Unknown Wars Chapter Seven: Secret Revelations
Weeks later, Marie stood before a small panel of healers and stretched and bent in odd positions to demonstrate that she was in fact healed and ready for normal weapons practice. Three smiling heads agreed that she was indeed ready for the many bruises, they were sure, that Alberich had to deal to her frame.
Marie thanked them for their work, and bounded out of the House of Healing. She reported to the Salle a few minutes early, so finding a warm spot on the old oak bench, she sat and stared blankly at the dust dancing in the sun light coming through the one window.
Her thoughts traveled to the Heralds, not just the ones she knew, but also the concept of Heralds in general. They were an army of sorts, but also more than that, they were a community a family, a pack.
Yes, pack life was something she could understand.
It was clear that no matter what kind of life each person came from, that if they were chosen they were welcomed into the circle without judgment. That stirred caution within her. It was one thing to give someone a fresh start, but there were people in this life that had done truly terrible things, and had failed to do the right thing.
She should know, she was one of them.
Part of being a General meant doing the things that others could not, for the good of the greater whole. She always knew she would have to make those sacrifices but that didn't make them any easier to bear.
It had been five weeks since she arrived, and in that time she had come to understand a few things. She looked at everything Valdemar had, and more specifically what Karse lacked in comparison. Valdemar's people didn't fear their nobles and royalty, they didn't starve over pointless wars, they didn't have dark ghouls that would slaughter whole families in the night. She could understand how easy it must have been for her brother to come into all of this peace, wealth and happiness, and never look back.
Life in Valdemar was as Marie had never known it could be, and she knew she could be very contented here…if she let herself.
She didn't blame Inan for staying anymore, but neither could she think of him as the sibling she had known. He wasn't the warrior of the family, anymore; he hadn't been there for her when she had really needed him.
She shook her head. No, that was the coward's answer. She knew the real reason she couldn't forgive him, but she wasn't ready to face it, so she pulled it back in her mind and buried it for another time.
Suddenly a change in the flow of air abruptly changed direction on the back of her neck, and she knew someone was in the Salle with her…someone who was stalking her. In one fluid sweep of her eyes she realized she couldn't reach any of the weapons without giving her enemy warning. She shifted forward on the bench so she was little more than perching on the edge with all her weight on her knees. With her head down she saw the shows on the floor shift towards the left of her body. She lunged to the right pulling the bench with her, so that it rotated out and forward cutting in front of her attacker and hitting him directly into his shins. The large body crumpled forward but dropped into a roll and was soon on his feet.
Marie used the time to undo the brace straps under her tunic that held her sickle blades dropping both into her hands. When the body turned to engage her again she was ready.
The body came towards her with a snake's speed in a sweeping lunge, which she blocked easily, and as she swung from her elbow she caught some table dust with her other hand and threw it into his eyes, blinding him momentarily. She rolled away and backed into the shadows under the window, where the incoming light would hide her location for a time.
She saw the body look around for her and move in very careful steps around the room, searching for her location. She knew he would find her once his eyes adjusted to the bright light. She shifted silently against the wall, careful to keep herself to his back as she moved. Her sickle blades in her hands she crept up to him, only to have him hear her feet creak against the wood floor, and spin round to engage her blades with his own.
When Alberich entered his Salle and saw Marie sitting on the bench her back to him, he couldn't resist the opportunity to test her vigilance. Her shoulders had been slumped in relaxation and her head lolled to the side as though she were in deep thought, But when he was almost to her she had surprised him by leaping to the right and causing the bench to swing around and catch his squarely in the shins. He had recovered in time to see that she was armed with both the long sickle blades she had brought with her. She had eluded him for a few minutes, but her feet made soft creaks in the Salle floor, and he knew that she was behind him, no doubt ready to strike. He had spun round just in time to catch her blades in a block.
He hadn't guessed that she still wore them, and nothing had betrayed their presence on her body. But now he was faced with real weapons in experienced hands, and he with only the wooden practice blades.
They stared at each other, and Alberich was sure he caught the amusement in Marie's eyes twinkling at him. She pushed off first, and backed up to the edge of the white, chalk, fighting circle. She bowed lightly with her torso, keeping her eyes on his the entire time.
