Kell Maresh (antari) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-07-08 21:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, alucard emery, kell maresh |
WHO: Kell Maresh and Alucard Emery
WHAT: Kell and Alucard try to be in a room together without arguing. It goes pretty well.
WHEN: Backdated
WHERE: Their home/palace
WARNINGS: Mentions of death
Kell did not want to get along with Alucard Emery,and that was the long and the short of it. It felt like every time he tried to put Rhy ahead of everything and reach out with some semblance of an olive branch, Alucard slapped it away. When their magic had swapped, Kell had reached out on impulse to Alucard, because he had been ready to admit that Alucard would do a better job calming him down and it had felt like all Alucard had done was ridicule him. He had not yet forgiven Alucard, either, for the way he had painted him as a violent bully after Holland’s arrival.
But with their recent travels, it was becoming clear that it was a continued burden on Rhy for Alucard and Kell to barely be able to speak to each other.
And Kell was coming to terms with the fact that their relationship was obviously very serious.
So, resigned, Kell decided that it was time for him to make a dedicated effort so, at the very least, he could say he had done so. He reminded himself that they had allied long enough to defeat Osaron. They should be able to at least have a conversation without murderous urges.
He found Alucard taking his breakfast without Rhy and stood in the doorway a moment.
“Can we speak?” he asked.
...
Alucard was four chapters deep into a discussion of magical theory around enchanted items. Rather than focusing on a particular item, it took magic to the roots, so that whatever understanding was taken away could be applied to anything. It held far more appeal than what passed as attempted conversation when he and Kell usually crossed paths. That indeed seemed to hold true whether Alucard attempted to reach out or not. But they continued to live in the palace together, continued to be parts of each other’s lives.
On that account, Alucard closed the book for Rhy’s brother and took him in, lingering at the entrance to the room. As though it were Alucard’s territory by virtue of prior occupation. “Come in,” Alucard welcomed him. “There is more tea, if you would like some.” As well as further chairs around the table. The tea set, properly set up, had cups for more people than lived in the palace at this time. It was easy to accommodate one more.
Having been sought out - or at least the opportunity taken advantage of, once presented - Alucard had a couple guesses as to what the topic of conversation could be. But he did not leap to them. Instead, he let Kell lead in that regard, however the man felt comfortable doing so.
…
Kell didn’t know what he had expected, but he would take it as a good sign whenever they were able to say any amount of words cordially.
“Thank you,” Kell said -- if a bit stiffly, he was still trying. He entered the room, sat, and did indeed pour himself a cup of tea -- another reminder of him, and an action that was familiar enough that it was easy.
“We both love my brother,” Kell said, figuring that there was no point in small talk. He wasn’t particularly good at it, and additional conversation seemed like it would introduce additional complications.
He also hoped that Alucard would recognize that Kell was saying two things with that statement: the first being that he was actually acknowledging that Alucard’s feelings were real, as well as his relationship with Rhy, and that they could both dislike each other but act on behalf of Rhy.
“So, it seems we should find a way to co-exist … with more cordiality. For his benefit,” Kell said.
...
Alucard sipped some of the tea while he waited for Kell to talk. Without dire circumstances pushing them along the same track, with the same goal, they had not done the best at conversation. It had not been their strong suit back in Arnes either. Not that Alucard had taken the death threats seriously. But they had both been busy, with only so much time for interaction, and it had gone poorly, generally, at best.
But Kell’s first statement went further than anything he had said before. He had not, to Alucard’s knowledge, ever accepted or said as much about Alucard’s feelings toward Rhy. The closest had been on the boat, a time after this Kell remembered, wherein the acknowledgement he gave to Alucard had grudgingly implied those feelings were real. But their content had been that they disliked him. Along with other troublesome language Alucard had not bothered to respond to.
“Cordiality is something,” Alucard agreed. Then, as loathe as he felt toward sharing anything with Kell - nevermind that he had already read something of Alucard’s private history - Alucard went further, “Some level of understanding would serve better, if we can accomplish it.” Otherwise all the manners they could summon would simply be walking on eggshells with resentment just below the surface. It was so easy to feed Alucard’s toward Kell. But then, they came from different places. Even if the cages were similar in many respects, how it had played out for them was different.
…
“All right,” Kell agreed, if a bit warily. He didn’t know what all that entailed, but if Alucard had a thought on how they could build a bridge, Kell would at least try -- because, for his part, he didn’t really know how to. It felt like the amount of disdain they had for each other ran too deep into the foundation of their relationship, and there wasn’t much else to build upon.
