Amoro Revidi

Title: Habit [Part Ten]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Part 10, and these parts do keep getting longer... that might be good and it might be bad, I don't know yet. If anyone wonders why I'm horribly up-rating these as for the age level, it's because I've become a firm believer in free choice, so long as it's informed. I'd rather warn people of what might offend them before I do, if I do. Anywho... that's my two cents for right now.

 ***

    The meeting had gone well, in Peralis’ opinion. The king was just as determined that he and the Lady Hitomi make it to the anniversary celebration in Palas as he and the other advisors were. Piling up his scrolls and tucking them under his arm he heads towards the library, glancing out at the practice area as a spar goes on.

    He stops short as he sees a dark gray skirt rustle in the wind and hears a familiar voice call out, “Next!”

    “Lady Merle?” Peralis asks, stepping closer to the railing and peering over it to get a better view.

    In the center of the medium sized courtyard the ring of practicing soldiers stands, a few helping up their fallen comrade as he stumbles on his way out of the ring. Merle, sword standing upright in the ground behind her, has her the white sleeves of her gown rolled up, and the dark vest bodice buttoned all the way up to her neck, pink hair tied off in a quick braid with just a little perspiration dotting her brow, ice blue eyes alert and preoccupied.

    From the number of young men seated around the circle it is obvious to Peralis that she offered to spar them for their own instruction and to get a little practice for herself. Glancing around for more volunteers to spar, she nods in a gesture of finality and turns, pulling her sword from the dirt and kicking it against the back of her heel twice to rid it of the dirt collected from its stay in the ground before tucking it under her arm and rolling down her sleeves.

    Peralis puzzles over this behavior from the normally polite cat woman and hurries down the stairs to catch her on her way into the armory. “Lady Merle!”

    As he approaches, her entire body stiffens, tail latching around her leg comfortingly. “Chief Advisor Peralis,” she responds evenly.

    “I noticed the display just now,” he says as he catches up to her. “Might I inquire as to what is bothering you?”

    “What makes you think that something is bothering me?”

    “One does not normally best ten soldiers in a row without some extraneous motivation,” he replies, glancing over at her slightly before training his gaze forward.

    “Where’s Lord Van?” she asks, ignoring the implication in Peralis’ words.

    “I believe he is having lunch with Lady Hitomi,” he says slowly, “why?”

    “Good… that is as it should be,” Merle replies cryptically. She sets the sword back into place and turns to leave. She finds him standing right in front of her. “Anything else?” she snaps.

    “Ah, I…” he steps out of her way and she flicks her tail distastefully as she passes out of the armory quickly.

***

    Days passed in relatively the same routine. Hitomi woke, bathed, dressed, chatted with Merle, visited Tristan and Arik to see how they were recovering, and then she would have lunch with Van and spend the afternoon with him. It comforted her to have so much of a routine established.

    On her fifth day in Gaea, however, she is roused from bed early.

    “Lady Hitomi!” the maid says urgently, shaking her shoulder gently. “M’lady, it’s past time to wake up, we’ve got to do the last of the fittings before you have to go and visit the shrine this morning.”

    Sitting up, startled, she glances around wildly. “What?”

    The night before Van had come to the room late and asked that she come out on a walk with him. The two had gone all over the castle, talking quietly about things, and not. The walk tour took a long pause as they reached the stables and she stopped to check in on Crisslis, who, recognizing her recent rider, had showed the pair of them an obvious welcome.

    It had been a beautiful moment as the moonlight outside cast reflections in the small pools the late evening rain had made on the ground that made circles on the ceiling of the stall. He slipped his hand around her waist and pulled her up against him. Her palms rested against his chest and she looked up at him in confusion. “Hitomi, I…”

    Without hesitating, she had leaned up the few inches between them and kissed him, straight on the lips. After a short pause he responded in kind, other arm sliding around to hold her to him, bracing her waist gently and yet firmly.

    Recalling the evening and the reason for her tiredness, Hitomi blushes, climbing swiftly from her bed and washing quickly. A flurry of skirts and dresses, bodices and loose corsets as the seamstresses go to work.

    Stand up, walk, kneel, sit down. Hitomi repeats the sequence in her mind as she moves about the main chamber of her rooms. Glancing towards the window she yawns as she notes the sun only just about to rise. Van is this really what you do all day? she asks him in her mind, slightly dejected that a king would waste his time with servants fitting him for this or that and advisors asking about one thing or another while squabbling over his attire.

