(A/N) Okay, okay fiiiiine. Since I seem to do nothing but talk y'all's ears off about this particular WIP lately, I'll go ahead and start posting it. Some of ye may recall that little AU snippet I teased about a year ago. Well, this is what's spun out from it. I have a particular fascination with the Ballad of Tam Lin, so it's one I return to quite a lot, but somewhere along the way, this piece made the leap from a straight retelling into 'loosely inspired by Tam Lin' territory. Interesting little tidbit, in this opening scene you will meet two of my OCs, Zeb's parents. Mostly I'm amused because this is the first time I'm introducing them to you...and they're human. Heheh. Well, whatever happens, I very much hope you enjoy this little side quest of mine.
A Rose Upon A Thorn
Chapter 1: First Night
Once upon a time, which is all times and no times, but not the very best of times, the world was divided in two. The realm of the daytime, of the living sun and the seen aspects of reality, of that which is known, belonged to the humans. And the realm of night, of thought and power and shadow, of the unseen and unknown deep within the mist, that belonged to the Others – the Fey.
For as long as the two peoples had been aware, they had lived apart from one another, their worlds kept divided one from the other by a nebulous boundary of fear, magic, hatred, and obsession. Only briefly would either human or faerie dare to traverse the barrier between their own world and the other. Briefly, but with lasting effects, as almost no being can resist the temptation to lie with something beautiful. So, within both worlds, there were a fair few children born who bore the blood of both. And though hate and power continued to keep the two realms separate, there were those who searched for ways to end that separation.
None came closer to that goal than one young scholar, an intelligent and profoundly wise lorekeeper of the royal library. After being saved by a young Fey noble in his youth, the human sought a way to end the division between the two peoples. In his studies of the Divide and of the two folk, the young scholar formed a fast friendship with the noble who had once saved his life. This noble was, in fact, prince of the Fey, and would one day ascend as their high king. Together the pair sought a method of bringing their two kinds together and, if later stories were to be believed, became a great deal more than mere companions in the process.
Magic and power may be overcome with enough study, but fear, hate, and ignorance are stronger opponents still. Neither realm was accepting of the notion of dwelling side by side with the other and, ultimately, the young scholar gave his life in his efforts to bring his message of tolerance to the realms, torn to pieces by the very humans he had hoped to enlighten.
The execution of his dearest companion erased what shaky care and compassion the faerie prince had had for humans. When he ascended as High King of the Fey, he led his people into open war against them. That war was long and brutal, only ending in truce when the king's people grew weary of tearing their world to shreds for the sake of destroying their enemies.
The realms returned to the way things had been, staying out of each other's affairs, the humans fearing to interfere in Fey matters and the Fey too disgusted with the humans to mingle among them, and those who were not turned from each other by the long centuries of conflict were forbidden further contact when the faerie king forbade the mingling of Fey and human blood. Many human generations passed in this way, until the Fey had attained a more mythic status among the humans, their existence evidenced only by their half-blood descendants who still walked the world of man. Those bold enough to cross the Divide were now few and far between, the humans fearful of the nightmare stories of what lay beyond the Divide and those few Fey who were sometimes still curious much too afraid of rousing the anger of their king by risking the journey.
Even so, gazes will wander and hearts will stray, and when the eye of a shield maiden of the Fey king's court looked too deeply upon the human realm, falling into the kind, fearless eyes of a human prince, there was little that could be done to crush the love that blossomed between them.
The shield maiden attempted to maintain her place in the king's court, thinking perhaps to once again attempt to heal the wound that divided the two realms. But when the young warrior could no longer keep secret the fruit of her union with her prince, when the king discovered the child her lover had gotten on her, he flew into a rage, crying for the heads of both the maiden and her infant son.
XxX
Lirakal could hear the pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears as she ran through the night. Exhaustion and fear were quickly creeping in on her. If she were at full strength, if she weren't still recovering from giving birth, there was no way Thrawn's guards would even be able to keep pace with her. But she wasn't at full strength and she was still recovering from bearing the little babe she held clutched against her breast, so she could do little more than run. Her mother's distraction had bought her time, but not much.
They were gaining.
Why do you run, Lirakal? the king's voice gnawed at the back of her mind, separate from the physical struggle she waged to escape from him. You cannot get away.
The young faerie snarled in rage as she drew her sword, whirling to face her pursuers. The first had been so close at her heels he was impaled upon the naked blade, shrieking in shock and pain as she quickly cast him aside to die in a slick puddle of his own blood.
She fought off two more of the royal guards, quickly relieving them of their heads before more could arrive. With three fewer pursuers than before, she continued her flight through the tangled bramble of thorns and undergrowth that filled the Divide. All the while, her son's terrified sobs filled her ears.
I won't let him have you, little one. I will die first. Thrawn will have to pry you from my cold, dead hands before I give you up.
Up ahead, she could see light. The pale and silvery moonlight of the mortal realm, not the harsh, stark light of her own world. If she could just get there. There she'd be able to protect her boy from her king's power. Through the curtains of thorns, she could just see Zenarab on the other side, waiting for her. Just as he'd promised.
I'm coming, my love. I'm coming.
This truly is pointless, Lira. Your human cannot save you, the king's powerful voice lanced into her brain once again. Closer. He was getting closer. By even placing his seed in your body, he has damned both you and the child. If you surrender now, I promise your deaths will be quick and painless.
"NEVER!" she screamed for all the realms to hear, her child in one hand and her sword in the other. "I will never surrender to you!"
You will have little choice in the matter, Lady Orrelios. Shouldn't you think of your son now? Do you truly wish for him to suffer all of the horror my power is capable of calling down upon him?
"No," she panted out as she ran, his words like tiny hooks in her thoughts now. "But that won't happen, because we're getting out of here."
"Lira!" She could see Zen's lips forming her name, could hear him shouting. They were close. They were so close.
