Magic is supposed to make things easier isn't it? Not when the king is a soul-shaper with a penchant for control. Then things just get complicated: Heero and Trowa may be Princes, Zechs and Treize are technically slaves…still, I doubt you will find this story a typical sword & sorcery fic. It was written as an Author's exercise in AU World-building. Accolades go to Blindy who agreed to act as beta for me. If there are still punctuation errors don't blame her, as I have a bad habit of mucking about with things up to the very last.
This is a work of fan-fiction set in an alternate reality. I am only borrowing the characters, no surprise there. Expect some elements distinctly unique to this setting but rest assured I have reason for the things that may at first strike you as odd. The reasons will be revealed in the fullness of time. This tale is rated for various forms of enslavement, mostly magical. There are no blatant parings, do not expect citrus or slash. I hope you enjoy it anyway.
-Cursed-
Part One: Princes' Precursor
Two ten-year-old boys stood, shoulder to shoulder, backs to the wall of the dungeon. They had been here four days already without food or comfort. Before that they had been nobodies: a circus brat and an assassin's pet. That didn't matter now. Nothing mattered now. Their eyes were glazed and unseeing, minds blank, for the Sorcerer King had begun his workings.
His Majesty Jae Wyrdan was ruler of Yue and had been far longer than one man deserved to be alive. It was no revelation that he had gotten his throne through powerful magic and kept it by virtue of the same. The Sir-name he had taken so many ages ago was from the old tongue. Many took it to be a variant of the word 'Warden' meaning 'Protector.' Some few made the connection that 'Wyrd' referred to 'Fate'. But Jae was a Soul-shaper and the truth of the name he chose to affix to his own meant destruction--for that was where his true power lay; in the destruction of fate.
He had chosen these two youths because he suspected they possessed the strength, intelligence, and magical acumen necessary to be his heirs. As his heirs, it was only natural they also become vessels of his power. The gnome-like man moved to the shorter of the two boys first. He cupped the boy's cheek in his palm and flicked the fingers of his left hand across his field of vision.
It took concentrated effort on the boy's part to focus his dark eyes. The king's hand was almost skeletally thin with knobby arthritic joints. Power danced like eerie candle flames on the tips of his three fingered hand, as the last two digits had been sacrificed long ago—while he was still mastering his craft; only blunted stumps remained. "Day prince, War prince… champion of life and light. Hero who will be… in-trance, in-stance I bind thee." The king's hoarse voice penetrated the youth to the very core, anchoring the magic there.
The boy stiffened, and his pupils dilated, and the colored ring around them took on the hue of deep-cobalt blue flames. His gaze followed the dancing pattern of the sorcerer's fingers, but his features were slack, expressionless, bereft of comprehension. In this state he was completely at his master's mercy. His mind was ripe and he could in no way protect himself.
Jae let the tendrils of his magic snake out from his fingertips briefly making contact with points on each temple and the center of the boy's brow. False memories were simple to conjure, and Jae sent them deep, overlaying all conscious recollection of the life he had led up to this point. The battle skills the boy had already mastered were second nature, those he would retain, but the rest was irrelevant. "Body, soul, magic and mind to my mage-fire I securely bind. So long as I draw breath you are steadfastly mine." He completed the geis and the boy's body trembled as the magic took hold.
"Command me," he rasped in a voice barely more than a whisper.
"I shall, my first, I surely shall." The sorcerer licked his dry cracked lips, eyes flashing red in the torchlight. "But you must wait till I have dealt with your brother."
The boy blinked once and then once again. "Hn," he responded finally, but said nothing more. His body was lax, like a puppet suspended by loose strings. Jae knew the boy's strength. His chorded muscles were like banded steel. His former life had forged this youth into a warrior, true, but that availed him nothing when up against a soul-shaper's power. In this condition, a gentle push would have been enough to send him toppling bonelessly to ground. Jae ran his palm across the tanned flesh of the boy's chest and shoulder, then used a thick ribbon marked with runes to encircle the first boy's bicep, binding it tightly to the second boy's arm, just above the elbow because of the disparity in height between the two.
