Aftermath

Having been cut out of a social what-have-you by everyone in the house, I sat down and channelled my annoyance into creative writing. Don't worry, it doesn't really reflect in the chapter.

I've mentioned a violinist in. Partners. I think. I kind of knew him and know that Una quite... enjoyed... him. He was quite the something and he managed to pull Una out of his millennia long grieving period.

Una only visits Vera when he suspects something but can't prove it on his own, or has no one else to talk to about it. At least, while Ayato and Rava are alive. Problem being, if he goes to Vera's temple with Ayato and/or Rava... she tends to. Well. She has a lot of single, experienced males about who are more than willing to distract two young men. So he only goes when absolutely necessary.

Paw's last comment about "being screwed" I swore I wrote that before but can't find it in any of the stories.

Read, Review and Enjoy.





He woke and stretched. Sunlight trickled in through the opened windows. Collecting the sheets and blankets off of the bed, he rolled them onto the topmost blanket. To this he added the clothing they had discarded the night before. Tying off the bundle, he opened a few of the windows wider and peaked at the sky. A few scant clouds and a little breeze. It would be a cool day and not too warm. A perfect laundry day.

Finding his shoes was difficult, they were not sitting beside the door where they should have been. Even the little prayer mat that Una had placed there for their shoes was gone. Instead, he found his shoes right beside the bed, as if they had had a wild night.

He grinned and pulled them on. He wasn’t sore, like usual, but things felt good. His body was working. No aches and pains. He could stretch without muscles protesting, for the first time in a long time, he could look at Una and not lie about the state of his condition.

Pulling up the load of laundry, he left the trailer and made a small sound of greeting to Ayato and Una. He nodded just slightly to the Sidhe who blinked at him in surprise. Cat tribe, related distantly to Nax, nice bone structure and that bare minimum of people blood in it that still floated around in the genetic pool. Male, likely, but without stripping off the shirt-

A naked female waltzed by him and dared him to look her over.

“Such a full figure,” he murmured, “your child looks well and healthy.” she blushed and rushed away.

“Uhm,” the Sidhe from Una’s fire stepped in front of him, bringing him to a full stop, “nots yous -ay m’rnin?”

He blinked at the Sidhe. Rude thing, to just assume they had some sort of relationship when they hadn’t been introduced yet. Raised by people, no doubt. He had to give the Sidhe the benefit of the doubt, “good morning to you, as well.”

“Wissin ‘venell?”

“I beg your pardon, but swearing in such a manner when there are children running around-” he looked about and saw no children. In fact, the only adolescent was Ayato, walking up to him, eyes narrowed and complete confusion playing over those features, “Ayato, where is Una? This creature seems to think that he can proclaim loudly about the seventeen hells when there could be impressionable ears about.”

“He’s not broken,” Ayato muttered, eyes narrowing to nearly pinpoints as that power swirled around the young man, pecking at the air.

“Is not whole either,” the Sidhe muttered, “less try. Durth, you feelin’ okay?”

Durth shuddered, fear and something else rolling up his back. The prickling sensation in his mind was memories sliding into place. That much he got, right before he dropped the laundry and held his hands up to defend his position to Una, who was standing at Ayato’s side, frown creasing his brow.

“I didn’t do it!” he paused for the briefest of moments and said the only thing he really could say, “That other guy did!”

“That other guy did?” Una murmured.

“You said not to work, there I was, apparently doing work,” Durth said quickly, motioning to the bundle of laundry, “but honestly, it wasn’t actually me, I didn’t actually bundle up all of those blankets like that or gather together the old clothes. And what happened to the prayer mat?”

“What prayer mat?” Una asked, apparently confused.

“I remember, after I bundled up the laundry, I went looking for my shoes. They were supposed to be on a prayer mat by the door, that you had put there for our shoes. What happened to it?”

Ayan’s lips pressed tightly together, the young man gave Paw a look that seemed to say that someone had best do something very quickly. Paw bent around Durth, “Una’s never had a prayer mat. There’s no such thing as a prayer mat. Who would need a mat to pray on?”

“The Igdolian sailors,” Una murmured. The immortal walked around Ayan and plucked up her bundle of clothing and pecked Durth on the cheek, “they would kneel on a prayer mat four times a day, sunrise, zenith, sunset and then the middle of the night. Their word for their god was the same word that Vera taught me to call Mother. The word in Mother’s tongue that means mother is the same as a god from halfway across the world. Amazing, isn’t it?”

