Other Fan Fiction ❯ Seeds of Obligation ❯ Chapter Five: Arrangements ( Chapter 5 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Hoshiko Saitou 
Everyone tries to recuperate in the Imperial City before heading back to Cloud Ruler Temple.
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Fantasy / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.27.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 119 | Status: Completed
Everyone tries to recuperate in the Imperial City before heading back to Cloud Ruler Temple.
Miscellaneous: Other Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Fantasy / Drama | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.27.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.7K | Visits: 119 | Status: Completed
Marizia placed her hand over Bianca’s chest, a soft white light appearing over it. They had entered the Tiber Septim hotel to get a good meal and heal Bianca, but the magic was having trouble getting into her body. Every time Marizia tried to cast the spell, the magic would float over the woman’s body and pool around her stomach.
“I… I think you two are immune to magic,” she whispered to Kylie. She looked down for a moment, deep and thought, and then looked back up at Kylie. “Do you trust me?”
“Uh… maybe?”
After a quick check to see if anyone was watching, Marizia summoned a small bit of fire in her hand and held it around Kylie arm. No reaction. “Is that even warm?”
“No. All I feel is your hand.”
Marizia took back her hand and looked at it as if she doubted she’d cast the spell correctly. “I know you were born in a world without magic, but this is crazy. You don’t have any Magicka in your bodies whatsoever.” She contemplated bringing up that Bianca’s baby was affected, but she knew better than to discuss the subject so soon.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Martin knocked Bianca out with a spell when we first got here.”
“No, I just saw the light coming out of his hand and passed out,” Bianca said. “He never actually touched me.” She was draped on the chair like a fancy blanket. Though still not in the mood to eat, she did feel more like herself now that she was out of the temple. More than anything she wanted to go home, to her real home, and sleep in her bed with the white canopy and silk sheets. She wanted everything she’d ever complained about back; her jarring alarm clock and her car with the messed up automated locks and her naggy mother that called at least twice a week.
“We’re going to have to rely on food and time to make you better,” Marizia said. “I’ll go get you something simple.”
Kylie looked over at her friend. “You are going to eat, right?”
“I’m not hungry. It’s been too long since I’ve ate. I feel like I’m gonna hurl if I look at food.”
“I will shove that food down your mouth if you don’t eat it,” Kylie promised. “I know it was just a stubborn stunt for the council, you can drop it now.”
“Quit being so hard on me. You’re not the one giving birth to some stranger’s kid,” Bianca said. Instinctively she clutched at her stomach and hunched over.
Marizia came back with a bowl of lettuce, tomatoes and carrots and put it in front of Bianca. In her posture she showed that she had no intention of moving until Bianca started eating.
One piece at a time Bianca picked at the meal. When she was done the other two stood on either side of her and helped her out of the hotel lobby.
Jauffre saw them exiting the hotel from down the street and quickened his pace to catch up. He looked up at the sign and knitted his brow. Something about the title sparked something in him, but he couldn’t figure out what.
“Jauffre, we either have a great advantage or a huge problem,” Marizia said. She explained what she had found out about the lack of Magicka and in the girls’ bodies and pulled him aside to privately explain that the healing magic she used went directly to the baby.
“I don’t know how to view it either,” he admitted. “But we should rest by the stables while we wait for Martin.” He looked over at Bianca. “I’d like you to ride back with Martin.”
“I ride with Kylie.”
“Yes, but-“
“I ride with Kylie,” she repeated, this time slower and with more emphasis.
“Unless you properly stabled your horse then it has probably run off by now. That means that Kylie will be riding with Marizia unless you’d rather ride with me.”
Bianca went to argue but noticed that Kylie had left her side. Across the street there was an advertisement poster that had caught the woman’s attention. “Kylie?”
“What’s this place?” she asked.
Marizia came over to inspect the sign. “Oh yes, Divine Elegance,” she said with a groan. “That place thinks it’s the cream of the crop as far as fashion goes. It’d be perfect for you?”
