whiteshade of blackness 'gaku may 21, 2006
Disclaimer : G-boys NOT Saru's...story n concept, though...hehehh
2 violet
"...Boys don't cry... Boys don't cry...!" Lyea repeated the words several more times. Ever so slowly the silvery light-purple head secured to the father's chest turned to her face, the large stricken violet eyes searched her eyes. Lyea smiled assuringly and nodded at her once, Deia gave a miniature nod in return. Took a deep breath and let it out slowly though tremblingly. She rubbed her eyes with her sleeved hands rather hastyly, as if angry at herself for even crying.
After a few sniffs to clear her nose, she asked in a quiet calm voice laced with resolution. "How is he..?"
The other knowingly noted that she reffered to the boy as 'he' now, not 'it' like she did in the white-stone courtroom. Odin flicked his eyes to her for a moment and stared back at the boy.
"He takes deeper breaths now.."
Deia gave a sniff, before crawling out of the embrace of her father and sister. She leaned on her small hands to look at the boy's face, but seemingly afraid to make physical contact that she would unpurposely make another incident. The bruised face now had slackened in unconscious sleep, the contorted shocked face filled with more pain than what he physically had burnt in her mind, and she desperately tried to blink it off, vowing to make the abused boy better than ever as soon as she could.
"How-ward's here..." she whispered quietly. The Lord searched him with his Spell, knowing Howard the head of the Castile's Charms will give him affirmation waves as answer, while Odin touched his talisman-sword's hilt to feel familiar waves in the place of reports from the Charms in near vicinities. The waves confirmed them that Howard was still in the outer circle of the Castile, so it will take him some time to reach Deia's chamber. "...Five minutes, fourty-six heartbeats..." she uttered most likely to herself.
Exactly five minutes fourty-six seconds later Howard knocked at the black wooden doors and let himself in before anyone answered. His bright-red with big floral designs shirt gave a speck of color to the all-white decored room. With a brief nod to everyone in the chamber, he proceeded without a word to examine the bundle of heavy chains and steel wires. Though anyone unfamiliar with him would just say he's staring at the bundled-object with the interest of watching insects on the ground collecting their food in a very un-Charms-ly manner, since he squated down near the feet protruding from the bundle of chains, slumped down hugging his own knees with his chin rested on them. One of his grayish white brows rose behind his spectacles of clear black-crystals.
Making a small noice of interest, Howard lowered his spectacles to his nose. His bright pearly-white eyes shimmered a second, before he placed his spectacles back up. "...He's quite a bundle of package, isn't he...?"
Shifting his gaze to Deia, he asked in level tone "Did you lost your control with your Harmony ?"
The girl widened her eyes with horrified expresion at him. "No, no..., Lady Dee.." Howard rubbed a hand to his hairless top of head "What I mean is, did someone or something took control of your Harmony while you tried to lessen his suffering"
Deia blinked once and looked at her hands propping her body on the white-floor. Now that she cleared her minds...Without a say, Deia brought her hands up toward the old Charms. Howard let up a hand to brush the Air around the small hands presented to him, and he frowned in dissaproval "...Huuh.. You're cold, girl..!"
"Cold ?" the Lord touched his daughter hand with the tip of his fingers "Heavens ! Honey, you're freezing..!" he exclaimed gathering the small hands in his much bigger hands rubbing them.
"Spell's wrath..?" Odin tried to scan anything dangerous trough his talisman-sword, but the white alloy didn't give him much assessment other than unfamiliar vibes. "No, I don't think so... But it has its own will !" Howard rubbed his chin.
"...It feels like... touching somekind of ... cold metal..." Deia frowned in concentration "...pliant cold metal.."
"...almost liquidlike metal..!" she searched the old Charms' -practically her tutor- eyes.
"...Fairs..!" Howard rosed his brows up. Fairs of spirits were known to be elemental, most of the known at least. But he never heard of elemental spirit that have more than one elemental characterization such as liquid-metal.
