The Noble Fool

by Heath Pfaff

  "Kyeia awaits you inside." She said as I passed, and I nearly stumbled.

  "Thank you." I told her, and proceeded inside. When I reached my room, Kyeia was laying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. Seeing her caused the pressure in my chest to increase and I felt for a moment that I might not be able to make myself smile. I did though. I didn't want to bring up what had happened the night before for multiple reasons. I wasn't ready to let her know that I knew the dark secret she'd been keeping and I wasn't sure what to say to her about what had happened between Malice and me. I owed her the truth, and I intended to provide it, but I wasn't emotionally prepared for such a confrontation yet.

  "Good morning, Kye. It is good to see you." She sat up, and I saw that her face was tear-streaked. I went to her immediately and put my arms about her, not sure why she was so upset, but unwilling to stand by while she cried.

  She laid her head on my shoulder, and I remembered, with a pang of guilt, that Malice had done the same thing the night before.

  "I wanted to tell you..." She said, and there was such pain in her voice. "I always wanted to tell you, every single day. Sometimes, I would try while we were together, but the words just wouldn't come free. You deserved to know!"

  "I..." I didn't know what to say, but I suddenly understood that she knew that I had learned her secret. I realized, belatedly, that she could feel my emotional extremes and understood, to an extent, my emotional state. That was how she knew that I had learned her secret. She had sensed the emotional chaos I'd experienced the night before. I was ill prepared for such a confrontation, as I wasn't even sure how I should be handling the news of Kye's impending mortality. One thing I was certain of was that Kyeia had no need to feel as though she had done any wrong by not telling me the truth. "It's alright Kye. I understand now. Malice explained the nature of the Pact between your people and mine." I held her, wondering if she knew what else had happened with Malice and wondering if I should tell her now, or wait until she was feeling better.

  "You don't have to feel guilty, Lowin." She whispered to me, tears still streaming down her face. "I felt what came after your learned the truth, as well, but I am not angry with you or her. Malice has been something of a friend to me these last four months, keeping me informed of your progress and letting me know when you'd had a particularly bad day. She is not all rage and claw and it is good that you learned that about her. The Knights are people too."

  I wasn't sure what to say or do. I hadn't anticipated having such a conversation with Kyeia so soon. I certainly hadn't anticipated that she would be alright with what had happened between Malice and me. My guilt, I decided, would have to be pushed aside for a moment. I looked down at Kyeia, lifting her chin with one hand so that I might look into her purple eyes. I had grown to know those eyes so well and I could read them as well as any humans. "I can't let you die, Kye. How could I kill you and continue to live?" Those were my thoughts as I watched the purple lightning in her gaze and I spoke them aloud.

  Kye shook her head. "It's not like that, Lowin. I am going to give you the power to protect our peoples. The humans and my people both need warriors like you to stand for us against forces that would otherwise destroy us."

  "No." I said fiercely. "I simply cannot accept that. I cannot take your life from you. How can we stop this? What can I do so that you will not die? I love you, Kyeia." I had never said those last words aloud before, though I had known them to be true for some time.

  Kye smiled sadly. "I love you too, Lowin. ...but you cannot stop the inevitable. The process has already begun. I will be gone within the next two months no matter what you do. Please do not let me die without taking from me what I would freely give to you. I love you so much, Lo..." Her words trailed off, though she continued after taking a steadying breath. "No one could have been more deserving of what I'm giving. You will be the greatest man of your kind and you will shape the course of our world. I know you will." There was so much determination and strength in her voice.

  I held her as close to me as I could and let the tears of my pain fall freely. I knew then that I would never stop loving Kyeia, no matter what happened in the future, no matter how long we had left, I would love the purple eyed girl in the white dress. Just as Malice still loved Yulinel, so would I be bound forever to Kyeia. I knew, also, that I would take her eyes, because doing any less would be to let her die for nothing. Taking them, though, would kill some part of my humanity. Of that, I was terribly certain. I would be accepting a great power, and giving up something that was perhaps far more important. I felt a gentle push from Kye and I eased back onto the bed, she lay down next to me, at eye level, watching me for a moment before she leaned in and pressed her soft lips against my own. Her kiss was chaste at first, but soon her mouth opened, and our tongues met in a kiss far warmer than any we'd shared to that point.

  "Lowin, I hold no anger towards you or Malice. I told you that and I mean it. Amidst my people, it is not uncommon to share a partner physically with others... but I find myself a little jealous of Malice now. Between you there is no love, yet I, who love you so much, have never lain with you." There was a blush in her cheeks as she spoke, and I knew what she had in mind before she spoke again. "Would you make love to me? I don't know how many more times we will be together, or for how long I will be able to see you, but for now we are together and I want to know you as only a lover can, at least once." That was the final taboo, one which we'd persistently attempted not to break, though it had been difficult. Now with the cruel reality of our dwindling time so painfully evident, I couldn't think of a reason not to have the woman I cherished most at least once.

