bouquet Chapter 22: Spring's Blossoming Bonds, a fire emblem fanfic

Bouquet

-0-

Spring's Blossoming Bonds: Variegated Tulip, Chinese Chrysanthemum, Calycanthus
(beautiful eyes that shine with cheerfulness under adversity will earn benevolence every time)

Caerleon County was truly beautiful; its open fields continually touched Louise with the memory of her home, while its many cozy towns and villages was worthy of the region that was considered 'the gateway of Etruria'. Beyond its eastern border was Ostia, capital of Lycia, a league of small and large cantons not quite as advanced as either Etruria or Bern but said to have its own rustic charm. Someday, she thought it might be nice to visit there if Lord Pent was amenable to it...it would be quite wonderful to travel far and wide across Elibe, to see the world with her own two eyes...

"Cousin? What are you smiling about?"

Her heart fluttering madly, much like a little butterfly struggling towards the next bright flower to catch its eye, Louise held a hand to her chest as she looked at Joshua, who had a hint of a teasing smile lingering along his lips and twinkling in his dark turquoise eyes. "I was only thinking," she replied, her tone a whole octave higher than it ought to be--she felt her face warm at the sound, while his smile lengthened. "W-well, how are you finding the trip?" she urged, more to avoid further embarrassment than pure curiosity.

"We'd only cut through this area the last time..." He hesitated. "I mean, it's okay. I can't believe I'm meeting a real count today."

Here, Louise couldn't help but play with one of the bouncy ringlets that fell past her bosom--Celia had set her hair and chosen the gown she wore today, but because she was being escorted by her cousin Celia was unable (and unwilling) to accompany them on their trip to Castle Caerleon. Letting her fingers linger at the end of the whirling curl, Louise murmured, "Are you unhappy?"

Joshua sat up a little straighter; if he was uncomfortable in the excellent suit of clothing her mother had arranged for him he didn't show it. Louise so admired that about her cousin, that he seemed to fit perfectly into whatever role it was decided he should play. A traveling hunter, heir to Alloway's finest gentry name, escort of Count Reglay's acknowledged fiancée...he seemed to take to all of it with the same gentle smile and kind eyes. Knowing that she did not fit so easily, she found it easy to envy him a little, and even easier to use him as an example of what she should be ever since she had returned home just under a month ago.

In the end, though she hated it so, she was forced to obey Lord Pent's final letter. Since then, there had been no word, no closure. But though she could do naught but pray for him, she could still feel in her heart and soul that he was still alive somewhere, and that gave her great comfort. She would not lose faith now.

"I'm not unhappy," her cousin finally said. "I've met with Lord Aramis many times alongside your father, and I don't feel that all nobles are as terrible as my mom believes. I just feel weird about your plan."

She looked at him and tried to smile. "You don't believe it will work?"

"I guess I still don't know about your count." He looked away, color high on his cheekbones. "You haven't received anything in almost two months."

"I..." Her gaze darted away from Joshua's form, to the window in the carriage door beside her. Blossoms as vibrantly pink as the color of her dress weighed down the branches of the trees beside the highway leading to the castle city of Caerleon. Lord Pent's eighteenth birthday had passed without a word from him, and despite her desires she had already been in Alloway by then. Already it was March, already it was nearing the time he would come home and then, if he would still have her...

"Lord Pent is alive," she said. She had said it before, over and over as the weeks passed, but she already knew the doubt on Joshua's face more keenly than her cousin could ever know it, even were he to carry a mirror wherever he went.

"...I shouldn't say this, but isn't it worse if he is alive and he's not..." But thankfully, Joshua did not bring a proper conclusion to the sentence, though she had heard it before too. She had, it seemed, heard everything before.

Twisting her fingers in her lap, Louise pleaded, "Can't we talk about something else?"

Joshua coughed. "Um, well, lately I've been following your mother's advice but Celia still won't talk to me..."

That was another thing she so loved about her cousin: He was just as willing to allow himself to be embarrassed as he was in asking questions that could embarrass others. His sense of equality, she imagined, was very Lycian of him.

-0-

While Caerleon Castle did not possess the same grandeur that Castle Reglay so firmly held, in exchange it had a sense of charm that began when Louise had stepped into the foyer and headlong into Nella's embrace and never really ended as the older woman began a whirlwind tour of the castle that nearly overwhelmed both herself and her cousin. There were rooms filled with sunlight, more with paintings adorning at least one wall, most with bookshelves, and all had potted plants of various sizes, types, and appearance. By the time Louise stepped into a parlor at one corner of the first floor, she had to admit difficulty in taking her seat like an elegant lady and not simply plopping onto the antique chair. Beside her, she noticed her dear cousin's hand had the faintest tremble running through it.

Evidently, Nella had noticed their exhaustion, her laughter trilling out of her as she daintily took her seat at the small tea table. "My, was that all really too much for you? I should have been a better hostess and let you rest. It's just about two days' journey from Alloway to here, isn't it?"

"No, almost a day and a half," Joshua said, introducing a respectful nod to the end of his correction. "It would have been a shame to delay a tour of the castle. It's incredible."

Louise giggled. "It's quite true. It has such a nice atmosphere, and I thought the paintings look very lovely put up in all the rooms rather than shut away in a distant gallery."

"I see what one of your first changes to Castle Reglay will be, dear Louise," Nella teased, laughing merrily as Louise looked down to hide her flaming face. "Oh, I've been looking forward to your visit in weeks! Ever since you expressed interest in coming here, I have to admit that I've given cause for the help to hate me, what with all the scrubbing I've forced on them. But I just couldn't help myself, not when Catherine's daughter was going to come visit me!"

"Aunt Catherine means a lot to you, then," Joshua commented. To this, Nella nodded.

