Dual Fates

Summary:

AU, the cards have yet to appear in Tomoeda and Syaoran is now 15 years old and dying. The cause is unknown and the doctors do not know how to treat him. As his life force continues to mysteriously slip away the Li Clan becomes determined that a new magical power is needed to save him, but will it, or will a harsher fate await him?

Chapter 1: Sickness

Syaoran sat completely still in a cross-legged style, hands relaxed by his abdomen with his palms up and fingers slightly curled. For every breath he took there was no movement, even nothing on the exhale. Even behind his closed eyelids his eyes did nothing but stare deep into the darkness. It was the condition needed for complete bodily control.

After the control of the body, the spirit was next to calm, and from the spirit the elements would follow. To feel nature and to track its pulses, the flow of the auras of everything around him were vivid in the morning air though the true nature was past the halls and out the closed doors of the training hall. But to know the existence of something that couldn't be felt directly was as simple as the mere thought of it. Yet just that alone wouldn't reach to the magic within him.

Upon his palms were weighed the traces of energy. Like a balance, he would steady their presence and anchor the energy with that of the energy behind his navel. From the anchor and the balance, he would link the points of the sternum, the heart, Adam's apple, chin, and nose in to the collective point of the top of the triangle before channeling the energies of the third eye and crown of his head into a radiant cascade around him. To feel the power as it flowed like a fountain and to absorb the elements of the natural world… to understand without seeing. This was the basic fundamentals of bodily energy.

The world of magic wasn't so different, but with greater concentration higher amounts and purities could be established within the dominant system. Once established here, to use at any time was as simple as flipping an inner switch. Simple…

He faltered slightly as the first of the warning signs swept his body. The fountain of energy slowed.

No…

The first wave of nausea had washed over him, but he ignored it. He was too close to the strengthening to stop now.

He grimaced slightly as a fiery pain encircled his lungs and squeezed his heart – interfering with the power flow.

No, no!

Finally a familiar feeling of a hardened bubble traveled upward in his throat, but he did not acknowledge it. He was so close now he could feel the strengthening beginning to work. He—

Suddenly Syaoran's eyes flew open as his body lurched forward, the blood that had traveled the length of his throat now sprayed outward on the forcibly expelled air from his clogging lungs. Being too severe to recover from moderately, he collapsed into a fit of coughing as he attempted to keep the blood within by covering his mouth with his hand. With his concentration now thoroughly destroyed there was little point to trying to resume his energy rite.

Having heard the commotion from the outside, a number of servants and lesser clan members burst into the room in an attempt to help their suffering young master and leader.

After just a few moments his mother appeared in front of him, wearing an expressionless face but her eyes betraying her by shattering her mask of seriousness in exchange for one of concern.

"Syaoran, my son." She said calmly and in a voice that did not betray her. "How long this time?"

Syaoran, having been brought to his feet now gave the signal that he would stand upon his own feet and proceeded to wipe the blood from his mouth as he regarded his mother before him. He swayed for no more than a second before regaining his unwavering stance.

"Less than five minutes. Closer to strengthening but still too distant." He said with annoyance for his inability.

"I see." Said Yelan as she looked over her son of fifteen years. There was a touch of disappointment with her words. "Then it is useless for you to stay here." She looked away and spoke firmly. "Follow me."

Syaoran looked down at his shaking, blood-covered hand and cursed his situation silently.

"Of course, honored mother."

Finished with both speech and thought, he followed her from the room and fell to his silence.

*****

After having been cleaned of his blood, Syaoran now stood with his bare chest to the air and his arms out to the side. The doctor tending to him was a specialist in both the modern and ancient medical arts, especially suited for magical study. He had long been with the Li clan and had taken care of many patients and was more or less Syaoran's doctor. However, since an unknown occurrence of five years ago, his analysis was always the same.

No, it was getting worse.

"How is it, Doctor?" Syaoran asked as polite as he could muster. "Are there any changes at all?" He lowered his arms and began to replace his shirt.

