firebird

“Don’t worry, I’ve never left a comrade on a hunt before. I won’t let your nice ass get in trouble so you can relax.” Calvin winked and he focused his attention on the new maps he laid out. “You’re ready for this Dora. I like it. I’ve been there before when I bugged the chef to make me desserts.” His innocent face worked at times. “But that painting, let me try and recall.” He tapped his finger on the wooden table. “They usually lock that place since there’s nothing really valuable. But if you’re right about that painting, then that proves to me that guards are terrible. It could be the passage we’re looking for.”

“If we’re ever caught. We need an act. I can pretend to be a clingy little slave looking for my master and got lost. I can just say I dragged you with me because I needed a friend to comfort me.” He raised a brow. “I can distract them with my tantrum. That will give you enough time to open it, hopefully.”

.

“I should probably ask why and how you came up with that plan so quickly but I have a feeling I don’t really want to know.” Plan A would of course be to not get caught but that went without saying. Or maybe he should say so. This slave seemed far to into the idea of that little ruse. The phoenix wasn’t sure if it was lucky or unlucky that he had found a bit of a troublemaker.

“The name’s Ilias by the way, not Dora. I suppose explorer isn’t that far of a stretch for a title though. I’m one of Krov’s magic consultants and I guess before that you could say I was an archaeologist studying ancient magical civilizations. So yes - explorer. That’s a better title than ‘tomb raider’ or grave robber.”

Kyrillos’ gaze shot up, hearing the words spilling from Ilias’ mouth. All this time he’d thought the phoenixes memories were completely erased with every resurrection, but truly he never knew how the other felt from lifetime to lifetime. The councilman had simply always done what he thought was best in the case of his lover. “I’m so sorry, Ilias. I truly never knew how you felt, I simply always thought you never remembered who I was and what we had in the past.” He paused, trying to find the right words. A vague, almost sad smile tugging on the vampire’s lips.

“I just want you to be happy, okay? Whether that be with me or not. Either way, it’s okay.”

.

“No it’s not! Where does that leave you idiot?” Ilias reached out, pulling Kyrillos closer to him by the hand. His own fingers were rough with callouses from chopping herbs and mixing what felt like thousands of ingredients for various potions to try and increase the clarity of his memories. None had worked as well as simply holding Ky’s hand. Ilias had done this before. As Azari. As many of his past lives. He remembered the feel of the vampire’s fingers interlaced with his and the feel of his lips moving against his. 

The demon was forced to behave, the last time he did some chaos around people. Unfortunately for the guards, it only lasted for days. Thanks to Tiernan who was always on his back to clean up his mess. In a way he felt untouchable being claimed by a councilman. He feared nothing as most guards feared his master. It was normal behavior towards a man in power.

“I have no problem with being caught to be honest. But you might. However, if you wanna turn stones and rubbles around then count me in. There must be hidden treasures on the dungeons. I’m here for the experience.” He said. “He will be angry this time for sure and I will get an earful plus guard punishment.” Hello said. “But as I like saying these days. Fuck them. We must plan this now, and we can explore in an hour. There’s a shift on the guards on duty and that’s our chance.”

.

“As long as it’s your ass that’s on the line, not mine.” The last thing Ilias needed was a slave’s master accusing him of meddling or corrupting his slave. The phoenix pulled out another map, this one of the old castle where the masters and council were kept. He had little reason to venture there outside of specific requests or deliveries and he was usually glad to stay away. But this little endeavor would bring them there. Risky. But so worth it if he was right.

Them parting ways would’ve been as uneventful as they come. Syd might’ve rolled his eyes again in annoyance at Ilias denying him personal access to the box, but he would’ve swallowed the urge to force him to give in and reluctantly agreed before leaving. And it would’ve happened too if Ilias hadn’t spat out those words. The tribrid had gone out of his way to soften himself for most of his time there but his level of tolerance for Ilias’ bullshit had now reached its peak. “You know what? Fuck you! I’m through with being nice to you,” Syd spat back, face twisted up in anger. “I just spent several hours in this room with you and that fucking box and made more progress than your clueless ass ever has. The least you could do is be a little fucking grateful.”

He could feel the rage bubbling in his chest and threatening to release itself on the phoenix if he remained in that room any longer. God, did he want to! He wanted nothing more than to remind Ilias to watch his mouth but that weird sense of familiarity inside him stopped him. Fine. If Syd couldn’t use violence to get his point across then he’d do it another way. “No, actually, forget it. Find yourself another witch. I’m done helping you.” He told the phoenix. Even if he knew the box would haunt him, putting up with Ilias’ shit wasn’t worth satisfying his curiosity. “I’ll gladly see myself out,” Syd spoke for the last time, the irritation still clear on his face. Then he took a couple of steps backward toward the door and slammed it behind him on his way out.

