Anarchaia, Chapter 1

          All she could remember was the sound of shattering and a blinding pain tearing through her skull. Then she was falling… falling…

          Ex awoke with a start and a sharp gasp. She quickly sat up. The sound of singing insects and crackling fire filled her ears. The world around her seemed to swell and ebb in rhythm with her breathing. The trees around her seemed to have no end and she felt… shorter.

          Where am I? She turned her head towards the heat of the flames, confusion swimming through her consciousness like a wasp caught in molasses. Her heart jumped into her throat. She knew she had turned her head – she had felt the fire’s glow move across her face. Yet, ahead of her remained the sight of the deep seemingly endless forest. She clenched the grass beneath her hands, the molasses growing thicker. “What the fu-“
                “It’s on your chest.”

          Ex flinched and helplessly looked about, twisting her neck, but was unable to see anything else but the trees. “Who’s there?!” she called frantically. “Why can’t I see anything?!” As her breathing quickened so did the pulsing world around her.

          “Your eye. It’s on your chest,” the voice said again.

          She didn’t understand. “My… chest…?” She inclined her head to look down at herself, then stared in horror as her own face came down into view. Ex screamed and grasped at her face with dirty hands, terror flooding her when she did not find eyeballs but skin stretched over muscle in the socket.

          She made to scream again but a large gloved hand clasped around her mouth and another steadied her shoulder to hold her still. She looked up from between the bones of her clavicle.

          “You need to be quiet,” said the voice.
                Her one eye met his two red ones. She gave another shriek, this time muffled into the man’s palm and his grasp on her face tightened. He hissed for her to be quiet once more. When she looked up once again, he was gritting fanged teeth down at her, clearly frustrated. I must be dreaming…

          “This sea is vast and dense but the beasts can hear through trees.”
                His skin was black. Not in any humanly way. It was reminiscent of a dark indigo. And his eyes…

          “I’m going to let you go, but you cannot speak above a comfortable tone.”

          His eyes were red – nearly black in the darkness – and glistening orange in the firelight. No line between iris and sclera – just a pool of burgundy with a long, thin pupil not unlike a snake’s.

          “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said when he got no response. Ex nodded, feeling herself calm a miniscule amount.

          The figure backed away from her, freeing her jaw from his clutch. She twisted her shoulders to see him straight on, her breathing still erratic. There’s no way this is real. But she could feel the fire on her skin, the tears burning her eye.

          The man before her tilted his head to give her an uneasy sideways glance, readying himself to subdue her again.

          “I won’t scream again,” she said through shallow breaths and swallowed hard, blinking back the tears. “I promise.”

          His shoulders seemed to relax some and he sat back down in the plush grass, sighing in relief. Ex studied him – his long ears, his thick matte of white hair, his shoulders…
                “You have no arms,” she said abruptly, the thought crossing her mind that clearly she had missed something. “So, then who… grabbed…?”
                As if in response, long appendages snaked out from behind the strange man, seemingly made of the same white material as his odd robes. From the ends of these limbs sprouted five smaller tendrils.

          “I no longer have my arms, but these have sufficed more often than not,” he said, his “hands” clutching and releasing their fingers, grasping at the air in demonstration.

          Ex stared in awe, not certain whether she should run or laugh. None of this is possible. She parted her lips as if to say something but nothing came forth. A sudden shiver ran up her spine and she realized she was naked. A thick cloth covered her waist and one knee but in her panic she did not notice that from the navel up she was nude. She scrambled to cover her chest, yelping in pain when she mistakenly hit herself in the eye. Ex grit her teeth in what was at first pain but soon turned to suspicious anger. “Did you…?”

          “No.” He seemed to know already her thoughts.

          “Did anyone-?”

          “No.”

          A moment passed where neither said anything. When she felt comfortable again, she lowered the leather covering just enough to see over its hem, then secured it around herself as she would a towel after a shower. She studied the man again, seemingly unable to pry her eyes away. As composure slowly made its way back, curiosity overtook her.

