Silver Eyes

A/N - This really was supposed to be up yesterday, but I was feeling rather like D'rian, so yea, nothing got done. *bad Divanora, bad* Then when I tried to update this morning AFF kept saying my story didn't exist! So in apology, it's about twice the length I normally post.

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By the time Asahi and Naia returned D’rian was a nervous wreck. His imagination had painted the most extreme situations, from the Knight returning with a mob (complete with torches and pitchforks, for authenticity) to the man coming back and declaring his undying love (he rather like that one). Naia looked happy, and bounded over to sit in D’rian’s lap. She still wasn’t speaking, but she seemed a lot more cheerful. It calmed the wizard a bit, if she was still here, the Knight was going to get violent right away.
The other man studied the Fae’s face, studiously avoiding direct eye contact. That made him nervous, and with a near inaudible sigh, let down his illusion for the first time in two decades. The difference weren’t extreme, even though he avoided mirrors he knew his illusion didn’t change much. His face became narrower, his cheekbones higher, and his eyes slanted. The silver in his eyes became brighter as his hair darkened to so black it had blue highlights. Just enough to mark him as not human. He felt completely naked and exposed.

“Well, I have to say I didn’t quite expect that. You do a good job hiding, wizard. The best theory that I was able to come up with was that you were a disgraced noble who had ties to the non-humans.”

D’rian’s eyebrows shot up. “Noble?” He shook his head. “Are you going to turn me in?”

Asahi signed and ran his hand through his hair. “I should; I should have turned Naia in too though. But you’ve done nothing to harm me, and have instead helped. Your secret it safe with me, although I don’t understand why you work for the King. As poorly as his mental health is, he is the King, and there is no heir. And yes, I saw your face once before - when you collapsed after healing Naia. Your features are too aristocratic for a commoner, although being a Fae makes sense as well.”

“Me? No, I could probably kill him easily, even with his guards, but I’d never leave the castle alive, and I don’t want to die yet. I don’t work for him because I want to. He found out about my abilities and hired me - you don’t turn down an appointment by the King. All I’ve ever wanted is just to be left alone.” He ignored the comment about his face - it was too close to a compliment and he didn’t want his mind going in that direction. Although it seemed that Asahi wasn’t going to cause him harm, the man had yet to meet his gaze. He was also calling him wizard, instead of his name, which he didn’t much like.

“So…I suppose we should be getting packed and going? It can’t be safe to stay here since I really can’t remember much of last night.”

The Knight glowered. “No one seemed panicked, or suspicious, so we should be okay. You’re right though. Just because nothing’s happened yet doesn’t mean no one knows.”

The Fae picked Naia up off his lap and set about helping Asahi gather their stuff. It was already packed as D’rian had tired of pacing and repacked everything about ten times. He had removed a lot of his extra ’spell equipment’ since he didn’t need to keep up that farce. He still kept some stuff in the pockets of his robe, but didn’t see the point of dragging around the extra weight. It didn’t take long before they were heading to the stables and on their way. The town didn’t seem any different than yesterday, but once they were on the road again heading to the next town, D’rian had the strangest feeling of someone following them. He kept getting shivers up his spine, but no matter how many times he sent out his senses he couldn’t feel anything. The local wildlife wasn’t giving him any clues either; they would quiet down while their group went by and start back up, so if there was something following them it was either close enough to not disturb the fauna a second time, or wasn’t seen as a predator. To make matters worse, both Asahi and Naia seemed oblivious.

“How much farther is the next town? “

The Knight cast him a curious look, but still responded. “Still a ways away. If we’re lucky we’ll make it tomorrow.” The Fae grimaced. He really didn’t want to spend a night in the woods with his stalker. Usually he preferred camping to being around people, but this time he wanted a nice inn room with solid wooden walls rather than lying in the open. The wizard forced himself to calm down. It was probably nothing - he was obviously just reacting to the fact that Asahi had barely spoken to him. Once they were out of the town silence had fallen except for necessary conversations. It wasn’t exactly awkward, but more that both realized there were things being left unsaid and neither want to speak them.

They day passed torturously slowly, nothing to see but trees, nothing being spoken, and the creepy feeling of being watched never leaving. The sun was starting to set and they chose a small clearing caused by a fallen tree to make camp. The giant had obviously been felled by lightning, which left a triangular space between two halves of the trunk for them to shelter behind. All things considered it was a decent place to make camp, but it did little for D’rian’s nerves. They didn’t bother with a fire since they had enough trail rations and were only a day and a bit away from the next town. Asahi offered to take first watch, even though the wizard had made a rather foul concoction to beat the worst of his hangover he was still sleep-deprived, and hadn’t even been able to doze in the saddle with as anxious as he was feeling over his unseen watcher.

