Mortals & Deities

by Maxwell Alexander Drake

  When nothing else happened, he glanced back at the girl, her anger apparent in her face as well as words. “It is not hers to question, great Mah’Sukai. Yet, why do you protect this man who only moments before tried to kill you?”

  She is gray! And her eyes…

  Now that he faced his rescuer, he reeled over how alien she appeared. Her gray skin and white hair resembled that of an Elmorian. Yet, she had the build of a Human. And though her eyes were shaped like a Human’s, not the big black ovals of an Elmorian, they were the color of silver and reflected light as a cat’s might. Even her pupils were elongated like that of a cat! “What…What are you?”

  Planting the staff next to her, the girl stood up straight. “They call her Elith. She is here to help you.”

  A groan pulled his attention behind him, and he barely caught his brother as Arderi collapsed to the ground. “Help me, then!” Faster than he would have thought possible, the strange gray girl moved. Together they rested Arderi onto the ground. Immediately, the Sight of the Essence fell upon Alant and he delved his brother’s wounds. The amount of pain Arderi must be experiencing was staggering. The worst lay in his right hand and arm. “Oh, brother! I am so sorry! I did not know it was you.”

  Alant had never been skilled at healing, except, as he looked at his brother’s blackened hand, he noticed something. In the past, when he had learned healing from the Shapers in Mocley and Delmith on Hath’oolan, he had always felt they did it backward. Looking now at the injuries with this new Sight, he saw that the damage was not as complicated as his old instructors had taught. He wondered why he had never seen it before. It looked so simple now. Sitting down to become more comfortable for the long process of healing—these wounds would take aurns to heal, if not the rest of the night—he glanced up at the odd, gray girl who hovered over him. Turning his attention back to his task—he would deal with her after he mended Arderi’s injuries—he almost flung his brother’s hand away as the black, charred skin seemed to melt away with alacrity. As he watched, too stunned to even try and understand what he was doing, the blackened skin turned red, then back to a healthy pink. Skin erupted like a flower bursting into bloom to cover all of Arderi’s injuries. Only a few moments had passed, yet his brother’s hand looked as if it had never been hurt. In his excitement, he let his mind seek out other pains. A pulled tendon in Arderi’s left shoulder where his arm had been wrenched back, a nasty bump on his head from his fall after being thrown. A small bruise and cut on his shin. Even the soreness of his feet, as if his brother had been walking for days without end. Within moments, all were healed.

  His brother flinched, then jerked away and scrambled back on all fours. A look of terror filled his eyes and he hurried to regain his feet. Alant let the Sight slip from him and the alleyway again appeared dim. Stumbling as he stood—he had not realized how tired he was—a helping hand steadied him. He cringed when he noticed it was the strange girl holding him up. Had he known for sure he could stand without her aid, he would have forcibly removed her hands.

  Arderi’s mouth turned from shock to a grimace. He took a step toward the two, his eyes burning into the girl. “What have you done to my brother?”

  Alant was unsure why his brother addressed the question to the gray girl. “No one has done anything to me, Arderi.” Catching the reflection of the red glow of his eyes off a small puddle in the alleyway, he sighed. “Well, I have changed, yet that was moons ago.” Using his free hand, he pushed the gray girl away, glad that when she released him he was able to stand on his own. Rubbing his arm, he took a step toward his brother and turned to the woman. “I have never seen her before now.”

  Holding up an arm to ward off Alant, Arderi’s attention fell to his hand. He flexed his fingers as if unsure they were his. Some of the tension melted from him and his shoulders slumped. He seemed as exhausted as Alant felt. He looked up and the two locked eyes before Arderi broke the silence that had fallen. “How could you be the Mah’Sukai? Why would you do this? Why would you wish to destroy everything?”

  It felt like his brother had hit him in the stomach. “Destroy everything? Arderi, what are you talking about?”

  “You!” Arderi had regained some strength and now stood taller. “And I will stop you. I will not let you destroy all there is!” His voice lowered to almost a whisper. “I will not let you kill our family.”

