3rd of Summer
The Bright Lights
Unexpected was a suitable term that describe what was happened to Kazu at that moment. After Harte died, he was never been able to connect to anyone else. With Fang as exception, he never have any real thing with anyone on any level. Sure, his neighbors are good enough to throw a little bit of chitchat once in a while and he was polite enough to linger around for a few moment to listen to them… with a bunch of muttered comments about them after they went of earshot. People seemed to have a lot to talked about. While he was content enough with silence. Living alone was blissful... Until he realized that apparently he need Kina to survive… and unfortunately Kina did not grow on Sharai Peak.
That’s why several days ago he tighten his belt, gulp down the distaste, try not to overthink anything, and went to Zintia Peak. His goal? Looking for a job. Harte left the house and any small fortune she had. Although the fact is, that was the biggest sum of Kina he has ever seen, Kaze realized it wouldn’t last forever. The option is to get Kina, therefore it meant to get a job. Another, as Fang mentioned, is to start getting used to a diet consisting of grass and root. And of course he did not want to turn into Okomo. Not this season, not ever. Arianne would die in tears of laughter, if she knew. That though alone sent a shiver down his spine.
So he decided, it was to get a job.
It was always easier said than done, though. The amount of people roaming around Zintia Peak was just absolutely irritating. Why? Oh Why, for the brightest shine of Zintilla, it was like every person on entire Lhavit is on the street that day. And it was just terrifying. All of the other time he was here in the busiest streets of Lhavit, he always tried to shy away and looked for any stairs and or alleyway with less individual. But the worst part is he was there deliberately. That was sickening.
“It’s not too late to try grass, you know?” Kazu recalled Fang’s comment with a muse in his ear.
“Not a chance…” Kazu whispered back.
At the end, all the thing that anchored him back to reality was his logical thought of survival instinct. And somehow, Harte seemed to help him again.
***
“Done daydreaming?” Clisca seemed unimpressed. He put down a small sack of some kind of solid material on the wooden table. Through the opening Kazu could see thing inside was of various shape, some was even crumbled as fine as salt grain. From the years he had spent with Harte, he could guess it was beeswax. His nose also started to filled with familiar note in reminiscent of something creamy and rich. What he did not expect though, that the beeswax was in a gradient of a milk color and then darken into dark amber.
He touch one of them and his skin met with the soft yet solid substance. It was beeswax, and a pretty good one, if he must guess. Harte always worked with beeswax that was more yellowish in color. He did not know where Clisca get this ones, but it certainly nowhere near Sharai.
“Sorry, I just… admiring all of this.” Kazu hand swiped and motioned the whole work room of the Bright Lights. The room was long and lined with tools here and there. The kind of “tools” Harte made by hand to assist her in candlemaking, was professionally made here. There were even two separate hearth and couples of liquid boiling all the time. If ever a non-living things make him uneasy, this was one such times. The workroom felt like stared back and judge him.
“Well, sorry to cut the admiration short. But we need to make certain things quick here.” Clisca pointed to the sacks of beeswax. “I believe you knew these?”
“… I do. But I never see a beeswax to have this lighter color. I thought it was always yellowish.”
Clisca tapped her finger and seemed to pay him no mind. “Just cut the darker bit and set it aside before melting it. Those dark bits just would take longer to purify.” She turned away and trotted for a sec before looking at his direction again. “You might be making candles for years, but you are working for us now. For now, just do what I asked you to do.”
A shiver run down his spine, tingling sensation what urged him to barge out of this workroom. He used to being hated, but this sensation that came from Clisca Brasa was something a little bit different. Menacing in its own way, but not exactly harmful. No, the Brasa candlemakers wouldn’t let anyone work for the if they hate him right? Kazu mind raced as any possibility seemed to elude his effort to deduct this situation.
Lets think about it another time, he thought, he then replied to Clisca who once again
trotted away from him. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, dearest beeswaxes.” Kazu said softly addressing the sack on the table as he walked over to one wall and took a knife. He flicked the metal blade lightly with his right index finger. As the metal sound resonating through the heated workroom, Kazu smiled back drily at his object of work. “Shall we begin?”