Severed

Chapter 11

My brother; the only thing that I had ever actually cared about, was taken from me. My father had never been a very good father, or king for that matter. The demon race had been one assassination away from an all out civil war since he was crowned. Even after the Dominant War was won by the faeries, Vekesh was full of unrest. Food was scarce, the war was lost, and the old capital was in ruins. Instead of spending the remaining Ranes on importing food, the king had spent it on rebuilding the capital, which had only caused more discontent. That's when he made his deal with Magic. It wasn't long before the power consumed him.

Barely a minute had passed, yet I was already hysterical. I couldn't let another person I cared about drown, but, at the same time, I was rooted to the spot, fated to watch another drown. On my knees I replayed the day my brother died over and over in my head.

It started like any other. First riding lessons on the palace shiyahs, skeletal animals similar to the horses of Georest, with Crispin. He always loved those stupid beasts and the way they only like him, snapping at me anytime I came near them. His laugh never far behind when the shiyahs acted up and attacked one of the stable hands. Later on we had our court duties which we promptly ditched. It was my fault, I was the one who said we shouldn't go. By that point was a warm summer afternoon and I convinced him we shouldn't let it go to waste. We ran to the lake at the edge of the palace together and stripped down to our underwear. I remember clearly the way he punched my hard ab muscles and I teased him about his scrawny arms. He was too young to have built up any muscles then. The water was cold, too cold for such a warm day, but I didn't recognize it until later. We'd been swimming for at least an hour before our father finally noticed us missing and came to find us. The lecture that followed is mostly a blur, that is until the point where my brother took all of the blame. He knew just as clearly as I did that one more slip up would possibly be my last, but he didn't know that by taking the blame it would be /his/ last.

He was dead shortly after, my father drowning him the very lake we had swam in for years. For days afterward I refused to leave my room. Then I had a period where I wouldn't eat and would rake my fingernails down every inch of open skin until the physical pain drowned out the mental anguish. Still it wasn't enough. Unable to forgive or forget, I completely trashed my room and slept in his. Crispin had opted for a bunk bed though he didn't really need it and I slept on the top for weeks. It wasn't until one of my suitors from a noble family was visiting. A timid, brown haired, and soft eyed girl, she had changed immensely when she saw how much my brothers death- no, murder- had affected me. I was a disaster and she snapped me out of it by giving me a hard backhanded slap. That day would be my fathers last. That same night I left Zenith.

Though I knew it was illegal, I found a contraband tattoo shop in the depths of the Vekesh slums and got myself inked. A thick band around my bicep with another smaller band directly below. Two rings to commemorate two losses, one more painful than the other.

It's a good thing Kashina can take care of herself in a fight because I was pretty much out of commission while I relived my own personal hell over and over again. Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, Kashina saved /me/. Every drop of water in the section where she went under roared upward like a geyser. Then it just floated there while Kay slid, unharmed if a little breathless, out of the floating river. She sighed loudly and in a rather annoyed voice said, "thanks for all the help Lee. You're just lucky I don't /actually/ need you". She laughed and I wiped my face with the palms of my hands like a child. She knew not to ask about what had happened, but that also made it hard for her to know when to back off. Frowning when she realized I wasn't really okay, she added, "you know, you really need to tell me what happened sometime". I nodded weakly and she backed off, fishing our bags out of the mud in the now empty riverbed. Watching as she wrenched them out of the sticky goop and cursed, I tried to collect myself. My lips were salty and my throat raw, but I stood to help nonetheless. Kay dumped the bag in my arms and I cursed at the weight it had gained from the water, which was still suspended in the air. "Now" Kay inquired, pointing to a dark form swimming furiously about the water, "what should we do with her?"

The creature Kay had been pulled under by turned out to be a Sea-Raina. How it made its way into that river was beyond me, but we were lucky to be alive. Sea-Rainas are extremely dangerous to both genders. They kill women on sight because they think of females as competition and they lure males to their lairs to feed on the men's lust. Sea-Rainas are gorgeous women on their top halves and octopi on their bottom halves. The one before me was a truly beautiful brunette with doe eyes and a mouth of sharp, pointed teeth that conflicted with her seemingly innocent face. Kay wanted to kill the thing, saying that it was only far since it tried to kill her, but I wasn't so sure. It would probably die if we left it here anyway since Sea-Rainas couldn't be out of salt water for long. Finally Kay sighed and said, "fine we'll help the thing" adding to the Sea-Raina, "keep swimming downstream until you hit the ocean. Drag yourself across land if you have to, but do it fast cause you're already not looking so good". The creature just blinked at us, confused at why she was being released. Right then Kashina dropped the river back down and we were both showered from the splash. The Sea-Raina was gone in a flash, but I had a feeling we would be seeing her again.

We were on our way soon after the whole drowning fiasco, though by the time we set out again, the sunlight was just gasping its last breath before sinking under into its watery prison... Or something like that.