Title: copper dreams and crimson stars

Rating: M

Summary: In the ashes of a young man's funeral pyre, a little boy opens his eyes in a small country far to the east. A country in an entirely different world. [OC-Insert, AU]

Warnings: Description of gore, violence, gender inequality, dark themes present. Be prepared for lots of AU ahead. Additionally, certain views of characters portrayed in the story are not necessarily reflective of the author's beliefs, and should not be perceived as acceptable.

AN at bottom.

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copper dreams and crimson stars

"01: adrift, tender, gathering storm"

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The family name is Sou. A long, illustrious line of warriors and generals, the Sou are synonymous with the whispers of fearless wolves, spearheads of the emperor's vanguard. It is only natural. Ever since the empire's early founding days, scions of the Sou Family have always stood at the side of the heaven-blessed imperial line.

Fifty-two generations of devoted service, faithful and loyal until the very end.

Sou Ayumu is born the fourth of Great General Sou Shinshou's children, the first son of the fierce warrior known as the Wolf of Myo. Third male born unto the fifty-third generation of the Sou Family, first of the Main Branch's direct line.

The night of this long-awaited son's birth, tears well up and spill over the general's face when he reaches out with trembling arms to gently cradle his newborn child. These are not tears of sorrow, but of happiness; overflowing joy, upon finally having an heir, a son to call his own… after the consecutive births of three daughters over the past decade.

(Sou Shinshou loves his daughters, as much as any father in these times would love his girls, but it is duty and responsibility and obligation that drives him to want, no, need a son, an heir of his own flesh and blood–)

"Ayumu," he whispers. Calloused fingers reach out to touch the infant's face, a soft, cautious gesture. Almost as if ascertaining whether or not the child is real. General Sou smiles. "Your name will be Sou Ayumu, and you will carry upon your shoulders the hopes and dreams of our divine emperor, our beloved people. It is your sacred duty, the duty that runs in our blood."

The child wails. Screams. An eerily strident, unnatural sound, more pain and confusion and abject terror, than it is the mindless cries of a newborn child.

General Sou chuckles warmly. "What a healthy set of lungs you have on you, child. Yes. You will grow into a fine young warrior one day, my son."

The man turns, passing the screaming infant to the midwife patiently waiting to the side. "Here. Take care of his needs, and see to it that you bring him to my honored wife when you have–"

"L-Lord General, please!"

A pause. Something shifts in the air, dangerous and unpredictable. General Sou turns to the pale-faced, shivering servant girl on the bed, a young lass whose face he does not remember, and her name even less.

Weak, frail, the young mother struggles to pull herself upright. She is unsuccessful; sapped of strength as her limbs are and nervous as the other servants have become of their lord's cold gaze, there is no one to help her when she tumbles from her bed, falling, collapsing onto the ground.

But still. Still.

Silently, General Sou watches the servant girl force herself onto her knees, body folding into a proper, formal bow.

"I-I beg of y-you, L-L-Lord General," she cries. Sobs, sharp gulps of air taken in shaky breaths distorting her words into something only borderline coherent, "P-please do n-not s-se-pa-rate me f-from my child!"

Desperation. Despair. This he can see in the lines of her body, the tears in her eyes.

"Presumptuous," he says softly. The young servant girl's face blanches, her trembles only becoming more pronounced. But for all her fear, she bites her lip and prostrates herself before him on the ground, forehead pressed into the stone floor, once, twice, thrice–

Blood. The crimson color is stark against the gray stone. The servant girl is weak from birth, and bleeding from her head –and yet, she does not stop.

"… P-please, General," the girl whispers. "I-I would not dream o-of asking for… r-r-recognition, s-status, or anything of th-that sort… please, just l-let me stay with my son."

Son.

The general pauses.

This is the woman who gave birth to my son.

She is… pathetic. Disgusting, sniveling on the ground, covered in her own blood. There is nothing particularly outstanding about the girl's features, nor anything memorable.

But for a single moment, Sou Shinshou thinks he might see why he had been attracted to this woman, even if it had been a momentary attraction through the throes of a drunken stupor.

"… gardening."

The girl jerks upwards, eyes wide. "W-What?"

"Gardening," the general says slowly. "Do you know how to take care of a garden?"