          “So… Are you a demon, or…?”

          He furrowed his ivory eyebrows and his ears fell back as an irritated cat’s would. She thought she had offended him until he said “Demon…?”

          “Oh! Um...” She reached for words. “Like a devil or a sprite.”

          No reaction.

          “An imp?”

          He laughed. She took that for an answer.

          “Why on Ule’s fertile lands would I be an imp?” he asked.

          The reality of the situation sank back into Ex when he answered her. She realized she knew nothing. She didn’t know where she was; she didn’t know what she was; she didn’t know what to do. All at once of washed over her. She stared into the fire.

          “I must be dead,” she said after a long moment. “A gas leak, maybe. The breaker box had a life wire exposed. The housekeeper finally put arsenic into my coffee.”

          He stared at her. “I don’t know what any of those things are.”

          Ex ran her fingers across where her eyes would have been once again. “This isn’t real.” She felt as though she were stranded in the middle of the ocean with only a raft – no motor, no oar, not even clothes on her back. The seagulls above circled around her, waiting. The sun baked her skin the longer she sat still. Hotter… Hotter…

          “So you’re truly her.” His voice suddenly snapped her back to the forest and the sun and burning heat became the fire once more. She looked at him.

          “What?” She asked. “’Her’…?”

          “The Oracie.” It was now he who was staring at her. “She said you were coming. And she said it would mean the world.”

          There was another silence as she gazed incredulously and stupidly at him. Then she was back on the raft. She brought her knees to her chest and cocooned her eye in her arms, head on top. A tear dripped between her breasts. I don’t know what’s going on. None of this makes sense. Demons? Magic? Prophecies? How the hell did I get here? Why am I here? Where is here?! Her shoulders heaved as she sobbed. It’d been a long time since she cried. Ex bit her lip, doing her best to weep as quietly as possible – not because he had told her to be quiet but to hide her tears.

          There they sat beside the dying fire until the cold forest air became warm and wet and the insects fell silent. Birds were heard chirping high above them and critters scurried about the branches of the Needletrees. An ember in the pit would pop every now and then.

          The two said nothing for a long, long while. Ex figured the man asleep, but said anyway “I’m sorry for burdening you with my existential crisis. I guess I’m going to be here for a long time. You don’t have to stay here if you have somewhere else to be.” She was surprised to hear him reply with a tired yet polite chuckle.

          “What makes you think I have elsewhere to be?”

          Ex shrugged and lifted her head, rubbing at her raw nose with the back of a wrist. “You look like you’re going to a religious mass or something.” She sniffled.

          “Actually I’ve been living here for the past few cycles.” His voice sounded as though it was hard for him to say such a thing but at the same time trying to make his predicament seem smaller than it truly was.

          She felt pity for him. Thinking only of herself she hadn’t noticed his body, quite emaciated. His cheekbones under taught-stretched skin, his sunken eyes. Suddenly her dilemma seemed more like a stubbed toe.  She’d been crying about being lost, but once reality hit her, there was a frail, starving being before her, most likely in pain. She cleared her throat. “What’s your name?” She glanced up at him embarrassedly. He smiled.

          “It’s Xeres.”

          “Xeres,” she repeated, nodding. This guy seems pretty knowledgeable of this place. I suppose I should learn all I can. At least until I find a way home… or wake up. Whichever comes first. “What’s a cycle?”

          He seemed happy to oblige. “I’d be glad to tell the Eminant anything she wishes to know, but first-“ One of his robed arms stretched from his back to pick up a hefty branch from a pile of tinder and threw it as through it were a twig into the makeshift pit surrounded by stones of various size. The fire erupted forth once again, much more quickly than earthly possible. He ignored her wonderment. “A cycle is the time it takes for the moon to move across the sky. And an ‘age’ is when the moon has travelled across the sky nine times, then glows gold to usher in a new age.”

          Ex nodded. “I see… And how do you know how long it’s been? You can’t see the sky here.” She looked up at the trees that stretched so tall it was not clear if they even had an end.

