Suikoden Fan Fiction ❯ My Lady ❯ Sorrowful Farewell ( Chapter 1 )

My Lady

By: Heavens Requiem

A/N: This is a fic I posted on fanfiction.net a while ago and decided to post here. Over there my name was Shadow Mage, so some of you might be familiar. Anyway I wanted to let you all know that. Enjoy the fic!

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

Part 1: Sorrowful Farewell

The clock struck midnight as she hurried down the secret passageway, nightgown tails in her capable hands. Chris Lightfellow sighed heavily as she walked down the long hidden corridor that led from her room to the outside of Brass Castle. She rubbed the sleep from her weary violet hues as she pondered why Percival had called her down at this ungodly hour. That thought sobered her sleepy mind up a bit. Percival, although sometimes a joker, would never do his for a prank upon her. He simply did not do these sorts of things, especially if he didn't want to have stable duty for a week. Now he was serious and that worried her deeply. It must be something of great importance and urgency.

Her lithe frame from the passage and into the deep night dainty feet softly padding against the cool ground. Chris clutched the neck of her light nightshirt as the cool wind whipped it around her knees. She looked up above her, strong gaze squinting in the deep night to see the clothed back of Percival Fraulein. She walked up the grassy hill listening to the sound of her bare feet padding softly across the stone bridge and the own powerful beat of her racing heart as she approached Percival quietly. Gently calling his name with the softness of a dying summer wind she took a place beside him, worried orbs filled with concern and questions begging to be asked.

He turned his handsome face toward Chris his soft brown hair caught gently in the wind, being lightly tugged as if by invisible fairies. Pale gray blue hues lay somber and held a tint of sorrow in them as he gazed upon his captain. "Sorry that I called you out here so late." His usually jovial voice now grave weighed upon by his heavy thoughts and words he had yet to speak.

"I trust it is important?" Chris asked anxiously his tone heightening her nervousness. Usually those tones and eyes were reserved for only the gravest of news, and right now after basking in the afterglow of the peace brought by Luc's fall, she did not want to hear. Inwardly she prayed to Sadie that this was indeed just a prank and not something so serious as to upset this cheerful man so.

Percival looked deep into those violet eyes of his captain, then quickly looked away wincing as if a heavy blow had been struck against him. He could almost feel the worry in her eyes like a palpable force against his body. He was worrying her and he didn't want that; he never wanted that, to do that to her. "Yes it is." He kept his solemn hues cast down not wanting to face her beautiful yet painful eyes again. "Lady Chris...I ...I" his deep voice broke as if shattered glass, his resolution fading like the night.

Shock ran through her like a bolt of lightening had been struck through her core. Was he saying that he...? The slightest color of rose brushed itself across her cheeks, a dainty expression across the usually cold ivory visage. * Dear Goddess have mercy * "Percival..." she breathed, not daring nor trusting her voice any further. Heart raced faster as those seconds between them grew pregnant. Then with the fall of a simple phrase from those soft lips, it was rendered asunder.

"I...I'm leaving for Iksay. Tonight." Words falling like lead stones filled her stomach as she fully realized what he had said. Gentle violet hues filled with shock and almost horror like quality.

She blinked in disbelief slowly, ebony long lashes framing and revealing wide eyed purplish orbs. "What?" He was leaving? Was this for real, or was it some nightmare, which she prayed she would wake from. However as he pressed on she learned this was no reverie from hell from which she could wake. This was indeed real, all too real for the young knight to handle. Perhaps her greatest friend and ally was leaving her, maybe forever.

"I'm leaving, tonight, soon quite actually." His voice sounded dead, hollow, as if there was no one really there. In fact there might as well have been no one there, for Percival felt dead. The usual brightness found in his eyes now snuffed, as if the flame of life he bore inside had been gutted. He had just revealed that he was leaving her and the knights. His life's dream abandoned for a reason he could not reveal to her, not if he were to stay with his resolve.

"Oh when are you coming back? Her voice was calm even though her insides were trembling with loss. Her mind wheeled as if it had been slapped with the force of a lead gauntlet. She tried to keep her emotions behind the icy mask she usually wore, but the missing reason bugged her. He had no reason to leave, he was highly respected and everyone loved him. Even the Council left him well enough alone; that left only one thing. It had to lay with her. She was the reason he was leaving, there was no other way. That had dealt a heavier blow then the thought of him leaving.

"I don't know. I don't know if I'll ever come back." He whispered quietly, his voice barely reaching her ears, almost lifted away on the night wind. His slate gray hues went to a deeper blue as sorrow tinted then with melancholy azure. The then the fell once again like heavens tears back to the cold stone beneath him. Pain flickered across his comely earthly features as he was unaware that the same look had taken residence upon her own.

"Oh," that was she could say all she could bare to say with that hallowed voice of hers. However deep in her mind she was screaming in anguish why. She felt her cool composure slip away like the sands of time in her hands, as the seriousness of his words hit her with the force of a rampaging horse. Her mind couldn't imagine life without him, his teasing, his laughter, and his presence, perhaps the only person in the Knights that treated her as if she were just another person, just Chris. Now she was losing that, a comforting presence that kept her going half the time, and it just wasn't fair. "Percival..." she begged, her voice finally betraying the turbulent emotions that swirled within the gaping chasm that opened in her soul.