"Many people say this as an exaggeration, but for me it is entirely true that, were it not for her, I would not be sitting here with you now."

"Truly?" Louise could not help but ask, her eyes wide to hear such a bold claim.

Nella nodded. "True, true, all of it true." Smiling faintly, she shook her head. "But such talk is for later. Why don't you tell me about your journey while tea is served? You'll need the energy for when you see the children. They're all wound up more than usual to have young visitors come here for once. I dare say my two eldest are already halfway in love with Mister Émile here." Nella winked at Joshua, who smiled at this.

"That's until they actually see me, the poor girls."

Louise stared at her cousin, who was every bit as handsome and as charming as any girl would require. With such shining looks and personality, he belied his August birth and the darkness therein with nary but a smile. "How can you say that? Even Mother says that you're easy to fall for."

To this, he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Not all women think that."

In an instant she remembered Celia, who only sought marriage of the soul as provided by the convent, and looked away. "Mm, perhaps," she mumbled.

"What a shame," Nella said, her voice full of sympathy, "but to hear dear Louise tell it, no one could compare with Lord Pent. There are many other women in Etruria who would love you in an instant, so don't fret."

Louise blinked, her face warming at a rapid beat. Do I really talk about Lord Pent that way to other people? she couldn't help but wonder. She heard her cousin say, "No, actually, Louise is great, but I'm seeking someone else right now."

"Oh, is that what it was? I'm sorry." Grinning with an almost childish mischievousness, Nella fluttered her hand just so. "Then Louise is free to moon over her beloved lord, I see."

"I-I don't...do that," Louise stammered, well and truly embarrassed now. "I just--that is...Lord Pent is wonderful, so..." But Nella's peal of laughter halted her words better than anything else could have, and so Louise sat and fought the urge to clarify her feelings any further. Her cousin could hold conversation over tea with more natural skill than she had ever learned over months of practice with the Reglay noblewomen, and so it was enough for her to wet her tongue with the fragrant tea and try a few tea cakes and scones to temper her hunger while listening to the chatter as the topic of conversation ranged from food to Joshua's former life to the children of House Caerleon and all their myriad habits and eccentricities. It was only when tea was dwindling down that a maid came into the room bearing a note for Nella, who opened it and read a few lines before smiling widely.

"Ah, that man of mine." Looking up, the woman's deep green eyes lit up with love and happiness. "My lord husband regrets that he cannot have tea or join us for any activities during the afternoon, but he'll be looking forward to meeting the two of you before dinner."

Nodding, Louise said, "I'll be looking forward to that very much, Nella."

"Yes, I'm quite pleased to hear that." Rising to her feet, the woman called Countess Caerleon seemed every bit as powerful as a highborn noblewoman ought to be, aglow with the same pleasant qualities that drew Louise to her during their first meeting over a year ago. "Shall we meet the children now?"

The children were upstairs in a large playroom, situated just so to receive as much light as possible. Inside were toys and dolls and, unsurprisingly, books that looked no less complicated than the sort Louise's mother so liked to read. There was also a nurse there cradling the youngest of the children, still some months before his first birthday, while watching the ongoings of the room with a steely gaze that did not bend easily, not even when Nella all but fluttered into the room. "Children! Let's properly greet our guests!" she announced with a clap of her hands, and in response the four of them, having been sprawled on the floor or sitting in chairs and perusing old storybooks, quickly lined themselves up from what Louise guessed was oldest to youngest.

"She's got a way, doesn't she?" Joshua murmured into Louise's ear, and she had to hide her giggle behind her hand.

"All right now, let's start the introductions, just as I taught you." Gesturing towards Louise and Joshua, Nella gave an encouraging nod to the eldest, a willow-slender girl. "Estelle, go on, show your siblings how it's done."

Louise turned an admiring eye towards the girl now approaching them; Estelle had a long gait that bespoke of a body accustomed to great feats of athleticism, but her well-groomed waves of auburn-brown hair and healthy pink face revealed her to be a different sort of tomboy than Louise had been at that age--or either Nella or the nurse's excellent ability to get the House Caerleon children set up properly for the guests. Curtsying, Estelle greeted them with a bubbly, "I'm so honored to meet the future Countess Reglay. I'm Estelle Isaant, Count Caerleon's firstborn daughter. Lady Louise, is it true you practice archery?"

"It is," Louise answered with a smile. "Do you as well?"

Estelle's cheeks turned even pinker. "N-not as much, no. I like horseback riding. Um." She glanced at Joshua, then bit her bottom lip. "Mister Émile...do you also like horses?"

Joshua smiled. "I do, Lady Estelle."

"W-would you then, if it's not a bother...like to ride with me--all of us later?"

"I'd like that very much."

"Ehehe...I'm glad. Let's all be good friends, then." With those words, Estelle moved back to the line; Joshua threw Louise a look of amusement that had her returning it with a giggle--though she was not much older than the eldest Isaant, she could well remember the days when she felt quite happy to be treated as an adult at the public soirees in Alloway.

Mamie, the second child, had a smile sweetened by her shy demeanor, her rich dark red hair tied into an elegant Etruscan braid. "Hi, I'm Mamie," she said towards their feet.

"Hello, Mamie," Louise said, echoed not a moment later by her cousin. This had the effect of causing the dear little girl's head to raise enough for her hazel-green eyes to be seen, then she grinned before scurrying back to to the line and clutching her elder sister's hand. Louise could hear Joshua chuckle lowly at the sight and she couldn't help but wonder if he was remembering similar times with his brothers.

Then it was time for the third daughter, who Louise remembered to be the adopted Priscilla. She clearly seemed uncomfortable in ways not shared by either of her sisters; though she had a very similar coloring to the rest of the family, her awkwardness and discomfort with even approaching them for her introduction revealed the difference of her birth. To this, Louise wondered if the little girl had not been happy in her prior life. The girl was twisting a ring on her finger when she was finally coaxed forward by Nella. "My name is Priscilla...Priscilla of House Cornwell," she mumbled.

