Sachihiro

‘’So, what are you gonna do?’’ Mira asks crossing her arms sternly. 'What are we gonna do?' her sending comes.

‘’I don’t know what I’m gonna do,’’ I say with a tired sigh facing my wives.

‘’You can’t just pack up and go just before the departure tomorrow, we have to all travel together as a family.’’ Ingwe voices her opinion then steps back to the background, I smile at her with my eyes. That one has grown a lot since the early days of our mating.

‘’He also can’t ignore a summons from the Ancient,’’ Shea says shaking her head unhappily. ‘’As much as I hate to admit it especially with everything that’s going on, the timing alone is disastrous... but it’s from The Ancient,’’ she says waving the letter from the cylinder in her hand.

‘’Who is this ancient exactly?’’ Kuyoki asks quietly from her seat cushion. Having never been officially recruited into the Conclave she wouldn’t know the big wigs, but somehow as far as people have investigated everyone in the Conclave has met the Old Man at some point. In the entire organisation of almost two million people.

We all remain quiet a moment that have met the Old Man. To Saya in the form of an advisor that helped her tap into the djinn Spirit within her to be now able to have that extra ace up her sleeve. To Shea he was just a patient who talked her through a tough time of emotional and psychological breakdown of some sort she won’t get into detail about. To me he was a random old man who saw me struggling to use all this spiritual energy trapped within me by showing me the Summoning Dance.

‘’He is The Ancient Of Days, a scion on the gods in human form that is protected by a gease of the gods.’’ Shea says in a low voice solemnly.

...‘’What?’’ Kuyoki says after a moment with genuine confusion, startling a giggle from Ingwe.

I smirk shaking my head in humour, catching the pillow Ingwe throws at me from the and throwing it at Kuyoki who plucks it from the and holds it to her lap.

‘’The Old Man is like what Kazimoto is to the Hito,’’ I translate to smooth things along.

Nodding, Kuyoki remains quiet as she assimilates this information as is her way. I look at the women in the room, no one is happy and no one is coming up with alternatives.

‘’The vision was yours Sachihiro but we have done most of the planning here as a family, the day to day as a family and the implementations as a family. So do not worry, everyone here knows their roles, everyone in the entire household knows what to do and the rest we will learn as we go. Go to this Ancient and perform your duty as a disciple to his Master.’’ Kuyoki says with a slight bow of the head, I bow back in acknowledgement.

‘’We also owe the Conclave a lot; we’re also still heading to them for shelter, pissing them off right now by ignoring an official summons may not be the smartest move.’’ Mira adds scowling cutely. I poke her on the nose to dispel the expression or at least try to, I tuck my finger away to safety, grinning while having nearly gotten my finger bitten into.

With a sigh Ingwe comes forward slowly, feet almost shuffling on the carpet as those she were reluctant. I open my arms to her as we embrace warmly, I rest my head on the top of her head as I have her snugly between my legs while leaning on the chest at the foot of the bed.

‘’I guess this will turn into one of those instances where you leave us to our own devises for years and years without even a letter telling us if you’re okay.’’ She says softly, I nearly melt when I feel the dampness on my chest and hear her sniffle. Before I know it we are all hugging each other and I myself am almost close to tears with happiness at having this moment and dread at the pit of my stomach that I may never see my family again if I let them out of my sight.

‘’Okay, I have to get to the All Meet and I’d appreciate it if you let everyone here know about this minor change of plans before the family meeting at the 60 th hour.’’

‘’What of Saya’s mate, we can’t leave him here alone and taking an Awakening man with us would draw too much attention.’’ Mira points out as we separate from each other.

‘’I have send to Sergei who sent to Anos, Carmella’s steward. He can use the time chamber there and if his friends insist on staying to wait for the process to finish all the better. They can travel down later with Esuas and the twins.’’

‘’Giving them a chance to finish their last challenges in the arena and have more dives in the dungeon if time permits,’’ Shea says nodding.

‘’Saya will not leave him behind,’’ Ingwe points out, Kuyoki nods in silent agreement.

‘’She and her squad will likely stay behind longer to watch out for their charges yes, but they will eventually report to the Den if I’m reading the hint’s from the Embassy correctly.’’ I say also agreeing that Saya will likely delay.

‘’Already our family is fracturing,’’ Ingwe says solemnly.

‘’Don’t be discouraged, leaving with different groups was always part of the plan.’’ Mira says placing a hand on her sister wife’s back and rubbing gently.

‘’Okay I’m off, Norse should get me there before the end with the bloodfruit supplements Isis concocted. I don’t know how to tell you guys to behave, I don’t know how long I will be away but I will come home eventually so none of you leave me alright?’’ I say untangling myself from the beautiful Ingwe and rushing out the door before find some excuse to stay.

