[[Been sitting in this a few weeks; this took place just after CoP 3-2, "A Vessel Without A Captain", when several in the group had been arrested. ]]

As the black-and-gold clothed figure moved out of sight, Draenen closed her eyes. In her mind's eye she could see every little detail of what he had worn… and more. She knew that, under his sleeves, the gloves reached halfway up his forearm and had small gold clasps. The boots, just peeking out from under the hem of his pants, reached up his calves and were highly ornate; they were designed to be paired up with a pair of hose. The jupon contained three secret pockets along the left side, one small one just over the heart and two further down above the belt.

It wasn't magic, or some psychic ability that told her these things. She knew for the simple (at least, simple at the first notice) fact that the same outfit was sitting, folded neatly, in one of the chests that contained her sister's clothes. Mask included, the only difference between the two sets was that the one in Draenen's possession had been tailored for a woman.

… There's so many coincidences… She thought, her hand moving to her breast pocket and feeling the familiar crinkle of the letter she always kept on her person. … What does it all mean? Does it mean anything at all?

Sighing, she turned and started to call for Aderyn and stopped abruptly as she almost spun into Tarauial. The Elvaan woman stepped back to avoid the collision, then looked past Draenen to where Kirious had gone.

"… Who was that?"

Draenen caught the odd tone in the woman's voice, and raised an eyebrow. "That's the man who hired me to make maps of the places inside the Crags."

"The same one who almost broke your jaw?"

"Yeah."

Tarauial closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "… I haven't seen anyone wear clothes like that in over four years…"

"Was it a popular style? Malay left a nearly identical outfit in one of her trunks."

"… It was not popular." Tarauial opened her eyes. "Your sister and one other… they were the only ones I ever saw wearing that. The jupon itself was popular for a time, but it was normally worn with a set of hose and a beret… not with long pants and a mask."

Draenen looked back over her shoulder. "… Y'know, Romidant claimed to know him."

"Really, now?"

"Yeah. He called him 'Envy'."

Tarauial's jaw clenched tightly, and she looked around. "… Where's Aderyn?"

"Down by the fountain." Draenen pointed down the set of stairs across from the Ducal Palace, then looked at the Elvaan woman closely. "Tarauial… did you know someone called Envy?"

She was silent for over a minute, then nodded once. "I did." She turned and headed towards the fountain. "Let's get the boy and head home."

"I thought the plan was to stay here for the night?"

"… Plans change. Why don't you see to finding me a good chocobo? Aderyn can ride double with you on yours."

Draenen hesitated. "Wouldn't an airship be better for you?"

Tarauial didn't look back as she moved down the stairs. "It might be hours before the airship gets here. I want to get out of Jeuno right now."


[[Part II coming soon.]]

The night was more than half over when two chocobos finally strode into the stable yard. A sleepy groom took the reins from one as the rider carefully dismounted while holding a sleeping boy. The rider on the other bird struggled briefly to do the same, one leg and arm not quite responding to her every whim.

"… A late night for you, Miss Covature." The groom yawned as he moved to help the Elvaan free her foot from her stirrup. "But, I will say it's nice to see you using a chocobo again."

Tarauial grimaced as she slowly slid out of her saddle. "Not the best decision I've made recently, but I had limited choices. You ready, Thorns?"

Draenen nodded as she handed the groom a handful of gil for her green chocobo. "Extra carrots, if you can."

Aderyn woke only once, and only briefly, when the reached Tarauial's home. The Elvaan woman had stumbled, her bad leg giving out and sending her crashing against the kitchen table. The little boy had started with a small yelp, looked around, then settled back against Draenen's shoulder before drifting back off. Draenen managed to get him redressed in his nightclothes and tucked him into bed without him twitching an eyelid, then rejoined Tarauial in the kitchen.

The Elvaan woman was sitting at the table, her face troubled as she poured two cups of tea.

"… You've been quiet since we left Jeuno." Draenen murmured as she slid into the chair across from Tarauial. "It's because of Kirious, isn't it?"

