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sergeantsporks · 10 months

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Dadrius Week 2023 Day 6: Palisman

Hunter grabbed his boots, but didn’t pull them on, instead padding softly down the stairs. His socks muffled his footsteps, so the only sound in the house was the click of the lock.

“Are you really going without eating breakfast?”

Hunter jumped, dropping his boots and nearly slipping backwards on the tile. Darius sat in a recliner, fully clothed, sipping from a mug. The man blended right into his cushions, all purples. “You’re up?!”

Darius’ hand snaked out, turning on the lights. “Yes.” He set his mug on an end table. “I’m surprised you weren’t up earlier. You’re only leaving a whole HOUR early today? My goodness, what a sleep-in.”

Hunter flushed. He’d actually woken early enough to arrive an hour before Dell even showed up. Sometimes he liked to practice carving in the quiet, or just sit with the Bat Queen’s rescue palisman. But Darius liked the idea of ‘getting a proper eight hours of sleep’ and tended to insist Hunter sleep at least that long. He supposed he could always go to bed earlier than midnight. “Were you waiting for me?” he demanded.

“Yes. And a good thing. Breakfast. You have plenty of time.”

Hunter trudged to the kitchen, painfully aware of Darius in the other room, sipping his coffee. This was his third week with Dell, and Darius hadn’t gotten up to see him off any other time—it had to have something to do with the fiasco yesterday. Darius hadn’t tried to talk about it last night—he’d said good night pleasantly enough, and that was it. He’d probably just wanted a second of space, or maybe he’d been taking time to smooth things over with his family. Yes. That made sense. But now…

Hunter scarfed down a couple slices of toast, then headed back to the door. “Okay. I ate. Goodbye.”

“I’m coming with you.”

Four words. Somehow, each one felt like a punch to the gut. Oh, yeah. This was definitely about what had happened yesterday. Did Darius think Hunter was fragile? Did he think he couldn’t walk there on his own anymore?

“Oh,” he fumbled, “Well, I usually walk, because magic can upset the palisman if it shows up too suddenly, so—so we wouldn’t be able to use your abomination warp.”

“I don’t mind a walk.”

Great. “Oh. Okay.”

Hunter tugged his boots on. Darius followed him out the door, and they walked in slow, awkward silence for at least a block. Very few people walked in the streets this early, and most of them trudged along blearily, either coming back from a late night, or up against their will. Even though the street was wide enough for all of them, other citizens still parted respectfully for Darius, giving Hunter appraising looks.

“So,” Darius said finally.

So. The word, unaccompanied by any others, sent a shiver of panic down Hunter’s spine. He won’t kick you out. Still, the dozens of other possible bad things that could happen flitted through his mind. “So.”

“About yesterday…”

Hunter pressed his arms against his stomach. “It was nothing. I mean, I’m sorry.” Eber’s words echoed in his head—that Darius thought he’d been the one to blame, not Hunter. “I mean—it’s fine.”

“How’s your hand?”

Hunter flexed his bandaged hand. He’d put more gel on it this morning, and the scabs hadn’t cracked yet. He just hoped he’d be able to hold his carving tools properly. “Fine.”

“Good. That’s good.” More awkward silence. They were still hopelessly far from the palistrom forest, and the workshop, and Hunter desperately wished he could teleport there and get out of this conversation.

“What happened?”

Hunter edged further away from Darius. The whole thing had been a stupid mistake, and he knew it. After a good night’s sleep, it all seemed so ridiculous. A ridiculous reaction and an unnecessary silence between them. “Nothing. I mean—I dropped the glass. It broke. I panicked. It’s just—” he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, searching for the right words. “The usual.”

“Ah. The usual.” Darius cleared his throat. “Hunter. My parents… are not the type of people to get angry at you for breaking a glass.”

Right. No. Of course not. “Okay.”

“And if they were,” Darius continued, “I would never have taken you near them.” He stopped walking, and Hunter stopped too, as if he were attached to Darius by a short leash. “Do you understand? I wouldn’t—If someone was dangerous like that, I wouldn’t put you in peril. That sort of situation—”

“I get it. Darius, it’s okay. I get it. I understand.” Hunter started walking again, the tips of his ears burning. Darius meant well enough, he knew, and part of him was glad that the sentiment had been expressed in no uncertain terms, leaving zero room for doubt. But the other part simmered with embarrassment that Darius had to say it so explicitly. He should just know it. He should just trust that Darius wouldn’t willfully put him in dangerous situations, or near people like…

Darius followed, now a few steps behind, rather than at Hunter’s side. “I can’t help but feel like that wasn’t the only issue.”

