A/N: Next chapter... King Ashura! I can't wait!
Part Sixty-Two:
"Welcome home. How was it?" Aunt Tanya asked the minute they arrived in the mayor's home. Zellen didn't miss her worry, and he didn't miss the smile on Drysi's face and her moist eyes.
"Well, Governor Vlad certainly has them singing a different tune than when we were there last time. Damn, that man is every bit as scary in the flesh as the word of mouth says," Sergei said.
"Are you tired?" Tanya asked.
"Exhausted," Sergei said.
"Me too," Zellen said, hoping to get to his bedroom alone so he could unpack his healer's bag and its illegal, secret contents.
"Hungry?" Tanya asked.
"Not a bit. I just want some sleep," Zellen claimed, itching to start his research.
"Well, it is late. We'll have a large, early breakfast and catch up," Tanya said. "We'll all turn in."
Sergei took Tanya by the hand and asked, "So is that an invitation to stay over?"
"The kids!" she protested with a deep blush.
"The married kids, you mean? Now I see where Zellen gets his prudish ways."
"Sergei!"
"Oh come on. Stop playing around. Let's turn in. I'm too sleepy to act all proper," Sergei said, giving her a charming smile.
She grumbled under her breath, but lead him upstairs, gear and all, after they bid Drysi and Zellen goodnight. Zellen was just grateful they were gone, so he could start on his plans to heal necromancers. Then Drysi came up behind him, hugged him around the waist, and pressed her face in between his shoulder blades.
"I've missed you so much, Zellen. I really want to make you comfortable and happy, now that you're home."
He was about to rebuff her and make an excuse to be alone, but she was so bright. Maybe she could help, and he could bounce ideas off of her. Still, he was leery about involving her in some so illegal, especially after just escaping a jail sentence.
"Let's go to our bedroom. I have something to tell you. Something that's not so good, but I think you need to know, something that you might be able to help me with. But, if you don't feel comfortable after I tell you, I'll do what you say. You're my wife, and I have to have loyalty to you first, but this could affect Yuui's happiness."
"Please let me help," she said, holding him a little tighter around the waist.
"Boys, to my sides! Ran, to my right! Watch your depth perception. You might not be used to it yet. Kurogane, go wide to my left! A lot of them are spread out over there. Herd the dragons back towards me. We can then finished off!"
Kurogane did as his father ordered and ran towards the edge of the dragon grouping. He startled the worst straggler by swiping at its nose with Ginryuu. It puffed fire at Kurogane, but he dodged and sliced through its throat. It collapsed and died.
He didn't have faith the rest of them were going to be that easy. He glanced over and saw Ran wasn't struggling too bad with his altered vision, just slightly, but he was making progress against one of them. His father had just blinded another dragon and was about to do it in.
He refocused when one charged him. He launched himself at it and hoped Fai and Boris were making progress, too, and not bickering. He'd let his father kick both their asses if they didn't behave.
As Fai watched Boris trace out brackish, purple runes he said, "How do you figure giving us more things to hex helps the situation?"
"I'll dessicate them when this is done," Boris explained. "Just don't get in their way."
"Easy for you to say, Baron Blight."
"You've used that one. You're falling behind, Your Spoiled Sassiness," Boris snarked back. He plunged his magic staff into the moist dirt and unleashed the complicated rune set through the ground, along with the low, loud bell tone. Moments later, the ground started rippling as hands came through.
Fai became concerned when Boris fell to his knees clutching his right side. Yuui would be upset if Fai didn't look after Boris. He was even spitting up bile on the ground and gagging. The ex-governor caught his breath and slowly got to his feet again. Boris waved Fai off and said, "Damn, that's not fun."
A red ball appeared and Fei-Wang stepped through it, looking horrified. "What have you done?"
"Siccing the living dead on your army, that's all," Boris said with a shrug. Fai shivered as the first wave of the dead broke through the ground and dragged themselves up. It was a horrific sight.
"You horrid wretch!" Fei-Wang snarled. He unleashed a red lightening attack at Boris, but a pink disk flared up to protect the man.
Boris smiled at Fai. "Nicely done."
