Those who Favor Fire
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
Notes: Little Boy finished radiation today! They gave him a tee-shirt that says "Okay, I finished Radiation, now when do I get my superpowers?" Radiation has been much easier on him than chemo, he's pretty much back to his old self and there's only one more course of treatments to go!
Chapter Ten: Friendship
Trapped alone in his memories Angel tried to fight his way back to the present.
"I heard the shower running three times last night," Lightning commented as he and Angel fixed their breakfast.
Angel grimaced. "Did you happen to overhear Mother's weekly call as well?" he asked.
"Naw, can't stand the old bat's screeching."
"Mother isn't so bad, if she'd just admit you don't have enough demon-blood to count."
"But if that's what it takes to find out what's bugging you…" Lightning suggested.
"She wants me to get married and produce an heir before I get myself killed," Angel said. "She's even found the girl. I'm certain Mother mentioned her name sometime during the call, but it didn't stick."
Lightning finished scrambling the eggs and split them between two plates while Angel sliced up some fruit and made toast.
"Mother picked this girl, there's no chance she hasn't been thoroughly vetted. Impeccable family, appropriate skills, not even a vague possibility…" Angel trailed off without saying, 'that she's another succubus like Daphne was.'
Lightning watched Angel poke at his food without actually eating any of it. "The Academy cut Sally's stipend again," he remarked after several minutes passed without Angel adding anything on the subject of marriage.
"What?" Angel exclaimed. "She can barely pay the rent on that atrocious apartment as it is. Beyond that, both my Japanese and Latin are excellent now, even my German's becoming passable. She won't let me hire her as a language tutor for much longer."
"And the Academy refused to hire her on as a sparring instructor again this year," Lightning remarked. "They don't want to expel her for being afraid of demons, not when cutting back her stipend will get rid of her with much less fuss."
"Do you think we could convince her to tutor me in Japanese history?" Angel asked. "It might be valuable to know. The Tokyo division of the True Cross has been gaining importance since merging with the Myodha two years ago."
"Or you could propose to her," Lightning suggested.
Angel glared at him.
"She's your friend. You like spending time with her and you trust her," Lightning pointed out. "She's not some 'suitable' girl your mother picked out whom you've never met and who- who won't care!"
"It would be for the best," Angel said.
Lightning sighed. "I checked Sally out when she stopped being just your student. Her story's perfectly true and she's got fewer ties to Gehenna than you do. I even checked out that kid of hers, lazy little shit but when his grandparents manage to motivate him he's got the makings of a Knight-prodigy, Sally's athletic ability is probably somewhat genetic... And the kid's a Tamer, so her problem with demons isn't."
"You've put a disturbing amount of time and thought into pairing me off with her," Angel said. "I wouldn't be any good for her."
"Tell me one thing: Does your skin crawl at the thought of being married to Sally?" Lightning asked. He took Angel's expression as a negative. "Your mother's not going to let up until you've got a kid and we're going to run out of ideas for keeping Sally from starving without offending her pride. So marry her, it would solve both of your problems."
"Until I die and Mother throws her out," Angel pointed out.
Lightning grimaced, "First, try not dying. Second get an airtight will drafted to just to be safe."
"It's a terrible idea," Angel protested.
Lightning shrugged, "People get married for worse all the time."
Several weeks later Angel and Lightning met Sachiko for lunch as had become their habit.
Sachiko watched Angel stabbing his food with more intent to mutilate than eat then turned to Lightning and asked, "Have you sussed out what's bothering him yet or should I try asking this time?"
Angel dropped his fork. "It's nothing you need worry about," he said eyeing Lightning nervously.
"No, no, I think having a female opinion on the matter could only help," Lightning declared.
"I will murder you," Angel threatened.
Lightning cheerfully ignored him, "You see Sally, Arthur's family is the old fashion type. Since he hasn't found himself a wife by the ripe old age of twenty-one, his mother's busily arranging a marriage for him."
"You object to the girl?" Sachiko asked.
"How could I?" Angel replied. "I've never met her. I really should admit to Mother that I was so surprised by the news that she'd arranged a match that I missed hearing the girl's name."
"You should have an omiai- um, a meeting, to see if the two of you think it could work out," Sachiko advised.
"Arthur doesn't think he's a particular good prospect, if the girl is looking at his personal qualities rather than his family," Lightning interjected helpfully.
"You're far from the only man with a career that would keep him away from home," Sachiko said turning to Angel with a frown. "You're certainly pleasing to look at and you shouldn't pay any attention to those silly children who think that following rules makes a person dull," she scolded.
"So you wouldn't-" Lightning started to ask only to be cut off when Angel shoved the table into his chest with enough force to knock the air out of him.
