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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Seeing Double - 13. Chapter 13
here is another installment of Matt and Dan's adventure. hope you enjoy :)
MATT
The first thing I immediately could tell was that I had had no visions that night; a fact for which I was eternally grateful.
Today was the first day of the production of Dan’s bow. I had gone over plans with the Master Forge man and the plans he had were beautiful.
Dan had more training today and I wondered how he was coping with it all. He had never once voiced a complaint about his training to me. I took it as a good sign; he would let me know if something was troubling him about his training.
I put all thoughts out of my mind other than those I wanted to use during the production of the bow.
I walked down the main street for all the shops and stalls and I embraced the cacophony of sounds, sights and smells, each one uniquely different to anything on Earth. As I passed the pet shop, I saw miniature versions of Hquaio. That reminded me that I should introduce Dan to Hquaio soon. I hoped Dan wouldn’t be too scared.
As I made my way up the street nearly everyone there recognised me, and, instead of shying away as was the norm for me, I embraced their welcome. I was a knight in shining armour so to speak.
“Matthew!” They shouted, albeit with an accent which warped the ending of my name from ‘thew’ to ‘you’ and I chuckled.
I saw children running around my feet, daring to touch my robes then giggling and running off before their mothers could catch them. The mothers gave me an apologetic look and I sent them a thought telling them it was no worry, whilst giving a beaming smile.
Adolescent Galwrons tried to push to the fore to see me; I summoned a phoenix, like the one I summoned at the fireworks show but many times smaller. I let it circle me before letting it fly around the throng of people around me.
It was as I allowed the phoenix to have a mind of its own that I scanned the crowd and saw a lonely figure. He wore robes of the Light House, one of Ynana’s students then. His power was dim at the moment. I could see the negative emotions in him whirling around, making it difficult for him to access his powers.
He looked up at me and amber eyes stared straight into mine, and in the split second our eyes met, I knew he would play a role in this battle. I didn’t know his role and neither did he...yet.
The Energy knew what I wanted to do and the phoenix landed gently on the boy’s shoulders. I walked over to the boy and he seemed like he wanted to bolt, but I held my hands up to say I meant no harm.
“What is your name Samenon?” I asked, referring to the boy by his official rank in the House.
“Darhan, my Lord.” He whispered and I only just caught it amidst the shouts from the people in the street still.
“Why are you so wrapped up in your negative thoughts, Darhan?” I asked very softly. He could only be a year or two younger than me, but he seemed so pure, so innocent.
He continued just to look sheepishly at the floor.
“It’s ok, Darhan; I get caught up in negative Energy and everyone else does too. But it’s best not to dwell on those thoughts and instead focus on your love for...” I left the sentence open for him to fill in the gap.
It took several moments but eventually he answered with “The animals.”
“Well Darhan, this phoenix wants to stay with you. My Energy will only keep it here for so long and it’s up to you to show it your love in order to sustain it. Can you do that?”
Darhan’s eyes brightened as he heard this and the Energy flames of the phoenix glowed brighter with it.
I hugged him whispering “Don’t think you’re the only one going through what you are; it can and will get better Darhan.”
And with that I politely asked the crowd to disperse allowing me clear access to the Master Forge man’s workshop.
“Tytheril?” I called as I entered the workshop quietly.
“Over here boy.” He replied and I smiled. Only he would say ‘boy’ to me, but coming from Tytheril, I didn’t mind.
Tytheril was standing over his anvil looking down at it. He seemed to be pondering.
“What’s the big dilemma, Forge father?” Forge father being the respectful name for the Master of the Armoury.
“I was just wondering whether I would have to reheat this core because of your late arrival.”
“I am sorry Tytheril, I saw a Samenon wrapped in negative thoughts.”
“Samenon and negative thoughts? Hmmm, interesting.” Tytheril said, his mind wandering off into different paths, like mine could if I let it.
“Yes, interesting indeed.”
