Namesakes

I actually... got... a review. I cringed at the idea that someone
was likely tearing apart my story and that, having just got up, it
was too gosh darned early to be insulted. But I read it anyway.
Wasn't even insulting.

I can't come up with a SINGLE thing to say. Ouch.

Read, Reveiw and Enjoy, as always ^_^

Ayato touched and petted Rava every chance he got. The people
touched back only for a few moments, to let Ayato know that there
were no hard feelings between them. They had been in worse fights
before. Nax touched Ayato constantly, had a hand on the younger
Sidhe’s ankle or leg and finally was draped right over him.
Ayato knew Rava found it irritating but didn’t stop Nax. To be
honest the younger male had no idea what to do about this.

He was mated to both of them. He loved Rava but Sidhe mated for
life. He and Rava were different though, they were… well he
wasn’t sure how to explain it.

“You have to break off their mating,” Rava growled at
master.

Master cast aside his hat and sighed heavily, “Sidhe mate
for life. One of them would have to die and stay dead.”

“I can make that happen.”

“Nax is a piece of Herla-she.”

“Why would I care?”

“She’s trying to save the Sidhe. Currently your mate’s
soul is intertwined with the fate of the Sidhe. If the Sidhe die, so
will he.”

“I have bigger problems at the moment. I can’t leave
him, Rahl-ta and Tahl-ra have told every piece where he is and
they’re coming to kill him.”

“What is with their obsession with killing the boy?”
master sat on Ayato’s nest, “they ordered me to kill him
with my own hands or they’d kill me.”

“Did they swear it?”

“Yes.”

“No wonder he’s still alive,” Rava muttered,
running his fingers through Ayato’s hair idly.

“Keep both!” Ayato said quickly. Rava had been looking
for new ways to improve their sex life anyway. When master had joined
them… it sent shivered through Ayato’s body just
thinking about it. Rava being had as the ‘woman’ was a
taboo in the bedroom. It had only happened a few times.

“Ayato. No.”

“Piss on you, I am not a child.” he felt possessed as
he brushed Nax off, “I say we keep both matings intact then we
keep both, we don’t sit around questioning whether or not Ayato
knows what he’s talking about.”

“You’re in no condition to be trying to figure out the
possibilities of this lifetime.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means. How often have you awoken in the
past month, ayata?”

“Stop calling me that. You don’t talk down to your
lovers.”

“But there can only be one sete and one pas in each
relationship. If I’m pas and you’re sete, what would that
make him?” Nax muttered grumpily.

“He can be sete. That means woman, right?”

Rava growled, “you’ve been awakened so much because
the bits of you that reside in the mortal body are being destroyed.
If your mortal soul is destroyed then you will be destroyed.”

“Or. I’ll become a god and live forever.”

“Without me?”

“Isn’t your soul doing the same thing?” Ayato
frowned at Rava, their lives always mirrored each other. If one died
far out in the field, having never met the other in life, then the
other died quickly so that they could always be together. One
couldn’t survive without the other. That was like Rahl-ta
living without Tahl-ra.

“No, only yours.”

“The gods are idiots.” master sighed again, “killing
him would only put off the problem. They would have to spend
generations collecting the bits of his soul and then eons piecing it
back together. They don’t have eons, their pieces are dwindling
and they need the key before they lose their pieces.”

Rava frowned but said nothing. “Una. Are you the game
keeper?”

“Ka. Sadly.”

“What do you owe the gods?”

“Nothing. They demand it of me because I am immortal, or
near to it at least, and I am not living with my people.”
master rubbed his temple, looked at the floor sadly, “it is a
burden my people carry because of our long lives. We are Shey-har’s
pieces. Everyone of us.”

“You could change-”

Master raised a hand to silence Rava, “unlike your masters,
mine is quite kind to me. I am never without a lover, always in food,
money and wealth of all kinds. The only thing I lack is someone who
lives as long as I do to spend the years together. But my people
aren’t interested in the sort of sexual pleasure I’m
interested in and so I spend it alone.

“Besides. You could also change.”

“Not without Ayato, you know that.”

“He’s practically Herla-she’s. He has her
pieces’ body, but Rahl-ta and Tahl-ra’s powers. He has
Shey-har’s protection, believe it or not. Tesenai-ai whispers
in his ear and because of his powers of air he is within Aien-te’s
influence. I can’t list a god that doesn’t have some sort
of claim on the boy. Tahl-ra and Rahl-ta just happen to have the
strongest claim.”

Ayato fell off balance in his mental world and dropped against
Rava’s shoulder, shaking badly as the people drew him near and
comforted him.

“It’s amazing really, how they’ve managed to
hold on to him all these years,” Rava murmured, “treat
him like shit, like he doesn’t matter and he always returns.”

“Because you are theirs.” master laughed quietly, “if
you were the bait for the key, the game would be won.”

“How do they win?”

“Hold onto the key for six millennia.”

“How long have I existed?”

“Seven. Ayato only existed for the past six or so.”

“What happens to the key after the game is won?”

“The world has existed for eons, Rava, and the game has
never been won.”

“There’s always been a key?”

“Of course. Before the recent key there was one, named
Arrian. She didn’t last more than a few life times. Her soul
fell apart because the gods fought so hard over it.”

“Bastards. How can you support a game like that?”

“How could I not? If the gods get bored of us they will not
hesitate to destroy us and start anew. Is one soul really worth that
much to you? Worth the entire world?”

“Worth more than that.”

Master took a moment to sum Rava up and made an approving sound,
“no wonder they chose you as their warrior piece. Gods, Rava,
you sound like you would fight Shey-har himself to keep the key alive
even though you don’t know it.”

“Do you know it?”

“No one does. No one knows where the key is or who has it in
hand. The game has become one of strategy and is like cards. No one
can truly know what the others have unless the pieces show
themselves. As you, and Ayato, have.”

“What do you suppose the gods would do if they knew where
the key was?”

Nax laughed. Ayato yawned sleepily and felt himself being drawn
into the calm darkness of slumber.

“Rava, you and Ayato are the only pieces that live the way
you do. The rest of us are struggling through this life in service of
our master in hopes of getting even one lifetime with a mate by our
side and our survival guaranteed. If we knew where the key was we
would likely wipe each other out to secure that key. Our masters
would reward us beyond imagining.”

“That is true,” master muttered, “were I to
secure the key Shey-har has promised that he would provide me with a
mate. Make a soul from scratch to be with me as you are with Ayato
were his exact words.

“Only the immortal and the pieces, besides the gods
themselves, know that the Ayatos and Ravas throughout history are not
just your namesakes and are, in fact, you two reborn again and again
as Rahl-ta and Tahl-ra’s pieces.”

Master paused, as if something clicked inside his mind, he had
answered a question that he had privately asked himself previously.
But Ayato was hardly listening.

Ayato closed his eyes, just for a moment. If he missed anything
Rava would fill him in on it later…

.