Chapter Twelve: Adversity
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant;
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
-Anne Bradstreet
xxXxx
They weren't polite giggles, by any stretch of the imagination. Haru was laughing louder and harder than Baron had ever heard from a female before. She even pounded one fist against the table a few times and nearly fell out of her seat like a drunkard.
Stranger than that, it was a surprisingly cheerful sound, one that he might have started laughing with, in different circumstances.
Baron dared to steal a glance at the king and prince. His majesty looked dumbfounded, but Baron wasn't surprised. He doubted anyone had ever laughed like that in his presence before, let alone at such an offer. He even had to take his hand off her chair, he was so shocked.
Lune, however, looked slightly sick at such a sound. After all, if the king had his way, he'd be listening to that for the rest of his life.
"Please control yourself, Miss Haru; this is hardly a laughing matter," Baron implored the girl worriedly.
Thankfully, her guffaws lessened after his plea. "Bu-But, it was hilarious!" she giggled, taking a few deep breaths. "That was a pretty good joke, your majesty."
"That wasn't a joke, my lady," the king said in an offended growl. "I truly am offering you my son's hand in marriage."
Haru quirked one of her strange eyebrows, all traces of mirth faded away. "Um, this is flattering and everything, but no thanks, your majesty."
The king gaped at her. "No? What do you mean, no?"
Haru looked at him as if she knew that his mind had been turning strange for the past number of years. She pinched her wrist again, just in case this really was a dream. "I mean that I don't want to marry your son, your majesty."
'She certainly gets to her point, doesn't she?' Baron inwardly groaned. He had a feeling this wasn't going to end well. But then, he'd been having that feeling for a while now.
"I think you misunderstood, fair lady," the king nearly growled, starting to lose his patience. "This is the chance of a lifetime; one that any cat would die for."
"Many humans would die for it, too. Your majesty, I have a good idea of what kind of life I'd live as your daughter in law. But I have to turn it down. Even if I liked your son that way, I'd make a terrible princess. I appreciate the offer, but really, I'm doing the royal family a favor by saying no. This is no offense to you," she added to a relieved looking Lune.
"None taken-"
"This is nonsense!" the king roared as he rose to his feet. "It is foretold that you'll marry my son!"
Haru had to fight back another laugh, though this one was slightly bitter. "Foretold? Baron, you're the one that makes the most sense around here; what's going on?" she asked while turning to him.
She also took the time to slide her coat back over her arms and flick her long hair over the collar, now that the king wasn't holding her chair to the table.
Baron squirmed from the quiet trust in her eyes, but bowed politely from his place at the table. "For centuries, there's been a prophecy about a Sea Maiden that will bear the heir from the cold sea. After that, the Sea Maiden would then bear the greatest king, ever been."
Haru's eyes widened in astonishment, and it was a full moment before she could speak again. "You're not serious," she nearly whispered to the king.
"I'm completely serious my lady. We've been waiting for you for almost a thousand years."
"A stinking prophecy? Of all the clichéd, pathetic… do you have any idea how overused the idea of prophecies are?" she demanded of the king, losing her proper manners in her anger.
It might have been Baron's imagination, but he could have sworn that her large brown eyes were gaining a reddish tint.
"Humans have prophecies?" the king asked incredulously.
"A ridiculous amount, and only some of them come true." She shook her head as she stood from her chair and started backing away from the table. "This is probably one of the ones that aren't true."
"Actually, this one is," the king growled as he stood up as well. "A firebird gave us the prophecy, and they've never been wrong."
"Oh great, now firebirds are real, too," she said sarcastically, rubbing her forehead with one hand to combat a sudden headache. "But just for the record, I didn't save your son from the sea."
"How can you possibly say that? I have proof that you did just over here!" the king yelled, gesturing to his crystal ball which had been pushed into a corner in its pedestal.
"Actually, you have proof that I saved your son from the ocean," she corrected with a heavy emphasis. "Oceans are a lot bigger than seas, your majesty."
