Chapter 40: Blue Flowers

[Before the note was sent.]

The fire was getting taller just from the moment it was lit, the prisoner bound at the pole was already breathing roughly and dripping with hot sweat, slowly getting weaker and weaker as the smoke, heat, and death gets to him.

Soldiers stepped back at the sudden discomfort their skin felt, their thick brows furrows the moment the heat prickles their faces even behind the metal armor, and sweat would run down their backs as they felt a blazing sun-like presence in front of them. As the fire were getting hotter, they would witness this blazing red gigantic flames hovering up the sky.

The boy inside the circle of stretching flames gasps for air, keeping his chin up and searching for remaining cold air. 'Hot! It's way too hot!' his mouth was hanging open while his lungs which was filled with hot air begs for another pump of life.

Jian Li's eyes waters and the remaining fluid inside his body trickles down his cheeks, coughing and gagging for a waft of air. 'I can't breathe!'

The soldiers tries to back off even further from the raging fire that was consuming the boy. The waves of burning air blowing towards them was enough to scorch their armors, even Deverus who observed from afar awkwardly backed off from the heat of the huge bonfire.

Not very long after, the boy caught fire, yet in unknown circumstances, he didn't die nor turned to a burning meat, instead, a coat of blue transparent energy was wrapped around his body that acts as a barrier which makes him resistant to fire.

CHKK

'..what?' He immediately looked back when he felt the ropes snap in two and saw his wrists released from being tied behind his back. He stumbled over and glanced at both of his hands: 'My hands are..?' but then his eyes bulged when he saw himself unconsciously holding unto a strange flaming cloak that was wrapped around his right palm. A cloak that just popped out of nowhere.

Despite the crazy thing that just happened to Jian Li, he tried to process what this thing may be: It was burning just as how his clothes was lit and eaten aflame, but after seconds of gawking over it, it was still being engulfed with flames. As supernatural as the circumstances could get, the cloak wasn't perishing away to ashes like his clothes did, this cloak stayed perfectly whole and... burning.

Little by little, the patterns of the cloak that his eyes saw by the collar was familiar to what he remembered he wore years ago. But his fingers' touch confirmed him that it was the same material, soft and had rich textures of fabric that remained unforgettable for him.

A white sheet catches his field of vision. His hand sought it quickly and saw a note tied in a chain to the cloak's collar. His eyes earnestly scanned the paper over.

Staring at the sheet, his lifeless eyes brought light inside it. 'These characters.. no!- These handwritings! Its the same!' After the everyday staring of the note that the thief left him years ago, such a note like this will be immediately recognizable to Jian Li, the boy who became addicted at the worn out paper and the forged promise inside of it.

Instantly, his eyes changes the characters written on the note and his brain translates it to Jian language for him.

The note read as: "Wear this, little one. I've come to get you."

His lips curves up.

Jian Li's heart began racing in excitement. Just when he was about to look around, two big black boots entered the scene coming from inside the tall fire. The pair of legs stepped and creaked the wooden floor he slowly walked at.

Hearing these light creaks being made, he jolts, a rumbling fire starting inside his heart.

While it was thumping rhythmically, Jian Li who kept his eyes locked at the ground saw the feet that stomped off the traces of fire.

The wooden slabs stops creaking, his very eyes would see the boots halt, a presence standing silently infront of him.

He first laid his eyes at the man's black boots and its laces, he gulps as his blue eyes reaches his knees, up to his thighs that the pants hugged tightly, and then as he looks up, with his neck all trembling, he gazes over the red suit the man wears which was planted with explicit and complicated silver details, and then catching a look at the black grand robe that was draped around his broad shoulders which was also covered in fire just like the cloak on Jian Li's hand.

Those blue eyes of his would snatch glimpses over his long arms and slender fingers where he notices a black ring resting comfortably.

Then the boy slowly looked up. To the neck, and then bringing his eyes to stare at his face.

"I had faith you would come." He weakly mumbles.

"I'm sorry that i took too long." A voice answers him, giving him shivers to hear the thief's voice after six years.

The fire stormed in, and the flames went higher and higher, making it impossible for the onlookers to see what's going on inside the fire.

Jian Li was in a deep trance at his handsome face, his raven hair remained the same, and he was so amazed with how ruby-like color of his eyes never changed over the years.

The thief and him maintained the height gap that the two shared from the last years, Jian Li was of course the smaller.

The man's face was shaped to the most perfect form, to the tall nose, thin lips, dark brows and intense eyes. It was all as if it was chiseled by the hands of the divines themselves.

Yet despite inking his matured form inside Jian Li's memory, he would notice the thief wearing an expression of being severely pained as he looks at him solemnly. It was a face that almost looked as if he was being struck by a whip over and over again.

"Please forgive me, Lili." His friend's lips quivers, stretching his arms down to grab the cloak at Jian Li's grip then covered the latter's shoulders around with it which made sharp flapping noises and a swift rustle of fastening above his chest after.

