• Memory • Accompany

[Saza Moshe]

70 Ashan, 718 ‣ Nashaki

Hyde was in his FIFTIES. Saza had counted up the arcs – six-six-five from seven-zero-zero, that was… thirty-five, plus eighteen, which was… fifty-three, so he’d be fifty-three that arc – and he’d tried not to let it show to much on his face, but he was shocked. He was dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. Hyde couldn’t be that old, he didn’t look that old! He didn’t look any younger than that either, he supposed, but still the slowly calculated number had thrown the young biqaj. Fifty-three arcs, and this was what he did with his life? Drinking and blacking out and forgetting everything in-between?

Then, he’d told himself that it really wasn’t that old. It was only… thirty-six arcs older than him… but it wasn’t that old. He wondered if his father had lived to be that age – Saza didn’t know if the guy was still alive or not, but something brought him comfort in thinking that he wasn’t. His mother certainly hadn’t made it that far, but his father could’ve. He didn’t know. Was Hyde what his father would’ve been like? Surly and tired and drunk?

Saza wondered these things as he left the rented room with Hyde, after a quickly-made decision to follow. He had intended on finding his friends, but he hadn’t told them that, so if he didn’t show up, who were they to know if he’d planned on coming around or not? Besides, Hyde needed his help getting clothes. (Hyde hadn’t said as much, but Saza told himself that.) He wondered for a trill if Hyde had ever met his father, but then he’d reminded himself that not every middle-aged man happened to know all others. So he’d put that thought aside… but he did wonder, still, where Hyde came from. Where he’d spent his youth, why he’d found his way to Nashaki when he clearly struggled with the heat.

He didn’t ask. Not yet. The human didn’t need to hear his every curiosity. After making their departure from the inn, Saza insisted that he could find the appropriate shops for them, and took the lead whether Hyde really wanted him to or not. He didn’t know much about being a soldier, sure, but he knew his city. He knew the markets filled with stalls and tents and stands, the shops that lined the streets, the smaller merchants that sat in the sands outside the walls and displayed their wares on rough blankets. In the end it was not the markets that he took him to, for the hawkers there were far too aggressive and pushy on their prices for what he figured Hyde wanted to deal with… nor did he bring him to the streets devoted purely to their stores.

It was a smaller store, with only a Qi’ora woman working inside of it, built nearer to the city gates. Inside the air was cool (to Saza), the owner was quiet but kind, and the clothes weren’t exactly pinnacles of fashion, but they were plain and strong and, most importantly, they were cheap. There was another merchant sitting just outside, with a few more hand-sewn garments lying over a trunk, but he only nodded as they passed and did not bother with trying to catch their attention.

Saza held the door open and waited until Hyde had gone inside to follow him through. The door shut with a quiet little jingle of a bell, and the biqaj glanced up as he passed under it, eyes shifting in scarlet hue. He heard the owner offer a quiet greeting as they entered, but she looked back down to her work just as soon, crafting yet more clothing at the back of the shop. Saza smiled and returned the greeting, his accented voice just a little friendlier than hers, but he left her alone after that.

He wandered slightly, though he took care not to stray too far from Hyde – not because he thought he’d lose him, but because he didn’t want to have to shout across the woman’s store just to talk to him.

“So, Hyde,” Saza began, raising a hand to push dirty blond curls away from his face. He looked through a few lightweight shirts, but not for long, as he realized that they’d probably be a better fit for himself than for Hyde. His bony fingers found other shirts to feel then, closer in size to what he figured the human would wear. “Where are you from? You said du… dui… something last night, but I didn’t recognize the language.”

The youth looked over his shoulder, wine-red eyes searching for his older companion.

[Ichabod Hyde]

7 0 - A S H A N - 718. . . N A S H A K I

Whatever reaction Kalba had to his age, Hyde ignored it. It wasn’t anything new to him. He’d known his age since he was born. With each arc that he’d lived – all fifty-three of them – they went on, as quick or slow as the others. The arc of 718 was slow in the way that the blurred trials stuck together in elongated pauses, but Hyde wanted it to be fast. It was early Ashan, but he wanted the arc to be over with. He wanted to close his eyes, lose track of himself and of time, and when he opened them next – be elsewhere, in a different life, a different place, just… different. But he couldn’t. He would always be the same. The same Hyde, the same body that aged, the same memories that clunked around in his head, the same mistakes and oddities of his life that lived in his bones. He couldn’t even recall much of when he was seventeen, though while he walked along the streets of Nashaki with Kalba, he tried to.

