A/N: Another chapter of my original one-shot! If you noticed, I replaced the last chapter and changed Kertin from a page to a servant, because, as Cat McDougall pointed out, pages are children. Parnit is not a child-stalker, so Kertin is now a servant instead. It fits well anyway. This chapter is Kertin in third-person, and most of it from his POV. Review responses are at the bottom of the page, because they're pretty long. Here's the chap!
Chapter 2: A Servant's Broken Bond
Kertin, a servant for the Palace and for Selenay, was pondering the puzzling recent changes in his life and romantic longings.
I should have known I would make a great servant-I have been serving people all of my life, after all.
Kertin had recently moved from his slum to the Palace, desperately seeking any work. His old apartment had clung to Haven's high walls, like a small insect searching desperately for any heat or light from a more powerful animal. Knowing that he needed money, and fast, to pay for rent, he found the Palace and was hired quickly as a Cook's helper in the Palace Kitchen.
Kertin knew how to make simple food, but fancy gourmet food for the royal table was beyond his skill. The Cook was also suspicious and uncomfortable around Kertin, because Kertin was unique-he was shaych. The helpers would not talk to him, peering curiously at his back given the chance, and tripping him or knocking his side whenever the opportunity appeared.
As if my love preferences should make a difference to anything!
The servant was quickly transferred to Room Service, where he saw, just for a second, a person who he loved with an overwhelming sense of hopeless attraction.
I remember it so well…
--Flashback--
The servant was wearing his newly pressed livery, silver and blue, in anticipation of his new job as Room Service in the Palace suites. He takes a silver embroidered tray, holding fine crimson wine and delicate glasses, to his first suite. He knocks timidly upon the door with his free hand, his metal ring producing a low clang against the fine wood of the Palace.
The door swings open, revealing a middle-aged soldier, his dark tan skin home to a plethora of long, dry scars. The servant sees his deep, mahogany eyes for a brief instant, but then looks away, staring down at the delicate glasses while offering the tray quickly.
"At your service, m'lord," the servant, Kertin, murmurs, backing away from the door and quickly turning, sprinting towards the end of the hall.
"Wait! Stay!" the mysterious soldier calls after the departing figure of the servant, the fleeting blue silhouette lost among a crowd, disappearing, returning for another tray.
-- --
"Kertin! Lost in your silly thoughts again, eh?" one of the supervisors called impatiently. "You are supposed to be serving the Lord Marshal's meeting, and they're almost done! Get to work!"
Kertin looked out the window, at the sun's position in the sky, and realized he was long overdue.
I swear to the Havens, if they are already done I am so dead!
Kertin grabbed the first tray which came to his hands, and bustled out of the Servant's Hall, almost running towards the meeting. He saw a steady flow of people from the room, obviously leaving.
Just wonderful. Another meeting I've missed… this is my third. My supervisor's going to have my head this time.
Kertin continued to move forward, hoping to put the tray down in the room and pretend that he had reached the meeting on time, when suddenly he ran into someone, his tray clattering on the ground.
"I'm so sorry," Kertin murmured, looking up. "You!" he suddenly said, in shock. His love, the soldier, the one who had dominated his mind, he was there in front of him! "I, I mean, I am Kertin, sir, at…at…"
He could not continue, fumbling his words wildly when confronted with the mysterious scarred figure. On a sudden impulse, Kertin put out one hand, palm up, hoping for even a touch from his gorgeous love.
The soldier took it, and their eyes met. Kertin felt as if he was falling into the endless pools of amber, with streaks of deep brown, his reflection mirrored in the other's eyes. The strategist's eyes seemed to bore into Kertin's flesh, his mind, his very soul, the light amber of the soldier and crimson red of love imprinting themselves upon his brain.
Confusing, conflicting emotions ran through Kertin's head, the strongest overpowering joy and bliss. His heart was suddenly dominated by the soldier, Kertin's love growing ever stronger, until the mutual attraction almost controlled the shy servant, his lips curving into a sensuous smile, his eyes lighting up with the emotions darting back and forth within his skull. A gentle, opaque strand of pure love seemed to connect itself to the servant's heart in that moment, his heart pulsing along with the bliss coming from the smooth bond.
In confusion, Kertin shook his head, breaking the everlasting moment. The soldier broke away from their strong, friendly handshake and ran, Kertin now staring at the soldier's fleeting back. Kertin sat down, his hand unconsciously reaching out to the quickly fading figure of his love, as his mind shut down and his eyelids gently closed over his emerald eyes.
