The Fourth Zaldizko

"Famine." Death sighed and turned to face Gavin.

"I humbly apologize for my baby brother"s rudeness."

I yelped when Death hauled me to my feet and forced my head in an apologetic bow with him.

"Okay then." Gavin relaxed his expression and sat back down.

Death nodded and pushed me back down to the bench with a frown.

"Sorry, for the intrusion." He apologized to Deacon when he sat back down.

Deacon chuckled. "You are a good big brother aren"t you?"

"Well, Famine, since you interrupted our meeting, let"s discuss on our next point. Come up here and stand next to Our Lieutenant Colonel," Deacon said when his chuckles had subsided.

I glanced to Leinard whose expression was his usual seriousness. I felt awkward and tense by it.

"Oh, no, it"s okay if I just continue to sit here."

"Famine. It wasn"t an option." Deacon firmly responded.

_"You"ve done it now."_Wilfred chuckled in my mind.

_"Nice knowing you._" Jensen telepathically joked.

_"Famisto. Why yah keep getting in these situations?_" War sighed.

I growled at their stupid expressions.

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"Fine!" I pouted as I took to the stage a few paces behind Leinard.

_"Famine. Do I have a disease? Stand next to me."_ Leinard telepathically ordered me.

I rolled my eyes and lifted my head to the ever-changing sky as I a.s.sumed a place next to him.

"Hey!" I yelped when he drew me closer, so are arms were almost touching.

I felt an intense animosity focused on me from somewhere in the crowd.

Deacon turned his attention on me. "Famine. I need to know what you saw when you were pulling Leinard out of the Primary Core and what happened to Gat Shiem."

"Um, sorry?" I gulped at the hard stare the man was giving me.

I felt my head being p.r.i.c.ked and pulled at. My cheeks, back of my ears and all down my neck was burning up as I felt a throbbing ache attack my temples and pressure points near my eyes and ears.

"Stop it!" Death shouted, heaving for breath.

He left the bench to stand next to me on the stage. I fell into his arms from the overwhelming pain I was unable to hold in.

"I had a feeling you were up to something." He glared at Leinard and added with a low whisper that only he could hear. "If you or your men so much as hurt my brothers, I will recompensate that hurt tenfold."

Leinard didn"t respond.

"It"s okay Death. I"m okay." I rea.s.sured him when I regained my balance.

"Tell us what you know, Famine. I won"t press into your mind." Deacon soberly ordered.

I glanced to the audience and felt their tension. I noticed that War had also stepped onto the stage to take a place behind me.

Deacon"s narrow eyes. His calculating grin made me uneasy.

"Well, since all three Gat Shiem brothers are on stage. Let"s see the truth of our situation." Deacon seemed to have changed his tactics.

"Aktibatu transpiration blokeatzea!" His deep voice bellowed out across the stage.

The floor vibrated and hissed.

"What?!" I shouted when lines of white hard light roped around my limbs to locked them into place. I couldn"t move.

I looked to Death and War and saw they were rooted to their spots as well with lines of white light from the moonstone floor wrapped around them.

My breath laboured against my chest and eyes narrowed when I saw Leinard and Deacon had a.s.sumed the spot on the benches we had been previously filling.

The moonstone shone to an intense white, burning against my retinas.

"Show us Gat Shiem and then the Primary Core." Deacon ordered us.

Lighting struck my brain, causing my voice to cry out.

"Hold it together Famine!" Death called out to me.

I heard him say that we were in a Transpiration Lock. It was a form of telepathy that forced out images from a creature"s brain, so it could be played out on the stage. The moonstone was embedded with semblance and force magic, which evoked a memory extraction spell once it was activated by a trigger spell.

_"Famisto. Do Mushin. It won"t hurt."_ War"s voice soothed the tension I felt in my mind.

I focused on breathing and seeing without seeing until my mind became a sheet of white. The pain I felt eased into a feeling of swimming about warm waters.

Gradually white eased into colour and a vision of Gat Shiem as I fondly remembered it appeared.

---[Memory Extraction Start]

I was enjoying the placid lull about the Butsudan Hall"s wide verandah, feeling my heart purified as I entered the worship hall and padded down the cool strip of floorboards that lead to our deity. I offered my thanks before a glorious gold and dark stone sitting Buddha enshrined within nature"s splendour of various coloured flowers and lush foliage.

"Life"s good, please keep it this way." I sealed my prayer with a clap; the sound echoing around the hall.

The smell of woody incense burning at the shrine filled my head with peace and a feeling of nostalgia. I relished the gentle rays of daylight warming the top of my head, which was bowed at Buddha"s feet.

"It"s nice, the earnest prayers from youngsters." I heard a papery voice behind me.

I greeted Shuso, our head monk, with a reverent prayer bow as he approached me from the other end of the hall.

"Famine. The pink angels are smiling down on us from the sky, looks like an eventful day awaits us."

"Is that so?" I copied Shuso"s chuckle. His gap tooth smile placed me at ease and gave me a sense of security.

"Famine. You"re life is the balance of our world. One day you will see this isn"t a metaphorical statement. You will have to make hard choices." Shuso"s smile became sober with a hint of sadness. "Your brother is the beginning."

