Thin shadows crawled like vines across the Oasis grounds, camouflaging the roots that textured the dirt like spider-webs..
Kari trekked softly over this weave, occasionally mistaking a root for a shadow; and it was just as she was stumbling over a particularly sudden tangle of roots that she spotted Cas.
Cas was perched atop a particularly delicate lower branch which bent painfully under the force of her weight. She sat directly in the moonlight, her crystal eye flashing like a silver star whenever it moved.
Presently, it wasn’t flashing, however. A constant glow declared its attention as she stared down at Kari.
“Cas!” Kari whispered up at the bird, taking several more steps before stumbling again, just barely missing the line of glowing bodies that had been circled around the base of the tree.
Looking closer, Kari could make out five sakkari clones placed there. Underneath the tangle of shadows, it was hard to make out any details, but Kari could tell that each clone was small, barely reaching up to her knees, and all of them were had the tell-tale constellation of stars that shone patchily with reflected moonlight.
Kari had no time for them. She looked up to the bending branch. She spoke familiar words with a breathless, almost comedic tone. “Cas! I’ve been eavesdropping again. Yessina's still alive! Korivenna was just using her death to cause panic. If we could just prove they planned it, we can clear our names and...”
“And then what?” Cas had dissolved her wings. By now she looked more like a ball of moving organs sticking onto the branch with makeshift legs. Despite such investments, she spoke with a quiet, mousey voice, one that strained to be heard. Inside her body, makeshift vocal chords and bellowing air-sacks inside moved in time with her every proclamation.
“We can all tell the truth,” Kari almost bounced as she answered. “Between you, me, and my sister, we’ll all be able to speak out against her. No one likes that bat, anyway! Everyone’s always suspicious of her, and everyone knows she hates you. She even told me that!”
Cas answered with a dejected note. “And who’s to say your sister would help us?”
“What are you saying!?” Kari, at this point, was growing increasingly frustrated by Cas’s refusal to accept hope.
“I’m saying I know all about Korivenna’s plan, Kari,” Cas answered. “I had the same idea as you. I flew over to her hut after I hid the rest of my body here.”
“So you know everything, then!”
“I know your sister will do whatever Korivenna tells her to,” Cas replied sadly. “She’s willing to steal food for her, she’s willing to kill for her, and she’s willing to die for that woman… I know you care for her, but... Korivenna’s done something. I don’t think she’d hesitate to take the blame for all this.
“She wouldn’t!” Kari fired back. “She was living with that woman alone for years. I… It’s my fault. I left her alone because I didn’t think she’d need me. But I know now! I just have to tell her I forgive her, and that we weren’t ever going to turn her in, and I know she’ll work with us, Cas. I just know!”
Cas moved her eye to look back down at Kari. “You care a lot about your sister, don’t you?”
“I love her,” Kari answered, looking surprised at the words she’d chosen.
“I…” Cas paused for another long moment, as if struggling to put her ideas to words. “I think, that’s exactly what Korivenna was counting on.”
“So?” Kari was kept from stamping her feet only by the unfavorable terrain; her scrunched brows and teary eyes expressed all the hopeless frustration of a girl trying to convince someone of the obvious, of a girl trying to convince someone to just fix everything already.
Cas felt like Kari looked. Though her current form wouldn’t allow her to show it, her voice shook in unexpected ways as she explained her reasoning.
“I mean,“ Korivenna’s using your sister as a shield. She...” Cas tried to put it delicately. “We have no way of revealing Korivenna’s plans without your sister getting into bigger trouble.”
“It’s not Yessina’s fault!”
“I know,” Cas appeased. “Even so. Yessina was the one who came into Nadia’s hut with a dagger. Nemaris was clear about the laws for murder, wasn’t he? Are the laws for attempted murder any lighter?”
Kari looked down. “What are you going to do then?” she asked, a hopeless note in her voice.
It was funny. Cas had learned this language, for the most part, by speaking with Kari. In fact, Kari had taught her most of the words she was using; so, it was just funny that their final conversation would end with words that Cas had introduced to the girl.
“I’m going to run away, Kari.”
Kari’s face turned up, a look of disbelief around it.
Cas didn’t bother to explain herself further. Wrapping two vine-like legs around her branch, rappelled down on rubber-band limbs. Letting go once she was close enough, the branch sprung up with a bushy sound. She landed, perching atop the largest of the slimes.
“I made these clones to do everything I can,” she explained. “This one can make food from Korren stalks and Nakari Roots.” She stretched a stalk to her left, touching the clone there. “This one can purify water from human waste and makes the rest into fertilizer. The one in the middle makes medicinal herbs. That one makes fire powder. And this one,” Cas was on the ground now, pointing to the smallest of five clones, “that one’s for makeup.” She let out a hollow chuckle at this. “Let Tami know that she’s welcome.”
