Pieces.
Sometimes, it is the chess pieces that have more freedom than the players. Spoilers for the latest arc. There is a chance I might expand this into a longer fic and draw in the other, main characters, but I'm currently undecided about that.
The thin splay of torchlight did not extend far into the room, the shadows that crept across the walls slowly swallowing up the muted colours of the flames. Geo could still remember when sunlight - natural, honest to god sunlight - had breezingly flooded this room, spilling with reckless abandon over the simplistic bed in the corner and the elegant furniture that had always seemed such a perfect fit for their owner. The furniture and the bed were still there, of course, but draped in darkness as opposed to light they seemed to take on a deliberateness that mere furniture was not meant to have.
They should have never allowed it to get this far. No. Geo should have never allowed it to get this far. Lantis could do whatever he damn well liked - he always had. But Geo had sworn to himself a very long time ago that it would never, ever come to this. There were things that could be done, people who could be stopped ...
And there had been. But Geo had failed to realise the one thing that Lantis had known all a long. The advisers were poison and Eagle's family was forever corrupt, but it was Eagle's will alone that could wreck such havoc upon them all. Nothing in the world, after all, was more destructive than the other man's good intentions.
It had all seemed so simple once. Eagle, in his strangely complicated way, had seemed so simple once.
"You really should knock before you enter." Eagle hadn't been in the room when Geo had first entered, but then it wasn't rare for Eagle to take advantage of one of the many secret hallways that lead directly to the main chambers. If Geo had been a servant then Eagle's words would have been said with just the slightest hint of an edge, whereas if he had been Lantis the words would not have been spoken at all. As Geo was neither, the comment instead was made with the smallest of smiles that desperately tried to project an illusion of warmth.
"I never have before," Geo replied gruffly as he moved across the room, inelegantly dropping himself into one of those deliberate chairs beside Eagle's small, deliberate dining table. A servant had already brought tea in earlier, and stream still rose in wispy tendrils from the two cups.
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't." This time, the humour in Eagle's eyes was almost convincing. Eagle joined him at the table, offering Geo the sugar bowl moments before Geo himself reached for it. The servants here were good and had mastered many a pastry and sweet that had the habit of making Geo the happiest person in the room, but they still hadn't mastered the art of making a decent cup of tea. They sat like that for some time, silently drinking their tea and pretending that the simple act made everything normal between them again. Geo, however, had never been very good at 'playing' at deception, and even after all that had happened, Eagle was too honest to dwell in it for all that long, either. "The match went well today." Geo snorted, steadfast refusing to meet Eagle's gaze. The stupid, idiotic fool. "I could tell you about it, if you like." Geo slammed his cup down, the tea splashing up the sides of the fine china and splattering onto the deliberately pristine tablecloth.
"If I was interested in seeing people played off against each other like animals, I would have shown up myself." This time it was Eagle's gaze that slipped away, even as a smile returned once more to his lips. "Just give her the god damn feather, Eagle. You know it is hers." Lantis had suspected it the moment that the weird rat-tat group had stumbled into their world, his own latent powers sensing something amiss in the girl. But it had been how Eagle had reacted that had allowed Geo such intimate knowledge, the subtle changes in the other man enough for Geo to know that this deadly game of Eagle's was reaching its climax.
"It's not something that can simply be given away, Geo." Another light smile smothered by darkness, another casual sip of tea.
"It's a feather." But even Geo wasn't so simple as to not realise that there had to be something else there. The feather had been in Eternity long before Geo had been born, so carefully guarded by the Vision family who commanded both power and respect as a result. The history books told of how it was under the feather's influence that Eternity had blossomed as a nation, advancement and progress following quickly upon its mysterious arrival. Geo had never believed such nonsense - magic was best left to those who were best left to themselves. It had only been once Eagle had become the keeper of the feather that Geo had been exposed to the effects the demonic thing had on those associated with it. It wasn't just the weight of responsibility, Eagle had always had that on his shoulders and always born it with a smile and good humour. There was something about the feather itself, something that sapped slowly away at the sanity of those who were charged with its safe keeping.
"It's part of her soul." Eagle said it so simply, as thought the statement somehow made sense all on its own. "I don't know how she lost it, nor why she lost it. But it is a part of her that cannot simply be handed back on a silver platter." Eagle rose as he spoke, absently making his way to the wide window that opened up onto the courtyard below. "There are ... there are some parts of the soul that are easy to reclaim, and not simply because they are things that are really always with us even when we think they are lost. But there are other parts of ourselves that need to be conquered first."
"You're making no sense, Eagle." It came out as a growl.
"I think I'm making too much," Eagle contradicted lightly, glancing back at Geo with a not altogether sane smile before returning his gaze to the courtyard. "There are some places - worlds even - where the girl has left pieces of her soul that represent her strength and inner beauty, but we have not been quite so lucky, I'm afraid. I believe that the feather, this slither of her soul, represents a far darker side of her: her fears and demons."
