❝this tree was grown with rotted roots.❞
Nerluce is Darkest Shadow. He is that great and terrible entity, prophesied over a thousand years before, more like a hurricane than a man. His hair falls crooked, poorly cut by his family's blade. His finger...
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This boy, this child, he must be... stupid.
Nerluce couldn't think of any other explanation as to why this child would have wandered into the Ever Forest in the first place, much less gotten lost in it. And to approach two strangers? Not only approach but admit that he was lost and vulnerable? It reeked of naivety. The stench of the boy's youth was so potent Nerluce had half the urge to cover his nose. Really, he couldn't have been older than fifteen.
Worst of all, the child reminded Nerluce of himself when he first stepped into the Ever Forest, like some twisted echo of the past coming back to haunt him. Hadn't he been just as young and stupid when he stumbled into Rieka's camp, impossibly slipping past all of her defenses and then admitting his vulnerability in his lost horse?
Yes, this boy was stupid, but Nerluce had been just as stupid at one point. So, with a sigh, Nerluce resolved to keep this idiot kid from getting himself killed as Taayir had once kept him from getting killed.
A small, cruel, and mocking voice reminded him how he'd once wanted to be like Taayir.
He ignored it.
The first thing Nerluce had to do to ensure the child wasn't killed was to turn and glare at Rieka. For a moment, there was a challenge in Rieka's gray eyes but it did not linger. She sighed and looked away, submitting both of their fates to Nerluce's judgment.
And if Nerluce made the wrong decision and this child really was a threat... Nerluce would deal with it then. He'd always been a hopeless student. All of his Tutors and Masters had said so. He needed to learn the same lesson over and over and over again. Why would he be any less hopeless in giving his trust to others?
"Where did you come from?" Nerluce asked.
"I'm not telling you that," the boy said, wrinkling his nose. "I don't know you."
It was a little late for caution but... at least this boy had a bit more sense than Nerluce had at his age. He couldn't tell if this was a good sign or a bad one.
"Make him go," Rieka said.
"I'm trying to go," the child said. "I just got lost. Everything looks the same in these stupid trees."
Nerluce and Rieka exchanged a glance. "How long have you been trampling about in these woods, child?"
The boy wrinkled his nose up even more. Nerluce almost laughed. Such a silly little boy and yet he was so serious. "I'm not a child and I still don't know either of you," he said, and then, upon deciding that it was no harm to give up a bit of information he added, "How would I even know? The sun never rises or sets here..."
"Yes, it does. Are you really so arrogant as to believe the sun ceased rising and setting just because you could no longer see it?" Nerluce asked. His grin was filled with teeth.
"No," the child said, his little fingers curling into little fists. "But how am I supposed to tell time when I can't see the sun?"
"You feel it." His eyes glittered as he turned to Rieka. "Do you know what time it is?"
