Chapter 6 : Conversing

Location Public Baths, Waterless Shore, Blue Wave Territory
Time Predawn 1330 hours (1 ¹/2 hours before dawn)

Maiho closed her eyes and let the cool water wash away the heat of the night. She let the current swirling in the pool carry away the dust of the trail and the stickiness from the Mana fall.

She was dimly aware of Feibu and her husband Rigsos entering the public baths and slipping into a pool on the other end of the room. A hundred-day ago she had to concentrate to get a vague sense of the location of her friends. Now the information intruded on her mind, if those she sensed had any talent or colour. She wondered what Rigsos thought about Sebram. She cracked open her eyes and turned her head. They seemed happy enough. Feibu seemed to have completely separated her life on patrol and her life in the nest. What was even more amazing was that she was able to flout the unwritten rules to be with Sebram. Maiho knew Feibu had been summoned to the council chambers three times and each time had completely failed to change her behaviour. She guessed the main reason Feibu had been able to thumb her nose at the council, by fooling around with a non-singer caste man, was that she was so far from direct succession to the priesthood. Also she really was as unmanageable as a razor claw. Maiho could not help but admire her.

Maiho sensed Wendam and Kernan coming towards the baths. Kernan came into the baths, stopping at the alcoves where people stowed their clothes, then entering the pool at arm’s length from her.

After a long pause Maiho asked, “Are you going to talk?”

After another long pause Maiho asked, “Why are you way over there, Kernan?”

“It creeps me out when you do that,” complained Kernan.

“It’s a standard Diviner trick and you should be used to it by now.”

“You are not a Diviner and I don’t think I will ever get used to it.”

“Why did you come, if you are just going to sulk?” she asked.

“Wendam said we should talk.”

“And this your idea of talking?”

“Why have you put your sword on the floor next to the pool?” he asked.

“It is useless carrying around a sword if I am just going to leave it out of reach when I bathe.”

“It’s useless with your eyes closed anyway.”

“I will only be able to detect a Reborn with my other senses anyway,” she stated.

“The Reborn are dead.”

“Their soul crystals have not been found, and until they are, the Reborn will always return. I am tired of having the same argument over and over again.” Maiho opened her eyes and looked directly at him. “Can’t you just trust me, when I tell you the Reborn are something to be concerned about?” she asked.

After another awkward pause Maiho asked. “Did you really come here to start an argument about the Reborn?”

“How is Bardre?”

“She is doing well. She is weak, but she will recover. She is sleeping in one of the healing clinic’s consulting rooms. Nargre and Jetrel are with her. Considering how she treats them, they are surprisingly solicitous of her. Is Bardre actually what’s on your mind?”

“You’re angry with me, aren’t you?” asked Kernan.

“Now, why would I be angry with you?” It was clear to Maiho that she was not the only one frustrated and angry.

“Don’t be snarky. I know you were hoping to use me drain yourself of crystal energy. I am tired of you using me that way.”

“Are you tired of all the extra health, vitality and energy it gives you?” Maiho asked.

“It used to be once a sleep cycle, now it is often twice. You’re getting worse. The curse is getting worse. What are you doing that is causing this?”

“It is not a curse. It’s a consequence of my being a strong singer. The only thing that would reduce the effects is if I sang less.”

“That is not what you said before,” rejoined Kernan.

“I know more now.” Maiho was regretting confiding some of her fears to Kernan.

“Neither Logwan, Josham nor your mother have this problem.”

“They are not as powerful as I am, and the side effects I experience while singing are not exactly a problem. The benefits actually outweigh the inconvenience most of the time,” she explained. The benefits are definitely going to start getting more important as we both get older, or rather fail to get older. Maiho noticed Kernan did not mention the fifth of the village’s Singers, Song Master Huglek. Everyone tended to forget about the Song Master. She considered Huglek. In retrospect, perhaps she should have talked to him about her energy retention issues. Surely the person in charge of teaching all the singer caste children how to sing, would know something about the potential side effects of singing. However Maiho had been just as glad to escape Huglek’s class as he had been a dour unpleasant man, and after being taught by Illia, Urthrem and Tavia, what he had been teaching seemed so basic. Maybe that had influenced her decision not to go to him.

