{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/endless-stars/20",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/endless-stars/20",
  "publishedAt": "2019-05-25T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: subchapter\n\n\"C'mon, Kinri. Let's go.\" She meant to the Dadafodd; she'd said that's\nwhere we'd find the drake. \"C'mon. My leg is getting done with me\nstanding on it.\"\n\n\"Sit down, then.\"\n\n\"I'm not going to sit down, I⁠ ⁠---⁠ we need to get to Dadafodd so I can\nget my shit bandaged up.\"\n\n\"If you sit down, maybe your leg will feel a bit better when you start\nwalking aga⁠ ⁠---\"\n\n\"We should start walking now! What the flames are we waiting for?\"\n\n\"Um.\" My brilles clouded. \"Just...\"\n\nStaune piped up for me. Head out poking out of my pocket, she echoed my\nsister, repeating, \"Rhyfel is flying this way.\"\n\n\"I⁠ ⁠---⁠ yeah. Uane said that.\"\n\nMawla ripped a claw through the gravel, gouging. \"Fuck no,\" said the\nsifter. \"We're leaving. Now.\"\n\n\"Whyyy?\" Staune asked with some high scratch of a voice.\n\n\"Not you too.\" Mawla scowled as Staune was bobbing her bird head up and\ndown. \"What screaming reason could a bird have for wanting to see the\nhigh guard?\" Mawla still had a that artificial high accent to her\nvoice, but on that last phrase it dropped, turned to something frayed\nand ripped, sounding something like the nadir who spent their lives\nsmoking yakah roots.\n\n\"Feya. Slicktongue gone out to meet Guiltygrin, yes, but Guiltygrin\ndoesn't know Slicktongue keeps secrets from me. Him I can ask.\"\n\nMawla smacked her face with a wing, and held it there, alula digging\ninto her scales. She let out a growl and spun away from me, looking out\nover the south side.\n\nWinding through a gully to get here, the cobbled road that came up to\nthe southern gate had an east side look to it. You could drive a cart\nover it, but you didn't really want to be in it when you did.\n\nThat gully⁠ ⁠---⁠ it wasn't wide enough to be a ravine, too narrow a\nditch⁠ ⁠---⁠ had walls. Black bamboo holding up the sagging dirt\nbanks, filled up with dustone like grout. It flared massively at the\nend, and created this big landing area in front of the gate. Mawla\nleant against the gully wall farthest from the gate, and I sat in the\ncenter.\n\nFfrom and the other guard were still here, unconscious on the ground by\nthe gate. They hadn't stirred for quite a while. What had Uane drugged\nthem with?\n\n\"I don't want to stay here.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"Doesn't matter. I won't be here when Rhyfel lights down. If you\nain't coming with me⁠ ⁠---⁠ I'll have to leave by myself.\"\n\n\"Aren't we friends, Mawla? Just tell me.\"\n\n\"No.\" Mawla shifted her stance, put a wing down to act like a crutch.\n\nI dashed over there, stood beside her. \"Please. Why can't you tell\nme?\"\n\n\"Cuz you⁠ ⁠---⁠ you won't want to sow time with me again.\nYou⁠ ⁠---⁠ shouldn't.\"\n\n\"And if I decide not to because you won't tell me?\" I nudged her.\nAnd then again, until she looked at me. \"There are too many people\nkeeping secrets, Mawla. Not enough being open with me. I don't want to\nhave to suspect you too.\"\n\nShe grit her teeth, and bit down on the things she could say. Glanced\nto the side, and saw Staune busying pecking at Ffrom. Looked up at the\nstars. Met my eyes gain. Said, \"Fine.\"\n\nI waited. Breaths came in and out. Time passed. \"Fine you'll tell me,\nor...\"\n\nHer brilles were clouded. She looked down at the ground before they\ncleared. \"Yeah.