Heirs of Hyarch

Hamond sat there watching Edeline sleep.

There was little else he could do in this small room, and he wasn't about to go wandering Syrkonel's manor. With Edeline having eaten two full plates of food along with even more wine being served, she wasn't waking up any time soon. Hamond was feeling a little sleepy himself, but it was still a bit too early for that.

In contrast, Sedat didn't seem the least bit tired. "Sure neither of you is going to step on my wings?"

"You'll be fine." They'd had to move the bed over a bit to make space for Sedat to lay down. While there was just enough for her to lay down, it didn't leave much open floor for moving about the room. It wasn't unreasonable for Sedat to worry that someone might be careless, but Hamond couldn't do anything about the problem. It would be rude to go bother Syrkonel about it now.

It didn't help that the Elefae man had vanished right after their discussion. Whether it was continued astonishment over what Myronel had revealed or simply being busy with other matters was unclear. It had been the maid who'd served the wine that had been the one to show them to these rooms. Hamond hoped this hadn't involved barring that maid from her own room.

"Your fault then if I don't have the feathers to fly later," Sedat said, her tone making it clear it was an attempt at a joke.

"Are you saying I'm the one who'd step on you?" Hamond asked teasingly.

"Can't rule it out." Sedat grinned.

Hamond just shook his head. The walls surrounding Melyn - or any other large Hyarchian city - would likely be more persuadable than Sedat. Then again, part of it had to be Sedat suffering from more than a little boredom. There were only so many things she could talk about with Hamond, and no one else was coming around to speak.

Just right as he was thinking that, a faint knock sounded on the door.

Not wanting to raise his voice and risk waking Edeline, as low a chance as there was of that, Hamond rose and padded over to the door, opening it just enough to peer out. It was Jylania standing there, shifting back and forth in place uneasily.

"Can I come in?" she quietly asked. Hamond nodded and pulled the door open wide, stepping back so she could enter.

"I knew it," Sedat said. Hamond looked over only to realize he had just missed the tip of one of her wings with his foot. Alright, maybe she did have a point after all. Hamond made a note to make certain they weren't put back in here for another night.

Jylania stepped inside, pressing her back against the wall next to the door so not to crowd it further. Hamond thought she was overdoing it a bit. The room wasn't that small that it couldn't hold another person, and Jylania was still fairly small. Although...thinking back, Jylania had gotten a bit taller recently. Another reason for them to get new clothing for her as well the rest of them.

"So why did you come over here?" Hamond shut the door.

Jylania's face flushed. "They...they're busy."

"Getting busy with each other, right?" Sedat asked.

Hamond gave Sedat a frustrated look as Jylania buried her head in her hands. "What would you know about that?"

"No privacy for ashabti," she answered.

Right, Sedat had told him that shortly after they left Lasfont. They didn't exactly have a lot of privacy on the road either, but they at least made an effort to keep certain things out of sight. Mostly at Edeline's insistence, but setting some boundaries was not without reason. Of course, those reasons wouldn't exist for people who were forced into lives of labor.

That excuse only went so far though.

"You're not an ashabti any more," Hamond reminded Sedat.

"Sorry. Thought she'd be used to it by now."

That much Hamond could believe. Looking back and forth between the two girls, he wondered if they'd ever reach a point where they could stay in a separate room together. It would certainly avoid problems like this coming up every time Myronel and Nela wanted to...well, as Sedat had put it, get busy with each other.

"Why don't you..." Jylania trailed off. Hamond guessed she was about to insult Sedat yet again, and had managed to stop herself this time.

"Trading rooms is fine by me, but they might not like it," Sedat replied, "Myronel's a big man. Between me and him, there's not much space left for Nela. Then again, she's thin. Could work after all."

"I wasn't asking for that," Jylania admitted, glancing away. "Just...I don't know. Maybe I should go back."

"No, you shouldn't." Hamond wasn't about to let Jylania have the chance to go off on her own again, even if it wasn't likely to end in her running away from them a second time. "Just stay here for now."

