Arsh was taken aback, but the curly-haired man placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a reassuring nod.
It was bizarre. Only half an hour ago, this man had broken into his room to threaten him and now, he was trying to comfort him.
"You're not giving me any comfort." Arsh muttered.
He glanced at the old man. The man's eyes were bright, as if they were giving off a faint glow, but the moment their gazes met, the old man shut his eyes and released Arsh's hand.
"Let's go upstairs." he said, stood up quickly, and started walking ahead of them.
…
"Who is he?"
The older man whispered to the curly haired man as they walked down the narrow corridor.
"Just a kid from the desert. Nothing more… I guess."
Even as he said it, the curly haired man didn't sound convinced by his own judgement.
They entered a room. It was shabby, dimly lit, and a little dirty.
"Sit." the man said.
Arsh looked for a clean place to sit, but he had no options other than the bed and the only chair in the room. He pulled out the chair near the study table in the corner and looked at the two men standing before him.
The same question came up again, but this time from Arsh.
"Who is he?" he whispered to the curly-haired man, even though his voice could be heard clearly in the small room.
"A friend of mine. He can see whether a person is worthy or not. He'll even be able to tell if you're going to live or die." the curly haired man said with a smile.
Then the older man stepped forward and took his wounded hand, and began to examine it.
"Don't worry. Let me have a look at the young man. I'm just a simple healer." he said in a calm voice.
Once again, Arsh noticed the light in the man's eyes. His pupils seemed to vanish, leaving only a faint glow behind.
"Hmm… It hasn't harmed your body or drained your spiritual energy. Even if it's faint, you seem to have potential. "
"So… there's no problem with my body, I guess." Arsh relaxed a little
"Yes, but it would be better if you internalized your Siuni. That means you're worthy and you're able to use the power of Siuni. It hasn't caused you any harm, and there's a kind of harmony between it and your body and soul. I can't say for certain if a person is truly worthy, but I can read their condition. And yours… there's no problem."
"So, how exactly do I internalize it?"
This time, curly haired man answered.
"There are two rules. First, you need to believe in the power of Siuni. If you don't have belief in your heart, you won't be able to use it, because it connects the power of your soul to your body. The siuni open a way for this power to emerge and take form. But for that to happen, you must believe in it throughout the process. It's like iron being forged into a sword.
The second rule is that you need to understand the meaning of Siuni. After all, you can't start forging iron without knowing whether you want to make a sword or a spoon. Siuni is the mold in which you cast the iron. In the end, you need to know which mold you're going to use."
"To know its meaning and believe it," Arsh murmured to himself. He understood the idea.
"Yes, think about it. If you don't know the meaning of something, can you truly believe in it? You drew this symbol just to give it a chance. So first, you need to understand what this symbol is means, and then you need to believe in the power it represents."
Will had written in his diary that he had found this Siuni in the tomb of Bertham's heir. At first, he thought it might be something like a way to control the desert sand. But instead of affecting soil or sand, there was a light that showed the way out.
Even though the man claimed to be an official, he was still from another country, and Arsh wasn't sure of his true identity, so he didn't want to reveal his little secret directly. The man was also fully aware of Arsh's dilemma.
"Now I can say that you're one of our kind. Let me introduce myself. My name is Juan. I won't go into details for now, but I work for an organization that investigates… hmm, let's just say inexplicable events."
"Supernatural events," the older man added.
"Right, supernatural events… Though when you say it like that, we sound like a bunch of charlatans." Juan sighed.
"Anyway, I'm on a mission right now. There have been cases of native children being kidnapped, and I'm looking for the organization responsible. So, let me explain what you're going to do. Now that you have this Siuni, we need to observe you and make sure you won't cause any trouble. If the Siuni, and you only hold a small amount of power, we'll let you go. But for that, I need to send you to one of our centers. There, they'll help you understand Siuni and properly educate you. But as I said, I'm really busy here. So it will take some time. After I'm done, we'll go to the nearest center together."
It was bad. Arsh already had a plan.
He was curious about the Siunis, of course, but they weren't anywhere near the top of his priorities. If he followed this man, he had no idea how much it would delay his plan, nor could he even guess what kind of place this "center" he mentioned might be.
'Maybe I can try to escape' he thought.
His inner thought was interrupted in a second.
"By the way, don't even think about escaping," Juan said.
"I know you're looking for the people who killed your villagers. And let me tell you—revenge won't be as easy as you think. Also, from what I heard when you were talking to that guard, there are things I'm curious about too. Later, I might be able to help you."
Arsh didn't feel the need to say anything. At this point, there wasn't much to say anyway. Once he got out of here, he would decide what to do.
The older man seemed not to be listening to them at all. He was busy mixing strange substances from bottles he had taken out of a bag in the corner of the room. After a while, he finished the mixing and returned to Arsh's side. He cleaned his hands with a liquid, then applied the greenish ointment he had prepared. Taking a clean cloth, he wrapped it around his hand and began speaking in a soft, low voice.
"Son, I don't know what you've been through, or who you're seeking revenge against. Just think of me as a fellow countryman looking out for you. As for the man sitting behind me, I've known him for a long time. If you're in trouble and need help, I suggest you listen to him. He will help you."
"And don't walk around with an open siuni wound like that. Whatever it is, it's still a wound. Keep it clean until you fully internalize it. Also, be careful, there are still people out there who know what such symbols mean, not many, but enough to cause trouble… Listen to Juan and go to one of the centers. Once you grow stronger, then you can pursue your revenge properly."
Blindly trusting someone was out of the question. But as the old man had said, this could also be an opportunity for him. He wasn't naive, nor was he someone unaware of what was happening around him. Also if Professor Millway had really left Thage as he suspected, tracking him down would become much harder.
Money and language wouldn't be a problem for a while, he could manage that. But surviving in completely unfamiliar places,in bigger cities governed by different rules and different people, might end up being far more difficult than simply finding those men and killing them.
For now, keeping an eye on this curly haired man called Juan and figuring out whether he could be trusted seemed like the best option. If nothing else, it might help him find someone to rely on once he left Thage.
The old man had finished wrapping his hand and returned to the table in the corner. Arsh turned his gaze to Juan, who was tugging absentmindedly at the loose threads on his clothes and impatiently bouncing one leg. Arsh kept watching him, still wondering how things were going to unfold.