Chapter 3- Allargando (Broadening)
Dearest Sedrin,
FATHER LIED TO ME!!! THAT ABSOLUTE BASTARD!!! I MADE SUCH AN IDIOT OF MYSELF!! DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!!!!
Alright, alright, I know you would tell me to take a deep breath, so okay... I'm breathing. Right. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Okay.
Well, we arrived in Fanelia today and held court with Fanel and his little group. It was in the small throne room (y'know, the famous one where all the peasants can always come for a private audience with the king?). I suppose that I should be pissed off by that calculated insult, but really, who cares? I definitely have better things to be angry about.
For at least two months now, you know that Father has been pressuring me to come to Fanelia. He used every excuse in the stupid book. "Our kingdoms must be allied", "Gossamer needs an heir", "it would do wonders for Gaian bloody peace". You heard them all right along side me. He even sunk as low as "King Fanel is threatening war if you don't go to him". Yes, I know you never heard that. He had one of those quiet, heartfelt, father-daughter talks with me. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I seriously thought it was a concern. I didn't want to be the reason for another Great War.
Argh! I can't believe I fell for his bullshit! Father just approached the Coalition YESTERDAY!! We were on the road almost non-stop for three weeks! And he speaks to them YESTERDAY!! Fanel hasn't been threatening WAR!! He didn't even want me here in the first place!! But I went, like a little puppy, and smiled sweetly at him, and curtseyed, and just about grovelled!! IT MAKES ME SO MAAAAAAADDDD!! Yeah, yeah, I'm breathing, I'm breathing. Seriously, though, I feel like such a complete idiot.
Now, here's the fun bit. Remember the legend of the Seeress? Beautiful, powerful girl from the Mystic Moon is transported to Gaia, meets Van Fanel who seeks revenge for his destroyed country, they overcome Zaibach, blah blah blah, Fanel falls in love with her, before he gets a chance to tell her, she leaves for the Mystic Moon, Fanel feels he can never love again, and girl remains enigmatic mystery, et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum. But the point, you ask?
She's back!
Right in the middle of our formal meeting, there's a big commotion, and it turns out that she's landed beside Escaflowne. She's escorted into the throne room, Fanel leaves his throne and goes down to have a muted conversation with her and this guy from the Mystic Moon that she's brought along. I'm pretty sure he (new guy) is her boyfriend. And though I feel sorry for Fanel, I have to giggle, because I predict there'll be a lot of amusing melodrama around here for quite a while. The Seeress, by the way, is in love with Fanel. No one's actually suggested as much, but its one of those glaringly obvious things that you can't believe everyone doesn't already know.
Ahh, it's funny. Of course, this leaves me feeling incredibly self-conscious and out of place on the Queen's throne. What the hell am I supposed to do? I'm here to try to seduce a guy into marriage when I don't like him, he doesn't like me, and we're both taken already...
I'm just glad you forced me into that acting course at the Theatre Guild, no matter how much Father went on about it afterwards. Gives me a bit of an edge in this situation.
I'm sorry, Sedrin, I know I've been going on and on about this. But write back to me soon. I want to know about you and about Kai, and Redya, and everyone back home. I miss all of you so much. You especially, darling.
Love and kisses,
Calliope
A little girl, not more than seven years old, was sitting under the apple blossom tree. In her lap, she held a board game. She stared at the complex swirls and tiny moving pieces with an expression of deep concentration. She tapped her cheek thoughtfully, then moved a piece forward, and spun a small wheel.
An apple dropped into her lap, and she clapped her hands delightedly, picked it up and began munching on it, eyes never leaving the board. There was a little blue-rimmed red piece that seemed to be holding her attention, but it looked just like the three or four hundred other red pieces on her intricate board. She prodded the piece to the left almost imperceptibly, and suddenly looked very smug.
Her gaze went up to the house, and her lips mouthed the words; "one... two... three..."
"Daisy!" called a laughing, feminine voice from inside.
The little girl carefully set her board game down, and threw her apple core as far as she could. Then she spun the little wheel back to its original position, and covered the board with a cloth.
"Coming, mommy!" she called back, skipping happily towards the house.
Behind her, two blossoming apple trees sent their fragrance out into the wind.
