4I'm really sorry for the chapter delay. Thanks for being so patient :)
"Where are you off too?"
I hardly turn around—who needs to when the voice behind me is all-too-familiar? "It's obvious, isn't it?" I reply. "I'm going to find the offerings."
The boy behind me hesitates. And then he lets out a roaring titter that doesn't stop as he sneers, "You're hardly supposed to be here at all, wretch, stand aside so the real High Entia can complete the ceremony! I'm shocked you even showed up! None of the other ones did!"
Finally, I turn to face the boy. He stands with a smirk in front of the rest of the High Entian boys, and his crossed arms tighten the longer I stare at him.
One of the others, an Ansel-faced child with long grey hair, leans closer to the boy who seems to be their ringleader. As he murmurs something, his blue eyes lift back to me with a grit of his teeth, and he pulls back. The head one twists around to glance to the others. Then he returns his gaze to me.
"Face it, Sung, you're just going to die here. Unless that was your intention all along." His sneering smirk, wider now, returns. "So stand aside."
With a glance off toward the twin Sororal Stautes before us, I fold my arms and scoff, "Why should I? If you are correct, and I am to die here, then I have no problems in going on my own. You can return my body once you find it. Unless you plan on throwing it to the Volffs."
My accusation makes him stutter out a heated denial, but before he could say anything else, I finish walking to the end of the platform we all stand on and dive into the water.
"So. Dream or memory, Sung?"
I ask this in a whisper as I wander away from our makeshift camp in the rubble of Colony 6. My footsteps crunch on the coarse, densely-packed ground, and I glance back to the little pond, where everyone else is still curled up asleep. The sun is nearly up. I don't want to have to wake them.
But by Sung's exhausted grunt, I've at least woken him.
What do you mean, dream or memory?
"I had a dream. It had you in it."
What? If I'm not mistaken, his tone's gotten sharper.
I pause as I try to think about how to describe it. "You had wings on your head, 'cept one of them was all bent up, and a bunch of other boys with the same wings were making fun of you."
Sung doesn't respond at first—but I can just feel his tension. Brodei, that could be anything, he says, put off, give me a location or a name if you want my help.
"I don't know…some really humid, foggy place with water. But—!" I add this hastily so he doesn't cut in and make fun of my poor descriptive ability. "You looked over to these statues, and it was like, I just instantly knew what they were. They were the Sor—"
Sororal Statues. Sung drones this before I could get my words out, and with a sigh, he continues. Satorl Marsh. It was named after two sisters in our history—Soltnar and Khatorl. He hesitates. I should clarify that when I say our, I mean mine.
I frown in concern. "You told me you were like me. If you weren't a Homs, why didn't you say anything? Now everyone thinks you are!"
Apology accepted, Sung mocks. Did you really think it would be easy to try to explain something like that? So I'm not a Homs. By this point, I'm not even a High Entia, does it really matter? No, scratch that, don't answer, because it does.
"I'm sorry, a High Entia? So that dream was actually a memory? They're real?" I mean to just whisper this, but it comes out more harsh than I intended.
Of course they're real, what kind of Homs are you, forgetting—
"What, forgetting the dominant species?"
Sung stops.
"Yeah, that night we stayed on the floor of Dickson's? I remember." I sigh. "But believe it or not, right now I could really care less."
Wow, you're so generous. His voice drips with sarcasm.
"Look, sometimes…" I kick at a loose rock near the defensive wall of the colony. "Sometimes when we were in the refugees' camp, I wondered how they really thought of me and Xanath. This was their home." With a lonely shrug, I lean against the wall. "And I'm built with the same metal as the Mechon. I'm hardly a Homs anymore. I…don't even really know how much of me is left."
Sung is silent.
"So if you don't believe you're a High Entia anymore 'cause you're just a soul now, am I not even a Homs?"
I may physically be nothing anymore, but I still believe I'm a High Entia. If I forsake that, I forsake everything I am. He pauses, almost as if he's become uncomfortable. By that logic, you are still a Homs.
I'm silent. And then I nod, but it's probably not as energetic as Sung expected. "Do you believe that for real or is it more just to deal with what happened to your body, Sung?"
