Chapter Text
Yuri would do anything for his friends… but the burden Estelle had asked of him might be the limit. He’d battle a dozen giganto monsters solo and shrug it off, but Estelle had asked him to accompany her to a formal ball and it was really pushing the limits of what he would do for her. The only reason he had agreed was that attending such an event all alone sounded torturous, and he couldn’t put Estelle through that.
“You can’t wear that!” Estelle exclaimed. “There’s still mud on your shirt!”
Yuri looked down at the clothes he had arrived in Zaphias wearing. “I was planning to wash it before the shindig tonight. It’ll be fine.”
They stood in Estelle’s bedroom, which was the only room in the castle where Yuri felt mildly comfortable. After convincing the guards at the gate that his letter from the princess was legit and he, a guildsman in worn clothes and hair still windswept from the flight here, really had been invited to the castle, he’d tried to get out of the public areas as soon as possible. Every immaculate surface shouted that he didn’t belong, and the knights side-eyeing him around every corner didn’t help. Only in Estelle’s space did he feel welcome.
Well, there was also Flynn’s office, but… that wasn’t exactly welcoming at the moment.
Estelle gaped at him and then shook her head. “Yuri, you can’t go to Ioder’s birthday celebration in the same clothes you fight monsters in.”
“Says who?”
Estelle opened her mouth, thought for a moment, and then tilted her head. “You know? I don’t know who makes these rules. It is a rule, though. I like that you’re so casual usually, but… I just think that right now, with the tension the way it is between the Empire and the Union, maybe it’s not for the best to look like a guildsman is snubbing the Emperor?”
Estelle had hit on the one possible argument that could convince Yuri formal wear was worth it. It had almost been almost a year since the Adephagos, and Yuri had concluded that if a group of crows was a murder, then a group of diplomats was an argument. At least, Yuri hoped it remained an argument, because the way things had been going lately, a murder wouldn’t seem too out of place. Yuri was not going to do anything to exacerbate the situation, unlike some people.
“Alright,” Yuri relented. “I’ll wear a dumb tie. I don’t have any fancy clothes, though. Anywhere I can get that on short notice?”
“Hm.” She put her fingers to her chin. “You could borrow Flynn’s clothes? You’re about the same size, right? And since he was originally planning to be at this ball, he’ll have appropriate clothes. I’m sure he won’t mind.”
Yuri grimaced. “I don’t want anything of his.”
Estelle sighed. “Would you rather steal something from Flynn’s closet, or spend the next hour before the ball getting measured and tutted at by a tailor in one of the royal quarter’s shops?”
Damn, Estelle knew him too well. “Flynn’s house it is.”
Yuri learned all the castle gossip on their way to Flynn’s house. There was the serious stuff, like Ioder’s surprise refusal to sign a trade treaty with Harry Whitehorse and the scrambling both sides had done to start drafting a new agreement.
There was the frustrating stuff, like the laundry list of whiny nobles who didn’t like cooperating with the Union and all the most outlandish objections they came up with to joint Knight-Union military operations (“Interacting with guilds will make loyal knights think defecting to the guilds is good, and lead to the downfall of society!”)
Yuri most enjoyed the fun stuff, like the story of a dog that had gotten loose in the castle and wreaked havoc.
“It’s too bad Flynn wasn’t here for that,” Estelle said when they reached the front steps of Flynn’s skinny row house right at the edge of the public quarter. “He’s good with dogs, after raising Repede.”
“M-hm.” Of course Flynn could have solved that problem. Flynn was flawless and always knew what was best. Yuri stopped himself from rolling his eyes.
Estelle unlocked the door and looked over at Yuri. “Are you really still upset with Flynn?”
Yuri laughed it off. “Of course I am. It’s his fault I have to go to this stupid party, right?”
“The party isn’t stupid - it might be fun! And you know what I mean.”
“Ah, you know me. I’m not comfortable with any gathering where the alcohol comes in glasses with stems.” He entered the house to avoid addressing the other subject.
Flynn’s house wasn’t what most people expected of the Commandant of the Imperial Knights. There was a lavish apartment in the castle dedicated to the title, but Flynn had been uncomfortable taking over Alexei’s former residence. A number of mansions in the royal quarter had been suggested by the Council, but Flynn had claimed that so much house for a single man would feel lonely. So he’d ended up here, as close to the castle as he could get while pretending he was still a commoner, in a house filled with furniture more aptly described as ‘cozy’ than ‘luxurious’. Maybe he’d hoped a residence away from the glitz of the royal quarter would keep him grounded. Too bad it hadn’t worked.
