After work that day, Lon'qu ran to Shuo'li's mansion and knocked on the door, waiting for Ke'ri to reply. Instead, a maid opened the door. "How may I help you?"
"Excuse me, but is Ke'ri here?" he replied, resisting the urge to bounce in nervous anticipation. That would be undignified, he chastised himself.
"No, she's not," the maid answered quickly. "And she won't be back for a while. Have a good day, sir," she continued, closing the door as she said the words.
Lon'qu's mind raced in confusion as he walked back towards Linan. She hadn't told him that she was going to be away… Thinking back through their conversations, he chided himself for not realizing it earlier. Her father had probably been selected as one of the delegation members to Ylisse, and she must have gone with him. He supposed that the news of his apprenticeship would have to wait until their next meeting.
In Ylisse, Ke'ri walked alongside her pen pal in Ylisstol's royal gardens while their fathers talked of trade and commerce in a government meeting.
"What your problem is, Ke'ri," her pen pal said, "is that you want to do things too quickly. If there is going to be change, it has to be done slowly. No government official is going to authorize some large-scale program to rectify poverty overnight. You have to start small."
"But it feels like I'm not getting anything done!" Ke'ri exclaimed. "Sure, maybe I'll give a piece of bread to a starving child, or give a few coins to a beggar, but the bread will only last the boy one meal and the coins can only stretch so far!"
"You don't understand," her pen pal explained patiently. "Maybe the bread will only last a day, and maybe the coins will barely pay for a meal, but it makes a world of difference. The poor need to know that you care. They've spent so much of their lives being looked down upon by nobility like us that they've given up hope for a better life. Just showing that you care matters a lot."
Ke'ri thought back to when she had given Lon'qu the burn salve. "I suppose you're right. It just feels so ineffective sometimes."
"I know, darling. But we must keep doing our best," Maribelle said daintily.
A week later, Ke'ri and Lon'qu were on their second outing. This time, Ke'ri had insisted that it was her turn to decide the destination.
"Lucky for you I'm so trusting. For all I know you could be leading me to some shady forest to murder me and leave me for dead," Lon'qu quipped.
"Hey, that's my line!" she shot back, elbowing him playfully. "Anyways, it's a surprise. I'm sure you'll like it."
As they crested the hill, Lon'qu got his first glimpse of the view. A sparkling river ran below and a rustic bridge crossed through, leading to a small forest. Down the hill on their left, a shepherd herded his sheep away from a small log cabin. Suddenly, the small basket she grasped made sense.
"I thought we could have a picnic," she said, echoing his thoughts. Pulling out a checkered blanket, she offered an edge to Lon'qu. "Here, help me spread this out on the grass."
The afternoon passed by lazily, as they lunched on the food that Ke'ri had brought. Lon'qu realized how at ease he was, simply talking with her. At times, they drifted into a relaxed silence, simply admiring the view. At other times, he found himself tripping over words as his thoughts ran faster than his mouth possibly could. For the first time in years, he had a confidant his age, and he reveled in the fact that she trusted him enough to make him privy to her secrets and fears. All too soon, the sun began to set, casting a myriad of orange and purple hues across the sky.
"It looks like we should head back soon," Ke'ri sighed, unwilling to say the words.
"Hn," Lon'qu replied. "I guess you're right. But maybe, next week…?" he trailed off, flustered at how forthright he was being.
She smiled prettily. "I've got no commitments."
A/N: I know Maribelle's a bit OOC here, but in this story, her personality changes quite a bit after Gaius accuses her father.