When the time came, everything went as Fei Wang Reed hoped. He met with the prince in the tower, who reacted exactly as expected. He met with the prince among the corpses, who barely uttered more than a few words before his twin brother came crashing down to the cold, hard earth.
Fei Wang Reed watched dispassionately through the space-time rift as the living twin shattered emotionally, broken as completely as his brother's body. Seeing his brother die before his eyes had destroyed him. He clutched his twin's corpse, hugging it to his chest, and became as malleable as Fei Wang Reed had expected.
Surprisingly, the shocked boy experienced a few moments of hesitation when told of his future role, but Fei Wang Reed played upon his hopes and fears with great skill. For his brother, this child would do anything, even promise to commit murder. What did it matter to him if he betrayed people he didn't know?
At that moment, he was so vulnerable, so lost, so willing to grasp at any straws offered.
He had balked at the idea of murder, but Fei Wang Reed had adulterated the boy's memories so that he believed his wish to escape had caused his brother's death. That made him a murderer already, Fei Wang Reed told him ruthlessly. What was one more, and of a stranger, at that? Someone who had murdered his own twin brother had no right to suddenly develop a sense of morality.
And the boy had agreed.
Fei Wang Reed gloated. Children were so gullible, so easy to deceive.
So easy to break.
Fei Wang Reed made sure the child knew what was needed about his mission. He explained to the child about the coming journey, the companions who could not be trusted and might need eliminating, the memory feathers which held great power. The boy agreed to everything. There was no more argument.
"Very well, we have an agreement," Fei Wang Reed said. "Now, pass your brother through this rift."
The child looked shocked all over again. "No, no, I don't want to be separated from Fai!" he protested shrilly.
"You must. Your prison will soon break and time will move forward again. His body will rot."
"I want to take him with me!"
"He," Fei Wang Reed very carefully did not say "it," though that was how he regarded the pathetic corpse, "cannot go on your mission with you. He will rot no matter where you take him. His body will be nothing but a burden to you." Fei Wang Reed considered the stubbornness he saw, and finagled, "I won't be able to revive him if he rots. It will make his death permanent, and even going back in time won't change that. He will stay dead forever."
It was an illogical statement, but the child was so rattled, so traumatized and upset, that he took it at face value. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "Oh, oh no," he moaned, and buried his face in his brother's filthy hair. "Oh Fai, oh Fai..."
"I will preserve him for you. I will not let him rot. He will wait for you to complete your mission. When it is all over, you will have him back, alive and whole."
Beaten down, the boy nodded. With jerky, resistant movements, he stood and dragged his brother to the edge of the rift.
"Push him through," Fei Wang Reed ordered. "There will be some resistance, so you must push hard."
The boy did as he was told. The membrane that separated their worlds, and kept Fei Wang Reed away from the boy, gave a burp-like sound as it engulfed the small, frail form. Then the dead child rolled into Fei Wang Reed's private little world. He looked down at it, keeping the disgust from his face.
He would, indeed, keep his promise to prevent this unsightly corpse from rotting. He might need to use it to manipulate his pawn further. He would save and preserve the body until all his plans succeeded.
He returned his attention to his young minion. It was time to reveal to the child his new living arrangements.
"Very well. Now you will go to another country," Fei Wang Reed told the boy, "and there you will wait until I call upon you to begin your mission."
"A-another c-country?" the boy stammered. "Not the mission?"
"No. You will wait, and live, and grow up. You will learn many things there, not least of which will be to use magic. When the time comes for your mission, you will be ready." More than ready, Fei Wang Reed gloated. "Someday, two of the memory feathers will fall into your new home. You will keep them, and make use of them on your journey. You will know them by their magic, and you will know what to do with them."
"When will the feathers arrive?"
"I do not know exactly. You must watch for them. Do not let them become lost." Fei Wang Reed thought that was really all this child needed to know. When he matured, he would be capable of scheming with the feathers to fool his fellow travelers. Fei Wang Reed had foreseen that this guileless child would soon become quite skilled at deception. "When all that must be done in that world is finished, I will send you on your journey."
"Another country," the child mused.
"Yes, another country. You will prosper there. Your life will be greater than you can dream."
The child's eyes widened, and he looked frightened again. "But I'm a twin... I bring misfortune. Even if I go somewhere else..."
"That decision was made by your world, by Valeria. Your new home will be another world entirely."
"But..."
"You need not consider that further. All will be well. You will have a place waiting for you there. Another child has recently died, and you will replace him."
"Replace him?"
Fei Wang Reed smirked. "You will be my changeling."
"But they'll know..."
"They will know nothing. That child had a long fever. He was delirious before he died. Anything odd you say, any mistakes you make in the beginning, will be attributed to that." It had been simple to create a place for his pawn. The fever had been easy to induce with a minor curse, and medicine in that world had not been able to affect a magical ailment.
"But I don't look like him!" the boy wailed. "I look like me!"
Fei Wang Reed repressed a sigh of impatience. He had other plans to further, and wanted this farce over and done with. "Do you think a magician as supremely powerful as I am would not consider that problem? Rest assured, the people there will believe you are, truly, that child."