Asahi woke him halfway through the night and he grudgingly sat up and attempted to keep his eyes open. Night watch was torture in his opinion. Even if it was light enough to do something with his hands to keep himself occupied, nothing he did would be able to keep his mind from wandering. And tonight the only thing he could think of was the Knight’s reaction to his secret. The man had been acting strange, but had not reacted badly. He actually seemed uncomfortable around the Fae, which actually hurt more. If the redhead had done as he was supposed to and either turned the wizard in or killed him on the spot, it would have been the Knights duty and nothing more. He was glad it hadn’t come to that, of course, but the fact that the man seemed to not want to be around him twisted his gut. Ignoring his romantic thoughts, he had at least thought that he could call Asahi a friend; they had gotten along so well the last few weeks. Did he really think that after all that time that D’rian was a danger to him? They would have to talk and clear this up. Even their small spat in Naia’s town hadn’t been like this - that had been the result of a long night, stress, the unpleasant circumstances, and in his case fear.

A few hours passed while his thoughts circled one another, and then the forest grew quiet. He didn’t see anything, but the feeling of being watched came back and he knew it was his stalker from earlier. He reached with his abilities, but he still wasn’t able to sense anything. It was aggravating - if he could just sense the other’s energy he would be able to tell if it was safe to call out to them. He put himself into a small trance to try to feel out farther, but he just felt the random sparks of animal energy, nothing that would be following them. There were predators in these woods, but nothing big enough to attack two full grown men, and even if Naia had been a target, no regular predator would follow them the entire day waiting for a chance to attack. The silence stretched on, even though D’rian would have been able to tell that his watcher was still there regardless.

The sky was just starting to lighten in the predawn when the feeling of being watched left him. Shortly after the sounds of the forest came back. Rising with a grimace of pain at the stiffness in his legs, he woke up Asahi to break camp. It was a quick process and they were shortly waking Naia up, saddling the horses, and back on their way. D’rian had managed to drift off a few times in the saddle during the morning, but after a quick stop at mid day, the feeling came back. Luckily the Knight had said they were making good time and should be able to sleep in an inn tonight. After two nearly sleepless nights he was certainly looking forward to a bed. Another night of silence and being watched would drive him insane.

After another few hours of this. D’rian heard Asahi growl and stop his mount. “Alright, this is stopping now. I told you, I’m not going to say anything, so stop acting so twitchy like the army’s about to bloody well jump out of the trees!”

The wizard blinked in mild shock at the Knight’s outburst. Well, he supposed it was as good a time as any. “I trust your word. You said you wouldn’t turn me in, and I believe that. I’m ‘twitchy’ as you put it because it feels like something been watching us - or more specifically, me.”

The frown on Asahi’s face got worse. “Why didn’t you say something? Didn’t you think I should have been told if there was something out there threatening us? Can you tell where or what it is?”

“I didn’t say anything because I know your instincts are as good as mine, and you didn’t notice anything. At first I thought it was just because I hadn’t gotten enough sleep. But something is definitely watching us - me - but I can’t sense anything. If I had I would have warned you.”

The redhead stared at D’rian for a long moment, staring through the hood as if he could still see his face. After a minute, the Knight wheeled his horse around and kicked him into a fast paced trot. Naia looked up at him, clearly upset; he gave the girl a one armed hug and set his mount after Asahi’s. That had clearly not gone well, and it was tearing him apart. His first real friend, the first human who truly knew what he was and he had managed to destroy any semblance of friendship. The tower back at the palace was sounding better and better.

They had only been travelling for less than an hour when he managed to break out of his depressed tirade of thoughts. The Fae wanted to smack himself on the head for being so blind. The man had actually said what the problem was and he was ignoring it. Not telling him about being Fae, not telling him about the watcher meant that he didn’t trust the Knight. D’rian felt absolutely horrible and pushed his horse to catch up with Asahi, who remained a few lengths ahead of him.

