Author's note: I had decided to split this one up into two parts due to sheer length. Enjoy and give your thoughts if interested. Part 2
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Thus I, the Patriarch of the Olderens, call upon you...
Thus I, the Patriarch of the Olderens, call upon you...
“Valerius.” I wake up to a familiar voice saying my name.
“What?” I mumble and open my eyes taking in the sight of my bedroom and the girl sitting on a chair next to my bed wearing a pure white dress to her ankles with long, straight, grey hair down to her waist. “What?”
“Don't you 'what' me.” She says in an upset tone. “You had me worried sick.”
“You already are sick Adina.” I grumble pulling the blanket over my head.
“You know what I mean!” She yells at me for my disinterest. “You were missing for two days!”
“It has been so long?” I ask not exactly surprised. "Not exactly my record but okay. Work is work after all.”
“Except Kristina or the others had no clue where you were and we found you unconscious out in the hills!” She yells at me again.
“Okay that is a problem.” I admit coming awake.
“Exactly and what if you stayed missing?” She asks me lowering her voice.
“Don't worry, Sis. I will take care of you for the rest of my life, even if I am dead I still will.” I smile cheerfully trying to make light of her concerns.
“Doesn't matter.” She tells me. “If something happened to you...”
“Yes I do know that.” I then think. I don't want her in a hospital after all. Giving her a normal life away from magic and enduring of sickness is important to me and part of my promise to father.
“Valerius are you listening to me?” Adina asks cutting off my thoughts.
“Huh? Yeah I am.” I reply absentmindedly.
“Well don't go disappearing on me again. I don't know if my body can take it.” She grumbles.
“No promises. You know I have so much on my plate.” I say while getting up. “Now then for my first and foremost duty. Stay seated.”
“At least you bounce back quickly.” She grumbles.
“I have to in order to maintain the four or so jobs I have.” I remark and I stoop down. “Now sit still.” I place my hand against her forehead and leave it there and look into a set of eyes that are just like mine. Really we are so very similar. I think to myself. Our features are nearly exactly the same, minus Adina's long hair and the fact that she has a bust, even our heights are the same. In fact when we were younger the differences were so minimal the difference between fraternal and identical twins had to be explained, and we had to explain that fraternal twins who look so similar is an extreme rarity, though maybe it is just due to our family. Even our hair is still the same grey color though, due to our isolation, it is not uncommon that our hair turns grey while we’re young we both wound up being completely grey by two years ago.
“Are you done yet?” Adina asks interrupting my thoughts.
“Hm? Oh.” I take my hand off her forehead. “No fever thank God.” I then go to a cabinet in my room and take out various medicines. “Now for your medicine. Take out the pills you need while I get some water.” I head down stairs and return with a glass of water. “Hmmm... Very good” I say examining the pills she has taken out. “Here's your water.”
“I have taken this medicine for long enough to know the dosages I need.” She grumbles as she starts swallowing her pills.
“Perhaps.” I take out a syringe and some medicine to put in it. “But I like to be sure.” I say filling the syringe up and, after she rolls up one of the sleeves on her dress, wipe her arm with disinfectant.
“Ow.” She winces after I put the needle in.
“Sorry, Sis.” I apologize. "At least that is the last time you need to get an injection.”
“Until my condition gets worse.” She grumbles.
“It is rude to grumble, Sis.” I say cheerfully as I dispose of the syringe. “Please just stay positive.”
“My condition hasn't gotten any better no matter how much medicine I take and you know it.”
“Doesn't matter as long as there is life there is hope.” I say to her as I put up her medicine.
“You don't believe a word you just said.” She mumbles.
“As long as your heart still beats you can still fight.” I tell her ignoring what she just mumbled. “So fight.”
“If you say so.”
“I do say it and I do mean it. So fight. Fight your hardest and fight until there is no breath left in your body.”
“Is that what you yell at the others during drills?” She asks rolling her eyes.
“Of course not. Probably should though but I think Instructor Nikolaos has that one covered. But I mean it. Your illness is the enemy, and you must fight your enemy with all you have, it is natural.”
“I understand.” She says but I have a feeling she is just saying that to drop the topic.
“Good now you had best be getting ready for school. I am taking today off to make up for business lost due to all that has happened.”
“Fine.” She leaves to get ready.
“Two days…” I whisper. “What happened two days ago?” I try to remember but I can't, but instinct tells me that magic was involved and that unsettles me, it is extremely hard for magic to cause a trained Magi to forget something. “Ah well. All secrets reveal themselves with time.” I get dressed in my school uniform, a military uniform in all actuality, pull on my boots, put my cap on, and head down to the shop below our home to wait for Adina and conjure up some apples for the both of us into a bowl on the table. I then conjure up a bag that is commonly used to hold apples and lay it on the table “Never let it be said that one can be too cautious with a facade.” I mutter to myself as I grab my greatcoat from the wall
Adina comes down stairs in her pure white military uniform, but otherwise in the same style since the white only denotes her status, and takes an apple from the bowl and I look out the window. “Looks like it will rain a lot today.” She remarks.
“Seems so.” I remark grabbing an umbrella and a cane, the latter of which I hand to Adina “Come on, Adina.”
“One sec.” She says as she slips on her own greatcoat and grabs the cane “Okay let’s go.” We walk outside and I hold out my arm and she looks around a little apparently embarrassed “Really? Do I have to?”
“Yes.” I sternly reply "I am walking you to school after all.”
“I have my cane.” She grumbles as she locks arms with me.
“Don't care.” I open the umbrella and hold it over us. “My most important job is to take care of you so I will do all I can. Even if it embarrasses you.” I then mutter “Even if it kills me.”
