Aftermath

I've had a very terrible, horrible week.

In this there are a couple of things. For those who read Partners and Sequel, yes, that is her. For everyone reading, there is a bit in here that those who read... mmm think it was in Sequel, will possibly get faster than others. The idea of how to end Aftermath has been dancing about for a bit and might have finally come to me. The ending is very up in the air and balanced upon one thing, as I suppose stories are supposed to be balanced: on Durth. His reactions and his desires will change the outcome, while I lean away from a few of the possibilities due to bias desires.

Read, Review and Enjoy.

EDITED: to add a bit more of a note. The '*' is actually noted because it is very similar to John Milton's Paradise Lost, his Lucifer says something like "tis better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven" which is a quote I latched onto two years ago when I stopped updating Namesakes suddenly and took control of my life. It is a quote that can save a life, if you understand it properly. It's better to rule your life while struggling to survive than to kneel to someone who will abuse you.

I just want to add "and still the gods to love you" That prayer is something else that holds a good deal of meaning. When I'm having a bad time, like my past week, I try to recall the prayer word for word in 'ancient' it can be quite soothing, repeating something in another language.




The troupe pulled to a stop for the night before the sun was set. Durth helped the other young men set Una’s trailer up for the night. As he did so he noticed how they all tried to catch Una’s eye, how the older man watched the younger ones go about the business of setting up his trailer. Una chose one by touching the young man’s shoulder just barely on the shoulder. The others seemed upset.

Durth didn’t quite understand why Una had been talking about a relationship with him yet had chosen a young man to share his bed that night. Was that one of the differences between them? That Una could have sex with whoever he pleased but wanted a relationship with Durth? Did a relationship mean no sex?

That appealed to Durth tremendously.

After setting up the trailer, Durth wandered back to Raya’s trailer and helped the younger man set up that trailer as well. Tah had food cooked by the time they had that trailer set up and all settled down to eat. Their meal was cleared away and Raya had pulled out a little whistle when Una stepped into the firelight, hat atop his head and cane in his hands.

Raya looked up, whistle just placed between his lips. Tah was nursing Shirn and glanced at Una before she dismissed the man entirely and cooed to her daughter softly.

“I’ve come to ask your permission to court Durth.” Una murmured.

To which Raya attempted to inhale his little whistle and choked and coughed on it for a long moment before he managed to get it away from his mouth and fumble out, “you want to what?”

“Court Durth, he has never had a proper relationship, it would be best to teach him now, before someone tarnishes his view of romance. I was going to simply seduce him and be done with it, however…”

Raya sighed, “you always ensure a young man has the tools he needs to move on when you are done with him,” the Cousin looked to Durth for only a moment before he turned back to Una, “you have my permission to court Durth.”

“Marvellous, do I have your permission to take Durth for a walk?”

“With what chaperone?” Tah muttered, tucking herself back into her shirt as Shirn wiggled and made content little sounds.

“A Sidhe will accompany us,” Una said after a long pause, “if you agree to it, of course.”

“We can agree to that,” Raya said as Tah opened her mouth to protest, “Sidhe are not ones to take the courting process lightly, darling, if Una so much as looks at Durth the wrong way, the Sidhe will bruise him.”

“Sidhe?” Durth squeaked, not entirely certain how to handle one of the animals.

“Come, Durth,” Una motioned to him.

Throwing a desperate look in Raya’s direction, Durth stood. The Cousin ignored Durth’s look, so Durth had to follow Una. He had agreed to trying to be entertaining to Una, but he hadn’t agreed to meeting a Sidhe. Convincing a pervert that he was interesting was one thing, convincing a Sidhe was an entirely different matter.

Durth had just turned to the question of why Una had Sidhe when the other man pulled to a stop a short distance away from the little circle of trailers. Durth stopped just behind him, startled. Una moved to several feet away and turned towards Durth.

“Now, don’t. Worry. For Sidhe it is perfectly normal.”

“What is?” Durth asked, confused.

Then he heard the odd thwump of something hitting the ground and shifted his attention from Una to the something. The female straightened, blonde hair hanging at odd lengths about her face in a way that seemed haphazard and yet stylish at the same time. Her purple eyes narrowed as she locked eyes with Durth. She was tall and lean, taller than Durth was and leaner by far. Her fingers were long and her toes were longer than normal toes were even though her feet were otherwise perfectly proportionate to her body. Her belly rounded just slightly, a new pregnancy showing there. Scars up and down her arms and the sides of her torso. And perfectly shaped, perfectly sized breasts with nice little nipples. Nicely shaped, nicely sized.

