A/N: I had to pause writing this story for a little while for personal reasons. I really focused on this story to keep me distracted from my ill father. Last March his health took a turn for the worse. He passed away at the start of this month and only recently has his loss hit me. Finishing this story is so hard, because I kept using it as a distraction for my pain. The thought of finishing this one story has hit me with all sorts of unexpected emotions. But I want to be like my father, someone with integrity and will see things through. I'm ready to see it to the end, now. My one real regret in life is never letting him read anything I've ever written. If I had it to do again, I'd let him read my stories and let him know about this part of my life. Thanks for letting me vent a little and thanks for reading. Much love to all my loyal readers.
PS: My hubby, after beta, said that I put a lot of my relationship with my father in Boris' part in this chapter. I didn't even realize it at the time. I hope y'all enjoy.
Part Fifty-One:
Fai pulled Yuui into the fire tower he'd spent plenty of childhood and early teen years visiting. It dawned on him who his predecessor "Boris" was that the old captain held in such high esteem for a while. He remembered the day some news came when he was fourteen and grizzled, old Demetri actually teared up and never mentioned the name "Boris" again. No doubt the reanimator picked this spot for a reason, just like Fai would. Captain Demetri had trained that man, too, and if that were the case, Ashura was in for a tough workout.
They stayed at the ground level of the tower, the stables, and hid in a long-since-used reindeer stall. It was one Fai didn't have fond memories of, because he had to muck it out every time he bit Captain Demetri. He soon learned to stop biting people, because not even his pleas to King Ashura kept him from shoveling reindeer poop for acting like a "savage, little Valerian," as Demetri would call the prince to get him to act right.
Fai clung to Yuui tightly when he remembered himself in the here-and-now; Yuui struggling against him brought him into focus. Yuui was trying to go back to the door. His twin hadn't wanted to leave the battle, but he'd just be a liability to Kurogane and Boris. It would certainly give Ashura the advantage to have his prize sitting on the battlefield. Fai had thought Yuui knew this already, having the idea of staying in the medic tent pounded in his head by Ashura.
"Fai, I swear I tried to heal him, but he escaped. I had to find someone to help, and the only people I could rely on were Zellen and Boris. This is so horrible. I have to convince him to let me treat him!"
"He won't listen; he has to be taken by force. I know you did your best to convince him. Now he's threatening to harm you to goad me into fighting him. I told him I refused to fight him, so you have to stay safe and with me. I told him I'd keep running from him and hiding, and I have to hide you, too."
Suddenly, there was a heavy knock at the stable's door. Fai shoved Yuui behind him and took up a defensive stance with his staff. "Fai, let me in! It's Kurogane!"
Fai quickly unlatched the door and then latched it back after his lover darted it. "Well, what's going on? Where is Ashura?"
"And Boris?" Yuui asked, coming out from the reindeer stall.
"Still fighting. Boris was about to unleash a very big spell or something."
"What do you mean?" Yuui asked, desperate and full of obvious fright. For Yuui to allow himself this many emotions towards something, or rather someone, indicated something wasn't right. Fai clenched his staff and glared. After this was all over, he'd drive Boris far away from Yuui for sure. Valeria was where the man belonged, and the filthy reanimator could stay there not agitating Yuui anymore for all he cared.
"I don't know exactly, something about not needing humans to reanimate," Kurogane said, sheathing Ginryuu for now. "Whatever that means."
Fai was confused at first. He said, "Surely he wouldn't reanimate again. Even so, there are no corpses here." That's when the sound of a deep tone of a large bell rang through the fire tower and a dull, purple wave of magic traveled through the floor. Fai felt an icy dread run up his spine. Something unnatural, perverse, and just plain wicked had just traveled by. It was a very powerful, soul-scarring magic that had just been released. Fai knew, now without a doubt, that's what necromancy felt like.
