Suikoden VII

Chapter Three: Part Two

Chapter Three: Part Two

One day prior...

Potsfurt

Brendan's brow rose as he looked up from his paper. Dawa was sitting across from him in a sitting room of the house he had been provided in Potsfurt. "...A ransom?" he asked. His tone was disbelieving.

"I know the Princess, Your Highness," Dawa said. Her face was cold and her hands were clasped in her lap. Her tone was also cold but calm. "She has a hero complex. She naturally wants to help. And...she loves her siblings. All of them. I was her assist. If she thinks I'm in danger, then she will act."

"No, she won't," Brendan said, lowering the paper. "Do you honestly believe Sigrun or Denzel would allow her to come here to "save" you? They would sacrifice you to keep her safe, Dawa."

Dawa's lips pressed together, but that was the only sign of her offense by his words. "Do you think that will stop her, Your Highness?"

Brendan's brow knitted. "How well do you truly know her, Sir?" Dawa pressed him, leaning forward. "I was there. I was by her side for a long time, and I know how little you know her."

"Don't talk to me like that," Brendan snapped.

"What's her favorite color?" Dawa shot back.

Brendan was taken aback. He stammered for a moment before he spoke. "Red. It's always been red."

"What about her favorite food?"

"She likes those hard candies—"

"Wrong, Your Highness," Dawa said.

"You will show the Prince respect, Lady Dawa!" Yasmine snapped.

"Princess Astraea's favorite food is zimtschnecke," Dawa said, her eyes on Brendan.

"O...Kay," Brendan said after a moment. "What does this have to do with—"

"What did you get for her eighteenth birthday?" Dawa pressed on. "What did she get you for your thirty-second birthday?"

Brendan clenched his jaw but said nothing. "You got her a romance novel for her birthday," Dawa reminded him. "And for your birthday she got you a new saddle—"

"You've made your point," Brendan snapped, standing up. "And you still show your favor for her by calling her "Princess"."

Dawa visibly clenched her jaw. There were many things she wanted to say in the moment but held back. After all, speaking her truth was what got Primrose arrested on trumped charges. "I know that she loves me," Dawa said finally. "She loves me the same as she loves Princess Sigrun and Princess Philomena. If she believes that I'm in danger, then there would be nothing that would hold her back from coming to my side. The same would be said of all her siblings—including you, Your Highness."

"And do you expect the people of Potsfurt to act like their lady—and a bastard child of His Majesty the King—is being held hostage?"

"Does it matter what they think? What matters is what she thinks."

Brendan contemplated this for a moment before he slowly nodded. "Fair enough. And do you have an inkling as to where she is?"

"No," Dawa said. "But my plan is that you should distribute that to all the cities, like a royal decree. Wherever she is, she will see it. And she will act."

Brendan looked at the notice again for a long moment. Then he finally looked up again. "You are confident that she will respond to this?"

"I am," Dawa said.