Chapter 17:

Chapter 17: Love mends plenty for Divinity is Soft as Mortals as Harsh


Darkness unending with naught but will and momentum to keep one breathing. No song, no joy, no memory, not even whispers to provide illumination and I heard its name whispered by the one who placed me there.

'Innia Bris and the Dark Soul Pits that are her birthright.' Did the villainous master of my beloved whispered to me in song.

He showed me a heartbeat, just one, a measly one heartbeat of that which awaited me and I forgot it and then proceeded to forget that too and yet terror remained for the memory of a memory was enough to bring fear and through fear clarity.

'I cannot go there, I cannot be Innia Bris for the villainous blessed of Khaine has shown one heartbeat of what that life is like and I refuse to live it.'

I prayed, in my weakness I prayed to the goddess who has given me the heart of a dancer and legs made of dust to teach me how to dance properly so I may dance to my beloved and dance together far away for the doom that is approaching is not greater than the pit of darkness and shattered soul song that rests in the mind of his Young Master.

She did not answer, for no gods ever do, and still I would do it regardless for I had no choice and feared failure too much.

Ten years of that which nearly broke me in a heartbeat and let me be forged anew he had experienced and yet he smiled for he told me that its remedy is love.

But he is liar by his own words and he lies easier than he breaths and I did not believe it and now I pray that he wished to deceive me to get me to accept my own love for the only man that would give it to me.

I had no one else that would give it to me for I had been forsaken by my family and now I prayed his own would accept to allow me to enter into debt so that I could run from that which I fear.

Innia Bris died before she could be born, for I could not bring myself to allow any to feel what the villain I shared a box in a theater with while longing to go hug my beloved, showed me.

I am now and forever was Aisse Geara for to be anyone else had been forever banished from my mind.

"Do you enjoy it, beloved of my apprentice? The craft of my apprentice? I admit, it is not one of the crafts I owe him in his apprenticeship, merely a show of his knowledge in crafting and using the tools to make, use and control them."

The villain spoke and it spoke because he had more horrors to show me. His robes were as dark as his heart, his hair short and his eyepatch always seemed to change eyes when you weren't looking at it for he was a villain and master to my love.

"I do not understand it, even as I see that only four others could make a claim for it."

I did not understand. The art of my beloved was one which one needed the blessing of Khaine to perform and was counter-intuitive to watch upon.

I could see Gua Bis and her husband, for few knew not of her, as well as the Young Masters' nephew and the man among men looking in wonder at the tools Cipanni Oiair showed them as if seeing them for the first time, and yet had used them for months to defend their seer children or their homes with them.

The young Villainous Master had made a complex art for one so young, one he had insisted on not performing outside his dwelling except as favors to his dearest friends and for his distant family and service to the man among men, for he deserved it and more, until his apprentice could show the basic skills one needed to perform them with.

It was a performance that was a farce done for the benefit of family, for the apprentice had already showed that he could do so and the family could not understand what they saw anyway.

But it was not a farce for it was a ritual and I understood that, for I was blessed by the goddess of such things and I have learned of her ways to try and make use of my blessing that tasted of dancing dust.

The purpose of the ritual is not what it does, but what inspires others to do and be, or perhaps what it reminds those that perform it or watch it from afar of.

For my beloved and his family, this ritual represented the acknowledgement of the fact that their beloved son and uncle and their shared cousin and nephew had found that which he could do, an art under a mighty and terrible master, that he could feel pride in once again.

I felt happy for him when I heard, happiness which was turned gray for it was muddled by despair, for I had none left that would find me a master I could become apprentice to in order to do the same for me.

I had lost any chance at it before he gained his.

I was unlucky, and broken and knew he deserved better now that he was proud again, and so I cast myself from his embrace so that he can find happiness away from me for I could not live and know I kept it from him.

And so I continued as a wraith with legs of dust that dreamed to dance but could not.

