Dark Knight's Heir - Chapter eleven
Jan. 16th, 2010 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mangacat201Dark Knight's Heir
Author: Mangacat
Pairing: Jared/Jensen, others
Rating: R - NC-17
Parts: 11/20+
Word Count: 3555/60k+
Disclaimer: I totally wanna own them... cough sadly that's not possible, nor is getting paid for this. I'll have fun and they're not going to get hurt … much. Promise.
Warnings: Erm, m/m sex, violence, language, gore (i.e. epic battle of the good against the bad), het sex (OMG), character death (minor).
A/N: soorry, for the huge delay people, but RL's been a totally, complete and utter bitch for a while there. Have fun now!
Masterpost
Castlist
Chapter eleven
Jared followed Jensen once again through the narrow paths of the Archway – this was becoming an annoyingly familiar habit – but he noticed that something was different. He’d seen the man wired before, ready for a fight at each turn, but now his shoulders were rigid with a tension that had a very different feel to it. It was the kind of tension that went with sentences like ‘We need to talk’ or ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ and the kinds of phrases that were commonly used in the relationship-ducking-dance.
Jared really couldn’t figure the man out. Oh, he’d taken an instant liking to him, and not only for his great looks, (which a man should appreciate even if he was otherwise engaged.) but also because he trusted him on a level that completely bypassed his upper functions and dug deep down into his little lizard brain. Of course, that made him uncomfortable on many other levels.
Jensen seemed to be a puzzle of motivations, intentions and reactions that was too complicated to get his head around. He had put his life on the line for a complete stranger who hadn’t even agreed to talk to him when they first met, and he definitely cared for Jared’s wellbeing, not only in the physical sense, but emotionally too, making sure he was as comfortable as he could be with his life turned upside down the way it had been. And then there was this thing about the connection they’d shared twice now. Jared figured he’d understood the most basic part of how that worked. He’d felt how the little tidbits of knowledge he couldn’t have picked up anywhere else trickled slowly into his mind and made themselves comfortable in his active memory. It was a strange sensation and definitely weirded him out some, but it was neither painful, nor embarrassing, nor overly intrusive. From what Jared understood, it was the fastest possible way for him to learn all these things. It was definitely called for, if he was to learn enough to protect himself.
Jensen’s reactions, however, spoke a whole different language, he’d virtually exploded at Lauren and her off-handed remarks, and Jared had the sneaking suspicion that there was something nobody had told him – again. Suddenly he wished that he had been born and raised into this world to avoid the frustration that came with being left out of the loop when everyone else seemed to know what the big deal was. It was a strange thought to behold, but Jared felt deep inside him that he had a natural affinity to this world, and that his curiosity was primed to draw out more.
All in all, he couldn’t really deny that these were the most exciting couple of days he’d had in years, and he felt that his mind had adapted to the mindlessness of office work up to now.
He was broken out of his thoughts by the sound of Jensen’s voice. “You’re awfully quiet back there, are you sure you’re feeling alright?”
“Huh? Yeah, I… yeah, just thinking. It’s a lot to take in you know?”
Jensen nodded, but shot him that kind of wary look that made him feel like a cocked gun ready to go off in every which direction without warning.
He couldn’t address the issue any further though, since Jared’s train of thought seemed to have taken him once again to the end of this journey far quicker than he anticipated. He should really lay off the pondering and start keeping a close grip on his surroundings some time soon, since he would be perfectly and utterly lost in here without a guide.
He frowned a little at the awful inconvenience that posed for his hosts, but since everyone in the group had shown concern for his wellbeing up to now, he couldn’t really justify being suspicious. When Jensen stopped, Jared found himself in a round room that was maybe fifteen feet wide across, but barely above his own height. In contrast to all the other rooms he’d encountered up to now, he wouldn’t even have to stretch his arm fully to touch the ceiling here.
Jared looked at Jensen quizzically with one eyebrow raised as there was nothing in here besides the plain stone floor, the granite walls, and the faint light spilling inside from the one doorway they’d just passed through.
“What’s this?”
He was met with a rare sight – Jensen smirking like he was about to do something terribly funny, for him at least. Jared instantly suspected that he was not going to like it.
