The Chronicles Of The Council #1: The Sun's Tears

Chapter 43: Aebbé - Questions

“Dare to ask questions. There are answers to any question.” - Lailah Gifty Akita

“There will be more of them,” Caith states while rinsing his bloodstained shirt in the stream. The water laps at his hands, while the crimson dissolves into pink and then to translucency. Seated on his heels, he wrings the shirt with a decisive twist that reveals the bulging veins on his hands. His shoulders slightly slump as he stares at the stream - every contour of each muscle visible.

A flutter, so faint - barely discernible, tugs at my stonach as I continue to watch him. Before standing up, he cups the water and pours it over his head.

Deciding that the cool water has erased any reminders of the fight from my face (and that I have spent an unacceptably long time watching Caith), I scurry after him.

“They won't let anything stop them from recapturing you.” Caith, holding a firebox, walks back to the mountain of bodies at the entrance of the two cliffs. Striking tinder against firesteel, both of us watch as the flame slowly ignites.

“Are you simply going to burn their bodies?”

His shoulders lift into a shrug as his eyes glaze over momentarily. “Yes. I would have liked to bury them, but we don't have the time. I doubt they deserve a burial. They were traitors and scum. Their bodies are tainted with darkness.” The match finds it way to the heap of corpses, dangerously threatening to disappear between limbs and heads.

“What do you mean by saying that?” Studying the flame rather than his clenched jaw or whitened knuckles, I see that the fire struggles to bite into the bodies. 

Unfolding his fists, he stares at me,  biting the inside of his cheek before he answers with a forlorn smile. “I believe that people - elves, skados, dwarves, all of us - have two states of being: light or darkness. Most are in the state of light, but some are in a state of darkness. Once you have been tainted with darkness, there is nothing you can do to reverse the darkness. The darkness is engulfing.”

The flame finally takes hold of its conquest.

“So you believe that some people are beyond saving?” Scowling at the dark turn the conversation has taken, I twirl the ends of my locks.

"Yes, but that is oversimplifying it." He stifles a yawn with the back of his hand.

The sick sweet smell of burning hair starts to surround us. Deciding that the current conversation is worth more than fleeing from reminders of those I killed - both past and current, I ask my next question. “How do you know if a person is in light or in darkness?”

“You can see it in their deeds and motivations.”

I pinch my nose, making me sound like dear Renard of Berch. “You cannot see a person's motivation.”

He lifts his shoulder and tilts his head to the same side. "With enough training you can."

Seeing motivation? How utterly absurd! 

“Is it something the elves teach? Is that seriously possible?” Remembering other recent impossibilities I encountered, I launch into the list of questions needing answering. “How did you open the door? Did you steal a key? How did you know where I was?”

“Could you try to ask one question at a time? It is quite difficult to formulate an answer to one question when you are bombarded with the next,” he says while chuckling. “You know, you are like a little child.”

It feels as if a dagger twists in my guts. “My brothers do not regard that as a good thing,” I stutter slowly.

“Then they are fools! Curiosity drives us to know more, and ultimately, be more. If everyone was as curious as you are, our world will be a better place - filled with knowledge, but many find that living in ignorance helps them to stay in their comfort.” He turns his back on the heap of flames devouring the evidence of our sins and makes his way to his horse. The beast gently nuzzles his hand before he gives it a pat and starts to rebridle it.