Author: Daniella Duley (D.D.Duley)
Title: Northern Lights.
Warnings: Rated Pg13 for descriptive violence in a couple of places. (Not until later though.) Don't worry, if I get enough reviews Heero will appear in a sequel.
Disclaimers: I do not own Gundam Wing, I am not making any money out of this, and the story line has extreme fusion with a book by Philip Pullman, including using his title and some characters.
Authors note: Hi it's only me (again) just to say I hope you enjoy this, explanations about daemons at the end of this. Any more questions e-mail me at d_d_duley@hotmail.com
Duo and his Daemon moved through the silent dining hall, taking extreme care to keep out of sight out of the kitchens.
The three great tables that ran the length of the darkening hall were already laid, crystal and silver sparkling faintly in the candlelight. Portraits of former masters hung high on the walls.
He stopped by the master's chair, and with a fingernail flicked the large crystal goblet. There was a large ringing sound. "Sssh," whispered his daemon, "Do you want the whole college in here?"
Duo shrugged, but placed his palm over the ringing crystal anyway.
His daemon was called Pyramona, and was currently in the form of a brown moth, so as not to stand out against the darkness of the hall.
Pyramona fluttered ahead to the open door of the retiring room before coming back. "There's no one there, but we must be quick."
Duo nodded before quickly walking across.
In the retiring room was a group of large armchairs, gathered for the most around a large fireplace. Duo grinned slightly, "They do, do well for themselves don't they Py?"
"Never mind that." Replied the daemon, "let's get out of here before someone see's us."
"Don't be silly, I want to look around."
"Well be quick."
Duo went to the centre armchair and sat down, it was so large he found himself practically lying down. Sitting up he tucked his legs under him and gazed around.
Suddenly a hiss from Py attracted his attention, "Someone's coming, hide!"
Quick as a flash Duo jumped out of the armchair he was in and hid behind it. He was just in time. From outside came a dry voice he recognised as the master of Jordan College. "Is everything ready?"
"Yes my lord." Duo recognised this voice as the stewards.
"And no word from the aeroport yet as to whether Treize has arrived."
"No."
"Very well, when he arrives, take him straight to the dining hall, he will be hungry having travelled so far."
"Very good sir."
Duo heard the steward walk away, and the master enter the retiring room, and panicked slightly, for he had chosen the armchair in the very centre of the room, and if he made the slightest sound he would be caught.
Keep still, keep still.
As he peered out from behind the chair, he saw the master pick up a decanter with some sort of amber liquid in it from the mantelpiece, and recognised it as Tokay. The master's daemon, a black crow, looking around all the while.
Carefully the master pulled out a packet from his pocket, and tipped in a black sort of powder, swishing it around with a pencil until it had all mixed in with the Tokay.
Violet eyes wide, Duo watched him from behind the chair.
Then quietly the master walked out, meeting the steward again.
"Everything is ready for Lord Treize."
"Good, I have put the Tokay into the room already, so there is no need to worry about that."
"Ah, lord Treize's favourite I believe."
"That is correct."
And with that the two men walked off.
Quickly Duo stood up, brushing the dust off his black trousers. "Did you hear that Py? Uncle Treize is coming, and the master's going to poison 'im!"
"Yes I heard, and even though he's your uncle, it's not our business, let's just go, before someone finds we were in here and kicks us out of the college." Py sounded quite sharp now, obviously anxious to get out of the room.
"We can't just let them do that!"
"Yes, we…" but before Py could protest further, the dinner gong sounded. Darting to the door, Duo saw it would be impossible to escape out there now, scholars were already drifting in, in one's and two's.
"Well, we can't escape now!" He grinned mischievously at Pyramona's obvious anger.
"You planned this all along!"
"What to get stuck in here? Yes I did, no one knows what they get up to in here so I'm going to be the first."
"But we could…"
"Get kicked out, yes I know, but if we're careful we won't." For Duo was not a scholar at Jordan's college, the scholars merely looked after him at Lord Treize's request, for his parents had died in an aeronaught crash when he was to little to remember. And now he was only thirteen, still too young to begin studying.
Before either of them could utter another word however, loud footsteps once more approached. "Quick the wardrobe!" hissed Py, and Duo ran over and jumped inside, just in time.
The door opened and in walked Lord Treize, followed by his manservant Thorold, carrying a large case, a slide lamp, and a strange container.
"Do you wish me to inform the master you are here Sir?"
"No, no, lets surprise him shall we?"
"Very good sir, I'll leave you to it then shall I?"
"Yes, and close the door on your way out Thorold."
The manservant went out, followed by his Daemon, in the form of a dog.
Lord Treize's daemon, a magnificent snow leopard with green eyes, curled up on the carpet next to his feet.
Quickly and efficiently Treize set up the lamp slide, before turning to the Tokay.
"No!" The quiet cry was out of Duo before he could stop it.
Treize quickly looked up before walking over to the wardrobe and swinging it open, said, "Who's there? Show yourself."
Duo tumbled out, closely followed by an irate Pyramona in ermine form.
"Duo! What are you doing in there?"
"Don't drink the Tokay!"
"Why the hell not?"
"It poisoned! I saw the master put a powder in it."
"Well why are you in here in the first place? You're not allowed." His uncle had his arm now and was twisting it in his anger.
Although it hurt a lot, Duo didn't let his face give any expression.
"I wanted to see what it looked like in here, then we got trapped…"
Well, we'll have to see about that Tokay then." Swiftly Treize let go of Duo's arm and knocked it off the shelf.