“It matters not now though Matthew; it is time to make your young man’s bow.” Tytheril looked at me the same way as my dad might after a major success in something. That brought a pang of longing and guilt, my parents. I hadn’t seen them for weeks, or spoke to them. I will do soon.
“Yes, I am eager to make it.” I said happily.
Tytheril nodded and directed me to the anvil where the solid cube of metal stood. It was metallic blue in colour and no blemish marked its surface. It also seemed to shimmer in the flickering light from the braziers and the furnace that blazed about six feet away from me.
This metal responded to Energy, and could be shaped by Energy.
I sat cross legged in midair and closed my eyes; in my mind’s eye I could still see the cube and with a faint whisper of Energy I lifted it gently off the anvil.
“Steady now Matthew.”I heard Tytheril warn in a low growl.
I recalled the image that Tytheril and I had decided on before this meeting. Imagining that the image in my mind was actually a mould right in front of me, I started to pour Energy into the metal. Hearing it vibrate I could tell I was performing it right. Slowly, the bonds in the metal started to break and eventually the metal became a liquid. It wasn’t hot as I hadn’t put heat into it, just a different type of Energy and whilst making sure the metal didn’t escape my grasp in the air I floated it over to the ‘mould’.
I was allowed to open my eyes now and I could see the metal had taken on a lighter shade of blue now, almost sky blue.
Pouring the metal into the invisible mould was a weird experience and I relied heavily on the image in my mind.
Eventually, though, I saw the shape of the bow come together in midair, the metal conforming to the image in my mind.
Tytheril gave a satisfied grunt when I had finished pouring the metal and I smiled.
“Well done, that was great skill, especially as you aren’t an expert.”
“You were here Tytheril; nothing bad would have gone wrong.”
He shook his head and I laughed.
“We should wrap the wood around now also.” Tytheril said after I had finished laughing.
I nodded and followed him to a different part of the workshop.
Here the workshop smelt like pine and a thousand other trees and blossoms that I couldn’t possibly name. Small globes of white Energy hovered near the ceiling here. Tytheril didn’t use braziers here for lighting for obvious reasons.
Set apart from all of the other woods and samples Tytheril kept, was a small pile of brilliant white wood; it would have looked fake if it wasn’t for the fact I had collected this wood myself and knew that it was indeed from a real tree.
Whispering a command in Galwron, the metallic shape of the bow glided over.
As Tytheril whispered a prayer for each piece of wood, I thought of all the positive thoughts of Dan I could think of.
Using Energy of his own, Tytheril levitated the wood and circled it around the bow.
“By my thoughts and by my actions let it be known of my love for Daniel Baleforth. Let this bow carry him great victory and allow my love to be constantly shared with him at his every touch of this bow. I pledge my love. May it strengthen and protect Daniel and may it strengthen this weapon in order to help protect those he loves in return.”
As I finished the incantation Tytheril bonded the wooden pieces around the bow. How he manipulated the wood I didn’t know, that was one part I was not to be enlightened to.
Each piece curved round and bonded to the metal emitting a golden light as they did so.
The metal of the bow snaked through the wood, producing sky blue veins that formed a wonderful pattern on the wood.
I watched as Tytheril fitted the string onto the bow and tested the strength, tension and flexibility of the bow before handing it to me.
“That is one fine weapon we’ve made today Matthew. Make sure your bit of stuff knows how special that weapon is.”
I chuckled at the use of ‘bit of stuff’ before nodding and adding my thanks.
“Energy and peace.” The hardened Master said before I transported myself out of there.
Arensha’s planet:
The screams that ripped through halls echoed for minutes after as Arensha tried to compose himself.
The steaming skulls of several Practitioners that lay at the base of his throne were foul testament of Arensha’s growing impatience.
Even Arensha’s most trusted advisers shied into the shadows of the immense pillars during a fit of such rage. Preparations were not going well and several different officers had been made an example of already.
