|
"Alternative Directions: Options "Written By: Karina Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or the lovely
boys and their girls in the series. Wish I did. Please don't sue me.
I haven't even got a brass razoo to give you. Rating: Deffinately PG in Australia, at the moment,
but probably safer to say R for later chapters. Not sure about international
ratings Warnings: It will be 6x2, even though it does
not start out that way. After all, Zechs and Duo never met in Gundam
Wing and only spoke briefly over a com line in Endless Waltz. I've
tried to keep them in character as I saw them in the series. A bit
of language creeping in under stressful conditions. Pairings: eventual 6x2, past 2xH, 2+H,6x9, 1+R
Summary: Directions is set post Endless Waltz
and roughly 2 years have passed. Zechs and Noin are on Mars and Duo,
after spending some time with Hilde in a relationship leaves L2 to
join Preventers. Hilde was not happy about his decision. I guess enough
said. Here t'is, and I hope you like it. This is also AU for the standard
setting, as well as the series and Endless Waltz. Spoilers: Gundam Wing Series and Endless Waltz Many thanks to Dulin for volunteering to beta this. //... // thoughts
"Alternative Directions: Options"
Chapter 126 2nd March AC 198 Sanc Stephansbourg The Coachman's Rest Time: 02:05 Sally //I thought that I would never be warm again and I will be very glad to crawl into bed. Surely no self respecting terrorist, burglar or idiot would be out in this weather. It should be safe enough to sleep in shifts. // Firmly she drew the heavy drapes over the window, further muffling the sound of the storm and sealing off what few drafts penetrated the window and the tightly closed shutters. The storm shutters effectively sealed the window from the blasting wind and fitted tightly enough not to rattle beyond the occasional mild creak at a particularly strong blast. Quatre had braved the wild weather to walk a circuit of the Inn and on his return had informed her that the snow drifts were piled almost to the height of the window outside this room and had estimated from the velocity of the storm that at least half of the window would likely be covered by snow by morning. The proprietor of the Coachman's Rest had laughed a deep belly laugh and jovially informed the half frozen young man that if the storm ran true to form for the region there would be snow to the eaves by mid morning on the windward side of the building. //He reminds me of Santa Clause.// she smiled to herself as she turned from the window, watching as Mariemaia crawled into bed. The nine-year-old had watched their host with blue eyes widened as big as saucers and Sally had half expected her to forget her manners and ask if he really was the Jolly Old Elf of legend. Thankfully good manners and that unflappable Kushrenada personality had prevailed and though staring had been forthcoming nothing more embarrassing had resulted from her introduction. //Marie almost seemed like a nine year old. It was good to see.// They were in good hands, of that she was certain. The proprietor of the Coachman's Rest, Hans Kruger, had worked quickly and efficiently to make his unexpected guests comfortable. Within minutes of their arrival the banked fire had been stoked to blazing warmth and Relena and Mariemaia had been ensconced in overstuffed chairs set close to the hearth and settled under thick fur throws. No sooner had they been made comfortable than the lady of the Inn had made her presence known with very welcome steaming hot cups of chocolate and thence proceeded to prepare their rooms with that same quick and quiet efficiency that marked her husband. With the fire in this room set and warming the chill air and fresh bedding in place the cheery elderly woman reappeared with a light sandwich for Mariemaia and the promise that by the time the young Miss had finished her snack and chocolate her room would be ready for occupation. Mariemaia's room was the first to be pronounced ready but Sally knew that by the time she had settled the girl to sleep Relena's and possibly her own room would be ready. //Maybe it would be best if I shared a room with Relena? I know this Inn is big and there are not many guests just now but it might be best if I am in the same room as our Princess. A precaution, though I doubt that there is trouble here.// It worried her, though, this entire business. //What are you up to, Anne? Somehow I think we are in for trouble and while I trust you, I have the distinct impression that you have never outgrown your days in Oz. You were a sneaky and conniving bitch then and you still are. I should trust you, I know. You are dedicated to working for the peace, but … Still …//she sighed. //It has been a long day.