Alberich understood what it was. She was inviting him to a formal spar. He inclined his own head, and dispensed with the wooden practice blades, and took out his own long daggers, for one on one fighting.
By now the other afternoon students were filing into the Salle. Good let them see this; maybe they will understand the goal better for it. He took in Marie properly for the first time since he entered the Salle. She wasn't wearing the student trainee grays; instead she was wearing a navy blue tunic and the wrap black and red skirt, interesting...
It was not unusual for students to wear alternative clothing for fight lessons, but to see her in the garb of her own people, ready for a real fight told Alberich much.
In the last few weeks Elcarth had been getting reports from her teachers and even some of the other students that Marie had been an avid learner and a hard worker, but that she wasn't as social with the others. She was still withdrawn and cautious around the others, and unless she was asked a question directly she was a generally silent individual.
Marie extendedand lowered her arms to her sides, thus lifting her weapons with their points to the side, ready for an opening move from the weapons master. His own blades were pointed at her shoulders, and she smirked. He would come at her from the front and then dodge to the side at the last instant…Yes she knew this style well.
Alberich waited until all his students were standing against the wall taking in their teacher with the newest student with rapt attention. He knew that since she had delivered the invitation, it was his duty to attack first.
When he finally attacked his moves were as she had anticipated, with a sideways glance swung out from his elbow. She was able to dance around his wiry frame and leap out of range before countering with her own moves, which were blocked, but hastily.
The students, all of whom were in different stages of development watched with awe at the graceful nature of each movement of the two mastery fighters. The girl in red and their feared weapon's master seemed to waltz around each other in a seamless swirl of choreographed steps and turns. Their blades sliced through the air, and swung against their opponents with the clear crisp clash and clang of strong steel. The sunlight coming through the window and the half open door caught the delicately sharp edges of their blades like sun glint sparkles on water, as they continued their deadly dance.
Time had fallen away, and for a time there was nothing but the fight, and the balance of strategy and experience at play between Marie and Alberich. Their moves were in harmony, their styles in perfect contrast, and both of them meant to win, to draw first blood…for the other to admit defeat and to stand down.
But fire will never surrender to fire, and so they continued.
At the back of the captivated throng of students stood two full Heralds who watched the spar with thoughtful and trained eyes. Through mind speak they were able to converse without drawing the attention of the younger ones around them.
That's the little sister of Inan, then?
She said her name is Marie.
We've known Inan since his first day here, and I never knew his people could fight like that? Did you?
Red shook his head. He had seen Inan at his first few lessons with Alberich and although he had shown remarkable promise for a youth his age, the girl he now watched was within easy reach of besting their weapons master.
"How long have they been going at it? "
Red heard a trainee ask his friend.
"Almost ten minutes."
Red, look at their faces, man!
Red turned his attention from their corresponding movements to their faces. Alberich and Marie were in a locked stare, it seemed as though their bodies were reacting on their own and that their minds were also in some sort of battle with each other. Then he understood.
Gregory! They're trying to get the other to back down. I wonder if they can beat each other at all?
"They look like demons." Came a small voice from Red's right.
He looked down at the small boy of nine, and reassured him with the first thing he thought of.
"That's true, but aren't you glad their on our side?" he said with a smirk.
The boy giggled a bit and continued to watch. A formal spar would last as long as it had to, but even he was wondering how long they could go in this kind of brutal blade armed fight.
Inside the sphere of blocked and countered blade swishes, Alberich and Marie were marveling at the other's ability and skills. The fire they saw in each other's eyes was drawing as well as frightening. It was here that they understood the other. In the grey matter behind the flame, Alberich understood with perfect clarity what was going on with his charge, and Marie understood what her role here was, the why and the how suddenly falling into place.
