No Longer Alone


I'm baaack. And here's the latest chapter.

I hope it's to your liking.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.


"Hey."

Amelia glanced up from her cot, where she had been resting and nursing a bruised arm after the latest fight. "Hey." She replied to Neimi as she sat up. "Everything okay?"

Neimi managed a tight smile. "About as well as can be expected, I guess. None of us were really prepared for… that."

Amelia felt a shudder pass through her as the memory flashed through her mind once more. The desiccated body sprawled out over the bed, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, mouth mindlessly repeating the same word over and over again…

"Anyway," Neimi spoke up again, dispelling the silence that had fallen over the room. "I've been sent to fetch you. The general wants tot talk to you."

"Sir Duessel?" Amelia said as she sat up, swinging her feet over the edge of the cot. "What would he want-"

"No, no. The Renais general. The, um, the one with the red hair." Neimi glanced to the side. "I think his name is Seth or something."

"Right." The lancer's frown only deepened as she followed Neimi into the castle. She'd thought Franz had gone off to give them a debriefing earlier – why would they call her now?

At any rate, she shortly found herself in the throne room of the Renais Castle. Most of the telltale signs of the earlier battle had been hastily cleared away, and several high ranking officers and lords were clustered around a circular table studying several maps, with several regions circled in red.

"Um…" She began hesitantly, and at the sound of her voice, the Silver Knight of Renais glanced up. "I was told that you wanted to see me… sir?"

"I do indeed." He nodded slightly. "Perhaps we should retire to a slightly more secluded area."

After the two of them moved to a corner of the hall, he turned to her with folded arms. "I've been told you were the one who finally succeeded in taking down Sir Orson." He nodded respectfully. "For someone as young as you to have defeated a General of our army is no small feat."

"It… it wasn't as big a deal as that, sir." She swallowed. "Sir Orson was… he wasn't… entirely rational, I think. His fighting abilities were… severely compromised."

"Yes, so I was informed." The general was now frowning. "Be that as it may, the fact remains that you've a rather significant accomplishment under your belt." The general shrugged. "Since you're nominally a part of the Frelian Army, and Prince Ephraim leads it, he's decided to promote you. – as well as handing over a reward of some kind."

The general's lines were delivered in as flat and disinterested a manner as he could manage, but he was a soldier, not a thespian, and Amelia could see the pain in his eyes. She wondered how it would be to have to congratulate someone else on having killed one of her former friends, and she suppressed an urge to wince in front of the general.

"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know, so if you've no questions…"

"Actually, sir…" Amelia hesitated. The last thing she wanted to do was to pour salt on open wounds, but her curiosity had gnawed at her relentlessly ever since they had discovered the… thing in the bedroom. No, even before that – from the moment she had learnt that Sir Orson had been a traitor to Renais. "Do you… do we know why Sir Orson turned his back on his homeland?"

The Silver Knight folded closed his eyes. After a long moment, he sighed – a long, slow exhalation of weariness and sorrow.

And then he nodded once.


Franz continued staring at the ceiling of the room he'd been assigned to. It wasn't his old from back when he'd stayed here – apparently that particular area had been too badly damaged by the fighting. Of course the new room was sharing it with half a dozen other people, but right now they were all… somewhere else and he honestly couldn't find it in himself to care about them.

He'd claimed that he'd wanted to sleep when he retired to his bunk, and a part of him did indeed want nothing more than for the darkness to claim him and for all the memories to – however temporarily – go away.

But it was precisely because of the memories that rest eluded him right now.

What happened? Why couldn't I protect Amelia? Why did I… The thoughts trailed off again, swirling off to join the other mix of questions jumbled up in his head.

Why did Sir Orson keep that corpse in his bedroom? Where were the Grad remnants that were supposed to be here defending the place? And why didn't I prepare myself from an attack from a Runeblade? Sure they're rare, but given that Sir Orson had plenty of time to loot the treasuries for whatever he wanted, I should have anticipated something like that. A hand reached up to cover his eyes. And I wasn't able to help Amelia at all. If she hadn't been able to outmatch Sir Orson…

His hands subconsciously balled into fists. Just one fight after I succeeded in rescuing her back in the desert… Was I careless? Or was I just not good enough? He couldn't be certain that the threats they'd face after this would be any less dangerous than before. There was at least one other Grad general still alive and unaccounted for – not to mention the ever increasing number of the fiends. If he was going to continue like this, he'd need to become stronger.

