I don't own Familiar of Zero
AN: Life's been hectic, interning as in a political organization, pretty much working as a personal assistant to one of the people up there and working on their non-profit. All this while in college and actual work, and I've had very little time. Haven't even gotten a chance to play the new Witcher game. After this chapter there'll be a time skip, and I am looking forward to the arc coming up. Betrayal! Death! Drama! All this and more shocking stuff to possibly happen.
Wardes was watching his girl, dressed in finery, though not well enough to be considered an equal to the Gramont's. A simple gray and blue dress they helped her into, no gems or jewelry. She had a simply case, filled with stone to simulate the weight. If the information he was given was accurate, then the group that kidnapped Guiche de Gramont should be fairly small.
"That's her." Eustace Foville said, pointing at a woman with the left half of her face burned off walking toward the fountain. "Her name's Maria, but she goes by Skins. Since it's her the guy who has Guiche is Luc, her brother. Careful, he's an earth mage. You can kill him. No one is looking out for him."
"Of course." Wardes diplomatically agreed. He hated to admit that the Foville family was dangerous, though it stood to reason that a dishonored noble family would be at the top of the crime world and could potentially be a threat.
"I can tell you where Luc hides out. You'll probably find your boy there. With that, we'll be even." Eustace said with a grin. The simple fact that he was offering it up for so little was concerning.
Wardes nodded as his woman pulled her wand on the scarred woman, 'Skins,' and the water in the fountain lashed out, encircling the target. "Where is Luc's base of operations?" The Foville's wanted this man dead. That was as good a reason as any to take him alive.
"Where's Gandálfr?" General Gramont asked.
"I'm not sure where Saito ran away to." Louise was being honest. She was surprised that he stayed as long as he did, but she was by no means expecting him to stay for the whole ordeal. Either way, he handled himself far better than she expected, or he presumably expected of himself.
"You don't know where your Familiar is?" The imposing man said, clear condescension in his voice.
"I see no reason to follow all the movements of an ally I trust." He also never rests. It would be exhausting to follow everything he does. She was fairly certain he never got tired.
"I was hoping he might make a statement that he was protecting Tristain and the Crown. It would send a powerful message to the world of the strength of the Royal Family." That was actually a very practical and rational request. She hoped he would do it, but she honestly didn't know if that was something he would do.
"We will ask Gandálfr once he returns to the festivities." Henrietta calmly placated.
"Thank you, your Highness." He said, masking his annoyance.
"Louise, do you think Saito would make a proclamation telling the world that he's protecting Tristain?" Henrietta asked.
"Truthfully, I don't know. Just remember that I don't control him." She hoped that he would, it would definitely make opponents to the crown apprehensive. Still, she knew that he wanted to stay separate from political plans, but hopefully she could convince him that it would help them.
"Perhaps we could convince him?"
"It would make the Reconquista and anyone else more apprehensive about attacking, should they get the chance. That reminds me, there is something I should tell you about Headmaster Osmond. Don't let Saito know I told you."
"LUC! WE NEED TO LEAVE!" Tiny screeched.
"Should we kill Guiche first?" Luc held in a groan, of course things weren't going according to plan. It seemed like the Founder hates him today.
"They know it's you, we need to get out now!"
"What? How!" This was bad.
"I saw a Foville with the Captain of the Griffin Corps. They are throwing you to the dragon."
Luc felt his brick form in his gut. Viscount Wardes was known as one of the best wind mages and swordsman in Halkeginia. He was a triangle class mage who is known to have beaten squares. They knew who he was, if a Noble died and it was connected to him his life would be over. "Burn it, I'll throw Guiche outside. We'll meet up at the Corsal safe house. Skins should be there." He had to cut his losses.
"She's dead." Tiny said as she tossed a jar of oil on a desk.
Luc opened a chest, staring at the blindfolded and bound Guiche. "What?" Tiny better be exaggerating.
"They grabbed her. She helped kidnap a Noble. She's gone." Tiny tossed a torch. "And so are we if we don't run."
"Get out." Tiny wasn't going down with him. He grabbed his pistol and pulled his wand. He lifted Guiche out, wand and the Noble's collar in hand, pistol pressed against his temple. He released the leg bindings.
"You can't save her!"
"My sister will not rot away in a cell." Luc seethed, leading Guiche out.
"You'll die you idiot!"
"I've sacrificed too much, I am not sacrificing her." Luc throws Guiche to the ground outside, and waves his wand with a quick chant. The streets ripped apart as spikes of stone shot out. He watched as the people ran from him, terrified at the sight of an angry mage. There weren't any guards or Griffin knights. Or Wardes for that matter. "Were you followed?"
"...By the Founder I am not staying here to watch you die. Of course I wasn't followed, I'm competent!"
"I guess I have time to plan a bit."
