True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
***Fallen Stars***
"So what is your current goal?" Kiku asked Alfred in front of the group as they trudged through the heavy snow. Everyone was keeping an eye out for anything that could go after them and stayed close together, just in case.
"For now, we have to get through these weeks," Alfred muttered, keeping a shaking hand on his sword. He wasn't sure if he should use it, considering how close it was to breaking. It was healing, he finally found out, just slowly and faintly. If he had a big wound, it would take it days to close it up. He just had to hope that no one else noticed.
"You do not intend to help anyone else during these weeks?" Kiku asked and Alfred bit his lip.
"I don't really know how to explain it," Alfred sighed. "I know we're supposed to be helping people and I know we should do it as soon as possible, I just feel like we're missing something…important. Maybe it's more people or maybe it's more equipment, I don't know. It just doesn't feel like we're suitable to help anyone yet."
"Perhaps it is a change in attitude you need," Kiku offered.
Alfred opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a cough that felt like it was tearing up his stomach. Alfred winced and Kiku gave him a concerned look. Alfred just smiled at him. "Maybe, I dunno. For now, we should try to focus on ourselves, I don't want anyone in this group to die."
"What is that you have around your neck?" Kiku asked, changing the subject.
Alfred coughed again and shook his head, as he felt dizzy for a little bit. "It's a protection charm King Mathias gave us," Alfred explained, pulling the charm out of his shirt and looking at it for a bit. It looked a little different than he remembered it. "We talked with him just before the rain started and he supported our ideals and gave us equipment. And his wizard, Lukas, made this charm for me."
Kiku nodded faintly and Alfred stopped. The world seemed to be spinning around him and he felt off balance enough to fall over if he tried to move.
"Alfred?" Matthew asked carefully, looking over at his brother.
"Fine," Alfred muttered, shaking his head to clear the dizziness, but it didn't work. "'m fine…"
"Aiyah, you don't look fine," Yao muttered.
"Lud," Gilbert muttered and Ludwig was in front of Alfred just as the man let out a string of coughs that made it hard for him to breathe.
"We have people!" Elizaveta warned but Alfred found that it took a while to register what she said. He only realized it when there was a man with a sword in front of him. Alfred's movements were sluggish as the world spun and he barely stumbled out of the way of being killed. The other man was quick, though, and slammed the hilt of his sword into the back of Alfred's head, causing him to fall into the snow, his hands not enough to catch his fall.
Alfred couldn't even stop coughing long enough for him to look at the man, but a booted foot slammed into the side of his head, causing a ringing in his mind, sending it reeling. Alfred couldn't focus on anything, let alone the person trying to kill him. Luckily, something knocked the man off of him and Alfred was free to cough in peace.
"Alfred!" the voice seemed far away and it took a while for all of it to reach him and Alfred shook his head to try to center his thoughts. It worked well enough for him to tell that he was on the ground and sounds came easier.
"Something is very wrong," Ludwig muttered, looking Alfred over carefully. Alfred could barely see Antonio finishing off a man behind him. "He is not sick, but there is an ailment here."
"What's…" Alfred continued to cough, not giving him enough time to speak properly and leaving his throat raw. "Happening?"
"That charm," Natalia said coldly and Alfred's hand went to the charm to look at it.
"It wouldn't be causing this," Roderich protested.
"Maybe we should take it off, then, and see what happens," Gilbert suggested. "What harm could it do?"
"If it's a protection charm," Lili piped up, "then it would be protecting him from this kind of disease. Maybe it's the only thing keeping him alive."
"Or it could be causing it," Kiku offered. Alfred stared at the thing, finding it hard to keep it in focus. He was coughing so much, he felt like he was about to vomit, but there was nothing to come out, since the forest couldn't exactly give them a lot of food and Vash couldn't hunt when all the animals had already run away. They were barely surviving as it was.
"He can't move like this, in any case," Ludwig said. "We should rest here and hope he recovers."
"It wouldn't hurt," Alfred said through his coughs, "to take it off for a little…"
"Alfred," Roderich stated, his voice ringing in Alfred's ears just as Alfred was about to rip the charm off. He lost control of his body as it began to tremble and then shake. Voices and images blurred together as he vaguely felt people holding him down. He felt something…odd in the back of his head, like this was forced.
After what felt like an eternity, sounds and images slowly swam back to Alfred as he laid flat on his back, looking at people kneeling around him.
"That was just like what's been happening to Gilbert," Matthew muttered, looking at Alfred with terror in his eyes.
"I had a seizure?" Alfred muttered before the coughs came back with a vengeance.
"We should rest here," Kiku advised.
"I can make a barrier that will last for some time," Ivan nodded. Alfred had never felt so weak in his life, but that damn charm had never felt more present on his chest than in that moment. If he weren't slipping into sleep, he would have taken it off right then. Instead, he swiftly fell into unconsciousness, unsure of if he'd wake up.
***Fallen Stars***
It was pitch black when Alfred opened his eyes. The only evidence that he could still see was the flakes of snow clouding the area around him. Alfred fought back a few coughs as his hand fumbled to find that charm. He could barely think anymore, but he just knew that he should take it off. So, once he found it, he wasted no time in ripping it off and tossing it in the snow just beside him.
