[Suikoden III] Quite the Genius
Mar. 12th, 2010 01:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runicloreTitle: Quite the Genius
Author: Myaru
Rating: T
Warnings: n/a
Word count: 1508
Prompt: Suikoden III, Albert/Sarah: appearances - "Play at being a Silverberg for a while and you'll see what I mean."
Summary: Albert confronts Sarah about the little stunt she pulled before the destruction of Karaya.
A/N: soooo, my memory on the exact sequence of events is a little vague, and I can't pop the game in right now. Apologies if anything is off.
Sorry for the spam. This is it for tonight. I just don't want to forget it.
.........................................................
"Sit down, Sarah. We'll discuss your insubordination over tea."
The rune shop was almost empty, and would have been silent if not for the scratching of long, insect legs on the floor above, or the click of mandibles, the squeal of its young and the rustle of their straw nest. Albert lit a lamp on the counter with a long match, shook it out; his white coat gathered the light and appeared to glow against the dim background. She remained standing by the brass door instead of moving to the table as he ordered, but the gesture was wasted; he didn't turn around to look at her, but lifted the lamp and walked past the empty shelves, where runes should have glittered in every color of the rainbow, and disappeared into the back room. Sarah flicked her finger toward the table and lit the candle at the center with a word murmured under her breath.
Caleria would be infinitely better than this place; it would mean sand between her toes, under her nails, dust gritting everywhere, but she wouldn't go to sleep with the imaginary prickling of the skin that woke her at night in a cold sweat, rubbing her arms red to dislodge bugs that weren't there. The wind didn't moan and cry at night in Caleria as it did in Le Buque; nowhere else would she wake at dawn to the utter blackness of stone, in a room carved out of the weight of a mountain. A concentrated attack by enemy forces would knock the town from its flimsy metal supports and send everything plunging to the bottom of the chasm; Harmonia did it fifty years ago, and Sarah couldn't fathom why they bothered to capture the region and rebuild. She'd seen Le Buque's riders at work, and was still of the opinion that dragons would do it better - and in lesser numbers - than a fleet of overgrown cockroaches, and if they couldn't get dragons, well-- Harmonia had always done just fine without airborne troops.
She shivered, resisted the urge to rub her arms, and approached the table. Glass clinked in the back room. The tiny, bloody nick on her throat stung, and she glanced at the shadows in the corners, behind the counter, past the doors leading inward to the runemaster's former residence, and tried to ignore the insect sounds long enough to focus her senses on their composition.
Nothing. Yuber was indeed gone.
Good.
She sat down and moved the candle left of center to allow room for the tea tray. The flame flipped and flared with the air currents, haloed by dust and tiny bits of straw. Albert appeared in the doorway with a plain wooden tray, and Sarah almost stood up to help, hands pressed on the table. The offer died on her lips when their gazes met over the tall porcelain shape of their Harmonian-style teapot. It fit her countrymen - and Albert - perfectly, standing tall and slender, almost like a wine pitcher, painted with pink and blue flowers. The ceramic cup he set before her didn't match. It was warm to the touch.
"Master Luc spoke to me before leaving for Crystal Valley," she said, when it was clear Albert meant to let the silence stretch and weigh upon her. Perhaps he would view it as a sign of weakness that she spoke first-- and maybe it was. Sarah wouldn't have agreed to meet him alone to begin with if anyone but Yuber had been available to chaperon. Enduring his silence in addition to his half-lidded stare did not appeal. "What were you hoping to add? Not a lecture on the tactical outcomes of disobeying orders, I hope."
Albert's eyebrow twitched up slightly as he poured tea for her, and then himself, setting the pot to the side of the tray. "You understand the damage you've done by warning the Karayans personally, correct? Then there's no need to dwell on it. I've already compensated." He smiled, his lips thin, their curve slight. The deep auburn of his hair reflected the candle flame, orange and yellow highlights crowning his head, jumping on the flop of his bangs that fell over his eye.
Sarah probed the lip of her cup with her fingertips. She inhaled the scent of good Toran green tea, and wished breaking from his gaze to stare at the steam would not also be a show of weakness. "In two hours? You are quite the genius, aren't you."
His chuckle set her teeth on edge. "Dear, naive Sarah." Albert's fingers steepled. The shadow had gathered in his eyes, made them dark, hid the vivid green. "If you intend to betray my expectations, you'll have to start thinking in terms of variables and details, and a little more observation wouldn't hurt. Your mask is transparent. Your tactics are depressingly predictable."
Heat crept into her face. Her eye tried to twitch, and she held her face rigidly still. "Leave it to a Silverberg to defeat an attempt to save lives."
The glint in Albert's eyes moved slightly as he examined her, and the redness rose from her cheeks to her forehead, spreading down her throat. He didn't laugh. He lifted his cup, sipped, winced slightly - without the deep shadows, she wouldn't have noticed. "I made sure the defense force followed our lead and ended up at the village, but as you see, it didn't make a difference. One more life might have been saved - maybe two. The point was to enrage the Grasslanders beyond reason, after all, and a greater number of survivors would undercut the effectiveness of our plan. You know that."
