In which Yun and Cecile visit the Budehuc jail in an attempt to reconcile with Luca Blight, and things don't quite go as expected.
The contents of this chapter are based on a group chat log from April 1st, 2005.
This chapter is dedicated to my mother, and all those times I told you I was doing homework online with a study group. I wasn't.
A pair of footsteps made their way through the lower castle sublevels, one soft and light, the other sending a distinct clunk echoing down the stone halls. Cecile focused on the steady sounds in attempts to quell her mounting anxiety. A nervous sensation fluttered in her stomach as they walked further down the corridor, as if large, powdery Chon-Chon moths had taken up residence beneath her armor and were determined to wage battle against her confidence.
I'm definitely doing the right thing...right?
She swallowed and cast her friend a quick glance. Yun remained composed and calm, her own footsteps barely audible, although the leather moccasins of the Alma Kinan were notably softer compared to Cecile's own armored sabatons.
"I appreciate your offer to accompany me, Cecile," Yun said, catching the young guard's eye.
"Of course! After all, I'm the garrison commander! This is part of my job!"
"Really?" Yun raised an eyebrow. As usual, there was weight behind her words, and Cecile suspected the shaman already knew her true motives extended beyond offering a simple sandwich.
"Well… yes, but you're also my friend. I want to support you! Even if I don't really understand it…"
"You're trying to understand. That already is more than most people would do," Yun answered with a sad smile. "I refuse to believe anyone can be wholly good or evil. And I'm willing to take that chance and see what the fates have in store. And the first step towards understanding is learning… right?"
Cecile frowned and looked straight ahead again. As far as she was concerned, anyone who had the nerve to strike Thomas was as close to evil as possible. But there was something gentle and reassuring about Yun's confidence. Hearing her words made it difficult to remain angry. "Maybe so," she scowled, "but it doesn't excuse his bad behavior."
Yun giggled. "I can agree with you there. Perhaps having a little bit of time to reflect is just what Luca needed. Just because we've been on a few dates doesn't mean he can start trouble whenever he wants."
Hurting Master Thomas should carry a far heavier punishment than a simple time-out in jail! But… I'll never make friends if we keep him in prison forever.
Cecile patted her shield strapped to her back, reminding herself it was still there as extra reassurance. The success of her plan depended on befriending Luca. Once she managed to secure his friendship, Thomas's safety was all but guaranteed, and there would be no more hallway scuffles. The plan was positively flawless, but that was to be expected after receiving Koroku's encouragement.
"But still..." The shaman offered another gentle smile, "I really do mean it. Thank you for coming with me."
Yun's pace slowed as they approached the occupied cell, and she stopped in front of the bars, offering a polite bow. "Luca," she called, "I've come to visit again! I apologize for taking so long. I've brought a guest with me!"
Cecile felt her earlier brazen courage start to evaporate. She glanced down the hallway, taking note of the single torch behind them. The second sublevel was far darker than she remembered, and she squinted as her eyes adjusted. Finally the form of a person came into view. Budehuc's prisoner sat hunched over atop the cold bench, half his face cast in shadow. The meager torchlight flickered across his armor, stark white with gold gilding along the edges that caught the light and glimmered from the darkness of the cell. His eyes followed Yun, piercing and sharp.
Were he better behaved, she'd almost feel a little sorry for how lonely solitary confinement must be. This was the first time she had a chance to get a proper look at him, and he was just as much an intimidating brute as she recalled—
No! I'm on a mission! I can't think about someone I'm attempting to befriend like that!
"I brought you a sandwich!" Cecile held out a small orange bundle, her olive branch. "It's ham! You... you really like pigs, right?" she offered. It didn't take a lot of guessing, he seemed to reference them frequently, so it naturally must be a preference.
Luca swiveled an eye over in her direction. "Are you mocking me?"
"No! I made it myself!"
"So you're trying to poison me then, are you?"
"W-what?! Why would we poison you?!"
Yun stepped up and put a hand on Cecile's shoulder. "Luca...she wouldn't do such a thing. We came to visit you, to see how you're doing."
"Don't lie to me," the man glared back over at Cecile, his heavy eyebrows furrowing. "You've had it out for me since day one."
Well... he's not necessarily wrong. But it's his own fault for threatening Master Thomas!
