Delmora: The Lost Quest

Blind Aspirations

Tyler watched as Edith and Simone went into their rooms. He watched Simone peak out the door, clearly looking for him and then shutting the door after a moment of waiting. Tyler was crouching from below, watching from the banister of the spiraling staircase. He sat there for a moment longer then opened the nearest window. The wind was heavy from his place on the tower, it only blew hot even in the night. The tower was made of clay and stone and many wood poles jutted out from it. He had climbed trickier towers. He found his foothold on the window ledge. He left it open enough for him to slip back in. He worked his way around, making sure he wasn't facing the side of the tower that looked over the village. He climbed balcony to balcony. A draped window blew in the breeze above him, he had a sneaky suspicion who it belonged to. When he popped his head through he was staring at the bald head of an Elder. Tyler quickly ducked from the Elder's gaze as he turned his head. Tyler moved passed the window and around the tower. A small balcony jutted from a huge door. It was big enough for three people to stand and was blocked by fine iron bars. Before Tyler could look through it Nyam poked his head down and gazed blankly at him.

Tyler landed next to the boy "that was fast" The boy said. He walked casually into his room. It was draped with cloth of every color, painting's and lines made up the oddly shaped walls. They were not strait but rather wavy. On one shelf were books, strange gizmos and what seemed like medical equipment Tyler could only guess physicians would use. A small wood table with stones piled neatly in some kind of order was in the center of the room. The bed was more a pile of pillows and green and blue drapes with a few thin blankets the color of the sky. It was situated in a corner. A chair was next to it. The room was very dark, the moon only shone a little light through the window.

Nyam plopped down on a chair and folded his arms looking away from Tyler.

"You're not here to rescue me are you" Nyam did say it like a question but more like stated it as a fact. "If you're not here to rescue me why are you here?"

Tyler didn't get a word out before Nyam answered.

"The rose is hard to come by? I hope you weren't here to ask me what it means, because I don't know this one. The raven told me to tell you."

"The Raven? You can speak to animals? Besides can't you just read my mind?" Tyler asked, "You seem to be doing that already"

"I can't see everything, only what people want me to see." Nyam said.

"If that were true you wouldn't have seen anything in my head" Tyler said.

"Some people let their mind's slip, I can only not see what people especially hide. For example:" Nyam got very close to Tyler. He reached out and felt for Tyler's hand "I can meet a man that is pure and happy with no faults. He can be a man seemly happy and loved and respected by all. But locked away there is always something, always some haunting action of memory that has been so blocked by his conscious even I cannot see it. Sometimes its so buried they don't even realize this part of them themselves. It can work both ways really, a man who has done terrible things, who seems terrible himself hides his true self, he locks it away. Usually the people who do bad things don't know the good side of them. It's very hard to describe because there is no good and bad when you get down to it."

"Of course there is good and bad. Some actions are good some are bad, some people make good choices and some make bad one's on purpose."

"that depends what you mean by good and bad then" Nyam argued.

Tyler thought for a moment. This was an odd conversation to be having with such a young boy. He had never really thought about morality like that before. In fact where he had come from to question morality was already unthinkable. He wasn't so naive, he had seen much and he had grew out of such a sheltered way of living. Yet he could not see how good and bad weren't undisputed. But the more he thought about it the more he realized every defense would make him a bad person. Would make everyone a bad person. Even if some things were forgiven to what extent did the line breach. Killing is bad sharing is good, but circumstance lies in every action. Did that matter? Tyler could hardly speak his thoughts. Nyam gave him a small smile. He didn't have to read minds to understand the confusion.