She had been through the same thing every adoption day at the orphanage with the sisters. Her strong resolution on her family being Etruian nobles that were coming back to her was a fabricated lie that she had used to console herself. She had used it to reason she was different than her peers.

"Yes, Reka?" The only sad thing about that lie was that she had hoped it was true back then. He knew that secretly, even now, she still had a little hope of it. Remembering his gloomy years in an orphanage caused him to shake his head and return his attention to his child. The boy raised up from the ground, a yellow-weave basket filled with vegetables in his hand, staring hard at his guardian.

"Did you know my mom from the Lycian League?" Pausing in his work, Erk merely blinked at the question. Sitting on the ground, finally dismissing the pulling off his mind, he nodded, gently. His eyes closed at the many memories he had of being in the Lycian League.

"Yes. She was a very good cleric." He thought he could tell their son that. He knew he had to be a little vague when he dealt with Serra's use in the army. She was a very good cleric but even more so she was the army's strongest light user besides Athos and Lucius. Her bishop outfit coming clear in his mind as a pure white with a purple tabard decorated for war.

"How did she meet my dad?" The mage nearly fell over. Why did Reka have to ask impossible questions?! He glared in his mind's eye towards Serra wherever she was. She never said her son was the curious type though he wouldn't doubt that he was. After all, it wasn't everyday an eight-year-old could memorize the fire AND thunder tomes before he even went for an apprenticeship in Etruia.

"He answered a summons. She needed aid and he was there to help her." He answered even more vaguely. Reka thought of the answer and guessed that was what his mother's old yellowed and creased letter contained. He had no idea that Erk was practically sweating away good answers at all. Sitting on the stump of a nine-hundred-year-old tree, He placed the vegetable basket on the ground. His eyes attuned to the earth.

"Well, why didn't he marry my mom?" Erk felt his throat choke before he had any idea of an answer. Reka appeared not to have noticed the obvious noise as Erk tried his breathing practices. He often had gotten too nervous to speak in public that he had to take breathing excursuses. It was almost as horrible as when he had dealt with Lord Pent requesting his marriage to Lady Priscilla. That had been a fiasco.

"………….Her order wouldn't allow her…." He finally found his voice after he calmed down. It was true that to be a sister she couldn't have ever married him but now that she was cut off from the system of strict vows, if she would. She might still feel a sense of her old vows if she were ever asked to marry again. He wondered deep down though if she would be happy being anyone's wife really. Serra seemed as if she should never be chained to one person like that. Too carefree and too spirited to be chained down by the conformity of religion or marriage.

"Why not?" The sage knew he could answer this very truthfully as Lord Pent, growing up, that no man could ever have a sister of the Order of St. Elimine had warned him. If he wanted a healer for a wife he'd have to look at the women who worked their wonders from their horses, troubadours and valkryies.

"Your mother was a cleric for the Order of St. Elimine in Ostia. In order to become a sister, she had to take on a vow of loneliness and chastity." He could remember seeing a sister takes her vows. Pent had made him go see the sight as a testament to the fact that he knew he could never have a woman of St. Elimine. In his heart though, he saw their purity towards the Saint as they ate her body and her blood then washed in the holy water from a basin. Once they had been finished, they were dried off and given their new robes.

"A vow?" Erk nodded as he imagined Serra having to go through the same practice. Her pink hair pooling around her to hide her modesty from the view of those that could never have her. Her body priceless porcelain washed down the purest of waters and brought into a new light. All beautiful women it seemed were under the light of St. Elimine, for he found them the purest.

"Yes, she could never have a companion as her husband or know the feeling of a man or be loved by a man as long as she stayed a sister." He explained the vows easily, his hands helping him tell the vows. Yes, that was one of the reasons that Erk had denied loving her. Her vows prevented him to do so though he knew that his heart was sick for her and their son.

