Sword Dance

Sword Dance
Enchanted Arms Fanfic
(Set between Kyoto-Arc - Game Ending - Epilogue/cut-scene)
Raigar x Sayaka reunion fic

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‘gyoi’ (gyo-i) – lit. your desire, translated as “As you say” or “As you desire” or possibly “By your command” Depending on who you say it to… a nice multi-purpose expression of acceptance and Raigar’s habitual response.

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- post Kyoto arc -

R A I G A R

Iwato village was still very much the same as ever, despite the charred evidence of Oboro’s fires. The night wind carried the slight tang of ashes, a bitter undercurrent to the soft scent of cherry blossoms and the distant pines from the peak.

It seemed every time he came to Iwato it resulted in turmoil. There had to be some element of fate in it. His first visit had ended with the old Shogun’s death, all outsiders pushed out of the countryside in the ensuing political unrest. His second time walking the tiny hamlet had been at the end of the war, the village all but shattered by his brother’s blood lust. His third visit?

Raigar pulled off his hat to rake a hand through his hair before settling it on his head again, a fresh wave of guilt threatening to make itself felt. The cool breeze against his neck distracted him from the unpleasant meditation on his latest failure. Sayaka’s lord might have been a fool, and a corrupt piece of trash, but even so. Another Shogun dead, and he had been unable to stop it. First he raised his hand against the woman he still hoped to wed, then he allowed her liege to die, then failed to stop a madman from raining yet more harm down upon her and her village. The only thing he _had_ accomplished worth anything was to aid in the successful destruction of the demon golem. It was a great victory for the world perhaps, but a hollow one for Iwato village. Yet again he would be leaving it in the midst of chaos.

Still, rather than drive him out, as he had every right to, Josei had invited him to stay. Ironic really, Raigar smiled to himself. Allowed to sleep indoors at last rather than in the storeroom like a dog, and what did he do? Sneak outdoors to brood while the young ones took their rest.

“Aren’t you exhausted?” A familiar voice caught him by surprise. He froze at the feel of a pair of long-fingered hands pressing gently against his back. A moment later and he could feel the warmth of the woman as she stepped closer, hiding behind him at the same time as pressing herself along his spine. Sayaka’s head rested between his shoulders as she let her hands drift forward, daring to slip her fingers beneath his arms to hold him from behind in a hesitant embrace. Raigar closed his eyes against the temptation to turn around and gather her up in his arms immediately. He wasn’t certain he had earned that privilege yet.

After what he had done? It was a wonder she was even speaking to him.

Sayaka sighed at his silence. “You fought many battles today, beloved, one of them against a devil golem even. You should rest. Not even _your_ strength is limitless.”

He smiled bitterly. “The devil golem was easy. It was fighting _you_ that nearly was the end of me. Your swords are as fast as ever, Sayaka. Faster even. The new Shogun can have no complaints, to possess such a champion as you.”

“Don’t tease me.” She scolded softly. “The fools at court brag and say I have the strength of ten men… But what good is such a paltry strength, when the one I face wields a power greater than twenty? Even if you are no longer the Captain of the Knights, you are still the Green Lion of London City, beloved. I can do little but stand in awe, as I always have.”

“’Beloved’?” Raigar lifted a hand to cover hers, cupping her fingers against his side. There was something rather pleasing in Sayaka’s newfound frankness of speech, he decided. Her recent disappointments had revealed a new aspect of her personality to him. He shook his head, disagreeing with the thought. Sayaka was very much as he’d always known she was. It was simply that she’d stopped hiding herself behind her mask of rigid etiquette to her usual degree. It was a good change. Raigar squeezed her fingers gently, enjoying the chance to talk with her without arguing. It seemed they’d done nothing but verbally fence with one another since he arrived. He drew a breath to clarify his question. “Sayaka, am I still your… ‘beloved’?”

“Raigar?” Her murmur of surprise told him nothing. Twisting in her grasp he caught her before she could pull away, fitting his arms beneath hers, pressing his palms to her narrow shoulders to hold her close as her hands reflexively grasped his biceps.

“I swore to myself years ago, to never again raise a weapon against you and yours, Sayaka. I realize I must be a creature of little honor in your eyes, the eyes of your village, after what was done during the war, but never the less… such was my oath.” He confessed grimly. “Today, I broke that promise.”

Able to look at her for the first time since everyone had bid each other good night, Raigar’s chest tightened at the sight of her unbound hair. Sayaka’s mane was a dark shadow of silk, its length tickling his fingers as he held her. Having set aside her arms and armor, as he had, there was nothing to keep the long mass from hanging in a curtain around her face and neck. She was too lovely. He admired her silently. It was remarkable to think that behind her sweet brown eyes lurked a ruthless warlady’s intellect; that in her lithe frame was strength enough to wield not one, but two katanas with lightning quickness.

