Post by Seek on May 2, 2013 7:11:07 GMT 10
Title: Charmed
Rating: PG
Word Count: 812 words
Summary: Neal meets a Yamani lady at a party. AU.
Pairing: Neal/Yuki
Round/Fight: 1D
Notes: The unnamed Yamani lady is obviously Yuki.
-
He thinks about becoming a knight a good deal, but he slowly forgets about it in between lectures and tutorials and seminars and practicals. He’s forgotten one thing: life always goes on, and all the things accumulate and slowly they drown him.
He learns about sword and knife wounds in his third year, and then the long, consuming illnesses in his fourth year. Word comes to the University about a girl page and for a while, debates about the role of women in Tortallan society grow heated, and then subside again. Neal fights a duel against cold-eyed Dane of Stone Mountain and winds up nursing a long scratch on his arm that heals as winter sets in.
He graduates after his fourth year and over dinner, his father says, “I’d like you to work with me. For your practicum.”
Neal thinks about it, and agrees.
It isn’t like he has anywhere else to go, anything else in mind.
-
They ride for Corus in the fall, when the leaves turn to gold and brown and deep ochres and shades of earth.
-
The younger healer Queenscove starts taking all the calls in the healer’s wing. Things like bruises, broken noses, pulled muscles: all of these, he heals. He sets dislocated shoulders so often he could do them in his sleep.
The younger pages fall down a lot. Sometimes it bothers him, and he learns why his father keeps a few bottles of a good vintage under his desk and locks up the office at night.
-
The Yamani princess and her ladies come, two years later. The king introduces his son, Prince Roald, to the delegation. There is a feast that night, a lavish party. Neal has been excused from duty at the healers; his father prods him none too subtly in the direction of the party. He’s just come off writing the last of five sonnets to Queen Thayet’s beauty and chucked them into the fireplace.
“Excuse me.”
The voice is soft and light, as he accepts a glass of spiced wine from a uniformed page in scarlet and gold. She pauses, then, to gracefully take a glass from the tray, and then bows to him.
She is…striking. Black hair carefully bound up, face brushed lightly with white powder and lips touched with bright red. The soft patterned silk of her clothing whispers as she moves. “Do you know where the healers are?”
“Actually,” Neal says, “I’m one of the palace healers, if you need anything. Assuming of course that you do need something.” He wonders if the wine has already gotten to him. It isn’t his first glass tonight; he’s all but lost count.
Her expression doesn’t change; how strange, he thinks, they’re all almost expressionless, polite and bowing.
“The princess would like a charm,” she says.
Neal pauses, over the rim of his glass. Raises his eyebrows. “A charm?” he asks, sceptically. “What sort of charm?” There have to be about a thousand possible charms, and gods only know how many people think mages can come up with.
“The charm,” the Yamani lady says, meaningfully, in Common that is only barely-accented.
Neal wonders if he’s gotten thicker than he’s expected. “What charm?” he repeats. “For good health? For fertility?” His mouth runs faster than expected. The Yamani lady actually makes a choking sound, but her eyes dance with silent laughter. It’s the biggest reaction he’s gotten from her since this conversation started.
“The charm against pregnancy.” Neal feels his face heating up; he’s not sure whether it’s because it hadn’t occurred to him—of course it would be that charm, what else would they ask a healer for?—or if it’s…because the charm is what it is. “Yes. I see. That charm. The charm against pregnancy.” He’s beginning to repeat himself, isn’t he?
The Yamani unfurls a steel-ribbed silk fan, presses it to her face. He can’t for the life of him fathom why she feels the need to do this, and his eyes shift to the floral patterns on the silk. A lady’s fan. Right. Very nice.
“Well, if you come by the healer’s wing tomorrow, I’ll be happy to make a charm for you. I mean, for the princess. I assume you will be picking up the charm?”
The fan snaps shut. “Very well,” the Yamani says. “I do not know where your healers are.”
“Oh. Right. Well, I’ll have it sent over, then. By a page. Discreetly,” he adds quickly, before she thinks the whole palace is going to know that the Yamani princess feels a need for the charm against pregnancy.
-
As it turns out, the page never really left, and so the whole palace knows.
