Aftermath

I've not written since my last update. It happens at times and drives me nuts. I've had a very stressful couple of weeks and I've another one ahead of me. After that I'm on vacation for a week, so I'm hoping that will help with the writing.

Obviously Ayan's plan didn't go so well. This is a lot of dialogue, I know, but that's how the conversation went.

Not to mention it's really hard to focus on details at the moment.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




Durth pried his eyes open and groaned at the light that hit his face. He sat up, rubbing at his eyes and breathed in. His mouth felt dry, his head stuffed full of cotton. There was a heaviness in his chest that took all desire out of him. Durth didn’t want to get out of bed, didn’t want to move from his place. Down the back of his neck and into his shoulders was a deep seated ache that would not go away no matter which way he twisted and turned.

“Awake?” Raya murmured, picking at pair of pants.

“What happened to me?” Durth groaned as he tried to think back to the night before. All he caught were flashing images that didn’t make any sense whatsoever.

“You tried to drink Ayan under the table. Never try to drink an Aniege under the table,” Raya gave the pants a flick and studied the backside for a moment before he folded the pants and set them aside, “they have power, half the time they aren’t even drinking and if they are drinking they could probably drink Una under the table.”

“I…” an image of Deaths, “don’t recall that.”

“Well, that’s what happened. Why don’t you head over to Una’s spice trailer,” Raya said, “he knows some things you can take for a hangover.”

“But I swear I saw you…”

Raya stood, obviously not pained by the events Durth recalled of the night before. The young man looked at Durth and Durth groaned but stood, supporting himself on the wall of the trailer. It took a moment for the world to steady itself before Durth could move.

The Cousin led the way out of the trailer and motioned towards the spice trailer. Durth shuffled towards the smaller than usual trailer, carved on the sides with vines and little symbols. Ayan sat at a cooking fire by the trailer, poking it with a stick and looking forlorn.

Durth pulled to a stop and looked at Ayan, “what’s your problem? Thought you’d be perky after last night.”

“Why?” Ayan sighed, jabbing the fire, “just because I drank you under the table.”

“You did not drink me under the table.”

“I did drink you under the table,” Ayan tossed the stick into the fire and sat back, quiet for a moment before he sighed again, “I can’t find Tyz.”

“So?”

“I need Tyz, I can’t just make someone else immortal!” Ayan groaned, “It will only work with Tyz.”

“How will you know when it’s working?”

“His powers,” Ayan murmured, wrapping his arms around his knees, “Tyz is the only one who can use fire. Even my family, for all their powers and capabilities, can’t control fire. It’s like. Merged with his soul. Something about how Shey-har twisted Tyz’s natural body’s powers to make them make Tyz immortal.”

“Created fire?”

“In his soul,” Ayan said quietly.

“But, I have memories of being Tyz. Thus, I am Tyz, reborn.”

“To a body without power,” Ayan growled, “which is like tossing a baby off a cliff and expecting it to be able to fly!”

“So. I am Tyz? That’s the most straightforward answer I’ve ever received.”

“No.”

“No. I’m not Tyz?”

“Yes.”

“Yes I am Tyz.”

“No!”

“Wait,” Durth squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed at them, “this is one of those odd answers, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I am Tyz.”

“No.”

“I am the soul that was the man named Tyz.”

“Yes.”

“But I am no longer Tyz.”

“Right.”

“Then how in the name of the gods do you hope to find Tyz when he’s standing right in front of you and you can’t see what he is?” Durth snapped.

Ayan sighed, “Tell me, are you the same person you were a year ago?”

“Of course I am.”

“You’ve not changed at all?”

“Well, I have.”

“Then you are no longer the Durth of last year, you are the Durth of now. A year from now, you will not be the same Durth. The old Durth doesn’t die, he changes, but he’s not the same as you, you are not the same as him. Therefore you cannot be Tyz.”

“That’s Una logic,” Durth muttered.

“It is. But…”

“But?”

Ayan stood and brushed off his pants, “Tyz has powers. You, Durth, are existing in a body that is incapable of meshing with powers at all.”

“Wait a minute.” Durth jabbed a finger at Ayan, “Raya said I was the distraction.”

“You are the distraction, the flash over here,” Ayan moved a hand away from his side and waggled his fingers, “which makes Una look over here,” Ayan moved his other hand away, “while over at the distraction, the actual prize lies.”

“…”

“We’re all mad and you don’t understand what is going on but you’ll nod and go along.”

“You’re going to make me go squash!”

“I am not,” Ayan said back, “I wouldn’t squash you until you are ready to be squashed.”

“What?” Una appeared beside Durth, causing the man to leap a foot in the air and let out a startled sound, “is with you two and squashing one another?”

“Nothing,” Ayan said.

“I’ve got a headache,” Durth muttered, “and Ayan keeps talking that way that does that thing with the,” Durth fluttered his hand by his head.

“Philosophy and talking about the soul?” Una said quietly.

“Yes, that stuff.”

“Come, I have a tea for that.”

.