Silver Eyes

A/N - um, whoops? Didn't mean for this to wait so long. I typed most of this at work, so please let me know any major issues (I kept switching from first to third person for some reason...)
Once again, thank you to my lovely review smint45!
On another note, does anyone know how to edit the warnings?

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The sight in front of them was quite possibly the creepiest thing Asahi had ever seen. At the edge of the blasted area was, from what he could tell, an almost perfectly symmetrical circle around what looked like a ghost town. There were buildings, grass, trees, but no movement whatsoever. He went to take a step forward, but Rian grabbed his arm before he could.

"Don't. It's a shield. You'd end up like those trees we saw."

Asahi shuddered. The fact that the other man had actually touched him, a first, showed him better than the words how dangerous it would have been to take that step.

"So if there's a shield, where's the wizard creating it?"

"Inside, of course. What I would have done, in his place, would have been to use the energy created by the fire that burned through the forest to create the shield. But the fact that this is still here means the wizard is still alive."

"So what do we do, go around? I don't like leaving this here; there could be people inside who need help, or the wizard could be a threat. It's too much of an unknown to just ignore."

"I don't like it, but I suppose you have a point. I need to figure out the exact nature of the shield before I can take it down though. It could take me a while."

"Hmm, I don't suppose a bird suspended in midair helps?"

"What?" Rian followed where Asahi was pointing, where there was a small bird winging out from the town, just as he had said. "Well, that makes it a lot simpler. Stasis shield. It will more or less freeze whatever's in it, exactly as it is. The wizard, to have pulled this off as well as the blast, is incredibly powerful. I wouldn't want to have to fight him, I would lose. Thankfully I doubt he is a threat to us, he seems to have just been protecting this town."

"What is a wizard that powerful doing in a small town like this? The royal wizard is supposed to be the most powerful; if you're saying that he's more powerful, then shouldn't he be in the castle?"

Rian shrugged still going through his bags. "Could just not like power, as in political power. Perhaps there is something we don't know about that is worth protecting here. Or he could have just been passing through. We won't know until we talk to him."

With that, Rian sat down cross legged right at the edge of the shield, placed some stones around him, and held up his hands. Asahi could actually kind of see where the light actually seemed to move around his hands. Suppressing a shudder, he turned away and dug through for a ration bar. Magic always made him nervous, as it wasn't something he could see and touch. Meeting this new wizard wasn't something he was looking forward to, but it had to be done. This whole situation made his skin crawl, and all he wanted to do was get to a nice, noisy inn have a pint or two and collapse into bed. He certainly wasn't going to be letting his guard down, let alone sleeping, in this place.

Much quicker than he expected, there was a popping sound, and Asahi turned around to see Rian shakily stand up. One hand was under his robe, probably rubbing at a headache, and the other was holding his stomach. Yet another reason why he couldn't stand magic.

"Rian? You alright to go on?" Because he wasn't looking for a reason to procrastinate meeting this unknown wizard, really.

Unfortunately he got a slight nod and the other man headed towards the horses. "We need to move fairly quickly. I found out the reason for the shield. The town was attacked, at night. As far as he can tell the only two people left alive are himself and his daughter. That's why the shield was up - she's injured and he doesn't have the ability to heal her. Between the three of us we should be able to. After we have her healed we can check for other survivors."

"Attacked in the middle of the night? Does he know who attacked them?" Asahi looked around, even this close to the town there were few signs of an attack, which means that they came quietly and most of the people died in their sleep. Merciful deaths, if cowardly. He glanced at Rian, who seemed hesitant to answer.

"They were attacked because they were non-humans. The town has been in stasis for over 20 years."

Asahi felt sick to his stomach. He had been an infant when the decree against non-humans had been passed, he hadn't known (or at least remembered) any personally. All the Knight knew was what he had been told - they were sub human, not as intelligent, immoral, and dangerous. But if the wizard was correct, if they had been attacked in their sleep...and to put out so much effort to save their child. Thinking about it, he realized how it would have been so successful. The King had just taken the throne; the last fight had been against their eastern neighbour, whose population was nearly all non-humans. The law had almost seemed reasonable to most of the Knights and soldiers he knew due to that fact. And the King had still seemed okay back then - his illness hadn't seemed apparent for well over a decade. There were within the houses, and it was like his first battle all over again. It seemed most had to have died in their beds, but there were a
few who appeared to have fought back or tried to save children. Rian headed straight to a larger house, where he could see a man slumped on the steps. It was sadly obvious that he was dying as well, and if this was the wizard Asahi was once again amazed by his power. The blast and shield was impressive to begin with, but to do it while dying?

"He used his own blood and that of the rest of the town to create the shield. He tied it directly to their blood, which was soaked into the ground. Since it was in stasis it stayed there and the cycle started again. Amazing work - I would have never thought of it. He barely needed to use any of his own power."

It barely made sense to the Knight but he nodded acknowledgement anyway. He got the general idea - not only was he powerful, he was smart too. It made Asahi understand the fear the King had of non-humans, even if his response to that fear was disgustingly barbaric. The man struggled to get up, and Rian and Asahi dismounted to help him. He did a double take at the older man’s reddish tone to his skin and his bright red hair, which was streaked white with age. The man gave a flicker of a smile, glancing from him to Rian. "Fire fae, young man" the wizard spoke in a rasping voice. Asahi raised an eyebrow. Rian took up the explanation, as the man was obviously in no state for idle conversation. The two were still supporting him as they walked through the house. "Fae come in four varieties. Ice, Fire, Water Earth. I don't think I need to explain the difference."

