chapter Fifteen
“Really, it didn’t hurt that much…” Lenore said as Elric healed her hand. “Just a scratch.”
It had been a week since Nathan’s funeral and life was slowly moving on, just as Mathieu’s had after Avian died. Lenore had finished his sword, which was truly a work of art: it had a beautiful hilt with grooves for his hand, a guard that tilted down around his hand, and the blade was the width of a broadsword but had a section cut out of the center, creating two thin blades with an area for him to bounce his energy between. She had also fashioned a scabbard for it. During the week that had passed, Solomon had actually smiled at him once, Avanon and Elric had been hanging around each other more, Akira had returned to Unith to play mistress again, and Jo had taken to living with them pretty well. He was bunking with Elric because he ‘refused to sleep in a dead man’s room’.
“How does a metalbender manage to hurt herself?” Elric asked sarcastically.
Lenore smiled, blushing. “Surprisingly easily, actually. That sword is sharp as Mina’s temper.”
Darcia held Mathieu’s blade in his hand, examining every detail. “You truly are a master of your craft, Lenny.” He held it in front of him even in his sitting position.
Jo was standing behind Darcia and leaned over his shoulder, running a finger along the edge of the blade; his blood coated the edge. “Oh, sharp.” He popped his finger into his mouth, talking around it. “Do ya make smaller blades? Like daggers?”
“Well, sure. Which kind?” Lenore asked, clenching and unclenching her fist as she spoke.
Jo considered for a moment. “Curved, push, and double bladed?”
Lenore nodded absently. “Yeah, I can do that. How big is your hand?” He held it up and she nodded again, eyeing it in a practiced way. “Good, good. It’ll take me a few days, kiddo.”
Mathieu stood and retrieved his sword from Darcia. He wiped the small bit of Jo’s blood off of it with his shirt, then sheathed it. “I need to go feed Niveus. Thank you for bringing this by, Lenore. And Darcia, we’ll start training soon?”
“Tomorrow, preferably.” Darcia replied, relaxing in his seat.
“Yes, it’s a date.” Mathieu waved at them and went to his shared room, placing his sword against the wall before going to the kitchen. Niveus was curled up on a dish towel in the sun, her size having increased to about a loaf of bread. Her paws and ears were slightly too big for the rest of her, but she gave a delicate purr as he approached her. “Hey, sweetie. Are you hungry?”
Rolling onto her back, one of her back feet kicked slightly at the air. He gave her tummy a quick rub, then went to the fridge, pulling out some thinly sliced ham. Niveus had taken quite well to anything made from a pig. Bacon was her favorite, however. Humming, he shredded the ham into a small pile for his charge.
Niveus stood, and lopped along the counter to the food, only slipping once, and quickly devoured it. Her fangs clicked softly as she ate, her fur feathering as she stretched her neck. Mathieu smiled and folded his arms on the counter, then rested his chin on them.
“You’re such a pretty girl, love.” He wrinkled his nose as she jumped onto his head clumsily, her back paw on his nose and front paws in his hair. “Don’t hurt yourself…” He murmured, staying still while the white Shadowrider fumbled to climb on him. Niveus purred playfully and slid down his back and leapt. She half landed, half rolled onto the table. Mathieu followed her, keeping her from falling off the edge.
Avanon came into the kitchen just as he stopped white Shadowrider from falling headfirst. “Hey, Matt, can I ask you a question?”
Sighing at the shortened version of his name, he looked up. “Sure. What is it, Avanon?” Over the pasted few months, Avanon and he had formed a friendship of sorts. She had yelled at Solomon for being a jerk and told Mathieu not to worry over the blond, claiming he was stubborn, but he’d come around in his own time. After that, they’d started to talk in passing and play regular card games at Elise’s home.
Avanon sat on the counter, messing with her multi-colored hair. “It’s Elric. He’s being oblivious again.” She frowned.
“What did he do this time?”
