Chapter 32:

Chapter 32: Farewells are bittersweet lessons.


The bond between master and apprentice is a sacred one, one that has been with our people for longer than we've been the swords of the ancients. It is one that our people hold even more sacred than the divine, for not even them may intervene in it as it is older than them and represents the first type of immortality our people had conceived of, that type being legacies.

Legacies last longer than the life of those that started it, they last longer than bloodlines and they will outlive stars as long as there is one individual that uses the fruits of that which the legacy has crafted.

The most sacred part of a legacy or apprenticeship is the final lesson, the one lesson that would tie together all knowledge the master wishes to grant to their apprentice and that would turn an apprentice into a peer and which separates an apprentice from a student.

The students I took on myself will not receive my final lesson unlike my apprentices, because I am not passing my legacy to them, merely showing it to them so that they may spread it and it is the reason why my students only receive knowledge of the tool usage of my craft and 2 crafts each, the Swords of Valor and the Dream Murder Charm.

I could do that so fast only because of the experience I had gained in teaching Cippani Oiair, who had managed to help me streamline the teaching process and the language I used, for my siblings and I always panicked when he would find something that was counter-intuitive for the man's soul is better at the art I, its creator, made.

This turned a process that would normally take three months into one that took one and that included the immunization with one heartbeat of the Dark Soul Pits.

For my Murderous Medicine, as my swords have taken to calling it, my final lesson is the knowledge of how to craft more heartbeats of the Dark Soul Pits, for all other tools are lesser expressions of what I wish of the art, and that being a cure for the virus of boredom as all other 'cures' I have are for lesser issues.

If you can produce your own heartbeats of the poison I have crafted you can grant it to others and it is so horrifically difficult to do so that I need the right circumstances to even try to teach it and if I do not manage to create it I will lose an apprentice.

Lanniar Narainn is not my apprentice in my medicine, he's my apprentice in learning to use the blessings of Khaine and the final lesson I have to teach him is very different from what anyone would expect, for it is the lesson that the first lesson I have given him was wrong, as those blessed by Khaine must always learn the wrong lessons first.

"My apprentice, today is the last day of your apprenticeship with me and as is tradition today I will give you your final lesson." I told my apprentice.

We did not need to sing as Khaine anymore, for her had already proven beyond the need of such teaching tools. Now we talk as Master and Apprentice, as from today onward we will be peers in one respect.

I looked into his blue eyes and I could see he was attentive.

"Do you remember your first lesson and my words on those blessed by Khaine?" I asked.

He thought on it for five heartbeats.

"All Eldar are blades and we instruments made to cut, not merely murder and those blessed by Khaine always learn the wrong lessons first." Lanniar Narainn my apprentice who I will soon call peer said.

"Yes, what was the wrong lesson I had to unteach you then?"

"The wrong lesson was that we were merely implements for murder."

"Do you remember how I described it?"

He had to think deeper for that one and I could see how he struggled to both remember it and see where I am going with it. I awaited for we were not in rush, not for this at least.

"Yes master, you called it an incomplete lesson that taught the wrong mentality, am I to assume that the lesson you also gave me then is incomplete but served as a teaching aide?" My too smart apprentice said.

"Yes, pull out your sword for it will serve as demonstration."

He did so and presented it to me and I looked upon it. It was a plain Wraithbone sword, curved on one end to a mono-molecular edge and that in the right hands can cut anything but the divine.

"All eldar are not blades, not truly for as the blade is not merely an instrument of murder, so are eldar not limited to being a blade, we are swords and swords have multiple parts."

The question I gave him then was a trap question, one that put the one meant to answer it outside the frame of even giving or considering the right answer, but it was necessary in order to lay the groundwork for the final lesson.

I took the sword from the hands of my apprentice and started showing the parts to him.

"There is the pommel which is apart of the handle, the edge that cuts, the edge that doesn't and the core which does not cut, yet upon which the edges stand and that connects all other parts to itself. Eldar are like a sword and not merely the bladed edge, because we can do and be more than that which cuts for we have emotions, we have dreams, we have hopes and pride and there are things we do not do and some we will never do."

He continued listening attentively to my words even if judging by his eyes he did not fully understand where I was getting at.

"Tell me apprentice as I see that you are lost, where is it that my words confuse you?" I asked.

It's easier if my apprentice tells me where he struggles than to find out myself.