Cecile found herself clenching the bundled sandwich tighter. This was supposed to be a peace offering, why was he making it so difficult? She recalled Clive's objections from the other day and felt spurned on to prove herself even more. "If you must know, I came to apologize for shouting at you! And hopefully you can apologize for hurting Master Thomas!"
"Apologize? Hmph," Luca rolled his eyes. "So you're trying to save yourself, are you? Pathetic. You swine are all the same. Don't think groveling will convince me to spare your life once I'm finished here."
"I'm doing nothing of the sort! I can hold my own against you any time," Cecile puffed out in a display of confidence. Deep down she knew she probably was sorely outmatched, and she did promise Thomas not to provoke him any further, but it was too tempting not to rise to his taunt. "As garrison commander, I can't afford to make useless enemies. Besides," she looked over at her friend still calmly observing at her side, "Miss Yun sees something good in you. Budehuc does not indefinitely house its prisoners, so I imagine you've probably had some time to think about what you've done and are ready to make amends."
"Useless enemies? Are you saying I'm useless? Fool, if I wasn't locked up in jail..."
"Luca, please," Yun took a step forward. "There's nothing to be gained from making new enemies."
"Why do you defend such a useless woman?"
"Because, this 'useless woman' is my friend. One of the few that I do have here at the castle."
"Friend?" Luca spat and stood from his seat - he really was huge. A sinister grin slowly unfurled across his lips, followed by laughter. There was no warmth in the sound as it echoed down the halls. "Why make friends with anyone at this castle?"
"Don't be silly! You need friends! You should try listening to Miss Yun, Luca!"
"You don't need friends," he locked eyes with Cecile, his voice low. "You need power. Whether it's my own strength, or Yun's visions, power is what separates the strong from the weak."
"You've got it all wrong! Friends are what give you power!"
Yun nodded, still keeping close to Cecile's side. "I agree with Cecile on that."
Luca's glare shifted over to the shaman. "So you too are going against me, Yun? I knew you were soft, but this..."
"I'm not choosing sides, Luca," Yun kept her voice steady and calm. "I just believe that relying on power isn't the path to happiness. People can't always depend on their strength alone to face life's challenges. We become even stronger when we work together towards common goals."
"I don't need friends to achieve my goals... I have power, and with power comes followers."
"Even with a possible fear of betrayal? Not all followers believe in the same ideals and goals as their leaders."
"Heh. Betrayal? I execute traitors. I'll be blunt," he ran his hand through his hair and moved closer to the bars, turning his focus back to Cecile, "I don't care if you're apologizing and want to 'forgive and forget', I'm not going to forget your mockery, woman. You'd better hope you're as good of a guard as Thomas claims you are, or you'll both be sorry."
A tremor of fear rippled through her. This was not the time to get scared, but his words crawled under her skin. "I don't ask you to forget, but if you want to live here, it's important for us to understand each other!"
"Understand? Try to understand this then. I'm going to kill you. When I get out of here... I will kill you."
"Just you try!" Cecile's temper rose again and trumped the fear. "I won't let anything come between me and the safety of the castle! Look, Luca, I came down here to speak civilly with you, and it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere!"
"If you want to be civilized," he lowered his voice with a dark grin, "why don't you enter my cell?"
"Absolutely not! Besides, only Master Thomas has jurisdiction over the cell keys. And he's..." she looked away and recalled Thomas's pained face as he sat in the infirmary, "He's... busy right now."
"Heh... 'Master' Thomas," Luca chuckled, "I still don't see why anyone looks up to that pig as master of this dump. Even now he's still too weak to handle his own affairs!"
"He's ten times the leader you'll ever be!" she put her hands on her hips and continued to admonish him. Even if Luca was nearly twice her size, she couldn't help but feel the urge to scold. After all, it was his bad behavior that put him in jail in the first place. "You must get a little lonely without friends. Why do you do this to yourself?! You do realize you would have a much nicer time living here if you just behaved!"
"Why are you so interested?"
"Because I feel sorry for you!"
"You'd better stop feeling sorry for me right now, woman. I don't need your pity or your friendship. I didn't ask for your company."
Yun's countenance was as calm and serene as ever, but Cecile noted out of the corner of her eye the shaman was playing with the cuffs of her sleeves. She stepped forward, interjecting herself between them. "People worry, Luca - at least, I know I do."
"Feh," Luca looked away. "Whether or not you're telling the truth, it doesn't matter. I'm going to kill your friend here, and then we'll see who cares."
