Ch 5: Fireside Chat
Felix trudged up the stairs, putting on a show of drunkenness for his fellows. However, as soon as he passed from their line of view, he straightened, trotting up the stairs with ease. While he could drink with the best of them, Felix had thought it best not to invite a wicked hangover the morning he and Ana were supposed to sneak out of Luxton and draw the Arsalans onto their trail. So, he had cheated. Truthfully, he hadn't consumed a single drop of alcohol the entire evening, as Felix had studiously and stealthily converted every tankard of ale set before him into water. He had remained sober while the tongues of Luxton's most influential and opinionated people grew looser. With the camaraderie found over a pint of liquor, Felix had also learned about the Arsalans' presence in town, and what they had been up to since their arrival. He believed firmly in knowing all that he could about his enemy before engaging him openly on the battlefield.
Finally, accepting that there was little else he could glean from his weaving drinking companions, Felix had admitted defeat, claiming that he couldn't go on with the games. Two men had already passed out, currently snoozing off their hard-won unconsciousness on abandoned tables, covered by rough-hewn blankets. In truth, he wanted to get back to Ana; there was the obvious reason of relaying what he had learned back to her. While the need was hardly paramount, Felix felt it was fair to keep her involved. Yet if he were to be honest with himself, Felix would acknowledge that he didn't like leaving her alone. Her eyes were just a little too tired when he'd left, and her limbs a little too weary for his taste.
Ana had been pushed hard that day, and time spent away from him was time she spent in vulnerability. What little he could do running on so light of sleep was better than her complete lack of magical control or power. The thought sent unease trickling down his spine, and Felix was a little surprised to find himself so concerned about her. True, Ana had become something of his charge, but that hardly called for such personal investment. What was it about her that roused such bone-deep concern? With trepidation, Felix explored his feelings as he climbed the stairs.
Her appearance had seemed quiet at first—so quiet in fact, her beauty could almost be overlooked if not for the wildness of her hair or the gleam of her jade eyes. Ana's slim frame would have seemed almost delicate if not his intimate acquaintance with its speed. In her strange clothes, she seemed to be built almost boyishly. But when she'd leaped to his defense and landed on him again, Felix had discovered that her gentle curves were definitely female. Not to mention that little period crammed against her in a side alcove, when the faint scent of lilies wafting up from her skin made Felix want to squeeze his eyes close against the groan expanding in his throat. But, upon further inspection, Felix could safely say that his instinct to protect her wasn't defined by his inappropriate attraction to her. There was something in her personality, as well.
Her faith in him was unexpected, and wasn't reciprocated lightly. But she had clung to his side with the complacency of a child once events started to unravel, and had even sacrificed the safety of her silence to keep a bullet from pinging around in his skull. Strange, but occasionally, Felix was reminded of his mother when Ana spoke or smiled, which made it all the more unacceptable when he started mentally peeling away her clothes. The self-depreciation of extreme modesty lined many of her words, and her eyes had a watchful wariness that communicated her habit of emotional distance.
And meanwhile, Felix was still waiting for the restlessness and impatience to surge to the surface, as it often did. With the exception of very few people, Felix had the unfailing fault of becoming anti-social after spending too much time in a person's company. But with Ana, he wanted to make that hunted animal expression leave her eyes. A wild recess of his soul demanded burning away those shadows with the heat of skin to skin, an urge he duly ignored. He had been forced to bite the inside of his cheek hard to steady and discipline his hands when he'd healed her ribs. Her unmarred skin was like porcelain, and fire had crackled violently in Felix's blood when he'd pressed all-too eager hands to her skin.
Certain that his expression would bleed into his eyes and voice, Felix had struggled hard to impose a cool edge to his tone and gaze, quick to move away when she had sprung up, concerned about his unsteadiness. The pain in his shoulder and the roiling in his stomach had been welcome reprieves from the need skimming along his skin. As much as Felix wanted to see more of that unblemished skin, he just as forcefully condemned those thoughts as both uncouth and unacceptable. Ana needed his help, not his lust, so he would leave those lovely lips well alone.