“Can I go?” Kylie asked. She sounded uncharacteristically like an excited child.
“Go ahead, I’ll take Bianca to go rest,” Jauffre said. With that they split up to kill time and Jauffre gave one last look to the Tiber Septim Hotel.
Elsewhere in the city, Martin was trying to see things through an emperor’s eyes. He’d been to the Imperial City plenty of times in his life, but everything had to be filtered in a different way now. The beggars he saw in the streets, the gossip he heard about dishonest merchants and the useless paperwork system of the empire were going to be his problems soon enough. Though he tried not to, he couldn’t help but add ‘if he survived’ to the end of that thought. He knew that the use of the Amulet as a weapon was a last ditch effort only, but he had felt a cloud looming over him ever since he found out he had sacrificed himself in another time. Was it his divine path? Was it his attitude? He didn’t know.
--- --- ---
Bianca fell asleep under a tree near the stables while Kylie pet the horses there and talked about riding with the owner. Marizia and Jauffre had donned their armor once again and were packing up for the trip home.
The sun was beginning to set when Martin finally arrived, looking worried and a bit tired, and conversation sparked regarding the trip home. Though traveling after nightfall wasn’t the safest idea, they needed to get back to the temple as soon as possible. Kylie woke Bianca up and gave her more vegetables to eat to get her strength up for the trip. Though she understood why Jauffre was making Bianca travel with Martin, she felt bad as she took her place behind Marizia on the unicorn.
Bianca walked over to the brown horse and stood next to it, her eyes glued to the ground.
“It wasn’t my idea,” Martin whispered to her. “But there isn’t anything we can do right now.” He put his hand on her arm but she still wouldn’t look up at him. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah,” she said with bitterness in her voice. “Me too.”
He got on his horse and held his hand out to her. “Come on, I’ll help you up.”
She reached up and took his hand, but was too weak to get herself up. With a pathetic yelp she fell back to the ground and twisted her ankle. Feeling embarrassed and useless, she just let herself burst into tears right there in the grass. She didn’t care; she couldn’t take it anymore and no one seemed to care about that.
Martin got off the horse and knelt by her side. He looked up at Jauffre with an unyielding gaze that told the Grandmaster that he wouldn’t go foreword with the plan.
“Marizia, take her,” Jauffre ordered. “Kylie can ride with Martin.”
Cautiously, Marizia walked over to the weeping woman and scooped her up like a child. No one spoke as Bianca sniffled silently on the back on the knight’s unicorn because no one was satisfied with the current state of affairs, but there was nothing that could be done until they reached the temple. The ride promised to be long for many different reasons. Distance was the least of their problems.
--- --- ---
“It’s freezing,” Kylie complained. The strange moon was like a giant beacon in the sky above her and the imperial dress failed at keeping her warm. She almost wished that she was holding the torch instead of Jauffre, but he didn’t have a second body on his horse to help keep him warm.
“I’m sorry,” Martin apologized. “I wish I had something to give you, but my coat isn’t too great a help either.”
“You’re a really nice guy,” she commented blatantly. “I mean, almost scarily so.”
“Oh.”
“Wow, that sounded bitchy. Lemme rephrase that. You’re a very caring person. It’s hard to believe someone could be as selfless as you.”
“I have a lot of things to repent for.”
“Oh please,” Bianca mumbled. She’d been asleep for most of the ride, but had woken up when Kylie began talking again. “What could you do that was so bad?”
Martin didn’t answer and kept looking ahead.
“Oh… oh wow, it was something bad wasn’t it?” she guessed. “I wanna know.”
“I don’t feel like sharing.”
“Oh come on, I wanna hear about how much of a badass you used to be.”
Thought he was glad she was talking again, he wasn’t glad that this was the subject she felt like talking about. It was hard enough being forced to use his knowledge of Daedric arts without Bianca acting like his past was some form of entertainment. He snapped the reigns and rode off ahead, knowing Marizia wouldn’t try to catch up.
