Aftermath

He's crazy, absolutely crazy.

I worry that all of my characters are Sues, all the bloody time -_- half the time I'm pretty certain they all are, the other half I'm pretty certain it's only the characters who are interesting to me.

Then they go and lose their minds and screw up my plot and throw fits and try to kill each other and get moody.

Durth is slowly coming out of his shell, which is amusing, he knocked Raya's feet out from underneath him at least twice in here. I don't believe Durth realises it. I also don't believe either Durth or Raya realise how unstable Raya is at the moment. And Raya's affinity for children gives Tah the only leverage anyone in the world holds over Raya which makes her a very powerful woman.

Who I hope has the courage not to use that leverage.

I know I'd be tempted.

Read, Review and Enjoy.






After a week it was obvious that Tah would not lose the child. The woman was back up and growling at Durth at every turn. They had to stay there, though. So for nine months they stayed at the outpost,over the course of which Raya gave Durth a crash course in fighting and attacking, in strategy and in the evenings, at the light of the hearth, Durth had to practice his letters and numbers while Raya gave Tah massages.

Durth was sore too.

They stayed because Raya didn’t want to lose the child. Tah seemed to care less. In private. In public the woman showed every care to keep herself safe and comfortable. Raya, in public, seemed to care less.

In private the man constantly insisted Tah eat more and sleep more and relax and take her vitamins. Not too much stress, not too much of anything and Raya read to Tah and then to Tah’s stomach as she grew rounder. Raya did everything in his power to see that Tah had anything a woman could have or want. And when she went into labour Raya pulled Durth into the birthing room with him.

To which Durth spent fourteen hours wondering who in their right fucking minds would want a kid if THAT was what happened to the … down there bits of a woman. Yet when the child first screamed Tah looked pleased. Raya looked… excited.

A healthy girl was born to the pair and they named her Eskershirn. Shirn for short. Eskershirn was, apparently, some sort of mythological heroine. After the birth of the child, Raya waited just long enough for Tah to ‘recover.’

Meaning when Tah growled at Raya that she had seen enough of the outpost and the winter was fading and damned be the man who got between her and her packing because she was leaving in the morning, whether he liked it or not.

Sometimes Durth wondered who was the dominant one of the pair.

So less than a month after Tah gave birth, they set off once more. Raya tried to encourage Tah to slow down, to take it easy. But mother and daughter both seemed to imply the same thing. That males obviously had no idea how to keep up with a woman.

The baby was less than a month old.

Mouthy little-

Raya cuffed Durth upside the head and growled at the young man, “Don’t swear.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Don’t swear.”

Raya stepped around Durth and looked out over the huge plain that had once been a city. Rubble had been converted into a fortress. Walls separated the fortress from the small town that was blooming around the Aniege capital. Miles wide, the plain crossed over a river that was being diverted into a canal to take water directly to the fortress.

“This is-”

“They,” Raya sighed, “Call it Bayen Nort.”

“Bayen Nort?”

“Look, I work with the Aniege often, I believe along with any other Cousin, I trust in the will of the gods and such on. I follow Father, body and soul. But they are such. Idiots. They meant to say the City of Nort. Instead they. Called it the uhm… you know.”

“The what?”

“Bayen means…” Raya paused and then sighed loudly, “the waste hole.”

“The. You jest, surely,” Durth muttered.

“I’ve offered three times to teach you the eldest languages of the people, Durth, why not accept?”

“And if I did?”

“Do you?”

Durth thought about it for a long moment, “alright. Might make all the walking interesting.”

“Ba.”

“Ba?”

“Yes, as in ‘bah, I hate that!’ and ‘en’ like in ‘end.’ Ba en.”

“Ba en.”

“Ba en Una. Ba means city. En… actually means to be but in this case means the city of Una. Ba en Mofvanse is a bit redundant, actually. As Mofvanse means to be a possession of the gods. So the city is … of the possession of the gods.”

“It belongs to those who belong to the gods?”

Raya glanced back at Durth, “yes, actually.”

“Men!” Tah snapped from down the road, “I want a hot bath tonight and I shall not get it with you standing there.”

Raya motioned with his head and put a little skip in his step as he made to catch up with his woman. Durth followed after, puzzling over why Raya seemed so shocked that Durth had understood the meaning of Ba en Mofvanse. Durth had never heard of the city before, had never learned about it in school or heard whispers of it in the servant quarters. But he could make a connection when one was presented to him.

Durth followed Raya down the road and listened to Tah and Raya speaking in another language. They were quiet about it, but something about the way Tah held herself made Durth think that it was not a good conversation. Tah marched on as Raya dropped back to walk alongside Durth.

“Alright.”

“She upset.”

“Public. Durth. Here your life is in the balance. One wrong move and you forfeit your life if you’re lucky. Follow my lead.”

“I get that, I can behave myself, I can take the lead as well.”

Raya stopped walking. Durth took several more steps before he sighed and turned around to face Raya. The Cousin looked back at him, annoyance playing over the man’s face. Durth immediately lowered his eyes to the infertile ground at Raya’s feet. To give no resistance, was this a test?

“I did not say take the lead, Durth, I said follow my lead.” In a tone of voice that Durth had not heard come from Raya’s mouth before. It was beyond the annoyance or aggravation and it had the snip to it that made Durth want to crawl under a rock and hide for a good long while.

Like, until Raya was dead and the threat was gone.

“I meant. That is.”

“You meant what you said,” Raya said, calmer suddenly. The man stepped up to Durth and set a hand on either of Durth’s shoulders, “but if you try to take lead, if you try to divert my ideals and my faith and my job I will not hesitate in killing you. My duty is too important, my master to precious to my heart.”

“You scare me sometimes, you know that, right?”

“I’m supposed to.”

“In a crazy sort of way,” Durth added as Raya walked around him, “like, guard my eyes against rusty spoons.”

“I would never use a rusty object, too much risk in catching a disease and dying myself.” Raya responded over his shoulder, “I’d rather use my fingers.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Durth caught up to Raya easily and saw the grin on the younger man’s face, “You’re joking.”

“No, I’m not, actually.” Raya murmured, looking ahead of him for a moment before he looked to Durth, “behave as in public but for in private conversation within the seclusion of the inner chambers of our rooms.”

“Starting when?”

Raya swept his foot out and dropped Durth onto his bottom. Which meant a sore bottom and his chest tightening in an annoying fashion.

“Starting when I spoke,” Raya stepped over Durth and cast a disdainful glance back at him, “step up, least you get locked out of the walls and subject to the homeless people who wander the streets at night.”

Durth made a face at the sky but sat up without saying anything, without even breathing out heavier than normal. He stood and caught up with Raya easily, following close behind his Cousin.

It was going to be a long visit.


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