Memoir - 2

* * *



Clutching his broken hand, Xelloss landed in the chair at the breakfast table and winced.

"Have a seat," Warren said with a fanged smile. He pulled out another chair across from Xelloss. "And you. Join him." Warren held out his palm towards the chair as Valteria walked to the table and took his seat. "Good. I'm glad I could convince you to be so hospitable, Valteria." He leaned back against the counter, keeping one eye on the two tablemates and one eye on the cigarette he was rolling up in his hand. "If your father knew who I was, he may not have extended the same courtesy." He lit the cigarette with a flick of his finger. Warren drew in the smoke along with the pain ebbing from Xelloss' hand. The tastes mingled, complementing each other perfectly. "But then, perhaps that's why he seemed so eager to be rid of me."

"Let him go." Xelloss' voice was weak, the culmination of so many past fears draining him. After Firia rescued him from the dragons, he'd been so afraid that Zelas would find him and take him back. Zelas would kill him for telling the dragons her secrets when they'd tortured him. But Valteria shouldn't be a part of that! "Please. Let him go. He won't hurt anything."

Warren tsked, shaking his head. "I prefer to keep my ancient dragons where I can see them, Xelloss."

"What are you?" Valteria looked at Warren. "Are you a sorceror?"

Warren paused, his face a wonderful blend of confusion and indignation. "What?"

"None of the humans from here know magic, but you're from across the ocean. Are you a sorceror like Miss Lina?"

"I..." Warren ground his teeth, resisting his almost overwhelming destructive urges. "A sorceror like Miss Lina. I see." He glared at Xelloss so fiercely that the parent flinched. His gaze flicked back to the boy. "You must be homeschooled. Why don't you go outside and do something stupid?" Warren snapped his fingers. Valteria vanished.

Xelloss leapt to his feet as the mazoku smirked. "Oh, relax. I just put him in a little pocket dimension of mine. Nothing can hurt him." The mazoku grinned. "Not without my permission, at least." Warren took a drag from the cigarette. "Now sit down, Xelloss. If that's even who you are anymore."

Xelloss sank back into his chair, feeling numb despite the ache in his hand. "What do you want from me?"

Warren sat in the chair that Valteria had previously occupied. "Well, that just depends on you, Xelloss. First, we're going to talk. After that, I have important decisions to make. Will I just kill you and then leave your son here to mind the body? Or do I take you both back to Wolf Pack Island?"

"He doesn't need to be a part of this at all!"

The mazoku blew a stream of smoke at Xelloss. "Did I ask you to speak? I don't believe that I did." As the gray haze reached Xelloss, the parent gasped. His hand felt like it was in a vise! "I'll let you know when I want to hear you. Now shut up." Warren blew the smoke away and Xelloss' hand grew as numb as his heart. "There. I'm sure that will help your attention span out." He looked around the kitchen. "I'm not discussing your fate without a good cup of tea to do it over. Do you mind?"

Xelloss gestured to a cabinet as a strange feeling of calm seeped into his brain. Either the inevitability of the situation was getting to him, or the prospect of tea at the moment was just that relieving.

Warren made his way to the cabinet, moving about the kitchen as if he owned it. He poked around a little before pulling out a few items and setting them on the counter. He popped open a canister of tea leaves and smelled them. He raised his eyebrows. "These are very fresh. Where do you get them?"

"Firia can't buy certain things very often since we're quite remote. I refused to drink old leaves. So I've kept a garden behind the house for...I think nine years now."

"Nine years?" Warren put the tea to boil. "That's a full year before you left us! You were keeping a garden in a golden dragon's backyard just so you could drink tea with her?"

"Well, yes." Xelloss perched his chin in his good hand, studying Warren's facial expressions as their conversation progressed. For someone probably sent to kill him, Warren seemed far too troubled by his victim's personal life. Xelloss felt the familiar ache of longing as part of himself grasped for memories that weren't there and never would be.

Maybe he'd known Warren.

Warren's mouth twisted up as if he'd drunk something bitter that he couldn't spit out. "I know you had better things to do at the time, Xelloss."

That makes one of us. Xelloss brushed a stray wisp of hair away from his face. Did Warren expect a reply from him? He might, but Xelloss didn't really think it was worth risking the pain of finding out otherwise.

"What were you doing wasting your time here?"

Xelloss sighed and shrugged. "I was in love. It hurt a little, but Firia was worth my time and my pain. She always has been."

"Bullshit. I remember how much you hated her." Warren's eyes were blazing. "You said it to me yourself! You talked with me about her and Lina and the rest of them! You told me you hated Firia!"