Jylania sighed, and then sat down in the corner opposite Sedat, right where Hamond had been seated before. With no choice, Hamond carefully lowered himself onto the bed next to Edeline. She shifted slightly, but showed no signs of being awoken.

"So what were you talking about?" Jylania tentatively asked.

"Stepping on my wings," Sedat replied immediately.

"Is that...a joke?" Jylania glanced over to Hamond, clearly wanting him to confirm that.

Hamond shook his head. "She doesn't like the small rooms."

"I don't either," Jylania said.

"Guess we've got something in common." Sedat smiled, idly scratching at one of her feet with the talons of the other. "Other than traveling together, that is."

At this, Jylania looked down at her feet. "I guess that's true. I...I should apologize."

"No reason to," Sedat told Jylania.

"But I don't want to end up like them though," Jylania countered.

"Like your mother and father?" Hamond didn't see how that connected with the events of the past few days.

"Like those men who that elf leader talked about. They gave up because things didn't go the way they wanted. Threw their companion away because it didn't benefit them. With...with the way I am right now, I'd probably do it to Sedat myself."

"So we're the same that way too then," Sedat commented.

Jylania drew back. "What do you mean?"

"Thought you knew my bird side of me will lash out. Have to hold it back, just like you have to hold your darker side back. Doesn't make you a bad person, since plenty of people need to do the same. A lot of problems like ours probably come from people who couldn't or wouldn't."

Hamond had to agree, except for one point. "It isn't usually a matter of not being able to. Most could choose a better path, but they refuse." The Spellking, his father, Kalvarel...it could apply to any or all of them.

"A better path," Jylania echoed, "That's why I wanted to learn to be a healer in the first place. To become an elf..."

"Not sure you could call mine a path, with me learning how to fly and all," Sedat said, her mind wandering astray yet again. "What do you call the way birds fly through the air? Not a road, that's for sure. A flocking, maybe?"

"I don't know," Jylania replied, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?" Sedat was apparently taking her turn at being confused.

"Just say whatever random thing you're thinking about." Jylania held up one hand, almost like she was going point a finger at Sedat, but stopped. "It makes talking to you hard."

"It's a habit, really," Sedat explained, "Doing work as an ashabti was so tedious, so it was easier just to think about anything else. Then when I got the wings, it helped kept me being myself. Talked to myself a lot too, when no one else was around."

Hamond wondered if it had given Sedat an odd reputation, both among the ashabti and the men they labored for. Still, that might've been a better method of coping with the truth of their situation than what Jylania had done. Better being a relative term, since neither had deserved what the world forced upon them.

"My mother once told me getting lost in errant thoughts was for fools," Jylania said.

"Guess that makes me a fool who can fly and throw wind spells. I'd say that makes me a winner. And you get to learn healing spells from someone who's really good at it too." The warm charm of Sedat's smile was on full display.

Even though she looked hesitant, Jylania was not immune, offering a small smile back. "I guess so. Oh...I should thank you for saving her."

"They saved me, I save them. It all balances out." Sedat suddenly yawned, then continued after it passed. "Probably will be a day when you save me too. More than once, actually, so keeping count would be hard. Not sure we could carry around enough paper to write it all down. Not that my wings let me write anyway."

"Maybe that's what I can do for you," said Jylania.

"Won't help me much. Still not very good at reading." Sedat's smile vanished.

"Edeline did offer to help you with that," Hamond reminded her.

"Yes, but no time now." Sedat gave the sleeping Edeline a glance. "Not likely there's going to be time either until we're done with helping the elves here."

"We won't be spending the entire time fighting." For some reason, Hamond thought of Edeline teaching Myronel magic. Not the best example to give, since it also involved Edeline's free time. Sedat likely wouldn't be happy to hear it.

"Hope not," Sedat said, "Would be terrible if we couldn't stop to eat or sleep."

It was very much not what Hamond had meant, but Sedat probably understood despite the trail of her thoughts again going in strange directions. Besides, those strange trails had proven to lead her - and the rest of them - to the right place before.

With what was coming, they might need that more than ever.