Title: Foundation
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: PG
Length: 1000 words
Content notes: Mention of illness, poverty (medieval!au)
Author notes: Veeeeeeeeerry rough, written in under an hour, oops I forgot the date?
Summary: Fuu watches the city, and makes plans.

oOo



It was going to be a hot day, the sky a clear blue and promising to stay so. It was already unpleasantly warm, and Prince Ferio was staring unhappily at the clothing he was supposed to be putting on; the air itself felt like too much against his skin. "Do you think the barons would notice if I failed to hold court today?" He asked, leaning back on the bed so he could see through the open door to the balcony.

His wife was having less difficulty with the heat, already dressed for the day in a gown of apple green. She did not turn back to face him, but he could hear the smile in her voice as she answered: "you have about as great a chance of their not missing you as you have of making your clothing disappear by glaring at it, my Lord."

"Lady, you wound me. If I had such powers, I would surely use them to ensure your clothing vanished as well as my own; just think, no one could demand our presence anywhere. We could have the day to ourselves..."

Fuu looked back at him then, a smile hidden in her eyes. "I dare say no one would notice us missing all day? And that there is no other clothing in this whole city save that in this chamber..."

"Do you think I could outlaw clothing?" He pondered, and Fuu laughed and shook her head at him, before turning back to her study of the city.

He gave in and dressed, making some most un-regal expressions as he did so, before making his way to the door outside. The view was breathtaking - both the woman before him, and the city spread out beyond her. (This high in the castle, they even escaped the worst of the smell. The city in the summer was... pungent. But the winding streets made a fascinating pattern, one bounded by the snaking silver line of the river, with the green of the city commons stretching beyond. Fuu's gaze lay on the city; on the places where the lines of streets were so packed with crowded buildings that they blurred and vanished.

"What are you thinking of this morning, my love?" He asked, and waited for her to turn and reach a hand for him before he came across. (He had been reprimanded often enough in the past for standing too close when Fuu was pondering something; apparently he could be a distraction.) Her palm was merely warm against his already-sticky fingers. He forgot, sometimes, her tales of the heat in the land where she had been born. She and the other two Knights had adjusted to the temperature in Cephiro, for the most part, but she retained an easiness in the heat which he could only envy.

Fuu nodded down at the houses, so far below. "I was thinking of the illnesses which are spreading by the quayside."

"...Dark thoughts for a bright morning." Ferio slid an arm about her waist, tucking his head over her shoulder to look down with her. "We have organised aid where we can, but it is spreading so fast..."

"Yes." She nodded, her hair soft against the side of his face. "We do not have many people learned in medicine. We have books, and there are a few people your sister brought to court for their expertise, but... they are too few to treat so many, or to discover the roots of the disease." She paused, and Ferio waited out the moment as she chose her words, understanding that this next part would be important. "What we need... the city needs a school."

"A school? Like the school my sister has gone to?"

"Yes." She nodded, just a little at first, and then more empathetically. "A place where those books can be put to use, and where our doctors can train others. The great University is so far away, and so few of its members come to Cephiro - when they do, they lose the chance to share knowledge with others save in chance encounters. I believe that is why the doctors in the court have not left - because here they can spend time assisting each other, and learning still more. If we had a school..."

Ferio's mind caught the idea and carried it away. It might be a small foundation, at first, but there would be patients enough for any trainees to work with if the school was bound to help those of the city who could not afford to pay the doctors directly... a centre of learning would draw others who practised medicine, and in time..."

"...Emeraude could not return here." He whispered it, arms tense about Fuu with the thought of it. "...She could not. Could she?"

"The Queen could not return, no." Fuu said, softly. "But in time... a doctor might. If she were willing to disguise herself. And her training will take many years yet; she will not be the same woman who left. But it would be... a chance. One lone doctor visiting the city would look suspicious. One making visits to a group of her colleagues to learn from them... less so."

Ferio took a deep breath, and let it shudder out. He was glad that Emeraude was free, now, to pursue the vocation she had always been called to - but he missed his sister deeply still.

Even if that never happened... "A school would still be of benefit to the city. We have few enough healers here; we can even write it into the charter that they will take the priests and priestesses too, and teach them; they have little chance to study for so many years away from their churches, but if we could bring a part of that to them..."

Fuu turned in his arms, and smiled, and kissed him softly. "Come, then. There is work to be done, and people in need of immediate help, not the promise of something to come too late for them."

They left through the doorway together, without speaking, to face the challenges of the day - and the future.