Chapter 5: The first weapons

I yearn for a life where I do not yearn.

It was as if his tongue was taken out of his mouth. He could not say anything, he could not think about anything besides that one fateful night where he saw her face. He fell to his knees.

“You… you’re her! I saw you whe-,” Suddenly, he felt a tight grip around his neck, something strange that he could not see, but it was very real. He stopped talking to catch the breath that was taken from him due to the tight grip.

“Are you ok?” she asked, very concerned. She could not see the invisible hand gripping his neck.

“I SA-,” again, but this time, ten times stronger, something gripped his neck with force. He could not see it, but he sensibly felt it wrapping around his neck. Things were getting black for Srishta; he had never felt like this before.

Suddenly, a voice appeared.

“You shall not speak, you shall not say, you shall not communicate, you shall not declare, you shall not deliver, you shall not express, you shall not…,” it kept repeating the same thing over and over again, while he was losing his consciousness, he did not know what it meant. While things were fading away, he could see Chairo’s face; it was clear that she could not see, feel or hear what was happening to him.

“SRISHTA, PLEASE SPEAK TO ME WHAT IS HAPPENING,” she completely panicked, it was as if he was asphyxiating, she did not know how that happened. She looked around for help; her brothers were still gone. They could not help her; no other people were surrounding them for kilometers, let alone a doctor who could help. No… It didn’t look like something a doctor could fix. She started screaming again.

“PLEASE SOMEONE THAT COULD HELP US PLEASE,” she started helplessly crying.

Srishta saw those tears while his eyes were closing, and that is when he decided it wasn’t time to go yet, and that is when he heard the voice again.

“You shall not mumble a word of your previous world, balance has to stay,” he understood immediately what the voice was referring to.

He didn’t say it aloud, but he was thinking it as hard as he could, trying to communicate with the voice. He closed his eyes, frowned and screamed within his own head.

“I promise you, I won’t say anything,” the voice within his head was loud, but it was firm, as if he was striking a deal.

“Good,” the voice answered with a soft tone. Srishta could not perceive if the voice was a male or female one; he wasn’t even sure if it was a human’s voice. The grip on his neck softened, and it was gone, and he passed right after.

“Man, we just found somebody who could help us.” Srishta was fast asleep, but he could hear this voice speak; it was a familiar one.

“Yea, he did seem quite competent. I think so, at least; he hasn’t really proven himself yet either way. So… What do we do with the body?” Srishta wanted to react but he couldn’t; it was as if his body didn’t allow him.

“WHY ARE YOU ALL SO INSENSITIVE? HE JUST DIED,” this was clearly Chairo’s voice. He knew it.

“Since when do you get attached to people, especially some random guy we found in the middle of this desert. Thought you’d be the first to say we have to get rid of that body,” the voice sounded confused.

“Yea, he did seem quite competent. I think so, at least; he hasn’t really proven himself yet either way. Let’s not cry over possibilities,” the voice sounded fair to Srishta.

“No… don’t tell me our big sis had gotten some feelings for some stranger,” the voice laughed.

“I thought he could really help…,” Srishta did not want to disappoint Chairo; her dark brown face with black hair suddenly surfaced in his head. He did not want to disappoint her specifically; he wanted to help her with everything he had.

“I can help,” Srishta woke up in an instant, immediately getting up. He added, “Let’s make some weapons, I’m itching for creation.”

“THIS IS HILARIOUS. That guy is still alive, what are you made of, man?” He finally saw the faces of her brothers; they were like hers, quite round but still dark with dark hair. They were manly faces with a few scars on them. They did not try hiding the scars with their hair, though. Seeing their face, he suddenly realised they were proud men who didn't want to hide the scars.

Chairo, instead of acting like Srishta wanted, jumped up and down and jumped on him. Walked up to him and slapped him. “Do not ever die on me again,” he said, looking at her face. Tears were running down her face. Srishta showed Chairo’s favourite part of him again.

“I apologise, it won’t happen again,” he said with a rigid tone, a concentrated one. It seemed as if a lot of thought had been put into that one sentence. The air suddenly became heavy after Srishta said this.

“I’ll believe you then,” she said, stopping her tears.

“So, where are the swords again?” He asked, wanting to get to work.

“They’re here, what are you gonna do with them?” One of the brothers asked, he could differentiate between them by their faces, but he wasn’t very close to it. He thought this time it was Chavi speaking, but wasn’t entirely sure.

“I think I got a plan to give you guys some more firepower or some lighter power,” Srishta said.

“What, you’re a magician and gonna teach us some stuff?” Chore asked, this time Srishta was sure it was Chore.

“Also, shouldn’t you first heal your hands before using them while working on weapons?” Chairo asked, and Srishta completely forgot about his hands.

“Where did you hurt them anyway? Your bandages are soaked in blood.” Chavi asked.

He didn’t want the hands pressing on his neck again, so he wasn’t sure if he could answer that.

“Some stuff happens while making weapons, you know,” the siblings realised that this wasn’t a question he wanted to answer and left it at that.

“Let me at least give you fresh bandages,” Chairo said, taking care of his bandages. While she was busy, he asked the brothers about the parapaara.

“Could you guys bring us a parapaara? I need it for the weapons.”