"I-I-… yes! Yes, m-most certainly, Lord General!"

"Then, the Magnolia Court will be your responsibility from now on," he tells the servant girl. "… Do not make me regret this."

The girl's eyes blaze, shining brightly. "Never, Lord General. This lowly Kyou thanks you for your mercy and your generosity."

…

(During this byplay, their child lies to the side, forgotten. There is no one who listens to his screams. And no one will; not for a long, long time in these coming years.)

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In the Magnolia Court of the Sou-fu, lives a young woman known as Lady Rin Amake. Chestnut-brown hair cascading over her shoulders like a silken waterfall, flax-golden eyes the warmth of summer suns, she is an unmatched beauty whose name is known throughout the Myo Empire, envied by all, for aside from beauty–

Rin Amake is the one and only wife of the Great General Sou Shinshou, the Wolf of Myo.

A child of the Rin Family and the favored daughter of Minister Rin, the young woman's wedding to General Sou had been a grand affair, their union blessed with the well-wishes of Emperor Keitai himself. General Sou had been sixteen when he'd fallen head over heels for the beautiful young Lady Rin, and she for him in return. Over the years, their feelings for each other have only grown stronger, even against the myriad hardships they'd faced–

Or so she had believed.

"… Lord husband?" Amake is aware that she has led a charmed, pampered life. Her beauty, her family, her station and social status. Holding the affections of the Wolf of Myo. Very rarely did Amake ever doubt herself, but this–

This–

Her husband. Holding an infant in front of her. Awkwardly averting his eyes.

The child is a boy.

Amake blinks. Something tilts, the world spinning around her, and the next thing she knows, she's lying down in her bed, her husband worriedly sitting beside her, his gaze full of concern, mouth tilted downwards in a frown–

–and his arms still full of sleeping infant.

Amake closes her eyes.

"I'm sorry for having disappointed you, my lord," she whispers. Something clogs in her throat, her chest twisting uncomfortably. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't bear you a son. I–"

"Enough," the general cuts her off roughly. "Amake, I love you. This will never change."

Fact. The surety in his voice grounds her, and the young woman lowers her head in shame.

"… Forgive me, Shou." Forgive me for doubting you.

"There is nothing to forgive," he shakes his head. "If anything, the fault lies with me, for not having explained sooner. I… this is Ayumu. My son."

As I thought. It's a boy. My lord husband's flesh and blood…

(But not mine.)

"–be his mother?"

Shou's voice. Dazed by the news her husband had so unceremoniously delivered aplomb, Amake gives a small start, nodding instinctively, before the subsequent words finally register in her mind.

Will you be his mother, her lord husband asks of her.

Amake has thrice been unable to bear her husband any sons, relentlessly plagued by jealous whispers and dark condemnations alike for her failing –can't even give birth to a son, yet she refuses her lord his right to take any concubines, such a useless woman! What a pity that such beauty is wasted on a greedy, shriveled black heart.

Ayura, Ayuri, Ayurin. Amake loves her three daughters, she truly does, what mother wouldn't love her children–

… And yet, there are still nights when she will cry herself to sleep, curse her stomach for being unable to birth Shou a beloved son, a son to inherit his duty, to succeed the family name.

Shou is not wholly unaware of the struggles that she faces, as a woman, but he doesn't understand. That's okay, though. Because he is the Great General, the Wolf of Myo, and though Amake is privileged and sheltered and weak, she is his wife, the wife Shou chose, and it's the least she could do to ease her beloved husband's burdens where she can, whenever possible–

So–

Amake bites down on the ugly flicker of resentment, swallowing the bitter coil of betrayal into a secret pit deep inside her stomach. She doesn't deserve to feel this way in the first place. It's not as if it's Shou's fault that she cannot give him a son, is it? So… so the fact that he… sought company, for the sake of continuing the Shou line of the main branch…

It's fine.

Amake wants to laugh. Wants to cry. She ends up doing neither.

"If I may ask, my lord husband… who is the mother?" Her lips move on their own, automatic. Amake stares blankly at the child –the son– in her husband's arms.

"It doesn't matter," Shou responds, utterly oblivious to his wife's struggles, her subdued tenor. Now that she has agreed to raise the child as her own, he only has eyes for the infant again. "You are his mother. We have a son now, Amake!"

