Much to his own surprise, AJ fell asleep right where he was. When he opened his eyes the next time, the sun was setting on the horizon. His head was still pillowed in Brian’s lap. Shay was still curled against him against his stomach, almost like a cub curled up with its. The analogy made him smile. That was about the same moment that he noticed that he was still the jaguar. Interesting. So, the magic stayed, even when her defenses were down enough for him to sleep.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />
A warm hand ran over his head, fingernails trailing through his fur. It was a pleasant feeling. His tail moved lazily behind him. A low sound built in his chest. It took him a moment to recognize it. When he did, he could have laughed. He was purring. Imagine that! Purring! That thought was amusing enough that Brian gave a chuckle, having caught that in AJ’s mind. The hand on his head didn’t stop. Indeed, it scratched more, making the purr grow a little louder.
“Do you two mind?” Shay asked from his position against AJ’s stomach. He didn’t move. “Some of us were still sleeping here.”
“So go back to sleep.” Brian quipped.
Shay rolled his head enough to give them both a baleful look. “With that motor right by my head? Yeah, sure.” He sat up, stretching his arms above his head, popping a few stiff joints. When he looked back down at AJ again he was grinning. “Got to say it, Alyck. You make a pretty good looking feline.”
AJ purred even louder, content. Amusement brightened Shay’s face. “Nice side benefit, too. The whole not being able to talk part of things. You should stay feline more often.”
To amuse them both, AJ twisted his body in a quick move, knocking Shay to the ground and standing on all fours over him. He snarled, long and low. Shay didn’t even flinch. He lifted his hands to lace behind his head, looking for all the world like he was totally at ease stretched out underneath a jaguar. “Your breath stinks, Alyck.” He said conversationally.
The sound AJ made was undoubtedly a snicker. He moved off of Shay so that he could stretch his limbs. A yawn pulled through him, stretching his mouth wide. It was in mid-stretch that he felt the crackle to his fur. For a moment he stopped, curious. Brian was the one who answered his unasked question, naturally. “There’s blood dried in your fur, heart song. We didn’t exactly think about it when we laid down.”
‘Where is everyone?’ AJ asked him, looking around the field. It was almost completely empty. Only Tripha, resting on the cliff, was out with them.
Brian stood up, taking his turn to stretch. “They all headed in earlier. Tending to their own, spending time with loved ones, such like that. Tripha stayed with us to stand guard, he said, so that we could rest.”
‘How are Donnelly and the others? Did they make it through ok?’ Unspoken was the question of whether or not they’d made it out alive. Brian was quick to reassure him on that. “They’re all alive. A little shook up, but alive. It was a rude wake up call for them.”
“In more ways than one.” Shay piped up. He was standing now, looking totally at ease. “We’ve scared them, the three of us?”
“How?” Brian asked, speaking for both him and AJ.
Shay gave him a dubious look. “Come on now. Look at us. I mean, I predicted the battle, a fine way to show them my abilities. Then we fought like demons, in their eyes. Hell, Alyck jumped in and made walls of earth and slammed them into the enemy. He turned into a jaguar and chased off to kill stragglers. Then, when it was all said and done, we come over here in the middle of a bloody battlefield, covered in blood ourselves, and take a nap.”
That purring snicker rumbled from AJ again. With one last sigh and stretch, he unraveled the magic in him and let his body shift back to its natural form. The shift was painful, as always, but he realized it was something he was growing used to. When it was done he stood before them, nude but for the splatters of blood on his skin. “We were tired.” He said, picking the conversation back up.
Shay snickered softly. He reached down to a bag on the ground and pulled out a pair of breeches, tossing them to AJ. “But to a group of people who’ve never been bloodied in battle before, let alone a war like this, the idea of sleeping in the middle of where the carnage was is just disgusting. They can’t comprehend how we could do it.”
Without a thought to it, AJ tossed the breeches back to Shay. No point in putting on clean clothes just to bloody them again. He embraced his magic, pulling water from the ocean behind him and bringing it over him. There he held a ball of it, letting it rain down on him lightly. He pulled up more, offering it to his friends.
They both grinned as they took their makeshift showers. All conversation cut off as they cleansed themselves. Once the blood was totally gone from skin and hair, the three of them dressed in clean clothes from the bag on the ground. “Where’d this come from?” AJ asked while he pulled his breeches on.
“Richard brought it out.” Belting his sash, Brian grinned. “Figured we might need it when we woke up.”
“Bless him. He probably just didn’t want us to walk into the castle nude.”
