Chapter Text
Two years ago
It just happens to be one of those late nights where Judar feels the growing urge to leave his room after silently screaming into his pillow, clutching onto it for dear life. Eyes unfocused, body trembling, wanting it to just stop. Stop it, stop it, stop it - which end up unheard for the fleeting shadows that haunts his senses, memories painting the black space of his mind.
And just like a switch, he quickly realizes that he’s in his room, he’s safe, no one else around to witness his moment of weakness and that the memories were only just memories this time.
This one, rare, time.
Judar’s hands slowly loosen their grip on the pillow, to end up shakily combing through his hair, body coated with cold sweat. He breathes harshly through his nose, rising to a sitting position. A cool breeze enters through the window, and the Kou’s Oracle welcomes it, watching the moonlight pouring through. It was so gentle, it’s soft, white light relaxing his muscles, and Judar likes to think that the moon shines just a tad brighter on nights like these. The nights he could no longer sleep through, too scared of the dark, too scared of remembering, too scared of the fleeting shadows.
But he would never admit that out loud.
...he needed to escape the Kou Palace.
To escape the presence of Al-Thamen.
Away from the phantoms and their claws that had tried to suffocate him once more.
Just until morning.
So, after fighting against his shaking legs, he manages to hop onto his magic carpet and fly off. No real destination, just needing to leave for a while before being forced to turn back and show up for breakfast with the Ren family. Besides, it wasn’t like he hasn’t done it before.
He sure wasn’t going back to sleep anyways.
Leaning back on his hands, a deep, heavy sigh passed through Judar’s lips as he gazed at the stars above, slowly being swallowed up by the morning light. The wind carried him over an orchard of peach trees in a nearby village.
It was one of those peach trees that would land him in his future predicament.
Two high-pitched voices had caught the attention of the dark Magi, causing him to backtrack and float down in front of the source. The cries had come from a girl and a boy - twins, he realized - haphazardly wrapped in a poor excuse of a blanket, though is was barely needed as it wasn’t too cold out. As Judar approached the children, they stopped their wailing, curiosity replacing the fear in their eyes.
He managed to get the young girl and boy - now known as Akane and Aoi, respectively - to trust him enough to talk. Judar silently thanked the peach tree for giving him a peace offering. The three sat silently for a bit, enjoying the sweet fruit.
It was that moment where he asked if they had wanted to join him in sightseeing - “You can fly?!” - and began to glide on the wind currents, that the question of ‘where were their parents’ finally popped into mind. He sort of wished he didn’t ask. Because “Mommy said to stay here so she could talk to her friend,” “She’ll be back by sunset!” The twins had fallen asleep under the tree before then, waking up just before Judar passed over them.
Mommy never returned.
Hence, twenty minutes later where the children are crying in front of the Magi, who now wishes he didn’t say that he didn’t think mommy would ever come back - abandoning one’s child happened so often here, he shouldn’t have cared but those pairs of deep red and sky blue orbs had weighed heavily in his stomach - left him pulling on his hair out of frustration and slight panic.
Because Judar didn’t have siblings, wasn’t there when the Kou children were just babes, never had a mom around to comfort him, stopped crying in front of the ones who raised him when he turned four. He never allowed himself to cry, final.
But he wanted these two in front of him to stop. He wanted to help, someway, somehow. He wanted to tell them that even without mommy everything would be okay but he had no idea just how that was going to happen. So, Judar just softly spoke their names and brought them closer to his chest. Judar was never one to comfort, never had been comforted by anyone, but maybe, just maybe, hugging them and whispering that they would be okay over and over, could work.
It worked. Judar had began to rock them back and forth, lulling Akane and Aoi asleep. He didn’t know exactly what this motion did, only having remembered watching a mother do so with her baby upon one of his past trips during daytime. Whatever it did, it seemed to be working so he continued.
Looking down at the twins, a small, genuine smile - just why did the weight in his stomach suddenly disappear? - was painted onto his lips before being washed away by a frown.
What to do now?
He couldn’t exactly bring them back with him without anyone finding out - like hell he’d allow those Al-Thamen bastards to lay their hands on them - but he really didn’t want to leave them back at the peach tree, nor did he want to leave them in front of someone else’s doorstep.
...Judar really needed to sleep, he wasn’t thinking straight. Why did he care what happened to people he didn’t even know? He stifled a yawn, decided eh, what the hell and there, problem solved.
A thought occurred to him, and then decides that he didn’t care if he was going to return to angry adults and harmless consequences, and headed south. There was a place that had peaked his interest many times before, with a strange pink-flowered tree and he might as well use this as an excuse for himself to not return to the Kou palace.
An excuse for himself to visit Sindria.