Kingdom Hearts fic: All Strange Wonders - Chapter 9

[mistressofmuses]

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“There isn’t much we can do yet, I’m afraid,” Riku said. “But there’s still time. The curse didn’t have an instantaneous fulfillment, clearly.”

Riku didn’t move away from Kairi. He hovered, almost, like he wanted to reach out and touch her, but obviously couldn’t.

“I felt it latch on, but I’m fine,” she finally said.

Riku nodded a little numbly, then stumbled his way up the stairs. He returned without the book Tae had given him. Afterwards he shut himself in the bathroom for a little while, though it was nothing compared to how long he spent on a typical morning before visiting Xion.

Though, Sora thought sourly, thinking about how Riku had looked at Tae, the visits to Xion have likely come to an end.

When Riku exited the bathroom, he announced his intent to go get spectacularly drunk, and worry about what he was going to do in the morning.

After he slammed his way out the door, the dial set to blue, taking him into Traverse Town, Kairi let out a tremendous sigh.

“So Riku’s been cursed by the Warlock of the Wasteland?” Sora almost said ‘too’ at the end of the sentence, but his throat closed on the word. While Kairi knew he had been cursed, she didn’t know who had placed that curse, so evidently he wouldn’t be allowed to let that bit slip.

She nodded. “He was cursed a few months ago. Or at least that’s when it started. That’s when the Warlock promised it would catch up to him. But… we’d hoped to have more time before it did.”

She didn’t say it, but Sora thought maybe she meant she’d hoped the contract would be broken before then.

“You said you felt it latch on,” he said.

“I did. What happened out there?”

Sora filled her in on a quick outline of the details: the trip to a place next to the ocean, Riku’s mother being unpleasant, hunting down the book, and meeting Tae.

“He read a poem out loud,” he said. “He said it was called ‘The Falling Star’, and after that, Riku looked like someone had… I don’t know. Struck him, or something.”

“A poem?” she asked. “That was clever of the Warlock.”

“How so?”

“Well, it sounds like he set his curse inside something that already existed. Like a trap. So that poem has been there, waiting, and as soon as Riku heard it, it sprung the trap around him. But it was especially clever to have put it on that side of the door. Riku always said he let his guard down when he went home.”

Sora wasn’t sure he understood, but he tried to pretend that made sense. And tried not to be vaguely bitter that Kairi was free to talk about Riku’s curse, when he couldn’t talk about his own. “What does the curse even do?”

“It will force Riku to go to the Warlock,” Kairi said. “I’m not sure for what purpose, though I’m certain it isn’t anything good. What did the poem say?”

“I don’t want to repeat it!” Sora exclaimed.

“The trap is already sprung. It’s not like it can spring again. You aren’t going to double curse him.”

Sora sighed. “I don’t think I remember the whole thing. But it was something about… seeing a falling star light up the sky, too fast to hold onto, and that it was too beautiful to buy or sell.”

He chewed his lip for a moment. “Maybe I remember the last part. Yeah, ‘good only to make wishes on, and then forever to be gone.’”

Kairi’s flames visibly paled. “Yeah, that would do it.”

“What do you mean?”

A few little licks of flame flickered off her ‘hair’ as she shook her head. “‘Forever to be gone.’ I think the curse is designed to get to me, too. It will definitely hurt me when it gets fulfilled. Maybe even kill me. And that means it will probably kill Riku, too.”

“…Unless I break your contract first.” Sora filled in the blank.

She nodded miserably. “No pressure.”

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The sun had long since set, and Sora had fallen asleep in his bed in the alcove when Riku came back.

The slam of the door opening woke him.

Riku had made good on his promise of getting spectacularly drunk, both opening and closing the door as if he didn’t know his own strength. He stumbled across the floor, swaying in a way that initially looked like an effect of his inebriation. Then as he paused and blearily looked down at the floor, Sora realized he’d been trying to step around piles of junk that weren’t there anymore.

Riku started humming something rather off-key, and stumbled a bit closer to Kairi.

“You can’t… hold a star in your hand,” he sang, before humming the next bit, when he seemed to forget the words.

“Yes, yes, so we’re all terribly impressed with you,” she said. “You’re very drunk. Go to bed.”

