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“Can we talk for a moment?”
Fourchenault sighs as he turns away from the crate of relics he was inspecting. “I’m really quite busy - “ He cuts himself off as he sees the Warrior of Light. “Oh. Yes, I can take a moment.”
“Good. I have something I wished to talk to you about,” Deya says. “Perhaps a bit more out of the way?”
Fourchenault walks over to a space by a wall, away from the crowd of people carrying crates of adamantite and relics down to Labyrinthos. Deya follows, crossing her arms and regarding him with a flat stare. He waits a moment, but she seems disinclined to speak first. “What did you want-?”
“When you disowned the twins in Gridania, I offered them my last name,” Deya says, cutting him off. Fourchenault blinks. He’s not sure what he expected, but it certainly wasn’t that.
“I hated you. Since I met them, I’ve watched the twins grow up and become heroes, and I’ve come to love them like they’re my own kids. I was certain no loving parent could ever hurt their children like that.”
Fourchenault opens his mouth to protest, but the Warrior holds up a gloved hand, and some instinct makes him stay silent. “I can see now that you love them. But in my eyes, that just makes it worse. You loved them and you hurt them. Alphinaud and Alisaie seem to have forgiven you and to want you in their lives, so I will tolerate you. But I cannot forgive you.”
Deya’s eyes harden, pale peridots in a face of stone. Every instinct Fourchenault has is telling him this is a being too powerful to cross. He is too frozen to say anything before she continues, “They’ve given you another chance. But know this: If you hurt my kids like that again, you’re going to know what it’s like to be an enemy of the Warrior of Light.”
With that, she turns away to leave, heading to where Fourchenault can see Alphinaud and Alisaie helping to move crates towards the lifts to Labyrinthos. He stares after her for a moment. He’d thought the Warrior of Light a bad influence on his children, encouraging them to leap into danger, but she was actually their fiercest protector. Maybe if he had known…
Fourchenault shakes his head, pushing away the thought. There will be time for regret after the ark has been made ready to bear the Scions to the end of the universe. At least he knows his children will be as protected as they can be. He certainly would not want to make an enemy of the woman who has taken them under her wing.