Descendants of the Ida Dynasty - 5. Chapter 5: Escape Part II

Hey readers, apologies for the hiatus. Been a bit pre-occupied as of late. Please enjoy the chapter and let me know what you think  .

I made sure the old man led the way as he brought us to his cellar, smelling of metal and rust. Diamond and water stones laid on a cutting board that stood at the center of the floor next to a grinding machine. Flickers of light came from openings on the edges of the ceiling. Weaponry, mostly worn and damaged, were stuffed in the corner. A makeshift bed covered entirely by beast fur was stored in the back.

“It isn’t much,” he said, “we have very few visitors.”

I was too distracted by the mustiness in the air to care for excuses. Barken entered with wandering eyes nodding patiently to the old man, trying to put him at ease as though he needed the reassurance.

“Feel free to join us upstairs when you’re ready. I’ll let you two get settled.”

Rosco left the room. I pressed my ear to the door, waiting for the sound of his footsteps to fade. I moved close to Barken.

“What the hell are we doing?” I said.

He turned away. “It’s not like we have a lot of options. Rosco seems genuine, and we’re only staying for one night.”

“One night is all it takes for these men to expose us! Why did you tell them we were fugitives in the first place?”

“I assumed it wouldn't be an issue! We have no one else to depend on.” I sighed. I went through my packs, checking out my belongings. “What are you doing?

“We’re going.” Marching towards the door, I turned back to find Barken still in the same position, staring at the floor. “What are you waiting for?”

“There isn’t anywhere for us to go. These could be the only allies we have and you’re asking me to walk out on them? I know it’s your instinct to be cautious, but it’s mine to give trust, and I trust them.”

I growled. “Why are you so bent on believing Rosco’s word without question?”

“Because I’m scared!” He managed to make me at a loss for words. His eyes glistened. “I can’t make you trust Rosco, but I don’t believe he’s our enemy. He didn’t have to tell me that clairsentients were hunted down here. He didn’t have to stop Gage from revealing us to the neku. If he wanted to, Rosco could’ve turned us in himself before bringing us to his home, introducing us to his granddaughter and son. Does this sound like a traitor to you?”

I scoffed.

“Give them a chance, please. We’ll only stay for the day and I swear, if you still don’t feel right about it, I’ll leave with you.”

“...You won’t fight me on it? If I tell you we need to go, will you come with me?”

He hesitated, then nodded. His hand massaged his head as he begin checking out the room. I shook mine in disbelief. Did Barken learn nothing from his attack?! His devotion to our own was powerful, but at times, naive. I had the urge to shake some sense into him. And just when I thought I couldn’t let the subject go, ready to provoke another fight to convince him to leave, I saw the tiredness in my love’s golden eyes.

The little girl ventured off elsewhere as Barken and I joined Rosco and the sorry waste of space that was Gage. His eyes, left eyebrow pierced in addition to his septum and the several rings on the edge of his ears, threw daggers at us as we ate his beast. I’d wipe that scowl off his face if his father hadn’t been present. The meal was largely eaten in silence. Barken practically ate scraps.

“You should eat more,” I said. “I need you to have your energy.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Your partner is right,” said Rosco. “Best to eat as much as you can. You don’t know when your next meal will be, where you’re going.”

Barken sighed, nibbling some more. Gage’s eyes never turned away from us.

“You boys are from Orion, right? What’s it like?”

Barken and I exchanged confuddled looks. I didn’t see how he expected us to describe a place we could never leave, not with roll call every night. And what do we compare it to, Tygrus?

“Orion,” Barken begin, “I’m sure isn’t much different from anywhere else controlled by Deko. Guards are always around, and many of us are subjected to work camps, like Diego. Openly carrying weapons as well as the use of magic are forbidden.”

Rosco and Gage looked to one another.

“Illegal to carry weaponry and perform magic?” Rosco asked as though something sour was on his tongue. “That’s preposterous! Our weapons and abilities are our birthrights. You all must’ve been driven wild, forced to subdue yourselves in such a way.”

I said, “You’re saying I could be sparring with you one of you with the two daggers in my pack and we wouldn’t be arrested?!”

“Hell, we’d all be imprisoned if that were the law!”

