II. Of Children And Politics
The tree was definitely wiggling, no doubt about it. Faiik squinted into the afternoon sun, shielding his eyes with his hand. A small white furred thing was bouncing around the thick limbs of one of the Pul'kheriia trees like a possessed rodent.
Shaking his head in amusement, Faiik resumed herding the last of the yak team into the paddock. It had been a hard day of work at the mines, but he and his sons had managed to extract several three meter tall crystals from the ice caverns with the assistance of the yak team. The crystals were nearly flawless, which meant that they should fetch a good price in the capitol. Faiik closed the gate behind the last yak and trudged uphill towards the stand of Pul'kheriia trees that surrounded the compound. Like most of the villagers, he had chosen to use lumber from the trees for his construction because the silvery bark was uniquely suited to seal out cold. Pul'kheriia roots dug deep into the hard earth, absorbing the magic that reportedly lay buried deep below Oznobishin. The magic was rumored to be the reason that the trees could reach impressive heights, whereas most of the vegetation in Northern Celes crept close to the ground, hunched and stunted by freezing winds. There was still a large stand of the trees around Faiik's compound, however, because he had replanted a Pul'kheriia in the place of each one that he had cut on the instructions of Honorable Master Domovoi (Faiik couldn't hear or see the household spirit, but he could certainly read the strange patterns scrawled into the stove ashes.)
"Fai." Faiik wrapped his knuckles on the bark of the tree in which he had last spotted the "rodent."
No response, although Faiik heard a muffled giggle and the rustling of leaves.
"Fai, if you don't come to Papa, he's going to shake you out of the tree."
A small, grinning upside-down face slowly emerged from inside a clump of leaves. "You aren't strong enough to shake this tree, Papa," the boy taunted, his startlingly blue eyes half-moons of glee.
"Are you sure about that?" Faiik pretended to shake the tree and Fai pretended to fall, dropping into his father's outstretched arms and grabbing his father's neck to halt his controlled fall. With an exaggerated gasp, Faiik pretended to stumble and lose his balance from the near-negligible weight of the five-year-old, just as he did every time they went through the motions of this particular routine. "Ugh, you're getting too heavy for your old papa!"
Fai nuzzled his father's neck, the fur trimming on his new coat brushing against Faiik's wind-coarsened skin. "You aren't old, Papa. Just ancient."
"I'm sure I have your brothers to thank you for teaching you that word," Faiik said dryly as he fingered the coat skeptically. It was beautifully tailored, as were all of Faina's clothes, but the pattern (an intricate cross weave) and colors (blue and white!) didn't seem appropriate for a boy at all. "And I see your mother has been getting senile in her great, ancient age, making you a coat with white fur. Little tree-climbing brats should wear dark, sensible colors."
Fai squirmed out of Faiik's arms with the ease of a snow-slick otter. "Oh, I don't like it; it's too girly," he replied evenly. "I'm just wearing it so Mama will be happy."
Faiik arched an eyebrow at Fai's bald-faced lie. He knew very well that Fai liked pretty things; the boy was always picking up bits of shiny glass, crystal shards, colorful ribbons, and the occasional stray kitten and stashing them in his bedroom in neat arrangements. Faiik, however, had long given up on spanking Fai for falsehoods; the threat of punishment never worked on Fai, a stubborn child who seemed to view pain as a mere temporary obstacle to be maneuvered around. But Faiik usually tolerated Fai's little lies since the boy had good intentions: Fai would rather risk a scolding for a fib than risk causing problems.
Faiik decided to drop the subject of the coat in favor of a subject dearer to his stomach. "I smelled fish while I was down at the paddock. What's on today's menu?" he asked, stretching and popping his neck as he began to walk back downhill towards the compound. Fai fell into step by his father, taking about four hurried paces for each of Faiik's leisurely strides.
