by SALSAlys » Wed Nov 12, 2003 12:03 am
Marianne sighed, looking at her notebook as she walked down the Doman streets. The bills were piling up, and much as she hated to do it, she knew she had no other choice...
Time to write slash again, she thought resignedly. Despite her loathing of the genre, the public lapped it up, especially if she wrote about famous figures. And it DID pay the rent...
Glancing to the side, she saw a restauraunt at which a slender black mage wearing robes of a fine cut sat with a trim, muscular blonde man. The latter was wearing a black coat, and Marianne's curiousity was piqued. Inobstrusively, she took a seat on a bench where she could just catch the gist of the conversation, including the blonde man's name.
Alonso. Certainly has a ring to it, Marianne decided, and began scribbling furiously.
Alonso's brown eyes narrowed as he looked across the table at the man with the blue-green hair. For a few brief moments, the Black Soul Knight allowed himself to wonder how such hair would appear in the soft haze of early morning light, but dismissed it as irrelevent to the matter at hand.
"So do you know the reason as to why Mr. Messiah fled Barius?" inquired Inverse, his green eyes glittering with curiousity. Alonso had no doubt that Inverse had more than mere curiousity about this; the man was infamous for being a rumormonger. However, he wasn't inclined to give such information out haphazardly. Alonso maintained his silence.
Inverse ran his tongue over his lips, moistening them as he toyed with the fork in his hand, taking a small, almost delicate bite of a piece of pheasant.
"Of course, there are many rumors about it. Some being more believable than others," continued the black mage, cupping his chin in his hands.
"Oh?" Alonso asked guardedly. There was something disarming about the man's gaze...
"Well, the most unbelievable is the one regarding a rather— overfondness of Peerless. No matter what Mr. Messiah's sexual deviances are, I most sincerely doubt he is truly interested in a tentacled monster as a paramour."
Alonso nodded slightly. He could speak otherwise, though— Vaniyakna, while his superior and a man he respected, made him feel... unclean. Whenever he saw Vaniyakna's eyes on him, or felt his gaze on his back, he couldn't shake an unhealthy feeling that he was Vaniyakna's favorite for more than just being a skilled fighter...
"—while phallic symbols have their place, I'm afraid I can't perceive their place being on the ends of tentacles," continued Inverse, and Alonso felt himself jolted back to the conversation, nodding slightly.
The Knight hadn't touched any food at the restaurant, though Inverse had offered. Alonso had his own sense of honor, and knew his mission. He couldn't accept food or drink from a man who was under a death sentence.
'Oh lord Vaniyakna, why must you make me kill a man who it seems I could be friends with?' he wondered. Ever since his brother had died fighting rebels, he had sworn to help his country however he could, but never before had he felt this bond of FRIENDSHIP forming. As a Knight, he was often too busy with training to form friendships, and he kept too much of a professional demeanor to ever truly grow close to his comrades, while his reputation frightened others.
Inverse dabbed at his lips with a napkin, and finished the last of his wine before gliding to his feet smoothly as a waiter brought the bill. The man didn't even look at it though, and instead tossed down a few coins of large denomination; more than enough to pay for two such meals as he had consumed. Alonso raised an eyebrow at such an extravagant display of wealth, but the mage just smiled enigmatically.
'Why, lord Vaniyakna...?'
The two men exited the restaurant, as cool dusk settled over the streets. Inverse removed his hat, and the fading light stained his hair a rich blue like the depths of the sea. He shrugged his shoulders, rolling his neck loosely before smiling at Alonso.
"Are yo quite sure you have nothing to say about the rumors surrounding Mr. Messiah?"
"Quite sure."
They walked in silence from there, Alonso's nerves taut. Just waiting for the correct moment...
"Did you hear something from there?" he asked Inverse, turning his head to look quizzically down an alleyway.
"Sorry?" replied the mage, one eyebrow arched.
"Hm." Alonso made for the alley entrance, already beginning to slide the hidden dagger from his sleeve into his hand. Inverse followed behind, and every footsteps the pair made echoed in Alonso's mind before he twirled abruptly, slamming Inverse into a wall, the dagger fully out whiel the other hand pinned Inverse to the wall. The man's mouth was opening to scream—
Without thinking, Alonso jammed his mouth onto Inverse's, his first reaction to stifle the mage before he could let out a sound. Their tongues met in a wet, moist tangle which made Alonso's vision blur, his knees feeling weak in a way that—
'NO! My country! I must NOT give in!' he thought savagely, withdrawing as quickly as he had gone forward, biting his lip as his hands trembled, the knife now at Inverse's throat and barely pricking the skin. He could taste blood in his mouth, rich and coppery— but underneath it, no matter how he tried to ignore it, the warmth of another's inner fluids, the faint taste of rosemary and herbs...
"...Alonso?!"
He couldn't hold it in anymore, releasing Inverse as he gave a soul-wracking sob, pushing himself away and flinging the knife to the ground, where it skittered out of sight. Spasms of tears shook his entire body as he choked out, "Go... Vaniyakna will kill me for letting you go, but..."
"Alonso, no! It doesn't have to be this way! Are you resigning from Vaniyakna's service?" Inverse's thin, long-fingered hands went up to graze the flesh about his throat, unable to believe his brush with death.
"There is no resignation from Lord Vaniyakna... only death, or escape. THAT is why Jaeko fled Barius. And why... I... must... die..."
"But you don't have to go back!"
"I am not strong enough! I swore my life to the service of my country, and part of that service was to kill you! BUT I CANNOT!"
"...Alonso. That kiss— was beyond anything I had shared with any woman before. Or ANYONE. I— surely there must be some way! You could talk with Mr. Amanziani, and with your knowledge of Vaniyakna, you could doubtless—"
"It's a matter of honor. I must not bring shame to my family— my brother died fighting REBELS. I cannot become one myself!"
"Honor, is it?" The rumour-monger's mouth twisted down bitterly. "Must it all be honor, with you? Why can you not break away from your loyalty to an unjust ruler?"
"I have made it my life to serve him. Only with death can it cease."
"You and your bizarre sense of honor—" He crouched by the Knight, slender arms enfolding Alonso as he rocked him gently. "What must I do to persuade you?" he whispered, warm breath tickling the fine hairs at the back of Alonso's neck.
Alonso's response was wordless.
They stayed in the alley until dawn's first soft light broke across the sky. Alonso breathed a deep sigh, looking to the sky before he began gathering his coat about him again. Though exhausted from the night's activities, he still knew his duty. He looked down at Inverse, his hair now a soft, almost pastel green under the gentle fingers of the dawn. His heart ached, seeking to hold the memory close to him until death.
"Nothing I've said— nothing we've shared is making you change your mind?" murmured Inverse, though the look in his eyes showed he already knew the answer.
"I'm sorry. I love you, but my loyalties come first," whispered Alonso, tears swimming across his vision before he stood.
"...I will remember you for as long as I live," Inverse said softly.
"I will too, beloved. Not that I'll have much longer," Alonso replied, with a crooked smile which Inverse had come to love in the brief span he had known it. With that, the Knight went from the city to seek his commander, and to declare that his mission had gone unfulfilled, so that the sentence would be death...
Marianne nearly jumped. The men were coming out, and if they could see what she was writing....
Bah. Shoddy work; I can work on it a bit more at home, she decided, though not before scribbling her signature at the end and running off.
Ms. Sue
Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=salsalys>SALSAlys</A] at: 11/14/03 1:14 am