"Boris, why did you do it? I'm not worth it," Yuui mumbled and then whimpered, pressing himself against Fai's shoulder. Fai wrapped comforting arms around his twin, baffled as to why Yuui would be so upset over some disreputable necromancer. The ex-governor was doomed, whether it be from Ashura's hand or insanity.
Fai started to worry he'd have to poison Yuui's mind against that corrupted trafficker of the undead. He thought Yuui would be more sensible than to be social with anyone without his approval, but he'd force Yuui into seeing sense if he had to. Of course, for now, Boris had his uses, but Fai vowed to get him far away from Yuui after this danger was gone.
"What was that? That was... evil." Kurogane asked, looking unnerved. The ninja was astute at sensing the realm around him. He'd inherited it from his mother, and his father had helped hone it.
"It must be necromancy. He must have raised some dead," Fai answered. "But what dead?"
"He was looking for something earlier to slow Ashura down. There was fire in his palm and he was gazing at. He found something in the fire because he seemed satisfied."
"Lets go to the top and see," Fai said, leading the other two to the top of the narrow battlements of the fire tower. He hoped he'd see King Ashura subdued, but what he saw was an atrocity exhibition.
Boris finished off the last jot of his purple runes and raised his casting tip towards the dark, snowy sky; the rest of his staff rested against his back. The wind and snow picked up, raging around the two combatants in winter's dusk. The tip of Boris' staff was now a dull, brackish purple, rather than the typical, cheerful, neon colors of regular rune casting.
Boris took a deep, cleansing breath, it was icy and it stung his throat. It didn't matter if he cast one or one hundred necromancy spell. The outcome would always be the same for him, so why avoid it any longer? He was a necromancer, it was long past time to embrace that. To control the dead was a great responsibility and an awesome power with a penalty. He was already due to pay it. He accepted that mantel and would wield the power he had that he'd avoided for so long. Now was the time he embraced that Nihongo title: reanimator of Celes.
Yuui came to his mind. He knew this would wound Yuui a great deal, but it would give him another reason to leave Yuui in the end. Still, it was those sweet, bonding moments in bed with the prince that gave him the strength to carry this spell through, ironically. For someone like Yuui to allow him such intimacy was extraordinary, and there was a part of Boris that felt unworthy, yet honored. His one last regret was probably not being able to taste Yuui's sweet, innocent kisses again after this, but, of course, it was most important to Boris that the prince lived. He was willing to use every tool he knew, because keeping safe Yuui was important to him. His father would have expected no less of him.
Though, he had to admit, the idea of being parted from Yuui was increasingly hard. He shook off all those thoughts of Yuui and focused on the fight. Boris was confident he and Kurogane could take down Ashura. It was a matter of time, just wearing the ruler out.
He said to Ashura, "Nothing you can say will take away what my father felt for me. Did he like me as a person? No. I grated on him horribly because I saw a few of his virtues, like charity and graciousness, as trivial at best, but I respect him so much for what I seemed unable to develop. He was a man of great integrity, and I loved him a great deal for holding wonderful, gentlemanly virtues, that at one time you praised. But those virtues aren't mine to obtain.
"Before Father sent me off to Captain Demetri, he told me he had talked to you about my negative personality, and he said that you told him something that lifted his spirits about the person I am. You told him to let me be who I was going to be. He could no sooner hold back High Winter than shape me into something I'm not. He took your advice to heart and looked for all my positive traits.
"He told me all the things he loved in me and was proud of me for. Those things like endurance through suffering, patience- the ability to be still, bluntness- yes, that can be a virtue, he told me. He also said I have the courage of my convictions, not anything could make me bend or waver from my morals." Boris smirked to fight off a wave of moroseness at remembering the father-son conversation. "He said it took courage to live out your convictions, and that I had the make up to see any beliefs I have to the finish. He was proud of me for that. That's why I'll defend Yuui to my last breath. His innocence and virtue are worth fighting for."