"That sounds like it must've sucked. Can you imagine going through life without knowing love? I heard Sir Legault talk to me about it." He could. He could feel the tear stains on his cheeks as if they were from yesterday. He remincessed about the deep loneliness he felt often as a child and even more so as an adult. He had been raised with the notion that his parents would never love him. Shaking his head from the dark memories, he then finally registered the name that Reka had spoken.

"Legault?" His memories of the thief were little except when Seras more than once conference with the thief, Hector, Eliwood, Lyndis, Pent, Serra, and himself. The reasons for Pent, Serra, and Erk to be there was often for the magical defenses or offenses that the enemy might have had planned out. Legault would tell them which magicians to watch out for and what magical traps there were before them.

"Yes. He came to our house one year by incident. Mama took care of him and he told me a lot of things." Reka smiled at the memory of the wandering thief. The man had worn a gentle air about him that increased comfort around him to Reka. His mother hadn't cared that Legault had been ex-Black Fang, but she'd often ask many things to him in private. Reka would barely be able to hear and understand what they were saying but he also knew that if it were private matters they would stay private.

He had often gotten a chance to talk to the wanderer many times when his mother worked in the garden or went to the village to check up on her patients and get this or that for them. Legault was calm and comforted by Reka's efforts to help him and had talked to him about innocence, love, and judgement. The thief hadn't like judging others, and innocence was something he saw in the faces of children and he saw a lot in Reka. Love he told Reka a lot more about than any other subject besides the Lycian League.

"Like what?" Erk wondered at the many things the man might've slipped. He was after all a very comfortable man, easy-going with others, and more often than not well trusted by the tactician. His life as an assassin was merely a way for his life to continue. He relied on it because of the fact that it had put food in his belly and justice in his heart.

"I asked the reason he wanted to go out in the snow so bad when he was sick. He told me that he loved too much. Apparently, as he told me, love is like living without breath. You can only go so far. With love, you can brandish a sword in the direst of battles and see yourself still in the arms of those you do love. He told me that mama was without love then told me to always be there for her, because I was the only thing that could give her love anymore."

Reka's voice was strange as he recounted the visage upon the thief's face when he had spoken of love to the barely five-year old boy. His words seeming to be lost on Reka as the boy paid attention to his philosophy. Reka could remember barely comprehending his musings, but he could remember the pained look in his purple eyes, as he seemed to see something Reka could never see. In fact, after Legault had gotten well and went off to meet his wife, Reka had stared at his reflection in the mirror for hours wondering why he couldn't see what the man had seen, wondering what pain the man had seen that reflected upon himself.

"Did he say anything about your father?" Erk seemed to ponder upon the vision of Legault meeting Reka. The boy's soft curls protecting his crown as the thief had told him stories from the bed that Serra and Reka slept in. A gentle cooling cloth upon the man's forehead with his gentle lips speaking kindly, smiling towards Serra's child, knowing the secret of her running at last.

"Yes. He only said that fear kept them apart. He then said that in order for mama to love again, she'd have to quit living in fear, and so would my dad." Reka's memories came back to him as he talked more about the man that had gotten well at his home. Reka could see the visible shock in the sage's dark violet eyes. The iris shrinking to the size of a decimeter. Keeping his mouth shut about it was smart, but he supposed as he watched the sage when he had asked his questions, that the man knew more than he was letting on.

"Legault is truly too curious." Chuckling to cover his mind-numbing fear and shock, Erk grinned pitifully. So Legault had known either way. Deep in his heart, Erk still thought about his fear of her. He was afraid of the feeling when they had traveled in the legion, and when it broke he never thought the feeling would come back as his heart seemed to have died along with his mind. If it came back, Erk would be terrified and scared of Serra and even worse, might act the same as he did to disregard the potent emotion.

"Who is Seras by the way?" Taking the pause that had been withdrawn between both men, Reka asked another question that he had no answer towards, especially when it concerned the Lycian League. His mother was very reticent on them except when she was telling him of an exploit that they had done in the campaign of the dragons.

