Amoro Revidi

Title: Belated Homecoming [Part Twenty-Six]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Ok, so I guess I really lied. This chapter is only 6 pages too. Plus, I obviously didn't get all these up before I had to leave California to come home. I'm just hoping you guys haven't turned your backs on reviewing because of the big FF.net difficulties recently... if that function is even working at the moment. If not, obviously don't worry about it, if so... um... Review?

***

    It had taken three days to get out of Egardia, Van, both unwilling to stay and unwilling to cause an incident between his country and Egzardia, could not refuse the shortest period of hospitality from Inah. Hitomi, he noticed, lost her easy smile in the Egzardian palace, where there were four eligible princesses pandering to Van’s attention. He also, a little proudly, saw that she did not fight with the other women for his attention, but accepted it graciously when he ignored the fawning royal daughters in favor of her own slightly cooler approach to him.

    On better horses, leant freely by the Queen, the Fanelian party sets out for home a few days before the King returns from Asturia. In less than a week the Fanelian King can taste the mountain air of his own country from time to time on the breeze, and in two weeks they reach the outlying borders of Fanelia, dropping off Khail and one of the Dukes at their own provinces, and picking up a mounted escort that carries word from Peralis and Merle in the castle.

*

    Seated at the fire in a comfortable inn across from him, Hitomi listens as Van reviews what the letters told him about the near month since they departed.

    “Arik and Tristan departed, in some hurry, it seems,” he says with a preoccupied slant to his mouth. “Tristan, apparently, had to go and see about something regarding his country’s welfare that required his immediate attention. There’s a formal apology and goodbye letter awaiting me at the castle, and a separate one for you from Arik, it seems.”

    “How do you come by that bit of knowledge?” Hitomi asks, leaning back in her chair, glad to be alone with Van again after so long in the spotlight in Asturia, and then the trials of Egzardia.

    “Merle sent that bit. She also said you’ll be glad to know that more of the clothes that were patterned out for you are finished. That is… if you’ll be staying long enough to use them.” Van glances up at her for a moment, crimson eyes curious over the pages of Merle’s letter. What he does not tell Hitomi is that Merle also scolds him for not, and somehow she had figured out or simply known he wouldn’t have spoken up on it, breaking with Hitomi on what he had wanted to since she’d left Gaea six years ago.

    “I think I will,” she replies, eyes half-lidded as she stares into the fire. “I like Gaea, I always have… and it seems like coming back to Fanelia castle is like coming home.”

    “What about Earth?” Van asks quietly, setting the letters in a pile on his lap.

    “I… hardly ever think about Earth anymore, Van. There really isn’t anything left for me there.”

    “What about that girl… your ‘best friend’?” he tilts his head slightly as he sees that her expression sours almost instantly at the mention of the girl-woman, Yukari.

    “Yukari and I… hadn’t spoken in a long time before I saw her outside the hospital, Van. After I went back to Earth last time… she and Amano were going out.”

    “You liked him too, didn’t you?” Van asks, curious.

    “Yes… and no.” Hitomi blushes, “By the time I got back… I didn’t care about him in the same way anymore. I was… otherwise preoccupied. And I was glad that Yukari was happy… but she…”

    A knock on the door interrupts Hitomi’s sentence. Van smiles apologetically at her and calls, “Come in.”

    “More letters, sire,” the guard says, stepping aside to let in a messenger.

*

    Eventually Van decides that it’s easier to just get back to the castle than to take their time and leisurely peruse the scenery of Fanelia, since anywhere they go the messengers come with more questioning letters from Peralis and his other advisors.

    It is as they are riding up the final hill to see into the valley where the castle and its city can be seen that Van pauses, glancing over at Hitomi. Stopping to rest her own mount, Hitomi turns to Van, and he asks, “So are you really glad to be back in Fanelia?”

    “Very much,” Hitomi replies with a contented smile.

    Van nods to himself and starts down the hill slowly, enjoying the brisk feeling of the breeze traveling up the valley past them, and then he turns to her quickly, bringing his horse over towards hers. “It’ll… be sad, when you go back.”

    Hitomi blinks. “But Van-”

    “The castle… will feel very empty.”

    Hitomi looks away slightly, recalling Van’s earlier offer of a place in Fanelia for as long as she might like, but somehow she couldn’t accept his offer of Fanelian citizenship and unending hospitality from the king she’d grown to love.

