And the Clock Struck Twelve
By seraphimstarlight
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Tales of the Abyss or any of its characters.
Author's Note: A big thank you to Fox of Anubis, b4k4 ch4n, and Silver Nightingale for the reviews. They mean so much to me .
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The reaction was instantaneous. Natalia all but fainted and had to be escorted back to her seat by General Goldberg who seemed to be the only one in the room with enough presence of mind to help her. Guy meanwhile was forced to back away from Alpine who was making rather vocal demands that the letter be read aloud and calling for the guards to arrest Guy for something that sounded a lot like treason. Guy was busy saying something about not shooting the messenger.
At last, it was the King who brought order to the chaos in the Audience Chamber.
"ENOUGH!" he bellowed, immediately silencing Alpine and sending the guards scurrying back to their posts. "This young man has done nothing wrong. He will not be arrested. But I do agree with Alpine that the letter must be read aloud." He turned to Guy. "I trust there are no objections."
"Of course not, Your Majesty. The letter was sent with the intent of making you aware of the Emperor's proposal. I simply thought it better for the Princess to see the letter first." Guy handed the letter to Goldberg who had come to retrieve it.
The King nodded. "Of course, I understand." He turned to Goldberg who had since unfurled the scroll and nodded for him to begin.
Goldberg cleared his throat cerimoniously and began to read:
Princess Natalia of Kimlasca-Lavaldear,
Your presence is hereby requested at a three night series of parties given by Emperor Peony the Ninth of the Malkuth Empire, during which time the Emperor will select a wife from among the eligible nobility attending. As you are now of marriageable age, we hereby request that you attend the ceremony not only as a emissary of the most honorable Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, but as a potential bride for His Majesty. We look forward to your presence at Grand Chokmah in one week.
We have sent this letter in the hands of a most trustworthy messenger, Count Gailardia Galan Gardios whom we have asked to escort you to Grand Chokmah. You are free, however, to bring whomever else you wish, although, if they are not of the nobility, they will be ineligible to attend the parties.
His Majesty looks forward to your presence.
The letter trailed off into a long list of names—presumably the members of Peony's council. Natalia didn't know, and, frankly, she didn't care. Although the shock of the word "bride" had finally begun to wear off, the anticipation of the parties had filled her stomach with a nauseating sense of dread.
Her father leaned over to her and asked if she was all right. Inwardly she cursed herself for letting such weakness show. She said that she was all right.
"Will you go?" he asked her after a moment.
"I suppose I must," she said. "For the honor of Kimlasca."
A frown formed momentarily at the corners of his mouth but quickly disappeared. "And if the Emperor should choose you?"
It was her turn to frown. "I suppose," she said with great resignation, "I will do what I must."
He sat back in his chair and prepared to give her answer. At the last second he turned to her and said, "I will not force you to go."
She sighed and looked away. "But duty will," she said at last.
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Natalia kept to her chambers for the rest of the evening. She ran the morning's events through her head over and over again. What she couldn't get out of her mind were her father's words. And if the Emperor should choose you?
She sighed. She had said she would—that she would fulfill her duty as a princess and marry for the good of her country. She had said she would, but as she knew all too well things were often easier said than done.
If it came down to it, could she marry the Emperor, a man who was at least twenty years older than she? Could she marry him, live with him, have children with him? The more she thought about it, the more certainly she knew that she, as an individual could not, but she knew that, for the sake of her country and her people she would.
There were not many times in her life that she hated being a princess. True, when she was younger she had resented all the etiquette lessons and such and had especially hated being confined to the castle. But had she remained Meryl and not become Natalia, she thought with a twinge, she might never have met Asch, or Luke, or Guy, or any of the others. Had she not been the princess of Kimlasca, she might never have become involved in the quest to save their world. She might not have been able to save her friends or the people of Auldrant who were so dear to her. Had she not been a princess, she would likely not be the person she was today.
But now….
For the first time in a long time she hated the way duty to her country ruled her life.
Yes, she wanted to marry for the good of her people. She wanted them to be happy, but…she too wanted to be happy. Was it selfish to think that way? Why couldn't it be that the person who was good for her country was also good for her?
She had no doubt that she would be well taken care of if she were to marry the Emperor. But could she be happy? Could she really? She pulled out the Maestro Stone which she now wore on a necklace and ran her thumb over the surface of the jewel. As she did so she asked herself again whether she could be happy as the Emperor's wife. Somehow, it did not surprise her when her answer turned out to be "no".
A sharp knock startled her, and she let the necklace drop back into her dress.
"Yes?" she called again. She waited for a response, but the knocking only continued. Puzzled, she opened her room door and poked her head out into the hallway.
It was empty, except for a guard at the far end. She saw him look curiously at her, but she smiled and pulled her head back through the doorway.
