A/N: This is a sequel to my story Pay With their Lives, and is a part of my slavery AU, so it would probably make sense to read that one first.
After the battle of Old Corona Rapunzel had been able to convince her dad into letting her go on a journey outside of the kingdom. Eugene still didn't know how she managed to do that. She told him that she had pointed out that she couldn't be a good leader if she didn't know how the world as a whole worked. It was a decent enough point, but Eugene had a hard time believing that was all she'd said.
He was sure that she had either threatened to run away, pointing out that if she could get away from the watchful eye of Gothel then she could get away from a very busy king and his easily fooled guards, or she had found a magic spell that gave her powers of persuasion. Either way, Eugene was impressed and very proud of his potentially devious girlfriend.
They had been away from Corona for several months, just exploring the lands around the kingdom, before they eventually returned. It wasn't the most extravagant journey, but Rapunzel loved it, and Eugene loved that she loved it. He swore to himself that one of these days he would give her the world, but for now this little journey would have to be good enough.
When Rapunzel started to feel homesick they made their way back home, and not a moment too soon in Eugene's opinion. Adventure was nice, but he missed living in the lap of luxury. He'd grown up on the road and streets, and it was hard to enjoy himself while traveling, even if he knew that they were doing it for fun.
Eugene was also anxious to get home because there was something that he really wanted to do. One of the last things they'd done on their journey was go sailing, because Rapunzel had read about sailing all her life and she wanted to experience it for herself. While they were on the open waters they'd had a close call with some escaped convicts that had taken over a prison ship.
Eugene figured that it was supposed to be a prison transfer, which was just fine by him. As far as he was concerned, the less criminals being locked up just under the feet of the Coronan royal family the better. Especially criminals that Rapunzel had a personal hand in taking down.
What made Eugene feel really uneasy though was that while there had been many criminals that they personally knew on the prison ship, there had been a few noticeable absences, namely Varian.
Eugene hadn't truly been locked up for long periods of time, but he and Lance had always been sure to have a contingency plan just in case. Most of those plans were escape methods, and a lot of those plans involved striking at a time when the guards were distracted. Eugene imagined that a prison transfer would take a lot of manpower, just to make sure that none of the prisoners being transferred took the chance to escape. Of course, the more guards there were overseeing the transferred prisoners, the less guards there were watching the actual prison itself.
If Eugene was locked up he would definitely take this chance to slip out, and if he was smart enough to do that then Varian probably had similar thoughts. If the kid had escaped and he was running loose, Eugene would rather know now than find out by having Varian destroy them with his freaky alchemy magic stuff.
As soon as they got back to Corona, while Rapunzel caught up with her parents, Eugene made his way to the dungeons. Lance followed behind him, making very unhelpful remarks.
"Don't you think you're a little paranoid?" Lance asked.
"No." Eugene said. It may not be a guarantee that Rapunzel was in danger, but even a possibility was more than Eugene felt comfortable with.
Lance snorted, a teasing look in his eyes. "Man, you're starting to sound like Cassandra."
Eugene shuddered, only exaggerating a little bit. "Don't even go there, Lance." Maybe he was getting protective and was overreacting, but he had a really bad feeling about this. For reasons that Eugene didn't understand, he felt like this was something he had to do, and he'd learned to trust his instincts.
"I just want to make sure Varian's secure, and then we can get out of here. Eugene said. He and Lance were allowed in the dungeons without question, or even an escort. It was one of the perks of being close to the princess.
Eugene and Lance walked down the halls of the dungeon, glancing into all of the cells. With every empty cell they passed Eugene felt more and more nervous, and a little sick to his stomach. Varian had done some bad things, but he was still a kid, so Eugene had been sure that he would only be on the first or maybe the second floor of the dungeons, because the deeper down they went the worse conditions the prisoners were left in, and the more security.
The teasing look in Lance's eyes had disappeared. He looked more nervous than Eugene was. "I don't like this." Lance said quietly. "How old is the kid anyway?"
"Fourteen." Eugene said. "Maybe fifteen.
Lance grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, don't take this the wrong way, I know that Varian has done things that weren't so good, but I don't like the thought of a kid being stuck all the way down here."
"Honestly, neither do I." Eugene said. He may have come down here with the intention of making sure that Varian was secure and wasn't a threat, but now he wanted to find him just to make sure he was still alive. Eugene may not have been locked up, but he knew how torturous and cruel it could be for anybody, let alone a child who seemed just a little unstable emotionally.
