Heidi came back, and she brought Katharos with her, at which I gave her a sharp look, but what was done was done. She may as well just tell the whole village at this point.
Katharos looked a little downtrodden. “Heidi told me everything…I wish I could go too…”
I knelt down, and gave him the most genuine smile I had ever mustered. I looked him right in the eyes. “I am so proud of you… mortals like you make me love what I do…”
“But you are a God! And I am nothing…” He shuffled his feet and looked down.
“You are not nothing. You give this world all you can, and you will someday get back what you give.”
He embraced me. My eyes shifted uncomfortably, not knowing how to respond. I patted his back awkwardly.
After a moment, he disengaged, and I patted his head. “Take care of yourself, please.” I said quietly.
He nodded. “Goodbye. I hope I shall see you again…”
I informed Heidi that we were going to the Mahesha, and I was happy to know that she knew where they were situated, because I certainly didn't--she said they were far, far to the east, and it would take weeks to get there.
We traveled for an hour in silence, and then Heidi looked up at my face as we passed over very flat land and made progress towards our goal. “You look ever so slightly sad. I mean, I guess your default expression is unamused, but there’s an ever so slightly thin line pulling down on the corner of your mouth.”
I said nothing. I felt sad at my parting with Katharos. Sad. Over a mortal. Reprehensible.
To Heidi I said, “Why are you friends with Katharos?”
“Why?” She repeated. "Can you elaborate?"
“Katharos is royalty. Royalty is not often friends with…” I stopped myself. She was already giving me a look.
“With rabble like me? You’re thinking it. You may as well be honest." Heidi paused for a moment. Trying to think of how she had formed a relationship with Katharos. She cleared her throat and said, "I knew when Katharos first came here that he wasn’t like most royalty. He always seemed so sad… I thought he needed a friend, so I talked to him, and when he didn't have his guards cart me away for being beneath him, we became fast friends. It seemed as if all of his cohorts were disgusted that he would lower himself to my level… not that I care. I’ve gotten far worse from my Father.” She shrugged.
They were quite a pair. Both so young, and both treated very badly. Even looking at Heidi, she had a rather faint scar on her leg that was exposed due to the length of her dress, no doubt from her father.
She caught me looking. “Haven’t you ever seen an ugly scar before?” She asked.
“Why did he treat you that way?” I asked.
She had a hardened look on her face like she didn’t care. Like long ago, she had accepted what her life was, and she’d moved on from it. “I can’t explain why some people are like him, Joshua. All I know is that some people have all the luck, and I have none. I think… my Father wanted to have no weight attached to his life, and he wanted me to pull my own weight, without having to care about me… he took so many things from me.”
“Like what?”
“I have no happy memories to rest in, nothing to look back on in fondness. People have happy childhoods to look back on for comfort, and I have nothing. “
She stopped in her tracks. “Look at this… a year ago this was green…”
We came upon a large stretch of land with no green grass. The grass and trees very suddenly cut off, and there was nothing left but cold, hard, barren earth. The vapors had killed the land here. They were especially intense in this area, and particularly visible. They had a reddish tinge to them.
“This place has festered horribly,” I commented.
“Well yeah, clearly,” she replied. The barren earth in front of us was steep and plateaued into a crater. Heidi carefully lowered herself down onto the incline, clinging to the rocks caking the sides of it so she wouldn't fall.
I carefully place one foot down before the other one. In my robes, it was hard to move, and even harder to see past my long body. I stepped on something unsteady and nearly fell over, but I caught myself, just barely. I breathed in sharply.
Heidi was doing great, even climbing in a dress with clunky boots on. She was already half way down.
Suddenly, I wondered what it would be like to slip and die here, and I had a sensation of complete fear. I held tightly to the rock I had gripped, and was too scared to move.
Heidi looked up at me. “Joshua, are you okay?”
“I am stuck.”
She laughed. “Do you want me to come back up there?”
“Yes.”
I waited while she climbed back up. She was sweating and exhausted, but she was used to this sort of work. I was not. She arrived at my side. “Okay, I’ll guide you.” She looked down. “Lower your right foot down and to the left a little…”
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