          “I’m Armiren. My people are entwined with the moon. It’s what gives us our manna.”

          “Mana? As in… Magic?”

          “We have mastered many magiks.” The slinky hand appeared again. Xeres held it out as if asking for her hand but a burst of violet flames filled the palm.

          Ex gazed in amazement, clearly still not used to this twisting of physics. “But… You need energy for that – fuel. Don’t you? You can’t just make something out of nothing.”

          “Since the creation of time there was been a steady flow of ethereal energy in all corners of the land. At the end of each age, when the moon shines yellow, what has been lost is replenished.”

          “You keep talking about the moon. Is there a sun?”

          Xeres nodded and placed the will-o-the-wisp into the pit with the flickering orange fire. The flames turned red and grew into a massive conflagration like so many coiled up snakes from a joke peanuts tin. In the midst of them Ex could see a palace. It glimmered with gems and stained glass and behind it, some distance away, loomed a massive mountain too great to be contained in the image.

          “The Soliisi,” Xeres explained, “were granted the gift of Metalmancy. The Great Everbird, Avatar of the Old One’s Power, gave unto them her flame and with it they’ve forged weapons, an impenetrable castle, and have slowly been overpowering the people of Anarchaia.”

          “Is that the name of this ‘Old one’?”

          “It is the name of our lands. The world you see around you. The Old One we simply refer to as Ule. It means everything in the forgotten tongue.” The scene in the fire burned away and was replaced by a cloudy town, bustling with carts and children in the middle of the night (or so it seemed). Behind the market stalls and modest stone homes sat a colossal citadel. “This is Artemoira, where I’m from. It’s shielded from the sun’s rays not because they harm us but rather to mock the Soliisi. I suspect it is my nephew’s doing.”

          Ex took all this in. She had always been a fast learner but this felt like learning another language. “So if that’s your home why are you here? In the forest?” She glanced at him. A look of melancholy fell over his face and she regretted asking.

          “I was accused for a crime I did not commit.” Xeres looked – almost glared – up at the scene in the flames. “I don’t know who it was or why, but they took everything from me. They hacked off my arms and banished me from the city – my city – expecting me to die in exile.”

          “What was it?” She could stop herself from asking. “If you don’t mind my asking. The offense, that is.”

          The crimson flames subsided to a pleasant orange again. “Seducing the Soliisi Queen, Disimber.” He shook his head and scowled, closing his eyes as if remembering. “While I’ve never had any personal quarrels with the Soliisi royal family, I don’t particularly consider them friends. And yes, Lady Disimber was beautiful, but I would never pursue a taken woman.”

          Ex put the pieces together. “So you were king to these… moon people?”

          “Armiren,” he corrected. “And we are known as Mesarch.” He stared back into the pit.

          “And what’s with the robes? Are they magic?” She had many more questions but respected his obvious discomfort about the subject. She was certain she’d have time some other day.

          “The Priest Royal believed my innocence. Morome has always been such a trusting soul and an honest man and mage. He gave them to me the day I was expelled from the city, claiming they were ‘just to keep warm at night’. I found a note between the seams saying they’re made of Eternum Twill. I owe him my life.”

          A silence passed.

          “What about you?” Xeres looked over at her, his ears raising in curiosity. “You clearly existed elsewhere before arriving here. What are you known as there?”

          “Ex.” She did not feel comfortable giving out her full name. Only close friends and family were permitted to call her by it. “I come from a landmass called North America on a planet called Earth. I live alone in a five bed, three-and-a-half bath in New York, a city. Like yours.”

          “Alone? Why alone?”

          “People… aren’t my ‘cup of tea’.” She leaned back, propping herself up with her arms. “Most people have strong opinions about me for my attitude – they call me rude, conceited… I’m a smart person and I know I am, but where I come from it’s considered inappropriate to ‘flaunt’ or be proud of your intellect. It makes everyone else feel inferior.”

          Xeres nodded in understanding. “We Armiren applaud intellect. It moves us forward in the ways of innovation and magik.”

