Page 13 of Invocation

She went to Aruna and hesitantly rested a hand on his shoulder. When he turned around, he wore an expression like someone had died. He turned to Neiryn and spoke.

“He says he has an idea,” Neiryn said. When Aruna didn’t go on right away, Neiryn prompted him to continue.

After a moment, Aruna quietly replied.

It took Neiryn a few seconds to react. Then he scoffed, and said something that sounded like an argument, and Aruna argued something back. Of course. Did they know any other way to communicate?

“What’s happening?” Novikke interrupted.

“He wants to take us to Vondh Rav.”

Novikke turned to Aruna, arching a brow. “Why?”

Aruna started talking to Neiryn again, and Neiryn rolled his eyes.

“He thinks someone there might know what to do.”

“He has a point. What other resources do we have? And who else would know more about Kuda Varai than the Varai themselves?”

“It’s suicide,” Neiryn said. “Or volunteering yourself for enslavement, which is even worse.”

Novikke motioned for the notebook, and Aruna handed it to her. Trying to keep an open mind, she asked, “What do you want us to do?”

“Come to Vondh Rav with me.”

“Why?”

“There might be something there that could help us.”

“Like what?”

He gave an uncomfortable smile and shrugged.

“You’re thinking of something in particular.” She stared up at him, demanding an explanation, and he looked away.

“Ask him what he’s not telling us,” she said to Neiryn.

There was a long exchange between the two of them, which ended with Neiryn throwing his arms in the air in frustration and turning away. She heard the tone of his voice change, and realized that he’d switched from the Varai language to Ysuran to, presumably, curse in the comfort of his native language.

“Stop yelling…” Kadaki shifted, covering her eyes. Neiryn quickly stopped and went to her side.

“What did he say?” Novikke said, hardly wanting to ask.

Neiryn gave the most dramatic, long-suffering eye roll Novikke had ever seen. “I asked him what he hopes to find in Vondh Rav. He said that he knows of something there that might help us, but he can’t tell us specifically what it is. He can’t tell us because it’s not for non-Varai to know, he says. Goddess-damned idiot…”

Novikke gave Aruna a look. He gave her a stubborn look back.

“We all agreed we’d help you fix this,” she wrote.

“There are some things I can’t talk about.”

“Then how are we supposed to help you?”

“Do what I ask without asking questions?”

He gave her an unhopeful look when she looked up from reading. She frowned.

“Don’t you trust us?” she wrote.

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