The Forgotten Zodiac

"I had no part of this," Soren spoke up at once, not helping Lucia at all. He knew he'd probably regret that decision later, but in the current moment, he was airsick enough without trying to stomach the mixture that Marche, Ike, and Mewt had. Similarly, Nephenee held up her hands in a surrendering fashion, wide-eyed and worried looking.

Geoffrey's expression immediately turned to a frown. However, he offered no plea, knowing that there wasn't a chance he could get out of this as Elincia smiled and agreed with Ritz.

"You're right. I'd just love to see how brave they are after they've had the tables turned on them," she said, smiling at her siblings.

Lucia glanced at Geoffrey, then sighed, determined to suffer with dignity. "I appreciate the support, darling." With a matching smile at Elincia, she glanced down at the food. "Which of these... concoctions am I partaking in?"
With everyone distracted by Lucia, Doned nearly escaped notice. Marche was more than happy to rat his brother out. "Doned's in! If he whines, I'll just hold him down while you pour it down his throat. I've got a surprising amount of practice at that." The clansman laughed at his brother's immediate discomforted before leaning forward and kissing his wife briefly. "Did I ever tell you what a genius you are?"
Doned sighed as well, but took Lucia's controlled method of response. "Did I ever tell you to get a room? She's already pregnant; stop flirting." After looking at his two options, he decided to pick his poison first, before someone else did it for him. "I pushed Marche into this, so I'll eat what he did. Lucia and Geoffrey can do the same, for Ike."

Nephenee breathed a sigh of relief as she was cleared from this challenge, as did Soren. The two glanced at each other, then watched as their spouses took up the dare.

"Well, might as well get this over with," Geoffrey said, with the air of someone heading off to their execution. He picked up a glass as Mewt had done, and, bracing himself first, tossed back the drink and ate a piece of steak. He gagged a bit, but managed to keep the concoction down. "Goddess, that's terrible. Elincia, are you sure you should be eating this?" he asked, frowning deeply as he reached for his water to wash the taste out of his mouth.

Elincia only smiled and shrugged in reply to her brother, before turning expectantly to Lucia.

Lucia sighed and followed Geoffrey's example. She gagged, eyes widening, and forced herself to swallow. "That was horrible. I agree with Geoffrey; are you sure that won't damage you or your child or everyone around you in some horrible way?" Despite her somewhat annoyed tone, Lucia was joking. Mostly.
Ritz reached forward and moved her plate closer to her, glancing around defensively. "Well, now that half of my food is gone, why don't the rest of you start eating <i>your</i> food?" Having made them demand, she set back in on her meal with a pace that rivaled Ike's.

Soon enough, all the food was gone, mostly due to Ike and Geoffrey. The others ate their fair share, save for maybe Soren, who was feeling a bit airsick, but didn't eat much, anyways. To the mage's relief, though, Doned went to tell the crew to land soon after they finished eating, and he had his feet back on the ground again.

"That was amazin," Nephenee said, turning to Doned with a smile. "I really liked that."

Doned, who had somehow managed to spread the grease all the way up to his face, grinned sheepishly. "That wasn't even interesting. I mean, it was interesting; but it wasn't as flights go. It's much more fun when the glass is off, so you're tied down, but your propellers are jammed, so you have to fight your way through the wind and clear them. Without losing your fingers." He stopped himself their, realizing that was probably the type of story not to tell people unsure of airship safety. "Not that that happens often. Rarely, if you think about it. And I do fly mostly on ships that are falling apart."
Ike, last to exit the ship, bounded up next to Elincia and wrapped one arm around her side. "We should really get one. In the name of science, or experimentation, or birthday celebrations."

"Whose birthday?" Soren asked, shaking his head slightly. "Are you even sure you know when your  birthday is, Ike? I don't recall ever celebrating it," he said. Then, he frowned. "Of course, if it <i>was</i> mentioned, I likely blocked it out because of extraneous cost reasons," he jibed subltly at himself.

Elincia laughed. "I told you that we'll have to wait and see, Ike!" she reminded, smiling up at him. "Please don't tell me you plan to get Bastian involved..." she added a moment later, her expression turning serious.

Ike, who had been momentarily flustered by Soren's questions, regained his lost footing through his wife's plea. "Bastian? I wasn't going to, but he is rich. Do you think I could get <i>him</i> to pay for it?" Clearly, it would take more convincing than that to get Ike to drop the subject.
Doned, to the short term benefit of Elincia and Soren, joined their conversation and switched Ike's immediately attention from getting an airship to riding on another one. "Ike, you should just come back some time without everyone else. I can take you up on a real ship, without all the glass, that goes much faster. It's much more fun." The mechanic meant the offer, assuming Ike was game for it.

