“One of the Somas told you I left?” Ral frowned, unable to pinpoint a single Yscian who would willingly keep in contact with an outsider. Perhaps Bette? “Which one?”

“A good freerunner doesn’t reveal their sources,” Rask said.

Ral scoffed. “Did your little bird tell you why I left?”

“No. But I had a feeling things weren’t working out for you. Back then you practically begged me to let you stay with them for reasons beyond my understanding.” There was the rough sound of Rask stroking the stubble on his chin. “And you spent years there building a rapport. Something drastic must have happened for you to just leave.”

For long moments Ral was silent, not wanting the man who was practically a father to him to know - he didn’t want to feel like he was complaining about how mistreated he was, how different he felt. They were the same height now, sun-curse it, he was supposed to be an adult. He’d already lost Mikol, Bette, and now Kentor - what in sun’s name would he do if he lost Rask’s respect as well?

But the older man was waiting in pointed silence and Ral knew he wasn’t going to escape it. So Ral started telling him everything he could remember: life with the Somas and how they all hated him except for Mikol and Bette. About the holy stones that he broke and the punishments. The stories the Somas spoke of and how he discovered the Trial. Ral then spoke about the Trial itself being a Gate that opened in the middle of nowhere - here he could tell Rask was nearly leaning forward to catch his every word. He spoke about meeting Ankle, presumably a Part who can stop time and taught him how to close Gates.

It tore at him but he described Mikol’s betrayal, carefully describing the talisman and the details that led to him being Champion. He spoke of Kentor and how he was saved from the desert after recklessly leaving the Somas with only the clothes on his back. He even spoke about his strange dream about Aris, but he had no idea if any of that was rooted in reality. After speaking for a long time, he was able to finally explain what they were doing in Alkkes. Kentor had convinced him to stay to be a trader, to make some money before traveling some more.

“And?” Rask asked him at that point. “Did you seriously consider becoming a merchant?”

“Does it matter? Kentor had been deceiving me. We were staying here so that they could serve me to their god.” Ral couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“It sounded like you were at least partially content with life here, or else you wouldn’t have stayed,” Rask said.

“I had a debt to pay to Kentor,” Ral said. “And I thought that… I thought that I would forget how to live amongst Gaians again. I thought we needed each other. That’s why I stayed.”

“I see.”

They were silent for several beats. Rask handed him a skin of water and he drank some, surprised at how dry his throat felt from all the talking.

“How did this Kentor know where to find you?”

“I don’t know. He made it seem like an accident; he said he was traveling for trade when the Somas found him and captured him. Are you thinking he got captured purposely?”

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“Yes. And the Gate at the desert - I have a feeling he’s responsible for that as well. You said you saw a corpse of a Gaian during the Trial?”

“Yes.”

“Then it makes sense. Kentor and other Bringers opened that Gate under the behest of their god, probably to lure that Part out and to prove you are indeed the Solaris.”

“But why?” Ral got up in a fit of frustration. “Why go through all that trouble, why set up all these farces? And why me?”

“I don’t have enough information to paint the whole picture, but from what I gather, the Bringers operate heavily on a kind of hidden code and prophecy. If it’s true that their god is a being that actually exists and communicates through the Gates, everything they do is dictated through this god. As for why you’re caught up in all this…” Rask shifted, the movement making a faint gritty sound against the dirt floor. “It’s you and Aris. Haven’t you heard the two of you were destined to do this?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Now that you’ve seen a Part, it’s all but confirmed,” Rask said. “Nilda was right all those years ago. We must keep the two of you alive. The stars have something in store for you and Aris and it’s about the Gates. You and the little moon are the key to all this, we must find the truth behind it.”

“I don’t understand how you can come to that conclusion,” Ral said. “Aris and I live under strange circumstances, yes, but how can you be so sure we’re the key?”

Rask was quiet for a few moments. “Do you remember what Nilda was capable of?” he then asked. “Her powers, abilities, what details do you remember?”

“She could manipulate stone,” Ral answered.

“Quite unique, wouldn’t you say?” Rask said. “She never explicitly told me but your mother let slip a few times that she wasn’t born with those abilities. Someone had given them to her through a procedure. A painful one.”

Ral frowned - the only way that would be possible, to his amateur knowledge on abilities, would be extensive use of runes. His frown deepened at the thought of where such elaborate runes would be hidden permanently on Nilda.

“Well where she learned to bend rocks like clay isn’t the point but rather her position in your lives. She kept Taurine alive, then she made sure to keep you and Aris alive. The night before she died she begged me to keep you two safe. I have no doubts she loved you two but it felt… deeper than that. The reason was much deeper than her care for you. It was like she knew and I can’t seem to refute the idea that she was given her abilities solely to ensure your survival along with Aris’s.”

They had no way of knowing if it was true for now. Perhaps he should feel honored but Ral felt sick at the idea of Nilda existing and dying because of him. He tried to look at the freerunner through the near darkness of the night, the overcast sky not letting much moonlight through for him to see properly. Both he and Aris knew Rask loved Nilda. Would they have gotten married if it wasn’t for some annoying destiny?

How many futures have they ruined for simply existing?

The thought overwhelmed him again. He sat back down, yet again feeling small and childish before his longtime guardian. Ral took a long shaky breath. “I’m sorry,” he finally said.

“For what?” Rask sounded surprised.

“I’m not sure,” Ral said. But it was a lie. He felt sorry for doing this to Rask, Nilda and his parents. Sorry that all these people had to play a game set up by unseen forces.

“We must follow where the Solvent flows,” Rask said.

“What?”

“It’s something Nilda used to say. She worked for your grandfather, you know. Was your mother’s handmaid long before she went to Caelis. She said your grandfather told her that. ‘We must follow where the Solvent flows.’ She never resented where life took her, Ralos.”

Despite years apart, the freerunner could still read him like a book. Ral sagged against the rocky wall at his back, letting Rask’s words comfort him.

“And I don’t either,” Rask continued quietly. “Wherever this life takes us, little sun, I wish to see it to the end.”