Sang – Chapter 21
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Wilhelm winced as Schwarz struck a match, and carefully dropped it into the stone-ringed fire pit. As his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, Will blinked several times, looking up from the flames to Herr Prinz, who was carefully tending to the fire. From his seat on the grass, Wilhelm absentmindedly observed the werewolf.
His hair was long and black, pulled back with a ribbon of some sort, in a style that suggested he was from a high class. His eyes would've matched his hair; except for the haunting gold glow the firelight cast onto them. Dropping his gaze, Wilhelm noticed that Schwarz's jacket was torn and worn to no end. In fact, his whole outfit seemed far too shabby and mismatched for his aristocratic features.
As the werewolf turned to reach a small messenger bag at his hip, Will noticed four parallel tears in Prinz's jacket that ran over his shoulder and stopped halfway down his torso. They were thrown into shadow by the firelight and seemed to create impossibly deep gouges in his back. 'Were those from the… lycanthrope?' Wilhelm wondered, still obstinately refusing to use the word 'werewolf.' Staring fixedly on the slash marks, he barely noticed as Schwarz pulled out a wrapped loaf of bread from his bag.
"Wilhelm?" He questioned apprehensively, as he noticed the other man's stare, "What?" He wondered with a confused smile, as he walked around the small circle of stone and came to a stop beside Will; offering the loaf of bread to him.
"Thanks." Wilhelm replied distractedly as he broke a small chunk of bread off and gingerly bit into a corner; expecting the bread to be stale from traveling.
"Don't worry, it is fresh." Schwarz reassured him, taking a seat beside the other man on the grass.
Wilhelm briefly wondered how on earth someone could afford fresh bread which even had the luxury of herbs in it; yet couldn't seem to come up with enough money for repairs on his coat. Will felt guilty for suspecting Schwarz of anything, even for an instant, but couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something. "It's really good." Wilhelm added cheerfully as he tried to dismiss his misgivings.
"Mhm," He added with a smile, "It's…" Schwarz trailed off, suddenly finding the fire fascinating as he kept his eyes away from Will.
"It's what?" Wilhelm questioned forcefully, "I don't care what it is, as long as it's not poisoned." He joked with a strained smile.
"Poisoned?" Herr Prinz wondered in an equally confused and upset voice. "No, nothing like that; it's just homemade." He explained with a cheerless smile.
"No, no! I didn't mean that," Will quickly assured Schwarz, "But it really is good." He added. "You live somewhere in these parts?" He continued with a swift change of subject.
"I do… or did." The werewolf answered with an unexpectedly heavy sigh as he began to nibble on his own piece of bread.
"You did?" Will wondered, feeling intrigued by Schwarz's ambiguous response.
"Yes, did. Past tense." He snapped, "It's not important."
"You're absolutely right, sorry." Wilhelm apologized quickly as he noticed the abrupt change in Schwarz's mood, and directed his attention back towards his piece of bread.
"Wilhelm," Prinz wondered, suddenly hesitant, "You- would you love Jacob, no matter what?" He asked quietly. "No matter what he did or who he was?"
Slightly thrown off by the awkwardness of Schwarz's question, Will paused and considered it. 'Could Jake ever do anything that would make me hate him?' He wondered to himself. Wilhelm had never asked himself that before; sure he'd worried over Jacob hating him but that wasn't the same. Will was sure that the way they felt about each other was completely different, or rather, that they felt completely different kinds of love. 'If Jake even feels that.' He added doubtfully.
"You would, wouldn't you?" The lycanthrope replied in an envious voice, "No matter what, you'd love him." He added miserably. "I knew it."
"Yes, I think that I would, but what do you mean when you say you knew it?" Will questioned; partly out of curiosity, but mostly out of suspicion.
"When I met you, in the Sélestat Inn, you thought your brother had brought me back to his, your, room to… uh, sleep with him, right?" Schwarz explained, feeling entirely uncomfortable voicing his speculation, "Especially with your outburst of 'thank god Mother's not alive to see this…' and the way you left the room so suddenly after Jacob cleared up the reason why I was there." He elaborated quietly, "So, I just kind of assumed that you…um, were maybe jealous? But then when your brother explained why I was there, then you felt like you had been too… overprotective?" By this point, Schwarz's voice had almost faded too much for Will to hear. "Sorry. I think too much about things that I really shouldn't…" The werewolf apologized in a near whisper at Will's stunned expression.
