Aftermath

There's a lot of detail in here. But even as I was wondering what Una was getting at, he explained it. The end is sort of glossed over, but feel free to fill in your own... fun parts. I'm sick and have surprisingly little energy. It just so happens that Aftermath is really working for me today.

Durth's memories are altering his perspective. Obviously he's not the "kill that guy" or please master no matter what kind of guy any more. Give a person responsibilities and a little incentive and they can grow a spine and a mind of their own, surprise, surprise.

Tyz wasn't around when the Two Lovers began circulating and it's actually been debated as to whether or not Tyz wrote the poem and then gifted it to someone who gifted it to someone who made a copy and then gifted the copy away to someone and so on. I'm not saying Tyz wrote it, just that Durth's memories of the poem are lacking because Tyz wasn't around by the time it got to be popular, let alone by the time Una got his hands on it.

I've been meaning to write out the poem for several years now, but I have a little anxiety about actually writing it all down. I like the first four lines. The next two. Not so much. In my notes it doesn't explain who the last passage that Una reads out is attributed to. "master to all" actually suggests Rava, whose name means master. Which goes along with Rah which means father, which implies that men are the masters of the house.

It's an old belief but one that I get the feeling will be coming back around for the people, that men are superior. But then, Talen means healer and tah means mother, which suggests that men can't be healers, only women can.

I have fun with linguistics when I'm sick. Does that mean I'm odd? Probably.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




Durth settled under the blankets as Una cleared his throat and shifted his back against the pillow that was between his back and the side of the trailer. The immortal had flipped through several pages before he had found the page he had been looking for.

“Mofvanse Sidhe is the author of the Two Lovers, which is a tale of-”

“Ayato and Rava,” Durth said quickly, “that didn’t just come to me, but it’s kind of obvious. What with. Alright, I don’t know why that was what I assumed, am I right?”

“Yes, you are correct, technically the poem is about Ayato and Rava, but it’s more than that, it’s also about the love of any couple. It’s.” Una sighed, “I should really read it to you and then explain what it’s about. There are two books. The Two Lovers and the Tale of the Two Lovers. The Two Lovers is the epic poem, the Tale of the Two Lovers is the companion type book, it is a collection of essays about what the Two Lovers is actually about. The debate has been going on for years and will go on for years more.

“Mofvanse Sidhe, loosely translated, means ‘silent speaker for the gods’ and is stated as being male, because the introduction was written with the ‘he’ pronoun. But the Two Lovers began floating about in a time when women were not given an education.”

“Is this important to know?”

Una shrugged, “Illuva claims one of her people wrote the poem. She tends to chose either feminine or… receiving males or women. Especially strong women. Mainly women though. But the origins of this Mofvanse Sidhe, considering it is a pen name, are very much shadowed by the fact that no one could be bothered delving into the author’s history before the author was lost completely to time. By the time I was given a copy of the Two Lovers, Mofvanse Sidhe had been ten four hundred years, every state and city was claiming to be the origin of the poem and no one could agree on where the tale actually came from.”

“Oh,” Durth settled right beside Una, “One of the few mysteries of the people. Maybe you weren’t meant to know.”

“Not knowing has been driving me mad,” Una grumbled, “I have a very strong need to know everything that is going on and how it is going on. Without knowing how something is happening, I cannot be in control of the situation and thus am at a loss.”

“You’re silly,” Durth murmured, “what’s so special about the Two Lovers?”

“It’s about Rava and Ayato.”

“Uh huh, I got that part, but what’s so important about it, really,” Durth muttered.

“No, you don’t get it. It’s about Rava and Ayato, honestly, look,” Una motioned to the page, “Betwixt the stars lies a lovers haven, always in need of saving. And to this place between the stars is assigned a soul or two. To safeguard love for one and all, especially themselves.”

Durth blinked at Una, “so?”

“In some copies, the ‘lovers’ isn’t pluralized, it’s possessive. So it’s not the haven of lovers, but a lover’s haven. The wording ‘a soul or two’ suggests that one of them isn’t a soul at all, but something else. God, daemon, being, power itself. They, Rava and Ayato, are well known for giving up their own lives for others, or for putting themselves into danger’s path to ensure that others can love whomever they please. The ‘especially themselves’ part has been as suggesting that both are male. However.” Una sighed out, “Ayato has been female in the past and no matter their gender, they seem to be born in places where whoever they are, whatever they are, they cannot be together.”

“That’s a lot of explanation for such a tiny thing,” Durth muttered, setting his head on Una’s shoulder.

“That’s only my explanation, which involves working around what I actually know about Rava and Ayato, it has nothing to do with the perception of others. Of course my explanation doesn’t include the fact that Lovers Haven is actually a constellation in the sky, that has the northern most star in it. Through the constellation move several things that civilizations sometimes call planets. I believe there are planets and other worlds out there, but why would there be almost always a planet in the Lovers Haven constellation when the north is upward?”

“I’m. Not familiar with… star stuff.” though he dimly recalled astronomy lessons from when he was in school.