"What do each of the parts represent master?"

"I am still trying to understand that myself my apprentice, for to understand each part of myself is to understand myself in its entirety and I have not yet achieved that yet and I perhaps never will. My creed, of which the first part I have taken from that of my own father, is my attempt of putting said understanding of myself into words. 'All promises fulfilled' is my cutting blade with which I do all that I am, and 'For loyalty is rewarded' is the core of myself of what my identity is and that keeps all that I am together.

The other parts of me are still hidden from me, but my lesson to you is not to teach you what those parts of you are, but for you to understand that you are more than that which you do, even if that is what people will experience."

I looked at my apprentice and again he looked as if he was close but still not in the right frame of mind.

"Remember when you asked me to help your sister, what did you do then, do you remember what your actions would have meant without the reasoning behind them? Why did you do it? And most importantly why was it important to you that you did so?"

I could feel that he understood what I was going for as his eyes light up.

Khaine is the god of Murder, his domain is the Murderous part of Stewardship and violence and the most important part of his domain is teaching you why all that you do is important.

His blessed must understand that they are not merely what they do, that they are not limited to the reasons why they do it, or why they think something is important. They are all that they think and value and do and do not, and to be otherwise is to accept yourself as only a part of yourself and deny it that which it needs to act and be healthy.

To deny a part of yourself is to deny yourself, for all eldar are swords and a sword is not merely that which cuts, it is what you hold in your hand and guides yourself, it is that which cuts and which doesn't and all that keeps everything else together and coherent, and to deny yourself one of those is to be nothing.

"Master, all that I have learned is that I know too little of that which I am, except the fact that my love is the reason I am who I am today and why I am willing to do what I do."

My apprentice said and bowed. He understood now the most important lesson all those blessed by Khaine should know, and the truth of the one who had blessed us.

"Then you know just as much as I do of myself now and I call you just as skilled as I am in understanding the ways of Khaine."

I bowed back to my new peer in the quest that is understanding our own nature.

"Thank you master."

"I thank you too my apprentice, for you have managed to reach this far so quickly, but the quest to understanding your own life can only be taken by yourself, for I can only put you in the right frame of mind to do so."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I am surprised the two of you are not there to receive the final lesson with my son." I told the two blades.

They have participated in most of the others after all, so I took them as junior apprentices to my friend Bessar Agail.

It was the man, Leiam that spoke in his formal tone and what he said surprised me.

"We are not apprentices to our Lord, we were teaching aides to his apprentice and your son, for our lord would allow us to be there to serve as additional perspectives for his son to compare notes with and think of the right questions to ask and find perspectives he did not think of before. The final lesson is for the apprentice only." He said.

"I suppose that made sense as he did invite us to the first lesson after all."

"Yes, he called it cheating and said that it was a good thing, for if you aren't trying to swindle your teacher out of all their knowledge then you're not trying hard enough to have it." Iameas, the woman continued.

I had to consider those words for a bit.

On one hand it flew in the face of what my own apprenticeship was but the more I thought of it, just like the first lesson the master of my son shared with my family, it was not a wrong opinion, for it operated under the assumption that an apprentice must do all that they could to learn from their master and that was correct. The only thing that was wrong was that by expanding it so, it contradicted other things and when you compared the new understanding with that which came before, it's the new one that felt less wrong than what was before.

It was an experience I found that my new friend enjoyed giving others and the reason that I thanked the divine each day for sending Bessar Agail where I could find him and to my own master, for she taught me how to seize the day and gave me the courage and initiative to make use of the divine gift I was sent.

I miss her, and each day the aches that came from my own master trying to teach me her final lesson and dying from the cults before she could confirm I understood it are healed by the fact that even my incomplete understanding was enough to make my family whole again.

"That sounds like my friend!" I said with a grin.

The two twins nodded, and I am very glad they stopped confusing which twin is which. Maybe one day they'll be whole again as well.

The song of my friend came to meet us in the yard and I sang to him to join us.

"Friend Bessar, have you finished giving your final lesson to my son so soon? It hasn't even been an hour yet."

My friend smiled when he saw me and confirmed it that yes it took so long for my son was a very good apprentice.

"Yes my friend, I have taught him the lesson and he is now considering it and its implications. I now call him my peer in understanding the blessings of Khaine." My friend said and came to sit with us on the tea rock where it is traditional to drink tea with guests.

