Winter 9, 511 AV "Just a little further, I think." Seodai had promised that at least five times, and he was sure that Talen had long since stopped believing it. He really hoped he was right this time, though, because it seemed to be getting colder as the day wore on, temperatures dropping as he and his cousin trudged through the rough tundra on the outskirts of Denval proper, looking for something tiny and green amidst the frost covered rubble. The pack Seodai wore bounced against his hip, an annoyance he wanted to shirt an hour before. It was filled with water enough for he and Talen, but that could have been carried much more conveniently than this. The rest of the things filling the pack were at the insistence of Caelum, the sentiment echoed by a Cian Noc who had passed through in the middle of the pseudo lecture he had received. Apparently he was doing an appalling job of keeping his wounds clean enough until either of the healers could fix them up properly. Seodai had, at length, conceded and agreed to be better prepared. That didn't mean he had to like it. Every time it brushed him the pack reminded him of how imperfect the skin he wore in this life was. He had been bothered by it before, when he was just Seodai. Now that his mind was filled with Melchior, it was even more demeaning. An insult, really, to be so flawed and so utterly incapable of fixing it. Today wasn't about himself, though. It wasn't about coming to terms with who he had once been, with who he was now. It wasn't about being Alahean, or Denvali. It wasn't even about Syllke, whom Seodai had found was the most certain place to find peace and comfort. To be grounded into himself, into the present. Today was about Cici. Though Talen was the only cousin Seodai actively befriended, actively involved himself with, and actively cared for, that didn't mean he did not understand the concept of family. He was Theo's son in that way, and had learned far too much from his beloved Uncle to be so callous. Anytime his father or mother needed something of him, he was quick to respond, even if it often left him sullen for a day to follow. That same spirit extended to aunts and uncles, cousins. And so it was that, when CiCi had fallen ill, and when nothing was working to chase away her fatigue, her lethargy, her fever, Cian had come. "Why is it all the way out here?" his cousin, looking very much the Denvali guard in all of his gear, asked. Seodai had laughed when Talen had arrived so prepared, but he was really relieved and quite glad to have him hovering just over his shoulder. After all, even this close to Denval, things could be dangerous. And Seodai couldn't let go of the words the gods had left them in the fall, with so many ominous suggestions about danger to come. "Because it isn't native to Denval. Our climate is much too harsh. Theo and I usually keep it in one of the greenhouses, but we have to use our gnosis to nurture it." It made perfect sense to Seodai, as things often do to the well-informed, but only seemed to puzzle Talen, who pointed out that they were, in fact, still in Denval - if only on the outskirts of it. "Yes," Seodai replied with a shrug. "I know. But this is where we found it first, several years ago. I don't know why it would grow here, and not elsewhere. Theo says it is more comfortable in the south, where Syna is warmer for much of the year. But, the rubble is sparse ahead, and there's a place where there is a full cubit of unencumbered dirt. We found it there, once, growing in the snow. I'm hoping we can find it again, because we do not even have a seedling on the farm." That a cure might so fully depend upon one little plant was a great deal of pressure for Seodai, who felt as if his hands had been bound behind his back since the incident with the grapes. Talen had been there for that, to see his god given power explode into something nasty and vile. He was helpless and sometimes felt useless without Bala. At least, in this, he could try to help. He knew what he was looking for, as only a few other people in Denval might. Theo, for certain, and Cian Noc. Seodai thought Caelum probably did too. But, of the lot of them, he was by far the most dispensable to send on a search mission for something tiny and green. Talen? Talen was the muscle meant to keep him safe. And, since it was a tiny cousin of their very own, they both had a vested interest in seeing this through. "Not far," Seodai promised, yet again, with a half smile offered back to the blonde behind. |