"It's House Caerleon, silly," Estelle called from her place. Priscilla twisted around, gripping the ring in her hands.

"No, that's wrong. You're not my family. I already have a brother and he's kind and wonderful and better than you!"

"If he's so wonderful, why isn't he here with you?" Estelle retorted. At these words, Priscilla began to cry.

"All right, that's enough!" Nella yelled, bending down to take a hold of Priscilla by the shoulders. "Priscilla...oh, Priscilla, here, why don't you go back to your room and read that fairytale collection your family sent for your birthday? Didn't your brother also write something very nice for you in there? Come on, Annie will take you there." After taking the baby from the nurse's arms, Nella watched in silence as the nurse took Priscilla out of the room. When they had gone, Nella glared at Estelle. "Young lady, I've told you time and time again to treat your sister better than that. You're not showing me that you deserve to go horseback riding today."

"But Auntie, did you just hear her? She doesn't think of me as her sister! She doesn't even like any of us!" Estelle crossed her arms. "You never punish her whenever she does anything bad, but if we tell the truth then we get in trouble. It's not fair."

"It's not," Mamie ventured from behind her sister.

"I wanna do my introduction!" yelled the little boy-heir of House Caerleon. Nella just rolled her eyes.

"Estelle, we'll talk about this later, when we don't have guests. Natey, go make your introductions."

The little boy ran up to Louise. "Hi!"

A little startled, Louise smiled. "Hello." In response, he held out his arms, frowning when it took Louise more than a moment to understand what he wanted. "Oh, do you want a hug? I'm so sorry!" She embraced him heartily, her heart trembling in that sentimental way every time she encountered young children. Madame Amy's sons were especially adorable--how she would've have liked a younger sibling like this, to cuddle whenever she wanted!

"Okay, Natey, time to let go of her," Nella said. "Your little brother wants some of her attention, too. Louise, I'd like you to meet Arthur, the newest member of our little family." Holding out the baby in her arms, Nella smiled as Louise managed to detach herself from Natey. "Come on, hold your arms out."

The sensation of holding a baby, delicate and soft and helpless, always, always shook something inside of Louise. There was, of course, that fierce desire to protect what lay in her arms, but then there was also a sort of peace she had never known from anything else, not even from shooting arrows on a nice spring day. This was something instinctual, almost frightening to her...and yet so incredible at the same time. It was as if she was on the cusp of something immense, something just there at the edge of her sixteen years.

Someday...what kind of mother would she be? It seemed so far beyond her, and yet...

-0-

"Thank you for staying behind with me," Nella said after the children and Joshua had left to ride horses along the trails around the castle. "I have so wanted to talk privately to you beyond the hindrance of mere written words."

"I've wanted the same for so long as well," Louise replied, truly touched by Nella's expression of their shared feelings. She could not help but blush when the older woman took her by the hand; the softness of Nella's hands were so different when juxtaposed with the years of archery experience that marked her own hands with a coarseness derided so often by the Reglay noblewomen, but Nella did not even flinch or show any sign that she was dismayed by Louise's unladylike hobbies. To be taken by the hand like this appealed to Louise's nature, always curious to see where she would be lead by others along the greater path that was her life, which made her happy to follow her family friend out of the room and down the hallway. Presently they arrived in a large gallery well-lighted by large Etruscan windows, an anomaly for an ancient keep like Caerleon Castle.

"Many of these paintings are of the recent generation," Nella explained as she led Louise past some of the displayed portraits. "My lord husband is greatly fond of all types of art and many painters enjoy his patronage. I'd say you can see the children growing up from one picture to another, he has them pose so often."

"And yourself, Nella?" Louise ventured to ask, struck by something strangely sad in her glimpse of Nella's profile. At her question, Nella smirked.

"I am not a child--I am a mother, after all." She huffed a sigh and turned her head just so, concealing her expression from Louise's gaze. "But I was a child when I met him."

"Mm...you've mentioned once that Count Caerleon was your sister's husband before..."

There was no response to Louise's diminishing question, and she quieted before long as Nella stood before a tall portrait of two women. One was easy to discover her identity: it was Nella herself, no more older than Louise at that very moment, with a slightly slimmer figure but the same voluptuousness and enjoyment of life present in her mischievous smile. The other was tall, slender, and with hair not half as red as Nella's; she was a pale brunette to whom the eldest Isaant daughter held a startling resemblance. The mystery of this woman's identity was easily answered by the plaque below the picture stating thus: 'Two Stars: Portrait of the Daughters of Viscount Holsett; Nanette 'Nanna' Isabel Isaant, Countess Caerleon, and Penelope 'Nella' Belle Ospré.'

Louise stared at the sisters' clasped hands and imagined that the sisterly bonds that were so visible in that piece of art still bound Nella to her sister even in death. It must be so; family ties could not be cut so easily, not between herself and her parents, not between herself and Celia. The heart does not let go so easily, it would not surrender so long as vital blood still flowed and forced it to beat.

Love was not a thing so easily vanquished. She knew this was so.

"She was so much more than a sister to me. Our mother did not hold strong feelings towards the children she bore, so Nanna was mother to us all despite the fact that she was the second of the four of us." Nella smiled, her eyelids half-lowered with what Louise believed was the weight of reminiscence. "My brothers were fond of her, but society places so many barriers between the world of men and the world of women, so in essence she became my Nanna. When she caught the eye of the second son of Count Caerleon, I was so jealous I couldn't even bear to speak to her for days!"