"We're smoking the salmon for lunch tomorrow. Dinner is beef stroganov, fried potatoes with mint, and fruit cake. I found the mint growing near the tree roots," Fai added proudly. He enjoyed helping Faina with cooking and cleaning and other household duties, unlike the other boys who had to be dragged into the occasional household chores by the ear.
"And drink?"
"Hot chocolate!" Fai chirped, to which Faiik made an expression of dismay. "But"--Fai cupped his mouth conspiratorially and leaned close to his father-- "I've heard that it tastes really great with vodka."
"What! Which of your brothers told you that!" Faiik did his best to appear as incredulous as possible; he even put his hands on his hips. "You know you're not supposed to drink until you're thirteen, right?" Faiik punctuated each word with a shake of his finger. Personally, Faiik thought that it was fine to give children a little diluted alcohol with meals every now and then (his father had shared his drinks with him); it meant they were less likely to go on a crazy binge upon reaching their thirteenth birthday. But Faiina definitely did not agree, and she had chased Frol for ten minutes after catching him trying to surreptitiously slip Fai mead at last year's Yuletide. (Of course Fai's brothers delighted in "corrupting" their mama's precious darling whenever possible, and said precious darling enjoyed being corrupted for his part.
When Faina heard about this little exchange – and Faiik knew it was inevitable that she would, it seemed to be some sort of irrevocable law of nature – Faiik hoped the finger-shaking and hands-on-the-hips would make into the version of the story she heard. Still... hot chocolate and vodka. He stroked his dirty blond beard thoughtfully. Sweetness with a bite. It could plausibly work, and tonight would be cold so he needed something to warm up with.
"Ho, neighbor!" called a familiar, booming voice. A man clad in an ankle-length sealskin coat and matching cap stood at the bottom at the hill. He affectionately patted the massive husky standing next to his booted feet. "Bacha and I overheard you and the tyke discussing alcohol so naturally that got our attention."
Faiik greeted the man with a nod, while Fai shrieked with happiness at the sight of the dog. "No surprise, there, Captain. You and your dog can out drink anyone for any for ten ports around, or so they say, eh?"
Captain Saadak chuckled. "Nah, Bacha's too smart to drink beer, Flowright. Smarter than most my crew, probably me too."
"So what brings you to my humble abode?" Good-naturedly, Fai clapped a hand on the captain's back.
Hesitating, the dark-haired man cautiously glanced down at Fai, who was happily failing at wrapping his small arms around Bacha's furry neck. "Well, Ozerov's been acting like a bit of a hussy lately, but we've got a new priority order that just came in from Voloshin, so I want to take it."
A puzzled frown crossed Faiik's face. Lake Ozerov was infamous for her unpredictable boat-shattering winds and swells, but what did that have to do with Fai?
"Your son has a feel for the weather in his bones," Captain Saadak said. "I just figured it couldn't hurt to get his opinion before deciding to take the job. Never been wrong before."
"I expect that sort of superstition from the ignorant farmhands and old women with nothing better to do, but you went to a real school, and you're the most traveled person here! You don't actually believe all the silly stories about Fai's birth date and his name, do you?" Faiik snapped. It was well-known that certain villagers would drop by the Flowright compound at random intervals, supposedly to swap news or offer a neighborly hand, but it was obvious that most were hoping to see Fai do something "magical" (preferably flashy.) It was also well-known that Faiik considered this to be a source of great annoyance and would rope any of the "idle gossipy bums" into "honest work" if he could. Fai, however, enjoyed and basked in the adult attention, which also annoyed Faiik.
A pink flush spread across the captain's bushy face, and Faiik guiltily looked away so as not to embarrass his friend further.
"I thought you would give my words some consideration, not because I'm 'educated' and 'well-traveled,' but because we've been friends and neighbors for a long time and we respect each other. You know that I'm a practical man and I base my decisions on what I observe, on results that work," Captain Saadak said, punctuating his words awkwardly with thick gloved hands. "My life, the lives of my crew, and sometimes even the lives of people in this village depend on my judgment. But I don't mean to upset you or interfere with the way you raise your family, Flowright."
