Coming Deluge, part 6 by Vanessa S. Quest
Yuuri sat on the railing overlooking the balcony, kicking his feet that dangled over the stone floor as he spoke with Yozak.
He seemed to be brooding slightly, after having that confession and confirmation of their feelings, and instead of any kind of consummation Conrad runs off before Yuuri woke up to work. Yozak was put in charge of him, instead. In a way, Yuuri knew Conrad was doing that as a protective gesture, he didn't say Wolfram, though he supposed Conrad damn well better not… not Gwendel or Gunter, though paperwork ruled them out. He chose his most trusted of all his men, one of the few people that even approached Conrad when it came to swordsmanship.
Well, approached, Yozak didn't surpass, no one did. That was one of those really cool things about Conrad! He was so great with stuff like that.
"Oi, boyo, you seem so distracted. If you start sighing romantically you know rumors will start flying."
Yuuri chuckled at that, "Start?"
Yozak was actually impressed if Yuuri actually wasn't as oblivious as everyone made him out to be. That meant that maybe he just was so in love with Conrad that it didn't really matter? Oh gods how Yozak would love it if that were true, his bachelor pal was starting to cramp his drag-queen style! He could hardly mingle with the gentlemen when they were facing off against HIM. Yozak laughed with Yuuri.
Yuuri sighed, kicking himself off of his seat on the railing, now standing on the stone floor. He looked up to see the third flying bone tribesman in the past twenty minutes fly over past him.
"Mou, I wonder if they're being dragged into clean-up, too?" Yuuri half-wondered why he, himself, hadn't been dragged into that yet.
"Oi, maybe they're just bored? They do like spending time with you, after all, your majesty, Yuuri."
Yuuri looked at Yozak with a weird look. "I don't see what's so special about me." He stretched, "Ne, so where is Conrad, Yozak?"
"The Captain is doing boring, tedious paperwork that Gunter will no-doubt be helping him with soon. Did you want to do something fun, I heard Conrad showed you how to play cards."
Yuuri's eyes widened. "A…ha… ha, um, I think he let me win on purpose."
"All the more reason to play against me, I won't let you off so easily." Yozak made a face at Yuuri.
"Okay."
"So, the cards are in the Captain's room?" He gave Yuuri a mischievous look, "After that, we could look through his wardrobe… see some of his clothes he doesn't usually wear…"
Yuuri blushed, "N… No! We couldn't do that, it would be rude!"
Yozak gave him a winning thumb's up, "That's if we're caught. I'm a great spy, so he'll never know."
Yuuri looked to the side as if debating some temptation, "No. No it wouldn't be right!" Yuuri decided.
"Alright, alright. Suit yourself, that just means you don't get to look when I do it." Yozak said, after pulling open the first drawer in Conrad's armoire, after all, if anything Conrad would glow if he thought Yuuri had thumbed around in his drawers… Yozak supposed it extended to the actual furniture-type as well.
"Yozak! Aren't we supposed to be playing cards!" Yuuri said a bit indignantly, his face was red as Yozak pulled clothing out, he tossed one thing at Yuuri, before pulling out the cards. "YOZAC!"
Yuuri was bright red with Conrad's pajama pants now draping over him, the crotch landing straight in his face as Yuuri pulled it down. Yozak just held his fingers out in a victory-V holding the deck of cards. "What? He put the cards away."
Yuuri folded the pants back up, along the almost anal-retentively perfect fold-lines before slipping it back into the drawer thinking to himself how Conrad will NEVER find out about that while simultaneously thinking to himself how Conrad was going to know it was him or something because he folded it wrong or something.
"Besides, I thought that he said you could use his room. That means you have a chance to peek around and not be suspicious at all for it."
"…I wouldn't say that..." Yuuri mumbled to himself.
Yuuri walked over to Conrad's desk and briefly wondered if Conrad kept a diary. He shook his head, chastising himself for the thought. He sat on the bed as Yozak sat in the chair, shuffling the cards and dealing them out to Yuuri and himself.
He was fairly impressed, Yozak was actually able to distract Yuuri with that card game for the most of the afternoon. He supposed the young man was getting a bit bored by this point, though.
"Ah, so what do you want to do?" Yozak said, after putting away the cards, slipping them on top of the pajama pants.
"Do you think Conrad's still busy?" Yuuri asked, sure he could have went to spend time with Greta over at the shrine. She seemed to have taken a shining to some story-telling Amazonian guard that he truthfully hoped wasn't telling her stories anything like Anissina's adventures. No, ignorance was bliss in that matter. He supposed he could have found Wolfram, technically. Not like he particularly felt like being pawed at today, well definitely not by THAT brother of the three. Gwendel and Gunter would have put him to work, so Yozak was his only shot at fun, relaxing, restful freedom. Until he could catch up with Conrad at least.
