Hello. It's been quite a while, hasn't it? I have no idea if people even still read this fic but I'm making my slow plodding way with it regardless. Sorry again for the late update.

Game of thrones

Chapter 09

The only thing about the plan that worried Fai was that the enemy somehow knew about the tunnels leading underground from the town to Suwa castle, or perhaps that they had been blocked by the heavy snowfall.

He shook his head. No, the tunnels had been made purposefully in case heavy snow stopped food reaching the castle, no snow would hinder them. No, but what if the enemy had blocked them some other way.

Fai shook his head again and began pacing up and down along the dingy warehouse. Whether it was because they did not trust him completely or because they sensed that he was someone important, the men had not allowed him to come with him.

It made the whole ordeal so much more frustrating to him because he knew he would not be there to prevent any screw-ups. He only hoped that the handful of men that had gone would not try to be heroes and take over the castle by themselves or try to sneak the hostages away.

He did not know how long he was left to his thoughts, imagining that something had gone wrong for every minute passed. Finally, the tunnel door opened and Fai sprung to his feet.

The burly leader of the group emerged with a smug smile. Everyone who had gone seemed to be accounted for.

"Did you do it?" Fai asked impatiently, though he knew the answer just by looking at the man's triumphant face.

"Aye, aye," the man looked besides himself with mirth. "All their wells have been spiked. Tomorrow morning they'll be as weak as kittens."

"And that's when we'll strike," Fair said thoughtfully. They had no armour and no proper weapons. Most likely it would be a bloodbath, but this way at least they had a chance.

Yuui, he prayed, I hope you're safe.

XX

The last of the preparations had been made to Yuui's mount. The horse stood obediently as it was dressed in silver and blue armour and saddled. The castle was buzzing with preparations for battle and in the midst of all the hubbub Kurogane felt his impatience grow.

The army was…well, arming itself for war. Though Yuui was only leading six hundred men - mostly foot soldiers and archers - there were supplied that needed to be loaded, armour in need of polishing, swords to sharpen, men to dress, and horses to be saddled.

Kurogane, however, had been ready to march since the crack of dawn. He now stood next to his own horse, watching the servants run too and fro with a scowl on his face. What would he not give to be marching already.

As he watched the preparations, he noticed two women - girls to be more accurate - cross the grounds and scurry towards the inner courtyard. They were too richly dressed to be mere servants and they carried themselves differently from noblewomen. Kurogane only caught a slight glimpse of their faces but from the long blonde hair he thought he saw a trace of familiarity.

"Hey, who are they?" he nodded towards the two girls. "They look like the queen. Do you have sisters?"

"Of course not!" Yuui caught sight of Freya and Chii and snorted with laughter at the very thought. "They're my cousins."

Kurogane stared at their now retreating backs and then at Yuui. They really did look alike. "That's freaky," was all he murmured.

Yuui's laughter was light and carefree. Though Kurogane knew that he was anything but carefree at the moment, it made a stark contrast with his clothes. Yuui was in silvery blue armour, enchanted for extra protection, with a long royal blue cloak around his shoulders. His helmet was tucked under his arm, with a sword slung around his hips and a staff in the other hand.

Kurogane, similarly though not as lavishly, decked in black armour and a red cloak sat on his charger waiting for the rest of the army to prepare to march. They were going to recapture Suwa, even if it cost him his life, he would take it back.

"Don't worry, we'll definitely win this battle," Yuui assured him.

"I'm not worried," he lied. "In fact, you're more nervous than I am."

"What do you mean?" Yuui smiled brightly, but there was a certain frostiness to it which told Kurogane that he had hit the nail on the head. Though any normal person would have held their tongue, Kurogane was not known for anything but brutal honesty.

"I heard that your brother has gone missing yet you have to lead this army. You can't go out and search for him," he said simply.

Yuui fiddled with the reigns of his horse; a sure sign that he was indeed nervous.

"I'm okay. I trust that he'll be fine without me," he lied poorly. "Oh, that reminds me Kuro-pon," he suddenly brightened, perhaps glad to be able to change the subject.

"Do you have to call me that?"

Yuui ignored him. Sticking two fingers in his mouth, he whistled loudly and gestured for someone to attend him.

The man who came running was dressed in servant's attire and seemed a bit of a bumbling fool, in Kurogane's personal opinion. In his hands he had a large pole wrapped in crimson cloth, which slightly skewered his balance as he came running.

"Thank you Hideki," Yuui took the thing from the servant and handed it to Kurogane. "Here."

"The dragon banner," Kurogane recognised it as soon as it was in his hands. He unfurled it and looked at it with a mixture of shame and disgust. All it did was serve to remind him how pathetically he had failed to defend his home. "I don't want it," he handed it back to Yuui. "I'm not a knight and, before you say it, don't call me the Lord of Suwa!"

Yuui, however, refused to accept it. "We all have our responsibilities," he pushed the banner back into Kurogane's hands. "I thought you were a big, tough man! Don't me that you can't stand its weight."

Kurogane reddened with anger. He really was in no mood to be baited.

"Fine," he snatched the banner from his hand, "This is nothing. I can bear much more than this!"

