Chapter 4 - Sanctuary

Iris

+--

Faded stainglass windows and silent rows of orderly pews. Woodwork floors worn smooth with the passing of feet, the memory nothing more now than an echo. Swirling of thick dust motes in the golden, colored air.
A splattering of half-translucent shards of white glass above a cross on one of the pieced-together images... an angel.
Valkyre's soft breathing dissipated quietly back into the silence. He turned his dark amethyst eyes away from the high, swirled glass panes arching down from the high, vaulted ceiling. The empty space reverberated the silence around its stretching hall, soft morning light giving everything a faint, golden dusting.
An odd place to be, he knew, but it was abandoned now. The two shattered windows and uneven, splintered pews on the far side, as well as the thin layer of fine dust on the floorboards assured him of that. The church was a place that he'd used more than once now as a refuge and shelter, though still not very often. It provided a roof over his head and some shelter from weather, but he would get no food or luxuries as those provided in cheaper inns and other public shelters.
But that would mean unnecessary attention, and that was something Valkyre could do without for now.
Iris.
The boy was still, apparently, asleep. Soft gray bangs turned silvery in the swirled air fell over his closed eyes and peaceful face, draping along his back, sprawled and uneven. The thin chest rose and fell gently to the breathing, the long-sleeved shirt the boy wore falling around his shoulders, showing pale, flawless alabaster skin, smooth and colorless like marble.
Iris was curled up on the tangled mess of a thin blanket Valkyre had dug up from some chest somewhere, spread out loosely over the small steps at the front of the church where an alter should've been, but had been ripped down, along with just about anything else any thief or desperate man would consider worth money.
The boy had his hands loosely clenched, tucked under the chin, legs against his torso, bare ankles and feet hidden in pools of the blanket, looking like nothing more than a common orphan from the streets.
Valkyre's lips drew tight again, and he shook his head slightly. He stared into the blemished, scratched metal of the small dagger he held in his hand, metal blade polished smooth, the leather-bound handle soft and supple with use. The cold, lifeless metal reflected back his equally cool dark violet eyes, set in his own pale skin and with wavery strands of inky-black hair around it.
Black angel... darkness... Black angels don't go to heaven...
Valkyre blinked, then flipped the knife away and slid it quickly into a sheath, sharp singing edge and white-gray surface hidden away.
He paused, then looked back at the boy. The only spot of color on the otherwise monotone, bleached body was the blossoming, dried flowery form of the wound on the boy's clothing, seeping through the dirty gray-white, as well as through the layers of bandages Valkyre had bound around the wound. The blood had dried to caking brown, and flaked off the boy's fingertips and hand in little jigsaw puzzle pieces.
It wasn't sympathy, he knew, that had made him not kill Iris on the spot, but brought him here instead, going so far as to bandage the boy's wounds and settle him down for the remainder of the night.
...No, it wasn't pity or sympathy. Others before had begged him for life, or showed only apathy, or anger, or asked for death. He sometimes killed, sometimes didn't. If he didn't, the creature was brought in to the state, and left to them. As long as he got his damn pay, he really couldn't care less.
But Iris was something different. Valkyre was curious of him, intruigued, more than just a mild fascination.
...Because the moment he'd touched the boy, he'd felt something. Something like wildfire or lightning running up through his veins, something hugely, immensely powerful and unlike anything else he'd ever felt before. And for some reason... it resonated with him. It echoed something he thought he knew, didn't really understand. ...Like he'd found something that he'd been searching for... for a long time now, something he was missing...
Perhaps the myths about Iris really were true. But even that didn't explain half of everything about him...
Valkyre paused, blinked, realizing that he was staring back into a pair of gray eyes the color of thick marble, expressionless, empty, hollow.
Iris stared back, blinked slowly, didn't move. His eyes weren't surprised, weren't curious or angry or scared. If anything, they looked bored, or tired.
"...Why?"
Funny how often a question was reflected right back at you. Valkyre's hand ran down to the leather hilt of his dagger again, almost instinctively, but the boy didn't move, just remained curled up where he was, empty eyes gazing up at him through soft gray bangs.
