:: Satin Blaze ::
Sorcerous Stabber Orphen
Sequel to Velvet Flames
Disclaimer: I don't own Sorcerous Stabber Orphen or any of the characters mentioned.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Orphen+Azari, Hartia+Krylancelo, Rai+Hartia, eventual Orphen/Majic
Warnings: AU, shounen ai, language, some gore
Notes: I'm not sure if I'm teetering in the edge here with the rating, so... Tell me if I need to either raise the rating or tone down the violence, mmkay?
D-chan's not as sick anymore! She had her ears [painfully] cleaned out, but her sore throat's fading and she can talk now, so...
And school's over until January 7th! WAI! *claps* Winter break! Christmas! PRESENTS! XD And Kiana's coming to visit for those two weeks, so... MORE YAY! ^_^ So if the updates between now and the 7th are fewer than before, I'm sorry. Most likely I'm being distracted by my friends or cousins. ^^;
It was near pitch black outside with little moon to provide light. What light was in the sky filtered through the dusty window of a rather small room, throwing silver across the scuffed floorboards. It was rather bare with nothing to show it belonged to someone but a small photo on a scratched dresser.
There was a soft thud of a door closing that startled another occupant of the room awake. He blinked, hand coming up to rub his eyes. He hadn't meant to fall asleep; that had been an accident. He stood from his sitting position in a chair he'd brought in from his own rented room. It was chilly and he wasn't wearing much more than what he'd worn earlier that day, but he'd been in colder places. He'd be all right.
After glancing at the sleeping boy under the covers (which hadn't been pulled up before; perhaps that had been Bagup leaving and he'd done it himself) Orphen walked over to the dresser.
He held the photograph up in the moonlight to get a better look. It was amazing the boy even had one; photos were hard to make and could take up to a year to complete perfectly.
Clearly it had been taken at least ten years ago. A smiling woman was holding a blonde-haired boy in her arms; the child couldn't have been more than two. Majic and his mother, obviously. Bagup must have been the one to take it since he wasn't in the picture, but from the angling moonlight it was hard to see Majic's mother's features. Orphen tilted it a little, but then it was thrown into shadow. He snorted softly; how typical.
"Nnm," a blonde boy moaned softly, shifting restlessly beneath his covers. Orphen set the photo back down before going back to his seat, spinning the chair so that the back faced the surely awakening boy and straddling it backwards.
Blue eyes opened slowly, looking dazed. "Where...?" Majic mumbled sleepily, an arm coming up to cover his face. There was a long pause before he suddenly sat up, turning to look at Orphen. "What--?!"
Anticipating the outburst, Orphen's hand covered the boy's mouth just in time. "Hush," he hissed. "If you wake up the guests, you'll lose business. You don't want that for your father, right?"
Majic nodded slowly and the older sorcerer deemed it safe to remove his hand. He did so and the first thing Majic whispered was, "What time is it?"
Orphen shrugged. "I dunno. I fell asleep myself... But it can't yet be midnight; your father just left."
"Oh..." Majic turned his head away to stare at the coverlet. "Um... Orphen-sama?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you here?"
The brunette scoffed slightly. "Good question. I mean, it's not like I care about my pupil-to-be, right?"
Majic's head jerked up, his eyes stricken with guilt. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean--"
"Shh," Orphen warned him. Being the obedient boy he was, Majic fell silent. "I was teasing. Don't take everything so seriously, all right?" He received a small nod in reply. Inwardly, the amber-eyed male snorted. Majic was seriously whipped... But when he thought about it, a lot of that influence might have come from Flameheart. Well, it would certainly explain why the boy was always so edgy around him, right?
It was a good enough answer for Orphen. Now he didn't have to feel so guilty. "So what happened?" he asked mildly. "Your father was pretty worried, you know."
"I know," came the almost feminine reply. "I... I don't know why I... I'm sorry," he stammered, face tinted oddly. Had it been brighter Orphen was sure he could be bright red, but as it was, it was hard to tell.
