Months and Weeks in Lianite
In Lianite; each week consists of ten days thus making a month fourty days long. Meaning a person claiming to be twenty would be twenty five in Earth terms.
Part 9
Cyeen stared at the dirty floors. Cleaning someone else's house was definitely not on her bucket list. She decided on helping her even though she was inexperienced at anything other than attending tea parties and looking pretty. She picked the broom up and got to sweeping away. After about ten minutes, the sequence of brushing the dirt and dust out the door had become unbearable. Did she really have to do this? I was the one that offered. What a great idea. She was of noble origin, this was not a job meant for her. She would have been out there living her best life in a village only if those bandits hadn't showed up. It was going to be embarrassing going back home just to be scolded by her mother and made fun of by the other noble ladies. Maybe I shouldn't go back after all.
She was still wearing the clothes she borrowed from Súko. She took her time to look at them fully. They were made out of plain looking cloth. It wasn't fancy enough to fit her taste. Why do the commoners have such terrible taste? Can't they just buy better clothes?
Cleaning the house had made her realise something. Maybe this wasn't the life she wanted. Maybe all she wanted was a little break.
Thanks to the silence that was only briefly interrupted by a brushing sound or two, she realised the voice had been quite these days. Whenever it didn't come back for a while she'd get anxious. That cannot be my voice. I'd recognize it. So then what did the voice mean by 'Cyeen'?
She kept sweeping the floors until she came across a piece of the wall which was highly damaged. Was this the place all the fighting went down? Cyeen looked out the window next to that wall piece. There were two nicely decorated graves. One of them was smaller than the other one. Probably that poor child's grave. Far away from them, nearly inside the forest was a grave big enough to fit four people. She still burried them properly even after all that? What a fool. The little lady heard a shout.
"Hey Cyeen! Come upstairs."
She ascended the stairs and went into the room where the voice came from. Súko was standing in front of a table full of needles and strings. She had finally patched Cyeen's white dress with similar colors but couldn't really replicate the expensive designer clothing. Cyeen picked it up, gave it a through search and nodded before speaking in a monotone tone.
"You actually did a great work considering what you were working with. I owe you once again."
Cyeen saw a warm smile appear on the woman's face. Her clothes being restored meant she'd be less embarrassed going home. Cyeen went into an empty room to quickly dress up. It was not the greatest but it would work as long as it made her look pretty as usual. She had taken a bath yesterday so she didn't have much to worry about before going back to her manor in Enidia. Now all she had to do was return to her old life. Old monotone life. She was only able to think like this as life hadn't teached her what people would do to live even a day in her life.
Cyeen went back downstairs to continue her work as she didn't want to go back on her words. The young lady kept on sweeping the floors till they looked brand new. Well at least it looked brand new aside the dry blood. I'll take care of that later, let's dust off the furnitures now. Cyeen first started with the floor upstairs. The first room she entered had a full body mirror. It was actually a rare sight for the average family. As she cleaned the entire room she felt a sudden urge to look at herself. The cuts she got from the branches were sticking out like a sore thumb. She touched the reflection.
It's you
Cyeen didn't bother looking around. She was actually a bit relieved the voice came back. The way it mimicked a narrator creeped her quite a bit though. She wiped the fingerprints off the mirror and left the room. Cyeen saw Súko sweeping the ground next to the staircase. She went towards her and hesitantly tapped her shoulder.
"I've cleaned the rooms you told me to which brought a question into my mind. Have you not been staying at this house for a while? I cannot fathom it getting this dirty this fast."
Súko looked to her left and scratched her cheek with her index finger.
"Uhm... Well it's better I tell you if you decide to come back, alright?"
Cyeen got a bit suspicious but she just decided it wasn't worth her time before shrugging. The woman had her secrets and Cyeen was not in the mood to listen to more of her stories. For some reason nothing was going good in this woman's life. She descended down the stairs before heading into the living room. The noble lady sniffed the air.
"Is that ash? Is there a fire somewhere?"
She noticed a crack in the wall next to her. "GET BACK!" was what she heard as she was pulled back by Súko. The cracked wall crumbled onto the ground. Among the countless dust particals appeared a glowing set of eyes. They shined purple like the night skies. The eyes locked onto her as she heard the whirring sound of knives. With the use of her teleport she got out of their way. Cyeen looked at Súko from across the room. "Did they come alone?" Súko's hand was shaking really bad. It was clear she was angry. "At least seven."