          Ex smiled slightly. “But.” She changed the subject. “I love art – film and music mostly.”

          “I love music.” Xeres smiled. “I was able to play the mosailla as easy as I breathe.”

          “What is that?”

          “An instrument. Here are many crystals aligned in a large container with finger-long depressants. When you push a depressant, a mallet strikes a crystal and sounds a note.”

          “We have something similar,” Ex replied. “It’s called a piano.”

          “Can you play?”

          “Yes. I can play any instrument with strings. My parents made sure I had plenty to do… Plenty of classes…”

          “They must have really loved you.” Xeres smiled warmly. “To give you the opportunities they did.”

          “Oh I’m sure they did,” Ex replied. She opened her mouth to say something else, but immediately closed it. The two sat motionless, holding their breath and staring in the direction of the sound. It was faint but they both had heard it. Slowly they got to their feet, stopping when the sound of a breaking branch rang from the darkness.

          Ex exhaled slowly, silently. Even in her own world, noises in the forest did not often bring good tidings. She jumped and turned when a familiar hand grabbed her own. Xeres mouthed something to her and she shook her head.

          “We have to leave,” he whispered.

          Another rustle from the trees mad Ex’s heart flutter and she whirled back towards it.

          “Run,” Xeres said in a hushed tone, tightening his hold on her hand.

          A gargantuan shadow grew in the darkness. A low snarl and some guttural noises. A flash of teeth, covered in slaver. Then another set of teeth. And another.

          “Run!!” Xeres fled in the opposite direction with Ex in tow, doing her best to keep with his pace while at the same time securing the cloth that served as her clothing.

    The forest filled with the sound of their frantic feet pounding on the foliage and their heavy breathing. Instinctively Ex turned her head to see if they were still being pursued and grit her teeth in a muddle of frustration and fear when she remembered. While she couldn’t see, she could hear the heavy footfalls of the beasts behind them. They were gaining.

    “We’re almost to the threshold!” Xeres shouted ahead. Her feet were beginning to hurt and bleed from the numerous tree needles and thorned plants that littered the forest floor. Her chest burned. Her hand, sweaty from white-knuckling the leather at her breast. There was a hot breath at her ankle. At first she thought the adrenaline was causing time to slow, making the trees fly by further and further apart, but then she realized they were nearing the forest’s edge. Faint sunlight shone ahead.

    “Don’t let go!” Xeres called.

    Something wet touched the pad of her foot and for a moment Ex’s heart stopped. The daylight blinded her as they crashed and stumbled into a grass-filled field. When they momentum left her she quickly sat up and turned toward the forest, now many yards away. There was nothing. She collapsed onto her back and struggled to catch her breath. While the grass was too tall to see, she could here Xeres groaning somewhere above her head.

    “The fire,” he breathed, swallowing hard. “The lack of food has made me a fool.”

    Ex closed her eye, strength draining from her body. Everything below her waist burning.

    Then something licked her foot.

    She screamed and curled into a defensive position, her arms guarding her head and her knees to her forehead.

    “What? What is it?!”  Xeres rushed over at the commotion, seeming to have quickly found his strength to stand once more. “Oh,” he chuckled, “it’s just a dog.”

    Pulling her hands away from her face, Ex cautiously sat up. “…that’s a dog?”

    Xeres was petting the creature on the head between its long, rabbit-like ears. It was panting happily in the sun’s heat and she could see that it had no front teeth and a long, black tongue, and a tail like a lemur’s.

    Ex stood, brushing loose grass and dirt from her “clothes”. “What were those things?”

    The dog made a chirping, bleating noise when Xeres stopped petting it. “Twilings. It’s said they protect the sea from invaders and with it the Twibeast.”

    “Sea?” Ex gave him a sideways glance.

    “Yes.” Xeres looked around in a strange, jerky fashion. “It’s a sea because at its heart it is so deep that light ceases to exist.”

    Ex furrowed her brow and looked around as well. “Is there something wrong…?”

