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yeah, another fic!! rnt u happy? or do u even read them? stare

so yeah, i wrote this one right after i came back from summer break. it came to me in a wake up call....dont ask. i dont think its as good as Sad Eyes, but i hope its some good. just leave a comment, ok?

In the Background


He came here as a little boy. We grew up alongside each other. While I mastered the sword, he worked silently on magic. While I had my father and sister, he had no one. I had learned to lead on the battlefield; he learned to work in the background. That was Soren’s nature.
All the while I practiced the sword and the ways of battle, he sat quietly at his desk, calculating numbers and learning spells. When meetings came, he would speak his mind without fear, even if it aroused the anger of others. I think that he especially enjoyed angering Boyd, since they always seemed to have different points of view. But Soren always seemed to have the last word. It was, after all, his main role between the mercenaries. He preferred it over battle anytime. Yet when battle started, he was not afraid to participate. Sure, he was hesitant—his magic was not very strong at first.
I remember how he used to remain hidden in the latter rows. He would have someone, preferably Oscar or Titania (or both), in front of him while cast his spells. He knew what his strengths were, but he also knew his weaknesses. He knew that hiding behind reliable people would keep him alive, and Titania and Oscar were definitely reliable.

But times change, and everyone gets stronger. Even Soren.

As we traveled further, we got more and more tired, more homesick. But not Soren. He only seemed to get stronger and stronger. Near the end, he stopped relying on people. I was able to see him clearly in the front lines with enemy dragons in front of him and Rhys behind him. He seemed to be protecting Rhys too much of late, but it was either he did not notice, did not care, or did not mind. I did not mind either—the two made an excellent team. It always seemed that Soren knew his limits and knew how to put them into full use. Yet…he still knew how to be foolish…
It was the battle before last…it will never leave my conscious…we were somewhat overwhelmed. Princess Elincia had to retreat from battle, and the troops’ morale was deeply severed by it. Rhys had gotten separated from the group, and had somehow landed himself behind enemy lines. Upon receiving this news, I instantly alerted everyone…but it was a mistake to alert Soren. As soon as he heard this, he rushed behind the enemy lines, straight towards Rhys. I quickly gathered Oscar, Boyd, Rolfe, Titania, Lethe, and Mordecai and followed him…we were too slow…or maybe too fast…
As soon as we spotted Soren, I noticed that he was stepping on Rhys’ sleeve, making sure that he remained down effectively. Yet it didn’t seem that Rhys was happy about it. When I looked up, I knew why. Soren was holding a black tome in his hand—the tome of black magic. Bewildered, I took a step back. We all froze. Lethe was hissing loudly. Yet it seemed like none of the enemies noticed. They were all coming close to attack. Then, he released it. I don’t know what it was, but it took out all of the enemies around him. It started out from within him, revolving outwards. It stopped before us within a few hairs. If I hadn’t stepped back….
The attack had immensely weakened the morale of the enemy army. And the battle was over quickly after that. But the news of the attack had traveled fast and far. Thus, Soren was attacked by countless people trying to reprimand him for such an act, especially the soldiers from Bengion. Soren simply listened to their complaints, not taking heed to their arguments. It’s safe to say I was the last person to talk to him about it. He came into my tent looking absolutely bored and instantly asked, “Let me guess. You’re going to talk to me about it as well?”
“Well, of course!” I answered, “That was absolutely stupid of you!”
“It’s not happening again, trust me. I wasn’t planning on using it, but that’s a guilty conscious for you.”
“…What?”
“Rhys and I got separated behind enemy lines. Then I got pushed outwards. I hoped that the same thing happened to him too, but you told me otherwise. I had to do something. It was my fault he was back there.”
I remained silent and looked at him. It was the first time that I noticed how battle-worn Soren was. He was pale, his face ashen. He was leaning against one of the tent’s poles looking ready to drop. I sighed deeply, “How long have you been training with that black tome?”
“Just a small while. I found it when we were in the desert. Can I go now?”
“Yeah. Go. But you’re not allowed to participate in the next battle.”
That infuriated Soren. “What?! And why not? Because I look tired? I don’t think so! I’m going to fight with you whether like it or not! I just need to get some sleep!” Then he stormed off, to his own tent presumably. He made the decision final. How could I say no?

I should’ve said no…I should’ve said it a thousand times…

The final battle came. I’ll never forget it. Soren was the first one ready to fight. As I approached him to say no, he gave a sharp look that—if it was a sword—it would’ve killed me. I couldn’t say anything. He was set to fight, and nothing—nothing was going to make him back down…
The battle was going really well. We had driven back the enemy soldiers very back, and everyone was starting to get confident—too confident, I feared. But I was so worried about everyone else that I forgot to watch myself. When we neared Ashnard, I believed that I could take him down by myself…I charged…I fought and lost…and I knew that I was dead in the next few minutes. I should’ve run, but fear controlled me…why didn’t I move…?

