Note: I figured I would post all those chapters I have already written, and then sit down one day and edit all of them based on everyone's reviews. A big thank-you to those who reviewed #1!
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2
Into House Zaria
Men with blank faces, as if they had never felt a single emotion, rowed silently in the cool night air to propel the transport boat forward. Sivus frowned, knowing that they had never been allowed to live free. Travitha was a cold city, and if you weren't careful, you could find yourself incredibly depressed. Sivus used to think the whole world was like this, until he had been sent to support one of the Dissian factions that had claimed the throne of the nation after their previous Black Knight (the title of Dissia's autocrat) had died without an heir. The nation had gone without its seventh Black Knight for five years, until finally Travian houses began sending Gravashi to speed things along, most of them choosing the same faction as others to support. When Sivus had been sent, he realized that life could truly be good, even if you weren't nobility. Remembering that he actually was nobility, Sivus laughed.
The boat stopped at the end of Curios Devan relatively abruptly, causing the entire ship to shake. If they had gone even a second longer, the bow of the boat would have crumpled against a massive stone barrier. House Bischa, of course. It was settled on its own floating platform, like almost all of the royal houses. It was the only one with its own harbor, however, which was probably why the operator of the boat had failed to order a stop. At nighttime a stone barrier was slid in place, carried on massive floating planks of wood which were tied to a stone ring around the platform. This was to stop any nighttime visitors from coming in, and was put in place after House Zaria hired away all of the Bischa's security force. The boat took a few minutes in motionlessness, then the rowers began to go backwards, slowly turning the wooden thing around.
There had been periodic stops along the way, of course, but this was annoyingly long. Touer would be waking up soon, and Sivus really couldn't bring himself to do what he had done again. She needed to be inside House Zaria in a few minutes, or Sivus would really be in trouble. Fortunately, he could tell from the nearby buildings that House Zaria was close ahead.
A minute or so later, the transport boat came to another halt, but this time parallel to the landing platform of House Zaria. Grabbing Touer and hanging her limp body over his shoulders, Sivus began to run towards the ramp that led to the boat's exit. He could hear her slightly moaning, that meant she would wake up soon. As he approached the gate, he felt a metal tip touch his nose, and a dark voice spoke. “Who are you?”
It was a guard, of course. There was likely fifty of them outside the gate, and another hundred or so patrolling the courtyard. It was so cloudy out that Sivus hadn't seen the man and had ran directly into his spear. At least it wasn't being held a little lower, or the young Gravashi might have actually been hurt. “I am Sivus Bischa, servant of House Zaria. I ask that you let me pass,” he said. Ceremony was incredibly important to the major houses, which is why everyone had to use oddly formal phrases like that when in one.
The guard lowered his spear and gave the equally ceremonious reply “In the name of House Zaria, I allow you to pass. May life serve you well.” Sivus nodded, and then listened for the guard's footsteps so that he would know when the other man had stepped aside. Why didn't they let Gravashi carry a candle with them? This darkness was terrible. After stepping inside the gates, a small amount of light was provided from the two lamps that had been lit. Apparently the House's maintenance crew was asleep again.
From the little light there was, Sivus saw two flags hanging from metal poles in the center of the courtyard. Each one depicted a black rose, curling in a circle till the flower itself reached the base of the stem. That was the symbol of House Zaria; a symbol that could be seen in almost every part of Travia. The jagged cobblestones were a reflection of Julia's conservative attitude. The last time she had renovated this place was right after Sivus became a Gravashi, all those years ago, after he had been kidnapped from House Bischa in the night. Sivus still wondered who had enough skill to get past legions of guards, and get into his bedchamber without a single scratch. Whoever it was, they certainly had a great deal of skill.
Sivus walked slowly, hearing Touer's mumbles grow a tad bit clearer and louder. He couldn't afford to wake her up now, not before he made it into the Chamber. He could see the entrance to it just up ahead, a few more steps and he would be there. As he heard her breathing grow like the even respiration of sleep and more like that which accompanied awakening, he grew worried. His heart raced, and he could only imagine the punishment for allowing her to wake.
The reason, of course, was that they couldn't let Touer escape, or try to anyway. If they tried to not harm her, she would likely get away, and if they did, any wound greater than a slight cut would mean her body couldn't sustain the surgery that implanted a disk of Avalin inside her head. It would restrain her mental activity, and also facilitate the easy removal of memory that was essential to the system of Gravashi. If they were able to remember all that they had done, one being kidnapped would be a tragedy. Sivus himself couldn't remember any of his operations beyond hazy details that hardly mattered, like what quarter of town it was taking place in, or the smells of a bakery nearby the area where he was working at.
The boy finally managed to approach the Chamber entrance, and slowly opened it. Touer would awake any second, so he hurriedly took her off his back and into a small wooden restraint that was used to receive all new Gravashi. Her legs wouldn't fit, as the restraint was built for children. That was easy to fix, however, he just slid the wooden rods that held the occupant in place over her thighs instead of her ankles.
Wiping beads of sweat off his forehead, Sivus breathed a sigh of relief. “I see you've brought our new family member, Sivus,” boomed a deep voice, followed by a slight chuckle. Sivus would recognize that voice anywhere. It was Rahliis, a rare Dissian Gravashi. Sivus smiled and looked up. The difference in their height was amazing, and quite intimidating for Sivus. Rahliis, being a Dissian, stood at about six and a half feet tall, and weighed two hundred fifty pounds of mostly muscle. However, Sivus wasn't terribly scared, as Rahliis was a good friend, at least as much of a good friend as a Gravashi could have.