-
He doesn’t know her name, and it is only on the next day, as he chokes down his hangover cure that Neal realises that he never asked.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 812 words
Summary: Neal meets a Yamani lady at a party. AU.
Pairing: Neal/Yuki
Round/Fight: 1D
Notes: The unnamed Yamani lady is obviously Yuki.
-
He thinks about becoming a knight a good deal, but he slowly forgets about it in between lectures and tutorials and seminars and practicals. He’s forgotten one thing: life always goes on, and all the things accumulate and slowly they drown him.
He learns about sword and knife wounds in his third year, and then the long, consuming illnesses in his fourth year. Word comes to the University about a girl page and for a while, debates about the role of women in Tortallan society grow heated, and then subside again. Neal fights a duel against cold-eyed Dane of Stone Mountain and winds up nursing a long scratch on his arm that heals as winter sets in.
He graduates after his fourth year and over dinner, his father says, “I’d like you to work with me. For your practicum.”
Neal thinks about it, and agrees.
It isn’t like he has anywhere else to go, anything else in mind.
-
They ride for Corus in the fall, when the leaves turn to gold and brown and deep ochres and shades of earth.
-
The younger healer Queenscove starts taking all the calls in the healer’s wing. Things like bruises, broken noses, pulled muscles: all of these, he heals. He sets dislocated shoulders so often he could do them in his sleep.
The younger pages fall down a lot. Sometimes it bothers him, and he learns why his father keeps a few bottles of a good vintage under his desk and locks up the office at night.
-
The Yamani princess and her ladies come, two years later. The king introduces his son, Prince Roald, to the delegation. There is a feast that night, a lavish party. Neal has been excused from duty at the healers; his father prods him none too subtly in the direction of the party. He’s just come off writing the last of five sonnets to Queen Thayet’s beauty and chucked them into the fireplace.
“Excuse me.”
The voice is soft and light, as he accepts a glass of spiced wine from a uniformed page in scarlet and gold. She pauses, then, to gracefully take a glass from the tray, and then bows to him.
She is…striking. Black hair carefully bound up, face brushed lightly with white powder and lips touched with bright red. The soft patterned silk of her clothing whispers as she moves. “Do you know where the healers are?”
“Actually,” Neal says, “I’m one of the palace healers, if you need anything. Assuming of course that you do need something.” He wonders if the wine has already gotten to him. It isn’t his first glass tonight; he’s all but lost count.
Her expression doesn’t change; how strange, he thinks, they’re all almost expressionless, polite and bowing.
“The princess would like a charm,” she says.
Neal pauses, over the rim of his glass. Raises his eyebrows. “A charm?” he asks, sceptically. “What sort of charm?” There have to be about a thousand possible charms, and gods only know how many people think mages can come up with.
“The charm,” the Yamani lady says, meaningfully, in Common that is only barely-accented.
Neal wonders if he’s gotten thicker than he’s expected. “What charm?” he repeats. “For good health? For fertility?” His mouth runs faster than expected. The Yamani lady actually makes a choking sound, but her eyes dance with silent laughter. It’s the biggest reaction he’s gotten from her since this conversation started.
“The charm against pregnancy.” Neal feels his face heating up; he’s not sure whether it’s because it hadn’t occurred to him—of course it would be that charm, what else would they ask a healer for?—or if it’s…because the charm is what it is. “Yes. I see. That charm. The charm against pregnancy.” He’s beginning to repeat himself, isn’t he?
The Yamani unfurls a steel-ribbed silk fan, presses it to her face. He can’t for the life of him fathom why she feels the need to do this, and his eyes shift to the floral patterns on the silk. A lady’s fan. Right. Very nice.
“Well, if you come by the healer’s wing tomorrow, I’ll be happy to make a charm for you. I mean, for the princess. I assume you will be picking up the charm?”
The fan snaps shut. “Very well,” the Yamani says. “I do not know where your healers are.”
“Oh. Right. Well, I’ll have it sent over, then. By a page. Discreetly,” he adds quickly, before she thinks the whole palace is going to know that the Yamani princess feels a need for the charm against pregnancy.
-
As it turns out, the page never really left, and so the whole palace knows.
-
He doesn’t know her name, and it is only on the next day, as he chokes down his hangover cure that Neal realises that he never asked.