The truth is sometimes too hard to bear, blunt and true.
--Secrets, Pinal
Running all night long, not certain where they were going except south, as far south as they could get away from Coe Aela before they collapsed in exhaustion with the rising of the dawn, they managed to find a hollow in the forest, behind a sunken, fallen tree, and fell asleep for a few hours, their pillows their bags and each other. Fato nestled up in a tree, snoring loudly as morning rose even higher. Finally, with flies buzzing about them, someone stirred and woke.
Oaka swatted at some flies and rolled over, his hand brushing up against the Blue Sword in the process. “Ow!” Oaka cried, startled awake by a pulse he had felt that had seared his hand, once he got a close look at it. “What is this?” He cried.
Monika woke up reluctantly, followed by Basha and Gnat as they all had to extract themselves from the pile they had formed in their slumbers. “I don’t know. What’s wrong?” Monika asked, yawning.
“Your Blue Sword did this to me!” Oaka said, holding out his hand towards Monika.
Monika examined the burn on his hands. “It did? How is that possible?” She asked, wide awake now as Basha and Gnat groggily followed the conversation.
“Oh, go back to sleep!” Fato called from above as Basha went off into the bushes to relieve himself. “I was having a wonderful dream about hands.” Fato muttered.
“Hands? What are we talking about?” Gnat asked.
“Hands and feet, my hands and feet.” Fato added, smiling.
“I don’t know, it shocked me!” Oaka gasped, talking to Monika, as the others weren’t making any sense. “Like a little fire, or a lightning bolt, it burned me!”
“It’s not the shock from static, certainly.” Monika said. “It’s like…did you burn yourself with your powers, Oaka? Your fire power?”
“No, I didn’t.” Oaka said. “I never…I don’t burn myself when I wield it, and I don’t think I’m conscious enough when I’m asleep to use my powers. I think you have to be awake to use magic, even inadvertantly.”
“That’s probably true.” Monika said as Basha came back from the bushes.
“Your Blue Sword did that to me, and I don’t know why.” Oaka said.
“Maybe it’s because you’re Menthar.” Fato remarked from above.
“Shut up! I’m not Menthar!” Oaka cried. “Just because I have those powers doesn’t make me the same as--”
“Maybe Fato has a point.” Monika said. “Maybe it’s because you have your powers and I have my powers--let’s put it to the test.” She said, glancing around at everyone. “Basha, bring out the Black Sword. We’re going to see who gets shocked with what.”
They tested--Oaka got burned with both the Black and Blue Swords, Monika got burned with only the Black Sword, and somehow Gnat and Basha did not get burned at all. Although Gnat did mention that she had felt a sense of unease touching the Black and Blue Swords, like they did not belong to her, and Basha had to agree with her sentiment when it came to touching the Blue Sword--he could hold it, but it did not belong to him, it just did not feel right to use the Blue Sword--they could touch both Swords.
“What does this all mean?” Oaka asked.
“Basha and Gnat seem to have the ability to touch all of the Swords,” Monika said, “Without getting shocked. Although they may feel some discomfort, they have the ability to wield all of the Swords if need be. We might have to test this some more if we get other Swords, but I have a feeling that--”
“This is ridiculous.” Basha said, starting to feel like this was some kind of a trap. “We should just get something to eat, and then get out of here.”
“I know what you mean.” Oaka muttered. Was he jealous? Oaka shouldn’t feel jealous about this, when it was a horrible thing to be good at in some regard.
Basha said, as he grabbed his pack, “I didn’t ask for this. We didn’t ask for this, did we, Gnat?” He turned to the younger girl. He was not alone in this ability, at least, that would have frightened him most of all. Gnat was also involved in this as well, although he did not know why she was. Perhaps it had something to do with her parents if the ability to wield magic was inherited?
“I don’t know what your problem is,” Gnat said, shrugging. “I didn’t ask for this power, or whatever it is, but I certainly do like it!”
“What?” Basha said, shocked as he got out some food. “Gnat, don’t you understand that what we’ve got--it’s out of our control?” He asked, passing some of his food to her.
