@castella-rays/@castellardreams MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I’m so glad I got you in our friendly gift exchange, and I hope you’re having a wonderful, wonderful day. I really hope you enjoy this. You had so many good prompts, and I decided to go with a fantasy au containing a dash of mythology/weak angst/secret stuff. I haven’t had time to read it over, so I’m sorry for horrible glaring mistakes. Balancing character stuff and world building is also a bad weakness, so part of me feels like I should call this Exposition: The Story, and would have worked better as a chapter fic rather than a one-shot. But hopefully it does its job, and you enjoy it. As long as that happens, I count it as a win.
Title: Upper Air
Synopsis: A powerful mage, Seijuurou’s no stranger to tracking down myths and legends. But when he has to track down one that actually matters, a lost city in the sky said to contain a powerful magic, the task proves quite difficult.
AU: City in the Sky AU
Pairing: Akashi/Furihata
Word Count: 9300+
Can be read under the cut.
****
Twelve Years Previous
*****
“Once, there was a great city in the sky.” Slim fingers
traced a picture in the air, golden sparks following in their wake, rippling
the air and crafting images for the words. “In this city, lived a peaceful
people, who were great friends with the people on the ground below.”
“Could they fly?” Even at eight-years-old, Seijuurou’s
curiosity could not be abated. He tugged his mother’s arm. “How did they get to
the city unless they can fly?”
“No one is sure,” she answered, and with a swirl of her
finger the image in the air shifted. The disc the city rested on grew a
staircase, which vanished, and was replaced by many dangling ropes. “If they
didn’t fly, perhaps they walked, or climbed. But however they traversed the
distance isn’t important; what’s important, is how the city stayed in the sky.”
His mother’s imagined image of the city blurred, melting
together into a single glowing orb. “Within the city, was a great source of
magic. This magic protected the city, kept it in the skies and its people safe
from storms. But.” She rotated her hand, and the orb was blocked by shadow.
Seijuurou gasped. “A cruel lord learned of the city, and wanted that magic for
his own.”
“What happened?” Seijuurou whispered, red eyes rapt on the
story unfolding before him.
“Stories say he raised an army and attacked the city. Then a
great light flashed in the sky…but no one knows what happened after. Some say
that he succeeded, and took the magic for his own, destroying the city. Others
say it fell into the sea, taking him with it, and others that he failed, and
that the city is still there to this day, hidden and protected by a guardian.”
As she spoke, her hands painted the various scenes.
“What about the people?”
She shook her head. “They were never seen or heard from
again.”
Seijuurou slid down to rest flat on his bed, brow furrowed
as he frowned at the ceiling. “But if it was still in the sky, wouldn’t the Seraphim
have found it by now? And if it were in the sea, the Merfolk?”
Her fingers carded through his hair. “Then do you think it
destroyed?”
He slowly shook his head.
“Then who knows?” She leaned down, and pressed a kiss to his
forehead. “It’s just a story, Seijuurou. Try not to think on it too much.”
But words like that were the worst possible thing to say to
Akashi Seijuurou, because it guaranteed he would do the exact the opposite.
Which was why long after she’d left, when the moonlight had stretched over the
floor to slip across his bed, he was still awake: quiet, thoughtful, and
thinking.
*****
Present
*****
Kouki’s legs itched. But that was normal; they always itched
when he was too long away from home. He sighed and scratched absently at his
knee.
“Furihata, since we aren’t very busy, could you take this to
the corner table for me?” Kiyoshi, co-owner of the inn, and Kouki’s boss, set
plate beside him. “Our town visitor has ordered dinner.”
Kouki glanced from the delicious smelling meat and cheese
sandwich to the tired looking man at the corner table, books and stray papers
strewn about and a pen clutched in ink-stained fingers. When he’d first come to
Ourea no one had known his face, but by nightfall they’d all known his name and
recognized him for it. Who didn’t
know of Akashi Seijuurou, the youngest and most powerful mage in all of Gaea?
The mage known for studying myths, tracking their origins and discovering
places thought lost to time and history? Everyone
knew of the man who had found the Maze of the Beast in Nesoi, and the
underground caverns at Tartaros. He was practically a legend unto himself.
Which made everyone in Ourea curious—why would Akashi
Seijuurou be here, of all places, and not in his homeland across the sea?
Furihata Kouki certainly didn’t know, though he was just as
curious as everyone else. (And in the pit of his stomach, just a little wary.)
“Sure. Of course.” He smiled, and picked up the plate.
Kiyoshi smiled back (but when didn’t he?). “Thank you,
Furihata.”
“Oi, Teppei!” Hyuuga, the other owner of the inn, poked his
head out from the kitchen. “Get back here and distract Riko, she’s insisting on
making dinner again, and you know
she’s only gotten worse with the pregnancy.”
“On my way.”
The tall man disappeared with Hyuuga into the kitchen, and
Kouki was left to steal himself before making the trek to Akashi’s table. When
he set the plate down, Akashi didn’t even glance up until Kouki coughed.
Red eyes, ringed with amber-gold, blinked up at him. “Can I
help you?”
“Um.” Kouki shifted on his feet, hand coming up to fiddle
with the uncut sapphire hanging around his neck, and pointed. “You ordered
food?”
Akashi stared at the sandwich for a moment, as if he didn’t
know what it was, and then set down his pen. He sat back in his seat, pinching
the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. “Right. Of course. Thank
you.”
Akashi’s haggard appearance tugged at Kouki’s heartstrings,
and when he spoke it was with genuine concern. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Akashi lowered his hand, and turned in his seat
to better face him. “Why do you ask?”
“You just look tired.” He skimmed his gaze over the books on
the table, catching on words both familiar and foreign. “What are you working
on?”
A hint of pride quirked Akashi’s mouth into a half-smirk.
“I’m looking for something, and I believe I’m getting close.” His smirk dropped
into an abrupt frown. “But I’ve hit a dead end.
“Oh?”
Akashi nodded. Leaning forward, he set his elbows on a clear
patch of table and laced his fingers under his chin. “Have you heard of he City
in the Sky?”
