[Axis Power Hetalia] Kaleidoscope - Bloody Silver (2/?)
Title: Kaleidoscope
Author: ladydiablored
Rating: R
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Lovino Vargas, Feliciano Vargas, Ludwig Belshmidt, Antonio Fernandez Carriedo; pairings: GerIta, Spamano
Warnings: AU, yaoi (and lemon is coming)
Summary:
Time Frame: dystopian future
Chapter Two: Bloody Silver
The marvelous blade of the stiletto reflected captain’s green iris, then he drove his pupils on the boy’s frowning face.
«Where did you get this dagger?» Antonio demanded.
«Somewhere,» he muttered.
Antonio rested his elbows on his knees and interlaced his fingers next to his lips, tightened in a grave expression.
«Did you steal it on my ship?»
«The henchmen of my father gave it to me,» Lovino twisted the corner of his mouth, disgusted by the bitterly taste of pliability. The emblem of Vatican was visible in the pompous hilt, and the knife had been impeccably sharpened by a first-class smith.
Captain’s dark eyebrows rose doubtfully.
«Weren’t they suppose to execute you?»
«Gehena would claim their soul if they allowed a Vatican to die totally defenseless,» Lovino muttered.
Antonio closed his eyes, exhaling an exasperated sigh. They had to kill him, but they couldn’t leave him weaponless.
«Now I gladly accepted my excommunication,» hissed before he opened his eyes. «Why did you come in my cabin holding a dagger?»
Lovino spun, drawing aside his hair in order to expose his neck, letting the oil lamp on the massive desk embroider saffron flickering shades on the silver tattoo.
«I want to erase it,» his fingers angrily tightened his hair. «I don’t want any kind of bond with the Vatican anymore. But I can’t fix it by myself,» his voice turned bitter passing through a veil of resentment: he’d rather end the “Vatican chapter” of his life with his very hand, but scratching away that damned symbol was too difficult.
Antonio examined the result of the boy’s ferocious efforts: his nails had dug deep in the skin encircling the tattoo, and the arms of the cross have slowly drowned in a lagoon of bloody trickles. Nevertheless the emblem was nearly intact.
The dagger was slid out of its scabbard with a silver screeching, and the sweeter sound of a handkerchief reached the boy’s ears.
«Bite it» ordered Antonio, giving the square shaped tissue to the boy. «Trust me, you can’t stay silent with a stiletto sinking in your flesh.»
Lovino obeyed immediately, as he stuffed his mouth with the handkerchief. He tried to be confident , but there was a subtle shiver in the deepest of his shoulder; the youth hardly managed to keep them still. He should be scared to death by the dagger moving closer to his neck. In spite of his abrasive temper, he had grown up in the soft world of nobles, where the worst diseases were the boring lectures of the preceptor and the endless church service
Antonio ran his finger along the blunt edge of the stiletto. How must it feel, for a pampered palace brat, to be thrown in the level of the lowest criminal?. His crystal soul wasn’t born to bear the weight of the hard life on the Airship, or to stand the company of the ill-mannered seamen.
He brought the blade nearer the boy’s neck, making Lovino’s flesh creep. He could tell him to sit on the bed, but he wouldn’t. He understood how much that change of lifestyle hurt the skinny boy, yet he couldn’t forget all at once his loathing of aristocracy. Therefore, he was curious to test the extent of that boy’s tenacity.
The dagger went under the boy’s tender skin without obstacles, easily excavating the flesh. The handkerchief suffocated a painful howl, and the boy clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white to contain his suffering.
Antonio appreciated the youth’s efforts, going on with digging. He was astonished as he found out that the symbol was not a mere tattoo: it was a very thin metal plate, harpooning the boy’s flesh through small hooks. So the captain was forced to excavate deeper in order to remove that tiny nuisances grabbing Lovino’s skin, and the youth twitched every single time the dagger dug deeper in his flesh.
Those were the hardest minutes in Lovino’s life until the captain putted an end to them.
«Finished,» Antonio announced.
The boy almost fainted, but his stubbornness did not allow him to collapse right in front of the Hispanic. Antonio chased away a smile while Lovino made his back straight, undulating like a drunk man.
«It’s some sort of identification stuff?» Antonio investigated, skimming with a finger the runes etched on the longest arm of the cross.
«It’s a key for Vatican Mansions.»
«How careless, letting you escape with such a precious thing.»
«No one would ever dare to lay a single finger on a Vatican.»
The rage in Lovino’s voice was as sharp as the skepticism in Antonio’s eyes. The hypocrisies buried by the gold and white colors of Vatican’s flag was so vast it could wrap an entire planet.
«Someone could scratch it out from your death body and use it to intrude into Vatican Mansions,» Antonio said, brutally honest like only a man accustomed to death could be.
«Probably they had disabled my code. They’re false, but not brainless,» Lovino threw himself on the captain’s armchair, the handkerchief pressed on the open wound.
Antonio looked intently at the cross, covered in fresh blood, then he glimpsed at the boy wore out on his comfy chair.
«Why did you want to uproot it so bad?» he demanded, showing the dripping metal plate.
Lovino drove the tissue under his eyes then examined it: an irregular bloody star drenched the handkerchief, and the youth pushed it on his neck once again, sighed irritated.
«I don’t need a belonging mark. From this day on, I want to be completely free,» Lovino declared. «So I can teach my brother how to live chainless, when I will meet him again.»
The cross rotated in the air, caught in midair by the captain who put it on the desk, between he and he boy.
«Be careful, Lovino,» Antonio warned him. «A boundless life is not freedom, but loneliness.»
The handkerchief was slammed on the cross as Lovino stretched it out to expose the stain of blood.
«This is my bond,» he blurted, the echo of the conversation with his brother rumbling in his head.
Antonio grabbed the tissue using just the first and the second finger, and then he waved it under the boy’s nose with ironic elegance.
«And you’re satisfied with nothing but a single bound for the rest of your life?»
Lovino lifted his head up proudly. A single drop of blood rolled on his neck and a scarlet flower blossomed in his shirt where the crimson tear soaked it.