Ashura then gave him a patronizing smirk. "But is he something worth dying for? Surely you don't see Yuui's worth like I do. I'm his father and have risked my life for him, to save him from the pit. Would you do the same? Someone who dabbled in necromancy would no sooner know the meaning of bravery than some craven bandit."
Boris took a deep breath and nodded. "He's worth sacrificing my life. And I will be forever grateful to you for helping me and my father understand each other, but I can't let you do this to him... to Yuui. My father would want me to stop you. I know it deep in my bones, because he was a righteous man." Then Boris smirked and silently pleaded his father's forgiveness for what was to come. "Unlike me, who's never wallowed in righteousness as a particular virtue, I have no such boundaries that my father had. I have no limits any longer."
"So be it. You and I are combatants, nothing more, at this point. If you cast that necromancy spell, and I can see it's one of necromancy on the casting tip of your staff, it'll be an instant death sentence in Celes."
"I know, but I don't give a jolly damn."
"So what have you found dead in this forest, silly boy? A few starved rabbits and beavers?"
"Does His Lofty Majesty want to see my zoo, or will he submit to Yuui's treatment?"
"This is war," Ashura said.
Boris plunged the casting tip deep in the ground and waved his arms outward. The runes sank into the ground and went out from his staff in purple waves along the ground like a stone thrown in a pound. That deep, bell-like tone of necromancy sounded out from the amethyst topper of his staff following the wave of his spell.
As far as Boris could figure, the bell-like noises created by necromancy were something to warn the living to run. He could repress it on certain necromancy spells, but this one required it. Sound was actually a vital part of necromancy that Boris had been warned in the books to not neglect or change, as he'd loose his immunity to the dead, and they'd attack him as well. The dead only listened to their summoner if the right bell-like tone and spell was cast. He'd never do something sloppy, it wasn't in his nature.
He now doubled over as dry heaves from the recoil hit him. He clutched his staff for support. Not only that, his liver, the spot where his magic was stored, started to ache. He clutched at his right side and grimaced. He only hoped Ashura hadn't caught on to where his magic was stored, or he'd be dead in no time. Ashura laughed at him.
"That spell was pathetic. What was suppose to happen? And look at you. Crumpled in the snow, purging your stomach. It's truly a pathetic magic you choose to wield. Necromancy only withers its user; there are so many other paths to power where you don't have to sacrifice your soul to wield it. One thing I will make sure, you will never look at my Yuui with your unworthy eyes again!"
"I'm staying by his side until everything is resolved! You won't scare me off from him. Kill me... whatever... there will be others to rise up and protect him... if you succeed in getting rid of me." He got to his feet using his staff as a crutch and started smiling when he saw animal eye-shine from the woods. "Looks like I have some new pets, Your Majesty. I apologize if I didn't house train them first."
Several large, undead lynxes, snow foxes, and wolves in different states of decomposition showed and lined up by Boris' legs. Most of them were freshly dead and in good state to fight, which pleased Boris. He was surprised he could summon so many in such a good state. It must be Celes' frozen climate. But his real prize had yet to show up.
"So you got your little pets to help you. No big deal."
"Yes, but you don't realize something about the shield you're under that I do because I've studied necromancy. The dead can go under that shield at my will. Also, it's not just these pets. I actually found the thing I'm named after in the woods."
He and Ashura looked over to where a lumbering, white bear stumbled out of the woods. It was freshly dead, so it still had its muscles and fieriness. It roared and waited with milky eyes.
"So, do you want to play with my zoo or surrender?" Boris asked, not really thinking the king would take him up on giving up.
"I'll see your head on a pike for this, reanimator!"
Boris pointed the amethyst topper of his wand at Ashura and ordered, "Attack!"
The undead animals raged after King Ashura, and he couldn't do a thing to defend; his shield was useless. Boris ran, hoping Kurogane and the twins were hiding in the tower. His necromancy spells couldn't make them immune. Anything undead would only avoid the caster if properly cast. Yet another of the many reasons necromancy was outlawed.
