26 Arash - A lesson

Arash found himself in a bed; it was the softest thing he had ever laid upon. The room was alight with the white light of mana runes. Deo sat beside the bed, admiring the light rune etched onto a

slate stone.

"I have always admired these little trinkets of your kind. And, even though they are so weak," Deo crushed the stone in his hand. "They can do fascinating things..."

"Are you sure there was no one else?" Arash asked once again, even though he already knew the answer. But something inside him told him that his brother was still alive. Call it a feeling or an intuition, but he knew it to be true as the soft bed he laid upon.

Deo groaned in frustration. "I am starting to wonder why I tried to save you? Ask me again and I might change my mind. There was no boy. Everyone else was dead. Everyone else but you..." Deo said as his eyes shone with interest. "Now it's time you start answering my questions. Why doesn't the stone kill you?"

Arash stared at the mosaic pattern on the ceiling in silence as the image of his brother laying in the palm of a giant grey hand played in his mind. He let out a long sigh as he closed his eyes.

"...I sealed it."

"You can seal the stone?" Deo's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you do it? Can others do it?"

"I don't know."

Deo groaned in annoyance. "What was that blue mist?" he asked brusquely.

"It's not a mist but a swarm of creatures. Tiny, tiny creatures."

"It's alive?"

Arash nodded.

"How did you get it?"

Arash tapped at his crystallized eye.

"Can you control it?"

"No. Why are you so interested in this?"

"This again, you are quite strange for a nameless. Most struggle to have a simple conversation in front of me. But you don't fear me, do you?" Deo paused for an answer.

"Why should I fear you? and why do you call our kind Nameless."

"You don't know why you are called Nameless?" Deo sighed as he shook his head. "A man is know by three things. The name of his father, the name of his Sword, and the Name given by the Gods."

"Father, Sword, or a God... I don't have any of those." Arash laughed despite himself.

"What's so amusing about this? It's a great shame for a man to have no name."

"There many things more important than shame."

"You are not that different from the fools of your kind. Nameless, what could be more important than honour?" Deo said with displeasure.

"Pain, Fear, Hunger and Helplessness. I would always trade them for a bit of shame." Arash replied.

"They are all symptoms of weakness. I am not weak Nameless."

"You are not weak and yet you still hide behind your lies." Arash regretted the words as soon as he said it. But his weakness had made him bitter. The melody had once again returned and it was stronger than before. Scraping at his consciousness, pulling at his nerves.

"Watch your words Nameless. You have seen my kindness, you don't want my fury." Deo sharply exhaled as he threw a leather bag towards Arash. "You have been helpful to and take this as my gratitude." He stood up and stared towards Arash for the last time. "I have my own fears Nameless, but instead of running away from them. I face them. Overcome them. I earned my place by these very hands" Deo raised his hands towards Arash. "Pitted my life against theirs and came out victorious."

"Give me a sword and take off your armor. We will see what you have earned." Arash's eyes bore daggers at the man that stood before him. The melody of pain once again tortured his soul. He hissed in pain as he slipped back into the state of perpetual detachment. "You talk about Names and honor, have you ever been so hungry that you would chew the very leather you wear? Have you ever felt the pain that never ends? Have you ever felt a fear that your bones turned to dust and the helplessness as your life dances at the whims of another. There is no honor in my world." Arash sneered at Deo. "Blessed, very little honor can be found in the line between life and death."

"Funny, because honor is the only thing that's keeping you alive at the moment." Deo eyes turned for a moment as he studied the man before him.

"I..." Arash wanted to say that he had no need for such honor, but his thoughts turned towards the skinny boy laying inside the hand of a giant. Tears pooled in his left eye as dark thoughts crept into his heart. 'No! he is alive… He is.' He turned towards Deo, studied the Blessed before him, studied the intricate lines on the translucent armor, studied its form and how it sat on his body. "...You have opened my eyes." Arash said offhandedly.

"Argh!!" Deo groaned in frustration as he rubbed the back of his with his right hand. "I don't know what to call this. Sometimes, I see it as courage, but other times it's just plain foolishness." Deo lifted his right hand. It slowly turned into a sharp blade with a deep blue luster.

Arash could hear it's edge thrum to a dangerous rhythm.

"You need to be taught a lesson." Deo said casually. "You see, I am awfully interested in that blue mist in your right eye. At first, I wanted to play nice. But now, I have changed my mind."

"...What do you mean?" Arash tried to get up, but his broken arm and leg made him think otherwise. He dreadfully stared at the blade as it came closer and closer towards his right eye. "Please, please don't. Don't do this. I will tell you everything you want to know. Everything."

"Come on, It's just a dead eye. It would do you no good. Let me rid of it." Deo pinned Arash down with his left hand. Arash thrashed around, but his efforts were in vain. Deo slide his sword in Arash's right eye and slow pried it open, the sword slowly cut the bone and flesh.

Screams of agony echoed off the dreary walls. It took a while for Deo to take out the crystallized eye.

"Phew! Finally done… See, it wasn't that hard." Deo smiled at Arash, who laid lifeless on the bed. A dark whole had been left where his right eye was supposed to be, dark red blood pooled into the empty socket.