Kouki’s breath caught.
“You mean Aether?”
At Kiyoshi’s appearance, Akashi and Kouki snapped their
attention to him. A fresh flour handprint was slapped across his dark apron.
“Aether?” Akashi repeated, his voice sharp.
“The City in the Sky? Aether? It’s a common legend in this
area, everyone knows at least some of it.”
“I’ve never heard it called that before,” Akashi said. He
was leaning forward, suddenly intense.
“That’s odd. Everyone here knows it as that.” Kiyoshi pat
Kouki on the shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Furihata?”
Kouki nodded mutely.
“Tell me more.” Akashi reached for his pen, food forgotten
entirely in favor of new information. “Give me the entire story as you know it.
I need to mark the differences with my own research.”
Kiyoshi shook his head. “Sorry, I’m afraid I don’t remember
the details all too well.” When Akashi’s face twisted into a grimace, he held
up his hands placatingly. “But there are others in Ourea who do. In fact,
Furihata here was the one to first tell it to me with the city having a name.
Of all the people in town, he probably knows it the best.”
And like that, Akashi’s attention shifted entirely onto him.
It sent prickles down Kouki’s spine, and he flushed. “Furihata-san? Is that
true?”
Kouki bit his lip and debated lying, but ultimately nodded.
“Yes.”
“Will you help me?”
He wanted to say no. He wanted to turn around and forget
this conversation entirely. And as if sensing that, Akashi’s voice lowered.
“Please,” he murmured.
And it must have been the desperation in Akashi’s eyes that
swayed him, because he found himself saying, “Yes,” before he was fully aware
of it.
And oh, that was what Akashi looked like when he smiled. It
was nice. “Thank you.” Akashi swept up his books and notes into a large pile,
and with a wave of his hand they were shrunken down to a handful. He carefully
swept them into a drawstring bag, which he tucked away into the front pocket of
his black vest.
He side-stepped around the table, sweeping up the sandwich
last minute before rushing to the stairs. “I have to go prepare, can you meet
me at the beach tomorrow morning? Nine-ish?” Kouki barely nodded before he’d
rushed up the stairs and was out of sight.
Kouki didn’t turn away from them until Kiyoshi’s hand fell
to his shoulder. “Furihata?”
Kouki jumped. “Ah, yeah, yes?”
“Sorry.” Kiyoshi looked chagrined. “I didn’t mean to
volunteer you like that and make you uncomfortable. If you don’t want to do it,
I can tell him for you so you don’t have to?”
Kouki considered it, but smiled ruefully. “No, it’s fine,
Kiyoshi-san. Besides, it’s like you said, I probably know the story better than
anyone else in town.”
Kiyoshi laughed. “Too right!” He headed back to the bar with
Akashi’s empty plate. “I’m going to take care of this. You good to man the tap?
The evening crowd should be coming in soon.”
Kouki agreed, and quickly assumed his earlier position. He
picked up a glass, and wiped it down with a dry rag.
His legs still itched.
*****
Seijuurou didn’t think about how forceful he’d been until
past midnight, when it was far too late to go back and apologize for his
behavior.
He simply hadn’t been able to help himself. He was so close. All his life, the City in the
Sky had been his greatest mystery, his most elusive prey, and now it was
practically in his grasp, but there
were pieces still missing. Of course, he hadn’t begun his search in earnest
until two years ago, when he was eighteen. Before that the City in the Sky had
been a side interest of half-baked leads and wispy clues, set aside for the
more solid and solvable mysteries he’d encountered in his studies.
But desperation had a way of bringing even the foggiest
things into focus.
Seijuurou tapped his pen to the journal in his lap, a single
word scrawled tauntingly across the otherwise blank page. Aether. For the first time, the city had a name. It only confirmed
his deepest suspicions. Ourea was the birthplace of the legend. The story
rippled out from here, a great epicenter, and became more and more vague the
further it travelled, only gaining more coherence and detail as Seijuurou
travelled inward.
He’d find it. He had to. And when he did…
Seijuurou looked out the window in his room, as though he
could see past the sea beyond it.
“I’m almost there,” he whispered. “Just hold on a little bit
longer.”
*****
Kouki found Akashi further down the beach than he expected,
the sandy area growing smaller and smaller as the mountain to their left grew
steeper and the sea tip-toed closer at their right. Ourea was a town that
thrived on trade. The mountain at its side offered resources and goods, and the
sea at its front an easy mans of travel. There was a reason it was sometimes
referred to as the town at corner of mountain and sea. When Akashi had said to
meet him at the beach, he’d thought he meant the port. He’d been wrong.
“Akashi-san?”
Akashi looked up from where he’d been doing a thorough scan
of the sloping landscape leading down to the remaining thin strip of beach.
“Furihata-kun. You came.”
The slight alteration to his name wasn’t lost on Kouki, but
he didn’t mind it. “I agreed to, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but,” Akashi pressed his lips into a flat line, “I was
very…forceful, yesterday. I apologize if I forced you to agree.”
“Don’t’ worry,” Kouki replied, “it was my decision.”
Akashi gave him a grateful look, and went back to observing
the sparsely vegetated land. (Likely too much salt in the soil, he mused.)
Before coming, Kouki had resolved to only speak when spoken
to and provide as little information as possible to get by, but the way Akashi
darted around the same twenty feet or so, looking and re-looking, forced his
tongue. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for signs of what might look like long ago rock
slides.”
“Why?”
“Part of my theory.”
“And what’s that?”
Akashi paused in his observations, and sat on the flattest
rock in the area. He motioned Kouki to sit next to him, and when he had, rested
his elbow on his knee. “I thought you were the one who was meant to be telling me things this morning?”
Kouki shrugged. “Maybe if you tell me what you know, I can
fill in the missing blanks?”
Akashi considered it. “That could work.”
Kouki crossed his legs, and settled his hands into his lap,
patiently waiting for him to begin.
