the eminence in shadow: Eminence of the Side Character 18

Chapter 18: Rented Stallion

The hotel Rose had booked for them was nice, nowhere close to the Palreia level of nice he'd been enjoying for the last twelve days, but Cid could still appreciate the sophistication of the place. The light of the sunset shot through the high windows and lit the atrium a bright orange, casting long shadows around the furniture, and especially the large, circular fountain that dominated the centre of the room.

It was so hot he was tempted to briefly dunk his head in the water as he passed the fountain on his way to the front desk, but even in his side character persona he had a minimum level of dignity to maintain. The day had been sweltering, and he'd offered to give Beta a lift using his serious dash (TM) so she could get here on time for her book tour without having to leave the resort early.

He didn't exactly regret it, but he had noticed she was perceptibly heavier than Nu during the trip. The slight additions to height, hips and bust might have only made her maybe 10-15% heavier, but the distance had been more than double what he'd covered with Nu, and all that time carrying her made him all too aware of every pound.

The extra padding did make it more comfortable on my hands though.

"Hello, I'm looking for Rose Orianna. Can you tell her Cid Kagenou's here?" he asked the receptionist.

"Of course, sir. I'll just be a minute. Please take a seat."

Cid scanned the room for a seat with some shade, then collapsed into it. The leather lining of the armchair was pleasantly cool, though he would probably have preferred a quick dip in the fountain.

After about ten minutes of kicking-back, he was moved completely into shadow when a large, burly man moved between him and the windows.

Is this a service in the hotels of this world? I should probably mention this to Gamma; we might need to 'borrow' their ideas. It's a little wasteful, but very appreciated.

"Excuse me, sir, I need to have a talk with you outside."

"Uh-no, thank you." he said calmly. In this kind of place, he probably seemed like he was rich and just going off with some random huge guy was asking to get scammed. He'd spent enough time beating the shit out of (and later killing) criminals to have some idea of how they operated.

The guy put a hand on his wrist and started pulling him up. As always in these situations, the hardest thing was not reacting and winning instantly.

"What're you doing?" he asked, adding a tiny squeak of nervousness to the question.

"Look, we got a description of Cid Kagenou from Princess Rose, and you're nowhere close to it. I don't know who told you about the princess' standing order, but we're not playing along with this little prank of yours, kid."

"Wait, but I am Cid Kagenou. Hey, stop that!"

He was wrenched up from his chair and was being manhandled over to the door when a clear, dignified voice called out in alarm "CID! What are you doing to him? Let him go, RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"

Cid felt the hands on him relinquish their hold as the hotel security moved away from him. He wouldn't have let go any quicker if Cid had become electrified.

"I...well, princess, the receptionist asked me to remove this young man, and I…" He trailed off as Rose's furious gaze shifted to the woman standing behind the desk. He was so relieved Rose's focus was no longer directed at him that he forgot to finish his answer.

The woman bowed her head seriously "Princess, I'm deeply sorry for the misunderstanding, but it's just, given what you'd told us to expect, I...just didn't connect this young man to the description you provided".

"How exactly did she describe me?" Cid asked, curious as to how it could be so different from his appearance that they immediately moved to throw him out as an impostor without even checking.

"She said...You were a peerless warrior who had no fear of death. A man of such conviction and passion that you rendered every other man who had ever pursued her to complete irrelevance. A raven-haired, ruby-eyed young man that perfectly exemplified the ideal masculine form".

As Cid examined his slightly sweaty and dishevelled appearance in the water, he had to concede the hotel staff had done nothing wrong in failing to recognize him.

Rose evidently disagreed, and made her feelings known by pointing to him in exasperation "And that's exactly who's here right now, how are you not getting that! Even if you weren't certain, you should have contacted me to confirm his identity."

"Again, my apologies, princess, but since we couldn't be sure what this young man was after, we needed to ensure your safety..."

"Because if anything happened to a princess of Orianna under your roof, you'd never live it down," Rose continued for her, "and I suppose you've somehow forgotten that I'm a dark knight, and can see to my own protection."