\" She took a breath, her breast buffing up like with\nconfidence, and she said, \"Kinri, I'm⁠ ⁠---\"\n\nShe met my eyes, head high, and her neck was tense like it was a hard\nthing to do. \"I'm a criminal. A wanted criminal.\"\n\nI was looking into her eye. My brows furrowed, a little, but I didn't\nflinch. I hoped that helped.\n\n\"What kind?\"\n\n\"What kind⁠ ⁠---⁠ I, I don't know. I just, I saw it on the posts\ntoday. The wanted lists. I don't know how I slipped up⁠ ⁠---⁠ but I\nmust have. They didn't list a crime. Just my name. Just said I was\nneed for questioning. An inquiry. With a dozen dozen aris reward, like\na for murderer.\"\n\n\"Mawla⁠ ⁠---\"\n\n\"No, I get it if you don't want to see me again. It's⁠ ⁠---⁠ it makes\nsense. I'm not the type you want to associate with.\"\n\n\"Mawla, no. I⁠ ⁠---\"\n\n\"You don't have to say it.\" She was pulling away, doing that weird limp\nwith wings as crutches. \"I get it. I know. You don't have to say it.\"\n\n\"Mawla. No. You don't get it. You aren't a criminal. You aren't\nwanted. I know why you're on the list, I'm why you're on the list.\"\nShe'd looked around⁠ ⁠---⁠ just with her head, snaking it⁠ ⁠---⁠ but I\nlooked down, didn't meet eye. \"It's my fault.\"\n\nI could see the wing cover her face in my peripheral, though.\n\n\"Is this like before? You making up reasons to spit on yourself?\"\n\n\"No no no. It's like, I went to see the faer last night, remember?\nI⁠ ⁠---⁠ she was just too perceptive! I didn't want to tell her. I\ndidn't tell her. She just, figured it out. Read it off me.\"\n\n\"Tell her what? What you talking about? Be slow.\"\n\n\"The lake. You were in the lake, trespassing. The humans and\neverything. She thinks you might have had something to do with\nit⁠ ⁠---⁠ I told her you didn't, but she still wants to question you.\"\n\nMawla paused. Like frantic, bubbling glass that just hissed the air.\nLike realizing you searched for rings to find the thing sitting obvious\non the table.\n\nShe grinned.\n\nSpinning around with new energy, the yellowbrown wiver lunged over to\nbop me on the nose, and drape a wing over me. \"Well then,\" she said.\n\"Never the heck mind. This is fine. I'm fine. Don't worry about none\nof this.\"\n\nI could only say, \"Huh?\"\n\n\"You know anything about how the sleepy faer operates? How she sends\nout Inquiries?\"\n\n\"...No?\"\n\nShe tossed her head. \"Mlaen likes to send Inquirers up in your business\nat the buttcrack of dawn, Inquirers who're just scratching for an excuse\nto drag you to Wydrllos a⁠ ⁠---⁠ Point being, this was a trick of\nchance, and I probably only skirted the Inquirers by dumb stupid luck.\nSpent the night at Lilian's, got a day off work. Dumb stupid luck.\"\n\n\"...That's a good thing? I'm⁠ ⁠---⁠ confused.\"\n\n\"It's a good thing cuz there's nothing to worry about now. They've got\nnothing on me. I know my rights, and know how to work around a\nconfession. Trust me to help myself, got it? Trespassing in the fires\nwith a bunch of invading monsters⁠ ⁠---⁠ it's not even the tightest\nspace I've flown in.\"\n\nI clouded and cleared my brilles, my face all scrunched up. \"You're,\nuh, it's like you're in a whole different key⁠ ⁠---⁠ and I'm\nglad⁠ ⁠---⁠ but I don't see how things have changed much?\"\n\nShe waved a wing and only said, \"Assumptions,\" like it was the whole\nanswer. \"A dozen dozen aris is like, high high high crime. The kind\nof crime where only half of you goes to jail cuz the other half sticks\naround in gossiping mouths. You wake up and see that under your name\nand you fly to the obvious conclusion.