Aftermath

I was going to make this much longer, but as Ayan says, he's having an off day. Durth's words have put Ayan into a brooding mood and Ayan's trying to get himself out of it. Because the troupe expects something, and I think maybe because if Ayan is uncertain, Raya will see it and be uncertain himself.

Why did Raya run off so quickly? Well Una has a habit of standing like that when he's upset with a particular set of young men who like... let's say... bending the rules.

I was even going to write past the ending that is there. But that last bit was so resounding that it didn't seem possible for me to continue writing from there.

With how I'm feeling (quite good, actually) there could be another update tonight.

Read, Review and Enjoy.





Raya and Durth stepped into the circle that the trailers made and pulled to a stop. Durth glanced at Raya. The young man had gone pale and stiff. The object of Raya’s attention was Una, standing by the fire in perfectly tailored, fresh looking clothing. Una leaned on his cane, hat on but not pulled down enough to hide the odd glazed look in the immortal’s eyes.

Durth left Raya’s side and approached Una. He should have realised that Ayan’s absence meant that Una was not of his normal state of mind. Instead he stepped up beside Una and glanced at the immortal’s open mouth. Una’s lips drew back from his teeth as if…

Una was feeling predatory.

Durth tried to suppress the shiver that ran down his spine. It was too late to simply leave.

“Did the others sent you?” Una asked, enunciating very carefully.

“Send,” Durth murmured the correction quietly before he raised his voice just a little, “no, no one sent me, I simply came over.”

Una breathed out, mouth opening more, “I feel like hunting.”

“Have you ever killed anything?” Durth asked.

“Yes, you would be surprised how often I kill animals. I simply have not killed people before.”

“Bet you hunt like a wolf, picking off the sick or elderly.”

Una turned towards Durth. Durth swallowed hard and forced himself to focus on the small communal fire. The immortal was obviously not impressed with Durth’s summation. The man quickly realised that he had been exactly right and that, perhaps, his words had hit a little too close to home.

“What of my hunting methods?”

“Just, kind of a coward’s way to hunt. When was the last time you tumbled with someone strong enough to take you?”

“Probably around the last time I danced,” Una growled, shifting back towards the fire.

“You. Dance?” Durth squeaked, “I hardly ever see you move. Even when you visit someone else, it’s like you appear out of the shadows and disappear but you never actually move in front of anyone. Why is that?”

“You’ve seen me move, inside my trailer.”

“Confined by your height, I wouldn’t call that movement, more like hobbling about,” Durth said quickly.

Una was silent for a long moment, “I suppose, considering what you already know, there’s no harm in telling you. I do not move like a normal person. Unless I carefully control myself, it becomes very obvious that I am not a people. Vera can pull it off only because she is a woman and portrays herself as a foreign woman most of the time. Less and less she takes outside visitors. So while she is free to dance and roam and frolic, I am confined, more and more, to a body which is wilful and has a mind of its own.”

“If you move at all, you give yourself away because… your body has a mind of its own.”

“Yes, and do not give me any words on my subconscious expressing itself through my body, I’ve heard quite enough of that for one day.”

“Wasn’t going to say anything of the sort,” Durth muttered as Ayan stepped between the two of them, “have you been bothering Una about is subconscious expressing itself through his body?”

“No,” Ayan frowned and gave his head a shake, “why would I have said that? I’ve never seen Una move in a way that would suggest his subconscious mind even existed.”

Una ignored the apparent jab at his pride, “are the entertainers-”

“Set up and ready to go. I thought about having Durth out to dance in the crowd, but after how hard you rode him last night,” Ayan raised his voice as Una tried to protest, “I think that would be torture. Now. The stage is set, the jugglers are out. Tara is walking amongst the villagers and the Whisper here has already greeted everyone else. The temple has prepared your tithe and we’ve delivered the mail. Taken on new mail. Trading between us and them has already happened.

“That couple you told me to keep an eye on are off in the bushes, like as not she will come back pregnant and will settle down next trip through. The Sidhe are off hunting to the side, the Deaths want to talk to you about some pathway to the heavens thing and they claim they have the heart of Illuva. Have you been looking for ancient relics again?”

