A/N: Not as entertaining as the prologue, but Anna draws some interesting conclusions.
Chapter 1
Both of them entered. They settled stiffly into the two chairs in front of my desk.
"Good morning, Cecil. And the same to you as well, Kain," I greeted with a professional tone. Although I knew them both from being friends of my fiancé or visits to the Damcyan castle, this was psychologist and client, not friend and friend. We had our roles to play.
"Hey, Anna," responded Cecil with a friendly smile. Kain did not respond.
I gave him a pointed glare. Sad. Even Kain was being more cooperative than Cecil.
"Before I begin this session, I assume you both know what it entails?" I asked. "I want your full honesty so that I can provide you the best advice for you to understand yourselves better."
"And we can't do that ourselves?" Kain inquired. Perhaps he was afraid of being manipulated from someone as Golbez had. Regardless of that, they both suffered under the brunt of my glare.
"Wonderful. If you believe you can, just cancel this appointment with my secretary so I can take a nap," I snapped. "Any more questions?"
Silence.
"Good, let's begin," I stated, closing my notes about their psychological health. I had already taken the time to memorize them last night. Now, I could offer them my full attention.
"I want you to let go of whatever painful or humiliating feelings and let them be known to me. Even your dreams could have significance. I won't judge you or tell anyone about this. Trust me," I began. Leading them over to two couches by a bookshelf, I made them lie down and leaned against a coffee table.
Giving them a hard penetrating stare, I began, "First, I want you to tell me what happened from the very beginning. Starting with you Cecil, since you're the more vocal one of this group. As for Kain, you can interject whenever he omits a detail or your recollection deviates from what he experienced. Is that clear?"
They nodded. Drawing up my blank pad of paper, I wrote their names at the top of the page.
Squirming under my gaze, Cecil tried to sit up a little. With his mouth no longer pressed into a firm line, he started, "Steering the Red Wings south, my men and I headed towards the ancient city of Mysidia, nestled among shadowy forests. To be honest, I didn't know why it was so important to take their crystal when they seemed like a cultish people who kept to themselves. At the time, I figured the king must have his reasons. Mages are often creepy, besides Rosa of course.
I told my troops to lag a distance behind me so I wouldn't startle the Mysidians. If I asked diplomatically enough, retrieving their crystal should be easy enough.
Actually, I told my men to blend in as much as possible unless I needed some more persuading. One clumsy man got himself turned into a frog. We'd deal with it later. It wasn't easy for them, I imagine, because they were the only armored men in the whole city. From that point on, I would not allow them to speak to the Mysidians to prevent them from casting Frog.
Eventually, we got to their temple. It was the most significant feature in their whole drab city. The Praying Tower, I think they may have called it.
"I am a representative of the king of Baron. May I speak to your Elder," I asked once inside.
The cloaked figure started speaking in another language in a high pitched voice. The other mages shuffled out of the room.
"Can it wait?" the mage asked, suspicious of my behavior. "He's in the middle of a prayer. I'm sure he'll be praying for the next eight hours or so."
"No, I need to see him now," I demanded.
"Why?" she asked. That little midget of a mage. Did she actually think she could interrogate me?
"It is none of your concern since it's my business with the Elder," I snapped.
She looked at me another moment as if evaluating. To my relief, she walked over to the door, I walked behind her closely and beckoned my men to come in after she had walked in.
Returning, she smiled, "I told the other mages who will tell the Elder."
"Thanks. I really appreciate it," I responded.
Continuing on, she said, "You're welcome. I told them 'Never mind. It can wait.' I have to wait until I get a response from the Elder."
"What?" I asked. I was losing it. This was supposed to be a simple two-day mission.
Pushing her aside and knocking her out, I led my men and the frog to stay in the front entrance room with the now incapacitated mage. Then, I yanked open the door. There were about eight other mages sitting on a bench near another door. They looked like they were either passing a message or sharing a secret.
"Hey, is this the waiting room?"
Seeing me, they jumped and all blocked the door.
"Excuse me," I said pushing one aside who was blocking the door.
"The message was what?" one mage asked another.
"No!" another whispered loudly.
I was thoroughly confused.
Turning towards me, the mage said," The answer is 'No!"
"Come on, it's urgent!" I complained. "Did you even ask him?"
One mage turned to the other, whispering something again. Once the response had been passed to each member, they looked at me. I glared. They just wasted five minutes for a one-word response.
"The answer is 'Yes. Why do you ask?' "
Trying to be helpful, I suggested, "You know it would be more efficient if you told me directly rather than telling each other one-by-one."
Angrily, one stood up to me. He shouted, "This is a thousand-year tradition. How dare you challenge the fine ways of the ancients?"