It was mid-afternoon in Viarie, and love and happiness seemed to permeate the air. Flowers were blooming, the sun was shining, birds were chirping, children were frolicking.
Well, no, not really. Sometimes, Mother Nature just refuses to co-operate for the greater romantic good.
It was mid-afternoon in Viarie, but it was raining and miserable. The flowers were sopping wet, the sun was eclipsed by thunder clouds, the birds were looking very bedraggled, mostly cowering in their nests, and the children were in school and therefore prevented from frolicking of any kind at the moment.
There was a little bit of love and happiness permeating inside, but really only between Van and Hitomi who had strange soppy grins on, and were blushing rather a lot. The rest of the world was going along its merry way, and the cooks, for example, were certainly not affected (except Birdie, who was Merle's friend, and was now employed in baking a large, pink, heart-shaped cake).
Hitomi and Ken had been installed in rooms on the same floor as Van, Merle, and Sweyn. Calliope and her retinue had taken over the entire floor above them, and though, Van had tried to squirm out of it, the Elder's Council had insisted that she be included in "everything, which means, everything, not some of the things, not most of the things, and not 'I tried but she didn't seem interested', but abso-bloody-lutely everything. Are you listening to me, Van?".
The banquet for the arriving princess had been upgraded (by the Elder's Council, who believed that if you were going to host uninvited but very important people, you might as well do it in style) to an all-out festival, and the palace was bustling with activity.
"WE NEED MORE TINSEL!!" yelled Merle at the top of her lungs.
There was a moment of bewildered silence, and then all the staff shuffled into action murmuring something along the lines of "Tinsel! Right! Of course, we need more tinsel! Absolutely! Honestly, Henry, you're such an idiot not to notice that we don't have enough tinsel! What do we pay you for anyway?"
Merle glared around her, and everyone moved slightly faster so as not to get lampooned. Sweyn tapped her on the shoulder, and the resultant screech caused his delicate cat hearing to protest adamantly, and the ice sculpture of a giraffe on a nearby table to exploded into tiny fragments (which is probably for the best, because the reason it was there in the first place is inexplicable).
"M-Merle..." he whimpered. "C-Calm down!"
Merle glowered. "I'M CALM!!" she exploded. "LOOK!! THIS IS ME BEING PERFECTLY BLEEDIN' CALM!! ARE YOU LOOKING?!?!"
Sweyn covered his ear with his hands, and whimpered just a little bit more. He made a very pathetic picture, and suddenly Merle was all sweetness and worry.
"Poor darling, are you alright, sweetie?"
"Uh-uh." Sweyn shook his head, with an aggrieved air.
"Well, I don't care. Get up, you idiot, and go get me some more tinsel!"
"But..."
"BUT?! BUT WHAT?!?"
"Umm..."
"WELL?! WHAT?!?"
"It's just..."
Merle directed the full force of her very potent glare at him, and Sweyn's objections wavered into misty nothingness.
"YOU!" she jabbed one finger into his chest. "GO!" She shoved him out the large archway of the Grand Hall, slamming the heavy, oak, double doors behind him.
Sweyn looked around awkwardly.
"Er..." he said. "I wonder if she needs more than the twelve crates that the servants just brought in?"
Van was stretched out on his balcony, absolutely drenched. His eyes were closed and he looked so peaceful that Hitomi did not have the heart disturb him. Silently, she lay beside him, enjoying the gentle pitter-patter of the rain against her skin.He shifted positions slightly, and jerked upright when his hand grazed her waist. "Hitomi?"
"Van..." she smiled up at him, pushing a strand of wet hair out of her eyes.
He stared at her for a long quiet moment. After a while, she began to squirm under his enthralled gaze.
"Van?" she whispered, finally.
He coloured slightly and looked away. She took heart at this.
"I love what you've done for Fanelia," she ventured, shyly.
"Really?" His eyes began to sparkle suddenly and her heart began to pound. "Really?" he asked again.
Hitomi nodded solemnly.
"Good. I hoped you would." There was a certain satisfaction in his voice, as if years and years of struggling to make Fanelia what it was... was all worth it, just because she liked it. It was the ultimate validation.
She was pensive. "It reminds me... of all those utopian dreams."
Van gave her a confused look. "Utopian?"
"Like... paradise, heaven, perfection... It is perfect, Van. You made it perfect."
