Age of Asango: Book I

Chapter 1.3 - Trust

"He does not know what that is," Cassian said with a sigh. He turned his gaze into the fire and said: "I promise you, Kota, I am no threat to you. You asked for my friendship, and shall treat you as a friend. I never break my word."

The man called Darius stepped into the circle suddenly and said in a loud voice: "I trust everyone has eaten?"

"Yes, sir," the Onkai soldiers around the campfire all said in varying pitches and volumes.

"Evening prayer!" Darius shouted. Instantly the men around the campfire set down their plates and utensils and rose. They moved into a straight line in front of Darius and many other young men followed, appearing from tents and from hiding places in the trees that Kota had failed to detect. Within a few heartbeats of Darius's command around twenty-five men stood shoulder to shoulder in stiff, disciplined poses.

Kota watched in wonder as Darius closed his right hand into a fist and pressed it into the palm of his left hand at the center of his chest. He began to speak words in a language of sharp syllables that Kota did not recognize at all, and after a moment the men began to speak perfect unison with him.

"They are praying in Dhavic," Cassian said in a soft whisper. "It is the language of the holy scriptures of their church. They are asking the Goddess to protect them and help them to defeat their enemies, and to speak for their souls if they die in battle."

Kota looked at Cassian and he tried to make sense what he had just learned of the young human. "You sense when I no understand something."

"Yes," Cassian said. He then cocked his head rather suddenly at Darius, who had begun speaking apart from the others again in the ancient language. Cassian was staring at the Onkai captain with an irritated expression, and Kota noted that for a brief moment Darius and all his men cast glances at Cassian.

"They are praying for me," Cassian said, rolling his eyes.

"You no want them to?" Kota said.

"No. I do not see the gods the way they do," said Cassian. There was faint touch of contempt in his voice. "It is a source of tension between them and myself." He sighed and gazed up at the stars. "Their hearts are in the right place. They want to bring me to the light so that I will not have to be executed by the church, or at least that is their fear."

It took Kota a moment to remember what 'executed' meant, and when he did his heart quickened. "Onkai going to kill you?"

"No," Cassian whispered. "Onkai do not kill their fellow man. Their Order dedicates itself entirely to protecting human beings from the dark and terrible things in this world." Cassian's gaze lowered to the campfire, and his expression become very dark as he said: "There is another order that also bares holy runes on their skin." Kota heard Cassian's heart quicken as he spoke. "They do not protect anyone," he said in a voice filled with unmistakable hatred. "These men see themselves as the acolytes of divine justice. They find people they determine to be sinners and take them prisoner. Most of the time they torture confessions out of these people, but other times... they kill them." Cassian stared unblinking into the heart of the campfire. "That Order is known as the Nemesai." The muscles around Cassian's right eye twitched as he spoke the name and at the same instant a log in the fire burst with a furious CRACK, sending embers spraying out in all directions.

Kota flinched back as several orange burning chunks shot at his face and chest, but Cassian's right hand whipped up and the embers stopped dead in the air. "My apologies, Kota," Cassian said in an even voice. He made a subtle motion with his fingers and the burning chunks whipped back into the campfire.