3 The Bond Between Brothers

Slices from the "Whose Memories" Roleplay.

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// Chalice //

Snow.

Our town was a town in the mountains and for ages it has not seen anything else, although past the white that seemed to beam so bright under the sunlight there were many places of green, on account of the soaring pines and winter willows that scattered the landscape. They, to me, kept the place warm to a degree, their presence a sign of life. A sign of something beyond the dreary cold that surrounded us all our lives. Nothing but snow. Ruthless home.

I was sixteen then. Not barely old enough. But I was one of those dreamers who thought it would be a blessing to leave, or at least see more of our ancient town such that none has seen before. I was one of those who looked at the Lord's castle ahead and wondered what it was like to join them in arms. I heard they were taught magic there. It sounded adventurous. My heart raced after it in fact. I wish. . .I wished. . .

"Can I stay here for a few minutes more?"

That day was one of those days I could not forget. There had been a heavy storm the previous night that had only died down the very morning of that day, causing layers of glaciers to form down the coasts, the aloof mountain ranges forever clothe in that white while the town itself was almost trapped in cold. Almost because the men had then started digging tunnels through, the servants in the castle pushing the results of the weather off their roofs and life continued as it always did. Normal and without complications. Except for myself. I was not satisfied with this. Trudging up a path that overlooked the lake then. I sat there watching the world with dreams again, tucking myself in with the passion of my own ideals. I wanted to leave Ferendrake. I was getting impatient. I wanted the chance my brother was going to have this year; sadly I was but a few months short and needed to be patient. A quality I did not have I admit yet I demanded it from others in relation to me. I was young after all. I expected to be cared for. Especially by my older sibling. My only sibling. He had no qualms with it anyway. Him who only asked that I did not stay out too long when I did stray with my contemplations as they had that day.

"I won't be long. I promise Salem."

I told him this all the time. I would only bank at a smile and to look at him and he'd let me be as long as I needed or thought that I needed. On some instances he'd join me as he had done that morning. As I plopped on my back against the fresh blanket of downy white while the sunlight streamed through with more of the snowflakes. I seemed to have dozed off, waking up to the view of his eyes looking. His amethyst pair of gem eyes.

He told me mine looked better. They were darker than his, sharper. But to me his looked the more knowledgeable, glass treasures that held further understanding. He knew didn't he? He knew what I always felt. He knew how I wanted to get away. If not for those silent hues of his that always assured me there was time always for everything. All I needed to do was wait.

// Salem //

What I recall that day were bells. The sound of a church organ as we went to mass at a small chapel which after the storm had become a heap of white, the priests for the sake of the faithful procrastinating until after the mass, that frown obvious on our guardian's face as even through the hymnals she seemed to hurry. Why wouldn't she be when my brother, holy his name be coincidentally, was not even in attendance. That made me chuckle. He was a natural troublemaker I suppose. Entirely my fault. I was a year older but when it came to disciplining him I was rather a disappointment.

The snow was thicker when we had marched out, our guardian immediately telling me she would go on ahead of us and that I should hurry and fetch my vagabond sibling. Gods know where he might be, lost in the forest where wolves are. But I recall how I always manage to find him if ever he strayed. After all, there was only one place he would go when he needed time to himself.

As he needed it then. That day was the last day I would be home. I was to study potions in the castle and become a Beserker. A queerness how our world had now taken a liking to magick so it may also do as other Realms did: conquer the worlds smaller than their own.

But I was not dwelling on that. Neither on the fact that I was going to be away for a while and might not see them again until I could come back, hopefully not dying in my first few years.

With his scarf wrapped around my neck I hurried, past the hills and steep slopes where we always tumbled or sled. We were not that affluent a family. We didn't have sleighs or stags to pull them. It did not stop us however from enjoying our lives. There was more to it than treasures or gold after all.

After a few begrudging climbs through the crags and crannies of our particular hiding spot, I found him as I always did there, thinking, noticing me ahead than I would myself at times and beginning his requests. He wanted to stay here.

"You're not even going to help me pack?" I asked in return as he fell back into the snow, his gem eyes closing to let me know he had slept. Amidst the cold and silence he was silently dreaming as if the snow was here as a comfort.

