Amare Dividere
Title: Distant Chances [Part Eleven]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: PG-13 for some violence.
Finding Van had been relatively easy. Between the two of them, and there were a few guards, Skan and Arik had dispatched them without calling out an alarm to their presence. And with Tristan leading the way, they come across where Van is wandering, fascinated with the markings on the wall, in little time.
"Van!" Tristan calls in a hushed whisper as the three of them move towards him quickly and back him away from his exposed position in front of the markings.
"Tristan? So I made it to Ispano, did I?" Van contemplates that for a long moment, frowning. He had thought he was in Asgardia, or perhaps in one of the temples hidden deep within Freid. In the Great War he had seen things in Freid he had never known to be buried there, and Van had little doubt that country held more secrets than he was privy to.
"We must leave," Arik warns, glancing nervously at the door. Tristan nods, and Skan backs towards it to listen for more guards.
"These markings," Van replies, disregarding their caution and turning to point at the mosaic on the wall of the chamber. "They tell something of Atlantis."
"Yes, yes," Arik says, turning to glance at the corridors in nervous anxiety. She had fled from this very chamber with Tristan when they had arrived in Fanelia months ago.
"I know what they tell. This is my mother's temple, after all. Ispano was the gateway that the Draconians used to cross from earth," Tristan says, much calmer. Skan straightens and turns his head, speaking to Arik quickly before turning and heading off down the hall.
"Ask Tristan for that story once we've gotten you home to Fanelia, your highness," Arik says nervously.
"Yes," Van says, turning his somber crimson eyes on her. That had been what he needed to be reminded of. His thoughts turned to his home and… Hitomi… "I need to get home… I was taken during a battle…"
"At your wedding," Tristan replies, nodding once. "I have not heard word that Fanelia has fallen. Hitomi has done well by you."
A proud smile creeps it's way across Van's features and he nods once, "She would." Skan returns, and motions for them to leave quickly, glancing meaningfully behind him towards the exit.
Arik puts a hand on Van's arm and a finger to his lips, leading him towards the wall and where Tristan has depressed a corner of the mosaic with his hand, which opens a passage in the wall.
"Come, we will make our way upwards, and get to the stone. I can send you to Fanelia from there."
"It's barbaric!" Kira shouts at Jasper when they are alone in their chamber after dinner. "And you knew about this? And you did nothing? How could you!"
"Kira, you do not understand. I did not know until…"
"But you know now!"
Catching his livid wife by the upper arms, Jasper pulls her against him sternly, clapping one hand over her mouth with a dangerous slant of his green eyes. "Yes, I found out about that. But only just before the anniversary celebration in Palas. I have known Nileyah since I was ten, and she had this knowledge since she was much younger than that." He paused, searching Kira's eyes, "No, it is not fair. But it is something that cannot be changed by either you or I. No matter how much we might wish it."
Kira narrows violet eyes at her husband and he slowly lowers his hand from her mouth. "And all that has happened to her because of this wishing? Do you even know where she was while she was away?"
"He knows," Nileyah says, speaking up from her place in the shadows. "And I hope you will pardon my intrusion, my lady. But you berate your lord too sternly."
Stuttering, Kira closes her mouth, nearly biting her tongue on her next words.
"It is nothing I would expect you to properly understand, without some further explanation on my part, I am only sorry to you, Jasper," and as she says his name, the tall prince knows just how much she has endured beyond the pain of imprisonment, "that I did not break with her more seriously about this before it came to such a head."
"Nil…"
She lifts her hand to stay his voice. "Let us all make ourselves comfortable, and I will explain to your wife the state of things, in the way that I once explained them to you, Jasper."
Leaving the library after a lengthy conversation with both Fariah and Dryden, Eries seeks a little solitude. She heads out of the enclosed room and makes her way towards the balcony on the roof. The conversation had turned to Millerna's welfare, as it was bound to. In her mind, she knows things will come down to a small, surgical strike on the mountain country.
One that she will send Allen to lead.
But she does not like to think of such things.
Sitting down heavily on the stone ledge as the sun goes down, Eries leans her head back, and slips the veil from her face. The breeze from the sea seems to comfort her, and she dozes lightly, only to be awoken from it by a chiding voice.
"It isn't safe for you to sleep up here, princess," Allen says.
She opens her blue eyes and turns to look at him, standing at attention just a few feet from her, eyes trained on the horizon of the sea instead of looking at her. "It seems that it isn't safe for me to do anything, then," she replies, making no move to adjust her position, simply too worn down to react.
There is silence for a long moment as the first stars peek out of the darkening sky overhead. And then Allen breaks it. "I have wronged you."
Breath catching in her throat, Eries turns startled eyes on the night, heart speeding up in her chest. "I… I do not know what you are talking about," she stammers.
"You know full well what I am referring to," Allen says, tightening his jaw.
Letting out her held breath in a heavy sigh, Eries lowers her head, replacing her veil. "Who told you?"
"Does it matter?"
"I suppose not. It does not change things, either," she says, finally moving to get up with a heavy sigh. "You are still you, and I am still me."