God, couldn't the kid ever just give a straight answer? Orphen opened his mouth to snap at him, but wilted as the memory of a bloodstained corpse came to mind. Never mind it was just a dream; it had seemed so realistic it was frightening. He settled for sighing heavily. "I just want to know what happened, that's all," he finally said.
"Why?" Majic asked suspiciously.
Well, he honestly didn't have a good reason. So he settled for the truth. "Because I'm curious."
It was Majic's turn to sigh. He shifted beneath the covers, one knee coming up for him to rest his elbow on. Then the other came up and he hugged them to his chest, resting his chin. "I was just doing what Father asked," he whispered. "I was moving the crates to the storage room and... I overheard these two customers talking." Guilt spread through his features. "I'm horrible, aren't I? Eavesdropping and all..."
"It's human nature," Orphen returned simply. "Go on."
Mildly startled, Majic complied. "Um, well... I heard them talking about my mother. She had a baby before me, but... I guess she... She miscarried or something."
Orphen was silent for a long while. Now he remembered why Totokanta had sounded so familiar. Once, during a history lesson, it had been mentioned that the most recent sorcerer killing had occurred in a faraway town called Totokanta, where a pregnant sorceress had been stabbed through the belly. She had managed to heal herself, but the baby had died by then and there was no hope of reviving the dead, back then or even now. It was a cruel thing to kill an unborn child, thought Orphen in disgust.
Not only that, they hadn't allowed her to bury the fetus, or even cremate it. It must have been messy, but they'd simply packed it in a box and thrown it in the nearby river. What a horrible thing for the mother to go through...
"I see." No, he wouldn't tell Majic the details. They would only frighten him further. "And that's why you fainted?"
Majic looked embarrassed again. "No," he protested. "I just... I realized that if THAT baby had been born, I never would have existed..." He swallowed. "Have you ever thought of that, Orphen-sama? Of not existing? What would you be? Would you be some inanimate object of the world or... Just nothing? Is there a place for unborn souls?"
Orphen blinked, surprised. That was awful deep thinking for such a young boy; perhaps Majic's mentality was a bit more advanced than he'd ever given him credit for. Even still, he lacked the common sense older people had, not to mention he was still a child in so many ways. Naturally such an unfathomable thought would frighten him into shutting down for a short while.
"I don't think about that kind of stuff," he replied. "It's depressing."
"You don't like thinking of depressing things?"
"No," Orphen replied, slightly annoyed. Hadn't he just said that?
"Then..." Majic trailed off, looking uncertain. "Why do you think of Azari-san so often?"
Orphen frowned but quickly shoved his temper aside. It was late; Majic was half-asleep and didn't know what he was saying. He could refrain from decking the boy just this once. "Because she was like my sister."
"And you loved her?"
Orphen blinked, taken aback. He knew Hartia had known, probably Rai as well, but how could the golden-haired child have possibly found out? Hartia wasn't the type to tell everyone personal secrets; he would rather tease them about it in private. Rai didn't care to gossip and would have said it was none of Majic's business... So how had he found out? He hadn't been THAT obvious, had he?
"Yeah," he admitted.
Majic leaned forward, causing the older sorcerer to lean back reflexively. "Like sister or like girlfriend?" he pressed, looking anxious.
Now Orphen was uncomfortable. The truth was, both were correct. Azari had been like an older sister to him since he was a child, but over that time his brotherly fondness turned into... Something else. Even at twenty years of age he wasn't completely certain it was love... But if nothing else, yes... "She was like a very close sibling."
Perhaps Majic realized he wouldn't get a more elaborate answer, for he simply nodded and lowered his eyes. Then suddenly his face coloured and he jerked back, as though realizing how close he'd unintentionally gotten.
Unsure of what to say in the awkward moment, Orphen scratched the back of his head. "Ah, well... You can sleep alone now, can't you?"
Looking dejected and trying to hide it, Majic nodded. The older male felt that stab of guilt and the dream-memory coming back, but he forced himself to ignore it. However, he did allow enough of it to let him say, "Good night, Majic."
"Orphen-sama..."
