In the first part of Rehei’s journey, we followed her harrowing experiences aboard a pirate ship where she endured unspeakable torment. Captured by the rasayak, Rehei navigated the brutality of her captors with cunning and resilience, driven by a fierce determination to protect the children of her people, the Megayni. As a prisoner with a unique ability to wield pshychaeia—a mystical energy tied to the soul—she orchestrated daring escapes for the young, all while plotting her ultimate revenge against the pirates. Now, in the second installment of this gripping saga, Rehei’s story continues as she embarks on a perilous journey to freedom and justice. Join us as we delve deeper into her world, uncovering new allies and formidable enemies, and witnessing the power of hope and sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds.
It continued and she gasped as her pshychaeia was activated and started swirling from her belly into her torso and up to her head, it leaked out of the orifices of her face, through her nose, her ears, her mouth into his open maw. Tears came to her form the pain, knives digging to her skull, a deep hole punched somewhere near her lungs, making it difficult to breathe. But Rehei did notice any of it, the pain was secondary. They had blocked her access to pshychaeia, with their collar and so this was the only time she could access it, the only way she could touch the golden healing light of her tamai. She focused with all her might on her tamai, to the exclusion of all else, she didn’t know how long it went on, but during that time she rested her mind in the embrace of the mighty bright golden stag that was her tamai.
A well-spring of calm centred her mind amidst the pain. She did not scream. She hadn’t in some time. She had gotten used to the periods of extreme pain, and now she used them for her benefit. She focused her mind and with the help of her tamai, siphoned a little pshychaeia at a time into the pre-marked shard of wood in her palm.
Soon it was over, and he let her go. She collapsed onto the floor, her chest heaving and awareness of the pain rushing back, now that her tamai was once again out of reach. It burned and she took huge heaving gulps of air, crawling on the floor like vermin. Several minutes later, she was finally able to lift her head, puzzled that the rasaynak was still there.
To her surprise, he was holding a jug of water and a plate of food. “Un fanzai grnos farekaa,” it murmured and stepped away, she thought she saw a flash of concern across that hideous, animalistic visage, but, she must have imagined it. She shook her head, pulled herself to the nearest wall and sat up to lean against it, bowing her head in acquiescence. All the fight had left her after the gruelling ordeal, she didn’t even protest when the creature bent towards her and one of its talons grazed the side of her face.
She was shocked as he gestured for her to eat and sat on its haunches, a couple of feet in front of her, waiting for her to finish. She ignored her disorientation and quickly tore into the dark brown hard bread and a small block of curha, she was surprised and delighted to see a small mound of purple aster fruit on her plate. She gobbled everything down greedily, not looking up or stopping, lest he change his mind. She took measured gulps of water with her meal, though she wanted to gulp it all down, she knew she had to save what little she got. They often left her the water, but always took the plate back if she did not eat, so she was used to gobbling her food like a savage these days.
Once she had eaten, she dared to look up at the creature again, clutching the small water jug, and pushing it behind her, in case he wanted to take it back. He stood up, and she startled back when his talons appeared in front of her face, as if her were offering to help her up.
She ignored its palm, understanding that it wanted her to stand; she set the water jug aside and slowly pulled herself up. Her back was hunched and she breathed harshly at the renewed wave of pain running through her legs. She was too tired to fight, and she had a greater purpose anyway.
She pulled herself up, standing with her back hunched and taking a gulping breath; she picked up her jug of water too. Despite her trembling hands she was careful not to spill a drop and gulped it down without a word. She realized she was possibly being let out of solitary confinement now and she needed to be ready for anything. She finally had her chance.
She let her hand drop to her side, hunching over quickly to hide her quick movements; she stuffed the shards she had prepared into her hose. Straightening again quickly with the plate and jug in her hand, she stood with a subservient mien plastered onto her face.
He surprised her by pulling the plate from her hands into his. He turned and she followed him, wincing at the pain still lingering in her joints. She refocused in her captor, observing him now that his back was to her. While he was wearing the same garb as the rest, there was something off about this one, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Mayhap it was the straightway he held his spine or the brightness of his serpentine scales.
