Even Exchange (Part 1, Finn)

[Raithen]

Frost 25, 122

In the months since they had met, all accidental, on the sand that both used to become better stewards of death, Finn and Raithen had kept up the practice together. It hadn't ever been planned at first, it had just happened, then again, and again, until Rai found himself coming at times and on days when he had known Finn to commonly by there also. When Finn and his lover, had moved on from Cithaera's house Rai had sought him out, saying that it felt odd to train without him now. They had laughed about it a little, and it had been a gentle bending in their relationship from companions to friends. It was a little odd that Raithen felt a stronger connection to a person who was his brother-in-law in all but law, than to his actual brother, but life was like that. The oddities amused the Avialae more often than they put him off. He was made and trained to flow with whatever fate pushed toward him, so he did.

They had teased about 'cheating' with their Runes as they flowed together, learning how to counter the magic of the other, the better to keep themselves safe. Over the months, and then seasons the jokes about how useful having the other's magic would be developed to, one day, Raithen asking if Finn might consider gifting him Traversion. The request that he reciprocate had been so obvious to him that when Finn actually made it Raithen had been initially confused but hasted to express that had always been his intention, should Finn want Kinetics.

So the plan had been made, Raithen would receive first, due to him being in a better position to more easily work through whatever residual threshold sickness might come than Finn was. Momentous things were moving through both their lives and it was one of the connection points they had strung their friendship on. Raithen had asked permission of both his mother and his God, and, having received it had set a date.

Somehow, it felt right to be back in his mother's house, sitting cross-legged in loose-fitting, undyed linen trousers and matching shirt with nothing on his feet. Waiting there quietly, meditating to center himself in preparation for the transformation of his soul, as he had been taught. He felt when Finn arrived, ripped through the slipstream. Since they'd made the compact he'd been trying to pay more attention to where the lines of energy actually went when they were beyond his immediate surroundings. It would be different with the new Rune, but it still felt worthwhile to prepare as much as he could.

Opening his eyes he smiled up at the bard who always looked like he had been crafted for ballrooms but grown up in taprooms.

"Salve, Magister."

[Finn]

Solunarium was complicated, but Gaius Val'Aværyan Raithen was not. Their friendship was not, and so it was a solace from the burning sands and viper pits. Throughout all the tumult of political fallout and royal revelation, the golden Avialae had taken everything in stride. It was something Finn hoped he might learn to do better. He could school my Symphony, play a role, but Raithen didn't seem to have to try.

From what Arvælyn had told him, there were Runes associated with his gens, Kinetics being one of them. Finn had tried to ease his threshold sickness somewhat, but it had taken his transformation in the belly of Mount Sorokyn to make things right again. While he didn't know whether Cithæra's sons were all Semblers, once it was clear that neither there materfamilias nor the Vigilia had any problem with him easing their winged prince into more power, he was only too pleased to do so. Traversion for Kinetics, though the reciprocation would have to come later when Finn felt that Arvælyn could manage him not being able to do much of anything for a while.

Finn twisted and twined the threads of the slipstream and between one heartbeat and the next, he had gone from Zalkyriax's palace to Cithæra's.

"Salve, discipulus," he replied, an almost jolly lilt in his voice.

It only took a moment to take in that everything was prepared, most likely by the servi of the house. Since he hadn't planned to walk, he was just dressed in his loose training blacks. They were comfortable and informal—unless Cithæra or one of Raithen's elder siblings walked in. He immediately sat cross-legged across from Raithen, their knees a few inches apart. His eyes always trailed at least once over the elegant curve of his wings. Most Kalzasern children grew up wishing they had wings, and Finn occasionally felt the desire to touch them, though that was a rather intimate thing and he knew better.

"You honor me with your request, amicus. I am the lover of a prince, but you are a prince. I understand a little now that magical pedigrees and lineages are important here. I will shepherd you through the Aetherium and bring you safely back to yourself. I promise it. Is there aught that you would know before we begin?"

[Raithen]

A smile of easy comradery lit Raithen's face when his friend returned his little jest in kind. Finn was easy to be around, not simple as a person, but the way they were allowed to be when with each other was as simple a connection as any were allowed in the land of sun and shadow. The human's Vastian was much better, enough so that Rai now slipped thoughtlessly between their two shared tongues when they spoke.

