Roxas was playing by the banks of the river when it happened.
Playing by the banks of the river in the flood season had been a stupid thing to do in the first place, but then, he'd only been a child. His nanny – soon to be fired nanny – had been flirting with some boys and he'd gotten bored and wandered off. The river had looked like fun and the raging current hadn't deterred him a bit.
Until he slid on the mud and ended up in the water. Then he'd suddenly realized the danger when it was far too late. The current dragged him off and then dragged him under, but he managed to scream. That sound likely saved his life.
Roxas was holding his breath and close to panic when hard hands suddenly grabbed him and yanked him up. His head broke the water and he gasped and held on for dear life as the man holding him struggled to make it to shore. There were cries from the riverbank as other people noticed their plight and someone had the presence of mind to run for a rope. The man holding him grabbed the rope and clung to it as the other villagers reeled them in to safety.
"Young Lord!" Roxas found himself pulled out of the arms of his rescuer and only managed a confused glimpse of bright red hair and brilliant green eyes before they were carrying him away.
"Thank you!" He managed to call to the man, coughing on a bit of water. If there was a reply he didn't hear it as several people swept him away.
For the next several weeks Roxas tried to find out the name of the man who saved him. But for some reason no one would tell him. They told him to just forget about it, that it was all over and he was safe, but that wasn't satisfying at all for Roxas. He'd been brought up to thank someone for passing the salt, much less saving his life! He didn't understand why his family would refuse to tell him the man's name and let him thank him properly. Even a lowly beggar would deserve thanks!
It was his sister who finally happened to tell him the truth, although she did not mean it as a kindness. Namine was a fine sister, really, but they still tormented each other as brothers and sisters did. So the truth was said in heat, in the middle of a fight.
"At least I didn't have to get saved by the blood witch!" She snapped after Roxas ridiculed her pictures, and had the momentary satisfaction of seeing her brother's eyes go wide.
"The blood witch?" Roxas echoed, feeling stunned. Everyone knew about the blood witch. Blood witches were a class apart, but not in a good way. In the distant past, the blood witches had ruled the land with magic, using unwilling sacrifices to fuel the darkest of sorcery. Everyone knew the stories of bloody alters, baths of blood and horrible rituals where the victims were devoured… sometimes alive.
But that was the dark side of what could be a gentle magic. The blood witches had been overthrown, but those who had not been cruel had often managed to hold onto their properties for a while. Roxas was uneasily aware that the town's blood witch was the last of his line, a family that had once owned the keep and the village. His great-great-grandfather had taken the keep and much of the land, banishing the small family to an out of the way estate. At first, the blood witch family had done fairly well. They had always been good to the people of the village. But gradually, newcomers had come to the village, bringing a deeper prejudice against the blood witches with them. Opinion had been hardening ever since and now, the blood witches were almost pariahs. Roxas often wondered why the last blood witch stayed, but it was good for the village that he was here, even if they wouldn't admit it. He could cure diseases, keep wounds from festering and ensure the good of the harvest. The villagers muttered about curses but Roxas father, Cloud, stopped it firmly every time he heard it. He was no ignorant fool and knew that without the blood witch life would become far more difficult for everyone. But that didn't mean his family liked the blood witch. They were quite well aware of the fact that they had almost stolen the land, even if it had been on the new King's decree several generations ago. No wonder no one would tell him the man's name!
"Roxas? Oh, I shouldn't have told you that!" Namine was looking horrified with herself as she realized her lapse. Roxas blinked and hastened to reassure her.
"It's okay Nam. I won't tell anyone you told me." Their father wasn't cruel, but he could be very harsh when they disobeyed him. She looked relieved and with the momentum of their spat broken, they went on to other things. But that left the question in his mind. How was he to thank the blood witch? His father had probably already given the man a gift, but Roxas wanted to give his thanks in person.
It was the right thing to do.
Axel's lips twisted slightly as he looked at the small pile of coins in his hand.
"How did it come to this?" He asked the world, but the world wasn't answering. He wasn't even sure what he was asking. Partly, perhaps, he was asking how his family had come to this. But mostly he thought he was asking how he in particular had ended up this way. As a child and a teenager, Axel had been wild. He'd loved the fire magic more than the blood, although he was amazingly talented in both. He'd pulled pranks, had fun and planned to go to the city when he reached his majority. His elder brother and sister were both planning to stay and keep up the family heritage.