Sung viscerally recoils back. Before he has a chance to reply, however, something glinting in the rising sun gets my attention, and I hurry to it, several meters off nearby the wall.
As I approach it, I see what looks like tarnished metal.
Brodei, it's just some rubbish, leave it be, Sung says with disgust.
I take hold of it and begin to dig it out. My gloved fingers shove through the layers of dusty rubble around the object, and as soon as I get enough of a hold dug out, I grab it and pull hard.
A bent, dirty sword is in my hands.
"You made me a sword once in your forge. It was several years ago. You wanted me to be able to protect my friend."
Whatever Sung was about to say falls into a stunned silence.
Before I know what I'm doing, I run back to the camp, screaming, "You guys! Wake up!"
Shi's hand grips the hilt of the sword testingly as we all watch. He lifts his head and gives us an eyebrow raise. "What?"
"I know it's pretty busted, but does it work for you?" I ask.
After a moment of looking it over again, Shi nods. "Yeah. I think…maybe I could fix it up, if I had the supplies…" With a shrug, he adds, "I'll see what we can find later."
"Yay!" Mayni says. "So you feel okay still, we can keep going?"
With a twist of his mouth, Shi itches his arm and adjusts the sleeve of his tunic. "Yeah, Satorl Marsh is just ahead, correct?"
Anactro and I glance at the Colony 6 defense wall—and beyond that…
"I definitely can't forget it," Xanath snorts, folding his arms. "If I've got to go through there again, we stick together." He jabs a finger my way, and I recoil back. "And I'm blaming Sung if I get jacked up with poison again."
My chest floods green as I roll my eyes. "You would have no one to blame but you, Xanath." I point back at him with a smug twist of my mouth. "Honestly, I'd be shocked if the Upas did manage to do that again, considering you're…what, mostly metal now?"
With a scowl, Xanath turns and stalks to the open doors of the colony walls. "Thanks for the reminder, Sung. Thanks a lot."
"Well, you're not in bad company, Xanath, Brodei's the same as you!" I lace my fingers behind my head as I follow him. "Not like you care to get to know him."
"Now that I can blame you for!" Xanath shouts back.
I catch Anactro's stare my way as I chuckle—but it fades fast. "Thanks for the reminder, Xanath. Thanks a lot," I mutter.
"Guys." Everyone turns around as they start to head deeper into the mist hanging in the air around us. "Can I make a suggestion that you're all probably going to hate?"
Xanath cocks an eyebrow and leans back as he folds his arms. "Depends. If you're gonna tell us to take a rest, no. If we can't stop to eat 'cause we're in a hurry, no. Just 'cause me and Brodei's sick doesn't mean we're not stoppin' to eat."
I roll my eyes. "Fine, Xanath, we're not going to stop for a rest, but we're going to stop to eat."
"What's your suggestion?" Mayni asks in a wary voice. Her hands adjust the sleeves of her pinkish-brown tunic in nerves.
"I…I want to take the lead through Satorl Marsh," I say.
The group falls silent. I watch as they look at each other.
"Why?" Anactro asks.
With a cross of his arms, Shi says, "I know you know a lot about the Bionis and where we're going and all, but I think—"
"Trust me, I can get us through Satorl," I say quickly. "It's not a safe place, and I know what to do."
To my surprise, it's Xanath who finally sighs and nods. "I mean, the last time I tried to get through, I was shot up with Upa poison and hauled off by Mechon. It's better than me tryin' ta do it." He sighs again, though it was more out of annoyance this time. "I don't wanna admit that he knows how to get through it. But he does, so." His hands slap at his sides as he raises his arms in exasperation.
Mayni, confused, glances to a surprised Anactro, then to a skeptical Shi. "Is it because you work for the Mechonis?"
I frown. "No." Why are you asking that as if I'm plotting something against the Bionis? "I was here a long time ago, but…" A thin laugh escapes me. "Trust me, I could never forget about it."
Shi lets out a frustrated groan as he rolls his green eyes, which makes me look up at him. "I just, I don't see why we should bother. You were here years ago, so what? That doesn't make you the expert on Bionis travel."
