Sequel

I'm actually not happy with this, which I blame partly on my head being funny still from working so much on projects. There are a few hints throughout.

And I've had to start doing a bit of research on something that I have very little experience with, for the story. Which is kind of like beating your head on the wall.

Tyz is someone people who have read Namesakes will understand. An unfortunate contact with godsbane actually killed Tyz but because he was originally people, he went to the underworld and has been back to ... haunt... Una several times. Una doesn't complain about the arrangement and I think he enjoys the whole ability to reseduce Tyz each lifetime.

Una is trying everything he knows to get Mik back. Of course, it's all failing miserably, it seems.

gah. Back to recharging for me.

Oh. Over on the forum I've put up a thread titled one shots. Go over and suggest which ones you'd like to see and I'll say yay or nay. I'm like as not going to work on one tonight.

Read, Review and Enjoy.





Rel woke the next morning to the sunlight filtering in the windows. The apartment was oddly dark, and the dimming of the windows that usually kept the sunlight from waking him at dawn was not working. Rel stretched in the bed, letting out a small sound as everything moved to just that right place, just the right amount of stretch for pleasure to shudder through his body.

He sat up and stretched again while he looked across the darkened floor. Darkened. As in. The electricity was out. Which meant no coffee. Damnable damns.

Una and Muan were in the kitchen and both paused over whatever they were huddled around to look at Rel, then back at the thing between them. Rel caught the light of several candles and some sort of rigging with a teapot thusly hovering over the candle flame.

Perhaps there would be coffee after all.

“Power’s out,” Una said to Rel, glancing at Muan, then to the man, “While we were on another floor.”

Una wanted Rel to ask the question of how the pair had gotten back to his floor. The immortal thought he was being clever about it, even as Muan’s boredom with the question Rel was supposed to ask gave Rel the very answer. Muan had powered the elevator.

Frightening. But Sidhe bone could power technology thus, a living Sidhe should be able to do the same thing. Obviously whatever Muan had done on the elevator couldn’t be worked consciously, else there would be coffee.

Una muttered something in another language under his breath and looked back to his candle contraption, “people with power take all the fun out of everything.”

“No coffee.” Rel muttered as if that explained everything. Well. It did somewhat. The morning began with coffee.

“You should accustom yourself to a coffee substitute that can be found in the midlands,” Una murmured, “there is a specific plant that when the roots are dried and then boiled, taste quite similar and can make the same … feeling in your head that coffee does. But is less addictive and… when prepared improperly will become a laxative.”

“Coffee pot is electrical,” Rel looked pointedly at Muan.

“If he hadn’t run water for a bath for himself before I convinced him to break the building, we wouldn’t even have water at the moment.”

“Coffee is made with water.”

“We couldn’t figure out how to work it.”

“Bright morning, like sunshine in a cup!” Muan exclaimed.

Rel huffed and went to the counter where the coffee pot was. He unplugged the machine and grasped the plug in his hand, “you take it like this and then you. Do that thing you do.”

Una watched Rel for a moment then said, “is your head fuzzy? A heaviness at the base of your skull? Are your thoughts hazy?”

“What?”

“Answer the questions?”

“About what? How my head feels?”

Una tilted his head towards Muan while keeping his eyes on Rel. A motion that disturbed Rel to no end, that sent a shiver down Rel’s spine.

“Pick three sprigs of mint and add them to the tea.” Una said to Muan, to which the Sidhe made a questioning sound, “it is always best to make an Aniege sleep instead of allowing them to fret themselves into a mess.”

Silence was replaced by a hum. All three males winced as the lights came on. The thrumming of the electricity around them was obvious after the silence of before. One after another machines binged and pinged and came to live. The fridge shuddered before the motor of the machine jerked to life.

Muan moved away from Una, towards the plants as Rel glared at the fridge. Rel slowly turned his focus back to Una. The immortal was watching him. Una let out a long, slow breath.

“You went.” Una said.

“He’s not there,” Rel responded, as if they had been having a conversation, as if Una had not just changed the topic or asked for information he didn’t want to give out.

“But you went.”

“Yes.”

“And the information points to the fact that the product was not available.”

Cameras on so fast? Rel glanced up to Muan then back to Una, “the product is unavailable for purchasing, for it is involved in a prior engagement. The announcing of its arrival is expected, but has yet to be heralded.”

Una’s lips twitched upward, “my boy, you hardly know the words you speak, do you?”

“Hmm?” Rel asked as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

Mari stepped off, hand pressed against her stomach and in a shirt that obviously not her own. It was too tight around the chest area. Mari went immediately to the bathroom as Rel and Muan’s parents stepped off the elevator. Ashun watched Mari move to the bathroom and huffed out.

