Chapter 20:

Chapter 20: Mastery must come with humility and pain.


I am Cipanni Oiair, I am half of a sword that feels pride and joy and love, yet it is now only half of that which I can be for my other half is not near me, which is something I now wish to correct, for I have finished plying my trade for today and now I greet friends and family of friends on my way to her.

"Hello boy, still trying to swindle your Master?"

"Yes, my friends and I continue to plan it. Do rush to his house though, master Cipanni Oiair, for Master is home and awaits you, and he is tired for that which he makes for the princess tires him greatly each day. But he said tomorrow it should be done even as his siblings will finish it. His siblings and your other masters sleep but he does not yet, as he awaits you with your beloved in the crafts room."

It is the middle of the day, but my art and that of my masters can take time and energy to make which can tire one immensely.

I have started plying my trade after my masters and Clan head arranged my marriage to my love and at first I have done so as their assistant, and then equal as I learned how to do more, and now ply my craft alone and do so with pride in my soul.

When I came to my four masters' house I had no hope or pride. The only thing that kept me moving was the love of my family and my determination to keep moving and try to make whatever meager gains I could, so that I may earn the love my family heaped on me. Now a year and two months later I am whole and mighty and each day even more so.

Now I am greeted and greet others openly for I am making my family proud and I am proud again for doing so and it is all thanks to my four masters and my Grand Aunt and my beloved who made me feel whole again.

"I will rush, take care boy and look after your friends, you will need them!" I shouted to the boy as I ran.

I didn't wait to hear his response, it was always joy.

He and his friends were planning their cheating so that they could trick master into freeing both him and his friends, not realizing that was what his Master wanted and planned for and had higher expectations and schemes regarding it still.

My masters continue to scare me still, but I still love them, for I know they love me too and they remade me into the man I am today.

I reached the house my masters slept in, for while it was not home it is where I could say I was reborn. My swords and those of my masters greeted me warmly but warned me that one has already attempted to sneak past them today and my oldest master has been wrathful due to this and needs his tea for they had just left less than a minute ago.

I first went to make his tea and took the entire tray for I am sure master Bessar Agail will be angry for this is the 4th​ time this has happened and the servants of Cegorach keep trying to sneak in and just seeing one of them will cause my masters or their family and that includes my beloved great anger just by sight and whispers of song.

None of them would tell me why, and from what my family told me it sounded like a blood feud when I described it to them once it happened for the first time, but my masters were raised in an Orphanage, and he continues to assist those that exist on this planet for no favors as he insists he is merely preparing for his departure and the Orphanages acknowledge it as natural as if they exist in some brotherhood, and who ever heard of an Orphanage or several being at war with a god and his servants?

Especially Cegorach, him and his ilk are the ones second only to Isha that patronizes Orphanages and it has always been so. They don't have this reaction to her servants even as they refuse healing when it is offered and instead offer healers gifts to get them to leave them alone.

'Wouldn't surprise me.' I thought as I pushed the tray from the kitchen to the crafts' room.

I didn't forget to bow slightly to the portrait of the princess for I owe her much, and more still.

My master told me he does not hate the followers of Cegorach and that he is not in a brotherhood with the orphanages of this world or any that live or have lived in them, they just enrage him when he sees them for they are very annoying, but he does not wish them ill. He just really wished he didn't have to see them or have them talk to him because they are annoying.

Oh and he insists that the Orphanages are really acting as they should with him for they know what he has been through and who he is and hope to curry favor by not complaining about his gifts.

My family does not understand it, my mother or even my Grand Aunt and their spouses look perplexed at it when I describe these interactions for they make no sense to them either.

Rage when you see members of an organization but you do not hate them or are at war with them? Makes no sense.

You walk into an orphanage and grant favors easily and it is treated like the wind when Orphanages do their best to curry favor, any favor, for their children so that they may succeed in life? And when my brother offers his freely they act like it matters not and that they are doing him a favor due to it? Again, it makes absolutely no sense and none but the family of my masters seem to know why.

But my beloved understands it even if she won't explain it to me and she tells me that is fine, so I'll just treat it as some hidden family tradition that is kept deliberately hidden or obtuse from those who are not of the right blood. Not like my own doesn't have one or two of those we have kept since before joining the Clan of Mighty Gua Bis which is now the Clan of Crafty Lestean Bairu.

My oldest master laughs hysterically at it when he is reminded of this change for he always found the concept of age funny. I didn't for age is just age and once adult just a number.

"Master Bessar Agail and my beloved I have come with tea."