"Hers or yours?" The dark comment made a rare indent in Eagle's armour, and while Geo could not see the other man's face it was difficult to not notice the way Eagle's back stiffened suddenly.
"Both." The quiet admission was not what Geo had been expecting. "I ... I am not quite as strong as I thought I was, Geo." It was something that Eagle had not meant to say. The forced laugh that followed the comment was enough of an indication of that, and so when Eagle spun on his heels, a perfectly deliberate smile in place, Geo was standing before him, his dark gaze focussed fully on the other man.
"You're problem is that you've always been too strong for your own good," he growled, his fingers clenching around Eagle's shoulders. "And its going to be the death of you." Not to mention countless others. "I know that I'm not Lantis-" damnable, cryptic Lantis who always understood everything far better than Geo ever did, "- but damn it, Eagle. You need to tell me what the hell is going on." Eagle's gaze softened at that, and for a moment the hint of insanity that always lingered in the depths of his eyes faded just a touch.
"It is because you're not Lantis that I want to protect you from all of this."
"I'm not the one who needs protecting." Geo wasn't entirely sure any more exactly who was, but he was damned if he was going to allow Eagle to become a martyr for him. "You need to make me understand why you are doing this, Eagle. This competition is deadly, the country is falling apart around us, and you're -" Eagle was not the person that Geo had always known. "If you don't, I'll destroy the feather myself." And for the briefest of moments, the man standing before him was no longer Eagle, no matter how much he physically resembled him still. Dark, uncontrolled anger burned brightly in already fuelled eyes, and a rigidity swept across Eagle that was entirely offensive in its feel. Then, just as quickly whatever had seemed to phantom through his friend ghosted away, leaving behind a shaking shell that still somehow managed to force a smile. "Eagle," Geo began, his voice slow and deliberate. "What have you done?"
"You've always undersold your own intelligence, Geo." The words weren't quite as smooth as they normally were, and it struck Geo just how tired Eagle appeared. "Often so as to oversell my own." Geo's gaze narrowed, even as Eagle's softened. "You think far too much of me, you always have. Sometimes, however, that which you don't wish to acknowledge the most ..." Eagle drifted off, his gaze returning to the courtyard one last time, his smile twisting. "You know, don't you?"
That Eternity had been slowly falling into decay since they were children, perhaps even before? Only a fool wouldn't have noticed the way that the technology that had crept into every aspect of their lives had also smothered their air and turned their crops to waste. That plague and politics swarmed the streets as though infested on the same disease ridden rats? Not even Eagle's own retreat was safe from the infestations.
"You blame the feather for everything," Geo replied, a calmness in his voice that he did not quite feel. "But whatever you've done has made it worse." As hard as the words were to say, Geo did not flinch as he spoke them, and neither did Eagle.
"I thought that demons could be slain by any hunter wielding a sword, but I was wrong. The fears and hurts that fuel the feather - and that have fuelled the industry of Eternity for hundreds of years - are personal, private. They did not take ... kindly to me challenging their hold over Eternity." Determination briefly flickered across Eagle's features. "But while those demons are rebelling and I cannot beat them back, I can contain them until someone else can."
And Geo had known. He had always, always known.
"That girl is not just fighting for the feather, she's fighting the feather." Geo's fists clenched at his sides. "And that feather is you." All the other contestants were just pawns that Eagle had drawn into the deadly game of his with the promise of power as the prize. He must have known that the feather would destroy them all just as they were slowly destroying Eagle himself, and that it would be only the feather's true owner that would ever really have some sort of chance ... "Innocent people have died, Eagle."
"I know." Quiet, remorseful. Yet, there was not even a hint of doubt in his response, and somehow that angered Geo more than everything else. "But Eternity is dying as well, Geo. The corruptive power of the feather needs to be destroyed, and this is the only way I can see how."
"You would sacrifice willingly the lives of innocent, unknowing people ju-"
"Yes." This time, there was a steal in Eagle's voice that was unequivocally Eagle. "Yes, Geo. Someone has to." Others had harnessed the black magic of the feather to gain power and prominence and had not fallen as foul as Eagle had as a result, and a part of Geo wondered why it was that this had all fallen to the other man to 'fix'.
"That someone is one who will be remembered as a callous murderer who toyed with others."
