Vignette 2 - Judging Too Harshly?
Between Mandalia Plain and Eagrose, shortly before full-dark
Delita watched his friend and thought, with some relief, that Ramza had finally reached the end of his tether.
"No Argath! No matter how much you argue, we will not be pressing on tonight. I am not travelling in the dark when we could be attacked and never see it coming. We're still about three hours from Eagrose. We'll leave at first light and be there by mid-morning, at worst." Ramza held up a hand, when the other young man made as if to speak again. Ramza, often so self-effacing, suddenly had all the commanding presence that Lord Ramza Beoulve, third son of the Earl of Eagrose was supposed to have. In this case, Delita approved of that, wholeheartedly.
"I said no! We are not putting ourselves and the rest of the team in jeopardy because you think you can get an army from my brothers, to ride out at your back, this very night. I'll make sure that they listen to what you have to say but I'm sorry to tell you that it will be they that decide how to proceed in this, not you. Besides, a few hours, which will hopefully allow us to stay untroubled by bandits and fiendish creatures, will not make much difference. Ten-to-one, Dycedarg will already know all about it when we get there and he, the Duke and Zalbaag will have made plans."
Dycedarg's ability to know about everything, very soon after had happened, sometimes seemed uncanny. Delita saw Argath open his mouth again, even as he was wondering for the umpteenth time just how many spies Dycedarg must have, to be able to do that. The stubborn look on Argath's face said this was not going to be acquiescence. Ramza jumped in again – yes he really had lost any semblance of patience with Argath's ridiculous posturing and demands.
"No, I have listened to you maunder on about this for nigh-on half an hour, I will not listen to another word!"
Ramza stalked off, heading further away from the road and, after a moment, Delita followed him. He found Ramza leaning against a tree, inspecting the silhouette of the toe of one boot in the near-dark, as if it fascinated him.
"Was I too harsh?" He asked. Delita shrugged.
"No... well perhaps a little; he's had a hard day, after all. I can't fault you, though - it did have to be said."
Delita was just glad that the argument, which had seemed interminable, had finally been ended. He'd have had a lot less patience than Ramza with Argath.
"Who does he think he is, telling me what we must and mustn't do for him?" Ramza asked.
Delita knew Ramza had spent the last couple of days trying terribly hard to be the perfect Cadet-Captain. Something about the incongruence of that, and the slightly petulant indignation of that last question made him smile. Thinking more about Argath made his smile drop quickly.
"There's something not quite... right about him, I admit." Delita said, after a moment's consideration. "He's so intense about everything. I mean, he's ambitious, that's as obvious as the noonday sun and, I'd guess, he's hitched his wagon so tightly to the Marquis that he thinks he has nothing left, if anything happens to the man.
"Be careful of him; if he thinks his ambitions can be more easily realised with Beoulve rather than Elmdore help, you'll find him a difficult one to be rid of, I imagine."
Delita's voice might be cool, but he had his own ambitions, so he could, sort of, sympathise with Argath. However, his attachment to the Beoulve family was genuine - his affection for its youngest two members was as strong, more or less, as that for his sister; he would never just use them to gain what he wanted... though, if an opportunity presented itself, that Lords Zalbaag or Dycedarg could help him with... so maybe, he wasn't so different from Argath, after all.
"I don't necessarily need to be "rid" of him, totally; he was handy in the fight today, after all. I just want him to calm down and back off a bit... Maybe I'm being unfair, maybe he's just very loyal to the Marquis." Ramza himself didn't sound entirely convinced of that.
"Perhaps." Delita's voice held no conviction.
"But you don't think it's likely do you?" Ramza asked.
"No." Delita didn't bother to elaborate, he'd stated his opinion already.
The stars were unusually bright that evening, which meant that there was just enough light for Delita to see Ramza's shrug, as he also said:
"Then, will you do me a favour and keep an eye on him, please? As you suggest, he may see befriending me as a way to try to gain favour with my brothers. I probably should do as you say and be careful around him."
"Of course. And don't worry about it, I would have kept an eye, anyway - there's something about him I just don't trust." Delita couldn't have said what, other than the other boy's over-eagerness, had prompted that reaction in him, but something about Argath just bothered him, niggling away at the back of his mind.
"We're being too hasty, I'm sure. We shouldn't judge him like this." Ramza said. Delita tried hard not to roll his eyes.
"We're being realistic, Ramza. If we're wrong, then we may find, in time, that we have another friend, one who we misjudged at first. If we're right, then he isn't someone who either of us should ever fully trust. It's only sensible to be a little cautious... Anyway, let's go back."
Delita headed for the campfire, where a silence reigned. The other four cadets weren't looking at Argath and the silence was distinctly uncomfortable. Ramza trudged after his friend. He glanced at Argath and thought he could almost see waves of frustration coming off the boy.
"I'm sorry for my rudeness before, Argath, but you already lost several comrades today, as I understand it. I won't do anything to increase the risk losing mine."
"I... understand... it's just very hard to feel so helpless." Argath replied, in a sullen monotone.
"Yes, it must be." Ramza could afford to put a little sympathy into his tone, now the argument had been won, but he didn't feel inclined to give too much.
There was none of the cheerfulness of the previous night, which had been rather fun, especially once Samantha had roused herself, a little, from her black mood. Tonight, they set up the tents, lit a fire and had a meagre supper, before splitting watches and retiring almost immediately.
Author's Note:
I'm failing in my personal goals for this piece - from the start, I couldn't maintain the Olde English - now, I wanted to justify Argath saying "Are we not friends?" to Ramza during the fight with Delita, after Tietra's kidnapped. However, I can't make myself make Ramza (or Delita) like him. Maybe Argath will just have to be a self-deluding idiot about it, instead, or maybe that comment's meant sarcastically.