For whatever reason, some things stuck more than others: he’d had friends, but he couldn’t remember their faces anymore – just their names, and how they had died along the span of arcs, for the ones he kept familiar with. Names for some, not all. General impressions, and he wondered if any of it was even accurate anymore or if he overlapped his memories to create people who didn’t exist from pieces of individuals that had otherwise been separate from one another. Didn’t matter so much, when all of them were either dead or might as well be.

Eventually Kalba’s name would be forgotten, too. Beyond his friends of a youth long-since forgotten, the names of those acquaintances that came with a life in the city… they never stuck around. They could help and help and help, but for him to remember who they were a handful of arcs later? Maybe some vague recollection of particular aid – like the bandages around his hand, maybe – but otherwise, he would let the trivial information drift out of his mind like dandelion wisps in a coming storm’s wind. Then for those that weren’t friends, nor acquaintances due to circumstance, the names and faces of those who shared his many beds through the arcs… he remembered those, least of all.

It wasn’t that Hyde hadn’t ever thought of this before. He sought it, even. Helped along as he drank the trials away. He didn’t want to remember. Any of them. Any of it. He just…

…just wanted to get some new clothes.

After the clothes, he’d find work. After the work, he’d find a tavern. After the tavern, it wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t remember the faces of long-gone friends. After the tavern, nothing would matter. And that was why Hyde wished he’d thought to grab a flask of something before headed out to shop.

Hyde didn’t mind that Kalba wanted to lead, nor that he had somewhere in mind. He appreciated not being in the packed markets, with the heat and the crowds, and the noise. While his body had settled enough to go out, his headache hadn’t gotten any better. It pounded his skull and rushed in his ears.

When they reached the smaller store, it was cool inside and quiet. Hyde walked through, then stepped aside to take a few breaths while he surveyed the interior. He caught the flash of scarlet in the biqaj’s eyes – a distracting hue – then looked away.

Since they’d left the tavern, he hadn’t talked. Not a single word. An occasional hum or grunt, but that was the most of it. Hyde went over to what looked to be a table of folded shirts. He lifted one, to set it back down. They were all light-colored and he kept to the beige and natural colors as those would be the cheaper options.

“So, Hyde…”

The Nashaki native seemed to enjoy using his name, a lot. He glanced over as Kalba looked through a few shirts close by to him.

“Where are you from? You said du... dui…”

Du-dui? Hyde licked his chapped lips and looked down at the shirts again. What had he said? He could guess from that. There wasn’t much point in keeping his origins a secret, plus even if there were, Hyde was far too drunk and weary to care in a hellhole heat pit like Nashaki.

“Cathair an Clachan.” he said. He walked around the table to look at some pants. The older man glanced at Kalba, caramel-brown eyes warm as they reflected the light of the room. He added in a murmur, “Stones city.”

“Dùnparhn… Dachaig Saorsa Daonna… Dùn Etzori,” he added in the easier tongue of his native home’s language. He’d grown up in a household that spoke distinct Etzori, and even in his older arcs, it came easier to him than Common.

“Etzos,” he answered. He picked out a pair of simple pants of a light-weight material, then checked the waistband before he slung them over his forearm. They would do. The biqaj was young and thus somewhat unaware of the greater world, so Hyde asked whether Kalba had heard of Etzos or not. “Y’ know?”

[Saza Moshe]

70 Ashan, 718 ‣ Nashaki

“Cat hair and…” Clachan? Saza didn’t finish the quietly repeated sentence, unwilling to butcher the pronunciation of the obviously foreign words any more than he already had. His eyes followed Hyde as the other man moved around the table to look over the various folded trousers. Stones city. Saza hadn’t ever heard of a place called Stones, but he nodded as if he had, just in case it was one of those things he’d get looked down upon for not knowing.

He lifted another shirt from the table to look over it. Hyde was saying something else… something that clearly came easier to him, if the fact that he’d spoken more than a word or two was anything to go off of. Not that Saza could make out any of those words, or that he’d ever even heard the language spoken before now, but he’d at least heard the word Etzori.

