Author's Note: My computer is borked and being repaired, which means a lot of half-done chapters are inaccessible. I'll probably just rewrite them, like this one, but it's going to take time. Sorry everyone.
Roxas sighed to himself as he slowly sipped his coffee. The dark, heavy brew was bitter and thick on his tongue. It was very good coffee but the style of it was unfamiliar.
Everything in Hyra was unfamiliar. It had been almost a week and Roxas thought he was adapting well. His sunburn was almost healed and he was getting used to the sun. The customs weren't really hard to understand although it was a bit deflating to discover that the 'barbaric' culture of Hyra had a written history at least a thousand years longer than his own kingdom. Apparently, 'barbaric' only meant 'far away and strange.'
The one main problem he was having was trying to keep the Royal family straight. Axel was the eighth son but he wasn't the last. There were ten princes in all from the King's eight wives, the maximum number any man could have. The youngest two were the twin boys who had almost run into him on his first day. Their birth had been considered particularly auspicious, since it had avoided the unlucky number nine. The girls were nowhere close, with only six daughters. Unfortunately for Roxas, the King was almost seventy and most of his sons and daughters were married. The sons had mostly married lesser nobility and prominent merchant's daughters, while the daughters were married to the merchants themselves. In Roxas' home that would have been impossible, unless the marriages were morganatic, but Hyra looked at that custom with amused disdain. For a very long time Hyra's Royal family had been spurned by other Royals, so they made alliances where they would.
For Roxas, that meant there was a horde of in-laws and children to try to keep straight as well as the Royal family themselves. His head was swimming with names and faces. Fortunately no one really expected him to remember yet, but he needed to master it. One of the few people he had fixed into his memory was Prince Axel.
Axel was a conundrum for him. Roxas liked him. He really did, but the Prince was… not the kind of person he should like. He was an alcoholic. Roxas had been slow to realize that since Axel was rarely staggering drunk, but he was drinking all through the day. He had coffee and liqueur with breakfast, wine as a snack, wine with lunch and more wine and spiked coffee with supper. It didn't affect him much throughout the day but that didn't save Axel from being a drunk. His 'job' in the palace seemed to consist of being a gopher for his father. Which wasn't too bad, exactly, but wasn't good compared to the responsibilities his siblings were shouldering.
Roxas sighed then reminded himself to be grateful. If Axel weren't largely free of responsibilities, the redhead wouldn't have been able to show him around. With his father's permission, Axel was spending almost all of his time with Roxas. Even if the redhead wasn't the sort of person he would admire normally, Roxas knew he would have been lost without him.
So now he was waiting for Axel to finish his magic lesson. That was the one commitment the King would not allow Axel to forgo. Roxas had been told it was because Axel was an absolutely awful wizard and needed all the help he could get. He hadn't asked the redhead about it - that would have been unconscionably rude. But he believed it. Even Axel's mother took it for granted that her son was incompetent with magic.
Roxas sighed, looking into his coffee again. He needed to make more friends. He really liked Axel but the redhead just wasn't reliable.
To Roxas, that was important.
"Prince." The breathy voice pulled the redhead out of his musings and he blinked, realizing he'd been staring at the plate of baked cabbage far too long. "You must pay attention if you wish to complete this properly." Axel lifted his gaze to the arch-mage beside him. He was not human, but rather a Jorta. Instead of the robes a human wizard would wear his shell had been inlaid with a pattern of gold and lapis lazuli that signified his status.
"Yes Master." Axel said respectfully and the Jorta clicked his claws in what Axel recognized as a time reminder. Turning his attention back to the plate he began his spell again. It was a multi-part spell and very difficult, like most of his 'parlor tricks'.
Axel commonly did tricks for his family, sometimes over supper. Most of his family thought of his as a glorified secretary and very poor wizard. They didn't realize how much effort actually went into messing up his tricks in entertaining ways. The few wizards to visit the royal family thought he was just a lucky idiot. Only his father, his oldest brother and his wizard brother knew differently. Well, and his Master. But Jorta simply didn't gossip. It was one of their most admirable traits and the reason Axel had asked one of them to teach him in the first place. Master Jashwil knew exactly what he was doing, of course. Jorta rarely practiced such indirection… status was too important to them… but it was far from unknown.
Recently Axel had been stepping up the act. He'd always pretended to be a gadfly with no thoughts in his head aside from clothes, food and wine. That wasn't hard since he liked clothing and food always had been rather important to him. The wine, though, was a sham. He'd never drank half as much as everyone thought. Turning wine into water wasn't a hard spell. It resulted in some nasty, brackish stuff but Axel had learned to drink it without so much as a twinge. Lately, he and his master had been working hard at perfecting a new spell. It was designed to counteract the effects of dream smoke. They were also working on a second one designed to take care of the effects of arcanite. That was proving particularly challenging and Master Jashwil had admitted that it might be impossible.