The brothers didn’t question him and went to retrieve the nearest parapaara. Srishta had an idea: he could put that floating rock to use even if he wasn’t entirely certain of all its properties. He knew what to do with it. While they were retrieving the parapaara, Chairo took great care of the bandages.

“You know, I was worried, we still need you for those weapons,” Chairo said while taking the old bandages off.

“Ah, that’s why you cried?” She was silent and didn’t answer; she put the old bandages away and took the new ones.

“You really hurt yourself, the wound is deep, you shouldn’t hurt yourself like that anymore,” Chairo said.

“As if it were a choice to hurt myself,” Srishta laughed.

“Still, don’t hurt yourself like that anymore,” Chairo said firmly.

“I promise you, I will try not to do that anymore.” She tightly wrapped the bandages around Srishta’s hand. It hurt a little bit, but it felt great to have clean bandages around his wound.

“Extra tight, to hurt you just a little like you hurt me while making me so worried,” Srishta laughed. They saw the brothers coming back from the horizon, and as if they had done something wrong, quickly took space from each other and started doing something else. Chairo got some water, and Srishta looked at the weapons intensely. The brothers, obviously, knew something was up, but they didn’t want to ask.

“We got you your stuff, smart guy,” they said, carrying a bunch of floating rocks in a bag next to the boroki.

“I would first like to sharpen these swords. Do you guys have some stones for that?”

“Yes, we did that before, it’s not gonna help much, you know,” one of the brothers replied. They were taken aback when Srishta sharpened the swords with the same stones they used; they looked like new stones. It was crazy to them.

“So you guys are swordsmen, I assume? Will those sharp edges do something?” The brothers nodded.

“It won’t be enough to take the big bad guy down,” Chair said. “Don’t question me too much about my own job. What weapon do you wield?” She was silent for a moment.

“When the chief passes, normally that halberd gets passed down,” she said, sounding uncertain.

“So you want to wield the halberd? No issues, did you train with it though?” Srishta asked while the brothers were playing with their nice new shiny sharp swords.

“My whole life,” she said with complete confidence.

“Ok great, so I’ll give you a little upgrade then, please though, I prefer working on my own when nobody is looking.” The siblings laughed.

“Really, you want us to leave you alone?” Chavi laughed while looking at Srishta. He did look serious.

“Ok,” they said in unison, leaving him his space.

He was alone; he felt like he was in his element. He took a strong rock, the parapaara shards and the halberd. His plan was to ‘fuse’ them. The halberd was extremely heavy even for an experienced user. Making it lighter at the right places would make this a formidable weapon. He took the halberd in his hands. It wasn’t a regular halberd; he felt a strange, unsettling sensation.

He tried to dig little holes within the halberd to put the parapaara in, and it went… Easier than expected, he was very concentrated, and it went smoothly… Too smoothly. He put the parapaara in, and it is as if something otherworldly happened; he didn’t have to tuck it in. It fused with the weapon on its own once he touched both at the same time, a glowing light appeared, a yellow, fiery colour, and the weapon and shards of the stone fused. He recalled the time he spent in his old life at that very moment. Creating weapons of killing, with no real purpose behind it. They were tools to kill. He always thought tools to kill weren’t necessarily bad if they were used for the right things but he knew that in his past life they were definitely not used for the right cause. At this very moment he felt change within him as if his purpose had changed. It felt as if his purpose changed and he was forging a new path. The parapaara that was within his hands also felt different, as if he had an affinity to it. Something he hadn’t felt with any other material in his previous world as if it called to him ‘please, use me’.

He used the halberd for a little bit, and it felt like it was another weapon, but still something was off with this halberd, something he couldn’t understand… yet.

He went with the halberd to Chairo, she was beyond happy, feeling the weight decrease within the weapon.

“The biggest issue with this weapon was the weight! I couldn’t handle it! It’s so much better now.”

She carried the halberd for a while, looking confused and puzzled.

“Did you also notice it was off?” She asked

“Yes, it definitely is. I can’t tell you why, though, I have no clue myself. Maybe something to do with that glowing light,” as if the brothers were listening to their conversation, they suddenly appeared.

“Glowing light?” they asked.

“Yes, what about it,” Srishta asked.

“Not surprising a weapon maker has that innate.” They talked to themselves.

“Can you guys tell me more?” Srishta asked, confused.

“We cannot… We can not really, we would just give you wrong information. There was an old dude at the village, though, who could tell you more about it. After we release the village of course.”

“We’re ready to go get the village back now,” Srishta said.

“And your weapon?” Chairo asked while using the halberd as if she had used it since she was a child; the halberd was flying through the air as if it were a mere stick. Even if he had halved the weight of the halberd, it was still extremely heavy, but it looked like it was nothing to her.

“Don’t worry about it, I got something” It was true, he had made something quickly right after crafting the halberd.

“Are you sure? I do not think much has changed between the last time we tried and now. The halberd is nice, but the swords were also sharp back then,” The brother asked.

“Yes I am sure, we can go. I promise you it’ll be fine,” Srishta said with full confidence.

Were they ready to bet their village on a random man that had appeared? Yes, they were.

They went towards the boroki they stalled at their encampment with their new weapons, ready for a new chapter in their lives. They knew once they were going to the village, things would change.

While walking, Srishta was thinking back to his destined night, she called out to him back then and she called out to him again today, but this time he can do something about it.

They arrived at their boroki and headed to their village with their new weapons, leaving everything behind.