"It's not that," Angel mumbled.
Sachiko glanced between Lightning and Angel, "I know there isn't anything to the rumors about something between the two of you..."
"If I weren't obligated to produce an heir I'd gladly join a monastery and swear off sex altogether," Angel grumbled. "I don't want to get married and I don't want children but it's not as if I have a choice in the matter," he glared over his over his shoulder at Caliburn.
"You could concede the bet, surrender your soul and those of your predecessors to me," Caliburn offered. "I doubt any of your descendents will surpass you, perhaps because you made me wait for so long to taste you."
"Why do you have to talk?" Angel asked Caliburn irritably. "You're both the reason I have to marry and the reason it will never work out."
"Left to their own devices Arthur and his mother would pick someone more interested in being his widow than his wife," Lightning explained flatly. "Which is why, as his friends, we should get involved."
"What?" Sachiko exclaimed.
Angel sighed. "Caliburn's power is unlocked by sacrifice: hair, blood, life. He holds the souls of eighteen of my ancestors in trust, if I die without producing an heir or without finding a battle he can't win their souls and mine are forfeit. And Caliburn will find another family to offer his deal to.
"My mother hasn't smiled since I was eleven..."
A small boy, not quite twelve years old, peered nervously into the darkened foyer which was dominated by a polished black coffin. Light from the hallway illuminated the boy's golden hair as he glanced over his shoulder. Seeing that he was unobserved he crept up the aisle formed by rows of folding chairs standing ready for the funeral to come on the following morning.
The coffin was placed on the raised landing at the front of the foyer, the main doors barred until the funeral was complete and the pallbearers had escorted the dead to his final resting place. The boy wavered at the foot of the stairs for a moment then continued on. He went up on tiptoes, his small hands grasping the edge of the open coffin to stabilize himself and peered inside.
The man looked composed, his hands crossed over the hilt of a massive sword that vanished beneath the lower lid of the coffin. But his hands were wrapped in red silk and the boy knew the cloth covered a welter of cuts, culminating in the ones that had taken his life. His hair, a shade darker gold than the boy's, was cropped so short his scalp could be seen. Four days ago, when the man had taken his leave from his family, his hair had almost touched the floor. The boy reached over his shoulder to tug on the long plait that already reached his waist.
"You've never cut it," a disembodied voice said in covetous tone. "All your life you've been preparing yourself for me. Little Angel, have you come to see your future? Are you my next?"
The boy jerked back from the coffin in alarm.
"Don't be afraid," the voice said soothingly. "I'll never take what you don't willingly give. I am patient. Why shouldn't I be? Your father, his father and his father's father all fed me well and in time they all gave me their lives. You will as well, I have no reason to hurry."
"Caliburn," the boy said acknowledging the demon sword with wary caution. "I will be the next to inherit you, but I won't use you. I'll depend on my own strength, not yours."
"The choice is always yours my sweetest little Angel," Caliburn replied calmingly. "The choice is always yours. I offer you glory and power beyond your dreams. I give of myself unstintingly and ask so little in exchange, just a small taste of you, a lock of hair, a drop of blood. You needn't feed me your life's blood any time soon. I was almost convinced that I would lose your great great great grandfather to old age, he was fifty-four before he found a battle he would trade his life to win. As with your forebears I swear to you, with me in your hand, with your life's blood on my blade, you will win the battle you choose as your final battle. Not even the famed Excalibur could offer such an oath."
"I don't need you," the boy reiterated. "The Grigori says we're not going to rely on demons to fight demons anymore."
"Whatever you choose, little Angel," Caliburn replied and the boy decided to ignore the laughter underlying sword's voice.
Two days later Arthur Auguste Angel stood on the same raised landing in the main foyer of his family's ancestral hall where his father's coffin had stood and formally received custody of the demon-sword Caliburn which his ancestors had tamed for Assiah's defense.
Several weeks after the subject of Angel's engagement first came up Sachiko set a folder on top of the mission report Angel was working on. "I took the liberty of contacting your mother about your prospective fiancee," she said.
Angel huffed in irritation, "If I'm too busy to think about that you two should certainly have better things to do."
Lightning, sitting on the window sill with a book propped up on his knee, pretended that he hadn't heard.
"It would be courteous to show a bit of interest in this woman as you plan to marry her," Sachiko overrode Angel's protest. She flipped open the folder to reveal a picture of a woman with short dark hair and large dark eyes staring grimly at the camera. "Although, I have to say, she does look a bit sour."
Reluctantly Angel picked up the photograph.
