Therius knew that the announcement of the spoils and rankings was today. He knew, yet still he chose to miss it. Well, more like avoid it. Instead, he chose to get in some training at the Tower of Trials; the one place he knew that nobody would dare bother him.
He had never done this before. It was bad behavior. Disobedience. A shameful act that would tarnish General Asthar's good name. But...he had no choice, it felt like. Something was pulling him away. No...something was pushing him away from the announcement ceremony. Like a thick string tugging on his heart, forcing him to go in the other direction through the castle.
And that's how Therius ended up swinging his shining rapier through dozens of stone-turned-to-life ogres and warriors.
Beads of sweat rolled down his face, dangerously close to his eyes, but he could not brush them away in case of an attack in his blind spot. He, instead, chose to let the wind dry them.
He could feel his muscles tighten every time he dodged a large fist smashing down to the ground. He could feel the excited and anxious hammering of his heart that never went away, no matter how much he wanted it to. He could feel his harsh breathing leaving his mouth and nose. And he could feel those uncomfortable emotions squeezing his chest and making his moves messy. It hurt to move, but soon, Therius's limbs grew numb and the pain wasn't a problem anymore.
The sky was starting to darken, and the white knight knew that the ceremony must've been over by now. Asthar might come looking for him.
Don't be stupid. Why would he come looking for me?If he's going to look for anyone it would be Zael. After all, he probably will be replacing me soon...
Where'd that thought come from? Therius shook his head lightly, dispersing the impure thoughts. Shut up. Focus on the fight.
Hours passed and wave after wave of enemies crumbled to the ground in heaps of stone where they lay before piecing themselves back together at his command, until at the end of one wave, Therius heard footsteps and metal clinking coming up the stairs from behind.
The white knight spun, and as soon as he saw the beginnings of brown hair peeking out at the top of the stone staircase, he hurriedly sheathed his rapier and ducked his head into a small bow of greeting before the general even got to the last step.
"Ah, Therius!" Asthar called joyously. "There you are."
"General."
"You skipped the ceremony." The older knight said. Therius could detect a bit a amusement underlying his words.
"My apologies, General." The white knight's head ducked into a bow once more, having just lifted.
"Such a shame, too. This one was quite the spectacle."
Therius raised his head.
"How so, if I may ask?"
"Of course you can, Therius." A small smile tilted Asthar's lips. "Zael and Dagran are now knights in training and retainers in Count Arganan's court. The others are soon to follow." A small chuckle. "Quite far that boy has gotten since we first met him, eh?"
Therius could hear the fondness in Asthar's voice and he could feel that unpleasant feeling tightening it's tendrils around his heart once more after they had finally begun to loosen.
Of course he cares for Zael. He is more pleasant to talk to than me, and...he might even be stronger than me, too. It wasn't like I was much of help during the Gurak base raid. Therius took a deep breath....This feeling hurts.
"Yes, General."
The white knight allowed only a few seconds of silence to pass between them before he broke it with a tentative question.
"General. Forgive me for prying..." A pause. "Are you going to make him your new pupil?"
Asthar's smile dipped down a bit.
"I have been thinking about it, yes. The lad has potential, it would be a waste to have him end up like the knights that roam the castle. The people seem to like him, too."
"I see."
So the general willbe replacing me with him...
Therius felt a more familiar feeling than the first that had haunted him throughout the day, but it was no less painful. He felt sad. But he could not burden General Asthar with more of his pesky emotions. He would deal with them just like all his problems; fight them away until he was too tired to think.
"You should try to get along better with all of them." The older knight began. "I have a feeling that this won't be the last we see of them."
"Yes, General. It will be as you wish," Therius replied tightly.
Asthar sighed gently.
"How many times must I tell you that it's fine to not be so formal when it's just you and me?"
"My apologies, General," Therius said for the second time that evening.
Another sigh.
"You'll report back to me when your training is complete?"
"Yes, General."
That small smile returned, albeit, a little worn.
"Good. Don't tire yourself out too much, Therius. I don't want to have to carry you back."
"As you command."
Therius kept his head bowed as Asthar went back the way he came, until the long brown hair and bright blue coat had vanished from view.