Pain throbbed in her temples. Sarah made herself unclench her jaw. "I know that attacking them at all during the peace talks would offend their honor adequately. You've let Yuber affect your judgment."
He sighed and leaned back, setting his cup down with a thump. The chair creaked. "What do you suppose will happen if Luc succeeds?"
Sarah tried not to echo his sigh, or give him the satisfaction of an audible response at all. they were only tools to him: Yuber was a weapon, Luc a path to promotion, and she wasn't supposed to be involved - she was meant to stay home, with Leknaat, and listen for the news that they'd won or lost, it didn't matter-- in either case, Luc would be dead, and Sarah left all alone. With years of research and traveling already done before he rescued her, he could have plotted out all of the Sindarin temples in this region without her help. It would have taken longer, but the task wasn't impossible.
No, clearly not; clearly it wasn't impossible. She'd spent days before every one of their discoveries, trying to mask the ruins from his rune and keep the hum from alerting Yuber. Sarah didn't know if he could sense them the way she did, or if he'd simply been summoned so many times over the centuries that he knew them by memory.
"Have it your way." Albert swept his bangs back and let them fan over his temple again. She watched his fingers sift and comb into his hair, watched the feathery layers brush his knuckles, and listened to his elbows crack. "This war was Luc's idea, and we operate under Harmonian directives; since our primary goal doesn't involve a resolution, I think your criticism is misplaced. I also think--" his said, raising his voice when she leaned forward and opened her mouth, "--that if you want to save your precious master, you had better start thinking more like a strategist, and less like a silly, lovesick girl. You've already wasted two hundred lives."
Her hand itched to slap him. Sarah curled her fingers in and dug her nails into her palms. The knot forming in her throat had nothing to do with tears. "It was your idea."
"He wants to hit Harmonia."
"You want a promotion."
"Who doesn't?" The jut of his shoulder lifted in a shrug. "Imagine what you could do if Harmonia acknowledged your bloodline. Doors closed to me would swing wide open for you."
She gave up and moved her gaze to her tea. The angle was all wrong for looking at her reflection, so she had no idea what her face was revealing - only that the skin felt stiff and stretched, and every tiny muscle was tense. It felt like she'd given herself away, yet when she unclenched her fist to rub her forehead, it felt smooth. "Why are we even talking about this?" Surrender. Bitterness crawled over her tongue, down her throat. "It's too late now."
"Much too late," Albert agreed, and reached for his tea.
.
Author: Myaru
Rating: T
Warnings: n/a
Word count: 1508
Prompt: Suikoden III, Albert/Sarah: appearances - "Play at being a Silverberg for a while and you'll see what I mean."
Summary: Albert confronts Sarah about the little stunt she pulled before the destruction of Karaya.
A/N: soooo, my memory on the exact sequence of events is a little vague, and I can't pop the game in right now. Apologies if anything is off.
Sorry for the spam. This is it for tonight. I just don't want to forget it.
.........................................................
"Sit down, Sarah. We'll discuss your insubordination over tea."
The rune shop was almost empty, and would have been silent if not for the scratching of long, insect legs on the floor above, or the click of mandibles, the squeal of its young and the rustle of their straw nest. Albert lit a lamp on the counter with a long match, shook it out; his white coat gathered the light and appeared to glow against the dim background. She remained standing by the brass door instead of moving to the table as he ordered, but the gesture was wasted; he didn't turn around to look at her, but lifted the lamp and walked past the empty shelves, where runes should have glittered in every color of the rainbow, and disappeared into the back room. Sarah flicked her finger toward the table and lit the candle at the center with a word murmured under her breath.
Caleria would be infinitely better than this place; it would mean sand between her toes, under her nails, dust gritting everywhere, but she wouldn't go to sleep with the imaginary prickling of the skin that woke her at night in a cold sweat, rubbing her arms red to dislodge bugs that weren't there. The wind didn't moan and cry at night in Caleria as it did in Le Buque; nowhere else would she wake at dawn to the utter blackness of stone, in a room carved out of the weight of a mountain. A concentrated attack by enemy forces would knock the town from its flimsy metal supports and send everything plunging to the bottom of the chasm; Harmonia did it fifty years ago, and Sarah couldn't fathom why they bothered to capture the region and rebuild. She'd seen Le Buque's riders at work, and was still of the opinion that dragons would do it better - and in lesser numbers - than a fleet of overgrown cockroaches, and if they couldn't get dragons, well-- Harmonia had always done just fine without airborne troops.
She shivered, resisted the urge to rub her arms, and approached the table. Glass clinked in the back room. The tiny, bloody nick on her throat stung, and she glanced at the shadows in the corners, behind the counter, past the doors leading inward to the runemaster's former residence, and tried to ignore the insect sounds long enough to focus her senses on their composition.
Nothing. Yuber was indeed gone.
Good.