«Until the day I die, that’s the way it is.»
The captain draped the dirty handkerchief on the cross, vaguely pleased by the youth’s reactions. He did not rebel against the dagger, and he didn’t let himself to be led astray.
The boy’s hands, perfectly smooth, had clearly never taken the weight of hard work, as his thin shoulders bore nothing except the opulent Vatican clothing, still Antonio had to admit that the boy had remarkable nerves. The captains always thought that aristocrats had a handful of feathers instead of gut.
Antonio pointed at door, pleased, but inflexible.
«Go to the doctor and let him bandage your neck up. Tomorrow you must be ready to work.»
***
A week had passed since the day Sir Vargas introduced him to the person he would devote his life to.
Defending the Axis and the harmony of the Confederation was a huge honor, but sometimes he surprised himself wanting that guy to remove that fake smile on his face.
The precedent Axis had always worn a passive, seraphic expression, and his beatific smile could calm down even an enraged bull. At the opposite, his successor had the artificial grin of the grotesque masks worn during the pagan Carnival. That simulated smile was fixed both in his eyes and in his lips. It was impossible to tell what kind of thoughts crowded the boy’s mind as he was praying on the altar or when he spoke to him with unnecessary formality. Even during lunch time his mind was elsewhere, in a mysterious place well concealed by that creepy smile.
Ludwig fixed the strap of the big sword on his shoulder. He was responsible for the Axis’ safety, not of the tortuous path of his thoughts.
He had just made his mind up when something changed.
The incessant smile of the boy suddenly cracked. Incredulity and joy poured out from its chinks as a white gloved hand touched the Vatican symbol on the back of his neck. The lips and the eyelashes of the boy trembled, and so did his hands, frantically feeling the little silver plate.
«It hurts…» the Axis whimpered.
Ludwig was faster than the lightning reaching the Axis’ side, but Feliciano pushed him gently.
«It’s a good thing. It means that my brother is still alive,» the milky leather gloves muffled his joyful applause. «I’m perfectly fine, right now, so the emblem shouldn’t hurt. That means that my brother is the one being hurt. But if he can feel pain, then he’s alive!»
«I did not know you have a brother.»
An indignant shock flooded the youth’s face - another expression the Guardian had never seen before on that marble visage.
«This is impossible,» Feliciano startled, rising up from the altar.
«Your father said you are his only son. He did not even mention a second born,» he added, noticing the boy’s hurt look: «For some reasons I’m not aware of, he has never feel like talking about your brother.»
«He hates Lovino this much?»
Feliciano’s words were no louder than the rustle of his robe as he moved a step toward the wall, but Ludwig caught them anyway.
«Lovino is the name of your brother?» Ludwig inquired.
«It is my twin brother’s name,» Feliciano specified.
Ludwig suddenly understood: the old superstition that twin brothers were a bad omen, for they break a single soul into two bodies. And the Axis, the dominator of the harmony of the Confederation, surely could not bear such a responsibility with a fragmented soul.
Feliciano lifted his hat up, ran his fingers through his copped hair and took a deep breath before he started:
«Do you have something you want to protect, Ludwig?»
The Guardian startled: he was sure the Axis did not know his name. In fact, he was convinced that guy had no interest in anything but his brilliant self.
«I’m protecting you,» he said.
A laugh poured out from Feliciano’s lips, and, when he turned in his direction, a fresh arching was sweetly curving his mouth.
«Protecting me is your duty. But is there something else you would protect, without even needing to be ordered?» he went next to the altar and sat on the solid marble, drawing with a gloved finger on the neat floor. «I must preserve the whole Confederation, but the thing I really want to protect has the lion’s spirit and the snake’s tongue,» the boy laid his white-hatted head against the altar, and inquiringly gazed at the Guardian. «You don’t have nothing like this?»
Ludwig searched for an answer, watching the ceiling like it can respond instead of him, and finally replied:
«I have a brother, too.»
Feliciano bowed his head, pleased.
«Do you miss him?»
«I haven’t seen him for a long time.»
«And are you sad, because of that?»
«Are you sad because of the absence of your brother?» Ludwig threw the question back, so he could escape it.
Feliciano swayed his head twice then he said:
«I miss him so much I could die. But I’m hoping he find new smiles, out there. So a reflection of those smiles can reach me, and I’ll be delighted by those,» he putted his shaped chin on his knees, bent against his chest. «And I egoistically wish that he won’t forget me. Even if my memories will pollute his happiness,» Feliciano reclined his head and ended: «Do you feel the same?»
Some immobile instants passed before the serious reply of the Guardian shook the air:
«I wish my brother can sleep well.»
An inquisitive question rose on the boy’s lips, but Feliciano didn’t pronounce it. He recomposed himself and started his prayer again.
Ludwig stared silently at him. Every single Guardian should love his honorable job from the bottom of the heart, but he quite loathed Quartz Palace and the Axis. Nevertheless, after those few words, he found himself thinking that little boy could be not so bed, in the end. Ludwig saw a soul beneath the pantomime of the Axis, a spirit starving of love which fed itself with the illusion of the return of his brother. A poor, lonely soul with nothing but a fake smile to defend itself.
Separated from an inconvenient brother and forced to learn a secure way to evade the malevolence of the world. His path and the Axis’ one were parallel, so he could understand his pain to the extent he could feel a painful thorn piercing his heart.
Close his eyelid once before he watched the boy again.
There are no bad wolves in this world, Ludwig. Only very sad wolves.
The lesson he learned years before appeared in his mind.
As always, his brother was right.
***
«With all due respect, Captain, the newbie is not suit for this ship.»
Antonio made a bright screeching as an answer, striking the shaping stone on the razor edge of his ax.
The motivations of doubt of the lieutenant were clear: the foundling was hurling insults at the rope tangling his angles, until he kicked them away from him, saving the barrel he was carrying. They watched him scampering out of the trap of the rope and swaying under the weight of the drum.
«He could be useful. He is a Vatican, after all,» Antonio shrugged.
«An exiled Vatican.»