"Well, why don't you look after your dead, and I'll take down Fei-Wang."
"Deal," Boris said.
"You won't stop my march on Tsukiyono," Fei-Wang gloated to Fai. "If you won't be my slave, I'll do away with you."
Fai gave the old sorcerer a faux, charming smile and said, "I'm too sassy to be anyone's slave, so you're more than welcome to come and let me beat you up again."
Fei-Wang cast a passel of red, glowing darts at the shield, and cracks appeared in it. Fai lofted his staff, traced a nasty hex, and cast it. A red shield kept Fai's hex at bay. That was fine, Fai knew plenty of other nasty hexes.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw Boris focused on his undead army. He lofted his staff, pointed the amethyst topper at the clay army, and shouted, "Attack!"
He was guiding the speedy corpses towards the red, clay soldiers. They were actually taking a good chuck of the clay army down already. The dead might have persistence, but they were frail. Fai hoped they held out long enough to take down a major portion of the clay army.
"Zellen, maybe you're going about this wrong," Drysi said. They sat on their bed with the three books spread out between them. Both kept their voices low. "Let me look at them with my psychometry. Maybe I can tell you something about the previous owners that the literature wouldn't tell you."
"But I don't want you around such a despicable thing. I only told you because I thought you should be aware and could give me some ideas. I mean, if I get caught with these, it'll be real trouble."
"I know, but I do have my advantage. I'll be only looking at the history of these book. I can report to you what those around them have said, and it may help. It could give you some insight you might not get from plain text."
Zellen weighed her offer and shook his head. He took her gloved hand and kissed it. "I can't let you. You'll hurt."
She gave him that demure smile he had fallen in love with. "And you'll heal me. Someone owned these books. Nothing is created in a vacuum, and you can't solve a problem in a vacuum. If I find nothing, then I'll get a few cuts, but if I find something, I can help you help change Yuui's life."
Zellen took a deep breath and reluctantly nodded. "Only if you're sure."
"I'm sure," she said, tugging off her gloves. She clapped her hands on a book labeled, Turning the Dead, and went into a deep trance. Zellen worried and got out his medical supplies.
Drysi passed by Boris' ownership of the book and pushed herself deeper and deeper. Back so far in time. There had been five owners of this book, the most recent being teenager Boris, but the first was the most revealing and revolting.
He'd been Duke Vanian, a noble on Valeria. It was his niece, Riccia, that was his secret protégé. She must have been all of sixteen when Drysi landed in the past. Drysi saw her clutching the book to her chest.
Vanian was a tall man with a gray streak down his shoulder-length, black hair. Drysi saw they were at the top of a strange, stone tower. The young woman, Riccia, was on her knees and crying. She clung to his hand and begged, "Please renounce it! We can't practice necromancy anymore. We'll come to our doom, dear uncle. Please, if you love me, you'd renounce what we do in secret and burn these books. Mastering the dead is not for us, because it will only lead to our destruction."
He cupped Riccia's chin and forced her to her feet. "You and I share the same derangement. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to practice necromancy. We will both grow insane, and that's why I picked you, my sweetness. At one time, our insanity may have never come to the surface, but now that we've already raised the dead, it's unavoidable."
Her brown eyes grew wide and she shook her long, raven hair; her efforts to get away from her uncle's hands on her upper arms was futile. "You mean... we're doomed?"
"Now it doesn't matter if you choose to practice necromancy or not, since you cast your first necromancy spell. Only people predisposed to insanity can wield necromancy. Necromancy doesn't cause insanity in the least. That's just a rumor. It does ensure the onset of insanity, because only those predisposed can wield it, so know that you're going to fall into it, anyway. You see, you had the chance to avoid it, now it's a foregone conclusion.
"My dearest niece, free yourself and embrace controlling the dead and the power that entails. There is nothing to fear in losing your mind. It's a very small price to pay for power." He embraced her tightly and pressed a chaste kiss on her left temple. "Give yourself over to what I have to offer. Embrace becoming a necromancer. Be my one, true heir. We can rule the night and terrorize until we have our way."
