Title: The Wizards of Ceres
Rating: T
Warnings: Violence and some gore in some chapters; romance between Kurogane and Fai.
Summary: The countries of Ceres and Nihon are on the brink of war again, but Kurogane Demon-Queller has more important things to think about; like protecting the borders of his country from the dark and hungry beasts that roam the wilderness. At least, he did, until his paths crossed with the King of Ceres' latest gamble to win this war...
Author's Notes: This is an AU fic, set where Ceres and Nihon are merely separate countries, not separate worlds. How might the companions' lives have been different, if they had met under other circumstances...?
Originally written for NaNoWriMo 2009.
When Fai came to his senses, visions of fire still filled his dazed eyes. A blue-white glow seemed to pulse through his vision, and when he managed to raise his hand to touch his face, all he could feel was a sharp, tingling numbness. The shield spell must have rebounded on him, wrapping tight around his body like wire; he tried to climb to his feet, and could barely force himself up on one elbow before his numbed limbs collapsed again.
On the second try he managed to at least roll over, and get a dim, hazy vision of the battlefield. Parts of it were still on fire, the roaring flames muted to sullen embers. Through a choking, reeking smoke -- quite real this time, no magical concealment in nature -- he could see the twitching hulk of the monster. So Fai had been wrong, sort of, about not being able to fight it. Killing it had required nothing more than him losing control of his magic in a truly spectacular fashion, probably visible to anyone with any sensitivity for a hundred miles around.
Closer to hand, three charred human corpses sprawled on the raked ground within a hands reach of him. One of them still clutched fingers charred to bone on a broken, blackened sword hilt.
Fai flinched away from the bodies, clenching his teeth as he shuddered in revulsion. His stomach heaved in protest, and he spent a long moment curled over himself on the ground, retching dry heaves and coughing up bile. That was my spell that did that. My doing. No demon did that to them.
When the spasms quelled, he forced himself to his hands and knees and managed to drag himself for at least three paces before he collapsed again. His mouth burned with bile, and the iron tang of blood. He could barely feel his legs at all, and he had to stop with his forehead pressed against the scorched ground in order to try and force a deep breath. Flight, clearly, was out of the question. Fighting didn't seem to be on the menu either.
And which will come first? A patrol from Nihon, to investigate the disturbance, or another one of those monsters? And was there really anything to choose between them...? Discovery at the end of their mission would destroy all their attempts at secrecy, and Ceres would be worse off than if they'd never gone. On the other hand, the soldiers from Nihon were unlikely to eat him after they killed him. He choked back a hysterical giggle at the thought, which quickly turned into a hacking cough. Or before, like poor Kuro-chan.
Hide? Of the three available options, it seemed most feasible. If there was anywhere in this field of ruin that he could hide. He raised his head, trying to force the world into focus against the swoops and dips that the landscape seemed to want to make around him. Some sort of cave would be best, if one could be found on this wretched flat soft ground....
His blurring vision crossed a bank of darkness, punctuated by glowing yellow orbs. Oh. Not hiding, either.
The second monster -- Fai could only make out the general form in the smoky darkness, but it seemed less of an insect and more a hulking, many-clawed beast of some kind -- seemed warier than the first. It paced back and forth around the still-twitching corpse of the first one, emitting weird rumbling noises as if uncertain of what had befallen its companion. The lamp-like yellow gaze swiveled between the wreck and Fai, and for a moment Fai hoped that the association of danger would be enough to warn it off.
It was too much to hope for. The creature went tense and sinuous, all glittering black in the smoldering flames, and Fai hardly had time to anticipate the spring before it was on him.
Pure reflex let him dodge the first blow, skidding sideways out of its path in a tumble that left him completely disoriented; it took him a moment to remember where the sky was, let alone the monster. The second blow caught him across the back, which at least served to orient him again; and he turned and brought his hand up in a flash of unshaped, reflexive magic as the monstrous head snapped down towards him.
The air rang with the noise of the clash; it deflected the snapping fangs -- beak? -- but the force of the reaction slammed him into the ground hard enough to wind him. The monster roared and reared back, slashing down with one giant claw, and the right side of Fai's vision went up in blind red.
