Act I
Thud* Thud* Thud* I watched as two figures, one covered in shadows while the other chilled the very air in her movements as they fought. Even with the hide-covered wooden weapons they used, I felt my hands and chest frozen in place at how mercilessly deadly their strikes were.
It made me remember a conversation we had while we were still surviving in the wilderness of the Eastern grasslands.
"What do you all think is the essence of combat?"
Seraphina asked while the air around us smelled of slowly roasting pork.
"Is it Technique? or is it Footwork?"
Chara was the first to guess his words sounded uncertain.
"Survival, to survive the battle, no matter what."
Eclipsa's words sounded grim, but her tone sounded honest. After she spoke all three gave me a look, as if waiting for me to add to this barbaric conversation. . .
"Victory. . . from all I lived through, I always saw combat can either end with victory or death."
All three gave me an odd look, Chara actually laughed while the girls smiled.
"Ha ha ha! You're sounding like an old man again Dani."
Chara spoke in between laughs, but then we turned quiet again as Seraphina answered her own question.
"It's killing, the fundamental core of combat is killing. . ."
I felt my smile vanishing at her words, I did not want her answer to be true, but even in my hate, I can feel the truthfulness of her words.
"Combat is the stage where you either kill or be killed. Everything in between the goal of killing your enemy, is a distraction."
I blinked my eyes, shaking off the memory of that night as I watched my two friends fight each other without any mercy. Still I can see Eclipsa tiring quickly, her movements beginning to become sluggish, her breath ragged and her scent was filling the air with the smell of long pig.
THUD* I moved quickly, stopping the strike Seraphina would have delivered to break Eclipsa's shoulder. While also holding Eclipsa by her sweat covered back, keeping her from standing up and retaliating.
"Alright, that's enough training for you Eclipsa."
I said as I let go of the weapon Seraphina was holding and took off my hand on the back of the laying Eclipsa who was deeply breathing as she rolled to her back instead of stomach.
"Give me. . . A moment. . ."
Eclipsa breathed out her voice ragged, I shook my head as I gave her a water skin, she drank deeply before giving back to me. I gave it to Seraphina who also drank deeply emptying the leather bottle of water.
"You should join our training sessions Dani."
It wasn't the first time Seraphina asked me, and just like those other times my answer was the same.
"It would be useless for me to spar with you Sera, you know I cannot fight you with the same intent."
I said my excuse, even though the reality of the matter would be me sprawled on the ground clutching my side in agony. . .again. . . I still remember the first time I met Eclipsa in the dreaming realm, and how painful it was.
"Even so, it's no excuse for you to avoid training your melee skills. Even the best archers would be forced to fight hand to hand, Dani."
I cringed as she sounded very much like my boss during the time I worked in that old dojo near the orphanage. . . I hope that old man is doing well, I should visit him when I come back as a hero.
In the end I wasn't able to make any more excuses as I was forced by Seraphina to fight her. I was tossed a spear with its ends wrapped in animal hide. As I pathetically defensively fought her off, using my superior speed, reach and strength to keep her from cutting me down.
Thud* "Enough! Have mercy!" Thud* Thud*
I was mercilessly struck on my arms and back. As I quickly curled into a ball, my spear meters away from me. Disarmed by a fancy move, even still as I pathetically defended, Seraphina didn't stop as she kept striking me.
"HA HA HA! Stop! Not There! It tickles! Mercy!"
I started laughing as Seraphina broke through my arm defenses and started striking my abs and love handles. Her strikes felt like someone poking and or scratching at me.
[67/100 Purified souls.] My eyes eventually wandered to my chest as I saw the mark the Lightbringer had given me. . . My guess was right, I grow stronger and physically larger every time I purify ten or more souls.
Act II
"Feast! Feast! Feast!"
I was chugging a large pot of mead, but I wasn't the only one as infront of me three other Faennar warriors were mimicking my action. All three of them were taller than I was.
Infront of us, was a cauldron of bubbling, hot cocktail they call Mead. It was a mix of crushed fruit and nuts, grinded grains, and honey fermented in buried clay fired pots.
"YEAH!"
I screamed as I finished my pot, as one of my opponents dropped, her drink dropping as she fell to the pelt cover table. I can hear laughter, as she started snoring.
"You have, , not. .. woon Hatchling!"
The second to finish her pot slurred as she pointed at me, her skin that used to be a red tanned wheat, had turned even more flushed red. I started laughing as I felt myself swaying, I looked down to see the 7 large broken pots I've drunk from.
"DRINK!" Shatter*
The last one to finish her drink said as she broke her pot on the floor, Shatter* Shatter* I and the one who finished her drink after me copied her before we yelled and did the same thing.
"DRINK! DRINK!"
I was passed another bowl, quickly without thinking I used it as a scoop, filling it with the thick alcohol from the golden Cauldron filled with bubbling mead. Gulped* Deeply drunken, the bowl fell and shattered emptily onto the wooden floors.
Thud* Thud* I looked forward, my vision blurring. . . Then I started blinking, confusion mauled my mind as water blurred my eyes.
"Huh?"
The word came out weakly as my eyes circled the room I was in. Steam fogged the room, but the smell of boiled herbs and the warmness of the water I was submerged in made me think of one place.
"I'm in a bathing hut?"