“It’s our control, Basha, that’s the whole point.” Gnat said, grabbing what he offered her. “Don’t you see? We can control the Swords of Arria! It does sound kind of amazing, once you do think about it, doesn’t it?” She laughed as she took a bite. “I’ve never had that experience before of being able to control anything in my life.”
Basha groaned. “The problem is, where does it all come from? How did we get this ability?” He asked Gnat. Gnat shrugged as she took another bite. “What about your parents?” Basha asked her.
“Who cares? All hail the great and powerful Gnat and Basha!” Fato laughed from above.
“Shut up!” Basha cried, picking up a pebble and throwing it at the bird.
“Cut it out!” Monika said, grabbing Basha’s hand. Basha stopped, staring at Monika.
“No, keep doing it,” Oaka remarked, laughing. Fato and Oaka started arguing again at this point before the falcon flew off. Monika said nothing as she let go of Basha’s hand, turning away from him, but Basha blushed a little bit.
“I’ve never had any parents, I never knew them, Basha,” Gnat said, looking up at him as she continued the conversation they were having. “I was an orphan baby left outside the gates of Coe Aela, or so they told me.” She shrugged, chewing. “I’m not certain if it’s true or not. Wouldn’t a guard have seen my mother or father dropping me off? Would they, the people of Coe Aela, have opened the gate for a guard or someone to come out and pick me up?” She swallowed. “I’m half certain they would have left me out there if they had spotted me on the ground. I think I was born inside Coe Aela, but nobody would claim me as their child.” Gnat shrugged again, taking another bite. “I don’t know if it’s true or not, I don’t know why they would lie to me about it, but it’s all I’ve got.” She said, swallowing again.
Basha stared at her, shocked at the similarities in their stories. Parents who had abandoned or left them after birth, missing or dead, as they were raised by others, often forced to deal with hard tasks and face questions they had no real answer to. Where did all of this lead to? “I’m sorry, Gnat,” Basha said, eating slowly.
“They’re the ones who should be sorry, the people of Coe Aela, especially Lord Fobata and Captain Goga.” Gnat said. “They’re the ones who thought that I was just a puppy, with my tail tucked between my legs. They thought that I should be eager and dutiful to Fobata for having been brought into his care, but I knew the truth, that they had lied to me somehow. They had named me Gnat to let me know how insignificant I was, and for awhile I did believe that part, but then my act became my demeanor. For I knew that as long as I acted inconspicuous, dumb, and humble, basically humiliated, I could avoid their notice most of the time. And it worked, for the most part, and I survived, by myself, no matter what they threw at me.” She said.
“We should get going,” Monika muttered, crossing her arms as she started to get uncomfortable with this whole situation. “Before Goga and his men catch up with us.” But nobody moved as they didn’t want to leave just yet, tired from last night and this situation. Oaka grabbed his own pack, and Monika followed suit, as they broke their fast with the food inside.
“What bothers you, Basha?” Gnat asked, staring at him after a moment of silence.
“I don’t want to be powerful.” Basha said, sitting down on the ground with a thud. “I’m an orphan, Gnat, the same as you are, not knowing my own parents. My mother died in childbirth bringing me into this world, and my father might h
ave died before, but she didn’t really tell much about herself. I was raised by Oaka’s family. We’re practically brothers, but not the same. I didn’t know the truth until I was eight years old.” Basha said, looking up at Gnat staring down at him in horror.
“I know that sometimes I do feel helpless, and I wish I could do something, to be great enough for Jawen’s attention.” Basha said. “But this is beyond anything I ever could have imagined. I don’t want to wield the power of the gods, the Swords of Arria. I just wanted Jawen to notice me, and love me, and marry me. That’s all I ever really wanted.” He sighed.
“Ugh.” Oaka said, rolling his eyes after swallowing. “The same old tune.”
“What is the matter with you?” Monika hissed at Oaka.
“This is how he always is when it comes to Jawen, and himself,” Oaka muttered. “You’ll soon learn.”
“Who is Jawen?” Gnat asked Basha.
“I started out on this quest to get Jawen Tau’s Cup. Jawen is a girl I love in Coe Baba who said she would marry me if I got her this prize.” Basha told Gnat, ignoring Oaka and Monika. “And now it seems we’re veering off further and further away from that. The farther I get from Coe Baba, the more involved I seem to be getting in some crazy scheme with Doomba’s Followers and Swords of Arria and…oh no.” He said with a laugh, slapping himself in the face helplessly as everyone else stared at him.