She shook her head and put it out of her mind, turning it to the plan, her mouth setting into a grim line of determination.
Soon, they reached the lower deck, where the cages were. In the cages were huddled more of her people, more of the Megayni, their pale and terrified faces haunted her. There were other races and men from other nations as well, but it was the Megayn that concerned her. The other races had no tamai, they were not vulnerable like her people. She helped them when she could of course, but they were not her priority. She was quickly led to the cage and waited while the rasaynak opened the bars. Even when they were open, she did not move, unconsciously used to the routine of being shoved in, she startled when the rasaynak spoke, “Gun taarghass untin.” He sounded amused.
She walked into the cage and made her way to the back where her charges lay. Currently, six of her people were in the clutches of the rasaynak, not including herself. The youngest one cried out at seeing her, “Rehei! They finally released you!”
“Shh, little one, they may hear you,” offered the only other adult, Cara, a pale, dark-haired, delicately featured female. “It is good to have you back Azgatz,” she murmured to Rehei, taking her hand and gently resting her forehead on it for a second.
“It is good to see thee well,” Rehei, replied to the formal greeting. She had given up on getting them to stop calling her leader. They all knew, from the other prisoners, that she sacrificed herself, and that it was due to her that four separate groups of children had managed to escape the grasp of the rasayak. This group would be her fifth. She had only managed this much because she changed her plan and method, each time. She was no hero, she was ruthless, not hesitating to sacrifice any of the adults, if it meant the children went free. That is why she distanced herself from the adults by staying formal; she may have to sacrifice them to save the children.
For now, she allowed herself to be pulled into the huddle of children, ranging from five to fourteen years old, they were the easiest for the rasayak to capture, their tamai weak and easy to subdue. They had thus far only managed to capture one grown male, an injured one, as Megayni males were all trained warriors, skilled in the use of tamai for battle. He had been the second to die in her plan. He sacrificed himself to help her save the children.
She too had been a warrior once. One of her people’s best, a natural in the use of pshychaeia. She had been pregnant when they captured her, unable to fight back. She had given birth on this ship. She had lost him on this ship, right here, where she sat. She had used his leftover tamai, a blue lion, to free her first batch of children. She had wowed with his corpse in her hands that she would free them all or die trying.
The children chattered to her, and she listened carefully, answering in quiet whispers their questions. She always tried to be a safe place for the children; though she could not protect them from the rasayak’s torture. She gritted her teeth as she caught sight of a new wound on Amaya’s arm. “How did this happen, darling?” she ran her hand through Amaya’s pale blond hair.
“Amaya fought them,” tattled Einir, an eight-year-old brown haired boy, as if he were telling her about someone not doing their chores.
“Is that so?” she murmured, amused at his innocence. “It’s not nice to carry tales though, my dear.” She cast him a look, still soothing Amaya by running her hands across her hair.
“B-but you told us not to fight them, Rere!” he pouted.
“Yes, my lovelies, it is better to save your strength till the right time to make a decisive strike,” she counselled.
“Are we to strike soon, Rehei?” asked Charn. He was fourteen, and quite talented at channeling pshychaeia already. She had impressed upon the importance of looking after the children after they were free. It was only he who understood that she would not be coming with them. Since he was here, she did not have to put energy into making sure that Cara lived, he could well take care of the others. She had even taught him to create wooden talismans with the help of his tamai, once he could access it. She had taught him to siphon like herself and this time they had twice as many shards to work with. She was glad. She had a feeling that this was her last.
The rasayak had grown suspicious of her. Last time she had kicked up a fuss before the time to execute the plan and had been locked up when the children had escaped, but the rasayak leader, dog that he was, not dumb. He had known she had something to do with the escape and she had been beaten to within an inch of her life. He had promised to kill her next time.
“We will strike tomorrow at dawn,” she murmured, “I have what we need.”
That night, as she slept piled with the children around her, she was awoken by a shiver down her spine. She pretended to be still asleep. “Hey,” she heard a guttural voice say in Amirai, “I know you’re awake.”