With a gesture, a simple curling of the index finger, Louise was bound to follow Nella through the thread of the older woman's memories as they moved from the portrait of the two sisters to one of Lady Nanna and a man Louise had not met, but knew instantly as the current Count Caerleon. Lady Nanna sat in a chair while her husband stood beside her, the two together the very image of self-assured nobility; she was slender and delicate, he broad-shouldered and stoic. It made her wonder, if only briefly, what sort of picture she would make with Lord Pent, but she forced herself not to go down a path she would not easily stray from once undertaken. Instead, she looked at the plaque of this new picture, which stated that the two were 'Lord Nicholas Arthur Isaant, Count Caerleon, and Lady Nanette Isabel Isaant, Countess Caerleon.'

"He has two names!" Louise gasped, her eyes wide with surprise. It was only natural; double names belonged to the realm of women, the first their own and the second an adaption of their mother's, and it had always been so among the whole nobility of Etruria since before The Scouring. Beside her, Nella nodded, a solemnity to her face that drained it of the life that so often gave her the vivacity of a room full of happy children.

"Nicholas is his Eliminean name; the second belongs to his older brother, who died in a hunting accident." Nella sighed. "My lord husband had been courting my sister at the time and the loss of his beloved brother nearly ended him as well. Were it not for my sister's delicate sympathies, of which she had never lacked, he too would have been lost."

"...Oh," Louise murmured, her fingers reaching towards her lips as she imagined how absolutely heartbroken Count Caerleon must have felt. "How...how did they meet?"

Nella brightened, if only slightly. "They were both literati along with your mother. Even today my lord husband is still part of the Hôtel de Rhubarbe. He's fond of epic poetry and is a leading poet of the Neo-Classical tradition." With a soft sigh, she glanced away from Louise. "Your mother taught me how to appeal to someone of that nature."

"Then that's why you said it was all because of Mother..." Louise realized aloud.

"Yes. Though at the time I thought my main desire was to be a mother to my sister's children, perhaps it is the way of children for their true intentions to be obvious to adults, even when they do not know what they really want." Chuckling, Nella gazed at Louise, a strange glimmer in her olive green eyes that made Louise feel oddly guilty. "But you know what you want, isn't that right?"

A swift, sudden sense of pride caused Louise to straighten up, to look her friend in the eye as she said, "I like to think I do."

"What do you want?"

Lord Pent's happiness, she almost said, but having no contact with him deadened the impulse with a numbing fear she dared not acknowledge in full. Instead, she admitted the other truth. "I would like to meet with your husband. I would like his support."

Nella appeared lost for a moment, as if she had expected a different answer from Louise. "You're honest, aren't you?" she commented, a strange undertone to her voice. "Even your mother dissembles sometimes in her letters. I...think that is very strange for a woman, but I can appreciate that. My lord husband hasn't much to say about the Reglay affair, but he would at least hear you out."

Though her neck felt a bit stiff, Louise nodded. "That is all I need."

"You're that confident, then?"

"It isn't about confidence," Louise admitted, "only that this is all I can do."

Because I cannot fail him any longer. If I do...will he disappear completely?

-0-

A truth regarding Lord Nicholas, Count Caerleon: He was very tall and quite broad about the shoulders and chest, with a head full of auburn hair and a neatly trimmed beard, but these attributes, all intimidating when taken at once, were softened by his obvious love for his children. As he held baby Arthur, he in turn addressed Estelle's desire to extend her riding lessons with questions on what sort of horse she would like next, encouraged Mamie with gentle words on her burgeoning writing ability, laughed as Natey tried to clamber onto him in order to sit upon his shoulders, and tried to draw in Priscilla by mentioning a letter he intended to write to her birth parents, though her reticence was deepened by the sadness that seemed her normal expression. Or, as Joshua muttered underneath his breath as he and Louise took in the scene of familial bliss, "Being a parent looks really tiring."

"But isn't it wonderful to have such a big family?" Louise asked, dazzled by the whole affair. What fun it must be to have so many siblings! She was not daunted from this belief even when her cousin quickly shook his head.

"Not when your parents forget you in Pherae because your older brother accidentally shot a knight and your younger brother cries over everything."

"Isaac didn't seem that way to me," protested Louise. Joshua shrugged.

"He's gotten a little tougher since those days. The point is, at least you had your parents focusing on you all the time."

His assertion was uncomfortable for her to accept, as it felt like a grievous error to accept such a thing with Lord Pent's past at least partially known to her, but she allowed it to pass without comment. She could only allow herself to think about her upcoming appointment with Count Caerleon, nervous energy running through her nerves all throughout the lavish dinner set before them; though she counted Uncle Aramis as family and had occasion to dine with Lord Pent, Count Caerleon was too unknown for her to properly relax.

Would he listen to her? Would he agree with her request? Did it truly matter to him what went on in another county?

"Dear, Louise would like to speak with you regarding a matter."

Wouldn't it? They were all Etrurian in the end, so...

"Of course, Penelope. You're quite fond of her, I've noticed."

Yet, who had she convinced up until now? Certainly none of the Reglay noblewomen she had tried to befriend had cared for her words.

"That's only natural for Catherine's daughter. Come, let's go to the parlor for some privacy."

With a mind more embroiled within its own anxieties, Louise listened with half an ear as she followed the couple to a room similar to her home's breakfast room, which doubled as a tea parlor for when the weather was too poor to go out onto the veranda. Clinging to the familiarity of the place relieved her somewhat, though it seemed a paltry amount as she sat down across from Count Caerleon and found that he did not listen with an encouraging smile on his face, but rather affixed an intense stare that held neither friendliness nor gentility--a lordly face.

"Now, Miss..." He blinked, but otherwise his face did not alter itself as he corrected himself. "Mademoiselle Louise, what can I do for you?"

"I--" And her voice was so high on that single word that she could not help the heat that scorched her cheeks in response. "Umm...are you aware of what is happening in Reglay County?"