I came to his ritual because he told me his master demanded it, lest he lose his apprenticeship and so I embarked on one final trek as Aisse Geara for he insisted his master would punish him if he invited Innia Bris, in the name of my love so that the one blessed by Gea would see the ritual that turned her beloved back into a man as she remained a wraith and became and was reborn as Innia Bris from it as well.

"Indeed, I know not why, but even those that use the tools I craft do not know how they do so truly. I am curious though, why do you think it is so? What do you think of it?" The villain asked.

I thought of it as I saw and remembered my beloved craft a false mind like those twelve his masters have crafted to protect what goes inside the theater from those that would try to pry inside.

I saw it make a blade and remake it after each cut and that left those that had seen and used the villains craft with their mouths open wide, for that was and was not what they felt their own tools doing.

I saw it from the way they looked at their hands and wondered if they had ever used them. I wondered that myself too sometimes, so I knew the faces they held for they were like mine after training and lessons. I swore to myself never again for I am Aisse Geara and I am scared and I wish to love to feel safe again.

To do otherwise was to invite a fate worse than death.

I pondered the villains words for he taught me fear and now wished to teach me more.

"They act like arrows, or perhaps shuriken? You shape them as you wish and then they fly until they reach their destination? I do not see what else it could be."

As I said so an arrow turned into a sword and spun for it had hit a shield for the performance was of two warriors that fought with soul and song and each clash made two others that looked nothing alike like that which came before and neither did the weapons.

Weapons of light and darkness turned into weapons made of stars and flame then back again as their designs never repeated even as my beloved cycled through materials in a rhythm I could not place yet stood on the top of my tongue.

The villain heard my words and laughed and it was a dark and long and terrible laugh for it was honest and came from the heart. I didn't have eyes for it but my ears still could hear and my soul could still fill in it even more fear.

"HahahaHahahaHaHAHA, I see my apprentice chose well at least, even if you are a bit broken, but that's fine for so am I still, and when I will be whole again and my siblings and I will have our vengeance, then we will have given our final gift to the princess for after it we will leave. You are half correct, for all that have used my craft gave me half of the answer and you the other. Unfortunately even with the two halves together they cannot make it fully whole, for they know not how they fit together."

I shuddered at the word gift for it was told with love. The slave boy poured his master more tea for he too shivered at his words and hoped that drinking his favored tea would cease his machinations.

I hoped the princess would stop this villain and my beloved would not be caught in the clash of blades and madness.

"You have been a good conversation partner Aisse Geara, so know that you have my blessing to marry my apprentice once his apprenticeship is over, for it would not do for him to take a girl into his house and family and then turn her into a woman and make a home with her when he does not have a craft of his own to provide for them with. Know that by the end of the evening you will have one more boon from me so that I may seal your fate."

Each word slithered into my soul and they sought to find the void they had left there and they slithered and they slithered for they found none and my skin crawled.

"I thank you Young Master of my beloved, I hope I will prove myself worthy of it and his love."

Yes, love for love chases away the fear and I needed much love for I was afraid and wished to stop being so even as my skin crawled and shivers ran up and down my spine like a symphony.

The villain hummed for he was happy at the terror he sowed into my heart.

"Ah, the performance is coming to a close I see, my apprentice Cipanni Oiair will be finished in twenty heartbeats and when he does I will lower the barrier I have erected to keep yourself from him, so that he may not be disturbed and bring shame to himself and me, for those days are now over from today." He said softly and with kindness he shouldn't possess.

I ignored it and prepared to meet my destiny.

Time passed and there were only ten more heartbeats to pass away.

10 heartbeats,

9 heartbeats,

8 heartbeats,

7 heartbeats

6

5

4

3

2

A great and terrible beast appeared behind me and whispered in my soul, and I knew it wished to eat me and so I run towards the one place that was safe, the hands of my beloved.

'Run you fool, he has been crying out your name since he has begun.'

