I have seen the blade that shall pierce the heart of the Eight. Brotherhood, love, unity, and faith. Brotherhood, to repair the schisms they have made; love, to soothe the hatred and callousness they had infected us with; unity, to bring together those divided; and faith, to shine and support the noble ones who face them down. These words were given to me for your comfort.
***
Thaen's expression was as stormy as the outside of the seedy tavern he sat in.
He had given Karik'ar the letter, slipped it under the sleeping thing's head, and slipped away before the Kai'Draen had awoken. He hated it, hated having to do it. But it was the right thing.
That was almost impossible. From everything he had seen of the Kai'Draen, they valued war for war's sake. Violent for no reason. Abhorring families. Savagery, distilled by terrible conditions.
But the Vesperati had taken their terrible situation and built the holds. They had established outposts of civilization in a sea of barbarism. The Kai'Draeni tribes, however, were the opposite of cultured.
Karik'ar, fortunately, wasn't that savage. He didn't dance around in a loincloth babbling like an imbecile. He seemed civilized, but there was something about him that bothered Thaen. There was something that made the Vesperati warrior uneasy.
The dirty, boisterous inn quieted immediately when someone walked in, bringing in the sounds of a storm and rainwater. That someone carried a presence with them, a presence that filled the room. That was the air of a man who was used to fighting to get his own way.
Karik'ar.
The barkeep tilted his head towards Thaen's table, and the Kai'Draen moved over. The crowd parted for the bulky figure to move through. All but one.
That man spat on the floor. Ugh. Civilized lands had their regressives, and this man was the local one. "What are you doing here?" he snapped.
"Walking through," he said calmly.
"Well, get out," the regressive idiot said. He rose to his full height, barely coming up past Karik'ar's chest. So Karik'ar did something, that, when Thaen saw it, was smart. He stepped forward.
The man had been drinking, and was probably already drunk, but the sight of an eight and a half foot tall musclebound Kai'Draen was enough to make anyone pause. Karik'ar put a hand on the drunk's shoulder, and moved him aside. "Good. Sit down," he said, "and don't bother me again." The drunk nodded, realizing he had just been a few seconds away from death. Or permanent injury.
He sat down, across from Thaen, having to crowd himself into the corner his chair was in. "I got your note," he said. "Odd way to say you wanted to talk to me."
"Yeah," Thaen said, looking at his drink. He had gotten ale for the Kai'Draen, and a weak cider for himself. The words seemed to vanish. The vitriol he had kept bound in his throat, the venom his tongue would lash out with... all the acidic words he had practiced vanished from his mind.
"So, uh, why did you want me here?" Karik'ar asked.
"I needed to tell you something," Thaen said.
"And you couldn't tell me back there? At our inn?"
Thaen stopped. What was he going to say? That he was afraid of others noticing? That he was embarrassed of what he needed to do? "I have my reasons," Thaen said cryptically.
"Fine," Karik'ar said, taking a sip of his drink. "So, what do you want to tell me?"
Thaen looked around, making sure no one was looking or listening too closely. No one did. "Remember back in the barrow? Where Skaria found that sword?"
Karik'ar nodded. "Yeah, I remember that. What of it?"
"Remember that trap?"
"Yeah," Karik'ar said. "What of it?"
"Well..." Thaen paused. He couldn't believe he was going to do this. And to a Kai'Draen? "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Karik'ar said. He waited. "Is that all? Seems a bit of a small matter to call me over to another tavern." He frowned, his heavy brow furrowing in confusion, until something clicked for it. "You're embarrassed."
"No I'm not," Thaen snapped.
"Yes, you are. You hate me, you loathe the Kai'Draen , and you hate having to thank one for saving your life." He smiled, mocking Thaen. It didn't show, no. It looked like a genuine smile. But it was obviously contemptuous. What else could it be?
"Fine," Thaen spat. "If that's how you're going to treat it, then fine." He rose. When he wasn't sitting, he was barely taller than the still seated Kai'Draen. "Scorn me if you want. I tried to be civil, but no, you had to treat it with contempt. Fine. Have it your way." He shoved the chair away, not caring if he made a scene. He stormed towards a door, yanked it open, and headed into the storm.
Icy cold water immediately soaked through his clothes, through his fur, down his stomach and back. He had forgotten his cloak back at the bar, but going back would have meant seeing Karik'ar again, and he wasn't ready for that. One block later, he was still stomping across in anger, but he started to shiver. Soon enough, his body was shaking with the frigid, icy air.
He had to get out of the rain. Somewhere, anywhere would be better than this frigid mess. Anywhere but out here. His body was racked with violent, seizure-like shivers as cold, unrelenting cold, bit into his flesh. His bones ached with it as the cold rainwater soaked into him, plastering his fur to his body.
