It took Saya some time to find Solomon, mostly because she didn't know her way around the place. She had wandered through a ballroom, and a swimming pool, and even an arcade—that would be Riku's, she reasoned—until she finally found him on a shaded patio. The sun was setting, and he was half-sitting on the balcony staring at the sea. The view looked different here—the foliage was less tropical, she noted, and she wondered where it was based off. He held a glass of merlot in his hand, smelling it carefully before taking a sip.
"It seems strange, after so long, to actually taste the wine," he mused. She was startled—she didn't realize he knew she was there.
"I suppose so," she answered awkwardly, and walked to sit on the balcony near him. They were quiet a moment, and Saya began to feel more and more uncomfortable. "Solomon…" she said quietly, and he looked to her, listening.
"I feel I may have given the wrong impression when I woke up. I wasn't unhappy to see you, just surprised, and confused."
Solomon nodded. "I understand. For a long time you saw me as an enemy, it would only be natural for you to react negatively."
She shook her head. "You were a friend the last I saw you, and it was rude of me."
He smiled a little. "If you insist on being guilty I suppose I can forgive you," he said, his mood lightening, and she smiled as well.
She stared at her hands, which were clasped in her lap. How was she supposed to tell him? What should she say? "Solomon, I…"
He set down his glass. "Riku told you to talk to me, didn't he?" he concluded quietly.
Saya let out the breath she'd been holding. "Yes."
"He's a very kind boy."
She nodded. "You two seem to get along very well," she said, glad of the change of subject.
He smiled bitterly and picked his glass up for a small sip. "We have something very important in common." He stared out at the lowering sun. "We were both used…and then discarded… by Diva."
Saya bit her lip. He sounded genuinely hurt, and although she knew her brother's side of the story, she had no knowledge of what had happened to Solomon.
"Would you like to know how I came to by Diva's Chevalier?" he asked.
She nodded. She had to admit she was curious.
He sighed deeply and settled down for a long story.
"In 1918, when I was twenty years old, I met Amshel. I had grown up witnessing the horror of what would become known as the First World War—the death toll was unlike anything the world had ever seen, and the survivors weren't much better off. It was this gruesome reality that encouraged me to become a doctor. Amshel was a professor at the university I attended, and he took interest in my abilities. He helped me through medical school in a scant two years, and said he would help me establish a practice. But he had other plans.
"It was a strange conversation, but then we often spoke of unusual things. He had approached me as a peer, rather than a student, and I had been flattered. He said I was a modern man, and asked me what I thought of the scientific process. I rattled off some sort of text book answer, and he just smiled. 'Do you think,' he asked me, 'that it is appropriate for a scientist to become emotionally involved in his experiments?' I didn't know what he was talking about, so of course I said no. Then he told me of a creature he had discovered—very much like a human, who was close to immortal. He believed that he had found the key to immortality, but he wanted to study it more before he released any research on it. He had only one subject, and although he knew of another he didn't think he could acquire it. Therefore, he was motivated to see if his creature could reproduce. He had already tried a number of subjects unsuccessfully—mortal humans, I suppose—but he thought that he had figured out a way for it to work.
"Naturally, he argued, he couldn't do it himself, it was necessary for him to distance himself from the outcome of the experiment, but he wondered if I would be willing to participate. I said I would have to see her first, and he agreed. I was a young man, after all, these sort of things mattered. Now you must understand, the idea that non-Caucasians were not exactly human was not entirely dead, and so I wasn't expecting some sort of monster. When he showed me a portrait of her, I honestly thought that it was all because she was Asian.
"I agreed, mostly to please Amshel, and pleased he was. He told me I would meet her within a few weeks, he wasn't exactly sure when. At my confusion he began to explain everything about Chiropterans, and how Diva was asleep as she had been for the last 30 years, he even showed me her cocoon. It was at this point I became dubious as to what I had agreed to, and he said that it would be alright if I backed out, but to wait until I met her in person to decide."
He paused for a moment, taking a drink of his wine.
"The day she emerged from her cocoon is one I shall never forget. You had yet to kill Grigori, and he and Amshel were her only Chevaliers, so naturally she had no one to maintain the Otherside for her. As she lay there on the stone floor, staring up at with me with those incredible blue eyes, licking Amshel's cut hand eagerly, I was both horrified and mesmerized. She looked so innocent, because she remembered nothing. She was beautiful, far more beautiful than her portrait could even begin to express. And she wanted me, that much I could see clearly. Of course, she was probably more interested in me as a food source, but still…" He glanced amusedly at his wine. "As I said, I was a very young man. How could I possibly say no?"
He stared out at the sunset again, and Saya remained quiet, sensing that his story was not over. He took a few more sips of wine, and then continued.
"At first, it was heaven. In her innocence before she remembered her past, she was everything I'd dreamed of. She was kind, and inquisitive, loving. Even as she regained her memories and her personality I was blind to it. I had already made an image of her in my mind, my queen was benevolent and sweet, a girl who loved peace, and together we could find a way to end all the war and suffering in the world, as I had wanted to as a doctor. But I was deceived by Amshel, and Diva was as well. He doted on her, spoiled her really, but he only saw her as a tool to gain power. He was more than willing to use her and her blood to wage war and many other unspeakable things so that he could benefit. His problem, I believe, was when he was born. He came from a time when science was being born, before ethics had gotten in the way of progress. Chevaliers do not change, they become only more of who they were as humans, and so he continued on his sick experiment. But I wasn't aware of this until the very end. I was too in love with Diva to see anything else."
Saya fiddled with the hem of her skirt. "Were you and Diva happy?" she asked, honestly curious about their relationship and why he had chosen her over Diva if it was so strong.
