Chapter 10: Walking the Line

"For the last time, I'm sorry I ran into you!" Aran growled out in an aggravated tone. For the last 20 minutes he had been forced to apologize in any way shape or form to who he saw as one of the most arrogant people he had ever met.

Said person, or rather, elf, was currently sitting in a chair opposite the chief and himself next to the brown haired male, who had identified himself as Freud, Ellinia's envoy to the Root meetings. Currently it seemed he was trying to calm down his elven companion, though all he had to show for it was a rather large bruise on his arm.

"What kind of apology is that? Where I come from the children at least know to admit when they're wrong." The look on her face was condescending enough without the constant insults thrown at him.

"Nonetheless I'll forgive you, we don't have all day to work out this alliance." Aran held his temper in check at this, if only because the sooner this meeting was over the sooner he wouldn't have to see this arrogant Queen anymore...

"Well then." Freud hastily tried to move onto a new subject. "The terms of the alliance will be that we, the Root Alliance, will recognize Rein as one of its members and as such be allowed to certain privileges."

Chief Koori raised an eyebrow in question. "Such as...?" He prompted Freud to elaborate. Not missing a beat Freud picked a piece of paper from his pack and slid it across the table. The chief took a moment to look it over before nodding appreciatively.

"I accept these conditions, I however, also have one thing that I must ask for before we seal this alliance."

Freud tilted his head, inviting the chief to convey his request. The man thought it over for a moment before saying anything.

"I would like to request that we receive a formal written apology from her highness for the insult delivered to our warriors who had died in battle several days ago."

Aran's head snapped up, he wasn't the only one who was surprised, Freud let the feeling of dread wash over him before he looked over to his partner who's eyes had narrowed dangerously. The tension in the room had gone up 3 fold from that simple request.

"I received word from Aran that a dishonor was done to our protectors when he went out on his mission to deliver the message of alliance to Queen Mercedes, all I ask is a simple apology and we will be fine."

Mercedes opened her mouth to retort but was luckily or unluckily depending on how you looked at it, cut off by Freud.

"Of course, Chief Koori, you will receive an apology in two days at the latest." Freud sweated bullets as he felt the hostility behind him rising. Uttering a quick thanks for the meeting, he rushed out of the tent as quickly as courtesy would allow, not stopping until he reached the tent that had been lent to them as a temporary shelter.

Freud began to set down his things, dumping the winter cloak he was wearing onto the bed. "Sorry about that, I just wanted to get us out of that situation. This alliance is important for all of us."

Mercedes didn't respond as she stood silently by the entrance to the tent, she started to walk up to the Dragon Contractor as he kept talking.

"I'll write the-"

A clear crack could be heard as Mercedes drew back her hand and slapped Freud as hard as she could across the face. The now stormy blue eyes reflected an unmerciful anger as she grabbed him by the collar.

"Don't make my decisions for me." She hissed in a deadly voice, the fact that she was angry was clear enough by her tone. She flipped open the tent entrance and left without another word, leaving a dazed, slightly hurt, and completely confused Freud in her wake.

-Ereve-

The moon was high and full, the fireflies were flying around in the serene garden, the only sound was of the little river gurgling happily as Empress Aria sat in her garden. Yes all was serene and peaceful in Ereve for tonight.

Except for the fact that Phantom had infiltrated the place not 10 minutes ago.

'Honestly... the guards here are horribly inept, Gaston is a better guard.' Phantom thought to himself as he took the journey to the Empress' room at a leisurely pace. 'Then again Gaston does manage to capture me sometimes...'

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Phantom simply followed where all the guards were running, having found the unconscious body of the soldier stripped of his uniform earlier; honestly, they might was well put down signposts as to where the Empress was. It turns out however, that for best or for worst, that the Empress had a bad habit of sneaking out at night without telling certain obsessing advisers. Thus while Aria was in the garden quite content with simply watching the dazzling flowers, the guards were in a while man-or lady hunt in this case.

Meanwhile our charming (or so he liked to tell himself) thief continued on his merry way up to the Empress' room where he found the room just as happily seemed to taunt him when the unlocked doors greeted him to a rather modest room for an Empress, a single table with some chairs pushed in around it, several windows, a small fireplace, a bookshelf, and ah yes the bed.

Now if Empress Aria had a penchant for one thing it was sleep, and thus it seemed as if the lavish silk sheets and curtains around the soft downy pillows was worth more then everything else put together. To Phantom however, there was only one thing that was important.

"She's not here..." And indeed, the bed lacked any sort of person and the open window that was facing the courtyard suggested that the Empress may have been on her less then perfect behavior today.