Drysi was shocked and suspected the man was already losing his mind. Riccia grew lax in her uncle's embrace. Riccia calmed herself and nodded. "You've never lead me wrong, Uncle. I'll learn from you and do as you say."
Drysi couldn't bear any more of what was about to come. Besides, she had gotten an important piece of information. She drifted back up through time and hit the present. Her hands burst in several painful cuts.
She fell back on their bed, dropping the book, and Zellen was there to heal her hands quickly. He cared for her first and got her tucked into their bed.
But Zellen did ask, "So what did you find?"
"I was right to go look. Insanity comes first, then necromancy. Boris had the predisposition to go insane all along, him casting one necromancy spell just ensured it would happen."
"That's great news, actually. Rather than a magical malady, he can be treated in the standard way we would treat a person with mental illness."
"But what if necromancy made his insanity more persistent or resistant to treatment?"
"There is that. We'll have to see. In the meanwhile," Zellen said, lofting the books, "I'm hiding these. I won't tell you were I'm putting them, just in case constables come snooping around."
Kurogane herded two more dragons towards his father. One charged Kurogane, he leaped over it and thrust Ginryuu in between the ribs and brought it down. It collapsed. Kurogane quickly jumped off the dragon's body and launched himself at the other one, right before it breathed fire. He struck it on the snout and blinded it. He then sliced its throat open and looked to see what progress they'd made.
Five more. His father had just disemboweled one with Pale Blue Ice. Ran was holding his own against one that was threatening to claw him. Kurogane moved toward another one that was going to breath fire towards his father. He struck the dragon's tail and it spun around and charged for Kurogane. He ducked the blast of fire and swung his blade at the dragon's throat.
That dragon collapsed, and he spared a thought towards Fai and Boris. He hoped they could stop that clay army.
Fai was driven back-to-back with Boris. "How's it coming, Count Rot?"
He raised a pink shield to protect them from more magic darts. "Tough, Princess. They prefer the living, but they'll tear through anything to get at some flesh."
Fai glanced over his shoulder to see the dead were, indeed, taking down clay soldiers, but then something horrible dawned on him. "They're coming this way, which means they're coming after me?"
"Yeap, that's the size of it." Boris was pointing his topper towards more soldiers and the dead went after them. He then chuckled. "I had to have some bait."
Fai clenched his fist. "I'll make you pay for this!" Red lightning caused Fai's shield to ripple. He gritted his teeth and traced a few runes. He launched them in a fury and cracked Fei-Wang's protective bubble.
"Give up! There are too many," Fei-Wang demanded. "I'll just make more!"
"Oh, do shut up, already," Fai said, jogging forward, tracing runes, and then flinging his topper towards Fei-Wang. The man let out a strangled cry and was flung to the ground, smoke roiling off his robes. He'd be unconscious for a very long time.
"Nice," Boris said, giving Fai a smirk over his shoulder. "The captain would be proud."
"Um... Boris... are they supposed to do that?" Fai pointed, getting nervous that some dead closer to the battle with the dragons had stopped and seemed as if they were listening or smelling something. Boris looked back over the battle.
"All that blood being spilled by Kurogane and his crew is catching their attention. I guess you aren't a tasty enough morsel."
"Stop them before they get to Kuro-ki and Lord Papa-sama!" Then Fai got a sly expression. "You can let them gnaw Ran some."
Boris chuckled, lofted the casting tip of his staff, and traced brackish runes. "I think that's the first time we've agreed on something. But your brother would just give us an earful, so here goes."
"What can I do to help?" Lady Suwa asked, after they were back in her prayer room. She knelt by King Ashura's head and looked over his aura. There was no further deterioration, but it was still heavily stained with black.
"I have to prepare the potion and get it ready to accept my blood. It shouldn't take too long." He said, kneeling beside her. "I'm hoping Fai and the others will be back by then."
"I'm sure they will."
"Lady Suwa?" His choked-up voice caught her attention.
"Yes?"
"You and your husband really love Fai, don't you?" Yuui asked morosely.
A wave of pity and hurt hit her for this young man. She could see his blue aura dim some, but she would never lie, even to save his feelings. It wasn't what she had taught her beloved son, and she taught by example.