The King felt deja vu at his actions as it was the same from six years ago.

The other one gulps and looks at how badly they tortured Jian Li. "Y-your state..." He raises his arm but abruptly pauses.

'Are these hands worthy to hold you?'

With his pride shrinking and the endless train of thoughts and questions cornering the thief's mind, right now, all he wanted to do was to hold the other to sympathize for the pain he was feeling.

Leaving guilt, he chose to give in.

His gentle hands cups both of Jian Li's wounded cheeks, feeling his heart ache from the sight of the King's current state. "What have they done to you.." Jian Li felt the warmth of his palm left and right, but the thief's thoughts would hunt Deverus who was beyond the tall fire, wishing to incinerate him for a thousand times.

The two was both covered in dangerous red flames, glowing and burning together. The thuds and crackles of burning wood and sparks of flying fire embers builds the scene of the night the two childhood runaways reunite again, only this time as adults. Adults whose spirits are broken and having souls that are unable to heal.

"This life is unacceptable. It is full of suffering." Said the thief as his hand grasps Jian Li's marked up wrists, his heart breaking from the purple bruises it displays from Deverus' violence. Blood would always remind him of his dark past, it scared him if the same thing were to happen to Jian Li, his only friend.

"There must be another part in our story." Said him as their exhausted yet serious eyes connects, Jian Li gazes at the man's gloomy face.

"There will be no running this time, I will save you." The man's reassuring words and the warmth of his skin brushing against Jian Li was enough to comfort him, even of this situation, Jian Li was able to forget even for a split second.

"Let them all be bones and ashes." His face marks a grave expression as Jian Li feels his palms being squeezed by the other.

The thief looks around them, scanning the soldiers and all of Jian Li's enemies. He grits his teeth in anger. 'I will not make trouble for him, it is your choice to revenge. I am leaving the decision to you.' he quietly sighs, returning his eyes to Jian Li who was also looking back at him.

'For now i will take you with me.' He says inside his mind, desperately wanting to take care of the King like a glass in verge of falling to greater despair.

He wanted to be the hand who will pull Jian Li from shattering. He wanted to be the protector of the cracked jar to prevent it from spilling its overwhelming power if it ever reaches the deep and breaks.

"Jian Li." He calls for his name soothingly, the latter fixes his attention to what the other might say.

"I have never robbed from death."

"But I will steal you from it."

The way the man said those words with full sincerity and serious eyes, Jian Li wholeheartedly wanted to believe the thief.

He wanted to be taken away so badly.

His eyes waters, his raspy voice low and cracked. "I am already deep within the ocean's abyss." Jian Li softly said. "So my life will be yours to hold." He lowered his head.

The thief nods and exhales, the fire emitting a stronger wave of blazing and hotter flames to scare off the soldiers.

"Then, from now on, you are in my possession."

Jian Li felt nervous at how the fire was acting up so strongly and stretching in all directions but he also felt at ease at the same time.

He looks up to the other's face, not taking his eyes off of him.

"I am Leviticus Svarozich." The thief said to him, stating his name in a distinguished tone.

From inside his red suit, he pulls out tiny blue flowers only bearing five petals with a dot of yellow at its center. The mouse-ear looking flowers were fully covered in blue magical flames, Jian Li admired it for its blinding simplicity that brought the flower overwhelming beauty.

Lev would hold at its thin body with his thumb and index finger then raises it, tucking it softly behind Jian Li's ear. "Forget me not, the thief." Giving him these tiny blooms of blue are the testament of Lev's remembrance of the promise that they held on their thoughts for years.

Jian Li's cloak flaps as he raises his arm while touching the flower he was wearing at his hair. "Never to be again." He said softly.

The two shared a strong connection of years of endurance of being separated and their faiths being measured by time. It is a kind relationship that cannot be be shaken by anything or anyone.

Their connection are their long lasting faith and undying trust with each other.

Lev's lips raises to a smile and huffs an airy chuckle. His boney hands sought the red treasure that was binding Jian Li's neck for years, then he went and destroyed it to pieces, its rubies rolling down the fire as Jian Li was finally free of everything.

Feeling nothing being bound to his neck, Jian Li felt like he could finally breathe again after six years of wearing the royal treasure. With the necklace removed from him, it indeed felt liberating. In such short time that Lev was with him, he already made such big differences for Jian Li that he would wonder how much will he change if he was to live by his side everyday.

Lev picks the hem of his black robe and takes a step forward closer to Jian Li. He then raises his arm and wraps the robe around the frame of the small boy as Lev embraces him in a tight, securing hug.

Leviticus tightens his arms' hug around him as his eyes burns bright red.

He activates his fire, then lowly mumbles beside Jian Li's ears: "Let's go home."

The tragedy that took place that one autumn night,

As the white snow starts to rain from the heavens,

The seasons now change,

Another winter story would come.

Fall was finally over.

Volume 1 end.