"I can only apologize again Princess." The desk clerk had assumed the 'Just calmly repeat yourself' customer service stance. As Cid had often used a similar style against Claire, he was almost certain it would work. Essentially you forced the discussion to run in pointless circles while appearing to placate your opposition to destroy their patience with the conversation until they gave up. It was a variation of the more general "Oh god, there's no point talking to them" technique.

Rose didn't see the snare she'd been caught in, but worked around it regardless. "I notice none of these apologies have been directed to my boyfriend you were just manhandling!"

"Yes, I'm sorry to you as well Lord Kagenou" the receptionist said as she bowed to him while reciting a textbook-example level apology.

"Sorry…" the guard muttered when Rose turned her burning golden glare on him.

"Might I suggest that Lord Kagenou's service bill be made complimentary for the remainder of his stay, as a token of apology?"

Free stuff, Yes!

If Rose was paying, he'd have to try to moderate himself a little, but if the hotel was footing the bill, he could go totally crazy on room service and get away with it cleanly.

Rose looked like she was going to spoil it, so he took her hand and whispered into her ear, "Let's just drop it and get on with our trip, alright?". One of the few redeeming qualities of their relationship was how comically easy it was to get her to do whatever he wanted at all times.

She gave him one of those 'aren't you just the sweetest' smiles that kinda creeped him out and replied "Yes, of course, that's all that matters." Her tone was so soft and sweet, it seemed as if a completely different person was speaking compared to how she'd just been castigating the service staff a second ago.

They set off for Rose's suite of rooms. Cid waited before speaking again, worried he'd set her off against the staff again and ruin his free ride. "So… that description…"

"I know, it wasn't nearly detailed enough, but we had to shorten it so it could be given to the staff at large since we had no idea when you'd be arriving."

"Who's we?" He couldn't imagine anyone in Rose's circle that would give him such a glowing appraisal.

The answer to that question crushed him with a hug as soon as he opened the door.

"Hey Claire, didn't know you were coming for this trip," he wheezed.

"Oh, Rose invited me…" she began happily, before her voice grew instantly stern "we've been waiting all day with no idea when you were going to show up, you need to be more specific about these things with girls, Cid"

It was like some horrible crossover nightmare had suddenly come true. Like he was the human in an alien versus predator movie. Then the terminator showed up out of nowhere to wreck his shit.

"You're…friends now?".

"Yes, I'll admit we got off on the wrong foot, but I've come to realize we have a lot in common. I won't like you living so far away, but I've been promised regular trips when you become king-consort of Orianna, me going to Orianna and you coming back to Midgar at least once a year".

I'm in danger.

"You've...really planned things out that far ahead?"

"I know it might seem excessive, but our future together is going to take a lot of work. If we don't seriously plan for it now, I don't think we'll have any chance". Rose answered determinedly, with no shred of hesitation, while Claire nodded seriously in agreement.

Stay calm. No sudden moves. There's nothing you can do right now. You'll be okay.

The only thing he could do right now was try changing the subject and begin his escape plan while pretending to be asleep tonight.

"So, I've got my stuff here. Where's my room?".

"Oh, it's up this way." Rose blushed prettily as she set off. "I hope you're not disappointed, but my head-maid, well… she's more like a minder my father assigned to me. She's been in service with the royal family since before I was born, and she..."

"I believed it would be inappropriate for two young people of your age to sleep in such close quarters, so your bedroom will be on the opposite landing. A pleasure to meet you Lord Kagenou. My name is Marion, and I'll be attending to you and Princess Rose for the duration of this trip. Might I also add my thanks for your bravery in protecting our young Princess."

He would have been totally fine if Rose's room was in Orianna, but tried his best to look mildly disappointed as he nodded to Marion and tried to wave off the old woman's gratitude.

"There's no need for that, Cid is a pure, innocent boy" Claire insisted indignantly. "Besides, there's no way I'm letting Rose get dessert until she pays for the main course."

"Wait, don't call my Excalibur dessert?" Cid said, turning in a fury on his sister.

"You call your...Excalibur?" Rose asked, her face growing scarlet. "That's so cute."

