Chapter Text
"Damien, can I trust you?" Master Percival interrogates. Damien stands up straighter.
“Yes, sir,” he responds promptly.
“Very good. Daniel will be turning 18 and he will come into all his power. This power might be enough for him to unconsciously fix his tampered memories. You need to make sure that if- when he remembers everything that he still hates Philip Lester. Manipulate him, tell him what I’ve told you, use any means necessary to keep Daniel from going after Philip. Do. you. under. stand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Return to Daniel immediately. Whatever you need to do, I will sanction it.”
“Thank you, sir.” Master Percival gives a curt nod and dismisses Damien. Master Percival turns his back in his normal cold demeanour. Damien walks out and closes the door to the study with a soft click. He strides back to the barracks and finds his squadron still there.
“Damien,” Dan says with a smile. Damien gives him a peck on the cheek. “What did Percival want?”
“Oh, um, he just wanted to talk about how the squadron was and tell me that we’re free for tomorrow.”
“What?” Dan grabs Damien’s arms. Damien excitedly grabs back.
“We can go out to the village for your birthday!” Dan’s smile lights up his face.
“What’s this I hear about a free day?” shouts Chris, prompting the others to pipe in as well.
“Quiet down, there won’t be a free day tomorrow if you don’t complete your rounds today. Now get out there!” Damien announces. They grumble but head out to their posts. Chris stops by Dan and whispers,
“Thank your boyfriend, will you.” Dan doesn’t move, but Chris knows it’s him who uses magic to smack the back of his head. Damien chuckles.
“Thank you, and not from Chris, but yeah, I really appreciate you saying whatever you said to Percival so that he allowed us a free day. I can’t wait to go out into the village.” Damien gives Dan a small smile at this.
“It honestly wasn’t that big of a deal. Anyway, let’s not miss our rounds, hm? Otherwise, we’ll have to make them up and miss your birthday tomorrow.”
~
Dan is sitting on the windowsill with Hickory, except she's only a fledgeling. Dan looks at himself, he's only six. This would place him a nightmare about the fire, as is usual every night. Though this one feels different, feels more real. Dan recognises the person walking past his door. He waves but gets no response from Phil.
He turns back to Hickory with a frown. Phil is his best friend and he couldn’t even wave? They couldn’t even go a full 20 minutes without running through the castle to talk to each other. Dan goes back to practising using magic to push around the seeds he set out for Hickory. Until he hears the first scream.
He rushes towards the door, but it’s slammed shut in front of him. He slams his entire body against the wood. The door doesn’t budge. He runs to the window and sees smoke trailing from the adjacent room, his brother’s nursery. The nursery his parents are also in.
“Help!” he shouts in panic. “Help!” He can’t see anyone from the window. He feels the room start getting hot. He tries to open the door again but the ceiling buckles and gives way. Dan cries out as his leg is pinned beneath a burning beam. The door is flung open and through the smoke, Dan swears he sees Master Percival and Master Pine dragging Phil along the hallway. The heavy smoke is starting to make Dan woozy. He feels his eyes slipping closed.
Dan wakes up in a pool of sweat. He still feels the fire against his back. His brain replays flashes of smoke and people running past. He's breathing heavily as he looks towards the window. The sky is still dark. Not wanting to risk having another dream, Dan gets up.
Wrapped in a cloak, Dan tiptoes through the corridors down to the garden. He tries not to let the old oak door creak too much. He slips through and walks towards the large oak tree in the centre. Before he makes it to the bench underneath, he's assaulted by a vision.
It’s daytime. There’s an autumn breeze blowing and the sun shines through what leaves are left on the large oak. Sitting in the dappled light is Phil. There’s a look of concentration on his face as he changes the leaf in his hand from red to green and back to red. He hears the crunch of leaves and looks up at Dan. There’s a smile on his face. Dan laughs as he runs towards Phil, using the bench to catapult himself into the branches of the tree. Phil grabs his hand and pulls him against himself.