The world was full of clamor and chaos; through the red haze over his vision he saw banks of black clouds writhe and collide; flashes of fire against smoky darkness, and a spraying arc of black -- or was that red? He was too blind to tell, and too dizzy and suffocated to duck and dodge any longer, to do anything but feel the world go mad around him and wonder if he was already dead.
There was a brief period of silence, broken only by the sizzling of the fire and the ringing in his own ears. Fai closed his eyes with a sigh.
He felt as much as heard the impacts of footsteps approaching him, and stopping less than an arm's reach away. With a certain morbid curiosity Fai opened his eyes, and focused on a pair of hard, black chitinous legs only a few feet from his face. It took some effort, craning to see around the red glow that blanked out the right half of his vision, to follow them upwards.
The black edges of the form were amorphous, seeming to billow in the hot and sulfurous breeze. The towering figure was topped by a jagged, horny-plated head, but it was the eyes that startled him -- not glowing unearthly yellow, like the other two had been, but reflecting a deep red color in the firelight. Fai blinked, slowly, and waited for the thing to make the next move.
The next move was to prod him in the ribs, very uncomfortably, with a hard and sharp edge of its foot. "Oi, wizard," came a growling voice, and Fai started with a shock as the shape fell into place as a man, albeit one covered from head to toe in black-plated armor. "Are you alive?"
A dizzy relief broke over Fai, making him almost want to laugh; premature, maybe, but it seemed he wasn't going to be eaten in the next five seconds and that was definitely very funny. "What would you do," he said, and had to stop and gasp for breath as the words came out in a sort of croak, "what would you do if I said no?"
The black figure snorted, thunderously, and then shrank, bringing the alarming red eyes closer; crouching down, Fai identified hazily. An arm as black-shiny and plated as the rest of him reached out and gripped Fai's arm, cold and hard. "Get up," he said. "There will be more of them coming."
It took some struggle on both Fai's part and that of his unexpected helper to get him first to sit up, where he swayed as the world tilted dangerously under him, and then to his feet; he never would have been able to keep his balance, or for that matter support his weight, without leaning heavily on the stranger's shoulder. Something seemed to be wrong with his ankle, which kept wanting to twist in odd directions and screamed in pain every time he tried to put weight on it; but Fai supposed better it than him.
Without waiting for any suggestions or questions from Fai, the stranger started to haul them off away from the smoldering ruins. The smoking fog clung as close around as ever, but he seemed to know where he was going. Of course he would know this territory, Fai thought, this is his country. He could only be a native of Nihon, although Fai had not heard that they had red eyes. From this upright perspective the man did not loom as monstrously as Fai had first thought, but he still topped Fai by a head. It was somewhat startling; ever since he'd reached his full growth Fai was used to looking down over the shorter inhabitants of Ceres, whom he outstripped in height if not in weight. But this man made him feel almost like a child again.
"Are all the men from Nihon as tall as you?" he asked, somewhat to his own surprise; it didn't really seem to be the time or place for such a thing, but his mouth seemed to be running away from him. "I'd always thought they were short." Unless they were breeding giants behind the walls to fight against the demons, a thought that struck him as unexpectedly so funny that he had to snicker.
The stranger swiveled his head to look down at him, red eyes narrowed. Closer up Fai could see that he was wearing a steel helmet that covered the entire head and face, leaving only the eyes exposed. Practical to expose as little skin as possible, he supposed, if one were going up against demons like the swarm that had overtaken the captain... The reminder broke him out of his shocky euphoria, and he gasped with pain. The stranger said only, "You're from Ceres?"
"Lately," Fai said, not feeling like going into the details.
"The others as well?" A jerk of his head back in the direction of the slaughter they had left. Fai gritted his teeth against a stab of pain.
"Yes," he said. "They were sent along to... to protect me."
"Doesn't seem to have worked out that way, does it?" the other man said. "They're down, and you're still standing."
"Still leaning, more like," Fai laughed again, but this time with a bitter edge on it. He stumbled over some hidden snag in the rough ground, and jolted painfully on his feet; he bit his lip till he tasted blood, but he couldn't stop from blurting out, "It was my spell that killed them. Not the demons. I lost control, and..." He lost control, and other people suffered for it. Some things never seemed to change.