Cute. It's the most powerful holy sword in mythology, and you call that cute. I'll show you cute you…

But he couldn't. The whole reason this conversation started was because there were two people in close proximity that would object to such a display of power.

"Lord Kagenou, I think I should show you to your room so you can unpack now."

After a brief reprieve (Cid never thought he'd enjoy pulling stuff out of a bag so much, or be so heartbroken when it was all over), he headed back down to the lounge to face the music. He noticed this room had a piano and decided to make a beeline for it. Orianna was the kingdom of art and culture, so hopefully, he could waste all their time playing music and avoiding any more discussions relating to his divine blade. Marion had sadly left them for the night, probably trusting Claire to keep them decent.

He threw the idea out there and Rose went along with it happily, but Claire began to frown at him.

"I never knew you took piano lessons?"

"Well, it's not a big deal, is it?"

Even with that reasonable, perfect explanation, Claire still looked very unhappy and continued on in an agitated voice "Why were you so late Cid? It was getting dark out by the time you showed up."

A brilliant idea came to Cid at that moment. You could almost never stop Claire when she was angry, but it was a much easier task to redirect her fury.

"I got held up in the lobby. The staff didn't think I looked like the description you and Rose gave them, so they tried to throw me out. Sorry Sis."

Claire said nothing as Cid started playing the piano, but walked out of the room after five minutes and headed down to the lobby. About an hour later, a concierge came by and gave them the damage report. The security guard who'd been on duty would be off work for the next week until someone could fix his leg to go the right way, and the woman behind the desk had resigned, apparently now stuck with a powerful phobia of hotels and teenage-female-dark knights.

Claire wouldn't be allowed back to the hotel (Score!), but apparently since Rose hadn't known she was coming for long enough in advance, she'd always planned to stay at a place a couple of streets down the road due to a lack of bed space here.

"I'm still getting all my expenses covered here, right?"

"Ah, yes sir. Naturally."

"Then put all the damage Claire caused on my tab." There was no reason to force his family problems on Rose after all.

If he didn't need to actually pay for it.

Rose sighed softly before speaking "I've grown quite fond of your sister, but I must say, I think she might have some anger issues."

Yeah, no shit.

"I know, but we should just try and enjoy ourselves as best we can. It's not like we can do anything about Claire right now anyway."

Rose was easily distracted from Claire's rampage as he played the piano with her. She'd often sing along if the song had words she knew, and occasionally, she got out her violin and tried to join in with that as well. Rose was very good with both, if he ever started a band she'd totally be one of his top picks.

He kept them at it for a long time so he could justify going straight to sleep without having to engage in any other activities with Rose before bed, then shot straight to his room as soon as possible. Rather than go to sleep immediately, he escaped out the window and spent the night prowling the city, trying to force the sickening image of himself as a king-consort (wearing in a fur-trimmed red cloak and a dainty adopted royalty crown) out of his mind.

---

Alexia gave a gentle sigh as she sank into the waters of the hot springs. This wasn't her hotel, but a few silver coins to the attendant at the door convinced him she looked exactly like a guest on the fifth floor and that he couldn't be sure she wasn't meant to be there.

Honestly, he should be paying me. How many people are going to show up just because I'm here? If he charges each of them what he got from me, he'll be set to retire by lunch.

It was the sort of thing Cid might do. It was kind of depressing knowing the only boy she'd ever had even a passing interest in would be more interested in selling tickets than looking himself, but that was just how he was. To be fair, the fact he didn't blush or stammer around her had actually been part of the appeal.

A black-haired boy around her own age walked in just as she was thinking that. He was an average height, maybe a couple of inches under six feet, but his rippling muscles were...not common at all. It took her a second to connect the figure to her lazy bum of a best friend.

Speak of the devil.

As she looked him over, she was convinced she wasn't ogling him. It was simply her first time in a mixed gender baths. Objectively speaking, she'd never seen anything like it before, so naturally she'd have an instinctual curiosity about what she was seeing. It was almost academic really. If her eyes stopped at a few points along the way, it was only because it was an unfamiliar sight to her.

