In the still afternoon, Karma sat on a rock gazing out upon the river that crawled beneath his swaying feet. He longed to plunge into it and allow the current to sweep him wherever it was headed, so he wouldn't have to endure the worry of deciding where he should go next, or maybe even where he might go. For after all, there was nowhere for him anymore.
He stooped down, laying his hand in the chilly running stream of water. He sensed it as the water flowed through his fingers and, for some inexplicable reason, he experienced a lot of joy in what he was doing. A faint smile crept onto his lips, unknown to him.
Three days since that incident. Three days of walking in purposelessness, in directionlessness.
Then he sensed something rub against his finger. Something was attached to it. He bent to get a better look and saw what appeared to be a thin silver chain with a black gemstone on it. He attempted to look closer, but two hands came out of nowhere and pulled him back.
"Get back, little girl, you might fall in there!" a female voice said as she pulled him toward her, making him stand on his feet.
He stumbled back into her, his bare, soaked feet slipping slightly against the rocky ground. He looked up at her in surprise.
She was a woman with piercing eyes and long silver hair that picked up the afternoon sun like tamed metal. She had plain traveling attire and sword at her waist.
She sized him up, stopping as her eyes roamed over his form.
Wounds. Cuts. Scars. His left hand was severely burned, the skin blistered and red.
A flicker of something—shock? concern?—flashed across her face.
"Are you okay?" she asked, steadying him with one hand, speaking more softly now.
He nodded wordlessly, his fingers curled tight around the silver chain in his hand.
"What happened to you?" Her gaze swept out over the horizon, as if looking for the person who'd hurt him.
"Nothing," he growled, taking a step back.
Then, as if to contradict her assumption, he appended, "Not a girl. boy."
Her eyes widened a fraction as she took a closer look at his face—soft, delicate, with long, matted hair—he did look like a girl at first glance. The mistake was typical, but still painful.
She didn't ask him any more about his injuries. Instead, she merely grasped his arm and said, "Come. You're wounded. Those burns have to be treated before they cause an infection."
As they walked in company, Shizuku couldn't help but keep looking at the boy next to her. His tiny build, the burns, the scars—he didn't talk much, but the silence that swirled around him spoke volumes.
She'd witnessed that vacant expression before, in survivors' eyes. Whatever happened to him was fresh.
"Where did you come from?" she asked softly, moving slowly so that he might keep up. She required information if she was going to assist him, or ascertain if he was a threat at all.
He said nothing. Merely glared ahead with what he'd discovered clutched in his hand, his expression inscrutable.
"Did something occur? To your family?" she probed, her tone gentle but insistent.
Still nothing. Only the echo of footsteps and the river in the distance.
She dropped to her knees before him, standing in his way, attempting once again. "What is your name, then? I am Shizuku Anrakusa."
There was a moment of silence. Then, in a soft, barely intact whisper, "Karma."
He turned and set off again, bare feet, purposeless. She walked behind him, not speaking for a few minutes, just observing. Her mind spun with hypotheses. A refugee? An orphan from a border town? The Empire had been pushing hard over the past few months, burning and taking lands along the contested borders, she herself commanded a unit to accompany the scout brigade and collect intelligence while providing cover for any survivors.
After a pause, she spoke. "You should come with me."
He halted. "No." The first flicker of rebellion.
"Do you have somewhere to go?" She had to know if he was expected by someone.
He remained silent. then shook his head.
"Then come with me," she said softly this time. "You can have a home. My company is camped close by. We have healers who can treat those burns."
He looked at her with weary eyes. "Isn't that where we're born? Home?"
She shook her head. "No. A house is just walls and a roof. A home. is something we construct with people we love. It's created by love."
He gazed off once more, the anguish behind his face breaking through. "It doesn't matter where I go. It's all useless. Everything I learned, or what I knew. It never mattered. I couldn't stop anything that happened to me." His hands shook as he spoke, and she saw that he was holding something tightly in his hand, a silver chain he'd discovered floating in the water.