The Black Portal sang with their screams still after several days since being pushed in.
The Portal had claimed them greedily, absorbing their life force, stripping away all vitality until all that was left was the blackened bones left to tumble down the Portal until the end of time.
Arensha’s army numbered in the tens of millions now, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
With the placation of the Portal, several million extra fiends were attracted to the planet, but the Dark Energy seemed stuck in a lull, and there was no reason for this. Or none that anyone dared to mention. The populace, scared, tortured and in despair came to see the lack of progress as a sign of hope, that their slavery would come to an end soon. Any thoughts of that came to a swift conclusion as Arensha had allowed his Dark Elite to run rampant around the one town where the hope was strongest.
After the night the Dark Elite entered the town, the population in nearby villages could smell the horrid smell of burnt human flesh and the metallic tang of blood on the air for weeks to come.
The Elders of each village were made to walk through the town to see what would befall them should they too wish to believe too strongly of salvation.
Through his anger Arensha trained harder, pushed himself harder than anything before, his art was at the pinnacle of his being. He smiled at the thought of being able to strip the life out of that stupid bitch Ailarha.
‘Yes.’ He thought. He would show her the pain he had suffered during his humiliation at her hands, his humiliation after he had spent so long trying to woo her.
Some rumours were soon quashed about Arensha only seeking war to make up for this blemish. But it went beyond that. He hated them all, all Galwrons, their arrogance and their way of life making them seem so righteous. He hadn’t been able to control his emotions, he was cast out of Galwrock society and he opened up a Portal for himself and he had fled, rather than spend the rest of his life looking at what could have been.
Arensha hated all life. Nothing was made better by them being here.
Hatred consumed every atom of his body; every cell was flooded with the Dark Energy of malice and anger.
Looking over his army, from his balcony, he could see the purple hued fiends standing silently, their black eyes blazed with pupils of red and their shapes as random as the disorder of the universe. No fiend was the same. All had four limbs but how they were arranged on the body was different, like a child had had many goes at making a monster and each one was a variation.
Several war machines stood ready also, great courses of fire licked down the structures of them as Energy discharges from testing lit up the sky with their power.
The sky turned a bruised colour as more pods full of fiends came down. The pods were made of viscera of untold enemies of this world and they split open like gory petals as the fiends clawed their way out.
Their growls, all in unison, echoed across the plain and Arensha could feel every mortal soul on the planet shrink in fear as the growl passed their ears.
He was reminded of other projects when he saw a group of fiends being herded into a nearby tower.
Once inside the screaming was glorious: screams of despair, of people petrified at what was going to happen, sobbing at their situation. It was a symphony of pleasure and Arensha embraced the screams with a grin. The Dark Practitioners at work bowed low as he walked past and into the observation room of one of the fusion chambers.
He walked in just as the human was being dragged into the chamber; he reeked of faeces and of terror, one smelling much sweeter than the other to Arensha.
As the human was chained to the chamber floor, arms and legs spread eagled, he pleaded for mercy.
Arensha laughed a cold, cruel laugh as the servants left the chamber to allow the process to begin.
Set into the chamber walls were hidden doors and these now slid across to reveal a fiend standing behind each one.
Their presence made the human soil himself once again and Arensha looked upon the human with disgust.
One by one the fiends slowly stalked forward, sensing the human in the room.
Each fiend was being controlled by a Dark Practitioner and each one was sitting in a chair in a semi circle in the observation room.
Arensha laughed as the human screamed once it saw the fiends.
With contemptuous ease one of the fiends sunk its claws into the arm of the human, bringing fresh cries of agony.
Each one of the fiends, of which there were six, sunk a sharp claw into one limb of the human, with four fiends sharing the legs.
Then, with painfully slow movements, the fiends hooked their claws under the skin of the human and slowly teased it away from the human’s body.
So continuous was the screaming and the wailing now that it all seemed to blend into one long drawn out cry of pain but Arensha could distinguish each whimper, each wail, each chink of the human’s sanity that was lost during this process.
