Chapter Nineteen: After the Dream
Nina shaded her eyes and peered at the top of the Kyoin Causeway. "When do you think he'll come back?"
Deis said, "When he's ready. Damn, I wish I'd gone with them."
"W… we wouldn't b-be wanted." Scias shrugged. "I-it's b-between them."
"Yes. It is, isn't it?" Nina couldn't help but feel left out, but then Ryu had never expected to be initiated into what went on between her and Elina. Why should she expect it to be any different for the other way around? It wasn't even as if Ryu was the one who was going to the Empire to stay. "You think the war'll end now, with Fou-Lu as the Emperor?"
"H-hope so. N…n-not as if I…" He grinned. "… n-need it a-anymore."
Deis stretched, weaving her fingers together above her head. "All I can say is it better or I'm going over there and giving him a piece of my mind."
Anyway with all that had happened, all that had gone wrong and been set right, being annoyed over not being there for the final-final-final goodbye seemed a bit trivial.
A crowd had gathered at the base of the steps leading up to the Astana Causeway, and they would be further up than that if it weren't for the line of soldiers, led by Ursula, holding them back. The sight of it as he looked outside made Ryu feel like he was rising and falling at the same time. When they saw him they looked ready to break the line, but then Ursula turned around, looked at him, then turned back and shook her head - that's not him, after which they calmed quickly but remained at a simmer.
He ducked back in. "Be sure to write," he said. Fou-Lu nodded and draped an arm around Mami's shoulders; she reciprocated the gesture for a moment and returned to fidgeting with the bell tied into her hair.
The people hushed as Won-Qu stepped outside, followed shortly by A-Tur and then Ryu. Their silence lingered as Fou-Lu and Mami came out hand in hand, then shattered into cheers and shrieks. Ursula's voice rose above it. "Come this way, Your Majesty," she called, "it's all been taken care of."
They didn't go right away. First they turned to Ryu, and Fou-Lu raised his free hand, attached to a stiffly angled arm. Mami was less reserved, sweeping her entire arm in impressive arcs. The last goodbye - all the others had been made back in Wyndia and in Kyoin.
The clamor grew still louder. They want their sacrifice, he thought suddenly, crazily. Now they'll eat him alive.
In a far more recent memory Fou-Lu said, I cannot in good conscience decline. Without any semblance of a leader there wilt be terrible strife in the land as they attempt to determine one. If I return it might well come to pass regardless, but were I to avoid it out of concern for my reputation, I wouldst not be deserving of it in any case.
Yeah. Yes, I know.
Already Won-Qu and A-Tur had descended the steps, and already the crowd was pulling away to make a clear path. Ryu lifted his own hand and waved back so hard that he'd have to be a bit careful with his shoulder for a while. "Goodbye!"
After a few seconds of this, as the voices grew to a crescendo, Fou-Lu's arm relaxed and he waved back as well, though not nearly as frantically as Ryu. "Farewell," he said, and they nodded at one another before Fou-Lu and Mami turned and began down the steps. Ryu kept on waving for a while longer, then lowered his arm and waited until they could no longer be seen.
Later Ryu thought that he couldn't possibly have heard it over all the noise. But back then, he had heard it clear enough, and as he returned to Kyoin and during the journey home - for Wyndia was as good a home as any - he remembered most of all the sound of the bell.
END
I'm probably sounding like a parrot by now, but thanks once again to:
Raya
Raistlin Majere
Bill
Tami
Aegis
Flaring Star-Saber
Saikan
GenocideHeart
Silver Kitsune
Airess Byrd
Torii
Crimson Primrose
Alpha Draconis1
Oni-Kaiser
The Right Hand Of Fate
Dracorum
HeartlessAngel
Anyone I overlooked, and everyone who might care to review after this goes up.
AND Capcom, for making Breath of Fire IV in the first place!
It's been great!