Amoro Revidi

Title: Passing Time [Part Twelve]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Part 12... shorter and yet... well, you'll see.

***

    The flight overland to the seaside Palas was an easy one on the passengers’ bodies and their eyes. Hitomi took the time to stare out at Van’s country as it passed by them, but eventually they rose into the clouds too high for her to see it properly, so she got up and headed to the viewing deck.

    Allen leans against the wall with a young woman seated next to him, smiling contentedly as Hitomi enters, and Allen smiles at her and waves her over.

    “Hitomi Kanzaki, I’d like you to meet my sister, Celena Schezar,” he says formally, extending the girls’ hands towards one another as he says their names in turn. Hitomi smiles and shakes Celena’s hand, but the platinum haired young woman seems reticent to touch her.

    “Come now Celena, Hitomi won’t hurt you,” Allen says tightly, somewhat aggravated by her reluctance at meeting new people.

    “It’s all right, Allen,” Hitomi says smiling and going over to stand at the prow of the ship. Leaning forward against the railing she doesn’t notice as Van comes in, nodding his greetings to Allen and kneeling to kiss Celena’s hand before turning and heading towards Hitomi.

    Placing his hands slightly behind hers on the rail, he leans up and whispers a quiet, “Hello,” into her ear.

    She jumps and turns, back pressed against the veins of the glass as he smiles and moves back. “You seem pretty out of it, Hitomi, are you all right?” Van asks, leaning forward to whisper it into her ear.

    Pushing against his chest with her palms she stares at his neck and then as the ship lurches a bit she leans up against him. Behind them, Allen smiles knowingly as Van’s arms wrap around her protectively. He feels Celena grab onto his arm as the deck lurches again.

    “We’re experiencing some turbulence, Captain,” Gaddes informs Allen.

    “Any way to avoid it?” he asks his first mate.

    “Only to try and go above it… or touch down and wait it out, sir,” he replies, glancing at the two in the prow of the boat as though only then connecting the two with the way they had looked during the Great War. “It sure took them long enough,” Gaddes mutters before catching himself and asking, “Orders, Captain?”

    “Try going above it. Celena, would you like to return to your quarters to wait it out?” She nods and clutches his arm tightly. “Hey, you two,” Allen calls to Van and Hitomi.

    Breathless and blushing, Hitomi presses her face against Van’s chest, into the folds of his shirt. Van glances back at Allen over her head, “What?”

    “We’re going to be climbing and I’m certain it’d be safer below decks in the quarters, are you coming?” He looks much more content to stay there holding her, it seems to me, Allen thinks to himself.

    Van glances down at Hitomi and she nods, pushing him away gently and moving to follow Allen as he waits by the door with Celena. Van sighs and follows her, but as the next lurch of the ship from turbulence he finds himself running right up against to her and the two of them careening into the wall on the other side of the hallway, at the last minute Van bringing his arms up to brace his body from slamming Hitomi any harder into the wall.

    Wind knocked from her, Hitomi puts her hands on his arms as she glances over at Allen and Celena, in a similar position only with Allen’s back pressed against the wall and Celena against his chest.

    “Let me help you?” Van asks, staring intently into her eyes, “I’d really rather not have the two of us break each other’s bones and I think there’s less of a chance of that if we help each other.”

    Chivalry be damned, that hurt. “Sure,” Hitomi replies.

***

    Sitting with the other young women of note, Kira feels slightly bored at her prospects. She can recall her father’s words to her before they set out, Kira, for once in your life try to attract a man, not repulse him. The King of Fanelia will be there, try to make a good impression.

    She sighs, glancing out the window over the port city. And I suppose it doesn’t matter what I think or feel about this King you’ve set your sights on for me, does it, Father? What I wouldn’t give to be less than the King of Basram’s daughter.

    “Princess?” a polite voice asks.

    “Duke Chid?” she asks, somewhat bewildered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention, Your Majesty, I…”

    Chid smiles and chuckles. “I was sent by my aunt, Queen Millerna, to tell you that your father requires your presence in his drawing room,” he says, bowing his head and motioning her towards the door.

    Around her the other noble women glance her way as she stands easily, accompanying the eleven year old Duke of Freid out of the large drawing room. The Queen herself had taken her leave much earlier, having to check on the preparations for the evening meal and the arrival of the Fanelian King.

