Summer Garden

Trei

Trei moved through the garden slowly, every footfall certain.

Soldiers and knights moved against him, swords flashing in the air and breaking as he raised his arms to block their strikes. The skin split open, bleeding from the lashings of the enemy, but that's all it was to him. The punishment he had received as a child was no more than this.

He had no weapon, nor a need of one. Every blade broke, and a moment later the shards were driven through the steel of the helmet, through the skin of the screaming creature, silencing as it pierced the skull.

His anger was overflowing. These had once been his people, and he had until this moment thought of himself as human. Not anymore. Not if this is what being human meant. Attacking a world that kept to itself. Attacking a family, resting, without provocation. He knew what this was, and what it meant. The best of humanity had returned to them, and they had welcomed them with open arms. Vastras was what humanity desired. Unending destruction against all who were not friends. A pre-emptive strike to kill the gods. The mage might believe she was the avatar of good, but as would all of these men and women.

Most would be conscripted, and yet they would believe in the ideals of the men put in charge of them, expecting that their naive belief in truth and justice would preserve their life in battle.

Trei punched through folded steel, through rib cage and grasped the spine, tearing free a handful of bones. The knight gasped falling backwards. As they did the helmet fell aside, revealing the bloodied and dying woman. Her eyes were empty and cold, already fading. Her hair was stained with blood, and she whispered to the air as she died silently.

He blocked the coming attack from the side easily, looking down at the woman in surprise.

He felt no guilt, nor anger. He felt no need for apologies or retribution. His actions were his own, and justified. Her actions were her own, and justified. This was the calm of battle, and of war. This was the brutality that he had tried to forget for so long. He had hid from the wars in the blacksmith's shop. He had tried to forget the faces of those who had died by his hand.

War made all men equal.

It didn't matter who you were, or what you believed in. In the end, battle was survival. Nothing more, nothing less.

Trei smiled sadly.

It wasn't that way for him any longer. He would survive, no matter what they brought against him. He had moved beyond the concept of life and death, and into something new. He wasn't a soldier anymore, and nor was he a blacksmith's apprentice. He wasn't Fae, and never would be. Yet, he was the bride of Summer. He wasn't the heir to the throne, nor was he its appointed guardian. He was not the leader of an army, nor did he hold the respect of the council. These were his people, as were those that fell around him.

He crouched, ignoring the flail of attacks that did nothing but disintegrate against the eternal shell that protected his eternal soul. He took the hand of the woman gently, feeling her aura as it drained away, returning to the lifestream, as all things did.

Trei pulled gently, lifting her upright. She stared in confusion into his black eyes, as he lifted her up, and the battle raged on around them. No arrow nor blade struck against her, as he stood there, holding her hand. Trei smiled sadly, "Go home. Go back to your life, it doesn't have to end here."