Vers Libre

Dedication: To my beloved Kaluin who is also my beloved Ted - she who brought this all on in the first place.

---

There was something about the island he found interesting.

It wasn't the technology - he hadn't seen some of these in the entire of the Toran Republic - but, rather, the manner of the native people; it was unnerving for him to be greeted to casually, and to be so easily served (no, not serve, Tyr thought to himself, they piled) food. The food wasn't that bad either. While it couldn't compete with Gremio's stew, it was certainly far better than most of what he had tasted before. The night he came to Obel, it seemed they were holding a festival of some sort.

As he slowly chewed on his meal, the innkeeper filled him in patiently, almost as if she was used to explaining. It was, she said, a tradition they upheld for a long time now. Today was the day of celebration for the freedom they had gained a century and a half ago. Smiling, she asked if he had ever heard of the Kooluk Empire and, when he shook his head, quickly explained of its existence all the way back then - how it had tried to colonise the Island Nations. They had, the innkeeper continued, succeeded in taking over Razril (to the northwest of Obel, dear), Na-Nal and Obel but an army had been formed to fight off their invaders.

At this, Tyr couldn't help but raise his head and blink. The circumstances of it reminded him of the own war he, himself, had led. Wincing as the rune on his right hand twitched, he found himself hurriedly nodding his head so as to avert attention away from his bandaged hand - and, in turn, rune. A sudden inspiration struck him - softly, he enquired as to who had led the army.

He noticed how, for a moment, her smile slipped. Tyr looked on curiously as she quickly settled herself before she answered that it was none other than the King of Obel, of course - why would there be any leader other than their esteemed King Lino En Kuldes in that time and age?

In that instant, Tyr knew she was lying.

He just didn't know why.

§

The king, he read, had two children. One, his son, was lost when the Queen was sacrificed herself to save the Kingdom from pirates-

Tyr rubbed his eyes before he reread the line again. There were something he didn't understand: how would a child be lost if his mother 'sacrificed' herself to save the Kingdom from pirates? He didn't get how that worked. If she had traded her riches away for imprisonment, or... Had she taken her son with her or-

Sighing, the runebearer slumped back on his chair, and glanced up towards the ceiling. It wasn't just this that confused him - there were so many books within the Obel Library alone on the Island Nation Federation War, and none of them consistent. One suggested that the hero of the war was perhaps Schtolteheim Reinbach III, and not the King of Obel as it was often favoured; this book, however, won only a smirk from Tyr's face before he tossed it aside and started on the next.

And then there was that diary of Agnes Silverberg. (He had endured a lecture from the librarian who proudly announced how this was the sole copy and that if he dared harmed it in anyway... She had trailed off and left promptly, leaving Tyr meek and careful when he handled it.) Tyr was sure of the fact that neither Mathiu nor Apple had ever mentioned such a ancestor, but he understood why as he read on - Agnes admitted to having obtained her surname only through her Master, the Lady Elenor Silverberg who had served the Federation Army during the war, only to vanish completely after the Fort at El-Eal fell. But that wasn't what caught his eye; Agnes had mentioned a boy - though the boy's name was struck out, as if someone had gone through the entries and tried to delete every single possible evidence of a person's existence - inside the army. A boy with a dreaded power wanted by the Kooluk forces; Agnes wrote: We met struck out today, though we had heard stories long before. A boy who wielded the power of a cursed rune, made an enemy of the invading forces. Lady Elenor asked for me to prepare beforehand, as if she already knew struck out was coming. He remained awake even after he drank the drugged tea... My Lady says she will return to her post. I wonder what is it she sees in him to change her view so quickly?

A boy, a cursed rune, a war... Quickly, Tyr grabbed the book and made for the check-out counter. This was something he knew he had to read.

He had to know. Maybe, somehow... It could have been him.

§

Agnes wrote that the boy had gained trust from the king, and later on proved himself by defeating said king in a duel in front of a huge audience. He had gathered people around him, in support of his belief and against their common foe. The list of names of those onboard the ship which made their Headquarters went on and on -

Jeane. Viki. And there was-

He had stared at it for a long while. He couldn't believe it. Why hadn't he asked? Why hadn't he realised it sooner-

Ted. It was in Agnes' handwriting, underneath Lady Elenor Silverberg's name- It was there.

Swallowing what was stuck in his throat, Tyr carefully bookmarked that page before he went on to search the book from front to back all over again. Ted had been in the party sent to confront the commander of the Kooluk Army, Ted had kept himself inside his room for most of the time; there was, Agnes wrote, something struck out saw in Ted that I suppose none of us never saw. Hervey tells me he thinks the latter is boring, and that 'our leader should really hang out with the pirates more' but I disagree. I told Lady Elenor the other day that both struck out and Ted seemed to be spending a lot of time together, but she only smiled. I wonder what Lady Elenor is thinking.

