Chapter 13 – Bindings

Fai glanced around the hall. "This isn't the place to discuss these matters. My father's quarters are just ahead. Come on. I needed to visit him anyway."

Fai stepped around Kurogane to lead the way, but Kurogane didn't immediately follow. He couldn't just enter the king's private rooms without a formal introduction. He'd have to…

"You want me to meet your father?"

"Don't be nervous, Kurogane," Mokona piped in. "Fai's daddy is sure to like you as much as Fai and Mokona do!"

"I should have left you with the kids!"

Mokona wiggled out of his grip and bounced over to Fai for protection, letting out delighted little giggles all the while.

"There's nothing to worry about; Mokona's right about that. He'll likely be asleep."

Kurogane sobered, remembering that even Fai's brother believed the man was dying, and followed Fai to the room at the end of the hall.

At the door, the guard who'd tried to stop him before gave Kurogane a wary look.

Fai noticed and said, "It's okay, Setsuka-san. This man is my honored guest."

Kurogane would have snorted at the comment if not for the fact that Fai sounded so uncharacteristically serious.

The guard's displeasure didn't abate, but she didn't attempt to stop them from entering.

They passed through a brightly lit anteroom and into a spacious bedchamber where Fai's father, Òdr the Peacebringer, High Defender of Jashar, was not asleep. The man wasn't even lying down. He sat up in bed, looking pale and thin, but alert.

A fire blazed in the large stone hearth along the left wall making the room overly warm. The king didn't seem to notice. His bed was piled high with blankets and he had another draped around his shoulders.

Fai went straight to the king's bedside and took a seat in a sturdy-looking wooden chair. "You look better today, Father."

"Yes, the surgeons say it's common to see some improvement right before the end."

"You shouldn't talk that way."

"Why not? It's the truth. You can't hide from it forever." The king gave his son a sympathetic look, then he noticed Kurogane and said, "Who is that man standing by the door? I don't recognize him. You didn't hire a mercenary to stop—"

"No, Father. This is someone I met on my travels. His name is—"

Kurogane tensed.

"—Kurogane."

That wasn't what he'd been expecting, but maybe he shouldn't be surprised that Fai wasn't in the mood for silliness when confronted with his father's mortality.

Kurogane stepped forward and gave an appropriate bow.

"Ah, yes. My younger son mentioned you in his latest missive."

Kurogane looked to Fai. Missive? Wasn't the man here in the citadel?

Fai returned a look that Kurogane assumed meant that he'd get an explanation later.

The king continued, "Yuui was very impressed with your conduct." He smiled. "I suspect my older son is even more impressed with you, if not in the same way."

Kurogane hadn't been sure Fai was capable of embarrassment until now, but he looked down at his hands and didn't say a word. Kurogane couldn't blame him. He wasn't quite sure what to say either. What exactly was the king implying?

The pork bun was useful for once and saved them both from further awkwardness. "Introduce Mokona next!"

A photograph sitting on the bedside table distracted Kurogane from the introduction. The image showed the king standing close beside a woman who was obviously his late wife. He could see now where Fai and his brother had gotten their looks. They had both inherited their mother's light blond hair.

"Now Mokona has met two kings!"

"What a pleasure it—" The king gave a big yawn. "A… pleasure. Yes. To meet you."

"You're looking tired, Father."

The king closed his eyelids a long moment. "All this excitement… has worn me out, I'm afraid."

"Then you must rest."

The man gave in, easily persuaded. "Don't let me sleep too much. I have an appetite today. Promise you'll dine with me this evening."

Fai looked like he wasn't going to respond, but the king asked again, more insistent, agitated even, and Fai acquiesced, said, "I promise."

Fai rearranged the pillows and helped his father lie back on the bed. In a few short minutes, the man was asleep.

Fai sat forward in his chair and rested his head in his hands. Kurogane stepped closer and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry." Fai straightened. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

"We don't have to talk about that now." There was another chair on the other side of the bed and Kurogane made use of it. "You've been gone a long time." He settled down to give Fai some much needed time with his father.

Silence stretched out between them until finally Kurogane said the first thing that came to mind. "My father died when I was just a boy."

Fai looked up from his brooding and Kurogane watched as the creases in the man's brow smoothed and he tilted his head to the side. "What was he like?"

"Now that I'm grown, everyone says I look just like him."

"So he was handsome then." Fai didn't quite manage to attain his usual teasing tone of voice.

Kurogane ignored the comment. "He was a good leader, well respected, and completely in love with my mother." He rolled his eyes, remembering how openly affectionate they had been with each other. "As a kid, I thought he was the strongest man alive. I wanted to be strong like him when I grew up."

"And did you succeed?"