"No, dear lady," Thrawn's cold voice hissed directly in her ear. "I'm afraid you are not."
Oh, Gods.
The moment Lirakal actually heard the faerie king's voice aloud, she froze. Mere steps away from the border, she found she couldn't stir even a single foot to escape.
"Lira! NO!"
She could still see Zen, could still hear him, but when she saw him attempt to enter the Divide, he seemed to come up against an invisible barrier, unable even to touch the thorns that comprised the borders of the two realms. And the next moment, all she could see was Thrawn.
The king's red eyes glowed with the promise of pain as he glared at her. It was the only thing about him that spoke of the deep-seated rage she knew he harbored in his soul. Everything else about the high king was calm, cold and cruel as ice, and just as unforgiving. That chilly countenance filled her vision now, a small sneer curling his lips as the last of his guards surrounded her.
But she wasn't afraid of them.
No.
It was Thrawn himself she feared. And she had little doubt he would give her cause to in her final moments. For several minutes, the monarch just circled her, letting her feel how powerless she now was.
"Such an unfortunate thing," he said in a dangerously soft voice as he moved in close to her once again, gently lifting her wailing son from her grasp. Outwardly she was powerless even to blink of her own volition, but inside...inside she was screaming.
No! Please! Not him! I'll do anything, most high majesty! Anything at all! Just please don't harm my child!
"He really is a fine-looking lad. Worthy of the Orrelios name and more besides. It truly is an unfortunate thing his existence is forbidden," the king said, rocking the newborn in one arm while he called a small but potent tangle of dark energy to his other hand.
NO! ZEB! MY GARAZEB! MY CHILD! NOT MY CHILD!
Strangely, the baby boy calmed as he looked on his death, the flickers of dark and bright that danced over the shifting surface of the king's spell lighting up his tear-stained face. Thrawn actually held the spell away when Zeb reached out to touch it.
"I may grant the child a quick death, at least, but yours must be suitably lingering, Lady Orrelios. You should not have disobeyed. My laws are in place to keep our people safe, and those who would break them must be made to know the sting of my displeasure. Say goodbye to your son if you wish," he told her as he unbound her mouth. "I have at least that much mercy."
Lirakal remained silent as she looked on the baby in her king's arms. What purpose did goodbye serve when her little one had barely had his first hello? The only thing she could think to offer up in that moment that would come anywhere close to meaning something was, "Garazeb...my little Zeb...I'm so sorry."
She had little doubt the king would've spoken then, but he didn't get the chance to. Because in that moment, Zenarab was there, slashing a dagger of cold iron across Thrawn's face. As he cried out in pain he dropped Zeb, his focus shattered. By the time Zen had caught their boy, Lirakal was in motion again, pushing her family back through the Divide and into the human realm.
Winding up on their knees in the dirt beyond the barrier, Lira was quickly scrambling to take little Zeb from his father, covering his face with kisses as she checked him for injuries.
"Is he all right? Is he all right?!" she demanded over and over again while Zen checked her over for injuries.
"He'll be fine. Thrawn didn't touch him. What about you? Will you be all right?" he pressed her.
"Perhaps in body," Thrawn's voice was suddenly reaching out to them across the Divide. When they looked back, it was to see the Fey king standing just at the boundary of the two realms. His eyes glowed even more fiercely as blue-black blood trickled down his face, shimmering faintly in the moonlight. "But what of your spirit, Lira? You cannot hope to thrive in this world. You will have hardly a tenth of your power. You would accept being so diminished as that?"
"That doesn't matter," she said, glaring up at her former ruler. "Here I have my family. I am more diminished without love than I could ever be without my power."
"And the humans themselves?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow. "You do not know them as I do, young one. They will never accept you."
"We can already see they have."
"One of them has," Thrawn pointed out. "And that's all it will ever be. One human. The rest are beasts and they will tear the three of you to pieces, as they have done all others who have ever attempted to live a different way."
"That's not true!" Zenarab argued. "Not all humans are like that."
"Indeed, child?" Thrawn asked with a dismissive sneer. "If you believe that, you are quite young in this world of yours. You will see. You will see how your fellow men turn from your son in disgust when they learn what he is. They will never accept this family of yours. I suppose, Lira, that having to live in this world you've chosen is punishment enough for your sins. For if this is your decision, then you may never return to the moonlit realm. You will live and die among humans. Your mother will die alone, with no one to mourn the passing of so great a name. Is that truly what you want...Lirakal Orrelios?"
Lira swallowed heavily at the thought of her mother. Thrawn could not raise a hand against Bennali Orrelios, no matter what her daughter had done. That much was true. But the idea of her mother passing unmourned was more promise than simple threat. It would haunt her thoughts all her days, she knew, but...
"My mother's decision was made when she saw that I could never be truly happy in our world after loving Zen. My decision was made when I felt our son quickening in my body. No amount of displeasure from you will change any of it. So go your way in peace, my most High King Thrawn. Have your laws. Here, you have no power. Here, at least, I and my own shall be free," she told him, rising slowly to her feet with Garazeb in her arms. Zen was soon standing beside her, an arm around her shoulders, so that they stood with their son cradled between them, standing unafraid before the king of the faerie realm.
Thrawn merely sighed as he shook his head. "Have your human realm then, Lady Knight. You may never believe it, but I hope you are happy. I hope I am wrong and that you can build a life here, but nothing in my experience gives me cause to truly believe that. And you, little prince," he continued, turning to look at Zenarab, "perhaps you have won today, but think not that you can shed blood such as mine and suffer no consequences. I hope it was worth it."
"Go, Thrawn!" Lira snarled, baring her fangs at him.
"My Lady," the king said, inclining his head toward her in a gesture of respect that was only somewhat mocking. Then he stepped backward into the shadows and mist beyond the thorn-choked barrier, his red eyes the last thing to vanish into the darkness.
Farewell.