"No, don't say it. I've made up my mind. Nothing you say can change it. I am leaving in an hour so the others can't do the same. I...just wanted to say goodbye to you. I felt…that I…owed you that much." A heavy sigh fell from his lips as he stood up straight, tall frame moving and powerful muscles rippling underneath his worn peasant clothing.

"Why?" Chris finally blurted out, coldness gone as the need to really know why and rest her fears took over her. Need and pain rode through her as she looked toward Percival her full body turned to him, showing with out her realizing the pain and fear she felt within.

"What?" He blinked his pale hues tinted with shock as he gazed upon his beloved captain's face. He managed to keep the shock from spreading as he saw perhaps for the first time in a long time, real emotion upon her face. Quickly he turned away, unable to bear to see what he was doing to her.

"Why are you leaving?" she asked again trying desperately to get everything under control. She turned away, not letting him see her like this. Desperately she fought to place that steely mask upon her body and soul once more, sealing away the emotions that lead her nearly to ruin. Though no matter how bravely she fought upon that inner battlefield she could not, it was all in vain.

Percival just looked at her surprise coloring his good looking features as it turned to sorrow and self hate. It was if the cool shell she usually wore was gone, shattered by him and what he had done to her. He stood there working his mouth for his words failed him and were not his to grasp. " I just can't live like this, as a knight anymore. I need to leave." The truth eased the pain in his chest but didn't liberate his caged heart. More truth and feelings laid further inside that jailed spirit, waiting to be free, but would never see the light of day.

Chris stood there, her violet hues gazing at Percival in disbelief. Did he just say he couldn't live as a knight? "What? Is it the work? Is it the others? Is it...me?" she asked as her voice caught in her throat as she covered her rosebud lips with a delicate hand that was capable of such strength, not fully believing that she had blurted that out. She closed her eyes, trying to hide those that betrayed her so.

Percival just stared at her, his eyes catching the pain her voice didn't show so readily. In a sudden move her caught unawares, he took both her hands in his soft yet strong ones. "Lady Chris it isn't your fault. Please promise me you won't blame yourself for my decision." His lips curled into a warm smile that his soul didn't feel that he would probably never feel again.

"Percival..." She breathed, fighting off the pain and sorrow that she didn't want to show. She would not be weak, not to anyone. But yet in every way she was, being so weak in front of him, and yet he treated her the way he always did. Not as the fallen angel the way others saw her when she was like this, but an ordinary woman who deserved to be comforted like anyone else.

"Promise me." His voice was deep and husky, trying hard to fight off his own grief, so as he would not be more of a burden to her. He had done enough and be damned if he was going to do more damage.

"I promise." Her voice finally broke like crystal upon the hard floor beneath them. She looked down upon the cold stone, trying hard to fight to become like that stone, and not feel the suffering she was.

"Good,' he looked over to the castle as the bell tolled one. He turned back to Chris, his voice and gray eyes soft as the the wind that ran it's invisible fingers through his hair. "I better get going if I want to make it to Iksay by dawn."

"Please Percival..." she begged in one final attempt to get him to stay, though she knew like fighting herself, it was all in vain. Though maybe, just maybe, there was a chance. How could she give up so many years of friendship, so many years of joy? How could she give up him? She couldn't, Chris couldn't bear to.

He shook his head gently at her a sad smile gracing his downy soft lips, "I'm sorry, my Lady." His eyes grew wide as he saw a rouge tear cascade down her face. Never had he seen her cry not even why even when her father had died. For all that she was, knight and hero, she was still a sensitive woman deep down inside and though he never truly forgot it, he needed reminding sometimes. Deciding to take one last dare, one last ditch attempt at a life he would never lead, the last thing he would ever take from her he leaned over and kissed away her tears, warm soft lips upon her chilled ivory cheek.

She felt his firm lips brush against her cheeks and his strong arms enfold her in a tight embrace. Chris felt him breathe in her ear, "Fare well Lady Chris. May the Goddess bless you with all the joy in the world for you deserve it. You deserve more that more then anyone." He let her go though he never wanted that to end and walked away for the last time. She stood there stunned and confused with searing sorrow consuming her. As he walked away he called to her for the last time, "By the way tell Borus he's won." And then he was gone consumed by the oppressive night, gone from her sight, perhaps forever.

Chris' slender frame stood there as she brought her cold hand up to her cheek fingertips brushing against the surface lightly as if afraid to destroy something so gentle. She felt the kiss Percival had given her washed away by a new wave of tears that fell from glazed over hues of violet. She stood there till the guards had found her standing there by the morning's dawn engulfed by aching sorrow and the pain of loss none could ever know. Even though day had broke to her the sun would never rise again.

End of Part 1

A/N: What did you think? A lot better then my first try, drop me a review. Well that's all from me! Ja ne!