Along the Great Divide

When Ludwig had gotten enough rest, they moved on, heading towards the source of their very excursion of the outside world. Their second home. Holding hands together as they traveled through a town, purchasing some milk as they passed through, they noticed that the hunt was starting to lessen greatly the closer they move to the sea. Races from all over seemed to blend together.

However, there was one thing for certain. Ludwig and Mamoru were more unique than any of them.

“You think maybe Yuri or someone could still be alive?”Ludwig asked as they took a break to feed the infant kitten.

“It’s possible…I’m not sure what happened to the 9 Lords. Some say, they died. Others that they still live…There’s only one way to find out, really…”Mamoru mused, watching the kitten feed from the wetted corner of a cloth.

“Mm…”Ludwig hummed, watching the kitten feed. It was almost making him a little thirsty just watching. Looking away, he glanced up, raising his eyebrows. There above them was a tree of abundant fruit. Rising to his feet, he hopped up, grabbing a few and pulling them down. “Hey…I remember these. We picked some on the way to the Lake I think. Can’t remember what they’re…”

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A tall, robed figure stood against the glare of the light as they hovered up, pulling a few orbs down from the tree and landing back down gracefully. A tanned hand extended towards him, bearing a sweet, ripe fruit.
“It’s called an Orange…And it’s not just because of the color. It’s so sweet, I think you’ll really like it Ludwig. Here’s one for you too Mamoru.”Theron smiled, handing them the round citrus. Another one was tossed to a shadowed face leaning against the tree. The other person didn’t speak.

“Thank you! This does really look yummy. Thanks, Pappi.”Ludwig said, watching Theron peel back the skin of the orange, and the two following suit.

“Pappi?”Theron questioned, sitting down on the grass with them with a confused look. “When did you learn that, Ludwig? It’s Amestrian but I never taught you that.”

“When we were in Suna, when the caravan had camped out in front of the 9 Lord’s Keep I think... I don’t know what it meant then until I asked Gridgor in Silvanesti. It means ‘father’ doesn’t it?”A small Ludwig asked, biting into a piece of orange. “It seems to suit you. ‘Papa’ for Hezekiah, ‘Pappi’ for you.”

“Wiggy, that’s really clever!”Mamoru laughed, bringing a hand up to brush a little bit of food that had managed to stick to Ludwig’s cheeks. “I like that plan. Can I call you and Hezekiah ‘Pappi’ and ‘Papa’ too?”

Theron blinked, staring at the two and looking over to the shadow under the tree with a loving smile. He turned back to the two of them, bringing a hand to smooth down their shortly cropped hair. “Of course. We would love it if you used our fatherly names.”He said, shuffling to give them each a kiss on top of the head.

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“Wiggy! Ludwig, please wake up! Please!”Mamoru was shouting, shaking him. Ludwig opened his eyes, blinking and sitting up, startling the Mage.

“What? What happened?”Ludwig asked, rubbing his eyes and looking over to Mamoru who seemed to be on the brink of tears. Around them, it seemed like it had started to slowly settle into the evening.

“You collapsed. You picked the Oranges and suddenly just fell over. You wouldn’t wake up for a good two hours now. “Mamoru said, wiping his eyes quickly and grabbing Ludwig’s shoulders. “You need to feed and we need to get you out of the sunlight.”

“Mamoru…”Ludwig muttered, bringing a hand to his shoulder and petting the pale hand. “We’re not out of th—“
“I don’t care! Ludwig…I don’t want you to die…Even if you’re being so…So stubborn about taking care of yourself! We’re finding the nearest place to rest and there are no buts about it!”Mamoru said, making it very clear by shaking the Vampire some. Ludwig stared at him but conceived. There was no arguing…especially since he knew Mamoru could probably really make him if he wanted, using his magic of course.

“Fine…There should be a town somewhere close. We’ll rest there for the night.”Ludwig sighed, looking down at the kitten settled in the sling. Reaching out, he gently took it in his hands, petting the feather-soft fur. “And a warm place for him to sleep…”

Mamoru seemed to calm down seeing Ludwig with the kitten, sitting back on his legs and letting out a long sigh. “Thank you…”He breathed, bringing a hand through his hair. Ludwig smiled, nodding and slowly rising to his feet.