The excuse sounded hollow even in her own mind after her eyes made their forth scan up and down.

"Not another one. What're you doing here Alexia?"

Not the most courteous greeting she could have gotten from a friend, but he'd never had manners. "Bathing, puppy, you ought to try it sometime. I know it'll be a big change, but I really think it would be good for you."

Cid began slowly lowering himself into the water. "Okay, hey Alexia, how're you?" he asked in a deadpan, disinterested voice. "Now why're you in Lindworm?"

"I'm quite well, thank you. I'm actually here for a couple of reasons. I was invited to see the Goddess trail, and my father's given me a task to complete for the crown, but I can't talk about that with you."

Cid just lay back and stretched out. "That's nice."

He just had to act cool. "You're not even going to ask what it is?"

He was so late in responding she began to think he was ignoring her. "No. I'm just enjoying the bath and the quiet for as long as it lasts. If you can't talk about it, that's a-okay with me."

He was obviously just pretending not to care about the critical responsibility assigned to her by the king. But he did look kind of tired.

"Are you okay? Did you come here with Rose?" she asked in a caring voice that was impressively un-pissed given the second half of the sentence.

"Yeah, fine. Rose is here with me."

He didn't seem very happy about that, but why would he…

"You shouldn't really talk about her with me that much."

When Cid gave her a curious glance as if to ask why, she spelled it out for him "You do remember breaking up with me for her, don't you?".

Cid shot up and answered indignantly. "Yeah, but that's only because you broke the deal and told her we were only together as an act!"

"Wha…" she was taken aback momentarily. "Hey, don't get mad at me. Even if I did...spill something small, you basically got everything you wanted, so why are you angry at me?!"

Cid sank down, the fight drained out of him as quick as it had come.

Why would he be upset about...

She heard someone else opening the door to the baths and saw Rose Orianna come over to the pool. She hadn't quite sorted out her feelings towards the other girl yet. Under most circumstances she'd be furious, but Rose had this...intangible something that made it very hard to truly hate her, though she was still a little ticked off about her dog-napping. For the first time, Alexia had found her bitterness was unequal to the task of hating someone.

"Oh Alexia, how are you? I didn't know you were coming to the goddess trial."

"Yes, I've been asked to attend as a special guest, I assume you have as well?" Rose nodded "but that's not the only reason why I'm here. I've got some official business to take care of for my father."

"Oh, that sounds engaging. I've just come to attend the event, and well, to spend time with Cid" she said as she lowered herself into the water and locked arms with Cid, who seemed off-put by her clinginess, before looking back at Alexia with a tremulous smile. "I hope you're not upset about that, are you?"

Is she...being serious? I can't tell whether this is sarcasm or not. It's a ridiculous question, but at the same time she sounds so sincere.

It was hard to know what the genuine answer to that question was. In most ways her relationship with Cid hadn't changed at all, other than seeing each other slightly less often. They still worked together, sat together for lunch sometimes, trained together in royal Bushin class, and endlessly sniped sarcastically at each other over pointless things. She honestly didn't know whether she wanted anything more from him or not, she'd had plenty of chances over the couple of months they were together and hadn't taken any of them.

Yeah, I was just looking him up and down repeatedly for a health check, like any responsible pet owner would.

Unaddressed denial aside, even if Alexia did think Cid was attractive, it wasn't like that meant she loved him or anything. Obviously not.

"Of course not. I told you back then I was only with him for convenience, I didn't have anything serious invested in our relationship, and about that other guy I told you about, forget him. It's not going to work out between us."

It really was too much hassle to make a relationship work with an imaginary man. It always left her with all the work to do.

Cid looked at her with curiosity while she gave a hand signal to indicate he shouldn't speak. Thankfully he still remembered his 'be quiet' command and didn't ask anything.

"Oh, that's tragic. There's nothing worse than when a young love meets a premature end, I just couldn't bear to be apart from Cid now." Rose looked at Cid like she was trying to swallow him with her eyes. "Cid and I were up all night making sweet music together, and it was just the most magical time."

Was...that a euphemism. I should probably give her the benefit of the doubt...but...

