Forgotten Warrior

By Lady of the Ink
Pairing: Eries Aston/Allen Schezar
Fandom: Escaflowne, (The Vision of)
Theme: #3 – Jolt!
Disclaimer: I don’t own Escaflowne, but you knew that  ...I hope.

Summery: A/U – There’s a town legend that speaks of a ghostly knight who foretells of doomed love. When an accident brings Eries face to face with him, she learns the truth behind the myth.

 

Chapter One

What Eries Saw

 

            Everyone knew that the pond was haunted. Many a breathless tale had been told of half seen specters and whispered voices that had no source. So many, in fact, that it had become an accepted part of the town's culture. One of the library's most often checked out books was the compilation of "true" ghost stories that featured two different accounts involving their very own phantom.

            The stories had become almost commonplace, and no one batted an eye when a new one arose. It didn't matter if it came from a dating couple looking for privacy, a late shift worker looking for a shortcut home, or a drunk looking for a place to sleep it off. It was always received the same way. The townspeople would listen intently, nod decisively, and "mmm-hmm" as though it were only to be expected. It wasn't questioned, merely believed blindly by the people who had grown up with it.

            Well, almost everyone.

            Eries Aston questioned it; but then, she questioned nearly everything. As an admittedly analytical thinker, there were very few things that she took at face value. She had always had a fondness for delving deeper into situations and people, searching out the facts that were hidden from all others. It was both a way of life and a hobby, something to do in the small amount of spare time she managed to wrangle for herself.

            As the oldest daughter of the town founder's last descendant, there were a lot of expectations riding on her shoulders. There were committees that she had to take part in, events to help organize, and endless lists of complaints and ideas that she had to wade through to save her father, the mayor, the time of doing it himself. And aside from all the political and social appointments, she also had a younger sister to keep an eye on. It was a lot to ask of someone, and even greater when you took into account that that someone was a twenty-one year old who had to juggle college courses on the side.

            Of course, being the kind of person that she was, Eries didn't complain about her lot in life. She merely accepted it and found ways to make it work when no one else seemed inclined to make the effort. And if she had to forgo some of the things she would have liked for herself, well, she was okay with that.

            Mostly.

            It was because of all those expectations that she found herself wandering through the clearing in question at half past twelve one night. She had been doing a final check on the preparations for the town's annual gathering, making sure that the boxes of decorations had been delivered to the hall and all the extra chairs were in usable condition. It would be a cataclysmic disaster if something went wrong this close to the party, or so her father had said when he convinced her to double-check for him instead of studying like she had meant to do. He was busy overseeing the cleanup after a big windstorm that had damaged many of the very antique features that would be the focus during the celebration. And of course she had obeyed, just like she always did because he was her father and she wanted him to be proud of her, no matter how trivial his requests at times.

            Maybe it was time to rethink that habit, she decided as she pulled the edges of her sweater more tightly around her. The air had cooled considerably since she had left home, making her wish she had thought to bring a heavier jacket along. But she had never expected it to take so long to organize everything, especially since Millerna had promised she'd be along to help. That hadn't panned out, not that she was surprised. Her sister had always been quick to agree to things but slow to follow through on them. It wasn’t a malicious thing; she just had a habit of getting distracted by something else and forgetting what she had intended to do. Eries had long since stopped depending on her, knowing she would be disappointed more often than not.

            'At least there's a full moon tonight,' she thought idly, raising her eyes to the softly glowing orb. Its rays bathed the open space in a gentle glimmer, illuminating the barren flowerbeds that were so beautiful in spring. It danced across the small pond in the center of the area, the glimmering patterns catching her attention and causing her steps to slow.

            The pond was the core of the ghost stories and the legend that had spawned them. When she was younger, Eries had gone through a phase of intense interest in both and read everything available on the subject. She doubted there were more than four or five people who knew as much as she did about the history of the spot and the man said to haunt it.

            Hundreds of years before and thousands of miles away lived a knight. Young and handsome, he had caught the eye of the lady of his master. Upon being found in her arms by her husband, he was challenged to a fight. His honor forbade him to defend himself and he was brutally murdered on the spot. Several months later, his former lover gave birth to a child that resembled him much more than the husband. In a rage, the lord left to go to war. He stayed away for four long years before he was killed, never having learned both his wife and her child had died of fever only weeks after his departure.

            From that day on, servants and guests swore that their ghosts wandered the estate. They would hear the sound of thundering hoofs in the dead of night and be witness to the sight of the dead lord returning in full armor upon his warhorse. His wife would appear in a window and stretch a hand towards him, at which point they would both vanish as though they had never been. It was said that their love hadn’t died before their deaths, dooming them to spend eternity struggling and failing to recapture what they had lost.

            Inside, the heartbreaking cries of a child would resonate through the halls. It could be traced back to the barren crib in a corner of the bedchamber, the mournful wails of a life cut short. Not to be forgotten, an ephemeral man with sword at his side would wander the hallways, guarding in death those he couldn’t save in life.

            Eries had felt little sympathy for the unnamed knight. From her point of view, he had brought it on himself. What was so wonderful about someone who forgot their honor to be with a married woman and remembered it only to avoid further problems by accepting an easy death? Just because someone thought they saw his spirit being protective, that meant he regretted what he’d done and made him eligible to be some kind of romantic figure?