According to the ones who taught us, being deprived of using our weapons in public kept us from committing violence toward one another like wild beasts. Being in Tygrus, you get an idea what they’ve been trying to prevent, seeing so much damage from axes and swords on the doors and walls to homes. You’d assume it was the responsibility of the neku, but it was all the doing of the descendants, fighting amongst each other.

“What you both running from, anyway?” asked Gage.

I rose an eyebrow. “Are you concerned?”

He sneered. “I’m concerned for my pa and my little girl. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about you-”

“Gage,” Rosco said his name sternly.

“We don’t know them! We don’t know what they’re capable of!”

He pushed away his food in disgust. Rosco squeezed his eyes and sighed.

“You’re being difficult. If Oneida or myself end up on the run, Ida forbid, would you not want someone to help us? We have to work together. Descendants divided allows Deko to win.”

“Work together? Does our brethren watch our back? Protect us? No, they come for our blood, pa, and I’m tired of you endangering us trying to help these men who would have no qualms slitting our throats in our sleep. They’re not worth fighting for, nothing’s worth fighting for. We have dug our own graves, and your bleeding heart only slashes the time we have above ground.”

“Gage!”

He threw his hands up in frustration. I noted his way too-slender arms. He could be broken like a twig. Barken seemed to tense and I lost my damn appetite.

“You’re some piece of work,” I said.

The three of them turned their attention to me. Gage’s face contorted.

“Diego,” Barken said my name low, trying to stop a fight before it started. I should have apologized in advance, but I’d say he needed to be taken down a notch.

“What does that mean?” Gage said.

“You slit your own throat when you say there’s nothing worth fighting for. Were you not born to be a warrior?”

Gage rose up and postured. “Don’t insult me! You’ve been here for less than a day and you think you know what it’s like? You’ll both get yourself killed.”

“...Then why don’t you show him around, Gage,” said Rosco, voice even. He was composed, showed no sign of upset like I was given permission to speak out of line toward his son. Gage’s ears fluttered. “If you feel he’s in over his head, prove it.”

Gage bore down on me with this disgusted look, like I was some ball and chain wrapped around his ankle. He doubted my abilities, thought I would be in his way. Good, I wanted to show him I could handle myself better here than he could. He was mistaken to misjudge the Wolf of Orion.

The arid air was distinct from Orion. Though it was warmer than usual, the heat didn’t smother, but instead, felt light, like mist. The dry ground cracked and crumbled with every step, giving into the soles of our feet. Plants shaped like spheres and ovals with varying hues of olive, sage, and mint grew throughout. They had needle-like outer skin, painful to touch, sometimes growing ruby red and magenta flowers on their tips. Reptiles slithered and hissed on the ground, crows cried to the sky. There was little interaction among anyone. The few small groups comprised entirely of elementalists who spoke in whispers. Every warrior I saw stood alone. Children were in distinctly large groups and Oneida seemed to gravitate to one, participating in their games. Deko’s guards weren’t present.

I was observed by the villagers, analyzed. They smelled my foreignness before looking me in the face, some shoved me wordlessly. One warrior in particular bumped me hard enough in the shoulder to knock me to the side.

“Watch where you’re going!” I told one off.

“Look ahead, and stop staring,” Gage said to me. He was beside me, head leaned forward, sweeping through with fervor as others made way for him. “They sense you’re on edge. It’s your attitude. They mess with you to test you, it is our way.”

I was given instruction like some helpless child. When he turned to me, he gave a cocky smile. My blood boiled.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked.

Gage took a while to reply. His attention was on the sky.

“My father asked me to show you what our home is like. I’m doing just that.”

A flower shop came into view that looked to have been deserted for years. At its doorway, I saw a woman with drab garbs and bare feet pacing near the entrance. Her eyes kept turning to the doorway as if anticipating it would swing open, the building would come anew, and the owner would welcome her in with open arms. In contrast, a woman with a blood orange full-length dress and matching headband, the beacon of light in this dingy scene, walked alongside the pacer, holding her child’s hand firmly. The two eyed the woman cautiously, as though she would attack them unprovoked.

Children with dried up dirt traveling up their legs and arms roamed aimlessly throughout, their clothing falling off their bone-thin bodies. One child appeared to be requesting something from an adult using an empty metal canister.

