The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft
TILES AND CHOICES

CH TILES AND CHOICES

A Lunar month later, Yurieth went to his father’s office because he was summoned. “Father, I am here.”

“Hello, foolish brother,” Abrieth greeted him with a sarcastic tone. Yurieth glared at him hostilely.

“Abrieth...” Adamos intoned a warning.

“No, Father, I have something to tell my brother. I asked Fleur to show us the memory you hold to so viciously as justification for your hatred.” Abrieth paused for a moment then stood to face his brother. “I would have made the same choice she did.”

Yurieth glared down at his brother in disbelief, “What?”

“If I had survived what she did, if I had been stripped of everything I was, all my power and was left with my only choice being to become what I hated to keep fighting for my family or to give up and die. I would have made the same choice she made,” Abrieth announced.

“Nothing is bad enough to make me choose the Darkness,” Yurieth snarled.

“Reviving 132 times after being tortured to death is not nothing!” Abrieth growled back, when Yurieth looked confused, Abrieth made a disgusted noise. “You told me to look at the one memory and I told you to look beyond that one memory, brother. Fleur was killed by the Dark Prince 132 time and he daily did far worse things to her than simple death.”

“I have died almost that count in the war,” Yurieth reminded.

“Our war lasted centuries, Fleur suffered all hers in a season, in 97 days,” Abrieth argued.

“It takes longer than a season to carry a child,” Yurieth counter-argued.

“Not when the child is an abomination of dark magic forcibly placed into her body against her will. And not when it is forced to grow at seven times the normal rate.” Serapha stepped in front of her husband as he folded his arms over his chest. She accused, “You are blinded by your own arrogance. She was forced to surrender her body to be the surrogate for the future dark queen because there were no other oracles or sirens. You refuse to acknowledge her torture, that she was violated daily, and that she endured having the child of darkness cut from her body while she was in labor at the end of her imprisonment. It was meant to forever kill her. You cannot imagine the torture she went through, Huntsman. It makes my time as a royal priestess seem like a happy, summer daydream. Had I suffered what she did, I would have ended myself, not fought to return home as she did.”

Hearing Fleur’s torture in a female’s voice, suddenly made it seem more horrible. It caught him off-guard, he had not realized the intensity of her torture was during such a short duration.

“And she still came back for us, back to the place where she was violated and murdered daily,” Abrieth added, “We were just ghosts of the dust and she found a way to save us because she loved us before she knew our names. So, I stand by what I said, I would have made the same choice. I would rather wield darkness and fight, than become what you are now, brother, and hurt my sealed one.” He took Serapha’s hand and kissed it before leading her out of Adamos’ study.

“Your brother and his sealed one seem to be of one mind about Fleur.” Adamos gestured for Yurieth to sit at his Tiles table, then to make the first move.

“My brother is as foolish as his priestess.” Yurieth snapped at his father in a disrespectful tone to hide the hurt he felt as they began to rapidly place Tiles.

“No, my eldest, he is correct, and you know it, or you wouldn’t be so hurt by his honest words. They are correct those who serve the Light must do whatever they can to continue to fight the Darkness, even when all others think we are lost. Hope endures as long as Love lives,” Adamos retorted in an even tone. They played in silence for a few minutes.

“You are angry because Fleur is shadowed yet you love her, but you are also shadowed in your own way. The war made you cruel and unforgiving, Yurieth.” Adamos held up his hand when Yurieth opened his mouth to protest. “But I must warn you, during the next war, the Darkness is going to offer you a way to spare all you love.”

“Father, I would never accept the Darkness,” Yurieth insisted.

“You say that now, but you never know how desperate you may become if it feels like the war is too expensive,” Adamos laid the eight of swords, the last of the suit. “You have always faced a straightforward war and known who your enemy was. But in Fleur and Karstien’s time, allies and enemies sometimes wear the same face.”

Yurieth laid the seven of arrows, “I will always fight, and I have had allies turn to enemies before.” His tone held more regret than he suspected as Fleur’s accusation of him betraying his marriage before killing his Amozoni lover whispered in his memory, too quickly for him to hide it from his oracle father. He placed the four of staffs over the three of staffs his father laid. “It was my duty. I regained my honor. It will not happen again.”

“Yurieth, you cannot live your life expecting everyone who loves you will betray you. You must learn to bend, love requires compromise,” Adamos announced as he placed one of the rivers over the seven of arrows, “It is a living thing. You treat it like you expect it to be rigid and unchanging like your honor.”

“Father, you cannot expect me to love Fleur, but... but I am not capable of giving her what she needs, she has suffered more than even another oracle could heal. She is shadowed.” Yurieth was forced to draw two tiles and placed the one of stones over the winter mountain.

