The Call of Crows

Chapter 18: Shadowed Sunrise

Seang got almost no sleep last night for a multitude of reasons.

Foremost were the unnecessarily giant explosions Najeem had set off in the Nikan war camp. While a tactically sound move, she didn't have to like it.

When she got to sleep, her head was full of nightmares again. She was at the advent of a siege or back on the fields of Palowang.

So she'd resolved to sit on the edge of the patio outside their lent house to see the sunrise.

Ironic that she, who possessed the very soul of the goddess of dawn, an incarnation of the great goddess and consort of the Creator, was never sure whether the next day would come.

Well, it made little sense to an outsider. But in her mind, it made perfect sense.

She was bonded with the very essence of dawn. That meant, in a way, she alone was responsible for bringing about the sunrise the next day. What a terrible burden it must be to be a god. As a human, you could be free of all cosmic worries like whether the rivers flowed or if spring arrived.

Humans like...

Shakti plopped down beside Seang with her sketchbook, not hesitating to capture the sunrise with her charcoal.

She seemed to never worry about anything. Not even human matters like war. She was content to capture the world around her, not influence it.

Seang asked the Creator to stop her from straying into bad thoughts about her friend. Shakti still was her friend, right?

"What's on your mind?" Shakti asked, not looking up from her drawing.

"Nothing." Seang muttered.

"There's always something on your mind. And usually you voice it."

"Then my silence should be an indicator that I have no present thoughts worth sharing."

"Yeah, but you have this weird scowl-thingy on your face. Like you're trying to see the heavens from the ground." Shakti said.

"Scowl-thingy?" Seang asked. She sighed, "We haven't necessarily...caught up since you returned home, have we?"

"Not that I know of. But I mean, what's there to catch up on? I sailed around filling sketchbooks. You became a nun and took over your temple. Well, I guess you did close it."

"Do you know why I closed it?" Seang asked, "Did you ever ask yourself where all the other sisters were?"

"I...no." Shakti said, "What happened?"

"All devotees of the Creator are trained extensively in Muay, the fighting arts. Most know that. But not even we knew that when Jambudvipa made their call to arms, that extended to the warrior nuns and monks." Seang said.

Shakti's lips parted in shock, "You...you went to war?"

Seang nodded. "They deployed us to Palowang, one of the fiercest sieges in Nikan's initial invasion. We couldn't even fight them...they were just too overwhelming of a force. I only got out alive because I had The Promised Light of Dawn."

"Your Shedim?" Shakti whispered, "Gods, Seang...I had no idea. It makes sense now, though."

"It's alright. It was a long time ago. I just needed time alone, time to think things through." Seang said, "That's why I closed the temple down."

"I don't think it's as alright as you believe it to be, Seang." Shakti said, "I saw you the day we had to flee our home. Even yesterday on the wall you had this...this fear in your eyes that I've never seen before."