The good people of Peaksville, Ohio, had been weak of mind. It had been but a trifle to alter all their memories. Now they believed that their boy had always looked like this child. Fei Wang Reed almost grinned. They didn't even remember that their boy had died. That child lay forgotten in a cold grave, at the back of their community cemetery. No one would ever remember that he had ever existed.
"However, before you go, you must cut your hair." Fei Wang Reed threw a small knife at the boy's feet. "Go on, hurry up."
The child caught up his straggly hair and looked mulish. Still too much spirit, Fei Wang Reed decided. How did the child manage that after everything he had been through? Had the shock worn off already? It was a good thing, Fei Wang Reed thought, that he was keeping the fraternal corpse to use against this child. It might very well be needed at some point in the future.
"Cut it," he ordered again. "No boy in that place has hair as long as yours. They will notice it, no matter what I do. You will fail in your mission before you have even begun. And if you fail, your brother..." He let his words trail off suggestively.
The implication was crystal clear to the child. His eyes grew wide and tragic, and he hurriedly sheared off all his long locks. The resulting haircut was a ragged mess, but the good people of Peaksville would assume that no one had cut the boy's hair while he'd had his fever, and would put things to rights.
Satisfied with the show of compliance, Fei Wang Reed continued, "Your new name will be Anthony Fremont. You will have two parents. You will address your mother as 'Mom' and your father as 'Dad.' Do you understand?"
The child looked confused. "Mom? Dad? I don't know those words."
"They are words commonly used for parents in that part of their world. The real Anthony used them."
"Oh."
Fei Wang Reed then tossed out a specially prepared necklace, a gray pendant stone on a plain metal chain. The child caught it before it hit the ground. Fei Wang Reed had taken great care when he had fabricated that charm, and had not used any precious materials. The child was not going to a wealthy family. Anything too fancy or valuable would be out of place in Peaksville, Ohio. The amulet had a spell on it to make it inconspicuous, but there was no point in taking unnecessary chances. "Put it on," he commanded.
"What's this?" the boy asked, but he followed orders and looped the chain around his neck.
"A translation phlebotinum," Fei Wang Reed answered with precision. At the boy's blank look, he clarified impatiently, "A magical charm to translate language and the written word. The language used in your new home is different than the one you speak now. This charm will even make your facial movements appear to match up with the translation of your speech. You will use it until you learn their language well enough to pass." He scowled forbiddingly. "And you must learn their speech and writing. Do not think to rely upon this charm for your whole life. What if you forget to wear it? What if you lose it? Although I will be quite disappointed in you if you lose it."
The boy cast his gaze down, his shoulders bowed.
"You are intelligent," Fei Wang Reed told him. "You will learn."
The boy nodded wordlessly.
As a farewell gift, Fei Wang Reed placed the first curse on the boy, the curse to kill the first magician he encountered who was more powerful than him. The child looked upset again, and Fei Wang Reed altered his memories, so he would not recall that he bore that curse. It would make things easier.
Fei Wang Reed was still disappointed that he could not apply the other beautiful curse he had created, but using it would be disastrous for his new plans, and nullify everything he had accomplished with this child. The wizard king's fate was now sealed, and Fei Wang Reed couldn't have the child vanishing along with the king. Not after expending all this effort.
He then opened another space-time rift. The boy gasped and shielded his eyes against the brilliant light that streamed through the opening.
"You will go through now," Fei Wang Reed told his minion.
The boy looked terrified. "What's on the other side?" he asked, his voice hoarse and wavering.
"Your new home."
The child stared at the rift, apparently frozen with fear.
"I said, go through, now!" Fei Wang Reed snapped out, using his voice like a cracking whip to lash the child into action. The boy took one step, then another, and then the light engulfed him and he was gone.
Sighing with exasperation, Fei Wang Reed closed the rift. Children were so difficult to manage. But at least this one could follow orders. And soon, soon that little boy would discover his own magic, and he would set out on the road to power. He would be both god and demon in that small world, becoming everything Fei Wang Reed wanted him to be. The transformation was all but inevitable, now.
There was only one obstacle left; he needed to make one more move to ensure the child's future, a move that would eliminate a game piece from the cosmic board.
But first, he needed to do a little housecleaning.
Fei Wang Reed looked down at the corpse lying awkwardly on the black floor. With another sigh, he summoned a created minion to remove the body to a holding room, where the preservation spells could be applied, and where he wouldn't accidentally catch sight of the distasteful eyesore.
Additional Notes:
The term "phlebotinum" originated from a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" staff writer. At least, that's what Joss Whedon has claimed. It refers to a convenient plot device that allows things to work smoothly, which the writers hope the audience won't question. It amused me to have Fei Wang Reed call his magical translator a phlebotinum. Besides, it seemed better than having him sprinkle magic pixie dust on Yūi, but that could just be because I have a warped sense of humor. And yes, Mokona in TRC is exactly the same kind of phlebotinum/convenient-translation-plot-device. At least Yūi's phlebotinum doesn't chatter inanely.