AJ stared into Flreu’s eyes, feeling like he was waiting to have judgment passed on him. He knew there would be questions. That was the way of the King, to gather all information. He was prepared for it. Most especially about the time he was under Roth’s control. Despite his best efforts, he’d really only glossed over that, giving the specifics but none of the emotions. He’d barely managed to say that rape was part of the torture, but he hadn’t told any of those details either.
“You were held prisoner by this man, Rothalo?” Flreu asked suddenly. His voice was that of the King again.
“Yes, Sire.” AJ kept his answers short. Inside he already felt slightly raw.
“Yes, Sire.” Brian replied just as seriously.
The area was quiet again for a moment. Tadhg looked at Flreu as if asking permission and Flreu gave a brief nod. Now that he had permission, Tadhg turned sharp eyes to them. “You spoke only of your torture in short terms, young Alyck. Only to say that he mastered the ability to bring pain, and keep pain. To break bones, and bruise, and cut, and control the ability to heal or not to heal. To actually use this weave if wanted to kill another. But also that he altered it, and had complete physical control of your body. This is correct?”
“Yes, Uncle Tadhg.” AJ replied.
“I require a more in depth explanation to better understand the nature of this weave and what it may do.” Though his voice was firm, there was sympathy in Tadhg’s eyes. He didn’t want to do this; didn’t want to cause AJ and Brian pain by talking about this. But he was the master magician at this castle, and things that were magical were his realm of expertise.
AJ took a deep, shuddering breath. He had thought he’d exorcised these demons already. That the closeness he’d gained with Brian had helped to wash that stain off of both their skins. But it seemed he was wrong. The edges of the darkness still lurked in both their minds.
“I was with him first, Uncle Tadhg.” Brian spoke up suddenly, his voice perfectly respectful, but with that hint to it that let AJ know the darkness was close for Brian as well. Their bond pulsed slightly. “I will give my testimony first.”
“So be it. Speak, young one.”
“Through this weave, as Alyck explained, he gained control of my body. I was laid out on a table, unable to move anything but my head, which was the only thing he left me control over. To better hear my screams, I believe, and my begging. No matter what he did the rest of my body would not follow my command, try as I might to force it to. When he broke my fingers, one at a time, the pain was intense. Made worse, he claimed, by the fact that a person’s natural reaction is to cradle something that is injured, and by taking that away, it gives a person the ability to feel the pain that much stronger.
“I actually felt the weave pulsate, not change but more of a pulse, when he let the broken fingers heal, single bone by single bone. Yet still I could not move underneath it all. As Alyck stated, rape was a part of the torture for him. He was convinced that he was treating me as Alyck had treated Isadora, and said it often enough.”
Tadhg’s eyes were burning with emotion, but his voice was still controlled as he questioned his nephew. “I must ask, how extensive was the rape?”
“Anally and orally. All focused on his release, Uncle.”
“Thank you, Nephew Brian. Now, Nephew Alyck, I would understand the extent of what was done with you, as your sensing of magic is stronger, and you are the one who broke free.”
AJ shuddered slightly, almost not noticing. His eyes closed, and the images that came behind them had the shudders spreading through his small frame. He released Brian’s hand so that he could place both his hands on the ground, palm flat against the grass, to act as another anchor for him. “I forced Brian to leave once Roth had me.” He said hoarsely, eyes still closed. All over again he could see the agony on Brian’s face. “I blasted him out of the room with air. I didn’t want Roth to have time to change his mind and try to kill Brian after what I’d done to get him free. Once Brian was out, Roth sealed off the room so that there was no way anyone could get back in.”
With his eyes closed, AJ couldn’t see the way that everyone watched him. He didn’t see the pain that was in Brian’s eyes as he, too, was transported back to that time, to the ocean of grief he’d felt. Or the way that Sofia and Marzio clung to one another, as did Isleen and Howie. They only knew the basics of that time. AJ and Brian had never shared more with them. Richard looked to Geoff and the two men’s eyes were aching for their friend, this man who had always been a pillar of strength to them. Flreu had his Kings face on, but the emotion was leaking out into his eyes, same as with Tadhg, who was unable to stop himself from reaching over and taking Brian’s hand to offer comfort. None of them touched AJ yet. They knew better.
“He didn’t waste any time. The very first thing he did was stretch me out on my stomach on the ground and strip me of my clothes. Using fire, he created a whip, and proceeded to whip me with it. With him in control, my body couldn’t heal, couldn’t move, but as Brian said with him, my head was free, and I could scream. I screamed and screamed as it went on for quite a while. When he was done I was a bruised, bloody, burnt mass of flash on my whole backside. That night he made me keep them, and let them heal slowly, one by one, which in itself is agony.
