Page 2 of Invocation

Novikke looked up at him. If he’d taken the time to write an explanation before she woke up, he could have been a lot more thorough about it. She gestured again, and he handed her a pencil.

“Varai village?” she wrote, stating the obvious.

The corners of his mouth ticked up. He nodded. Novikke gave a confused shrug, asking for further information.

Instead of giving any, he wrote, “How do you feel? Are you well enough to walk?”

The faintness she was feeling was probably spell fever. Someone had healed her wound quite thoroughly, otherwise it would have hurt more. “Feel fine,” she wrote impatiently.

Aruna went to the dresser, then handed her a stack of dark clothing. She wondered what had happened to her old uniform. There’d been so much blood. It must have been unsalvageable.

She wondered if night elves ever wore clothes that weren’t some shade of black. They must have been dedicated to fashion or stealth or both, to dye seemingly every single piece of cloth they had.

Then she thought of how most of the animals and plants in Kuda Varai were also some shade of black. They probably had wool from black sheep and leather from black deer.

Aruna sat on the bed while she donned the new clothes. She paused to finger the bandages circling her midsection. Her abdominal muscles twinged every time she moved, and she was careful not to stretch too far for fear of tearing something.

“Shaashva verun,” Aruna said softly.

She glanced at him over her shoulder. He was leaning back on his hands, watching her. His eyes flicked toward the bandages, then back up to her face, solemn. Don’t touch that, she guessed.

She finished pulling on the shirt, then a long jerkin and jacket. The clothes were loose in some places and fitted in others, which seemed to be an intentional part of the design rather than a bad fit. It all struck her as a very pleasing combination of artistic and functional compared to fashion you’d find in Ardani.

She theatrically gestured to herself, presenting the strange outfit to him. He smiled, looking more than a little appreciative of the sight. She silently preened.

He went to the door, motioning for her to follow. Novikke picked up the notebook and wrote in it as they walked. Gods knew she had questions.

“Is this your house?” she wrote and then showed the book to him.

He shook his head.

“Who was that woman?” she asked.

The bedroom door led into the main room of the house. They were in a small cottage. There was another bed in the corner of this room, a table with some dishes still on it, and a hearth to one side with a cooking pot over a fire.

“My aunt,” he wrote.

She raised her eyebrows. He’d brought them to his aunt’s house?

She hesitated when he went to the front door and strode outside. She peered through the doorway from the middle of the room. Other buildings loomed in the distance.

Aruna stopped when he realized she wasn’t with him. With a sudden nod, he felt around in his pockets until he found something that he pulled forth. After a second, it glowed with soft blue light. Her mage torch.

She gave a half-hearted smile. She was more worried about the other Varai than about the dark itself. She came to the doorway, took the light, and tried not to think about what had happened the last time she’d stupidly followed Aruna into a Varai settlement.

She followed him out of the house and into the evening. They were in a patch of the forest that was dotted with stone houses with thatch roofs. The area had been cleared of undergrowth and all but the largest trees. It looked remarkably like any other village in Ardani—small houses lining a central path, animal pens nearby, stacks of chopped wood lined up along walls. She could hear a water wheel turning somewhere in the distance.

People hovered near doorways and walked along paths. They must have just been waking up. They wore simple, utilitarian clothing, for working and getting dirty maybe, but not for fighting. A few carried swords, but not all. It wasn’t like the outpost. These were normal people. Civilians.

Every one of them stared when she passed. She tried not to look nervous. Would it be polite to smile? The idea felt absurd.

She was so distracted by the people on either side of them that she didn’t see who was directly in front of them until Aruna came to a stop.

“Neiryn!” she said, surprised. He was sitting on a bench by a large fire pit at the center of the village. He turned to her, eyebrows up.

“You’re still alive, then?” he said. “Despite your best efforts.”

Then she saw Kadaki sitting on his other side, looking small next to him with her hands folded in her lap and her hood up. Her eyes had such dark circles beneath them that she almost looked like she’d been beaten up. She blinked slowly at the fire, then looked up. It looked like even that much movement was an effort.

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