“Most likely. He still doesn’t quite understand why we’re not shy about it.”
With a smirk, AJ shrugged. “Oh well.”
Fully dressed in his usual, bright gypsy clothes, Shay put his hands on his hips. “You two done babbling yet? I’d like to find something to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”
Rolling his eyes, AJ took his baldrics from Brian, slinging them easily on. “You can’t starve, Shay. You don’t need food.” He reminded him.
“Alyck, you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be around me. I always need food!”
The three friends laughed as they headed toward the castle. AJ caught Tripha’s eye, smiling and nodding at his friend. The dragon nodded back, raising his bulk from the ground to take off into the sky. AJ let himself follow the others inside the main courtyard. But when it came to the front doors of the castle, AJ hesitated. “I’m not quite sure I want to go in there yet.” He admitted softly. “I can sense Donnelly in there. The others, too. If they feel the way you guys say they do, well, I’m not quite ready for that yet.”
“You don’t have to go in, Alex.” Brian said softly.
For a moment AJ just stood there. Brian was right. He didn’t have to go in. Where he wanted to go didn’t require using the stairs if he didn’t want to. None of the elves out here were bothering them, noticing that they obviously wanted to be left alone. AJ turned and called to one he recognized. “Tva!” he called out. The male Sun elf ran over. “Yes, trulion?”
“I would ask a favor of you, if you don’t mind.”
“You have but to ask, trulion.”
It took everything AJ had not to wince. When it was necessary, he used the obedience that came with the title. But in everyday life it drove him insane sometimes. “Peace, Tva. You needn’t treat me any different in casual situations.” He told him gently. “I but wanted to ask if you might convey my apologies to my Grandfather and let him know that, if he needs one of us three, we shall be on our tower top, talking. That is all.”
The smile Tva wore turned impish. “This I can do, easily enough.” He started to bow, but stopped himself, earning him a smile from AJ. “Peace be on you this night, Alyck, trulion.” That said, he took off toward the doors. Before they could chance being seen, AJ wrapped air around himself and his companions and lifted them upward, aiming for his tower top. In no time at all the three of them were seated in the lush moss.
“Now, I think it’s time you paid me back, Shay.” AJ told him calmly. He reclined back against the edge of the tower, letting his hair drape over the side, blowing in the breeze. Brian sat beside him, curling into his side actually. Shay lounged on the moss across from them. “Paid you back?” he asked curiously.
“Yeah. I told you my life from the time you left till present, omitting only things you didn’t need to know and sharing some I didn’t need to share. Isn’t it time for you to tell me where you’ve been?”
“Ah.” Shay reclined back on his elbows, tipping his head back to look up at the darkening sky. “I’m not sure how much of this tale to tell, Alyck. It’s been my quest, my secret, for a long time.”
This was a subject AJ wouldn’t be moved from. Not just for personal reasons, either. “I’m not asking as just your friend, though the friend in me dearly wants to know what kept us apart all these years and why I was lied to. No, I ask as the trulion, the leader of this army we take to Nellador. I ask, no, demand to know what is going on with the people who are with me, or how else can I trust them? Without trust, I cannot, in good faith, allow you to travel with us. Not when your secrets could harm the whole.”
Shay slanted his eyes toward AJ. “You would distrust me for not telling you this? You would ban me from coming with you because I choose to keep a secret?”
“Yes.” AJ replied. There was no hesitation in his answer. “Even if it broke my heart to separate from a good friend again, I would do so in a heartbeat. The secret you carry could be important. Enough so that it might put others at risk if I don’t know what to prepare for. People who put their trust in me, who look to me to lead, could die if I let my friendship with you block my common sense. In this, I’m not your friend. I’m the trulion. I demand an accounting, Shay, or you can keep your secret and leave the castle tonight.”
Much to AJ’s surprise, Shay was smiling at him. “Good.” He said. His grin grew wider. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. If you hadn’t been ready, I wouldn’t have told you. But you’re ready. Well, get comfortable, for the tales a long one and it starts quite a while ago. Before I met you, actually. Pardon some of the longer explanations, Alyck, for I know you know them, but I want to make sure your mate here understands everything I say.”
When Shay grew quiet, AJ waited. He knew this was often Shay’s way. He thought before he spoke. He, of all people, knew the weight of wording things properly. A vision, if worded wrong, could pass along a meaning totally opposite for the one intended. When the conversation was important, Shay was always cautious with his choice of words. AJ knew that Shay would start when he was ready.
After a few minutes of silence, Shay lay back on the moss, folding his hands behind his head. His voice was low when he started to speak.
