Between Friends 2
Part 4
by Kristin Huntsman


        The center of the room.  Quiet.  Empty.  He closed his eyes and 
waited.  Waited for the second.  The moment.  The change.
        And then he felt it, the attack.  He didn't know who it was, and 
didn't open his eyes to find out.  If it was a real attack, then he would 
depend on his skill alone, his skill to find out the methodology.
        A heavier hand, a heavier blade, he sensed as he dodged to his 
left.  The opponent was behind him now, and he spun to face the attacker, 
eyes still closed, listening, tasting the air.  Feeling, with some 
undefined sense, the sheer mass displacement his unseen opponent--
        The song of a blade cutting the air in two.
        Move left.
        And a whispered step, soft but definite.
        "Lafarga."
        A pause.  He smiled.  Too easy to guess; Lafarga was a great 
swordsman, his master even in some areas, but the Dal had never learned to 
walk on a field of dry leaves without crunching them beneath his boots.  
Ferio had.  And he'd taught Lantis using the same method.  Eagle naturally 
moved lightly.  Of the fencers and swordsmen within the castle who would 
fit the requirement of size that Ferio had placed, Lafarga was the only one 
whose steps were audible.  Though the rest of them all had their 
recognizable idiosyncrasies as well.
        Lafarga lowered his blade and Ferio opened his eyes, smiling.  "You 
do realize," Lafarga commented, smiling back at him, "that I am going to 
insist you teach me how to do that."

        Hikaru looked out the window of the castle at the ground so far 
below.  Already the castle was starting to fill up again, though this time 
it was with guests for the weddings.  She'd had to learn so much in the 
past three years, had to meet so many people in the past month.  She was 
glad she and Fuu-chan and Umi-chan were finally all finished with high 
school; it had been very hard at some points to live a life back on Earth 
and still find time to be here on Cephiro.  Now that they'd graduated and 
decided they wanted their lives to be primarily here on Cephiro... now that 
they were getting married... it was going to be so much easier.
        Fuu-chan's parents and sister had approved whole-heartedly of Ferio 
when they'd met him that first time he had gone to Earth, which was a good 
thing.  And Umi-chan's parents had adored Ascot just as much.  Fuu-chan and 
Umi-chan had been openly wearing their engagement rings ever since.  Hikaru 
hadn't; though she loved the small ring of braided gold, she hid it on a 
chain around her neck.  Her brothers wouldn't understand.  Not yet, anyway.
        She pulled the necklace out and looked at it again.  Three strands 
of gold, one for her, one for Eagle, and one for Lantis.  A promise to stay 
together, to be happy together.  It was perfect.  There were two others 
identical to it, Eagle's and Lantis'.  There weren't any others anywhere 
else like them.  Those two rings, like hers, wouldn't be worn until the 
ceremony.  After that, they'd never be taken off.  Never.
        "Are you troubled, Princess?"
        Hikaru blinked and turned around, looking at the man who was 
suddenly standing next to her.  She shook her head.  "No, not at all, 
Subaru-san!" she said.  "I was just thinking."
        Subaru Legacy smiled back at her, a soft, gentle smile that was, as 
always, distant.  His green eyes were always sad and in pain, and he'd 
never told Hikaru why.  The only one who knew Legacy's secrets, Lantis had 
told her when she'd once asked about the wandering shaman, was his 
companion, Acura Legend.  And no one knew any of Acura-san's secrets 
either.  Only that the two had been wandering between the four worlds for 
centuries... and that Subaru-san, at least, had been to Earth.  He always 
looked slightly more hurt than usual when someone mentioned Tokyo around 
him, especially the Tokyo Tower.
        Hikaru wondered why.
        "It's good to be thinking so close to a major change in your life, 
Princess," Subaru said.  He always called her that, saying that she had 
taken the place of Princess Emeraude, so the title was an assumed right.  
No one argued with him.  No one /ever/ argued with Subaru Legacy; it simply 
wasn't done.  He spoke so little that his words were weighed, valued things.
        "My family still doesn't know anything about any of this," Hikaru 
confessed to him, holding the ring-pendant in her hands.  "Eagle and Lantis 
and I are going to go tell them tomorrow.  My brothers won't like this."
        "They know nothing?"
        Hikaru shook her head.
        "I see."  He considered.  "I cannot tell you what will happen for 
certain, Hikaru-san, but I can tell you that they will always remain your 
brothers.  I had a sister once...."  His voice stopped for a minute, then 
he said, "Neesan loved me enough to give me up to the future.  Have faith 
in your brothers to do the same."

        Satoru looked at the clock.  Hikaru should be back any minute now 
for dinner.  And an explanation to him, if not to their brothers, of her 
long disappearances.  She had promised when he'd asked.  It wasn't that he 
didn't trust her, just that it made his mind easier when he knew where his 
sister was.
        "Kakeru!" he called down the hall, knowing that one of his brothers 
was undoubtably trying to beat his previous record at destroying tanks in a 
video game.  "Masaru!"  The other was probably under headphones, reading 
manga.  "Dinner!"
        "Satoru-san."  His mother stepped into the kitchen, his domain.  
"Hikaru-san is not back yet?"
        He smiled.  "She should be back any moment, Okaasan."
        "That's good.  I received a letter from your father today, and I 
would like all of you present when I open it."
        "I think Hikaru has some news of her own to tell us, Okaasan," 
Satoru replied, pulling out a black laquered tray from a cupboard and 
beginning to balance dishes on it.
        His mother paused, then asked softly, "Satoru-san, I know I have 
not been as close to Hikaru-san as I have been to the three of you boys, 
but even I have sensed her... slipping away recently.  Do you think that is 
what she wishes to talk to us about?"
        He nodded.  "I believe so, Okaasan.  In any case, we can only wait 
and find out."
        "Yes," his mother agreed.  "Here, let me take that, Satoru-san."  
She deftly removed the tray from his hands and carried it into the dining 
room.
        Satoru followed, hearing his sister announce her arrival as they 
began to arrange the food on the table.
        Dinner was pleasant, and afterwards Shinko read the letter to the 
four of them, surprising them all with the utterly stunning news that their 
father was at last returning home from his decade-long training journey.  
Kakeru and Masaru excused themselves after that, going to their rooms to 
think about it, and Satoru and Shinko turned their attention to Hikaru, who 
paused for a few minutes in silence, then began to spin for them the 
wildest, most outrageous story either of them had ever heard.  But Satoru 
and his mother had to believe it... because it was coming from Hikaru.