She nodded. "We both love him very much. I know my husband and Fai have been through a lot of turmoil, but he does feel the same way I do. I know it in how he teases with Fai. Please know there are others that love Fai, too, not in the same way as you do, but with a lot of sincerity, nonetheless."
Yuui nodded and looked so forlorn, and he was trembling in fear. He wouldn't look her in the eyes. "I've been very selfish and not really thought about Fai's happiness. Would Fai be happy here?"
"He would. He loves Kurogane in a deep, meaningful way. They're mates in the deepest possible sense. I'm sorry if this took you by surprise."
"Then I'd be so selfish to get in the way. Fai means so much to me. I'd do anything to see him happy because he... rescued me... protected me... He's a part of me. But..." Yuui swiped at the moisture in his eyes. "If this is what he wants..." Yuui's agonizing sobs let loose as he collapse to the floor, reduced to nothing but soul-wrenching weeping. Lady Suwa put her hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at her with desperate eyes.
"I can't make it alone," he whispered, as if he were confessing a deep sin.
"You can. You just don't want to. You're afraid your heart will get broken by others, but a heart that gets broken can become stronger and more willing to love. You have to allow your world to become larger than the ice king and your brother." She gave him a gentle smile and brushed a golden lock of hair behind his ear. "I think you made a good start with the reanimator of Celes."
Yuui's desolate eyes tugged at her heart. "He's going to leave me after I heal my father. And then Fai will leave me for Kurogane."
"Yuui, you must learn to become your own, special person. You have to learn to love and trust yourself. You are good enough to break this spell on your father, and you undertook a quest to learn it without Fai. You've also overcome your bashfulness on your own and made a connection with the reanimator of Celes. I can tell that man has deep feelings for you." Lady Suwa said. She frowned then and couldn't quite meet his eyes. "As does Ran. I know you forgave him, and that's something that makes you special. Mercy is a rare quality. I thank you for showing it to him. He's not the person you know."
"I do understand that, and I wish for him to find peace above all things." Yuui then adopted a miserable slump to his shoulders when he sat up. "I feel sad that he lost his eye because some man poisoned him."
"The blame did belong to Kyle. You're a rare person to not hold Ran responsible for what he did."
"I know what he feels for me, and it's too strong, and it utterly terrifies me. I can never be around him for any length of time... it would only harm us both. I can't hate him for that reason, because his feelings are too raw for him to control. It hurts me for him, because I could never return his feelings. I hope one day he finds someone to love him, but more importantly, I hope he allows himself to love that person."
Lady Suwa stroked his hair and smiled. "I do, too. He was a good child, but he had too much pressure put on him."
"I figured. You know, I would like to spend a little time here, just to make sure Fai would be happy."
"I'd welcome that with open arms. I'd recommend Kurogane take you and Fai on a tour around Nihongo."
"It is a beautiful land. Celes is beautiful, too, in a different way. I'm thinking I could grow to accept this as Fai's home, if I knew he grew to love it and it would treat him well."
"I can't guarantee Nihongo will always treat him well, but there will be people to support and care for him. I promise you that." Lady Suwa wanted to tell Yuui that Kurogane and Fai had decided to adopt children to show their devotion to each other, but it didn't seem appropriate. It was something Fai should tell his family personally.
"Let me talk to him, and then I can make up my mind," Yuui allowed.
"That's all I ask."
"Well, I'm almost finished with my father's cure. Another hour of letting it steep, then I can put my blood in it and cure him."
Boris clapped his hands with the stem of his magic staff in his right hand and sent his runes towards the undead near the dragons. A high pitched bell tone rang out over the sound of battle. They all crumbled to dust before they decided Kurogane and the others would be their new targets.
"See? All gone," Boris said after controlling his regurgitation. "Now that that's handled, let's take some of these soldiers down and make Captain Demetri proud, rest his soul."
"Well, try to keep up, old man," Fai teased.
"Experience has it's benefits, Princess Twinkle Toes," Boris said. They launched themselves towards the clay soldiers.
To be continued.