Maiho had run into Huglek in the corridors three or four hundred-days ago and had been struck by how he was younger than she remembered. At the time she had told herself that everyone looked old to children and it was not Huglek who had changed but herself. Now she was thinking, what if he was actually younger.

“Are you listening to me?” asked Kernan.

“Sorry, just thinking.” Maiho reached out and gave Feibu a mental nudge. Feibu looked over and scowled. Maiho asked for a favour using hand talk. Feibu signed that she was with her husband. Maiho signed ÔPlease!’ Feibu replied with an obscene gesture.

Maiho scanned the room trying to think of an alternative, the chamber contained twelve pools of various sizes. The people she knew from the guard were coming in, in dribs and drabs. They were mostly from the Mana collection party. They were avoiding the pool that Maiho and Kernan were in. Word had probably gotten around that they were having difficulties. She spied two bathroom attendants. <Perfect!> she thought.

“You haven’t heard a word that I have said, have you,” he was saying.

“I need to visit the facilities,” lied Maiho. She hauled herself out of the pool and retrieved her sword. She paid an attendant a chip, from a hidden pocket in her sword belt, to act as a messenger, then paid a visit to the restroom. After the cool water the air was warm.

She wished that she was down in the cooler secret levels. She marvelled that something that everyone knew about, could be hidden in plain sight. They were a part of a thousand stories. The cool paradise that the people of the Shambles said they had been exiled from. The isolated territories that the tyrannical level lords had used to imprison and control the first villagers. The lost Gardens of Plenty, though Maiho had never found anything edible in what she assumed had once been the gardens. Everyone thought these places were either a myth or in a faraway village, but all the time those sad abandoned areas were there under their feet.

As she slipped back into the pool she noted that Kernan was looking annoyed. She, on the other hand was in a much better mood. The chilly water felt wonderful. At long last, she would be sharing those secrets with her friends, but not Kernan.

Was she being fair to Kernan? Should she take Kernan with her as well? But Kernan would always do the right thing. He would obey the rules and not ask himself whether they made sense. Maiho had stopped obeying the rules long ago when she was abandoned to the non-existent mercies of monsters and told the rules said she couldn’t defend herself. No, Kernan would be left behind.

Kernan moved away from her.

“Are my eyes glowing again?” she asked.

“Your eyes glow?” Kernan looked even more alarmed.

“Sometimes. If that’s not why you’re spooked, then what is bothering you?”

“It is just that you were looking rather fierce,” explained Kernan.

“I am not angry with you. Well actually I am, but that’s not why I was looking - I was thinking about how the Village Councils have had 500 hundred-days to destroy the Reborn and they have failed over and over again.”

Kernan leaned further away from her. “I think I see it now. They’re glowing.”

Maiho looked her reflection in the polished crystal sides of the pool. “They’re not. I was only joking. Why do you believe everything people tell you?”

She looked at Kernan. He looked good, startled, bewildered, but good. His long dark blue hair, fell in waves around his shoulders. He was lean and heavily muscled.

She had been using him, he wasn’t wrong about that, but if he needed her, wouldn’t she do everything she could to help him? She was probably being unfair, she needed to stop thinking about it. She knew that she was incapable of thinking rationally about the matter, especially when she was feeling so frustrated.

She closed her eyes and took deep breath. She coaxed her facial muscles into something vaguely reminiscent of a smile and waded toward Kernan.

“Let’s stop arguing and just hold each other for a while.” she suggested. Keeping her eyes closed she found him with her fingers and traced a winding path across his hard chest, tickling him with vitality. She captured his arm and placed it on her cheek.

She moved closer kissing him on the cheek. She pressed her body against his, enjoying the closeness, then opened her eyes and looked into his. “Are my eyes glowing?” she asked.

“No.”

“Do you see anything that scares you?

“No,” he replied.

“Then kiss me.” She was sizzling with vitality from the altar of healing and she let it flow into him. She felt him respond. She wanted him and she didn’t care who was watching.

He bent forward and brushed his lips against hers. She leaned forward in response, returning his kiss with a passion that roared in her ears.

The water seemed much warmer now. She was kissing his neck when he lifted her up, his hands cupping her ass. She wrapped her legs around his back and rubbed her groin against his hardening cock.

He positioned his cock against her entrance. She pushed against him, desperate to force it in, thrusting her hips, rocking backwards and forwards.

