--- KINTHEK ---
It was odd for there to be mountains to the east.
For the last several days, there had been rather spectacular sunsets thanks to that, and even the setting of Arendi when it appeared was made more magnificent with the land that rose up to greet it.
One of those days, Kinthek stood on the top of one of the wagons—they were stood on a lot—and watched the brilliant oranges and reds fade into pink and then finally into darkness. It was almost more beautiful than that morning he’d watched the sunrise with Vespin, when he’d first seen the offerings disappear.
The head of the caravan, Taenseva’s husband, climbed up the wagon after a moment and sat beside him, watching the colors progress. “You’re much calmer today, last time you ran around the whole camp and forced everyone to take a look at it.”
Kinthek laughed to himself slightly, looking at the quiet but stern Niortak. Ashevian hardly did anything visible for the caravan, but Kinthek knew he was in charge of the route, the navigation, and all of the larger trades. He was the one that every city had to go through if they wanted the really good stuff. Things like the woven spider silk from Teli-teli, or dewdrops from the highest peaks in the far off land of Nilinta. “I just realized today that you guys have probably seen plenty of amazing things. There’s no need to point them out, is there?”
Ashevian shook his head slightly. “We’ve been all over the place since we first came together, but mostly we keep to Nelfourne and Teli-teli. They’re peaceful. The point is, we’ve seen plenty of things, but don’t let that stop you from pointing out the beauty that you see. I hardly even glance at the sunset these days, I think that I might have convinced myself I’m too busy for it.”
Kinthek nodded slowly, smiling a bit, “Well, I’m glad you have time right now.” A hundred possibilities and reasons sprung into his head, why was Ashevian telling him this? Was it just on a whim? Perhaps. But he got the slightest notion from how he was looking at the evening colors that it was more than that.
“You’re a good kid, Kinthek. But life gave you something hard and visible for people to mock you with. You don’t think much of yourself, do you?”
Kinthek blinked, that had been near the bottom of the list. “I… suppose that I consider myself to be humble.”
Ashevian hummed slightly, “That’s not quite the same thing. Do you think you’re worth the people who led you to this moment? Do you ever sit quietly and wonder if you aren’t?” He sighed, “I’m just worried about you I suppose. You’ve given every indication that you plan on staying with us for the foreseeable future, so in a way I’m starting to feel responsible for you.”
Kinthek finally figured out what felt so off about this conversation. He'd never known a man who was so willing to talk about feelings before. “I suppose I feel that sometimes, but usually… I don’t know, I am who I am, there’s not much I can do about that. I wish I weren’t a Red Curse, I wish people would see me for me more often. I know I like it here because it’s different.”
Ashevian nodded to himself and turned back to watch the sky, “Just let me know if you start struggling then, or even if you just want to chat.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Kinthek frowned at him slightly, “If I may ask, why do you care? Even if you feel responsible for me, I’d expect a different kind.”
Ashevian grinned slightly, “I’ve got my own demons holding onto me, I have to always be sure after my experiences, you know? Besides, practically everyone’s got something that’s left them more broken than when they entered the world.”
Kinthek fell silent for a moment, “Was it why you left Arendi? You and the others? Teizen talks about it sometimes, but I’m not sure how much stock to put into some of it.”
Ashevian sighed, a long and drawn out thing, the mark of a tired mind and a more tired soul. “Back on Arendi… Well, none of us were happy wherever we went. Teizen pissed off the Conquerer himself somehow and he was hunting her at every turn—though she changes the story of how it happened every time she tells it. Talf lost most of his family in a war between tribes, not even the floating cities were distant enough, he still freezes up every time he sees white feathers. Branix got blamed for a murder and fled his country. And I… well by Niortak standards I’m useless.”
He waved his hand and the light around it rippled slightly, but nothing else happened. “I was exposed to a strange plant when I was young, and ever since then I can’t form the wings of the Niortak. Our entire world revolves around that ability. You can hardly get from place to place in a village without being able to glide. We use them as weapons, we use them to carry our supplies… the list goes on.”
He sighed, “So we picked up what was left of our lives and thought, ‘hey, there’s a whole different world over there, a world where we could start over.’ It took months to get a hold of something that could take us between the worlds, things like that are rare, even on Arendi where skycraft are all over the place. But we came here. We met Taenseva and have never separated since. We have our squabbles, but… we’re family.”
Kinthek frowned slightly, trying to fit this in with how he thought of the man. A cripple? A cripple that could still walk and talk and smile. Kinthek thought of the earlier question, Do you think you’re worth the people who led you to this moment? Do you ever sit quietly and wonder if you aren’t?
Was that what Ashevian felt then? Did he sometimes think that he wasn’t worth it?
Kinthek couldn’t precisely say that it was something he could relate to, but in the end he’d heard those whispers every day. Soulless, pointless, burden. Sometimes… Well sometimes Kinthek had simply sat there and taken it, thinking in the back of his mind that this must be true. When everyone else seems to have the same opinion, it makes it hard to call it false.
But he was away from that now, and things were so much better.
Kinthek looked at Ashevian, “Thank you for telling me that, I think I understand a bit better now.”
Ashevian nodded, still staring at the sky.
“Arendi has floating cities though? I’ve never heard of that.”
The man smiled, “It does. They’re beautiful. I’d never seen a place built for people without wings before visiting the city of Teisel. It’s what gave me the idea, actually.”
Kinthek tilted his head, feeling his tail begin to sway from side to side behind him, “Really? Why’d they build it that way?”
“Well, the people who built them are dead now. They didn’t have wings to make it necessary, it wasn’t the Niortak you see. It was some other people with some other god. I don’t remember what we called them, but they could work wonders.”
He spoke then, telling of beauty almost beyond comprehension, inventions that had never been replicated, and cities that floated in the sky, coloring the sunsets of Arendi with islands that almost seemed like vast castles.
Kinthek felt like he could almost see what they’d look like as he watched his own sunset.