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Unspoken Words

    Falling leaves and cicada songs reminded him of better times.  There had been a few when he was young, and most of them had to do with his friend or his teacher.  Cicada song, their unceasing buzz, coming from everywhere and nowhere, the same as the sound of the Dragon Azrath moving, his scales singing a raspy song of unceasing breath and movement.  Azrath had taught him everything, and he had used it all, for good and for ill.  Long dead, massive draconic bones slowly eroding in a mountain chasm, Azrath had taught him and been slain for teaching him;  he felt no regret, only a pleasant melancholy pride that Azrath had fought to protect him, and he had finally lived up to everything his teacher had died for.

    Falling leaves brought to mind his friend, perhaps the only person he could have called "friend" in his entire childhood.  They had fought together, played together, even learned a little together, despite their differing Clans.  He too had passed away, though his body was still alive, in a fashion.  That body was not the person he had known, not the boy he had come to love, the person had never been able to speak the forbidden words of friendship and kinship.  That person too had died protecting him from a sudden death.

    Watching the autumn leaves fall in the small grove of bamboo, hearing their rustle in the wind, he remembered hearing the sound of leaves on a distant world, falling to the ground that felt damp beneath his bare feet a he ran, trying to catch up to.....

~~~~~

"Roland, wait up!"

The sandy haired youth turned and laughed, running backwards.  "You're too slow, Xerxes, you'll never keep up at that rate!"  Green eyes sparkled with humor, and the pad of other feet grew more distant as the others ran ahead.  Xerxes pushed himself, struggled a little harder to run faster while maintaining the silence of his movement that his main teacher demanded of him at all times.  The rest of the class he was currently training with had no such compunction, and so were easily able to outdistance him.

    Sweeping his hands forward he leapt and landed on his hands, then pushed himself as he started to fall over, performing several handsprings.  The distance he made up with four handsprings put him slightly past Roland, and the silence had been complete.  Taking a second deep breath, he smiled at Roland.  "Come on!"  Roland shut his mouth, and then ran to catch up with Xerxes, and they paced the remaining distance together.  "I am not used to all these leaves, they do not grow trees on the mountainside,"  Xerxes explained as they paced.

    Roland nodded, their pace good enough to keep Master Stehrdann happy, but slow enough that they could talk.  "Your not allowed to make any noise when you run with us either?"  Roland seemed interested, but not particularly surprised.  The black haired youth was undergoing a much more intensive training regimen than most of his classmates;  it was necessary for Xerxes to learn more than one of the Clan's techniques, and he was going to be with the class for almost a year.  Not long enough to learn the truly potent techniques Roland would eventually know, but long enough to be more than competent at hand to hand and weapon combat.  "I bet you aren't used to the air here either...."

    Xerxes made an affirmative motion.  The air here was not merely thicker, there were fumes from the plants and fungi here that made the air less than pleasant to breathe.  It was at the high range of human tolerance - purposefully so.  The students would have to deal with breathing air a lot less hospitable than this at times, and the spores and pollens actually aided the students bodies in developing a resistance to the fumes of places where humans were not welcome.  "Teacher told me it would be unpleasant, but not to this degree."  Suddenly Xerxes slowed, and stopped altogether when Roland slowed as well.  He scanned the trees ahead, and then crouched, looking at Roland.

    Roland looked back, and grimaced, then joined Xerxes, kneeling as well, facing the gangly youth.  Juxtaposed, they were a study in contrasts.  Roland was tanned, hair partially sun bleached, green eyes vibrant and lively.  Muscular, he outweighed his companion by almost ten kilograms.  Pale, lean and fine featured, Xerxes' long black hair was tied back with a silver ring.  His eyes were almost devoid of emotion, burgundy dark pools of limitless depths.  Yet his voice was a pleasant, lively alto;  Roland's had already deepened, though on occasion it still broke at higher pitches.  They looked at one another, each holding the same position - right fist knuckled to the ground, on one knee, crouched.

    They did not speak, but they did communicate.  They learned one another thoughts and feelings through body language and empathetic knowledge, a technique common to all four Clans that was called InSpeech.  Xerxes had felt the awareness of others upon him, through his true training.  He and Roland were not merely being watched, they were being targeted, and while they could be certain it was the other students doing so, that did not mean they were not going to have to fight their way out of it.  Impromptu training sessions were part and parcel of Roland's Clan.  They simply sat, and stared at one another, unmoving and unheeding of the awareness focused upon them.

    The attack was sudden and well planned, from five directions from the forest.  Seven other students rushed them, with a set of two from the direction they came and another set of two from the direction they had been headed.  The response was equally sudden but not nearly as vicious - both Xerxes and Roland leapt up and into the trees, avoiding the fight altogether.  There were two people in the tree - rounding out the class total of eleven - but they were surprised by the sudden presence of their quarry.  Roland disabled his opponent with a single strike, his hand hammering into the girl's solar plexus with force enough to knock her from the tree despite her grip.  She would recover quickly - they had been hit with harder things than hands - but it definitely hurt.  Xerxes simply avoided his opponent altogether by hefting himself into a branch next to the person, and leaping to the next branch as his opponent tried to strike at him with feet.  In three swift movements, he was beyond the other's reach, and the foiled youth let out an exasperated sigh.

