Mark of the Magi

Chapter 4

By

Lily of Trust

Disclaimers: I lay no claim to the characters you see here. However, I will accept donations from Sunrise! Authors Notes (and replies to reviews) at the end of the Chapter, because I don't want to give anything away....

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The skiff was swept towards the ends of the Straits of Eon shortly before sunset. Touma and Shu made the decision to pull up on land for the night. Shin had been asleep below decks for hours, and showed no signs of waking.

Touma yawned and gestured towards the shore. "There's a bank there we could pull up to."

Shu echoed the yawn and steered in the direction he indicated. "We'll just tie up offshore. Easier that way."

They drifted closer towards the embankment, being careful of rocks beneath the surface of the water. Shu jumped over board and splashed down into waist deep water. His teeth began to chatter together as he caught hold of the rope Touma tossed his way. He waded ashore, uncoiling the line as he went. There came a faint splash from behind as the anchor splunked into the water.

In short order, the skiff had been secured, the sails furled, and firewood gathered for the night. Shu and Touma sat on the deck, watching as the stars blinked into life one by one. They built up a cookfire inside a large, slightly concave bronze dish that had been stowed away in the hold. All small ships had one, it served as a kind of portable stove. Touma set a pan of water boiling above it and put together a sort of stew from odds and ends of dried rations.

Stomach full with a hot meal, Shu began to nod off. His chin sank down onto his chest and he struggled against the suddenly weighty pull of his eyelids. Touma watched in amusement as he appeared to drop off twice before jerking himself back awake again.

"Why don't you head below and get some sleep?" He said finally, fearing that if this kept up much longer, Shu would fall forward right into the leftovers. "I'll stay up here and keep watch."

"For what?" Shu yawned and stretched.

"Pursuit, of course," Touma said matter-of-factly. "Just because we haven't seen any doesn't mean it isn't there."

"Don't you need sleep, though?" Shu paused on his way towards the covered steps and glanced back at him.

"I'm a night person by profession," The thief reminded him. "I'll catch a few hours in the morning while you two see if there's anything out here we can use. We'll work out a more permanent watch schedule once the shrimp gets back on his feet."

Shu chuckled and waved a goodnight over his shoulder. He descended the stairs and had to duck down in the low-ceilinged room below decks. A small oil lamp hung from the beams overhead, and he reached up to turn up the flame. The tiny little cabin space lit with a faint, warm light that was just enough to see by.

Shin lay curled into a defensive ball in his hammock. How he managed to sleep like that without falling out was a mystery. One arm dangled over the edge, his fingers barely brushing the floor as the hammock swayed in time with the ship's movement. Dark bruises marred his skin where the Kraken had had its hold on him, ranging from dark blue-black to purple yellow where the water had made a token effort at healing the damage.

Shu bent over him and carefully moved his arm back inside the hammock. He pulled the blanket up over the younger man's shoulders and sighed in relief when he didn't wake. His own hammock refused to cooperate. It insisted on folding up to one side at every attempt to sit down in it. He swore quietly and grappled with the recalcitrant length of cloth.

Eventually he got himself situated to the point where he didn't think he'd fall out during the night. The ceiling was low enough that it was a simple matter to reach up and turn the lamp down for the night.

~

Touma paced the deck and fed the fire. The air became chilly out on the Straits at night. He sighed and leaned against the mast, watching the ocean in the direction of Kichis. Boredom set in; he was beginning to regret his offer to stand watch alone. There was absolutely nothing to do up here except stare out at the water as the moonlight created stained-glass patterns on the surface. While it was pretty enough, it did little to distract him. He drew the worry-stone from his pocket and slipped it expertly between and over his fingers. It dipped in and out of sight like a coin, and if Touma hadn't been so preoccupied with the stretch of sea, he might have noticed the faint blue glow emanating from the stone.

Minutes stretched into hours, broken only by the rhythmic lapping of the waves against the skiff.

Touma's ears perked upwards as something else came by on the wind. He heard the creaking of rope and wood, and hushed conversation. A few trailing lights rounded the corner into the Straits, and the noise grew louder. Touma smothered an involuntary curse and quickly kicked the fire-pan overboard. It hissed and spat as the superheated metal hit the chill water. Steam rose in a small billowing cloud. Touma flattened himself to the deck and held his breath. Either the occupants of the other ship were unbelievably unobservant, or...they didn't want to be seen either.

An intriguing thought, that. Touma watched as the other craft, which really wasn't much larger than their own, sailed on by in total silence. It disappeared again around an outcropping rock formation.