"You enjoy that, Ike," Geoffrey said, laughing. "Maybe I'll send Kieran with you. It seems like something he would enjoy. What do you think, Elincia? He hasn't visited Ivalice yet, and honestly, I think the break might help his sanity. ...of course, it could just as easily damage it..." the blue knight pondered, smiling a bit to himself. Elincia smiled at Geoffrey, before nodding.

"At any rate, I'm sure he'd love to see Syl again. I think he'd enjoy the vacation," she agreed. "And though it'll be hard to find someone to fill in for him, I think it's a good idea."

Doned nearly tripped into Nephenee as he gazed off into space to try and recall Kieran. "Kieran? He's that self-harming knight of yours, right? He'd love non-passenger airships. There's so many ways to hurt yourself!" He caught his balance and walked to the side of the group to avoid stumbling over any more innocent people.
Ike was appropriately distracted by Doned's offer. "Really? That's be awesome. When? It sounds great!" They reached the palace doorway and Ike stepped ahead to pull the door open for those following him.
Mewt, once everyone was through, took his leave of the group. "It was nice seeing you all. Thank you for the books, Soren. I'd love to talk longer, but eighty-seven things have probably fallen apart while I was gone." He turned and headed off into the palace to get back to work. He still wasn't sure how the kingdom had survived having him gone for the week that he had been gone in Tellius, but the political situation was still making him pay for it.

"Same to you," Soren returned, looking down as Nat appeared from seemingly no where to hail the Tellius visitors.

"All ready, kupopo?" the Moogle asked, smiling up at them. "Roderick should be here soon. Then we will be on our kupo way," he said.

"...what is he saying?" Geoffrey asked in a low tone. Nephenee only smiled and shrugged, turning to Marche in the hopes of an explaination for the term that kept slipping in the rabbit-like creature's vocabulary.

"Kupo? It's a weird, colloquial term. It means whatever he's replacing it with." Marche explained. "Only Moogles use it, and it only makes sense to Moogles." He stepped back to allow Gernave into the circle.
The Nu Mou, who had arrived just after Nat mentioned him, observed the people in the circle and held up his hands and cleared them from his sleeves. "If you're all ready to depart?" When every replied to the affirmative, with the exception of Ike, who had to be reigned in by Elincia to get him to pay attention, the Time Mage began the spell again. The dome rose, the dome faded. Everyone returned to their previously scheduled lives.

It bothered Soren quite a bit when someone didn't stick to schedules. He would try to reason out an explanation if there was not one provided, but that part of him that still didn't really like other people and looked for reasons to justify this dislike kept getting in his way. He glanced out the window of the library to estimate the time, before sighing and getting to his feet.

He made his way out of the library and down the hallways of Felirae Manor, eventually finding Lucia. "Mewt didn't make it. Again. This time, no letter," he commented, sitting down in a nearby chair. He glanced over at his wife and sighed. "Tensions in Ivalice must be getting worse."

"Really?" Lucia inquired. Mewt had seemed like the type of person to keep his commitments; and, at first, he had. However, the longer he and Soren had been researching together, the more and more Mewt had had to cancel. The cancellations were also becoming more and more abrupt. This one, apparently, had happened the day of. "How disappointing." She reached out and set her book on a ledge, to hold her place, before leaning forward to press her forehead against Soren's. "So, that means, I have you all to myself for the whole afternoon. Right?"

Soren offered her a smile. "That's right," he said. He thought for a moment, then reached out and brushed her shoulder with his hand. He was trying to do better at this affection thing. "I'll be here, and honestly, the afternoon was going to be pretty boring now that all my plans are out the window. Did you have anything in particular in mind?" he asked. He thought for a moment more, really making sure that there wasn't anything that he needed to do, before affirming to himself that there wasn't. "I'm yours for the rest of the day."

Lucia smiled back immediately, suppressing a laugh of delight. Soren's smiles were rare; but, as he'd recently discovered how much his wife enjoyed them, they were becoming a more frequent occurence. Suppressing the radiant joy she was currently exhibiting, Lucia became more serious and answered his actual question. "Actually, I did need to talk to you about something. You know how Elincia and Ritz, and when two people are married, and-" she faltered and looked down, away from his face, a brief flash of annoyance, at herself, and embarrassment, at the situation, visible. "Goddess, I'm making a mess of this." She looked up again and met Soren's gaze, flattening her tightened fingers against the fabric of her dress. "Soren, I'm- I'm pregnant." Her entire being conveyed the nervousness she felt, despite how controlled her face was. Despite having married Soren, and having known the full implications of that marriage, she had no idea how he would take it or even what she was going to go through. However, it was out now, no way of taking it back. She would just have to see how her husband responded.

