The Singing Sun

Spiral Ten - Mun 4

"This is it?"
I asked as I glanced at the black and blue slime coated on the ground. Rial nodded, then began placing dried grass and firewood chips upon the foul muck. She struck at the flint and steel attempting to guide the sparks which flew out onto the flammable grass.

"So you're telling me a shadowbug, or whatever crawled out from the dark side di-"
Rial cut me off. She spoke back in a calm yet threatening manner.
"Enough about this, Mun. No more stalling. Tell me what happened."

After Rial's repeated tries with the flint, at last a spark jumped into the tinder setting ablaze a droplet of ember. Immediately she scrunched down and proceeded to blow oxygen into it.

The flames rose into an orange shimmer, engulfing the wood chips and grass. Eventually the fire burned its way down all the way to the slime. Pitch black smoke fumed out at the moment the slime made contact with the heat. Rial, who still laid low tending the flames, jerked up coughing as the smoke reached its way onto her face.

"By the light, that's repulsing!"

Rial fluttered her hands around in hopes of keeping the foul, shadowy silhouette far from her nose. When the flames seemed to have moderately wasted away the disgusting muck, Rial stomped on the fire to put it out. Shoveling away the ashes and ember with her foot revealed the ground to be free of any of the slime from earlier. Once she saw that the ground was now clean, she stepped back and turned toward me. Cocking her head ever so slightly to the left, she spoke.

"Well?"

Judgment time.

"Um, first of all, they did say they drank occasionally. But..."
"But what?"
Rial demanded.
I asked back as well.

"Well, where did you the idea that hearers can't  drink?"

"You know, from-"
Rial's face, previously showing confusion at my initial question, distorted with displeasure as if she were revisiting some past horrendous memories.
"From fifteen years ago. They told me hearers can't drink."

I said again, puzzled.
"People from the mirror said drinking has nothing to do with hearer work."
After a pause I continued.
"You know what, Rial? This seems like a good of a time as any to ask this question again. What happened back then? When we stayed at the Zenith, what happened?"

Memories during the time Rial and I stayed at... Lusk's mansion were blurry. Once I got older, though, I did have a better grasp on what Rial and, albeit another faint memory, Carn suffered through in the mansion. However, life back at the mansion became another subject I mustn't bring up to keep Rial from 'freaking out', along with the talk about the Zenith and hearers. Yet now, Rial was being active herself about shedding some light on the whole, somewhat past trauma with those topics.

Rial clenched down on her lips, lowered her head downwards then began walking away. She spoke with a resolute voice as she carefully took every step toward the darker side of the forest.

"Take a walk with me."

So I did. I stayed three steps behind Rial. Every step taken drenched the surroundings dimmer and dimmer in the darkness. Rial then opened her mouth again.

"I used to be so bothered by talking about these things, wasn't I? About hearers, the mirror, and the Zenith."

I kept my silence as she talked. She halted in place, then turned around to face me. The tree shadows laid over her body, covering her expressions in the tenebrous light.