The blue-haired young man sat up and crossed his arms atop the railing to watch the stern vanish. Something about the small ship smelled wrong to him. He slid over the rail into the water as silently as he could manage and made his way ashore. It didn't seem like anything or anyone would be coming for them, and his curiosity had gotten the better of him. That was how he'd become a thief in the first place; overactive curiosity.

He didn't have to go far before he heard splashing and human voices calling out to one another. The standing stone sentinels of the rocky beaches were more than enough cover for an experienced thief. Touma scrambled silently up one wind-beaten boulder and watched with interest as a crew of about half a dozen men made camp on the pebbly beach. One man scooped out a shallow trench for a fire, and two others brought food and what appeared to be casks of wine ashore. Each cask was marked with some kind of seal. He couldn't quite make it out from such a distance, or in such inferior light, but it almost seemed to be some sort of creature whose front end resembled a bird, and the rear a lion. A many rayed sun made up the background. Touma rested his chin on the stone and blinked thoughtfully. He'd be willing to bet his current freedom that that wine wasn't from anywhere inside of Taidem. These men were running more or less quietly, and at night. Every clue marked them as smugglers. And smugglers who didn't have enough sense to leave their goods alone, at that.

That just about made up his mind to get back to his own ship and leave them to their business. It was probably best not to interfere with that sort of thing. He almost turned and made a retreat.

Almost.

Two other men splashed ashore, and it soon became obvious that one's hands were lashed together behind his back. He stumbled and nearly fell as the smuggler gave him a hefty shove, but regained his footing and shot a quick murderous glare at his captor. The would-be-pirate smirked and pushed the prisoner down to the ground where he could be watched.

Touma settled back down and watched as the smugglers proceeded to get smashed off their asses. He studied their captive, puzzling out the possible reasons they'd be Kichis bound with human cargo.

He could have been some sort of foreign noble, the thief thought. He had that sort of unconscious arrogance or presence of command that they all seemed to possess. Locks of blonde hair hung loose from a short ponytail at the nape of his neck, and his eyes were almost impossible to see past a wild fringe of bangs. He looked battered, and a little worse for wear; his clothes had been torn and scuffed, and there were visible scrapes and bruises on his collarbone.

The only obvious explanation he could come up with was as some sort of slave. Except that slavery was outlawed in Taidem. At least, it was [i]officially[/i]. There were always rich men and women who could pass slaves off as 'indentured servants', whose salary would go towards paying off their debts. Only the debts were nonexistent, and the servants were never paid.

Touma could think of only one possible future for the blonde man. There was a small, but very lucrative market for body slaves in Kichis. This man was far too...well...[i]pretty[/i] for any other outcome. He shuddered, and wondered if the poor guy had any idea what was in store for him at the other end.

Now he definitely needed to get away. There was no sense in giving these smugglers/slavers any more stock. Especially since their destination seemed to be the place he was escaping from. Another shiver clawed through his body as he thought of his friends sleeping all unawares back on their skiff. The slavers would eat the Shrimp [i]alive[/i], until they found out he was an Elemental and could be sold for a lot more than his looks would bring on the slave market. Shu would probably be sent to one of the quarries, or some other manual labor-intensive site.

It didn't bear thinking about.

Touma slid backwards down the boulder, casting one last sympathetic look at the blonde man. Through a truly strange twist of fate, the captive happened to raise his head from contemplating the ground, and stared through the darkness towards the thief's hiding spot. Touma was certain that the man couldn't have seen or heard him...but for a split second they locked eyes.

The blue-haired thief groaned silently to himself. He couldn't just walk away and leave the man to a fate that many would consider worse than death.

"Bloody conscience..." He muttered quietly. A quick review of the situation presented only one feasible option; wait until the smugglers got really, really drunk, sneak in, free the man, and get the hell out. Nice and simple. Any elaborations would have to be made up on the spot. Considering how deeply the crew of the smuggler's craft was dipping into their own cargo, he wouldn't have long to wait. Good thing too; the boulder was beginning to dig into his hip.

The small sliver of the Golden Moon had set, and the Silver Disk was just beginning its arc across the heavens when Touma was jolted from his half-doze by raucous snoring. He took a quick peek over the top of his cover, noting that all the smugglers had collapsed in various positions of drunken stupor. The blonde man still sat stoically before the fire. Touma judged this to be the best opportunity he was likely to receive, and stole out from behind the boulder. They couldn't have chosen a better moment to pass out; the sky was temporarily absent of most moonlight, and so it was a simple thing for him to sneak up to the 'campsite'.