«He could have some power,» he supposed, neutral. Antonio could barely stand the curiosity born a week ago, during his chat with Lovino: he was wondering what kind of skill could tag him as the evil twin, but he wasn’t wishing to let the entire crew see his interest. Furthermore, he hadn’t yet seen the extreme limit that emaciated boy could reach in order to see his brother again.
«But he has never fought, not a single time!» protested the lieutenant. «How can he…»
The ax cut the air and the objections of the subordinate as it dashed toward his face. The lieutenant slowly swallowed, seeing his own chin reflected on the shiny blade. His blood evacuated his checks, leaving them deadly pale; even his lifeblood was frightened by the Aguja Paladar, the dreaded ax of Antonio Fernandez Carriedo.
«I appreciate your advise,» Antonio articulated the words clearly, his eyes sharp and cold like the metal of the ax. «But don’t forget who his the captain, lieutenant.»
«I’m really sorry, sir.»
His blood dared to return to his pinched face when the ax was hung back over the captain’s shoulders.
«We will see his utility soon,» decided Antonio. He pulled his hat down and casted a glance to the horizon. «Looks like there are still some fool wanting to die under our swords.»
The lieutenant quickly pulled out his binoculars and scrutinized the unruffled sky all around: an Airship was running in their direction, the blue rocket motor flaming at full speed; they will be boarded in a few minutes. He put his binoculars back with a thrill of admiration and fear for the ability of their captain to foresee the coming of their enemies: it was one of the talents in Carriedo’s treasure chest. Antonio mentioned them, but he has never explained his true capacity: a good warrior never told his secrets, not even to his allies.
«We will be attacked soon by a hostile Airship,» communicated authoritative. «If the battle scares you, your place is below deck. I don’t want cowards or incompetents on the deck,» he stopped exactly in front of Lovino, and cast a glance to him. A stormy expression mixing stubbornness, fear and pride darkened the boy’s face. The captain swiftly looked away: if the boy wanted to throw away his life like garbage, than be it. He had no time to waste with him.
«We can see ten men on the deck, Captain,» informed the lieutenant. «The ship is big enough to hide the same number in the below decks.»
«A piece of cake!» barked a buccaneer, with his voice roughened by tobacco.
«I can handle this alone.»
The announcement fell upon them like a freezing waterfall. That ghastly child should be frightened by the fight, yet he spoke in such a loud, arrogant tone.
The men laughed like they never had before, but Lovino didn’t lower his eyes: he kept his spine straight during the hurricane of the buccaneer’s rough words.
The captain was the only one still tranquil in the storm of hilarity.
«How are you going to manage this?» Antonio demanded.
Lovino rolled up the sleeves of his too long shirt, an ironic gift of the cabin boys, gritting his answer:
«I’m a Vatican. You’ll see,» and added, more confident: «You have nothing to lose letting me go alone. If I’m right, you’ll skip the combat. If I’m wrong, you’ll be free of me.»
He was not one of them: he had always worked alone, while the others were always surrounded by their noisy friends; no one had ever shared food with him, yet they exchanged their dishes all the time; they reserved for him their questioning and disgusted glares, wondering why such a runt was allowed to walk on the deck of Reina de la Oscuridad with impunity. And he was tired of their viscous spite.
No one stopped him, while he reached the railing: they were surely wishing he “kick the bucket”, according to the explicit vocabulary of the old sea dogs. He could feel their hopes pushing his back, like they tried to toss him. On the contrary, the captain was looked intently at him, without any particular expression on his face. He was just waiting.
Lovino inhaled deeply, smelling the air in the artificial atmosphere that enclosed the Airship so the crew could breathe normally even in the space. Antonio really loved the real sea: the salty perfume of the ocean flew inside the atmosphere.
His copped locks drew a funny circle when Lovino tossed his head: whether the captain loves the sea or not wasn’t his concern.
He looked the Airship, nose-diving towards them, and closed his eyes and joined his hands as if in prayer. He bit his knuckles, as the remembrance of his father’s curse snapped at his stomach.
His propensity brings nothing but disgrace. If we’re lucky, he shall bring it with him to the Gehena.
A bitter grin twisted his lips. His father wasn’t completely wrong, after all: he was about to use his powers to kill the enemies of a crew of pirates.
Even the seasoned veterans moved back as they saw the beast evoked by the little boy. Only Antonio stayed still: he was used to magic thanks to Gilbert and Francis. But he could not pretend to be untouched by the extraordinary power enclosed in such a tiny body.
A forest of sharpen shadows rose up from Lovino’s back, and then they amplified in an animal-like body, curved like he was about to attack. Obscure jaws lengthened from the boy’s mouth, and a pair of red eyes opened over his closed eyelids. The entire body of the creature pulsated and, with a leap of the monstrous paws, an enormous wolf leaped from the minute back of the youth.
Lovino reached out his hand, stroking his gregarious for the first time. At the mansion they prohibited him to evoke the beast snarling in his head: it was something sacrilegious and it must be suppressed. But his inner animal keep growling, so sometimes Lovino let a paw of the beast or its shaggy tail lift up from his skin. Or he talked with it, while his brother was sleeping and during one of those nightly chats he had named that unfortunate creature Roma. He had never let it free because he wasn’t sure he could keep a firm control on his beast, and he did not want to see the whole mansion in panic; nevertheless, the Airship was the perfect scenario for his animal to take a walk.
Roma was unexpectedly docile under his touch: Lovino felt the crest of shadows adapt itself to the shape of his hand, as if the animal wanted to be stroked. He was wondering what kind of insults his father would spit at him, if he saw his frightening wolf, composed by darkness and flames.
Lovino bent over the wolf to whisper in his ear:
«You know what to do, Roma.»
The beast flexed his paws and attacked with a hellish howl.