“Please, you have anything, sir?” he asked.

The adult man shrugged and the boy walked away, defeated. He seemed used to disappointment.

“How are their children begging on the street?” I asked. “No one in Orion is without food or shelter, we aid those who are without. Elementalists are all around them, anyone could feed them!”

“How lucky are we,” Gage said, “to have you around to solve our issues.” The sarcasm that dripped from his tone grated my earlobes. “These children, men, and women you see are what we call the dispensables.”

More of these men and women with scraps for clothing appeared around us. The tone of their skins were sickly, their unattended wounds festering.

“There are many stories about these people, robbing and killing the ones that shelter and feed them. Some could be true, most fiction. Citizens fear them, but they're the least of their worries. Portions of Tygrus are overrun by thugs pushing their weight around and terrorizing the populace.”

“Thugs?”

Gage nodded. “No one, not even the neku, addresses them. You see the deserted children? These thugs are the only ones who care for them, offering them food and a place to sleep so long as they work under them. Providing for these children is interpreted as disrespect, so others try to limit their interactions with them. Believe it or not, desperation doesn’t always produce unity among the oppressed. ‘Descendants working together against Deko.’ Tell me brother, would you seek to liberate these foul beings?”

The edge in Gage’s voice came out clearly amidst the cacophony of sounds around us. Arguments between citizens, the metal sounds coming from the weaponry they carried, dragging feet. This place was a wasteland.

“Off with you, disgusting child.”

We heard the commotion as we came forward. An adult woman was speaking roughly to a child, then kicked her away. I felt my hands fidget, angered by the injustice. I flounced towards them, only to have Gage grab me by shoulder.

“This is one of those times when you ought to look the other way.”

My eyes narrowed. I could’ve beat him down right then and there. Did he not care or was it cowardice? I removed his hand from me and kept on. The young girl wiped herself off on the ground, her face looking rough.

I called to the woman, “What the hell is wrong with you? How could you strike a child, what has she done to you?”

“Mind your own,” she countered, shooing me away and turning her back. I jerked her around to face me again. She stared in wonder, shocked by my gall.

“Just because she is a child doesn’t give you the right to treat her as you please.”

“G-get away from me!”

Gage was at my back. “You’ll attract attention. Let the woman go.”

“Hell I will!” I twisted my head to face him. “You can sit here and watch these people disregard these children, treating them like trash. But I won’t, someone must defend them.”

A few descendants witnessed our tiff. They didn’t interfere as they slowly came out of the woodwork becoming spectators. The sadistic oafs among them showed something truly sickening: the thrill of a potential fight.

“Did you ignore what I told you earlier? These people can’t intervene-”

“Who’re you?”

The soft voice came from not too far. Everyone and everything hushed. A woman, joined by a group of other descendants, walked themselves towards us. She had a spear in hand, bald with lime green skin and a two-piece brown armor suit that covered her chest and lower torso.

“You’ve done it now,” said Gage. “That woman is Aries, someone you don’t want to cross around these parts.”

“Is she one of those thugs you were mentioning?”

“Yes, one of the ‘heads.’”

Aries said, “Didn’t you hear me?”

“I heard you,” I said, facing her. “My name is Diego.”

The woman nodded. “You’re not from here, are you?”

The others at her side didn’t have their weapons confined to sheaths or their backs, but had them gripped in their hands. I separated myself from Gage and the vile woman I had accosted who melded into the background. Another child aided the little girl who was kicked to the floor.

“My goal wasn’t to quarrel with any of you. I address unjustness when I see it.”

“Cocky bastard,” said one of Aries’ crew.

Aries rose her hand. The crewmember quieted instantly. She removed herself from them, her eyes unwavering as she looked at me.

“I commend you for your ‘heroics,’ said Aries. “I hope it was worth your life.”

Aries held her spear in both of her hands, weighing it in her palms. She shifted the spear in one arm, then hurled it my way with rapid-fire speed. I moved quickly out of its direction as it pierced into the house behind me. While moving away, my feet slipped on the ground. Water conjured up beneath me, bringing me down on my back and into the puddle.

