Our Love to Admire – Amalia
Balthier/Ashe, PG
Inspired by: The Scale, from Our Love to Admire
Pick a rose and hide my face
This is a bandit's life
It comes and goes and them's the breaks
-The Scale, Our Love to Admire
If they weren't the only Humes mucking about in the waterway, he would be convinced that this girl was traveling alone. Were they on the streets of Rabanastre above, she'd be far ahead – in some other part of the city completely away from the boy, Fran and himself. Her steps are quick, and she doesn't seem to care about the filthy water that is splashing on the armor adorning her legs and surely through to her skin. Though she walks ahead, he catches her attempts to look back at them. She isn't as subtle as she thinks she is. He supposes that the loss of her fellow insurgents has been quite a blow, and she is no doubt suspicious of her rescuers.
Balthier is rarely one to question the moral code of others, but he can't help but be curious. This Amalia scoffed at his chosen profession, yet she and her fellow terrorists laid siege to the palace themselves. What's a little thievery compared to planned murder? Surely they were after Solidor. She was rather quick with that blade of hers and quicker still with her tongue when she agreed to follow them out the waterway. He'll hang back and observe for a while before making conversation. It is a long way out of the sewers yet.
The boy, Vaan, seems to be wholly entranced by his partner. Much as the little thief annoys him already, it amuses him far more to watch the boy follow Fran with that gobsmacked expression. Rabanastre is crawling with freedom-loving Viera – why should Fran be so different? But he smiles, remembering the way he'd been so taken with her in the first days of their partnership. There was something about Fran that made one's head spin in the most intoxicating fashion. Balthier watches Vaan move his dagger from hand to hand, nervously wiping his sweaty palms on his trousers as they walk.
"So um, why did you become a sky pirate, Fran?" Vaan asks, his voice cracking and stumbling.
He shoots a glance to his partner, who looks ready to commit homicide. Fran isn't so very tolerant of younger Humes – Balthier himself had been a terrible nuisance to her in the early days. He suspects that he is still a nuisance on occasion. The young woman has noticeably slowed her pace. Perhaps she too is curious as to Fran's reasoning for a partnership with a thieving sky pirate.
But she and Vaan are both disappointed. Fran has never given anyone a straight answer to that particular query. "My tree house collapsed," she mutters, and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to hold in a chuckle. She hasn't used that answer in some time.
Balthier decides that staying behind with the curious boy and Fran in one of those moods would only cause him to pull a muscle laughing. Strolling on ahead, he sees the young woman's hand move to rest atop her scabbard as he approaches. Quite fascinating really. He helped to rescue her from certain impalement at the hands of the Archadians and yet she is still hesitant. Perhaps that is what is drawing him forward. Most women are charmed by him outright. This girl is suspicious, secretive and probably quite attractive when not covered in sewer muck.
"Amalia, was it?"
It hasn't been more than half an hour since their introductions, but something in the way she'd said the name had struck him as odd. Probably an alias – she'd be smart to use one as an insurgent. It had taken him the better part of a year to get used to introducing himself as Balthier. Second nature now, but the way Amalia had said her name reminds him of those early days.
She nods, slightly relaxing her hand on the scabbard. Looking closely, he is surprised by the craftsmanship in the sword hilt and the gilded metal of the scabbard. A rather well-funded and well-equipped insurgence. Rumor had it that Knights of the Dalmascan Order were leaders, but who was this girl? Younger than him, older than Vaan…but not old enough to have been in the Order. He can't recall if the Order even admitted women. Rabanastre is a rare stop for him and Fran these days.
"Is that a sword of the Order?" he inquires calmly, seeing her eyes darken at the question.
She keeps her gaze fixed ahead, the mazelike pathways seeming to keep her attention. "Why? Do you intend to steal it?"
He likes this girl already. "I believe I've stolen enough from this country tonight." Leaning over jovially, he takes his leave to glance down her top. Luckily, she doesn't seem to notice. Or perhaps life in a resistance movement has hardened her enough to expect such attentions.
"I was under the impression that your friend was the actual thief," she retorts.
Balthier perches his gun on his shoulder and grins. "That is still being negotiated."
"What's the saying? No honor amongst thieves?"
"That's a lot coming from someone like you."
She finally turns to glare at him. "Someone like me?"
He can hear Vaan nagging Fran several paces behind them. If she were there, she'd tell him to leave the poor girl alone. Luckily Fran is occupied, and the girl seems like the perfect target for his teasing. "A murderer."
Amalia's hand tightens on the sword hilt once more, ignoring the humor in his accusation. "You know nothing about me."
He never thought he'd encounter someone as guarded as this. Sure, thieves and cutpurses aren't inclined to betray the secrets of their hearts, but Amalia seems to be protecting something far greater than the location of a trinket. "That may be true, but I saw the little fracas in the courtyard. You and your comrades were killing some of Archadia's finest."
She quickens her pace, but his legs are longer and she'll have to break into a solid run if she thinks to escape him. "And you would defend what they have done here? You speak as the Archadians do. A bit extravagant for a sky pirate."
There is truth in that. He's erased his past as best he could, but he never sought to change his manner of speaking. His voice tends to command respect around lesser pirates, or so he has tried to convince Fran. But Amalia's manner is rather sophisticated for a member of the Lowtown resistance. The Archadians surely hadn't killed all of the Dalmascan gentry. Perhaps Amalia has noble origins. She certainly has the impudence of a blue blooded aristocrat – he should know. He is from such a background and has inherited similar personality traits. But she would probably deny it. Her name is faked, her sword is authentic. Who is this woman?
"I'm a man without a country, Amalia. I seek only my own profit."
A slimy toad hops into their path, and she's already sliced the thing up before he has his gun aimed for the thing's head. Very impressive little insurgence movement. They may actually have a chance. They'll never overthrow Archadia – but they'll certainly be a problem for the new consul.
Fran and Vaan hurry forward to ensure that the toad has been dispatched, and his private conversation with Amalia ends. It is too bad they'll be going their separate ways – there is far more to her than first glance would impart.