Hunter walked faster, one step away from jogging. “We’re going to be late.”

“Little Prince, did the panic attack get worse after I came in with abomination?”

Hunter gulped at the question, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the ground. “Dell’s going to wonder—”

Darius stopped. Hunter didn’t have to look to know, he just felt, in the back of his mind, that Darius was standing still in the empty street again. “Hunter, I know this is a hard conversation to have, but we need to have it. Abomination magic is something I use often. It’s a part of me. I know it hasn’t caused you trouble in the past, or at least if it has, you didn’t show it. I need to know what I did differently yesterday so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Hunter shrugged helplessly. How was he supposed to say ‘in that instant, you were Belos, even though I know you’re not’? “It wasn’t—you didn’t—I don’t know, I was already panicking—and it just…”

“Made an already bad situation worse?”

“Yeah.” Hunter crossed his arms, his shoulders hunching. “Can we just… go?”

“Okay.” Darius started walking again. “Thank you, Hunter.”

Hunter blinked, looking up at him. “For what?”

“For talking to me.”

“Oh. You’re welcome?”

They reached the outskirts of town, buildings turning to trees and cobbled road to dirt path. Darius glanced around. “So. Is there a house here, or…?”

“It’s all outdoors.” Hunter moved more confidently here, the trees drawing him onwards. He skipped ahead, turning to face Darius and walking backwards. “We have niches for the unawakened palisman so that they don’t get wet in the rain, of course.”

“Of course,” Darius echoed, “Ah—unawakened palisman? Isn’t that all of them?”

“Nope!” Hunter felt a grin starting to creep onto his face. This wasn’t the first time he’d given the explanation to a newcomer, but he’d never expected that newcomer to be Darius. “There are three different options for a palisman adoption here, each of them with their own benefits.” The words poured out easily, much more easily than discussing the Deamonne House Fiasco.

“First, and most commonly expected, of course, is that you order your own palisman. If you know what animal you want, and what your wish will be, I can carve you what it is you like—the palisman will be exactly what you always knew you wanted. Uh—or at least that’s the theory. Technically, that avenue isn’t open yet because I’m still learning to carve, and I can’t make that kind of promise just yet. The second avenue is that if you’re not sure what animal you want, you can look through a selection I’ve already carved—most of those are easy shapes right now and I practiced on regular wood a few times before carving. Or they’re palisman that Dell started before his injuries, and I finished carving, polishing, and painting. The palisman will be completely yours, but you’re a bit low on choice, there.”

“And the third option?”

Hunter’s hand went to his chest almost without thinking. “Adoption. There are… a lot of palisman who ran away from bad homes, or… bad things happened to their witches. Some of them are… they’re still hurting. But others are ready to try again. If your goals line up with a palisman’s desires, they’ll choose you. Those are the awakened palisman. Sometimes they have more complicated needs than a new palisman, but they also have a lot of experience and knowledge to offer.”

“Ah.”

Hunter hummed. They were close—he could hear the awakened palisman rustling in the trees, watching him from a distance as they usually did until he reached the safety of the workshop. “Maybe I could find you a palisman.”

Darius locked up for just a second at that, but quickly shook his head. “Ah. No thank you. I’m not sure that having a palisman is for me.”

“You didn’t used to think having some kid around was for you, either.” The words popped out of Hunter’s mouth before he could really think them through, and he immediately glanced up at Darius to see his reaction.

The abomination coven head snorted, ruffling his hair. “Well, you’re not just some kid. You’re my kid.” His eyes immediately widened, and he coughed. “That is to say—why don’t you show me some of what you’re working on?”

Hunter’s heart thumped in his chest. He didn’t even try to push Darius’ hand away like he usually would, just mutely nodded and picked up one of his half-finished practice pieces, carved from regular red wood instead of the blue palistrom.

“This is, um.”

His kid.

Focus.

Concentrate.

Do not blow this. Be cool.

“It’s going to be a bee,” Hunter explained, “See, there’s the stinger—I’m still trying to figure out how to carve the wings in, or if I should attach them separately, or maybe just carve them flat against the body instead of poking out. I’m just worried that if I do that, they wouldn’t be able to fly, or else the part of the body they were folded against will be off-color.”