Ashnard came at me…he raised his sword…prepared to strike…thunder attacked him. We both looked around. I saw Soren, standing well to the left of Ashnard, looking completely dignified. I was grateful for his help, but I feared for his safety. How I hope he would run…
When he saw that he had Ashnard attention, he did the most uncharacteristic thing ever—he stuck out his tongue. Ashnard was obviously offended. For he started with the old, “Why you little…” But Soren seemed non-different about offending someone three times his size and simply yelled, “Come and get me!” before casting another thunder attack. But Ashnard was fast; he covered the ground between him and Soren in little time. In fact, Soren had barely finished casting the thunder attack when Ashnard was upon him. Soren instantly ran and Ashnard gave chase. I followed.
Soren was amazingly resourceful; he tried everything to make distance between him and Ashnard. When he noticed that thunder spells weren’t effective, he tossed the thunder tome behind him straight at Ashanrd. The fool Ashnard then sliced the tome with his sword, as to not hinder him. When I saw that, I stopped in my place and ducked. No one in their right mind would destroy a tome while it still had magic powers left within it. From what Soren had told me (I wasn’t paying full attention), destroying a tome infused with power caused to power to explode out of the tome and attack the nearest person to it. I had stooped few paces short of being its target, and it decided to attack Ashanrd. It hit Ashnard with a powerful force that actually made him stop and look around. He saw me, but didn’t look at me twice—he knew I could use no magic. When he found no one to blame, he kept on chasing Soren, who had caught Ashanrd’s attention with a fire attack. I followed them cautiously after that. Soren was smart, and he saw how Ashanrd reacted…
To my amazement, Soren didn’t throw the fire tome at Ashnard. Instead, he put it away and pulled out the black one. When I saw that, my heart froze. He said he was never going to use that one again…
And he didn’t. As a matter of fact, he threw the tome over his shoulder. And again, Ashanrd sliced it. And again, he paid the price. I almost laughed—apparently, Ashanrd wasn’t too smart when it came to magic. I started to follow faster—I didn’t think Soren was going to chuck any more tomes at Ashanrd…

It happened so slow…so fast…and I couldn’t do anything about it…Soren tripped, I saw his face contorted into fear…he hit the ground, and Ashanrd was instantly upon him…I ran. I ran so fast…Ashanrd raised his sword…Soren put his arms up in defense…I yelled, telling him to put them down…he obeyed…Ahsanrd swung the sword…I was upon them—I pushed Ashnard…his blade still to hit Soren, but it wasn’t deadly…I turned to face Ashanrd…we fought…I won…and Soren was on the ground, unconscious…
A few days had passed since then. All the healers had done their best to help Soren, and he was able to walk again. According to Rhys, the wound was pretty serious: it was deep with a strange poison in it. I replied, saying that I thought that it was amazing that Soren was walking again so soon. Rhys laughed and said that Soren was too stubborn to be kept in bed. The conversation happened in Crimea Castle, at a party that Princess Elincia had thrown a party to commemorate the victory over Ashnard. Everyone that was anyone was there—the whole army, the country leaders, the generals…even the Apostle herself was here. There was a lot of talk, Boyd was having the time of his life goofing around and getting drunk (Shinon was too, but I’m not going to talk about him). Kieran was on Oscar’s case about joining the royal army (again. Can you believe this guy?!). Bastian and Nasir was telling the story of the war in an overdramatic way to any girl who would listen (womanizers -.- wink . Ulki seemed to be having a staring contest with Lethe (actually, I done think that they’re getting along…hope she doesn’t try to eat him…). And Princess Elincia was surrounded by a large crowd of friends and admirers (I wished she wasn’t, though…). I was able to see everybody. Everybody except Soren and Rhys…
It worried me a little, but I soon discovered, by a compliant about Soren’s rudeness by the Apostle, that Soren and Rhys were outside talking. It relaxed me to hear that, and I absently promised the Apostle to speak to Soren about it. She seemed convinced, and walked off, only for Princess Crimea to approach me.
We spoke lightly, sometimes raising our voices so we could hear each other over the noise. After a small while, I (nervously) asked Elincia to a dance, and she (gladly) accepted (!!). We danced, talking and laughing while doing so, ignoring the world around us…it was great. We danced for a long time, having so much fun…that is, until we noticed Geoffery’s (piercing) stare on us. It seemed to snap us back into reality. We separated form each other nervously, and said awkward ‘see you’s and walked off, recollecting our pride and dignity. It took a while, but after a lot of badgering form Boyd (I mean A LOT of badgering), I finally let loose again and had fun. We did a bunch of things, we told stories to girls (got slapped for that…don’t ask why), arm wrestled (nobody believed how little strength I held; saying I was taking it easy….), and, at the end, got drunk (sadly enough). I didn’t get too drunk though, my head was still pretty clear…