In a sense it was. I also adore the snow. Enough that I could not help but sit then lay down beside him, my eyes wandering his face.

If Chalice was afraid of stagnating here, there was one thing I feared most of all in my absence. That one fear I prophecy would be with me until the end of my life.

I reached a hand to trace my brother's cheek, my expression unknown maybe until he had opened his own eyes once more, staring at me with a curiosity. I smiled. I'm happy that I was still reflected in them.

"When I leave, don't forget me."

// Captain Shion Claudius //

There was a buzz that day in the Legion Hall, the sound of songs and rejoicing. Another successful battle won and more to come. Celebrated by my Forty Strong as I plan for our next conquests.

In the back room I met some of my most trusted, gathering them for advice and to aid in judgement. I had not been the King then but the Captain. A conqueror who led my might forward without remorse. A young adventurer with an ambition to create a myth within my own comrades and subjects. All while protecting a legacy we'd all create.

I remember the faces of those with me there that day. They were the first to greet my return, yet fresh from the hunt they were likewise the first to come to and strategize, the first to recommend our next move. The first to put a goblet in my hand and offer me a drink of wine I had no taste for then. As they flocked like a pack of wolves, themselves very harsh beings, hardened by trials and years of war. I could safely slump on the cushion of my seat, against the soft contrast of furs that layered even to my feet.

To my right was Les, one of my dashing adjutants, that scar marked upon his shoulder always the remembrance that he would gladly lay his life on the line for me, having caught many dangers and swords in my name. That moment he was sharpening one of his two blades, a combatant of the dual arts. He had been teaching our Fighting Muses. Surprisingly he had all but found a match in them. One of our Metal Flowers. Les had been boasting how she might succeed him one day and teach students of her own.

To my left was the Priest, Rochis. My cousin. My living conscience. He was my other adjutant with all the necessary advise, as fierce and as true as his skills on the fields of battle. I sought his counsel often and yes they have never failed me yet. He always knew what to say, if not he always made certain to get his point across with the Ferula he had in hand and a request for spar. A Saint and Holy and never my weakness. On the contrary, he was the mirror of my own strength.

"Ferendrake. It's a small kingdom. Hardly a hundred men but promising."

How can I forget Vanae? Of all those in my presence that day she was the one who convinced me of our proceeding quarry. A high mage of certain capabilities. A headstrong lady in my fold. She was pacing the room in her black and lace, a severe woman with an accurate heart that collapses power to make it her own.

"Then you suggest it?" I had asked her. Immediately she nodded, tucking a Grimoire under her arm, " By all means Captain."

Roc had been quietly listening, leaned against one of the posts and meditating but he affirmed. "They have troops but we can head for their Lord first and work downward from there. Should be an easy task. Send Vanae, Lestat and myself. We can handle them."

Lestat: "You don't sound like a clergy for the faithful Priest. What happened to fighting for the oppressed?"

"I do not follow the path of their gods. I follow that of our own. If it helps to get us more captives to convert, I would not hesitate."

"You will make mad out of them."

Vanae cast me that glance and I returned it with a glare. "We should leave. Just us three. The Captain need not dirty his hands for something this trivial," she remarked to quell the argument before it could start. To which I only laughed and poured the contents of the goblet to the floor. The taste of wine or any other liquor, to me, was repulsive. Better it be a pool on the floor. Maybe in the same way that was my own take on the world then. I had looked out the window to ponder. So much snow. I straightened in my seat.

"Trinity. Heel," and they all stood to fall on a knee, weapons lain before me, heads bowed.

"Yes my Lord!" It was a retort that would echo in my memory for all time. My rules were theirs to carry out. My orders becoming the instant absolute.

"I want that Kingdom. Leave no man standing unless they are potentials.

"Kill the rest."

// Chalice //

It happened six days after Salem left to learn at the Lord's castle. At first it was not that obvious, this feeling of being 'watched', just catching glimpses of who or whatever it was that seemed to be spying on me, no actually, more of stalking me. It would be there in the corners, this feeling, ominous and foreboding. Just snips and flashes at first, just enough presence to make me turn and wonder, but in the suceeding days, it got worse. Until that one day happened. That one day I found out that I wasn't really safe in Ferendrake. . .