Akashi drummed his fingers, staring out at the froth of
gently lapping waves on sand. “Once, there was a city in the sky.”
“Aether,” Kouki murmured.
Akashi’s eyes flashed to him, then away. “Yes. Aether, as
I’ve learned. Aether was home to a people who somehow, without flying, were
able to traverse the distance between land and sky. Something which should have
been impossible. The inhabitants grew close to the people on land, who lived at
the base of a mountain, through trade and friendship. The city—Aether,
sorry—was kept aloft by a great source of magic; a crystal, that the people
themselves powered.
“But eventually, word of the crystal got out, and a lord
came to them seeking its power for himself—“
“Sorcerer,” Kouki muttered.
“I’m sorry?” Akashi frowned.
“Not a lord. A sorcerer.”
Akashi appeared to be in deep thought. “A sorcerer,” he
repeated. “It would…explain some things. How he expected to be able to use the
crystal’s magic in the first place.
“But, this lord—sorcerer, my apologies. The sorcerer raised
and army, and attacked Aether. This is where the details get more…hazy. There’s
debate over exactly what happened. The first time I heard the story, one option
was that the sorcerer escaped with the crystal and was successful. But the more
I learn the less accurate that became. All the stories agree that there was a
flash of bright light after he invaded. I think that, for some reason, the
crystal itself defeated him, and that was the flash.”
“The crystal’s purpose was protection,” Kouki said. Akashi
went quiet, listening, but Kouki did not look at him. He scratched the itchiest
spot on his calf as he spoke. “It was never meant to be used for harm. When the
sorcerer tried to take it after killing them, the crystal sensed his
intentions, and turned against him. He and his army were disintegrated until
there was nothing left, their weapons and armor tossed into the sea.”
For a moment it was quiet, the breeze tickling his nose with
the smell of salt.
“I’ve never heard that part,” Akashi noted. “This is the
version that all the people in Ourea know?”
“More or less.” Definitely less, he thought. He might have
given more detail than usual. But there was something about Akashi that made
him run at the mouth; made him want
to help.
“Well,” Akashi continued, “Adjusting for all that, there are
still three options that appear most commonly.”
Akashi held up one finger. “The first, and least likely,
option, is that the city is still up there, hidden. This is virtually
impossible, as one of the flying races would have found it by now. The amount
of magic required to not only hide it from them, but detection spells as well,
on top of keeping it afloat…is unheard of, even for a crystal as powerful as
this one.”
Head turned down, hiding his face, Kouki gestured for him to
continue.
“The second,” another finger, “is that the city was
destroyed alongside the sorcerer, and is lost.”
Kouki hummed.
“And last,” a final finger, “is the option I think most
likely. After defeating the sorcerer—which would have taken more magic than I
anticipated, given it virtually erased him and his army from what you’ve
said—the crystal was depleted enough that it could no longer keep the City in
the sky, and the entire thing fell to the sea, where it remains to this day.
The crystal, while not as strong as before, is likely still carrying more magic
than any one person can contain.”
Kouki exhaled slowly, biting the inside of his lip harshly.
“How,” he began, “did you track the city to here?”
“I followed it. The closer to here I got, the more detailed,
as you’ve proven. Though before coming to Ourea, I’d narrowed it down to an
area of several hundred miles until fixating here.”
“Why?”
“Ourea is one of the few places at the base of a mountain,
while still being by the sea, as the more detailed stories seem to have in
common. It also has a perfect means of spreading the story far and wide,
through the port. But most importantly, it was the Merfolk.”
Akashi swiped his hand out to encompass the sea before them.
“I’ve had the fortune of making a few Merfolk contacts, notoriously difficult
to pin down as they are. And from them I’ve learned that in this whole sea, it
is only in the miles of waters surrounding Ourea that they refuse to travel.
Anywhere else they’ll go, created marvelous underwater civilizations, but here?
Nothing. Untouched. As though something were keeping them away.”
“The crystal,” Kouki said, his voice shaky to his ears. “You
think it’s down there, still protecting the city, warding people off.”
Akashi shot him a look that was almost manic in its fervor.
“Exactly.”
“So when you were looking for signs of long ago rock
slides…”
“Signs that the city may have scraped or slid down the
mountain-side on its way into the sea.”
“Oh.”
They lapsed into silence, but it didn’t last long.
“Furihata-kun,”Akashi set his hand on Kouki’s wrist, “the
information you’ve given me has only strengthened my conviction and
predictions—please if there’s anything else you can tell me…”
Kouki gulped, staring into Akashi’s eyes. From this
distance, the amber-gold ring around the red was even more prominent, the
abundance of magic in his body leaking out to physically manifest itself in his
eyes. It was beautiful. (And that thought was terrifying.)
He couldn’t trust Akashi. (But he’d like to.)
He couldn’t tell him. (He so, so wanted to.)
He lied.
“No.” He offered up a half-smile. “Sorry.”
Akashi watched him a moment longer. “I see. Thank you for
your help, Furihata-kun.”
He retracted his hand, and Kouki missed the warmth. Akashi
stood, and dusted his pants. “My search has proved fruitless in this area. I’m
heading back to the inn for the night. I’ll check further down tomorrow, after
more research.”
Kouki waved as he left, watching until he was only a speck
in the distance, heading into town. He turned back the sea.
“The crystal keeps them away, huh?” he mused.
If there was one thing Kouki was certain of, it was that no
crystal was keeping the merfolk from this portion of the sea.
No, what lurked in those waters, deep, deep down, in a place
where there was no light, was something far deadlier.
*****
Seijuurou sighed for the umpteenth time into his cider, the
sharp bite of apple on his tongue only a brief distraction from his thoughts.
Furihata had been a small help, but at this rate it would be a while before he
managed to track down the area he needed to search.
He ran a hand through his hair. If he could, he would
contact Aomine for more information. The merman wouldn’t swim these waters, but
he might have managed to convince him to come by boat, though he would have
complained about doing so. Secretive as they were, Seijuurou got the gist that
trading in his tail for land-legs for too long was uncomfortable. Something
about scale patches and skin.
