Arc III, Chapter 56

The return back home was swift - but not as swift as I would have liked.

The reason for that was simple and apparent, and I could not help another disgruntled look in the direction of the nearby tent. Wufei caught my eyes and snorted in agreement, but neither of us said anything; the words had already been said at this point, and there was no point returning to an already-finished argument. At least, that's what Quatre had said, looking very much on the verge of smacking our heads together.

"Ladies, the food is ready," Quatre said politely from just outside the tent. His tone was as polite and genial as ever, which was very impressive because he was not on the receiving end of such graciousness when it came to our interlopers. Trowa was fighting a losing battle in choking back his more discourteous statements, even when they got him into trouble with his husband.

A few moments later, the flap of the tent entrance was pushed open, and then Relena emerged into view with a small thanks. Her eyes flickered only briefly over Quatre - she seemed avoidant of him, no matter how kindly he treated her - until her gaze landed on Wufei and me, where she then made her way towards us. Trailing behind her and with a more-than-lingering look on Quatre was Dorothy Catalonia, the one person Relena had decided to bring along despite seemingly having no trust in the rest of us.

I had explained everything I heard from the princess to Trowa and the others. None of us trusted the Princess completely, but there was no denying the similarities in her 'vision' to Duo's side of the story. What she had said about Duo was another aspect that had made them stop and think. Trowa and the others had suspected something about what Duo may have been hiding, but not even they expected it to be confirmed so readily by an outsider.

The argument to travel together had been long and vexing. The princess had clammed up since she admitted to the existence of the shared prophetic dream, refusing to speak any more of the continuation of the 'novel' as Duo had understood it. However, she had been adamant that things had changed too significantly from what they both knew that the vision itself could be considered unreliable - and then was absolutely stubborn about checking it out for herself.

Which she did by declaring she would do a country-wide inspection, starting with the Yuy province.

Prince Milliardo had not been thrilled by the idea, given that we were currently on the cusp of war, but Relena had been uncompromising and got their ailing aunt, Queen Katrina, on her side in quick order. With myself and my aides as her bodyguards and her renowned friendship with Duo, Relena had been able to convince all and sundry that she would be safe, and also impress upon others her willingness to help the soldiers and commonfolk who would undoubtedly suffer the most once the war began.

The prince had nearly insisted he himself escort his sister, divided by his need to protect her but also his responsibility in leading the troops at Lagrange's border. Eventually, his responsibility won out, and he'd pleaded with me to make her safety my topmost priority. While I had no intention of putting Sanc's princess in harm's way, I would hardly call her my top priority. At the very least, Relena herself understood that, and made no complaint as I rushed our journey back to the Yuy province.

We had received correspondence from Simon the moment Duo made it home, but I had been unsettled by how bare the letter was upon reading. Simon's reports were factual and did not rely on flowery language, but even then, he could be relied on to describe some part of the journey or make recommendations. There had been none of that in his letter, however; it had read like a simple travel report, noting the stops they had made, the days it had taken to travel, and affirming the good health of the duchess.

I didn't like it, and neither had the others. Stranger still that neither Duo, Hilde, nor Meilan had sent any letters either; Duo was lively in his commentary, Hilde was diligent in her job, and Meilan had been happy to be sent along with them. The fact that none of them sent any letters at all was its own tell.

We were currently only a few days out from home. No other correspondence had reached us, though we were able to verify that Duo and his party had made stops at all the places Simon had noted in his report; villagers and other townspeople mentioned spotting or speaking with the group, noting that they had been quick to leave after resting and mostly kept to themselves, even in towns that Duo would have been eager to explore.

The idea that Duo and the others had been rushing back home, seemingly cowed by something, didn't sit right with me. They were well within the territories of Sanc, and though bandits and human traffickers could be a problem every now and then, the kingdom was still one of the safest places for Duo to travel, especially with the guard he had escorting him. Very few people could get the drop on the Duchess Guard, not to mention Meilan and Hilde.

Relena's vision could offer no explanation. Duo and Meilan had already passed by this point of time in her prophetic dream, and though Simon's letter was odd, it was still in his handwriting and no coded message could be gleaned from his script. If anything, it was more like he'd decided to write it as dry as possible.

I cantered another look over to the woman opposite of me. She was taking in dainty spoonfuls of her meal, occasionally glancing up to the others around the campfire, though she remained quiet as she ate. This was in contrast to Catalonia, who though ate graciously, was quick to finish and was leaning into the Princess's side with a wide smile.