I was alone, in the woodlands nearby. The snow had just fallen. There was that sense of cold that seeped to the bone and I shivered deeply, hugging my coat close by its collar. My breath was thick, puffing like smoke and I had found myself clouded by it for a while. Clouded by. . .something else.

I don't know if I was imagining things but I felt someone's hands on me. A malevolent force that laughed at the back of my head, and for a few minutes I had forgotten myself. I could not move my body. I just stood there, stunned, terrified as I heard those words, 'So beautiful. . And soon. . .m i n e.'

I screamed. I found myself stumbling on my hands and knees over the wet snow and I shuddered, struggling to my feet only to curl against a corner. I had never felt something so evil.

I do not recall what had happened next, but our guardian had said some of the hunters had found me feverish by the roadside, shoes dirtied as if I had been running for a very long time. I had been sick for days, and our old nurse could not leave my side. I was murmuring and talking in my unconsciousness. I was delirious.

When the fever broke finally, the first thing I did was write. Write about everything I had encountered. Then, hesitatingly enough, sealed it all in a letter and sent it to Salem however doubtful that he would respond. He had not returned any of my letters.

// Salem //

I was counting around sixteen days since leaving home. Life in the academy was slow or was it that I was merely missing my old way of living? Getting used to the new schedules set was difficult. Not to mention the lack of news from my brother. Not one letter. But would that have mattered? On my eighteenth day in the Academy, as the Winter storm blew in over from the Northern mountains I saw the skies turn red. A fierce battle had broken beyond the East we were told and classes had stopped indefinitely. Most of our seniors had gone on to battle and a few of the other students my age as well. They had faced monsters. The entire Kingdom was gripped in fear.

I sat on the edge of my bed that day, looking at the potion in my hand. This was one of Ferendrake's strongest brews. The Beserker's Bottle. Powerful yet deadly all the same. If I could take it to battle I would be able to help in the frontlines. We were losing. The Kingdom was going to fall.

I had pondered hard on that decision that time. The potion would convert me into something else once I took it. Was it worth it?

"Whatever you're thinking you better not be doing." Those words snapped me awake. Who was it that I had spoken to? A senior whose name I now scarce recalled. But I remembered his kindness.

"Don't you need aid against the enemy?"

"We'll be overrun. We expect the Kingdom to be gone in three days' time. Will you spend it fighting a losing cause?" His hand took the potion and replaced it with a single letter, one I had already ceased to expect to receive while I was here. "We have been told to destroy all letters from home. But I knew how important your brother is to you. As my estranged sibling had been to me.

"Go home Salem. He needs you."

// Chalice //

The town had been destroyed. Anarchy was afoot. But beyond the destruction I had found myself running, running from an unseen force. It was after me, had finally made itself known in those wee hours when death was raining from the sky, beams of light collapsing civilization as we all had known it, scattering those we knew and loved.

I had lost our guardian. She had been a warmonger in her days and she gave her life for me, not against the enemy that had been destroying Ferendrake, but against that force that had been haunting me. She had known! And for a very long time she had battled it. But alas, she'd failed.

Now I was alone. I was running scared through the rocky forests, slipping many times and tumbling over the damp surface yet pushing on. It was going to consume me. This. . .darkness was going to descend and I will be powerless to stop it. Would I be a spoil of war? During its chase I had thought it that.

"Salem! Salem!!"

I had desperately called for him but where was he? Had he died in the doom that had wrapped the Kingdom? Salem. Where was my brother? If he had died, I figured that I might as well be joining him soon. As my eyes cast a glance back to see this howling entity's progress, relentlessly. In pursuit of its prey that was me.

I had no more time. I was losing daylight and with it I was losing hope.

// Salem //

The Academy was in ruin when I left. The students had began taking the brews and transforming into monsters, mind becoming no more than savages that attacked our invaders and everyone else in sight. Briefly I had contemplated what had happened to my Senior, but then it was easy to tell that they were already gone. The Academy was razed to the ground as I took on hooves and cast it not a glance back. I was scared, but I had no time.

