Amare Dividere
Title: Actions of the Interim Part Fourteen
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: PG-13 for some violence.
A/N: I apologize for the previously crap formatting of this chapter. I was at home. It was the holidays. It happens.
Hitomi paces the chapel, wringing her hands. Outside the chapel the sky is dark, and the hallways of the castle are lit by torchlight and chandelier. She is sure that Van has returned to Gaea, absolutely positive. The feeling is as deep embedded in her brain as in her heart. She knows what she saw in the sky and yet…
The advisors do not seem to think it possible. They believe him dead. He is not dead, she knows. Can not be dead. He had been taken away, not killed. And…
Her hand strays to her stomach. The child will need its father.
The shorter seasons have been flying by. The spring has turned to summer, the summer to harvest, and soon, soon there will be cold outside and the child that grows inside her will come out to the world.
She is starting to show. Merle and the dresser that she had brought in had been very careful about hiding it, but sooner or later, she knows, someone will notice that her clothing is loose on her. That she has stopped wearing her riding pants, and is more careful in the saddle.
The doors to the chapel open, letting in a flood of light. Merle steps in, closing them behind her to once again enfold the room in the soft light of the candles on the altars.
"It has to have been him, Merle," Hitomi says as the salmon haired cat woman takes a graceful seat in one of the pews behind where Hitomi is stalking back and forth.
"If it's Van or if it isn't, what are you going to do about this, Hitomi?" she asks, her ears perked and alert. "You aren't getting very big, but you can't hide it forever."
Hitomi stops her pacing. Putting the heels of her hands to her eyes, she shakes her head slightly, "No one will understand if they find out, Merle. He was taken before our wedding night."
"They don't have to understand, Hitomi. You love Van, that's enough," Merle offers. Her heart is not in her words. She has spoken them before, trying to reassure Hitomi... but lately... she is not sure if it is the best thing to reassure the queen.
"Maybe it is for you, it is for him, and it is for me, Merle, but the world won't understand what that means," Hitomi says, speaking what has been nagging at Merle. She lowers her hands from her face. "I just feel like I'm going to get attacked because of this."
"Probably. What do you want to do about it, then?" Merle asks, voice grave and heavy. She rises to her feet and crosses to stand behind Hitomi, almost afraid to suggest what she has been thinking. "There are things that you could do, if you didn't want the child."
"Merle!" Hitomi snaps, shocked. She forces herself to lower her voice. "What makes you think… that I wouldn't want it? This is Van's child."
"Who is going to arrive whether Van returns or whether Van does not. And if it will jeopardize things, then perhaps it…"
Hitomi turns to Merle and glares, her hand flying to slap the other woman's face. "How… how could you suggest… something… like that?" Her face feels hot and she knows that her cheeks are burning.
"Because," Merle replies, lifting a hand to her cheek and meeting Hitomi's gaze, "you said yourself that it may be difficult to convince people of the child's father."
"Merle!" Hitomi snaps again. "Do not ever suggest such a thing. Ever. I know that Van would be heartbroken if he returned to find that I had been with child and had … had… gotten rid of it."
"He would not have to know, Hitomi," Merle says.
"I am not having this discussion with you any longer, Merle."
Across the continent, Millerna sits rocking herself quietly in her dirty gown. The guard or whoever it is that brings her food is the only thing she has to mark the days by. She is holding on to hope by a thin thread, but it remains. Her thoughts whirl in a dance of Dryden and Exeter. Allen. Eries. Van and Hitomi. Her friends… her family.
There is shouting in the halls. It is distant, but there. The faint, faint noise of swords ringing against shields and other swords. She rises quietly from her seat and walks towards the door, moving as far as her chains will allow her to move towards the door, bare feet slipping on the damp stones of the cellar floor where she is kept.
But the noises go away, and she does not hear the shouting of men calling out her name. Or she cannot believe it.
And again there is silence.
Her constant companion.
A question hangs in the air between the two prisoners, one that neither speaks aloud. 'So how much longer, do you think?' Van sits in the corner, fingers stroking the leather of his gloves and wondering about Hitomi. He had known he was nearer to Gaea when he was in Ispano, somehow. He had known by the beating of his heart in his chest.
