Aeternitas by M Mixson (free ereaders txt) 📖

they’re not carrying any sticks or anything. But they’re a scruffy lot, they look like they’re always up to no good. So much so that they don’t have anywhere to live because they keep getting dumped on the street.”

“Much like you two will be if you don’t stop coming back looking like this?” Ohiel asked dryly.

Zese gave him an irritated look. “Thanks,” he replied as Eian urged Zese to go on with the story.

“Now where was I? Oh, right. We were at the part where several scruffy looking guys walked in. Eian and I watched them for a bit. We were wary and starting to sober up fast as they looked to be a mean lot that might just cause trouble. At this point our food arrived at the table and we dug in still keeping a careful eye on the men in the corner while we held a light conversation about nothing in particular. It’s a good thing we started sobering up sooner rather than later because the trouble was about to start.”

“Oh bother,” Ohiel muttered as Zese stood up and began pacing the floor.

“Here we are minding our own business, just so you know. A young woman walks out, a pretty little thing. She’s nice to look at, really nice, she seemed to be a sweet girl too. A little unsure of herself, but someone I think I might like to get to know more intimately – ooof,” he huffed as Eian jabbed and elbow into his side and glared at him. “No offense Eian.” Eian narrowed his eyes further and leaned back in his seat saying,

“Oh, do continue, I can’t wait to hear what you say next.”

Zese raised his hands as if in surrender. “So the pretty thing comes out, her name is apparently Seira because that’s what one of the other girls called her as they passed each other by. So this Seira approaches the scruffy looking men’s table and greets them warmly and cheerfully inquiring as to what she can get them for the night.

They’re rude fellas so they order one thing then when she repeats it back they say that she got it wrong and change it on her. This lasts for a few minutes before she just up and leaves to the kitchen with the last things they’d ordered on her list. Now these men are now scowling. They’re probably used to the type of girls who’ll play along until they get to the point of tears. This girl was a new breed to them. They lightened up considerably after their beer came. I thought perhaps this was going to be over now. Unluckily it wasn’t. They stayed quiet all through dinner and then all through the next ten minutes of their conversation.”

Eian nodded here. “This is the interesting part.”

Ohiel raised his eyebrows in curiosity.

“Eian and I were standing up to leave, we’d paid our tab and had gathered ourselves and our coats up when the real big trouble started. Seira had come out again from behind the bar and had made way to the table full of men and was asking them if she could get them anything for dessert. One of the crude ones said, ‘You, sweet cheeks.’ As you may understand she was infuriated by his comment and stepped back saying coldly, ‘Sir. I work here. Please treat me with the respect I deserve.’ One of the other men got up the nerve to say, ‘You shouldn’t be working here girl, then. You should be working next door!’ and the men laughed.”

“What’s next door?” Ohiel interrupted.

“You don’t know?” Eian asked. “I thought you knew were everything was?”

“I don’t know the section of town you’re talking about very well, however. So if you’d please enlighten me it’d be much appreciated.”

“Oh. In that case it’s uhm. A.” Eian stumbled over his words. Ohiel could tell he was a bit embarrassed. “It’s a cathouse…a brothel.”

“A brothel? They told her she should work in a brothel? Why?”

Eian sighed, “You’re not that old you should be able to figure it out fairly easily.”

Ohiel seemed to think about it for a few minutes before coming to a conclusion. “Aaahh, because she was so pretty. That was why they said that. They thought she should work in a brothel due to the way she looked? And due to the way she acted?”

“She acted perfectly normally,” Eian filled him in. “There was nothing wrong with her attitude. I myself thought she had a lovely attitude.”

This time it was Eian who earned the glare from Zese who picked up the story yet again.

“This girl Seira, now she was in a fit. She was blazing mad and was pointing her finger and shouting at them. The men were shouting back at this point and one got so mad he reached out and gave her a good whack on the face. She was so shocked she staggered back with a hand against her cheek. It didn’t stop her for long because she went after the men just as easily as you or, well, Eian or I would go after another man who had offended us. She didn’t stand a chance. She was getting whacked about every which way. At this point Eian here must have seen enough because he marched right over to the lead guy and punched him in the face. He went down like a log. All of a sudden they were all on Eian and he was doing a fairly decent job –”

“Fairly decent?” Eian interrupted sounding a bit peeved.

“A very good job,” Zese corrected, “of keeping them off his back. There were six of them and only one of him though, so you can imagine how one sided the fight actually was though.”