During the war there had been little opportunity to speak with her at all outside of those formal meetings between war-chiefs, and none to see her so casually dressed. His fingers tightened against her back as he fought the impulse to pull her close against his chest. Having Sayaka in his arms in the moonlight reminded him of the years well before the war, when he’d lived in Iwato with her and her family. The promise he’d made to her then, in the first flush of love, seemed ridiculously naive in the face of what had come after.

An outsider with no particular qualities, other than his battle ability, to recommend him? What had he been thinking, asking the daughter of the Shogun’s champion to be his wife? He must have been mad. Even then, she’d been in training to become an elite samurai in her own right, just as he was traveling to hone his skill for the knighthood. At the time, he supposed, it’d seemed only fitting. Both of them destined to a life of service to their respective monarchs, both of them standing somewhat apart from their peers. Both of them startled out of their routine by the idea that someone else in the world understood, that someone shared their passion for excellence, for pushing to be the very best. What had started as friendly competition had rapidly turned to love. The memory of her lips, the stolen kisses they’d shared beneath the pines, left him on edge.

He looked down, unable to meet her eyes as he acknowledged how utterly he had misused her. “No one here would think less of you for casting me aside, Sayaka. After all I have done to you? Many would say only a fool would continue to love such a creature as I have become. A failed knight. A fratricide. A man who would strike his woman in order to have his way. I do not deserve your love, and yet, I cannot let you go...”

“I beg your forgiveness.” She pled, hands on his arms holding him as firmly as he did her. “Raigar, forgive me. For my foolish pride, for my blindness, for my disobedience…”

“What?” He looked up at her in surprise. “_You_ have done nothing. It is I who have sinned.”

“I forced the fight with you.” She shook her head, tears catching on her eyelashes. “If I had listened, you would not have needed to suffer the shame of having your future wife strike at you in front of your Lady and companions. I am the one who is unworthy, not you.”

“Foolishness.”

“You return after years apart, and I offer you rebuke instead of welcome. You warn me of treachery and I ignore your wise council. You strive to protect me, my honor, and what do I do? I blame you for my heartache when you are the one person in whom I ought to trust absolutely. I am no fit wife for any man, much less someone as noble as you. I deserve my loneliness…”

“Sayaka.” He gave into the urge to hold her properly. Pulling her close, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, stooping to press his face against her hair as he startled her into silence. For a moment she stood stiffly in his embrace but relaxed as she realized he would not let go. Sighing softly, she leaned forwards into him. He felt her hands gripping his shoulders in quiet desperation and sighed, knowing that despite the odds, they were still of one mind.

“Hush now. No more of this talk.” Raigar murmured, cuddling her closer still. “If you will not blame me, and I will not blame you, then we must blame fate and be done with it.”

“As you say, beloved.” She agreed after a quiet minute in his arms.

He smiled at her use of his habitual phrase. Turning his face, he rested his cheek against her as he watched the moonlight on the water, feeling her turn her head as well, to look as he did. It was memories such as these that inspired him even when fate seemed determined to make a ruin of everything. Devil Golems at loose, cities smashed and in disarray, Lady Karin in up to her neck with Atsuma’s quest to rescue his childhood friend. There was so much in the world he could not control. But Kyoto City, and Iwato village, at least was spared any further involvement. Other than Sayaka, he doubted that anyone would even care that they’d left when morning came. The city would be too busy with the politics of succession for the months to come to concern itself over the chaos of the rest of the continent. He could only pray that whichever of the old letcher’s offspring took up the golden throne now that the Shogun was dead would be a kinder master to the samurai of Iwato than his father had been.

“Must you go tomorrow?” His woman seemed to read his thoughts. Her hands held onto his uniform with sudden anxiety. “Surely one more day wouldn’t make a difference. It seems you’ve only just arrived, Raigar. And yet already I am saying goodbye to you.”

“It will not always be like this.” He frowned at how weak his attempt at soothing her sounded. Taking a breath, he tried to offer her something more tangible to hope for. “Be patient a little while longer. Lady Karin is determined to see this journey through to its end, and even if that were not the case, I would be… remiss if I didn’t do what I could to see the Queen of Ice entombed once more. I know it is unfair, to ask you to continue to wait for me, but you will not have too much time to be lonely, I suspect.”

Sayaka huffed softly in agreement. “No indeed. For the near future at least, I suspect I will be much engaged with settling disputes at court. Someone must keep the peace once the factions for the shogunate begin to make their moves.” Nuzzling his jacket again, her cheer faded. “I will wait for you, Raigar. For as long as it takes, I will wait, beloved. Only… I pray you will not be so cruel as to make me wait forever…”

“No.” He resolved. How long had they already waited? The years had gone by faster than he’d ever thought possible. The idea that another span of years might go by before he would hold her again made him clench his jaw in frustration. The war between their cities had been the tipping point. Raigar had realized once and for all that what he wanted couldn’t be found within the ranks of the knighthood. But with the end of the war had come the certainty that Kyoto would not readily welcome him back. Not just an outsider, but a pariah as well? He had stayed away from Sayaka and her people, hiding behind duty to first his king, and next the princess, rather than to return to his fiancé and discover if there was still any hope for them to pick up the pieces.

