Axel rushed to Roxas's chamber, pulling the curtains aside. Sol was not yet up, so no light would flood the room.
"Roxas, Lady Xion is arriving at noon." Axel hissed. Roxas was unmoved, but Axel could not touch him to shake him.
Axel glanced around the room, looking for something to wake Roxas with. He finally clapped his hands loudly, startling Roxas to wake.
"How dare you, I-" Roxas began, but when he met eyes with Axel he seemed to melt into content. "Morning, Axel."
"Sorry I had to wake you in such a way, but Lady Xion will be arriving." Axel replied.
"Oh right, I forgot she was coming today." Roxas sprung out of bed, going over to his closet. "Let's see...I think I'll wear this." He handed Axel a crisp clean toga to be dressed in.
Axel stripped off Roxas's sleeping robes and changed him into his toga.
"I won't be able to formally introduce you two since you're a slave, but hopefully you can gather that she is a wonderful young lady." Roxas reminded him.
"Yes, of course," Axel nodded.
"Xion will be a perfect wife for someone other than me," Roxas murmured.
Axel felt tempted to ask why Roxas would say such a thing, but at that moment he was swept away by his duties.
When noon arrived, Axel followed Roxas and Ansem outside the villa to greet their guests.
A litter carried by four slaves stopped in front of the villa. Out stepped Lord Xaldin, whom exchanged greetings with Ansem and Roxas before going inside with Ansem.
Following Lord Xaldin was a girl maybe Naminé's age, wearing a dark blue toga that fell to her ankles. She was adorned in many jewels and gold necklaces. Her hair was choppy and short, and on her head was a gold marital crown in the likeness of a laurel wreath.
"Greetings Lady Xion," Roxas bowed.
Lady Xion curtsied in response. "Good morning, Master Roxas."
"Shall we join our fathers for the midday meal?" Roxas offered his arm to escort the noble girl.
"Saïx, come along." Lady Xion announced.
From behind the litter came another slave as an escort.
Axel's blood turned cold and his hungry stomach constricted when his eyes fell upon the slave: his appearance matched the one of Isa's in Axel's dream.
The slave met eyes with Axel, and recognition flickered in the slave's eyes.
"Axel, come along." Roxas ordered.
"Yes, Master." Axel agreed, following him inside.
After the midday meal, Lord Xaldin and Ansem discussed politics and business in the atrium while Lady Xion and Roxas strolled about the garden.
Axel stood by the house, facing the garden though not permitted to go into it.
"Lea...is that you?" A voice asked behind him, and Axel turned to find the slave whom had escorted the two visitors.
"Isa...? It can't be, I thought you-"
"Were captured in the war? I was, unfortunately." Isa interrupted.
"I was sure you were dead all these years...what happened to you? What's that scar? What happened to your eyes, your ears?" Axel could barely keep himself from spilling his words.
"The same that happened to you with those tattoos: branding. They also stripped me of my name, I'm no longer Isa but rather Saïx." Isa replied.
"I see...they named me Axel." Axel answered. "What did they do to you, where were you kept all these years?"
"I changed hands very often until I wound up in the care of Lord Xaldin. He has been the least wrathful, as I have not sustained any permanent mutilations." Isa, or Saïx, let his hand waver over his face and ears. "Where did they keep you?"
"I was sold to a gladiator school just south of here," Axel explained, "they trained me to fight for entertainment."
"A cruel world for captives of war, is it not?" Saïx wondered. "Unfortunately we will never be free, nor were we free in Gaul."
Axel stared out at the garden. "Did you think of me all those years?"
"Of course I thought about you, you were my best friend. When I was captured I knew it was impossible to reunite with you, but still I never truly stopped hoping."
"Did...did you ever think of me as something more?" Axel wondered.
"More than a best friend?" Saïx repeated. He thought for a moment. "I perhaps thought of you as a brother...why do you ask such a thing?"
"I never stopped thinking about you, either. For years I've had the same dream about you: you drown in the middle of a river. But last night, you returned from the river, looking as you do now. You...you called me a traitor and choked me to death." Axel explained. "Do you see me as a traitor?"
Saïx thought for a moment in silence. Axel felt his heart drop into his stomach.
"It was understandable that you could not come looking for me," he replied slowly, "so I at least can understand that."
"But you think I'm a traitor?" Axel insisted.
"Lea..." Saïx murmured, "you never came looking for me, did you?"
"Don't call me 'Lea' like that, and if it had been possible I would've."
"Oh, but it was possible. But you didn't give me a second thought. Do you know why I have this scar, or why my eyes are no longer the color of the sea? They told me with each new mutilation that I would learn my lesson, but of course I never did. I believed in you, I believed you would've ran no matter what the cost. So I kept running, Axel, I searched for years trying to find you again." Saïx growled.
Axel's blood chilled in his veins. "I'm...sorry."