He had to remind himself of the Alucard he’d glimpsed with Anisa. That Rhy could apparently see something deeper as well.
“What do you have in mind?” Kell asked.
...
They treated each other the way they might Bard’s magic, when it was first explosively making itself known. To be fair, she had little control over fire at the time, and they had been aboard a ship. A rather sinkable one, as most were, when it came to fire. Enchantments only went so far. But here, whatever their intentions, their words usually carried some barb. That had been true for Alucard, and when they had drawn enough blood it went to blows, at a time they had expended their patience.
“We all grew up in the same society, with values based around magic, blood and class, and the expectations that came around that,” Alucard tried to lay even groundwork. More they could both agree to. “You were adopted and raised in the palace because of your magic. My father saw most of my value in my magic. It was one requirement he had of a son. Our parents each had their own expectations that came from that - I know a piece of those you faced the way anyone could - which disregarded whatever dreams and desires we had. How that went, we each know our own experience.” Alucard had read the books, which made it easier to have even this much of a conversation. But he did not mistake that insight into Kell’s mind as enough for them to get along. That required actual interaction, some ground being tread together.
“There are some similarities in our experiences, but they are each uniquely ours. They have shaped us and how we interact with each other. Those particulars, I suspect, are where we rub each other wrong and do poorly. I would not pretend a clean slate is possible,” they carried their baggage, each other a part of it. “But we can share something of ourselves, something that may help us understand each other. So we may at least not unwittingly injure each other.” They would be all the better armed to do so purposely, but then the point of the conversation was not to do that.
…
Kell didn’t interrupt. He usually found Alucard’s wordiness to be irritating, but he bit down that immediate response and tried to pay attention to the words. They were incredibly broad similarities, but they accomplished in what Alucard sought out to do in that Kell didn’t disagree with them.
Kell left an additional pause even after Alucard finished speaking. He had one thumb pressed against his mouth, considering. He half wished that Alucard would just ask a question, so that Kell could either offer up the truth or refuse it. He wasn’t entirely sure what he could offer Alucard that would make sense, but he also figured that was what the situation required.
“Rhy is the only person I have, with the exception of Lila, who treats me as a person first and Antari second,” Kell said, trying not to grit his teeth as he said it. He had never liked making himself vulnerable in this emotional way -- part of exactly what he had told Rhy when he’d complained about the way that Alucard and Rhy’s sex life had made him feel. He couldn’t understand the sort of openness they had.
Even then, the statement didn’t really get to the heart of the matter: For such a long time, Rhy had been the entirety of his world, and he was afraid of how effortless it seemed for Alucard to come in and take Rhy away from him.
...
There were no conditions on what sharing something of themselves would be. Alucard knew what he could share of himself, there was plenty he could share.
With Rhy, he had opened himself up, as much as he could. There had been secrets that first summer, not knowing how Rhy felt toward him, but since they had been reunited, since they had reformed their relationship, Alucard pushed himself farther than he always knew possible in order to let Rhy in. They trusted each other, so no matter how vulnerable Alucard felt, no matter how uncomfortable the matter, they faced it. Even their relationship back in Arnes and the awkward uncomfortable truths around it.
With Bard, he had developed a relationship something of a game, something of trade, with their secrets and questions surrounding it. They had prodded, gently, softly, with the hand of a thief that wished not to spook their mark. And yet, it had been a friendship, with its own sort of trust, that grew from that careful treading of ground. They had both wanted something of the other, something only the other had those months at sea. By the time they each gained what they wanted, they had a friendship and bond strongly developed.
Neither of those relationships could be what Alucard had with Kell. But perhaps something that bridged the two. Secrets were not to be teased out but shared the way he did with Rhy. But it was transactional, reciprocal the way it was with Bard. The same uneasy ground between them that lacked trust even as they had reason (Rhy) to work together.
There was a truth, one in parallel, Alucard could have shared. Anisa had been the only person to treat him as a person first, magician second, before Alucard met Rhy. But Alucard had gone to sea, and sure he had been the captain first to most everyone on his crew. But it had been a freeing experience. It had given him room away from the stifling parts of London, of court. Something Kell had yet to experience, given when he was from.