The sienna-eyed sorcerer shut the door behind him, leaning against it for a few minutes. Part of him felt guilty, though he couldn't begin to explain why. But there was Majic, clearly struggling to come to terms with his own life, and he'd just walked out.
But he wasn't a baby and he shouldn't have been treated like one, the other part of him argued. And while Orphen was going to become his teacher, he was far from becoming a guardian, and teachers had to keep themselves distanced from their students. That was the only way they'd live and learn, by not getting either party involved in each others' business... Right?
Somehow, he felt uncertain about that.
"UWAAAAAH!"
The loud scream seemed to echo throughout the entire tavern. Orphen rolled right out of bed, smacking his head on the corner of the nightstand. He swore violently, rubbing the sore spot and finding a bit of blood. He snarled softly; the scream had sounded an awful lot like Majic. And it wasn't anywhere near noon yet! The boy was going to PAY for this.
Orphen hastily dressed, storming out only to find most of the other customers doing likewise. Some were grumbling, others were murmuring, all were curious as to what the commotion was about.
Annoyed and too impatient to wait, Orphen muttered, "Ware odoru, ten no roukaku." In a flurry of faintly shimmering traces of magic he disappeared, reappearing downstairs and in a safe corner where people hadn't crowded yet.
He saw Majic at the front door, broom forgotten at his feet and fists clenched. His face was pale, his eyes wide and horrified. Frowning, Orphen walked over to him; no one dared stop him. "What's going on?" he demanded.
"Why are you waking us up so goddamn early, you brat?!" a cranky teenager called.
"Shut up," Orphen snapped, his patience wearing thin quickly in the early morning. He was generally unpleasant and hard to get along with, but mornings could make him particularly nasty and he could easily lose his temper and rational thought.
"O... Orphen... S-sama..." Majic stammered, pointing a trembling hand on the front step. Orphen blinked and stepped forward, kneeling to get a better look.
Blood splatters decorated the dust and step, dripping from what looked like a baby pig that had been stabbed brutally. It couldn't have been born more than a few days ago; its skin was still soft and smooth with only the barest hint of baby fuzz. It had been mutilated beyond immediate recognition, and it didn't take a genius to connect this event to another.
Of course, Majic had no idea how his could-have-been brother or sister had been killed, so he was simply horrified that someone had done this. Only a cruel person could do this, and on Christmas morning! They must have done it sometime during the night; the blood wasn't exactly fresh.
A heavy sigh sounded from behind him. Orphen glanced back at Bagup, who was shaking his head sadly. "It was foolish to think sorcerers have been fully accepted in this town," he said.
Orphen agreed. There were still people out there, perhaps much more than half the town. After all, they'd been hating sorcerers so long, why should they stop just because the most influential person in town said to? It wasn't a dictatorship; they didn't HAVE to accept him... But they certainly could pretend to.
"I don't understand," Majic said shakily. "What does killing a baby... What does murdering..." He swallowed, clenching his eyes shut and finally gathering the nerve to speak. "What does THAT have to do with sorcerers? Father?"
"Never you mind," Bagup said firmly. "Go back to bed, Majic. I'll open the tavern this morning."
"But--"
Orphen stood and placed a firm hand on the boy's shoulder. "He said go to bed," he reminded him. "I'd suggest you listen to your father." He gave a small shove. "Come on."
With one last helpless and pained look at the dead animal, Majic nodded and relented, though the older sorcerer didn't remove his hand and continued to steer him to his room. "Back to bed," he told everyone else. "It's none of your concern."
He frowned faintly; some of the nearer ones were trying to hide their smiles. One of them, perhaps all, could have been connected to the sick joke... But this was no time to be pointing fingers.
"To bed," he repeated, giving the young teen a final gentle push. Majic turned around and opened his mouth to protest, but Orphen leaned close and murmured in a voice only he could hear, "I'll demonstrate some magic later if you go to bed now, I promise."
That settled the problem instantly. Majic's eyes lit up for the first time in days. "All right, Orphen-sama," he said eagerly, frantically fleeing to his room. Orphen shook his head, smirking.
Bribery was a very useful tool indeed.
