Teerom lay restless on his mattress by his sister's bed. He continued tossing and turning, looking through the window at the stars and then the wall and then the stars again.
Finally, he resolved his mind with a swift exhale and quietly slid out of his covers. Baluchta lay in the corner away from the door. He knew she had sharp ears so he slipped on a pair of ragged socks; a great deal to Teerom as the fabric was hard and torn inside, making it both sting and scrape Teerom's feet.
Sliding his feet slowly across the wooden floor, his socks reducing the sound and making it easier, he reached the door. As he incredibily slowly turned the doorknob, he glanced back at Baluchta who had begun to shuffle as if she heard something. This made Teerom panic and turn the doorknob too fast. It made a scraping sound which woke up Baluchta.
"Going to the toilet?" She looked down through her exposed feet at Teerom, her drowsiness refusing to let her sit up.
"U-Uh, of course." Teerom whispered back at her, his heartbeat calming down.
Baluchta turned on her side and pulled her covers up to cover her head, further exposing her legs - she slept completely naked. He sighed and continued through the door into the living room, seeing Jiggan sleeping on the hard floor after being pushed off the sofa by the snoring Aleed. He didn't see Aywa and assumed he went to the toilet.
He was wrong. Aywa was in fact outside, sitting on a lawnchair and trying to light a cigarette. The lighter was a small cylinder with a Fire Magic runestone that released a safe and small flame for a few seconds. He must've just lit the cigarette as he was tucking his lighter back into his jacket pocket.
When Teerom closed the door behind him, inevitably causing a thud sound, Aywa jumped in alarm, throwing and stumping the cigarette. He calmed down when he realized it was just Teerom and took out another one and lit it.
"You scared me, Teerom." He said, grabbing another chair and placing it next to his before sitting down.
"They don't let you smoke?" Teerom asked, taking a seat. He followed Aywa's focused gaze on the sky, looking for a twinkling star or something interesting, but all he saw were clouds.
"That's right, Jiggan's a health nutter," Aywa replied.
"Good. That stuff is addicting."
"Come on, I won't get addicted from just one a day."
"That's what they all say."
Aywa sunk back in his chair, giving Teerom a look of jesting sadness before returning to staring at the dull clouds, "You sound just like Jiggan."
"What're you looking at?" Teerom asked curiously.
"You're gonna make fun of me."
"I won't."
Aywa gave him a look of suspicion.
"Promise."
After a small moment of hesitation, Aywa answered, "Belief."
"Belief?"
"Yes. More specifically the concept that we can believe in something intangible."
"Rismian please?"
"When you stop looking at me, am I gone?"
Teerom looked puzzled.
"Let me show you," Aywa grabbed Teerom's head and turned it in away, "You can't see me. But you can hear me so you know I'm here. But what if I was completely silent? How would you know if I was here? Behind you? How would you know I still existed and didn't just vanish?"
"Oh, is this that simulation theory Aleed's always going on about?"
"Not really. It's belief. You have no proof that I'm behind you. But you believe in it. Likewise, those clouds are covering the stars. The moon. I can't know for sure that they are still there. But I believe. I believe that Luneia is watching over me. Always. Even if I can't see her, or hear her, or feel her presence. I believe she is there. Guiding me." Aywa's sudden philosophical twist surprised Teerom.
"Guiding you to brothels?" Teerom teased.
"Hey," Aywa nudged him, smiling humouredly.
They both returned to watching the dark grey sky, Teerom now trying to see it the same way as Aywa. A smile appeared slowly on Aywa's face as a break in the clouds revealed the moon.
"There she is. Luneme. The middle moon." He took a deep breath as if he was trying to absorb the moon's beautiful glow before it was covered by the clouds again, "Are you religious, Teerom?"
"Not really."
"Haha, that's to be expected. Jiggan raised you after all."
"I am interested, though. I've seen a lot of priests talking about Luneia. Who is she? And what do our moons mean?" Teerom was half-playing into Aywa's passion for his beliefs.
"Luneia is the Moon Church's prophet. Some people, like in our neighbor country, Lusitra, call her the Priestess. She was said to have touched the moons with her soul and saw the future of mankind. Since then, she gave her body to guide us to salvation. A lot of us believe that the moons are a sort of heaven. But I don't think so. I think Luneia isn't guiding us to be good people so that we can live eternal lives of pleasure. I think she's guiding us just to be good people."
He dragged on, quickly boring Teerom and making him regret asking,
"The moons each have different a different meaning. Luneius is the smallest moon and represents selflessness and antimaterialism. It guides us to live for others and donate what we don't need to those that do. Luneme is known a the middle moon. It teaches one to be calm. It guides to live peacefully and without anger and negative emotions. Luneium is the biggest moon and so represents the most important thing in life. You know what that is?" He turned to Teerom who was on the verge of death by boredom.
"…uh, love?" Teerom guessed right.
"Correct. Luneium guides us to be all-loving, to be kind to one another, to teach one another, to help each other. Mind if I make a quick prayer when Luneme comes out again?"