I am very glad my friend took my son as apprentice, as I was quite confused when our son told us it took him two days to learn not to whisper as Khaine and that his apprenticeship wasn't for what we thought it would be.

No, my friend was just generous and decided that instead of teaching my son a trick as a student he would teach him how to think and be like Khaine and what that meant, and I could see they had an effect.

His training accelerated, he gained new skills with the blade and craft of his own master faster and perhaps in 200 years he will prove the equal of his father which is 2000 years old and I was ecstatic to live to see it.

"Do come and jump up, for I have made the tea you like. It was a bit difficult to find the plant but some travelers from beyond this world had a few leaves which I saved for today and they were kind enough to teach me how to prepare it." I said and waved to my friend to sit with us.

He jumped up on the rock in front of the teacup I had prepared for him and which I had kept warm.

"Thank you friend, I will drink this tea and then say my goodbyes to yourself and your family and my students in their bunkhouse, then I will leave today to head for the princely seat of Lammor and see if I cannot convince him to help me in my mission." My friend said after he took a sip of the mint tea.

Rumors said it could help calm the blessed of Khaine when they are angry but I did not believe such, for I tried it myself and I felt nothing that would affect the mind.

My friend likes it and that's the important part.

"I see, then know my friend that we still remain in your debt and that I wish you luck and I am sorry I could not trick my daughter to join you in your trip and see if she can't marry one of your adopted sons." I said regretfully.

I truly regretted it, my son came and told us of the fact my friend came with an idea and wished to prank his clan sister but my daughter wished to stay home and subject herself to my son's dress up attempts and to catch up on lost time.

They were cute at least and I did not have the heart to deny her request to feel as a sister should before she joined the troupes of Cegorach and dedicated her life to a divine mission.

"Pay it no heed my friend, for it was a rushed plan and it does not matter in the end. I do not mind the result, for I love my clan sister and wish her well and while I can't prank her like this, I will just have to find other means to do so with." My friend replied jovially.

My friend was once again showing another characteristic of his I found endearing. He did not care when plans changed, they were plans and they would change, for all that matters is that you could accomplish what you set your mind to, as how you did it hardly mattered.

"Nonetheless I am sorry I could not help you in this, but do know I have talked with 'First cut' of your evacuation plans to another settlement of the Orphanages and know you have our support, and that we will guard them on their trip to the base of operations of the agents of your lady wife."

My friend never stopped planning for granting his wives and their people citizenship, he merely decided to delay for a month to repay what he felt as a debt to myself and my family which was quite frankly nonsense.

It's us who are in his debt not him for what he did for us is much more important than what we did for him.

"I thank you for it, as you know that the House of the Laughing Blade was an orphanage with our own traditions and now that I am preparing for war, my siblings and I are doing our best to ensure that Orphanages in the possible blast radius will be evacuated and the caretakers and children will be taken to safety. The evacuation will start when the conflict starts affecting the area and in order to prevent nonsense I would like you to take this." My friend said and opened his backpack he always carries on him and pulled something out of it with telekinesis.

He pulled from it a simple wraithbone box adorned with a red ruby and gave it to me.

"In here are orders from myself and my wives with our stamp and signatures and codes telling all that serve us that you are a friend and on an important mission. The letter in the red envelope is for any that would try to stop you and your son knows how to spot those that should receive it."

I took it and inspected the box but did not open it. I knew my friend told my sons secrets a master must tell an apprentice and it seems I might stumble on one of them as I repay the favors I owe him.

"Thank you friend, I hope I will not have to use it."

"Yes, I hope so as well my friend. Also Inside of it there is also a green envelope, and you will give it to whichever member of my family my wives had sent to receive you, as in there is how I wish for you to be treated and you will be treated well or I will be very angry."


~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I won't miss this dump, but I will miss my apprentice, and his family and my novice medicine peddlers." Our master said as we left the city.

All the streets from the home of Caideam Caiir to our chosen gate were empty and it wasn't because the city was abandoned. The city was scared of being near our lord.

There have been 5 attempts in one month at killing our lord through a duel, and as a result all the would be duelists turned into a red mist by our master who never stopped to acknowledge them beyond the first time it was attempted and that left a mark.

The city learned to fear he-who-laughs-like-Khaine for he can kill you by hitting you so many times the Maton protection expires before you can even notice you're dead.