Faiik sighed in frustration and ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry. That really wasn't meant for you – I'm just worried about Fai's future, about what they might do--" Abruptly Faiik cut himself off, remembering that the object of their conversation was still quite present. Oh shit, stupid, Faiik, stupid. Fai had burrowed himself into Bacha as if he were trying to disappear into the black fur. Once he and Faina had made the mistake of quarreling about Fai in front of him, and Fai hid himself in a Pul'kheriia and wasn't located for five hours. When questioned about it, Fai replied matter-of-factly that if they were quarreling about him and he left then they wouldn't fight anymore. Since then Faiik had exercised extreme caution not to say such things in front of his youngest, although he'd managed to break that little rule royally just now. He touched the boy's hair gently. "Fai, you're not in trouble. Captain Saadak and I are just... discussing adult things. We're not angry with each other or you."
Sniffling, Fai lifted his head up, his pale face damp.
"Why don't you go find your brothers and play with them?"
"I saw F'dot and Fedos'i pulling weeds in the garden," Captain Saadak offered helpfully. "You could take Bacha and sneak up on them."
"Okay," Fai said slowly as he rubbed a hand over his eyes, the expression on his face revealing that he knew that he was being gotten rid of, but that he was grateful for an opportunity to escape all the same. With a weak smile, Faiik watched the pair run downhill. "Fai and those twins sure enjoy harassing each other."
"Faiik." The captain sought the miner's gaze, his onyx eyes now piercing. "You've been worrying constantly about the boy ever since that rock slide three months ago, haven't you?"
"Yes. I'm glad you're back, Captain. There isn't really anyone else I can discuss this with; I don't want to worry Faina with my idle speculation." Faiik paused, trying to gather his thoughts. "You've spent enough time outside of the village to understand how outsiders think. What I need to know is whether or not my son is in danger of being kidnapped by the capital."
" 'Kidnapped' is a strong word to use; outside of these parts most people use 'conscripted' or 'drafted.' " Captain Saadak smiled shrewdly. "But you're wondering if the boy has already attracted outside attention and how long you can hide him, aren't you?" Faiik offered a small shrug of his shoulders, confirming Captain Saadak's guess. "Lucky for you this village is extremely isolated, otherwise you wouldn't have a chance. Our king seems to be running dry on magic-talented conscripts," Captain Saadak muttered as he began to scratch a diagram of the village in the dirt. First he drew a small circle to represent the town of Oznobishin and a larger circle to represent Lake Ozerov. Next he added jagged teeth for the mountains that ringed the valley on three sides. "It's the trade routes that will cause problems," Captain Saadak said as he drew a few twisting lines from Oznobishin through the mountains, where three other sister villages lay.
Faiik nodded. "True, but I don't think we have to worry about those. They're even more isolated than we are since they don't have any lakes or rivers, and most of them hate to travel. They heard about the rock slide incident, but they're not much inclined to gossip with outsiders, especially since they hate the capital even more than we do." The mountains were impassible most of the year due to ice storms and rock slides. Even when the mountains were passable, travelers could weather the high altitudes only long enough to visit villages two days away at most. That meant travel tended to be restricted to intervillage travel, and thus there was a rather insular bond between the four village. "So the issue is the Lake Ozerov route, and that's your domain, Captain." Faiik knew that Captain Saadak had a rather inordinate amount of control over news that went into and out of the village: Lake Ozerov froze over completely about three months out of the year, and Captain Saadak was the only person willing or crazy enough to cross the enormous lake with a dogsled team, all the way to River Ozerov. And even when the lake wasn't frozen, the captain's ship was still the only vessel to regularly dock in Oznobishin. He loaded up furs and crystals and news and unloaded medicines and metalwork and news.