"Ah my boy Cipanni Oiair, good for tomorrow starting from midnight today I shall start teach you your 8th​ craft, for as you know, thanks to the work of the man among men and his disciple, who is our clan head, I have managed to the develop an 8th​ tool and I have only taught you the first six and this eight one for a total of seven of them, for the last one I am to teach you is the seventh and it is the most difficult."

"Yes master, I still wonder why does my beloved have to be here though?"

I said as I looked at her and our swords became one again as we fell in love all over again. I did not hold her presence against her, I was merely curious for she was not allowed to be present at any on my other lessons.

None.

"Part of that which I teach you in this final craft of the toolbox I will give you is something which she also knows, as she is my daughter and privy to it."

I nodded and poured tea, he needed it. He drank it with a song of gratitude.

"Does it have to do with the followers of Cegorach that keep maligning your house?" I asked.

My family and I were really curious and prepared for the confirmation to start hunting them down if it was revealed to us as that yes, there is a war between their half of the clan and the followers of Cegorach. We knew they would do the same for us, for they do so already.

Great Aunt tries to catch them occasionally as she is the only one with any chance to do it. And she does so, so that she might politely ask their soulless bodies or bodyless souls, whichever will speak first before they are allowed to fully die, why are they annoying her clan brother and his clan branch and refuse to accept that they are not welcome in his house or homes. I am quite ready to add my favors to the pile to get an answer myself and have promised as such.

She has not succeeded yet and has tried twice already. The next time she promised she will start calling in favors.

'We will have to gather and cash in favors Great Aunt, the followers of Cegorach have erred again.' I secretly sang to her now that I had time to focus and do so.

She sent me her acknowledgement as she started to do just that.

My master and my beloved stood on the Wraithbone chairs unaware of what we planned in our love for them and looked at one another as a hidden song happened where I could not see.

"No, the followers of that God know they are not welcome here and insist on bothering me and mine, this has no connection to them. Daughter I still forbid you to tell him why if he does not figure it out himself. I am not changing my mind on this matter."

Both of us sighed at this. I did not understand and yet my beloved wished to tell me and couldn't, for her mighty father who is younger than her forbid it.

I took my own chair and left the tray in the center of our gathering as we all stood in front of it and waited for master to finish his tea. It lowered itself until it looked more like a small table and us were just sitting at it.

"Right, apprentice you know of the three lesser secrets of your craft now, the Gray Wastes, the craft of unknown origin and that which the man among men and his apprentice has combined our two crafts into that we call the eight tool."

"I do master, they are quite horrific and are you telling me there is a greater one?"

"I do my boy and today I wish to teach it to you, but first I wish to ask you a few questions."

"Ask away master I have nothing to hide." I said as truth for that is what I felt.

Master Bessar Agail is one of four hands that made me into who I am today in but a year when I had previously lived for hundreds broken. I will hide nothing from them for without them there would be nothing left to hide.

"Are you satisfied with your apprenticeship?"

Of all the questions I expected that was not it.

"I have never been happier than after I have started being an apprentice to four masters." I spoke as truth for it was.

He looked saddened for it.

"You will regret that answer soon, but I am glad to hear it and know I have been a good master until now."

I did not understand but I felt fear returned and it has been gone for a long time.

"Do you remember the scream of your beloved during that night when you were still preparing?"

It has been haunting my dreams even as my beloved told me it will be explained in time. It appears that the time is today.

"I do, I do not know what caused it but I want to know so that I may learn to defeat it."

Kisses met my soul and made me feel whole.

"You will learn to wield it, for she had passed a great test that night and the result was the scream you heard. Your next month will be spent solely mastering that, for your wife to be has done the same and she will help you in this but first I have another question."

I stood ready.

"Do you wish to end your apprenticeship to me? What you are about to experience will break a threshold you will regret to have done so. I am willing to allow you to end it now, and still call yourself my apprentice and allow you to teach others, including your cousin and youngest of Gua Bis who was born with a shuriken pistol-sword soul when she reaches a proper age."

I was not ready for this and it hurt.

"Why would you ask this of me?"

I did not understand why.

"Your beloved asked me of it and I have spoken to your mother and told her that that which I am about to teach you has caused others to commit suicide and they have both asked me not to and offer you this chance."

I felt betrayed.

"Do not be betrayed apprentice they love you and you know not what hell awaits you, for it is dark, very dark and just a glimpse has killed many."

"I will not falter master, I will prove to you once again that I am worthy of it!" I said with conviction.