When he was well enough to start walking again, they made it to a relatively small village, the only inn being above an equally small restaurant. They rented a room, retreating upstairs and closing the curtains to block out the light. It was a relief to finally be able to remove the heavy cloaks and packs, even better to sleep on a comfortable bed. Ludwig lay with the kitten resting on his stomach, his chest being very still since he didn’t really need to breathe.

“Ludwig…are you ready?”Mamoru asked, sitting on the bed, moving the kitten away so it was resting in a nest of his white cloak on the opposite bed.

“That’s a silly question…I should be asking you that.”Ludwig said, cracking an eye open and slowly sitting up. Mamoru scooted closer, adjusting his robes a little. A chilly hand reached out and stopped him before taking over the duties of the previous hands.

Ludwig could see Mamoru shiver a little, his own touch being as cold as ice without the warmth of having fed filling his system. When the robes had been moved, draped down by the mage’s sweet wrists, Ludwig guided him so he was lying down, leaning his head down to kiss at the wound. A swift bite and the warmth of blood filled his mouth.

“U-Unnn!”Mamoru groaned, his hands reaching up through the black tresses of hair, tugging and coiling his fingers through it. “M-More!”

Ludwig could feel himself grow hard but he resisted as much temptation that he could to take the pale body beneath him then and now. Mamoru moaned, grinding down on him as he sucked on the weeping wound, running his tongue along it and swirling the mess around. Raising his head up, he stared down, his eyes glowing red briefly and settling down to a cool violet.

“Luuuudwwwiiiigggg…Plleeasse!”Mamoru moaned, pulling him back down for a kiss.

How could he resist?

“Roll onto your stomach…”Ludwig ordered, the mage eagerly doing it and quite fast too. Bringing his hand to remove the robes, he gave the pants a tug on the way down, exposing the pale backside and erect package with it. Mamoru’s supple cheeks swayed back and forth, the aroused mage chuckling softly. Leaning forward, he gave one of the cheeks a little nip, the Mage squealing delightfully.

While Mamoru was bent over, Ludwig reached around to stroke the hard member in his hand while a single, moistened digit slide into the slickened opening. He pushed his finger as deep as he could go, wiggling it around. He got a short, keening moan from it. As he stroked, he slowly added another digit through, scissoring and spreading him out a little more. The more he worked, the more Mamoru pushed back.

“Uuuunnn~, Wiggy pleeassee!”Mamoru moaned, sitting up and reaching back to stroke the front of Ludwig’s trousers. Ludwig stopped stroking, using that hand to grab the wrist, pulling it away and pinning it behind his back.

“No…I am going to show you that we don’t need to keep going at it just to get by…”Ludwig said lowly and sternly. He wanted to know his own limits, just what exactly he could do. In addition, he wanted to see if he could stave off his own need to take Mamoru as well as to prevent him from hurting him in the future. They still had a long ways to go.

Mamoru keened when Ludwig added a third digit, starting to spread them around, pumping into him like his member would have. He was actually finding this interesting, testing a bit of his speed as well. His hips couldn’t go as fast but his fingers sure as hell could.

Mamoru moaned, almost screaming and Ludwig slowed down. However, feeling the bottom push back again, he could only decipher that as ‘more’.

“Do…Do that again!”Mamoru panted, looking over his shoulder. Ludwig flashed a smile.

“What do you say…?”Ludwig teased, slowly pulling his fingers out.

“P-Please! Ludwig!”Mamoru begged.

Ludwig felt himself salivate, wriggling his fingers around a little more. He started out slowly, steadily increasing his speed until he was going only as fast as he felt Mamoru’s body would allow. Curling his fingers slightly, he felt Mamoru’s body jolt and tighten around his fingers.

“AH AH AHHHH!”Mamoru keened, gripping the sheets as his toes curled.

“That’s it…Let it out.”Ludwig cooed, giving long hard strokes of his fingers inside of Mamoru as well as leaning forward to stroke him lovingly until he felt that beautiful pale body tremble with peak.

“NNn~”Mamoru mewed, trembling underneath him. He looked over his shoulder with an extremely pleased smile.
Ludwig flashed him a little smile in return, leaning up to give the flushed cheek a kiss. Removing his fingers, he helped Mamoru to lie on his side, lying behind him with a warm arm around him. “Feeling better?”He whispered softly.

Mamoru nodded.”That was amazing….”He said with a long breath. He rolled onto his back a little, arching with little ripples of pleasure that still shocked through his system.


