Kings and Vagabonds, KYD, 4

[akinoame]

Gerhild led Eiji out of the castle, where the villagers were camping out, unsure of what to do with the devastation of their homes. But the moment they saw Eiji, they ran over, thanking him for saving them and their children. He tried to comfort them the best he could in a mix of German and Japanese, and Gerhild watched with her heart aching as he recognized the parents and baby he'd rescued from the second collapsing house and smiled at them, getting a handshake from the father and a hug from the mother. Sophia had warned her not to trust him, but he seemed so warm and open with everybody.

Looking over at her and seeing the conflict on her face, he gently broke away from everyone and asked, "Are you okay?" Remembering the sudden silence in the kitchen when she'd mentioned Aleidis's name, he asked, "Your friend?"

"Dead," she answered, keeping her head low.

"Oh," he said sadly. Then, he held out Ankh's Medal fragments and answered in German, "My friend too."

There was a similar kind of sadness in him—not as fresh, but just as deep. He'd lost a friend, possibly a few friends. He understood her feelings, if not her words.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Why are you doing this? For me—for everyone?"

And then he winced—not because he couldn't answer the question, but because he couldn't understand it. Carefully, she repeated the most important part: "Who are you? Really?"

"Who am I," he repeated in Japanese. "The truth?"

She took his hand and held it to his heart. "You."

He sighed and looked up at the castle. It didn't look like anyone would be able to hear and tell the King, but still, he leaned in close and quietly said. "Hino Eiji."

The phonemes sounded strange to her, particularly toward the end, and in confusion, she approximated, "Eiyi?"

"Right," he replied, wincing. "I forgot that sound isn't in German. Uh...Hino."

"Hino?" she repeated. He nodded, and she opened up his hand to show the broken Medal. "How?"

In the best German he could manage, he whispered, "I'm OOO." She gasped and backed away, and he insisted, "But not the King!" With a glare toward the castle, he added, "Never the King."

She stared at the Medal. The King had the same kind. But when she looked up at Eiji's face, she could see no sign of the King there. This was a man who would never send away a lover who couldn't bear him children, who would care if his children or his lover died and do everything within his power to save them. Even in one day, she could see that.

She took a cautious step forward, and he took his notebook and started sketching the OOO Driver. "Mine. Missing. Help?"

She looked at the drawing. "Is it here?" He gave her a helpless look and shrugged. Ripping the paper from the notebook, she promised, "I'll help. We all will."

"Thank you," he said with a smile, beginning to place his Medal fragments inside the book.

She stopped him. He couldn't risk losing something like this too. She reached for a pouch she had tied to her belt and took out a needle case, some thread, and a pair of scissors. Taking Eiji's bracelet and the Medal, she removed a needle and threaded it, then stuck it through the leather bracelet. With a few careful stitches, she secured the first half of the Medal to the bracelet. Eiji watched with wide eyes as she turned the bracelet around and sewed the second half right next to the first. There was still a clear divide between them, but they were safe, immobilized as she handed the bracelet back.

His hands shook for a moment as he took it and strapped it to his wrist. It took another moment for him to remember how to breathe.

"Thank you," he said quietly. Then, more confidently and in German, he repeated, "Thank you," and hugged her.