    Kira watches her feet as the two of them pass through the corridors to her father’s study and Chid coughs to get her attention. She turns to regard the unusually tall eleven year old and he smiles. “There’s nothing to be worried about, Aunt Millerna didn’t seem displeased that he wanted to talk to you.”

    Kira smiles somewhat patronizingly at the young Duke, “I am afraid it is never anything not to worry about where my father is concerned, Duke Chid.”

    Chid pauses for a moment, looking at the raven haired princess calculatingly before shrugging and continuing forward.

***

    It hadn’t taken long for her to slip away from Tristan’s watchful gaze and make her way down to the practice grounds. They were a bit open for her tastes, but as Merle had informed her, there really wasn’t any other suitable space she could get to. With a frown Arik recalls the blunt nature of the cat woman prior to her departure that same morning. The King and Lady Hitomi had left the prior midday with a small entourage and the palace guard to escort them to their meeting with the Crusade.

    And what I wouldn’t give to have an airship to get me out of here as well. If only I could get Tristan somewhere he wouldn’t be reminded of Ispano so much.

    With a sigh she leans against one of the hall tables momentarily, catching her breath from the long walk and glancing back towards her room.

    I am stronger than this, I am not going back until I’ve at least found my sword.

***

    Tristan returns to the room with a small tray given to him by the kitchen staff, only to find the room empty without a trace of Arik. He frowns and sets the tray down on the table before turning and leaving the room to look for her.

***

    At the armory there is the small problem of the guards posted outside.

    “Miss Dulchap, what are you doing here?” the guard on duty asks her. She recognizes him as the one posted outside the room she had been placed in when she was first recovering and being attended by the castle staff.

    “Lieutenant Traz,” she greets him evenly.

    “Ma’am,” he salutes in response, glancing at her uneasily.

    “I’ve come to retrieve my sword,” Arik takes a step towards the door.

***

    “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Van says with a smirk.

    “Hmm?” Hitomi asks, holding the playing card over the pile.

    “No, it’s against the rules.”

    How did I get roped into playing cards in the middle of the ship? Hitomi asks herself, replacing the card in her hand and turning to Allen to ask, “What can I play then?”

    Without much deliberation of her hand Allen selects a card and lays it down on top of the pile. Van blinks and looks at the cards, “Well you won that hand…” he says slowly. Across from Hitomi, Celena glances at her hand and then at the pile of cards.

    “She did,” the younger Schezar sibling says, voice conveying her lack of surprise at that statement.

    Hitomi smiles and shrugs, indicating that most of the winning was done by Allen and not herself. Van smiles at her contentedly and she blushes, looking away from Celena’s gaze as well as his.

***

    Dusting off her hands and tucking her sword into her belt, Arik turns from the fallen Lieutenant and his subordinate. “I’m sorry I had to rough you up but you weren’t given any orders I was aware of to keep my sword from me, I have a responsibility to protect someone, and frankly… I wasn’t told I was disallowed from having my weapon, so really, I apologize for the show of violence, but it really was your fault.”

    Turning and heading towards the stairwell, Arik’s gaze locks with Tristan’s as he stands glaring at her. “How badly did you hurt them?” he snaps.

    “I didn’t hurt them, I just knocked the wind out of them, your High Priesthood,” she bows mockingly at him. “They had my sword,” she says simply, folding her arms across her chest.

    “You’re too in love with that damn thing,” Tristan mutters, unable to maintain the steel cold gray gaze of his bodyguard.

    Arik nods, satisfied, and moves towards the staircase, walking past him and saying, “Do you have something else for me to love?” with a slight challenge in her tone. “Because last I checked this sword is the one thing that’s never disappointed either of us.”

    Tristan starts to speak, but she moves back up the stairs. He sighs and shakes his head. Peralis comes up to him, having watched the exchange between the Ispanian High Priest and his bodyguard, and says, “It is all right, Your Holiness,” he says, “those guards were under no orders to keep Miss Dulchap from her sword, and she has every right to it, considering what new developments have come in the past few hours.”

    “New developments?” Tristan asks, hoping to keep the strain of the day from his voice as he asks the Chief Advisor about the news he appears to want to share.

    “The Crusade was attacked at the rendezvous point where His Majesty and the Lady Hitomi were to meet up with the Knight Caeli, Sir Allen Schezar.”

    “My lord Peralis,” Tristan says, uneasy, “are you sure you should be telling me these things? I am, after all, not to be fully trusted due to the nature of… my arrival here.”

