A Place To Bloom

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I turned to look behind me, hoping if Miyani had come through at that moment I would see her. She wasn't there. This was silly; she'd gone somewhere else. If God wanted me to ever see her again, surely He would make it happen in His own time.

In the distance, the tall towers were shrouded in a dark mist that came down from the cloudy sky. Then I realized the mist was like a wall approaching us. Quickly.

The man who'd greeted us at the gate and taught us how to walk around a giant alligator also noticed. He turned to us and smiled. "You'd better come this way!"

From the open area, we followed him into the building just in time for a chorus of clattering to fill the expanse outside. White lines fell from the sky and splashed into pools throughout the grounds all around us.

"My name is Tagaŋu," the man said. "Please come this way."

Inside, the air felt sticky and hot despite the rain. Three walls were naught but open archways separated by thick columns of gray-and-yellow stones mortared together half covered by sheer curtains that seemed frozen in place. Elsewhere, a wooden partition, painted in a variety of colors with some kind of abstract imagery, was unfolded across the floor leaving space enough for a stone staircase leading upwards.

While Taganu moved around and sat down behind a rough wooden desk, my mind raced over how I might ask someone if they knew about Miyani.

"Alright," he said, "who's first?"

"First for what?" I said.

There was a book atop the desk adjacent to a glass vial with a long white feather reaching up from it. Taganu opened the book and began rifling through. Names. Rows and rows of names filled the pages, many of them crossed out. He kept at it until he came to a page where the names ended, leaving blank space. Then he picked up the feather, tapped it against the rim of the vial, and looked up at us in expectation. At least a dozen names were on the page where the tip of his pen rested.

"I'll go first," Davod stepped up. "Davod of Gath."

The man wrote. "Who's your Naveris?"

Davod glanced at me, shrugged, then spoke. "Runya of Gath."

"Any special skills?"

Davod shrugged. "I smith."

Taganu nodded, wrote that down and called out, "next?"

Davod looked at me and shrugged me forward, but Ales stepped up. "Ales of Suuya, Naveris is Tanee of Suuya."

I looked back out towards the gate on the off chance that Miyani might pass through at that moment. I didn't see her. Half of me hoped to see her coming in from the rain; my minds eye envisioned the glistening shimmer of water all over her dark skin, filling the lines of muscles in her legs, droplets peppering her small breasts, taut arms, and every curve of her back. Fresh images of her coming down from Blue and turning her back to me, the way that scant cloth covered merely the center of her arse leaving such delicious curves to my eyes tickled my thoughts. The other half normally would have flagellated my emotions as atonement for such thoughts but rather rested in silent awe of her.

Taganu looked up at Ales. "Skills?"

Ales shrugged. "I sail, I fish. I clean fish, I cook fish, I eat fish."

Faren added, "he's very good at eating fish."

Ales smirked. "Very good. Very good. Lots of practice."

Taganu nodded with a smile of his own. "The Yasivuŋa used to make a squid souffle that was just unbelievable." Then he shrugged, "they probably still do."