Disclaimer: Spirit-san owns nothing 'cept what she made up!
AN: Normally I don't like AU, but I was bored, so whatever. Anyway, try to enjoy, lol. Longer AN at end of chapter. R&R.
The marble was cool against his bare feet as he padded down the corridor. The rich silk of his garments made a quiet swishing noise as he moved. He was the only source of sound in the enormous hallway. He paid no heed to the intimidating glory of the palace's architecture: the ceiling so far above, the huge marble columns supporting it, the impressive statues which at intervals peered out with blank eyes from between the pillars. Once, long ago, he had taken all this in with the eyes of a child, and felt genuine amazement. Now, this was nothing but a daily sight; home.
Long, pale fingers brushed over the characters in the book he held. Every word became, with his touch, firmly etched upon his memory. He loved books...loved them not only for the gifts they granted him, but for the beauty of the characters, the clear darkness of the ink, the pleasant scent of old tomes pulled from shelves where they sat so impressively bearing the knowledge of those long gone.
He knew the moment he was no longer alone, but the presence was familiar and welcome, so he did not react, just kept walking and reading until he came to a stop directly before the one to whom he owed his life. His fair hair, just past waist-length when it was down, was bound with a silver ring and fell forward over one shoulder in a long tail. His master reached for the end of it, bringing it to his lips, and the light-haired wizard looked up and smiled.
"King Ashura. Good evening."
The king tilted his dark head in acknowledgment, soft eyes and a warm smile lifting the wizard's heart.
"Good evening, Fai. What are you reading?"
He turned the book around and offered it, feeling the king's fingers brush his in the exchange and smiling softly. Things had been good, lately. There hadn't been a dark spell in nearly two weeks. Though of course, the longer the good times lasted, the more likely they were to end at any moment.
"It's a spell for slowing down bleeding. I can't heal wounds...but I thought maybe I could at least keep a person alive until they could be tended to."
Ashura wrapped his fingers in the wizard's hair and for a moment Fai tensed, but he was only tugged lightly and painlessly towards his king. Lips brushed his forehead gently and kindly.
"There is no flaw in you that you must make up for, Fai. As I have so often said, you need not feel unworthy because your magic does not allow you to heal. Yet..." A warm hand settled under the mage's chin and tilted Fai's head up. "I am pleased that you are so determined to aid others. I hope you find the spell within your capabilities"
Fai smiled, and bowed briefly to brush his lips over the king's long fingers. In open places, in daylight and lamplight, these brief touches were all the affection displayed between them. In the darkness of night, there were different things, secrets hiding in shadows.
Had he known that this was the last night, perhaps Fai would not have gone to his own room with only a smiling goodnight in parting to the man whom his world centered on. Perhaps he might have gone to a different room, into an extravagant chamber where in blackness he might give a proper farewell. Yet even one with as much power as he had could not see what the next day would bring.
...
...
He hit the ground, catching his fall with his hands while he coughed, trying to regulate his breathing after the hard kicks to his stomach and chest. The grass beneath him was slick, slippery. He lifted one hand and examined it: blood. Not his, thankfully. Not his opponent's either, though. He glanced to his left and saw the source, an enemy who couldn't be more than nineteen or twenty years of age, dead in a pool of blood. His other hand closed around the hilt of Ginryu and he leapt up, just in time to drive the blade through his enemy's middle before the man could bring his blade down on him.
He wiped the blood off the blade on the grass, and, seeing that there were only a few of the enemy party left and his men were handling them efficiently, he knelt beside the dying man.
"You name, foreigner?"
The man coughed weakly, blood slipping from the corners of his mouth. Kurogane wondered, not for the first time, how these foreigners kept morale up among their ranks when blood showed up so very easily against their pale skin, hair, and clothing. The darker coloring and dress of Kurogane's people meant that a man might not even realize his comrade or commander was bleeding badly; and so would not be tempted to feel that the battle was a lost cause and flee. But these people...every drop of blood was so obvious, so contrasting.
"Raient is my name...Swordsman...may I...know the name of the one...who killed me?"
