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Post by Linyü on Mar 20, 2021 20:53:46 GMT -6
The name surprised San, but he supposed they hadn’t actually decided on an alias. Most likely Roku had chosen it; it wasn’t Xin, but the people here weren’t likely to be familiar with Xin features or naming conventions, and something so obviously foreign would have marked them out more surely than this.
He had to play along, but first he had to ascertain what Roku had told this woman. “How did you know…?” said San, adopting a bemused expression.
The woman laughed. “They said to expect a dark-haired lad who looked like he hadn’t eaten in a month. And here you are! They really weren’t kidding about that last part, were they?” She grabbed one of his arms. San stiffened, and only remembered at the last moment not to jerk away. If the woman noticed, she didn't remark on it, only whistling as she encircled his wrist with her fingers.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 20, 2021 21:12:11 GMT -6
“Skin and bones, that’s what you are. Can’t say we’ll fatten you up on the trip, but I won’t ask you to do any work. You look as if you’ll snap in half if you so much as lift a blanket.”
San laughed awkwardly. The assessment stung. He had no choice but to be glad for the reprieve, even though had he been in even a half fit state, he would have preferred to feel useful; that made it sting all the worse. The woman meant no harm by it, and waved off the token protests he offered, before turning to someone else to bark orders at them in the same jovial manner.
San picked his way through the caravans until he located Roku, already curled up on one of the wagons. San joined him, taking a seat at the cat's side. “Lewis?” he said.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 20, 2021 21:16:07 GMT -6
“A Xin name would have stood out,” said Roku, without so much as opening his eyes. That confirmed what San had suspected about the name. There was more that Roku might have told San, such as where he had pulled the name from, but he didn’t, and San supposed he didn’t need to know.
“How long will the trip be?” he asked instead.
“It depends on whether they can keep to the schedule, but no more than a few days. There are faster ways, but all of them would have drawn more suspicion, and most are beyond our means.” And what means they did have mostly consisted of the petty thievery that Roku or Rei could carry on, which ruled out any large sums. Not only would it have attracted unwanted attention, but the weight of the coinage itself would have been beyond their means to carry with them.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 20, 2021 21:27:12 GMT -6
It was good, then, that he had brought the books with him. Aside from a small supply of food that Roku had left with him, it was the only thing he had to take with him, so the packing had been easy enough, at least. It was just as well; San had never traveled before in his life, and would have been at a loss as to how to prepare otherwise.
“Rei?” he said.
“She’s around.” Now Roku did open one eye, to glance sidelong at him. “She wouldn’t go and leave you behind.”
“That wasn’t what I meant,” said San. He knew she wouldn’t - though as soon as the thought came to him, he felt a pang of guilt at the certainty of it. He had never meant to bind her to him, and if she had wanted to go, he wouldn't have tried to stop her.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 20, 2021 21:32:48 GMT -6
Back in Xinzhou, there had been good, logical reasons for her to stay. In Xinzhou her kind didn't exist, except as exotic 'creatures' that came in through illegal trade, and at least if she was Watchful, she would be protected. At least among the agents, she had friends - or even one friend - and whatever protections that friendship could afford her.
But now, by some strange twist of fate, they had returned to the place where she had come from. Here, those reasons might not have held any weight. And San himself had become a liability, a fugitive running from the same organization of spies and assassins that they had both served. If she stayed, it would have been as a favor to him, and not for her own protection.
And yet, selfishly, a part of him was glad that she had. Worse, a part of him took it for granted, that it was a matter of fact that she would.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 21, 2021 19:39:20 GMT -6
The cat didn’t seem to be bothered by what he said though, and merely closed his eye once again. “So long as you know,” said Roku, shifting around a little and settling himself more comfortably, as if the matter was settled with just that.
San stared at him, and wondered that he could treat the matter so casually. Roku had always struck San as a creature that valued his independence, inasmuch as it had existed in the confines of Watchful doctrine. In Xinzhou, Rei and Roku’s situation and prospects would have been comparable. They were both intelligent beings, and they were both under threat of treatment as nothing but exotic creatures, to be displayed like trophies or gawked at by the unwitting people there. Under the Watchful Ones, they had something like gainful employ, and something like the same level of freedom afforded agents. There, at least, no one had anywhere else to go.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 21, 2021 19:40:44 GMT -6
The human agents would just as surely have been tracked down and killed if they had gone rogue, for the knowledge they held if nothing else. But it wasn’t equality, not really.
When Rei had first been introduced, Roku had been reluctant to get involved with her at all. He had helped with the training, especially at first, and San thought the two of them probably had a better relationship with one another now than he did with Roku… Though recent events did make him wonder if he had underestimated the extent to which Roku cared about him.
Still, now that they were here, now that they were no longer trapped by the Watchful themselves…
“You seem as if you’re thinking unnecessary thoughts again,” said Roku. San looked at him, and found the cat observing him, fully awake now. “If you have a grievance, you may as well air it.”
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Post by Linyü on Mar 21, 2021 19:40:55 GMT -6
“No,” San said, but he thought on the matter for a moment, and found that he did have questions. “What… were things like here, for you?”
“For me, or for my kind? No, you needn’t answer, I know what you mean,” said Roku. His tone was amused, rather than upset, and so San didn’t say anything further, settling himself in to listen to what Roku had to say. “Here we are called Enileafs. Back in Xinzhou there was no point in trying to tell anyone this, since there was only the one of me, but we are much more common here, and people will know that they aren’t looking at an ordinary housecat.”
