Last vignette of Chapter 1. Just the epilogue after this.

Vignette 22 – Holy Knight

In the hills along the border of Gallione and Fovoham, north-west of Fovoham Windflats. Evening.

The weather had turned incredibly cold for Cancer, so the six of them all sat huddled in cloaks around the fire. Delita had been trying again not the think about the fact that they had killed several more women today or that he had been the one who had struck the killing blow against Wiegraf Folles' sister the day before. He'd killed that man's sister in order to get Tietra back – but didn't that make him almost as bad as these people?

No, of course it doesn't, you fool; Tietra's a tiny, harmless, innocent girl who wasn't part of this conflict! He chided himself. He truly was being foolish, thinking like this - tomorrow they would be at the fortress, if he wanted to save Tietra he had to be able to focus on her, not be feeling guilty about killing some woman who had refused to surrender.

He decided that he would dwell on neither the deaths today, nor Tietra, for now. Thinking of either would only make him more depressed.

He pulled Juli, who was shivering, closer and, noticing that she was rubbing her hands together as if to warm them, he removed his gloves and he handed them to her to wear, though they were far too big. To try to take his mind off depressing things, he asked the question which had been a vague niggle in the back of his mind since the fight with Wiegraf.

"Why does everyone say that Sword Techniques are undetectable and undodgeable? I accept unblockable, which I've also heard said, but I could feel them coming, both times Wiegraf used them on me. If I'd realised what I was feeling, I think I could have dodged, if I'd been quick. I reckon there must have been a second, maybe two, where I could have flung myself aside..." His voice slowed down towards the end, as he felt Juliana stiffen.

He had been looking into the fire as he spoke but as he moved his head to look down at her, her caught sight of the almost comically shocked expression on Ramza's face. He was surprised to find that Ramza was reacting at all, never mind so strongly. Ramza had been preoccupied ever since Wiegraf's shouted accusations about his brothers that afternoon.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that I'm lacking some vital piece of information here." He said to his friend, glancing down at Juli, who looked almost as shocked as Ramza. He glanced around - all four girls looked a little stunned at what he had said.

"Please tell me that Dycedarg tested you, when you were little." Ramza said, his voice actually quavering a little.

"Tested me? What are you on about?" Delita asked, exasperated.

"Have you never been near Dycedarg when he used a Holy Sword technique?" Ramza asked.

"I think I was... once. I saw Lord Dycedarg smash the armour right off Zalbaag from a distance, when they were sparring together, no holds barred, one time. That would have been one, right? It's looked hellish painful, I know that." Delita gave a half-smile, still feeling disconcerted at Ramza's odd solemnity.

"No that would be the other sort – Crush Armour; that's an Unyielding Blade Technique."

"Crush Armour? Lots of thought went into that name, I see." He said, drily. His half-smile wasn't returned.

"Delita, you need to take this seriously. There is a very good chance that you are a Holy Knight." Delita frowned at his friend.

"I'm low-born Ramza. That means I can't be, right? They say it usually runs in families, often skipping a generation or three, but it's still in the blood... noble blood." He clarified.

"Wiegraf Folles..." Ramza began, but Delita interrupted

"I heard everyone assumes he's just some nobleman's by-blow..." Ramza's face stiffened slightly. "Sorry, I didn't..."

"That's not important." Ramza cut him off. "Delita, since you aren't... unless..." Ramza trailed off and his look of shock, this time possibly tinged with just a little horror, resurfaced.

"What? Oh... No! Absolutely not! I look really like me dad did! I love you and all that, but I am not your half-brother!"

His dad had been a gentle giant of a man, kind and loving to his family. Granted, if he had been some kind of brute, Delita wouldn't have minded the thought that Lord Barbaneth might have been his natural father, but to hell with that - he did look like his dad!

"I wasn't thinking that, actually." Ramza said with a half-smile, half-grimace. Delita paused for a moment trying to work out...

"No! No way in Ivalice! No, just no! No, no, no, no no! The day I call your darling little sister "Auntie Alma" is the day I shoot myself in the head with a crossbow! Besides, I refuse to believe that me mam would ever!... Never!" There was no half-smile about Ramza's grimace as he replied to that.