“That sounds… not like the easiest design, then.”

Hunter shrugged. “Dell said I should start with familiar shapes—the cat was probably the easiest. The curves on the snake made it a bit hard to do, and I still haven’t successfully made a chameleon.” He brushed his thumb against the rough, unpolished wood, his heart aching in his chest. There was a shape he knew every curve of. Sometimes if he wasn’t thinking about it while carving, his knife shaped a beak, or a stray wing. He was almost certain that if he tried, he could create the most perfect songbird in the world.

But he wasn’t ready to try.

Hunter set the unfinished statue down, shaking away his melancholy. “Oh, I know a palisman you might like!”

Darius shook his head. “I told you, I’m not in the market for a palisman right now.”

“I know, I know.” Hunter raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He wondered if Darius had missed the fact that Dell wasn’t here yet. Probably not, he reflected gloomily. But he could distract from that. “But you’ve seen what I’m working on—let me find a finished palisman, to show you the goal!”

He stood on the top platform, waving to the palisman that lurked in the trees. “Ava! C’mere, girl, I want you to meet someone!”

In a whoosh of green and blue, an elegant peacock dove down from the tree, landing on his arm with a squawk. She pecked gently at his ear, and preened herself, smoothing her feathers.

“You look lovely,” he told her, rubbing the space just between her eyes. “Sorry, he’s not looking for a palisman right now. He’s just a friend of mine that I wanted to introduce you to. Maybe you’ll change his mind about getting a palisman, huh?” He smoothed her feathers. “He’s the one I told you about, the one I’m living with right now? You want to help me test the waters on how he feels about adoption? Do you, Ava?”

She cooed in response.

“Thanks. I knew I could count on you.”

Hunter descended the staircase more carefully with the palisman. She was bigger than most of the others—her tail gave her probably twice the surface area of his other charges, and she was a little more unwieldy to carry if she fanned it out. Which she did now, looking down the stairs expectantly.

Hunter hopped down the last stairs. “Darius, this is—”

“Ava?!” Darius finished, his voice rising to a squeak.

Ava’s eyes locked on Darius and she screamed in rage, her tail feathers folding, then fanning out again, this time in an angry display of aggression. She clawed her way up to Hunter’s shoulder, digging in and snaking her neck around his to peer around his other shoulder, still shrieking at Darius.

“Ow—Ava, what’s the matter with—Dariiiiuuuuussssss…” the realization hit him like a human transport worm. “She’s your palisman?!”

Ava gave his ear a nip, then shrieked again, glaring at Darius.

“I’m sorry!” Darius pleaded, “Ava, if I’d known—but you’re alive! That’s—”

Hunter reached up to quiet the palisman, starting to pat her head, but she bit his fingers, hissed at Darius, then fled back up the stairs, disappearing into the forest in a blur of beautiful feathers flitting through the trees.

“Ow.” Hunter shook his smarting hand. “I’m so sorry, Ava usually doesn’t act like that! But then… you… already… knew that…” Hunter shook his head. Most of the palisman here had lost an owner. But Darius was still alive, which must mean that Ava had either been thrown away or had run from him. Why? “Darius? What is your palisman doing here?”

In a whoosh of wings, the Bat Queen landed on the forest floor. “Carver.”

“Bat Queen! Um—Ava just ran off, I’m sorry, I’ll go after her.”

Bat Queen shifted, eying Darius. “Ah, Ava.” She clicked her tongue. “In her past life, her witch tried to feed her to a monster. She escaped unharmed, but brokenhearted.”

Darius flinched. “I’ll… help you find her.”

Bat Queen inclined her head. “Yes. Go together.” She glanced around at the trees. “Something bad has come to Bat Queen’s forest. Palisman can feel it in the trees.”

That sounded… troubling. Hunter hadn’t felt anything walking in, but he trusted the palisman more than his own senses—especially since he’d been so desperate to change the topic of conversation on the way here. “We’ll be careful.”

Bat Queen tapped Darius’ chest with one big claw. “Keep the carver safe. Find Ava.”

“We’ll bring her home,” Hunter promised.

Darius seemed all too happy to get out of the Bat Queen’s presence, practically bolting into the forest. Hunter followed more slowly, crossing his arms.

“You never told me you had a palisman.”