And the radiance of the smile he gave her made it hard to breathe.
Beyond the... um... beyond the... indentation? Er... the dell? Er... the valley? of the... ruler? The monarch? The king! The...um... citizens were in... anguish? No...er, the people ached? Thus wrote Hegalus, who was a bard.
They were in... ah... er...a state of... um... famine-ness? Something... er... war? Ermm.... Revolution? Uh...
Hegalus was not a very good bard.
He frowned. This didn't sound like the stuff of legends. The real "bards of old" would have memorable rhymes just tripping off their tongues. What the hell rhymed with famine? Salmon? Jammin'? The people were having a famine because of the lack of salmon. That's so not jammin'...?
He twirled the quill absently in his fingers, getting himself covered in blue ink in the process.
"Aww, shit," he muttered as the length of parchment on which he was writing rolled up, smearing the beginning of his "epic". No one had ever written about this in the stories. He'd joined the barding profession for the adventure and romance and because his brother had told him that chicks digged a guy who could sing. There was no mention of how hard it was to get a white feather from a stupid pigeon who was really quite fond of its own feathers. Or about how people would throw vegetables at you in the market place if you were off key. Or about how the ink would sink through the cheap parchment and make every stupid thing BLUE!!
And certainly, nobody had told him how much suffering and how many deaths were involved in a good story.
He sighed and pulled out a sheet of paper and a fountain pen.
Beyond the valley of the KingThe people were in pain
Their hunger was their war cry
But their screams arose in vain
Hegalus' expression was one of smug complacency. Ooooh, that was a keeper for sure.
In the Year of the Potbellied Pig, the Kingdom of Isandor had fallen on hard times due to the deep economic regression that had occurred as a result of the Great War wrote Hedonin, who was a historian.
While the War in itself was the most prosperous time in Isandorian history as the steel industry expanded rapidly, its resolution and the collective banning of the guymelefs created a huge void in the economy. This led to galloping inflation and the devaluation of the Isandorian kiin. It now took fifty-four kiin to the Fanelian dollar, while in the Year of the Cowardly Horse (the peak of the war), the kiin was the strongest currency on Gaea, and the Fanelian dollar was non-existent. Problems throughout the kingdom had led to talk of insurgence against the King, who is not, of course, Sai'tel Raean.
Hedonin stopped writing, because that was as far as History had progressed. He blew gently at the ink until it was dry, put a ribbon in his book to mark the page, and leaned back in his chair with a feeling of accomplishment.
A bard and a historian; brothers. One who feels the people's agony, but cannot find a word to rhyme with it (Smagony? Tragony?). The other who can see rebellion as the logical result of a very consistent series of events, but can only record it with great fastidiousness in his big book.
...pain... the king... war cries... death... in vain... poverty... hunger... rebellion... Sai'tel Raean...
The next morning, the day after Corinth's Day, amidst the desolation of a ravaged bloodstained city, they abandoned all their worldly possessions and fled.
Van sat at the head of a long table, which was mercifully empty, signing papers.
Perhaps that is not exactly accurate. Maybe, he wasn't so much sitting as... well, sprawling. And maybe not so much signing as yawning loudly and trying to find any traces of intelligence in the intelligence reports in front of him.
Another yawn, and he rubbed his eyes.
There was a knock on the door, and Van sat up ramrod straight.
"Enter," he intoned imperiously, with a regal wave of his hand.
Hitomi and Ken entered cautiously, and Van sighed with relief and slumped down in his chair again.
"Hey," he said.
"You look exhausted," asked Hitomi, with a worried smile, taking a seat beside him.
Hitomi placed her hand on his arm comfortingly and he blinked incomprehensibly at it for a full twenty seconds before working up the nerve to place his hand on top of hers. He considered that feeling so preposterously happy at this simple contact was a touch pathetic. And considered further that he really didn't care.
Van shook his head. "Not tired. Bored stiff!"
She laughed. "Do you want some help?"
Van shrugged. "I'd love it if you helped, but I wouldn't inflict this rot on my worst enemy..." He paused as that sunk into both their minds. "Well, okay," he conceded, finally. "Maybe I'd inflict it on Dilandau, but even then, I'd feel a little bad about it."
