![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
batsutousaiTitle: Fallen Night
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Radiata Stories
Chapter: 3 of 11
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batsutousai
Beta:tsuki_no_suzu
Rating: T
Pairings: Harry/Jack
Warnings: OoC, AU, slash, non-human arc
Summary: Harry slipped when he was standing a little too close, and the next thing he knew, he was far away from everything he'd ever known, with something like eternity waiting for him.
Disclaim Her: This story uses characters and settings owned by J.K. Rowling, her publishers, Square Enix and tri-Ace. No money is being made from the creation of this fanfic, and no copywrite infringement is intended.
There are a couple scenes in this chapter that were taken almost word-for-word from the game, with a few minor changes to include Harry.
A/N: Because Shara, who has a passing familiarity with the game was confused, I shall remind everyone now that Ray is the president of the Vareth Institute. The owl.
-0-
Chapter Three - Let It Go
-0-
Harry hissed as he landed on the bridge outside the Echidna Gate, his whole body screaming in pain. Apparating while falling a great distance was something they'd been advised against when being taught how to apparate, but it had been between the pointy rocks at the bottom of a chasm and a rough bump on something smooth. At least none of the potions or ingredients in his pouch were the sort to react badly to apparition. Small graces.
"You look like something stomped on you. Repeatedly."
Harry glanced up from where he was quite happily laying on the ground. Ray had settled on one of the statues populating the bridge. "You should see the other guy," he said drily.
Ray fluttered awkwardly down to the ground next to Harry. "What happened? You've only been gone a week."
Harry sighed and closed his eyes, silently casting a spell to help heal him some. "I got on the wrong side of a very ticked off light elf. He threw me down a chasm." The healing spell soothed the pain enough that Harry was able to sit up and root around in his potions bag for a healing potion. Sometimes, you needed more than magic to feel better.
"I wonder, sometimes, why you even bother with those creatures. Most of them hate humans and you're constantly annoying them."
Harry snorted, then winced as he choked on his potion. "Usually," he said once he could breathe again, "they don't drop me from anything higher than twenty feet. And, usually, Zane isn't inclined towards violence, since I'm more than capable of retaliating." He groaned. "I was being stupid. Totally deserved it."
"You? Being stupid? And I thought that was impossible."
Harry rolled his eyes, then gingerly got to his feet. "I'm disinclined towards stupidity, not incapable of it." He moved around a bit with care and sighed in relief when nothing seemed broken, just sore, which the potion would take care of shortly.
"If I may ask, what stupid thing did you do?" Ray wondered, launching himself into the air and settling on Harry's shoulder.
"You're heavy," Harry complained, but didn't bother trying to brush the owl off, instead making for the gate. "His brother just died yesterday and he's been a bit snappy. I told him he should go be snappy in the City of Flowers, rather than upsetting all the dark elves and myself. When he told me to shut up, I told him that if he didn't stop sulking around the Forest Metropolis, I'd knock him out and send him back to the light elves in a cocoon. He didn't take kindly to that."
"I'm sure there's something meaningful about the cocoon?" Ray inquired. "Not that a normal person wouldn't react poorly to being told they'd be knocked out for mourning, but dropping you into a chasm?"
"His brother died and turned into a cocoon," Harry replied. "It's part of the disease that plagues their people."
"Ah. That was stupid."
"Yes, thank you, Ray."
"So how long are you staying?"
Harry sighed. "A while. I'm hoping someone will let me know when he goes back to the City of Flowers. On the other hand, I've got two hundred bottles of panacea to get to those who can't usually afford it. Want to help?"
Ray considered that. "Two hundred?"
"Yup."
"How much are you selling them for?"
"I'm not. They're free, but only for those who need them. Anyone else can go pay five hundred dagols to fill their stores."
Ray gave an owl huff. "You're going to make a number of pharmacies very unhappy."
"Yeah, sucks to be them. They're welcome to hunt me down and duke it out if they really want to."
Ray shook his head. "I'll make sure the word gets out, then. Are you going to try running out of the Institute?"
"May I?"
"Sure, but only if you donate twenty of those bottles to our infirmary."
Harry laughed. "I think I can do that."
-0-0-0-
Everyone in the Institute knew about the rats. So, naturally, Harry found out within five minutes of walking in the front door. Which then necessitated him asking Ray why he didn't take care of the problem himself, being an owl. After Harry laughingly fended off Ray's feeble attempts to peck him, Ray admitted that he'd tried, one night, but they had a leader rat that he couldn't go up against. So they'd made a call to the warrior guild and were hoping someone would show up soon.
Harry offered to try his hand, but Ray just shook his head. "The guild already has the request. Might as well let them handle it."
So Harry had let it go and made for the library, debating between reading books that were wrong and correcting them in the margins, or reading books he'd read before. Sometimes it scared him, how much he was turning into Hermione.
A couple of hours later, he gave up on the book he was trying to read in disgust and decided to see if he could get himself some food. In the lobby, he was stopped by the girl manning the front desk, Roche, who called, "The cafeteria's closed, Master Harry."
"Oh?" Harry wandered over and took a seat on top of the desk, rolling his eyes when Roche blushed faintly. Something about the younger girls in the Institute had them forever developing crushes on him. He understood a lot of it had to do with him being one of the few humans who got on well with elves and how magically strong he was, but he didn't much care for the attention. "Why's it closed, then? The rats finally win?"
Roche laughed a bit weakly at that. "Heavens, I hope not. No, a couple of people are here from Vancoor."
"Ah. So it's less the rats winning and more the humans telling them to scram or die. That's acceptable."
Roche giggled.
Harry rolled his eyes. "How long have they been exterminating?"
"Oh. They went in... maybe five minutes ago? Something like that."
Harry considered that."So, what? Give them ten more minutes, then go in after them?"
Roche giggled again. "I think they'll need it, too. Neither of them looked like they could take down a pile of those rats, never mind their boss."
"I thought you lot were taught not to judge by appearances," Harry chastised.
Roche blushed and looked away. "Well, yeah. But if someone in Vancoor is just a kid with a big sword, you know they can't be that good."
"A kid?" Harry blinked. "Jack?"
Roche nodded. "That's what he said his name was."
Harry chuckled and made himself a little more comfortable. "He'll be fine."
"You, um... You know him, sir?"
The door to the cafeteria slid open and out stepped Jack and a short young man who Harry was relatively certain was named Daniel. Jack smiled at Roche, then faltered slightly upon seeing Harry sitting oh so calmly on the reception desk. After a moment, a wide grin lit up his face and he waved at Harry before turning to Roche and saying, "We got rid of the rats."
"Really? You must be stronger than you look!" Roche exclaimed. Behind her, Harry chuckled.
"That wasn't really a compliment," Jack replied, eyeing Harry suspiciously, "but thank you."
"With your boss out of the picture, I think your problem is gone," Daniel added.
Roche nodded and pulled a couple stacks of bills out of a pocket of her dress. "Well, here you go." She handed them over to Jack.
