"What is he made of, bricks?" Cor said. "Stupid machina, light!"

"He was supposed to be dead," Tio said. "We threw him out a window.’"

"Well, he sure as isn’t dead now. There," Cor said, watching the rag catch on fire.

"I told ya, he’s been fighitng Jyscal all his life. He’s too damn tough to kill without taking out most of the landscape with him."

"Don’t worry, he’s gonna be. I am so glad they thought of this plan."

"Would you throw that already?"

"Sorry, you know how much I like fire," Cor said, and threw the bottle of oil, while happily watching the burning rag in it.

"Come on, get out of here," Tio said, hearing the bottle smash and flames go up inside.

"Why? I wanna watch the show," Cor said. "Besides, when are we gonna get caught, we’re the guards."

"We have to look slightly competent for Jyscal to keep us," Tio reminded him.

"And where are you going?" Cor asked.

"To make sure he’s definitely damn dead this time."

…………………………………………………………………………………….

Yuna had asked every time they showed up—which was seldom now that no one was causing much trouble—for the guards to get her a book. She’d teach herself to read, she was so bored. One couldn’t even watch the dust settle, for it had done so years ago. Yuna couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but she assumed it was about a day later when she got her answer, which of course was ‘no.’

She was worried about Seymour. She was locked in the family room with a few pieces of furniture and a lot of dust. What was the basement like?

At least here she had a little light from under the doorways and a pathetic light in the bathroom that barely worked. There couldn’t be much in the basement.

Were they even feeding him?

She was starting to miss him. It wasn’t just worry or pity, but she wished she could see him. Not just anyone, but him… and she wondered why.

What was it with this family, which now included her? Why did everyone rise to insults and start fights? Why was she fighitng about Jyscal fighting?

"I am never going to believe another sphere in my life," Yuna said. "What’s that smell?"

Something definitely seemed wrong. Then, when she heard someone pounding on the door with another chair--or something bigger—she wasn’t bored anymore

Yuna stood up, changing into her black mage outfit. She could definitely smell smoke now, and considering most guado were huge and built like the giant trees that were everywhere, she didn’t want to be at close range.

Her efforts fell short however. She was blinded by bright light of flames in the main room, turning whoever was in the broken doorway into nothing but a silhouette.

"Get out of here," she heard Jyscal say, as he grabbed her arm that she was using to shield herself form the bright light.

"What?" Yuna asked, lowering her arm to make sure it was him.

"The front door. Go through it. Stay outside. I haven’t left you here so long you’ve forgotten what outside is like."

"‘Why did you beat down the door?" she asked, stepping over what was left of it.

"There was no time to find the key," Jyscal said. Get lower, crawl if you have to,"

"What about Seymour?" she asked, going along with his advice to crawl. He was doing the same thing.

"I’m getting you out first."

Yuna reached for the doorknob and turned it, but the door wouldn’t budge. She didn’t try for long and tore her hand away from the hot doorknob.

Jyscal stood up and pushed her out of the way. He started ramming the door and trying to kick it down.

"Get back!" Yuna said, standing up and choking of smoke. The tile floors and walls were hardly flammable, but all the decorative tapestries and furniture were.

"What are you going to do?" Jyscal asked, backing away anyway.

Yuna cast blizaga one the door, breaking it into pieces. The cold and ice evaporated away in the intense heat, doing little to slow the flames. Still, an open door was an open door. And a way out.

Yuna went to her knees again, crawling over the splinters and out the door to avoid the smoke. She stood up once outside and was about to run.

"Stay here!" Jyscal ordered, painfully grabbing her by the shoulder. "Keep away from the flames. Attack anyone who looks suspicious. But do not move from here." He tore off his coat and shirt, ripping a piece from it. "That is an order!" he yelled and ran into the burning palace.

Yuna looked around and wondered why no one else was in sight.

………………………………………………………………………

"Fuck," Tio muttered, holding his injured hand. "Can’t summon. Can’t do magic. Can’t even wield a knife to protect yourself, but you bite worse than chocobo. I’m going to find you and I’m going to kill you!" He stalked out of the basement, ignoring the flames and heat and smoke. "You can’t get too far on a pair of broken legs. And you won’t bite me again if I break your jaw."

"Not if I break yours first!"

"Jyscal!" was all he got out before Jyscal’s fist met with his face.

Tio was thrown to the floor by the force of the blow. They could both hear someone coughing under the table now, although they couldn’t see each other in the smoke.

Jyscal crawled under the table and grabbed Seymour’s arm and shoved the scrap of his shirt into Seymour’s hand. "Take this!" Jyscal yelled as Seymour tried to wrench his arm free. "Cover your mouth!"

"It won’t be that easy!" Tio yelled, lunging forward and stabbed at Jyscal with a knife, but only managing to spear the leg of his pants.

"Not for you!" Jyscal shouted, and grabbed the table, flames already eating away at the edges of it. Jyscal swung the table right into Tio’s head, smashing it and twisting the guard’s neck.

Jyscal tossed the table down and grabbed Seymour like sack of luggage. At first Seymour struggled as best he could with his broken legs and still holding the scrap of cloth over his mouth, but gave up soon after, seeing how futile it was.

"I’m trying to save your life, idiot!" Jyscal yelled. "knock it off!"

Seymour didn’t respond, he just coughed into the rag.

"Shit! Jyscal shouted, as something flew past him, grazing his face and hair, then exploded into more flames

Jyscal himself started coughing. He couldn’t see which way to go. He couldn’t see anything in the smoke. He could barely breathe. The fire was closing around him, he couldn’t stomp the flames out fast enough as they reached out hungrily for the fabric of his pants.