    The two made their way through the treetops for a short distance, then leapt to the ground, Xerxes catching up with Roland quite easily in the treetops.  With no discussion, they bolted, running hard for the clearing that served as their classroom.  Their agitated opponents close behind, they arrived and quickly moved across the clearing, ignoring their teacher entirely.  Roland swept up a length of chain, a little more than six feet long and made of small silver links, and Xerxes grabbed a bamboo staff;  their assortment of weapons was larger, but these two weapons gave them the advantage of reach.  They stood at the ready, their opponents quickly charging into the clearing, past the white clad master, only to find their opponents had all the weapons on their side, and were waiting ready for the attack.

    "Ibn!"  the word was almost a sound, but the meaning was absolutely clear.  The eleven students relaxed - Xerxes and Roland setting their weapons down - and walked to where Stehrdann stood, sitting in a close circle around him.  Five girls, six boys, all no older than eighteen and no younger than fifteen, wearing vari-colored gi's, and the same dark leather belts.  Stehrdann was dressed in what appeared to be a uniform, and leaned against a massive sword of red metal, his equally red hair dyed by the strange metal of whatever world he hailed from.  Deep blue eyes regarded the students in silence for a moment.  Picking the eldest student he pointed and asked, "Why did you fail to capture them?"

    "They used the trees to escape the majority of us, and we chose the less combat effective members to guard the least likely escape route."  The young man - Ameiro, Xerxes recalled - spoke unabashedly.  Stehrdann made a slight noise of assent and then pointed at a girl by the name of Twist.  Equally unashamed of their failure, she answered quietly but firmly, "We allowed them time to plan and made the assumption they would fight us."

"Better," Stehrdann said.  "Your opponents will never fight you if they are in a position of obvious disadvantage.  Why should they?  Running away is better than becoming dead.  Alive, you may plan for the future, and deal with the enemy on your terms."  He looked at Xerxes and Roland.  "First watch, and three days cooking duty for you both."  The two nodded.  If they had not fallen behind they would not have been threatened.  It was a light punishment - reward for successfully avoiding a beating.  He looked to one of the others.  "You planned this - your failure;  next two days first watch, and you will train Twist and Masque personally for treetop fighting for two days."  Masque and Twist looked at one another - they had been the two selected for preventing Roland and Xerxes from escaping through the trees as they had done.  All three of them were in for some pain, undoubtedly.

    "Go swim, and return for days last combat rounds in an hour."  Stehrdann leaned against his sword, eyes closing.  Not one student thought for a moment he was either sleeping or not paying attention.  They left in silence, and walked to the river some distance away.  When they arrived, the group as a whole relaxed, breaking up into the smaller cliques and individuals that were friends or had common levels of skill.  They all stripped off their belts and gi's, washing them in the river.  The talk that floated between the groups was quiet and cheerful, with an occasion louder call to one or another student who was further away.  Xerxes washed his gi in silence, barely disturbing the water as he held the clothing under the river's surface.

    It was only as he slid into the water that he received some odd looks from the others;  nude, the most obvious difference between they and he was clearly visible.  The other students had been training for years, many of them most of their lives.  The resulting scars and muscular development were a sharp contrast to his own unblemished skin, and his lean build.  He paid it no real mind, though their gazes and attention were a mild distraction.  As sensitive as he was to other's attention, he could not help noticing  the slightest consideration they had of him, though whether it was good or bad he almost never knew.  As a relative stranger, the others made little effort to include him in their more in depth discussions or their practice sessions outside of class.

    Not that they were rude - far from it.  They treated him with respect, and he was just as polite and attentive to them as he was to Master Stehrdann.  They had more skill and more intensive training than he had, and even his other abilities would only take him so far against their combat prowess.  They answered his questions as best they could, and likewise, he was quick to offer assistance when it was appropriate.  He never minded being a practice companion, and never complained about the force of their blows - unlike many who had trained with them, from what he had gleaned in their conversations and gossip.  He was not surprised - given his peculiar training and skill he was much better off than the other clan members who had been cross trained with them.

    "You don't even swim loudly, do you?"  Xerxes looked up to see Roland swimming strongly towards him, keeping his head above water with a breaststroke.  Xerxes allowed himself to float calmly, waiting for Roland, and shook his head.  "Is there anything you do loudly?"  The dark haired youth smiled slightly, a strange half-smile he would never lose.

    "I hum loudly,"  He answered, and then slipped into the water, pushing off of the smooth rocks at the bottom of the lake and arriving in front of Roland with a whisper of water.  Brought up short, Roland backpedaled a little, as Xerxes gazed at him with deep garnet eyes.  It was hard to read Xerxes - harder than reading any of his classmates, almost as hard as reading their teachers.  InSpeech was normally a very open form of communication, but there was a way to close it off.  Silence of the Mind was the only way to not use InSpeech automatically, and it could only be maintained if you were not using any other ability, as far as Roland knew.  Xerxes almost never left himself open to InSpeech.  "I would not exactly call it singing,"  he continued, disrupting Roland's chain of thought.

    Roland smiled.  "So you're saying we shouldn't let you sing with us around the campfire?"  Xerxes actually laughed, a soft, chuckle that caught Roland off guard.  He'd never heard Xerxes laugh before.

    "That would be safest.  What did you want to cook tonight?"  Roland smiled, embarrassed.  "I could not think of anything else you would come over to ask me about, so I thought that might be it,"  he said quietly.  Roland nodded, and it occurred to him almost no one talked to Xerxes.  He wondered why he had never noticed it before.  "I was planning on some of the vegetables we collected yesterday - I think they are mostly bitters, so some of the citrus fruits would go well with them.  The meat supply is still very good...."  Xerxes waited for Roland to consider, backstroking away from Roland for a moment, never taking his eyes from the other boy.