Once they were well and truly alone at the Divide, the young couple quickly sank back to their knees, still clutching their child between them.
"Gods," Lira whispered as she leaned into Zen, "Gods and spirits protect us."
"Li," her love whispered, his normally deep voice thin with shock and lingering terror, "I really thought- I was going to have to watch the two of you die...and not be able to do anything to stop it."
"I thought so, too," she said, turning her head to the side to press a brief but heartfelt kiss to the human's lips. In human terms, her Zen was not a small man, but stood beside her, he was still a little on the shorter side. "I'm amazed you managed it. Did you really break through his barrier with- with nothing but that dagger?"
"Suppose so," he said, glancing down at the blood-spattered iron dagger at his hip. "I know I- shouldn't have been able to. But it worked out better than even you'd thought when you first gave it to me."
"It did," she said with a small laugh. "Sharpen that with his blood still on it and I can guarantee you it will never grow dull. It may even develop some further powers of its own...with blood like Thrawn's imbued in the iron."
"But...Li...it's not as if- he was entirely wrong," Zen reminded her. "I mean...Bail's given his consent for me to marry you, and that carries a lot of weight, but...there will still be others who fear you...who fear our son. This won't be easy."
"No, but we knew that already," she said softly as she called upon the power that remained to her, beginning to shift the forms of both herself and her son. "We knew it wouldn't be easy for any of us."
Lirakal's velvet-fine purple fur shifted first to grey, then to deepest black before sloughing away entirely, leaving her with only human skin. Her large, strong feline limbs shrank down into human form and her killing claws winnowed down to only faint hints within her nail beds. Her long hair remained purple, but shifted to a shade so dark, it could almost be mistaken for a deep red. Her fangs shriveled within her jaw, shrinking down to the same faint hint of their former sharpness as her claws, leaving her smile with the barest impression of just how dangerous she truly was. Her ears remained pointed, but they shifted a little further down on her head. The last to change were her eyes, the round, luminous orbs shifting to something a little more human within her skull, though a similar faint hint of their former glow remained.
When she looked down at Garazeb, she could see that similar changes had been wrought in her baby, now even tinier than he had been. Tiny green human eyes gazed up at her from a dark face framed by slender, pointed ears. A similar sheen of dark purple-red fuzz covered his little head. The only remnants of their fur were tattoo-like patterns of stripes along their skin in a lighter shade of black than the base color. Not entirely human, but much less outwardly Fey than they had been.
Little Zeb wasn't all that aware of the fact that he looked different now. He simply offered both his parents a large, gummy smile, cooing happily as he held up his hand, now a tiny human thing with four fingers instead of a clawed paw with only three. Lira held her own much smaller hand up to her son's, wiggling the new digit around in curiosity.
"That new finger's going to take some getting used to," she said absently, curling it around Zeb's tiny wrist. "And the legs...and the feet...and the skin...I like the look on you, Zen, but I'm not sure it suits me."
Her husband-to-be gave a small, pained laugh at her half-hearted complaints, sensing the real longing within them. At least their son would be able to grow up unaware he had any other form, but this...this would be difficult for Lira. "Are you sure this is really what you want? To live like this...with me?"
Lirakal rolled her eyes as she looked up at him. "It's a bit late for that, my love. Besides, it's as I told Thrawn before. This is where my family is. I have you. And we have our son. I have all that I need."
XxX
In truth, the young prince was a prince in little more than name. He was half-brother to the king of the mortal realm, son of a concubine of the former king. He had been granted dominion over a small province in the much more wild, Fey-enmeshed northern territory of the human realm. As such, his affairs were largely kept separate from those of the wider court, and his own son was kept mostly away from notice. After all, it was no secret that the prince's wife and child were Fay, but it was a subject largely left undiscussed. The new human king was much more accepting of the idea of mixed blood and the breaking of barriers, especially after one of his more beloved brothers had fallen in love with a faerie, but change was still slow to come to a land that had long been ruled by fear and ignorance.
The young half-faerie child knew nothing of this, though. He was only a child, after all, and he longed for nothing more than to play with other children. Though many of the court's children were wary of his inhuman looks and his more than mortal strength, there was at least one other boy the child made fast friends with – the only son of one of the court lords, a bastard child. The lord's son was a lonely boy himself, as his father was a hard and cruel man who was very much against the king's new ideas about the acceptance of Fey blood.
And so, in spite of the old fears and prejudices arrayed against them, the two lonely boys became friends, playing together any opportunity they could seize. The boy's mother had no objections to their friendship, of course, but she did always offer them a single admonishment.
Never stray too close to the Divide.
The call of his Fey blood had always been present in the exiled knight's son, and had been from almost before he could crawl. Though she tried to leave her past behind her, there was still the ever-present danger that the sheer wild in her son would call him back into the faerie realm...
...back to the land he was born in, only to die.
XxX
"Zeb, stop!"
Garazeb heard his friend's cry, but he didn't heed it. He had his eyes fixed on the ball and he wasn't going to lose it.
The little red ball was bouncing through the forest all on its own. He didn't think he'd thrown it that hard, but it wouldn't be the first time he didn't know his own strength. He wasn't going to let that get the better of him this time. He kept on after the fleeing ball, kept on until it rolled right into the thicket of thorns at the borders of the forest.
He hardly noticed the small call at the back of his mind that was both warning and siren song. This close to the Divide, he should've heeded it, but all he knew in that moment was that he was about to lose Alex's very favorite toy and he wasn't going to let that happen. So, ignoring every warning in his head and heart, he thrust a hand into the thorny brambles.
"ZEB!"
It was a really strange feeling, both pain and not. As he watched, the wild thorns dug into his dark skin, the briar seeming to pulse as it drank his blood. Transfixed, he felt his head grow light and sleepy as his gaze was drawn deep into the thorn forest. And somewhere, just at the edges of his sight, he thought he could see a figure within the thorns – a creature with haunting red eyes.