The first location the Fovilles gave was empty. Hopefully that didn't tip off the people who they were searching for. Now they were going to the second location. Where black smoke was billowing from. That certainly inspired cheer and hope that everything would be just perfect. "Captain, do you want Luc dead or alive?"
Wardes glanced around for the Foville, and once noticing that he was gone said, "Alive, I want to know why the Fovilles want him dead. Understood?"
"Of course my Lord." Thank the Founder, Florien hated the idea of doing what a criminal wanted. Especially since they needed the criminal's help.
"Go to the roof tops, and stay behind me and out of sight. I'll go in down here." Wardes ordered, giving himself the far more dangerous position.
"Of course my Lord." Florien rushed into the nearest alley, then levitated himself to the roof. As he went along behind his Captain, keeping low to stay out of sight, keeping an eye out trying to see if anyone was waiting to pounce.
Then he saw it, a large figure with freakishly long limbs waiting in front of the burning building. It was made of stone, and at the neck it seemed to be Guiche de Gramont. "Hi, this is Guiche" So it was the boy they were to recover. "He wants me to ask if you have his sister, and you should release her. If you're going to fight him please don't hit me!" By the Founder, he was so panicked. He sounded pathetic.
Florien shook the annoyance away, looking around trying to find the man controlling the golem built around Guiche. Looking into each building, every roof top from his position. Though if their target was on his side of the street he might need to reveal his position to find the golem operator.
"Luc, I want to talk." Wardes stated, drawing his combat wand. He was probably readying a spell.
The golem built around Guiche walked forward stopping a few feet from Wardes. Then a form flew out of the burning building flying in behind, hidden from Wardes by the large golem. Wardes flicked his wand, and the figure was slammed down, shattering what was once a stone golem. Guiche's golem prison swings one of it's freakishly long arms, Wardes swung his wand up, the wind emanating from it kicking up a dust cloud hiding both from sight.
The golem leaped out of the cloud, on the side closer to Florien. He grinned. The criminal was on the same side of the street as he was, controlling the golem.
Wardes started chanting a spell. "Fus, Laido, Haglaz, Laukaz, Dell." Wardes pointed his wand at the golem prison, blowing away the dust cloud and cutting the golem prison off of Guiche. It fell apart, only it's left half still intact. "Luc, I'm going to once again suggest surrender."
Florien stood up and looked across the roof tops on his side of the street. Their target wasn't on the roofs, so he had to be in one of the buildings. A quick levitation spell and Florien gently descended over the edge into the side alley. He flew through an open window, keeping himself airborne indoors. The last thing he needed was a squeaky floorboard revealing his position.
"What can I do?" It was the Gramont boy. Florien finished checking the building as he floated to the next, quietly sneaking in.
"Stand back." Wardes shouted. Florien froze. There was a golem, hiding by the window. It jumped out, charging at Guiche.
"But-" Guiche was interrupted by Wardes ramming him out of the way of the charging Golem. The leftover left limbs of Guiche's former prison sprang to life, revealing themselves as two more independent golems. One golem had a hand at the head, the other a foot. The two additional golems dove at Guiche and Wardes, with Wardes blowing them away with a weak wind blast.
Florien turned away from the fight and floated down the stairs, he saw what he was looking for. The target was sitting in a really ugly stone chair with a tall back, hiding behind a display.
"Shit I am outclassed." The target muttered as he watched Wardes cut down two golems with a dot class spell. Florien set himself down behind the target.
"I agree, you are outclassed." Florien said as he placed the blade of his combat wand against the target's throat.
"I won't stop trying." The chair came to life, the back splitting into two arms, one grabbing his wrist and the other grabbing and pushing the wand away from his neck. The target slipped out of his chair and twirled around to face him.
The chair-shaped golem twisted his wrist, the other hand released the wand and clamped down on the same arm, and snapped Florien's arm like a twig. "AHHHHH!"
The rest of the chair golem leapt on him, the seat and legs wrapping around his torso and painfully gripping him. "I have your subordinate, Wardes. Release my sister, and you can have him back." Wardes looked through the window, and the target quickly moved the chair golem trapping Florien to serve as a shield between the two. "Well, we have a deal?"
Wardes rolled his eyes, and Florien held in a groan, he already knew what Wardes was going to do. He tensed himself, waiting for the inevitable. "Dell la windé." Wardes quickly chanted. Florien felt the chair golem's grip tighten before the blasting wind threw him straight at the target. Florien was being flung head first at the target, staring at him eye to eye. The target's eyes were wide open, his mouth hanging open in disbelief that his human shield was now a human missile. Florien brought his head down, might as well hit the target with a flying head-butt.
He braced himself, as he made contact, feeling the target's face crunch. He tumbled with the target to the ground as the target moaned in pain. Florien fought through the pain, and crawled to his wand. He grabbed it with his free hand and did a quick chant, casting a spell transmuting the chair golem to dust.