Kari, still in disbelief, wasn’t in a mood to partake. “Where will you go?”
Cas, finding herself unable to answer, stuck to the script. “I’ve split up my body to make these clones,” she said. “They should grow by themselves as long as you feed them.” Cas let out a sad chortle. “I don’t really need them. They’d only weigh me down, anyway. I’ve got a weight limit when I need to fly, and… with this body,” she gestured to her diminutive form, “I can fly anywhere I need to.”
“Where will you fly to?” Kari asked again.
An awkward moment of consideration passed before Cas answered. “Kari… I heard what Nemaris was saying when I flew over here. You and all the other Unari aren’t going to be blamed for this. It’s just me that’s in trouble.”
Cas tried, like every adult, to make the situation sound better than it was.
Kari, like every child, was quick to address the heart of the matter. Still in disbelief, she asked. “Where will you go?”
Cas, no longer able to avoid answering, admitted. “I don’t know.” She dragged her gaze through the dirt, trying to find courage in it. “I’m going to look for other people. I’m going to get stronger.”
Kari with a shivering voice, “and you’re not going to take me with you?”
“I can’t Kari.” Cas flapped her diminutive stalks into a hopeless shrug.
‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Why can’t you take me?’
‘What does that have to do with this?’
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‘Didn’t you want to save the Oasis?’
‘Do you love your sister?’
Those were all the difficult questions Kari could have asked.
Those were the questions Cas wished Kari would ask. She had logical answers for all of them, and she was desperate to explain herself in a way that was immune to criticism.
Kari, despite the pressure that had hardened her, was still a child however. The shiver in her voice collapsed into sobs, and she took a deep, desperate breath like a drowning person, trying to steady herself as she hid her face behind her hands.
Cas formed her stalks back into wings, gliding back up to her branch.
From up here, she could see the burning pyres that had been made out of her tents and dreams. She could see the people dancing around the flames. Kari, by now, was able to hide her sobs more convincingly, though she still hid her face behind open hands.
Cas in her flight form, now, was mostly wing, her torso a sleek tear-drop shape with not much space in it. By neccesity, her bellows and vocal chords had shrunk until they were barely capable of speaking in whispers.
Cas was thankful for that. She didn’t have the confidence to put any more volume to her words.
“It’s not going to be too bad,” she assured Kari. “The clones are still able to make food, and that should hold the village over enough for a couple of years. I should have a better solution for the Oasis by then.”
Kari simply turned away from her voice, shoulders shuddering.
“Kari… I just don’t think I’m good for this place.” Another burst of flame and heat as the final tents were thrown onto the pyre, ash and flaming cloth flying up like golden birds. “I… think I should have gone a long time ago.” A sudden rush of jubilant noise suddenly broke over the midnight silence; a flare of orange light burst into life, scattering chaotic shadows through the trees. The last of her tents were burning, now. Most of the people stayed, though some were quickly approaching the Oasis with searching eyes. She would have to leave soon.
Cas could feel justifications clawing at her throat to escape. She wanted so badly to tell the girl that her presence wasn’t really needed here, that the tents were something the villagers themselves could set up, and that her other research wasn’t going to bear fruit for several years anyway. But, none of that seemed important to say. It wasn’t important to say. Kari was being left alone by her only friend, and tents and water were secondary to that bare fact. So, Cas saved the diplomatic words and kept things to the only relevancy.
“I’m going to come back,” she said. Kari looked up a little hopefully at that, but obviously not hopeful enough to start speaking again. “I promise to come back,” Cas reiterated, feeling the words bolster her a bit. “I can fly, remember? I can’t go anywhere I couldn’t return from, and I promise to have a way to fix the Oasis when I do, and I promise we’ll be together afterwards.”
Kari almost dared to look happy again… almost. But then her expression collapsed before it could fully rise, as if unable to bear the memories of a dozen other broken promises.
A rustling disturbed the nearby bushes. “I think I see something,” a strange voice said.
Cas left on silent wings. And the Oasis shrunk into the distance, and she hovered just long enough to make sure Kari would be safe.
As soon as Kari’s safety was ascertained, however, Cas left on quick wingbeats, dissolving her vocal chords with a violent expression. She didn’t want any human body parts for the moment, they allowed her to feel her emotions too strongly.
----------------------------------------
Korivenna was the hero of the hour.
She had been proven right about that monster, she had saved the girl everyone thought dead, and, to top it all off, she was suddenly very necessary again – now that that monster wasn’t here to make everyone’s medicine on a whim.
Granted, that last reason may have been the greater cause of her recent happiness, and Nemaris, the crafty fool, was quicker to notice than she’d suspected him capable. In fact, he was quite open with his accusation.