As she pulled the door shut behind her, she was irritated to find that the knocking still continued. At first she thought that maybe someone in one of the adjacent rooms was knocking on the wall between the rooms, but quickly dismissed that thought. As she turned around her heart nearly stopped beating.
At her window stood a man who was apparently too busy hauling something up from another ledge to notice that she had noticed him. It took a moment for her to recognize that it was not a stranger but Guy.
For a brief moment, she had the urge to kick him back out the window but restrained herself. It was, after all, a decent drop to the ground below. Instead, she tapped him on the shoulder and waited for him to turn around. When he did, she fixed him with her best glare.
He seemed to stifle a scream and all but threw himself back out the window, barely grabbing onto the window ledge. She had screamed when she thought he was going to fall, and that had brought the guard from down the hall running.
The guard pounded on the door. "Your Highness! Are you okay?!"
"Umm, yes…" she called, trying to sound natural while trying to pull Guy back through the window. "I'm fine," she reassured the guard.
Really, she wasn't having much luck helping Guy who seemed more disturbed by the fact that she was trying to help him rather than by the fact that he was hanging from a window ledge by one hand.
She let out a relieved sigh when she heard the guard's footsteps vanish into the distance and did not notice that Guy was handing her a rope that was tied to some kind of bag that rested on the window ledge a story below. Understanding what he wanted her to do, she proceeded to pull the bag up to her window before stepping back to allow him to pull himself up.
When he had made it safely back through the window he let himself drop down to the ground where he took several deep breaths to try to compose himself.
"You scared me half to death!" he said after a few minutes.
She frowned. "I think that should be my line, Guy." She fixed him with another glare. "What are you doing here anyway? If you'd wanted to speak with me, you could have called for me you know. You didn't need to nearly kill yourself. What on earth could have been so important that…"
Her words drifted off when he pointed to the bag that she had pulled up earlier.
"You want me to open it?"
He nodded.
Inside the canvas bag was a bowl of fruit cocktail and a waterskin.
She smiled despite herself.
"Is that what you were doing? Bringing me lunch?"
He laughed weakly. "Dinner's more like it."
She frowned. "Is it that late already?"
"Yeah," he said, standing. "You've been locked up in here for most of the day. I overheard the maids say that you didn't answer when they called for dinner. So I borrowed some ingredients from the kitchen and brought them here."
"Through the window," she reminded him as she picked a piece of kirima out of the mix.
"Well, I couldn't think of anything else!" he huffed as he ran a hand through his hair. "I was worried that the guards might think I was trying to poison you or something, especially after that ruckus this morning!"
"Are you?" she asked, deliberately refraining from eating the piece of apple she had picked up. She wanted to tease him a bit.
He turned pale then flushed several shades of red. "O..of course not!" he stammered out at last. "Do you really think that I would…"
"No," she said confidently taking a bit out of the apple slice. "No, I don't."
He let out a sigh. "Oh thank Lorelei. For a second I thought you were going to call for the guards." He laughed nervously.
She picked up another piece of apple and nibbled on it thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should," she said after a moment.
He paled. "What?!"
She finished off the apple slice and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Well, there is a strange man in my room…" She trailed off meaningfully.
His eyes widened. "N..Natalia, you wouldn't…"
She sucked in a large breath as though she would scream, and turned back to cast an evil glare at him. She was surprised to find that he was already beside her, hands on her shoulders asking her in a painfully pleading tone not to call the guards.
"Please, please don't call them! If you do, they'll lock me up for sure! Or behead me or something like that!"
She looked at him, genuinely surprised. "What on earth do you mean?"
He seemed to relax and sat down across from her, the bowl of food in between them.
He grabbed a piece of amango and chewed on it nervously.
"Well," he began, "this morning after you told everyone the contents of the letter, that man, Alpine, had threatened to have me arrested and I thought…"
She chuckled to herself. "Oh don't worry about that," she said reaching for another piece of kirima, "Alpine's just got his beard in a knot because of the Emperor's…proposal. You see, for the past year and a half he's been trying to marry me off to his son."
Guy seemed surprised.
She continued. "But Alpine's son is just a greedy, power-hungry toad who doesn't have the common sense to try and hide it." She shook her head. "I was against it, General Goldberg was against it, and most importantly, my father was against it. Still, before now, he was the only suitor of sufficient quality to court someone of my rank. Alpine probably figured that all he had to do was wait, and I would eventually give in."
Guy reached for a piece of apple. "I guess he doesn't know you very well then."
She laughed. "I guess not. I mean, you'd think he'd know that I wouldn't choose a person simply because they were the only suitor available, but I guess some people are simply incapable of learning."
They fell silent for a moment. She picked a juicy looking strawberry out of the bowl but hesistated before eating it.
"So," she said, twirling the strawberry around by what little remained of its stem, "why fruit cocktail?"
"Huh?" He looked up suddenly from a piece of kirma that he had just begun to chew on.
"Why fruit cocktail?"