“This is our way to the Archive. Well, among other things,” Jensen stepped up into Jared’s personal space, but before he could shuffle back, the other man had thrown an arm around him, tugging him in tight against his chest, “Hold on tight and
Before Jared could voice any of his objections, Jensen had snapped the fingers of his free hand, weaving a pattern that made previously inconspicuous lines gleam like crystal in the floor, while walls and ceiling flared in that familiar, lightening blue glow. They looked natural for a moment, but on closer inspection Jared could see they formed runes that tickled the back of Jared’s mind. The light turned viscous - for the lack of a better term - and small tendrils of light made their way to the centre of the circle where they stood. Jensen grabbed hold of them, twisted his fist around them in a strong hold and… tugged at the fabric of reality.
Jared felt the bottom fall out from under them, but his feet never really left solid ground even though the whole room around them distorted in a swirl of colour, as if someone had fisted a canvas of paint in the middle and dragged it right from the frame. He had to close his eyes against the vortex to avoid impending nausea, and his stomach lurched with that uneasy rumble that one gets when an elevator abruptly starts its descent alarmingly fast. He anchored himself in the solid feel of Jensen’s arm around the small of his back, and the hard ridges of his chest pressed tightly against him. He could feel the unhurried breaths from the other man puffing against his neck and shivered, aware of his own racing heartbeat against the calm thump of Jensen’s pulse. He noticed his own hands clenching with sheer fright into the cool smooth leather of Jensen’s coat and prayed with everything he had that this would be over soon.
In the deep recess of his mind he knew quite well that nothing could happen to him as long as he stayed in contact with Jensen, and knew that he could even activate the portal himself if need be – in theory at least. Still, his mind whirled with unadulterated panic that sent him reeling, until the ground under his feet finally turned from not quite solid to rock hard in the fraction of a second. He staggered, stumbled out of Jensen’s hold instantly and tumbled against the wall to slide down in a heap. Jared put a hand on his racing heart and took a few short breaths to calm down before he proceeded to shoot Jensen a death-glare-extraordinaire from beneath the bangs hanging in his face.
“If you ever, ever do something like that again, I’m going to punch your fucking lights out, and I’m going to make sure that I totally can as soon as possible.”
Jensen looked down at him and laughed in delight. Jared couldn’t help his anger damping down somewhat at the carefree, open expression on the other man’s face. They hadn’t known each other for very long, but from what he’d seen so far, he’d pegged Jensen for the silent brooding type who didn’t even get to crack a smile.
“Come on, you have to admit it was fun.”
“It was nauseating!”
“But fun.”
Jared huffed a breath and dragged himself to his feet, but he decided to let it go for now. Looking around, he noticed nothing different in the room they were in and started to get annoyed all over again at the thought that they’d arrived just where they’d started out. Weren’t they supposed to go somewhere? What the heck had this fricking light show been about?
However, when he followed Jensen, who indicated the doorway with a nod of his head, he was in for a big surprise.
They stepped out of the doorway, but not into the dark and dreary corridor by which they’d come in, but into a cavern of seemingly endless size. Jared looked up and couldn’t make out a ceiling since the walls stretched into thick darkness while the ground and all the shelves seemed to be lit by an indirect, hidden source. That was the second thing he noticed…
Stretching to and fro and up from the place they were standing were rows upon rows of books. Scrolls, parchment, bound tomes, scanty papers, files and everything that else that could possibly be written on or in could be seen on the shelves, which were lined with ladders and narrow walkways.
“Everything that’s ever been written down has found its way in here somehow. If Jim doesn’t know where to find a copy around these shelves, it doesn’t exist. There’s even a section on books that haven’t been written… yet.”
Jared gaped heedlessly at the vast amount of space filled by the written word, until his brain jumped back online, and he turned to Jensen.
“Who’s Jim?”
“The Librarian,” came a deep drawl from between the dusty shelves somewhere to their right.
Jared couldn’t see anyone, but he got a feeling of greatness, a huge presence pressing onto his mind like a vice, until it was suddenly gone. He looked warily towards the spot from where the voice had sounded and anticipated something big and scary.
