Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chul Asclepius did not grow up the only child in the Hearth. He was surrounded by both phoenix children and djinn children. Easily, they made friends amongst each other. As a child with the blood of both, certainly he’d be able to befriend children of both races if he put his heart and mind to it, shouldn’t he?

It was the first slight hint that mixed blood did not fully mark him as both a phoenix and a djinn, but instead something other. There would come other hints, later on.

The djinn children would grow up too quickly for him to keep pace with. All too soon they’d find the tattered remains of their culture’s Lifeworks to occupy their time with, and a young half-phoenix toddling after them would only get in the way. The phoenix children came to present the opposite problem. Though it took him longer to get tired of playing with the chicks in the same way, now he was the one moving too fast for them. And yet in other ways, he was moving too slowly. By the time the phoenix children were learning to manipulate their fire mana arts, Chul’s mana core had yet to properly awaken.

Even the chicks would look at him like he was stupid. Like shaping fire was the easiest thing in the world. Like even a baby could do it.

He was not stupid.

Often, he found himself in the care of his Uncle Mordain. More and more often, he found himself alone. Sometimes he would slip away on purpose, to find the long-abandoned armory that was finally again seeing use, to check the entrance and the infirmary for news of his mother. Adults said many things they didn’t believe children would pick up on.

That no one would just tell him directly what was happening with Agrona and his mother. That they would act like he couldn’t understand their words. He wasn’t certain which was worse. He was happy to hear any news, but he wished they’d just tell him the news. Some of the djinn he’d learned letters with were already having kids over their own. It made him feel slow--stupid.

But he was not stupid.

There must be something he could do. Everyone else was doing something, or learning from their parent. If he hadn’t been so--so slow, so weak, he could have done something too. He could have gone with his mother to protect her from the Vritra! If he had a better grasp of his fire mana arts, if he’d been born into his phoenix form instead of this more human form…

But it wasn’t too late. It can’t have been too late. His mother wasn’t-- That is, he may have been a bit slow, but he could still learn fire mana arts, and he could still master his asuran form. His mother was a phoenix too, so he had to have one of his own.

He’d sat in on enough lessons, amongst the other phoenix children. He understood how shifting forms worked for them.

Of course, it was supposed to work in reverse for them. Asuran children, usually, were born into their natural asuran form. When they grew enough to use magic and control their powers, they would learn to shift into the form of a lesser. But that just meant unleashing his asuran form should be even easier for Chul!

And so he snuck his way into the Hearth’s armory. No one ever came here anymore. When the Asclepius Clan had fled Epheotus, they carried with them what wealth and weaponry they could. Here, it would only gather rust, but it would not be used against the lessers, nor their fellow asura. Chul had spent a great deal of time here, imagining being able to heft and train with the brilliant, titan-forged weapons and armor on display. Now he sat in the shadows of the trophies of battles long past, some still polished brightly enough to serve as mirrors, and meditated.

As natural as breathing. As easy and fast as tossing kindling upon a fire. It was less a matter of actually doing anything, and more a matter of relaxing. Of letting go. Focus, find the inner fire within, just below his mana core. And just like the exercises where he pumps mana through his body, circulate the lava through his veins.

Liquid warmth flooded through his body, a comfort like he’d never felt before. Chul was right--this felt natural. And finally he was strong enough to sustain this form. Quickly he dashed to a particularly well-polished shield, peering within--and froze.

This wasn’t--This wasn’t a proper phoenix form. It looked nothing like Uncle Mordain’s, the few times he had seen it, or even the other phoenix children. Ashen grey skin, pulsing with magma-like veins, and two wings sprouting from his back. But no beak, no feathers anywhere else on his body. No claws and no tail.

It didn’t make any sense.

But… it felt good. And it really, really looked cool. It did so right up until the veins flickered out and his skin returned to its normal coloration. On his back, the wings seemed to fold back into his body and disappear.

Chul felt his heart sink. Was that really all he could do? But it was a start. If he could just keep managing to train in secret, they’d let him go to Alacrya in no time!

---

Even isolated from Epheotus and the wider world restricted to just the small flock of phoenixes, djinn, and other asura he had gathered close, a Clan Head’s work seemed never done. Mordain Asclepius knew that well. Running a community, no matter how small, required a mind sharpened with skills of logistics and mediation. It was inevitable, no matter how pacifistic the community, that conflicts would arise when beings lived in close quarters with each other, especially beings with memories as long as the asura. Especially when it was hardly safe for them to leave the Hearth anymore.

Especially when he also had to turn his mediation skills towards the problem of Agrona Vritra. Not even properly dealing with him and evading him, but merely evading him. So long as the Hearth housed remnants of the djinn people, he’d always bear some interest in them, and though he did not know their location right now, should he put his considerable resources into finding them…

…They were no Epheotus. And Mordain had never been Kezess Indrath.

Some part of Mordain was certain the Head of the Indrath Clan knew precisely where the Asclepius Clan had fled, even despite the apparent rumors of them having gone to join Agrona. He spared them not out of any sense of mercy, or even sentiment for their past friendship. He spared them because he knew Mordain would stay out of his way. Because he could not be bothered to spare the resources.

