39: Homecoming

Woof woof!

“That’s a good boy,” Vir said, patting Neel, who’d bounded up to him the moment he’d entered. The bandy was now furiously licking his face, ruining what was left of his makeup. “Haha I missed you too, boy! Were you good? Did you behave? You must’ve been so lonely!”

Awoo!

Maiya got the same treatment soon after, though she somehow managed to avoid his licks.

“Introductions are in order,” Riyan said, gesturing to the woman behind him. They stood in one of the living rooms, now illuminated by the warm glow of Magic Lamps. “Meet Tanya, my friend of many years. Maiya, from this day forth, Tanya will be your trainer. Follow her every direction as if it was my own. I trust her implicitly, as should you.”

Vir’s first impression of the silver-haired lady was intense. And angry. Almost like he was looking at a female version of Riyan. Vir wondered whether all of the man’s friends were equally grumpy.

Her black leather vest, pants, and boots only solidified that look. It was almost like everything about her was cultivated to make her look intimidating. Her skin was fair and her body lithe and athletic, but she had the biggest biceps Vir had ever seen on a lady.

And when she spoke, her voice was just as low and husky as he’d expected. “You promised me talent and I get this? She’s soft. Weak,” Tanya said, squeezing Maiya’s arms.

“Well, sorry I’m not as ripped as you, musclewoman!” Maiya said, yanking her arm away from the woman. “I’ve been working hard too, you know?”

“Effort does not matter. Only results,” Tanya said.

Yeesh, she really is just like him, Vir thought, glad not to be the object of her criticism. In fact, she hadn’t bothered to look his way even once. Almost as if she was ignoring him.

“What are your affinities?” Vir asked, hoping to break the ice.

The mejai continued sweeping her gaze around Maiya. “And you say she possesses a greater affinity?” Tanya said, addressing Riyan.

Scratch that. Definitely being ignored.

“Indeed. Likely a greater primary and a lesser secondary, though you should verify my results,” Riyan responded.

“Hey!” Maiya said. “Vir asked you what your affinities were!”

“Vir? I see no one else in this room. Only you and a prana scorned pile of trash.”

Wow, what a chal… Vir mentally chalked her up as another enemy. To his immense surprise, it wasn’t Maiya who rebutted her, but Riyan.

“The boy may be prana scorned, but he works diligently toward improving himself. He may be a force to be reckoned with one day, if he learns to manifest Talents.”

Vir had to wonder if the gods had come and replaced Riyan with an imposter. When had that man ever defended or complimented him? This was almost worse than Riyan’s earlier indifference. He could feel the weight of the man’s expectations riding upon his shoulders.

Tanya scoffed. “I will believe it when I see it. To answer your question, girl,” she continued, “I possess a greater Ice affinity, and a lesser affinity for water. I carry the rank of Mejai of Ash, and my Balar Rank is 90.”

Maiya and Vir fell immediately silent. She might have been irksome, but she clearly had the power to back up that attitude.

Riyan motioned for everyone to take a seat. Vir and Maiya sat on padded stools while Riyan and Tanya reclined on the leather couch on the other side of the coffee table. Neel stretched out on the ground beside his owner.

“Now, tell me about your trip. I take it there were no issues?”

Vir exchanged a glance with Maiya. “Actually, there were. Lots of issues,” he said.

Riyan gestured for him to continue, so he launched into a summary of the events.

“Well, for starters, we ran into problems even before we got to Saran. Pirates had put in on the coast, a few hours ride north. They spotted us and gave chase… we barely managed to escape.”

“Oho? I wouldn’t imagine a few pirates would give you two any trouble with the Kalari arts I have taught you,” Riyan said, judging them, “and I know I trained you better than to allow yourselves to be surrounded. Hmm. But they gave chase, did they? On Ash’va, I presume? I see. I haven’t taught you mounted warfare.”

Maiya nodded. “Right. We got really lucky. We would’ve been dead meat if Vir hadn’t had his throwing pebbles and chakrams. He managed to take down our two pursuers with those.”