"I'm sure she wouldn't, but as eldest son, Dycedarg could have demanded jus primae noctis... but I'm pretty sure he would never..." Delita interrupted Ramza, his voice icy.

"Whether or not Dycedarg would ever exercise his droit du seigneur is immaterial, Ramza. As you were so quick to point out to Argath some weeks ago, the Heirals have, since time immemorial, been freemen, even if we always were so poor we barely had a pot to piss in. Dycedarg would have had no right of the first night! You've seen that charcoal sketch I have of me mam and dad - do I, or do I not, look just like him?" Delita demanded hotly.

The sketch was one that his parents had had done at the county fair, by an itinerant artist, shortly after they were married, and it now sat in a simple frame on his bedside back at Mansion Beoulve. It was not a masterly drawing, being the sort of thing that a gifted amateur could have produced, but the man in the drawing did look like a slightly older Delita.

"You do, and I'm sorry... and you're right." Ramza said. "I didn't mean to upset you, it's just... Actually, now I think about it, there is no chance you could be Dycedarg's son, even so. If he thought that there was the slightest chance you were, he would have tested you for this. He knows only too well how important it is - any sword-technique user attached to the House, even by a tenuous link, adds prestige.

"You know, there's probably a much simpler explanation." Ramza went on, frowning. "The children of the upper classes are often tested, either at school in their teens, like Sam, Juli, Ophellia and Hildy were, or if there's a family member or members, like Dycedarg and Zal, who can use the techniques, it'll happen at home when the child is still young. Most times, everyone else isn't tested at all. The middle and working classes may well have just as many people capable of using the techniques, only they live their entire lives without ever knowing it."

"So you were all tested at school?" Delita demanded of the girls. Four blonde heads just nodded. Interestingly, they were all just staying quiet and listening to the two boys. That probably shouldn't surprise him, considering that the discussion had been pretty personal and intense at times. "So how come I wasn't?" He asked Ramza, sounding confused. Ramza shrugged.

"It happens in the first term of your first year - you didn't start at the Akademy until our second term. When the men who came in to test us arrived, the Headmaster pulled me aside and asked if my father had had my brothers test me. Since I said yes, I only had to have the Fell Knight test. The Head probably just assumed that you had been too, hence not pulling you out of class in second year when the testers came back."

"Or, more likely, he just thought that the "farm-boy" wasn't worth testing." Delita added, darkly.

"Possibly." Ramza said with a small grimace.

"So what happens now? About me being a Holy Knight? Maybe being a Holy Knight, I mean."

"We'll get Dycedarg and Zal to give you, and Tietra, the proper testing as soon as we can after we all get home. Assuming you are one, and that you only have the one skill set, you get to spend a few months training with a Holy Knight, I believe."

"Dycedarg?" Delita tried not to sound too dismayed and thought he hadn't succeeded very well.

"I doubt he'd have the time – unless you prove to be a Rune Knight, then I think he's, kind of, semi-obliged to do it. There's some strange customs attached to this whole thing. No, I'd imagine that it's most likely to be the new Holy Knight who's started to do the testing for the school who'd train you, that's part of her duty – if she finds someone, she's also supposed to take them on as a sort-of short-term apprentice. Dycedarg, being who he is, can probably enlist her help, or another Holy Knight's – it's not like we're at war right now, so anyone with the gift is likely to have more time than they would have had a few years ago.

"Because Dycedarg has two of the gifts, and my father was Lord Orlandeau's closest friend, I gather Dycedarg spent a couple of winters, between campaign seasons, at Château Orlandeau. Wherever that Holy Knight lives, you'll probably end up staying there for a while. She's almost certainly nobility or gentry, so I'm sure you'll get reasonably comfortable quarters." Ramza gave him a slightly wan smile, while Delita frowned back, deep in thought.

"As if that really matters... I... just... this is all so strange!" Delita suddenly burst out.

"Yes, I think it's why they usually try and catch those with the gift a bit earlier. I mean, by the time you are sixteen, you usually have some inkling about what's going to happen with your life – this does change everything." Ramza's expression was inscrutable as well as rather peculiar. Even Delita couldn't read it.

"And it changes nothing. I was always going to be going into the army for a few years. Presumably, once I'm trained that'll still happen." Delita said, consideringly.

