Hi, everyone, this is Elly3981. I apologize for the delay but my co-writer and I have been crazy busy with work as well as planning for this chapter. We hope you find the wait worth it. Once again, I'd like to thank Falchion1984 for his help in making this fic possible. Enjoy and please review!
Co-author's Note: Beware of silly references…but do see if you can identify them.
Chapter 26: Truth and Revelations
As has been aforementioned, Lesalia is a city that never truly sleeps.
Though small children are bustled off to bed, involuntarily more often than not, and elders are likely to retire early from the incessant festivities, saying they "belong to another generation", the undercurrent of noise reverberating through the marble island that is the jewel of Ivalice might wax and wane, but never truly fell silent.
For some, the inevitable, and copious, array of parties that Lesalia had going at any given time offered the perfect excuse to while away the night amidst dancing, drink, and other trifling revelry. For others, of the more scholarly or artistic persuasions, the lessened noise and crisp chill of the night air offered a chance to concentrate on their craft that often seemed elusive in the daylight hours. For other still, those who favored spending time with friends and family in more private settings, the night offered a plethora of opportunities for late-night dinners, games, and quiet companionship with one's spouse or other close relations, for reading to one's children by candlelight, or relaxing in front of a roaring hearth with a soothing beverage in hand.
The nights in Lesalia also catered well to those of the unsavory persuasion, for though King Delita's efforts had seen the ruin of the worst of the Ivalice's underworld, and much of the more middling villains as well, there were still felonious enterprises that took place beneath the royal nose. Most were too small, or too discreet, to warrant more attention than was customarily given to petty larceny and small-scale opium trafficking, but those criminals keen to adapt and survive rather than die upon the gallows had learned that plying their sordid trade was best done very quietly and in the dark places of Lesalia. And, naturally, there were the dalliances between unmarried lovers, and married lovers who often found happiness with those other than those to whom they were wed. For these, the anticipation of the rendezvous, the passion of the encounter, and the paradoxical thrill of possible exposure, especially during those trysts which took place where an irate husband or father could barge in without warning, offered a most salacious thrill for those who gave little care to where the soul might land after flying free of the mortal shell.
Those who were intimately acquainted with the history and culture of the city could, and often did, write entire volumes about the nightly goings-on of Lesalia, remarking that there was a story behind every person who was not snoring in the late hours, why their bed lay unused, and just what they were doing when their heads were ill-content to rest on their pillows.
Izlude was willing to bet a significant portion of his newfound wealth, however, that his reasons were…the most unique.
They were certainly the most volatile.
Izlude drew in a deep breath, inwardly fuming at how it sounded like a thunderclap to his anxious ears, and tried his best to ignore the lingering pain in his cheek where his big sister had struck him earlier. Though, the shock of the blow could barely even compete with the latest in the maelstrom of astonishments that had characterized what had happened since his fateful crossing of Lesalia Castle's gates the night before.
Charming Alma for the second time. Her then-inexplicable flight from his embrace. His confrontation with Malak and Ramza. Learning of the child he'd unknowingly fathered. And, on top of it all, Meliadoul sniffing out his true identity.
Which means I've been unmasked three times in two nights, all after I'd aroused suspicion and gotten myself cornered. And there I was, thinking I was actually getting pretty good at this spycraft business, the disguised knight blade mused, uncertain if the thought was of self-deprecating humor or just self-depreciation.
He'd often heard the phrase "Man plans, and God laughs", and it seemed He had quite the sense of humor.
He shook off his philosophical grumblings as he quickly glanced to his left and then to his right. Though it was difficult to go anywhere in Lesalia at this hour without hearing at least some of the undercurrent of nighttime babble, this particular street seemed empty at the moment, so the disguised knight blade led his sister by the hand to the inn where he was staying. Between her silence, her uncharacteristic docility, and what little he could see of her puffy eyes and tear strewn face, it was as if she were a lost child being led home after…well, a death in the family was the first, and most ironic, analogy to spring to mind.
The act of leading her like this was no less ironic, considering that Meliadoul was often the one tasked with finding Izlude and taking him back to their parents when, as a child, Izlude's curiosity lured him further away from home than they would have liked. The knight blade was thankful that he had not been that far from the inn when Meliadoul confronted him, not the smallest reason being the silence between them as they walked the rest of the way. It was more than a bit awkward, for Izlude hardly needed to look to know that Meliadoul was still quite upset about his subterfuge. He also sensed that she wanted an explanation, and found further delay quite galling. But, it was necessary that they wait until they were safely indoors, since they could not risk having anyone overhear what he knew he must reveal to his older sister whom he had been forced to deceive into believing him dead for the last few months.
Even if he thought it was for her own good.
Her own safety, he quickly amended, his recollection of her crying moments before and the bleak beginning of Donovan's story from days past reminding him that his subterfuge had not safeguarded her life without cost.
Hoping that the inn's staff had gone home for the night, Izlude took out his key to the front door and unlocked it. That he had been given such a key had come as quite a surprise as, though it was common practice for the more upscale inns to provide such keys to extremely important personages, this inn was far more modest. Indeed, that was part of the reason he'd chosen it in the first place, as he'd only needed a place to sleep between his attempts to win the affections of Alma Beoulve for the second time, and spending the money to book one of the miniature palaces at the more luxurious inns seemed quite unnecessary. So, when the young lady who ran the inn had given Izlude a key to the main entrance as well as to the one to his room, he'd asked why she would make such a gesture. As it turned out, her answer had quite simple.
Aldrich, the mining entrepreneur whose business Izlude has saved in Gollund, was her father. And, in saving both the father's business and the jobs of his workers, Izlude had also saved the daughter's inheritance, and that of her siblings, as well as their peace of mind. Upon hearing that he was an attendee of the ball being held in Duchess Catherine Seymour's honor, she'd been quick to wish him luck and to lend him the key, since he might not return before the inn's staff had retired for the night.
She'd cheekily added that it might be especially true if "Catherine" found him charming enough to wish to consummate their marriage and then get married. In that order.
Izlude hadn't been sure if it was the forwardness of her words, the irony therein, or her seeming prescience about his and Alma's relationship that had him turning scarlet, but he was too embarrassed to give it much thought.
After poking his head inside for a moment to be sure none of the staff or guests were awake and about, Izlude gestured for Meliadoul to follow him up to his room, where he quietly unlocked the door before stepping aside and biding his sister to enter. As soon as they were both inside, the knight blade made sure to close and lock the door securely behind him and, as much to buy himself time to muster his reserve as to be certain of their privacy, listened for a moment to make sure their entrance hadn't roused anyone.
He almost wanted an interruption, for someone to have heard the sound of their entrance, though not actually see who'd caused the disturbance, and then wake up several more guests by calling aloud to whomever was there. The ensuing cycle of people waking up, asking about the ruckus, and then laboriously trying to get back to sleep would offer a lengthy reprieve from this unsought after meeting.
Izlude was hardly a craven, but there was a great deal he would ultimately need to tell Meliadoul, which would have been hard enough if this meeting were premeditated.
Which it wasn't.
It had happened suddenly, unexpectedly, a contingency he should've planned for, but didn't, and which had just, as those of cruder persuasions would say, "come back to bite him in the ass".
Bite him hard, too.
Hearing nothing, he drew a deep, steadying breath, which did little to subdue the pounding in his ears, before turning back to Meliadoul. He knew that he owed her a more detailed explanation regarding why he'd faked his death – even if he was technically dead before he…wasn't – and then failed to inform her, not to mention just what he had been doing during the months he had been masquerading as a dead knight whose identity he'd appropriated after his revival by the Holy Stone in order to ensure he was not sent back to the land of the dead too soon.
