The Forgotten Zodiac

Nephenee nodded. "I see," she said, smiling slightly as she was glad that she understood. "That sounds interesting. Really," she said, hoping her words came out genuinely, as she felt. The two eventually passed a balcony. The doors were closed, but Nephenee glanced outside through the small windows as they went by. She frowned as she saw the dark clouds sweeping over the sky.

"Looks like a storm movin' in," she commented. "Ah well. Maybe we'll ride in your airship next time," she said, with a smile. "I look forward to it. Maybe Geoff'll come." She peered outside once more. "No sir. That don't look good at all."

Lucia, who had managed to discover the incoming storm without exitting her room, was currently attempting to pack her clothes. This was more difficult than one would think, as she had been informed that they would be staying much longer than they actually were. That, of course, had led to unpacking all of her clothes and storing them in the closet. With the storm coming in, she knew they would be leaving earlier, which meant repacking. That was why she was up already, but not in the hallway.

Soren had not bothered unpacking - he didn't mind if his robes were wrinkled from being stored away, so despite the fact that they were... supposed to be... staying longer, he'd let everything alone and had instead occupied himself with reading before he turned in the night before.

This morning, he'd spent a while longer buried in his books before the thought occured to him that Lucia may not have done the same as he, and he'd heard passing mention among the servants that "the Crimeans" were leaving early, so he supposed that she might could use his help. He made his way down the halls with a small volume from Mewt's library in his hand, not glancing up until he reached his fiancee's - he had to get used to that - door.

He quickly tucked the book away and knocked lightly on the door, announcing himself verbally so that she would know who had come. "Lucia?" he called. "I thought you may want some help with packing," he said, pulling his hand back as he waited for her response.

Lucia paused, a dress held high above the floor, and opened the door for Soren. "Love some, thanks." She waited for him to enter the room before nudging the door closed with her foot and crossing over to the bed, which held her open trunk. "Can you get the trunk off the balcony? I didn't want to leave it lying about, but I need it now."

"Of course," he replied, moving over to the doors of the balcony. He paused when he reached them, gazing up at the ominous clouds in the sky.

"...oh," he murmured, watching them for another long moment. He then seemed to shake himself. "Right, the trunk," he said, stepping outside. He pulled the trunk into his arms, but nearly dropped it as thunder suddenly roared from the sky. He felt his breath catch in his throat, but he tightened his grip and hurried back inside.

"Rain's coming," he said, turning back to the doors that he'd left open. He lifted the trunk onto her bed, saying, "You might want to get those shut."

Lucia stowed the dress quickly in the trunk and frowned at Soren. After quickly shutting the doors, she rested a hand on his shoulder gently. "Something wrong, Soren?" She dropped her hand from his shoulder and continued on with her packing, moving in an eratic pattern that kept her next to him. Her slight confusion increased to concern when thunder boomed outside and Soren jumped slightly. Not visibly, but enough that Lucia could notice it. "Soren? What's wrong? You seem... tense. More so than usual."

He lifted his gaze to her, his lips pressed tight. His shoulders were drawn close to his neck, and he quickly looked away. He picked up a dress that had been laying on her bed and quickly began folding it. "I'm all right," he said. The thunder sounded again, and he jerked. He winced and the unmistakable sound of fabric tearing, and looked down at the dress.

"Lucia... I'll..." he shook his head as if to clear it. "I'll fix it. I'm sorry," he said, frowning. He folded the dress somewhat sloppily and stowed it away. He turned away from her quickly, looking for something else to do to avoid meeting her gaze.

Lucia lifted the dress from where Soren had stowed it and examined the tear. Without bothering to carefully refold it, she placed it back where it had been and approached Soren carefullly, taking both his hands and forcing him to make eye contact. "Soren, we're getting married. You're supposed to trust me." She met his gaze and shrunk slightly to decrease the size difference between her and Soren. The mage's fiancee dropped his hands and moved back to sorting clothes, hoping to gain the information without having direct confrontation. "Well, Soren?"

Soren shuddered slightly, glancing up to the windows. "It's... a stupid fear," he muttered. He turned his gaze to her, frowning. The expression was directed more at himself for his inability to hide this from her than anything else, Lucia knew. He took a deep breath and set to explaining a bit more.

"When I was young, I never really had... a place to call home, and when a storm came, it meant trouble. I'd either be stuck out in it or have to find shelter somewhere, and it was hard to come by, and -- oh!"

The thunder now seemed louder than ever, and Soren broke off to take a step closer to Lucia. After the noise faded, he shook himself,  grit his teeth, and said, "I honestly thought I'd get over it by now. I..." his words trailed off to an empty sigh, and he glanced up as the rain started, washing down the windows and pattering against the door.

"...sorry," he said a moment later, returning his gaze to the bed.