It was hard to read the stranger's expression, when only his eyes showed above the black metal faceplate, but his voice was unmoved. "Probably better for them that you did."
Fai tripped again, and this time his dragging hands pulled his escort to a stop. "What?" he demanded.
"Keep moving," the man growled with an edge in his voice. He was staring out into the darkness, back the way they had come, although Fai could see nothing out of the mists. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and limped on.
"What did you mean?" he said when he was able to unstick his jaw again.
"I mean at least they died clean. Better the fire should get them than the vermin. It's not just blood they're after, you know. They feed on souls as well. It's not... not a good way to die."
That really, really didn't help. For a moment nausea overwhelmed Fai's body again, leaving him doubled over, and the world faded to gray patches, with the vision flashing before his eyes of the captain's jerking body as the swarm overtook him, the thin screams that died to nothing. Kuro-chan...
"What did you just say?" the stranger demanded sharply, voice taut.
Fai realized that he'd spoken aloud, unintentionally. He drew a deep shaky breath, although he kept his head down. "Did anyone ever tell you that you are really, truly terrible at this comforting people thing?" he inquired in a muffled voice.
The stranger snorted, but didn't deign to respond. He hovered over Fai in uncomfortable silence, while Fai struggled to get his breathing back under control. "Look," he finally said, a gruff note in his voice. "We have to get moving. If you can't walk, then say something. I suppose I could try to carry you."
The offer surprised Fai enough that he straightened up, blinking floating spots out of his vision. He eyed the larger man in trepidation, especially the layered, jagged edges topping the shoulders of his armor. "What, over your shoulder like a bag of grain? If the demons didn't finish me off, I'm pretty sure that would."
"It's either that or they finish you off. Take your pick."
"I'll pass. These things are deadly," Fai said, and slapped the metal plates of the shoulder, to no great effect except to sting his hand. "But thanks for the offer. It's very sweet."
"It's not --!" the warrior started to protest heatedly, then broke off with a growl. "It is not the time to stand around arguing about this. Can you walk or can't you? I'm going."
"I can walk," Fai said.
The next stretch of ground robbed them both of breath for talking for a time; the ground turned along a ridge and then plunged into a rocky gullet, which the stranger led them down with sure and steady knowledge. They wound steadily downward for over a mile of dark scrub brush and loose gravel, until the gully suddenly opened up in a sharp left turn to a wider basin, sheltered on three sides with rock faces. A large, well cared-for horse -- black, of course -- raised its head and whickered a greeting.
The tall man made a satisfied noise as he saw the place -- almost like the horse, Fai thought with humor -- and relaxed perceptibly as he strode forward towards a dark pile that revealed itself to be camping gear. He pushed Fai down unceremoniously onto what turned out to be a saddle beside a pile of blankets, and then turned away, reviving the banked coals of the fire into something a little brighter and then rising to go tend to the horse.
Fai just sat for a while and tried to pull his scattered thoughts in some order. Sitting still at least helped dispel some of the dizziness, although like the ringing in his ears and the blind patches, it seemed to be something that came and went. At length, though, he regained the breath to ask, "Should you really be doing that? Won't it attract more of those, those... monsters?"
"No reason not to," his rescuer replied brusquely, returning to the now-brighter fire. "They can smell human blood much further off than they can smell smoke or see firelight. But we should be safe, here." He jerked his head over to a group of shadows in the corner of the ravine; Fai stared blankly in the direction indicated, but couldn't make out more than a jumble of timbers and stones, and gave up trying to divine what the other man meant.
"You seem to know a lot about them." This leading question did not immediately elicit a response, so Fai tried a slightly more direct line. "What are they called, anyway?"
Again no response; the tall man put a battered, cast iron camp kettle over the fire, and turned his back on Fai, rummaging through the baggage. Fai sighed, only slightly exaggerated for effect. "What are you called, for that matter? I like to know the names of people who save me from certain horrific death."