The crew watched the wolf, leaping and running towards his enemies and attacking them with his jaws wide open. He hadn’t touched the wood of the Airship when his body faded into a net of smoky rivulets: first the paws, then the muscular chest and the robust neck, until only its ruby eyes burned in the air. In that moment, the panic began: the vile mist drove the crew crazy simply touching them. The seamen fled across the deck without pattern: some threw themselves over the railing, scared to death by infernal hallucinations; somebody, searching for an escape from the mental sorcery, stained with their own blood and cerebral liquids the bulkhead until they collapsed with their head smashed. The left part slaughtered their own comrades, shouting, incoherent, and ended killing themselves with their own blade.
The company of Antonio stared in astonishment at the violent suicide of their foes, and a sepulchral silence greeted the rival Airship as its waft touched the Reina de la Oscuridad’s one. The enemy’s deck was a graveyard of abandoned weapons and corpses, drowning in blood and sill seeing the terrifying visions which had killed them.
No one uttered a word as the hazy tentacles wrapped the small figure of Lovino, who absorbed them until they disappear, hiding in his flesh. And no one would ever forget the fierceness of the scarlet pupils looking daggers at them before they sank into the closed eyelids of the boy.
The youth slowly opened his eyes, and the revelation of the devastation on the rival deck stabbed his pupils. Knowing the extent of his power wasn’t enough to balance the consequence: an electric shock pulverized his kneels and he fell to the ground, pressing both of his hands to his mouth in the futile effort to stop the vomit.
A strong hand gripped his shaking shoulder and a cabin boy putted a basin under his chin. The contents of Lovino’s stomach dumped themselves brutally in the washbowl, and the fingers on his shoulder the unique reassuring contact in that critical moment.
«You did not expect that killing someone was so shocking, did you?» Antonio’s voice murmured gently next to his ear.
«The Carriedo’s too…» muttered Lovino, hardly breathing in the spasms. «Are capable of something like this?»
The hand left his shoulder, and the answer of the captain’s was not satisfying.
«No. We can do something different.»
The man’s coat slapped his thigh as Antonio got up.
«Any more doubts about the usefulness of this little fellow?»
No one protested that day.
«They’ll love you, as soon as they get used to your powers,» murmured, bent again on the drained boy.
Lovino swallowed hard and floundered:
«Every soul has light and shadow within, but twin brother has only an half of a soul. That’s why my brother, as the Axis, has the powers of Harmony while I have the Chaos’ ones.»
The captain stroked his hair with the rough kindness of a man forged by the indomitable ocean.
«The doctor will give you an antiemetic before you throw up even your soul. Now go,» he suggested.
Antonio commanded two seamen to support Lovino to the doctor’s door, and ordered other seven to ransack the rival Airship. Then he gazed at the spectacle of the hobbling boy, almost fainted against his human crutches, and he was attracted by the bandage on his neck. That gauze was the symbol of the little boy’s freedom: no more emblems to leash him to his family.
That youth was a weed grown up between lilies: he knew their lifestyle, he could also be confused for one of them, but he was stronger and tougher than they would ever be.
He was wondering if the cruel lifestyle of a pirate will ever make a real man out of that bunch of stubborn bones. The evolution of that runt on his Airship would be a very interesting show for the next years. If he grew up well, it would be nice to put his own mark on the naked place on that slim neck.
«Estaremo a vedere,» he said to the empty space.
A good captain knew when something was worth waiting for.
***
«You cannot sleep?»
The unique color of the room was the ginger hair of the future Axis, barely visible in the night thanks to the shy light of the moon. Everything else suffocated in the despotic white.
Feliciano sat on the bed, collecting the blanket on his lap.
«It takes seven years for the old Axis to pass his powers to the next one,» he putted his chin on the cloud of cover and considered: «The task I hold now are an infinitesimal part I’ll have to absolve in the future.»
«That scares you?» Ludwig demanded.
«I will be chained to this Palace,» he descended in the ruffled blanket, as if trying to hide his pain in that soft mattress. «I will not be able to leave this place anymore.»
In the next seven years he wouldn’t be able to leave that quartz walls even once either, but Ludwig preferred not to think about that fact. The Palace was supervised by Sir Vargas’ guards night and day, and few of people could cross the entrance door freely. And he and that little boy were not part of that elite.
«How was the place you were born, Ludwig?»
The Guardian looked at him, puzzled.
«What’s the reason for this question?» he asked as an answer.
Feliciano elegantly flopped down, and the nebulous sleeves of his tunic fluttered around as he gently fell on the mattress.
«I’ve seen the inside of the Villa, and sometimes its little forest, and this room. I would like to know what is the shape of the rest of the world.»
A few seconds of silence spread between them as the Guardian composed his reply.
«I was born on a far away planet,» he started the narration.
Feliciano closed his eyes, and the land described by Ludwig gradually took shape under the curtains of his eyelids: he saw a hard and iced soul snaked under his bare feet, and the ghost of the high mountains fading in the background mist. He heard the call of the bird of prey from the summit, and feel the winter chill freezing his skin. The sky was drenched with a silver color, reflected in the gloomy waters of the great lake in the center of the desolated land, and the wind raged against the solid wooden walls of a mountain hut, built near the lake.
«I like the place you were born. It seems beautiful.»
«Maybe you’ll visit it, someday,» Ludwig encouraged him.
The youth inclined his face, covering it with the copped bangs.
«Of course. Now that you’ve told me, I can see it in my dreams,» he whispered.
Half an hour of immobility passed before the little boy fell asleep.
Ludwig had always thought that the Axis’ dreams were the same ad the Palace: white and lifeless. Now he wondered what images inhabited his sleep, whose voices rang in his ears in the night.
The boy’s eyelashes trembled, and a tear appeared between them. Ludwig came close when a second was born, and he was delicate enough to dry it without awakening the Axis. Feliciano seemed relived by his touch, and the next tear, little and weak compared to the others, was the last one.
Ludwig sat on the edge of the giant bed to monitor him: he would be faster that way, if the Axis starts crying again.
There was only one window in the room, a small skylight in the ceiling, and Ludwig looked through it into the space. All that mess of darkness, worlds and stars would be supported by the tiny back of that boy, once the seven years have passed.
You really trust a harmony based on the total loneliness and unhappiness of a poor thing?
