Chapter nineteen: He Knows

Another day passes until we have the soenara just before Gesh within our sights in the woods, but something feels off about it. Once we get close enough, it’s evident that the place has been ransacked. The area is clean of merchandise and a mess with buildings that have been broken into.

Zaru is quick to find a local and ask about the situation.

The man says that a band of three people scavenged the place in the morning, took everything, and stormed off. They claimed themselves as members of the Burraku clan. Wait a minute, that sounds familiar. Didn’t Vensen mention something about being one of them in his ransom note?

I ask the man if one of them was a man with long black hair and grey skin. No matches fit the descriptions. He says that the party was made up of two men and a woman. One of the guys did have black hair, but it was shoulder length, and he had bandages wrapped around his body along with covering his eyes. The other male was well-built with a big belly and a bald scalp. Lastly, the lady had long, thick red hair with nothing but a black strap to cover her chest and baggy pants.

Are they really from the same cult as my grandfather, or are they imposters? Is Vensen testing me with them? Is the Burraku even a branch to the Stuki clan? I really am starting to hate the word, “Question.” I just want it all to make sense!

Thanks to our lack of rai and Zaru’s good soul, we have to keep moving until we hit Gesh as he gives a small donation to the kind man who told us everything. So, sleeping on the ground is a must tonight. It also means that I will get more picky-back rides. I need to ask him why he’s so eager to help people… Damn it. We do have to be more cautious now, however, to be ready in case the bandits decide to mess with us. Even though I remembered to pack my sword, I still don’t think I will be much help in battle for a while. My gut might be giving me a foreshadowing on running into them, and so far, it’s been accurate.

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Over in the Archives where Sommi was moved to

Yamato opens the heavy door and walks slowly into the dull box of concrete that’s assigned as Sommi’s new room.

Sommi lifts his head slightly to see him step in from his chair of confinement.

The bulky mitsu stands before him and takes a quick peek at Sommi’s bandaged hand. “So he won’t let you heal it? That sucks.”

The prisoner doesn’t respond, but instead stares at the linoleum floor.

Yamato tries to come up with something to say, “Ya’know, I’ve been working with him long enough to have a pretty good algorithm on how he goes about things. Mutual respect is the best way to approach him, I’ve noticed.”

A forced chuckle emerges from Sommi and he peers back up to him. “I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to get my good side and convince me to trust you.” His green eyes have started to lose color from exhaustion. “You just want me to give up information about who’s on the boycott, you spy. So what did he promise you, fortune, eternal life, ultimate power, or all three-“

Yamato smacks him with a closed fist, hard enough to fling Sommi to the ground with his chair. He then grabs Sommi by the hair wrapped around his skull with his meaty hand and lifts him back upright as the man shouts. Yamato stays clinging to his hair and forces him to look upwards towards him.

Sommi keeps his eyes closed from the pain that Yamato is inflicting.

Yamato speaks loudly with a great sonorous sound to it, “Look at me!”

He opens his eyes to the penetrating scar on Yamato’s left side. It makes him look all the more intimidating.

Yamato then starts his lecture with a quieter, yet threatening voice, “Listen here Mr. Religion, you don’t know what Vensen is capable of. I’ve watched him demolish entire galaxies at once in a matter of minutes. He destroyed the very planet I was born on!” He then releases his grasp on Sommi’s hair and continues, “Since you asked, he promised the resurrection of my family, but I learned pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to happen, so I gave up on the idea.”

Sommi becomes suspicious of him again as his head goes back to being limp. “Then why don’t you run away or start your own revolt?”

“Because before he showed up-I already lost everything, so if he’s gone-I won’t have an alternative place to be-Not that I care anymore.” He walks over to the door and gives him one last glance. “By the way, I came here on my own terms, to give you some friendly company. Next time someone comes to you with pity, try to be more welcoming.” He then slams the heavy door behind himself and leaves Sommi in the dull room alone.

“Did you mean that, every word?” Vensen stares at Sommi through the secret two-way mirror in front of them, then takes a sip of his scarlet tea.

“You really need to stop spying on people so much, starting to think you don’t trust me after all these years we’ve spent together,” Yamato comments towards him.

Vensen keeps a blank stare at Sommi from the other side with his monotonous tenor, “What do you mean? I just happened to drop by and over heard it all.” He takes a pause for the words to sink in with another sip of red liquid. “So, did you mean it?”

“Of course,” Yamato begins to walk off as he continues loud enough for him to hear, “Every fucking word.”

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Back in Aishy

We managed to reach Gesh village with the sun on the brink of setting without much trouble for the day and make our way to a hotel to put Mueimma in for the night. After getting a room, Zaru has us go over to a small café.

As we make our way over to it, a man steps out from the je-ilnami* that hang from the tips of the roof to the building. He has some wrinkles on his face from age but seems pretty strong and healthy otherwise. His white hair is kept back by a black hair strap that lays across his scalp from ear to ear. The grey jacket that he wears cuts halfway up his torso as it covers the red shirt that hides underneath it.