“But that wasn’t enough. No, not for him. Since my backside was burned, he couldn’t sodomize me. So he used the link on me to force me onto my knees and made me crawl to him. At that point I lost control of everything, except the ability to breathe through my nose and blink my eyes. I was forced to give oral sex until he finished, all the while he had parts of the burns healing.”
Tears were falling down the cheeks of everyone present. There was so much pain in all those words. But now that he was going, AJ couldn’t seem to stop. His eyes squeezed shut tighter and talked faster.
“I don’t know how many times he raped me, anally or orally. I don’t even know how long I was under his control. He did things with me that I’ve never even thought of doing before in my entire life. He beat me not only with objects, or magic, but with his words. He was breaking me slowly, and I couldn’t let him, so I meditated. I meditated as deep as I could go, where I didn’t have to feel what he did, or see his face, or hear his words. Nothing was real. Nothing. That’s how I found my bond to Brian. Even across that distance it was like suddenly we were right next to each other. But Roth came back in, and I made Brian leave. I couldn’t stand him being there, watching what I had to do. I just couldn’t.”
AJ’s hands fisted tighter into the ground, which was slowly started to tremble underneath him. His hair blew slightly in the breeze, which was steadily increasing.
“I didn’t do anything ot Isadora, but he blames me, and he made me pay a thousand times over. Maybe it’s my punishment for the tidal wave on Sicily all those years ago. Or my punishment for allowing him to get past my shields and slip that magic in that made me abandon everyone who ever meant anything to me. When Brian told me there was a way to break the web, I looked long and hard, and I found it. A little flaw. A loose thread. His weave was like a net over my center, fine and intricate, just like what we used to destroy the darkness on the tree. But his threads were flawed in that one spot.
“I studied it as long as I could. I knew that if I pulled one, something would start to unravel. It was just which one, and how hard. But then I came out, and I saw how close to dawn it was, and Roth was there. He was telling me I was too easy to break, and he was going to kill me, and I couldn’t let him. Brian was counting on me. So I spit on him. I cursed him so that he would think there was more to do, and he wouldn’t kill me yet. But that meant I had to live through what he did. Live through the rape again, without being able to escape, cause if I escaped, I’d miss Brian showing up.”
AJ was panting now. He flung his eyes open, and the green in them glowed brightly. The wind picked up speed, whipping up around only him. His hands were fisted tightly in the earth. Brian made a move as if to go to him, but Tadhg pulled him back and whispered in his ear. “We are shielded by your new grandfather. Nothing Alyck will do will escape his area. He needs this, nephew. Let him have it.”
“I waited, and the instant I felt Brian there, I dove inside myself. I tested the one side an it did nothing, but when I tested the other the whole net quivered. I pulled it as hard as I could, and it started to unravel, and Roth was there trying to patch it, but I was faster. I pushed past it, and shredded it to pieces as I went, and I knocked him back. I took my flames, using one to burn only the blood off of everything. I wanted my blood out of his home. The other would burn only human cells.
“I wanted him to beg me to die, as I’d begged him. I blasted him with that fire and sent him burning out of his own castle, but Brian dragged me out. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to rip his body to shreds and tear out his soul to float lost for eternity. I hurt, so much.”
Tears poured from AJ’s eyes, dripping down his face to land in his lap. His head bowed down, chin almost to his chest. Great, wrenching sobs tore their way out of his throat, and the earth underneath them throbbed in time with the sobs. AJ couldn’t seem to bring himself under control. Talking about this, dredging up the details, the images, had brought that madness out in his mind. It was there in every inch of him and he couldn’t banish it away. All he could see and feel was the madness, the anger, and the pain.
He threw his head back and screamed to the sky. In a perfect ring around him fire shot up from the ground, searing straight up towards the sky. Richard and Geoff shouted and jumped back, while Marzio and Howie pulled their woman backwards and tried to cover their bodies. Even Tadhg pulled Brian backwards.
Flreu was the only one who kept his calm. He moved forward, kneeling just at the edge of the fire. Softly he spoke his name “Alyck.”
AJ heard him, but he was too far gone in the pain. He screamed again as his feelings burned to get out of him. The fire climbed higher still and the earth shook harder. He couldn’t stop it. Through eyes blurred with tears, he saw a hand reach through the fire, seemingly untouched by it. He screamed again, lost in his madness, and tried to make the fire hotter. But still the hand came in, and then another one, reaching to where his hands were.
Before AJ could do anything else, those hands closed over his. He recognized the touch, recognized the magic in it, and gasped. Anchored on AJ’s hands, and still on his knees, Flreu leaned the rest of himself in, using his magic to push the ring of fire out, so that it encompassed him as well. The two were there at the center, one with eyes gone mad with main, the other with eyes that held the wisdom of ages.