“Pebbles?” Riyan said, cocking a brow. “Why in Vera’s name would you—ah. A foolhardy attempt to conserve your chakris, I presume?” he said knowingly.

Vir nodded. “We hadn’t even made it to Saran. I didn’t want to waste my ranged weapons there.”

“Understandable,” Riyan said. “And indeed, this is the fatal flaw of all thrown weapons. Chakrams are deadly, but disposable. And yet, failing to use them may very well have meant the deaths of you and your friend. A warrior knows when to use his tools.”

“Well, he did manage to take one of the pirates down with his pebbles,” Maiya said. “He’d even cut them so they were super sharp.”

“I see. You used the pebbles at range, and then switched to your chakrams when the enemy drew close. A good strategy, all things considered.”

As always, the man could intuit the flow of an entire battle with just a few hints. But moreover, this was twice now that the man had complimented Vir. He wondered whether Yuma had possessed Riyan, filling him with her tenderness. Whatever it was, he wasn’t going to complain.

“Right. After the pirate encounter, things were pretty calm until we got to Saran,” he said. “We met a stranger on the highway into the city, but that’s when things took a turn for the worse.”

“Explain,” Riyan commanded.

Maiya picked up the narration. “This guy said he was a merchant. Came from Saran. Eyed us up and down, asked us a bunch of questions. Who we were, what we were doing. And then he turned around and headed back to the city after chatting us up. Vir and I both thought it was suspicious, but we got into the city and checked into our inn just fine. So I kinda forgot about it.”

“Until the next day,” Vir continued. “We were out shopping for supplies when guards ambushed us. We fled into an alley, but couldn’t get away.”

“My fault,” Maiya said, looking down at her feet. “I can’t jump and vault up rooftops like Vir can, so I ended up holding us back. We… we were captured and… they abused Vir because of it.” Tears began to well up in her eyes. “I—”

“They roughed me up,” Vir interrupted, squeezing her hand, “But it really wasn’t that bad. I was more worried about what would happen once they realized we weren’t Sawai aristocrats.”

Tanya scoffed. “You’re both lucky to be alive. Perhaps they took pity upon you since you were minors. People have been executed for less. At best, you could look forward to a life of hard labor.”

“That seemed to be our fate,” Vir said. “Until one of the local urchins broke us out. I didn’t know if we could trust them, but we didn’t have much of a choice.”

“Turned out they felt bad about setting us up,” Maiya said. “Well, that and they wanted to leech us for all the coin we had.”

“You were framed? By the merchant? Explain,” Riyan commanded, his hawkish features growing angry.

“Exactly,” Vir replied. “Seems he hired the urchins to dress up like us and go steal from a bunch of shops. The guards were out for blood, and there aren’t many Sawai brothers matching our description, so they caught us.”

“What then? What came after you escaped with the urchins?”

“The problem was Bumpy,” Maiya said. “They’d captured him too, so we had to break him out before we could escape. The urchins led us to a sailor, old man Bakura, who promised us safe passage if we put in a good word for him with our ‘parents’. Still can’t believe he didn’t catch on that we weren’t ‘ristos. Bakura was adamant that we’d get caught trying to escape the city gates with Bumpy.”

“And right he was,” Riyan said, stroking his beard. “Saran’s walls are manned at all hours. They’d have spotted you and given chase, even if you’d managed to escape. He did you a service.”

Vir had wondered about that. The city gates had seemed so tempting. If they could’ve escaped there, they needn’t have entrusted their lives to the slaver. But it sounded like Bakura had been right after all.

Riyan didn’t look happy at this news, which came as a surprise to Vir. “I honestly thought this was another one of your tests. I thought you’d sent someone after us to throw a log into our plans,” he said. “Was that not the case?”

The big man slowly shook his head. “No. No it was not. This is quite concerning. I do not believe this mysterious man was associated with the pirates you ran into. I doubt they would’ve concocted a plan like this. Their approach is far more direct. Kill now, ask questions later. No… this person knew who you really were. They knew you were in disguise from the outset.”