I didn't really understand Catalonia's presence here. The princess seemed to trust her, and I wondered if this was because of her prophetic visions or something from before she made her debut in the court. If her companion was the result of something unrelated to her visions, I couldn't help but wonder why the princess seemed to have so many relationships that she sought to hide until convenient.

"Glaring at the food won't get us any closer to your home, Duke Yuy."

I didn't deign Catalonia's snide observation with a reply. This was also how she often spoke with us; her every word seemed designed to provoke a response, and even Relena had given up on getting her to stop. I had thought her earlier snark back in the Capital a result of her dislike for Duke Noin and the rest, but I was quickly starting to realize that it was just Dorothy Catalonia's personality. I failed to understand what about her the princess found appealing in a companion, aside from their similar ability to be unlikeable to me.

"Is the food to your liking?" Quatre asked, ever the peace-maker.

Relena's reply was quick without being hurried; she was obviously trying to cut off whatever rude remark would have doubtlessly left Catalonia's mouth. "It's very delicious, thank you," she said. "We appreciate the kindness you've shown us while traveling. I'm sorry we're not very helpful."

This was in reference to the fact that they were not much help in getting the camp set up or helping with any of the little tasks needed. The two mostly just rode in the imperial carriage, the rest of us taking turns being the driver or riding along horseback as escorts. I had wanted to ditch the carriage before the journey even started, but hadn't been allowed as part of the usual foolish traditions of the court.

"It's no trouble at all, Your Highness," Quatre responded brightly.

He was clearly trying to cover up his husband's snort of disdain with sheer amicability, which may have worked with any other noble; however, Princess Relena seemed to trust us as far as her weak limbs could throw us, and Dorothy Catalonia seemed to thrive off provocation and little else.

It's for this reason that I could not understand Relena's- not quite dislike, but definitely aversion to Quatre. He was the nicest to her by far, and like he'd done with Duo back when my love could hardly stand to be the in the same vicinity as me, he was always ready to extend a hand or willing ear to listen. However, Relena seemed hesitant to ever do more than trade pleasantries with my one friendly companion, instead keeping to herself and Catalonia, or seeking me out for conversation.

It made me wonder, once again, what she'd seen in her vision- in the sequel novels that Duo hadn't read. Or maybe this wasn't because of some prophetic vision, but rather what she'd heard from Duo, whose endless secrets seemed intent on drowning him. Why had he shared them with this girl, who had done nothing to help him? Who - either because she was unable or unwilling - merely stood aside and let Duo set himself ablaze?

"You said Meilan's death was related to Duo's," I spoke up, interrupting the awkwardly polite, stilted conversation. "What did you mean by that?"

Relena stared at me; not wholly surprised, but moreso aggrieved. I had asked her questions on and off the whole trip thus far, but she'd either refused to answer or answered vaguely enough that it was useless in the end. I think Quatre had been trying to build up some rapport with her to see if she would answer more truthfully, but that was quickly going nowhere since she was paranoid about him the most.

"I see hospitality isn't among the many lessons taught in the Yuy duchy," Catalonia observed with a sharp laugh. Whether that was meant to derail the conversation or simply another dagger she liked to throw, nothing came of it; Relena placed a hand on her arm in a gesture to take over the conversation once more.

"Exactly as I said," Relena answered. Wufei scowled, ready to demand more - but Relena surprised us by continuing. "After Duo died in the greenhouse, Lady Meilan went to Ishigaki to sort out the mess with the governor, right? In the first book, it's explained that she's overwhelmed by the number of mercenaries and is killed - but didn't you think it strange?"

Relena set her finished plate aside, looking into my eyes. "Lady Meilan isn't just another trained fighter, after all. She's closer to something like you than to a knight like Noin, and it would take more than a troupe of mercenaries to kill her."

"Something like me?" I echoed, void of tone.

Her words had set the others on edge. In everything that had been shared by the princess, not once had she alluded to knowledge of what set us apart from, as she stated, knights like Duke Noin. It reframed her interactions with Quatre in a new light, and depending on how much her vision had told her, it made her a dangerous vulnerability.

"What did you think the other two books were about, me dealing with the petty grievances of the court?" Relena shot back, just as calmly. "You made Wing everyone's problem, Duke Yuy."

I stared at her and knew the others were doing the same.

Catalonia laughed outright. "Poor things - they really thought it was a secret!"

For a moment, panic gripped me - had she told Duo? If he hadn't gleaned it with his power to speak with the dead, then had Relena filled him in? The secret I'd sworn the others to keep with me would have fallen flat in the face of prophetic dreams or the whispers of the dead. Duo would never be able to trust a man who killed for a living and then turned around to lie to his face.