// It was an old building, The Coachman's Rest. Somehow during all of the chaos of the invasion when Sanc had fallen to Alliance machinations and during the following occupation this rambling old Inn had been spared from the atrocities that had destroyed so much of the countries history. It had to be one of the few buildings in the country to have survived in its original condition both the original invasion by the Alliance and the more recent occupation by Romefeller's Oz troops. Old, rambling and somehow incredibly welcoming. The owners seemed to fit with the more relaxed persona and the old world feel the structure presented. Coming here seemed almost surreal, as though they had turned back the hands of time to the days when Sanc knew peace and the thought of invasion had been unthinkable. “Feeling warmer?” She watched as Mariemaia bounced a time or two, testing the mattress and then snuggled deeper under the comforter. “I feel wonderful, Sally.” It was almost a purr of content and a little girl purr at that. “It's very nice here. It feels like home.” It was a comfortable building, Sally reflected and graced with a homey feel she rarely encountered in this day and age. Her own apartment was simply a place for her to sleep when she was not staying at Une's home as happened all too often lately. While the inn boasted all of the luxuries one would expect from a four star establishment in this modern day and age the building and most of the furnishings were more in line with what one would expect to find in a genteel country house. There was nothing of the impersonal feeling about this place that she normally associated with hotels, and she had seen enough of those since joining Preventers to make an apt comparison. The Coachman's Rest had the looks and the feel of a comfortable country home from a bygone era. It made her yearn for a place of her own that could emulate that same psychological comfort. “It is comfortable, yes. It's very late and you need to get some sleep. Barring unforeseen circumstances we shall not be moving again tonight and if this weather keeps up we may not be able to move on tomorrow either, so you might as well sleep in. I think it will be a good morning for sleeping in and to be honest just a little indulgence never hurt anyone. I'll come for you if anything should happen or if our plans need to change. I will not be far from you.” “That's okay. This place feels wonderful and I will not have a bit of trouble sleeping here. What do you think happened?” //Nightmares again, Marie? Ah, child, what have these times come to? Little girls of six trained to be figure heads and witnessing such sights as make adults weep. We have to stop those days from returning.// Sally paused in hanging up the girls clothes in the huge old wardrobe and glanced at her. While Mariemaia might look like a rather pretty and innocent nine-year-old she was far from innocent. Since her mothers death she had not been raised to her age. Like Relena there was very obviously an old head upon young shoulders though it was much more pronounced with Mariemaia than it was with Relena. In her opinion Relena was most fortunate to have been reared for at least thirteen years as an ordinary if very spoiled little rich girl. The Darlians had known their daughter's heritage and while Sally knew that they had not expected her to resume the position of her birth they had prepared her for that eventuality should it ever chance to occur. From the day of her birth Mariemaia had been watched by her grandfather and become a part of his plans. On the death of her mother she had been reared to be nothing but Dekim Barton's tool. A tool but a well educated tool and one trained in the airs and graces as befitted her paternal heritage. Though she and Anne worked hard at showing Mariemaia it was okay to be a little girl she knew that they still had a long way to go to reverse the damage done by the Barton patriarch. If she was honest with herself she had to admit that while they could reduce the damage done to the child they would never actually reverse it. Mariemaia would always be somewhat older than her years and she would be haunted by her past to the day of her death. //I hate being realistic sometimes.// Personally she hoped Dekim Barton was rotting in hell for the pain he had caused to the girl because she rather liked this red-haired child. Unexpectedly they kept running into obstacles that demonstrated that Mariemaia Kushrenada had not had an easy childhood. She was not so much a spoiled little rich girl, as Relena had been, but a conditioned tool designed to be a despot's puppet. “Hmm? Happened?” she wrenched her thoughts back to the matter at hand, turning to face the bed and those sapphire eyes that always seemed to see so much. “What do you think happened at home and at the palace? I'm not a baby, Sally and I do wish that you and Aunt Anne would not treat me like one.” Sally sighed and hung the last of the girl's clothes in the wardrobe. In one single aspect at least Mariemaia was beginning to act more her age and that was in developing a bad case of dropsy. When Mariemaia changed her clothes, clothing was inevitably thrown haphazardly around her room while she chose what to wear, then her worn clothing joined the pile on the floor. The entire mess was then left littering the floor until she was rather pointedly reminded to clean up after herself. Anne had insisted that Mariemaia be made to deal with such mundane matters as keeping her room reasonably tidy herself, refusing to employ staff to tidy up after slovenly habits totally unbecoming of the daughter of the House of Kushrenada. Any protests Mariemaia had voiced were silenced by one look from those brown eyes that had been agate hard and by the quietly conveyed message that her father had not been one to instruct others to do what he would not, and that included picking up after himself. For all that Anne was firm with the child she was scrupulously fair in her dealings with the daughter of the man she had loved and in truth the girl delighted her. Newly acquired messy habits was clear evidence that they were making progress with her. “No, you are certainly not a baby, but the fact remains that I can't tell you what I do not know.” Sally moved to sit on the bed and met the intense blue eyes. There was a wealth of intelligence in those