HIs brow creased. "I am. The trial for the new claimant is within two weeks, correct?"

"Y-yes! And that's why I'm here..." Taking a deep breath, Louise said as clearly as she could, "I'm here to request you come to the trial to support Lord Pent's case."

It was here when the first hint of the kindness she had witnessed throughout their meeting and dinner reasserted itself on his stern face. "But I am not from Reglay," he said with a certain gentleness that made her stomach twist in despair.

"It...but you are..." Louise swallowed, though her throat wanted water. "You are, you hold the same title as Lord Pent. You understand the role and the regulations that surround a count's noble house, so perhaps you could speak of it..."

"House Reglay's steward and clerks would know that information just as well as myself, as well as the king."

"Yes, that's so...but perhaps you could do--say something..." But even as she said these words, she watched Count Caerleon's face seem to close itself emotionally from her arguments. From her husband's side, Nella lowered her eyes and Louise knew she would receive no help from that quarter.

No help anywhere...no one wanted to help...

Count Caerleon cleared his throat. "Miss, I admire your devotion to your betrothed's interests, but I think you now understand that I cannot help--"

"I don't understand!" These words, the truth of her frustration as Louise knew it, burst forth from her as easily as she could breathe. A small part of her shrunk at her incredible rudeness, wished to apologize and remove herself from this incident as quickly as possible, but the greater part of her rose strong and unflinching in the sum total of her pain, her stress, her sadness, and her anger at a world that seemed to want nothing more than to watch with glee as Lord Pent was degraded over and over. "You were privy to Lord Pent's honest wish to improve Reglay for all, not just the nobility. You are in a position to understand that Lord Pent wants nothing more than to become a great leader for his county, and for Etruria as a whole. What would it cost you to stand before the King's Court and tell this truth?"

Nella stood, great consternation marring her pretty features. "Louise, please--"

"Penelope, it's fine," Count Caerleon said. "It's only understandable that the girl would be upset. She's simply too young to be fully aware of the repercussions that exist."

Very quietly, in a voice unfamiliar to Louise's own ears, she told Count Caerleon, "My lord, you are a coward."

"Louise!" Nella scolded. "I think you should leave and think about what you just..." She stopped and looked down, where Count Caerleon's hand encircled one of her wrists. "Lord Nicholas?"

"A coward?" he said with a deliberate enunciation that hovered on the juncture between confusion and anger, his stare boring into Louise's eyes. She stared back, beyond fear, beyond shame, beyond everything but the truth that lay within her heart.

"Yes, my lord. Anyone who holds the key of truth and honesty and thinks its weight upon his soul is lesser than human judgment is a coward. I truly believe this."

"Scripture?"

Pursing her lips, Louise shook her head minutely. "Yes, but it was confirmed to me through Lord Pent's actions. Time and time again he could have shirked his duty, his responsibilities to the people and himself, but he stood firm and accepted them. Though he hated it, he never gave up. He is--" But that was too painful, too unsure to admit, and she would never believe that he was gone, and so she held twin fists at her sides and smiled down Count Caerleon and Nella and pretended that her eyes did not ache with the welling of emotion. "Lord Pent is wonderful," she admitted. "Please speak for him. Please."

Count Caerleon looked away from her. "To hear you say it, though he is only half my age, I have only half his heart. Perhaps I was too hasty in my decision. I will reconsider it."

Though tears fell from Louise's eyes as her smile widened, they were her victory. Everything she was in that moment, these things were a monument to the great and good emotions that blossomed within her heart.

Finally...finally.

-0-

After a day of much-needed recuperation at home, Louise traveled up the road to Alloway Castle. It was unnecessary to bring a companion with her; she had been riding to the castle by herself since she learned to control a horse, and as such she was very nearly a fixture there. Due to her duties in Reglay she had much neglected her dear uncle, and so she brought with her five baskets of fresh apple-cinnamon muffins for the castle to enjoy. Marion did not complain when Louise had strapped the food to the sides of the saddle, but she refused to move any faster than a brisk trot. With the spring breeze running through her hair with all the tenderness of Celia's fingers, Louise took every pleasure in the leisurely ride, and within half an hour had arrived at the gate to the small castle her uncle called home.

"Mademoiselle Louise, you've finally remembered us!" said Pascal, one of the junior knights who often stood guard at the front gate. Louise waved before she dismounted from Marion, delighted to hear the lilting tones of the Etruscan language as the young man spoke it; Etruscan was the primary language of the castle not by edict but rather by a silent consensus to cling to whatever remnants of the old culture that remained. As Louise learned from her history lessons, many centuries ago the Etruscan people rose up against the king in retaliation for his favoritism of Tower Elimineanism and its followers, many of whom who were financially backing the crown in return for his support. The revolt failed, and the king installed a series of edicts meant to shame the Etruscans and strip them of their culture: Lighter Elimineanism was considered an unholy cult and its practitioners fined and imprisoned; they were forbidden from speaking their native language; the original names of Alloway and Utica Counties, Capet and Valois, were stripped and new ones of the common tongue stamped in their place; their trueborn count's noble house was deposed and an agent of the king sent to govern the region. All these cruelties did not diminish the Etruscan spirit, and less than a century after all these laws had been imposed all but the names of the counties had been removed.

To Louise's mind, this meant that all that was right and good would eventually be restored, no matter what evils were sent against it. This was a basic fact of the world, from The Scouring to the Etruscan Regulation to all cruelties great and small--they will not stand.

Buffered by this thought--this essential truth--Louise gathered her baskets of food, remembering to free a muffin for Pascal. "Sir Pascal, please have one," she offered. The young knight looked at the muffin, then at the castle.

"You'll offer one to the commander, won't you?"

Louise giggled. "That goes without saying. Uncle Luca has such a sweet tooth!"