And now… now he finds he can hardly sit still, enraged at the thought of being so close to home... to Hitomi... and yet trapped from her.
And from his kingdom, he reminds himself.
On the other side of the cell, seated with a knee drawn up to her chest, Arik rests her chin and frowns, her eyes as faraway as Van's, but wondering what good Tristan can possibly do in the Gap without her. And why he sent her with Van.
Wrapped in thought, neither prisoner notices the guard stiffen to attention, and the worn thin boots make no noise on the stones to announce the presence of the slight figure that causes such a reaction.
"Mother?" Fariah asks, puzzled as she looks into the cell. "Open the cage," she snaps to the guard, who starts at the tone.
"I… I don't have the… the key… m'lady," the guard stammers.
"Then get it," Fariah replies, over enunciating her words.
With a stiff bow, the guard heads down the corridor, leaving Fariah to the prisoners. Arik, inside, drawn from her musings, smiles at her daughter in a relieved manner. Van starts and turns to look at the young woman on the far side of the thick bars.
"I am glad your name holds some sway in your assigned country, child of mine," she says, rising and crossing to the bars to embrace her daughter through them.
"How did you get here?" Fariah asks, a puzzled look on her face. "Last I had heard you were at the Compound… and now…? I ordered the guards to send anyone questionable to the dungeon while I was away… because of the assassination attempts... I wasn't expecting visitors like you…"
"These are things we can speak of later. What you need to know is that I am here with Van de Fanel. And it is important that the king be returned home."
"Truly?" Fariah asks, gazing up into her mother's similar eyes skeptically. "We were informed he was dead."
"Rumors," Van says in reply, standing in his corner at the mention of his name. "I am very much alive. I have just been on a very long journey."
The guard returns with the keys and Fariah gives him a pointed look as he fumbles to open the lock on the cell door, but soon enough he does and steps to the side, holding it open.
"This way," Fariah says, "Duke Chid is just having lunch."
Dryden and Exeter do not look like they are as downtrodden as Eries knows them to be as she sits watching the King and Crown Prince play in the field outside of Thera. She has returned to speak to the Mother Superior at Tuloom Convent, and with the contingent of guards she is certain that both will be well cared for.
A shiver runs down her back to think that these were the fields that Zaibach took Celena from when she was a little older than Exeter, but she does not let that linger in her mind as she heads on foot up the path towards the convent, Celena trailing a step behind her.
"Your memories," Eries asks Celena in a soft, gentle voice. "How far back do they go?"
"Until a short time before I was turned," Celena replies, not entirely sure she is comfortable with discussing this with Eries, though relieved to have someone willing to listen. "I was not aware…"
"Allen asked me to watch over you, once," the princess says in reply to the unfinished question. Eries walks in silence for a long moment. "What is the first thing you remember?"
Celena's eyes soften. "Jajuka," she says.
"And before?"
"I was very young," Celena replies remorsefully.
"Does Allen talk to you about what happened?"
"No," Celena says, eyes distant. "He is… afraid I may turn back."
"Please understand," Eries says in a gentle voice, "Allen lost you twice to Dilandu. You remembering must scare him greatly."
Celena holds back her comment at that, and the two of them walk in relative silence, the only noise their shoes on the stones beneath their feet, the rustle of their dresses as they walk, and the guards surrounding them.
The gates of the convent are opened at their approach, and several of the sisters greet them in the front entrance courtyard. "Princess, what brings you back?" one of the women asks, a bright smile on her face.
"I need to speak to the Mother Superior," Eries says, smiling in return. "And I thought perhaps the King and the Crown Prince could benefit from some time spent with one another without the eyes of the kingdom upon them."
"I'll show you, Princess," one of the younger sisters says, smiling. "And don't worry about your hand maiden. We will be sure she is allowed to rest in the cool of the indoors."
Nodding her thanks, Eries follows the younger sister into the corridors of the convent, pausing to instruct the guards, "Wait for me here, along with the Lady Celena. We will return."