As if the Tingel siblings' brief walk back to the inn after their unexpected encounter at a nearby alley hadn't involved enough awkward silence, Izlude found himself at a loss as to how best to explain the months long chain of events that took him from the slaughterhouse that was Riovanes Castle to the elegant hallways of Lesalia Castle to seek Alma's hand.
Fortunately, Meliadoul saved her little brother the trouble of getting the ball rolling, so to speak.
"Try starting from the beginning, Izlude," she suggested, but not without a hint of testiness.
Izlude was snapped out of his thoughts and felt silly for not doing what should have been obvious from the start. And, after a moment's thought, he felt even sillier when he realized he wasn't sure just where "the beginning" was. His fateful abduction of Alma Beoulve? Their most unlikely of courtships? The seed of doubt that had sprouted and flowered upon seeing the man who used to be his father shed his guise of humanity and reveal the demon who'd evicted his very soul? His resurrection after dying upon the demon's leonine claws? Or, the oddities, and warnings, he'd seen in his father years ago, but did not recognize, after his mother's death and his father receiving a "gift" from the High Confessor? He eventually decided that his resurrection was as good place to start as any. Even so, he hesitated as if he wasn't sure if his big sister would believe the story he had to tell. And it was a long one.
And, he also found himself wondering if the truth might cause more harm than catharsis.
Meliadoul may suspect that the demon who'd once been their father was the one to kill her brother, but how could confirmation not wound her?
"It will take a while. Are you sure, Melly?" he asked, ungallantly stalling for time.
"I've got all night, little brother. You've got quite a lot of explaining to do," Meliadoul replied, immediately seeing through the ploy if her narrowed eyes were any indication.
Izlude sighed. After the events of that evening, he'd rather not do what Meliadoul suggested. Granted, even though he knew he owed her an explanation for letting her think he had perished along with all of those misfortunate souls who'd been so brutally slaughtered in Riovanes Castle, and he'd always suspected this moment would come sooner or later, it had come when he was far from prepared. Dozens of thoughts roiled in his skull – about whether Meliadoul would understand why he hadn't sought her out, if she would disapprove of his love for Alma, if she might be afraid of him due to the unnatural manner of his return – all crashed against one another in a cacophony that silenced his rational mind and stilled his tongue.
Still, the knight blade decided to try and play his last card, hoping to avoid telling his long story until he could muster his reserve, especially since his sister's anger towards him had not yet been completely appeased.
"I'd be happy to, Melly. It's just…" he trailed off, suddenly having a mental image of bearbaiting when the bear's rope was dangerously frayed.
"Just what?" Meliadoul asked, and Izlude could practically hear the ursine growl in her tone.
"Well…what about that young man you left behind at the ball? Mustadio, I think his name was?" Seeing Meliadoul's eyes widen, Izlude, frantically, pressed this seeming advantage. "He does seem quite taken with you. Suppose he comes looking and finds you here? How you will you explain this to him? Even after putting bullets in a few Lucavi demons, he might find my real identity a bit hard to believe. And, even if he doesn't, no one can know who I really am or that we're siblings. Even if fath…Hashmalum is dead, I can't risk blowing my cover."
For a moment, Izlude held his breath. Clearly, Meliadoul had been surprised that her little brother knew about Mustadio, let alone how besotted the machinist was with the divine knight. The knight blade hoped that his sister would take the bait and return to the ball and Mustadio, allowing him to put off his long overdue explanation for a bit longer.
It wasn't Izlude's best thought out plan, and certainly not his bravest. But, he feared that, if pressed now, before he could muster his reserve, he might say something he'd regret…or, more likely, say something that Meliadoul would make him regret saying.
Unfortunately, Meliadoul wasn't falling for it, and her answering smirk made his heart sink.
"Nice try, little brother," she intoned, not even bothering to hide her amusement. "You didn't think I almost became father's second-in-command without being able to draw up a plan on the spot? Mustadio was very understanding when I said I needed to leave early after I cracked a few ribs fighting Dame Lollotte."
Izlude sighed and threw his hands up in surrender. "Well, you can't blame a guy for trying," he said grimly before becoming serious again as her words belatedly registered. "Wait, WHAT?!"
Perhaps Meliadoul had not meant to say that. Or, perhaps she did in order to further entrap Izlude into explaining himself. Her next words did seem to hint at the latter.
"But, I digress," she said, pointedly if indirectly showing that Izlude would receive no explanation without dispensing one in turn. "You're not getting out of this one. You still owe me answers, and I'm not leaving without them."
Well played, Melly, Izlude mused sourly. At least I'm not the only one here who's less-than-gallant.
Still, her ploy had worked. The news that Meliadoul had been assaulted was a revelation which demanded explanation. It also demanded retaliation. Though he'd be surprised if Meliadoul hadn't beaten him to the punch, figuratively and literally, his sense of chivalry would not permit him to let the matter lie.
The thought was more than a bit ironic, considering just what Meliadoul would find out sooner or later, but that did not make him any less ensnared.
"All right, you win, Melly. Where should I start?"
"Like I said, try starting from the beginning."
The knight blade took a deep breath before nodding and bade his sister to make herself more comfortable, because God knew his story could very well take all night.
"Fine, Melly. You can sit on that sofa over there. This could take a while, so could I offer you a drink?"
For a moment, Meliadoul was confused. "A drink? Don't you think it's a little late to call for room service, Izlude?"
At the mention of his true name, which he had not heard for months prior to his confrontation with Ramza and Malak the night before, the knight blade gasped softly and made a gesture for his sister to be silent, lest word of his true identity escape into the world.
"Shh! Not so loud, Melly!" he hissed. "Do you want to risk blowing my cover and sending me back to the afterlife again for good?"
His dignity in too tattered a state for him to care about his displays of paranoia, the disguised knight blade quickly pressed an ear to the east wall of his room. His neighbor, he knew, was afflicted by chronic insomnia, and he shuddered at what might happen if the restless man had been whiling away the night during that little slip. To Izlude's immense, if less-than-dignified, relief, all he heard on the other side of the wall were piercing snores.
Izlude had no idea whether this was the stone's work, or if his dumb luck was near to achieving legendary status. And, as he sagged against the wall wheezing in relief, he decided that he was in no position to question ironic signs of good fortune.
Realizing that her brother was right, and angry at herself for the oversight, the divine knight threw up her hands in frustration. "Alright, I understand. So how are you going to get me a drink since the inn's staff have probably all gone home for the night?"
For a moment, Izlude said nothing. He didn't want to waste time explaining something so trivial so he simply pointed over his sister's shoulder and invited Meliadoul to see for herself.
At first, the divine knight was confused as to what her brother wanted to show her, and how it could possibly be so special that it was worth even a momentary delay in this long overdue explanation. When she turned around, however, her lower jaw dropped.
Arranged behind her, and somehow escaping her notice until now, was a sizable collection of extravagant treasures, adorning Izlude's temporary residence like a smaller but still eye-catching version of the troves laid out in noble houses for visitors to gawk at.
Though Meliadoul did not know it at the time, and might not have believed it even if she had, the treasures Izlude took from the underground cavern of Gollund was only a drop in the proverbial ocean compared to what he originally found, and those displayed here but a pinch of sand from a dune when weighed against what was securely held in his vault at the counting house.
Nonetheless, even that sliver of his newfound fortune was still enough to transform his modest room in this humble inn into something even a king would covet. After a moment of stunned gawking, she heard Izlude clear his throat and point to the small dinner table in the middle of the room. Upon it was an exotic-looking bottle of wine, its label marked with characters Meliadoul has never seen before, suggesting that it came from a foreign land. And that it had not come cheaply.
Izlude, still rattled from this unexpected confrontation, briefly wondered where he'd hidden Alma's portrait. Then, he forcibly swallowed a sigh of relief when he recalled that it was safely hidden in one of the room's cabinets.