He nodded. "At first. I'm sure you're aware that young chevaliers go through a stage where they think of absolutely nothing but their queen. When she regained her memories—supplied by Amshel—she became her usual self. She was fickle, and at times spiteful, but at the time never towards me. She called me her favorite, and was very happy with me. She wanted to have children as much as Amshel wanted her to—although I don't think she knew why he encouraged her so. It certainly wasn't for her own happiness. She was awake for four, wonderful, blissful years. She had shown no signs of pregnancy, but Amshel argued that we didn't know the gestation period, that if anything had happened we would know when she awoke. Thus began the long wait."
Saya studied him. "It must be hard, to wait that long, especially if you're expecting something from it," she tried to be compassionate. Haji had never spoken of it.
He nodded. "I threw myself into my work. We started Cinque Flesches then, although not by that name, and at the time it was really about pharmaceuticals. We had the time and stamina to study them intensely, and we got in on the ground level of what was to become one of the world's most important industries. But… when Diva awoke, nothing could console me. Not only was she not pregnant, she didn't even remember me. You must understand, it was more than an experiment to me. She was… she was like my wife, and I had wanted children with her so badly. Even when she regained her memories, she did not have the same affection for me. We all knew it wasn't going to work, and I came to realize that was my only purpose to her. It hurt me deeply. I saw her then as she really was, but I still loved her.
"She began to take other Chevaliers, first Karl, to try for children again. Then James, as a last chance, and Nathan, just for fun. Amshel was surprised, to be sure—she hadn't told him about Nathan, she'd done it on a whim. After Grigori died she never lost her memories again, of course, and I felt her slipping further and further away. Still, I maintained some sort of hope that her behavior was only because she was disappointed about the children, and once she had them she would love me again. Of course I was wrong. I had only been the flavor of the decade.
"I continued to work hard on Cinq Flesches, holding up the legitimate end of things. Amshel devoured the new technology that came about, always using it for the same purpose, to learn everything and anything about Diva and her blood. I also watched out for my brothers, who had gone through the same heart-wrenching experience I had, except for Nathan. Karl, of course, simply re-routed his obsession to killing you. James followed a similar path, although he was always in denial that Diva didn't love him. He thought to kill you so she would be proud of him. But it was all the same thing.
"It was while I was monitoring Karl—he was becoming dangerously noticeable with his bad habits—that I met you. Imagine my surprise when I saw a girl who looked so much like Diva but was so different. In you, to my utter disbelief, I discovered all those qualities which I had hoped to find in Diva."
He brushed her cheek with his fingers, and she didn't flinch away. "You are kind, Saya. You are loyal and caring. You wished only for peace. And then…" he dropped his hand suddenly, afraid he had said too much.
She understood, though. He'd wanted children, it only made sense. "I see." She was quiet a moment. It seemed that now her task was even more difficult. "Solomon, please understand, I really do appreciate your feelings…" she began.
"If you think I love you just because of your resemblance to Diva, you're wrong. I never loved Diva for who she was—just who I thought she was," he explained quickly.
She shook her head. "It's not that." She sighed heavily, and looked out over the ocean. "Maybe… if Haji wasn't still alive…"
She heard him stiffen, and she knew she had hurt him, and that hurt her. She turned to him, taking his hands. "Please, please understand…"
He stared down at her hands. "I do understand. I… I envy him, to have such favor with his queen. But Saya," he looked up at her, a pained hope still in his eyes. "He will be there when you wake up. He can have you waking, I don't mind. It's only fair. But please… while you are here… at least give me a chance."
She frowned. "But that's…"
He shook his head. "You are not human, Saya. You are not expected to be faithful to just one man. It's not the same."
She thought about that for a long moment. "I don't know…"
He sighed. "Do you remember the dance party? At Karl's lycee in Vietnam?"
She smiled a little. "Yes, of course."
"Could you have loved me then, before we knew each other? Before… everything?"
She bit her lip, remembering. The way he had held her when they danced, it was like something out of her dreams. All the girls had been gawking at him—she could hardly believe she was so lucky. He was kind, and handsome, and she…. She giggled. She had been so taken with him she'd let her mouth hang open, she was sure of it.
"Yes," she murmured. "I think I could have."
He smiled a little. "All I ask, Saya, is for another chance. Look." He lifted his glass in the direction of the sunset, and she turned to see.
The sun had sunk so it almost touched the horizon, and as it kissed the glassy surface of the water the sea was illuminated with it's red light. She gasped at how beautiful it was. Solomon leaned forward to whisper in her ear.
"I promised you I would show you these things. I can't show you the world, not really, but I can try to make you happy. All I ask is that you let me love you…"
Saya sighed. Was it really such a problem? "Alright, Solomon. We'll see."
She heard him exhale, and somehow felt guilty that she had caused him so much trouble. She watched the sun sink into the ocean, and found herself wondering.
"Do you ever wonder what Diva might have been like if she had been raised with me?"
"Yes, I often wondered that."
She smiled a little, and turned to Solomon. "At least Julia and Irene will get that chance, right?"
He smiled too. "Yes."
AN: Poor Solomon, he's had a hard time of it. I spent forever studying the timeline on Wikipedia, it's kind of confusing, so I did my best. When I saw it for the first time, I somehow missed Solomon actually say it was towards the end of WWI, I just saw that his suit looked Southern Civil war era, (very Colonel Sanders, lol) so I had to totally rewrite it when I found out that was wrong!!! Arg. Btw, that's episode 40, one of my all time favorites, when we get to see Solomon's transformation. So cool!
Next up, a little glimpse into the life of Julia and Irene.