With jarring clarity she knew that Alberich was perhaps one of the few who could read her like an open book, the last thing she wanted. The panic was winning in her stare, and she lunged back from their carefully woven fight, spinning inward towards his chest, and made physical contact with his ribs with her left elbow, making her right side vulnerable. She expected the blow from Alberich, but it didn't come, instead she saw him stumble back and drop one of his swords, only to come at her again with his remaining weapon. She was easily able to ward off his advance but in the instant she could have taken him, she chose instead to run her elbow against his daggers edge causing the smallest of cuts in her skin.
Alberich saw her make the cut, even if no one else was in a position to see it, and blinked in surprise. She dropped her blades to her sides, and bowed to her defeater, before exiting the circle.
Alberich's students clapped and cheered in the background, but neither of the fighters was really listening to it; they simply continued to share a knowing stare with the other.
Alberich motioned her over to the bench so he could address his students.
"Well now that you have seen a formal spar, let's see how you measure up. Four pairs, and Red with me in the circle."
The others clamored to their positions, and soon the Salle was busy with technique training.
Red caught Marie's eye and winked at her, getting a small smile out of her, before she blushed a slight tinge of pink and averted her gaze.
Alberich was engaged with Red for about fifteen minutes before he was able to approach Marie again, he sat on the bench and leaned in to whisper something only she could hear.
The girl's eyes grew a little and she seemed to blanch, but she nodded and gathered her cloak and snow boots in ready to head for Companions field.
Red watched her stilted movements, and wondered what the hawk-like man had said to her. She slipped out of the Salle before he could try to catch her gaze again. He was intrigued more by her movements, now, than he had been during the spar. She was a puzzle that he couldn't put down, but most surprising to him, was that he didn't ever want to. He made mental note to discuss Inan's people with his friend sometime soon.
….
Marie pulled her wool cloak around her shoulders to protect her from the harsh wind as she made her way to Companions Field. When she reached the railing she was greeted by Orestes who knew better than to say anything about her spar with Alberich.
Marie stayed there, in perfect uninterrupted silence until the lunch warning bell rang in her ears. She nuzzled Orestes once more before returning to her rooms to change into her trainee uniform.
Lunch was as it had always been for Marie, she sat where there was room but with no one she knew, or who knew her. She ate quickly and kept her head down. She was quiet but that didn't mean that she didn't listen.
Today the tables filled with the younger trainees and a smattering of Heralds, were talking fervently about the formal spar she had engaged in with Alberich. Somehow she felt her ears and neck burn, although she didn't know what emotion she was feeling. She gulped down another glass of water, before rising from the table. She closed her eyes when she turned to leave the hallway, feeling more than the usual eyes on her frame as she walked, she silently wished she were anywhere else but here. Unbidden the shame she felt at submitting to defeat to someone who had not earned it built up in her chest and then into her eyes. She schooled her face into a hard mask, and took the last few yards out of the hall at an almost run.
Behind her Keren was sharing a very odd chain of expressions with Herald Red, who was relating the morning's events in the Salle to her.
The two Heralds left the hall together with one person in their minds, the only person who might have the answers to their questions…Inan,
Inan was in the library doing some research for his friend and year mate Herald–Chronicler Myste. He was scribbling something furiously with his shoulders looming over three or four texts when Keren and Red found him.
His head lifted when the daylight was blocked by a dark mass to his left.
Keren? What was Keren doing here; didn't she have classes to teach now? Inan thought until he sought his timepiece and realized that it was further into the day then he imagined.
"Hey guys, I swear I'm not working too hard, I will eat today, I just lost track of time, and-" he stopped when he saw their expressions.
"Inan, we need to speak with you right now." Keren urged.
It took a while for Inan to put his books back and send the research to Myste by way of page, before he could follow Keren to the quarters she shared with her life mate Herald Ylsa.
"Alright now what's so urgent that none of us are where we are supposed to be?"
"Inan, your sister is quite a puzzle, and it occurred to most of us, that we don't know much about your people. We know only what you've shared, and what Alberich knows, and the little she says about it when asked. But we, her teachers especially, are totally at a loss for understanding some of the statements she makes or the acts she is capable of." Red said with enthusiasm.
"I don't understand, but I will answer anything you wish to ask if it will help her." He said slowly.
