Beyond Chaos – A DiceRPG

“Okay?” Tanagek asked. 

“Okay,” Laygak replied, letting out a small breath of relief. 

“Why did you not force away your wounds during the bout?” 

“I… forgot,” Laygak admitted, his cheeks flushing. 

“You should not-,”

“It was a good fight, Laygak!” Chosen stated, patting Tanagek’s back far too harshly, while letting out a giant grin. “Taygak, did you see your brother fight?”

“Yes!” Taygak replied, sitting up taller, her eyes beaming towards her elder brother. “Brother, strong!”

“That is right! Your brother’s blade was called heavy as duty. That is how they described granduncle Duteos’ blade. Your brother’s blade is like that, do you understand?”

“Yes!” Taygak continued to beam towards her elder brother, who flushed lightly from all the attention from his little sister, his heart aching with mixed emotions.

Tanagek didn’t say anything else since Chosen had decided to speak up and bind him like that. However, he couldn’t say anything to Chosen either, since Taygak was so full of excitement, and her heart soaring with an Iyrman’s joy. Still, did he have to hit his back so hard?

As the pair stepped to one side, Tanagek eyed up the soldiers and the warriors of the Order, nodding his head towards them, finding stilted nods in return. He had thought he needed to step forward, but when Laygak had wished to die by the sword, he found himself bound, and when Adam stepped forward…

“I did not expect Adam to grow so red with rage for the Gaks,” Tanagek admitted in their tongue.

“You are quick to draw your blade, if only your mind was half at quick at picking up the hints laid before your feet,” Chosen replied. 

For a moment, Tanagek thought to draw his blade.

“Their acceptance into the family seemed to be dirtied,” Chosen said, having picked up bits and pieces, though no one had told him the full picture. 

“Are you saying they were not accepted?” Tanagek asked. 

“The triplets were accepted well, but the twins…”

Tanagek narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying…”

“…”

“It is not our way.”

“It is the conclusion from what I heard.” 

“I have seen the way the children embrace the Family Head, this one and the last, and the way they embrace the Family Elder, this one and the last.”

“I do not expect them to know.”

Tanagek turned to face Chosen, his eyes wide with shock at the realisation, his head snapping back to the world ahead of them. As he saw the soldiers and warriors glancing his way, he fought away the shock and the fury. “…”

‘Still, it’s the Gak family who accepted my children so… affectionately.’

The phrase replayed within their minds. Did it mean that…

Tanagek didn’t want to think that the Rot family he knew would have stooped so low. No, it was impossible, wasn’t it? That Rot family? Would they truly refuse the twins because they were considered goblins back then? It wasn’t done previously, but… are they not the Iyr?

“If it plagues your heart, you should ask,” Chosen advised.

“Do you not wish to know?”

“I have seen the way the children embrace the Family Head, this one and the last. I have seen the way the children embrace the Family Elder, this one and the last.”

Tanagek wasn’t sure if he could just accept that. How could they do it? How could they of the Iyr behave so… Aldishly? At least when his granduncle fought against their acceptance, it was not based on what they were, but rather, the murky relationship between the children and the Iyr. The moment he had found out the children had been officially considered Iyrmen, he went to assist, and almost kill the Sky Commander in his rage.

Chosen allowed his cousin to boil with his thoughts, since he had already gone through it himself. ‘The past is the past. We can only step forward now.’

As the day passed by, the rage within Tanagek’s heart continued to simmer, until finally he approached Jurot. The Iyrmen sat to one side, with Tanagek shaking his leg lightly for a small while, until he could finally gather his thoughts. 

“Jurot, tell me the truth,” the Iyrman said in their tongue. “When Adam brought his children, the twins…”

Jurot’s eyes revealed that he knew where the conversation was going, and even without speaking, his eyes had already betrayed the truth to Tanagek. 

“You must tell me, Jurot,” Tanagek stated firmly. “I must know.”

“Grandmother did not wish to accept them into the family, for they were goblins.”

“That is not right.”

“At the time… they were viewed as goblins.”

“It is not right.”

Jurot flexed, feeling the wounds he thought long healed begin to open up. However, he could see within Tanagek’s eyes, the fresh wounds of betrayal. Tanagek, who disliked Adam so, and yet he was still an Iyrman. 