    “Lady Hitomi, Lady Merle said that it was all right to break for breakfast, if you’d like.” Hitomi looks down at the maidservant from atop the stool and looks puzzled. “His Highness would like you to join him for breakfast before you head out to the shrine.”

    “You keep mentioning…”

    “You really shouldn’t keep him waiting,” Merle says from the doorway where she leans against the frame and watches, arms folded across her chest.

    Hitomi glances at her friend and gives her a puzzling look as well.

    “I think it’s cute,” Merle says as the maidservants raise a screen for Hitomi to change behind and then exit the room. She pushes off the doorframe and comes to stand by the fire, kneeling and holding her hands in front of it. “The two of you are so timid around each other, and yet everyone else seems to already know that you’re made for each other.”

    “Merle,” Hitomi says in a quiet voice, pausing as she pulls the bodice of the dress over her head, “do you hound Van about me the way you hound me about him?”

    She pauses, a mischievous grin on her face, “Only when he needs it. Surprisingly,” Merle pauses to emphasize this point, “he’s seemed to have gotten his mind made up about how he feels about you.”

    “Oh?” Hitomi looks down, blushing, “and just… how is that?”

    “If you have to ask…” Merle’s tail swishes from side to side as though that act alone could warm the entire room of stone in the chill morning air.

    Hitomi throws her hands up in disgust and finishes with the skirt of the gown she is to wear to breakfast, feeling horribly overdressed just to eat the first meal of the day, and comes out from behind the screen.

    Merle turns to look at her and freezes, almost catching her tail on fire as she does so. Hitomi glares and then takes a step back. “I didn’t put it on backwards again, did I?”

    Quietly, the blue eyed cat woman shakes her head. “N-no… but if he didn’t know before, he’d know now.” After a short pause, Merle gets to her feet again and opens the door. “Come on, before he starts throwing a temper tantrum.”

    “Van, throw a tantrum?” Hitomi asks in mock-disbelief. “I’d never thought he was capable of it.”

***

    Slightly agitated at the slowness of the morning, and the hour, Van paces, mind preoccupied. Tristan enters the small dining room, as a guest of Van’s he had been asked to attend breakfast the last day before the king’s departure. Just behind him Arik shuffles in, bandages fresh and still only dressed in a light robe, with a blanket drawn around her to stave off the early morning chill.

    “Good morning, Your Majesty,” Tristan says, bowing quite deeply.

    Arik mimics the movement, shallower because of her injuries, but the intent still the same. Behind the two of them Merle and Hitomi enter.

    “Good morning,” he says warmly as they all take their places at the table. His advisors and the resident lords enter after Van’s special guests and take seats at the surrounding tables.

    “Van, what is this about visiting the shrine?” Hitomi asks, puzzled.

    “It has become customary that I visit the shrine before I leave the country, to ask for Escaflowne’s protection during the trip away from Fanelia, that he may watch over the country and protect the people in my absence.” Van begins to eat his eggs and glances at the other people seated at the table, “I will be asking for more than just the citizens this time, but also for Tristan and Arik.”

    The two in question bow their heads slightly in thanks for the extended protection of Fanelia and its king. Merle eats quietly, looking at her plate.

    “We’ll also be wishing Merle a safe journey,” Van adds quietly.

    “Merle? Aren’t you coming with us?”

    The cat woman shakes her head and says quietly, “Circumstances do not permit me to accompany the two of you this time, Hitomi,” she says in a low voice. “I’ve… a prior engagement that I must uphold.”

    “What could be more important than accompanying the two of us?” Hitomi asks, somewhat repetitively, having had the same discussion with Merle several times since her arrival.

    “Sometimes,” Arik speaks up for the first time since the conversation began, “it is necessary to separate oneself from responsibility… in order to better serve the purpose of that which is most important to you.”

    Tristan glances over at her in some alarm. “Arik…?”

    She does not comment further, but looks directly at Merle, in understanding.

    “Regardless, I cannot shirk this engagement, Hitomi,” Merle says in the same low voice, “I would have had to leave the castle for the next week even if you hadn’t arrived back in Gaea. It has been… very nice to see you again.”

    Van, sitting back somewhat in his chair, gently brushes Hitomi’s ankle with the toe of his boot. She turns to look at him and he shakes his head slightly. It is hard enough for Merle to leave, I don’t think Hitomi would understand, but she’s only hurting Merle that much more by asking all these questions.

    “Well I’ll see you again before I head back,” Hitomi says with a small smile. What is going on here? She asks herself in her mind, And why is Van asking me to let it go? He’d better have a good reason for this.