The shirt was refolded (a little sloppily, for he really didn’t know how to handle clothes that weren’t on his body) and set back down. Etzos… Saza clicked his tongue and moved on to look at the next small stack of folded shirts. The woman behind the counter was certainly a prolific crafter, but he hadn’t expected anything less.

“Y’ know?” Hyde… asked? Was that a question? Saza’s bony fingers brushed over the top shirt on the stack. It was a softer one, compared to the others – he wasn’t even going to try to identify the material, because he didn’t know – and he glanced up with narrowed, half-lidded eyes to see if he could imagine it on Hyde.

A little too big… he set it to the side and looked to the one underneath it. The curly-haired biqaj shook his head and answered, “I’ve heard the name near the docks before – Etzos. Don’t know anything about it though, or… where it is.”

Had to be close enough though, he figured. He'd have been a liar if he claimed to know how big the world was, or how far apart things could be, as he'd never actually been anywhere besides his home of Nashaki... but he'd ventured across the desert to the east, and to the north, and he'd never come across Etzos through there. It was farther from Nashaki than the fortresses then.

“I've never really been outside of the city much. I'd like to see more of the world when I can,” something made him doubt that the human really cared, but he offered the information freely, all the same. Saza lifted the next shirt and considered it with a rich, golden gaze. Lightweight, long-sleeved, lighter-colored... his eyes shifted from the garment back to Hyde, and he said, “this looks like it'd fit you.”

Saza set the shirt back down on the table, leaving it closer to Hyde in case the man had any interest in looking at it. So far the older seemed content to simply remove his shirt when the heat overwhelmed him, but the biqaj could see that sunburn. Foreigners sometimes didn't know the proper ways to dress for the heat, but he didn't rule out the possibility that maybe Hyde just didn't care. Regardless, Saza didn't pick through any more of the shirts just yet, but lifted a hand to cover his mouth as he yawned, and watched the older man with no small amount of curiosity.

[Ichabod Hyde]

7 0 - A S H A N - 718. . . N A S H A K I

Hyde looked over when he asked his question about whether Kalba was familiar with the city of Etzos or not. The biqaj ran his fingers over a shirt, then glanced at him with… what in the hell was that look? Narrowed, half-lidded… and Hyde didn’t stick around to see whatever colors those altering irises took. He kept a neutral expression set on his features and picked up another pair of pants. The older man tried to ignore that he’d caught the expression. It was nothing. Just the gin playing tricks on him. He folded the pants over his arm too, though he didn’t think they looked good. He wanted to finish and leave so he could go find work, so he could go drink before that very gin wore off. Hyde focused on that while he listened to Kalba admit that he didn’t know anything but the name of Etzos.

It wasn’t that surprising. Hyde had traveled enough places to know that certain types were aware of the world beyond their doorstep. Sailors, navigators, other travelers like him, nomads, merchants who knew the routes, scholars who seemed to know-it-all, and certain unscrupulous people who didn’t fit in any of the other categories… or the occasional random person who had a map they’d gotten from somewhere. Why would some random soldier kid would know of his home? He didn’t bother to explain that he wasn’t even from Etzos, but a border town a few days travel from the city. Though he could have said he was from Rhakros, and that’d be closer to the truth… but Rhakros didn’t have the greatest reputation – on the rare off-chance that Kalba knew that one. He was Etzori, though, in his bloodline so he didn’t feel like it was a lie in any regard.

The Etzori walked further away, along the other side of the table. Despite his better judgment, he glanced up again when he heard the next comment. The phrase was something he’d heard plenty of people say. Everyone said they wanted to see more of the world – until they saw more of the world, not even that far away, and then they would decide they had seen quite enough. Safer to hear travelers tell stories about such places instead, or read about it in books, then to bother. He wasn’t about to act such a hypocrite as to dash the youth’s hopes by saying so. The young didn’t listen to those kinds of warnings anyway. He’d be wasting breath. Hyde could remember that much about being seventeen… and the many arcs that had followed his decision to travel out of his hometown.

He approached Kalba, from the other side of the table and he looked at the held-up shirt. His gaze slid over to look at the golden irises, as gold as polished nel fresh from a mint. Hyde grunted, in what sounded like a nonchalant agreement… or boredom… or a drunken noise of acknowledgment.