Once again, his brother was right.
MANGANET
LIVEJOURNAL
TUMBLR
Author: ladydiablored
Rating: R
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Lovino Vargas, Feliciano Vargas, Ludwig Belshmidt, Antonio Fernandez Carriedo; pairings: GerIta, Spamano
Warnings: AU, yaoi (and lemon is coming)
Summary:
Time Frame: dystopian future
Chapter Two: Bloody Silver
The marvelous blade of the stiletto reflected captain’s green iris, then he drove his pupils on the boy’s frowning face.
«Where did you get this dagger?» Antonio demanded.
«Somewhere,» he muttered.
Antonio rested his elbows on his knees and interlaced his fingers next to his lips, tightened in a grave expression.
«Did you steal it on my ship?»
«The henchmen of my father gave it to me,» Lovino twisted the corner of his mouth, disgusted by the bitterly taste of pliability. The emblem of Vatican was visible in the pompous hilt, and the knife had been impeccably sharpened by a first-class smith.
Captain’s dark eyebrows rose doubtfully.
«Weren’t they suppose to execute you?»
«Gehena would claim their soul if they allowed a Vatican to die totally defenseless,» Lovino muttered.
Antonio closed his eyes, exhaling an exasperated sigh. They had to kill him, but they couldn’t leave him weaponless.
«Now I gladly accepted my excommunication,» hissed before he opened his eyes. «Why did you come in my cabin holding a dagger?»
Lovino spun, drawing aside his hair in order to expose his neck, letting the oil lamp on the massive desk embroider saffron flickering shades on the silver tattoo.
«I want to erase it,» his fingers angrily tightened his hair. «I don’t want any kind of bond with the Vatican anymore. But I can’t fix it by myself,» his voice turned bitter passing through a veil of resentment: he’d rather end the “Vatican chapter” of his life with his very hand, but scratching away that damned symbol was too difficult.
Antonio examined the result of the boy’s ferocious efforts: his nails had dug deep in the skin encircling the tattoo, and the arms of the cross have slowly drowned in a lagoon of bloody trickles. Nevertheless the emblem was nearly intact.
The dagger was slid out of its scabbard with a silver screeching, and the sweeter sound of a handkerchief reached the boy’s ears.
«Bite it» ordered Antonio, giving the square shaped tissue to the boy. «Trust me, you can’t stay silent with a stiletto sinking in your flesh.»
Lovino obeyed immediately, as he stuffed his mouth with the handkerchief. He tried to be confident , but there was a subtle shiver in the deepest of his shoulder; the youth hardly managed to keep them still. He should be scared to death by the dagger moving closer to his neck. In spite of his abrasive temper, he had grown up in the soft world of nobles, where the worst diseases were the boring lectures of the preceptor and the endless church service
Antonio ran his finger along the blunt edge of the stiletto. How must it feel, for a pampered palace brat, to be thrown in the level of the lowest criminal?. His crystal soul wasn’t born to bear the weight of the hard life on the Airship, or to stand the company of the ill-mannered seamen.
He brought the blade nearer the boy’s neck, making Lovino’s flesh creep. He could tell him to sit on the bed, but he wouldn’t. He understood how much that change of lifestyle hurt the skinny boy, yet he couldn’t forget all at once his loathing of aristocracy. Therefore, he was curious to test the extent of that boy’s tenacity.
The dagger went under the boy’s tender skin without obstacles, easily excavating the flesh. The handkerchief suffocated a painful howl, and the boy clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white to contain his suffering.
Antonio appreciated the youth’s efforts, going on with digging. He was astonished as he found out that the symbol was not a mere tattoo: it was a very thin metal plate, harpooning the boy’s flesh through small hooks. So the captain was forced to excavate deeper in order to remove that tiny nuisances grabbing Lovino’s skin, and the youth twitched every single time the dagger dug deeper in his flesh.
Those were the hardest minutes in Lovino’s life until the captain putted an end to them.
«Finished,» Antonio announced.
The boy almost fainted, but his stubbornness did not allow him to collapse right in front of the Hispanic. Antonio chased away a smile while Lovino made his back straight, undulating like a drunk man.
«It’s some sort of identification stuff?» Antonio investigated, skimming with a finger the runes etched on the longest arm of the cross.
«It’s a key for Vatican Mansions.»
«How careless, letting you escape with such a precious thing.»
«No one would ever dare to lay a single finger on a Vatican.»
The rage in Lovino’s voice was as sharp as the skepticism in Antonio’s eyes. The hypocrisies buried by the gold and white colors of Vatican’s flag was so vast it could wrap an entire planet.
«Someone could scratch it out from your death body and use it to intrude into Vatican Mansions,» Antonio said, brutally honest like only a man accustomed to death could be.
«Probably they had disabled my code. They’re false, but not brainless,» Lovino threw himself on the captain’s armchair, the handkerchief pressed on the open wound.
Antonio looked intently at the cross, covered in fresh blood, then he glimpsed at the boy wore out on his comfy chair.
«Why did you want to uproot it so bad?» he demanded, showing the dripping metal plate.
Lovino drove the tissue under his eyes then examined it: an irregular bloody star drenched the handkerchief, and the youth pushed it on his neck once again, sighed irritated.
«I don’t need a belonging mark. From this day on, I want to be completely free,» Lovino declared. «So I can teach my brother how to live chainless, when I will meet him again.»
The cross rotated in the air, caught in midair by the captain who put it on the desk, between he and he boy.
«Be careful, Lovino,» Antonio warned him. «A boundless life is not freedom, but loneliness.»
The handkerchief was slammed on the cross as Lovino stretched it out to expose the stain of blood.
«This is my bond,» he blurted, the echo of the conversation with his brother rumbling in his head.
Antonio grabbed the tissue using just the first and the second finger, and then he waved it under the boy’s nose with ironic elegance.
«And you’re satisfied with nothing but a single bound for the rest of your life?»
Lovino lifted his head up proudly. A single drop of blood rolled on his neck and a scarlet flower blossomed in his shirt where the crimson tear soaked it.
