The Endless Solvent

For days she stayed in the room, not really knowing where she was. The being in smoke did not return - Aris suspected it was because she diligently kept to her corporeal form to heal properly. The intricate wooden structure overhead and the strange wood and pulp material for the walls indicated that she was in Munna structure of some sort. There had been several rare sightings of Munna structures from the other side of territory borders and they had all described this kind of material for the walls.

On the third day, when her injuries felt less painful, Aris mused that her mother or any number of her peers at the Academy would have killed for an opportunity to be where she was. Just to be able to sit in a structure built by such a secretive group of people. But her thoughts immediately sobered: she never really was a student at the Academy. She didn’t have any peers.

During her time there, she could hear hushed voices. The walls seemed thin and there wasn’t even a door, simply a divider made of the same pulpy material stretched across wooden supports that stood at the entrance to give her privacy. Occasionally she even heard footsteps walk by. But the only other person she’d seen was Tassik.

He regularly appeared with a tray full of food that she devoured each time. There was always a ball of sticky grain wrapped in a leaf, sometimes roasted birds and a large selection of fruits, including handfuls of Nossan berries. Aris had simply sat there and stared at the gleaming dark berries in the little wooden bowl the first time Tassik served them to her.

“Saanssam tussalk,” Tassik said. “That’s what that berry is. It’s translated as ‘blood tears’ but I imagine that doesn’t sound very appealing.”

She supposed the juice of the berries did look a lot like blood. They used to be her favorite. Her mother always made sure the banquets had Nossan berries for the children to snack on, even though the servants all hated washing out the stains they made on clothing. Aris sighed at the memory - she had been plagued with memories ever since she got injured. As a distraction, she, in turn, plagued Tassik with questions.

The Munna man willingly answered all of them, even looking amused at her insistence. Which was strange as Aris believed his people were purposely secretive about… everything. They wished to live apart from the Empire and from Gaians, even from the Caelisians from whom they share a partial ancestry with. But this easy-going Munna man just smiles and spills all their secrets.

“We are among the Stone Wall people who live closest to the border to Caelis,” he explained. “They were situated here many years ago to maintain the border and prevent your people from infringing on Munna land.”

“Stone Wall?” Aris asked after swallowing a huge bite of sticky grains. “I thought you were called the Munna.”

“We are separated into different people. I suppose you would call us ‘tribes.’”

“Am I not a foreigner then?” Aris took another huge bite of food, continuing between chews. “Why have you kept me alive?”

“You have special permission. We all know to treat you as a guest.”

“The Munna have historically killed anything not Yscian on the spot,” Aris said. “Why do I get permission?”

Tassik raised his eyebrows, his green eyes glittering in the dim light of the shelter. “Do you not know your own special guardian? He is the one who convinced you to stop being a ghost and return to being a person.”

Aris frowned in realization - the Being in Smoke. The… thing that Nilda had been looking for all these years and the thing that intervened too late back at Gendis. He was the one who let her exist among the Munna? “What is he?” Aris asked. She was almost afraid Tassik would grow tired of answering her questions, but he answered just as readily.

“He is a powerful being that has aided the Munna on many occasions,” he said. “As with his siblings, they hold incredible power. I believe the Gaians have a specific name for him.”

“A Part,” Aris replied dully. “I’m to believe that a god walks among you?”

“Perhaps,” Tassik shrugged. “The Munna had never held the concept of gods. So perhaps the Ulkyssa is like a god to you.”

“What does Ulkyssa mean?”

“It means ‘traveler,’” Tassik said. “We use that term for all his siblings, but since Doran is the only one we see, that usually just refers to him.”

“Doran?”

Tassik chuckled. “Do your gods not have names?”

Aris opened her mouth, prepared to tell him about Caelis. About how royalty forsake names and call themselves the Lunaris and the Solaris, their partners the Brilliance and the Radiant, the twin heirs simply as princess and prince. To have what the Gaians consider as Gods be given a name seemed not only odd but disrespectful. They were the Parts and should be called as such, perhaps their specific Part, but not something like Doran. But she shut her mouth again after a brief consideration.

He didn’t need to know any of that. She was Aris now, not princess, not little moon. Besides, this… thing they’re talking about might not even be a Part. The Parts were an idea formed from old Gaian beliefs, none of them making claims to their form. Certainly none of them described one of the Parts as a being made entirely of smoke.

“I jest, lyssiin, you are far too young to have a wrinkle in the middle of your face,” Tassik laughed. “Perhaps it is something to consider on another day?”

“You’re asking me to forget how I may have just met a Part?” Aris asked incredulously.

“Your rumination of it does not change how you have met him and how he is currently not here,” Tassik said. “He lives up to our name of ‘traveler’ and comes and goes from our village whenever he pleases. He may return, maybe then you can ask him questions directly.”