Sighing in relief, Pascal took the muffin. "The saint keep you! I haven't had a taste of Ellie's treats for so long I'm afraid I've forgotten the taste!" After taking the first bite he smiled in a dreamy fashion as he chewed.

"Actually," Louise started, smiling widely, "I was the one who made them this time."

Pascal stared at her for a long moment, then struggled to swallow. "That's true? Really?" He groaned. "Why do you have to go to Reglay to be some count's wife? Why can't you be our Louise forever?"

She tittered at this, knowing that a blush would soon come to her cheeks if the conversation continued any further. "But it's fine if I visit often, I think. I'll bring lots of food every time!"

"But it's not really the same..."

No, Louise realized, it really wasn't. But all she could do was smile and take her leave, because in the end that was what she would be doing towards the whole of Alloway--to her family, her friends, her home. And yet, that would be better than the strange anxiety coursing through her body more and more with each passing day that she heard nothing from Lord Pent.

She pursed her lips and, determined not to think any more about such pessimistic things, went to deliver the goods she had brought. It did not take long to reach the kitchen; Alloway Castle was a small keep when compared to feats such as Castles Reglay or Caerleon, a home and fortress in miniature compared to the latter establishments of might and force. But, for all the times that she was awed whenever she wandered through Reglay Castle, it could not match the calming, homey atmosphere of Alloway's castle. This might have been because of the warm Etruscan spirit borne by the maids, knights, and other attendants who worked and lived inside the environs, or the fact that it had once been a monastery donated to House Capet after they had been removed from power and nearly exiled from their ancestral lands. Whatever it was, Louise so loved it and its airy stone walls and wide glass windows. And the kitchens...!

"Ah, Uncle Luca!" she exclaimed when she found the knight commander of Alloway County in the large sunlit kitchen making a pot of tea. He tilted his head in a reflex of welcoming, his dark eyes warm with pleasure.

"Welcome home, Louise Katharina."

Louise smiled at his greeting. Uncle Luca was originally from Missur, from a particular people whose women ruled the community as the men were often out on the sea as merchants, fishermen, and divers most of the year. His family name, Luseria, was his mother's given name, as lineages were traced through the women and thus only the women in his family held the true family name. Because of his upbringing, he had a tendency to refer to women by their first two names, as it was a familiar practice to him. Even her own mother tolerated it, although Louise always noticed how her mother would flinch whenever she was referred to as 'Catherine Jane.' Louise wasn't sure why; perhaps her mother disliked the diminutive of Grandmother's name?

"Uncle Luca, I've brought your favorite," Louise said, indicating the baskets of food in her hands.

"You're the same as usual," he said as he approached her, taking the baskets without further preamble. "They will be distributed to the maids."

"Not the knights?"

"Please. Their horses would suffer, what with all the snacking that already goes on."

She thought of Pascal and smiled. "I do hope you'll let them try. I made these myself for everyone."

"I see. Then I too will have one." Plucking a muffin from a basket, Uncle Luca very delicately took a bite. The sight of the happiness he bore in that single moment, so evident even on his austere features, was enough to cause Louise to break out into giggles. He only raised an eyebrow at her reaction. "Are you here to see Lord Aramis?"

"Yes, there's something I have to ask of him," she said. With a nod, Uncle Luca took a tray for the pot of tea, as well as three cups, before walking towards the door. Louise fell in step just behind him, one of her baskets of muffins in her hand, as she studied his back. As expected of a knight commander, the man before her was always intimidating in armor and usually so out of it, yet Louise was sure she had never met a more polite, chivalrous man. His relative lack of expression did not mar his even, handsome face, and his complete and overriding desire to follow the word of his lord to the letter was borne out of something more than simple obedience--Uncle Luca's faith in the goodness of Uncle Aramis was absolute.

Admiration warmed her face--there were so many wonderful people in her life that she knew she never wanted for moral inspiration. What a lovely thing it was to live! When Lord Pent returned, she was determined to devote herself into being a person he could depend on, just as she was doing right now. Every effort she could muster she would expend for him, and then everything would be fine.

Everything would be fine.

Uncle Aramis was in his office working on paperwork when they arrived; Louise could just about hear Lord Pent complaining about the constant paperwork he had dealt with in Reglay and the resulting flood of nostalgia nearly overtook her. She smiled and kept the facade as she placed the basket onto the desk, addressing her uncle with a happy, brittle voice thus: "Hello, Uncle! I've made these for you, so please enjoy them!"

"...Well, thank you." His lacking tone was no surprise; Uncle Aramis only begrudgingly ate sweets of any sort and usually only at the behest of either herself or Uncle Luca. "I must admit I was expecting you sooner."

"Sooner today?" Louise asked, surprised. The room was bright with the noonday sun as Uncle Luca busied himself with the tea, obviously not in want of any light.

"Sooner than today," Uncle Aramis stated. "But you were so busy in Caerleon that I should not have been surprised."

Louise stilled, pressing her hands together. His tone was not unlike the one he used for her mother, the two having a mutual dislike for each other. "H-have I done something to displease you, Uncle?"

Uncle Aramis said not a word for a long moment, as if he had not heard her question. After he sat down, Uncle Luca interceded with, "Why not tell her, milord? She would appreciate hearing your feelings."

After sending Uncle Luca a dark glare, Uncle Aramis turned an annoyed look upon Louise, who flinched to see it. "Why ask for Count Caerleon's help before mine?"

"I...since I was invited to visit--"

"But you live just down the road from here. Or is the distance too little for you to overcome now that you've conquered both Reglay and Caerleon?"

She pressed her fists onto her lap after she sat down, her shoulders hunched as she thought desperately on why her normally kind uncle was now so surly. "Why do you know about this?" she asked.