Sighing tiredly as the placed tiles, Adamos agreed, “Yes, she is shadowed. I, too, have seen it, my son. She admitted the breadth of it to us, but not the scope. I have seen the true horrors that she has kept hidden, even from you. It should have rendered her mad, but she returned, holding together the fragile pieces of her sanity and saved our people. She chooses to carry her dual power to protect those she loves. She found a way to turn darkness into light.”

They played quietly for a few moments more then Adamos asked him a surprising question, “What do you remember of her beyond her choice in the water temple?”

Yurieth considered the five of stones then played the five of staffs, “I remember her captivity, the harvesting of a world and the horror of it dying around her, Kaleth’s death, her son’s birth. Images of her struggle when she was a child and youth that make no sense to me, losing her friends, burying her children and those she considered her family. She was always turning her pain into work.”

“Anything else?” Adamos asked with deep concern, “Nothing happy?”

Yurieth’s mouth made a thin line as he tried to concentrate on Fleur’s memories and the Tiles, “She liked to play pranks. Once, she was taunting my brother, saying, ‘I’m not touching it’ over and over until he laughed, then she danced around singing she won until he threw her over his shoulder and carried her out as your sons and grandchildren laughed. It was a foolish thing.” Too late he realized played the eight of temples, closing the suit and giving his father the choice of suit for the next branch. Adamos played the one of cups and Yurieth groaned, he had none to play and would have to draw Tiles. Sixteen more Tiles were laid and Yurieth knew he would be stuck with three unplayed as his father contemplated.

“So, you only focus on remembering her sorrows and none of her joy,” Adamos played as if nothing was amiss. “Your brother is correct when he worries you are more shadowed than she. You won’t let yourself see her light because you have forgotten your own.” Before Yurieth could respond, Adamos added, “You owe the oracle an apology. You should know she grieved for your lost family as well, when she saw their deaths in your nightmares, and glimpses of your time at war. In the far future she has shown me how you and your brother remember little more than your names and your skills. She only sought for your happiness and healing despite her losses.”

“You mean my brother’s death,” Yurieth fingered his last four tiles, laying one and turning the others down, “He made her promise to take care of me, like I was some kind of orphan child. I will not be pitied.”

“He loved you as a brother should.” Adamos shook his head at his eldest, admonishing him. “She loved you as an oracle should love all, and now she loves you as a sealed one. She does not pity you, Yurieth, not in the way you think. She also does not love you in the same way she loved him, the love she feels for you is stronger because you were friends first.”

“I do not want to be her friend, I do not want to be loved by her, she is shadowed,” Yurieth held to his stubbornness and Adamos snapped at him.

“I did not raise my sons to behave thusly or be this blind to another’s true nature. The true root of your prejudice is founded in your fear of vulnerability, not your contempt for the darkness. Sort yourself out, Yurieth or you will lose something that cannot be replaced by your honor.” Adamos laid his last tile, the spring valley, then stood, holding out the Tiles case to his son, “Pack them in order and consider the three choices you still have in your tray carefully, one of them will be your fate, my eldest.”

They stared hard at each other for a long hostile moment.

“Speak plainly, Father. I will not be manipulated,” Yurieth growled.

“You would not hear plain words,” Adamos retorted, then added softly, “We leave for the Tear building site next week, you will be there no later than four weeks after to verify Fleur’s navigation system. Am I understood?”

Yurieth clenched his fist in his half-gloves so strongly the leather groaned. His father’s quiet words were not a request. Finally, Yurieth bowed his head under the weight of his father’s will, “Yes, Father. I will meet you at the Tear.”

“And?”

Working his jaw side to side, Yurieth acquiesced, “And I will consider what was said this evening.”

Nodding, Adamos turned to leave but then hesitated in the door. “My son, I know you struggle, but I beg you, try to remember your own happiness, as she does. Your rage will not suffice to strengthen you for your next trial.”

Alone in his father’s study, Yurieth packed away the Tiles in order of suits as he had since he was a boy. Somehow, he knew this would be the last game he would ever play with his father and it grieved his heart that they were at such odds. It had never been easy after Yurieth was proved not to be an oracle. His mother had tried to comfort him that sometimes magic skipped a generation or two, and that the lost Pools of Destiny had changed him to give him a greater destiny than that of his parents. He tried to remember the happiness of his childhood, he could not.

Memories of Roserae held only their conflicts and her murder. His thoughts of Willow and Lily focused singularly on the day of their deaths. Placing the last tiles, in the box his heart beat frantically against his pain, reminding him of the words of the song Fleur had sang on the Eve of the Day of Light Returning. He didn’t know what he believed anymore or if he could find his way. He realized his only happy memories were since Fleur came to this time. They were only with her. His honor reminded that she was shadowed and to be hated but observing her in the castle over the last few months, he did not believe it any longer either.