"Be sorry all you want, but I'll forever know that you never once thought to defy the rules and come after me. I said I thought of you as a brother, and I knew you thought of me as something even more than that. Why didn't you push on that feeling, why did you just let it settle like sand at the bottom of the river that you let me drown in every night? For once, the great rule-breaking Lea followed the rules, and look at what it cost him." Saïx sneered. "Did you really believe it was hopeless to come looking for me, or were you just scared? Because if I remember correctly, you used to say nothing scared you. Nothing."
With that, Saïx glanced up at the sky. "Excuse me, I must gather my mistress for the evening meal."
Axel followed him to gather Roxas to come inside.
In the midst of the garden, the slaves overheard the conversation between their owners:
"We are to be married in only a few months' time..." Xion said softly.
"Are you not excited for the affair?" Roxas wondered.
Xion did not speak for a moment, then answered, "Do not misunderstand me, but I am quite apprehensive about it."
"I cannot misunderstand, for I feel the same way." Roxas admitted.
"Does it ever seem that you are nothing but a puppet in your father's game?" Xion asked.
"Now this I'm not sure I understand."
"Roxas, what kinds of things would you do if you had the freedom to?"
Roxas now held a silence, until he said, "I suppose I'd do anything I wanted, like...I've always admired the way gladiators fight in the arena. Father would not let me learn to fight, since I am a noble and therefore have no need for combat skills. What would you do?"
"Please do not take this wrongly but...I would like to fall in love properly, without being pushed to marry first." Xion added.
"Fall in love? With whom would you fall in love with?"
"Anyone I wanted," Xion smiled, "of course, I would probably take favor in you..."
Roxas chuckled and looked away from her gaze. "You flatter me, Xion."
"But it is the truth." Xion affirmed. "Who would you fall in love with?"
Roxas shifted for a moment, as if weighing the consequences of his possible answers. "I'm not quite sure."
Xion didn't seem to take offense in his answer, and he seemed to relax at this.
"My lady, it is time for the evening meal," Axel watched as Saïx suddenly appeared from behind a grove of trees to meet them.
"Yes Master Roxas, please come inside as well." Axel agreed, following Saïx's example.
"I see. Come, Lady Xion." Roxas offered his arm to escort Xion into the house, while the two slaves followed behind them.
The family gathered around the low table for the meal. Axel and Saïx stood by the wall, observing the meal and overhearing conversations.
Naminé and Xion were engaged in some conversation on their own, while the men discussed more politics and business. Ventus and Roxas found themselves somewhere in the middle of the divided room, but the two leaned more toward the masculine conversation.
At Ansem's request, Ventus was to permitted to drink only two goblets of wine to remain civil. Begrudgingly, Ventus sipped on his wine.
When Sol had returned to his palace and Luna took her place in the sky, Lord Xaldin and Lady Xion took their leave and returned home.
As Axel helped Roxas change into his sleeping robes, Roxas observed, "You seemed to go rigid earlier when you caught sight of Xion's slave."
Axel couldn't help but go rigid at his observation. "I-it was nothing, his appearance just gave me a chill."
"It's more than that, you've gone stiff even now when I mentioned him. Who is he?" Roxas insisted.
When Axel did not reply right away, Roxas added, "You can tell me anything, I'm not going to tell anyone."
"He was my best friend when I was a young boy." Axel explained. "We were soldiers in the Gaul army, and during a battle with the Romans, he was captured. I was too scared to look for him, and eventually I was captured and brought to the gladiator school. I believed he was dead for so long, until he appeared today like a ghost to haunt me."
"I see..." Roxas nodded.
"It hurts more because he believes I'm a traitor for not going to look for him when he tried so desperately. That's why he looks so different now, he was tortured each time he tried to escape. And...he knew I loved him as even more than a brother." Axel couldn't help himself from spilling out his past like an open wound spills blood. Roxas had pierced into him.
"He was your lover?" Roxas repeated.
"Not really, but I did love him..." Axel admitted. "But now we are strangers to each other. He does not even consider me family anymore."
Roxas sat in silence for a moment. "I understand, and I'm terribly sorry that had to happen..."
"What's done is done," Axel decided, "I just have to find someone else to put above everything since I failed to put Isa above everything."
Roxas parted his lips for moment as if to make a suggestion, but closed them promptly.
"I suppose, as your slave, I am to put you above all." Axel said to him.
"I can't force you to choose me over everything." Roxas shook his head. "In fact, I'd prefer if you didn't choose me, especially as my slave."
"But...I want to put you over everything." Axel insisted. "Slave or not, you're all I have now."
Roxas's cheeks suddenly became flushed, and Axel wondered if he had somehow contracted a fever.
"Are you alright?" He wondered.
"Yes, I'm fine..." Roxas replied, "thank you for choosing me."
Translations
- Familia Supra Omnia - Family above all