She sat down and moved the candle left of center to allow room for the tea tray. The flame flipped and flared with the air currents, haloed by dust and tiny bits of straw. Albert appeared in the doorway with a plain wooden tray, and Sarah almost stood up to help, hands pressed on the table. The offer died on her lips when their gazes met over the tall porcelain shape of their Harmonian-style teapot. It fit her countrymen - and Albert - perfectly, standing tall and slender, almost like a wine pitcher, painted with pink and blue flowers. The ceramic cup he set before her didn't match. It was warm to the touch.
"Master Luc spoke to me before leaving for Crystal Valley," she said, when it was clear Albert meant to let the silence stretch and weigh upon her. Perhaps he would view it as a sign of weakness that she spoke first-- and maybe it was. Sarah wouldn't have agreed to meet him alone to begin with if anyone but Yuber had been available to chaperon. Enduring his silence in addition to his half-lidded stare did not appeal. "What were you hoping to add? Not a lecture on the tactical outcomes of disobeying orders, I hope."
Albert's eyebrow twitched up slightly as he poured tea for her, and then himself, setting the pot to the side of the tray. "You understand the damage you've done by warning the Karayans personally, correct? Then there's no need to dwell on it. I've already compensated." He smiled, his lips thin, their curve slight. The deep auburn of his hair reflected the candle flame, orange and yellow highlights crowning his head, jumping on the flop of his bangs that fell over his eye.
Sarah probed the lip of her cup with her fingertips. She inhaled the scent of good Toran green tea, and wished breaking from his gaze to stare at the steam would not also be a show of weakness. "In two hours? You are quite the genius, aren't you."
His chuckle set her teeth on edge. "Dear, naive Sarah." Albert's fingers steepled. The shadow had gathered in his eyes, made them dark, hid the vivid green. "If you intend to betray my expectations, you'll have to start thinking in terms of variables and details, and a little more observation wouldn't hurt. Your mask is transparent. Your tactics are depressingly predictable."
Heat crept into her face. Her eye tried to twitch, and she held her face rigidly still. "Leave it to a Silverberg to defeat an attempt to save lives."
The glint in Albert's eyes moved slightly as he examined her, and the redness rose from her cheeks to her forehead, spreading down her throat. He didn't laugh. He lifted his cup, sipped, winced slightly - without the deep shadows, she wouldn't have noticed. "I made sure the defense force followed our lead and ended up at the village, but as you see, it didn't make a difference. One more life might have been saved - maybe two. The point was to enrage the Grasslanders beyond reason, after all, and a greater number of survivors would undercut the effectiveness of our plan. You know that."
Pain throbbed in her temples. Sarah made herself unclench her jaw. "I know that attacking them at all during the peace talks would offend their honor adequately. You've let Yuber affect your judgment."
He sighed and leaned back, setting his cup down with a thump. The chair creaked. "What do you suppose will happen if Luc succeeds?"
Sarah tried not to echo his sigh, or give him the satisfaction of an audible response at all. they were only tools to him: Yuber was a weapon, Luc a path to promotion, and she wasn't supposed to be involved - she was meant to stay home, with Leknaat, and listen for the news that they'd won or lost, it didn't matter-- in either case, Luc would be dead, and Sarah left all alone. With years of research and traveling already done before he rescued her, he could have plotted out all of the Sindarin temples in this region without her help. It would have taken longer, but the task wasn't impossible.
No, clearly not; clearly it wasn't impossible. She'd spent days before every one of their discoveries, trying to mask the ruins from his rune and keep the hum from alerting Yuber. Sarah didn't know if he could sense them the way she did, or if he'd simply been summoned so many times over the centuries that he knew them by memory.
"Have it your way." Albert swept his bangs back and let them fan over his temple again. She watched his fingers sift and comb into his hair, watched the feathery layers brush his knuckles, and listened to his elbows crack. "This war was Luc's idea, and we operate under Harmonian directives; since our primary goal doesn't involve a resolution, I think your criticism is misplaced. I also think--" his said, raising his voice when she leaned forward and opened her mouth, "--that if you want to save your precious master, you had better start thinking more like a strategist, and less like a silly, lovesick girl. You've already wasted two hundred lives."
Her hand itched to slap him. Sarah curled her fingers in and dug her nails into her palms. The knot forming in her throat had nothing to do with tears. "It was your idea."
"He wants to hit Harmonia."
"You want a promotion."
"Who doesn't?" The jut of his shoulder lifted in a shrug. "Imagine what you could do if Harmonia acknowledged your bloodline. Doors closed to me would swing wide open for you."
She gave up and moved her gaze to her tea. The angle was all wrong for looking at her reflection, so she had no idea what her face was revealing - only that the skin felt stiff and stretched, and every tiny muscle was tense. It felt like she'd given herself away, yet when she unclenched her fist to rub her forehead, it felt smooth. "Why are we even talking about this?" Surrender. Bitterness crawled over her tongue, down her throat. "It's too late now."
"Much too late," Albert agreed, and reached for his tea.
.
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Date: 2010-03-12 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 09:24 pm (UTC)