Two warriors rushed over, one with an ax, the other with a sword. My hands felt the water around me. When they reached close, I threw the water toward the axe-wielder, making her stop suddenly while the swordsman charged forward. I pulled out my daggers, recalling immediately that weapon use wasn’t against the law here, and used both to block the sword from coming down on me.

“Why do you intervene, Diego?” Aries asked, careless of the fact that I was doing battle with her thugs and was hardly able to focus on her. Her voice had come from the house. I heard metal being yanked, my assumption being that she was retrieving her spear. “Do you plan to feed these children? House them? We’re the best things to happen these ingrates, the only ones keeping them from dying on the streets.”

I used my strength to push against the swordsman, lifting myself from the puddle. I thrust hard against him, pushing him to the floor, then the axewoman kicked me back into the puddle.

“What alternative do you suggest? Are you in disagreement with our ways?

“YES!” I spit out the puddle water that went in my mouth. “They don’t deserve to be treated like trash, regardless of what you do for them. No, I don’t have an alternative, but they sure as hell deserve better than being kicked around asking for food.”

The axewoman stood above me and brought down her weapon. I rolled away from the attack and kicked her down to her feet, her axe falling from her hand. I pulled myself up hurriedly, kicking the axe away from her grasp.

The swordsman reappeared, swinging his blade horizontally. I jumped back, dodging his wide-reaching swings by inches until one cut grazed against my chest. Gage grunted like he felt my pain for me. The swordsman thrust his weapon at my chest, and I deflected it with my dagger and elbowed his belly. He dropped his sword, then I kneed him in the head. He dropped to the ground motionless. A red-orange glow overcast the scene. My back was burning.

Gage screamed, “Watch out!”

I turned. A boulder flew towards me, a trail of fire behind it. Fire wrapped around its surface, transforming into a makeshift sun ready to crash into me. I couldn’t see the elementalists who summoned the fireball. I dove to the ground, the smoldering boulder hurling above me. It’s scalding heat seared my back. The boulder made an impact on the home behind me, lighting the entrance on fire.

“NO!!!!”

The woman who kicked the young girl screamed. The blaze took no time to devour nearly half the house.

“YOU’RE DESTROYING MY HOME! PLEASE STOP THIS!”

Aries and her crew did nothing, felt nothing. The inferno’s glow reflected in their eyes and you wondered if they were the spawns of Satan himself.

I pulled myself up. “You do no one any favors when you take advantage of them for what they lack. You might as well all be under Deko.”

A punch collided with the side of my face. It’s brass knuckles stung. I was thrown to the floor again, blood coming from my lips. My hand cradled my jaw, making sure it didn’t dislocate. Above me, the brawler threw another punch. Suddenly, his arm was grabbed. The brawler looked behind him to find Gage.

“What are you doing?” he grunted.

Gage looked him in the eyes, boldly. “Putting a stop to this.”

The boy ceased his attack and backed away a few steps from us.

“Are you intervening?” asked Aries, a threatening edge in her tone. “You are Gage, are you not?”

“...I am,” he said. Whispers commenced among the onlookers, observing him. “I ask you to excuse this man for his intervening. He doesn’t know our ways, and acted stupidly in defense of the child.”

“Stupidly?” I spoke in anger. “I didn’t-”

“His indiscretion is my responsibility. Pardon him for his trespass.”

The little girl and a few of the children were huddled together in silence, watching us closely. Aries crew looked to her. I heard the woman whose house was burning sobbing in the background, while the onlookers talked amongst themselves. I was shocked to notice the guards had yet to show up. Gage stood calmly facing the thugs. He wasn’t in a defensive posture, wasn’t even remotely guarded in preparation for an unexpected attack that surely could’ve maimed him. It was like he knew they wouldn’t harm him.

Aries said to Gage. “Take him out of our sight.”

Gage went to me and yanked me up from the ground.

“Let’s go,” he said.

It didn't feel right. I didn’t even have the chance to assure the children were safe. But my eyes went to the fire that burned behind me. If I continued, who knows how much more damage we’ll cause. I conceded. Gage moved quick, pulling me with him.

“Next time he comes around here,” she called to our backs, “his head will end up at the end of my spear.”

