He worked out a system: he would feed Aris stories of his time with the Somas and feed her actual food at the same time. If the weather was fair, they would sit under that tree by the cliff and have their midday meal there. If it rained, Aris would be waiting for him at the top of the lighthouse in a cramped space just under the illumination orb chamber.
“Camaz would never come up here,” she assured him. He had given her the pretense that he didn’t want people to overhear him.
It wasn’t a lie. He considered adjusting the story such that Mikol was simply a friend that betrayed him. But what would be the point of lying to the person he wanted to understand the most? So he told her everything during their private lunches. Since he was busy talking, Aris had at least one decent meal a day and slowly she began to look less gaunt.
To Ral’s relief, Aris was much more fascinated with his experiences with Gates and the Bringers. “A large amount of horse blood?” she had clarified when he recounted his time in Alkkes. “Surely one Gate wouldn’t take that much. A bucket at most. You saw the runes on the ground around the Gate?”
“Yes. Drawn in blood.”
“But there was also a dead man there. Typically the blood runes are drawn with the sacrifice’s blood. It makes the most sense to tie the sacrifice to the enchantment that way.” Aris took a huge bite of a meat bun and chewed thoughtfully. “But a large amount of horse blood was taken. What did they use it for?”
“You are asking the wrong man.”
“Runists often have a large stock of writing mediums for two reasons. One is that they have no idea what they’re doing and will need plenty of revisions to make it right.”
“The Bringers know how to open a Gate,” Ral said. “They do it all the time.”
“Second is if they need to make a huge enchantment. A large scale project.”
“The Gate seemed larger than normal,” Ral admitted. “But then again what is normal for Gates?”
“From the sounds of it, if the Gate was any larger you wouldn’t have been able to escape,” Aris said. She tilted her head at him. “Can you imagine if there was a Gate the size of a city?”
Ral felt nauseous. “That… they can’t,” he whispered.
“Why not?” Aris took another bite and chewed. “Camaz told me of his theory that Bringers are opening Gates as if they are poking holes in a dam. Then naturally forming Gates are signs that the dam is weakening and forming their own holes. If the Bringer’s motive is to destroy the dam altogether, wouldn’t it make sense they try to poke as big a hole as possible to weaken it?”
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“What would happen if the dam was destroyed?”
“Mind would win,” Aris shrugged. She had already told him and Camaz about her full discussion with the Part named Doran. It would have been a fascinating conversation if it didn’t scare the sun’s light from him. “If the dam breaks then perhaps one, all encompassing Gate will stretch across the empire and every single Gaian will be turned into Unseeing.”
Ral thumped his head against the stone wall of the lighthouse. He recalled Aris saying the Part named Mind wished to exact revenge on Gaians, but the exact reason why is unknown. Aris nudged him to finish his story. There wasn’t much left except for his experience in Sansre. When he finally finished, Aris was left picking at the crumbs of her meal.
“You seem to be torn,” she commented.
“What do you mean?”
“Tell me, brother, if we ever draw a conclusion to this whole mess that Doran pulled us into, what are you going to do?” As usual, Aris’s upper face was hidden by bandages but she still managed to look like she was staring straight at him. She could technically see his solute. It was like she squinted at it, scrutinizing every detail. “Will you go back to Sansre and help the poor unfortunate souls with Rask? Will you be a younger version of Rask and be Freerunner and wander the lands? Will you return to Alkkes and continue making money? Or will you return to the desert and demand some answers?”
“You sound like I’ve been around,” Ral said, mockingly hurt.
“You have,” Aris said. “You’ve traveled around most of the Parts-damned empire. And every place you go, you find something to tie yourself to. You invest in something. Isn’t it exhausting?”
“I… I had no ‘ties’ to Alkkes,” Ral said. “I mean I liked the place but after some strange cult tries to kill you, it tends to leave a sour taste in your mouth.”
“Oh please, if you didn’t find out that Kentor was a lying slimebag you would have happily just been a merchant’s mule for the rest of your days,” Aris snorted. “And playing detective to try to find a horse?”
“I admit that was quite fun.”
Aris shook her head disappointingly.
“I simply try to make the most of what I have,” Ral said defensively. “What about you? You’ve stayed here for a decade and you act like you don’t know the place. I know the trope is that you should be my polar opposite but please.”
“It’s not a trope, it’s literally the definition of our roles in life,” Aris said. “The sun and the moon. Male and female. We are supposed to be opposites. And you are not going to avoid my question.”
“I have no answer,” Ral said, amused. He missed this. He had missed her. “You’re asking about my plans after every single Gate is closed and Mind is no longer on a murderous rampage. Are you asking for an epilogue before the ending?”
“Hm. Occupational side effect. Camaz always likes to plan ahead.”
“Or maybe just nosy?” Ral offered innocently. That earned him a painful smack on the knee.
“I think you’re just afraid of confronting Mikol,” she said. “You obviously don’t want to talk about him. But he was a bastard and this is coming from me.”
Ral tried to come up with a response. Should he defend Mikol? Should he deny it?
Aris continued before he could decide. “For what it’s worth, Ralos, if we ever finish our work here I’ll go back to that damn desert with you and beat the shit out of him.”
He surprised himself with a laugh. No, beating Mikol up wasn’t what he wanted. But at least he knew Aris was on his side and for now that was all he needed.