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It was just supposed to be a quick trip to town to stock up on supplies before making their way to the Temple of Earth. Nothing complicated to it: stop at a market, purchase food, leave. The same thing they'd managed dozens of times without incident.
Of course, nothing could ever be simple when Zelos got recognized. Suddenly they weren’t a party traveling together, it was Master Zelos the Chosen One enthralling his adoring fans with mostly fabricated tales of epic daring. Technically, there was no need for him to invent stories whole cloth, since the journey was full of battles against dangerous monsters, but the fictionalized Zelos never missed an attack or got knocked off his feet.
Got to give the people what they want , he had said cheerfully when Sheena pointed out the discrepancy. It wasn’t a philosophy that appeared to apply in any other area of his life; he wasn’t the pious disciple the church demanded or the honest, loyal friend Sheena might have preferred. But when it came to complete strangers, suddenly nothing was more important than pleasing the crowd. The whole thing made Sheena seethe.
“We don’t have time for this,” she complained to Regal. He was infuriatingly calm, even as a small crowd began to form in the street.
“They are very helpful in stocking our supplies,” Regal pointed out. Zelos’s presence also tended to inspire generous gifts, which saved them having to spend all of their money in stores.
Sheena had no response to that, so she ground her teeth instead.
“I can’t believe so many people want to talk to this loser,” Genis remarked, thoroughly unimpressed by the whole display.
“He is the Chosen of Mana,” Raine reminded him. “They want to be reassured that the world will be saved.”
Sheena supposed that was true. Zelos grinned and laughed and he could almost make you believe that the whole journey was one fun adventure, just a chance for a pretty rich boy to show off with no chance of any real danger.
The version of Zelos that sparkled in front of the audience didn’t vomit when he tried to eat or spend the whole night staring at stars or refuse to look angels in the eye. Maybe that was part of the appeal. The journey had stripped away his ability to pretend in front of Regal or Sheena, and now Raine and Genis as well, but for strangers who didn’t know better he could act as if nothing had changed.
“Chosen One, over here!”
“Chosen One, is it true you can fly?”
“Chosen One, show us your wings!”
“There’s no room here, hunny, but maybe tonight I’ll give you a private showing,” Zelos offered, and winked. Tonight, of course, they would be long gone, on their way northwest.
The version of Zelos on display in public only ever appeared strictly human.
“Chosen One, will you bless my baby?”
Sheena’s head snapped to the side. That was a request they hadn’t heard yet.
The woman who spoke wore an apron over her dress, and one chubby pink fist peeked out from the tightly swaddled bundle in her arms.
“Sorry, sweetheart, I didn’t hear you. Let the cutie through! What did you want?” Zelos was in his element, controlling the crowd, and with some grumbling they parted, allowing him to step closer to the woman. She ducked her chin shyly.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Chosen One, but I wondered… could you bless my little girl?”
For a moment, Zelos wavered. He didn’t usually do that in front of others if he could help it. Wavering was a lack of confidence, and he made it his business to be self-assured.
Sheena tried to recall if she’d ever actually seen him interact with a child.
“... Yeah, sure.”
She waited for the inevitable grandstanding, where Zelos would refer to himself in the third person with inaccurate adjectives and strike a pose, but it didn’t come. Instead, he reached out a hand and rested his fingertips on the child’s head as if she was something impossibly fragile. Maybe he thought infants were.
Sheena had never seen Zelos bless anything. He said ritual phrases at the seals when he had to– and muttered complaints under his breath instead when he could get away with it– but he wasn’t a holy man, and most of the time he wasn’t interested in pretending to be.
He hesitated again, then leaned down and brushed his lips against the baby’s forehead, feather-light.
“There you go."
“Chosen One, can you bless my son?” asked a man with thick brows hanging low over his eyes.
“Let me just-”
“Chosen One, my mother is ill!”
Zelos stepped back, but the throng pressed in around him. A hand grabbed at his vest.