    Roland nodded.  "I think I'll cook some of the white meat.  That should do fairly well, for tonight."  Roland swam over to Xerxes, keeping pace beside him as the other backstroked slowly.  They were some distance from the others, and Xerxes attention was still fixed where Roland had been a moment before.  "You don't get along with many of the others, do you?"  Xerxes turned to look at Roland and tread water.

    It was a moment before Roland received a response.  "What makes you ask that?"  Almost incurious, but not quite, as though Xerxes was interested in the reason, not avoiding the question.  "I have no quarrels with anyone.  They are polite, and they appreciate my efforts."  Those dark garnets watched Roland's face.  Roland could feel something at the back of his mind, a sensation almost like his Desritas was active.  But there wasn't anything for it to be working on, so why would he feel that?

    Roland shook the feeling off, and spoke evenly.  "I just don't see you talking to any of them, that's all.  Yeah, you listen, and you participate, but you've got to have something in common with somebody!"  Roland felt his emotions getting stronger.  Why were they doing that?  What the hell was going on here?  "Besides, you're different enough that someone should have taken notice of you by now...."  Besides me, he thought to himself.  On an inspiration, he focused his Desritas, the power that made him unique and gave him the ability to deal with inhuman opponents on an equal level.  It surged, and he felt it absorbing....something....from Xerxes.  The energy it was receiving was funneled through a part of his mind, strained, and transformed into a defensive measure - his emotions started running higher.  Which was bizarre, because he had never had an effect like that before.  Energy was supposed to be changed to energy to counter, not changed into mental static.

    Unaware of his companion's internal situation, Xerxes answered.  "My training has been rather solitary.  It was necessary to isolate me from outside influences so that the Osai I developed would be easier for me to deal with.  Other people around would have disrupted it, it is a very subtle form of power."  Xerxes was Osaiyabin - that explained a great deal to Roland.  The Desri-Ta'ada each had a unique form of power that was either combat or defense oriented, that was very basic in function.  Roland's Desritas was the ability to absorb energy and reconfigure it into a defensive measure against the same type of energy.  Twist could literally move space around herself, causing objects and blows to literally move to the side of her.  Others had similar abilities.

    Osai was another matter entirely.  From what Roland had gathered, the Osaiyabina took one aspect of reality, and developed their understanding and control of it into a weapon of vast potential and versatility.  It often left them strange, and their enemies were often hundreds, occasionally thousands of times more powerful than those faced by the Desri-Ta'ada.  He could see why Xerxes was somewhat left alone - Osaiyabina often had skewed ways of viewing the world as a result of seeing so much of one aspect of it.  "Well, you're not in training over there, your with us now.  You should be a little more relaxed, and at least talk to people now and then."  Roland smiled, and then the train of though Xerxes had so neatly derailed came back, driven into full consciousness by his higher emotional state.

    He had not noticed Xerxes talking to anyone before because Xerxes did not talk to anyone, it was true....but he had never NOTICED no one talking to Xerxes as well.  Whatever Xerxes power was, is subtly influenced peoples attention away from him, allowing him to remain ignored, and keeping people from questioning why he was being ignored.  Roland's own power had bypassed the neat little loop, by taking in the Osaiyabin's energy, and then transforming it into more active emotions and awareness, making him aware of the things Xerxes was influencing him to be unaware of.

    "I...will keep that in mind."  Xerxes seemed slightly discomfited, and Roland was acutely aware of the pale youths gaze, suddenly.  Not merely discomfited, but puzzled, as though he had been neatly walked into a wall and could not figure out what had happened.  Roland was also suddenly aware that Xerxes Silence of the Mind was gone, and he took the opportunity to read the boy's mental states and emotions.  "It is time to head back, Roland, you do not want to be late for combat!"  With that cheery call, Xerxes swam a few meters away from Roland, still looking at the young man, and then quickly dove underwater and swan to shore, in utter silence.

    Roland swam thoughtfully after Xerxes, considering.  Master Stehrdann had to have known, but had done nothing about it.  Then there were the feelings and thoughts he had gathered off of Xerxes before the other had rebuilt the walls.  The confusion had been self evident, of course, but the fear and the longing had not, and the deeper form of confusion was not part of his confusion at Roland's immunity - it had been a much different sort of confusion, one Roland was only a little familiar with.  Shrugging it off, he quickly climbed ashore and drew on his gi, knowing it would be dry before they reached their class area.

    The combat drills were never boring.  The students could not be jaded, because there was always a new technique to be learned, a new problem to be overcome, a new set of moves that someone had made useless.  It was essentially round robin, with Stehrdann making sure that those who needed to learn certain types of techniques better did so, and those who could teach did so well.  Xerxes was by far the most interesting partner to fight.  He had an uncanny sense of timing that made it almost impossibly to hit, and when he was struck, he made little noise, unlike the breathy gasps or sharp exhalations of the other students.  He never seemed to get cut badly enough to merit bandaging, no matter how skilled the opponent, and his bones seemed iron hard;  it was this last quality that earned him the most respect, because the Desri-Ta'ada were training to take down things much tougher than any human.  So despite his lack of conversation partners, he was always wanted as a sparring partner.

