- Suikoden belongs to Konami. This is definitely only for our own entertainment. -


On the scale of days at Budehuc, this one was rather quiet. The manor - for it was no castle, no matter what the most enthusiastic had to say - was empty, most of the troops gone to a battle past the Yaza Plain to protect Iksay from the advance of the enemy. The reports claimed it was a sizable detachment, but he had his doubts as to the importance of this raid; more likely, it was simply a group of renegades that had escaped the control of that Sindar girl. Sill dangerous, certainly, but not something that required a Bishop's attention.

Poor girl. He pitied her. Summoning was the most exhausting of rune skills by far.

Sasarai slumped back in his chair, propped his elbow on its arm and rested his chin in his hand, eyes fixed on the door. In his other hand was a stack of letters, all folded and sealed perfectly, waiting to be sent. It had been well over an hour since any one of his attendants had come through that door, and it was starting to look as if Fate expected him to find the pigeon cotes and send his own letters. Honestly. Was it too much to ask for help when one needed it? They had no problem clinging to him when he didn't.

The letters tapped against the edge of the desk ominously; in the other room, Beecham's rusty voice once again raised in song, and the bishop winced into his hand, squeezed his eyes shut. The man's voice would be pleasant enough, if he would bother to try for some kind of consistent pitch. If that was the Grassland way of doing things, he would be grateful indeed to return to the quiet, welcoming, harmonious environs of the Temple, where voices blended to create music, and not just sound.

The sharp slant of light through the windows behind him faded into the more diffuse brightness of noon. The polished desk was a wonderfully crafted piece, but useless now when his reports were finished and ready for sending. Another few minutes of sitting and listening finally snapped his patience; Sasarai rose and marched to the door without even pushing the chair back in, missives clutched tightly in one hand. It seemed he would have to find his attendants for himself, if he expected anything to get done. How inefficient. They were Harmonians, not common rabble.

Righteous indignation carried him as far as the stair landing before he paused and began to reconsider his chosen course of action.

There was a reason he had not left Thomas's office to seek someone out earlier, and she stood down in the foyer next to the elevator, straight-backed and twirling her staff on end in front of the Blinking Mirror. It glittered and glinted, a finely wrought wand he would be hard-pressed to find a match for, sped along in its spin by the slender hands of the teleportress. She might as well have been one of the children, with how easily she could be distracted.

She seemed quite enthralled with her game, but would it be safe to go down? Viki had an unearthly habit of developing flashes of perception at the worst possible times. It was almost as bad as her margin of error, which was quite terrifying in its own right. What if his attendants had run afoul of her? Oh... dear. No, it was hard enough to force his feet to move down the stairs, one at a time, without that thought to dwell on.

All was going well, until she happened to look up and, for a moment, meet his eyes. Sasarai froze and plastered a polite smile on his face, but inwardly he groaned, and the last few steps to the tile floor felt like a descent into certain doom.

"Oh! Bishop!" A bright smile was turned his way. She remembered him - how nice of her.

"Viki." He nodded to the girl and turned to continue on his way in the hope that she would forget about talking to him and go back to playing with her staff, which was still balanced precariously on end.

But no such luck. "Are you busy?" she chirped up, grabbing her wand. "Need teleporting?"

Oh please, no. Sasarai turned back to her, pausing in midstep and trying to contain that flutter of horror in his chest at the suggestion. "No, it's quite alright..." He brandishes the pack of letters like a shield. "Just trying to find one of my attendants."

Sending Dios off with Hugo was beginning to look like a bad decision. Where was everybody? He glanced around, hoping against hope to find something to distract Viki, or give him an excuse to run away with his tail between his legs. There should have been someone in the foyer - they didn't all go off to that battle, did they?

"Oh, okay." She seemed a bit crestfallen, tapping her wand on the floor, but before he could politely take his leave, she brightened and asked, "Has anyone ever told you how much you look like Luc?"

The bishop stared at her, let his hand drop. Whatever he wanted to say slipped his mind. No... No, nobody had ever told him that. He wished that had not been the case, though what good it would have done was unclear. Did she know? But of course she couldn't know; Nash wouldn't speak of it, Father certainly never spoke of it, and Sasarai had no intention of sharing. People would recoil, be horrified, and understandably so. He still felt sick thinking about it at night.

Viki stood there, head tilted, with no idea what she was asking. Wasn't that usually the case? It was difficult to summon up the words to answer her, and remarkably, there was no thought to simply turning and walking away. "No..." A simple but effective answer.

She ran with it anyway, and seemed happy enough just to talk. Maybe it was boring to stand by that mirror all day. He could imagine. "I hoped it was him walking down the stairs, but he seemed to really hate Harmonians last time I saw him, so I didn't think he would wear your uniforms."

As if Luc would come to Budehuc in peace - much less stroll down the stairs! Common sense told him not to ask, but he couldn't resist. "Why on earth would you think that?"

