Aftermath

Apparently it is very difficult to get two people to have a conversation! Before you ask, this is how Una starts all of his conversations with people. Start with what he considers the basics and move on from there. I do love his reaction to Durth at the end, though.

It took all day to write. Well. Not ALL day, the first... six hours was writing half a chapter of something else.

Yes, I said half a chapter.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




They woke at dawn and packed up the trailers. It was a learning experience for Durth and it took them twice as long to pack up their trailer as it did for everyone else. Once the trailer was packed, Raya and Tah climbed up into the driving seat silently, both stubbornly silent. Durth sighed and moved to Una’s trailer, where the man was sitting in his driver’s seat, hat pulled down over his eyes.

“Morning,” Durth said.

“Morning,” Una muttered in response, urging the horses harnessed to his trailer into a canter.

As the troupe left the village, Durth was silent. He tried to keep silent but his own annoyance got the best of him and blurted out suddenly, “I’m not a whore!”

“No one said you were,” Una responded calmly.

“Raya said that because I have no useful skills you’ll give me away to some lonely man. I’m not a whore.”

Una was silent for a long moment before he looked away from the trail and to Durth, at least, Durth thought that Una was looking at him. The hat hid the man’s eyes and his expression as he turned from Durth and back to the road.

“You are either very stupid or intent on doing the opposite of what you are told,” Una muttered, “It is true, that if a person is useless, I put them into the hands of someone who is capable of handling them for such a term as they were useless, but you’ve a back you can put to use. Muscles, strength. You are not simply eating the food and being a pain. Odd jobs, packing up trailers, unpacking trailers, even learning skills are part of your payment to the troop.

“Those with skills are given food and they gain a bit of gold from their jobs as entertainers. Raya will earn money singing, Tah will earn coin from those she heals, or various objects traded for her efforts. Ones such as yourself, ones who have no skills, can work for their food in various ways but have no real way of gaining gold.”

“So you won’t…”

“Give you to someone? Gods, no.” Una shifted on his seat, somehow coming closer to Durth without making it seem like he was trying to move closer, “do you know about the gods, Durth?”

“Raya has been teaching me about them, yes. How patronage to a god can make or break a man, even if he doesn’t believe in them. How Ill is the goddess of the underworld.”

“Ill-rin, but really one should always start at the top of the family, the head. Rahl-ta and Tahl-ra, father and mother of the gods, they sit on the twin thrones. Has he told you about them?”

“Any time he tries to, he gets this funny look on his face and trails off,” Durth muttered, “so I’ve heard about them, sort of, but not much actually about them.”

“There isn’t much to say, not since they took the thrones. They were once the balancing act of light and dark, good and evil, daughter and son. Both can change their genders at will but more often than not Rahl-ta is male and Tahl-ra female. Tahl-ra was born first, you see, and because of that Harella-shay, their mother, imported upon Tahl-ra the importance of being female for the throne passed from Mother to Harella-shay and so it passed to Tahl-ra and will pass to either Tahl-ra’s natural born daughter or Illuva.”

“Wait. Harell-shay and Mother?”

“Mother, she is the ground we walk on, the air we breath, the food we consume.” Una motioned about as he spoke, “I am a child of Mother.” a small smile curved the man’s lips upward, “She came before us all and she birth Harella-shay. The stars overhead, in the night sky, they create Shey-har and he and Harella-shay mated. They produced Rahl-ta and Tahl-ra. Mother is alive, but Harella-shay and Shey-har have both passed on.”

“Leaving the throne to Tahl-ra who is … mated to Rahl-ta?”

“Clever boy. Their first born is De, god of chaos and darkness. He fell in love with Illuva and the pair of them are to be mated. Illuva is a goddess who surely you know,” Una turned his head towards Durth who shook his own head in confusion, “Illuva is the goddess of balance and control, she is seen as a goddess of hope against De’s despair. When she is calm, he is chaotic, when she is chaotic, she is calm. Long brown hair and brown eyes, an average form, a people in the heavens? None of this you know?”

“No. Why, was she a major goddess?”

“She is a higher god, one of six. Just before the civilization ended she was the goddess that everyone spoke of, that everyone prayed to and wanted to smile down on them. Everything was blamed on her and every good tiding was her blessing.”

“Never heard of her.”

Una’s lips pressed tightly together, “Well, that would make you the most ignorant person your age, I would have to say. Illuva is very important, let us leave it at that. Was, she was very important. Illuva created the lines, who I should hope you have heard about,” Durth nodded when the man paused, he had heard some about the lines, “It began with six lines, four of which put claim to a god. But Illuva didn’t become a full god until sometime after De. When she did, she created a godling as she transformed, changing a strong mortal named Ill into something more. Ill came from the Blood line. After she became a god the Blood line became quite high on their horse.”

“You said there were six, Rahl-ta, Tahl-ra, Illuva, De, Ill, that makes five,” Durth said quickly, “and you’re rambling.”

Una made a sound at the back of his throat, “Ringe is the sixth. He is half-daemon, half-god, who, at the end of his natural lifespan, made the transcending step into the heavens. Ringe is the bastard child of Rahl-ta and is a god of the daemon. He mated Ill recently which would make him-”

“Ringe-ill and Ill-rin?” Durth asked.

