**Disclaimer: All character are a work of fiction and are copyright 2009 Jon T. Lappin. This story contains explicit sexual acts. If you are not of legal age to view, please go no further.
The man stared at himself in the full-length mirror. His shirtless body was well defined and his long red hair was naturally complimented by the red crystal which hung from his neck.
394 years old, and he still looked 22.
" So... you just let him stroll out of theere no questions asked?" He peered at the reflection of the brown-robed man behind him as he waited for an answer.
" Sir... w-we can't hold the boys like animals... the scriptures forbid-."
" Do not tell me what the scriptures say, Father. I'm fairly well versed in them, since I wrote them," the man said in a monotone. He could smell fear in the father and it caused his blood to flow faster, a slight flush forming on his face.
" That's... blasphemy, Sir. Scripture comes from Zalpher," the Father said softly, the fear permeating from his words. A slight smile formed on the man's face, unnoticed by the Father. A slight laugh escaped the man's mouth as he pulled the large dagger from his hip and spun around. The Father could barely contort his face in fear, before the man slit his throat with one brisk slice.
The blood splatter was as red as the crystal hanging from the man's neck.
Alexander sat against an apple tree, knees glued to his chest, the brown robe holding back the unrelenting rain from his skin. " You cast off the Old Ways like a whore does a skirt, but you cling to this stupidness. Maybe you're more fucked up then I ever realized. And to think... and to think that I gave up my entire fuckin' belief system just to be one with you for a single moment." Abraham stood above him with eyes closed. The blue crystal no longer glowed. It laid on his robe limply like the eyes of the dead.
Alexander knew the anger was evident in his voice, and he noticed a slight cringe on Abraham's face as his words ripped into him.
" I don't expect you to understand. I don't expect you to accept it. I don't even know why the fuckin' thing did what it did. I just know it can't be taken off," Abraham said, his words soft and shaky. There was pain in those words and Alexander found himself cringing as well.
" Where did you get that damn thing, anyway? I just- I just always assumed your parents gave you it... that it was just a trinket. Were they... you know?" Alexander thrust his leg out and kicked him lightly in the shin.
Abraham opened his eyes, the rain hiding the water that had been falling from them. " Were they a part of this?" The boys at the Zalpheranial never talked about their past, their families. It was an unwritten code that all the boys lived by, even Abraham and Alexander- their bond never strong enough to erode away the pain and loss that Original Sin had brought to them.
" I don't know. I just always remember having it. There's very few memories of my life before the Zalpheranial, but in every single one, this thing was present. It's just always been with me." Abraham dropped to the wet ground and snuggled up to Alexander. Feeling the pain in the boy, Alexander wrapped his arm around him and held him tight, hoping that the gesture would bring some solace, even though he knew deep down that it wouldn't.
The conversation brought Alexander back to his own family, his own memories.
There were birthdays and there was happiness. There was also the day that the Fathers came to his large villa in Faster, a well to do city in Northern Ludan. He remembered his father had been at work- a job that Alexander was unfamiliar with. His mother had opened the door and dropped to her knees in respect of Zalpher, upon seeing the Holy men. They explained the situation, that Alexander was infected with original sin. He remembered his mother's beautiful face was wrecked by tears as she allowed them to take him, her devotion to Zalpher and all that he had blessed them with taking first concern, even over her own flesh and blood.
He remembered it had hurt her.. At least that was the picture that he had painted for himself, though he had often wondered if it was an accurate painting of events.
The sun hung high in the sky, breaking the clouds, its ascent of the day unnoticed by the sleeping boys as they had held each other in deep sleep, the perplexing circumstances surrounding their first sexual encounter filling their dreams. Alexander had no marks from the burning, but the crystal seemed to have sucked the energy out of him, as he could barely hold on to the world as Abraham apologized... and apologized... and apologized.
" Has it ever done anything like that?" Alexander asked, reaching over to the crystal and holding it in his hands. There was no burn this time.
