forty-four #4
“Sounds like the High Priestess is paying a lot of people visits recently. I wonder why she would bother him about it, though. You’d think someone all-knowing would have the foresight to see that he would destroy his own Relic.”
Hannu ground her teeth and folded her hands into fists as she stared at the wall in front of them, taking in the stony ambiance of an underground meeting room that had seen untold deals and probably a few romantic liaisons over the years. If these walls could talk…
“Perhaps Her Holiness knew that would happen, and so she made it happen.”
Sulim ceased her tapping. “What do you mean?”
“Everything she has done these past few weeks has been for our gain. She helped you understand what Lady Mira has told you. She gave me the gift of seeing my other life and sent me into your service. If we believe Mira, then Her Holiness was the one responsible for sending our souls to this reality.
To save it, I believe.”
She glanced at Sulim, tepid in her speech.
“Since we could not save the world that she marred with her mortal selfishness. I have learned much since learning that even she was capable of such folly.”
“Hm. Maybe you’re right. But what do we gain from losing sight of one of the Relics? Wouldn’t her father find the new one before us? Assuming Mira doesn’t have another vision…”
Hannu shrugged. “We must trust in Lady Joiya. The memories I have of her from the other reality… she was very wise. Kind and wise.”
She had piqued Sulim’s interest. “What else can you tell me about her?”
“Well, for one thing… she adored you. Partly because you were her daughter’s soulmate, and Lady Joiya loved her daughter more than anyone.”
She adored me? Sulim wished she could remember.
There were vague memories toying with the edges of her sanity, but Sulim couldn’t quite picture Mira’s mother as anything more than a statue on an altar or a photograph in a book.
Their resemblance truly is uncanny. Mira was taller than her mother, but they shared so many of the same features that it was difficult to see them as anything but twins.
At least it lets her blend in with her mother’s family.
It was the only reason Mira had gone undetected in a Cerilynian Temple.
If she told people she was merely a Lerenan, thus a distant genetic relation to the High Priestess, then they accepted it.
Only Sulim had dug more into it after falling in love with the woman who claimed to be a Lerenan.
Instead, she’s the scion of House Dunsman… Well, she had been. A part of Sulim was relieved that they would never have to deal with Mira’s inheritance now.
“I must apologize to you, Ms. Sulim,” Hannu said, interrupting frustrating thoughts.
“When Her Holiness visited me, she told me that it was time to make up for my sins in the other reality. Once I recalled them, I understood. I did a great disservice to you. And now, after this meeting, I am reminded of those sins.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Blush claimed Hannu’s cheeks as she turned toward Sulim and was the grown adult the universe asked her to be.
“I was the priestess of Yarensport Temple in that other world. You and I knew each other. Actually, you worked for me after I implemented the internship, which you later joined. You met Ms. Eyne and Ms. Nem there. I was the one in charge when the mercenaries attacked….”
She looked away again. “I did not fulfill my duties as a protective priestess. Because of my cowardice, Ms. Eyne perished, and Ms. Nem was taken captive.”
Sulim had known bits and pieces of this from pillow talk with Mira, but it was her first time hearing it all laid out like that.
“What happened to me? Was I also taken?”
That was what happened in this world, but Sulim had never joined any internship at the Temple.
The priest was an old hybrid man. One who had almost been killed by pneumonia.
Was that the difference? Had he survived in this world, and that was why Sulim had to be taken?
“You were spared. Later, you met the Gardiahs when young Graella came to the exchange. They had both survived the attack on their family. Apparently, it was quite botched in that reality. Everyone survived. Until…”
“You’re saying I knew his sister? Sonall’s sister?”
That was something. Sulim had no recollection whatsoever of Graella, the girl Sonall missed more than his old life.
If he could have anything, it would be her.
He said it was a grace that she was killed in the attack because she would have never made it as a mercenary, but Sulim knew the truth.
He’d rather have her here as a maid or a cook than dead.
Perhaps neither answer was truly sufficient.
There would be untold suffering, either way.
“Yes. You two were good friends. She really took to you. Honestly, I thought she had a crush on you for a while. But then she met the lordling Lewin and set her sights on him. It was around that time that Sonall came to visit her, and fell in love with you.”
“What was he like?” Sulim almost didn’t ask. “In the other world.”
