Flashback [East Street]Hidden Depths, Part III

[Azrayel Kolasi]

Hidden Depths, Part II 8th of Fall, 504 AV Zeltiva, East Street, The Kolasi Residence About the 12th Bell Summer had vanished entirely too quickly for Azrayel’s taste. The the melancholy pitter patter of the rain kept him company, listening as Zulrav’s orchestra of howling winds and distant thunder claps crescendoed, only to fluctuate back to a gentle drizzle. The downpour played interesting rhythms on his window, and he watched idly as the water twisted and contorted his view of the outside world. Since coming home almost a week ago, the world had seemed to freeze. It hadn’t been the first time Azrayel had come home bruised up, but it had been the first time he had been brazen enough to wait almost two full days before doing so. It was a new sin, but it had been met by his parents in all the same old ways. It had been a relief, but also a massive disappointment; he had expected the indignation of his parents to be the stuff of legends. Not for the first time, young Azrayel had underestimated the monotony of his existence. “I just don’t understand you, Azrayel,” father had started, sitting across the table from him and speaking with practiced restraint. “You always complain that I don’t give you enough freedom, then you go and act like this?” Mother had been barely able to speak through her sobbing. It had mostly been a lot of hugging and sentiments to the effect of “How could you put us through this?” And for his part, Azrayel found himself in total agreement. So he hadn’t complained when his lengthy sentence had been doled out to him; he would spend three whole months being confined to the house, save for helping father run his stall. So the days had crawled past, and Azrayel wondered if the dangers of the city were also on hold, awaiting his inevitable return to freedom. The grey clouds had remained a near permanent fixture in the sky. The same regular customers, people who had known Azrayel’s father since before he was even born, were the only people Azrayel spoke with outside of home. No more information about Zachary Cole or his condition came to him. Each day he waited for the knock at the door; for crooked guardsmen to crawl through his window in the night and drag him away. Yet no knock ever came, and Azrayel slept soundly most nights. The stillness had brought a welcomed reprieve from the bedlam that had been his life the last few days. He had always been enamored of the rain; the notes of varying pitches and tempos it played across the different surfaces of the city, the rich earthen smell that the winds carried in from the depths of the Zastoska Forest. It instilled a sense of oneness and calm in Azrayel that might have been unwarranted, but given how uncertain his future was, he had allowed himself the decadence of a little tranquility. However, the gentle embrace of the rainstorms was not enough to shield him from the deluge of nervous energy that visited him in the long hours he spent alone in his room. He paced in small circles, jumped onto and off of his bed at random, and took to seeing how many push-ups he could do as way to pass the time, and try and hold on to his sanity as he whittled the days away in confinement. His voice strained between uneven breaths. “One.” He only shook softly as his chest dipped to the floor and then ventured back up. “Two…” He found it hard to keep his breathing steady. He only really had the strength to get himself back up when he was breathing out, and found himself pausing an extra breath between each trip down and the returning trip back up. “Ugh… Three.” His arms were trembling now, his face bright red. A couple of inches or so off the floor, he held there, his teeth locked. “F...F…” His palms dug into the cobblestone as he pushed.”Four!” Time spent climbing and running through the city had given him a sturdier frame than most kids his age, but he was still a lithe child, and reached the limits of his physical strength quickly. ”Fffff….. Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaive…..” As he lowered himself again, his arms gave and his face careened off the cobblestone floor. He rolled over, groaning and softly patting at his nose. Azrayel sat up with a start, some distant part of his mind suddenly aware of… something. It had stuck out just enough from the constant distant murmur of the rain to have been noticeable. He perked his head up, sitting up all the way now as he heard it again; it was the ambiguous, hollow ring of something bouncing off of glass. Distinct from the steady hum of the rain. He looked at his window, narrowing his eyes a moment.

