Hey folks, it's me! Matt!! Er.. you don't remember me? Well, I wrote "The Book," so.... Heh, guess you haven't read it? Doesn't surprise me... Looking back at it, I'm.. not pleased with how that story turned out =P So, let's start anew, shall we?
WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!
No tape of ANY kind should be used on the outside of lockers!! ::laugh:: J/K!!
If you're underage (depending on where you are, this varies), if this matter is offensive to you (male male sex and relationships), or if this matter is illegal where you are (er... I don't know where this is illegal, but it's just a precaution), please leave immediately... Yeah, right. If you took the effort to find this place, a simple thing like illegality probably wouldn't bother you, n'est-ce pas?
This story involves members of NSync in amorous situations and in male-male relationships. This story does not reflect fact in any way... ::sigh:: Just saying that depresses me... Anyways! This story is pure fiction, and should be read only for entertainment, rather than for research on the boys. Specifically, I am saying nothing about ::begin worshipful sigh:: Lance Bass ::end worshipful sigh::, Joshua Chasez, Joey Fatone, Justin Timberlake, or Chris Kirkpatrick's (did I spell that right?) personal preferences or personalities (or any other celebrity who happens to make a cameo). In point of this fact, they will be involved in a fantasy world, with quite a few differences to the "normal" one you and I live in... Oh, and I'm also changing around their ages!
WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!! WARNING!!
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Legends of Faerae
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There is a legend among the people of Faerae, one that is found in every culture, in every country, and is known in every language. It is the legend of the Fall from Grace...
Long ago, and far in the future, in the time where time never was, there were peoples of the Heavens, who lived a life of peace and happiness. Among them was Malis, the Prodigal Son, and Lucis, the Anointed One. Both were the offspring of the King of Heaven, called Justicar, and both possessed power unheard of before. As it were, they were raised in much the same way, but there was a marked difference between the two.
Malis was the younger son, by mere moments, but nevertheless, was considered the lesser of the twins. He grew, and as he did he found emotions such as jealousy, envy, and hatred. He tortured animals for the sheer thrill, and when he was old enough, did the same to his servants and anyone else he could place his hands upon. His madness became apparent to his father, who, unwilling to slay his own flesh and blood, disowned him, and banished him to the Nether Realms.
Malis, however, was far from finished. His madness consumed him, and he plotted revenge. He assembled all the denizens of the Nether Realms, and planned for the day he would topple his own father. He trained himself in the darkest of arts, taught by the most evil and twisted of creatures. Malis himself twisted his own image by use of Power, and created a form unrecognizable as his own.
He infiltrated the Heavens once more in his new guise, and assassinated his father. The peoples knew nothing, and considered the death natural. On the day of Lucis' coronation, Malis ordered his army to attack.
Lucis' forces were pushed back, and Malis seemed destined to win. Lucis, though, determined not to let the unknown leader be victorious, cast a desperate spell linking their two lives, and killed himself.
Malis' forces, bereft of their leader, fell into chaos, and the army of the Heavens pushed them back to the Nether Realms. Afterwards, all the peoples began the mourning for the loss of the Anointed One. However, a nameless prophet came forward, and announced Lucis was not dead. The prophet, possessed by the Power Above All, fell to his knees and delivered a message.
The message was that the Tribunal, the Omnipotent Justices, decreed the twins condemned by murder of their own blood. Malis from the murder of his father, Lucis from the murder of Malis. The two would be doomed to repeat their lives, in another time. Then the two would have a final battle, and the victor would determine the fate of the Heavens.
Prologue
"This group is most disappointing," dismissed the Priestess, "Not a single child with a Path."
Priestess Liya rose with difficulty from her chair. In her 90th summer, she was considered ancient, even by the notoriously long-lived Necromancers. She combed back gray hair that had fallen into her face, and signalled to the guards to escort the children out. Slowly but gracefully, she paced out of the room, snuffing out the lantern as she left.
As she walked into the corridor of the Temple, she reflected on how rare Paths had become in recent years. In her prime, the kingdom of Vera had been renowned for its vast population of Mages, Healers, and their ilk. Now, along with the rest of Faerae, they were experiencing an eerie lack of Power.
Now, as bandits grew in number, the King had issued a royal decree. All children were now to be tested for a Path, regardless of class or lineage. This was against tradition as it was found children of Talented parents were more likely to be Talented. A country-wide search had begun.