"His name is there!" The teleportress pointed off to the side with her wand, but when Sasarai looked, all he saw was a blank wall and the double doors leading to the courtyard.

"Ah..." He turned his attention back to Viki. "There's nothing there."

She glanced over and laughed, righting her wand. "No, not on the wall. Here, I'll show you!"

"Wait!" The bishop reached forward to grab her wand and stop her as any sensible Budehuc citizen would do. He had work to do, and no time to wander around in Caleria, or Gregminster, or wherever they would end up-

"SHAZAM!"

-falling. There was a second of freefall, surrounded by blue sky, and then impact with the ground knocked the air out of him, set him coughing and gasping for breath. Tall grass crinkled and waved, and an explosion of color erupted in the sky above him - butterflies disturbed from their rest. He stared as they flew about and settled again, scattered by the breeze.

This was not Budehuc. It was too quiet. There was no city nearby, or it would be heard.

"Oops." The bishop lifted his head a little, his body finally convinced that yes, breathing would be a good idea, and found Viki sprawled across his middle. She shook her head, dark hair flying, and looked up, but did not remove herself as he wished she would. "Oh, we did get here!"

What? A successful teleport? Amazing. Sasarai pushed up on his elbows, wincing when he hit a rock, and glanced around. He felt slightly dizzy.

As he suspected, they were at the heart of... nothing. Spring fields stretched out around them, alight with the afternoon sun and dotted with a rainbow of flowers, and equally colorful butterflies flitting from one place to another lazily. Rocks jutted from the ground a few yards away, all very sharp and unrefined except for one. It was obviously man-made, fashioned into a huge rectangular tablet, and bordered with elaborate carvings. Etched into the polished center were rows of names, and above each of them, inlaid with something glassy, were the stars of destiny.

He had studied them briefly years ago, after the Dunan Unification War awakened his interest in them. His eyes swept over each row, searching, and found what they sought at the far left, near the top: Tenkan. Sasarai had trouble enough reading the names of the stars from a distance, and could not quite make out the name beneath this one clearly, but it was there, and it looked short enough to be the one he suspected.

"He's there..." The bishop blinked at it, straining his eyes to see it more clearly. He could not think of what it might mean.

"Told you." Viki's voice brought him out of his reverie, and she smiled at him, more subdued than before. "So it must mean he'll come back, right? He said an enemy's name would never appear on the tablet."

He looked away, avoiding both the teleportress and the tablet. "I hope so." If only things were that easy. But reality would not be that kind, if the war was any indication. Luc had the true runes; why would he stop now? Just to say hello to the Blinking mage and offer some guidence to his brother? No.

"Just look at it." Viki reached to pick up her wand, disturbing the butterflies perched on it. "It looks so dirty. He'd /hate/ that. I tried to clean it for him, but it didn't work."

That was utterly ridiculous, but Sasarai couldn't bring himself to say so. "He... hated dirt?" It was the only thing that came to mind, and he had to admit, he was a little curious about what kind of person Luc was. His own experiences didn't yield much information.

She laughed again, and it seemed she had at least some of her cheer back, though it faded. It was a strange sight, to see such a sober expression on her face. "He got so mad at Futch when he spilled tea on one of the tablets. It dripped all over him, too..."

The dragon knight knew him? And Apple - she had mentioned speaking with Luc on occasion, though he'd known she was involved in the same wars. There had not yet been much of a chance to ask for more information. Doing so would probably seem strange, but then, maybe she would understand, or at least keep silent about it. If Viki noticed the resemblence, she couldn't be the only one.

No one said anything, but perhaps that explained some of the looks he'd gotten lately.

"I wonder if he would like to know..."

"Who?" It took a moment for Sasarai to bring his mind back on track. "Futch?" Was that his name?

Viki gave an affirming nod, turning back to him, but whatever she intended to say was lost in an, "Oh! Don't move!" and she crept over him, heedless of where she was jabbing her knees, until they were nearly nose-to-nose.

"W-what are you..." The bishop flushed scarlet and tried to squirm away. Something fluttered against his temple when he moved, and he spotted a speck of gold and red flitting away out of the corner of his eye.

"A butterfly." She grinned, seemingly unaware of just how inappropriate it was to use a bishop for a rug. "It liked you."

Nothing eloquent came to Sasarai's mind in response to that. His face was much warmer than the afternoon warranted, and he wished she'd move, but that did not appear to be on her mind. But if she stayed still... "Thanks," he managed, finally.

Well, it wasn't so bad.


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Cliche can be lovely, too. ^^

I admit it: I had no idea what the hell I was saying when I made Beecham sing. Just ignore the strangeness. >_> And my, but I made Sasarai an arrogant ass. That's why we love him! Anyway, I took many cues from Budehuc MUCK scenes, since dear Nuri is such a wonderful Viki player. I certainly didn't do her justice at all.

Luc brings happy couples together. <3 <3 <3