“So… now that the sage is gone, I take it you won’t be needing Yessina to steal food for you anymore?”
Korivenna froze.
“I-”
Nemaris was the only other person in the hut. Korivenna looked in any direction except his.
“No need to deny it,” he said simply. “You know my skill lets me know these things. What it doesn’t tell me is why you’ve been so happy ever since Yessina almost died. I would’ve expected you to be more worried.”
Korivenna almost laughed. “Caring for her hasn’t been a strong suit of mine. Besides… her injury, while serious, was something I was confident I could handle.”
“Hmm…” Nemaris took a sip of his tea. “I take it you’re happier that Cas is gone, now, though.”
Korivenna twitched an eye. The crafty fool was less foolish than she thought. Of course, his skill was worth more for its reputation than its ability, and Korivenna knew how to get past it well enough. It would just require telling the truth, is all.
“Are you saying I should be sad that monster is getting what it deserves?” she said, masking her natural defensiveness with an innocuous reason.
“I’m saying a normal person shouldn’t be happy about the situation. It was a terrible event, and it was a great loss for the village otherwise. That sakkari was creating medicines in days that would take you weeks to make. More importantly, she was able to make us food!”
Despite his intensity, Nemaris had a way of making accusations subtly. That, along with his skill was enough to break most people into telling the whole truth. Korivenna, however, was no such fool. She knew the difference between vital secrets and relevant ones, and right now she chose to tell the vital.
The truth was, Korivenna didn’t hate the Sakkari. At least, she didn’t hate the sakkari enough to frame her. No, the reason for her actions was almost too simple. That reason was food.
Korivenna had lived a bad life, yes, but even the worst lives required sustenance. She was an outcast by profession, and an unari on top of that. It had been decided, early on in her career, that she would have to subsist on half rations. Anything more would have been an ‘insult to the community’. Pah!
Still, an apothecary had enough power to bargain for more. People in need of medicine were happy to accommodate her when she needed extra rations. At least, they had been until that monster showed up.
Of course, Korivenna recognized the wrong in her actions. She had framed someone. She had lied. She had lost the village a source of food and hope. But, all of that was unimportant in the face of the realization that, in all honestly… she didn’t care about the village, not one bit.
That had been a surprising revelation even to her. All her life she’d lived without thinking much about the matter. However, when the first hungry night had set in, as well as the paranoid fears when Yessina had been caught stealing, Korivenna realized just how little she cared about the torments which bound her to this village.
That was the whole truth of the matter, and Korivenna saw a thousand ways to tell that story which would satisfy Nemaris’ skill while still keeping her innocent in his eyes.
The voice in the rafters, however, had a different plan.
“I shouldn’t think Korivenna would be too dissapointed,” the voice said. “She was the one that framed me, after all.”
Nemaris shifted his eyes up, though Cas’s voice seemed to come from everywhere.
“Lies-” Korivenna began, but a surprisingly powerful rendition of the Sage’s voice blotted her out.
“I’m not here to argue. I’m sure you’ve realized by now that you’ve failed to catch me, and I’ll be getting out of your hair soon, if that makes you happy.”
Nemaris, hopped up into a stand, now, was looking about suspiciously, and sparing only a quick angry glance over at Korivenna. “You!?”
“It lies!” Korivenna repeated. “You’ve seen what state she left Yessina in.”
Cas voice was cool, however. “As I said, I’m not here to argue. I’ve simply come to tell you that I’m leaving several clones behind. They’ll be able to make food and medicine in my stead. Feel free to come up with whatever story will satisfy the villagers if you want to keep them, Nemaris.”
Nemaris still stalked around the edges of the hut, looking about with alert eyes. “I suppose I should thank you for this?” he asked.
“No need,” Cas replied, speaking with an inhumanly emotionless tone, one which sounded more like an echo of a voice than the real thing. “I’ve simply come to warn you that I made the clones so that they see Kari as their master. They will be useless unless Kari administers instructions to them. I suggest you keep her happy if you want anything out of them. Good bye.”
Cas’s voice extinguished itself, and the hut was left in a sudden burst of searching motion.
Cas was glad to be leaving. Still, she couldn’t help turning her eye back.
Nemaris and Korivenna had scattered out of the hut with astounded looks, searching every stray rock and loose piece of thatch. They looked everywhere except up.
Several powerful wingbeats took Cas past the borders of the village, past the Oasis, and soaring high above the desert sands which waved like a frozen ocean beneath her.
She was stuck in an intensity of strange emotion that made time seem meaningless. She honestly couldn’t have said how long it took until the spire suddenly towered over her, forcing a quick change in trajectory before she splattered into it.
Still, she did arrive at that spire, however, and spiraling down it like a screw, she quickly dove into that cove where everything had started for her.
And, strangely enough, it felt a bit like home.