"Unfortunately, yeah. What happened last night wasn't a minor thing, you should understand. Everyone will probably be busy for the next few weeks before everything's sorted out."
Yuuri groaned, "Weeks…?" He wouldn't be able to take that! He'd go insane if he couldn't spend time with Conrad for that much time…
"How about we take a walk through the gardens?" Yozak offered.
That seemed to be an acceptable answer as Yuuri nodded his consent. They headed out of the palace corridor and found their way outside.
"He should be done by dinner, you can hold out until then, ne?"
Yuuri noticed the almost setting sun, his shoulders slumped, "If I have to." He smiled as he noticed how love-sick and bratty he was acting. Poor Yozak just played the same card game for five hours trying to teach him how to beat Conrad for real with that game. Yuuri didn't think it was possible for Conrad to lose though, Yozak seemed to not be so inclined.
As Yuuri walked around the same gargoyle a third time, looking at its strange features and petrified snarl he caught the glimpse of brown hair taking a corner. He cocked his head to the side then began to walk to the periphery of the garden.
Yozak's eyes were shifting around, something wasn't right.
"Oi, Boyo, where did you disappear to?" He looked around with serious eyes, keeping his voice kidding in tone.
"Is there someone here?" Yuuri asked as he approached the corner.
Yozak's eyes shot wide, he began to run toward Yuuri when the black-haired figure dropped like a sack of potatoes, mimicking the thumps as he hit the stone floor.
"YUURI!" Yozak drew his sword as he reached Yuuri, checking his vitals while scanning the walkway. He pulled Yuuri back, away from the entry.
Yuuri's eyes began to blink open. He felt like the wind was knocked out of—he saw a serpent made of electricity spiraling at him from seemingly nowhere, Yozak was saying something, he saw his lips moving but…? He didn't seem to hear what was being said. Didn't Yozak see that thing coming at them!!
Yuuri pushed Yozak off the stony pathway, he himself rolling past as the lightning blast struck the stone, turning it black.
The orange-haired man seemed to be in disbelief, Yuuri staggered to his feet.
"Boyo, we're getting out of here, NOW!" He grabbed Yuuri's hand, Yuuri whipped his hand from his grasp, eyes taking in the panoramic view. His hair was growing in length and just as he began to glow, another electrical serpent seemed to dart towards him.
His own water dragon tangled around it, smothering away the attack. Two more came, the maoh's dragons wrapped around the head of one, a new head and body snaked out from before the dragon and threatened to strike Yuuri before he threw out a powerful water shield.
Another electrical snake came from behind, Yuuri's form began to levitate as his dragons continued to lock grips, completely tangling themselves with the electric serpent elementals.
His cat eyes spotted something above him as he rose up higher.
A woman dressed in something perhaps as slutty as Cheri's 'superhero' costume, in white, remained stationary in the air above Yuuri. She bent over to look at the maoh showing off massive cleavage, brown hair kept in a thick, long braid drooping down almost low enough to touch him. She smiled at him with a lecherous look.
"So I did pick the right shade." She ran her fingers through her thick hair changing it to an unnatural shade of icy-blue before flipping out a compact mirror. Making several hand gestures with her free hand, she finally pointed her palm towards the Maoh's face before a torrent of sparks lit up the sky. When she looked back down she noticed a wall of water receding, more serpents appeared from the ground this time as the Maoh summoned more dragons.
Conrad stood in the garden, looking up at what was transpiring, furious. Yozak looking at him equally concerned. "It's a ploy…! She's just drawing this out in order to drain him." He quickly explained to Yozak, "YUURI! YUURI STOP THIS NOW!"
She looked down at the two people on the ground, "Aw, booooo. I just wanted to spend time with YOU," she took out two paper cut-outs and threw them to the ground, two serpents dodged the Maoh's dragons to hit the papers. They became two 7-foot-tall electric monsters. "Why don't you kill them so they don't interrupt my fun."
One of the golems swiped at Yozak, who leapt back avoiding the fresh-formed crater. The maoh's attention momentarily split, he summoned his own golems of earth to battle their electric counterparts.
She smiled at him playfully, "Oh, you want to play just with me, too. Shall we go up then, where there are no distractions?" She hinted pointing skyward. Conrad was fuming, how exactly was someone demonstrating THAT much power? No, that was impossible, and for her to divide her focus like that without any hiccup…
He looked around spotting a possible explanation.
Wolfram and Gwendel were approaching the garden just as Conrad realized the cause—
"Yozak! There are four assassins, three of them are on ground using amplification stones. We have to find them and destroy those stone NOW, if we don't Yuuri's not going to survive!"
The maoh took in a few gasps of air as his charge was countered by blocks.
She giggled, "Wow, you look tired. You know, if you fall from here… there's no way you'd survive."
"So you were in connection with last night's failed siege?"