"… Is that what he's calling himself these days?"

Draenen shrugged as she took the offered cup and added some honey and milk. "That's how he introduced himself to me. One of our business dealings, he told me that he also went by 'Envy'." She took a sip of her tea, grimaced, and added more milk. "Romidant called him that, too. And you said you knew someone named that."

Tarauial nodded. "He's not someone you should be associating yourself with. Your sister woul–" She hesitated, then bit her bottom lip. "You… you just shouldn't have dealings with him."

Draenen looked at the Elvaan, a small frown on her face. She knew her well enough to know that she was trying to omit something; that Tarauial had started to lie, stopped, and then skipped to a new direction. "What about my sister?"

"… Nothing."

"'Nothing', my ass." Draenen snorted. "I know you well enough. You were going to say something about Malay, then stopped when you realized it would've been a lie." She slammed her hand against the table. "Dammit, why do you all do this to me? I get that she gave you all instructions to 'keep me safe', but if you don't tell me anything I'll never learn for myself."

Tarauial sighed and closed her eyes. "I know, but.." She went silent for several minutes, slowly sipping at her tea while obviously struggling with a decision. "… Thorns, I really, truly, believe that you should stay away from Envy, or whatever he calls himself. But if Mal was here… she'd say otherwise, and that she trusts him with her life."

Draenen blinked. "She knew Envy?" She sat forward as Tarauial nodded. "How?"


Tarauial sighed as she opened her eyes. "We were all young, back then, and working for the same company. Were weren't heroes, just a bunch of green adventurers trying to make ends meet by hiring ourselves out. Myself, my brother, a Hume summoner, a Hume paladin, a Mithran whitemage, your sister… and an even younger Hume blackmage called Milan.

"As much as she hated men, your sister and Milan were nigh inseparable. They had known each other for years prior to joining the company, and she was more open and comfortable with him than I've ever seen her be with other women… save one." Tarauial paused, chuckling. "People who knew she had come from the girl's school generally assumed it was because he was so small, even feminine, that he didn't trigger that 'men are evil' mindset, that she didn't see him as a threat. The Hume summoner and myself, however, had a different theory…"

Draenen raised an eyebrow. "… That they were in love?"

Tarauial nodded. "In their own clumsy ways, yeah. Or, at least, she was in love with him." She settled back in her chair. "I was content to let them try to work things out on their own. The summoner, Akimiya, wasn't so reserved. She did all she could to push them together. Maybe… maybe if she hadn't died, things would've turned out different.

"Malay eventually worked her way into becoming our little group's 'leader'. She didn't strong arm her way into the position, it was just something that happened over time. One day, we were all out on a job – Malay's first in actual command – and she made in, hindsight, a bad call… and we lost Akimiya." Draenen watched as Tarauial unconsciously stroked the red ribbon that was always tied around her wrist. "None of us ever blamed your sister. We all agreed that, under the circumstances and the information we had been given, we would've made the same call. That didn't help Malay… Aki had been the next closest person to her, just behind Milan, and her death shook her badly. She became very overprotective, almost smothering of Milan. And while they never fought, we could all see the strain growing between them.

"… Now, once a year and for as long as even Malay could remember, Milan would take a trip for a week or so. He was never more specific than he was going to visit relatives, and he never seemed pleased about it. A few months after Aki died, the time for the trip came around. Your sister begged him not to go, but he said he didn't have a choice and left." Tarauial sighed. "One week turned into two. Two weeks to three, then four… and then the months started rolling by. Malay fell into a deep, debilitating depression. She could barely function; she drank constantly, and I can't begin to count how many gutters I alone fished her out of. She stopped showing up for work, and started picking up some… bad habits, making bad decisions." She frowned. "More than a year passed, and one of her many bad decisions landed her pregnant. She was confused on what to do, but for the first time in a long long time she seemed to be showing signs of being happy, and she started to clean up her habits. None of us were pleased when we found out who the father was and that she was planning on marrying him, but we kept our mouths shut; we didn't want her to start sliding backwards.

