Author's notes: Thank you as always for the reviews, now that you mention it, Aquajogger, I actually remember that strange Kai-stern x Mermaid picture. Weird picture that, and not merely because a naked mermaid is trying to make out with a drowning Kai-stern - Kai-stern's brown hair and the priest gear that he was wearing made it all extra strange. Seriously, you can't make that kind of thing up. There's more of Javon in this chapter as well, so I'm glad that he's appealing to some of you. He's actually quite fun to write, although, not quite as fun as the letters between Kai-stern and Alfeegi, which I think Misura picked up on. Alfeegi can be snarky when given the proper subjects!
Kiss: Good Mood. Invincible/Unrivaled. Fence.
Alfeegi had caught himself counting down the days until Kai-stern came home just over three weeks ago, when he'd suddenly noticed there were a series of red crosses defacing his calendar. He'd been horrified once he'd realized exactly what he was doing, and no amount of inner dialogue dedicated to 'discussing' the issue provided any real answer as to why he'd started marking the days off without even realizing it. Ruwalk had found it all rather humorous, and told Alfeegi so on numerous occasions, often while leaning against the corner of Alfeegi's desk and attempting to do anything but work.
In a way, it shouldn't have come as all that much of a surprise - it wasn't as though Alfeegi didn't miss Kai-stern something terrible, although he rarely admitted that to anyone other than himself. The castle was never quite the same when the friendly human wasn't here, but this trip had been different from most of the journeys Kai-stern went on. For the first time in over three years, Kai-stern's travels had taken him away for Draqueen for a long spell, and Alfeegi had found that while he enjoyed evenings spent with Javon and days spent with Ruwalk, that there was something incredibly important missing when Kai-stern wasn't there. His daytime love and his nighttime lover kept Alfeegi occupied and distracted – although generally in very different ways – but first Ruwalk and then Javon had noticed that Alfeegi wasn't quite himself when Kai-stern was gone.
It had been Tetheus of all people who had been the one, however, to point this small little fact out to Alfeegi himself. Apparently, Tetheus had become a little frustrated that Alfeegi kept sending back Tetheus' reports to be rewritten, especially considering that Tetheus' reports were always flawlessly presented and researched. According to Tetheus, Alfeegi was most certainly allowed to take his annoyance over Kai-stern's absence out on anyone he pleased, but as Head of Security, Tetheus also had the unparalleled right to rid the castle of anyone that he considered a threat.
Alfeegi was not a fool, and had realized that 'threat' meant 'general annoyance' fairly quickly, and had since then attempted to be as polite to Tetheus as possible. Naturally, while that meant that he treated Tetheus far better than anyone else with lesser swordsmanship, it still didn't mean that Tetheus was exempt from his usual, non-Kai-stern inspired temper.
It wasn't, Alfeegi had attempted to explain to Ruwalk on one occasion, that Kai-stern himself was really to blame. Instead, it was more that Kai-stern had a way of allowing Alfeegi to let off a bit of steam, or to somehow manage to pacify his general frustration over everyone else's complete incompetence with merely a drink or two.
Ruwalk had found something amusing about that as well, although Alfeegi had no idea why. Javon had at least seemed to understand his viewpoint, nodding seriously before noting how Kai-stern was obviously an important influence in Alfeegi's life at the moment, and so his absence was always going to have had some effect.
It had been almost … strange. The two responses had seemed so different at the time, yet there was a similarity there that Alfeegi couldn't quite define, in fact, it was one that he had just started to recognize existed in the first place. Ruwalk and Javon had this eerie way of sometimes echoing each others thoughts, so it really shouldn't have surprised Alfeegi as much as it did that they occasionally came across as being on the same wavelength.
Ruwalk and Javon got along well, even though the only common bond they seemed to have was Alfeegi. Ruwalk certainly had never really had much to do with the military division outside of Tetheus, and it was hardly as though Javon's various interests were similar in any shape or form to Ruwalk's. It was partly why Alfeegi had at first felt so pathetically guilty about interacting with Javon whenever Ruwalk was around, as it almost seemed as though he was forcing two quite different people to interact – or at least to deal with each other on some level – simply because of him. Admittedly though, that guilt had far more to do with how difficult it was to shake the feeling that by being with Javon, he was spurning and cheating on a lover that he'd never actually had. It had taken time and a fair amount of emotional juggling before Alfeegi had honestly felt comfortable when they were both in the same room. Even then, Alfeegi had still needed a stern talking to from Kai-stern on the subject before he found himself able to seriously consider Javon as potentially more than just an occasional dinner date.
