Author's Note: Here is the first real chapter of this fanfic. Yay! Hope you like it, and please let me know your opinion (Review). Oh! And I apologize if there are any grammatical errors, English is not my native language.
Disclaimer: The universe of Magi and its characters do not belong to me. I just own the plot and the original characters that pop out in the story.
Chapter one: The Red Flame's curiosity
If someone wanted to tell a story, one should start from the beginning, then move on to the middle and conclude with the end, or so Artemisa supposed. Sadly, those weren't her intentions, even if she did want to tell her story. She simply couldn't start from the beginning, because if she did, the end would never come, and that was something she couldn't afford. Therefore, she had to find a point in her timeline from which she could start, and that was exactly what her companions and her did. A simple choice. They would not start from the beginning; neither would they start from the end. No, Artemisa would start her story from the moment things started to become interesting. A moment that would be marked in history… Well, she wasn't so sure about that last bit, but Kouen seemed adamant about it… That mighty king… Still, it was quite the moment, even she had to admit that, after all, it was the first time of many in which her colored fate brushed against the Red Flame's burning one.
It was summer. The hottest season of the year, and Artemisa's most hated one. By far, she preferred the autumn, with the leaves falling soothingly, or winter, white snow falling and covering every surface. Yeah, those were seasons she liked, summer wasn't for her, but she had to live with it, since it was part of the natural order. So, when summer came, she chose to remain inside, in the shade. Not that she could do that at the moment, she and her companions had just been ordered by the innkeeper to go sigh-seeing. Somewhere along the way, she had lost both Jolimar and Orion, thus she had decided to do something she liked. That something being nothing else than buying Torran manuscripts in the black market. It had cost its fair amount of Huang, but it was worth it. An Alma Torran manuscript was priceless. Even if it wasn't historically accurated.
"Finally, my deserved peace and quiet." And it was surprisingly so, after she had moved out of the busy Main Street from the major city of Kou in which she was staying. It was quite the surprise, since the city had been submerged in chaos from the moment the news of the 'Entei' visiting for the Imperial Tour. Kouen, the red flame, Entei, the flame emperor-to-be… Such a curious name. Curious to the point Artemisa wondered if his father had given the Prince that name in purpose, or if it had been all a part of fate's games. And while she would like to think the former was true, she supposed that the latter. Fate had its way of working things out. Still, the Red Flame, lived up to his curious name being an even more character. Always being followed by war, shredded in mystery, and she had to meet him. Not as a fanatics wish to meet its master, Artemisa had to meet it for another reasons. She needed to meet him to know if he, and his country, deserved their help, or not. A delicate decision that had fallen in her shoulders and in the ones of a magician with a cheesy smile and an eternally annoyed Fanalis.
Sighing once again at the idea of her decisions affecting the flow of rukh, Artemisa rolled the eyes and glanced at her surroundings, finding herself at the middle of one of the city's many bridges. A bridge that was strangely deserted.
"Strange…" Mumbling softly, she reached for the script in her bag and opened it carefully, almost trembling with the curiosity that shook her to her very core.
"Let's see… This is combination forms the name of Solomon….. And this part tells about his last days of reign…" She knew that both, reading the manuscript at plain sight and mumbling it's meaning outloud weren't the brightest of the ideas, but her curiosity had gotten the best of her, making her lower her defenses. A big mistake. But she was in the middle of a deserted bridge, nothing interesting would happen in a deserted bridge… Or so she hoped, a naïve hope, now that she thought about it.
"What do you have there? Is that a Torran manuscript?" Jumping in surprise, Artemisa glanced precariously to the stranger that had spoken out, a tall red haired individual with an intimidating presence. (Or was it carmesi? She had never been good at identifying the different shades of red perfectly.)
"….." He hadn't been there from the start. Had he? And if he did, how had the mysterious character known that it was a Torran manuscript? Hell, how did he know about the Torran language in general? The information about Torran Tribes weren't accessible to everyone. "…..Are you a pervert historian…?" He was closer than social norms allowed, and his goatee was pretty creepy… A shame really, he was quite handsome, and it seemed that he was knowledgeable too.