"Your father and cousin visited yesterday and saw fit to tell me about the whole episode," Uncle Aramis said with a scowl. "Of all the nobility that range through Etruria like fattened cows, why did it have to be that oversatisfied moron of a bull?"

Louise could only stare at her dear uncle and wonder at his sudden hostility until Uncle Luca shook his head. "Once, Count Caerleon made a disparaging remark towards him, which started an unpleasant series of rumors about Lord Aramis that persists to this day. Since then, he has not found it inside himself to forgive the count." Moving his chair closer to Uncle Aramis, Uncle Luca pushed the cup of tea in front of the other man forward. "She had no knowledge of this incident, so it would be best if you did not take it out on her."

As always, curiosity proved to be the stronger over common sense as she asked, "What did Count Caerleon say to you? He seemed too careful of the effect of his words, if anything."

It was silent for some time as some sort of nonverbal communication passed between both her uncles, which was a very common thing for them. Finally, Uncle Luca turned to her. "It was something to do with Lord Aramis' lack of interest in finding a bride, along with his naming his cousin as the heir apparent."

"...Oh?" Confused, Louise shrugged. "What a strange thing to make into an insult. Uncle just hasn't found someone he loves enough to marry."

Uncle Aramis coughed before reaching for his tea. "Something of that nature. That idiot probably thinks we all have a stable of sisters to plunder whenever the last one's been used up."

The horror that coursed through Louise's body was as sudden and overpowering as a bolt of lightning. "Uncle!" she exclaimed. "What a terrible thing to say!"

Uncle Luca turned an expression of displeasure onto the other man. "To make light of such a thing is beyond you, my lord."

"...You're right. I apologize," Uncle Aramis said, flattening his moustache under his thumb and forefinger. "Which is more than he's ever done for me..."

"Mm, Uncle, does that mean I shouldn't ask you for help?" Louise questioned, still bothered by his cruel words. "I didn't know that it would offend you so much to ask for Count Caerleon's help first."

Uncle Aramis let his hand drop from his face, the tip of his finger following the lip of the teacup in slow, mesmerizing circles. "It is true you couldn't have known, but I would have thought my niece would have looked to me first if she wanted someone to stand for her and her own. To be trumped by a man like Count Caerleon, who I was told had no interest in helping you at first, is not something I could ever take lightly."

"It's because..." Louise closed her eyes. "All I have ever done in Reglay is fail. In the end, though I tried my hardest to convince even one person to believe in Lord Pent, I still..." She covered her face with her hands, willing herself to breath normally. "Uncle, you would have always supported me. I've always known that. I, perhaps I...I wanted a small victory first, just a reason to believe that I...I was, I would..."

That I had some small ability to do good for Lord Pent's sake. That, in the end, I wasn't useless--

"Louise."

She lowered her hands, mindful of the fact that she could no more hide her emotions from a man who had known her since she was born any more than she could have hid them from her own father. Her uncle had never revealed the same range of expressions as her beloved father did, including sympathy or sincere affection, but at the moment he was looking at her as if she were an equal and that made all the difference. "Yes, Uncle?"

"We're humans. We're meant to fail."

Blinking, she stared at him. "But--"

"Shh. Have you met anyone in your short sixteen years of life who was perfect? Do you think there is anything of the sort that exists in this world? It may be sacrilege to say this, but not even the holy saint was perfect. She even says as much within the Good Book. All we can do as humans is what God and Saint Elimine expect us to do, is to live following the examples of goodness around us." Uncle Aramis ran a hand through his blond hair, stray strands of which loosened from the oil he used in it and fell across his forehead. "You never failed, you only grew up. I won't hear another word otherwise, not from my best friend's cherished daughter."

She didn't understand, not in the way she thought he wanted her to understand, but she knew she would always remember his words. She would use them as a buffer in the dark of the night, when her thoughts most liked to turn against her, and the fact that she now had a shield with which to defend herself made her smile in relief. "Uncle, then will you go to the trial and speak for Lord Pent?"

Uncle Aramis smirked. "It is a matter that concerns every count in the kingdom. I'm sure even Caerleon's understands that much if he wants to protect his title for his trueborn children and not some distant relative." His gaze flickered to Uncle Luca, who was always attentive and had already anticipated that he would be addressed; Louise could tell that much just by the minuscule way he had tensed. "Well, Luca? It's been some time since we've come to Aquleia."

"Yes. I would be honored to follow you wherever you will, milord."

Louise could feel tender emotions curl within her, a pleasant sensation borne from seeing the utter devotion that passed between Uncle Luca and Uncle Aramis. It spoke to her how necessary faith and devotion were, not only for the relationship between man and God, but between people--between each other. They were some of the most important components of love that ever existed.

She would have faith that Lord Pent will return soon.

-0-

"Lady Louise, your eye for embroidery has become much better," Celia said from behind Louise's chair. Louise started a bit, then giggled in relief as she looked over her shoulder to find Celia's slender form close to her.

"Do you like it? This one is for Mother's birthday, but I can make you one just like it if you like."

"Could you? Though, not as complex. I just like how the colors of the cornucopia run together."

Louise peered at her latest work-in-progress, a little perturbed. "It's no good if the colors run together, is it?" Celia laughed at this as she placed one hand on Louise's shoulder, leaning in to point out one of the fruits spilling out of the great horn.

"It's fine, it's fine. As long as one can make out the shape it should be fine. And I like the little violets in each corner. Your lady mother would--"

There was the sound of a multitude of footsteps quickly approaching the little parlor where Louise had chosen to work before archery practice in the afternoon, preferring greatly how much the room captured the most amount of sunlight out of all the rooms in the house from late morning to just after lunch. Both she and Celia turned towards the doorway just in time to see her mother, father, and Uncle Aramis enter the room; Louise's mother looked annoyed, her father confused, and Uncle Aramis...