“Well, he’s just being stupid!” She threw her hands up with exasperation. “I kissed him, like you suggest, and he took it platonically. Platonically. Who does that?! He wants to hang out and starts to agree to dinnesr and stuff with me, but he doesn’t get that it’s a date. Elric is always like, ‘Oh, this was a fun time. I’m glad I have such a nice friend’. A friend, he says. Can you believe it?” She huffed and banged her head back against cabinet. “Is he daft? I mean, he can solve a medical crisis under pressure and determine that Nathan was killed by a slow acting poison produced by the flowers he had a romp in, but he can’t see a girl practically throwing herself at him. Am I not being easy enough?”
Mathieu laughed. “I don’t think you need to be easy. I think he just doesn’t want to misread the situation and make things awkward, so he’s playing it safe.”
“That’s just stupid.”
“I’m not saying it’s not stupid,” Mathieu said, “but Elric is a pretty logical kind of guy. He doesn’t act until he’s thought of every possible outcome.”
Avanon frowned and huffed in annoyance, kicking her feet against the cabinet.
“Good, Avanon, you’re in here.” Solomon was standing in the doorway, arms folded over his chest. “Someone needs to go tell Zanika and Zerieve that we’re having a full house meeting. Take Elric with you.”
“I will not. Besides, who died and made you king of everything?” The words were out there before she could react and the moment she realized what she’d said, her face went white with shock. “Oh my god, I didn’t mean that!”
Mathieu gave her a small smile and patter her thigh, “We know. It’s just an expression. I can go tell them, though. Where do they live?”
The blond man shook his head, “I don’t think so. You’re not going alone and I-” Solomon cut himself off there.
Picking up Niveus, he stalked over to the blond, face set in a scowl. “Excuse me, but you don’t tell me what to do. I can do whatever I damn well please. You haven’t talked to me in weeks because we had a kiss, you admitted to being attracted to me, you missed my hair on your shirt, and that little Enak kid caught you in a lie. You messed up and you’re taking it out on me. So don’t you dare try to play the concerned…friend, boyfriend, whatever you think that you are to me!” Mathieu pushed passed him, going outside. He was so mad that he was shaking, and not paying a bit of attention as he plowed in Darcia.
“Oof.” Darcia said, reaching out to catch Mathieu’s arm, preventing him from falling. “Hey kid. You seem kinda pissed.” He smiled with his mouth full of pointed teeth, “What’s wrong?”
Staring at him, a thought suddenly dawned on him. It was the perfect revenge against Solomon, and the perfect plan to do something productive. “Nothing. Hey, you know where Zanika and Zerieve live, right?”
“Yes, I do. Why?” Darcia put his hands on his hips.
“Good. We’re going there then, together.”
Darcia shrugged, “Well, sure, why not. How are we getting there?”
“Eh…” Mathieu frowned, not having planned that far ahead.
The raven smiled at him and patted his head. “We can take the carriage. It’s a long trip by tuvash, and your baby Shadowrider isn’t strong enough to teleport, yet. She’s beautiful, by the way. May I?”
Niveus perked her head up, stretching out towards Darcia at his words. “Here, take her.” Mathieu handed over his beloved, “The carriage is still here from when Akira used it to go into town. It should be just down the hill.”
~*~
They were driving along the coast when Darcia, who was still cradling Niveus in his lap even though he was driving, broke the companionable silence, “Have you ever been to the Eastern District?” When Mathieu shook his head, Darcia continued. “It’s nothing like here where everyone lives in communities, you know. There, people live spread out on plots of land where they grow crops. Of course there are some main markets for trading and stuff, but it’s not unusual to walk for an hour to go visit someone.”
“That’s just crazy.” Mathieu said, shaking his head. “But it sounds nice, simpler.”