But the time needed to track him down and get him to Ourea
would take too long, and Seijuurou was running preciously short on that.
He spotted Kiyoshi at the bar, and an idea popped to mind.
He stood from his table, and approached the innkeeper. “Kiyoshi-san?”
“How can I help you, Akashi-san?”
“Would there happen to be someone older in town who might
know the legend as well? Better than Furihata Kouki?”
Kiyoshi tapped his finger on the rim of a glass. “Hm. Now
that I think about it…no. You’re welcome to ask, but I truly think he knows it
best.”
“How is that possible? He’s younger than you, correct? There
must be someone older that he learned it from?”
“Furihata’s always been a bit odd.” Kiyoshi checked his
supply of clean glasses for the evening rush. “He came down from the mountain
about three years ago looking for work. He still goes up there sometimes, says
it’s where his family lives.” Kiyoshi laughed.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, just,” he picked up a rag and began wiping the
counter, “he and one of his elders must have looked a lot alike when they were
younger. The first time my grandfather saw him at the bar, he insisted that
they had met before.” He shook his head. “I’d love to meet them sometime, if he
weren’t so secretive about it.”
“That is strange,”
Seijuurou noted.
“I don’t mind it. Let him have his secrets; don’t think on
it too much. He’s a good person, and a hard worker. I’m glad to know him.”
Later, those words stuck to Seijuurou’s mind as he turned in
his bed, vainly grasping at sleep. His mind turned over and over again his
morning with Furihata. His downturned face, his quick input and the quiet way
he’d listened, as though nothing Seijuurou said was surprising. (The brown of
his eyes and hair, the smell of sand and salt, his wrist warm beneath
Seijuurou’s, caution in the set of his shoulders but still so charming—)
Seijuurou clenched his eyes shut, gritting his back teeth.
Perhaps…perhaps, he’d ask Furihata to accompany him on
future mornings, as well. It couldn’t hurt, and maybe during that time he’d
remember something he’d forgotten to mention.
*****
Kouki was surprised that Akashi wanted his company. At first
he’d wondered if it was because he somehow knew Kouki had lied, but that didn’t
seem the case. When he showed up the first morning, nervous and a little
jittery, Akashi only asked him to carry on conversation while he worked. So he
sat in the sand, and told him about Ourea, and its people.
That first day, it wasn’t much of a conversation. Akashi
interjected with small quips here and there, but for the most part, let Kouki
ramble on.
“You seem to know everyone in town,” Akashi commented during
a pause in his chatter.
“Huh? Oh.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. I guess I
do. Ah. Except the ones who only come for trade. I’m afraid I don’t get to know
them very well before they’re gone.”
Akashi hummed, and when he said nothing else, Kouki went
back to telling him about the local ten-year-old named Kagami that liked to
collect shells on the beach and string them into necklaces.
As the days passed, Kouki quickly realized one thing: he
hated lying to Akashi. Some were necessary, such as when Akashi asked him about
his family up on the mountain—which he’d apparently learned about from Kiyoshi.
He’d bitten his cheek, and been as honest as he could. He didn’t remember his
father; his mother raised him single-handedly. He had no siblings, though he’d
always wanted one.
“What about you?” he asked.
Akashi kept his back turned, and shrugged. “Not much to
tell.”
And if that wasn’t a blatant lie, he didn’t know what was.
And Kouki would know. He told them often enough. Which was why he let it go,
his own guilt churning in his stomach.
It would be two weeks before there was something to tell. With the sun nearly set behind Ourea, they
sat on one of the docks, facing the sea. Akashi’s fingers clenched into fists
on either side, his shoulders stiff. Normally, he would have stopped searching
the shore a few hours before, and Kouki would head to the inn to begin his
shift, but today he’d scoured every inch of sand and stone he could find until
the light grew too dim to see clearly by.
“You can leave,” Akashi said, his voice so soft it was
nearly drowned out by the sound of the water lapping at the dock. “I know you
have work.”
But Kouki couldn’t
leave. Not when Akashi was like this. Not when he seemed so…desolate, when it seemed like he’d fade
away into nothing if Kouki dared look away.
So it was against his better judgment, against the warning
in his mind that said he shouldn’t be encouraging him at all, that he stayed.
Kouki liked Akashi. Whether that was
because his previous relationships were built upon artificial closeness to keep
them carefully at a distance, or because in the worst kind of cliché way there
was just something about Akashi, he
wanted this red-haired, beautiful eyed man to trust him. (And, really, that
should have been the first sign of where his heart was headed.)
Kouki placed his palm over Akashi’s clenched fingers, and
they soothed at his touch.
“Akashi-kun,” he began, and the more affectionate suffix was
not lost on the other, because he glanced to the side, “why are you looking for
Aether?”
Akashi stared down at their hands, and flipped his so that
their palms pressed together and their fingers intertwined. “I need the crystal.”
Kouki’s heart plummeted. “Why? For power?”
Akashi shook his head. “No. Something far more important
than that.”
He looked up, and in the dimness the golden ring of his eyes
seemed to glow. “There’s a life I have to save, and that crystal is the only
thing capable of doing it.”
Kouki sucked in a breath. “Who’s?”
Akashi turned back to the sea. “Tetsuya. My younger
brother’s.”
“I didn’t know you had a sibling,” Kouki said quietly.
“There was a time I would have told you I didn’t,” he
admitted. “My mother…her constitution was poor. I didn’t notice it when I was
younger. Just before I turned nine, she passed, and by the time I was ten, my
father was remarried with a child on the way.
“I wanted to hate them. This woman was not my mother, would
never be my mother, despite father’s insistence that I call her such. And when
Tetsuya was born, I despised him. He even looked like this woman, with her blue
hair and blue eyes. Everyone was so eager to accept them, it was like they’d
forgotten my mother so quickly, and I was the only one who could still
remember.