Van and Arik are brought straightaway into Chid's presence, Fariah pushing past the guards despite their cautioning tones. Arik kneels behind her daughter, and Van bows his head respectfully.
"Your prisoners, my Duke," Fariah says, stepping aside to let Chid see Van. "I thought perhaps I would not be so far out of line to bring King Van to see you."
With a half frown at the start of her speech, Chid's bright eyes blink, widening. "Van?"
"Duke Chid."
"Who is this with you?"
"Arik Dulchap," comes the response from the woman who stands from her kneeling position on the floor. "In the service of the High Priest of Ispano."
Another question hangs in the air like the scent of Chid's lunch, but no one asks it.
"I was sent to guard His Majesty, King Van, when he was found in my lord's lands, and to see that he makes it home to his country and his wife."
"I see," Chid says. He claps his hands twice, and servants step forward, "This is cause for some small celebration. We will make preparations for the safe return of King Van de Fanel for the end of the week, and until that time he, and his companion, will be the honored guests of Freid."
Inwardly, Van groans. More time away from Hitomi. More time spent absent from his country, his people. The very thought of it… he had been worried because of the rebel groups in the mountains… but with the attack on their wedding ceremony he cannot be quite sure whether it is rebels or someone else.
He smiles at Chid and Fariah as though pleased, but from beside him he hears Arik's huff of breath, and knows that she sees through him. "Everything will be taken care of," Chid assures them. "We will have words about the breaking of tradition," he says to Fariah.
Arik glances at Fariah, who nods her head, and then at Van before bowing at the waist. "My Duke," Fariah says, extending a hand towards a corridor.
Chid follows his bodyguard, and the room relaxes as they depart.
"Come, and I will help you to find clean attire," one of the low-eyed servants says.
Arik waits for Van, impressed at the deference the servants show them, and glances at their attire. Ripped, torn, dirty clothing… their faces, if Van's is one to judge by, are little better. No wonder they were deemed questionable enough for dungeons.
In the afternoons, the Egzardian princesses walk the courtyard, a small knot wearing dark gowns, and speak about what happened in the castle the day before. They were housed in two separate rooms, by choice.
The castle in Fanelia, they all agree as they walk the stone halls, is large, but old fashioned. The walls are thick, but the approaching winter makes them cold.
"It is as though the dragons are expected to warm it!" Jazel says, and all the girls chuckle.
Merle, trailing behind them, rolls her eyes. She wishes she were anywhere else, doing anything else, but Hitomi had asked that the girls always have an escort. And today she is the only one without other duties to attend to.
They start to pass the chapel's courtyard entrance, and the girls lower their voices, knowing that Queen Hitomi is often in meditation within the walls, and how loud the outside noises of their voices can be inside it.
As they pass, the doors start to open slowly, and are hastily assisted in doing so by the guards standing outside them. Hitomi thanks them in a gentle voice and steps through to meet the girls.
All of them are quite shocked, and Merle is amused to find that Saphira and Jazel stop short, leaving Rubi and Quivel to nearly run into them. It is Jazel who finally leads the sisters in sweeping a curtsy to the Queen, and asks softly, "Did we disturb you, your majesty?"
"Not at all," Hitomi says, glancing up at the sun. "I was wondering, instead, if you ladies would like to accompany me on an afternoon ride. I am finding the castle quite closed in today, and sometimes take the air on horseback."
Merle shoots her a warning look over the girls' heads, but Hitomi either does not see the look or does not take heed of it. Rubi claps her hands happily. "Could we, majesty?" she asks, straightening up and nearly jumping for joy.
"I would not have offered if I did not wish you to come."
"Highness," Merle says, stepping forward and curtsying grandly. "Are you sure it is the best idea?"
"We are not prisoners in this country," Hitomi replies, lifting her chin. "And it is time we started acting like it. Winter will be upon us soon enough, and there will be no nice weather to ride horses in. So now we will enjoy the pleasures that we have."
Two perwinkle eyes shoot up in warning. "I only hope for your highness's safety. Do be careful."
Hitomi nods slowly. "The guard will be accompanying us. And I am nothing if not careful," she replies.