Trapped
21st August 2008
Series: The Seer
Summary: The mysteries are solved.
Warnings: Evil. cackles There is evil…! Also, enough apologies for delays in updating; I've been super busy. Went to play air-soft (BB / pellet guns) shooting on Saturday and wakeboarding on Sunday… then was sick all Monday and only got up Tuesday at noon. I have no internet connection at my flat and certainly there wasn't any at the places I went to over the weekend. Just… I'm sorry.

Cloaking and concealing magic coming undone, Shizuka stepped forward. Quietly he spoke, "Good evening, honoured Prince." He swiftly angled his head to one side, easily but narrowly avoiding the knife reflexively hurled at him. Ignoring the attack, he respectfully bowed toward the bed in which Prince Amko lay. "I beg your pardon for this rude intrusion but it was necessary."

Prince Amko angrily called for his guards, who appeared in seconds. Shizuka allowed them to flank him, weapons warningly raised.

"You had best explain yourself, guard of Lord Huatah-nouki," Amko snapped as he rose from the bed, his blooded aura flaring, "Or you will be held accountable for your actions."

"The thief has struck again, my lord," Shizuka relayed, straightening, hands held up and open to show he was unarmed. Well, visibly unarmed at least. "I came to you to tell you immediately because the thief had just been here." He looked the prince in the eye. "With you."

Prince Amko stilled. His eyes cleared a moment later with the dawn of understanding, fury washing over him. He reined it in quickly before he spoke, "And so you came to me immediately to prove the factor of time. To show how close it is, to eliminate the possibility of an allowance of the time." He narrowed his eyes, "But you forget, guardsman, you cannot prove it was her. Otherwise you would have waited for morning." He sneered, "Your word means nothing."

Without inflection, "My master's does."

Again Amko froze. But this time, his anger unfolded so powerfully that Shizuka got a very good feel of it, the cruel quality and dangerous power of it. "Your master witnessed this theft?"

"He did."

Carefully, with controlled frustration, "He specifically witnessed Sia in action?"

"He did."

"How is it your master can move the way a guard like you does? No alarm has been raised." He glanced over at a guard by the door and listened to the quiet mutterings of what sounded like a report, the monk watching from the corner of his eye. The Prince looked back to Shizuka, a light of triumph in his eyes, "My guard tells me only a single presence left the suites. You, obviously. Your master was not with you. You lie."

"I do not lie," Shizuka stated simply. "And if I did then there would have been no time for me, between Sia's departure from here, the theft, and my coming to you, to coordinate a story with my master." The monk pointed out, "If you speak with and question us separately yet we tell you the exact same thing then there is irrevocable proof we saw what happened together and at the same time."

Prince Amko looked far more than displeased and angry; he was darkly furious. His aura flared and thrashed out with his rage but he held himself in check and nodded once, sharply. To his guards he spoke in his own tongue then two of them grabbed the monk, Shizuka letting them and allowing himself to be roughly dragged away to a separate room nearby. He was forced down onto a cushion and gestured at in the universal signal to stay put or else. He complied.

Amko appeared minutes later, dressed and armed, expression dark and dangerous. "And now, I will listen." He narrowed his eyes, "Be careful what you say, guardsman."

Shizuka could tell when Watanuki was told of what he'd done, sensing his master's anger expanding in his own chest through their bond. He also felt the radiation of the volatile emotion all the way from their rooms to where he waited. That bright and frothing presence approached, the monk tracking Watanuki's progress and when Watanuki got closer, he made out the words,

"—I had better! If he's been harmed in any way, you will regret it –mark my words!" The monk looked up from his meditative seat on the floor cushion, opening his eyes just as his master stormed in. "Doumeki!"

"Yes, master." He adjusted his seat into kneeling, leaned forward and bowed. There would be trouble for doing what he did without letting Watanuki know. But too much time had passed at the time, and explaining would have taken a little too long. He sat up, "I apologise for--"

"You!" Watanuki yelled in Japanese. Storming over, the noble dropped onto his knees before the monk and grabbed his shoulders. "When the prince came to me, his aura was dark and—" His voice cut out abruptly. Clearing his throat, he dropped his gaze and hands before trying again… but it came out in a voice so soft it was almost a whisper, "I thought he had done something to you."