But that secret was not one that would help Kell understand Alucard in a way that would permit him to pull back the barbs that stuck under Alucard’s skin the hardest. It was not his hardest secret. Breathing out, even, forcibly slow, Alucard nodded in acknowledgement of Kell’s words, the weight of it, before he shared his own in return. “My brother beat me from a young age, my father permitting it because I had magic and I should have been strong enough to stop it. He beat me too, when I disappointed him,” Alucard gritted his teeth as he spoke. “When he learned of my relationship with Rhy, of my inclinations, he beat me unconscious and shipped me off to sea to get ‘straightened out.’ When I was brought to court in chains, he tortured me further.” Alucard had already rested one hand on the other’s wrist. At that sentiment, he pulled up the sleeves to show the scars. He loathed what pity that was likely to receive from most people. That was not what he wanted. But Alucard did not suppose it likely from Kell.
…
Kell had many of those pieces already, so they didn’t come as any particular surprise, although he understood the gesture and intend behind it regardless. This was a fuller version of the story, shared willingly and purposefully with him by Alucard himself. His eyes dipped toward Alucard’s wrist.
He felt sympathy for Alucard for this story, of course. No child deserved to be hurt in such a manner, and especially not by the people who were supposed to love and protect him. It simply, to Kell, wasn’t an excuse for all the parts of Alucard that Kell didn’t care for.
But he also understood that, with such an explanation, Rhy and Alucard would want to know why it was he still blamed Alucard for leaving Rhy.
“You were the first,” the only, they both knew, “who meant anything to Rhy,” Kell said. “And when you left, it was a hurt I could do nothing for or with, and whyever you left doesn’t change that, however much it may not be your fault.” It also did little to change the fact that it had also, perhaps not consciously, made Kell realize that it would not always be the Maresh brothers against the world. In the first place, most of the world did not see them as true brothers and as they grew older, the world would ask them to grow more apart -- Rhy would become king, and he would marry and have children. Kell would be an Antari. Not without power, of course, but as he had told Rhy only a few weeks ago, an inheritance. A servant.
So, being with Alucard Emery, or whatever partner he chose, would leave Kell alone. But it was far worse because it was Alucard, who so blatantly disliked him.
…
Alucard had few expectations or even hopes from sharing that part of his past with Kell. It hadn’t been meant to do much. Alucard certainly did not want to draw the parallels between what happened to him and what actions of Kell’s had bothered him so much. No matter how loudly he insisted that he did not view Kell as an abusive person - he did not - it was more likely to cause further problems between them than anything else. Instead, he had to hope that time and reflection would permit Kell to see why certain behavior made Alucard uncomfortable. To put it mildly.
Neither of them lingered on the matter, which suited Alucard just fine. Kell had treated Alucard poorly for leaving Rhy a rather long time. He continued to dislike Alucard, along with whatever other reasons, for it. That was unproductive when it came to their relationship, when it came to getting along. Which was the only reason Alucard cared to work on it. He hadn’t chosen to leave, but he had chosen to stay away. Rhy did not blame him for that, given the consequences. And Alucard knew he could do nothing about it now. They had to move on. But Kell hadn’t. So Alucard did not need him to change his point of view on Alucard about it. Simply for it to be something that was, something that was part of the past, not the present.
“Unfortunately, people we care for can be hurt in ways we can do nothing about,” Alucard said. He sighed, as Rhy still hurt in other ways. And that was something he could do little about. He could and did love Rhy, was there for him, and believed in him. But beyond that, there was nothing to be done about Rhy’s magic. Not from him, not from Kell. “It is not something I have mastered any more than anyone else,” Alucard admitted. “It’s a frustrating feeling.” It was frustrating for him that he had hurt Rhy that way, that Rhy had spent years not knowing how he felt. It had partly motivated his return, his entry in the Essen Tasch, his courtship. Because Alucard had wanted Rhy to know, even if he had not cared, how much he meant to Alucard and what Alucard was willing to do for him.
He looked across at Kell, pulling his sleeves back down, for what little protection that offered. “I would sacrifice almost anything to save Anisa the way you saved Rhy,” he said. He had been there, had watched her suffer, had watched her die. There had been nothing more he could have done. But seeing Kell - knowing when he was from - and seeing Holland, it ground glass into his heart, here, a way that life in Arnes had not. Here her death haunted him, when there it had simply been done. A painful hole in his heart but one that could heal.
…
Kell stiffened and pulled back at the mention of Anisa, unable to help himself. Kell’s revelation that Anisa had died had softened him toward Alucard. Unfortunately, he had learned that very shortly before his memory charm had broken. Before he’d learned that he’d had a sister of his own, who had been killed when he’d been kidnapped as a child because he was an Antari.
