Chapter 14: Tatters

To be completely honest, Aria had never been an expert on feelings. How could she have been? Seeing as how the girl had worked to lead the Maple World as it's empress since she was a child. All she knew was that she had given Freud the cards out of pure instinct, hoping that somehow, he would be able to stop the two combatants from hurting one another.

Unfortunately, she hadn't anticipated the consequences of helping the thief, her body had just moved on its own as she saw the battle erupting in front of her. Phantom... the thief in front of her was currently invading her palace, intending to harm or otherwise disadvantage her in a time that she needed to be the strongest for the Maple World.

This, she reasoned, was just a result of her natural personality. The thief had helped her out once by saving her, this was only returning the favor. After this occasion he would be dealt with like any other criminal, no, even more severely considering what he had done.

In any case, this was not the time to be contemplating her own actions. The tension in the atmosphere was almost palpable in the way it clamped down on the people in the courtyard. Mercedes was looking at Freud with a mixture of frustration, anger, and betrayal.

"You... you're allied with that thief." Mercedes spat out the word with enough venom to make Freud take a step backwards. Between the conflicted emotions that she was experiencing, she seemed to favor anger in the current situation; unsurprising considering her usual disposition.

"T-That's..." Freud frantically tried to come up with a suitable explanation for the situation at hand as he desperately attempted to reign in the currently disastrous course the conversation was taking.

"We just know one another from..." Unfortunately, he wasn't doing a very good job with it. There was only so much you could say to Mercedes even when she was in a good mood.

"I don't believe I care if you've met him before." Mercedes cut across the stuttering male without a second thought. "Either way, the things you say aren't trustworthy anymore."

Clenching his teeth, Freud again started to speak but was cut short by the elven queen once again.

"Enough." She raised a hand with a bowgun in it and for a terrible moment, Freud thought she was simply going to send an arrow through him; he wasn't sure if he would even attempt to stop it.

"I no longer care for your explanation. Tomorrow I will continue my expedition alone." A sort of forced calm seemed to come over her, something she had developed over the years as a ruler. In the her current audience however, it was clear to all that she was holding herself back; either from breaking down or from straight up filling Freud with holes.

"Gileheart." Aria spoke to her aide in little more than a whisper. "I would like you to take our guests to to their rooms for the night. I will... try to speak with Mercedes."

As he agreed with the request, something about it didn't sit well with him. Until he realized that she had said guests, as in plural.

"Empress, certainly you can't mean..." He glared pointedly at Phantom who, besides standing in place looking rather confused, wasn't exactly doing much; uncertain as to whether or not he was still considered a threat here. Looking back and forth between the Freud and Phantom, Aria made her decision without hesitation.

"I do Gileheart, though do take care that Phantom and Freud are placed in the same room. I am not yet trusting enough to allow the thief to roam in the palace as he pleases. I believe that Freud will be enough to keep him in check."

Glancing back at Mercedes, she decided to add something else. "Do bring Queen Mercedes' things to my room as well."

Quietly acquiescing to Aria's request, Gileheart moved forward and spoke a few words to Freud to which the other nodded, albeit reluctantly. With a last hesitant look back towards his now former partner, Freud's new task left Aria as the only one to see the stony look on Mercedes' face as the elven queen stormed by, consumed by her own thoughts.

"Mercedes?" Calling out to the queen was nerve-racking, even for Aria. Though her weapons were stowed away. Mercedes' stare was as sharp as ever, though she quickly retracted it when she saw who had called her name.

"Yes, Empress? What is it?" They both knew it was a mere formality for her to ask; there wasn't really much else to talk about besides what had just transpired moments ago. Pushing Mercedes forward slightly, Aria motioned for the elf to follow as the two made their way towards Aria's personal quarters.

"Perhaps, if it would not be troubling, I could ask to to recount the story of your encounters with Phantom."

Mercedes shot the Empress a mystified look. "Phantom?"

"The thief." She clarified, surprised that the elven queen did not yet know the name of Maple World's most infamous plunderer. As soon as it was made clear however, Mercedes glare sharpened as she quite vocally told of her opinion of Phantom.