Wufei's glare was scorching. "And you told Catalonia-"

"No, you fool," Catalonia cut in sharply with a smile to match. "I was already in the know. Not about the prophetic dreams - that's a special little skill only the Princess and your death-obsessed Duchess have - but I am from Romefeller, and Romefeller is well aware of legends like Nataku and Sandrock."

She leveled Wufei with predatory eyes. "Did you think Oz razed your village down for fun?"

Wufei's eyes were outlined in gold. "You-"

"She was 18 and fighting for her life in a Romefeller outpost by the barbarian territories after permanently crippling her cousin," Relena interrupted smoothly. "When she didn't die as they planned, they sent her here. She has nothing to do with the attack on your hometown, Master Chang."

She turned a sharp look on Catalonia. "Stop antagonizing them, Dorothy."

"Apologies," Catalonia responded immediately, not apologetic in the least.

Wufei was still seething, but the gold had fled from his eyes. "...Then how does this relate to my wife? Whether or not what you know from your visions is true, I do agree that mercenaries wouldn't be able to get the upper hand on her. So what happened in your vision?"

He spit out the last word like a curse, but Relena was unbothered. This was something I was starting to find unique to the princess; she seemed to have little care about how we thought of or perceived her. Even at his most cutting, Duo had reacted to us with vitriol and seemed to note every grievance he glimpsed from our behavior. In contrast, Relena Peacecraft seemed to assess our reactions as if studying a patient and was wholly unconcerned with our opinion on it.

"It's revealed in the second book that Lady Meilan defeated all of the mercenaries and the governor in Ishigaki with hardly any injuries," Relena explained. "And then she's stabbed in the back by Hilde Schbeiker."

I couldn't seem to breathe for a moment. "...What?"

Relena didn't look the least bit phased by our collective shock. "Hilde followed her to Ishigaki in secret, and used hallucinations to distract her before she put a blade through her back," she recounted with clinical ruthlessness. "She wanted the piece of Nataku Lady Meilan had, and so cut it out of her."

I launched to my feet, followed quickly by the others. "You should have told me- I sent her with them-"

"Hilde won't do anything," Relena interrupted calmly. "She's not dangerous now, at least not to them. She won't do anything as long as Duo is alive."

Quatre was staring at her. "...You are convinced she's not a threat, all because of the Duchess?"

Duo was arguably the greatest weak point. His title and position made him strong, but desirable to exploit; if Hilde Schbeiker was after power, it was obvious she should go after him. If she was capable of killing Meilan - which I still didn't fully understand - then having her anywhere near Duo was unacceptable.

"Is she a spy for the Maxwell family?" Trowa asked.

It made a horrible kind of sense. Hilde was hired from the Capital and her history as a guard was as detailed as her experience as an attendant; she'd come with a recommendation from the Brooks family, a viscount who worked in the capital and held no territory. The current head of the family was between the age of Duke Maxwell and his heir, Solo; if he was in the pocket of the Maxwell family, he was very good at forging documents - which made sense, as their ally.

"Yes and no," Relena eventually answered, though she sounded thoughtful. "It's more apt to say that she acts as their spy when she judges it to be useful. Her goal is quite simple: she wants to keep Duo alive. As long as he remains that way, Hilde won't turn on you unless you turn on him."

I glowered at her. "I will never turn on Duo."

Relena nodded, expression flickering with something too quick to discern. "Yes, I know," she murmured. "I did make sure to expound on your loyalty and devotion to him, for all the good it did."

Another reminder that even with Duo's supposed close friend speaking in my defense, he'd still doubted and hated me in the end. My glare faltered into a scowl, hurt throbbing vaguely in my chest as I remembered the way Duo could hardly stand to look at me. My only comfort was my memory of the last time I saw him, the taste of his lips on my tongue and the sweetness of his confession of love in my ear.

"For what reason did Schbeiker need Nataku?" Wufei interjected coldly. "Nataku may be the god of wisdom and justice, but She cannot return the dead back to life. Was it for revenge?"

Relena's expression stilled. She folded her hands into her lap and turned her eyes to the campfire, lips briefly turning down at the corners before they settled into something closer to the mildness she had worn throughout the majority of the trip. Where Duo would scoff or snap, Relena seemed to quiet and close down; it made an unsettling comparison.

"The vision came in the way of a story, and in every story, there is a villain," Relena started quietly. "Treize Khushrenada is one. Dekim Barton of Romefeller is another. But the story starts here in Sanc, and in Sanc is where it ends.

