Bertan`s quest - Michelle Tarynne (best beach reads of all time txt) 📗

plan had an unseen path within, and his every word had a second meaning to it.
"I lied," Ash burst aloud in a roaring laughter, "You shouldn’t look that surprised, the Unnamed of the name Sil now we are all Swords, we lie like we breathe. Infinitely. Never forget that."
"You can continue calling me Unnamed. I've come to like the way it describes me." He frowned at the sudden revelation that appeared in his mind, surprised he had said aloud before he had enough time to process it.
"That I will do, Unnamed. Let's talk about something else now," Ash said slowly, leading the Unnamed to climb the foothills, to the place where an ancient water-river had left a patch of white sand, right in the middle of the giant crushed stones. He took his time to sit down on the sandy dune they had reached.
"Do you know, what was the first station I was sent to after I had been deemed ready to be of use to our Kingdom?" Ash asked cautiously while he absentmindedly played with the grains of sand.
"No, I assume that must have had happened before my birth to my Mother," the Unnamed answered, uneasy that he couldn’t see the direction this conversation would be heading into. Yet.
 
"Just barely, I'm not that much older," Ash said, slow in both his words and gestures. "Much changed since I had taken that station," he continued to reflect on the times past, deeply submerged inside the thoughts that went beyond of what he intended to share. Slowly and carefully, he took his hood off and unclasped his mask to reveal his bare face that wore the expression of ecstatic joy that settled there for the briefest of moments.
"I've forgotten, how it feels to have the outside breeze kiss my skin," Ash confessed half ashamed and half amused by his need to befriend the Unnamed. He wanted to open himself this way in the presence of his already unmasked newfound brother, who waited patiently for the story just to be continued. "It'd been just before the Skyfire Storm that I had been assigned to the commander of the Great Mine." Ash finally let the truth to leave his mouth, "And it's the first time I will talk about it ever since."
"How many people know about it?"
"Now? At this point, it's probably only my Mother, and she's never cared about that fact much. Her aspiration has always been aiming much higher than anything outside the walls of Naam."
"I think all Mothers have that tendency," the Unnamed sighed in sympathy. "But why are you telling that to me now?"
"Patience, my newfound brother, find your patience," Ash smiled once more, paused to inhale some more of the calming breaths. He needed more courage to spill the secrets of the last two millennia. "I had been young, scrawny, and still a bit uneducated in every art other than war, as far as the Sword standards went. So, I'd been the best candidate to work in the Mines, as I didn’t realize the full extent of the power and potential they held until it was too late. I could compete with the slaves then, with my small statue, because of that the air-travel and the tubes to the inner core were opened to me. So, I worked tirelessly to deliver the unearthed stones from the lower tiers into the Melting Place," he paused once again, lost in his memories, "It's funny how it has skipped everyone's knowledge and memory that we actually worked in those mines too. The slaves couldn’t be trusted with the tiers that were closest to the core. They could never be aware of the trading that was made down below. Though, now I think maybe it has never been an open information for the Swords either."
"Trading? Who exactly did we trade with there?" the Unnamed frowned at the new piece of information. "And why has it all been hidden… still is?"
"This is what time and history do. Obscure. We are on the edge of extinction, and the guilty will do everything to erase and bury their faults and deeds deeper than the core itself. The Fates had it that I was sent with the last transport that had left the Inner Block before the Skyfire Storm struck at its center. I saw the tongues of fire lick the whole area just before my descent into the Naam Royal Tower. We were beyond lucky that the Mountain Ranges separated our city from the inferno that surged otherwise all around and that not a single fire-lick had met this area. Long before that we had been a great race, full of inner light.
Back in time, when the Great Outer Darkness had engulfed our world, we had been gifted with Tharo Juice, so we were able to survive without any light and any real food. Now it seems, the firelight of the last Skyfire Storm revealed the darkness that poisoned our cores. The whole Slave Rebellion that followed that fiery Storm could only be possible because we had killed most of our own kind that worked the lower tiers ourselves. They died when we flooded the undergrounds with the Great Lake waters. Because of that, the fire-rivers changed their courses, and the water that aids us was suddenly void of the poison that used to keep us whole."
"How come, you know exactly what happened?" the Unnamed asked hesitantly.
"Some of the things I had to know when I was working in the Mine. Like the emergency procedures. At the first sight of any danger the Pit was to be cooled.”