“You heard the Bat Queen,” Darius replied tensely, “Ava’s partner tried to feed her to a monster.” He dragged one hand over his face. “I thought she was dead this whole time,” he said softly, “I thought Belos must have destroyed her, just like all the other palisman.”

“Why?” Hunter’s hand went to his chest. He’d given palisman to Belos, he knew he didn’t really have the space to judge. But not his palisman. Never his palisman, not of his own free will. “How could you…?”

Xxx

Darius scanned the trees for any sign of Ava’s brilliant plumage. She hated him. And he couldn’t blame her. He didn’t think he could look Hunter in the eye, so he just kept looking up, rechecking trees he knew she wasn’t in.

“For the coven,” he said tersely, “You know Belos collected new recruits’ palisman. You were lucky to get yours after your initiation.”

“But—you could have hidden her, right? They wouldn’t have known—you could—you could—”

Darius’ legs wobbled, and he sat down on a fallen log with a whump. Seeing Ava, seeing her anger, it was like that day all over again, watching her disappear into a dark room, not even struggling to get back to him, just watching him with hurt, abandoned eyes. “I suppose I wasn’t as brave as you, Little Prince.” He buried his face in his hands. “I chose my ambition over my friend. I let her die.”

The log creaked as Hunter sat down next to him. “Are you okay?”

Darius laughed, a short, barking sound. “Not really. Although I appreciate the concern.” He sighed. “I wish I could say that I’ve regretted it ever since. And I did, for a while after I gave her up. But if I hadn’t, I never would have become coven head, and I never would have found out what was going on with the day of unity.” He looked up at Hunter, desperate to… he didn’t even know what. Be understood? Receive some sort of absolution? “I never would have met you. I hate that I had to do that to her, but I did have to, didn’t I?”

Hunter twisted the ends of his apron strings between his fingers. “I don’t know,” he said softly, “I guess there was always a choice, but I can’t tell you if things would have been better if you’d chosen differently.”

Not exactly forgiveness, but then, he hadn’t done anything to earn that, had he? “I suppose.”

“Do you want her back?”

“What?”

“Do you want her back?” Hunter repeated, “You hurt her, but she was still your palisman first. It’s not too late to repair things between you and she.”

Darius snorted, pushing down the spark of hope in his chest. “Do you really think that? After what I did to her? I threw her under the transport worm, I gave her up to be eaten by a monster. Her words. After everything, do you really think she’d want to be my palisman again? Do I deserve a palisman again?”

Hunter went silent for a moment, and Darius saw his hand drift up to his chest, a movement Darius knew meant he was thinking about his own lost palisman.

“I guess that’s something you should ask her,” he said finally, “Apologize. Ask if she can forgive you. But first, we have to find her.”

Angry squawking tore through the trees. Hunter winced.

“And I think I know which direction to start with.”

Panic swept over Darius in a dizzying wave—the Bat Queen had said something dangerous might be in these woods. What if it had gotten to Ava first? He surged to his feet, tearing towards the sound. He summoned abomination after abomination, sliding into a clearing on a wave of his own, already transformed.

Ava lay on the ground, bound by pinkish magical ropes. Odalia Blight stood above her, the circle over her finger matching the ropes in color. “Darius?!”

“Odalia,” he snarled, “Let her go!”

Odalia waved a hand, and a spirit floated out of her necklace, picking Ava up and dragging her back towards its master. “Oh, no, dear. I’m going to get a leg up on the demand for palisman. It’s going to be a successfully booming business now that the Empire is gone, and I’ll need a few starters if I’m going to purchase the wood necessary to create custom creatures.”

“They’re not a—a product!” Hunter cried, skidding into the clearing next to Darius, “They’re living creatures, and you can’t—can’t deny people the chance to have one because they can’t pay you!”

Odalia tilted her head. “Oh, hello, dear. You’re a palisman carver now, aren’t you?” She tittered, putting one hand to her chest. “Perhaps I should take you along with me as well and avoid the trouble of trying to train someone new!”

Darius put one arm out in front of Hunter. “Try it,” he growled.

“Oh, relax, I was joking.” Odalia patted Ava on the head. “They’re just animals. This one doesn’t even have an owner! So really, who’s getting hurt, here?”

“You are,” Hunter answered simply, and disappeared in a flash of gold. He reappeared behind Odalia, snatching Ava away.