I will not falter, not now or ever for Love demanded it! My beloved kissed my soul and apologized for what she is about to do to me.

I wish she would apologize for what she did, but she sang to me that she will do so if I still believe such after I had learned my final lesson from my master.

"Very well, I told both to you and his mother that he will do so. Boy will now sleep in my and my siblings room and the two of you will move into the second bedroom for you will live together there for as long as you need to until your last lesson is done."

I was not expecting that either.

"I will go to sleep my foolish apprentice, your beloved will explain to you what she is allowed and nothing more." Master gave his daughter a very annoyed look.

My beloved loves testing the boundaries of what it is allowed and what not and she always shared a knowing look with me when she prepared to do so.

All I could see on her face now was fear and resignation.

"Yes father." Her voice was meek, too meek and it remembered me of that which should remain dead.

I kissed her, for even as my heart ached I loved her and knew that she loved me just as much.

I did not notice when our swords stopped being one but they turned back into one once again and I was whole again.

"Good, I will awake at midnight so go and enjoy the last few hours of your innocence Cippani Oiair. And do not worry for your favors, my siblings will cover them and do your work until you are ready to do them yourself."

My master left to sleep, leaving the tea tray where it stood for it still had tea in it and it kept it warm so it did not matter where it was as long as it is warm.

My beloved took my hand and wordlessly moved us to the room we would share for my last lesson.

We fell on the bed and looked into each others eyes as we did before and bore our souls to one another.

Mine were red and hid behind a sword made our of ink, paper and string while hers were blue and held behind them a ship-sword made of startdust whose beauty made the divine walk again.

I asked, I asked the most burning question I felt I could have asked for it gnawed at my soul like a beast that wished to eat it. The Gray Wastes were preferable to it for at least I had experienced them before and knew how to walk myself out of them.

"Do you not believe in me?" I asked the question that came from my soul for it hurt.

Betrayal hurts for it comes from those we love and it hurts the worst of all things for this.

"I do my love, I love you and I know you know it so, just as I know you love me and know that I know it so."

Kisses and apologies met my soul, none were for what she had done, only what was to come. We continue to look into each others souls through our eyes.

"Why?"

One word for I could not say more.

"What you are about to experience is a deeper hell than the Grey Wastes Cipanni Oiair. The difference between it and the Gray wastes is the same as that between our love and the Grey Wastes." She said and I realized my fear never left me for I had just gotten used to it.

The grey wastes are hell, nothing but echoes of life await one there, and yet to compare what I am to experience with it and call it comparable with the difference between the love that keeps me whole and the grey wastes? It almost scars the soul just to try and imagine it.

'Tell me truly, how bad it is?' I sang to her for in song there can be no doubt.

'I spoke the truth and it will feel worse for it. Your master has existed for ten years in the hell you are to embark in his past life, I have experienced five heartbeats for it is my limit before my mind breaks. You are to experience ten before your master decided you have finished your lesson and he will not stop until you succeed or die for you are his apprentice and that is the minimum you need to use his last craft.'

She sang and I knew it as truth. Even now she kept the area where all here secrets were away from me from orders of her father and there also hid that which hurt her.

'We will get you through this together.' I whispered into her soul.

'We will, for it will be my duty to keep you from killing yourself and putting the pieces of yourself back into something whole until you can survive for ten heartbeats.' She kissed back.

'Sing to your family and tell them you will not speak with them for at least a month and possibly more.'

I did, my mother tried to dissuade from finishing my apprenticeship but I told her I will fulfill my destiny for both family, princess and divine put me where I am now and I will not give up, for when my destiny comes for me I will not hesitate anymore, for to do so has only earned me a slow death before.