"Is that it?" Lucia reached out toward Soren, faltered for a second, then wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug. Before he could struggle his way out of her grip, she released him and leaned down to kiss him on the cheek. "Don't be sorry. We have plenty of time to help you get over it." She looked around the room and verified that her clothes were now acceptably packed. Once verified, she took Soren's arm and led him toward the door. "Let's go join Ike and Elincia. Their room is further into the castle, and I'm sure Elincia could use the help packing."

Soren could but follow as Lucia led him from the room, glad she didn't look down to see the half-stunned, half-grateful expression on his face. By the time they'd reached the door, he'd recovered enough so that Lucia no longer led him, but they walked side-by-side. He avoided looking out the windows as they made their way down the hall, finally electing to speak when they were about halfway to the King and Queen's room.

"I'm sure elincia will appreciate the help. Based on Ike's track record, he's probably more in the way than aiding," he said.

"I'm sure," Lucia laughed. They reached their destination shortly afterward, and Lucia knocked on the door immediately. "Elincia? Soren and I were coming to see if you needed any help packing. Two can pack and one can distract Ike?" Her hand hovered on the handle, waiting for Elincia to signal the all-clear before she opened it. They <i>were</i> two consenting adults in the same room, and one of the adults was Ike.

Elincia had been laughing, as the two could hear when they approached the room, but the aprupt fit ended suddenly at Lucia's voice. A few seconds later, Elincia opened the door, red highlighting her cheeks faintly.

"Oh, yes, of course, that would be very... very helpful, Lucia, thank you," she said, beckoning for them to come in.

Soren glanced in the room, looking around until he found Ike. "...apologies, your Majesty, but it may be best if I... as Lucia put it, distracted Ike so that you may get something done. So Ike, if you're done with her hairbrush..." he trailed off with a shake of his head.

"Wha-" Ike met Soren's gaze with some shock, not having properly processed that other people were coming into the room. He dropped the hairbrush quickly into Elincia's case and followed Soren out of the room. "Let's go find some breakfast, Soren. Lucia and Elincia probably want to talk about girl stuff." He slid out of the room, wiping his hands subconsciously on his pants to cleanse them of any remaining hairbrushness.
Lucia moved over to Elincia and began helping her folding the clothes. "Has Ike always been that jumpy? It seems like marrying you has made him worse at politics, not better."

Elincia smiled at Lucia, waving at Soren and Ike as they departed, before turning back to her sister. "Well, he's usually a bit calmer. I think it must be this trip. You know, new things and all of that," she said. She suddenly sighed and shook her head a bit. "Makes me wonder how he'll interact with our child... oh!" Her eyes widened suddenly as she realized the news she'd just let out, and she turned to her sister. "You... you weren't... supposed to..."

"Elincia!" Lucia squealed, one of the few times she ever did, and immediately grabbed Elincia by the shoulders to hug her. "So you- you haven't told Ike yet? How long have <i>you</i> known? When's it due? And, while we are it, are there any other massive secrets I should know?" She flooded her sister with the barrage of questions, barely pausing for breath until the last one, after which she released Elincia so Lucia could get the answer she desired.

Elincia's face had reddened, and she was feeling like Lucia probably had the night before, when she and Soren had announced their engagement. Overwhelmed, but excited. She smiled at her sister, then answered as quickly as she could.

"Ike doesn't know. After all... you've seen how well he keeps secrets. And I worried that he wouldn't let me come through the portal if he knew. I've known... it's probably been a week." She smiled sheepishly, "It's due in about six months, closest I can guess... so early spring. And," she turned to her sister. "I can't think of anything else that I need to tell you. No more massive secrets."

"So I'm the first?" Lucia hugged her sister again, smiling widely. "You know Ike is going to pout when he finds out I knew first?" She allowed Elincia to extricate herself from Lucia's grip and returned to packing clothes. Mostly, they were Ike's. His definition of unpacking was to open the suitcase over the floor and spread the clothes around so he could see and select the ones he wished to at ease. This made repacking Ike's clothes a time-consuming process. Lucia was just grateful she wouldn't have to live with it when she married Soren. He was neat, as far as she knew.

"Yes, well, I expect he'll get over it. I mean, he will, won't he?" she asked, looking to her sister. "He'll be excited, I'm sure, and he'll forget that detail, yes?" With a nod, she turned back to her packing. She paused for another moment or so, then asked, "So... you and Soren? How's... things?" She knew that there probably wasn't much to talk about given the amount of time that had transpired since her last update on the couple, but she wanted to offer Lucia the oppertunity to talk.

"They're... I don't know." Lucia's tone conveyed that she wasn't doubting the relationship; it was much too lighthearted for that. It was much more a general confusion of the events. "I mean, he only proposed last night; and we went separated almost immediately after we left you. There's not really anything you don't know. I was mostly done packing when he came to help, so we were only together for a little while before we came to rescue you."