“I know you’ve been through a lot,” Marizia whispered. “But you’re not the only one being loaded with a lot of responsibility faster than you can handle it.”
“I was just messing with him,” Bianca said as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“Maybe it’s about time I give you some back story on what exactly is going on. I know we gave you that article on the assassination of the royal family, but there’s a lot more too it than that.”
“Well yeah, you found Martin.”
“Do you know what was going on when I found Martin?”
“No.”
Martin tried not to, but he couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. He wanted to know what Marizia said about him; he wanted to know what everyone said about him. It was a detrimental flaw, but he couldn’t help but be preoccupied with how other’s viewed him. At the same time he hated being admired or thought of as anything great. Even when people did something small, like thank him for his guidance and his good advice, he’d insist he didn’t deserve the praise.
“How’d you know about Martin in the first place?” Bianca asked in the middle of the story. “How’d you get involved in the first place?”
Martin and Jauffre slowed down their pace in order to eavesdrop on the conversation. They’d always wondered that themselves.
“That’s a long story, you don’t want to hear it,” she said hastily.
“I’m gonna learn someone’s dark secret by the end of the night,” Bianca vowed.
“Fine. I was in prison, ok?”
“You were what?” everyone asked in unison.
The sides of Marizia’s lips dropped into a harsh frown as she glared at the rest of her group. “I made a lot of bad Arena bets, ok? When they came after me for the money I didn’t have it so they tried to shake it out of me.”
“Oh, please tell me you kicked some ass,” Kylie said, beginning to sound like Bianca.
Though she wasn’t proud of the end result, she was proud of how she handled herself in the fight. She smiled despite herself and laughed at the memory. “You could say that, yeah.”
“I wish I knew how to take care of myself,” Bianca said. “I know how to yell ‘That’s not your purse!’ and aim for the groin. That’s about it.” Marizia began to laugh in response and even Jauffre and Martin couldn’t help but snicker. Making other people laugh was always something that made Bianca feel better about her self. She welcomed the familiar feeling and smiled.
--- --- ---
“She’s asleep again,” Marizia said as Cloud Ruler Temple finally came into view. The sun was rising behind it, bathing the stone in a soft, yellow light and casting gargantuan shadows that reached out toward them as they rode closer.
“Take her to Martin’s chambers,” Jauffre ordered. “I don’t care what sleeping arrangement you devise, but we can’t have her sleeping in the barracks.”
“I don’t care where I sleep, I just wanna go to bed,” Kylie groaned. “I have no idea how Bianca can fall asleep on the back of a horse. It boggles my mind.”
“It what?” Martin asked.
“I have really gotta learn to knock off the cultural slang around you guys. I keep wanting to go ‘Wow, that’s retarded,’ and stuff like that.”
“I wish I could visit your world,’ Marizia said. “I hate knowing there’s some place I’ve never been to.”
“I don’t think you’d like it,” Kylie said. She didn’t notice everyone tense up and continued on with her explanation. “There’s-”
Martin’s hand clamped over Kylie’s mouth. “Stay on the horse and don’t make a sound. If something bad happens take Bianca and ride.” He slid off the horse with Marizia and Jauffre behind him, drawing his dagger slowly.
Kylie didn’t want to watch, but as the red-robed figure stepped out of the building she couldn’t help but watch him get attacked. She didn’t look away until the last blow was dealt, shocking her into cringing. It was the first time she’d ever seen anyone get murdered before, and it was treated like an every-day duty; like nothing special. Deep down she still felt like she was supposed to do something, tell someone, but she held back because she knew that this was now a part of her world now.
She looked over at Bianca and a terrible thought flashed in her mind. If someone found out about the botched summoning then Bianca was just as much a target as Martin. Her fear tingled on the edge of her skin, making her aware of every little thing around her. When there was a rustling in the bushes behind her, she swiftly smacked Bianca’s horse and sent it running forward. Bianca woke up with a start and tried to hold on to the horse’s neck as it sprinted forward.