He couldn't have left the room fast enough when the bath had arrived. Just imagining that scenario made Felix's tongue want to loll out of his head. Drawing a cleansing breath when he reached the door to calm and discipline himself, Felix firmly shoved such thoughts out of his head. As he entered the room, he contemplated sending out an echo spell like the one he had used in the forest earlier, but his shoulder still whimpered. Any more aggressive magic would start dissolving the healed tissue, and the slightest bump would send the bone bouncing out of the socket. It had happened before, and Felix had seriously considered asking his father to just shoot him and put him out of his misery at the time. He'd just as soon avoid that course of action.
"Ana?" he called out quietly, the shadows thick as mud but for the smoothly dancing fire burning in the hearth. Waiting for a few moments, the hair at the back of his neck started to rise and the sour taste of something he refused to identify as fear started to coat his throat and tongue when the room remained silent. Leaping to the window, Felix was fully ready to rip the sash up when he heard a soft rustle behind him. Felix's head whipped around so fast, it was a wonder he didn't injure his neck. Again repeating her name at large to the room, Felix's eyes finally adjusted to the dark, and he could see Ana's bare feet dangling over the arm of the chair. Valiantly ignoring the small bolt that cracked through his blood—how attractive could a woman's feet be, anyway?—Felix strode over to the chair by the hearth, opening his mouth to talk. But the words crashed to a halt, piling up on one another in his throat as he finally got a good look at her.
She was sound asleep. Her long lashes feathering her cheeks, Ana's breath was the steady, gentle rate of the deeply sleeping. Her fisted hand was pressed against her temple, propping her head up. The blanket from the foot of the bed had fallen from around her shoulders, pooling in her lap. Ana's hair was a magnificent rain of dark fire, and Felix tried to ignore the itch in his fingers to greedily run his fingers through the strands. Squatting down, he looked at her face a moment, enjoying the expression of peace and quiet that surrounded her like an aura. Studying the chair, Felix felt his brow furrow. She'd wake up stiff and sore tomorrow; they had lots of ground to cover, and Felix needed her running like a champ if he was going to pull off the feat he was planning. Straightening in one smooth move, Felix stood and moved silently to the bed, drawing back the covers and smoothing the sheets. Returning to the chair, he gently gathered the sleeping woman in his arms, cursing himself for his wayward thoughts as he settled her weight in his arms.
For a moment, Felix stood still, afraid Ana would awaken. But, after shifting slightly and gripping the lapel of his jacket, Ana quieted. She was smooth and sleek, and her wild hair was going everywhere. Clenching his teeth against the soft scent that emanated from Ana's skin, Felix strode smoothly to the bed, doing his best to ignore the feel and shape of her. Settling her onto the mattress as softly as he could, Felix felt his breath catch as she again shifted and made some soft sound of waking that went straight to his gut, terrified that he had jostled her awake. This could be awkward, and damn near impossible to explain.
But Ana settled, and was again still and quiet as Felix carefully unlocked her fingers from his jacket. It took more willpower than he cared to examine to draw the covers up, tucking them in securely as much for her benefit as for his reminder. Untouchable. Completely. Moving back to the chair, Felix dropped down heavily, exhausted by his constant guarding against his desire for Ana. He couldn't mark the exact moment when she had started appealing to his senses, but it was proving to be more draining than the most advanced of magic. However, his night was far from done, and Felix leaned forward reluctantly, resting his elbows on his knees as his limp hands hung down, his eyes focused intently on the fire as he shoved over the copper tub with his foot.
Pushing a bit of his spirit into the receptive fire with a wave of his hand while he smoothed the transition by a few choice, old words, Felix narrowed his eyes as a small dark blotch, floating like a black bubble amidst the flames, appeared and widened until about the size of a large platter. The images within the disk's bounds sharpened, a bird's eye view of the country side, whizzing to a campfire glowing in the nearby woods. The tired Arsalans were gathered around the fire, a portal much like the one Felix had opened in his hearth glowing in the midst of their ring of stones as they delivered their report to their mistress. Felix felt a grim tug at his lips as he heard Apollo's shrill reprimand of her men, her insults creative and eyebrow-raising. He dimly wondered where the nobly raised woman had learned such language.