Inan, like his sister had always been tight lipped about where he came from, and what his life had been like before. Part of him didn't know how to explain a life that was as foreign to the life he had here as to a fish breathing out of water.
"Inan, that day she arrived, you knew she was coming, your companion said something about heartbeat distance, what does that mean?" Keren asked.
"When Marie and I were little I could always tell where she was, and if she was okay or not. Our father called it heartbeat distance, he explained that in some cases siblings who share a strong common bond can feel the other's heartbeat in relation to their own. As she grew older the feeling didn't go away. I think she can still feel where I am now, even if she doesn't want to admit it." He laughed lightly. "Is that it?"
"Not really, Inan when you came here, you were a trained fighter, I mean, you still are, but you had specialty training. You impressed the weapons-master, and that is hard to do. Is that kind of training a normal aspect of your home life?" Red asked tentatively.
"Well yes, we all had training in weaponry and fighting from a very young age." Inan said carefully.
"Would you say that most of your people are mastery fighters?" Keren pushed.
"No, not everyone." Inan was getting nervous as to where this chain of questions would eventually lead, but he had promised to answer.
"Who within your people become the best fighters?" Red hedged, feeling the tension growing in Inan's voice.
"Well the soldiers, and Generals I suppose. My father was a General of sorts in our community." He answered.
"What was Marie's role when you left?" Keren asked
Inan was relieved for the change in topic, hoping that they wouldn't ask anymore questions about the fighting aspect of his people he launched into a riotous speech of the role of Caretaker within his family like being a Senior Healer in Haven. His words were descriptive where his previous statements had only skimmed the surface of being acceptable answers.
"If she's a caretaker or healer, why were you suddenly so afraid when you saw her in the court square?" Red interjected into Inan's small epic.
"What do you mean Red?" he queried, silently hoping that Red wasn't trying to get at something he avidly didn't want to discuss.
"I saw your face change in the square Inan, I saw the shock on your face." Red said slowly, not wanting to anger his friend.
"She looked like a seasoned warrior woman, the healers she saw were shocked that she was still standing when they saw her injuries. But to all appearances that hour in the snow, she looked like she was ready to battle us all if need be. You said she's a caretaker, and while I know that the healers can hold their own…how many can pull a blade on two full Heralds without them ever seeing it coming?" Keren extended.
Inan had become very still, he was no longer looking at his friends, instead his eyes were hooded and he stared intently at the knot patterns in the wood grain of the table in front of him.
"Inan?" Red whispered gently but firmly.
"Things in my family are different than they are in Valdemar, life there is not as it is here, and fighting is necessary to our survival. Every man, woman, and child must be able to defend themselves or they will not live very long."
"Alright, but why was your reaction to seeing her so, I don't know how to describe it really," Keren tried.
"Extreme?" Red provided.
"I didn't know that my father had died until that instant, I was in shock, surely you can understand how something like that would feel?" he said in a low edgy voice.
"I don't understand, how did you know he had died just by looking at her, you couldn't have seen her face from your angle?" Keren was very confused.
Inan pushed himself away from the chair he had occupied and now stood stiffly in front of the hearth, his hands pressed against the mantel. He didn't want to go here, he didn't want them to know, but then he didn't want to know either. He longed to keep his emotions at bay until he was alone, away from prying eyes. Part of him wanted to yell at them and say it was none of their business, and part of him wanted to spill all, but he was so tired.
"Inan, your sister, is more than a healer, she is a Mastery level fighter. She and Alberich engaged in a formal spar this morning." Red explained.
Inan's head came up and he turned to Red. His eyes were barely slits as he forced the tears away. He looked at his friend, wishing he had heard wrong.
"Are you sure?" he asked disbelievingly.
"I saw it with my own eyes, as did Gregory and a handful of trainees. They fought to the best of their ability for over ten minutes. It was the most beautiful and yet terrifying thing I'd ever seen. Inan, Marie's movements were more than training, so much more than seasoned ability."
Red stopped speaking when he realized that his friend was pacing before the hearth, his fists tightly clenched across his chest.
Inan looked at him when he stopped talking; silently urging him to speak the rest of what he was sure there was to say.