And, the sigh of relief was kept inaudible with an effort, especially as he envisioned what Meliadoul would've made of that little piece of his trove.
Meliadoul didn't know what stunned her more, that her brother has somehow come upon this hoard of treasure in the short time since his "death", or that she had somehow failed to notice the trove when she first entered the room. Either way, the normally quick-tongued divine knight found herself dumbstruck. Meliadoul found her eyes roaming over several gowns of the finest silk, satin, and taffeta, as well as fine jewelry and shoes fit for a queen; Izlude's presence at the ball left no doubt that these were gifts for Alma, as they were tokens befitting her rank as the new Duchess of Lionel. In addition to the feminine trifles, Izlude also had a variety of luxuriant animal pelts as well as painted china vases and exotic weapons that could sell for a small fortune.
As if the hoard of treasure in the knight blade's room wasn't impressive enough, Izlude also had a small mountain of paper gil bills of every denomination stuffed in Nelly's saddlebags, which amounted to God knows how much. Meliadoul, finally shaking herself back to awareness, could not help but suspect that the treasures Izlude amassed on his own journey may even surpass the sizable war chest Ramza, herself, and the rest of their company had gathered on theirs. If her little brother's money remained in its original coin form, it would likely fill up the inn itself from the cellar to the rafters, especially since the new paper gil denominations could go up to the thousand gil bill.
"Izlude…where did you get all this?" Meliadoul asked as she tried her best to keep her stupefied voice to a low whisper so that she wouldn't wake the inn's other guests.
The knight blade shifted a bit uncomfortably on his feet before answering.
"Before I get to that, it might be best if I start at the beginning as you've been asking me to," he answered quietly. "I guess the story really started years ago, when father…changed. But, I guess starting at Riovanes would be best."
"Tell me," Meliadoul insisted.
"Would you like a drink first?"
"No alcohol, my head is spinning enough as-is."
Izlude took a deep breath and started his story. After suppressing a shudder at the unbidden recollection of a leonine demon eviscerating him with claws forged of nightmares, the knight blade spoke.
"It happened after father… I mean Hashmalum ended my first life back in Riovanes," Izlude began, noting that Meliadoul didn't seem overly surprised at the confirmation that he did, in fact die, in the massacre. Despite a moment's perplexity, he chose to press on. "Even before the shock had abated, I witnessed the Lucavi demon strike down the other Wyvern Knights in the room, crushing them like bugs. I knew we were dealing with no ordinary monster, so I ordered Justin to take Alma and escape the castle while I stayed behind to stall the demon. Even though I knew I was unlikely to get out of the fight alive, let alone prevail, I faced down Hashmalum to buy Alma and Justin what time I could."
"And why did you do such a foolish thing? Why didn't you just run? There's nothing in the Templar code of conduct that says we cannot run from demons of the underworld which wield powers beyond our comprehension."
"Because… because I knew it was my fault that Alma was in danger. I was the one who abducted her during our raid on Orbonne, and brought her to the castle. And, I only did that because we'd been sent to hunt the Germonik Scriptures and, after Father Simon was killed in the raid, we needed a way to leverage Ramza into bringing the book to us."
One of Meliadoul's eyebrows rose, betraying that Izlude's words had caused her some perplexity.
"You wanted to protect her badly enough that you stood your ground against a Lucavi demon when any sensible person would've run?" Meliadoul asked, not bothering to hide her skepticism. "Why? Hindsight notwithstanding, Alma was the younger sister of one of the most notorious heretics of the last century. What did you care if something happened to such a hostage? For that matter, who else would've? Simple guilt or honor doesn't nearly explain it. What exactly was Alma to you?"
"She… well, that in itself is also a long story," Izlude hoped it was too dark for Meliadoul to tell that he was blushing. "But to make it short, we became…close friends after I got to know her. Surprisingly, I found that Alma didn't quite fit the description of a heretic. At first, I thought she was innocent, albeit ignorant of her brother's wrongdoings. But, over time, she revealed some things that made me question all my years of loyalty to the church. And… my loyalty to our 'father'."
"What do you mean? What kinds of things?"
"Well, I know I never brought this up before when we were younger, but do you remember how father changed after our mother died? Don't you think his behavior was a bit strange and bizarre? Extreme, in fact, even for a man who had lost his wife?"
"I…" Meliadoul opened her mouth before quickly closing it again.
At first, the divine knight was going to say she had no idea what her brother was talking about, but long buried memories slowly started to resurface. She recalled Vormav's almost catatonic grief after their mother's death and how, following a private meeting with the High Confessor, that silent despairing had been replaced with disturbing and destructive behavior that could still make her shudder even years and years later. Like Izlude, Meliadoul had excused their father's behavior as that of a grief-stricken man, after losing his beloved wife of more than twenty years. She had willfully chosen to plead, make excuses for, and then repress her own memories of Vormav's violent outbursts and assaults on their servants all those years ago, culminating in all but Donovan leaving the service of the Tingel family in anger or terror, or both.
After taking a moment to think it over, Meliadoul quietly asked "What are you getting at, brother? What did Alma say that made you question your loyalty to father?"
"Well, she knew things... things about the Germonik Scriptures and Holy Zodiac Stones that no one outside the church should have known. But the things she spoke to me about greatly contradicted the legends we believed in as children, as I'm sure you've already found out since you joined Ramza on his journey…"
"Yes, I have. I didn't take Ramza's claims at face value. Who would've? But, then I cornered him in Limberry Castle just in time to see Marquis Elmdor turn into a demon, just like father must've back in Riovanes. Go on…"
"To be honest, I didn't want to believe that the Holy Stone the High Confessor gave father as a gift after mother died had anything to do with his erratic behavior. I'd tell myself again and again that Alma was merely delusional, especially when she implied that church was up to something sinister. I tried to convince myself that this was another part of her harebrained scheme to escape, but…"
Here, the disguised knight blade's words trailed away as he found himself wondering just how much damage had been done by his willful ignorance, of his failure to see that the loving father he'd known had ceased to exist when that so-called Holy Stone had come into his possession. Though Izlude had made some small atonement by saving Aldrich's business, and, with it, hundreds of jobs and a vital component to the rebuilding of Ivalice, he knew that was not enough to rectify what he'd done at the behest of the disguised demon.
Though atonement might be attainable, it remained a distant goal that would be hard fought.
He was roused from his dire musings when Meliadoul drew him into a tight embrace. More than the familial warmth, which he'd desperately craved for weeks, and how Izlude could sense once more the palpable relief in his big sister's grasp, he could sense she understood.
She too had done much she wished she could undo. And yet, battered and bruised though she was by that knowledge, she was yet unbroken. Seeing this, Izlude composed his borrowed features and continued.
"Despite my skepticism, I decided to humor her," he went on. "At first, it was just to get her to trust me so that she'd by compliant and maybe reveal something that might help us get the Scriptures. But, later on, Malak Galthana, Duke Barrington's adopted son, also came to me with the same concerns. He said that he felt uneasy in the presence of our father and felt as if he was something other than human. I wasn't sure what to make of that until he mentioned he'd sensed the same in Wiegraf as well. That shocked me, for Ramza had bested Wiegraf at Orbonne. I had Alma at that point, and Weigraf insisted that I take her and escape. I complied, though I was certain I was leaving him to die. I was astonished that Wiegraf lived, especially since he didn't have a scratch on him after being at death's door but days earlier. However, he was…different. He was colder, more severe, and he seemed strangely dismissive, almost contemptuous, of his former comrades in the Corpse Brigade."
His next words, poised on the tip of his tongue, chilled him with equal parts belated dread and ire at failing to see the truth which, veiled though it was, had been right in front of him.