“You think he saw through our makeup?” Maiya asked. “You think he saw an opportunity and took it?”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not. I will investigate this matter on my own. Do not concern yourselves any further. Tell me what happened next.”

“W-well, we boarded his ship with Bumpy,” Vir narrated. “I had to bribe Bakura to set sail since the authorities were after us.”

That got a laugh out of Riyan. “You were played, boy. If you’d been captured, that man would have been in just as much trouble as you! He never intended to stay. He saw a chance to grab some coin from an easy mark, and he took it. Just like those urchins.”

Vir had known that… but his desperation had overridden his good senses at the time. Besides, we still made out with three silvers, he thought. Three silvers that were now safely hidden away.

“Anyway,” he said, eager to move past this embarrassing moment, “We then set sail. I only found out a few hours later that we were riding onboard a slaving ship. The hold was full of demons, bound for the Pagan Order.”

He’d expected this to be a bombshell revelation, but neither Riyan nor Tanya reacted at all.

“Isn’t—aren’t you surprised? I freaked out so much. Thought we were going to be made into slaves too.”

“How could that happen?” Riyan said. “To the captain, you were aristocrats. If he did such a thing to nobility, death by execution would be a kindness. Slave trade is not unusual in Hiranya. And demons are often used as such. It does not surprise me that the Pagan Order lunatics would pay to have slaves ferried there, only to butcher them themselves.”

In hindsight, Vir should’ve expected Riyan’s callousness. It irked him, but there was no point arguing the matter now. “Anyway, that’s about it. Bakura let us off at the coast as promised, and we made our way back from there.

“And we managed to get all the supplies you asked for, despite all that happened,” Maiya added.

“I see,” Riyan replied, “It seems that you two handled yourselves appropriately. I hope that you have learned some valuable lessons from this ordeal. Now go, wash yourselves off and head to bed.”

“You’ll need your rest,” Tanya said. “Tomorrow, we begin your magic training, girl.”

Maiya’s eyes predictably lit up at her words. She grabbed Vir’s hand and stood up. “C’mon, Vir. Let’s go get washed up.”

“Oh yes, one more thing,” Riyan said as they left, “Boy, from now on, carry katars in the obstacle course. I am increasing the difficulty, and you will need them.”

“What did you do?” Vir asked, panicking.

The man flashed him a grin. “You’ll see. Continue practicing diligently. You should see results soon.”

Vir let her guide him to the grotto, his mind fretting over Riyan’s words. But the sight of the grotto served as a great distraction; he’d been looking forward to soaking in the hot spring pool for days. The feeling had only grown stronger on the ride home until it had nearly consumed his thoughts.

They each split to rinse off the smeared makeup and salty brine they’d picked up on Bakura’s ship, then reconvened after.

Maia had a towel wrapped around her entire body, with another tightly wrapping her hair, while Vir just wore a single towel around his waist.

The moment they sunk into the water, all of their worldly concerns floated away.

“I dunno how I lived without this,” Maiya said dreamily.

“We’re so spoiled, Maiya,” Vir replied in the same tone. “How are we ever gonna survive once we move out of here?”

The question went unanswered, floating above them like a dark cloud. The future was uncertain. Where would they go, after they fled from Riyan? Vir feared the time would be upon them soon. Though, he figured that whatever favors Riyan wanted, he’d wait until Maiya had mastered her magic. As for himself, Vir was positive he still had a long way to go.

“What a trip, huh?” Maiya said as she lazily floated around the pool, on a slow collision course with Vir. He grabbed her ankle and gave her a gentle push, sending her away.

“Surely was,” Vir muttered,  trying—and failing—to avoid staring at her.

He thought of the man who’d stirred up trouble for them at Saran, making what should’ve been an idyllic trip harrowing for both of them. What did the guy want? And did Vir need to be wary of them in the future? So many questions. No answers.

“I’m spent,” Maiya continued, “I… I just wanna go home, y’know? To mom and dad. I miss them. I miss them a lot.”