San opened his mouth to speak, then thought better of it and closed it once more, but the motion didn’t escape Roku. With a soft huff that might have been laughter, he said, “You’re wondering what an Enileaf is, exactly, aren’t you? Well, have a look then.”
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Post by Linyü on Mar 21, 2021 19:41:37 GMT -6
And with those words, something unfurled from Roku’s back - several somethings, which soon resolved themselves into strangely shaped wings. At least, San thought they must have been wings, though they weren’t quite like birds’ wings, but they were closer to that than to the wings of insects, and they were covered with the same fine soft fur as the rest of him.
Roku had always been a very dark cat, and San had never had the occasion to inspect him closely. He had noticed that Roku’s back was somewhat oddly shaped, but it had never seemed to hinder Roku’s movement, and so San had simply dismissed it as an anatomical quirk, or perhaps a strange fur growth along his spine. Aside from this and the length of some of his whiskers, he looked very much like an ordinary cat, which San supposed had been to his benefit.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 21, 2021 19:42:01 GMT -6
He hadn’t needed to be as strict about staying out of sight as Rei had been, for even at a distance, there was no mistaking Rei for anything an ordinary citizen would have expected to see in Ningjing.
“Mmm, that feels good,” said Roku. “I haven’t stretched them in a while.” He unfurled from the tucked in position that he had been resting in, and stretched out his front legs too, then shifted his weight forward to stretch the back. Then the wings furled up again, and Roku shook himself out, before circling twice and lying back down.
“Can you fly, then?” San asked.
“Theoretically yes,” said Roku, “but in practice… I was never taught how; we aren’t raised by our own kind. And in my case, I doubt I have the requisite strength in the requisite muscles.” Roku sounded offhand about this, but San wasn’t sure whether he was merely putting on a show for appearance’s sake.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 22, 2021 0:35:37 GMT -6
The thought of keeping a full pair of one’s own limbs in a state of atrophy to maintain a cover identity, not to mention having to be careful not to show too much of one’s true intelligence, sounded like its own form of punishment. Even Roku, then, had had his price to pay when he had been in Watchful service. But if Roku wanted to keep up the appearance of not being bothered by this, then San wouldn’t push the matter further.
Perhaps the cat really was numb to it, though San couldn’t imagine how he would be.
He considered asking whether Roku would ever want to learn to fly one day, but if Roku wouldn’t own to being bothered by the state of his wings, San doubted he would admit to that, either. “What do Enileafs do here? They can’t all be scouts.”
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Post by Linyü on Mar 22, 2021 0:36:13 GMT -6
“You might be surprised, actually,” said Roku. “But no, not in the capacity you are thinking. Mostly we serve as companions.”
San tried, and failed, to imagine Roku as someone’s lap cat. Roku did a very good impression of indolence sometimes, and he was more tolerant of physical affection from some of the other members of the unit, but a pet he certainly was not.
“What were you?” he said.
“Ah, but you know better than to ask that, don’t you?”
In the face of that, San could say no more. Fortunately the caravan had packed up and finished preparations around them, and now one by one the carts began to move. Many of them were pulled by horses, but now that San was looking around, he could see a few particularly heavy ones hitched to massive horned beasts with some sort of bizarre and colorful head crest.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 22, 2021 0:38:01 GMT -6
At first he had mistaken them for carts in and of themselves due to their bulk, or perhaps cargo that had been draped over with a heavy tarp of some sort. One made a lowing noise not unlike oxen, but their feet were flat and clawed, and a thick tail tipped in horns swayed from side to side as they took their heavy steps.
“Ah, Thundergug. I suppose they’ve caught on.” Roku was looking off in the same direction as San, at the big beasts of burden. “They’re stubborn and hard to manage, but it takes an army to take down just one of those things. Take care that you don’t find yourself on the wrong end of one in a fight.”
An unfamiliar land with unfamiliar beasts - Roku’s words on the day of their arrival, about how there was a creature for every purpose, came back to San.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 22, 2021 0:39:05 GMT -6
Between Roku and these lumbering beasts, he couldn’t formulate a sense of what sort of place this New Tarsia would be, but it wouldn’t be long now until he found out.
The journey by caravan was almost as uneventful as the latter two days of San’s stay at the inn. The food was, if not as good as the inn’s offerings, still better than San expected. The cooks were used to a life on the move, and their recipes made clever use of the rustic cookfires and available ingredients.
They stopped often for rest and twice for supplies, so their progress was just as slow as Roku had described, but San found himself glad for the reprieves as a chance to stretch his legs. He managed whatever exercise he could, and near the end of his journey it finally felt as though it was beginning to pay off.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 22, 2021 0:39:18 GMT -6
It no longer hurt quite so much to move afterwards, and he could manage more before the strain in his limbs or his lungs forced him to stop.
The rest of the time he passed by reading, and after thoroughly scouring the swordfighting book cover to cover, and struggling his way twice through the one on riddles, San eventually had no choice but to try the self help title as well.
It was, for the most part, just as bad as he had expected. There were a few points made by the author that San contemplated, but the rest of it was a struggle to get through. It was not at all what he would have chosen for himself, and he could not have imagined a member of the Watchful for whom it would have been suited. Hachi would have laughed it off, and Nana would have burned it without a second thought.
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