by Ivan Kal
Ashara saw Vin nod at her, and she excused herself, walking away and leaving the two alone. While she waited, the first mate approached her.
“Lady,” he said.
“Mr. Jorvasi,” she returned.
The older man leaned on a railing and looked at the sea. “That man”—he nodded toward Vin and the captain behind them—“is dangerous.”
Ashara turned to look at Vin. “I know.”
“You don’t, not really. You heard what happened, but you didn’t see.” Solunwari held her eyes. “I have seen war before, girl, and I have seen many who were good at killing. That man, he is worse than a killer. It was more than just his strange powers—it was the way he moved, the way he acted. I have seen many a man hesitate, freeze as they look in the eyes of a man across from them and realize that he, too, is a living being. And after, you can always see it in their eyes, the weight of what they have done. But him?” He shook his head slowly. “There was no compassion, no hesitation in his eyes when he killed those pirates. They were just in his way, as insignificant to him as ants beneath his feet. And I have seen the look he has at times when he thinks no one is watching, I have worn it myself often enough to recognize it. He seeks vengeance, Ashara, and if you stay by his side, you will inevitably be drawn in to the horror he will bring.”
“He’s my friend,” Ashara said, starting to get angry at the old man for speaking the way he was about Vin.
“I know. I am not telling you this to force you away. People who are as driven as him, who care nothing for those in their way, have few in the way of friends. But when they do make such bonds, they are far stronger bonds. Being around him will not make you any safer, but he will always be loyal to his friends. I just wanted you to understand that. He is not like anyone you have ever met in your high society. People like him either rule, or they die in a ditch, forgotten. There is nothing in between. You need to decide for yourself if having such a bond is worth all that such a thing entails.”
Ashara didn’t respond. She wasn’t stupid; she had noticed many of the things Solunwari had just told her. Yet Vin had never been anything but respectful toward her. And she had never spoken with someone as freely as she had with him. That alone was worth it to her. Solunwari looked closely at her face, and then he nodded resolutely as if he had seen what he had been looking for. He bowed his head, and then walked away just as Vin approached.
CHAPTER TWELVE
VIN
Vin watched Ashara as she walked away and left him with the captain. As soon as she was out of the earshot, he turned back to the man.
“How may I help you, Captain?” Vin asked, hoping that it was a proper use of the man’s title.
“Here,” the captain said quietly, offering him something.
Vin took the small pouch and looked at it in confusion. He opened it, and saw that it held several small round metal coins. The currency of this world—it was similar to that of his own world, though they preferred small plates. Vin raised his eyes from the coins to the captain and quirked his eyebrow in a question.
“That’s for protecting my ship from pirates. It could’ve been much worse if you hadn’t been there. Ulyssa was hard pressed to defend the ship from two mages, no matter how untrained they were,” the captain said.
Vin raised his arm and scratched above his eyebrow, thinking. “You don’t need to pay me for that, Captain I was not under haos in your employ, and I have already received much from your ship,” Vin said, looking down on his clothes and small bag. The crew had approached him once he had recovered and had given him gifts—small things, clothes and a few trinkets. The first mate had given him one of the weapons from the ship’s armory, even. The crew was still afraid of him, he could see it in their eyes; but it was a different kind of fear now, one more akin to respect than distrust. They had been grateful to him.
“I want you to have it. And you will need it if you want to manage living in this city. It is not much, but it will help.”
Vin tilted his head. “You’ve been awfully accepting of my presence on your ship, even though the manner of my arrival must’ve seemed strange. And I know that you’ve kept the mage from asking more of her questions. Why are you helping me, Captain?”
The captain didn’t answer. Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a palm-sized silver coin, one that had a strange symbol on it. He bounced it on his palm, and then raised it up for Vin so that he could see it more clearly.
“Because of this,” the captain said simply.
“I don’t understand.”
“This coin was given to me by Ashara, on the day she came on to my ship. I don’t take passengers, but from time to time someone bearing a coin just like this one will come. And I always do as much as I can to help them.”
“But I did not come on board with Ashara.”
“No, but I have learned long ago that things…happen…when individuals carrying this coin arrive.”
“Things?” Vin asked.
“You see, my family is from the Shattered Isles, from what is now called the Shattered Kingdom. And, unlike in most other places, worship of any god is allowed there. My family has worshiped a particular god for a long time—and our god is not like the others. You see, Sao Ban speaks to us,” the captain said with a smile. “Not often, but often enough that we know that he is watching. This is his coin, and from time to time he sends us people carrying a coin just like it. Our job is to make sure that they arrive where they want to go. And, also from time to time, other…strange occurrences would happen. Like you dropping out of thin air right next to my ship.”
Vin kept quiet as he did not want to offend the captain or his beliefs, but he doubted that a god would care much of what happened to Vin. None of the gods of his world had cared when the Arashan had invaded. Regardless, he had not yet learned enough about gods of this world to know what to say. Ashara did not seem particularly devout.