“I’m glad…Mamoru. For now, you should rest….I will be right here.”Ludwig said softly, bringing his hand to move a few tendrils of pale hair away from the frail face, Mamoru smiling up at him warmly as he rolled over and buried his face in his chest.

In the morning, they left before the sun could rise in order to get an early start. With having fed, the Vampire found renewed energy and was able to withstand the light. With their hoods up and their heads a little higher, they headed towards the sea. It took them more than the day, finally reaching the smell of the salty, cool air as they stood at the precipice of one of the high cliffs.

“Has it always been this calm?”Ludwig asked, gazing out around the sea, looking to Mamoru who was shivering.

“Y-yes and just as cold! It’s colder than your town Wiggy, let’s find somewhere warm immediately!”Mamoru said, grabbing Ludwig’s cloak and burying himself underneath it. Ludwig laughed softly, turning but stopping halfway and looking down to the beach. Down along the breach of the waves, his eyebrows rising as he stopped, leaning forward some to peer through the dark.

“There’s someone down there in the water.”Ludwig said, Mamoru peeking his head out from under his cloak to gaze as well.

“What? In this weather?”Mamoru said, narrowing his eyes as well. “Oh! It’s a mage!”

“Hold on.”Ludwig said, grabbing onto Mamoru and starting to run.

“Wait! Wiggy, Wiggy, LUUUUUDDWWWWIIIIIGGG!”Mamoru squealed as Ludwig jumped off the cliffs they had been standing on, falling towards the beach. However, they seemed to have touched ground much more softly than he would have thought. Shivering, he looked up to Ludwig who seemed to have a much more panicked face after landing than he did when they were falling.

“T-That was much scarier than I thought…”Ludwig said, his legs starting to quiver a little. Mamoru laughed a little but encouraged him to start walking so he could retrieve whoever it was that had fallen.

Ludwig picked up the figure in white from the water, trudging back to the beach. He removed his cloak, seeing as he didn’t really need it at the moment and wrapped it around the body, trying to warm them up. “Hey, Hey, Mister, can you hear me? Say somethin’!”He said, trying to coax them from unconsciousness.

“Cold…Home…There…”A weak voice called, a hand rising up to point up to the cliffs where a castle sat. “Warm…”

“Ludwig…he’s from Castle Grayharte…”Mamoru said, looking up at the castle with wide eyes.

“That’s Castle Grayharte?”Ludwig said with surprise. “It seems much smaller than I remember…”

“That’s because we were small when we first came. Let’s get him home…Maybe someone there can tell us about what’s been going on?”Mamoru said as he got up from his knees, helping Ludwig to rise up steadily and carry the stranger up to a small pass that lead back up to the castle. Once they were on more solid ground and stood at the gate of the castle, a group of people with lanterns had come out to meet them.

“High Mage Rhoma! Thank you Sirs for finding him.” An advisor said as two guards helped Ludwig to lower the Mage onto the stretcher they brought, letting them take him along with his own cloak. “Please, do come inside and warm up. You two are more than welcome to stay the night on this freezing evening.”They added.

“Oh! That would be lovely…We haven’t been to Grayharte in some time.”Mamoru said sweetly.

“Oh?”The Advisor said, peering at the two and raising up the lantern. He stared at Mamoru, his eyebrows rising in surprise. “My word, you look just like Yuri! Please, come in, you must come meet him.”

“Wait…Yuri is here?”Ludwig said in surprise, the name sounding familiar.

The Advisor stared at them, looking from Mamoru to Ludwig and back again. His eyebrows narrowed. “You two will come with me immediately.”He said, the two watching him turn but they knew it would be bad to turn down the orders of one of the advisors.

Following him inside, Mamoru found that he was slowly warming up and removed his cloak. The Advisor was muttering something, pulling a maid aside to whisper something into her ear. She nodded, retreating as they continued on their way. They stopped at a room in which they were given some warm blankets and something to drink.

“Please, wait here. Lord Yuri will be here shortly.”He said before bowing and leaving.
The motion was a little odd. Ludwig’s eyebrows furrowed with worry but there was something else that was bothering him. In the light of the lanterns, the Mage’s pale face had chilled him to the bone. The face was a mirror image of a face he felt had passed away long ago. Mamoru seemed to be calm and content, drinking the tea with a pleased face. It would only be a few more minutes when a pale figure stepped into the room, his eyes wide with awe.

“Mamoru…Ludwig…Is…Is it really you?”Yuri stuttered, staring at them with wide cobalt eyes.