Stronger… His gaze shifted to his field pack. Within were the few personal artefacts he always wanted at his side… and the Knight's Crest he'd been given back on the ship.

After a slight pause, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, sat up – and there was a soft knocking on the door.

"Yes?" He questioned softly, and as the door swung open he saw Amelia in the doorway, her face pale. There was an expression that that Franz couldn't quite read, but it definitely wasn't a good one.

"You okay?"

"Kinda… shaken up." Her forced smile faltered. "Hope it's not a bother right now, but I just… I don't really want to be alone."

"It's fine." He gestured towards his bed and sat down on it himself. "I'm still a bit freaked out, myself. I never expected to find something like that in the castle."

"I guess." She paused. "But… that's not really what I was talking about."

He turned back to regard her. "Then…?" The question hung heavily in the air for a long moment.

Amelia bit her lip. "Franz… I… I found out why Sir Orson… why he betrayed your country. It's…"

He clasped her shoulder gently. "Are you alright? If it's too much trouble to talk about it right now, then-"

"No, it's not that." She took another deep breath. "Franz, that… that thing we saw in the bedroom was… it was Sir Orson's wife."

The words failed to fully register in his brain for several long moments, and so he sat there silently until he shook his head. "Lady Monica? But that's… no." He felt a strange clenching sensation in his stomach, and suddenly he realized he had balled his fists. "She'd died before the war even started."

"Yeah… Did General Seth tell you? He said that it was around that time that General Orson changed. He became more sullen and withdrawn."

"He did." The young knight nodded slowly. "I remember seeing it too. Once when a recruit tried to ask him for some help on steadying his grip on his lance he just about blew up in his face. I remember it being odd because… well, Sir Orson was always going out of his way to help out the greenhorns." He paused. "Come to think of it, that was why Lord Fado sent Sir Orson out on the expedition with Sir Ephraim – he thought getting some exercise and work would help Sir Orson pull himself together."

"Right…" Amelia sighed. "And while General Seth and Lord Ephraim still aren't sure just when it happened… they believe that Sir Orson… he agreed to betray Renais if…" She was trembling now, having to pause to collect herself multiple times before continuing. "If they would…"

The pieces were beginning to fall into place for Franz as well. "You don't mean-" He glanced upwards, in the general direction of the royal bedchamber. "Lady Monica?"

Amelia shook her head. "He was willing to help undermine Renais because he wanted his dead wife back." She let out a weak laugh. "Do you know what scared me, Franz? When Prince Ephraim overheard what we were talking about, he stopped by and offered his own view. He said that Orson was mad… but that he was also happy." She clutched at her own shoulders. "I don't understand. He betrayed his country and army, and for… for that… and Prince Ephraim could say that he was happy?"

"Well, he also said he was mad." Franz turned away. "If he wasn't before, he certainly was by the time we faced him. The way he talked, I don't think he even realized that they just reanimated her corpse and made her able to repeat some lines – to him, it was always the wife he loved."

"No." Amelia spoke out suddenly, and with a vehemence that surprised Franz. "That… that's not love. Love is a good thing. Love isn't selling out your country for the sake of getting your wife back. Love isn't shutting yourself in a room to the exclusion of everything else and devoting all your attention to a… a zombie. I don't know what to call it – obsession, insanity, maybe – but don't call it love." As she fell silent again Franz finally noticed that she was crying silently, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Amelia?" He questioned softly. She shook her head, wiped angrily at the tears, swallowed hard and tried to calm herself down.

"Franz, I… I'm scared." She finally said. "I care about you so much. But… but they all say Sir Orson cared about Monica too. I just don't know how something like love could end up as… as twisted as that was."

Franz was silent for a while. "I don't know either." He finally replied.

