Family Binds
Emma, The Kingdom of Aeris, The 11th Year of the Reign of King Avalanche, Merciful King of Aeris
Emma, The Kingdom of Aeris, The 11th Year of the Reign of King Avalanche, Merciful King of Aeris
I don't deserve sympathy. I want to make that part clear.
I know the instinct in these sorts of situations. People naturally want to sympathize with the poor, unfortunate woman, abducted and taken advantage of, or whatever else you're imagining. But me? I volunteered. Most of the subjects were volunteers, I think. Employees who agreed to testing and then experimentation, each for our own reasons. And yeah, maybe I was young when I started, but I wasn't that young. Not like him.
No, if you're going to have sympathy, I want you to have it for him. What they were doing to him, it was wrong. Yeah, maybe what they were doing to all of us wrong, and maybe I had my doubts part of the way through, but it was too late for me to have second guesses for myself. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. But with him it was... different. I couldn't just sit back and let it happen.
Why was I even letting them do this to me, if not so that I could stop this exact sort of thing?
~¿~ב~?~
This hadn't been Emma's first plan.
Or second, or third. This was something like plan thirteen. Her original intent had just been to lay low, somewhere far away from home. The world was a big, mostly empty place. There were a lot of places to hide, and she was strong and intelligent enough to deal with at least some of the threats that lurked between societies. No monster in the woods would ever worry her as much as what they were running from.
For a while, it had really seemed like that could be that. They'd hole up in a cabin somewhere increasingly rural, far from the reach of their pursuers, and Julian could grow up fairly normal. As normal as things allowed. When that first plan fell through, due to her having strongly underestimated the monsters in the woods, more plans followed, and she really thought they'd found a safe haven with some of the traveling elves of this continent. They were so completely unlike the elves from which she fled, but they still looked the same. A few new names and new mannerisms, and they could blend in no problem. It was perfect, and Emma took very well to the traveling life.
Unfortunately, none of their plans could last more than about three months, and that was about when Julian's... issues... had started. The elves had some resources for dealing with the magical problems of the young, but it quickly became clear that no one had resources for dealing with magical problems of the type and scale Julian was having. Least of all Emma. But what could she do? She couldn't leave him.
~¿~ב~?~
I'd already heard about the Dragon-King of Aeris. We traveled around that area, you know? It's not exactly something that people would neglect to mention. And yeah, it was weird, but I never gave much thought to it. If a dragon wants to be King, who's going to stop it? Rule for eternity if you damn well want to, it's none of my business.
Or, well, I didn't think it was ever going to be any of my business. Maybe I'd pass through Aeris sooner or later, because it has a lot of spare space and a lot of elves, but I never really thought the King would become relevant. Silly me. My life is seemingly defined by an ongoing Occam's razor style curse, and the flavor of the month was Occam's dragon.
But then I heard stories of dragons turning lead into gold, and as I've mentioned, I was running out of options. Julian was only getting worse. If anyone could help, maybe it was this King.
~¿~ב~?~
"I don't wanna!" came Julian's cry, sharp and full of fear, making everyone else in the throne room's antechamber turn to glance in the manner of people about to be annoyed at a child.
"It'll only be for a few minutes, love," Emma assured him, squatting down to be at eye level with her seven-year-old ward. "And you wouldn't be able to read in there, anyway. Wouldn't you rather stay out here with your book?"
"No!" Julian insisted. "I wanna see the dragon!"
"The King," Emma emphasized. "And you'll get plenty of chances to see him later. This is going to be all boring and formal. You'd hate it."
Julian pouted dramatically, arms crossed. His lower lip wobbled dangerously. "No! What if he tries to eat you? I need to be there!"
Emma did not go with her first instinct, which was to inform him that if the King decided to eat her, there was certainly nothing he could do about it, and that if he wanted her to have any chance at all of running, he'd need to be out here, relatively safe and easily grabbable. She wasn't very good at this whole parenting thing, but she was at least getting that much better. Instead, she pulled him into a hopefully comforting hug.
"The King's not going to eat me, Julian," she promised. "It will be dreadfully boring and involve a lot of bending and scraping. You'd have to kneel and be perfectly quiet the whole time."
"You hate kneeling," Julian pointed out.
"So do you," she said, gently bopping his nose with one finger. "Which is why you should stay here."
"What if he wants to see me?"
"Then I'll come and get you, and you'll get to see a dragon and be terribly bored," she told him, giving him a kiss on the forehead. "Stay here?"
"...Fine," he said with a dramatic pout, sitting back down on the window seat with his arms still crossed. Emma picked up his book, which he'd thrown to the floor in a fit, and placed it next to him on the seat.
