Author: Zilent1
Rating: PG (for now)
Warnings: Mild swearing
Notes: This is the first chapter but it's a teaser. Meaning you shouldn't expect the next chapters any time soon :). Reviews and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated. [e-mail]
Thanks: Wolf and Drina for beta-reading ;D
Archive: °Z e n i t h Seraphic°, __demonwings_ LJ
Disclaimer: All characters, locations and terms used herein are of my own creation. Anything names related to any persons, dead or alive, are purely coincidental.
Chapter One
~ + ~
Muted whispers and fading sight whirled around in a mind of darkness. Swirling, swirling, creating blurs of nothingness. Air stilted and feelings numbed, mind covered in a heavy blanket as bright streaks rush past eyes unseeing. A deep pounding of panic echoes in all-hearing ears, hearing a roaring buzz growing closer with each beat.
Closer and closer it comes, like angry bees chasing the honey thief. Closer and closer as the streaks race faster toward an indefinite finish line, and the pounding becomes deeper. Bright red, blue, yellow, green and white, each with a different taste, storming past and weaving with one another, creating nothing but chaos on a background of black.
Then it stops.
All is silent; all is still, all is nothing but a heavy blanket of darkness. Then a deep resonating chord strums deep in the back –only once. And as if the breaking of a dam the darkness shatters inwards, revealing grotesque images hidden behind the long gone safety of the mental barrier. A bloodcurdling scream tears the last threads of sanity and the walls bleed a blinding white blood that drowns all.
A heart beats quietly in the stillness of the night, against a sweat covered chest as green eyes stared at, but not seeing, the ceiling above. Lips parted and an outlet of breath turned into an icy fog that billowed against the coldness.
“The Damned was that about?” came a confusion-and-sleep-filled voice. But the room was silent in having no answer, not seeing what those eyes did.
Unconsciousness grabbed its sibling by the ankle and the ceiling became blurred when a mottled darkness from eyelids fell over green eyes, into the clutches of sleep.
Childlike laughter rang through the air, playing a sweet tune to welcome the new day. Fresh green grass trampled upon by naïve feet that ran cheerfully onwards, skipping about to unknown joyfulness. Russet and black birds twittered amongst themselves in morning conversation, mingling with the laughter to bring a joyful sound found so damned annoying by one slumbering youth called Sethyn.
The boy groaned beneath his bed covers, unsuccessfully trying to block out all annoying disturbances and attempting to go back to blessed unconsciousness.
'Stupid, annoying brats! Don’t they understand the meaning of sleep?'
A squeal of cheerfulness pierced through the twittering and laughing as if mocking him, and the boy who was trying to maintain sleep sat up with an ugly scowl on his face. His brown hair was a mess that was matted down against his head and the tips of his slightly pointed ears, a common trait on any Sardi, protruded from these sweat-drenched locks. Another squeal rang out, causing him to growl in the back of his throat and his groggy bottle green eyes look angrily towards the shuttered window.
“One day,” he growled to the empty room, “I swear I’m going to do something downright horrible to them!” Shoving aside his bed covers he stalked over to the aperture that allowed such irritating sounds to enter and flung aside the wooden shutters.
His jaw clenched when he found that the brats were directly beneath his window. Gripping the ledge with one tanned hand, he closed his eyes and went into deep concentration. The wording pattern of the Dream chant twirled around his fisted left hand, white symbols floating on a thin transparent scroll. Raising the hand before his mouth, he blew at the pattern, sending it out into the air before him.
Opening his eyes, he watched it float gracefully toward the unsuspecting group. As they laughed, the pattern silently tore itself apart and its remnants showered down unfelt upon the unsuspecting brats. With glassy looks in their eyes, they were swept away into a sudden daydream.
Cloaked in darkness is a constant scratch upon the floor. Little hearts thump inside young chests, scared of what is lying beyond. Suddenly everything becomes light to reveal a very angry head, brown hair stuck up in odd places, face red with anger. Taking a deep breath, it yells, “IN THE NAME OF ARDUKIA, WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND LET ME SLEEP!”
The brats started screaming in their annoying high voices making Sethyn cringe. Little tear filled eyes instinctively swiveled toward Sethyn’s window, who happened bear a striking resemblance to the head in the Dream.
“You’re mean!”
“I’m telling on you!”
“Why should we listen to you?”
Sethyn let out an irritated sigh at their various shouted remarks and rubbed his temples; suddenly wishing he hadn’t wasted his ability on the sniveling little rodents. 'Why didn’t I just go with the hawk idea? It would’ve scared them shitless!'
Turning away from the window, Sethyn looked around his room as if figuring out what to do next. Was today an Academy day? He wasn’t sure, but scratching the back of his head, he walked over to his cupboard and pulled out the dark green robes that hung in the corner.
“It’s almost time for my Giving,” he murmured to himself, shifting uncomfortably beneath the scratchy robes. “Then I can really prove my worth to Father and live up to the Ky’tas name.”
He reached over to the chair beside him and absentmindedly fingered the black cloak that lay there proudly displaying the golden Ardukian symbol for three. He caressed the silky material between his fingers in a calming motion, letting it slip through them as he closed his eyes with a quiet sigh.
'Dark have been my dreams of late, but what was it that I dreamt last night? The whiteness – it’s almost as if it’s a-' His calm thoughts shriveled up when an unwelcome shriek pierced through. He eyes opened slightly and glared daggers toward the window but making no move toward it. 'I have better things to do with my time.'
