...Been working on this piece by piece for awhile.
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FTaBV Omake: A Spy's Thoughts
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'I have a job for you.'
In Keiv Moc:
Though it turned out to be more like three jobs. Fortunately two of them could be accomplished together, and for the time being didn't conflict with the third.
Searching for apatheia was more like a wild goose chase than anything else, though it was hardly his place to say that to either of the two powerful men who'd both ordered it. Ironic how the Don had given him the same job as Alexei.
Keeping an eye on the princess made much more sense. She seemed to be safe enough in that former Knight's company, so he didn't think it was that big a deal where her fancies took her as long as the Knights could keep tabs on her. That, obviously, was where he came in.
But what made the least sense was that the Commandant also wanted him to watch that other girl.
As far as he could tell this Letha Vitae was just an ordinary young woman. Maybe her choice to travel with this unorthodox group qualified her as being a little outside the norm, but there were plenty of similar strong willed women in Dahngrest who could give the men in their guilds a run for their money. Compared to them she wasn't so remarkable.
"Hey, Raven..." This time she was the one to initiate a conversation, giving him another chance to get a feel for what she was like. He easily fell into the old rascal persona this group knew him by.
"Yes fair maiden? Wait, I thought ya weren't there when ol' Raven introduced himself."
"Ah? O-oh," Oddly there was a flash of panic in her eyes, though she covered it quickly with a brief smile, friendly and disarming, "I heard one of the others call you that..."
It was a reasonable explanation and he would have accepted it at face value if not for that single moment. She'd given something away already, or thought she had. Now if he could only figure out why it mattered...
He was given another surprising insight not much later, when Letha had let out a sudden shriek and run past him with a centipede of mutated proportions close on her heels. "Kill it kill it kill it-" she'd chanted, her voice a good octave higher than normal. It was unexpected to say the least, she'd handled all the other size enhanced bugs with a sort of stubborn cautiousness but hadn't backed down before.
When they'd 'rescued' her from her pursuer, the princess had asked if she had a phobia like the kid.
"N-no, just centipedes, just centipedes," she gasped out between shivering deep breaths. "Spiders are bad too, but centipedes are much worse." He was struck again by how normal she was, a girl who couldn't stand crawly bugs with too many legs.
Her breathing a bit more stable, she straightened and looked at all of them with a deadly serious expression. "As much as I love a good joke, if any of you tries to pull something on me that involves centipedes, I will hold a banquet with your eyeballs as the appetizers. And blood for wine. I'll need to think about the rest of the menu." Then she just walked off as normally as if she hadn't just made some rather disturbing threats of bloody vengeance.
He couldn't help watching her with dumbfounded amazement before giving the others a questioning look. "She's kinda scary. Was that normal?" Was this the real face of the 'normal' girl Alexei wanted him to learn more about?
Yuri only shrugged at him. "I'm starting to wonder..."
x x x
After Ghasfarost, around Dahngrest:
Why, just why, would someone bother kidnapping Letha when a candidate of the imperial throne had been in the city? From what he'd heard, the girls had even been together when the Red-eyes had shown up, but the assassin had definitely targeted Letha and only her. And that had to have been a trap, it would be too much of a coincidence for her to disappear after that for it not to be related.
Had Alexei been behind it? He hadn't heard anything about it. Just because he'd seen his Commandant in meetings with Yeager didn't mean he was the guild's sole client. But he didn't know why anyone else would be interested in her. Hell, he didn't know what Alexei suspected she was hiding.
Though he did have the feeling she was hiding something. He couldn't put his finger on why, though, it was more a conclusion drawn from gut instinct at the moment.That could be anything though, and not necessarily anything Alexei would care about.
"Look, over there!" The blastia researcher Rita was the first to see the person pushing out of the heavy foliage of the forests around Dahngrest. It was that young man who'd put them on the trail of the Red-eyes when they'd first started getting seriously worried about the missing girl.
When they'd moved on to search the wilderness around the city, he'd been the one who suggested breaking into smaller groups to scout a wider range faster. When he volunteered to take the western section on his own, he'd defeated protests by claiming he could move faster that way, and would go for help if he found her in danger. At the time it sounded reasonable.
Now he was the one who brought her back, limp and haggard looking on his back, and the signs that there'd been a fight was obvious. Why hadn't he gotten reinforcements? Why did he care about her when he supposedly met her only once? Perhaps Alexei should hear about this Chase character as well.
Once Letha woke up and started explaining about her capture, he mentally added a "green haired woman" to the list of people who should be mentioned to the Commandant when he reported. This girl was strangely popular, and he couldn't see any connection between any of the parties interested in her.
"Maybe it's actually Letha who's cursed," the princess remarked, which the others took half seriously even though the idea sounded more like a joke.
"She is the one with a mysterious mark on her hand," the boy from the guilds added. What was that? He hadn't heard about that before, though that certainly explained why she always wore those gloves and kept her hands hidden the rare times she removed them. Why be secretive if it didn't have something to do with whatever she was hiding? It wasn't much, but it was the first solid clue he had.
x x x
In Torim Harbor, on the docks
The conversation he'd had with the ex-Knight hadn't been encouraging.
'Awww, I can't believe we have to travel with you.
'I still haven't forgotten what you did at Nor Harbor.
'Saying that I'd rather not have your company on our trip is already more than enough.'
And then he'd gone and said something stupid, though it fit his attempts to respond to the sarcasm with light banter. 'I wonder if I could hand her over to the Imperial Knights somewhere.'
It was supposed to be a joke, but after saying it he realized it struck a bit closer to his true intentions than he'd meant.