The young woman closes her eyes bitterly.

"… Yes. We do."

.

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This is Ayumu:

A young boy, the son of the Great General Sou Shinshou and his beloved wife, the beautiful Lady Rin Amake. He grows up in a small country far to the east, a citizen of the Myo Empire, heir to the Sou Family.

… Lies, all of it. But at the same time, that's not entirely true, not really.

See, there are memories in his head that do not belong to him, disjointed flashes of a world that does not exist, from the perspective of a man who no longer lives.

… But Ayumu does.

What does it mean to be alive?

General Sou's son is a difficult child, they say. The boy wakes up at odd hours of the night, throwing fits and tantrums. He lacks discipline. Why, General Sou began his training the other day, and the boy refused to pick up his spear! The General had been furious. Sou men cannot afford to be lazy, soft, least of all the son of the one who is revered as the Wolf of Myo.

Ayumu hates it. All of it.

(The oppressive culture, the suffocating judgment, these unwanted attentions –he never asked for any of this.)

… The General loves his children, but he is not a loving man, not even towards his daughters, much less the son he has such high hopes for. Lady Amake watches from afar with a cold eye. There is no one who understands him, who is willing to speak for him, and it does not take long for Ayumu to realize that no one ever will.

Weak as you are, helpless as you are, there is absolutely nothing you could do or say. You cannot change anyone else.

The only one you can change is yourself.

It's a bitter pill for him to swallow.

Anger festers and boils into bitterness, bitterness sours into resentment, and eventually resentment loses all meaning under apathy.

Eventually, the whispers surrounding him morph into something different.

General Sou's son is a gifted child, they titter and smile. He rises before the sun, and practices his stances deep into the night. He is a prodigy. He defeated his branch cousin Ayuto in a spar just the other day, didn't you hear? A boy two years his senior! It is good that the Wolf has a strong successor.

Everything is pointless, nothing matters. Ayumu trains and trains because it's easy to stop thinking when he does, easy to lose himself to the mindless flow of repetitive movements, again and again and again. Rinse and repeat. Practice makes perfect.

… It's almost meditative, in a way, and it's the only time he is left alone. The closest he can ever come to being at peace, under the general's eye.

"Young master? Please consider taking a break for now. The general will be leaving for the frontlines today, and I'm sure he would appreciate it if you were there to see him off."

A servant girl wrings her hands worriedly to the side. Ayumu does not bother turning in her direction.

"The general wishes for me to devote myself to my training," is all he says. Indifferent, voice monotone. Hold, set, pierce. The spear in his hands lashes out, stabbing. "… I will be there. Later."

The young boy retracts his spear, leaving a perfect hole in the center of his target.

"Please… please do not blame the general, young master. He means well."

"Your words," Ayumu clicks his tongue. "They would hold more weight if I did not see the general leaving your rooms the other night."

"I-I-I n-no, w-wha-t–"

"Kyou." At the sound of her name leaving his tongue, the flustered young woman abruptly falls silent. Ayumu eyes the skittish servant for a moment, then tries, "Mother."

Her eyes fly wide open in shock, mouth dropping–

Ayumu smiles.

… It's not a happy smile, more of a wry twist to his lips, more pity and self-mocking than anything else.

"This war with the Kou Empire," he tells her. "The general, my uncles and cousins –they are not the only ones who will be fighting."

Roundabout as it is, Kyou pales, instantly realizing the implications of the child's sing-song words, grave severity sharply contrasted against the high-pitched intonation that they are delivered in.

"Y-You're only eight!"

"… And who am I, to question the orders of the general, in his infinite wisdom?" Ayumu flicks his spear, the metal beneath his calloused palms warm against his fingertips. "I don't care. What's the worst that can happen?"

The young woman shakes her head. "You could die!"

"Yes," the little boy agrees gently, kindly. "I could die. And that's all there is to it."

.

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…

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Author's Notes:

Hi! Here, have another wild plot bunny, featuring an OC in Magi. It's kinda short. This is pretty much just a quick freewrite to get things flowing again, since I haven't written anything in quite some time. Am now in midst of job hunting, so… yeah, I'm not going to promise anything about update frequency. :v

Cheers, hope y'all are doing great out there!

-XxZuiliu