  Not liking the direction Arderi’s words were headed—his brother seemed much bigger than he remembered him—Alant held up both hands. “Nix, Arderi! You are confused. I am not going to kill anyone.” Reaching up, he indicated his eyes. “I have changed. Still, I am the same as when you last saw me. Why do you accuse me so?”

  “You deny that you are the Mah’Sukai?” This came from the woman, and the brothers turned to face her as one.

  Letting out a grunt, Alant shook his head. “I did not choose this! It was forced upon me.” He turned back to his brother. “I just left Hath’oolan not a moon gone.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the last of his coins. “Ma gave me the ta’narians you left. Who told you that I meant to kill our family?”

  His brother seemed pained by the question. Glancing around, as if he now wished to avoid Alant, Arderi crossed the alley and picked up his sword. Burnt skin still wrapped the handle and he worked to peel some of it away. Alant tensed, thinking his brother meant to continue the fight, then let out a sigh of relief when Arderi slammed the sword into the sheath hanging from his hip.

  As Arderi resumed his search—presumably for his dagger now—Alant walked over and stood before him. “Was it the Shapers?” He tried to keep his voice level. “Did they send you after me?”

  This seemed to confuse Arderi and he whipped around to stare at Alant. “The Shapers? Why, by all the gods, would I do anything for them?”

  “Why would you not?” Alant could not understand why the Shapers would want him dead. Still, Shapers had their own agendas, and he would not be surprised if they resorted to this if they came to the conclusion that they could not capture him. Though it would have pained him to know he had been betrayed by his former Sier.

  “Because I am—” Arderi stood there, mouth hanging open, as if he did not know how to continue. Finally, he pointed at the girl. “What are you?”

  “She is Elith.”

  “She? You mean you?” Arderi’s voice held a command Alant had never heard before. His brother stood in a confident way Alant did not think he, himself, ever could. “I did not ask who you are. I asked what you are!” Arderi’s hand fell to the hilt of his sword. Alant realized his brother was unaware of his change in posture.

  It was odd to realize that his brother looked as if he belonged with the sword. As if he really knew how to use it.

  Brother, how is it you have come to know a sword well enough to not realize you grip it? Much has changed with you as well, it seems.

  Arderi Cor did not really care what the strange, gray-skinned girl was, or even why she was here. He had redirected his anger toward her to avoid lashing out at his brother. How could Alant have put him in this situation where he had to kill his own flesh and blood! If Alant was so power-hungry that he would become a Mah’Sukai, he was not his brother any longer, that was for sure. Still…

  I do not even understand what a Mah’Sukai is! I have been following Master Rine’s words without question.

  He glanced back at Alant. “I have been told that only a person of great evil would take the steps to become a Mah’Sukai. That in doing so, he gave up everything that made him Human.” Looking down, he flexed the healed fingers of his hand again before returning his gaze to his brother. “Convince me not to kill you where you stand.” The finality in his voice stunned even him. Though the realization that he meant it was the biggest shock.

  The slim gray girl stepped forward, black stick in hand. “If you try, you will die.”

  Holding up his hands, Alant moved between them.
“Hold up! I think we all have questions.” Swiveling his head back and forth, he included them both. “And answers.”

  Releasing his grip on Dorochi’s hilt, Arderi crossed his arms. “Fine. Tell your she-wench to back off.”

  Instead of intimidating the girl, his comment made her smile. “She will not strike unless you do first.” Cutting her eyes at Alant, her smile grew. “Unless the Mah’Sukai tells her to. Then she will gut you like a fish.”

  His brother stepped back and rubbed his hands on his shirt. “Well, I am not going to tell you that. No one is going to attack anyone until we talk this through.” He let out an exaggerated sigh. Arderi remembered that sigh well. It was the exact same sigh Alant used when mediating a fight between Arderi and Siln when they were younger. The sigh comforted Arderi greatly.

  It tells me there is still a bit of my brother behind those glowing red eyes.