Then tragedy had struck. His family had been attacked by bandits on the way home from a meet… a meet that Axel hadn't been allowed to come to as discipline for his pranks. He could still remember opening the door to see Lord Cloud himself on his doorstep to tell him that his family was gone. Sometimes he wondered if things would have gone differently if he'd been there. The fire magic was much better than blood for fighting. But more likely, there would just have been another corpse.
So the troublemaker had abruptly been forced into the role of man of the house. An achingly empty house, without his mother, brother or sister. Sometimes Axel thought about selling it but he knew his mother would have been horrified by the idea. The house was the last of their holdings they had. It wasn't easy to give up.
Sighing, Axel put away most of the coins into his safe box. It was enchanted with blood magic. The villagers might whisper about curses, and while most of that was garbage, this box was genuinely cursed. If anyone but himself opened it they would live long enough to regret it. Axel frowned, realizing the protection had grown faint and pulled out his knife, cutting his arm for a moment and using the blood to retrace the pattern on the lid. A small drain on his strength and the wards were at full power again. Standing, Axel shook his head, grabbed a basket and headed for the village. There were things he needed to buy.
Cloud had shown up at his door again, and while the occasion had been much nicer than last time, it had still been incredibly awkward. Axel didn't blame the man for being stiff with him. The fact that their families had so much between them was bad enough, but Axel knew Cloud personally. He was much older than he looked and the two had played as children. In addition to that, he'd had a brief summer romance with Cloud's eldest son, Sora. Axel smiled, amused, as he remembered it. It had been nothing but play, really, but Cloud didn't want him anywhere near his younger son. So when the Lord had to come thank him for saving the boy… yes, very awkward. Axel had thought about refusing his reward but the truth was that he needed the money. Things were always a bit tight.
Axel walked calmly through the village, ignoring sidelong glances and murmurs. He'd developed a thick skin a long time ago. He walked into the general store, the doorbell tinkling. The woman behind the counter sneered at him, then put on a bored tone.
"Buying or selling?" She asked, and Axel nodded to her, reaching up to adjust his headband. It was dark blue with yellow daisies on it, but faded from washing. His mother had given it to him as a child to keep his hair out of his face, back when it had been an unruly mess. It was still spiky but he didn't really need the headband anymore, he just wore it out of habit.
"Both." Setting his basket on the table, he extracted the contents. "I've got some apricots, smoked salmon and fever cordials, if you're interested." He knew she would be. The smoked salmon was nothing special but no one else in town had the herb knowledge to make the cordials, much less bring out their properties the way a blood witch could. She grunted, looking his goods over.
"I've no use for the salmon. We've got too much of that and you don't smoke it that well." Axel would have been offended but it was the truth. His smoking job wasn't as professional as some people in the village, so it didn't last as long. "Two copper a cordial and a half silver for the apricots." Axel's eyes narrowed. That was a bad offer.
"A silver for the apricots and six copper each for the cordials." He immediately offered back and she glared. That was inflated. They dickered back and forth for a while before finally settling on four copper a cordial and eight coppers for the apricots. That was low, he could have done better at the Springbanks fair, but that was a two day trip. It just wasn't worth it, not yet anyway. Maybe when he had a lot of things to sell he'd make the trip.
Axel looked through the stores goods, trying to figure out what he wanted and what he could afford. Finally he picked up some bread and eggs, and had to dicker again. He ended up paying too much, but that was life. Shaking his head, he put away the purchases in his basket and began walking back home, lost in his own little world.
Abruptly, something loud and obnoxious yanked him out of it.
"Hey, Axel!" Axel's lips narrowed as he turned slowly to look at the three boys lounging in front of the inn. That was one of the places in town he was emphatically not welcome. "Blood witch! Sacrificed any babies today?" It was afternoon and they were already a bit tipsy, his two friends giggling at the hecklers wit.
"No, I missed my chance when you were a baby. But tell your mom I said hi." Axel replied before walking past. He wasn't worried about them doing anything physical. He'd established that he was dangerous a long time ago.
Getting home, he put away his purchases and glanced around the house with a faint sigh. It was just so empty these days. Axel vaguely thought he should try to find a wife. He could support a family, after a fashion. But he'd have to find someone at the blood witch meetings and so far no one had interested him. Well, except for Effie, but she was married to his cousin, worse luck. Reno had really netted a fine catch there.