Startled, the monk had nothing to say, watching as Watanuki's cheeks and bridge of his nose turned the faintest pink. Well, that was a new combo. There curled a tight and painful clench in his chest; not his own emotions. Then he recovered and replied in the same quiet tone meant only for his master's ears, "You would have known."

Watanuki's head snapped up again. "Eh?" He blinked, "What do you mean, I'd have known? You mean because of the bond?"

"Yes."

Something flashed across the Seer's face but before Shizuka could even attempt to decipher it, Watanuki angled his chin, fringe falling over and shielding his eyes. Cheeks and nose still pink, he stood up. Flatly he said, "Let's go back. I'm tired."

Shizuka unfolded liquidly as he stood and followed. "Yes, master." Watanuki didn't even glare.

In the hallway, Prince Amko conversed quietly, sadly, with a guard. Watanuki ignored him as they passed. But Shizuka did not, eyes meeting briefly and meaningfully with the Prince before he continued after Watanuki. Prince Amko had hid his emotions well before, but they were transparent to Shizuka now, almost easily so after the uncontrolled torrent earlier. The sadness in the Prince did not bode well, he decided, laced as it was with angry regret.

The Third Prince was not a man to be crossed, the monk knew. Despite his talent and history of ruling justly, he was too cruel, too spoiled and much too selfish. And if Shizuka had read the scrolls correctly, there was only one outcome of this sort of betrayal to such a man.

To think they had yet to even prove the actual use of the artefacts, of Mardea's participation in the complete conspiracy.

If the outcome Shizuka suspected did come to pass, he wanted Watanuki as far away from here when it happened. He reached out with his senses and touched at his master's emotions, finding them disturbed and frightened. He sighed. An apology would not go over well. And he had only been doing his duty.

"Master, we should—"

"Shut up," Watanuki hissed, shoulders tense.

Shizuka lapsed into silence once more. But after a moment he realised this couldn't wait. "Master, we need to leave as soon as possible."

Watanuki stopped in his tracks.

And despite how closely Shizuka had been following him, he didn't continue into his master's back. He'd been focusing on Watanuki's feelings and had sensed the intent. The bond was getting stronger, he knew, the more he used it.

"Is this one of those moments," Watanuki asked quietly, back still turned, shoulders tense and fists clenched, "that you told me about that first night you spent aboard the ship? An instance where you would be much more interested in keeping me safe than explaining things to me?"

Shizuka hesitated, "Yes, master."

"Something could have happened to you."

"I am very able at taking care of myself," Shizuka replied. So good that he could take care of not just himself but another as well. "It's part of my job."

Watanuki took a breath and seemed he had more to say. But the moment passed and he moved on silently once more to continue leading the way. And all through the walk back to the rooms, stalking past the waiting Sorata and Jason, Shizuka did not see his master's eyes. Watanuki didn't stop, just went straight through to his room and shut the door behind himself. A seal came up on the door a moment later, barring Shizuka access.

The monk stood by the door, hand raised but not touching the barrier between them, feeling lost and so… separate. Behind him, Sorata and Jason slipped away to their own beds, looking solemn and not saying anything.

And finally, resigned, he turned and sat with his back to the door, folded on the floor with his hands on his knees in seals and began to meditate.

He had some thinking to do about those symptoms Amko had described of the two unwell concubines.

"Good morning, Lady Sia." Watanuki's polite and blank mask was as perfectly in place as it had been when he'd emerged from his room this morning and deigned to discuss his thoughts on their current case. He'd listened to Shizuka's input; they'd figured all of it out together.

But the distance Watanuki put between them, all polite speech and hooded expression, seemed like a great chasm and Shizuka hated it.

"Good morning, Lord Hua-tah-nou-ki," she pronounced the name slowly, carefully. Still incorrectly.

Shizuka ignored the Lady Mardea lookalike, watching Watanuki overlook the little mistake and take a sip of his morning tea. When his master raised his head, his eyes were dark and deep, expression so blank it seemed cold and unforgiving. Distantly, he noticed Sia's startlement. But at the forefront of his mind, all he could think about was that Watanuki was hurting.

