Though their spots were next to one another at the campfire, Nomma avoided Nadia with not just his eyes but subtle movements. He busied himself with cooking food they'd taken from one of the non-toxic creatures. Nadia, noticing his hesitation and short glances her way, realized the distance he was creating. A protection of the self, she thought wearily, something she'd done as well.
Haq, curious about the sword that had been stuck in the rocks, asked Nadia if he could take a look at it. She obliged his request, handing it over.
"Ever seen these before?" Haq asked, staring with interest as the symbols on Nadia's new weapon.
"No, never."
He paused, looking at Naida before turning his attention to Lyruk, the one he'd originally been offering the question to.
"And you?"
Lyruk carefully took the sword from him, examining it with an intensely quiet focus. After gazing at it for a long moment, he stopped, pointing at the first symbol.
"Mortality."
They both frowned.
"Mortality?" Nadia asked, her vision tunneling on that familiar symbol. She absentmindedly tugged on the glove covering her left hand. Her mind whirled with crazy possibilities as to why such a thing had taken up residence on her palm. Other than a shortened lifespan, the best she could come up with was being in control of her own mortality. She quickly shooed the spiraling thoughts away.
Though she had a clear guess about the other symbol, she pretended to be curious.
"And the one on the other side?"
"Fire." He even pointed out another symbol, one she hadn't noticed yet. On the pommel, was a carved series of black lines, making it seem like a part of the design, extended from the grip. "And that is the symbol for this planet."
"Elpidius," she whispered.
Lyruk handed the sword back to her and she traced that last symbol for a moment, taking it in. At first glance, it looked similar to a maze kind of puzzle, the starting and ending point in different places, the objective being to reach the exit. If it were, there was only one dead end area. More than anything, it looked like a floor layout, a square with a hallway leading into it. The secondary line resembled a path someone might take to enter it.
"Strange," she admitted, brushing a final finger over the symbol of rigid lines.
Lyruk gave her and her sword one final glance before training his attention elsewhere, rising to his feet to leave her ponder whatever was on her mind.
He wasn't the type to speculate without cause. Knowing all he did, he wasn't entirely sure his thoughts on the matter of Nadia and her sword could truly count as a mere guess. Though he didn't say it aloud, as he crossed his arms and stared into the flames with serene focus, having a weapon with any planetary symbol was rather rare. In fact, it was harder to come across such a thing, even ownerless, that seeing the mark of Elpidius on her sword was startling, even to him.
As Haq had theorized before, with his talk of the myths and legends of the stars and planets, that Elpidius was not just a planet, but a conscious being. If such beings truly existed, those weapons with their mark were meant for very specific people with predetermined destinies.
And that meant Nadia was one of those individuals.
"You said you and Lyruk have known each other over a hundred years," Nomma queried hesitantly, meeting Elavale's eyes across the campfire. Everyone settled in, sitting on logs they'd drug over from the sides of the Canyon.
Elavale laughed heartily, nodding her head.
"I certainly have."
"Can I ask how you met?"
She tilted her head and smiled.
"Let's start with just how old this guy is," she teased, playfully nudging Lyruk with an elbow.
His body barely moved, his eyes flicking once to her before resuming their stare at the fire, waiting until the perfect moment his food was cooked to his liking.
"Aside from you two," she said, indicating Nadia and Nomma, who exchanged their own glance at the gesture. "I'm the next youngest here. And he," she continued, pointing at Lyruk this time, "is about 130 years older than me."
Nomma blanched at the number, staring between them with wide eyes. It was one thing to joke and tease about ages far higher than their own. Yet another it was to hear it coming from someone who appeared to be within ten years of their own age.
"How old..."
As his gaze landed on each of the others, his words fell apart. It suddenly seemed like such a rude question. Shaking his head, he was determined to keep that specific curiosity to himself.
Haq laughed.
"It might not make it better," he said with a smile. "But, I just turned 400."
"380," Abana added.
Elavale grinned. "I'm 230 this year, and Lyruk will be 364 in a few days."
This time, it wasn't just Nomma who was frozen by facts. It was Nadia as well, looking all too horrified by the revelations. Just by the bickering and disagreements alone, she'd have never placed Haq and Abana at those ages.
If humans considered adulthood around the age of twenty, when were they regarded as such?
At 23 and 20, Nadia and Nomma were absolutely floored by the insane numbers of curiosities raging in their minds.
"Anyway, I was about 46, I think. I grew up pretty sheltered, so I was excited to meet someone closer to my age." She turned to Lyruk. "It was our parents who set it up."
At his agreeing nod, she looked back at Nomma.
"Honestly, he hasn't changed much since we met."
Elavale grinned as she recounted their first meeting.
At nearly 180 years old during the time, Lyruk was well considered an adult, and she was as well despite being much younger than him. Their upbringings were far removed from one another, though. She had spent most of her days helping her parents in their home out of sight and mind of the Valley. It wasn't until her 45th year that she made her first visit to the forbidden space.