Reflecting on the difficulty in getting to know someone through four times per year meets, Axel walked outside to begin tending his garden. It was growing well, not a surprise at all. It would have been a real surprise if it had been doing poorly. Every spring he primed the ground with his own blood as well as the more prosaic business of spreading fertilizer. The land always gave back, answering the call of the blood magic. Unfortunately, the weeds liked the blood magic too. Axel was busy removing them when he became aware of someone calling his name.
"Axel? Blood witch?" It was coming from the front of the house and sounded young and uncertain. Axel frowned, glancing up, then stood brushing the dirt away from his legs. Perhaps someone in the village needed healing.
"I'm here!" He called and walked around the building before stopping in his tracks, staring. "Uh, young Lord." It couldn't be anyone else. The blond hair and blue eyes were unmistakable, and who else would be riding such a high bred, elegant mare? Although it was very odd that the boy was here alone. Axel wondered who would be missing him.
"Hello." Roxas smiled shyly as his horse nudged the dry water trough. Axel frowned at that. "I'm Roxas. I just came to thank you."
"Oh." That was a bit of a surprise and Axel picked up the water bucket beside the trough. "You really didn't have to, Lord Roxas. Your father has already thanked me. Let me get some water for your horse." Roxas glanced at the horse, a touch surprised, then nodded.
"Thank you. Really, I do have to thank you myself. Father should have taken me with him." Roxas sounded a touch peeved at that, and Axel smiled to himself. The boy couldn't be older than twelve but already had the Strife sense of honor. It was almost cute. Axel handled the pump easily and brought back the bucket of water, spilling it into the trough for the horse. "Did you even know who I was, when you jumped into the water?"
"I had no idea. I just heard you scream." Axel said with a small smile. He almost wished it had just been an ordinary child. The villagers seemed to resent him all the more for the favor Cloud had shown him. "I don't mean to be rude, young Lord, but won't your family be missing you?" Roxas looked crestfallen… he'd wanted to learn a bit more about the blood witch… but nodded.
"They will be soon. I put the slip on my tutor." Roxas admitted. "Well, thank you again. And I'll be back someday, when I have more time." Axel blinked at that, wondering if Roxas was serious. Cloud would hate it if he was, but after a moment's reflection Axel decided he didn't care.
"Anytime you want, young Lord." Roxas paused as he was about to mount his horse.
"Please, call me Roxas." Axel's smile widened at that.
"Roxas." And he watched the boy ride away, musing idly about the way the sun lit golden spikes.
As the years passed, Roxas almost forgot about the blood witch. Almost, but not quite. Every time he spotted Axel in the village he remembered his promise. Not just that, he noticed how… ageless the blood witch seemed to be. If he hadn't known better, he would have thought he was only nineteen. But Roxas knew for a fact that Axel was at least Cloud's age. It was strange.
For several years, Roxas found it almost impossible to slip away from his tutors and nannies for any length of time. But as he entered his teenage years, thing changed. He no longer needed a nanny and he was allowed to go more places by himself, without any attendants if he chose. Never outside the boundaries of the village and estates, of course. The roads could be dangerous. But it was easy to go visit Axel.
The first time he went to go see the blood witch, he was surprised to hear a raucous song as he pulled his horse to a stop outside the house. It sounded like a Christmas song but… the lyrics weren't right. At all.
I feel my pecker tingling, balls are jingling too!
Come on and tell me whether I can link them together with you.
I need a hot sweet mammi to slip my salami into,
I must be overeager because even your beaver will do!
"Ewww." It was set to the tune of jingle bells, and only getting worse. Briefly Roxas considered leaving immediately or asking Axel to teach him the lyrics. Although if he dared sing it, he'd be asking for his mother and father to wash his mouth out with soap. Roxas finally decided to ignore it and tied up the horse before going to the back of the house.
Axel was hard at work weeding his garden and Roxas stared, amazed. The garden was big, very big. Axel didn't bother to grow grain, it would have taken too much work for one man. Instead, the garden was full of vegetables for canning and eating, as well as an amazing number of fruit trees. It was an orchard, really, and Roxas looked at the apricots longingly. The apples looked under ripe and hard, but he could see full fruits on the apricot trees.
"Axel?" Roxas called hesitantly, and the blood witch looked up, surprised. Roxas smiled as he saw Axel was still wearing his blue and yellow headband. It was probably handy for keeping the sweat out of his eyes, although it wouldn't protect him from the sun much.
"Roxas!" Axel was surprised but oddly pleased. It had been almost two years and he'd assumed Roxas forgotten about his words that day. "It's been a while. Would you like an apricot?"