I was less confused while sitting in a large basin, as I smiled and started laughing. In the end of my laughter I shook my head, as the memory of last night's feast faded.
"Why did I just remember something like that?"
Other memories came, these ones even more recent as I remembered finishing the afternoon training with the girls, and. . . I felt for my neck, and felt a bruise that seemed to not have healed completely.
"That damn battlemaniac. . . Is that why I fell asleep?"
Pictures flashed through my head, of the moment I stood up after Seraphina stopped bashing me with her sparring sword, and then she surprised me by using her ice abilities to slow me down as she took a cheap shot at my neck.
Creek* The basin gave out a protesting squeak as I stood up and got out of my bath. Looking back I picked up and turned over the basin to remove its bath water before placing it back.
Walking out the bath hut, the sound of singing, laughter, drums and flutes heavily painted the air. My clothes smelled freshly laundered as they neatly hung on a pole outside the bath hut, ignoring the Faennar commoners and occasional warriors I started wearing my clothes.
The candles were already lit, as I looked up to see the night moons of the Dreaming. But from how only two showed themselves, and only a small bit of the oil where used in the candles it means it was still the early part of the evening.
"Warrior."
I gave a small bow to a warrior who was walking by, the gesture made her stop and return my bow by patting her shoulder twice, it was their traditional salute of respect.
"Can you point me to Councilor Talon's long house?"
The Faennar warrior was quiet for a moment before shaking her head.
"I would rather lead you, Friend Merciful Sun, than see you wander around our village lost."
With that said, she started walking. I followed along, as we walked past dozens of elevated longhouses separated by gardens, patches of empty yards or wide roads with visible canals below the wet bundled stick roads.
"You had purified my clutch sister. . ."
The Faennar warrior began as we paused to walk between the fences of parallel yards each with a small herd of fattened birds. As that was the only type of livestock or domestic animals the Faennar clan kept.
"I was prepared to lose her to the corruption of the taint. . ."
A bit of emotion broke through the mask she wore, as I smiled.
"Thank you."
With that we continued walking, she did not say anything more and I did not have anything to tell her but one.
"By your light, by your flame, eternity to the shield of the Guardian Sun."
My words made her tap her shoulders thrice as we continued our walk, never breaking our pace.
Act III
"A temple?"
I spoke befuddled, the strange word unfamiliar as it passed my tongue. Now seated with the new guest friends of my clan, I looked over to them.
One was the intimidatingly large yet gentle friend we all call Merciful Sun, he is a Divine speaker of a Sun patron my fellow Divine speakers recognize as related to our own patron the Guardian Sun.
He was also the only one among his fellow guest friends that spoke our native Imperial tongue. We long suspect him as some divine speaker of another ruined golden city lost to the rifts that brought our clan to these lands but from how little he knew of our lore, it could be that he was something else entirely.
"Yes, Councilor Talon, a temple. It is a place where patrons had once called their home or a place used by mortals to venerate them for a long time."
Merciful Sun, had described an ancestral Shrine. . . We have two of them in our clan. One was the [House of Champions] where we had released our dead, the other was our [House of the Guardian] where our Divine speakers annually sacrificed for the Guardian Sun's protection.
I was cautious, as my eyes measured the four guest friends. They were all warriors, even the short blind hatchling was one. Yet they were only at the raw power of a warrior in the beginning of their path.
"Why do you seek these Temples, Friend Merciful Sun?"
It would be improper to treat a guest friend as some kind of suspicious thief, especially guest friends that had lived with us for more than a season. . . I would not mimic the bullheaded Councilors that had voted to exile these strangers turned guest friends. . . atleast without good reason.
"A way home, this is no secret but we are strangers to do these lands, even more so than your Clan, kind Councilor. . ."
The Merciful Sun's words were well known to be true, as many had known of it in the many feasts he had attended as he purified the taint out of many of the clan warriors. . . which was one of the reasons I accepted his request for a meeting.
"But this is not the first time our people had come to these lands, in our lore it is told that we can be brought home if we simply asked the local Patrons of these lands in their Temples."
His words made me pause, as I looked at the foolish Divine speaker. If their lore were true then. . . Was it true? I searched my memory for our own lore after we had settled these lands. Have we ever asked the 'Guardian sun' or our Ancestors to lead us back to the lands of our ancestral clan?
No, I don't remember anything like that ever mentioned in our [Story House], was it mentioned in the part that was damaged? Surely not, or else the Lore keepers would have re-weaved the stories back into our tapestries.
Sip* I took a drink of my mead, it cleared my head as I decided if it was a good idea to tell our guests about our Temples. . . I'm liking this new word, I should tell this to the other Councilors, it might be a good name to use for our sacred places.
"We have two such places in our clan, and we know of others found by our expeditions. But I do not have the authority to tell you any of these in detail unless the council approves of the request."
Friend Merciful Sun gave an enchanting smile, as he laughed and thanked me for my kindness as he spoke in a language I did not understand to the three others sitting near him.
They reacted differently, the cold one gave out a small emotionless chuckle, the small blind one matched the Merciful Sun's joy but it was noticeably an act. While the dark one, many of the common kin avoided frowned as she gave subtle glances my way.
The Merciful Sun really does keep strange company. I wonder if they're truly companions of our Friend Merciful Sun, or his servants taken from the evil patrons of those that do not accept the supremacy of the Solar pantheon.