All the Talenteds' attentions were now diverted from their usual duties to testing batch after batch of children. Priestess Liya, of the Order of Justicars, had been pulled out of retirement to help conduct the search. Now, 3 months underway, all the search had turned up were a great deal of Grounded (unTalented) children.
Another day of disappointments had passed, and Liya was ready for bed. Tomorrow would begin all too soon...
James Lance Bass, professional thief, renowned in all the underworld for his skill, second to none in the art of thievery, master of stealth, who had no peers in his chosen career, had just botched yet another assignment.
"Crap!" he swore under his breath, concentrating very hard to not be seen. The guards had just entered the room, and even now could spot him, if they only looked up...
"Where is that thief?!" the shrill voice was sadly the property of a man. A pampered, languished, effeminate rat of a man, but a man nonetheless. His house had been the target of the night. He entered the room, shoving the guards aside imperiously, and surveyed the area for himself, as if his beady little eyes could catch the offender.
Lance's heart began to beat rapidly, and he thought frantically for a solution. He glanced at the window, ::No good, locked:: he thought. The door? As if reading his mind, the guard shut the door behind him, and Lance kept from cursing by the barest of margins.
Lance's stomach churned, and he focused, trying not to think about what he was about to do, trying not to panic. Even now, he could "hear" the music, music that was heard not by the ears, but by something inside. Music that every person "sang" from within, music that Lance had discovered he could hear a few scant years ago. Hoping his voice wouldn't crack, he began to hum a lullaby, very softly, willing the guards and the nobleman to sleep, willing their music to bend to his own. Their music resisted his efforts, trying to continue unperturbed, and as a reflection of this, the guards and nobleman all yawned as one. Lance stubbornly hummed more forcefully, though not at all more loudly. There was a slight "sigh" from the music, and it yielded. There was a soft thud from the nobleman's body, followed by 2 considerably louder BAM!s from the guards, and Lance was the only one awake in the room.
Heaving a sigh of relief, Lance leapt down from the rafters, and, whistling a merry tune, walked out of the room and the house, triumphantly bearing his prize.
"HALT!" a voice came from the darkness. Lance froze.
::oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit....::, with his lightning fast reflexes, he managed to stand absolutely still right away. {author's note: this is a joke}
"Where's my toll?" a mischievous young girl jumped out of an alleyway, and Lance relaxed considerably.
"Britney Spears, what are you doing out this late?" he demanded, upset at being startled.
"Justin sent ME out looking for you, Mister Un-grate-ful!" she retorted indignantly.
Lance refrained from saying what he would like to, and said only, "He did, did he?"
"Yes, he did, he was afraid that you'd botch up another job... Oops!!" her hands flew to her mouth, and she looked embarassed.
In response, Lance held up his newly "borrowed" item.
"HEY!! Ya did it!! Josh's gonna be real happy!" she squeaked, hopping up and down like the idiot she so often was.
"Calm down!" Lance hissed, "We're not out of the woods yet. Now let's get going!"
"I was just saying that I was happy that you FINALLY did something right and.. OW!!" Lance grabbed Britney by the ear and began dragging her back to the hideout.
"The prodigal son returns, eh?"
"Aw, hush up, Joey. Do you even know what 'prodigal' means?"
"Nope, doesn't matter, though, it sure sounds cool!!" Joey Fatone laughed and grabbed Lance's shoulder.
"Where's Justin? I owe him a smack on the head."
"Whaddaya mean? Are you insin-... insinu-... saying that you don't like my company?" Britney demanded.
"That's exactly what I'm saying, munchkin, very perceptive of you!"
"Hey, take it easy on her, she's only 12," Joey said, giving Lance a little shake, "Besides, she's just worried about her Big Brother."
"Please, she's no more related to me than you are to the King."
"Hmph! You're mean!" Britney stamped her foot in a tantrum and ran to her room.
"Britney... uhhh- oh well, she'll get over it, she's young yet." Joey said reasonably. "Josh is in the back, I think he's with Justin."
"Great, thanks." with that, Lance took leave of the older lad, and walked down the corridor to Josh's "office." He quickly tapped the code, 3 quick, 2 slow, and opened the door.
"Ah, welcome back, I take it you've killed Britney?" Justin laughed.
"Yes, and you're next, bozo." Lance laughed along with Justin, showing there weren't any real hard feelings.
"Enough chitchat, how did the heist go?" always the business man, Josh got right to the point.
"Perfectly, no one knew it was me, and I got away clean." Lance smugly brandished his trophy.
"Hey hey! So you didn't need Britney after all!" Justin asked, callous as ever.