eyes and a look that was years older than her actual age. “All I can tell you is what little I do know and that is simply that Anne said she wanted you moved to a safe location. I was to take you and Relena to a safe house under cover of the blizzard. If there has been a threat I do not know exactly what it might have been but you know Anne. She would never risk your safety. I know that you heard the radio bulletin about your house being attacked by terrorists and we both saw the explosion at the palace as we drove away, but as to what it is about … I simply do not know any more than you at this time.” Mariemaia sighed and nodded, snuggling down into the thick feather mattress and pulled the eiderdown up to her ears. She knew when it was hopeless trying to get information and she was not such a fool or so young as they seemed to think her. She would find out, but for now she was tired and she was blessedly warm. “Why can't I have a bed like this one at home? It feels so wonderful.” The Preventer agent laughed and shook her head. It was a double bed, tall and traditionally built of seasoned oak, with an ornately carved headboard depicting a fairytale scene of woodland sprites and unicorns at play watched by a young boy and girl from the cover of strategically placed bushes. Sally had admired it from the moment she had entered the room and just from looking at it she knew that it had been lovingly hand carved and that it was old. An heirloom piece if ever she had seen one. The mattress was thick with feathers and down in the old traditional style and the eiderdown was hand sewn and probably stuffed with goose feathers if she was any judge. A fire crackled merrily in the hearth near the window and there was a matching oak wardrobe and tallboy set on the far wall. All in all it was a friendly, comfortable room from an age long gone but one that curiously enough seemed to suit Mariemaia far more than the modern decor of her home in New Port City. //Of course, I suppose that could just be me. Still, maybe not. I have been to the Kushrenada estate in Kiev and that is in the old style and she looked so comfortable there. She belonged amid that old splendor. I guess it's just something peculiar to the Kushrenada's or I have a problem thinking of them and the more austere modern lines in the same thought. There is something old fashioned about them. Something genteel. // “I'll suggest it to Anne if you like?” Mariemaia wrinkled her nose at Sally but her blue eyes were beginning to soften with the warmth and comfort of the old bed, lulling her toward sleep. “I wish you would. I love the mattress. It's so soft and warm.” a yawn interrupted the girl and she smiled almost dreamily. “Do you think Relena will get Heero to marry her?” Sally blinked and stared at the girl more than startled by the shift in subject. “Heero and Relena … marriage? Marie, I think you are letting your imagination run a little there. They are very good friends but Heero is Relena's bodyguard, not a suitor. As far as I know there is nothing more than friendship in their regard for each other.” //Although I have to admit the girl was a rampant stalker when they first met. Thank God she got her hormones under control and turned into a well bred young lady.// Marie grinned and wriggled deeper into the big bed, her red hair the only thing clearly visible now. “You never saw them holding hands in the back of the car and making eyes at each other when I was not supposed to be watching.” Sally's eyes widened. The mental picture of Heero Yuy gazing at Relena like a love struck young idiot with hands clasped fervently to his heart sent a shudder down her spine and she drove the thought away quickly. Heero was certainly not the demonstrative sort and that she was aware of he had never so much as looked at Relena with anything but a professional eye toward her security. “I'm sure you would like to think that. They would be a strikingly attractive couple, but the relationship is purely professional. Settle down now and get some sleep. Enjoy this big bed while you can because I guarantee that there will not be a bed so fine where we are going.” “I wish they would let me have it.” a tired sigh. “Night, Sally.” The girl sounded more than half asleep already and Sally sighed as she turned out the light. There were only four guests at the inn other than their party and the security detail had already decided to take two hour shifts guarding Mariemaia and the Princess. Blessedly none of the guests had woken to the commotion of their arrival and for that Sally was more than thankful. She would deal with their curiosity in the morning, right now all she wanted to do was find that cup of hot tea she had been promised and crawl into a bed that would hopefully be at least half as comfortable as Marie's. //I wonder … No. Surely not. Heero and Relena as a couple …? // The girl's innocent question had startled her and while she had dismissed the idea initially as she descended the stairs and nodded to the agent on his way up to guard Mariemaia's door, the comment came back to her. That initial certainty was suddenly lacking. Both Heero and Relena were eminently sensible young people but Sally decided that perhaps she might need to keep an eye on the situation. Should Heero become emotionally involved with Relena then without a doubt he was going to have to be removed from his position as her bodyguard. That would be a decision that would not sit well with either of the young people involved. //It could not be helped though. It would be necessary.
