Aia raised her eyebrows. It felt like it was the wrong time to speak, but all the same, she had no intention of leaving him like that.
"Are you okay down there?" she asked hesitantly.
The muscles in his jaw clenched as he swallowed. The rest of him remained statuesque, even his breathing too shallow to assess.
She counted five of her own breaths before she spoke again. "You could have a concussion."
"No." His voice had the dry quality of dehydration.
"If I could just-"
"Don't touch me." His pressured words rang of pain just beyond his stoic posture. He still wouldn't look at her. He leaned forward with his head on his knees, hiding his face from her view.
Better judgment told Aia that she should leave him alone, but she would never be able to sleep while he was sitting on the cold hard floor. She opened her bag and quietly as she could, retrieving a finger-sized vial of heshi extract. Her bare feet were soundless against the rug. She approached him slowly, crouching down to his eye-level.
"You can't stay here on the floor." She said softly, defying her compulsion to lay a hand on his shoulder. She held out the vial. "This will put you to sleep."
He looked up to examine it, revealing streams of tears on each of his cheeks. Aia bit her lip to hold back her curiosity. Something had gone terribly wrong in the few hours since she left him alone with Garren, and it was consuming him from the inside.
Teveres reached out to accept the vial silently.
"It's heshi. Like the tea, but more concentrated. It will put you right out if you-"
He uncorked the bottle and downed the concentrate like a shot. He obediently handed the empty glass back to her.
"Come on," said Aia, offering him her hand. "I'm not going to sleep if I know you're down here."
Teveres made an independent attempt to stand up. She caught him by the shoulder before he fell; normally she would expect him to recoil from her touch, but in his inebriated state he was in no position to resist her help. She managed to coax him into bed with minimal trouble. He would surely be embarrassed in the morning if he remembered. He curled up on top of the blankets, facing the nearest wall. His arms were crossed over his chest protectively, like they would save him from the inner conflict that was ailing him. Sleep swept him away well before Aia set up on her side of the bed and turned off the light. She slid beneath the blankets while he lay on top of them, maintaining a respectful barrier.metful bar
It had been a while since Aia truly believed in the gods. Tucked under the thick blankets, she held one hand in his direction and pushed a harmonizing resonance towards him. She muttered a prayer in the futile hope that it would do something, no matter how little, to bring him peace.
* * *
The soft click of the inn's door woke Aia the next morning. Without a window, she had no way to estimate the time. She could hear Teveres moving carefully across the floor towards the side he slept on, undoubtedly hunting for his bag which she had tucked under the bed for him. Aia sat up in the darkness and reached towards her nightstand.
"Oh gods, please don't do that," Teveres groaned.
Startled by his sudden ability to speak, Aia jerked her hand back away from the lamp. She could barely make out his features in the light from the cracks in the door. His bare chest had a thin sheen of sweat; his eyes were raw in their sockets. He settled on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands.
"I might have something you can take for that," she offered.
"Ah, no. I'll be fine," He chuckled softly. "I did this to myself after all."
Aia hesitated a moment. As nonchalantly as she could, she pulled her bag up from beside the bed and began searching for a suitable set of clothing. "Can I ask why?"
"Doubt it would make...much sense to you." Slowly, painfully he lowered himself to a supine position on the bed, one hand over his eyes.
"Seems like if it's so bad you have to make yourself sick over it then maybe you should talk to somebody about it." Aia idly unfolded the tunic she chose to change into. "Does it have something to do with the necklace?"
He was silent a moment before he finally spoke. "It belongs to my... well, she used to be... my fiancé. Ex-fiancé."
"Did she-"
"No, she's alive. Kaldari have her."
"Do you... I mean are you..." she sighed, frustrated with herself. "Are you trying to get her back?"
"What kind of question is that? I don't know if I ever... or if I..." He grimaced, clutching his abdomen and curling up on his side. "I just want all of this to go away."
She yearned to pry the information from him, perhaps more for her own benefit than for his. Nothing she could say could possibly be helpful, so she said nothing. Turning her back to him to maintain her flimsy pretense of modesty, she set about changing from her shift into her tunic. The sight of too many naked bodies of varying degrees of unattractiveness had altered her sense of decorum significantly.
"Her name is Veni. Garren says oulGarren she's pregnant," he continued unprovoked.
A stone dropped in the pit of her stomach. "Is it... yours?"
"Has to be," when he spoke, the words were bleached of emotion. "I'm pretty sure it is."
"I'm... sorry to hear that. What are you going to do?" asked Aia.
"Well, drinking worked out better than I expected."
"I do hope you're joking."
"Joking, mm. Yeah, it's a joke alright. This whole damned mess is a joke."
There was resignation in his voice and demeanor. The more she thought about what he was saying and doing, the more alarmed she became.
"Are you serious?" She tugged her shirt straight, whipping around to look at him. "You can't just give up on yourself because bad things happen. This is about more than just you, you know. I have a life I want to get back to, and so do thirty thousand other people back in Nivenea."
"You don't have to yell."
"I'm not yelling. You're hungover."
