“Before I begin, I shall inquire. To what extent do you know of the ancient regime, and the celestial roads?” Aujyav started spouting off unfamiliar terms, and Faiz sheepishly coughed, “Uh, not much..? Firstly, I grew up an orphan, and secondly, I didn’t really pay much attention to the mandatory lessons..”

  Wracking his mind for any knowledge he could use to save his pride, his eyes lit up, “Oh yeah, I got something! A-a friend told me that before the Veil used to cover the sky, you could reach a heaven of golden waves just by meditating, I think! And um…whoever managed to get there lacked for nothing, living in starlit bliss till they got into pointless wars or something; Judging by your expression, I am probably wrong however?”

  To his credit, Aujyav at least tried to soften the crushing blow to Faiz’s childhood fantasies while trampling over his hopes, “That is indeed somewhat embellished a tale, but scant truth shines through. As a correction, I know not how tales of the lost hells spread forth, but our Ceiling was never, and should never, be golden. Seeing your unfamiliarity, I shall elucidate from the start.”

  “If you do, can you please be luculent? People these days have a really bad habit of assuming you should know bout whatever you’re asking, going on long-winded and tiresome tirades, or throwing around a hundred unfamiliar words every sentence…it’s infuriating! No better than treating someone as living scenery, or a prop.” Faiz hadn’t realized how much he’d loathed being spoken at, instead of conversed with, until this very moment.

  “I will not, so you needn’t tense. This tale is supposed to ease you to rest, not the reverse.”

  Faiz quieted down, settling in on his bedroll and gesturing at the impaled man to continue.

  “I am not human. Thus, my origin differs-”

  “Wait, what? But you look just like me too! Wha..uh, is it rude if I ask about..”

  “My species? Unnamed, but sometimes referred to as Jeighva. We all look mostly similar, but vary from humanity by dint of our potentials. Factions existed, as did subsets. From Aytmen, to Preinea, Amnus, Tauh-” Aujyav blinked as Faiz cut in again, “Whoa whoa, slow down there, sir. This is veering back into ‘naming unending lists of names’ territory…So, If I have it right, you aren’t humans but a whole set of other types of beings yeah? Why humans of all things to compare to?”

  The man took a slow, deep breath before replying, “…somewhat so, yes, and I apologize if I overwhelmed you. As for humanity, it is the base, the origin built upon by all else. We, neither differing race nor familiar kin, all appear somewhat as man does. My own birthright lies in negations, my dissimilarities internal fully.”

  “Ha! That proves the Constellation cycles wrong, doesn’t it? ‘No thing shall be a being of flesh and thought in kind of one, for such is unprofaned in sanctity.’ Faiz voice took on a practiced falsetto tone, as he shifted a bit closer.

  “Your Constellations, another moniker for the Convocation? In past eras, the Hierarchy suppressed them. Yet they reign, while We are unknown. Likely then, their promised graces unto us went unfulfilled..”

  Seeing his perforated storyteller about to lapse into contemplative silence, Faiz coughed again, “That all sounds fascinating really, and I’m sure it has something to do with why you have that sword stuck in you…?

  “This? A final curse, of fathomless pain and eternal suppression. I can overcome it, do not fear for me. I bore this stain upon my slaying of the second Regent Taraneum. If given the felicity to relive that moment, I should gladly do so again.”

  “Well, I can safely say regret isn’t one of your flaws. I think I’m getting a hang of what you’re trying to tell me; Long time ago, two factions battle in the sky, you people help one side win, get short end of stick, you got stuck here because you killed a big-shot?”

  “Accurate. You are discerning. And, not in denial or unstable emotionally? Certainly your view of the world has shifted?” Aujyav seemed for the first time, slightly inquisitive.

  Faiz grinned weakly, his gaze filled with a tired acceptance, “Lost all that denial on day one, when has that ever helped a hero rescue damsels? I’ve encountered so much nonsense these past few weeks, you could tell me we’re all actually chickens in disguise and I’d actually have to think for a moment before denying the claim.”

  “…”

  “…Aujyav…?”

  The man carefully sized Faiz up, measuring his emotional state before answering hesitantly, “Your conjecture is not entirely inaccurate.”

  “Oh.” The sheer volume of defeat contained in that single utterance was immeasurable.

  “To clarify my statement, the Hierarchy bred humans as vassals containing manifold utility, most of all as nourishment. I am unsure if the Convocation has followed past precedent.” Aujyav looked him over again, “On second thought, seeing you, I am almost certain they have not.”

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  The smaller boy bristled slightly, affronted. He wasn’t doing that bad, was he? He opened his mouth to retort when the larger man interjected.

  “I meant no offense, only, orphans and other destitute classes were often the first line of expendable resources in any field. I saw many a child be shackled by a fellow human and led to the great laboratories or labor cities. Abhorrent.” A rare and impalpable rage settled into Aujyav’s voice, hatred filling his eyes.

  “Ah, I um, didn’t know sorry…Is that…why you fought them?”

  The impaled man shook his head, “Do not apologize, there is no fault of yours. The Infallibility of Reigns, the Hierarchy’s seat of projection, bearing witness to their grinding…”

  Aujyav’s lips curved down slightly, and he looked up at the sky, “I think it’s about time I divulge my tale then. You have been somewhat patient, Faiz. Listen, and you shall know of the one they called a deicidal hero of salvation.”