“Lord Yuri! This is a real surprise! I thought you would be at the Lord’s Keep!”Mamoru said, rising to his feet to give the older Mage a warm hug. Standing side-by-side, they looked as if they could have been twins with their pale hair and frail features. Ludwig rose politely to his feet to bow a little.

“Mamoru, I can’t believe you actually did it. You found Ludwig after all this time…But how? We all thought he had passed away? What faith you have…Reyah be blessed…”Yuri breathed, hugging Mamoru warmly then moving over to do the same of Ludwig.

Ludwig flinched.

“Ludwig, you’re freezing cold! Here, wrap the blanket around you a little more.”Yuri said, encouraging Ludwig to sit down and warm up. However, the two knew that he would never really.

“So Yuri, can you tell us what’s happened over the years? What of Pappi and Papa?”Mamoru asked, sitting down as the older Mage joined them from a seat just across from them.

“Your fathers were well for a long time. Hezekiah had his fair share of battles and Theron joined him at his side for every one of them. Until he became pregnant of course…”Yuri explained.

“Pregnant!?”Mamoru and Ludwig exclaimed at the same time, looking at each other.

“Yes… It was his final task as the 9th Lord. For generations, they have been searching for the perfect body to bring the True 9th into the world. Theron’s body was a balance of peace and violence, love and hate, man and woman.” Yuri continued. “The child was born of perfect balance. He only need to be loved and your fathers did that well. The Lords did not interfere until he was old enough to start practicing Magery like yourself Mamoru.”

“How long did they live?”Ludwig asked, his eyebrows furrowed but he held a small smile.

“For a long time…It was from old wounds and their bond that they both passed away at the same time. From my understanding, after Rhoma was born and Hezekiah had fallen ill, Theron had synced their souls so when one passes so will the other. In that way, when Hezekiah went to fight or something happened to Theron…they would both cease to exist.”Yuri said, bowing his head.

“So…When?”Mamoru said, his eyes glistening. Ludwig could tell that he was trying to keep from crying.

“To the ripe old ages of 70 and 65…So perhaps almost 50 years ago.”Yuri said, bringing a hand to his chin in thought. “It was Theron who passed first of weakness of age…then Hezekiah not even a day behind him.”

“They lived a long time…That’s good. Though…I guess this does mean that one of Hezekiah heirs is currently on the throne?”Ludwig said, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief.

“Indeed. After coming to the conclusion that they wouldn’t be able to have children after Rhoma was born, Your Father, Mamoru, conceded and Hezekiah bore several children. It is his Great-grandson who is currently on the throne and Rhoma has been at his side since.”Yuri said with a soft content smile.

“You keep saying ‘Rhoma’….”Ludwig said, his eyebrow raising.

“Oh! You didn’t know? That man you rescued is Rhoma, the high mage here and also your younger brother.”Yuri said with a smile and rising to his feet. “You must be tired. I’ll have the maids prepare a room for you since I know how much you must have searched…It would be pointless to separate you two now.”

“Thank you…”Mamoru said softly, rising to his feet. “Would you mind if we wandered around?”

“Of course not! This is your home after all, sweetheart. Feel free to go through any room that you please and do come visit the temple when you have time.”Yuri said, giving a small bow and departing.

“Why look at the palace?”Ludwig asked, rising and joining him, wrapping his arms around him to envelop him in warmth.

“Maybe it will help you to remember? There is so much that you have forgotten…”Mamoru said, rubbing his back. “I just wish I could help you in some way.”

“Mamoru-love, you are…Maybe not so much in physically doing something but there are things that you show me or bring up that help me wonderfully. Things like this take some time…but you can help me by telling me stories.”Ludwig said, bending down to taking his hand and start to walk with him out of the room. Mamoru seemed to smile a little more as they walked around the palace.

Through every room, Mamoru told him a story. Little ones about their practical jokes or special moments to when they spent time together as a family and times when they didn’t…The final room the stopped in, guards were posted outside.

“Whose room is this?”Mamoru asked, leaning to the side some.

“High Mage Rhoma’s room…He’s resting at the moment…Apparently suffered a nasty fall off of the palace balcony.” The guard explained.

“Balcony? It’s a little hard if there’s a railing…I wonder how he managed that. We’ll be back later to visit him, do take care of him…won’t you?”Mamoru said with a bright smile. The guards blushed, nodding and watched the two of them walk away.