Seeing Red
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Author's Notes: My current obsession as of now is a bishie goth-like Koren and Heath. But Koren wins, because he's, at least in my warped imagination, a bishie goth. Come on now. Bishie goth. Do I really have to say any more? So, voila. The life story of Koren. This is unlike all of my other fics – I'm really piling heavy on the angst here. (Woot! Angst!) All of my other stuff is crap meshed in with fluff and cheesy romance and lame attempts at comedy. I bet I'll try to put humor in here, even though this is an angst fic. I don't care, I just will. That's how my mind works.
Disclaimers: I do not own Koren or any of the game Seiken Densetsu 3. However, I DO own bishie goth Koren… okay, I don't own that either. *sob*
I am heaven sent. Don't you dare forget. I am all you've ever wanted.
What all the other boys all promised. Sorry I told.
I just needed you to know. I think in decimals and dollars.
I am the cause to all your problems. Shelter from cold.
We're never alone. Coordinate brain and mouth.
Then ask me what it's like to have myself so figured out.
I wish I knew.
- (Brand New) Deja Entendu… "Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't"
Chapter 1: Ice Blue Eyes
(A/N: Yes, I know that's a Rurouni Kenshin song. Gosh, now I'm daydreaming about a bishie goth Aoshi. *drools*)
Jose ran his fingers through his thick black hair, streaked with stray grey locks.
"I'm getting too old for this," he muttered to himself as he watched the Altenan army, mostly consisting of females, combating eachother in a training session. Every season, the military was renewed with fresh young feminine faces, eager to learn more advanced magic than common school books, eager to serve their beautiful, world-renowned Queen to whom they were taught since birth to devote their lives to. He watched one of the youngest girls, Rena, an innocent little thing with unusual pale, pale blonde hair and tan skin (she looked to be part mountain folk, or perhaps her father was a desert man) fall down to her rump as a weak 'Holy Ball' just barely hit her on the stomach. Jose didn't think she would be injured from such a poorly cast spell, but then again, Rena looked to be a fragile type, and rolled on the ground clutching her abdomen.
"Stop, stop!" Jose roared in the midst of the havoc and flurry of magic. The shouting and yelling immediately stopped, and the crowds of barely teenaged girls parted like a Red Sea as the respected Jose of Altena made his way towards Rena.
"Do you think you can stand?" He said, using his 'kindly old man' voice. Rena nodded, biting her lip with tear-stained eyes as she was helped up by two other girls. He looked at her blotchy, embarrassed face sympathetically and patted her on the shoulder.
"Normally, I would use a healing spell for something like this, but it doesn't look too serious. We'll have the nurse check up on you." Jose said. His words didn't seem to mean much to her, but he added, "Don't worry. Many people get injured in some way or another on the first day. Call yourself lucky; it's a grueling first day."
The soldiers all laughed, and this seemed to ease some of Rena's humiliation.
"I – I won't get sent home?" Rena asked with a tremulous voice anxiously.
Jose smiled in amusement. "Of course not."
Supported by her arms around the two girls' shoulders (Marie and Rowena) she walked out of the room. Minutes later, the room was back to its normal first day chaos. Jose slowly eased himself back into his chair ("Damn knees", he muttered to himself as the old bones creaked) and kept watching, making sure to yell out a suggestion or the occasional criticism or encouragement. He fell back into a sort of stupor, where he was vaguely wandering in a shadowed sea of senility and stubborn determination not to accept old age while hearing the young women yell out primary spells they learned in school.
"Joseph! Sir Joseph!"
He awoke with a start and turned his head with some annoyance at the young voice. However, his frown instantly lighted into a half-smile as he saw his young (very young) apprentice, Victor Frell, run along the narrow cobblestone path and trip occasionally on the loose stones.
"What is it, Victor? And remember, it is Jose." Jose reprimanded him, but not too sternly.
The gangly young boy flushed but nodded. "Y-yes, Sir Jose. I was just delivering a message from the Council."
"Well, what is it, boy?" Jose asked.
"Ermm, they said to tell you that the Queen is in labor."
"What?! By Goddess, why didn't anybody say so??!" Jose jumped up with surprising vitality, knocking over his chair and startling 5 young ladies in the middle of an 'Intelligence Up' spell. Victor looked positively terrified. "I-I'm sorry, Master Jose! I – I didn't r-realize – "
"That's enough jibbering, son," Jose said, not in a mean way. He remembered how he had taken Victor in under his wing in palace care in the first place – damn family of his, Jose thought murderously. Leaving him out there in sub-zero weather to freeze to death, skin and bones...not enough food my ass. There's no excuse to throw your own son out to the cold and wolves.