He was stunned into silence when the one who emerged turned out to be a middle aged man of average height, receding hairline, with a wiry beard and a little spare tire around his middle, although he seemed still agile and buzzing with strength. This was seriously the most disturbing thing that had happened to him in a while. (and considering his track record nowadays that was saying something.) He had expected someone completely different, and still his other senses weren’t really agreeing with what his eyes were telling him. The man walked up to them and greeted Jensen with good-natured familiarity and a twinkle in his eyes.
“Jensen, it’s been some time, boy. You mind putting away that little pig-sticker on your back? It’s making my nose itch. And introduce me properly to your friend there.”
To Jared’s utter surprise, Jensen unlatched the sheath of the sword with no hesitation and put it down against the wall near the doorway.
“Jim, the Librarian, obviously, this is Jared Padalecki.”
Jared extended his hand and saw something flash in Jim’s eyes at his name. That brought attention to the fact that something was off… Jim’s eyes had snake-like slits for pupils, and when he’d snorted his little welcome, it had almost seemed as if there was steam flowing out of his nose. They shook hands, and Jared was assaulted by a sudden image of scales, and a winding body that coiled and wrapped in between the rows of shelves in a slowly gyrating mass. The image layered over his vision and merged with the figure of the human shape in front of him. It freaked him out like nothing else had in the past couple of days.
“You… you’re… a… a…”
“I’m a dragon, yes, currently in a human shape. Excellent observational skills. Do not jump out of your skin, I’m not going to eat you. We’re civilised that way. Now would you be so kind as to tell me what brings you here?”
Jensen spoke up over Jared’s absolutely mindless stupor. He knew better what their business was anyway.
“Jared needs to have a look at the Book of Names, Sir.”
Jim – a dragon for pity’s sake – gave them a curt nod and turned on the spot to direct them to the right hand corner of the Archive. Jensen tugged at Jared’s sleeve to get him to move as he was still frozen with shock. They followed the man on his sure path between the books.
Jared felt his legs move with the reluctance of his deep fried mammal instincts in the vicinity of an overbearing predator. It really didn’t matter that he wore the shape of a completely harmless human being; even without his special sight thingy, Jared was sure he would have picked up something from the older man. That kind of ancient, overpowering presence was impossible to hide, even to mere humans. He threw a quick glance over to Jensen, who seemed completely undisturbed in all this – again – and hissed out of the corner of his mouth.
“He… he’s a Dragon!”
Jensen glanced back at him, amusement sparkling in his eyes, mouth curling into a small smile. He whispered back: “Yes, I know. There’s not too many around nowadays, sure, but they DO exist you know?”
“There’s MORE? I mean,… dragons!”
“I can hear you perfectly well, boy. Is there no such thing as decent manners anymore? Yes, we still exist, and we don’t do harm to anyone since folk finally decided to stop hunting us. Communication hasn’t improved much since then, but one can’t have everything.”
Jared almost swallowed his tongue at the snapping address, but he caught himself finally.
“I.. I’m sorry, sir. There’s… there have been so many new things, I didn’t think…”
“You didn’t think that there’d be dragons then, did you, boy? What’s it with the young ones these days, aren’t they taught anything anymore?”
Jensen had the decency to look a little contrite at that.
“Well, you see, he’s been down here for just over a day and wasn’t ever in touch with our world before. You’ll have to excuse the gaps.”
Jared wanted to be insulted, but Jensen was right, even if it felt like he had been down here for much longer. Once more the nagging in his head grew stronger as he thought about the time that had passed since he’d gone missing from up above, and how frantic with worry his loved ones must be. Tom would have called his parents by now as well as the police, and they were sure to have started worrying about him like mad. He didn’t want to think about how they’d probably flown up from
They stopped in front of the entrance to a cave that wasn’t shut off by a real door, but more like a curtain of some kind of beads. Flickering lights were visible behind the curtain, and he thought they might be cast by candles. He stood there, unsure of what to do next and threw cursory glances to both Jim and Jensen, but they gazed into the cave with avid expressions that seemed kind of… drawn. Jared peered back to the entrance, but he couldn’t really make out anything more, and when the silence got too oppressive, he felt compelled to break it.
