Blaekerian: An Epic Fantasy Novel (In Progress)

Night Sky

It wasn't long before she found herself staring at that blue house again. That blue house with many memories. She hesitated at the small gate leading to the door, listening to the sea in the background, the soft waves washing back and forth on the sand. She wanted to get her heart to stop running so fast and so she closed her eyes and tried to lose herself in the sound of the waves.

But realizing that she was procrastinating after a moment and that things weren't going to change if she didn't get on with it, she shook her head and stepped into the house. She saw the main living space still trashed as it had been for years. She went down that lonely hallway hugging her arms together.

She didn't know where that red hot fury she had been overflowing with before had fled. It was like her armor had held all her anger and resentment and without it, she was wandering in fear and melancholy. The walls were oppressive in the blue house.

I shouldn't be feeling this way. I shouldn't regret what I did. I know he deserved it. He was an awful person. It was justice.

But when she entered her old room where the deed had been done, she choked back tears. The man that had been her father was dead and it was by her hand. Her chest was tight and her arms shivered worse than they ever had. The tears welled in her eyes when she saw a shadow to the left of the room move. She turned quick and reached for her sword.

A woman stepped forward into the moonlight. Her face was hard and unrepentant. Very unlike the person that Vyra had grown up with. It was the Aldor, the leader of this village, and her friend Rune. And she looked furious.

She didn't speak for a moment, letting her face do the yelling before her words. Vyra was almost scared of that face, her friend's kind young face of yesteryear was gone.

"What are you doing back here?" She hissed.

Vyra was caught off guard in those eyes.

"I, I..." she mumbled.

"No I don't want to hear your excuses!" Rune exploded. "To think I came down to tell your father that I had seen you. I thought maybe I could convince him to... Maybe get some reconciliation for the both of you. But..." Rune turned and stared out the window. "I found... Why?" She turned back again. "Your own father?"

Heat started to fill Vyra's cheeks. "You don't know what he did to me. You don't know what he was like."

"Oh I know what he was like. I was his aldor. I know everyone who lives in this town like they were part of my own family. I came here often. Did you know that? I wanted to make sure everyone was doing well in my village."

She said that last part with pride and Vyra suspected that it was true.

"I made sure he was fed and looked after. There were times when he was cruel, yes."

"He was a deal worse than that! Balghr's Breath he was vile!"

"Maybe..." Rune hesitated. "But what does that mean then?" Her friend looked intensely into her eyes. "Does that mean he deserved death? Is that what the blaekerians have taught you?"

"They taught me to defend myself. More than that man ever did." But Vyra felt the hollowness of her words. Why had she come back if she did not feel remorse about what she had done?

"I came back to bury him."

"Well a lot of good that will do him now."

Vyra didn't have any response. She simply knelt to pick up her father, turned and walked out

Rune followed a little while later.

The two of them began digging behind the house, on the side nearest to the woods with no buildings in sight. They didn't speak as they did their task. Vyra didn't know what to say regardless so she was thankful for the silence. When they had finished their task Rune turned to leave without comment. She only went five steps before Vyra put a hand on her shoulder turning her back around.

"Wait."

"What do you want? I have nothing more to say to you."

"I think you do." Vyra saw the squint of her eyes and the clench of her jaw that suggested otherwise. A moment later she learned that she was right.

"You left. and you didn't even think to say goodbye. I was your best friend and you didn't say goodbye." Rune's eyes began to water. "Or maybe I could have gone with you. You were my sister and you left without me."

Vyra didn't know what to say. A situation she was getting stuck in a lot recently.

"I... I'm sorry. I.. didn't think you would have wanted to go with me. You had a good life here."

"Yeah I did. And I don't regret the decisions I've made. Can you say the same?"

"Look all I can say is I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you alone back then. I just... Needed to get away from this place from everything. It was tearing a hole in me and I didn't know it. I just..." Vyra felt her cheeks getting wet and she wiped them away.

"I'm sorry."

Rune's eyes had not softened even as they were filled with fresh tears. Her eyes locked onto the blade strapped to Vyra's back.

"Perhaps if you had not returned to conquer my home I could accept your apology."

The way she emphasized "my home," made Vyra realize that she was now the outsider, the one coming to take from the weak and destroy other's lives.

"I don't want to see you again. Goodbye... Imperial."

"Rune..."

But Rune did not turn back this time. She left the yard and passed the gate fading into the night.

"Rune. I'm sorry."

The waves continued to hum on the nearby beach and the stars kept her company as she sat down in the grass outside her family home and cried.

She had sat there for quite some time staring out at the sea that reflected back the stars above.

She could see the Divine Twins out this evening. Her father, her birth father who she had buried, had told her about them years ago when she had been a young girl. This had been before her mother had left and there had still been a little joy in the blue house on the outskirts of town.

Those were the gods of the night, he said, as opposed to the gods of the day. The two gods of the day brought light to every day while the gods of the night, brought blessed darkness to the world.

That was the only memory that Vyra could think of from her past that was a happy one with her father.

She stood up and looked at her and her friend's handywork. The mound of dirt that rested near the back window looked so small compared to the way the man had felt alive. When he was alive he was this massive demon that seemed to black out the sun. She knew she needed to get that image out of her mind. He was only a dhirsa. A simple dhirsa who was a bad man. But he was not all powerful over her. Not anymore. And not in years.

Ever since she had left she had pictured him as this massive battle that she needed to overcome. But that was not what he was nor was he ever now that she had some perspective. She stood before his grave and realized that something was missing.

Vyra went to the woods nearby and tore off a piece of bark from an old tree that she used to play near when she was little. She came back and carved what she thought was appropriate on the side. She placed it in the ground at the dirt mounts head and looked it over. It read:

A Flawed Man

A Father

She turned from the grave and pulled up her hood as she walked back through the town. She didn't look back.

On the way back to camp she met up with Hirnam and didn't respond to his inquiries. She stayed quiet and went to sleep late that night thinking about the two gods of the night sky.