He couldn’t believe he had not seen this before. It was obvious in some ways, if you paid attention to the legends. But real life was not like the legends, and once you got distracted by mundane concerns, like keeping yourself alive, you forgot about the legends. But the legends, the stories that the Old Man had told him and that he had read in books for so many years, were locked away inside his head, only to be revealed when they were needed, when they were ready to come out of hiding.
“What is it, Basha?” Gnat asked, worried about his manic behavior.
“This sounds like…this is going to sound really ridiculous now…” Basha said, laughing as he started to stand up. “This sounds like something the Knights of Arria would be involved in.”
Oaka, Monika, and then Gnat stared at each other for a long moment after he had turned towards them. “What?” Basha asked, serious now as he realized that something was wrong.
He had seen such looks on Monika’s and Oaka’s faces yesterday, when he had told them about what Gnat had said…oh, no, they could not possibly believe that this was possible. And yet he was standing here before them with the Black Sword in his pack, not to mention Monika’s pack containing the Blue Sword, two of the Swords of Arria…No, no, no, no, it could not be true.
“Could it be?” Gnat asked, almost excited.
“It might be true.” Monika said morosely.
“No, no, I don’t want it to be true.” Basha said, looking down as he sat down again. “We can’t be Knights of Arria!” He cried. “It’s impossible! The Knights of Arria were thousands of years ago, they were myths, legends, beings of enormous strength and magic. They were heroes of the past, but not the present!” He struggled to come up with the right words to describe them. He never had thought much about how they came to be, they just were, part of the legends. The others stared at him, shocked by his reaction.
“New Knights of Arria don’t get made, they don’t just pop up out of nowhere!” He said. “The Knights of Arria were born with the power, with the strength necessary to do good, to bring justice to the world. They were born with the legend, with the land, they were just…There!” He cried. “Right when we needed them, they were just a part of everything! We’re just average people, compared to them, we’re nothing like them!” He said.
It was starting to unravel, his whole world, like it had when he was 8 years old and he had found out his parents were not his own. The hard truth won out against the soft lies that had protected him for all of these years.
“Face facts, Basha,” Oaka said, coming over to sit down beside his brother. “The possibility does exist. I’ll admit that this does sound far-fetched, and I don’t understand half of it yet myself, but if these Swords of Arria do belong to you and Monika, or whatever, and if Doomba, who has ‘power over man and beast’, is trying to stop you…something is going on here beyond this quest, or Fato’s message about Lord Fobata.” Oaka said.
Basha looked up. “You heard the prophecy that I got from the Oracle of Mila?” He asked. “You listened to me and Monika reading it, the morning after Monika decided to join us?”
“Yes. That is kind of why I suspected Monika was a Follower of Doomba in the first place,” Oaka remarked, glancing back at her. Uh-oh.
“You thought that I was…” Monika started to say, offended, as Gnat gasped.
“I heard it, the part of man and beast, and I started to wonder why you weren’t telling Basha everything you suspected when I knew you knew more than you were saying. I thought it made sense to me. I’m sorry.” Oaka said. At least he was apologizing.
“Don’t be.” Monika sighed, grimacing. “I suppose it does make sense, if you were thinking that way, and I suppose you were trying to protect Basha,” She said, throwing up her hands in disgust, flinging crumbs. “Even if you were keeping secrets from him as well.” She accused. What was she…oh, right.
“Well, I was…I had to be careful.” Oaka told Monika as he stood up and faced her. “I figured you might try and prevent me from telling Basha, if I gave myelf away to you, and I had to be careful with Basha, who didn’t exactly trust me then.” Oaka remarked. “He had a right to when I had threatened to leave him before.” He glanced back at Basha. “I’m sorry about that before. I should have been braver.” Oaka added.
“You were…” Gnat said, shocked at Oaka’s behavior, and then shook her head before she covered up her mouth. “Oh my goodness, this is all so weird and exciting.” She said. “I never thought I would be involved in something like this before.”