“My store, we’ve been struggling since-”
“See my purse, if you could only-”
“We’re still trying for a baby, please, a blessing-”
“Give me a second here, hunny,” he tried, “I can’t-” He broke off when a hand caught in his hair, jerking his head backward.
“The doctor says I-”
“Chosen, will you-”
“My eyes, can you help-”
“My leg, it’s-”
“Won’t you heal-”
“Won’t you help-”
“Chosen, please-”
“That’s enough!” Sheena shouldered her way forward as more and more of Zelos vanished behind unfamiliar bodies. “Make some room! The Chosen has to go.”
Regal, Raine, and Genis followed her lead, breaking through the crowd.
The expression on Zelos’s face was oddly lost. Sheena took hold of his wrist.
“Come on, Zelos. That’s enough.”
She tugged, and he allowed himself to be led.
A quiet Zelos was an unusual thing. Sheena didn’t know exactly what to make of it. Part of her had expected him to turn it into a joke, or tell a ridiculous story about women rioting for him in the streets of Meltokio. Instead, he didn’t speak, even as the town faded behind them into nothing more than a speck on the horizon.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” she pressed. “Did they hurt you?”
“Nah. Didn’t feel a thing.” He scratched absent-mindedly at the Cruxis Crystal on his sternum, and subsided into silence again. Usually they walked at the same pace, but now he allowed his long-legged stride to carry him to the front of the group, discouraging conversation.
Raine approached on Sheena’s other side.
“Has that happened before?” she asked in an undertone.
“No. Sometimes people have given us free things, but never anything like that.”
“It might be wise to have the Chosen travel in disguise.”
Sheena thought that she would actually pay money never to have to hear the title again.
“Most people don’t actually know what Zelos looks like. He doesn’t usually get recognized outside of Sybak or Meltokio.”
“How does he usually react?”
“Like an idiot.” It wasn’t even an insult. Zelos slipped readily into the role of incompetent chosen, a caricature of himself.
Raine opened her mouth to ask for more details Sheena wouldn’t want to give, but she was interrupted by Genis’s sharp voice.
“Zelos, you’re bleeding!”
They were both on him in an instant.
“What happened? You said you weren’t hurt!”
“I wasn’t,” Zelos protested. “It’s nothing.”
Blood welled on his neck, bright red to match the crystal below. The same red underneath his fingernails. One of his gloves had been lost in the crowd.
“Zelos…” Sheena shook her head slowly, uncomprehending. “Did you do that to yourself?”
He stared at his own hand as if it belonged to someone else.
“It’s not a big deal. Raine can heal it, right?” He looked up and surveyed the group. Whatever he was looking for, he didn’t find it in their semi-circle of concerned expressions. “Don’t make it into a big thing, it’s fine.”
“I have a bandage in my pack,” Raine said, with the calm, authoritative voice of someone used to commanding a room. “Genis, go with Regal to get some water.”
“But-”
“Now.” Her firm tone brooked no argument. Genis and Regal obeyed.
Each of them carried a full flask of water, but Sheena assumed that Raine’s real motivation was to keep them all from crowding Zelos.
So why hadn’t she sent Sheena away as well?
A trickle of blood traveled down into the deep v of skin exposed by Zelos’s vest. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from it.
“Does it hurt?”
“I’ve gotten worse scratches from egg bears.” His grin was unsettling, too at odds with the scarlet at his throat.
Didn’t feel a thing , he had said. The angel transformation was peeling away his humanity. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t eat, what if…
“Here.” Raine handed Sheena a rag soaked in water from one of the flasks. “For cleaning his hands. You take care of that while I heal him.”
Sheena didn’t ask why Zelos couldn’t do it himself, and she didn’t ask him how long it had been since he last felt pain.
“Tell me about the Great Zelos fighting an egg bear,” she said instead, and he obliged.
What was there to do except pretend?