  Words would have been foolish, so I answered Kye by slipping a hand beneath the hem of her dress and pushing the thin fabric up. With Malice, the sex had been a thing of hesitance and tenderness, with Kyeia there was desperation and roughness I would never have expected. We tore free from our clothes and made love repeatedly until neither of us could go any further and then we lay for a time, and, after a brief rest, repeated the ritual. There was a terrible hunger in our love making. It was both beautiful as a summer rainbow and fierce as a spring storm. As we at last neared the end of our time together, as the final climax approached, I thrust as deeply into her as I could, gazing deep into her beautiful eyes and told her that I loved her and always would. As we lay gasping, light of head and flushed from our exertion and physical pleasure, I heard her softly say, "Love, Lowin, like ours, never really dies."

  We lay for a short time, but it wasn't long before Kye had to go. She had risked a lot in spending so long with me but we also both knew, though neither of us would admit to it, that it would be the last time we would have so much time together. It was to be our first joint taste of love's lust, and our last. The end, for us, was fast approaching.

  A week went by with no sign or word from Kye. I spent my time on the training field, as Malice had suggested, burying myself in as much grueling physical punishment as possible. Malice, I discovered, had not been entirely truthful when she'd said that she would treat me as she had before our night together. She still pushed me hard, but the vicious edge to her personality seemed to be muted. Even in our sparring matches she took care not to give me any serious abrasions or bruises.

  "Your left foot is coming too far forward when you leap and it's causing your torso to follow it forward to recover. Control your center; do not be controlled by it." She didn't even bother to call me "oaf," as she always had before. I might have felt flattered under better circumstances. "Focus your mind here, Lowin. If you fall off those balance poles, I'll beat you into the ground." I bit my lower lip in exasperation. She was right, threats aside. I wasn't focusing. Every day away from Kye made it more and more difficult for me to keep my mind on my work. I made another attempt to force my distress deep inside of me. The balance poles were still one of the most difficult training exercises I faced on a daily basis. Moving from pole to pole was becoming easier with time, but the longer jumps always put
me at the edge of my ability to cope with my momentum. Malice stood at the far end of the poles, easily balanced on a single, round topped, step. To my right, a few feet away, Wisp was also on the poles, seemingly quite amused at my lack of coordination. I noticed that she took a certain unpleasant satisfaction at my frequent failures.

  I wondered where Silent was. Since I'd been at Fell Rock, he'd only ever been away for a day or two, but now it had been a week since I'd seen him. I wasn't exactly worried about him, just surprised at his prolonged absence. He was generally kind, whereas I'd learned that Wisp, on the other hand, had a mean streak. She didn't know what had transpired between Kye and me on the first day she was on watch, and I don't think she really suspected anything, but never the less she had made some rather foul comments when next I met with her. "Got yourself a nice wet hole there, don't you boy?" I had been furious at her, but didn't think that showing it would be a good idea. She was just poking fun at my expense, but if I took an inordinate amount of offense she might suspect that she had hit close to the mark. I had feigned ignorance and walked away. I eased my ire by telling myself that there was nothing I could have done anyway. She was stronger, faster, and far more dangerous than I was. That seemed to be the way of my world anymore. With the exception of Kye, and truthfully I really didn't understand the true power of my love, everyone at Fell Rock was more than a match for me. In such a situation, it was easy to learn to hold your tongue. I had mistakenly snapped at Malice a few times during my first month of training. Those slips had been tremendous learning experiences.

  The rounded balancing poles grew gradually more difficult to navigate as you reached the end furthest from the beginning. I was just beginning to navigate the most difficult portion of the course and I felt a wall of determination forming inside me. I decided that I would, at long last, reach the end of the course. I had made many an effort to defeat the foul obstacles, but this time I was determined to succeed.

  "Don't fall." Wisp's voice called, mockingly from my left. She had apparently maneuvered all the way around me while I made my last two or three moves forward.

  I ignored her and pressed on, spanning the wide distances between the steps with every bit of skill I could muster. I knew that it was in me to finish the course. I increased my speed as I went, not exactly by intent, but simply because I found that my balance seemed to better stay to my center if I kept moving fluidly. Each footfall brought me precariously close to disaster and each leap to cover a greater distance or height between poles forced me to make my next move a little faster. Before I even knew it, I had reached the end. The last jump I made brought me down nearly five feet and out four from the previous rounded step. To land on a pole width no larger than a man's palm and curved, from such a distance, was quite a challenge. I hit the low obstacle with a good deal of speed and had to bend over and grab the surface of the wood to keep myself from teetering forward and off. It was not a pretty touchdown, and as my hands scrambled for purchase I tore one of my fingernails free, but I broke my momentum and stood up on the last balance step in the set for the first time in all my months of practice. Kye, I thought with a rush of pride, would have something to be happy about.