«Until the day I die, that’s the way it is.»
The captain draped the dirty handkerchief on the cross, vaguely pleased by the youth’s reactions. He did not rebel against the dagger, and he didn’t let himself to be led astray.
The boy’s hands, perfectly smooth, had clearly never taken the weight of hard work, as his thin shoulders bore nothing except the opulent Vatican clothing, still Antonio had to admit that the boy had remarkable nerves. The captains always thought that aristocrats had a handful of feathers instead of gut.
Antonio pointed at door, pleased, but inflexible.
«Go to the doctor and let him bandage your neck up. Tomorrow you must be ready to work.»
***
A week had passed since the day Sir Vargas introduced him to the person he would devote his life to.
Defending the Axis and the harmony of the Confederation was a huge honor, but sometimes he surprised himself wanting that guy to remove that fake smile on his face.
The precedent Axis had always worn a passive, seraphic expression, and his beatific smile could calm down even an enraged bull. At the opposite, his successor had the artificial grin of the grotesque masks worn during the pagan Carnival. That simulated smile was fixed both in his eyes and in his lips. It was impossible to tell what kind of thoughts crowded the boy’s mind as he was praying on the altar or when he spoke to him with unnecessary formality. Even during lunch time his mind was elsewhere, in a mysterious place well concealed by that creepy smile.
Ludwig fixed the strap of the big sword on his shoulder. He was responsible for the Axis’ safety, not of the tortuous path of his thoughts.
He had just made his mind up when something changed.
The incessant smile of the boy suddenly cracked. Incredulity and joy poured out from its chinks as a white gloved hand touched the Vatican symbol on the back of his neck. The lips and the eyelashes of the boy trembled, and so did his hands, frantically feeling the little silver plate.
«It hurts…» the Axis whimpered.
Ludwig was faster than the lightning reaching the Axis’ side, but Feliciano pushed him gently.
«It’s a good thing. It means that my brother is still alive,» the milky leather gloves muffled his joyful applause. «I’m perfectly fine, right now, so the emblem shouldn’t hurt. That means that my brother is the one being hurt. But if he can feel pain, then he’s alive!»
«I did not know you have a brother.»
An indignant shock flooded the youth’s face - another expression the Guardian had never seen before on that marble visage.
«This is impossible,» Feliciano startled, rising up from the altar.
«Your father said you are his only son. He did not even mention a second born,» he added, noticing the boy’s hurt look: «For some reasons I’m not aware of, he has never feel like talking about your brother.»
«He hates Lovino this much?»
Feliciano’s words were no louder than the rustle of his robe as he moved a step toward the wall, but Ludwig caught them anyway.
«Lovino is the name of your brother?» Ludwig inquired.
«It is my twin brother’s name,» Feliciano specified.
Ludwig suddenly understood: the old superstition that twin brothers were a bad omen, for they break a single soul into two bodies. And the Axis, the dominator of the harmony of the Confederation, surely could not bear such a responsibility with a fragmented soul.
Feliciano lifted his hat up, ran his fingers through his copped hair and took a deep breath before he started:
«Do you have something you want to protect, Ludwig?»
The Guardian startled: he was sure the Axis did not know his name. In fact, he was convinced that guy had no interest in anything but his brilliant self.
«I’m protecting you,» he said.
A laugh poured out from Feliciano’s lips, and, when he turned in his direction, a fresh arching was sweetly curving his mouth.
«Protecting me is your duty. But is there something else you would protect, without even needing to be ordered?» he went next to the altar and sat on the solid marble, drawing with a gloved finger on the neat floor. «I must preserve the whole Confederation, but the thing I really want to protect has the lion’s spirit and the snake’s tongue,» the boy laid his white-hatted head against the altar, and inquiringly gazed at the Guardian. «You don’t have nothing like this?»
Ludwig searched for an answer, watching the ceiling like it can respond instead of him, and finally replied:
«I have a brother, too.»
Feliciano bowed his head, pleased.
«Do you miss him?»
«I haven’t seen him for a long time.»
«And are you sad, because of that?»
«Are you sad because of the absence of your brother?» Ludwig threw the question back, so he could escape it.
Feliciano swayed his head twice then he said:
«I miss him so much I could die. But I’m hoping he find new smiles, out there. So a reflection of those smiles can reach me, and I’ll be delighted by those,» he putted his shaped chin on his knees, bent against his chest. «And I egoistically wish that he won’t forget me. Even if my memories will pollute his happiness,» Feliciano reclined his head and ended: «Do you feel the same?»
Some immobile instants passed before the serious reply of the Guardian shook the air:
«I wish my brother can sleep well.»
An inquisitive question rose on the boy’s lips, but Feliciano didn’t pronounce it. He recomposed himself and started his prayer again.
Ludwig stared silently at him. Every single Guardian should love his honorable job from the bottom of the heart, but he quite loathed Quartz Palace and the Axis. Nevertheless, after those few words, he found himself thinking that little boy could be not so bed, in the end. Ludwig saw a soul beneath the pantomime of the Axis, a spirit starving of love which fed itself with the illusion of the return of his brother. A poor, lonely soul with nothing but a fake smile to defend itself.
Separated from an inconvenient brother and forced to learn a secure way to evade the malevolence of the world. His path and the Axis’ one were parallel, so he could understand his pain to the extent he could feel a painful thorn piercing his heart.
Close his eyelid once before he watched the boy again.
There are no bad wolves in this world, Ludwig. Only very sad wolves.
The lesson he learned years before appeared in his mind.
As always, his brother was right.
***
«With all due respect, Captain, the newbie is not suit for this ship.»
Antonio made a bright screeching as an answer, striking the shaping stone on the razor edge of his ax.
The motivations of doubt of the lieutenant were clear: the foundling was hurling insults at the rope tangling his angles, until he kicked them away from him, saving the barrel he was carrying. They watched him scampering out of the trap of the rope and swaying under the weight of the drum.
«He could be useful. He is a Vatican, after all,» Antonio shrugged.
«An exiled Vatican.»
