Part Sixty:

Fei-Wang crossed his arms and got as close to annoyed as he ever got. He watched Kyle be taken by the Suwa whelp, but what was worse, he had bragged to the Suwa whelp, which could save Fujimiya from a death sentence.

He took a deep breath and went to a window. He had found an abandoned shrine to use as his hideout. He gazed out at the morose landscape that was nothing but a massive graveyard and Cyprus tree grove as far as the eye could see. A thick layer of fog covered the mossy ground as the land sloped further into a swamp.

No one came out here very much because of silly superstitions about the dead. Fei-Wang could care less about the dead. What could they ever do to him? He shook his head at the farmers that let their imagination go out of control. This was why they needed to be ruled.

His thoughts turned to Kyle. The man needed to die. He'd send some magical constructs to do the job.


The ride towards Suwa was silent, at first. Kurogane tied Ran's wrists together in the early morning; Ran complied. Ran was almost too groggy to ride a horse, but he managed to get in the saddle with Kurogane's help and he steady himself. Kurogane and he rode side by side. Boris road several horse lengths back. Yuui was behind Boris on the same horse, arms firmly around his waist.

Doctor Kyle was draped over a mule being lead by Kurogane. The man was unconscious, thanks to a relaxer used at the hot springs; they just used a high dose.

After they were deep into Suwa's territory, Kurogane finally asked, "You want to tell me why?"

"I want him."

"But he doesn't want you. Doesn't that make a difference to you?"

"Not at all. I crave him, so what do his feelings matter to me? I'm not going to let him alone until he gives his body to me to do with as I please," Ran said in a cold tone that disturbed Kurogane. He knew Ran to be cool and abrasive, but never callous and willing to hurt others for his own pleasure. Ran's pain-spoken greed astounded Kurogane. He'd never seen this side of Ran.

"He has a lover already. They're from a foreign land and will go back to where they're from when things are settled with his father," Kurogane said, mostly to test his cousin's thinking.

"That little foreigner won't leave me. He knows better. He knows I'll hurt him if he even thinks of shrugging off my touch any more! I'll make him hurt until he has no choice except to submit to me. Fai will still be here, servicing you like the whore he is. And Yuui will know I'm here and within striking distance. He won't dare defy me."

"You really are demented." Kurogane said, not believing the words coming from Ran's mouth. No, this was certainly not his rigid, straight-laced cousin.

"I thought I wanted Fai, but he's just an annoying copy of the real one. The one with value is Yuui," Ran hissed through grinding teeth. Ran groaned and then put a hand to his bandaged head.

Kurogane snorted. "The fact you don't see Fai's true inner worth and beauty shows me you're totally blind to your own desires. All you see is surface deep."

No more was that said than they got to the Suwa family compound. "Yuui!" Fai shouted, running past Kurogane's horse and right to Boris'. He lifted his arms and Yuui drifted off the horse into Fai's arms. "You're so sunburned!"

"I put some golden star on him," Kurogane said. "He'll be fine in a little while."

"Well, he won't need it anymore, because I have his magic free. I'm going to create a magic void in your eyes, so hold still," Fai said, holding up two crystals. He covered Yuui's eyes with his free hand and there was a spark of pink. Kurogane watched in fascination as Fai removed his hand. The crystals then liquefied and slowly drifted to Yuui's irises, turning them from tawny to a bright blue.

Yuui squinted and looked around when his eyes adjusted. His eyes drifted over to Ran, and for the first time, he saw his kidnapper. Ran returned the gaze with a harsh glare. Kurogane got concerned when Yuui lowered his face and started trembling. Fai's fists clenched with a pink crackle of magic.

Yuui wrapped his arms around Fai before he could confront Ran. He buried his face on his twin's shoulder. "Please don't be upset."

"I am upset!" Fai parted from Yuui and turned towards Ran. Fai ran towards him, but Lord Suwa appeared in time to hook Fai around the waist and restrain him.

"Stop!" Lord Suwa ordered, and Fai stilled. "Kurogane, bring everyone into my sitting room, and keep everyone on short leashes. Kentaro! Get Kyle in some sort of confinement. He plays a part in this as well, but I'll deal with him later."