The doctor looked at Syaoran with blank eyes. There really was no point but to tell the results directly. He sighed slightly before speaking.

"In all honesty there is a lot of change… in the negative. Your condition has been consistent in its deterioration. I'm afraid to say that there is little you can do but try not to evoke your magical ability, but that is an impossibility in itself."

"So," Syaoran began, "it's like that. Figures." He found the nearest seat and sat down.

Ignoring his patient for the moment the doctor's gaze shifted to the mother. She was a proud woman and a figurehead of the clan as the young leader has grown, but the health has weighed heavily upon them both. He knew that her mask was only destined to break apart completely as the emotions became too overwhelming. After all, she was faced with a dying son.

"Then," Yelan started uncertain, "if he were to avoid using magic we could at least stabilize him temporarily until a treatment could be found?"

The doctor exhaled softly. This had been a question he had expected but wished not to answer.

"There's no guarantee in that either, rather it is impossible." He began.

"Unfortunately, as the Li clan is a magical one, staying away from the essence of their being is nearly impossible—but there is little doubt that it is the magic within your son's body that is responsible for his continued decline." The doctor said solemnly as he did his best to avoid the young man's hardened eyes before him. "I'm afraid to say that we still don't know the exact cause or details surrounding his ailment. I am also ashamed to report that there is nothing modern medical science can do for him. Even with the ancient arts integrated into the present there is no remedy."

There was a disheartened noise from his mother as she tried to maintain her composure and express motherly concern as well. Her eyes moved from Syaoran's down heartened figure to the doctor and across the various cabinets and shelves of the latest in medical advancements, before settling on the doctor once more. Seemingly convinced of her words she narrowed her eyes and asked in a formal manner of superiority.

"Is there nothing that can be done? For the sole heir of the clan to simply be diagnosed with the same prognosis consistently for five years is a bit of a stretch of the imagination. Are there really no other options that could save his life?"

"That…" the doctor seemed to carefully consider Yelan's words as well as his response. "There is one thing that could serve a purpose. If the cause is magic, then the solution could be magic as well. More specifically the fortification of his magical structure." He finished as he laid his clipboard on the counter and extracted a small book from the shelf.

"As I have said before, the local remedies are likely to fail, but a powerful magical strength that already carries a sample of the clan's sorcery imbedded within its structure would have a high possibility. While it is safe to say that there are many smaller artifacts and items that could be acquired locally, there is a much more suitable power that would work best." He stopped at a page and looked up.

"The Clow Cards." Yelan supplied.

"Yes," he affirmed, "more specifically the Tome of Clow that holds the cards as well as the guardians. Its power would more than suffice to repair and—"

"Ha!" Syaoran interrupted with annoyance. "The Tome of Clow! Even were the book to reveal itself with the cards at all, then there would be less of a problem in locating it, but that I should attempt to seize the power in my condition? What insanity! I can't even hold an aura let alone capture a card crafted for destruction." He cursed his own weakness silently, but there was no sense to deny the truth. He might as well die on foreign soil before finding even a trace of Clow's magic.

"That is also true." Remarked the doctor as he closed the small book in his hands. There was a worried expression that had crossed his brow as his mouth opened to speak. "Though I was hesitant to mention it, there is one option left to us…"

"What is?" Syaoran asked with annoyed interest.

"It can't be… you don't mean, that!?" Yelan uttered with surprised.

The doctor put the book back on its shelf and walked over to a plain spot of counter top and placed his hand underneath, before extracting an old scroll from a hidden place. He then walked it back to Syaoran and held it out for him.

"What's that?" Syaoran asked crossed. The old parchment had a series of ancient Chinese symbols on it that were far outdated from the modern standard.

"Open it and you will see. I don't recommend it, but it is your life that you wish to keep for however long you can preserve it, or risk it all on something that may only kill you faster when you do obtain it. Either way, it is your choice."

"What is?" Syaoran asked with more interest than before.

"That is…" the doctor looked faint, "the thing that may save you or damn you sooner… the Cursed Blade of Dual Fates!"