Aris, of course, thought that was crazy talk. She couldn’t imagine anyone in her life asking her to just forget something like that! Camaz would probably be livid at how she wasn’t recording every single detail on paper while she spends time in Munna territory. But Tassik’s words stuck with her. It bothered her for some reason.

“This is all very suspicious,” she said upfront the next day when he brought her more food.

“You’re free to explore our village,” Tassik said. He sounded amused again and it annoyed her. “You are not held here against your will.”

That was true enough. There were no signs that she was locked in the room she was in. However it hurt to step more than a few steps and her body constantly felt heavy when she tried to stand. The extended bed stay also made her joints feel stiff. Furthermore, she had no idea what the Munna would do if she stepped out of the room. Aris couldn’t trust how she was suddenly able to explore a Munna village when they made it such a big deal to keep her people away.

Tassik seemed to read her mind and he shook his head. “If we wanted to kill you, you would be dead,” he said. “And we would not be feeding and sheltering you. The Ulkyssa specifically saved you and so we shall keep you alive by his request.”

Aris got up painfully, testing out her legs. No, it would leave her too exposed. Perhaps what Tassik says is true, but she didn’t want to feel entirely vulnerable. “Aren’t you and the rest of your people annoyed about that?” Aris asked. “For decades you’ve carefully kept my people out and now this… Doran is asking you to just let me in. None of you trust Gaians or even half Gaians but you have to treat me kindly because you’re told to?”

“One of you will not weaken our borders,” Tassik said. “And what does being annoyed do for us? The situation has changed, we observe the change. Nothing else is different.”

Again, his words unsettled her. Why wouldn’t the Munna care? Everything is different! Perhaps it was the need to prove him wrong, it motivated Aris to regain her movements more quickly. In time she was able to shuffle around her small room, even daring to peek around the divider by the entrance only to see pine trees and foliage. She was able to change more easily into the clothing Tassik provided her. They were not unlike the clothing she was used to: a simple tunic tied at the shoulder, a cloth belt, some trousers. The only difference was the material was made of something she couldn’t identify. It kept her warm in the cooler nights but didn’t stifle her in the day.

Soon after, she decided it was time to try to walk to the door at least. It was quite anti-climatic as it seemed like her little house was built facing the forest. She turned around to finally inspect the structure she had been living in for almost two weeks, expecting to see a little hut but instead found that the branches of surrounding trees seem to weave into the structure itself, to the point where Aris didn’t know where the structure ended and the trees began. The pulpy walls stretched across the branch latticework like webbing. There were straight edges to reveal it not to be a natural growth and some symmetry in the roof and overall look, but it also thrived in chaos. It was a little like a bird trying to build a nest that looked like a house people would build.

The structure continued its branch latticework and pulpy walls off to the side, forming a small canopy to the left of the building. Carefully, Aris walked across the uneven forest floor through the opening it formed. The ground immediately dipped down a steep hill, but the tangle of branches and leaves grouped together to form stairs and even railings for her to hold on to. Her eyes widened as she saw that the stairs led her further into the deep forest where the trees were tall and dense to create perpetual darkness. Even during the light of day, little lamps were lit and glowed around her as she traveled deeper into what she could only assume was the Munna village.

Winding, complex branches and vines wrapped themselves around the sturdiest tree trunks and sprouted into platforms and cocoon houses, much like the one she was staying in. Except these were at various heights in the air supported by the tree trunks and they filled the forest between the trees, connected by platforms, bridges, ladders and latticework. Aris saw someone sit by something that looked a lot like a market stall with produce laid to to sell. It was a veritable city and none of her people had been able to see any of this before!

She froze when she saw two Munna guards stare down at her. They were perched up on small platforms about two stories up above her, bows gripped tightly in their hands. But arrows were not notched into them and they weren’t gesturing her away.

“The Caelisian,” a voice spoke. Aris watched a female Munna climb up the stairs. Her long blue-black hair was allowed to rest loosely on her shoulders and she wore a long loose dress as it seemed she was heavily pregnant. She laboriously made her way up to Aris and studied her with cool blue eyes embedded in black.

“Does everyone speak Gaian here?” Aris muttered.

The woman snorted. “No. My Gaian no good. But better than most,” she intoned. “Hungry? Food? Come.”

Aris warily eyed the guards up high again.

“They no kill,” the woman said. Aris wanted to argue: they yes kill, under the right circumstances. She stood on the stairs stubbornly for a few moments until the woman casted her an annoyed look and gestured at her. “Follow or go to forest.”

Aris narrowed her eyes. Obey me or leave, the Munna woman meant to say. It was always the same. Gritting her teeth, Aris followed.