1

The barrier shattered with the sound of glass and I jumped towards my love for I finally realized the rhythm was that the first letter of the name of each of the materials he cycled through spelled my name in the language that had first spawned from the lips of the first princess that tamed this world.

"Cipanni Oiair accept the fact that I love you and know you love me too."

I jumped and ran and fell straight into his arms and kissed his lips and did the same to his mind and soul and I felt him do the same to mine for I loved him and wished for love to scare the fear away. For love chased away all specters and ghosts and evils and dark thoughts

I danced and for the first time in my life I could feel joy in my dance for a sword of dust and one of paper and ink held together by string danced together to the song of our love and the clashing of swords and I swooned and loved again and again for I could feel his love and it matched mine and it chased the fear away as we dreamed of dancing again and again.

But as I loved and was loved again I felt a laughter and the clapping of joy approach me and I felt fear slither once again for I knew the laugh and feared again.

"Bravo, bravo a marvelous performance from my apprentice and his beloved and I see that my scheme has succeeded, and so I once again stand victorious over my enemies!"

He said and I felt fear and rushed to protect my beloved as our souls intertwined and the fear went away, for love chased it away and we would stand together against it.

The villain was moving towards us slowly through the empty seats, for all guests were upstairs in their boxes and were too far to help us, and so we would have to defend our love together.

"But what am I doing? Well, I have promised a boon to you Aisse Geara, but first, I have made another promise I must fulfill before, for those I owe it to demand that I act on my end of our bargain." The villain said with a grin as he prepared to do the bidding of whatever dark masters he served.

I felt swords cross and uncross as we prepared to stand firm, two halves of the same soul forming a new sword so that we may smite evil and protect love.

He continued to move towards us and when he was close enough to do so jumped on the stage and did one more step, then turned his back towards us and gave a deep bow and spoke with joy and malice and his voice boomed as he did so.

"Are you not entertained my Masters! Look upon what I have crafted in your name and rejoice for the offering I have prepared for you is ready, ready for you to consume and rejoice because of it. Rejoice and praise me and praise the love that I have created! Rejoice once and once again, for my apprentice and his beloved have found Love!"

The villain spoke as we prepared to cut him down now that his back was turned.

The curtain broke, and the spell we were under broke as cheers and kisses and well wishes and what felt like an endless wave of love hit with the force of a newborn star.

We fell to our knees and looked up to the boxes where song and cheers both spoken and thought came from.

"I can't hear you My Audience! and neither can they do so properly, you must be louder!" He said as he rose and shouted

The wave came back and hit even harder, and then again so as we were inundated with love again and felt no more fear.

"Come and greet the fools and give them your gifts and well wishes for I am the master of Cipanni Oiair, and I have tricked both my apprentice and his beloved, so that they may rekindle the love which was stolen from them. Come and rejoice with me and them, for I have succeeded in the mission you have granted me today!

Rejoice!

Rejoice!

Rejoice!"