Making certain he sparred with every single person seemed to be part of his goal.  He fought hard, but he was not nearly as strong as his fellow students - the weakest of them was stronger than he by far, despite being two years his junior.  but only three people were faster - Twist, a boy called Fade, and Roland.  They rarely used Desrita in these combats;  if they had the situation would be quite different, and far more dangerous.  As a result, when Roland's Desritas started to work as he was sparring Xerxes, he suppressed it, but not completely.  It seemed that Xerxes ability was attempting to make him unaware that Xerxes did not bruise or take cuts, no matter the blow.  So Roland cheated.

    Lashing out with his hand flat, Roland tried to drive his fingertips into Xerxes throat.  Xerxes slid to the side, almost faster than Roland could react, but Roland had anticipated the dodge - and had planned accordingly.  Instead of switching to the kick that would have been next, Roland slashed with his hand again, this time drawing his fingernails along Xerxes cheek - as Xerxes responded to a kick that was not being thrown.  Roland's silence of the mind had prevented Xerxes from reading the feint from Inspeech, where Xerxes had no Silence of the Mind since his Osai was in use.  His cheek sliced open, Xerxes turned his head to the side, long enough for Roland to step back and say first blood...but Roland's voice caught in his throat.

    The blood stopped flowing, and slid back into the wound like a living thing.  Roland felt the influence on his mind fade, and he watched silently as the wound became a faint pink line.  He could only imagine that Xerxes blood was holding together numerous cuts and scrapes from the combat, and likely had kept him from showing bruises as well.  However, this is not what brought Roland up short.

    For a brief few seconds, Xerxes mind was completely unshielded.  His inspeech spoke clearly to Roland, and there was no mistaking what his feelings were at that moment.  It was not pain, or anger at having been struck, nor was it self directed anger or spite for not being good enough.  It was faint shame at having allowed someone he cared about hurt him in such a fashion, and hope that Roland did not feel that he had hurt Xerxes badly.  Xerxes was worried he would feel bad, for hurting him, because Xerxes liked him.

    Forcing himself to speak, Roland asked in his most calm voice, only letting a little of the concern through, "You okay to go on, Xerxes?"  Smiling, Roland tried to control the feelings he was having, unable to determine if they were a result of his Desritas interacting with Xerxes Osai, or simply his confusion at being considered important - or even liked  -by Xerxes, who didn't seem to be able to warm up to anyone.

    "I am all right," Xerxes said, smiling slightly.  Indeed, he fought just as willingly and effectively as he had before, as if nothing untoward had happened at all.  Roland did not forget, however.

    After dinner, the two were sitting back to back amidst the circle of nine other members of their class.  Stehrdann had left, as he always did, preparing their training course for the next day, perhaps, or dealing with some problem in the Halls of Creation.  For a long time neither of them communicated;  InSpeech was the only form they could use without waking the others.  Sitting still for six hours was difficult for roland, but Xerxes seemed to have no problem with it whatsoever.  Of course, he most likely never suffered from his legs falling asleep, with his blood acting like it did, Roland realized.

    ((Do you ever feel you should be somewhere else?))  Roland sent to Xerxes.  ((Do you feel this is not where you should be?))  There was a lengthy pause before he received a reply.

    ((I feel at peace right now.  I am surrounded by people who will help me;  I am being taught things I need to know;  I am helping others develop their own potentials.  Do you feel I should not be here?))  The query was untainted by fear or suspicion.  ((I do not feel I have intruded upon your relationships with anyone else.))  One of the side effects of InSpeech was the inability to prevaricate at all.  There was a couple in the small group, and one or two who were happy to be more than friends with anyone, just as there were several who were avoiding close personal relationships as of yet.

    Of course he hasn't intruded on my relationships, I don't have any and neither does he - unless he means friendships, but even then, he is such a loner.  ((You have not intruded.  I merely was curious if you felt you should be doing something other than sitting here with me, still awake after an entire day of training.))  strictly speaking it was true.  There were other things he was curious about, but he was going to tread very carefully around that subject for the moment.  ((Do you feel you should be doing something constructive with your time, instead of sitting here?))

    There was a long hesitation again.  Xerxes took a great deal of time to "phrase" his InSpeech properly, a side effect of his training, no doubt, Roland thought. Unless he really does....  Xerxes responded, interrupting his private thoughts.  ((If I needed to be 'doing' something, I could be gathering my Osai, or drawing from within to strengthen my bones more.  I do not think anyone here could sense that,))  he sent firmly.  ((I am content to sit here and wait until we are allowed to sleep.  I have certainly stayed up longer.))  Roland got the distinct impression that several days were a good measure of 'longer' in Xerxes estimation.

    Roland considered for a moment.  Well, it was not really an unusual question.  In fact, it was a fairly common question to ask.  ((Do you like any of the girls here, Xerxes?))  He made himself receptive to any nuance of reaction, their actual physical contact helping him in this.  The first response was confusion, as if he had asked a completely irrelevant question.  Then the usual relaxation as Xerxes decided on what he meant. Then there was a brief, quickly suppressed shot of fear, as if Xerxes was afraid of liking anyone, or worse, being liked.  Then the instant of openness was gone.

    ((I like Twist;  she has a great deal of aplomb, and she is the best tactician among us.)) Us, he says....interesting.  ((I like Thorn too.  She has a natural grace that makes her a joy to watch, and a terror to fight.  I do not have anything other than camaraderie with them, if that is what you are asking.))  Xerxes was once more imperturbable and calm, his well prepared and definitive InSpeech clear and untainted by any non-essential emotions.  With self control like that it's no wonder he never cries out in pain.  ((I am guessing you have one you particularly like?))  humor floated through the Inspeech.