"He is a sneaky rat that I do not plan on forgiving anytime soon; the same goes for his snake of a friend." It seemed almost inevitable that Mercedes and Freud would never make up; the elf was already dead set in her reformed opinion of him, despite only forming that opinion 10 minutes ago.

Naturally Aria was troubled, not only for the relationship between the two people involved, but also for the fate of the alliance. Elluel was a large chunk of their forces, forming nearly all of their archers. While the empress didn't think that Mercedes would be that rash, her fellow ruler wasn't exactly in the most rational of moods at the moment.

While taking care to control her tone, Aria attempted to further the conversation. "Are you sure that you can righteously blame him as you have? Without giving him an opportunity to explain himself that is."

While this did stop Mercedes for a moment, it wasn't nearly enough to make her deviate from the path she was currently on. "What was there to explain?" She did pose a fairly good question. "I don't need a reason to not believe in him besides that fact that he assisted my enemy. The one who stole the royal crown of the elves and defiled our village with his acts."

"Will you tell me of the rest of your journey Queen Mercedes?" The elven queen's surprise was clearly shown on her face when Aria so abruptly spoke across her. Nonetheless, she was obliged to answer the call of the Empress. And so, the Queen went about recounting the story of her journey with Freud; from their first encounter on the boat back to Victoria Island to their present predicament. Her voice echoed through the clear hallways as

As she spoke, the Empress seemed to simply become more and more convinced that, no matter what her fellow royal may think, that Freud had simply had no good options in that situation.

"And so we finally arrived in Ereve and went on to meet you Empress. From there you should know the story well enough without me having to tell you." As she finished, the two had arrived at the Empress' quarters, all of Mercedes' things already placed in the room, much to the elf's surprise.

Turning towards her opposite number in surprise, she was momentarily speechless. "Empress what...?"

Aria only seemed to be relishing the stunned look on Mercedes' face. "Just something I thought we could do since I never get to speak to any other royals. Not to mention that it seems like you would need it at the moment." It seemed as if the elven queen didn't know whether to be grateful or not, in the end however, she ended up staying with a quick 'thank you' either way.

With the things that had gone on tonight, it was doubtful that either of them were in a mood to spend the night in solitude.

"Why did you come here Phantom?"

Currently Freud and Phantom were stuck in the same room together. The Empress' aide, Gileheart, had asked for the mage to police his less honest companion for the duration of their stay. Of course he had objected at first, wishing nothing but to not talk to the thief, but he didn't really have a say in it at the moment.

"Why do I go anywhere my friend, but to take something that is quite obviously not my own." The lack of shame coming from the the thief was almost embarrassing considering that he was the main cause of the events that had occurred tonight. The small amount of nervousness he had exhibited before had clearly worn off after his attack had gone away.

Freud sighed heavily, certainly he was mad, he had long since learned however, that anger wasn't a legitimate way to deal with Phantom. If anything, it only made the thief more giddy about what he had done. "You've just screwed up a huge act of diplomacy Phantom. I'll be lucky if Mercedes isn't writing a letter to the Root about Elluel's resignation from the alliance at this very moment. Not to mention you're technically a wanted criminal."

"You flatter me Freud, though I suspect that you're more worried about your own relationship with the elves rather than the Root's affiliation with it. After all, your work is your excuse to travel around with their queen isn't it?" Though he had been about to yell at Phantom again, Freud was stopped by the unusually serious look on his friend's face.

"Let's face it, the Root could have sent a number of other non-essentials to take your place, but they allowed you, one of their most valuable personnel to escort Mercedes on your global trot in order to form alliances." Freud actually paused to think this over, certainly he had treated this as routine. He realized however, that over the course of their time together, Mercedes had started to mean more to him than an important political figure. She was his friend, someone he could call and equal and, at the end of the day, have a conversation with while not having to watch what he was saying.

"You know what Phantom?" The thief looked up from where he was toying with the silverware on the small dining table in the room with a curious face.

"I think I've just lost something more valuable than anything you could steal..."

Phantom didn't really have words to say to that. Though the meaning behind them was eerily similar to something his butler had said.

~~~~~End~~~~~

A/N

Took a little longer than expected to get this one out. Went back and did a few minor edits to chapter 1 and 11. As always feel free to criticize what seems wrong and help out in making the story better.

-Lunarfeather