All of them jumped from their chairs and rushed us and drowned us in a love so deep I doubt I could ever feel fear again as long I ever lived.

~~~~~~~

I did not know what to believe of the performance of the apprentice of the four young masters that crafted me a sword to protect my beloved Eldrad from the portents of doom that attacked his sleep.

On one hand the show itself was interesting but nothing spectacular, even as I knew the real event would come after it was finished as I could hear the song of the oldest of the four Masters that have crafted my blade to protect my son with and feel mighty again.

I came to this world in rags for my clothes were burned and now I once again wear good clothes I did not destroy in my foolishness that were made by my wife.

For I was Ulthuan the Unlucky, so called man among men, and an unworthy husband to my wife and two sons, one born from our love and one taken as penance yet not loved any less for it.

On the other hand I saw young Cipanni Oiair truly perform the half of his craft that his masters hid from me and made me question if I ever held a sword in my hand as I protected my son in the first place.

It was a strange feeling to be feeling, but it was to be expected from a strange performance that I was invited today to by Gua Bis to see, for she wished to see the handicraft of the master of her nephew and the show he would provide.

He claimed this show would fix two broken souls and make them whole again and I eagerly awaited to see it happen, for one of those mended souls was the sweet soul that has said he will help craft us two new blades as we built our home anew and the other his beloved and both were broken by their teachers who had failed them immensely,

I asked to be let into their plans of vengeance on those who had wronged him, but his masters and their family as well as that of the sweet boy denied me for his oldest master told them to. He did not want either I or my wife to do anything but look over our two children and find the means and location we could build our home at.

My wife begged too and used words to do so too, but she was denied too and so was the wife of the nephew of the boy's masters for she was pregnant and so were others denied that were like either of us.

I am a seer and maker of dream catchers and other tools that help seers by trade. My wife Scatha Gaain a tailor that made clothes for all, from nobles to slaves. Together we learned to combine our crafts and make clothing fit for seers that protected better than just the implements I crafted alone and prettier than what she made herself without them.

We both despaired when out oldest, Eldrad had nightmares so grand and terrible he once broke all the dream catchers in our workshops in a night.

"I wish the two will mend their broken hearts, I feel the fear and uncertainty in the song." My wife observed.

I felt it too but remained silent on the matter even as I hoped all will go well.

"You shouldn't worry either of you, It is part of the show, our older brother orchestrated all that you feel right now. Soon the hearts of our apprentice and his beloved will be mended for he has promised it so, and he does not break his promises." Marsa and second youngest of four masters said kindly.

She too wished to see her apprentice and his beloved happy for his struggle were her own as well.

She was but fifty years old and a new soul at that, but she and her brothers were masters of a craft that even cut in five parts could outperform my 3000 years of experience in protecting my son from portents of doom

'I don't deserve fatherhood.' I thought bitterly as I nodded at her words.

My wife heard my soul song and slapped my soul and kissed it at same time and I took both with joy for I loved her and it made me remember how we both met.

She was a feral girl on an abandoned world where she was the only Eldar and I a young seer whose runes told me I would find my destiny on a desolate world and they were right for I found love.

Her family left her there to fend for herself without a name to herself and named herself 'Unnamed Shadow' and I gave her her name in words and she thanked me for it before trying to cut my head and eat it for the knowledge it held.

I smile as I remember that day and the next twenty she hunted me for, until I managed to convince her to marry me, so that we could share our knowledge to each other.

Now 2000 years after, we now hold not one bundle of joy but two in our arms. Both of us are nearly sterile and have lived on worlds outside the Empire and plied our trade there for as long as we were married.

We decided to go to one of the border worlds of the empire and ply our trade there and we were healed on the first day by a passing Maton form that noticed a wound and healed both my wife and I with a word and a bow before leaving and not saying another word.

We rejoiced then spent the following two months trying to find it again once we finished doing so, for it left when we were not looking, and gave it a home for its kindness, for it deserves one for giving us one of our two sons.

Even now it rests inside the home of our hosts, for Maton are not allowed in this theater or any other in this world and we believe it deserves it for it is loyal and we love him for it. We wished it would accept a name in anything but the emotions of the souls but it is what it is.