Her eyes snapped open and she looked around, only to find a pair of yellow rasayak eyes focused on her and the children. She stiffened and stood, being careful not to rouse the children, however, charn still awoke. She signalled him to pretend to sleep and made her way to the edge of the cage, wary and ready for anything. “What do you want? How do you speak Amirai?” she asked boldly but quietly. She kept herself ready to signal Charn to begin the plan.
“I know what you’re planning,” the rasaynak murmured back; the earlier nervousness gone from his tone. Now he stood like a warrior. She straightened to her full height her hand ready to pounce on him before he could ring the alarm, but still wary.
“Oh, and what am I planning?” she asked coolly, while a bead of sweat ran down her neck.
“You are the Megayni Azgatz, yes? The one who is freeing the children,” he gestured toward the pile of younglings.
She gritted her teeth and snapped, “I don’t know what you think you know, but I have nothing to do with the breakouts, I was locked while they happened, I am loyal to the masters.” She gripped her wooden shard in her hand, shifting the balls of her feet to make ready to stab him.
“Not for all of them,” he answered, “Drop the act, I heard you call me call dog earlier, you know. I am here to help you.”
“Help me?” she said, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Il’Azgatz her hermain Megayni,” he replied.
She sucked in a breath at the words, “How do you know that phrase?” she asked, shaken.
“I am working with the Megayni royal guard, in a joint sting operation to end these pirate scum,” he explained.
“Why didn’t you tell me in the cellar?” she asked, still not believing him, though she knew he had no other way of knowing the secret phrase carried by Megayni royal guards.
“We were being watched,” he explained, “they always watch the new recruits, before they have partaken.” The discomfort looked weird on his face, Rehei had always thought rasayak were all sneering snarling monsters, but his one was surprisingly polite. She realized that the nervousness earlier had been because he had not wanted to do that. In any case, she knew what he was saying was true. They did watch new recruits closely before they had finally taken part in the depravity.
She had never known why. But now that she understood that this pirate scum might not be accepted by rasayak at large, she figured that they must want the new recruits to have been thoroughly incriminated before they trusted them.
“The rasayak don’t condone this?’ she asked.
“No!” he recoiled, his reptilian face twisted in what she thought was surprise, “These are pirate scum, we rasayak are a warrior people, using pshychaeia to cheat in battle is abhorred among us,” he sneered. “Only putaiigrha would steal pshychaeia from women and children, we spit on them.”
“Very well, though I won’t tell you my plans and if you betray me, I will make sure to gut you during. What do you need from me?” she demanded.
He tightened his jaw, snake-like tongue flickering before he replied, “Just wait for two days before doing anything, the day after tomorrow, they have a revelry planned to celebrate some payment they get and we will drug them, Act then. Your countrymen will be boarding the ship to help us capture these pirates.”
“Very well,” she agreed.
She crept back over to Charn, explaining the change in plan, in whispers, his grin bright on his face when he heard that the Megayni guard had caught up to them. She still emphasized that they could not completely trust this information, as it had come from a rasayak. “I will get you out, Charn, no matter what, I promise,” she vowed.
“I know,” he replied, the grin falling off his face, “I know you will, Rehei Adurna.”
She sucked in a breath, tears welling in her eyes at the term, mother, he had called her. Charn was an orphan and had been on the ship for three months now. He had been captured while she was in confinement in the cellar. He had fought them viciously and had been injured when she was let back into the cage.
She had nursed him back to health, pouring little bits of secreted pshychaeia into his wounds, carried in rotten bits of wood bark, collected carefully while she was tortured. She had managed to restore him, had soothed him though all the horrors he faced and charged him to protect the rest of the children on board. She loved them all, each a reminder of her beloved babe. She allowed herself to love them because she knew she would free them. She had not lost any child after the death of her boy.