"Her name is Victoria Blackwood," Sachiko began. "Like you, she's from a long established exorcist family. She received her masho in a traditional ceremony for her family when she was nine and graduated from the True Cross Academy of London at sixteen with dual Meisters: Knight and Dragoon. Her preferred weapon was a rapier." Sachiko's nose wrinkled in distaste at the other woman's choice of swords. "She also has a proven aptitude as a Tamer with a hereditary affinity for the Kingdom of Decay but she has never applied for the Meister."
"She had three older brothers, an Aria-Tamer and two Knight-Tamers," Lightning interjected without looking up from his book. "All three died on missions for the True Cross. The family blamed their familiars but the missions where they died, well, I won't call them suicide missions but they didn't send the right people to survive them."
"Sometimes the right people aren't available when the mission has to be done," Angel said.
"Her parents both died on the Blue Night," Sachiko resumed, her voice soft. "Later that year her team was ambushed. She survived but suffered injuries that left her right side weak, both her arm and leg were affected. She was forced to retire from active duty. She's served the True Cross in an administrative capacity ever since. She's twenty-eight, that's a bit old for you, but I suppose you'll have children immediately…" Sachiko trailed off with a wistful expression on her face.
"Something wrong?" Lighting inquired, setting his book aside.
"It's nothing," Sachiko replied too quickly, drawing Angel's attention. She sighed. "Renzo just turned seven. I still picture him as my little baby but he's already in school."
"Arthur's mother wouldn't consider their age difference relevant," Lighting contributed. "She's resigned herself to him dying within the decade."
"It's a reasonable assumption," Angel said defensively. "Almost all of Caliburn's wielders have died in their twenties. I've been aware of that fact since I was a child. I remember we held a huge celebration when my father turned thirty, he'd beaten the odds. It seemed like a cruel joke when we buried him not two years later."
In the awkward silence that followed Sachiko neatened the pages in the file. Lightning made no pretense of doing anything other than waiting for the conversation to resume. "On paper she seems like a good match for you. You should keep an open mind when you meet her," Sachiko said. She glanced at Lightning, "Just because your mother suggested her doesn't make it a bad match."
"She was hospitalized twice after being pulled from active duty, tried performing off the books exorcisms on her own recognizance," Lightning stated, an edge to his voice. "Ought to keep that in mind if you're planning on her ending up a single parent."
"I've made arrangements with your mother for you to meet Ms. Blackwood next week, we have permission from the Academy to use that Key/Gate thing for the trip," Sachiko said.
"We?" Angel asked.
"How else can I be sure that you'll attend?" Sachiko replied innocently. "And Lewin is just naturally nosy."
Sachiko marched angrily out of the omiai tugging Angel after her. Lightning sauntered along behind them. "I can't believe that woman," she declared. "All she wanted to talk about was Caliburn."
"I am a fascinating subject," the sword said. Angel rolled his eyes.
"Shut up!" Sachiko snapped. She stopped long enough to turn around and face Angel. "You can't marry her. Any child you might have with her would be nothing more than a means for her to get Caliburn's power."
"I know."
"I wouldn't it past her to poison Arthur as soon as their child was old enough to wield a sword," Lightning contributed helpfully.
"Lewin Light, just because you were right, it's no reason to be acting smug," Sachiko said with a scowl. "We still have to deal with this mess." She turned back to Angel, "Your mother wasn't even bothered by how that woman was acting."
"I imagine she wishes she could view Arthur so coldly," Lightning said. He turned to Angel. "You know she never got over your father's death."
Angel had been about to protest but he sighed instead. "I realize that you two don't like it, but I've accepted that I won't have a long life. Mother's only acknowledging the truth."
"I do understand," Light said. "Neither you nor your mother want anyone else to be hurt the way you were. I know you tried not using Caliburn, tried putting off the problem for some other generation to solve and that didn't work thanks to my lovely mother. I know your mother thinks that she's found a means of containing the damage. I'd even sympathize with her if her solution wasn't to sacrifice you."
"I'm already past saving," Angel argued. "Mother's just being realistic."
"You're not dead yet!" Lightning snapped.
Angel started to argue but Sachiko cut him off, squeezing his arm. "It's not just you, Arthur," Sachiko said. "If you have a child with someone like that your child will suffer too, and their child after them."
Angel's shoulders slumped. "What do you propose I do instead?" He frowned at Lightning, "Don't you answer. I already know what you think."
Sachiko bit on her lower lip for a moment then said. "Promise me that you'll do your best not to get killed any time soon and I'll marry you. And Lewin, I've already told you to stop looking smug."
"You didn't even look," Lighting remarked.
"I didn't need to," Sachiko replied.
"Why?" Angel asked.