Cid gave a small nod of conformation, still keeping silent but no longer due to her command.

"That's nice."

"Oh it was. Cid's finger-work is exquisite, it truly felt more like he was reaching right into my soul rather than touching anything physical. We were at it for so long the room next door complained about the noise, and my throat feels a little sore this morning from doing my parts." Rose smiled at her conspiratorially "Is it bad I don't feel any regret or guilt at all?"

Alexia's brain screeched to a halt as the mental images this description created exploded across her mind.

Rose had said all that in the sweetest tone of voice, as if she wasn't describing something totally vulgar for a noble lady to partake in, in public, while almost naked, specifically to the woman her lover left for her.

What is she thinking!!!

Alexia was going to do the nice thing, not jump to conclusions, and just ignore the fact they were probably on each other like rabbits all night. "N-no, not at all. I hope you two are keeping each other entertained."

The conversation then shifted to politics, and continued on for more than half an hour. She and Rose were able to make small talk easily enough once the topic changed while Cid said almost nothing and just looked off at the sunrise.

"You know Cid, I expected you in a bath with two beautiful women to ogle us non-stop, but you just keep looking off into the distance."

"That's only natural. I can see you two anytime, but the rising sun comes only once each day".

"Oh you're such a poet!" Rose exclaimed and pulled Cid's arm even closer to her middle, completely missing the casual insult addressed to both of them. He didn't even notice how close his arm now was to Rose's cleavage.

Why would he when she's done so much more...

"Besides, I like to avoid looking at other people in the bath, it helps keep us all comfortable. With that in mind, could you stop trying to peek under my towel."

"Alexia!" Rose said, mortified "What a thing to do. Trying to peep at my beloved's Excalibur."

Wait, she has a nickname for his…

Well that settled it. If Alexia had any doubt they were having sex before, it was gone now "Don't flatter yourself, and aren't you embarrassed hearing that inchworm called Excalibur?"

Rose was taken aback while Cid just smiled knowingly. "Oh Alexia, you only reveal your naivete with those kinds of comments. To judge a sword by how it sits in the sheath is a mistake only the most clueless amateur would make. I assure you, when this sword is drawn a reckoning will begin, devastation will rain down from the heavens, and chaos shall seize all the lands that attempt to defy it's power."

Rose's eyes seemed to have grown three sizes, while Cid stepped out of the bath and did something with his towel that made it clap against his backside through his legs.

"I'm gonna get changed, see you when you're done Rose."

For the next ten minutes, Rose silently glared after Cid with a look somewhere between awe-struck wonder and deep longing, Alexia probably wasn't much better as she struggled to parse what that speech meant exactly. Then Rose seemed to wake up and realize she was running late, muttered an apology and goodbye to Alexia, then set off to chase after Cid.

Alexia sat in the water for a while longer as something totally unrelated to Cid kept appearing in her mind's eye. Eventually, she managed to get not-Cid out of her thoughts when a conversation caught her attention, as angry murmur of "Crazy bitch" made it's way across the wall that separated the bath from public view.

"She just attacked you out of nowhere?"

"Yeah, remember that kid we were supposed to keep an eye out for, Cid Kagenou. Apparently she heard I gave him a hard time or something and snapped. I swear girls from the Midgar academy go hard these days. My leg's shot until I can see a healer, and the receptionist was completely traumatized and quit, she wouldn't even go in the front door to grab her things. If you run into that psycho on your shift, just run away dude."

By the Goddess. Rose is worse than I thought if she's physically assaulting hotel staff for inconveniencing Cid. Is this...new or has she always been this way?

If she considered Cid's behaviour towards Rose and everything she knew about him previously, she could put together an idea about the course of events.

Cid wasn't the type of person to heroically sacrifice himself for someone he didn't know (Alexia had no faith he'd do it for her if it came to that, even if he would definitely try to save her if it wouldn't cost his life), so that had probably been an accident on his part, maybe he tried to push her out of the way and was targeted as a result. Following that Rose developed a manic obsession with her saviour, then pressured him into their relationship and started riding him like a rented stallion, leading to his being burned out and feeling trapped with Rose around. Of course he couldn't complain openly, most people would laugh in his face if he explained his problem was that a princess was too in love with him, or that she was too enthusiastic during their intimate moments.