Asahi laughed lightly. "No, I think I can figure it out. But that doesn't explain what a Fae is."

The wizards eyes kept glancing at Rian; it was a bit unnerving to the Knight, but he supposed to older man wasn't exactly in a state to do any harm. He had been nervous - the story about the daughter could have been made up. But the room they went into was definitely a little girls room.

"I unfortunately only know what I learned in my studies, but from what I've read the best description is that they are elementals. Not so different from humans except for the fact that they are incredibly in tune with their element." The two wizards moved to the side of a bed which was covered in far too much blood.

The older man let out a wheezing laugh. "More different than that lad, but close enough I suppose." They were doing...something to the little girl. Rian motioned me over. "We, or really Tyr here, are forcing energy into Naia to force her wounds to close. What we need is for you to bind the wound - we're healing from the inside out, but she could still very easily bleed to death or get an infection. Unfortunately there isn't enough energy left to do more than heal her organs." Asahi raised an eyebrow at that, but obediently start to stitch up the wound. A sword had caught her across the torso; from what he could see, it had been aimed to take off her head and she had moved at the last minute. Easily a fatal wound for such a small girl - she couldn't have been more than four or so. The stitching would be ugly and definitely scar, but if the two wizards did what they said, she would live. He stitched up to her shoulder when he saw movement. Looking closer, he saw what looked to be an ear. A fox ear to be exact, and he tried to glance surreptitiously at the old man's head. If there was an ear, he certainly couldn't see it. Maybe it was something only fae kids had? The one thing he could tell though, was that the wizard was starting to look incredibly ill, his oddly hued skin now had a greyish tinge to it. What he could see of Rian - which was just his hands, as usual - looked better, but not by a lot. He quickly finished up his stitching and wrapped the bandage around the girl, doing his best not to move her any more than needed.

He sat back and pulled out the remaining ration bars from the bad on his back. As morbid as it was, they would be able to restock here, and he knew from his schooling the wizards would need food and a lot of it. Glancing back at the two men, he could see them actually shaking from fatigue. He made the decision to leave and get real food from the kitchen; the ration bars were within easy reach if they finished before he came back up. There was plenty in the cold box downstairs, fresh meat mostly from the look of it. He started a fire in the hearth and set the meat over it to cook. Grabbing some fruit he went back upstairs. He sat and waited, getting more nervous as the time passed. He was as quiet as possible, not wanting to disturb their work.

Shortly, the two began to stir, Rian slumping forward and Tyr practically collapsing against the wall. The knight practically shoved the food into their hands. "I have meat cooking downstairs, it should be done soon, I'll bring it up for you." He dashed back down the stairs, stabbed the meat onto plates and ran back upstairs as quickly as he could. Neither man looked to have moved much, although both were chewing rather lethargically on the fruit he had given them. "Is there anything else I can do to help?" It was bothering Asahi to be so helpless, but unfortunately his experience with wizards was limited and the only thing he knew was that they needed to eat afterwards.

"Food...and rest. We'll be fine." Asahi grimaced, but nodded. "Fine, can I at least put you guys into beds?"

The older man finally spoke, sounding impossibly weaker than before. "No, we'll stay here. It will be fine."
Asahi nodded again, running his hand through his hair, aggravated by his failure to do anything productive.

"Right. I'll go...put the horses away." With the rush to heal, the poor things were still saddled. It was horrible treatment of the animals, but in their defence it had been a life or death situation. He grabbed a few apples from the kitchen to appease them with.

Walking outside, he took quick stock of his surroundings, and saw a barn on the other side of the house. He led them both over, and noticed there was already a small mare sitting inside. She looked up, and he felt the tension of his mount behind him. Thankfully Rian's mount was a gelding, so things shouldn't get violent. He quickly unsaddled the two, and spent some time brushing them down. He noticed, while he was in the small barn, that the domestic (and some not so domestic) animals around the town were starting to creep out from wherever they had hidden. Asahi was very tempted to bed down in the barn; it was less disturbing in here with that indication of life.

Finally the Knight could put it of no longer and went back inside. The two men were fast asleep, and it looked like Rian had gotten some colour back. The hood of his robe had slipped back, and Asahi realized it was the first time he had seen the wizard's face. He was, as Asahi had thought, what could only be considered a pretty man. Most people had blond or reddish blond hair, with the occasional brunette - Rian’s was darker than the norm, more of an auburn colour, and it set off his extremely pale skin. It was obvious that the man spent next to no time outside. His face was long and delicate, with high, aristocratic cheekbones.

It made him wonder again why he kept his face hidden. His first thought, assuming there hadn’t been a deformity, had been that the man had been attacked or abused as a child because he was on the feminine side, but getting to know him over the past two weeks, Rian didn’t show any signs of trauma, so he had more or less ruled that out. Now his primary theory was the bastard son of one of the nobles; perhaps an affair with a foreigner to get the strange colouring. If he had been brought up by his foreigner parent, it would make sense that he wouldn’t realize just how laid back the nobles were about bastard children, so long as they didn’t attempt to steal titles from older siblings. Generally, if the eldest was illegitimate, but had the skills to inherit the title, they could. Most didn’t, but at the same time, it was all done civilly.

Asahi sighed and went to lay down in the main room, not wanting to attempt to find a bedroom without a corpse. The task of finding and laying the bodies to rest could be done in the morning, it had been far too long of a day.

tbc...