House Ravenin - The Folded Path Pt. 02

Alasia's hand absently went to her thin arm near the elbow, long fingers tightening over the location where a scar of another life used to be. Never again, came the faint echo of her voice, far away and hidden. It was two words that defined a choice made and honored, leading to the path before her that now folded outward or in.

Mirakantao didn't see the minute movements, but he should have. Lords above and below he should have caught Alasia's wavering motions in an instant, quickly questioning and gleaning her secrets with surgical precision. He was Master of Keys, perceptive and strong. Nothing should have escaped his attention, but it did.

Alasia's movements lasted only a flicker before the Rocks in the River of her mental discipline were lost in the Sea at Night. The wind brushed Alasia's dark brown hair across her stone-hard eyes, the importance of the last seconds lost to Mirakantao but not to me.

"Only in part, Master," Alasia recited, voice smooth and unreadable. "If what Master Ravenin says is true, then Master Kalinash was a Master at the precise moment of his death. The dagger was drawn, the charge was made, yet in the fractional hesitation before striking he decided to sacrifice rather than to serve. A slave, then a Master, by Master Ravenin's own account."

Master Mirakantao turned toward me. "Truth, or folly, Master Ravenin?"

"Truth, Master Mirakantao, words spoken that are honest and binding," I stated. "By all accounts, a Master in that moment described. Honors were given to Master Kalinash, service promised to his family in honor of his path that was walked."

"A promise made when he was a slave, and then a Master," Master Mirakantao hummed, his rattle resuming. "Such service is unbecoming on a slave."

"Such service, Master Mirakantao, is for everyone. The Folded Path serves the people, and the Master serves the path," I stated, the mantra old and folding in on itself over and over. It was hypnotic and endless, scales moving and flashing atop endless scales as it confused and galvanized in a perfection of duality. "I unhesitantly serve the people, in life and sacrifice. By these hands, blood is given where it is needed."

A displeased rattle trickled out from Mirakantao, the kind warning of crossed boundaries and dire punishments. It was aggressive, posturing, and sinuous, so unlike Yu-Yina and a Master of Masters. He was so unlike everything I have been raised to believe in or respect.

Honor heaped upon the dishonorable, this one. There was blood on his hands, given by the Master at my feet. Master Kalinash had walked true in his last moments, a loss keenly felt and honored. Master Mirakantao was the kind of Master that broke bonds and paths in sorrow, or incited them.

"I will now take your sacrifice, Master Ravenin," growled Master Mirakantao, placing his hands into my bowled ones above my head. I could feel his nails in my palms, long and sharp like surgical needles. "I judge your path ended, the death of Master Kalinash proving that you no longer serve the Folded Path."

Master Mirakantao's nails dug in, simultaneously piercing the skin of my exposed palms in ten places. My hands welled with blood and dripped through the cracks between my hands, down through my hair and across my face, then along the bridge of my nose before trailing down my chin to fall to the ground beneath me. I closed my eyes as I felt his nails dig deeper, seeking the deep blood and the path of the heart. Once started, the flow would not end until I was dead.

I did not grimace or make a sound, didn't budge or shift away, keeping with my Master status and the path I served from beginning to end. My sacrifice would serve the Path. This last step was easy to walk, meaning I'd done everything I was supposed to do in this life. Ended by a Master of Keys, my sacrifice taken to be remembered and honored, it meant a greater path would open to the prosperity of the people.

In my death the people would be served, faith and hope blooming inside me as Mirakantao's nails found the lifeblood vein. A small rattle came forth in rapturous appeasement, the pitch of the sound rising as his joy turned to mirth, then to exaltation, before reverberating like hail upon a tin roof.

Sickening, came the damning admission, opening my eyes and turning my hardened gaze up to him.

Master Mirakantao read that thought of mine clear as crystal, written in the blood trickling down my face washing red in offering. He stood above me, hands gorging in my sacrifice as his face glowed with bliss. Eyes turned upward like he was receiving the rain, scales beautifully reflecting the light in red and yellow glints, he never saw it coming.

With a vicious jab Alasia plunged the wing-guarded dagger into the back of Master Mirakantao. I say it was a jab, but it was far more powerful than that. It was a fast step back, drawing the hidden dagger from the small of her back into her right hand, then lunging and slamming into him with intense, focused purpose.