Carefully focusing his view as he sat up straight, unfolding his spine from its bend, Felix brought Apollo's visage into clear resolution. A stunning woman, blond of hair and blue of eyes, Apollo looked just like what she was—a beautiful, well-bred, wealthy woman. She had her mother's regal features, and her father's money. She had once pursued Felix, and he had enjoyed their relationship with the wide-eyed awe of a young man learning of women from the tutelage of an exquisite specimen. However, that was about a decade ago, and Apollo now represented women at their most determined and venomous. The fact that her men had hunted his charge made his desire to stay away from her all the stronger. The score they had to settle stayed strictly between them; there was no need to drag Ana into their long-standing challenge.
Felix tried to discern Apollo's words, bitten off like bitter medicine in a normally smooth, seductive voice that had grown sharp and strident. "I chose you for your skill, and this is how you repay me? By letting them escape? If your reports have any accuracy what so ever, then the prize you let slip through your fingers was one worth killing for!" Felix bit back a growl, trying to remain focused as he listened to Apollo continuing to rant. "And not to mention you let Felix get away! I'll have the man's head on a block when I found out who tried to shoot him. Any harm he comes to will be by my hand only, is that so difficult to understand?" Her final shriek echoed into the night, leaving her men white-faced and stiff. Satisfied that there was little else to be said, Felix started to withdraw when the stunning face within the portal suddenly whipped in his direction, the grin crossing Apollo's face almost terrifying.
"Hello, Felix. How kind of you to join us," she said, her tone again dropping to her customary honey-laced decibel. Declaring himself an utter, careless idiot, Felix fixed a small, knowing smile on his face, his mind racing to again even the playing field.
"Apollo. It's been a blissfully long time. What's this I hear about you longing for a prize? Worth killing for, you say? I sincerely doubt that," he muttered smoothly, a small part of him gratified by the darkening in Apollo's perfect eyes.
"So, it's true," Apollo growled, her lush mouth turning hard as she pinned almost glowing eyes on Felix from hundreds of miles away. "You found the crossing child. Tell me, does she live up to the grandeur of the spectacle?" Switching to an enticing, teasing tone, Apollo sent him a small grin similar to the one Felix had planted on his face. One of the reasons he had left her in the first place, Felix had always struggled against her swift, almost insane mood swings. "Or was she a disappointment?" the woman continued suddenly. When Felix didn't answer, deeming any response a foolish one no matter what he said, Apollo took it as some sort of confirmation.
"To be saddled with such a thing," she murmured sympathetically. "I hear the creature is quite plain. Really, Felix, you're meant for better than that."
"What, like you?" he said in a scoffing tone, relieved to see Apollo's predator eyes narrow. "Sorry, I've tasted your wares, and found them wanting, as I've told you many times before." Felix braced himself for the explosion of fury, the barrage of insults. He saw them brewing in those forget-me-not blue eyes. So it was all the more shocking when she murmured instead, "What if I present an offer I just know you can't refuse?"
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Ana had been sleeping soundly when the sound of low voices gently tugged her from her slumber. Blinking sleepily, she lay still in confusion as her surroundings slowly started to seep into her foggy brain. She had fallen asleep on the chair, hadn't she? So… oh. She was on the bed. Ana sparred with the idea for a moment before enough neurons fired to make the obvious visible. Felix must have put her in bed. Touched and a little embarrassed—she was hardly a child to be tucked in—it took a moment before she focused again on the voices emanating from the hearth. Ana stiffened when she finally became aware that Felix's voice wasn't the only one in the exchange. Her spine clicked tight when she heard a low, female voice murmur, "What if I present an offer I just know you can't refuse?" Her mind running quickly, Ana soon realized that she had heard Felix's distinctive voice refer to the stranger as Apollo. Christ, he was chatting with the Lady Witch! Was she here, in the room? Muscles frozen tight and her breath locked in her lungs, Ana desperately listened to the conversation unfolding by the fireplace as she lay defenseless on the bed.