One deep, shuddering inhale later had Therius drawing his rapier from his side and the stone enemies piecing back together and returning to their half-life. He needed to train. He needed to feel better. He needed to not think. So why did he just keep thinking?
Asthar was waiting. Waiting for Therius and his high-strung attitude. Waiting for the report that became his favorite bedtime story. Waiting to quietly and discreetly check his pupil for wounds with his eyes. But instead he got silence. Insufferable silence. No brash student knocking on his door. No smooth voice lulling him into peace. No soft clinks of white armor as the wearer moved. Just...silence.
Asthar had been waiting for hours. He read a book, went out for a stroll, spoke to Zael, and now he was just sitting on his bed, awaiting Therius's return.
Saying the general was worried would be an understatement. He remembered times when Therius would come back with his body black and blue, cuts weaving intricut designs across pale skin, the limps he would try to hide for weeks until they went away that only Asthar seemed to be able to see. He was scared. Scared that one day, Therius would come back with missing limbs, missing memories, or just not come back at all.
So when the bells on the high towers rang out the twelve chimes of midnight, Asthar pushed himself to his feet and wasted no time in leaving his chambers and searching everywhere he thought his student might be.
"Where are you, Therius...?"
The general paused in the corridor after the castle had been scoured.
There was only one place left to look...The Tower of Trials.
Therius was still fighting. Fighting the stone enemies and fighting his thoughts and feelings. Neither were allowed to hurt him anymore than they already had.
He had gone back and forth throughout all the stages, gathering new cuts and bruises each time he beat a trial. The stone floor was now splattered with rock dust and his blood, his white armor and sword bearing the same treatment.
He had lost track of time hours ago, only knowing that it was dark, and he should report back to General Asthar soon. And yet he couldn't stop fighting. It had become like an addiction. The fighting kept his thoughts and emotions under wraps, the pain brought his mind back from the brink, and whatever strange feeling that was once gripping tightly at his innards was now loosely trailing through his body, not attempting to make any other moves than to have its presence known.
But he was still human. And humans had to rest their bodies after training as hard as Therius did. He had begun to trip over his own feet like a novice; truly unacceptable.
When all the enemies were back to stone, the no-longer-white knight dragged himself over to one of the only intact pieces of wall and sat down heavily against it.
Only for a few minutes... Therius told himself as he closed his eyes. And then I'll report back to General Asthar. I must...fulfill my duties as his pupil. Anything less...would be intolerable.
He felt himself dozing off, but was too tired to fight it.
Only for a few minutes...
When Asthar found him, the white knight was instead covered in blood, staining his armor red, and sprawled on the ground against a stone wall segment.
A surge of panic had the general running towards his student, praying to any god that would listen that Therius was alright. A hand against his pulse was the relieving answer to his prayers.
"He's just unconscious..."
I told you not to tire yourself out, Therius...It worries me.
Asthar sighed.
"Let's get you cleaned up."
The sun was still sleeping when Therius awoke. The sky was dark through the curtains. It threw him off.
Where was he? How'd he get here? A few glances around put those worries to rest when he realized that he was in his chambers. As for how he got there...he had a good idea of what brought him there. Or rather, who.
The general was sitting in a chair by his bedside, looking down at him with worry and disapproval.
Ignoring the aches in his limbs, Therius sat up stiffly, bowing his head in apology.
It was then that he noticed that his armor had been removed, replaced by nightclothes, and his hair let down, waves of clean white traveling down his back.
Embarrassment and shame flowed through him in a painful harmony.
The general must have undressed me...he shouldn't have to take care of me. I bet he's upset to have such a disobedient student...
"My apologies for being an unnecessary burden on you, General."
Asthar shook his head before reaching for a pitcher and a glass, the latter of which he filled with water. The general handed the glass to Therius and set the pitcher back on the nightstand.
"Thank you," Therius murmured.
"Therius," Asthar said. The white knights head was still bowed as he nursed his water. "Therius, look at me." He slowly raised his head, fearful of what punishment awaited him, but knowing that he deserved whatever the general had in store for him. Green met grey in a steady clash. "Why did you feel the need to train so hard? You worried me, Therius."
I...worried him...?
Guilt joined the mixture of other emotions. Therius shouldn't be worrying his master. There were bigger things to be worried about than him. Like war. Or somebody killing the Count. Why did Asthar choose to be worried about him? He did not deserve the sentiment.
