Page 50 of Entranced By the Basilisks

“I miss him.”

“I don’t think we ever stop. Hundreds of years later and I still miss my family. I’ve chosen to think of the ache as a gift. It’s proof that they existed.”

A cloud of mystery surrounds Ari. The idea that he’s lived for hundreds of years is almost unfathomable except for the times that he gets that faraway look in his eyes.

Curiosity prods me to ask, “Can you tell me what you meant when you said you were Askari? I thought that was your name.”

Ari clears his throat.

“It’s not a very happy story, but maybe tonight is the night for that since you shared your pain with me. Askari is the name my family gave to me. It means soldier and that’s what I was. Dutiful and disciplined, I was everything my family asked of me. Prior to the days of The Great Conflict, it was my honor to guard our ruling council, our political center, the Serpent Circle. It was a hard-won position. My family thought a lot about duty and having me coming up in the ranks was important to them.” Ari pauses.

My curiosity gets the better of me in the space of quiet.

“What’s The Great Conflict? Was it a war?” I ask. With a name like The Great Conflict, I hardly think it was a tea party.

Ari sits back. “Ah, it was a war of sorts among serpent kin. It was a splintering of ideas to start and then turned to violence. Our society is a tiered one and status is dependent on the amount of magic given to you by the Goddess. The nagas have always been blessed with the most magic,” he says knowingly. “Others argued that we should separate from that ideology. That magic follows types of serpent kin, and that merit should be the deciding factor for who represents us at the top.”

“That doesn’t seem like an outlandish argument,” I say cautiously. It sounds like a democracy vs. oligarchy argument.

Ari shrugs. “It’s not and if the same idea was brought about today, maybe it would have been successful. As it was, it divided us, and was considered blasphemous by many. The two sides escalated and there was violence. Our community suffered. Allied families broke ties, types of serpent kin that had been on friendly terms looked to the other with hate—”

Ari breaks off and clears his throat. “It’s regrettable to me how it was all handled. I didn’t see much action being a guard and I’m glad for it. I don’t know how I would have lived with fighting against people that I sympathized with even if, at the time, I didn’t feel like I could afford to have that opinion.”

“What happened?”

Ari sighed. “The schism neatly followed magic lines, and those without were at a disadvantage. Once the individual who spearheaded the uprising was dealt with, the faction fell, disgraced forevermore by the memory.”

I swallow. None of that sounds good. “I’m sorry I got us off topic.”

Ari shakes his head. “It’s history that’s important for you to know and understand. Serpent kin have long memories.”

He looks like he’s going to say something else but shakes his head. When he opens his mouth again, it seems like we are back on our original subject.

“During The Great Conflict, I was away from my family a great deal to protect the Circle. My mother and father demanded it of course. They believed in the sanctity of the Serpent Circle. It wasn’t until the uprising was over that I returned home. They had all been killed.”

I gasp. “From the Conflict?”

Ari’s smile was bitter. “No, actually. That was what the murderer claimed, but it was a land dispute with a local merchant and my father. He thought the best thing would be to hire people to wipe my family off the map. He forgot about me.”

His eyes grow hard.

“What did you do?” I can’t help but ask.

He clears his throat. “I lost every single one of my family members. Naturally, I avenged them.”

The silence that falls is heavy between us. Ari’s gaze meets mine as if awaiting judgment. He doesn’t regret what he did, he’s not asking for forgiveness for it. He’s merely bearing his truth to me and waiting for my reaction.

He lost everything. I’d want revenge too. The only thing separating us is that he’s capable of doing the deed.

“Good,” I say.

Ari smiles, appreciating my bloodthirstiness before going back to the story.

“After my vengeance, I was… lost. I didn’t feel like a soldier anymore. What good was upholding my family’s name if I didn’t have a family anymore? I reinvented myself. I go by Ari now. A new name for a new life.” Ari’s voice is a mix of sadness and matter-of-factness.

I place my hand over his to comfort him, like he’d done for me. The metal rings decorating his fingers chill my skin before warming under my touch.

“I’m so sorry for what you lost, Ari,” I say.

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