“Oh, no.” Estelle paused by a wilting plant in the front window. “This poor thing. I’ll take it home with us; I’m sure he would have asked me to look after it if he’d planned to be gone this long.”
“What’s holding him up, anyway?” Yuri asked, wiping dust from a bookshelf and inspecting his coated finger.
“I’m not sure. He went to Heliord over three months ago to meet with the captain there about the joint brigade with the Union. I heard he decided while there to make a quick trip to Dahngrest to check on the new Knight outpost opened in the city?”
The rising tone and curious look Estelle gave Yuri asked a question, to which Yuri shrugged. “If he came to Dahngrest, I didn’t see him.”
Estelle sighed. “I know getting permission to operate in Dahngrest has been tricky. I suppose his ‘quick trip’ to Dahngrest turned into a mire of diplomatic meetings, but I wish he’d checked in with you. Apparently he’s been in touch with Ioder, but not me.” She frowned at the plant in her arms.
“It’s not my fault he didn’t have the guts to face me.” He wiped his hand on his pants and headed upstairs.
Estelle ran to catch up. “Yuri, what is going on? Flynn came back from Dahngrest four months ago and spent the whole evening ranting about you being ‘immature’ and ‘unreasonable’. Did you really tell him he was worse than Alexei?”
Yuri froze at the bedroom door. “Of course I didn’t say that. Did he really tell you that? Way to make himself the victim.”
Estelle stopped at the top of the stairs, still clutching the potted plan to her stomach. “Then what is it? Is this about Cumore?”
Yuri’s shoulders stiffened. “Why do you say that?”
“He told me you assaulted a diplomat in Dahngrest, and then he said you had ‘once again,’ acted without thinking and made his life harder. Ioder told me that one of the biggest sticking points for some knights in establishing an international monster defense brigade is that they think someone from the guilds murdered Ragou or Cumore, so I wondered if it was related to that. I thought you’d worked that out?”
“I thought we had, too,” Yuri muttered on his way into the bedroom.
“Have you ever considered consequences once in your life?” Flynn had spat. “Or do you just chase after criminals like a dog after a ball?”
Yuri bristled at remembered indignation as he flung open the wardrobe doors. At least he tried to tackle injustice. “Nice of him to call it ‘assault.’ The guy was a bastard. Sneered down his nose at every guild member in the meeting and I caught him outside tearing into a couple of kids who accidentally crashed into him while playing. Honestly, he should be thanking me for checking that there was a soft landing on the lower level of the street before I ‘accidentally’ crashed into him, too.”
“Yuri….”
“So what if the soft landing was a cart of manure? He didn’t get hurt. Anyway, did Flynn also tell you about the fun diplomatic incident he caused?”
Estelle stood beside Yuri and sorted through the shirts to find something presentable. “Which one? He told me the Union wasn’t happy with him because he argued for the Knights having more control over the joint brigade based on them having an existing structure to work within.”
“Oh, yeah, that little power grab.”
“The Union doesn’t have a standing army!” Flynn had shouted in his room at the inn hours after the meeting. “Who are their commanders? Their tacticians? Peoples’ lives are at stake - we can’t let the joint defense force turn into a scattered mess just to avoid offending some guildsmen’s ideals of freedom.”
“And who says that the order and structure of the Knights is automatically the best way to protect people?”
Yuri scowled at the clothes. “But I’m talking about when one of his knights got into a fight with a guildsman. It was over a cheating a spouse, I think, but the knight left the man half dead.”
Estelle paused with her hand on a shirt. “How awful.”
“Yeah. But, because it happened in the Knight outpost, Flynn claimed it was an Imperial matter and refused to turn the culprit over to the Union for trial.”
“Hm… I can see how that would be tricky. Is that why Ioder is suddenly pushing so hard to get the Knight outpost declared Imperial territory even though it’s right in the middle of Dahngrest? I told him that could probably wait until things are more stable, but he’s very insistent.”
“Probably. If he wants Altosk to accept that, though, he really shouldn’t have rejected Fortune’s Market’s request to open an office in Zaphias.”
“I told him that, too! Here, try this.” She handed him a stiff white shirt with a silken blue waistcoat. She turned around as Yuri undressed. “So, what did you say to Flynn about Alexei?
Yuri glowered at the buttons as he did them up.