He reached the edge of the fire tower and Yuui call down to him hysterically. He shouted to Kurogane and Fai, "Don't let him open the door! The creatures I unleashed will come after you, but not me! I'm safe!"
He cast a couple of glowing runes and floated to the battlements and landed with grace. "That should slow him down a great deal. One of the reasons necromancy is outlawed is the fact the undead can cross most shields and the knowledge to make the shields to keep them out is a lost art on Celes. I took a safe bet the king doesn't know any. He'll have to fight the animals outright."
"Nice," Kurogane admired, watching King Ashura struggle with the undead wolves, lynxes, foxes, and bear.
"But they could kill him," Yuui protested.
"Not hardly," Kurogane said. "He's holding his own, so we've got to leave quick. Let's go back to Nihongo. My father can raise an army with his allies to bring down the king and we can cure him."
"That's not possible, Kurgs," Fai said in a self-deprecating, half-hearted laugh.
Boris had a bad feeling about this when Kurogane scowled at Fai's strange smile. So Boris offered. "Then Valeria? I know you hate it, but he wouldn't think you two went there."
"No. I can't go there either. He can track me wherever you take me, and I can't use my power any longer to move between realms. You see..." Suddenly, Fai looked bashful. Then he blurted out the worst possible news. "I let King Ashura tamp down my power by giving him control of my phoenix binding again. He'll now be able to track me most places if it's near fluorite."
"What?" Kurogane roared, grabbing Fai by the collar of his coat and shaking him. "Of all the asinine things you've done, my idiotic mage, this is the dumbest of them all! I should throw you to that bear for doing something like that after what my mother told you!"
"I know, I know..." Fai said in remorse with waving his hands. "But you don't know how persuasive he can be."
"Then we have to hide and ambush on Celes," Boris said. "I guess we go further north. This world, as a whole, suffered a catastrophe many thousands of years ago. It's why our climate is strange compared to other worlds. The ley lines were shattered to the extreme north because of it, so we no longer go there."
"I've been close to there. The demons from my realm were trying to get to that spot," Kurogane said.
"Good. Then lets go!" Boris said, lofting his magical staff and then starting to cast the runes.
"And what did you wish to see me about?" Lord Suwa asked the grouping of farmers gathered in his courtyard. It was most of the village elders of Suwa. He knew that rumors had spread like wild fire among them. He knew what the elders were there for: to get Kurogane disinherited, or get Fai banished for good.
Farmer Ryuku asked, with ill disguised hostility, "To be blunt, Lord Suwa, we want to know if the rumors about your son are true."
Lord Suwa always liked to tease around, but he was always direct with the people he was charged with looking after. He had to admit this was a surprise confrontation that just plain annoyed him, not that he hadn't been expecting it one day. "Well you'll have to tell me what you overheard your housewives whispering in their kitchens. I never bother to listen to the yammering of women," he said, trying to be as insulting to them in hopes they'd back down.
"It's your own men that said your son is doing unnatural things to the mage."
Lord Suwa felt aggravated by these men, so he decided to answer the with a mix of scorn and aplomb. "If Kurogane were picking the mage's nose that would be an unnatural thing to do to the mage. You'll have to be specific." He fought off his smirk at forcing these prudes into vocalizing their angst against his son's relationship with the mage.
Farmer Hashi glared and snapped, "Don't play around, Lord Suwa. You know this is a very serious matter. Has your son chosen to bed the foreign mage?"
There was a tiny bit of Lord Suwa that wanted to lie to protect Kurogane's standing in their society. After all, there was a chance Fai wouldn't be back, and Kurogane could bury the relationship and start with a new one with a woman. But then, Lord Suwa remember Fai tumbling in his arms right after Ran's near fatal attack to the mage's head. He, himself, had felt torn up seeing the blood and tremors wrack the mage. And then having to walk his son through what they thought was going to be Fai's final hour played through his mind.
