5 Kazra : Mezhestvo

29.10.2022

Half-heartedly Kazra tried to brush away the soot from his hands and face as he walked down the wide corridor. He could only suspect, and a look in any mirror would confirm, that he was making it worse instead of better but he wasn’t too bothered by it.

If anything he was content and reasonably tired.

As a Sage to the young Primal Wizards and Scions his quarters naturally lay within a node of Mezhestvo as well. Compared to many other wizards his quarters did not double up as his workspace and the promise of a perfectly comfortable bed just waiting for him was very tempting. After all, he had been awake for about 67 hours now, working through most of it. However, before he would indulge in badly needed sleep he wanted to take the chance again to see Redkevik. And after that he’d clean up. Then sleep.

He had reached the control node to the Chambers of Time via the designated portpoints, but of course he was limited to a very few planes and chapters within this node. Fortunately for him Redkevik was overseeing more of the administrative purposes than actually manipulating the chambers, and so it was a place Kazra was allowed to visit him at despite his own purpose having no reason to be here.

Up on this plane there wasn’t much traffic, only a few wizards passed him by without paying him much attention, each of them well separated by a healthy distance to each side of the corridor.

Many of the doorways lining the corridor stood wide open, mainly those that had wizards working in them. Here and there he caught snippets of conversations, all of them of course only work related and of no real importance — after all, wizards didn’t gossip. Well. At least they usually made sure to not be eavesdropped when they did.

Kazra reached his destination. This door stood open as well.

Leaning against the doorframe Kazra just watched the other wizard for a moment. If Redkevik had noticed him already he didn’t show it. Perfectly undisturbed he walked over from one console to another, his light flowing robe accentuating his slender build. He was one of those wizards that just felt most comfortable somewhere between the human definitions of male and female, occasionally tilting more towards one or the other, but seemingly more by accident than choice. It really was a superficial aspect, one Kazra rarely took notice of with most wizards, because the concept of gender had no real meaning to them beyond the human forms they were given and later choose — but with Redkevik he thought of it differently. With him he noticed.

Kazra thought him to be beautiful. But like something that was always beautiful and one had gotten so used to it that sometimes it took a shift of the light to be suddenly reminded of it. He liked his more serious look when he was in Uniform, but also the unburdent elegance of the dress he wore now. Maybe that was strange for a wizard, he wondered, to fixate so much on mere appearance that could be changed at will. But that appreciation was at least something he could have.

Redkevik also had kept his hair open today. The long soft waves reached halfway down his back, as if to draw attention to the slender body.

Kazra took notice of a wizard walking past behind him without looking, still his senses were sharp enough to notice any shift in movement that would suggest the other to slow down or even raise his hands. But the wizard just walked past and subconsciously Kazra relaxed a bit more again. First when the wizard in the corridor was well out of earshot, Redkevik spoke, answering the question if he had noticed Kazra or not

“The training is already over?”

“Aye,” Kazra confirmed. “Those scions will be the death of me. And tis circle. At least they should now be exhausted enough to keep us safe for a little while.”

Redkevik glanced at him, gauging how to take his words, deciding that he must be joking, and nodded with a smile. Redkevik had gotten a lot better in picking up when he was joking. It had only taken them half an eternity give or take.

“Was there another accident?“

“What gave that away?” Kazra asked more amused than disgruntled as he demonstratively whipped his still soot-covered hands on his uniform.

“Just a hunch.” Redkevik indulged in the delightful sense of light-hearted levity with him for a moment while he already continued sorting the tablets before him.

Kazra stepped closer, but not too close, keeping the respectful and expected distance to the other wizard. Redkevik was sorting through the pile of unused data tabs. “It’s one of Avogamox’ again. Lords only know why they keep allowing him to make more wizards. They are always troublemakers! Almost blew a goddamn hole through Mezax and Mezhestvo.“

Redkevik glanced at him again briefly, he smiled very softly, showing that indeed he understood him to be exaggerating. “They are eager to learn. That’s good.“

“I suppose.” Kazra watched him for a moment, his eyes focused on the delicate fingers. They were really pretty. He wondered if his perception of hands was fundamentally different to that of humans. He had to assume so — there was so much more they represented to him.

“Least ’tis batch of primals seems pretty docile. Som’ big must have happened, got five new ones at once. Plenty of space opened up as it seems.“

“I haven’t heard anything.”

“Me neither. But if I got five, plenty others must have too.“

He thought, once more idly, how Redkevik’s hand would feel against his touch. How his skin would be against his. And he was aware how inappropriate it was. How impossible too.

But for a moment he just indulged in the fantasy while he kept on talking.

“But it’s funny with that many. Looking at everything with those big curious eyes, wedging themselves in some corner, just watchn’. Gets more tricky to coax them out if that state with more than one. Everything’s just a lot to take in.“

He knew better than to act on it — Redkevik was an extremely careful wizard that would execute his right to kill anyone touching him unexpectedly in an instance. The killing of another wizard’s Part was generally regarded as a disruption to order, however, when acting in self defence it was not only allowed but expected.