    ((Well, actually I was thinking about talking to Thorn sometime in the next few days.))  And so he had been, as a sparring companion in the next long drill.  He was not ready for any sort of commitment basis and he knew it.  He wanted to be able to stand against Stehrdann for more than five minutes, and it was going to take all his dedication to achieve that goal.  ((I do think Seysa is pretty too.))  Humor from Xerxes flowed through his mind, and he relaxed.  It seemed Xerxes was able to let go easily;  he'd been worried how strongly attached Xerxes was to him.

    ((Decisions decisions.  I do not think I will ever have that sort of problem.))  Even as he sent it, Xerxes shuddered, a premonition of dark times ahead.  Instinctively he knew he was wrong, but that situation was in the future and not his concern at the moment.  ((It is time to change watch,)) he sent suddenly. And the subject, thought Roland.

    The next day the entire group was told they were to hunt down and fight a true Entropad.  The Entropada, beings of an other dimensional nature, were functionally immortal, and had deeply ingrained instinctive natures.  They could not do anything that was not true to their nature, and that meant some of the more domineering ones targeted humanity as a subject race.  They had been training a long time, including Xerxes, whose Osai could equal the Desrita of his fellow students.  It was a weaker one, and Stehrdann would not generally set them up against something they could not handle.  "Unless he WANTS us to run away," quipped one student, much to the amusement of the others.  Roland did not think it was quite so funny, and Xerxes took the comment with his usual aplomb.

    Stehrdann stood before them, and the few who used weapons gathered them.  Roland picked up a heavy broadsword, his Desritas being far more suited to defense than offense.  The blade was of a dark, oily looking metal, capable of penetrating the unnatural hide of the Entropada.   They gathered together and were silent a long moment, each dealing with the thought of death, or killing, or simply collecting their thoughts.  Then they stood as one, and Stehrdann looked them over.  "Succeed in this, and you will be that much closer to your induction into the Desri-Ta'ada.  I will be watching, but that is all.  You will receive no help from me, even if things should become what would be impossible for you to deal with."  He was greeted with silence.  "Taeseri."  The group responded as one.

    "TAESERI!"  I wonder how Xerxes views that word, Roland thought.  It had one meaning but many uses.  'Until we are destroyed.'  A blessing, a defiant call, a farewell, and a greeting.  Most Desri-Ta'ada considered it to be the point at which their lives mattered most.  fighting an enemy that could not be fully vanquished, only turned away.  Humanity could be protected, and the Desri-Ta'ada were the ones who sacrificed everything for the opportunity to do so.

    Xerxes did not shout it, only whispered it softly to himself.  For him, it was more encompassing than a personal meaning.  Until humankind was destroyed, they would persevere in the most inclement of conditions and realities.  He would be one of the ones who defended humankind against the forces that no mortal would even notice or perceive as being a threat.  His weapons were many, his power vast, but his life would be lonely and dangerous.  For now, he accepted the tenuous bonds he had forged with this small group of students.  The nagging feeling that he could have had more mocked him silently from the back of his mind.  He could never afford to have more;  those he cared about would be the first to be used against him, and he would never risk an innocent life for the sake of his own comfort.

    As Stehrdann swung his great blade, a red light slid from it, and spread against the air;  a cut through reality, it opened and the tear looked out upon sulfurous lakes and storm ridden mountains.  The students moved as a body, Xerxes following close behind.  Roland went close to last, wanting to make certain Xerxes was covered.  He lacked the connection to the other Desri-Ta'ada that such shared among themselves.  It was rare that they did not know each other's location or activity when they were engaged in a battle or hunt - Xerxes, having no such connection, would have to be more aware of them than they were of him.  Roland was certain he still had made no friends among the other students.

    Xerxes suddenly looked at him, and he flushed.  He knew Xerxes could sense other's attention, he'd have to be a lot more careful.  The dark-eyed spectre flashed a smile at him, and then they were through.

    The smell was unbearable, and the heat nearly so.  They had expected to be dealing with inclement conditions, but to actually be in them was a shock.  Oddly, the least affected was Xerxes.  He seemed to take the change in conditions with the same stoic determination he faced his combats with.  The group broke into three smaller cadres, the one with Xerxes consisting of himself, Roland, and Thorn.  They did not spread too far out, only enough so that they could not be taken as a group if something very large or explosive occurred near them.  One of them pointed towards a small depression in the hills, a faint redness of the ground and a more defensible position.  "That's where it would be;  they are as combative with each other in this plane as they are with us."

    The travel was done quickly and cautiously, with frequent stops top test the ground for vibrations, and constant scanning of both terrain and sky.  It was ingrained, but they did not rely on their eyes as much as their ears and the sense of touch with the earth.  Eyes could be deceived;  it was much harder to fool the ear and almost impossible to fool the sense of touch.  They reached the edge of the area, and paused, assessing the situation.

    "Very defensible.  It would be a nest all right," one claimed quietly.  No murmurs of assent, only silent acknowledgment through InSpeech.  Another pointed out the various pinnacles of rock.  "Easily used as defense or weapon."  Having a rock dropped on one's head tended to remove much of one's will to fight, and the Entropada were strong enough to easily destroy rock and tear up earth.  The Desri-Ta'ada in training were capable of similar feats on a smaller scale.  As they started to traverse the somewhat sticky and humid valley, they were more alert and aware, but the surprise still caught them off guard.