Big talk from a man behind bars!
"You should be more mindful of your behavior," Cecile tapped the heel of her spear against the stone floor to command his attention, "Miss Yun is in the process of assembling a small council of residents. If she can get a vote of approval, you'll be released. With certain rules you'll need to follow, of course!"
Finally a spark of interest crossed his face. "I will follow no one's rules. When I get out of here, you'll get what's coming to you."
"Heh," Cecile grinned, "that's if you get out!"
"When I get out."
"I'm confident I can make a solid appeal in your favor, Luca," Yun said gently. "But Cecile is right. If you expect to live here with everyone, you will have to try to get along."
"Yes!" Cecile puffed out again. "I don't know what more I can say to help you understand, Luca, but your time here is dependent on the goodwill of others!"
"If talking with me is so difficult," he growled, "then why don't you come in here and say it to my face?"
"I would—!" Of course, it was easy to say that when a set of iron bars stood between the two of them. "But I don't have the keys!"
"Neither of us have them, Luca," Yun chimed in, then cast an embarrassed glance at Cecile. "Master Thomas lent me his second set, but I… I dropped them on my last visit," she admitted.
Uh oh.
"You… you mean they're just sitting around somewhere? Right now?!" Cecile scanned the stone floor. Suddenly all that extra gusto wasn't feeling quite so good after all. How could they have gone missing?! And if Master Thomas found out… well, he'd probably be quite understanding about the whole matter, but it was still disgraceful to be so sloppy.
Yun's laughter was nervous. "Don't worry about it, I'm sure they'll turn up. Anyways," she abruptly changed the subject, "I'm hoping we can get this all cleared up in time for the upcoming spring festival! It would be a shame if Luca missed out."
Cecile cast a sideways glance at Luca back in the cell. He seemed completely disinterested in their conversation. Festival talk was probably not very high on his list of interests, she thought to herself wryly. Unfortunately, the news of the missing jail key put a damper on her own eagerness to discuss the festival, but it was hard to feel nervous in the light of Yun's friendly smile.
"Ah! The festival! I was just talking about it with Sir Clive! I'm looking forward to it."
"Absolutely!" Yun nodded. "It has been hard to find time to pull everything together, but it all seems to be falling into place," she said. Her smile was serene, almost trance-like. Cecile got the sensation that there was more than simple intuition behind Yun's words.
"I'm so glad Peggi managed to clean my armor and sharpen my spear so quickly this year! I want them to be bright and shiny for the festival!"
"Oh, how cute! Are you participating in any activities?"
"I was thinking of hosting the dog races," Cecile shyly rubbed her nose, then grew self conscious and looked back over at the jail cell. Luca was watching them now, no longer distracted.
Maybe I was wrong, and he feels left out after all!
"What is it?" she called over to him, "I know you're probably feeling jealous about all our upcoming festival fun, but if you behave, you can play too!"
"Tch," he rolled his eyes. "You… why don't you come closer for a minute?"
"Eh? What for?"
"It's a secret."
"A secret?" Cecile looked over at Yun and frowned. "From Miss Yun?"
Yun shrugged and continued smiling.
"It's a secret between you and I."
This was new. Cecile recalled Yun mentioning the two of them went on a date earlier, and as difficult as it was to imagine someone as uncouth as Luca spending quality time with the gentle shaman…
Ooh, maybe that's what his secret is about?
"Really? But… we don't have any secrets."
"Oh yes we do. Get over here. It'll be fine, trust me."
Cecile took a tentative step closer until her face was only a few paces from his. The only division between them were the iron bars. Fear was trumped by curiosity. And that same curiosity only fueled her encouragement. After all, secrets were shared between friends, and friendship was her ultimate goal.
If he's already comfortable enough in sharing secrets, that means we're well on our way to becoming friends!
"What… what was your secret?" she lowered her voice to a hushed whisper. "Is it about Miss Yun?"
"What I wanted to tell you—"
He suddenly slammed his weight into the door and sent it swinging wide open. Cecile stumbled backwards and caught sight of a familiar glint from the door's lock in the corner of her eye…
No… the key?! All this time...he had it!? How long has the door been unlocked?!
Luca launched his weight at her and threw a series of punches, sending her spear careening across the stone floor.
"Die, pig—!"