Soren's smile faded slowly as he registered what he'd just been told. His hand fell from her shoulder to his side, and he stared at her in silent shock, his eyebrows raising and his jaw slackening in small increments until he found words to fill the empty space of his mouth.

"You're... joking, right?" he asked, somewhat feebly. "Lucia, this isn't funny. This is..." he trailed off almost immediately, knowing that, though they hadn't been together too terribly long, Lucia would know better than to joke with him in this manner. From her obvious nerves and her expectant gaze, he knew she was serious, and was waiting to see how he would take this.

He wasn't quite sure how to.

He felt... horrified.

"Lucia, <i>my</i> kind isn't supposed to... to reproduce! For me to pass on my curse to an innocent child... I..."

Memories of his own childhood, if it could be called that, came back to him in flashes. The beatings, the insults, the loneliness, all because of that Goddess-cursed mark on his brow... the thought that he had played a part in condeming another person to the same potential fate caused his stomach to twist and his heart to throb.

"This... can't be happening..."

He turned from her suddenly and rammed his fist against the nearby wall. "Idiot!" he cursed himself, resting his forehead next to his fist. "Goddess, Lucia, I... I don't know what do say!"

Lucia dropped back into her chair, nodding miserably. She'd known that Soren didn't want children, but it wasn't like it was particularly preventable. Despite the biting of her lip and clenching her fists, tears forced their way out.
"I-I'm sorry?" It came out mostly as a question. She didn't know what she was or if sorry was the right  word to explain what she was feeling. She pressed the palms of her hands to her eyes, furiously wiping the tears away. "I didn't- I don't-" She faltered off again and pressed both hands to her face, furious with herself, dejected at Soren's reaction, and yet not entirely disappointed to be pregnant.
"No one else knows yet," she informed him, voice dropping to a hoarse whisper. "I just found out, and I-I thought you would want to know. Sooner rather than later." With that said, she melted her way into the chair, dejected and horrified with the situation.

Soren faced the wall for a moment, breathing heavily as his mind tried to reason out a reaction that would... he didn't even know. He pushed himself back into a normal standing position, but took a long time before turning back to her.

She was crying. Loudly.

And he didn't know what to do.

Resigning himself slightly, he went to sit at her side. He reached to pull her hands from her face, making her look at him. "Lucia," he said quietly. When he saw the tears on her face, the anger drained from him, replaced with something more like fear.

"I... have to ask." He spoke in a low tone. He had hoped to never have this conversation, but he had to get these words out, just to make sure. "If... if it has a mark, will you still love it?" he asked. He had known Lucia had married him in full knowledge of his brand, but she had gotten to know him before she had discovered the mark's meaning. If she held any small revulsion towards his kind, she might...

"I can just... see myself alone again, trying to raise a kid with a curse on both our heads, and you... I don't know, off with Bastian, or... something..." he trailed off as he realized he was calling her loyalty to him into question, but a small part of him still thought that no one should be considered trustworthy, because the minute he looked away, everything would be taken again and he'd be left with a knife in his back.

But she was crying. Was she afraid... that he would abandon her?

"Lu," he pulled her hands close to him. "I still love you."

Lucia resisted slightly when Soren pulled at her hands, but let him pull them to him. Despite that, she barely met his gaze, and her tears were hardly slowing down. "I- You-" she spluttered slightly, then pulled one hand away. After blowing her nose savagely, she dropped the handkerchief and looked back up at him, somewhat more composed. She leaned forward and hugged him tightly,  before leaning back so she could sniffle loudly.
"Will I lo- Bastian? Soren, no! I-I love you, but you- you didn't want one; and now I'm-I'm <i>pregnant</i>." She said the word with horror, but not disgust. She looked up and met his stare again, pressing her forehead close against his.
"You still love me?" she whispered hoarsely. She hadn't known what to expect of Soren's reaction, but his initial response had convinced her that her worst fears were correct. Those fears would be the worst thing that could happen to her, a marriage anulled before it survived nine months, Lucia left with a child to raise, and any gossip on the continent able to slander the name of Crimea, believably.
"You do?" Lucia repeated her question and sniffled again, resting her head against Soren's neck. "I was so afraid you'd leave me, Soren. You promise you won't leave me?" She pleaded, hating how desperately needy she sounded and yet equally desperately in need of that reassurance.