There was an explosion of cold air and a slight spray of water before it evaporated completely in the heat and the flames in front of him died away.

"This way!" he heard Yuna yell.

"You—" Jyscal couldn’t talk, there was too much smoke and too little air in his lungs.

"I’m saving your life, hurry up!" Yuna yelled.

Seymour was starting to go limp on Jyscal’s back. "Don’t you dare!" He followed the sound of the blizzaga spells going off in a path toward the door. Yuna was swatting at the flames on what was left of the door with a wet hat. Her hair was damp; her braid had been bundled up to keep it out of the flames.

"There, you’re out," Jyscal said, tossing Seymour on the ground once they were outside.

Seymour held his hurt legs and coughed.

"Breathe, damnit, you’re not a fish!"

"Jyscal!" Yuna yelled, rushing to Seymour.

"I told him what would happen. I was not about to go back on my word. I will not show weakness to anyone. Not my allies. Not my enemies. Not you. Not him. What I say goes, and I will do what it takes to keep him in line!"

"He could have died because of you!" Yuna yelled, holding Seymour, as he did nothing but hold onto her and cough over her shoulder.

"He could have died anyway. He’s useless."

"Why did you rescue him just to treat him like he’s less than nothing?"

"He’s not less than nothing, he’s worse than nothing. I did not save him out of kindness. These people cost me my wife! I refuse to let them gain any ground whatsoever, and if that means saving his sorry ass, then so be it!"

"How can you be so cruel?" Yuna yelled. "We’re all in danger and all you care about is winning! Is pride!"

"He cost me far more than pride. He knew the consequences of being caught breaking the rules."

"His legs are broken!"

"His legs have beenbroken before. This way he might learn something!" Jyscal yelled.

"You’ve done this to him before?" Yuna asked, not voicing her relief that Seymour’s coughing was subsiding.

"He fell out of a tree."

"He was injured trying to escape you?"

"I intended to climb that tree," Seymour said.

"Everything you have ever intended to do has put you in danger. Stop intending and do something that isn’t stupid for once in your life"

"I did not intend to get beaten up by the guards," Seymour said.

"The guards!" Jyscal gasped. "Damnit! You two stay here. If you have to rescue yourselves, do it without running off." Jyscal ran off himself without another word.

"Seymour?" Yuna asked.

"Don’t move, please, it hurts."

"Seymour, families shouldn’t act like this. I understand now. I understand why you were so afraid. This shouldn’t be happening."

"Many things shouldn’t happen Yuna. You shouldn’t be in the middle of all this."

However, the middle was where she as and the middle was where she’d stay.

"You!" They quickly turned to see one of the guards, angrily pointing at them. "You killed Tio!" He tore out a familiar-looking knife and flipped the blade out. "You die, half-breed scum!"

"You were going to kill me in the first place!" Seymour complained as Yuna stood up to defend him.

"You’ll pay by watching your wife die too!" he yelled, lunging at Yuna with the knife.

Yuna blocked with her stick, but couldn’t block his hand as he grabbed her throat.

Keeping her eyes on the knife, she moved her leg from under him and kneed him squarely in the stomach and shoved him off. She stood up and swung the stick, hitting him in the jaw.

"I don’t die that easily!" she shouted, preparing a spell to knock him out.

"I do," he said, flipping the knife around in his hand. "You’ll get no information out of me." With that, he lifted the knife to his neck and slit his own throat.

Jyscal came running, but it was too late.

Cor was dead, Seymour’s knife once again bloody with the death of a guard he didn’t kill. Seymour was sitting up, unable to have done anything, and Jyscal didn’t blame any part of himself or his actions for it. Yuna stood there, dumbfounded as he spell dissipated, never cast.

Jyscal kicked Cor’s body.

Seymour gave one last cough.

The fire was dying out as it tried to creep onto the damp grass or at a tree, a futile effort, for the vegetation held too much water to be bothered much.

After a moment, Yuna returned to Seymour to help him sit up as his arms were giving out. The three of them watched the fire as it slowly died away.

………………………………………………………………………………..

Most of the upstairs hadn’t been touched by the blaze.

It rained that night and Jyscal left the doors and windows open to clear out the smoke and let the rain wash what it could out the doorway full of splinters.

Yuna was thankful she was let back in the bedroom, not a basement full of old, forgotten things, or a room full of dust and bad memories. She was thankful Seymour wasn’t in there either.

Jyscal had ordered them to stay together, no matter where one of them went. Yuna had cast a cure spell, but the wounds weren’t very recent and such spells never fully healed broken bones anyway.

This time Yuna was the one who stayed up worrying while Seymour fell fast asleep. She calmly let him cling to her in his sleep. Underneath his calm face, she knew he was scared. He would jerk or move closer to her, as if someone were trying to pull him off of her. Still, his face remained emotionless and unmoving.

She gently traced the lines of color on his face, her fingers stopping for a moment when she came close to his eyes.

She used to love those eyes, then hate those eyes, and now feared those eyes. She thought he showed her all his emotions, right up front, right there for her to see, in his eyes. She thought he could make his voice imply whatever he wanted someone to believe, but his eyes gave him away.

She used to love being all he talked about, all he wanted, all he needed. She used to love all the attention he gave her, and relished in knowing it was genuinely for her, not just ‘Lord Braska’s daughter’. She used to hate those eyes, those honest eyes with no remorse for killing, with determination to become what the entire world feared, to have her no matter what.

Now she feared those eyes. They did convey everything he felt. He truly loved her. He feared losing her. The intense fear and anger towards his father that she saw in them was almost too frightening to accept as real. The resignation he had shown as his father berated him just after pulling him from death was too much.

She hoped it wasn’t too late.

She wanted to change those eyes.

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