.

It was so tempting to yell right back - ask exactly when Syd had been nice - but that would likely interrupt the phoenix getting exactly what he wanted. Ilias bit his lip to keep his own temper in check as the tri-hybrid raged and escorted himself out of his office with a slam of the door.

Taryn gave a smile before he was being lead. Then listened to the story the other began telling him. Intrigued, but a little sad, he wondered about a few things. “What kind of being wouldn’t survive that in here?” Most of the people he had met had the ability to survive painful things such as the one being described. If not coming back like a phoenix. But then, there were humans in here weren’t there. “You’d think a chef would be a little more creative…” A poor joke, but it gave the other a chance to try and be funny. “Do you think his ghost is still roaming around?”

.

“I shudder to think what ‘creative’ way a chef would think of to kill themselves. I think I’ll leave the blood drinking and flesh eating to the vampires and wendigos respectively.” Ilias was unsure if Taryn had been to this part of the castle yet but the halls were still somewhat unfamiliar to the phoenix. He spent a great majority of his time in his office - he’d even fallen asleep at his desk once already. Still, he had taken a bit of a look around after hearing the rumors about the haunting.

It was very clear to Kyrillos that Ilias was angry. The boy didn’t even have to say a word, his body language said it all. And the councilman wasn’t surprised at all. He knew all too well anger was a reasonable and possible reaction for the phoenix to have after being exposed to the truth. But that didn’t make it any less unpleasant to know Ilias was upset because of Kyrillos’ actions.

“Yes, yes I was.” He replied, locking the door behind the younger, before turning to face him. “Look, you have so much potential. Just because I cannot let you go, doesn’t mean it’s my place to hold you back. If you had found happiness in other experiences and relationships, then yes, I wouldn’t have interfered.” Kyrillos struggled with looking his former, or future, lover in the eyes, but his voice never wavered when answering the boy’s questions. “I don’t know how much you remember now, but it has happened that way before.”

.

Even though many of those memories were fuzzy at the edges, they were clear enough that Ilias could confirm Ky’s words as fact. That did nothing to quell the fiery anger burning behind his eyes. The air around him was heating up as he tried to tamp down his anger to produce a sound argument but the phoenix’s temper was legendary.

The whole turbulent event of the Tomorrow War had left the vampire council reeling, and Kyrillos has barely had a quite moment, since the spell ended. He had been so caught up in his duties, he hadn’t had a chance to check up on Ilias, to make sure the boy was okay after that ordeal. He wanted to and it was often in the back of hismind to do so, but the council had needed the maority of his attention to ensure safety and normalcy at the castle once again. 

With everything happening, the greek didn’t think anything of it when someone knocked on his door. Getting up from his home office to open the door, he hadn’t quite expected to see it was Ilias outside, his heart dropping. The phoenix was clearly agitated, and while this conversation was inevitable after the recent incident, didn’t mean Kyrillos was looking forward to it. Running his hand through his long lock, he saighed. No way around it. “When you were a little older, Ilias. When you’d… gotten to live more of your own life and get your own experiences.” With a vague handgesture, he motioned for the younger to come in, so they wouldn’t have this talk in the damn doorway. 

.

Ilias strode into the suite angrily, only taking a moment before he whirled around to glare up at Kyrillos. Logically, he knew that the vampire’s answer made some sort of sense. It was just like him to care more about Ilias’ happiness and fulfilment than his own. But that had never sat right with the phoenix

“And what about you - were you just going to watch? What if I had gotten married? Fathered children? Were you just going to stand back on sidelines?” Ilias had a feeling that the answer to that might piss him off even more but the words were spilling from his mouth before he had a chance to catch them. 

Hearing Ilias insult him in his mind was quickly becoming Syd’s favorite pastime. It never failed to amuse him how much people hide behind their masks when they thought no one was looking or listening in. But he would have to give Ilias some credit, his poker face was pretty incredible. Not many could have such a conflicting reaction without their expression giving them away yet Ilias seemed to have mastered that already at his young age. It made Syd wonder what else was hiding in the phoenix’s head, especially when he noticed the scarlet color on his cheeks once Syd touched him. Still feeling a little playful, he leaned down to place his lips by Ilias’ ear. “You’re cute when you blush, did you know that?” He whispered in it, the amusement in his voice as equally clear as the smirk on his face.

