[fic] tsubasa/x, "half sick of shadows"
Nov. 23rd, 2008 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damalurbackupTITLE: Half Sick of Shadows
CHARACTERS: Kurogane/Fai + a mystery character
NOTES: Based on Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" and set in a post-apocalyptic X/1999 AU where a Certain Someone raises a Certain Someone Else and the Dragons of Heaven and Earth are worshiped as gods. I know, right?
SUMMARY: Once upon a time, in the tallest tower in the land, there lived a great magician.
HALF SICK OF SHADOWS
"Tell me a story?"
He exhales, and the rarefied smoke hangs in the biting cold still air. "A story?" He considers. "What about?"
"About - " The child struggles. "About - knights, and bad men, and - and magic."
"Magic." The man lets shatter a laugh that hangs in the air much in the same way as the smoke. No humor, just - hangs, and breaks. "Of course magic." He is silent for three long heartbeats, the crimson light of the fire and his lit cigarette-end playing with the shadows of his hollow face.
"Magic," he says at length, "I can do."
+
In the tallest tower -
+
"Wait. You can't start a story like that."
"...How would you like me to start it, then?"
"Don't you know? Stories always start with 'once upon a time' and end with 'happily ever after.'"
"This isn't a story like that."
"...Oh."
"But I suppose I could start it that way."
+
Once upon a time, in the tallest tower in the land, there lived a great magician. The magician didn't live in the tower by choice; he had been imprisoned there many years ago by an evil sorcerer, who had through trickery and deceit trapped the magician at the very top of the tower. There was only one way out of the tower. This is important: there was only one way out of the tower, and that was past a window both tall and broad set next to the door. The tower sat on a little island in the middle of a mighty river, and next to the river ran a road, and the road led to the city Valeria, capital of kings.
In the tower-room the magician had books and a mirror, a great gilded mirror half again as high as a man is tall. Night and day the magician studied his books and wove spells -
+
"What was the magician's name?"
"His name? Does he need one?"
"Yes!"
"Then his name was Fai."
"Hey! That's my name!"
"...I know."
+
Night and day Fai studied his books and wove spell after spell, searching for some way out of the tower. At the base of the tower, on the bank opposite the island, travelers gathered. They wondered about the magician, and some of the bravest lords and ladies even sought to free him, for he was very powerful and very fair, with eyes like the sky before winter snow and skin like winter cream and hands that could coax and craft with equal skill.
Always these lords and ladies were repelled by the evil sorcerer's magic, for he had set a curse on the tower and on Fai. Soon, fewer and fewer knights attempted to win Fai's freedom, and then none at all. After a generation, the only ones who even remembered the magician were the reapers, who woke early to harvest and would sometimes hear him chanting his spells in the morning. They viewed the magician's chant as a luck charm; any harvest day that started with his song would be fruitful, and not plagued by bad weather or bandits.
Even after a lifetime of study, though, Fai knew not what kept him trapped in the tower, nor did he understand the nature of the evil sorcerer's curse; he knew only that the curse would come on him if he looked upon Valeria. That was the purpose of the mirror: if the magician - if Fai sat with his back to the window, he could look down at Valeria in the mirror. For twice the life of a king, his only view of land or sky was in the mirror.
+
"If he was so powerful, how come he couldn't get out?"
"The evil sorcerer tricked him. He used the magician's life-blood, and crafted a spell, and set it on the magician while he slept."
"But it ends up okay, right? He gets out?
"As I said, this story doesn't end happily ever after. Most stories don't."
"...Then does he look down at the city?"
"You'll see."
+
After so long, the magician grew weary, and spent less and less time searching his books and more and more time watching the mirror. Sometimes he sketched the sights he saw, rough charcoal outlines that grew ever more detailed as the years wore on. In the light of day he saw queens and knights and champions, ambassadors from far-off lands, holy men and ladies adorned in dresses more expensive than a king's ransom. He saw magnificent flying beasts - dragons and griffons and flying horses. The flying beasts he loved to watch more than anything, for they had no shackles to keep them bound.
At night he saw demons and wraiths, witches and goblins and spooks, vampires and dhampirs and wolves with the strength of ten men. These things he saw when the moon was high; but in the dark of the new moon he saw nothing but himself, and sometimes another - one who looked very like him, but was also unlike. His twin of the dark of the moon; and this gave him nightmares, so he stayed away from the mirror when the moon turned away.