Without warning, he was lifted off his feet, tucked under someone's arm. He whipped his elbow into them, trying to hurt them, but the shivering he couldn't stop made his blows weak. The would-be kidnapper, however, noticed what Thaen was trying to do.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," Karik'ar snapped. "I'm trying to help you, you idiot." Karik'ar? He wore a large cloak, shielding him from rain, and held Thaen against his side, carrying him udner his arm. The Vesperati was still shivering, even covered and kept away from the rain. The cold clung to him, sinking its claws into his body.
The Kai'Draen wheeled around, towards what looked to be an abandoned home, a burnt out shell of a building. He ducked in through the door, ducking underneath a half-burnt-out rooftop. He set a limp, frozen Thaen down in a puddle on the ground. Thaen didn't move; frankly, he didn't know if he could. All he could do was shiver.
He was out of the rain, at least. His rain-soaked fur made him even colder, and the wet garments he wore made every gust of wind a frigid Caeldari gale.
Karik'ar tossed in smashed and broken pieces of furniture into a cobble fireplace. He whipped out a knife and began to whittle away, piling shavings. And then, yanking out a flint and steel, he managed to light the thin shavings of wood on fire.
"Come on," Karik'ar said, pulling a shivering Thaen closer to the fire. And then, as if Thaen was a child, Karik'ar began to peel the sopping wet clothes off of the Vesperati. Soon, the young warrior sat in front of the fire, still shivering, in only a pair of cotton shorts.
Slowly, the shivering subsided as the heat from the fire leeched into the Vesperati's flesh. Karik'ar pulled off his own cloak and gently wrapped it around the Vesperati. "You feeling better?"
"Why?" Thaen asked. "Why would you do this?"
"You stormed off in a huff, all fiery and angry, but the heat of your anger won't keep you warm now." Thaen just stared into the fire. "I'd rather not have you freeze to death."
"But why?" Thaen asked.
Karik'ar stared at the Vesperati. "Why?" he asked in disbelief. "Because I'd rather not have someone die on me. Because I actually care about you, and everyone else travelling with us."
"Oh," Thaen said in disbelief. There was a silence, filled only by the pounding rain and the crackling fire. "Even Indra?"
Karik'ar laughed. "I wouldn't say I don't care about her. But she can be a nuisance."
"She poisoned me once. Paralyzed my vocal cords to silence me." That earned a louder laugh from Karik'ar. Thaen rolled his eyes and stretched his heavy, soaked clothes out before the fire, letting them dry.
He ignited the blood within him, letting it stay on a steady stream. The heat of the fire was more intense, now, and he heard something, sounding almost like a muffled drum. Karik'ar's heartbeat.
"You're not supposed to do this," Thaen said quietly.
"What do you mean?" the Kai'Draen asked.
"You're all supposed to be monsters. Barbarians," Thaen said. "Cruel, savage, delighting in no art or civilized culture. Only crude feats of strength."
Karik'ar snorted. "And you're supposed to be demoniacal plotters and conniving backstabbers. You fly in deadly fogs and suck the blood of children. You poison and assassinate. You all wage war like cowards." He rolled his eyes.
"That's stupid," Thaen said. "Flying in fog? Terrible visibility! Screws with heat vision too," he said. "And then you hit something, slam facefirst into the ground, and have to go get laughed at by your little brothers. As if they could fly in a straight line."
Karik'ar chuckled. "You seem to speak from experience."
Thaen sighed. "Is what I said about you wrong?"
"No. But you don't know the reasons." Karik'ar sighed. "You've seen the castes? Steelborn, Stoneborn, Tuskborn," he said. "You breed hounds? Know anything about it?"
"Not much," Thaen said.
"Well, we're like hounds. Our different castes are different breeds. You keep a pure pedigree with a dog breed, you'll have all the perks, and exacerbate the flaws." He sighed. "You know what the kind of dog least likely to have some of these flaws...complicate matters? The most durable dog breed?"
"A mutt," Thaen said.
"And that's what I am," Karik'ar said. "Of course, the tribes and holds have been implementing pure-breeding programs with us. Any mutts are considered sullied."
"That...that's just wrong," Thaen said, eyes wide. The Kai'Draen were treating themselves like animals!
"It gets better." Karik'ar sighed. "An animalistic libertine atmosphere is hardly the best place to raise a child. When everyone is sleeping with everyone else-"
"Let me guess, you never knew your family?" Thaen asked. "I heard that before with some of the old holds."
"Precisely. They tried to have the whole village raise all the children." Karik'ar sighed. "I never had a father to comfort me when I was little, to stay with me so the nightmares went away. I never had a mother who made me food, who made sure that when I wasn't feeling well, I was nice and comfortable in her arms."
