Avoiding Pillow Talk

Enol had avoided the house all day only returning late into the night. He passed his room and there were no lights. It had worked, he avoided the many questions he knew Yara would have. Why was he in the woods, and what was the reason he looked so guilty and whatever else she was able to see. She could read his mind he was sure.

Sneaking past the room he made his way into the interior halls to the Main hall doors and to his dismay Yara was waiting inside poised on one of the stone slab couches.

"Chief." The one word was painfully formal. With that alone he could tell she was waiting to let loose on her fury but waiting for the final proof.

"Ghigau." He started to walk past her to his seat behind his desk.

"There is room enough on this thing you had dragged in here. If I must sit here you should as well. In solidarity." She waved to the other stone couch.

He did as he was told and sat down roughly unperturbed by the unimaginable material below scarcely meant for sitting. She cleared her throat. "Before you begin with any accusations."

Her head turned slightly at the word. "Accuse you of what?"

"Stop okay." He exhaled. "We still have not been able to find the attacker. Not sure if you'd realized but the forest lets out into a vast dessert. It's not so easy to find someone who knows how to hide in it."

"What were you doing in the woods."

"Oh come on. What do you think?"

"It would make sense that you would have heard what I heard and rushed there."

"Exactly."

"But then Why did you stop. From where we were it seemed like you were hiding. Why would you be hiding?" This question was carefully placed not so much rhetorically but as if she was asking herself out loud. Willing for an interjection of reason if he had any.

He paused for a second."I was waiting for another attack. If they saw me they would have ran before I could find them."

"Were they not in your dome?" She fixed her eyes over every inch of his face for any movement out of place.

"Not that I could tell." He said coldly. He had no choice but to concede to a weakness in his techniques in order to save his story.

"That settles that." She said as a matter of fact as if she had laid a trap and it was inevitable that she would catch something eventually. "What now?"

He stared breathless. The conversation was going far better than he could have ever hoped. "Well, I had been contemplating sending Truzari to a specialist to teach him. He is not progressing as quickly as he should, under Behitha, to no fault of her own. Carausi is a testament to her ability to impart wisdom and knowledge."

"I can agree with that. It seems the Siwa name is not enough to keep him safe in the Iowa. We can discreetly send him away to be taught by this specialist. Where are they?"

Enol searched his mind. "In the frozen wasteland." Yara exhaled sharply. "It is far but I have a friend who travelled there long ago who has made a home there. He has the same condition and would be honored to accept him as a ward and student."

"He'll be so far." Her eyes cast down to her lap.

"He would have had to leave soon enough either way. He is getting close to the age where he would have to take on the trials."

"But I would have three years until then." She reminded him.

"As you said it is dangerous here for him. Now that we know that we can't ignore it as parents."

This was too much. Although she was willing to let his lies pass into her ears she would not let him believe her ignorant that he was up to something even though she didn't know what it was. "When will he be leaving?"

"In the morning."

Yara gasped. "Can't we wait until he has healed a bit before a long travel to the frozen land of Udreia. Not only traveling through the desert or the rough and bitter cold in Udreia but he's never been in the ocean before. It is sure to be hard on his sensitive nature. Unable to orient himself will surely be nauseating."

"He will have to suffer it if he is going to avoid an early death." Enol said this with a sense of cruel wisdom.