"He was acting much like father had, after he'd changed," he intoned solemnly.
Not for the first time, Izlude found himself wondering what the human hosts of the Lucavi had been like before their souls had been evicted by demonkind. Had some, like Vormav, once been good men, made susceptible to the false promises proffered by the clawed, sulfur smelling hands of the Lucavi? Or, had some been demons in their own right long before any auracite had crossed their palms, the seeds of demonic power finding a fertile soil of rage, avarice, and vengefulness?
Which had Wiegraf been? For that matter, which had Elmdor been?
And, what would they have been like now, had they been spared the horror of demonic possession?
"It was then I realized the possibility that Alma may have been onto something after all," he continued after a moment's sad convalescence. "Still, when I was summoned to attend a meeting between father and the Duke of Favoham, I decided I ought to, because I knew it would raise suspicions if I, second-in-command of the Knights Templar, was nowhere to be found while my commander was meeting with a duke. I'm sure you can guess what happened next."
"I can, but I'd appreciate the details if possible, Izlude," Meliadoul confirmed, and Izlude could tell she had, indeed, anticipated what had to have happened next.
The knight blade hesitated for a moment, reluctant to recall the events leading up to his first death, but chose to oblige his curious elder sister.
"The meeting was tense, to say the least. You probably know already that Duke Barrington's image as a philanthropist who helps orphans was just a façade? Well, the man was even more repulsive in person. I could swear, Hashmalum almost seemed to be waiting for an excuse to resort to violence, and Barrington gave him just the thing. He hinted that he knew the true nature of the Holy Stones and what the Germonik Scriptures really contained, even though the book and several of the stones were both in Ramza's possession at the time. He offered to strike a deal with the creature posing as father, saying he would keep the church's secrets safe and support their aim to put their own king on the throne. Provided Barrington was that king, of course. But, Hashmalum refused."
"And that was when things started to go downhill," Meliadoul said, unseen horrors flashing before her eyes.
"Correct. The duke tried to blackmail Hashmalum by threatening to make the church's machinations public, not knowing what the demon was capable of when angered. When I confessed my failure to obtain the stone I'd fought Ramza over, Hashmalum became enraged and struck me. But even if I had the stone, I couldn't hand it over to him. Before, I'd had just an unsubstantiated inkling or two that something was wrong. But, by then, I was certain of it."
"What happened after that?"
Izlude gave Meliadoul an incredulous look. "Do you even need to ask? There was no way Hashmalum was going to let Duke Barrington live after he revealed that he knew the true nature of the stones and what the Scriptures contained. Even the duke's bodyguards and myself had to be eliminated after what we had heard and witnessed. Malak was lucky that Ramza launched his assault when he did, and was dispatched to repel the attack before he heard anything of significance."
"So, that was when all hell broke loose, am I right?"
"Yes… Using the stone, the man I thought was our father transformed into a monstrosity even God himself couldn't have made even at the very height of His anger, or so I thought. Oh, I was just as terrified as anyone else, but my desire to protect Alma overcame my fear so I chose to stay and fight. Most of the other Wyvern Knights fled, though I can't say I blame them. The few who were brave enough to stand with me against Hashmalum didn't last long. The only reason I outlasted them was because of my skills as a knight blade, but that didn't avail me for long. I can only guess that the Lucavi demon I fought had father's memories, of him training me as a boy, of my techniques and weaknesses, so he knew all my tricks and how to counter them. Eventually, I too fell."
"How terrible…"
"Yes… by some small mercy, I was able to speak to Alma one last time before... before the end. Against my wishes, she had sought me out in the meeting room, but I begged her to leave. I had no idea if there might be more creatures like Hashmalum wandering the castle grounds, nor how many. I also asked her to give you a letter. Did you ever get it?"
"Unfortunately, no, since Alma had vanished after the Riovanes massacre," Meliadoul replied sadly. "I did meet Alma, briefly, after…Hashmalum was slain, but she had no letter. Maybe she lost it? Anyway, when I was summoned to the castle to identify your corpse, I found no trace of anyone fitting her description. I wasn't until I joined up with Ramza that I even became aware of Alma's existence, and that he was looking for her. He did know that she was being held by the Templars, even after Riovanes, but he wasn't certain why."
It might've been Izlude's imagination, but he could've sworn that Meliadoul's eyes flicked away from his for a fraction of a heartbeat. Did Meliadoul knew about Hashmalum's reasons for taking Alma alive from the Riovanes massacre, which she'd chosen to leave out? And, why did the sudden image of Alma, warped into an Angel of Blood in one of his darkest nightmares before being impaled by Ramza, suddenly cast a shadow over his thoughts? He shook it off, deciding it could wait, and continued.
"I see…," he said, despite once more seeing far less than he'd like. "Well, that comes as no surprise to me. Since I became a knight, I have long since gotten over my fear of death. I always felt that should I fall in battle, I would have no regrets giving my life in the service of the church. But when I met Alma, everything changed. And when I died for the first time, I had almost nothing but regrets. Regrets that I was leaving you alone, regrets that I hadn't listened to Ramza when I had the chance, regrets that I had followed orders that advanced the Lucavi's schemes rather than set the stage for life to improve in Ivalice, regrets that I'd never see Alma again. I also realized that, more than anything, I wanted to live so that I could protect Alma. And when I least expected it, the Pieces Stone granted my wish."
Again, Meliadoul seemed pensive at this audacious claim that her brother had risen from the dead, but she seemed neither disbelieving nor even particularly surprised. And, this time, Izlude decided to press the matter.
"Did you already know?" he asked. "That the stones can revive the dead?"
"I guessed," the divine knight clarified. "Since I joined Ramza, I'd seen them turn men into demons, reactivate ancient machinery, turn women who'd been turned into dragons back to normal…well, mostly normal, and summon heroes from other planes of existence. It didn't seem like much of a stretch that they could raise the dead, especially after seeing Malak's…"
"You saw Malak's bullet wound? From when Barrington shot him on Riovanes Castle's roof?"
"Yes. He'd been training with Rad in hand-to-hand combat. He took off his shirt, probably out of habit, and then put it right back on. But, I was able to see the scar, right over his heart. A bullet wound right through the heart? No one can take such a wound and live, not even with Phoenix Down or a Raise spell, so…"
Her words trailed off amidst a valiantly suppressed shudder, and Izlude couldn't blame her. He'd only caught a fleeting glance at a bit of Malak's wound through the hole in his shirt, during the first few hours of his second life. He'd suspected it wasn't a pretty sight, and this was lent credence since Meliadoul was hardly the sort to cringe at common battle scars.
"I never did ask him about it," she admitted. "Maybe I was bitter that Rafa got her brother back and I didn't. But, Malak never did talk about it, at least not to me."
Here, Meliadoul paused once more and, after a long moment of thought that ended in an audible gulp, she asked a question that had haunted the minds of every mortal who gave even passing consideration to how finite their time on this earth could be.
"What was it…like?" she asked, with jarring hesitancy. "Dying, and then coming back?"
"For a long time, it was scary," Izlude admitted, not bothering to embellish since he still didn't have the words to fully describe the experience. "There was this long vaporous stairway leading down into the earth. I sincerely believed I was going to hell. But, I was wrong. When I was halfway between the realm of the living and the dead, I saw them…mother and father. And, it wasn't the demon wearing father's face this time, but our real father. The stone spoke to me too, almost like an angel. They told me it was not yet my time to die, that there was still much I had to do. Namely, I had to save Alma. The shades of our parents, and the stone, gave me a clue. I saw a vision of Hashmalum taking Alma into the library beneath Orbonne. Ramza was chasing them, along with many others. Some I recognized from the dossiers issued to us by the church, such as Agrias Oaks, Mustadio Bunanza, Rad Phillips, the Murry twins, and Ramza's former classmates from the Hokuten Academy. Malak was with them too. Others, like Orlandu, Beowulf Kadmus, and Rafa, I knew by reputation, and several of the others I didn't know. But, I did see you there as well. A while after that, I felt my very soul being drawn back to the body I'd left behind. When I realized that I had indeed returned and that it was not a delusion or a dream, I also realized that I couldn't let anyone, especially Hashmalum, know that I was among the living again, especially after what I had learned and witnessed. Otherwise, he would hunt me down and send me back to the afterlife for good."
