They made a name for themselves long before they finished their military training. Everyone was expecting great things from them, for the good of all the Brions.
And still – like always – people shunned them, as much as they dared at least.
For as time passed, how much they differed from others only became more obvious. It was noticed when neither of them wanted to use the Brion battle spear, a signature weapon of their species. Even Diego asked them to reconsider, but after a firm “no”, he backed away. Faren knew their friend disapproved, but he respected him for not pressing it further. The spears just weren’t for them.
The only explanation they ever gave came from Gawen when someone got on his nerves about the matter. Not a remarkable feat in itself, but Faren agreed wholeheartedly with his twin’s snappy response. They would be much more use to the Brions alive rather than dead with an “honorable” weapon in their hands. Diego was said to have laughed when he heard that.
As for their choices, Faren’s was at least okay by Brion standards. Both him and Gawen had grown taller than most of the warriors they trained with. The huge battle ax fitted into his hand much better than the flimsy spear. He knew the spear wasn’t really flimsy in the least, but the weight of the ax in his palm felt right.
It was worse with Gawen. The Brions were a species that favored close combat. They saw it as a true match of one warrior against another in a fight for life or death. Other than the long range weaponry on the battle ships, the Brions almost never used firearms. Gawen chose guns for his weapon.
The farther away from everyone else they got, the closer they seemed to be.
Ironically, the sense of unity present in every Brion was also completely there. While they struggled to connect to any other Brion besides Diego on a personal level, they felt more strongly about the Brions as a whole. It was a fundamental truth that all Brions were one, and they believed firmly that.
Underneath all that, the Brion rage burned in them, unseen in one and ignored in the other.
Ever since the dark days of their history, the Brions had had to fight their own volatile natures as well as their enemies. In the past, their Elders said, the Brions had almost destroyed themselves by fighting each other. There was a fire in them, a longing for battle that had nothing to do with motive, or need, or any other reasoning but war itself. It was considered a very bad sign to see it manifest in someone. War was supposed to be means to an end, not a desirable outcome in itself.
Faren believed that.
The fire was seen clearly in Gawen, but it was deemed controllable. Many Brions had a temper as fierce as his, although they weren’t as dangerous as his considerable might. Basically, someone always kept an eye on him to see the moment he slipped the leash of reason. But Gawen wasn’t a fool, not truly.
No one ever really suspected the rage in Faren. In truth, he thought the only one who kept an eye on him was Diego.
Once, Faren asked him about that.
Diego shrugged.
“I think they’re all fools,” he said. “They look for the obvious answer. So easy to see Crane was mad. That’s the clear rage. But I’ve seen you in a fight and the moments when the fury takes you. It’s not rage then, it’s just a sort of emptiness.”
Faren waited patiently. If he was a threat to the Brions, he would step aside himself.
“Do you think I’m a danger?” he asked.#p#分页标题#e#
Diego smiled, reminding Faren of the boy he’d befriended.
“If I thought that, I would already have dealt with you.”
And as before, his brutal honesty brought the slightest of smiles to Faren’s lips. That was the reason he liked Diego. He could always be trusted to do the right thing, not to hide behind pretense. He appreciated that. Faren did not like fools.
The rumors started with the valor squares. All Brion warriors wore them, the bright crystals implanted into their flesh along the neck, connected to their nervous system. They were everything to a warrior. Signs of rank and bravery, proof of their victories. It was their communication system, a true and honest one, which showed their emotions in battle.
They pulsed the warrior’s state of mind out to the world, making it imperative they always remained strong and sure. They were also challenges to their enemies. In battle, they sent out sound and light to attract the enemies, whichever they responded to.
As Faren and Gawen rose in the ranks of the armies, their might became known. The implantation of the squares was as painful a procedure as any real battle they might ever face, but they never let it show. Gawen merely growled, and Faren remained silent throughout. The lines of squares rose up their necks as they won more glory, more duels and only kept going. They entered battles among the first and emerged among the last. Coming back with their weapons as bloody as themselves to show they had been in the thick of fighting.
They were no longer merely known to the armies. As their fame became recognized all across Briolina, their home planet, the rumors began. The most prevailing story was that he and Gawen had gone mad. They’d allowed the squares be implanted into their necks too high up, almost to their brows, that much was true.
But it was also said that had messed something up in their brains and was why one of them was cold to the point of uncaring and the other a raging brute. They did nothing to stop those rumors. Let the others think what they wanted, it didn’t stop them from doing their duty. On the contrary, the more unbelievable rumors went around about them, the more their enemies feared them.
Fearing what they might become together, they were ultimately separated.
Fifteen great battle ships formed the mighty Brion army, each commanded by a general. It wasn’t the Brion way to appoint generals, they had to fight for their position. Each meeting aboard was held at an arena, where the officers from the lowest to the general himself accepted challenges for their position. When Faren and Gawen were stationed aboard one ship each, it was considered a death sentence.
Blood marked their climb up the ranks, as was the Brion way. They would have been the youngest generals ever if it wasn’t for Diego.
The first seed of doubt in Faren’s heart appeared when he heard what his brother had named his ship. All the generals renamed their ships to their choosing. In the Brion language, which constantly changed, it was difficult to nail anything down. The galaxy and the Galactic union in particular shortened the names, which got the gist of them. Diego’s ship was known as the Triumphant, Faren’s own the Unbroken. But Gawen… was calling his battle ship the Fearless.
It was only after he’d heard the new name that Faren thought it might have been better if they hadn’t taken his twin away from him. Had he forgotten? Being fearless wasn’t a good thing. Those who didn’t fear were blind to the world. They’d all become generals, but that didn’t mean one day they couldn’t meet the same fate as their predecessors when another, younger and stronger, came to challenge their rank. Or an enemy, for that matter. Faren was disappointed.
Then they found out about Rhea, not long before the rest of the galaxy did.
The Galactic union , where the Brions now belonged after being denied many times for their violent nature, discovered their harvest world, Rhea. It was the source of almost everything the Brions needed that their own planet hadn’t gifted them with. It provided food, minerals, metals, and so on. It made them the superpower they were.
The senators, the rulers of Briolina and the Brions while their Elders rested in their meditative stasis-sleep, had tried to hide it as long as they could. All of the other known worlds similarly rich were common property among the union . If it were discovered the Brions had hidden one – and one as rich as Rhea – there would be war.
And Diego found himself right in the middle of a brewing civil war. Faren watched with detached curiosity as the situation unfolded around his friend. Right before it all went down, Diego had found his gesha at last, a human at that. The Brion fated couples – the gesha and the gerion – were sacred to them. No one questioned it, but it was still historic for one of them not to be a Brion. She was a researcher bound for Rhea, which put her in the middle of the entire mess. Things began to move with dizzying speed.#p#分页标题#e#
And Faren and Gawen were given the order to kill them both, declaring Diego a traitor to all Brions.
Setting course for the Triumphant, which made no true attempt to flee from them, Faren found himself confused for the first time in his life.
Diego wasn’t a traitor, he knew that. He couldn’t believe the only person he’d ever called a friend would do anything to harm the Brions. Not killing his gesha wasn’t a crime either – it would have been unthinkable. Something was wrong, but Faren didn’t know what.
It became obvious soon enough.
He hadn’t seen his twin for a while, but they found their easy sync at once. They went to meet Diego on the Triumphant, showing they had no fear of him. For the sake of their old friendship, they agreed, Diego would be allowed to explain. Then they would do what had to be done, for all Brions.
What Diego had to say tore Faren’s world apart, though like always, none of it showed.