"Oh-ho, asking me to manipulate information, Flowright? Don't worry, my crew knows how to be quiet," Captain Saadak replied absent-mindedly. "The legendary loose lips of sailors are not the problem - this is." He waved the stick at a set of triangles he had drawn, and Faiik stared as if transfixed. "The crystals... it's been awhile since they've had maintenance, hasn't it?" The captain nodded. The village couldn't exist without the lake, but the lake was not a kind and benevolent force of nature. She seemed to resent their very existence, battering ships with unpredictable gale-force winds and waves at all times of the year, but during the coldest months Lake Ozerov often generated winds of such chill that the village wouldn't be able to last more than a few weeks if "The Fence" were to fail. The Fence consisted of a long row of rare perfect four-meter crystals that had been planted into the ground by the village's founders centuries ago. The Fence ran parallel alongside the section of the lake that fronted the village. The crystals were meshed together by an intricate web of the most powerful magic and amplified the power of the magic so that it generated a protective barrier against the wind.
But occasionally, even the best magic would go awry, and thus The Fence received periodic checkups. Or was supposed to, anyway. Since Ashura-ou's recent campaigns to consolidate and exercise his power, the remote Northern villages had dropped rather low on the priority list, which suited Faiik just fine. "They aren't going to send a team out here unless there was a real problem," Faiik said. "Ashura's not going to pull wizards and witches that talented off the battlefield just for a routine check up on some backwater village. And we're certainly not going to request a checkup unless something went terribly wrong – like a complete failure. That hasn't happened during our lifetime, so it's not very likely to happen now. So we don't have to worry about Fai being discovered by wizards from the capital. That only leaves Magmeteva... and I think she can be persuaded. She's one of us, after all."
A fond smile crinkled Captain Saadak's face at the thought of their circuit witch. "I think you're right, although knowing that lass, she'll give in only after a lot of kickin' and screamin.' But are you certain that maybe it wouldn't be good for Fai to see a bit of the world, to learn how to hone his talents? And you might find this hard to believe, but in most places it's considered quite a honor to have a child selected for magical training."
Faiik shook his head, his faded blue eyes looking very weary. "If I could be reassured that Fai wouldn't have to fight and that those moon-worshippers wouldn't teach him disgusting things, then maybe it would be okay when he's older. That boy is too gentle for that sort of thing. It's best that he stay here and learn proper natural magic from his mother." Captain Saadak said nothing, but Faiik saw the way that the other man bit his lip and knew that he was thinking that Fai's magic had never been particularly natural. The two men fell silent, each absorbed in his own thoughts.
Fai had been subjected to unusual attention ever since his birth since he'd been born on their most important holiday – Midsummer's Eve. Faiik knew that even very causally religious men like Captain Saadak considered such birth date to be significant. Faiik and Faina had managed to keep Fai's chats with their household domovei and his minor magic tricks on his brothers secret, but the villagers were watching Fai carefully and believed his affinity for the Pul'kheriia trees was solid proof that he had lots of magic in his blood: magic called to magic, or so the saying went.
Then there was the recent incident with the rock slide: almost the whole village had turned out for the opening of a newly discovered cave in the mountains. Faiik was balancing Fai on his left shoulder, explaining that the village was excited because it had been a long time since a cave with such high-quality crystals had been discovered, and that this meant a lot more work for his papa and brothers. However, the exploration crew had only drilled a short distance when some boulders bounced loose and tumbled towards the crew. Faiik remembered staring in mute horror as the boulders tumbled down in seeming slow-motion and he clutched Fai tightly, knowing that he and everyone else was utterly helpless to do anything but be unwilling witnesses to the deaths of neighbors and friends. But in the space of a split second, Faiik felt Fai tense and yell "No!" and then Faiik's entire body went numb as if lightning had just ripped through it. The boulders exploded into harmless dust obediently. Faiik looked up at Fai – his blond hair was sticking out in all directions like a mad cat's bristling fur, but he was smiling as if things had worked out marvelously. "I told them to stop and they did!" he chirped brightly as onlookers stared at him in awe. Apparently, no one had bothered to inform Fai that he was supposed to be helpless too.