“My magic manifested itself quite young for the type of gift I have. The rest of the magic, the elemental kind, we’ll say, was normal to come on young. For most of us it starts almost instantly from birth. I was no different there. I made the wind move as an infant. I played with water, occasionally making it rain if it amused me. At least, so said my mother. But most Seers are born into the Sight when they reach that moment of passing from boy to man. Mine started when I was six.
“I remember, clear as day, sitting on the floor and looking up at my father. I wanted to tell him something. But when I saw him, the vision hit me like a ton of bricks. Until you learn to control them, visions can be painful. You don’t just see what is happening, like a movie on a screen. You live it for that moment. You feel the emotion that’s there. Until you learn, they can steal your breath, knock you to the ground. They can lay you out flat if they’re intense enough. Apparently it was another sign of my strength that I remained conscious.
“I cried out, falling back. My father rushed over to me. He says that I went into convulsions, like a seizure. Later he and my mother said that they were terrified a demon had come into me. In those times, that was believed to happen. For myself, all I felt was pain, Horrible, horrible pain. The vision gripped me tight and refused to let me go. I saw my father on a field, blood flowing everywhere. He was covered in it. I saw him grabbed by men I didn’t recognize at first. They questioned him. Though I was six, my mind still knew what they were doing. They questioned him about his family. About me. They had heard there was magic in his home and were blaming that magic for their failing crops, their sick and injured.
“It was then I realized that the people questioning him were our villagers. They were people I had known my entire six summers. Our neighbors. Our friends. The magic they spoke of was my magic. They tortured my father, demanding he sacrifice me or hand me over to them. But he laughed in their faces, saying I was hidden, they would never find me. Finally, they killed him.”
Shay paused in his telling. His eyes were closed now against the memory that swamped him. AJ stayed still, wishing there was something he could do for his old friend. He felt Brian’s shock and sympathy in his mind, that one so young had had to go through something like that. After a short pause, Shay continued.
“When the vision stopped, I found myself in my parent’s arms, lying on the floor. I didn’t know it yet, but my eyes had turned totally white, as they are now. When I opened my eyes, my parents knew. They knew what had happened and they celebrated for me even as they feared for me. Most magic was accepted in that time but Seers have always been feared and prosecuted. People have a hard time believing we See what we See. When it comes to pass, they accuse us of using magic to make it so.
“But I digress from my story. I went back this far to explain to you, Brian, my beginnings. I’ve told this tale to Alyck. The only other person I’ve ever told was Howi. Now, I will tell you both what I never told anyone but my father.
“My father’s family was descendants’ from Nellador. It was a tale he passed to me, as his child, for I carried that blood in me. But not even my mother knew the tale. It was a well-guarded secret. So, I knew the lore and was raised to worship the Goddess from the time of my birth. The day of my first vision, when my father had put me to bed that night, the Goddess came to visit me.”
AJ made a soft sound of surprise. She had visited Shay as a child? Shay ignored him and continued.
“The aspect of spirit, the part of her that is the spirit world, came to see me. The Goddess has many faces. You are blessed in the vision she granted you two in that she came as all. The few I’ve spoken to that have seen her have always seen one aspect, one face. The one that suited the need. What I had was a matter of the soul, so that’s the aspect that came to me.
“She was the most beautiful being I have ever seen. To this day I still cannot describe what she looks like. I only remember the beauty of her that made me want to weep with the joy of seeing it. She sat on the edge of my bed, tucking the blankets around me, and she told me what I was. She told me that I was a Seer. The most powerful Seer born, ever. That was why my powers had come on so early. The strength of them could not be contained. She told me she had held it off for as long as she could, but she could hold it back no more. Yet, she swore to me that I would learn control. That I would control it and, one day, would use it to save many lives.
“She bid me rest and to conserve my strength, for the trials ahead of me would be tough. I told her of my first vision and begged her to help us. I remember a single tear falling from her eye. It near broke my heart to see a Goddess weep. She told me that the vision I had was a true vision, one that cannot be altered. Some visions can be altered if they are Seen and understood early enough. But some are true visions which cannot be changed, no matter what. This was one.
“That night she stayed with me as I wept. She soothed me down and stroked my hair, murmuring all the while of things that were no consequence. She sang to me until I fell asleep. When I woke in the morning, the first thing I did was take my father outside and tell him. He swore me to secrecy.