“It is, except when Zanika decides it’s getting too boring. She’s like a small child; everything is about fun for her. She flooded her sister’s room when they got into a fight. It was actually pretty funny… Zerieve couldn’t figure out how to get the water out without flooding the rest of the house, so she had to bust a hole in the outside wall and let it drain out.”
Mathieu laughed as he watched the world go by, just relaxed. It was especially nice to be away from moody Solomon. “So you lived with them. What are they like?”
Darcia pet Niveus, and smiled fondly. “Believe it or not, they’re actually clones, made by their ‘father’.”
“Huh?”
“Well, the Eastern District hasn’t always been run by those two. Once upon a time, it was run by a man named Lucen. Lucen was gifted, like most of the people who live here.” Darcia shrugged in an ‘obviously’ way. “If he could envision something, and truly believe in it, it would happen. In fact, he was able to turn the area from the barren place between the mountains into the fertile land. Luca was fairly well-liked from what the elders said. At least, he was until his daughter died in an accident involving a crop cart.
“After she died, he became very withdrawn and stopped focusing on the good of the people he was in charge of protecting. Every day, instead of tending to his duties, he would visit the site where his beloved daughter died, willing her to come back.” Darcia sighed and stopped the carriage, letting some kids run across the street in front of him. “I can understand that he was hurting, but…” He shook his head and the carriage began to move again “Sometimes, he would tell people who passed him that he could see his daughter standing on the side of the road, smiling at him. Insanity took over him, and his powers slipped out of his control. Without meaning to, he recreated his dead daughter. But he was weak against the creative abilities of his gift, they required the utmost control, and he couldn’t stop himself in time to make just one.” Darcia shrugged. “It took so much out of him that he passed away soon after.”
Frowning, Mathieu looked at the ceiling of the carriage as Darcia took a right. “I guess I just don’t understand how they ended up in charge, though. I mean, everyone must have known that the girl was dead, right?”
The raven laughed. “The people of the Eastern District were so happy to see Lucen’s daughter alive again, having loved her when she was alive, they let themselves become blinded to the magic, calling it a ‘miracle’. The people actually elected the two girls to be in charge. Little did they know how unlike Lucen’s daughter those two actually are.”
“Oh, the things we can’t foresee.” Mathieu shifted in his seat and looked at Darcia. The man was build to be lean, his body trim even though he was one of the oldest people at the Tri-District Manor. It was funny how when Darcia was relaxed, the muscled physique and pointed teeth were actually kind of…funny. Chuckling, he wrinkled his nose. “Man, how did they put up with some of a funny looking dude?”
Darcia lifted his upper lip, growling playfully. “They may be identical and always bicker, but the twins balance each other well. I just played the referee.”
Mathieu nodded slightly. “I hope they’re nice...”
“They are.”
Niveus got up and stretched out on the seat between the two men as they crossed the bridge into the Eastern District, right along the border with the Western. Darcia slowed as the road began to wind around the hills, just above the plains.
It took crossing another bridge, driving carefully around fields, and three hours to reach the central market just north of the twin’s home. There were little stands set up in a circle, selling everything from flowers to raw grain to meats of various cuts.
“Hey, can we stop for a second?” Darcia inquired, already pulling over.
“Sure, what’s up?”
Smiling, Darcia got out of the car and disappeared for a few minutes before returning with a handful of flowers. “Okay, now we can go. It’s just a bit further that way; the blue house up there.”
In the distance, Mathieu could see the house he was talking about and watched it come closer. Unlike near the border, there were clearly marked roads to use instead of winding around the edges of properties and hopping you didn’t run something over. The path was made with flat black stones that allowed for a smooth ride and decent speed.
As they pulled up to the blue, single story house with a white picket fence in front of it, Mathieu got out and scooped up Niveus; he noticed the ivy hanging on the walls of the house. He looked around he followed Darcia to the back of the house to a maze of hedges. Voices were floating out of it, but he couldn’t see who they were coming from.