"Human trafficking at the hands of the Clark family, who were swallowed by the greed for more. Nepotism because of my brother, who could only trust his friends and thus put them in undeserved positions of power. My aunt, the Queen, who draped a veil over the night that took the lives of my mother and father. There were almost too many villains to choose from!"

Relena's lips twisted into something too bitter to be a smile, but she soon smoothed it out. "But maybe they were too easy, too obvious, because that's not where the story went," she recounted in slow-simmering fury. "Instead, Solo Maxwell stole his brother's corpse and used the pieces of two different gods to revive him. Duo died before the story began, but he didn't stay that way."

She looked up from the fire to meet my gaze; the flames danced in her eyes.

"And then you killed him again."

-----

The Yuy provincial estate rose up in the distance. It looked beautiful and welcoming in the setting sun, though maybe that was only because I knew who currently dwelled inside. The town itself was slowly closing up as night approached so we only received a few curious stares as we rode past. The imperial carriage had been left at the gate of the town with the posted guards; the sheer number manning the walls had left Trowa frowning, but they gave us little trouble after I'd briefly pulled my hood down to reveal my face.

Reaching the edge of the estate, I felt another discontented flicker pass through me at the sight of the number of guards manning the gate. It wasn't to the point of excess, but the taut way they stood guard and the high number were clue enough for us to realize that something had set the estate to high alert. The civilians in the town had not acted any stranger, though there had been more soldiers running rounds than usual. Something had made Commander Broden warier, yet somehow it necessitated a veneer of normality - as if to hide the increased security.

Just as we reached the entrance to the manor, the doors were pulled open and the head butler, Jiroh, hurried down the steps. I was not surprised by his rushed appearance; we had given no notice of our arrival since we'd wanted to keep a low profile, so he likely hadn't even known we were coming until we'd arrived at the gates to the estate.

"W-Welcome back, Your Grace!" Jiroh managed out, almost out of breath. "I apologize for the lack of proper welcome-"

"It's fine, Jiroh, we wanted a quiet return," Quatre interrupted gently.

Jiroh bowed in understanding - multiple times; he was obviously still flustered - and then followed us inside. He could handle preparing the rooms for the princess and Catalonia; I had one destination in mind, yearning thick in my throat.

"Where is my husband?" I asked, already looking towards the grand staircase. Experience told me he was either squirreled away in his study or starting dinner, and I fully intended to greet him first and check his condition.

"Ah, th-the Duchess?" Jiroh croaked out. When I turned to look at him, he was wringing his hands together and quickly averted his eyes. "The Duchess is..."

He didn't continue, and it felt like my stomach had dropped out.

Relena had said that the me in the novel had returned home unaware of Duo's passing. It had been kept a deliberate secret until my return home. I had set foot once more back in my ancestral home and then Howard had come out to greet me just as Jiroh had: pale and rushed, hesitant to speak until I'd demanded-

"Wufei!"

Meilan's voice was jarring, breaking me out of the swift spiral of my thoughts. This-- This was different from the vision. If Duo dies, Hilde Schbeiker sacrifices Meilan - but Meilan is still here. This had to mean that the worst has yet to pass, and I felt something close to relief settle tenuously within me.

This was because though Meilan's voice is strong and loud - it was also lined with a tone that is close to distress. It's almost weird to see her rushing forward, foregoing the stairs entirely to leap down to meet us on the ground floor. She looked unharmed; she's dressed in her training attire rather than her everyday fit, as if she were ready to go into a fight rather than sit down for tea. Her hair is neat but her expression is almost in disarray, and she stopped before us with only a glance in Relena's direction.

"You..." Wufei's relief was palpable in his tone, which apparently shocked Meilan as her eyes widen at his reaction. "...Don't jump from the second floor! Use the stairs!"

Meilan's flushed expression is quickly replaced by outrage. "Don't nag me! You're equally rude for not letting us know ahead of time that you were coming!"

Relief settled more fully in my chest. "Meilan - where's Duo?"

Meilan's furious gestures stopped immediately and she almost seemed to recoil. The relief fled as quickly as it appeared, and I felt my shoulders steel up in preparation for a fight. Her face did a weird movement like she couldn't decide whether to scowl or wince, and she met my eyes with an expression of increasing alarm.

"The Duchess is in his study."