“I’ll give Alexei some credit at least,” Yuri had said. “At least it took him more than a year as commandant to turn into a tyrant.”
Flynn had punched his fist into his palm. “What do you want me to do? Play idiotic pranks on nobles for the crime of being rude? Screw off with my friends running odd jobs for the highest bidder and calling it a guild while people are dying because of the decision we made?”
Then it had been Yuri’s turn to punch, and he hadn’t aimed for his fist.
Yuri straightened up and tugged the collar of the shirt away from his neck. “I just said that he’s being too controlling the way Alexei was.”
“Oh… I can see why Flynn wouldn’t take that well.” She pulled out a golden silk ascot and began tying it around Yuri’s neck. “It seems to me like you both said some hurtful things and probably need to talk it out. Will you promise to meet up with him when you’re back in Dahngrest?”
“Hmph. Maybe.”
Estelle stepped back and grabbed a pair of black pants from the wardrobe. “Put these on and then comb your hair and you’ll be presentable. Hm… knowing you two, maybe you need to spar it out.”
Yuri pictured the venom in Flynn’s eyes when he’d slammed the door in Yuri’s face and told him to get the hell out. The only reason he’d agreed to visit Zaphias was that Estelle had explicitly said Flynn was out of town and there was no risk of running into him. “Yeah. Could be.”
Violins swelled in the background as Yuri fiddled with the ascot. What was the point of tying a bit of colourful cloth around your neck? It was practically strangling him. Wherever Flynn was, Yuri hoped he was at least half as miserable as Yuri was at this stupid ball.
“Thank you for putting up with this for me,” Estelle said. “I’m usually so lonely at these things.”
“Yeah, well, considering how much I hate being here with you, I couldn’t make you do it by yourself. Is that cake free for everyone, by the way?”
Estelle laughed. “Yes, help yourself. And bring me back some chocolate-covered strawberries, please?”
Yuri put on an affected accent. “As Her Highness desires.” He bowed deeply, and then left a giggling Estelle behind in pursuit of cake.
Yuri found a staggering variety of cake at the buffet table, but he also found one of the only knights he wanted to see less than Flynn.
“What are you wearing?” Sodia did a double-take when he neared her and turned around with a knife in hand.
“It’s called an ascot. Yeah, I think it’s stupid, too. And, not that I don’t trust you or anything, but, uh, where are you planning to put that knife?”
Sodia’s eyes darted from the blade to Yuri’s abdomen and then she pulled it against her chest. “I was going to slice the cake. But aren’t those the commandant’s clothes?”
Yuri snorted. “What, you recognize him by his ascot? I raided his wardrobe; you got a problem with that?”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “You broke into his house and took his clothes? When he’s - he’s not here? You would take advantage of his absence like that?”
Yuri instinctively took a step back. “Whoa, I borrowed his shirt. It’s not like he’s using it. Where is your boss anyway? Hitting up the bars in Dahngrest to put off coming back to work?”
“How dare you speak of him that way?” she seethed.
The knife shook in her clenched fist. Sodia wouldn’t stab him in a crowded ballroom… right?
“Whoa, whoa, calm down.” Yuri held his hand up. “If it offends you so much, I’ll strip naked, but I don’t think Flynn would consider that an improvement.”
“Why are you here, anyway? I was not told the Union was sending representatives tonight.”
“I invited him.” Ioder stepped through the crowd with a mild smile and a glass of red wine.
Sodia straightened up and set the knife on the table. “Good evening, Your Majesty.”
“Thank you, Captain Sodia. As I said, I suggested Estellise invite Yuri when I learned Flynn would be unable to attend. And it’s as I suspected - he’s always reliable to fall back on when Flynn is absent.” He and Sodia met each other’s eyes and something silently passed between them.
Sodia nodded once. “Understood, sir. I’ll take my leave.”
After she was gone, Yuri said, “So you’re the one I have to blame for dragging me into this, huh?”
“I’m sorry. Estellise did say you wouldn’t want to come, but I’m glad she insisted. Where is she, by the way?”
Yuri jerked his thumb toward the wall. “Waiting for chocolate strawberries over there.”
“Excellent. Come, I’d love to speak with her.” He touched Yuri’s elbow to steer him away.
“Hold on, I need to get her-”
Ioder stumbled, waved his arm to catch his balance, and splashed his wine all over Yuri’s chest.
“...strawberries.” Yuri looked down at the red stain seeping into Flynn’s fancy waistcoat. Serves him right, he thought.