The king gaped at her in total shock.
"So, it looks like you went through all this trouble for the wrong girl. I'll just let myself out now." Haru turned to the curtain to do just that.
"Didn't you refer to your ocean as a sea a little while ago?" Baron wondered aloud.
"That was a misnomer," she said quickly, almost out the curtain as she inched her way closer to it.
"Vulcan said you were the Sea Maiden, so the prophecy must have been a misnomer, too!" The king lunged for her, but she was much swifter.
The curtain billowed slightly as she made her escape, making the king throw it to the side and holler down the hallway. "Don't let the Sea Maiden escape! Catch her or I'll have your heads!"
"Please let her escape," Lune whispered painfully.
"She doesn't know a thing about our world, and she doesn't know how to return to her own world," Baron informed him as he stood up from the table. "I'm afraid she will be caught before long."
It was such a shame, that this was the girl's fate. She had only been trying to save a life, and now she was in the middle of a terrible mess.
He walked out into the hallway, and could hear distant screams and crashing sounds coming from beyond the staircase as the king started running down the steps. How the Sea Maiden had gotten to the bottom of them so quickly was beyond the little kitten. But he found it slightly amusing that none of the screams belonged to the human girl.
A flash of golden light was his only warning before Vulcan flew in from a large open window.
"Quick, Baron; get on my back!" he commanded, turning around to face the window again
Since one did not question a seer, the kitten immediately climbed on. It was different from riding Toto, especially considering the fact that Vulcan's neck was slender enough for Baron to more than fully put his tiny arms around it.
"What are we up to?" Baron asked as Vulcan turned on his talons to sail out the same window.
"We're going to keep the Sea Maiden from leaving, and I believe you made her a promise."
Baron hung his head in shame, keeping a grip on his top hat with one hand. "She will kill me when I tell her."
"No she won't. She may want to, but she won't be able to lay a finger on you, even without my intervention."
"Why is that?" Baron asked as they soared around the palace's towers.
"I think I'll let you figure it out. Ah, yes, here she comes," Vulcan noticed as Haru burst out of the palace amidst screams.
Baron could dimly see guards make chase after her, but none of them seemed to be enthusiastic about catching up to her.
The reason why became more apparent as Haru turned long enough to sweep one cat's legs out from underneath him, stealing his long spear in the process. The guards at the gate by this time had closed it, and were almost cowering in front of it. They had good reason to, since she had started running towards them with the spear firmly in her hands; the metal end pointed at them.
"She wouldn't!" Baron gasped, thinking she was about to kill the guards.
"She won't," Vulcan assured him with a grin.
Miraculously, she didn't. When she was perhaps ten feet away from the wall, she slammed the metal end of the spear into the cobblestones as she ran.
The effect was the same as if she had access to a slightly weak catapult. In a long practiced motion, her body sailed over the heads of the guards to land on top of the metal gate. The gate door shook violently as she managed to regain her balance, and then hop off to the clear side so that she could start running like her life depended on it.
"… How did she do that?" Baron gasped. He had never seen anything like that before.
"Her stepfather made sure that she'd be able to defend herself if they were ever separated, and the little mix-up with the Fish of Nilpan scrambled her genes about; she's capable of more than she looks like. But take care not to let anyone in the palace find out that the Fish was used improperly; it will become important that no one knows why she looks the way she does," Vulcan warned him as they made a sudden beeline for the half-human girl.
Now, Vulcan had always been a careful one, when it came to his flaming feathers. As far as Baron knew, the firebird had only lit things on fire when the king kept him from the skies for more than a week, and that was only from frustration.
However, he dipped one wing to the soft grass, and drew a line of tall golden fire to cut off her escape. Even as Haru gasped in shock and stumbled to a stop, Vulcan swiftly turned the line into a large circle; flying faster and faster in order for the flames to climb to the sky.