With a tilt of her hips his cock slipped further inside her. She moaned and pressed down, tightening her muscles around him. She lifted herself up then tried to slam herself down on him. It was hard to get the right leverage. She devoured his lips and face. Then his supporting hands pulled apart her lips and his cock penetrated that final half inch and her clit was finally getting some stimulation. She went crazy thrusting her hips with wild abandon. She tensed up, trembling as she approached the point of release, then all the built up frustration and energy was pouring out of her in waves. She held on tight as she shuddered out her orgasm.

Kernan slipped down in the water dazed. Maiho just held onto him enjoying the closeness.

The attendant she had given her message to was standing next to the pool. He offered her a message crystal. She activated it and read the coloured flashes

“It seems we are going for lunch,” commented Maiho.

Location Jengon’s Eatery, Waterless Shore, Blue Wave Territory
Time Predawn 1430 hours (¹/2 an hour before dawn)

Huglek and his wife were already seated, when Maiho and Kernan arrived at the Eatery which was half full with about twenty customers. The seats and tables were made of woven Fan Tree branches and lacquered Net Tree planks. The cushions were made from expensive but well-worn Lure Spike cloth. She almost didn’t recognize Huglek. He looked at least 10 hundred-days younger than he did when she had last seen him and he was smiling. She couldn’t remember him ever looking happy. He looked 40-odd, with a square broad face and strong chin which was softened by his long hair. He was stocky and slightly shorter than average. His patterns and hair were bright blue, showing a lot of talent. His wife, Raeha looked 20-odd and was thin with a narrow face and long flowing hair. A strange spiral stone necklace nestled between her small breasts. She was taller than him but had less colour.

Raeha looked at Maiho with some skepticism, glancing at her husband. They both rose and she clasped Maiho’s forearm in greeting as Huglek did the same with Kernan. Maiho willed vitality into her arm and was rewarded with a startled look.

“She is the real thing!” Raeha exclaimed.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” commented Huglek. He reached out and took her hand and they tested each other’s strength. She managed to push vitality into him. She was stronger, but not by much.

“But she is so young, and her colour isn’t even close to that of a singer’s,” said Raeha.

“You should have seen her when she was first returned to us from the Village of Lost Souls. It was clear that she had sung a lot of foreign crystal. Fortunately either Logwan didn’t understand what he was seeing or he did not want to make an issue of it. I made some sort of idiotic explanation about the stresses of foreign lands which he seemed to accept. I told him Maiho needed to recover from her ordeal, and kept her as far from him as possible afterwards.”

“I remember you telling me and Mother that I should sing as much blue crystal as possible in order restore my colour,” remarked Maiho.

“Which probably contributed to your current condition,” said Huglek. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more when you were younger. I was afraid that some of the things you could do, would get back to the other parents, and cause problems for you. You learned so many things at Lost Souls, things that I am sure kept you alive, but could only be dangerous if talked about in Waterless Shore, so I encouraged your mother to keep you away from class.”

Raeha broke the awkward silence by suggesting that they order food. She waved over a servitor.

Raeha ordered roast red-feathered flyer with red fruit sauce. Huglek ordered Frilled Fungus Steak on sweet grass. Maeho ordered night-hare pie with web tree shoots and Kernan ordered blindfish with sour fruit sauce.

“How can we be of help to you my dear?” asked Huglek once the servitor left to take their orders to the kitchen.

“By giving us a little information our situation. For instance, how many Singers eventually become sources?” asked Maiho.

“Sources, that is an interesting term. I have also heard people like us called the sealed. Our enemies call us cursed, but I prefer to be called blessed,” said Huglek. “More than half the senior Healers, a third of the Song Masters and one or two senior priests are blessed, usually the academics and scholars. But the blessed live a long time, and many generations of Singers can be trapped in Junior positions, growing old and dying without getting the opportunity to acquire our blessing.”

“So it is not uncommon. Do you know what causes it?”

“It seems to be related to how talented you are and how much crystal you have sung,” replied Huglek. “but I think you already guessed that.”

“Why do our enemies call it a curse?”

“They say the Gods are punishing us for some crime. What crimes they never say directly, just giving knowing glances and leaving the listener to invent suitable crimes themselves. They never explain why the Gods would give eternal youth and great power to those they despise, they just mutter about dark and mysterious prices.”