  Turning to Arderi, Alant put out both of his hands and shrugged. “As I said, I did not choose to become a Mah’Sukai. I had not even heard that name until a few moons gone. Did you know I went to study with the Elmorians on Elmorr’eth?”

  Arderi nodded, though something about his brother struck him. “Your eyes! They are normal now!”

  “Aye. They only glow when I hold the Sight of the Essence. And a bit afterward.” Looking around, Alant motioned to some crates against one wall. “Can we please sit? I am exhausted!” Suiting his words, he collapsed onto the nearest box.

  When the girl made no move to sit, Arderi decided he would remain standing as well. “So, what do the Elmorians have to do with this?”

  “They are the ones who did this to me!” A look of outrage filled Alant. “They have a Chi’utlan under their Chandril’elian and they forced me to enter it.”

  Arderi could only shrug. “Chandril’elian is the school, right?”

  “Aye, it is the school where Shapers go. The Chi’utlan is an Essence Node.” At the blank look from his brother, he elaborated. “I am not sure what the Chi’utlan is exactly, though I think it is a place where the Essence spills onto Talic’Nauth. Somehow, when I entered it, the Essence…bonded to me. Or, mayhaps it filled me. I do not know!” Placing his elbows onto his knees, he cupped his chin in his hands. “Look, I have run this all through my head hundreds of times and I still do not know what any of it means. I only know that I am now able to do things that are way beyond what I learned as a Shaper. I have looked for an answer to what has happened to me ever since. That is why I came back to Mocley. I have been staying at an inn called the Fisherman’s Dock in the warehouse district since then.”

  “‘And once Bathane had beaten Maja’Kasta and driven off his brother, Alza’Dysta, he looked down on the broken god, blood pouring from the twin wounds on his back, and said, “I have the power now. And you and your people will cower down before me or I will make them suffer! The Tat’Sujen are lost, as well. I shall use the Mah’Sukai to reach such new heights, the entire Plane will bow before me.” Leaving Maja’Kasta to die, the God of Deception traveled back to his palace on his island’.”

  When the girl finished, Arderi shook his head with a laugh. “You quote from the Book of the Twelve a lot, huh?”

  Planting her staff on the ground, she frowned. “She thinks it fits.”

  “She does, does she?” Arderi crossed his arms high on his chest. He made a conscious effort to keep his hand from the hilt of Dorochi. Not that he feared the girl and her stick. When he attacked the Mah’Sukai—his brother—he had been so on edge, using the power of Sujen had never crossed his mind. Now, he knew he could call on the extra speed it would give him. Still, tempers had settled and he did not want things turning violent again. At least, not until he gleaned some answers. “Well, we have heard my brother’s tale. How is it you have come to this particular alleyway looking for him?”

  “The passage holds the answer. It must be what the Revered Father intends. She understands now.”

  There was a finality to her statement and Arderi did not think she meant to continue. “Great. I am happy that she has figured it out. Now, how about explaining it to the rest of us?”

  She looked at him as if she could not believe he did not understand. “The Revered Father. He wants the Mah’Sukai to increase his own power. She never realized it before, yet there are several references in the Book that speak of the Mah’Sukai bringing power to those who know how to tap into them. She always assumed they meant the Mah’Sukai themselves held the power. Now, she is certain he means to take it somehow.”

  Arderi shook his head as the girl spoke. “I am not the holiest of men. I will be the first to admit that. Still, there is no mention of Mah’Sukai or this…” Waving a hand, he tried to act like he was struggling to remember her words. “…Tat’Sujen in the Book of the Twelve.”

  “Not in your Book of the Twelve, no. Yet, there is in the Book used by the Priests of Fatint. Theirs is more…complete than the ones found elsewhere on the Plane.” The gray girl glanced around, as if amazed she had said so much.

  “What are you saying?” Arderi stared at her for a long moment. When it became apparent that she was not going to add any more, he shrugged. “Well?”

  Alant rose from the box. “At least tell us who this Revered Father is you mentioned.”

