seymoure

Chapter 17
“The Way of War”

“I think you’ve got to do it,” Splicer said, but he was no where near happy to have said it.

“I know, I’m just not happy to be there,” Raven admitted.

There was a flurry of activity that filled the rest of the morning hours.

Gathering of herbs took a few minutes.

But the mental preparations were what took so much time.

There was much singing and speaking. There was even a bit of reading of texts that might be relevant.

Ike was happy to eat the amazing food that was placed before him. They had soup that he had never heard of before. He wouldn’t know of “Zuppa Tuscana” but Mother did.

He also had fresh baked bread and for desert something called “Turkish Delight.”

Then he joined the children of the community at play.

He never got out of Bayne’s sight. He was shadowed for every moment. He had become the community’s responsibility and they took responsibility very seriously.

They were at the nexus of multiple worlds of danger, and this little traveler did not deserve to become involved. They would get him home as quickly as was humanly possible.

They were aware that they had chosen this path, and while they would not have had it happen in the first place, they were agreed that it was a fight worth fighting. But while innocence might be lost, none of them was willing to sacrifice an innocent.

Bayne smiled at the children’s laughter. Nothing touched him deeper than his love of that sound.

It seemed that he had been so involved with the fighting of this “war” that he had lost this moment for so long.

But this was, after all, what they were fighting for, wasn’t it?

He smirked to himself.

Isn’t that what everyone who ever wanted to fight a war used to recruit fighters for his war?

That was why, at the very beginning, they decided to fight this war in a totally defensive way.

Perry. Perry. Wait for the chance to end it by using mind, not force.

The hardest war to fight. But the only one worth fighting.