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The smell of smoke was not an uncommon one in Velthomer. There was always at least one blaze going at all times somewhere on the castle grounds, magical or otherwise. Ornate ornamental fireplaces, scorched training dummies, and outdoor bonfires were all common trappings of life within Velthomer. The warmth, the soothing scents of the wood or wax or whatever else was burning, the hearty crackling of flames; these were all comforts to Azelle. Fire did not awaken any primal fear within his mind. It embraced him as a friend, a protector that had long watched over and enabled mankind's progress.
This, though, seemed a bit excessive. The warmth from fires in Velthomer rarely ever reached Azelle's living quarters, much less thick billows of black smoke. The distinct scent of roses carried along with embers by the breeze was also an uncommon one. The only rosebushes Azelle knew of on the grounds were in the castle garden that his window overlooked, a garden that Arvis personally attended to each day. The smoke was coming in through that same window, too. If there were a fire out there, it must have meant something terrible.
Despite the heavy feeling in Azelle's stomach and despite the fear that gnawed at the back of his mind, he was not worried for his personal safety. It didn't seem likely for a fire to be raging in the garden due to some blaze growing out of control. Far more probable, in Azelle's mind, was a fit of rage on Arvis's part, something frustrating him so immensely that he had torched his own garden. It wouldn't have been the first time. After all, Arvis's refusal to hire gardeners wasn't solely due to his own hobby of caring for the flowers.
Whatever had set Arvis off likely had nothing to do with Azelle, but guilt gripped him just the same as if Arvis were upset with him, personally. After all, the typical cause of Arvis's bouts of rage were political occurrences, matters that Azelle never involved himself in. He lacked the social finesse of his brother, the charisma that made Arvis so beloved among the citizens of his duchy.
Arvis's ceaseless work towards reform within Grannvale was almost comically noble, something that filled Azelle with equal parts admiration and despair. His brother was incredible in ways that Azelle could never live up to. Minor-blooded nobles, particularly bastard children like him, would only be laughed out of the room or spoken over in meetings between the nobles of Grannvale and its neighbors. Even disregarding that barrier, Azelle's own ineptitude in politics prevented him from ever succeeding in the way his brother did. Arvis was a shining beacon of Grannvale's future, but Azelle could only ever live within the shadow Arvis's heroic stature cast. That darkness in which Azelle dwelled constantly crept into his mind to ensure he never forgot how worthless he was in comparison.
Though fires usually meant warmth and comfort to the Velthomer siblings, it seemed this one carried only sorrow for Azelle. He let out a melancholy sigh, shuffling over to the colossal bookshelf that took up the entirety of the far wall of his room. It wasn't his own appetite for knowledge that had resulted in the bookshelf's size and placement. No, it was Arvis who had decided upon one wall being devoted to literature (and magic tomes) many years prior, back when he had succeeded their father, Victor, as Duke of Velthomer. While Velthomer had a truly massive library as well, Arvis had expressed a desire for Azelle to flourish in ways forbidden by their father.
Devoting an entire wall of Azelle's room to knowledge was the first thing Arvis had done upon becoming Duke. Its purpose was twofold: the information contained within the books was being freely offered to Azelle, and it served as a symbol of Arvis's intent to help Azelle grow. Even during Victor's reign, Arvis had ever stood by his brother; it was only thanks to Arvis's insistence that Victor, cold-hearted and cruel as he was, even allowed Azelle to stay within Castle Velthomer. It was only thanks to Arvis that Azelle could feel like he and his brother truly were family.
Azelle's delicate fingers ran along the leather spines of various books until he found the one he was looking for. One end of the middle shelf was reserved solely for magic tomes, organized neatly by type, skill level, and, secretly, based on Azelle's personal fondness for the given magic. A simple wind tome was all he needed to banish from his room the smoke that suffocated both his body and his thoughts. With that settled, at least for the moment, Azelle could return to what he was doing before (lying in bed and letting depression cloud his thoughts) without being bothered by the smoke or the uncomfortable associations that had blown in alongside it. Fire was usually a comfort to Velthomers, but fire would always be more the domain of his major-blooded brother than of Azelle. Much as he could never feel like he truly belonged to the Velthomer family, fire could never truly be Azelle's either; Fjalar's legacy did not belong to him, nor he to it.
Unfortunately, it seemed there was no easy escape from the thoughts that had begun to plague Azelle that night. Just as he seated himself upon his bed with a sigh, two sharp knocks at the door signaled an end to his time wallowing alone. There really was only one person who lived in Velthomer that ever came to Azelle's room (save for the maids, of course), and the way he knocked was already indication enough of who it had to be. Short, but distinct, politely distinguished; it had to be Arvis. Had Lex or Tailtiu come to visit him, Azelle no doubt would have heard their voices echoing down the hall long before they reached his door. Besides, neither one knocked quite like that. Tailtiu typically rapped her knuckles incessantly against the wood until either Azelle answered or she left bloodstains upon it, and Lex... well, Lex didn't usually knock at all. He just entered and then announced his presence afterwards.