"The city is relieved we are leaving my lord, they won't bother us." The older part of myself said.

"A pity, for I still crave for violence but it matters not, for the cults will satisfy my desire to kill Eldar until I reach prince Lammor." Our master replied jovially.

We nodded at it, our lord does enjoy killing eldar we have found even if he does not show it most of the time.

"Do you think they'll celebrate once you're gone?" The younger part of myself asked.

The city usually celebrated such things as escaping from mortal danger and surviving hardships.

"No, not unless they wish for my students to go on an enthusiastic walk and start thinking the city is ill again." Our lord responded with a smirk.

Both of us laughed at that.

The enthusiastic walk in question happened in the third week of our lord residing in this city and it involved his students hearing of multiple tea houses echoing with the sound of disrespect and jeers of their teacher who had given them purpose and went on a killing spree emptying all three buildings of life in less than an hour. It was quite a shock to see sixteen medicine peddlers curing the stupidity of 200 eldar in an hour and is something the city hasn't forgotten yet or will forget soon.

Our master found the situation annoying and berated his students for not calling him too, for he's been craving for the fools to give him a purpose to let loose, but his own students mocked him telling him he should have been faster for the people were too ill to tardy and that he should have been taking them there not them take him for he is their senior.

The sheer disrespect would have made most teachers and masters apoplectic with rage, but it instead lead our master to hysterically laugh for a full ten minutes before telling them that he is proud of them and regrets he cannot teach them fully for he has no time to do so.

We didn't get that part but we were not medicine peddlers, as we did not have the mentality to make medicine, and instead were just very good at giving it to people.

"Indeed lord, Lammor is to the west but we left through the south, do we have any other errands?" I, Leiam asked.

We didn't mind either way but it was strange we did so.

"No, I just don't want to puke again as I did so when trying to first enter the city. We'll be going straight to the prince and see if he is willing to sell his favor and if I can pay for it or I have to replace him."

We nodded at that and started to run as soon as we left sight of the city.

We ran for seven days and seven nights with only light breaks and the occasional cultists to kill. Eventually we reached an interesting sight, one as interesting as it was unexpected.

We stood on a cliff overlooking the city we decided to pass closely by, for it would save on time to reach the domain of the prince our lord would ask a favor of.

In front of us stood the the city of the 'Blade of the supplicant.' a cultist city and it was burning but that wasn't truly that surprising, as it is a cultist city and they tend to do that sometimes.

No, what was more surprising was who was burning it and it wasn't the the deranged eldar. No, the sirens had gone to war and they were hunting eldar the same way they had been hunted for hundreds of thousands of years if not more. We silently cheered them on, nobody did anything else when that happened.

Even the cultists did the same when that happened.

"That's a bit early." Our lord said.

We had to agree with that, for our lord told us the conflict should start in a year from now on but something obviously changed and now the sirens have started pillaging and burning cultist cities.

A giant explosion hit the center of the city and a full third of it was destroyed by both the explosion and shockwave and this explosion caused cheers among the sirens as it was soon followed by smaller ones.

"Well... it seems my siblings are having fun, so let's leave them to it for we have our own work to do."

We could hear the amusement and envy in the voice of our lord as he said that for he wished to join the slaughter.

"Master, do you have a guess as to why this happened?" We asked as one.

We were worried that this might be a complication to our plans.

"Yes, the song of the sirens speaks of it and my youngest brother Aesan is there to inform me of it. Guraith the oldest third of my triplet siblings has gotten himself married several times over, at least 7 by the sound of it in order to hurry the creation of a coalition of the sirens and swear them over to their new queen. This attack is a diversion to ensure the migration of 3 million sirens and it also serves as an excellent training opportunity, but it does also accelerate my time table." Our lord revealed.

So this was a good thing then, good for the sirens and to our lords' siblings new wives and possible husbands. Being married to so many was bound to be annoying but they were triplets so two or three per body should be manageable for triplets and twins share everything, including spouses.

'Especially those I imagine.' we thought with a grin.

The Sirens are truly a lovely people and I do not imagine any of my lords' siblings regret the decision.

We started running again after resting for a few minutes. We had two more weeks of running before we could reach our destination. The city of 'The Jade Blade' and its prince Lammor have a purpose to serve and we will ensure that our lord will make it so.