Governor Nephry Osborne was sitting at her desk, staring down at a pile of paperwork that appeared to be taller than Mount Ron

I dunno where the heck this came from or where it’s going to go but for now it’ll stay as a oneshot. There’s really no point to it, I guess, but I just wanted to show some things from Nephry’s point of view for once. Nephry’s point of view is incredibly hard to write, did you know that?

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Spoilers for Jade’s past.

Reunion

Governor Nephry Osborne was sitting at her desk, staring down at a pile of paperwork that appeared to be taller than Mount Roneal.

Don’t get her wrong, she loved being the governor of Keterburg, being able to change things for the better, but she didn’t quite appreciate all of the paperwork she had to deal with. Especially since most of them were about the casino. Honestly, the things that happened at that place.

She let out a sigh and adjusted her glasses before picking up her pen, sifting through the paperwork to find the more urgent ones, ignoring the casino ones. Those were endless and should be saved for a rainy day, when she had nothing more important to do. Or, perhaps the better phrase would be to say, a snowy day. Score forbid, if it rained around here, they’d all die from the snow turning into ice.

She came across an interesting one, that.

It was a letter of request from his Majesty, Peony the Ninth, to reserve the entire Keterburg spa for a week… And then he sent his love. Nephry sighed before scrawling her signature onto it and placed it on the ‘in’ pile. She’d have to remember to reply to his little letter at the bottom of the request form.

She picked up the next one and her pen dropped onto the desk before it rolled onto the floor. There was no way… It couldn’t be… The blonde swallowed the lump that had started growing in her throat. She would not break down. Not here. But how…? How could Jade be dead? Nephry had always thought of her brother as someone invincible, almost. Someone… someone that would always be around.

And the last time they’d seen each other was at her husband’s funeral. He’d told her that now her husband was gone, she could finally marry Peony, like she’d always wanted. Nephry hadn’t meant to, but she’d completely blown up at him. She just didn’t understand it! How could he be so cruel and insensitive about Denver’s passing?

I mean, Denver may not have been Peony, and there was little love actually involved from both sides, he’d been good to her and he hadn’t deserved Jade’s harsh comment! Denver understood when she admitted to him, in tears, that she still harboured feelings for Emperor Peony the Ninth. He knew but that hadn’t kept him from taking care of her, and passing on the duties of governor Keterburg onto her.

Her eyes were starting to ache again. Nephry roughly shoved away the gram and grabbed another sheet of paper. She’d drown herself in her work until this dreadful news was adapted to and locked away.

Nephry looked up with a start when her door was flung open and a boy came running in. His nose was red and he’d obviously been out in the snow.

“Miss Nephry, Miss Nephry!” he gasped, exhausted. Had he run all the way from the plaza?

She knew that the children often played there with the snowball machines they’d built with the extra funds. Occasionally it would break down, however, it would start back up in a few minutes or so. Had it broken down for good?

“We found someone’s body in the snowball park! He looks really, really creepy!”

“A body?” Nephry frowned in concern. That wasn’t good news. It certainly took propriety over her own mourning.

She placed her pen down on the desk and pushed her chair out, standing up abruptly. She sorely hoped that this ‘body’ wasn’t a dead one. The blonde governor was not in the mood for any more deaths that day. “Take me to where you found this body.”

He nodded and backed out through the door. The blonde woman grabbed her coat from the coat rack on her way out.

No matter how urgent the matter was, if she went out in what she was wearing now, it wouldn’t be long before Nephry would be turned into a human ice cube. It was no exaggeration; Keterburg really was that cold around this time of year. Of course, it was that cold all year round, but still…

The governor shrugged her coat on and followed the young boy quickly as they ascended the stairs to the snow park.

Already, there was a group of children gathered around something, and it was obvious that was the body. It was probably some poor soul who’d stayed out in the cold too long and had been overcome with a chill or, worse case, hypothermia.

As she approached, the children noticed her and moved away, clearing a path straight to the hunched up figure lying on the ground.

Nephry let a sharp gasp run through her lips as she kneeled down next to the figure.

The lavender-haired man clutched his knees and curled himself up into a large ball, muttering almost nonsensical words and phrases under his breath all while whimpering pitifully.

Her brows went down in irritation when she noticed how little he was wearing. How could he be so stupid? He’d been born and raised in this snowy city! He of all people should know better! As it was, Nephry looked him in the eye, putting one hand on his trembling shoulder.

“Saphir.” She stated firmly. He raised his head to look at her, an almost hopeful look on his pale face.

“J-Jade?” he stammered out.

The blonde governor inhaled sharply as the memory of the telegram swam lazily to the front of her mind. She swallowed hard to rid her throat of the lump that had risen. She was going to have to break the news to him, wasn’t she?

His lips looked were rapidly turning blue and it looked as if his ears were going to soon go the same way. His body wouldn’t stop shaking and his breathing sounded hoarse. It was a brief moment of relief for Nephry. Hypothermia had three stages. If she was correct, Saphir was only in the first stage. She had to get him out of the cold.

“No, it’s Nephry,” she replied, looking around for someone to help.

