Chapter Nine
Deimos looked across the open plains where Mathayus had left with his friend Kycina, the Enchantress of the Valley, and Deimos' brother Mercury in wonder. He hoped his brother and Mathayus would come back seeing that the twins had never been separated for longer than a few hours. Now it had been already four days since Deimos had last seen Mercury and soon, Brother Viscus would demand that Deimos also take a trial of loyalty since everyone else already had. Mathayus had already proven himself with that rancor carcass, Mercury was with him on Kycina's errand to the Domain of Exiles, and everyone else had either battled one another or done favors for Brother Viscus.
A knock on the door and he knew who it was without even needing to open the door: Viscus had come to demand he go through a trial- "for the village" as he put it. Opening the door only confirmed that Viscus was outside and not too happy to see that Deimos was still keeping watch over Mathayus' hut. "We have shared this hut for many years, what makes you think I'm about to stop that now?" Deimos asked when Viscus pointed that out. "Your trial is needed before I can be truly secure in my position of leadership, if you obey then the rest will follow and Mathayus' protests will not concern me," Viscus answered him.
"If you fear him, that's reason enough for even me to worry about the strength and wisdom of your leadership," Deimos said. He was not the brightest man in the village (that was Mathayus' department) but it didn't take a genius to see that Viscus feared Mathayus' rather independent spirit. "The village is my domain and not his, it would be wise for you not to be brave around me," Viscus warned. "I don't need bravery around you, just the ability to kill you in a single swing of my fist if you try anything on me," Deimos replied calmly.
"Have you made your decision as to what you would like to do for your trial or not? If not, I will have to make it for you and force you out of the village until you complete it," Viscus inquired impatiently. "Yes I have: I'll head to the domain of the Ice Spirit Medusa, sister of Nag the God of War. I intend to take her gauntlet which allows her to control the element of Ice as well as her army of Jotuns and Frost Giants," Deimos told him.
Viscus liked this because he knew that none had ever succeeded in taking the gauntlet. And if Deimos were to become an icicle in Medusa's collection then all Viscus would have to worry about is whether or not Mathayus returned. If not, he only had to fear Talzin, Kycina, and any other Nightsister who came to his village. "Very well, take as much as you can carry on your back in addition to your weapons and be on your way to the realm of the Ice Spirit though I highly doubt you'll find it without any divine aid," Viscus stated.
"Then I'll call upon the god of my family line, the god who had guided the first of my ancestors in the Selection and brought him a worthy wife along with an honorable death," Deimos replied. "And what god would that be?" Viscus asked. "The hero god Hephaestus, mighty god of courage, honor and justice. He will know where to find her seeing as he had once trudged his way into her domain to request the freedom of his wife in exchange for the gauntlet that Medusa now wields," Deimos explained without any hesitation.
"Sounds like you got yourself a plan. And by any chance, the wife that Hephaestus freed… her name was not Helena, was it?" Viscus asked him. "That was her name and he loved her more than any woman he had ever known in his life. Unfortunately, Medusa was madly entranced with him and thus captured Helena in order to bring him to her realm," Deimos answered with a firm nod.
"It would appear to me that she bargained for a little more than his gauntlet which she turned into a weapon that controlled the element of ice," Viscus stated, raising an eyebrow. "She did but he stalled her by refusing long enough for Helena to escape. When it was confirmed that his wife had gotten away, Hephaestus made like the wind and left Medusa but not before she forced herself on him," Deimos replied. "And after the encounter, she had a child born of his seed, did she not?" Viscus continued though he already knew the story.
"She did and that child was Nag, the Dathomiri God of War, Brute Force, and Bloodshed. He was born because of her lust for Hephaestus and raised by her hatred of his refusal to accept her love over Helena's," Deimos said. "It explains why war can seem so cold, desolate, but powerful and destructive all at the same time," Viscus rhetorically stated to the younger man. "Doesn't matter what war seems like unless you've actually been in one and you weren't in one except to lead your brothers to slaughter and flee to save yourself," Deimos snapped.
"When I found out the resistance was doomed, I did only what had to be done in order to save our village from being destroyed. I highly doubt you would make that very hard decision I was forced to make," Viscus shouted. "I doubt it was very hard considering that big bag of gold I saw in your throne room," Deimos said. "Get the hell out of my village and do not come back until you have the gauntlet in your possession, right now!" Viscus boomed at the top of his lungs.
"Sure thing, soon as I get my supplies as well as my zhaboka and sword with it all," Deimos replied. Viscus snapped his fingers and ordered a couple lowly Nightbrothers to gather as much of the rancor meat (that had not yet gone rancid) as they could and pack it in a manner that Deimos could carry with him. Strapping on the backpack alongside his sword, Deimos then grabbed his zhaboka and carried it in his hand as he walked out the door of the home he shared with his brother and Mathayus for seventeen years. After that, he turned and headed in the direction of his ancestral shrine to first consult Hephaestus and then head on to the realm of the Ice Spirit Medusa herself.
He never did want to look back on that village without the gauntlet in his possession so long as Viscus was its ruler. The man was unfit to be a true leader of the Nightbrothers and did what he did only to serve his own ends or those of the more wicked Nightsisters in the clan that controlled them. He also hoped that Mathayus would come back, challenge Viscus with Mercury at his side, and end his cowardly rule forevermore. Oh boy what he hoped the power of the Gauntlet of Ice could do to restore the honor of his family and make sure cowards like Viscus could never again lead his people into their future.
