New Beginnings

[Set]

Set and Siefyr set out from their homeland for a new life, landing in Messina and traveling to Aquilos to start a school of warcraft.

[Set]

Set rose the shovel over his head and brought it down for one final time. It drove the wooden cross firmly into the ground. There was a line of nearly identical crosses, each marking the burial place of someone important to the young man.

Karina the Animal Communicator was there, with her husband Auron and their twins Cyrus the Mage and Cybil the Warrioress. All had been killed when the Great School had fallen. Rielle the Ahatna'l'Haida had been killed as well, but her distraught Soul-Sib Zephyra had continued on without her. Karina's sister Lucy had lived than too, but had been killed in battle after, and the next wooden cross marked her final resting place. Next was Set's uncle, Sir Kizmet, killed in battle.

Set rested his hand gently on Kizmet's marker. Part Uncle, part hero, part Father. He would take the pain of his loss to his grave with him.
The next cross was smaller, and belonged to Silva, daughter of Himiko and her first partner, Deidara. She and Set had grown up as sister and brother. Looking at what marked the place of what was left of her, Set felt shameless tears rolling down his face. He could hear her familiar laughter in his ears, remembered her anger at the pet name he had given her. Silly. He had teasingly called Silva Silly...

Set pulled himself away from the pain of his sister's memory to move on to the last marker. Here he fell to his knees. Himiko. When he had been just a little boy, all alone in the world, she had saved him from two bully-boy nobleman, and they had stayed together ever since them. She looked after him as though he were her own, and even when she had her own daughter and son, her own family, Set had been a wanted and welcomed addition. She had died in the aftermath of the Great War, protecting her and Kizmet's toddler son, Siefyr. Set would never be able to describe the painful void she had left in his life. Part friend, part hero, part hero-idol, part Mother, Himiko had been the center of Set's entire world for a long time. She was the biggest reason he was still here.

It took Set a long time to stand. He wished he could give them all better monuments, but all he could was lash the two logs of wood together tightly with rope and carve their names across the horizontal branch.

Ready to go, he looked for Siefyr. The child sat a few yards away, Sir Windsor keeping a close on him. Sir Windsor had been assigned to guard Sir Kizmet, and his failure to do so had left him a broken man. He had aged 20 years in the past few months. He had no Order to return to now; it had been annhilated in the Great War. He had stayed on with Silva, Siefyr, Set, and Himiko after Kizmet's death, but they were now parting ways. Set was taking his brother-cousin and crossing the sea in search of new lands and a new beginning. Sir Windsor was setting out in the other direction, across the plains, towards Zephyra's school. There was a rumor that survivors were gathering there to try and rebuild.

Set walked to Windsor slowly. His face dry now, there were tears in his eyes as he approached a man who had been a regular part of his life since childhood. Windsor held his hand out to shake, but Set ignored it and enveloped him in a bear hug.

"I'll miss you, old friend..." Set said softly. Windsor nodded, unable to speak. He had watched Set grow from a small uncertain child into a strong young man, and this goodbye was as permanent as death.
Set picked Siefyr up and held him, watching as Windsor mounted his steed. As he turned to go, he looked over his shoulder.

"They would be proud of you, Set. Always remember that." And with that he spurred the horse on and he was gone.
Set watched until Sir Windsor disappeared from view before taking Siefyr and walking in the opposite direction...



Set sat in a cramped cabin, Seifyr sleeping on his lap as the ship rocked in somewhat turbulent seas. The storm wasn't on them yet, but the seas would be rough enough in a few hours to have Seifyr screaming in terror. For the time being though there was peace, and Set took the time to brood. Looking at the child in his lap, he remembered himself, parentless and alone, and how Himiko had taken him in. And now hear he was, fifteen years later, taking in her son as she had taken him in. He could have left the boy with Windsor, or alone, and struck out by himself. It would have been easier, only looking out for himself, only himself to house and feed... But Set knew he could never abandon Siefyr. He loved the boy like a brother, and he was the last piece he had left of Kizmet, of Silva, of his family.. of Himiko. Staring into the toddler's serene sleeping face, Set knew there was nothing in all the world he would not do for the child.

[Siefyr]

"Set! Look! I see LAND!"

The excited cry was a small child's piping but perfectly intelligible voice. Siefyr stood on tiptoes, staring between the bars of the railing that encircled the ship. He was barefooted and dirty, having spent many moons aboard the ship and having outgrown his shoes during that time. He had passed a birthday at sea, and was now four. He looked back over his shoulder quickly for his brother before turning back to watch, enraptured, as the coastline loomed ever larger before him.

[Set]

Set stepped up to the rail and lifted Siefyr up carefully to sit on the top, holding the boy tightly. His hair was unkempt after the long voyage, and an ill-conceived beard was growing in. His clothing was threadbare, and it was easy to tell at a glance that he took better care of the child by far than he did himself. The only thing about himself that seemed well-cared was the rather incongruous sword that hung from his belt. It had been his Uncle's sword, called Fate. He cleaned and polished it every night as he lay Siefyr down to sleep, telling the child stories of his Mother and Father, of Silva, Karina, Auron, Cyrus, Cybil, Rielle, Zephyra, Deidara and all the others, of himself as a small boy. Siefyr drank the stories up. He loved hearing about his family, whose memory was quickly fading save for the stories Set told, and several small paintings that Set carried with him. One showed Himiko, Deidara, Set as a small boy, and Silva maybe a year old. The next was again the four of them, but now Set was practically a pre-teen, and Silva a small child. Than there were Himiko, Kizmet, Set as a teenager, Silva a pre-teen. Than Set was mostly a man, and Silva a beautiful young teenager, Himiko and Kizmet, and an infant Siefyr. The last was a portrait of the whole group, even Gaara, shortly before he and Deidara's death. Each night Set told young Siefyr the stories, showed him the small paintings. He ended each night's regalings by brandishing the newly cleaned and shined Fate, and promising Siefyr that one day it would belong to him.

Dragging himself out of his brooding, Set pointed to the distant coast. "What you see there is Messina, Siefyr. One of the Kingdoms of Lamavia. Early tomorrow we will land in the city of Rothryne." Set felt a thrill as he said it. Finally, their new life could begin.

[Siefyr]

Siefyr looked back at his brother. "What's Rothryne?" he asked. The little boy was intelligent, and as curious as a kitten. He drank up anything about Lamavia, and had driven the sailors crazy with his questions. Not many were as patient as Set was with him. He constantly badgered Set with questions about everything. Where in Lamavia would they live? What were the different places like? Could he have a dog? Somehow, Set never lost his patience with the little boy.

[Set]

Set smiled without looking down. His eyes, too, were focused ahaead of them.

"Rothryne is a port city in Messina, Little Brother." he explained patiently. "A p'port city' is a city that is on the water where big ships can dock. They're usually important for trading to their country, and are normally very large, very wealthy, and very over-populated. Many people want to live in big port cities like Rothryne because things are always exciting. There is always news from all over the world, all adventure to be had. But they are also very dangerous, with many thieves and beggars, and it is easy to disappear from such a place, sold into slavery and shipped over seas, far away from anyone who could help you. That's why we must be very careful to never be separated." Set held his brother tighter, and Siefyr gazed up at him with large round owl eyes.

"Rothryne is the largest city in Messina, and it's where the National Military School is, where the National Messinian Forces are trained. It's the best of the best of Messinian fighters that go there, so Rothryne also tends to be safe than most other port cities. But Messina is a poor country, and when no one has much money and everyone is hungry, people are willing to do crazy things to get ahold of a decent amount of money."