After a few minutes the human was flayed, leaving everything else intact. Blood leaked onto the floor but most of it was kept in the blood vessels by more Dark Practitioners that were keeping the human alive.
One of the fiends tore off the rib cage and flung it away, letting it shatter on one of the chamber’s walls.
With this the organs of the human’s body would have spilled out, but the Dark Energy used still kept the organs alive in the place each one should be.
Afterwards, the fiends each took an organ and swallowed it whole, and as they did so, the human’s soul was tore into several pieces. It’s final soul cry of anguish made Arensha tingle with pleasure.
It wasn’t too long after the consumption that the fiends started to change. Each one started to squeal as their bodies changed shape, becoming more and more humanoid.
The skin stayed the same but became muscled with bulges and sinew visible beneath the thin translucent skin.
Their heads became more humanoid, but large tentacles hung like hair down the back of each one and eyes blazed with balefire as their transformation was complete.
These hybrids, fused with another soul, made powerful warriors. Arensha smiled. This part of the army was taking shape at least.
A lot more work was still to be done but knowing one part of his army was taking place made his lips curl into a small smile.
Stepping through a portal into the Tower of Assassins once again he remembered with irritation the last failure to come from this place.
“My Lord, what a pleasant surprise.” One of the elite assassins addressed him as he arrived.
“You knew of my meeting already; don’t flatter me with your words.” And with that the assassin merged back into the darkness that flooded large parts of the hall.
“Tsk tsk Arensha...your mood gets fouler with each passing day.” This voice came from the head of assassins herself.
Even Arensha didn’t know the true name of this assassin and it was something she constantly mocked him for.
“Are you ready to make up for a failure assassin?” Arensha asked curtly, showing no mood for any unnecessary conversation.
She was wearing a mask of deepest crimson but even underneath it Arensha could tell she was smiling.
“My assassins are yours to command, Arensha.” She was one of the only people he tolerated using his name.
“Good, you must go to Earth once more.” Arensha relayed the rest of the information telepathically and the assassin’s hidden smile got even wider.
DAN
Matt had returned with a smile on his face as he entered the room that evening. Only half a day’s training had allowed me to look over the work for university, and it was nothing I couldn’t manage. My main concern was now.
“Someone’s happy.” I teased as I embraced him.
“I have someone incredibly gorgeous to come back to each day.” Matt smiled and I couldn’t help but get caught in his eyes; they drew me in.
“So what’s happening?” I asked and Matt gave a puzzled expression.
“What do you mean?” Matt asked, his puzzlement still clear.
“I’ve been hearing all sorts of an opening and of a festival. All the staff have been very eager and very busy.”
This time, at hearing this information, Matt smirked.
“Oh come on what’s the big secret?”
Matt had a look that meant he wanted to drag this on but to my surprise he told me the answer.
“I have been gifted a Tower of my own, and it is now finished. They plan to open it, which means open the portal in it, soon, to coincide with the Festival of Yuiaan.”
“Festival of Yuiaan?”
“It is a festival of new beginnings, of a time to make new things happen. It heralds change for the coming year.”
“But it is near the end of the...oh... they have a different calendar here?”
“Bingo.” Matt said mockingly.
“Don’t be mean.” I pouted.
“I would never be mean to you.” He answered before locking lips with me.
After a few minutes of our lips being glued together, I asked “So when do we leave for this festival?”
“Tomorrow morning.” Matt said with a smile.
“And you couldn’t have told me any sooner?”
“That would have spoilt the surprise.” He replied with a smirk.
“Evil boy.”I said before throwing a pillow at his head and beginning a play fight that I was always going to lose.
Well I hope you have enjoyed this chapter, please let me know what you thought of the chapter or the story so far.
Here is the discussion thread if you would like to post there instead :)
http://www.gayauthors.org/forums/topic/29942-seeing-double/page__st__100
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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