"A fact that I am excruciatingly aware of," He hissed, "I don't know what you want from me. I don't have any brilliant plans. When my family was murdered, I ran. Then I went to jail, and then the Kaldari sent someone to find me. I told you to get out while you still could, but you didn't listen. So yeah, I'm done. I can't change the world by myself. There's nothing special about my decisions."
"Even if I was back in Nivenea right now, your decisions would still affect me. Hell, I'd be in more danger on the receiving end of things if things go the way I think they're going."
"You're using way too many words here."
"I might not have much going for me, but you do. You have something that they want, and you might be the only person standing between the Kaldari and Nivenea. I'm not going to sit back and watch my home go to pieces. Not again."
Teveres just closed his eyes.
"You could kill them, couldn't you? Kill all the Kaldari, take Veni and get out?"
"It's not that simple."
"It looks like it is to me."
"You don't understand. If they allow me into a room with Veni, I can't just take them all out and leave her alone. I can't control it like that. I kill one person or I kill everyone around me - I don't... practice... often enough to change it. And I don't want> to kill them all. I don't want to kill anyone." Pain flashed in his features when their eyes met. He took a long, deep breath. "You should end me right here, right now."
"Don't be ridiculous."
"I'm not. You know it's the right thing to do, so go on. Do it." He held his dagger out to her by the blade. "It's not hard."
Bewildered, Aia snatched the dagger from his hand and threw it to the other side of the room. "You can do better than that."
"Well right now, I can't."
Aia sighed loudly enough to make Teveres cringe. She picked up her bag and shook her head. "When you get yourself together, come talk to me." Aia stormed out the door, taking his dagger with her.
Outside the room, Aia nearly collided with a blond-haired young
man around her age. He stumbled backwards. Quickly surveying her, the newcomer donned a wide grin. "You must be Aiasjia." He extended a hand.
Gods, not another one. His thoughts were easy to pick up just below his surface resonance. He was of Elseth's Lands, nonthreatening, and eager to talk to her. She was skeptical, but shook his hand nonetheless. "If we've met, I've forgotten it."
"Oh, we haven't. I'm Les. You're travelling with Dayle's son, aren't you?"
When she picked through his mind she confirmed that Dayle was the name of Teveres's father, a fact she only distantly recalled. Too many names and ideas were floating around her brain for her to keep them straight. "I am."
"Teveres, isn't it? Is he still asleep?"
Aia glanced down the hallway towards the common room. The abundance of unsolicited friendliness was making her claustrophobic. Politely, Les began walking in the direction she was looking. She smirked. He was not entirely oblivious to social cues.
"I was worried that something happened to you. I guess Garren rode you guys pretty hard to get here," Les continued.
"I'm sorry, who are you?"
Entering the common room, Les chose a table off in the corner, far away from the bar where a group of working girls were chatting. Alexandria was already at work back in the kitchen, ordering around young men carrying large boxes of liquor and food. It looked to be prep-time. Other than the posse of prostitutes, the common room was vacant. Aia took a seat beside Les, relaxing her defenses just slightly.
In the bright light of the common area, she could clearly evaluate him. He was of average height and build, hardly remarkable in his strength. He looked like he would be more comfortable in Nivenea's ball than on the fighting end of a sword. The clothes he wore reminded Aia of Teveres's clothes, much more expensive than what she could ever afford. His skin was almost as pale as her own, eyes a strikingly bright golden brown.
"That's a long story, but I think we have time for one of those," he said wryly, "I've been here for a while. I'm here for almost the same reason you are, but a little less useful I think."
"And I'm here because...?"
Les laughed, shaking his head. "You really are green, aren't you? Are you hungry? You'd have to be." He immediately called over one of the kitchen boys to take her simple sandwich order. He was making every reasonable effort to see to her comfort. Once the boy left, Les continued.
"I was brought here by my priest, not Garren, so I got a little more conversation out of my deal." His manner of speech put a small grin on her face as he spoke. "I heard that you're a fancy healer from out in Nivenea, a hot little topic who can fix the blight, so I don't feel boastful telling you that I'm the Baron of Pelle. I'm sure you've never heard of it."
Aia sniggered. "I wouldn't call myself fancy. But actually, yes, I've heard of Pelle. Out east near the estuary. My father worked in Feya during the summers when I was very young..." her amusement died. "How do you and I have anything in common?"
"I take it nobody told you about the Deldri."
The word had an ancient, familiar feel to it, even though she could not remember hearing it before. It felt comfortable, somehow, like the sound of a song from childhood long since forgotten. Brow furrowed, Aia shook her head.
"Do you remember the story of the godking?"
“Of course.” Every Child of Elseth knew the story of the godking. Four hundred years in the past, a man touched by divinity came to rule over Elseth’s lands. His lust for power was insatiable; it was said that he tore down all of the temples to replace them with monuments to himself. Several leaders of outlying cities banded together to overthrow the king. The leaders formed what would later be called the divine council, who decided that from that day on, no man or woman gifted with divinity would be granted a direct role in the government. That decision had been faithfully honored ever since.
Les leaned forward with his elbows on the table, lowering his voice. "Okay, well, the priest who brought me here is on the divine council, and he-"
"Wait, he's what?"