Taking a moment to collect himself, Will wondered exactly how he was supposed to respond to the statement that Schwarz had just thrown at him. "…You do think too much." Wilhelm retorted in what he hoped was an offhand manner. Suddenly Will was struck with an idea; whether or not it was a bright idea… well that depended entirely on Schwarz and his reaction to it. But by going on how comfortably the other man had joked about buggering him, Wilhelm wondered if he'd receive an honest answer from him. "Schwarz," He started, turning all his charm towards the werewolf, "You make it sound like I want to… sleep with Jacob." He stated, trying to sound both curious and amused at the idea.
"Don't you?" Prinz wondered honestly, quickly putting a hand to his mouth in shock as he realized that he'd spoken aloud. "I-didn't, I mean… That wasn't what I meant!" He corrected quickly, with a light flush of embarrassment.
"Would you want to burn eternally for something like that?" Will pressed as he ignored Schwarz's apologies.
"Me?" The werewolf wondered as his embarrassment was replaced by confusion. "Would I want to bugger Jacob?" He questioned as he unknowingly missed the point of Will's question. "Or wait, would I burn for something like that?" Schwarz wondered to himself as he realized what Wilhelm had actually meant. "I… don't know." He answered in complete honesty. "Maybe if I had someone to burn for." Prinz wondered with another cheerless smile. "I'm sorry; my answers must not be helping at all." He added with a small sigh.
"Don't worry about it," Wilhelm assured the werewolf with a smile, "It was a totally hypothetical question either way."
Returning the smile, Schwarz put a hand to his jacket collar in an attempt to loosen it. Noticing that Will was watching him curiously, the werewolf made an attempt at humor. "You can watch all you like, but I'm not taking it off for you." He joked with a small grin.
About to make an equally implicit remark, Wilhelm noticed that the other man's breaths were becoming heavier and that his breathing was quickly turning into panting. "Schwarz?" Will questioned uneasily as he watched the werewolf's body shudder.
"It's not… that." Prinz assured Will between heavy breaths, "Just a bit under the… weather, I think." He added, attempting a smile. "Fever maybe. Heat. No… hot." He corrected himself, as he began to struggle with his shirt buttons. "Darn… it." He added vaguely.
Wilhelm took some relief in knowing that if Schwarz was going to transform, it would've happened hours ago and not now. "Let's get you into the tent." Will decided, hoping that whatever ailed the other man would be remedied with a good night sleep; not that he had much other to offer him.
Supporting more than half the werewolf's weight, Will managed to get him inside the tent without incident, and decided to see if he had anything useful in his saddlebag.
Soothing Kastanie as he walked up to her, Wilhelm quickly began searching through his saddlebag, snarling in frustration as he found pulleys, hooks, other equally useless objects and one of Jacob's (no doubt misplaced) books. 'Useless.' He stated angrily as he shoved his hands furiously into his coat pockets. Feeling his fingers unexpectedly hit glass, Will fished a small glass vial out of the deep pocket. 'That idiot never even took the medicine I bought him!' He noted angrily, as he held the liquid up to the firelight. Noticing the mixture's familiar green hue, Will hoped that mint really did work as well as Jacob seemed to think, as he ran back to the tent.
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"Jacob!" The Piper exclaimed in surprise as he swung the door open and nearly collided with the other man. "What are you doing there?" Dämon wondered as he quietly closed the door behind himself.
"Nothing really," Jake explained quickly as he realized how lucky he'd been by not opening the door. "I was just stretching my legs; I'm not very good at sitting still." He added truthfully.
"How inconsiderate of me!" Herr Lied apologized fretfully as he began to play with a piece of silver hair.
'This man really is insane.' Jacob realized, somehow managing to both understate the truth and state the painfully obvious with a single thought.
"I know!" The Piper suddenly exclaimed with a smile, "How about a tour of the castle?" He offered enthusiastically, "Most of the place is just old ruins but one of the towers, like this one, is still in near perfect condition."
As if Jacob could refuse an offer like that.
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Jake hesitantly stepped over the threshold and out into a pitch black hallway that was a startling contrast to the candlelit room he'd just left; pausing uncertainly for the Piper who silently followed him from the other room.
"Well?" Dämon questioned in annoyance, "What are you waiting for?"
"Morning?" Jacob answered half-seriously, trying in vain to see down the darkened expanse of hallway.