Jack smiled at her, then handed one of the stacks over to Daniel. "Here you go, Daniel."
"What? For me?"
"Of course! You were a big help."
"Hehe... Thank you." Daniel took the money and carefully put it in a pocket under his armour.
"And the other half is mine," Jack said, putting the bills in his own pocket and turning to Roche. "Well, if you have any more problems, you know where to find me!"
Roche did a shallow half-bow. "Thank you so very much! Ms Sayna will be delighted."
"Not to mention everyone else," Harry added, hopping off the desk and walking over to join them. "Roche, did you want to get Sayna and let her know her domain is rodent free? I can watch the desk."
"Yes, thank you, Master Harry," Roche agreed and hurried off to the infirmary.
"Hey, Daniel, I'll see you back at Theater Vancoor later, okay?" Jack said to his partner. "And tell Sarge thanks for me, huh?"
"Yeah, see you!" Daniel replied and hurried off.
Jack turned back to Harry, who was smiling at him, hands in his pockets. "How long have you been back in town?"
"About two hours," Harry said with a shrug. "I've been torturing myself with reading books that should never have been penned. Was about to get something to eat."
Jack grinned. "Yeah? How about that lunch you promised me?"
"You paying?"
"Do you ever have money?"
Harry snorted. "Why bother with money when I can get you or the Institute to pay for things for me?"
Jack shook his head and turned to the door as Roche got back from her errand. "Yeah, I'll pay. There's a little bread and soup shop just around the corner that's not too expensive. You good for that?"
"After a week of Lufa's cooking?" Harry replied drily, falling in to step with Jack out the front door. "I'm good for anything."
"Why don't you just cook yourself?" Jack wondered. Harry had cooked for them when they stopped while out hunting smilodons, since Jack admitted to never having learned how.
"Didn't have time. I was working on the panacea pretty much constantly." Harry shrugged and grabbed the door so they could walk into the shop. "I kept forgetting to eat, honestly, though some of that was probably due to the quality of the food." He turned to grin at Jack, but the expression died at the frown on the boy's face. "What?"
"I'm fighting against the urge to channel my sister," Jack replied grumpily. "How much panacea do you have?"
Harry rolled his eyes – he'd been told off often enough during his long life for forgetting to eat. "Two hundred. I hope they can last a while, though. I'm sort of stuck in town," he said, motioning to the soup he wanted and smiling when the woman behind the counter served the bowl up. Once Jack had gotten his food, he stopped to pay for both of them and they found seats.
Jack eyed him curiously once they were seated. "Stuck in town?"
Harry shrugged. "I ticked off Zane, so I'm stuck in Radiata until he either stops being a dick, dies or goes back to the City of Flowers. The first is never going to happen, and the second could take a while, so I'm waiting for him to leave the Forest Metropolis."
"How long might that take?" Jack asked, then, "And how'd you tick him off? Other than existing?"
Harry's lips twitched. "Well, considering he doesn't much care for the dark elves, he'll probably only stay for a few more days, really. But you never know. I suppose it depends on how long he wants to mourn by himself, without the other light elves."
"Mourn?" Jack asked before Harry could mention anything about his stupidity.
"Nogueira died yesterday morning," Harry replied quietly. Nogueira had been his friend, and no matter how many times he'd gone through it, Harry hated watching his friends die.
Jack blinked and looked down at his soup. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
Harry sighed and shook his head. "We knew it would be soon. At least now he's not constantly in pain." He tore off a piece of bread and dunked it in the soup.
Jack nodded and they continued their meal in silence.
Once they'd finished eating and were out on the streets again, headed back towards Vareth, Jack said, "Oh, I got promoted while you were gone."
Harry grinned at him. "That's fantastic! Congratulations."
Jack grinned back. "Yeah! I'm the sergeant of the Acht Squad, now."
"How'd you manage that promotion so fast, huh? You're just that awesome?"
Jack laughed and shook his head. "I'm still not completely sure myself," he admitted. "The Hecton Squad got assigned to bodyguard duty for the princess and she got kidnapped by some of those Void guys. Most of the guild got involved and the deputy chief got hurt pretty bad. The castle went all, 'Holy crap, something must be done!' and the chief decided to make a squad to investigate Void."
"And you're that squad?"
"Pretty much."
"Hm." Harry nodded. "Well, good luck. And don't get yourself killed down there, huh? Void is a pretty close group, and they're good at protecting their own."
Jack sighed. "I know. I've got something of an in, I guess, since I know a couple of people down there and I eat at Club Vampire sometimes, but..." He shrugged. "I'm not all that certain what all I'm supposed to be investigating. Why they kidnapped the princess, sure, but that's sort of what they're hired out to do, usually, right?"
Harry chewed on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. "Technically, yeah. But if they've suddenly got the balls to go after royalty and take on Vancoor members, that's some cause for concern. They either feel really secure, or they've got a very rich client and they've gotten a bit greedy. Honestly, it could be a mix of both of those.
"Yeah..." Jack sighed again and hung his head. "Well, for now I'm stuck meeting people down there and listening at keyholes, hoping to find something out."
Harry nodded. "A number of the Vareth students spend time down in the Club. I'll ask around and see if I can't learn something helpful."
Jack smiled. "Yeah? Thanks. Maybe I'll see if Clive can ask around Olacion."
"Ask the shopkeepers, too," Harry suggested. "Not just the ones in the Beast Pit, but the ones all over town. They tend to overhear a lot."
Jack's smile widened. "Yeah, good point. Thanks, Harry."
"Sure thing. Now, why don't you go scrounge up some info and I'll corner a couple of obnoxious, wanna-be mages." He grimaced at the thought.
Jack snorted and waved a hand over his shoulder as he started off towards Olacion. "Good luck with that."
Harry chuckled and wandered back inside the Institute.
-0-0-0-
Jack sighed and rubbed the back of his head. Clive had agreed to keep his ears open for any word about Void, and two other friends of Jack's from the priest guild, Eugene and Flora, had also agreed to let him know if they heard anything. Now he was off to see if Yuri at the Begin Eatery would listen around for him, since they were on pretty good terms and she was known around the guild for being willing to keep an ear out for anything.
He was about halfway through Vancoor Square when he realised there was a large man off to one side, sniffing the air and with a burning stick in his mouth. Jack couldn't help it, he stopped and stared.
The man turned to look at Jack, blinked, then ran up to him a little too quickly for Jack's comfort.
"Um, yes? What do you want?" Jack asked, trying to recover from his flinch. He told himself anyone would have flinched if a large man had come running towards them, and it sort of helped.
"Do you know where Aphelion might be?" the large man asked.
"Aphelion?"
"Yes, that's right. It's important I find him. I think he's most likely a human..."
"Huh? You think he's human?"
"Aye, but I can't be too sure. It seems to me his smell should be stronger than it is. So, do you know him?"