"I told Firia that too." Xelloss massaged his forehead, looking down at the table and away from Warren's searing gaze. "She said she hated me just as much. As I recall, we had a lot of sex that night. Apparently, we couldn't stand the sight of each other. So we just fought on a battleground where we could turn the lights out." He paused. "I could hate her a lot back then. She was always on my mind, after all. She felt the same way. I was actually the first to see what was really happening. But of course, I had the advantage of age. Firia was only 300. I was...well, I was a lot older than that." Xelloss looked up at Warren. "I told her I loved her the next day I saw her. We got into a huge fight. She even brought holy magic into it. Things got way past out of hand. So I, um..." Xelloss wiped away a drop of sweat. He wasn't sure if he wanted to tell Warren the rest.

"You what, Xelloss?" Warren's face was a mask of perfect calm. It was most definitely lying.

Xelloss cleared his throat. "Can I have some tea first? The whistle on the pot is broken, but I'm good at timing it. It should be done."

"I should punish you for stalling." The mask cracked. Warren curled his hand very slowly into a fist.

"I know." Xelloss' head was throbbing. "I know that very, very well. But is it worth losing tea over?"

"No." Warren turned his attentions to the teapot. "You're right, Xelloss. You're not worth that much."

For some reason, this stung Xelloss deeply. He stared back down at the table. His vision was almost swimming. His head hurt so badly. "Warren? I really need to eat." He winced. His hand throbbed with pain as the mazoku punished the unwanted comment. "I'm only human now, Warren. I have to eat." The pain persisted. "I know you're getting a very nice snack now, Warren. But I lost the ability to solve hunger that easily eight years ago. I get headaches if I don't get food. Sometimes I even faint." He shuddered as the unseen grip on his hand tightened so hard that he could swear something snapped. "If I faint, I can't bloody well cooperate, now can I?!"

Warren turned around and glared at Xelloss. "Fine! Get up and fix something. Just shut the hell up!" He laid two cups on their saucers. "And if you so much as think of doing something suspicious while you're up, your son will receive the punishment!" He walked to the table, carrying the tea tray in one hand and holding his cigarette with the other.

Xelloss got up very slowly, seeing a few stars when he finally reached a standing position. He cut a few slices of bread, grabbed the cheese, and brought them all back to the table.

Warren looked considerably more composed now. Possibly it was the tea that did it. Xelloss sat down just as slowly as he had risen, wincing as the stars came back. He turned his attention to spreading cheese on his bread. It was very difficult to do with one hand, especially with the way he was shaking.

Warren watched this, looking almost concerned. "What makes hunger so harmful to you? You were swaying when you walked." He pushed a cup of tea toward Xelloss.

Lifting the teacup very carefully, Xelloss swallowed a mouthful of peppermint brew. He sighed, then went back to cheesing his bread. "The process that made me human didn't do everything as well as it could have. We eventually went to the doctor about it. I don't have a weak heart, but sometimes it doesn't beat as fast as it should. And my body doesn't go long unfed without complaint. On the other hand, I apparently have amazing peripheral vision and very quick reflexes. So it supposedly evens out." Xelloss bit off a hunk of bread and chewed it with mild anger. "I'd rather wear glasses and not get splitting headaches, but nobody asked me."

Warren blinked. "I see." He followed a hit of his cigarette with a sip of tea. "So. Your wife?"

"Yes. Well." Xelloss took another swallow of tea to calm his nerves. "I couldn't stop Firia without hurting her, and if we went on fighting, I'd probably do something I regretted. So." He paused. Warren was still paying close attention. Damn. "I stopped fighting back and let her hit me. With holy magic." Xelloss stared into his teacup. "A lot."

Warren's face twisted with incredulity. "You showed up at the lair after a few days' absence. You were in bad shape. You told me that you'd met up with an old foe that couldn't be defeated by any conventional means." He bared his fangs. "Xelloss. You let a single golden dragon work you over like Gaav had!"

"Not true. Firia left both of my arms on." Xelloss took a sip of his tea. "And she was very sorry afterwards. She attacked for a very long time before she realized that I wasn't even shielding myself. I think she then finally realized that I hadn't told a lie to her since Valgaav had died. And that she had been telling lies to herself for even longer. It was a good thing she got a clue then, because I couldn't even stand up by that point."

"One...single...dragon..." Warren's words were almost a growl. His eyes were glowing.

"She asked me to marry her then. It was the strangest proposal I've ever heard of." Xelloss hoped that if he just went on, Warren's anger would pass. But as a surge of pain welled up from his hand, Xelloss realized that nothing he could say would make any difference. Still, he kept going. "I told her that we should probably not make any rash decisions that night. The wedding actually took place after I escaped from Devil's Nest."