"Lady Seras? She was the tactician who helped Marquees Pherae, Lord Hector, and Marquees Lyndis on their campaign against the dragons." Surprise etched its way across Erk's pale face. He hadn't expected a question of the tactician to come up. Seras, who often was a little excitable, had enough energy to put Serra and Matthew combined in shame, along with a sense of ironic sarcasm to help all of the campaign to get on with their jobs especially when the going was good considering that meant she was ina good mood for the moment.

Erk remembered the woman's mood changes. They were very different from the moment she woke up to the minute she fell asleep, though he prayed for Legault deep down that her mood changes had lessened in intensity since last time he had seen the wandering woman.

"Oh, so that was who Sir Legault kept muttering about. Mama wouldn't say a word about who Seras was." Reka's eyebrows knitted together at the image his mother had shown him of the smart woman. Serra had made it from a piece of her journal, sketching it with her quill pen easily when she had journeyed. He wondered how Sir Legault was doing then shook his head. His mind was set on getting the truth out of this man.

"I see……." Picking himself up, Erk walked over to Reka. A small breeze tossed his purple hair through the weaves of its breath, picking them up and tracing them into images in the air much like a spell if only for a moment. His son raised his oculars to his unknown father. Nodding, he followed the man inside. Watching him, emphathetic to the voice of pain that seemed to cry out in the man's dark eyed depths.

Peicing one and one together, Reka finally felt as if he were near the truth. His heart quickened along with his breath, being scared at the potential answer he might get. They passed the door by now, Erk following on through, placing the basket of vegetables onto the counter, turning to the stopped boy in curiousity.

"Did you like my mama?" Reka's mouth could work wonders against the hammering and reasoning in his heart and mind. Placing a tentative hand to support himself, he watched the man's eyes to see if they changed. They did. Instead of the usual sullen and pained look the spell caster held deep in the window of his soul, a knowing emotion passed through. Reka shuddered in neither fright nor anger.

He had seen that look in Thom's mother's eyes whenever Ikus's father was mentioned. He had seen it when Birdgette talked about Kiley the fletcher that died in the first Lycian War. He had seen it when Sir Legault mentioned the tactician he had been going to see in Bern.

He had seen it when his mother had talked of his father no matter how brief it had been. That look, that emotion had played across each and everyone of their eyes. It was passing through the sage's eyes. He knew deep down that his truth had been found, but he pushed away the insistant voice saying he had found his father. 'I had only found a man that loved my mother. There could be two men who loved her or even more.' He reasoned to himself. Seven year-olds were never really faced with the thought of confronting the man that had never been in their life it seemed.

He was in awe.

"………………Why?" The sage couldn't help the slight tremble to his voice. He highly hoped that the boy was oblivious but he knew more than to hope for that. His and Serra's created being was a child of highly birght intelligence who did notice everything around him. He knew, buried underneath layers of an empty shell, that he loved the woman in question. His heart did not seem to stop spinning out of control and his stomach felt fluttery.

"If my dad wanted to be with her, why did he allow her to go?" Understanding dawned upon Reka. He still wasn't ready. He screamed at his mind to shut his mouth, to shut the troublesome things that were coming forth but unfortunately, his mother's genes were likely showing through. His mouth had found a powerful conviction. It knew that it could prove it with only a little pushing.

"…….I have no idea why he did such a curious thing……" Erk was amazed personally on how dignified and aloof his son seemed at the moment, but the sage searched deep into the cesspools of lavender to try and find the bright young soul in there who was not ready to face his own truth.

"Well, if my dad liked my mama a lot, he wouldn't have allowed her to go. I think he knew someone else loved her as well so he thought she went to him." Reka's mouth, overflowing with his conviction was stopped all of a sudden, making a fabrcated lie until he could find out on his own. A small grin came over his lips, happy that he could control his mouth now.

"Why would you think that?" The sage moved over to his seed, kneeling before the boy seeing the shallow tears beginning to fall down the strong child's cheeks. Wiping away a bang from Reka's forehead, he cupped child's cheek with the palm of his outstretched, dirtied flesh. Reka felt a connection somewhere inside of him as if he had found the toymaker of his favorite toy.

