Twin Futures -- White Knights and Black Stars Arc
Luna Cathris and Master Vale, Late Last Night
Gregory Vale looked up as there came a knock at his bedroom door. He idly wondered who it might be as he put the communication lacrima he had used to communicate with distant contacts. The conversations had been well concluded before, and he had left the lacrima strewn about his paperwork as paperweights and reminders to clean up his desk once he was done. Once he had returned the lacrima to their proper places he stood and moved to the door, opening it gently, so as to keep the creek it had from waking everyone.
"Good evening Luna." He said as he discovered who had knocked.
"You did a good job in the arena today, I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you in person, but shouldn’t you be resting? As I understand it you took quite the beating."Luna looked up at her Guild Master, and her countenance betrayed that this was no pointless visit. Vale simply nodded, and moved to the side to let her by, motioning her in. She took a seat in one of the chairs near the desk he had been working at, and he closed the door behind her, moving to sit in the chair he had been in for the past three hours.
"So, to what do I owe this visit?" Luna looked down for a moment, gathering her thoughts and her will, before looking up, meeting his eyes, and speaking.
"I… Uhm… It’s… Hard to explain." She stuttered, breaking eye contact again. it wasn’t really that hard to explain, in truth, but she was having difficulty making herself admit the sad truth that had suffered itself upon her.
"See, uhm, you know how I have a ‘don’t kill’ rule, right?" She asked slowly, planning to wait for a response before continuing. Stalling despite already having forced herself to get up in the dead of night to talk to him about this.
Gregory, being no dull sword, quickly figured what this was likely leading to. He had given this some thought himself, as Luna certainly didn’t seem the type to go along with what most of the S-Class wizards in his guild were willing to do at this point.
"Ah, mind if I make a guess as to what you wish to talk about?" He asked, having remembered conversations where people had gotten quite angry at him for not simply playing the attentive listener. Luna gave him a small nod, and he continued with his hypothesis.
"You’re concerned that you may not be happy with the direction my son is taking the guild. Or, you already are not happy with it." The quiet lunar mage nodded, unable to look up at him.
”Well, I’ve given this some thought myself, actually.” She looked up, a gleam in her eyes indicating the naive faith that he would always guide her down the right path. He sighed inwardly, hating that he couldn’t realistically fulfill that hope.
"And… It’s really up to you what you wish to do, but ultimately you are going to have to choose whether to leave Iron Enigma, or stay with it until the bitter end." She nodded and looked down again, understanding.
"But I don’t think you’d be all that happy in a guild that kills people, Luna, but I can understand if you can’t bring yourself to leave our family behind. But I fear choosing to do so won't make you happy in the long run," he took a breath, hesitating for a moment.
"And if you choose to leave us and join a light guild, we may be at the other end of your halberd some day." He saw Luna close her eyes, and the candlelight reflected back at him from her wet cheeks.
Gregory couldn’t bring himself to continue to watch Luna as her face twisted into sad understanding, and stood up, going for the now cold cup of coffee he had left by his bed hours earlier. He picked it up, as if to take a sip from it, before speaking again.
"I know it may be hard, but I ask that, if you do leave... if you do find us your enemy... Don’t let that fact that we were once your family stop you from doing what you think is right. I promise you, at least half the members of Iron Enigma would use that weakness to get under your guard. Act like you’re still close friends, and that you don’t need to hurt them."Here he took a sip of the coffee. It was disgusting.
Right up until they slit your throat. Was what he wanted to say. He put the cup down, it taking all of his willpower not to just pour it into the trash can. However, the distraction succeeded, and as he brought himself to face Luna yet again he had managed to retain his calm, cool countenance. He moved over to the youngest member of his guild, and gently held his hand out to help her up.
"But you don’t need to make your decision now, or even soon. But I ask that you make the choice, and not let indecision plague you until an answer is chosen simply by default. For now, however, I think we both need sleep. If you’re feeling more talkative in the morning, Luna, we can talk more about it then, but for now, I don’t think it’s best to talk about this in the middle of the night, okay?" Luna looked up at him, and nodded.