"Can't you see in the dark?" The Piper wondered in an amused tone, as he stepped beside Jacob and began to lead him by the wrist. Turning to him in the darkness, Dämon smiled and continued as if Jake had responded. "Neither can I." He said happily, letting out a quiet laugh, which seemed to echo unnaturally down the hallway.
On cue with the laughter, Jake noticed scattered orbs of soft yellow light begin to glow and watched in amazement as the hallway was gradually illuminated by their warm light. As Herr Lied gently tugged him down the marble tiled hall, Jacob was able to see a faint outline of wings in the lights. "Oh…" He trailed off; completely absorbed in watching the winged orbs of light follow him and the Piper. "That's incredible! They're like fairies." Jacob breathed in astonishment, pulling his gaze away from the floating lights and towards Dämon, who smiled cheerfully in response.
The short hallway came to an abrupt stop that led to a rather unexpected set of stairs. Looking down from the top of the spiral flight of stairs and into the darkness, Jacob was suddenly thankful for the fact that he wasn't afraid of heights (or the dark.)
"Scared?" The Piper wondered playfully as he continued to lead Jake down the curving staircase.
"Not yet." Jacob answered, "Am I supposed to be?" He wondered half-jokingly.
"Not yet." Herr Lied replied, mimicking his half-serious tone as he abruptly stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. "Watch your step." He cautioned with an unfathomable smile as he opened the door a sliver and stepped through it; pulling Jake with him.
The first thing that struck Jacob was the deep silence of his new surroundings, as he was noiselessly led further out of the stairwell. At one point, (although neither of them knew it,) the immense courtyard had once been an extravagant ballroom, where nobles had flocked and dances had been held. But now, neglect and poor weather had collapsed the roof; leaving a wild garden of plants which grew thickly over fallen bricks, through cracks in the tiled floor and up crumbling walls. Patches of the ruins were fleetingly illuminated as the Piper's golden "lights" poured out of the door and floated lazily out into the still night. For one of the first times in his life, Jake was struck silent as he slowly took in the anachronistic scene.
"Isn't it pretty?" The Piper whispered in a low voice by Jacob's ear. Barely keeping himself from jumping at Dämon's voice, Jake nodded his head in agreement; even though he wouldn't have used pretty to describe it. "Come on, let's keep going." Herr Lied continued after a moment, "The towers are much more interesting."
With that, the Piper carefully led Jake to the left and through the remains of a doorway, which led to what seemed to be a servants' hallway; running parallel to the ruined ballroom. "These hallways go through almost the entire castle." He explained with a knowing smile, "Unfortunately, the one leading to the west tower seems to have collapsed some time ago, and the south tower is much too rundown to bother with. That leaves only two towers for us: the north one; which you're already well acquainted with, and the east tower. But luckily for us, the east tower is interesting enough to make up for the other two losses." The Piper concluded, as he jumped over a small pile of bricks and leaves; pulling Jacob with him.
Their trek to the tower was rather uneventful, minus the occasional rodent skeleton or collapsed wall. As far as Jake could tell, the hallway they were following was one of the most direct routes from one corner of the castle to another, since they had yet to make any other turns. The Piper's winged lights (which Jacob had privately nicknamed Fairies,) provided the two with enough light to walk safely, but also left the hallway behind them unnervingly dark.
After what seemed hours, Dämon abruptly came to a stop in front of a door nearly identical to the one they'd left the other tower from. The Piper turned to Jake with a smile that was almost childish in its enthusiasm, "Excited?" He wondered playfully, cocking his head to the side and playing with a strand of his hair.
"Should I be?" Jacob questioned as he began to cautiously inspect the door.
"Of course!" Dämon replied, "I can almost guarantee that you'll like what you see." He assured Jake as he let his lock of hair fall back onto his shoulder and slowly pushed the door open.
It wasn't the Piper's fault that the long-neglected door hinges let out such an ominous creak.
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A/N: First, (in case anyone doesn't remember,) the vial of medicine that Wilhelm finds in his pocket is from when they were at Weiss' house.
Second. This chapter is a little bit longer than the last one, which is my excuse for taking so long. (Well that and the fact that I haven't slept properly for at least a week.) I know I'm a bad person for updating slowly, and I apologise.
Third. I haven't really got much else to say… besides the fact that I just realised how long my A/N usually is.
Thank you to everyone who reads and to those who review. I'd offer you all some ice cream but I'd hate for it to melt into your keyboard. (Have a muffin instead!)