Then he felt the water dripping down his cheek. Hot and salty to the taste coursing down into his mouth, tears for a soul he wished to know. He was beginning to cry. In his life, as far as he could remember, he never cried. He hadn't cried at Ikus's younger brother's funeral, Kagen, being his best friend before then. He hadn't cried neither at stuffy ol'man Harley's funeral. All the funerals were conducted by his mother and since his mother went, he often followed her.

"Why else wouldn't he be here?" His voice trembled as he finally let loose the torrid of sorrow that he felt. He wished so much that his mother could be happy and that he could have a happy family that didn't rely on daytime smiles and night time tears. He wished for his father for guidance, even if he didn't know the man at all. He wished that his mother wouldn't cry so much when he slept.

He felt the strong fabric before he could smell the strong scent of lilies. His mother had always loved lilies. Every year she grew a small patch for them, just so she could smell them every morning as she worked in the garden during the spring and summer. Darker voilet fell into his vision as he gripped onto the comforting presence. He never would have done this in fornt of his mother or anyone else for that matter. Somehow this spell caster had an affect of creating a sense of strong security.

For the first time he wailed out his pain and sorrow.

"So innocent…….You're a really strong boy, Reka." Once Reka's cries had swallowed down to a small sob, Erk pet the boy's head as the boy had leaned into him, looking for the sage for the willing support to uphold him. The sage had willingly given ground, sitting on the floor, holding the laying child upon his breast. The boy's head listening to the imitation of his own heart.

"Uh……thanks, I guess…..but…..why did he let mama go?" He really wanted to know. He wanted to understand why he didn't have a father and everyone of the other kids did. Closing his eyes to hear the strong thumping of the sage's heart, Reka felt so peaceful for once. He wasn't torn anymore between the knowledge that his mother and father were separate.

"………." Erk was silent. He didn't know what he could tell the boy especially when the child was in such a state. Petting the boy's curls, he felt as if he was in the same position that Reka had been in when Lord Pent had held him. He could remember the soft gesture that his master's hands had given him. The soothing gesture causing Reka to press on with his question.

"Do you know why?" Erk felt his heart tear at the memory. Her letter written in her elegant handwriting that night telling him of her feelings and their son. Fate was playing the strings of his heart with the old songs of men who had no love, sad to the bone and even more sorrowful to the heart as it was the instrument being played with.

"Yes……Keep it a secret from your mother, but….." He decided he could tell a little to the boy, if not much. His strong conviction towards Serra explaining everything breaking slowly into the oblivion that was his mind. The deep void not caring anymore, hoping not to tell everything for Serra was going to tell their child some of the story after all.

"What?" His big lavender eyes got bigger in curiuosity. The luminous light purple shining from the shadows of his face. He waited patiently. Maybe he had finally found the truth that he had searched for from his mother.

"……….He didn't have a choice. Your mother went off on her own and….." Erk paused, not sure how he could go on anymore. A small tear had fallen down his cheek as he remembered the sharp pain of needles pouring through his body. Such daggers twisting and turning through his skin causing him to twist in pain. His mouth turned into a frown, raising himself up away from his son suddenly becoming aloof from the boy.

"And?" Reka watched curiously. His mind contemplating upon the one tear that fell down the man's pale face. His hand brushing away from his cheek, stinging with the hidden pain in his eyes. Reka could tell that the same old pain had resurfaced along with the loneliness he felt deep down in his body.

"Nevermind………It is nothing I should tell you." Erk had stopped himself in time. He had no reason to tell Reka much of anything. He had only known the boy for at least twenty-four hours and he was now willing to die for the child if so be it. Putting a hand unto his brow, he sensed that he did feel well and was not sick.

"Why not?" Reka picked himself up from kneeling, coming over to the sage's distress. The man seemed to radiate a great sadness that didn't seem to heal but he knew, just somehow he knew, that the wound would heal soon. With a gentle grin, the boy reached out with his hand to touch the pale man's own warm hand. Gentle reassurance and love emanated from him to the man.