“Oh, he was very gentlemanly. Very protective of those who would let him protect them. He truly loved you. Yet we could all see that you did not love him the same way.”
Why would I agree to marry him, then? Sulim would probably never know.
She wasn’t in that position. She had been absorbed into a completely different timeline, where the circumstances of her meeting Sonall were when he was dumped in a cell, and she was assigned to help him temper the horses that had been stolen from his family.
Even then, he was already a shell of his former self.
I could tell. How could fate be so strange?
“So, please accept my formal apologies, Ms. Sulim. Seeing Ms. Eyne just now… it reminded me. I was not prepared.”
“I suppose I should have warned you.”
“How could you have known? You did what was best for the situation.”
Sulim let a pause hang between them. “I’m sure you did, too. Don’t be so hard on yourself. If there’s one thing this life here has taught me, it’s that everyone thinks they’re a hero until there’s a knife at their throat. If I held anything against you in that other reality… well,
I’d love to have a chat with that version of myself.”
Hannu sighed, a small smile touching her face as she finally relaxed around Sulim.
“I appreciate you saying that. In this reality, I have never served in a locality, only the High Temple. I am one of the priestesses who takes care of the main altar where high-profile weddings are held, and the High Priest gives his sermons. I wasn’t surprised that I had a vision of Her Holiness.
But I was shocked to remember things that never happened, and fears that I never earned.”
Sulim wasn’t one to touch relative-strangers. At least, not since becoming a mercenary, who had to be wary of everyone she didn’t trust, and even people she trusted didn’t always gain a reassuring hand. Yet in this case, Sulim extended her arm and gripped Hannu’s shoulder.
“Focus on the mission at hand.” Sulim’s words might have stung, but she said them with the only candor she could muster.
“When something like this builds in front of you, there is only the mission. There is only starting and getting through it. You must be focused and reliable to your team. Do you understand?”
“Yes. So, what do we do next? For the mission, I mean.”
Sulim retracted her hand. “Suppose we better leave. Easier to plan back in our own fortress than here, where we have no idea who might be listening.”
If this were First Tribe, I wouldn’t be as worried.
That clan was more concerned with solving shit with a fist fight, which Sulim was more adept at dodging than whatever plots Third Tribe hatched around her.
They want me so badly, yet they don’t understand how much I hate the underhandedness.
That was fine for getting paid, but in the fortress?
Sulim needed a higher modicum of trust to relax between gigs.
“Go… back?”
Why did Hannu sound like that? “Once the vehicle is gassed up, we’ll head back.”
This time, it was Hannu clutching Sulim’s arms, which she did with such sudden fervor that Sulim almost instinctively reached for her dagger. “No!” Hannu hissed with the kind of thousand-yard stare Sulim usually only saw among human mercenaries. “I will teleport us back.”
“That’s not necessary…”
“It’s instantaneous!” Hannu shook Sulim, her thumbs gripping so deeply into the mercenary’s flesh that Sulim struggled to understand what was happening. “I insist!”
“Ah… are you sure you can take back two people and a multi-ton vehicle? We can’t leave it behind. It’s tribal property and worth—”
“It’ll be fine! I’ll need a long nap afterward, but I insist, Ms. Sulim!”
Sulim had yet to see Hannu so aggressively animated. It makes you take note, doesn’t it? Clearly, this woman would do anything to avoid plunging through the jungle for another three hours. Who am I to say no to such an offer? As long as Hannu figured she’d be all right…
“Just promise me.” Hannu still wasn’t letting go, and Sulim had to fight off every part of her experience and training that told her to boot Hannu into yet another plane of existence. “Promise me, I’ll never have to ride in one of those things again.”
“I think I get your point now.”
“Excellent!” Hannu released her with as much enthusiasm as she had grabbed Sulim. “Oh, what a relief! I killed two birds with one stone today! Is this what it feels like to be human and to only have so many days in your life to right your wrongs and accomplish your dreams?”
A part of Sulim preferred it when Hannu didn’t speak much.
All the better for us to get the hell back.
For on their way to the vehicle, which Hannu continued to assert she could teleport with “ease”, she never once stopped talking.
One day, somebody will properly dislike me again.
Maybe she should start a fight in the middle of Bow Village to restore balance to the world.