    “Ah, do not worry about it, Your Holiness, I tell you only what I am sure you would eventually find out, as His Majesty’s guest, and a friend of Fanelia. I actually wanted to ask you a favor, if it would not be too much trouble.”

    “Ask away,” Tristan responds, following the Chief Advisor into the sunlit courtyard. “I am at your disposal.”

    “I would like to ask your help in interrogating the prisoners taken at that battle, if I may.”

***

    Jasper had been stationary all day.

    It was either go along to the Lords’ Meeting or sit through tea with the assembled ladies of court. He almost, as he sits listening to Dryden being questioned on the restoration of the outer provinces, wishes that he had taken up Queen Millerna’s offer to join the young women, as so many of his compatriots had. Something about being younger and of lesser status than the kings meeting with Dryden made the entire situation utterly boring to him.

    Not that he enjoyed tea and casual flirtation much better.

    As he contemplates the current map under discussion the doors open and the young Duke of Freid enters, escorted by one of said assembled ladies. He glances her over and tries to put a name with the face framed by raven hair.

    That should be… hmm… for a moment the name eludes him until she bows deeply to the group and then something in the back of his mind triggers the memory. Princess Kira, the middle Basram daughter. She’ll likely be looking for a husband at this gathering, I wonder if her father has told her to go after Fanelia’s king or if he’s looking for something a little less ambitious.

    “Ah, Kira, there you are,” Xachary, the King of Basram says, graciously extending his arms to embrace his daughter.

    I think her older sister is already married to… oh it must be Greeg from Egzardia. The older king embraces his daughter, who then curtsies to him. Even he didn’t come to this meeting, and he’s up to receive his throne in a few months.

    “You called for me, Father?” she asks in a pleasant voice.

    Dryden glances up from the maps they were all contemplating and a slight frown stretches across his handsome features. “Xachary, did you mean to interrupt the discussion so thoroughly?” he asks in a somewhat vexed tone.

    Chid walks to his uncle’s side and coughs politely, when the King of Asturia leans down he whispers, “Be kind, uncle, she’s already nervous about being called into the room.”

    “Pardon the two of us a moment, King Dryden, I’ve got a few things I need to discuss with my daughter,” he draws her to the side of the room.

    Jasper’s brown eyes follow the two of them as they move across the room and he notices that he is not the only person whose head is turned by the daughter of Basram. He smiles to himself. At least she is not as unknown as some here, now… despite vexing King Dryden a bit.

    Chid, after bowing to the others, leaves the room and Kira with her father, Dryden having asked him to check with Millerna about the evening’s preparations. Jasper frowns, looking around for anyone else to escort Kira back to the drawing room.

    All the other princes had opted to go there instead of coming to the strategy consultation, leaving only himself and Chid even in semi-attendance.

    “I understand, Father,” Kira says, curtsying again to her father.

    “Then you may go, Kira,” Xachary says evenly, dismissing her with a gesture.

    She looks around for Chid and, finding him absent, she fidgets a little unsurely. Jasper glances at the other monarchs and finds that none of them are prepared to help her out of the predicament that she is in. No young noble woman would traverse the castle by herself during festivities, under normal circumstances, and yet none of the monarchs appear to want to leave the meeting.

    “If I might be so presumptuous,” Jasper speaks up, deciding to come to the rescue, “I hate to admit my lack of interest in the subject matter, but I would be honored to escort Princess Kira back to the drawing room.”

    She glances at him evenly and Dryden waves the two of them off. Jasper crosses to her side and bows formally at the waist, then offering her his arm, which she takes, still somewhat unsure about that amount of kindness from one of her father’s apparent consorts.

    As the door shuts behind him, Dryden stares at the place where the two of them just were and arcs a single brow. A most unusual character, Prince Jasper…

    In the hall, Jasper sighs and begins to walk forward.

    “You didn’t have to do that, you know,” Kira says in the same pleasant and melodious voice.

    “It is the duty of every prince to see that princesses meet no harm, and meet no distress. Obviously none of the monarchs themselves were going to come to your aide, so someone had to.”

    “But you didn’t have to,” she responds, a smile beginning to form on her lips.

    “I could do no less than Duke Chid would have, were he still in the room,” Jasper replies. “I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced, Princess, I am Prince…”

    “Jasper Orthius, of Cesario,” she smiles and bows her head, “I know who you are.”

    “Ah, then it was only I who had not met you before. Or have I?” he asks with a wink as they move on down the corridor.