Namesakes

So. Yes, I'm still debating whether or not to include he next bit
I'm writing on AFF. It would likely be hilarious amounts of fun for
me but... hm, still considering.

But considering all and all, I'm still writing.

Read, Review and Enjoy, as always.

Things were getting complicated. Very, very complicated. He stared
at his long fingered hands, felt his young face. He was only, what?
Twenty? He shouldn’t be like this. Never before in the history
of his lives had he ever been so damaged so early in life. But then…

… this life had been terribly strange.

He moved like Rava did, hiding his intentions and getting as close
to his mate as possible. Rava didn’t know what he knew, for
once Rava was the one who didn’t have all the intelligence,
wasn’t the one who took control to protect <I>him</I>.

Rava was busy trying to piece him back together, while he was busy
casting the bits off. Pulling himself up further and further. He was
going beyond the limitations of a normal Sidhe, a level of being that
people, normal people, couldn’t understand.

Nax, he understood what was going on, like any Sidhe would
understand another Sidhe’s power. It just happened, one didn’t
question it. Especially when it didn’t hurt anyone.

He found himself drawn to eat strange things, brought small birds
with bright feathers which him and Nax ate in earnest after they had
been cooked exactly the way he instructed. They made him tingle, made
him feel not so empty and hollow inside.

Soon it would be over.

They travelled for a month, going as he instructed. He knew it
wasn’t just random instructions that he gave in the morning but
had no idea where he was leading them to. If where they were going
was where Rava wanted to go. The only reason he had these
instructions was because this was where Rava wanted to go and he
would do anything for Rava.

The other pieces moved around him, spinning and spinning as they
searched for him and ignored the other boy. Because he told them he
was the key and drew them to him. None could catch up because he
would mislead them at times and not even the gods could track his
movements. Rahl-ta and Tahl-ra hid him.

If anyone thought to look for Rava instead of Ayato, they would
have a real problem on their hands.

Instead, however, they arrived at the over grown temple without
incident. They were greeted by a very pissed off looking woman.
Dressed in a corset and a skirt that barely covered the parts of a
woman that aught to be covered, she leaned against the temple’s
main gate and glared at them, her arms folded. The goddess of beauty
that the people followed, whom didn’t really exist, was based
off of this woman’s form.

The only difference was the hair colour and the size of her chest.
The goddess had a larger chest, this woman was quite proud that hers
was smaller and yet could still make so many men bow to her.

“Brat.”

“Old pervert.” master muttered.

“Rava, and I can only assume Ayato, what’s left of
you. Who are these other two?”

“Nax,” Rava motioned to the Sidhe the woman had
thought was Ayato, “and Tyze,” to the young man, “Nax
was mated to Ayato when Ayato and …er. Brat, thought I was
dead. So there are three of us in the pairing.”

“My temple was destroyed by Father Aniege three centuries
ago. I don’t see to Aniege any more, even if it is Ayato.”

“It’s the least you could do for the father of your
child.”

Vera’s eyes narrowed, she summed him up, as he scratched at
the ground. He knew that she knew, that he was not what he seemed.
Vera was the original game master, no piece was hidden to her, no god
could hide from her.

It sent a wave of fear through him that was followed by a wave of
excitement.

She was the only one who could walk up and slap Shey-har and
survive. He had debated, with himself and sometimes with Rava,
whether or not Vera was the mother-goddess that so many myths and
legends talked about. Who better to be game keeper than mommy?

But Vera had to give up her role as game keeper, at least for a
little while, because she couldn’t stand playing in their game
any more. So she had withdrawn from people, Sidhe and Una alike.
Released the spells on her temple and slowly buried every one of her
closest friends, her companions and her workers alike, until she was
the only one left, unmarred by time.

Pieces were naturally attracted to Vera. Because Vera gave them a
way to expend all their extra energy, to calm them down and keep them
from rebelling against their gods.

Most pieces were male and, surprise, surprise, loved sex more than
almost any other thing. Not because they were male, but because it
was a way the gods could control them without outright threatening
them, their families or their way of life.

“Well. You had best come inside.”

He felt sheepish. But he followed the others into the main gate.
The group stopped so Vera could close the gate and as she did so he
and Nax searched the grass, finding all kinds of bugs they had never
tried before. He made Nax offer Rava bugs. Rava picked out one that
looked least disgusting from Nax’s handful but Nax batted it
away and selected a hairy caterpillar.

“Tastes better,” Nax popped a similar looking one into
his mouth and chomped on it.

“Sidhe are disgusting…” Vera muttered, lowering
the bar across the door, “those bugs are poisonous to people
you know.”

Ayato spat out the bug he had in his mouth. He was part people.
Rava offered the bug to Nax who eagerly ate it up, refusing to take
it from Rava’s fingers. Nax just wanted to see Rava cringe,
but… Rava had spent much of his adolescence around Ayato.
There were very few things that could make him cringe.

Instead of bugs, he ate plants as they walked towards the temple,
it was overgrown with plants but otherwise looked just as new as it
had lifetimes before. Though, it was so many lifetimes before that it
was almost like a distant dream. His trips to Vera’s territory
had never been unpleasant and so they sort of faded, the edges of
memories becoming fuzzy as time passed.

Here a leaf, there a purple flower, over there a bluish pod. Vera
picked several orange fruit things, that weren’t oranges, and
offered one to Nax before pocketing the rest.

“Ayato hasn’t been eating enough meat,” Vera
looked over her shoulder at him, “Nax hasn’t been getting
enough sex. Despite his attitude he is still Sidhe. And Ayato can’t
see to Nax’s needs, especially not when he refuses meat.”

Rava glared at him. He had been quietly throwing his meat away for
several weeks. He didn’t want it, it tasted terrible and it had
things in it. Even if it made Rava mad, he wouldn’t eat it. He
wasn’t an animal. He wasn’t a people. He couldn’t
be expected to play by the rules of a civilization that would sooner
consume his flesh than consume his literary works.

Although. Ayato didn’t write because he found it to be an
extreme waste of time.

“A meal, a bath and a sleep. Then we shall see who is ready
to sit down and talk.” Vera murmured, “I will hear no
talk of anything besides ‘oh, isn’t this lovely food’
or ‘such fine weather we are having, neh?’ until after
the first three are done. Anyone caught doing so will be punished.”

“You haven’t got any of your goons left,” Una
growled.

Vera smiled, just slightly, “whoever said that I am here
alone? Or that my… toys… no longer exist?”

.