The blow was hard and elegant, quick and perfect. She had all the time she needed, standing back and to the left of Mirakantao, to choose the perfect spot to strike then put her full body weight into her attack. She drove the dagger upward at a vicious angle behind his left lung, between the point of his left shoulder blade and his spine. She lifted with her arm and shoulder, reflexively bringing Mirakantao to his toes from the sensation.

Alasia had absolute control over Master Mirakantao as she urged him higher, her mask of silence and darkness breaking like a rhino charging through brittle glass. Long years of pent up anger and loss brightly radiated from her sunstruck amethyst eyes, drawing Mirakantao back a step and forcing his needle fingers to withdraw from my palms.

Her left hand quickly grasped the left wrist of Mirakantao, holding it out and away from her in a full arm extension. Her right-handed fingers slipped in the familiar holes beneath the wings of the dagger, supporting Mirakantao's weight with the strength of one hand. She slightly bent her body and clenched her teeth, sharply twisting the dagger and groaning in triumph.

Blood poured down Alasia's right hand, wide and strong like a hungry river, as Master Mirakantao howled in masculine and feminine agony. His body arched in a horrible contortion, trying and failing to stave off the worse of what was transpiring. His right arm couldn't reach or contort back far enough to help him, his left held away and constrained with his body bent backward.

Such was the way Alasia had Master Mirakantao controlled, dead to rights from head to toe as he bled and screamed. Her white teeth slowly revealed themselves from beneath a slowly crawling grin, a predator finally catching its pray framing her ultimate satisfaction.

Mirakantao slipped another inch down the killing blade. Alasia's right hand and fingers were still powerfully gripped around the dagger as she bent and twisted, maneuvering Mirakantao in an awkwardly indescribable, pain-inducing toggle. The motion incited agony as it brought his head down beside Alasia's own, his killer now looming over his left shoulder with lips horribly close to his ears and cheek.

Teeth still clenched in fury like a hungry lioness, Alasia curled her lips into victory. Amethyst eyes suddenly turned calm and peaceful, staring fully into my own.

"I say this to you know, Mirakantao, Master of no one who has fallen from the Path. You are a soul who will not be remembered in word or deed. Your name will be stricken eternally from ivory, a shell forgotten to dust and ashes," Alasia sinuously whispered. "You will hear these words before you die, words that have waited for this moment, years upon years, for they are the kind that define legacies and lifetimes."

"I have three secrets to share," Alasia hungrily hummed. A warm tear rolled down her face in counterpoint, voice dropping lower near Mirakantao's ear as victory bled him dry. "The number given to me was three, to set myself free."

"My first secret is the saddest for it is a name that was lost, one that had once been my own to honor and cherish. It was taken from me, by you. I trusted you with my name, gave it willingly when asked, and then you used it for your own selfish gains. You elevated Sonnaju with my sacrifice then heaped dishonor and blood upon me in return, honor upon the dishonorable coiling around my heart in agony." Alasia's voice dropped even lower, something that wasn't made for my ears to hear, only feel. "You hid me away, Mirakantao, when I thought you a friend, then sent me away, deep into the dark ocean of my own defenses where no one could find me, when I knew you were an enemy. When I tried to unbecome and fled you followed, trapping me in the dark once more."

I am free. Never again.

"My second secret is the most profound, coming to me in the dark as light started to shine once more. I saw your face, Mirakantao, framed in the fires that brought my House down around me. My family died to carry forth the will of Sonnaju, the felling and destruction of a noble, honorable house certifying their claim to dominance over the world." Alasia's voice dropped to a hiss in Mirakantao's ears. "You needed me to break the seals that my family had been born to protect, to lead you to and unearth the ancient treasures buried long before the world was young. Treasures that, if used in today's world, would cause untold devastation."

Alasia's eyes were upon me once more, a secret she couldn't share but could let me feel all the same, as she whispered it to Mirakantao. "You sent me to Crissone with Euriss to ensure that the mine hadn't been disturbed, a mine that was actually a burial chamber. Entombed for all time and forgotten by all, inside there were weapons of an ancient time never meant to be unsealed. You needed someone who knew the ancient languages, an old family who still held sway with the powerful wards and glyphs meant to repel seekers and murderers."

