--- Taasen ---
Taasen meditated.
He hadn’t really liked meditating back when he was still learning his art, but he found that the more time passed since then, the more he was able to see wisdom in what Lew had taught him.
Breathe in…
And out…
Taasen was in a lovely grove of trees, he was in the snow, the snow that covered up everything ugly in the world, resulting in endless white beauty that was a hallmark of the Master of the Forge. He was in a meadow filled with flowers that swayed in the light breeze.
Breathe in…
And out…
He was alone wherever he went, moving through a kata that resembled a dance. Striking at imaginary foes that disserved nothing more than to be punished for their deceit. Deceivers, liars, untruths. He was the breeze that blew the leaves, he was the storm that destroyed everything ugly in the world. He was the world itself as it moved through nothing and into something.
Breathe in…
And out…
He was the air in his lungs, the snowmelt in his blood, the follower of Kalteii who was determined to see that deceivers obtained their deaths. He was the nemesis of deceit, the one who would one day kill the god of order himself for bewitching all the people of his lands.
Who needed order anyway?
Taasen opened his eyes, tilting his head at the creature that stood before him. It was like a dragon except it had no wings, it was like a snake except it had six mighty legs. It glowed faintly golden in the darkness.
“Are you here to deceive me?” Taasen wondered aloud. “Are you here to attempt again to change my mind into what you wish it would be?”
The dragon growled slowly, and Taasen realized it was pacing. “You cannot kill me, stop deciding that you will.”
“I apologize. But you are simply wrong. I can do anything. I can sleep, I can dream, I can see the deceits and become immune to untruths. And I can kill you. I just simply won’t yet, it’s significantly more interesting if I wait until I am stronger.”
“You can’t kill your god…” it muttered.
“You are not my god.”
It scowled, “Kalteii hasn’t touched this world since she brought the snow, but I’m here, I can do things that she cannot.”
“Then kill me.”
The scowl grew deeper. “If I could kill every mortal that was like you, the world would be a better place, it would make more sense, it would be a paradise…”
Taasen shook his head, “I don’t actually see you, now that I think about it. Why would a mortal see a god?”
Gium disappeared. Tassen nodded to the empty space, settling back down and closing his eyes. He was the leaf in the wind, the sword wielded by a master.
And he needed to wait, to become stronger.
--
Taasen didn’t hear it as the guards marched past his cell, he didn’t see it as they gave him food and removed the cold untouched plate from yesterday, he didn’t smell the fragrant shlop, and he certainly wasn’t hungry.
Taasen could leave at any moment, the guards just didn’t know that fact. He stayed simply because this was a place to meditate, with free room and board no less! His numerous failed escape attempts were clearly just to lull the deceivers into a false sense of security.
clearly.
The longer he sat there and thought—or rather, practiced not thinking, as Divarian warriors are prone—the more he felt his power grow. Taasen was strong, he was intelligent! He was as fast as a breeze and as vital as a youth. He didn’t care how old he was because age didn’t matter, he would be like this forever.
And so he was.
Taasen didn’t hear the guards or smell the shlop, but as a new kind of deception grew nearer, he peeked an eye open. A deceiver, but not one of the guards.
This piqued his interest enough that Taasen watched as those guards packed an unconscious person past his cell, depositing her in one of the numerous empty ones just across from him. Frostbite, a deceiver. She looked like one of those strange insect people, with the exoskeleton and the antennae. He couldn’t really tell anything besides that, not that he was even looking. Faces didn’t matter, only deceits.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Besides, this was clearly not a real person.
Shaking his head, Taasen pointed at one of the guards as they withdrew. “I’d like to note that I don’t like deceivers, if you could put her somewhere else it would be much appreciated.”
Besides, he’d liked having the hallway to himself, it made meditating easier.
The guard seemed confused that Taasen was talking to her, and quickly shook her head before rushing off. Taasen sighed and prepared to meditate again, before that same guard returned with what appeared to be an aging human woman. Just like the rest of the Melorians she didn’t have the blue cast to her skin that Taasen did, or the slight markings like snowflakes across that same skin. It was merely flesh colored.
But Taasen had seen this woman many times and he knew that she was a deceiver. That weak frame and aging stride hid a magical might stronger than the light of the Forge. “Divarian.” she addressed him with the name of his home, “You spoke to one of the guards? I thought you were still refusing to do that.”
Oh, right, he had been doing that. “I still am,” Taasen insisted, “I merely had to request they put that…ah… that girl somewhere else.” He had to glance at her unconscious form and squint, but she did seem to be fairly young.