"Happens often, does it?" The man turned around; he'd stripped off his metal gloves, set them with a scraping sound on top of one of the packs, and reached up and took off his helmet.
Fai blinked, and then his good eye widened as the man's face was revealed for the first time. He was much, much younger than Fai had thought, by the voice and height -- probably no more than his early twenties, much younger than Fai himself. He had a head of spiky, jet black hair that blended smoothly with his dusky skin, and set off his eyes strikingly. Strong, even features, set now in practiced lines of focus and calm determination; his rough speech and strong muscles might lead one to think he was nothing more than a common thug, but that all ended when you met his eyes.
"Kurogane," the man said shortly, breaking Fai out of his fascination. "Late of Suwa. You?"
"Fai D Flowright at your service," Fai choked out around a suddenly awkward tongue. Oh, Gods, another Kuro-chan. "-- out of Ceres, as you somehow already guessed."
"Wasn't hard. No one from Nihon would be stupid enough to be outside the wards at night."
"You were," Fai observed brightly, and received a dark scowl in return.
"I know what I'm doing. I'm not a bloody amateur, stumbling around in the dark like a pack of chicks walking happily into the cooking pot." Kurogane seated himself on a pile of saddle blankets not far away from Fai's perch and reached into a satchel. With his hands now bare, he unwrapped folds of linen cloth from around something -- some sort of bread, from the smell of it -- and broke it in half. He bit into half of it, and held the other half out to Fai.
Fai eyed it with concealed loathing, and shook his head, pressing the back of his hand to his mouth to suppress any unwanted spasms. Around a mouthful of bread, Kurogane shrugged, and continued, "And no one in Nihon has hair that color or eyes like those." His own startling eyes slanted over, pinning Fai's gaze. "Or use magic like that."
Anything he said would have revealed too much, so Fai just shrugged helplessly -- and regretted it, the movement did something nasty to his ribcage -- and sat watching, slightly hunched over, as Kurogane poured water from the kettle over the linen rag he'd been using, and used it to clean off his hands.
But the next moment Kurogane was in his personal space, and Fai tried to scramble backwards as those deadly-looking hands reached for his face. "Sit still," Kurogane growled, with a note of command in his voice that froze Fai in place. "I want a look at that eye."
Fai clenched his hands by his thighs, and forced his spine to stiffen as Kurogane invaded his space, shoving his hair out of the way and prizing at his eyelid. Waves of pain and flashes of hot color washed over him, and he tried to jerk away, but Kurogane had gotten a hold of the back of his head and his grip was iron-hard. It seemed like ages before the other man was satisfied and withdrew, turning back towards the fire. His breath was coming in spasmodic gasps, but he wrested control back long enough to say, "Well?"
"Could have been worse." Kurogane dropped a clean cloth into his lap, damp and slightly warm from the boiled kettle water. "Probably scar, but you'll keep the eye, at least. Clean it up much as you can and bandage it, those scratches will fester if you don't keep them clean."
Fai complied in silence; when he'd finished wiping his face and eye as thoroughly as he could bear to, he took the clean bandages the other man passed to him and clumsily made a pad over the eye.
Kurogane waited to ask until Fai had cleaned his face and hands -- mostly -- of the gore that had bled from the cut over his eye and from his nose and split lip. Then he sat back on the pile of horse blankets, posture deliberately relaxed, although his hand rested as-if-casually on the hilt of his black sword, a nuance which was not lost on Fai. "So," he said.
Fai eyed that sword warily. Now that he had better light to see by, he could identify not just one of three weapon hilts on the warrior's person -- a large one crosswise on his back, which he rather thought had made short work of the demon, a smaller one on his hip, and what looked like a dagger hilt strapped to his chest. "So, what?" he hazarded.
"So what is a wizard from Ceres doing snooping around in demon country outside the wards of Nihon?"
Fai smiled to cover his panic, while his mind raced for a way to avoid the question. "But the countryside is so lovely this time of year," he said lightly. "Would you believe I was just visiting?"
Kurogane gave him a sardonic look. "No," he said. "I wouldn't."
Fai shrugged.
