--- VILVAV VESPIN ---

Vilvav paused as he looked over the remains of the pile, feeling a smile spread across his face. “Well, it seems like our friend Kinthek has been gathering more than we thought.”

Eliax, as impassive as always, nodded, giving him a suspicious look. “He’s at least twenty bundles over the number.”

Vilvav nodded, still smiling pleasantly, squalls, ten years flew by fast. He still remembered when he’d first met Kinthek, after being called all the way out to the city of Starlight. “Yes,” Vilvav agreed, “I think perhaps he hasn’t been counting them quite right. He’ll be happy though, this means he’s done.”

Eliax was silent for a moment, “Whatever happened anyway, why does he owe you so many bundles of this stuff? What are they even for?”

Vilvav tilted his head at her, “You’ve been here for two weeks and this is the first you’re asking that?”

The slight blue tint to her face intensified slightly in a blush, “ah… yes?”

He chuckled, “Faroot is for the thunder crystal. It’s full of vitality and energy, and with a skilled life force, I can move that vitality into myself or things like thunder crystals. Plants like this faroot are extremely important for a priest like myself to have on hand.”

“So it’s like a… mana battery.” That last bit was a word Vilvav wasn’t familiar with, though Eliax was mostly muttering to herself so he didn’t ask. “And what did he do to owe you seventeen thousand bundles?”

“Kinthek may seem like a calm individual now, but… well, ten years ago I was called off to the City of Starlight, being the closest priest to the area. You see, a precocious young boy had somehow managed to not only find the city’s thunder crystal, but he also took the time and effort to dig the whole thing up before shattering it piece by piece.”

Eliax blinked at him, “ah… did he ever say why?”

Vilvav shook his head, “Never. I used to ask almost every day.”

“Wow. And he was what, five? Seven? That’s a bit intense.”

Vilvav opened his mouth and closed it again, she didn’t know? Was that the only reason she was alright with being friends with the poor kid? Or was it the constant awe of younger children for older children, even if she didn’t act much like other kids. “Eliax, do you not know what the Red Curse is?” Vilvav contemplated leaving it at that, even if she didn’t know. Kinthek didn’t have anyone on his side, Vilvav himself barely counted. It felt wrong to possibly get in the way of that.

She blinked at him, “It’s the reason he has red hair, right? Some ancestor sold his soul and the hair got passed down to him?”

Vilvav frowned slightly, “Yes… but do you know what he sold his soul for? All sacrifice has two ways.” he felt himself shift almost immediately into teacher mode. He hadn’t used that mode on anyone besides Kinthek since his son left…

She thought for a moment before shaking her head, “No, I’ve got nothing.”

Vilvav looked back down at the bundles of faroot, worrying once again that he was about to cost Kinthek his only friend. It wasn’t common that people didn’t already know what the red hair meant, and very few of those would stick around long enough to find out in such a way. But… well Eliax deserved to know, didn’t she? “The Red Curse asked for—or rather he demanded—that his life be extended. He would have lived twice the length that the world prepared for him.” Vilvav kept an eye on Eliax’s expression as he continued, “And so his descendants have the same. Kinthek mentally and physically is about fifteen or sixteen. But he’s been in this world for thirty one years.”

Eliax blinked at him. Her face hardly showed anything but surprise, which didn’t help Vilvav’s anxiety any. “Oh! Well that’s great then! I was worried for a second.”

Vilvav blinked back at her, incredulous. She wasn’t going to get mad? She wasn’t going to start calling Kinthek slurs or vow that she never speak to him again? “You were… worried?”

“From how serious you were making it, I half expected you to say that he eats people or something. I don’t really care either way in a practical sense. Out of curiosity though, is that what most people who sell their souls ask for? Immortality?”

Vilvav stared at her for several seconds, suddenly worried that she would be after that. He’d never heard of someone so young even knowing much about her own mortality, but… “You don’t plan on trying it, right?”

She rolled her eyes, “Immortality sounds like far too much existing.”

The priest massaged his temples, wrong again. “Well, I suppose I’m glad about that. But yes, in practically every case I’ve heard of, the person in question asked for some kind or another of longer life.”

“Huh.”

The two of them sat there for a long moment, Vilvav frowning slightly at Eliax, wondering what in the world she wasn’t telling him. It wasn’t that she was hiding something, but he was sure that she hadn’t explained her reasons properly.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

With a sigh, Vilvav stood up, feeling his back pop in both a satisfying and painful manner—it was becoming more clear the older he got why so many priests misused life force just to soothe some aches… ow ow ow… the pain faded somewhat and he stretched his back again, pleased that it was back to normal again.

He gestured toward the door, “Why don’t you go find young Kinthek, tell him to come here.”