She obviously couldn’t very well ask the children to help, seeing as Saphir needed to be carried somewhere warm. The hotel would do nicely. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the guard standing entrance by the northern exit of Keterburg. She quickly waved him over before turning to Saphir again.

“Listen, I’m going to get you someplace warm, all right? Please try to cooperate.”

“Yes, Governor Osborne!” the guard now stood in front of her with a salute. Ignoring the formalities, Nephry all but shoved Saphir at him. The poor guard looked unsure of what to do with the man he was now partially supporting. Saphir seemed incapable of standing on his own currently. “Ma’am?”

“Bring him and follow me,” Nephry ordered, turning on her heel and marching down the flight of stairs, the guard staggering behind her, a bit burdened down with the extra weight. The lavender-haired man kept trying to pull away, mumbling something about Jade, but his muscles were missing warmth and that deterred him. Nephry took the stairs up to the hotel, two at a time and pushed open the door for the guard and Saphir. She walked up to a bewildered clerk at the counter. “One room, extra heating.”

“Y-yes, Governor Osborne,” the man stammered, immediately pulling out a room key for her. “Third floor, first door on the left.”

“Thank you,” she replied absently, already on her way to the elevator.

They received many a stares but no one actually dared to ask what the heck was going on, not if it concerned their Governor and a guard. The elevator door closed with a ding and Nephry pressed the button with the three, watching as it lit up.

“Governor Osborne…” the guard spoke up again, looking down at the man he was half supporting. “If…if you don’t mind me asking, what is this all about, ma’am?”

“…It’s nothing you need to know.” Nephry replied warily. She didn’t want to get any more of her citizens involved in this mess with Saphir.

Saphir… He was known as Dist the Reaper, now, wasn’t he? Sighing, she took off her misting glasses and wiped them on her jacket before replacing them.

The elevator dinged and the doors slip open with a hiss.

Nephry stepped out smartly and walked quickly down the hall to the room that had been provided. She turned the key in the lock and pushed open the door, flicking on the light switch as the guard walked in with Saphir. It seemed he’d warmed up a little bit, some of the colour slowly coming back into his cheeks.

Nephry motioned for the guard to put Saphir on the bed.

“Thank you,” she nodded. The guard saluted before leaving, closing the door behind him. With a little sigh, the blonde moved to beside the bed and pulled the covers up over Saphir’s still trembling but now curled up body. If she was correct, this was a suite so there had to be a small kitchen somewhere.

She wandered over to one of the closed doors and peeked inside. Bathroom. Nephry opened the door across from that one and saw a little counter with a small cooking station inside.

She went inside and pulled out two instant packages of hot chocolate along with two Keterburg Hotel mugs. The governor poured the instant hot chocolate powder into the mugs and filled the mugs with hot water, using a spoon to mix the powder with the water a bit more. She placed the spoon inside the sink and used her foot to nudge open the door to the room, holding a mug in each hand.

Nephry walked back over to Saphir, who had propped himself up against the headboard of the bed, looking a bit warmer.

“What on Auldrant were you doing out there, Saphir?” Nephry pressed one of the mugs into his hands before sitting down on the edge of the bed. Her weight made the bed creak a bit as the mattress shifted. Nephry blew on her hot chocolate lightly before taking a sip. Then she turned to the lavender-haired man lying on the bed who was staring into his mug with a crestfallen look on his face.

“He didn’t come…” he muttered sadly.

“Who didn’t come?” Nephry asked, a nagging suspicion already forming. “Is it Jade? Were you waiting for Jade?”

Slowly, Saphir nodded.

“Why were you waiting for Jade?” she asked gently.

“I…” he looked at her from the corner of his eye before ploughing on, as if he was afraid he would lose his courage and clam up again. “I wanted to… I wanted to talk to him about Professor Nebi-“

“Are you two still up to that foolishness?!” Nephry stood up abruptly, her mug falling to the ground in her shock, briefly forgetting her sorrow about Jade. She hadn’t been expecting something like that. “Don’t you remember the last time you tried something like that?! How it ended up?! This quest of yours to bring P-Professor Nebilim back will bring nothing but pain! Why can’t you just leave past things in the past?!”

Underneath her scrutiny, Saphir was starting to cower. Nephry swiped off her glasses and wiped them on her shirt before replacing them, taking a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

“The dead don’t come back, Saphir Wyon Neis, and you would do well to remember that,” the governor said hollowly, remember her own husband’s death and how distraught she had been, and now Jade. She understood their reasoning, at least partially (after all, she missed Professor Nebilim as well), but this was just foolish! They were two grown men with childish fantasies of bringing back the dead. Dist the Reaper. Jade the Necromancer.

“But it almost worked the first time!” Saphir protested weakly, coughing into his fist. “It’ll work, I swear! I just need Jade to-!”

“My brother is dead,” Nephry replied flatly, picking up her hot chocolate mug before placing it on the bedside table. The look of disbelief on Saphir’s face unnerved her a bit before he shook his head furiously in denial. “He died at Akzeriuth.”

“It’s not true!” Saphir protested. “He didn’t die! That melodist of theirs saved them with a hymn!”

