Sun's Heart

Chapter 15 - The Voice in the Dark

"Why is your hair cut short?" Elah asked Gale. Cross-legged with fingers deftly sifting through what looked to be a large pile of ash.

The priestess had taken a detour, apparently to finish something she'd been doing when Gale had suddenly arrived. She was grateful, for one, to avoid ever having to see Adjinn, dead or otherwise, but it also meant spending quality time alone with a woman who didn't seem to like much of anything except spitting acid.

Gale touched fingers to her locks, ends curving around. "I'm used to it."

Elah gave her a skeptical look, continued pawing around in the ash. "You said you came from Beryl. Isn't it Beryllian custom that mages have long hair?"

"Only the Blood. And I'm Sarceni. Beryl is just where I'm learning magic."

Elah sighed, dusted blackened hands on her dress, and put her hands on her hips. "Alright, then why did you cut your hair short in the first place?" She lifted an eyebrow. "There has to be a reason for the first time."

"Why?"

She shrugged and knelt back down to the ash pile. She peered over it. "Just answer the question."

Gale thinned her lips and glared at the priestess' back. Being asked questions was irritating enough, but Elah... "When it's shorter, it doesn't get in the way. I did a lot of work that caught on my hair."

"So, what, lifting stacks of parchment was too strenuous for your long hair?"

She sighed in silent aggravation and raised her eyes to the endless expanse above them. "Sure. Parchment."

"Lighten up. I'm making a joke." She barely took a breath before continuing. "What kind of work?"

"Why do you care?" Gale asked waspishly. "All of the tribesmen wear their hair short. But you don't hear me pestering you about it."

Elah snorted with derision. "Look at that. You grew a spine. I'm witnessing history."

Gale scowled down at her feet, let the silence fill the air between them. It was useless trying to talk to the woman. If she weren't afraid of getting lost, Gale would have stridden away long ago and thought nothing of it.

She really is a lot like Dain. Worrying her lower lip, she recalled their conversation in the tent. Before everything fell apart in a blaze of soot and embers.

"All the tribes cut their hair short," Elah said. "It keeps out skin-mites, and it's easier to take care of. Less water needed for washing. Sfalo can't grab it. It's just practical." Then she sat up, holding something in her hand, and blew gently on it. Flakes of burnt wood drifted away, leaving a flat arch of crisped material dusting streaks of gray and black over her palm. "Do you know what this is?"

Gale leaned forward and scrutinized it. A faint rune was carved into it, lines of magic fading but alive. An intact magical footprint. "Was it a rune for Fire?"

"I'm not sure. All shadowbeasts have it. I don't know where they come from, or what they do, but if it's destroyed, they stop moving." She brushed fingertips over the lines, simple and foreign. "Looks like this one stopped on its own."

"What are you going to do with it?"

The priestess barely paused before closing her fist around the rune and grinding it away between clenched fingers. Gale watched, wide-eyed, as soot and flecks of ash fell to the starlit floor. The tougher core dropped to the ground, significantly smaller. "You're...not going to try to use it?"

"Why, do you think I want the same magic that's been killing my people for generations?" She scoffed and wiped her hands over her thighs, leaving gray smudges all over. "I wouldn't even know where to start. No, I'm finding the heart of every shadowbeast I can, and destroying it before they can kill any more tribesmen. It might not be much, but at least I can do something to help." A worried frown creased her tanned face, silvery eyes distant before snapping back to the present. "How long did you say I've been here?"