    She also cannot bear to think of what denying Van’s request that she remain would mean. He had been honest with her from the moment he confessed his feelings, showing that he had grown, at least, more practical since the Great War. She can remember his exact words in the chill Palas courtyard.

*

    “Yes, Hitomi, I do… I love you.”

    She was slightly shocked.

    “It’s something I need you to know. No matter what else happens, or where you go, I love you.”

    The silence that hung in the air grew thick, and she felt the air would break with the weight of sustaining it, so she spoke. “There’s something else.”

    “Yes. I- Hitomi, you have full possession of my heart, but I will always have a duty to Fanelia, one that I must honor. My people need a king, and stability in the royal house. I have no heir.”

    She hushed him quietly, and he took her in his arms, a tender hug that made something inside her breast burn. How could he love so many people so much…? She couldn’t quite understand.

    “You’re welcome to stay in Fanelia as long as you like, my love… but I… it hurts but I can’t assure you I won’t have to marry…”

*

    It hurts her to think of that happening, more than anything in the world. That some day he might not be hers, but it would have hurt more coming from someone else, as she’s sure it would have sooner or later. At least, she figures, this way I can prepare myself, and know the weight behind my choices.

    “It’s not fair,” she replies sullenly, to herself. “First I loose my family, now I’m going to loose you.”

    Van gives her a confused and helpless look, resolved, at last, to take the advice of Merle and his heart, two things which had yet to let him down, and speaks up after a moment. “Hitomi, if I had a choice-”

    “I know you don’t!” Hitomi exclaims, tilting her chin up to stare at the sky as a few unhindered tears trickle down her cheeks. Urging her horse forward into a slow walk.

    Van grunts and leans over, grabbing the reins of her horse in one gloved hand and pulling her mount up short, and his own horse close to hers. “If I had a choice-”

    “Please, Van!”

    “Would you let me finish?” Van snaps, slightly agitated.

    Hitomi turns to look at him, smoky jade green eyes just beginning to get red-rimmed from her crying.

    “Thank you,” Van replies, taking off his glove and reaching up to brush her tears from her cheeks tenderly. “Now, if I had a choice, I’d ask this at a more appropriate time, and place… and I’d have a-” he glances back to see the distance of the rest of their party. “But I don’t, so I suppose I’ll just say it.”

    Hitomi squeezes her eyes shut, prepared to let go of her heart to the words that she thinks will surely rip it from her breast.

    “Will you marry me, Hitomi Kanzaki?”

***

    Norte seems, to Sotet, a barren country, filled with rock, mountains, and dirt, as though the entire country were populated by people similar to mountain goats, and the sparseness of the landscape confuses him, until he gets to the capital city.

    Unlike Zaibach, where the country was settled and then became a large city that sprawled out and was connected by transit systems after Isaac, or as he was later known, Dornkirk, brought the country to the forefront of technology by Gaean standards, Norte simply was unpopulated where the land did not permit itself to carry the burden of life. The capital city was situated in a valley that was kept as green as possible, the housing built into the sides of the rocky cliffs that, on first glance, appear to be very primitive.

    Sotet has to remind himself of his father’s country’s livelihood being in mining. Norte’s mines supply most of Gaea with the ores and metals they work with, including the reclusive Ispano, maker of the most advanced Guymelefs. As he rides down the valley on the main road, he feels as though every window in every house on the sides of the valley has some citizen staring out the window at him, and feels, suddenly, very young as he dismounts and leads his horse up to the palace gates.

    “State your name and purpose,” a bossy-sounding guard says to the young man.

    “Sotet Morkeb Tovenaar. I’m here to see my father.”

    The guard looks at Sotet and then laughs. “You’re the king’s son by that Kathis wench? You don’t look a thing like what I expected… you’re tall, and strong.”

    Sotet narrows his eyes, “I would not say such things about my mother if I were you, sir,” he tightens his hold on the reigns of his horse and stands rigid. “May I pass into the castle?”

    “Please do, your highness,” the guard says, sweeping into a low, respectable bow.

    Sotet blinks and freezes, looking at the guard in confusion.

    “As the son of the king, my liege, you are, naturally, a prince, even though uncrowned. I am certain his royal highness will see to it that you are properly crowned soon enough.”

    Sotet nods and steps past, hearing the echoing of the clang as the large gates close behind him and wondering, concentrating on the idea with all his might, on whether or not he wants to be a crown prince or not.