“Grandaunt Mulrot… she would… not deny them,” Tanagek stated, for how could he accept that the old woman who showed him such tender affection as a boy could do such a thing? No… there was something else, surely. 

“Granduncle Sarot… also did not welcome them originally.”

“It is not right!” Tanagek growled, barely able to contain himself. 

“What’s not right?” called a voice, causing Tanagek to stand, the Iyrman so full of rage. “What are you two talking about?”

“It is not right your children were refused.”

“Refused?” Adam asked, confused. “Who refused my kids? I’ll teach them a lesson!”

“They were refused by the Rot family.”

Adam fell silent, staring into Tanagek’s eyes. The pair stared into one another’s eyes long and hard. “Who said that?”

“Were they not? Little Jir-“

“Hey,” Adam said, the half elf’s jaw tensing, his eyes filling with an Iyrmanly rage. “Shut up.”

“Do they know?”

Adam’s fist flew threw the air, but Jurot stepped between the pair, the fist stopping nowhere near him, though it shook violently. 

“We cannot fight in front of the Florians,” Jurot said. 

“They can’t see through walls.”

“They will hear of it.”

“You need to tell your cousin not to talk about this ever again,” Adam snapped, glaring into Tanagek’s eyes.

“Tanagek fought for them too,” Jurot said, calming the half elf. “He is worried for your children.”

“Whatever happened back then, it doesn’t matter. The children are named Rot, and they love every single member of the Rot family, and every single member of the Rot family loves them too. Granduncle Sarot died for them during the Year of Silence, the same as any other Iyrman. Like Jurot said, even you, who had known them for days, drew your blade for them at the beginning of this year. That’s all they need to know.”

Tanagek held Adam’s gaze, so full of anger, pain, and guilt, but there it was, gleaming on the surface of Adam’s eyes, a threat. 

“Do you understand?” Adam asked, emanating that kind of aura, the guillotine pressed cool against the Iyrman’s neck.

Tanagek thought for a long moment, for the twins called him their papo, but… if their father had gone so far to bury any grievances… “I understand.”

“Alright then.”

Jurot was glad the pair had dropped it, filling with relief. Adam stepped away, going off to cool down, while Tanagek took his place opposite Jurot once more. 

“He… will never forget,” Tanagek whispered. 

Jurot nodded, the Iyrman feeling the shame of his silence filling him once more. “We have spilled much blood to remind the Aldish… and to remind ourselves.”

Tanagek had no idea he had fought to remind the Iyr of its own rules and laws, and suddenly, his heart was tarnished by the betrayal. He had thought that Jirot and Jarot had received extra attention, but it had been confirmed, and justified. 

“Even if you cannot forget, you must forgive. It plagues their heart, it does not need to plague yours.”

“When I returned, I thought the Iyr had changed. It wounded me. Then, when I fought alongside father, granduncle, I realised the Iyr had not. Now…”

“The Iyr always changes and evolves.”

“It cannot change that way,” Tanagek stated firmly. “It cannot! It is the only rule, the only law, that can never be compromised! Not by breath or by breadth, can we compromise what makes the Iyr the Iyr!”

“If we have inherited a broken Iyr, it is up to us to fix it, or will you complain that this home of ours, which has protected us from birth, which has fed up from babes, which has spilled blood to make sure we are never without, has betrayed us?”

“If the Iyr cannot keep its first promise, it should be destroyed,” Tanagek stated firmly in response to the Iyrman.

“It has not broken such a promise, and we must make sure it never does during our time,” Jurot replied simply. 

Tanagek sighed, covering his eyes, the betrayal still so fresh, and yet so deep. “…”

“You are not watching properly if it hurts you so.”

“What must I watch?”

“Have you not seen their faces? The faces of my nieces and nephews? The faces of my cousins? Do you not see how they look upon my brother?”

“Must we trust an outsider when it-,”

“He is my brother,” Jurot interrupted the Iyrman firmly, glaring at his cousin.

“I misspoke,” Tanagek replied, filling with shame. “However, he is no Iyrman.”

“If he makes them smile so, we must work harder.”

Tanagek stepped out of the tent, feeling the chilly noonval air upon his skin. He stared up towards the sky, taking in the sight of the darkening sky, so expansive, almost infinite.

“Are you feeling better?” Chosen asked, and though the response was silence, it was the silence of uncertainty, rather than the silence of a no.

Say what you want about Tanagek, but he is an Iyrman.