“Eek!” A girl barreled out of the maze, a bow made of pulsing darkness in one hand, the other resting on the string, ready to pull it back. But her bow disappeared into thin air when she caught sight of them. “Darcia!” At full speed, she ran at him then leapt through the air.
Darcia caught her, smiling. “Hey, Zani. What are you doing out here?”
“Getting her ass kicked.” The spitting image of the girl in Darcia’s arms was standing on top of a hedge, where she pulled back the string on her own bow and shot Zanika in the back.
“Ow! Son of a bi-” She bit her tongue before the rest of the sentence could get out. Zanika kissed Darcia’s cheek, let go, and barreled back to the hedge. She jumped up, and tackled her twin off of it. A solid thump could be heard, and Mathieu ran into the maze to see the two brunettes wrestling on in the grass. He couldn’t tell them apart, but one clearly had the upper hand. The one who was winning had the other in an arm bar.
Darcia took his time to enter the maze, a bemused expression on his face. “Come on, Zanika, don’t hurt her. I brought flowers.” He said, holding them out.
“Flowers!” The girl in the red cardigan let go of her twin, hopping up with childlike enthusiasm.
The one Mathieu presumed was Zerieve stood, too, brushing herself off. Frowning, she pulled a few pins out of her pocket and pinned back the front of her A-line haircut. “Funny seeing you here, Darcia. Last time I saw you, you were running off to Nathan’s with your tail between your legs. And who is this?”
The expressions that crossed Mathieu and Darcia’s faces at the mention of Nathan had Zanika smacking the back of her head. “What’d you upset him for? He came to see us and you’re being rude. But, Darcia, who is your friend?”
“His name is Mathieu.” Darcia said. “He lives with us, now.”
Zerieve held her hand, which Mathieu shook. “Nice to meet you.” She looked between them, rubbing her chin idly. “Why do you two look like someone died?”
“Because Nathan did.” Mathieu blurted out before he could stop himself. He rubbed the back of his head and now that he had a moment to look at the two women’s shocked faces, they really were identical; all except for haircuts.
A short silence fell in the distance between the four of them as the clones pulled themselves together. Eventually Zanika said, “What the hell did he do that for? I bet Solomon is just loving it, that rat. Glad I don’t have to deal with him trying to be in charge.”
Darcia sighed. “Let’s go inside before we continue this conversation.”
Zerieve took the flowers from the older male and led them all in through the back door, taking off her shoes before walking across the carpet. “Who wants what to drink?”
“Tea, if you don’t mind.” Mathieu said, also slipping off his shoes.
“Sit at the breakfast bar.” Zerieve said with a serious expression. She motioned to the bar between the living room and the kitchen, then got water for the flowers; As she set them on the bar she previously mentioned, her eyes skimmed over Mathieu appraisingly. Whatever she was thinking, she didn’t say.
Zanika followed Darcia in and set about helping Zerieve by getting together a plate of snacks. “What happened, exactly? To Nathan, I mean.”
Darcia frowned and took a sip of the brandy he’d poured himself, then sighed. “I don’t know, really. I wasn’t there. Talk to Mathieu.” He looked at the other visitor.
Not quite liking the attention of Zerieve, she seemed a little too serious to him, he looked at the flowers. “I was at Elise’s house when she got a vision of something bad happening to Nathan. He was fine at first, but then he started to get dizzy and thirsty.” Talking about it was awkward and rather rushed; it wasn’t something he was really wanting to recount. “He started to convulse and get really hot, Adele tried to heal him, made it worse, then he died. The end.” Mathieu ended, folding his arms over his chest.
Zerieve leaned her hip against the counter, having set a kettle to boil some water while they spoke. “How detailed.”
Patting Mathieu on the arm, Zanika leaned across the counter to steal a cheese and cracker from the plate. “So who’s running the show now? I’m sure the HQ is in disarray.”
