The Hunt

[Jay Carpenter]

Jai & Daryen

The guard posted outside Daryen's door stiffened to salute but caught himself short when the face that emerged was not the one he'd expected.  There was no alarm as his posture relaxed, recognizing a familiar face.  The man was one of the king's personal guard, and like his few brothers which were loyal to the House crest sewn into his uniform, likely more so than even to the realm his master served.  A guard, not a soldier.

"How does the world find you, Bretton?" 
Jai paused, meeting his eye for only a moment before passing on to look left and right as though he might read the tiles for the answer on Daryen's whereabouts.

"A fair deal better than you these days, I hear." 
Gruff, but a friendly reply.

"Yeah?" 
Jai did not try to imagine how fast the gossip darted these halls.  "About that, which way did he go?"


Bret dipped the hand resting on the hilt of a shortsword toward the left. "Almost an hour ago.  Have you been in there the whole time?  The servants brought in bandages." 
This particular guard was used to the convenience of gateways and by his shrug thought little of who came through them.  Apparently he was also unconcerned for whomever was wounded within to investigate himself while the king was elsewhere.  Or he recognized Jai's voice calling after Yui.  Either way, he'd bandaged his own leg in peace.

"For a while, yes." 
Jai glanced down the left, considering the paths that would bring him.  A serving man bearing towels knuckled an adjacent door while he watched shortly before disappearing inside.  Jai wondered who was graced with such a lofty suite next door to the king's.  He answered Bret's question instead.

"Stray arrow.  Hunting accident, officially."


Bretton, younger and more light at heart than his Captain, opened his palm impatient for the rest of the story.  "And unofficially?"


Jai smirked, thanked then bid the guard luck on finding some of the meal they could both smell on the sea air.  With one last glance down the left, he strode off toward the right.

He took off, confident in his ability to navigate the corridors and duck under archways; cut across courtyards and pick footsteps across the dancing torchlight.  He did.  For a while.  Of course, someone else knew these passageways.

"Bloody hell." 
Jai swung to a halt.  "I was trying to avoid you."


"Then don't take my favorite routes." 
Daryen strode forward, thoroughly amused, grinning like a bloody imp.  Jai meanwhile simply crossed his arms and looked at the man.  He was dressed in the most obscene and gaudy outfit he'd yet witnessed, and he'd been there for all the feasts with foreigners, parades for dignitaries, and balls for the rich to last a lifetime.  Usually in the back, but there none the less.  Today, the man was utterly Domani through and through; worse than that, a majestic one.  Gauzy linen hung straight as sails from the cinche at his waste rippling only when the slight breeze swept the pantlegs.  Leathery sandals as such he would wear for gatherings on the beach below seemed undisturbed by sand this night.  Which was more than Jai's boots could attest.  He'd be picking out grains under the seams for weeks now.  But most ridiculous was the white silk stretched opaque across his shoulders, falling open full to his knees and held down by the royal weight of golden scrollwork catching the dim fires flickering on the wind around them.  Their lamps mirrored in the glints off golden skin. The curves of muscle etched beneath.

He swallowed. "Nice, ah.  Whatever you call that.  Shirt?"


As Daryen swaggered on, grinning like a bloody hero.  Jai fell in step: a literal shadow following the glowing royalty at his side.

"How's the shoulder?"


"You know it bloody hurts.  Like everything else.  Who kicked the shit out of me when I was out?"


Daryen wisely ignored that last question.  "I could still get Liridia to Heal you.  Call on you privately?  Nobody could know.  And you'd look better."


Jai shook his head. "I'd know." 
Serious as the grave despite the smirk which followed.  "And maybe I like bruises."


"Do you?" 
Jai glanced toward the face considering him.  Wondering if Daryen took his sarcasm more literally.

He stopped their procession someplace between archways and far set torches with a brief touch on that silk clad arm.  It turned toward him, so dark in these side galleries it was hard to make out the planes on his face.  For a moment, anger crumbled as he moved in close.  "Why did you and Fate do this?"