    He seemed to have stopped, transfixed on something Ex could not see as he was standing in the way. She placed herself beside him. The corners of her mouth twitched. People. A man and a woman were making their way towards them from what appeared to be a farmhouse nestled at the edge of the field. They called out something Ex could not hear and the dog bounded off toward them.

    “They’re Soliisi,” Xeres said, stepping back.

    Ex took a harder look and saw that the two, in fact, looked nothing like her Armiren acquaintance, but more like the people she knew of only incredibly light-skinned. “I think they own this field,” she mumbled.

    “We have to go,” Xeres said, reaching for her hand.

    Ex stepped away from him. “What? Why?”

    “Their Coronai wants my head. They may not live in the capitol city, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t loyals,” he said, a slight hint of panic in his voice. “And you look nothing like a Soliisi. They’ll assume you’re with me.”

    “Hold on.” Ex raised a palm to him, stepping toward the couple.

    “What are you doing?!” Xeres’ hissed through his teeth.

    “They don’t look angry. They look… excited.”

    Xeres took a second look as the two bound up to them. They were smiling and waving their hands, running. The woman was clearly older than the man but just as muscly. The man had a mass of black hair pulled up into a bun and had on a pair of overalls with only one fastener.

    Something in Ex’s heart sank a little when she noticed their appearance. They weren’t human. Just elf-like people with eyes that shone and reflected in the sun. They ran up to her, breathless, and the hefty woman swooped in, locking Ex in a painful bear hug, lifting her off the ground and twirling. The dog bounced around them, making strange noises.

    “She has come!” the woman shouted. Ex winced, sure her ribs were cracking.

    “It really is her, Mam!” the man said. His voice was deep and he was huge, towering over the other three. “The Eminant!”

    The mother gave a hearty laugh, setting the scrawny girl down. Ex wobbled on her feet and adjusted her clothing. “Yes, uh…” She straightened her back and cleared her throat. “I-“

    “Oh, glory be, we’re so happy you’ve come!” She grabbed Ex’s hands in her own. “Oh, dear Lady, our poor lands need yer golden touch of peace! We’re bein’ taxed to the five hells, our crops won’t sell because they’re overpriced! We can hardly feed our-“

    “Uh, Mam? Ain’t that one of those dark folks? You know, the moon people…” The son was leering at Xeres as though the Armiren had just challenged him to a lifting contest.

    The woman peered behind Ex and quickly pushed past her. “You’re that exiled mage!” she bellowed.

    Xeres’ eyes grew wide. He took a step back as if about to make a break for it.

    “It’s all because o’ your amoral relations with the Queen that we’re sufferin’!” The woman’s fists were clenched. “Coronai Zeraphi’s gone mad! I bet he’d pay my weight in Mithrill for bringin’ you in-“

    “Wait!” Ex quickly stepped between the two parties, shielding Xeres from them as best she could despite being shorter. “He’s with me!”

    The Soliisi pair looked at one another for a long while. Ex looked from one to the other, praying for the best.

    “Hrmmmmall right,” said the woman finally, the dog licking her hand. “Ule must really want you t’ live, boy.” She pointed a thick finger at him and Xeres narrowed his eyes.

    “Boy?” he said quietly.

    Ex gently pushed the woman’s finger down, forcing her to focus on her instead of Xeres. “My name is Ex. This is Xeres, my…” She searched for the most “mystical” word she could think of. “Spirit… Guide…”

    The Soliisi pair looked at one another for a second time, a silent conversation happening between them. Finally the older woman nodded. “I’m Welsa. This ‘ns my son, Dellin. On account of our havin’ waited so long for you, Yer Eminance, it’d my greatest honor to accommodate you and yer… guide.” Welsa gave a nod to Xeres who paid no mind to the subtle slight. “Come!” she said, clapping a hand on Ex’s shoulder. “Let’s get you inside. Them rags you got on don’t look too comfortable.”

    Back in the quaint farm house Ex gladly utilized their bathing room, being careful to not get the fragrant wax soap in her eye. After scrubbing her hair – now black with ivory arrays rather than blond with black – stepping out of the giant metal basin, and drying off, she glanced at herself in the mirror she’d not previously noticed hung on the back of the door.

