Hello! Having finished Tales of the Abyss and a few other projects, my brother and I are playing FFXII again! Not story mode; we booted up are old completed game where we were trying and failing to beat Yazmat and decided to go hunt rare monsters. The way we play JRPGs is to do just the story, then do all the side quests. Man, it's been cool running all over Ivalice again.

For the story, I'm starting writing Chapter 13 right now, so I think we'll go back to releasing every week now. This chapter's short, but that's the price for more frequent chapters.

Fanfiction still will tell me nothing. But... whatever.

Enjoy!

Chapter Ten

The forest village, Sial
Year 707 of the Old Valendian Calendar

"What?" Ziafer's outrageous statement jerked Ashe back to life and up to her feet. Her mouth hung open, eyes indignant, face, framed in short, untidy blond, a picture of shock and appalment. "You're lying! My father didn't have a brother! He most certainly didn't have an older brother!"

"You're the ones who wanted this! You gonna let me talk?" Ziafer gave a collective glare to everyone in the room, from the shocked Dalmascans to the reactionless Fran to Balthier, trying to think of a reason for the one-eyed warrior to lie.

"But-" Ashe started.

"Ashe, let's listen," Balthier said. Then he frowned at Ziafer. "Well? You're on a short leash. Best get started."

Ziafer gave a sigh and folded his arms, seemingly waiting for any more objections. When none came, he started. "King Raminas was the younger of two. I don't know the details of why, but on his deathbed, their father made a decree that throne would pass to Raminas, not his brother. There was a lot of tension, and in the end, my father was banished from the court."

"I've never heard of that," Ashe said.

Strange. Balthier glanced at Vaan. "You grew up in Dalmasca, and out of a safe environment. You ever hear anything like that?"

"Uh, well…" Vaan rubbed the back of his head. "No, but I don't even know who the king before Raminas was."

"You don't believe me?" Ziafer looked about ready to do something savage.

"Is he… your father still alive?" Ashe asked, studying him warily.

Ziafer scoffed. "No. We lived out near the border, pretty far from any town. When… Archadia invaded, we made it through fine. But after the king was assassinated, Archadia hunted us down; they were worried we'd insight rebellion or something." His jaw locked at the memory.

…

Ziafer slammed the door and pressed his back against it, sweaty hands working the old leather of the sword his father had given him. Every noise from outside spiked in his ears. Clatter of metal; indistinct words in voices familiar and unfamiliar; heavy footsteps. Cara sat under the window, knees against her chest. She wore a simple khaki dress, deep green eyes filled with terror, holding the black hair of her pigtails against her ears, as if it helped block the sound.

Then a scream came, shrill and female. Shouting and more screaming, the crash of sword on sword… Cara shrunk herself tighter, dark, glittering eyes on her brother as if she wanted reassurance.

"Ziafer-" she started. Ziafer just shook his head, motioning for her to be quiet. They couldn't talk. Couldn't talk.

Then he noticed something. The noise had stopped. Ziafer went all weak. He was suddenly sure the knights had done what they'd come for. Their parents- Father told him to take care of Cara. Like he wouldn't-

Ziafer realized in a panic he'd forgotten to lock the door. He spun and twisted the mechanism, then grabbed the chair from Cara's desk and jammed it under the knob. He glanced out the window; there had been knights all around before- it seemed like the whole army to him- but now the grassy field was vacant. Most of the forces had probably come inside while- while they-

The doorknob rattled. "Hey! Open up in there!"

"Not on your life!" Ziafer's voice sounded shrill in his ears. He rushed over to the window and jerked Cara to her feet.

"Cara, get out the window and run!" Ziafer hissed low. "I'll- hold them off so they can't come after you-"

"No!" Cara said, dark eyes wide. She shook her head. "No. Ziafer-"

"I can fight!" Ziafer said. "Go!"

"No you can't!" Cara said.

"Yes I can!" Ziafer shouted louder than he meant to. The pounding on the door rattled harder. Ziafer unlocked the window and shoved it open.

"Go, Cara! Go, go, now! Please!"

