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Alogar came into the sitting room of the Lloy house to find his parents on one couch, with Azune's friend Murray, Master Bolaire, and his Mom's friend Occtis sitting nearby, arguing over something arcane with his Mom chiming in every so often. He had no idea what they were on about and really didn't want to have an idea of it, either. He tried to catch Azune's eye, who was standing soldier attention by the doorway.
Al had been back in Dol-Makjar for a couple days and had mostly recovered from his foray into the Endless Night. His mom and Sir Julien had found him, along with a weird half-undead Tachonis and a truly unsettling elf nun who may or may not be fucking his mom. He didn't really care, he just hoped she didn't mind sharing. Mom wasn't exactly monogamous. Most Orcs weren't.
They'd come back here instead of Castle Torch partly because it was closer and partly because Al had information the rest of them needed. And, well, he did kind of want to see everyone, so he hadn't bitched about it. Not much, anyway. His mom had seen right through him, though.
He wasn't entirely sure why they were at the Lloy house and not his dad's, but guessed it might have something to do with privacy. It was a little easier to keep people out of sight on the estate instead of in the Rookery, and apparently Sir Julien and Occtis shouldn't be seen in Dol-Makjar. The whole thing was weird and Al would be happy to get back to the Barrowguard where things might be dangerous, but they at least made some fucking sense. This whole Tachonis shit was for the fucking birds. Let alone the rest of the Houses bullshit his Dad and Azune were up to their necks in.
One of the things he did want to take care of before leaving Dol-Makjar in the next day or so was to get Azune alone and get him sorted out, because it sure looked like no one else was going to do it. He looked like absolute shit. And sure, Azune was weird about family sometimes and would refuse to go home for months at a time, but surely Dad had noticed he was struggling. But Dad didn't seem to be doing so great, either, so maybe that was it. Dad was Mom's problem, though, and he did look a little better, leaning against her shoulder as they sat on the couch.
He sidled up to Azune and said quietly, "Let's get out of here."
Azune frowned. "I need to be here."
"Do you have any idea what they're talking about?" Al asked.
"Some," Azune nodded.
"Can you contribute to the conversation?" Al asked.
"Not…really," he admitted.
"Right. So you don't need to be here," Al said.
Murray glanced up and caught Al's eye. She tapped on her teeth and he heard her voice in his head It's Murray. Please get Azune out of here- we don't need him right now and he really needs a break. If you can possibly convince him to sleep, that would be even better.
I hear you, Al said back, mentally. He watched as her gaze shifted to Azune and she tapped her teeth again, clearly saying something to Azune. Azune's face twisted and he seemed to be answering. It apparently took a few back and forths before he sighed.
He caught his dad's eye and sort of nodded his head towards the stairs. Dad nodded firmly. Okay, apparently everyone was good with him dragging Azune away. Good. "C'mon," he said quietly, tugging on Azune's arm.
Azune resisted a bit, but Al tugged harder and he relented, letting Al lead him upstairs to the bedroom Al was staying in.
"Come on, get comfy," Al said. "Want some PJs?"
Azune shook his head. "I'm okay."
"At least take the armor off if you won't let me give you PJs," Al coaxed.
Azune hesitated. "I need the armor. In case something happens."
"Nothing is going to happen," Al told him.
"The Halovars are right across the street."
"Yanessa Halovar is not a fool. They are not going to attack the Lloy house. If they even know anyone is here- Mom's got the wards up," Al said.
Azune hesitated again, clearly trying to come up with an argument that would work.
"Azune. You gotta put it down for tonight, okay? You can pick it back up in the morning, but you really need to let it go for a night. You're going to have an apoplectic fit if you keep on like this," Al said, worriedly.
"How…what?" Azune looked confused.
"It's written all over you. You're wound way too tight." Al walked over and unlatched the top of his armor. "Put it down, Azune."
Azune sighed, but didn't resist Al. He also didn't help, but that was fine. Al could get armor off of someone, no problem. He lived at Castle Torch, after all.
Al could see Azune's collarbones once he got the plate off. Shit. He'd lay money that his ribs were visible, too. "You been eating enough?"
"I eat," Azune protested.
"I know you eat. Are you eating enough?" No answer, so that was a no. Al stifled a sigh, because almost nothing would shut Azune down faster than seeming exasperated with him. "Okay."