His playful mood remained despite the circumstances and he couldn’t help but mess with the tiny phoenix a little more. "Stupdiest isn’t a word and relax, it was just a joke,“ Syd replied with an airy chuckle. "Jeez! You always this uptight, Fresh Meat? You need to get laid.” He would’ve teased even further by offering to be the one to do it but knew that would be pushing it. "Oh, calm down! I’m not gonna get myself killed,“ he rolled his eyes at the accusation. His reason for asking made sense and Ilias knew it. “You needed a witch for the project, right? So let me do my job… unless you’d prefer someone else’s help?”

.

“It is a word if you look it up in the dictionary it’ll just be a picture of your stupid face.” His stupid handsome face. Ilias tried to hide the flush traveling from his cheeks to his ears and neck as he headed over to one of the trunks behind his window. Why was he tolerating Syd again? His words were bringing the phoenix back to heat week, where he’d absolutely gotten laid even if that wasn’t his intent. He really needed to send Merek an apology fruit basket for that one but maybe it was too soon. 

Ah. Right. That was why he was tolerating this.

He needed a witch with access to dark magic and apparently dealings with demons and Syd was apparently uniquely qualified here. Ilias dug through the trunk until he found a silky tarp that caused him to sneeze as he pulled it out and released a puff of dust into the air. As soon as he covered the puzzle box with it the magic in the air that was practically tangible was snuffed out like a candle.

`

He was already looking t the individual that was pacing in front of the library, his eyes glued on the creature as it moved back and forth. He felt uneasy the moment his eyes laid on him, and knew something wasn’t right from the jump. Why else would they pace? He didn’t feel particularly great about the sudden shift in their situation, and knew that something was bound to happen. He looked over to Azari, concern etched softly on his features wondering just what he was thinking of doing. “I don’t like this.” He said to him softly, his gaze locking back to the Moroi in question. 

Just hang back. That wasn’t going to happen, he won’t leave him to deal with the creature on his own. He’ll linger a bit back but he’ll follow him into the library, just in case anything does happen he’d be close by. “Something isn’t right.”

.

He should have listened to the hunter’s instincts, but Azari’s own biases were making him a bit reckless. He followed the mumbling vampire into the empty library, paying no heed to his ramblings about the first vampire. He guessed that most of the vampires would be looking for their progenitor but the phoenix had no intention of helping or hindering them. He was torn between both sides and the easiest choice seemed to be inaction.

“Hey, it’s okay just calm down and take a few deep bre-” Before Azari could finish his sentence the moroi rushed him, grabbing him by the lapel of his suit. The wind was knocked out of him as his back slammed into a bookshelf and sent it splintering and crashing into others. And he was... on fire? For a second panic gripped him as his brain registered that this was how their kind fed but... oh.

Right.

500 years of history being crammed into anyone’s brain would have been enough to cause a headache. Ilias was certain he wasn’t the only one who had taken a trip to the doctor’s office the morning after. But the phoenix had the unfortunate pleasure of an few thousand years on top of it that he now knew he was cursed to forget. After a potion or two and spending a few hours brooding, Ilias’ attention turned to what he was going to do about this. Even though he knew he was cursed, he had no idea how his mother had broken it in that future. Perhaps it had only been possible with the aid of the powerup the witches had received by draining the first vampire. Surely with what they knew the council would never let that happen now. And there was the matter of his own vampire...

Ilias looked to his fingers, feeling bare without the ring he’d worn for hundreds of years in that future. But they weren’t... but they were. With a groan and a brief flash of anger the phoenix stomped out of his office towards Kyrillos’ suite. The guards stationed at the old castle were glaring at him but he paid them no mind as he aggressively knocked on the door until it swung open.

“When were you going to tell me?”

-

Tony let out a chuckle. “That would create quite the problem. It’s hard for me to truly get immersed into something when I already know what the outcome is.” Tony said with a smirk as he looked at the phoenix. Tony chuckled and shook his head as he heard the other boy’s words before he shrugged his shoulders. 

“And where are these places that you expect to have secret passageways, and why?” Tony asked the other man curiously. Tony had definitely noticed a few here and there, but had no desire to use them. After all, when you have all of eternity? What’s the rush to get to somewhere when you have all the time in the world? 

.

“Well I heard about some sort of puzzle in the music room. Apparently a former master built a passageway from his suite to the room for his favorite slave. It’s supposed to open if you play the notes of ‘their song’ backwards.” Ilias excitedly pulled a few pages of sheet music from his pack as he chattered on about his sources and how he’d had to search through the history books and personal diaries to find a few candidates for what the song could be.