God, he wished it were Lex at his door instead. There was nobody better at completely changing Azelle's mood. Whether he did it on purpose or not, Azelle couldn't say, but the fact of the matter was that Lex made it impossible for Azelle to dwell on his negative thoughts for long. He would always find some stupid thing to say or some goofy action to take that would completely derail Azelle's thoughts. Lex always made Azelle smile, laugh, forget for just a moment the way that the world-- the way that Azelle himself-- dragged his spirits down.
But it wasn't Lex. There was no easy relief from his worries on the other side of that door. It was the source of his anxiety standing there, Azelle was certain of it.
"Azelle?" The rich, suave voice on the other side of the door confirmed his suspicions. Arvis had come calling. "I am entering. Is that alright?"
As much as Azelle wished to simply not respond at all, to bury his head under his pillow and pretend he couldn't hear Arvis, that maybe there was some way Arvis would be deceived into thinking Azelle wasn't in the room, he knew it simply wouldn't work out that way. Arvis always seemed to know where Azelle was (perhaps a consequence of how much time Azelle spent locked away in his room), and avoiding Arvis... well, it would hardly be the first time Azelle did that, but every instinct told him that now just wasn't the right time to try. He dreaded whatever this conversation would be, but Arvis clearly felt it was a discussion they needed to have.
"...Yeah," Azelle finally answered after a few long moments of silence, "that's fine."
Despite how he had contemplated avoid Arvis, refusing had not crossed Azelle's mind. It wasn't that it would have been ineffective; Arvis would certainly have respected Azelle's space if requested. It was more that the notion of saying no to Arvis, saying no to anyone, was so alien to Azelle that his mind couldn't even conjure the thought of doing so.
The Arvis that stepped into the room looked very little like the mental image of Arvis that Azelle had been dreading. There was no anger in his eyes, only concern and compassion. His hair was neatly groomed, not wild and unruly as if he had just been venting his emotions with fireballs. He didn't even carry the scent of smoke with him, only of the saccharine perfumes he wore.
The surprise at Arvis's very normal appearance must have shown on Azelle's face, because Arvis quickly glanced over his shoulder as if he expected someone else to have entered the room with him. Seeing only the door closing behind him, he quickly inspected himself, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Azelle, meanwhile, cursed himself silently for making Arvis worry, even in such a trivial way. He needed to take care not to show his emotions so freely.
"Azelle," Arvis finally broke the silence that had laid between them even thicker than the smoke in the air. "Is something the matter?"
So much for keeping his expression neutral. Azelle immediately knew that confusion had crept across his face before Arvis even had a chance to notice it. He quickly turned his face away, though as soon as he did, a voice in his mind admonished him for it. Such a response would only make him seem like he felt guilty, or that he was avoiding open discussion with Arvis (which were both true, but weren't relevant to the situation at hand).
With silence falling between them once more, Arvis cleared his throat so he could resume speaking, as if simply talking into the dead air would prevent his words from reaching Azelle. He still stood just in front of the door, unwilling to fully encroach on Azelle's private space. As much as he wanted to approach Azelle, that distance between them seemed insurmountable at the moment. In Arvis's mind, it seemed as though any step he took would bring him no nearer.
"I understand if you're frustrated," Arvis continued, looking out the window at the great plumes of smoke rising into the air, "but you mustn't pick up my bad habits. If there is an issue, please know you can always come to me about it. I will always at least listen to what you have to say, even if I can do nothing else. You deserve to feel heard, not to feel like you have to bottle everything up."
Azelle bit down on his lip to stifle the bitter laugh that threatened to rise from his chest. How could he ever approach Arvis about these feelings? The weight of Arvis's work was already so immense that Azelle could never feel comfortable adding his own worries onto that. That wasn't even considering the fact that many of his anxieties revolved around Arvis himself.
Even if it weren't Arvis offering to lend an ear, Azelle knew he still wouldn't have been comfortable discussing his woes. Saying them aloud often just felt foolish. Discussing his doubts filled him with more doubts, worries that he would alienate the person he was talking to, that they would find his feelings foolish, that they'd tell him just how wrong he knew he was for feeling that way.
There really was only one person Azelle could vent to free of worry. Though Tailtiu was a wonderful friend who he cared for immensely, the trauma and misery her family inflicted upon her made Azelle feel guilty for being so upset by the trivial troubles he endured with Arvis. Besides, he would rather put effort into making her happy than make her friendships emotionally burdensome, what with the things she had to endure at home.
No, it was Lex who Azelle could tell anything to. He made it feel so natural to complain, to discuss feelings, to even be upset at all. He seemed almost incapable of passing judgment for the things that worried Azelle. Even when he couldn't offer much more in response than "that's rough, buddy," Lex still managed to be easier to talk to or to just be around than anyone else Azelle had ever known, save for his mother.
Azelle was, of course, ignorant of one, crucial aspect: his worries would never be a burden to Arvis. It could not add to the stress that his duties as Duke inflicted upon him. It was impossible for such a thing to happen, because it would actually have relieved Arvis of the stress of his life as Duke Velthomer. To escape problems plaguing society as a whole and worry only about being a good brother was a welcome reprieve, but one that Arvis found himself able to do less and less frequently as the years went by.