"Was that when, and why, you switched your armor and dog tags with the knight whose identity you claim now?" Meliadoul asked after a moment of awed silence.
"Yes… I didn't want to deceive you, since I knew you would eventually be summoned to identify my 'corpse', but I really had no choice. I knew that Hashmalum had subverted our father, which meant the Lucavi had use of the Knights Templar and their commander's voice, skills, and authority. Not to mention easy access to the High Confessor which could be used to influence his decisions. But, I had no way of knowing just how widespread, or how deeply, the corruption ran. I later gleaned that Wiegraf was also a Lucavi, and you just said that Marquis Elmdor was one too. But, how many other Lucavi were walking around in human guise? How many of them would've run you through if you even suspected I wasn't dead and started to look into it? I know what I did must've hurt you, but I swear that it was to protect both of us."
"But why? Why did the Holy Stone choose to revive you and let you keep your body instead of taking it over to do the Lucavi's bidding, like the Leo Stone did with father? Or how the Capricorn Stone did with Dycedarg Beoulve, or the Gemini Stone did with Elmdor?"
"Wait, Lord Dycedarg was also a Lucavi demon?!" Izlude asked, startling both of them with his tone.
Back in Kohlingen, he'd heard Doug relay the rumor that Dycedarg and Zalbag had been fighting one another even before Ramza had arrived on the scene. Had Dycedarg shed his guise of humanity during that confrontation? If so, it certainly would explain why witness accounts of the incident were few and confusing, not to mention how Zalbag Beoulve, a great warrior in his own right, had been killed.
Just how he'd died in Igros and left his body behind in Murond was still a mystery, but it was one that could wait a bit.
Had Izlude been in a more coherent state, he might've realized that pressing the matter now might not be wise. But, after learning of his unbidden and yet exhilarating fatherhood, having Alma wearing his ring once again, and being unmasked thrice, all in just under two days, he was the very opposite of coherent.
"I'd heard rumors that Dycedarg and Zalbag had already been fighting, even before Ramza and his group arrived," he began, the voice of his better judgement drowned out by the pounding in his ears. "They also said that Zalbag accused Dycedarg of killing Lord Balbanes. Do you…do you know if that's true?"
Meliadoul's eyebrows rose, and Izlude found himself wondering if he'd said more than he ought. Still, with the words having escaped him, there was nothing for it.
"Yes, it is true," the divine knight replied. "Dycedarg admitted it – gloated about it, really – just after transforming."
"And, then he killed Zalbag?" the knight blade asked, unable to keep a hint of foreboding, and mourning, from his tone.
"…yes. Well, that's mostly true. He paid for his crimes with his own blood, though."
Though Izlude was relieved that Ramza and his band seemed so prolific in slaying Lucavi, for his sister's recent revelations had him briefly fearing that just about anyone he met could be a demon host and he'd never know it until it was too late, he nonetheless sensed that Meliadoul was leaving something out. But, a more immediate – and, he would likely later admit, foolhardy – question sprang from his lips.
"I'm guessing that Ramza knows this, but what about Alma?" he asked.
"You're guess is as good as mine," Meliadoul admitted, a hint of impatience in her tone. "So, father, Wiegraf, Elmdor, Dycedarg, and who knows who else all became demons from carrying around those stones. I say again, why haven't you?"
"That…I do not know…," Izlude confessed. "Nor do I know why yet another stone chose to revive Malak or why, by the sound of it, the stones you and the others collected never turned any of you. What I do know is that both Malak and I had someone we desperately wanted to protect. In Malak's case, that was his sister. In my case, it was Alma. And, to do that, we had to live. I think that the manifestation of the stone's power is shaped by the person carrying it, or is closest to it, but I'm not sure."
"I guess that makes sense. I'd been carrying around the Scorpio Stone for some time before I met Ramza, and it never tried to…turn me. And, when Orlandu joined us, he already had the Libra Stone, and he said that it had been in his family for centuries."
"Yes, I see what you mean. I'll admit, I know a lot less about the stone then I'd like. What I do know is that the Pieces Stone had protected me these last few months after I left the slaughterhouse that Riovanes Castle had become, and that it has guided me ever since as I made my way back home to Lesalia."
"It must have been a long journey," Meliadoul mused.
"It was," Izlude confirmed. "And I can tell you that even with the stone's guidance and protection, my journey was not without its hurdles."
"Oh? How so?"
"Well, not long after I escaped Riovanes armed with my new disguise, I had to figure out just how I'd find Alma. I knew she's be at Orbonne, but I had no idea when, or if it would be possible for me to rescue her if I went in alone. So, I decided to follow Ramza and his party without revealing myself to them, hoping that they would eventually lead me to Alma. As for what I would do once that happened, I chose to cross that bridge when I came to it."
"That explains how you knew what happened at…," Meliadoul couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, and Izlude privately admitted he was grateful. "But, how could you have followed us that long without being spotted? You know I'm good at sensing the presence of stalkers."
"Yeah, I'd just have to ask the lonely-hearts club you've created over the years," Izlude replied, almost managing to inject a bit of levity into the conversation. The divine knight tried to reciprocate by grumbling something the sounded vaguely like "watch it, buster". "Still, for a time I did manage to follow Ramza and company …but I was separated from them. You said you met them at Limberry Castle? They must've run into you again after I lost them."
"How did that happen?"
"Well, please remain calm when I say this. Please?" After this request was reiterated several times, and the divine knight looked like she'd punch him if he made her reaffirm her promise again, Izlude took a deep breath and gave his answer. "When Ramza opened the sluice gate at Fort Bessalat and released the water to keep Larg and Goltana's armies from clashing, I got caught up at the flood and was swept away."
"YOU WHAT?!" Meliadoul bellowed, rather spectacularly breaking her fourteen-fold promise.
Izlude swore he could literally see the glass panes of the window vibrating in their frames.
"QUIET!" he hissed in an ironically loud whisper before pressing his ear to the walls of the room again to see if anyone had been roused by the divine knight's outburst.
Make that to see if anyone hadn't been roused, he mused, suddenly wishing Georg would materialize and help him drown his sorrows with ale. Or just drown, whichever came first. What was that one line from the last play mother took us to before she got sick? Oh, yes. "Really, God, sometimes I think, when things are too quiet up there, you say to yourself, "Let's see. What kind of mischief can I play on my friend, Tevye?" I swear, I will never quite see that character in the same light again.
After firmly telling himself that the sound of fiddle music coming from the roof was a whiff of nostalgia rather than a hint of mental affliction, Izlude listened for a bit. Thankfully, all he heard was groaning, some rather colorful aspersions directed towards whomever posited the theory that counting sheep led to a restful night, and then the sound of snoring. A hint of vibration in his pocket told him that the stone had once more saved his quest by bending its nigh-incomprehensible powers to the task of lulling the guests into thinking the outburst was a remnant of some half-remembered drea,…and was enjoying the act far too much.
Sensing what was left of his dignity waft away as he sagged against the wall in unabashed relief, Izlude gave Meliadoul a scathing look, which she handily returned. Still, he supposed he couldn't blame her for being shocked at how close he'd come to dying a second time.