Something within Warren that been under strain for too long finally snapped. He hauled Xelloss up by the collar, barely avoiding knocking the teapot over. His entire body shook with anger. "YOU IDIOT! YOU FUCKING IDIOT! YOU LET HER SNARE YOU IN AND KEPT HER HOUSE AND WATCHED HER DAMN BRAT BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO AFRAID TO KILL HER BEFORE SHE TOOK OVER YOUR DAMN LIFE! YOU WERE SO WRAPPED UP IN YOUR INSANE LITTLE TOY FAMILY THAT YOU LET YOURSELF GET CAPTURED BY DRAGONS! BY FUCKING DRAGONS!!! You let..you...YOU LET THEM KILL XELLOSS AND NOW ALL I HAVE LEFT IS THIS SHAKING, BROKEN, HELPLESS LITTLE SHIT OF A HUMAN!" Warren threw Xelloss to the floor with all the strength he had.

A shower of stars flooded Xelloss' vision. He couldn't feel anything. He was num-oh gods. He could feel everything. The stars rained harder against his eyes as he let out one long, strangled gasp. Where was Warren? He couldn't see. Oh Lord of Nightmares, is that my arm I'm feeling? Xelloss tried to shift his weight away from the arm wedged under him. He had landed on it. It had probably taken the brunt of the fall, and all of the force that came with it. Why did it...oh no. Moving was bad. Moving was very bad. Moving was-

Xelloss screamed. Why was he moving? He wasn't trying to move! What was happening?!

"Shut up, Xelloss! I swear I'll hurt you again!"

Warren! Warren was picking him up...oh gods. Xelloss wanted to be on the floor. The floor may have hurt him, but it didn't give him vertigo. Were his eyes open right now? He couldn't even tell.

"Where the hell is the bedroom, Xelloss?!" Warren was shaking him now. It made everything worse.

"Th-th-the hall." Xelloss swallowed back a wave of nausea. "Left. Second...door...l-left...............h-help..."

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Xelloss was silent as the world rocked up and down.

Suddenly, the lurching stopped. Xelloss blinked through a haze of tears. He wasn't moving. He wasn't moving. Thank L-sama... A weight pressed against Xelloss' chest so gently that he barely felt it. The pain in his body stopped cold in less than a heartbeat's time.

Xelloss' vision cleared very slowly, the stars receding as sight came back to him like dawn.

"Don't move. Please just don't move." Whatever hardness was in Warren's voice had broken. Xelloss looked up at the mazoku. The concern on his face was so alien that Xelloss wondered if he was dreaming. "I'll be right back. Just don't sleep. If you sleep I will hurt you so bad-" Warren's voice cracked. "Don't sleep." With that, he vanished.

Xelloss didn't know exactly what was happening know, but he was very sure of one thing: he was not going to sleep.

This was his bedroom! Well, Warren had asked where it was. He'd apparently put Xelloss in bed. Xelloss thought this was definitely a good sign. Mazoku didn't exactly have a habit of making their victims comfortable before they made them dead. If Warren wanted to kill him, he would have done it in the kitchen.

But if Xelloss wasn't going to die[for now], what was he going to do? Or rather, what was Warren going to do with him? Xelloss had no desire to go to Wolf Pack Island. In fact, he really couldn't see what business he had there. The only possibility was that Zelas wanted him. If that was the case, why send a mazoku like Warren? He obviously enjoyed playing with his prey far too much. Xelloss didn't even remember what Zelas looked like, but he did know, somehow, that Zelas was very intelligent. Sending a mazoku like Warren to do anything was a bad move, in Xelloss' biased opinion.

So if Warren wasn't here as an assassin or as a delivery boy, what was he here for? Not for the first time Xelloss wished that he had real memories of his mazoku life. He wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to prepare himself. And he was very worried about his son.

Was Valteria okay? Xelloss would have to ask Warren when he got back. The prospect of pain didn't matter in this situation. Valteria was his son, and Xelloss had to be assured he was doing well.

At least his mental index of spells and magical lore had suffered no ill effects from the memory wipe. Right now it was telling him that a simple pocket dimension would be nothing more than a bit of space that Warren had misaligned from all other planes, accessible only to him. As such, breathable air wouldn't be a problem, and harmful elements or creatures were too complex to be an aspect of what was essentially a very large pocket.

At least, Xelloss was hoping that was the case.

Following the order not to move was fairly easy. Xelloss couldn't feel pain anymore, but he knew there was no way he could walk. Lying back and relaxing was the best option at this point, and conveniently the easiest.

