Theoist Omnibus

" What is your name?" a gruff voice barked as I first noticed the blindfold over my eyes. 

" Theo Mafellan". 

The blindfolk ws snatched off my head without even the decency of untying it from the back of my head first. 

" What clan do you claim allegiance to?" asked the interrogater who shifted a infra-blue light into my eyes so I couldn't see past it and be able identify who my interrogater actually was. 

" Clans....No clan. I'm from the Daekagae Wastelands. There are no clans in that land. Just bandits and mercenaries" I replied having to close my eyes for the light threatened to blind me. 

Clans, I vaguely knew what a clan was much less was a member of one. 

" The Daekagae Wastelands? Why is it I don't believe you?" snarled the interrogater's gruff officer-like voice. 

" I don't know but that aint really my problem now is it?" I said. 

" Why aren't you wearing any clan emblems or badges of identity?" my interrogater snarled pretty much ignoring anything I said in the process. 

" Because I've already told you, I don't belong to any clan, I'm not even from anywhere around here" I said, my patience beginning to lessen. 

" You are a younger clan spy aren't you? How old are you?" asked the interrogater, still ignoring what I spoke. 

" The answer to your first question, should be obvious yet I'm guessing your a fool and haven't been listening to me. The second? I'm twelve" I said. 

I felt a fist or something hit me in the back of the head, sending my face into the wooden table, and blood began to drip from my nose when I lifted my head. I grinned, someone was behind me as well. They were sneaky. 

" Why are you smiling spy? You look very young but only twelve? That's a lie for children don't begin to train in a clan until twelve years of age. So you are lying. What clan do you hail from liar?" asked the interrogater. 

" Brains must not be in your personal interests. I'm not from any clan. I'm from the Daekagae Wastelands. I was travelling with a mercenary band, when they were all killed and I got this scar on my chest" I said showing the large red slash mark of a sword that I had earned one bloody night. 

It had taken a total of six months to totally heal, in which a village helped me, and then I struck out on my own. I'm not sure why I did this. Now I was beginning to think it wasn't such a smart idea. 

I tried to look around the room I was being held in, but I could see nothing, everything was black but the bright blue light hitting my face and blinding me from anything else that might be around me for me to notice. That was probably the point of the light. 

" You have a good story spy, but I don't believe you" snarled the interrogater. 

" Then would you just kill me already and be done with this fruitless discussion. Your an incompetent interrogater who couldn't force a thief to admit he steals even if he saw you watching him stealing, and the guy behind me hit's like a frail old woman. Honestly, they should have found people better at this. Idiots both of you" I said with a wide grin on my face knowing what was coming next

Nothing good, but I just wanted this to end already. Next thing I knew, I felt a heavy blow to the back of my head and then I was unconscious. 

~~~~~~

A man entered the interrogation room and seen the young child unconscious, with his face against the wooden table unconscious from the blow that one of his interrogations team member had dealt him. He was a strong and highly brave kid. Yet, that couldn't go to any credit of the child for he had been found in a place sacred to the Saito Clan. A place no outsiders not from Saito Clan were ever allowed to enter on pain of trial and most likely death. 

The boy wouldn't speak of any allegiance to a clan, he kept claiming his home to be the dreaded Daekagae Wastelands. No one would ever claim to be from such a barbaric place unless it was true. Not even proudly at that if it was true. His story added up, the bits an pieces that were gotten out of him in the little time he was questioned before he was put unconscious by the temper of the man's interrogaters. Which despite him being a trespasser in sacred Saito land, he did not approve of the way they had treated the child. 

Yet, how did the boy get here from a land so far away? It all seemed to fantasy-like. Yet the boy seemed to be telling the truth about the whole thing, his horrible scar on his chest is not something a normal child would show off to prove a point lightly. 

Maybe he really didn't know where he was when he trespassed into sacred land. 

" Master Daakoon, he won't admit to any clan allegiance. I dont know master but I'm beginning to believe what little he told us before Verdae hit the boy so forcefully like a fool" the interrogater said shooting the one called Verdae a disgusted look. 

Daakoon looked towards Verdae, sighed and turne away.

" Bring the boy to my chambers, and leave him there with the doors locked behind you when you leave. No need for him to escape before we find out whether to put him on trial or not. I will question him myself" and then Daakoon left the room while the two men lifted the unconscious boy from the chair. 

Daakoon was intrigued by this child. It was nothing about his story that he told, he obvious toughness that was strangely uncommon for someone his age. No it was his eyes. Daakoon remembered the look in the boy's eyes when he spoke of being put to death and then continued to insult Daakoon's interrogaters. They were haunted. Extremely haunted. What could a child so young have seen, witnessed, or experienced to have so much pain, anger, and fear in his eyes? 

