Keshel glared silently at the light, still hardly able to think of anything else. It wasn’t… as bad anymore though, of which he was grateful. It would have been nice if that was his only problem though, but I’m far too mean of a person to just let him settle for captivity and sunlight as his main issues.

  Because now there were niortak there. He could hardly think of the implications of that though, as the two burly men with feathers in place of hair quietly gestured toward him, time after time, seeming like they wanted to do something but also were worried about something.

  “Get me somewhere darker.” Keshel finally asked, figuring that that might fix their dilemma.

  The two arguing niortak fell silent with what seemed like shock at that, and Keshel rearranged his hood to help shade his eyes and better protect his antennae. Yumaar hadn’t been wrong, he was getting used to it, but it was taking far longer than Keshel would have preferred.

  He heard the shuffling of fabric and saw an increase in light, and then one of the niorta was gone.

  Earlier there had been quite the scuffle outside, the sounds of fighting and yelling, the sounds of anger and violence. But that had hardly even lasted five minutes. Keshel was confident that either the larborak had been chased off, or the niortak had made some kind of deal with them.

  Keshel sighed, finally finding thoughts that could help him ignore the light. Anger, annoyance, and a bitter wish to be alone. He really hadn’t expected that stranger to go and find a convenient legion of niortak and lead them here less than an hour after their conversation, but Arithren above, here they were. It was almost like the universe itself was trying to throw every possible stressor at him all at once.

  Keshel is very naive though, if that were actually happening then there would be far more gods involved than just the one. It didn’t help him though that Keshel still couldn’t see crap—even if he thought he could possibly make things out better than earlier, but that really shouldn’t have been enough to decide that the whole universe was against him.

  Before he could sit there and mourn his life as he was prone to doing, the flap of a door opened again. He squinted through the cloth and light, seeing several figures entering the temporary building. They tried to get him to follow them, but when Keshel didn’t even get up they each grabbed one of his main arms. He ended up barely even walking as they gently dragged him in an unknowable direction.

  They were significantly more polite than the larborak had been, which was hopefully a good sign.

  He grew a bit confused when the light slowly faded into something that wasn’t even distracting, but he belatedly realized that they must have taken him somewhere darker. Like he’d asked. Somehow that was more baffling than anything else they could have done.

  They let go of Keshel as he lifted his hood, glancing around past the dim light. He recognised the room well, they were at the bottom floor of the watchtower. It was probably a bit dim by the niortak standards, which was brighter than Keshel would have preferred; after hours of light though, this was perfect

  Keshel slowly rose to his knees, and he finally noticed the man standing nearby with two guards flanking him. They didn’t seem hostile, only curious, but regardless, the niorta in the middle was clearly very important. He was dressed with fine clothing and six large spectral wings floated perpetually behind him, which seemed like it was probably impressive by niortak standards. It might have been an intimidation tactic, but Keshel didn’t have to try particularly hard to look intimidated.

  The important looking man smiled kindly, which just made even less sense. “I am Ruirel,” he bowed slightly to Keshel, polite and refined. “I’m in charge of the niortak that have just arrived. We successfully drove away the larborak raiders, and we’d like to ask you some questions, though you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

  Keshel swallowed and tried to understand why the man was doing it this way, but it was pretty obvious that he was trying to get an answer to something beyond the obvious ‘why were the larborak attacking you?’ Keshel frowned though, needing something confirmed. “None of the others have spoken?”

  The niorta shook his head, “No. They haven’t. None of them seem to know our language, which I really should have thought of days ago… I sent a group back to look for a linguistic expert, but that will take a few days. You seem to be capable of translating, which helps immensely if you’re willing to give us aid.”

  Keshel winced. In theory, he’d known the plan if dayfolk came—don’t tell them anything, don’t speak or acknowledge them—but the stress of the last few days had made Keshel angry. In his anger, he had forgotten that rule entirely. Keshel wasn’t quite a very irritable person, he didn’t have as much practice with regulating anger as say, a dragon would. In this light, he isn’t the kind of person to have any idea how to use that anger for anything other than a driving force that will eventually die out.

  “We are looking for assistance from the suiki.” Ruirel finally said, inclining his head again, which had to mean something more to the niortak than it did to the suiki. “We’re willing to set up trade, or we could gift your group with as much exotic goods as we can carry from our floating cities if they find that agreement more agreeable. All we want is a suiki or two to come with us for a few months so we can try and interface with a few pieces of your people’s ancient technology.”

  Keshel tilted his head at this news. He didn’t really understand half of those terms, but he figured that the longer he talked, the longer he could stay away from the sun. “I’m… Keshel.” He hesitantly voiced. “I suppose… I suppose that I could be fairly influential in the burrow if I have a reason. What kinds of things are you offering?”

  Ruirel winced slightly. “We don’t know anything about the suiki. We know that you’re light-sensitive and tend to keep to yourselves. We know that you live underground and you tend to only come out at night. That’s pretty much it. What would you be in need of?”

  Keshel blinked. “Ah, well I would have to contact the elders to know details, but I think fabric and tools would be the biggest one.”

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  Ruirel nodded slowly, gesturing toward one of the guards who immediately took out a notebook and wrote that down, “It seems that someone collapsed several tunnels recently, we haven’t had time to investigate but they look like they were perhaps collapsed from the inside. How long would it take to contact your elders? Do we need to wait for them to come out?”

  Keshel looked at him in realization. He… didn’t seem to know about the hivemind?

