The scout left and returned with two others, so that the three of them could be ported over the great expanse of water together. Tif had to explain again that she was not from Death to the skeptical looking human man who was assigned to her. Despite his obvious misgiving, he eventually took hold of her arm and used the blue Tears ris that covered the right side of his face to leap them up into the sky. One moment Tif’s toes were gripping the smooth sand by the water and the next she was a good thirty feet up above that water, experiencing a brief moment of weightlessness and then falling.
Tif let out a whoop of glee. She had missed this.
Her guide only let them fall a few feet before porting them forward to an even higher point, and the same each time after that, apparently eager to deliver his cargo as soon as possible. Tif twisted around to see how the others were fairing: Jer seemed to be taking the experience placidly, as he did most everything of late, arms loosely crossed in front while the green aquaros he’d been paired with stayed in contact by wrapping its tail around Jer’s ankle. Teerog, on the other hand, was flailing her arms like she was trying to swim through the air, which the yellow aquaros who had found them ducked away from, one of her clawed hands on the cyclops’s back.
A few more ris jumps up and they leveled out, crossing the churning water and reaching the scattered collection of islands that made up the Mirrored City. Instead of going down to one of them, Tif’s carrier and the two aquaros continued onward until they got to a much smaller island that was set away from the rest.
“That’s where Udaru is?” Tif asked. Her voice was ripped away by the rushing air as they free fell, but she had spoken loudly, so the man should have heard. He didn’t answer though, and so Tif was left to look at what they approached and wonder. The tiny island was big enough to have a white, circular building atop it with an open roof, but that was all, waves crashing up against the sides of the single story building.
The man ported them out of their dive, the change from extreme air force to barely anything at all as they hung for a moment before falling again was abrupt and had Tif laughing in delight. She saw that the lateral jump had put them directly above the opening in the building, but they were still too high to drop the whole way safely. So, Tif wasn’t surprised when, halfway there, he used his ris again to hop them one more time, putting their feet on the stone floor of the round building. Like she had experienced before when traveling by way of Tears ris, her insides tried to finish the drop her body was no longer doing, succeeding in flopping over, which made her belch.
“Better out than i--” Tif went to say to the man, only to discover that he had already departed. She turned to Pep instead. “He wasn’t the friendliest we’ve met, now was he?”
Jer and Teerog arrived not a moment later, their carriers placing them around a low stone table, circular in shape just like the building. There were no chairs for it nor much of anything else in the room that Tif could tell, just an overhang roof that covered the space around the inner wall of the building but not the table.
“Wait here,” the first aquaros they had met said. Then both she and the green one vanished, reappearing up in the sky, a few more quick ports taking them out of Tif’s view.
She dropped her gaze and looked around again, not finding anything new. “Looks like a meeting place…” Tif ventured.
A wave crashed against the side of the wall outside creating a BOOM within and spraying water up over the opening that rained down upon them.
“Or a wet prison,” Teerog said, her lone eyebrow dipping down.
“She’s not wrong,” Tif whispered to Pep. Admitting it louder didn’t seem like a smart play since it was her idea that had landed them in the middle of nowhere with barely any protection from the elements, which ominously surrounded them on all sides. What if there was a storm out here? Tif eyed the table again. Maybe they could shelter under it if they really needed to.
“Tif?” she heard and whipped her head up. Atop the roof was Udaru, blue scales shining, and then he was gone. The air beside her distorted only briefly before resolving into the aquaros.
He was so close Tif couldn’t help it, she threw her arms around him.
He stiffened in shock and then shifted to push her off but stopped in the act. “What happened to your Blood ris?”
“Gave it away,” Tif said. She heard a grumble from behind that could only be Teerog and decided that introductions were in order. Tif unlatched her arms from around Udaru’s neck and stepped back, motioning with her hands toward the cyclops. “Udaru this is Teerog. Teerog, Udaru. She is the rightful owner of the seals I carried, and I’m helping her get them back.”
The former division leader turned his long snout toward the cyclops who was much taller than him. “Udara is pleased to meet you,” he croaked. “Honor to you and the blood before you.”
“You have been to Bheroth?” Teerog asked, clearly surprised.
“Udaru has,” the aquaros answered. “Though the circumstances were painful, your people were kind to him.”
Tif was impressed. Udaru was doing a better job sounding like he was from the Blood Plains than she had when she tried! Moments like these were exactly why Tif looked forward to one day being older and wiser.