"I'm fine, Arvis, really," Azelle stated, though his words were plainly hollow. "Nothing's the matter."
The response, clearly, was every bit as unconvincing to Arvis as it was to Azelle himself. Arvis's eyebrows raised, eyes turning back to look at Azelle. Arvis's fiery gaze seemed to stare straight through the younger Velthomer, silently interrogating his very soul. Just Arvis's presence alone made the air feel stiflingly hot, with more and more beads of sweat forming on Azelle's brow the longer Arvis stared at him.
"If you do not wish to discuss it, I'll not press the matter," Arvis stated, his voice unwavering and certain in the same way it was when he made speeches to the public. "Just know that I am willing to listen if ever you need to speak to someone."
Once again, Azelle failed to respond. Azelle felt a solemn certainty that, no matter how much either of them wished it were not the case, the time that Azelle would be ready to discuss his feelings with his brother would never come. The same voices in the back of his mind that told spoke those concerns to him were the same ones that talked him down from discussing them, after all. For him to be willing to speak openly with Arvis would mean he had already begun to conquer those demons.
Azelle's gaze turned from his brother and back to the floor in front of him. The carpet was getting awfully worn down by the window. He could see the exact path he took when he paced back and forth as worries consumed him.
"...I will take my leave then, I suppose," Arvis sighed, turning to the door. "Just... please, do not take me as an example in this one regard. I try to be a person you can look up to, Azelle, in everything I do, but I know you've also witnessed some of my greatest shortcomings. Do not let my willingness to bring destruction to things before me taint you. My garden is for me alone to burn."
It was strange. Arvis didn't even seem mad about the idea that Azelle had burned those rose bushes. He didn't seem upset at all about the destruction of his garden. The sorrow in his eyes seemed solely centered on Azelle, not on--
"Wait," Azelle interjected, bolting up as realization struck him. "Your garden? I thought you were the one who set it on fire!"
"What? No, I wouldn't set fire to--," Arvis began, though he quickly cut himself off as he remembered the many times he had, in fact, set fire to his own garden. "...I have no reason to set fire to my garden today."
Silence fell once more between the brothers, though this time it lacked the pressure it had held before. The distance that had been between them during their prior discussion was gone as both Velthomers raced to the window. How many other pyromaniacs could there possibly be in Velthomer?
It was Arvis's face that Azelle saw first, placed directly in between him and the blaze. The rage in his eyes was unmistakable, completely replacing the gentle worry that had been there only moments ago. It was slightly terrifying to think that Arvis could have been staring Azelle down with that look, that he had only held it back because they were siblings.
But that rage told Azelle everything. The angrier Arvis became, the broader Azelle's smile. It was not delight at Arvis's misery, of course, but an understanding of what was going on. There was only one person stupid enough to so brazenly upset Arvis, only one person who could do so repeatedly and live to tell the tale. There was only one person who would willingly flaunt that fact by standing directly in the center of the fire he had caused.
"My petunias," came the strangled moan of despair from Arvis's lips, "my gerberas, my celosias, my roses... how could he do this to me?"
Azelle didn't have a chance to ask who it was before his brother stormed out of the room, wisps of flame forming in the air in Arvis's wake. With the window vacated, Azelle could now finally see the thing he'd been missing all this time.
The garden was burning. Months of Arvis's hard work had gone up in smoke just like that, but the damage was far more extensive than just a bit of arson. Plant life could grow back after a blaze. This, however, was an unequivocal calamity to the garden. Plants had been uprooted, earth had been churned, and a message had been spelled with the flaming foliage. It was so blatantly laser-targeted, too, as the message could only really be read from high above, and Azelle's room had the perfect vantage point for exactly that.
There in the garden stood a certain blue-haired dumbass, grinning like an idiot as he waved up at Azelle. All around him, flames soared into the sky, but he didn't seem even slightly bothered. In fact, Azelle seemed more affected by it than Lex was, considering the heat that rose to his cheeks as he looked.
The message couldn't have been clearer.
"WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?"
Lex had done it again. All of that worry had vanished in an instant. Despite the storm of emotions he had experienced only moments prior, Azelle couldn't stop himself from smiling. How could someone be so stupid and so charming at the same time?
Azelle cupped his hands around his mouth, preparing to yell down in response, but he quickly thought better of it. As much as Arvis thought Lex was a bad influence on Azelle, the truth was that Azelle had always been every bit as much of a trouble-maker. Lex simply chose to take the fall on Azelle's behalf. Arvis didn't even seem capable of fathoming Azelle could do anything wrong unless Lex had goaded him into it, anyway. It was good that he had already left the room, so he wouldn't be there to see Azelle do wrong without Lex goading him into it.
Picking up the wind tome from his nightstand, Azelle flipped open the pages. He drew a hand across his chest, pointing his hand with fingers splayed wide down at Lex. A mighty gust of wind swirled, blowing flame and dirt about, snuffing out some areas and lighting other unburnt spots. The deed only took a moment, but it seemed to have impressed Lex, judging by the thumbs-up the bastard of Dozel gave. The flames no longer spelled out Lex's question. Now, their statement was much simpler:
"YES"