Eliax had her head tilted as she watched his back, “In a second. Why are your bones so crackly?”

Vilvav chuckled, “I’m old, practically ancient enough to have been there for the dawn of Anything by your standards.”

She seemed amused about something as she finally exited the tent.

--- ELIAX ---

I blinked away the teleportation haze, peering up and down the river. I didn’t see Kinthek on this stretch either, which was odd. He couldn’t have gotten too far in just a few hours, could he?

I shook my head and teleported further downstream, trying out a half remembered locator spell as I continued onward. Locator spells, even though they were technically mostly dimensionalism, had more in common with mental enhancements in structure, and I sucked at those. So as predicted, the spell fizzled out after a moment.

Sparking…

I peered up and down the next stretch of river, frowning. If he’d gone and gotten himself killed when he’d finally paid off his debt, then I’d feel bad about it. I didn’t like feeling bad about things. It made me… ah… feel bad.

I glared at the floating water for a moment before shaking my head and teleporting again. I only had a few pieces of the river route memorized, which was sloppy on my part, plus it was mostly dark by now too. There were holes in my search, so the idea that he’d slipped through one of them was far too possible to let me comfortably keep going.

I sighed, internally calculating the energy drain. I was at about half maximum simply because it was so late in the day, as well as those teleports earlier. If I started flying then the sheer amount of distortions necessary would drop that remaining energy like a stone.

And there was no guarantee that I would even find him if I started flying. I glared up at the sky, then looked back at the water, which was starting to glow in the area closest to me. Odd.

I shook my head, jumping into the air and bending the space around me. Screw it. I started to fall back down, and a quick teleport into the air above me, as well as a small hesitant time distortion—I was still pretty bad at those—slowed my fall enough to leave me mostly hovering there as I peered at the land below.

He definitely wasn’t on this stretch, but I couldn’t look farther out until I turned around first. If he beat me back somehow then I would never live it down. So, with a sigh, I pushed myself quickly back toward Eternal River.

-

It was a relief when I finally found him, at least it was on my part. Kinthek’s panicked expression when I fell out of the sky in front of him was anything but relieved.

“Eliax!” his voice went surprisingly high there. Now that I thought about it, the fact that his voice seemed so mature at only fifteen should have clued me in a bit earlier that he wasn’t aging like a regular person. Didn’t most boys have that voice-awkward stage about that age or was that earlier?

I grinned at him, “Kinthek.”

He looked up at the sky, suddenly anxious, probably worried that other people were about to start falling from it. “Eliax where in the world did you come from?!”

I followed his gaze upward, “The sky. I thought you were watching!”

“I wasn’t- Since when can you randomly fall from the sky?!” he paused, “Are you alright?”

I rolled my eyes, of course that’s what he was asking. “Yes, I’m fine, flying isn’t nearly as difficult as most people seem to think. Besides, I actually found you, didn’t I?”

“You can fly?!?!”

“Not as well as I’d prefer, but technically yes.”

Kinthek stared at me for several seconds before shaking his head, his gaze still baffled, “You know, I really should have realized when I first met you that you wouldn’t make any sense. Stars, I’m used to being the one that no one can understand! I didn’t realize there were people worse than me!”

I grinned, “Hang around me long enough and it’ll just get more weird!”

He smiled back, “Somehow I find that comforting.”

I gestured toward the village, “Let’s go, That Vespin guy has some good news for you.”

He perked up visibly at that, probably guessing the nature of the news, “Really! I’m done then?” He hefted the bundle on his back, and the several hours I’d spent staring at mostly identical ones had me shuddering slightly.

“I refuse to confirm or deny anything!” I started up the river, Kinthek following behind without question. “But I had an interesting conversation with him before coming to get you.”

Kinthek raised an eyebrow, “yeah?” He probably thought it was about something stupid. I usually only made stupid observations out loud.

I glanced at him, “Why didn’t you ever tell me that you’re secretly thirty! That’s completely unfair.”

He blinked at me, his gaze suddenly nervous, “ah… you didn’t know that?”

“Sparks no! You look like a child!”

“I look like a young man!”

“I’m an expert on what counts as a child, and let me tell you, the world doesn’t care as long as you look like one.”

He gave me a curious glance, “You aren’t… going to start calling me soulless or demon spawn? No shoe throwing or shouting?”

I rolled my eyes, sparking people in this world, sparking afraid of magic… they didn’t even have a word for magic, which just resulted in annoyingly complicated explanations. As far as I was concerned, this was only a symptom of the problem. “Kinthek, if I hated you because you’ll live longer than everyone else, then I would be a hypocrite. I’m sorry that you’ve had to deal with all those things.”

He opened his mouth, and then closed it again, “Hypocrite? Why?”

“Kinthek, mentally I’m more than twice your actual age.”