Shaking his head, he grabbed the cloak and pulled it around his shoulders, relishing the feel of the soft material soothing the scratchy robes beneath. Tanned fingers pushed the solitary button through the loop with ease as green eyes started at the black boots across the room.
“I wonder if my next ability ‘ll be ‘kinesis? That would be bliss,” he said amusedly to himself.
"Yeah, bliss all right - if you want constant migraines," came a scathing voice from behind him. Sethyn grinned as he tried to calm his heartbeat from the unexpected voice but didn't turn to the newcomer as he futilely tried to use his non-existant Telekinesis power to move his boots.
"Alucard, what a pleasant surprise," Sethyn drawled, turning his head slightly to see the dark haired boy crouched in his window, wearing a similar outfit to Sethyn's.
"Sethyn, you know I couldn't resist. Besides it's not every morning you wake up to your friend's haywire broadcasting," Alucard said, adjusting his fingerless gloves while watching Sethyn out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t strain, you’ll hurt your head.”
Sethyn faced his friend with a frown on his face, not rising to the bait that was Alucard’s ‘advice’. "Haywire? What exactly-"
"I never took you for one to waste your oh so high power on such innocent brats," Alucard mused before pointing out the obvious. "Immature Dreamweave too, and ineffective."
Sethyn narrowed his eyes, Alucard's last words falling on death ears. "Innocent my ass! It's what they deserve for making so much noise too early in the morning. I was sleeping!" 'Or making up for lack of,' he added silently.
"Think of it as your community alarm clock,” Alucard said good-naturedly, shifting slightly. "You wouldn't've woken up if I was the alarm clock."
"You don't squeal every ten minutes!" Sethyn shot back, turning his back on the other boy and physically retrieving his boots, a dull thud in his head mocking his earlier attempts at doing so psychically. He didn't need to see his friend's face to know there was a wicked grin on it. He could feel it, burning straight into his back. "And stop grinning before I knock your teeth out!"
"You won’t have a tongue if your father heard you speaking like that to me!” snapped a voice in the wrong direction.
Sethyn froze as he tied his laces, the room becoming deathly silent before drowning in a heavy beat that pounded against his chest and in his ears.
'Oh Gods.'
He turned slowly to face her, apology on his tongue and shock written on his face. "Mother, I-i-"
His pathetic stammering was muted by the look in her eyes, a look that told him to shut up before she caused any mental pain. "Your father wishes to speak to you," she said sharply before turning away.
Sethyn’s eyes turned to stone as he watched her walk away, wishing she hadn't been the harbinger of such an unwanted summoning. Anything his father had to say wasn't good. It never was. In fact, anything involving Sethyn and his father spelled out disaster. Focusing his attention on the room he realised something. 'Where the Damned did Alucard go? That coward!'
«If you must curse me, do it silently» came Alucard's grating mental voice in the back of his mind, in a tone that suggested amusement more than annoyance. «In fact, I th-»
Sethyn growled before slamming his mental shields down, cutting Alucard off, and staring angrily out the door, shooting a look of heated arrows at the hallway wall, scaring his younger brother as he popped his head in.
"’Ey! S'because Papa wants to speak to you, don't mean you gotta take it out on me!" He pouted, a frown that paled in comparison to Sethyn's flitted across his childish features before a malevolent grin replaced the pout. "‘Sides, I told on you!"
There was a slight pause before Sethyn realized what he was talking about and strode with thunderous footsteps toward the boy. Rœdyn’s eyes became wide and stood out from his face before disappearing into the safety of a flurry of colours. "You little brat! Get back here!" A door slamming in response was the menacing calm before the violent storm.
"Sethynitis Ky'tas!" roared a voice from below that seemed to shake the foundations of the earth. Sethyn clenched his hands into fists and slammed his right hand into the hard plaster wall. The sickening sound of bones cracking snapped in his ears as the pain coursed through his body; a sharp stabbing as psychic power flew the wrong direction. An angry grunt escaped his mouth as the only vocal acknowledgement of pain as his feet silently walked down the stairs as if they were walking to the very bowels of the Raneq.
«See you in Hell.»
With his head bowed, brown tresses covered sight of anything but the floor beneath him.
"Sethynitis." The voice was edged in a way that a razor holds an edge, cutting deep and drawing blood a second before the pain comes.
Sethyn's eyes looked up at his father in a feigned bored manner, with one eyebrow cocked. "Yeah?" Inside, he swallowed hard on lump of fear as he trembled at what his father had to say, while mocking mental laughter echoed in the back of his mind.
'Shut up, Alucard!' he snapped to himself, hoping Alucard heard him despite the barrier. Alucard always had a way of getting past his mental barriers, especially when Sethyn was frustrated. Alucard was a mystery within himself, seemingly appearing out of nowhere a few years ago, as if he had a wayward Teleportation. There was also the blatant evidence that he was not of the southern Territory that Sethyn called home, as he had none of their distinguishing features, nor did he appear to have any family.
«Should I be honoured that you’re thinking about me? Or should I be worried? Either way...»
Sethyn blinked at the silence that surrounded him. Not just in his mind but also in the physical world. But the physical silence was the deadly one, watching, waiting for him to make a mistake so the finishing move could be carried out. Silence that waited with leashed patience and a sharp blade.
Sethyn looked at his father stupidly. “Sorry, wasn’t listening. Can you repeat that?” Patience was released as the blade swung down and the earth beneath Sethyn jolted upwards.
'Shit!'
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