Aftermath

A week ago today I went back to work, which means a week ago yesterday I started writing. Of course, as you can no doubt tell, I have not been writing on any of my stories on AFF. It's not necessarily that I've abandoned any of the stories, or that I will never take them up again yadayada (I've been struggling with a few things in the stories) but instead that this other story started.

So this story I've been working on? Just hit a hundred pages. That's about eleven chapters. I was thinking about submitting it to a publishing company though I can't see them taking it on once I explain the whole back story to them and what's going on. I mean, actually going on. So I've all but decided to post it on AFF once it's finished which is (gasp!) a different method for me.

Thus I'd like you all to start keeping an eye out for Tweak, a story about genetic manipulation, power and the complex heirarchies that I seem to like building.

This below was difficult to write because Paw was very uncooperative. By the end he was being thoroughly annoying in the way that only Paw seems to be able to be but because it was so very much Paw, I left it the way it was.

Read, Review and Enjoy.





They travelled quickly, covered a good deal of ground. Villages came and went and Durth very quickly realised that if he saw one village, he saw them all. Not many were like the village where a Whisper had died, most were dreary little hovels, shit holes that no one could be bothered to better. Even Una found it hard to be amused or interested in these places.

The singing was never quite as good as it had been in that village, the food seemed to be lacking a certain flavour. And the sex. Well, there wasn’t any. Una didn’t trust the villages enough to take his pants down for more than a quick relieving of the system.

Two weeks out, six villages behind them, Una called the troupe to a stop in the middle of a field that had a small creek running through it. They set up without question and relief swept off of them.

Una’s trailer was set up right by the creek and as dusk set in, food was brought to them, a fire was lit. Una sat near Durth but didn’t touch him and that irritated the young man to no end. With Raya not speaking to him and Tah all pissy because her moons blood started, Durth only had Una to rely on for comfort. After dinner was eaten, the women came and swept away the dishes, only to replace them with even more food.

With a curt flick of his hand, Una sent the women rushing off, giggling and muttering to themselves.

Which didn’t make sense. Usually if Una growled at the women, the women growled back. Or dumped the meal on Una’s head while telling him that if he didn’t like the way women worked, he could make his ‘friend’ do it instead.

The thwump caught Durth off guard. The creature that melted out of the shadows was taller than Una but not as wide at the shoulders. His shoulders were pushed back and he had a lazy look on his face. Durth knew, from dealing with Raya and Hohi and those two males Ashun was paired with, that that was a challenging stance. Too green eyes narrowed as the dark hair shifted in and out of existence with the shadows and lights. The teeth that were bared in challenge were not Sidhe, some were not longer than others, they were as a people’s teeth were.

Straight and perfectly lined up no less.

“Whisper Paw,” Una murmured, “this is Durth.”

“-uuurf.” Paw settled beside Una and growled loudly, turning from annoyed at the beginning to pleading, “ood.”

“He can’t understand you unless you speak people,” Una murmured to Paw, motioning to Durth to pick up the plate of food and hand it over.

Durth did as he was told, picking up the plate and handing it over to Una, who ate a small piece of everything, then gave Paw the plate of food. The Sidhe immediately began eating the food offered to him. Silence predominated until Paw was finished eating. When the Whisper finally handed the plate over to Una, Una handed it back to Durth and Durth set the plate beside his seat.

When he straightened, Paw was draped over Una’s shoulder and watching Durth watch him. Durth couldn’t read those eyes or that expression. He couldn’t tell what was going through Paw’s mind.

“So. You the person thing with the tyzzing soul?” Paw murmured, “what’s wrong wit’ you, nothing wrong wit’ you. Unnnnnnaaaaaa, Una call me to work and yet no work need do done.”

“Paw,” Una said in a warning tone, “you may be a Whisper, but if you continue to act like a child, then I will treat you like one.”

“Una not offerin’ good things ‘cause Una got partner.”

“Oh, then I suppose I don’t need to send paper and pencil along with you,” Una murmured, “and I’m sure your mate wouldn’t want the chocolate I’ve found.”

Paw perked up, “Chocolate?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck.” Paw slid off of Una and straightened, “fine. What’s supposed to be wrong with him?”

“Besides the obvious?” Una asked.

“The… fact that you’re an idiot?” Paw asked, rolling his head towards Una, “go speak with Ayan and Hohi, I wish to speak with them before I leave and not before. Go.”

Una sighed and stood. The immortal left the firelight and was gone. Paw shifted into Una’s seat and was so very close to Durth. So close that Durth could feel the heat coming off of Paw’s body. He could smell the scent of a strange male and he didn’t like it one bit.

“So, you’re Tyz, are you?”

“No, I’m not Tyz, I have the soul that was once Tyz but I’m not Tyz.”

Paw blinked at Durth, then sighed, “of all the people to believe such a thing, it had to be you. Look what’s your name?”

“Durth.” even though they had been introduced, the name hadn’t stuck.

“Durth. Okay, I’m going to be straight with you, and I’m not straight with many people,” Paw paused and gauged Durth’s reaction, “You are Tyz’s soul reborn but you are not Tyz. But that’s not important. The important parts are as follows: you are Tyz’s soul reborn. You care for Una and he cares for you. You’ve not the damages Tyz had but you have his curiosity.”

“I was also born without power. Can’t make someone immortal who doesn’t have power.”

Paw looked puzzled, “Who said you didn’t have power?”

“Everyone. I was born into a body that is of the such that I have absolutely no power. Same as Raya.”

“Ray-” Paw squeaked, “ah?”

“Everyone also has that reaction when I tell them Raya is about.”

