Kings Game

Chapter 86 - Godspells

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Nul hadn't slept since they got on the boat. Roran guessed they hadn't slept since a long time before then either, but he was certain they hadn't slept once on the boat because all three of them shared a room and the only thing Nul ever used their bunk for was space to spread their charts and diagrams.

Nul's diagrams had taken on a life of their own. Not only was their bunk covered in the massive sheafs of paper, but so were the walls, parts of the floor, and—if they were away for too long—Roran and Kell's bunks. Nul had been jumping between projects each day. Some days they made charts and diagrams of Roran and Kell's major organs. Other days they were working through complicated charts that must have been General Ahndor's crown. At one point, Roran saw Nul take a sword and melt it down into a heap of steel before molding it, with their bare hands, into a vaguely handlike shape.

Roran had watched all of this as a silent observer. Nul was functioning on an even keel. They were depressed and manic from time to time, but they were functioning, which was more than could be said for Kell.

Kell had done her fair share of drinking on Balaki's Dagger as a way to pass the time. Now she was doing it to try and escape the pain. When she was drunk, she was an angry bitch to anyone that dared get within shouting range. Thankfully she kept her abuse to angry words. Roran could handle her shitty attitude, he couldn't handle her if she became violent. Despite her wretched state, Kell was still the best fighter he knew.

Sarah made a few more brief appearances, though she only appeared as a semi-transparent visage. Her body was no longer a shattered mess, but she still kept their time together short. Traveling long distances was draining for lyhlim, and she wanted to be fresh when the fighting started.

After one such visit, Roran found himself sitting on his bunk. He had to carefully stack and move a pile of Nul's diagrams to make room for himself first, but he settled down and began polishing his sword. It didn't need polishing, but the act gave him something to do with his hands. Nul was scribbling away on something, muttering to themself, or to Akanos, Roran could never be sure, while Kell was off somewhere being someone else's problem.

"No, she was a whore," said Nul.

"Excuse me?" asked Roran, pausing in his busywork.

"Sorry, we were discussing your mother," said Nul.

Roran continued to stare at them.

"We were discussing your mother's focus markings," Nul explained.

"Why?" asked Roran, off put. He felt no shame in being the son of a whore, but it still irked him when people spoke of her like that.

"Because some of them are the same as Ahndor's."

"Oh." Roran couldn't argue with that. Decoding General Ahndor's etchings was the first step in killing her, and killing her was a necessary step before challenging the Kings. "What does my mother being a whore have to do with it?"

Nul set down their pen and turned to face Roran. "We're trying to decipher their usage. I've deconstructed the entire design everway I can think of. I can't figure out what its function is, or why a whore would have it etched into her back. It also doesn't make sense that several of the same runes and sigils are found in Ahndor's design. I'm assuming Ahndor doesn't do sexwork so I can't draw a connection."

"Well," began Roran, warming to the subject, "I don't think my mother would have used them for her work. She traveled a lot with my father. They went on adventures together, always getting into trouble. The way my father put it, my mom was the kind of person that always found herself in the wrong place, at just the right time. It was almost as if fate itself were conspiring to keep their travels hectic and chaotic."