Besides, Meliadoul had been the protective older sister all their lives, and he doubted he'd ever get big enough for her to truly stop worrying about him.
"Were it not for the stone's protection, Nelly and I would have surely drowned," he admitted.
"I'll say," Meliadoul admitted. "I know of several who were caught up and swept away by the raging floodwaters. None of them survived, including the late queen, though I'm sure not too many people were sorry to see her go."
Izlude found himself laughing softly at his sister's implication, which reminded him of the kind elderly man and his wife who rescued and tended to him after he'd narrowly escaped sharing that grim fate.
"Indeed. That's what Doug told me too," he replied, partly lost in reflection.
"Who's Doug?" Meliadoul asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention it. When I got caught up in the flood, I was swept well away toward a village that, literally, was built just days before, called Kohlingen. I'd fallen into a coma and woke up in the home of an elderly couple, the Fredericks. Doug Frederick, who'd found me on the riverbank, took me in and protected me while I was comatose. When I came to, he revealed to me that I had been unconscious since the flood and that the war had been over for two months. While I was grateful that someone was generous enough to take me into their home when they didn't even know me, I was also a bit disappointed. The explosion at Orbonne, just after you defeated Hashmalum? Well, word of that had gotten to Kohlingen. When I heard it, I feared I was at a dead end. That Alma, you, and the rest of Ramza's party would eventually reach Orbonne was my only real clue. And, since that had come and gone while I was in my coma, it meant I had lost the trail, and I had no idea how, or even if, I would be able to find you again. I wasn't even sure if you'd lived through it."
"So, what did you do to get back on track?" Meliadoul asked with a bit of skepticism.
"The stone didn't do everything for me, if that's what you're thinking, Melly," Izlude answered with a roll of his eyes. "All it did was guide me in the right direction, and it only intervened directly whenever I was in danger from something that was beyond my control, like being caught up in the flood at Fort Besselat. Anyway, when I first woke up, I was too weak to leave right away and I wanted to repay the Fredericks for helping me, so I stayed on their farm for a few days, helping out as much as I could while I was recovering my strength. During that time, the stone kept giving me…I guess these mental impressions that Alma was still alive, though it didn't tell me where to look. Eventually, the night before I left, Doug and his wife told me that Lionel had a new duke and duchess, who were brother and sister. The stone…reacted to their words, but it seemed I was the only one to notice. I figured that had to mean something, so I asked more about this new duke and duchess. From what I heard about their eyes, their ages, and such, I realized they had to be Ramza and Alma. They mentioned that the two were 'cousins' of the king and, because they seemingly appeared out of nowhere after the war, I realized that Delita must've been passing them off as relatives of his."
"The stone didn't do everything, eh?" his sister asked cheekily.
"Oh, shut up," Izlude replied, though with more nostalgia than venom.
"So, that was when you decided to return to Lesalia? Because you got word of the ball from the couple who saved you?"
"Yes…but there was something I had to do first. I knew that Catherine Seymour was Alma, but I had no idea how I could prove my true identity to her. And, more to the point, I couldn't just show up penniless and expect to have any chance of…speaking to her in confidence. I needed money, so I chose to sign on with a mining company in Gollund first."
There wasn't a doubt in Izlude's mind that revealing his true reasons for wanting to see Alma again would be most unwise, and the more pressing reason he'd just discovered even more so. But, since his rushed explanation was, to put it charitably, somewhat incomplete.
And, judging by his sister's expression, she wasn't in a charitable mood.
"Let me get this straight," the divine knight began, with palpable skepticism. "You learn that Alma is alive and want to see her again so badly, that you travelled here from Limberry, somehow earned a fortune in a matter of weeks, and played gatecrasher at a royal ball? Why would you go through all of that? Why not just write her a letter? Or, wait for her and her fiancé to return to Lionel and talk to her there?"
Again, the notion of Alma being another man's wife caused the knight blade's stomach to tie itself into a leaden knot. Though Alma had accepted his ring, again, it would've taken very little for his second courtship of the Beoulve girl to have ended in failure. Already sensing that Meliadoul knew he was hiding something, he tried to deflect the issue, saying "Well, that's a story in and of itself. We can discuss that later. As I was saying, I'd encountered a group who'd worked for that company before, and they said the company was a good billet, so I signed on."
Taking another look at the finery around her brother's room, Meliadoul asked "Is that where you obtained all these goods and money?"
"Yes… I needed a large sum of money in a short amount of time and, while I was in Dorter Trade City, I heard from a representative of a guild in Gollund that it was seeking strong workers for a huge mining project. I also learned that the pay was very generous. I knew it was too good an opportunely to pass up, and likely the only way I can get the money I needed in time to make the trip back to Lesalia and vie for Alma's hand."
"Even so, I find it hard to believe you could have made this much money and obtained all these goods from mining alone, little brother. There's more to it, wasn't there?"
"Yes, there was. As soon as I arrived in Gollund, I realized that something wasn't right. Even though the pay was leaps and bounds beyond what any miner anywhere was likely to earn, miners who'd worked at that site previously had not returned, and many were leaving the first chance they got. This seemed very strange, so I followed one of the departing miners. Aside from leaving a job that offered an excellent salary, he also seemed utterly terrified. When I caught up with him, I learned that the mine was actually haunted. In fact, this was disrupting the project so much that the company was in danger of going under."
"But, you stayed. Why? Getting back to Alma while not letting anyone know your real identity must've been a tall order, so why take the risk?"
Here, Izlude paused for breath and, with a sad sigh, he said "You'll probably think it's silly."
"Tell me anyway," Meliadoul insisted, undeterred.
"I'm sure you know how, back when we began our work, that it was allegedly to bring down the nobility and the monarchy, so that a better rule could be established in its place? And, how making that happen involved doing some…questionable things? Things that neither of us are proud of, things that made it hard to sleep at night? At the time, before I met Alma, I'd been able to tell myself that it would all be worth it if something good, something better, came out of it. But, when I realized the Lucavi were behind the whole thing, that they wanted to enslave rather than help humanity, it…bothered me. It bothered me that I hadn't doubted or questioned it when I should've, that I'd obeyed orders I shouldn't have."
An old wound, but partially cauterized in the flames of rebirth, ached at this recollection.
"Because of that, many people suffered. Jobs became scarcer, as did food. Taxes and prices rose to ruinous heights, people were displaced from their homes," Izlude went on, his voice becoming hoarse with emotion. "And then, I learned that the good that was supposed to come from it, the barren soil revitalized by the violence of cleansing fire, was all a lie. I can't say I've put that behind me, and maybe I never will. But, that day, I saw hundreds of jobs, worked by hundreds of honest people, about to disappear forever, and the likelihood that it would affect the entire country. I realized I was seeing a chance, a chance to do something about it."
Suddenly realizing that his impromptu speech likely sounded simpering or self-serving, or both, he paused and let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
"Like I said, sounds silly when I put it like that," he admitted.
"I don't think so," Meliadoul affirmed, a hint of a smile crossing her face. "In fact, I'm proud of you. So, just how does the Ghostbuster of Gollund proceed when there's something strange in the neighborhood?"
"Well, there was something weird, and it's didn't look good," Izlude went on, despite some perplexity at their choice of words. "Since I'd already decided to help save the company, and was sure I'd never get the money I needed anywhere else, I chose to take on the assignment. On my last day of work, I, as well the entire mining crew, got caught up in an attack by a poltergeist, which confirmed that the mine was indeed haunted. Mining tools and other debris began flying everywhere and then we heard these spectral voices shouting for us to stay away. While the rest of the miners fled, I, and one of my fellow miners, followed the voices, further down the mine, where I discovered a cavern with a king's ransom worth of treasure in it. It was then that I discovered the specters were the notorious Moon Sharks, who'd haunted the mines to protect the ill-gotten gains they killed for in life."
