by Kotoki » Tue Jul 22, 2003 6:45 pm
The first thing that Raile notices when he wakes up is that his arms itch. The second thing is that he is very warm, and lying on a soft bed. The third thing is, after looking up, that someone with very long silver hair and deep blue eyes is looking back down at him.
"Are you an angel?" Raile asks in complete honesty.
Someone else in the room starts to laugh. "Wow, Sean," comments a female voice pleasantly, "how many times have you gotten that one?"
"Many time, in extremely different situations," responds the man with grin. He looks down at Raile again. "Good morning. Before you ask where you are, this is the medical ward of the Riveran Sacred Temple of Ashura. Would you like some tea? Something to eat?"
Raile sits up in the bed- it takes a little while. When he looks around, he sees that he is in a room which has been painted a soothing pale yellow. The windows open onto a sunny courtyard with large, leafy trees. His throat hurts and his arms are still itching, but he feels much better than dead.
"Yes, please," he says quietly. "Both."
"Right. Haruna, if you would?" A ginger-coloured Nekojin woman sitting on the sofa, presumably the one who spoke earlier, nods and exits the room. Sean smiles at her back. "That's Haruna Mizutani, a colleague of mine. I myself am Sean Valentine, a humble priest of Ashura."
The boy tentatively extends a hand. "Raile Hawking."
Sean kisses it, lightly. "Well then, Raile," he says, "you've been asleep for about a day and a half now. You came rather close to dying back in that field. In fact, you probably could have died before we found you... If not from your cuts, then from the cold."
"Why didn't I?" he asks, thinking back. He can't remember exactly when or how he fell asleep, but he was sure that it was snowing so hard he would have been covered. He can't imagine anyone finding him in all that white.
"Funny thing about that," Sean replies conversationally. "When we found you, your cuts were already healing. You'd also set up a shield. It took both of us to dispel it. You're quite a prodigy, as I'm sure you've been told at some point or another."
Raile blinks several times. "What are you talking about?" he asks.
Now it's Sean's turn to look confused. "You're a white mage. Nobody's ever told you? You never figured it out yourself?"
"I'm a what?" asks Raile. He's read about magic in books, of course, but never actually... not even when he saw his cuts glow and seal up, or when he became aware that other people got sick for more than a few hours at a time. He flushes and lowers his eyes, feeling like an idiot. "I mean... sorry. I don't get out much."
Sean shakes his head. "Don't worry about it. Today's the first day of the rest of your life, anyway." He looks out the window for a moment and takes a deep breath. "Listen. I'm not going to ask when you tried to kill yourself, all right? It's none of my business."
"Mm."
"However... Your body used magic to heal and protect itself, even after that." Sean lifts Raile's face up and looks him in the eyes. "Remember that for at least a little while, because it's important. It means you didn't want to die."
Raile bites his lip a little. "I wanted to get away," he says. "I didn't want to be trapped there. In that house, I mean... I just wanted to escape."
Sean sighs heavily. "So you could have just left, then. Maybe it would have been hard, but you could have. People always say that they were trapped, or make excuses about things. No matter how much there is stopping you from getting away, you can always do it. There's always more than one way out." He stops and laughs sheepishly. "Sorry. I don't mean you in particular. I shouldn't preach to you."
"I think I probably need someone to preach to me right now," says Raile softly, looking up at him.
There's a knock on the door. "Sean," Haruna's voice says disapprovingly, "if you're in there seducing a little boy who also happens to be a suicide attempt, I shall be very displeased."
"I don't do things like that on duty," Sean replies with similar severity. "But even if I did, Haruna, I've told you before- sex is the cause and solution to all life's problems." He opens the door for her and they both begin laughing.
Raile, eventually, begins to laugh along with them.
---
It has been two months.
Raile, right now, is standing in front of the Doma City Temple of Ashura. It's a huge building. He feels nervous for a moment, and his grip tightens on Sean's hand.
"Will you be okay?" Sean asks quietly as they walk up the steps. "If you don't want to do this, it's not too late. You can still wait a year."
He has been living with Sean for the past two months. At first it was supposed to be a temporary arrangement. Eventually, after they both figured out that there was really no other place he could go, a bed was bought and he moved into the former storage room. The house isn't very big, but it feels comfortable to him. He's glad he's staying there.
It's not as if he hasn't been in the temple before. Sometimes he visits patients along with Sean, or takes him lunch- which he buys, he hasn't learnt to cook yet. Today is different. Today he starts his training as a priest.
The time he's spent in Doma City, where it never snows, has made him happier than he ever thought possible. The worst thing he has to look forward to is strands of Sean's hair in his food. The best... he can't even begin to think of what the best might be.
"It's okay," he says. "I'm ready." He holds Sean's hand for a few seconds more before breaking away and running up the rest of the steps alone.
Raile Hawking enters the building.
THE END