He will not work as efficiently as he should if he is distracted by
emotion. Mixing intimate emotions and security is not a good idea
and it has been proven time and time again to exert a detrimental
effect on performance. Is it possible that Marie might be right? He
may once have been a mission-oriented Perfect Soldier but he is growing
nicely out of mission mode and displaying more and more emotion as
he matures. Eighteen year olds are usually driven by hormone induced
emotions but Heero has always been a special case. The mission has
always come first for him. As for Relena … Well her stalker tendencies
may be under control-thankfully- but she is The thought of needing to run interference between love-struck teenagers sent a shudder down her spine. She did not fancy playing den mother to a budding romance in the very public eye. Relena was closely watched by politicians and the public alike and she was a favourite target of the media. She could just imagine the media hype if such a romance was leaked to the media and just how would that type of relationship effect changes to Heero's parole? //The thought just does not bare thinking about. They would crucify him.// Both were professionals in their individual professions and they performed their work extremely well, she admitted that. Would the Perfect Soldier, who was no longer a soldier or in his own words perfect, allow himself to slip from mission mode and into a romance with the one woman who was perhaps the most recognized face in the Earth Sphere? She could not see it herself, but hormones were powerful things and could drive a person to extremes. //It will be hard to accurately evaluate Heero, but I am going to have to manage it somehow. I will need to look for signs of a relationship developing and try to resolve any issues that may arise. Relena will be easier to read than Heero, not that that is a surprise, considering his past. I will have to be careful and be certain before I make a move. // How would the traditionalists take to the idea of Heero, a nobody from the colonies, courting their Princess? Did he have enough knowledge of the social graces to actually court her? Sally winced at the very thought of the idea. He certainly had social graces which he could display when the need arose, but did he know how to court a woman? Just how far had Heero's select education gone? He had been trained as a terrorist but he had been given sufficient social education to enter elite educational institutions and not raise the instructors eyebrows. He had been standoffish but unfailingly polite from stories she had heard and he had never been one to actively indulge in social graces. It was more than his questionable social skills though. As Chief Medical Officer for the Preventers she had access to medical records that told a very clear story. There was enough evidence in Heero's genetics to convince her that he had been rather extensively modified prior to his birth. For what purpose those modifications had been performed she could not say, but she had viewed his medical records and had taken genetic tissue from him on more than one occasion. The evidence was there, if you know where to look and since by his own admission he had not come under J's wing until later in his childhood, she was left with unanswered questions of why he had been modified. Perhaps to be a soldier, perhaps not. She could find no trace of any records that she might identify as his. //The Romefeller laboratories that were raided a few months ago though … There are similarities between some of those children's recorded genetic charts and Heero's. Enough to make me wonder if Heero was not at one time a Romefeller genetic experiment. It is possible, but if so how did he get away from them and what were they aiming for in altering his genetic code? There are similarities with these children who were modified to become soldiers, but there are differences. Too many questions and not enough answers and most of the answers I do have are purely supposition. // There was no doubt that he was a genetically modified human being and that he had ultimately been trained for war and given no opportunity to learn any other way of life. One of the first decisions he had made for himself was when he had sworn not to kill again after the Mariemaia incident, but after disappearing for a time on his release from hospital he had returned to Earth and enlisted as a Preventer. The watchdogs of course had swooped, intent on dragging him into the entire war crimes mess and Anne and Relena had been quick to have him included in the clause that protected Wu Fei and the other gundam pilots. Of course Heero's penchant for taking off and vanishing had made it more difficult to settle the conditions of his parole but he had not vanished again and he had been an exemplary agent. That she knew of during his term as a Preventer Heero had killed six men, one of whom was an assassin sent to remove Relena. Killing disturbed him but he never flinched if the situation warranted that he took the killing shot. He was more a professional than most mature aged agents she knew for all of his tender years. It was a disturbing sign of the times they lived in that