But despite the fact that he wanted to tell the general the truth, as he should, he still didn't know what that strange feeling was lingering inside of him. How could he explain something when he didn't know what it was? He couldn't disobey his master, however. He could only hope that while he explained what he was feeling, Asthar would understand and hopefully tell him the name to the uncomfortable emotion. But that was only a hope. It could, in fact, be something terrible, that no sensible human being wanted anywhere near them, let alone be a part of themselves.
I hope that General Asthar will not hate me for this...whatever it is. But...maybe...I can get him to not ask? Advert him from this unknown question.
An even slimmer chance of success, but Therius still had to try.
"You should not be worried over my trifle troubles, General. I shall be fine by morning."
Asthar raised a disbelieving brow.
"I don't believe you."
...Figures.
Therius's eyes fell back down to his lap out of shame and confusion. His hair helped hide his face which he guessed was pulling an ugly expression.
"Tell me the truth, Therius."
I know now that I can't escape my punishment... Fate is a cruel mistress.
He swallowed, still reluctant to bare the truth, even though he knew it was going to come out one way or another.
"My chest is tight...like iron claws are squeezing my insides. My sword hand is sloppy and my mind is rash. I feel...sad, but...also hatred. Is there something wrong with me?"
A small stretch of silence rang out in the empty chambers. Asthar registering what his student had told him and Therius awaiting the older's reaction.
Finally, it came.
"Why, Therius, you're jealous!"
Jealousy...? That must be why it is unfamiliar to me...I do not think I have ever felt that before. There has been no time to be jealous. Is the General disappointed in me that I would let myself be consumed by such a petty emotion...?
"Oh."
"Is there a reason for your jealousy, perchance?"
I've gotten this far already. Time to go the last stretch.
"It...I felt it when you and Zael were starting to become close, General." Therius clenched his fingers around the glass in his hands. "It worsened rather recently. When...when you said that you were going to make Zael your new pupil." It hurt... he added silently in his head. The general need not hear more of his weaknesses. He was being too big of a burden already. If he could, the white knight would have gladly kept his mouth shut and his problems locked deep inside. But he couldn't. He would not disobey an order from his master.
A smile broke out on Asthar's face.
"You want to be my only student, is that it?" That amused tone from earlier came back into the older man's voice.
It caught Therius off guard. He was expecting anger, to be struck, to be punished, to be cast aside, but instead he got laughter. Asthar had laughed. Not mocking, but gentle and jovially. It echoed throughout the younger's bare chambers and had green eyes peek out of their white veil to look at the man they adored.
That same man then got up from his chair and sat at the edge of Therius's bed, still smiling.
"Come here, Therius," Asthar ordered lightly, knowing that the white knight would not decline.
And he was right.
Hesitating for barely a second, Therius crawled over the bed to sit next to the general. Before he knew it, he had been swept up into Asthar's arms, legs lifted and placed over the older's thighs, face buried in the man's shoulder.
Asthar brushed the unruly white hair that fell over the left of Therius's face away, and pressed a soft kiss to the three white lines that had once lay hidden, away from public view.
Color spread across his cheeks at the contact even while the general drew away and placed the side of his head against Therius's hair.
"You need not be jealous of something like that, Therius," Asthar said. "After all, no one will ever be able to take your place in my heart."
With those words, the painful tendrils of jealousy dispersed, replaced by overwhelming love and happiness. Tears of joy began to trail silently down the white knight's face.
"I'm sorry, General."
"Don't be. I'm more than willing to help you through this. Although..." Therius could hear the smirk on the general's face more than he could see it. "Didn't I tell you to drop the formalities?"
The stretch of a small smile felt foreign on Therius's lips as he wrapped his arms around the older knight's chest.
"It will be as you wish...Asthar."
I finally made a fic for the game that I've beaten at least 14 times! Took me long enough. I wonder if this thing'll get any reads, considering what a tiny fandom this one is, not to mention, I think I'm the first to make a fic about these two. If not the first then the second or third. Tsk, tsk, tsk...I'm disappointed in you, very small amount of fandom people. But to those of you who do read this, I hope you enjoyed, and there will be another Therius/Asthar fic comin' your way soon~!
Bye-bye~
Majesty