"Attention! Your Queen is in labor, giving birth to the crown prince!" Jose yelled with a deep, authoritative voice that snapped people to attention. This announcement gave way to gasps and excited mummers throughout the room.
"Silence! I want all of you to train harder than ever now, while your Queen goes through the pain and agony of childbirth just for her people! I will return with more news. That is your first order! Understand?"
"Yes sir!" chorused the mob of soldiers.
"Good." Jose said, and promptly began running out the room through the door as fast as his heavy magician robes would allow him. Victor ran along side him, much more freely with bare-toed sandals and a light blue tunic.
"What shall you have me do, sir?" Victor said, still a little frightened from Jose's outburst. The aging man glanced at him once before resuming his hasty sprint.
"Tell the Chancellor that we need an organized baptism and kingdom celebration by nightfall."
"Yes Master Jose!" Victor ran off with a burst of speed and an aura of importance and urgency. Jose spared a chuckle before quickening his speed.
The door burst open and Jose collapsed against the wall, clutching his sides and breathing heavily.
"Where – is – the – Queen?"
"In there, Sir Jose!" The young nursemaid pointed tremblingly at the open door to the infirmary. Jose thanked her and staggered over to cross the door.
The moment he did, the sounds of anguished half moans reached his eardrums and he realized that the old nurse had warded a silencing charm on the room. The old nurse, Agatha, glanced up and looked back down, busy with dampening clothes to rest on the Queen's forehead. Jose noted distractedly, and with some amusement, that the standard grey-blue bed sheets had been removed in place of white linen sheets with gold trims. Valda demanded only the finest, even during excruciating pain and agony.
The moans had quieted down some by now, and Agatha took a moment to explain the situation so far.
"I've given her some potions that'll hopefully numb some of the pain." Agatha said, shifting the wet cloth to wipe the beads of sweat on her forehead.
"Jose?" Valda's voice, a whispery, breathy wheeze, called out.
"I'm here, Valda." Jose walked closer and stood next to her side, holding her hand.
"It's…so cold, Jose." Valda's blue eyes were wide open, and staring blankly at the ceiling. Jose looked sharply at Agatha for explanation.
"She might've taken extra doses. But it was needed." Agatha said shortly. Jose shook his head a bit sadly. "No…you misunderstand me, Agatha. She is remembering…or rather, she is lost and drifting in a horrible nightmare from long ago…"
"What on earth are you talking about?" Agatha asked.
"Before you left Elrand and your children hadn't all grown up.. Valda had a child."
Agatha gasped. "What? That's impossible! No one in Altena has ever heard such a thing."
"It was kept very quiet." Jose said somberly, tenderly brushing a stray lock of lovely indigo hair from Valda's face with a weathered old finger. "A boy. The Queen was so excited…but so much blood." Jose sighed.
"A miscarriage?" Agatha asked in a low voice. Jose nodded in affirmation.
"It was a boy. Dead before it even left the womb. The Queen stayed in her room for days on end."
There was a hushed silence, broken only by Valda's queer rhythm pattern of harsh breathing.
"Forgive me, it is not my place to ask, but…who was the father?" Agatha whispered.
"The Queen has never told anyone. We all believed her to be a virgin, but…well, she refused to tell us."
"Just like this time." Agatha said, faintly annoyed.
Jose glared at her. "Do not speak of the Queen in that way." He thundered. "It is her right to not tell us if she wishes."
"I see. So you're the only one who knows?" Agatha said.
Jose tensed, but heaved his shoulders. "Forgive me, Agatha. Sometimes I forget how long you have lived on this earth. I would say you are wiser than me with your years of experience."
"People have been saying…" Agatha said in a low voice, "that…that man. One of the twenty knights who came along with the Forcenan ambassadors. A prince, the people have been saying, yet he was dressed just like any other knight, except for perhaps a bit more gold in his armor. He…and Queen Valda.."
Jose closed his eyes. "You must swear not to tell anyone."
"I would never betray my Queen, Jose." Agatha said, throwing away the soaked cloth for a new one.
"I know." The two lapsed into a silence, watching their leader undergo the long wait of labor, her chest rising and falling deeply.
"The baby is a girl." Agatha said after about 10 minutes of complete and utter silence.
"What?" Jose almost broke his neck, moving his head so fast up in shock. "How do you know?"