Come away, O human child.
"But...I'm not-"
"Zeb! NO!" Alex's shouting was suddenly in his ears and the other boy was crashing into him, tearing him free of the briar's hold. Even though Alex was smaller than him, he seemed to have no trouble pinning him down as they went crashing to the ground.
For several moments, Zeb just lay on the ground, staring up at the faint gray light shining through the dark green leaves overhead, softly singing along with the voice still winding dangerously through his thoughts.
Come away, O human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faerie, hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand
He might've kept on singing...were it not for the feel of Alex's tears on his skin as he clung to him, keeping him pinned to the ground – keeping him from rising and going to the thorns.
"Zeb, don't. Please don't!" the other boy sobbed as if his heart might break. "Don't sing that awful song! If you let them in, they'll take you away. I don't want you to go! Please stay. Wake up!"
As his friend's pleas slowly melted the ice that had flooded his veins, Zeb fell quiet, his arms slowly wrapping around the other boy.
"I'm sorry," he whimpered, tears springing to his own eyes.
A tiny sob of relief escaped the smaller boy as he looked up at him. "You're all right. You came back! You...d-don't you do that again!" he sobbed, a fresh wave of tears pouring down his face. "Don't ever go near those thorns! Not ever!"
"But I- I lost your ball," Zeb whispered meekly. "Your favorite ball."
"So what? You're my favorite friend. I'd care more if I lost you in those thorns than any stupid ball."
"But I didn't-"
"Zeb, you're bleeding," Alex pointed out in worry as he scrambled off of him. When the eight-year-old looked down at his hand, it was to find it bleeding from several tiny punctures – the places where the thorns had fed.
"It's all right," he tried to wave his friend off. "It'll be fine by tonight anyway."
"But what's it going to do in the meantime? Bleed everywhere?" Alex demanded petulantly as he pulled off his nice vest, beginning to tear it into strips.
"Alex, no!" Zeb tried to argue. "Your dad's gonna be angry at you."
"Good," the younger boy snapped right back, clumsily starting to wrap the strips of fine cloth around Zeb's hand and fingers. By the time he was finished, there was a crude but well-meant bandage wrapped around the half-Fey's injured hand.
For another long moment, Zeb stared down at his hand, tiny pinpricks of blood already showing through the remnants of his friend's vest. It didn't hurt much. All he was really left with was a warm, tingling feeling in his tummy.
"Thank you," he said quietly as he looked back up at his friend. Alex smiled at him as he offered him a hand up.
"It's nothing. Let's get back. There are other toys we can play with."
"Right," Zeb said, his voice still quiet as he let Alex pull him to his feet and begin to lead him back through the forest.
Even with Alex's worry, even with the warnings his mother had always given him, Zeb couldn't quite help turning to look back at the thicket, the blanket of thorns that separated their world from...from the Other world. There was no sign of the creature he'd glimpsed earlier, but where he had thrust his hand into the barrier, where his blood still clung to the thorns, a single red rose had bloomed. And as he watched, its blood-red petals slowly turned purple. All the while, the faint strains of that same song pulled at his errant, frightened thoughts – a song that was both comfort and curse. He had heard it all his life, only now the words had changed.
Come away, O faerie child
To the waters and the wild
With a faerie, hand in hand...
"Zeb, come on," Alex kept at him, tugging at his hand all the more insistently as he half-pulled him back through the forest.
"I...right- I just-" the boy fought to get the words out, even though he didn't really know what they were. He was still struggling to tear his gaze away from the rose when something new really did seize his attention.
"Garazeb!" his mother's sharp voice lanced into his ears, finally snapping his eyes back the way he'd first run. His mother was racing toward them along that same path, her long hair coming loose from its braids and her hunting dress in disarray. He had no idea how she seemed to do that every time, showing up within a few moments of him either getting into or out of trouble.
"Uh...hi, Mum."
"What are you doing out here?" she demanded as she snatched him up in her arms. "You know you're not supposed to be out this far!"
"I'm sorry! It's just- the ball got away and I tried to get it back, but it- Mum, come on! Put me down!" he snarled, struggling without success to escape from her hold. Most boys' mothers struggled with picking them up as young as five, but most boys also didn't have disgraced faerie knights for mothers. If he were willing to admit it to himself, Zeb would probably have to acknowledge that his mother would be able to pick him up and sling him over her shoulder with ease even when he got to be a grownup.
"I'm sorry, Lady Orrelios," Alex also apologized, formally bowing his head to his friend's mother. "I tried to stop him."
"I don't doubt it, Alex. You're a good boy."
Zeb started to protest again, but was harshly shushed by his mother when she looked back toward the stretch of thorny brambles they'd been walking away from. As the little boy watched, a look of horror spread over her face. With him still in her arms, she moved slowly toward the Divide, as if pulled against her will.
"No...please, no," he heard her whispering as they drew closer. When they finally reached the Divide, she reached out her free hand to pluck the odd little rose that had sprung from Zeb's spilled blood. As she held it out in front of them, just staring at it, he felt her start to tremble.
"Oh...Zeb...my little boy...my little boy."
"Mum? What's wrong?" he asked her, trying and failing to get her to look at him. Had he done something?
But then an angry snarl tore through the faerie knight's deceptively delicate frame, causing her son's heart to race in terror at the sound.
"Not my child. Not my child, you beast," she growled low in her throat before crushing the fragile bloom in a tight, shaking fist. Then she flung the petals to the wind and they were suddenly back in the castle, alone in one of its many passageways.
His mother held him tightly in her arms as she collapsed against the stone wall, sinking slowly to the floor. All the while, Zeb glanced frantically about for Alex, worried that he might still be alone out in the forest. But he was quickly relieved to see his friend beside them. Alex's eyes were impossibly wide as he moved in close to them. Zeb reached a hand out for his, shaken by his mother's rage and terror.