She smirked, "Failed? Ha, is that what you think? Look at you, this is like fighting a kitten. Ne, should I just kill you off now?" She watched her mirror, her face shifting for a moment before she began her descent. It looked like she had dove in a jack-knife as she sped toward the ground.
The maoh hardly had a complaint in taking the fight lower, he allowed his water platform lower him like an elevator.
Black hair whipped around in the wind as fewer and fewer electrical attacks were coming, they were almost on the ground when he heard the woman shrill.
There on the ground were three very unconscious, suspicious looking people, and a pale, angry looking Wolfram breaking some blood-red stones under his feet.
She glared, "So you took down the amplifiers, like hell it matters with him in THAT state."
Taking out a short-sword that could have been a companion-piece with a katana, she rushed the maoh as his hair began to shorten.
Yuuri began to fall forward while she drew her blade so that the length aligned with her forearm. She slashed toward his abdomen. Hearing the sounds of contact and metal, Conrad's blade forced her back.
Conrad took a more according stance keeping himself between Yuuri and whoever this woman was.
She stopped to straighten her hair. "Oh ho, how manly, one versus five… and a half." She smirked as she looked down at Yuuri behind Conrad. "I'd say all I have left is to breathe on him and my job's done."
Looking at her nails, she then made a sudden lunge at Conrad, who quickly deflected her, sending her tumbling down onto the ground.
Calming himself, he took his stance back up, again adjusting his body position to keep her between her and his master.
Yozak slipped behind Conrad, lifting Yuuri in his arms, "Leave him to me, Captain, I'll move the boyo a healthy distance." Conrad made a slide nod.
"Those are big words." The panting woman remarked, "You're a fool if you're planning on letting me live. I'll just keep coming at you until you're not able to block."
Wolfram scoffed aloud, "Says the woman whose been strenuously fighting the maoh for how long?" He quirked his brow.
"With the misfortune to have struck swords with the Ruttenberg Patriot."
Her eyes narrowed. "Like I believe in old war-stories. There weren't any survivors there." She made another forward advance, Conrad side-stepped, causing her blade to be extended past him.
Attempting to use it as a hook, she pulled her arm back sharply, only to have her blade flung from her now severed hand as Conrad forced the blade forward with his hilt, he struck her in the collar bone with his elbow causing her hand to go lax, dropping the blade.
He kicked away the weapon and held the sword at her with grievous eyes that quickly corrected her interpretation of that little war story.
"You're a devil!" Her irises became pinholes with the bloodshot whites of her eyes taking up an ever-larger amount of her facial features.
Conrad smiled in one of his most charming, bitterly sarcastic, gentle faces as he clarified, "Actually, I'm only half." He struck her with the hilt of his sword in her ocular nerve within the nape of her neck.
Gwendel had a handful of guards remand the prisoners.
Conrad glanced at his brother, "You know, as they are members of an assassination ring, some of our neighboring countries with much more stringent penalties may just have outstanding warrants."
Wolfram gave Conrad a strange look, "You mean execution?" He said rhetorically, surprised only slightly that Conrad would be so backhanded.
Yozak wiped a finger under his nose after returning from behind the castle walls. Seeming to have heard Wolfram he commented, "Actually… I believe the phrase is mercy-killing. It appears Sir Weller here got a bit over-zealous with the last one… really, Captain, cutting off toes…? Tch, remind me about that next time I'm getting on your bad side, ne?"
Gwendel looked a bit shocked, "…Toes?"
"Well, I did feel bad about peeling up his nails, he screamed so loudly…" Conrad twirled his hand in the air, "and, he is alive."
"Hah. He left out stabbing his hand and psychologically scarring the guards with mentions of feeding small children human extremities, lady fingers? You owe them a round of drinks."
"For the record, Yozak is making this all up, he had an unfortunate accident in the cell and his majesty will only hear THAT version." He said, flashing them all that award-winning smile, the one Yuuri thought could warm him even if he was a block of ice suddenly felt dangerously cold as the other brothers just quickly consented.
They turned to face away mumbling different excuses, "…I'll go start the claims forms…" Gwendel said as he ducked out.
"I'll get the accident reports from the guards…" Wolfram added, heading away in the opposite direction.
"Captain, you're always so good with people, how do you do it." Yozak joked.
"It's my award-winning smile, that's what Yuuri keeps claiming." He stretched then glared at Yozak, "Where is he and in what state?"
"Heheheh, he seems fine, lying there like a cat."
Conrad's scarred brow perked, "There?"
"In your bed of course. Oh, I'm rooting for you, so if you need any help, oh, say, convincing a certain blondy that Yuuri and he are completely incompatible and to call it off…"
"That will be ALL Yozak."
"Yes, sir." Yozak teased before he, himself bowed out.
Conrad made his way toward his room.
--To Be Continued-- by Vanessa S. Quest