“And then,” Akashi shook his head at some memory of himself,
“when he was three, he spilled ink all over one of my books. Nothing I couldn’t
have fixed with a little magic, but at the time I was so angry that he’d done
it at all. And I…I screamed at him. Called him horrible, terrible things. And
do you know what he did?”
“What?”
“He started crying. Well, that’s not really surprising, but
he did it without making a sound. He just looked up me, with big watery eyes,
appearing for all the world as if I’d just broken his heart. I felt horrible.”
Akashi scrubbed his face with his free hand, lost to recollection. “There I
was, screaming things at a toddler who wouldn’t even understand, taking my
grief out on someone who wasn’t to blame.
“I picked him up. For some reason he let me. I held him in
my arms and apologized, while his tears smeared my neck and felt disgusting. I
like to think he forgave me, because he stopped crying and fell asleep there.”
Akashi dropped his hand from his face, and sought Kouki’s
gaze. “After that, it was hard not to love him, so I vowed to protect him
instead. Then, two years ago, he started getting sick. The physicians told us
he had a few years left, at best. I tried everything I could to heal him, but
even my magic wasn’t good enough.”
He squeezed their fingers, a self-deprecating smile on his
face. “Isn’t that pathetic? I’m supposed to be the strongest mage of the era,
but I can’t even save my own brother’s life.”
Pieces clicked together in Kouki’s mind. “So you need the
crystal, to join its magic with your own to heal him.”
“If the crystal is as powerful as the legends say, even a
fraction of its power would be enough. But I’m running out of time. Tetsuya
can’t have long left.” His face smoothed into something blank and empty. “For
all I know, I might already be too late.”
They sat on the dock, the quiet between them softened by the
sound of oncoming night and the sea. Kouki scratched his knee, and bit his lip.
(Akashi’s hand was very warm in his.)
Eventually, it was Akashi who broke contact, and stood. “I
should head back, check my notes again. I apologize for keeping you from work,
Furihata-kun…but thank you for listening.”
Kouki warred with himself as Akashi’s footsteps grew further
away, before giving in and blurting, “Akashi-kun?” He waited until he felt the
other’s gaze on the back of his head before continuing. “Instead of coming to
the beach tomorrow, will you meet me at the path leading up the mountain?”
When he replied, it was with a voice made heavy by lingering
grief and confusion. “Why?”
“Because,” he swallowed, heartbeat hammering in his ears,
“there’s something I haven’t told you.”’’’
“What is it?”
Kouki shook his head, and hunched his shoulders. “Not now.
Tomorrow. Please.”
A pause. “Alright.”
This time, when Akashi’s footsteps drew away, he didn’t stop
them. Kouki leaned back on his palms, and stared at the dark sky. The sun had
long set by now. He found a patch of empty sky to his left, close to the
mountain, completely clear of the passing clouds.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to nothing. “I can’t hide it from
him anymore. He needs this.”
There was no one to answer him back. There hadn’t been in a
very, very long time.
*****
There was something about Furihata Kouki that inspired
sincerity, Seijuurou found. Oh, he’d known that he was hiding something from
him, his halting and vague explanation of his own family had made that much
clear. From what Kiyoshi had told him, it seemed everyone knew Furihata kept
secrets, but he was just so likable that no one gave him bother about it.
Seijuurou found himself agreeing, willing to let him keep his personal affairs
his own without prying.
But there’d been something about that night, where it was
dark enough to trick himself with false anonymity, and Furihata was sincere and
kind enough that had made him want to
confide in the other. And while he didn’t regret it, he was still baffled at
his own choice.
He leaned against a tree at the side of the mountain path,
his travel pack tossed over his shoulder, and wiggled his fingers at his side.
The phantom sensation of a hand in his remained.
He didn’t have to wait long. Furihata arrived with a face
worn by worry, the dark circles of a night barely slept under his eyes. He
smiled, half-hearted and small.
“Sorry,” he said. “I had to apologize to Kiyoshi-san for my
absence last night, and tell him I wouldn’t be back for a bit.”
“Are we going to be gone for long?”
Furihata avoided his gaze. “That depends.” He walked past,
heading up the path. “This way.”
Seijuurou followed. They walked for hours, pausing only to
eat and rest their legs. At some point they broke from the path, and crossed
into territory that was freer to the mountain’s whims. Seijuurou kept closer to
Furihata from that point.
They reached their destination after the sun passed behind
the mountain, an enormous space of open, flat land that overlooked the sea.
“I never thought there would be a place like this on a
mountain,” he said.
Furihata smiled, but it was a timid thing. He’d gotten more
and more jittery the longer they’d travelled. “Few people do.”
He led them to the center of the area, where he stopped.
“Okay.” Furihata bit his lip. “I’m going to do something,
and I need you to be calm.”
Seijuurou clutched is pack, Furihata’s nervousness beginning
to edge onto him as well. “Alright.”
What he hadn’t expected was for Furihata to take off his
pants and underware. A startled blush flared on his cheeks. “What are you—?!”
He stopped, catching sight of strange orange-brown patches on his legs. “Are
those scales?”
Furihata took up his timid grin, and when he opened his
mouth, it wasn’t an answer that came out. It was a song.
Furihata’s voice was unlike anything he’d ever heard. Like
bubbling water and the sharp, clear note of air through a sea shell. The words
were in no language he knew, but sounded just as arresting as the voice they
were sung by.
There came a sound overhead, and when Seijuurou looked up, a
hole was opening in the sky, a beautiful light coming from within.
“What is—?” But he cut off his own words, because from one
moment to the next, the air changed. Heavier,
more liquid, Seijuurou felt like he was underwater and should be holding his
breath. But when he inhaled, it was still air that he breathed. He brought his
arms up, and the air resisted, just as if he were at the bottom of a lake. A
couple of experimental pulls and kicks later, he was two feet off the ground,
wobbling unsteadily as he attempted to float in place. “Furihata-kun, what is
going on?”
He turned, expecting to find his companion floating at his
side. What he found was still Furihata, but he, too, had changed. In place of
legs, a slightly longer tail had taken their place, covered in orange and brown
scales, ending in a large, flared fin.