"I'm sorry- if I frightened you boys," his mother said softly. "But we couldn't stay there. Garazeb...this is the last time I'm going to tell you. Don't go out there. Don't go anywhere near the Divide. It's too dangerous," she told him, her voice growing hard as she hugged him tightly against her breast.
"Mum...wha- what happened?" he tried to ask her, unable to keep his voice from shaking. "What was that?"
"I- it's difficult to explain, dear heart," she said, her hand becoming a little gentler as she ran it up and down his back. "You will understand when you're older. For now...all you need to understand is that there is something very dangerous out in the Divide. It will take you away from me if you let it. Do not let it."
"Lady Orrelios?" Alex suddenly spoke up, squeezing Zeb's hand a little tighter. "I won't let it."
"Alex?"
"I don't know what's out there...but I won't let it take Zeb away. He's my best friend," he said, looking from Zeb's mother back to him. "I'll do whatever it takes to keep him safe. I promise."
Loosening her grip on Zeb just a little, his mother smiled as she reached a hand over to ruffle his friend's blond hair. "Thank you, Alexsandr. You really are a good boy."
"Tell that to my dad sometime," Alex said with a small, pained laugh, only half-joking. As Zeb and his mother laughed with him, they all started in on a round of play wrestling. Zeb was quickly able to forget the incident, little knowing how it weighed on his mother's mind.
XxX
The boy's friend kept his vow well, doing everything in his power to keep the young half-Fey's attention from anything to do with faeries. But the two boys were growing every day and the same games and diversions could not hold their interest as they once did. Their toy swords became true weapons as they began to take their place among the king's warriors. They began to see how bitterly divided the humans and half-Fey still often were.
And, as had happened with the lord's son,the young half-Fey began to draw others to him. Others who, like him, were lost and alone.
XxX
The attack was long over by the time their contingent arrived. Reports had been coming in for months of a gang of bandits attacking villages and wandering groups with even whispers of half-Fey blood among them. Humans who took up weapons of cold iron against children with strange eyes and stranger gifts. When a scout had returned to the castle with news of an attack upon a traveling band nearby, Zeb, Alex, and a few others were sent out, but they'd arrived in time to do little more than count the dead. While half of them began to gather up the bodies for some sort of burial, the others broke off to search the surrounding woods for any survivors. It was then that Zeb found a small diamond blade flying past his ear, barely missing striking him.
As the throwing knife buried itself in the tree behind him, Zeb whipped out his own weapon – a similarly diamond-bladed sword that he could handle without incident. He raised it just in time to block the second knife flung at him.
"Come to pick off the survivors?" a voice demanded from the trees, its owner unseen.
"What are you talkin' about?" Zeb fired back as he and Alex moved to stand back to back, covering each other, he with his sword and the human with his crossbow. "We came here to help."
"A little late for that," the voice snapped, another knife flying toward Alex from a completely different direction. Zeb wasn't agile enough to block with his sword, so he simply let the blade pierce his arm, feeling the sting of it just below his elbow.
"Zeb!" his friend cried out in worry.
"s'all right," Zeb hissed back, in pain, but aware the wound would heal quickly. "He's just scared."
"Scared? I'll give you scared! You won't trick me that easily" their unseen assailant snarled at them as several more knives flew from the trees. Zeb didn't hesitate. He could take it.
Alex could not.
Throwing his sword down, he turned and seized his friend in his arms, flinging them both to the ground. He managed to miss a few of the daggers, but most found their target, embedding themselves in his back. He cried out in pain, holding Alex all the more tightly against him, keeping him pinned beneath the bulk of his body.
"Zeb! No!" his cry rose to join with Zeb's, and it tore at something in the young half-Fey's heart to look down and see the anguish in his friend's eyes. But it tore worse to see that anguish solidify into anger when he saw Alex struggle to reach for his second stash of bolts – the ones that contained cold iron.
"Don't," Zeb hissed, laying a hand heavily on Alex's. "Don't do it. He'll never trust us if you do."
"But he hurt you," Alex protested, that same look of anguish quavering beneath the anger in his amber eyes.
"Won't kill me," Zeb grunted, his touch softening against his friend's skin. "If we're gonna help this poor bleeder, we can't use cold iron against him."
"Fine," the human hissed back, though anything else he might've said was quickly silenced when Zeb tensed against him, sensing their opponent's movements in the changes in the air. He was moving through the trees, with them almost. He would emerge soon to unleash his killing blow.
Nodding silently to indicate where the other half-Fey would emerge, Zeb shifted his weight to allow Alex to reach for his fallen sword. His hand barely had time to close around the hilt before their assailant was emerging from the trees to fall upon them. Zeb rolled aside to let Alex up, the diamond blade flashing as he thrust it up beneath their opponent's overhead strike.
Alex drove the sword deep into the half-Fey's body, the force of his strike and his anger enough to carry the man back against one of the trees, the blade penetrating through his back and biting into the wood, pinning him there.
"How dare you attack blood of the House Organa?!" he snarled, digging the blade in that much deeper.
"What?" the other half-Fey returned in disbelief, blue eyes going wide.
"You heard me correctly. The man you attacked is the son of Zenarab Orrelios, beloved younger brother of King Organa. So if you feel like dying, by all means, press your attack."
"Right, because I knew that," their would be attacker growled, though there was a slight edge of fear to his voice now.
"Alex," he scolded his friend as he slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, working to pull the knives from his back. "You don't have to scare the kid. Nobody's getting executed." For the half-Fey was indeed young. Maybe not quite a kid anymore, but certainly younger than him and Alex. For the most part, this one looked human, his skin tan and his long brown hair tied at the base of his neck. Even his ears were the normal round of a human. The only physical tell he seemed to have was the faint moonglow of his crystal blue eyes.
