Lenna was truly one of the kindest women Faris had ever known.

She brushed off his telling of her kidnapping as though it had been nothing but a friendly quarrel. ”Family before anything or anyone else,” she said, and something warmed in his chest at the thought of it. Family. It wasn’t something he’d ever had before, though the pirates had been a kind of family. Faris pulled on the edge of his scarf as she said it, and couldn’t manage much more than a mutter in response. ”Family,” he repeated slowly. ”Aye…”

She told him that her memory was like the ocean floor as seen from atop the decks of a ship -- murky, clouded, and buzzing with distractions. He nodded sagely at this. He knew that view all too well. ”It’s there, then. Under the surface and beneath all the slime and sand. I’ll help you find it. I swear on my name as a sailor.” He laughed a little at that. He couldn’t quite swear on his honor when he didn’t have much to begin with, but it was something.

”Where was I? The Wind Shrine? Aye. I brought you to the entrance. You and your friends, and I thought to journey inside with the lot of you. The place was crawling with beasts and monsters, but we made short work of them, and before long we were before the crystal. Or what was left of it at any rate. The whole thing was shattered if you can believe it, and there was a kind of...warmth. The king of Tycoon. He was there just like you’d said he’d be and he said the world was in danger. He called us the ‘Warriors of Light’ and told us to go out and save it. The crystals had chosen us, after all.”

From there, he told Lenna all about their journey around the world. About Walse and Karnak and Gohn and everything inbetween. He told her about how they were never quick enough to save the crystals and how they shattered one by one, taking their element with them. His voice lowered as he reached the final crystal left. The Earth crystal. That was where their father had fallen. That was where Exdeath had been unleashed.

Faris didn’t tell her about the final fate of the King of Tycoon. That was still painful, even for him, and he’d never even known the man as a father. Lenna didn’t need that now, so he spoke of Exdeath instead. How the accursed warlock had been sealed away by the crystals and had come into the world with a vengeance. About the other world and Krile, a princess from the other side. He told her how they traveled there on a meteorite and fought Exdeath every step of the way. But in the end there was only so much they could do. Exdeath opened the Rift. He sought the power of the Void. And the four of them were all that could stop him.

”And we did.” Faris’ chest swelled with pride even as the memory of that abomination spewing from the void gave him chills. ”The both of us together. We saved the world, Lenna! And when that was done, we went home. Back to Tycoon.” Faris hesitated then. He didn’t know how best to say what came next. ”You wanted me to stay, but sitting around in a castle? Ruling a kingdom? That’s not my style. I went back to the sea.” Faris glanced at her almost cautiously. ”The last I heard, you’d taken the crown as queen. I always joked that you’d get me out of a bind if the law caught up to me.” His grin was weaker than he wanted it to be. It all felt so stupid now. Leaving her behind. He’d wanted freedom. Adventure. A name of his own.

Well, he’d gotten that in spades now, hadn’t he?

”I’m so glad to see you.” He felt his eyes melt at the sight of her. ”I washed up on these shores...It feels like a lifetime ago. No way home and I haven’t seen a familiar face since.” He touched at the corner of his eye. He wouldn’t cry. He hadn’t since Galuf had faded in their arms, but there was too much emotion in his throat to hold it all back entirely. ”I’ve wanted to see you since the first day.”

ulla

”Ah.” Lenna was too sharp for her own good. Why was the a queen and no longer a princess? His heart seized in his chest at the implications of his own uncharacteristically sloppy lie. No, not a lie. An omission of the truth. Lying would be telling her that he’d misspoken before or that it was a slip of his tongue or that Tycoon law worked differently than she must have thought. Those would be lies. And Faris was not a liar.

A thief, yes. A scoundrel, maybe. But a liar? No. Not to Lenna.

”That’s…” he started and then let out a slow breath. ”You should know the answer to that. There’s only ever one way to get that kind of position. Er...Unmarried, I mean. Which is what you are. As you should be, no man is good enough for you! But...Ahem. That is to say…” Faris rubbed the back of his neck. Why was this so hard? ”Aye. Your father… Our...father.” His voice broke a little. He hadn’t talked about this since the day it happened. The feeling of losing a man he’d never known in his arms. ”Well, you know, don’t you? I don’t need to spell out all the letters.” Or he hoped he didn’t.

Please don’t make me.

Faris tried to crack a smile at Lenna’s good-natured joke. She couldn’t bail him out here. Her title as queen didn’t mean a thing when no one had heard of your kingdom. His heart wasn’t in it, but smiled for her sake if nothing else. ”Aye, but we’ve got our own wits about us, and we can handle ourselves fine enough. We were capable enough to take down that armored devil, we can manage ourselves here too!” Faris laughed a little at that just to keep his spirits up before he shook his head, hopping from the desk more confidently than he felt.

”We’ll do the same again! Not the fighting part, but the handling ourselves part. I’ve been through worse scraps than this, and I know how to scrounge by with nothing but my own wits and a sword. And now that we’re together, we’ve got more than that!” He nodded to himself and walked towards the window, peering out it thoughtfully. ”We could travel the world. Make a living driving back the beasts and devils of the world. Do some good with these crystals of ours. What do you say?” He turned to her, head tilted in a cocky grin.

”That sounds like a plan to me!”

ulla