"I like you and... you're planning on having a child. I miss my son, Arthur. I'd like another chance to be a mother, to see my child's first steps, to hear his first words, to see him leave for school for the first time."
"Sachiko, I've already sold my soul. The only way I can win it back is to find a battle that Caliburn can't win. If I fail our first born son will inherit Caliburn and the abbreviated life-expectancy that goes along with him. You've already lost one husband and a child, why would you risk marrying me? "
Determination filled Sachiko's eyes. "Takezo died when he was twenty-one. Victory Blackwood's three brothers all died before they reached twenty-five. In a night, thousands of exorcists all over the world died. And even if I leave the world of demons and exorcists behind there are still illnesses, accidents, earthquakes, typhoons. There is no certainty in life, no path that provides a guarantee against suffering. If you build your life around attempting to escape pain, the fear of uncertainty will become it's own form of suffering. If I live only to avoid pain, I may as well give up on life altogether. If you can't promise me that you won't seek death, then promise that you won't sell your life cheaply."
"You could always marry Lighting," Angel argued. "You're as close to him as to me."
"First Lewin isn't looking to get married or have children. Second he isn't thinking about marrying someone who would take our friend from us or at the least hurt him," Sachiko replied. "You're determined to marry someone, love plays no role in your decision and I don't think I'm strong enough to trust love a second time, but at least together we'd be married to someone we like."
Harold Tiberius Angel was born slightly less than a year later.
Angel blinked slowly, trying not to give away that he'd awoken until he could take stock of the situation.
"Rin," Yuri said seriously. "I know you've been raised to think that demons are evil, I was put through the same brainwashing when I young. I know that's why you think it's okay that the humans treat you the awful way that they do, but it's not okay. Come home to your father and I. We're your family, we love you. We'll show you that priest was a liar, there is nothing wrong with you."
Rin gave his mother's shade a look of betrayal. "Satan killed my dad. I'll never forgive him for that," he declared.
Yuri's chin raised stubbornly, to Bon her mannerisms were startlingly reminiscent of Rin's. "And Fujimoto Shiro killed my friends to force me to go back to the Vatican with him. He delivered me to my execution. I'm glad his guilt kept him from murdering you too, but he got what he deserved. It should have been me in your childhood memories, not him. I should have gotten to hold you, to watch you grow up. I wouldn't have raised your brother to think his humanity puts him above you."
Rin couldn't say anything. He'd come to recognize that Shiro hadn't been perfect, but he also understood that Shiro's mistakes in raising him had been just that, mistakes and well intentioned ones at that. To hear his mother say that the man who'd loved him as a son had deserved to be murdered… Rin was beyond words.
"Lucky for Rin that you didn't raise him," Bon jumped into the gap. "What could you have taught him? To hide in a haunted forest and hate all humans? Rin's better than that."
Rin drew strength from Bon's presence at his side. "I'm sorry Dad hurt your friends," he said quietly. "But I know he tried to do the right things, even if he didn't always succeed. He use to tell me I got my sense of justice from you, but Shiro's the one who taught me to be forgiving. I wish someone had done the same for you."
Yuri looked sad. "My poor baby, you only think that because you're so tightly bound that you can't even see how you've been enslaved, forced to betray your own kin. You don't understand the insidiousness of the bonds. Even as they wrap you in chains they force you to love them." Then she smiled tremulously. "But your father's lent me the power to save you." She joined hands with Iblis and his flames turned blue.
"Separate them!" Karura exclaimed.
Angel rolled to his feet, drawing and bloodying Caliburn in a single smooth movement. "Angel Slash!"
Iblis smirked and a horde of low level demons threw themselves into the path of Caliburn's attack, spending their lives to shield Yuri and Iblis.
A whip of blue flame reached for Rin. Bon tried to strengthen their barrier but with Satan's power flowing through Yuri and into Iblis' attack his effort was for not. The blue lash wrapped around Rin's neck and he screamed.
A tear trickled down the side of Yuri's nose. "I know it hurts, baby," she told Rin. "But it has to be done. Your father's flames alone can't break oath bonds, but they can burn away the lies and leave them revealed for the chains they truly are. It's only when you see the truth that you will fight to be free."
Rin struggled, he felt the flames Yuri controlled overwhelming his own to attack the bonds he'd forged over the last few years. As the emotions that filled them were stripped away the bonds he'd worn so easily became chains. Cold duty unrelieved by affection or desire. The weight of his chains drove Rin to his knees.
And then his memories rushed in to fill the void the flames had left behind.
Author's Notes: Way back in "Walk me through the Valley" Spyro pointed out that I needed to clarify exactly how the Blue Flames could affect Oath Bonds. I've finally gotten back to that.