Dream smoke was a white powder. Manufactured by the T'assa of the Tawny Islands, it was a religious sacrament for them. It also had a much different effect on the plant people than it did on humans. For the T'assa it induced hallucinations and a state of euphoria, but the crash was absolutely terrible. A T'assa coming down from a dream smoke high would experience violent nausea, tremors and cold sweats. Taking more wouldn't help, either, it would only intensify the nausea. So T'assa indulged in it quite rarely and only for certain religious rituals. For humans, the drug acted differently. It created a dreamy state that could be renewed again and again. Chronic users would forget to eat and bathe. The plant people were predatory in nature and in their own society, drug addicts were not long for this world. They had nothing but amused contempt for anyone who would succumb to such a thing and saw nothing wrong with supplying humans with the drug. The King had banned the stuff but there was a lively underground trade in it… a trade Axel aimed to infiltrate. To do that he would have to pretend to be taking it.
Arcanite was quite different but equally troublesome. Related to the arcane silver, it was mined up in very small quantities and kept carefully separate. It was supposed to be delivered to the collegium of the arcane, but Axel had heard hints that some of it was going elsewhere. That was bad, because arcanite could be used to fuel far more powerful rituals than the silver. It also could be used to enhance a wizard's strength. The second use was addictive and could go very badly for everyone since insanity was one of the effects of long term use. Axel thought it might be possible for him to infiltrate the underground trade in it since he was known for being rich, alcoholic and quite bad at magic. Just the sort of person who might turn to arcanite for help.
"Excellent." Axel looked up from his work with a smile. The spell was complete and his Master was testing it. "It is suitable. The taste?" Axel picked up a piece of baked cabbage and popped it in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. Jorta were carnivorous and carrion eaters as well, so his Master could not try the dish. It tasted exactly like cabbage but Axel didn't eat the rest.
"I'm sure everyone will love it." Axel said and snapped his fingers to signify his amusement. The Jorta returned the clicking pattern as Axel tossed out the food.
"Yes indeed." Axel and his mentor exchanged a few pleasantries before Axel departed. The arch-mage could only spare a limited time for these private lessons, but that was fine. The personal attentions of such a teacher were very expensive. Quickly mounting his viara, Axel headed for his favorite coffee shop. There would be a pretty young blonde waiting for him there.
"Roxas!" Axel greeted the boy like a long lost friend, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. To his surprise Roxas returned the greeting and Axel felt an odd shiver at the feel of soft lips against his skin. Then he shook it off and smiled. "You're getting used to our ways."
"It's not that hard. Just a little embarrassing." Roxas said with a smile and Axel laughed, taking a seat across from him. The waitress, a pretty young thing in filmy purple silk, poured him a drink. Axel sipped it and thanked her before turning his attention back to Roxas.
"I can imagine. We do things differently here." Axel knew that in the North, such a greeting between two men simply wouldn't happen. Two women, possibly. "So how has your day been?"
"Not badly." Roxas said but Axel caught the flash of discontent in his eyes and face. Roxas had been here only a week and he was settling in well, adapting to their customs. But that wasn't all the boy needed to be happy. "Your sister was showing me how to weave a tapestry."
"Was she?" Axel knew which sister Roxas meant without asking, although he had six of them, all of them half-siblings. Only one of them was into weaving. "That's woman's work, but if you have a talent for it your efforts wouldn't be wasted." Axel said politely, popping a few sugar cubes into his coffee. Hyra society was clearly delineated in some ways, and a man taking up weaving was not really socially acceptable. On the other hand, no one would dare say so to a foreign prince. Roxas shrugged.
"I don't think I would find it interesting. I almost wish I would." Axel paused in stirring his coffee, lifting an eyebrow at the blonde. "At least then I would have something to do." The blonde sounded almost depressed.
"Ah." Axel's mind raced for a moment as he considered that. He understood exactly where Roxas was coming from. In a way, he was playing the part of a noble who had nothing to do and was wasting himself in alcohol and frivolous pastimes. Could Roxas go that way? Axel winced away from the thought. It was one thing to pretend to be useless, another thing to actually be useless. "Hmm. You're getting an allowance from Cloud, aren't you?" Roxas frowned and nodded, clearly wondering why he was bringing it up. "You know, you could invest that. Get into business."
