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OF GODS AND MEN
Chapter 39: Of God and Man

            Drake barely heard the words before he found himself charging.  He heard nothing from that moment on, and his eyes were fixed on their target.  He leapt into the air… 
            OVERHEAD STRIKE
            The former Malthus raised his blade quickly to block Drake’s oncoming attack.  The shock of the blow sent the god to one knee.  He brought his free hand up to the flat of his sword and pushed upward. 
            Drake tried to grasp the pommel of his own sword with his free hand, but closed a grip upon it too late.  The god’s push sent him tripping backward, and as he began to fall he saw the screaming sheen of steel as it made its way quickly, imminently, to his unarmored rib cage. 
            HORIZONTAL SLASH
            But Drake had been the greatest warrior the KingsGuard had ever seen, and his reflexes had not dimmed so much since he’d come back to Briarden.
            UPWARD THRUST
            Drake’s hilt caught the god’s blade as it flew up to intercept steel and bone.  The mortal warrior let go his weapon, and allowed himself to fall on his back.  He rolled out from under his divine opponent and quickly brought around his right leg.
            SWEEP
            The god fell to his knees, which buckled at the backs of them being kicked inward.  He looked up, and miraculously, Drake stood before him with the tip of a sword in his face.  The god did not smile now.  Instead, he brought his sword round…
            CLANG
            The once and future GodKing batted Drake’s sword away, and quickly got to his feet, stepping back as he raised his own blade; buying himself some distance with which to see. 
The mortal was a few steps away, a readied blade in hand, and the intent to kill in his eyes. 
“This is what I wanted,” the divinity began, “a clean match.  Sword on sword.”
“You still plan to keep your power out of it?” Drake asked through a frayed calmness that could not wholly cover his anger.
“I do,” the god promised, “until a victor is decided.”
“Then you will die today!” Drake lunged at the god, bring his blade down: lighting the fuse.
VERTICAL SLASH
            The god blocked the attack, but Drake brought round another.  Then another.  The divine one managed to parry and dodge, desperate to bring his sword around and launch his own offensive.
But the former captain of the KingsGuard was in rare form: angry, and at the very peak of his skill.  He did not hold back, charging the god with thrust after stab after slash.  It was all the GodKing could do to keep Drake’s righteous blade at bay, until…
CLANG
Drake brought the flat of his blade down onto the crossguard of Malthir, then pulled his weapon back quickly.  The sound of flesh being sliced was unmistakable, and Drake saw that even a god’s blood was red. 
Thus there stood the new GodKing of Malthanon, with a gash across his hand, his sword on the ground, and the tip of Drake’s blade poised an inch away from his heart.
“You are better…,” the GodKing said, a slight sadness finding its way around the words, “…still.”
“I have always been better than you,” Drake confirmed, “Tarsus Cole.”
“Hm, so you did recognize me,” Tarsus said, sounding relieved.
“The power has changed your face and hair…but not your eyes,” Drake explained.  “Your smile is different as well, though I recognize it…and who it belongs to.”
“You can’t tell him about me,” Tarsus said serenely.
“I know,” Drake agreed.  “And you can’t remind him of who you are.  What one god does, another cannot undo.”
            The tip of Drake’s sword grazed the grey tunic that Tarsus wore, finding its resting place over the Sunsword’s heart.
            “Do you intend to kill me now?” Tarsus asked gently.
            “ I want to,” Drake admitted, his eyes focused on the tip of his own blade.  “I don’t know why I want to.  In the presence of the gods, even if I hate them their power makes me love them.  But with you…I feel murderous.  Uncontrollably so.”
            “It’s the power Drake,” Tarsus said, “it exerts its influence on mortals.  If a god wants to be loved, it makes them love.  If a god wants to be feared, it makes them afraid.”
            “What is it you want then, that brings this out in me?”
            “I want you to be honest,” Tarsus admitted.  “That’s all I’ve ever wanted from you.”
            “Very well,” Drake acquiesced, “I worshipped you, Malthus, and you alone as soon as I was old enough to know what a knight was.  That was my choice.  Then I joined your ranks.  I fought for you, bled for you…bound myself to you.  That was also my choice.  I pushed everything away to make as much room as I could for the GodKing.  Then you…” Drake raised his head to meet his GodKing’s eyes, “…you, Tarsus…you come to Malthanon with a woman who claimed to have been chosen by the GodKing himself.  Sent on an errand that was impossible.  And you came back…triumphant.  So then, I had to ask myself…if I didn’t need to do all I did in service, then what was it all for?”
            Tarsus put a glowing hand onto the shoulder of Drake Mathix.  The tip of the sword still rested on the GodKing’s beating heart.
            “My friend, I do not know,” Tarsus said, “but I will find out.  And I promise…when I do, if you’d still like to know, I shall tell you.”
            Drake’s eyes shook in his head as he looked hopefully at Tarsus.  “What shall I do until then?”
            Tarsus squeezed the hand on Drake’s shoulder.  “Stay here.  Rest.  And when you are ready, do what you have always loved to do…watch over this village, and protect its people.”
            “Like a militiaman?”
            “Like a knight.”
            The tip of the sword fell from Tarsus’s breast.  Something rose between the two men and Tarsus looked down to find Drake’s upturned hand waiting. 
            Tarsus pushed the knight’s hand away gently, and embraced his friend.  Drake, eventually, hugged back.
            The two broke apart, and Tarsus turned to go.  The blinding golden light surrounding them suddenly faded, and back into view came the remains of the forge.  Though, they were not remains.  The place had been remade, and Tarsus was walking to the closed door through which Drake had entered.
            “Tarsus.”
            The GodKing turned.
            “You are not Malthus,” the former knight of Malthus’s KingsGuard said.
            “I know that,” Tarsus replied with an air of Pell-ish sarcasm.
            “Then you should also know you’ll need a new name for yourself,” Drake explained.  “And for that sword.”
            Tarsus raised the divine blade in his hand, looking down at it through inquisitive eyes.  His smile grew wide, and he looked back up to Drake, with a pair of delighted, joyous eyes.  “I get to name a sword?”
            “And yourself,” Drake insisted in that older brother way of reminding a younger brother of his chores.  “After all, you are not the boy I grew up with, or the man who journeyed with Finnian Pell.  You are more than that now.  A man grown.  A great man.”
            “Thank you Drake,” Tarsus offered, at a loss for what else to say. 
            “Go.  Fight for us,” Drake commanded.  “And when it’s done, you come home.  We’ll be here…waiting.”
            Tarsus nodded.  In the pit of his stomach, he could feel the power bubbling inside him.  It wanted to act.  He wanted to act.  He had to go, before it overcame this man, his friend. 
            The GodKing closed his eyes and channeled the power to obey this new desire to leave.  And when he opened them again, he found himself standing atop the spire of the palace of the GodKing. 

            And there, the illumined phantoms of Cecily and Finnian were waiting for him.

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