“Yeah… I do too, Maiya,” he whispered. “Maybe we can ask Riyan to let us visit Brij soon, now that we’re stronger.”

“You think he’ll let us?” She asked, unconvinced.

“Maybe not now, but hopefully soon. That was his promise to us, after all.”

Maiya fell silent, no doubt thinking of her parents.

Vir reflected upon all that had happened lately. It was hard to believe it’d been less than a week since they’d left home. It felt like a whole month had passed. But above all else, what weighed on him most was the encounter he’d had in Bakura’s ship’s hold.

For the very first time in his life, he’d met a real demon. There was no doubt in his mind, now. The four armed giant who’d entrusted his baby self to Rudvik… was a demon. And the giant had been protecting him.

Which probably meant…

“Maiya?”

“Mmm?”

“What do you think about demons?”

Vir heard ripples in the water. Maiya righted herself and walked over to him. Vir averted his eyes. “Uh, Maiya… your towel.”

She looked down and gasped, quickly retying her towel around her, blushing madly. “W-W-What’s on your mind, V-Vir? Is it the slaves you saw on the ship?”

He nodded. “I mean, just pretending of course, but what would you do if I was a demon?”

She tilted her head, confused, before comprehension finally dawned on her. She strode closer and enveloped Vir in a deep hug. “Doesn’t matter what you are, Vir. Prana scorned, Ashborn, demon. You’re you. My bestest friend. That’s never gonna change for me. No matter what.”

Vir’s shoulders sagged. He felt like a chal. What was he even worried about in the first place? That Maiya would suddenly think less of him? That she’d abandon him?

“Sorry, Maiya,” he said, returning her hug. “Should’ve known better than to ask.”

She broke her embrace and shook her head. “No secrets between us, yeah?”

“R-right,” he said, unable to fully meet her gaze.

“Do you… You really think you’re a demon?”

“I have to face the facts. I can’t say for certain, but those demons in the hold matched Rudvik’s description of the giant, except for the four arms and, y’know, the giant aspect. I don’t have any proof, of course. Just hunches.”

There was one more detail here too. Something he’d almost forgotten. When he’d glimpsed into Ekanai’s memories, back in the Godshollow, he’d seen the Reaper’s body. And it wasn’t human. Ekanai’s arms were gangly, grayish, and far too long. It’d felt natural in the vision, since those were Ekanai’s memories, but now that he thought about it, it was definitely weird.

What am I? Who am I? If only he had some answers…

— —

“The boy and the girl are back. You have failed,” a robed figure said to his partner, who’d just entered the small cabin. The structure was a makeshift thing, hastily constructed and utilitarian. Built more for hiding its occupants from prying eyes than for comfort.

“The plan didn’t work out as intended,” the black bearded man said, hanging up his cloak as he entered. “Didn’t expect the locals to interfere on their behalf.”

“That is because you hired poor help,” his seated partner said, fingers rapping upon the small wooden table—one of the few pieces of furniture in the room, along with two beds and chairs. “No matter. There will be other opportunities to ascertain what this boy and girl means to the general. There’s been a complication on my end as well. I believe Commander Tanya has moved in with them.”

“So now there are four. Tanya, huh? She’ll be a tough one to deal with.”

His partner shook his head. “Make no mistake, our mission is not to ‘deal’ with the general. We are her highness’s eyes and ears, nothing more. There will be other opportunities. We must remain vigilant. Ensure you report your failure back to her highness,” he said, handing her an orb.

The man took the crystal and activated it. A moment of silence. Then two. His dread mounted. Then a low, feminine voice spoke. A voice that sent shivers down his back.

“Yes? Report.”

“I… I have failed, your highness. The boy and girl landed in jail, but managed to escape.”

“I see,” came her curt reply. “Eliminate them. Both the boy and the girl. Kill them at the earliest opportunity. Do whatever it takes. Your lives are expendable.”

“As you will, your high—”

Mina Hiranya cut the call.