Amoro Revidi

Title: In Attendance - Freid [Part Twenty-Four]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Let's all pray to the gods that govern FF.net that the server goes back up so you guys can finish reading this. Here's 24, and I'm in the middle of 29, for kicks. Book one is so close to being done that I can taste it. I'm a little slow on finishing it because I need to find the right mood music to write the end of 29 and chapter 30 to, otherwise it'll probably be a little off. I think that until the end this is the shortest chapter. The next shortest is 7 pages, and after that we get into 8s and 9s and I think maybe a ten or two. Happy reading!

***

    Chid finds himself slightly reluctant to leave Asturia, when the time comes. He hasn’t been able to see his other aunt since she left for the convent in Thera, a city he can not recall ever having seen in person. He had received several drawings of the place, quick sketches Eries had made when she first arrived and sent him when he wrote to ask her about the Sisters in Tuloom Convent.

    Of all the people relating to Asturia, Chid is the only one to have bothered to keep touch with his long-absent aunt at any constant rate. Once the need of her as an advisor and confidant had lessened, Millerna rarely remembered her sister other than on holidays and the older young woman’s birthday. Chid wonders, as he has since noticing the almost needy tone of some of her letters to him, if Eries minded much being left out of things and ignored by her family.

    He had only caught a glimpse of her before he had boarded his own craft on the way back to Freid, as Celena, Dryden, and Exeter saw him off they also welcomed “home” the older princess. She wore a thick gray veil that Chid thought went very well with the watered silk gown she wore as she descended the Crusade on Allen Schezar’s arm in a stately manner. He also, very quietly, thought that there was something more to the normally proud look on the senior Knight Caeli’s face. A twinkle to his blue eyes normally absent, a certain smile about his features and bounce to his step.

    Chid could not recall, in that instant as the two of them passed with barely a nod, though they had been corresponding nearly since she departed Asturia, exactly why Eries had been skipped over for becoming queen. Surely, she could have found a suitable husband, if the need arose. And surely she bore the position of power well… Seeing the comfort between the princess and knight, he wondered momentarily if the reason she was skipped over was some family secret brought on by an association with Allen Schezar… but then, as he saw the easiness remain in the presence of Celena and Dryden, he dismissed the notion.

    Whatever affection Aunt Eries has for Allen, and he for her, is no reason she did not become queen, he decided.

    And then, after the briefest instant, she had glided down the landing area and was bundled into a carriage with Celena, Dryden, and Exeter, Allen mounting a horse and throwing a salute after Chid as he climbed into his own airship and headed back to Freid.

*

    It was a swift journey, Freid being directly to the south of Asturia, and nowhere near far enough away to usually warrant the use of an airship to travel between the two. But both countries’ security advisors had decided to take no chances with the young duke’s safety on his return to his country, so he and what he felt was a small army loaded into the airship and returned to the Duchy…

*

    He sighs pleasantly, taking in the air from the balcony of the castle that overlooks the garden. He finds that if he squints his eyes he can make out when a younger version of himself spied on Van and Hitomi from this same vantage point, and idly wonders what the two of them are up to, and if Van asked her what he said to Chid that he might, or if Hitomi was back on the Mystic Moon as was the then-current plans when he’d seen them last. In Asturia.

    His thoughts fly back to Asturia, momentarily, and over his family there. And Celena.

    And Allen.

    He blinks as an aide of his chief advisor comes and bows to him.

    “Speak,” Chid says, knowing better than to break custom with his people in his land, where so much stands upon ceremony and appearances. He is yet again glad there is no formal court in Freid other than the audience of the duke, which rarely lasts more than an hour or so a day, in untroubled times.

    “I was sent to remind you, my Duke,” the aide, whose name Chid finds he has misplaced, bows deeply, palms touching, “that your audience will be assembled at your leisure, and the time allotted for it today is three hours.”

    Chid nods, debating quickly between holding his office hours in the morning to ruin the reminiscent hours of daylight, or in the afternoon, when he is more often sleepier than in the morning, and so less sharp with his wits. “I will be in the throne room in half an hour.”