With the exception of secrets that he was not sure were his to share, or was sure were not, he had been free and open with Finn about anything he needed to know; explaining social situations, the personalities, association and loyalties of any noble or family the man might encounter or be curious about. The young prince had a way of explaining things in terms that were at once immediately easy to grasp and conveyed a wealth of complicated information. In the same vein he was able to learn a lot from Finn, though he was careful never to ask things that might compromise his relationship with his lover.

"I am a prince of the blood, but you are amantis to the prophesied Platinum Sovereign, or the one who will be, Twins willing. Someday none will look to me before you."

Entering a room and meeting the eyes of those already present (bowing or other shows of obeisance depending on the difference in ranks) was a social ritual observed among the high blood, and what he said was true. Should Phædryn Val'Aværyan ascend the throne, Finn's eyes would be acknowledged before Raithen's.

"We honor each other, and no more, I think, than any other day. I place myself in your hands, as I do whenever we raise blades together." They were both speaking a little more formally than was normal between them, but it was that sort of meeting and comfortable that they both felt it.

When asked if there was anything more that needed saying or doing before the trial of initiation began the Avialae pulled at the ties that kept his shirt on until the garment fell away. All his clothing either fit over one shoulder only or fastened at the sides so that he never had to faff with trying to get anything over his wings. When his torso was bare he got to his knees and turned so his back was now to his teacher. Tucking his wings with studied care so as not to buffet the human with them, they still brushed against Finn's knees due to how close they two were. When he was positioned thus, kneeling and sitting on his heels it, it could be easily seen that his first Rune had been placed highest on his back at the top of his spine, almost on the back of his neck.

"I would like the Rune below my first, if that is alright with you?" He tried to glance back to gauge Finn's expression but his own wings prevented him from catching it. "I want them in a line down my back, should the Twins grant me more, it just feels... right, for me."

If he ever received enough to cover the length of his spine it would be quite a sight, a shining line directly between his wings.

[Finn]

"No wonder you are practicing kneeling before me," he jested. The humor, he hoped, would balance the formality that was unusual in their interactions. At parties, of course, they observed formalities. But most of their shared time was spent trying to kill each other, and that was too primal a thing for formality.

Finn was used to switching his mind into aesthetic appreciation when Raithen was around. He was pleased that something easy seemed to have developed between the Avialae and Hilana, two people he might have coupled with himself if things had turned out differently. Once again, Finn found himself nodding, seeing the hand of a genius in the form and function of the winged race. His hand came up to trace the lines of the Kinetics Rune, wondering if his would look the same or similar. These things were rarely perfect copies, much of the power coming from intention as much as form.

He held his hand out and hitched the ink and collection of brushes of various thicknesses. Finn was not a painter, but he would attempt to make it beautiful, a suitable decoration for his beautiful friend as well as a key to unlock power. As he carefully began to inscribe a Rune of Traversion centered around a singular vertebral nub, he spoke soothingly to remind Raithen of what was to come.

"When the pictograph is complete," he said, channeling what he had learned from Vrædyn's books into what he was scriving, "I will channel aether through it to activate it. You will meditate and you will be drawn into the Aetherium. It can react to your thoughts and feelings, so try to stay calm and focused. I will come to you to guide you back. Our bodies will remain here, but our souls will be projected into that place."

[Raithen]

Though it couldn't be seen on his face, the lines of Raithen's body told the tale of his smile at the teasing, he would have added to it, subtly leaning toward flirtation had he not known that such would be gently shut down. Finn's commitment was confusing but admirable in its loyalty to his chosen and, while it would have been nice to flow from combat to consummation in their encounters it was not as though Raithen were hurting for sexual partners. All relationships were unique and sex was no more valuable a connection point than any other intimacy.

The touch grounded him back into the seriousness of the situation even as it soothed him, allowing his body to relax as it shifted into the ticklish feeling of a writing brush. When his teacher began to speak Raithen let his eyes close and began to try and sink back into the almost-meditation that he'd managed before. He knew already what he was being told but the connection to his friend was good, putting his mind in the right place was good.

Letting his thoughts float a little, controlled but not pointed at anything, was the state that his mother had instructed him to hold when he received Traversion, as it should make his journey into the Aetherium less random and dangerous. That he had chosen Finn to gift and teach him had caused Cithaera's brow to rise, but she had not argued with him.