[Azrayel Kolasi]

He jumped as a small stone bounced off the window amidst the specks of water, vanishing. Standing up, he pushed a stool to the window, stepping onto it to peer outside. Standing just below the window in the small alley between Azrayel’s house and his neighbors was Alastair, looking like a weird cultist in a long black cloak, complete with a hood that was tied loosely around him. He was about to fling another small stone when he saw Azrayel’s head pop up, he grinned, giving Azrayel a wave. Azrayel craned his neck around to give his door a wary glance, before delicately pushing the window open, wincing as the hinges let out even the tiniest metallic whimper in acquiescence. “Hey, mate.” Alastair’s face was covered in rain, but still twisted into a smirk, as it ever was. “How’s the life sentence treating you?” “Like it more than nearly being drown, or, breaking into the houses of Guardsmen.” Alastair folded his arms over his chest. “Is that so? Figured you would be losing your mind in there. Maybe the tigers been in his cage so long he’s forgotten what the freedom of the wild feels like, eh?” ”Come off it and say what you need to say, mate.” Azrayel squinted at his friend. ”Unless you just swung by just to try and irritate me.” Alastair shrugged. ”Dunno why it can’t be both, but fine.” His grin returned. ”Guess where I’ve just come from?” Azrayel spread his hands out. ”Uh, The Loveless?” ”Don’t get cheeky,” Alastair narrowed his eyes as he spoke,”Or I’m not gonna share. And trust me, you want to hear this.” ”Well get on with it, then.” ”Mind if I come in first, mate?” Alastair tugged on the wet folds of his cloak as water droplets lazily pawed at him. ”It’s not that bad out here right now but you know how indecisive the weather’s been last couple of days.” Azrayel winced at the question, and gave his door a longing stare. It remained closed, but the random check-ups from his father had been near constant during his time in captivity. “Apparently I can’t trust you not to sneak off and not come back for days at a time,” father had scolded Azrayel. ”Trust is a privilege. You have to earn it with your behavior.” He leaned back out the window, pursing his lips pensively. What would dig me in deeper? He pondered the potential outcome of his choices. He could slip out and he and Alastair could go find a dry place to chat - then his father comes in for a check-up only to find Azrayel gone. I’d never be allowed out of the house again. Or, he randomly opens the door to find someone in his room. He never expressly said I couldn’t have guests over. ”Fine. But you have to be quiet, and we gotta keep it quick, alright?” Alastair clapped. ”Guess the cage hasn’t totally broken you yet after all!” He bounced on his heels a few times, taking a few steps back from the wall. ”Gimme a hand here, would you?” Azrayel extended a hand, and Alastair wound up, posturing like a bird about to take flight, before leaping up to grab him. He grunted as the sudden weight nearly pulled him right out of the window. Grabbing onto his friends arm with both his hands, he let out a long, strained groan as he pulled at him with all his might. ”Stop mucking about and pull me up, you twit!” Alastair’s feet slid helplessly against the slick surface of the stone wall as he began to slip. ”I’m trying, I’m trying!” For better leverage, Azrayel put one foot on the wall, anchoring himself to put the other up as well. He found himself regretting his brief stint of exercise moments earlier, the weight of his friend like that of a Talderan Polar Bear. For a moment, even with the added leverage, Alastair moved no closer to the window. Then, with a final roar, he felt the final shift as Alastair moved just the few inches up he needed to grab onto the window pane and help himself the rest of the way up. The slick surface of it deflected his boots indignantly as he tried to step through, and he let out a yell as he slipped inward and collided with Azrayel, sending them both sprawling to the ground.

[Azrayel Kolasi]