"Hold still, and stay quiet," He hissed in the captive's ear. The man never so much as batted an eyelash. Only a minute tensing of the muscles in his shoulders betrayed his surprise at the voice in his ear. Touma drew a short bladed knife from his belt and quickly sawed through the rope binding the man's wrists together. The hemp had spent several years soaked in sea-spray, and was stiff with crusted salt. But Touma never let his blades grow dull, and the rope parted beneath the keen edge after a few moments' work.

It must have been painful for the blonde to have the circulation suddenly return to his hands after so long with them bound. But to his credit, he flexed his fingers a few times and turned to snare Touma with a frighteningly calm gaze.

"What now?" He asked coolly, obviously expecting Touma to have some sort of plan in the works. Fortunately, spending years as a pickpocket had taught him to think on his feet.

"Follow my lead," Said the thief. He crept over to the nearest unconscious man and gave him a quick rap to the back of his skull with the pommel of the knife so as to ensure the sleep would be deepened. He grabbed the man under the arms and dragged him over the stony ground towards the waiting boat. The cold water lapped at his legs, and soaked the unconscious smuggler, but didn't seem to be waking him. Fortunately, they had left a rope ladder dangling over the side of their craft, so all Touma had to do was take hold of the man's collar and haul him up on board. He looked back over his shoulder and noticed the blonde following his lead.

The Silver Disk was at its apex by the time they finished hauling the crew back onto the ship. Touma lashed the tiller so that they would sail right through the Straits on the currently prevailing wind, and picked all their pockets for good measure. He hacked through the anchor-line and jumped back overboard as the boat began to drift. The wind chose that moment to pick up, and it quickly disappeared from sight. Touma spat after it in disdain, and curled his lip in disgust.

"Here's hoping the Kraken gets them," He said fervently. The blonde at his side remained silent. Touma noticed that during the last trip on board, he'd grabbed up a carry sack from the cabin, and slung a sword from his hip. The weapon didn't look like the sort of disreputable blades smugglers would carry; the sheath was of tooled leather, and well oiled. He couldn't see the sword itself, but he got the feeling it wouldn't be a cheap, two bit, pot-metal affair.

"So..." He said finally, after a lengthy silence.

"I never thanked you for your assistance." The blonde said. There was a curious lilt to his voice, suggesting that while he certainly spoke the language fluently, it was not his native tongue. He shook his hair from his eyes and held a hand out. Touma grasped it in his own, and raised a mental eyebrow at the feel of sword calluses and rough places where hard work had marked his skin. Nobles didn't usually bother with anything strenuous, and the more he was around this man, the more he thought that was what he must be. Only now he was getting mixed signals.

"It wasn't anything, really," He replied, "If they'd been conscious...now that might have been challenging."

The other man just nodded and shouldered his pack. "I am in your debt."

"We'll call it even if you'll explain to me just what those men wanted with you," Touma offered. The thought of someone this...intimidating owing him anything gave him a slight case of the chills. It was almost as if the blonde was suggesting that Touma had done something [i]wrong[/i] by saving him and placing a favor owed on his shoulders.

The silence was becoming awkward again; they just sort of stared at each other, while the thief waited, and the nameless man tried to decide whether or not he was being serious.

"I thought they must be in the slaving business, but I could be wrong," Touma prompted.

"Yes. It was...something along those lines."

Talk about your one-sided conversations! Touma blew at his bangs in frustration. His brows knit together in a scowl.

"You wouldn't happen to have a name or anything like that, would you?"

"Ah," The blonde's eyebrows went up a fraction of an inch, acknowledging a breach in etiquette. "My name is Seiji, of Clan Date."

Touma mulled this over even as he returned his own name. Clan hmm? Then he really wasn't from around here. That sort of familial title was found more prominently in the West.

"You're a long way from home, aren't you?" He cocked his head to one side and allowed his curiosity to seep into his voice. "It's really none of my business, but we don't get Westerners in Taidem much; not since the debacle with the Royal Family, anyway."

"Let us just say it's a family matter, and leave it at that, shall we?" Seiji turned to leave, striking towards the woods that rose up past the scrub brush.

"TOUMA! Damn you man, where the hell have you been?!" Shu's angry voice split the late-night quiet as effectively as a sledgehammer. He rounded the boulder and stormed towards the blue-haired man, completely ignoring the blonde in his anger. Shin paused in following him to lean against the stone and yawn. The Water Elemental currently suffered from a serious case of bed-head.

"I was-"

"Nevermind that! You were supposed to be keeping watch!"

"But I-!"

"You walked out on us, that's what you did!"

"Hey, I-!"

"Lousy, good-for-nothing, lightfingers!"

"Would you just-!"

"We could have been slaughtered in our sleep while you were off taking a stroll!"