«He could have some power,» he supposed, neutral. Antonio could barely stand the curiosity born a week ago, during his chat with Lovino: he was wondering what kind of skill could tag him as the evil twin, but he wasn’t wishing to let the entire crew see his interest. Furthermore, he hadn’t yet seen the extreme limit that emaciated boy could reach in order to see his brother again.
«But he has never fought, not a single time!» protested the lieutenant. «How can he…»
The ax cut the air and the objections of the subordinate as it dashed toward his face. The lieutenant slowly swallowed, seeing his own chin reflected on the shiny blade. His blood evacuated his checks, leaving them deadly pale; even his lifeblood was frightened by the Aguja Paladar, the dreaded ax of Antonio Fernandez Carriedo.
«I appreciate your advise,» Antonio articulated the words clearly, his eyes sharp and cold like the metal of the ax. «But don’t forget who his the captain, lieutenant.»
«I’m really sorry, sir.»
His blood dared to return to his pinched face when the ax was hung back over the captain’s shoulders.
«We will see his utility soon,» decided Antonio. He pulled his hat down and casted a glance to the horizon. «Looks like there are still some fool wanting to die under our swords.»
The lieutenant quickly pulled out his binoculars and scrutinized the unruffled sky all around: an Airship was running in their direction, the blue rocket motor flaming at full speed; they will be boarded in a few minutes. He put his binoculars back with a thrill of admiration and fear for the ability of their captain to foresee the coming of their enemies: it was one of the talents in Carriedo’s treasure chest. Antonio mentioned them, but he has never explained his true capacity: a good warrior never told his secrets, not even to his allies.
«We will be attacked soon by a hostile Airship,» communicated authoritative. «If the battle scares you, your place is below deck. I don’t want cowards or incompetents on the deck,» he stopped exactly in front of Lovino, and cast a glance to him. A stormy expression mixing stubbornness, fear and pride darkened the boy’s face. The captain swiftly looked away: if the boy wanted to throw away his life like garbage, than be it. He had no time to waste with him.
«We can see ten men on the deck, Captain,» informed the lieutenant. «The ship is big enough to hide the same number in the below decks.»
«A piece of cake!» barked a buccaneer, with his voice roughened by tobacco.
«I can handle this alone.»
The announcement fell upon them like a freezing waterfall. That ghastly child should be frightened by the fight, yet he spoke in such a loud, arrogant tone.
The men laughed like they never had before, but Lovino didn’t lower his eyes: he kept his spine straight during the hurricane of the buccaneer’s rough words.
The captain was the only one still tranquil in the storm of hilarity.
«How are you going to manage this?» Antonio demanded.
Lovino rolled up the sleeves of his too long shirt, an ironic gift of the cabin boys, gritting his answer:
«I’m a Vatican. You’ll see,» and added, more confident: «You have nothing to lose letting me go alone. If I’m right, you’ll skip the combat. If I’m wrong, you’ll be free of me.»
He was not one of them: he had always worked alone, while the others were always surrounded by their noisy friends; no one had ever shared food with him, yet they exchanged their dishes all the time; they reserved for him their questioning and disgusted glares, wondering why such a runt was allowed to walk on the deck of Reina de la Oscuridad with impunity. And he was tired of their viscous spite.
No one stopped him, while he reached the railing: they were surely wishing he “kick the bucket”, according to the explicit vocabulary of the old sea dogs. He could feel their hopes pushing his back, like they tried to toss him. On the contrary, the captain was looked intently at him, without any particular expression on his face. He was just waiting.
Lovino inhaled deeply, smelling the air in the artificial atmosphere that enclosed the Airship so the crew could breathe normally even in the space. Antonio really loved the real sea: the salty perfume of the ocean flew inside the atmosphere.
His copped locks drew a funny circle when Lovino tossed his head: whether the captain loves the sea or not wasn’t his concern.
He looked the Airship, nose-diving towards them, and closed his eyes and joined his hands as if in prayer. He bit his knuckles, as the remembrance of his father’s curse snapped at his stomach.
His propensity brings nothing but disgrace. If we’re lucky, he shall bring it with him to the Gehena.
A bitter grin twisted his lips. His father wasn’t completely wrong, after all: he was about to use his powers to kill the enemies of a crew of pirates.
Even the seasoned veterans moved back as they saw the beast evoked by the little boy. Only Antonio stayed still: he was used to magic thanks to Gilbert and Francis. But he could not pretend to be untouched by the extraordinary power enclosed in such a tiny body.
A forest of sharpen shadows rose up from Lovino’s back, and then they amplified in an animal-like body, curved like he was about to attack. Obscure jaws lengthened from the boy’s mouth, and a pair of red eyes opened over his closed eyelids. The entire body of the creature pulsated and, with a leap of the monstrous paws, an enormous wolf leaped from the minute back of the youth.
Lovino reached out his hand, stroking his gregarious for the first time. At the mansion they prohibited him to evoke the beast snarling in his head: it was something sacrilegious and it must be suppressed. But his inner animal keep growling, so sometimes Lovino let a paw of the beast or its shaggy tail lift up from his skin. Or he talked with it, while his brother was sleeping and during one of those nightly chats he had named that unfortunate creature Roma. He had never let it free because he wasn’t sure he could keep a firm control on his beast, and he did not want to see the whole mansion in panic; nevertheless, the Airship was the perfect scenario for his animal to take a walk.
Roma was unexpectedly docile under his touch: Lovino felt the crest of shadows adapt itself to the shape of his hand, as if the animal wanted to be stroked. He was wondering what kind of insults his father would spit at him, if he saw his frightening wolf, composed by darkness and flames.
Lovino bent over the wolf to whisper in his ear:
«You know what to do, Roma.»
The beast flexed his paws and attacked with a hellish howl.