all of the pilots had proven themselves incapable of standing down from a quasi military life style. Even Quatre, a multi-billionaire with a corporation that spanned the ESUN had found it impossible to remain the business man the people of the Earth Sphere knew and worked in conjunction with Preventers, occasionally going on physically demanding missions. Adrenaline junkies, all of them. Sally sighed. //It will take years of therapy to have them comfortable with leading a life style that does not require them to feel that they must place their lives on the line to assure the peace continues. They were trained for years to fight and it is not just the Gundam Pilots. There are trained soldiers out there who have known nothing but a military life. They have had no training to face a purely civilian existence. They have no careers to fall back on to help them to face this time of peace and there were a lot of soldiers. There are programs now in place to offer help and retraining but there simply are not enough openings for the amount of people who have to be helped. Something has to be done but it takes so much time to arrange for these programs. So much time and while a program is being developed the suicide rate climbs, the hospitals fill up with accident victims injured when they took needless risks and the streets fill with veterans who simply have no where to go. It is a mess. I honestly don't know what the solution should be to deal with them all.// The programs designed to rehabilitate the soldiers were simply not enough for the numbers of people involved. Rehabilitate. She hated that word. Retrain, yes, she could live more easily with that description than with the current catch cry for rehabilitation. It was not fair to the soldiers that the current view was to treat them as though they were criminals. She herself was a soldier and still fought as a soldier for peace. She was one of the fortunate ones who had fallen on her feet and found herself a niche. //Damn. I still can't say I WAS a soldier. I AM a soldier. I still think of myself as being a Soldier, not an ex-anything. I am a doctor and I am a Preventer but … I am a soldier, I still have that mind set. I am just as bad as the others even though I have found a niche for myself in Preventers. It is true that old habits die hard, I suppose. I lost a lot of friends in the war and I am not proud to know that some of them would be very glad they had not lived to be a part of this world now. It's shocking. Wrong. Where is the reward for those who laid their lives on the line to bring about this peace we now enjoy? Has there ever been a time in the past when the citizens were afraid of the street bums begging on street corners because those vagrants have the training to kill them? There are just so many once proud soldiers on the streets, begging. Nor is it just on Earth but in the Colonies too. They are looked on as social outcasts. Ostracized for being soldiers. // Not enough was being done for those men and women, yet she knew only too well that it was not easy to find the right combination of training to give the soldiers a future. As had happened with most periods of war the birth rate had been elevated and a high majority of the births were males. It was a survival instinct of the race. As a medical doctor she knew the statistics only too well. On some deeply buried instinctive level the birth rates elevated in times of conflict to replace the losses suffered in war. As an interesting aside the birth ratio of male to female lifted dramatically in the male favour, although in this day and age as many soldiers were female as male. It was instinct, unassailable instinct that drove the human race to ensure its survival and it was one that might never be lost despite the advances in medicine. It was an instinct that left them with a bumper population to deal with and a higher male to female ratio that in future years, as that generation matured would cause problems of a different nature. //God, woman, not now. Not now of all times. I'm tired and it's high time that I found a warm bed and simply shut down for a few hours, but I really would like something to eat and a hot drink first.// She found Relena, Heero and Quatre still seated about the blazing fire, each with their hands curled around steaming cups of chocolate and Sally found herself ushered to a chair by the proprietor of the inn and a hot cup pressed into her hands. “Is Marie settled?” Relena looked up from the fire, her blue eyes now soft with content. “She was very brave in the car.” “No delicate little wall flower, that one.” Sally smiled and sipped gratefully the hot liquid, sighing in content.. “Yes, she is settled. Almost asleep before I left the room and I do not doubt that she will sleep in. We may have our work cut out convincing her she can not take the bed with her, however. Any luck with the radio?” Heero shook his head in the negative, glaring into the fire's depths. “Satellite communications are down. The intensity of the storm is interfering with the signal and we will have to wait for the conditions to improve. Standard television and radio reception is not operating either.” “The mountains block the standard