Almost immediately, Alfred felt better. His dizziness left him and he didn't feel any need to cough as he laid there, watching his breath puff above him.
"Damn," Alfred cursed, glaring at the charm beside him. Gritting his teeth, Alfred picked it up with numb fingers by the string and quickly sat up, looking around at the group. Ivan was leaning against a tree, nodding off, but the barrier stayed, thankfully, as Alfred found Kiku and quickly crawled over to him. "Kiku," Alfred whispered, but it seemed incredibly loud in the darkness around him. He lightly shook the man, who snapped his eyes open and seemed about ready to cast a spell, but he saw Alfred and calmed down.
"Have you recovered?" Kiku asked in an equally quiet voice.
"I need you to do me a favor," Alfred muttered, holding the charm in front of him. "Make me a replica of this, but make it actually a protection charm."
"I knew that was dangerous magic," Kiku mused, staring at it. "That must have been what I sensed when you came into the church. I could make you a replica, but what will you do with this one?"
"Would the protection charm be able to counteract it?" Alfred asked and Kiku nodded. "Then I'll keep it with me, in my boot. In case there's someone in this group who wants to make sure I still have it with me. They'll be able to sense it, right?"
"I can make the new charm so that it won't be sensed," Kiku muttered. "You wanted me to do this because you do not trust anyone else?"
"Yao's not strong enough," Alfred sighed. "Ivan or Natalia would make it known to the rest of the group. And…no, I don't trust Roderich. How fast can you do it?"
"A few hours," Kiku muttered. "I can use the bark from the trees to make it, and I am sure that no one will wake up for some time. They are all quite exhausted and hungry."
"Some leader I am, right?" Alfred scoffed. "Driving my team to exhaustion."
"Considering the circumstances," Kiku said carefully, "you are quite a good leader. If they were all alone at this point, there is a high probability that a lot of them would be dead, including possibly you."
"Thanks again, for doing this," Alfred nodded to him and Kiku nodded in turn before sitting upright, legs crossed and began to whisper an enchantment. Alfred looked over at Ivan, who now looked fully asleep, but the barrier was still slightly visible in the night, which was good. Perhaps it was Kiku, but Alfred couldn't be sure.
"You should sleep," Kiku offered. "You seem to be the most exhausted of us all."
"You'll be fine on your own?" Alfred asked and Kiku nodded. Alfred laid the original charm next to Kiku as some bark came off a tree and laid in front of him. And Alfred wasted no time in crawling back to his original spot and drifting back to sleep.
***Fallen Stars***
"Show me another spell!" Peter pleaded and Arthur rolled his eyes.
"No," Arthur snapped and the boy pouted. "Do you think that will make me change my mind? At all?"
"If you actually had a heart, maybe," Peter grumbled.
"I am not the one with the heart," Arthur scoffed, leaning against a tree while Peter stood in front of him.
"I'll leave you alone if you do this for me!" Peter said. "Please! You're no fun! The other one would do it for me!"
"I am not the other one," Arthur stated, glaring at the boy, who shrank away from him slightly, but stayed planted where he was. "Why do you want to see a spell anyway? You can easily make your own."
"You're more skilled than I am!" Peter whined and Arthur flinched at the high pitched sound. "I wanna see a really cool, badass spell!"
"Don't curse, it doesn't sound right on you," Arthur said gruffly, glaring at the brat, who continued pouting. "And I will not do a spell for you. If you were smart, you could have left by now and gotten your own spell book to learn from. But you've just stayed cooped up in here your whole life because you're scared of the real world."
"I have every right to be scared!" Peter huffed. "And I'm not scared!"
"Then why haven't you left this damned place?" Arthur demanded. "You're too scared of what those voices have told you to go out there and see it for yourself."
"Because there's nothing good out there!" Peter protested. "All there is out there is pain and suffering and I don't want to have anything to do with that! All people do out there is hurt each other and that's why hardly anyone can come in here, because they're all violent and scared of the world around them. At least here, I'm safe, and there's actually positive, happy things in here."
"You think that the world is only bad?" Arthur let out a barking laugh, glaring down at the younger boy. "Bullshit. I've seen it myself, there are people that are stupid enough to hope for something better and a small amount that are willing to change it. People see the horrible things going on in this world and for some crazy reason they fall in love and find some sort of happiness. People can come together and, around a fire, laugh and joke and have a good time. They can forget about the bad for long enough to see the good. Obviously you can't."
"Neither can you," Peter muttered. "You've only seen it. Have you ever let yourself enjoy the good? Or are you too focused on the bad?"
"Is there any good worth seeing?" Arthur asked. "I'm not stupid enough to let myself be masked by the good. I can acknowledge that it's there, but I'm smart enough to realize that the real world, as horrible as it is, is the only one we've got. I can live through it."
"Is it worth it?" Peter asked simply and Arthur stared down at him.
"Depends on who you ask," Arthur sighed. "If you ask me, no. If you ask my other personality, yes."