“My goodness, I do apologize.” Ioder set the glass on the table and grabbed a napkin. A few heads turned their way as he began patting down Yuri’s chest. “Oh dear, this is definitely ruined. I’m so sorry; please come with me so I can replace this.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just take the waistcoat off; the shirt underneath isn’t that bad.”
“No, no, please come with me.” He took Yuri by the elbow and pulled him away from the table before he could protest further.
Yuri let himself be led out of the ballroom and then along a handful of corridors. Ioder didn’t speak during their journey, but he did look over his shoulder and check around corners after few steps.
Yuri was not surprised when instead of a laundry room, or a guest room with spare clothes, they instead ended up at Ioder’s office. Ioder checked around the hall one last time to be sure they were alone and then darted through the door, shutting it quickly behind them.
“I’m sorry. I actually-”
“Invited me to this ball specifically to have a chance to talk to me in secret?” Yuri leaned against the heavy mahogany desk with his arms folded.
“I apologize for the deception.”
“Does Estelle know?”
Ioder shook his head. “What I’m going to tell you is strictly confidential.”
“Alright.” A thread of tension spread across Yuri’s heart like a spider making its first jump. “So… where’s Flynn?”
Ioder grimaced. “Estellise has told me you’re quite perceptive.”
He was avoiding the question. Another thread joined the tension. “Well?”
Ioder took a deep breath and walked to his desk. “Commandant Flynn went to Heliord just over three months ago to discuss the ongoing effort to establish a cooperative defense organization with the Union. He met with Captain Kaldrin and spent a week in Heliord attending meetings. At the end of the week, he left Heliord en route to Dahngrest to check on the status of the outpost there. He never arrived in Dahngrest.”
The threads formed a web. “That was three months ago?”
Ioder nodded. “When the captain stationed in Dahngrest reported his failure to arrive we were quite concerned. Knights were sent along the road to search for any sign of him.”
Flynn’s dead. The thought screamed through Yuri’s brain. Flynn’s dead and the last thing you said to him was that he was no better than Alexei.
“A week later, though, I received a letter in the mail. It was stamped with the commandant’s seal.” He saw the look on Yuri’s face and added, “It’s a seal the commandant always carries with him when he’s out of Zaphias. It tells anyone handling the mail that it’s an official message from the commandant and it’s to go directly to the emperor without being opened. Here, you should read it.” Ioder opened a drawer and pulled out an envelope.
The letter was written in a simple, clear hand. It was instantly identifiable as Flynn’s: not the ornate cursive of nobles who grew up with private tutors, but not the loose scrawling of a working man who only needed to jot notes. The screaming voice in Yuri’s head quieted at the evidence Flynn was still alive, but it started again once he began reading.
To His Majesty Ioder,
Greetings! We apologize profusely for the confusion. We are having the dear commandant transcribe this letter for us to ensure it reaches you, and of course to reassure you that he is alive and well.
However, that is not guaranteed to last. Next week, you will attend a meeting in Dahngrest to finalize the trade treaty that you and Altosk have worked ever so hard to create. Do not sign it. If you leave the meeting with the treaty rejected, your commandant will be returned to you no worse for wear. If you do sign it, he will suffer dearly for your actions.
Do not tell anyone else about this arrangement. If anyone besides yourself learns of the commandant’s circumstances, we will send him back to you in pieces.
Sincerely,
A political advisor
Helpfully transcribed by,
Flynn Scifo
The letter trembled in Yuri’s hand by the time he finished. Flynn’s familiar signature at the bottom wavered and Yuri pictured his hand shaking as he finished the letter. Had he written the entire thing with a knife to his throat? Or was the promise of ‘suffering dearly’ enough to move his hand?
It suddenly didn’t matter what Flynn had said about Brave Vesperia, or whether his uses of Imperial power were justified. Those were all problems that could be worked out in the future. Right now, the threads of tension had turned into a tangled web that clenched his heart and made breathing a challenge.
In a voice flattened by an icy calm, he said, “Who else knows about this? Sodia, I assume?”
“She’s the only one. We fear that whoever is behind this may have eyes and ears in the castle, or even within the Imperial Knights. His trip to Dahngrest was planned last minute - it would have been difficult to know in advance where to ambush him.”
“You didn’t even tell Estelle?”
“Estellise is… not well versed in discretion.”
Yuri tried to imagine Estelle going three months without anyone watching her noticing that she was worrying herself to death over a close friend being held hostage. As much as he hated her being left out of the loop… it was for the best.
