Sequel

Three hours to write this. I apologise for the disjointed feeling through the latter part, as there is the whole happening of it that makes it disjointed. When you're there, inside someone's head, it's easy to understand the switch and where the voices are coming from, as I know quite a bit more than Rel about the plot, but this is through Rel's understanding and yes.

Yes.

He is just as confused as you are.

This showed me quite a few possibilities and a few of them kind of scared me. One bit did answer a question as I'll have Ayato off doing something and he's fairly cooperative about it and all of a sudden he stops dead in his tracks, cocks his head to the side and starts having massive panic attacks and becomes very paranoid.

I knew I should have killed off the LeAniege completely.

But then... we wouldn't have Rel... Hmm. Who oddly, is not a piece, like I thought he was. Which implies quite strongly that he is, instead, a higher spirit, because Illuva can't just trade off a soul that isn't her piece... can she?

Cookie to Sunao, however, those two 'violet's you quoted were in reference to Ashun's eye colour, which Mik in turned nicknamed her after because she wouldn't share her real name.

I was kind of hoping this one would end in someone taking a leap out a window.

Read, Review and Enjoy.







Rel woke the next day, the next morning? In his own bed with Raoh between him and the wall and Osht between him and the rest of the apartment. He felt groggy and wondered if perhaps he was ill, or if it was just side effects of Muan healing him. He’d been up a whole… what… twelve hours in the past two days? Yesterday was barely five hours. Yet when his head hit the pillows… er… the table in this case… he slept soundly, like he had had a full day. He was rubbing the sleep from his eyes when Osht stirred, the male pushed closer to Rel for a moment, nuzzling his shoulder as if urging him back to sleep. Rel made a sound of disagreement and sat up in bed.

The apartment was dark, because the sun was still thinking about rising. The night sky was just changing to gray and the moon was positioned in such a way that it and the sun would share the sky.

Osht nonetheless pulled himself from sleep, touching the side of Rel’s face with his nose. A reassurance that this was okay.

But he’d rather be sleeping.

Rel reeled back from the thought that cut through the last vestiges of sleep and looked at Osht, startled. Osht blinked at him, then frowned slowly. The male was not good with words and more often than not made problems worse when he tried to speak people.

But Rel could hear his thoughts, but when he tried to convey that to Osht, the same way that he heard Osht’s thoughts, the male stood and offered a hand, to help him to his feet. Rel accepted it and stood unsteadily as a head from the nest popped up and one by the couches looked over.

“Osht is completely dark,” Ashun hissed in the twilight, “he can’t hear you, his powers are to protect him and those around him and so no one can ever touch his mind. You will find many people like that. Now… please… quiet until the sun is up? I’m tired.”

The last words sounded more like someone her age. Ashun’s head set back down and Osht offered Rel help to the bathroom. Rel accepted, if only to be nice, but found his legs felt wobbly after the tea and his sleep. His legs were so weak, he had to lean on the wall behind the toilet to relieve himself. Pulling his pants back up, as somehow they ended up about his ankles, was interesting, to say the least.

Osht provided a change of clothing and Rel washed, scrubbing away the sweaty feeling he had, the feeling that he had been in a sort of fever. The washing made him feel better, much better. His legs were still a bit unstable, but he managed to dress with less stumbling about or hopping on one or the other foot. By the time he moved into the living area, the sun was up and Ashun was in the kitchen, looking at something she held in her hand.

Rel approached her and she looked up, turning her hand so that Rel could see what she held. The bit of metal Muan had coughed up.

“What’s this?” she asked, pulling her hand back to turn the bit over and over, studying the lines of gray amongst the shining pewter colouring.

If Ashun didn’t know what it was, when Muan had coughed it up, would it no doubt mean that Muan was not supposed to have coughed it up, that this was not normal? That Muan might have what might be called bad blood and thusly the tribe might reject him or kill him or be done with him in some way or form, because he coughed up this metal? Which left, really, only one answer.

Lie through his teeth.

“Mari let me keep it, from my compound. Thing. From before.”

“It’s very pretty,” Ashun turned it over once more, “I wonder where it has come from….”

“I don’t recall, exactly,” Rel shrugged it off, considering the sleep issue for a moment before he brought it up to change the subject, to steer it towards something he might be able to handle, “I’ve been sleeping an awful lot lately, is that because Muan healed me?”