Unlike her, Lyruk's father worked incredibly close with the God of Death. It placed his home within a short reach of the lands claimed by the God and Goddess. Lacking a mother who had died early on, not due to any conditions involving others, Lybis had tried his best to raise him well. Of course, the cooperation of Lyruk only went so far, his need to satisfy his curiosity and discover truth far outweighing most things.
While Elavale's parents did their best to keep talk of the God and Goddess out of the house, Lyruk's home was nearly a complete opposite, mostly due to Lyruk himself. However, as the danger was far closer, notifying him to aid in his protection of self was one of the only reasons Lybis found it necessary to tell his son everything.
"Why? Why do I have to?" Lyruk asked his father, Lybis, all while ignoring Elavale completely. "Can't I just go read a book instead?"
Lyruk had just been told to make time to spend with Elavale, to hang out and learn from one another. In an instant, offense was written all over her features. Her brows furrowed over a sharp and narrowed gaze while her lip lifted on one side, a mix between disgust and disbelief.
Lybis, appalled, glanced at Elavale before turning his attention back to his son, forcing a smile.
"You two can become friends."
"I don't want friends." Lyruk's face didn't change. "I don't need them."
As he started to leave, Lybis put a firm hand on his shoulder, gripping hard enough to keep him in place. He maneuvered the stubborn Lyruk around to face Elavale.
"Say. Hello," he managed through gritted teeth, determined to see the meeting through properly, no matter how much Lyruk intended to brush it aside.
Rather than opening his mouth, Lyruk stood there, unmoving, staring with enough intense focus to bore holes in Elavale's head. Feeling as though she were on the receiving end of a death glare, rather than just a normal stare, Elavale fought hard not to burst into tears, the sting of rejection from his lack of words just as difficult to manage.
At the campfire, retelling how terrifying it had been, she laughed.
"To think he just doesn't know how to talk to people," Elavale remarked. "No words coming to mind. Honestly, I thought he was marking me for death or something, especially since he knows magic."
Hearing her side of things for the first time, Lyruk frowned, glancing over at her before reaching forward and taking his food away from the fire.
"If only he could express his feeling a bit more with that face of his," she joked. "Right after I concluded he was the most rude and disrespectful person on the planet, he said something rather interesting."
Lyruk sighed and closed his eyes in her memory. Though his face didn't change much, his usual frown became slightly more prominent before he opened his mouth to speak.
"She's not a kid," he stated, a bite to his tone. "Why are you treating us like children? Can't she choose where to go and who to be around?"
"Lyruk-"
"No. Listen to me," he demanded, commanding the attention of the adults around them as he met each of their eyes for a few seconds each. "If you don't let her do as she pleases and make mistakes, then how's she supposed to survive?"
"She has-"
"Will she always have you? Must she be dependent on you forever?"
Elavale stared at him in shock, his first impression now crushed to smithereens. It was the first moment she began to understand him and his silences. That moment was also the most she'd heard him speak at once from then on, for many years.
Lyruk turned to her after addressing their elders.
"Think for yourself. Make your own choice."
That time, as he left, nobody stopped him. The four of them watched him leave briefly. Lybis turned to Elavale's parents, profusely apologizing for how he raised his son. They brushed it off, saying that all was well, that they knew all about how he acted to begin with. They added that his attitude was, in fact, rather refreshing to see and hear.
And, that he wasn't wrong.
Elavale, barely paying attention to them, started moving before she consciously registered her own footsteps. She sprinted after Lyruk, catching up only to step in front of his path, arms stretched wide. His words had opened his eyes, both physically and mentally.
He stopped, meeting her eyes with a stony and unchanging expression. Seeing it, the lack of surprise, the sameness to his face from how he looked at her and the others just a moment ago elicited a sudden relief within her.
"Recommend me a book," she requested, a new determination sparking in her.
Lyruk's head tilted as he stared at her. Eventually, in the silence, he nodded. They wandered off together, to the house Lyruk and Lybis both called home. Once they arrived, he handed her a book. Rather than taking it and leaving, she clutched the literature to her chest and courageously asked to stay while she read.
He nodded again and gestured to a sitting room where there were cushions and a window seat waiting to be used. She curled up by the window, the two of them letting silence reign as they opened chosen books, the rustling of pages read the most that was heard and said between them.
As time passed easily, Elavale eventually took note of the time, the star beginning to set in the distance, and she stood, handing the book back to him.
"Thank you," she told him. "Can I come back in a few days? To read?"
"Suit yourself."
Smiling, she raced off down the hill, turning partway to wave farewell as he stood solemnly in the doorway to the house. He nodded to her, yet again, the motion becoming friendlier the more she witnessed it.
Unbeknownst to her, Lyruk stood in that doorway, not to say goodbye, but to watch and make certain she didn't trip over her own feet and tumble helplessly down the slope. After all, she hadn't disturbed his reading, not once, to ask useless questions about his past.
"Needless to say," Elavale said, finishing the story around the campfire. "Books made us friends in the end, didn't they?" She playfully nudged Lyruk again.
"I suppose so," he responded, finishing off the last of his food.
Even if she couldn't understand everything he said, she hoped that the little bit of companionship she offered, without a price attached, was as much a comfort to him as it remained to her.