The crew watched the wolf, leaping and running towards his enemies and attacking them with his jaws wide open. He hadn’t touched the wood of the Airship when his body faded into a net of smoky rivulets: first the paws, then the muscular chest and the robust neck, until only its ruby eyes burned in the air. In that moment, the panic began: the vile mist drove the crew crazy simply touching them. The seamen fled across the deck without pattern: some threw themselves over the railing, scared to death by infernal hallucinations; somebody, searching for an escape from the mental sorcery, stained with their own blood and cerebral liquids the bulkhead until they collapsed with their head smashed. The left part slaughtered their own comrades, shouting, incoherent, and ended killing themselves with their own blade.
The company of Antonio stared in astonishment at the violent suicide of their foes, and a sepulchral silence greeted the rival Airship as its waft touched the Reina de la Oscuridad’s one. The enemy’s deck was a graveyard of abandoned weapons and corpses, drowning in blood and sill seeing the terrifying visions which had killed them.
No one uttered a word as the hazy tentacles wrapped the small figure of Lovino, who absorbed them until they disappear, hiding in his flesh. And no one would ever forget the fierceness of the scarlet pupils looking daggers at them before they sank into the closed eyelids of the boy.
The youth slowly opened his eyes, and the revelation of the devastation on the rival deck stabbed his pupils. Knowing the extent of his power wasn’t enough to balance the consequence: an electric shock pulverized his kneels and he fell to the ground, pressing both of his hands to his mouth in the futile effort to stop the vomit.
A strong hand gripped his shaking shoulder and a cabin boy putted a basin under his chin. The contents of Lovino’s stomach dumped themselves brutally in the washbowl, and the fingers on his shoulder the unique reassuring contact in that critical moment.
«You did not expect that killing someone was so shocking, did you?» Antonio’s voice murmured gently next to his ear.
«The Carriedo’s too…» muttered Lovino, hardly breathing in the spasms. «Are capable of something like this?»
The hand left his shoulder, and the answer of the captain’s was not satisfying.
«No. We can do something different.»
The man’s coat slapped his thigh as Antonio got up.
«Any more doubts about the usefulness of this little fellow?»
No one protested that day.
«They’ll love you, as soon as they get used to your powers,» murmured, bent again on the drained boy.
Lovino swallowed hard and floundered:
«Every soul has light and shadow within, but twin brother has only an half of a soul. That’s why my brother, as the Axis, has the powers of Harmony while I have the Chaos’ ones.»
The captain stroked his hair with the rough kindness of a man forged by the indomitable ocean.
«The doctor will give you an antiemetic before you throw up even your soul. Now go,» he suggested.
Antonio commanded two seamen to support Lovino to the doctor’s door, and ordered other seven to ransack the rival Airship. Then he gazed at the spectacle of the hobbling boy, almost fainted against his human crutches, and he was attracted by the bandage on his neck. That gauze was the symbol of the little boy’s freedom: no more emblems to leash him to his family.
That youth was a weed grown up between lilies: he knew their lifestyle, he could also be confused for one of them, but he was stronger and tougher than they would ever be.
He was wondering if the cruel lifestyle of a pirate will ever make a real man out of that bunch of stubborn bones. The evolution of that runt on his Airship would be a very interesting show for the next years. If he grew up well, it would be nice to put his own mark on the naked place on that slim neck.
«Estaremo a vedere,» he said to the empty space.
A good captain knew when something was worth waiting for.
***
«You cannot sleep?»
The unique color of the room was the ginger hair of the future Axis, barely visible in the night thanks to the shy light of the moon. Everything else suffocated in the despotic white.
Feliciano sat on the bed, collecting the blanket on his lap.
«It takes seven years for the old Axis to pass his powers to the next one,» he putted his chin on the cloud of cover and considered: «The task I hold now are an infinitesimal part I’ll have to absolve in the future.»
«That scares you?» Ludwig demanded.
«I will be chained to this Palace,» he descended in the ruffled blanket, as if trying to hide his pain in that soft mattress. «I will not be able to leave this place anymore.»
In the next seven years he wouldn’t be able to leave that quartz walls even once either, but Ludwig preferred not to think about that fact. The Palace was supervised by Sir Vargas’ guards night and day, and few of people could cross the entrance door freely. And he and that little boy were not part of that elite.
«How was the place you were born, Ludwig?»
The Guardian looked at him, puzzled.
«What’s the reason for this question?» he asked as an answer.
Feliciano elegantly flopped down, and the nebulous sleeves of his tunic fluttered around as he gently fell on the mattress.
«I’ve seen the inside of the Villa, and sometimes its little forest, and this room. I would like to know what is the shape of the rest of the world.»
A few seconds of silence spread between them as the Guardian composed his reply.
«I was born on a far away planet,» he started the narration.
Feliciano closed his eyes, and the land described by Ludwig gradually took shape under the curtains of his eyelids: he saw a hard and iced soul snaked under his bare feet, and the ghost of the high mountains fading in the background mist. He heard the call of the bird of prey from the summit, and feel the winter chill freezing his skin. The sky was drenched with a silver color, reflected in the gloomy waters of the great lake in the center of the desolated land, and the wind raged against the solid wooden walls of a mountain hut, built near the lake.
«I like the place you were born. It seems beautiful.»
«Maybe you’ll visit it, someday,» Ludwig encouraged him.
The youth inclined his face, covering it with the copped bangs.
«Of course. Now that you’ve told me, I can see it in my dreams,» he whispered.
Half an hour of immobility passed before the little boy fell asleep.
Ludwig had always thought that the Axis’ dreams were the same ad the Palace: white and lifeless. Now he wondered what images inhabited his sleep, whose voices rang in his ears in the night.
The boy’s eyelashes trembled, and a tear appeared between them. Ludwig came close when a second was born, and he was delicate enough to dry it without awakening the Axis. Feliciano seemed relived by his touch, and the next tear, little and weak compared to the others, was the last one.
Ludwig sat on the edge of the giant bed to monitor him: he would be faster that way, if the Axis starts crying again.
There was only one window in the room, a small skylight in the ceiling, and Ludwig looked through it into the space. All that mess of darkness, worlds and stars would be supported by the tiny back of that boy, once the seven years have passed.
You really trust a harmony based on the total loneliness and unhappiness of a poor thing?
Once again, his brother was right.
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