"Six months into the pregnancy, the father 'went off to take care of something'. We were all worried about Malay, so we started… well, taking shifts and watching her, making sure she didn't slide back. Then news came to her: her older brother, who she hadn't seen in years, had died."

"… Older…" Draenen's eyes widened. "I… I didn't know we had an older brother!"

"You and him weren't blood related. They shared the same mother, just like you and her had the same father." Tarauial pushed her hair off her forehead. "Anyways, the news upsetted her, but not nearly as badly as we had anticipated. That night, she and I decided to eat out, instead of preparing a meal at home. We were at the tavern in Windurst… when a man entered."

"Wow." Draenen giggled. "That sounded so… cliche."

"You want to hear the story, or just critique it?"

"Sorry."

"… Malay dropped her drink, I remember. The man who had entered looked just like Milan; same facial features, same hair. But there was something about his eyes…"

"Was it really him?"

Tarauial shook her head. "I never believed it was, no. He was a dead ringer for Milan, but it was little things that gave him away to us. Your sister wouldn't hear any of it, though. She believed it was Milan, and nothing we said changed her mind. Almost immediately she attached herself to him, and was always trying to 'remind' him of the past… and he went along, happily playing the part of long-lost friend who was suffering from amnesia." She sighed and shook her head. "She even ignored the obvious… the man's name wasn't Milan. He called himself 'Envy'."

Draenen's head jerked up. "… The Envy I know isn't a blackmage."

"Nor was this one." Tarauial put down her teacup. "We were never entirely sure what he was. He was a fighter of some sort, and he seemed to be trained in the ways the Beastmen fight."

"… Sounds like the one I know."

"I hope not. By the Goddess, I hope he's not."

"Why?"

"Let me finish the story." Tarauial sighed. "Looking back, and as much I hate to admit it, I can't say having Envy around was entirely a bad thing. He despised weakness, and often goaded Malay into little fights. Slowly, she was getting better, getting more like her own self…" Her face darkened. "… And then the baby's father came back into the picture."

Tarauial paused, staring into her cup of cold tea. Draenen waited patiently while toying with her own empty cup.

"… You know how it is; just about everyone who graduates from the girl's school has a reputation for being very independent. Your sister's reputation was nothing less than what one would expect. But with Milan's disappearance, she had become almost weak-willed. I think the baby's father liked the idea of having her dependent on him, under his thumb… I think he thought he had 'tamed' her. But with Envy around, she stopped being so docile. She started to chafe under the baby's father–"

"… What was his name?"

Tarauial ground her teeth, then growled. "… Kaden…"

"Sorry…"

"… Anyways. She wasn't happy with his attempts to control her, to turn her into a happy little housewife, and he was noticeably unhappy with Envy's 'intrusion'. When Malay started having complications with the pregnancy, Kaden was quick to blame everything on Envy… ignoring that he had brought his own little troubles into Malay's life. Troubles that went as far as to try to poison her, to make her lose the baby." Tarauial paused, looked at her and Draenen's empty teacups, and got up to refill them.

"… You'd never be able to tell it now, but Aderyn was born over a month early. He was very small, very weak. Your sister's milk never started, and because of Kaden's problems and paranoia, she didn't have anyone to attend or help her through the delivery. She later told me that the labor itself wasn't too bad; Aderyn was born within an hour of the first contraction, but the delivery itself was ghastly and she was sure she bled a lot more than she should have." She sat down, extending a full teacup to Draenen. "Later, a bad run-in with some Beastmen would leave her barren… but the lack of proper help and care during and after Aderyn's birth left her unable to even try again."

Draenen winced. "… Giving birth does that?"