*

Shea

‘’He is sweet like that, charming, dashing, handsome, strong but still so sincere and insecure sometimes.’’ Mira says with a faraway look and a strange grin on her face gazing at the door Sachi just left through.

No one else speaks, letting the silence stretch as already the coldness of his absence seems to seep into the room. We take silent comfort in each other because we all share the burdens of this family and take great joys in his presence even when at times having a big family a huge ache in the head.

‘’You think we should have told him Isis is with child?’’ Ingwe asks gravely but all three of us are almost in unison rejecting the idea.

‘’No,’’

‘’No,’’

Kuyoki is shaking her head slowly.

‘’He definitely wouldn’t have left had we told him,’’ I point out shifting as Mira adjusts herself to come rest in my arms.

‘’And he has enough to deal with as is, knowing him there are likely other urdens he has not seen fit to share with us,’’ Kuyoki says, sighs then lets her back drop on the carpet still hugging a pillow to her chest. ‘’Isis will understand that we could not tell him.’’

‘’Why do you think he insisted Om be the head of the household if he doesn’t get back, why not you Shea? Is it because you have girl parts half the time?’’ Mira asks in my arms but it’s Ingwe that gives her a response.

‘’In Barbarian culture the head of a household is always the fighter, be it man or woman.’’

Mira scowls still not happy about Sachi’s declaration the day we started preparing for the move south. ‘’Om isn’t even here, the kids probably don’t even remember him-‘’

‘’A fact that both Kiera and Ntombi hate Sachi for, saying he is the one that chased their husband away,’’ I point out to my little vixen. ‘’Enough of that now and lets get to work getting everything ready for tomorrow.

None of us moves, still taking comfort from each other for the absence of our man on top of everything else.

*

Sachihiro

‘’I hear you might be leaving with the Host tomorrow,’’ Toshiyuki says coming out of nowhere startling me from my reverie. I frown annoyed at my own distractedness, that's a scary ability he used to get right next to me like that.

‘’Toshiyuki Hayasi, it’s good to see you again, it’s been many years since one of the Brave chose to grace me with their presence.’’

‘’I am not here as an old acquaintance to drink saki with you Sachihiro but as a messenger from the Clans. You have been permitted to carry that ikite iru buki around only because it was insistent in its plea but also because we have been able to keep an eye on it from a distance. If you are to leave then the weapon must be returned to the people,’’ Toshiyuki says sternly as we walk, ignoring the looks we get from the other tribesmen that see the foreigner travelling with me so close to Hilton.

I scowl, annoyed at the implications his presence will have on my reputation amongst other Barbarians, I’m already considered something of an outcast that has no respect for customs. So they’ve finally worked out that my family is leaving with the Host, easy enough to deduce as large groups are safest when travelling such distances. But I doubt that’s how they knew I’m leaving, especially with how close Toshi got before revealing himself.

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‘’Here,’’ I say unlimbering the spear from my back in a single smooth motion and unwrapping it in a flourish, ‘’take it.’’

He takes a step back as I hold it out to him, the horror on his face quickly replaced by a stoic expression.

‘’You go too far,’’ he says evenly clasping his hands behind his back as he tries and fails not to study the beautiful weapon presented to him.

‘’No you go too far! How is it that the Hito’s elite can come this deeply into the Tundra without being challenged on a night of an All Meet?’’ I ask seriously. He says nothing as we watch each other, both anger and curiosity visible behind his eyes as he smiles at me a predatory smile only a blood-drinking vampire could pull off.

‘’Do not forget your debt to us, we took you in when you came to us with nothing. Trained you, showed you our ways and adopted you into our culture, going so far as allowing you to forge a zanpakutō without taking the necessary oaths and becoming a true samurai.’’

‘’Had you not taken Asriel in and trained him and his retinue then you would have lost all honour, for the debt the Hito owe to the one who sent him is greater than any debt you may think I owe to you. Everything else besides hospitality I received from your people I bought with celestial ore and diplomacy, let’s not pretend that the ‘almighty’ Hito would have given my people any consideration otherwise.’’

Toshi grins at me a more friendly expression, ‘’I told them it would be a mistake to remind you of what we have done for you as a way of bargaining.’’ Keiji says suddenly coming out of the shadows of the dark night. I scowl as I didn’t sense his presence either and my awareness is something I rely on too heavily in my everyday interactions for it to fail me so dismally. I should have known the Brave never travel alone though, I’m too distracted tonight, too much on my mind.

‘’If the smiths and your elders had wanted the spear back they would have collected it from me by now so what is it you want exactly?’’ I ask quickly wrapping up Silencer again before trudging ahead, my exhausted horse following a ways behind.

*

Victor van Daen

‘’We march to war on the morrow!’’