"You are much prettier close-up, I must say." The noble was going straight for the kill. "I must also let you know, I admire your skill and agility. Keeping up with you last night after you left the treasure hall all the way to your mother's room was difficult, indeed."

Sia instantly blanched but managed not to betray anything at all in her expression. "I apologise my lord, but I know not what you mean."

"I see. Then you deny that last night, you stole then brought to your mother the Mirror of Erdeni?" Watanuki casually sipped his tea.

Sia, on the other hand, glanced quickly up at the pair of the Prince's personal guards who attended in proxy to chaperone the conversation. Amko should have been here. Shizuka could see the wheels turning in her head. He wished he could see into Watanuki's but his master had shut him out.

She demanded, "What lies have you told the Third Prince? Have you corrupted him against me?" Haughtily she declared, "He may listen to you because you are a lord and gentleman from your lands, but this is our country! He will trust me!"

"You are not a very good liar," Watanuki pointed out. "Your hands are clenched and shaking."

They were. She unfolded them and glared at him. "You speak lies."

"Lady Sia," Watanuki spoke quietly. "Did you know why all concubines wear those necklaces?" Her hand reached up and clasped the one she wore about her neck. "It's an ancient binding. Each necklace's gem was once a claw of the alligator statues which guard the second circle hall boundaries. Guard, I say," he looked her directly in the eye, "because they are there to contain you. Every time you went past that statue, it knew."

Sia trembled. "But they're just statues…"

"Let us try this again, Lady Sia," Watanuki set his cup down. "Do you deny you stole the mirror of Erdeni, brought it to your mother, and secreted it away in the loose floorboard beneath her bed?"

With a gasp, Sia flew to her feet. Fear flashed across her face and she looked to be on the verge of tears.

It was over.

After Amko had called for Sia to meet with Watanuki, he had gone and secured his father's permission to retrieve the artefacts by all means necessary –without telling the King of his intentions.

With royal decree backing the prince, his father could not use his personal association to protect Mardea. Amko had all the items in the hidden compartment discreetly recovered --a ceremonial dagger was still missing-- just as Sia grasped the truth of being discovered and Mardea obliviously enjoyed her bath.

It was all anticlimactic, the matter being treated as though it were simply a misunderstanding; the women would get nothing but a slap on the wrist. Nothing wrong had been done, after all. The only thing notable was that Amko was severely displeased with Sia for her lies.

All of that changed when Shizuka explained why they had two unexplainably sick concubines in the palace.

Amidst the shock, Watanuki quickly snatched Lady Mardea's hand mirror and threw it to the ground. Mardea screamed, and in a blast of light and wail of sound the pieces scattered on the floor. The concubine immediately fell to her knees weeping with inconsolable grief.

Within an hour, the ill concubines began to get better. By nightfall, they were awake and hungry, their sallow complexions strengthening into a healthy shade.

Mardea's link to siphoning their life force had been broken –and she hadn't even known about it.

With the connection to Lady Gbemi's death proven, the plot the mother and daughter had wrought was laid out: how Mardea had deliberately called upon the energy of the magical items to help her focus on the little enchanted mirror. She thought that it had solely maintained her youth, and was horrified to discover that the death of Lady Gbemi had actually been mostly her fault.

The Poison had been the mirror, not the woman.

Weakness had killed the Lady Gbemi in the end, not the magic itself. But the Court almost ignored this fact –they were astounded at this element of magic they seemed to never have seen before.

As for Sia, she had conspired with her mother wanting to escape Amko's clutches. She'd been relying on the promise that Mardea would earn enough influence over the King to free her from the third Prince –enough influence because of her persistent youth and beauty.

The entirety of the betrayal ran deeper than anyone anticipated. And in accordance with their laws, the two women were immediately stripped of their rank and protections, and arrested.

Shizuka waited outside the Court rooms after the most public of the hearings. The Court officials had final questions and all guards had been removed for a final private session. The men inside, royal and noble, held no rank for this hour they spent before the Court. Yet despite the solid doors and physical silence, he monitored his master the entire time. Kept watch, made sure the noble remained safe.

Watanuki returned with him to their rooms that night in a sad daze, with dark and weary circles under his eyes. He said nothing when Shizuka knelt by his bed and took his hand, watchfully seeing him into sleep. When his eyes slipped shut, breaths evening in slumber, the monk cast a protection spell and left.