"I understand, Master." She would stand up, nod to him, and move from the door. She had gotten exactly what she came here for, and she didn’t even have to make herself say any of it.
"Thank you, Master." She left at that, closing the door behind her. Gregory sighed, dumping the cold coffee in the bathroom sink as soon as it was convenient.
"I’m not the paragon of kindness and wisdom you think I am Luna." He said, once she had left, going back to his desk to clean up the papers before going to bed.
"God I hope she's stronger than I am."Peaceful Travels -- White Knights and Black Stars Arc
Mithera -- Late At Night On a Train
Mithera sat, humming, in a chair she had brought to the back of the caboose of the train she was on currently. It was the dead of night, and her traveling companions were all asleep. She had snuck out of the car to get some fresh air. She had spent most of the first day practicing walking, much to the annoyance of other passengers, but now she was a lot more confident in her ability to walk by herself than before.
Right now, however, she was just enjoying a nice breeze across her face and fresh air. She gently pulled the communication lacrima with Phoenix Wing out and looked it over, thinking about what to say. She had given a progress report that was little more than “We’re alive” earlier, but now she had a few more thoughts to potentially tag on to that. She took a deep breath before bringing it up to talk.
”Hey. I know it’s late and everyone’s probably sleep, but I wanted to give a more proper report as to how everything is going on my end. Earlier it was just kind of a check-in, but now I think I’ve got some things to actually say.” She took a deep breath, and leaned back in her seat, watching the blackness move off behind her at its rapid pace.
”Mayt got off today. I don’t really know why, I didn’t go talk to him. I believe the town was called Onibus. Our train is apparently going up through Clover town then along the coast to a town by the border of Bosso, where we plan on getting off and crossing on foot to avoid me not having any paperwork. So uhm, I guess that’s the plan.”She fidgeted with part of her dress a little, thinking that she probably would need a few more sets of clothes by the time things were over.
”I’ve been practicing walking a lot, since that was something I kinda need to be able to do on my own in case things go as badly as possible. I’ve gotten a lot better since I left, but I’m a bit afraid I’ll be unable to properly walk once I get off this train, since this is where I’m learning. Though, walking seems to lessen up on a bit of the motion sickness I’m getting. It’s not bad, but it’s a bit uncomfortable, and it makes it hard to sleep.”She sighed, loudly enough for it to be audible on the other side.
”I’m rambling, but it feels good to just be able to say what’s on my mind… It’s odd, but I actually kind of miss having Melina around to bounce my every thought off of. I figure most people would get sick of a lack of privacy like that, but I enjoyed it. No matter what situation I was in, I was never alone in it. There was never any Solitary Confinement for me. Now, however, I’m… Alone. For the first time in eight years, I can’t feel someone else I can talk to close by. It wasn’t as bad that first two months I was with you, since then I was just holding out until I could go back with Melina… But now, since I know I won’t be seeing her as often for a while, I feel like part of me is missing. It’s a weird kind of… Sadness again.” She smiled to herself, closing her eyes for a moment.
”Ah, there I go rambling again. I guess I should wrap this up or I’ll be here all night. We’re doing fine out here, though it’s going to be a long while before we come back, that’s okay. Say hi to everyone for me… Or, whomever you can say hi to for me if the case is that. I hope everyone’s doing alright. I know the games are going well for us, so let’s keep that up. Go team Phoenix Wing!” She giggles softly, pumping her fist despite there being no one to see.
”Heh, well. Good night everyone at Phoenix Wing. Sleep well, and win the games for us!” She smiled softly, and put the lacrima away before standing up, giving one last glance up at the starry sky above her before going back inside the train, closing the door behind her as she went.
(These were actually written well in advance, but there shouldn't be too many dependencies with whats been going on. Yay for a bunch of pointless characterization!)