“You are a very clever boy.”

“I am not a boy.”

“No, no you are not,” Una responded quietly, sighing out.

A gust of wind came up as the sky darkened overhead. Durth shivered, he was wearing nothing more than a shirt and pants, and shifted towards the only available heat source, Una. The other man gave off very little heat, but shifted so that his leg was touching Durth’s.

“What happens when Illuva and De mate?” Durth asked, trying to distract himself from the imposing rain clouds.

“What do you mean?” Una said.

“Well, he’ll be De-ill and she’ll be Illuva-de, but De-ill could be mated to Illuva or to Ill, just like Ringe-ill could be mated to one or the other. So. What happens when they mate? All the others share their names…”

“I don’t know,” Una responded quietly, “perhaps that is why they have yet to mate. De could take Illuva’s original name though. Which was Elluuhiah, there was no ‘v’ in that language that was spoken, people, immigrant people, have altered her name over time to suit their languages and the people, your ancestors, took up the name eagerly. He could become De-ell.”

“And he, has he always been De?”

“De, pronounce it De, not Day, not da-ee, not deh not even deeeee. De. Like you were saying dead but stopped suddenly. De. Say it any other way and Illuva with throw a fit,” Una muttered, “the others, Rahl-ta, Tahl-ra, were quite straight forward. Ringe, even, Ringe’s name people could pronounce properly throughout their lives and generations. But Illuva’s name has changed and De most people see written instead of hearing it with their own ears and one person’s mistake become the mistake of millions.”

“And you?” Durth asked, “was your name always Una?”

“My given name,” Una’s lips tugged upward once more, “meant ‘one in control of his own fate’ which is just about spoken as Unaesios.”

“Just about?”

“They say if someone knows your true name, they can use that name against you, spells and powers and magics the likes of which the gods would never allow to be used.”

“So you’re afraid that someone like me is going to find out your real name and use it against you to either control or kill you?”

“Yes, very much so.”

“Paranoid much?”

“Always,” Una muttered, “If I was half as paranoid as I am, I would be hurting all the time from the people who I let in and who hurt me for my kindness.”

“You’d get a lot more sex, though,” Durth responded, “sex from here to the horizon.”

“What makes you think I want that?”

“You called yourself a perverted old man,” Durth reminded him.

“Right… but I don’t want all the people from here to the horizon. I may be a pervert, but it is mainly about pairing others up and getting myself into situations.”

“Raya says you are a notorious lover.”

“Seems Raya says a good deal.”

There was a long moment of silence. Durth turned towards Una, just to have something to say, “He’s teaching me to speak ancient, because he doesn’t want the language to die out like the… language of Mother, he has mentioned her before.”

“He’s been teaching you ancient? Can you say anything in Ancient?”

“Let’s see. It goes. Nemph ma tah zeen nu, nemph ma ra hu nu, nemph ma duntuar fu gohmena bon glenda, uhpay un mofvanse eh ayata nu. He said it was-”

“A prayer, has he told you the meaning of it?”

“Yes. He told me the meaning of the words and then said that if only I could come to understand what it actually meant.”

“Should my mother beat me, should my father rape me, should my passing from this world go unnoticed by mortals, still the gods do love me,” Una muttered, “do you understand the meaning of this?”

“I think so.” Durth said quietly.

“Then tell me, what does it mean?”

“It’s. Uhm. In the words. Uhm,” Durth bit his bottom lip as Una shifted his attention from the road and to the young man, “like. My father sold me when he found out that I was gay but that doesn’t matter because what he thinks doesn’t matter. It’s not what the people around me think, but what the gods think because they are the ones who will be passing judgement on my immortal soul.”

Una turned back to the road, “you do know what it means.”

“Even if I don’t believe in the gods? I didn’t know about them until recently, so what right have I got to make claims about what their prayers mean? It’s all just empty words and to them, I’m nothing. I’m not a follower so when I die my life ends and that’s it.”

“No, it’s not,” Una responded, wrapping an arm around Durth’s shoulders, “because still the gods do love you.”

“Even. Even if I don’t know they exist? Even if I wish bad things on those who hurt me?”

“Still the gods do love you. Those who sin are those who spit on the gods and shun them, those who hurt the innocent and hide from justice. And yet still, in some way, the gods even love those people. The world cannot exist without evil, Durth, the shadows and darkness of your life are necessary to make you who you are.”

“That is a very strange outlook on life.” Durth paused as Una made an acknowledging sound, “and we are very close.”

“You just noticed that?” Una murmured into Durth’s ear, “does my being this close make you uncomfortable?”

“I’ve never had a relationship before.”

Una shifted away from Durth immediately and cleared his throat, “never?”

“Never. While I was servant I couldn’t really do anything because they were homophobic. And while with Raya is just never came up. Raya’s very… dense.”

“Are you attracted to Raya?”

“No, not really, but he was the only one around me who was, you know.”

“Gay?” Una sighed loudly, “Well. That complicates things.”

“Why? I’ve had sex before.”

“But not a relationship.”

“Is there a difference?”

Una placed his face into his palm and groaned, “all the more reason to not have sex with you.”


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