"The Moon Sharks? I've always wondered what happened to them."
"They had supposedly vanished years ago, but I deduced that they had fallen victim to the plague that had swept the Gollund underground. Even so, their greed kept their spirits bound to the world of the living. I had no choice but to put them to rest permanently to protect the other miners as well as rest of the people in Gollund. As a reward, Aldrich, the head of the company, gave me an owner's share and allowed me to take a part of the treasure with me. I figured the company kept the rest, to recoup the losses they'd taken during the haunting, but that was alright. The portion I was given was really all I needed, as you can see."
"Yes…If this is any indication, I'd wager you have you have so much money now that you don't even need the inheritance father originally planned to leave you."
"I don't… not that I can openly claim it even if I did, since everyone believes me to be dead, including Alma."
"You haven't told her yet?" one of Meliadoul's eyebrows arched subtly.
"No, I…don't want to give her too much of a shock, so I felt it best to get in her good graces, again, and then to come up with a plan to reveal myself later on…," Izlude said slowly, keeping eye contact with his older sister with an effort, and purposely neglecting to tell Meliadoul the other reason he did not want to reveal himself to Alma too quickly.
He knew his sister would never let him hear the end of it when it sank in that he'd fallen in love with the women who was supposed to have been his captive. If – or, more likely, when – she discovered that he had fathered a child out of wedlock, she would hit the ceiling...
…probably by throwing him against it.
Though he could hardly keep this secret from her for long, and she'd surely catch sight of Alma's swollen belly sooner or later, the knight blade had an overwhelming preference for "later" in all things related to Meliadoul discovering his true relationship with Alma…and the eruption that would provoke.
But, judging by the contemplative look in the divine knight's eyes, "sooner" seemed a very real possibility.
"Izlude," she began, drawing out the syllables in a fashion that brought back less-than-pleasant memories of his childhood. "You still haven't told me just what Alma is to you."
Had Izlude's throat gone any drier, he might've died of thirst on the spot.
He was sorely tempted to take a very long pull from that bottle of exotic and expensive wine that Meliadoul had refused earlier, but she'd likely read into such an act quite a bit.
She always was perceptive when it came to besotted men. How could she not be, with all the lovelorn sons of nobles that she'd had trailing in her wake over the years?
"Humoring an innocent but "ignorant" girl, who may have played no part in her brother's alleged heresy? Well, that's to be expected. Covering her escape while you fought to your last breath against a Lucavi demon? Maybe a bit much, but I can think of a few other knights who would've done the same. But, after that, it gets a little strange. Why did you give her that letter for me? Why not give it to Justin instead, since you'd known and trusted him for years? Why would you care whether her older half-brothers were killing each other at all, let alone the reason? Why did Alma have your ring? She hardly struck me as a graverobber, and I doubt she would've returned it to me if she'd stolen it. Why are you so determined to see her in person? There's no real need for her to know you're still alive, after all. And, even if you did feel some need, what was the hurry? You could've waited until after you'd built a new life for yourself. What reason was there to try and catch her eye in such a public place? And, what makes you think she'll even want to see you? You did abduct her, after all. Given what she saw at Riovanes, and after, maybe she wants to put it all behind her? Why did you want to seek her out at a ball being held to find her a…"
Here, Meliadoul's words trailed off as, either out of dawning understanding or the desire to torture her brother a bit, or both, she very nearly hiccupped on the last and most imperative of words.
"…find her a…," she stuttered, her eyes bulging. "…find her a…"
The knight blade's jaw tightened in dread as the divine knight's lower jaw creaked earthwards until a nesting chocobo could've found space enough for a clutch of eggs within.
Then, Meliadoul's cheeks reddened with indignant shock.
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" she demanded, in the single loudest whisper Izlude had ever heard. "What is this, one of those Emma Woodhouse and Elizabeth Bennett novels that are all the rage with amorous teenagers these days?!"
It has often been observed that, at the very heights of desperation, men can be driven well and truly beyond the bounds of foolishness; actively seeking out a bit of loose rigging to hand themselves when their ship will otherwise drag them down into the cold agony of drowning, or to fall upon their own sword to escape the indignity of capture by the enemy.
Izlude was certain he was doing something at least as stupid, if not more so, with his next desperate words.
"Oh, as you didn't have the entire collection in your room!" he countered, suddenly pondering whether already having been dead invalidated his Last Will and Testament. Though the shades of his parents might be disappointed, returning to them in failure seemed very nearly preferable to facing down the spluttering furious divine knight before him.
"And, just what were you doing in my room?!" she asked, for even the closest siblings can be territorial about such things.
So desperate was he to postpone the inevitable, and painful, realization that he'd come perilously close to admitting that he'd casually observed her collection of romance novels while in her room, on a childhood dare, which called upon him to hide a dozen frogs in his sister's underwear drawer.
The beheading she'd vowed to give the culprit that evening, over an impromptu dinner of frog legs, would surely be less painful that what she'd do upon learning he'd fathered a child out of wedlock. At the last moment, however, Izlude decided he wasn't that eager to re-sign his own death warrant.
And, of course, that was discounting the possibility that Meliadoul could get the information out of Alma herself. Izlude had to share a story that was as embarrassing as when Alma recounted how she and Ovelia – then-princess, now Queen Ovelia – had infiltrated the cellars of Orbonne and helped themselves to some decidedly non-sacramental wine.
Izlude had reciprocated this show of trust because he'd been honor bound.
And inebriated.
"Alright," he intoned resignedly, much as would a commander who was besieged and without supplies. "You're right, there was more to my relationship with Alma than I let on. Over time, back in Riovanes, I began to find her to be…very charming."
That was understating the case, by quite a lot, but it wasn't as if Meliadoul actually needed to know more to appear scandalized. She was doing a good job of that with only a small tidbit.
"You really are demented, you know that?" she asked after a long and drawn out pause during which she looked at the bottle of wine with no small amount of longing. "Maybe I should take that drink after all. Later, though. I guess I hardly need to ask just why she had your ring, then? Alright, let's assume, for just a moment, that this isn't a love story more twisted than anything Woodhouse and Bennett could come up with."
Izlude felt a bit slighted at that. He'd had his mishaps, true, but surely, he hadn't made that big a fool of himself? …the last ten minutes notwithstanding, that is.
"I'm guessing Alma has already agreed to marry you? Again?" Meliadoul asked, almost cheekily, to which Izlude gave a nod and a scowl. "Well, we Tingels always were charmers. So, you'll marry her, reveal your real identity to her, and then what?"
"Honestly, I don't know," Izlude admitted, already sensing that Meliadoul wasn't impressed by his answer. "The Ivalice that greeted me when I woke up at the Fredericks' farm is a lot different than the one we grew up in. And, I'm honestly not sure where I fit in here. Believe me, I've mulled it over when I could. I doubt I can go back to the Templars, even If there aren't any more disguised Lucavi lurking amongst them. Too many awkward questions about just where I came from, and too much of a risk that someone will notice something. Maybe I'll join the Chimera Knights? Or, since I already have an owner's share in Aldrich's company, I'll see what I can do to help his business? Honestly, whenever I've thought it over, I've ended up thinking in circles, and figured I'd cross that bridge when I came to it."
"I see…does anyone else know who you really are, aside from myself?" Meliadoul pressed.
Izlude nodded. "Yes…while at was at the castle, I was cornered by Malak. This knight whose identity I assumed, Damien Mitchell? At the time, he seemed like the perfect candidate. According to his dog tag, he had no next of kin, and it seemed likely everyone who knew him intimately was killed at Riovanes. But, Malak had surveilled all of Barrington's bodyguards, and he noticed some discrepancies in my portrayal. In the scuffle, the Holy Stone fell out of my pocket, and Malak, along with Ramza who'd arrived by then, weren't about to let me go without an explanation. I was able to…ask, I guess, for the Holy Stone to give me back my original face, which helped me to convince them of my true identity so that they wouldn't mistake me for a Lucavi demon and cut me down."