  Keshel found it so baffling that that was even possible. He himself could always feel it in the back of his mind, like a buzzing insect; suiki without the defect could feel it even more strongly than others, since the defect itself interfered with it somewhat. The question, however, was whether it was a good idea to tell the niortak about it.

  Keshel was silent for a long moment and then realized that if he didn’t tell Ruirel something unexpected, he might start to think that Keshel was lying. That was… honestly worse than whatever the elders would do to him for spilling secrets.

  Besides, the larborak knew about the hivemind, so it wouldn’t be unexpected for some of the niortak to have heard rumors, even if this particular one hadn’t. “We… have a hivemind sort of ability.” He finally admitted, “It allows us to contact each other mentally over short distances.”

  Ruirel opened his mouth and closed it again, a look of sheer surprise crossing his face. “It’s a racial ability, correct? Similar to the spectral wings of the niortak or the soul abilities of the larborak?”

  Keshel nodded, at least, he figured that’s how it worked. “I have a strong… ah… gift with the hivemind, that’s why me and you can understand each other. I don’t speak your language.”

  Ruirel hummed slightly and tapped his chin a few times, “Alright,” he accepted easily, “Could you contact your leaders say… right now then? My men can investigate the area without me for a time, and I’d like to know their stance on things. Besides, they might not know yet that we freed the prisoners and chased away the larborak.”

  Keshel nodded slowly, though he was confident the elders knew about the freed prisoners already, if in fact that’s what had happened. Keshel so far was taking Ruirel at his word, but he had no way of knowing if this was all a lie. “Alright, give me a moment.”

  At Ruirel’s nod, Keshel closed his eyes and untied the strip of cloth, letting his antennae unfurl and cringing at the intense sensory input they granted. He could practically feel the three niortak gazes boring into him as he reached out with his mind and searched for Yumaar.

  All he found was Abbil. His sister.

  -

  Conveniently forgetting about your family to go on an adventure of which no one else can truly understand the meaning behind seems to be a common thing that people do. Not because that’s how the world works, but because people are idiots.

  No, I didn’t misspeak, I did say that. People are clearly forgetful, but each and every one of them are so filled with sparking adventures that they can’t take a moment away from that busy adventure to chat with their relatives. You there, yes, you with the fish projectiles and the attitude, when is the last time you spoke to whoever it was who raised you?

  No, that doesn’t count. Seriously, kids these days. Just because you’re messed up inside and so are they doesn’t excuse it!

  Either way, Keshel hadn’t sat down to talk to his sister for five years. In fact, neither of them had even contacted each other in five years, let alone seen each other. I used to wonder why Abbil had such diverse issues, but when everyone you love either dies, goes mad, disappears off to a watchtower, or doesn’t even talk to you, well that certainly amounts to something, doesn’t it?

  Keshel found himself spluttering mentally as Abbil forced the connection through. The moment he’d contacted the burrow she’d felt him, and as she was someone else with the defect, he couldn’t just shove her mental power off and continue on like nothing had happened.

  ~Keshel.~ She said, her mental voice cold and distant. Not because the connection was distant, but because Abbil was being angsty.

  ~Abbil?~ Keshel responded, mostly just confused and more than a little scared out of his mind. Abbil was known for tying people who displeased her upside down to stalactites and leaving them there, so Keshel was perfectly reasonable in his fear. It didn’t help that he himself had been on the receiving end of that more often than not.

  ~Yumaar said you were on your way to Elesu. I had a feeling that he’d severely overestimated your abilities. Seems like I was right.~ Abbil was not the kind of person you should ignore for five years, or even one year. But after the first month you’d likely start to dread what she might do if you ever remind her of your existence. She was very much a ‘ten times revenge’ type of person.

  Keshel swallowed the bile in his throat, ~I did get captured…?~

  ~Well, yes, considering you’re right above the burrow rather than halfway to Elesu, I figured that was the case.~

  Keshel sent unease at her clipped tone and sarcasm. ~Everyone else is awake.~ he tried, ~Or at least that’s what I heard.~

  Abbil made a mental scoff, ~I knew that over half an hour ago. We’re preparing to fight. The niortak have never fought suiki before so we might be able to drive them off. It would be a great victory, sung of for decades to come.~

  ~Abbil, if you attack the niortak they’ll just come back with friends and we’ll have both kinds of dayfolk after our deaths. We aren’t advanced enough for that, they have flying machines for stars’ sake.~

  Abbil was silent for several tense moments. ~I know.~ Regardless of how she might often seem, she wasn’t stupid. ~But we can’t do anything else. It’s either fight or die like monsters being hunted.~

  Keshel sent her conviction, surprised that he could feel it. ~Abbil, the leader of the niortak is with me now, he seems willing to negotiate with us for our help with something.~ Hadn’t he just been worried that Ruirel had been lying? In the end, though, Keshel wondered if he’d just been trying to change his own mind. It’s odd when people don’t understand their own reasons, but it happens far too often. Keshel sighed and continued. ~I’m going with him willingly, so you might as well get something out of it.~

  She sent shock and betrayal. It was difficult at times for Keshel to remember that Abbil experienced emotion just like everyone else. ~Traitor…~ she sent, the feeling of hurt intensifying to a surprisingly sharp point.

  Keshel sent an apology, ~Please, I think they’re telling the truth, they need something from us, and I’m pretty sure I can give it to them, whatever it is.~

  Abbil was silent for a long moment, but she didn’t cut the connection so Keshel saw that as a good thing. Eventually, she sent him a mental sigh, ~Tell your niortak I will speak to him.~