Servitude: The Hydrangea Chapters

Chp 12: The First Lost Soul

As Elek guided the braxl, knowing it relied on him to lead the way as they rode, the rising heat of the desert soon made Englias harder to discern through the shimmering air. Even before they reached the slain hekoska, Elek covered his nose with the scarf, spotting its carcass on the horizon. As they approached, Marlina noticed several more braxl crawling over the carcass, behaving like carrion creatures. While some surrounded the hekoska with their fan-like ears close to the ground to listen for any shifts in the sand, others focused on Elek and the sled, soon shifting to a more defensive stance. 

Elek lets out a loud whistle, which his braxl mimics. The others then return to their meal, even allowing Elek's braxl to approach and eat a bit of the carcass to regain strength. The wrinkles around Elek's brow and the bridge of his nose show that being near the foul-smelling carcass is unpleasant, but the braxl enjoys itself as it uses its barbed tongue to clean a few ribs. Stepping into the sled and signaling for Marlina to stand, he opened a compartment beneath her and retrieved a pair of thick leather gloves that looked well-worn, along with a box. As Elek approached the carcass, he took one of the knives sheathed at his lower back, gripping its grooved handle with the blade facing away from him. A few feet away from where his braxl was feeding, he carved out chunks of maggot-infested flesh and placed them in the box, food for the braxl during their trip. Once the braxl had its fill and cleaned the blood off itself, it flicked its tongue at the now-sealed box Elek was carrying while he rubbed its nose.

With a compass guiding them west, the surroundings fell silent except for the sound of sand shifting beneath the sled and the wind sweeping across the landscape. In just a couple hours of travel, some distinctly shaped cacti that Marlina remembered quickly passed by compared to when she had trekked on foot. It seemed the sandstorm had erased her footprints, so she needed to remain vigilant and observe their surroundings. 

Once she spotted a cactus with a section torn away, she called out to Elek. "We're getting close to one of them, Sir Elek!" It wasn't long before she pointed to a nearby low-sloping rock formation that jutted from the ground, creating a small shaded area beneath it with a freshly shifted mound and a piece of cactus featuring a flower marking the grave. 

Guiding the sled, Elek took a sip from his canteen, grabbed a rolled-up leather case, and followed her as she crawled under the stone due to its low position. The rock seemed to hover just above the ground, perhaps a half-buried stone slab. With enough weight on top, it could easily tilt, meaning the remains might never have been found if it collapsed. Thankfully, a group of braxl hadn't chosen this spot as a morning perch. Remembering the disappointed look on Marlina's face from their conversation yesterday, Elek wouldn't dare degrade her decision to bury the remains in such an inconvenient location. Despite being a lifeless construct, she had emotions, and he didn't want to upset her. Instead, he aimed to understand her reasoning. 

"Where did you find this one? And why did you decide to bury it here?"

"As I passed by, I noticed the gleam of a bracelet on its wrist, with only the hand visible at the time. The rest was buried in the sand, and it took some time to dig everything out with only my hands and bring it down here. It seemed like they were tired and had laid on the rock to rest, dying in the heat. I placed their resting spot in the shade so they wouldn't be in the sun anymore, facing the sunset. It was sunset by the time I finished, so I sat with them and watched before moving on."

How strange, yet also compassionate, to have her sit there with them before she laid them to rest. "Perhaps they died of dehydration. Still, we won't know for certain until I examine the bones."

While Marlina pushed the cactus aside with her arms and used the holes in her wrists as makeshift shovels to scoop up the sand and clear it away, Elek rolled out the leather case filled with neatly organized excavation tools. Knowing Marlina wanted to help, he took a trowel and secured it to her arm with some twine. Just as she was about to drive the spade straight down for the biggest heap of sand, Elek stopped her.

"Shallow, level scoops. You could damage the bones. It might upset people when we return the remains." To demonstrate the proper technique, he used another trowel to show her. Although Marlina believed it would take a long time to do it that way, she also needed to consider how someone would feel if a spade had driven through their loved one's head. Nodding in understanding, she decided to follow his lead. Once they located the head, Elek had her work lower if she was too reckless with her trowel. Using brushes to loosen the sand around the bones revealed enough for examination. Elek muttered as he inspected the bones, just as he had yesterday. "Male... Colonial... approximately between 36 and 45 years old..." While Elek started to dust off the larger bones before individually wrapping and binding them in cloth for protection, Marlina began to clean the clothing off.

"Do you return the clothes along with their possessions?"

"It depends. We do our best to respect their belongings, as some items can hold sentimental value for those still living. Occasionally, we're fortunate enough to receive permission to keep anything useful to us, which we negotiate alongside the delivery price. It's an exchange that helps lower costs for those who may not have the funds to cover the delivery of the remains." Hearing the clang of tools from a belt Marlina pulled out, Elek gestured for her to show him. Examining the tools, he noticed they were similar to his own but looked slightly more crude. "Seems this one might have been an archeologist..." While searching for one of the arms, he found the bracelet Marlina had mentioned. Using a bit of water to wash off the excess grime, he spotted a familiar engraving. It depicted a broken column with thin leaves of plant fossils on either side, all set within a mountain. "He was from the Seekers of the Forgotten guild." 

Marlina wasn't sure what that meant, but Elek would clarify. "Colonials, at their core, crave all kinds of knowledge and will pursue it in any way possible. They use organizations known as guilds, and this particular guild searches for long-forgotten ruins or civilizations to study—what allowed them to thrive and what led to their downfall—and utilizes that knowledge to their advantage. I was part of this guild years ago, learning about the knowledge of bones from their only expert before she passed away. However, it eventually became a place for grave robbers. I didn't learn what I did to steal from the dead, and I wanted no part of it when others asked me to help identify lords and monarchs to see if their riches could be und. Colonials insist that their members be marked by anything from a tattoo to a crest to matching jewelry, depending on which organization they belong to." 

Marlina absorbed the information like a sponge; it differed significantly from what she had experienced in Urush. Urushians are divided into territories based on one of the four elements they were born to control, and almost every Urushian was separated from their birth families. For them, their spiritual family is where they belong, and they are satisfied with that. These guilds seemed to concentrate on the pursuits and interests of the individual.

"If I may ask, Sir Elek, what made you learn to look at bones the way you do?"

When most people asked such a question, it was usually to mock or express distaste. By now, Elek had learned that her many questions came from a genuine place of curiosity. However, that would distract them from the task at hand. "I don't think this is the best time to discuss this. Would you mind waiting until we find shelter for the night?" 

Marlina was not without her disappointment at having to wait, but at least he didn't say no. She was tasked with unearthing the rest since she had no hands to help wrap and tie the pieces. It was for the best, as Elek handled the remains meticulously, marking each wrapping with the names of the bones inside. Marlina didn't know any of them except for 'skull.' Once everything was wrapped, Marlina helped Elek carry the packages to the sled, where he carefully organized them in one of the long compartments, leaving the bundle of personal items on top so Elek could catalog them later. The entire process took some hours, Elek would take a moment to eat in the shade and check on Marlina's form before heading west again.