    The aide to the advisor remains in a bowed position, prompting Chid to speak more. “What other news do you have for me?”

    “A small delegation from the Bikathian Consortium is here to speak with you, my Duke, and begs a meeting before your audience with the people.”

    Chid narrows his blue eyes slightly, but holds his tongue, having recently seen the value of the people trained by the Consortium, which, until then he had spent little time meditating on. “Have them sent to me directly, I will meet them in the courtyard. And send Kiyo, I will practice with my sword.”

    “Yes, my Duke.” The bowing aide turns and heads off about the business his duke has bid him. Chid begins to descend the steps into the courtyard.

*

    Trailing alongside Jujiin, Fariah can’t help but stare wide eyed at the splendor and timeless age of the Freid palace grounds. The ornate stone carvings draw her eyes along their length and up, up to the tip-top of the pillars and baas-relief cuttings in the walls. “Don’t stare,” Jujiin says sternly, “you’ll have a lifetime to stare, for goodness sakes keep your wits about you now, Fariah, you have a job to do… a duty here.”

    But the red headed young woman can’t control her eyes from wandering from the floor in front of her, and barely hears the conversation Jujiin has with the Duke’s chief advisor, Umal. She does, however, sense that the advisor is less than thrilled they have arrived, and yet, she sniffs in his tone, he is also relieved to have someone else to blame if the Duke comes to harm.

    An aide steps out of the room, seeming to disappear into the carvings in a corner of the room, which has swept clean, cool stone floors she can feel through her boots, which have been made thin by walking in them from Egzardia to Asturia and then up into Freid. Her toes drum the floor in the toes of her boots as she waits, sensing Jujiin’s uneasiness.

    The matronly personage of her fellow traveler somehow belies Jujiin’s masculinity, though Fariah knows certainly that Jujiin is male. The tall, yet willowy figure reminds Fariah mostly of what she might imagine an elf as being, only with slightly different ears, and more slanted eyes. Jujiin had been her master of etiquette, which, as an outward bound Kathis, she was required to study for half her days for the past two years. Given the mounting crisis, and when Jujiin and Fariah walked out of the compound the only trouble was in Ispano, there was no one else available of the proper stature to negotiate the Duke of Freid into accepting protection.

    Fariah had shrugged complacently and accepted her most-time mentor as her last official escort. Besides, she figured, who better to convince this frumpy Duke of her necessity than the master of etiquette and negotiating himself?

    Her attention is brought back easily as the advisor bows slightly and motions for the two of them to follow the aide out of the room. “Duke Chid will await the two of you in the courtyard.”

*

    Her first words upon entering the courtyard, however, are not any sort of salutation to her assignment, or silence in awe of the carvings, but a highly undignified, “What does he think he’s doing with that sword?” as she watches Chid fumble through his practice session.

    Thrown off by the incredulous exclamation, Chid looses balance in his thrust and takes a jerky step forward before loosing proper grip on his sword and pitching forward to fall on his face in the dirt. Fariah steps over to lift the sword and offer her hand to him, and he glances up at her with a humorless expression. “I happen to be practicing my sword skills… who do you think you are?”

    “May I present your Kathis,” Jujiin interrupts what he can sense is an upcoming argument, “Duke Chid,” he pauses to glare at Fariah. “Fariah Draven.”

    “Duke Chid?” Fariah blinks, generally confused, and unable to believe that the young man, handsome in some way, that just bit the dirt before her worn boots, is the duke she has come to protect. Or that he is so horrible with a sword.

    “The very same,” Chid says, slightly cross with the idea that this young woman is to be his bodyguard. “I’m wondering if that makes any difference, or if you just lack manners completely,” Chid begins to chastise her, but even as he starts to speak she kneels and offers him a hand up.

    Freidan customs and formality are very strict, Fariah remembers Jujiin telling her. And on top of that, the Duke is half-Aston from his mother, Marlene. So no matter what, if you offend him, be sure to apologize.

    “My sincerest apologies, Duke Chid, I should have held my tongue.”