Somehow she managed to block his hits with her shield, but it was too close for comfort. Cecile let out a sharp cry in surprise and skid backwards under the weight of his blows. Something told her this wasn't even a fraction of his strength, yet it took almost all of hers to keep his punches at bay.
"L-Luca!" Yun tried to jump between the two of them. "Please! Stop!"
"You're dead, you're so dead, woman!"
"Luca, please! Stop this right now!"
He kept up the assault of punches, each one echoing against her shield. Any normal person would be sore from striking the hard iron, but clearly he was not a normal person. "How dare you mock the prince of Highland?! Stay still so I can punch you to death—!"
"Luca! Calm down!" Yun tried to grab at his arm only to be pushed away. "Remember what I told you—you can't!"
"Stay out of this, Yun! She had this coming... captain of the guards, hmph!" he glared at Yun but reluctantly obeyed and drew back. "Consider your friend lucky… if what you said is true about your vision, it's probably not worth my time anyways."
Cecile struggled to keep her knees straight and was grateful to have her shield blocking their view. Her lungs burned, each breath painful as she tried to catch her wind after his assault. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her worn down.
"Luca," Yun pleaded, reaching for his arm again, "I won't stand here and watch you do such a thing to my friend."
"M...Miss Yun," Cecile slowly drew her shield away. Yun's expression was pained. "How... how do you tolerate this kind of behavior?!"
Luca chuckled and leaned back against the open cell bars. He loomed over the two of them like a hungry wolf.
"You…" Cecile glared. "You need to seriously think about your behavior! Is this any way to act?! We just told you moments ago that we were working towards helping you get released—! Do you want to stay in jail?! We need to talk civilly!"
"Heh… 'civilly', huh? My way of talking is killing you."
"Luca, please," Yun stood between the two, her arms outstretched. "If you hurt her... I would hate you forever. I warned you what would happen."
"Yun…" Luca recoiled slightly. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"
"I refuse."
Cecile felt a swell of admiration for her friend's bravery. Yun stood unflinching, staring this beast of a man down like it was nothing. Time seemed to stand still in the dark hallway. The only sound she could hear was the drumming of her own heart in her ears, trying to wind down after their stand-off.
Another scoff broke the silence. "Tch…then maybe I'll turn my sights towards your precious Thomas instead," Luca looked back at Cecile, and she felt her blood run cold. "You're more than welcome to try and stop me."
"Y… you wouldn't. That's against castle rules!" She was certain somewhere 'don't kill the master of the castle' would obviously be some kind of infraction.
"I already told you that I don't follow the rules."
"I thought you'd appreciate my apology, my nice sandwich, but now I see you're practically no better than Yuber!"
"How quaint. You know nothing about me. Yuber and I used to be partners. Rather, he worked for me," Luca folded his arms and stared down in silent challenge.
The news that Luca and Yuber had some kind of alliance in the past was not comforting in the least. "Yes," Cecile paused, "but he wasn't your friend."
"I don't want friends."
"I think you are just angry because you don't have any friends!"
"You don't know when to shut up, do you, woman?!"
Yun reached out and touched his shoulder without any hesitation. "Luca. I am going to approach our committee about having you released. In the meantime," she raised her fingers to reveal the missing jail key, "I'm sorry to do this, but please… if you could return to your cell?"
"What? When did you... Like hell I'm going back in there! Is this some kind of joke?!"
"No joke," Yun answered gently. "But you'll probably just be sent right back in if people spot you walking around. I suspect the younger Viki may not be very pleased to see you. So… behave and wait for us to deliberate. Okay? I have a good feeling about the outcome," said and pressed the key between her hands with another smile.
Luca hovered in place for a moment. It was obvious he was weighing his options. After a pause, he scoffed again and shrugged his shoulders, as if their entire argument was nothing more than a mild annoyance. "Feh… Whatever. I'd rather be in jail than waste my time in this one's company," he jabbed a thumb in Cecile's direction and stepped back into his cell. "If you know what's good for your friend here, you'll see that your little committee reaches the right decision, Yun. There are limits to my patience."
"Hmhm. Of course," Yun continued to smile as she locked the door. "I promise." The shaman quietly slipped her hand next to Cecile's side and steered the two of them away from the jail cell. "We'll see you later, Luca."
Cecile felt a small weighted object drop into her pocket—the key!
Yun gave her a secret smile as they departed down the hallway.