"Shuso?" I frowned, not understanding his words and feeling concerned.

"Famine. I saw your brothers at the Kuri with bellies crying for food." The elderly monk chuckled again to change the subject. "Aah such youth."

I acknowledged his metaphorical words with a cordial bow then sprinted through the temple grounds to the Kuri, (the kitchen hall).

[Memory Extraction End]---

Pain pushed at my vision and eased into a new scene of white waters. When the waters cleared, I saw a scene of Death working at his obsidian slab of an alter. My mind a.s.sumed Death"s persona.

---[Memory Extraction Start]

The pair of bra.s.s bracelets the pilgrim monks had handed over for cataloguing, carried an unusual binding magic. I suspected that once it was locked around a wrist it wouldn"t come off, unless another similar item and trigger spell was activated to release it. I made sure to note this in the leather bound tome that was the Archive Tower Catalogue register.

"Are you done with those?" Daniel whispered into my ear, breaking my journal entry.

I leaned back into his arms, feeling his firm muscly body support my back. His large hands moved underneath my tunic, feeling around my nipples and towards my lower region. I closed my eyes, aroused by his smooth stroking and touches to my skin.

"Hey, Death, yah in there?" War"s voice called out to me, breaking me out of my moment.

War glared at the droopy dog-eyes monk standing coolly next to me.

"Need yah to come with meh. Gotta revalidate a script." War soberly ordered.

His eyes were still glaring at Daniel who wasn"t giving anything way from his dark green eyes and expressionless mouth.

I followed War through the spiralling rows of gla.s.s cabinets (with shelves stocked with objects of various shapes and colours) and along the Archive Tower"s shimmering stone corridors that wafted with a stench of fudge.

"Death. Don"t like to say bad things about monks. Yah be careful of dat Adams-san. I don"t get good vibe from him." He carefully warned me when we stepped out into the Central Courtyard and was clear of pa.s.sing monks.

"What are you saying War? Nothing is going on between us." I tried to brush off his concerns with my lie.

"Death. Yah be an empath yet yah can"t see dat man"s eyes l.u.s.ting for yah." War warned me again.

"Nonsense. He"s a monk. You should be careful not to spread such things around." I coolly defended myself.

War stopped, stupefied. "Death. Don"t let Adams-san touch yah any more. Dat be dangerous."

I continued to protest my innocent, which didn"t convince War on his conclusion about the relationship I was having with Daniel Adams. We entered the Library Tower with a heavy silence between us.

[Memory Extraction End]---

The vision dispersed and reformed into a new scene. I felt my ident.i.ty take on War"s persona.

---[Memory Extraction Start]

"War. Death-niisan." Pesti soberly greeted us at the foyer.

"Oi! How come he"s Death-niisan and I"m just War. Where"s my honorifics?" I complained.

Pesti stared at me for sometime before blatantly answering. "Because he is Death-niisan and you"re War."

"Dah h.e.l.l, you grey eyes git! I"m yah big bro, yah call me War-niisan, got it?!" I snarled at Pesti"s nonchalant face.

"Hmm. No. Until you can speak properly to me, you will be just War."

I grabbed my smug face baby brother by the collar. "Yah call Famisto, Onii-san. He ain"t speaking right either."

Death sighed and broke my hold on Pesti"s collar. He gave me a firm scolding from his second voice that he rarely used, except for times when he was extremely p.i.s.sed off.

"I get it!" I cupped my ears to hold back the piercing pain and curt ringing I felt.

Death eased my pain with a low whistle.

I groaned at Pesti"s expressionless reaction. That git seldom cracked an expression. It p.i.s.sed me off the most about him.

"Hey Pesti. I"ve been looking for you." Famisto called out to from the door way, stupidly apologizing to the monks who were giving him stern looks at having their path blocked by him.

I frowned when I noticed he was shivering and looked like a drowned rat. Guess he"d been doing Mushin training with Bulldog again.

"Oh you"re back Onii-san." Pesti"s voice perked up with a warm smile he gave Famisto.

No surprises on who our youngest brother favoured the most. Suppose it couldn"t be helped since they were barely a year apart from each other in ages.

"Huh?" My frown deepened when Pesti led Famisto out of the foyer and our sight.

My heart felt strange at seeing those two leave together all of a sudden. Something felt off. After a moment of stillness and tuning out from the surrounding sounds, I realized Pesti hadn"t been his usual self. Almost to say he had been holding back uneasy emotions.

"Did something happen to Pesti?" I quietly asked as I stared at the s.p.a.ce between the foyer entrance.

"Now that you mention it. He felt tense and slightly rattled." Death expanded on my concern.

"The big brothers talking seriously to air." Shuso chuckled.

He called us further into the tower, reminding us of our task.

[Memory Extraction End]---

My mind was overwhelmed with a feeling of torrential water gushing into it, forcing its way through pain barriers. I gasped and struggled with the burning ache I felt to my throat and chest. I was struggling to breath; it felt like I was drowning.

"ENOUGH!" Leinard"s voice broke through my subconscious to stop the pain.

The drowning sensation eased. I hunched over, heaving for breath.