--- DENTHEN ---
Eternal River, it may be noted, is a very eclectic village. It has exactly Three hundred, seventy people who call it home on a permanent basis—not counting the godless or soulless, obviously—yet larger villages don’t have local priests, or even such a reliable thunder crystal.
By this, the astute listener would have put together that there must be something very important the village does for the world, otherwise it might have simply been swept off the map by a bored Aremolot or wandering monsters of the sky.
And yet you would be wrong. Eternal River has nothing special to offer besides perhaps water, but other places can get that particular resource perfectly fine without having to deal with the locals. —simply going downstream is the preferred method, though I have met a water smuggler who uses its inherent floatation to his advantage. I’ll have to tell you about him someday, he’s at least the twelfth most interesting person I know of.
No, Eternal River subsists on exactly two things, Priest Vilvav Vespin, and the only thunder crystal within several hundred miles. It’s only luck that the crystal was found so close to a river; with such a combination I’ll be surprised if Eternal River isn’t a sprawling metropolis in a few decades! It’s a new village, and as such the people aren’t yet as tied to it as the ancestral lands that their parents or grandparents hailed from.
As such, the man known as Denthen had been born into Eternal River, he’d lived there his entire life, twenty seven years of laboring under the sun, looking after plants, moving rocks, building walls and pathways. Twenty seven years of being tired of everything and looking forward to the day he was too old to do any of it. After that he could sit around all day and shout advice, perhaps take up weaving with his wife.
It was an ideal world. In most ways.
Denthen looked up from his work, feeling his eyes narrow to a point as he spotted the stranger. The godless stranger. She was just… floating there, watching him like she didn’t have a care in the world. Probably making fun of him in her head for having to do such backbreaking things while she just floated there with her strange godless abilities and even stranger face.
How did people even float? He’d heard of the Niortak of course, the people of the sky from the green world above. But not even they floated. Did they? Denthen didn’t think they floated, but you never knew with bird people. Either way, it was unnatural to do something like that. The godless were unnatural, even the Niortak were unnatural.
Denthen shuddered, turning back to his work, only to find that the stranger was suddenly standing in front of him. He glared at her, “What?”
She looked at him with that strange, expressionless gaze. “I’m sorry for our first meeting. I occasionally react on impulse and at the time I didn’t have enough information.”
Denthen scowled, “Great, thanks. Now run along, do… whatever it is that kids do all day.”
She frowned slightly, “Yes, I’m well aware that I need to just grow up already. Can you at least sate my burning curiosity that begs from the edges of my mind, never to be filled without a single answer?”
He furrowed his brow slightly, “There’s plenty of paper in the storage tent if you’re looking to become a poet.”
She actually smiled at that. Denthen got the sense that she didn’t smile often. “You didn’t even ask what my question was.”
He sighed, driving the shovel into the ground and leaving it there. “Alright, what do you want, godless?”
She rolled her eyes slightly, Denthen barely even caught it, but she did. “Tell me, what is your story? I don’t just want a summary, I want to know your motivations, your passions, your soul.” she paused, “and ah… I’m sorry again for gravity-ing you.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Denthen folded his arms, wondering why in the world she cared. It had to be a ploy of some sort, get him to lower his guard so she could… poison him, or kill him, or rob him blind. But she was just a kid. Even if she did that strange thing again—gravity-ing?—he’d surely be able to deal with a single child.
He frowned, looking at her harder, noting the worn clothing, the expression of slight boredom that masked rapt attention. And the eyes that… squalls, those were the same eyes that Kinthek had. Not the same color or shape, no, the expression behind them, the weight. The age.
Immortal.
Denthen felt his jaw set as he regarded the ancient creature masquerading as a child. “Why do you want to know?”
Her eyes narrowed slightly, annoyed, “because I don’t like you. And spark me if I’m going to let that keep going. I’ve spent too long trapped in a fool who can barely…” she sighed, “I’m trying to get better, and discounting your existence out of hand won’t help me do that. I’d rather ignore you entirely, but then I won’t get better.”
There was something else. Denthen frowned, “and?”
“And I have a… friend who would kill to figure out what kind of life spat out someone like you. She has an obsession you see, with stories.”
“What makes you think I’m so strange?”
The godless stranger sighed, “Everyone is odd. I’ve never once heard a man’s story and thought ‘oh, that’s such a well put together person, he’s so normal he’s practically leaking it!’ I’m sure there are people similar to you, but you aren’t normal and neither are they. So are you telling me your story or do I have to hang you upside down from one of those weird shrubs?”
He regarded her, feeling annoyed. He didn’t want to be anything special. People who were special left Eternal River behind, and this life was perfect exactly the way it was. Even the soulless monster who was leaving soon wasn’t that bad, he was the one all the abnormal things could be blamed on. If you couldn’t blame him then you could blame the priest, or the old woman who practiced medicine, or the man who slept each night under the stars, or the young hunter who brought back the biggest kills. No one would be blaming abnormal things on Denthen. Never.
Slightly baffled as the words came out, Denthen finally responded.“I think this is stupid. But you’ll leave if I tell you about it, right?”
She nodded.
Denthen sighed, “I was born here, in Eternal River. My parents moved here from The City of the Last, but they returned when my grandfather died and never looked back. Eternal River is all I’ve ever known though, so I stayed.” He figured that was the most memorable thing he’d done before, choosing to stay.
The godless girl clicked her tongue, “that’s a good start but I need more details. Sparks Denthen, what’s something you’re passionate about?”
Denthen stared at her for a moment, “what does passion matter?”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that and ask a different question. Sparks Denthen. Anyways, you had dreams as a kid, didn’t you? What was your dream? Your drive?”
He looked up at the sky, exasperated, “Do I have to answer that?”
“Of course!”
“I… wanted to be a famous carver. I loved woodworking, you see.”
The godless child put her hands on her hips, “Aaaannnddd? Elaborate already! Were you any good at it? What happened?”
“No, I was terrible. So I let the dream die, it was pointless anyway. How could I become famous in the middle of nowhere?”
She seemed amused, at least partially. “I know a minstrel who’s music is sung across half a world, and yet no one recognises her when she goes out into those same cities. Famous is a strange thing.” She mused that for a moment, probably trying to get Denthen to think about it but he was mostly just wishing she would leave already. “Either way, what about now, you’re married right? Any kids?”
Denthen stilled slightly, “No, not yet.” That ‘not yet’ had been going on for the better part of ten years now. At this rate, Denthen would be more surprised if it ever did become real.
The godless girl examined his expression, “I’m sorry.” Her voice was perfectly even, flat, lifeless. Did that mean she didn’t care or was she just trying to show the proper sorrow for such a thing? Denthen was sad about it, but besides praying to Atharian occasionally or consulting the medicine woman, there wasn’t much to be done. Well, those and there were always the obvious. Denthen suspected everyone occasionally thought about giving Atharian their soul for something like that.
She continued staring at him, her gaze boring into him strangely, like she was seeing more than scales and expression. It was unnatural, but it was just another odd thing to blame on someone who was odd.