Fate, or luck, had given him this chance, the means to begin to repair the damage done during the war. Having severed his ties with the Knights. Having buried his brother, his king, and far too many friends, he had no pressing obligations left other than to the princess. He found the grey streets of his native city felt less and less like his home with every time he returned to them. What was left for him there? An old manor that he never visited, a handful of prideful cousins he never spoke to. It was a city of ghosts, Lady Karin excepted. Maybe it would not always be so. But he doubted he could ever be easy there again.

There were worse places, Raigar mused, than Iwato. The village’s peaceful charm was just as comforting now as it had been on his first encounter with it. Once his current labor was done, there might be some worthy to take up his mantle as Lady Karin’s protector. If one didn’t exist, he would train some youth up. Sayaka needed him, and he needed to be with her. The time for procrastinating was done.

Pulling her away from his coat, he cupped her cheek in his hand so as to meet her eye. “A year. Fifteen months at most. If I do not return to make good on our promise to each other by then, you should forget me and find some other man to give your heart to. If I cannot find a way to be by your side by then… I am either dead, or deserve the pain of losing you.”

She nodded slowly, looking wearier then ever. How a woman so confident in battle could doubt herself when it came to him was a mystery. He sighed, stooping again to kiss her forehead. He preferred her scoldings to her tears. “Warn your grandfather, that when next I come, I come to no other purpose than to make you my wife. I will submit to any ordeal they see fit to test me with, but I will not take no for an answer. When a new Shogun is decided upon, you will tell him the same.”

“Yes, beloved.” Sayaka blushed as she smiled at his ultimatum. “I will do what I can to cushion their shock in the meantime.”

“I rely on you for this.” He smiled back. “And now that we are agreed… We should rest. You especially. You have injuries to recover from before you go knocking sense into the hotheads in town.”

“Yes, beloved.” His fiancé smiled up at him again, but made no move to leave. Instead she reached up to catch his face between her palms, pulling him down to bestow a kiss on his lips. Raigar responded instinctively to the offered intimacy, leaning in to return her kiss with another when she might have backed away. One of Sayaka’s hands traced the side of his face as they relearned the simple joy of being lovers, reaching up to pull his hat off, allowing her other hand to comb through his hair as she clung to him.

The vague sensation that they were being watched was disruptive to the mood. Raigar stood back a little when they paused for breath. There was no guilty shadow visible to his brief inspection of the surrounding village. Still, the reminder that they could be caught in a compromising situation was enough to convince him to stop.

He had only just earned the right to be acknowledged again in Iwato. Being accused mere hours later of seducing the village’s champion would do little for his fragile reputation in the traditional community. He took his hat back, and settled it on his head before looking at her. She reached out and caught his hands in hers apologetically. Raigar nodded, seeing in her equally chagrined expression that she understood. “In fifteen months, Sayaka, when you sleep, it will be in my arms. Until then…”

“I know.” She laced her fingers together with his, blushing as she turned to lead him up the stairs. He followed into the house, silently tugging her back against him as soon as she shut the door. Kissing her again in the relative privacy of the packed-dirt forecourt, he sought to memorize her scent, pleased to find his passion for her still strong despite their years-long engagement.

He forced himself not to grab for her when she stepped back from him at length, her expressive eyes all but sparkling in the shadowy interior of her house. “I should go in ahead of you…” She whispered. “We are less likely to wake grandfather that way.”

“As you say.” He agreed softly.

*****

In the morning he put up with Yuki’s teasing as they ate Sayaka’s simple breakfast and packed to go. Sweeping the samurai maiden into his arms and carrying her off was not only ridiculous, but terribly impractical too.

Glancing sideways at her as Atsuma and Lady Karin fell into their usual bickering about the best way to re-cross the desert he shrugged in silent apology. Sayaka’s cheeks were pink with embarrassment but her eyes were happy as she staunchly refused to be baited by the bold girl’s demands that she ‘give Raigar something extra spicy to hurry him home.’ He reached out to press the incorrigible girl’s hat lower on her head before she proposed something even more outrageous to his fiancé. Surrounded by half the village as they said their farewells, he had little opportunity to do more than clasp hand with Sayaka before taking up his customary position at the back of the party, keeping all the young idiots in view as they made their way cross country. The impression of her eyes on him didn’t fade until the ravine’s surrounding the village had hidden them from sight.