+
"What does that mean? Does he have a brother looking through the mirror at him?"
"No. Maybe."
"It doesn't sound so bad. At least he could watch all the people on the road."
"Yes. He watched the learned with their students, the mothers with their sons, the knights with their brothers - and knew he would never have any of that, not student nor mother nor brother. He watched the lovers, and knew that none would ever love him."
"I guess that's pretty lonely."
"Yes. I imagine so."
+
In Valeria lived a warrior, a great fighter, with coal-black hair and the red eyes of a demon. Some said he was half-demon himself, but he was the king's favorite, so none dared insult him to his face. He alone among all the king's knights wondered still about the tower; and on some days it was his custom to ride beneath the tower's shadow. Fai took notice of the knight -
+
"What's the knight's name?"
"Must he have a name too?"
"Yes! He sounds awesome, so...does he hunt down the evil sorcerer and do mighty battle?"
"What do you think?"
+
Fai took noticed of the knight, and by the power of his magic he learned the knight's name: Kurogane. At his side Kurogane carried a sword of black faery-steel. Fai delighted to watch him, and began to await the warrior's appearance with something very like joy.
But one day Kurogane in his curiosity rode too close to the base of the tower, and his horse sensed the latent magic and spooked; at the sound of Kurogane's angry curses, Fai cried out in fear. Before he could halt himself Fai took three paces toward the window, and his gaze fell on Valeria, and on Kurogane riding to the city.
+
"He looked!"
"He looked."
"Why did he look?"
"For love."
+
The magician's mirror cracked, and the noise rang out and pierced the magician's heart. With the mirror's sundering the curse fell upon the magician, and he felt it settle 'round him like a web, and he knew his death had come.
With the last of his strength the magician walked to the door - and though his limbs were sapped of strength and his vision swam like magic, he walked sure and upright. He opened the door and walked down the steps, down the many, many steps; this was the tallest tower in the land. It took the magician one day and one night, and on the morning of the second day he staggered from the tower. By his art he had delayed his death, for he would not die here forgotten and alone.
Tethered to the isle's banks, beneath a young willow tree, rocked a boat. The magician walked to the boat, although each step took a lifetime longer than the one before it, and when he reached the boat, he used the last of his sorcery to carve his name on the boat's prow. "Fai Fluorite," he wrote, and "mage-king," and "phoenix;" these were his names. Then he laid himself in the boat, and cast off from his prison's shore. The river caught him and carried him down, down to Valeria; as the first shadow of the king's castle fell on his face, the magician closed his eyes and died.
+
"Don't cry. I didn't want to make you cry."
"No! You can't kill him! You can't!"
"...Can't I?"
+
The river silent carried the magician to Valeria, and in Valeria a fisherman caught sight of him; and the fisherman carried word to the market, and the market-guard to the knights, and the knights to the king, and on the banks of Valeria gathered all from the greatest to the least, and watched as the magician sailed past. In his death he was even lovelier, for his skin was still winter-cream and his hands were still slender and his cheeks were still flushed with the rose of life, but on his face showed none of the loneliness or sorrow that had haunted him.
"Who is he?" the people murmured, and, "Why is he here?" But one knight - the king's favorite knight - said nothing until the magician was past Valeria's shadow, and then the knight said only this, and haltingly -
+
"'Grant him grace.'"
"...Pardon?"
"That's what the knight said, isn't it? 'Grant him grace.'"
"How do you know?"
"I don't - I just know."
"...I shouldn't be surprised." The man sucks again at his cigarette, then gives it a flick; the ashes fall on the back of his other hand, which is scarred.
"Why did he have to die? Was Kurogane sad? What happened?"
"That's all. He died because of the curse. That's all."
"You're not going to tell me any more, are you? This is like that thing with the witch, where you make me go away when you have tea with her?"
"..."
"All right."
"Go to sleep, Fai."
"Fine. Good night."
"Good night, Fai."
"...And thank you for the story, Subaru-san."
CHARACTERS: Kurogane/Fai + a mystery character
NOTES: Based on Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" and set in a post-apocalyptic X/1999 AU where a Certain Someone raises a Certain Someone Else and the Dragons of Heaven and Earth are worshiped as gods. I know, right?
SUMMARY: Once upon a time, in the tallest tower in the land, there lived a great magician.
HALF SICK OF SHADOWS
"Tell me a story?"
He exhales, and the rarefied smoke hangs in the biting cold still air. "A story?" He considers. "What about?"