The Lord Prince and Princess of this world deserve our kindness too even if both huff and puff and claim the boy they gave us is our penance.

Nobility and stress took their minds from them, for how could two souls that tried for 2000 years to have a child not rejoice when we were given two in less than two years.

I had given my oaths to the princess and the Pheonix King and his mother the Everqueen of Crones the day after we settled in the home of Gua Bis and her husband Scarn Laddon, for even as the latter two overlords are distant and uncaring, their realm gave me my first child and the princess and her husband my second and that was worth my loyalty to the Empire of Ten Million Suns.

And now I am honored, even as I do not believe I deserve it, and have good friends, a proper liege and soon I will have a new home worth defending on a world I hold dear in an Empire that holds my loyalty.

I had abandoned our old one to follow my visions to help our boy and did so with a heavy heart but it had to be done, but soon I will build a new one.

I know doom approaches and will make sure I apprentice my sons to Craftworlders or distant Exodus worlds and bar them from coming back, for that is their only chance at survival, but until then I will serve my world and empire to ensure that the debt for what they have given me is paid in full and more, and that I help prepare fight against the Inevitable.

I am unlucky but not a fool, I know what comes, all blessed by Lileath do, and it matters not, for home is where the heart is and through the heart and blood of the Eldar flows our pride.

Without a home we have no heart and without a heart we have no pride and without pride we are not Eldar and I have decided since I finished my apprenticeship at the feet of my Mistress that I will be a loyal soul and Eldar, for my Mistress had experienced too many betrayals, both before and during my apprenticeship, for me to be able to swear any less.

'I miss her.' I sang with regret and my wife sent me her love and mixed it with the mourning for a woman she had never met.

She died shortly after my apprenticeship ended and found a rock to fully turn into a crystal. I left a sign that spoke and sang in soul-song to those near it, begging them to not disturb her resting place, for she chose to fall there and her apprentice begged them to leave her rest.

None bothered it as I go to visit every 100 years. I cannot wait to present my sons to her and tell them of my kind Mistress that took a street urchin and slave into her home so she may teach him her craft.

"Ooh my love, I can hear and see the glass cracking, the grand finale approaches." Gua Bis cooed to her husband and all her children and their spouses and children that shared seats with us.

I envy Gua Bis for her home is mighty, for she has a large family and both myself and my wife love her, for she convinced the four masters to craft a sword-that-is-not-a-sword to defend my boy and invited us to sleep in her home so we may participate in the song and dance of her love and dared it call it an honor for herself to let us in it.

"I swear it by Lileath and Cegorach this world has their definitions mixed for in what sane world, would receiving a new child to love be called a penance and a stranger in your home to look after an honor." I sang to my wife.

She laughed and agreed without words and only emotions for she hates using words, be they spoken or in song. She prefers the sound of instruments to voices.

This world was foolish and we loved it for it was ours as well now.

Our boys seemed to enjoy the pretty moving shapes too. They cooed, pointed and laughed as light turned to metal and then bone and back again.

We saw the oldest of four Young Masters beckon us to cheer as two formerly broken hearts became one and we cheered them on and did so louder for they could not hear us properly and went to give our well-wishes to the soon to be spouses as they realized they have been tricked and that they were not in danger but drowned in love and safety and cheers and soon in gifts.

Our gifts were the clothes they will wear on their wedding for the boy's mother insisted we make it, and they were made using the best materials we could bargain for and with both of us pushing and breaking past any limitations of our craft we found so that we could make them something worthy, for they were friends of us and soon family if my hosts, my wife and I can plot well enough to see our families united.

We went down slowly through empty seats to join those that wished the two fools who had to be told they are in love by their family and friends and masters and gave them our well wishes and gifts that rested in a blue wooden box.

Once all were done all four masters approached the two fools that were in love.

"I apologize for scaring you so my apprentice and his beloved but it was the only way I knew to help the two of you." The oldest said with the kindness I always knew him for.

The mask of villainy and evil slipped as if it was never there and all that was left was the kind Young Master of a too talented fool.

"It is alright master, our family and yours have sang to us that it was all a scheme and I had to remember it myself for I know how your wrath feels and what you showed us was not it." Cipanni Oiair accepted the apologies in good spirits.