“Let’s start from the beginning. Raya has power,” Paw raised his voice above Durth’s protests, “it is a soul born power, one that cannot be altered via the body it is born into. While it is true that ones with your… colouring… tend to lack power, the idea that Tyz’s soul, even a fragment of his soul, could be born without the inherent abilities that Tyz and Tyz alone possessed is absolutely ridiculous.”

“What?”

“You have power, but you have soul power.”

“Sounds like a corny television show I used to watch.”

“With the rings and the bright hair and they’d always raise them in the air and say ‘soul power!’ and then beams would come out of the rings to form a rainbow?”

“Yes…”

“I loved that show,” Paw muttered, staring into the fire for a moment before he snapped out of it, “who told you all of this again?”

“Ayan.”

“Ahhhhh, that about explains everything. While Ayan is. Well, Ayan, he is not a soul born Whisper.”

“Huh?”

“I am Whisper.”

“Yeah, Una said that.”

“No, Durth. I am. Whisper.”

A shiver ran down Durth’s spine. Not an ordinary Whisper, not a man to be swayed or bought, but the Whisper. The first Whisper reborn in modern times, something that had never happened. Because Whisper had a place in the heavens, guarding all the Whispers of the world. Whisper served the throne itself, he did not wander about in the land of the living where any man with a lucky shot could kill or torment him.

Durth swallowed hard, not quite understanding how he had come to that conclusion.

“Ah, so the memories are in there somewhere,” Paw murmured, adjusting in his seat, “how’s your head been doing recently?”

“Hurting,” Durth just recalled, “that was why we had to speak with you. Because something happened and Ayan did something and when I woke up my head was hurting and now it hurts on and off again.”

“That’s,” Paw nodded, “things sliding about. Odd, though, as usually when the pieces of your soul slid about, it hurts in your chest, not your head. Unless of course he was playing with something inside your head, which is a ridiculous notion as Ayan is not trained for that sort of thing. Ah, speak of the daemon.”

Ayan blinked at Paw across the fire, “uh-oh.”

“You’re in trouble,” Paw muttered, standing, “you left without permission.”

“Did not, I had papa’s permission. And word that he would give me three weeks head start.” Ayan snapped, “some help he was, can’t even keep his word to his own son.”

“Oh, he’s yet to say anything about you being gone,” Paw muttered, “that’s what gave it away. Now, what’s this about-”

The world began to spin. Sort of like that time in the village, with the Deaths. Only, worse because this time there was no brandy to ease the transition from straight to on the ground and staring up at the sky. The stars seemed to burst with colour and excitement. The damned things were chattering to one another about him.

Paw leaned over Durth and cocked his head, “what’d you do to him?”

“Nothing damaging,” Ayan muttered, leaning over Durth, his head nearly touching Paw’s, “you’re the one who pointed out that the people have too much power.”

“What has that got to do with him- ohhhh,” Paw looked from Ayan and back to Durth, wincing. There was pity there in the Sidhe’s eyes, “to be fair, it wasn’t my idea. It was my mistress’ idea and everyone else is more than happy to go along with it and blame her if things go wrong. Poor guy looks like he’s been hit by a lightning bolt.”

“He’ll be fine. Did you fix that thing with his head?”

“I think so,” Paw sat back as Durth got the sickening feeling that he was about to be forgotten, “you overlapped the outboundaries of the psyche into the idiometric systems of his plural linguistically systems.”

“Could you explain that in stupid? I don’t speak civilized.”

“You broke his sanity.”

“Oh. That’s bad.”

“Really depends on your outlook on life,” Paw responded, chuckling, “I’d be more concerned about the fact that you broke his sanity and he was still sane… for the most part. You need to loosen him up some, have a little fun with him.”

“I’ve had some fun with him.”

“Hullo Una,” Paw said, sounding quite smug with himself.

“Why is he on the ground?” Una growled.

“The stars are mocking me,” Durth whined as the damned things giggled and floated about.

“And why, is he giggling at sparks of power that he shouldn’t be able to see,” Una’s voice had the edging of a man who was either going to lose his temper or burst into laughter at any moment. Given the events of the previous few minutes, Durth wasn’t entirely certain which it was.

“He fell,” Ayan said in all the tone of a young man who was used to giving half answers.

“He fell after which action of yours,” Una responded with the annoyance of an immortal who had dealt with young men such as Ayan many times before.

“I poked him, that’s all,” Ayan responded.

“That was all he did.” Paw said, backing Ayan up a moment before both the grown man and the fourteen year old boy giggled like school children.

“I’m taking him to bed,” Una growled, moving to Durth and dragging the young man to his feet, “did you fix his head thing, the pain and the nightmares?”

“Nightmares?” Paw stopped giggling immediately, “what nightmares, he didn’t mention any nightmares.”

“He’s been having nightmares,” Una said, exasperated.

“Perhaps I should travel with you until he has another nightmare,” Paw murmured, “this may be something that needs to be fixed.”

“May?”

“It may also be nothing for you to worry about. A transitional dream state opening his mind to the next stage of his life. Breath a little, Una, let him breath. Like a fine wine, you will appreciate him more if you let him breath.”

“Let him breath? Are you trying to tell me that you’ve cracked his mind open?”

“No. I would never do that.”

“You’ve done it to fourteen other people!”

“Alright, so I might do it to a few people, but I’d never do anything to break or hurt Durth, honest.”

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“What question was that?”

“Did you or did you not crack open his mind?”

“Whose mind?”

“Durth’s mind!”

“Who’s Durth?”

“He’s Durth!”

“Oh. Was I not supposed to crack open his mind?”

“No!”

“Oops.”


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