"No, it doesn't," I snap back, "but this place was a large part of my childhood. Believe me, even if I haven't been here in a long time, I know Satorl Marsh better than all of you combined. When you have to fight through it as a child just to prove yourself to everyone else, it kind of burns into your memory."
"I—" Shi starts. He then glances off. "I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry."
Confused, I ask, "Why are you so apologetic all of a sudden?"
"It's nothing!" he snaps.
Anactro, as if sensing Shi's bothered attitude, waves a hand to get our attention. "Fine, you can lead us, okay? But you can't like…" He taps his cane a bit against a rock and squeezes his eyes shut. "Urgh. Look, agh, if you're gonna do it, you gotta promise something."
I roll my eyes and lean against the cliff wall. "Fine then. I'll promise something."
I knew they would react like this, but what's the deal with a promise? Brodei suddenly laughs. Hey, I bet it's a promise that you won't lie to 'em!
My body tenses up in a fast jerk. Don't get cheeky, I'm not like that.
Look, they just don't wanna be tricked, Sung. They don't know you all that well, you're still a stranger to them.
Like I care, they've had plenty of time to get used to me.
They've definitely done that…
A determined look flashes across Anactro's face. I glance up to him with wariness. "I think, if you're gonna lead, you gotta tell us why you know it so well."
As I go to open my mouth in defense, Mayni throws in, "Don't just say it was 'cause you needed to do something as a kid, you have to be honest!" She says this in a way that a child might try to act strict.
I growl. "Why do you want to know? It doesn't matter."
"Well then, you can't lead us," Shi states with a shrug. "After all, it doesn't matter."
With a grit of my teeth, I exhale hard and shove myself off the moist, cold rock. "Fine, you want to know so bad? When I was a child, every High Entian male had to undergo a trial to become an adult, they called it the Coming-of-Age ceremony. I call it the Adulthood Rite, because that's all it was, a pointless way of proving you were more than your age! That's what I had to do, and I almost died doing it!"
…you mentioned that before, I remember that.
All of them just stare at me. Everyone except for Xanath—who upturns his eyes to the cliff tops and mutters something—turns to look at Shi, who gives them a confused expression back. As if obligated to talk for the group now, Shi turns to me. "What on Bionis are you talking about? The High Entia are just a story, so don't give me that excuse! Give us a real answer."
Anger flushes my face. "I'm sorry, what? What on Zanza are you talking about, the High Entia are very real and wouldn't take too kindly to being reduced to a children's tale!" I shout. Shi digs his brows down and holds his ground. "I am just a soul now, yes, but I am not a Homs soul! And if you can't believe that, tough, because either way, I answered your question, and I'm going to lea—"
"He's right," Xanath says. He shifts his position sitting in the grass beside the rock wall, as if he's tense about something. "He's right, all right, so…" Grunting, he pushes his hair out of his face. "They're a thing. They have giant wings on their head. I don' have much for a memory, but I remember feeling Sung's wings all the time, like, psychological or whatever. I bet Brodei feels 'em, too."
Sung, snarling under his breath, stalks off into some corner of my head, and just as quick as the green dies, I'm nodding fast. "He keeps complaining about them, and it's getting on my nerves," I say, internally shooting a glare his way.
"Mommy told me about them." Mayni awkwardly rubs her arms. "The High Entia. She said they're…" I frown as her face twists slightly. "…as real as Daddy."
She didn't—…
Let it be, Sung, so what about it? I snap back internally to him.
He almost sounds frustrated as he replies, I didn't mean it in a… And then he sighs, as if it wasn't worth his breath to talk about anymore.
Fine then.
"Brodei, you said he was a Homs." Shi's tone is taut and firm—as if I've betrayed his confidence by not knowing what on Bionis the soul inside of me even is!
"He wouldn't have even told you if you didn't push him, so how would I know?! What does it matter, anyway?" I ask, frustrated. "We need to keep moving, right? So let's just trust him. What could go wrong if he knows so much?"
They all turn to each other before nodding, and, together, we enter into the choking fog that's Satorl Marsh.