The dragon who wore the skin of a human gave him a dubious look, “Why?”
“Her presence is disturbing my meditation.”
She put a hand to her forehead, massaging the bridge of her deceiving nose, “Divarian, you do realize that you are our prisoner, right?”
Taasen nodded, “I could leave at any time, but yes.”
“And your many attempts at doing so have never borne fruit.”
That was only because the deceiving dragon was always there! She was somehow immune to almost everything that came with physical strength! On top of that she kept trying to tell him that humans couldn’t ignore things like gravity, and it was really throwing off his fighting style. He could defeat her, he just had to try a few more times. “And yet you are still incorrect. My request remains, I would prefer if you moved that prisoner.”
“We aren’t moving her. That’s the only cell we have that’s prepared with anti-dimensionalism, so you’ll just have to suck it up.” She nodded curtly and strode off.
Taasen shook his head at her fleeing back and returned to his meditation.
--
“Ugh, why am I not being tortured?!”
Taasen opened his eyes at the question, peering toward the cell across from him. Frostbite, he’d remembered he could hear during that last bit. That was inconvenient. “I do not know, however, I am certain they will get right on that if you ask them nicely.”
She got up with a frown, squinting at him, “What are you?”
“Human, last I checked, though I might forget that again and turn into a rabbit, I haven’t done that in quite a while.”
The deceiver laughed slightly, “Nice response there. I should come up with something like that.” She thought for a second, “here, you ask me now!”
Taasen sighed, “What are you?”
She grinned, “A magical construct of body magic, illusionism, and a smidgen of a time spell!”
Taasen gave her a strange look.
She sighed, “Alright that sounded cooler in my head, I’m just a clone made by Geneseri.”
Somehow, she seemed to be telling the truth here. He could still feel that she was a liar at heart, a deceiver and a destroyer, but at the moment she wasn’t deceiving. “Interesting.”
She nodded, glaring out at a guard as he marched past, “They definitely know that though, that’s probably why they aren’t torturing me… Sparks, I wouldn’t be surprised if they figured out my plan immediately.”
“You planned to be tortured?”
“I like to assume the worst in any given situation, I’d even prepared a dramatic speech for my real self and imagined killing her myself seven times by now.”
Taasen raised an eyebrow, “Is she that bad? A deceiver who deceives?”
She was silent for a moment, “Well, no not really. I think I just want to blame someone.”
“So you’re deceiving yourself then?” Tassen asked, confused. He never liked that kind of lie, it was harder to simply stab it through if it didn’t have a tangible cause.
“I don’t like doing it, but I feel like everyone does to some level.”
“Interesting.”
“What’s your name?”
“Taasen.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m… ah… Eliax, or Fora, or… something.”
They lapsed into silence. Taasen closed his eyes to return to meditation, but he kept catching himself peeking out to watch as the strange girl paced around her own cell or climbed up the bars to examine the ceiling, or peeked out the tiny window in the back that was barely small enough to even need bars.
She just kept moving, like there was something in her skin that might burst out if she stayed still. Taasen could sometimes feel similarly, but that was only in battle, only when he had an enemy to vanquish, that was the time he needed to move.
Taasen stood up after a long time. Touching his bars with a fraction of his strength.
They burst from the wall.
Let’s try this again.
--- ELIAX - CLONE ---
Eliax watched with wide eyes as the bars burst open, slamming against the empty cell directly in front of it.
Taasen emerged from the dust, looking like a blank slate. His face was emotionless, his eyes calculating, his mouth tilted the slightest bit upward. He looked just like he had before, hard to place age wise, skin with a slight blue cast to it, and eyes a hard icy blue that reminded her of Aneles.
But to her magesight he couldn’t look any more different.
The rune he’d sported before had been simple, but all its bright red glory meant was art. Eliax had been confused, but not overly sure about it. Now however, the rune had expanded, morphed into a different simple one.
This one meant justice. There’d been hints of it in how I’d seen Netun, but this was the pure unaltered rune.
And Eliax had no idea what it meant.
Evidently it was powerful though as Taasen sped through the halls and away.
Eliax was slightly offended that he hadn’t freed her as well, until she glanced toward the cell she shared a wall with and realized that it was completely gone, the iron bars from Tassen’s had slammed straight into them and pulled them off as well, breaking through the back wall too and into open air.
Why… why hadn’t Taasen taken that way out?
Heck if she knew, but Elias sure wasn’t going to ignore it herself.