How can I be so numb but still feel so bad? The morning was so nice. We got work done, we had fun, we were happy. It was going to be a great day, and then this happens. What the hell am I going to do?

Suddenly, Xelloss was no longer alone.

"-and if you tell your scaly friends about this, Lithshali, so help me I will find a way to keep you alive no matter what."

Ah! Warren's back! Xelloss wasn't exactly relieved. It had been much easier to relax when Warren was absent. And he has a friend. Well, probably not a friend so much as an unwitting victim.

Lithshali nodded. "Yes, Master Warren." He looked over towards the figure of the bed and gasped out loud. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.

But it's just me...of course, I am probably dead to the world at that. Xelloss blinked. Slitted eyes again. But the pupils were narrower than Warren's, more reptilian. A dragon?! What the hell is Warren doing with a dragon? ...Well, at least that explains the reaction. I'd wager that all dragons looked like that when they met me, back in the day.

"H-how..." Lithshali blanched, shaking. "Is that HIM?"

Warren hooked his finger under Lithshali's chin, staring deep into his eyes with a smile that could kill. "Who do you think it is? Whoever you think it is, that's who he is. So, since you know who it is, we don't really have to talk about it, now do we?" Warren's face was a better portrait of insanity than an entire madman. Lithshali shook from head to toe until Warren finally released him.

Lithshali looked back at Xelloss, this time very hesitantly. His eyes widened. "Holy Lord of the Flare! What happened to hi-"

Warren seized the dragon by the shoulders. "You will fix everything. You will not harm a hair on his body. And if I come back and see that you have, I'll give you to the Ourachs myself. I swear I will." He released Lithshali and stalked out of the door, closing it behind him.

Lithshali turned, looking Xelloss over like a cornered rabbit eyes a wolf. Xelloss took the time to do the same. Lithshali was a small dragon, his hair mottled gray and black, his eyes a rich gold. He wore white robes draped with sashes of black silk. Xelloss' mental index of facts informed him that they were traditional robes for a battlefield attendant, the healer equivalent of a field surgeon. The black meant that his life had been touched by death in a very personal way. He carried himself like a sparrow - very timid and quick to fly. And he seemed intensely self-aware of his diminuitive size.

"It's okay. You can hurt me a lot more than I can hurt you." Xelloss smiled, his head a little bewildered by the strangeness of it all. He'd forgotten that most dragons were naturally afraid of him. Eight years of living with Firia in the middle of nowhere had made him forget a lot of things that hadn't been wiped from his mind.

The dragon's expression told Xelloss that Lithshali disagreed entirely.

"Really. Do I look very threatening?" Xelloss closed his eyes, sighing. This was ridiculous. He didn't want to deal with this. He felt so tired.

"Don't sleep." Xelloss felt a hand press lightly on his arm. "You can't sleep, Beast Priest. Not yet. There we are. Keep your eyes open now." Lithshali smiled. "I know that's a little strange for you."

Xelloss blinked. Lithshali had shaken off his timidness rather fast. "I keep my eyes open a lot more often, these days." He paused. "Please call me Xelloss."

"Right." Lithshali looked over his shoulder, then whispered into Xelloss' ear: "Look, I had nothing to do with Devil's Nest. We're all escapees too." He then straightened up and squinted at Xelloss, running a finger down his wrist. He frowned. "Did Warren numb you?"

"Yes." Escapees from Devil's Nest? What?

Lithshali gulped. "I'm going to have to remove that numbing spell, Beas-er...Xelloss. It's of mazoku origin, and might conflict very badly with my healing spells." His eyes widened. "Healing spells on a mazoku!?"

"I'm not a mazoku." Xelloss almost felt his head hurt through Warren's numbing magic.

"Well. Shit." Lithshali cursed with an ease that Xelloss would never have credited him with.

The ex-mazoku sighed. "I rather like that numbing spell, Lithshali."

"It's okay. I know several of my own." Lithshali prepared himself for magical workings. He looked down at Xelloss before proceeding. "Xelloss?"

"Yes?" Xelloss was rather taken aback at the sound of his own voice. It sounded far too weary.

"I know what it's like to escape death and lose your life in the process. From one survivor to another, I promise I'll help you live."

Xelloss was speechless for a moment. Lithshali's words were very touching, and somehow he knew they were the absolute truth. "Thank you."

"Now shh! I have to concentrate, and you must stay perfectly still."

Xelloss bemusedly obeyed his orders, wondering how much more confused he would be when he finally reached Wolf Pack Island.

* * *