Later that night, he found himself standing over her as she slept, watching her. Her skin glowed slightly from the moonlight pouring in the window. It made his heart ache with how beautiful she was. By hurting her, he had hurt himself, he had behaved wrongly. It grieved him, that he had nothing left in his soul but his cold, rigid honor and the gory glory of the war. He closed his eyes and his tears fell, followed by a gentle caress to his cheek. Fleur was standing on her knees on the bed. One hand over his heart and the other wiping his tears.

“Yuri, what’s wrong?” Her voice is so gentle and concerned that it broke him.

“I... I can’t remember... I can’t remember anything but war and death,” He murmured as he leaned forward into her embrace.

“Then grieve and let your soul live again.” Slowly, she eased him onto her bed, holding him and stroking his hair as he wept like he had the day he had discovered he would not have his birthright. Like he should have on the day his daughters died, and like he never did for all the lost souls slain in the war, both allies and enemies. While he mourned what he had lost, he felt her soul wrapping around his, comforting and healing. The sound of her softly singing his song to him was a lullaby to his tortured soul.

He fell asleep with his cheek resting over her heart, one arm around her and the other hand gently holding hers as she kissed his knuckles and ran her fingers through his long golden hair.

In the morning when she woke, Yurieth was gone. Fleur said nothing to anyone about it, she could not see how this Yurieth would have the strength to survive his imprisonment in the Dark Dust. He had no happiness, no light, no hope. Rising, she sought out Yllumina to discuss the magic that would protect Yurieth, Abrieth, and Serapha during their imprisonment. Yllumina had the same concerns as Fleur for Yurieth’s soul and they both decided to seek a way to heal him before he went into that time. He was as broken as Fleur was when they came out of the Dust and she revealed to Mina how he was after his imprisonment and how worried she was for him.

By afternoon, Fluer was certain they would need stronger magic. “Mina, is... is there someway to transfer or share my light to him, if he does not recover some of his own?”

“The Soul Shield is the strongest of the oracle’s practices but there is the Veil of Hope that is used for the most desperate cases to keep those close to ending themselves from succumbing to despair,” Mina frowned, “But both cannot be done at once or by the same oracle, the drain on an oracle’s light and magic is too much.”

“But they could possibly be done by two oracles?” Fleur twisted a lock of her hair thoughtfully.

“Fleur, we would both be left nearly powerless, and the Veil requires a very intimate sharing,” Mina expressed with concern, she could see Fluer trying to calculate the magic needed for both.

“If we shared our magic, we could do it and not be completely powerless when the war begins,” Fleur answered calmly.

“But when you return to your time, you will be powerless for years,” Mina warned.

The response her future daughter-by-sealing gave her made Mina’s heart hurt. “My lady oracle, I was never meant to leave this time. I will die here with you and I will not regret the loss of my power if it saves the man I love.”

Fleur’s calm courage worried Mina as Fleur revealed, “In my time, Yurieth believes Fleur died. He only sees himself with her... with me... once. We are standing in front of a black glass mirror, and I have been changed into the Dark Oracle and am dressed as a Xelusian priestess. I didn’t recognize myself because of my new scars and I was wearing a veil over my eyes and forehead. We were saying goodbye because I was to risk death in the morning, and he had to leave. I... I told him to find love again, I demanded his oath.” Fluer hugged herself, as tears wet her cheeks, “I would give up all I am to protect him because I love him that much, I have loved him for a century.”

"I will teach you the Veil of Hope." Mina hugged Fleur tightly to her, and said aloud, “We will find a way, daughter. I promise, we will find a way.” But her thoughts added, ‘To save you both.’

Fleur went to rest and Mina went through the portal to the Tear building site. She stared out at the giant ship that would carry her son and husband to safety with five thousand others. Angrily, she wiped her tears and tightened her cloak around her as she stepped through another portal and out onto the portico of the Fjord Fortress of Odini.

The household servants of Odini all bowed before the High Oracle.

“Take me to my husband.” Moments later, she was led into a room covered in charts and technical diagrams.

Adamos looked surprised to see her and more than a little shocked at her rage. “My Shining One?”

“Why did you not tell me that Fleur will die in this time? When did the future I saw for her and Yurieth change?”

“It hasn’t changed, she won’t die here,” Adamos protested.

“She has determined that she will, because her Yurieth believed it,” Mina snapped.

“She won’t die here because I won’t let her,” a young voice promised.

It was a voice she had never heard but Mina knew who he was instantly and rushed to hug him. “Karstien!”

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