“Got a cigarette ?” the man finally asked after they had stacked the logs onto the woodpile next to Yassine’s cabin. They had done so in silence like they had chopping the tree. It hadn’t been much of a heavy silence despite what had happened before. It was more an absence of words leaving place to nature and introspection. At least it was to Yassine who had grown to appreciate such silence.

“Inside.” he answered

Once again, he wished his guest could feel the same but offering him some nicotine to ease his nerves was the next best thing he could do for him. It was frustrating. He felt as if he was looking at himself years ago. Lost, raw and desperate to find some way to fight or run away from the invisible threat looming in his mind. Tobacco had been one of his vices too before he realized it offered far too meager relief compared to the damage it did to his body. He had quit years ago but kept a pack in a kitchen drawer as a reminder to himself and to avoid buying more. He went inside to fetch it and the man stayed on the front porch. Maybe he was starting to enjoy the silence and nature around them, Yassine wondered. He joined him back out and handed him the pack of cigarettes without taking one himself.

The man seemed to question his actions before lighting one with his magic. “Are you gonna pull out a hooker out of your cupboard if I ask you for company for the night ?” he asked.

Yassine let out a soft bust of laughter. Humour, that’s a start. “Interesting idea but unfortunately there’s only me here.” he answered lightheartedly. He wasn’t surprised. Sex had also been something he had desesperately chased after during his worst times. It was just something to be able to keep away the nightmares for one night but eventually he realized that calm and solitude was more efficient in easing his troubled soul. It meant less trouble too. “But you can make a jump in Amsterdam if you really need to…” he offered helpfully.

“Not my thing.” the man snorted with a contained amusement.

Yassine shrugged and stared at the woods and the snow in front of his porch like he often did. He could do this for days on end without getting bored of the silence. This time, it was the man who didn’t seem to want to let the silence stretch on for too long.

“Been living here long ?” he asked promptly as if to chase away whatever thought had crept in his head.

“I’d say… seven years. It’s kinda hard to keep track of time here. I mean it was rather the point. Nights, days… Seasons are different here.” he answered. He made conversation to keep him company. The man listened to him with a distant gaze as if he was listening to a whole different story. Yet he still popped back to make sure Yassine kept talking.

“Different?”

“Well…” Yassine searched for an explanation he hadn’t truly searched for. Even after he had experienced those new and curious phenomena the first year he had lived here, he just didn’t feel the need to understand all the mechanics behind it to enjoy it. He vaguely knew that it had something to do with poles and the planet being tilted and angles of sun rays... He wasn’t even sure he could share the little bit of information he had. After all, Sons of Ra’s faith relied on the Sun being a God of Creation, their Father and he did not wish to disturb the man’s beliefs over a bit of trivia, especially given his current unstable emotional state. “Let’s just say that some days… The sun doesn’t set. It goes around the horizon and never leaves the sky. Some other days however it’s like he has trouble getting up.” he described, deciding to share simply what he had witnessed with his own eyes rather than scientific gibberish. The man didn’t seem to think much of it or at least he did not show any of it.

“Kafele.” He simply presented himself and put out his cigarette butt in the snow before heading inside to throw it away.

“Yassine.” answered his host with a big smile. He was relieved to finally know the man’s name, yet he was once again unsettled that he did not recognize it. He had had time to discreetly observe his face and it only strengthen his conviction that he had seen this man before. He knew he had to if they had grown up in the same Temple yet his name didn’t ring any bells. Was it possible that he was simply mistaking him for someone else? Or was it that he did know him but his name had slipped his mind after all these years? As he followed him inside the house, he wondered if Kafele was experiencing the same feeling of déjà-vu. If he was, once again he didn’t show any of it. Maybe it was due to the fact that neither of them really wanted to be reminded of those dark years, but Yassine had to make sure.

“Do we know each other ?” he finally asked. “I feel like I’ve seen you before but I can’t seem to remember where exactly.” The man was staring into the fireplace before he looked up at Yassine, his black eyes glowing with red embers.

“The war.” he answered so naturally that it sounded terribly sinister. “But if we had met, you’d be dead.” He added with a slight condescending and provocative tone.

Yassine felt the blood leave his face just hearing the word. Of course. It had to have been during the war. The war had been his entire life before he left Egypt. Yet he had this faint impression that something else could have linked them together. Hadn’t they been on the same side, training together, fighting side by side, growing up as Brothers? Kafele seemed to imply the opposite, which was more than alarming. Yassine felt as if the furniture in his brain were slowly being rearranged. There was only one reason he would remember the man’s face and not know his name. He had assumed Kafele was a Son of Ra because he was accompanying the Chief of the Temple, but had he been mistaken? He stared at this face he was now scared to remember.

“I almost did.” he shuddered weakly. Flashes of the past stabbed him like hundred of seething needles screaming with horror. He took a step back.

He remembered now.