A few seasons ago, Kurogane might have said yes, but recently… Well, physical power isn't the only kind of strength.

"I still have a ways to go." If he'd possessed the right kind of strength, he wouldn't have waited so long to come here.

The conversation lapsed again and Kurogane was grateful that Fai didn't press for details. Eventually, a plump woman came into the room holding a washcloth and a large bowl of water.

"Excuse me, Your Highness." She curtsied gracefully despite her burden. "Doctor Kudou sent me to tend His Majesty. I will return later if you wish."

"No, please continue. We were just leaving."

They adjourned to an adjacent sitting room and Fai sent a servant for an early lunch.

It was strange seeing the man in this setting, where people waited on him hand and foot. He knew how much it irritated Fai to get any special treatment. Here, he got nothing but special treatment.

In short order, a serving girl was filling matching cups with a pale, effervescent drink while another placed a steaming plate and a set of utensils in front of each of them. Both meals were served over a bed of cooked grain, though Fai's main dish had a reddish tinge, while Kurogane's was more of a brown color.

"We're not having the same thing?"

"I thought that would be more to your taste."

Kurogane took a moment to inspect his meal. He wasn't sure what it was. Using his spoon, he pushed around one of the larger pieces and scraped away a bit of sauce. Was it a vegetable? It didn't look like meat. He put a spoonful in his mouth and decided it was some sort of squash. The squash varieties back home were too sweet for Kurogane's liking, but this was much more savory, having taken on the flavor of the well-spiced sauce. He grunted his approval.

Kurogane waited until they were nearly finished with their food to say, "People are talking about illnesses and madness—"

"It's a curse."

Kurogane nodded, not completely surprised. He'd heard that rumor too. "Does it really have something to do with the execution of that war criminal then?"

"The man we hanged was the one who set the curse in the first place."

Kurogane frowned. At the very least, this curse appeared to affect the entire capitol. "How could anyone have that kind of power?"

"The man used the Harmony Relic to fuel the curse."

By all accounts, the poorly named Harmony Relic appeared to be no more than a large feather, but it contained enough power that Jashar and Kavod deemed it worthy of warring over for nearly a century.

Kurogane said, "I think I saw someone affected on my way from the docks. A man called Ashura."

Fai let his spoon drop. The handle hit the side of his plate with a clang.

"Do you know him?"

"Ashura is the captain of the royal guard."

"He was attacking a man called Tai—"

"Taishakuten."

"He's the general of your army, isn't he? How did you know it was him?"

"People affected by the curse, they tend to attack those they care about – usually, the person they hold most dear. Their spouse, a sibling, a best friend. I've only heard a few cases where the victim was a stranger."

"Are you sure it's not because those are the people they spend the most time around? Maybe they're just attacking whoever is closest."

"That was the prevailing opinion for a long time. At the very beginning, we weren't even sure what was happening. The curse was only strong enough to influence people for a few seconds. Some people barely had enough time to stand, then wonder why they'd bothered. Unless you already had a weapon in hand… Well, things have gotten a lot worse since then. Now we're seeing people affected by the curse seek out their victim from clear across the city."

"You're convinced you'll be affected, too. That you're going to hurt your brother. That's why you didn't want to come back here."

"I can feel it. Inside me. Sometimes it's like that. My mother was convinced she was going to be taken. She worried so much that she'd kill Father that she… She did the only thing she could to ensure that never happened."

At Kurogane's confused look, he clarified, "She killed herself instead. If I weren't such a coward…"

The dishes jumped as Kurogane slammed his fist onto the table. "Choosing to live isn't cowardice! It's just the opposite. Burdens don't disappear when you die, they shift to other people. You would really do that to your brother?"

"Yuui would be sad, but I'd rather him be sad than dead. He's more important than me anyway. He's going to be the next Defender after all."

"Some people don't care about titles or politics. To some people, you are more important than your brother! Think about Sakura."

"She's just a child and has plenty other people in her life. She'd get over it."

"And what about me?" Kurogane said, low and dangerous. "Are you going to tell me how I'd feel too?"

Fai looked up, eyes wide. "Kuro-sama…" His voice came out as a breathy whisper, like he was just now getting it. "I…"

"I didn't come here for an adventure or to pass the time." He ground the words out, rage surging through him at the very notion of Fai harming himself, not out of recklessness or a disregard for his own safety, but on purpose. "I came because I couldn't be sure you weren't going to get yourself killed doing something stupid. I'm not going to just sit here and listen to you talk yourself into it! I know you don't want to hear it, and you can be as angry with me as you like, but what your mother did was wrong."

Fai narrowed his eyes into a glare. "You don't need to get yourself worked up. I said I wasn't going to do it. Why do you think I volunteered to leave the city in search of a way to break the curse?"