It was all Baron could do, to hang onto both the firebird's elegant neck as well as his hat. He distantly wondered why neither he nor his clothes caught on fire from the heat, but remained grateful that nothing but the grass burst into flames. Even better, the fire stayed within the lines that Vulcan drew on the grass instead of spreading.
Somehow Baron was able to keep his eyes on Haru, even as she knelt to the ground with both hands over her head. He could hear her scream in fear, and watch her long hair fly and dance after the wind current of the flames, though none of her caught on fire.
Finally, once the fire circle had been teased to fifty feet high, Vulcan decided that it was enough. He gave a golden trill to the palace, making the king and a host of soldiers hesitantly come out and start marching toward them. Then the firebird landed close to the circle of fire, and shifted his shoulders around to encourage the kitten to get off.
"Look to your childhood, for the answers you seek," Vulcan told Haru gently, as the fire began to die down.
While still on her knees, Haru's fear melted into bewilderment as she lowered her arms. "What?" she asked incredulously as she stared at the legendary bird.
"You will need to get used to that, I'm afraid," Baron apologized as he slid off Vulcan's back. "Firebird instructions are notoriously vague until you're ready to understand them."
Vulcan nudged him with his beak. "You'd best keep your promise now. She'll keep trying to escape unless you tell her."
Haru gave Baron a deeply suspicious and angry look over the slowly dying flames. "Tell me what?" she asked in a flat, unfriendly tone.
One that contrasted sharply with her previously sweet nature.
Baron took a deep breath for courage, and bowed to her. "The portal is the large black hole that you woke up next to, but I'm afraid that you'll never be able to use it. The Fish of Nilpan is a permanent spell; if you try to return to your world, you will die before entry. If you eat something from our world, you will merely be thrown back onto this side of the portal, but I regret to inform you that you will never return to the world you knew."
Haru gaped at him in horror. "… No!"
"Yes," Baron corrected, staring at his shoes to avoid her gaze.
"Ah, Haru! So glad that you could stay after all," the king gloated once he and the guards had caught up to the fire circle. "Good job, Vulcan, Baron! We can't have her going off on her own, can we?"
Neither the kitten nor the firebird dared to answer him, but luckily the king wasn't paying attention to them anymore.
"Now that we have that taken care of, why don't we go back to the palace, hmm?" the king asked Haru hopefully.
"Drop dead, loser," she snapped, making the monarch choke in disbelief. Then she looked up at Vulcan, fighting back tears of hurt and rage. "Firebird-san; is there any way I can convince you to-"
"Absolutely not," Vulcan informed her firmly. "Even if I wanted to burn you to death, it's against the order of my clan to take a life unless it's for food or self-defense."
"Does that mean I have to try to kill you first?" Haru groaned.
"We both know you don't have it in you to kill, Sea Maiden."
"Don't call me that!"
"You have some nerve saying that to me!" the king finally managed to say in a fury. "Don't you realize I could have your head for insulting me?"
"Be my guest; you already took everything else," Haru snarled at him, deliberately turning her back to him.
The king gaped at her in shock. "What happened to that nice girl I invited for tea?"
"She found out that you were trying to marry her off without permission," Haru replied in a flat, angry tone. She crossed her arms defiantly, keeping her back to him as the last of the flames dissolved into fine ashes. "Go ahead and kill me; you took my human life anyway."
The king gaped at her in shock, as did everyone else.
To turn one's back on a royal was one of the top signs of disrespect, and Baron was more than certain that she was completely aware of the fact.
"… Guards! Take her back to the palace, and put her in the tower while I decide what to do with her," the king commanded once his shock wore off.
"Oh, a tower! How original!" Haru commented with a large amount of sarcasm, preparing to run.
But Vulcan hopped in front of her and held out his glorious golden wings to stop her. "Please don't bother. I could catch you again in a heartbeat, and there are things you need to learn here."
"Who asked you?" she snapped, turning a bit as Baron came back into her line of sight.
He visibly flinched back from connecting eyes with the ex-human, but couldn't break away from her gaze.