    All at once reality came rushing back to her. Her skin was pale and shimmered gold in the candlelight. All but her face, which now has what appeared to be stitches down the right side, creeping down the middle of her nose, then veering away from the right nostril and along her jaw; the patch of skin bordered by them was now dark, similar to an Armiren’s. Because of this dark patch, her right ear was black with white markings at its end (opposite the other’s) high above her head like antennae. Her eyes looked as though they were painted on her head. Blank. Matte. One white, one black.

    She stared at herself, now knowing how to feel. She stared and stared until the mirror fogged over once again, effectively snapping her out of her trance.

    It was dark outside and the singing insects had returned. Ex shrugged on the more comfortable clothes she was given; a soft, white undershirt with a low scooping neck so she could see, its sleeves long and billowy. For pants she was gifted some simple sewn trousers with patches covering holes that had accumulated over the years. I feel like a farmhand. She tightened the strong twine at her waist and stepped out into the dim hallway.

    Returning to the guest room they’d been assigned to, Ex closed the door behind her. Xeres had been offered a bed in the barn with “the rest of the animals,” but Ex insisted he stay within her sight. Ex fell into the featherbed with a heavy sigh. What a day. She looked over to her companion on the opposite bed, surprised to see him in nothing but a loose pair of pants that cinched around the calves. His skin now shined and his hair, though still damp, sparkled in the dim light of the lantern-lit room. He met her gaze.

    “They let you bathe?” she asked, running a hand through her own wet hair.

    “With a pump behind the stables.”

    “Where are your robes?”

    “Hanging out to dry.”

    Ex without thinking looked over his frail body. His collar bone stuck out over his lean chest and the lamplight glistened over every bone in his rib cage. Even his hips jut out, framing a concave stomach. His legs, however, seemed to have remained unaffected by the degradation.

    “I must look like death.”

    She flicked her gaze back to his, not realizing she’d been staring. “Not really,” replied Ex, mustering a faint smile. “Just very… skeletal.”

    The two chuckled before turning towards a knock at the door. Ex bade them entrance and a girl younger than she – perhaps mid-teens – stepped in with a smile and a plate in her hands covered in an array of breads and fruit. “Mam said to bring this to the Eminant and her Spirit Guide.”

    Ex forced a smile. She hadn’t noticed her hunger until now. “That’s very kind of Welsa,” she said, taking the platter as it was extended to her. “I’m Ex and this is Xeres.”

    “I’m Linoma, but you can call me Lina,” the girl said, twirling a golden lock. Her magenta eyes seemed then to fixate on Xeres and she gave a coy smile. “So you’re the guy Dellin’s in a huff over. I can see why.”

    Ex looked from Xeres’ confused face to Lina’s, then stood with a sigh. “Please thank your ‘mam’ kindly for our satiating dinner,” she said, gently pushing the girl from the room. “Also tell her not to send breakfast with as much hormone.”

    Lina opened her mouth to protest but was met with the door.

    “Good to know teenagers are just as mindless no matter what world you live in.” Ex sad beside Xeres on his bed, placing the platter of fragrant food in her lap. “I take it you’ll be needing help.”

    The Armiren flushed – or appeared to – and looked away helplessly. “N-No. I’m fine. I can wait until-“ His stomach sounded a sickening growl.

    Ex placed a slice of fruit that looked much like an orange on one of the whiter pieces of bread, assuming they’d go well together based on their scent. She held it to his mouth. “Eat,” she commanded. “You need it. I don’t.”

    His hunger overpowering his humility, Xeres took the food from her fingers as a shy puppy would a biscuit.

    “I get that it’s embarrassing but health is a little more important than emotions,” Ex said, feeding him another. She looked down at the plate and felt the underside of her tongue drown in saliva. She’d never seen such queer looking fruit. She swallowed.

    “The black one is nightberry,” Xeres said, making her look back at him.

