Thank you all for reviews, lovely readers: I apologize for not responding my 'messaging' isn't working o.o , i hope they'll fix that soon..
Also, thank you anons;
Aztia-It's so nice to see another GoT fan who likes Daenerys :3 . Don't worry though, I'm not closely following any got plot here so your feels are safe (i hope..) :3
Also, I've decided to make this story longer because the more I write the more things I want to add and expand the plot...
Disclaimer: I do not own Knb
Some parts of Akashi's character are inspired by Daenerys Stormborn's character path.(not necessarily her personality though)
Setting: medieval.
Chapter 2
'Hic sunt dracones.'
.
Pleasant lives droop and fail, Mors with his sword cuts through the Sister's threads, and hurries the stricken city to the shades.
.
"I am afraid, my Prince, all our lessons will take place within the palace. The emperor has forbid me from taking you outside after..." Nijimura cleared his throat, obsidian eyes following eight year old descendant of the iron throne, who was sitting on his bed, impassive expression grazing his features.
"My father is a fool. Do you have any news from the west?" Seijuuro looked up inspecting the other, he'd grow very angry if the truth was denied from him.
"Well, yes..." Nijimura sighed. "The rebellion led by the Wakamatsu family has started. Imayoshi family joined them. They declared the war on the Capital. Your father is trying to gather allies from the east and north since the south has grown unstable too. Merchants..." but Akashi waved his hand dismissively.
"It was expected..." he murmured closing his ruby orbs.
"Do you know why I'm so angry Nijimura-san?" Akashi asked after a while. He stared down at his shaking hands, pale and perfect hands. Nijimura hadn't answered, because in that moment the prince looked so serene, introspective at his most hidden fears. Even the dragons had their fears.
"I'm angry because I'm powerless. My father is preventing me from...He's jealous. He's jealous that I'm always right, Nijimura."
Akashi stood up and walked to the window, ignoring the books on his table, but Nijimura noticed Akashi had already read them because he would always fold the books he had finished reading neatly. He remembered leaving them on the table for young prince, it was two days ago but Seijuuro had already...
"The war will reach the Capital, I can sense it. I can see it. Do you understand?"
"The war will not reach the...you father's army..." Nijimura gasped. He knew Akashi's predictions were monstrous with their accuracy but this...
"The palace will fall. The empire will fall in the hands of unworthy ones. The empire is mine. I'm angry because I cannot prevent it."
"You're but a child..." Nijimura muttered.
"What about the boy?" suddenly the red hair changed the subject, his eyes closed as he breathed the fresh air of the outside world. Seijuuro was dressed neatly, as always, but this confided room and uptight clothes were smudging him, choking him...
"I found out everything about him, as you requested." Nijimura slightly bowed his head.
"His name is Kuroko Tetsuya, or at least that's what his owner told me and he bought him three months ago, from the passing caravan. The boy is...very skilled fighter, for someone who hasn't been trained in official grounds. They think it's witchcraft but...He has a really low presence, almost unnoticeable even for me, whose eyes have been trained since birth.." Nijimura let his words sink into Prince's mind.
"There was a street fight, apparently he was defending his friend. For a moment, he disappeared, they said. He disappeared and maimed a man who was trying to choke his friend. That's why they accused him of witchcraft, because they don't understand how he did what he did..."
"What about the trial?" Akashi immediately asked, his interested peeked. All his life, Seijuuro had never met someone who's talent was worth noticing, someone akin to that boy.
"They sentenced him to a lifetime banishment. He'll be sold to the merchants and leave the capital."
"Is that so?" Akashi turned his attention back to Nijimura. Kuroko, whoever he was, slipped away, and Seijuuro will never know who mysterious, talented boy really was...
"Is something the matter, my prince?" he knew Seijuuro all to well. Hours and hours spent with the young boy, who's intellect and abilities surpassed his age greatly. It was only natural, Nijimura thought, since he was an Akashi. The oldest and most powerful family to rule the Capital and sit upon the iron throne. Legendary stories about Seijuuro's ancestors, stories about brilliant and mad kings who's power was unmatched to this very day. They, like their dragons, bowed to neither gods nor men.