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Just insulted enough to contemplate playing the game, Felix decided that it would be worth the trouble to construct a lovely little world under Apollo's just to rip it away as she started to reach. Worth killing for, indeed. "What exactly did you have in mind?" he murmured in what he hoped was a smooth, interested tone of voice. Felix didn't miss the flash of triumph in Apollo's eyes, and hoped that his ploy would continue to work. It was the least she deserved.
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When Ana heard Felix's husky reply, she was surprised at the tears that soured her throat and crowded her eyes. But she had trusted Felix, with her very life. Now, he was willing to bargain her away. For how much, Ana wondered. How highly did he prize her life? Well, she wouldn't be around to find out. Her mind working quickly, Ana did what she did best: she made a list. She had lost her ally to the dark side; it was time to get on the move. She just had to be certain that she didn't get caught.
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"For the small price of returning to the academy and turning the crossing child over to me, I'll see to it that you live in comfort rivaling that of the king himself for the rest of your days. You have so much promise, Felix. There's no need for you to waste it mucking about the countryside in an archaic tradition. We have so much to teach you. Don't throw all that knowledge away for some plain little slip of a girl to whom you owe nothing." Felix had to hand it to her; Apollo's alluring tone would have worked on any man but him. And her offers weren't completely beyond the realm of the desirable. Her only mistake was that she assumed his loyalty to Ana to be as shallow as her own. Drawing the game out, Felix worked a blasé, moderately interested expression into the muscles of his face.
"Perhaps you've piqued my interest, Apollo. But you'll have to do better than that." The flirty frown that crossed her face sent shivers up his spine, but Felix held his expression tight and controlled.
"What exactly did you have in mind, Felix? I assure you, no price you name is too high."
"It's enticing, I have to admit." Pausing like a professional, Felix allowed the edgy silence to spin on briefly before continuing. "But you should be careful making promises like that, Apollo. You don't know where they'll lead you." Felix murmured with a lifted brow. He leaned forward, settling his elbows on his knees with long fingers laced as he relaxed back down, leaning intimately toward the fire and Apollo's smirking façade. He grinned back, enjoying the look of triumph on her face, the very expression that was about to be torn away. Apollo thought she knew him; she was about to be grievously mistaken.
"Or how disappointed you'll be when your extravagant offer is tossed back in your face. I don't belong to you, Apollo—and don't think I'm stupid enough not to know that's exactly what entails your little offer. You can't own me, intimidate me, or seduce me. At this rate, all you're really capable of is infuriating me. I'd tell you where to shove your precious offer, but I think you could word it more eloquently and filthily than I ever could." Her face was gradually darkening and tightening, and Felix had seen little so satisfying.
"The crossing child is my charge," Felix declared quietly, the anger in his voice a tangible frost lacing the air. Felix had to mentally check against his first instinct to use Ana's name. The less Apollo knew, the safer Ana would be. Few knew the power of a name better than a wizard. "She has earned more loyalty from me in one day than you managed in two years. Think about that the next time you send some of your mercenaries my way. I won't be so gentle with them next time," he said venomously as he ruthlessly straightened his back, unaware of how his cobalt eyes shot sparks of heat, pricking at Apollo's determined courage. Ruthlessly breaking the strands of contact no matter the cost of the pain wiring through the blood in his shoulder, Felix waited until only a few tenuous contacts held the image in the fire before withdrawing the silver card from the pocket of his coat.