Sorcerous Stabber Orphen
Sequel to Velvet Flames
Disclaimer: I don't own Sorcerous Stabber Orphen or any of the characters mentioned.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Orphen+Azari, Hartia+Krylancelo, Rai+Hartia, eventual Orphen/Majic
Warnings: AU, shounen ai, language, some gore
Notes: I'm not sure if I'm teetering in the edge here with the rating, so... Tell me if I need to either raise the rating or tone down the violence, mmkay?
D-chan's not as sick anymore! She had her ears [painfully] cleaned out, but her sore throat's fading and she can talk now, so...
And school's over until January 7th! WAI! *claps* Winter break! Christmas! PRESENTS! XD And Kiana's coming to visit for those two weeks, so... MORE YAY! ^_^ So if the updates between now and the 7th are fewer than before, I'm sorry. Most likely I'm being distracted by my friends or cousins. ^^;
It was near pitch black outside with little moon to provide light. What light was in the sky filtered through the dusty window of a rather small room, throwing silver across the scuffed floorboards. It was rather bare with nothing to show it belonged to someone but a small photo on a scratched dresser.
There was a soft thud of a door closing that startled another occupant of the room awake. He blinked, hand coming up to rub his eyes. He hadn't meant to fall asleep; that had been an accident. He stood from his sitting position in a chair he'd brought in from his own rented room. It was chilly and he wasn't wearing much more than what he'd worn earlier that day, but he'd been in colder places. He'd be all right.
After glancing at the sleeping boy under the covers (which hadn't been pulled up before; perhaps that had been Bagup leaving and he'd done it himself) Orphen walked over to the dresser.
He held the photograph up in the moonlight to get a better look. It was amazing the boy even had one; photos were hard to make and could take up to a year to complete perfectly.
Clearly it had been taken at least ten years ago. A smiling woman was holding a blonde-haired boy in her arms; the child couldn't have been more than two. Majic and his mother, obviously. Bagup must have been the one to take it since he wasn't in the picture, but from the angling moonlight it was hard to see Majic's mother's features. Orphen tilted it a little, but then it was thrown into shadow. He snorted softly; how typical.
"Nnm," a blonde boy moaned softly, shifting restlessly beneath his covers. Orphen set the photo back down before going back to his seat, spinning the chair so that the back faced the surely awakening boy and straddling it backwards.
Blue eyes opened slowly, looking dazed. "Where...?" Majic mumbled sleepily, an arm coming up to cover his face. There was a long pause before he suddenly sat up, turning to look at Orphen. "What--?!"
Anticipating the outburst, Orphen's hand covered the boy's mouth just in time. "Hush," he hissed. "If you wake up the guests, you'll lose business. You don't want that for your father, right?"
Majic nodded slowly and the older sorcerer deemed it safe to remove his hand. He did so and the first thing Majic whispered was, "What time is it?"
Orphen shrugged. "I dunno. I fell asleep myself... But it can't yet be midnight; your father just left."
"Oh..." Majic turned his head away to stare at the coverlet. "Um... Orphen-sama?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you here?"
The brunette scoffed slightly. "Good question. I mean, it's not like I care about my pupil-to-be, right?"
Majic's head jerked up, his eyes stricken with guilt. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean--"
"Shh," Orphen warned him. Being the obedient boy he was, Majic fell silent. "I was teasing. Don't take everything so seriously, all right?" He received a small nod in reply. Inwardly, the amber-eyed male snorted. Majic was seriously whipped... But when he thought about it, a lot of that influence might have come from Flameheart. Well, it would certainly explain why the boy was always so edgy around him, right?
It was a good enough answer for Orphen. Now he didn't have to feel so guilty. "So what happened?" he asked mildly. "Your father was pretty worried, you know."
"I know," came the almost feminine reply. "I... I don't know why I... I'm sorry," he stammered, face tinted oddly. Had it been brighter Orphen was sure he could be bright red, but as it was, it was hard to tell.