"yes... But they're different..!"
"They..?" the Lord frowned in awareness, Odin scrunched his face. Two elemental Fairs possessed one body was mostly wouldn't lead to something pretty.
Deia nodded convulsively "I felt a strong pull and rejection at the same time..!"
"One of the Fairs must be incompatible with your Harmony..." the Lord commented off handedly
"Yes ! ...No..!" Deia twisted her face in depression for not able to describe what she wanted to tell. "It's one reaction..! And it's Fair's but not of Fairs...!" she exhaled a large depressed sigh after that and clamped her mouth shut, not wanting to deliberate anymore. She just wanted to help her Prussian, badly.
"Fairs' power but not of Fairs...?" Howard straightened his body at that. "...I see..." after a few moment he kneeled at his spot "Alright ! I'll see if I could adjust my Harmony to try to counterbalance the opposing reactions, and get this young man free..!" he said smiling to the small lady, who in turn brightened a bit and gave him a big worry smile.
"...The pull you mentioned... Was it acceptance..?" Howard's face hardened to seriousness a bit.
"... No, ... more like..." Deia shifted her stare at the boy's face for a moment before bore them to Howard's again "...acknowledgment...searching !"
"Familiarization.." Howard said to himself, nodding minutely.
"He's a half-kind, isn't he..." at that the Lord shrugged for answer. Then Howard nodded once at the people whose eyes were fixed on him, and they obediently backed off to a save distance. Howard took a pose of someone who prays, with his palms flat on each tigh, and his face slackened to an impassive mask.
After some moments, he opened his eyes halfways. The bright pearly-white eyes shimmered momentarily trough his black-crystals spectacles. The heavy chains cocooning the boy's body rattled a little, then broke at some points of links, then settled. Howard closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and continue the procession for several times. Once he sure the heavy chains had no longer restraining the boy's body, he tapped his hands to his tighs once. The broken-links chains gave a clinking noises for a second and burst to nothing.
Deia let out a breath she didn't aware of holding, and took a few gasps. The battered body presented under the evaporated chains was beyond nightmare. She let out a small whimpering noise, while Lyea covered her mouth with both hands to stiffled any noise that might come out. Odin let out a hissing noise, while the Lord just thinned his lips and gathered his stiffened younger daughter to his arms.
The boy's small body was covered in muddy dried blood that manage to hide all bruises under it so perfectly, he wore only a ragged loincloth that caked to his skin. The steel wires were presumably something from some snares that trapped him, and some added to restrain him purposely. Likely, the mercenaries or hunters put the heavy chains over the wires for more insurance. The steel-wires were so tightly strained that they even bit trough his flesh, blood oozed and dried-pooled from many holes on his body. Stakes wounds, Odin noted, must be from some firing devises or bull-crossbows. Cuts, scraps, punctures, slashes, and other kinds of wounds with varied sizes were everywhere. He didn't even want to think if the kid had broken bones. Definitely not human if he could survive the state of sufferings he's in.
One of the boy's hand was twisted on his chest in an odd angle, seemed trying to prevent the wires from strangling his neck. The other one was restrained at his side and bent a little to the back, the knuckle was gripped so tightly that his own nails had drawn blood from the punctured palm.
Howard blew a hard breath suddenly from bluished lips. Trying to divert their attentions from the horror a little. "...Boy, that's quite a blow...!" he said shakyly, and let out a nervous chuckle. His breath fogging in front of his face.
The others took a look at him and widened their eyes in apprehension. "Nothing too radical...! Only a little foggy breaths...!" he brushed them off immediately.
"...But I think I could only break the wires to parts, they're biting through his flesh. And I don't want to risk any physical damage whilst contradiction of his power with my Harmony should occur !" at the few nods he received, he continued.