Kai-stern had told him that he didn't have to choose between Javon and Ruwalk, and that sometimes there was nothing wrong with sitting on the fence for a little while before you decided which side you'd like to jump off on. There was no betrayal involved in being with Javon, just as Alfeegi was not slighting or belittling his feelings for Ruwalk in any way when he started to care about Javon in return.
Even Alfeegi's heart didn't have to be completely invincible, according to Kai-stern, who had said it with a warm smile. Some walls were supposed to be broken down, even if they fell only through chips and cracks as opposed to strong, unrelenting blows.
And Javon was creating cracks, even if those cracks had less to do with actual love and more to do with affection and attraction. But they were cracks, and sometimes cracks developed into things that were much deeper.
Ruwalk had unwittingly driven Alfeegi to build his wall around himself, and Javon was slowly deconstructing it. Yet, each time he was with either of them, he found himself missing Kai-stern even more. Both Ruwalk and Javon were wonderful companions, but Ruwalk's eyes didn't dance in quite the same way Kai-stern's did, and Javon couldn't always see the humor in a situation that might actually deserve it. Still, it made very little sense to Alfeegi, although both Ruwalk and Javon seemed to understand it on at least some level. Naturally, neither of them were willing to share their thoughts on the matter with Alfeegi.
But none of that quite mattered at the moment, because Kai-stern was due home in three days. Alfeegi, as a result, was in such a good mood that even Rath had commented on it, although Rath was wearing a similar smile that even disillusionment and the anger of youth could not quite mask. With an almost giddy glee, Alfeegi set aside an empty space on the corner of his desk for the nine months worth of paperwork Kai-stern was sure to have at least started if he knew what was good for him, while wondering if Kai-stern would be up for a drink on the night of his return. On one hand, Kai-stern was sure to be tired after his long journey. Yet, on the other hand, Kai-stern was almost as bad as Ruwalk was when it came to catching up on the latest gossip. Kai-stern usually liked to pretend he was above such things, but really …
And it was in the middle of that very thought that the courier pigeon arrived, stating that Kai-stern had to attend to 'other business' in Sandi before returning home.
THAT killed Alfeegi's good mood completely, and even Tetheus and his impressive sword were no longer safe from Alfeegi's temper. Alfeegi wanted to blame Kai-stern for the side trip, and perhaps if Kai-stern had to go anywhere but Sandi, he might have been able to convince himself that Kai-stern was merely wasting time and money. But months of correspondence had documented Kai-stern's dislike for the city, of how the power struggles and inequalities made any visit there mentally exhausting. Kai-stern had always been careful with what he ever said in his letters, even once he'd left the walls of Sandi far behind, but Alfeegi had managed to pick up his general feelings of the place fairly easily once he had gotten used to Kai-stern's way of writing. Important thoughts and opinions were often hidden between comments about beer and the weather, and even then only ever said with a certain level of humor. There was always the chance their letters could be intercepted, and while Ruwalk had once boyishly suggested that they could always write in code, they were far from being silly little children who still played such inane games.
The letter had said that Kai-stern only planned to be an extra couple of weeks, including all the travel involved. Alfeegi doubted that, but he clung to the thought of those two weeks the same way he had clung to the mantra of only three more months, or only five more days. It wasn't much, but it could have been far worse, Alfeegi attempted to rationalize. Kai-stern could have been diverted somewhere far further away than Sandi, and two weeks or so really wasn't that long considering that his friend had been away for almost a year. This was all merely just a tiny bump in the road.
Kai-stern was going to come home. Eventually.
A week and a half later, Alfeegi was quietly working in his office when Ruwalk burst in, his lanky friend almost completely breathless. It took a moment for Ruwalk to catch his breath, but the moment he did, the words he managed to force out between harsh breaths froze Alfeegi completely to the core and left him wide eyed in utter disbelief.
Sandi had been attacked.