By the time Lance and Eugene reached the end of the third level of the dungeons they knew that something was very wrong here. There was just one more level to the Coronan dungeons, reserved for the worst of the worst, and as troublesome as Varian was he didn't deserve to be down there. Eugene wanted to go into the deepest layer of the dungeons himself, but the entrance was behind a locked door. There was no getting in there without either explicit permission or some devious sneaking.
"Maybe he got transferred." Lance said hopefully. "Or he might have escaped." Eugene felt like he should scold Lance for sounding like he hoped that Varian had escaped, but he found himself hoping the same thing. He thought that he would rather deal with a menace child than a dead one.
"Maybe." Eugene said. He turned around, making his way back out. "Come on, I want to look at the prison records." The captain was very thorough with the records of everybody that had ever been kept down here, no matter how long they'd been here for and what their crime was. No matter what had happened to Varian the captain would have made note of it.
Eugene went to the captain's office, but the door was locked and nobody answered. The decent thing to do would be to go find the captain or come back later, but Eugene never claimed to be a decent guy. He pulled out his old lock-picking kit and he soon got the door open.
"And here I thought you'd gone straight." Lance said, sounding all too pleased with the situation.
"I have." Eugene said. "But something fishy's going on here, and I won't be able to relax until I find out what it is. Until I get answers, all bets are off."
"There's the Eugene I know." Lance said proudly. He followed Eugene into the captain's office, closing the door behind them. After a short minute of searching Eugene was able to find the prison records. He started flipping through them and quickly found that there was a little too much detail in here. It would take him forever to find stuff about Varian himself.
Taking a chance, Eugene turned to the transfer records. Best case scenario, Varian had been transferred and he just been sent somewhere else than on the ship. If there wasn't any information on Varian here then Eugene would go back to looking for his individual records.
It didn't take Eugene long to find what he was looking for. He scanned the transfer records, laughing triumphantly when he saw Varian's name. He'd been transferred after all. He hadn't escaped, and he wasn't locked underground to never see the light of day again. Eugene's smile quickly fell when he looked next to Varian's name to find exactly where he had been transferred to. There was no destination listed. All there was was a symbol. A symbol that Eugene recognized like the back of his hand, literally.
Eugene's hands shook as he pulled the glove off of his right hand. He felt naked and vulnerable without his glove. His skin felt very sensitive to the air, but he barely noticed it. There was something much more important that caught his attention.
Eugene's eyes were drawn to the mark on the back of his hand, like they were every time he took off his gloves. The scar was old, and wherever he'd gotten it from it hadn't healed well, but it was as clear as ever.
The scar was simple enough, but very unnatural and not something that he would have gotten through normal means. Sitting on the back of Eugene's hand was a circle with three lines slashed through it. As Eugene had gotten older the scar had stretched and distorted a bit, making the circle uneven and the lines jagged, but he still recognized the symbol. It was the same as the one drawn next to Varian's name.
"H-hey, Lance." Eugene's voice shook slightly. "Can you look at this?"
Lance, who had been keeping an eye on the doors, joined him. Eugene pointed to the symbol on the paper. When Lance saw it he froze and gave a small gasp. He sounded both horrified and heartbroken.
"Oh no." Lance said quietly.
"It's the same symbol, isn't it?" Eugene asked. Lance nodded. "Can you tell me what it means?"
Lance shook his head. "Trust me, Eugene, you really don't want to know."
"No, I really do." Eugene insisted. He turned to look at his friend. They'd had this conversation countless times. Even though Eugene has had this symbol for as long as he could remember he had no idea where it came from or what it meant. Ever since the moment that Lance had found out about the mark he'd been acting secretive about it, switching from denying any knowledge and saying that Eugene was better off not knowing.
It wasn't very reassuring. Over the years Eugene had, for the most part, given up looking for answers from Lance, though every few years he would start questioning again.
"Lance, please," Eugene practically begged. "What does this symbol mean?"
"I don't know." Lance said.
"Oh, don't give me that." Eugene said. He gave his friend a cold look. "You know exactly what this symbol means."
"I don't know what the symbol is." Lance insisted. "I have an idea of what the scar is, but I could be wrong."
"How likely do you think it is that you're wrong?" Eugene asked.
Lance looked from Eugene's hand to the transfer records. "If you asked me five minutes ago I would say that it was about fifty fifty that I was wrong." Lance said. "Now I'm worried that it's more like I'm ninety five percent sure of what it means."
"Let me guess, it's nothing good." Eugene had a pit forming in the pit of his stomach. "Is Varian in danger?"
"I'm not sure about danger." Lance said slowly. "But if I'm right I think he's definitely in trouble."
Eugene rubbed the back of his hand. It was starting to itch. "Lance, please, what does the symbol mean? I need to know."