"...Alright ! This should be fast...!" he hummed a little and after a few moments he clapped his hands together one time, and the wires broke to parts. But some of them were still deep in the boy's flesh, glued with dried blood. Howard resumed with some brushes of the Air around the prone body. After he's satisfied with his assessment, he nodded and like flash Lyea handed him the new heated water and wash cloths. Deia squirmed from his father's hands leaning near the boy's head, watching Howard and Odin trying to wash off the stickies and parts of broken wires from his body before they could assess more of the boy's injuries so that they can savely remove him to more comfortable place than the floor. The soft utter of the Lord's of "Don't touch him, Honey.." was ignored as she repeatedly chanted "..Be safe... Be safe..." in whispers.
"...Will you look at that...!" Howard said slowly in wonderment pointing to the boy's chest once the twisted hand had been removed to a more comfortable position. There was a crafted plate on the boy's breastbone to the collarbones under his skin, making a crafted-V-like embossed pattern of the skin. The craft-plate was definitely symbols of somekind, the elegant small curves were done in details.
"...Void-crafts...!" The Lord and Odin asked at the same time.
"May be..." Howard said distractedly while his right hand brushed the Air above the craft-plate. He ouch-ed a little and snatched back the hand. "...That's what had frozen your hands, Lady Dee..!"
"So he had a Talisman to protect him, at least..." the Lord frown, not sounded happy at the fact. -That's why the villagers and hunters, especially the mercenaries, made such brutal actions to take him down..-
"Hmm, yes it's protecting him in someways. His body would have yield in his kind of state, the craft-plate contains such of vital-powers that keep him alive. But, it's not a Talisman !"
Odin and the Lord frowned at the old Charms. "...It's a part of him...!" Deia said quietly.
Startled, The Lord exclaimed "I've never heard a Void-crafts that could blend physically with any other kind of races ...!"
"...If it's done in an infant state or even new-born..." Howard thinking aloud slowly.
"But Void-crafts are immaterial..! How could you blend something immaterials with materials..!"
"...Some of the Void-crafts are materials... More exact, they can be materialized at will by the Voids. Or else, they wouldn't be feared as much as they are now if the things can't be touched by other-kinds.." Odin said.
"...But..." the Lord frowned deeper.
"...He must be half-Voids." Lyea spoke matter-of-factly with calm.
"But I've never heard of half-Voids before...!" this time Odin contradicted.
"Just because anything's never heard of, doesn't mean it's not exist..!" Howard reasoned.
Deia just stared at the boy's face and continued repeatedly her whispered chants, when suddenly the boy's eyes flew open and his right hand grabbed her dress' collar and threw her small body across the chamber, which collided with the bookracks with unthinkable strength and dropped to the floor in a heap of white dress and books and splinters of the white-wooden racks. The boy used it as divertion for he fled in blurry blackened-crimson flash to the slide-glass-door far from where the others were, which was the one aligned with the sidewalls where Deia had been thrown.
"NOOOOOOO...!" Lyea jumped to her feet with both hands stretched wide in front of the three men ready to attack. She knew they're cappable of striking their target in less than half a second. "Deia's fine ! Surprised and a little bruised may be, but I'm sure she's fine, she's not made of glass..! And this kind of risk is also part of her responsibility she's taken!"
There was a buzzing sound and a flicker of bright wave rippled on the glass surface as the boy's hand touched it. He let out a surprised yelp as his hand had been stung, and fled to the opposite wall from the window. Then crouched under the corner-table near Deia's body. That brought the three men to their new built waryness.
"There's a chamber-Spell planted in here, you couldn't enter or exit without the chamber owner's consent..!" Lyea spoke calmly to the boy, while her eyes held the men's eyes with assurance trying to confide them.
It worked, after a while the men's rigid postures were slackened a bit, but at least they didn't seem going to strike by a mere movement of their target anymore. Lyea nodded to them in gratitude once. Then turned around to face the boy, who stared at them with wide wild-eyes darkened with anticipation of oncoming attack from the surrounding dangers. He looked a little younger than Deia, may be by a year or two.
