fandomhigh | Library [01.08]

"The first or the second?" he asked honestly, though he'd much rather discuss the second than the first.

"One wasn't so much a trip as a visit to a friend, and the other wasn't so much a trip as a nightmare."

"Oh." Karal bit his lip. "You could tell me about both trips?" he suggested gently.

"Well," he said, figuring he'd best get it done before there were prying questions that made matters worse, "I went to check up on the Elephant Princess to see what I'd need to learn to help her. All I learned, really, was that it'd take me quite some years of work before I could do anything for the old bag."

...no, he wasn't being insulting. She was quite a heavy old creature and the way her skin sat along with the fact that she literally couldn't hold herself up anymore with such a massive head on her shoulders made him think of an empty bag slowly collapsing under it's own weight.

"When I returned to the city to head back here, as the portal sends me into a little alcove near Munchkin Mousehole, I was knocked over the head.

"When I woke up, I was in a cell with a boy I'd only met once before as we both hid out from the rain one afternoon, who was apparently working as part of a unit under my uncle. Shell. Who'd had a standing order to apprehend me sent out."

Karal didn't wince, but he didn't look exactly sanguine, and Altra's ears went flat. "Liir, that's--" He shook his head. "Do you know why he wanted you caught?"

"Painful and unpleasant."

His grin was a little crooked.

"Rest assured that Trism wasn't any more pleased than I about me being clubbed. He snuck me more food and water than I was supposed to be given and locked himself in the cell with me so I wouldn't be alone."

He hadn't understood that, now or then, but it'd made things somewhat better.

"Which was when my uncle made his appearance. Apparently, he'd taken a bit of my hair in the dark on the way down to Southstairs while I was resting my legs as the stairs are beastly and he'd had a half-rank sorcery student from Shiz looking in on me."

He grimaced just a little.

"He only had bits and pieces, though. And much of his information was wrong. He knew enough, however to propose me a deal."

He swallowed now.

"I would provide him with information from other worlds, technologies and magics and samples of things that might help him in his efforts to rise in the ranks of the government in the Emerald City, and he would adopt me formally as his nephew, provide for my education, and assure me a position in the government where I could very likely become a very well-off young man."

The crookedness of his smile was almost painful now.

"After all, he'd said, the redeemed are always well-loved. As is the redeemer. And the son of the Wicked Witch herself?"

Karal paled, and Altra's gaze grew sharper. He could only imagine what someone ruthless could do with the technologies available in this world, with the magics, with the portals. If Ancar had had access to it, neither Karse nor Valdemar would stand today. "You didn't--"

The kettle whistled, and Karl shook himself as he followed Altra to the pour the tea, hands wrapped around the pot as it steeped. "Of course you didn't," he said softly. "You wouldn't, not you."

He looked up, green eyes steady.

"For a home? A family?"

He wanted Karal to know. He wanted Karal perfectly aware that he'd almost said yes. That he'd almost agreed. That he'd almost damned his own world to make up for all the things he'd been denied. To build a future for himself, no matter what would be crushed beneath it.

"No. He tipped his hand, mentioned something he shouldn't have, and I realized exactly what it was I would be signing onto.

"And how ashamed and disgusted the man I guess is my father would be at the very idea of me doing it. How similar it all was to the Wizard who'd raped the Quadling swamps for rubies and taken my childhood friends from our home."

The swallow was hard.

"My half-siblings. As was practically ascertained only weeks before by my green little daughter and my pale little son that visited."

Karal was smart enough to put that together. Even he knew that. He didn't let the point sit, though. He moved on.

"I told him to, well, something unpleasant and biologically impossible. He assured me that he'd get some of what he wanted from torturing me before whipping the one person in the room who'd shown me kindness."

"Anyone would have been tempted," Karal replied quietly. "There is no shame in it." He poured the tea, careful not to pour it on himself, then walked over to offer a mug to Liir. "When you realised what it would truly mean, you made your choice." He was feeling vaguely ill, but he swallowed once and didn't let it show. "Did he do as he'd threatened?"

He shook his head.

"I didn't let him."

The tea was put to his lips and sipped quickly, not caring that he was burning himself a little. The pain was pushed aside, hardly felt as it wasn't useful for the moment, and he went on.

"I had nothing to hand, so I used the only magic I have."

He put the cup down.

"I pulled all the terrible memories off of him, all the things he'd done to others, stripped the justifications from them, and threw them into his face."