    The meal continues in relative silence after that and then they all break up to go their separate ways, so to speak. Van offers Hitomi his arm and heads towards the shrine with her in tow, Merle goes off to prepare for her journey, and Tristan and Arik head off about their own business - Arik to a bed and Tristan to have his bandages changed.

***

    In the shrine there are several of what appear to be priests gathered before the kneeling Escaflowne. Hitomi’s heart swells a little as she sees the mighty guymelef standing in the clearing near the graves, remembering her parting words to Van in the same area years before.

    I’ll never forget you, Van, not even when I’m old!

    He had smiled rather sadly and waved as she lifted up into the sky, towards home, her family, and towards the Earth.

    Glancing up at it in the sky for a moment she feels no such ties pulling her back. For a long, sad moment, she recalls the accident and the last moments of her consciousness before the incredible pain and then waking up, unable to move, in the sterile hospital room.

    Van, glancing down to see her pale face, covers the hand on his arm with his own and squeezes gently, reminding her of her present environment. The memory vanishes quickly, slipping away like early morning mist under the force of the sun and she glances up at him. “You were somewhere else, just now…” Van comments with a caring smile, “but I don’t think anyone else noticed.”

    Slowly, he releases her hand and she lets go of his arm. He takes a step forward and then looks at the assemblage before kneeling. Those gathered kneel with him.

    “Oh Escaflowne, mighty protector of the Land of Dragons, I bid you protect this great nation while I, Van Slanzar de Fanel, the King of Fanelia, am away.”

    The priests rise and recite, “We bless the will of you, Lord King, and pray for your safe travels from our rocky borders…”

    Hitomi focuses elsewhere as the ceremony continues and the priests grant their blessing for Van’s time of absence from his country. How annoying it must be to have to go through all this just to leave the country. I mean, every time he wants to step outside the castle, it seems, he’s got to ask permission. Not that they would really stop him, but if they had a problem with it, I bet he wouldn’t go.

    “And to the Lady Hitomi, we thank you for your time here in Fanelia and pray that your time spent in Asturia can be as beneficial for you and His Highness, Lord King Van, as it was for the people of Fanelia.”

    She bows her head and stares down at the sight of the gown spreading around her on the ground. It seems so odd to be staring at this ground again… I wonder if it is the same spot where Van was standing when we said our goodbyes the last time.

    “Rise, Lord King, Lady Hitomi, and know that as you depart tomorrow, the well wishes of Fanelia go with you, and the blessing of Escaflowne as well.”

    Van turns and offers her his hand. She smiles and bows her head again for a moment before taking his hand and rising to her feet. She had argued with Van about the necessity of her attending the ceremony in the first place, but he had explained that he would be forced to go with or without her, and the council might see that she disapproved of honoring Escaflowne and Fanelia by missing it.

    “We now go to make peace with those that have departed,” Van announces as the assembly stands as well, then he tucks Hitomi’s hand into his elbow and moves towards the far end of the clearing, intending to enter the woods and seek out the burial chamber of his family and ancestors.

***

    “You said some interesting things at breakfast,” Merle says in a quiet voice, leaning against the thick pillar near the windows of Arik’s room.

    The bodyguard reclines in her bed, hair fanned out on the pillow around her, and she nods slowly, eyes closed. “I understand the situation you come from, I intended only to support your actions.”

    “How can you possibly…” Merle begins, venom in her words.

    “That dagger you carry is enough to cause me to support you,” Arik comments, “and no doubt you have seen the sword I carry, so then you must know that we were both trained in the same ways.”

    “I do not know what you are talking about,” Merle responds evenly. “I know only that the sword you carry has not been in assembly for nearly a hundred years.”

    “Then you must know whether or not it is authentic to the Kathis production,” Arik says. With a hiss and the whistle of her dagger through the air, Merle comes to stop just over the dark haired young woman’s jugular. “I, too, was forced into their service,” she says in a voice barely above a whisper, “it is how I was assigned to guard Tristan, it is why I have been at his side, protecting him to the best of my ability, for almost ten years.”

    “You speak as though you care about your assignment,” Merle says with an angry snort. “You are no better than they are, if you think of him as such.”

    “Lady Merle, slitting my throat will endanger your king in the eyes of the Kathis. We are not supposed to take one another out are we?” Merle retracts the dagger, a glare in her blue eyes that sparkle in the morning sunshine coming in the large windows. “And no, Tristan is not just my assignment, I was only fourteen when I was sent to guard him, so you might as well just say that we’ve grown up together over the last ten years.”