"And if I were to ask Alfred?" Peter asked.
"Yes," Arthur stated, looking behind the tree he was leaning against and towards the massive tree in the center of the Heart. "What if I asked you?"
"No," Peter said. "There are more bad times than there are good times, they don't equal out."
"Which is worth more to you?" Arthur asked. "The bad or the good?"
"They're equal," Peter muttered.
"There are a few people in this world that would say, no matter how small the amount, the good outweighs the bad," Arthur stated. "You wanted to see a spell, right?"
"Yeah!" Peter nodded his head furiously.
"Then I guess I'll find one," Arthur sighed, opening the book and flipping through the pages mindlessly before he reached one that would suit him. It was hard, but he was sure he'd be able to manage it. Arthur closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, and placed his hands close to each other, but not touching. Soon, a fire appeared between the two of them and Arthur had to really work to make the ball bigger, at least big enough for what he wanted to do.
"What's the big deal about this?" Peter scoffed and Arthur twitched. "It's just fire, I can do that."
"Can your fire manage to do this?" Arthur smirked, opening his eyes and moving his hands, thus moving the fire. Soon, it had crafted itself into a sword, the smoldering flames creating the details and Peter's eyes widened.
"Craftable fire?" Peter's jaw dropped and Arthur's smirk grew. He moved his hands again and the sword changed into a bow with a single arrow. Arthur held onto the bow and arrow, thankful that the fire didn't burn him and pointed upwards before releasing the arrow. It shot upwards, not even burning the trees, before it exploded in the air, showering sparks downwards. Arthur collected them into his hand easily and the bow joined them, back into the ball of fire. Arthur was already beginning to feel tired, but he didn't say anything. "Wow! That's so cool! What else can you do?"
"This part can be a little tricky," Arthur smiled as he made the ball slowly craft itself in his hand. After quite a lot of effort, he had crafted it into a small version of Peter, who stared in awe. Arthur had to fight to mask his exhaustion from the boy. He couldn't let it be known that he was this weak. He could manage some craftable fire.
"I wanna try!" Peter exclaimed as Arthur made the fire disappear, sighing slightly in relief.
"It can be very difficult," Arthur scoffed. "I can't imagine you'll be any good at it."
"Well, I can try," Peter huffed and Arthur rolled his eyes before kneeling down and turning the book around. He pointed at the spell and Peter stared at it in confusion.
"This book was written some time ago," Arthur explained. "I'd think it would take a kid like you a while to understand it."
"The voices are helping me, hold on, okay?" Peter glared at him before turning back at the book in concentration. Arthur was very tempted to slam the book closed on the kid's head. Come to think of it, he was surprised he hadn't already done that. The kid couldn't be getting to him, could he? No way, that wasn't possible.
"Alright, let me try," Peter muttered and copied Arthur's movements, closing his eyes. A very bright fire appeared between his hands and Arthur could immediately tell that he would have no control of it. Peter attempted to move his hands, to craft it, but the fire shot forward instead. Arthur dodged it easily enough and a few fairies put out the fire it had caused on the grass. "Sorry."
"It takes more than raw power to do this," Arthur stated. "It takes a level of skill that I'm sure you don't have."
"Just give me some time!" Peter protested, ripping the book from Arthur's hands and putting it on the ground. "Your stupid face is distracting me, jerk. Go away and I'll tell you once I've got it."
"So you expect me to wait here for a few years?" Arthur smirked and Peter glared at him before shooting fire at him again. Once again, Arthur dodged it easily and Peter huffed, turning his attention back to the book. "I'll be taking that book with me when I leave, kid," Arthur said as he stood up, looking around for something, anything to do in this stupid forest. "Whether or not you've finished that spell."
Arthur couldn't help but smile as he watched the kid create fire again, this time so out of control that it exploded in Peter's face. Arthur was quick to put a protection spell around him to make sure he didn't burn. After realizing what he had done, Arthur quickly turned away and briskly walked away. Why the hell would he protect that brat? There was no gain to come from it. The kid deserved to get burned with the way he was acting anyway!
"Damn it all," Arthur cursed under his breath.
***Fallen Stars***
I will say it again. Peter's fucking adorable. And that charm really wasn't helping. Now Alfred has to think carefully about who he trusts. What will happen next? Only time will tell!
Oh, and special thanks to a guest reviewer, you are reviewer number 200! Yay! You asked about if prostitute Arthur loses the battle for Arthur's head, would Matthew lose his sight, since he was the one that cast the spell. To answer that, it is Arthur's body and also his magic. In essence, the same thing happened with the love spell, where the prostitute cast the spell, but when the other one took control, the spell was still there, just changed slightly. If that were to happen (which, I am not giving anything away yet) then the spell would stay in tact. It was also boosted by Gilbert a little bit, so that's something else that helps it along.
At this point, I will no longer tell people whether or not their theories to the plot twist are correct or not, since that makes the game a little more fun. We're at...max of 10 chapters away from getting to the plot twist anyway. Once it's revealed, I'll be sure to tell you all who got it right first!
And don't forget to leave a review!