He set the armor aside and pulled back the blankets on the bed. "Come on," he said, stretching out and holding out an arm. Azune curled into him, face against his chest. That wasn't great. Meant Azune didn't want his face being seen. He ran a hand down his spine. Yeah, his muscles were like rocks. The tension headache had to be massive. "Your head hurt?"
"Dunno," Azune mumbled.
"You checking out on me?" Al asked. If he couldn't tell if his head hurt or not, that probably meant he wasn't feeling all the way in his body, which was not good.
"Trying not to," Azune said, tightly.
"Okay. Okay. Do I need to get you something cold?" Al asked, still rubbing Azune's back.
"I don't want to be cold," he almost whined.
"I know you don't want it. But do you need it?" Al asked.
It took a moment, but eventually Azune said, "No."
"Okay, then you gotta talk to me until you're back in your body, okay?" If he was talking, he was present, usually.
"Yeah," Azune agreed.
"How long has this been going on?" Al had a guess, but it was only a guess. As far as he knew, Azune hadn't been having trouble with this in a long time, but Al also lived very far away now.
"A little while," Azune admitted.
"Uncle Thjazi throw you for a loop?"
"Yeah. And…my sister." The end of that was a little muffled, and Al couldn't quite make it out.
"My sister? Shadia?" Or Hero, he supposed, but of the two, Shadia was much more likely to set Azune off. Hero and Azune were very much alike and understood each other too well.
"No, my sister. Mayali was here."
"Oh. Oh, shit, that's who Mayali is," Al said. He had sort of known Azune had a sister, but they'd never really discussed her and Azune had never said her name.
Azune pulled away and sat up. "You know Mayali?" he asked, eyes wide.
"No, no. You used to say that name sometimes. In your sleep," Al explained.
"Oh." Azune deflated.
"I never asked because you never were comfortable talking about things like that, so I left it alone," Al said.
"Yeah," Azune nodded.
"So, where is Mayali now?" He hoped the answer wasn't dead.
"You, you know how we told you about the assassination attempt on the Photarch and King Augustus?" Azune asked.
"Yeah?"
"Mayali was one of the assassins."
"Oh. Shit," Al said, his own eyes going wide.
"Yeah. She got away, though." Azune was fiddling with the hem of his shirt. Al wasn't sure if he was just self-soothing, or if it meant something about how Mayali got away.
"Good? Is that good?"
"Maybe. I don't know," Azune shrugged.
"How'd she get away?" Al asked.
"They had spell glyphs. But I didn't recognize the spell. It didn't…feel good, though," Azune said, slowly.
"How do you mean?"
"Felt weird. Dangerous," Azune said, shaking his head.
"Okay." Al did not have magic. Al did not want magic. He didn't understand it, didn't want to know about it, and didn't even like using glyphs when they were given to him. Azune's job would make him crazy. But Azune was good at his job, and if he said the magic was bad, then Al believed him.
"Murray and Bolaire are trying to figure out how to find her," Azune added.
"Yeah? Is that what they're arguing about down there?"
Azune nodded. "They're trying…I don't understand how she thinks it will work, it has something to do with my magic being weird. But Murray thinks maybe they can come up with a spell to use me to find Mayali."
"Don't you need an object? Like, Mom found me with my piercing." He flicked the metal in his ear to demonstrate.
"I thought so. But that's what they're arguing about. They've been arguing for weeks," Azune said wearily.
"Your magic is weird?" Al asked. He'd always figured it was just magic. But he guessed it was kind of weird that Azune had sorcery. That wasn't too common outside of the Sundred Houses. Other kinds of magic were much more likely.
"Yeah. I don't…I guess it's not like other magic somehow? It's sorcery, but not Sundered House sorcery, exactly. It doesn't match. My family wasn't…we weren't from here, exactly," Azune said, slowly.
"Not from Kahad?" Al asked. That wouldn't be too unusual, really.
"I don't think so. My…" he stopped for a long moment. Al wasn't sure if he was gathering his thoughts or steeling himself to talk about something hard. "My grandma used to tell us stories about the old land. But she never said where it was, exactly, just that it was far and it was gone."
"Like, swallowed by the Eternal Night?"
"Maybe. I don't know. Or maybe I don't remember. I was still pretty young when she died, during the Bad Year. Before the Choir came," Azune said.