    Merle, taken aback at that thought, takes a step backwards from the woman lying prone. A single gray eye opens and glances at her. “Yes, I was that young when it all happened to me. I take it your case was somewhat similar?”

    With a flick of her tail in annoyance, Merle turns and moves towards the door.

    “I failed him once too, you know,” Arik responds. “I wasn’t strong enough… and his mother was killed because of it,” she closes her eye again, letting her body take over and drift off into a dreamless sleep.

    Merle stiffens momentarily before heading out into the hall and closing the door behind herself. The final words trail after her, I failed him once too, you know… I wasn’t strong enough…

    She looks down and away from the center of the hall before taking a quick, powerful step forward and moving off down towards her own chambers to finish her preparations, the soft morning light agitating her mood even more.

***

    Tristan sits with the advisors and discusses the situation in Ispano, mind wandering. I wish I could have gone to see the shrine to this Escaflowne they all praise so highly. I was still too young during the Great War to see it in action, but I know that it and King Van were instrumental in ending the war.

    He is handed a book to look through on armor and weapon types and he nods, somewhat disinterestedly. As was Lady Hitomi. I wish mother could have lived to meet her, she would have been her fast friend, I think.

***

    Chid climbs down from the Crusade and looks about for his aunt, who smiles and straightens to see him descending the gangplank. Behind him, Allen walks with quiet intensity, stepping forward first to kneel to the king and queen and then rising to embrace his sister, Celena.

    “Chid, how wonderful to see you again, how you’ve grown!” Millerna says, smiling at her nephew, who is picking up Exeter and saying his hellos to the young crown prince.

    “It’s a treat seeing you too, Aunt Millerna,” he replies with a smile. “Uncle Dryden,” he makes a formal bow to the King of Asturia, who smiles and ruffles the young Duke’s hair. “Am I the first to arrive?”

    Millerna chuckles, taking Dryden’s offered arm and allowing one of her ladies in waiting to pick up Exeter and carry him along behind them, “Not nearly, but the first of any real note.”

    “Ah… I’d heard that King Van would be attending, is that the truth?” his voice retains the childish aspect of awe at the ‘Dragon King’ of Fanelia’s mention.

    “Yes, it is indeed,” Millerna replies, “and Hitomi will be back,” she adds with some indifference.

    “Hitomi? You’re kidding!” Chid exclaims happily, “I never thought I’d see her again, I wonder what’s changed?”

    Dryden says in a mumble, “Perhaps Fanelia’s disposition towards his heart,” and Millerna, who had been close enough to hear his remark, turns to regard him querulously. “Nothing,” he replies with a smile, waiting as the doors to the carriage are opened by Allen Schezar himself.

    Celena waits until the others are situated to ascend into the coach with her brother’s assistance before he climbs to sit behind the reigns of the carriage with its driver.

    “Ah, Celena,” Chid says with a smile, “I trust you’ve been doing well? I haven’t seen much of you, despite Allen speaking about you.”

    “Quite well, Duke Chid,” she replies, looking down at her hands folded in her lap.

    “Are we such strangers?” Chid says, “You are Allen Schezar’s sister, and he is much a friend of Freid, please, Celena, call me Chid.”

    “Yes, Chid,” Celena says, feeling a bit uncomfortable so close to her own nephew. Still without knowledge of their relation, the young Duke of Freid leans his head on his hand and glances out the window of the carriage at the passing scenery, much pleased with her acquiescence.

    Millerna frowns slightly, but says nothing.

***

    After a long ceremony, Hitomi finds herself quite tired as she and Van make their way to the graves of the royal family. She slows down slightly and he looks at her in worry. “Hitomi?”

    “I’m just a little tired, is all, Van,” she replies to his gentle query.

    “I shouldn’t have kept you up so late last night,” he says in a glum voice. “I apologize.”

    “No,” she says in response, “please… don’t…”

    He pauses his stride completely. “Don’t what?”

    For a moment uncertainty flares in her, and then she looks up at him and says, “Don’t be sorry for what happened between us, Van… please… tell me… the truth. I need to know if… if you didn’t want it to happen…”

    Van regards her through crimson eyes clouded with confusion. “Didn’t want it to happen?” she starts to pull away, assuming that is his answer, but he puts a hand over hers on his arm to stop her. “Hitomi, I… I’ve wanted it to happen ever since… I can’t even remember.”

    She pauses, shocked to hear such words from his lips, and looks at him, somewhat wide eyed. There is a long moment of silence as his words sink into both of them, and then he gestures forward.

    She nods and the two of them continue towards the crypt.