Haru glared at him hatefully as one guard each grabbed her arms. "You knew all this was going to happen, didn't you?" she accused him.
Baron couldn't answer her. It was all he could do to stare shamefully at his feet.
However, Haru could connect the dots without an answer. Although Baron didn't have the courage to look at her, he was more than certain that the reddish tint had returned to her eyes.
"You… you slime bag!" she screamed at him as the soldiers dragged her back into the palace. "I hope you're happy now, you little snake!"
Baron watched her get dragged back to the palace with clenched fists. No one had ever called him such things before. He had never given anyone a reason to before.
But he still knew that he deserved it.
"No," he sighed to himself. "I'm not happy at all."
Vulcan rubbed his head against one of his shoulders. "If it's any consolation, she'll forgive you within a year's time."
"That soon?" Baron scoffed softly.
"Only if you work hard enough for it. Things will turn out fine for her; I promise. Now we'd better get going."
Baron looked up with surprise, making the firebird smirk sadly.
"You don't really think it will be so easy to convince her to stay, do you?"
ooOoo
It was turning well past midnight. By definition, the palace should have been silent, and most of the inhabitants asleep.
Well, the palace was certainly quiet, and although a certain percentage were in bed, only a minority of them were able to sleep, and only with nightmares.
Even in the wildest fantasies of the royal court, no one had ever imagined that the Sea Maiden would slide down the banister, personally engage the guards in hand to hand combat, leave a multitude of broken bones and unconscious bodies in her wake, but also manage to clear the gate when it was still closed. It didn't matter that she had been caught in the end; if she could do that kind of damage once, she could surely do it twice, with casualties next time.
Baron watched his monarch pace back and forth in his study, sipping his tea without noticing that it was cold. Lune was sitting beside him, shaking like a leaf.
"Why couldn't she have just said yes?" the king demanded for the fifth time that hour.
"Maybe she misunderstood your majesty," Natoru offered, smiling like an idiot.
'Not likely,' Baron sighed.
"Perhaps it is considered an insult to be a royal in the Human Kingdom," Natori tried to reason, sending a glare at his son.
'Quite the opposite, actually.' "Not to be rude, your majesty, but you should have seen this coming."
The king wheeled around to glare at Baron, as did his advisors. "Why don't you explain why before you lose your head?" the large longhair snapped.
"The Sea Maiden's Song warned us of her stubbornness; 'destined to join cat kind, yet always possessing her own mind'," the little kitten recited for the monarch. "Translated with her temper, it means that the only way she will go through with a marriage of any sort is if it's of her own choosing. I wouldn't put it past her to commit suicide before submitting to an unwanted marriage."
"I don't know about you, but it doesn't appear like she'll choose to marry me any time soon," Lune replied, the first words he'd spoken in hours. "Does that mean I don't have to marry her?" he asked hopefully.
"Not on your life," the king growled as he resumed his pacing. "There's got to be a way to get that stubborn human to go through with the marriage. But not even threatening her life works on this one!" he lamented. "How can I possibly coerce someone if she doesn't even fear for her own life or have anything valuable in our kingdom?"
"The Baron will figure out how to make her more agreeable," Vulcan answered as he rested his head on the kitten's lap. "It's his destiny to ensure that she'll fulfill hers, after all."
"This is nonsense!" Natori yelled, as though at the end of his rope. "Baron this, Baron that; that's all you ever talk about! I'll go up to the tower and have a nice rational talk with the girl; I'll get her to agree to the marriage," the high advisor promised as he marched to the curtain.
"I wouldn't, if I were you," Vulcan warned him with a naughty smile.
"You just watch! Baron isn't as crucial to her destiny as you think!" Natori snapped as he marched through the curtain and started running for the tower.
The tower was hardly more than a dungeon for important prisoners. The last one to have used it was a duchess accused of killing her husband five years before. However, it was always kept clean, and the furniture somewhat comfortable.
