Ayyyyy an actual plot not just a concept !!!
Idk which tw to use for it but Amber treats elijah very badly, death and hunting, please tell me if I need more
Okay so, the golds are the highest and reds are whoever have as much power as the golds but the golds don't want them among the golds
The hierarchy is like ordinary people, sorcerers, reds, silvers, golds
And so!! Silvester. He's not evil this time he's a good person he just. Asked too many questions for the golds' comfort, so Amber's father (a gold with a high rank even among the golds) exiled Silvester's son (Elijah) as a warning type deal. (Elijah's a six year old child here)
Anyway. Amber (7 at the time) finds him a while later (hungry and in pain and tired and scared) and brings him back the way cats bring dead mice to the porch.
His father is upset but can't be bothered to deal with Amber's tantrums so let's him keep Elijah around
No no no Amber isn't particularly nice or good here. He might as well have found a skrunkly stray cat
But he orders people around to nurse Elijah back to health and sort of takes care of him the way people (badly) take care of hamsters (point to note: Amber thought Elijah had really pretty eyes)
Anyway. The reds revolt sometimes.
And this one particular guy, Barney Forsythe (familiar name? Yes, Jack's father.) revolts and he's being hunted down by Amber's father and Silvester and Amber (13 now) tags along and also drags Elijah (12) along with him.
Barney escapes into this dangerous forest with a monster in it but they're still in pursuit, and so are Amber and a terrified Elijah
Somewhere in between they fall off the horse (yes. Horse. Why not.), Amber gets back up unscathed but leaves Elijah there
Who finds him? Barney
And he's threatening to hurt Elijah and he's trying to get away but he's like hurt and unarmed and he's just begging for mercy
When Jack (15) swoops in and rescues him :)
Then later, at the other end of the forest, Barney is caught, but he's alone
The persecutors (as in Amber, Amber's father and Silvester) are tying him up and Silvester asks Amber where Elijah is and before he could answer Barney's like "Oh, that black-haired brat? I killed him. He's dead." (He doesn't want to admit to Jack's existence and everything blah blah also just antagonizing them yadda yadda)
Silvester gets extremely angry and kills Barney right then and there
On the way home Amber takes a detour and goes back into the forest (not safe) and looks for Elijah and he's like, in denial. That Elijah's just dead, just like that.
He looks for Elijah, like at least a body, but the monster finds him first
He successfully runs away from it (but with a scar down his arm), and when he's out he's thinking about how even if Elijah really was alive in there he was helpless and alone and the monster was evidently hungry and he sort of throws up
Anyhoo! Years later.
Amber's 23 and he was a very decorated graduate just last year
And he's watching the graduation ceremony of the people a year below him
They begin with the ordinary sorcerers that Amber never really had contact with
The top of the class is a certain Elijah Parker who was nothing at all like the lonely helpless boy Amber kept around when they were little but damn it if he doesn't recognise those eyes
You see, this grown up Elijah got socialized with Jack and Keith and Rose and is the usual him
What Elijah's got going on right now? He's in love with Oliver Mackenzie (one of the five [Oliver, Sarah, Alice, Charlie, Max] ordinary people who got into the university with brutal competition), and Charlotte Farrell (his high school sweetheart) won't move on from him
But now there's Amber too and blah blah blah drama idk
More!
Warnings: sort of arranged marriage-ish
Okay okay so at one point, when they were little and after Elijah regained enough health, Amber's like "I'm going to marry you when we're older" (remember he thinks Elijah is very pretty and Amber is like a Crow he Likes Collecting Pretty Things especially when he was younger) and baby Elijah is like 'Oh this fancy kid who rescued me wants to be My Best Friend' and is like "Oke!" and that activates like this magic thingy and sort of connects them together and they both have like a ring-like tattoo thingy on their hands for it
And ! Years later after the graduation thing, Amber's father calls Elijah aside and is like "You have to marry Amber because the magic. No breaking the magic." And Elijah's like "COME ON THAT WAS SOME STUPID THING A LITERAL CHILD SAID" [pt: "Come on that was some stupid thing a literal child said"] but Amber's father is Amber's father and does what he can to set them up against either of their will
Elijah's in love with Oliver and Keith and Not Over But In Denail About That with Charlie and Jack is his bestie, yeah? And these five are secretly rebels.
Remember the monster? Not a monster. Just a little guy. The five are friends with it.
So, anyway. Amber is under orders from his father to charm Elijah into being a Good Boy and obeying the magic but honestly he doesn't need to be told. He genuinely loves this guy. But he does need to be told because otherwise he wouldn't have done anything.
But now? Now that he's been told? He's walking around acting like Elijah and him are already official.
Anyway. Amber doesn't show emotion much. There were two times Elijah's seen him properly emote, when he was watching from the trees in the forest when he was 12 and saw Amber crashing out cause he thought Elijah was dead. But elijah and jack thought it must've been because Barney got away and he got his arm ripped off by the monster.
The second is when Charlie made him genuinely laugh. It was a stupid joke. But he was pretty much bent double and cackling thanks to it.
So you see, Charlie and him get along.
And Charlie's a little loose with words.
She tells too much, and eventually Amber walks into something he shouldn't have in the forest (he followed them because Charlie accidentally let slip when they were going. It's midnight.)
Thankfully they aren't planning revolt and are just hanging out
Amber freaks out when he sees the monster and Elijah holds him down and covers his mouth
And this freak gets unbelievably turned on by that, and assumes "struggle more = Elijah holding him down tighter"
But no
Struggle more = Elijah tying him up and leaving to go resume the fun
And now Amber's life (with Elijah) is flashing before his eyes seeing up close how he is with Keith and Oliver and Jack and even the motherfucking monster that ripped off his arm
Missing someone? Yeah
Charlie sits down next to him and is like "I feel ya, man, it feels like you'd do anything just to be that close to him, yeah?" (She's perceptive, remember?)
And Amber's just like tell me about it
And that's all I got blink blink