"That is because I am a callous murderer who toys with others," even in this Eagle did seem to have mislead himself, although the statement obviously pained him. A small, slightly hysterical laugh bubbled up through the other man's lips, and Eagle brought a shaking hand up to his eyes, letting his fingers linger there as he slowly massaged the rise between them. "I ... this is not how I would have played this out, but I am not altogether myself at the moment." The hand fell suddenly to the windowsill, and Geo looked on, concerned, as Eagle struggled momentarily to maintain his balance. Already paler than normal, Eagle seemed to lose an extra shade of pallor, but Geo knew better than to challenge the other man at moments such as this. Eagle's defiance was at its greatest height when Eagle was physically at his lowest, and it had taken months for them to get to a stage where Eagle would speak of such things. "The feather is-"
"- doing to you what it has spent hundred of years doing to Eternity." Eagle's power and skills had increased tenfold, but the decay of his character was evident in Eagle's eyes. Anyone else would have been destroyed completely now - a vessel as opposed to a cage, but there was no denying that Eagle had become tainted. "You've taken on her 'fears and demons' as your own."
"Not quite," Eagle corrected, his head dipping slightly to the side. "It's more that hers have morphed with my own, and I'm no longer entirely sure any longer where the divide is." Shadows fell across Eagle's eyes. "Neither do I know how much of this-" Eagle swept a hand out, encompassing the entire dark, deliberate room and likely all of Eternity in the one movement. "- is her, and how much of it is me."
And suddenly Geo knew exactly why Eagle had allowed Lantis to know all this while he had kept as much as possible from Geo.
"You bastard." The words obviously cut deep, but there was a sense of relief about Eagle as well. "If you think I'm going to allow you to-"
"-and if you think I'm going to allow you to not allow me to, then you should know better." The smile that Eagle had been aiming for all afternoon- warm, genuine, real - finally appeared, and it shook Geo to the core. It had been too long, far too long, since Eagle had truly been there. "If she defeats her demons and therefore destroys her feather, then Eternity will at least have a chance of recovering."
"But if you and the feather are indistinguishable, then it's not only the feather she needs to destroy, is it?" Lantis must have known, but just like Eagle all that mattered was how it all turned out in the end.
"I don't know." The honesty of the comment stung.
"You don't know." The echo held an edge of mockery that Geo could not quite bite back. "You're practically setting the stage for your own death! If you expect me to not give a damn like Lantis-" it was a cheap shot, and one that caused Eagle to flinch, "- just because it's for some supposed 'greater good', then you're out of your mind."
"Lantis realises that there are certain sacrifices that need to be made, regardless of the personal cost." Eagle's calm words only caused Geo to bristle further. "He ... is not happy about this turn of events, but he understands them. It is why his friendship is so valuable to me, especially at times like this. Although, I'm not entirely convinced that he is going along with it all quite as much as he appears to be." Eagle smiled then, his expression softening. "That you are not Lantis is why you mean everything to me, Geo. It is also why I didn't want you to know."
"I won't help you with this, Eagle." Geo warned darkly, earning himself a nod from the other man.
"I know."
"And if you think I won't do everything in my power to stop this playing out the way it might, well, then you should know better." Geo's sudden smirk was mirrored by a small one of Eagle's own.
"Understood."
There was more they needed to talk about, far more, but the windowsill that had earlier served as a crutch of sorts for Eagle now found itself bearing the full burden of Eagle's weight as he practically collapsed down onto it. Eagle somehow managed to make the move look almost deliberate, but there had been too many instances of sudden weakness over these last few months to blind Geo to the signs. Geo had never seen the need to mask his emotions, and he was hardly about to start now.
"Eagle-" One, concerned word was all that he was allowed to get out, a knock on the door interrupting what was to come next.
"Come in," Eagle called out, his gaze only slipping away from Geo's when the door opened and a servant entered.
"I am sorry to disturb you, my Lord. The next match is about to begin."
"Ah, yes." Eagle rose to his feet with none of his usual elegance, but the servant hardly seemed to notice. "Thank you." As he passed, Eagle turned to Geo once more. "Will you be here when I get back?" Eagle knew better by now than to ask if Geo planned to accompany him to the wretched 'match'.
"No." Eagle startled slightly at that. "I have plans that involve that godforsaken library of yours." The bemused surprise that shone briefly in Eagle's eyes was almost enough to mask the tiredness that still lingered there as well.
"This is the best way to deal with things, Geo." Eagle spoke the soft words with such certainty, but Geo was not someone who was swayed merely by words.
"We will see." For a briefest of moments Eagle leaned into Geo's shoulder, a silent thank you for seeking out the supposedly impossible for no one else's sake but Eagle's own. When Eagle continued on towards the door the contact was lost almost as quickly as it had been made, but as always Geo could still feel Eagle's presence even once he had left the room. Geo lingered after he was gone, quiet eyes sweeping over the room that was slowly losing familiarity even though he spent more time here now than he ever had done in the past.
Eagle did not have much time, and it was time Geo certainly did not plan on wasting in a library of all places. Eternity was a corrupt world polluted as much by the people as it was the fumes and poisonous gasses of the industry that ruled it. The thing about corruption, however, was that it meant that anything could be bought - for a price.
He had to find a way to get in contact with the witch.