"Usually? No." Tarauial shook her head. "About a month after she gave birth, she was finally able to go and see a midwife. The midwife believed that the labor hadn't been caused naturally, that she might've been given something to make the contractions start. Her body wasn't ready to give birth, and her insides were torn up in the process. Which does actually happen from time to time, but it's not much of an issue if there's someone around who can properly fix it. And by the time she could see the midwife, her body had healed in incorrect ways." She tapped at her teacup. "… That was the start of the break between her and Kaden. We all hoped she would leave him, but she didn't.. while they weren't getting along well, Kaden had an actual home and some money; Malay felt that she needed him still, if only to raise the baby. She and him started spending less and less time together, and she started spending more and more time with Envy." She paused, a thoughtful look on her face. "… I was always surprised how Envy acted around the baby. I don't dare say he was fond of Aderyn, but he tolerated his presence a whole lot better than I ever expected. He wouldn't hold Aderyn and outright refused to watch him, even for five minutes, but the only times he objected to her having Aderyn with her was when he wanted to train… or spar."

Draenen massaged her jaw, remembering the pain she had when Kirious dislocated it. "… She must've hated sparring with him."

"Quite the opposite. About half the matches they had were initiated by your sister. They both believed that it was a good way to train, especially in the very beginning. Safer, too; Envy would push her, but only so far before backing off. That's not something she would've gotten if they were picking fights with Yagudo. Later, they did it to test out new techniques… and sometimes it was the only way they could settle arguments. Once Malay was well into recovering from the pregnancy, she started trying to retain her position as a leader, and Envy wanted to be the one at the top."

Draenen rolled her eyes. "That sounds familiar. How'd the fights end?"

Tarauial shrugged. "I didn't get to witness them all, but the outcomes seemed to be… mixed. Even when he was pulling his punches, Envy hit hard. If Malay lost her concentration for a moment, he'd win. But she had better… endurance, I suppose. If he didn't get her on the ropes in the first minute or so of a match, she could wear him down. He would flat-out win half the fights, but for the other half she would deadlock him and get him to back off." She trailed off for a moment. "They started taking jobs together, just the two of them… ones the rest of us wouldn't dare touch. Sometimes they'd disappear for days, once it was two whole weeks. They paid extremely well though, and she was giving me half to hide so Kaden couldn't get his hands on it. Kaden never took to those disappearances well; he'd fly into a rage and come pounding on my door, demanding to know where they went. In his mind, they were still engaged… that she still belonged to him."

"… What happened, then?"

"I don't know." Tarauial stood up and collected the empty teacups. "Malay and Envy were out on a job, Kaden had shown up earlier in the day to have his now-commonplace tantrums and to leave Aderyn in my care while he 'looked for her', and my brother was out hunting. It was getting late when I went upstairs to check on Aderyn… and found a man standing over the spare cradle, lifting the baby out. I rushed the man, but someone jumped me from behind and knocked me out. The next thing I remember, I'm shackled in a basement somewhere and three men with black hoods are standing over me with crossbows aimed at my head.

"… They never did tell me who they were. All they ever told me was that, if Malay followed their instructions, Aderyn and I would be released." She looked up at the ceiling. "It must've been over a job she and Envy had taken. They must've made some people very angry… people who wanted to keep at least your sister out of the picture." She sat back down and sighed. "I tried to escape with Aderyn, once. I didn't make it out of the building, and for my troubles they dislocated and broke one of my arms and one of my legs. For six months, they kept us." Tarauial looked away. "… I… I had the privilege to watch Aderyn take his first steps… a right that should've been your sister's."

Draenen looked down. "Well, at least someone who she trusted was there for the boy. I think that's the most important thing to remember."

"Maybe." Tarauial passed a hand over her face, then sighed. "Anyways, one day they just… let us go. They came into the cell, blindfolded me, and dragged me through the streets for some time. They left Aderyn at my feet and disappeared into the night. When I got my hands free and the blindfold off, I realized we were in Bastok, and I made our way to the school. Headmistress Hae didn't seem too surprised to see us; her first reaction was relief, but that changed when she demanded to see your sister. When I told her that we hadn't seen you…"

"… The letter." Draenen spoke up. "Malay had sent that letter by then. She knew that if she wasn't with you and Aderyn, that she was dead."