A humiliation, but one that made Mordain’s job easier, simpler, in the end. Being Clan Head could be complicated enough. Being Clan Head while keeping as much an eye on a hybrid like Chul as he could manage was even trickier.

Chul was not the first hybrid between lesser and asura. He may well have been the first phoenix hybrid, but Mordain’s memory went back far and he knew well that others had existed--even if none had survived this long. Chul was, in a way, very fortunate to have only been born in the Hearth where asuras and lessers coexisted, and not beyond its walls where arrogant asura or envious lessers might meet him.

Even so, there was a good reason that even here, where phoenixes and djinn coexisted, Chul was the only one of his kind. There had never been any fear that the boy wouldn’t survive to be healthy and happy. But certainly, his situation had sometimes led to…complications. The ways his growth rate differed from other djinn and phoenixes, for one, and how none of the denizens of the Hearth fully understood how his magic would grow and develop. He should have a grasp of aether, as both phoenixes and djinn did--but in what form would it take, which edict? Would his magic be more similar to phoenix abilities, something Mordain and his sister could have assisted his nephew with? Or would the slowly-declining population of djinn have to take Chul’s tutoring into their own hands?

And that was assuming Chul could safely use his powers at all.

Long before the Vritra’s cruel experiments, there had been legends of a basilisk-hybrid. When she tried to master her decay mana arts, all she succeeded in doing was burning the skin from her hands.

Mordain had actually met that particular hybrid. He still remembered the smell. Still remembered the screams.

Speaking of hybrids. Chul had made himself more scarce than usual, as of late. Usually, even when the phoenix hybrid was on his own it was easy to tell where he had gone, as the boy was quite loud. Something must have gotten his attention as of late, something he’d become quite focused on.

Usually, Mordain would feel proud that the boy was learning something about discipline and hard work. It had served the Asclepius Clan well in the past, surely it would serve his nephew well in the future, especially with how rambunctious and energetic he could be. But it would still be good to understand what it was that had captured the boy’s attention so.

And so, during a time where he was not immediately needed, Mordain began to trace Chul’s favorite spots, noting his absence in most of them with something wasn’t yet alarm.

It didn’t become alarm until he finally found his nephew.

The boy was slouched against the wall in the Armory. Initially Mordain assumed Chul had tired himself out playing or ‘training’--to Mordain’s slight disappointment something about this hall had always tended to work Chul up. He knew it was normal for children to re-enact the heroes of the past, but it simply rung differently have seen some of those heroics himself.

As he got closer, however, something else revealed itself. Symptoms that Mordain had only seen in lessers under extreme conditions, or after extreme activity. The boy’s face was hot, but not sweaty, as he gasped for breath, chest rising and falling in shallow movements. Chul didn’t even notice his uncle’s approach, not until Mordain was almost on top of him.

“Chul, are you alright?” Precariously, the Clan Elder’s stoicism and need for information balanced with Chul’s need for a caring uncle. “How do you feel?”

“Ummm… ‘m fine, training. Doin’ really good,” he mumbled between gasps. “Just… Just takin’ a rest… an’ then--”

The boy gasped, lurching forwards as his hand flew to his mouth, a small burp escaping his mouth.

Mordain frowned--he did recognize many of these signs. All were textbook symptoms of heat stroke. Supporting Chul’s back with one hand seemed to confirm it. Had Chul been a full-blooded phoenix, Mordain would have said his body temperature felt entirely normal. Through the back of his tunic, Mordain could feel the boy’s heart pounding away at rapid pace.

Chul had always run somewhere between a djinn’s body temperature and phoenix’s.

With a flick of his fingers, Mordain beckoned some Vivum towards the two phoenixes. It may not have been his specialty, but knowing a thing or two about healing had come in handy more often than once.

“It would be good if you took your tunic off,” Mordain said, calmly. “And have you been drinking water?”

Chul only shook his head. This wasn’t something Mordain often had to deal with or even observed, but so long as he understood the actual issue, a solution typically became straightforward. Chul would be in no serious danger, for now.

But it did confirm some of Mordain’s fears. Many asura clans began training their children quite young, especially the pantheons. In ages long past, best left in the past, they’d be sent off to war not much older. It was thought that even Arkanus Indrath was quite young when he slew the Living Mountain, Geolus.

A hybrid threw many things into uncertainty. Things would have been much easier had Chul been a calmer child, embracing teachings of mindfulness and peace. Perhaps if he hadn’t sent Lady Dawn away, he could have put off Chul’s training longer. Perhaps even indefinitely, if he were lucky.

Wishful thinking, Mordain knew. He saw no possible future where this child didn’t grow to be a handful, didn’t grow tired of the Hearth’s stasis and seek to leave. All Mordain could really do, in truth, was ensure he didn’t burn himself out before then. But even with skills over Aevum, Chul still found ways to make trouble for him.

He bundled up the young hybrid into his arms, and began the trek to the infirmary. Well, a quick look with Aevum showed he didn’t foresee the rest of the Hearth properly requiring his attentions until tomorrow…