He knew it wasn’t a pain he could rightly compare to Alucard’s. He’d been young when he’d lost his sister, with a child’s heart, a child’s understanding of the world, and an inability to even think about saving her. He hadn’t even remembered her until recently. Alucard had had to watch his sister as she’d died, also the only family he’d truly had.
Still, the pain, the recollection, was wrenching for Kell, and he was struggling with it. Rhy was the only one who knew, and he didn’t know most of it. Kell couldn’t figure out how to share this pain.
“I had a sister,” Kell offered, stilted.
...
His heart was raw from the statement. Alucard had shared his struggle with Rhy, about Anisa, about the injustice this place had, just knowing she could be here. Seeing Holland, seeing Kell before he damaged his magic. Kell’s very presence was a reminder because when he was from Anisa had not died yet. Every time Alucard saw Kell’s magic, the aura around him that Alucard could not look at Kell without seeing, it was a reminder. But it wouldn’t have been fair to hang that around Kell’s shoulders.
He waited and watched, curious and unsure what Kell’s reaction had been for. Guilt? Kell had had a part to play in Osaron coming to their world and thus in Anisa’s death. Loss? They had lost many people that night. Alucard had lost a good number of his crew as well, people he cared for greatly, as well as magicians who had been his friends and rivals. He could not read emotions as easily as magic. But it was certainly something.
Paying attention to those clues, to piece something together was easier than dwelling on his own heart. It held some distance between him and the pain rooted there. At this time, that was for their sake and Rhy’s should Kell say something that would have a first reaction that would snap them back to their usual antagonistic interactions.
Alucard exhaled when Kell spoke. Had. Past tense. It could have meant he had a sister before someone brought him to court, before the Maresh’s adopted him because of his eye. It could have. But even were they lost, disconnected, with few clues to track them down, Alucard doubted Kell would have used the past tense. No words were of much comfort in the face of a dead sibling. Alucard knew that too well.
“What do you remember about her?” Alucard asked instead. Much as it helped him to think of Kell as Rhy’s brother, a person was more than just a sibling. And a sibling had more to them than one word could communicate. It was only morning, so there was only tea on the table, nothing stronger. But Alucard refilled his cup. The dead had been people, and they deserved to bring happiness, not just pain.
…
A strange fissure of emotion ran through Kell at the question. He didn’t know what to name it. It was bizarre that he was having this conversation with Alucard at all, but Alucard didn’t seem irritated with him, so Kell tried to formulate an answer out of the fragments of memories he had been given from the first five years of his life.
“We would hide together when people would come looking for me,” Kell said without looking at Alucard. “She was supposed to keep me quiet. When a group found us, they killed her.”
...
A frown crossed Alucard’s face. It did not entirely surprise him that people were interested in antari. Even two generations before, they had been more abundant, able to live their lives as ordinary people with families and jobs and everything else that entailed. But as anything became more rare, it was more sought after. Especially when powerful. An adult antari was difficult to control. But a child… Alucard wished he could meet a few of those people who hunted down a child.
She was an older sibling, Alucard gathered, because she had been responsible for Kell. Because she was entrusted with him while their parents did whatever they could to get rid of the curious treasure hunters. Likely not violence. That wouldn’t have ended well for them. But Kell’s words also spoke to his guilt, without saying anything of the sort. Supposed to keep him quiet. So he hadn’t been, and the group had found them, had killed his sister, and had stolen him for what that got them. Alucard wondered, briefly, how Kell had been introduced to Maxim Maresh. What it had gotten whoever had made the introduction. Some other less than flattering questions, when it came to the king.
He focused on the conversation with Kell. They were more than a decade and a world away from those people, even further from all the answers. Not all wrongs could be righted for any child. Not for Kell. Not for Alucard. “If you have any memories you would want to know more of,” Alucard said, as he did not think murder was something worth reliving and rewatching, “you could use my liran.” Those memories wouldn’t be colored by Kell’s young age, at the time they had been formed. They would be a link to the past, possibly with more information, with another way to remember a lost sister.
…
Kell shook his head. He’d seen enough for now. He didn’t really know how much could be left underneath that memory. He’d just been so young when he’d been brought into London. But for now, he knew he couldn’t glean any happiness or meaning from seeing what it was he had been born into. He’d already seen the end of all that.
Maybe one day, yes. To honor a sister he didn’t really know better. To acknowledge that her life was more than the messy death she had been given. But he was too tangled over everything else right now.
“Thank you,” Kell added, though, because he knew just what the cost Alucard had paid for that object was.