"Jose, I have helped more women give birth than I can care to remember." Agatha said in a clipped tone. "You know these things after a while."
"But…but we can't." Jose said, flustered. "I mean – not to say Queen Valda has never been anything less than a great ruler – on the contrary, she is the best we've had for years…but the whole reason she was on the throne was because King Jermaine died. She is in actuality a dowager princess. We have been throwing off our tradition of ruling – Valda changed the army drastically by stripping men of most of their power and putting women in charge…many of our citizens complain about the change. The Queen doesn't need the pressure of ruling a country…women do not have as much magical energy in them as men." Jose said. "Her body is not strong enough to handle this. It's amazing that she's been able to carry the kingdom for as long as she had, but…"
"Her body will be broken if she keeps on using her Mana at this rate." Agatha finished.
Jose sighed. "Does the Queen know?"
"She will, soon enough." As if by cue, the Queen began moaning again.
"Richard…"
"Get as many blankets as you can, and a warm bottle of water. I think the baby's ready to come out."
Jose started, staring at Agatha. "Me?"
"Of course not. The Queen needs you. Girl! What is your name?"
"Rena."
"Rena!" Jose exclaimed, and turned to see the girl a couple beds away, deep under the thick sheets.
"You weren't eavesdropping, were you?" He said seriously.
"Of course not." Agatha was briskly getting out bowls and pans from the cupboards. "She's been laying there the whole time listening. You're getting old, Jose. Old and soft."
"That would be the truth, yes." Jose said amiably.
"Get up! I told you, blankets and water!" Agatha squawked. Rena jumped up from her bed, wincing a bit at the fast movement. "Yes'um!"
"Wait! You…not one word of this conversation will leave this room, am I correct?" Jose said faintly.
Rena smiled confidently, surprising him. "Of course not, Sir Joseph. I live to serve the Queen, and her son…or daughter, if I may." With that, the girl took off.
Jose stood out by the turrets, watching the fresh powder snow fall with his breath rising into the mist as puffs of air. It was something of a law by Queen Valda that men could not be present at births. So Jose stood outside, thinking deeply about his conversation with Agatha.
A girl, he mused thoughtfully. I wonder if Valda will be pleased. Or disappointed. The Goddess knows Valda is determined to keep this system of matriarchy, but she is always so tired…what's that?
There was a small, lone figure fighting the snow storm. It was dressed in nothing thicker than rags, plain white ones that had been dirtied over time and wear to an off-white color. The head was a mess and mop of raggedly cut blonde spikes that flopped every time the figure walked. Quite a contrast from the twig figure that was ghastly pale white, pretty much matching the pale white snow surrounding the ground. Suddenly, the tiny figure staggered, and collapsed to the powdered snow. Just before it fell to the ground, it's head rolled back to the sky, and for a split second, made direct eye contact with Jose. He gasped.
His eyes, which were the palest shade of blue, like twin pieces of glass icicles, flickered to a demonic reddish haze of blood, and a bemused half-smile was on the face – the face of a little boy, who couldn't possibly be much older than 5 or 6.
[20 years past,
and the Beasts will rise again.]
As the boy was carried into the castle, the Queen was carried away into her private chambers from hysteria and an overdose of drugs in the strong potions. The newborn baby, who was confirmed a girl, was left outside in the arms of Agatha, still unnamed and crying incessantly. 'What is her name? What did the Queen name her?' was the chorus from everyone around the castle that night. The Queen refused to come out of her bedroom to christen her, so Agatha was forced to quickly decide a name. There was a – sort of superstition, if you will – that if a newborn baby was left unnamed after the 1rst hour of its birth, the baby would become a curse. She decided on Angela, a rather standard Altenan name, and much too ordinary for an Altenan princess. But her name nonetheless.
As for the boy, Jose was much too preoccupied with his worries about the Queen. So he named him Koren, after Jose's own father, and one of the greatest magicians that had ever lived in the world, so legendary he had become something of a myth.
In a way, it was ironic.
tbc
Fun Fact: This authoress was high on pearl milk tea and endless, repetitive Hillary Duff songs on Disney Channel that her little cousin watching all day while writing this fic.
2nd Fun Fact: The title was at first Fire and Ice, but was changed to The Sins of Temptation. Then authoress quickly realized that sounded way too much like the title of a soft porn movie, and hurriedly finalized the title as 'Seeing Red', after one of her favorite songs from a band whose name she's forgotten. Insert anime sweat drop here.
3rd Fun Fact: Hillary Duff is a gimp.