Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Wings ❯ Dark Deals ( Chapter 1 )

A/N: All content below is the property of Sasonie.

 

Think of the worst thunderstorm you have ever been in. Got it? Good. Now multiply that by about 78,654, double the couple hundred premature lakes, carry over the 470,000 black umbrellas, divide out the few poor souls who are hanging onto lamp posts while being blown about like freakishly huge wind chimes, and add one very wet and irritated Magi.

Imagining this you might just have a brief glimpse into the kaleidoscope of my life. I was currently sitting on top of a building 50 stories high made out of sloppy concrete and rusted iron frames. The building was crammed in between higher, more durable, skyscrapers that seemed to be using every ounce of their will power to permanently evict this sad excuse of craftsmanship. So far the smaller building had outlived their assassination attempts and in a sort of peace offering it had acquired dozens of grotesque gargoyles and gothic architecture to make up for being inferior to the other man made marvels. Suffice to say this wasn't working. It seemed to have the opposite effect.

All that the `artwork' had achieved was to announce to the world how desperate the building was. It was like looking at a poorly home made gift that you knew your relative would never want so you made up for it by covering it with tons of frilly bows and ribbons when in the end it just made your creation stand out even more as a disaster. But like a home made gift the receiver can't just throw it away, oh no, they have to display it for the world to see at all times or risk the wrath of its creator. This building was like that, people grin and bare it knowing they could never get rid of it and so it still stood here standing the test of time. Which wasn't going to be too long if this storm kept up.

I braced myself as another small-scale hurricane tore through the buildings and the one I was currently perched on gave a rather foreboding groan. These rather large gusts of wind had been ripping through my coat and many others all night and frankly it was getting rather irritating. Usually I didn't mind wind, in fact, I love it, but when that freakishly strong wind is dragging with it about 50 gallons of water straight at your face along with whatever it can pick up in a city with around 2 million people in it then you get just a little more than peeved.

Shaking the water out of my eyes and bangs I shifted a little closer to my host, a gargoyle about 5 feet high that was beginning to crack around the horns, and peered out over the edge. Down below around a hundred humans were scurrying about their business. Running in and out of shops, chasing those crazy yellow cars, and careening after suicidal umbrellas that practically jumped out of their hands and into oncoming traffic. I shook my head in distaste. Always in a hurry, always rushing from one pointless exercise to the next. There was no logic in any of the things they did. No common sense either. Who in even a demented state of mind would be outside on a night like this? Well, then again, I was out on a night like this but that was only for the sake of one person and I had already been considering their sanity for a while.

I leaned back and drummed my fingers absently on the concrete but stopped when I realized I was actually creating a dent in the building. The whole thing was eroding away like a forgotten and unprotected sand castle at high tide. Alshain better get here fast before I find myself sitting on a bunch of wet pebbles. I thought this grumpily as I watched a running figure expertly traverse through the dark mass of water resistant material and quickly disappear into the building I was currently crouched on. Usually I wouldn't have thought much of it. I don't make a habit of remembering or paying particular attention to any human I saw. But this one had caught my attention because A. I was bored and easily distracted. B, she had a bright red umbrella and after looking at nothing but black and grey go by for hours my eyes found that little bit of color refreshing, and C. Her light was different than any other human's that I had ever seen.

Common humans had an extremely boring grey or dishwater colored light and that was even if you could see it at all. Occasionally you would see a priest or holey man with a light that looked like a once white piece of paper that had lost a rather lengthy war with an eraser. Even then they didn't stand out that much because their light hardly went beyond their bodies. This girl was different than the others, her light was a blinding white and not small either, it had radiated out from her at least three feet all around.

Unusual. I'd never even heard of a human that had the capabilities of having a light that strong. Hell, it wasn't normal around common Magi and we were able to see and use our lights! This rather unsettled me. By all laws of nature her light couldn't exist, it was impossible but there it had been, standing out in this washed out world like her red umbrella had against all the others.

“Can I safely assume by your expression that you saw it too?” I glanced over my shoulder and glared at the magi who had been standing quietly behind me for the past 20 seconds. He was tall, over 6 feet with lank black hair down to his shoulders that seemed to always get in the way of his eagle like golden eyes. The magi had a sharp nose and a strong jaw with a chin to match. Looking at him you would say that he was in his early thirties and a perfect villain for some Hollywood Dracula movie.

He does give off an aura of darkness and mystery, almost like cologne, I mused silently to myself. Telling him this to his face would only make him grin and at the moment I wasn't in the mood to see anybody smile.