Darcia shrugged one shoulder, “No one really. Everyone is just existing right now at Nathan’s place. And the headquarters is all but shut down. Elise is a mental mess, Enak and his god haven’t visited, and now we’re coming to tell you that there’s going to be a full house meeting. Solomon is being a big help in keeping things from falling apart, however.” He gave Zanika a pointed look. “He stops most of the fights and is keeping our District, and Elise’s, running moderately smoothly.”
She gave him a ‘blah’ look before going back to eating. “Well it hasn’t affected us here. And Solomon is a snake. He probably planned this.”
“No he didn’t.” Mathieu snapped at her, frowning. “He’s the one it hurt the most. And it will affect you when things fall apart in our District because he’s gone.”
“Damn. Sensitive, much?” Zanika retorted, folding her arms.
Darcia rolled his eyes. “They’re an item, so don’t take it personally.”
“We are not an item.” Mathieu scowled into the tea that was placed in front of him by Zerieve. “He’s a jerk who avoids confrontation and serious relationships…”
“Don’t I know it.” Zanika said under her breath, munching on another cracker.
Mathieu looked at her. “What do you mean by that?”
Zerieve grinned in an almost cruel way, “Don’t you know? He and Zanika were a couple for years.”
He gave the girl a blank look before taking a gulp of the scolding tea, using the pain to test if he had nodded off to sleep. There were no words to express the tightness in his chest that he felt over this tidbit of information. Sure, he and Solomon hadn’t been talking or anything lately, but that didn’t mean that he had stopped caring about the blond. Hearing about him with someone else…it made him feel sort of choked. “Seriously, do I have a tattoo on my forehead that says ‘Bring up Solomon, I’d love to hear it’? Jeez.” Mathieu finally responded, shifting uncomfortably.
Zanika give him a somewhat pitying look, then took his hand and pulled him out of his seat. “Come on, cutie. Let’s leave the chickens to cluck and go do something fun, okay?” Without leaving room for argument, she pulled him out the door. “I need to go see the children, anyhow, so you’ll just come with me. They’ll like you.”
He didn’t want to like this bubbly girl, still unsure how he felt about her and Solomon supposedly being a thing a long time ago.
“Uh, just forget what Zerieve said, okay? How are things going at Nathan’s? You know, before the whole ‘dead’ thing…”
“Well, we met with the kid and the god,” Mathieu recounted vaguely. “Two new members joined us from Unith, and I got my first sword.”
As they walked Zanika sort of floated from side to side, humming sometimes. “I wonder what will happen now, you know what?” She sighed, “But I guess we don’t get much of a saw. We’re going to leave it to the others to figure out. You and I are going to go play with the children and not think about anything sad.” She proclaimed.
“Alright. I’m game for anything that doesn’t involve being sad.” He slung an arm over her shoulders and gave her a smile; but just a little one.
“Hhave you ever played soccer?” She asked him as a cloud of dust came into view. There were shouts and grunts coming from it and he wondered if there was a brawl.
Mathieu made a sound of discomfort. “I’ve played a few times, but I’m generally not very good at it….”
“Don’t worry, I promise the kids will take it easy on you.”
“Jeez, thanks.” He rolled his eyes as they walked down a small slope onto another road, putting them much closer to the dust cloud. “So…what exactly is your gift?”
Zanika shrugged one shoulder, “That should have been obvious. My power is darkness that I can channel into anything I want. Mostly it’s just weapons. Zerieve and I prefer bows because archers are practically non-existent in our little army. I do okay with hand-to-hand with things like daggers, though.”
“You don’t have to have Lenore make your weapons, do you?”
“Nope. We can shape our darkness to whatever we need it to be.” Zanika explained, distracted by the children they could now see. Mathieu coughed slightly, now in the middle of the dirty air.
Mathieu’s reply was cut short by the screams of excited children when they realized who was interrupting their game. A few of them jumped up and down while others were running towards them. A little girl giggled as she slammed into Zanika, clinging to her leg. “Zani! Zani!”