"Hah. Rosy picture of that. If I had a nightmare, my dad just told me to get in line, I had seven brothers and sisters with the same issue. And if I was sick, my mother would make me this soup that supposedly made me feel better. An old family recipe, my mother said."
"How sweet," Karik'ar said.
"Nope. Tasted like moldy old leather boots,"Thaen said.
"Charming." Karik'ar stared at the flames. "Well, you're right. We're savages half the time. And that's because most of the things in our regions are trying to kill us." He sighed. "The swamps are infested with leeches that carry some sort of fungus. One of the few diseases that can kill us. Then there are the muck lurkers. Not really one monster, but a bunch of different types. That, and you have your usual assortments of crocodiles, chilogs, alligators, snakes, and other nasties."
"Charming," Thaen said. It made sense. From what Karik'ar said he had once thought of the Vesperati, and from their situation, Thaen could understand why they failed to grow into the higher levels of civilization.
They had to remain in tribes to survive. The Vesperati had tamed their world. The Calixa had done so as well. But then again, their worlds were separate. The Vesperati and Calixa lands were relatively tame, compared to what Karik'ar described.
They were quiet for a while. Thunder rumbled around them, but right by the fire, it was toasty enough to have Thaen drop Karik'ar's coat.. "Thaen," the large Kai'Draen said after a good minute of quiet. "Can I ask you to do something?"
"Sure."
"Let's put aside hostilities," the brutish warrior said, "and forget about the atrocities that the Vesperati did to the tribes. And what we did to your holds." He sighed. "Others did those. We don't have to."
"Are you talking a truce?" Thaen said.
"In a respect," Karik'ar said.
Thaen paused. "No," he said finally.
"What?" Karik'ar said.
"Truces are for enemies," Thaen said. He moved closer to the big warrior. "I don't want to have a truce. I don't want another enemy kept back by an agreement. I want a friend."
Karik'ar nodded, and put his arm around Thaen. "Alright, Thaen,"he said. "I think I can live with that."
***
"Seriously," the Vesperati said, wrapping his cloak closer around him, "I doubt you can get more insane than giant slugs." Rain splashed around him, and Thaen ached to sit down and take off his boots.
"I'll see your giant slugs," Karik'ar said, "and raise you with giant poisonous centipedes."
Thaen frowned. "Some of our scouts reported seeing these," he said.
"Chilogs," Karik'ar said. "Nasty, temperamental creatures. Hard to saddle them."
Thaen stopped. "You...saddle them? You ride them?"
"Tough, but yes." Karik'ar sighed. "You have to break them, like horses. Some, you have to have lots of antivenom on hand."
"So they're like horses," Thaen said. "Temperamental, poisonous horses."
"Slower than horses," Karik'ar said. "But they can climb up walls." He opened the door to their inn. "After you."
"Don't be so polite," Thaen said. "I'm not helpless."
"Fine," Karik'ar said. The two of them walked right up the hall. "You ride the slugs?"
"No!" Thaen said. "They're too slimy. But the slime is good. Tasty if cooked correctly, and very nutritious. It's why we raise them like cattle."
"Not like they could really run away," Karik'ar said. "They're slugs, after all."
"They bite. Never thought they could," Thaen said, "but they do. And they're nasty."
Karik'ar opened the door. While the thunder struck, it gave a little bit more illumination to the scene. Laidu sat by a lantern, set on a table, his tall frame and broad shoulders hunched over a book. "Back?" he said.
"Yeah," Thaen said. He shrugged his cloak off, tossed it over a chair, and wiggled his way out of his sleeveless shirt. "Much better." He stretched out his wings, letting the membranes unfold, and the bones to extend to their natural length. It felt nice to air that thing out.
Yanking off his boots, Thaen sat down. "I hope Kyra wakes up soon," he said. And he did. Laidu looked away. He was probably ashamed he had let her get poisoned. "I'd love to see Caeldar."
"You were shivering from a little rain," Karik'ar said, chuckling. "Saefel Caeld is much colder."
Thaen shrugged. "What else is new?"
Karik'ar paused. "There's a rather high population of Vesperati in the city. I've seen plenty of very attractive Vesperati women." He shrugged. "I've heard that they like longer hair with men. Maybe you should grow yours out."
Thaen scoffed. "Nah," he said, lying down. Then again, it might look better. Maybe some dreadlocks. Or a bunch of braids. That might look good.
He leaned back. "Good night," he said, pulling the covers over the head. And when he did so, he smiled. He had had an enemy when he awoke. But when he lay his head to sleep, he had a friend. Karik'ar, a warrior. A strong one. He was a Kai'Draen, supposedly a savage.
But he definitely was a friend.