I am free. Never again.

"My third secret is the most revelatory, and the most damning," Alasia growled through clenched teeth as she dug the knife deeper, the bulge of the tip starting to show under the skin of Mirakantao's chest. "Listen closely, for you have time enough to hear it once. With these hands, never made for the cutting of throats nor the taking of lives, a world knew blood that should have never been taken. Sonnaju, for all its evil conniving and scheming, did one thing of unrenouncable benefit. Although I am loathe to admit gratitude, I do so now."

Alasia grunted and lifted as hard as she could on the dagger in Mirakantao's back, the blade warping and twisting inside him. Mirakantao squealed as he horribly flailed his body, attempting to get Alasia to dislodge and desist. Alasia quickly snatched his throat with her left hand and jerked his chin back in dominance, holding him aloft with all his weight on her right. He would of had better luck asking a mountain to bend down and welcome him home than receive any sympathy from her.

"Thank you, Mirakantao. I am stronger because of your necessity for me, made wiser and able to understand the flow of the world because of you. I am more whole, no longer afraid of the deep dark because of how long you had me trapped there." Alasia dug her fingers into his throat, grasping his windpipe as he profusely bled. "And for you, Master of no path, I offer you one more secret to take to your grave, one that will twist your heart into splinters upon its hearing. Listen carefully, for you have no time left to waste."

With a vicious movement Alasia jerked the dagger clean from Mirakantao's body and slammed him down to the ground. A river of blood pooled then poured out from beneath him, covering the pathway to the house and running downhill in a sludge of reddish blue. Alasia held him on the path stones by his throat, his needle-like fingers weakly trying to stave her off to no avail.

When Alasia leaned in close to Mirakantao she drove her last secret home with such pain and fury. It came out like a rumbling growl, a tidal wave of emotion never meant for me to hear yet I felt it all the same deep inside me. "My house will rise again. I am the last of House Shivashi, a line unbroken for generations. Sonnaju sought to end my house's rule and power, a stalwart foundation of honor and trust that was burned by your hand under your watchful gaze. Towers crumbled and walls fell, decimating a once beautiful, honest family to dust and ashes. A life was hidden, folded into itself in sadness and cruelty for the gain of another, as honor was heaped upon the honorless."

Alasia caressed Mirakantao's face as she tightened her grip. "I am no longer bound to Sonnaju, and never again will it be so, Mirakantao. My house, the one you destroyed, will live because you failed to kill me. It will grow from my sacrifices and flourish in the sun once more, breathing honor and sacred love while protected from all harm within walls trusted and peaceful. I swear this to you, here and now."

A blush and a smile brightened Alasia's features as she spun the dagger on Master Mirakantao's chest, swiftly grasping the handle and shoving it up through his scaled chin. His bloodshot eyes snapped open, mouthing a wordless scream as no sound came out. He couldn't move or defend himself, none of his powers answering his summons. All he could do was accept the fate that had been dealt to him, one that he'd cultivated all by himself. It was a bitter, brutal, and perfect kill.

Alasia didn't miss the look in Mirakantao's eyes, not shying away as his hypnotic red and yellow stare started to swirl. Instead she forced herself inward toward the center of his mystifying gaze, shattering his controlling energy with her own unfazed amethyst orbs, so that the last thing he saw was her.

Alasia's next words could have broken mountains with their softness, perfectly pairing with the silently violent twisting of the dagger. "Your path has been folded, Master Mirakantao. The snake that bit its own tail has finally consumed itself. I have traveled full circle upon this path with you, and now our journey together is at an end. Our path together finishes here, the circle closed at long last."

With a swift movement Alasia drew the dagger out of Mirakantao's chin. Blood flowed down his chest in a bluish-red sluze as she grabbed the dagger with both hands, plunging it into Mirakantao's heart. A horrible tremor ran through his body, spasms and seizures following as he wretched blood, bile, and defeat in a vicious stream of gurgles and impotency.

Alasia watched as the last of Mirakantao's death throes claimed him under the defiantly glaring sun above. A slow breath, one that started lives from the beginning until the end, shivered as it entered and left Alasia's body.