"Right," Al said. Azune had told him once about the Bad Year. Or year and several months, really, from what Al understood. It had taken a lot out of him to do it. If he'd been having to talk about that on top of the rest of it, it made sense for why he looked so shitty.
"And anyone else who might know those stories is probably gone. Or I wouldn't be able to find them if they weren't. I don't actually know where the village is. Was," he corrected. "Maybe is. I don't know."
"You don't?" Al asked. He'd thought that Azune never mentioned going back to where he was from because it was too painful. Not because he didn't even know where to go.
He shook his head. "I'd never been away before, and everything was so confusing. I don't remember the name of it. I don't know if I even knew the name, we just called it the village, you know? And I couldn't read back then, so I wouldn't have ever seen it on a map or known how to spell it. I don't even know where I was when Thjazi found me, I was all turned around by then."
"Oh," Al said. He'd never thought about that. And Azune remembered everything, so if there were things he didn't remember? Yeah, that had to hurt and hurt bad.
"And we have to find Mayali. She's the only one who can corroborate Murray," Azune said, fretfully.
"I think we maybe need to find her for you, too," Al said, somewhat cautiously. Sometimes Azune got weird when you tried to convince him to do something for himself.
"I…can we be done talking?" Azune said.
"Yeah, 'course." Al said, reaching out to squeeze his knee. "You don't ever have to tell me anything you don't want to tell me."
"I don't want to talk about her."
"Then we don't talk about her." It would probably help if he talked about his sister, but if Azune was going to actually say no? Al was going to respect the no. There weren't enough people Azune could say no to. He reached out to tug Azune back down to curl up again, then started rubbing Azune's neck where it met his shoulders. He couldn't get enough leverage from this position to actually work any of the knots out, but it probably felt good anyway. "Do you want a proper backrub? Or just this?"
"This," Azune said.
"Okay," Al said.
They were quiet for a long time, then Azune said, suddenly, "I'm sorry about Thjazi."
"I am too," Al said. Azune probably had known him better than Al had, honestly. He'd loved his uncle, but he hadn't been around that much.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save him. I was going to trade my life for his but I couldn't save him. We were betrayed, the plan went bad," Azune said, muffled against Al's chest.
Al froze, and tried not to tense too much, but probably didn't succeed. "Hold up. You were going to trade your life?"
"If the plan had worked, they would have known that it was me who had gotten him out. I'd have been hanged for a traitor."
Al paused. He said it so matter of factly. Like, of course I would be killed, no big deal. And Al was pretty sure that if he said the wrong thing here, Azune would just not tell him things, at least for awhile. And that would be a problem, because Al was pretty sure he wasn't telling anyone else this shit, and he needed to have someone he could talk to. "Okay," he said, finally, not sure what else to say.
"Hal says it's not my fault the plan didn't work," Azune said, uncertainly.
"Well…he's probably right," Al said. He couldn't see Azune screwing up a plan badly enough for it to be his fault, even if Azune didn't seem too inclined to give Al any details here.
"And I shouldn't feel guilty about it."
"You should definitely not feel guilty about the plan not working," Al agreed.
"I have to protect them. I'm keeping your dad safe," Azune said, earnestly.
"I know you are going to do your best to do that," Al said, slowly. "Are you keeping yourself safe, too?"
He could feel the confusion. "I have to keep them safe."
"Okay, okay," Al said. "I understand." He understood that Azune couldn't deal with that question right now.
Azune was quiet for a long while. "I'm…I'm really tired," he admitted finally.
"I know," Al said, scritching gently up into Azune's scalp.
"I should go home," Azune said, but he didn't move to get up.
"Nah. Just go to sleep here. Sleepover, yeah?" Al told him. Azune was probably good at sleeping on his own now, after all these years, but he'd always slept better with someone else in the room when they were kids. Al was willing to bet he still did.
"I don't want to wake you up," he said, tiredly.
"I'll be fine. Promise," Al said.
Azune didn't reply, but he did relax infinitesimally. Al kept rubbing along his back and shoulders, soothingly. Eventually, Azune flipped over, mostly asleep. Al nudged him gently to get him to rest his head on the pillow and pulled the covers up over them. He didn't spoon up to him because he didn't wanted to wake him up, but stayed close enough that Azune would know he was there. He closed his eyes and dozed off himself.
