The Red Glaive

Aeria walked. For how long she wasn’t sure. She only knew that she didn’t want to return to Adelaide’s mansion because Caius would be there. She wasn’t sure how she could face him. She tried repeatedly to make sense of what had occurred. Surely, Caius had just been caught up in the moment, spur of the moment type of thing. But Caius hadn’t been drinking and she had.

She told herself that the ciders and the ales were the ones responsible for her enjoying it too much, because when his lips touched hers, it didn’t feel wrong. That feeling had come afterwards and she wondered if it was only because she was around other people.

Her legs started to feel weary so she decided to go back to her room at the glaive caverns. but when she got there she couldn’t get past the door. It was the room she shared with Caius. She would have to switch now wouldn't she? But she didn’t want to. Aeria turned and walked away unsure of where she was headed, she just needed to walk. Walk and think.

But Aeria had seen all the women he’d brought to his bed. She was nothing like them. She always figured he was more of an Adelaide type of man. Now this? What had changed? There had been a change hadn’t there? Subtle, but there. Even before Radiant Week even began he’d starting going out less. Choosing to spend it in the caverns with her, Niko and Telfer. But the four of them hadn’t always been together, but always Caius spent his free time with her.

Caius was more than a friend to her, she knew that, more than Niko and Telfer who she’d come to love like she did Videl. He’d steadily become that way enduring in her mind. All those unexplained forlorn looks, those gentle nudges, they suddenly came into excruciating perspective.

Aeria still wore her gown, the green, long sleeved one, so she gained a few curious stares as she walked, but they didn’t matter to her. She wanted a drink to help her think, and entered the first tavern she came across and sat at the bar for quicker service.

“We have some booths available fo-“

“Just get me a warm cider.” Aeria said hoping to wash away some of the coldness she felt when she thought of Valor.

Valor. . .

Just thinking of him made her heart ache. It had been less than a month since she saw him last, but it felt like an unmeasurable amount of time since they last met. Nothing would make her feel better than having him hold her in his arms just listening to him talk about anything. The sound of his voice and his tight embrace giving her all the reassurance she needed. Bearing down on her, his eyes a perfect shade of green. . . .

Green?

Aeria felt cold all over again. Thankfully the barkeep came back with her cider and she took a long heavy drink from it.

Caius had always been there for her. Even after he found out her secret. She always believed that their relationship had been exclusively like that of siblings. Similar, but maybe a bit stronger, than what he had with Niko or Telfer. Aeria sighed, dropping in her seat. It had been the dress hadn’t it? He was fine with her until he saw her in a dress.

No. Aeria knew Caius. Sbe knew him. Knew how fiercely he would fight for those he cared about, but also knew how often he used women. So what category did she fit in now?

Arsene landed on the bar beside her invisible to all but her eyes. “Where have you been?” he cawed and flew away revealing a barely awake man sitting in the stool a few ways down from Aeria.

Their eyes met and familiarity washed over them both. “Glad to see you took my advice and quit the Glaive.” He said his deep honey eyes scanning her pageant dress.

“I haven’t quit! Our Masters decided to give us Radiant Week off.” Aeria said defensively as Reimar grunted a response before turning back to stare down his drink. “How long have you been here? You need to go visit Caius!”

“Kid’s fine.” He said waving a dismissive hand in the air. Aeria narrowed her eyes. Did he not see how much it would mean to him. “Didn’t peg you for a frilly dress type though.”

“It’s not. . .” but Aeria stopped herself.

It’s not me. . .

Aeria stood. The barkeep had just returned. “My drink is on him.” She said, “You’re a shit father Reimar.” then she turned to leave.

“Wait, you know him? He’s been here nearly two days take him with you!” the barkeep shouted after her.

“Come on, Tosh, thought we were friends.” Reimar could be heard saying.

Aeria realized what she had been doing wandering around the Argent district. Avoiding Caius who she knew would return to Adelaide’s mansion. But she knew him and she knew herself. Specifically, she knew what she was not. She was not the princess waiting for her knight to solve her problems. By the gods, she was a Glaive! Glaives charged forward, face towards the sun unafraid. Caius was not someone she could avoid forever. Whatever came next they’d sort it through together.

Returning back to the mansion, nearly everyone was back and Adelaide was hosting a late night dinner party in her hall. A quick peek revealed both of Aeria’s sisters, partying with their husbands and some strange girls along with Telfer and a few others. Caius was not there and he had not been outside in the training yards so she charged up to his bedroom to sort things out.

The room was empty. Down the hall Telfer stumbled up with a giggly girl by his side. “Have you seen Caius?” Aeria asked.

“He was here for a little while,” Telfer said."But some lady sent for him so he left to go meet her.”

“A lady?”

“Lady in waiting, soon to lord over Dimrest.” the girl said. “My aunt lives there. When I visited her last year, one of the city lord’s griffins took roost in her garden; they had to get the city guard and everything.”

The girl continued to speak, but Aeria had stopped listening and shrank back to her room. Telfer watched her oddly before she closed the door and they continued on their way.

She didn’t want to think. So she laid down, dress and all, on her bed and covered herself with the fresh blankets Sanya had laid out for her. She twisted and turned, no matter how many times she wrapped around the blankets she never really felt warm. Didn’t really feel cold either, just a point where she somehow felt neither at the same time and that made her uncomfortable.

Did she sleep? The next thing she noticed the sky was beginning to lighten had Sanya come in to change her? But that wasn’t what had stirred her attention. Aeria felt him return, his steps echoing through the stones of the mansion. They were still bonded, despite their brief respite from glaive training. Just as she could find him the melee, she could feel him entering now treading on the stones of the parlor. Climbing up the steps to their floor, down the hallway to his-

He stopped at her door.

Aeria swallowed hard, her previous determined courage now long evaporated. She turned on her side to get a good look of the door. From the small gap at the bottom his shadow spilled into her room from the dimly lit hallway. Part of her wanted to run up to the door and deal with the issue as she had intended. The other refused to confront it. She couldn’t decide, so she left it to Caius.

He stood there a long while, before stalking back to his own room across the hall. Aeria sighed. Relief and disappointment both mixed into a single breath.