Tarauial nodded. "Hae allowed us to stay at the school for some time. I wasn't very healthy, and Aderyn needed someone to watch over him." She chuckled. "I love my brother very much, but Romidant is a horrible nurse and I wouldn't trust him with a pet rock, nevermind a baby." She took a deep breath and sat back in her chair. "Anyways, that's all I know. Anything else, you'd have to ask my brother… when, y'know, you go and bring him back."

Draenen ducked her head apologetically, then looked up and frowned. "… Earlier, you said you hoped that the Envy I know isn't the one you knew. Can you explain that part, now?"

"Oh… right." Tarauial sighed. "… That's… more of Romidant's area, but he told me…" She got up and started pacing around the room. "… After Aderyn and I were taken, Malay doubled on her training, made Envy push her as much as possible. Neither were willing to cave to the demands; they were going to free us by force. My brother got in on it too. Envy wasn't too happy with him 'tagging along', but he didn't prevent it.

"… Some kind of news came. Envy had to leave, and your sister went with him. They fought about it, Envy even tried to get my brother to physically restrain her until he was well gone. In the end, though, she somehow managed to talk him into letting her go with him." Tarauial stopped in front of the fireplace. "Malay had several letters written up. One to you, one to Headmistress Hae, one for me and Rom, one to Kaden… I understand that last one was not very nice. Anyways, each letter contained a variation of the same theme: if she wasn't back within a month, then she and Envy were dead and to be wary of anyone who fancied themselves immortal.

"… It's been… four and a half years since then. Never a word or sign that Malay's still out there, and we thought Envy was gone, too."

Draenen sat forward. "Do you think Envy killed her?"

"… As much as I want to say 'yes' to that…" Tarauial hesitated. "Towards the end, even before Aderyn and I were taken, there were signs of… genuine affection between the two." She sighed. "No. I don't think he killed her. I don't think he could have. But, if the one you know is the same Envy…" Tarauial shook her head. "… I don't know what that would mean. I was okay with believing they had died together. I don't want to think that she died alone, that he abandoned her or threw her to the wolves." She sat back down and ran a hand through her hair. "Thorns… even if this isn't the same Envy I knew, if it's just someone a lot like him… you need to be careful. He almost broke your jaw, he's flat-out told you that he might kill people. You're strong, but you're untrained; don't make yourself a nuisance to him."

"I think everyone's an annoyance to him." Draenen rolled her eyes. "I don't think I can avoid going near him, though."

"You can always refuse the jobs he gives you."

Draenen shook her head. "I need the money, and I've also 'hired' Kirious for something. But it's not just that." She paused, thinking. "… Tarauial, I've seen things the past few months. I don't like playing hero, but I don't know if I can really just stick my head in the sand and ignore it all. Something's not right. Some of the people I've met were arrested today, and they all seem like the types that couldn't even cross a 'Keep off the Grass' sign." She sighed. "There's… just something -wrong- happening. And Kirious is the one who's tipped us off to them. I can't turn my back on this…"

Tarauial quietly regarded Draenen for several long moments, then nodded. "No, you really can't." She sat back in her chair. "This isn't the life your sister wanted for you, but I know she would've supported and encouraged you in doing what you felt was right."

"And what about Kirious? What would she say about him?"

"… I don't know." Tarauial quietly admitted. "If she were still here… if he is the same Envy that she knew, she would say to trust him. She trusted him completely. And he…"

Draenen tilted her head to one side. "'And he' what?"

Tarauial bit her bottom lip, then shook her head. "It's not important."

"Damn it, not this again!"

Tarauial raised an eyebrow, then chuckled. "Calm down, Thorns. It's really not important… and, honestly, doesn't even concern you. Trust me."

"… Come to bed?" Aderyn's stood at the bottom of the stairs, a blanket trailing behind him.

Draenen rolled her eyes as she got up from the table. "You–" She picked up her nephew, "– should be asleep."

"Dreams…" He mumbled, still half-asleep.

"… He's been having troubles at night." Tarauial slowly stood up. "… Think you know why."

"… Yeah." Draenen shifted the boy in her arms and headed for the stairs. "I'll let him sleep with me."