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.Shard 25.
Old Archades

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Ashe had stopped the man just to try to extort him some useful information to get to the imperial city, but she could tell from his gaze that things were going wrong. He touched her shoulder in a, if not invasive, quite slimy way, and she didn't know how to react. She was usually able to keep people in their place just extracting her sword, but now that they had reached so far she was afraid that doing something so extreme would have gathered too much attention on her. So she bit her lower lip nervously, her angry eyes narrowed to a slit, while the man was asking her what her name was instead of replying to her questions.

"Is everything okay, my dear?"

When Balthier reached her, and circled her shoulder with his arm nonchalantly, she had to admit she wasn't expecting that at all – had he just come out of nowhere?

And she had to admit she was feeling a sense of relief, too.

The man, who had most likely mistaken the sky pirate for his boy, had changed his expression already, seeming far more innocuous.

"Of course everything is okay, mister. We were just having a chat."

Ashe slipped out from Balthier's arm, and walked to the edge of the nearest bridge, seeming nauseated.

Now even Basch, who had noticed that something was going on, got to the pirate's side and shot an icy glare to the beggar.

"I hope you will understand" the man started talking again, addressing to both Balthier and Basch "I had no bad intentions – just, it is so rare to see such a beautiful flower in this sewer" he bowed imperceptibly, and walked away.

Basch and Balthier stayed silent for a moment. Then, it was the sky pirate the one who interrupted the silence.

"Well – who can blame him? By the way, he's right." He said with a witty smirk, trying to provoke a reaction from the knight.

Basch turned to the princess: she was looking away from that depressing city, her eyes lost in the sea, the sun lighting her ash blond hair - but her boots disappeared among the weeds alongside the path.

"Hell right."

It was just a whisper, but Balthier heard that anyway.

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AN: I was so pleased to see that there IS still someone reading this story... and even reviewing! how great are you? ^^ so TNX guys this is definitely for you :) I think Balthier would totally do something like this.. Poor Ashe. How unlucky is she? See you with the next shard - which will be, Archades! And if you have twitter I've recently set up a fanfic/fictionpress account so we can follow each other there too maybe? ^^ You can find it in my profile. Have a great day and a HUGE thank you again!