Being What Humans Cannot

Prologue: Where We Left You

Prologue: Where We Leave You

 "I really want you to understand the severity of this situation."

"What situation is that, exactly? There have been a lot of those in the past couple of millennium, Barran— especially with me. You need to be a little more specific."

He sighed, rubbing his calloused hands over his chin with exhaustion. “I would appreciate talking to you for once without the backlash you’re so keen on gifting me. You need to learn to control your tongue, young one. That’s the least you can do after all this time.”

“Alright,” Finding that her hands were twisting a loose strand of her hair like a child, she dropped them instantly. “I apologize. Please, ignore my foolishness.”

“You have no need for apologizing to me, Temmpa. We both know we are better off for not using empty words.”

She nodded, clasping her hands behind her back diligently, waiting.

“You have heard, haven’t you?” Barran asked. “The rumors of what is happening to us?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat and acknowledged his words with another nod. This is exactly what she was afraid Barran would ask her. She had known about the Forgetfulness for while now, and even she had begun to start feeling its pull on her being. No doubt he had been feeling it, as well. We have all been feeling it— that strange feeling of being Forgotten by the human world, disappearing piece after piece one day at a time.

“Have you started thinking of what you will do?”

She met his grey, unseeing eyes. “What do you mean?”

He let out another breath of cold air, closing his eyes as if the very subject pained him. “You can’t hide this from everyone for very long; especially from me. When did it start happening?”

She drifted her gaze to the old ancient wood below their feet, her stomach sinking with the thought. It was an embarrassment to her namesake. She was really hoping no one would ask her. “I lost three temples last week. They are dismantling another the day after tomorrow. I don’t understand, Barran. People just don’t need my help like they used to.”

Barran put a hand on her shoulder and grasped it tightly. “Let’s pray that they don’t ever have to. Your help has come with the cost of too many lives, both human and inhuman. Those days are over now, Temmpa. You yourself have changed, I hope. War isn’t what the humans need in this moment in their time. I’m sorry.”

She started to shake her head; slowly bowing to avoid looking into his stone etched face as she began to slowly loose her calm composure. Her hands had suddenly clenched into fists as her hair stood up on end, the crackling sound of the static that had begun to run through her body snapping in the still air. The old beams of the temple they were standing in creaked with the energy, the whole building starting to sway with the charge Temmpa was giving off in her anger. She had unknowingly started reaching for her blade when something tackled her from behind.

“Temmpa! Stop!”

She tried shoving the weight off of her as it knocked her to the ground, kicking at the body that was piled on top of hers so that she could free herself. Great strong arms caught hold of her torso, pinning her arms down by her sides as she continued to struggle, facing the floorboards beneath her. The electric feel in the air withered down gradually and Temmpa’s punches were growing uncharacteristically weaker, her feet becoming still with the encompassing seconds.