Like the Merfolk.
Furihata watched him with a guarded expression, and unlike
Seijuurou, he had no trouble maintaining his equilibrium in the water-like air.
His mind a mess of questions and impossibilities, the only
thing that managed to force itself form his mouth was, “I don’t understand.”
At that, some of Furihata’s caution fell away, replaced with
hesitant humor. “I’m not surprised.” He looked up. “Come on, I’ll explain when
we’re inside.” He held out his hand.
And Seijuurou took it. Gently, Furihata ‘swam’ them upward,
to the hole that had grown to more than a dozen feet in diameter. They passed
through, the hold closing up behind them, and suddenly were no longer outside.
No, the place they were in now was a large dome, buildings of white stone
radiating out from the center. Glowing orbs floated about sporadically,
providing ambient light to see by. A mosaic of brightly colored stones made
pictures along the entire floor. And floating at the center of it all above
them, suspended by its own magic and pulsing a gentle, warm light, was a
crystal the size of him.
“The City in the Sky,” he breathed. “It wasn’t destroyed. It
didn’t sink into the sea. It—it’s—“
“Still here.” Furihata released his hand, and encompassed
the room in a sweeping gesture. “Welcome to Aether.”
Seijuurou swam (and wasn’t that still such a novel concept?
You couldn’t fly to the City in the Sky, you had to swim to it, in air that felt like water but wasn’t) so that the
distance between them was less. “I have questions.”
“I know.” Furihata took his hand again, and with a flick of
his tail, strong as any of the Merfolk Seijuurou had ever seen, sent them
through the air to a nearby building. “Sit with me, and I’ll do my best to
answer them.”
*****
It was nice to have his tail for once. Given, he only went a
few months at a time with his land legs before begging off to come ‘visit
family,’ but by the end of those months his legs developed a constant itch on
the scaled patches left behind.
Of course, he could avoid the whole issue if he just stayed
in the city permanently, but…the years had a way of weighing on him when he was
alone for too long. And while hiding away for decades when he couldn’t pass off
his youth anymore to wait for a generation that wouldn’t know his face was
lonely, he’d endure it. Ourea was as much his home as Aether. He could never
give it up.
He gave a pleased sigh as he perched on the edge of the
roof, his tail waving in front of him. Unused, but familiar, muscles ached a
good way as he used them, wonderfully familiar. He dragged his hand over his
waist, where skin gave way to scales.
A cough brought his attention back to the present. He
blushed bashfully and twisted at the waist. “Sorry. It’s been a while. You have
questions.”
“I do.” Akashi carded his hand through his hair. In the Aether
air, it didn’t fall back into place, pieces of it sticking up and swaying
gently. “Too many. I don’t know what to ask first.”
“List a few, that might make it easier.”
“How is this possible? Why is the city empty? Why are you
here—what are you? Merfolk don’t swim
in air.”
“Complicated questions,” Kouki said. “It might be easier if
I just started at the beginning, and told you the whole story.”
“More stories?” Akashi mused.
“If that’s alright with you.”
Akashi motioned for him to continue.
Kouki pushed off the rooftop. “Come on, the mosaics help
tell this part.”
He led them to a spot where the floor mosaic showed an image
of the city, clearly underwater.
“Long before I was born, my people were once like any other
Merfolk. We lived in the sea, swam in water rather than air. But we were too
ambitious, and some of us swam too deep.” He led them along, to a mosaic
showing a great, serpentine beast. “We woke the Leviathan.”
Another image, of the Leviathan swallowing Merfolk whole.
“It rose from the abyss, and attacked us. Ate us. Our home was no longer safe.
So we left it.” Further, to an image of the crystal surrounded on all sides by
Merfolk. “With the crystal as a conduit, a spell was cast, hundreds and
hundreds strong, all of their magic going into the crystal. It lifted the city
from the sea, suspended it in the air, and replicated our living conditions as
best it could. It protected us.”
Kouki led them back to the rooftop. “That’s how we came to
be in the sky. There have been changes, with time. While once we would have
called ourselves Merfolk, I don’t know if I really am anymore. I have the key
parts, but,” his hand trailed to the slits on his neck, “I don’t even know if
my gills work in water, and I don’t think I’d be able to see like other Merfolk
would. And no doubt my senses are dulled.
“Anyway,” he checked to see that he hadn’t lost Akashi in
his rambling, but the other seemed perfectly attentive, so he continued. “We
made friends with the people of Ourea. Some fell in love, and chose to live
there permanently. But we couldn’t leave this area. From that initial spell a
bond was created. The first of us were tied to it, and every generation after.
When one of us died, we turned to dust and scales—another difference from
normal Merfolk, who turn to sea foam upon their passing. But, with their death,
their magic would go to the crystal, keeping it strong and powered. It was a
time of mourning, but also thanks. Their death meant our continuation; even in
death, they were protecting their home and people.”
Kouki lowered his head. “And then the sorcerer came. I was
young, fourteen or so—”
“Wait.” Akashi set a hand on his arm. “You were alive when the sorcerer came?”
“Yes.”
“But that’s—Merfolk have the same life-cycles as humans, and
if you’re descended from them—“
Kouki placed his hand over Akashi’s, forcing him to quiet.
“Give me a moment. It will all make sense.”
Akashi pursed his lips, but nodded.
“Right. Anyway, my mother and I had moved to Ourea after my
father’s passing. When the sorcerer attacked Aether, she begged our neighbors
to keep me safe, to not let me leave, while she and the rest of my people
living in the town hurried back to help the city. She gave me this,” he held up
the uncut sapphire around his neck, “before she left. But they didn’t survive.
No one did.
“He killed them. Him and his army, slaughtered them all like
they were nothing. I figure, somehow he knew of our connection to the crystal,
that if he killed them—“
“Their magic would go to the crystal,” Akashi murmured, with
terrible awe. “Hundreds of people, all of their magic going to the crystal at
once and powering it.”