I kissed my wife both in song and deed and caressed her body as she did the same. We will face what comes as we always do, as one sword to stand against that which threatens its love and pride.

~~~~~~~~

Our foolish apprentice still screams. He has not stopped in two days as my older brother continues to show him pits of darkness that make you long for despair.

Our apprentice is too suited for that which our brother has made from his mind and his talent continues to shine through even as he learns faster than we can teach him. But we have gotten used to such for we love and treasure him even as he tires as so and we are still not older than him when our ages combine.

'Brother is right, it is funny to think about it.' I thought to myself.

His wife to be is the only thing keeping him alive as she showers him with love and affection and kisses only for our older brother to try and see if what she mended will take one more heartbeat of hell into it.

Cipanni Oiair is subjected to both such treatments and at the same time, and now his soul screams to be allowed to feel despair for he is not allowed to do so and screams louder for it.

'Not unusual.'

That's what he called it. He experienced this atrocity against reason and sanity for weeks worth of heartbeats and pretends to others that it was ten years and dared call it anything but abhorrent for his former people are used to it.

I do not want to meet humans, all three parts of myself agree on that.

He told us they sing only in their voice and that their soul song is either non-existent or chaotic because they are not fully aware of it and yet they crave to stride in steps larger than the sky and always crave for more as fire spews from their souls in the cadence of thunder and death and yet they are small and clumsy.

And yet they experience this abomination regularly and think nothing of it other than the merest whispers of sadness and a shallow compassion if the one it happens to is friend or family. They themselves feel none of it when it happens to them, for they only feel relief when it is over if they can be bothered to care to remember.

I do not wish to know how such a mind feels and what it spurs others to act on when whole as Seeing half of it in our brother scares worlds and princesses into compliance or action.

I asked him to show me that which he claimed is worse than the Gray Wastes we experienced in the minutes after father died and older sister abandoned us as our older brother tried to plead with the traitor before she ran.

I decided to tell him such when we turned ten, for we were scared it would return after which we saw horrific things in our planning stages of our escape from our doomed world. Our brother was unimpressed and proceeded to show us worse when we challenged him to such.

One month was how long it took us to learn to craft one heartbeat of it ourselves for we are triplets and we will not let our family down by not learning all that we can.

We knew we were doomed then and yet brother brought us back with his love and care and we love him for it.

Eight heartbeats. That's how much our foolish apprentice can take for now and our brother might not be able to give him more for the man among men, his apprentice who is our clan head, the princess and many other seers and clan members have called us to answer for it for they sense the waves of screams that crave for despair from our apprentice even as he is protected and kept behind our wards and gun-sword minds.

"You have called for us, again." I said from my oldest body that was Guraith for now.

"Yes, we hoped to see your older brother and apprentice as well for this conversation." The princess which called us here but only I came said.

We had just finished making another Ward of Darkness and fixing one that was broken by some sword cults when we were invited to an audience.

They wanted us here to stop torturing our beloved apprentice, or at least grant our apprentice some reprieve but we promised our too talented apprentice and beloved we will not.

"The fool continues to exceed the expectations set on him for he is already 8/10ths​ through what we have planned to teach him." Was the response of our middle body.

They stopped to consider it.

"The entire world feels the waves of desire for despair coming from him despite your best attempts at hiding it, for he is loved by many." Gua Bis tried to reason with us.

'Good, perhaps then they will stop trying to get us to stay on this doomed world and teach others our craft.' I thought.

The offers had started coming as world started to realize the sheer versatility of 1/5th of our trade and thought all could learn in years as opposed to decades centuries and begged of us to take apprentices. Hopefully the screams will stop that nonsense.

They always stop it when you are sane and those that scream aren't.

We knew, oh how we knew the fool is loved for we loved him too and we still thought all our wards could keep the links closed. They failed miserably for the boy knows our craft and our craft knows him and tries to protect him despite our commands and his soul instinctively uses it to bypass our efforts and beg for help.

It is infuriating to see someone so talented at that which we have created but it is what it is, he will be better at that part of who we are and that is that. Hopefully it will serve him well once he stops screaming and it will serve our plans.

"We know, we have explicitly warned all of you that this will happen and to expect it to last a full month at a minimum, by the rate of advancement it will have not even been a week. Our fool is as always ahead of schedule and leaves us with little to give him to learn as he tires us so."

"None expected it to be this strong or to never stop young masters."

We all looked at the princess, all three of I included for she is the one that called us here and said such foolishness.

"He is being taught the secrets behind the Wards of Darkness that we have been building for your palace and ships and near the Webway Gate, the ingredient you fear to look upon, for the eye of divine will show you eagerly all you look upon even as it harms you." The youngest of us spoke.

No matter what we do on this world some form of danger awaits us and we know not why, and yet we need to prevent it by sharing too much. It is vexing, but it is what it is for I trust all parts of myself and our brother to love and help us, be they past or future.