    The wetness and the strange softness of the ground they had expected.  It was common for the Entropada to line their homes with the remains of prey and intruder in this plane.  It was Twist who stepped in the first indication that something was wrong.  With a soft crunch her soft boots broke through a thin shell, and she looked down.  Her small, quickly suppressed gasp still brought the attention of everyone  and they froze.  She knelt and pulled her foot from the remains and spoke softly.  "What did THIS?"  The awe in her voice caused several of the others to draw near.

    'This' was the top part of a massive, frog like head, the skullcap of a particularly horrid thing.  The eyes gazed glassily at nothing, and there was nothing left of the interior attached to the skull.  The wet, spongy flesh of the Entropad was pungent, and ironically not unpleasant, but the ichor indicated it was still in the process of dissolution.  Xerxes spoke in that penetrating, quiet voice of his.  "This thing is only hours dead."

    "That isn't the least of it," Roland said more loudly.  He used the tip of the broadsword to lift up a beautifully feathered wing, still attached to much of the marble white shoulder;  the flesh of the creature was a simple black rock, as though it had been part of a statue.  The inhuman flesh of the Entropada was as variable as their natures, but it slowly dissolved, rather than rotted.  "This being shouldn't even be on this plane - much less dead, it's a strong one."  Thus alerted they began looking for more clues into the nature of the killing field they traversed.

    No less than several dozen Entropada had been destroyed in this small area alone, their remains not even spread to mark territory, only left to dissolve under the harsh stormlight of this hellish place.  This only in the first fifty feet from the valley's edge made them all wary.  Roland walked over to Xerxes who was standing still and calmly looking at the ground.  "What is it?"  He asked softly.

    Shaking his head, Xerxes spoke softly to Roland.  "I am not certain.  I feel something....strange here.  Not Entropada.  Not anything I have ever felt before."  Roland was suddenly very wary.  Dragonkind were notoriously thorough teachers.  If his mentor had deliberately not taken him to see or experience the entity or force Xerxes was sensing, then the most reasonable assumption was that it was never intended Xerxes should face it at his current level of development.

    The others continued their study, but Roland hung back.  "Xerxes, this is important - what clans have you studied with?"  Roland asked laying his hand on the other's shoulder.  Xerxes got an odd expression, glancing at the hand on his shoulder, then looks at Roland.

    "Zhriyabina and Desri-Ta'ada."  Mind warriors and the Quickened Death.  Not Variayabina yet, the Aura warriors.  Which meant only one type of creature was left that the strange youth could not recognize off hand.  Roland called out silently, using his InSpeech to attract the others attention rapidly, knowing no Entropada could 'hear' such a sending.  What had destroyed these, however, was not deaf to such words, and Ronald's 'shout' attracted it's attention instantly, with devastating results.

    The ground several hundred yards way erupted, and a mass of silvery tendrils shot up and spread out over a wide area - not ten feet from the furthest of the Desri-Ta'ada trainees.  The tendrils gained mass, and then flowed together, until a massive lump of shifting mercury had collected before them.  Several of the Desri-Ta'ada broke ranks and joined their Clan mates nearer the lump.  With a dull sound, a electrical hum or a whining song, a mass of rainbow colored light slowly rose from where the mercury had come, following it's body.  Black lighting shot through the rainbow cloud, as tiny pinpoints of white light exploded within.  The mercurial pillar was almost twenty feet tall, the rainbow cloud at it's top almost seven feet across.  It rested before them, it's own InSpeech as clear as theirs.

    ((HUMANITY:REMOVE))  The more experienced students had already run forward and dragged their companions back, recognizing the creation at once.  One of the Ceri-Ta'ada, the Created Death.  Designed for a single purpose by the extraplanar beings that sought humanity's destruction of subjugation.  This was one of the single most powerful of them all, small in number, but practically invincible - the Kohl-Varia, the Chaos Aura.  It had slain hundreds of Entropada without remorse or effort - and these humans were it's prime target, not a minor intrusion as the Entropada had been.

    Despite their surprise and the ease with which the creature caused them to be distracted, several of the Desri-Ta'ada students launched their offensive powers at the creature.  A blast of white light that should have seared metal away from the creature, only to have the creatures liquid body collapse from around it, and thrust the colored gases into the way.  The light sank in, and vanished.  Another let loose with a volley of deadly knives, creating a multiplicity of the strange over-metal blades from a single weapon.  With a quicksilver blur, the creature lashed tendrils, knocking aside or simply destroying the theoretically indestructible weapons.  One ripped space-time apart within the creatures vicinity, reality shattering under the force of the girl's will.  The creature did not even respond to the assault, instead choosing to lash out at the nearest humans.

    The results were horrible, for those tendrils cut like razors and sprayed the remaining eight with blood and bits of bone.  Fragmented bodies fell to the ichor soaked ground.  Roland rallied the others, and grabbed Xerxes, thrusting the youth behind himself.  "RETREAT!"  The call was felt as much as heard, and the students with defensive powers fell forward as the destroyers fell back.  Walls of earth were raised by one enterprising student, a shifting maze that hardly slowed the monstrous being down, but prevented it from an immediate follow up.  Another leapt to a pillar and thrust hands out, sending waves of volatile energies crashing into the thing.