"Kurogane. You fought well."
"Thank...you..."
He closed the blonde foreigner's empty eyes before he stood and approached his regrouping men.
"Their leader?"
"Dead, sir. We attempted to heal him, but he passed on. Apologies."
"It's fine. This is a small group anyway, he probably didn't know much. What are our losses?"
"Two dead, ten wounded. Three of the wounded may not last the night."
"Keep the healer and a small group here. See to it that the enemy dead are buried properly. The wounded and healer can camp here tonight, we don't want to move the wounded before they're ready. We'll take our dead and go back to the city, let their families give them proper mourning."
"Very well, sir. We'll see to it. When the wounded are able to be moved, we'll return to the city immediately."
"Good."
He turned to survey the field. He and his thirty men had been on a scouting mission when they were attacked by roughly the same number of Valerians. This particular group of foreigners were not the best fighters, but they were stubborn, refusing to surrender whenever given the opportunity, fighting until every last one fell. He admired the trait, to a degree, though in this case it seemed more stupidity than honour. Cowardice, he despised. However, though he deemed actually fleeing to be the mark of a coward, he didn't think surrender was unacceptable if there was no chance of winning and it would keep a man alive to fight another day. This day seemed like a useless waste of young lives.
He was slightly puzzled by this attack. Normally Valerians used magic in battle, and though Nihon's people were capable of magic use as well, it was less common and less well-honed, leaving Kurogane's men usually at a disadvantage which they generally made up for in pure fighting skill. This time, however, the light-haired foreigners had not fought with anything but weapons. He approached where their commander had been laid out on the ground and studied the man. The commander was dark-haired but fair-skinned: Celesian, which made it possible that he had forbidden the use of magic among his men. Some Celesians, such as their king, Ashura, were very powerful magicians: but Celesians often did not possess magic and didn't like to be outdone by anyone, so it made sense for a magically inept Celesian to forbid his men from working with magic. Though why a man like that would be put in charge of a Valerian squad was questionable.
The men who would be returning to the capital with him were already grouped and waiting. He turned to his second-in-command, who was staying behind to oversee the group of gravediggers and the healer.
"Did you find a letter of mission anywhere?"
"Not yet, sir, but I haven't searched this yet. It's was the commander's bag."
He handed the bag to Kurogane, who shuffled through a few coins and trinkets before finding the rolled up document he was searching for. It was written twice, once in Celesian, once in Valerian; flawless writing, done by the same hand, from what he could see. Kurogane was fluent in both languages; it was a necessity of the times and his job.
Statement of Mission:
Addressed to Commander Ilduos, trusted servant of His Majesty King Ashura,
Beginning on the first of May and continuing until the last day of the month, your squad is to sail to Nihon and enter the western forest. Do not set out with the intention of attacking, but rather of judging what amount of military force is present in the area. If, however, you encounter a patrol, it is left to your discretion whether to attack or not. Take note of weak fortifications, suitable places for camping, sources of water, etcetera. Such information may be valuable should we choose to send a larger attack force in time. You are to report to your general before sundown on the last day of the month. If you have not returned by that time, you and your squad will be counted lost and honoured as such. Best of luck to you.
Signed,
High Mage Fai, by order of His Majesty King Ashura
Hn, the mage again. He tucked the document into the saddlebag of his horse and then mounted. It was time to go home; Tomoyo-hime owed him and his men at least a few days off, and he was going to see that they got it.
AN: I'm having trouble with the sequel to Destined Desires; it's just not coming to me for some reason. I suppose I'll hopefully get to it eventually. Anyway, for now, I'm playing around with this, though whether it'll actually become a complete story or not, I don't know.
Names for extra characters from Nihon will be Japanese (off some random name site or something lol), names for Celesian characters will be from a random word creator set to Greek sounding words (no particular reason), and Valerian names will be using a random word creator to make French sounding words (because even though I hate the Eng Dub, Vic's French(ish?) gives me something to use.) I haven't decided what to do for characters from Clow yet, I probably won't have any extra characters from there, lol.