She didn't wince. Her tone was calm. "That's not true. If we're born in life, then we're supposed to live. What you've experienced doesn't shape you. What you learn in the process. even if it doesn't do us any good now, it will matter eventually."
He grunted, repeating it to himself, "It matters..."
She nodded briefly and patted his head. "Yeah, it does." Her hands were soft, maternal.
Then he looked at her face, really looked, his cheeks flushing a little. His eyes drifted upward to her face and her long, flowing silver hair.
"What was your name, pretty lady?" he muttered. She smiled gently and said, "Shizuku."
He blinked. "You have. lovely hair."
She smiled a gentle laugh, a light sound like the wind, her eyes shining with warmth. "Thank you, Karma."
He gazed down bashfully, kicking at a pebble with his toe. The tension between them wasn't awkward, it was gentle, soft. Like something delicate about to bloom.
They walked side by side this time, having a destination in mind: her company camp. Shizuku looked at him from time to time, observing the slight limp in his step, how he flinched periodically from the injuries on his legs and burned arm. She seethed with anger at the person who had injured this child.
She finally spoke up, "You're really strong, you know that?"
Karma scowled. "I'm just surviving."
"Sometimes, surviving is the strongest thing a person can do." She knew this truth better than most. She'd survived when many hadn't, carried the weight of command when others fell.
He didn't reply, but his silence wasn't cold, it felt like the words reached somewhere deep inside.
The path then started to twist through a clump of trees. Shizuku produced a tiny water bottle from her bag and held it out to him. "Here, drink. We still have a way to go."
He eyed it warily.
"It's not poisoned, I swear." she joked, then took a sip herself for demonstration purposes.
He took it, drank cautiously, then returned it with a simple, "Thanks."
As they strolled, she sang a gentle tune—an old war hymn, but slowed and softened. Karma heard in silence, the music sweeping over him like a cradle song. It reminded him of something, perhaps his mother's voice, perhaps a dream, perhaps nothing. But it filled his chest with a feeling that he could not explain.
Some time later, he said, "Why are you doing this?"
She looked at him with her, storm-grey eyes. "Because someone helped me when I was lost too."
A memory came to her mind, a figure that carried her to rescue her from her close brush with death.
He blinked, not knowing what to say, but something in what she said struck a chord. Maybe they were more similar than he realized.
They continued walking until the sun started to set below the trees, coloring the sky with gold and purple. In the distance, smoke from fires hung among trees, and voices and the sound of horses could be heard.
"That's our camp," said Shizuku, nodding. "We're the knight of a kingdom." She hesitated, then added, "We're going north tomorrow, away from the Empire's expansion. Our job is finished."
Karma hesitated, his feet stopping short. Accepting strangers, going north. it wasn't what he'd set out to do. But then, he hadn't set out to do anything more than let the river carry him.
He spread his hand out, at last examining what he'd uncovered, the black gem set in a silver chain.
"What is it?" Shizuku asked, seeing it for the first time. "I don't know," Karma replied sincerely. "But. it it came to me. From the river."
She raised an eyebrow, leaning forward to study it. "That looks like a nightstone. Uncommon. Precious."
Karma wrapped his fingers around it once more. "I'd like to keep it."
Shizuku nodded deliberately. "We'll take it to our mage at camp. She may be able to tell us something about it." She didn't press the issue, respecting his bond with the discovery.
After a while, she laid a soft hand on his shoulder. "Let's get you treated at the camp first, then we'll work this out. One step at a time."
Karma nodded, inhaling deeply as he gazed at the camp. He didn't knew what was there for him, or what to make of this odd gemstone. But for the first time in days, he felt something more than despair, a small flicker of curiosity at what would follow.
As they rode into the camp, Shizuku saluted the sentries with her hand. "I'm bringing a guest in," she called.