"No, I didn't," Lance retorted shortly.
"Justin, a word of advice." began Josh, "Don't depend too heavily on Britney to bail you out all the time. One of these days the 'starving little sister' routine won't work."
"Why might that be?"
"Well, not all noblemen have hearts, and one of these days, they're just going to laugh and toss you both into the stockades."
"Or she's gonna get so fat she won't look too 'starving!'" joked Lance.
"Yeah yeah, I know, but it's only until she's trained enough to pull off jobs herself." Justin said, resigned, "And until then, she needs some way to get experience."
"Meanwhile, this should grab us a very pretty penny." Josh took the stolen item and stowed it where he stowed all their valuables, in his creaky coffin of a desk. By tomorrow, they all knew that Josh would either have sold it or traded it, for their necessities.
"Now, about this next heist. I think it's a two man job, and I'm thinking you two can do it together..."
"You're positive he used a Talent upon you?" Priestess Liya asked the nobleman.
"Positive! One second I was searching frantically for a thief, and the next thing I knew I was waking up from a deep sleep in the storage room!"
"Now calm down, sir. Are you positive it not a sedative of some sort?"
"I'm absolutely sure; there were no darts, obviously no pills, and a gas would have been detected before knocking us out so suddenly."
"I see, that corresponds with the guardsmens' testimony. Very well, we shall definitely look into this. Thank you for your time, Sir Carl." with that, the elderly Priestess led the irate nobleman out into the hall.
"Well?" she asked the seemingly empty room.
"He speaks the truth. I took the liberty of scanning his memory, and it was definitely the work of some sort of Talent." suddenly Judas, one of the Elite, the highly Trained Talented who served the Powers directly, melted out of the wall next to Liya, and she jumped in startlement.
"You- nevermind. Honestly, why I put up with you..."
Judas shrugged, "Because I'm useful to you, and you love me SO darn much." he responded impishly, puckering up his lips. She responded with a cuff on the ear, but she chuckled as she did so.
"Enough playing around, this is serious."
"I know, I know, this could very well be the only newly Talented person in the entire kingdom."
"Could you tell what particular Path might have been used on Sir Carl?"
"'Sir' my arse, that fool never should have inherited half of what he did." he protested vehemently.
"Nevermind that, he's not hurting anyone, despite his attitude and stupidity. Now what kind of Power was it?"
Judas thought for a moment, collecting the information. "Well, Psionics is possible, but to effectively use them against humans would require more training than is possible without our knowledge."
"And all the trained Talent is accounted for, isn't it?"
"Exactly. Channeling is out of the question. Sleep is a very subtle effect, and Channeling is anything but!" Judas laughed.
"Don't I know it. Now hurry up with this!" Liya laughed a little herself. Her own Path was Channeling, and she knew very well that the effects of Channeling were quite spectacular, though distinct.
"Sorcery is possible, but like Psionics, that would require incredible training."
"Incredible training, eh? Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that YOU are a sorcerer yourself, right?"
"Of course it doesn't!"
"Well? What is it then?"
"Well? What else is there? I forget." Judas shrugged, not looking particularly remorseful.
"Surprise, surprise," said Liya dryly, "What about one of the Other Planar Gifts?"
"Such as?"
"Necromancy?"
"Well, Possession is possible... but..."
"But what?"
"A spirit powerful enough to affect the living like that..."
"Is very rare, yes, I agree, but still a possibility, right?"
"I suppose. Well, what's left?"
Liya mulled it over for a moment. "Summoning is out of the question, because Carl would have seen it, right?"
"Right."
"The only one I can think of now is Healing-"
"That fits perfectly! Even an untrained Healing Gifted could invoke sleep!" Judas snapped his fingers triumphantly.
"But Healers have annoyingly persistent consciences, most have trouble even telling lies, much less stealing."
"True." Judas deflated.
"What about Bardic?!" Liya straightened abruptly.
"Bardic? I don't remember hearing anything about a 'Bardic' Gift..." Judas looked uncertain.
"It's very rare, but it requires no Training, it's all instinct."
"Can we really classify it as a Gift, if it requires no Training?"
"Of course. It really is quite powerful, even in the smallest quantities."
"Well, wonderful, then it's Bardic. Big deal. Now that that's done with, what are we going to do about it?"
"We? I am going to bed. You are going to investigate with the Underworld. Find out who was targeting Sir Carl, and Test him... or her, we can't really tell yet."
Judas heaved a big sigh. "Undercover, then?"
"Undercover."
Judas heaved another sigh.
