"Dhrikita? You working? Isn't this your no work day?" Makriva asked as he approached the front desk of the Watchtower of Parira. The building wasn't a tower in any sense, but it kind of looked like one.
"What?
You didn't come to work, Shnrit didn't, what do you expect, darling?" Dhrikita said, laughing. She was wearing a trench coat like the others, but it was casually worn, buttons open, on top of some other clothes. which is what couldn't be said from outside looking in.
Makriva went closer to the desk and continued,
"You know I just came back yesterday.
More like dawn of today. What do you expect?"
Ridhra jumped from Makriva's shoulder to Dhrikita's. She adjusted Ridhra a little on her shoulder, Ridhra had almost got caught in her earrings, then she asked, "Wait, did something happen? Why do you sound like that?"
"Sound? like what?" Makriva tightened his grip on the rope of Ownad, who was moving a little too much inside the room.
"Kind of down? What happened."
Makriva thought he was speaking normally, but apparently not. The memory distortion prank of Viriya was still bothering him.
"Yes, Viriya did kind of too much this time." Makriva said, looking down at the desk.
Dhrikita put her hand on the hand of Makriva,
"We both know her, don't be so down.
What did she do?"
Makriva took his other hand and placed it on hers as he explained the whole situation with Viriya in short.
She had been standing before, but while listening she sat down. Makriva stayed standing, next to the table.
Ridhra was still on Dhrikita's shoulder, wrapping around the back of her neck under her tied hair, could be sleeping. Ownad had laid down beside Makriva at some point.
"Yes, it was a little too much. Even for her. Don't stay mad at your sister."
"Hmm, not really mad, I guess.
Anyway, where is Di?" Makriva had come here to meet with his father, but seeing his partner here, he couldn't resist talking about the storm going on in his mind.
"I think he left. Any specific reason?"
"Yes, about Viriya — the incident around the Scarred Forest." Makriva said in a much more normal tone, which surprised him, given how down he had sounded before.
"You can tell me if you want, or wait with me until he comes back." After saying that, she continued with a mischievous tone,
"Or better, help with the work here, My Beloved."
"Work?
What is that?
Never heard of it. Never.
I can motivate you if you want." While Makriva said that, he stayed in front of the desk, keeping an eye out in case anyone came, he could lend a hand then.
"Yes, work. At least today is not as busy as other days. If you don't want to, I can handle it." Dhrikita said, cracking her fingers.
"Mhm, it's a good thing that it's slow."
___
Some people came there, and Makriva and Dhrikita did their part, guiding or suggesting them according to their problems. Sometimes a parira came along to ask them something or for some help, which they gave.
They were talking when others weren't there. Makriva had a knot about Viriya in his mind, but he was talking freely then. Ridhra was with Dhrikita, and Ownad was still on the floor.
A little while later, Ownad stood up and started going towards the door. Makriva, looking there, saw Father and Kratshi coming inside. Makriva became a little grim, thinking of the conversation ahead. Kratshi, noticing Makriva, said,
"Here on your day off?"
Pointing at Dhrikita, he continued,
"Did you miss her this much?"
"Yes, you know, wouldn't you do the same?" Makriva said in a flat but sly tone.
"Yeah, yeah, of course...
That's the only reason you are here or...?" Kratshi asked.
"Yes, I was here to talk with Di, but he wasn't here, so I was with her." Looking at dad, Makriva continued, "Any more news about that?"
Pannavo took Ownad's leash and gave it to Kratshi, and said, "Go outside."
Ownad ran outside as soon as he heard that, dragging Kratshi with him, and Ridhra kept resting on Dhrikita.
Pannavo then pointed inward at the tower and said, "Let's go."
Makriva followed dad after nodding towards Dhrikita. While going forward, the normal gazes of the other pariras and people felt like they wanted to know everything they would discuss, which Makriva knew wasn't true.
It wasn't like he couldn't share, or wouldn't, with other pariras, if appropriate. It felt wrong somehow. Maybe it was because the situation was with someone really close, maybe not. Makriva kept following Pannavo, keeping his head slightly down.
Pannavo went into one of the sound-sealed rooms, and Makriva followed behind. The rooms were usually used for confidential exchanges. In there, other than a table and chairs, nothing more was visible.
In the room, after they sat down, dad continued before Makriva could ask anything, "How is Viriya? Did Bhava—"
Cutting dad off, Makriva said, "It was an act."
"What?"
"It was an act to deceive me. It was payback for all the terrible things I did to her."
"The ancient language?"
"She learned it from the University somewhere, Ma said, but I didn't... care enough to remember then."
Dad was looking at him like a fish out of water. Seeing that, Makriva continued with a slightly bitter tone,
"In short, nothing happened to her, don't worry."
After looking at the table for a while, Pannavo said, "Okay, at least she's okay."
Hearing that, Makriva remembered Viriya saying, "Wait, aren't you happy that I'm okay? Are you serious?"
"Yeah, it's a good thing." He didn't want it to, but it sounded sarcastic even to himself.
After sitting still for a while, Pannavo said,
"She is reckless... isn't she."
After seeing the conversation was going in kind of the wrong direction, he asked, "What happened around the forest?"
"The forest. Yes.
It was an animal a mixture of human, wolf, and some weird water creature. It seemed to them was spotted at the start of the sacred forest.
Near Mraton."