"It's a little antiquated for a security system," I explained. "You could try using guards like Baron. By the way, you just contradicted your tradition."
"Imbecile," he interjected. "You are not fit to be in the presence of any Mysidian, much less the Elder."
"Calm down. I was just offering you some advice. If you won't let me in, I will see the Elder without your help," I snapped. Crystals, they were getting on my nerves.
Racing over to the door to the front entrance room, I beckoned my men to join me. This could get ugly.
Quickly, we whacked all the mages out of our way.
"Make sure they're not dead," I told my men. Then, I took a few of my most trusted men and went into the Crystal Chamber.
On a pedestal, I saw the crystal. It was glowing as if light were moving inside of it. Stepping over a man sleeping at the foot of the pedestal, I grabbed it gleefully.
"All this fuss over a shiny rock," I muttered, putting the crystal in my bag.
Upon hearing noise, the man jumped up and began to wrestle me for it. It wasn't hard for me with my men holding him down. With a long glance at his bruised face, I realized it was the Elder. Looks like we were in big trouble.
I heard scuttling feet outside and the mages came crashing in.
They raised their hands and said the most horrible words I've ever heard. "Frogify all!"
Promptly, all my men became croaking green creatures.
At this point, I'd had enough of these crazy people. So I yelled, "Kill them as quickly as you can!"
Instead, croaking noises came from my throat. That dumb man under my command who turned into a frog earlier was now a man. Life wasn't fair.
Fortunately he had a little sense to… "If you don't turn 'em all back to people, your leader will be good as dead." With that, he grabbed all that remained of the Elder's hair in his hand.
Grudgingly, they turned us back and still asked for the crystal. The nerve of them!
"Another day," I promised patting the bald spot on the Elder's bruised head.
After knocking out all the mages, I gathered my men and headed off toward Baron. That stupid man who had first been frog killed one of them. That's what makes nations go to war."
I had about ten pages of notes. Sizable, but you can never know enough about one man's mind.
Stopping Cecil from a tirade was hard. Yuck. All those negative emotions have been long repressed. I was glad his unconscious motives were easier to read.
"So Cecil," I began. "How old were you when you were Captain of the Red Wings?"
"Twenty. One year younger than Kain," he responded. Kain had fallen asleep with Cecil's boring epic journey, causing me to slap him across the face.
"And what was your relationship to the former king of Baron at the time?" I asked.
My eyes pinned down Kain, coercing a response. "Cecil considered him a father-like figure. He idolized him in every way, even becoming a dark knight on his behalf. As for me, I respected him, but held only my father in higher regard. I would rather be a dragoon than have a king dictate my military career."
Cecil gave him a pointed look. I saw the knife turn in his side. Honesty hurts, but it's best for a cure.
"That makes perfect sense now," I said with a brilliant smile that scared battle-hardened former Captain now King Cecil out of his wits. Both shuddered in fear as they awaited my next words.
"I conclude that Baron is dumb."
They both looked at me in horror. What? I wasn't the next Golbez or anything.
"First of all, you two should have never been promoted to Captain at twenty. That's the age of some of the recruits. Besides, your men you command are probably mainly ten to twenty years older than you. Tell me that's not crazy. Favoritism and nepotism got you your positions."
They stared at me in shock.
This was the typical reaction. I appreciated bluntness. Calmly, I continued, "Your responsibilities were pressed on you unnaturally at too young an age. You need to slow down the pace of your life and accept responsibilities as they come. You're much too rash, Cecil, and you need to confide your feelings to someone else instead of pretending to be strong and trying to repress them all."
Writing The Frog Princess ft. Rosa as Frog on the line for the name of drug, I discussed the medication. "Cecil, you have an unreasonable fear of mages and frogs. Either you use take this prescription or I will have to refer you to a behavioral psychologist."
"Sounds easy enough," Cecil said with a nervous smile.
Both rose from their chairs and began inching towards the door.
Yanking them back into the chairs, I glared vehemently at them. "I didn't say I was finished yet. Kain, you're not off the hook yet. I haven't heard you add to the narrative at all, except through your snoring. Tomorrow, you'll do all the talking no matter what. After all, it's more useful than taking a nap during our group therapy session."
He nodded, trying to look enthusiastic, but I knew he was groaning inwardly. A little reaction formation was definitely evident. After all, he was giving me the opposite response of what he intended to show.
"Have a nice day," I said leading them to the door.
Darting there as soon as possible, they both gave me a goodbye. Kain's was more forced, but I was pleased with the results. They respected or feared me. That's the only way I could get through to them.
The question is who doesn't want to see Anna torture I mean heal Kain.
~Reasons of Heart