Kylie watched as a man clad in familiar armor fell out of the bush, clutching at his side. “Arcturus!” she shouted. She got off the horse and ran over to check on him. “Oh God, you’re bleeding!”
“They know about the temple,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “They know about the child. It’s not safe here. Get out!”
The sound of metal beating against metal rang out through the mountains behind her. Her heart nearly stopped when she heard Bianca scream.
“I… I think you two are immune to magic,” she whispered to Kylie. She looked down for a moment, deep and thought, and then looked back up at Kylie. “Do you trust me?”
“Uh… maybe?”
After a quick check to see if anyone was watching, Marizia summoned a small bit of fire in her hand and held it around Kylie arm. No reaction. “Is that even warm?”
“No. All I feel is your hand.”
Marizia took back her hand and looked at it as if she doubted she’d cast the spell correctly. “I know you were born in a world without magic, but this is crazy. You don’t have any Magicka in your bodies whatsoever.” She contemplated bringing up that Bianca’s baby was affected, but she knew better than to discuss the subject so soon.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Martin knocked Bianca out with a spell when we first got here.”
“No, I just saw the light coming out of his hand and passed out,” Bianca said. “He never actually touched me.” She was draped on the chair like a fancy blanket. Though still not in the mood to eat, she did feel more like herself now that she was out of the temple. More than anything she wanted to go home, to her real home, and sleep in her bed with the white canopy and silk sheets. She wanted everything she’d ever complained about back; her jarring alarm clock and her car with the messed up automated locks and her naggy mother that called at least twice a week.
“We’re going to have to rely on food and time to make you better,” Marizia said. “I’ll go get you something simple.”
Kylie looked over at her friend. “You are going to eat, right?”
“I’m not hungry. It’s been too long since I’ve ate. I feel like I’m gonna hurl if I look at food.”
“I will shove that food down your mouth if you don’t eat it,” Kylie promised. “I know it was just a stubborn stunt for the council, you can drop it now.”
“Quit being so hard on me. You’re not the one giving birth to some stranger’s kid,” Bianca said. Instinctively she clutched at her stomach and hunched over.
Marizia came back with a bowl of lettuce, tomatoes and carrots and put it in front of Bianca. In her posture she showed that she had no intention of moving until Bianca started eating.
One piece at a time Bianca picked at the meal. When she was done the other two stood on either side of her and helped her out of the hotel lobby.
Jauffre saw them exiting the hotel from down the street and quickened his pace to catch up. He looked up at the sign and knitted his brow. Something about the title sparked something in him, but he couldn’t figure out what.
“Jauffre, we either have a great advantage or a huge problem,” Marizia said. She explained what she had found out about the lack of Magicka and in the girls’ bodies and pulled him aside to privately explain that the healing magic she used went directly to the baby.
“I don’t know how to view it either,” he admitted. “But we should rest by the stables while we wait for Martin.” He looked over at Bianca. “I’d like you to ride back with Martin.”
“I ride with Kylie.”
“Yes, but-“
“I ride with Kylie,” she repeated, this time slower and with more emphasis.
“Unless you properly stabled your horse then it has probably run off by now. That means that Kylie will be riding with Marizia unless you’d rather ride with me.”
Bianca went to argue but noticed that Kylie had left her side. Across the street there was an advertisement poster that had caught the woman’s attention. “Kylie?”
“What’s this place?” she asked.
Marizia came over to inspect the sign. “Oh yes, Divine Elegance,” she said with a groan. “That place thinks it’s the cream of the crop as far as fashion goes. It’d be perfect for you?”
“Can I go?” Kylie asked. She sounded uncharacteristically like an excited child.
“Go ahead, I’ll take Bianca to go rest,” Jauffre said. With that they split up to kill time and Jauffre gave one last look to the Tiber Septim Hotel.