“Yeah, she's a bit, er.. rough, but we can fix that, eh Rahliis?” replied Sivus, laughing slightly. He took in the surroundings just now. Several candles were on in just this entrance room, so Sivus imagined most of the Gravashi were still awake. A few months after their surgery, all Gravashi came to live in the Chamber. Almost all Houses had a variation of it. Tight quarters, bad food, and, of course, lots of incredibly varied guys with knives all crammed together in a few rooms.
Sivus sniffed a bit, and took in the smell of what was currently cooking. The fireplace was lit and a large pot stood beside the flames, likely with a combination of meat and vegetables mixed with a terrible sauce inside. “Andragan, Kavarh, get in here, Sivus is back!” came another booming call, and soon enough two men that looked exactly alike appeared behind Rahliis. Andragan and Kavarh were the only other foreign Gravashi in House Zaria beside Rahliis. They were from Rawhzahn, a nation far to the north on the main continent. Their ancestors had come to Shathadar during the Seventh Great War, and had since bred into one of the largest foreign families on the entire island. Both of them were a bit shorter than Rahliis, about six feet tall, but they still were massive compared to Sivus.
Kavarh walked up to Sivus and gave him a crushing embrace. Sometimes the large Rawhzahnian man didn't know his own strength. Struggling, Sivus broke free and breathed heavily. “Are you trying to kill me?” he asked in an exasperated tone. The other three men broke out laughing fiercely as if it was the funniest thing in the world. Sivus joined in a few seconds later, after he had recovered his breath. The four of them had become good friends over the course of a few years, which was started by the Kavarh and Andragan getting in a strength contest with Rahliis. Andragan, the weakest of those three, could probably throw Sivus across the room with ease. Sivus noticed a foul smell hanging in the air, and was prepared to run from poison.
Rahliis sniffed the air, and then cursed under his breath. “Cook! The food's burning!” he shouted, and a stout man who Sivus hadn't noticed sprang up from a stool, likely having been woken from a nap. So that's all it was, just some food burning. Sivus figured he needed to worry a lot less. The cook walked over to the pot and tried to pick up the massive cast iron object, but wasn't able to budge it all. Andragan smirked and walked over to the pot, and easily hefted it into the air and laid it on the stone table in the center of the room. He lit the candle on the table with a match he had apparently stored in his pocket. Not that the light was needed of course, nor the heat. The cook got out about fifty spoons, and simply left them by the pot. They were out of bowls again, apparently.
The Zaria didn't like to spend too much money on the Gravashi, likely because they thought the servants weren't worth anything. Still, not buying more than one set of bowls (one that was drastically small, at that, there was probably one bowl to each two Gravashi) was considered one of the most ridiculous penny-saving moves the family ever used. Rahliis walked over and lifted the lid off of the pot, and revealed the usual dinner. It was a mix of some form of mystery meat, celery, carrots, and potatoes placed in a terrible-looking thick black sauce. Rahliis grabbed a spoon and stuck it in the pot, letting it fill with the mixture before taking a bite. “Better than usual. I think I might not vomit this time,” he said, chuckling a bit. The other three men laughed.
By now the commotion had drawn the rest of the Gravashi into the room from the recreation area. Most of them looked a lot like Sivus, as Travian Gravashi were the easiest to get a hold of due to the Dekalan tariffs on – well, just about everything – coming to and fro Shathadar, which made it expensive to buy foreigners, despite an ever-growing need to stop reducing a large percentage of the Travian population to something that was almost slavery. Dekal didn't even have a strip of land connected to the sea, but almost all trade passed through Alvara, a city that was supposed to be independent, but was essentially in Dekal's hold. Alvara was the home to the aptly named Council of Alvara, a group of delegates from most of the Dragosothian countries that strove to create peace where it was possible, and promote a good economy worldwide.
Shathadar had managed to stay out of the Council's grip, only because of its insane wealth. In days where poverty plagued most nations, most leaders were willing to abstain from war for a healthy sum. Of course, this would be even easier if Travia and Dissia existed under a unified crown, as they used to before the First Great War, which was started by the discovery of Avalin. After the war, the winning coalition signed a treaty that broke the nation in two, hoping to reduce its economic power, and the ploy worked, though not well enough to stop the Shathadran nations from increasing in wealth every year.
All of the men grabbed spoons and started to eat the soup out of the pot. Despite the incredibly large volume of the stuff, it was gone in roughly ten minutes. After dinner, a guard came in and blew out all the candles, which signaled that it was time for the men to go to sleep. By now, Sivus had mostly forgotten about Touer, though once he was lying in bed his mind kept wandering back to what was going to happen to her. He barely remembered what they had done to him, but every time he even started to think about it a primal fear rose in him. Then again, that was what happened with almost everything in his life. What had he done yesterday? Sivus didn't remember. But he knew that whatever it was, it was somehow innately wrong. So wrong that it carried through the absence of memory into just being a raw emotion.
With that thought, Sivus' implant suppressed his thinking for at least the tenth time tonight, and the repeated stress caused him to black out.