radio transmissions at the best of times without special boosters installed and we rarely bother with that type of expense up here. The satellite signal is generally more reliable but can not get through the heavy weather.” Hans Kruger set a plate of toasted sandwiches beside Sally. “It is not much but it will warm you. Tomorrow we will show you some real hospitality. Living here you learn to deal with the weather and appreciate the quiet times when the world can not intrude. It is not uncommon for us to be without outside communications for two or three days at a time. As the weather eases we will regain access to the rest of the world.” Having lived in mountainous terrain before Sally was not at all surprised by the news. She could see that it disturbed Heero who, colony raised child that he was, was not reared to the foibles of natural weather systems. Quatre seemed to be taking the news better though he too looked disturbed. “The GPS system in the cars is still operating but the radio is mush.” Quatre sighed. “You have some very fancy toys, no doubt, but I have learned that it simply does not do to try to go against mother nature.” Kruger was grinning jovially, looking more like Santa Claus than ever. “We learn early here in the mountains to roll with the flow and accept small blessings when they come. Sometimes it was a blessing to not know what was happening out there.” Sally glanced up at the comment and nodded her understanding, noting the distant look in his blue eyes. There could be no doubt that he was thinking of the days when Sanc had fallen to the Alliance. The fall of the kingdom so many years ago was a subject she had found most native born Sancians preferred not to discuss and the more recent occupation by Romefeller forces made it all seem too fresh for them to share with outsiders. For a fleeting moment she wondered if she should not be worried to have Relena here in this backwater village. She knew from her investigations that many of the citizens were not happy that she had surrendered Sanc to Romefeller's Oz. Many of them had not made an effort to understand that her intentions had been to spare them from Romefeller. How was the inexperienced girl to know that the fighting would not stop just because she gave herself up to the enemy? All some of the citizens chose to see was that after their home was restored to them that their long awaited Princess had handed them over to a hostile force. They had returned to the days of oppression. Within Sanc's borders little was said publicly concerning the incident though as a Preventer Sally had had occasion to hear some of the resentment first hand, but thus far it seemed relatively low key and Preventers kept the situation monitored. Some subtle propaganda had been devised and released into the general population using carefully managed and staged incidents with undercover agents in attempts to ease the rumbles. Rumbles that had been heard with more frequency following the Barton incursion. It had not risen to a level that Une had deemed might constitute a threat to Relena or her position but it was a situation they carefully monitored. One of the major complaints Preventers monitored was the growing discontent concerning Relena's lack of attention to Sanc. Some of the citizens seemed to be of the opinion that Relena concentrated too much on the problems of the world and the colonies and not enough on the problems of her country. // The problem is that she just does not see Sanc as being her country. She was not raised here, in Sanc and it shows. She was barely two when she was taken to safety and though the Darlians were careful with her education they simply could not orient her to Sanc. It was too dangerous, for them and for her, to indoctrinate her to a country's needs that technically no longer existed. They never expected the Restoration to take place. They raised her as a child of a single Earth Nation that existed only in the mind of idealists and that is how she sees the world and the colonies. As one nation. It was futuristic thinking on Darlians part, but in the short term it is going to cause a host of problems for her with these people. In many ways she is just not suited to be the Princess of Sanc. After all that she has been taught she resists the idea of a monarchy on a deep level. Nor did Romefeller help the situation with that Queen of the World idiocy. I am certain that she still has nightmares about that time. The entire Queen of the World debacle shook her to the core. Queen of Pawns, Relena called it. Yes, she did manage to turn the tables on them but I think it was more good luck than any design on her part. Good luck? No, it was politics. A split in Romefeller itself worked to her favour and her grandfather was ever an opportunist from what I have learned of him. He would have loved to have his granddaughter as Queen. I wonder if he still wants her to accept the crown of Sanc or if he has given up on that theme? Anyway, this is useless speculation and it is not getting me into a nice warm bed for a few hours.