"I've never heard of anyone looking for people by their smell before." And he'd heard of some pretty strange things since leaving Solieu Village.
"Is that so? Do you mean to say that humans can't do that?"
"Are you serious? Anyway, I don't know who this Aphelion guys is, okay?" Jack waved his hand in front of his face.
"Would you help me find him?" the large man asked, looking almost hopeful.
"Why are you asking me? Look, if you want my help, you have to pay a fee to the guild," Jack decided. He had things to do and he wasn't going to take a break from his business unless it involved money.
"And what kind of a thing would this 'fee' be?"
Jack stared at the man in disbelief. "Money! What else would it be?"
The large man nodded. "Ah, money, you say? I should have realized. Of course, humans do like their money."
"Have you been off living with the elves or something? Who doesn't think about money?"
"Not with any elves, me. Orcs and goblins, though..."
Jack shook his head and turned his back to the man. "That's it! I'm out of here. Good luck."
"How much is this fee of yours?"
Jack turned back around. "Huh? You want to pay the money? Well, I guess I could do it for, say, five thousand dagols?" That seemed like a good amount, and it would let him keep taking Harry out to lunch for a while, since the mage didn't seem to care for money any more than this guy. "Let's see how he likes that..." he said to himself as the man considered that.
"Well now, is that all you want?" he said, then turned his back and walked a bit away. After a moment he walked back and handed over a pile of bills.
Jack took the bills and stared at them, stars in his eyes at the sheer amount in his hands. "No way! Yahoo! There's enough here for months!"
"So, lad... Now will you help me look?"
Jack grinned up at him, shoving the bills into a pocket. "No problemo! I'm ready for action! Come on, let's get started!" He turned and led the way out of the Square, heading back the way he came, since more people populated that side of town this time of afternoon.
-0-0-0-
After a while, Jack asked, "By the way, what does this Aphelion guy look like, anyway?"
"Oh, I don't know," the large man replied with a flippant sort of tone.
Jack stopped walking, staring at the man's back. "You don't know?" he asked, disbelieving.
The large man stopped as well and glanced back at Jack. "Aye, that's right. The fact is, you see, he can take any form he wants."
"Then how are we supposed to find him?" Jack demanded, slightly hysterical. He had things to do, and they did not involve wandering around town all day, looking for some guy who could change his face!
"Hmm... It won't be easy," the man decided, then turned to keep walking.
Jack groaned and hung his head. "Won't be easy? Try impossible..." He started off again after the man, the money in his pocket a heavy reminder that he'd already been paid for his assistance.
-0-0-0-
Jack was seriously starting to think that no amount of money was worth this. "Hey, we're not going to find him by just wandering around the streets, you know," he told the guy.
"But I have to find him. We have some very important things to discuss," the man replied, reluctantly coming to a stop again, since Jack had stopped walking.
"Fine, but he's not going to just appear like magic."
The large man cocked his head to one side thoughtfully, then exclaimed, "Wait a minute! I know how to find him! Tell, me, who is the strongest fighter in this whole town?"
Jack blinked. "The strongest..." He scratched the back of his head. "Physical, or magical?"
"Oh." The man thought about that for a moment. "I don't know. He's very good at both of them."
Jack rubbed a hand down his face, then turned towards Vareth. "Come on." Even if Harry wasn't magically this guy's friend, he might very well have a spell that would help them find him.
-0-0-0-
Harry blinked in surprise as the temperature suddenly rose. When no one else in the library seemed bothered, he closed the book he was silently ranting at and spelled it to head back to its shelf before going off in search of the hot magic. The last time he'd felt magic like this was...
Jack came around a corner, a large man behind him.
"...Parsec?" Harry said.
"You know him?" Jack asked, looking hopeful.
The large man blinked. "Ah, Harry. I haven't seen you in..." He trailed off as Harry shook his head rather violently. After a moment, he settled on, "It's been a while."
Harry let out a relieved breath. The last time he'd seen Parsec had been almost ninety years ago, when Harry had been a part of a search team looking for a green goblin child who'd been kidnapped by some fire imps. Once Parsec had found out that the imps had been taking children from nearby families, he'd forbidden them from his land
Jack sighed. "I take it you're not Aphelion?" he asked Harry.
"Aphelion!" Harry jerked back and looked up at Parsec. "What would you want with that murdering bastard?"
Parsec held out his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm looking for him. He's been ignoring his duties."
"Probably off killing more people," Harry muttered. The last time he'd seen Aphelion, the silver dragon had been gleefully hunting the dark elves around the Nowem Region and killing them off. Harry had cursed Aphelion to feel horrible pain whenever he saw a dark elf, then informed the dragon that if he caught him killing creatures off again, he'd make him wish he was dead. (If it wouldn't put the world out of balance so badly, Harry would gladly murder the bastard.)
Parsec shrugged. "He's here, somewhere. I can smell him, but his smell is weak. You haven't seen him?"
"I wish. I could do with someone around to curse," Harry retorted.
"Harry," Parsec said.
Harry stared back, unrepentant, but did grab a hold of his temper and shove it back in a box in his mind. As he'd gotten older, he'd gotten a better hold on his temper, but that just made it that more dangerous when he lost it. (Honestly, it was probably a good thing that he never took light elves seriously, or he'd have killed them all off decades ago.)
Jack sighed, reminding the two that he was still there. "I don't suppose you know a spell to find Aphelion?" he asked Harry.
Harry shrugged and shook his head. "Sure, but he's probably found a way to block it. I very much doubt he wants me finding him, considering what happened the last time we met."
"What did happen?" Parsec asked. "And how long ago?"
"What? You think I'm the reason he's gone off and buried his head in the sand?"
Parsec didn't look amused.
Harry rolled his eyes. "I found him hunting dark elves and killing them off for sport. It was about sixty years ago."
Jack made a startled sound and turned to stare at Harry.
"Ah. No wonder you're so bothered," Parsec said. "I'm surprised he dared, though. You made it no secret that you were fond of them."
"Yeah, that's me," Harry replied drily, "Self-proclaimed protector of dark elves everywhere." He rolled his eyes.
Parsec shook his head. "He stopped doing his duty a couple decades after that incident, at any rate."
"And you haven't come looking for him until now?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"It wasn't obvious until Kelvin went to sleep. We've been looking for him since, but it wasn't until now that we managed to get a semi-clear reading on where he was."
"In Radiata," Harry replied. "It makes sense, you know. He and Quasar were created for the humans, and you can get lost in this town pretty easily. He could have killed someone off and then taken their place with no one the wiser. Although, if he was in town, that begs the question of why he didn't stop Cairn."
"That is one of my questions." Parsec sighed. "You will tell me to stop looking."
"He'll have to reveal himself soon, Parsec," Harry pointed out. "It's almost time for Quasar to take his place."
Parsec nodded. "That's what we're worried about."
"You think he'll fight to stay awake?"
Parsec nodded again. "The humans have only gotten more violent since he woke, and with Kelvin being asleep..."
