Kug smiled, chastened. "We do."
Dennick filled mugs of water flavored with sweetpetals for each of them. Kug saw a wordless inquiry and assertion pass between his hosts before Agane took the mug Dennick offered. He had seen what the Wasting could do, and so guessed Dennick was ensuring she could hold the mug before he gave it to her.
It was a gently sweet gesture that warmed Kug even as he felt a pang of envy. Had he enough years ahead of him to find that kind of understanding with another magn?
Dennick gave him a quizzical look as he passed Kug his drink. "You went far down your own path for a bit there, friend."
Kug smiled. "I did." He took a drink. "Thank you. I suppose a part of me is already past the city walls."
"Hm. I suppose that play's on all our stages." He looked down and away, then smiled. "I'm grateful you could come. I wanted Agane to meet the magn who saved all our lives."
Kug shook his head, humbled and skeptical. "What?"
Dennick nodded. "When I nearly fell in that awful cellar, you risked yourself and pulled me up. Although I still had a foot on two paths until Fagahg revealed himself… I was moved by your selflessness, Kug."
Kug pursed his lips and nodded once. "You saved me from my own anguish, before. I didn't think but to help." He frowned, thinking of that unnatural, awful light, and sighed hard.
Dennick said, "And so I lived to keep Fagahg from killing Rajen, and maybe Ranith with the same stroke. He would have come for you next."
Kug laughed. "I recall some measure of regret that I'd saved you, in that particular moment. But that one… he was on his own brambled path, that was clear. At least one of your two was true and clear."
Agane said, "Vuldt's guaranteer. What was he?"
Dennick was thoughtful. "The things he said… my guess is he was part of a kill cult. I've heard rumors of a sect dedicated to a dark aspect of Nza…" He looked around the room, his gaze dancing from curio to keepsake, and a shadow crossed his eyes. "We won't be around to ever know for sure."
Kug was curious and encouraged. "We? Agane, does that mean you will accompany Dennick? I know it might not be—"
She interrupted gently. "I will go with Dennick, yes." She looked at her heartfast.
He covered her hand with his. "We'll make for Kwaanantag."
"I have been," Kug said. "Long ago. Such a journey..!"
Dennick nodded. "As far from Aenik… or the Alliance… as a magn can get, and still be among magn."
Agane said, "It will not be easy as sitting in my garden until I finally step off the end of my path. But without this foolish one… I think I'd be driven to find a willing apothecary before too many lonely tahwakes passed."
Kug laughed. "So be it."
Dennick smiled. "And you, Kug?"
"I tell you: it's been twenty years, but if you were to unroll a map of the continent right now, I could put my finger down on the exact location of my old caravan town. I mean to…"
He smiled as a melancholy, bittersweet longing blossomed in his chest. He wiped his eyes, a little embarrassed.
"I mean to go home."
Agane said, "From what I've learned, you've earned that, manyfold."
Kug laughed and sniffed. "I'm rounding the bend to believing that." He exhaled and got himself together. "But listen, both of you. I have in mind a… an excursion, first."
"Oh?"
"Indeed. There's a village near the border, in the Fingers. Granted, it's been… well, some time… since I was there. But I knew a magn… and she was young, as I was, so like as not if I've made it this far, so has she. Like you, Dennick, she had a connection with the Alliance of Clans, but unlike you, one of blood. And like our dour friend Rajen… she has certain gifts."
Dennick grinned. "Kug! A lost love?"
Agane regarded Kug carefully. "I think not…"
"Oh, 'love' would be a presumptuous exaggeration," Kug agreed, “even then. Today, I'm mostly interested in the knowledge she carried with her when she left the Alliance." Kug raised his mug to his smiling lips and said, "You should be, too," before he drank.
Dennick seemed bemused by Kug's excitement, but that was the extent of his comprehension.
Agane rolled her eyes. "You must have been a horrible spy."
Kug nearly spit his drink.
"Dennick. Agane. Vuldt may have been lying, or not… but what he claimed, I have witnessed.
"Come with me. Come see."
Rajen
Rajen had the better part of a day and a night to rest and recover. She found it difficult.
She could not bring her mind to calm. When she was finally too tired to think, she discovered she was not quite ready to spend any time under the earth, even in her comfortable sleeping cellar.
So she lay down on the floor of her hut and slept fitfully through disturbing dreams.