Tired grief slumped Kouki’s shoulders. “Yes. But when he was
done, when there was no one left in the city alive but he and his army, he
tried to take it. And he failed.” His
eyes flashed. “Like I told you, the crystal was never meant for harm. It turned
on him, destroyed his arm, cast their weapons to the sea. From Ourea, it looked
like a flash of bright light in the sky.
“I waited for months, years. But no one came. I didn’t know
what had happened at the time. When I became an adult, they couldn’t stop me
from coming up the mountain anymore. When I got here, there was nothing but-but
dust and scales, everywhere.”
He wasn’t sure when his voice started to crack, or the tears
gather in his eyes, but they dissipated the moment Akashi’s arms wrapped around
him. “Akashi-kun?”
“You looked like you needed it.”
“Oh.” His arms slid hesitantly around Akashi’s waist. He
swallowed. “Thank you.”
Akashi pulled back. “You’re welcome.”
After a settling breath, Kouki continued. “I cleared the
dust and gathered the scales. For weeks, I slept beneath the crystal. I felt
like, if I was close to it, I was still close to them, in a way, you know?
Their magic was still here, even if they weren’t.
“After a few years, I decided to protect Aether, and the
crystal. Someday, I would die, and then what would happen if another sorcerer
came along; one who was able to succeed where the other had failed? That kind
of power, in the wrong hands.” He frowned. “I couldn’t let that happen.”
The crystal’s light shone soft in the air, and Kouki reached
out, as if to cup it in his hand. “It senses your intentions, remember? It knew
what I wanted, and granted me that. Just as it preserves the city, it preserved
me. And I’ve guarded this place ever since.”
Akashi’s lips parted. Kouki could tell by the gentle furrow
of his brow that he was processing everything.
“I was starting to think I’d have to do this forever,” Kouki
admitted. He grinned. “But not even you
could find it, and we both know how good you are. Maybe…maybe this means I can
start aging again. I won’t ever be able to go further than Ourea, but if it
means I can stop saying goodbye to friends, it might be worth it.”
*****
They slept in Aether that night, and several nights after.
It took Seijuurou a bit to get used to. He felt weightless in the hammock Kouki
led him to, every shift buoyed by the fluid air. It wasn’t uncomfortable, just
different.
They’d spent the past days scouring through the texts of
Kouki’s people. While he couldn’t let Seijuurou take the crystal, if there was
one thing his kind were good at, he said, it was healing. (Which didn’t
surprise him; their greatest source of magic existed around the idea of
protection, after all.) Surely they would be able to find something.
It took the most advanced translation spell he knew to
decipher the books in the city’s library, and even then, the translations were
so literal he frequently had to ask Kouki for the meaning of various phrases.
What, for instance, was a scale scratch worth of feather blossom?
(Apparently, it was about a teaspoon.)
When the end of the first week came, Seijuurou was growing
desperate. Furihata did his best to encourage him, and spent nearly every
moment of that time right by his side, searching along with him, or setting
food at his elbow. At one point, he’d even taken to slipping small bites into
Seijuurou’s mouth as he read.
“If you won’t eat on your own,” he’d said, “then I’ll have
to feed you.”
Seijuurou tried to ignore the flutter-feeling at the base of
his throat.
Presently, he sat in the library, scrolls and books bound in
strange leathers spread around the table. Night had already come, and it was by
the light of a small, glowing orb suspended above him that he worked.
That is, until Kouki swam through the door.
“Akashi-kun,” he tugged gently at his shoulder, “come here.
I want to show you something.”
“Is it something that can heal Tetsuya?”
“No,” Seijuurou shot him a look, “but! But. You’ve been
working all hours for a week. You need to pause. For just a bit. I promise, you
won’t regret it.”
Seijuurou’s fingers itched to go back to turning pages, but
at the imploring look on Furihata’s face, he couldn’t refuse. With a sigh, he
marked his page and shut the book. Furihata beamed, and Seijuurou’s heart
matched it.
Furihata led him outside, until they were floating just
under the crystal, overlooking the city.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
“Watch,” Furihata said.
All around, the orbs lighting the city dimmed one by one,
until they were left in near-darkness. Above, at the top of the dome, a
skylight spiraled open. A full moon hung in the night sky overhead. In moments,
moonlight hit the crystal, reflected off.
And suddenly the dome, which Seijuurou’d believed to be
entirely white stone, was lit by hundreds and hundreds of tiny, multi-colored
lights.
“They’re like stars,” he breathed, turning in place to try
and see them all.
“When I came back all those years ago,” Furihata said
softly, “and found nothing but scales and dust, I collected them all. Normally,
when one of us dies, we give the scales to loved ones and keep one for
ourselves, put in a special box. But I didn’t know who the scales belonged to,
there were so many, and it felt wrong to try and put them away. So I put them
up there, to remember.”
He spoke reverently. “It’s beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
Seijuurou didn’t know why they were whispering, but it felt
appropriate. The way the light shined on the scales (and there were so many, too many, and imagining Furihata
gathering them all, dust coating his hands, hurt like a physical wound) had to
be one of the prettiest things he’d ever seen in his life.
A question he hadn’t thought to ask floated through his
mind, and he asked it.
“How old are you?”
“I don’t know,” Furihata answered, voice lofty. With his
face upturned, searching the colorful lights, he all at once seemed very far
away. “After the second century, I stopped counting.”
“That’s a long time to keep a secret.”
“Yeah.”
“You know,” Seijuurou added, “you’re strong. In fact,” he
felt more than saw Furihata turn to him, “you might be the bravest person I’ve
ever met.”
“Oh.” It’s said with surprise. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
At some point, their hands found each other in the colored
dim. They didn’t pull away until the moon vanished from view, and all the
little lights went out.
*****
That night, as Akashi slept, Kouki approached the crystal.
“We aren’t finding anything,” he said, as though for a
moment it might understand him. “And to be honest, I don’t think we will, at
this rate.”
He swallowed, his throat tight. “Eventually, he’ll have to
leave. I don’t want it to be in failure. I want to help him.”