Sunset was approaching. A surprising coolness took over. Gage took me to the well Barken and I had come from. Mud and dirt were caked on me and blood still dripped from my lips.

“Dammit,” Gage said, “had to get yourself into a mess with the thugs, eh? Trying to play hero?”

He poured a bucket of water on me. My body was shocked to life.

“Fuck! Could you have warned me before-”

“You look disgusting. Pa would have my head if I brought you back like this.” His eyes traveled to the cut on my chest, then observed my back. “You heal well, but you’d do better to build tougher skin. I’m sure your other wouldn’t be too happy to see you soiled and pummeled.”

“I wasn’t pummeled!” He ignored me and went back to the well. “You took me there. Did you really expect me to do nothing, seeing a child get kicked around mercilessly? I’m not one of you.”

Gage threw me a rag. He tugged on a rope, hoisting up another bucket of water under the well’s awning. I hoped to Ida he wouldn’t throw this one on me as well.

“No, you aren’t, and you’re lucky I was with you.”

I was wiping myself, shivering. A breeze picked up.

“How did you stop them, anyway? Old friends of yours?”

Gage became silent. He brought the bucket up from the well, carrying it in his arms towards me.

“I knew Aries long before she joined that crew, the true dispensables of this forsaken place if you ask me.” He dropped the bucket and looked right at me. “These people, every one of them, are no friends of mine. Those who get close to you only do so to get something out of you. Oneida will find that out for herself when she gets older.”

“Do you raise her to believe the world is so bleak?”

Gage paused. His stone face shed away to rage that had him shaking as he spoke. “I raise her to be cautious and look out for herself! You all from Orion must’ve lacked that lesson. You make the mistake of worrying about the obvious enemy and pay no mind to the one that’s right under your nose. No one is to be trusted. Pa’s talk of harmony among us is a pipe dream. We will never be one, and I don’t plan to fill my daughter’s head with that utopian nonsense.”

He panted, then, realizing how worked up he was, started pacing some. It dawned on me how alike the two of us were, pressured into the impossible task of wanting to keep our loved ones safe in an unpredictable world. Certainly Barken has been on the receiving end of my overprotectiveness more than once, seems Oneida has been on the receiving end of the same.

He kept pacing as he continued, “My pa speaks of this grand fight against Deko, one that would be achieved when we descendants finally come together. If you ask me, the fighting that goes on between us is the more imminent problem. Deko didn’t destroy Tygrus. We did.”

Gage spent the walk home in silence. We returned to a cooked meal prepared by Rosco who had done some hunting earlier on. Barken had been stuck in the house, telling me had been engaging in mediation. He was in deep thought when I greeted him, paying no mind to the scrapes on my skin when I assured him they were nothing to worry over. The little girl had returned not long after us, bringing in produce for the meal. I hoped she hadn’t seen the scuffle between Aries’ gang and I.

“How was your walk with our visitor?” asked Rosco to Gage.

Gage and I looked to each other. “It was… uneventful, pa. He came through alright, hmm?”

Rosco observed me. He instantly noted the cut on my chest and lip. “Would you agree, young man?”

“Y-yes. Gage and I sparred a bit out there, got a few minor cuts.”

Gage was narrowing his eyes at me as I spoke. His attention went to his food afterward.

“I saw you two,” said Oneida.

My heart stopped. Gage spit out his food.

“What did you see?” he asked urgently. Rosco and Barken both picked up on his heightened energy.

“You two were playing,” she said. Playing? She looked to me before saying, “Sophia says ‘thank you’, for earlier.”

“Sophia?” My mind drew a blank. Then I remembered the child who was kicked to the ground by the woman. “Oh, the young girl. If you see her again, let her know that she’s welcome.”

Gage’s frown left him. “Good girl, Oneida.”

Oneida smiled. I didn’t know how much she saw, but I was fortunate that Gage and Oneida kept secrets. She didn’t reveal much, leaving Gage and I’s excursion hush-hush. Rosco simply shrugged and moved on. I took a look outside the window and realized night time had come. Roll call would be occurring in Orion right now, and, oddly enough, the family of three hadn’t moved.