"Lieutenant, secure Guiche de Gramont, I'll handle the target." Wardes said as he turned the target over and secured their hands behind their back. "I need to discuss things with Luc here."
"Of course, Captain."
Saito was sitting in the carriage, stifling a yawn as Louise and Henrietta gabbed outside. They had already sent someone to find Guiche, and they would be getting back to the Academy past midnight.
"Are you sure you can't stay?" The Princess asked.
"I'm sorry, but I need to learn how to use Void magic, and there's the Academy classes. I wish I could stay." Louise mournfully whined.
"Could you practice Void magic here?" Saito's eyes widened at the request. He remembered the destruction dispel inflicted on the Academy.
"You remember the damage to the academy? That was an errant Void spell." Louise explained.
"Technically, it wasn't errant. It did everything it was supposed to do, we just didn't know the range." Saito shouted from his seat.
"It's dangerous, and I will not practice it around people I care about." Louise shouted at the carriage.
He wasn't suggesting that they practice it here. Saito shrugged, it didn't really matter, not worth getting angry over. Saito opened one of the books he borrowed from the Royal Library and started reading, it was one of many books about the life of Brimir. He hasn't learned anything that was all that useful. There were four familiars, only three were named. Gandàlfr, Vindàlfr, Myoznitnirn, and one more whose only reference was that remembering its name troubled the Founder.
That hesitation to so much as mention the name of the last of the familiars was more than a little concerning. However it begged the question of whether Louise could summon more to serve as familiars, though that wasn't something he was willing to test. Saito would rather avoid getting anyone else trapped here.
"I'm glad I caught you, my sweet Louise." Saito groaned, some guy was flirty poorly.
"Viscount Wardes! I was afraid I wouldn't see you, you must be busy with your new duties." Saito could practically hear Louise swooning.
"I'm here too."
"I may be the Royal messenger for the moment, however such duties hardly add any strain. In fact we already carried out a successful operation that revealed multiple vulnerabilities within the lines of communication. Some of which were intentionally created by Count Mott." Wardes revealed.
Saito chose to step out since it seemed that this might be important. He folded the edge of the page to save his spot, and stepped out. He wasn't ready to see Guiche who had clearly been thoroughly thrashed, a knight with an arm in a sling who had short bright green hair that clashed horribly with his blue cape and dark green and black uniform underneath, and an older man with long grey hair in the same uniform with a closely trimmed mustache and beard that connected. He had a great, wide brimmed blue hat with a big fluffy white feather in it. He was also holding Louise close to him.
"He was doing what?" Louise seethed.
"He was corrupt, that really isn't surprising, is it?" Saito chimed in as he swaggered toward the group.
"I just didn't… I didn't know he was that bad."
"I admit I would have had a difficult time believing it if it happened yesterday." The Princess said.
"Given time I'm sure my men and I will find more. You must be Gandàlfr. It is an honor. I am Jean-Jacques Francis, Viscount of Wardes, and Captain of the Griffin knights. This is one of my Lieutenants, Florien of House Radvilla." Wardes said as he turned with Florien and both quickly bowed.
Saito hid his discomfort. It was really weird having people bow to him in a non-sarcastic way. "I'm surprised you've already discovered corruption, you haven't even had the duties of the Royal messenger for a day. I'm glad to see it in the hands of someone so competent."
"But of course, the Griffins only accept the best. Though I must apologize for failing to spend the day with you Louise." Wardes said as he looked deeply into Louise's eyes.
"I understand, you're very important. I can't imagine that you could have discovered some of Mott's corruption without your direct action so quickly." Louise responded with a blush.
"That is no excuse, we are engaged, I could have let my subordinates handle it. I need to spend time with my fiancée." Wardes said.
Engaged… Louise was 16, a year younger than he was, and Wardes looked like he was in his mid-thirties. That was weird. Really weird. Maybe it was arranged, like the Princess. Though Louise didn't seem to be against the idea of being married to him. Maybe there was political reasons, or something. However he didn't think Louise had much political value before the reveal of her being a void mage, and they both seemed to like each other. Were they getting married soon? Louise didn't mention it, and they were talking about Éléonore's marriage. Maybe the date was much later, like when Louise was actually an appropriate age for getting married. Though that would still probably leave him twice her age.
"Gandàlfr, did you hear me?" The Princess asked.
"You're engaged?" Saito muttered, staring at the couple.
"Did you hear what we were talking about?" Louise hissed.
"You're engaged, that's really weird." Saito said with a shrug.
They were all staring at him. He forgot that this wasn't like home. It probably wasn't weird here for the big age difference. "Why is it weird?"
"Just that, where I'm from, this would be odd. There's a big age difference and that's weird for me. Also, it's weird to get married at a young age. Honestly, I can't imagine getting married until I'm, like, thirty." Saito finished with a chuckle.