But it's been centuries since the last dragon flew through the land. Akashi bloodline slowly lost their absolute power, they were still reigning but it wasn't like it used to be.
The emperor, Akashi's father was bleak in comparison to legendary kings and their dragons, he had intelligence and skills but there was something missing...and that something Seijuuro possessed. He will be even more powerful than his grandfathers, he will unite the whole golden land together and sit upon the iron throne.
Nijimura wanted to believe in this more than anything as he watched the ruby hair set up the chess board.
"No, nothing." Seijuuro replied.
/2 years later/
Bare, solemn land drew shaky breaths as the war raged on. Imperial forces loosing battle after battle, hunger and disease hunting their victims. Prophets spoke about the end of an Akashi era. Allies on the north and east growing angry and impatient, they were spilling their blood for the Capital and rewards were far away. Soiled earth gave no fruits.
"We need to sign the treaty or they'll march into the Capital, Highness." the council was viral, panic evident in their every move. The war was raging for two years straight and no victory was achieved. People were already whispering of the new emperor, they weren't sure who will grab the hold of the throne but they were convinced that Akashi's era was over. The emperor looked weak and frail, war and lung disease eating away at him, his only son still too young to take over.
"I will not give them my empire!" The emperor yelled. Seijuuro smirked from his spot, he never stopped eavesdropping, and he was never given the chance to interfere.
"This is bad my Prince..." Nijimura fixed his robes in his futile attempts to prevent Akashi from making his own rules and despising his father more and more as the days passed.
"The south is lost, highness. We cannot put all our trust into Hanamiya family in the east. They're...They'll betray us given the chance. North is weak, and rigid. We have nothing from the north." main adviser declared.
"Then we will defend the Capital with our blood. We will-" But Nijimura couldn't hear what did the Emperor say because Akashi started laughing. Young Prince had grown more and more unstable as days passed. His sanity was dancing on a thin line, akin to his great, mad ancestors. Madness and greatness go hand in hand.
"My father is such a weak fool. " he commented, his voice starting to take form of a teenager slowly. In two years, Seijuuro had grown much, but still it was obvious he won't be very tall, his hair got a bit longer, almost covering his ruby eyes and his face lined in sharper, empyrean shape.
He was excellent, far more than anyone else in the empire. His mind sharp and precise, his charisma enveloping air around him into divinity. Akashi had grown charming and could easily led people on his way.
"He will make your security top priority if the war breaks within the Capital." Nijimura announced, slow-paced shaking surrounding his spine.
"Have you ever been in war, Nijimura-san?" Akashi asked turning his burgundy gaze towards his mentor.
"Yes, I was a military doctor during last great war lead by your father." he said surprised by the prince's question.
"You saw people die. Wasn't it supposed to make your spine a pure steel? You seem to be quite worried for me, and you know I know everything."
"People dying...I saw their limbs detached, lying like simplified objects on the ground filled with blood, both yours and the enemies, I saw men dying like a cattle. War is the god of us all. It doesn't make you strong, my prince, it makes you all the weaker."
Seijuuro stared at the five men arguing, there were so insignificant. Pests, corrupt swines. His ancestors wouldn't allow such meek being to contemplate with them, his father was just a ...fool. Akashi is a dragon, that draws fire in every breath of the enemies, fire that flies about all others...
'I am a dragon.'
"There's a small festival in the merchant's districts.I want to go outside, prepare me a carriage Nijimura." Seijuuro mused. "We are at war, I'm sure your father..."
"Did you not hear me?" Akashi glared and walked past his mentor...
Children's laughter enveloped the streets, colorful skirts of voluptuous women swaying, old men drinking beer...as if war was far, far away. Merchants yelling, trying to sell their peculiarities. Bards singing to their heart's content.
