AM/VW: The King & The White Petal

III: Family Reunion

Rhea closed her eyes and she sighed at Sarai's question. "You've been searching for your own father since you were 10, right?", she asked her. "Yes. Why?", she said. "Following their sudden disappearance, Jeralt and all of his mercenary company went into hiding in the empire and stayed within hiding there. Eventually, after his mercenaries all suddenly died from sickness, he left the empire behind and made his way back to the church, where he regained his old position as captain of the knights. In March of the following year, he accompanied me and the other knights to the kingdom, where we drove our enemies out of the country. In doing so, we saved everyone in the kingdom.", she said and led her to the garden, where she had her wait while she went straight into the garden house. There, two rather experienced knights cut their conversation short and turned. "She's still alive after eleven years?!", Jeralt asked with surprise in his voice when Rhea told him Sarai was now living in the castle after Dimitri got her out of the imperial capital. Not wanting to wait there any longer, she right away made her way over to the garden house and her blue eyes widened when she saw her father. Unable to believe she was reunited with him after eleven long years, Sarai ran over and hugged Jeralt, after which her blue eyes started to tear up. "Eleven long years later and you're now grown up, Sarai.", he said and he hugged her back before they walked back into the castle, where they heard a loud sound coming from the kitchen. The other knight sighed and shook his head at the sound. "Leave it to Annette to mess up in the kitchen while trying to cook.", he said in disbelief before Sarai walked to the kitchen. "Of course Father heard the explosion!", she heard Annette say as she walked over to the young orange haired mage. "Are you talking about the knight I saw with my own father, Annette?", she asked her. She turned around at her question. "Sarai!", she exclaimed. Sarai sighed and walked over to help Annette with making the food. After a while, Mercedes walked into the kitchen to bake some sweets for all three of them to eat and Annette ran over to help her. Sarai washed her hands in the sink and walked out of the kitchen straight to the parlor, where Dorothea was standing there waiting for her. "Hello, Sarai.", she greeted her rather politely. "What is it, Dorothea?", she asked the friendly warlock in response. "Dimitri and his parents are waiting for us to join them in the castle's council room.", she replied before they left the parlor and made their way to the council room. "Ingrid!", Dorothea said rather cheerfully when she saw a young blond haired pegasus knight. "Dorothea, who is this?", she asked her friend. Lambert turned to them at Ingrid's question and stood up."There you two are.", he said to them as they walked over and sat down at the long council table right next to Felix & Dimitri respectively. "Some of us already know her, but for those who don't, this is Sarai.", Shamir said. "Thank you, Shamir.", Patricia replied before Lambert cleared his throat and they began the council meeting. "As I'm sure you're all aware, through declaring war on the Church of Seiros, the empire has made all of Fargheus and the Leicester Alliance their enemies in return for the church's allegiance to both countries.", he said. "Poor Sarai here has experienced their violent nature for herself through her literal imprisonment in one of the imperial palace's towers after she was ultimately falsely accused of and sentenced to death for something she said she didn't do. As a result, she can't really continue to be a mercenary. So I'm going to give her the chance to join the resistance in fighting back against the empire.", he added. "I'm more than eager to be able to fight again, so I accept your offer.", Sarai told him rather cheerfully.