Closing his eyes, Tyr pushed the diary aside and wearily trudged over to his bed. That was one question answered; no, it wasn't Ted who had led the army. It was somebody else.

As he drifted slowly into slumber, Tyr knew he had to find out who it was, whatever it took.

§

The directions led him past a long winding route leading east of Obel and to a house. It was, the librarian had said, a house that belonged to a man who studied under a student of a student of a student of... all the way back to Agnes. He could, she suggested quietly, try and search for the answers he wanted there.

Tyr stepped up and knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He tried again - and was answered with silence. Trying not to be too annoyed, he slowly turned the knob and blinked when he found it unlocked; opening the door, he stepped in slowly. The house was dark, but as his sight adjusted, Tyr found himself in awe at how neat the room he stood in was. There didn't seemed to be a single object out of place, not even the soft curtains that prevented the rays of the sun from travelling inside.

He called out a greeting, and an apology in one; this time, he found himself getting an answer - there was the sound of something dropping from the next room.

Curious, Tyr walked forward and-

There was a boy, and a knife on the floor. The boy's left hand was bandaged - bleeding, too, it seemed, and the knife had blood on its surface; it was not hard for Tyr to understand what had happened. As he stepped forward, ready to help the boy clean up, a blue light glowed in the boy's right palm and lit up the stranger's entire body.

It was not the first time he had seen somebody used a Water rune, so he understood.

When the blood dried, and the boy finished washing and changing the bandages he wore in another room, Tyr finally explained everything-

-only to find out he hadn't really wanted to know in the first place.

§

The boy's name was Lucas, and he had always been interested in history. Obel prided itself for its glorious heritage, the boy said knowingly as he searched his bookshelves, and the Federation War was one of the events they sought to remember. He had paused slightly, as he extracted a book that Tyr couldn't catch the title of, flipping past pages until Lucas smiled, and Tyr took it as an indication to lean forward and listen.

The Rune of Punishment.

Maybe, just once, he had heard Jeane talking about it, but he couldn't exactly remember what she had said.

It was, Lucas read, a cursed rune that took the lives of its bearers when they tried to control its power. It was also the reason that Kooluk sought to expand southwards, taking in the Island Nations - because the rune was here. A Queen, many fishermen, pirates... The list of victims went on, until Lucas paused and glanced up quietly, stating that nobody knew where the rune went after its bearer supposedly died after the war. Here, the boy merely smiled, and said that the bearer didn't die. He was most probably still alive, somewhere out there-

Tyr took this all in and asked, softly, why Lucas decided to trust him with this knowledge when nobody else he asked wanted to.

There was a moment of silence in which the boy's smile only widened; then, Lucas asked if Tyr knew how to dance.

§

Lucas explained that Obel didn't celebrate very often, it was just Tyr's luck that brought him to the Kingdom during the week where they celebrated both their freedom and the Coronation of Queen Theia, heir to the throne. The other, Tyr noted, was an experienced dancer, and a fairly upbeat and optimistic person who mixed around well - barely half an hour into the party and Tyr was already trying to remember the names of all the natives he was introduced to.

Elves from Na-Nal, Kobolds from Nay... In a hushed tone, Lucas jerked his chin towards a dignified silver-haired man, with a blond warrior standing next to him and murmured that he had never expected the Prince of Falena to attend. Tyr barely had time to take in this before Lucas dragged him off and introduced him to yet another person.

He was careful not to touch Lucas' bandaged hand, especially not after how the latter had retold a tale of how he had nearly lost his hand in a accident - it had, apparently, never stopped hurting after Lucas accidentally scarred it. Tyr had reacted only by smiling ruefully, touching his own right hand.

And this, Lucas suddenly said, is Kalevi.

Tyr shook hands with the new boy, who smiled and greeted him politely; Kalevi's face reminded him of... somebody, but he couldn't place exactly who. When asked what he did, Tyr smiled and replied that he was researching the Island Nations Federation War - Kalevi's raised eyebrow meant nothing and, yet, a lot.

Lucas knows a lot about it, Kalevi said after a while and Tyr didn't fail to notice how the younger boy had suddenly reached out to touch Lucas' left hand - like a child would grab an adult's - for comfort.

I do, don't I? Lucas seemed as if he wanted to laugh again, but he merely grinned and told Kalevi that he should returned to his sister; the boy nodded to both of them before he ran off in the direction of the crowd.