Jack cleared his throat, loudly, and when the older two looked at him, demanded, "What the hell is going on?"
Harry muttered a curse under his breath, then shook his head. "We shouldn't be discussing this in a hallway. We'll go to where I'm staying. Come on." When Jack opened his mouth to complain, Harry snapped, "When we get there, Jack."
They walked to the abandoned house Harry was still staying at while he was in the city. He'd created a cosy little nook for himself on the second floor and he and the Void team that used the house as a short-cut had come to the understanding that they would ignore each other and everyone would be happy.
Once up on the second floor, Harry pulled out his wand to help strengthen his spells and cast a slew of privacy wards. Then he conjured two chairs for his guests and sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing at his face.
Parsec considered Harry for a moment, then turned to Jack. "What do you know of the dragons?"
"The... dragons?" Jack glanced at Harry, who was rummaging through his pouch for a headache potion, then looked back at Parsec. "Uhm, there's four of them – earth, air, water and fire – and they help keep the world in balance. The Water Dragon was killed by my father sixteen years ago."
Parsec blinked. "You're Cairn's son?"
Jack nodded.
Parsec chuckled and looked over at Harry, who was watching them with a wry smile. "Another child of prophecy."
Harry groaned. "You lot can shove your bloody, fucking prophecies up your–" He snapped his mouth shut and dragged his hand down his face. This day was doing a number on his temper.
"Prophecy?" Jack asked.
Harry coughed. "Okay, Jack, you know when I told you there were four dragons?" Jack nodded, looking mildly confused and very curious. "Yeah, well, I missed a couple. You've got the four elements, and then there are the two dragons who protect the humans: the silver dragon, Aphelion, and the gold dragon, Quasar."
"Protect the humans?" Jack asked. "Why would we need protecting?"
"Each dragon has a race we protect," Parsec offered. "I watch over the orcs. Kelvin, the Water Dragon, watches over the goblins–"
"You're a dragon!?"
"Parsec is the Fire Dragon," Harry said. "His home is the Fire Mountain in the Dichett Region." He smiled at Jack's awed look. "Dragons have the ability to take on a form like that of the species they've sworn to protect. The other two dragons, Cepheid, the Wind Dragon, and Baade, the Earth Dragon, protect the elves and the dwarves, respectively. Although, Cepheid isn't fond of the dark elves, since they lack wings."
Jack took a moment to work through all that in his mind, then looked straight at Harry and asked, "Are you a dragon?"
Harry blinked in surprise and opened his mouth to deny it, only to stop when his magic refused to let him. After a moment, he said, "I was born human."
Jack frowned. "That didn't answer my question. And how could you have met Aphelion sixty years ago? You look like you're in your twenties!"
Parsec started to chuckle, ignoring Harry's glare, then said, "Harry is special."
"Special," Harry scoffed. "More like cursed." At Jack's confused look, he said, "I was born in a world that runs parallel to this one. In that world, humans became the dominate race, rather than the trading in power this world enjoys. Also, humans in my world either had magic that was innate, like the elves, or no ability with magic at all, like many humans in this world. I... had an accident with a magical object in my world and fell into this world."
Jack stared at him for a long moment, then asked, "So... you're human? But you have magic like the elves. That's why you like them so much?"
"Prefer them, yes," Harry agreed. "There are plenty of humans I like, but I've always preferred living with elves."
Jack nodded. "Okay. I suppose that makes sense. But... sixty years!"
Harry sighed. "I don't age. The humans of my world, the ones with innate magic, they live longer than those humans without magic, but never as long as I have. Something about my coming to this world has kept me from aging."
Parsec pulled the flaming stick out of his mouth and pointed it at Harry. "You're like a dragon," he pointed out.
"I am not a–"
"You have innate magic, you don't age, you've picked a race to protect and you're damned hard to kill."
"I'm human!" Harry snapped. "From another world, yes, but still human! Not a bloody dragon!"
"You have a better explanation?" Parsec replied.
Harry looked down at his hands, which he'd clenched in anger. He forced them to loosen and whispered, "No."
Everyone was silent for a long moment, then Jack said, "So, does this mean I have a dragon for a friend? Because that's kind of cool."
Harry laughed at that and offered Jack a strained smile, then looked over at Parsec. "Okay, say I'm a dragon. Where's my dragon form?"
"Your people had animal forms, is that not correct?" Parsec asked. When Harry nodded, he suggested, "Perhaps this is yours."
"A dragon," Harry said flatly. "No human in my world has ever had a magical creature as their animagus form."
"This isn't your world," Parsec reminded him.
Harry blinked and groaned. "Fine. I'll look into it."
Parsec nodded, then stood. "Will you keep an eye out for Aphelion?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah, sure thing. If I spot him, what do you want me to do?"
"Bring him to one of us. Baade is probably the closest."
"Yeah. You know, I've never actually met Baade," Harry commented.
Parsec smiled. "He's met you," he offered, then turned and left.
Harry sighed, then glanced at Jack, who was watching him with a faint frown. "Sorry."
Jack shook his head. "Were you ever going to mention that you don't age? Or was I just going to find out twenty years from now?"
Harry looked down at his hands again and flexed them. "The elves are the only ones who know I don't age. I've never told a human before. When it gets to the point where someone might start to notice, I leave. Mages don't really travel outside of Radiata unless they're under contract with the Knights, and most people I know are mages, so going off into one of the more distant regions usually keeps them from finding me. Eventually, people figure I've died, or they die off themselves. It's easier that way."
Jack nodded. "You lied."
Harry shook his head. "I said it's human nature to fall in and out of contact, not that I never would."
"You said you'd only be a pig away!"
Harry shrugged. "And so I would be, until, one day, I went hunting for ingredients and never came back. You would mourn me for a while, then go back to your life."
"And you'd never have to worry about it when I died," Jack replied, angry. "I bet you wouldn't even care."
Harry held his silence, refusing to look up at the boy. He would mourn Jack, just as he'd mourned every other human and elf he'd been friends with. Sometimes, it would be better if he could just stop caring, stop making friends, because every time one of them died, it felt like a part of Harry died too.
Jack stared at him for a long moment, then ran out of the abandoned house.
-0-0-0-0-0-
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: So, I tried to keep Parsec in character. Not sure how well I did... *sigh*
So, I know Parsec is the protector of the goblins and Kelvin of the orcs, but since the blood orcs seem to have originated from the Dichett Region, it made more sense to me for Parsec to be the protector of the orcs. (Also, his 'human' form is vaguely reminiscent of an orc, albeit a cultured one, and Baade's other form is that of a dwarf, so...)
Yeah.
Cheers!
~Bats ^.^x
Chapters:
Prologue - Falling
1 - Elves ||| 2 - Humans |||3 - Let It Go
4 - And If It Returns ||| 5 - It Was Meant to Be ||| 6 - Ways of the Dragons
7 - To Build an Army ||| 8 - Power Over Life ||| 9 - Arbitrator
10 - Blood-Filled Days ||| 11 - Hic Sunt Dracones
...