He let out a low whimper as Alastair’s weight knocked the wind from him. ”Petching idiot! He hooked his leg around his friend and used it to push him off. He glanced at the door, his breath catching in his throat as the subtle patter of feet murmured on the other side. He turned to Alastair, who was still on the ground, and wordlessly waved him away, pointing beneath his bed. Silently his friend complied, vanishing from view just as the door flew open. ”Azrayel, Dear, what are you doing in here? It was his mother’s soft cooing that greeted him this time, rather than the granite lecturing of his father. Her pale blue eyes, which bared an uncanny resemblance to Azrayel’s own, lit up softly as she gave him a smile. ”I know you’re feeling restless, and I’ve been talking to your dad about all this. But please, in the meantime, try and behave yourself, alright? I have a hard time concentrating on my work when you make a ruckus.” As she had spoke she had crossed the room to him, still sitting on the floor where he had landed after Alastair’s grand entrance, and she squatted down to address him more directly. ”Yeah mom.” He tried his best to smile back at her. ”I’ll keep it down, promise.” She didn’t really listen to his response. She was too busy studying his face, gently pressing her fingertips into the almost faded splotches where his bruises had been. ”You feeling better?” Azrayel nodded, squirming under her touch. ”Yeah, mom, yeah, I’m okay.” She gave him a kiss on the forehead. ”Alright. Wanna come help me paint? Could lessen the boredom.” ”In a little while. I was just gonna work out a little.” Azrayel’s mother wasn’t good at many things, but she was a bloodhound when it came to her son lying to her. To counter this, he had learned to always stick as closely to the truth as possible when needing to conceal something from her. ”Alright.” She gave her son a pat on the cheek, before vanishing back through the doorframe, gently closing the door behind her. ”Mamma’s boy.” ”Careful…” Azrayel’s voice growled out in a lowly from his voice, as he turned to watch his friend crawl out from under the bed. ”Oh, what? Gonna hospitalize me next, psycho?” Alastair brushed himself off, sitting down on the bed. Azrayel stood, his arms folding over his chest. ”I’m sure I can find a bottle in this house somewhere.” The corners of his mouth twisted into a smirk. The young wizard eyed Azrayel for a moment. ”I’m not sure if your joking or not.” ”Well,” Azrayel began as he sat down next to him.”If you just tell me what you came here to tell me, we wont need to find out, eh?” ”Alright, alright, listen up.” He turned to fully face Azrayel, his legs folding into a lotus as he spoke. ”My father and I had went to pay a visit to several of the instructors at the college, right?” He smirked. ”Actually, we talked for a while with Professor Drachin.” Azrayel’s eyebrows lifted up slightly. ”Grandpa Garrius?” ”The very same. Anywho, on our way back, you know who I saw, bandages at all?” ”Zachary Cole.” ”See?” Alastair’s voice hummed with sardonic admiration. ”You really are as smart as your mommy says.” ”Focus up, mate. Zachary Cole. What kinda shape was he in?” ”Well,” Alastair laid back, talking to the ceiling now.”Being the awesome friend I am, I actually slipped away from father to get a few words in with him.” Azrayel blinked, his eyes like saucers. ”He actually talked to you?” ”Well sure.” Alastair sat back up, his smirk widening into a grin. ”After all, he knows we’re pals, and he really, and I mean really, wants to find you.” Azrayel swallowed, his eyes tracing the patterns of stone on his floor. ”Is he now?” ”Yeah. Guess he feels you owe him a proper fight now. Or maybe it’s the other way around.” Several moments passed between them in total silence. Azrayel kicked his feet idly at the air as he dangled them over the side of his cot. ”Well, guess it’s a good thing I’m grounded.” Alastair stared at him a moment, eyes wide and brows furrowed to a narrow point. ”You’re not serious, right?” ”What?!” Azrayel hopped down from his bed, pacing across the room. ”What do you want to hear? That I’m eager to get beat up again?” He spoke with his back to Alastair, resting a hand on the wall. ”Alastair, if I hadn’t grabbed that bottle… I think they would have killed me.” As he spoke his voice slowly deteriorated into a whisper. ”I… I don’t really want to fight again.”

[Azrayel Kolasi]