“Asahi, wait up please.” The Knight slowed down but didn’t stop, looking over with a blank face. D’rian realized that other than when they were at Naia’s town, the last two days were the first time he had seen the man without a smile on his face. He wanted it back. “Look, I know that I screwed up, but I’m sorry. You have to understand, I’ve never, since I was a kid, been able to tell anyone about what I am. I’m used to distrusting people and doing things on my own. It just comes naturally to me now. I…well, I can’t remember exactly what I said the other night, but I did want to tell you, I’ve been debating whether or not to since we picked up Naia. I couldn’t bear to have you look at me in disgust or fear though, so I always stopped myself.” D’rian took a deep breath as his apology rambled to an end. He pushed back his hood slightly, wanting to be able to look the other man in the eyes.

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Asahi stared down at the familiar but different face in front of him. The strange silver eyes stared at him with such a forlorn look that he couldn’t hold onto his anger. He realized then that for all that D’rian may be older than him physically, being unable to truly interact with others had severely stunted his emotional growth, and he felt a stab of pity for the other man.

Truthfully, when the man had woken him up with his drunken ramblings - and he was NEVER letting the wizard get anywhere near an alcoholic beverage again - he had been less surprised than he should have been about Rian being Fae. It was the other’s admission of love (or at least lust, he didn’t really think the man loved him.) that threw him off. There had been no signs of his preference, and Asahi was both straight and engaged, even if he had never met her. There was no stipulation that he couldn’t have other partners before he got married, and it was unlikely that Saela would be a virgin on their wedding night either. It didn’t bother him - it actually gave him a good deal of relief. Sending a girl to her wedding with a stranger and then being bedded for the first time must be an awfully traumatic experience, and a cruel practice. He couldn’t understand the other countries that allowed their women to be treated so poorly. But for all the experience he had, he had never been attracted to a male, and even as pretty as Rian was, he thought of him as a friend and even a brother, not a potential bedmate. Besides the fact that it wouldn’t be fair to him; Asahi had his duty and regardless of whether he had wanted to get into a relationship with the wizard, it would have to end when he got married.
He had woken early, having slept fitfully the rest of the night, and dragged Naia out with him to walk around town. The first stop had been the tavern, where the same girl was still working. She remembered Rian, but spoke cheerfully about him, obviously not noticing anything different about him. With a flirtatious smile, she said she had felt bad him sitting there by himself, and that he looked sad so she treated him to a few glasses on the house. He had sighed and thanked her; it wasn’t her fault she didn’t realize he was a lightweight. With a smirk, he also realized that Rian had been right; he was prettier than her, though not by much and she was quite well endowed. If they had been there another night…

After a few hours and breakfast later, there weren’t any disturbing rumours going around about his companion and he couldn’t put off going back to the inn any longer. Even as drunk as Rian was it was unlikely that he would have slept any later. The Knight still hadn’t a clue what to say, so he decided to just ignore that issue and deal with him being Fae. He wasn’t even really angry, but annoyed at himself for not putting the clues together. When he showed Asahi what he truly looked like, the ‘noble’ features he had noticed became more catlike and clearly alien. Together with his unmistakable, glowing silver eyes, he looked like a colourless version of Tyr. He had gotten so close to guessing the truth without ever hitting on it.

He could admit to himself, and should probably admit to the wizard, that he was pissed off about this silent watcher of Rian’s because it made him question how much the other man had hidden from him. Hell, if he was okay with hiding things would he be okay with outright lying as well? He hadn’t thought Rian they type, but now apparently he didn’t know him at all.

But now, he was stuck. He wanted to believe the wizard, he wanted to be his friend and have things go back to the way they were. And he wanted to forget the rest of what Rian had said. “No more keeping things from me. If you have any other secrets, especially things that affect this mission, tell me now.”

The wizard visibly cringed, and Asahi realized the last thing he had said after the apology. He didn’t remember telling the Knight he loved him. He didn’t want to hear it again either, so he held up a hand to stop Rian from speaking first. “I don’t mean you have to tell me all your secrets, just big things like your heritage that could cause issues.”

“Nothing like that, no. Only…I don’t really know too much. My earliest memory is when I was eight, and everything about my abilities I’ve learned on my own. Tyr told me some, but not too much. He was obviously too injured to go into a lot of detail and we didn’t have much time. I do know I’m Fae, and that I can work with all the elements instead of just one, but that’s pretty much it. From the research I did on non-humans, I know Fae are the most human like, we can be killed more or less the same ways, even if it is harder to do so, and we can also die from overexerting ourselves. And…” Rian paused, looking uncertain, then plunged on. “my name is actually D’rian, not Rian. Gramps told me to call myself that when they first took me in, so I took his advice.”