"About - " The child struggles. "About - knights, and bad men, and - and magic."
"Magic." The man lets shatter a laugh that hangs in the air much in the same way as the smoke. No humor, just - hangs, and breaks. "Of course magic." He is silent for three long heartbeats, the crimson light of the fire and his lit cigarette-end playing with the shadows of his hollow face.
"Magic," he says at length, "I can do."
+
In the tallest tower -
+
"Wait. You can't start a story like that."
"...How would you like me to start it, then?"
"Don't you know? Stories always start with 'once upon a time' and end with 'happily ever after.'"
"This isn't a story like that."
"...Oh."
"But I suppose I could start it that way."
+
Once upon a time, in the tallest tower in the land, there lived a great magician. The magician didn't live in the tower by choice; he had been imprisoned there many years ago by an evil sorcerer, who had through trickery and deceit trapped the magician at the very top of the tower. There was only one way out of the tower. This is important: there was only one way out of the tower, and that was past a window both tall and broad set next to the door. The tower sat on a little island in the middle of a mighty river, and next to the river ran a road, and the road led to the city Valeria, capital of kings.
In the tower-room the magician had books and a mirror, a great gilded mirror half again as high as a man is tall. Night and day the magician studied his books and wove spells -
+
"What was the magician's name?"
"His name? Does he need one?"
"Yes!"
"Then his name was Fai."
"Hey! That's my name!"
"...I know."
+
Night and day Fai studied his books and wove spell after spell, searching for some way out of the tower. At the base of the tower, on the bank opposite the island, travelers gathered. They wondered about the magician, and some of the bravest lords and ladies even sought to free him, for he was very powerful and very fair, with eyes like the sky before winter snow and skin like winter cream and hands that could coax and craft with equal skill.
Always these lords and ladies were repelled by the evil sorcerer's magic, for he had set a curse on the tower and on Fai. Soon, fewer and fewer knights attempted to win Fai's freedom, and then none at all. After a generation, the only ones who even remembered the magician were the reapers, who woke early to harvest and would sometimes hear him chanting his spells in the morning. They viewed the magician's chant as a luck charm; any harvest day that started with his song would be fruitful, and not plagued by bad weather or bandits.
Even after a lifetime of study, though, Fai knew not what kept him trapped in the tower, nor did he understand the nature of the evil sorcerer's curse; he knew only that the curse would come on him if he looked upon Valeria. That was the purpose of the mirror: if the magician - if Fai sat with his back to the window, he could look down at Valeria in the mirror. For twice the life of a king, his only view of land or sky was in the mirror.
+
"If he was so powerful, how come he couldn't get out?"
"The evil sorcerer tricked him. He used the magician's life-blood, and crafted a spell, and set it on the magician while he slept."
"But it ends up okay, right? He gets out?
"As I said, this story doesn't end happily ever after. Most stories don't."
"...Then does he look down at the city?"
"You'll see."
+
After so long, the magician grew weary, and spent less and less time searching his books and more and more time watching the mirror. Sometimes he sketched the sights he saw, rough charcoal outlines that grew ever more detailed as the years wore on. In the light of day he saw queens and knights and champions, ambassadors from far-off lands, holy men and ladies adorned in dresses more expensive than a king's ransom. He saw magnificent flying beasts - dragons and griffons and flying horses. The flying beasts he loved to watch more than anything, for they had no shackles to keep them bound.
At night he saw demons and wraiths, witches and goblins and spooks, vampires and dhampirs and wolves with the strength of ten men. These things he saw when the moon was high; but in the dark of the new moon he saw nothing but himself, and sometimes another - one who looked very like him, but was also unlike. His twin of the dark of the moon; and this gave him nightmares, so he stayed away from the mirror when the moon turned away.
+
"What does that mean? Does he have a brother looking through the mirror at him?"
"No. Maybe."
"It doesn't sound so bad. At least he could watch all the people on the road."
"Yes. He watched the learned with their students, the mothers with their sons, the knights with their brothers - and knew he would never have any of that, not student nor mother nor brother. He watched the lovers, and knew that none would ever love him."
"I guess that's pretty lonely."
"Yes. I imagine so."
+
In Valeria lived a warrior, a great fighter, with coal-black hair and the red eyes of a demon. Some said he was half-demon himself, but he was the king's favorite, so none dared insult him to his face. He alone among all the king's knights wondered still about the tower; and on some days it was his custom to ride beneath the tower's shadow. Fai took notice of the knight -
+
"What's the knight's name?"
