Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 16 (Wednesday)

Teremki stared at the small girl across the table from him. She held a fuzzy stuffed bear with a bow between the ears, dancing it across her lap. Lina was probably five years old, but she acted...he frowned. Older wasn't the right word. Bigger? More important?

He took another bite of the salad on his plate. A blend of sliced beets, carrots and lettuce-like leaves, all mixed together with a sort of nut butter, tasting faintly of cream cheese. He didn't particularly like the taste, but the alternative was water. And only water. So he shoved his fork into his mouth and chewed, trying to keep a blank face.

Lina pointed to the middle of the table between them, brow furrowed. The water jug floated up, wobbling towards her. She clapped with glee, and the jug tipped sideways, pouring water into her cup. Teremki took a sip of water, still studying her. Alura thought she had telekinesis. No one had bothered to contradict her, but Teremki doubted it. She wasn't concentrating on floating the water jug through the air. In fact, she twisted around and thanked something behind her chair. But what? Her own powers?

"Hey."

Teremki jumped. "Hi Niko," he hesitated.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

Teremki glanced between him and the empty chair. Ana had been sitting there a few minutes ago. "No."

"Great," Niko slid into the seat, wincing.

"Your leg still hurts?" Teremki asked, stabbing some more salad stuff. Lina had gone silent, sipping water.

Niko nodded. "Those lizards are more spikey than one of Manuel's spikes."

He nodded half-heartedly, swallowing. His wooden plate still held half his meal, though his appetite had faded minutes ago--he'd been studying Lina since then. But now she sat, calmly eating, and he didn't want Niko thinking he was leaving just because Niko had sat there. So he stayed, feet tapping on the ground.

"Kwayo's still unconscious, I heard," Niko said eventually.

Teremki nodded again.

"It's weird how they don't have healers here. Like, whenever we were at school and got hurt, there was a healer right there. Now..." he paused, and stabbed some salad with his fork. "Now you're hurt for real."
"Yeah," Teremki said. All those healers were probably dead. He opened his mouth to say so, but then, everyone else thought they were definitely dead, not probably dead. Niko glanced at him, gaze expectant. "Um, I think I'm full," he said instead.

"Oh, do you want me to eat that?"

"Uh, sure." The town was big on not wasting anything. Isolated village, limited resources...it made sense.

He tilted his plate towards Niko's and shoveled the salad off. "Can you eat all that?" A lone lettuce leaf tumbled down the mountain of food heaped on his plate.

Niko flashed a grin. "Of course. I'm always hungry."

Right.

Teremki got up and carried his plate to the washing bin. Well, large tub sitting by the door where everyone put dirty dishes, to later be washed by the dishwasher-assigned people. Which wasn't him anymore, fortunately. He'd had it the past two days, alongside Eautl and Amo, and he couldn't decide which had grossed him out more, the slimy remains of the gravy and potatoes swirling in the water, or the shifting eyebrows Amo constantly gave him. Especially after she'd nearly dropped that shadow-rock on top of Kwayo. He shivered.

He walked out of the dining hall through the dark illusion, squinting at the sun hanging nearly straight above. He sighed. He had hours more of melon picking. His arms already ached.