We prepared to leave somewhere around midnight. My head had completely cleared by then, and I was left waking up all the sleep-balls that were all over the place. As I mentally checked each of my solider off, I noticed that I haven’t heard from either Soren or Rhys for a very long time. In worry, I set out to look for them, joined by Mist and Rolf (practically the only people who weren’t drunk). Remembering what the Apostle told me, we went straight to the courtyard, but they weren’t there…I thought of other places that might be ‘outside,’ and thought of ‘outside the castle’…I thought about it a bit, because there was no way the Apostle would talk with Rhys outside the castle, but in the courtyard…but knowing Soren, he wouldn’t have wanted to remain in the courtyard….
So we went outside the castle. Then it hit me—‘outside the castle’ was a really large area. How were the three of us going to find them? I was in half my mind to go back in and get everybody out, but Mist and Rolf had already begun searching, and I wasn’t going to leave them outside, alone, in the dark…
So we looked. And looked and looked. And we simply couldn’t find them. We finally decided to inside and get everyone out and searching…but that proved to be a problem. Almost everyone was too sleepy or too drunk, not to mention that the Laguz couldn’t see well at night (they didn’t get drunk—smart people). Only Shinon was aching to go—getting drunk had strange effects on him. He was bouncing around, singing happily, looking for Soren, even though he kept on falling face first on the floor (incidentally, he creeped me out). It took a while for Mist and Rolf to calm him down (I refused to get involved). At the end of all that, though, he (thankfully) fell into a deep sleep. And we had to wait until dawn to look for Soren and Rhys.
It took dawn a while to come, but as soon as it showed, all the Laguz went out to find the missing two. And I swear, those Laguz are excellent hunters. It took no more than twenty minutes for Rolf to find the two. He came up to me wearing a frown and told me where they were, though he said that I wasn’t going to like what I’m going to find…
Dread filled me. I was suddenly scared for their safety. I told Rolf to lead me there as fast as he can, and I quickly followed him, with everyone following after us. When we reached there, I knew that Rolf was right—I really didn’t like what I saw—it filled me with dread.
The first thing I saw was the most obvious—Soren was asleep while Rhys was in silent prayer. I found it strange—Soren never liked the prayers for the Goddess. As I got closer, I noticed that Rhys was not in silent prayer: he was speaking loudly, but his voice was so hoarse it was nothing more than a mere whisper. I tapped him slightly on the shoulder, but he didn’t answer. I left him alone—Rhys easily got absorbed in his prayers—and went to Soren. I was surprised by the look of peace on Soren’s face, he was never like that, but almost always stressed with a frown on his face. I bent down to his level, and was about to wake him when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked over to find that Rolf was wearing a frown, his face disapproving. I also noticed that Rhys had stopped praying, and was looking anxiously at me…I shrugged Rolf off, and, with dread swelling up inside me, I touched Soren. I gasped in surprise. He was cold, so very cold. I looked at Rhys, silently questioning him, but he only looked down guiltily. I suddenly understood. With panic filling up, I quickly checked for the pulse…

There was so much sadness over this. I never expected it to be like that. I won’t forget the anger and grief that soared through me. As others took care of Soren, I interrogated everyone, asking what had happened. No one knew except Rhys. When I asked him, he didn’t deny anything. He confessed that he had lied to me, that Soren’s wound never closed. They couldn’t do so, and poison wouldn’t let them—and Soren refused to stay in bed, Rhys snuck him out…I’ll never forget the funeral, or the thoughts that were running through my head…
I couldn’t help but think about Soren’s crazy actions during that last battle. It made me think…why did he do that? Why did he go to forward and attack? It wasn’t like him…most of the battles weren’t like him…his first few fights—I remember them clearly—always had him hiding in the trees or behind someone. He rarely ever came forward. Yet even then…he and Rhys were always in contact…maybe it was because they both had to remain in the background?...the background…even outside of battle, Soren liked to remain in the background; always doing his own work…which even matched him, really. All that information and accounting—it was all his field: work that no one notices it was done. Yet, without it, everything would fall apart…it was all in the background…so why did he become so frontward in battle? Was it because he wanted to break out and leave? Or was it a thing of confidence? And how was Rhys convinced to join this insanity?
I couldn’t help but feel sick with myself. I always thought I knew so much about my friends and soldiers, yet I knew nothing of Soren’s reasons to take such action. I couldn’t help but feel that if I knew what Soren was really doing out there, I could have prevented all of this…

I asked Rhys. It was a very long time before I decided to do so. I thought and thought, with no avail to anything. But I always hope that Rhys knew. It took forever, but I asked him in the end…that took so much courage…I had avoided him since the incident…he told me that Soren did what he did because he wanted to; because he felt that he wasn’t doing enough. He said that Soren felt uneasy being out there, but he did it because he wanted to help more. Rhys said that Soren was very nervous about doing that, saying it wasn’t his field…Rhys only joined after Soren begged him…
As he told me such things, I looked at Soren’s grave. We had decided to meet there, in front of Soren’s black grave (black symbolized heroism in Crimea). I felt sadness fill me. I brought out my hand and touched the grave. It was as black as his clothes; as black as his hair; as black as the shadows in the background…
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yeah, i know its long. its 5-6 pages long on a word document. but i hope it was ok....anywho, enjoy!