Aftermath

Whooo second update tonight? Might be a third, I'm wide awake and bored and the next chapter promises to be interesting... if Durth doesn't get all cranky again. Should finish Beginnings and I have been working on Adaptation for those who read that as well.

I've also been working on a fourth story. That's how much attention I have. I'm starting to enjoy writing Aftermath the way I enjoyed Partners. There just aren't as many comments so I'm playing off of my own attempted plot and what Raya keeps bloody well doing whenever he pleases.

Raya plays his part very well. In all the lifetimes I've followed him, he has never once given up a female child without a fight. And when I say a fight, I mean he's the kind of father who cleans the gun while his daughter gets ready and THEN takes a shot at the guy. And then possibly mutters a death threat in the guy's ear as the daughter walks into the room.

Read, Review and Enjoy.





Walking into the room with Father and the other Brothers was awkward to say the least. To have four Brothers grab his ass was embarrassing. A fifth caressed him instead of groping him, but unlike the others the Brother acted as if he hadn’t done anything. Nothing but a small twitch of lips upward and a request for more wine.

Because that was what the apprentices did for Brothers. Basically servants and nothing more. Despite that fact not sitting well with Durth, he served the Brothers as a good and willing servant should. He kept his eyes down and took pride in the fact that behind closed doors he had freedom. Servitude was not such a difficult thing when one had some amount of freedom.

The Brothers sat at a round table, thus all had to look around them and Father could look at all of them easily. Nort, Raya had said his name was, was all white, his hair, his eyes, completely white. Yet the man seemed to see just as well as any others. Some sort of remaining technology had gone into his eyes. Giving him sight when his body failed him.

Upon entering the room, Durth was confused. About as confused as the Brothers were, given that they were expecting Maktar. Edno gave Raya a small nod and asked Durth for wine immediately, making it clear why there was a servant for each Brother and why they all wore the same clothing, the clothing that Tah had throne at him and ordered him to dress in before the meeting. The gray robes of an apprentice. Durth fumbled through a few requests, received several painful pinches from various Brothers, before the meeting settled down.

“Have we met before, you and I, Raya?” Father asked, to which Edno stiffened.

“I trained as an apprentice before the rule of presentation was made, so no, you and I have not met before, Father.” Raya responded calmly, lifting his glass just slightly to request more wine.

Durth responded immediately and poured the dark red liquid into Raya’s cup before he stood back and held the decanter, waiting for another request.

“And you have taken…”

“Maktar’s head. By rights, that gives me his position as well, though I fully recognise Father’s right to decline my abilities and to dismiss me from the position. I am young and as yet untried.”

Nort tilted his head towards his own apprentice, the only one who was not serving the table in general. The middle aged man whispered several things to Nort before backing away.

“You have a child on a woman, a good healthy girl. Tell me, what happens when she comes of age?”

Raya didn’t miss a beat, “to the one who is most useful to me, her hand shall go. I currently have a pair of twins, once belonging to Maktar, they are up for sale.”

“And. Your apprentice?” Several eyes turned towards Durth, he felt the heat welling up in his cheeks.

“My apprentice is mine, though, if you wonder, he is homosexual.”

“Is he virgin?” Edno asked.

Raya turned towards Durth. How, what. Did he… “yes.” he was surprised that he didn’t sound strangled.

He glanced around the table and watched as the five men who had touched his ass did one thing or another to wipe at their mouths. Then as one the Brothers turned to Father, giving him their undivided attention.

“I accept your right to sit at my table, Raya.”

Raya nodded, “Father called his sword and his shield and so I came.”

“Yes, yes I did,” Nort huffed out a breath and motioned to his apprentice.

The man stepped up beside Nort and placed a hand on his shoulder, as if saying that he was connected to Father and only speaking for Father, “we’ve found a lead.”

“A lead?” Edno perked up, “honestly?”

“To.” Raya licked his lips, intent on the information, “him?”

“Yes. The shield brought the information and so Father asks his sword to attend to the matter. Hunt him down and destroy him so entirely that he will no longer be a burden on the Aniege, not now, not hundreds of years from now.”

“That,” Raya grinned, “I can do. All you need to do is tell me. Where can I find him?”

“Someone named Una,” the apprentice said to the table as Raya sat forward, as Edno looked like he had swallowed something hard and unpleasant, “he owns a travelling troupe of musicians and performers. They deliver mail as well.”

“Sounds unpleasantly boring,” Raya muttered, glancing back at Durth, “what do you think of that?”

“Master still needs to produce a second child and take on another apprentice. The child means you would need to take,” Durth caught himself and recalled what might count as proper terminology, “a fertile woman, the apprentice means that you must either keep your current apprentice and find another, or find two apprentices.”

“What has that to do with the travel?”

“Travelling with a fertile woman has it’s tribulations. One must plan around taking a woman with them, to accommodate… shorter legs.” or more of, Tah’s ground eating pace, “travelling with apprentices is much the same as travelling with a woman.”

“Are you calling us.” one apprentice started.

“Women?”

Durth met their eyes, recalling Raya’s position, he had to throw caution to the wind, “you take it like women, you wine like women and like good little prostitutes you serve all the big boys at the table.”

“You serve as well.”

“I serve my master, but I do not spread my legs for just anyone.”

“Why you-”

“Enough,” presumably the apprentice’s Brother spoke up and gave the young man a scalding look, “he has a point, you are all like women. He was a servant before, was he?”

This from the one who had grazed Durth’s ass, he realised suddenly. Showing interest in him. Another Brother turned his attention to Durth.

“I was a servant. Good as, before the world ended. Do this, do that, lose your job and your lively hood and then your family. Who did you serve?”

“Past, I served Past.”

All eyes turned towards Durth.

“Past, does that make you,” Father wheezed, “the last recruit of Tushin, the man who recruited every Brother at this table?”

“Yes. That was his name,” Durth responded quietly.

Silence at the table for a long moment.

“I need to make plans,” Raya muttered, standing from the table.

“If you don’t want him,” a Brother muttered, “I will take him.”

“Or I,” said another, at which one of the apprentices glared at Durth.

Raya let out a huff, “if I die and he survives, you can have him. Until then. Hands off.”

Durth set the wine decanter back on the sideboard table and followed Raya out of the meeting room. He almost breathed out a sigh of relief, but he kept it back, kept it clenched back as Raya led the way through the fortress and back to the rooms. As soon as the door closed to the outside world, Raya let out a sound of relief.

“That was. Amazing.”

“What?” Tah asked.

“We leave as soon as we wish to. In search of Una.” Raya couldn’t contain his delight as he took Shirn from Tah, “so enjoy a hot bath, darling and clean our items, send for whatever you think we may need. And my sword. I want a big broadsword.”

“Making up for something?” Durth growled out.

“Why is he prissy?” Tah muttered.

“I think the boy is coming out of his shell,” Raya muttered, “Oh,” he turned to Durth, “Two Brothers will be coming here to ask for your company. It is purely your option, your choice, however, Sancten, the one who grazed your ass, would be the best choice. For myself and for you. Dowden, the other one who will be coming, likes virgins and likes being as rough as possible.”

“Are you saying I have a choice between the pair, but not whether or not I do…”

“I’ve heard of Una,” Raya responded calmly, “can smell a virgin from several miles away and he likes to play with them. They also say he can read the mind of a virgin. Possible power user. One way or another, lose the virginity.”

“Who would be the best option? You, Sancten or Dowden?” Durth muttered.

“Sancten,” Raya responded without pause, “he will have you and won’t break your heart in the process.”


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