    Roland grabbed Thorn by the arm.  "Get him out of here!  We can't afford to loose him!"  Xerxes was shocked, and started to speak in defiance, but Roland rounded on him.  "There aren't enough Osaiyabina to go around, and your work can save billions, instead of thousands....go!"  Roland felt the lie as he spoke it, and Xerxes saw it in his eyes.  He again started to protest, when a massive screaming noise and a rush of wind tore the breath from their lungs.

    The Desri-Ta'ad who had taken position on a pillar and been joined by several others, all four throwing deadly forces at the beast as the one kept it trapped within a shifting maze of earthen ramparts and constructs.  The tormented beast  -which showed no sign of suffering or even damage - had flattened itself into a thin layer, and the cloud sank low.  Then a horrifying blaze of coruscating light and darkness ripped out of the cloud, intensified by the reflective surface of it's body, and blasted three of the defenders into nonexistence; the dimension itself was torn by that strange light.  Concentration disrupted, the two other warriors fell to the ground, one from the pillar, the other simply falling to his knees.  The shifting maze stopped as the young man's concentration gave way.

    Roland launched himself, trusting the power of his Desritas to defend him against the creature's power and force.  Thorn twisted Xerxes arm up and started to move back and perform the World Walking technique that would allow them to escape this dimension, but Xerxes stopped and twisted his arm back, surprising her.  He counter locked her, then let go and slapped her in the chest.  Thorn's heart stuttered, and she staggered, struggling for breath.  What the hell was that!?  Her own ability was simple enough - her impenetrable skin had made it easy to defeat most of her fellow students.  Whatever Xerxes had done did more than simply bypass that power, but had sent her entire body into shock with the touch of his hand.  She reacted by CastingOut, a much more potent version of Inspeech that was little more than a scream for help to a specific Clan.

    Surprisingly, Roland had distracted the creature - not so much by harming it, he could not tell if any of his blows had the slightest effect - but by simply defending himself and being immune to it's horrifying power.  The other two, Rampart and Stellae, were once more assisting, Rampart by making the ground around it shift so that it could not effectively advance or retreat, and Stellae by launching precision lances of terrific force at the tendrils that threatened Roland and Rampart.  She herself was defended by Roland's distracting leaps and assaults, and Ramparts earthworks.  Xerxes drew his hands back to his chest, and closed his eyes, and felt the creatures attention.  Searching deeper, he found the parts of it's slippery, alien mind that coordinated it's devastating attacks and powers, it very cohesion.

    Thorn saw the gateway open and a tall, violet haired woman wearing a white gown step through.  The soothing mental touch that accompanied her arrival eased her heart and breathing, resetting the mental disruption Xerxes had inflicted upon the girl.  The voice that spoke in her mind went right through her Silence of the Mind.  ~Desri-Ta'ad Thorn.  Where is the Osaiyabin Xerxes ? ~ Thorn pointed, only partly because she desired to.  Her will seemed to flow like water in the other woman's presence, her desire to help overwhelming.  A wave of pleasure went through her as the Zhriyabin smiled at her.  ~You have done well.  You and your Clan must retreat at once.  There is no winning this battle.~  Thorn nodded and opened up a portal of her own, as the other had already vanished.

    The battle was not going any better.  While they could inflict minimal damage against the monstrous thing, it could not effectively combat any of them, as Xerxes tore it's ability to focus on any of them away as quickly as it tried to do so.  It was the crudest measure of his power, but his emotions were running high, and his power required focus as well to work properly.  The Desri-ta'ada began a stealthy retreat, carefully preventing it from being able to assault any one of them.  The woman walked up behind Xerxes, who spared little of his own attention for her.

    ~Osaiyabin Xerxes, you must come with me.~  The command was just that - a command.  It flooded his mind and eroded his will....and then he felt his mind SLIP.  It slid neatly into a calm, silent place, a deep void from which all around him was no more than a pleasant  intrusion on his quiet peace.  The Zhriyabin staggered back, as her own mind was nearly drawn into the deep void of Xerxes' mental armor.  A sullen red glow appeared at his feet, and his eyes hinted at the same colors.  He lifted his hands and focused his attention upon the beast, and began draining it's intellect into the deep void.  Deita!  When did he learn to do that?  Brieanna shuddered, withdrawing her self from his mind entirely.

    As Xerxes focused his Osai fully, the battle shifted in favor of the Desri-Ta'ada, and the horror slowly advanced, while they retreated much more quickly.  He could feel it trying to gather the power to itself to eradicate all of them at once, but he shifted, and with as deadly intent as it's own, slowly guided it's attention to avenues of self deception and insanity - though what such a mind could conceive of as insanity he barely comprehended.  Roland paused, as did his companions, and took in Xerxes' aspect, as the Zhriyabin gently, but firmly, instructed Roland's companions.

    His dark hair floating softly in the otherworldly light that surrounded him, Xerxes resembled more a demonic apparition than a defender of humankind.  He looked like a dark angel, or a demon that was...Beautiful.  He couldn't get away from the word - and he had to admit it to himself.  He cared about Xerxes.  If Xerxes was willing to assault one of his own and call up a power he would only use in the most dire of circumstances against beings called gods, it was obvious he felt much the same about Roland. No more lies....you know he loves you, fool.  Roland slowly circled him, coming to stand near the woman, who turned to him and smiled.