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Radiata Stories
Chapter: 3 of 11
Author:
batsutousaiBeta:
tsuki_no_suzuRating: T
Pairings: Harry/Jack
Warnings: OoC, AU, slash, non-human arc
Summary: Harry slipped when he was standing a little too close, and the next thing he knew, he was far away from everything he'd ever known, with something like eternity waiting for him.
Disclaim Her: This story uses characters and settings owned by J.K. Rowling, her publishers, Square Enix and tri-Ace. No money is being made from the creation of this fanfic, and no copywrite infringement is intended.
There are a couple scenes in this chapter that were taken almost word-for-word from the game, with a few minor changes to include Harry.
A/N: Because Shara, who has a passing familiarity with the game was confused, I shall remind everyone now that Ray is the president of the Vareth Institute. The owl.
Chapter Three - Let It Go
-0-
Harry hissed as he landed on the bridge outside the Echidna Gate, his whole body screaming in pain. Apparating while falling a great distance was something they'd been advised against when being taught how to apparate, but it had been between the pointy rocks at the bottom of a chasm and a rough bump on something smooth. At least none of the potions or ingredients in his pouch were the sort to react badly to apparition. Small graces.
"You look like something stomped on you. Repeatedly."
Harry glanced up from where he was quite happily laying on the ground. Ray had settled on one of the statues populating the bridge. "You should see the other guy," he said drily.
Ray fluttered awkwardly down to the ground next to Harry. "What happened? You've only been gone a week."
Harry sighed and closed his eyes, silently casting a spell to help heal him some. "I got on the wrong side of a very ticked off light elf. He threw me down a chasm." The healing spell soothed the pain enough that Harry was able to sit up and root around in his potions bag for a healing potion. Sometimes, you needed more than magic to feel better.
"I wonder, sometimes, why you even bother with those creatures. Most of them hate humans and you're constantly annoying them."
Harry snorted, then winced as he choked on his potion. "Usually," he said once he could breathe again, "they don't drop me from anything higher than twenty feet. And, usually, Zane isn't inclined towards violence, since I'm more than capable of retaliating." He groaned. "I was being stupid. Totally deserved it."
"You? Being stupid? And I thought that was impossible."
Harry rolled his eyes, then gingerly got to his feet. "I'm disinclined towards stupidity, not incapable of it." He moved around a bit with care and sighed in relief when nothing seemed broken, just sore, which the potion would take care of shortly.
"If I may ask, what stupid thing did you do?" Ray wondered, launching himself into the air and settling on Harry's shoulder.
"You're heavy," Harry complained, but didn't bother trying to brush the owl off, instead making for the gate. "His brother just died yesterday and he's been a bit snappy. I told him he should go be snappy in the City of Flowers, rather than upsetting all the dark elves and myself. When he told me to shut up, I told him that if he didn't stop sulking around the Forest Metropolis, I'd knock him out and send him back to the light elves in a cocoon. He didn't take kindly to that."
"I'm sure there's something meaningful about the cocoon?" Ray inquired. "Not that a normal person wouldn't react poorly to being told they'd be knocked out for mourning, but dropping you into a chasm?"
"His brother died and turned into a cocoon," Harry replied. "It's part of the disease that plagues their people."
"Ah. That was stupid."
"Yes, thank you, Ray."
"So how long are you staying?"
Harry sighed. "A while. I'm hoping someone will let me know when he goes back to the City of Flowers. On the other hand, I've got two hundred bottles of panacea to get to those who can't usually afford it. Want to help?"
Ray considered that. "Two hundred?"
"Yup."
"How much are you selling them for?"
"I'm not. They're free, but only for those who need them. Anyone else can go pay five hundred dagols to fill their stores."
Ray gave an owl huff. "You're going to make a number of pharmacies very unhappy."
"Yeah, sucks to be them. They're welcome to hunt me down and duke it out if they really want to."
Ray shook his head. "I'll make sure the word gets out, then. Are you going to try running out of the Institute?"
"May I?"
"Sure, but only if you donate twenty of those bottles to our infirmary."
Harry laughed. "I think I can do that."
Everyone in the Institute knew about the rats. So, naturally, Harry found out within five minutes of walking in the front door. Which then necessitated him asking Ray why he didn't take care of the problem himself, being an owl. After Harry laughingly fended off Ray's feeble attempts to peck him, Ray admitted that he'd tried, one night, but they had a leader rat that he couldn't go up against. So they'd made a call to the warrior guild and were hoping someone would show up soon.
Harry offered to try his hand, but Ray just shook his head. "The guild already has the request. Might as well let them handle it."
So Harry had let it go and made for the library, debating between reading books that were wrong and correcting them in the margins, or reading books he'd read before. Sometimes it scared him, how much he was turning into Hermione.
A couple of hours later, he gave up on the book he was trying to read in disgust and decided to see if he could get himself some food. In the lobby, he was stopped by the girl manning the front desk, Roche, who called, "The cafeteria's closed, Master Harry."
"Oh?" Harry wandered over and took a seat on top of the desk, rolling his eyes when Roche blushed faintly. Something about the younger girls in the Institute had them forever developing crushes on him. He understood a lot of it had to do with him being one of the few humans who got on well with elves and how magically strong he was, but he didn't much care for the attention. "Why's it closed, then? The rats finally win?"
Roche laughed a bit weakly at that. "Heavens, I hope not. No, a couple of people are here from Vancoor."
"Ah. So it's less the rats winning and more the humans telling them to scram or die. That's acceptable."
Roche giggled.
Harry rolled his eyes. "How long have they been exterminating?"
"Oh. They went in... maybe five minutes ago? Something like that."
Harry considered that."So, what? Give them ten more minutes, then go in after them?"
Roche giggled again. "I think they'll need it, too. Neither of them looked like they could take down a pile of those rats, never mind their boss."
"I thought you lot were taught not to judge by appearances," Harry chastised.
Roche blushed and looked away. "Well, yeah. But if someone in Vancoor is just a kid with a big sword, you know they can't be that good."
"A kid?" Harry blinked. "Jack?"
Roche nodded. "That's what he said his name was."
Harry chuckled and made himself a little more comfortable. "He'll be fine."
"You, um... You know him, sir?"
The door to the cafeteria slid open and out stepped Jack and a short young man who Harry was relatively certain was named Daniel. Jack smiled at Roche, then faltered slightly upon seeing Harry sitting oh so calmly on the reception desk. After a moment, a wide grin lit up his face and he waved at Harry before turning to Roche and saying, "We got rid of the rats."
"Really? You must be stronger than you look!" Roche exclaimed. Behind her, Harry chuckled.
"That wasn't really a compliment," Jack replied, eyeing Harry suspiciously, "but thank you."
"With your boss out of the picture, I think your problem is gone," Daniel added.