She woke with Tah, miserable.
Now she stood in the middle of her hut, at a loss.
She had everything she had wanted since her mother's folly and the trouble that followed, so many years ago.
Ulthus was dead, along with Taghesh and any magicker who knew her, or knew of her. Best as she knew, she was the last magicker in Aenikantag.
She was free as any magn; no, more free than most, thanks to the Alwarden's note and the incomprehensible wealth it represented.
What to do now?
The probability streams remained coy when she sought them. This was more irritating that worrisome; she knew she was overwrought and exhausted. The Science would cooperate with her once again. It might take some time.
She had time.
She had time.
She ran a finger across her seer's table. The wood was just a little gritty.
No more pretending. Not anymore.
After being in a room with the First Speaker, she did not doubt that he, and his order, and so the Alwarden, believed her to have true Science.
And yet, she was free. More than free.
How could she take that as anything other than tacit permission to be as she was?
They would be watching. Her reward, and the gift of land… should she interpret her situation as being not just sanctioned, but subsidized by the Alwarden, the First Speaker, and his priests?
At some point, she had to expect, she would be invited to another room where a Caretaker was present.
That was fine.
She would make the most of her resources and opportunities between now and then. After what she had experienced in the last four days, she had much to learn. Many avenues of study.
Let them watch. Let them come.
They may find she has something to teach them.
She turned in a slow circle. Her hut was so very small.
What would she do with the gift of land?
She would need solitude, and rooms enough for comfort and study. Someplace private, but not too far removed from society, for she would also need access to materials, books, and supplies.
The ideal location was so obvious, so ideal, and yet so abhorrent, it made her laugh out loud.
She would—
Tapping at her door made her flinch. How long until she was not so irritatingly anxious?
The tapping came again. Three rapid knocks, followed by a slower set of four.
Talen's knock.
How?
She opened the door.
The Plain One waited without, hooded and cloaked.
"To your day, Rajen." They warped their face into that unsettlingly unconvincing impersonation of a smile she'd endured before. "I ask to enter."
She didn't back up so much as recoil.
They stepped into the hut and closed the door behind them. "You have endured Amang-huru. Your choices persist."
"I… yes." It was something like congratulations, she supposed. "That light. That was the Outsider?"
"I was not present."
"But you—" She shook her head. "Yes. It's over. The child is safe; Taghesh is dead; the light… went out."
>
They removed their hood. "Can you See?"
"Not very well. I'm exhausted."
"You will See."
Rajen could only nod.
The Plain One stood in her hut, the epitome of blank expressions on their face. Bits passed.
Rajen spread her arms. "Why… what do you want?"
Their hairless brow pushed up the steep slope of their forehead. A little too far. The Plain One would always be practicing their magn mimicry, it seemed. "I showed you how to find Taghesh Child-Arm. You took what you need. Needed? That is how: needed… to help when you find him." A beat. "Found."
Dread ran light fingers across her scalp. No.
"Across your living time," the Plain One went on, "I will present to you three things you will take."
Not so soon.
"That was our agreement," she said dully.
"The first thing," the Plain One said. "Is now to take possession of the first thing, a fragile thing you will hold for many years."
The hut was too small. The world, once again, and still, was too small.
"I thought I'd have some time."
They tilted their head. "Your choices persist."
"Do they, though?"
The door opened again. The Plain One's lieutenant, the one called Sadek, entered.
He led an empty faced Talen by the arm.
The sellsong set eyes on Rajen.
A smile of perfect joy lit his face.
The End
Sunday, September 9, 2018 ~ Friday, November 30, 2018
Long Beach, California
Tuesday, October 22, 2019 ~ Sunday, April 19, 2020
Huntington Beach, California
Coming Soon!
The Shaper's World Cycle
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The Outsider Trilogy Volume Two
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Matthew Wayne Selznick is an author, editor, creator, and consultant living in southern California. Find him on the web at https://www.mattselznick.com, and stay up to date on new Shaper's World releases and other works by joining the community!
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Matthew Wayne Selznick
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Table of Contents
Light of the Outsider Dedication
A Partial Shaper's World Glossary
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Part Two
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Part Three
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty One
Chapter Thirty Two
Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Four
Chapter Thirty Five
Coming Soon!
About the Author
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Light of the Outsider Page 23