A memory tugged at the Knight’s mind, but he couldn’t place it. The additional syllable sounded familiar, somehow. Shrugging it off to think about later, he digested all of the information he had been given. Most of it was textbook stuff; he remembered the part about how to kill a Fae from his training. And he knew about the elemental abilities from Tyr, though not that Ri- D’rian was some sort of hybrid of all four. He thought about how powerful Tyr had been with just fire and shuddered to think how powerful the wizard could get.

“You said you had never told anyone what you were before?” the Knight questioned with a raised eyebrow. The other looked confused and then obviously realization dawned on him.

“No, I never told Gramps and Gram what I was. They just already knew and didn’t say anything. The name was one of the few things they actually mentioned. I had already started casting the illusion on myself and hiding my eyes. Turned out that Gram was a Lykan - a wolf Were. She could probably smell that I wasn’t human.”

Well, that was certainly interesting. Another non-human hiding in the population. From the stories Rian had told she had seemed like a well-loved, kindly old lady who was called Gram not only by the boy they had taken in but everyone, kids and adults alike. How many others were there? He was going to tell the Captain of the Knights about the village and the old lady. So long as he didn’t mention D’rian or Naia, the rest were already dead and couldn’t be harmed by his report. If his Captain reacted the way he expected, the Knights would be on the watch for any nonhumans, but instead of handing them over to the army for execution, they would be able to help them hide or get to the border to one of the nonhuman- friendly neighbouring countries.

“Would you be able to? Sense other non-humans that is?”

D’rian thought about that for a few minutes, and Asahi urged his horse forward. He still wanted to get to town. If this mysterious stalker of Rian’s followed them into town it would give him a better idea of what they were dealing with.

“I could tell by their energy, like I did with Tyr. He gave off a lot of energy, as does Naia to an extent, so I’m going to guess that I could sense another Fae. I could probably sense a Drake as well, for the same reason. But other than that - no. I could never sense Gram, I never even knew if she still used her wolf form at all. Humans and non-humans without abilities have the same sort of energy, and usually feel about the same. There are exceptions - like the king, I can sense how sick he is, but I can‘t do anything about it. I can also usually tell if someone has ill intentions, their energy feels…slimy, for lack of a better word.”

Asahi looked at the wizard in shock. “You can tell all of that? About everyone? How does the King feel sick?”

“Everything has energy. Even plants and dirt have it, that’s what Earth Fae use. I can’t tell much about normal people. People who can use energy I can tell if they use it for good or bad because of how the energy feels around them. It is the difference between, for example, a fire that keeps you warm and a fire destroying a house. Or a cool breeze and a hurricane. For regular people, it is only if they affect the people around them to the point where their energy is influenced - if they are extremely philanthropic or an extreme sadist. I have only met a few people of each, and it is actually something that regular people can feel. If you ever feel drawn to someone, or get a bad feeling off someone, that’s because they’ve done enough good or harm to affect their own energy. The King - his energy feels sick. I actually get nauseous after an audience with him. It is trying to heal him but can’t. I can’t really explain it well, I’m sorry.”

“Huh, wow. Did you find all that out on your own?”

“No, that at least I had Gramps for. He was a low level wizard, and they can sense energy, which is why they can become wizards. The difference between a human wizard and a Fae or Drake is that a human body can’t hold the energy so they need a focus, which is why all wizards carry around stones and herbs and such to help them.”

They both fell into silence; Asahi was thinking about what D’rian had said about the King. It was possible that if someone had noticed the King’s sickness in his energy, they may have been able to convince the King to name an heir and step down before his madness got out of hand. Or perhaps that was another reason why he passed the decree? Perhaps one had told him and he had reacted badly? That wouldn’t even necessarily be a symptom of his illness, but of his pride. From what Asahi had been told he had been a great warrior, an excellent leader, and if he hadn’t slipped into paranoia would have been the greatest king the country had seen in some time. As it was most of the country flourished, it was just those caught on his bad side that suffered unfairly. Such a waste.

The rest of the afternoon passed pleasantly, back to the way it had been. Asahi would ask every so often if the watcher was still there, and D’rian would get a grim look on his face and nod. Unfortunately there was nothing they could do about it until it showed itself. D’rian seemed convinced there was only one - whatever - out there, so it didn’t pose a threat yet, but there was no way of knowing if it was a scout and if there were more. They could even be walking into a trap. Asahi kept his hand on his sword even after he saw the lights of the next town. It stayed there until they were well inside and D’rian said the feeling was gone.

Tbc…

A/N ah, see, the whole D'rian/Rian thing wasn't just typos. That may or may not be dealt with this story. If it's not there will be a sequel.