“Where in all of Tseen Ke have you been Alshain?” He shrugged at the angry expression on my face. “A few things kept me tied up but I am here now.” A small half smile crept its way onto his lips. “You saw her then?” I jumped down onto the roof and turned up the collar of my coat. “Yes. It was a little hard not to miss something as blinding as that.” He nodded slightly. “Did you see her face clearly? If you were asked could you find her again?”

I didn't like that last question. Magi were forbidden to do anything with any humans unless authorized by the Elders to do so and knowing Alshain he would have thought it a waste of time to bother even mentioning his plans to the Elders. It was his way of telling them to shove off.

He had gotten into quite a lot of trouble over the past few years for doing things without the go ahead from the Elders. Of course Alshain despised every one of them and preferred to do things the way he saw fit. Which meant that every Magi was to stay out of his way and let him work on his own `projects' by himself. He rarely conversed with any of the others. He seemed almost annoyed at having to be present at all at the Gatherings so of course he didn't go. The only exception for this rule of total isolation seemed to be children and me, but then again I was his brother and Alshain had a soft spot for children. I once asked him about it and he had replied casually that he had patience for them because they had yet to be corrupted by the rest of the sheep.

Speaking of never doing anything with the Elders permission, I was beginning to believe that that little family trait was creeping back up on me because at the moment I was also not supposed to be in the human world. I'm not much of one to obey any rules in the first place, my masters are all living testaments of that, in the fact that all have agreed to never teach again after I breezed by their classrooms. I actually took a bit of pride in that fact, though it, and a few others were the reasons Mother Dearest disowned me. Not a huge loss in my mind, after spending most of my life at the end of her ball and chain I was quite happy when she released me from my bonds. My only regret about it was that it had taken so long for me to finally break free.

After I finally got out of that living Under World I lived the way I wanted to, away from my family. I just wanted to get rid of that putrid name like a mentally insane patient wants to get out of a straight jacket. All had gone relatively the way I wanted for about 3 years. I was happily secluded far away from anyone really and living the way I wished. That was until about 2 weeks ago when I got a rather interesting visit from my brother, Alshain.

In one single night he turned my relatively isolated world upside down and left me hanging by a literal thread. Or to be more precise, a light brown rope with two very badly burned hands attached to it and a nasty looking over bite on the opposite end. But the details were unimportant at the time, all I knew was that I was screwed.

I had two options, which Alshain patiently deled out to me in a mud pit around a hundred feet deep beside a gushing waterfall filled with toxic fumes, and I was given two choices. Either I come with Alshain and help him finish his plan, or I die in a pit somewhere with hundreds of other lost souls who enjoyed giving their toenails names. Being a reasonable Magi I choose life, though as I looked into Alshain's eyes I was beginning to think I had made the wrong choice. Not that there was anything I could do about it at this point, we both knew I was in too deep, and I had already proven how far my family's blood ran with me.

Alshain studied me for a few seconds, his eyebrows slightly raised, waiting for my response. I pulled my collar up a little higher as another strong gust whipped around our heads. “If you're asking whether or not can I follow her without her knowing then yes, I can.” Though my answer was a yes my glare should have told my brother that I wouldn't be doing it unless there was absolutely no choice.

He smiled that small twisted line I had learned at an early age not to associate with real happiness. “Good, I knew that out of all of us you were the exceptional one when it came to targets.” His smile grew a little more crocked. “That is why I put my full trust into you, brother. I want you to keep a good watch on her for me. Make sure she comes to no harm and that no one else gives her any undesirable attention.” Alshain adjusted his coat with a critical eye as my glare deepened. I didn't need to express my displeasure at his orders with words; all he needed to do was look up to see my anger.

A tense pause stretched where I stood freezing, looking more ticked off than even any of the gargoyles and he stood idly scrutinizing his fingernails. After a few more heated seconds Alshain threw me a lazy look. “Please stop with the glaring contest Sirius, you're giving me a headache.” He flicked a piece of something or other out from under his thumb. “You know very well you're not in any position to negotiate what you can or can not do. You've already decided that.” Alshain smirked at this, his attention still on his manicured nails. “Sirius, think about it, all you simply have to do is follow this young human around and protect her if the need arises. There will be no need to do so if all has gone as planned in Tseen Ke, so in fact you have nothing more to do than baby-sit.” He sighed, glancing at my still aggravated expression. “Be happy Sirius. I could just give you a suicidal mission and have done with you and Arrakis.” His eyes glittered with bloody promise.