"Thank you," she said, and wanted to say more, but at that moment, a voice called out,
"The next petitioners may enter!"
That was her cue. She stood quickly, adjusting herself as best she could, and turned to enter the throne room.
~¿~ב~?~
I'd stayed around the capital for as long as was reasonable, trying to balance gathering information with the risk of Julian breaking something important. Time was not on my side, but I managed to learn enough to get at least a half-assed plan going. I was pretty sure I knew what to do to avoid getting eaten, at least, but I was less sure I could get the King to agree to what I needed.
Honestly, if I had realized the castle was overflowing with brats at that point, I would have just brought Julian in with me. But no one had really mentioned it. The men had mostly complained, women had been a bit more split, but most telling of all had been how universally adored he was by the prostitutes. You, uh. Wouldn't really. Expect that. Of a giant dragon. But hey, I'm not one to judge anyone's predilections.
I was no prostitute, unfortunately, but hopefully my skills would be enough to win the King over. Otherwise, well... I didn't even have a plan fourteen yet.
~¿~ב~?~
"Rise, Miss Emma, and state your petition before the King."
Emma stood, and took a moment to take stock of herself. She'd thought she would have been a lot more nervous in this situation. She'd never seen a dragon before either, but she'd had more trepidation than Julian's youthful excitement. She genuinely wasn't sure what she would do if this didn't work. But then, the King probably got that a lot. He probably wasn't a lot of people's first choice. But she wasn't shaky at all. When she spoke, it was with measured confidence.
"Your Majesty," she began, starting in on a speech she'd practiced in her head dozens of times. "My name is Emma. I've come to Aeris with my brother to seek your aid, aid that I have reason to believe may be something only you may grant."
"Brother?" the massive dragon interrupted, tilting his giant head to the side. "But I see only you."
"He is outside, your Majesty. He's very young, yet." The King hummed noncommittally, a strange noise from a giant dragon, if only in how loud it was, and Emma pressed onward. "I am here to offer you my services, in exchange for a safe home and tutoring for my brother. I've heard you have many such children here in the castle; he would simply be one more among them." Well, sort of. She'd get to that part if he didn't deny her outright.
"And your services would be...?"
She'd been just about to get to that. She stood up a bit straighter, readying herself. "Endless, your Majesty," she said, projecting confidence in her words. His eye ridges rose, but he said nothing, so she continued. "Currently, the only pressing risk to your reign is one of social uprising, although even that is relatively unlikely given your, ah... comparative strength compared to your population. Mass strikes are more likely, and even then, it is primarily the male and religious demographics that would be at risk. It could easily be headed off by a royally-backed labor union, although that would turn the merchants further against you, and to be frank, they almost all universally loathe you already. Of particular note, one Holy Seer Lucius--what a name--seems to be something of a ringleader of discontent. Far from the only one, but concerning inasmuch as he's bothering to do it quietly. In a country full of men who speak their mind about their King with little prompting, his lack of volume does him a disservice. Whatever he is building, however, it is likely still in its early stages, and easily headed off now that it has been brought to your attention."
"I've been in the capital city for less than two days. That's just some of what I've learned," Emma continued, mentally thanking her voice not for shaking under the intense stare of the dragon atop his mountain of treasure. "In addition, I speak five languages and am skilled at picking up new ones. I'm a deft hand with codes and ciphers. These are only a few of my talents. I have compiled as complete a listing as I was able in my resume, which you and your people are welcome to peruse at their leisure.
"For the cost of protection, education, and a place to call home for myself and my brother, I will pledge myself into your service, to be used as you see fit," she finally finished.
The King considered her at some length. Somehow, her spine and her legs held up under the long gaze.
"With such skills," the King said finally. "You must have had many options. I doubt you found these talents amongst the elves here in Aeris. Which means you must be from further abroad. What brings you all the way to my doorstep?"
"My brother," Emma replied. She'd have to get to this part eventually, anyway. "He has... special needs. He's... touched, magically. He has a gift. Magic is among my many talents, but not the way it is for him. I'd heard of dragons'--and specifically your--skill with innate, inborn magic. I can use magic. You are magic. My brother is... more like you than me, in this."
"I will need to see him," the King decided, and Emma winced.
"...Very well, your Majesty."
~¿~ב~?~
I love Julian. I might not like admitting it out loud, but I think that anyone who watched us together would be able to figure that much else. It's not... it's not easy for me, doing what I do, but I can do it if it's for him. I can do anything if it's for him.
One day, I'll probably have to.
~¿~ב~?~
Julian stood just as proud and straight-backed as Emma had before the King, although she could tell by the little tremble in his hand, gripped firmly in hers, that he was just as nervous as she'd been. The King's gaze traveled between Emma, pale-skinned and freckled with thin copper-red hair and her 'little brother', with his sepia brown skin and dark, thick hair. Both would-be siblings held his gaze evenly, similar in personality if not in appearance.