A knock sounded on the door.
"Back in the cupboard, keep an eye on the master, make a sound and you're on your own."
***********
From behind the solid oak doors Duo heard Treize welcoming each man. "Ah Bursar good to see you, I read your paper on the licence of harvesting, Chaplain, nice to see you as well."
Peering between the cracks in the door, Duo saw the master's eyes flicker briefly to the place where the Tokay had stood, a fact that did not go unnoticed to Treize. "Sorry about the Tokay master, it got knocked off, I'm not quite sure how."
As they sat down, Treize purposely moved the Chaplain and Master near the wardrobe, both were old friends and it was quite likely that the chaplain knew of this as well.
Duo heard the chaplain mutter, "Must've known the devil, but how?" And saw the master give an imperceptible shrug.
"Now gentlemen, as you know, I travelled North to negotiate with the King of Lapland, this however was a cover up for another thing as well. I went North to try and find a scientist who had gone missing up there while researching Dust."
The way he said Dust made Duo imagine it with a capital D.
"Did you find him?" asked one scholar.
"Yes, well, what was left of him." and with that Treize pulled the weird looking container towards him and opened it. A collective gasp went round the room, and Duo heard someone run outside making retching sounds. He strained to look; the people crowding round however blocked his view.
"How did this happen?"
"Look, scalping, must've been the Tartars…"
"No, I think the Panserbjorne had something to do with this."
"What's Panserbjorne Py? Did the scholars teach us anything about them?" For Duo's education so far had consisted of the most agile scholar being bribed to catch him and teach him a particular subject. This would go on for about a week during which Duo would become increasingly sulky, until he either "forgot" to turn up (much to the scholar's relief) or the scholar forgot what he was meant to be teaching him and ground into him his latest research on whatever it was he was studying. So Duo's knowledge was extremely patchy, and in some places he knew very little.
"No, I dunno what Panserbjorne are." And so they turned their attention back to the retiring room.
"I agree, it sounds like something their King Iofur Raknison would do."
There was a whoosh and the case was snapped shut. And Treize spoke again, "gentlemen, I also took these." He slid a couple of objects into the slide lamp, immediately a wall was lit up with a picture. A child was standing next to a taller being, obviously and adult. While the child was not lit up very well because it was dark, the adult was surrounded by sparkling particles.
"Gentlemen, as you can see, we've discovered Dust is real."
"But is that a severed child?" asked one of the scholars.
"No, it is a whole one. But look, more interesting than either of the humans is what's behind, in the aurora."
Duo shifted slightly so as to see better. It's a city, a
city in the sky!
"It's a city in the sky!" Cried the chaplain, echoing Duo's thoughts out loud.
"Indeed, and I believe it is a different world, parallel to ours. Gentlemen, I intend to find a way to cross that gap and get into this new world. Now will you sponsor me?"
Eventually talk turned to less interesting things such as funding and stations, and Duo fell asleep.
***********
He was woken by Treize.
"Come on wake up, they've all gone."
Duo yawned sleepily before asking, "Did they sponsor your research then?"
"Yes. Now be off to bed with you. I'm leaving now."
Another yawn, "to go North?"
"Yes."
Duo sat up, suddenly wide-awake. "Can I go with you please?"
"No."
"But I want to see the ice burgs and bears, and the aurora and…"
"I said no."
"Well can I see the dead man?"
Treize laughed shortly, "Don't be disgusting."
"But…"
Treize's daemon rumbled low in her throat, making Duo suddenly aware of what it would be like to have her teeth meeting in his throat. So he didn't argue anymore, but went sulkily off to bed.
************
After a difficult episode it was in the habit of the Master and The chaplain to go and sit in the study with a fire roaring and take a glass of brantwijn.
"How did Treize know about the Tokay?" asked the Chaplain.
"I have no idea, he must have some sort of force protecting him."
"Still, I was never happy with the idea of…"
"Of poisoning him? No, neither was I."
"So why do it?"
"Because of this research he wants to pursue."
"What about the city?"
"Yes, if he continues with that, the college will be in danger, and the child will be drawn in."
"What Duo?"
"Yes, above all things we must keep him safe."
"But surely if he knew…"
"NO! He must never know, otherwise the world will end, he is the father to us all, the one the witches call "Adam" and he must act without knowledge of such a thing."
"I see, but surely we could help? I am particularly anxious about him."
"No, it is in the nature of the young, to scorn the anxiousness of the old."
And with that they parted to go to bed.
For it was late, and they were old and anxious.
Authors note: Right, for those of you that are confused as to what a Daemon is. A daemon is a visible part of a person's soul in this parallel universe. Everybody has one, and you die if you don't, for if you kill a daemon, you kill a person, if you kill a person you kill his or her daemon. A daemon takes on a form depending on the person's character. A daemon can change shape until a child reaches the age we call puberty, so Duo's daemon will probably take on a fixed form soon. A daemon is also a different being at the same time, so it has partly your personality but partly it's own as well. A Daemon is nearly always the opposite sex to the human, Duo's daemon is female. A daemon is linked to the person with a sort of invisible bond, so neither can go more than a couple of metres from each other, if the link breaks, both die, and if the link is pulled then it causes deep pain and despair between the two. NOTE: A witches' daemon is the only sort that can travel for hundreds of miles away from their human as when they are to be initiated into the clan they undergo an ordeal.
If you want me to continue, let me know.