"You'd have me wait that long?" Louise asked.
"My parents didn't marry until they were in their thirties." Saito justified. They were all staring, and now that he thought about it, his parents were probably not the best choice for normal. "What did you ask me, Princess Henrietta?"
"I wanted to know if you could make a declaration that you are protecting Tristain and the Crown."
Saito was perplexed, why did they need him to do that? Was there some political crisis? Did he want to get involved? He didn't even know what her stances were on the issues of the country. He didn't even know what the local issues were. He didn't know if he could do it, or if it was morally right. Sure Henrietta was nice, but he didn't know if they were good rulers.
"Saito?" Louise asked.
He needed allies, "Of course I'll protect you and Tristain, it's the right thing to do." At least he hoped it was. "By the way, what happened to Guiche?"
Colbert saw them returning. As they arrived and got off he was ready to give the good news. "Colbert, great to see you!"
"How do you still have so much energy?" Louise groaned.
"I spent a lot less time at the party." Saito said with a grin. "Colbert I have a project I want us to get started on."
"Aren't we already working on the fuel?" Colbert asked as Saito dragged him to the lab.
"Goodnight!" Saito shouted to the others as he turned back to Colbert. "And we can work on more than one thing at a time."
Saito froze. There was a stone building connected to the lab. "I wanted to show that we made a room for you to stay. I suggested that it be near my lab. I didn't think he would have it connect."
"I was expecting a dorm or something, not my own building." Saito said as he approached the building, and entered.
His bed was there, his dressers beneath it. He even had a desk, it was an extremely dark brown and shiny. It was pretty, and the chair looked comfy, it was leather. He sat in it, it really breathed. It was incredible. There were plenty of windows and plenty of light filled the room. The windows had dark blue drapes.
"We should get started." Saito said with a grin. "Let's get something to eat before we start making plans on the bike."
Siesta was sitting in the staff dining room with, eating the stew made from the leftovers. Saito hated her. She didn't know what to do. He didn't like her, he hated her. "I'm sure he doesn't hate you." Marteau said as he pat her on the back.
"I told him he might never go home!" She suggested that he might never see his home, that he might never see his family again.
"He was mean to you, you can do better!" Trisha told her.
"I said he'd never see his family again."
"Can we talk about something else, every time you bring up our Fist, it gets worse and worse. First you said something a little mean, then you said he'd fail, then he'd never see his family again." Martin groaned.
"What's more important?" Siesta muttered.
"Katie was flirting with Vic." Martin said excitedly. There was no reaction. "Noble Katie, with our Vic."
They all started freaking out. "How do you know?" "What did she say?" "What's Vic doing?"
"When I tried to bring her desert, she told me to get away. She has just been keeping him on call and keeping him waiting on her hand and foot."
"That's why she told me to go away." Trisha started laughing.
"What do I need to do to get a Noble woman to fall for me?" Marteau said with a deep laugh.
"Give them some of your cooking, that's worth love." Saito chuckled as he marched in, a Noble in tow. He froze when he saw Siesta. "Hey, I need to talk to you, Siesta." How did he have such a charming grin?
"Why do you need her?" Trisha asked.
"I want to talk to her? Privately? Siesta?" Saito said as he took her hand, and she felt a tingle up her spine. Saito pulled her to the kitchen, closing the door behind them.
"I want to apologize, my lord Saito?" Siesta started.
"Wait, what? I'm the one who should be apologizing." Saito exclaimed as he started pacing. "I was angry, and tired, and I lashed out at you, and you really don't deserve it, and I should stop saying and."
"Are you apologizing to me?" Siesta asked.
"You deserve an apology, I was being a jerk." Saito explained as he went back to the door. He slammed his fist on the door, and she could hear the people on the other side jump exclaim shock before quickly hushing each other. "Could you stop listening in?"
"They're going to keep listening. I'm sorry I suggested…" Siesta stopped herself, she didn't want to say it.
"Siesta I need to entertain every possibility, especially the ones I don't like. There is a real possibility that I can never go home again." Saito started loud, getting quieter as he went on. "Siesta, you are a very good friend and I don't want to compromise that. I shouldn't have gotten so mad at you over that."
"I should be apologizing, I basically said that you'll never go home again. You should be mad."
"You didn't say anything like that. It'll be alright." Saito said, and Siesta was sure things would be okay. Saito didn't hate her.
"With everything you are working on, I'll do whatever I can to help you find your way home."
"You do know that you'll be helping me leave, right?" Saito asked.
"Grandfather talked about home sometimes, I'd like to see where he came from." Siesta knew she could help in some way.
AN: Sorry it took so long, next up, I want to ride my Bicycle! La Rochelle! Maybe some random shorts! So read and review!
This is Lee, and I'm out!