Roche nodded and pulled a couple stacks of bills out of a pocket of her dress. "Well, here you go." She handed them over to Jack.
Jack smiled at her, then handed one of the stacks over to Daniel. "Here you go, Daniel."
"What? For me?"
"Of course! You were a big help."
"Hehe... Thank you." Daniel took the money and carefully put it in a pocket under his armour.
"And the other half is mine," Jack said, putting the bills in his own pocket and turning to Roche. "Well, if you have any more problems, you know where to find me!"
Roche did a shallow half-bow. "Thank you so very much! Ms Sayna will be delighted."
"Not to mention everyone else," Harry added, hopping off the desk and walking over to join them. "Roche, did you want to get Sayna and let her know her domain is rodent free? I can watch the desk."
"Yes, thank you, Master Harry," Roche agreed and hurried off to the infirmary.
"Hey, Daniel, I'll see you back at Theater Vancoor later, okay?" Jack said to his partner. "And tell Sarge thanks for me, huh?"
"Yeah, see you!" Daniel replied and hurried off.
Jack turned back to Harry, who was smiling at him, hands in his pockets. "How long have you been back in town?"
"About two hours," Harry said with a shrug. "I've been torturing myself with reading books that should never have been penned. Was about to get something to eat."
Jack grinned. "Yeah? How about that lunch you promised me?"
"You paying?"
"Do you ever have money?"
Harry snorted. "Why bother with money when I can get you or the Institute to pay for things for me?"
Jack shook his head and turned to the door as Roche got back from her errand. "Yeah, I'll pay. There's a little bread and soup shop just around the corner that's not too expensive. You good for that?"
"After a week of Lufa's cooking?" Harry replied drily, falling in to step with Jack out the front door. "I'm good for anything."
"Why don't you just cook yourself?" Jack wondered. Harry had cooked for them when they stopped while out hunting smilodons, since Jack admitted to never having learned how.
"Didn't have time. I was working on the panacea pretty much constantly." Harry shrugged and grabbed the door so they could walk into the shop. "I kept forgetting to eat, honestly, though some of that was probably due to the quality of the food." He turned to grin at Jack, but the expression died at the frown on the boy's face. "What?"
"I'm fighting against the urge to channel my sister," Jack replied grumpily. "How much panacea do you have?"
Harry rolled his eyes – he'd been told off often enough during his long life for forgetting to eat. "Two hundred. I hope they can last a while, though. I'm sort of stuck in town," he said, motioning to the soup he wanted and smiling when the woman behind the counter served the bowl up. Once Jack had gotten his food, he stopped to pay for both of them and they found seats.
Jack eyed him curiously once they were seated. "Stuck in town?"
Harry shrugged. "I ticked off Zane, so I'm stuck in Radiata until he either stops being a dick, dies or goes back to the City of Flowers. The first is never going to happen, and the second could take a while, so I'm waiting for him to leave the Forest Metropolis."
"How long might that take?" Jack asked, then, "And how'd you tick him off? Other than existing?"
Harry's lips twitched. "Well, considering he doesn't much care for the dark elves, he'll probably only stay for a few more days, really. But you never know. I suppose it depends on how long he wants to mourn by himself, without the other light elves."
"Mourn?" Jack asked before Harry could mention anything about his stupidity.
"Nogueira died yesterday morning," Harry replied quietly. Nogueira had been his friend, and no matter how many times he'd gone through it, Harry hated watching his friends die.
Jack blinked and looked down at his soup. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
Harry sighed and shook his head. "We knew it would be soon. At least now he's not constantly in pain." He tore off a piece of bread and dunked it in the soup.
Jack nodded and they continued their meal in silence.
Once they'd finished eating and were out on the streets again, headed back towards Vareth, Jack said, "Oh, I got promoted while you were gone."
Harry grinned at him. "That's fantastic! Congratulations."
Jack grinned back. "Yeah! I'm the sergeant of the Acht Squad, now."
"How'd you manage that promotion so fast, huh? You're just that awesome?"
Jack laughed and shook his head. "I'm still not completely sure myself," he admitted. "The Hecton Squad got assigned to bodyguard duty for the princess and she got kidnapped by some of those Void guys. Most of the guild got involved and the deputy chief got hurt pretty bad. The castle went all, 'Holy crap, something must be done!' and the chief decided to make a squad to investigate Void."
"And you're that squad?"
"Pretty much."
"Hm." Harry nodded. "Well, good luck. And don't get yourself killed down there, huh? Void is a pretty close group, and they're good at protecting their own."
Jack sighed. "I know. I've got something of an in, I guess, since I know a couple of people down there and I eat at Club Vampire sometimes, but..." He shrugged. "I'm not all that certain what all I'm supposed to be investigating. Why they kidnapped the princess, sure, but that's sort of what they're hired out to do, usually, right?"
Harry chewed on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. "Technically, yeah. But if they've suddenly got the balls to go after royalty and take on Vancoor members, that's some cause for concern. They either feel really secure, or they've got a very rich client and they've gotten a bit greedy. Honestly, it could be a mix of both of those.
"Yeah..." Jack sighed again and hung his head. "Well, for now I'm stuck meeting people down there and listening at keyholes, hoping to find something out."
Harry nodded. "A number of the Vareth students spend time down in the Club. I'll ask around and see if I can't learn something helpful."
Jack smiled. "Yeah? Thanks. Maybe I'll see if Clive can ask around Olacion."
"Ask the shopkeepers, too," Harry suggested. "Not just the ones in the Beast Pit, but the ones all over town. They tend to overhear a lot."
Jack's smile widened. "Yeah, good point. Thanks, Harry."
"Sure thing. Now, why don't you go scrounge up some info and I'll corner a couple of obnoxious, wanna-be mages." He grimaced at the thought.
Jack snorted and waved a hand over his shoulder as he started off towards Olacion. "Good luck with that."
Harry chuckled and wandered back inside the Institute.
Jack sighed and rubbed the back of his head. Clive had agreed to keep his ears open for any word about Void, and two other friends of Jack's from the priest guild, Eugene and Flora, had also agreed to let him know if they heard anything. Now he was off to see if Yuri at the Begin Eatery would listen around for him, since they were on pretty good terms and she was known around the guild for being willing to keep an ear out for anything.
He was about halfway through Vancoor Square when he realised there was a large man off to one side, sniffing the air and with a burning stick in his mouth. Jack couldn't help it, he stopped and stared.
The man turned to look at Jack, blinked, then ran up to him a little too quickly for Jack's comfort.
"Um, yes? What do you want?" Jack asked, trying to recover from his flinch. He told himself anyone would have flinched if a large man had come running towards them, and it sort of helped.
"Do you know where Aphelion might be?" the large man asked.
"Aphelion?"
"Yes, that's right. It's important I find him. I think he's most likely a human..."
"Huh? You think he's human?"
"Aye, but I can't be too sure. It seems to me his smell should be stronger than it is. So, do you know him?"