Elsewhere in the city, Martin was trying to see things through an emperor’s eyes. He’d been to the Imperial City plenty of times in his life, but everything had to be filtered in a different way now. The beggars he saw in the streets, the gossip he heard about dishonest merchants and the useless paperwork system of the empire were going to be his problems soon enough. Though he tried not to, he couldn’t help but add ‘if he survived’ to the end of that thought. He knew that the use of the Amulet as a weapon was a last ditch effort only, but he had felt a cloud looming over him ever since he found out he had sacrificed himself in another time. Was it his divine path? Was it his attitude? He didn’t know.
--- --- ---
Bianca fell asleep under a tree near the stables while Kylie pet the horses there and talked about riding with the owner. Marizia and Jauffre had donned their armor once again and were packing up for the trip home.
The sun was beginning to set when Martin finally arrived, looking worried and a bit tired, and conversation sparked regarding the trip home. Though traveling after nightfall wasn’t the safest idea, they needed to get back to the temple as soon as possible. Kylie woke Bianca up and gave her more vegetables to eat to get her strength up for the trip. Though she understood why Jauffre was making Bianca travel with Martin, she felt bad as she took her place behind Marizia on the unicorn.
Bianca walked over to the brown horse and stood next to it, her eyes glued to the ground.
“It wasn’t my idea,” Martin whispered to her. “But there isn’t anything we can do right now.” He put his hand on her arm but she still wouldn’t look up at him. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah,” she said with bitterness in her voice. “Me too.”
He got on his horse and held his hand out to her. “Come on, I’ll help you up.”
She reached up and took his hand, but was too weak to get herself up. With a pathetic yelp she fell back to the ground and twisted her ankle. Feeling embarrassed and useless, she just let herself burst into tears right there in the grass. She didn’t care; she couldn’t take it anymore and no one seemed to care about that.
Martin got off the horse and knelt by her side. He looked up at Jauffre with an unyielding gaze that told the Grandmaster that he wouldn’t go foreword with the plan.
“Marizia, take her,” Jauffre ordered. “Kylie can ride with Martin.”
Cautiously, Marizia walked over to the weeping woman and scooped her up like a child. No one spoke as Bianca sniffled silently on the back on the knight’s unicorn because no one was satisfied with the current state of affairs, but there was nothing that could be done until they reached the temple. The ride promised to be long for many different reasons. Distance was the least of their problems.
--- --- ---
“It’s freezing,” Kylie complained. The strange moon was like a giant beacon in the sky above her and the imperial dress failed at keeping her warm. She almost wished that she was holding the torch instead of Jauffre, but he didn’t have a second body on his horse to help keep him warm.
“I’m sorry,” Martin apologized. “I wish I had something to give you, but my coat isn’t too great a help either.”
“You’re a really nice guy,” she commented blatantly. “I mean, almost scarily so.”
“Oh.”
“Wow, that sounded bitchy. Lemme rephrase that. You’re a very caring person. It’s hard to believe someone could be as selfless as you.”
“I have a lot of things to repent for.”
“Oh please,” Bianca mumbled. She’d been asleep for most of the ride, but had woken up when Kylie began talking again. “What could you do that was so bad?”
Martin didn’t answer and kept looking ahead.
“Oh… oh wow, it was something bad wasn’t it?” she guessed. “I wanna know.”
“I don’t feel like sharing.”
“Oh come on, I wanna hear about how much of a badass you used to be.”
Thought he was glad she was talking again, he wasn’t glad that this was the subject she felt like talking about. It was hard enough being forced to use his knowledge of Daedric arts without Bianca acting like his past was some form of entertainment. He snapped the reigns and rode off ahead, knowing Marizia wouldn’t try to catch up.
“I know you’ve been through a lot,” Marizia whispered. “But you’re not the only one being loaded with a lot of responsibility faster than you can handle it.”
“I was just messing with him,” Bianca said as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“Maybe it’s about time I give you some back story on what exactly is going on. I know we gave you that article on the assassination of the royal family, but there’s a lot more too it than that.”
“Well yeah, you found Martin.”
