Yuer and the redhead left the merchant’s office as soon as the youth got his change. The old rat insisted on providing the ‘branding’ service for free but Yuer firmly denied him, stating that he preferred collars for his servants. After escaping the wrinkled clutches of the old handler, the pair headed toward the waiting carriage.
In their way, Yuer remembered to ask something, “I still don’t know your name. What is it?”
The Mesrin woman snorted, “Master now…You name. No?”
Yuer chuckled, “I don’t think I care that much. Whatever name your parents gave you, you keep it.”
The redhead fell silent for a bit before answering, “Hasha.” She pointed at sky, “Star…sky…red.”
“Means red star?” Yuer mused, “The unborn child of the old Mesrin goddess, Bahita. She knew she couldn’t keep him because he would die in her womb due to his part-mortal blood, so instead, she made him into a red star and sent him to the sky.” Yuer glanced back at Hasha and gave her a rare, gentle smile, “beautiful name.”
Hasha stopped dead in her tracks, taken aback by Yuer’s words. She slipped into her mother tongue as she asked, “You know our language, our old gods and our stories. Where did you learn them? How do you know them? Did you travel to Mesra before?”
Yuer shook his head, “No, I have never been to Mesra. All that I know about your home was what books have told me.”
During his first two years of ignorant bliss in the palace, Yuer was tutored upon the presumption that he would be the next Rezna of the Empire. Hence, he was obliged to learn diplomatic relations, the continent’s history and the foreign languages and customs of the many annexed territories of Sema, among of which was Mesra.
He stared at Hasha and softly asked, “You miss it, don’t you? Your home and your people.”
Hasha snorted, “What land? And what people? You mean the land your Rezas burned to the ground or the people he slaughtered in the thousands? Or do you mean our temples that his army toppled to nothing not leaving behind a single stone?” The Mesrin redhead lifted her head up, her slightly misted eyes boring into the sky, “Mesra is no more.”
“What a pity,” muttered Yuer.
Hasha wiped at the corners of her eyes. Tears and blood smeared equally on her thin threadbare sleeves. She composed herself before returning the same question, “What about you? What’s your name?”
“Yuer.”
“Does it mean anything?”
A thin smile with a hint of self-deprecation painted itself across Yuer’s lips, “Does it have to mean something? But then, even it did. It wouldn’t dream of being as beautiful and as meaningful as yours.”
Hasha frowned, “Does that mean it has no meaning? How can names have no meaning? Do the Semani care so little for their children’s names?”
Yuer chuckled bitterly, “I suppose it matters not, whether my name has meaning or not. A mere name is of so very little consequence in the grand scheme of things.”
Hasha knitted her fiery-red eyebrows, “You are weird…Yuer.”
The youth laughed, and it was a genuine, open cackle. A first for him in this lifetime, “I suppose I am. A weird man.”
The redhead grumbled, “Man? What man? Some of my cousins’ arms are bigger than your entire body. Scrawny kid says he is a man. So weird.”
Yuer fought to hold in another bout of laughter that wanted to burst out of his mouth. “Alright. You do have a point there and what about you, how old are you, oh strong and mighty Mesrin warrior woman?”
Hasha mused, “My coming of age was two winters ago, so I think seventeen winters old?”
Yuer raised an eyebrow, “So you are basically a little girl still. I wouldn’t have guessed it with you being caked under all that filth and dirt.”
“What little girl? I am no little girl!” huffed the redhead. “I have yet to have my Trials. I mean…” Hasha faltered as it dawned on her with her home being destroyed and gone, she would never get to experience what many of her fellow Mesrin did.
Yuer noticed her change of mood and understand the reason behind it. After all, Hasha was but a girl who had yet to come to grips with the loss of her homeland, her family and everything she had long known. So instead of letting her wallow up in the ensuing abject misery, he pulled her mind out of such thoughts by pointing at the familiar carriage parked next to a corner on the side street of the Merchant District, “That’s our ride. Come on.”
Yuer and Hasha jogged towards their mode of transport. The pair used the stool the driver laid for them to hop on the carriage and each went to settle into different seats. Sakina saluted Yuer with a bowed head. She then swept her gaze over the stranger’s bloodied face, filthy rags and smelly, matted red hair. Every fiber of her neatness-appreciative body internally cringed at the overwhelming stench exuding from this person.
Sakina started to unconsciously calculate the amount of water buckets she would need to heat in order to scrub this person back into a human being. She glanced at the little silent Valquari boy, and thought, yes this one needs a bath too. So does young master and …so do I me.
Sakina sighed as she realized she would probably spend the rest of the day heating water.
Yuer looked at the play of various expressions on Sakina’s face, bemused by where her thoughts likely went. He then slid open the little window and said to the driver, “Final stop, Ayaseen residence.”
He was about to turn in his seat when he felt something tagging at his cloak. He looked down and found himself staring into deep, unfathomable pools of black.
“You want to come up?” Yuer asked the little boy.
The boy nodded. The youth helped the child up and seated him next to him. The white-haired child, however, didn’t seem satisfied. He used his bony little arms and knees to crawl across the space between him and Yuer, finally tucking himself inside the older youth’s heavy autumn cloak. Yuer smiled gently at the boy, and softly caressed his snow-colored mop. He then leaned over and whispered to the child, “You can close your eyes and rest a bit. You are safe now.”