"I'm not a kid!" he insisted, struggling briefly against Alex's pin, but his indignant demeanor was soon replaced with a look of helpless sadness. "The kids are all dead. They...they killed them."
"Do you know who they were?" Zeb asked him, wincing as he pulled out yet another knife, a fresh trickle of blood flowing down his shoulder.
"I don't. I just know they weren't only human. There were some half-Fey in that band. Maybe even one true Fey. I'm not sure. I couldn't get a good look," he admitted, plainly disappointed with himself.
Zeb and Alex shared a look at that. This was the first they'd heard of this gang consisting of more than just humans. It was possible they were merely a gang of thieves, but then they wouldn't likely be attacking groups of only half-Fey. That was more ideology than a common thief tended to have.
But...a faerie in human lands? There had been no word of one in a long time. None but his own mother. What could that possibly mean?
"Be careful of those," Alex scolded him as he pulled yet another knife free. "Those wounds are still going to bleed."
"Really? I didn't know that," he jibed back, pointedly pulling out another knife, though it did draw a fresh cringe from him. Just because this wasn't going to kill him didn't mean it didn't hurt. Alex just rolled his eyes in response.
The pinned half-Fey looked between them for sever moments before rolling his own eyes skyward. Then he actually melted into the bark of the tree, completely disappearing before melting back out of the side of it, free of the sword that had pinned him. He then summoned all of his knives back to him.
"So you're...Garazeb Orrelios?" the younger man asked him.
"I am," he answered as Alex moved to kneel beside him, starting to look over his injuries.
"Then that'd make you...Syfarre's bastard," he said to Alex, clearly without thinking, and he seemed to realize that when he saw how Alex stiffened at the mention of his father's name.
"You are not wrong. My preference is to be called Alexsandr, but if that does not suit you, I would have you call me by my mother's name instead," he said to the younger man in a sharp voice.
"And that is?"
"Kallus. Alexsandr Kallus."
"Yeah. I think I can do that."
"Puts us at a bit of a disadvantage, though," Zeb pointed out, feeling himself flush a little as Alex started to pull his shirt off to tend to his wounds. "You know us, but we don't know who you are."
The other half-Fey looked between the pair of them for several moments before finally coming out with, "Jarrus. My name is Kanan Jarrus."
"Well, good to know you, Kanan Jarrus," Zeb said, reaching out to shake his fellow half-Fey's hand and, in the process, catching a glimpse of another of his physical tells. He saw the beginnings of a wing tattoo at his shoulder, a pattern of deep green and swirling brown that no human artist could hope to duplicate. Whether he could call those wings into reality, who could guess, but Zeb had little doubt he'd been born with the mark. "Maybe we can make better impressions than tryin' to kill each other in the future."
"Famous last words," Alex couldn't seem to help quipping.
XxX
Much better impressions were made, as it happened. The younger half-Fey quickly fell in with the pair, becoming just as strong a friend. Over the following year their little circle grew larger with the addition of another young half-Fey, a woman with pale green skin who often kept her most distinctly faerie feature, a pair of head tails, hidden beneath a veil. She also kept with her an odd little raven whose underplumage would sometimes appear red or orange in the right light. He was a grumpy, contrary creature toward most everyone, everyone except the young woman, really. All three men found themselves at the mercy of the raven's beak on more than one occasion.
Their two new companions quickly took up with each other, but the two best friends were much slower to it, despite their friends constantly pushing them toward it. They had both danced around the idea of truly being together almost from the first moment each had understood what it was to desire another person. Had danced, never broached, because they both feared harming their friendship. What they shared with each other was the truest relationship either of them had, and as much as they both longed, ached for one other, they also desperately feared losing one another. So they remained like that, so close but always just out of reach, suspended with that last little bit of space they kept so carefully between them.
When they finally went breathlessly into each other's arms, it was like nothing so much as the breaking of a dam.
XxX
Zeb's groan as Alex took one of his ears in his mouth was almost embarrassingly loud. Who knew those ears were so sensitive?
"Mm...you like that?" Alex moaned around the mouthful of sensitive flesh.
"Hngh...Gods," was all he could manage with the sensation coursing through his body. As Alex ran his tongue along the slender, pointed tip of his ear, he half felt like the bones in his body had simply melted away, leaving him to languish in a pool of pure feeling. He could honestly drown in this pool that was his friend...his Alex...
The human groaned just as loudly when Zeb's fingers dug a little more insistently into his hips, his body writhing with need against the tree where the half-Fey held him pinned.
"We can still hear you, you know?" Kanan's teasing voice called to them from somewhere in the direction of the camp.
Zeb growled in annoyance. "So go find yourself another camp!" he called back, only half-teasing. "Pretty sure you 'n Hera have been pushin' for this."
"You know, I'm fairly confident you'll be able to hear us no matter how far we go," Alex joined in. Even in the dim glow of the moonlight, Zeb could see how his pale face flushed at his own words. But when he noticed Zeb looking down at him, his awkward smile became something a little more inviting. "What would you say to a little hide and seek, my liege?"
"I'd say you won't get very far," Zeb pointed out as he ran his fingers through Alex's hair. Then he pressed his nose against the pulse point in the human's neck, breathing deeply of the scent of him. Gods, how that scent drove him wild. "Nowhere you can go I can't catch that scent."
"I'm actually counting on it," Alex said, his expression that odd mix of embarrassment, invitation, and desire. He inhaled a trembling breath of his own before pulling Zeb down into a deep kiss. But the half-Fey barely had a chance to enjoy that taste he'd dreamed of for so long before Alex was slipping out of his grasp, whispering, "Come find me, Zeb," before vanishing into the night.
Zeb could hardly allow himself to give Alex the courtesy of a head start before setting off into the darkness. Nothing but his oldest friend's tantalizing essence to guide him through the trees.