“I thank you nevertheless, honored one.” Vin put his fists together and bowed deeply. The captain deserved much respect from Vin, the reasons behind his actions notwithstanding.
The captain returned his bow, albeit less gracefully, and walked away. Vin turned and spotted Ashara, who was speaking intently with the first mate. He made his way toward them, and the first mate turned and walked away as Vin neared, leaving Ashara and Vin alone.
“What was that about?” Vin asked.
“Nothing. He was offering me some advice,” Ashara answered absentmindedly, but Vin could see that her thoughts were on something else. Then she shook her head and stepped closer to him. “What did the captain want?”
Vin gave her the pouch—she palmed it and opened it, looking inside. “This is almost as much as I paid for the entire trip! Why did he give this to you?”
“For protecting the ship,” Vin said.
Ashara nodded in understanding. “Good, so at least you won’t starve. Already I had feared that I would need to share some of my coin with you,” she said as she returned the pouch to him with a grin on her face.
“I would never have asked that of you!”
“I’m kidding, of course! But at least you have something to live on until you find employment.”
Vin nodded. In truth, he hadn’t really thought much on what he would do after he left the ship. He knew that he needed to train, but he also had to search for any sign of the Arashan he could find. But now he understood that he would need coin to survive. He didn’t really know how to do acquire any; in his home, he had never worked for anything. He was a prodigy, and so everything had been given to him. Now he would need to work for himself.
“Will you help me find something?” Vin asked, almost shyly.
“Of course I will. Don’t worry, I won’t abandon you!” she told him, a twinkle in her eyes, just as a deckhand announced they were about to dock.
* * *
After saying their goodbyes to the crew, Ashara and Vin made their way off the ship and into the city. The first thing that struc
k him was the sheer amount of people—they were everywhere, and he even saw some that didn’t look human at all. One of them had looked just like a wolf walking on two legs. Vin couldn’t help but stare, and Ashara grabbed his hand and pulled him with her. They made their way from the docks, and he watched, wide eyed, at the buildings around him. They were ugly things, made of stone and wood, with no artistry to them. Yet he could tell that they were sturdy and strong, and they were obviously massive. Everything seemed bigger here. And from time to time he would see glowing symbols on the buildings—and he could feel magic everywhere, not just the aura in the air.
“Ah, there it is. One of the crew told me about this inn. Come on.” She pulled him inside faster than he could figure out what was happening. He did notice the large sign above the building inscribed with the words “Eternal Soul Inn.” Once inside, the smell of food hit him immediately. There weren’t many people inside—a few groups were sitting at the tables at the back of the room. Ashara made her way toward a counter at the other side of the room, and Vin followed.
Once they reached it, Ashara smiled at an older woman. Her hair was gray and her face was pockmarked, and her hands looked as if she had spent the last fifty years working in the fields.
“Good day,” Ashara said. “We are looking for a place to stay for a while. And I was told about your fine establishment’s meat pies! I must say that I can’t wait to try some.”
The woman looked at Ashara in askance. “And who told you them?”
“Harisak. We’ve just arrived in Tourran with the Norvus,” Ashara said brightly.
The woman’s demeanor immediately changed, and she let out a loud laugh. “So the old bastard is still alive, is he?” She shook her head and gave a smile to Ashara. “I’m Anka. I run this dump with my husband; you’ll meet him later, he’s on a supply run. We do have a few rooms available. It’s five coppers per night, thirty if you pay for the entire week, and a silver if you want food for the entire week. How long do you plan to stay?”
“For a few days at least. We are looking for work,” Ashara said. “We’ll pay for a week—with food.”
“Two rooms?”
“One,” Ashara said. Vin opened his mouth to speak, but she grabbed his elbow and squeezed. He kept his mouth shut—he still knew little about what was proper.
Anka looked at them both. “Well, all right. Here, it’s upstairs. The last room on the right.” She pulled a metal key from her belt chain and gave it to Ashara.
“Thank you,” Ashara said as she took the key and gave Anka a silver piece.
“Lunch is in half an hour. If you want, you can eat down here, or I can bring it upstairs.”
“We’ll eat down here, thank you,” Ashara said, and she guided Vin toward the stairs.
* * *
The room was small, at least by his standards. A single large bed, two chairs and a table were the only furnishings. A door led to another smaller room that had something resembling a bath and a few strange things that he could not identify, but his eyes did notice weak magic on them. As soon as Ashara closed the doors, he turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Sorry, I should’ve spoken to you before,” she said, chagrined.
“I don’t mind, I just don’t know how it will look to these people. I think that she assumed we were together.”
“She did, and I wanted her to.”
“Why?”
Ashara moved to the bed and sat down, then dropped back on the bed, putting her hands over her face. After a few moments she moved her hands down and looked at him. “I’m young enough that some might wonder what an unmarried woman is doing all alone. This way, they will probably assume that we are a young married couple, and there won’t be many questions.”
Vin shrugged. “I have no problem playing the part.”