He found Amko wearily sitting in his room, the guards having let him pass because really, he could get past them if he wanted to.

"Good evening, honoured prince." Shizuka bowed.

"Have you more ill news to bring me, guardsman?" Amko tiredly rubbed his brow. "I must tell you, I do not think I would like to hear any more for a long time."

"I read the scrolls you supplied for us to research," Shizuka said instead. "If the outcome of this matter is what I think it is, then I think Watanuki and I should be on our way. And you should not tell him what will happen to the women."

The prince stared hard at Shizuka and frowned at the casual address. Then a sort of disbelief crossed his expression, along with angry understanding and irritation.

"I challenge you to the duel your master promised me," he said softly, dangerously. "Should you win, I will not tell Huata-nouki of the scheduled execution for Sia and Mardea. If I win, I will delay the punishment," he paused, a wicked light in his eyes, "and use that time to seduce your master –without protest from you." He stood, tense and excited, his aura flaring with anticipation and hostility. "Are we in agreement, guardsman?"

The surge of protective anger flared hot and strong in Shizuka's blood. But when he spoke, his voice was even despite the rough quality to it. "I agree to the terms of my win. But as to yours I can give you nothing of Watanuki," he said simply. "You can try, if it pleases you, to seduce him. My loss will be my acceptance of your intentions. But if my master refuses you, that is beyond my control."

"Perhaps you do not understand me," Amko said silkily. "I mean to say I will use the time to bed Watanuki." Insinuatingly he said slowly, "and there will be no protest from you."

Sick understanding suddenly washed over Shizuka. This man wanted to bed his master no matter what, even against Watanuki's will –and, according to the terms he proposed, he expected the monk to ignore it if Watanuki called for his help.

Amko was asking Shizuka to abandon Watanuki in his time of need.

Disgust washed over him as he looked at the prince, the earlier protective anger burning even more potently than before. Amko's eyes had begun to burn with angry passion, his aura threaded with a sexual tension he had previously managed to contain. Picking apart the feel of it, Shizuka realised the prince lusted dangerously after his master. While he had always known of the man's attraction to Watanuki, this was different. This was… dark and…

"You derive pleasure from sexual pain," Shizuka realised. "That is why no one wishes to enter your harem, why Sia wanted so badly to escape you."

Amko raised a nonchalant brow as if to say, 'So?'

"I do not accept your challenge, Prince." Shizuka managed to contain his fury.

"You seem to think you have a choice." Prince Amko breathed, smiling with triumphant relish. "You will fight me. Be glad I do not simply take what I want after all that you and your group have done."

"No," Shizuka corrected, ignoring the six men who stealthily entered the room behind him. "It is you who should be glad that I simply do not strike you and your men down where you stand for daring to threaten my master."

Letting loose part of his temper, Shizuka fed the anger into releasing his Centre, the power of it expanding in his chest and into his body. He felt release breach his skin and spread, blanketing his body in its power, the air suddenly humming and crackling with static. He knew his eyes had begun to swirl in a liquid imitation of gold and that his skin seemed to almost glow.

In a flash, he had his bow, an arrow pointed straight at Amko's chest. Everyone in the room froze.

"This conversation never happened," Shizuka spat. "I will return to my rooms and you will continue with your evening. My master and our group will depart on the dawn tide, and you can go on with your execution if you so please." He narrowed his eyes at Amko, "And if you so much as breathe a word against my master or play a hand in action against him, you will find this sight of me before you now repeating itself and it will," he snarled on a low dark tone, "be the last thing you see."

Again in movement too fast for the eyes to perceive, Shizuka darted up into the rafters between ceiling and roof and almost flew back to his master's side.

Breathing only a little heavily, unaccustomed to having the opportunity to properly channel his power like that, he bent over Watanuki and hovered a hand over the young noble's head. He sensed Watanuki's calm thoughts, his dreamless sleep, and relief began to unwind the angry tension in him.

He sighed then stood back up, removed his outer wear and lay down. Facing his master, he watched the young noble sleep, reassured, temper bleeding away.

Watanuki was safe.

TBC