God, couldn't the kid ever just give a straight answer? Orphen opened his mouth to snap at him, but wilted as the memory of a bloodstained corpse came to mind. Never mind it was just a dream; it had seemed so realistic it was frightening. He settled for sighing heavily. "I just want to know what happened, that's all," he finally said.
"Why?" Majic asked suspiciously.
Well, he honestly didn't have a good reason. So he settled for the truth. "Because I'm curious."
It was Majic's turn to sigh. He shifted beneath the covers, one knee coming up for him to rest his elbow on. Then the other came up and he hugged them to his chest, resting his chin. "I was just doing what Father asked," he whispered. "I was moving the crates to the storage room and... I overheard these two customers talking." Guilt spread through his features. "I'm horrible, aren't I? Eavesdropping and all..."
"It's human nature," Orphen returned simply. "Go on."
Mildly startled, Majic complied. "Um, well... I heard them talking about my mother. She had a baby before me, but... I guess she... She miscarried or something."
Orphen was silent for a long while. Now he remembered why Totokanta had sounded so familiar. Once, during a history lesson, it had been mentioned that the most recent sorcerer killing had occurred in a faraway town called Totokanta, where a pregnant sorceress had been stabbed through the belly. She had managed to heal herself, but the baby had died by then and there was no hope of reviving the dead, back then or even now. It was a cruel thing to kill an unborn child, thought Orphen in disgust.
Not only that, they hadn't allowed her to bury the fetus, or even cremate it. It must have been messy, but they'd simply packed it in a box and thrown it in the nearby river. What a horrible thing for the mother to go through...
"I see." No, he wouldn't tell Majic the details. They would only frighten him further. "And that's why you fainted?"
Majic looked embarrassed again. "No," he protested. "I just... I realized that if THAT baby had been born, I never would have existed..." He swallowed. "Have you ever thought of that, Orphen-sama? Of not existing? What would you be? Would you be some inanimate object of the world or... Just nothing? Is there a place for unborn souls?"
Orphen blinked, surprised. That was awful deep thinking for such a young boy; perhaps Majic's mentality was a bit more advanced than he'd ever given him credit for. Even still, he lacked the common sense older people had, not to mention he was still a child in so many ways. Naturally such an unfathomable thought would frighten him into shutting down for a short while.
"I don't think about that kind of stuff," he replied. "It's depressing."
"You don't like thinking of depressing things?"
"No," Orphen replied, slightly annoyed. Hadn't he just said that?
"Then..." Majic trailed off, looking uncertain. "Why do you think of Azari-san so often?"
Orphen frowned but quickly shoved his temper aside. It was late; Majic was half-asleep and didn't know what he was saying. He could refrain from decking the boy just this once. "Because she was like my sister."
"And you loved her?"
Orphen blinked, taken aback. He knew Hartia had known, probably Rai as well, but how could the golden-haired child have possibly found out? Hartia wasn't the type to tell everyone personal secrets; he would rather tease them about it in private. Rai didn't care to gossip and would have said it was none of Majic's business... So how had he found out? He hadn't been THAT obvious, had he?
"Yeah," he admitted.
Majic leaned forward, causing the older sorcerer to lean back reflexively. "Like sister or like girlfriend?" he pressed, looking anxious.
Now Orphen was uncomfortable. The truth was, both were correct. Azari had been like an older sister to him since he was a child, but over that time his brotherly fondness turned into... Something else. Even at twenty years of age he wasn't completely certain it was love... But if nothing else, yes... "She was like a very close sibling."
Perhaps Majic realized he wouldn't get a more elaborate answer, for he simply nodded and lowered his eyes. Then suddenly his face coloured and he jerked back, as though realizing how close he'd unintentionally gotten.
Unsure of what to say in the awkward moment, Orphen scratched the back of his head. "Ah, well... You can sleep alone now, can't you?"
Looking dejected and trying to hide it, Majic nodded. The older male felt that stab of guilt and the dream-memory coming back, but he forced himself to ignore it. However, he did allow enough of it to let him say, "Good night, Majic."
"Orphen-sama..."