Raigar allowed himself a small sigh of regret once the young people fell into their usual on-the-road chat.

“You should tell him to retire, when you get back to London City.” Atsuma advised, seemingly at random.

Lady Karin turned to stare at the boy in surprise, annoyed as ever by his blunt spoken way. “What? Who?”

“Raigar!” The cheerful idiot smiled as the pair of girls stared at him, and then back at the object of the conversation to check his opinion.

Raigar simply shrugged, unable at the best of times to predict what thoughts would drift into the boy’s head. Atsuma enlightened them with his latest gem of wisdom. “He can’t marry Sayaka if he’s protecting _you_ all the time, now can he? He’s too nice a guy to complain about it, but it has to be a drag. Sayaka is totally hot. Any guy given the choice would rather spend time with her. She’s a real lady. Nothing at all like you.”

“Why… you… Idiot! How dare you say that?! I’m a princess! What would a monkey like you know about real ladies anyway?” Raigar winced as his princess didn’t hold back in expressing her displeasure in a more tangible way. She proved her lessons in combat were well learned yet again as she drove the heel of her boot into his chin with only a minor break in stride. The boy picked himself up off the road as the princess slipped past in a _mostly_ feigned royal-snit. Luckily Atsuma’s head had already proven plenty hard in their quest. The blow Karin dealt him didn’t illicit more than a grumble of complaint. Yuki smothered her laughter as she danced out of reach of the pair’s mock battle.

“Well it’s obvious that Sayaka can’t leave Kyoto City.” The boy pointed out as he rubbed his sore skull, keeping a healthy distance from Karin’s cooling ire. “Right, Raigar? She’s got to make sure the new Shogun isn’t a bad guy like the last one… and protect Iwato village too… So she can’t just go to London City when they get hitched. That means he’ll have to be the one to move. It only makes sense!”

“I… hadn’t thought about it that way.” Lady Karin turned to give him a worried look. “But it does make sense. Do you really plan to live in Kyoto City, Raigar? I mean, when everything is done?”

“Our plans are not yet settled, my lady.” He hedged, not wanting to worry her unduly. “I swore an oath to your lord father, that I would protect you for as long as I was able. I do not take such things lightly.”

“In exchange for him allowing you to renounce your captaincy.” She agreed, still thoughtful. “I remember. But father didn’t know about Sayaka, did he…”

“He did not.” Raigar agreed. “There was no reason for him to.”

“But if he’d known… he wouldn’t have made you pledge something so recklessly. I’m sure of it.” Karin shook her head. “Father deeply respected you, Raigar. He would not have wanted you to waste your life running after me if he’d known you had an obligation elsewhere.”

“At the time, I was more than a little certain that any obligation I was under to Sayaka was dissolved with the war.” He shrugged. “She had ample reason then, to reject my suit.”

“But she didn’t, did she.” His princess shook her head with a small smile. Looking over at him with a serious expression she settled her hands on her hips. “Is… that is to say, is everything alright between you two now? We did sort of abuse her hospitality for a while back there… not that we had a choice, of course, but I shouldn’t like to think that I am responsible, for causing further trouble to her. She seems like a really wonderful person. Did you two get to talk at all before we left? You should have demanded we stay another day…”

“That would not be necessary.” He smiled at her earnest worries. “We must move swiftly if we are to stay ahead of the Queen of Ice. And besides, Sayaka and I had a chance to settle things between us last night after dinner.”

“Oooh, a moonlight walk with your girlfriend, Raigar? Super Romantic!” Yuki cheered him on with a broad grin. “To think a big guy like you could sneak out while we were all sleeping like that. You’re a regular ninja-of-love! Aaaah! To meet my boyfriend by a waterfall and snuggle under the stars! That’s what I call setting the mood… Man I think I’m jealous! Looks, style, a handsome stud at her beck and call…. Some girls have all the luck, right Karin?”

“Not at all.” He demurred, noting the eager curiosity with which the other two caught on to the girl’s hypothesis. Best to nip their speculation in the bud before they spent the rest of the morning gossiping about it. Bad enough they wanted to know about the Sage, but he wasn’t inclined to have his fiancé be the object of their fascination as well. “If you must know, mostly we discussed the Shogun. This next year will be very chaotic for Kyoto, I fear.”

“I see.” Karin nodded again.

“Lame.” Yuki scolded him in exasperation.

“All the more reason for us to hurry to this Sage person and figure out how to defeat the Queen of Ice!” Atsuma summarized, pointing forward across the lake to where the desert dust was visible on the horizon. “That way! Right?”

Raigar looked towards the distant volcano and sighed, not looking forward at all to his upcoming reunion with his former teacher. The reclusive woman was wise, to be sure, but her temper was unpredictable at best. The Sage was going to be trouble. He had no doubt. But with Lady Karin determined that he lead the way, he had little choice but to comply.