"Well then... everything ventured, never lose, riches gained. That's my motto." And so he turned into a swirl of cards before landing on the courtyard outside, opting to use his skills rather than climb down the precarious looking rope that had been made of old cleaning rags.

"Now where to look...

Now during this time Aria had been completely oblivious to the chaos in her palace. After all, who would invade the Empress' palace short of the Black Mage? Left alone, Aria's thoughts, for the hundredth time that day, drifted the the womanizing thief that she had met not two days ago.

"How can one person have such an impossibly huge ego..." She murmured to herself as she found herself drawing his face in the dirt with a stick... and then running it through with said impromptu drawing tool, a small sadistic smile appeared on her face, she would get him back for humiliating her like that one day. Normally she wasn't such a vengeful person, but something about the blond debonair infuriated her beyond belief.

"Why Empress, I'm hurt, you didn't enjoy your meeting with me?"

Aria jumped about a foot into the air when a voice whispered into her ear, whipping around she found herself face to face with... a guard?

"What do you mean?" Aria asked, confused at the moment.

The "guard" seemed surprised for a moment before a small smirk appeared on his face. "Oh you really don't remember? Perhaps a reminder then." He proceeded to throw something at her, the object hit her on the forehead before landing in her palm. The Empress fumed, rubbing her head before looking down at the offending projectile.

A card.

"T-Then you, you're...!"

Phantom flipped back his hood dramatically, maybe he did have a tiny flair for the theatrical...

"Correct, now Empress Aria I must insist that you come with me quietly." He offered his hand as if he hadn't just thrown out the fact that he was basically kidnapping her.

Aria of course, slapped the hand away, choosing to take a few steps back further from Phantom. "And if I don't? I suppose we'll be doing this the hard way then."

Despite her bravado the Empress was shaking on the inside, her knowledge of magic was better then most but certainly not enough to match an experienced fighter like Phantom. She had seen what he could do just a few days before and she had to admit, the prospect of a battle with him did not sound very promising for her.

Then Phantom put a hand over his mouth, his body trembling. Aria gave him a half confused half concerned look despite their situation.

"H-Hey are you okay?" The previous distance that she had made closed as she took a few steps forward.

Then Phantom finally cracked, it really was too much, his laughter wasn't excessively loud by any means, it was more like a chuckle. An extremely arrogant and annoying chuckle to be sure but a chuckle nonetheless.

"Oh Empress, surely you don't think that I am that uncouth do you? If you don't come with me then I will simply have to persuade you into coming with me."

"Persuade?"

"Yes." Phantom's laugh died down, now replaced by the usual confident smirk. "Persuade." he grabbed her hand which hung limply at her side and pulled her forward so that she landed on his chest.

"Like this."

Aria laid there for a moment, blinking, not comprehending what had just happened before straightening up and pushing herself away, a loud shriek following soon after.

"G-Get away from me you- you womanizer!" A furious scarlet color had worked it's way up to her face.

Phantom just stood there laughing again, footsteps however, could now be heard in the distance. It seemed that the Empress' yell had attracted the attention of the guards whether she had intended to or not.

"Our time is short Empress, I pray you will keep in good health until we meet again." As he turned into a swirl of cards once again, Aria threw a rock from the ground and missed spectacularly, managing to hit a guard that had rounded the corner on the head who was luckily wearing a helmet.

"Empress! Are you alright?!" Gileheart came running up to Aria relief clear on his face; the guards had been frantically searching for her for almost half an hour now.

Unfortunately for him, for the second time in three days, Empress Aria felt completely humiliated by the thief who treated her like a child. And so for the second time in three days Gileheart was smashed into the ground by a fuming Empress before she returned to her room. It was not until 20 minutes later that she found the card that had been slipped into her hand when Phantom had pulled her forward. The image was of a brilliant rose display, it glowed for a moment before the display was in front of her, gleaming in the moonlight let in by the window.

For some reason, she stayed awake for another few minutes just watching the roses sway in the gentle night breeze.

-End-

A/N

Sorry it's kind of late though it's a bit longer then usual so hopefully that makes up for it. In response to those people who ask for pairings, I'll mention again, I outline a few chapters in advance so I don't get confused at what to write next. Thus requests, as much as I would like to follow them, are going to be next to impossible to implement.

On the other hand it is now constructive criticism is completely welcome if not encouraged and I will try to implement some of those suggestions. It is also vacation week for me so I will most likely be able to get out another chapter this week and perhaps 2 if I'm lucky.

Finally the support for this story is really amazing, I'm happy so many people are enjoying it!

Read and Review please!

-Lunarfeather