“What?” Nephry turned to look at him with wide eyes. There… There was a chance that Jade wasn’t dead? But… How had Saphir known about the people in the Akzeriuth evacuation group? “How do you know?”

“I saw him!” Saphir nodded confidently. If he was so sure of his answer, did Nephry have the heart to believe that there was hope that her brother was alive? Saphir’s face darkened as he continued. “And he was being nasty to me again, that Jade! He said that I wouldn’t succeed in bringing back Professor Nebilim! I’ll prove him wrong!”

Not actually thinking logically, Nephry raised her hand and slapped Saphir. His head jerked to the side at the sheer force behind the blow. A look of shock was manifesting itself on the man’s features as he stared at his fallen glasses on the ground. Nephry herself was a bit shocked as well. She’d never lost her temper like that with Saphir before. Peony and Jade, yes, frequently, but never Saphir.

Maybe it had been her sensitivity towards the topic of her old teacher. Maybe it was the fact that childhood friends were now on opposite sides against each other.

But she’d just been so infuriated that the man was still being so childishly dependent on Professor Nebilim. He had to move on. Nephry had. Peony had. Jade had, after the disaster with the replica. But Saphir, he was so stubborn. Couldn’t he just let Professor Nebilim have her eternal peace?

“Just… stop it!” Nephry cried out, letting her arm fall to her side limply as she glared at the lavender-haired man before her. “Saphir, I- I don’t know what’s gotten into you… And I don’t think I want to know either! Leave Jade out of your mess! He’s… I won’t forgive you, even if you did bring back Professor Nebilim!”

Without waiting to hear his response to her rant, Nephry spun on her heel and left the room, letting the door slam behind her. She was afraid that if she stayed any longer, she’d be reduced to a sobbing mess. The governor mentally cursed herself. Why was she always the weak one? Even back when they were kids, when she had been bullied, it was always Jade and Peony who protected her.

“Damn it,” Nephry hissed, taking off her glasses as she rubbed away the dampness in her eyes. She wiped her glasses on the bottom of her coat before replacing them on the bridge of her nose. She had to put up a strong front, if only for the sake of her citizens of Keterburg. Her precious city.

Nephry took her time as she made her way back to her house, just generally taking in the sights of the city. The people, for the most, seemed fairly happy and content, despite the cold weather all year round. Though, for the children, the snow must seem like a fun thing to play with, not knowing of the consequences of staying out too long. But after seeing Saphir in the square today… Well, Nephry doubted the children there would forget about it anytime soon.

As she turned the bend that would lead her to her mansion, Nephry could hear sounds of yelling inside. She raised her eyebrows at the silhouettes inside her house, which were accented heavily due to the light indoors and the darkness outside. The blonde took the steps two at a time before pulling open her front door to see a rather strange looking group in front of her.

Her eyes widened and she sucked in a sharp breath, as she took in the sight of a familiar blue army uniform. It couldn’t be… could it?

“I told you people already!” Lena seemed at her wits’ end as she let out a sigh of exasperation. The blonde couldn’t help but wonder how long her secretary/maid had had to deal with this group. Lena had never been too good with being patient, even with Nephry herself when she was slacking off a little. “Mistress Osborne isn’t home at the moment. I’m sure if your business is important, like you say, then you can come back and bother Mistress Osborne later.”

“Lena, I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t refer to people as ‘bothering’ me,” Nephry gave a little laugh as she pushed between a red-haired youth and a sandy-haired girl to reach her housekeeper’s side.

“Miss Nephry, you’re back!” Lena looked surprised before speaking in hushed tones. “And what of the rumour about the body?”

“It’s been dealt with, don’t worry,” Nephry murmured before straightening herself and her glasses, looking at the group. She couldn’t help but inhale sharply when she confirmed with her own eyes that, yes, it was Jade Curtiss, her brother, standing with the rest of the mismatched strangers. Nephry had to hold herself back from flinging herself at him. He wouldn’t appreciate it anyways, and she was just glad that he wasn’t a corpse rotting away. “Jade! My brother, oh, you’re alive!”

“’Brother’?!” the red-haired boy spluttered in surprise. It looked like the others of the group were sharing his sentiments. It was so obvious and Nephry berated herself for not expecting this. Of course Jade wouldn’t tell anyone about his only family member left in the world. She really shouldn’t be bitter about all of this; he’d always been like that. Nephry felt a little ungrateful that her brother was here, alive, and she was complaining about his lack of respect.

“I didn’t think Jade would mention me,” Nephry commented, not looking him in the eye. Instead, she turned to Lena. “Lena, I think I might be busy for a while. Could you cancel all my appointments for today?”

“Of course!”

Nephry gave her a gracious smile before gesturing for Jade’s little group into her office. She walked around the desk and placed one hand on it, looking directly at Jade this time. To think that Saphir had actually been telling the truth. Nephry was a bit regretful that she doubted him, though she’d been seeing red with anger and seething when she’d been talking to him.

“Jade,” she started, suddenly very glad that she could even do something as simple as addressing him. “I found Saphir in the courtyard earlier this afternoon…”