As the journey progressed, Kycina began to feel strange cramps in her crotch and general pelvic area. This wouldn't have been so bad if she had had a period but since she didn't, fear was beginning to course its way into her heart. Though it was a temporary cure, she used Nightsister magic to cure herself of the cramps and the violent vomiting spells that sometimes came with them. More than once, Mathayus had to stay behind while Mercury and the Enchantress went ahead until she was well again.
But one day however, the Enchantress decided to stay behind with her shortly before Kycina decided to use the magic and temporarily treat her cramps and vomit spells. Lifting two of her fingers and lighting a purple-white orb at their tips, the Enchantress closed her eyes and scanned Kycina's belly. At first, nothing happened but then the Enchantress' eyes opened up and they were the same color and had the same glow as the orb scanning Kycina's body. "A new life begins within your body Kycina and its birth will come four months after a great tragedy in your life also happens," she stated.
Then she took her fingers away from Kycina's belly and her eyes went back to normal. That is, if you could define pale grey-blue eyes pupils that were almost as colorless as the outside of her eyes normal. A new life? By the gods, I'm not pregnant am I? she asked herself.
Sure enough, she could feel something stirring in her stomach now that the Enchantress had mentioned it to her. She was pregnant and Mathayus was the father seeing as he was the only one who had sexual encounters with her. "You will bear a son who will commit both good and evil deeds that will affect the balance of the universe for the millennia that yet have come," the Enchantress added blankly. Kycina's heart lurched as if to rip itself out of her chest: a son and one destined for a future far worthier of living than even Mathayus could ever imagine.
"Please swear to me, in the name of the High Father, that you will not tell him and that you will let me!" she implored the Enchantress desperately. "Of course, it is your destiny to reveal the truth to him after all," the witch replied calmly. Kycina sighed a sigh of relief and thanked her for promising not to tell Mathayus about the baby. "Even as powerful as I am or was, I cannot interfere with the will of Mother Destiny no matter how much I wish I could," the older woman assured her.
But what could be the implications of having a son with an incredible destiny ahead of him? Was this destiny brought upon this unborn child because of an attunement to the Force? If so, he was far more worthy of being saved from the fate of the Nightbrothers than even Mathayus (the father) was. But was even Mathayus destined for the same fate as the normal Nightbrothers who surrounded him but simply awaited the commands of any higher authority like fatted cattle?
So many questions and only five months to get the answers to them all. How was she going to raise a child destined for greatness in the shadow of Talzin's strictly-enforced separation of men and women until they were ready to go into the Selection? Perhaps the solution that she found someone offworld who could raise him instead and make sure that Talzin never suspected she did anything to prevent him from living under her rule. This was something she would have to plan out before the birth of her child or else she possibly would lose her firstborn child.
"Why do you feel the need to tell me about the years before my birth? The past is the past and we should move on in order to find peace," Maul asked his mother as she shared the details of his origins with him. They had only settled on Ruusan for three days and already she had felt comfortable enough to tell him the origins of his family.
"Sometimes, to find peace in the future, one must journey back to the past and reveal it to those in the present who are a part of it yet know nothing. Why did you tell me the details of your life after I gave you to Sidious? I know it wasn't because your brother mentioned it to me since you could very easily have denied it if you didn't feel a need to do it as well," she asked him back. Maul yielded to that one but he was still a little baffled about how Kycina told her story.
"You said no man had ever loved you quite like Deimos, Savage and Feral's father, did. Yet it seems like you loved my father more than you loved him, why?" he inquired. "No Maul, I loved them equally but in different ways with your father's being the more… romantic way," she explained. "I don't understand," he admitted after a while of thinking.
"Deimos had my heart and that was enough for me to let him become the father of my two youngest sons. But your father always had my passion, he was the source of my own 'flame of passion' to put it in terms you could recognize," she said. Maul recognized the expression 'flame of passion' very well and clenched his fist in an attempt to physically suppress the memories of what happened to his beloved Ophelia. "Sorry mother, don't worry for me; I was just remembering the origin of that expression, please carry on with the story of you and my father," he said and that was what she did.
Three months had passed since Kycina, the Enchantress, Mathayus, and his friend Mercury had left the Nightbrother village in search of the Domain of Exiles. Since then, Karis had completed her one month as a guard in the Valley of the Ancestors but failed to meet her duties in the eyes of the Sisters who led the camp at the Valley's sheer edge. As a result, Karis was forced to forever remain a subordinate to all except a few including her best friend Naa'leth who also showed jealousy for Talzin's favorite: Sister Kycina.
"Hey, it's not so bad when you think about it. So long as you remain this way, no one will ever think you'd be up to something," Naa'leth suggested. "What are you suggesting?" Karis asked her. "That we wait and see if Kycina comes back and if so, see if we can charge her with a crime successfully and have her banished from the coven," Naa'leth replied.
"But how long must we wait? She's already been away on her mission for three months with the potential to be gone another three!" Karis inquired impatiently. "We just wait and when she comes back, we'll see if we can plan something, do not worry," Naa'leth said. But Karis was very worried and very afraid of this plan. If it failed, Talzin would try and execute them for treason against her right-hand executioner. Not to mention conspiring to see her exiled or dead out of jealousy for her deeds. Karis didn't like this at all and hoped Naa'leth knew what she was doing.