The divine knight stared at her brother in shock. "What?! You brought the Pieces Stone all the way into the castle?! Why didn't you just leave it in your room?! What if it took the opportunity to possess King Delita? What were you thinking, brother?!" she demanded.
Izlude threw his arms up in exasperation. "Look, it's not like I had a choice, Melly!" he said forcefully. "There was no way I could leave the stone here unguarded, even though I told the inn staff that I wanted my room to remain undisturbed while I'm gone. It was simply too risky, so I had to take it with me. You know as well as I do what these stones are capable of, so you should understand why, from the moment I was brought back until now, that I did not dare to let it out of my sight. I couldn't even give it up to someone else if I wanted to, and believe me, I tried. After I revealed myself to Ramza, at his request, I tried to give it to him. But, the stone would not accept him as its new owner, at least not yet. I don't know why the stone would refuse to part with me – I'd ask it if I knew how, and I've got half a mind to just try it and hope I get lucky – but, it won't, so I'm still stuck with it, even now."
Meliadoul sighed and rubbed at her temples, as if trying to soothe a pounding headache. She still wanted to hit Izlude upside the head, several times, but she relented. Now that she had a more detailed account of her brother's journey, as well as his relationship with the Holy Stone, she supposed she had little reason to blame him for keeping his surviving the Riovanes massacre a secret from her all these months.
Not that she planned to check her hand the next time the two of them got into a training arena, of course.
"I see…so what will you do next, Izlude?"
"Well, as I said, I have already convinced Alma to marry me. But, I still need the approval of her brother, as well as the king himself, so I will return to the castle tomorrow to ask for their consent to openly court the Duchess of Lionel. But what about you, Melly?"
Meliadoul was confused. "What do you mean, brother?"
Here, relishing the power of this interrogation changing hands at last, Izlude put his hands upon his hips in a stern and imperious manner and let his expression darken to match.
"I've told you my story, and now you tell me yours," he began simply. "Just what was Dame Lollotte doing cracking your ribs?"
Meliadoul quickly relayed how, during her dance with Mustadio, that Lollotte, one of the few surviving Templars had burst in and publicly accused Meliadoul of desertion and cowardice. Granted, the divine knight was hardly in a position to refute the allegation – after all, who would believe the same story that she'd found ludicrous coming from Ramza's mouth? – but, in an ironic bit of good fortune, Lollotte wanted to settle the matter with a duel. Meliadoul spoke, with ill-concealed admiration, of Mustadio's bravery in offering to duel in her place, and his unorthodox, but impressive, method of doing so.
"Just like your first date, except none of his "home-cooking", eh?" Izlude remarked, unable to keep a punchy grin from his face at Meliadoul's scandalized expression. "Sorry. Well, before the ball, I actually ran into Mustadio Bunanza at the local tailor shop. Before then, I'd actually gone…home, and spoke to Donovan. At first, it was just to make sure you'd survived, but he ended up telling me about when Mustadio visited you."
"I've got half a mind to put pepper in that gossipy oldster's tea," Meliadoul opined, a nostalgic smile crossing her features. "So, you met Mustadio at a tailor's shop?"
"Yes, while I was being fitted for new clothes. We talked a bit, about some of his inventions, and he said that he came to Lesalia to see you. Quite the lovesick little puppy you've leashed."
The divine knight found herself blushing at the realization that her little brother knew that she and the scrappy machinist she had met while traveling with Ramza had something going on. Well, that was a bit of an understatement, really. A woman of Meliadoul's wealth and beauty, not to mention her skill at arms, had had more than enough admirers to tell when someone was besotted with her.
If even Izlude could see how enchanted Mustadio was by Meliadoul, then he had more than enough ammunition without knowing that the feeling was…mutual. But, there was no way she was going to admit that to Izlude, at least not yet. She then relayed how, after Mustadio had bested Lollotte in the fine art of gunnery, which should've settled the matter, that Lollotte had slapped Meliadoul to re-issue her challenge and was promptly bested a second time. Meliadoul had come away from the bout nursing some cracked ribs, though she's mended these with a healing spell, and used the injury as a convenient excuse to leave in order to pursue Izlude. After her little brother had made some joking remarks about ladies who leave their escorts, Meliadoul promptly turned her best sisterly glare upon him, and he immediately redirected the conversation…
…in precisely the wrong direction.
"I suppose I'm being unfair to him, though," Izlude admitted. "I can't picture him putting on plate armor and flashing steel, but he's obviously got a lot of courage. Is that what appeals to you? A keen witted fellow who can punch above his weight and win?"
Had he been in a more coherent state, it might've occurred to the knight blade that, in a manner of speaking, he just might be trading being burned at the stake for being beheaded.
Much faster, far less painful, but, at the end of the day, having much the same end result.
He regarded Meliadoul's ever-deepening blush and revised his mental image of bear-baiting when the two thousand pounds of angry ursine was held only by a rope that was perilously frayed.
Now, the rope was just gone.
"And what's it to you? What if he does…appeal to me?" the divine knight asked with a growl.
The knight blade could think of surer paths to a swift demise than by riling Divine Knight Meliadoul Tingel, but not many. Even so, he could not resist the urge to tease his big sister.
But, more than that, after hearing the state of near manic grief she'd been in when she'd first returned home, and getting a vivid picture of it at Bervenia, even seeing her incensed over a bit of needling was a great improvement.
It also helped, in a small and oblique way, to convey that she now had a little brother again, and that he was back for good…
…whether she liked it or not.
"When I think about what you all must've been through, it's easy to forget just how young Mustadio is. He was so very excited to see you, like he had his eye on the prettiest girl in the world, and he wanted to make sure that you couldn't miss him. How could anybody miss him, with his ridiculously flamboyant attire that he intended to catch your eye with at the ball. So, did it work?" Izlude asked as he tried his best to resist the urge to laugh.
As was often the case in life, the knight blade came away from this little gambit with some dividends and some costs. On the one hand, any further probing questions from his big sister about his relationship with Alma would likely be stalled for the foreseeable future.
But, on the other hand, he had not only made the divine knight very, very angry, but he had also committed a most egregious and unpardonable violation of her sacred and inviable right as the elder sibling…
…well, that was how she'd phrased it when they were children. Izlude personally thought she was using a lot of florid language to make sure he never embarrassed or upstaged her.
Having done both, and feeling oddly accomplished, especially given the considerable disadvantage he'd been at when this confrontation began, the knight blade took one look at his big sister's face, which looked as though it had been dunked in a vat of red dye, and he doubled over with laughter.
This turned out to be a disastrous mistake, which Izlude discovered when he felt Meliadoul, who also seemed keen to revive a few childhood traditions, pull him into a headlock like she did when he annoyed her as a child. Then, with an icy grin that promised torment beyond anything he'd ever endured in either of his lives, she brought up a fist and ground it into his hair.
"Owww!"
Though Izlude would sooner have his fingernails pulled out than admit it, even this sudden bit of childish vindictiveness had been worth it.
Aside from a reprieve from the inevitable discovery that Izlude had made Meliadoul an aunt before making Alma his wife, Izlude didn't doubt for a moment that his big sister had been in a very d-ark place after his first death and the realization that their father's very soul had been evicted by Hashmalum.
Despite Meliadoul doing her level best to noogie him to death, Izlude could tell that that darkness was lifting at last. And, that made the pain worth it.
"YEEOOUUCCHH!"
Well, mostly.