“No,” Ashun shook her head and turned towards the stove, setting a kettle to boil, “Sidhe sleep good deals of time often. When tired or restless or recovering. There are times when sleeping… ah, I’ve done it again, forgetting that you are not a Sidhe. People sleep when…”

Her hand paused over the tea box, she turned her violet eyes towards Rel, up and down him, “Paw said people sleep late and long when they are depressed. That if one of the people is found to be doing this, we are to report to Koln and Mari and be ever watchful of the other… signs.”

“What other signs would you be looking for?” he wasn’t depressed, he knew what depressed in him felt like and this was not depressed, he was just … he wasn’t even tired. Just as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out for hours and hours.

Ashuns eyes moved down to Rel’s wrists for a moment, then back up to his eyes, “you know what we would be looking for. Muan may have erased the lines from your body, but he could never erase them from your mind.”

“Well I am not depressed so you can stop looking for signs.”

“Not depressed, at all?”

“No.”

Ashun set out tea for seven and looked puzzled at the eighth cup she had brought out. For her partner, perhaps, the Sidhe Paw had chosen all seemed close night, a smaller group of a whole. They were all, at one time or another, pulling out an extra something and then muttering to themselves, something about “that one” not being there. She poured water over the teabags but left the eighth cup on the table, puzzling over its presence.

“Your father is dying, is he not?” Ashun muttered, turning to the sink to fill the kettle before setting it on the stove.

“He is, and I am not upset by it, he is getting no less than he deserves.”

“You aren’t depressed by that in the least? By the fact that you will never get to meet him toe to toe, on even ground and force him to recognise what you are?”

“No, I don’t feel that need. He will never admit to being wrong, I think he might actually be incapable of it.”

“I’d want that,” Ashun muttered in a far off, sort of voice, “Not my blood father, but… my father nonetheless, I believe your people would say?

“There’s no point to it.”

“At all? There’s always a point to something, Illuen tell people.”

“Yes, and what would I say, that-” the elevator dinged, pulling Rel’s and Ashun’s gazes to it as Rel trailed off, “he can go fuck himself…”

His father stepped off of the elevator. The older man didn’t even look around the apartment, his gaze was on Rel as he strode across the apartment. Osht growled and stepped into the man’s way, a wave of a hand and the Sidhe was thrown to the side. So great was his father’s anger and the power of Aniege had always resided in their emotions. Raoh was up from bed, as if hearing Osht call to him, and bounded to the one eyed male, skittering to a stop only long enough to heave something at Rel’s father.

The wooden table smashed to bits several feet away, splinters flew and Rel wondered. How in the names of the gods had Raoh hidden an entire coffee table as a small object? The Sidhe must have had the capabilities to alter what people perceived as the physical world. Osht, while able to protect others, could do very little when he was unconscious.

Nave stood behind Uhwan who was, in turn, behind Muan.

When the table shattered, Muan moved towards Rel’s father, feeling entirely of … absolutely nothing. It seemed that while Rel was looking right at the Sidhe, every sense of his told him that there was nothing there, that the Sidhe was a void in the existence of all beings. Rel’s father was completely unaware of Muan, even as Rel stood from the table, putting himself between his father and Ashun.

There was only one reason why his father was there. He knew that Rel was using power, had come to ‘clean up’ the issue for good. In his worlds, Rel would gather his resolve and then attack, but he knew from history texts, from small journal fragments that had been recovered from tombs that such a tactic was useless against an Aniege.

He didn’t try to speak or to stop his father, he simply stood there as his father … threw something at Rel, power, threw it with a flick of his mind and a million cities worth of electricity rippled through the air, threatening to tear a hole in the fabric of existence. As it came at him, Rel simply watched, impassive. The crackling power passed over him, distorting his view of the world, and by him. Even as it passed him, Rel gave a distracted thought to the idea that Ashun was behind him. Something made his heart skip a beat, made him concerned for only a moment before it was gone and he was confident that Ashun would be alright.

By the look on his father’s face, that wave should have killed him. Rel himself was surprised he was still alive, let along still standing. The power had had no effect on him, whatsoever.

And suddenly Muan was between Rel and his father. The Sidhe puffed himself up, somehow appearing even larger than he actually was. Hair lifted off of Muan’s head, like the hackles rising on a dog. Feet planted and arms away from his sides. Rel edged around Muan, if for no other reason than to see the fight that would like as not ensue.