\"\n\n\"You didn't think it was weird that you had a high bounty when you\nhadn't done anything?\"\n\n\"Welll.\" She looked away. \"Flick. Put it this way: a crowd and a half\nof people have reason and half to want me somewhere dark in Wydrllos. I\nsee my name on a bounty board like that, I don't get surprised, I get\nthinking.\"\n\nI still frowned at her.\n\n\"Kinri-ann, I got this. Trust me. I've flown through worse than\nthis.\"\n\n\"Really?\"\n\n\"Yep.\" She grinned. \"Don't ask about the scramble with the leggy\nclams.\"\n\nI blew my tongue, and tried not to laugh. That was⁠ ⁠---⁠ that.\n\n\"Okay.\" I looked around. The guards were still out⁠ ⁠---⁠ I guessed\nthey'd be for a while⁠ ⁠---⁠ and the bird was strutting around for some\nreason. The stars still shone. \"So, you'll wait with me?\" I asked her.\n\nMawla scowled. \"I still don't want to meet Rhyfel.\"\n\n\"A high shame I gotta disappoint, then.\"\n\nMawla had her back to the road into town, she couldn't see him. I\ncould.\n\nAt his savage grin, I frowned.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\"I didn't hear all of it, don't you worry. Whatever secret crime you to\nare up to'll get dealt with just as soon as I've got less on my plate.\"\n\nI glanced over to the hooded wiver, frowning into Rhyfel the younger's\nface. I expected her to run, but she was staring him down, fangs out\nlike she would spit on him.\n\nThen she took a step back. I jerked my head and saw why⁠ ⁠---⁠ the high\nguard hadn't come alone. From that same mouth of the gulley measured\nforth a lightscaled drake in a\npoisonous-smelling⁠ ⁠---⁠ schizon-smelling⁠ ⁠---⁠ apron, and glasswoven\nrobes that called to mind the faer's. He flicked an agile tongue, and\nblack eyes met mine with all the peering suspicion of an executioner.\n\n\"Kinri.\" He inclined his head. He didn't look at Mawla. When he\nglanced at the scarlet drake, and saw he was still engaged in a\nstaredown with the yellowbrown wiver, he looked back to me and asked:\n\"Where is Hinte?\"\n\nLike that, Rhyfel lost; the drake snapped his gaze back and popped his\ntongue. \"Ease into it, Ushra, ease into it.\" But he shook his head,\nand continued, \"Or you know what, you be quiet and I'll handle this.\"\nBlack eyes⁠ ⁠---⁠ the same black as Ushra's⁠ ⁠---⁠ watched silently as\nthe high guard smiled and spoke gentle.\n\nHe said, \"So. You two knew I was heading this way, didn't you? And\nargued yourselves into waiting. Can't say I'm not curious what's goin\non.\" A single hisslaugh. \"If that don't infringe on whatever secret\nyouse keepin.\"\n\n\"Um.\" I thought about it⁠ ⁠---⁠ Uane would never trust me again if I\ntold her out again, immediately. If I still wanted to be a Specter\n(did I want to be a Specter?), not answering that question would be my\nfirst step back in that direction.\n\nBut. Uane could have killed these guards⁠ ⁠---⁠ she wanted to kill\nthese guards. I couldn't let that happen. Not again. She was a\ndanger and the administration surely had to know about it? Rhyfel the\nyounger wasn't like Ffrom. He was high up. I could trust him.\n\nBut Mawla said Uane still cared about. Could I really⁠ ⁠---\n\n\"Kinri's got a wicked sister. She got up in our business being\nmurderous and mysterious. Knocked out those guards over there.\"\n\nRhyfel looked at me like it was my fault. Flatly, he asked, \"Are they\ndead.\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Good. What does your sister want now?\"\n\nMy brilles clouded again, and ",
  "title": "Peer"
}