There was no glow. There was only a cheap trinket on a chain.
" No. It always just hangs here," Abraham responded, reaching up and closing his hand around Alexander's.
" How do you know you can't take it off? Did the Taj tell you something about it?" Alexander paused and watched the sun for a moment, its yellow fire fully disappearing behind the clouds. " What are you hiding from me?"
" We've got to go. We're due in Talerdeen," Abraham said, avoiding the question. He jumped to his feet and pulled the other boy up with him.
" Why won't you open up to me? I can't help you if I don't understand what is going on," Alexander pleaded as he picked up his backpacks, mentally preparing himself for the day long trip that still lay ahead.
" We can talk as we walk." Alexander noticed a shift in Abraham, the caring boy that he was used to fell away and the commanding leader once again took form.
Alexander's heart sank.
Abraham started towards Talerdeen and Alexander followed. ' My destiny... to follow this boy wherever he goes, apparently,' he thought to himself as they waded through the puddles that sprinkled the Fields. ' Maybe if I had a stupid fuckin' magical crystal, I could call the shots for once.'
The man reached down and ran his hand through the Father's blood which was puddled on the granite floor. It was warm with life, imbued with history and soul. He brought his red fingers up to his face and watched the liquid fall from them like waterfalls. ' Like the falls feed the rivers, this shall feed me,' he noted to himself, as he fed the blood into his mouth, sucking his fingers dry.
It tasted like copper, as it always did.
The heat started in the pit of his stomach and worked its way upward, engulfing his heart. It wasn't painful like it was during the first years.
He had taught himself to own the pain, trained his mind to accept it and transform it. Now, there was just pleasure.
The warmth took over his every pore and he could feel himself drifting in it, his soul untethered. He focused and took control of his consciousness, unlike his first attempts nearly 372 years ago. He wasn't in control then and there had been complications- unforseen deaths and crumbling of entire cities.
But now he was in control.
He closed his eyes and focused on Abraham. He had only drank a small amount of the blood, but it was enough to show him what he was looking for.
The Passonh Fields hovered beneath him, their brown grass protruding from the soaked ground. He darted his eyes from left to right, until they landed on the two boys, their figures sticking out amongst the short grass. He realized their paths would soon lead them to Talerdeen, and to an opportunity for the man. The blue crystal would protect Abraham until his 18th birthday, unless he willingly gave it up. ' The boy with the blond hair is the key to my destiny,' he thought to himself. He brought himself back into his body and immediately set off to send message to Swen, the Father of Talerdeen.
He needed the blond boy.
" Don't think I don't want to be with you, Alexander. I want you. I want you so bad that it aches in my bones, my soul." The words were light and soft, seemingly blowing into Alexander's ears on the slight wind that had begun to stir.
" What if we never get to be together? What if that stupid thing keeps us apart for the rest of our lives?"
" We'll always... be together in some sort of way, Alexander, even if it isn't physical. Please believe me, I want nothing more than to feel you, taste you. But that isn't what love is about. It was never part of our lives before and we survived." The words rang true in Alexander's ears.
The Old Ways had kept them apart physically. And, if they had gone through their Ascensions, they would be apart mentally as well, as the ritual would wipe all sin- or love, as he now realized it was- from their beings. Now, they could spend the rest of their lives together. " I can feel it in my soul, you know."
Alexander grabbed Abraham and stopped him from moving forward. " You can feel what in your soul?" he asked, hopeful that the boy was finally opening up to him.
" The crystal. It... it's binding to me, somehow. I can feel its power raging through my veins, through my body. I think it's changing me."
Alexander realized the implications, and hoped that it wasn't changing Abraham into something unrecognizable.
" We all change, Abraham. We all change."
" Yes, I forgot, we all have creepy anti-sex crystals overtake our being."
Abraham chuckled and Alexander smiled.
