Ch 13
"Good. Form 3 now."
I swung the wooden sword I was holding in a few fancy patterns. They came easily to me, without thinking. Vandal Savage didn't look impressed though.
"Your low swing near the end of the form is too high."
"That's what you said last time!" I objected, frustrated, "how much lower am I supposed to go?"
"Two millimeters." He told me calmly, shaking his head with disapproval.
"Two millimeters?" I yelled, "how is two millimeters going to make a difference in a fight?"
"Form 3 is designed to fight two armed opponents at the same time. That particular slash is to chop one of your opponents cleanly in half, so you can parry your other opponent's strike in the same swipe. Two millimeters is the difference between hitting a vertebrae, slowing you down a quarter of a second, and getting a clean, quick strike."
"Where does this style of swordsmanship come from? I've studied kendo, fencing, even using a long sword, but I've never seen any movements like this before. Chopping an opponent cleanly in half serves nothing."
"I created it, after I mastered all styles of kenjutsu years ago. I mixed in some Chinese and Mongolian swordsmanship as well. It is the perfect sword fighting style. Chopping your opponent in half serves two purposes. One, to absolutely kill your opponent. He will not survive if he is cut in half. The second purpose is to intimidate and frighten your other opponent. It is a demonstration of power, and it creates fear in most men. Swordsmanship is just as much mental as it is physical. If your opponent believes he cannot win, he will lose."
"Was that my problem, when I fought Ra's?"
"I can't answer that. I wasn't there. If you think it was, then it probably was. That's enough training for today. You clearly need a rest."
"Wait, I need to master form 3 so I can go on to form 4!"
"You clearly aren't ready for the final form with that mentality." Savage said, shaking his head, "you've made a lot of progress in the past 5 months, almost healed completely, but mentally, you are impatient. You want to get back to your city as soon as you can. You need to learn to live here and now. We are done for the day."
Frustrated, I put the sword down and went to my tent. Inside, I only had basic necessities. A cot to sleep on. A few changes of the gray robes Vandal Savage had provided me with. A journal to write on, as well as scrolls to study the forms Vandal had taught me. Although he didn't look old, the scrolls looked ancient. I stared at them, deep in thought. He had taught me his three forms, each of them efficient as well as deadly.
"If you want to do something useful," Savage said, peeking his head in the tent, "you can go get water. There's a spring not too far from here. Good, clean water."
He placed two buckets into my tent, then left to his own.
"That guy gives me the creeps." I heard Death's voice in my head.
"I know what you mean." I replied, out loud. Though Death could hear my thoughts, it felt better to say things to him out loud. It made me feel less crazy. It probably made me look more crazy though.
I marched forward and grabbed the two buckets of water.
"Savage didn't say where the spring was, did he?" I asked Death.
"Not that I can remember."
Great. I looked around. We had moved down from the cabin in the snow mountains, to a green grassland. From there, we kept traveling westward, setting up and sleeping in tents for a few days at a time. I wasn't sure where we were going, and Vandal Savage wasn't much of a talker. He only told me relevant info, and oftentimes his answer was that I should "live here and now" and not worry about the future. The man was an enigma. He ate only meat. Drank only water and broth. He didn't ever season his food, besides using salt to dry meat for when we were traveling. My guess is that he lived a nomadic lifestyle. The cabin was just a temporary lodging for the winter months, he'd told me. He may return there next winter, but he wasn't positive.
I wasn't sure how much time had passed since my duel with Ra's. A few months, maybe? I was worried though. About everything. Gotham, Harley Quinn, Barbara. Mostly about Megan though. They all probably thought that I was dead.
Eventually, I found the spring by following the creek that we were camped by. I knelt down beside it and took a big handful of water. I slowly drank. Sure enough, it was good water. Cold, flavorful, and clean. I filled the two buckets, placed one on either end of a stick and placed the stick on my shoulders.
"We are wasting time." Death said after a long silence. "We should be tracking down Ra's al-Ghul."