“And so the years passed. I grew into my powers, as she had said I would. I learned to control them. To use them. But I never forgot that first vision. I was thirteen summers old when it came to pass. We caught wind of the whispers in town in just enough time for father to bundle me off to a ship. My mother refused to leave him. I hadn’t seen that before. Being so young at the time of the vision, I missed details. I missed, though I can look back and see it now, my mother’s body already lying on the ground beside him.
“I wept as the ship carried me away from my family. I knew I would never see them again. Before I left, my parents kissed me and blessed me. My father told me our line was on me, now. That I was destined to great thing. It was the last time I ever saw them.
“I roamed for years, moving from one town to the next, making my money where I could. Quietly, I helped those that I could when I Saw things. I never shut off my power, never took it for granted. To do so would have been shaming the sacrifice my parents had made for me. So I learned my skills and honed them.
“Eventually I joined into the army. It was one night on the battlefield that, yet again, the Goddess came to me. I remember not what the battle was, or even who it was against. Those weeks are a haze to me. I believe that was Her work. I believe she took the pain of that battle from my mind and my heart. But I remember lying on the dirt, bleeding from many wounds and knowing I was going to die. I knew, in my heart, that my body would not survive this.
“Then she was there. She had a man in her arms, a man I didn’t know, who I never saw again. She set him beside me. I remember hearing her voice, like bells ringing, telling him ‘You know what to do.’ Then I felt the man embrace magic. He laid the weave over me, healing my body first, then making it immortal. When he was done I was lying there still, gasping from the strength of it all. The Goddess bent, laying one finger between my eyebrows. Without words she showed me what had been done. Then she told me we would meet again, when the time was right.
“I don’t think the years in between are important. To tell the tale of the wars are unnecessary. They all brought me one step closer to where I needed to be. Another time, another night, I’ll tell the tale of how I met Alyck. For the sake of this tale, I beg your pardon, but I’ll jump ahead to when we were two thousand. When I first separated from you, Alyck.
“That night I left you, I’d only gone to scout the area, try to find some food. Always hungry, that was me. You and Howi were back at camp, telling stories and laughing with one another. It was by the edge of the river that the Goddess came to me again. It was the Warrior Goddess, dressed in her battle armor. I dropped to my knees in supplication.
“’Rise’ she told me. ‘The time has come, son of Nellador, for you to do your part for our cause.’ A part of me was calm. I had always known the Goddess had a plan for me. What it was, I never knew. But I had known the day would come. ‘What is it you would have me do, my lady?’ I asked her.
“’You will travel with me, this night, through a portal that the enemy thinks we do not know about. We will travel to Nellador. They will sense us once we’re through. Most likely, this portal will close once we’ve used it. I cannot promise if or when you will return. But your task is vital to our cause.’
“Well, I knew of the cause, of the evil in Nellador. As I said, my father had told me the tales as a child. So I knew what was waiting in my homeland. I asked about my friends. She told me I must leave them. I must come as I was, right that moment. What could I do? But Howi had come after me. Howi was there and saw the vision I saw. The Goddess looked to him and swore him to silence. He was to tell no one, no one at all, of what he had seen or where I had gone. ‘To the world, he must be dead. It is better this way.’ She told him. Howi agreed.
“I did the only thing I knew to do. I stepped into her arms. It was heaven. Bliss beyond anything I had ever known. She carried me with her. I was wrapped inside of light. When she released me, I was in a land I had never seen before but that I knew instantly. I was in Nellador.
“She explained to me, then, what she wanted me to do. I was to travel among the people, using my visions to help them form a resistance.”
A small sigh slid past Shay’s lips. He sat up and turned to face AJ, who was staring at him with shock. “That’s what I’ve been doing for the past two thousand and some years, Alyck. That was why I left you. I’ve been in Nellador. I’ve built a resistance from the ground up. It’s take so long to organize everything. To gather the people, get the system going. To save those we could and weed out those that were traitors. To search and find every last person who wanted to resist with us. We’ve lost people, people beyond count, but our resistance is strong. When you arrive in Nellador, an army awaits you. They wait for their trulion to arrive.”
“They wait for me?” AJ managed to croak out.
Shay nodded. “Yes. The vision the Goddess gave to me was of you. She told me of your title, of yours and Brian’s, and what it was prophesized that you two would do. It’s not a positive vision, but a possibility. If it’s done right. This was my part in things. So, the people were gathered, the resistance built, and the message spread. A trulion would come to us. The final battle would come. In that battle, all will be won or lost. This is an either-or vision. We win all, or we lose all.” He looked to AJ. “If we win, both our worlds will be saved. We lose, everything is lost. The darkness will consume it all. So I have Seen. If you fail in this, we are all doomed.”