Once the shirt got set back down, he picked it up and laid it over the couple pairs of pants that he held onto. He could feel the biqaj’s golden gaze set on him – watching him – and he picked up another shirt that seemed similar to the other. Or similar enough. He didn’t know, nor did he care, whatever cheap things would stay on his body and not overheat him like his old (ruined) clothing did. He noticed the yawn with another glance. Hyde cleared his throat, then muttered, “Nashaki.”

Pointing at a shirt on the table, he tapped the tip of his index finger a few times on the spot. Hyde looked up at Kalba and then looked down at the spot under his finger to guide the youth’s gaze to it. He repeated once, “Nashaki…”

He slid his finger along the shirt, toward him (north), and then tapped another spot a short distance away and said, “Yaralon. Fourteen trial.”

Another glance, then a look guiding back to his finger as he slid it across to the neighboring shirt. He tapped on a spot and said, “Volanta. Fourteen.”

His finger slid upward, to another spot that he tapped, and said, “Cahryst. Sixteen.”

Hyde continued the path while he brought his fingertip to the next shirt beside the adjacent one until he tapped on the invisible marker that he wagered was about right of an estimation for where it would be in proportion to travel. He said, “Rharne. Eight.”

For a pause, he lifted his finger and tapped a few times. He said in a gruff murmur, "Andaris. Rynmere. No travel." He returned his finger down to the spot that was meant to represent Rharne.

He glanced once again, to make sure that Kalba paid attention or if his attention had already wandered away. Hyde cleared his throat again, then hurried to look down at his finger instead while he squiggled it down the shirt toward where Kalba was. He said, “Six trial on Zynyx River, past Volta.”

“Orm’del Sea, four trial if luck,” he said while he spanned his fingers over to the next shirt though he was starting to run close to the edge of the table. He said in Ith’ession, “Port inntrigidh Foster’s.”

“Abhainn coille a deas. Six.” He tapped his finger on the crumpled sleeve of the folded shirt that Kalba had picked up before, near the edge of the table. Hyde stared at the spot and said, “Etzos.”

Hyde picked up the shirt, then folded it over his arm and said, “Smallclothes, then done.” He turned and walked away to find the other clothes, then purchase it all from the shopkeep.

[Saza Moshe]

70 Ashan, 718 ‣ Nashaki

The shirt he’d set aside was taken and folded over Hyde’s arm, along with the various pairs of pants he’d already collected. Saza didn’t move from his spot, even when the older man had stepped closer to grab it, and he leaned back with his hands holding to the edge of the table. If Hyde was making any sort of attempt not to look too long in his direction, well, the youth didn’t notice the difference. Hyde hadn’t looked at him all that much since they’d met, unless one wanted to count the odd stare he’d given him after he’d broken up the fight.

Saza held back another yawn, though he could feel it threatening at the edges of his mouth, and dragging his eyelids down until his eyes were partially covered under a fan of dark lashes. He’d never been one to sleep all that well, but he was used to at least getting some sleep during the night, restless or otherwise. The biqaj tilted his head as he heard the older man murmur, and he didn’t quite catch what he’d said at first – but the quiet repetition, along with the clear direction for his eyes to slide down to the shirt, didn’t offer much of an explanation either.

Nashaki. The shirt was… Nashaki? The youth would’ve taken it for a translation error, if it weren’t for Hyde’s continued motions. His finger was dragged from place to place across the clothes, and tapped away at one approximate location after the other. As soon as Saza registered his intention, he pushed forward from the table and moved to stand beside the human for a better look. Yaralon, Volanta, Cahryst, Rharne, Andaris? Rynmere? Zynyx River, Volta, and more he didn’t know.

Most of the names he’d heard at least once, and he supposed he knew more of Yaralon and Volanta, on account of their relative closeness to his home, but he didn’t know more than the basic details. Saza only had his imagination for the rest of the listed locations, but it was a mind put to good use, as pink-freckled, golden eyes observed the demonstration. It was… probably the most thought that the human had invested in their conversations, he realized, and he glanced briefly to the older’s face when he felt his gaze on him.