“It is done, Alyck.” Flreu said firmly. No other voice would get through, he knew, though his heart begged to weep for his grandson.
The ground shuddered and the circle of fire wavered slightly. “He deserves to die.” AJ hissed, holding on to the anger. He was terrified that if he let go, he would lose control. He needed that anger as a buffer.
“Yes, he does. But not right now. I know he hurt you, son of my daughter. In a place that no one should be hurt.”
“He took Brian and hurt him, just because I love him.” AJ spat out between gritted teeth. “Hurt him and used him and raped him because he’s mad at me! Me! All this pain he caused to us, to all fey all over, is because of me!”
The pain in that word was stronger than anything else. Flreu did the only thing he knew to do. He released AJ’s hands, leaned in, and wrapped him in a hug. Still on his knees, he rose enough that AJ’s head was pressed against his stomach, cradled there as gently as possible. AJ tried to stay stiff, to stay strong, but the soothing presence of his grandfather was eating away at the anger, breaking it down. Slowly the circle of fire started to shrink. AJ gripped Flreu’s tunic in his fists, meaning to move him away, but the elf’s strength was greater and he stayed as he was, holding AJ to him, saying nothing.
Tears came hotter and faster, the sobs bigger and stronger. With a great wail, AJ gave up the fight and clung to Flreu. The fire dropped back down to the ground and dissipated, and the earth stopped it’s trembling. AJ paid no attention to anyone else around him. He buried his face and let the grief and agony pour from him, sheltered in the embrace that had always brought him comfort, and he knew would always be there for him without any judgments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tadhg quietly pulled Brian to his feet. He gestured over to a crowd of Elves who came and took the others, escorting them away from the gardens. Then Tadhg looped his arm in Brian’s. “I know that it pains you to do so, but let us leave your heart song with his grandfather. This right now is a healing that is long overdue, and one that only family can do.”
Quietly Brian followed Tadhg along the path. Instead of heading inside, as the others did, they went to the side of the castle. Tadhg led them up a small staircase there, which took them to the top of the wall. Once there, he sat on the stone, motioning for Brian to do the same.
“While we have this time alone, there is much I thought we might speak of.” Tadhg said softly. His face was upturned, basking in the warmth of the sun.
The comment surprised Brian. He looked at this elf who was his cousin, despite being called Uncle, and tried to think what to ask first. His mouth spoke the questions of his heart before his mind could catch up. “What happened to my great-grandfather? Did my family know what he was? Did they keep it from me all this time? If they knew, why did my uncle force me to wall off my magic?”
Tadhg didn’t flinch under the barrage of questions. He kept his face upturned, but looked over to Brian and offered him a small smile.
“Your great-grandfather, my father, was a great man. You resemble him greatly. He had the same curls to his hair, and kept it short as well. Also, the same blue, and his first ring was even the same sunshine color as yours. He was a man who loved to laugh, and was always ready to listen. There wasn’t much that could get him down for long. No matter the trouble, no matter the heartache life dealt him, he always found a way to smile. I sense this in you too.”
Much like you would a child, Tadhg pulled Brian down so that his head was resting in his lap, and they were both covered in sunlight. Tadhg’s hand started to play with the curls of Brian’s hair. Surprisingly, Brian found himself relaxing this way. He closed his eyes, letting those fingers soothe him even as his Uncle’s voice washed over him.
“He wanted to mingle among mortals. This is common among elves, but most especially among our kind. We are characterized by our sunny dispositions, and our people skills. Humans especially seem to be drawn to us, like bees to nectar. Kieran was always a very popular person. He kept communication with me, his child, even as he found this new family. My mother had been gone a millennia before Kieran left us. As some elves are wont to do, she joined too deeply with the earth in her meditation, and was taken to be a part of the earth. Her spirit is now joined with the spirit of the earth.
“My father was sorrowed at the loss, but he knew that she was where she wanted to be. Yet, when he went to the human world, he had never expected to find someone there that he would love. But love he did find. Your great-grandmother captured his heart, and healed his old sorrows. They married in the human way, and they had a home together. They had children, and raised them. He had told her who he was, for there was no hiding it, and he was not a liar. By nature Elves do not lie, though there are some bad elves that are born, just as in any other race.
“She loved him anyway, and was proud to bear his children. Yet not a one of them showed the signs of having elvish blood. The way our bloodlines are passed down are not genetically determined, like blond hair and blue eyes. An elf and a mortal mating do not make the children automatically half elf. The magic may skip one, or all, or show in each child. There have been times it has skipped entire generations, only to crop up hundreds of years later. If it is then triggered, as yours was, it starts to grow. Eventually, like Alyck, you will be a full elf.”