Then the soul-shaper turned his attention to the other boy, lanky and green-eyed. "Night prince, Flight prince…soul with whom wisdom walks, Triton who was; essence and mind enthralled, I claim thee." The flames were green this time, but this youth's reaction was the same as the first's had been, as his mind too was prepared to accept whatever he was bidden. Again the flair of false memories cascaded in his be-numbed mind. The youth gave a convulsive shudder; he was a bit more attached to his past than Heero had been. But in that wave of power, he was made to surrender it nonetheless. The words of the sealing incantation were the same for both boys. "Body, soul, magic, and mind to my mage-fire I securely bind. So long as I draw breath you are steadfastly mine." It united the very core of who and what they were to the power that sustained him.
"I obey," the tall boy answered, his eyes shining, luminous like the jade fire.
Jae was an old man, it was true. The magic fetters he placed on the young ones would only last as long as he did, and after that they were on their own. He had already outlived most of his sorcerous contemporaries; death would come for him soon enough. It was true he could draw energy from them to further extend his lifespan, a year…perhaps three, but that was not the purpose for taking them this way.
Both princes were incapable of moving more than their eyes, so he withdrew a few steps so both boys could see him. "I brought you to this place and have declared you my heirs; but you must be trained so that you will be strong enough to hold and keep the power you will inherit with my passing. This training will be harsh. After I am gone, you may hate me for what I have done if you choose. But for now, you are incapable of resisting my will."
"Heero," the king addressed his first prince laying his right hand on the boy's chest. The power flowed from him in a violet pulse. "I bind you in heart," he intoned. "Emotion diminishes and slips away, cold and unyielding as the stones of the castle. You will reside within these walls so long as I live. Drawing near the ramparts, wall, or gate will surely unhinge you. For the duration of your training you will bear this curse. My death alone will free you to truly know the people and the land that will be yours to defend."
"Trowa." Jae transferred his five fingered touch to the second prince's throat. "I bind you in speech and council." The power flared, sapphire blue, from the sorcerer's palm. "I send you out to walk the night. You see but remain un-seen, you hear but are un-heard. You observe but remain un-observed. Your curse demands you weigh your words with care for there are only so many allotted you. Till the day of my death your thoughts will be inviolate, held captive in the prison of your mind."
"Princes both!" he addressed them, and they trembled in response to the increased volume of his voice. The ribbon that held them together began to glow softly: white symbols incandescent against black silk. "You will enter this state of perfect command should I will it. With the use of your true names I bind you. You will remain thus, till I return volition to you. When you wake, everything that has passed in the interim will seem hazy and indistinct as a half remembered dream."
A sheen of sweat glistened off the boys' bear shoulders and chest, their eyes shone with unnatural light. Jae noted the change, knowing it was a result of the magic now coursing through their veins. The sorcerer king focused his red tinged eyes to see the corona of magic swirling around his young heirs. The curse was apparent to his mage-sight: A hot flair of violet lay in Heero's chest pulsating with each beat of his heart. Likewise a lighter blue-white energy twined Trowa's neck like a serpentine collar. The be-spelled ribbon permitted Heero's midnight-blue aura to bleed through into Trowa's jade-green and vice-versa. Over the next few hours, the magical residue would fade, and then not even a skilled enchanter would be able to discern the changes he had wrought, let alone reverse them. These two were his and his alone.
"You will be known as the cursed princes, but none can know the cause is a geis I have laid upon you," the king commanded. "Nothing but nature and the fullness of time can release you from my power. You will defend me from all enemies and preserve my life as if it were your own. Any duty I set for you will be accomplished to the best of your ability. Should you incur my displeasure you will willingly accept any punishment I dictate. Beyond that you will rely implicitly on one another. I bind you as two halves of the same whole with hope this close brother-bond might counterbalance the dire burden I have given you to share. When the time comes you will surely draw others to your cause."
"Enough now," Jae commanded before the color of either boy's aura was tainted overmuch by the infusion from the other. The black ribbon flared brightly and dissolved to grey ash. "It is past midnight. Return to your room and sleep. When you wake, everything will be as I have said. You may go." He waved his three fingered hand in dismissal and the boys moved…woodenly with expressionless eyes.