*** Swen had been confused when the messenger, cloaked in all red, had delivered the note. Though Talerdeen was a major port city, it had passed unnoticed by the Zalphera for his entire 12 years as Father. He had not even heard from the higher ups since his initiation ceremony, at the age of 20, by the Chief Father of South Ludan. They seemed preoccupied with other matters, which suited Swen greatly. He was devoted to Zalpher, but distrusted the organized religion aspect of the Zalphera.
The messenger, having placed the note in Swen's hand, was gone as fast as he arrived. As the 32 year old man opened the note, a look of shock crossed his face. ' Imprison the blond outsider that will arive in your city within the day and await the High Father,' the note read, the words burning into his eyes. Imprisonment went against Scripture, and he found himself torn between what he knew in his heart, and the oath he had taken to the Zalphera.
He crinkled the note up into a small ball and placed it in his pocket, retreating to the bedroom situated in the back of the tiny church which tended Talerdeen's small flock. He sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb the naked young man who had sprawled out across it once Swen had gotten up to answer the door. He turned his head and looked at Aaron, the 19 year old who had come to him only a year earlier. The boy, like Swen himself, was plagued by Original Sin, but was never brought to the Zalpheranial. Swen had no idea why the two hadn't been taken when they were younger and his lack of Ascending haunted him to this day.
Swen had become aware of the sin which overtook his soul, when he was only 12. He had started to notice boys, specifically their bodies and the effects they had on his penis, as soon as he hit puberty. He knew from Scripture that the thoughts were sinful. He tried to suppress the evil in his body, and succeeded, but the realization that he would never be touched, never be able to feel love from another, threw him into a deep depression.
He looked to the Scriptures, to Zalpher for solace, and finally he was granted peace through Zalpher's graces. His devotion to the Church and its god brought him salvation. He knew in his heart that he was forgiven and he promised himself that he'd spread the Old Ways, in return.
And then the boy showed up at his door, looking for shelter from the Rains.
Swen offered Aaron his bed that first night, as it was much more comfortable than the one in the church's spare bedroom. He had fetched him some warm, dry clothes, and when he returned to his room the boy stood naked. ' Wow,' he thought to himself at that moment, ' I've never seen a beggar with such a build. Surely he should be working as a guard or knight somewhere, not here hiding from the rain.'
Over the next months, the two had grown closer, though Aaron was always guarded about himself and his past. Swen would press the boy for details, but all he ever got in return was a simple, " Nope, don't want to talk about it." It wasn't a sad rejection, but it was firm, and Swen got the feeling that whatever Aaron was hiding was out of respect for the Father, and not out of embarrassment to himself. On the first day of the sunny season, Aaron came to Swen before nightfall. The boy looked him up and down as he explained that he was falling in love with the Father, and that he had hid is sinful nature out of respect to the man that have given him shelter, rather than out of shame for himself. Swen melted at that point, the years of lonliness faded away, and he gave himself to Aaron.
They had been a secret couple ever since and it tore Swen in half, as his soul battled his heart.
" Who was at the door, babe?" Aaron asked, surprising Swen, who thought the boy had slept through the visitor.
" A messenger for the Zalphera," Swen answered. matter of factly.
" Psh, what do those assholes want?" Swen knew that Aaron was an atheist who viewed the Zalphera as the enemy, but it still shocked him every time the boy spoke like that. He had never heard someone so open about their hatred for the religion.
Swen reached into his pocket, grasped the crumbled note, and thew it on Aaron's bare chest. After reading the message scrawled across the note, he looked at Swen and rolled his eyes. " You aren't seriously thinking about imprisoning someone are you? Fuck that, Swen. Fuck them. Does this even coincide with their stupid teachings?"
" No it doesn't, but I took an oath to uphold the Zalphera's laws. Perhaps there is a reason for all this. Perhaps the boy is evil."
" There is no such thing as evil. There's only people making up their minds and committing acts. That's all there is to it, Swen. So what action are YOU going to take?"
" I-I-I don't know. I haven't made up my mind yet."