"Quite young," the King mused. "Especially for an elf."
"Indeed," Emma agreed, holding tight to Julian's hand. "He has a lot of growing to do, and I would like for him to do it in safety."
"Let me see his magic," the King requested.
"No," Julian said abruptly, followed quickly by Emma's more tempered explanation.
"It's not safe here, your Majesty, there's the risk of damage--"
The King's tail flicked, and a golden shape flew quickly through the air in an arc towards them. Julian dropped her hand to reach out for it automatically, but Emma snatched it, single-handedly, from the air before he could. It was a wine glass in shape, solid gold.
"See what you can do with that," the King instructed.
"He doesn't know any spells, your Majesty," Emma said through clenched teeth. "Which is why I've come to get him instruction. He--" Emma's words cut off with a quiet hiss of pain as the glass she was holding began heating up. She would have tried to hold onto it, to avoid undue damage to the rug, but it was quickly searing through her gloves, and she released it automatically. It went from a wine glass to dripping, molten gold, and then fluttering ash, before it even hit the ground. "Seriously, Julian?" she hissed quietly. The young boy just shrugged, looking sullen.
"Hmm," the King said, and stood from his perch curled around the mound of gold. Emma watched with increasing trepidation as he took the relatively few steps across the throne room to reach them. It would have taken them significantly longer to go to him, but then, they had much, much smaller legs.
Emma gripped Julian's arm again, ignoring the flare of pain from her hand, the glove all scalded through to reveal red, burnt skin. She barely resisted the urge to pull him behind her as the King approached. If she didn't even trust him near Julian, the whole thing was a moot point. But she didn't know much about dragons. There might be... instincts. Whatever the opposite of paternal was. Filicidal.
This sensation didn't exactly decrease as the King loomed over them, his massive head bowing down to come stressfully close. Emma couldn't help but note that his muzzle, such that it was, seemed more than large enough to fit a fully grown man inside it without much difficulty. To say nothing of two young elves. Her grip on Julian tightened. The King's massive nostrils landed right in front of Julian, his hair and clothes fluttering back and forth as the King breathed in and then out.
The King opened his mouth, breathing in.
Emma was between them in a flash, hand still on Julian's arm pulling him back away from the King, her other, still-gloved hand landing gently but insistently on the tip of the King's nose, and she pushed against it--nothing happened--inserting herself physically between the two of them. The King's nostrils flared again, sending thin strands of liquid copper hair fluttering loose from her braid.
"Odd smelling," the King decided, his voice loud and rumbling this close, consonants sibilant and strange. With her hand on his nose, she could feel the vibrations travel through her body, "for an elven boy."
Emma looked him dead in the eye, as much as she could from this angle. "So you understand why we've come to you."
"I understand why," the King agreed. "The story as to how is one I am very interested in hearing."
"I have many for you," Emma said agreeably, "and once you promise our protection, I will even give you the true one."
"Our protection now, not just his?"
"For him, I need protection from everyone, including and especially himself," Emma said firmly. "For myself, I require protection only from you and yours. Beyond that, I will be yours to use as you see fit."
"Emma..." Julian said, voice uncertain, pulling at her sleeve. Emma didn't respond to him, still focused on the single most intimidating stare-down of her life.
"And for that, the truth?" the King said, almost sounding amused.
"Indeed," Emma said, and then sighed. She breathed in, and when she spoke again, while her voice hadn't changed, her words felt charged in the wide throne room, echoing in all the empty corners. "For so long as this boy has safe haven, home, and family with you, I will never speak to you a knowing untruth, nor seek to mislay or mislead you."
The King's head withdrew slightly, then tilted to the side in unmistakable surprise and curiosity. "And you," he declared, "are odd smelling for an elven girl."
"Indeed, your Majesty."
"Very well," the King said, and the charged, ionized feeling in the air cleared abruptly as Emma felt the energy snap closed around her shoulders instead. "I accept your oath of loyalty and honesty. Now! Let us see what can be done for the boy."
~¿~ב~?~
I had never before been in a geas. To be honest, I was only sort of sure it would work before I did it, and had no idea what it would feel like. It worked. And it felt like... it felt like the tie that binds.
I'm pretty sure this was not what anyone had in mind when they came up with me, and I'm pretty sure that the mere concept would offend, just, so many people. But if I'm being totally honest, the idea of how many people I managed to theoretically piss the fuck off with that one, single action... is one of the absolute best parts.
Not the best part, though. The best part was that for the first time since I'd taken responsibility for him, I felt like Julian would actually be safe.
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