She hadn't felt that warm in a long time.

~~~

Solaris finally tracked Eiji down to the courtyard, where several of the children had gotten bored in their search and had goaded him into a game of ball. Gerhild had gotten a pig bladder from the kitchen, and they'd inflated it, and Eiji was trying his hardest to follow along with the rules. When he saw her, he walked over for a much-needed break.

"It's things like these that make me forget you're a politician's son," she remarked.

"Huh?" he asked.

"It took a while, but I realized it was genius telling the King that the sword was a gift," she explained. "It takes suspicion off of us, and it ensures that we always know where it will be."

"Well, telling him the Super Medals were defective was also a great idea," he admitted. "I don't know if we'll be able to get them back, but at least he'll be less likely to try using them."

"Don't be so humble," she insisted. "You disarm people by being open and friendly, but you know how to maneuver your way through ambition and even manipulate people into doing what you want, by making them think they're doing what they want."

He cringed. "I'm not sure I like it when you say it like that."

"You have to admit, it's a gift," she pointed out.

"I think of it more like this," he said. "I'm not naive enough to trust that someone's going to do something because it's the right thing to do. That's what got me in trouble back in Africa. Instead...maybe Ankh was right. Maybe deep down, everyone wants to look out for themselves first. So, understanding their desires and finding a compromise—that's the only way I can get things done."

She gave a smile of approval. He wasn't sure he liked it.

"So you think the sword is the key to getting back to our own time?" she asked.

"Not positive," he admitted, "but it makes sense. The original Medals were created around this time. The energy from the sword ripped a hole in space-time and landed us here, the closest it could reach. It's possible that because the Super Medals were created in the future, we can ride that energy again back."

"But they're from the future," she pointed out, seeing the flaw in his plan.

"I know," he sighed. "In that case, I have to hope that I'll run into Miharu-kun again, or the future Kougami."

"It's a lot of if's," she said. "But it's the best we've got." He nodded. "So why bother getting involved here? Everyone here will be long dead by our time. It's not like you can bring anyone back with you—even someone who's not going to leave behind any descendents."

Eiji ignored the pointed jab at Gerhild and argued, "Just because somebody's going to die, it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to help them while they're still alive. Besides, I could always cause enough damage to the past that another time-traveling Rider would have to come back and stop me."

Solaris laughed. "You're more like a politician than you care to admit."

He shrugged again. "I had to ask Gerhild to keep an eye out for the OOO Driver. She knows who I really am now." Solaris raised an eyebrow. "I had to. But we haven't found it on the castle grounds. So either it's lost in time..."

"Or the King has it," she realized. "And he'll know."

"He's already too interested in me," he said. "It makes me uncomfortable, really, and that's without knowing what he's going to do."

"The unknown is more frightening," she agreed. "He wants you to sit by him at the banquet. 'No' isn't an option."

The children suddenly stopped kicking the ball around and dropped into awkward bows. Eiji and Solaris noticed immediately and whirled around, bowing as the King and the four alchemists walked over.

"I see you have recovered from your scare, Elric," Gara pointed out.

Eiji cautiously rose, looking over the new men. Solaris took over and instructed, "These are Master Willeson, Master Khazim, and Master Wang."

"Hello," Eiji greeted, bowing lightly once more.

"It is a shame we missed you before," Wang said. "Though, I can understand why you would be so afraid of Master Gara's snake. There are others like it in my homeland, and they are quite deadly."

"You also speak our language?" Eiji asked.

"Not quite as well as Master Gara, but Miss Solaris says you do speak other languages," Willeson replied, speaking English—or what English would have sounded like back then, with roughly the same vowel pronunciation as Japanese. It was comprehensible, but a little harder for Eiji to parse through.

"I've traveled some," Eiji admitted.

"You will have to tell us at dinner," Khazim said in Arabic—again, a bit different from what Eiji had learned, but still something he understood. "It sounds like a fascinating story."

Eiji felt even more unsettled, but he nodded and answered, "All right, if that's what you want." He had no idea how to get out of this.

"But first, I think we need a demonstration of this fine sword," the King decided, holding the Medajalibur out to Eiji.

He felt like he was being tested, and no matter what he did, he was going to fail—in his own mind, anyway. He took the sword, and Gara handed him some Cell Medals as he faced away from the castle, towards the forest.

"There's a slot in here," he explained, showing off the mechanism in the sword. "Just insert the Medals, and scan..."

The King handed him the O-Scanner. He felt like the world was holding its breath, waiting for him to act. He slid the O-Scanner across the sword, then lifted it up and with a loud cry, slashed at the forest. A slice appeared in the air, separating a line of trees before sliding back together. But the trees fell with a crash.

That breath was let out all at once in applause—from everyone except Solaris, Eiji noticed. He'd placed them both into a worse situation, but what else could he do? He couldn't very well assassinate the King, especially not with the alchemists all present and undoubtedly ready to strike.

The King clapped a hand around him. "This truly is a mighty weapon. I thank you greatly for your generous gift."

"You're welcome," Eiji answered. He looked over at Solaris, but he couldn't read her expression—on purpose, he guessed. What else could he have done?

The King turned to the villagers and declared, "Tomorrow morning, you all may begin cutting the wood from these trees for your homes. But tonight, we feast!"

There were more cheers, out of respect for the King. But when he pushed Eiji forward, the townspeople mobbed him in cheers and adoration. Language difficulties or not, there was no way for him to insist he hadn't done anything special, and their gratitude eventually gave way to a small smile on his face.

The King watched on, more confident in his decision than before.

~~~

There were no birds in the kingdom. Bird Greeed, the occasional bird Yummy, but no actual birds.

But there was a dovecote attached to the castle, and it acted as a secret lab for Masters Khazim, Wang, and Willeson, away from Gara's prying eyes. It was there that the King met with them while the rest of the castle busied themselves with the impending banquet.

"What are your thoughts on our young apprentice?" the King asked.

"Hardly young, Your Majesty," Willeson answered. "He's far too old to be this naive."

"Innocent," Khazim corrected. "The fact that he didn't attack Your Majesty when he had the chance proves greater wisdom. Beg pardon, but it was a serious risk to let him demonstrate the powers of that sword."

The King rested his hand on the Medajalibur's hilt. "Your thoughts, Master Wang?"

"Difficult to say," Wang apologized. "He appears pure of heart, and it certainly attracts the people to him." The King nodded gravely. "But he is a mere apprentice, and one who is more comfortable with the peasantry than with nobility."

"He makes his own nobility," the King noted. "A vagabond with the heart of a King."

The masters hesitated. It was not their place to defy their lord's wishes, but their life's work was at stake.

"Your Majesty," Khazim insisted. "Are you certain? Another suitable subject may still appear."

"None among the knights who have attacked, none among the princes I've overthrown, and none among the executed nobles," the King reminded them. "Everyone in the world is trying to achieve his own desire. Mr. Elric's desire is for everyone else in the world."

"It is the desperate desire of the dying that gives birth to the Core Medals," Willeson argued. "This is too close to Gara's foolish quest. No power can come without creating a Greeed! OOO is powered by desire itself—what are the Greeed but desire?"

"Master Wang, what are the chances that a Greeed will form without desire of its own?" the King asked.

Wang paused, looking forlornly at the failed Purple Medals. Such a promising prospect, but the long-extinct creatures could not summon enough desire to constitute a Greeed. They'd been forced to return the tenth Medal and bury the project.

"it is possible," he began slowly, "that if desire exists, bound to other people's desires, that a Greeed could be coaxed into forming." He looked up at the King. "It's theoretical, of course, but it could lead to a Greeed that could be more easily controlled."

"An angel," the King surmised.

"Perhaps," Khazim admitted. "An angel who has no will of his own, only that of his god."

"A Greeed such as that would make it easier to conquer the rest of the principalities," Willeson realized. "Perhaps even overthrow the Pope himself."

"Yes, possible," the King said. "Or for far greater ambitions."

"You're certain, then, that this Elric is the perfect specimen for such an undertaking?" Wang asked.

"Yes," the King replied. "And before this night is over, you will be too."