"How dare you say that about the First Prince Kouen!" Was that a creature of Alma Torran? Gods, that would be splendid if it was, she missed her talks with other species. Sadly, she knew that was impossible, the last members of other intelligent species were djinns, therefore the only explanation was the he was an household vessel.
"Hold up a moment…. Did you just said First Prince Kouen?" Well damn. She was in trouble… Insulting the future Emperor wasn't something that would be forgiven easily, and Artemisa knew that. But… Surprisingly enough, Kouen wasn't as scary as she thought he would be. Impressive, yes, regal, yes, powerful, hell yeah. Still, even if he did look like a king, there was something missing… Ren Kouen would become a great emperor, but he could not become the King of the World… Or maybe that was just her opinion, since she couldn't help but to compare him to Solomon, in which Kouen wasn't that impressive.
"….. First Prince Kouen?" Repeating this slowly, she took a step back (Mostly because the Prince was breathing in her neck and that was giving her chills) and tilted her head in astonishment. The nod from the one she had thought a pervert confirmed her fear, she was doomed.
Rolling the scroll back to its original farm, she turned to the judge of her fate and bowed deeply. Maybe she could get the other to forgive her. "I apologize, Your Highness. I just arrived to the Kou Empire, therefore I don't really know much about the royal family." Artemisa hoped that was a good apologize… She had added the politeness needed, but somehow it had sounded a little dry… Curse her hate to bow down to someone that wasn't her own king. It seemed that she had to talk to Orion later for some acting classes, she desperately needed that skill.
"And answering Your Highness question, indeed, the scroll I have in my hands is a manuscript of the Torran language, I just acquired it." Hey, she had already insulted the royalty of the country, she at least could tell the truth about that matter.
"And do you understand it? You seemed to be reading it quite thoroughly." … Or not. The shiver that had suddenly traveled her spine told her that she had committed a terrible mistake. Something was cooking up in his pretty little mind, and with the looks coming from what she supposed were his Household Vessels, she had to answer his question, or a world of came would came upon her.
"Yes, sir. For certain… Reasons, I am able to speak the Toran language, write it, and read it." There was no way she would tell him that she was from a Torran tribe, not now, she was already in trouble and that would only make things worst… She supposed. She had to have some secrets, and that didn't count. That was more of a conspiracy.
"You will work in my library as an archivist, and you will organize the Toran manuscripts in my possession by importance… Of course, you will teach me the language, too." Yes, she was right, she was in deep trouble. Jolimar was going to kill her, and Orion would never let her live down the moment in which she pretty much compromised their missions.
"Wait… What?" She had got to stop spending all her time with her companions. She loved them to death, and beyond that, but they weren't exactly the best when it came with to quick retorts.
"You heard me, didn't you? And let me clarify. This is an order, and you have no right to deny it." Would she be in extreme trouble if she hurt him, even just a little? Normally she would like to have a conversation with people like the Entei, but she did not like to be ordered by anyone other than her king. And he was without a doubt not her king.
"I am sorry for refusing the request, but I am travelling with other two companions and if they don't accompany me, I cannot possibly accept." Glaring coldly at the Prince, Artemisa almost huffed with indignation, but she was better than that and she knew that. "And, what would people think if a commoner started teaching the First Prince?" That last part was a long shot, and she knew it, since the vessels expression had turned to an angry indignation, and the soldiers accompanying him had already unsheathed their swords. They could try to kill her, she just wouldn't let them take more than one step towards her. But in comparison to his Generals, Kouen seemed strangely amused, not mad, nor annoyed: amused.
"Sheath your swords, they won't be necessary. Miss….?"
"Artemisa… Artemisa Shima." She understood the irony, having the last name that literally meant 'island', when she had been born in an island.
"Well, Shima-san, what would you think about coming to the Kou Palace with your friends? I will arrange to give him the commodities they need, in exchange for your knowledge. " He hadn't argued about the comment she had thought was a long shot, letting her know that indeed, that could be a problem indeed, but she couldn't deny that last offer, since that was just what her companions and her needed to find out the information their trio needed.
"….. I accept."