"I've never heard of anyone looking for people by their smell before." And he'd heard of some pretty strange things since leaving Solieu Village.
"Is that so? Do you mean to say that humans can't do that?"
"Are you serious? Anyway, I don't know who this Aphelion guys is, okay?" Jack waved his hand in front of his face.
"Would you help me find him?" the large man asked, looking almost hopeful.
"Why are you asking me? Look, if you want my help, you have to pay a fee to the guild," Jack decided. He had things to do and he wasn't going to take a break from his business unless it involved money.
"And what kind of a thing would this 'fee' be?"
Jack stared at the man in disbelief. "Money! What else would it be?"
The large man nodded. "Ah, money, you say? I should have realized. Of course, humans do like their money."
"Have you been off living with the elves or something? Who doesn't think about money?"
"Not with any elves, me. Orcs and goblins, though..."
Jack shook his head and turned his back to the man. "That's it! I'm out of here. Good luck."
"How much is this fee of yours?"
Jack turned back around. "Huh? You want to pay the money? Well, I guess I could do it for, say, five thousand dagols?" That seemed like a good amount, and it would let him keep taking Harry out to lunch for a while, since the mage didn't seem to care for money any more than this guy. "Let's see how he likes that..." he said to himself as the man considered that.
"Well now, is that all you want?" he said, then turned his back and walked a bit away. After a moment he walked back and handed over a pile of bills.
Jack took the bills and stared at them, stars in his eyes at the sheer amount in his hands. "No way! Yahoo! There's enough here for months!"
"So, lad... Now will you help me look?"
Jack grinned up at him, shoving the bills into a pocket. "No problemo! I'm ready for action! Come on, let's get started!" He turned and led the way out of the Square, heading back the way he came, since more people populated that side of town this time of afternoon.
After a while, Jack asked, "By the way, what does this Aphelion guy look like, anyway?"
"Oh, I don't know," the large man replied with a flippant sort of tone.
Jack stopped walking, staring at the man's back. "You don't know?" he asked, disbelieving.
The large man stopped as well and glanced back at Jack. "Aye, that's right. The fact is, you see, he can take any form he wants."
"Then how are we supposed to find him?" Jack demanded, slightly hysterical. He had things to do, and they did not involve wandering around town all day, looking for some guy who could change his face!
"Hmm... It won't be easy," the man decided, then turned to keep walking.
Jack groaned and hung his head. "Won't be easy? Try impossible..." He started off again after the man, the money in his pocket a heavy reminder that he'd already been paid for his assistance.
Jack was seriously starting to think that no amount of money was worth this. "Hey, we're not going to find him by just wandering around the streets, you know," he told the guy.
"But I have to find him. We have some very important things to discuss," the man replied, reluctantly coming to a stop again, since Jack had stopped walking.
"Fine, but he's not going to just appear like magic."
The large man cocked his head to one side thoughtfully, then exclaimed, "Wait a minute! I know how to find him! Tell, me, who is the strongest fighter in this whole town?"
Jack blinked. "The strongest..." He scratched the back of his head. "Physical, or magical?"
"Oh." The man thought about that for a moment. "I don't know. He's very good at both of them."
Jack rubbed a hand down his face, then turned towards Vareth. "Come on." Even if Harry wasn't magically this guy's friend, he might very well have a spell that would help them find him.
Harry blinked in surprise as the temperature suddenly rose. When no one else in the library seemed bothered, he closed the book he was silently ranting at and spelled it to head back to its shelf before going off in search of the hot magic. The last time he'd felt magic like this was...
Jack came around a corner, a large man behind him.
"...Parsec?" Harry said.
"You know him?" Jack asked, looking hopeful.
The large man blinked. "Ah, Harry. I haven't seen you in..." He trailed off as Harry shook his head rather violently. After a moment, he settled on, "It's been a while."
Harry let out a relieved breath. The last time he'd seen Parsec had been almost ninety years ago, when Harry had been a part of a search team looking for a green goblin child who'd been kidnapped by some fire imps. Once Parsec had found out that the imps had been taking children from nearby families, he'd forbidden them from his land
Jack sighed. "I take it you're not Aphelion?" he asked Harry.
"Aphelion!" Harry jerked back and looked up at Parsec. "What would you want with that murdering bastard?"
Parsec held out his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm looking for him. He's been ignoring his duties."
"Probably off killing more people," Harry muttered. The last time he'd seen Aphelion, the silver dragon had been gleefully hunting the dark elves around the Nowem Region and killing them off. Harry had cursed Aphelion to feel horrible pain whenever he saw a dark elf, then informed the dragon that if he caught him killing creatures off again, he'd make him wish he was dead. (If it wouldn't put the world out of balance so badly, Harry would gladly murder the bastard.)
Parsec shrugged. "He's here, somewhere. I can smell him, but his smell is weak. You haven't seen him?"
"I wish. I could do with someone around to curse," Harry retorted.
"Harry," Parsec said.
Harry stared back, unrepentant, but did grab a hold of his temper and shove it back in a box in his mind. As he'd gotten older, he'd gotten a better hold on his temper, but that just made it that more dangerous when he lost it. (Honestly, it was probably a good thing that he never took light elves seriously, or he'd have killed them all off decades ago.)
Jack sighed, reminding the two that he was still there. "I don't suppose you know a spell to find Aphelion?" he asked Harry.
Harry shrugged and shook his head. "Sure, but he's probably found a way to block it. I very much doubt he wants me finding him, considering what happened the last time we met."
"What did happen?" Parsec asked. "And how long ago?"
"What? You think I'm the reason he's gone off and buried his head in the sand?"
Parsec didn't look amused.
Harry rolled his eyes. "I found him hunting dark elves and killing them off for sport. It was about sixty years ago."
Jack made a startled sound and turned to stare at Harry.
"Ah. No wonder you're so bothered," Parsec said. "I'm surprised he dared, though. You made it no secret that you were fond of them."
"Yeah, that's me," Harry replied drily, "Self-proclaimed protector of dark elves everywhere." He rolled his eyes.
Parsec shook his head. "He stopped doing his duty a couple decades after that incident, at any rate."
"And you haven't come looking for him until now?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"It wasn't obvious until Kelvin went to sleep. We've been looking for him since, but it wasn't until now that we managed to get a semi-clear reading on where he was."
"In Radiata," Harry replied. "It makes sense, you know. He and Quasar were created for the humans, and you can get lost in this town pretty easily. He could have killed someone off and then taken their place with no one the wiser. Although, if he was in town, that begs the question of why he didn't stop Cairn."
"That is one of my questions." Parsec sighed. "You will tell me to stop looking."
"He'll have to reveal himself soon, Parsec," Harry pointed out. "It's almost time for Quasar to take his place."
Parsec nodded. "That's what we're worried about."
"You think he'll fight to stay awake?"
Parsec nodded again. "The humans have only gotten more violent since he woke, and with Kelvin being asleep..."