The brunette smiled down at them, “Hey there, little ones. What is going on?”
“Zani! I need you to braid my hair!”
“No, no, braid mine!”
“I’ve got a splinter, help!”
“Make a daisy chain with me!”
“Come play soccer with us!” And that got all the kids going, chanting ‘soccer, soccer’ as one voice.
Zanika laughed and scooped up one of the children, carrying her. “Alright, kiddos. Everybody just calm down. I see we already have teams formed.” Mathieu thought she might be referring to how some of the kids were covered in a lot more dust than the others, but he didn’t ask.
In the group of clamoring children, one had stayed quiet. But now she raised her hand, her curly hair swaying in a slight breeze. “Uh, Zanika, there’s a less dusty field on our farm. Papa won’t mind if we use it.” Her voice was soft, but it cut through the din of the others.
Zanika shrugged one shoulder and motioned for the girl to lead on. “Let’s go, Mathieu.”
~*~
Mathieu flopped down in the grass, covered in sweat and dust. “Holy cow. Those aren’t kids, they’re monsters.”
Zanika sat beside him and handed him a bottle of water. “They’re good kids. I like them and we get along.”
“Do you play every day with them?”
“I try to. We play different games, or we go visit other areas. Most of the parents enjoy the fact that I get the kids out of their hair for a while and I like their company.”
“I hear you normally have good company. Darcia and Kiev have lived with your guys, right?”
She bobbed her head. “Man, Kiev…” she said, lying back as well. “That is one tough girl.”
“Yeah, she’s quite the fighter.”
“Oh, I don’t just mean that. She had a really bad childhood.” Zanika looked at him. “I’m not surprised you don’t know. Most people don’t and those that do keep it hush-hush.”
Mathieu raised his brows, silently inviting her to continue.
She closed her eyes and was quiet for a long time. “Alright, I’m going to tell you what I know. Not because I expect anything in return, mind you, but just because someone close to her needs to know.” Zanika chugged the rest of her water. “So, as you might know, Kiev was born in Vaten, Unith to two normal parents: Arabella and Tero. The first time she showed signed of a power was when she was six and she was getting picked on by some neighborhood bullies. Her mother saw the fight, and Arabella realized what had happened. She knew that she needed to get Kiev out of Unith; it was near the time when there were mass killings of those with gifts. I’m sure you’ve heard of those?”
Mathieu had. It was a darker time in Unith’s , when the Users who hadn’t run away to Korinth were rounded up and executed to ‘make the people safer’. If one thing that going to school with Avian had taught him, it was the great historical tragedies.
Zanika rubbed the space between her eyebrows. “You see, Arabella planned to take Kiev to the border and sneak her passed the officer’s outposts to help her get to safety. She thought Kiev would be safe in Korinth with people like her. But the men on watch had been tipped off and knew her planned route; they waited to ambush them. Right before the attack, Arabella must have been able to tell that something was wrong. She told Kiev to run and not look back. Kiev did it, and I’m pretty sure she still has nightmares about her mom screaming.
“But I digress. So, she made it successfully over the border into the no-man’s land; however, an unprotected, young girl alone in a land of thieves was bound to attract attention, and not of the positive kind. I don’t know the exact details, but she ended up being held captive by a group of thugs. They did…unspeakable things to her for years. By the time she ended up at our doorstep, she was like a zombie. It took a while, but she snapped out of it with some help. When she did, though, she was angry; Kiev was really violent in the beginning.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Well, she’s twenty-two, so she moved out about six years ago, I’d say.” Zanika stretched. “We should get back before Zerieve sends out a search party for us. Are you two spending the night?”
Mathieu shrugged. “Probably, if you guys will have us. It’s a long drive. And I don’t know exactly when the meeting is, so if you guys let us stay, you can come back with us.”
She hopped up and pulled him to his feet, her energy already returned. “Let’s do it.”