Title: Settling
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: PG
Length: 1200 words
Content notes: Mid and post canon.
Author notes: Ferio and Clef, companion to 'Night Light' (also on the comm). Completely and utterly unedited, got stuck translating things for my mother just as I was about to look over it and post, which at least means it wasn't ENTIRELY my own fault I'm pushing the deadline again? XD;

oOo

Ferio pushed the door to the library open without letting it make a sound. It usually squeaked loudly, halfway to open, but if you kept a grip on the handle and lifted as you pushed it open the hinges stayed silent.

It was one of the things which had carried over from the Castle he remembered from his childhood, a few years spent growing up under the protection of the Pillar and the Guru as Emeraude learnt control. This castle was built on that one, both in the sense of literal foundations, and the memories which had been pressed into it by the people who had shaped it. Particularly Clef, who had lived in the older castle for so long Ferio wondered if he even realised he had reincarnated so much of it into this new place.

At first, hiding behind the walls from the shattering of the world outside, those little reminders of an age where he had believed he would be able to save his sister – that they could defeat anything, if he protected her while she used her magic… it hurt. Each and every day. A certain mural in one corridor, a fountain in the gardens – and he had avoided the library almost entirely, as uneasy with the memories it brought forward as he was with the man who was responsible for its continued presence.

He had agreed to play the part of ‘Prince’, to give people someone to look to other than the Guru; their faith in the Priests had been shaken too much for a new Soru to be of any use, and there were other things taking Clef’s time. Maintaining as much of Cephiro’s integrity as possible, searching for the road to the trial – those were things Ferio couldn’t help with. But he was perfectly capable of standing in some fancy armour and proclaiming things in a loud voice so people would listen to him, and let his promises keep their fears from manifesting quite so strongly.

Ferio had grown to respect Clef, over the terrible months when they both worked to hold together what they could of the land Emeraude had died for, but never enough to ask outright what Clef intended to do to stop the same thing repeating. If he intended to do anything at all. If Ferio had given away his own plans to do the same, Clef could have stopped him.

So it was a relief and a shock all the same when Clef declared, almost defiantly, his intent of telling the next candidate the whole truth of the Pillar’s fate. Respect had become trust, almost faith. He thought – hoped, anyway – that the trust was mutual. Given Clef’s sponsoring him to the new Council, he supposed it must be.

Now, though, he stood in the doorway to the library and was flung back into the days before that agreement, back when respect for what Clef was doing to hold them together was at war with the fear of what the Guru might do to stop a mere swordsman’s plans, should Clef have held the preservation of Cephiro as his highest duty; by rights he should have. And it was another late night when Ferio had wandered the corridors, unable to sleep with the unsettled and unsettling weather outside: wind moaned about the towers of the castle, and rain skittered over the windows in sharp bursts.

He had found himself stood at the same door, and let himself in, almost defiantly. Memories could chase the possibility of sleep from his bed, but he would not let a room make him afraid. He had good memories of afternoons here with Emeraude. Memories he didn’t want to lose to grief.

The library hadn’t been empty. The Guru was sat in one of the window seats, a book in his hand – but fast asleep, curled towards the glass.

He looked even smaller than usual, without the pressure of magic mantled about his shoulders. Fragile, drawn in a way Ferio had seen lurking about his sister’s face when she had overreached her abilities, though it had been many years since he had witnessed it. Ferio hesitated, but the soft and steady light from a glowing stone tucked onto a shelf pulled him closer – and when he was closer, he could see that the fingertips clinging onto that book were slowly turning blue.

Ferio pulled off his cloak, and carefully draped it over the Guru, before moving away again. Clef didn’t stir.

The room was full of shadows, but even they were familiar. There were no ghosts to frighten him.

Ferio left the room as silently as he came.

Several years on, in the present, Clef filled rather more of the windowseat than he had then – but he was curled towards the land outside the glass in precisely the same way, and still clinging to a book as he drowsed. Ferio shook his head, trying not to grin – he’d been looking for Clef this time, trying to ask his opinion on the new security report, but it wasn’t urgent. He might as well let the man sleep. He unfastened the cloak from his light armour, feeling almost nostalgic, and draped it over Clef.

Who stirred, eyes opening slowly. “Ah.” He murmured, voice low and easy with sleep. “Thank you, Ferio.” He showed no sign of moving – and his eyes were shutting again, almost immediately.

Ferio grinned. “Just returning a very old favour.” He said, softly, and turned to go.

“One you already returned, once.” Clef said, behind him, sounding no more awake than a moment ago.

Ferio hesitated, then looked back. “I …didn’t think you remembered that.”

“I didn’t think you wanted me to.” Clef told him, and only then seemed to wake up a fraction more, watching Ferio’s reaction. “…I wasn’t entirely certain it was you I had seen, and the cloak could have belonged to any of a dozen people.”

“Perhaps I didn’t.” Ferio admitted, quietly. “Not then. You reminded me of my promise to become a Guard, to protect my sister. Every time I looked at you, I knew that we had both failed to save her.” Clef’s eyes closed, and Ferio saw him swallow – but he could see, too, the land outside the window Clef leant on, starlight glittering on the far water, marking out the forests and the high mountains. “But we saved the land she loved, all the same.” He said, throat tight. Clef looked up sharply at that. “So maybe we haven’t failed her after all.”

“…Perhaps not.”

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Eventually Ferio shook his head, and smiled a little. “…I’ll let you get back to sleep. You’re welcome to keep the cloak for now, though I’m sure you would be more comfortable in an actual bed.”

Clef pulled a face, and waved one hand at him. “In a little while. I just want to finish looking through this chronicle – besides, everyone knows where my room is. They keep waking me up to sort out the most irritatingly pointless things.”

“Good night, then.” Ferio left, and pulled the door shut again.

It was late, but not achingly so, and Cephiro looked beautiful under the stars. Maybe he would go for a walk, instead of bothering with the reports. They could wait until tomorrow.

oOo