Author's Note: Thank you, thank you, thank you to Lins, my beta.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, this world, or this game.

A Suitor for Ashe

Chapter One

It was in the fifth year of her reign that Ashelia B'Nargnin Dalmasca was forced to suffer the indignity of being asked by her Parliament to marry and provide an heir to the throne.

She had not suffered the first five years lightly, and to be imposed thus was simply intolerable, even as she was aware of the fact that she knew that Parliament had good reason to worry. If any unpleasantness were to befall her, Dalmasca would be inflicted with civil unrest while would-be usurpers bickered among themselves for the right to go next.

And so, a husband hunt was reluctantly begun.

To Rabanastre, the suitors ventured...

Memoirs of the Duke of Bervenia

"This is ridiculous." Her gaze burned with impatience, her voice dripped with contempt. And it took everything she had within her to keep from bursting up from her seat in a rush of skirts and vitriol, and throwing a good, old-fashioned temper tantrum.

Lady Penelo, her majesty's lady-in-waiting, maintained eye contact with the floor, feigning indifference to the situation. If she heard the vulnerability in the modicum of tremors in her queen's voice, Penelo kept the knowledge to herself.

"Please, your highness, surely you see the reasoning behind Parliament's decision."

"I am aware of the reasons why I must marry," Ashe replied. She turned away from Prime Minister Garrett. "But I don't understand why you must make foolhardy threats of taking away my crown. I would think that my actions five years ago more than proved my rightful place on the throne."

"We are not disputing your birthright; we're just concerned..."

"Why? I am perfectly healthy and well-protected. As well as perfectly capable of protecting myself," she replied haughtily.

"Oh, of course, Your Highness, but, simply put, it's been five years-"

"Five years that I've devoted to rebuilding our kingdom, making peace with our neighbors, building a Parliament system that I am beginning to question the value of..."

"Of course. But...well, you've taken care of things. The kingdom is stable, the treasury is solvent for the first time in generations...you've done excellent work," the prime minister admitted.

"So why not let me ensure the line of Dalmasca on my own time?"

"We simply think that, given the proper...er...incentive, you might focus your energies to the task."

"Strange how your 'incentive' seems to sound like an 'ultimatum'," Ashelia observed.

"Perhaps it is, but...but clearly the people adore you! We only wish that you'd give our citizens comfort in the knowledge that Dalmasca's reign will continue...You are going to turn twenty-five soon."

Ashe turned her gaze away from the man, and contemplated her fingernails.

He'd been dismissed. The prime minister swallowed, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. He turned to Lady Penelo for assistance.

Penelo cleared her throat. "Perhaps your Lordship would allow for Her Majesty to think over the situation? You must admit that your...news...is quite astonishing."

The prime minister opened his mouth to argue, but Lady Penelo had already taken his arm and turned him around. "But there are still some details, regarding-"

"If you could have the details of the...bill presented to Her Majesty's Chief Counsel, perhaps she will look them over later, when she has had time to reflect on the situation? Surely, you must admit that being told that you must marry within three months would be off-putting for anyone."

Her smile was so winsome, her voice so sweet, her words so reasonable, the prime minister really didn't have a choice...or a chance. "Y-yes. Of course."

"Wonderful. Have a good evening, sir."

"Ah, yes, Lady Penelo." The Prime Minister turned back to look at the queen. She'd gotten up and was wandering towards the balcony. "Well, ah...should Her Majesty have any questions, please, inform her that we are at her disposal."

Penelo nodded as she turned to the guards, signaling that audiences of any sort would simply have to wait until the morrow. She sighed with relief as she heard the doors of the outer chamber shut with a loud, heavy boom.

The setting sun set the sea of sand alight in colors so vivid that she felt them sting her eyes. She considered the long stretch of desert before her, and let her gaze fall on that horrific monument, the Bahamut, which signified the end of so many things. With every day that had passed in the last five years, a bit more of the connection she felt to it had faded. A bit more of the memory that haunted her left her.

And she did not want for it to.

The wind teased her hair out of the elaborate updo that it'd been combed into that morning. She tore the comb from her hair and let the strands fall out, letting them whip wildly in the wind.

She was alone...and lonely. Penelo approached her queen carefully.

"He's right," Ashe admitted tiredly, quietly. "They're right."

Penelo sighed as she approached her friend, putting a comforting hand on the cold shoulder. "But."

"But..." Ashe said quietly. "I'm not ready yet."

Penelo bit her lip. "I-it's been five years now, Ashe."

Ashe turned to Penelo, mouth open, to protest that Rasler had died many years before.

"I know that you've been waiting. But I don't think they're coming back," Penelo said quietly. "I don't think he's coming back."

Ashe turned back to the horizon. Her dignity insisted that she deny her friend's claim, but her heart cried to be acknowledged. "I-it wouldn't have worked out anyway," she mumbled.

Penelo rubbed her queen's shoulder comfortingly. "I miss them too. N-not the way you do...but..."

"Idiot. He was such an idiot," Ashe bit the words out.

"He did it to save Rabanastre. You...you know that without his and Fran's actions-"

"I know," Ashe said quietly. "I-I ask myself if things could have been resolved differently. I-I dream about them turning out differently."

Penelo sighed, leaning a head on Ashe's shoulder.

"Penelo...I wish I'd told him."

"You didn't know then," the girl said levelly.

"No, I guess I didn't. But still!" The last word was uttered feelingly, wrenchingly.

"Still," Penelo said quietly.

Ashe pulled away from her friend and leaned on a cold stone pillar. "It's...I guess I saw the...bill coming," she sighed. "It...it makes sense. And is necessary. But it's just a bit mortifying, you know?"

