Kenne sat up and stretched his dark arms with a yawn. Mairek spotted droplets of dew upon the man's large flat nose. *Has he been sleeping outside all night?* Kenne hastly stood up with his loin cloth battling to preserve the old man's dignity.
"Who is he?" Niada asked with her nose scrunched up from the stench emanating from the grey tent.
"He is an Entrail Seer." Mairek replied.
"You seek the counsel of Meena?" Niada asked. Mairek didn't answer, he just stood beside the young lady while they both observed the old man wobble in place in an effort of loosening the muscles of his limbs. The truth was Mairek didn't have an answer to the question Niada posed. Ishar had warned about consulting Meena more than once but there was no other God that he knew. He was clueless of what to do yet he knew he had to do something.
"You look troubled young man." Kenne said in a raspy voice that sounded like he was in much need of water.
"Why did you say you were waiting for us?" Mairek asked.
"Because I was waiting for you two." Kenne answered.
Mairek sighed and fought the urge to thump his forehead with his palm. The old man either had time to kill or he enjoyed dancing around questions by giving unsatisfactory answers. "Can you just answer the question?"
"But I have answered." Kenne said.
"You haven't answered! You've just repeated what I said but as a statement rather than as a question." Mairek said.
"Then make a statement and I shall answer it with a question." Kenne replied with a smile upon his face.
Mairek squinted at the old man in an effort to make sense of what he'd just heard. "What?" He wondered aloud. Squinting brought only a visual clarity of Kenne but his words remained as foggy as a winter morning.
Niada reached out and pressed her long slender fingers into his arm. Mairek turned to look at her but her eyes were on Kenne. "We have arrived and your wait has reached its end." Niada said. Kenne abruptly stopped flexing his arm and straightened. He bowed before Niada and Mairek wondered once more what the fuck was going on.
"Shall we proceed?" Kenne asked. His voice croaking on the last word.
"Must we or should we proceed?" Niada asked. Mairek raised both his eyebrows, it appeared he'd stepped out of the realm and ventured into a place where people communicated by not making sense. Kenne, however, raised both his eyebrows as Mairek had done but a fierce grin was an added piece to his face.
"I like you, girl." Kenne said. "Where did you learn the ancient etiquette?"
"My great grandfather on my mother's side used to employ the etiquette while addressing her. She picked it up and jokingly taught me, it was our.." Niada paused for a moment, taking in a deep breath. "It was our own secret tongue before she passed."
Kenne bowed once more in her direction. "We must proceed." He turned around and tiptoed towards his tent, disappearing under its flaps. Mairek made as if to follow him but Niada's tightened grip on his arm prevented him from following through on his intention.
"What now?" Mairek asked Niada, visibly exasperated.
"He said 'must' not 'should'." Niada replied. "There's no command to the ancient etiquette, it was a symbol of freedom within the realm but Binoria's continued rule pushed it towards extinction."
"Why has he suddenly started sprouting this incoherent nonsense right now? Where was it while we engaged him a few days past with Ishar?" Mairek asked. He didn't have time to learn a whole new means of communication in order to engage a senile old man. Ishar was facing death and he needed to find an immediate way to save him.
"You came here, with the Ko.. With Ishar?" Niada asked.
Mairek nodded at her then turned his gaze back to the grey tent where Kenne emerged still dressed in a loin cloth while holding a white rabbit in his left hand and a knife in his right. The rabbit kicked and squealed as the old man drew near, it sensed its end and no creature was willing to go gently into the night.
"I heard what the Kolotian did, what was his name?" Kenne asked as he placed the rabbit with its back flat on the ground. His leg pressed down on its hind legs and his other leg pressed and held the rabbit's front limbs in place. The creature squealed frantically as its beady eyes took in the knife dangling from Kenne's hand.
"Ishar." Mairek and Niada both said as their eyes stayed glued on the rabbit. Kenne plunged the knife into the rabbit's throat and tore it open with a tag of the blade, blood gushed out and stained its white fur red, the rabbit's squealing was transformed into a gurgle as it chocked on its blood.
"Quite a brave thing he did." Kenne said as he watched blood sprout from the rabbit while his legs suppressed the dying thrashing of its limbs.
"Yeah, that's why I'm here, I wish to know what the Gods say about me going to save him." Mairek replied, turning his eyes from the dying creature to study the old man's face. Mairek felt Niada turn her head away from the dying rabbit to observe him.
"I also wish to know how I can save him." Niada said. Mairek turned his eyes to her, she met them without wavering. "If what you said was true then It's because of me that he is where he is now. He came to save me, only best if I return the favor."
"What Gods do you wish to consult?" Kenne asked. The rabbit stopped moving after apparently having breathed its last. Kenne dug the knife beneath the rabbit's neck and and started cutting towards its lower abdomen.
"Uhhhmmm." Mairek said, his eyes back on the fresh carcass being mutilated. "You know.. the Gods." He waved a hand in the general direction of the sky.
"Which other God do you know beside Meena?" Kenne asked while straining to tear at the rabbit. The blade reached below the rabbit's abdomen and Kenne tossed it aside. With his hands he peeled back the fur, skin and flesh of the rabbit while occasionally taking up the knife to cut unrelenting muscle and tissue until the rabbit's innards lay in the open.
"Uuuuh.." Mairek started. "I.. Uhhh.."
"Nielda." Niada said. Mairek turned to face her with his eyes and mouth wide with shock. The Entrail Seer's eyes looked wilder than they were and his blood stained fingers twitched randomly above the rabbit's carcass as he eyed Niada. "I heard of the deity from my mother and she from my great grandfather. He was worshipped by the early Talisi settlers but few remember his name now."
"It would be wise if you kept that name to yourself, girl." Kenne sad. "If a Red priest even catches a syllable of that name from you, you and your entire family will be put to death." Mairek could see Niada swallow as the Seer's words settled in her skin. *Did Ishar meet Nielda that night?* He wondered. "Please come and spit into the rabbit's entrails." Kenne said.
Mairek and Nielda exchanged quizzical looks before complying. Each of them leaned towards the offal and spat into it before quickly withdrawing a step back. Kenne started nodding at the carcass while walking around it in circles with his hand placed on his chin. "Interesting" He said.
"What?" Mairek asked. Kenne didn't respond.
"You should speak of what you see Entrail Seer." Niada said.
"The paths each of you were destined to follow have been altered by stains of blue." Kenne said. "For you young lady I see where there was no air and suffocation ran rampant an ocean of blood flows in its place."
"What the fuck does that mean?" Mairek was about fed up with all the parabolic talk.
"And for you young man, where a chained beating heart beats no more, strings take its place and replace the beat with a tune that finds the ear of a deity." Kenne said. Silence met his words as both Mairek and Niada cocked an eyebrow in his direction.
"How the fuck is that going to help us save Ishar?" Mairek asked but his question fell on deaf ears. Kenne walked back to the place he'd been lying and dropped to the ground, spreading his limbs and resuming the position they'd found him in.
"Entrail Seer, thank you for your knowledge." Niada said after a moment of visibly pondering a response.
"You're welcome, girl. Thank the Gods for your friend for his role has changed your fates, for better and for worse depending on where either of you will stand." Kenne answered with his eyes closed. Mairek was about to hurl more obscenities but Niada clutched tighter at his arm and dragged him towards the direction of the Talisi tents and away from the Entrail Seer. Mairek complied and followed her despite feeling that his entire quest had been a waste of time. Ishar is in danger and I'm too fucking helpless to do shit about it. Mairek lamented.
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