Wufei yanked Meilan back behind him. Hilde didn't seem to notice or care, slowly making her way down the stairs. She kept that same professional look about her as she descended, not even a glance in Relena's direction as if they were perfect strangers. For someone as involved in Duo's life as Hilde, she should be more than aware of Relena's relationship to him.

Meilan shook off Wufei's hold with a scowl. "What is wrong with you?" she hissed at him, trying to push him aside where he'd planted himself between her and Hilde.

I started towards the stairs.

"I've already notified him of your arrival," Hilde said, drawing to a stop on the last step.

I glanced at her as I passed - stopping abruptly at the sight of her eyes.

Hilde had dark blue eyes, close in shade to dark seawater and just as violent. Her looks were common to the Capital and the northern part of the country, which made it easier for her to blend into the background in different situations. I had grown used to her gaze flittering about and assessing everything around her; that had been part of her job in keeping Duo safe, after all.

She stared back at me, eyes a pale violet.

I grabbed her by the throat.

She didn't resist, only dangled from my hand with the same expression of hollow dislike as I lifted her up. Her eye color flickered under my watch - going between pale violet and dark blue. The colors bled back in forth like someone forcibly mixing oil with water, and from the faint connection I felt from her with my hand wrapped around her throat, I sensed something other in her. It was the same feeling I got from when I sparred with Meilan, a shadow of Nataku making itself known with every traded blow.

However, it wasn't Nataku under Hilde Schbeiker's skin.

"What did you do?" I asked her.

Wing was infused with my words unbidden, making them sound calmer than I felt. Fear and fury raged in equal measure in the cavity of my chest as I tried to make sense of her.

"Duke Yuy, you mustn't!" Relena cried out from behind me.

I ignored her. According to Relena, Hilde was some sort of failed experiment of the Maxwell family. She'd been infused with an artifact from their family heirlooms, making her something closer to Meilan than us. Another difference was that the artifact was actively killing her, and the more she used it, the more she drew closer to death. One such tell of the use of her powers is that her eyes matched the color of the family that had made her.

If Hilde's eyes were turning color now, then that meant she'd likely used the artifact. That made her dangerous, no matter what Relena claimed; anyone with power even remotely similar to ours was a threat if they weren't on our side. I squeezed a little harder on her throat, and though her hands came up to wrap around my wrists, there was no power behind it - did she not fear death?

She wouldn't; she belonged to the Maxwell.

Hilde's nails dug into the skin of my forearm. "Are you listening to her drivel now too, Your Grace?" she managed out roughly. I loosened my hold just a little to better hear her, and her contempt came across loud and clear. "I shouldn't be surprised. You'd listen to anyone who told you that you were a good man."

Clearly Hilde didn't know what Relena really thought or knew of me, but this did let me know how much she knew about the princess's relationship to Duo. If she only heard about how Relena had talked me up to Duo, then she hadn't been privy to what the rest of the vision entailed.

Blood dripped from the half-moon crescents she'd made in my arm. Hilde's face was turning slightly red at the struggle for breath, but her skin felt decidedly cold and her eyes had settled back into violet. I hated the color of it in her eyes.

"What did you do?" I repeated coldly.

Hilde didn't get to answer, because suddenly there was a third hand on my arm and I was looking into a different, starker violet. Freckles scattered palely across that achingly lovely face, expression pulled into something vaguely contentious as a strong pressure was applied to the hand holding me in turn. Hair the color of autumn was tied back into a long braid that fell over one slender shoulder, and we stood close enough that our breaths mingled as we exhaled smoke in the suddenly cold room.

"Let her go," Duo told me with a voice as warm as ice.

I complied immediately, but it felt automatic because I could not tear my gaze away from his eyes. I sensed the others tense behind me, the room falling dead silent as no one dared to move or speak. The room almost seemed darker, somehow, as if the sun had fully set and the glow of the lanterns were covered by a veil.

Even then, I could still see Duo. I had seen Duo's eyes in all sorts of circumstances: alight with anger, dark with misery, bright with passion, warm with love and sharp with hate. I knew the way Duo looked, the way he sounded, the way he smelled. I had felt his skin on my own countless times now, whether for gentle comfort or tender lovemaking.

I lifted my hand and cupped his face gently. "No," I murmured weakly, pulling him closer; he didn't resist. "No, no, no..."

Violet eyes glowed in that face I considered more beautiful than the sun. His expression was distant, his voice was cold, and he smelled of flowers that reminded me of the ones passed out at funerals. His skin was chilly to the touch and there was an energy underneath it both familiar and other.

Under Duo's feet, the shadows of the dead danced - and Deathscythe laughed behind his eyes.