"I apologize for calling you evil and a villain and a monster in my heart as well master of my beloved. I call myself fool for it and accept your apologies and give my own in the same breath." Aisse Geara replied with the most beautiful smile she had possibly ever held.

It was the most beautiful for she was happy and in love and she had her pride back and a family that loved her now.

"You have nothing to apologize, for I am all of that and more, but I am also a loving and kind master and I promised you a boon. Would you like to receive it here or in private?"

Some apprehension returned to her face before the love of her beloved squashed it with ruthless efficiency.

'No fear should grace the face on ones' wife when she should be the happiest she ever was. Good job you fool!' I and every many looking at the two sang as one.

"I have promised my apprentice and you a boon and that boon is that I will look upon your soul with your leave and see if I can't either find you a craft among what knowledge I know and give you materials to study so that you may make your own as I do, or find you a master myself for I have decided to take you as my own daughter, because your family has forsaken you. For even as you are older than me, you still make the same mistakes I would do in your place and you obviously need both guidance and a family to look after you."

'Nobody told me the girl was Forsaken!' We thought in outrage.

Gua Bis looked the most incensed as well for she wanted to do so first, even as she knew not that the girl had been forsaken by her family.

"I have invited your family as well and they have not come for I told them of it, and yet they ignored my words. Now I wish to take you as my own to look after you and teach you as my own fathers and mothers, be they living or dead, in the orphanage have done to me, for you need it and I see in you a heart worthy of it." The soon to be unmarried father said.

She did not need to think for more than a second.

"Then this Aisse Geara accepts you as her father and I open my soul freely to you and you family and friends, for I have nothing to hide from those who made me whole again!" She said and we rejoiced.

We rejoiced for a forsaken girl has found a home an a legacy to call her home as her new father had already tricked her husband to be to marry her!

Truly the man was a good father for he looked after both daughter and apprentice and wished them well.

"Then I name you my daughter from now on and in front of the gods and when we are alone I will ask you and probe you to see if you are worthy and willing to learn the legacy of your Grandmothers and Grandfathers for while their home is gone, its spirit, legacy and mission remains in the hearts of all who were raised in its heart and that of their children and theirs too!"

We cheered once again.

"I thank you father, now behold the soul of a dancer with feet of dust, that you have made whole again."

She did and showed to us all the sword that is her soul and beheld it as so.

We looked upon it and saw that it mostly fit what she said it was for it was now a happy soul that was made whole.

"What incompetence is this?" The voice of a newly named father said before it grew silent and the whispers started.

Less than a heartbeat later Divinity descended and it was kind and generous and protective, and it wished to murder all that has transgressed against divine mandate.

And it wished to do so because it was kind, and it was murderous and wished to make us whole again, for even as it wished so and more, it wished more to teach us the error of our ways for it loved us and would continue to love us as it burned us.

It loved all as it wished to murder all and did so because all Madness is Divine and all of the Divine are Mad.

"My dear child, you know that I love you so and that my siblings love you as well, so please tell your younger father, who ever let you wield a blade, you Beloved Sword-Ship made of Stardust That Wishes to Dance across the Stars and whose Mind is Sharper than her soul.

Tell your loving father who it is that has kept your soul which is a ship in the shape of a sword that wishes to dance across the stars and beyond them from ever doing so in more than 200 years and so nearly broke your spirit, for your father has long since lost his ability to not be angry anymore and never had any mercy to give and this poor god will not be able to keep him from his murderous wrath if you do not do so, for his wrath is as divine as mine now, for we share it and it is far more personal for he now loves you even more than I.

So I beseech thee girl, do not tardy, for I can only whisper his wrath down for so long, for I do not wish to do so and Divine decree prevents me from doing it for long, and yet I must do so for he loves you as I do and more for it. Yet if I let him express it now he would harm you and that which you hold dear so give him a target he can murder, for his Gun-Soul wishes and thirsts for carnage and revenge and laughter."

The girl did so for she was scared, for a god had to keep her fathers wrath contained and she feared and loved him too now for she now knew that she was loved by her father and her own god who loved her and wished to murder her too.




AN: Scatha Gaain= Scáth gan ainm → Unnamed shadow.

And that's done, longest chapter yet and I'd like to say we're at the halfway point of the first arc out of 3 for this book. When it is done I will write a new book with a different name perhaps or let it rest and pick something new.