"Not at all." Teerom was told by Jiggan all the flaws in the Moon Church's beliefs. He found Aywa's passion slightly ignorant. For example, Jiggan once told him that the Moon Church teaches love – kindness – and yet dark-skinned people are treated as slaves and often psychologically and physically tortured. Jiggan taught something much different than Aywa. That in the world, the only love that matters isn't a forced love for everyone. But the fated love you have for those around you.
Aywa began droning on again as he waited for Luneme to come out again, "You should pray with me. When one prays under a moon, they feel the guidance of it. Since it's Luneme, we're going to feel peace."
"S-Sure." Teerom answered.
"Put your hands on your chest, it doesn't matter how, they just should be as close to your heart as possible." Aywa stared at Luneme as it revealed itself and began saying chants out loud for Teerom, "Jia shafaga gar lakis ,Luneme, gar lakis, poshak sagar tuma. Kallat, Luneia."
The chant meant - Take from me my darkness, Luneme, my darkness, and bring me peace. Bless me, Luneia.
"Now make a prayer. It can be anything… just not bad."
Teerom nodded and copied Aywa, clasping his hands together and closing his eyes.
'Uh, heal my sister, please.' He echoed in his mind, trying to believe that his prayer would be answered this time. Despite Jiggan's strong disagreement with religion, he allowed a desperate Teerom to pray to about every deity there was a while back.
"What do you say about going to the city with me?" Aywa asked.
"I'm alright. I'm not interested in brothels." Teerom replied tiredly.
"Leia, Teerom. Have some faith in me, will you?" He laughed and pulled Teerom to his feet, "I know a place. A fountain. People throw their coins in there in hopes that their wishes come true." Aywa goofily walked forward towards the city.
"What happened to selflessness?"
"Luneius ain't watching me tonight," Aywa grinned as Teerom followed him.
They walked through the streets that were empty apart from a few shady men and women nonchalantly exchanging immoral goods such as guns and drugs (drugs are chemically made, but there are completely safe versions called Hallucinostones, runestones)
They received a few dirty looks and stares of contemplation - contemplation as to whether a crime would be committed. Teerom, a young boy was walking through the streets of Rukae at night. It was common knowledge what happened to children on these streets.
Anxiously, Teerom walked closely to Aywa and held his hand. "I don't think this is a good idea." He said.
"Don't worry, bud. I'm here. They're not gonna come anywhere near us." He motioned to his pistols, ready to be drawn.
They walked for around twenty minutes until they reached a big open plaza-like area. There were shops here, but they were covered in thick metal walls to prevent robberies. In the middle, there was a fountain made of cracked stone.
There was a pillar with a rounded top in the center out of which beautiful blue water was meant to shoot out into majestic streams, but instead, it trickled pathetically into the pool below. They walked over to it and Teerom gasped at the thick lining of silver with some gold mixed in at the bottom of the water.
"You do this often?" Teerom asked.
"Yep."
"Then why do they keep putting money in?" He reached at the pool but Aywa stopped him.
"Because I take it. Come around." Aywa took Teerom to the other side where there was a face carved into the pillar. "When a coin is taken out of the water, that guy shoots out scalding hot fire at them. People are so confident in that, that they actually believe the coins turn into their wishes. And if they put enough coins in, the wish will be granted." Aywa giggled.
"How do you take them?" Teerom's question was answered by a smile.
"Because my father made it. It doesn't target elves." He reached into the water and took the coins out without burning to death.
"Selflessness, eh?" Teerom had an incredibly unamused look on his face.
"It's called ingenuity. We're simply using our abilities as elves."
"Mhm," Teerom had had enough and wanted to go back home, so he began walking back.
"Hey! At least wait for me to pick these up!" Aywa called out, deciding whether to follow Teerom, but he hurriedly began picking coins up and put them in another one of those enlarging bags.
Teerom whistled a made-up tune as he walked. The clouds had begun to thin and the stars came out.
"About time." He grinned and made his way into an alleyway to scale the building so that he could get a better look at the constellations. However, something horrifying was waiting for him in the alleyway.
Three teenagers, their ages ranging from 14 to 17, were murdering a young boy, about Teerom's age. A younger girl's corpse lay on the ground, naked in a pool of fresh blood. She must've been the boy's sister, suggested by his desperate muffled mumbles of her name under the oldest boy's tight grip on his mouth. A knife was lodged deep in his ribs and the oldest boy was slowly moving it around inside his victim.
Shocked, Teerom froze at the sight, being spotted by the other two boys, who reacted quickly and threw three knives at Teerom.
He was still frozen from terror, unable to think. But somehow, his body managed to move out of the way of the knives.
The two boys charged him, revealing themselves under the moonlight. They were young. The one on the left must've been 14 and the one on the right, 15. The 14-year-old had extremely thin brown hair - it must've been ripped out – and was generally skinny, barely fitting into his red shirt and black pants.
The other boy was notable for his overall small stature, he wore a tight white vest to make himself look bigger and skin-tight blue jeans.
Teerom's mind was still malfunctioning, and Red Shirt landed a punch on his face. The oldest boy had been watching, but returned to torturing his victim after deeming Teerom not a threat.