"Doesn't it?" Allen asks, turning to look at her. He licks his lips, lips that have suddenly gone dry. He finds his throat shares that feeling. Taking a deep breath, he continues, "Princess… we are engaged."
Lifting her hands to her face, Eries shakes her head. "We were betrothed at a very young age, Allen, before we could make decisions for ourselves. There is a difference," she says, trying to deny it. "It has never held any sway over your actions, and-"
"But it has held sway over yours," he interrupts. "And in my own defense, Princess, I never knew about the betrothal."
There is silence for a long moment, and Eries is thankful for the dim light of the evening, and her veil as she lowers her hands from her face. Hopefully, Allen will not see the tears threatening in her eyes. "And now that you do?" she asks in a much shakier voice than she cares to own is hers. "Now what? You have had the eldest sister, and given her a child, and you owned the heart of the youngest of us since she was a girl. What good is the leftover one of us to you?"
Kneeling, Allen puts a hand over hers where it rests in her lap. "Princess, it is not how you think it is."
"Then you were using Millerna because she reminded you of Celena?" The moment the words have left her lips, she regrets them, but instead of getting angry, Allen tightens his grip on her hand.
"Millerna used me as much as I ever may have used her, Princess."
"You cared for her, once," Eries replies, unwilling to unearth the pain that had lived between her and Marlene over Allen for so long. "Didn't you?"
"It is a hard thing to remember, when you have changed so much as I have," he replies. "Is there nothing to be done about-?"
"Princess," a new voice calls from the staircase.
The two of them turn to look and see Celena standing, as though she has been waiting to be noticed for quite some time. Allen swallows as he meets his sister's eyes, but sees no malice, and no trace of the unbalanced nature that memories of her internment as Dilandu bring to her mind.
"Yes, Celena?" Eries asks.
"The advisors wish to meet with you and Allen about retrieving the queen."
Seated in the high backed chair, the High Bikathian Council Member Ilraine Seraph closes her silver eyes and lets the warmth of the fire greet her face before she speaks. The Bikathian Council, seated around her, wait patiently for their elected leader, and the eldest among them, to speak up.
"Asturia will send troops into Norte to seek out their queen," she says, eyes remaining closed as she inhales the scent of the incense thrown onto the fire, "but they will be repulsed by Ouran's forces, and those that return to their homeland will be few, and not well."
"What-" Selassie begins to speak up, but Jujiin motions her to silence as the High Bikathian continues to speak.
"It will take a great sacrifice from one of our own to free the Aston Queen from her stony prison. One of…" she trails of, swallowing the last of her words in her slightly wrinkled throat. 'Mine,' she finishes, in her mind, bowing her head before opening her eyes and lifting them to meet those of the council surrounding her.
"What action do we take? Do we deter the group that Asturia will send after their monarch?" a wizened older man asks, his steel gray beard and brows nearly obscuring his strong face and pale eyes.
"No," Selassie speaks up, glancing sharply at the others, well aware of her earlier misstep at interrupting. "If this is what the High One has seen, then it must come to pass. If Norte is not made aware of Asturia's knowledge and intent now, then in the future they will continue to ward off everyone, and not specialize. If they are put on their guard against Asturia…" she leaves the end of her sentence open for interpretation.
Jujiin nods, and Mot, grudgingly, follows suit.
The other council members glance at one another, and seek Ilraine's approval.
In response, the white haired woman simply nods her head.
Inaction, in itself, is a choice of action.
Reaching the top platform of the temple was easy. There were few guards in the halls of the temple, being afraid that the spirits were haunting it, and those that remained were easily taken care of by Skan and Arik. Van had seemed, since being pried away from the wall he had been inspecting, entirely focused on getting back to Gaea, and Fanelia.
Privately, Arik envies him the company he will be returning to, and the happiness he will find there. She crouches near a tall white pillar at the corner of the open top platform of the temple, watching for any of the guards to approach the stairs. Opposite her, Skan does the same, leaving Van to stand waiting on Tristan.
The only one of them without Draconian blood in his veins, the Ispano High Priest stands before the tall central altar and raises his hands to the large opening in the center of the temple. "How long will this take you?" Van asks in a hushed voice.
The large pillars were designed, in part, to amplify sound for the rituals performed at the temple, and so they all endeavor to remain as quiet as possible, lest the invaders hear the noise they are making and think to check up the long steps. Tristan, however, does not respond, instead concentrating all of his thoughts on manipulating the large energist built into the masonry of the top platform.
It takes a long moment for him to focus enough energy into it, and his heart grows sad at the thought of how sparse his people must be spread for their energy to be so weak. As he turns his eyes towards Van, Tristan finds he cannot entirely block out the ruins of his homeland. The buildings with their roofs falling in, scorch marks on the walls, and the heartless rendering of the invaders' will upon the people.
He cannot handle the thought of them being exploited any longer, or his own distance from it all. "I can send you home now, Van," he replies, blinking back the wetness of the tears collecting in his eyes, "But I cannot go with you."
"Tristan, what are you talking about?" Van asks, narrowing his crimson eyes.