Lance hesitated as he just stared at the transfer records. "You're probably right, but we can't talk about it here. Trust me, it's too risky. I don't want to talk about it anywhere in the castle. If you still want to know later we can sneak out and go somewhere more private." Lance frowned slightly as he looked at the transfer records. "Hey, who's Hubert?" Lance tilted his head. "Or Andrew."
"Why?" Eugene asked. Lance pointed at a name a few lines above Varian's. It said Hubert (Andrew), and just like with Varian this name had a symbol next to it instead of a destination. "I don't know about Hubert, but I know an Andrew. He's a Saporian, and he tried to take over the kingdom." Eugene only remembered the guy because Cassandra was ready to bite the head off anybody who so much as mentioned his name. It was funny.
"Saporian." Lance's frown deepened. "I thought Saporia merged with Corona a long time ago."
"I guess Andrew wasn't too happy about it." Eugene said.
"Yeah, I don't blame him." Lance looked annoyed and almost mad. Eugene gave him an odd look.
"Since when are you on his side?" Eugene asked. Lance had always been sympathetic towards criminals, but this felt a little different.
Lance just gestured to the symbol next to Andrew's name. "If I'm right, I think his mark means the same thing as yours and Varian's."
"You're telling me these marks mean the same things?" Eugene raised an eyebrow. The simple circle and more elaborate flower looking design looked completely different.
"I told you, it's not about the symbols themselves." Lance said. He jabbed a finger at Eugene's scar. "It's about the mark."
"Well, the symbols themselves have to mean something." Eugene searched through the captain's office until he found a blank sheet of paper. He drew both symbols on it, just so he could have a reference, and put the paper in his pocket. He closed the records and put them back where he found them. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Don't forget your glove." Lance said.
"Like I would." Eugene grabbed his glove and pulled it back on. His earliest memory was of being told to now show anybody this mark. Today Eugene couldn't remember who had told him, let alone why, but as a kid he'd found it important enough to listen to now. He'd always been a really disobedient and rebellious child. If he'd listened to anything it had been for a good reason. He may not remember that reason anymore, but that didn't mean it wasn't important.
Eugene wished that he knew what was going on. For so long he had put his desire to know the truth on the backburner, because surviving seemed so much more important. No more putting it off. Eugene was determined to figure out what this symbol meant, and he wasn't going to stop until he knew.
At the very least Eugene wished he knew why Lance seemed to know so much more about what was going on than he did. Even when they were kids and Lance had accidentally seen the mark when Eugene got careless with showing his hands, he seemed to know right away what it meant. From the start Lance had supported the idea that Eugene shouldn't show anybody or talk about the mark, and he would pick fights with anybody who pushed for answers.
Lance had always tried to protect him, but Eugene had to take responsibility for himself now. No more hiding behind his friend.
Eugene and Lance left the captain's office, closing the door and relocking it behind them. Lance made his way to the kitchens, saying something about being hungry. Eugene knew his friend well enough to know that he wasn't truly hungry, he was just stressed and felt like either stress baking or stress eating.
Eugene would normally be more than happy to join him, but his head was hurting and he felt the need to be alone right now, so he made his way to his bedroom instead. Maybe he'd just call it an early night. He might feel better in the morning.
All of Eugene's belongings had already been brought from the travel caravan to his room. The beauty of having servants. It wasn't unpacked, but that was Eugene's preference. He may be fine with servants bringing his bags up, but he didn't want anybody going through his belongings. He was very possessive with his personal belongings, since for so long he hadn't had anything to his name.
Eugene didn't unpack yet. He made sure his door was locked, just like he did every night before going to sleep, and sat down on his bed. Out the window he could see the sun setting. It was a beautiful sight, but Eugene couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as he watched dusk grow.
He felt like something great was about to end. Maybe something even better was waiting for him, but it wouldn't be the exact same, and Eugene would miss this. Maybe he was just missing the freedom of the open road. Why else would he be feeling like this?
Eugene watched the sun set for a bit. When it started to get dark he pushed himself to his feet and went to the window. He moved to close the curtains, only to stop when he saw the night sky. The moon was already out, and it was shining brighter than Eugene could ever remember seeing. It was beautiful and Eugene couldn't help but stare at it in awe.
Eugene pulled a chair close to the window and stared out at the night sky. He hadn't meant to sit down at all, but he lost all sense of time and eventually started to doze off in the moonlight.