"Must he have a name too?"
"Yes! He sounds awesome, so...does he hunt down the evil sorcerer and do mighty battle?"
"What do you think?"
+
Fai took noticed of the knight, and by the power of his magic he learned the knight's name: Kurogane. At his side Kurogane carried a sword of black faery-steel. Fai delighted to watch him, and began to await the warrior's appearance with something very like joy.
But one day Kurogane in his curiosity rode too close to the base of the tower, and his horse sensed the latent magic and spooked; at the sound of Kurogane's angry curses, Fai cried out in fear. Before he could halt himself Fai took three paces toward the window, and his gaze fell on Valeria, and on Kurogane riding to the city.
+
"He looked!"
"He looked."
"Why did he look?"
"For love."
+
The magician's mirror cracked, and the noise rang out and pierced the magician's heart. With the mirror's sundering the curse fell upon the magician, and he felt it settle 'round him like a web, and he knew his death had come.
With the last of his strength the magician walked to the door - and though his limbs were sapped of strength and his vision swam like magic, he walked sure and upright. He opened the door and walked down the steps, down the many, many steps; this was the tallest tower in the land. It took the magician one day and one night, and on the morning of the second day he staggered from the tower. By his art he had delayed his death, for he would not die here forgotten and alone.
Tethered to the isle's banks, beneath a young willow tree, rocked a boat. The magician walked to the boat, although each step took a lifetime longer than the one before it, and when he reached the boat, he used the last of his sorcery to carve his name on the boat's prow. "Fai Fluorite," he wrote, and "mage-king," and "phoenix;" these were his names. Then he laid himself in the boat, and cast off from his prison's shore. The river caught him and carried him down, down to Valeria; as the first shadow of the king's castle fell on his face, the magician closed his eyes and died.
+
"Don't cry. I didn't want to make you cry."
"No! You can't kill him! You can't!"
"...Can't I?"
+
The river silent carried the magician to Valeria, and in Valeria a fisherman caught sight of him; and the fisherman carried word to the market, and the market-guard to the knights, and the knights to the king, and on the banks of Valeria gathered all from the greatest to the least, and watched as the magician sailed past. In his death he was even lovelier, for his skin was still winter-cream and his hands were still slender and his cheeks were still flushed with the rose of life, but on his face showed none of the loneliness or sorrow that had haunted him.
"Who is he?" the people murmured, and, "Why is he here?" But one knight - the king's favorite knight - said nothing until the magician was past Valeria's shadow, and then the knight said only this, and haltingly -
+
"'Grant him grace.'"
"...Pardon?"
"That's what the knight said, isn't it? 'Grant him grace.'"
"How do you know?"
"I don't - I just know."
"...I shouldn't be surprised." The man sucks again at his cigarette, then gives it a flick; the ashes fall on the back of his other hand, which is scarred.
"Why did he have to die? Was Kurogane sad? What happened?"
"That's all. He died because of the curse. That's all."
"You're not going to tell me any more, are you? This is like that thing with the witch, where you make me go away when you have tea with her?"
"..."
"All right."
"Go to sleep, Fai."
"Fine. Good night."
"Good night, Fai."
"...And thank you for the story, Subaru-san."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 12:09 am (UTC)This was lovely. Sad, but very very lovely. I enjoy reading your work.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 12:10 am (UTC)I probably missed a few key points because I have not touched the X manga (watched the X anime to episode 9 or something), but this was still clever and oh so well written.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 01:15 am (UTC)"Hey! That's my name!"
"...I know."
You had me with that. I liked that twist, the storyteller is telling not his own story, but the one of the person listening to him.
I liked jaded Subaru as the storyteller, the story, and your version of it.
I liked your fic, quiet and sad.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 02:32 am (UTC)Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 08:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 02:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 04:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-26 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 12:24 pm (UTC)I really liked the concept of Fai as the Lady of Shallot and Suburu was an interesting choice of narrator. He sounded so very bitter ♥
no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 02:05 pm (UTC)Beautiful work, I absolutely loved this. Then again it's my two favorite clamp characters portraying a story I love. Excellent work!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-24 10:31 pm (UTC)I might comment again when my mind recovers from the awsomeness. ....better now!
Loved the flow of the story. It killed me. Beautiful. Absolutely.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-01 12:15 pm (UTC)