What really stopped Lord Suwa from lying was remembering the grief in his son's eyes right before Fai came so close to dying. When he had left the room with Hitomi so Kurogane could say his farewell, Lord Suwa teared up himself when his wife sobbed on his shoulder in the hallway. Damn it all, that mage had wormed himself in Lord Suwa's heart, independent of Kurogane's love. Even now, that moment hurt him, along with the thought of the mage being at the hands of his unscrupulous father right at this moment.
He sighed, knowing this moment with the farming elders was coming, but he hadn't been looking forward to it in the least. "I'll not lie. Kurogane's heart is fixated on the foreign mage. I've done everything to discourage it, but he won't change his heart."
"Who cares about his heart! He should focus on his duty to the people of Suwa!" Famer Mimo shouted with balled up fisted. "What's to become of our province if you don't make your son do his duty and father a child?"
Lord Suwa flinched a little at the harsh question and scowled. They talked about his son as if he were an animal, and it deeply offended him. Kurogane was not livestock, and it was to his deep shame he realized he'd had that attitude at one time. He found his mind imagining someone demanding he'd sleep with someone besides Hitomi; it wouldn't, and couldn't, happen. He could see his son was just as obstinate in his love for Fai.
To which, Lord Suwa took a deep breath and said, "What am I to do? He desires no one but the mage. I can't make him bed a woman if he has no passion for it. I have planned on talking to Kurogane about making sure he has a blood child to carry on traditions." Lord Suwa exaggerated from a previous conversation by saying, "Kurogane and his mage will find a way for him to have a blood child. I will talk to him about it."
"You better! What are we supposed to do otherwise?" Farmer Mimo growled with a balled up fist.
"Is that all you care about? That he... breeds... like some bull to a cow? Not that he's so loyal to you? He was prepared to live as an outcast on the edge of Suwa's borders and fight for this land, even if his mother and I disinherited him. He lives and breaths to make sure you're safe!"
"Then where is he? Off with that..." Mimo continued.
"Remember! Fai is still under the status of honored guest in my house. To call him a filthy name would require satisfaction," Lord Suwa warned with narrowed eyes.
"Get his mind right, or we'll bring a complaint to Edo," Ryuku threatened. "He will be made to comply or be replaced by someone that can continue our traditions. Not only that, you know what will happen when the knowledge that he beds a vixen spreads to the other provinces! It'll be constant war! Why should our children be at constant risk of war because your son is bedding a... whorish...!"
"Watch your mouth," Hondo warned, barely resisting taking Pale Blue Ice's hilt. He never wanted to hear Fai called a vixen again. He knew what Fai was: a uke to Kurogane's seme, which the word 'vixen' implied. However, Fai was a great fighter that didn't put himself out with random men; he was also very loyal to Kurogane and not 'whorish.' Which was why the word offended Lord Suwa a great deal.
Lord Suwa said, "I know war is a legitimate concern of yours. I will address it with the other lords. We will come to an agreement, and I will talk to Kurogane and his mage when they get back. I will tell them they need to find a way to address your concerns."
"We've decided that two years is enough time for your son to produce a natural heir. If it doesn't happen, we'll file a formal complaint in Edo," Mimo said.
Lord Suwa inhaled deeply and nodded. The farmers left happy with their ultimatum issued. He marched into Hitomi's sitting room and flopped down beside her. "I take it they didn't want to listen?"
"No. They want him married and won't hear another thing. They gave him two years to sire a child or they'll file a complaint."
"Kurogane would never be disloyal to his mage. He would see it that way, choosing to be intimate with anyone else."
"I know. That's what worries me. These farmers may come to eventually accept Fai, but what they won't accept is Kurogane not having a blood heir."
"This can be dealt with when Kurogane comes back. Let's concentrate our prayers on him and Fai." She served him some tea and then looked at him directly with earnestness. "Hondo, would you prefer Fai never came back here?"
Lord Suwa gave a deep sigh. "No, I want to see him again, and I want to see him making our son happy."
She took his hand and smiled. "Me too."
To be continued.
