Provocations

Afena stepped out of her cabin with two servings of breakfast, months after beginning her training with Rudsis. She thought she'd have to go into her shop to wake him up, but the truth was that she hadn't had to do that for a while now.

Rudsis was up and ready, practicing sword forms, slices, and movements in silence.

"You're ready," she said.

He sheathed the sword in a scabbard they'd made during those months of training. It was wooden, and hung from his belt.

"Truly?" he asked approaching her.

They sat around the fireplace in front of Afena's cabin, and she extended the plate to him.

"You are," she said.

"Can we go free the folk of Crown, then?"

"Try to remember what I told you when you first came to me, Rudsis."

"Just tell me, witch."

Afena ate her breakfast impassively. She did look Rudsis in the eye, however, and stared at him. Her face showed no emotion in particular, none of its muscles tensed.

"You told me many things," he finally conceded.

"About the sword."

"That I could not handle it properly, and that only metal can harm gods."

"I never said you couldn't handle it properly, and you're missing an important bit of information about the metal."

"You showed me I could not, which amounts to the same. And you said that you had to enhance it with magic."

"Correct."

Rudsis could have sworn he heard a smile in Afena's voice, but her lips never stretched more than necessary to say the word.

"Have you ever seen diamond, marble, or obsidian?" she asked.

"Only obsidian. We use it for our spears. I wouldn't know what the other two things you mentioned are."

Afena raised her eyebrow. "How do you get it?"

"I don't know. I've only ever received the spear, and never wondered who made it, or how."

"Hmm." Afena remained silent for a second, and decided to let Rudsis find out about the bloody origin of the obsidian on his own. "They're all difficult materials to get. I don't know how long it will take us to gather them, but it shouldn't be more than a year."

"A year? That's too much, witch."

Afena shrugged and kept eating.

"Do you not care about the folk? About the people being forced into slavery?"

"If I did not care, I would not be helping you."

"Then we have to do something! We have to get rid of Treni now!"

"How?" Afena asked sincerely. "Do tell me how we get what we want now. Tell me how we can get results today, this very instant."

"I came seeking answers from you, witch." Rudsis' tone turned spiteful. "Not the other way around."

"I am giving you answers, but you don't like them."

"Would you give me the same answers if you were forced to please strangers every day? Or if you were to be sacrificed to Treni?"

Afena closed her eyes and shook her head. "Rudsis," she said calmly, "Were there thieves, murderers, and other criminals in Crown before Treni took it over?"

"Of course there were!"

"Is crown the only city there is?"

"What does it matter?"

"Is it?"

"No!"

"Then tell me, why did you never stop the criminals from other cities?"

Rudsis glared at Afena.

"I'm sure a man in the city of Throne took advantage of a girl. And that in the town of Smallwood, a father or mother killed their children. I once was in the town of Greenwind, where a man disappeared and his wife barely even shed a tears. In fact, she smiled when he didn't turn up. There are crimes all over the world, Rudsis. Why did you not stop them?"

"DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT."

"You know very well I haven't changed it. Even though there are tragedies, we can't avoid all of them. Either because we can't, or because we are not ready. Do you know what my father told me once?"

"Father? Witches have fathers? What kind of monster would beget a heartless animal like you?"

"My father used to be beaten by his father," said Afena disregarding what Rudsis told her. "He told me about it once, and then said that boys have to suffer what men don't. It was only after growing up that he could put a stop to it. Meanwhile, there was no one to protect him."

Afena almost smiled wickedly before she continued speaking, but managed to stop herself, and speak without lacing her words with cruelty. "Where were you, Rudsis, to protect my father when he was beaten?"

He slapped her, then tossed his plate to a side and stood to stalk away.

Afena drew in a sharp breath. She knew her cheek would get swollen, and purple. Rudsis was very strong, and he either didn't control the force of the blow, or chose not to. Shaking with hatred, and a desire to hurt Rudsis, tears streamed down her cheeks as the world spun around her.

Afena stumbled to her shop, where the furniture had been moved up against a wall to make room for a bed for Rudsis, and she searched through a cabinet full of small drawers. From it, she extracted some herbs to chew them. Waiting for the effect of the herbs to kick in, she leaned on the wall to keep herself standing, and breathed in deeply.

"Men shall never know our lore." Afena remembered the words of her mother and the rest of her teachers. "They knew it once, showed that they were unworthy of it, and it was necessary to take it from them."

"Animals," she whispered, then laughed, remembering that Rudsis had called her exactly that scarce moments ago.

The memory of her father came to mind then. It made Afena smile sweetly, and her eyes tear up with fond memories.

"You always treated me better than mother did," she told the memory. "You spoiled me, really. But also raised me. You weren't an animal. You would have made good use of the lore, wouldn't you? We could have lived together. We could have been a family like everyone else."

Because the lore of the Inarentas was only taught to women, men lived apart from their wives and daughters. Afena was allowed to visit her father in the nearby village every month or so, but the rest of the time she had to spend living with the other Inarentas in their school.

In that school, they spent most of the day learning the Inarenta lore. They lived well, and the village nearby was entirely composed of the Inarentas' husbands and brothers. They were more than happy to support their women with the yield of their hunts and farms.

"I could only see you for two days, dad. Two days every month or so..."

The pain receded, and her balance eventually came back.

"That was hundreds of years ago," she reminded herself and stopped reminiscing before it was too late and she remembered her partner back then.

Afena stepped out, looked up, and saw a black owl with silver eyes, and golden head.

"Hooo," the owl said.

"Not now," said Afena. "Leave me alone for a while. I need to clear my head and calm myself."

The owl shook its wings, flapped them twice against its sides, and took off in the same direction Rudsis had gone.