Cara's green eyes were wide, glittery, frozen in shock and terror. But she heaved herself over the sill, dropped the foot or two to the ground, and started running. Ziafer closed the window; maybe the knights wouldn't know it'd been open it they-

With a final crash the bedroom lock gave way, and the chair flew back. Five black armored knights stood in the doorway; they hesitated a moment, maybe exchanging glances. Ziafer couldn't tell. He held up the sword in two trembling hands, trying to remember the few times every now and then when his father would spar with him. How to-

One knight stepped forward wordlessly, raising his sword. That seemed to remove the others' hesitation. Ziafer wanted so badly to yank open the window and run, but if they followed him, they'd find Cara, and they might find her anyway if he didn't keep them busy-

Ziafer barely realized he'd blocked until a swing for quick decapitation clanged into his blade. Ziafer couldn't believe his own strength had stopped the swing of the trained swordsman. Ziafer shoved the sword away and ducked another blow. He smelled smoke; like the fireplace, only the fireplace never smelled so strong.

As another knight charged him, he ducked and drove the point for he what he thought looked like a gap in the armor; his sword plunged in, and the knight staggered back, choking. Ziafer's sword went down with the man, so he grabbed the fallen knight's sword and swung it around to block a downward strike. Ziafer's sword missed, and the knight's blade came down fast; his eyes flared as it filled his vision. The world went silver, then red, then black…

…

Ziafer absently studied the ground, face set against any emotion. "That was when I met Tazer. The half a dozen men he traveled with spotted the house burning after the imperials torched it and came to investigate. They pulled me barely alive out of the wreckage, took care of me while I was knocking on death's door for a few weeks, until I finally came to. I told them about Cara then, and they helped me look, but… we found out…"

Ziafer's hand, ever on one sword hilt, locked around the leather. "I barely knew what the Red Fangs were. Just the people Tazer's people always talked about with a snarl. Apparently, Cara ran north, where she met up with some Red Fangs. She was only twelve, little girl, told them everything about who she was. And that Razner fellow was just ready to test his new method of nethicite manufacture. He proved his hypothesis, about nethicite in Raithwall's blood, but unfortunately, making the stuff failed, and he couldn't try again, because he fried his subject to a crisp!"

Ziafer leveled a punch into the nearest wall, leaving a hushed silence.

"You've been with the Peace Keepers ever since?" Balthier asked.

"Pretty much," Ziafer replied, fist still clenched. "But when Tazer… I wasn't just going to watch as he let Dalmasca crumble without a ruler. That's about it." Ziafer turned from the wall, arms folded. "Satisfied, pirate?" His eyes moved to Ashe, a bit less antagonistic. "Ashelia?"

"I…" Ashe clasped her hands at her chest, lost to the world.

Balthier sighed. His eyes darted between Ziafer and the princess, searching for a family resemblance. "It's not impossible. And it's too outlandish to be a proper lie. Unless he's as stupid as he looks."

Ziafer's nostrils flared. "I dare you to say that again!"

Balthier turned to the princess; she still stared wide-eyed at the floor. "Well? Ashe?"

Ashe lifted her eyes, watching Ziafer warily. "I… don't know."

"Makes sense to me," Vaan said. Penelo had sat down already. Ziafer turned his back on everyone, and Fran stood, hand on hip, eyes unreadable.

Balthier sighed, lifting a hand to his forehead. "Look, it's late. Why don't we all get some sleep? Perhaps you'll all be more reasonable in the morning."

"Yeah. Alright then." Vaan folded his arms behind his head with nonchalance. "Who gets the beds?"

"We're being gentlemen and letting the ladies have the beds," Balthier said.

"Oh. Uh, yeah." Vaan let his arms fall with a nervous chuckle. "Right."

"We might have been followed. I'll stay up and keep watch," Fran said.

Perhaps Balthier would have offered to take her spot some other time, but it wasn't worth the following argument right now. Fran senses would be better attuned at this time of night anyway.

Ziafer still faced the wall, evidently done interacting with the others. Ashe sat on her bed, eyes never leaving his turned back.