“Bheroth is a gem, is it not?” It was Jer who had spoken, which Tif hadn’t expected, but then she remembered how he had talked about his time in the Roving City--it had meant a lot to him and that shone though now.
Udaru’s frill fluttered. “And Jer-Rix. Far from home, all of you. There is obviously much we must discuss. Come, sit with me.” So saying, the aquaros took a seat on the ground, tucking his knees underneath the lip of the table while his tail stretched out behind him. Tif remembered how the bar in Sah’Sah had only had short stools and realized that chairs probably weren’t used much in Sah’Sah since the slatted backs would do a poor job of accommodating the thick tails Aquarius had.
She sat down nearby, her pants quickly absorbing the water that had splashed over the roof, making the cloth stick to her rump. Tif didn’t mind. The same thing often happened in Lercel after a rain, and Tif found the added coolness refreshing. True, it could end up being a bit itchy, but she figured that just made her more alert when playing das, and she hoped the same would be true now.
Teerog moved to the stone table, sitting as well. However, it was too low for her to fit her large legs underneath so she ended up being farther back from it than the others.
Lastly, there was Jer, and being a noble, Tif thought he might object to getting his backside wet--she’d lost more than one customer that way when the cobbles outside of Meh-Vin’s hookah bar weren’t all the way dry. However, he plopped down, one leg under the table, the other up with his arm rested upon it in a relaxed pose; apparently either his travels or the draining Teerog had done to him had taken away such cares from him. He looked very much like him in that moment to Tif, which brought to mind the fun, flirtatious moments they had shared during the challenges before he had ignored her plea to help protect his ma or accused her of being part of the murder. She hoped that after this they could return to their old ways together, or at least something like it, but getting there would be a lot worse than sitting in some water, so they might as well get right to it.
“Udaru,” Tif said, “Jer thinks that I was involved in the plot to kill his ma. In fact, a lot of the knights do.”
A sigh rattled from the aquaros, the portion of his frill above his throat vibrating. “I was worried that such a thing would happen. It is why I tried to reach you so we could leave together. I am sorry I failed you in this.” The hard ridges of his eyes pulled down. “How did you escape?”
Tif felt the barest flush creep into her cheeks. Of course Awt would come up just as she was remembering a more pleasant time with Jer. “A friend,” she said. “But I can tell you more about that later. What I need now is your help. I need you to tell him what actually happened.”
Udaru’s snout turned from her to where Jer sat across the table. The keshe was still lounging as he had been, but he looked much more engaged, focused in a way Tif hadn’t seen from him these past few days.
“I…see,” Udaru croaked. Tif was sure he wasn’t happy about the request, though neither his scaled face of his frill betrayed that fact. “And you wish to hear this, Jer-Rix?”
“If you have something to tell on the matter,” Jer said, tone calm but his gaze unblinking, “I will listen.”
Udaru sat silent for a moment, making Tif worry that he wouldn’t agree to continue, but then the aquaros nodded. “Very well, but it shall be a story from the beginning if so. This will take time,” he said, looking at Teerog, which surprised Tif. “Warrior of the Blood Plains, would you like to be taken to Sah’Sah while the three of us speak? It will be a short trip, and I can return for you when we finish.”
Tif was going to say that she wanted the cyclops to know the truth, too, but Teerog rumbled a reply before she had a chance.
“Teerog will stay,” the cyclops said. “She wishes to know more about her companions and their trustworthiness.”
Udaru nodded again. “Wise for your years, but such is the way of Bheroth. Very well.” He placed his clawed hands on the table, looking at each of the three of them in turn. “Before me, the leader of the southern patrol division of Lercel was a man named Kem-Faa-Sho.”
“I remember him,” Tif said.
“As do I,” Jer said.
“While the shroud of Gold can protect from many things,” Udaru continued, “it cannot defend against sickness. He and his division became ill when traveling from Sah’Sah with trade back to your lands. However, when they reached Lercel, they were denied entry.”
Tif found that hard to believe--knights and their ris were valuable, not to mention that leaving your friends to die was just cruel. However, Jer didn’t object, and she trusted Udaru, so Tif stayed quiet.
“Unfamiliar with the paths to the other great cities, and denied succor at home, the division returned here, to Sah’Sah. Only three were left at that point, and not wanting to be denied again, this time they kept their sickness hidden, and so we brought them into our midst without realizing what else they carried.”
“Oh no,” Tif said, raising her hands to her mouth.
