Solitude: Alone, Together

Chapter 3

"Citizen, your presence is requested at the Elegiac Replication by our Lord Sotha Sil."

Selea still got a little twitch when one of the factotum approached and spoke to her—she'd dealt with too many dangerous ones in the under city in her previous visits. Still, though, she quickly brushed it off with the news it had brought. "Thank you. I will go there now."

"Thank you. Have a good day."

She quickly made it out of the fortress and back to the last place she'd seen Sotha Sil in the City on her last visit. It had been a rather remarkable conversation, and one that was embedded in her memory. She'd learned so much about him in this garden.

As she approached, just as he had before, he stood with his back to her as he observed the gardens in front of him. He spoke as she got closer.

"I sensed your presence the moment you stepped back into the City." Well, there was the answer to that question. She wondered if Luciana had mentioned it, if he'd sensed it, or just felt it was information worthy to share without any prior knowledge of her own thoughts. "It was your message that intrigued me enough to pull me from my work. I thought this location may be of comfort to you, since you seemed to enjoy it on your last visit."

"Thank you, Lord Seht, for taking my message and meeting with me."

"I believe we came to an understanding the last time we spoke here. As I explained then—I am not a god. You have no need to refer to me by such titles."

"It would feel a bit traitorous to call you anything else, particularly in front of your apostles or other citizens."

"Yet here we are, alone," he said with a wave of his mechanical hands and a slight smile.

"Yes, here we are," she said and mirrored his smile. She'd felt nervous the whole walk here, but his company seemed to calm her instead of worsen the anxiety. She did still feel a bit awkward, but pushed to move beyond that and held her hands behind her back as she examined the tall mer. "What would you prefer to be called?"

He gave no time to the question before responding with one of his own, "What would you prefer to call me?"

"Well, if my knowledge of mer tradition is correct, Sil is your given name, and Sotha is your family name. Is that correct?"

"That is a correct approximation, yes."

"So... Sil?"

She noticed the slightest of curves at the corner of his lips. She had amused him in some way. Finally, he spoke his thoughts, or at least some of them, aloud. "It has been quite some time since I was addressed so informally. I do not find it displeasing."

"Very well. But it may take some time to get used to—and if ever we are conversing amongst others, or I am referring to you in public, I intend to continue to refer to you more formally."

"The Prisoner is firm in her beliefs. I couldn't convince you otherwise, so why make an attempt?"

She raised her hand and shook her finger at him. "Oh no, if I am going to call you Sil, then you will refer to me by my own given name as well. It's only fair."

"Life is not always fair. That is a certainty that I am sure you are cognizant of."

Her hands went to her hips. "Are you refusing to call me by my name?"

"No," he stated simply, and the smile on his face indicated she'd amused him again. "Only stating a truth."

She nodded her head triumphantly and he interlaced his metal fingers in front of him, as he often did. "Since we have dispensed of the formalities—Selea—what is this door you referred to in your mysterious message sent via my proctor?"