“Get over here,” Rel’s father snapped his fingers and pointed to the floor at his feet.

Rel didn’t react, because anger was permeating the air and it was not his father’s. It was Muan’s. The Sidhe was breathing heavily but slowly, deep, measured breaths as he waited, wanting to attack but waiting. Raoh moved to respond to the summons but was stopped when Osht took hold of his wrist. Something passed in the look between the two Sidhe, a shared understanding. The two looked past Rel and then to Rel’s father.

Ashun stalked around Rel and jabbed Muan in the side, pushing away as she took his place, folded her arms across her chest and stomped a foot down to draw attention to herself. The girl came no higher than the man’s chest and she glared upward as if he had climbed a tree so that he could be taller than her. There was no mercy, no kindness in her face and Rel knew, from stories, from histories, from his own worlds, that Ashun being there and having her arms crossed was a warning.

Warriors stood like that. She didn’t waste energy trying to scare off the man, because she wanted him to try to attack her.

“Leave.”

“Get out of my way whore.”

That only hurt because it was true. And that flicker of weakness lasted just long enough for Rel to catch the tail end, just enough of a scent to drive him mad. He could see why males like Raoh and Osht were willing to work together to obtain the prize, rather than allow it to be lost.

“I am ordering you to leave my territory. Mine. Don’t make me piss on your boots like a dog to claim it, because I. Will.”

“And I am not afraid of you animals,” Rel’s father looked around as he did so, even as each of the Sidhe seemed to be seriously weighing and considering killing him despite Ashun’s order to hold.

When had Ashun given the order to hold? Rel’s mind did a turn and searched for that elusive order only to stumble upon something entirely and out of the world. Entirely out of the world. Something was playing into this moment, into Ashun and through her into Raoh and Osht. Something else played through Muan and still something more was playing through Rel’s father, even as it tried to destroy him.

Go, go, go.

Kill him already and be done with it.

You all seem to forget that she is mine and she controls yours. Therefore they are all mine.

And then a thought, a furry of power that lashed underneath it all and made the others cringe back. Somewhere, underneath it, something that was tangible yet completely un-understandable was very bluntly informing all involved that should they attempt such a thing…

Something something.

Something was threatening the gods? Was there even a being powerful enough to reign in the gods?

Slipping back into the real world, Rel saw that the Sidhe were not considering, they were listening and wondering who would win the argument.

“Oh for gods sakes,” Rel snapped out, angry and annoyed that the gods would meddle with his life in such a manner, “You,” he jabbed a finger at his father, “leave. Now.” with power and a strong push behind it, “never return to this place and when you die, I hope Ill-rin takes you to the deepest, darkest, most painful place in all the seventeen hells and feeds you to the souls of the Aniege Fathers who came before you.”

Aniege… Fathers?

An Aniege Father was a boogeyman, something his mother used to tell him about when he was young, to keep him in line. Never had he spoken that name out loud, as to speak of a Father was to draw his attention and…

His own father met nearly every criteria. Nearly.

An Aniege Father had a large family, of both males and females. The females were all but sold off for favours and political means. The males were either trained as the next Father or were used until there was no power or mind left to wield against the Father. Ayato had, millenia before, wiped out the Aniege and destroyed the last Father and had, since then, destroyed all pockets of Aniege before his rebirth. Since the destruction of the Aniege, Ayato had obsessed over Father, time and again history noted his accusations against a powerful Aniege of being father.

Why?

Because Ayato knew Father had survived but couldn’t find the bastard, couldn’t end it for good.

Until now.

His father jerked in place, trying to stay even as Rel repeated the push of power, forcing the man to turn and hobble to the elevator. As it dinged and the doors opened, every Sidhe turned their attention to Rel. The elevator doors closed and Rel sunk to the floor.

“Free will shall every man have,” Ashun muttered, turning her eyes, and the attention of her player, to Rel, “to no man shall go the power to take that which the gods grant a man.”

“I told him to go, it’s not my fault he listened,” Rel tried to growl in response. It came out in something closer to a whine.

Muan seemed puzzled for a moment, “Lel no play. Te… Lel…” and a motion that seemed to be questioning how Rel managed that.

“They seem to have forgotten that I have free will, just as well as anyone else,” Rel responded snidely, “maybe next time they’ll think twice about meddling with my life.”


.