Now it was impossible not to view that incident in a grim light. Fai exploded boulders well enough; maybe the capital would like to put that talent to use blowing apart stubborn insurgents. Arrogant jerks. It was his son, and Faiik knew that Fai would rather be petting kittens and tying his brothers' boots together. And Faiik was determined to do his best to insure that Fai could keep on doing that and keep on getting scolded by his mother.
It was late when Captain Saadak and Faiik finished their vodka-and-chocolate by the stove. Everyone else had long since retired to bed, so Faiik saw Captain Saadak to the gate and then quietly walked inside to peek into Fai's bedroom. The boy was clutching a stuffed toy so tightly that Faiik knew that he wasn't asleep. Faiik reached out and stroked his son's hair gently. "Fai, Papa doesn't want you to ever be ashamed of your gifts, okay? As long as you help people with your magic like Mama, you should be proud of yourself."
"Then why do you worry about it?"
"Because there are people who would want you to use bad magic," Faiik replied. "But you don't need to worry about that. Captain Saadak and I have got it figured out, and between the two of us we're pretty smart."
Faiik was rewarded with a small smile. "Not as smart as Bacha, though. She knows how to jump and sit on people and everything," Fai replied sleepily as he relaxed and snuggled into his pillow. "Papa, please tell Captain Saadak not to go to Voloshin tomorrow."
"I promise."
By midmorning the next day, a storm of incredible ferocity swept over Oznobishin. Faiik finished nailing boards across the shutters of the barn windows and he found himself staring at his callused hands, suddenly stung by the realization that they weren't as half as strong as he had prided himself. He wondered if they were strong enough to hold onto a little boy's tiny hands.
Author Notes:
Again, sorry no links... I researched these names and meanings from the online Dictionary of Period Russian Names.
Faina (f) "light"
Faiik (m) There wasn't any definition listed, but I liked the sound of it.
Fai (m) no meaning listed, but apparently there was a real landowner in 1586 named "Fai Mikhailov syn Iakhontov."
Pul'kleriia (f) "beautiful." I think these trees are beautiful, like the trees in Lotholorien (from LOTR). Heck, they're magic.
Ozerov "lake." Hehe, real original here.
Oznobishin "chill, cold." Bring your earmuffs, folks.
Saadak (m) no meaning listed. Not a captain in real life, but "Stanko Saadak," a peasant.
A few notes about Fai, since I'm approaching his character from a rather different angle: I've read a lot of great fanfiction about him (:huggles fanfic writers:) but I disagree with some that deal with his background because they assume that his childhood was traumatic and he was an orphan or abused by Ashura, etc. I just don't think that is consistent with his personality. I view his behavior as being very similar to children who were the youngest in large families. He loves getting attention, he is easily affectionate (both verbally and physically), likes to foist responsibility / blame off onto others, and is very good at making friends easily: all characteristics often seen in the youngest. Also, Fai seems to take his intelligence for granted; that is, he doesn't seem arrogant or seem to think he's particularly brilliant even though he is. This is not uncommon in youngest children: their siblings are already mature by the time this child is born, so the youngest is always playing catch-up and often starts speaking sooner and has an advanced vocabulary and advanced mannerisms compared to his actual peers. Fai can also be very dependent on other people, which is also often seen in youngest children (remember in Outo Country, in the bar when he told Kurogane that he was waiting for someone to take him away. On the other hand, Kurogane's behavior is very consistent with his birth order, but I won't give away any spoilers. )
Fai seems like a character who had a good life but who suffered trauma later, which causes him to be guarded about his real thoughts and feelings. If you think these first chapters were too happy for your liking, don't worry. :evil grin: We'll make Fai suffer later, because that's the way CLAMP likes it.