That didn't dissipate Kurogane's anger. Fai may have decided not to kill himself but that wasn't good enough because he hadn't decided to live either.

He forced himself to move the conversation forward. "What was it you expected to find in the Irtat Forest?"

"Nobody knows the origin of the Harmony Relic, but I found a legend that tells of a magical creature with feathers of great power. According to the stories, any spells powered by a lost feather will end if the object is returned to its source. There aren't many places in this world where magic still reins, but the Irtat Forest is one of—"

A young man burst into the room, sweat pouring off his brow. "My lord!" His breathing was ragged and he looked ready to collapse. "A message for you, sire!" The man proffered a small white envelope to Fai, blue wax seal up.

"It's from Yuui," Fai said.

"Where is he? I expected him to be here with you."

"The common people, they love Yuui and my father, but some of the nobility are blaming them for the current crisis. They see this as an opportunity to gain influence, maybe even overtake the crown. I never thought it would come to this, but they're gaining traction. Yuui is visiting the outlying estates to secure allegiances for when he takes the throne."

Fai broke the seal on his letter and began reading. He continued with his explanation, his voice growing distant from his multitasking. "Yuui needed me here… to fill in while he was away. He promised…" The color began to drain from his cheeks. "Promised we'd never… both be within the influence of the curse at the same… That's the only reason I agreed to—"

Fai looked up abruptly. The letter fell to the floor. Then he was off, barreling out the door and down the hall.

Kurogane followed, taking large strides to catch up. "Hey! What's happened? Has someone been hurt?"

Fai didn't bother turning to address him, just shouted a bitter, "not yet," down the hall.

Kurogane caught up and grabbed Fai's arm. The man jerked to a halt but still refused to turn around, instead he bowed his head and stared at the floor.

"I have to leave. Now."

"And go where?"

"South. Outside the city. As far as I can get."

Kurogane could only surmise that Fai's brother was coming back from his meetings and Fai was trying to prevent the curse from taking effect.

"You promised your dying father you'd see him for dinner. It might be the last opportunity you ever get."

"If I have to choose between my brother's life and a meal with my father… even if it is the last one, I—"

"What if you can do both?"

Fai finally lifted his head to look him in the eye.

"You may be faster than me, but I'm stronger." They knew that for sure after being coerced into an arm wrestling match one night at the Cat's Eye. "I won't let you do anything you'd regret."

Fai looked down at the space between them. Kurogane tighten his grip on the man's arm for emphasis. Fai winced, but didn't complain.

"What good is your strength, if you can't reach me? Besides, you can't guard me in your sleep."

Only one adequate solution came to mind. He explained his idea to Fai.

The man thought it over for a minute and said, "You're really willing to saddle yourself with me like that?"

"Do you see any alternative that doesn't involve you breaking a promise?"

And that was how Kurogane ended up at the blacksmith's shop getting a manacle clapped to his left wrist while Fai had the other one locked around his right. The short length of chain between them allowed little leeway for independent motion.

"The key, my lord?" The blacksmith extended the item toward Fai with a bow.

Fai took a step backward, forcing Kurogane's arm to follow along. Fai returned Kurogane's resulting glare with a sheepish look and told the blacksmith, "Giving that key to me would rather defeat the purpose of locking me in irons."

The blacksmith blushed.

"I task you with protecting that key. You may give it to this man here if he requests it," Fai waved a hand to indicate Kurogane, "but no one else."

"Yes, my lord!" A hint of a smile began to creep across the man's face.

"Not anyone else. Not even His Majesty, or Prince Yuui."

The smile faltered at the prospect of potentially denying a request from his sovereign. The man turned to evaluate Kurogane in an apparent attempt to convince himself that Kurogane was an extremely important person. Judging by the way he wrung his hands together, he didn't have much luck. The man looked back to Fai and shifted on his feet.

"As you wish, my lord," he said.

After stopping by the inn to pick up Fai's boots, they spent the rest of the afternoon avoiding the eye of the public as much as practical. Kurogane sat in on meetings with the city's key merchants. He sat to Fai's right with their linked arms hidden beneath the table while they discussed the best way to continue supplying their beleaguered city. The merchants eyed him uncertainly, though none worked up the courage to ask why a foreign commoner was sitting in such a prominent location.

After the meetings, Fai led him down several flights of stairs to a heavily guarded room to see the feather that had caused the whole mess in the first place. It rested on a small velvet pillow inside a locked glass case. Despite his earlier skepticism, it turned out that the actual object looked very much like the image depicted on the sign at the Feather's Rest.

On their way back to the main level of the citadel, they passed soldiers herding a group of shuffling prisoners. Some looked relieved, some were crying softly.