“I’m cone sold stober, I promise you,” he said, falling into the chair.

“Clearly, if that’s the height of your comedic repertoire,” she said. “Bed. Maybe have a glass of water first.”

Riku waved a hand vaguely towards the kitchen.

Sora slid out of bed and filled a glass with water from the sink. He set it on the hearth in front of Riku. That might have been outside his purview, but he was an assistant. He figured that was assisting.

Riku picked it up and downed it one long gulp, then struggled to his feet. “Thank you. To bed, then, if my company isn’t required.”

He made it to the base of the stairs, and then rather gracelessly fell up them. “Why would the stairs change their heights?”

“Oh, you are going to be miserable in the morning,” Kairi said, no small amount of vindictive joy in her voice.

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Riku was much later getting up than usual, and his routine was definitely more subdued.

None of it was helped by someone pounding on the door only shortly after he’d made it down the stairs.

“Traverse Town door,” Kairi said brightly.

Riku was slumped at the kitchen counter, holding a cup of tea, and occasionally taking a sip and looking ill. “Answer it please,” he said.

Sora did as asked, opening the door, the dial set to blue.

“Ah, hello, sir sorcerer. I wanted to ask after a luck charm. Something to send with my daughter when she goes away to school.”

“Oh, um, I think we can do that?” Sora glanced over his shoulder.

Riku had leaned far enough forward that his head was resting on the counter, now. He made a waving gesture with his hand that could have meant anything from ‘yes, I have hundreds ready to go’ to ‘that’s a completely impossible request, and you should be ashamed for making it.’

“One moment,” Sora said, and gently closed the door in the man’s face.

“Can we make a luck charm?”

Riku didn’t lift his head from the counter, but gave a muffled, “Yes.”

“Well, I don’t know how to,” Sora said.

“Kairi does.”

“The greatest sorcerer in all the land,” she said dryly. “Go grab one of those very small glass vials, and the wax to seal it. Then get the jar over the sink that has the very fine green powder in it. Not the dried basil; the other one. The sugar. Then a length of that silver cord, yes, that one. And if you look in the drawer, there should be a tray of beads. Plus some parchment and a pen.”

Sora gathered up everything she’d mentioned and brought it over to the hearth, careful not to get it close enough to her that she might ignite it.

“Have Riku write the glyph on the parchment, extremely small, since it has to go in the bottle. I do know what the glyph looks like, but for obvious reasons, I can’t draw it myself.”

Sora brought the parchment over, along with Riku’s strange, smoothly-writing, seemingly-endlessly-full ink pen.

This glyph was different than the other ones Sora had seen. It was rounder, more symmetrical.

Riku put his head back down almost immediately.

“Now tear the parchment around the symbol he drew, roll that up with the glyph facing inward, small enough to fit in the vial. Put enough sugar in to fill it up about a third of the way, and then a very small bit of the powdered clover.

“Hold the wax a bit closer and I’ll heat it up—good. Now seal it up. Once the wax cools, shake it so that the clover and the sugar mix together evenly. Then loop the silver cord around it, put on a nice looking bead, and it’s good to go.”

“This is going to be an extremely lucky charm,” Sora said, shaking it as Kairi had suggested.

He tied the cord around the vial, under the little lip at the top, and picked a nice, purple glass bead that complemented the green of the clover mixture, and fashioned it into something the daughter in question could wear or carry with her as she chose.

Sora opened the door again, and was glad to see the man was still there, though looking a bit impatient.

“Sorry for the wait,” he said. “Here’s the charm for her. That will be… uh…” He glanced over his shoulder again.

“Four gold!” Kairi called.

Riku held up two fingers.

“Three crowns?” Sora said.

The man dug in his pocket, and then handed Sora the coins. “Thank you, my good sorcerer. I’m sure it will put both our minds at ease.”

Sora closed the door behind him, and crossed back to the kitchen. Riku was sitting up and watching more intently than he had since he’d gotten out of bed. “Maybe that spell would have been worth the four,” he said speculatively. “Even five.”

“I wouldn’t know,” said Sora. “You’ll have to be satisfied with three.”

Another knock on the door.

“Radiant Garden, this time,” Kairi announced.