There was no long moment of silence from Daryen.  No pause to consider the proper answer to soothe the aches plaguing good men forced to do monstrous things.  Mere calm, steady as waves and wizened with experiences of one who'd seen many.  Daryen's arms wrapped his neck, hands squeezing the tension in his muscles. His voice whispered an answer, "Deep down, you live your life by a code.  It's your shoreline.  It's what guides you home.  And trust me.  You're always trying to get home.  I've found my shore, Jai.  Which direction is yours?"


Jai, tentatively sedate, braced for repulsion.  He buried his face in Daryen's neck, breathing in the scent of sandalwood and sea, lips touching the skin. His hands snaked under the shirt, caressing warm skin beneath. "Have you ever heard a girl beg for mercy.  Wet eyed and clutching at your pant leg like a wounded dog too afraid to reach any higher?  And when you offer to melt that infernal collar from her neck, she screeches like she'd been kicked and throws herself across the body of her leash holder.  Mercy for her mistress, she begs!  Begs that no harm come to the whip which beats her." 
He peered into the shadows, seeking to make out the colors which must be surrounding them in the fullness of daylight's gardens. "Just as well.  The collars don't melt." 
They get dirty though. He pulled his hands away, broke the contact.

"It never bothered you before." 
Daryen circled forth, easily swarming the view.  Sapphire eyes cloaked monotone in the dim world.  "I've seen you, Jai.  When you couldn't see yourself.  Lost in your frenzy, walking the paths of graveyards as it were, waiting to catch the sight of your own name.  Fighting to seize what you want to seize, loathing the thing you love more than your honor.  And yes, you love your honor like the sweet taste of wrath on your tongue.  Like Saidin itself." 
A harrowing flare burned across Daryen's searching face.  Considering what dared defy him with mystery, as though by will alone he might uncover the secrets within the most foreign of powers looking back at him.

"Ah, to see the woeful world through your eyes.  Drenched down with guilt; heavy dew weighing down the most delicate of petals.  It must be a beautiful thing to behold." 
Jai felt Daryen's search, as though he might catch some fuller reflection he'd only glimpsed before.

He had no idea how to respond.  No idea what he was talking about, really.  As usual. "Until one night you whispered talk of madness? I don't care about your plans. I don't ask about them. But the seanchan? Why have I been killing them all this time?"


Daryen, nodded.  Affirming as much with a deadly smile.  "Wars always have an end. Trust me."


They both turned toward the shuffling of footsteps.  Jai swiftly opened up the narrow space between them.  The servant, a full lipped girl with bashful eyes whom he recognized as Nelle, curtsied demurely for her Lord and King, though flashed Jai only a brief glance as she approached.  She offered numerous apologies for interrupting what was clearly a private moment, but Mistress Yui had her fingers crawling all over the grounds looking for the king, it seemed.  And as the scent of glazed meat blew their way, Daryen was reminded nobody could eat more than morsels until he arrived.  Of course, the girl had a more polite way of putting it.  But the lingering glances cast from her shy manner left a suspicious taste in Jai's mouth.

They parted ways.  Officially.  Daryen striding toward the light and sounds of merry making.  Jai on into the shadows.  He emerged on a flagstone patio, taking steps two at a time toward the cliff face and fresh air, confusion sitting like sand heavy in his head.  He followed the railing away from the eruptions of music, picking up the pace when the notes suddenly died down.  Daryen must have arrived by then.  Jai glanced behind but caught nothing but smoke rising from the ebb of lights.  Some grand speech no doubt lapped his subjects into his palm.  He walked on.

He had not intended to find Nythadri.  In fact, for these last minutes he had not thought of her at all.  Granted, he'd thought little but how to delay joining the tangles waiting back there.  And of a way of eat without being forced to sit at an actual table.  A new set of pangs joined the others across his stomach.

"I remember the first time I saw it." 
He spoke softly as he approached to not frighten any deep thought.  Came up to her side, leaning comfortably as she did, catching the scent of oils from her bath, he wondered what motivated her to seek solitude.

"Looks like the end of the world, doesn't it?" 
He looked down to offer an honest smile for the moments before it faded.  There was something on the other side.  Thoughts for another night.

"The water's warm.  Do you want to walk in it?" 
He stood up.  One word and Jai could see to it she would be but mere footsteps from dipping her toes in the Aryth Ocean.