“When…” Something passed between Ayan and Paw before Paw skittered towards Una, “did the Igdolian sailors come around here? When did they arrive?”

“The Igdolian sailors, despite popular belief, arrived long before the game ended,” Una murmured, drawing them all along with him as he made his way towards the creek. The sand patch that they had used the night before had been swept clean of any residue of the spell, “A ship once a decade, if that. The Bounty, the ship given the right as the first Igdolian ship, carried a lovely treat on it, but was some five hundred years after Shay-har fell.”

“Lovely little treat?” Durth asked, settling on a dry patch of sand.

“A violinist with the charisma that could have made the gods envious. He had ravaging black hair that curled. Least bit of water and it simply curled. No tending required. Lovely face and nice little lips. He could play any instrument, if you gave him an hour or so with it.”

“Better than Tyz?”

Una glanced over his shoulder at Ayan, “Tyz. Tyz was gone. Whether I loved him or not, it didn’t matter. He would not have wanted me to spend my life pining away for him. Comparatively, though, I would prefer Tyz. Offer me a virgin for every night, the rest of my life and I would still chose Tyz. Would you have any other?”

Ayan was the first to look away. Paw cleared his throat and waded into the creek, pulling a blanket in with him. The Sidhe pushed the blanket under the water and sopped it through.

“Personally I think it’s a bunch of dirt,” Paw muttered, flopping to the bottom of the creek. For the Sidhe, that meant that he sat on the sandy bottom and the water came to the middle of his chest, “this, what if there are other lifetimes or more lifetimes? Who cares. You know how many people will recall their past lives? Three, something tells me the rest of the world doesn’t give a hoot. Rahl-ta’s balls be damned, but who in the hells cares? Una sees a piece of donkey and he chases it. If Tyz was about, sure, he wouldn’t chase donkey, but there’s no Tyz, so he chases donkey.”

“Ass,” Durth corrected quickly, “I think you mean ass.”

“And it’s the romance of the idea,” Ayan said quickly, “to be born again and again and know that your lover will always be there.”

“Boring.”

“It is not-”

“Boring.” Paw muttered, wringing out the blanket before he submerged the fabric once more.

“It’s romantic!” Ayan protested, “and a perfect ending type of lifetime.”

“Bor,” Paw held up a hand as if to stop Ayan from speaking, then said, “ing. Logic says that two souls can be drawn to one another through multiple lifetimes. Reality and statistics prove that while me’n’mate are lovers now, next lifetime we could be on either side of warring factions. We could hate each other. We could be the ones to murder and make other one’s life miserable. Should life this live-time to fullest because is only live-time like this that is given to one to life. No one else, in all eternity can say that they are Paw and that they have lifed Paw’s live.”

“You mixed up life and live,” Durth muttered.

“Knowing is better.”

“Just afraid of change,” Paw grumbled, focused so entirely on the blanket he was washing that he missed Una stiffening. Durth caught the motion though, and stepped up beside Una.

“You alright?” he asked quietly.

“Yes,” Una responded, pulling the shirt he had been washing out of the water quickly, “I just have a very disturbing thought. It’s the middle of summer and I’ve not seen Vera yet.”

“So, one year will kill her?”

“You haven’t,” Ayan said in an accusing tone, “not one time? You can’t take a little sideways detour to see your sister?”

“It’s one time,” Durth protested, “she’s not going to…” he caught the look on Una’s face, “… when was the last time you saw her?”

Una was silent as he wrung out the shirt and handed it over to Ayan. Finally the immortal sighed, “Oh, about four to five hundred years. I’m immortal though, I’ve lost track.”

“That’s what you said last year,” Ayan and Paw said at the same time before Paw continued on, “and then you didn’t go, got distracted by a shiny. And the year before that,” Paw looked to Ayan and Ayan glared at Una, “you said you were too busy taking care of Ashun as she was trying to get pregnant that first time.”

“First time?” Durth squeaked.

“She miscarried,” Paw said quickly, “normal for Sidhe females of her type. She was fine, we tried again later. But you!” he jabbed a finger at Una, “are so. How do people say it?”

“Screwed?” Durth offered up.

“Screwed!” Paw jabbed the finger again and then frowned, “screwed. That sounds painful. I wonder how that would work. I get the strange feeling I’ve said something like that in the past…” And the Sidhe trailed off, pondering in quiet murmurs as the other three males tried to go about their business and ignore him.

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