Despicable, trying to force someone into a relationship for your own convenience.

Cid was in serious trouble. If Rose was willing to injure hotel staff for bothering him with no thought to her reputation, what would she do to the man himself if he tried to leave her and broke her heart.

Still, her affection for Cid seemed problematically sincere, and that meant he was probably safe as long as he made no hasty moves. Cid's reserved, bordering on cowardly personality should keep him safe in the short term. Alexia would absolutely do everything she could to save him though, he was her friend and she refused to leave him behind.

---

Cid's mood seemed to have improved as they walked along the packed market streets of Lindworm. His meeting with Alexia had seemed unpleasant from her perspective, but Cid only smiled and said that's how most of his conversations with Alexia went.

They'd bought a couple of things for their friends at the market, Cid just got a few of the key-chains representing Olivier's defeat of the demon, while she had to pick things on a more individual level. Sometimes the simplicity of male friendship's appealed to Rose, she'd have more Cid-time if she could pick out a shawl without trying to figure out how it would compliment her friends' complexion, hair colour, or what they usually liked to wear.

The only incident of note on their shopping spree was her insistence that they go to the book store where Natsume Kafka was participating in a book signing. The line had stretched all through the store and brought her close to something she hadn't thought about in years. A collection of signed first edition "Stylish Bandit Slayer" manga. She'd looked at them with longing only to find Cid was looking between her and the collection with a look of horror.

When he whispered to ask if she was interested in those comics, it would have been possible to lie and say she wanted them for Clara or any one of her young male relatives who's intense desire for the set would be more appropriate than her own.

She couldn't though. Cid's honesty was one of the reasons she loved him so much. It was what made him so appealing, what separated Cid from him so much that she became uncontrollably happy whenever he was near. Whenever she even thought about him.

She whispered back a yes and hastily added that she didn't read them anymore since it was inappropriate. He'd nodded and that was that, the casual conversation they were having did die for a few minutes while she thought over how to proceed. They'd moved on quickly after getting a couple of novels signed and started back through the market streets.

She'd seen a sign for a gondola ride through the canals that weaved through the city. It seemed like such a romantic outing, being alone together on the sunlit water, that she just couldn't say no to the idea. They'd talked to the salesman and arranged for a boat in half an hour, brought their shopping bags back to the hotel and headed back to the tiny dock to set off.

The boat was old, but freshly painted and looked as if it had been maintained regularly. As they took their seats she was hard pressed to take in the ferryman's words as they headed out of the side street and down one of the city's major waterways. Cid's face was just inches from her own in this position and her knees would have been knocking into his with each swaying motion of the boat if a small wooden divider didn't separate them.

"Do you think the people from the academy incident were all from the same group or not?" It was probably an out-of-nowhere question to Cid, but being reminded of the slayer brought her questions about Shadow to the forefront of her mind and she wanted to hear his opinion.

"Probably not, but you never know what these hidden organisations want or who they are, do you?"

"Maybe, but I for my part, I definitely think they were different organisations. The initial terrorist group fought with fairly common fighting styles from Midgar and it's surrounding regions, but the second group's style didn't seem familiar to me. I don't think I know every school of swordplay in the world, but I did search through many of the most famous schools before I started to dedicate myself to rising wind."

He gave her a questioning look, and she proceeded to explain as much as she could. "I was trying to find out about a swordsman I liked, so I started looking through different martial schools to see if I could recognize his technique, but I wasn't able to find anything."

Until I saw Shadow Garden fight.

"Did you come to Midgar to try and find out more about them, or were there just no good Dark Knight academies back home?" Cid's joke was casual, but hit on something sensitive both for her personally and her nation.