Les made a dismissive gesture. "That's not really the point. What I was saying is - he told me that this godking was something called Deldri. The Deldri are differently gifted by the gods in ways that are not like the others. You know, Justice, Green, Healer, Engineer... the Deldri don't fit into any of those categories, and sometimes they can be very powerful in comparison. Sometimes the power drove them insane, or would end in their accidental death. About one in a hundred thousand children are born Deldri, like us."
"I... don't understand. If any of this is true, why have I never heard of the..."
"Deldri. That's because until your friend Teveres was born, the clergy quietly executed every child identified as Deldri to prevent the rise of another godking."
What he was saying sounded a little crazy - a little too conspiracy theory - but it was creating a scream deep down in her belly that she could barely contain. She'd never trusted the clergy entirely, always felt that they had too much power in their semi-secret society and too much influence over the people. The thought that they might have been killing off children...
In her head all she could see were images of children strange and similar to her, poisoned or stolen into the night. It was too crazy to believe, but so was everything else about her life in the past three days.
"They murdered children?" she managed.
They both quieted when the kitchen boy dropped off her sandwich, waiting to speak until he was out of earshot. Aia pushed the plate to the side, suddenly too sickened to eat.
"Yeah, they did," he said softly. "My priest said that the divine council did not believe that they could contain the threat unless the Deldri were completely wiped out. I don't know what kind of internal treachery was necessary for them to rationalize it, but that's what they've been doing for decades."
Aia became lost in the pattern of the threads in the tablecloth. She shook her head slowly. "And we're just mistakes? We lived because someone forgot about us?"
"No, that's just it. We aren't mistakes. The divine council decided to lift the mandate after Teveres was born because Dayle convinced them that we might be able to do something about The Decline. He said that maybe The Decline was society's retribution for killing off the gods chosen children."
"To save his son," Aia echoed. "We survived because suddenly the deaths came at a personal cost to someone up high. To hell with society, he couldn't stand watching Teveres die."
"Whatever it was, we're here, and there aren't many of us." Les stole a berry off of Aia's plate, his mental state far past the shock of the history lesson. "Now, I don't know why my priest brought me here or what the Kaldari have to do with any of this, but I bet it's pretty important."
"Why did you agree to come here? Doesn't someone miss you back in Pelle?"
"I told them I was leaving." Les shrugged, "They threatened to expose my status as Deldri and ruin my career if I fought them. They said if I coop;Anid if Ierated, I could go home in a few months and return to my life."
"And what...do you do? I mean, if you're Deldri, and I'm not saying I believe this whole thing entirely, then you must have something strange about you."
Les smirked. "This is where the 'not as useful' part comes in. I don't know why they need me, because I doubt it has to do with my... quirk."
One hand outstretched towards the candle on their table, Les closed his eyes. Aia watched as the flame grew more intense, brighter and brighter, spinning through a wheel of colors faster than she could count them. When his hand withdrew the candle shrunk back to normal, breaking her mesmerized stare.
"Wow," she breathed, completely distracted from the world and its problems. "That was beautiful."
"And useless!" Les's smirk morphed into a bright, sarcastic smile. "I change the intensity and color of lights. I don't heal people, or read minds, hell, I can't even grow a plant to save my life, but I can physically light up a room. It has helped me exactly never. I'm living proof that the Deldri thing is absolu
tely random."
When Aia shook her head she could almost feel the weight of Les's information sloshing around inside her skull. He dragged her plate back in front of her, encouraging her to eat.
"It's okay. I didn't know what to do about it either, and I didn't believe it at first. The more I've thought about it and the longer I've been stuck here, the more I'm convinced that it's entirely true. It's easier if you just keep going like you usually do and let it simmer a while." Les's easy smile eased her into a new topic. "So where are you from, healer? I was told that you read minds, is that right?"
Self-conscious, Aia glanced around to see that there was no one close by. "It seems I do." She took a bite of her sandwich before she continued. "I'm from Seldat."
"That's worse than Pelle. Little timber town, if I recall."
Aia nodded.
"So how did you end up in Nivenea?"
In between bites, Aia answered him. "I went there to live with my grandmother and learn alchemy. Spent some time in the University."
Les raised an eyebrow quizzically. He pointed to the back of his left hand, where her tattoo should have been. "None of this?"
"I was barred from the guild." She made it clear that this was not a topic she wanted to continue with.
Les moved on as if he had never broached the subject, which she appreciated. "And Teveres? Why isn't he sociable today?"
"I doubt he'll be out here any time soon." Aia motioned subtly towards the bar behind him.
Les grinned. "I'd like to meet him whenever he recovers. It sounds like he's the reason the three of us are alive."
Aia was relieved when Alexandria caught her attention and walked over to their table. The manager put a friendly hand on Les's shoulder. "Is he bothering you?" Alex asked playfully.
"Not yet," said Aia.
"You're not working hard enough," Alex said to Les, a friendly energy bouncing between the two of them that made Aia miss Kyren. "Things can get a little boring around here if you don't keep busy. Do you cook?"
Tragedy (Forsaken Lands) Page 9