When he felt the brush rise from his skin and not return he could not help the excitement that rose as Finn's aether replaced the implement, caressing him in a way he could suddenly feel. His breath hitched but only once before he returned it to the even in and out. It was the strangest feeling as his sense of being in his body began to fade, or to shift from one form of awareness of self to another. Keeping his eyes closed was supposed to ease the transition as far as his mind was concerned and he had the self control to do so until he could not feel his physical body any longer.

Waiting a moment more, but no more than a moment, to ensure that it was finished but not put himself in undue danger he slowly let himself open his 'eyes'. They weren't his real eyes, of course, but that did not mean he could not have them gouged out and find himself blind on returning to his body. Getting slowly to his feet he looked around, trying to note the feel of the Aetherium rather than be drawn into it's seductively real seeming landscape. He was in a field, waist high grass in all directions of the sort he had never seem in his homeland. The grass was dotted with wildflowers that were as wide as the length of one of his arms and produced an odd scent that he was drawn to, but knew better than to investigate closer. The air was hot as though it were the peak of Searing and the sky was low with clouds that skittered across it too quickly. A tower stood, tall and proud, of old stone and construction but looking as though just built.

Keeping as still as he could he tried to remain mostly in the meditative state, tried to reach out carefully toward Finn and nothing else as the dry wind tugged at his bare chest and wings.

[Finn]

Finn had never done this before, but he had pestered the magical instructors of the Silver Sentinels, gleaned what he could from the scrivening primers, and did his best not only to form the Rune with proper intention, but to wreathe it in pictographs that would not become part of the Rune, but would allow him to more easily find Raithen in the chaos of the Aetherium.

When his aether tethered him to Raithen, he thought he could feel the Rune of Kinetics, a cousin of the Rune they now shared. He put that out of his mind, though, as he needed to focus. He felt Raithen leave his body, and he also heard his symphony grow quiet. When the golden body slumped, Finn caught it gently, easing Raithen's head onto his shoulder, then mirrored that, letting their bodies' weight prop each other up as he closed his eyes and vaulted his soul through his Rune, through Raithen's nascent Rune, and into the Aetherium.

He was falling. Everything was impossibly blue. For a moment, he felt terror—the vastness of the sky itself. He saw neither cloud nor ground until he reoriented himself and saw the grassland below gradually growing more and more detailed.

It wasn't real, he reminded himself. Or, it was only conforming its reality to the minds capable of giving it form. He was no Talon Novalys, though, to bring order to the Aetherium. So he forced himself to breathe, even though he knew he had no body here. When the ground was close enough, he would simply vault himself to safety. Were he stronger-willed, perhaps, he might have willed himself wings, but not today. He felt the tug of the aether tethering them, Rune to Rune, augmented by his inexpert scrivening. Raithen was down there somewhere.

It was only when he was quite close to the ground and preparing to circumvent his traumatic flattening that he saw the undulating lines moving through the sea of grass. Finn focused; he could not let himself imagine what might be hiding there, giving it some nightmarish form from his fears.

"One," he screamed, the wind swallowing his voice. "Two!"

And then he vaulted to a bare inch above the ground, twisting physics by pausing in the slipstream, shedding velocity. All the same, he came down to one knee, hands gripping bent grass stalks as he schooled his mind to adapt to this reality.

"Raithen?!" he called out, trying to reorient himself.

[Raithen]

The shifting in the grasses around him was not unnoticed by the Avialae but he he knew better than to imagine them as predators, both from his time as a mercenary and his training in schooling his mind for situations just like this one. When he found that his over active self-protective instinct would not allow him to ignore them entirely he formed the image of wind sprites for the movements, benevolent things that, at worst, might swirl around him and try to tug him one way or another. More likely they would not notice him at all as they whirled and spun, playing with the grasses and each other.

His choice of form was only so good as his belief in it and, if anything else was near enough to perceive the movements, greater than what anyone else imagined them to be. He saw the form falling from the sky but it was quite far from him, so he waited. When it disappeared and then reappeared just above the ground he figured it was more than likely Finn. Raising his wings into the strong wind he let himself be pulled on the streams of air toward what he hoped was his teacher. Air streams he had learned even before the slipstream, and often he thought of them similarly. While he might wish to reach through his established Rune to pull himself along faster he had been taught that use of magic could draw unwanted things in the Aetherium so he let the wind lift and press him, naturally. If nature was a thing where he was. Questions for later, no random thoughts.

He was already in flight when he heard his own name called, barely stopping himself from chastising the bard in his head because, in the tales told by his nurse when he'd been very little, giving your name to the creatures of the Aetherium gave them power over you. It wasn't true. Not unless you believed it. Which Raithen did not. He Did Not.