It had been slipped there by one of the farmers earlier that evening, and Felix had been aware of it the very second its edges touched his clothes. But, feigning ignorance, he had continued throughout the evening without so much as a brush of his fingers against that pocket. Now, he traced his fingers against the spell engraved in the stiff parchment, ignoring the burning sensation working its way under his skin. Once, long ago, the Witch of the Waste had delivered a similar gift to his father. It was a common enough charm, but it was personalized by the inscription, "Watch your back. I will have you, and that plain wench of a crossing child, soon enough. That's a guarantee," worked into the scorch marks.
"The next time you want to give me a present, hand it to me yourself. Charming," he murmured looking at the card again, his smile gleaming metallically in the leap of flames as a slow spirit wind caught his hair and lifted its short strands slowly. "You always did have a way with words, Apollo. Until next time, then," he said with a crushing tone of finality as he tossed the shadow card into the fire. A small black plume erupted with a squeal, and Felix could hear Apollo's scream of frustration and rage as the contact snapped and the souls of the connectors came rushing back to their owners.
Felix was knocked back into the chair, his head bouncing off the rigid wooden back so hard he saw stars dance for a moment in his eyes. He swallowed hard against the bile that scorched its way up his throat, pressing his eyes closed as he slowly and ruthlessly shut down the pain careening along his nerve endings. Portals normally weren't that painful, but when you were brutally tired and utterly determined to make a point and grand exit, they could be excruciating. The soul was fragile, and reacted badly to rough use in magic. As his conscious thought processes restarted, it suddenly occurred to Felix that Ana might have heard something of the exchange. Levering himself up by the back of the chair, he squinted into the darkness at the dark form encased in blankets on the bed, watching carefully for any movement.
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It took Ana a moment to realize what exactly had occurred in Felix's conversation with their enemy. He hadn't been agreeing with her; he'd been toying with her. A little surprised at the immense levels of relief her heart was pumping into her blood, Ana allowed herself a small sigh of relief and a tight smirk. Bitch. She clearly didn't know Felix at all. It didn't occur to Ana that, considering she had met him only today, it was implausible for her to know more about the man. Some people you knew your whole life, no matter how long you had actually been aware of their presence. Settling deeper into the quickly warming blankets, Ana slipped back to sleep, her eyes drifting close with the comfort and ease of the protected.
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Taking time to be certain that Ana was still asleep, Felix flopped back into the chair with relief, shaking his hand ruefully against the burn that still skimmed just under his skin. It would fade in time; until then, he just had to ignore it. Toeing off his shoes and shrugging out of his jacket and waistcoat, Felix folded his legs up onto the chair, tucking the blanket under his knees and draping it over his shoulders. Leaning back against the hard chair back, he watched the fire contemplatively, trying to run through his plan for the next day. But the fatigue combined with the throbbing in his shoulder soon claimed Felix, and, instinctively adopting the position Ana had been in while she had slept on the chair, his eyes drifted close, the crystal around his neck flashing once before the room fell silent.
It was a good silence, one of faith and relief. Trust was shaky, but established. The two people in the room could now be certain that the other wouldn't sell or abandon them, and little encouraged deeper sleep in such strange circumstances. Here, as the magician and the stranger slept on, a bond started to form, one that had been over twenty years in the making. Here, in this quiet tavern room, magic swirled and concentrated. It was both the enchantment of skill and destiny, and it was only just beginning to take shape.
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Ok, that was a long chapter. Much apologies. However, the jumping back and forth and Felix and Ana's thoughts on the conversation on whether or not the other was aware of their awareness makes me giggle. It was a unique style for me, and I'm pretty happy how it came out. Felix is such a good guy, taking the hard, uncomfy chair. Just to clarify, Felix is sitting Indian style at the end of the chapter. Ana was sort of sprawled over it, but they're both holding their heads up the same way. So, intro is over. The action is coming up. I promise we're not going to spend any more time in Luxton; the ball is about to start rolling. Old friends and new connections are going to start popping up with a vengeance, and I'm going to start a very brief, very broken-up review of the movie. Technically, it's for Ana, but if any of you guys are rusty on the details, I'll be bringing up some of my favorites. A cookie goes to anyone who can guess the title's reference/allusion. Hope you like it!