Barken finally spoke for the first time that dinner. “To answer your question, from this morning Gage,” he began. Gage lifted his head to look at him. “Diego and I run... because I was accused of illegally using magic. The circumstances of my crime weren’t told to me, and when I demanded to know, I was threatened with death.”

Gage’s attention to Barken didn’t sway. Oneida was looking intently at him, didn’t show concern or alarm from the subject being discussed.

“I understand you’re hesitance, giving us your trust when you’ve been given many reasons not to. One of our own had done harm to me as well, possibly even concocted this scheme that forced us on the run.”

“Another descendant?” asked Rosco. “That’s...unfortunate to hear.”

Barken shrugged. “I thought it’d be impossible, being attacked by someone just like me. He was a foreigner… like Diego and I. You learn fast not to assume everyone, everywhere is safe. Diego has told me this over and over, but I can’t forego my faith. I believe in our people.”

Rosco shook his head sadly. “All we have is each other. This isn’t the world we wanted you children to inherit, us elders. It’s why we keep fighting, it’s the only way for us to be free! You come to our home, seeing us scrap with one another, dying meaninglessly at the hands of the overseers, and unfortunately, by others like us. Every death is a death too many. The one you witnessed this morning had been the second one in only a few days time. When does it end?”

Barken’s eyes widened, his demeanor shifting. “A few days? Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, was this murder committed during roll call?”

He hesitated. “Yes, an innocent at that.”

Barken gaped, looking like he could be sick. I didn’t understand. Gage looked visibly perturbed, watching Barken intensely.

Rosco said, “How do you know this? You two have only just arrived here.”

Barken ignored the question and pressed on. “There was a guard screaming at the descendant who was killed, correct? Who was behind him, someone who looked to be observing the scene? A bystander?”

“I wouldn’t be able to remember these minute details even if I tried. These guards are hardly memorable.”

Barken deflated. Was he not telling me something? This bizarre line of questioning didn’t have an apparent end. Rosco looked like he couldn’t make heads or tails of it himself.

“The princess.” Gage’s low tone interrupted the silence. “Xandra... She had been there that night.”

“Princess?” I said.

“Deko’s only child,” said Rosco. “What does she have to do with this?”

Barken said, “I would explain if I was able. Last night, I dreamed memories of this woman witnessing the murder of the descendant you speak of. I’ve never met her, and I’ve never been in Tygrus before today. The only way I’d dream of her memories is if I -”

He froze. It was as though something in him clicked.

“Could this mean - Diego, my lapse in memory, my attack. It must be connected to the princess of Deko somehow!”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, ” I said. “You hardly any memory of the day you were captured.”

“But that’s precisely my point! What else could explain me knowing of these things? You heard Rosco, a man died here exactly as I described without me being anywhere near the incident. I don’t dream the memories of people I’ve never made contact with.”

“Are you suggesting you performed a healing ritual on a neku? You were unconscious the entire time, Barken. What you describe is improbable and senseless. What reason would you have to do something like that?”

“Hmm,” hummed Rosco.

“Pa?” Gage said in a questioning tone.

“What he describes isn’t as far-fetched as it seems. That story was common with clairsentients here, after their disappearances. Captures, no memory of what happened, unexplained visions. Something tells me your run-in with the neku this morning wasn’t an unsystematic event. Whatever happened between you and the one they call Xandra may have put a target on your back, young one.”

“Why would these guards capture and kill clairsentients performing healing ceremonies for their own?” Barken asked.

“... Because they fear you may have memories that you aren’t supposed to have, that would be detrimental to them. If you’re recalling memories of the princess, my, you have information from one of the closest people to Deko!”

Was this all true? Why would these guards target Barken specifically? Or was he chosen at random? Why would a descendant assist with this scheme? Rosco provided us some much-needed clarity to better understand our predicament. Barken’s protection was more necessary than ever, and, if all this were true, he was better off dead than alive in the guards’ eyes.

“What can we do?” I asked. “We can’t stay here and we don’t know where to go next. I hate to admit, but I’m not sure how prepared the two of us are to be fugitives, especially if these guards are after Barken because of his connection to the princess.”

Rosco seemed concerned, but Gage formed a smirk as though something I said was entertaining.

“There better be a reason for that smug smile on your face.”

He gave a small laugh. “You underestimate us. We'll train you.”