My spine stiffened. Arrakis! Of course he would bring her up. I cursed mentally, thinking back on the last meeting I had had with her. Thick metal chains and a lavish Romanic setting are two things you never want together, especially if attached to those chains was a certain someone who was the reason you had decided not to go join the Toe Naming Club.

Alshain smiled dangerously at the uncertain look in my eyes. “I told you that she would come to no harm as long as you did what I asked and considering your real talents this is asking very little.”

I glared at the cracked plaster/cement roofing. The chains binding me to Alshain's will, Arrakis, the poor girl who I had stumbled into just a few months ago. I wish I had never met her, if only then to save her from what she was going through now. My eyes followed a particularly long crack that ran the length of the building.

Arrakis was my Achilles' heel. If Alshain had proposed his offer again and I had never met Arrakis then I would probably be a bloated, rotting corpse in some river by now, but at least I wouldn't have had to worry about the welfare of anyone else. Alshain knew that when it came to myself I didn't really give a damn, which is the only explanation behind everything I do. But when it comes to someone else who has managed to find a way to win my trust and even rarer, affection, I have an almost supernatural desire to protect them.

I was strange that way, if it had been anyone else that Alshain had threatened me with then I would have taken the risk and gotten myself out of there or died trying. The well being of the other person would not be my main concern. The fact of that matter was that we both knew that if I didn't care about the person they were promising to kill for my cooperation then I would just get myself out. Alshain knew that I would automatically assume that it was one of his own men posing so he didn't bother with innocent bystanders, he went straight for the heart which made the situation worse.

I glanced back up at Alshain; his sickening smile was making my right arm twitch slightly. “Well, what will it be? Arrakis or your pride at staying in the human realm for a few days?”

A part of me withered uncomfortably, when put that way it made my stalling selfish and idiotic, but a part of me still didn't like any part of Alshain's plan. He hadn't told me squat, only that I was to meet him here, today, and at this time.

Something was wrong and tailing a strong-lighted human girl might actually work out more in my favor than what I had originally thought. Obviously Alshain wanted her badly enough to come to the human world, threaten me, and use me to protect her. Strange, if she was just an ordinary human then he would have had one of his cronies watch her but instead he had gone to the trouble of finding me and making sure I was the one to keep my eye on her. That lead up to the idea that something much more powerful than the ordinary was trying to get her or that she was becoming aware of the fact that a sadistic Magi was eyeing her. Another thought to all of this was why? Why go to all of this trouble just for a human? That part would soon be found out, if I was going to save Arrakis then I would find this girl and get her to talk, and if she did then I might just be able to use her to spoil Alshain's plans.

I adjusted my coat and stowed my plans away for later thought process. “Your answer Sirius?” Alshain had stored his hands back into his pockets and was scrutinizing me with one of his birds of prey stares. I narrowed my eyes and tried to pull a `run out of options I guess I have no choice' look across my face. “I'll watch this girl for you.”

His grin stretched across his face like a demented jack in the box. “Excellent. I'll relieve you of your duties in around 3 to 4 days. You are to stay by her side at all times, wherever she goes you go, what she does you do, and no sleep whatsoever. I want to make sure she isn't harmed while you are relaxing. At the first hint of danger or confusion I want you to step in and keep her safe. No matter the cost. Is this understood?” Alshain said this like one might when negotiating with a shopping list. I held back my tongue and nodded stiffly, now wasn't the time to get into a brotherly fight over how to speak to each other.

His eyes surveyed me with a cold air before he nodded to himself and reached into his pocket to extract a simple silver hand mirror. He barely gave it a glance as it started to shine translucent silver and started a strange humming. Alshain gave the mirror a small toss to his right as it began to expand into a circle around twice his height. I strained to see beyond the swirling silver smoke and into the depths of the mirror to my homeland, where I knew for a fact that a tranquil evening was about to begin.

Alshain spared me no glance as he turned toward the mirror and walked into it. His leg was halfway through before he looked at me again. “Oh, Sirius, one other thing. I think it best if you took human form permanently until I come back. You'll be here for awhile and we don't want you to stick out now do we?” He shot a fang filled smile my way and disappeared into the swirling circle. I could barely let a surprised look flicker onto my face before the circle folded in on itself and vanished from view.

Left alone on the shabby rooftop I stared after the invisible tracks my dear brother had left behind, letting the feelings of exposure and isolation wash over my face the same way the rain was.