"Yes, actually. It's true that we do have some schools, only one is meant for the nobility, it's an old, worn down academy with no great masters to learn from. It's a place meant for lesser families to send the children they can't make matches for, and who can't find any other positions to sustain themselves. My father sent me once, I think he was trying to convince me to give up on learning to fight, but he couldn't really stop me." She smiled, thinking back on how far she'd come from that petulant little girl. "That school is hopeless in every sense of the word, the people who go to learn, the people who teach them, they all feel they have no future. It's a shameful state of affairs."

"Yeah, I heard Orianna has to use its superior natural resources and agricultural climate to buy military support from other nations and mercenaries, since it has such a mediocre standing army."

From anyone else that would have been a callous comment, but Cid was obviously trying to make her confront the reality of the situation by being direct (you could tell he didn't really mean it personally, since it sounded like he was just repeating something someone else had said).

"Yes, they limit their experience of swordplay to those who would do anything for money, then complain it's a low-brow activity."

"Did your dad try to stop you from learning?"

"He didn't forbid it, but I was highly discouraged from taking it up. He always warned me it would be a hard road to take."

"Don't take that the wrong way though," she added quickly "My father is very dear to me, He's the closest person to me in my family, except maybe my cousin Clara"

"Why'd you even want to learn swordplay? It sounds like it's just been a hassle for you."

It has caused me some issues but I'd never willingly give it up, not for anything.

"In Orianna, when you're young, it's expected you'll select an art form and dedicate yourself to it. There's almost too many options: painting, sculpture, singing, instruments and dance just to name a few, and I tried my hand at them all, but I never felt any special connection to any of them. Then when I was ten, I saw a travelling swordsman and saw the beauty of his technique. As soon as I got home I asked for a sword."

Cid leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss, momentarily obscuring her view of the water and causing someone to wolf-whistle in the crowd moving around the waterway.

"What was that for?" she asked. Trying for a stern tone of voice and failing miserably.

"I just thought it was cool, how you didn't give up on your dream even though everyone around you was trying to make you quit. Takes real dedication to do something like that."

"You think it's...cool." It was her turn to lean forward, and the kiss she locked him in couldn't be described as quick. Deep and passionate perhaps. The crowd gave them many more whistles and shouts of encouragement as their boat bobbed along.

They were words she never thought to hear about her choices, she'd been told she was being foolish and selfish more times than she could count by her mother and some of her father's more blunt minister's. In her heart, she had always known she was causing problems for her family, but she still couldn't stop wanting to emulate the beauty she saw that day. To try and show her father and the rest of her nation the wonderful thing she'd seen.

Once she'd seen how her county had to sell itself to survive, her resolve had sharpened and she'd realized she had the power to turn things around for her nation. If she could win renown for Orianna, perhaps by winning the Bushin festival, she'd become an international mark of pride, and other nobles would seek to follow her example. She'd be able to leverage that to open new schools for dark knights and make a military as proud as any other nation.

Deep down, she knew it wasn't about that, even though she did sincerely want to solve one of her homeland's greatest problems. It was simple selfishness, doing what she wanted at the expense of her family's reputation. The dreams and plans for saving Orianna had only come later, as an attempt to justify her decision.

That was why it meant so much to her to hear someone tell her they understood the somewhat self-serving nature of her passion, but supported it anyway.

He doesn't just support me passively like father, he thinks it's impressive. It would have meant the world to hear someone say anything half as approving as "cool" or "dedicated" when I began.

It would have meant the world to Rose then if Cid's grip on her heart wasn't already so vice-tight, it bordered on painful whenever they had to separate, regardless of how short the interval was.

Perhaps her relationship with Cid was exactly the same as her feelings for swordplay, something that would doubtless be detrimental for Orianna (at least in the short term), but that she wanted and took regardless.

I really am a selfish girl.

She'd been so lost in thought, and had been kissing Cid for so long, that when his head snapped back away from her she almost fell face first into his lap. Cid looked annoyed and started rubbing the back of his head.

"Sorry, I just got hit by this," Cid grumbled as he pulled up a tiny chunk of gravel that had landed by his feet, just beside the plank that separated their legs.

"Hey get over here, come to Alexia!" a silver haired young girl called out from the bridge ahead, clapping her hands against her thighs as she called out to Cid, her companion looking at her with concern in her eyes.