    Chid blinks.

    “It will not happen again, I assure you.”

    Chid turns his eyes on Jujiin, mind already made up. He looks at the aide standing next to the Kathis instructor and the aide steps forward, bowing with his hands pressed together, awaiting orders. “See Jujiin to a comfortable room. It’s time for my audience, and if I’m even going to bother with allowing Fariah to stay, she must accompany me there.”

    Neverminding that his Duke is still half-sprawled in the dirt, the aide bows deeper and turns to escort Jujiin off. Jujiin follows the aide, eyes straying back to see what passes between the Kathis and the Duke as he does so.

    Fariah stands and offers Chid a hand up. “I’m sorry that my outburst startled you, Duke Chid.”

    Chid, mentally begrudging the girl her first misstep, takes her hand and gets to his feet, silently surprised at the amount of steel behind her grip. His sword instructor bows as Chid resheathes the sword at his waist and adjusts his attire to proper neatness. “And I take it you could do better?”

    Fariah lowers her eyes to the ground and doesn’t speak.

    “Come now, could you?”

    “If I could not, Duke Chid, then I could not properly protect you, and would not have been assigned to do so.”

    “After lunch, I would like to see a demonstration,” Chid says, turning to head into the castle once more. Fariah falls easily into step behind him, stony silent after that request.

***

    In Egadia, Egzardia’s capital, the Fanelian party took the time to rest. It had taken them almost a week to get there, and the first news they heard downstairs in the tavern was that the Queen of Asturia had gone missing.

*

    Hitomi’s face goes pale as Van politely asks for the speaker to repeat the news, and as he says in clear, unaccented words, “The Queen Millerna of Asturia… she’s missing,” Hitomi suddenly feels faint, and puts a hand out to Van. He guides her quickly to a chair, and she sits down.

    “Hitomi?” Van asks, concerned, but to her, his voice is far away.

    No… why didn’t I trust what I thought I saw? she thinks to herself. If I had, maybe there could’ve been a way to stop whatever’s happened…

    The crowd in the tavern glances uneasily at Hitomi and Van, not so much because they recognize the Fanelian King, that was the first thing that happened when they arrived. It hadn’t been a problem in Aves, where the people knew less of the world than the capital, despite being a seaport town. Once in Egadia, however, the word spread fast throughout the streets that there was a group from Fanelia, containing the king, in the country. But instead the crowd peers curiously at Van and his guest because they do not recognize Hitomi’s face, and wonder why he is being so attentive to her.

    Once the news reached the palace, the newly returned Queen, having taken her daughters to her brother’s palace in Daedalus for his birthday instead of accompanying her husband to the festivities in Asturia, quickly started a plan in action to trap the Fanelian King. Her husband was still en route from Asturia, at that point, and hadn’t the chance to tell his wife of the futility of trying to marry off any of their daughters to a king whose heart was already bound elsewhere.

    A messenger steps into the tavern, causing several of the patrons to look up, but Van continues to try and coax some words from Hitomi instead, not noticing the approaching figure until a slight cough from behind him draws his attention.

    “A message,” the man, dressed in the royal uniform of Egzardia begins, offering a letter forward to Van, “from the Queen.”

Van narrows his eyes, about to snap at the man, but then just sighs, relinquishing one of his hands from their hold on Hitomi’s, and takes the letter. The messenger takes a step back, and Van barely keeps himself from scowling at the thought of being expected to read and respond to the letter immediately.

    He opens it and doesn’t bother to stop his frown.

Fanelia- it reads, if you had but told us you were coming to spend a little sojourn in our country, we might have been more ready to welcome you with open arms. Surely you won’t refuse a room in the palace for the duration of your stay with us in Egzardia. We await you for dinner this evening.

    To refuse, he thinks to himself, might start problems. Even though I know Queen Inah is trying to fix me up with one of her daughters, I can’t risk it right now, not with Millerna gone missing and whatever happened in Ispano on my mind.

    “Tell Queen Inah to expect us for dinner in two hours,” Van says, “all of us.”

