A/N: Longer chapter this time. Hope I'm still keeping your interest, even if this story is mutating a bit (ok, a lot) from what I started with!

I stood with my father, watching Millerna and Dryden's barges appear between the doors, closer and closer to the dock. I even let a small smile tug at the corner of my mouth.

I liked Dryden. He was funny and impeccably well-humored for a merchant. The considerable difference between him and his father pleased me as well. I was sure Millerna would be happy, if she would only give him the chance.

And he was a romantic.

"Eries, she's hardly spoken to me since we've returned. Actually," he scratched his head in thought, "she hasn't spoken to me except in passing. And she calls me Lord Dryden. I hate that. It's so…formal. I don't think she likes me."

I tried to lighten his mood with a smile. "Who wouldn't like you?"

He laughed, stepping forward, and took me in his arms and dipped me. He raised an eyebrow, and I let out a giggle. "So…you like me, eh? How about, you and me…" He waggled his eyebrows at me, and we shared a laugh before he let me go.

"Alas, my heart is given to another, my dear Eries," he put a hand to his chest, and closed his eyes briefly.

I tried to wipe the smile from my face and reply accordingly. "Oh Dryden, I suppose I will have to live without you then."

And I realized I hadn't laughed so much in ages.

When we both had calmed down, he sat, and gestured to me to do the same.

"Honestly, though, Eries. What am I going to do? Everything would have been fine, I was going to wait, you know, until…until she was older, but…and then she showed up on my ship, and…Eries, she's beautiful."

A part of me winced, hearing one more man call my sister beautiful. But I didn't let it show. "Dryden, she doesn't know what she wants. But I know what's good for her."

He looked skeptical. "You know what's good for her? Don't you think she should?"

I shook my head once. "She's confused. I know she…she doesn't hate you."

"Hmm." He studied me. "That's not 'she loves you, Dryden' or even 'she likes you, Dryden'."

"Let me talk to her, I know I can get through to her. Your charms have already made her second-guess herself once." I stood, and he continued to slouch in the chair, his hand at his mouth, pensive.

"Eries, not that I don't appreciate your help, but I can't be charming all the time. And…and I don't really want anyone to force her into marrying me. I...I think I'm in love with her, Eries, and it would break my heart to think she wasn't, and I had…I had trapped her…"

I turned and put a hand on Dryden's shoulder.

"Don't worry. I think there's hope for you yet," I said, and gave him a smile. "And what's this about not being charming all the time? Liar."

While the smile he returned to me wasn't bright and full, it was at least an attempt to believe me, and for that, I was thankful.

It took relatively little pressing, on my part. I simply asked Millerna to give him a chance. And Dryden handled the rest. He was courteous, and gave her her space, but he also made it clear how he felt.

There were flowers from him in her room every morning when she awoke, and little notes under her plates at breakfast and dinner. I had watched her as even tiny smiles tugged the corner of her mouth, finding little bits of paper tucked beneath her meals.

"He loves you, you know."

She didn't look at me. "I know, Eries. It's just…"

"Allen?"

She whirled on me, like it was some sort of secret, like we weren't supposed to speak of it.

"What do you mean?"

I snorted lightly. "Millerna, you have been hanging on the coattails of that Caeli since you were twelve. Father will never let you marry him, and…" I swallowed, did I really want to say this? "I don't think he's in love with you, Millerna. Dryden very much is."

She looked like she was going to cry, her hands clasped under her chin, and her lip trembling.

"Eries, I…I love him."

"So you've said. But does he love you? Millerna," and I debated with myself whether or not I should reveal what I knew of Allen's character, what I knew of his love. Then decided not to. It had no bearing on this. I wasn't going to trick her. I took a step towards her, and took her hands in mine. I took a deep breath and continued. "Millerna, Dryden loves you. He wants nothing more than to be your husband, and he doesn't want to push you, he wants you to love him. He would support your medical studies…"

"He would?"

I laughed. "Don't you pay any attention? He thinks it's interesting that you want to be a doctor."

"He does?" Her voice climbed in pitch as these revelations continued to surprise her. She looked away from me, at the floor, and I realized she knew nothing of him. If only she would talk to him…

"Strange, I know. I can't fathom why. But can't you see? He wants you to be happy, and if that means your pursuit of your medicine, then so be it." My voice softened, and I tilted her head up to look at me. "Talk to him, Millerna. He's a good man, he would make you a fine husband."

She nodded at me once, and I left, hoping at least some of what I had said had gotten through.

As I watched them disembark from their barges and walk towards the priests, I hoped that she was happy.

But their happiness was not to last long, because the shadow of Zaibach found us again, and the ship shaped like a hand shimmered into sight, blocking out the sun.

The melefs were dispatched, but in some cruel twist of fate, they could not fight. Two flying melefs appeared, and the walls came crumbling down.

I huddled near my father, and yelled at the nearest guards to get him out of there. They yelled for me to follow them, and I looked one last time behind me, as a white dragon appeared to challenge the other two.

Then we hustled down the stairwell, and I prayed my sister was safe.

We ducked out a doorway, and there was no sign of my sister, but then I heard his voice. It echoed off the piles of rubble.

"Hitomi Kanzaki," he said, and my eyes were suddenly pricked by tears.

"Folken…why?"

"Princess! Come quickly!" And I was ushered through another doorway, and down another set of stairs.

A/N: The Dryden & Eries scene surprised me too. But I liked it, even as it was going down on the page. I had to come up with some way to get Millerna to marry Dryden. It's probably the most vague part in the entire series - why does she agree? And despite her growing maturity, I never thought she made the decision entirely on her own. But I didn't want it to be forced, either. So I put Eries on the case.

Don't worry, more Eries/Folken the next time around!