“The Pit? What’s that?”
“It was a place at the entryway to the lowest tiers, a small but deep tunnel right into the core, filled with a molten fiery liquid. It was used to transport what we have traded with the Core, the only way we were to communicate with the Deep Below. We used to use iced dust that cooled the fire for a few cycles, and Iced sword that would cool it indefinitely, till it was removed, so that everyone of our men could go to the forbidden tier and wait out the danger with the ones who used to trade with us. ”
“I still don’t know what and with who had we been trading.” The Unnamed frowned.
“Have you ever read any of our history books?” Ash chuckled, avoiding answer once again.
“I wasn’t trained to know or think about the past. I know only of basic truths and facts.”
“That explains a lot,” Ash sighed.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nevermind.”
“No, tell me what you have in mind.”
“First, tell me why did you let Her die,” Ash whispered, “I know there was a linking between the two of you, why did you let her die?”
“I, ah. It’s complicated,” the Unnamed stalled.
“Say. It. Out. Loud,” Ash hissed.
“She didn’t order me not to,” the Unnamed said unwillingly, “It’s who I am, what I do. I follow orders, and as the Mother she never bothered to say it.”
“Yes. It’s who you are. A machine trained to follow orders. Not to think, not to feel. It’s all that you know,” Ash muttered, “We talked about the awakening before. My own awakening was to realize I took and executed the order to kill everyone who survived the Skyfire Storm at the forbidden tier of the Mine. I was the one to block the water-well that allowed the Great Sea underneath our lands not to overflow. It used to shed the excess volume to the spaces that we knew weren’t inhabited. My hands brought the destruction more painful to the Swords than the Skyfire Storm had."
"Who gave you that order?"
"The King… our New King that is, he knew I wouldn’t know then where that water was supposed to go," Ash said, " And I doubt the Old King had realized what happened before the effects struck us all, if at all, as no one ever asked me about that. By then I was reassigned to the Outer Barrier anyway, so nobody was present to share the knowledge. Cassess would never admit to his mistake, though I’m not sure if that had really been a mistake. He wanted all of the riches of the Core for himself, without having to trade."
"That's why he is so quick to start this war." Some of the pieces finally started to fall into right places and formed a clearer picture in the mind of the Unnamed, it was easily visible on his face.
"That's why he's the engine of our ultimate doom. The decision he had made back then left us, Swords, barren ever since the Skyfire Storm… I think you were the last one to be birthed by any of the Mothers."
"Are you sure?" the Unnamed asked, “It’s hard to believe in something that ridiculous.”
"Of course, I am." Ash snorted, disbelieving that anyone would doubt his words.
"Then who is your own son, Ashte? He is not that old. Who are all the young ones? Who had been Her?" The Unnamed caught his tongue just in time to stop himself from saying Her name out loud with Ash still present around.
"I don't know, it depends on. There are many ways to bring a foreign child into the Sword territories," Ash answered, "I have never been of your Line House, so I don’t know what deals your Mother had made."
"It always comes back to her," the Unnamed frowned, "Everything starts and ends with my Mother."
"She used to rule your Line House, it's obvious."
"She used to rule me," the Unnamed said with closed eyes, disliking how truth and lies ruled his life so far. Used, used… he was used to being used.
"That she did," Ash said, "We need to get ready for war. I think The New King won't appreciate waiting for his first victory."
The time of truth and storytelling was over for both of them. The time of war arrived. 13

 Six young Swords walked into a massive cave. The farther they went, the more ablaze it seemed, white veins of light fused with the stone all around. Genes stopped in the middle of this nature-made wonder. He knew, he was the only one who had some knowledge, and it was a time to share it with the ones who followed his so willingly and readily.
"Do you all recognize what you have felt before?” he asked his companions quietly once they gathered around him.
"Yes," Ashe answered first, clearly wanting to take the leadership of this group. "Though, we still don't know how that is even possible. That can't just be."
"But it has happened. We all felt it," Seven interrupted awkwardly. "It's time to accept that now, or to go back to your Towers there." She gestured back towards the entryway into the Sword-lands. "I feel there won't be returning to the Swordlands from this journey."
"How do you reckon? Why there will be no turning back?" Ashe was sincerely surprised.
"It's obvious the rumors have some truth to then, Ashe, Can't you see that now?" Seven smirked, suddenly bold and daring, "Are you that deaf being a son of the Second Line?"
"What rumors for Fates’ sakes?" Ashte was becoming really anxious.
"You haven't heard anything?" It was Pat's turn to be surprised, "No?" he looked around, "Not any of you?" his frown deepened.