“They can’t have the pathway to the heavens, that would require the pathway to have been lost by the guardian I put in charge of it. I was looking for the seal, not the path,” Una muttered.

“Which is which, again?” Durth asked as if he knew what they were talking about.

“The pathway to the heavens is a broadsword,” Una said, “the seal to the heavens is a rapier that slides into the groove of the pathway and shows the way to heaven. The actual heaven. The Rahluen, Rahl-ta’s priest line, lost the seal just before the end of the world to a four year old. A four year old. What kind of ….” the immortal’s mouth set into a very thin line, “excuse me, I need to have a chat with someone.”

Durth frowned and looked at Ayan who, in turn, gave Durth a confused look. By the time Durth looked away from Ayan, Una was gone.

“Damn it, he did it again,” Durth sighed.

“He’s had tens of thousands of years to perfect his habits,” Ayan said quietly to Durth, “you do realise he thinks Raya has the seal, don’t you?”

“What? The only thing long enough to hold a sword is his sheath for his broadsword and there’s only one blade in there. I saw him take it out, yesterday morning to fight the men on the side of the road,” except he hadn’t, had he? Raya had used the men’s own weapons against them and had left his broadsword sheathed.

“Love how you don’t discount the possibility that Raya was that four year old.”

“Four plus fourteen is eighteen, Raya might be nineteen. It’s about right.”

“Almost twenty.”

“What?” Durth asked.

“Raya is almost twenty, or maybe he is twenty now, I don’t know. It’s actually five, how old he was when the world ended plus fifteen, it’s been another year, world ended early spring and now it’s late spring.”

“How do you know this?”

“I’m almost fifteen.”

“Whoa. You’re,” Durth shifted away from Ayan, “fourteen?” he eyed the young man. Definitely did not look young enough to be fourteen, he told himself. Until he actually looked at Ayan and realised why the young man hadn’t been attractive to him. Ayan had barely hit puberty, “talking to you, makes it really hard to remember how young you are.”

“I hate being fourteen,” Ayan said as if he had been fourteen many times before, “it’s always that awkward age between a child and sort of adult and you can’t play with the children but you can’t hang out with the adults and you certainly can’t have sex. It’s like. The worst year possible to be alive.”

“Age of majority is sixteen.”

“Do you really think age of majority has ever stopped anyone from having sex with anyone else?” Ayan asked, “there is no one around to stop the average fourteen year old from humping everything in sight. No. What did father call them? Drones? No cameras. No big brother, whoever father’s big brother was. The Deaths look the other way so long as the two are similar in age. If Raya and I were in a village and Raya decided to seduce me, the Deaths would be fine with it given the age. Maybe not so fine with the whole homosexual thing.”

“You’re a homosexual?”

Ayan’s eyes narrowed, his lips pressed together, “No. I’m straight. Straight as could be. It was just. An example. You don’t exactly know many women young enough to seduce me. Or who would want to.”

“Tah.”

“Twenty-five years old, she’s too old to seduce me.”

Durth tried to think, “for some reason the only name that comes to mind is Una.”

“He’s too old to seduce anyone,” Ayan muttered.

The pair were silent a moment before Durth laughed at the idea, “he’s probably older than the mountains.”

“Can you imagine him trying to seduce a mountain?” Ayan asked, trying not to laugh, “’hey, mountain, have you lost some weight?’ oh, I’m having an off day, I don’t like off days.”

“Off days?”

“Days when the world is just too much,” Ayan murmured, “you try, you do, try not to worry those around you. But there are days when the cracks show no matter how much you smile or how much you try.”

“It was what I asked this morning, isn’t it? About Raya and Ayato?” Durth asked, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“It was bound to happen,” Ayan said quietly, “I’m not certain what the outcome will be, but I know. You know, I know. Bits. Pieces. The possibility of this or that. But I’m so afraid that in the end we’ll all lose everything and it will be for nothing.”

“Even gods can be wrong.”

“Even gods can be afraid,” Ayan responded, sounding hollow.


.