“Okay, okay,” Basha said, standing and holding his hands up to step in and prevent another fight between Oaka and Monika. “Calm down, everyone. Oaka, I’m sorry if I ever doubted or ignored you in any way. And Monika, I’m sorry that Oaka acted this way towards you. I know that whatever reasons you had for concealing the truth were your own, and Oaka’s case is just the same. Can’t we get all of this settled, once and for all?” He asked.
“I’m sorry.” Oaka and Monika both said at the same time, and then glared at each other before they stared down at the ground, embarrassed.
“That’s better.” Basha said, a little tense with all of this arguing. “I think we should just forget about all of this Knights of Arria nonsense. Even if we have their Swords, and even if Black Wolves and Followers of Doomba are pursuing us, I think we should just focus on what we know for now, and get going again as soon as Fato returns. Why speculate about this now when we are in such grave danger?” He asked.
“Because speculating might just save us, Basha, and might lead us to new ideas.” Oaka said, turning to his brother. “Because speculating is the one thing that we can do, right here and now, to understand this mess that we have gotten ourselves into. I wanted to say before that I figured out the Doomba part in the Oracle’s prophecy with the Black Wolves chasing us, and this gruelmoff that tried to attack us when we were young, Basha, tried to attack you,” Oaka insisted, “The one that I told you to forget about then, but it was the one that we saw the Old Man fight off, with his bare hands and some kind of whip thing. He was involved. The Old Man was involved from the start, wasn’t he?” Oaka asked, staring up at Basha. “He knew about the Knights of Arria after all.”
Oh my goodness, how did he not see this before? Basha stopped as the idea started to slap him in the face. “He knew? The Old Man knew?” Basha said out loud. “Oaka, the night of the Courtship ritual, he came up to me, just after he finished telling the story of how Za and Wan were created, the very first humans, with Tau’s Cup, and he asked me if Tau’s Cup was worth more than anything else in the world and I said no t
o him. I was thinking of Jawen then.” He said, excited as he was already starting to figure out what was going on here, or at least part of it anyway.
“He planted it.” Oaka gasped. “He planted the seed, the very germ of the idea that you would ask for Jawen with Tau’s Cup. He knew that you would, you had nothing else, he practically suggested it to you!”
“And there’s something else!” Basha said, remembering. “The Old Man, he said in the town council chambers, when they held the meeting the next day, he said that I should go see the Oracle of Mila to have my decision made. And then when the Old Man accompanied me, he told me the story of how the Knights of Arria, when they arrived in this country, the first town they came to was Coe Baba!” He cried.
Oaka gasped, grabbing Basha by the shoulders and practically shaking him. “Do you know what this means? The Old Man, he must have known the Knights of Arria when they passed through Coe Baba, or maybe he was even one of them! Basha, this is crazy.”
“I know this is impossible, and yet I can’t believe I’m starting to believe it!” Basha cried and laughed, jumping up and down with Oaka, as Monika and Gnat stared at them both.
“Basha, Oaka, what is all of this about?” Monika asked, stopping them when they were starting to scare her and Gnat. “You can’t--the Old Man is this storyteller you were telling me about, Basha, when I passed through your town, right? What is all of this?”
“The Old Man is key to all of this,” Basha said, turning to her and Gnat. “The way things were set up, it was as if the Old Man knew that I would have to go on this quest for Tau’s Cup. He even suggested it and made certain that I would go. Possibly so that I would get the Black Sword and become a Knight of Arria?” He asked, and then laughed at himself. “A Knight of Arria, this is ridiculous.”
“Basha, but that…how could he have known you would get the Black Sword?” Monika asked. “It doesn’t quite connect!”
“I don’t know. Maybe because he asked the Oracle of Mila, or maybe because he had some sort of knowledge of his own for being not just a regular storyteller, but possibly one of the Knights of Arria himself?” Basha told Monika. She seemed skeptical, and he didn’t blame her, so he continued, “I told you the Old Man was ancient, that he had probably been around for as long as Coe Baba existed, but I never told you how he had once fought off a gruelmoff that tried to attack me and Oaka when we were young. The strength he had shown then, it was impossible for him to have done such a thing if he was completely old and frail. Never had he shown himself capable of doing something like that, before or since. It was like he was protecting us from Doomba.” Basha said.
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