"It is Serra's responsibility. She is your mother and she is the one who decided her actions back then." Putting a soft smile on for his son, Erk gripped the boy's hand, reassuring him that everything would once more be okay, which he hoped was the truth. Reka thought once more, his eyes shimmering as he began wiping his last tears away.

"Do you think my dad would have loved me?" It was an unspoken question between him and his mother. He didn't know if the reason his father hadn't married his mother and been there since the beginning was because of Reka or not. Erk paused in thought, wondering what answer he could give Reka but in his compassion, he knew there was only answer to give.

"………Reka, He does love you a lot." A gentle smile, fortunate and kind, graced his visage, turning unto the face of a brightened tomorrow. His son nodded in a smile befitting a king at the prospect of a wedding. Time seemed to had stopped when Erk had been consoling the boy, but now the brightened look upon the child's face caused Erk to merely smile in a genuine irony.

"Th…..Thank you, Master Erk……" Reka bowed formally in front of the higher classed man. Lavender curls falling into identical lavender eyes, closed in gratitude. Reka felt at peace with this man even more than when he was with his mother. The man's pale hand clamped onto his shoulder giving it a squeeze as he returned to his normal height.

"Erk." The formality of bowing in fornt of him had caught Erk off guard. Noticing his son bowing to him like that crossed a sheet of red embarrassment across his cheeks. Shaking his head in neither disbelief or annoyance, he chuckled darkly to himself. He didn't want the one thing he seemed to cherish now to treat him as if he were an object of worship.

"What?" Reka glanced up at the sage, giggling at the red blush that had came onto the sage's cheeks. His eyes confused. Had he done the wrong thing? He had seen Ikus do the same exact thing to the sword master, Demok. He only supposed that it was the proper way to thank someone who was of a higher class than you. (Ikus had started her training to become a sword master. She was a mymridon.)

"Just call me Erk. No bowing either!!" Shaking his head with dark laughter, hoping his blush would escape his enflamed cheeks already. The spell caster squeezed the boy's shoulder then took his touch of the child's form. His dark heated cheeks glowed beneath the shelter of his purple hair with his tentative hand grasping into his magic principles, putting a warm fire in the stove so he could cook lunch for the both of them.

"Okay…….Thank you…..Erk!!" Reka was highly amused at himself. Okay, so he had done it wrong the first time, but hopefully, he would get it right this time. He prayed that he hadn't angered the sage though he thought he only caused the man to be only slightly discomforted.

"You're welcome Reka……Now, I was wondering, which tomes have you mastered?" Erk began fixing lunch for the two of them. The smell of his cooking came in an instant. The sweet smell of baked bread and hot stew came through the small cottage. Reka grinned as he wondered how to actually cook. His mother would never allow him near a stove. Within that thinking, he heard the sage's question.

"Fire and Thunder……They're the only tomes mama ever got me…" His truthful answer gave Erk a gentle understanding of his son's strong curiousity. Serra, the ever learned woman, would have insisted that the basic learning be given to Reka. She had taught many of the army's fighters to read and write in the short time she had been with them.

"Would you mind me teaching you an even stronger tome?" He wondered if he should wait, but the picutre of sharing such a special thing with his son came down to his final decision. Reka had a long way to go before he would become a sage but Erk knew the boy would be safe with the power that he channeled.

"Not at all!! It will help me get my mind off of dad!!" The boy's face brightened up considerably at the prospect of learning higher magic. The mana that flowed in his veins from the earth was always very strong willed. He knew in a mage's view that spell casters were merely more sensitive to the springs of mana in the ground. Grounding was a way to give back some of the powerful energy. Mages were nothing but servants, vessels for the power that they were sensitive to.

"Good. I have an Elfire tome you can use for your very own for learning purposes." Getting out two bowls and two spoons, Erk placed them beside the heated stove. Poko, the cook back in Lord Pent's castle, would be so proud of his cooking. Poko had taught Erk since he was received from the snow as Lady Louise called it.