"Deia..!" Lyea spoke slow and softly, kneeled at her spot, trying to give the wary boy assurance that they were not going to intrude his space "You okay, Dearest..!"
The body didn't budge, but a low moan could be heard, followed with soft utterance "...I felt like flying...!"
That brought a chuckle from her sister "You did, Dearest... Altough I wouldn't say you had smooth landing..!" At that Howard snickered.
"...Uuuuhhh.., okay ! Laught it up, why don't you... May be you could give me applause too so I could give you an encore, huh, How-wie...!" The Lord roled his eyes, while Howard chuckled "She's okay !"
The heap between books and splinters didn't move, but one violet eye could be seen from between smooth strands of silvery light-purple that freed when the long plait had come loose. The violet eye stare at the wide prussians not two meters away with heartful gaze. The boy's eyes flicked between the other occupants and the heap near him a few times, but when he countered the heartfull gaze of one violet eye, he seemed stilled and calmed after a while.
They stared at each other's eyes for sometime longer, Deia's eye drooped a little with tender smile on her face, the boy's eyes lost their immediate readyness for danger and his taut rigid body relaxed some levels. Then Deia slowly straightened her body from the floor and gave the boy a bigger smile. The boy, never broke eye contact, use his right back-hand to wipe the wet blood from his mouth.
"Don't..." Deia gave a small gasp and without thinking moved and wiped the wet bloody mouth with the thing in her hand at the time, which was a handfull of silvery light-purple long strands. The boy's eyes widened a little with surprise "We don't want your wounds to get worse, do we...?" she asked softly, noting there were still a few circles of wires embedded deep in his arms.
The boy seemed to registered her concern and looked at his arms, then his eyes looked back at her eyes in front of his face. "I'll fix you...!" she said with warm sincerity. His eyes never leaving hers when his right hand reaching blindly to a fruit knife on the floor from where the bowl of fruits had been knocked by a flung book.
The gesture brought back alarms to the three men. Deia brush it off with a soft "It's okay..!" that directed at all of the chamber's occupants including the boy. And flashed a spring-bright smile to him. The boy backed his head a bit out of her hand and a handful of hair. With cautions of the men, he slid forcefully the thin small blade of the fruit knife under the wires at his left wrist that hadn't broken. The action pulled the wire tighter at its dried-gash that it's started to drip anew. Then his fingers gripped the hilt and the blade's dull-edge with the wires between his index and middle finger, turned the wrist, and there's a popping sound of wires broken softly. Odin frowned, that's something like military or hunter's skills.
"Here, let me..." Deia used her hair still in her hand again to wipe the blood from the wrist. "What's there in your grip..?"
The boy looked at her face for a moment, surprised by the soft question, then back to where her eyes stared at. The fingers quivered a little, then twitched open slowly acompanied with small cracked sounds either from the dried blood or fractured bones grated. The thing caked to the palm in crusted blood was "Oh, two human fingers..!" she took it carefully, and the boy hissed a little, the needele-sharp teeth ligning his mouth covered with blood was a sight. "Don't worry, we won't do anything to you because of these...!" she smiled, and off handedly threw them behind her back.
"There, we'll peel the rest of the wires out carefully while the others will examine your injuries on somewhere more comfortable, what do you think...? I promise noone will attack or hurt - ..." Deia blinked once at the small body that dropped on her laps. He was unconscious once again, the fruit knife still gripped tightly in his right hand. The others rushed to her side quietly, and Howard automatically brushed the Air to examine him. Deia looked at his eyes with deep concern.
"He's exhausted ...!" Howard smiled reassuringly, and carefully lifted the small battered body.
"Put him on my bed..!" Deia rushed softly. Howard stopped, gave her questioning glance, and proceeded as she wished.
The prussian eyes momentarily opened a slit when he was lain on the soft white bed, searching dazedly for something. Two violet amethysts answered his prussians for a second before they closed again, burning amethyst color of violet to his last conscious mind.