Ashara gave him one of her dazzling smiles. “Thank you.”
“So what now?” Vin asked.
“Now, we settle in. Then we go down to eat and start asking about work.”
“I don’t really know what it is that I can do. I don’t even know what kind of work there is.”
“With what I have and what you got from the captain, we have some time to figure things out.”
Vin walked over to the table and took a chair. He leaned on his elbow and scratched above his eyebrows as he looked at Ashara. She seemed tired; he hadn’t noticed that before. But now he could see both tiredness and relief in her eyes. He didn’t know much about why she was traveling, though he did know that she was running away from her old life. He looked at her for a while as she relaxed on the bed with her eyes closed. He had never thought that he could grow to care for someone in such a short time, not before the Arashan. Now, he knew that some of his feelings came from the fact that he was all alone here; yet she had been his friend when he’d needed one, even though she didn’t know it.
He debated with himself for a moment, then finally spoke up. “Ashara, I need to tell you something.”
She opened one eye and looked at him, then frowned as she noticed his expression. She stood up and took a chair across from him.
“What is it?”
“I did not speak the entire truth of how I arrived here.”
“I know.”
Vin nodded. He had seen it in her eyes every time he had spoken of his home. Her knowing that he was holding something back and not pushing for the truth was one of the things that made him trust her more. She understood the value of secrets.
He took a deep breath. “I am not from this world.”
Ashara blinked slowly. “You are…what?”
So he told her. Everything. From the beginning. About the Arashan, and their invasion of his world. About their last attempt to stop them. About his imprisonment and the torture he had endured under them, about how they took his soul out of his body and put it into another. And how he escaped by running through a breach from his world to this one, all until the point where Ashara saved his life.
Once he finished, he waited to hear what Ashara would say. He knew that it could be a lot to believe in, which was one of the reasons why he hadn’t told her before. Ashara reached over and took his hand in her own, squeezing it. “I’m sorry, Vin, for what happened to your world. I can’t imagine what you are feeling right now.”
“Many things—a need for vengeance most of all.”
“You think that these…Arashan…are here?”
“I don’t know how their magic works. But if I am here, then there is at least a chance. I need to find them, I can’t watch another world fall to them.”
“They could be anywhere. The world—this world—is an enormous place. I wouldn’t even know where to start looking,” Ashara said. “The way you described some of them, they remind me of darji.”
“Darji?”
“They are a race that lives mostly on the islands in the southern ocean. Although, their skin color is mostly shades of gray; there are a few with red skin, but not many.”
“Could they be the Arashan?” Vin asked.
“I doubt it. The darji are rare; there’s not enough of them to account for the numbers you told me about. And if there are humans like you and me on other worlds, why not a world filled with darji?”
Vin nodded—it made sense. And Narzarah had said that there were many worlds. If this was their world, it would not have been like this. “So how do I find them?”
“Tourran is a place where many cultures meet. This would be the right place to wait and listen. Word of them will arrive eventually.”
Vin shook his head. “If that happened I don’t know if I alone could stop them. Yet I can’t imagine convincing anyone on this world to help me before it is too late. I need to find them before they build their World Gate and invade. This is the only time when they can be stopped.” Yet he knew that if he found them today he would’ve been woefully unprepared to stop them.
“I don’t know, Vin,” Ashara said uncertainly.
He sighed. His speakin
g about them out loud had only served to remind him of the threat they posed. “Perhaps it wouldn’t even matter. I am far weaker than any of them now. I need to regain my strength.”
They lapsed into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so comfortable in silence with another person. Finally, Ashara spoke.
“You shared your secret with me, so I think that I should tell you mine.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“I do want to.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ve never been attracted to men. I didn’t know that when I was young, of course, and I had always heard that I was supposed to be. I was my father’s only child, and being noble, that meant that I always knew that I would need to marry in order to inherit my father’s house. But as I grew older, I realized that I liked women. It wouldn’t have been a problem if I hadn’t been born into nobility, or even if I’d had any siblings. Sadly, my mother died, and my father never got over her death. I was going to marry and have children no matter what I wanted, and seeing my father’s sadness at the loss of my mother made me try to spare him any embarrassment. So I hid a part of myself.”
Her eyes took a faraway look to them, and she continued. “Then I went to my first royal ball—and I met her. She knew, I still don’t know how, but she knew immediately. She was older than me by two years. And she was beautiful. It was she that pursued me, and I fell for her charms. No one could resist her. She was the princess, after all.”
Her face filled with sadness. “We shouldn’t have done it. But we did. We hid our involvement, of course. For someone like her, of royal blood, it would’ve been worse than simple embarrassment—it would’ve been a scandal. It would’ve hurt her marriage prospects. She was supposed to be pure until marriage, and her hand would be used to secure an alliance or reward her father’s closest allies. But even though I knew all of this, somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, I didn’t care. Somehow, I believed that we would be able to be together.” She let out a cruel laugh then. “Stupid. I was so stupid.