The little Valquari boy clenched his small hand around Yuer’s long black tunic and slowly drifted into seamless sleep for the very first time since the day his mother sold him to that scary and big one-eyed man with the very rough and cold hands.
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It had been nearly half a candle-hour since Yuer arrived back at the Ayaseen residence. He had Sakina take Hasha into her personal quarters where the Mesrin young woman could wash herself and sate her hunger.
The little Valquari boy, on the other hand, glued himself to Yuer and refused to leave. Sakina had attempted to coax him out of her master’s inner chamber using several methods, including seducing him with candied fruits and savory snacks. However, her efforts proved futile as the boy’s only response to her cajoling was to hide his face deeper into Yuer’s tunic. At some point, she just gave up and walked out of the inner chamber with Hasha on tow.
Yuer glanced down at the white head trying to bury itself into his clothing. A small smile surfaced upon his lips. He gently lifted up the bony boy’s chin and softly suggested, “How about you take a bath here? I can help you wash up. What do you think?”
The boy pursed his lips, seeming to be giving Yuer’s suggestion some thought. A moment later, he nodded his head wordlessly.
“Good. Come with me.” Yuer extended a hand toward the child and after a brief pause, the latter took it.
The Dasrari young master guided his small guest deeper into his inner chamber where a small side room with a sliding door was located. Yuer opened the door and led the boy to the already steaming redwood bathtub. Sakina had made sure to prepare his bathwater before leaving.
Yuer gently helped the boy out of what was left of his filthy tatters. He then seated the child slowly into the tub. The youth lathered a bar of mint-scented soap into a soft towel before running it gently across the little boy’s bruised and discolored skin. He didn’t talk and instead focused his gaze on the child’s face, watching for signs of discomfort. The little child, however, neither grimaced nor winced. His face was surprisingly expressionless as he silently stared right ahead, his gaze seemed somewhat empty.
Yuer was only too familiar with that gaze. He himself had such an empty and lost look about him for many years. The boy’s current state of mind was likely no different from his own at that time. The youth had firsthand knowledge that no amount of words, no matter how warm and sweet, could erase or lessen the horror of what was done to him.
Thus, Yuer remained silent as he worked to delicately clean every patch of skin he could reach. Once finished, he lathed the soap once more and slipped his soaked hands into the little boy’s matted and dirty white hair. He gently washed the strands, paying heed not to accidentally press into the several new and old gashes littered across the child’s scalp. As Yuer poured the hot water over the boy’s hair in order to rinse it, he noticed the dead lice falling off of it into the now pinkish bathwater.
He needs a haircut, thought Yuer.
The youth stood up and walked to the redwood cupboard placed on the opposite wall of the room. He took out several dry towels, a wooden comb, silver scissors and a clean razor. He returned to the boy and wrapped a small towel around his skinny neck. He then began to mindfully comb through the white strands, straightening out knotted hair. After making sure the boy’s hair was neatly combed, Yuer began to methodically cut at the longish white mop.
Yuer got lost in his task, forgetting the passage of time. This feeling of immersing oneself in menial, small chores wasn’t an unfamiliar experience to the youth. During the last month of his previous life, he spent his final days confined to his own Rezna quarters, under house arrest. He wasn’t allowed any servants for fear they might collude with the remnants of the Zaradate Temple and smuggle him out. So instead, he had to do his own everyday routines by himself, this included bathing himself, trimming his own hair with the butter knife, cleaning up his own room and washing his own clothes. At that time, the only remaining grip Yuer had on his sanity was maintained through these mindless, mundane tasks. While he did them, his head no longer buzzed, his body no longer hurt and the world made sense.
Yuer had wanted to kill himself several times but Jarak left him with nothing sharp enough to dig into skin or long enough to hang oneself with. In fact, Yuer did try to smash his head against the wall once but that didn’t achieve much other than a larger, more competent company of Light Echo healers stationed at his door.
Denied the merciful embrace of death, Yuer had no choice but to spend his remaining days numbing himself with little, simple things as he slowly descended into muffled, hushed insanity.
A sardonic, pale imitation of a smile emerged upon Yuer’s face. No matter whether he wanted to think about such memories or not, his mind would always take it upon itself to remind him of these bleak, dark corners of his consciousness. It was almost as it was reminding him that he couldn’t forget them, that he mustn’t forget them, those dismal and grim days.
A tentative touch on the skin of his hand brought Yuer back to his current reality. He looked down and found the obsidian-colored and strangely knowing eyes of the boy boring into his own. The latter gently squeezed his hand before turning around. Yuer realized he must have been staring into space for a while because he noticed he had long finished cutting the kid’s hair.
The youth sighed before taking the silver razor-blade into his hand and smoothly passing it through the boy’s already cut hair. Some time passed before all that remained of the boy’s previously wild mop was a fuzz of white, cropped tightly to his scalp. No sign of any wiggling, unwelcome insects anywhere to be found.
Eventually, Yuer helped the small boy out of the tub and into a warm, big towel. He then led him back to his inner chamber where he clothed the Valquari child in a long white tunic of his own. The top came down to the boy’s feet, dragging on the floor behind him. Yuer realized that a shopping trip to the Merchant District was a must-do at this point.
After feeding the little boy and eating himself, Yuer coaxed the child to sleep. He then walked out of his outer chamber and took a right turn to Sakina’s quarters.
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