I ran the horse until it was exhausted, leaving the beast to next sprint the rest of the way home, clutching my brother's precious letter in a hand, very much close to my heart as I made my journey through with uncertainty. The war has not reached here yet. Did I still have time?

Why had they been doing this? In an attempt to make us focus on studies they tore us forcefully away from the ones we loved? To what ends? I had by that time believed the Academy for its evils. I had not heard from my brother. I thought he had forgotten me. How stupid. It was never Chalice's fault. It was the rotten curriculum that enslaved us all. I would have to apologize. I would have.. .

"Chalice?"

I spotted his tired figure at a distance, that look of strife upon his face. Far off and gaining was this darkness that I had only recently found out about.

'Salem something has been following me'

'Brother it has visited me again'

'Please come home.. .I'm so afraid. ..'

I never should have left.

"Chalice.. ."

I never should have left without him.

"CHALICE!!"

That darkness was about to swallow him whole and I could not let it. I needed to make it to him in time! I owe him that. I owe him an explanation! I did not want him to think that I had abandoned him as our parents did. I would always be here.. .

// Captain Shion Claudius //

The Legionnaires had ran the course of Ferendrake about four days, destroying majority of the Kingdom from the hierarchy down, at the last day my Priest, Dual Sword and Mage splitting to round up the few survivors left in their revolt. The few escapees and prisoners we were taking back to Realmshold for conversion or execution. Whichever came first. By that time Rochis was headed East, fighting through the heavy snow when he spotted these two boys. One pursued by a darkness that he had been familiar with, piquing his interest that he had to investigate and confirm.

Earlier they had reported of certain anomalies during the war. Of a force quietly urging the men of this Kingdom to throw themselves into certain death, my Legionnaires not merciful enough to give thus there had been mounting casualties. Now he knew why.

'A Dark Bosser? Here?'

There was little time to react. He was not even able to pull out his Ferula strapped onto his back. He immediately dived, arms bonding the darkness' target to himself as the other boy pushed him away from this reaching evil. But they held on to each other. Even as the savior was latched unto by that cruel force, engulfing him into the shadows that he could only manage to reach his arm out, the rest of him already sunken into the pitchblack.

They were brothers. For no bond was stronger enough to have oneself sacrifice your own to save another, and for the other to refuse letting go.

"S-Salem!"

Rochis had not the time to cast a Specific. The force was strong that it was taking all his might as well to keep the one in his hold grounded. And it proving to be insufficient. The darkness was dragging them all in.

"Child let go! He will drag you into the shadows with him! Let him go!!"

// Chalice //

I remember that day very well. It had burned itself into my thoughts. The day when the snow was heavy, cruel as the war that had wrapped our Kingdom, the weather plainly terrible. I felt bitter. I felt angry at myself. I felt all manner of emotions and it was overwhelming. It hurt.

Someone had come to my aid. Someone had sped to grab me in his arms as that shadow would have swallowed me whole. 'Let go child' he was then telling me with an urgency but how could I? How could I when Salem had also arrived. And it was actually him who had shoved me away that very moment when I was about to be lost. Why? Why save me?

"No. . ." I had held on to his wrist as tightly as I could, realizing that it was perfectly possible for me to lose him. "No. . ." Tears flooded down the sides of my cheeks. I was refusing to let him go. I said the word over and over as if the mere denial of the inevitable could stop it. But I knew. In a sense we all knew. We were meant to part that day and nothing could have stopped it in any way. All I had was this hope. A hope that this would not be, yet, even that was dying in me.

"Don't leave me. . .Salem please. . ." The words of misery. My misery. Anguish in those years when we had both built on something. Our dreams. Our ideals. Our memories. They had been threatened. They were about to be torn from us.

It was desperate. I felt desperate. I was desperate! I wanted to save him as he had saved me. It was unfair! Had he not made me a promise?

"Salem please!"

But. . .that was as far as we would go. I cursed myself that I was not strong enough. Gods know we never wanted it.

