Aftermath

It took a while to get this started and I've had an odd week of not sleeping. Which means I've had an odd week of not writing. Makes me grumpy.

This was fun, besides the news at the end. There is a whole level to the conversation between Raya and his... friend... that those who have read Partners and Sequel may notice. How did that guy get there? I don't know. Though he did seem to bristle Mik whenever he was around so maybe he had to leave.

Raya's giddiness over a broadsword can, I believe, also be traced back to Partners.

Raya is odd, though I've never been around when he's been let off the leash. Well, at least, not while Ayato was off and about. The tree was an impressive bit which I am certain cannot be done in real life.

I could very well update Aftermath again tonight.

Read, Review and Enjoy.





A week at the cave before Raya decided it was time to move on. Durth suffered several more beatings during his lessons in manners and obedience. None were so severe as the first, most simply caused Durth to be sore, a few bruises in the kind of spots that pulled and tugged each time Durth took a step. A constant reminder of the lessons. The trio moved three days before Tah called for them to stop in an outpost. She went to see the healer.

And while she was away, Raya handed Durth a broadsword to practice with.

“You’d do better with a. A.” Raya made several hand motions then made an annoyed sound, “a not broadsword, something shorter, that’s meant for quick slashing. The broadsword is meant more for slashing, but practice is practice. You have to be ready to use any weapon you have on hand, can you lift it?”

Durth hefted the heavy blade and shrugged, “it’s heavy.”

“Meant to be wielded by a man broader and stronger than you,” Raya responded as if commenting on the weather, “broadsword is my baby,” Raya picked a practice blade up and tested the weight of it, “We will be travelling to Father’s compound soon, so that I can present you to him as an official apprentice. And then,” Raya’s lips twitched upward, “I will get my own broadsword, to carry wherever I go.”

“…how…” Durth winced and bit back his question, remembering that they were in public. He could ask Raya all kinds of questions in private, but in public he was never to question his Cousin.

“With whatever comes to hand,” Raya gave Durth a smile that sent a shudder down the older man’s spine. Durth got the feeling that he didn’t want to see Raya’s fighting style, “Now, raise your blade with both hands, like this,” Raya demonstrated, “feel the muscles move, feel how your body reacts as you swing slowly.”

Durth went through the same motion Raya made and winced as the muscles of his shoulders rudely informed him that he was not meant to move that much weight at that height in such a manner.

“How does it feel?” Raya asked Durth.

“Bad,” Durth muttered, holding the position as he was instructed.

“When you feel the pull of your muscles hold for eight seconds, remember stretching back in school?” Durth nodded to the question, “like that, stretch the muscles that don’t want to move, then relax and stretch again. Helps the muscles, if you don’t stretch, they won’t move for you.”

Durth lowered his blade slowly, feeling the tense spot between his shoulder blades.

Raya led Durth through a series of moves, then had Durth go through them by himself. It was several times of going through the motions before Raya was satisfied that Durth could move. By then Durth’s muscles were aching, his shoulders and upper back throbbed. But Raya made Durth go through the motions as Raya pretended to attack him, showing Durth how such simple moves (albeit, stressful moves) could stop a blade.

“If you have the strength to back it, if you can angle the blade right, if you have a good grasp on the hilt,” Raya muttered, “practice blades haven’t got edges to them. Come with me.”

“…” Durth followed Raya, taking his own blade with him simply because he assumed that he would need it.

Raya stopped at the edge of a guest house, across the front was a huge log, used for what, Durth had no idea, but the log was nearly as wide around as Durth was. Raya looked down at the log and huffed, glancing back over Durth’s shoulder.

“Oi, there another one this size about?”

“Over there,” someone responded, “they’re going to cut it down tomorrow… if they can.”

“Come on,” Raya muttered, sounding annoyed as he headed off in the direction the stranger had pointed out.

The pair came to a stop, finally, at a huge tree, towering over the small clearing. Raya looked up at the tree top and muttered something to himself that Durth didn’t catch. Raya paused, hand over his heart, before he turned to Durth.

“Now-”

“Were you. Praying?” Durth couldn’t believe how strangled his voice sounded.

Prayer hadn’t been kept up on Past’s compound. Durth was aware that there was more than one god, he knew that there the gods were paired off. But. That was it.

Raya opened his mouth to answer, paused for a moment then said, “Yes, I was. The Aniege do not frown upon prayer, they frown upon those with power lording over the rest of us. We must destroy the power, but…”

“I don’t know how to pray,” Durth muttered, looking down for a moment, then back up at Raya hopefully.

“Do you want to learn.”

Durth shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“You will have plenty of time to think about it. A broadsword,” Raya lifted it, “is kind of like a hammer. Even if it’s dull, even if it can’t break the skin, it can shatter bone. Unlike a bastard sword. Oh, that’s the one you might appreciate. Lighter and smaller than a broadsword, one or two handed, double edged sword that can be wielded almost the same as a broadsword. Well. Depending on the user. What you have, obviously, is a broadsword so I want you to take and hit that tree with it.”

“Hit the tree?” Durth asked.

“Slash at it, hack at it.”

Durth puzzled over it, then lifted his sword and swung at the tree. It was absolutely stupid. And he only realised it when the side of the blade came in contact with the trunk of the tree. The vibration shivered up the blade and right into Durth’s arm, shaking the sword out of his hand and making him whine in pain.

Raya waited patiently for Durth to recover before the younger man motioned for him to move. Durth shuffled to the side, pulling his broadsword with him. Raya lifted the sword and tested the weight once more. Cousin took several steps back and a deep, slow breath. Durth blinked just as Raya rushed the tree, he had enough time to turn as the blade struck and enough wits about him to duck when he heard the crack. He kept his head down an extra moment before he glanced up sheepishly.

The broadsword was buried completely in the tree.

Durth’s mouth fell open, horror splaying over his face. If Raya could do that to a tree, what could the younger man do to another man’s body? If Raya could do that with a dull blade to a tree…

He felt kind of faint.

“And that is why you don’t pick a fight with Cousin Raya,” a male voice muttered.

Raya turned from the tree, something dangerous playing over his features before the young man realised what was going on, that the person who was speaking was friend, not foe. He let out a growl, annoyed, aggravated more than anything, but still he cracked a smile.

“Dart and I trained under the same Cousin, as he became a brother. Fancy seeing you here, Dart, I thought you had other business to attend to.”

“I do. Brought me through this way, sniffing after a trail that stinks to high heaven,” Dart responded calmly, smoothly.

Durth turned towards Dart. Mid-thirties, maybe, the man had a look about him, an easy sort of look. Dart was not the type of man who had to sleep with one eye open, Durth guessed. The Cousin glanced up at the tree and then back at Raya.

“Still pissing them off, aren’t you?”

Raya shrugged, “Worth a shot, why are you over here instead of with your apprentice?”

“He didn’t meet up to standards, so he is no longer with us,” Dart said quickly before he cleared his throat and shuffled his feet like someone who had been caught forgetting something important, “Healer’s calling for you.”

“What for?”

“…” some sort of struggle before Dart said, “your woman’s bleeding.”

“Shit and the gods be damned to the lowest level of all fucking hells and back.” Raya brushed past Durth and was gone a moment later.

“She was pregnant,” Dart murmured, “walk carefully with him, Durth. If he loses this child… pity be on the one to entice his rage.”


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