'I can see it in your eyes, old man...you're thinking bad thoughts again...' And after he'd excused himself to return to the inn he had to wonder if Yuri had seen a lazy old man in his eyes, or a spy testing the waters.
Sometimes he wasn't sure himself.
Rather than engage in any soul searching, since he wasn't sure he'd like what he'd find, he turned his attention outwards again. Which was what had brought his attention to another source of headaches. When he'd joined that pair hovering over a huddled woman, discovering it was Letha was the last thing he'd expected. He'd somehow thought it was impossible to make Letha cry.
He'd say he was heartless for thinking her moment of vulnerability gave him a good opportunity to win the trust of at least one person, but he already knew how true that was.
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On the Atherum
"Hey, Letha, what's wrong with yer hand?"
"Huh? They seem fine to me." The nonchalant response was as if the girl thought it was normal. But it wasn't as if it were just her blastia. That was very prominently displayed in her hair, nowhere near her left hand.
"Your hand is glowing!" Well at least he wasn't the only one who thought it was strange.
Though once the girl had removed her ruined gloves and revealed the glow came from a tattoo on her hand the two kids had been satisfied without further explanation. From what Rita said they'd even known about it.
Ah, they'd mentioned something before about "a mysterious mark." So this was what they meant.
Progress after so long was gratifying, though frustrating as he understood even less than before. But he wasn't in any hurry to get the answers. He had time...
And then he'd thought that time had been cut brutally short when the monstrously huge skeleton brought its sword down on her head. Seeing that it had passed right through her without leaving a mark, other than the gash in the wood flooring, positively stunned him. At least this time he wasn't the only one with no idea what had happened, as the others' gaping and even Letha's own shock confirmed they'd all thought her dead.
Surviving a fatal blow without even a scratch, simply miraculous. Like bringing a man back from the dead.
x x x
On the Fiertia, after the Atherum
He had a lot of time to think, while everyone else believed he was sleeping. Think and watch. Well, he did sleep a lot. Even the lowest grunt soldier learns to take sleep whenever the chance presented itself, since you never know what could happen next. And it provided an escape from the uncertainties that plagued him, even if his dreams, or he should call them nightmares, reminded him of why he owed the Commandant his loyalty.
But when awake, he observed his companions. Watching the krytian beauty was a pleasure, though rather pointless as she had little bearing in his orders. Same for the children. Mainly, they were companions of the princess, and so it was their interactions with her that Alexei would care about.
He cared about how peaceful it felt. And right. It was rare for him to be this comfortable anymore.
x x x
In Nordopolica, the inn
Letha had new clothes. And was still hiding her hands in a pair of gloves. The girl really didn't want anyone to see that mark. Which was a little odd, since most would assume it was nothing other than an interesting tattoo. A touch of the exotic to a nice, if frequently odd, girl.
"There some reason ya cover that thing up?"
She was uncomfortable. She hid it well, he'd noticed her getting better at that, but he already knew all the possible signs and could read the tension. Personal experience taught him what to look for in others.
"Just don't like to stand out like I did back on the Atherum. It doesn't happen often, but it's not very predictable. So I just got in the habit of wearing gloves."
Right. 'Not very predictable.' Which had a very fine difference from 'unpredictable'.
And her story about how she got it... He'd be sure to tell the Commandant. Perhaps he'd have someone look into it.
x x x
In the Weasand of Cados, after fighting the Red-eyes
"She fell down a hole, again."
"Look who's talking, you put it here."
"That's not what's important!"
So the girl and the youngest kid had fallen down a hole made, ironically, by their mage friend. And Rita rejected any responsibility for it, of course.
It served to add another reason for them to venture deeper into the caverns, in the hope of finding their lost companions. Though catching Regaey was deemed more pressing as they almost had him, and the general consensus was Letha and Karol could take care of themselves that long.
They had to bring their missing members' bags with them. And of course he was given the job of lugging them around. It made sense, since too much extra weight would interfere with the melee fighters, but that was never spoken aloud. The group claimed he needed to 'make himself useful' and 'be careful not to strain his back'. All because he'd been the one to ask who'd carry the bags.
And he found himself wondering, what was in her bag?
The answer was much the same as any traveler carries. The only personal effects was her notebook, the case inscribed with her aunts name, a small cloth bag of cheap candy, some tattered clothes of an unfamiliar material, and a neatly folded costume at the very bottom. He wasn't able to examine any of the contents more thoroughly, as he only had brief moments when the others were preoccupied when he could sneak a few peeks in.
Hadn't she said something about her home life back in Torim? That someone who loved about her was always nearby? So why wasn't there more from that life, some small trinkets of sentimental value? She seemed the type to treasure that sort of thing.
And thinking more deeply on it, while he was convinced her relationship with her uncle was indeed full of affection, her words implied a larger household. More people. But who were those people?
How could he feel like he was getting farther from the truth every time he got closer?
x x x
Yeeeeah! Because we tend to focus on how much Yuri sees, and only occasionally return to the fact that (omg, spoiler) RAVEN is working for Alexei.
We've got a blending of the Raven and Schwann personalities here. Intentionally never referred to him by either name, unless it was a character talking. And took some bold liberties in a few places, like saying that he'd seen Alexei talking with Yeager. I don't think it's impossible, though Raven/Schwann probably wouldn't know what those talks were about.
Obviously this doesn't cover every potential moment for deep insight. His character and position make him wonderfully complex, and a much longer work could be written about him *CoughEmptyMaskCough* but I don't have the time for that. Instead, we get some snippets here and there, mostly the ones that concern Letha.
Actually not sure what I think of this, but I wanted to write and post it anyway.