Landing a ten or so feet from where he'd seen the figure 'fall' because he didn't want to land on Finn he called out, loud enough to be heard over the wind but no more than,

"Magister? Are you alright?"

[Finn]

Finn didn't have to wait long. The call-and-response was comfortingly quick. While he didn't actively reach out with his Mesmer, he caught a bit of Raithen's. Perhaps the Aetherium made them blur beyond the boundaries of their 'skin'. He thought he heard an old song about fairy stories, which made more sense when Raithen didn't use his name. He laughed.

"Discipulus!"

Finn had played this game in the lake with the other children, blindfolded and seeking one another in a version of tag. Thinking of it as such calmed him, turned whatever was swimming through the grass into other children with only playful intentions. Perhaps that was why the Finn that Raithen found looked quite a bit younger than the one he knew.

The youthful bard grinned up at him when he saw him flying near.

"Discipulus!" This time, his voice cracked, startling him, and then making him laugh.

This was echoed by childish giggles in the grass. Finn reached up as if to catch Raithen's hand and bring him down. As much fun as he was suddenly having, he knew he needed to get Raithen back to that meditative state and guide him through the process of finding his body again. The look of youthful determination on his face might have been amusing, but he was lacking in self-awareness at the moment. Everything was focused on Raithen and the Avialae's safety.

Mm, Raithen. Suddenly his adolescent attention to the man descending like a fabled angelus made a part of his anatomy stand at attention as well.

[Raithen]

That Raithen himself looked an age half way between his own and that which he had been when he played as his ancilla's knee while she sang to him only seemed to solidify when he leapt toward the sound of the calling voice and stumbled to a landing, furling wings now quite a bit too big for him and all but fell into Finn. Arms came to wrap around the other boy's neck for balance, and because he felt like a safe haven in this place.

The laughter around him was infectious, both from his now younger friend and bubbling up around them. For a moment it almost seemed as if the grasses were water instead, as if he were floating, not in the air this time. Raithen did not particularly enjoy swimming, his wings made him awkward and heavy, but the prospect, at the moment, seemed fun, playful and almost...

Glancing down with adolescent curiosity his grin became something a little less brotherly and a little more interested. It had been in his adolescence that Raithen had begun to explore with others of his own age, so there was nothing awkward or frightening about the situation. Placing an impulsive and mostly chaste kiss on the bard's mouth in greeting he said,

"I found you." As though they'd been playing a game of hide and seek, which it suddenly felt like they had been, or something like it. The wind grew cooler and gentler, lazy almost, emphasizing the imitation of water. "We're safe now."

The statement was certainly not true but it felt true. Finn's chest was warm and the air was cool against his back. It felt nice, enticing, and, suddenly leaving did not seem as urgent as it had moments before. The idea that they might spend an afternoon there, playing playing chase games, exploring the tower that now seemed like the perfect place for two adolescent boys to test themselves in adventures that were mostly woven in their minds.

[Finn]

The Aetherium warped to their will. The problem was, it warped them as well, and their perceptions. Suddenly, Raithen was in his arms, and that was nice. It felt complete—as though this were something he had been striving for, though other details were beginning to fade out of his awareness. He had been looking for Raithen. He had to take care of Raithen. He had to take Raithen somewhere. Perhaps this was where they were supposed to be.

He flushed at the kiss, red as a tomato, really. He daren't kiss back, but he squeezed the bird boy's ribs nearly to cracking; he was the son of a blacksmith and he was already showing it.

"Sorry," he mumbled, easing off. "You did find me. We are safe." The grass was full of playful spirits and they were the knights of the golden god, honing their skills together out here in the ruins of greatness. By the lake...

In the lake.

An elfin smile made him look wicked for a moment and then he used his weight and his grip to pull Raithen with him as he leaned back and fell into the water. He was a solid swimmer, and he wouldn't let Raithen drown, not even if his wings got wet and heavy. Underwater, though, he was brave enough to kiss him back. Down here, it was a secret. In a moment, they could struggle to shore, strip out of their wet clothes and loll about until the sun warmed them and dried them off. Then he could take Raithen home.

He had to take Raithen home. He was supposed to take Raithen home.

Raithen's mother wasn't to be crossed and she expected him to have Raithen home in time for supper. But he felt so good in Finn's arms. Underwater, it felt like they were flying together.

That was nice.