…
That was fair enough. It had not been clear whether Kell had other memories, besides her death and hiding hoping to avoid it before that. Alucard was curious about where Kell came from too. But not so curious as to rock the careful balance they had maintained the length of the conversation. In that way, it was similar to treading ground with Bard. It was possible to go too far, to push too hard. And it was not always clear when that would be the case.
“You’re welcome,” Alucard replied. The liran had cost years. Even had it only been to get Rhy back, that would have been worth it. But having such an object, Alucard intended to get the most out of it. Given the base’s dampening of magic beyond Maris’s abilities, it had proven useful.
“For what little comfort it can offer, I stopped many people like those who took you, while I was at sea,” Alucard said. They were dangerous people, interested often only in money but skilled in identifying what was rare and powerful and valuable, with few morals as to how to get it. Also, good taste in wine, usually. He had chosen the targets, those that had not been of opportunity or necessity. The world was safer without them, more so than any average band of pirates he could stop.
…
“Actually,” Kell said, “It was Maris who told me while you were getting the liran. She had me on the ship for a few weeks when I was young.”
He didn’t know if this would come as a surprise or not to Alucard. He didn’t know Maris well enough to get the sense if she typically traded in children, although he would guess not. As she had said, she dealt in rare things, and there were few things rarer than an Antari these days. He wondered if she had seen or met others.
It also didn’t particularly surprise Kell, if he was being honest, that Alucard had taken a stance against those who steal children. Not with the soft spot he had for his sister.
…
The surprise, had Alucard not read the books and the one that had hit him when he had, was that Maris had offered that information free of charge. Guilt did not drag down her brow often, had it been that. It made Alucard curious about the time between, the journey Kell had taken from the Going Waters to the Maresh palace. Had someone come as representative of the king, had they heard rumors of what was available? Had someone seen an opportunity and, loyal to the crown, presented him to Maxim Maresh once they reached London? It did not change anything that had happened, but information still changed the shape Rhy’s parents took in his mind, how Alucard thought of them.
“I spent hours wandering the market, the first time I was there,” Alucard shared. “I did not see anyone who could have been for sale.” An antari was something, someone, Maris would keep a close eye on, like the Inheritor had become when Alucard brought it aboard. But nothing had struck him particularly about the various people who worked for Maris, at least not in so far as they could be of interest to anyone else. Alucard had not expected better of Maris, given what he knew of her business, but he could not terribly think less of her. He had counted on as much, once.
He sighed slightly. Too many wonders revolved around people whose morals left much to be desired. “That place opened my eyes to what was possible, far beyond anything I ever read or heard word of in London,” Alucard mentioned. It had motivated him to study more magic, to expand his abilities to new areas.
…
Kell couldn't stop the way his curiosity still piqued at the mention of being outside of London. Maybe that was another element that had made Alucard's return even harder.
Not only had he captured both Rhy and Lila’s attention but his punishment from the crown had allowed him to freely roam nearly anywhere.
Of course, Kell now knew that he and Lila would leave on the Nightspire for their own travels, but that hadn't helped Kell’s jealousy when it came to Alucard.
“And what was most interesting of what you found beyond London?” Kell asked, trying to temper his interest at least a little.
...
Nearly a whole world existed outside London. Alucard had been to much of it, having ventured into foreign waters, but even he had seen only a fragment of it. But what a fragment, so much more than was spoken of in London, than could be easily (or sometimes with difficulty) read. Much less seen. Where power’s reach faded, many other possibilities were seen. It was not all good or Alucard never would have been sent to defend Arnes in ways its navy could not. But it was rife with wonders, not all of them squirreled away in Maris’s collection.
“The magic,” Alucard replied, a simple answer that held vast possibilities. “Whether in ciphers or hidden markets, taken from pirates’ ships or won at Sanct, there is magic most people in London have never heard of, and those who have, mostly in rumor. Maris has the largest collection of magic and items you cannot find anywhere else, but there is still plenty in smaller nets. At the borders, you see a blending of how people use magic, with that of Faro or Vesk.”
He smiled, honestly quite happy when it came to magic. “You are the most powerful magician in our world, I am a champion. But placing what we know before all the magic that is out there, we are but young school children. We never need to worry of running out of magic to learn, to understand, of expanding our understanding.” Those possibilities made Alucard far more excited for the future than one wherein he had little more to learn and simply mastered what he had.
“I am sure you’ll see things I have not,” Alucard added. The cards were not entirely in his hands, when they thought about their futures. And Alucard was not hoarding any magical knowledge, even as he knew some Kell did not. “And here we’re seeing magic we would not imagine.”