*

    Elsewhere, deep below the castle in a cavern that was once a vein of silver ore, Millerna stirs, again, to darkness, and wraps her arms around herself tightly, the thin slip she wears little help against the damp chill of the area.

    A match is struck and again she shies away from the light of the small lantern, afraid to glance around her surroundings. The last time she had, it had nearly scared her to death, coming face to snout with what her imagination conjured up as a slumbering dragon-runt. In reality, it had only been an adult cave-lizard, but to Millerna, there was little difference. She had never seen a dragon before in her entire life, though she’d heard of them from Fanelian stories, and from Van. Folken had once spoken to her of them, but she tried her best not to think about him, because it brought back sad memories, and she needed nothing but hope if she was going to get out of the cavern and back home.

    Well, hope, and her wits about her.

    Again a tray of food is placed before her, by the same hooded figure that seems to be of a familiar build. Quickly, as though about to be starved, Millerna moves forward and collects the tray, moving back into her little niche in the wall with it, and cradles it on her lap like her long-distant Exeter. The warmth of the food comforts her chilled body, and she finds she can ignore the thinness of the shift and the rank smell of her unwashed body. In the darkness, she has lost count of the days that have passed by, but she can tell that many weeks must have passed, judging by her own weight and the smell of the cavern.

    As she is eating, the figure that always brings in her tray returns, carrying another body, which is lain down roughly, two shackles similar to the one around Millerna’s left ankle are placed around this person… Millerna narrows her eyes slightly and glances at the body… this woman’s wrists, a third around her right ankle. The figure does not move at all, and a second tray of warm food is brought and placed before her unconscious form.

*

    Sotet had not the chance to glimpse his father until he was washed and properly dressed. Then a servant lead him to the throne room and he was properly introduced to his father by a herald that announced his presence and startled him more than he normally would be. It wasn’t as though Sotet had never been in court before, or to a throne room, just usually he was observing or a guest of honor alongside his mother, rather than the focus of the room.

    “Daeluzito keb Ouran, King of Norte,” the herald says, gesturing ornately and formally to Sotet’s father. “Sotet Morkeb Tovenaar Ouran.”

    “That’s wrong,” Sotet speaks up.

    The herald turns to regard him querulously.

    “My parents never married. I am simply Tovenaar.”

    A bass-filled chuckle draws his eyes up to the throne once more and he sees the noise comes from his father. “A simple enough thing to rectify.”

    “You plan to marry my mother?” Sotet narrows his dark eyes at his father.

    “No, but officially adopting you does the same thing… in regards to the name at least.” Daeluzito smiles at his son kindly and adds, “Neither would your mother have me… nor is she allowed.”

    Sotet nods slowly, but in the back of his mind he feels suspicious of his father, and very much doubts that he will like this man.

***

    In response to Van’s abrupt query, Hitomi very gracefully blinked a few times, and then nearly fell off her horse. Luckily for her, Van was very close, and when her eyes went unfocused, he wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her up, and kept her horse steady with his other hand.

    “Hitomi?” he asks quietly, shaking her gently.

    After a moment, she wakes up and her jade green eyes stare into his incredulously, and not without a little fear in them. “Van… did you mean it?”

    “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”

    There is a pause in which Van looks down at the horses and calms his, before turning back to ask for her response, which he gets before he asks, as Hitomi throws her arms around his neck and kisses him passionately.

    The tender moment is broken up by applause from behind them as the two remaining nobles and the guard get closer. Van smiles self-consciously and Hitomi blushes bright red, having forgotten they had an audience.

    “I… guess I can take that as a yes?” he asks as she slowly pushes away from him.

    “Of course, Van. I… can’t think of anyone else I’d rather spend the rest of my life with,” she wanted to say. Or something else along those lines, but what she did was nod, not quite trusting her voice or her own actions, a time of happiness compounded by the love and elation in her heart.

    Van smiles at her warmly and nudges his horse to move faster towards the capital, a thousand things running through his mind, most of which starting with finding Hitomi a ring. Suddenly he hears a pick-up in the hoof beats behind him, and Hitomi goes barreling past him, tapping him gently on the shoulder as she does, calling over her shoulder, “Race you!”

    Van blinks for a moment and looks back at the guard before smiling at the challenge and kicking his horse forward.