// Salem //

It felt as if I had flown. I did not actually give it a second thought but when I saw him about to be devoured by that darkness all I could think of was that I had to save him. And I did didn't I? I pushed him out of the way with all the strength left in me that the next I knew was that it had descended upon me instead. This monster had latched its teeth on me instead. Almost swallowing me except that Chalice. . .had held on.

He gripped at my wrist as he was being held back by a stranger. A stranger who was likewise giving all he's got to keep my brother out of harm's way with a light. That light. He had the light in his fierce emerald eyes and he stared at me with a kindness, a sadness, this urgency as he likewise struggled with all his might.

He was telling me to decide. Not verbally but his expression was telling me the intention. We were going to lose everything. If I let Chalice hang on, we would all be devoured. Something warm streamed down my cheeks then. My own tears. I had understood it completely. Fate intended it this way no matter how wretched or ruined the outcome.. .

"Do as he says Chalice. Let go," I held back my own sorrow as I looked at my brother's crying face for the last time. Those eyes. I always admired his eyes and that day might as well be the end of me ever seeing it. Or seeing the daylight, but I was certain. I wanted to protect him. "Let go Chalice. It's all right."

I could feel myself falling. This abyss surrounding me was powerful. It was not intent of letting whatever it had clung to go. I felt cold. As if I had been buried in ice. I felt likewise desperate. Desperate to save the only person left to me from whatever terror I was going to meet on the other side.

"No.. .no.. ." but so hardheaded. For once I wanted him to listen. To listen as I pleaded with him and.. .in a sense.. .said my goodbyes as the pull of that dark only heightened, straining me into the mire quicker. It hurt to struggle. I felt drained. I felt an endless pain seeping into my very marrow.

"Listen Chalice. Listen.. ." I managed to reach my fingertips, skimming over his tears as I sought to comfort him a last time even if I was beginning to suffer. "Listen. Shhh.. .it's all right. It's all right. I will find you. I will always take care of you."

Was the sorrow in my smile evident? Please gods of Ferendrake, let him remember me in a happy light I prayed!

"I will never leave you.. ." I cannot stand him hurting. I had seen him hurt for years but that was all in account of me. Our parents, did he know? They had died because of me. Perhaps I had thought that when I was gone, he would be in better hands than I. That moment made certain by the presence of this stranger who only nodded at my choice.

"Go with him. He's a good man. And whatever happens.. ." The difficult thing next to do was to have him let me go. I twisted my wrist in his grip, hastening to tell him the last of my wishes. ".. .whatever happens.. .

"Do not forget me."

I wretched myself loose, pushing Chalice away for the last time as his brother. After that incident I would be severely robbed of who I was enough that when we met again I was no longer who I had been. Yet who would have known as I sank into that darkness that that would be the start of many instances when I would use all my cunning to make him loathe me for what I had become? Of me continuing as I had done that day to push him away. All my life. That way I could protect him.

I did promise.

// Chalice //

That day time stopped. I had looked at him and wished the seconds could have dragged on for all eternity so I would not have lost him. But I did. I had from that day onwards lost the only inkling I had to any past I had.

'Go with him. He's a good man. . .' I had been shaking my head in fierce disagreement, but my grip was slipping. No. Salem was giving it up. He was giving himself up to a fate no one was certain about. For me.

The next thing I knew was that I saw him fade into the darkness and had to the top of my lungs screamed his name, reaching out, calling, struggling as this stranger was pulling me away. "SALEM! NO! SALEM!!"

Had it been minutes? Hours? How long had I fought? I had simply collapsed. Or was it that I had been forced into unconsciousness with a hard blow to the nape. When I woke up I was already in a room, the cold bed offering no solace to my broken heart.

I had crept off the sheets, sank the corner which had from that time become my sanctuary, in my mind wondering always if Salem too had found himself in such a place, thinking of me as I had begun to think of him.

I wished for snow. Better the bitter cold than this warmth without family.

In utter grief and in utter disbelief I lamented, these tears beginning to fall again. Salem had disappeared. He had been taken away. I could only hug my knees, bury my head there, and mourn. Yes mourn for us both.

"What is your name?"

That man who saved me was persistent and maybe I did owe him that. He rescued me. I bore him no ill feelings except maybe this disappointment that he had not saved Salem as well. He could have maybe. I do not truly know but he was stronger than I was, I felt it. He could have done something! Anything!