“She just used the bathroom downstairs.”

“Maybe she is ill,” Una muttered.

“She isn’t puking, she’s already done that this morning as well.” Ashun moved towards the plants as she huffed out. Halfway there the young woman stopped suddenly and went pale.

“What?” Rel asked her.

Ashun glanced at Una and away. Una had the look of a father who has had this conversation one too many times before. Ashun approached Una, head down, hair hanging over her eyes. Had Una and Ashun not met?

Rel plugged the coffee maker back in and went about making a pot of coffee. By the time he turned back to Una, the immortal had Ashun by the chin and had lifted her face upward. Ashun was looking away but made no attempt to pull out of Una’s light grip.

“What fool made you?” Una murmured, turning her head this way and then that, “daemon, possibly even Mother born. What tribe do you arise from?”

“What tribe?” Ashun asked, startled as she stepped away from Una, “my family is my tribe, my tribe is my family.”

“And for all who stand before you shall tremble at your might,” Una sighed out, “do you know where those words come from, child?”

“Illuva in her gracious love of her peoples delivered them to me in a dream.”

Muan returned from the plants, three leaves in hand. He dumped them unceremoniously into the tea. The Sidhe stirred the tea about with a spoon and poked Una in the back of the neck with the wet spoon.

“Let it brew for a bit, Muan,” Una muttered, “Ashun, those words come from a book. A very old book. Written in the blood of the first daemon, passed from one daemonic king to the next.”

“I am not a daemon.”

“You have daemon blood in you, therefore you are, but the passage refers to one able to walk between here and there.”

“Here. And there?” Ashun muttered in a tone that plainly stated she didn’t believe Una and thought the man was more than a bit daft, “you want me to step between here and the underworld. Willingly.”

“Goodness no,” Una responded, “just… kick open the door a bit and let someone slip out.”

“And perhaps bring a certain … purchase with them?” Ashun snapped back, annoyed, “if I had the power to allow someone else in or out of the underworld, I would not allow you to bring him here.”

“Bring who?”

“Even a game master has a desire for the flesh denied him. Tyz.”

“Fuck off.” Una snapped back, “I would not break my bargain with the gods, I will have Tyz when they see fit to bring him back. The soul I want you to bring out is Mik’s.”

“Mi…” Ashun sighed out, perked up and hopped onto the counter, settling beside Una as a small smile twitched at her lips, “You want him out.”

“I thought you might be more reasonable about that. Of course, he must be found first, he must be restored quickly. Before… things happen.” Una murmured.

Mari emerged from the bathroom, back of her hand pressed against her mouth. Pale and still nervous and fearful from being thrown out of the Illuen, her mind roiled and her stomach responded in kind.

“Come, Ashun,” Una made a motion with his hand that Rel didn’t recognise, that drew Ashun’s eyes to Una’s hands, “why don’t you and I take a walk to speak with … Taln, was his name? About your situation.”

“Very well,” Ashun responded, though the young woman seemed hardly happy to be leaving so soon.

“Muan, make certain Rel drinks that tea. Rel, make certain your woman eats something,” Una said, pointing first at Muan, then to Rel, “she looks far too pale to be healthy.”

“She’s not my woman!” Rel protested as Mari snapped, “I am no one’s woman.”

“And the rest of you, please explain to these two why I don’t care how often they protest,” Una muttered, heading towards the elevator with Ashun in tow, “try not to kill one another children, we all want or need you alive so please. Behave.”

There was silence until the elevator doors shut on Una and Ashun. Then Mari huffed out.

“Cock sucking bastard being such a fucking prick of a… bastard. Did you see him staring at my chest? Damned shirt just didn’t want to fit and he has to make it so obvious that I can’t even fit my own clothing.”

Rel turned to Muan, the male was very clearly trying not to make eye contact with Mari. Upset women scared him and he wanted nothing to do with it and it wasn’t his fault that she was in her situation so someone else should do something. Before she got really scary and started throwing things. Muan looked pointedly at Rel. Rel looked towards the other males, desperate.

“Oh stop that, you’d think none of you had seen a woman just as her menstruation started or something.”

Rel swallowed and decided to step on the explosive device, before everyone someone managed to stumble onto it, “in the rest of the world, it is called PMS and a smart man knows when to tuck his tail between his legs and run the other way.”

Mari met Rel’s eyes and inclined her head, “why don’t you sit with me and have some of Muan’s tea. We can discuss more what makes a man intelligent in the rest of the world.”

The entire room breathed a visible sigh of relief as Mari moved towards the couch by the television. Muan pulled teacups out of the cupboard and began pouring tea.

It was going to be a long, awkward day.


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