“I can’t even imagine,” Ohiel remarked wryly yet again.

Zese continued as if Ohiel had never said a thing. “So I finally go over and join him and it evens up just a bit. I’m stronger than most men so I knocked two out. That left four and Eian took out another. There were only three left standing and there were two of us. Seira however took care of that by kicking one of the three pretty hard in the crotch. The guy was so busy worrying about his junk that he forgot about us two. We proceeded to kick the, uh, well, let’s just say we did win the fight in the end.”

Ohiel sized up his two young friends and sighed. “Well, at least it was for a good cause,” he told them. “Come on, sit down and I’ll tend to your wounds. Just don’t expect me to be nice about it.”

“I wouldn’t even ask,” Zese said grinning.

Eian just rolled his eyes and leaned back in the chair as he waited for his turn.

Chapter 19: Letters

It was a huge relief to hear that the plague was officially over.

Eian rolled over in the bed and stared out the wide window watching the first buds of spring. The harsh winter had decimated much of many flower’s chances of blooming in the spring. But this tree was a survivor Eian thought. It was blooming even though it had been so harshly hit. He smiled a bit and raised his hand towards the ceiling but in mid reach a larger, rougher hand caught his and twisted their fingers together. He felt a smile against the back of his neck at the low growl of irritation he’d made.

Zese pulled the arm with their twined fingers closer to Eian’s body.

“Good morning,” Zese murmured as he pressed another kiss to the back of Eian’s neck.

Eian mumbled “’mornin’” back.

After a few minutes Zese finally sighed and sat up. “Are we ever going to talk about this?”

Eian turned his head on the pillow. “Talk about what exactly, this or that?”

“Both, either, you pick.”

Eian shuffled the covers up his body pulling them almost all the way up to his chin.

“Are you really enlisting as a mercenary?”

Zese wrinkled his nose as he bathed his face in water from the wash dish.

“Yes. Although it’s risky, because who knows where I’ll be deployed to, who I’ll be fighting.”

“We’re not going to have a choice much longer are we?”

Zese glanced over at Eian who had finally sat up in bed and was staring at him with a kind of hopeless helplessness.

Zese frowned and turned away quickly. “Probably. Yes. They need as many men as physically possible.”

“I don’t really want to fight. I can use a bow but anything else is slightly beyond me.”

Zese smoothed Eian’s hair back from his forehead and planted a kiss upon it. “I wouldn’t worry. I don’t think you’d be on the frontlines if they conscript you.”

Eian didn’t like this war one bit. He disagreed with it on so many levels but there really wasn’t a lot of choice. The plague had done a lot of damage.

With all the people dying there had been no harvest this year, there had been no planting; there really hadn’t been much of anything. There was little to no food and people were becoming desperate, they were killing each other, cities were taking sides, becoming divided.

From afar Eian could see it: the city states were growing apart each becoming their own “country” and forming alliances with other city states that would be mutually beneficial until one of them was dry and therefore useless. That city state would be trampled and left for dead.

The other countries in the world weren’t faring much better. Although they had more resources than Aniatea they were still suffering immensely. These other countries were gathering all their power and getting ready to attack each other and the surrounding countries.

Eian knew it wouldn’t be long before his own country would be forced to retaliate or to make the first move to protect its citizens.

The young man swallowed and stood from the bed as Zese moved towards him once again. The older man took Eian’s face in his hands and tilted it up.

“Eian,” he whispered softly, “Dear Eian,” Zese’s eyes closed, “Darling, you’re starting to worry too much. We can only hope that these people figure out the issues before they become too big to handle.”

Eian’s hands closed over Zese’s whose still held his face. “I can already tell it’s becoming too late. I’m sure you’ve already talked to the Princess briefly, am I right?”

“Yes.” Zese leaned his forehead against Eian’s. “She said war was coming. A war that would divide but also unite. The way she speaks in riddles is often confusing and takes a while to decipher at times.”

Eian looked up through his lashes. “Did you see anyone dying?”

“I can only see blurry figures in that aspect. As the time closer to death comes the image will become clearer. The future can change though, so there are no guarantees that one person will survive and the other will die or vice versa. I cannot be relied upon. Has Isia said anything?”

Eian swallowed. “No. She’s barely spoken a word. I think she’s brooding. She may be worried just a bit.”

“Just a bit,” Zese sighed a bit unhappily. “She doesn’t want you using magic in this war does she? She’s afraid it’ll turn you evil and that both she and all your friends will lose you. That and we all may