As Azrayel’s voice trailed off, the two were once again left with a mutual silence. The rain had begun to pick up again, and it washed over the top of the house in melodies of varying pitches and tempos. The house seemed to speak in low, whining groans as the wind battered against it, the wood swelling with life as water trickled in between the stones. ”You wanna live in this damp little hovel your whole life, Azrayel?” He turned at the question, his mouth hanging open uselessly for a moment before he could formulate an articulate response. ”...What?” Alastair had his feet hanging over the side of the bed now, his head tilted to one side. ”This house. Really, this whole existence.” He motioned around the room. ”A lumpy cot in a mostly empty room, in a house so rickety it threatens to bowl over with every mildly strong gust - in the most derelict district of the city; I mean, ye gods Azrayel, every time it rains, you basically end up sleeping in a puddle. Are you happy with all this? Is this the kind of life you want?” Azrayel leaned into the wall, and slowly slid down until he was sitting on the floor. It wasn’t something he was unused to considering; he had similar conversations with his father basically every time he had ever been caught misbehaving. ”I… don’t know. I try not to think about it.” He shook his head. ”It’s not like it’s up to me.” ”It isn’t? Are you sure?” Alastair hopped off the bed as he began to pace. Azrayel had noticed that the more excited Alastair became, the more prone he was to speaking with his hands; indeed, each word was punctuated by grand sweeping gestures with his arms as he addressed Azrayel. ”The fundamental principle of Djed is that it’s… Information, really. That’s what it is. Everything comes into existence a certain way, with it’s Djed arranged in such a way to give it all of it’s properties. Most people go through life content with this arrangement; making the best out of what they have available. Wizards, however…” His face lit up with a smile. ”We are the few who are bold enough… Brave enough, to see the world not as it is… but how it could be.” ”Or crazy enough to try to meddle with things you don’t fully understand.” Alastair paused, his smile fading at Azrayel’s response. ”Maybe…”, he started slowly. ”Maybe. But that’s just the point. Normal people are too afraid to expose themselves to that kind of risk.” ”So? What’s your point?” Azrayel stood, shaking his head. ”How does any of this have anything to do with me fighting Zachary Cole?” ”The point is that someone like Zachary Cole isn’t content with letting things stay the way they are. He forces his will on everything and everyone around him. You’ve seen him out there at night, harassing kids half his age, using his little mob of moronic followers to bully others into getting his way.” Alastair folded his arms over his chest.”Zeltiva isn’t that big of a place, Azrayel. You can’t hide forever, and you certainly can’t rely on a predatory individual like Zachary to just forgive and forget, or to live and let live. Unless you still plan on smuggling yourself out of the city, one way or another, you’re going to deal with him.” ”So what?” His response was flabbergasted. ”I pick another fight? Get the snot beaten out of me again?” ”No.” He stared into Azrayel’s eyes hard as he spoke. ”You show him that you aren’t like the rest of the chaff around here, because I know you aren’t. Even if you don’t win, you just have to convince him that it’s not worth the trouble to mess with you.” He spreading his hands out helplessly. ”It’s the way the world is, mate. You’re either the hunter, or the hunted. It’s the most basic law of nature. We know which kind of person Zachary is. I know which person I choose to be.” Resting a hand on Azrayel’s shoulder, he spoke softer now. ”Now maybe you were born one way. Afraid of everything, even the shadows under your bed.” At this last comment, Azrayel’s eyes hit the floor, his cheeks heating up. His attention was brought back up by a gentle shake from his friend. ”But you and I both know it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t need to be a wizard to make that change. You just have to make the choice.” Azrayel leaned back against the wall. ”And what are my choices, Alastair?” ”Are you gonna let fear hold you back…” Alastair shrugged. ”Or not?”

[Azrayel Kolasi]

Several chimes passed with only the distant sound of the storms to occupy the space between them, before Azrayel’s lips gently curled into a smirk.”You’re really too clever for your own good sometimes, y’know that, Alastair?’ The young wizard opened his mouth to speak, when the distant sound of a door swinging open cut him off. Distantly, two voices could be heard, the faintest murmur of a man and a woman speaking. ”My dads home!” Azrayel spoke in a hushed whisper. ”You have to leave! Now!” He nodded, and replied in a similarly hushed voice. ”So, are you gonna do it? I can set it up.” The sound of footfalls paced closer and closer to the door.”Uhm.. I don’t…” Azrayel moved past Alastair, re-positioning the stool beneath the window. ”I guess, sure. Just go, alright? We can figure this out later.” Alastair hopped up onto the stool, and scrambled up the window. Halfway out, he glanced back at Azrayel. ”Seriously, mate, don’t chicken out. Someone needs to put that creep in his place; anyway you look at it, it might as well be you.” Azrayel hissed at his friend, waving him out, and a moment later, he was gone, the sound of his footsteps disappearing down the alley. The door flew open, and Azrayel turned around, to see his father smiling at him. ”How you holding up in here, Azrayel?” Azrayel smiled meekly at his father. ”A little bored,” he confessed, his heart hammering viciously against his chest. Did he hear something? Darius beckoned. ”Well, c’mon. It’s about time for dinner, and your mother and I have a few things we want to talk to you about.” With that, Azrayel’s father vanished from the doorframe. Azrayel slowly moved to follow him, pulling the door shut behind him. Say what they want, Azrayel wasn’t likely to really be listening to them. After all, he had heard it all before really; how he needed to act more responsible, how he was going to be an adult before he knew it and needed to take his future more seriously, etcetera, etcetera. However, Alastair’s words were fresh, and would sit with him all through dinner, and, Azrayel suspected, would visit him in his dreams that night, as well.

[Keene Ward]

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