Page 32 of Unfinished

“She is half my blood, Faseeth. She is partially Lisseethi, yes, but she deserves to have her full heritage. As you said, I was wise enough to know she should be proud of who she is.”

The conversation was getting a little too heavy for what was meant to be a welcome party.

“Veesha’s just lucky that there are so many people here that care about her, and I’d like to be one of them, too,” Sienna said, and then she stood up. “R’kash, why don’t you walk me out to the fields behind the temple. I’ll need to know where you set everything up for the harvest festival, right?”

“It’d be my pleasure, lady.” He held out his arm again, and she realized that gesture wasn’t just one of passing chivalry. Sienna gladly set her hand in his as they left Faseeth behind.

They walked to the right until they reached one of the four straight paths that made a cross through the courtyard. Then they turned left and took the path towards the back of the temple where the exit to the fields should be. Jesthi noticed, watching them until R’kash saw him looking, and then the other priest bowed his head and started following them. So much for any alone time, although maybe it was just as well. She didn’t want a repeat of the first half of the flyer ride. That had started out wonderfully, but when their kiss had ended, she’d been left questioning and uncertain. Maybe it’d be easier to be comfortable with one another once they were alone that evening. The privacy of a bedroom was a whole lot different from the seat in a flyer, even if it had been covered in sumptuous fabric.

“We rotate the crops we plant, but at this time in the season, you’ll see primarily maize,” said R’kash, drawing her attention back to the present. “Usually we start the harvest festival outside while we gather prayers for the ritual. If conditions are good, we build a fire and set the blessings alight so they can go on to the next plane. There was nothing quite like the celebration here at the temples where I lived before. I sometimes feel as if I’ve never been as close to the gods as I am here in Evathi.”

“You weren’t always here?” she asked. Sienna looked up as they passed beneath another tall, peaked archway. The white paved path only extended a little past the exterior wall before they were walking on hard-packed dirt.

R’kash stepped so that his body was closer to her side, a faint smile starting to tip up the corners of his mouth. “Ivanni was my home temple. It was in a city, but one nothing like Verkissat. In size, the building was smaller than Evathi, but four times the number of priests served there. My parents brought me to the temple at the usual age, and I don’t remember much of my life beforehand. In your messages you wrote that Evathi seemed like a place where a person could find peace. I think you see the same quality here that I’ve found, and I hope you can grow to love it.”

“We want you to be happy here, Sienna.” Jesthi’s tenor voice came from behind them. She tightened her fingers over R’kash’s hand to urge him to wait for his assistant.

“Thank you, Jesthi. I think I will be.” She smiled at the man and then looked around. “I just have one question for you both though—where are all of the people? I don’t see any signs of habitation, and there was nothing visible from the flyer either.”

“We have plenty of visitors who come by flyer, but most use different short-distance transportation crafts. Others journey from much further for our festivals and high rituals. Evathi will be full of life once the harvest is completed,” said Jesthi.

“Perhaps your arrival will be the start of a change here.” R’kash lowered his head so that his nose brushed against her hair, and she thought she heard him inhale. “Many will see a human making Evathi her home as an omen.”

Sienna laughed awkwardly. “I hope not. I’m just a woman.”

“An extraordinary one.”

Her feet kept moving, but her mind stuttered. He was exactly like his messages with those abrupt shifts in mood, the unexpected flashes of passion beneath his priest persona. How long would it take for her to see all of him?

Jesthi had already started talking again. He motioned towards a field on their right. “Ivekth and Neevish will start the reapers up tomorrow. This crop is ready for harvesting. We’ll save the smallest plot for the day of the festival. It’s maize said to be grown from the same seeds the Lady brought so long ago. Our scientists have made improvements on it through the centuries, so we don’t grow as much of the original strain, but it’s tradition for the community to pick those ears by hand.”

“It sounds a little like the grape harvest festivals I heard about back home. Was our meal today a preview of what you’re planning to offer for the festival?” Sienna asked.

Jesthi tilted his head. “Typically we roastveskaover a fire, and sometimesraskuitoo if people bring them in offering, but I suppose it would be fitting to have—”

“No, no,” Sienna said quickly, cutting off that thought. “I think it should stay traditional. I was just curious. So have the people in the area met Veesha already? Will they know who she is if we incorporate her birthday party into the festival?”

R’kash hissed. “Some may have seen her during visits to the temple, but I haven’t made a formal announcement, so it’s likely most won’t know who she is. Although I wish to acknowledge her to our people, I’d like to keep her birth chain and naming ceremony private.”

Sienna rubbed her thumb over the outside of R’kash’s hand. “I understand. When does the harvest festival usually begin?”

“It starts in the afternoon and doesn’t end until sundown, but the days are growing shorter now that our cold season approaches,” said Jesthi.

She smiled. “So it’ll be winter here as well? How cold does it get?”

R’kash frowned beside her. “I’m unfamiliar with human temperature measurements, but there are some mornings we wake to frost,” he said in his serious tone.

“That sounds like a nice change from where I lived. The snow was pretty sometimes, but honestly, after Christmas, snowy winters just get a bit tedious. Old snow is never as nice as freshly fallen—it goes from white to gray or even worse in the city.”

Both Xithilene men were staring at her wide-eyed.

“Humans live in such areas?” Jesthi asked.

Sienna grinned. “Yes, a lot of us do. Large portions of Earth are more tropical like Verkissat, but we have a lot of colder regions too. This shouldn’t be a surprise. I mentioned the first snow this fall in one of my messages, I’m sure of it.”

“I must’ve forgotten that,” R’kash replied swiftly. “Are you hungry or tired? Would you like to go back inside the temple?”

“Tired. Between the refreshments on the flyer and at the welcome party, I don’t think I could eat another bite, but I’d love to go to our bedroom and settle in. I’m definitely ready for some rest.”

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