Baron fought hard not to think of it, but the few furnishings in the tower weren't all that far off from what was in his personal quarters in Piaal.
Vulcan sighed, taking his head off of Baron's lap to stretch his long golden wings once. "Would you mind if I flew out for a bit, your majesty? The window in here is too small for me to fit through, and I need to save Natori's life in a few minutes."
"What?" the king asked in shock.
"She's not going to be willing to listen to the high advisor, so she's going to throw him out the window to see if I'll catch him. She still has doubts on whether or not I'm a seer."
"Hey, she can't do that to my father!" Natoru yelled indignantly, running from the room to go to the tower as well.
"Then I'll need to save that one, as soon as I drop off his father," Vulcan added with a smirk. "May I leave, your majesty?"
The king looked at his firebird, actually debating whether or not to let him save the two.
"They have a part to play, just like the prince and Baron," Vulcan told him seriously. "Their presence is required."
The king growled in compliance, and waved a hand at him. "Have fun playing catch with the Sea Maiden."
Vulcan bowed with a wicked grin, and also left the room; shouldering his way past the curtain carefully. Baron watched him go, noticing that the door was becoming a little small for the still-growing fireling. He could only pray that it meant that Vulcan would be returned to his home world soon, before the king ordered every entryway in the palace to be enlarged. Full-grown firebirds were twice as big as Vulcan currently was, so such an expense would be quite costly.
The king sighed, and finally plopped into his favorite chair. "Well, Baron? Vulcan says you can handle this dilemma."
"His confidence in me is intimidating," Baron answered as he stood up to take over pacing. "I haven't the foggiest idea on how to make her comply."
"Remember; your head if you fail," the king said ominously.
Baron nodded distractedly, but he wasn't thinking about his head at the moment. He was thinking about the half-human in the tower. Perhaps she was even now weeping for the loss of her world, unaware of the advisors' approach.
Although she clearly had no love for the villagers that had tried to kill her and Lune, he knew there were still things that she loved about her world, even if it wasn't much.
'Her step-father and the ocean was the grand total. Even if I could persuade his majesty to let her visit our waters from time to time, nothing will be able to fill the void her stepfather left. Not many things can take up the space that he did.' Baron fought back a small laugh at the thought, although he was certain that the large human was worrying about her right now.
Forget worry; he was probably panicking and probing the forest with a lantern, screaming her name.
Baron stopped pacing, and looked at his monarch sadly. "This will not be easy, your majesty. We have tricked her, lied to her, and forced her to remain in a world and shape opposite of her choosing. She has no reason to trust us with something as delicate as her future."
"It's your job to make sure she does!"
"I believe your majesty misunderstood me," Baron soothed as an idea began to form. "It's us she doesn't trust. Please look at things from her point of view; she's locked up inside a tower with guards and no friends in sight."
The king was looking at him in blank confusion. "I'm not following, Baron."
"Your majesty is aware that women have certain bonds with each other that males can't understand, right?"
"… I guess…?"
"With your majesty's permission, I'd like to choose one of your maids to go up there and comfort her. If it's possible, allow the maid to keep serving her in whatever capacity the Sea Maiden needs. By morning she will calm down enough so that Lune and I can go up there alone and try negotiation. The reason I'm certain Natori and Natoru will fail is because they aren't willing to compromise with her, but Lune and I are. There is a certain human ritual that is sometimes used when a female doesn't wish to marry, and it might be to our advantage if we use it."
Lune stared at him, catching on to who he was thinking of.
Natori's screams were suddenly heard loud and clear out the little window as glass broke violently, and then were sharply cut off as Vulcan presumably caught him.
The monarch looked at the window with a slight smirk, and sighed. "You're the expert on humans, Baron, so go ahead and pick a random maid for the Sea Maiden. But remember; it's your head if you fail."
Baron nodded, and calmly made his way out of the study as Natoru's screams started coming from the window.
Random maid, indeed! He was going to find Yuki.