Riku got up this time, and stormed to the door. Sora almost felt bad for whoever was on the other side and about to get their head chewed off. Riku spun the dial to gold, then opened the door hard enough that the man on the other side took a half step back.

“Ah, Sorcerer Riku. Excellent. We were merely coming to inquire about the progress you’ve made on the speed spells the king requested.”

“They’re in progress,” Riku said.

Sora glanced at the bowl, holding the sadly diminished number of packets. Four out of a hundred. Could have been worse… or significantly better.

“Yes, of course. Well, we certainly don’t intend to rush you. Merely ensuring they had not been forgotten. The king has a couple requests of a more sensitive nature that he would be interested in making of you. This missive should contain a few more details.”

He handed Riku a rolled piece of parchment, ornately tied with red and gold ribbons.

“We will leave you to your work, Sorcerer.”

Riku bowed, then shut the door as if he would have preferred to slam it, but was restraining the impulse.

Pacing toward Kairi, he unrolled the scroll, dropping the ribbons to the floor. He read it, reread it, then tossed it to her. It burned away to nothing in an instant.

“Much as I’d expected. The letter strongly hinted that I am under consideration for the post of Royal Wizard. And that it would be appreciated if after I finish up this spell commission, I’d go out and find Leon and Aerith. Oh, and if it wasn’t too much of a problem, perhaps I might consider getting rid of the Warlock of the Wasteland.”

“Just a couple easy tasks before breakfast,” Kairi said.

“I’m too hungover for this,” Riku complained. He slouched back to the kitchen and miserably drank down his tea.

He held out the cup in a pathetically beseeching manner toward Sora.

Sora rolled his eyes, and brought the kettle back over to Kairi to heat.

As he poured Riku a new cup of tea, Riku asked, “Do you think this will help?”

Sora sighed. “I’m sure it won’t hurt.” He put a little too much of the honey Naminé had given them into the heavy mug, and pushed it into Riku’s hands. “It should at least help the headache.”

Riku drank this cup down more quickly than his first, and it really did seem to be improving his outlook on the day.

“I suppose I should put in some time on that commission,” he grumbled.

Possibly strangest of all, he actually did. He devoted most of the morning to making speed spell packets. Sora held the bowl and ground the ingredients together, and listened to Riku complain when he had to dig for a new jar of powdered wind.

In between, Riku drank absolutely ridiculous quantities of tea. Apparently it helped with the hangover, since around thirty completed spells, he put everything away, and announced that he was going out.

He spent just enough time to make himself look presentable (which was still prettier than just about anyone else Sora had ever seen), and then left with the door set to gold. Sora felt a strange twinge of disappointment at that. He’d been upset when he first found out Riku was courting Xion, and now he was upset that Riku wasn’t after her any more.

That was annoying.

Riku did return far earlier than he ordinarily would have, if he’d been off courting. Though he brought things with him. He had an armload of boxes, all marked with the logo of what Sora assumed was a clothing company. He didn’t recognize the brand, but the logo included a spool of thread and a needle, so it seemed like a safe assumption.

“Here you go,” Riku said, presenting the boxes to Sora.

Sora tentatively took them, and then just stood, holding them.

“Well, open them!”

“Oh, uh… all right.” He sat in the chair next to Kairi, and opened the first box.

It contained a fine linen shirt, the fabric soft and smooth, and nicer than just about anything Sora had ever worn. The next package contained trousers of a similarly high quality. The third contained a well-tailored jacket that matched the trousers. They were all a very dark, charcoal grey in color, with a few accents of bright red.

“These are… extremely nice.”

Key and Blade hadn’t dealt with much in the way of fabric, but Sora had still inherited his mother’s eye for judging the quality of materials, and these were very expensive.

“Well, I wouldn’t want people thinking I don’t take care of my poor assistant, Quentin, would I?”

“Not Quentin,” said Sora.

“Not-Quentin. But the clothing should be nice enough that you’ll fit right in.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“Well, I need you to do me a favor.”

Sora’s eyes narrowed a bit. Riku never asked for a favor. Especially not with bribes. “What?”

“I need you to visit the king.”

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[The little bit of a song that Riku sings when he gets back is from "Rusted Wheel" by The Silversun Pickups.]

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