Wanderers this morning came by
Where did they go
Graceful in the morning light
To banner fair
To follow you softly
In the cold mountain air
Through the forest
Down to your grave
Where the birds wait
And the tall grasses wave
They do not
know you anymore
"They think they're protected, behind the capital's walls..." Akashi mused, staring at the little kids who were running after the carriage. It was until the end of the street that something caught his eye: inky, ocher, emerald and plum. Four different color shone trough the shop-window.
"Stop the carriage."
The shop was small, hidden behind the shade of an apple tree, Seijuuro concluded it sold antique values. Followed by his guards and Nijimura in every step he entered the shop, finding himself a small room with quite...dusty smell and feel to it. The merchant was old, lines adorning his face, gray hair being thin and beard long. He looked up, not recognizing the heir to the throne, instead he sensed an aura of power and brilliance.
"May I help you, kind Sir?" in few, shakey breaths, the man asked. Akashi turned his attention to the things that were put in the corner of the shop, what his sharp eyes caught through the window.
There weren't four but five petrified, frozen in stone dragon's eggs. Inky one being first from the left, and next to him laid smaller ocher egg with distinctive lines. In the middle laid the egg he failed to see properly because of the shadow, sepia colored one. Two remaining ones were emerald green, and the big one was dancing between the lavender and a plum.
"Are they the dragon's eggs? Not artificial ones?" Akashi asked raising his arm to touch the red one.
"Yes, Sir. They're fossils I've found in the southern forest. I must warn you though, they're expensive. Ever since the dragons disappeared, their eggs have been very rare and desired souvenir."
'A stone.' Akashi thought, caressing the scarlet eggshell, the baby inside long dead.
"I want them. All five of them." he suddenly declared, giving a look to Nijimura.
"All five of them?" The merchant asked shocked.
That day, the enemy lounged forward and waited no more than ten miles from the Capital.
That day, the slaves started their rebellion inside the walls. Those without freedom had the earnest of hearts.
The emperor's reign was at it's dusk.
Forrest surrounding the Capital was ostensibly calm, sun falling down as the night spread it's quietude. No houses, no animals when from the both east and west armies waited. Capital's and usurper's, tense as the violin strings waiting for a clash. Miles away, screams and whispers of terror echoed trough the night. Caravan stopped in its way, futile try at defense from the inhuman strength of it's attacker.
"No, please. I'll give you all the slave-." merchant's head has been cut clean off, crimson liquid soiling the earth. Tall and vicious, man in black ran his eyes trough the crowd of bodies, limp and lifeless.
Each and every body wearing coffee brown scarf, sign of exile from the Capital. Man's eyes searched around, knowing it won't be an easy task, especially when child might not even be here. Two years is much when you search for a shadow.
"Do not fear me, phantom. I am here to save you."
Nothing, no sound, just a chilly wind.
"Battle for the Capital will soon start, if I do not take you away from here you might not live. Did you hear me, little phantom?" man's voice was a mixture of both mockery and genuine concern.
"I have failed the task you gave me, master. That's why I'm hiding." he heard damp voice behind him, closer than he'd think, how could the boy do that over and over?
"No matter." he turned observing two moonstones that shone in the dark. His pale skin gave him empyrean impression, truly a phantom.
"Soon, the emperor will fall, and undisciplined rebels led by that impudent boy, Wakamatsu, will take over. He's but a pawn, tossed and swirled around fingers of two very scheming clans that desire the throne. Once they put him there, to obey their every whim, I will need your assistance, my dearest."
Kuroko Tetsuya shivered, his head bent down, again he is asked to...
"I cannot do...that anymore."
Hooded man smiled a sad smile indeed, it wasn't fitting, turning his elegant face into monstrous grimace. " That's why you were born little phantom, to be my shadow and clear the path I shall take."
The next chapter might be...gory? Also, there will be some character's deaths...But I won't be able to update quickly due to exams...
I will not tell you who the hooded man Kuroko was talking with is...until the time comes xd
What do you think:3?