"Please." Roxas said immediately. The Strife family had their own orchards but they only grew apples. Axel had a tremendous variety of things. Axel searched the trees for some really ripe apricots, and finally picked two of them, passing one to his guest. Roxas closed his eyes in pleasure at the heady taste of the fresh picked fruit. "Thank you." Axel grinned, amused.
"You've got good manners, kid." Roxas bristled a little. He wasn't a child anymore! "So is there anything I can do for you or did you just want to talk to me?" Axel smiled as Roxas blushed, looking down.
"Just talk to you, if that's okay?" Roxas felt a little embarrassed by it, but he was curious about blood witches. After Namine had told him who had saved him, Roxas had realized he knew next to nothing factual about the blood witches and their magic. The only things in the library about it were hysterical stories about the old Blood Kings. If half of what they said was true, Roxas didn't think the Blood Kings would have been overthrown. Axel seemed to sense what he was thinking and smiled, gesturing carelessly.
"Want to see a bit of magic?" Roxas' eyes widened and Axel laughed. "It will be more boring than you think." No doubt Roxas was dreaming of explosions and mystical clouds of smoke. The blonde gave him a dirty look.
"I'm not a child, Axel. I know the best magic is subtle." That was something his father had mentioned on many occasions, particularly when someone derided the usefulness of the blood witches.
"Yes, I suppose you would know." Axel said to himself and Roxas looked at him curiously, but he didn't elaborate as he led the boy to the edges of the garden. "See the curse markers?" He tapped a peg that had been driven into the ground, and Roxas looked at it dubiously. There were many pegs like it, spaced out equally and painted and carved into odd, animal like images. They were hung with little wooden disks that seemed to be covered in something black and flaking. Roxas blinked as Axel pulled out his belt knife, nicking himself and catching the blood with his finger, using it to paint the disks. "They repel animals and insects who would eat my fruits and vegetables. The also have an effect on people, although that's more subtle." Axel drew his eyebrows down, concentrating, and the blood went black. A red light briefly flashed over the peg, and then it was nothing but a wooden peg again. Roxas felt vaguely impressed. He knew from his tutors lectures how much of a crop could be lost to animals, particularly for things like fruits. And the damage insects could do wasn't to be thought on.
"Could you do that for the rest of the village?" He asked, interested. Axel laughed and shook his head.
"Ah, Roxas, I'd die if I tried to handle that much!" Axel's smile was gentle as he looked at the blonde. "The power for this has to come from somewhere, and that place is me. My body fat, to be precise." Roxas looked the redhead over, a bit confused.
"But you're not fat at all." He certainly didn't have much fat to loose. Axel grinned.
"I know. The curse of my life. Fortunately, the magic in my blood is potent so I can manage with that for most things. But my powers would be greater if I could put on a real coating of fat." Roxas stared, wide-eyed at the thought as Axel sighed. "I'm hoping my metabolism will slow down with age." Blood witches often found it was easier to lay on the pounds as they got older.
"I hope you don't." Roxas said before he thought, then blushed. He hesitated a moment, embarrassed, then continued. "You look great the way you are." Axel's green eyes seemed to glow as he smiled, and Roxas had to fight not to stare.
"Why thank you. But the point is, it would kill me to try to lay these wards on all the village fields. Once you use up body fat you have to take the power from other places, like muscle, bone, organs…" Axel shrugged as Roxas swallowed. That sounded bad. The redhead led him along the edges of the garden, and Roxas could see how it tired him as he worked on each curse peg. By the end of it Axel was looking a touch exhausted. "Can I interest you in something to drink?"
"Please." As they walked up to the house Axel frowned, spotting the horse out front. The mare had shade but no water.
"Roxas, you really need to remember to put out water for the horse." Axel was sure Roxas didn't mean to be cruel to the horse, he just usually had grooms to take care of that sort of thing. But it was still hard on the mare. Roxas winced.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me get that." Roxas took the bucket before Axel could, and the redhead watched as he filled it and put out the water for the horse. She immediately started drinking it but Axel didn't think she was in any real distress.