“I will?” Brian asked in surprise. He found that the thought didn’t bother him as it might have once upon a time. Honestly, it pleased him. Not only the sheer joy of becoming one with these people, but the secret joy that he would no longer be part this, and part that. He would be whole inside.
Tadhg smiled faintly, his fingers never stopping their movements in Brian’s curls. “Yes. You and Alyck both. There will be a few more physical changes along the way, but I will discuss those at another time. This is ok?” At Brian’s nod, he continued with the story.
“Before their children could grow, an elf of the night found Kieran. All the information I have now I have extracted from your great-grandmother, as well as the mind of the elf who did this. They were captured, and I used my magic to glean the memories from their mind before they were executed. This night elf drew Kieran out into the woods at midnight, saying that he must speak with him. He started to rant, apparently furious that Kieran was mating with humans. He was one of those with the mind that mating with humans is beneath us.
“As trusting as your great-grandfather was, he never saw what was coming. He did not know that this night elf had done magic, blood magic, to gain powers of not just the night, but the darkness. Wherever there is light, there is always darkness. With a spear infused with magic, with death, he thrust through Kieran’s heart. He was dead before he hit the floor.”
There was pain in Tadhg’s voice, and Brian found that tears stood in his own eyes. The thought of his great-grandfather dying alone, in the woods, was a terrible one. How he wished he could have known him, this elf he so resembled. After a moment of silence, to show respect to the dead, Tadhg went on.
“We had been alerted that something was amiss through others that were in the vicinity. I arrived not even moments later with a band of warriors. We captured this night elf and he was interrogated. I used magic to convey to my King the news, and received his decree for punishment. The same spear that killed my father I then used to kill this elf. We buried them both in the earth, and let them be absorbed into her.
“I was the one who went to your great-grandmother and told her the news. I held her as she wept, and comforted her. We shared tears together, and sorrow. In the morning light, she drew her pride and determination around her like a cloak and announced that she would live on with her life, but it would be without magic in it. She decreed that she would teach her children nothing of this, so that they would never be brought into the pain of this world.
“So her family was raised without the knowledge, straight down until you were born into the world. Your family has no idea of your heritage, Brian, because none of them were ever told. It was kept as a secret. I will there to be no secrets here. On this I bring the light of the sun so that the truth may shine forth from my heart to yours.”
“But what of my uncle back home?” Brian asked him curiously. He turned his head, his mind swimming with all the information. “Alyck told you of the memories I had walled away. Of the magic that I was forced to hide, to be made ashamed of.”
Something crossed Tadhg’s face, something that Brian didn’t understand. When his uncle spoke again, his voice was hesitant. “I can only guess at this, but I have watched your family over the years, waiting for one like you to come. One that I would teach our heritage to. In the watching, I have seen this uncle. He is the one who is father to your cousin, Kevin, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Again, this is only a guess, but one of my visits I recall seeing a man come by. This man’s description sounds very similar to the one you two give for Rothalo. I think that, much as he tried to destroy Alyck, he also sought to remove the threat he saw in you. All I know of Rothalo would lead me to believe that he searches for those he thinks will be able to challenge him, and stop his goal. He saw in your birth a child that would one day grow to be a challenge. So, he went about destroying it. Instead of killing you, though, my guess is that he put a spell on your Uncle’s mind, and used him as a conduit to lock the magic in you away so that there was no trace of his touch on it.”
For a long while Brian lay silent and thought about everything he had just heard. It filled his heart with a joy to know more of his history. Less like there was emptiness, now. But to think that Roth had been involved in his life from such an early stage, well, that was disturbing.
Yet the negative of all of this didn’t stay in him long. It wasn’t his nature to dwell on the things he couldn’t change. All of that was the past, and now that he had the answers he so desperately needed, he could move beyond the past and into his future. That was what was important. “Thank you for telling me all this. I feel like I can be whole now.”
“We all deserve to know our history, nephew. I am glad to find that it helps you to heal.”
"I have one other question."
"Ask away. If I can answer, I will."
Brian smiled up at him in gratitude. "Alyck explained most of the ceremony and such to me, but there's one thing I didn't notice till just now. You called Alyck nephew, something that you didn't do before. Why?"
Laughter danced in Tadhg's eyes. "When a family is joined, it is much like the human families do. I believe you call them in-laws. To us, they are just family. For all purposes now he is my nephew, as I am his Uncle. On those lines, our King is your grandfather. We now share all family."
Lying in the sun, Brian found a peace that had been missing. He finally felt that, with this knowledge, he could really move on in this new life. There was only one thing left of his old life that he had to do first. He had to decide what to do about his family. To let them know that he was alive and well, or stay gone and let them think him lost to them.
One thought plagued him. What did the human world think happened to him, AJ, and Howie?