"Yes, if it's what you want. But the sort of undeserved privilege and accelerated promotion that I'm likely to get because of my family name, you'll now get too because you're a Holy Knight." Ramza said drily.

"Really? Sounds all right to me." Delita grinned at his friend. Ramza rolled his eyes at that.

"How come you knew so little about this, Delita? It has to be said that Mr Know-It-All seems to have a gaping hole in his knowledge here." Delita scowled at his friend for a moment, but then answered him pleasantly enough.

"Oh, you know me. I've never been interested in the actual fighting, it's the military history, the strategy and the politics that really interest me. Knowing how to wave a sword around is just an incidental by-product of attending the Military Akademy. I only try to be fairly good at it because, otherwise, I'll probably end up dead one day.

Ramza realised just how true that was. Delita was fairly skilled in all of the martial techniques, but that was partly because he was larger than average and proportionately strong. Ramza on the other hand burned to be a great fighter and officer and trained hard to try to achieve that. Added to that, while Delita was good, he was far from brilliant with the sword and bow etc. He only made the effort to excel at the things that really interested him, and any variant of "waving a sword around" simply wasn't interesting, in his eyes. Of course, now that would have to change to a degree. In fact, his whole life would change enormously. Ramza wasn't certain if it had really sunk in with Delita just how huge this was.

Later that night, when the two boys were in their bed-rolls in their small tent, Delita began tentatively:

"I feel like I should apologise, Ramza, this gift I may have, probably should be yours, by rights."

He'd been too shocked by the whole thing, earlier, to think about how Ramza must be feeling but, now that he'd had time to reflect, he realised just how difficult this must be on his friend. Ramza's father may not have had the ability to access Sword Techniques, but both of his brothers had their own gifts, and now Delita, too, would likely be joining that elite group.

"Don't be daft." Ramza's voice was a little gruff. "I've known since I was eight that I had no gift like this... All right, I know I must have seemed a bit... off, tonight. I am a little jealous, but I'm more pleased for you than anything else. Don't you realise that there will be far less to hold you back now? What your low-birth was likely to get in the way of you achieving, this will help you overcome. You may even have your chance in high politics, eventually, if you still want to."

Delita thought about that for a few moments. This was taking a while to all sink in, but one thing was unchanged.

"I still say it shouldn't be like that." He said. "It's just another form of nepotism... sort-of. My inheritance isn't noble blood, it's sword techniques - it still doesn't change the fact that it's accident of birth and that isn't a good enough reason for giving some people..." Ramza interrupted, sounding weary.

"Oh, don't start this again now - it's late and I'm tired and you already know I agree with you. Stop complaining about it and start being pleased about the fact you have a gift that might allow you to work towards changing the way society is so unfair to the poor and the low-born!" Delita heard Ramza shift, making himself as comfortable as one could lying on a bedroll on the ground.

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks Ramza, you're a true friend." He said quietly.

Feeling a little overwhelmed, he lay in the dark and tried to think calmly about all of this. What he eventually decided was that he'd not make any assumptions until he was completely certain. If he started to get too excited about this, and then it turned out that he had been wrong, well... It was best that he concentrate on the most important thing – getting Tietra back safe and sound – then he could think about his new undeserved privilege and work out exactly what he could do with it.

Author's Note:

OK, so the idea behind this vignette started with me having always wondered how come Delita gets to be a Holy Knight in Chapter 2 when he wasn't one in Chapter 1 and this was the outcome. I tried to find a rational explanation ("rational"... yeah. A rational explanation for being able to shoot giant sword-shaped high-energy beams up through people) and, since I don't buy that Delita, Wiegraf, Agrias, Dycedarg (!) and Cid are all ultra-holy people (I think that's everyone in the game who can use Holy Sword techniques - correct me if I'm wrong), I'm fudging it and going with "something you're just born with" - all the sword techniques but Dark Knights' are like that... I've arbitrarily decided.

Honestly, I'm really glad that this is the last "Tietra's been kidnapped and we have to get her back" vignette. I can't see that either Ramza or Delita would be able to think much about anything else – their whole focus would be on that goal, and I've tried to stick to that to some extent, but it makes it damned difficult to write anything new and interesting and, most of all, not depressing.

Only the Post-Ziekden Fortress epilogue left now. Nearly there!