He followed that heady scent through the trees like a hound after a rabbit, eager to claim his prize, to bury his own scent deep inside Alex's...to take yielding flesh in his mouth...to lose himself so deeply within this man he loved he might never find his way back again...
Zeb pursued the scent of his lover for what felt like miles through the forest, his senses so focused on Alex he hardly noticed true time or distance. By the time the human's trail came to an end, he had the very distinct feeling that something had been awakened inside of him.
The scent came to a stop in a clearing of oak and yew trees. Zeb didn't notice much else about the space until he started to notice the scent that was mixing in with Alex's.
It was the scent of roses.
Growing upon vines and in spreads like carpets all about the grove were roses. Some white and some pink and some peach, but for the most part, they were red. The color of the blossoms was made all the deeper by the pale, dappled moonlight shining down through the yew branches.
Briefly confused by the strong mingling of scents, Zeb shook his head in an effort to clear it; he only just caught the flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. Moving swiftly and silently after it, he began to circle the tree where he'd seen the brief motion. It was only the practiced, light footsteps of his companion that gave him away to the half-Fey's more-than-human hearing. Making an exaggerated circle around the tree, he spun around just in time to see Alex attempting to sneak up on him.
Zeb play-growled as he pounced his friend, drawing a surprised but delighted cry from him. Alex drew several excited, shuddering breaths as the half-Fey pinned him against the oak tree. Lowering his head to meet the human in another searing kiss, hands scrabbling to pull his shirt open, he didn't really become aware of their positions until he heard the sound of ripping fabric. Only he was surprised to discover when he looked that it wasn't he who had done the tearing, as he'd expected, but Alex, just as desperate to divest him of his clothing.
For a single, protracted moment, the two of them looked down, at the places where their hands gripped each other, both eager and frightened to continue – on the verge of something they had both longed for for so many years...of a change so profound it defied comprehension. Then, as if on cue, they looked back up at each other. Zeb reached a hand up to cup Alex's cheek in his palm.
"Do you know how long I've loved you?" he found himself asking as he ran a thumb along that cheek, mesmerized by the contrast of his own dark skin against the human's pale flesh.
Alex smiled up at him, amber eyes now bright with the sudden threat of tears. Leaning into the touch, somehow tender amidst the ferocity of their desire, he lifted his own hand up to lay it over top of Zeb's. "I don't, but I imagine it's nearly as long as I have loved you...my prince," he said softly. It wasn't a title Zeb really had; as the son of a lesser prince, he wasn't likely to ever gain an actual title, but it was something Alex had always called him, more from affection than anything else. "Perhaps I didn't have a name for it as a child, but I have loved you always...from the first moment you didn't turn from me...when you learned who my father was," he said, turning his head to the side to press a loving kiss to Zeb's palm.
The kiss was a little thing, but somehow so much more intimate than ripping each other's clothes off. Zeb sighed in pleasure, continuing to stroke his lover's face. "About the same...oh...when you didn't run screamin' after seein' me put my fist through a wall." He groaned a little louder when Alex trailed his kisses onto his fingers, kissing every inch of skin he possibly could, from wrist to knuckle to tip. Once he'd kissed every bit of Zeb's hand, he moved on to a somewhat more lewd action, sucking intently on his large fingers. The half-Fey couldn't help his gasp when his lover released the last finger with a particularly filthy pop.
Alex tore his shirt the rest of the way open, hands lingering over his belt a moment before pulling him flush against his body, allowing him to feel his eagerness. After another breathless kiss, he whispered against his lips, "I want you inside me. I want you inside me now."
"Gonna need a bit more than saliva if you wanna take anything of mine," Zeb pointed out, nipping hungrily at his bottom lip.
"Zeb, come on," Alex whined faintly, grinding subtly against him. "Waste a little magic. It won't take much. I'm ready now."
Zeb drew a stuttering breath at his friend's request. Alex knew his power was limited, that it didn't always work, but likely they were both too far gone by this point to care about the risk. He allowed his own hands to linger over Alex's belt another moment before ripping it open, then slowly lowering his pants down over his hips, bringing him into view.
It wasn't as if this was the first time he'd seen Alex undressed. Gods knew he'd seen that sight often enough (seen and catalogued a little more intently than he would readily admit), but there was something different about seeing him like this. Seeing him like this and knowing that he was the cause of it...that his best friend wanted this as much as he did. It was with that thought in mind that he slid his hand between Alex's legs, brushing very purposefully past his already straining cock to rub his fingers at the taut muscles of his entrance. He listened to his lover moan helplessly for several moments before even allowing a drop of magic to trace his fingertips.
But it didn't seem to take any more than that little bit. With just that gentle brush of his power-tipped fingers, Alex was crying out, knees buckling. With that single touch he was raw and open, ready and so eager. Even so, Zeb couldn't help but worry.
"You all right?" he asked, supporting the writhing human's weight between himself and the oak.
"Ungh...Gods," the shorter male groaned, slack-jawed and dazed. The only movement he could seem to manage was several erratic rolls of his hips. "Zeb...put something inside me. I don't care what. Fingers, tongue, prick, it doesn't matter. Just fuck me," he demanded.
"Heheh, sometimes I forget the mouth you've got underneath all that breeding," Zeb teased as he helped Alex quickly shed the rest of his clothing.
"At this point, I will say whatever it takes to get you in me, my prince. I have been empty too long," he admitted, the last more of a plea – a confession. He clung tightly to Zeb as they kissed again. Then Zeb was lifting him in his arms, careful not to be too rough as he laid him down amongst the sweet-scented tangles of roses. He didn't notice it at a conscious level in that moment, but the blossoms almost seemed to...conform to his desire, creating a bed for his love that was free of thorn and snare.
Then, so suddenly and naturally he was almost unaware of the actual moment, he was falling upon Alex, pressing into him as easily as a key to its lock. He had no words to describe that first penetration. Only that it felt almost as if he were sinking deep into his friend, but rather than fearing he might never resurface, he found he just wanted to dive deeper, to join with Alex in every way he possibly could.