    ~I cannot command you, Desri-Ta'ada Roland.  Your companions I have also asked, not commanded.  But it is absolutely necessary we rescue Xerxes.  The being is adapting itself to his tactics, it will be not long before it destroys all of us.~ She looked at him sadly.  ~I know that if he is rendered unconscious, his power will fail, and the creature will kill us all.  If he dies, however, worse will happen.  Unimaginably worse.~  The Zhriyabin did not lie.  At least, no one had ever caught on in a lie, much less an exaggeration.  She looked at him, and Roland looked at the remaining three Desri-Ta'ada.  The look in their face was despair and resolution.  He could see in them the determination to take the monster out or die trying.  He looked to the woman and spoke softly.

    "You say much worse.  You have shown them what is worse."  The woman nodded.  He turned to his companions.  Rampart spoke first in a shaking voice.

    "We have to, Roland.  If we don't...."  his InSpeech spoke for him.  Unimaginable horror.  Quite literally.  Roland looked at the other two, who barely met his gaze.  Whatever the woman had done had broken their spirits.  Even at full strength they had barely held the thing at bay - as it stood this was a death sentence.  Turning on Brieanna, he spoke softly and confidently, certain Xerxes would not hear him.

    "I want your word that he will be safe and remember all that has happened here.  I want the OverMind to know, and make certain he remembers."  The Zhriyabina OverMind, the mass of intellects that they all took part in and served as the communication and mental bastion of the Clans responded through Brieanna.

    ~It is so Recorded and Defined, Desri-Ta'ad Roland.~  She smiled at the youth. ~I thank you Roland.  I will protect him as I would my own brother.~  Walking up to Xerxes, she positioned her hands near his head, and concentrated her efforts, setting up plans and misinformation to prevent Xerxes from sensing her intents, while influencing him to believe she was going to help - carefully.

    Roland stepped forward, and pointed at two pillars, and then handed Thorn a spear made of the over-metal.  He outlined the plan, and made certain Thorn's portal stood at the ready.  "Rampart, use the earthworks to keep it penned - Xerxes won't need to see it to affect it.  Stellae, you over there, on that pillar, opposite Rampart.  Thorn, you and I are going to assault from opposite sides, so we have a four way assault.  Keep in  mind while it can't penetrate your skin it can still break your ribs."  He looked at the other two.  "This is a holding action;  once the Zhriyabin and the Osaiyabin are gone, we make our escapes separately and immediately."  Feelings of agreement washed over him, but the taint of despair was too strong.  There was no hope of his three companions surviving this, but if the cost for not saving Xerxes was that high, he had to try.  His heart demanded otherwise - that the real reason he had to try was so that Xerxes would live, and that reason alone.  He ripped his mind from that line of thought.  No room for the heart in this battle.

    Xerxes and the Kohl-Varia struggled silently and without pause, each one vying for the fatal flaw that the other had.  Xerxes' Osai flared brightly as he drove his power deeper into the monstrous creation's intellect matrix, and it in turn tried to drown him in alien truth and inhuman perception.  He felt the attention of a mind warrior upon him, preparing to aide him in seeking the weak spot and bolstering his mental defenses against the being's intrusions.  Setting the sensations aside, he felt Roland's attention turn towards him and a part of his mind cried out as the attention was thrust away.  His heart ached and that pain drove him deeper into his Osai, his power.  Something inhuman surged up in his soul, a force he had never encountered despite the Dragon Azrath's warnings.

    Then Brieanna flooded his mind and brain, inundating his perceptions, his pain centers, and his pleasure centers, avoiding mental contact and simply assaulting his brain.  The results were instant - Xerxes fell into her waiting arms in a fugue, and would not wake for days after.  The Desri-Ta'ada began their assault the instant she dropped Xerxes to the ground, and opened up the portal beneath them.

    As the two figures faded, Roland turned his full attention to the battle before him.  He had the promise, and what was unspoken between he and Xerxes would never be spoken, but Xerxes would remember.  That was all that mattered.  Even as his body was wrecked, and the Variayabina arrived to aid them, he remembered the feeling of Xerxes' pain as he had decided to die for Xerxes to save the youth's life. She made certain we felt each others feelings, and purposefully hurt him.  Why?  What reason would she want him to remember that always?  It was a thought he would not keep for long, despite the fact that he survived the battle.  He did not survive whole of body or soul - or mind, as was intended from the start.

~~~~~

    He had learned, much after the fact, that Roland had not been killed.  The cavalry, the Aura Warriors who were trained to combat the Ceri-Ta'ada specifically had arrived in time to save Stellae and Roland, but Stellae had been a mindless vegetable, and Roland almost as bad.  Roland had been reconstructed by the high lord of the Clans, Asun DeArcane, to serve as his assassin and destroyer, much to the anger of both Roland's and Xerxes' fathers.  The pain he'd felt, Roland's love for him, denied words forever, had been there to drive him into solitude through fear and pain, until he could become the weapon  - the trap - his own father had intended him to be.

    He looked up at the falling leaves, and smiled slightly.  The OverMind, true to it's words, had made certain he remembered everything.  Including Roland's feelings and his own certainty they had been betrayed.  In the end, as the Clans were defeated, Xerxes had set out and destroyed the OverMind, breaking down the communications and the control of the Clans in a final and permanent way.  That was the up front reason.

    Deep inside, he felt the peace of having carried out his vengeance, having destroyed those who had destroyed his first love, and his first chance at happiness.

~~~~~

Xerxes
08-03-2000