// “The GPS system in the cars is not your standard system. It was a new development commissioned especially for Preventers.” Sally murmured. “We will simply have to sit here and wait out the storm. It will not last beyond noon, I expect.” “A storm at this time of the year means that we will have a cool summer and an early winter.” predicted the Innkeeper as he stoked the fire, placing more pine logs on the roaring blaze. “We will be stocking our cellars for a bad winter.” Relena glanced up and a frown marred her pretty face. “You think it will be a cool summer and bad winter? All because of a storm?” “My family have lived in these mountains for four hundred years on my mother's side and my father's ancestors have lived here for a hundred years more. They passed down knowledge to each successive generation that included the secrets of the weather and the seasons. The weather and other much more sensitive information and many secrets known only to our family. Yes, Princess of Sanc, I believe it will be a cool summer and it will be followed by an early and bad winter. In the old days the King would have his Watchers who would travel the countryside through out the year and gather information on the weather and how it affected the crops so that he could predict the needs of the people for the coming seasons. It was the duty of the people who worked the land to inform the King's Watchers so that he could best prepare. Famine, flood, drought and even wars. It did not matter if it was a force of nature or a force of man, the King was prepared in advance.” he stared into the dancing flames, eyes distant, seeing long gone days and no doubt remembering old stories handed down over generations. “The Kings of old were very good at predicting the needs of the people without the new fangled technology so many people rely on now. We had instinct and we had cooperative spirit to rely on. Here in Sanc we were blessed with having Kings who cared for us, not just for their comfort and prosperity and that meant that we generally fared better than some of the countries that surrounded us.” “How would the King prepare?” Relena was watching the old man with pointed interest. Sally watched the by play between the two, well aware that Heero was focusing on the old man and the interest Relena was now showing. Whether he suspected the Innkeeper was a threat to her physically or not he moved a step closer to her, away from the fire and watched with that familiar scowl creasing his brow. There was an odd light in Relena's eyes that sparked Sally's interest and she watched as the old man settled his ample form into an overstuffed chair near the Princess and returned his gazed to the fire. “How would the King prepare? Well, that would depend on what it was that the Watchers would report to him. There were many Watchers throughout the country and we knew they were there not to watch us for trouble, but to protect us. The Kings of Sanc knew that being such a small country we could easily be swallowed by the larger lands that surrounded us. If there were rumours of unrest in the neighbouring countries we would hear of it and pass the information along to the Watchers who would investigate and send word to the King. Many's the time the Kings messengers would go through this village, sent out as envoys to negotiate between the hostile parties in an effort to maintain peaceful borders. It was generally not word of unrest and wars that would be dispatched to the Watchers but word of the fishing fleets and the growth or decline of the forests. If the weather was predicted to be particularly harsh for the winter based on the weather patterns the families all knew then the Watchers would send word and the King would see to it that extra crops would be planted and after harvest the surplus would be stored in granaries and warehouses under Royal protection. Then, when the weather turned bad and supplies ran low, when the need was there the King would open the food stores and the people would not starve. It did not work always, of course, but largely Sanc was graced with a reasonably stable economy and plenty to eat compared to other countries. The most difficult thing to predict, of course, was the advent of plague. Sickness would ravage Europe periodically through the Dark Ages and no borders were safe from plague. Our people were generally graced with having radical thinkers as advisors to the Kings of Old. Certain precautions, taken early, might be suggested to the King and quite often would aid in reducing the death rate for those plagues, though, as I said, not always. Sanc too had its share of epidemics.” “Peacekeepers, even then.” Relena was leaning back in her seat, smiling faintly. “You said that the old Kings would send out envoys to keep the peace. Sanc has followed the ways of peace for a long time.” The old man shook his head slowly, still staring into the fire. “Not so peaceful as you might think, Your Highness. No, not so peaceful as you might think and sometimes the Cost … The cost would be terrible but … My family have been retainers to the King for centuries. We are Historians. We were the archive keepers up until about two hundred years ago. Some of the stories that have been handed down through the generations on the price of peace no doubt would surprise you. Some of them would make you weep.” “I … I was not