It was cold and dark, and even though he'd been told that he had nothing to fear from the shadows he couldn't help but feel nervous. He wasn't used to the night, and it was a lot scarier than he thought it would be. He leaned closer to the strong, protective figure out his side. The man walking next to him paused for a moment to pick him up and hold him in his strong arms. He felt safe in this hold, and never wanted to be let go, even though he knew that this safety would soon be gone.
"Do you have to go?" He asked in the voice of a child.
"I'm afraid so." A deep voice said. "I know you don't understand, but you'll be a lot safer without me around."
"I don't want to be alone." He whimpered.
"You won't be." The man holding him brushed his newly cut hair out of his face. "Look at the sky. What do you see?"
He turned towards the heavens, and besides all of the shadows of the buildings around them all he saw was the bright moon. He'd heard of it before, but had never seen it. "The moon." He said breathlessly.
"That's right." The man said. "She's always there, watching us, even when it looks like she's gone."
"Will she really help us?" He asked.
"She'll help us know how we can help ourselves." The man said. He set him down. "Now, do you remember what I told you?"
"You said a lot." He said.
"Some things are more important than others." The man said. "What is your name?"
He had to think about it for a second. "Eu…Eugene Fit…Fitz…"
"Fitzherbert." The man said. "Eugene Fitzherbert."
"Eugene Fitzherbert." He said to remind himself.
"Good." The man knelt next to him and pulled some gloves out of his pocket. The man pulled the gloves onto Eugene's hands. "Remember what I said about your hands."
"Don't tell anybody." Eugene said.
"And don't show anybody." The man rubbed a finger across the back of Eugene's hand. "This is very important. It has to be our little secret, okay?"
"Like my name?" Eugene asked. "My actual name?"
"Just like that." The man said. "And from now on Eugene Fitzherbert needs to be your actual name, and I think it suits you." The man gave him a gentle smile. "Eugene means noble-born, and Fitzherbert means son of a bright army."
"Bright army?" Eugene's face scrunched up in confusion. The man chuckled and gestured to the sky.
"The moon's army." The man said. "The name may be fake, but the meaning behind it couldn't be more real. You were born to be a warrior and a prince, and someday you'll claim your birthright, I just know it."
"So why are we running?" Eugene asked.
The man sighed. "We have to live to fight another day, and to do that we have to run, and we have to go our separate ways."
"I don't want you to go." Eugene took the man's hand. "Will I see you again?"
"If the moon wills it." The man said. It wasn't the first time that Eugene had heard this kind of thing. "You'll be fine. You have the blood of a fighter." The man pulled Eugene in for a hug, holding him close. "Never forget who you are, Horace."
Eugene's eyes snapped open as he woke up with a gasp. Memories of the details of the dream slipped away faster than he could remember them. He couldn't remember any of the words said to him, except for his name and the instructions to keep his glove on and hide the mark. However, some details solidified in his mind.
During his dream the man's features had been hard to make out, but as Eugene was trying to remember what he was told the man's face became clearer and clearer until it was somebody that Eugene recognized.
He knew it was probably just his dream being weird, and now his mind was filling in the blanks in his memory with false memories, but he couldn't shake his unease. The dream had been of Eugene's earliest memories as a five year old, though much more vivid than it usually was. Had it just been a dream, or was he just making stuff up.
Eugene wanted answers, and there might be just one person who could give them to him. The man from his dream. The one who had brought him to the orphanage and left him there to be found the next morning.
Maybe Eugene's mind was just messing with him, but he needed to know for sure. Eugene got up from the chair and, using the moonlight to guide him, left the room. He slowly walked down the dark hallways to the guest room that Lance frequently stayed in. Eugene let himself in, not bothering to knock. This wasn't the time to be polite.
"Lance." Eugene went to Lance's bed and shook his friend's shoulder. "Come on, buddy, I need to talk to you. It's important."
Lance groaned and rolled over in his bed. Eugene scowled and gave him a harsh shove, pushing him off the bed. Lance grunted in pain as he sat up.
"What was that for?" Lance groaned.
"I think I remembered something." Eugene said. "About my mark."
"You what?" Lance looked wide awake now. He stood up. "What do you remember?"
"I'm not really sure." Eugene admitted. "But I need to go to Old Corona. Will you come with me?" Eugene really didn't want to make this journey alone. Lance had been at his side for so long, and if Eugene ever needed him it was now.
"Of course." Lance said. "What are we going to do?"
Eugene felt a little sheepish about this, but he was determined. He had made a decision, and he was planning on sticking to it. Even if his memory was false and the face that he remembered wasn't accurate, this was still something that he should do. If what Lance had said about Varian being in trouble was true, then there was somebody that deserved to know, whether he could help Eugene or not.
"We're going to try to free Quirin."