Fai said, "We're moving some of the afflicted outside the influence of the curse. It'll take hours of travel to get far enough away, but we need to make more room in the cells."

"Why don't you move the feather instead of relocating people?"

"I wish it were that simple. Our treaty with Kavod mandates that the Relic remain here for another seven years. After that, Kavod will take custody for ten years. If we tried to move it to a remote area, it would spark another war."

-x-

By the time Fai's brother arrived, they'd figured out the idiosyncrasies of being connected at the wrist. It was surprisingly easy, knowing when to lead and when to follow.

Yuui strode into the main reception hall and began walking straight to his brother. Fai held up his free hand and said, "Stay there." He had to raise his voice to make sure he could be heard across the distance between them.

Yuui shook his head. "You're not feeling violent are you?"

"You know how quickly that can change."

"I'm not even going to be in the city a full day."

"It only takes a minute."

"Can't I just come a little closer? I want to talk. We've barely seen each other in years. Those few days crossing the lake weren't enough."

"I'm trying to protect you."

"I know." Yuui took a step forward. "I know that. But you aren't going to hurt me. You're stronger than the curse. I really believe that. I trust you."

There was a pause then as Yuui noticed the metal linking their wrists.

"When I sent that letter, I worried you'd leave the city or that you'd lock yourself in the dungeon with the rest of the afflicted. I see you've come up with a more… creative solution. I'm a little surprised to find you playing along with his paranoia, Kurogane-san."

Kurogane could still hear what that Ashura guy had said to the man he attacked: I told you... You never believed me.

"He says the curse is going to influence him. I'm not going to claim I know better without proof." He'd done enough of that already.

-x-

At dinner, Fai's father didn't comment on their linked hands. That may have been because he was too busy asking Kurogane questions to notice. Questions about his family and his job, about his hobbies and his life goals. Given the circumstances, Kurogane answered each inquiry as respectfully as his patience allowed.

By the time dinner was over and the king was returned to bed, the sun had long since dipped below the horizon. Fai gathered a snoring Mokona from his lap, and led Kurogane down the hall, up a flight of steps, and through a large wooden door to his private rooms where Kurogane would, by virtue of their predicament, be spending the night.

Washing up was a bit tricky. He could run the wet cloth over his face and neck well enough with one hand but wringing the cloth out was far easier when Fai raised his arm up and allowed Kurogane to use both his hands.

Things only got more complicated from there. They sat on the end of Fai's large bed with their bound hands resting on the mattress between them as they struggled individually to rid themselves of what outerwear they could. Fai was going to have to sleep in his dress jacket and waistcoat, but it was only for one night. Yuui would be gone again in the morning and by lunch, it would be safe to unlock the shackles.

When one of Fai's boots dropped to the ground, Kurogane reacted automatically by turning to look. He turned away when he saw Fai's hand going to the belt at his waist. He was here as a guard; he needed to retain his professionalism.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to avoid distractions altogether, not when they had to coordinate their efforts just to climb onto the over-soft bed. Fai was by no means underdressed. In addition to his jacket, his long shirt tails hung nearly to mid-thigh, but that left a long swatch of pale skin exposed down his legs.

Kurogane laid back, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and willed his muscles to relax.

Just as he was about to drift off, the weight shifted on the mattress. Fai huffed in discontent. Kurogane ignored him, but a few minutes later, it happened again.

"I can't sleep like this," Fai said, not sounding the least bit groggy.

"Am I bothering you?"

"No, it's not that. It's…I always sleep on my stomach."

"I'm not moving."

Fai gave a put-upon whine.

"Fine! Here." He extended his arm out perpendicular to the rest of his body, allowing his bed mate to turn over. The space between them shrank in the process and his left side now was flush with Fai's.

"I don't see how you can sleep like that." He looked like he was going to suffocate.

"It's comfortable."

After a few minutes of peace, the bed shifted again. Kurogane opened his eyes to see that Fai had lifted himself up on his elbows. Moonlight filtering in through the window on the far wall allowed Kurogane to make out the features staring down at him – bright blue eyes, a soft smile, and pale hair falling carelessly about the man's face.

The fingers of Fai's bound hand skimmed against Kurogane's palm. He could almost imagine Fai was merely searching for the most comfortable placement, but when he relaxed his hand, Fai's fingers slid into the spaces between Kurogane's.

"Thank you, Kuro-sama."

And Kurogane knew he wasn't talking about the shift in positions.

Author's Notes: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. I've been super busy lately.

In this chapter, we just have a few cameos. Setsuka-san is Seishirou's mother from Tokyo Babylon. Dr. (Shuichirou) Kudou is from Wish.