Some Things Transcend by M.C.A. Hogarth

Author:M.C.A. Hogarth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: M.C.A. Hogarth
Published: 2016-11-24T16:00:00+00:00

The practice session fascinated Lisinthir... dismayed him, that also. There was little aggression in Jahir and what there was couldn't be sustained for long. He obviously didn't enjoy the exercise despite having trained sufficiently with the staff to be deft; it was as if fighting was a foreign language. But it was one Lisinthir felt he had been born speaking. Even unarmed, he could best his cousin, and did, over and over, attacking him and then drilling him on how to guard against that attack until Jahir could defend himself. Lisinthir gave up any pretense at verbal fencing; the sort of repartee he and the Emperor had traded as a matter of course was reserved to people at ease with violence, who could float above it to make threats and jests. This... this was too grim for any sort of badinage, no matter how good-humored.

But for all his ineptitude at dealing out violence, Jahir could take it. He rose again from every kind of blow, humiliating or physically taxing. He endured. Seeing him push himself to his feet one more time, Lisinthir revised his original assumptions about how long his cousin would have lasted in the Empire... and some small part of him whispered that Jahir would have lived through the tortures that had nearly broken Lisinthir's mind.

There was power in the yielding spirit. Lisinthir had the grace to admit to himself that he'd attacked Jahir for saying so for fear that he would lose his cousin to the Chatcaava, have to watch the partnership sundered and see what that did to Vasiht'h.

"Enough," he said finally, when they were both drenched in sweat and Jahir was visibly trembling from fatigue. He reached over to take the staff from his cousin's hands, had to twist it out of clenched fingers. "Go with your beloved," he said. "Clean off and rest. I'll be along in a moment."

That Jahir didn't object on the grounds that this would leave Lisinthir unmonitored spoke eloquently of his cousin's state. He merely turned and stumbled toward Vasiht'h, who lunged for his side and put his shoulder under his taller partner's and helped him from the gym.

Lisinthir watched them go, then replaced the staff on its socket on the wall. If he was right, there would be facilities for washing—and he found them behind a second door. Stepping through the shower cube didn't relax him the way setting it to a water cleanse and staying there until the steam beaded the deck would have, but it was better than remaining sticky. Sitting on the ledge alongside the folded towels, Lisinthir reflected that the Alliance was often thus: efficient, brilliant, shining and wondrous... and too frequently empty of the inconveniences and challenges that allowed one to hone one's edges. Would he have been soft himself had he been born Pelted? Perhaps he should be grateful to his homeworld for being so backwards, if its many unnecessary dangers had given him the opportunity to become who he was.

But then, the unnecessary dangers of his homeworld had created Jahir, as well.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.