The dark purple eyes spoke out,
"A friend of mine told me you were the one who killed our comrades, is that right? "
Súko was looking at the figure with antipathy on her face,
"Yes."
"Such a fast answer. What a good girl."
In the blink of an eye, the figure got out of the dust and appeared near Súko's neck only to be parried by a sword. As Cyeen looked at the figure's horrifying speed she was able to identify the person. It was a long black haired woman with a pretty long scar on her right arm. She had heard of someone like that before, that was Dog Tamer, the bandit leader who was giving Enidia countless amounts of troubles. Cyeen quickly summoned a blaster in her left hand and fired it to force the woman to flee backwards. She put a hand on Súko's shoulder.
"Can we win?"
Súko looked at her,
"We? No, you run away. Let me deal with my mess alone."
"What sort of people did you mess with?"
"Sorry, not enough time to explain. But there is a short note I wrote in your right pocket."
She checked her dress. There really was a pocket there. Súko had sewed it just for the purpose of holding her note. Dog Tamer quickly lunged towards Súko with her dark purple spear in hand. Cyeen summoned her scythe to try and counter it but the weapon was not targeted towards her. Súko parried the weapon again but got pushed back by the force of the impact. Cyeen swung her scythe towards the bandit leader before finding herself slamming against the closest wall. Not only did she not care about Cyeen's attack, she was also able to knock her away with a single hand. Cyeen had told herself she wasn't going to run away. If she did, it was uncertain what would happen to Súko. Even she was not heartless enough to leave someone who helped her without expecting anything in return. Cyeen clenched her teeth.
Dog Tamer was throwing out constant attacks with her spear while also summoning knives mid air to barrage Súko. The woman was able to counter the air knives with her own even though summoning her own knives required too much focus. Because of that, the dark purple spear was stabbing her from time to time. Cyeen got back up to help Súko.
Run away, she doesn't need you.
She held her head in agonising pain. No! She can't win without my help! Cyeen summoned long strings from the tip of her fingers and used them to restrict Dog Tamer's right arm. The bandit leader glanced at her before summoning spikes below Cyeen, impaling her all throughout her body. After being stuck on them for a second the spikes retrieved making her fall on her face. The painful scream of Cyeen distracted Súko resulting in a spear going through her stomach. She spit out blood before pushing Dog Tamer away with her sword.
"JUST LEAVE ME BEHIND!"
As Cyeen was about to shout "No" back at her, six more figures flooded inside the house. A piece of burning debris fell next to Cyeen just as they entered, diverting their attention to Cyeen. Four of the six bandits pointed their soul weapons towards Cyeen upon seeing it fall. Right, she said seven. Maybe I should have fled when I could. Cyeen lifted her hands up in defeat. The bandits looked at her in surprise just enough for them to drop their guard for a second. Cyeen summoned a blaster in each hand. The four didn't have enough time to react to this attack. She quickly tried rushing to Súko's aid after forcing the other bandits outside.
Crack! She had heard this sound before. It was that of a shield breaking. "Súko!" She screamed out but to no avail. She could only watch as Dog Tamer put her spear through Súko's throat, making her body lean onto the spear. A silent scream was heard, perhaps it was the last time Cyeen would hear that voice. As she was choking on her own blood, Súko reached her hand out to Cyeen. She moved her lips but nothing came out. Her hand slowly fell back down to not be lifted ever again. Cyeen felt scared to death for the first time in her entire life. The bandit leader hadn't hesitated once throughout their fight even while taking the life of Súko. Blood was gushing out of her throat; spilling all over the wooden floors, dying them into a bone chilling red. The dark purple eyes turned towards her. Cyeen felt her soul leave her body for a second. In the matter of a second, she had been stabbed behind her back by countless amounts of knives. She wasn't even given a moment to process Súko's death. Cyeen summoned her scythe in hopes to parry the incoming lighting fast spear attack. The parry was successful but the impact knocked her all the way back to the other wall. With a final purple spike coming out of the wall she just hit, her shield broke into hundreds of pieces. Is this how it ends..?
Run.