"No worries." Axel said as he opened the door to the house. He'd picked that phrase up from Effie, it was one of her favorite expressions. Axel grinned as he thought of Reno's wild wife. She was always experimenting with the blood magic, with little care for the dangers. "Hm…" Axel poured them both some small beer. It was a bit flat but still good, and Roxas drank it willingly as Axel brought out some biscuits and some cold venison for them to eat. Roxas eyed it curiously but then remembered that Axel owned the land. He had every right to hunt on it. Cloud could hunt here too, but no one else without risking being caught by his father's foresters. Axel's family had made that arrangement with the Strife's generations ago. "So what's it like, having Cloud for a dad and Aerith for a mom? I've always wondered." He'd asked Sora that too, a long time ago, but the brunette had refused to answer. Axel wasn't sure why, since Roxas didn't seem at all put out by the question.
"Oh, it's great! They're the best parents ever." He confided in Axel, who nodded and nibbled on a biscuit. He wasn't really hungry but knew he should eat after working that much blood magic. "Aerith is always showing me things and Cloud is always teaching me."
"Really?" Axel wasn't sure at all what to think of that. Why had Sora been so closed off about his family if that was the case? Sora was still away at university but Axel sometimes wondered if he'd ever be back. Not that it was really his business. "I heard you have a sister?"
"Oh, Namine. She's going to be an artist." Axel listened with a smile as Roxas told him all about his sister. From the way he talked about her, he really loved her even if she drove him insane sometimes. "Axel, I was wondering. Why do you have tattoos on your face?" Roxas asked with disarming directness, startling a laugh out of the redhead.
"Oh, that's a blood witch thing." Axel smiled as he glanced into a mirror, seeing the tattoos again. He could remember how proud he'd been when he'd gotten them at that meet in the summer. It had been a mark of adulthood, although his mother had begged to differ. "All blood witch men have them, although the size and shape can vary." Reno's tattoos were entirely different from his, reddish lines to the sides of his eyes. "Our women get tats on their butts." Roxas choked on his biscuit, spraying crumbs across the table.
"No! Really?" Axel grinned and nodded.
"Really. They say the reason the men get it on their face is because that hurts like hell and our ancestors were trying to prove how tough they were to impress the girls." Axel shook his head in mock sadness. "Strangely, I've never noticed the girls being really impressed." They were more likely to laugh and point, since the new tattoos made the face puffy and red.
"Women are more sensible then men, mother says." Roxas thought she might be right, too. Namine wouldn't have ended up almost drowning in a spring swollen river. "Axel, what are the meets like?" Roxas had heard of the blood witch meets, but the stories he'd heard were ludicrous. He didn't believe the woman danced naked in the moonlight and let any man have them in a huge orgy.
"You've heard the story about the orgy, have you?" Axel said teasingly and Roxas blushed. "That's why we have to keep the location secret every year… heh. It's just like a fair, Roxas. A lot of mothers swapping recipes and trading stories of babies spitting up, kids playing and men sitting around talking about the harvest over beers." Axel thought about it a moment as Roxas looked rather disappointed. "Well, we do have a few things that are unusual. We talk about the blood magic freely and when night falls, we do dance around the fire. And I'd be lying if I said there was no sex, but it isn't an orgy. The young women who want to get married try to find a man and the women who have a family to help sometimes just try to get pregnant." Roxas looked a touch shocked at that, and Axel wasn't surprised. That was anathema to the way the villagers did things. "We record our family history through the female line, mostly. It's simpler for us."
"Is there ever people at the meet who aren't blood witches?" Roxas asked, wishing that he could see one. Of course, that was a ridiculous thought. Cloud would never let him go. Axel frowned then shrugged.
"Kind of. Husbands and wives are welcome and, well. Being a blood witch is partly culture and partly power. There are people raised in the culture who don't have much power at all." Axel ran a hand through his red spikes thoughtfully. "If you see someone with the facial tattoos who doesn't have red hair, they're either dyeing it or they haven't got much of the blood magic. They could be good with the fire magic, though. That doesn't seem to work the same." Powerful gifts of fire and blood rarely went together. Axel was an exception on that.
"Ah, I see." Roxas found all of this fascinating, but didn't want to take up all of Axel's afternoon, and his family would be expecting him back too. He finished his beer and stood. "I really should be getting back, before father comes to look for me." Axel winced at the thought. He really didn't want to see Cloud on his doorstep again. They'd been friends as children, but that had been a long time ago.
"No worries. Have a nice day, Roxas." Roxas flashed him a brilliant smile and Axel briefly thought about how cute the boy was, then shook it away. Cloud would have a fit if he had another summer romance with one of his sons, and Roxas was too young anyway.
But there would be plenty of summers in the future.