“Hi,” Dan breathes, a little short of breath. Phil breaks into a grin.
“Hi,” he responds. Dan’s smile reaches the edges of his face. Phil pokes Dan’s dimple. “Your dimple is showing. You’re like a cute little munchkin.” Dan responds by pushing Phil off the branch.
“Just because you’re ten doesn’t mean I’m a little baby!”
“Well, who’s in double digits and who’s not?” Phil sticks his tongue out at Dan giggles. Dan hops down and stands on the bench. He brings his hand up and then down, sending the remaining leaves careening toward Phil.
“Who’s covered in leaves and who’s not?” Phil lifts his hand and points a finger at Dan. All the leaves in the garden attack Dan. Beyond the sheet of leaves, Dan hears Phil’s laughter.
“I will answer ‘me’ to the first question and ‘you’ to the second one.” Phil stops the leaves to see a disgruntled Dan. Phil knows he’s being glared at, but it’s hard to take Dan seriously with his cute little six-year-old face and a few leaves in his curls. “I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I really hate you, for real this time.”
“That’s never been true. Now, come here.” Dan sighs and hops off the bench. Phil walks over and brushes the leaves out of Dan’s hair. “Are we good?” Dan hugs Phil.
“We’re always good, Phil, you should know that. We’ll always be good.” Phil rests his head on Dan’s and returns the hug.
“And I’ll always be here for you.”
Dan opens his eyes to see the same oak blurred through tears. That moment was a lifetime ago. So many things had changed since then, the most regrettable being the loss of his best friend. He didn’t understand how the sweet little boy who helped him in mage apprenticing could have betrayed everything and everyone.
Dan often remembers the fire, but he thinks about Phil more often. He thinks back to the dream this morning, what a great way to start his birthday off. There’s more to it than that though, there was more to the dream. Some of his nightmares had been obviously fabricated by his subconscious, like Phil morphing into a dragon, and some had more plausibility to them, but this one stood out. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he knew there was some difference. In fact, the vision, or whatever he had experienced walking towards the tree, had felt like the dream this morning. But he wasn’t asleep when he walked towards the tree.
None of it made sense. Dan dropped onto the bench and stared up at the leaves. He could see the lightening sky through the branches. For all that he thought about Phil, he actually didn’t have many clear memories with the boy. He doesn’t remember ever experiencing the vision he just had, but sitting here underneath the tree, the vision felt familiar in a way. Dan sighs. He shouldn’t be dwelling on unpleasantness from years ago, he should be focussing on his date with his boyfriend later today. He has a wonderful, caring boy with him now so why should he worry about the boy who hurt him in every way so many years ago?
He turns his head in the direction of the village and sees the clock tower over the walls of the castle. The illuminated face tells him it’s almost four o’clock. He sighs and rests his head against the back of the bench. Dan wishes he could move on from this past but something in it keeps drawing him back.
He never much cared to know about his past before, but these visions are raising new questions. Questions he needs the answers to. He wonders if these visions were brought on by his eighteenth birthday and coming into his full power. It doesn’t matter he decides.
He gets up and goes back inside the castle. He has about two hours before his squadron will wake up, even on free days they can’t shake the habit of getting up early. His footsteps are light as he goes through the halls, knowing when to pause so a guard won’t see him.
He pulls the library door open enough to slip through before closing it behind him. There’s a fluttering that he recognises as Hickory. She alights on his shoulder and nuzzles his cheek. He smiles a bit before creating a small orb of light to see by.
“We’re looking for something Hickory,” Dan whispers. He walks deeper into the library before finding a nook to hide in while he casts a seeking spell. He’s sure there must be accounts of what happened then. Despite living in the castle his entire life, he doesn’t know much about the royal family besides the fact that they died in the fire along with quite a few others. They must have doctors’ reports and death records, something to fill in the missing pieces from that day.