"With the border clashes heating up in the foothills, it's only a matter of time before Ceres launches an all-out attack on us," Kurogane went on. "So, four soldiers and a wizard creep east and south around the border, and go poking around in the ruins of Suwa. Obviously you were sent either to make a surprise attack to open the war, or as spies. Five people seems a bit short for a raiding party, even if you're a lot more formidable than you look. So that leaves espionage."
There was a short silence, which Fai finally broke with "Espionage is such an ugly word, don't you think? I much prefer the term reconnaissance."
"Spying," Kurogane said firmly. He tilted his head to the side, and his eyes narrowed. "But you weren't expecting the oni."
"No," Fai agreed softly, and a cold shiver ran up his spine. "We didn't know about those. No one in Ceres had seen one before. Where did they come from?"
"West, years ago." Kurogane settled himself in comfortably, as if prepared to expand at length on his subject. "There used to be just a few of them, but more have come over time. And they've gotten stronger over the years. No place outside the wards is safe at night, now, and lately they'll even come out during the day. It's only a matter of time before they move north, too, and then they'll be as much your problem as they have been ours."
"They can't be too much of a problem, if all Nihon warriors are as strong as this one." Fai smiled -- it was meant to be flattery, if teasing -- but Kurogane seemed genuinely offended by the tone.
"Don't be a fool," Kurogane snarled, real anger in his tone. "You've seen what the swarm alone can do to people. They don't go after animals -- just humans. The bigger oni can batter through solid stone walls, and there's damn few things that can cut through their armor. A pack of demons traveling together can strip a town to its bones in minutes. "
Fai glanced around, thinking not just of this desolate burrow, but of the scattered, crushed rubble of walls and buildings that they'd passed over, coming in here. Of the fading echoes of human voices, lost in the stones. "Is that what happened here?"
Kurogane stiffened. "What?"
"To this country." Fai watched his reactions carefully, putting the pieces together. The ruins of Suwa, Kurogane had called it earlier, when interrogating him about his purpose, and of Suwa, he had named himself. And his familiarity with the lay of the countryside... "This used to be your home, didn't it?"
Kurogane said nothing for a long, long moment, and Fai wondered if he'd finally crossed the line. The tension stretched in the silence, until Fai was wondering if he should make a joke out of it, laugh it off. Abruptly Kurogane stood, pulled something from the pile behind him; he was nearly knocked off his perch by the horse blanket that Kurogane threw towards him. "Get some sleep," he growled. "Tomorrow's going to be difficult. There's no way past those things without killing them, but you always fight them in the daylight if you can."
Fai caught the blanket, blinked and looked up at him. "Shouldn't we keep a watch?" he said.
"They won't come here," Kurogane stated with confidence, "but if they do, I'll hear them long before they get close."
Kurogane turned his back to Fai and moved away. He did not seem to have a bedroll himself, Fai observed, but seated himself with his back to the fire and his head bowed, one knee braced. He didn't take off the rest of his armor, and he kept the smaller sword in his hand; a practice, Fai couldn't help observing, that Kuro-chan could have stood to learn. Too late now. "You can stay awake if you like," Kurogane added, without turning around, "but if you exhaust yourself you'll be easy prey. Just try not to die in your sleep."
There were a few minutes of shuffling as Fai tried to arrange a soft place, or at least not too uncomfortable hard place, to sleep on the ground. The throbbing in his head was coming back with epic proportions. He supposed, in the abstract, that he ought to take the opportunity presented to escape, try to flee back to Ceres. But he was too damn tired tonight.
"There's just one thing I don't understand," Fai said. He had to take a deep breath before he could ask the next question. "What you said is true. I am a wizard of the palace court at Ceres, and I came south to spy on you. I am your enemy. So why did you save me?"
Kurogane didn't reply at first, and Fai wondered if he'd somehow already gone to sleep. But just when Fai had stopped expecting a reply, he spoke, his voice was laced with deeply buried anger. "Because my enemy is the demons," he said. "They don't discriminate between man and child, noble or peasant, and they don't distinguish between Ceres and Nihon. And so neither do I."
Fai was still wondering at the implications of that, when dark sleep overtook him.
~to be continued.