The princess shuddered and all felt the despair our apprentice craved for but was denied, for all he felt was desolate emptiness and love.

"We have given you the chance to convince him and his beloved tried as well, even as she and our brother are the only thing keeping him alive beyond our older brother who tried to offer him an end to his apprenticeship without this lesson being imparted. All of you have failed to convince him otherwise. Why do you wish to interrupt that which all involved with a say in it agreed to and refused or were unable to stop?"

'You agreed to this and even as we warned you it will come you still went through with it until the screams became too loud.' I thought annoyed.

"Is there no way to create it without what he is being put through?" The boys' mother asked.

She tried the hardest to stop it and pleaded with us so hard we have had our brother make the offer to our apprentice, so we will be the gentlest with her.

"He begged for it before we started and we wished to deny him it and he felt betrayed for it. Now his soul instinctively begs for help even as his mind refuses to yield. We understand your love and fear for we have experienced that which he experiences as well, but we will not disrespect his conviction, not now when he is almost done, and we do so for the time to do so at has passed."

'Nine' came the whisper from our brother.

The screams were louder now. Nobody was surprised as they've been getting louder with each heartbeat our fool could carve into his mind and soul before having to forget it.

"9/10ths ​now and as we told you yesterday no. If there was any way we knew of, then he wouldn't be screaming now." we said simply.

"What is he being taught to cause these screams?" A taboo question had been asked.

I looked at her with hate. The other fools around the throne and those who sat upon it noticed it and they looked at her with horror for what she asked is taboo.

'You do not ask masters what they teach apprentices, that is between themselves to know and perhaps show you the results of their lessons.' We thought as our swords prepared to cut.

All know it to be so, be they from the most feral Exodus Worlders to the Phoenix King, they all knew this as fact and if there was anything the two extremes of Eldar thought and all in-between agree upon it was this one single fact.

The lord prince intervened to stop her before she made enemies.

"Scatha Gaain, such things are not asked for the bond between master and apprentice is more sacred than the divine, and it has been so for longer than the Empire of Ten Million Stars has stood!" he thundered.

"He screams begging for terror, we know what his lesson gives him, we merely ask why." She continued.

"My love no, please! Such is not done, so please apologize for by even asking that question you have caused great injury and insult." The man among men and husband to a moron asked.

She sighed.

"I apologize for my insolence and stupidity." She looked properly chastised by the man among men as he sang to her in secret.

He never orders his wife anything, for he loves and respects her too much to demand of her that which she would not do herself, but today he all but did so before we stopped considering her friend and thought of her as an enemy to die.

We did not wish for her to be an enemy, her stories were interesting and her perspective unique.

"We forgive you for it." And we did, for her stupidity was asked out of love and care.

For while we do not like it, we know what it means to break taboos in the name of love.

Each four of us had dishonored ourselves plenty trying to get at least one of our nieces to come with and save her from this doomed world. She instead mocked our pleas and found love and married regardless and now has told us quite openly that she and her husband will build a home and stay and die there.

'11. He is done, the fool managed to create a heartbeat himself.' Our brother sang.

The screams stopped abruptly afterwards and everyone tensed and turned to us in fear thinking that our foolish apprentice finally managed to evade the efforts of our brother and his wife-to-be and killed himself.

All those that tried to peer into the Wards of Darkness we have built for the princess in order to learn their secrets did so after a heartbeat of staring into them, for they made a Wraithbone knife if they did not posses another weapon on themselves, and then stabbed and shot and flayed their own heart to make it feel again.

We smiled and they flinched and we knew not why for we were trying to be kind.

"The fool exceeded our expectations when we already expected so once again and his training in that which made him scream is over. All that is left is for him to learn to make use of it then create something he does not have from what we have given him and do so consistently."

They sighed in relief. That would not do, but they were fools and we would educate them for we loved them.

"Why are you relieved? His pain has not ended and never will." The oldest part of me said.

He spoke in the same villainous tone our brother loved to use when he wished to impress upon others the importance of what he wishes to say. Bessar loved this sort of thing and we found it amusing from time to time even as it was necessary to impose the importance of things

"Hasn't the worst passed?" The man among men asked with concern that all but I felt.

"The screams have stopped yes, now he will experience all that he has felt and more in each moment of creating and learning the Wards of Darkness. He just won't be screaming when he does so, and he creates more of that which he has experienced himself." The middle part of me said blandly.

They did not like that answer either but if they wanted another answer they should have stopped him from learning his final lesson. We would have helped even as it harmed our plans for we love all the fools that love us.

'Tell his family to stop bothering our door please. Cipanni Oiair will rest for as long as he has screamed before we allow any but ourselves and his beloved to see him. Also tell so to boy as well to continue to stay at the home of Gua Bis until then for it is not safe for him to be here until then. ' Our brother pleaded with us.

We did so and they were not happy with it, even as family and princess ordered clan and family to wait for two days, for our apprentice would get two days of kisses and caresses from his beloved before he could walk and talk to his family and not spread that which he has been taught to others and kill them for it.