‘’Of course we march to war on the morrow! The Maori have disgraced us and they have to die. That’s not what I’m disputing, what I’m disputing is allowing the other outsiders to come along with us. We know that these southerners have no true taste for blood nor a vengeance pack against the Maori. They have rules by which they will want us to-‘’

‘’They have no honour themselves! You all remember how they raped our women and dishonoured our lands for ore, taking our people as soul-bound slaves. Do not speak like none of you were there, it isn’t ancient history, after the Maori the Sandersonians themselves should be next on the Tribe’s list when they themselves brought the Maori and slavery to our people.‘’ Elder Gyun points out strongly in a deep rumbling voice.

‘’The southerners returned all they took as slaves, helped us find any others that may have been smuggled into their lands they could and paid us back those people as ransom so we wouldn’t have these very thoughts of punishing them. All is permissible in war, we all know this, we’ve all done things to each other when our blood is hot that we’ve felt regret for later.’’ There is a silence after Elder ...’s impromptu reminder of the many intertribal raids in which we have sated our Rage with for generations.

The drama that plays out is almost all calculated moves as though an illusion fable being acted out. Following the conversation back I noted that Elder Frey started this line of thought when he insinuated something in his phrasing that he knew would provoke a response from Elder Tosting. That response would likely provoke Elder Ehm as it did, and on the cycle would go until Elder Lyad wraps it up in one quick speech that silences them all.

It’s not all planned out per se but the elders have already had these discussions and of course respect the final word of the Chiefs on all matters they are united in. These arguments are now mainly for the audience of Barbarian watchers from every Tribe within the Tundra so we are all on the same page. And of course a chance for the few elders and advisors that didn’t feel heard before to try and revisit issues in which they didn’t find satisfaction. In many ways we are still a divided people that group themselves by tribe or historical alliances, but we have all suffered greatly as a people and the war with the South is still too recent for old reveries to divide us anytime soon.

We are now an endangered people as far as we’ve discovered for even our ancestral cousins the Mare are few in number in their harshly hospitable lands of Scarpa. Even though it has become clear through the years that more and more of the half-orc tribes are related to a lot of us directly by blood few have the Rage and are thus considered Barbarian.

‘’We should no longer be speaking about tribalism now Elder Gyun, and the southerners are still too useful to be punished for any slights they may have done. We all know that our people are few and the world is a lot bigger than this Tundra and we have a lot of catching up to do still. So let’s not forget why we’ve made the compromises that we’ve made. Now War-Chief, let’s discuss the deployment of the Host tomorrow and the camping arrangements the first night of the journey.’’

‘’Yes Chief Stomm,’’ some of the Elders say almost in unison even as the War-Chief signals for his Chief Lieutenant to step forward. Maps are placed on the stone table of the second daise by two young men and opened before the Chief-Lieutenant steps forward with the Chief Scout-Leader and Horde Elder placing talismans as weights for the maps.

The talismans glow as they are activated by Seer Vicar, an imagine of the map of the terrain surrounding Paradisum is enlarged for all in the All Meet to see. I smirk at another of the many innovations that have come with the ‘outsiders’ and ‘soft southerners’ that we didn’t have before we let them in.

The map is clear for all to see as though they were standing right next to the Chief Scout Leader as she begins to speak, marking out the positions each Horde Division will take and how the rest of the Host will be arranged. It’s a short summary of what will take place and not to be debate with the All Meet, concise and to the point.

After which the Horde Chiefs move away from the dais in the middle of the stage, taking standing positions on the lower daise with the other Horde Advisors.

‘’Now on to the next point to be raised,’’ Elder Gordga says, acting as the Proctor for this All Meet. ‘’The imminent uh... arrival of this calamity that has been pertained.’’

‘’More than half the Horde is remaining in the Tundra in case anything untoward happens that needs to be dealt with, the majority of our people are also here ready to defend if anything we can kill comes at us. Our store houses are stocked, our allies and neighbours the Dawn Dwalves of Anastasia and the Hilanders have been warned and also prepared, though it seems to be a topic they and the fae avoid studiously.’’ Chief Bjorn former Viking Chieftain says from his position on the third dais, but separated from the five Tribal Chieftains.

‘’And what if these visions aren’t even real, what if this if just one of those prophesies that everyone misinterprets or get’s the timing wrong.’’ Elder Tosting grumbles.

‘’Since when have we doubted the warnings of the Seers?’’ Elder Hein rebuts silencing any contentions.

‘’Do we know when this prophecy is to unfold?’’ Chief Anderson, formerly the Chieftain of the Saxon Tribe sitting beside Chief Bjorn.