Zaru is the first one to greet this man by grabbing his hand and pulling him in for a man-hug. “It’s nice to see you again Pickertho*,” he states as they release each other. The other two come up to embrace him.

The man named “Pickertho” chuckles and responds to Zaru, “Nice to see you three rascals. You know Zaru, you’re probably the only person in all of Fupum who doesn’t abbreviate my first name.” He places a hand on Zaru’s shoulder and makes another statement, “C’mon, you’ve known me long enough to call me Pick.”

That moniker sounds familiar for some reason.

Pickertho then looks to me and reveals his contrasting eyes. His right one is purple while the other is green. He directs a phrase to me, “Hey there, the name’s Pickertho, but you can call me Pick, in case our little reunion didn’t illuminate that.” He then bows his head as a greeting with a hardy air to him.

I react quickly by making a more profound bow. “Hello, I’m Vila.”

“So you’re the one Tumma mentioned in the letter. It’s nice to meet you.” His friendly mein calms my nerves. Pickertho, I mean, Pick cues us to step inside the open café and keeps the hanging curtains out of our faces to be polite.

We have a seat and chat a little. Pick is a really great guy, although, that might be from his experience of life itself. He talks about all these stories that involved him, like when a massive holin devoured the vessel he was riding on in the Danaken ocean during a storm and what he did to keep the others alive. There’s also honorable mentions of past members to Duahe that he grew up with, like Ketsu, Uren, Ruri, Kron and many others who I can’t recall. We didn’t want him to, but Pick insisted on paying for our meal.

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten at a café before, but the food was great! Afterwards, it was evident that Tumma also told Pick to accompany us all the way to Catherr. I assume it’s because he’s heading in the same direction anyway after his last mission.

Zaru was already expecting that and so he signed him up on the guest list with us.

We get back to the hotel before the sun gets any closer to the ground and decide that it would be best for us to wash up and take a few moments in the steam tubs. It’s a good thing that the wash rooms are gender-orientated, I don’t think I want Zaru, or old-man-Pick, staring at me. Since it’s the end of the day, just us three girls are on the woman’s side of the pools. I don’t know about the guy’s half, but I know that I don’t want to. We strip down to nothing in the clothing room and start to wash the dirt off our own bodies with buckets of water.

“Are you sure you don’t need help, Vila?” Caru asks me.

“Nah, I’m fine, thanks though.” My fatigue has pretty much gone away by now, but still, one would think that I would be completely recovered by now… I wonder if Ruus is alright… We put on the disposable swim wear that the hotel provides and make our way over to the woman’s area. I really wish they had a different design other than a bikini, one that’s not so exposing, but I guess I’m okay with it if it’s just the three of us. We were a poor family, Sommi and I, so going around and staying at hotels was almost a never for us. I say “almost never” because we obviously had to take some baths with our path from Dakima to Kai, that’s basically coast to coast. I don’t really recall much about that trip, but I’m pretty sure I swam around the pool with a bunch of men watching me since I couldn’t be left alone and Sommi is a guy. That might be a question that I’ll withhold from him, not sure if I want the details to that story.

“Vila, aren’t you gonna join us?” Haru disrupts my trans and pokes my arm.

I snap my neck to look at her with a blank stare. “Oh-yeah.” I step into the steamy tub and sit next to Haru with Caru on the other side of her.

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Pick and Zaru sit in the boxed bath opposite from each other while discussing Vila’s outburst that happened over a week ago.

“Are you sure that’s what you saw?” Pick is a little unbelieving of Zaru’s report.

“I wrote down the incident as soon as I could.” Zaru has been keeping a close eye on her ever since. “She’s aware that I watched her go out of control, but she doesn’t seem to be frazzled about it, actually, she seems more loose now.”

“Loose?”

“Yeah, I only knew her for one night before the attack on Erekin, but she acted more-tied up then, like she was hiding something.”

Pick becomes concerned about his statement and puts in a few more words, “Did she ever explain to you this phenomenon?”

“No, but I don’t think she meant for it to happen either. Personally speaking, I think she’s just a victim of a crime that’s put her in this state.”

“I’m not asking for your opinion, Zaru.”

“I know, but I think it would be best if we wait for her to choose the moment to reveal her true self.”

Pick cups his hands behind his head and leans back. “Alright, but I’d hate to see that girl kill someone. Vila is a sweet gal, so I don’t want her to be a monster either.” He peers back to Zaru for a more serious statement, “but we shouldn’t let our wants blind us from reality.”

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Nami-Used at the end of a word to pluralize it.

Pickertho-The name of an explorer who traveled across the globe and discovered what is now known as Zuthalili. The man who is referred to as "Pick" was named after this great explorer.