He woke up when he felt Azune get out of bed. "Hm?" he asked.
"Sorry. I've got to get to work," Azune said quietly.
"The fuck time is it?" Al yawned, sitting up.
"Around dawn," Azune said, bucking on his armor.
"Did you sleep okay?" Al asked. He looked a bit less tired at least.
"Yeah, I'm good," he nodded.
"Okay," Al stood up. "I think we're leaving today."
"Right," Azune said.
"Come here," Al said. He tugged Azune into a hug as best he could over the armor. "Listen, do me a favor."
"What's that?" Azune asked.
"Go let Shadi or someone give you a real backrub soon, okay? You don't need to be dealing with headaches on top of everything, and I know you've got to be hurting."
Azune nodded against his shoulder. "Okay."
"Take care of yourself, all right? Eat. Seriously."
"Okay," Azune said. "You take care too. We didn't talk about you any."
"I'm fine," Al said. "I promise. Glad to be getting back, but I was glad to see you all, too."
Azune nodded. "All right. Don't wander off again?"
"I will not wander off again," Al assured him.
"Okay," Azune said. "I do have to go."
"Have a good day," Al said, sitting back down on the bed.
"You too. Travel safe," Azune said, slipping out the door.
Al slept for another couple hours and then went down to the kitchen to find breakfast. He found his Dad sitting there with his coffee. "Morning."
"Morning," Dad said, looking up. "Julien said you two are heading out today?"
"Yeah," Al said. "I need to get back, I'm probably already in the shit." Although Sir Julien had said he'd take care of it, so it wouldn't be too bad, probably. He had pull.
Dad nodded. "Hopefully it won't be too bad."
"It'll be fine," Al said. "Probably just be on the walls for a bit." His squad was gone. He was trying not to think too much about that.
Dad nodded. "I'm glad we got to see you, though."
"Me too," Al said. He buttered himself some toast, then said. "You know Azune's not doing great, right?"
Dad sighed. "I do know that."
"When's the last time you saw him with his armor off?" Al asked.
Dad blinked. "Not for awhile, I don't think. Why?"
"He's not eating enough. I could see his ribs," Al said.
Dad sighed. "I've seen him eat, but…"
"But he'll do that thing where he doesn't eat enough at any one time," Al finished.
"Right."
"Also, he's…well, let me put it this way. If I was his lieutenant, he wouldn't be leaving the walls. Because I wouldn't trust that he wouldn't do something stupid out there and not come back. Possibly on purpose," Al said, tightly.
"Ah." Dad said. "He told you about the execution."
"Yeah. We talked about that a bit. So you know?" Al sure as hell hoped they did.
"I think so," Hal said. "We're keeping an eye on it."
Al pursed his lips to keep himself from asking if that eye was even open, because he really didn't want to argue with his dad right now. They'd managed to not get into it this trip, and honestly, Al wanted to keep it that way.
"I know," Dad said, reading his face. "But, unfortunately, right now the only way out is through. For him and for a lot of other people."
"All right," Al allowed. "Just, he's hurting, a lot."
"Yeah," Dad sighed. "He is. If I could stop it, I would."
"I know," Al said. He did know. He probably wasn't being all that fair, it was just hard to see Azune struggle. He shouldn't have to still be struggling.
"I'll make sure there's more food around when he is. And I'll tell Murray too. I can't do much about the stress, but I can help with the eating. Even if he can't manage being full, if we can do snacks more often, that will help," Dad promised.
Al nodded. "Okay. If he needs to get out of the city…"
"You'll be my first contact," Dad assured him. "If there was any way I could send him with you now, I would."
Al nodded. "Right. Okay. I need to get ready to go- Sir Julien is going to be looking for me."
Dad nodded. "Take care, please?"
"I will. You take care, too, yeah?" Al reached out to hug his dad, hard. "Don't get killed, okay, please?"
"Working very, very hard not to," Dad said. "You either, you hear?"
"I hear," Al said, letting go. "I hear you. Hugs for the girls."
"Of course."
"I'll try and come back soonish, if I can." It wasn't likely he could, but saying so would probably make his dad feel better about him going.
"That would be nice, but we know you're thinking of us," Dad assured him.
"Always," Al said.
"Love you, kiddo," Dad said.
"Love you, too," Al nodded and left to find Sir Julien. They needed to get on the road.