Akatsuki (Magi Ja'far X Fem Reader)

(Y/n)

Author's Note: This is going to be a long chapter. It's basically a brief (ish) retelling of the story through the reader's point of view. Thanks a lot for reading/voting/commenting!

I coughed and spit as a hand grabbed my hair and pulled me off of the ground. "Obey. You are a soldier of Al Thamen. Nothing else," the voice said. I tried to crane my neck to look him in the eye, wincing from the pain. "Where's my brother?" I spat. In reply, he threw me to the ground and started beating me again. My bruises ached as my ten-year-old self stubbornly struggled against the man's grasp. Just as my vision started turning black, he stopped beating me and repeated his sentence. I remember thinking,"How long can this guy keep hitting me? Does he ever get tired?" Apparently not. Although I don't remember exactly how long this went on, I do know that it was long enough for the sun to rise and set several times outside the barred window. Finally, when my small body was at its limit, I heard the same monotone sentence repeated for the thousandth time. "Obey. You are a soldier of Al Thamen. Nothing else," I lay on the ground, blood dripping down my face, every inch of my body feeling broken. "I am a soldier of Al Thamen," my voice somehow managed to croak out from my aching throat. "Nothing else."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Kouha-sama, I beg your pardon," whispered one of the attendants. "I said, I want her as my attendant," the third prince said, pointing at my unresponsive face. "Are you sure, your Highness?" asked Judal, the Oracle of the Kou Empire, or rather, Al Thamen. "Didn't you hear what I just said?" replies Kouha Ren, getting annoyed. Judal blinked in surprise before laughing. "She's a palace guard. But not one that holds a very important position. So yes, you can have her," he said.

Becoming Kouha Ren's attendant was the first thing to happen in my life that wasn't controlled by Al Thamen. Before that, I was just a soldier guarding the palace. Guarding the place where the organization carried on with their hidden activites. Guarding secrets that they barely even revealed to me, their unimportant guard dog.

"Why did he want me as his attendant?" That was always the unspoken question I kept inside. But after some time, I realised. He has a thing for gathering people from strange places. The kind of people that are usually unnoticed or outcast. His other attendants were thrown away and left to rot. Kouha Ren was the one who saved them. No wonder they're so devoted to him.

Being an attendant was...decent. I found it better than standing guard outside of doors everyday. I wouldn't have minded for things to stay like this.

A hand on my shoulder stopped me as I was making my way out with Kouha Ren and the other attendants. "I know where your brother is," Judal whispered into my ear. The surprise and joy of the knowledge that my brother's alive is flushed down quickly by the realization that he is in Al Thamen's grasp.

"I have a mission for you."

 I did not refuse. You are a soldier of Al Thamen. Nothing else.

~~~~~~~~~~

After I watched the knife sink into my target's chest, I let the wave of pain pull me in and drown my vision in darkness. The last thing I felt were my legs giving way beneath me.

Sounds and colours reached out to me through the darkness. The last screams of my neighbours. My brother wailing over our parents' bodies. Blood pooling against the floor. The man landing blow after blow on my small body. The life seeping out of the girl's eyes once my knife pierces her chest.

My eyes flew open and I gasped for air. I was choking, my lungs reaching for oxygen in vain. Escape. I needed to escape. I glanced around my surroundings. Clean white sheets, bandages around my wounds...a window! I scrambled towards it and somehow managed to open it while my lungs choked on the invisible water. I jumped out and run along the palace walls and roof. It was not until I reach the very edge of the palace grounds that my trained side kicked in. You are a soldier of Al Thamen. Stay and wait for further orders.