Louise stood, placing her embroidery on the nearby tea table. "Uncle? Have you just returned from the trial?"

"Is that what this is about? Why do you need to herd us in like common farm animals?" her mother bit out; patience had never been her strong point, and Louise could understand why. At the current moment, she too could not claim she bore any of the saintly trait.

Her father looked as if he were considering something. "Was the lordling stripped of his title, then?"

Louise could not help her gasp, standing still as Celia's arms wound around her waist. Her mother glanced at her, a flicker of something strange in her solemn expression, before turning back to Uncle Aramis. "Out with it already," her mother snapped. "I don't appreciate a flair for dramatics when it worries my daughter so."

"I haven't even said anything," Uncle Aramis retorted, the grooves of his brow deep and pronounced as he began to pace. "The trial...the king was not willing to remove the boy's title, but..."

"Aramis?" her father voiced, a timbre of something dark and fragile in his voice that Louise could not bear, not even with her hands clenched together so tightly that she was certain her bones were about to give before long.

Uncle Aramis stopped his nervous movements in favor of looking directly at Louise; this was not an improvement. "The knight general testified."

"The knight...Alfred?" Her mother affixed a dangerous glare upon Uncle Aramis. "What do you mean that man was there? What does he have to do with any of this?"

"He was your former fiancé, I remember," Uncle Aramis said. "Well, he was the general overseeing the unit Reglay's count was in. It's...there was an attack, and there were no survivors. The reason it took so long for all this to get out was because they'd only recently recovered...the boy's remains."

Lord Pent...dead? Louise closed her eyes. Her body did not feel any different, its essential reactions still the same. It doesn't feel like he's dead.

She could feel Celia's arms tighten around her, her sweet friend whispering, "Oh God, oh Saint Elimine," over and over, but it didn't feel like Lord Pent was dead. She could see her parents and her uncle staring at her, all of them bearing the same tension as if they expected something from her, but it didn't feel like Lord Pent was dead. There was nothing in the world that was fundamentally altered, therefore Lord Pent was not dead.

Louise smiled, relieved to know the truth. "No, that's not true. Lord Pent is alive."

They were all looking at her in weird ways and she did not like any of them. Her mother was the first to speak, as always. "Dear...Louise, that man, the knight general...he is the type to destroy anyone simply for doing something he didn't like. He was the one at that party long ago, the man that I argued with. You have to understand that, because he hated me. He had the means to...oh, God." Her mother covered her mouth with one hand as she leaned towards Louise's father. "That was how much he...he must have been waiting all these years to destroy what I had built for myself...my family's happiness..."

"Catherine, don't do this," Louise's father said as he held her mother. When he looked at Louise, she dimly noted the muted helplessness in his eyes, in the parted lips, in the way he lowered his head as if he were ashamed. "Louise, are you..."

She began to shake her head. "Stop that," she said, her voice weak, soft. "Why is everyone...Uncle, this joke of yours is too cruel. Tell them the truth. Uncle, please."

But Uncle Aramis' head was bowed, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. She had seen him do that once before, when one of his knights had been killed in an accident. He had done that the entire time at the funeral.

Dead. Lord Pent couldn't be...he wasn't...

No.

"No," Louise repeated, shaking her head. Her whole body was shaking. "It's not true."

Celia's arms were so tight around her that she felt as though she were bound to this position, unable to do anything more than shake. That wasn't enough to make it not true, so although it pained her she pushed her dear friend away because she had to prove to everyone that Lord Pent wasn't dead, she'd prove it right now and then her parents would stop looking at her with almost palpable pity, her mother would not look so distraught and her father wouldn't look as though he couldn't do anything and Uncle Aramis would just look up... "So I'll prove it," she heard herself saying outside of her mind, "I'll prove to everyone that Lord Pent is alive because he is alive, he really is, he's not dead he's not dead I know he's not dead please stop looking at me like that..." and then it hurt to talk and it hurt to stand and it hurt to breathe and why would everything hurt so much if Lord Pent was alive?

But Lord Pent is alive, she tried to say but couldn't as she was pressed against warm bodies holding her and stroking her hair and telling her that everything would be all right, it was all right to cry it was all right and everything would be fine Louise but why would they lie to her like that if Lord Pent was dead?

All she wanted was silence to think, but there was someone crying so loudly that all the thoughts she had were banished from her head as everything hurt.

Everything hurt, and Louise knew that she wouldn't hurt this much if everything was all right.

-end-

I don't really know why this story is as long as it is, but it is. And to compound that, I've got plenty of notes! Before I get to that, I would like to thank everyone for their kind birthday wishes and for continuing to read this series up to this point. The next story should be out 5/31, but I can't promise anything due to two-week long finals, greater work hours, and illness.

Caerleon: The interesting tidbit I discovered while randomly Googling is that the name belongs to a fortress connected to King Arthur. That sounded pretty cool to me, so that's why the name figures so prominently among the males of House Caerleon. Reglay, in a rarity for the FE series, doesn't seem to have a real-world historical or regional basis.

Kids can be so cruel: I'm thinking that initially Estelle and Mamie were really happy to have another sister, but Priscilla was distraught about being separated from Raven and thwarted their every kindness until eventually they gave up and acted out against her instead. As a result of this, I don't think Priscilla gets along with other girls--she doesn't support any in-game.

Holsett, Nanna: A couple of FE4 references here. Holsety is one of the legendary weapons in that game, and arguably the best one that your side gets; Nanna is a character from the second generation (the game is split between the first and second generations, as its subtitle is Genealogy of the Holy War). Unlike Nella's sister here, FE4/5's Nanna is a blonde.

Knight General of Etruria, Alfred Minart: If you're wondering who this guy is and why he's suddenly our big bad, reread Elegant Arrangements part 2 and then Salad Days and be enlightened.