In helpless shock I swallowed, sobbing as I gave him my name, "Averque. Chalice Roan. . .where. . .where is my brother?" I could not stop it. I had broken down too many times today. I had been disturbed in dreams. And inside I was empty. I just miss him terribly, missed him like I have never missed him before.

// Captain Shion Claudius //

The venture had been a success. The Kingdom had been destroyed and my men had returned with news and quarry, Rochis however returning with something far more. A potential. At least that was what he told Les and Vanaela. What he had told all the other Legionnaires.

I had to see it for myself, visiting his chambers late that night, only to see him speaking with a youth not barely legal in age, trembling miserably on the floor. This was not due to the cold. It was far from that. It felt raw. It was mortal sorrow.

"What is this Priest?" I had asked in my entrance as he had only stood and bowed.

"A Dark Bosser. It was in Ferendrake," Rochis' straightforward answer didn't come off as a surprise. What did however was him stating this rather blankly.

"But we have not sent Dark Bossers to that Kingdom. All of them are accounted for in the Continet of Throne, non?"

My cousin looked at me dead in the eyes with a frown. "Except one. Have you forgotten Shion? Him."

Him. One of our renegade Dark Bossers who chose to wander from our control. He had been missing the last we had news. Left from his mission in a Kingdom called Callara to hunt for power elsewhere. Things had just taken a peculiar turn. Interesting.

"He must have been lurking behind our trails. I have always felt him but he has not shown his true face."

"But what would he want from a region as small as Ferendrake?" I asked the Priest and he gestured at the boy. I made a close inspection and my brows rose in definite understanding. Tear filled but beautiful all the same. Gem eyes. The shade of very deep royal purple.

"I thought they have all been-" Rochis gestured for silence and I went hushed, though glared at the other. This child seems to be unaware of his lineage. "A good thing you were able to stop him."

"I failed," Rochis was blatant and very honest. "This son had a brother. Although he was the original prospect, the darkness had taken the other. Same eyes." His own emerald hues had turned to pin me with a stare. "Similar possibilities."

"Is there any way we can track him down?"

"He has been rogue for years now Captain. We do not know where he will be going. Neither have we found his lair."

As expected. Nothing but facts. I had always anticipated the Dark Bossers to be a difficulty. This had been proven now. I had to make a quick decision on what was needed to be done.

"We keep this one," I told Rochis with a certainty. "If he was the original target perhaps we can use him to lure that Bosser out of hiding. Then we can destroy him."

"You'll use this child as bait?"

I glared then. "In war, all is fair Rochis. We do what we do," I said and made sure no arguments would be raised. I had been perhaps ruthless. I was that way then. Our strategies worked because I would not be swayed by anyone else's opinion. Not then, not on this one now. I made this clear to my Trinity.

"Yes my Lord," and he conceded, reluctant maybe as he bent a knee and talked to the boy.

"Will you find my brother?" Such pleading. He was in shock and terror, worried and hurt that I somehow imagined my cousin flinching, bless his heart a gentler soul. "In the morning. For now, you need to sleep." A lie. He had already tapped two gloved fingers against the other's forehead and enchanted him with a Specific.

"But my brother-" sleepy eyes falling heavily after those gem orbs faded to blank. I was only satisfied when finally I heard the interjection from Rochis, "You have no brother" with that the boy had fallen into deep slumber, dropping onto his side on the carpet.

I shook my head. "Change that colour. We better hide him for now. Also, send him to the Forest god's army."

Rochis snapped a look up at me as if that remark had all but disturbed his serene face. I challenged his point. "What?"

"But that army is ruthless!"

"They are ours just the same. Besides," I gestured at the sleeping form. "If he dies there then he is not worth investing on."

I had left with a turn. I was not going to let him ruin any plans I was forming. I did not however bank on him taking other measures such as making certain to train this captive personally into our Discipline. Nor reverse the enchantment that night with a condition:

"Forget now, but when I die, remember," Rochis had tapped the Specific to alter it. "Your brother's memories are not something that should be lost to you forever."