Udaru’s head tilted to the stone table. “They died not long after, our healers unable to do more than ease their suffering. But the sickness they brought did not perish with them. It spread through our city from the healers to their families, and from their families to those they touched or merely spoke to, faster than any disease before it. As soon as the danger was discovered, everyone who was not infected ported to a different island, but that still left more than a third of our population in a reflection we shall never use again. My wife and son were among those who became sick, and I had already seen others killed by the disease. We called the sickness strangle fever because those with it became unable to drink or even breathe, their throats twisting closed until they died, usually from a lack of air.”
Tif moved her hands from her mouth to her neck, imagining how terrible it must have been to experience such a thing, both for the sick and for those who tried to care for them, neither able to do anything.
“I couldn’t bear to watch the life be choked out of them,” Udaru said, lifting his gaze, “so I took a chance. I ported them to the Blood Plains because even a small amount of that ris is known to stave off infection.”
Tif hadn’t heard that before, but Teerog nodded her large head. “All children are given some Blood ris at birth.”
“To be citizens?” Tif asked, the practice sounding very similar to Lercel.
The cyclops frowned at her, or the best she could manage with one brow. “So that they do not grow sick. And if any do, all relatives give Blood so that they may have more ris to fight it off.”
“Unfortunately,” Udaru said, pulling their attention back to him, “the Aspects did not grant me the speed I needed. It was slow going transporting two people, and my wife, Yuugh, died a full day before I reached Bheroth, the city not where I expected it to be. I was forced to leave her body behind, which I never found again. My son grew quiet hours before arriving, but since most with the fever died in fits, I thought him still with me. The healers of Bheroth saw to us as soon as we appeared on the outskirts, but by then he was already gone. I begged them to give him Blood ris nonetheless, offering all I had, and I think in pity for me, they agreed. But ris cannot be placed on a corpse, and none flowed from the red Aspect onto my Omru.” He paused, his frill fluttering with each heavy breath he took, and Tif could tell he was trying to compose himself. She took his sah from her shirt, and offered it to him. After another moment, Udaru managed to look at her, and shook his head, taking back up his story. “The people of Bheroth tried to comfort me,” he said, his croaking voice rawer than before, “unafraid of the sickness I likely carried. But I was consumed with my loss, and when I couldn’t find Yuugh to bury beside Omru, my anguish boiled into rage, and I sought vengeance.”
Tif glanced at Jer, thinking that what Udaru was describing must be very similar to how he had felt after losing his ma; for his part, the keshe was watching the aquaros as closely as before, no doubt wondering how all this connected to the murder.
“None of you bear Tears ris,” Udarua said, “so you may not know the internal change it works upon us, or even if you do, you have not experienced it. Unlike the beauty of body and voice that Gold grants, or the resistance to sickness of Blood, Tears ris allows us to feel more deeply.” Tif nodded, remembering Udaru and the Archon’s conversation about this very thing. “It is often a great benefit,” he croaked, “especially when times are good, but it is not only pleasant emotions that linger in us or echo in our depths, but all that we may experience. Many a warrior of Tears has entered a killing fury after losing a companion close to them, or once battle is over, slipped into a melancholy so complete, they never reemerge.
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“I was no different, my hate taking me straight from the Blood Plains to Lercel. I am ashamed to say that I had many plans to deliver suffering upon those who lived there. I thought to simply jump over the wall and rub shoulders with the people, likely giving them the same killing fever that decimated my people. Truth be told, I tried that for a time, but for whatever reason the sickness never took hold of me, and those I interacted with remained as healthy as they had been before meeting me. I thought then to kill the southern wall leader since he had been the one to refuse entry to the patrol division. However, while in Lercel, I saw how much your Archon is venerated, staying high up in her palace, barely coming down to mingle with the people who are the soul of the city. So, I thought if there was anyone I should strike, it should be her, the center of the place that had caused me such pain.”
Udaru paused again, looking up at the sky above them, and it was Jer who eventually broke the silence, “And did you?”
Udaru’s long blue snout dropped, facing the Archon’s son; Tif thought Jer looked like he might jump across the table at the aquaros.
“I did,” Udaru confirmed.
Jer growled and showed more sharp teeth than before, but instead of moving he asked, “This was before you became the division leader?”
“It was,” Udarua answered. “Long had I fought for my people against the advances of Death, so killing was my trade and one I excelled in. My target decided, I wasted no time porting to the palace and struck from an angle that neither she nor her bodyguards expected.”