“Do you know what was going on when I found Martin?”
“No.”
Martin tried not to, but he couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. He wanted to know what Marizia said about him; he wanted to know what everyone said about him. It was a detrimental flaw, but he couldn’t help but be preoccupied with how other’s viewed him. At the same time he hated being admired or thought of as anything great. Even when people did something small, like thank him for his guidance and his good advice, he’d insist he didn’t deserve the praise.
“How’d you know about Martin in the first place?” Bianca asked in the middle of the story. “How’d you get involved in the first place?”
Martin and Jauffre slowed down their pace in order to eavesdrop on the conversation. They’d always wondered that themselves.
“That’s a long story, you don’t want to hear it,” she said hastily.
“I’m gonna learn someone’s dark secret by the end of the night,” Bianca vowed.
“Fine. I was in prison, ok?”
“You were what?” everyone asked in unison.
The sides of Marizia’s lips dropped into a harsh frown as she glared at the rest of her group. “I made a lot of bad Arena bets, ok? When they came after me for the money I didn’t have it so they tried to shake it out of me.”
“Oh, please tell me you kicked some ass,” Kylie said, beginning to sound like Bianca.
Though she wasn’t proud of the end result, she was proud of how she handled herself in the fight. She smiled despite herself and laughed at the memory. “You could say that, yeah.”
“I wish I knew how to take care of myself,” Bianca said. “I know how to yell ‘That’s not your purse!’ and aim for the groin. That’s about it.” Marizia began to laugh in response and even Jauffre and Martin couldn’t help but snicker. Making other people laugh was always something that made Bianca feel better about her self. She welcomed the familiar feeling and smiled.
--- --- ---
“She’s asleep again,” Marizia said as Cloud Ruler Temple finally came into view. The sun was rising behind it, bathing the stone in a soft, yellow light and casting gargantuan shadows that reached out toward them as they rode closer.
“Take her to Martin’s chambers,” Jauffre ordered. “I don’t care what sleeping arrangement you devise, but we can’t have her sleeping in the barracks.”
“I don’t care where I sleep, I just wanna go to bed,” Kylie groaned. “I have no idea how Bianca can fall asleep on the back of a horse. It boggles my mind.”
“It what?” Martin asked.
“I have really gotta learn to knock off the cultural slang around you guys. I keep wanting to go ‘Wow, that’s retarded,’ and stuff like that.”
“I wish I could visit your world,’ Marizia said. “I hate knowing there’s some place I’ve never been to.”
“I don’t think you’d like it,” Kylie said. She didn’t notice everyone tense up and continued on with her explanation. “There’s-”
Martin’s hand clamped over Kylie’s mouth. “Stay on the horse and don’t make a sound. If something bad happens take Bianca and ride.” He slid off the horse with Marizia and Jauffre behind him, drawing his dagger slowly.
Kylie didn’t want to watch, but as the red-robed figure stepped out of the building she couldn’t help but watch him get attacked. She didn’t look away until the last blow was dealt, shocking her into cringing. It was the first time she’d ever seen anyone get murdered before, and it was treated like an every-day duty; like nothing special. Deep down she still felt like she was supposed to do something, tell someone, but she held back because she knew that this was now a part of her world now.
She looked over at Bianca and a terrible thought flashed in her mind. If someone found out about the botched summoning then Bianca was just as much a target as Martin. Her fear tingled on the edge of her skin, making her aware of every little thing around her. When there was a rustling in the bushes behind her, she swiftly smacked Bianca’s horse and sent it running forward. Bianca woke up with a start and tried to hold on to the horse’s neck as it sprinted forward.
Kylie watched as a man clad in familiar armor fell out of the bush, clutching at his side. “Arcturus!” she shouted. She got off the horse and ran over to check on him. “Oh God, you’re bleeding!”
“They know about the temple,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “They know about the child. It’s not safe here. Get out!”
The sound of metal beating against metal rang out through the mountains behind her. Her heart nearly stopped when she heard Bianca scream.