“Would someone just tell me already what the heck we’re doing here?”
He saw Jensen lick his lips slightly before answering.
“You remember when I promised to take you somewhere where you’d have access to all the records to prove your ancestry and family history? Well, this is IT. The Book of Names, it will show the history of anything that touches it. Once you open it, you’ll be able to read up on everything.”
Jared frowned for a moment.
“Wait, this is IT? One book?? I mean, from what you told me, there’s got to be centuries worth of…”
“It’s magical, Jared, there’s no need for more than one book. You’ll get everything you need to know.”
Jared couldn’t help, but feel chagrined at the reprimand; he was new to all this after all. But he felt something like a current in the air around this place, and he was sure Jensen and Jim felt it too. Unlike him though, they also seemed to know what it was about. Again.
Jared huffed an irritated breath and stepped resolutely through the curtain, holding the beads aside for a moment, until they swung shut behind him with a faint rustling. The inside of the cave was low enough that he had to duck slightly and swerve to pass by an old iron chandelier that hung directly behind the entrance. He took in the surroundings with wide eyes.
Besides the flickering light from above, every available surface in the small cave was plastered with candlesticks – thick and thin – they burned with a hot edge that drenched the whole small room in a warm golden hue. The walls were pure, rough stone of a light brown colour, and the uneven surface was littered with droplets of wax. A slab of stone rose about two feet high in the middle of the vaguely oval room. It was surrounded by thick, velvet cushions, and on it lay a completely innocuous looking, worn old tome with no title or inscriptions, the pages yellow and flaky with age. It briefly registered in his mind that this setting screamed its rejection of the fire regulations, but he figured that if it was magical enough to hold everyone’s story, it should at least be fire-proof as well, even if the flames were nowhere near it. He knelt down in front of the stone and scrutinized the book for a moment before tentatively stretching out his hand to lay it on the thick leather cover. It felt like a completely normal book, just incredibly old and ready to fall to dust under his fingers. (he wouldn’t be surprised if it actually happened to him after all.). Slowly, he traced the etched designs on the cover and then flipped it open to reveal really thick, really blank paper. He reared back in surprise, this was a hoax after all. He was ready to call out to Jensen, when the page blurred in front of his eyes, and neat script emerged onto the page from nothing, filling the space in a rapid, neat crawl. The problem, however, was that it was completely illegible to him. He didn’t even recognize the language in which it was written.
Frustrated, he made to slam the book shut, when a voice spoke up behind him.
“Don’t even try and read it. I think there are not even a dozen people or so are alive on earth that can actually recognize that, let alone read it fluently.”
Jared jerked around at the sudden voice, but he couldn’t see anyone behind him, and the curtain hung undisturbed. He turned around again and started violently as his gaze fell upon a woman standing behind the stone. She hadn’t been there when he’d first looked up, but she couldn’t have come in any other way than from behind. He was sure it was her voice that had sounded behind his back. Confusion creased his features as he regarded her with apprehension. She was barely above five feet, surely not tall enough to let the low ceiling bother her, but her presence was much bigger, her posture exuding confidence and an undercurrent of danger. Dark hair curled around her shoulders and fell over her tightly fitting, but old fashioned clothing. She had her arms crossed and eyed him up much the same way you’d look upon a child who has just managed to get his Sunday pants drenched in mud.
Jared gulped, his throat suddenly dry, but he didn’t let that deter him.
“Excuse me, but… who are you? Or what?”
She sniffed haughtily for a moment and then slid gracefully to the floor.
“Rachel. Rachel Van Helsing. And I’m your guide for the evening, or so it would seem.”
“Huh?”
“The book writes in its own language; of course you can’t read it, so you get someone from the family who knows their stuff projected so they can tell you what you want to know.”
Jared pondered that for a moment until something dawned on him.
“Does that mean I’m like… dreaming or something?”
“Or something. Wow, you really are fast, aren’t you? So if you’re here, and I’m here, that means you’re…”
“I’m Jared Padalecki.”
“… the Dark Knight’s Heir.”
Chapter twelve