“How did you strike her?” Jer asked, leaning forward. Tif realized then that he had never heard the explanation she had given to the arcknights and likely still wondered how his ma’s shrouds had been overcome.
“Early in my training I set to master isolation porting,” Udaru said. By way of example the former division leader’s right arm was suddenly no longer palm down on the table but pointing at Teerog. Then, just as quickly, it vanished from that position, his hand resting briefly on Tif’s shoulder, and finally back to the place it had started. The flashing movements were the same Tif had seen him use when striking the Archon down, and she’d even seen Ipsol, the underground leader in Sah’Sah, do the same against Plumya.
“I believed I could port myself between the two shrouds I had heard the Archon possessed, but I knew I must get between the closer shroud and her body to kill her. When isolation porting, your limbs must stay in contact with the rest of your body, but that is only true for the parts of you that are alive…”
“You nails!” Tif said, hearing the Archon’s perfect voice in her head.
Udaru nodded to her. “Correct. I ported just the tips of my nails, invested with extra force from my first seal, between her inner shroud and her flesh. They flew true, embedding in her neck, but in porting, they lost their first seal imbuement, and so did little more than give her a few deep scratches.”
“I never saw such scars,” Jer said, large eyes narrowing.
“She started wearing more bands of gold around her neck after that. High enough up that the scars were covered.”
“Why would she bother to hide it?” Tif asked.
“Pride,” Teerog of all people said. When they looked at her, she didn’t shy away from explaining, “It is well known that keshe are prone to such things, what with their duels and social ranks, and Teerog assumes that their leader would be no different, if not more so.”
Jer smiled of all things, sharp teeth flashing. “You’re right about that. She had enough pride to fill the whole mountain. Never once admitted to me she was wrong, or to anyone else as far as I know.”
Tif shared a look with Pep. Maybe it was pride that had stopped the Archon from stepping down if she was unhappy with her life. She would have asked the group, but Udaru hadn’t gotten to that part of his story yet, so she decided to wait. When he had said it would be long, he hadn’t been joking!
“But that doesn’t explain how you became a division leader,” Jer said, “or why you would risk death trying a technique you hadn’t practiced.”
Tif saw Udaru shrug. “I was still filled to the brim with my loss and anger when I tried to kill your mother and made poor choices because of it. At that point I also cared little for my own life.”
Jer shifted how he was sitting, and Tif wondered again how much of himself the noble keshe was seeing in the aquaros. She hoped it was enough for Jer not to attack once Udaru finished his story.
“None were more surprised than I," the aquaros said, "that I entered the Archon’s palace as an assassin and left the leader of the very division who had met its end in Sah’Sah. I was thankful that the Qichon accepted the terms regarding my new station.”
“What were the terms?” Tif asked, curious despite her desire for him to keep going.
“Access to Tears ris for some of her knights,” Udaru answered. “She also had me given a seal of Gold, but that was for my true purpose.” The aquaros paused again, and Tif held her breath: they had finally come to it. “To find a way to kill her.
“You would betray her after she spared you?” Jer hissed. Both his feet were beneath him now, as if was getting ready to pounce. “Have you no honor?”
Udaru shook his head. “After I failed, she caught me in her shrouds and spoke to me, just the two of us. She told me that I had been the only thing to physically harm her since she had acquired the fifth seal of Gold. She told me that nothing could hurt her, not even herself.”
That lined up with what Jer had told Tif about the Archon’s shroud sensing poisoned food, or even when Sur-Rak’s had protected her from Tif’s unseen foot. But Tif had never considered self harm. Was that why the Archon had needed to rely on someone else?
“If you value your life, do not say your next words,” Jer whispered. It seemed to Tif that he knew where this was going and had no wish to hear it.
But Udaru did not stop, continuing on in his flat voice, “She told me that she no longer wanted to live. She spared me so that I could find a way to kill her.”
Jer screamed, throwing a punch at Udaru and then spinning around to deliver a kick as well.
Udaru vanished before the ris powered shots arrived, but Tif felt the cold air woosh by her.
“Control yourself, Jer-Rix,” the aquaros said from where he now stood on the circular roof. “You said you wished to hear my story, and I am not done.”
Jer’s arms were shaking, and it looked to Tif like it was physically painful for him not to attack again. “So it was you who killed her then.”
“You must breathe, Jer,” Teerog said in her deep voice. “Feel the blood flow and let your pain go with it.”