"Because I want to know the truth. About you."
His voice came out cold, blatant, apathetic. Iris closed his eyes, nodded his head just faintly, curling up closer onto himself.
Valkyre waited. He'd learned by now to be patient with the boy, whose actions were often slow, but weren't out of stupidity or lax muscles. He could tell that underneath the guise and the hollow gaze, the boy was calculating, deciding, choosing how to do something or what to say.
"...What do you want to know?"
Iris didn't look up at him. His voice was just a lulling murmur, like he was whispering something in his sleep, face hidden from Valkyre.
"Everything. What are you really made of? Where did you come from?"
The boy looked up briefly at him, eyes heavily lidded, tired, exhausted.
"...Shouldn't you know what I am?"
Valkyre frowned at him, then turned his gaze away and stared around the echoing emptiness of the church. When he spoke, his words were carefully picked, slow.
"...When I touched you, I felt... a lot of presences, yes." His deep amethyst eyes stared down at the boy curled up on the floor.
"...When I carried you here, your skin... You're cold-blooded, aren't you?" He remembered how cold the boy's body was, and how terribly light he was.
Iris barely nodded, not looking up, silent.
"Dragon. Serpent? I felt a lot of other things, too."
Valkyre sighed softly to himself at the lack of a response, stared down at the smooth black of the leather gloves on his hands, clenched together, balanced on his elbows.
"...It's true, isn't it? You really are everything?"
The boy looked up at him, held his gaze. His face was expressionless, collected.
"Yes. ...And no."
"Stop talking in goddamn riddles!" Valkyre snapped, dark eyes narrowing.
Iris only stared back, then slowly lowered his eyes. He showed no surprise, no fear, and perhaps that was what Valkyre hated about him. Half the time, the boy completely denied acknowledging his existence.
"...I am everything," he spoke again, words slow, unhurried. "...I am dragon and were... but I have no second forms. I am angel and harpie, but I can't fly... I am not immortal in any way..."
The boy stared up at the other, eyes like nothing more than polished stone.
"...Can you see? I'm everything, but I'm nothing."
Valkyre paused, didn't look away.
"But... how is it possible?"
Iris blinked, looked what might've been mildly amused, lightly surprised. Valkyre flinched slightly as the boy suddenly pushed himself up on his arms, blanket shifting and pooling around his legs, frail body lithe and smooth with his movements, hands half-curled on the smooth floorboards.
"Don't you know?"
Iris was leaning over him, one hand reached out as if to touch his cheek, childish mouth breathing out the words like a hush, loose hair falling over his face shining like burnished metal in the shafts of sunlight. What might've been a smile played at his parted lips, soft inhalation of air nothing more than a sigh.
"You..." Another sigh in the air.
His gray eyes flickered, blinked.
Valkyre stared back at him, surprised, finding no words, too startled to react, to push away or draw closer.
Iris paused, then slowly pulled back, sitting down quietly.
The angel frowned, shook his head. ...What was he talking about??
"...What's your name?"
The query caught him off-guard, an abrupt change in subject that made him turn and look at him. The boy sat on the ground, fingers lost now in the mess of blanket, legs folded underneath him.
"...Valkyre."
What harm could it do? ...Why did he want to know?
Again, something like a half-smile played on the boy's lips, eyes almost peaceful, pleased.
...Like he knew something Valkyre didn't.
Maybe he did.

+--

AN: Hum de dum... bit of hints of shonen-ai, lots of vague dialogue... sounds like my cup of tea. ^^-
Sorry... I promise I'll get around to things sooner or later. I just hope all of the confusing talk isn't too bad on you all... If it gets real annoying, just tell me to stop. Heh.
...Hm... Next chappie is a 20-second piece of nothingness, but the chappie after that, some good stuff should start to happen. I'm trying to get around to it as fast as possible, okay?
So far, I am liking this much better than my last version of 'Iris'. Hope you all do too.
And as I was working on this... I'd had Valkyre originally set as one really boring guy. So I thought, hey, let's spiff up all the charries some more.
...I'll be introducing some others real soon, just lemme get these two together! XD [C'mon, you can't tell that much??]
Oh, well.
...I find Iris very fun to doodle. Just a bored-looking little kiddo. Hehe.
'Till next time. [Which should be soon~!]

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment