Yakusoku.

A/N: Major angst warning, hints of future character death, and spoilers for anyone who hasn’t played the beginning of the game. This is really where I wanted this ClessChester romance to begin, where Cless blames himself for Chester's suffering and the tragedy of Totus. It seems that in life true love blossoms from bearing life's pain, such as the loss of a loved one.


Chapter 7

White, bright and shinning fair, the first moon to rise, Sylvarant, like a celestial pearl strung up, cast her silvery light on all the land below. Golden, if not fairer, Aselia’s second moon, Tethe'alla joined Slyvareant in the night sky. Basking in the gold and silver light Cless and Chester journeyed home.

Illuminated by candlelight, each house in Totus merged together like a flame in the distance as Cless and Chester approached. When they neared closer, the larger flame broke apart into embers, then finally as lights in individual residences.

“Cless, today was great,” Chester said, stopping to catch his breath outside Totus.

“Yeah, we got a big one, Chester,” Cless replied, silhouetted black against the jeweled sky from his friend’s vantage, closer to the village’s south gate.

Amy waited there in the dark spying Chester come in.

“Onii-chan!” she cried, jumping out to hug him, caught under the gate.

“Hey Amy!” Her brother rejoiced twirling her in his arms. As he spun her, his blue mane whirled around and a smile widened his lips.

Chester’s joy brought a smile to Cless’s lips as well. Nearing, he presented the boar carcass swung on his broad armored shoulders. “Look what we caught,” he pointed.

Releasing her brother, Amy skipped to Cless. “Wow, that’s great! Let’s cook it.”

That evening everyone gathered to feast at the Alvein’s. United with Cless’s family the Barklight siblings forgot the hardships of orphan life. Cless’s mother Maria joined the gaiety too having recovered from a fever. And Meredith, one of their housemaids engaged in the merriment as well. Everyone ate at the long dinning room table in the kitchen, adjacent to the fencing room.

“So cutie…” Meredith began, seated across from Cless. “Still single, aren’t ya?”

Gagging on his food, Cless’s face almost hit his plate. Chester laughed, hitting him hard in the back. Amy giggled seated beside Meredith.

Wiping off his face, a rosy shade tinged Cless’s round cheeks. “Err…sort of. She’s a real hottie too.”

God, you dumbass, Chester wanted to yell right beside him.

Burning with embarrassment Cless reddened more under Meradith’s steady grin. “I mean cute with long blue hair like Chester…”

Okay, Cless, can I kill you? Chester schemed, grinning wickedly, his features also flushed.

Noticing, Amy teased him. “Onii-chan’s in love!” She pointed to Cless. “And I know who it is.”

“Amy, shut up!” Chester hissed, slamming his fists on the table.

“Cless, my dear son! Did something wonderful happen?” Miguel called cheerfully from the other end of the table.

“I gotta use the bathroom!” Cless answered, dashing up from the table.

“Me too!” The archer forgot to push in his chair leaving after Cless.

Retreating outside, the swordsman caught his breath, just outside the high brick wall enclosing the Alvein School. Cloaked in the darkness, the lively night roused his senses. The winding stream whispered through the village. The chorusing of crickets echoed. Bullfrogs croaked from one side of the stream bank to the other, with calls repeating back.

“That was close.” Cless sighed, wandering down the cobblestone path between his house and Chester’s.

“Not quiet.” A deep voice penetrated the dark.

Before Cless reacted, strong arms suddenly seized him.

“Chester!” he cried, tackled to the ground.

Straddling him, Chester grinned, pinning him below. “Mine,” he uttered possessively.

“No, mine,” Cless countered, grinning back.

Silencing any protest Chester’s mouth met Cless’s. Breathing deeply, both melted in sweet embrace.

“Chester, we just…” Cless managed, under his friend’s heaving weight.

Gold and silver moonlight danced in Chester’s eyes. What, they seemed to cry, flooded with strong emotion.

Reaching up, Cless stroked his friend’s trembling cheeks. “It won’t change what happened.” Sympathy brimmed in his voice. “The pain of being used.”

Realizing the cause of his drive, Chester swallowed. “That…bitch.”

“I shoulda said somethin’ to Meredith at dinner.” Propping himself up, Cless kissed him softly. “Cause talking about a girlfriend reminded you of yours, that storekeeper’s daughter.”

Shrugging, Chester gave a bittersweet smile, sinking in Cless’s grasp below. “Cless, ya always been too nice, takin’ blame for every damn thing.”

“But it is.” His last syllable weakened more. Inside, Cless admitted the truth. Chester, I love you, I hate seeing you hurt. Since your parents died, you’ve been all alone, even afraid you’d loose Amy too. If that happened, it’d be my fault too, like all your pain always is.

Amy…will die? What’s going on? Another conscious seemed to enter Cless’s psyche, just like the time when the dryad spoke in the forest.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Chester shook him hard.

“I hear her….” Lost as if in a waking dream, Cless’s voice grew distant, almost disembodied like an omnipresent echo. “That lady in the forest who spoke asking me to save her…”

“Geez, not that again.” Rolling his eyes, Chester grabbed him, sitting up. “This last month you space out whenever we visit the forest, saying that big tree talks…”

“I see fire…” his foreboding voice continued. A terrible vision, a warning from Martel, the goddess of the Life Tree flashed his very mind. Generations of Cless’s family had protected the world Aselia in times of danger. Whenever darkness beckoned they heard the goddess’s plea. Cless’s ancestors saw this as a curse of their bloodline, destined to happen as long as evil existed.

In Cless’s vision a dreadful fire razed all of Totus. He saw the face of his father as a man in black armor marched in with troops. The pendant, he demanded. Give it or die! Then he withdrew a blade plunging it through Miguel. Cless, Miguel uttered with his last breath. I love you. After that Maria was slain too. Most tragic was the terror on Amy’s face as the man’s blade cut down. Onii-chan! She cried.

“Mom, Dad, Amy!” Cless screamed in the present, collapsing in Chester’s arms.

TBC…