He kept going because it was best he rushed through this because when it'd happened, it'd taken too long and it'd been too terrible for all that there'd been very little violence to the whole thing from most people's view.

"He fell to the ground and gave a cry and the men, figuring that I'd been the cause, ran out. Trism ran too, but he came back soon enough. Untied me. He asked me about my uncle, who is not dead but probably not well if I'm any judge, and gave me back my things.

"And that's all that came from my first trip."

He looked at Altra, and at Karal, waiting for judgment. He'd asked Miss Lulu if what he'd done was wrong, and she'd told him no, but he wanted to hear his brother's verdict as well.

Wrapping his fingers around his mug, Karal drew in a calming breath, letting it out slowly. "You saved yourself and you saved another, using the only weapon you had." He paused, choosing his words with care. "You harmed no one but the person who was threatening you," he said slowly. "And, whatever harm you caused your uncle is harm he himself will likely be able to undo, should he ever accept and understand his actions, and how wrong they were. You caged him with bars of his own making, and you escaped. This is a very good thing."

He was able to breath again.

"Good. Because I never want to do that again."

He took a long sip from his tea.

"The second visit was much less adventurous. I merely found Trism and spent the weekend with him, helping him with his apprentice's work in a stable and wandering about the better shops to get my teas and spices."

He was able to smile now.

"He's been taken under a veterinarian. His way with animals is almost uncanny."

And he blushed a little because that same way was very much usable on him. The same hum that'd calmed a startled horse had worked quite well to have him drifting off to easy sleep.

Through Altra's eyes the blush was barely noticeable, but still, it made Karal relax a little. "He sounds like a good friend," he ventured. "And time in a stable always helps me feel more settled. Did you enjoy it?"

"It was practically necessary."

He looked to Altra, and by extension, Karal.

"Would you like the truth or honesty?" he asked carefully. The two were very different things.

"I want to know how you felt," he replied gently, meeting Liir's eyes through Altra's. "Whichever you think that is."

"I haven't been all that well since Andrew and I parted ways.

"You know how close we were, how often we spent time together. When it ended, there was just... nothing. An empty room, a cold bed, do I need to go on?"

He fluttered past it, though. He knew how close Karal was with Andrew and he didn't want to alienate anyone.

"Professor Ambrose left without notice. Not even to me. You were gone. Ino had her own troubles and I did the best I could to help her instead of making them worse."

He shook his head and looked away to enjoy another sip of tea.

"Long story short, and that's probably for the best, Trism was just what I've needed. As I've told Ino, I'm not sold on him since he is an Ozian and I've had about as much luck as a homeless gambler with those from my own world, well... I'll have to see."

"Then I'm happy for you," Karal said quietly, pushing aside both an entirely irrational pang of guilt and a moment of faint discomfort. "And seeing where things lead sounds like the best plan."

"And, to wrap things up," he said with a breath out, "I have three tickets for the show this weekend. The play? I bought them on the first night ticket sales open but I haven't managed to find my way to you before now so I'm glad I figured that might happen."

"I had completely forgotten about the play," Karal admitted sheepishly. "It's a good thing one of us remembered."

He tapped his temple.

"It's what I do."

Karal smiled. "What night will we go?"

"I was thinking Sunday, but there's always tonight. Or next week. The show runs Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday."

"Sunday?" he suggested.

"Certainly. Eight o'clock. Should we meet here, so I can bring you to the theatre? It's rather small."

"Or I could stop by your room," he offered. "I'd hate to get lost on the way there. Altra knows the way there, and you know they way to the theatre, so it works out well."

"My room then," he agreed.

"Just follow the smell of vanilla and gooseberry."

He'd found a new tea he liked of late.

"We can do that," he chuckled. "Vanilla and gooseberry, Sunday night."

He finished up his tea.

"And good company."

He held up the cup.

"I was about to say that I should head to work but I've been incredibly rude," he said with a brief ruffle of his hair.

Karal shook his head. "You haven't been rude and you need to get to work." He made a shooing motion. "Go, before you're late. We can talk on Sunday."

He waited for a moment before ducking forward to grab a hug.

"Sunday," he promised.

He hugged him back, then ruffled his hair. "And I want to try some of your new tea, as well," he told him. "So I'll be by early."

"Good."

And while he had told Karal most of his troubles, he was proud of himself for having dealt with most of them beforehand. The only thing that'd really worried him had been Andrew.

Well, Andrew and what he'd done to Shell.

"I'll see you then!"

And with that, he ran off to work.

Library [01.08]

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