Welcome! I'm happy you've managed to stumble across this story, and I hope you see it through to the end. I expect it to be very long, and I since I have it more or less planned out my only worries are school, other fanfiction ideas, and CLAMP's tendency to screw up theories.
Disclaimer for the entire story: I don't own anything that's not mine.
Clad in White
Part I - Prelude
"I drift away to a
place
Another kind of life
Take away the pain
I create my
paradise."
-- Alexz Johnson
Snow was falling. It felt like snow was always falling.
Pure white specks of frozen droplets covered everything with a soft but deadly blanket of ice, and as Fai stared out his window, he wondered what would be buried under the snow after the sun set that night.
Fai shivered involuntarily as the thought crossed his mind, and as he pulled his thick white coat closer to his thin frame he glanced around his chambers. The grey stone was bare and cold to the touch; his bed lay unused and naked against a wall. A dark alder desk with delicate finishing and a single silver candlestick holder stood opposite, a black leather journal and white feather quill sitting on the matching chair. A pile of white and pale blue cloth lay in the corner by the window, silver hooks, rings, and bars littering the mound like casualties in a war.
Numbly satisfied at the sight of his ruined room, he turned back to the window, unwilling to look at the space any longer. He had stripped his room for a reason: he didn't want it to belong to him anymore. He didn't want any trace of him left.
The snowflakes fell silently on the castle, one by one, each one counting another second gone by in his life, bringing him closer to the end of his long battle with fate and closer to what he prayed was freedom. He leaned his elbows against the windowsill and allowed the raw cold air to brush against his face
"Ashura-ou," he said softly as he unconsciously fingered his ring, a thick sterling band adorned with complex designs. The brilliant sapphire nestled in the middle reflected the sun's feeble rays, casting a soft glow on the man's pale face. "Clad in white, your slave shall be free."