She spent the rest of the night awake, pondering what she had learnt. A part of her still could not believe the rasayak were not all like the ones she had encountered on this ship, but her rational mind compelled her to examine the evidence. She didn’t know much of the rasayak language, only what she had managed to learn by overhearing her captors. She had never seen rasayak before she had been captured on her way to visit her parents for the birth as was tradition. Their ship had been attacked and her husband Azlan had died protecting her. She had been captured then. She didn’t know how long it had been, but was years, she was one of the longest-surviving prisoners, due to the strength of her tamai.
They waited anxiously for two days, during which Charn was dragged away to be fed on, once. When he returned, he looked ill, as they all did after a session with the rasayak. “It’s almost over,“ she soothed him, wiping is face with the edge of her tunic.
That night they heard the sounds of the revels begin, as promised and Rehei waited till they were at their their height a couple of hours later, to begin the plan. She brought up the biggest shard, the one with the most stored pshychaeia pierced her skin beneath the collar, drawing the rune yasarik and then pusing pshychaeia into it. Her collar cracked and then split into two, at first nothing happened, but then, suddenly her pshychaeia swirled around her and she saw her tamai, for the first time in what felt like years, she basked in his presence, for just a moment before she sent him off, “Go, free the children.”
She had never done this before, because she had not wanted to blow her cover. She had wanted to be there for the next batch of children. But this time it didn’t matter, one way or another, she would never return here.
The shards were only big enough to carry pshychaeia for one collar, and they were difficult to smuggle, she had found the first one in the cellar, after trying fruitlessly to channel pshychaeia she had smashed her hand and been stabbed by a splinter, then she had been fed on like that. In her anger, she had siphoned pshychaeia and noticed that it seemed to be attracted to the shard. She had been incredibly lucky, pshychaeia storing wood was incredibly rare. She had discovered that the crate shad smashed had been made of it, it was old and rotten, but it still worked.
Now, she stood next to the bars and channelled pshychaeia into her bare hands, the golden light precise and sharp as he directed it to cut the bolt on the door. She left waking up the children and the rest of the prisoners to Charn and Medea, the young Megayni woman.
Soon, they were all out, and she ordered the prisoners towards the right side boats, while Charn quietly herded the children to the left, where they knew the rasayak had a speed cruiser. All was quiet, she helped Charn carry the children in, and lower the cruiser.
“I need to steal some supplies, you know what to do Charn, wait only to the count of a thousand,” she kissed his forehead. “Good luck and swift wings, my children.” Charn’s gaunt and young face was solemn as he nodded, he looked scared, so she smiled at him as she turned.
So far, the plan was going suspiciously well, she had been expected to be attacked, that’s why she had ordered the other prisoners to go for the right-hand side boats, the side in full view of the Captain’s cabin. She had wanted the pirates to be distracted by the adults while the children escaped secretly. Although she did not allow herself to care for the other prisoners the same way she did her children, she still always tried to free everyone. It was not only due to her morals, but to throw the pirates off her trail.
As she snuck into the hold, to steal supplies for the children, she found to her astonishment that most of the rasayak were inebriated beyond belief, it took her tamai almost no effort to knock out the one guard the found with his hoof. She ran into the rasayak who had talked to her before, he was with two other rasayak pirates and before she could react, he had his tabard out and had knocked out one of them and then he was locked in battle with the other. “Gooo,” he shouted at her.
She ran and was able to secrete a bag of food and one can of water, before the sky lit up with fireworks, no not fireworks, it was a Megayni pshychaeia signal. They were attacking. She hurriedly abandoned all stealth and ran to the children, tossing the supplies to Charn and jumping overboard into the speeder. She powered it up with a touch of pshychaeia. Her tamai stood guard and she and Charn set the course and they started moving.
They drifted two darns before she stopped the speeder and looked back. She, Charn and the children all watched breathlessly, fierce joy on their faces reflected in the coloured lights of the tamai of their Megayni brethren, as the ship went up in flames, cries and screams echoing across the water to them.
To Rehei it was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen, and in many years, for the first time she felt tears roll down her face. The tears she had not shed since her son’s death. Yes, it was beautiful sight, to be free at last.
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