"Business?" Roxas looked shocked at the idea and Axel wondered why. "That's not something royalty does!"
"Excuse me?" Axel said dryly and Roxas had the grace to look embarrassed. "This is Hyra and Royalty does whatever it pleases. Or have you forgotten that one of my brothers is a merchant?"
"Uh, I'm sorry." Roxas mumbled and then rallied. "What could I invest in, though?"
"Hmm. That is a good question." Axel sipped his coffee and thought for a long moment, running through everything he knew. It was quite a lot. "Textiles are always good. Seems like the women can never get enough and the best silk is made in the Arista, across the Darkened Sea. If you saved up you could fund a trip. My brother could recommend a reliable sea captain. There would be the danger of losing it, of course - the sea is fickle - but if you managed to get in a load you could easily triple your investment." Axel sipped his coffee again before pulling out a flask and tipping a bit of creamy liquid into it. Roxas looked away and Axel smiled to himself, wondering how the blonde would react if he knew the 'liqueur' was actually nothing but milk and spices. "Or you could fund a caravan to Jabara, but I wouldn't recommend that." Axel's distaste was obvious and Roxas eyed him curiously. "That's for the slave trade. The arcane silver and salt mines are… arduous. Even when conditions are as good as possible, slaves tend to wear out." That wasn't something Axel liked to think of. In the past, Hyra hadn't practiced slavery much. Unfortunately the digging conditions in the mines were terrible. That was almost inevitable considering they were in the worst part of the Anvil. Even with magics to cool the mines and great caravans carrying them water, it was appalling. No free man would choose to work in such conditions, so great slave caravans regularly came to Hyra. Roxas winced but said nothing and Axel knew why. The Northern kingdom had great slave plantations. "There might be other opportunities but I can't think of them offhand. You should talk to my brother. He can point you to an up and coming merchant or artisan who just needs a bit of funding to get started."
"Perhaps I could open a shop." Roxas mused and Axel smiled, pleased at the way his mind was going. "A restaurant? Do you think Northern cuisine would sell here?"
"Maybe. But can you cook?" Roxas shook his head and Axel laughed. "Best not to then. Not many restaurants make it. You know, something good to open would be a spa." Roxas looked very surprised at that and Axel continued. "There's only one I know of in the city and it has a waiting list for membership. Or so I've heard, I've never been there." The royal palace had it's own spa facilities, including a beautiful pool of crystal clear, cold water. Roxas looked very thoughtful.
"I'll need to save up for a while for that." Was all he said and Axel nodded. Setting up a spa was not cheap, especially since it required quite a lot of magic to purify and cool the water. Axel hesitated a moment then made an offer.
"I can do the spells for you if you decide to do that." Roxas shot him a distrustful look and Axel gave him a charming smile. "I'm really not as bad as people say. But if you don't trust me, I could ask my mentor to do it." Master Jashwil would charge him for it, but the King would take care of it. Roxas suddenly seemed to think of something and looked at him curiously.
"You seem to know a lot about business. Where did you find out about all this?" He asked and Axel hesitated, then answered easily.
"Oh, just my brother. I listen, you know? And sometimes I do things for him, usually with the arcane silver. I'm pretty plugged into the magical community." The truth was, he was far more plugged in than his older brother. He might be an arch-mage but he was also a studious sort and didn't like to go to parties and other social events. Axel had far more friends, particularly among the apprentices and younger wizards. Roxas was looking at him oddly and Axel wished he hadn't shared that. Usually he wasn't so loose lipped… but something about Roxas made him want to talk. "Nevermind that though. We should get going." Axel set down his empty coffee cup and stood smoothly. "You don't want to miss any of the concert!" They were going to an open air concert and market. It was a weekend event in the summer, staged by the smaller artisans and farmers. People flocked to it, looking for deals and unique items. They would mostly be disappointed but it was always an amusing place to go on the rest days and full of unusual entertainments. Roxas laughed and stood, pulling on his headdress and adjusting the folds easily.
"I'm ready." He said, smiling to himself as he followed Axel out of the café. The redhead's enthusiasm was infectious and Roxas was really looking forward to the concert. Axel mounted the viara easily and gave him a hand up. Roxas slid his arms around Axel's waist as they rode, marvelling at how skinny yet muscular the redhead was. It made him wonder what Axel would look like without his robes, but so far he hadn't seen that. It was only a matter of time though. They both used the pools in the palace. It was a nice thought but Roxas carefully set it aside. Axel was a wonderful friend and a nice person, but he just wasn't reliable enough to contemplate having as a lover.
And that was a shame.