Later, after yet another introduction, when Tyr turned back in an attempt to find out where Kalevi had gone, he was amazed to find that the boy now held the attention of Obel's future Queen.

§

He hadn't suspected anything at first - so what if Soul Eater seemed eager in Obel? Ted had once been here, so surely that was fine. But, no. Tyr now knew it wasn't just the history of Ted that made Soul Eater excited - or was it nervous? - but the presence of another True Rune. It was one that the Soul Eater knew (and very well too, it seemed) and one that Tyr couldn't pinpoint no matter how much he tried.

The Island Nations Federation had been set up almost a century and a half ago-

So that meant Tyr was dealing with someone far older than he was. That meant whoever it was probably knew and understood what Tyr was, while he, himself, remained clueless.

And Lucas was lying about his bandaged hand.

For a moment, he thought it was Lucas - but Lucas' bandages were on his left hand; the right hand was home to a Water rune, and Tyr was very sure that the True Water rune had remained up north, while he had travelled south.

What was Lucas hiding though? What did he, an indirect student of Agnes Silverberg, and Elenor Silverberg in turn, had to hide?

A little irritated, it took Tyr a while to admit that, perhaps, it didn't concern him. No. That wasn't what he was here for.

He would go back to the library. Surely, Tyr thought, there would be another clue.

§

And there was. He didn't understand why he'd never seen it before.

The Obel throne had not gone directly to the Princess Flare, even though she was the only child left - instead, the next King had been a man that King Lino himself met and liked. The book, however, mentioned no name; it seemed that that even the citizens had only addressed him as 'King' -

Two nameless people within the same timeframe... It was too coincidental. And Tyr wouldn't believe it if somebody told him the two were two separate people.

He closed the book with a sigh. The boy with the cursed rune had met the King of Obel somehow, and had survived when everyone thought he had died and had gone on to accept the throne...

Wait. Didn't Agnes-

Quickly, Tyr went back to the diary and rushed through its pages until he came to the words he wanted to see.

Today, he read, the people of Obel crowned the new King Lazlo. The people here don't seem so much to mind that Flare doesn't inherit; they know who Lazlo is and respect him for that. Setsu tells me that Lazlo resembles the old Queen and they see that in him.

Lazlo tells me that he didn't expect it, but he doesn't mind. King Lino asked it of him, after all, and we all owed that much to the King.

Lazlo, Tyr repeated the name to himself. Lazlo - what kind of name was that? It didn't sound like a name that would hail from the Island Nations, and yet - it was. Here. On paper.

Carefully making note of the page, Tyr gently picked the diary up and headed east again.

§

Razril was Lucas' immediate reply.

To the northwest, Tyr muttered on instinct.

Lucas' reaction was to nod. Yes, he said, to the northwest. Lazlo... Razril. That would be where your mystery person came from. He paused, as if to think, then asked why Tyr wanted to know so much about the mysterious crowned King a hundred and fifty years ago.

He stiffened on instinct. It had been a while now since he had talked to anybody about it, and he remained a little uncomfortable even after all those years.

I thought it was a friend of mine, Tyr whispered at last. It was the truth, but when he had found out it wasn't Ted but another person entirely... He had been curious. What was this person like? Was he... like him?

Lucas was silent for a while. It's a hundred and fifty years ago, the scholar offered. Your friend...

He, umm.

Damn it, Tyr thought bitterly. There was only so much choices he could made right now. One, he could run away and pretended this conversation never existed, but he would never find out what he needed to know. Two, he could tell the truth - and regret it...

My friend had a True Rune, he finished at last. Tyr looked upwards, but Lucas didn't seemed so much fazed, or confused. In fact, the other teen seemed to be smiling. Tyr... didn't understand. But it's not my friend. I know it now, but I want to find out who this person was-

Ted?

Tyr stopped. He stared.

Was your friend Ted?

...how did Lucas... wait... Had Agnes known? Could Agnes have passed on the message that Ted was a True Rune bearer?

Tyr breathed. Yes, he admitted, yes - Ted.

There was a flash of triumph in Lucas' eyes, before it was gone - replaced by sorrow. It was the same sorrow he had seen in the eyes of the people when they'd found out that somebody they loved was dead. Tyr didn't understand anything anymore.

And I had been waiting, Lucas murmured quietly. All these years, I had been waiting.

§

The mystery finally came to a close.

Lucas - no, Tyr thought to himself, Lazlo - had offered him the entire story, without the holes that the history books (including Agnes' diary) contained.

He had been right - partially - about how similar their lives were. They had gained their respective cursed runes from someone they held close to them, they had led an army against another force - in the end, they had won, but both of them had lost so much to the war as well. Tyr had been offered presidency, but he had left secretly for the Island Nations without Gremio so much knowing. Lu - Lazlo had been made heir to the Obel throne, but he had taken it, and he had lingered on Obel all these years - this century and a half...