"The thing that really caught me off guard, neither she nor Alberich never looked anywhere but into each other's eyes. It was as if their fight was a choreographed dance, to which each step was anticipated and expected. Their bodies seemed to react naturally to the other, it was eerie to realize that each of them fighting at their best wasn't enough for one to win over the other."
"Who won?"
Red was surprised to hear Keren's voice.
"Well Marie was the one to drop her swords, and retreat from the circle, but I'd bet my best books, that neither either won or lost."
"What makes you think that; Formal spars are supposed to go on as long as they have to?" Inan asked.
"I think she took a deliberate cut. I can't be sure, but there was a moment when Alberich could have taken her, but didn't, and there was a very obvious moment when she could have taken him, but seconds later she was admitting defeat, it was all very odd."
"It sounds like there's more going on with those two, than we may ever be privy to." Keren edged around a guess.
Inan however had taken his former seat, and was leaning forward his head in his hands.
Keren reached out to him and squeezed his shoulders. When Inan turned his face to hers, she saw the only tears she had ever seen gracing his eyes and sliding down his cheeks.
"What is it?" she asked gently.
"My sister Marie, she has a very good reason to be angry with me if what I suspect is in fact true." He said hoarsely, "When I envisioned her I thought I would see her in the black shrouds of a caretaker, and that she might have one or two visible blades on her belt at most. What I saw in the square was something entirely different, what I saw sealed it in stone that the home I left, in all actuality, probably no longer exists."
The three friends sat there for the rest of the afternoon listening to Inan speak about what he had never shared with another human soul since being chosen. It took hours, and when Inan left for his bed later in the evening, Red and Keren were still at a total loss.
Ylsa came in a few minutes after that, and was greeted by a rather somber looking pair. She knew better than to probe Keren when she looked like that, she kissed the top of Keren golden head and went into their shared bedroom.
Red stood and hugged Keren mightily, for he found that words, which were normally his forte, had abandoned him to oblivion. He nodded to her and took his leave.
As he walked down the hallway he caught sight of something very curious. Marie was standing on the gabled roof of one of the high buildings across the way from the window where he stood. She was perched there in the face of a very strong wind, yet she was steady in her footing, and was still as stone as she looked down into the courtyard. Red followed the angle of her head and saw Inan standing still and tall as a tree looking up to his sister. Neither said anything, nor waved to the other, nor moved at all.
They stood like that until Marie seemed to heave a sigh within her chest and she turned, and disappeared over the side of the building. Red looked to Inan to see if he would seek her out on the other side, but to his surprise Inan had turned to walk in the opposite direction.
For all that Inan had answered that day, so many more questions had arisen in Red's mind, that he was sure only Marie would be able to answer. He knew he wouldn't be able to ask her, until their friendship had grown on them, and even then he was unsure if he had any right. Red finally turned from the window to seek his own bed.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't see the Weaponsmaster emerge from the dusky shadows not four feet from his previous position in front of the window. He waited until the other Herald could be heard on the stone stairs before he went to the window pane and looked out just in time to see Marie stop at the unglazed window in the adjacent building. She nodded to him before passing on.
Alberich's thoughts of that morning had plagued him all day, she should have beaten him, but she had taken a deliberate cut in order to end the fight. He couldn't deny that he was prepared to extend his resources further than he had, but her act was still an act of cowardice. Something he had seen in her eyes had haunted him for the rest of the day. She was afraid, but not of him, she was afraid of something larger and intangible.
He couldn't explain what drove him to be close to her, she was a student, not that he would be able to teach her anything in his Salle. She was by rights his match, but it was more than that. She understood things about him that he had feared no one else could ever understand. She knew about battle, about loss, about guilt and grief, and about choices. Although she had never said as much, he knew that was the core that both connected them and separated them from the rest.
It had been so long since he had felt so comfortable with another. He had Myste, but it was different with Marie, more complete. And yet, he didn't know how to describe his feelings about the matter. Feelings in general had been hard for him to express, but for her he thought he might have to find the words.
A/N: I still maintain that the roles held between Marie and Alberich is not what you think. Please review!