…
The magic came as no surprise. For all the differences that he and Alucard had, he suspected that they both had a deepset love of their respective magic and what they could do with it.
Kell had grown up all his life being told that he would likely be a target for other lands, Faro and Vesk, but for the first time, he wondered what kind of magician he would be if he had actually grown up somewhere where their the viewpoint was different, where the rules themselves were different.
As Lila had once told him, he wanted to see everything.
Kell bristled at Alucard’s last comment, not likely to be seen so clearly for his hunger for the rest of the world. He had to force himself to take an emotional step back, to remind himself that it was unlikely, in this context, that Alucard was mocking him for it. If they were going to get onto new ground, Kell had to stop making that assumption.
“I’ve enjoying seeing the magic here,” Kell said, with a nod. “Fighting against it has been less thrilling.”
…
Alucard had now seen someone come back from the dead and magic from multiple worlds. It was something else, not what he knew but not entirely different either. He had traveled to a few different worlds, when they had landed in the port of the magical beans, including a land where time stood still and people who would have died elsewhere continued to live their lives. Had they someplace like that, instead of the magic Kell had used, Rhy may have ended up living there. Or Anisa could have been saved, before she blew away to ash. It was both heartwarming and heartbreaking of a world. Some books, and his memories, were what he had for it.
“I would rather we did not have to fight either,” Alucard agreed. But the truth about any magic or technology was that it would likely end up in more than one hand, so the odds were, if it came to fighting, one would have to fight it. And learn how to. Which, again, tied in closely to how they were both good at magic but negated many of the wondrous sides to it beyond combat or something resembling it.
He shook his head once, with effort not pinching the bridge of his nose. “It has been peaceful, relatively, since we arrived in Tumbleweed,” Alucard said. Portals with beings from other worlds notwithstanding. Some of those had required violence. Others used peaceful means. But no major battles, no deaths. “But I keep expecting something more. Their army’s corpses in that base… something did that, and it could return.” It was not a pleasant topic, nor an event Alucard was keen to experience. But it was better to anticipate it and be ready, than to be caught off guard.
…
“I’m sure something more will come,” Kell said quietly, and he assumed that was another point of familiarity between the two of them. Some worry, something to fight or withstand, was always lurking on the horizon.
It made it both hard to be still and enjoy the world, and impossible not to at the same time. Kell worried about impending dangers, particularly about how they would affect Rhy, but he was also enthralled with all the different parts of the world he got to see here and the promise of potentially working magic alongside another Antari.
…
Alucard nodded. There was a shared certainty, different experiences that led to the same conclusion. At sea, it was a matter of time before something happened. In politics, something was always happening. Whether it turned to fighting depended on how one handled it. Something Rhy was well-trained for. Alucard had practiced on other stages. But here, here Alucard felt certain there was something violent coming.
“We could train more together, two of us, three of us, together with those who fought on our deck,” Alucard knew the possibilities were endless. “Whoever we might have with us at the time or would trust to do so.” Practicing alone was not quite the same, no matter how good anyone was at it. Better to be prepared.
…
Kell knew that having one conversation with Alucard was world’s away from actually training with Alucard. Magic was something they both shared, but also seemed to diverge from the most.
But it would also be the most helpful for them to be on the same page when it came to protecting Rhy.
And he was trying this time. He was really trying.
So he nodded in agreement.
…
Alucard nodded in return. He comforted himself that it couldn’t go much worse than some nights training Bard. Nor as near disaster as the three antari training together with the rings. At least, they could not destroy where they were and drown.
“I would like to introduce you to my bird,” Alucard said. “She also keeps a watch on Rhy, on this place.” Despite where she had stayed during the ball, the treasury was not the most important thing to protect in the palace. It just so happened Kell’s life was.
…
“All right,” Kell agreed, because there was really no point in arguing with that. If there was anything they could consistently and normally argue upon it was that Rhy needed to protect at all costs -- not that either of them thought he was weak by any means. It was just the magnitude of how important Rhy was.
…
Alucard smiled, an honest smile. “I do not know if there is a day we can all relax and simply live,” he said. “That may make it easier to get along.” They had the same priorities when it came to Rhy, and honestly, if something came for the community as a whole, they would be on the same side. When it mattered, they could work together. The point was, it always mattered.
…
“It may,” Kell agreed, also showing a slight amusement. As long as they had reason to be on guard and to protect Rhy and his throne, they would always share a common goal that would tie them together in some way.