Hitomi slipped a sheaf of papers out of the pile and flicked through it. "Mercedonia requests Fanelian support in demanding that Kierad cede the province of Jaeul... blah blah blah... four hundred Mercedonian citizens in Jaeul... religious reasons.... Etc. etc..." she read.
Van sighed. "It's bullshit, really. Mercedonia has fifty thousand citizens and Kierad is hovering just above complete bankruptcy. Jaeul's the only bit of it that's even marginally successful. But we just renegotiated a trade agreement with Mercedonia and nerves are still rather raw, so I can't just deny Fanelian support..." He smiled sheepishly. "Actually, I have no idea what to do with all of this. It's a huge issue, especially since Mereck (the king, you know) is half-heartedly threatening to take it by force if we don't support him." He groaned and stared at his timepiece. "And I have to address the Court of Lords in about three minutes. "
Ken, who was beginning to look as if he had just been handed the biggest chocolate cake in the world, grinned widely.
"Ken? Something up?" asked Hitomi, wryly.
"Up? What could be up? It's not as if I've trained for the past four years hoping and praying that I'd one day, many decades from now, be able to be in just this situation."
Van raised an eyebrow. "Beg pardon?"
"Oh!" Hitomi exclaimed suddenly, realization dawning. "You trained at the military college, didn't you, Ken? Majored in international politics and conflict resolution?"
He just kept grinning.
"Well, that's convenient," said Van, not a little tetchily. "What do you suggest I do, then?"
"Well, obviously I don't know much about politics here, but from what I can see you're working with a traditional monarchy," he observed, with just a touch of smugness (which Van detected and chafed at). "There's probably a reason why this won't work—but you could hold a referendum."
"Sorry?" said Van, rather vexed by the fact that he seemed to appearing rather incompetent in front of Hitomi. "What is a referen—whatever...?"
"A referendum. It's a poll, a vote, by the people on what they think of the issue. Basically, just put it to a vote amongst the people of... Jaeul, wasn't it?, about whether they want to stay where they are or join Merecedonia."
Van nodded slowly. "That way I can say that it was the people of Jaeul who decided and make it clear from the beginning that I am fully on the side of the people... That's... that's brilliant. Did you just come up with that?"
Ken waffled. "Sort of. It's been done on Earth—"
"—the Mystic Moon—" interjected Hitomi.
"—right, it's been done a couple of times before. I just applied it—"
A sound outside, like a baby elephant with a cold, interrupted him.
Van snapped to attention. He jumped up, grabbed his crown from the sideboard, jammed it on his head (where it slipped down to rest on his nose, and he pushed it back up, embarrassed), and pulling all the papers in some semblance of order, took a very formal seat at the head of the table.
Hitomi look amused and he blushed slightly.
"It's the herald," he explained. "That means that the Court of Lords is about to start."
"Should we go?" asked Hitomi.
"NO! Er... no, please don't."
The doors opened and a procession of Lords came in, being announced by Shawn Ogg in a nasal voice as they entered.
When Sir Bernard Marx was announced, Hitomi and Ken exchanged puzzled looks.
When the young Lord Fauntleroy was announced, they began to get anxious.
When Lord Benedick came in, Hitomi tapped Ken's hands across the table, and Van sulked a little.
When Sir Samuel Vimes entered, swaggering a little, Hitomi grinned delightedly and Ken shook his head.
But when Sir Michael Cassio entered, both Ken and Hitomi disintegrated into muted giggles
There was a short awkward paused when all the Lords had been seated, as they gave Hitomi and Ken the once-over.
Hitomi began to scribble frantically on her paper. ... Marx, Fauntleroy, Benedick, Henchard, Trueba, Bazarov, Helmer, Vimes, Cassio... she wrote.
Van gave her a questioning look, which she did not notice. Instead, she turned to Ken, seeking some sort of authentication. The minutes from the last Court were read ex officio, but Hitomi and Ken continued to talk in inaudible, unobtrusive whispers.
And Van felt tiny stirrings of characteristic possessiveness in the pit of his stomach. This guy... Ken... who exactly was he to Hitomi? And where, exactly, did that leave Van? And what, pray tell, was going on?
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Note: A metaphorical chocolate to anyone who gets the joke!
Whoo! 3000plus words! I love this chapter. Please review!