~~~~~~

I woke from my slumber to find myself in a new room. It held a much warmer and calmer atmosphere, and I was quite comfortable upon a couch made of slick but soft material. I stared around within the room and noticed the great fireplace straight across from me, and the comfortably sized fire burning within it's confines. There was a lot of decoration within the room. Paintings of people I had never seen before in my life. 

Several held weapons while they posed, others just wore smiles, one had an eye patch over his right eye and he neither smiled nor frowned, a sort of in-between expression. The rest of the room was liveried with either white furniture, or a indigo blue color. Blue had always bee my favorite color but even this was too much blue for me. I liked variety. 

The main thing that caught my attention was the dual katana that rested above a massive carved wooden desk against the furthest back wall in the center of the entire large room. They were upon a plaque, seemingly the metal was melted around them to forever harbor the blades which was a sort of waste in my eyes. 

The rest of the room was much like the rest of it already witnessed. I stood from the couch where I had woken and was beginning to explore the place when someone opened the door to it and in stepped a man I had never seen before. 

He wore a long flowing blue robe with white stripes going from top to bottom and there were several badges, and emblems for which reminded me of something my earlier interrogaters had spoken of. 

" So I'm guessing I'm inside some clans's territory huh?" I asked, curious of the man's answer. 

" I'm afraid so young man, and your name would be Theo Mafellan?" said the man. 

He was slightly older-looking, maybe mid-thirties in age, a little above six-feet in height, and he was thin like a rail, but I could put together he was a deadly fighter. 

" Yeah, that would be me". 

" So now I'm going to ask you questions, and in a much more calmed demeanour then my previous counterparts expressed. Which I apologize for their treatment, I didn't know they would rough you up as they did" said the man. 

" Your name would be?" I asked. 

" Daakoon Mendell. We are going to take a walk around the forests of this land so we may speak whilst enjoying the view of the world we live in. Come Theo, it's better to start sooner then later" the man named Daakoon said. 

" That depends on how it ends" I said, suspicion and distrust quickly rising in the pit of my stomach. 

" That may be true young one" and then Daakoon motioned for him to follow and then he turned and walked out of the room. 

Prepared to run for my escape if I seen the opportunity, I stood up and followed the strange man. We passed through a hallway where armed men with blue and white uniforms carrying a variety of weapons stood at attention whenever Daakoon passed by them. This man must be of some higher authority then I had thought. We came to a lobby after taking a contraption I had never seen in my life. 

" What is this?" I asked when the doors opened by the push of a button and made  dinging sound. 

" It's an elevator. Step inside, it will take us down a floor so we can exit the premises" said Daakoon. 

Cautious, I stepped inside, and the doors shut behind me causing a slightly panicked reaction that had me take a swing at the metal doors. The so-called elevator didn't stutter, pause, or even slow down, though I left a slight dent in the doors. I turned around and glared at Daakoon for not explaining this "elevator" thing more thoroughly. Though his eyes kept looking from the dent I had made in the one side of the door to me in high interest. 

" I'm guessing you were taught how to fight in the Daekagae Wastelands?" asked Daakoon. 

" I wouldn't call it teaching" I responded. 

Memories and images flooded my mind of men holding swords standing around me, and another boy of my similar age who was standing a few feet across from me. He had a dagger in his hand, and I held one also. A loud and harsh voice barked something incoherent, then the memory seemed to wash away like the tides of sand during a sandstorm in the Wastelands. 

Daakoon was still watching me when I snapped back to reality and stared back at Daakoon. The man whispered something under his breath that I would swear to, sounded like, " haunted". 

These elevator doors opened and Daakoon stepped out first, and then I followed behind him in what looked like a small room with several chairs and windows that displayed a cityscape region with many people walking back and forth by the windows. 

I grinned. It wouldn't be too hard for me to become hidden within so many people walking the streets. Daakoon led me out of the door's passing by a handful of people sitting in chairs staring at papers, with strange writing on them. I couldn't read or write so it made me no difference regardless. 

When we came out into the street with all the people walking to and fro, passing by and many of them nodding in respect to Daakoon, I began plotting. It would be too soon now, but obviously there would be time. 

So I began following Daakoon once more who turned into the tide of people walking, who many gave him a stangely respectful space. Yes, he was a highly ranked individual within this society. Daakoon turned and looked down to me and asked me another question. 

" Is this new to you? So many people together in one place?" asked Daakoon. 

" No. Though there are several things that happen differently where I'm from. It's not this peaceful" I responded. 

Daakoon stared strangely at me for a few seconds, then nodded and fell into silence once more. The sun was shining and the weather was warm without being naturally hot enough to make one sweat. There was a hint of a cool breeze within the air, which usually signalled thunderstorms. In the Daekagae Wastelands, when the heat of the day was blistering, with a hint of coolness from a breeze, it usually meant heavy thunderstorms for the next few days. 