Darius sent his abominations forward, intercepting Odalia’s ghosts before they could attack Hunter. “This is a new low, Odalia. Even for you.”

Hunter flash-stepped next to Darius, tugging at the ropes. “I can’t—”

Darius shrank his usual scythe to a small knife, wiggling it under her bonds. Ava squawked, struggling, and Darius dismissed the knife before he cut the palisman on accident. “Shshsh, I’m trying to help you!”

Hunter disappeared, this time attacking one of Odalia’s ghosts while it tried to rip through Darius’ abomination. He yanked it backwards, kicking it away. “Should we just go?”

“One second.” Darius turned back to Ava. “You have no reason to trust me. I know. But please—let me help you. I promise I won’t hurt you—not again.”

Hunter teleported in front of Odalia, snatching her necklace away. “Haha! Try controlling your ghosts now!”

Ava looked at Hunter, then at Darius, and bowed her head, closing her eyes and going still.

“Thank you,” he murmured. He gingerly slid the knife back under the ropes. “One, two, three.” Darius pulled the abomination knife towards himself, cutting through the magic cleanly.

In Hunter’s hand, the pendant shook and released a spirit the size of a griffin, the smaller spirits flying into it and molding into one whole that roared in Hunter’s face, pushing his hair backwards. Hunter dropped the stone, teleporting backwards to avoid a swipe. “Darius, hurry!”

“One, two, three.” Darius cut the set binding Ava’s legs—only her beak left now. Hunter teleported circles around the spirit, confusing and enraging it. The spirit destroyed Darius’ abominations with a single swipe, keeping itself between Odalia and Darius, but still wheeling around to face the threat that was Hunter, its claws always a beat too slow to hit him.

“Last one, Ava.” Darius slipped the knife under the muzzle. “One, two—”

“Darius! Look out!”

Hunter slammed into Darius with all the force of a charging ratworm, jarring his arm and jostling the knife, which cut both the ropes and left a thin cut in Ava’s face. The world around them burned gold, and Odalia’s spirit roared, half caught in the warp, its claws barely missing Darius. The stone on the ground cracked, and it disappeared. Hunter clung to Darius’ side, breathing heavily.

Odalia stumbled back with a short shriek, glaring at Darius before disappearing into the trees without another word.

Darius hissed out through his teeth. “Well, that was a close…”

Hunter slumped against him with a groan.

“…call…”

Darius caught Hunter before he could fall, lowering him gently to the ground. The spirit had missed him, but its claws had found a mark in Hunter’s side, ripping so deeply that Darius saw bone. The edges of his shirt around the gash were already dark with blood, and Darius didn’t know if it was because of pain, shock, or blood loss, but his eyes were closed.

No.

No, no, no, no.

Darius tore open Hunter’s belt pouch. “Please—you always have—you have to have—” he tossed aside a crumpled piece of paper, dumping the contents of the pouch onto the ground to find the bandages Hunter always seemed to have on him. He found them, two rolls of cloth bandages that his shaking hands missed the binding on twice before finally unrolling them. He pushed the bandages into the gashes, packing them tightly into the wounds.

Hunter twitched, weakly whining and batting at Darius’ arms, but Darius pushed his hands away, stuffing more cloth inside of the lacerations. He tore off his own cloak, wrapping it tightly around Hunter’s torso to keep the packing in place.

“You’re going to be fine,” he promised shakily, shoving Hunter’s belongings back into the pouch. “Do you hear me?”

Back to the workshop? No, the Bat Queen wouldn’t be able to help him. But Bonesborough was too far, even with his warp. They’d come deep in the forest, and he didn’t know the local clinic well enough to safely bring two people there, especially if Hunter reacted badly to abomination magic right now.

His eyes slid to Ava, who eyed him, green blood dripping from the gash made by his knife. “Please,” he begged, “I know I hurt you when I promised I wouldn’t. I know I betrayed you in the past. You don’t have to forgive me. But help me save him.” He half-offered Hunter’s broken body to her. “I can’t do it without you.”

Ava strode towards him, and instead of a squawk, he heard her voice, a voice he hadn’t heard in decades. “For my friend.” She shifted into her staff form.

“Thank you,” Darius whispered. He swept Hunter up, snatching the staff out of the air, “Let’s fly.”

#toh #the owl house #dadrius week 2023 #day 6: palisman #dadrius #darius deamonne #hunter deamonne #bat queen #toh fanfiction #my writing

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