  "Next time, faster, and don't use your hands to break your momentum. Your legs need to be enough." Malice commented in what seemed a gruff manner, but I could tell that she, too, was proud of my accomplishment that day. "Run to the sparring yard, grab two swords, and make yourself ready. Today we're going to start teaching you the sword." I nodded and went to get the gear for practice. I had wondered when we might move on to weapon training. I had seen the Knights of Ethan in practice a few times, though not very often, and they almost never bothered with weapons. Most of them, though, had some form of clawed hands which made a fair substitute for a sword. I remembered that Tempest had used a sword when he defended Kye and me from the Shao Geok, but over all he had seemed more comfortable dispatching them by hand. A sword though, helped even the odds against a superior-sized force and extended a fighters range in combat. Even the Knights of Ethan needed to know the basics.

  I located the practice weapons in short order. They were all designed to emulate two handed swords, heavy weapons that could be quite difficult for a normal man to wield with much grace, but were favored by the much stronger Knights. As I grabbed two of the weighted wood weapons, I realized that they were far heavier than a blade I would have ideally chosen for myself. I knew my arms would grow tired quickly and my form would suffer for it. That meant that Malice would likely be leaving me with more than a few potent reminders of the effects of bad form.

  I handed one of the wood weapons to Malice who took a moment to instruct me in the proper way to hold a sword. To my surprise, rather than simply beating me with her own weapon, she used the practice blade to illustrate the way she wished me to wield the ungainly block of wood. Once she'd shown me the basics, she instructed me to work at them, repeating the movements over and over again. I quickly realized the sword lessons were not going to be of much more interest than had been hand to hand training. The only fundamental difference was that now I had a heavy weight I had to hoist around. Malice worked me through several different stances and maneuvers until the sun hung low in the sky, and my arms were burning fiercely with built-up acids. Before she dismissed me for the night, however, she sent Wisp back to her guard station and waved me over to have a private conversation.

  Once she was certain we were alone, she said in a very low voice, "Silent has disappeared. That night we spent together in my rooms was the last night any one saw him. He reported to Wisp in order to switch shifts and then vanished immediately after."

  My eyes opened wide. I was surprised to hear that. I had noticed he was absent, but could hardly believe that he had gone entirely missing. "He's not out on mission?" I asked, though I knew the answer already.

  "No. He is permanently set for guard duty with you, only to be relieved by Wisp when it is necessary." Malice's voice held a brittle edge that I thought might be worry.

  "Have Knights left their post before?" It was a poor question, but I knew little of how the Knights were organized, or what their rules were regarding the abandonment of a post. I don't know why, but I assumed that Silent must have left of his own volition.

  She shook her to indicate a negative. "Any Knight who abandons his post would be immediately hunted down and punished. As you should well know by now, we are a very strict order. There have been hunting parties out for the last two days, but they have turned up not so much as a single track or sign that Silent has left the Fort. I was told not tell you, but I felt you had a right to know."

  "Thank you, Malice." I appreciated her honesty, though I knew if anyone ever found out just how much Malice had told me, about Silent - and more so about the reality of the Knights of Ethan - she would probably be in considerable trouble. At that moment I swore to myself that I would never do anything to compromise her trust in me. "What do you think has happened to him?" I regretted the question as soon as I saw the expression on Malice's face as I asked it.

  "Three weeks ago, another Knight went missing. We later found his body, decapitated and disemboweled, in the woods several miles from here. A month before that, another of our number vanished in the night and we've yet to find her." Her answer was tight lipped, worried.

  "What?" I asked incredulously. "Something is killing the Knights of Ethan? ...Is it the enemy?" I had to use the phrase "the enemy" since no one had yet identified who or what "the enemy" was.

  Malice shrugged. "I don't know, Lowin. No one does, but they are searching. You should also be weary; as you are a in training you could be a potential target. If you notice anything suspicious, alert me at once. I felt you should know about Silent's disappearance, though, since you are one of his friends." I nodded my reply, grateful to have someone willing to talk to me, especially when that someone took a great risk in doing so. I hadn't realized it until she'd said it, but Malice was right, Silent was one of my friends. He was one
of the few people that had always had a smile for me over the long four months of training, and I was genuinely worried about him.

  Malice turned to go back to her apartments for the night, but she stopped after a few steps and turned toward me, looking around once more before she spoke. "How have you been?" She asked, and I could tell by the way her expression and voice softened, that it was not a question she felt would be easy for me to answer. I wasn't sure how to reply at first, mostly because I didn't really know how to feel about all that had happened. With Kye's time dwindling so quickly, I found myself both sad and angry at the same time, but most of all I felt like nothing I did much mattered anymore. In the not too distant future I would lose any purpose to go forward, and now Silent was missing as well.

  "I'm not well, Malice, but I am trying." I finally said, not wanting to lie, but also unwilling to tell Malice that I felt like the world was all too quickly running into oblivion.

  The tall female warrior nodded. "I'll tell Kye, when next I see her, how well you did today. She'll be happy."