"Shu, maybe you ought to let him explain?" Shin suggested mildly, knuckling at his eyes.

Touma mentally elevated the smaller man to the position of Saint. He launched into his story, telling how he had seen the other ship and thought it seemed suspicious it would just pass them by in the night, and how he had snuck after it and realized that the crew had to have been smugglers. Noticing the storm clouds gathering on Shu's brow, he picked up the pace and blurted out the rest about the rescue and sending the slavers on their way. Minus their wallets, of course. He emptied out his pockets at that point, dumping the money-pouches onto the gravely sand. If that wouldn't keep them going for a while, he didn't know what would.

"And if you don't believe me," He said finally, "You can just ask him!" He jabbed a finger at Seiji for added emphasis.

Both Shu and Shin had been so caught up in the rapid-fire storytelling that they hadn't noticed the blonde until that point. Shu started in surprise, wondering how he could have possibly missed him. He was about to apologize for subjecting the stranger to their argument, when he noticed the man was scrutinizing Shin with an almost frightening intensity.

The stare hadn't gone unnoticed by the Elemental either. He unconsciously pressed himself back against the rough granite of the boulder. In two or three long strides, Seiji stood before him, and caught his chin in his hand. Shin swallowed hard as lavender eyes bored into his. The blonde raised his free hand and traced something into the air between their faces with his index finger. A faintly glowing sigil hung there, pulsating faintly with verdant and gold light. Touma and Shu gasped in startled surprise as a very light blue aura lit up around the Elemental, outlining him in turquoise.

Seiji sighed in an almost resigned fashion and stepped away, releasing his grip on the other man. Shin let out a breath he hadn't been aware of holding and watched as the symbol faded away into a quickly dissipating mist.

"You are an Elemental Magi, no?" Date looked at him almost accusingly, and Shin found himself nodding automatically. The pale man muttered something to himself in a language none of them had heard before, and pinched the bridge of his nose as though warding off a headache.

"I am also a Magi," He said by way of explanation, "Although I have only a small Elemental talent."

"Ahhh, so [i]that's[/i] what the smugglers wanted with you," Touma exclaimed. Seiji nodded and cast a rather dark look out towards the water where they had last seen the other ship.

"Yes. I was unaware of the demand for Elementals in this country. I came here on family business and extended some of my talent in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have already been delayed several weeks, thanks to them," He fixed Shin with his eyes again, seeming wryly amused this time. "Unfortunately, it seems I will have to put off my duties a while longer."

"What do you mean by that?" Shu asked suspiciously. He moved towards his friend in a protective manner, obviously not trusting the blonde.

"Part of the oath I swore when I accepted my rank as a Magi was to offer tutelage to any talented, but untrained, persons in need of instruction. And you, boy, are about as raw as they come,"

"Hey!" Shin bristled, though he wasn't too sure whether he was annoyed at the reference to his lack of skill, or being called 'boy'.

"As you are now you are a threat to yourself and those around you," Seiji said sternly. "And you are also a Water Element. Surrounded as you are by ocean, that is a dangerous scenario."

"If I might offer a possible solution?" Touma cleared his throat to catch their attention. "You, Date, need to get somewhere, and since I dislike the thought of drowning, Shin needs instruction. We happen to have a boat, and no set destination in mind, so...."

"You would trade transportation for tutoring?" The foreigner thought it over for a moment or two before nodding. "Yes, I think that would work out to everyone's gain."

Shu looked at Shin and shook his head. "Do you get the feeling that we have no say in this?" Shin just nodded and smiled weakly; he seemed to have no control over his life anymore. When had things gotten so complicated?

"I hope you don't mind sleeping in a hammock," Touma was saying as they headed back up the beach towards the skiff. "And you'd better not snore. We get enough of that out of our resident muscle head."

"Dammit Lightfingers! You just don't know when to quit!" Shu roared, tearing off down the beach after the fleeing thief. Seiji and Shin paused and watched them go at it.

"...I'm beginning to regret my decision," The blonde said finally.

"You get used to it. Quickly." Shin chuckled. "Or you'd better anyway. It's looking to be a long journey."

(AN: Hmm...let's see...This marks the last member of the party. From here on out, there will be no more unexpected guests, but plenty of cameos if I have my way. You have NO idea how weird it felt to introduce Seiji first-name-first. I felt like I was committing sacrilege or something!

Oh, one more thing. I've decided to be a complete heretic and NOT let Touma be an archer. Because to be honest, I don't know where he would have picked up that skill in his current profession. Also, I mentioned two moons in this chapter; I just thought I'd point out that this AU happens to have that many ^_^.)