    The messenger bows stiffly and turns on his heel, happy to do his mistress’ bidding, and return with such joyful news.

    Van turns to Khail, a noble that had come down from the rooms in the inn to the tavern with Hitomi and Van to see about dinner, and says, “You’d better inform everyone. Have our things packed and ready to go to the palace.”

    Khail nods and turns to go inform the four other Fanelian nobles of the impending unsettling situation. With a slight chuckle he glances back at his king and the lady Hitomi in the tavern. Whatever Inah’s planning, probably won’t work. King Van and the Lady Hitomi really deserve one another.

***

    Fariah finds the throne room just as fascinating as the rest of the palace, if not more so. She stands, at attention, just over Chid’s left shoulder, throughout the audience and listens half-intently to the things being brought to Chid’s attention. She feels tension building in her shoulders as she thinks ahead to the demonstration Chid asked her for.

    All too soon, it seems, the audience is over, and Chid rises, the assembly rising with him, and he steps out, Fariah following him, both Duke and Kathis with preoccupied looks on their faces.

    “So,” Fariah says in a quiet tone as the two of them enter a long silent hallway with only the sound of their footsteps echoing off the carved walls to keep the quiet from roaring at them.

    “I asked you for a demonstration, correct?” Chid responds, suddenly feeling very tired after hearing the state of affairs in his country since his departure nearly two months prior. “I won’t be the one to spar you, since your skills should be better than mine, would you prefer one of the guards or…”

    “Whoever you decide will be best, Duke Chid,” Fariah responds quietly, in an almost submissive tone that she hates herself for.

    Chid scowls and turns to her, “I don’t want to, all right! You make up your own mind!”

    Fariah blinks, face blank for a moment as the seething Duke glares at her hard. This isn’t anger at me, she recognizes instantly, he’s just had a long day… after all that he found out about this morning…

    “It will be you then, Duke Chid,” she says in an even voice, bringing her gray eyes up to stare straight into his own blue ones.

    Chid looks bewildered a moment. “I am not in the mood to…”

    Fariah steps back one step, knowing better than to let him go about angry, somehow. “It will be you, Chid,” she repeats, dropping the formal title.

    Grudgingly, Chid nods, “This way,” he responds, turning to lead her off to one of the outlying dojos.

*

    The noise of a spar brought Master Tean to the door of the dojo. What he was not prepared for, however was that the two people sparring should be the Duke himself and a young woman with coppery red hair tied back in a thick braid.

    As Tean watches, the Duke looses his weapon.

    “Again,” the young woman says, flipping it from the floor to her hand with the toe of her worn boots and tossing it back to the Duke.

    “You’ve proven yourself.”

    “You’re a lousy swordsman,” she replies. “Again.”

    Tean is about to move in to assist his Duke when Chid growls and lunges for the young woman again. Though nowhere near an expert swordsman, to all his tutors, Chid had at least been fair at sword combat, but the young wisp of a woman standing opposite him seems to simply disregard his attacks, blocking blow after blow without loosing much ground.

    Tean marvels at the young woman’s grace and skill, and then sees it, as she dislodges Chid’s weapon once again. Two things, actually, the first being a small tattoo on the inside of her left wrist, and the second that she is disarming him with a twist of her blade in his own style.

    “How do you keep doing that!” Chid growls, bent over double as he catches his breath.

    “I’ve been training in sword techniques since I was four. You should not expect to be at my skill level, Duke Chid.”

    “Call me Duke again and I’ll have you thrown out of the country.” Tean decides it is time to leave the Duke alone with his Kathis, since it is obvious, and Tean thanks the Great One, that the Duke will accept her. He turns and leaves as silently as he drifted by.

    “I have enough people bowing to me and calling me ‘my Duke’ or ‘Duke Chid’ or ‘Exalted One’ and if you’re going to stay I will not have you doing it too. My name,” he pauses, turning flaming blue eyes towards her, “is Chid zar Freid. I will expect you to call me Chid.”

    “As you wish,” Fariah replies, kneeling and offering him back his sword.