    “Can you read my thoughts or something?” she asked, not thinking the notion too outlandish.

    “No, but I recognize the look of unfamiliarity. The reddish one is blood fruit and the pale pink one is the rind of a field melon, probably petalmelon.”

    Ex took this one first, curious as to why the rind was eaten here. She placed it in her mouth (feeling awkward having to raise food above her line of sight) and crunched down. Her mouth filled with a flavorless liquid that made her tongue and cheeks tingle. Then she jerked when the sourness came.

    Xeres laughed. “Soliisi love sour foods. They pickle almost everything.”

    Ex forced herself to swallow, shoving a slice of dark bread into her mouth to soak up the remaining juices. “Hadn’t noticed,” she choked.

    While eradicating her mouth of the unpleasant taste, she gave Xeres another small open-faced fruit sandwich. He didn’t seem to be as picky as she was but she chalked that up to the starvation. She’d always seen commercials on begging for money to help the less fortunate of the more impoverished countries, but had never actually come face-to-face with hunger. She pushed her feelings of pity aside.

    Placing the now empty platter on her own bed, Ex stood. “Lie down.”

    Xeres did as he was told, curling up on his side with his cheek buried into the pillow. Ex unfolded the blanket that sat neatly at the end of the bed and placed it gingerly over him.

    “Thank you, Ex,” he said, closing his weary eyes, and before she could say Don’t mention it, he was out.

    Picking up the dish again, she closed the hinged door on the lantern and the little flame inside slowly dimmed and died. Ex stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind her. She made her way to the kitchen where the three of the family were sat, eating food similar to what she and Xeres had just eaten. The dog was at the screen door, looking longingly at them. Welsa looked up and beamed, getting to her feet.

    “Oh, My Lady, you didn’t hafta busy yerself-“

    “No no, it’s fine,” Ex said, stopping the woman with her free hand and placing the dish, crumbs and all, beside what she assumed to be a sink. “It was very nice; thank you.”

    “It’s the least we could do for you.” Welsa sat back down and gestured to an open chair at the table. “Please, set with us a moment, won’t you? We have so much to ask.”

    A pang of panic rang through Ex much like one would feel before taking a test they’d forgotten about. Despite herself she sat. “I’m afraid I can’t offer much in the way of answers…” she said honestly.

    “Are you really here ‘cause there’s gonna be a war?” Lina blurted, chewing her bread and not bothering to look up from her book.

    Ex started at her, the weight of the situation slowly growing heavier. “I… I don’t-“

    “The Oracie said that you’d come before the dark times,” said Dellin, his elbows on the table and a glass of some amber liquid in his giant fist.

    “I honestly haven’t-“

    “Now chillun, don’t overwhelm the poor girl,” Welsa said tenderly, leaning back in her chair and folding her bulky arms over her chest.

    A silence passed before Ex had realized they were waiting for her to speak. She wondered what she should say. How will they react if I tell them I’m more clueless than they are? They’ll think they’ve made a mistake. They’ll boot me out the door and sell Xeres to their king. She swallowed, thinking fast. “I’m… not permitted to speak of the future,” she said, glancing from one face to the next, including the dog. “But… But I am allowed to tell you not to worry.”

    Welsa and Dellin gave a warm smile, seemingly relieved. Lina didn’t seem to care much.

    Ex began to stand. “And, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m pretty tired-“

    “Oh! Allow me!” Welsa stood again.

    “No! No. It’s fine. I… remember the way back.” Ex gave a nervous laugh, pushing her chair back into its spot and waving good-night. Walking quickly back to her bedroom she regretted having gone out there to begin with. She could hear them whispering to one another as she closed the door behind her.

    Xeres was sleeping soundly by this point, his face illuminated by the moonlight filtering through the window.

    Ex shuffled her way under the coverings of her bed, clearly lumpier than the one she was used to but comfy nonetheless. She lay there for a long while, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the bugs outside. I wonder where I’ll be when I wake up. She pulled the blanket over her up and up to her chin and drifted to sleep.