Reaching out, he rested a hand on one of the smooth
fractals. It was warm to the touch. “I know it will mean watching him leave. I
know that. But if there’s anything I can do, anything to ease his burden…please.”
His fingers curled, a burn forming in his eyes. “You were
made to protect. There must be some way. Please. I lo—,” he paused, “I care,
for him very much. He’s already suffered so much. There must be some way to
save his brother.”
Drifting closer, Kouki pressed his forehead by his hand on
the crystal, eyes slipping shut and pressing out the first tears. “Please.”
Under his touch, the crystal pulsed.
Around his neck, the uncut sapphire began to glow.
Gasping, Kouki pulled back. For a few moments, the crystal
and his necklace resonated with a similar light, and when it faded, the
sapphire was lit with an inner light. He cupped it in his palm, and recognized
it for what it was—a small fraction, but still more than enough, of the crystal’s
magic, siphoned off into the gem.
“Thank you.” He clutched it close, and darted away.
Behind him, the crystal remained the same. It had granted
his wish once before; it should have been no surprise that it would do so
again. It was a thing of intent, after all, and Furihata Kouki was nothing if
not a creature of good intentions.
*****
Seijuurou woke to grass tickling his neck, and air
unresisting to his motion.
He sat up. He was back on the mountain, his pack next to
him, and there was no sign of white stone or colored lights or an endearingly
sincere man with brown eyes weighed down by too many years alone.
“Furihata-kun?” Seijuurou stood up, spun in a circle, lifted
his face to check the false-empty sky. “Furihata-kun? Furihata-kun! Kouki!”
There was no answer.
He paced around, searching for any signs of Furihata’s
presence, even tried to replicate the song that would open the city once more.
His leg bumped his bag, the top falling open. On top was a drawstring bag
Seijuurou didn’t recognize.
He knelt, and drew it out. It came open easily, and he dumped
the contents into his palm. It was a necklace, one he recognized from always
being around Furihata’s neck. A note accompanied it.
Seijuurou, it said at the top, and his heart jumped into his
throat.
I’m sorry.
You told me I was strong. That I was the bravest person you ever met.
But I’m not, Seijuurou. I’m not. The truth is, I’m a coward. All this time
spent hiding myself, and yet I’m too afraid to say goodbye to you.
Last night, the crystal siphoned some magic into my necklace. It should
be enough to heal your brother. Channel it with your own into a strong healing
spell. It will work. I promise it will. Save him.
Thank you for sharing yourself with me, and letting me share myself
with you. After all these years, I’d forgotten what that felt like. It was
nice.
Be happy. You deserve it. I’ll miss you.
Goodbye.
As he finished reading, Seijuurou clenched his teeth, a
faint tremble in his fingers. “You—stupid,”
his voice sounded watery to his ears. “Why didn’t you just say that you love
me?”
Breathing heavily, he folded the note and put it and the
necklace back in their bag, placing it deep within his pack. He slipped it on
his back, and began his trek back down the mountain.
Tetsuya was waiting.
*****
Five Years Later
*****
The dock was pleasantly empty this time of night. Kouki
rather like it that way. It gave him space to think in peace. Not that he didn’t
love the inn, but the evening crowd tended to get a bit rowdy.
He leaned back on his hands, the sea breeze ruffling his
hair. It was no secret to him why he found himself returning to this place time
and time again. It was at this spot that he made the decision, for the first
time in years too great to remember, to open himself to a man that was
virtually a stranger.
In the time since, a series of important decisions had been
made. While he still kept his secret from those in Ourea, he lied just a little
less. At least now they knew that there was no family waiting for him on the
mountain.
On a larger note, for the past two years, Kouki had begun
aging again. He’d given it a lot of thought before going through with having
the crystal retract his immortality, but after it went unfound by even the
great Akashi Seijuurou without Kouki’s help, he’d come to the conclusion that
Aether no longer needed his protection. Perhaps in centuries past, when the
legend was fresher and known more as fact, he would have had to worry about people
like the sorcerer searching it out. But in this age, when in all but Ourea the
legend was blurred at the edges and twisted by the needs of the teller, the
City in the Sky was the safest it had ever been. Now, he wouldn’t have to
disappear in a few years to wait out the decades for a time when he could
return unrecognized.
Besides, he thought, gold-ringed red eyes at the forefront
of his mind, Kouki was tired of saying goodbye.
He relaxed for a few more minutes before deciding to head
back to his place in town. He stood, and was just dusting his pants when he
heard footsteps behind him.
“Excuse me,” a familiar voice said, “I believe I’ve been
looking for you.”
Kouki turned. The man before him had aged a bit. His hair
was a little longer, bangs sliding over his eyes. The breadth of his shoulders
was the same, but the exhaustion, the haggard set of his face, was gone,
replaced by an easy smile.
Even having only known him several weeks and five years
removed, Kouki would know Akashi’s face anywhere.
“You’re here,” he said, and his mind had had yet to catch up
with his mouth.
“You say that like I wasn’t allowed to come back.”
“No, that’s not—your brother.” Kouki clutched at his pants. “Is
your brother alright?”
“He made a full recovery.” Akashi nodded back toward the
inn. “He can’t wait to meet you.”
“He’s here too?”
“Yes. I couldn’t leave him behind.” Akashi took a step
closer.
Kouki mirrored him. It was finally setting in, and his
breath stuttered. His hands came up once they were close enough, settling
cautiously on Akashi’s chest. “You came back.”
Akashi’s arms slipped around his waist. “Sorry I took so
long.”
When their lips found each other, it was warm, and instead
of fireworks, it was little colored lights that flashed behind their eyes.
After, with foreheads pressed together, Akashi whispered, “Will
you say it now?”
“Say what?”
“That you love me.”
Kouki bit his lip to stop it trembling. “That depends.”
“On?”
“Will you say it back?”
The hands at his back stroked along his spine, warm breath
gusting his cheek. “As many times as you want.”
“In that case,” Kouki’s hands slid up Akashi’s neck,
tangling in his hair, “you’d best get started.”