“North is up, south is down, literally. If you …” Una held up his hand and motioned to the tips of his fingers, “this is north, south, east and west is sort of like this. The world is round, like a ball. And on that ball, we live on the side. Other worlds, in our. What did the civilization call it… solar system. The other planets in this system, spin round the sun on the same plain as us. Like,” Una paused and thought about it for a moment, “like trailers on a road. One of the trailers cannot be above or below the rest of the road. We are all on the same. Level of land. And we go around the sun in an orbit. So if Lovers Haven is north, up here,” he motioned to the tips of his fingers, “and there is something in the constellation, which is not a star, then it cannot rightly be a planet.”

“Why is it not a star?”

“Because, there are two somethings in the constellation and they come and go. When Rava and Ayato are born to the world, these things flicker out for one month during Ayato’s sixteenth year. It is the only outward sign that Ayato has been born. Unless of course, you live with him. Then you just know. Anyways. Outside this time, there’s always one up there. I’ve seen it with a viewing scope and it burns an odd colour. Orangish almost, like. The sun setting, except far, far away. The other one tends to move about and it burns white.”

“But why are they not a star? The ways of the heavens are beyond the capabilities of the people,” Durth murmured, “they could be stars that move funnily. Maybe the white star shifts behind the orange star and that’s when you don’t- Oh, I get it. To the Lover’s Haven is assigned a soul or two!”

“Right. The odd balls in the constellation are represented in the poem even though the poem is only supposed to refer to the lovers, Rava and Ayato.” Una murmured, “and that’s only the first six lines.”

“Wasn’t that an explanation of the poem?”

“No,” Una frowned, “that was an explanation of the first six lines.”

Durth choked for a moment, “what?”

“You think that’s odd, I’ll skip ahead a bit,” Una turned several pages. “Of the other much and yet so little be known to mortal man. Belonging to a line old and deep.

“The other almost exclusively refers to Ayato, who is never given gender. Other meaning, also, that he is the one who is not a soul. The very wording is nearly the same as a popular saying about women at the time the poem was written. Mofvanse Sidhe very nearly calls Ayato a woman even as he used the saying to make a pointed statement. No one knows much about Ayato. He simply exists outside of what can be labelled. Not even Rava knows his origins. Certainly, we know that Ayato was the name given to a deity who once, and still does, represent mortality. This deity-”

“Was more loved than Harella-shay and so in a jealous rage, the mother of the gods hunted it down until, fearing for its life, it threw itself entirely into the first form it found and thusly won Rava’s heart,” Durth murmured, “I. I think that’s a memory.”

“Good.”

“Why does it hurt to remember that?” Durth asked Una.

“It was a painful time, when we discovered what Ayato was,” Una murmured, “belonging to a line old and deep refers to the fact that Aniege is one of the oldest lines. Whisen is older than the Aniege line, so is Talen and Savnell, er, which I believe is Raya’s line. Deep refers to the oddly inherent intelligence that is born to the Aniege. Before them, the people hardly had a culture. To kill the Aniege completely would be to destroy the culture of the people. Their knowledge has been tied back to their power, the more powerful an Aniege is, the more intelligent they are.”

“Are you arguing with me about taking away a rattle?” Durth asked Una, “I’m not part of that argument.”

“You are,” Una grumbled, you just don’t know it yet, “of the other, man through and through. Unto his own hands does he take his life. Master to all but one, follower to none.”

“What the…” Durth sat up beside Una, “that doesn’t make any sense, you said the other is Ayato and that he’s never given a gender.”

“How can one be a man, through and through?” Una asked, the barest twitch of his lips giving away the trap that he had laid for Durth.

“How can the author claim to know what a man is, through and through? It’s a state of being.”

“It’s what most of the gods say, in their bibles, is a man’s duty. To protect his family, to honour his parents, to raise up those who are lesser than himself,” Una closed the book, “unto his own hands does he take his life. Master to all but one, follower to none. Ayato and Rava bow to one another but they do not follow each other. When they align their paths, they are partners in their plotting, not followers. Many have made this out to be a god bowing to a mortal. Ayato may be swayed by Rava’s decisions, just as can happen vice versa, but neither ever tries to force the other to do their bidding.”

“I don’t get it,” Durth muttered.

“Don’t get what?”

“Why you wanted to read that.”

“It’s what I want.”

“Well, yes, you said that you wanted to read it, but why?”

“No, Durth,” Una shook his head, “it’s what I want. I don’t want a lover who will bend to me or who makes me bend to him. Yes, I understand that there will always be the tug of war, the, I do laundry wrong so you threw a fit-”

“You washed my brand new tunic with white laundry and made everything turn into an ugly gray!” Durth protested, not even recalling what Una was talking about.

“But in the end I want a partner, not a submissive or dominant.”

“You want the lover to your other.”

“Heh, Durth, darling.”

“What?”

“I’m Mother born, there is very little chance that my partner will be Mother Born, therefore, from my perspective, he would have to be other. Else, how would he be immortal?”

“But from my point of view, you’d be the other.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m completely confused.”

“It’s a philosophy thing,” Una bent over Durth and set the book on the nightstand, “the more confused you are, the more philosophical it is.”

“Ah, I think I get that. Sort of,” Durth frowned as Una bent and captured his lips. The shiver that ran through him, curling his very toes as he tangled his fingers in Una’s hair. There was little else that could be said. The lamp went out, Una’s doing, and they pressed their bodies close together. Enjoying the feel, taste and smell of one another, they made love.


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