"Heya! Lance! It's me! Jadus!" Judas, now properly disguised as a common thief, banged on the door of his contact's hideout.
"Jadus! What's up, man? Hey, you eaten yet?" Lance opened the door greeted the "old friend" warmly, with a quick hug and handshake.
"A bit, but you know me-"
"Always room for more." they finished in unison. Both laughed, and Lance grabbed "Jadus" by the shoulder, dragging him through the door into the base.
"What's this I see? Eww, I thought I told you to take out the trash, Lance!" Chris laughed, grabbing Jadus for a hug.
"You did? Then what are you still doing here, Chris?" Jadus retorted, banging Chris on the back affectionately.
"Some things the trashman just won't take." smirked Lance.
"Hey! I resent that!"
"How can you? It's true!" joked Joey, entering the room.
"Three against one! I need back up! Britney!" Chris called to the little urchin as Joey exchanged greetings with Jadus.
"What do you want I was having so much fun and you know what Justin said he said that I was getting better at this and EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! Jadus!! You're back!!!!!!" Britney squealed a squeal a pig would envy and grabbed onto the tall youth for a tight hug.
"Hey, ya little troublemaker!" laughed Jadus, tossing her up into the air, much to her delight.
"Little? I suppose, but for a 'little' troublemaker, she sure causes big trouble." Justin chuckled, taking Britney and placing her back on the ground. Britney made a face and ran back to her "lessons."
"Do I hear a reunion? How come I wasn't invited?" Josh walked into the room from the back, and got a hug from Jadus.
"So where have you been?" asked Lance. "I had given up on hearing from you this month."
"You'd given up on me? You don't think too much of me, do you?" Jadus pouted.
"Ha, what do you expect? So, is this a social call, or is this business?" Josh, blunt as ever.
"A little of column A, a little of column B," Jadus responded enigmatically, "But column B can wait for now. How about a bite to eat?"
"Oh yeah!" Lance snapped his fingers. "Have we got anything, Josh?"
"As a matter of fact, Joey went to the market earlier today, right, Joey?"
"Yup, got a whole bunch of goodies. Want me to whip it all out?"
"No! Gross! Just go get the food!" Chris gagged. The room was silent for a moment, as it sank in. Then, as one...
"Ewwwwwww!!!!"
"So what is this business you needed us for?" immediately after the meal, Josh had dragged Jadus to his "office," and was now grilling him mercilessly.
"Just a little information. It's about a hit last night."
"A hit? Ah, so it's already out, is it?"
"Quite. So, does this mean you know who pulled it off?"
"I should hope so! Lance!" Josh suddenly hollered, startling Jadus.
"Yup yup?" Lance popped into the room as if by magic.
"Do you remember who pulled off the heist last night?" Josh said, giving a subtle wink behind Jadus' back.
"You mean on Sir Carl?" Lance caught the wink and played innocent.
"That's the one. So, who was it?" Jadus asked impatiently.
"Fergot!" and with that Lance disappeared as abruptly as he had appeared.
Jadus heaved a sigh. "Is it private information, or what?"
"Why do you want to know?" Josh countered.
"Do I need reasons for everything?" Jadus snapped, "C'mon, Josh, you know me, I have a job to do, and if you could tell me who pulled it off, I'd be very grateful..."
"How grateful?"
"Enough to make it worth your while."
"As in how much?"
"Depends on how valuable the information is."
Josh sighed. "Enough banter. You want to know who it was? I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to hurt him, or harm him in any way."
A small bell went off in the back of Jadus' head. "Why would you need me to promise that? Of course I will, but--"
"It was Lance." Josh interrupted.
Jadus froze.
To be continued...
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Short, isn't it? Oh well. Umm... if you liked it, kewlness! Keep on reading my stories, I appreciate it! =)
If ya didn't like it, feel free ta e-mail me and lemme know what ya didn't like about it (I'm open to criticism, as long as it's vaguely constructive)
If ya really really liked it, also feel free ta e-mail me and lemme know ya do! Gotta love that kinda mail, but I ain't gonna put a gun to your head.
My e-mail is... kaiser_cain@hotmail.com
My editor, if he deems it fit to place his e-mail upon this, is... Blue478@Hotmail.com He's da one who was nice enough to fix all the mistakes I made (and there were alot, believe you me) So this time it's not as typo-filled as my last story =)
If ya feel like e-mailing me, I suggest ya also e-mail my editor, 'cuz he's the reason my story is being printed at all =)
Catch ya'll later!