taught much of the history of Sanc. It was not deemed safe for me to learn under the regime of the Alliance, but I would like to hear them.” Relena whispered. “I would like to learn of my ancestors.” “It would please me to tell them to you. Far too many of the young people in this day and age are not interested in the past. They tend only to see the now and the chance to progress forward and too many do not see that sometimes to move forward you must go backwards. It is a vital lesson that people do not seem capable of learning that true progress all too often does not lie in the future. Sometimes the path to progress can only be found in the pages of the past.” his hands slowly rotated the cup of chocolate he held in a circular motion, an absent minded gesture as his mind wandered the past. “You brother was not such a one. He was an avid student of the past.” Sally, seated across from the pair barely heard the comment that so electrified Relena. The Vice Foreign Minister was suddenly perched on the edge of her seat, her cup gripped tight in her hands and her eyes wide as she stared at the old man. “You met Milliardo?” a breathy whisper. “When? Where?” The old man looked up in startled surprise, clearly not having realized that he had been overheard and giving the impression that he had not intended to be heard. He sighed, lowering his head to stare into his cup. “Yes. Yes, I have had occasion to meet your brother and not merely once. The first time that we met was only days after the Alliance struck down the King. I think … Yes, somewhere around here there should be photographs we took while he was with us, but he was with us for only a few weeks before They came and he needed to run.” Sally caught the emphasis on the 'they' and guessed that he referred to an Alliance patrol. There had been many such patrols travelling Sanc, ostensibly establishing order and in truth ensuring the suppression of the people. Watching Relena she could not help but smile, thinking that the Princess of Sanc would fall from her chair and land on her butt with a pronounced thud if she edged forward any more. Relena was almost visibly shaking and Sally noted that Heero quickly reached to lightly touch her shoulder, a soothing touch that surprised Sally and made her think twice about the instant dismissal she had given to Mariemaia's thoughts on the pair. It would appear that there might be something to be concerned over after all. The Innkeeper's wife moved from her seat to stand behind her husband and lightly touch his shoulder, a comforting caress that mirrored Heero's touch almost perfectly. “Those are long gone days, my dear and we can do nothing about what is past except see that we use that knowledge to shape the future and ensure that it never repeats. He learned that lesson before any of us and he had the courage to use it. As he promised, Sanc was freed from the Alliance and he used everything that you taught him to the best possible effect. He promised that the peace would come not only to Sanc but to the entire Earth Sphere and he kept his word. You could always trust the word of the Kings of Sanc. Even when they are so young.” The old man sighed and nodded, one hand resting on hers acknowledging the comforting touch before he looked up to meet Relena's stunned blue gaze. “I have told you that my family was the Historians for the Kings of Sanc and some two hundred years ago, at the request of the King my family stepped down from their public position. At the King's request they kept records in secret that mirrored those stored within the castle archives. These records were entrusted to my family as security against a disaster that threatened to wipe out all of the knowledge of the past from which we had so much to learn. My family never actually left the employ of the king though many seemed to think that there had been a falling out between the King and my ancestor. I know that you were not raised as a Princess of Sanc after the massacre, but you are our Princess and you need to know the history of our people. I have kept the secret of the archive even when we thought that you and our young Prince were dead and the line lost with you. It is all there, in the hidden vault, waiting for you when you are ready. The history of Sanc. The hidden archives that only the Royal Family saw. It is waiting for you.” “I … I have seen what was left of the library of the old palace. Much of it survived, damaged but preserved by one of the Governors who was a history buff.” The old man shook his head slightly. “No. No, my dear, you misunderstand me. I am not talking about the library of Sanc. I am not talking about the public accounts of the history of Sanc. I am custodian of the true history, the Guardian of the Kings Archive. I am the one who took your brother to the hidden vault and showed to him what he needed to learn of our past. I am the one who led him to his death in that accursed ship by opening the vault to him and showing him the limits to which the Kings of Sanc were willing to go to maintain the peace. I am so sorry for what I did that day, but I thought it was the right thing to do. I wish that I had had more sense than to expose a White King to the past.”
|