Lazlo had been waiting for Ted.

And Ted had never mentioned Lazlo.

Maybe, Tyr muttered quickly, maybe Ted... felt guilty. Maybe he... But he was making excuses for someone who had already died, and they both knew it.

Lazlo, however, smiled. It doesn't matter, the much older teen murmured, I know what kind of person he was. I would reckon... he thought I really was dead. Laughter - but it had a slightly bitter tinge to it. I did die, after all, but the rune...

Here, Tyr had to interrupt. Your rune... It's not on you- Wide-eyed, the younger runebearer watched as Lazlo unravelled the bandages about his left hand and revealed the Rune of Punishment. Oh, he said. He felt dumb. He'd assumed all True Runes fixed themselves on the bearer's right hand, and thus...

I'm sorry for lying, Lazlo whispered, and he looked just as apologetic as he sounded. It's been...

Tyr smiled. I know, he said.

He did. Very well, indeed.

§

Lazlo would later introduce him to Theia and her younger brother. It took Tyr a moment to realise that, yes, he had met the younger Prince before and another to understand that it was Kalevi, the innocent kid he'd met back in the coronation.

...so he hadn't seen wrongly.

And he had called the Prince of Obel by his first name, without titles.

Before he could apologise, Kalevi took the first step by asking Tyr about stories. Smiling, the child asked if anything interesting had happened back then, in Scarlet Moon (Toran, Queen Theia corrected, though Kalevi showed no sign of hearing his sister) and whether there was any pompous idiots like the current mayor of Middleport. He heard a snicker from behind him, and highly suspected that it had come from Lazlo - there wasn't anyone else around, after all.

Tyr smiled a little weakly, as he started to tell his tale - the story of a boy who had once seen his Empire as the world, but slowly understood that it wasn't. It was an hour later when he finished and he would have been blind not to notice that Queen Theia was gently dabbing the side of her eyes with a piece of cloth, while (Prince, his mind interjected) Kalevi was lying in Lazlo's lap, almost half-asleep.

The other runebearer himself looked sober and solemn, but he offered a soft smile when Tyr turned to glance at him.

You must stay for dinner, the Queen said suddenly. You're a friend of our cousin. King Lino would be ashamed if we didn't.

By now, Kalevi had shrugged himself out of his semi-conscious state, and the boy demanded - as politely as he could for someone of his position - that Tyr stay and talk to him some more.

He nodded, a weak grin on his lips. Between Queen Theia, Prince Kalevi and Lazlo - somebody who had once knew Ted as well - Tyr doubted he could have left without feeling any remorse, not after everything that had happened in the past week.

Maybe, Tyr wondered, maybe he could coax out more stories about Ted from Lazlo if he stayed?

...maybe.

§

He couldn't stay any longer than a half a month. Quee - Theia, he corrected himself painfully (the young noble had threatened to beat him up if he didn't stop addressing her as such; while Tyr was sure he could beat her fair and square in a duel, he didn't want to do it... Especially not when Lazlo and her royal guards were present), had lent him a nasel bird to take a message back to Gremio - who hadn't been too well after he'd disappeared mysteriously.

Trying his best not to grin sheepishly as he reread the reply, Tyr watched as Lazlo offered a treat to the bird, who purred in a birdlike manner. I have to go back, Tyr murmured. Gremio's worried about me.

Of course you have to, Lazlo said.

Tyr blinked. Was that sadness he heard in the other's voice? Oh, right... Ted. Ted had left and never came back, and Lazlo had waited all these years for him...

I'll be back, Tyr quickly said. I'll come back. With Gremio and all - he'll like Obel, I'm sure of it. Lazlo stared. Tyr was surprised - he hadn't expected this reaction from the other... Smiling, the younger bearer lifted his right hand, offering his palm. And when I do, let's dance again, shall we? Prince Lazlo.

It was a few seconds before Lazlo smiled and took Tyr's right hand with his left-

Their runes flashed.

I'll be waiting, Lazlo said, as a strange look came into his face. You better come back this time or I'll go out there to search for you.

You don't have to, Tyr promised. You won't have to wait anymore.

§

Somewhere, deep inside the Soul Eater, there was a boy who was watching.

And Ted smiled.

fin.

Notes: This is all Kaluin's fault, by the way - if you managed to get through everything. I don't think there are any glaring errors - but most likely there are a few minor ones that spellcheck didn't catch and I'm too dead right now to go through all 3700+ words of it right now. And don't ask about the title. You'd rather not know, actually. :)