The Guardian
Apr. 4th, 2012 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feredarTitle: The Guardian
Year: 964 FY, 974 FY, 980 FY, 986 FY, 988 FY
Characters: A brother and sister from Feredar
Warnings: Dehumanisation of mages, parental abandonment and death, genocide.
Notes: A companion to Unsafe
When I was four, my mother was involved with a smith who lived down the road. I didn't much like him. He was always surly, and when he visited us, seemed to resent me. I wasn't even an especially bratty kid, he just didn't like people.
Except for my mother.
Six months later, he vanished completely, and Mom hugged me and told me that in about half a year, I'd have a baby brother or sister to play with.
My sister was always quiet. But, unlike her dad, she didn't seem to resent intrusions from me and Mom.
When I was fourteen, Mom got sick. She made me promise that, no matter what, I would look after my sister. When I agreed, she showed me the floorboard where she hid the metal toys. It took me an hour to understand what she was saying--that my sister wasn't like me or Mom, that, as far as pretty much anyone else was concerned, she wasn't even human.
But I made a promise, and I would keep it. No matter what.
When the Queen died, I panicked. I started to get rid of my sister's metals. But she begged, and convinced me to let her keep them. She was careful, and just having the pieces wasn't enough to condemn her any more than playing music was enough to condemn someone as a bard, or collecting rocks was enough to condemn someone as an earth-mage. Besides, I’d done some research, since Mom died. There were scary stories about what happened to mages who were cut off from their gifts.
I guess protecting my sister from that meant letting her risk something else.
There were rumors, about a way out. An Islander ship, patrolling the edges of the territory, taking away any mages who could get there. I wasn't sure quite whether or not to believe it. So I started going to meetings, of a group that was supposedly helping people get to checkpoints.
That's when I started to learn that maybe the whole world wasn't like Feredar.
But my sister refused to leave until she could be sure I would be safe, too. Until I came up with something to satisfy her, there was nothing I could do to change her mind.
Two years later, the old King died.
The new one started killing mages.
I went back to the meetings, saying that I knew a mage and wanted to get her out, along with myself, if I could. I think they thought I was her lover. I didn't bother explaining.
But they told me that, right now, because of the limited space on the ships and the sudden increase in urgency, they were only taking mages. They helped me come up with a story, and I hugged my sister for the last time as I told her goodbye.
My cover story lasted a week. The King's men searched my house. I was only able to escape arrest because someone from the underground--the group who had gotten my sister out--was able to warn me. They still couldn't get me out of the city, but they could provide a safe place for me to stay, where I wouldn’t be found.
That wasn't quite enough for me. As long as I was in danger of being hunted down anyway, I asked if there was something I could do to help. Anything was better than hiding underground, jumping at shadows.
Tonight, I'm going out with three others fro the movement. There's a prison where they're holding a handful of prisoners for public executions, rather than just killing them as they're found. We can't save everyone--we can't even really save ourselves at this point--but at least we can save these people.
And at least I saved my sister.
Year: 964 FY, 974 FY, 980 FY, 986 FY, 988 FY
Characters: A brother and sister from Feredar
Warnings: Dehumanisation of mages, parental abandonment and death, genocide.
Notes: A companion to Unsafe
When I was four, my mother was involved with a smith who lived down the road. I didn't much like him. He was always surly, and when he visited us, seemed to resent me. I wasn't even an especially bratty kid, he just didn't like people.
Except for my mother.
Six months later, he vanished completely, and Mom hugged me and told me that in about half a year, I'd have a baby brother or sister to play with.
My sister was always quiet. But, unlike her dad, she didn't seem to resent intrusions from me and Mom.
When I was fourteen, Mom got sick. She made me promise that, no matter what, I would look after my sister. When I agreed, she showed me the floorboard where she hid the metal toys. It took me an hour to understand what she was saying--that my sister wasn't like me or Mom, that, as far as pretty much anyone else was concerned, she wasn't even human.
But I made a promise, and I would keep it. No matter what.
When the Queen died, I panicked. I started to get rid of my sister's metals. But she begged, and convinced me to let her keep them. She was careful, and just having the pieces wasn't enough to condemn her any more than playing music was enough to condemn someone as a bard, or collecting rocks was enough to condemn someone as an earth-mage. Besides, I’d done some research, since Mom died. There were scary stories about what happened to mages who were cut off from their gifts.
I guess protecting my sister from that meant letting her risk something else.
There were rumors, about a way out. An Islander ship, patrolling the edges of the territory, taking away any mages who could get there. I wasn't sure quite whether or not to believe it. So I started going to meetings, of a group that was supposedly helping people get to checkpoints.
That's when I started to learn that maybe the whole world wasn't like Feredar.
But my sister refused to leave until she could be sure I would be safe, too. Until I came up with something to satisfy her, there was nothing I could do to change her mind.
Two years later, the old King died.
The new one started killing mages.
I went back to the meetings, saying that I knew a mage and wanted to get her out, along with myself, if I could. I think they thought I was her lover. I didn't bother explaining.
But they told me that, right now, because of the limited space on the ships and the sudden increase in urgency, they were only taking mages. They helped me come up with a story, and I hugged my sister for the last time as I told her goodbye.
My cover story lasted a week. The King's men searched my house. I was only able to escape arrest because someone from the underground--the group who had gotten my sister out--was able to warn me. They still couldn't get me out of the city, but they could provide a safe place for me to stay, where I wouldn’t be found.
That wasn't quite enough for me. As long as I was in danger of being hunted down anyway, I asked if there was something I could do to help. Anything was better than hiding underground, jumping at shadows.
Tonight, I'm going out with three others fro the movement. There's a prison where they're holding a handful of prisoners for public executions, rather than just killing them as they're found. We can't save everyone--we can't even really save ourselves at this point--but at least we can save these people.
And at least I saved my sister.