-- --
Kertin's vision returned to him, the dark black beginning to fade from his eyesight. He sat up and looked around in confusion.
"Kertin! You fainted, are you all right?"
Kertin nodded his head at the fellow servant, preoccupied with other matters. The tan soldier drifted back into his mind, and Kertin blinked, shocked.
He looked at me as if he loved me, didn't he?
Kertin's thoughts were all hopefully optimistic, until the other side of his brain took control.
Why did he run away from you then, Kertin? Did he think you were stalking him? For goodness sakes, why would someone who works with the Lord Marshal fall in love with a lowly servant!
Kertin shook his head at himself, remembering the strength of the love, the bond of mutual attraction cementing the two together for eternity.
He must love me. He will know I love him, and we can be together forever, with love I have never felt before cementing our relationship.
Kertin gently fingered, with his mind, the clear, glowing bond of love which coiled around and controlled his heart and soul. Gently, Kertin channeled all of his emotions down the join. Bliss, joy, love, and attraction were all channeled down the gentle opaque strand, the bond pulsing rhythmically with the strength of the emotions.
Kertin felt fear return through the bond, and a feeling of confusion. Again, Kertin pulsed his feeling of strong attraction and love down the opaque strand. Kertin laid back, confident and optimistic for the future, when suddenly, the bond tensed from terror and fear. Pain struck back, taking control of the formerly gentle bond, and lashed onto the unsuspecting servant's mind.
His heart felt as if it would split in two. Kertin's head reeled, his skull feeling stretched and broken. Kertin's body lashed out, yet his mind was unable to feel anything but the endless pain.
A long welt seemed to have imprinted itself upon Kertin's mind, in place of the gentle bond, the surface of his body writhing in inexplicable pain. His flesh felt as if it had been impaled upon a long board of sharp steel spikes, and then doused in ice cold water for good measure. Kertin was lost amidst the pain, his limbs feeling ripped from his body, his heart feeling sundered from his chest.
Kertin took a long ragged breath, put his head back, and screamed, a long shrill yell, and took another weak breath. Kertin could not hear his yells. Instead, he heard only the roaring in his ears, and the rushing, never-ending pain. Kertin's mind felt disconnected from his flesh, and grew weaker. Kertin slumped onto the ground; his skull hitting the gentle glass of a wine goblet, the glass breaking as shards scattered themselves around Kertin's empty body, devoid of active mind, heart or soul.
-- --
"Nothing is specifically wrong with the man," a Healer told the servants, puzzled, pointing to the limp body of the servant. "Our Mind-Healer says that his mind has entered a state of chaotic, warring emotions, and his brain is failing. It won't be long now. I'm sorry."
It took a full mark or so for Kertin to die, his soul lifted to the Havens on a cloud of the lonely sobs of one man, the scarred, grizzled soldier. The remnants of their strong link pulsed, faded, and broke, gone, leaving Kertin free to seek the Havens with the memories of a now broken bond.
-- --
A/N: One more chapter, I think, remaining, which is Parnit third-person again. I hope you liked this chapter, I wanted to get into the servant's skin. Sorry about the confusion with page/servant, I forgot that pages are children and I didn't want to make Parnit a child-stalker. Thanks to Cat McDougall for pointing that out! Here are the review responses which I neglected at the top of the page:
Wizard116: Thanks! I included what happened to the page (now servant), on your advice. Hope you liked the new chap!
Herald Kelsin: Thank you! Yeah, I noticed the bond breaking scene sounded a little similar to yours, but it was accidental, and the plot line is different, so...the page (now servant!) did go well with Parnit, didn't he? So sad that it just didn't work out, just because I was feeling in an angsty tragic mood. Hope you liked this new chap!
Cat McDougall: Thanks for the advice there. Completely accidental, and no, Parnit was not supposed to be a pedophile (I think that is how you spell it). I changed it, I hope you liked it better now that there is no child-stalking!
Fireblade K'Chona: Glad you liked! I'm doing after with Parnit Tarnel next chapter. Sorry, you don't get to meet Tarnel this chapter, because I wanted to write the servant's…but next chap you will, I promise!
Vaches: Thanks, glad you thought it was good. I elaborated on the ending now, I just wanted to finish the first part of it there. Here is the something more to be said, hope you liked!
Wind to thy wings, Breezefire