He laughed. "Well, you always did have something of a sweet tooth, so I figured I could at least convince you to eat this. And you know me, this is the closest I get to cooking something sweet."
"Besides," he said after finishing off his piece of kirima, "I don't think the Emperor would be happy with me if I let his potential bride starve to death."
Her face fell. From the way his expression changed she could tell he regretted what he had said.
She dropped the uneaten strawberry back into the bowl and looked away.
"Natalia…"
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. "No," she said, "it's all right." She paused then gave a mirthless laugh. "I guess I should feel honored, shouldn't I? Being chosen as the Emperor's potential bride."
"Note the word 'potential'," he said.
She looked up, surprised to find him studying her carefully. "What?"
He shook his head and made sighed. "You and Luke are so alike, you know? Leave you alone for a few minutes and you're liable to start dreaming up nonsense."
She sent a rather venemous glare in his direction. "What do you mean 'nonsense'?"
He sighed again. "What I mean is, here you are getting all worked up over getting married to the Emperor when there is no guarantee that he will choose you in the first place. Eligible women from all over the world will be attending that ball. He will have more than his pick from both countries."
"But…"she began.
He smiled. "But what? Yes, you're the Kimlascan princess. And yes, some people will push for him to choose you, but there are just as many, if not more people who are pushing for him to choose someone from Malkuth—people who want to keep the two countries separate."
"But why would they want to do that? Wouldn't it be better if the two countries are united?"
He stretched. "Do you think it would be better?"
"Definitely." She hesitated. "Okay, maybe. I can see where you're coming from. Just because the two countries unite doesn't mean that the fighting will end. I can…understand that. But still, I'd like to think that such a pooling of our countries' resources would be for the best—that by doing such a thing we'd be able to help not only the people in Kimlasca but also the people in Malkuth. Such a thing could only for the best. Don't you think so?"
He studied her carefully before reaching into the bowl and picking up the strawberry she had dropped earlier. "I think," he said at last, "that you should eat some more. You've only had a few pieces of fruit, and I don't think that is enough to replace two missed meals." He smiled and held the strawberry out to her by the stem.
She had no idea what possessed her at the moment, but a deliciously wicked idea popped into her head. Instead of simply taking the strawberry from his hand, as she would have normally, she leaned forward and took a leisurely bite out of the end of the strawberry.
A droplet of juice slithered down one side of her chin. She would have reached up to wipe it away herself, but she was more than a little surprised to find that he had already done so.
His fingertips lingered against her face longer than she thought they would have. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks as he slowly trailed his fingers across her chin tracing the curve of her lower lip.
As she looked up at him, she was surprised by the intensity of his gaze. For the first time, she noticed what a bright, vibrant blue his eyes were even in the fading light of the afternoon.
Something fluttered deep in her chest behind a door which she had thought might never open again. It beat against the bars of her heart with a strength she had had not expected. Briefly her mind drifted back to that day in Inista Marsh when he had said that she could go with him to Malkuth.
She released a breath she had not realized she had been holding. The sound startled him, and he pulled away, almost involuntarily.
"I…apologize, Your Highness," he said, quickly turning away and hiding his face in his hands. "I overstepped my bounds."
For a moment, he seemed at a loss for what to do. He turned around until his eyes lighted on the same window he had come through.He started for it, but, instinctively, she stood and grabbed hold of his wrist. He did not turn to look at her, but, to her surprise, he did not pull away either.
"Please, Your Highness," he said in a quiet voice, "please let me go. I…"
She was surprised by the note of pleading in his voice; it was so different from earlier when he had pleaded with her not to call for the guards. This time, his voice was subdued, as though he was struggling against himself for some reason.
Oh. She let her hand slip from his wrist. He walked over to the window and hauled himself up on the ledge. As he began climbing down, she heard him say, "Take care of yourself, Your Highness. I will see you tomorrow."
She could not find her voice, and instead let her silence accompany him.
It took her a moment for the shock of what had just happened to wear off. She was surprised to find that, at some point she had begun to cry. Her chest heaved as she forced herself to draw breath to try to stifle the sobs that had burgeoned somewhere deep within her frame. She could not—could not allow herself to imagine why she had been affected thus. It would not do. It would not do.
The thought of her people and her duty to them would not allow what had awakened in her after all this time. Despite what he had said earlier, she could not ignore the fact that she might, in all likelihood, end up married to the Emperor. It would not happen. She could not let it. If she did, it would only lead to more pain that she could hope to endure.
She did not know what to do. All she could do was try to stifle her sobs and wipe the tears from her face. And all she did know was that her pendant lay heavy and cold against her breast.
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Author's Note:
Yay! I finally got to write some fluff! They're one of the cuuutest couples I've ever seen, and it's fun to write them because I see their relationship as being very subtle with little moments like this being the most important. Of course, there is the angst, but, what would romance be without angst??? Anyways, starting next chapter, I'll be writing in Guy's point of view as well.