“What was that last part?” She asks
“Nothing.” I lie. “Just talking to myself.”
She raises an eyebrow “Okay then. Can I ask you another question?”
“Shoot. We have plenty of time after all.”
“Why are you holding the umbrella like that?” She asks
“Like what?” I ask tilting my head
“Please brother, I am sick not blind. Anyone can tell that part of you is sticking out in the rain.”
“Oh that. And?”
“Why are you doing that? I am wearing a greatcoat after all.”
“Don't worry, greatcoats work great in the rain. Though even if I wasn't wearing one they make our uniforms very thick, they were designed after the Russian uniforms of what foreigners call the First World War after all. If they worked in Russian winters they will work here.”
“That completely avoided my problem, you are still letting yourself get wet.” She complains to me.
“I don't care too much if I get wet. I just want to keep you healthy and I know every little bit helps”
We walk in silence for a few minutes, moving through a crowd of other students most of them carrying umbrellas and some even walking in the streets, but when we get to the school's entrance she tells me before parting. “The way you behave at times makes me wonder if you are even alive. You haven't been the same since grandfather died when we were little and even more so after father died. What happened to make things change?”
I don't answer and I tell her “See you when school is over.” I then turn around to walk away.
She frowns a little and a few more students come up to her and a girl says “Morning Adina, your brother not attending today?” It is hard to hear over the crowd but actually I think that may be Flavia, but I need to return to my shop so I don't pay attention and keep walking away.
Even as I do I feel Adina staring at my back “No not today.” She answers “He will tomorrow.”
“He doesn't attend school extremely often yet he walks you too and from every day. He really does care a lot about you.” Another girl tells her says.
I sadly smile as I keep walking and I hear Adina's last remarks “Yeah but I wish he would take care of himself more.”
I sigh as I keep walking “Who cares anymore? When I die it will mark the end of the Tribe of Olderen that is a fact and one I have grown to live with. For now I must do everything I can to take care of her to uphold my promise. That is all I have left to give to this world.. Adina... there is no need to worry about me. I just want you to live a life I can never have, a life of peace. Rather than the life of battle, of fear, of hiding that I have had to endure for so long. I can give you a normal life. That is all I can give you as both a Magi and a brother.”
I keep walking down the street and move into a crowd of people. Some are students heading for the school, a few among them I recognize but I ignore them when they call out to me, and I move towards home. Due to the rain most people are walking instead of riding their horses, a simple fact that comes from me observing almost no horses on the streets and plenty of people on the sidewalk. “Morning Valerius.” I hear a familiar voice from behind me.
I stop in my tracks and turn around to an old man in the same uniform as mine, wearing a fedora hat and with a neatly trimmed grey beard, and he is holding an umbrella. “Ah, Constantine.” I say in a familiar tone with a smile. “Good morning.”
“If it wasn't for this rain it would be.” He grumbles as he falls in step with me.
“It isn't that bad.” I reply smiling faintly at my frequent companion.
“Well I will admit it is better than a full scale storm but rain normally doesn't sit well with me.”
“Well you have said that the cold that comes with it is a bit hard on your bones.”
“Quite so. Yet I love my walks so rain or shine I need to take one.”
“Well it is good because on some days it allows us to walk together and have a chat.”
“Agreed. You are one of the few who are actually willing to sit down and talk with an old man so I rather enjoy it.”
“You did do a lot for me when I was younger.”
“You're a good kid Valerius and Sarah was an old friend so I couldn't help it. Besides you and your sister were some of this old man's best students.”
“Oh come on Constantine, you are an excellent violin teacher but you aren't that old.” I say kindly.
He chuckles “Excuse me? I would like to remind you that I have a granddaughter your age. And eighteen other grandchildren younger than her.”
“Well maybe most people would call that old. I don't though.” I comment in a kind tone. Though I wish his oldest granddaughter would stop hitting on me in front of other people. I think in my head. It gets to be annoying since I am working most of the time when I see her.
“You are often too kind Valerius. Yet at the same time you try to detach yourself from anything not concerning your sister.” He sighs and takes out a pipe. “Hold my umbrella real quick.”
“Not everything.” I reply holding his umbrella while he lights his pipe.
“Of course there is your shop and you other duties to the government, and to Lady Kristina, but your sister takes up a great deal of your focus.” He says taking his umbrella back.
“Of course she does. You know her condition.”
“Yes I do. She seems perfectly healthy on the outside but she is a perfect example of the fact that you never truly know what is hidden on the inside.”
“The inside can hide many things. Only God, in all His wisdom, knows what we truly hide. And I think it is better that way.” I answer and we just walk in silence musing over those words.
We reach an intersection and Constantine says to me. “Well I need to get going. See you around.”
“See you Constantine. Be sure to bring your grandchildren around when you can. We always enjoy having them.”
“I will." He promises and he tips his hat to me and walks away in a different direction. “Take care, Valerius.”
“You too.” I stare at his back for a few seconds and walk away smiling a little “It is good to see he is doing well in his age. A pity he will have to die one day.” My smile turns sad “Death and life are everyone’s companions after all.”
Someone walks past me on the street and I hear a female voice, nearly a whisper on the air, something that could easily be mistaken as the wind. “Such a pity Valerius.” I turn around but she keeps walking away her umbrella blocking her head with the only thing I can see is her grey hair.
“Probably just one of my customers, can't tell who she is due to the grey hair for young people being fairly common.” I mutter “I need to be more careful.” I continue to walk home. “After all maintaining an illusion requires as few slip ups as possible.” I unlock the door to my store, I put up my umbrella, change into my work clothes, and grab my apron. “Now to today's work.”
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