Penelo gripped her friend's hand tightly. "You have no reason to feel ashamed; you weren't sitting idly by. You were busy."

"Yes, I was," Ashe mused.

"And if you aren't ready, maybe there's something we can do, somebody in Parliament we can talk to..."

"I...I have to be, Penelo," Ashe said. "They're right. You're right. It's been...it's been five years. And I'm a queen. I have my people to think of. My line. I'll make myself ready."

"I wish it didn't have to be this way, Ashe."

"Me neither," Ashe sighed.

"...and the disputes with the traders from Bhujerba?" Larsa asked, looking up from his papers.

"Resolved, my liege," Kilbourne replied easily.

"Of course. And I'll wager once you were through with them they were willing to pay us to take the spices and madhu off their hands?" Gabranth conjectured, a hint of pride in his teasing voice.

It was somewhat amusing, Larsa observed, that the more serious Kilbourne became, the more determined Gabranth became to lighten his fellow judge magister's spirits. As Gabranth had had more than his share of pain and loss in his past, it was a relief to Larsa that Gabranth was learning to embrace levity.

Not that Larsa was overly concerned with the emotional wellbeing of his judge magisters. But he did spend a lot of time with them. And before Gabranth's marriage, well...he'd been a bit harder to deal with, a bit harder to sneak out on.

"Rjth?" he asked of the last member of their conference. "Any news from your quarter?"

"The hunt begins," Judge Magister Rjth observed levelly, handing over the invitation that the palace had received not an hour ago.

"Hunt?" Larsa asked, taking the parchment into his hands, scanning the letter carefully. "This is an invitation to a ball."

"A ball to introduce Ashe to suitors."

"Ashe seeks a husband?" He couldn't help a laugh of befuddlement. "How in Ivalice...?"

"There are reports that her newly-founded Parliament's first bill was to mandate that the Queen marry by her twenty-fifth birthday," Rjth observed.

"-which is why she shouldn't have bothered putting together a Parliament," Kilbourne scoffed. "Is she to present an heir by twenty-seven? This is ridiculous."

"But surely you can see the necessity of Dalmasca's securing an heir?" Gabranth replied carefully. "The Parliament is acting in the best interest of the Queen, and the kingdom."

Kilbourne glared across the table at Gabranth. Gabranth looked to Rjth for support, but she remained silent. Really, the woman exhibited no spousal loyalty at all; the trials of marrying a Viera. He cleared his throat. "I suppose we should be glad that our own emperor has no such obligations."

Rjth kept her voice steady and smooth as she proceeded on her next words. There was no other way to say it: "The Senate has informed me that they wish for Larsa to present himself as a suitor."

Larsa slammed his hands down on the table. "Me? But I'm seventeen!"

"Ashe was married when she was your age," Rjth observed.

The young emperor's eyes flashed dangerously. Gabranth sympathized with his Lord Emperor; Larsa had barely had a chance to experience childhood. To be obligated to also step up to the possibility of taking a wife at his age...

Gabranth turned to examine Kilbourne for a hint of emotion. The man's jaw remained set, his lips unmovable in expression. "Her majesty turns twenty-five in three months," Gabranth ventured.

"Not a lot of time," Kilbourne replied.

"She had five years to choose her partner without pressure," Rjth replied.

"If that's a hint, I'm not taking it," Larsa replied. "I adore Ashe, I do. But as a sister! If we were to marry..."

"The Senate cannot mandate that he present himself," Kilbourne observed.

Kilbourne was gripping his helmet so tightly that his knuckles were white. Gabranth turned to Rjth, who gave a small, near-imperceptible nod. "It's been a while since you've seen her," he argued to Larsa. "At least three years. Perhaps you might consider..."

"Absolutely not," Larsa replied.

"The Senate does not mandate that you marry her, but simply that you present yourself," Rjth supplied.

"And given the latest tension over the Oreliana Bill, perhaps you could placate them by making a visit, at the very least," Gabranth observed reasonably. "Kilbourne can go with you; having tied up his matters in Bhujerba entirely too efficiently, he is at a loss for things to do."

"I have plenty to do," Kilbourne replied.

"Come now, Kilbourne! You can brood around just as easily in Rabanastre as you can here, until you find something else to do," Gabranth observed.

The two Judge Magisters stared down. Larsa watched them carefully.

Kilbourne placed his helmet on the table and pulled a hand through his auburn hair, muttering to himself.

The beast of it was, the Senate had been quite annoyed with Larsa lately, and it hadn't been solely over the Oreliana bill. They called him willful; Larsa conceded that things were difficult, that he was more assertive in voicing his opinions.

There would be more difficult times ahead. And perhaps there was merit in making a gesture or two that the Senate would approve of. "What say you, Kilbourne?" Larsa asked.

Kilbourne looked down at his armor, straightening the cuffs of his silk shirt underneath. "I think that the opportunity to...reassess your relationship with Ashe, as well as placate the Senate, is too...reasonable to dismiss."

"Reasonable?"

"Yes," the man replied through gritted teeth.

"And will you accompany me to Rabanastre?"

Kilbourne looked up from his fastidious examination of his armor. "I am at your disposal, my liege."

"Well, then," Larsa replied. "I suppose it is settled. We will go for the ball, and stay only for the night."

Kilbourne nodded. "If I may be excused, your highness."

Larsa nodded.

Kilbourne pushed himself up from his seat and after pulling the helmet over his head, he turned to Gabranth. "Marriage has made you...annoying," Kilbourne muttered before turning to exit.