"You are a king," Tristan says, closing his pale blue eyes. "You of all people should understand what I am going to do. Take Arik with you, please, and Skan…" he turns his eyes towards her, "I will be remaining here to save my people."
Turning her head, Arik frowns. She rises and stalks towards Tristan, grabbing him by the arm. "I've failed you too much already, Tristan, I won't leave you behind now to have you do this and die," she shakes him.
Lifting a hand to her cheek with a sad smile, Tristan shakes his head. "You have done more than anyone ever could have been required of you, Arik. You left your family behind to protect me, and you gave all there was for you to give… but Ispano isn't your home."
When she starts to protest, Skan steps forward and motions them all to silence. "I will be staying," he says, looking intently at Arik. "They are advancing up the stairs."
"It is not your home either," Arik snaps, drawing her sword and moving to defend him, but Skan grabs her by the wrist and shoves her at Van, who catches her, looping an arm around her chest. She struggles, but he holds her tightly against him.
"He will need someone to protect him. And he loves you. He does not wish to see you hurt any longer," Skan says, shoving her towards Van. "Go with the Fanelian king. He cannot send me since I came of my own free will, where you were bidden to him. And the child should be born."
Widening her eyes, Arik protests, "I do not like this!" still struggling, but Van, with an understanding nod, holds her tightly by the shoulders.
"If you think that is best," the Fanelian king replies, knowing the look in Tristan's eyes as the one he had held when letting go of Hitomi once, long ago, "I wish you nothing more than to free your people."
"I would rather you took care of your own, and your wife, than to lend me your well wishes. The two of us will be enough."
"Tristan, don't do this," Arik urges, fighting harder against Van as she sees him lift his hands to finish the gathering and send them to Gaea. "I don't want you to get hurt!"
But whatever response Tristan had for her is lost as a pink pillar of light descends through the opening in the temple, and she and Van are swept upwards in it towards the sky. In its wake, there is a resounding silence, broken by the rush of booted footsteps up the stairs on the northern face of the temple.
Skan, without delay, spreads his wings and grabs Tristan by the arm, dragging him to the south face of the temple and pulling the two of them down and out of sight, rushing towards the nearby residential section. The High Priest's eyesight is blurry, and he forces himself to stumble along after the Draconian man, ignoring the stinging in his eyes and the stabbing ache in his heart.
'At least she'll have a chance on Gaea,' he thinks to himself as Skan forces him to press his back against one of the burnt out walls of a small cottage home. 'She would have perished here.'
Standing on the highest balcony in the center building of the castle complex, Hitomi watches as the sun sinks below the horizon, and the light begins to fade into darkness. It has been her recent pastime to watch the sunrise, since she has been unable to sleep soundly through the night, and also the sunset, closing each day the way she has opened it.
In the passing months she has begun to get a little rounder about her middle, and much more solemn in her demeanor, the weight of her decisions overshadowing the joy at her pregnancy and the responsibility of her upcoming child.
Merle hovers worriedly at her shoulder.
"You think I am doing too much."
"You are pregnant, Hitomi."
"Only a few months."
"Four months, at least," Merle replies. "If you knew anything about having children, you'd know that you should be taking it easy. Resting more. Eating more."
In a quiet, severe voice, Hitomi asks, "And what of the people, Merle? What of Fanelia in a Gaea at war? Should I leave the considerations of that to the advisors, and the other countries?"
The tall cat woman starts to speak, but Hitomi gasps, and leans over the balcony in a quick movement, and she dives forward to grab the collar of the queen's gown, in case she had decided, for some unknown reason, to jump.
"Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"That light?" Hitomi says, excitedly, wrenching carefully free of the other woman's claws to race towards the stairs of the building. What she had seen was unmistakable, to her. The column of light is something she has experienced more than she observed, but it looked exactly like the one that had taken Van from her.
And in her mind, seeing one again can only mean one thing.
That he has returned.
"Saddle my horse," she calls as she makes her way into the stables, rousing the dozing attendant in her urgency. He snaps to his feet and stumbles off about his bidding just as Merle catches up with Hitomi.
"You're being irrational. And you're seeing things."
"I am doing neither, Merle," Hitomi replies, moving to find a pair of riding gloves on the wall that entirely dwarf her hands, but make her think fondly of her husband with the small silver buckles around the straps on the wrists.
"At least take some of the guardsmen with you," Merle asks anxiously.
"There's no time," Hitomi replies, eager to see Van again. "Go saddle your horse as well, you can come along, if you think it's so dangerous."
"Hitomi," Merle replies, "please don't ask me to do this."
"I'm going, Merle, whether you come with me or not. Van's back on Gaea, he's come home, and I will be there to welcome him."
"I advise against it, your majesty," Peralis said, the captain of the guard at his shoulder. "That could be hundreds of miles away from here, and you would not be any wiser, riding off to danger. And given the circumstances, I do not feel it would be wise. I agree with Merle, in this instance."
"And I agree with neither of you. Van is out there somewhere. I know it. Let me go to him."
"Hitomi, we cannot."