Jer turned to the cyclops while pointing up at the aquaros. “If you faced the murderer of your grandfather, you would converse with them? When they speak falsehoods to your face?”
Teerog grimaced. “You agreed to hear what the aquaros would say. You are honor bound to do so.”
Jer's growl became a shout of frustration, but he did not loose any more punches or kicks. Instead, he began to pace on his side of the table like a caged beast. “Fine, but tell it faster, and make sense when you do. Why appoint you division leader when she could simply give you ris? Why would you agree to assist someone you claim to hate?”
Tif already knew the answer to one of those and had a guess for the other.
“Your mother did not share all of her reasons with me,” Udaru said from the rooftop, settling into a sitting position, “but I’m sure you know that unlike the other great cities, Tears ris is never traded to foreigners in Sah’Sah.”
“So?” Jer snapped but didn’t argue, and Tif recalled him telling her that he had tried to get some on his travels and been refused.
“So, securing some for her knights was a significant political achievement. One her council celebrated her for, even if her arcknights didn’t trust me.”
Jer stopped, spinning toward the aquaros and where he perched. “Why care about such a thing if she wants to die, as you claim? And why would you agree to weaken your people if you had nothing to live for?”
“I did not know your mother as long as you,” Udaru answered slowly, “but from my experiences with her, she wished to gain advantage from any situation she found herself in.”
“Pride,” Teerog rumbled from where she sat.
“Perhaps she also thought that if I failed, another might succeed with the same tools, which nearly happened. As for myself,” Udaru ported back beside Tif, still sitting and speaking without pause, “Tears ris does not only deepen our own emotions but lets us sense the emotions of others. So, being near your mother, trapped in her shrouds, I was able to feel the ache of losing your father that plagued her. Her pain reminded me of my own, which eased the anger that had consumed me. I saw an opportunity to help someone, something I had been unable to do for so many others.”
“Just like that?” Jer scoffed at the aquaros. “You forgave her?”
Udaru shook his head and his frill vibrated as if to accentuate the motion. “Certainly not. A darker part of me still wished to kill her for leaving the care of her people to others, care that became our death. Her offer was also tempting. Since we do not trade ris in Sah’Sah, we get no others in return. Me gaining a full seal of Gold would be a boon to my people, especially if I could do with it what your mother wished: use Tears ris to transport Gold ris past her shrouds.”
“And did you?” Jer asked, leaning dangerously forward.
Udaru shook his head. “No. I tried countless times, but the power of Gold ris when ported turned to nothing more than a wisp of itself. I tried adding force to it with my first seal of Tears, but just like when trying to do the same with my nails, the additional power invested in the Gold ris vanished when ported.”
“So it was a failure,” Jer said, seeming confused now as to how his ma had died and how the aquaros could be the killer.
“It was,” Udaru agreed. “So I took on my role of division leader, giving the knights of my unit Tears ris as agreed, completed trade between Lercel and a recovering Sah’Sah, and all the while continued to test the combination of Gold and Tears without getting any closer to a solution.”
“And then Rof joined,” Tif said, thinking of the too young keshe and his sleepy eyes.
“Rof?” Jer said, glancing at her. “He was that keshe boy who…” His voice trailed off, and Tif was sure Jer was remembering seeing Rof use his strange technique that had eaten up so much Gold ris at once.
“Yes,” Udaru croaked. “He made me aware of a way of expending Gold ris I was unfamiliar with. Even more, after he was blessed with Tears ris, he did what my people have long thought impossible: porting inside something else.
Jer snorted, his face a mixture of incredulity and shock from everything he was hearing. “How could you never think to try such a simple thing.”
“We had,” Udaru said, “many times, but never with ris instead of our bodies since seals of Tears cannot strike from a distance like Gold. Perhaps by Rof coming from your city instead of ours, he was able to conceive of such a possibility, or perhaps it was part of the scroll he carried, I do not know. But when I tried it, porting Gold ris inside things, it had no effect, just like my previous attempts. It wasn’t until I used his technique of expending a great deal of Gold ris all at once that the form of the strike held when ported.”
“So that is how he got past her shrouds and killed her?” Jer said.
“That’s what I told the arcknights,” Tif answered.
Udaru’s frill twitched as if he was shocked, and his attention swung to her. “You did what?”
“Rof was already,”--Tif felt uncomfortable remembering how the poor keshe boy had been crushed--“well, you saw. And I figured, they can’t take much out on someone who is dead.”
The aquaros watched her closely with his slitted pupils. “You suffered in telling them this, yes?”