"…Franz." Amelia spoke in a low voice. "Promise me something, okay? Promise me that no matter what happens, you'll never do something like what Sir Orson did. It doesn't have to be about me – for anyone. Promise me you'll never go off the deep end."

"Amelia, what are you talking about?" He smiled reassuringly and spread his hands. "It's me. Do you honestly think I'd ever be capable of doing something like that?'

Amelia looked away from him. "Promise me. Please."

Another silence fell upon the room. And then Franz reached over to grasp her hand, "I promise." He said softly.

She nodded. "I… thanks. Thank you."


"Franz, you wished to see me?" The General stepped into the room and Franz quickly saluted in response.

It had been a day since Amelia had come to his room. After their short talk, she'd left the room after a while, saying that she wanted to get some training in before the evening meal.

Franz meanwhile, hadn't had much of an appetite, so he'd spent much of the day in his room pondering about the various options he had available to him

"At ease." The Silver Knight motioned with his hand and Franz moved his own down.

"Yes, sir." He paused. "Has there been word about my new mount?"

Seth nodded, one corner of his mouth quirking slightly. "As a matter of fact, yes. Did your brother tell you about it?"

Franz shook his head. "I was just wondering."

"Well, if you're not busy now, then we can go take a look at her, give her time to get acclimated to you."

"Alright."

As they walked down the corridors of the reclaimed castle, Seth gave his protégé a look.

"Yes, sir?'

"Franz, is there any particular reason you decided to bring your pack along?"

"Well…" Franz felt the rough material of his satchel thud against his back for the umpteenth time. "Actually, yes. I'm planning on making an important decision soon, sir. I'd like your input on it."

The Silver Knight nodded. "That's reasonable."

"You heard about the Ghost Ship incident, correct?"

"Yes, Forde filled me in on the details during one of the pub trawls he insists on dragging me along." Seth chuckled slightly. "The way he told it you and Amelia were made out to be heroes of the hour."

"No, not really," Franz hesitated. "Well, sort of. Apparently we defeated the strongest monster of the group. So Prince Ephraim decided to…" swinging the satchel over, he grasped a hold of the shining metal emblem. "Reward us… with this." He held the plate – approximately the same size as his head – up were the General could take a good look at it.

"I see." Seth's expression became contemplative, a tiny smile of memory making its way to his face. "It's certainly been a long time since the day I received one myself. I remember how proud he looked when I was handed the emblem."

"He? You mean Lord Fado?"

"…No." Seth's smile grew wider. "I meant my mentor. I was once a simple recruit too, you know." He shook his head and handed the Knight's Crest back to Franz. "Still, you've had this for a while now, yes? Why the sudden decision?"

"During the fight with Orson, I was unable to defeat him."

"Hardly surprising." Seth raised an eyebrow. "He was one of our best swordsmen, after all."

"Yes, he was. In his prime." Franz clenched his fists. "But by the time we fought, he'd deteriorated to the point where it wouldn't have surprised me that he simply collapsed from exhaustion. And Amelia managed to beat him, didn't she?'

"An admirable demonstration of her rapid progress." Seth said calmly, before a note of amusement entered his voice. "Don't tell me you're doing this to soothe a wounded ego, Franz!"

"Wha – no! That's ridiculous!" He sputtered, before calming himself down. "General, Amelia's, she – we're close. I'm nothing but happy that she's able to improve at such a rate. But," He ran a hand through his hair. "I want to be able to protect her. And I can't do that if I'm weaker than her."

"I see." Seth's voice was quiet. "To be absolutely frank, the Crest is your personal property, so I cannot forbid you from using it if you wish to." He rested one hand on Franz's shoulder. "Nor do I have any desire to. The wish to protect others is a noble one."

The young knight nodded once. "Thank you, General."

"And now, let's see to that new mount."


"Amelia?"

"Hnh?" Amelia glanced up from the bench where she had been taking a breather after her training session. "Oh, Ewan. What's up?'

The young mage flashed a cheeky grin at her. "Oh, just watching my favourite young recruit practice her footwork."