            The same went for his mistress. If she loved her husband enough to pine for him after death, why hadn’t she kept that in mind before falling into the arms of another man? Eries thought the only ones truly worthy of sympathy were the cuckolded husband and the innocent child that had been dragged into the mess. They had both been forced into the situation, although Eries did allow that the lord might have held his temper a bit better and thus spared himself eternity in the same place as his wife’s lover.

            The castle never remained occupied for long due to its busy supernatural residents. It fell into disrepair and was all but forgotten for decades until a man named Dornkirk came looking for it. Interested in proving the existence of life beyond death, he had been looking for the most haunted building he could find and the castle fit his needs. With his vast wealth easing the way, he had had the entire building dismantled and shipped across the ocean to be rebuilt exactly in the small town of Asturia. It was his hope that the move would spark a reaction in the otherworldly inhabitants, thus giving him plenty of evidence for his experiments.

His plan may well have worked since it was shortly after the completion of the reconstruction that the legend had been born. They said that if you gazed into the pond during a full moon, you would see the face of your one true love. However, if you saw instead the doomed young knight, you would be cursed to know a love unrequited. Eries had been unsurprised to find an urgent warning tacked onto the end as it seemed there always needed to be a flavor of both tragedy and danger to make a romantic tale truly complete. They said if you stared too long or too deeply into the knight’s eyes, his voice would whisper through the trees, calling you to the castle so your soul could join his in his unearthly wanderings.

             Eries’ eyes instinctively drifted to the thick woods standing darkly on her left, the living divider between the pond and the secluded castle. The trees had long since lost their leaves and their branches looked like thin arms clawing at the sky. A cold chill slid its way up her spine and she took a small step away from the sight as a feeling of unease filled her.

            A quiet squish made her look down and she groaned as she saw that she’d stepped in the mud surrounding the edge of the pond. The feel of cold water seeping into her shoe wiped all supernatural thoughts from her mind. The walk home would have been unpleasant without a coat; with the addition of a chilled and sodden foot, it was going to be a complete misery.

            Looking around, she saw the trunk of a fallen tree a few feet away. Most of it was submerged in the water but a small bit still rested on dry ground. It had probably fallen during the intense windstorm the day before and wouldn’t be removed until the city’s maintenance crews finished fixing broken lights, shattered windows, and fallen power poles.

            Whatever the reason for its presence, Eries was grateful. If she had something to lean against, she might be able to drain most of the water from her shoe and thus make her trip home marginally better. Carefully placing her dry foot to keep it that way, she slowly crossed the small distance. She eyed the tree cautiously, trying to judge its stability – the last thing she needed was for it to roll out from beneath her and leave her sitting in a pile of gunk. Leaning over, she gave it a forceful shove, noting with satisfaction that it didn’t so much as rock slightly.

            Eries moved closer and rested gently against the rough bark. She gathered the fabric of her long skirt and tucked it beneath her hip to keep it from dragging in the mud. Reaching down, she grasped her soaked shoe and pulled it from her foot. She had just brought it closer to see what could be done when a flash of movement to the side made her turn her head. The shoe fell from her limp fingers as she saw a reflection in the water.

It was a young man, his blonde hair flowing down his back. The wind had blown long strands across his face, aiding the shadows in hiding his features. Even then, she could see the serene blue of his eyes that fairly shone from the darkness. His loose shirt billowed in the breeze, held in place at his waist by a thick sword belt and it’s contents.

Eries leapt upright as a startled gasp caught in her throat. All the rumors and stories she had read flooded back into her mind, filling her with the mindless need to run. She managed two long, sliding steps forward through the mud before a sharp tug hauled her backward again. A shrill scream escaped her as she slammed into the ground, the pressure increasing rather than letting up. She could feel herself being pulled toward the pond, the ground beneath her becoming wetter and more slippery by the second.

With a moan of terror, she turned to see what held her captive, almost certain she’d find the bloody knight rising from the water. All she saw, however, was the shadow of the fallen tree as it slithered and squished its way fully into the pond. A moment of clarity in the sea of panic let her focus on her skirt, a small piece of which seemed connected to the trunk. She realized she must have pushed against it as she tried to run, her fear-induced force succeeding in lodging her skirt in a crack and unbalancing the tree enough to send it into the water. Its center of balance no longer holding it stable, it was sliding further into depths and taking her along with it.

Eries gripped the muddy fabric with both hands and pulled with all her strength, She heard a ripping noise but her skirt held fast. She dug her heels into the soft earth and tried again, but it was still no use. Already submerged from the waist down, she frantically changed tactics. If she couldn’t free her skirt from the tree, she’d have to free herself from her skirt.

The water was rising fast as she let go of her hem and started fumbling for the waistband. Her clothes were floating in the water, her sweater tangling her hands as she fought to get beneath it. With the water lapping at her chin, she took a deep breath and ducked under, pulling her sweater up to her armpits to get it out of the way. She raised her arms, hoping to quickly judge how far beneath the surface she had already fallen.

Eries realized her mistake as the downward pull of her sinking forced the sweater up even further, wrapping itself around her arms and head. Her panic returned full force and she trashed like a trapped animal, wanting freedom and already knowing it wouldn’t come in time. Her chest burned and her jaw ached from the pressure she was using to keep it closed. The water changed from murky black to a shimmering white before dimming into a deep red. The last thing Eries saw before everything went black was the image of the blond haired man as he smiled softly, his arms outstretched to catch her.