"Never again," she whimpered, cathartic release overtaking her as she crumpled to her knees in victory.

Silvery rivulets of endless tears washed down Alasia's face, dripping down her chin and splattering against her blood-stained hands. She slowly rubbed her palms that were being covered in her blissful happiness, refusing to look down and see what she had done until her tears had washed her hands clean.

I had never seen anyone cry so much, never in my life had a Pillar of Water expressed itself to me like Alasia did. It was beautiful to witness, endless tears cascading and flowing at her whim and desire. It was like seeing a spring burst into existence from the side of a lonely mountain, or watching a dry riverbed drink its first perfect rain and flow naturally to the wide ocean in the distance. Cleansing and gorgeous, salty and pure like the sea, she sparkled in the perfect sunlight.

Alasia was free, now and forever.

"I am free," Alasia whispered as though she'd heard my thoughts, hands washing clean after so long of being bloody. There were no whimpers, no cries or screams, only tears clear and pure which came at her beck and call.

Bright blood was still pooled to the brim of my cupped hands above my head in sacrifice as Alasia strode over. She slowly knelt in front of me and brought her hands up beneath mine, cupping and catching my blood as it dripped and spattered against her palms. It wasn't blood in the touching or the exchange, though. There was only clean, pure water pooled in Alasia's hands now, a bright and beautiful smile on her face.

Alasia lowered and held my hands on our knees, a soft and delicate hum vibrating in her heart as she closed her eyes in peace. It was a single note of a song, harmonious, deep, and majestic, coming from deep within her core. Like the call of a mystical siren its reach was near-infinite, heard for miles across the surface of the infinite sea and beneath its endless, perfect waves.

The song called to me as it thrummed through our hands, racing up my arms into my heart and mind. I closed my eyes and listened.

There is an island, deep in the sea, where one man waits for peace, Alasia sang, one note telling the story of a life she had claimed as her own. Upon this island he waits, a perfect memory of what could be endlessly echoing inside him.

A breathtaking glow radiated up from our hands, washing the island in my mind with crystal water lapping at its white sand beaches. It is a secret, this memory, of how perfect the world used to be. Pure and innocent, it endlessly loved and never hated. Brightly shining even in the darkest of times, it lived when all else fell to ruin and was forgotten. Consumed by the sea, it was thought to be lost for all time.

Alasia strode from the water as I stood on the beach in my mind. Pure and perfect, washed clean of all that once tainted her, she drew me close and embraced me with all her strength. I felt it flow from her, touching me where no one ever has and healing my grievous wounds. Crystal tears washed down from her eyes as she rubbed her watery cheeks on mine, bathing me in purity that was cool, nourishing, and elegant.

"I claim you as my own, Master Ravenin," Alasia calmly said. She drew back and stared at me with her beautiful amethyst eyes, sunstruck and glazed with majesty. "I offer you this Pillar to stand next to you, to draw upon when needed as you walk the Folded Path. I believe in the memory you hold, having endless faith in your ability to bring it forth during such times of strife and worry."

Alasia gently rubbed her cheeks against mine, a kiss without kissing that was tender and perfect. "I believe in you, Master Ravenin. I claim you as my Master, declaring to serve you until the end of my days with honor, love, and truth. You will not walk this path alone, for there are others who walk with you. I pledge myself to your service, for you alone honor my choices and path as I become who I desire to be."

"I desire to serve you, Master Ravenin of House Ravenin. I am no slave, and I choose you as my Master," Alasia genuinely offered, slowly expressing the words she believed down to her core. Gorgeous waves rippled out across the sea, filling it with scintillating, prismatic beauty.

"I honor your commitment and path, Alasia of House Shivashi," I slowly recited. "I honor your claim upon me and in turn I claim you as my own, my precious Pillar of Water. I will honor your service and sacrifices, holding you close and protecting what is dear, as we travel the Folded Path together."

I softly squeezed Alasia's hands on my cheeks. "May the path serve us both, equal and honest, until the world knows endless peace and prosperity once more."

"Until peace once more, Master Ravenin," Alasia concurred. With elegant slowness she kissed me, washing my ears with an endless, perfect sigh as waves lapped at our feet in the sand.

Standing together, as one.