I rush outside the building leaving the lumbered walls behind me. I nearly run passed a familiar voice as it calls out to me.

“Atjani.”

I look behind me to see Melinal smiling. She knew I would be looking for her. Melinal was leaning outside against the wall with her leg propped up, I stare at her. Her boots tap the stonework of the street, as she approaches. She kept her smile and she was pleased with herself.

“You never were as clever as me,” smiles Melinal at me. I take another look at my childhood friend. Melinal was decently fed now, like myself, but I wasn't changing paths. I had everything set. I needed money and a pair of wings to buy with it. I needed a flying machine.

Flying machines were hard to find and I found one. They were machines that used wings that had been drawn in The Far Away Dream itself. They worked liked magic and flew like imagination, but they were real. I had seen one with my own eyes. The flying machine was my way out and knew how to pilot it. Being part of the resistance meant I saw my fair share of Lam Lathi secrets. We captured a lot of their soldiers and messenger girls. I stare at Melinal.

“I'm clever enough to know it's time to leave,” I mutter.

“Then, maybe, it is time to leave,” she adds sarcastically.

Melinal gives me a hug and we hold each other. It was funny how the barren wind could force two people to love each other. The warmth of our bodies felt good. Melinal always hugged in a docile way. She was never as fierce as her words and sign language. I would miss looking after her and seeing the bandanna over the back of her hair. I would miss being Ryoken, as much as I hated it. I didn't have much to leave her with, but time to move on. I wanted a better life. She wanted a better home.

A few nighttime wanderers move past us, as my eyes adjust to the darkness. I knew my home by heart and the direction of the wind by the very whistling of the lumbers. Finding a friend wasn't as easy as to used to be. Lam Lathi killed too many of us.

The night streets always reminded me of my insomnia. My mind worked like a grindstone, breaking regrets into smaller and smaller pieces until they didn't matter. I had been planning my departure for a long time. Yet, tonight I couldn't let myself collapse along the wooden frameworks, until my thoughts died out. I had to find Melinal. I wasn't going to leave on another argument.

A grin expands across my face as I undo the back straps of Melinal's corset. It would be a parting gift and I'm sure she would look annoyed when she went home. I grab Melinal's shoulders and she pushes my hands off. I guess I didn't own her anymore. I never did. I just liked pissing her off.

Melinal narrows her eyes and opens her mouth to speak. She stops, though, very aware that I had shorted her the money she knew I had. I was saving it for my trip. Now, it seemed as if she didn't trust me as much. Like any Ryoken native, life was an all or nothing deal.

“Listen Melinal. If things finally work out, I'll come back for you”

Melinal takes a step back. She was risking her life trying to play my games at the stages. I had a list of the Lam Lathi soldier movements and I knew some of them were coming to town. Hopefully, a tempest hadn't spotted me. My possessor being had told me so. It was scouting out there somewhere and it always felt good to have my disconnected half rejoin my soul. It made my day.

“I don't want to go to Neandeleria,” replies Melinal.

“That's where Atjani Kelsever will be. I don't like him,” she continues,

Melinal taps her fists and bites her tongue. She always told me the only thing I made up for was her own loose ends. Coming back for her wasn't something she expected me to do. Once I was committed to one of my plans, there was no turning back for someone unless they mattered to me.

“I just wish you were like you used to be,” adds Melinal.

There was a time I wasn't overtaken with bitterness toward my home. I had hope in the tribes around me. I had a smile that made the long days pass like light breezes. Melinal knew I wasn't the same inside, but she remembered. She still remembered the day I met her. That was the day, I helped her break into an abandoned structure, to take some stored food. The whole city had been destroyed by war. Melinal wasn't tall enough to get through the broken window so I propped her up on my back. I even cut my hand wiping, it free of the shards. We split the food unevenly.

Back then, Lam Lathi had just started their raids against my bloodline and tribes. Now, they were encircling Corsana. My hatred grew from there. They ruined everything. Being a street rat with Melinal was the best and worst time of my life.

“The dust never settles, Atjani. Deserts always kill... you should know that.”

A charming smile overcomes Melinal, yet her eyes gave it an added bite. She was holding back her emotions as if she was planning on revenge. Nothing bad, just something to get under my skin. I knew by the way she looked at me, she would remember this as my betrayal. Among the Ryoken, the tribe was worth fighting for until the very end. Running away was cowardly. Call me a coward. I was after a better life. That's called being human.

“Look out for yourself at the stages. The Lam Lathi messenger we kidnapped had gear. Find it at my hideout. It's still worth selling, when you're done with your dance.”

Melinal and I look at each other. She didn't believe me and I didn't blame her. It would be hard to sell without the tempests taking an interest. Lam Lathi looked after their own. The only good news was I had kept the gear hidden until now. I have my own ways of doing things. They work.

I give Melinal a final long hug. I push the hand sign for “lovely” against her skin, beneath her shoulder. I could feel her smile with the change in her breathing. The growing distance between us turns to silence. I forgot what I went chasing after her to say.