“Do you have any musical talent? Please tell me you do. That seems like the sort of thing you vampires would train in.” Unfortunately music had never held much interest for the phoenix so outside of twinkle twinkle little star on the piano he could admit he was hopeless.

It irritated the ghoul beyond words that their hard work led to nothing more than another puzzle. Syd had already gotten the message by then that the box wasn’t meant to be opened, but he had assumed that the witch’s spell would’ve done something more than that. It was as if she was testing them, or maybe teasing them, from the grave for their arrogance of thinking they even could open the box. Still, she would have to come harder than that if she wanted to really prevent Syd from cracking it. His obsession was in full swing and nothing was going to stop him from trying, not even Ilias.

“Whatever,” Syd sucked his teeth at the phoenix’s hollow praise. The least the little shit could do was be grateful Syd even helped him with how clueless he was, but the complaint died on his tongue when he smelled Ilias’ blood. Within a flash, there was a piece of tissue in his hand and the phoenix’s chin between his fingers. “Stay still,” Syd told him and gently wiped the blood away with the tissue, smiling softly as he jokingly added, “I guess talismans are useless after all.” Then he stepped back completely once he was done and glanced at the box. “Let me take it. There’s more where that came from and I don’t need the council on my ass if I accidentally kill you.”

.

The insults Ilias was hurling at the councilman in his head were working to cool down his temper and help the phoenix keep an impassive face until Syd reached up with the tissue. He hadn’t even realized he was bleeding, but it made sense that the vampire would zero in on it. What was more surprising was the gentleness and it had Ilias flushing a bit as he pointedly looked away and towards the box.

Taryn wondered if the books in this castle could teach him more about himself…. But his priority wasn’t his wants. Those could only come when all others were satisfied, and when…. If he was ever claimed. Deep brown eyes flicked along the walls around them, hopeful if nothing else that one day they could teach him something. “Well if you need a hand… I’d be glad to join you.”

Then he asked Taryn if he’d ever participated in a seance. The word perked his brow, but the boy shook his head. “I don’t think so…. What is it?” It didn’t sound dangerous. Words that flowed so simply never really did. “What’s the story?”

.

“Perfect! Don’t worry about it, I’ll handle everything.” Ilias made a check mark next to one of his notes near the staff quarters on the map and began eagerly rolling it up and putting away his things. He had no idea what the slave was - it was difficult to tell sometimes with these collars - but he was sure he could adjust when they found a good space to perform the ritual.

Syd chuckled to himself at Ilias’ reaction to his taunts. No peak in his mind was needed to know how much Ilias loathed the thought of conversing with him when his words were enough. It seemed the phoenix’s irritation with him hadn’t subsided despite the many centuries between their last interaction. Still, he was entertained by it even now, especially since his new face fit that demeanor better than his last one did. “Funny, since you’re the one who wanted to have it in the first place,” Syd pointed out, an amused smirk on his face. “I only came here to buy something, not to catch up with a ghost from my past.”

Not the least bit interested in the tea offered to him, Syd ignored the drink and watched Ilias pulled out a flask. Now that was more like it. Not even bothering to ask, the demon snatched it out of the man’s hands with his mind and swallowed it without a word. It didn’t taste as good or burn as much as he hoped but he guessed it was better than tea. “What is with you and always wanting to know more about me, huh?” Syd asked playfully, tossing the flask back at him.

.

Azari glared as the tri-hybrid commandeered his flask to take a drink from it but said nothing until it was tossed back to him. It was hard to get most creatures around here truly drunk but he hadn’t broken out the magical liquor for a reason.

“You’re probably correct. I wouldn’t know though. It’s not like I go up to the castle to see who’s still alive or not.” He says with a shrug. When Nico went up to the castle, all he did was visit his former master and after that, he usually left and returned to the village. Occasionally he’d visit the undercroft but rarely since seeing all the former masters behind bars wasn’t good for his health. 

The wendigo’s eyes moved to the cards and he raised an eyebrow, staring at them for a second before looking back at Azari like the other was crazy but he shrugged and he pointed at the three cards that he was choosing. After that, he leaned forward in his chair to see what he had picked.

.

“Hmm... the Sun.” Azari flipped over the card, revealing the gilded sun in the middle of the dark card as he mulled over it. He wasn’t particularly interested in divination in his last lives but with the added danger of the third war the phoenix had seen the value in reading the future. The card didn’t seem to apply to the wendigo in front of him but they’d been right far too many times for Azari to simply discount them.