And entirely naked.

Durth dragged his eyes from the female’s breasts and met those eyes once more. They flickered in the dim light, like an animal’s, a moment before the female gave him a toothy grin, showing off her long canines and perfectly straight, razor sharp teeth.

Sidhe.

He swallowed the hard lump at the back of his throat and tried to focus on something that wasn’t about the naked female and yet all he could blurt out was, “She has a hot body.” to which there was silence in response and Durth cursed his own stupidity.

“Ashun was created,” Una stepped up behind the female, “someone… got a hold of my… genetic material and mixed it with Sidhe. Luckily the fool was not stupid enough to try to put people into the mix. He tried to perfect what Mother perfected hundreds of thousands of years ago. The lethal animal that is Sidhe.”

“Oh. So. She’s your…”

“Technically I believe she counts as a third cousin,” Una responded, “I can’t breed her and I don’t have any inclination to try. We’ve since dealt with the man and his research. But Ashun, being the delight that she is, stuck around.”

“She is quite beautiful. Like I would expect a goddess to look like.”

“Ashun is not a goddess,” Una pushed his hat upward, revealing his own purple eyes, “she is a guardian to the underworld. She, and those like her, stand at the gates of hell and keep the mortals out of Ill’s domain.”

“She and those like her?”

“The chimera.”

Durth shuddered, “like. Half people, half bull?”

“Yes,” Una muttered, “She is part of those who keep mortals from the underworld, keep mortals from entering the realms of the gods. Have you heard of the man who stood against the gods and gained entrance to the underworld?”

“No.” Durth shook his head.

“Ashun and the other chimera are necessary because a man became tired of bowing to the gods. He told them some. Drivel, some comment about how he would rather rule in the darkest, deepest, most terrible place in all the hells than to serve the gods another moment.”*

“The gods must have…”

“Seen it as a challenge.”

“So. He won?”

“Good gods, no, he lost. The gods won, they not only won, they leashed him, tight control over the rabid dog. They took control of not only him, but every person whom he comes in contact with. His friends, his family, all are forced to bend knee and serve the gods because of one simple mistake. But when the gods want something done, really want something done,” Una shifted his weight and lowered his voice, “they let the beast off his leash.”

“What happens then?”

“What happened fourteen years ago?”

Durth’s mind shuddered to a stop, “but that one, that Rel,” it was after dark, he could say it, right? “Aniege guy did that, he destroyed the…”

Una glanced up at Durth, “No. Had the government done as they claimed they were doing and destroyed Sidhe technology, had they moved on from that point, Rel’s work would have been for naught. All he did was shut down the power. Someone else ate up the world.”

“They could have saved themselves and instead they only sealed their fates.”

If Rel hadn’t destroyed the world. If Rel had only started the snowball down the hill. If. If. If. So many if’s, which was the truth of the matter?

“They let him off his leash, is what you are telling me?” Durth squeaked out.

“Yes, they wanted something very specific done. And now the beast is loose. Free to do as he pleases and his… master… wants him back,” Una said very carefully, “There are only two people in the lands that can pull such a feat off. The other has already served more than his share, has already given over his soul and his life in the servitude of the gods and reaps the benefits of his actions.”

“You want me to-”

“Kill the beast. Oh, and accept my invitation to travel beside me tomorrow during the day.”

“But. How am I…?” Durth let out a little sound.

“When the time comes,” Ashun finally spoke, her voice silken and wrapping around Durth’s spine, sending an odd shiver down the young man’s spine, “we will deliver unto you that which is necessary to complete the mission.”

“But-” wait. What? “you want me to do this and you still want to court me?”

Una frowned before it seemed to dawn on him. “Yes. I still want to court you, you don’t have any questions about the … beast?”

“No,” his mission, his goal was to destroy the one who had in turn destroyed his world. He wasn’t off of destroying the Rel person but at the same time he could easily believe that it was the job of more than one person.

It just didn’t seem possible that one person had destroyed the entire world.

“No questions, just curiosity.”

.