Here, I didn't know. Daakoon led me down one crowded highway, people clustered together and when we reached a open space which turned to a market, a sign above named the place Silenka Plaza. Aasir began to see how the market was massive, plenty of place to run to, and also many people to lose myself in the crowd and away from Daakoon. 

" Were you from a village in the Wastelands? Town? City?" asked Daakoon. 

" I'm from Koteta City, the largest halfway civilized place in the wastelands. Though it's still a slum. People die there everyday and no one cares. No one lends a helping hand. No one is remembered. The dead are easily forgotten like the grains of sand that wash over the city during a sandstorm" I said, rather poetically when I later thought about it. 

Daakoon confirmed my opinion. 

" That was rather poetic young man. I see you are rather artistic in some aspects of your mostly hidden personality" said Daakoon. 

" I don't know what your talking about" I snapped back at the man. 

Images of a grown man, a grown woman, and a little girl, everyone of them having dark brown curly hair similar to mine. They were smiling, and then the image shifted and they were staring at me. They were screaming now. 

Daakoon was studying me again. He was mouthing something in a whisper, and yet I coudn't hear what he was saying. I noticed several armed men eating at a noodle stand a few hundred feet away against a wall, past a crowd of people gathered at a cheap clothing vendor. 

They would logically pursue me at the call of Daakoon's voice if I ran now. Still, I was running out of patience. I wanted to be away at that very instance. Daakoon was still leading me further into the crowd of shoppers within the market when I finally ran out of patience. 

I stopped walking, looked around, chose a way, and raced away from Daakoon. Who noticed me as soon as I had began to run and me and him locked eyes for a split second before I stopped caring, turned away and focused on where I was going. 

I noticed that I raced past several more armed men, each wearing the same blue military uniform with the white stripes. They glared at me obviously for running in a crowded place but other then that, they were mostly uninterested. I found a small gate that led to a orchard in what seemed to be someone's backyard to a massive home, for I had noticed the home towering above the market. 

I opened the gate door, and closed it behind me and began to run across the massive grassy yard that had a wooden swing set in the center of it. I reached the end, thinking I hadn't been spotted when I noticed Daakoon standing near the swing set I had just recently passed. I cursed under my breath and then I came upon another gate and leaped over it instead of taking my time to open and close it. 

I was entering a forested area when I heard scuffling in the bushes and around the trees that I was racing through, not really knowing where I was headed. 

Something wrapped around my legs all of a sudden and took me off of my feet. I hit the ground rolling, and when I looked, it was some kind of net contraption that I could easily undo. Which meant I got lucky that whoever threw it, their aim was off. 

I undid it and attempted to stand back up when something smashed into my back and took me off my feet again. A man in the usual military uniform had cracked me across the back with a Bo Staff, and this provoked my temper. I tried to get back up and face the man when the Bo Staff as if by lightning speed, caught me across the back again, planting me back on all fours once more. 

I rolled over this time onto my back, attempted to get back up again, and then before the staff could hit me once more, I caught it in-between my palms, held onto it with all my strength and stood back up. My newfound stance did not last long before the man lifted the staff and me with it, and I was sent sailing over the man's left shoulder. 

I hit the ground in a roll, but still dazed and shocked at the featof strength the man had just displayed. I was by no means a match for him. Which I hadn't expected to be, but it was real unnerving to experience it firsthand what you naturally thought. So I decided tp play dirty. I grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground and threw it at the man's face. He cursed, and wiped at his eyes and I used that time bought to flee the scene once more. 

I hadn't gotten anymore then several footsteps when three more of the uniformed men dropped from the air seemingly, but more likely from tree-tops, and had me completely encircled in a traingle formation. I was trapped with nowhere to run. I felt like giving up, but no, I had always been to stubborn to quit, even when the odd's were highly against me. This attitude had earned me that scar on my chest. 

Though the uniformed men must have either guessed that about me, or were feeling merciless, for they all were armed with Bo Staff's, and one of them cracked me in the face and I was out cold right then and there upon the ground once more. 

~~~~~~

Daakoon had watched the whole spectacle that the young Theo had created while trying to flee. He was no match for a trained Warrior of the Saito Clan, yet he was still brave, and desperate to continue to try to flee. He had only failed in one instance of the test Daakoon had set up for the boy. He had threw dirt in the eyes of the man he had faced alone to get away. Which in war, there was no such thing as honor and chivalry. Yet the boy didn't seem to have the honor of fighting fair either. 

Then Daakoon supposed he had figured out he was outmatched, and done what came to his mind first. This was a intriguing quality in the boy. A desperately quick thinker. An interesting quality in one so young. 

Daakoon grinned. Yes, things might turn out greatly opposite of what he had first thought would be Theo's fate.