Pannavo stopped and looked at Makriva, maybe expecting him to say something.
Makriva didn't say anything, so dad continued,
"Not aggressive like this one, but a horse-and-human mixture appeared a few days before you two were there at Ramarana.
There's also some more information from different places."
"At Ramarana? But that's too far from the forest, isn't it?"
"They didn't send every piece of information, but yes, at Ramarana too. Along with some other places.
The one from the forest was going towards Mraton at first, from inside the forest."
Makriva was thinking that they were quite far from Mraton when it arrived where they were. He thought about asking about it, but Pannavo continued,
"Parira from there tried to stop it but failed, so they decided to use the Blink of Time. And something else.
I mentioned the Blink of Time, while asking about the situation, so that's all they talked about."
After stopping a little, dad stood up and continued, "A Blink of Time wielder of theirs came there as soon as possible. But before that, the animal ran in the opposite direction—towards the forest and... and especially towards the train you two were in."
Hearing that, he thought, That's why it was there? Well, she wasn't lying about it, at least.
Pannavo was looking towards Makriva, maybe thinking Makriva might say something. Makriva stayed quiet. Dad asked, "Did you hear anything from Khanti about that horse man? Or anything?"
"No, maybe she forgot to tell me, or didn't think it was important, because of Viriya's antics."
While saying that, Makriva wondered if he was doing or thinking too much about it, but for then he didn't come to any conclusion.
Pannavo was standing near a wall, leaning his back against it. His face was upward, and he kept his eyes closed, like he was also digesting the news of Viriya and Makriva's current behavior towards her.
After a little bit, dad came forward and continued,
"I mentioned the flower to them yesterday. The animal was attracted to it.
When it was pretty near the train, the pariras arrived and stopped—no, actually, slowed down the area—and were ready to capture it."
"Why did they kill it, then? And Viriya didn't see anyone there either.
Well, she said so." Makriva started in a curious tone, but by the end of the line, he wasn't.
"They didn't. They suspect the flower." After saying that, dad started to speculate on his own, "But it doesn't seem right for some reason. It could explode on its own."
"On its own? Did the horse do that too?"
"No, that one just disappeared.
That's just my guess; they aren't sure either, maybe.
Then they just cleaned up the place quickly and left."
"That's it, right?"
"Yes, mostly."
"Origin of these?"
"Could be natural, like something from the sacred forest mutating the humans. But they suspect it might have been done artificially."
"At this time, why?
Society was stabilizing again. What could be the motive?"
"Maybe someone just likes to see people in fear.
I guess whoever did this is good at covering their tracks, if it's artificial."
After stopping for a bit, Pannavo asked, "The bangle from Bhava? Is that—"
"She's saying it was lost, and from that she got the idea about her memory problem. Ma tried divination yesterday; it failed."
Pannavo, hearing that, said, "Yes, okay. Go home, I'll try to come home early today."
Makriva left the room but went near the front desk, where Dhrikita was talking to some civilians.
Seeing that, he went outside, where Kratshi was sitting with Ownad under the sunlight. Near them, Ridhra was running and gliding around.
When Makriva came outside, Kratshi immediately said, "Take them. How do you handle them? I could never."
"Yes, not that hard, really." He took the leash from Kratshi and sat beside him, and made a "Krr—Krr" sound. Hearing that, Ridhra came and sat beside Makriva.
Kratshi continued, "Did he tell you?"
Makriva, thinking Kratshi was asking about the sacred forest, said yes.
"Are you happy?" Kratshi asked.
"Happy? Why? Some lunatic is making mutated humans—why would I be happy?" Even if not sure, Makriva did lean more towards that it could be artificial.0
"What? No, yes. I didn't mean that.
I meant about the chance of your dad getting a part of her too."
Hearing that, Makriva asked, "He is? Which part?"
"Not sure, but any part is actually better than having none."
"Well, he'll be able to do divination on his own then too, right? Or am I off?"
"If he can successfully borrow the part, then yes."
"Who's bringing them this time?"
"Could be Sir Vyas. But, because he's already here. It could really be any one of them. My guess is the Apostate Priest."
"Why him?"
"Not a guess, I heard today that he's apparently thinking of coming."
"Is the day fixed yet?"
"No.
Another thing, by the way."
Makriva looked at Kratshi expectantly.
After a little hesitation, Kratshi continued, "You remember asking your dad about the plants at house yesterday?"
"Hm." Makriva guessed that dad had lied about it then. Acting a little oblivious, he asked, "The leak of Mother's power?"
"Not exactly that—
one of your aunts came yesterday to get some help from Thenra."
Makriva hadn't even met all of the siblings of Bhavakari, so he wasn't really sure who it was. And Pannavo didn't like some of them, at least, because in their opinion, a mere human would die in a day compared to them.
"Who is it?" Makriva asked, standing up.
"Pannavo just—"
They saw a group of pariras coming outside from the tower.
Seeing that, Kratshi quickly finished, "Pannavo didn't tell me more," and went towards them, who were headed towards the carriage.
After Kratshi caught up with them and talked for a bit, he quickly came back towards Makriva, and the pariras got in the carriage.
Coming closer, Kratshi said, "Someone died at the university."
Kratshi was sad about the news, but news of death wasn't new to them, so he didn't sound much different.
Makriva's eyes widened. Looking at Kratshi, he said, "Ma and Viriya are there."