She chuckled wearily. "Glad I could provide some entertainment." Reaching up to brush a lock of hair from her eyes, she slumped down again. "General Duessel devised this training regimen for me, you know? I'm trying to stick to it as closely as possible – I don't want to let him down."

"Oh, come on. Who's the heroine of our last fight?" Ewan scratched his head, a bemused smile on his face. "You're good enough to be noticed by the Prince-"

"King now." Amelia chuckled. "Didn't you know? They had a official ceremony the other night. Of course they did it quickly and quietly so they could get down to the real business of figuring out where to begin eradicating the fiends."

"Sire, king, whatever." Ewan shrugged. "He still noticed you, and I hear he's going to be handing out a reward. Wonder if it's cash."

"Actually, I made a request." She looked into the distance. "I was told that they should have it ready by today."

"Oh, for what?" Ewan's questioning look was broken off as several horses were led into the courtyard. Their bearing and demeanour made it obvious that these were born and bred to be warhorses. As they came to a halt near the western wall, one of them – his fur a pale brown in colour – stamped its foot irritably.

"Heh, look at the lot of them. Betcha one of them's for Franz." It was only then that he noticed Amelia had stood and begun walking towards the assembled mounts. "Amelia?" He questioned as he broke into a short jog to catch up with her. "You mean this is what you asked for?"

As they neared , she saw Franz and General Seth drawing close as well. A few more steps and she was able to make out the words the older knight was speaking to his charge.

"…name is Sophia. I understand she's rather gentle in personality – a lot like Neige was, truth be told."

"Thank you, Sir." Franz replied softly before his eye met hers. "Amelia? What are you doing here?"

"The same as you, apparently." She turned to regard the lineup of mounts. "If I'm going to be a mounted soldier, then I'll need a mount of my own, right?"

"Indeed." The Silver Knight walked past her to lay a hand on another horse, it's fur a deep shade of brown – aside from a splash of pure white near its forehead. "This is Fortinbras – a rather fancy name, admittedly, but it serves well enough." He smiled down at the young recruit. "And this will be yours."

Silently, Amelia walked up to Fortinbras, running her hand along its glossy neck, feeling the muscles under the smooth coat. "Hello, Fort." She said softly.

"Sophia." Franz's new mount was a light grey to the point of being mistaken for white at first glance. He grasped her reins for a long moment.

"Hm." Ewan folded his arms. "I wonder if I should get a mount too."

"Sure." Amelia commented wryly. "If you could find one that wouldn't throw you off and trample all over you after ten minutes."

"So, how much do you know about taking care of horses?" Franz said as they turned to lead their new mounts to their stables.

"Not a whole lot." Amelia admitted.

"Want some pointers?'

"I'd be much obliged." Amelia ran a hand along her mount's neck again. "It's going to be a while until I can feel confident in taking care of her. I mean, I heard about some of the basic stuff like rubbing them down and cleaning them and it's really intimidating as it is."

"Don't worry – it's really not as difficult as it looks – and most of the stablehands will be helping you out, so-"

He was cut off by a sudden blast of the trumpet – recognizable as the new King's signal for an immediate assembly. Franz shook his head and reached for Fort's reins.

"I'll get the horses to the stables. You fall in first."

"Right." Pausing to take one last look at her new steed, she turned and headed for the rapidly converging group of soldiers.


"…Grad forces." Amelia kicked at a pebble on the ground. "Showing up in bulk near the Narube River. A Frelian detachment there sent out an urgent appeal for aid"

"I guess we've got our next target, after all." Franz sighed and turned away. "Everyone should be ready to march before the hour is up, right? I'll go get my things."

"Will I need to bring Fort?" Amelia looked over in the direction of the stables. "I'm still not sure about my ability to fight from horseback."

"If you need to you can always dismount. I mean, the reason they're trained is to stand still in the middle of a battlefield when it's all noisy and bloody without running away." Franz smiled. "You -, no. We'll do fine. Don't worry."

Amelia grinned slightly. "Watch your back if you watch mine?"

He chuckled. "Deal."


Chapter End


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