Yuui nodded appreciatively and mumbled under his breath; "Good. I have a much heavier one to carry," his eyes betrayed a look of weariness for just a second before he masked it over with an expression of nonchalance.

Kurogane's sharp eyes, however, caught it flicker of tiredness before it could disappear and his attitude softened a little toward the prince. True, he was annoying, loud and obnoxious but Yuui was also going through his own hardships. His kingdom was threatened, he was about to throw himself into a long, bloody battle, and his only brother was missing when he needed him the most. In their common grief, something almost tender reached out and touched him, made him feel more forgiving towards Yuui.

"Then you should ask someone else to share the burden with you," Kurogane said thoughtfully, almost as if he were talking two himself.

"Someone like you, Kuro-chi?" Yuui never missed a beat and Kurogane turned his face away.

XX

"Lady Chii," Tomoyo had caught sight of the two princesses just as Freya had left Chii to wander somewhere else. Chii remained in the courtyard looking lost and Tomoyo, though she had enough to worry about, could not help but approach her.

She knew who Chii was on sight. Only someone as wilfully ignorant of royalty and all their intrigue like her brother were unable to identify members of the royal family on sight.

"Who are you?" Chii looked up from where she sat at the courtyard fountain to find a strange black-haired young woman smiling benevolently at her. She sensed no ill-will from her but she was rather at a loss on how to talk to strangers. Fortunautely, the woman made spoke first.

"Tomoyo, Lady Chii, unfortunately we couldn't meet at the queen's ball," Tomoyo curtsied.

"Freya asked me to stay behind."

"Lady Freya? Your sister?" she could not help but frown. Why had Freya done that? What purpose would that serve?

"She's with Yuuto right now," Chii nodded and kicked her feet against the stone fountain.

Tomoyo smiled. She knew that she was talking to royalty - though Chii was only the twelfth in line - but somehow Tomoyo felt like she was talking to a child. There were certainly no airs about her. In fact she seemed…a little too innocent to be of royal blood.

"Is Yuuto…her special person?" Tomoyo asked politely.

"Special person?" Chii looked baffled. "What do you mean by special person?"

The smile on her face faltered slightly. Somehow, Tomoyo was beginning to feel like a parent explaining the birds and the bees to her child. "Well, it's someone…who you treasure of above everyone else. Your most important person. The one for you and only you," she said, offering the most chaste explanation she knew of.

If anything was amiss, Chii did not notice. "Yuuto is nice," she admitted, "but I don't think he's Freya's special person. I don't think Freya likes him."

"What about you? Do you have a special person?"

"A person for me and only me?" her cheeks reddened, betraying her, perhaps she was not as naïve as Tomoyo had suspected, but Chii herself did not answer the question.

"I see."

"But Chii thinks Freya is very important too. Chii would do anything for Freya. Anything at all," Chii continued and a wide smile lit up her face, though there was something odd in the fervour in her voice when she talked of her sister.

"…I see," Tomoyo smiled. She thought of her brother Kurogane and the battle which he was soon departing for.

What had happened at Suwa had been a big blow for him, for both of them, yet she had not seen him cry at all. He was keeping it all in, pretending to be strong. She just wished that he too knew that she would do anything for him too.

XX

How many days had they spent marching from sunrise to sundown? Kurogane knew that they were pushing their steeds more than normal in an attempt to arrive at Suwa quickly but despite their trouble-free march it still felt as if it had taken far too long to finally arrive in Suwa.

For most of the journey Kurogane had been tetchy and bad-tempered, refusing to talk to anyone and keeping himself to himself. Even Yuui bothered him a lot less than normal, though that may have also been because he had an army to lead.

It was not until one of the scouts rode back crying; "Prince Yuui! We will soon be entering Suwa!" that Kurogane felt as though he rreally were here. Everything else seemed like a distant dream.

Yuui nodded. "Make preparations," he ordered the scout. The man saluted and fell back to relay his orders to the trailing army.

Mechanically, Yuui lifted his staff into the air. The blue crystal set on top the staff began to glow and a whirl of snow erupted from the tip, expanding like a whirlwind until it covered not simply the army but the ground around them for many miles.

"What are you doing?" Kurogane noticed that the snow was not cold. In fact, it passed right through him when it touched him, like the remains of a ghost.

"We can't have the enemy seeing us, can we?" Yuui smiled and lowered his staff. The snowstorm wrapped itself around them and continued to blow. "We'll proceed like this. What's the matter, Kuro-pon? Astounded by my genius?" he winked playfully.

"Any child could have come up with this ploy!" Kurogane snorted, though he was slightly impressed by the ease with which Yuui could conjure such a large spell. Though the snow storm whirled around them, he could see perfectly through the false wind and ice, though he knew it would be quite different for the enemy.

"Look, you can just about see the castle on the horizon," Yuui pointed to the small blackish clump in the distance, which indicated the turrets of Suwa castle.

Though Kurogane had decidedly told himself that he would not allow foolish sentimentality to hinder him in battle, a large lump rose to his throat regardless. That castle had been where he had grown up, where all his good memories lay, now besmirched and tainted by tragedy. They had not even had time to bury his parents yet.

"The sun is going down," he said, his voice betraying nothing of what he felt inside.

"Perfect, don't you think?" Yuui nodded. "The perfect night to start a war."

XX