He summons the books his spell found and tucks them into the sack at his hip. As a last thought, Dan decides to grab the book detailing the royal family tree. As he heads out, he stops at the bookkeeper’s desk and looks at the door behind it. On a whim, he prays there isn’t counter-magic on the lock and goes behind the desk.
He places his hand on the doorknob and concentrates. He hears a small click and pushes the door open. The shelves covering every wall are stacked with tomes he’s never seen before. He sends out a seeking spell for this room and is lead to a chest tucked into a corner. He delves into it and finds a stack of old papers. The headline shocks Dan. “Survival of the Oldest Prince”. Wasn’t the entire royal family killed? He thumbs through to the papers underneath. There are some dated for the next day. “Death Toll Officially Set at 17 After Death of Prince”. He pulls the royal family ledger from his bag and looks for the most recent family. He stares in shock as he sees his name.
Perhaps this is why the bookkeeper always took down the ledger when Dan came in. The ledger dates back to the original royal family and is enchanted with very old magic. The book cannot be altered from the truth, which means the death of the oldest prince was in fact a lie. There’s a marker underneath the other three that shows them as deceased. He brushes his finger over the beautiful inking. He closes his eyes and he enters another vision.
He's walking towards the library with his father. The doors are open, spilling the brighter light from the chandelier into the dimmer naturally lit hallway. His father brings him to a pedestal displaying an ancient book.
“I think you’re old enough to understand this book now, Daniel,” the king says as he lifts Dan and places him on top of his shoulder. Dan looks at the page that’s open.
“Daddy, that’s my name!” Dan says excitedly in his cute little posh voice. “And there’s you and Mum!” The king chuckles. He points to the newest name.
“And that’s your little brother Adrian.” Dan smiles at the thought of his new brother.
“How does it get into the book?” the ever-curious Dan asks.
“Magic. The very first king made this book so he could keep track of his family. He blessed it with magic so that it would always show the truth, and his magic is so old that nobody can change it. That’s why we must keep this book safe. It holds all the family trees in perfect order.”
“But how does it know?”
“It just does. Magic.”
“Why can’t I just magic my schoolwork then?” Dan whines. His father laughs again.
“Well, you have to learn things on your own. Speaking of which, isn’t there a lesson you skipped out on the other day? One that you should make up before you get in trouble, hmm?” Dan sighs. His father sets him down and Dan plods into the hallway. With his head hung low, he walks back to his room. He’s about to open the door when he hears footsteps coming around the corner. He turns his head and sees Phil.
“Hey, Dan, want to head out to the garden?” Phil smiles. Dans sighs.
“I can’t, my dad wants me to get my schoolwork done from the lesson I missed when I was hanging out with you.”
“Come to the garden and I’ll help yoooou.”
“Okaaaaay.” Dan gathers his things from his room and follows Phil to the garden. It’s late September but the weather is still nice. They go over to their bench and Dan drops his books on the seat next to him.
“Sorry about the schoolwork you have to make up from that day we skipped out. Let me look at your papers and I’ll see how I can help you,” Phil apologises. He picks up Dan’s papers and looks through them for a minute. He nods every few pages, working out what needs to be done. “You’re still doing some basic maths, so I think you’ll do fine, but just tell me if you need help.”
“Thanks, Phil.” Dan grabs his quill and begins scratching away. Phil watches Dan’s face, his cute look of concentration, and his long curls falling over his forehead. He doesn’t want to be caught staring so he takes his gaze away from Dan and watches the clouds.
Dan’s head returns from the clouds but he’s still reeling from all the information. His name in the royal family’s ledger, but the prince rumoured to be dead? New memories in his head, startling against the lack of information about the first six years of his life. There were ulterior motives for hiding information about the royal family. There’s too much to wrap his mind around.
Dan is torn from his thoughts as he hears footsteps. Different than a guard’s footsteps, carrying a person with a distinct magical aura. An aura he hasn’t felt in twelve years.