Jack cleared his throat, loudly, and when the older two looked at him, demanded, "What the hell is going on?"
Harry muttered a curse under his breath, then shook his head. "We shouldn't be discussing this in a hallway. We'll go to where I'm staying. Come on." When Jack opened his mouth to complain, Harry snapped, "When we get there, Jack."
They walked to the abandoned house Harry was still staying at while he was in the city. He'd created a cosy little nook for himself on the second floor and he and the Void team that used the house as a short-cut had come to the understanding that they would ignore each other and everyone would be happy.
Once up on the second floor, Harry pulled out his wand to help strengthen his spells and cast a slew of privacy wards. Then he conjured two chairs for his guests and sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing at his face.
Parsec considered Harry for a moment, then turned to Jack. "What do you know of the dragons?"
"The... dragons?" Jack glanced at Harry, who was rummaging through his pouch for a headache potion, then looked back at Parsec. "Uhm, there's four of them – earth, air, water and fire – and they help keep the world in balance. The Water Dragon was killed by my father sixteen years ago."
Parsec blinked. "You're Cairn's son?"
Jack nodded.
Parsec chuckled and looked over at Harry, who was watching them with a wry smile. "Another child of prophecy."
Harry groaned. "You lot can shove your bloody, fucking prophecies up your–" He snapped his mouth shut and dragged his hand down his face. This day was doing a number on his temper.
"Prophecy?" Jack asked.
Harry coughed. "Okay, Jack, you know when I told you there were four dragons?" Jack nodded, looking mildly confused and very curious. "Yeah, well, I missed a couple. You've got the four elements, and then there are the two dragons who protect the humans: the silver dragon, Aphelion, and the gold dragon, Quasar."
"Protect the humans?" Jack asked. "Why would we need protecting?"
"Each dragon has a race we protect," Parsec offered. "I watch over the orcs. Kelvin, the Water Dragon, watches over the goblins–"
"You're a dragon!?"
"Parsec is the Fire Dragon," Harry said. "His home is the Fire Mountain in the Dichett Region." He smiled at Jack's awed look. "Dragons have the ability to take on a form like that of the species they've sworn to protect. The other two dragons, Cepheid, the Wind Dragon, and Baade, the Earth Dragon, protect the elves and the dwarves, respectively. Although, Cepheid isn't fond of the dark elves, since they lack wings."
Jack took a moment to work through all that in his mind, then looked straight at Harry and asked, "Are you a dragon?"
Harry blinked in surprise and opened his mouth to deny it, only to stop when his magic refused to let him. After a moment, he said, "I was born human."
Jack frowned. "That didn't answer my question. And how could you have met Aphelion sixty years ago? You look like you're in your twenties!"
Parsec started to chuckle, ignoring Harry's glare, then said, "Harry is special."
"Special," Harry scoffed. "More like cursed." At Jack's confused look, he said, "I was born in a world that runs parallel to this one. In that world, humans became the dominate race, rather than the trading in power this world enjoys. Also, humans in my world either had magic that was innate, like the elves, or no ability with magic at all, like many humans in this world. I... had an accident with a magical object in my world and fell into this world."
Jack stared at him for a long moment, then asked, "So... you're human? But you have magic like the elves. That's why you like them so much?"
"Prefer them, yes," Harry agreed. "There are plenty of humans I like, but I've always preferred living with elves."
Jack nodded. "Okay. I suppose that makes sense. But... sixty years!"
Harry sighed. "I don't age. The humans of my world, the ones with innate magic, they live longer than those humans without magic, but never as long as I have. Something about my coming to this world has kept me from aging."
Parsec pulled the flaming stick out of his mouth and pointed it at Harry. "You're like a dragon," he pointed out.
"I am not a–"
"You have innate magic, you don't age, you've picked a race to protect and you're damned hard to kill."
"I'm human!" Harry snapped. "From another world, yes, but still human! Not a bloody dragon!"
"You have a better explanation?" Parsec replied.
Harry looked down at his hands, which he'd clenched in anger. He forced them to loosen and whispered, "No."
Everyone was silent for a long moment, then Jack said, "So, does this mean I have a dragon for a friend? Because that's kind of cool."
Harry laughed at that and offered Jack a strained smile, then looked over at Parsec. "Okay, say I'm a dragon. Where's my dragon form?"
"Your people had animal forms, is that not correct?" Parsec asked. When Harry nodded, he suggested, "Perhaps this is yours."
"A dragon," Harry said flatly. "No human in my world has ever had a magical creature as their animagus form."
"This isn't your world," Parsec reminded him.
Harry blinked and groaned. "Fine. I'll look into it."
Parsec nodded, then stood. "Will you keep an eye out for Aphelion?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah, sure thing. If I spot him, what do you want me to do?"
"Bring him to one of us. Baade is probably the closest."
"Yeah. You know, I've never actually met Baade," Harry commented.
Parsec smiled. "He's met you," he offered, then turned and left.
Harry sighed, then glanced at Jack, who was watching him with a faint frown. "Sorry."
Jack shook his head. "Were you ever going to mention that you don't age? Or was I just going to find out twenty years from now?"
Harry looked down at his hands again and flexed them. "The elves are the only ones who know I don't age. I've never told a human before. When it gets to the point where someone might start to notice, I leave. Mages don't really travel outside of Radiata unless they're under contract with the Knights, and most people I know are mages, so going off into one of the more distant regions usually keeps them from finding me. Eventually, people figure I've died, or they die off themselves. It's easier that way."
Jack nodded. "You lied."
Harry shook his head. "I said it's human nature to fall in and out of contact, not that I never would."
"You said you'd only be a pig away!"
Harry shrugged. "And so I would be, until, one day, I went hunting for ingredients and never came back. You would mourn me for a while, then go back to your life."
"And you'd never have to worry about it when I died," Jack replied, angry. "I bet you wouldn't even care."
Harry held his silence, refusing to look up at the boy. He would mourn Jack, just as he'd mourned every other human and elf he'd been friends with. Sometimes, it would be better if he could just stop caring, stop making friends, because every time one of them died, it felt like a part of Harry died too.
Jack stared at him for a long moment, then ran out of the abandoned house.
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: So, I tried to keep Parsec in character. Not sure how well I did... *sigh*
So, I know Parsec is the protector of the goblins and Kelvin of the orcs, but since the blood orcs seem to have originated from the Dichett Region, it made more sense to me for Parsec to be the protector of the orcs. (Also, his 'human' form is vaguely reminiscent of an orc, albeit a cultured one, and Baade's other form is that of a dwarf, so...)
Yeah.
Cheers!
~Bats ^.^x
Prologue - Falling
1 - Elves ||| 2 - Humans |||
4 - And If It Returns ||| 5 - It Was Meant to Be ||| 6 - Ways of the Dragons
7 - To Build an Army ||| 8 - Power Over Life ||| 9 - Arbitrator
10 - Blood-Filled Days ||| 11 - Hic Sunt Dracones
...