“No travel,” Saza repeated, if only to confirm that he was listening. Hyde looked back down to his imagined map, dragged his finger closer to the biqaj, and continued until he had finished the path to Etzos. (There were a few words in there he didn’t recognize, but in truth, the blond didn’t know if they were Etzori words or if they were just the names of other cities.)

Etzos was… a lot farther than Saza would’ve imagined. How big was the world? He had always figured that the hotlands must’ve made up a bit part of it… but none of these places, besides Nashaki, really resided within them. They spread out in all directions, scattered, and it made the curious biqaj wonder just how much of the world Hyde had seen himself.

“Smallclothes, then done.”

Saza blinked, suddenly taken out of his inquisitive trance, and his eyes darkened until they’d returned to a deep wine-red. Quickly, he straightened out the stacks of shirts, and then followed after Hyde until he’d caught up with him. “What’s Etzos like?” he asked, and once they reached the other side of the little store, he stayed back a few feet to simply observe and allow the other man his space for the moment. “I’ve heard that some places have this stuff called snow when it gets cold. Have you ever seen that?”

And if he had, had he ever felt it? As far as he knew, it was just frozen water, and that didn’t sound any different from ice, to him. Or did Etzos have sandstorms in the winter, too? Saza pouted his lips out of habit as he pondered.

“Oh… I’m asking a lot of questions, huh?”

He knew what to do… or, he knew what to sign. Saza moved his fingers awkwardly as he tried to recall the proper motions, and then he looked back to Hyde and signed, however poorly, Sorry. The young soldier didn’t attempt to sign anything else, and seemed intent on keeping himself silent while he waited for the older to finish picking out his clothes.

[Ichabod Hyde]

7 0 - A S H A N - 718. . . N A S H A K I

Hyde hadn’t gotten very far until Kalba was close at heel in following the older man. He glanced over and caught the burgundy-wine color in the irises. It made him want wine. He hummed at the question about Etzos, then thought about it for a moment while they crossed the shop to a place where underclothes were laid out for easy purchase. At the table, he picked out some items; first longer undershorts, then he realized that might get hot so he traded them out for the shorter styles.

“Oh… I’m asking a lot of questions, huh?” asked Kalba.

Hyde shook his head 'no'. He said, “Two.”

When he glanced, his gaze caught on the awkward finger movement and… Kalba was trying to sign sorry? That surprised him. His caramel-brown eyes widened, as if to get a better look at the gesture. It was akin to the terrible pronunciation of Ith’ession before, but it didn’t go unappreciated.

Hyde took hold of Kalba’s hand. He said, “Thumb outside.” He helped guide Kalba’s thumb to rest on the side of the fist, thumb pointed up, then he added, “Not with fingers. Fingers down.”

“Two,” he added, but for a different reason than before. He had meant before that Kalba had asked a mere two questions, which were not a lot. This was for something else while pressed for Kalba to repeat the motion with his hand – but twice in a circle against the front of his chest.

Hyde let go, then twice repeated the gesture in front of his own chest. He confirmed the instruction, “Sorry.”

He repeated the circular motion a couple more times and said, “Sorry, sorry.”

A slight smile hinted at his lips, then he gestured in alternating fashion. Thumb slid against the underside of his chin, he shook his head and signed: You’re not asking too many questions, soldier.

Hyde picked up a pair of thin socks then headed away. He said, “Snow is cold and…” he made another rotational gesture with his hand, as if pointing his thumb toward himself and added, “dangerous and…” he glanced at Kalba, then didn’t finish what he was about to say. Instead, he shook his head, then busied himself with exchanging nel for the clothing he’d picked out.

[Doran]

Hyde:

Knowledge:
Linguistics x5
Navigation x3

Loot: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown:-
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.

Points: 15

Saza:

Knowledge:
Navigation x3
Linguistics: Common Sign: x3
Mathematics: x2

Loot: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.

Points: 15

- - -

Comments: I was amused by Saza’s realizing that Hyde is in his fifties. You described his being shocked/surprised quite well. I can’t help but wonder if there is a reason for Hyde drinking, blacking out and forgetting everything in-between now – and why he wants the arc to be over with. I’m just as curious about him as Saza now!

I find the contrast between how Hyde talks and how little he says sometimes and what he thinks/feels interesting, and I look forward to the next chapter in Saza’s and Hyde’s story.

Enjoy your rewards!