There used to be seven Barbarian Tribes in the Tundra; Norse, Viking, Horse-Eater, Savages. Scavengers, Jotnar and Saxons. With the decline of our people the Saxon and Viking Tribes have been absorbed into the Horse Eater and Norse Tribes respectively, their Chiefs taking position as the head of the Council of Chiefs that now runs the Paradisum territory. Many things have changed, even the way things are arranged for an All Meet.

Once an intertribal All Meet was an unheard-of thing, now the five chieftains sit on chairs on the top dais. The two Paradisum Chiefs also on the third dais sit separately from the other five. The War-chief sits on the only chair on the second dais right below the five Tribal Chieftains, everyone else on the second dais is standing around a stone table that curves into a semi-circle. These being the Elders and village chiefs from amongst all the tribes.

The Seers make up their own semi-circle on the second dais but remain quiet through most of the Meet unless specifically asked a question or for their insight into a matter. The third and last dais is the most expansive with the largest number of people, these being the advisors and aids to the Elders, Chiefs, Chieftains or Seers. Everyone else is an audience member watching everything as the floor is yet to be open to the public for comment or question.

It took six months for this Great Hall to be built, an amphitheatre the fae designer that drew the plans called it. The three daises are not high up for everyone to see but at the bottom of a structure that curves steadily downwards. The voices of all on the dais are easily heard even from the last benches at the top of the hall and the entire hall, though designed by the fae is entirely built by Barbarian hands.

Standing behind Chief Frey of the Jotnar a man said to be her grandfather's best friend and one of the oldest men in the Tribes at 122 years old. A great grandfather by our previous standards before we started learning from the outside world. Each Chief has a single warrior behind their chair. A position usually reserved in every tribe for the very best warrior they have, not necessarily always the case but close enough that it never matters.

Looking at the rest of the audience filling the Great Hall are other previously old men of the various tribes. Now that there's this wonderful thing called Awakening have pushed themselves hard to reach for it, all having succeeded or died. Through them the Tribes have found a reserve of strength we previously didn't even know we had, unique and varied abilities of many kinds have come with the Awakening of my people. My own Awakening powerful in its own right but I’m happy enough it is my step brother Dustin that has taken centre stage in own family instead of me in recent years.

I watch him on the first step dais amongst the other advisors standing next to that woman Divina, a beauty but too wild to ever control and thus not someone I could ever trust fully. Not that I could take her from Damage even if I wanted to. I notice her nod her head to someone in the audience hall and I turn my head to Sachi coming in late to sit amongst his mates Cicilia and Selah, the only two permitted to be here.

I scowl as I watch him, embarrassed at the snickers I notice from the group sitting behind him. I still remember vividly the challenge in which he decimated me and left me in a coma of some sort, he is an uncanny one that Sachihiro. At the time I had thought I was in my prime and the best warrior amongst any within my age group and what I thought was an insignificant challenge left me with scars that will never physically heal according to fae healers. Scars deeper than on just the body, complexly by passing the spirit thank the Seven, but ultimately wounding my soul, apparently.

After that fight I learnt humility thank the stars, I’d probably be dead long ago now had I not suffered that defeat, it was timely. And because of that humility I went to the Conclave to learn from them, I went to the fae to learn from them, I went to the Hito who refused to teach me anything until I paid in celestial ore. The Hito are almost as greedy for the ore as the fae and that has allowed me to acquire the dagger that now sits sheathed on the small of my back where ever I go.

Sachihiro frustrates me though, I can’t even count the number of challengers I’ve had to dispatch just to keep my own reputation above water as someone that once lost to him. He refuses so many challenges that even weakling publicly mock him with no fear of reprisals, as someone that nearly destroyed me doesn’t he know that he shames my own prowess with his cowardly behaviour these years?

Frustrating man but even now with my own zanpakutō dagger, basic kenjutsu training, elite longsword training from the highlanders, grandfather Stomm and various other teachers at the Conclave I still wouldn’t pick a sword fight with him. Fighting him once was enough for me and my dwarven made bound long sword Dagger has a chip I cannot repair from that fight. I again pay attention the proceedings after sending a greeting to the man. I’ve had people trying to watch him for years now but none can make heads or tails of his odd movements.

One of my watchers even disappeared a few years back and I was worried for a while it would get back to me, to be honest I’m not even sure why I fea- worry what Sachihiro does. Rumour amongst the Hito is that his zanpakutō has already achieved its Shikai , its release into its true form. I doubt that’s true though, it’s only about 27 years or so since he got the weapon and some Shikais are only achieved after a century I’m told. Not unheard of though, making possible the rumours are true, still, its been years since I saw that hateful weapon so I doubt the rumours are true since he hasn’t been using it.

I reach for the dark celestial steel dagger at the small of my back, my zanpakutō. It will be many years before it’s fully recovered from the forging and many more before it tells me its name so I know my Shikai is many years away, I do wonder what its like though...