Kazra himself was maybe too lax in this regard, he had never out of reflex killed another wizard’s part just for an accidental touch (maybe he had become too comfortable working for so long with the young primal wizard that didn’t yet know any better) — but he was painfully aware that even with the sense of trust between them, Redkevik would probably kill him should he get too close. Accidental or not.

“Doesn’t really change much overall, though. I was the same at first,“ Kazra mused. “You remember being primal?”

“I do.” Redkevik smiled ever so slightly, now looking at the panel he worked on, “But it was different than it’s now. I didn’t come into time alone. I was just another part of us.“

“Aye.” Kazra considered that for a moment. Trying to imagine a time when they all had been one. But he had only ever known the time after the Last Whisper and again and again he failed to really separate his own sense of self from the idea of being a mere part of a greater whole. It should be so natural to him, given his own parts, and yet he didn’t want to let it go, even for a thought experiment.

“I’ve been allowed to join the Velmer research team.” Redkevik announced, changing the topic while still not looking at him.

“Oh.” Kazra felt a painful sting in his heart. He had known it would happen, but that didn’t make it better. “That’s great.”

“Yes. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a great opportunity to observe such an event.”

“It is,” Kazra agreed. The collision of those two galaxies would be a bombastic event based on what Redkevik had told him — but it was also a very slow event. “How long will you be there?”

“At least a pulse.”

He felt the urge to tell him to stay, but why would he. Redkevik was a Wizard of Three, his Warrior still a Fieldgeneral to a Grandmaster, his Engineer an Oathkeeper now, watching a Mage on his duties, and the Wizard in Mezchinhar a Timemaster still, overseeing the chambers of time. Since Funnix they had not fought together. With their Grandmaster gone the entire division had been taken apart and reassigned into others. And now their Wizards would be split apart as well. But offering to visit him there felt like pushing it.

Finally Redkevik turned towards him, trying to read his face again. And he knew it must be all there, the pain in his eyes and the desire to just tell him to stay with him. Now. Always.

But he also knew that Redkevik could not see it and even if he would notice something, he didn’t understand it. He never did. Maybe he didn’t want to. And it was probably better this way.

Redkevik was an old wizard. Older than any other wizard he personally knew. And he was different. More careful, more distant.

It was the reason for why he knew how misplaced his fondness of the other wizard was.

And yet…

Kazra didn’t want the silence to take hold, it would force him to see to his own routine again. To his surprise however before he could have come up with something more to talk about, Redkevik asked,

“Did you hear about Zenozarax?”

“Did,” Kazra confirmed.

Redkevik nodded softly, letting his own work rest as he sat down onto one of the floating seats. Kazra understood it as an invitation. He joined Redkevik at the work counter and sat down as well. The moment he did, Redkevik let the door behind them slide shut with a little wave of his hand.

He felt the strange mood the question had invoked. It had been a while since they had talked about Zenozarax and Kazra still felt uncomfortable thinking about him.

Once upon a time he’d have followed that wizard into hell and back. Then Funnix had happened and Zenozarax’ Warrior had never been rebuilt. Kazra had spoken with Zenozarax only a very few times after that. The last time he’d done so, he had made the mistake of bringing up Mezchinhar’s request of rebuilding the Warrior — and that had been the last time Zenozarax had agreed to see him. Maybe he should have seen the possibility then, maybe he should have tried harder. But he would never have imagined Zenozarax actually turning on them.

“Since you brought it up, I assume you suspect it wasn’t an accident?“

“We shouldn’t assume it was,“ Redkevik said softly.

Kazra nodded. “Would fit. Blowing up the whole moon to destroy all evidence. But how did he do it then? He’d have had to get himself out of there before blowing up the moon otherwise the fail-safe would have triggered.”

“That is what the Circle asked me to find out.” Redkevik nodded. It made sense, as Zenozarax’ former Fieldgeneral, Redkevik would be the most familiar with the way Zenozarax would stage any military operation.

“And what did you conclude?” Kazra crossed his arms, looking expectantly at Redkevik. He didn’t really expect an answer, it was probably way above his rank.

Unexpectedly though, Redkevik nodded and turned towards the work counter, raising a hologram of the destroyed moon and an array of information Kazra was certainly not intended to see. Consequently Kazra knew to value this show of confidence in him for what it was — and also realise that whatever Redkevik was about to say was important to him personally in some regard. He also knew that whatever it was he was to not tell anyone else about it under any circumstances.

“Based on the chain of events and my familiarity with his tactics, I can reconstruct several plans that might have worked — up to a critical point where I don’t know how he did it.”

Kazra read through the information on the panel. “Which one is that?“

“There was a Sentinel guarding the chamber. But he wasn’t triggered. And I don’t see how he would have been able to do that.”

Kazra frowned, looking from the hologram to Redkevik, and then it dawned on him. Redkevik was saying one thing, but telling him another without getting both of them into trouble.

“I see.”

Redkevik met his eyes, searching his face again.

“Might be better to stay clear of that one I guess,” Kazra murmured to help Redkevik understand that he picked up on what he hadn’t said.

“I think so too.” Redkevik agreed.

Because if Zenozarax indeed was in possession of the Knife again, both of their Warriors would do better in trying to not be in the division tasked to hunt him down once they found him.

 

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