"Yes, Father." Kurogane helped Ran off his horse after handing over Kyle to Kentaro. "Don't try anything funny. Fai's not easy to tame," he said to Ran.

Ran nodded and followed Kurogane, hands still tied.


Yuui sat close by Fai on a giant pillow on the floor. He glanced to make sure Boris was nearby; he gave him a shy smile. The reanimator was at the doorway, just watching after Yuui. Lord and Lady Suwa were sitting on a low dais in the room. Kurogane was on the other side of the room with his cousin.

"Healer of Celes, tell me what our cousin did?" Lord Suwa asked gruffly. Yuui's stomach turned, he could sense anger roiling off the man. Now he was afraid of what was going to come of this.

"Please don't be angry with him. It wasn't his fault. I can fix him now that I have my magic back," Yuui insisted. "Right now it wouldn't be fair to judge him. Please allow me to heal him first, on the outside and in."

Lord Suwa flinched back slightly and examined Yuui with narrowed eyes. "You're being rather generous, healer."

Lady Suwa gave her husband a soft smile and laid a hand on his arm. "It may be charitable to let our guest have his wish." She turned to Yuui. "Is that your wish? To heal Ran?"

"More than anything. His face is starting to hurt him," Yuui said.

"But Yuui..." Fai started, and Yuui could feel Fai's thoughts almost telegraphed in his head. He wanted Ran to heal the normal way.

"No, Fai, you're asking something against my nature."

"I know." Fai pouted, tending to be more like Ashura when it came to justice.

"I need my staff," Yuui said to Boris. The ex-governor nodded and left.

"I don't want your pity," Ran snapped, glaring at Yuui with his remaining, amethyst eye.

"Be gracious, you jerk," Kurogane snapped. Ran slumped forward and Kurogane grabbed his shoulder to steady him. Yuui felt the stab of pain and swirling emotions. He scrambled across the room and knelt in front of Ran. Yuui laid his hand over Ran's bandaged wound and siphoned off pain with his empathy. Ran whacked Yuui's hand away with his bound wrists. Kurogane gripped his cousin's shoulders and forced him still.

Fortunately, Boris made his appearance and held out Yuui's staff. He took the staff and unbound the bandages from around Ran's wound. Yuui propped his staff on his shoulder and studied the eye socket, after laying his hands on either side of the wound. "I can't regenerate your eye, but I can knit the socket together so you won't risk infection in the future. I can also remove the scar so that..."

"No! Leave that," Ran snapped.

Yuui about argued with him, but that fierce amethyst eye allowed no room for disagreement. "It'll be as you want. After this, I'll address your drugging."

Yuui stood and traced several blue glowing runes in the air with the casting tip of his staff. He pointed Ran's face. The rune set sank into Ran's left eye socket and the spell took effect. Ran lowered his head and went to touch it.

"No, don't do that. I know it itches horribly. It will for about three days, but it'll fade," Yuui instructed.

Ran sat upright and had a stiff, sour expression. He held a hand over the newly healed socket. After several, long, silent minutes, Lord Suwa clenched his fist and glared at Ran. "You dare add insult to the injury you caused our guest!"

"Your mother would be shamed if she knew you greeted this act of kindness and mercy with your silent scorn," Lady Suwa chided. Yuui could feel how appalled Kurogane and his parents were.

Kurogane shoved his elbow into Ran's ribcage. "You ingrate! Thank my mage's twin!"

Yuui shook his head. "It isn't in his heart right now, so I don't care for it."

"I'll tell you what's in his nasty, little heart," Fai muttered, with crossed-arms as he shot Ran a vex look.

Yuui, once again, knelt down in front of Ran. "The next thing is more difficult. I can't impose my will on your choice. I can drain the drug from you, but you'll still have all of your feelings to deal with. I can only dampen feelings, temporarily, and I'd have to be in proximity to you. You will have to learn to accept your feelings and forgive yourself and others.

"You'd have back your judgment and morals to help you do that. As you are now, with this drug, you don't have to worry about those fetters and there is no friction and conflict with how you deal with your emotions, but that's a very unhealthy way to live, and it means you'll keep coming into conflict with society."

"Would my feelings for you remain?" Ran asked.

Yuui was startled to feel the intense, passionate longing behind the question. There was a deep agony that had loneliness at its root. Could Ran feel more towards him that just raw, animal lust?

"I can do nothing to change your feelings about me. I could take your memories away."

"You can't," Lord Suwa said. "Whether or not he was drugged, doesn't matter. He will still have to give an account of his actions."

Yuui looked up at Lord Suwa and asked, "But, sir, it wasn't his fault. Can't you spare him?"

"I can't. He dishonored us greatly. The laws of our land require him to answer for it. I will hear your side of the story, and it will be taken into account, but if these things are truly in his heart he must be dealt with," Lord Suwa said.

Yuui turned back to Ran. "So do you choose to live your life as you are now, or would you like to face your feelings and become yourself again?" Ran was silent and seething in anger and need. Yuui finally prodded, "Think of your sister. What would she urge you to do?"

Ran was struggling, and Yuui felt pity for him. The battle in his mind was an epic swirl of all sorts of emotions. Finally, Ran just barely nodded, the man's overwhelming pride almost not allowing it.

"Heal me."

Yuui stood again and traced more runes. He pointed at Ran and they infused themselves into Ran's skin. Soon, a black smoke drifted from Ran's skin and dissipated into the air. Ran's one eye widened, and Yuui was knocked to the ground when crushing mortification slammed against his empathy.

"Kurogane! Hold him down! He's going to harm himself!" Yuui shouted.

Sure enough, Ran tried for Kurogane's knife at his waist. Kurogane was swift, and Ran's wrists were still tied, so Ran's seppuku plans were stopped.

"What have I done?" Ran shouted in grief and despair. Then he collapsed on floor in a total, emotional overload. Yuui crawled over to Ran and laid his hand on that bright, red hair.

"He needs rest. He's suffering extreme depression, so he needs to be looked after," Yuui said. Lord Suwa ordered Kentaro and Kurogane to watch after Ran in a secured room.

When they were gone, Yuui looked over to Boris. He received a subtle smile from the ex-governor. "You'll make a great king one day."

Yuui returned the smile, feeling heat come to his face. "Oh no, I think Fai would be better," he said, embarrassed at the presumption and not confident he could do a good job at ruling over people.

Boris' smile grew sly. "I know you'd do a better job than Queen Fai over here."

"Why you...! Prince of Putrefaction!" Fai shouted, clenching his fists.

"Stop it or it's to the river with you two!" Lord Suwa roared.


"You sent for us, Governor Vlad?"

"Damn straight! Those little bastards I'm in charge of caught something from the town whores and brought it back to their nags. Now the nags are bitching at me! What am I suppose to do? Have their men castrated? Oh, trust me, I'm so tempted! I'll settle for you treating the nags."

Sergei got a vexed look on his face. "We were pressed into the army to treat an outbreak of social diseases?"

"Damn straight! The army healers here let the soldiers get away with it. They're corrupt little bastards. I'm having them punished right now. Horsewhipping is a great inducement, but it has its drawbacks."

Vlad was just how Zellen remembered. He was still intimidated by the man. He turned his green, lazy eye on Zellen and snickered while rubbing his hawkish nose. "It's you! The lover boy! So you got your D title?"

Zellen felt a blush come to his face. "Yes, sir."

"You cost me a shit load of money, by the way. I was betting you'd let the annulment go through. Zash was right, damn it, and she's the cynic! I'll never listen to Lexie again, that son-of-a-bitch," Vlad groused.

"I have to say I'm not sorry about that, sir. We're still very happy," Zellen said.

Vlad chuckled and leaned back on the Valerian thrown. "I have to say, putting away that duchess was a blast. So you did give me some entertainment. Alright, so most of the nags are in the west tower. Just knock, door-to-door. You can't sling a dead cat around here without hitting someone with chlamydia. Enjoy!"

Zellen felt his face go red as they left the throne room. When they got far enough down the hallway, Zellen glanced around, and whispered to Sergei, "This sucks. We're stuck here because of some loose people."

"It won't take us long."

"Yes, but... it's embarrassing," Zellen complained.

Sergei smacked Zellen on the shoulder and laughed. "If you're going to be a healer, you better get un-squeamish about social diseases. After all, frequently it isn't the victim's fault that their partner lied to them. I thought Tanya would have broken you of being embarrassed when talking about the body."

"Well, she did... sort of... I guess Yu rubbed off on me too much."

As they were walking towards the west tower, Zellen noticed something odd. There was a door with the word catacomb on it. "Sergei, what's catacomb?"

Sergei shivered and sneered. "That where they keep dead."

"They keep dead? Why?"

Sergei shrugged. "Don't know. It's a creepy habit. Too bad King Ashura doesn't outlaw the practice here, like it is on Celes."

Zellen's mind went to Boris. He wondered if Boris had practiced necromancy down there or learned what he did there. He worried after Yuui and hoped Boris was looking after him. Zellen admitted, there was something odd about the door, and he looked back over his shoulder. Something didn't feel right about it.


Fai and Yuui knelt at Ashura's head. He was still sound asleep. Fai asked, "Do you want to take him back to Celes and then heal him?"

"I could do it here, if they have the same elements for the alchemy part. The most important element will be my blood."

"You should let me do it. You're tired and have been through so much," Fai insisted.

Yuui held up his hand and Fai took it and squeezed it firmly. Yuui then gave his a soft smile. "We'll do it together."

"We'll start tomorrow morning, after you get some dinner and rest," Fai said. He then gave Ashura a firm pat on his head. "Sleep tight, Father. Yuui will have you fixed up in no time. And then I can tell you about my growing list of evil doers in need of punishing! Starting with Boris and ending with Ran."

"Fai!" Yuui was about to chide his twin, but Fai yanked him to his feet and tugged him down the hallway towards the dining hall. They both started chuckling like when they were ten as they ran through Luval's hallways.


"He's getting feverish," Kurogane reported to the assembled group eating dinner in his parents' dining room. Yuui, dressed in a fresh, black yukata, hopped to his feet and followed Kurogane down the hallway. "He refuses to see you. The jackass won't be pleased, but he doesn't have much of a choice."

They got to the secured room where Ran was resting. He was being looked after by a one-eyed man Yuui now knew was Lord Suwa's chief retainer. Ran looked over at Yuui and there was instant self-disgust that came to the redhead. The next thing Yuui sensed was the same grief and despair Ran had succumbed to before his suicide attempt and collapse. Ran turned his head away with a huge wave of guilt.

"Get him out of here!"

"I'll deal with your fever and leave, I promise. The spell I used will knit the flesh together over the course of three days rather than let the process happen over years. Because of the rapid nature of the healing, there is also a greater risk of infections. That's why you need to be watched after carefully for a while," Yuui explained.

He knelt by Ran's head, traced a simple rune set in the air. "Please turn your face towards me."

"Why! So you can humiliate! Just let me die!"

"I'm not trying to humiliate you. I'm trying to save your life. Not just your physical life, but also the way you live that life. I'm hoping to help you find some peace. Now please, let me cure your fever."

Ran didn't move. He was still as a statue. Kurogane said, "Ran, do as he bids. If you have the least little shred of honor left, you'll get better so you can answer my parents for what you've done, like a man would. Have some dignity and do the right thing; don't compound your troubles and take the easy way out. Death at this point would only stain your parents' memory. Don't do that to Aya-chan. She still needs you."

Ran slowly turned his face towards Yuui. Yuui let the runes sink into his rapidly healing wound. Ran sighed and his head drifted to the side. He was now in a deep sleep. Kurogane and Yuui left Ran in Kentaro's care.

"My cousin has more then his helping of pride. I can tell, now that he's back to normal, he's extremely ashamed of what he did to you, so please don't be offended by his gruffness. I don't think he understands the gift you're offering him. Not healing him, but giving him mercy. He has no idea about how to accept it. To him, mercy is a weakness that deserves scorn; now that he's in real need, he doesn't know how to accept it with grace."

"I'm not offend. I just hope I can show him how to forgive. And with that, maybe I'll learn to forgive people that have wronged me. I have some unforgivingness in my own heart. Maybe if I learn to forgive, then I can learn to live without hiding behind other people."

Kurogane chuckled. "You really are different from Fai. He embraces grudges with glee."

Yuui nodded and smiled. "And you think that's charming?"

"Annoying, but amusing," Kurogane admitted.

To be continued.