  Holding her staff out before her, Arderi watched in amazement as it shrank. “He is the leader of the Priests of Fatint. For reasons she will not explain, the thought of denying him that which he seeks pleases her.”

  Without taking his eyes from the shrinking staff, Alant rubbed the back of his head. “So, you do not work for the Priests?”

  “Yes, she does.” Now, with the staff about two hands long, the girl slipped it behind her back into a small leather sleeve that was attached to her belt. “Though she has been having…doubts.”

  Alant threw up his hands. “Great! So, the Shapers here in Mocley are trying to catch me, you tell me the Priests of Fatint—whoever the heck they are—want to suck my powers away, and I am certain the Elmorians will kill me if they ever find me.” Spinning, he pointed at Arderi. “And you say you were not sent by any of them! So who else wants me dead?”

  Arderi spotted his dagger laying a few paces away partially buried in some muck. The subject of his mission was not something he cared to answer right now. So, crossing to his weapon, he bent down and retrieved it to buy some time.

  Before he straightened up, Alant grabbed his shirt just over his shoulder and jerked him around. “Well? It is obvious you did not know you were about to kill your own blood. Still, you were ready to die to kill me. Who sent you?”

  Shrugging his brother’s hand off, Arderi slammed his dagger into its sheath. “It is complicated.”

  This made Alant laugh out loud. “This whole damnable mess is complicated! I mean, what are the odds that one of you, let alone both, could find me in such a massive city?” Dropping his hands, he took a step back. “Wait. How did you find me?”

  “The Revered Father, he put a Questing on her. She can feel the Mah’Sukai in her head even now.”

  The girl’s statement struck Arderi and he whipped his head around to her. “A Questing?” Without noticing what he did, he reached up and cupped the base of his skull.

  The gray girl reached out and caressed the back of Arderi’s ear, and he flinched. Her smile was not a kind one. “It felt cold, did it not?” The evil grin sitting below her slit-pupiled eyes did nothing to settle his nerves.

  “So you have this Questing as well, Arderi. You can feel me in your head?”

  Before his brother’s accusation, Arderi had never thought of how intrusive the Questing was. “Aye, I do.”

  In a sudden flash, Alant’s eyes blazed red and lightning danced between his fingertips. “Who sent you after me, Brother? You will tell me now! Or I may just have reason to kill you.”

  Raising his hands before him, Arderi pivoted his head back a
nd forth between Alant and the girl. Though the look on his brother’s face was pure fury, his final words did not have the same finality to them. “Look, Alant…I cannot really say. I have—”

  “Nix!” The anger in his brother’s voice amplified under the strange power he now wielded. “I am being hunted, Arderi. Like an animal! And they sent you after me. To kill your own brother! Tell me who they are. You owe me as much, at the least.”

  Running a hand through his long brown hair, Arderi felt his shoulders sag and he looked down at the filthy alley they stood in. Alant was right. They had sent him here to kill. Though, he was certain they did not know the Mah’Sukai was his brother. Still, Clytus’ words and Ragnor’s warning echoed loud in his mind. The Tat’Sujen were also hunted, just as his brother was. The Order had survived through secrecy and caution. Could he really betray them to his brother? He cut his eyes to the strange gray-skinned girl who had almost finished the job of killing him that his brother had started.

  I do not know anything about her. I cannot let her know anything about me…or the Order.

  “I am not certain.” Arderi Cor shifted his feet, grinding a toe into something on the ground. “I fell in with a group of mercenaries. Somehow they knew there was a Mah’Sukai in Mocley and they believed that he—well, you—intended to destroy all of Talic’Nauth. They were very convincing.”

  Alant Cor could not understand his brother’s hesitation.

  Someone sent him here to kill me and he acts like he needs to protect them!

  It made no sense. He had stepped into the Chi’utlan not even two moons gone! And on an island a thousand leagues from here. How could people know of this so soon? And why hunt him?

  He looked at Elith. She had said very little, though her stance said she remained ready to get between him and Arderi if his brother made an aggressive action toward him.