"Really?!" Washing some carrots they had picked along with some potatoes, Erk began cutting up the vegetables. Using magic, Reka watched intensely. He cut the vegetables with the blade of his fingers as if he were holding an invisible blade that chopped the orange and brown things.

"Yes. I'll teach you how to cast it correctly, along with certain grounding techniques for your mana." Sprinkling the chopped parts into the heating pot, he continued on with his cooking. The scent of rosemary and dill came through as both herbs came down from their respective bows. "Ground these two together."

"This really is a lot to be thankful for!!" Nodding, Reka chopped off a centimeter of both ends of the plants and began using a mortar and pestle. His grounding being somewhat uncontrolled causing Erk to almost wince. The boy would have to learn to be increasingly gentle if he were ever going to create spell books or create new spells. He winced watching the child slam the pestle into the mortar as if there were chunks in there.

A lot gentler.

"Just as long as we finish eating lunch should we start on your lessons." Erk sighed, waiting until the herbs were grounded somewhat thin. They would have to deal with feeling the leaves slide down their throats. It could be no worse than Lady Seras's cooking. That had been an experience besides Sain's cooking that was uneasily dealt with. Everyone in camp dreaded the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth days of each month. Most were not allowed in the kitchen except for Seras, Legault, and Rebecca during that time.

Pausing to watch Reka pour some stew for himself, Erk smiled.

He hoped that he would bond with him a lot more.

LLLLLLLLLL

It was after the week's hard work in the garden and the small training circle that Erk had set that caused the week to fly by faster than expected. Reka's mind reverberated from the awesome strength that the sage had barely tapped into. The elfire tome on the stand beside the bed seemed to glow. He was barely able to conjure the faerie fire to the smallest extent which caused the sage to only nod and be patient.

The sage in question though, waylaying Reka's thoughts of his father immensely, was asleep upon the bed where Reka was awake. The man's arms held him close as if he would disappear from sight, which caused Reka to be intrigued by the guardian. He was elusive with his answers and his own past it seemed especially when it concerned the Lycian League.

Reka merely shook his curly head to dim those thoughts. He was happy and at peace for a time in his life. He felt happy when the sage was paying attention to him and for some reason he felt as if he should know the man more personally but tallied up that idea with mere curiousity.

Turning over to look at the man, he leaned close to his face. The sage's purple brows were knitted in hurt as tears seemed to fall. His hold tightened considerably on Reka. The boy's breath escaping him even more than from the strength of the man's limbs.

A blow that knocked close to home escaped the man's pair of gentle lips.

"Serra, don't take…….Reka……." Confused, Reka's eyes opened wide as he listened even more closely to the man's tired speech.

"What?" Responding in bewilderment, he could feel the tears that fell down the man's cheek onto his own. Erk's noble brow was held together in elusive pain, unknown to him or anyone for that matter. Reka was terrified.

"Don't……Reka's my son….……"

With four little words, Reka felt his world collapse around him.

LLLLLLLLL

Okay, so Reka finally found out!!! I kind hurried it up a little but I felt as if Reka, especially from Reka's tugging on my hair, should learn soon. Okay, muse Reka leave!!! I have no idea on how to have Serra to react or to have Reka react in the next chapter at all. I think Reka should personally not say a damn thing except when he's supposed to.

Gah, I'm at a lost. Oh, well. I just have about three more chapters to go until I finish this up. Then I'll have three one-shots up and a Fire Emblem Humor/Parody fic called Rejected Conversations. That will be a thing done between NightFalcon and I.

Well, lessee what do I have to do? Well, I need to finish my math homework and I need to post this as soon as possible. I'll probably have this posted along with Mabudachi Trio and Winter es Kalter Als Sommer or Winter is colder than summer, sadly enough a small tactician x Legault impliment but otherwise a story about the hardship of lives under your orders.

Well, the voting is still going on and everything. Please REVIEW!!! LOVES TO ALL!! Harbinger girl over and out!!!