Chapter 13 Chapter Seven Part One - Orenda
One moment I’m basking in the warmth of the afternoon sun, the next I see nothing but darkness through my eyelids, as if the day were interrupted by a solar eclipse. I open my eyes to find out what blocked out my sun, only to see the grand bird form of my brother. He gracefully lands a few yards away from me with his wings outstretched, the rays of the sun glinting off his wings making the gold and blue of his feathers shine majestically. He flaps his wings as he quickly takes his human form, then picks a few objects up from the ground and walks over to me.
“There are over a million mountains in the world, Aya. You landing on mine is no coincidence,” I tease.
“Yours? Did you go and purchase Helvellyn and not tell me?” he mocks, throwing a small object my way, which I instinctively catch and realise is a ripe, juicy-looking apple.
“An apple?” I utter curiously, cocking my head to the side.
“Knowing you, I’m sure you haven’t eaten yet. So, being the doting brother that I am, I grabbed us a few snacks while I was on patrol,” he boasts with a cheeky grin, plopping down beside me and taking a large bite of his apple.
“Where did you get these?”
“I flew by way of Kent. Did you know there’s a place in Brogdale that is home to the largest fruit orchard in the world?” he muses, chomping away.
“I did not know that. Of all the things they must protect their orchard from I’m sure they never thought a giant bird would be one of them,” I giggle, taking a bite of the apple. I was right, it is juicy and incredibly sweet.
“That’s on them. How’s patrols? Any mysterious eyti surges?” he sings eerily.
“You say that as though I made it up,” I say affronted.
Ayawamat rolls his eyes, “Lighten up, Orenda. Of course, I don’t think you made it up. For starters, you’re not that creative.”
“Hey!” I protest.
“And secondly, you wouldn’t make up something like that. I have never doubted you in all our years and I’m not about to start now. If you say you felt a surge, then I believe you. I just wish we knew what it meant.”
“Whatever it is, it can’t be good. No good has ever come from large numbers of eyti banding together,” I say warily, eating away at my apple.
“What if there was a portal?” Aya ponders.
“A portal?”
“Sure. Makkares have portals all over the place; maybe there was an old one that resided on Machu Picchu and the eyti unknowingly stepped through it,” he theorises.
“Can they even do that though?” I argue sceptically.
“Do you have any better theories?” he counters pointedly.
I sigh, “No. Yours is definitely the best theory so far. At least it makes sense as to how I can feel a large number of eyti one minute only to have them disappear the next.”
“I can reach out to the High Priestess and see if she can detect any portals in that area,” he offers.
“Look at you being a smarty pants,” I coo, nudging him playfully.
He rolls his eyes, “I am very smart, thank you very much,” he retorts, tossing his apple core over his shoulder and off the mountain. I finish my apple and do the same.
“Well, thank you for the yummy snack, but I should get back to patrols. I was already resting too long before you showed up.” I get to my feet and dust off my pants while Aya just sits back on his hands.
“Has it ever occurred to you that you work too hard? Taking a day off every now and then wouldn’t kill you.”
“I take rest days…”
“Give me the date of the last one,” he challenges, his eyebrow raised as he looks pointedly at me.
I roll my eyes at him, “I don’t remember. But that doesn’t mean it was that long ago; it just means I don’t remember,” I argue defensively.
“Mhmm.”
“I’ll see you at home Aya.”
Not wishing to be lectured further I let the electric surge of my magic run from the top of my scalp and through my body as I take my bird form, taking off into the sky like a rocket, leaving my annoyingly caring brother behind me. I have nothing against rest. It is vital after all. But there are only two of us and a world full of eyti. Every day of rest we take is a day where the eyti are increasing their numbers. Aya is more than happy to just kill any we find and be done with it, but I can’t do that. Not anymore.
The eyti may be mindless, soulless beings now, but they weren’t always. Gabriella and Zarseti believe that all the eyti can be saved – I’m not sure how – but if there is even a small chance that they can be restored to their human selves then I have to do my part in giving them that chance. I only kill if it is one hundred per cent necessary. Lately, that’s something I find myself reflecting on more and more.
For thousands of years, I killed eyti indiscriminately. I never once gave thought to saving them because for the longest time that wasn’t an option. Now that it is, I can’t help but be filled with remorse and shame for the lives I destroyed. Lives that could have been saved had Aya and I not been so brash. Maybe if we had worked together with the Gods we could have found a way to bind them. Keep them imprisoned like Fretez did with Azadou and the eyti with him during their battle. Just something to hold them temporarily until we found a way to free them of their curse. But what’s done is done. I can’t change the past, but I can make better decisions moving forward.