"Speak on that," I started to say, "What's your angle, Death? Why does it matter to you if you kill Ra's or not?"
"Would you believe that I want vengeance?" He said, laughing. He already knew that I didn't.
"I'm not as evil as you think, Daniel." He started again, after a pause, "Death is part of life. It is what makes life meaningful, the fact that all things die one day. Ra's has defied that law that gives meaning to life. Me bringing him to the grave is a natural duty. I am bringing balance back to the world. That's all."
I hadn't ever thought of it like that. I had been around death for half my life nearly and I hadn't once thought about it being necessary.
"Do you have to kill him though?" I asked, after some thought, "What if there's another way?"
"Can you think of another way?" Death countered.
I thought about this for some time. Ra's was honestly more like a natural disaster than a villain. Death may have been right. There wasn't any stopping him. We had to kill him. He was always too far ahead. Too elusive. Every single time I'd caught up to him, he'd always been ahead. Even on that mountain, I really hadn't planned to kill Ra's. I would just beat him, and then… well, I suppose I hadn't planned that out.
"Either way," Death interrupted my thoughts, "Savage is right about one thing: we can't hope to beat him unless we start to believe we actually can. Whether that is killing him or finding another way."
"Can I ask you a question, Death?" I said, changing the subject, "who are the Arbiters?"
I could feel him smirking inside my head.
"We are the remnants of the Old Gods." He said, somewhat ominously, "Of a civilization long lost to history."
He began to recount the tale. A tale of Gods and heroes, long before any kingdom known to the modern world existed.
There were 7 of them, the Arbiters. In those days, they were the judges and guardians of mankind. Each one ruled their own land, where the people worshiped them, not by force, but because they honestly and truly respected these 7 warriors. An easy way for me to think about it was like superheroes. Death didn't exclude himself from that. It was my understanding that he was basically a superhero in those days.
"So do you have a name?" I asked, as he finished his short account, "for example, Fate is called Nabu. That's the old tongue, isn't it, from way back when.
"I actually do." He said, somewhat taken aback that I would ask, "It's Khonshu. Life, my brother, his name is Vashu."
"Like the Egyptian god?" I asked.
"Yes. But obviously not the same one. It is a remnant word from the old days. There aren't many of those left, but I still see the impact that we made on the world."
"Like what else?"
"Gaia." He stated, "Or rather, Gaila, to us. She was the Earth Mother. Predating the Arbiters. She is actually mother to my brother and I."
It felt weird. Ever since I had known about the Arbiter of Death, I hadn't ever pictured him as an actual person. But here he was, talking about his ancestral home, about his family.
"So there's Nabu, Vashu, and Khonshu." I said, trying to keep this conversation going, "who else? What other arbiters are there?"
"You've met Secret." He replied, "she and I have been lovers off and on for millennia. Her name was Layla. A lot of remnants of her in many languages. There's three other Arbiters, all of whom you haven't met. There's Morla, Arbiter of Truth, Rhodu, of Courage, and finally there's Indila, of Beauty."
"Constantine said you all were cursed after your battle with Trigon. Each one of you has a different curse. Who created the curses?"
"That was Trigon's own doing. It was actually the last thing he did before going back to his own realm. He even cursed me, despite the fact that I tried to help him."
"Why did you try and help him?" I finally asked. I had always wanted to know why Death, or rather, Khonshu, had gone against his brother.
Khonshu didn't respond for a long time. I could see we were almost back to camp, and I wasn't sure if I would get to talk to him like this for a while. I couldn't have Vandal Savage think I was insane for always talking to myself.
Khonshu must've felt my desperation for answers.
"I was tired, Danny." He finally answered, his tone softening completely, "I was tired of being… just Death. I wanted a change. In my youth, I mistakenly thought that Trigon would bring that change. That was many millennia ago. I've grown more wise, now that I'm old. I wouldn't make that same mistake now."
I opened my mouth to speak again, but Death interrupted me.
"That's enough talk about the Old Times. You're learning too much about me. That isn't ever good for a mortal."