Tif’s treatment by the Archon’s brother had been a low day, that much was true, but she didn’t want Udaru to worry; he already had enough of a burden with what the Archon had wanted from him and how he had lost his family. So, she smiled at him, and said something her ma was fond of: “Past is past. No reason to let it cause trouble.”
Udaru stared at her another moment and then dipped his head so low, his snout ended up on the table. “You have done me and my people a great service. I’m not sure how we can ever repay you.”
“So who killed my mother?” Jer demanded from where he stood.
Tif felt bad making Jer wait so long, and now that they had arrived at this spot, they could give him the same lie the arcknights had. It wasn’t what she wanted to do, of course, but in her mind, Udaru had done the act, so the secret was his to share or not.
The former division leader, who she never should have doubted, raised his head, looking straight at Jer-Rix. “I did.”
Silence followed the pronouncement, punctuated by a crash of waves outside. Then Tif heard Teerog mumble, “A new blood-debt is formed,” while shaking her head.
“But you said you were a failure at it,” Jer growled at the aquaros. “Unable to make it work.”
“I was,” Udaru agreed. “But after seeing Rof’s attempts, I knew how. Once your mother was aware of the technique, she commanded me to use it against her, threatening my life if I did not. So, I obeyed, and it worked as intended.” The aquaros seemed to take no pleasure in voicing this final explanation and his frill remained steady.
Jer-Rix raised his fists again, holding them in a pre-strike pose. “Again you lie,” he hissed.
“Why would he lie about such a thing?” Teerog of all people asked.
“To make himself seem more honorable,” Jer snapped at her, sounding annoyed by the interruption. “To shift the blame to my mother instead of his own actions.”
“If the aquaros wished to hide from blame, they could have used this,” Teerog waved a hand in Udaru and Tif’s direction--“Rof person, and you would not have known the difference.”
Tif was grateful beyond words for the cyclops’s support and would be sure to tell her so profusely later. It gave Tif a chance to be one voice among others, which she thought might actually work this time.
“It’s true,” she said to Jer. “I was there. It’s what your mother said.”
“You,” Jer said, the venom he directed at her no less than before they had fought. “You have only lied to me from the start.”
“Only about where my Blood ris came from, and for that I’m sorry,” she told him. “Everything else has been the truth.”
Jer’s fist was still pointed at Udaru, but Tif wouldn’t have been surprised if he had trained it on her instead, so hateful was his gaze.
“So you say,” he spat at her.
“So they both say,” the cyclops said, speaking up again. “Tif could have killed you after Teerog took your pain, or have the fairy do it. There would have been no honor in such a kill, but it was her right as victor. Instead, she brought you to this place to hear this story. If she is your enemy, why go so far?”
“Because…” Jer hesitated, some of his confidence seeming to drip away. “Because she is a spy of Death who wishes to sow confusion amongst us. The trail of ris away from her proves it.”
“Then why are the stories we tell you the same?” Udaru croaked. “Am I too from Death?”
Jer looked at the aquaros and then side-to-side at the strange island prison they stood upon in the lands of Sah’Sah, as if he wanted to deny it all. “But why would she wish to die?” Jer half shouted to no one in particular, like he was being attacked on all sides “She was the most powerful person in all of Lercel, if not the world. She could have anything she wished. She--”
“Not your father back,” Tif interrupted.
Jer pulled up short, his eyes catching on her--eyes that she was sure would soon overflow from the pain they held.
“You suspected as much long before,” Tif said to him, as gently as she could. “You told me in your tent. Remember?”
“I won’t…” he said, his fist starting to quiver and then his jaw. “It doesn’t…” And then he crumpled, head in his hands, shoulders shaking.
Tif was up on the table between them in a heartbeat, taking two quick steps before dropping onto the stone, sliding the rest of the way on the water slick surface, so when she reached the edge, she was able to land in a crouch by him. She yanked the yellow sah from her shirt, and was moments from pressing it into his hands when she realized that her plan might cause offense. Tif turned to Udaru, and he gave her a solemn nod of permission.
“Here,” she said, pressing the blue trimmed cloth against the back of Jer’s fingers. It took him a moment between shuddered breaths to take it, and when he did, he covered his face fully with the sah. She rubbed his back as he cried, and this time, he didn’t pull away from her.
“Tif,” Udaru said, and she looked over the low table at him while continuing to comfort Jer. “I need you to come with me to see the Qichon.”