The sienna-eyed sorcerer shut the door behind him, leaning against it for a few minutes. Part of him felt guilty, though he couldn't begin to explain why. But there was Majic, clearly struggling to come to terms with his own life, and he'd just walked out.
But he wasn't a baby and he shouldn't have been treated like one, the other part of him argued. And while Orphen was going to become his teacher, he was far from becoming a guardian, and teachers had to keep themselves distanced from their students. That was the only way they'd live and learn, by not getting either party involved in each others' business... Right?
Somehow, he felt uncertain about that.
"UWAAAAAH!"
The loud scream seemed to echo throughout the entire tavern. Orphen rolled right out of bed, smacking his head on the corner of the nightstand. He swore violently, rubbing the sore spot and finding a bit of blood. He snarled softly; the scream had sounded an awful lot like Majic. And it wasn't anywhere near noon yet! The boy was going to PAY for this.
Orphen hastily dressed, storming out only to find most of the other customers doing likewise. Some were grumbling, others were murmuring, all were curious as to what the commotion was about.
Annoyed and too impatient to wait, Orphen muttered, "Ware odoru, ten no roukaku." In a flurry of faintly shimmering traces of magic he disappeared, reappearing downstairs and in a safe corner where people hadn't crowded yet.
He saw Majic at the front door, broom forgotten at his feet and fists clenched. His face was pale, his eyes wide and horrified. Frowning, Orphen walked over to him; no one dared stop him. "What's going on?" he demanded.
"Why are you waking us up so goddamn early, you brat?!" a cranky teenager called.
"Shut up," Orphen snapped, his patience wearing thin quickly in the early morning. He was generally unpleasant and hard to get along with, but mornings could make him particularly nasty and he could easily lose his temper and rational thought.
"O... Orphen... S-sama..." Majic stammered, pointing a trembling hand on the front step. Orphen blinked and stepped forward, kneeling to get a better look.
Blood splatters decorated the dust and step, dripping from what looked like a baby pig that had been stabbed brutally. It couldn't have been born more than a few days ago; its skin was still soft and smooth with only the barest hint of baby fuzz. It had been mutilated beyond immediate recognition, and it didn't take a genius to connect this event to another.
Of course, Majic had no idea how his could-have-been brother or sister had been killed, so he was simply horrified that someone had done this. Only a cruel person could do this, and on Christmas morning! They must have done it sometime during the night; the blood wasn't exactly fresh.
A heavy sigh sounded from behind him. Orphen glanced back at Bagup, who was shaking his head sadly. "It was foolish to think sorcerers have been fully accepted in this town," he said.
Orphen agreed. There were still people out there, perhaps much more than half the town. After all, they'd been hating sorcerers so long, why should they stop just because the most influential person in town said to? It wasn't a dictatorship; they didn't HAVE to accept him... But they certainly could pretend to.
"I don't understand," Majic said shakily. "What does killing a baby... What does murdering..." He swallowed, clenching his eyes shut and finally gathering the nerve to speak. "What does THAT have to do with sorcerers? Father?"
"Never you mind," Bagup said firmly. "Go back to bed, Majic. I'll open the tavern this morning."
"But--"
Orphen stood and placed a firm hand on the boy's shoulder. "He said go to bed," he reminded him. "I'd suggest you listen to your father." He gave a small shove. "Come on."
With one last helpless and pained look at the dead animal, Majic nodded and relented, though the older sorcerer didn't remove his hand and continued to steer him to his room. "Back to bed," he told everyone else. "It's none of your concern."
He frowned faintly; some of the nearer ones were trying to hide their smiles. One of them, perhaps all, could have been connected to the sick joke... But this was no time to be pointing fingers.
"To bed," he repeated, giving the young teen a final gentle push. Majic turned around and opened his mouth to protest, but Orphen leaned close and murmured in a voice only he could hear, "I'll demonstrate some magic later if you go to bed now, I promise."
That settled the problem instantly. Majic's eyes lit up for the first time in days. "All right, Orphen-sama," he said eagerly, frantically fleeing to his room. Orphen shook his head, smirking.
Bribery was a very useful tool indeed.
