The Endless Solvent

Ralos, Son of Suns, helped the merchants haul heavy sacks of pulverized minerals onto the carts. These were smaller sacks and were not nearly as heavy as what he usually had to lift back at the Somas camp. Two men of average strength could probably easily haul all of them without breaking a sweat, but of course everyone there was all too happy to let Ral do any and all heavy lifting. It was one of the few things he found he could do - that and looking intimidating when Kentor bargained with other merchants. They had traveled north from Issvak and were passing through the city state of Alkke.

“It’s a part of the empire,” Kentor had explained before entering the city. “But not really. All the officials there like to say that they aren’t. Maybe if they keep saying Alkke is independent of the Gaian empire, it’ll become true one day. I daresay the situation is complicated.”

It was something Ral faintly recalled Rask talking about long ago, but when they had first reached Issvak, they had entered roughly from the east and did not pass through Alkke. Rask was always keen on avoiding crowds as much as possible and Alkke was a crowded, bustling place. After years of being surrounded by Yscians, it was almost a culture shock to Ral to see so many Gaians crammed into one place. Every single day the streets were jammed with people buying and selling goods. The main source of coin for the city was from its infamous deep mines.

“The Alkkian mines hold vast resources of many precious minerals and metals,” Kentor said. “One is the beautiful Alkkian Treasure or more practically known as the Liquid Crystal, highly valuable to runists and artisans alike. Then there are the red and blue pigment minerals used to create paint, ink and dye. The emperor himself buys pigmentation for all empire usage directly from here - it’s why the city state can say whatever it wants about independence and nobody will correct them.”

“Are you here to trade in any of that?” Ral asked. He had observed that Kentor didn’t have anything with him except for the clothes on his back and the necessities of travel in his rucksack, including the food and water he generously shared with Ral.

“Of course!”

“With what? You barely have money to buy food and water.”

They had arrived at the city half starving as they had to make do with their sparse resources. They survived more than a week out there with Ral’s scant education on how to find water and Kentor’s bartering skills with other merchants along the way.

“Oh, sir, I have the most valuable thing of all,” Kentor said cheerfully. “Information! My brush with death with the Somas is quite valuable indeed, it will not be put to waste.”

“Are you going to tell everyone where the Somas are?” Ral asked, alarmed.

“Oh, don’t worry, no one’s going to seek them out,” Kentor said. “People simply need to know just to avoid them. Then there are those who think friends or loved ones have been kidnapped by the Yscians - I’m there to assure them that it hasn’t happened.”

“We don’t kidnap people,” Ral said. “I… I mean the Somas. They don’t.”

Kentor raised eyebrows at him. “Yes, I’m sure I was just cordially invited to translate for your ‘Leader’ back at the camp,” he said sarcastically but not unkindly.

“I’m sorry,” Ral said, casting his eyes down. He wasn’t sure why shame bubbled up from his gut. Ral was no longer one of the Somas - well, he never really was one of them. He didn’t have to feel shame or indignation about anything anyone said about them. But he did: something about that just made him feel more ashamed.

He spent the long days traveling with Kentor tying himself up into knots about wanting to go back to the Somas and Mikol to try to wrangle out the truth out of all of them, even though returning was the last thing he wanted to do. When he saw the surrounding walls of Alkkes, then the amalgamation of glowing lights that lit up the interior structural latticework of a huge yawning cave of the entrance of the Alkkes mines, it finally hit him that he was no longer with the Somas. The countless voices jabbering in his ear in Standard Gaian and the relentless sea of warm tone clothing reminded him that this was home. Or at least it was closer to home than he had ever experienced over the past few years.

The first thing they did was to find an inn. Kentor immediately knew where to look for one. “I want you to stand a little back, cross your arms, stand up straight and look annoyed at a spot on the ground,” he had whispered to Ral at the door. It was a homely looking place with a small tavern on the ground floor and not more than five or six rooms on the upper levels.

Ral tried his best but he couldn’t help but feel like he was just standing around and staring at nothing. He ended up looking back at Kentor who was speaking to the innkeep in a hushed tone so that no one could hear them. The innkeeper glanced up nervously once or twice at Ral and he tried to return a stony stare. Something seemed to have worked because their conversation shortly concluded and Kentor waved him up the stairs to their room.

Kentor had suggested they could each sleep in the single bed every alternating night but Ral insisted that he was perfectly fine sleeping on the floor, given he had a blanket to sleep on. He found that while the wooden floor of the inn was both flatter and warmer, the blanket lacked the mysterious cushioning that the Somas mats had - all the stranger since the mats were simply woven desert reeds interlocked with other dried grass. He had helped in making them every year when they changed out the old ones with fresh mats.

During the day, he simply followed Kentor around while he worked some sort of magic with the people in the city. Some looked extremely happy to see him and almost seemed to freely give him carts full of items. Others almost looked disdainful of anything he had to say and reluctantly gave him anything, even after Ral glared at them. Always Ral would stand a little ways back, too far to hear anything but close enough for people to know he and Kentor were walking together. Eventually Kentor even managed to find a little storage space where Ral hauled stuff in and out of. At that point they were eating more than the cheap watery stew from the tavern under their room.

Eventually Kentor handed him a set of clothing reminiscent of home: a buckled tunic and a set of trousers.Nothing fancy but at least clean and well fitted.

“If you’re going to be my assistant, I suppose you should start dressing like one,” he said, laughing. “Welcome back, sir.”

For the first time in years, Ral wore Gaian clothes. He trimmed his beard and combed back his shock of hair that finally had a good wash. He looked in the mirror in the inn room and nearly didn’t recognize himself. A young Gaian man stared back at him, not a Yscian man. He never was a Yscian man, even if he wore their clothes and ate their food. Seeing himself in the tunic and pants made him wonder why he ever wanted anything else.