“So, you didn’t sign the treaty. Flynn has clearly not been returned, though.”
Ioder hung his head. “No. I admit I had a slim, naive hope that it really would be that simple, and that once Flynn was safely in Zaphias, I could explain the matter with Harry Whitehorse and go back to the treaty. But, well….” From the drawer, he pulled out a handful of letters, all with the commandant’s seal cracked on the back. “After I rejected the treaty, the demands kept coming.”
“Demands like, say, rejecting Fortune’s Market’s request to open an office in Zaphias? Pushing for more Imperial authority within Dahngrest?”
Ioder nodded. “Precisely. Sodia has been doing her best to discreetly investigate the situation and attempt to find Flynn. Our plan was to go along with the kidnappers until she managed to locate and rescue him, and then we could repair the damage I’ve caused. The Council is furious with me, of course.”
Yuri fanned out the letters and skimmed the text. If he read too closely he would think too hard about Flynn being forced to write his own ransom notes, and then he’d scream. “Why? It sounds like these demands are all aimed at boosting Imperial power.”
“Because they’re obstinate and impractical. Even the Council acknowledges the need to negotiate and compromise with the Union. Naturally many of them want these things, but they’re politically savvy enough to know that pushing for them with no willingness to give the Union concessions will ultimately be bad for us. I want so desperately to explain that I’m not a naive child who thinks he can just get everything he wants, but I’m afraid for what might be done to Flynn if I so much as hint at it.”
With all the letters fanned out, the difference in the handwriting between the first and the last one was clear. The first one was clear and neat, with only a hint of a tremor in the final signature. In the last one, the handwriting was shaky and dotted with mis-aimed jabs of ink.
Yuri swallowed his rage. “I think they’ve already harmed him.”
Ioder nodded slowly. “I know. So what else will they do to him if I announce his capture to the public? And also… I didn’t follow their most recent demand.” He leaned over to tap one of the letters. “This one.”
To His Majesty Ioder,
We are once again grateful for your cooperation. Rest assured that Flynn remains healthy and hale thanks to your willingness to work with us. You can see his good condition yourself after you perform one more favour for us.
All Union presence must be removed from Aurnion and the surrounding area. Hypionia rightfully belongs to the Empire, and Aurnion must be an Imperial stronghold. If all members of the Union are not removed from Hypionia by the end of the week, our frustrations will be delivered on the commandant.
Sincerely,
A political advisor
Helpfully transcribed by,
Flynn Scifo
Yuri’s head shot up when he finished. “This would start a war.”
“I know. That’s why it was a line I couldn’t cross. This letter arrived one month ago. This one came a week later.” He pointed at another letter, which had a sharp decline in penmanship. Flynn seemed to have been barely able to hold to hold a pen.
To His Majesty Ioder,
Your failure to comply has been noticed, and the commandant has been punished accordingly. Every day that you fail to expel Union troops from Aurnion will bring new punishment to the commandant. We will be watching.
Sincerely,
A political advisor
Helpfully transcribed by,
Flynn Scifo
“Three weeks ago,” Yuri said, tossing the letter to the desk. “They’ve tortured him every day for three weeks, and Sodia was wasting time tonight at a party!?”
Ioder cringed. “We believe the culprit or culprits have ties in the castle. She was attempting to scope out the party to gather clues. All other leads have come up short. We don’t know what else to do, and two weeks ago, I received this final letter.”
Yuri steeled himself to read it.
Dear Ioder,
They are letting me write myself to ask for your aid. Please do whatever they say. We can fix this when this is over. Please, Ioder, they're going to kill me.
Flynn
Yuri slammed the letter down. “They forced him to write that. Flynn wouldn’t beg.” But the state of the handwriting assured him that even if they weren’t Flynn’s words, the ‘punishments’ were no bluff.
“I suspected as much, but I believe the situation is still dire. I decided it was worth the risk to try to discreetly meet with you.”
“Why me?”
“I don’t know who else I can trust. Flynn and I have gotten to know each other well this past year, and it’s always been clear to me that his trust in you is greater than anyone else. Plus, you saved my life when I myself was abducted last year, and you saved the world from the Adephagos. I know you are not a spy for the abductors and I believe you are capable of helping. Will you?”
“If you think I’ll keep supporting you as you turn into just another Imperial attack dog, think again. I don’t want to see your face again until you pull it out of your ass.”
Yuri took a deep breath. “Of course I’ll help. Brave Vesperia will handle this.”