The sound of Alex's cries as he thrust into him over and over again were the sweetest Zeb had ever heard. His friend was always so straight-laced and uptight, it unbound something inside of him to hear him come so completely undone beneath him. Snarling possessively, he actually sank his fangs into the human's shoulder, sinking in as deep as he could go just to taste him, to hear him cry out in such a desperate voice, cleaving even more tightly to him with every movement, every thrust, every kiss.
He couldn't say how long they kept at it, half-wrestling and half-fucking upon the carpet of rose petals, no longer certain of who was where, knowing only how tightly they were bound together...how deeply and fully they were uniting as one. When he brought his lover to climax, it was with a scream that seemed to resound from the trees themselves.
The moment between Alex's orgasm and his own seemed to stretch out, spinning back upon itself like a snatch of eternity as he worked in the human's pliant body again and again. He didn't know it then, but it was a moment he would have to cling to tightly...with everything he was, in the years to come. In that moment, the moment his own bliss spilled over into perfect completion, he was happy. He was the happiest he'd ever been, and he let that fierce, unbridled joy flow through every strain of his voice as he cried his love's name to the stars themselves.
He wasn't fully aware of what happened in the moments after, but when he finally did manage to bring himself back to coherent thought, it was to find himself lying amongst the roses with Alex, still quite thoroughly tied together. Alex was only half-conscious himself, lying entangled with him as he ran his fingers through Zeb's dark purple hair.
"Still with me...Garazeb?" the human asked in a dazed voice, the quiet rumble of his words thrumming deep in Zeb's chest.
"Always," he returned, arms curling a little more intently around his lover's still trembling frame. Then he leaned down to press a kiss to the top of the human's golden head. "So how long would you say it's proper to wait before I ask you to marry me?"
He couldn't properly see the expression on Alex's face, but he could definitely feel the heat of the man's blush against his chest. When he spoke, his voice was just a touch higher than usual. "Well...if we go by the old way of thinking, we're married already. Accepting your essence to my own is my consent."
"Heh, well, much as I like that idea, the old way also said we shouldn't be together at all...or my parents. So I guess we'll just have to make it up as we go," he said, lifting a hand to remove one of the rings he wore – a gold band that sported a stylized falcon's head with inlaid chips of amethyst for eyes.
"Zeb..." Alex started to protest when he offered the ring to him, slowly sitting up on top of him. "You can't- give that to me. It's a treasure of the House Organa. I'm just...I'm nobody. The bastard son of a lesser lord-"
"And I'm the son of a bastard prince. Don't act like I'm givin' somethin' up to be with you. Neither of us is goin' anywhere. We can be nobodies together. Besides...if you married me, you would technically become part of House Organa anyway. But- forget about all of that for a minute. I'm askin' you; not either of our houses. Would...do you- want what I'm offerin'?" he asked with a slight edge of fear, holding out more than just the ring in his trembling hand.
Alex looked down at him for several moments, actual tears spilling silently down his face, his expression caught somewhere between adoration and heartbreak. But finally he nodded, banishing all doubt as he took what Zeb offered him, cradling the ring in his palm as if it might vanish.
"You know, this- this will never fit me, Garazeb. Not really."
Zeb chuckled as he sat up, though his face was all warmth and joy as he drew his betrothed into a kiss. When they took a moment to breathe, he couldn't help smiling as he ran his fingers through the softness of the human's hair. "I don't think Uncle'll mind us getting it reshaped. I just-"
"Ah, so you have awakened. Good. Let us begin."
XxX
"Come away, o faerie child..."
"Wait! Take me instead."
"You? You do not know what it is you offer me, human. It is more than merely taking the boy's place. You are not enough. You will have to become what I require. You will give all that you are, lose everything that you love. That is what it means to offer yourself in his stead."
"But...if I did...you would let him go free?"
"Yes."
"Alex, no! Don't! Don't do this. Please...please!"
"I love you...my Garazeb. I shall always love you. Nothing they do can take that away from me. There is nothing this world could ask of me that I would not gladly give for love of you. Only...do not forget me."
"Alex..."
"I am always with you, my Zeb...my love."
XxX
Zeb jolted awake with a painful snap of breath – as if he hadn't been breathing the moment before waking. Feeling the weight of sheer terror on his chest, the half-Fey let his gaze sweep the grove.
He could only vaguely recall how it had looked before – a moonlit clearing covered with roses. But from that hazy image in his mind, what currently was looked nothing like that. A grove that had been in full spring looked almost dead. All that remained of the roses were scattered patches of dead, dried up petals. And in the harsh light of morning, many of those petals were purple.
Come away, o faerie child...
The sudden bleak transformation was far from the worst of it, though.
No.
The worst was that he was alone.
There was no sign of Alex anywhere.
"Alex!" he called out as he leapt to his feet. "Alex!"
He searched frantically all about the grove. He searched and searched, but there was no trace of his friend to be seen. Even his scent, always so distinct and comforting to the half-Fey, had vanished with the night.
"Alex!"
He could remember why they had come here. He could remember what they had done. Yes. He could remember making love to Alex vividly. He even remembered giving him the ring, now gone from his finger. But...the time after...
He couldn't remember.
He couldn't remember anything.
Come away, o human child...
"Alex!"
He couldn't say if he remembered or only dreamed it, but there was an image of his lover, smiling sadly as he reached out to him. Then the press of his lips in a kiss goodbye. Something horrible had happened.
But what?
Alex, what have you done? What have I done?
He felt a crushing weight against his heart, guilt and grief he couldn't understand. There was some kind of power at work keeping him from remembering; he could sense that much. But what was he being kept from remembering? What had happened last night? Where was Alex?
Why did he feel as if he'd lost him forever?
"ALEX!"
XxX
(A/N) So...shall we play a game?