  “It all began in the bowels of a reformatory facility, one of several hundred locations designed to at once break a thrall’s will, seal their potential, and oblate their souls into the brine of justice.”

  “So, just like the tubes back home! Ah, if you don’t know what that is, most major cities have a hall of cleansing, large building, loads of tubes of all sizes snaking out of it. Haven’t ever heard of any just salts though.”

  “Perhaps the Convocation is less differentiated from their forbears than I thought. The brine was used to shred spirits, and then slowly erode unnecessary ideals off. Quite agonizing, and vassal slaves were given supplicant duties to perform still. I was one such being, weathering away slowly.”

  Faiz tilted his head, “Hang on, you said you were a…Jeighva? Only humans were servants for that hierarchy, no?”

  “Servants. A vassal was any being ungrateful enough to be formed lacking kin with the heavens; Of them, the subservient became puppets, the defiant became corpses, or slaves.” This clearly was a subject of grief to the man, his manner suggesting ancient despair, yet he continued, “Of men, any deficient of uniform frame were enchained, and most foreign kinds bowed their heads. Eternal servitude for eternal masters, mercilessly corralled by those standing on slightly higher rungs.”

  That brought a wince to his face, “Well, now I feel slightly less bad for those very surely dead guys. I can understand why you hated us, and now uh…I won’t force you to continue if you don’t want? It was my request, but this is heavy stuf-”

  “No.” Aujyav cut him off (a first!), glancing over at him…with an unidentifiable emotion surrounding him, “You asked, and I will not renege. It is past, either way.”

  “…If you say so, I guess…”

  “Back in that center, purity had almost claimed me. Void of thought or sense. My salvation, carved thusly: It was foisted on me by another. There were beings outside the twelve spans of auth0rity, as I said. They fought the Hierarchs, and sometimes they won. Their liberation was naturally mere conscription, disguised as a beneficence of vengeance.”

  “You mean, they broke people out just to send people back into the slaughter, just from the other end? The Stars might be cold but they wouldn’t..” Faiz paused, thinking back to the lovely melodies of Shaiher, “…now that I think over it, it doesn’t…seem unlikely?”

  “Even sages turn to slaughter when no recourse avails itself to them. These were the ending stages of a long decline, desperation bred innovation. How else would a recently freed slave be able to conduct a full composition in less than half a year?” There was a subtle sort of impartment to Aujyav’s words, as if he was teaching Faiz a lesson of value.

  “The time after my emancipation, I saw many lights, and many horrors. There was sorrow and determination, and my heart which would not die. The Hierarchy as you may had only a single chain of dictators from on high. Each Regency on behalf of the first guide carried with it power overwhelming. The Second was the Hierarchy’s left hand, and the most incandescent butcher of the battlefields I had ever seen. None could escape her ruinous discs of starlight.”

  Faiz whistled-he didn’t know how big exactly one battlefield was or how powerful a regent was, but going by Allie’s tales, at least a couple dozen people fought at a time, and each warrior could cut a hill in half, which was pretty impressive-as he envisioned the feat, “You must’ve been super strong then to win right? Did you get that power from a heroic will? Oh, or maybe an awesome inheritance of wills! Such a legendary fight surely..”

  Aujyav was shaken out of his gruesome reverie, opening and closing his mouth a few times, before opting to lightly pat Faiz on the head, looking to be in better spirits, “Nothing of the sort. I, and many others deemed sufficiently willful and angry, were fed certain hearts, belonging to the deep beings below the fundament. Monsters became we, and lives were reaped. As for the Regent, it had more to do with my fortune than anything else. Were she less enervated in the last battles, were I slower, perhaps I should have also lost my head.”

  “So, you were a warrior and before that, a lifelong servant in the halls of the hierarchy no? How did you come to know so much about…everything? Or more specifically, my lightdial and all else?” That seemed somewhat incongruous with Aujyav’s life story, his entire wise mentor act couldn’t come from such a source, could it?

  “Two sources. After I struck down the Regent and became trapped here, I could still somewhat peer out into the world of lights and sometimes people looked back. There were a few who could come here, to this loneliest of prisons.”

  Faiz dimly recollected that Ellery, the silvery scrapskin, had said something about a witch giving it the faked schemalink. Though so much had happened since that the conversation felt like it had occurred millennia ago, he often thought back to that time. Perhaps that person had been one such being? He asked curiously, “And the second?”

  “My duty as vassal servant: Attend the minutes of the first guide.”

  “?! So…you knew the big boss of the hierarchy from the start? That’s some twist!” It wasn’t as shocking to Faiz, for whom the departed sovereign may as well have been a decaying fable, but he could still imagine it was a large matter.

  Aujyav’s manner became even more amused, “Why else do you think the Convocation would expend resources to find me? The knowledge I had was invaluable.”

  “Still, very impressive of you, pulling all that off! Uh, I just realized, I was supposed to relax but this took hours…if you’re finished, can I rest?” Faiz had sensed the slow dwindling of conversation topics, and the much faster fall of his eyelids.

  “Of course, rest. I should appreciate if you remembered my words, Faiz. And that you need to stake out a fresh quarry tomorrow.” There was a light mirth to the man’s voice.

  And so, after much sleepy grumbling, a fully exhausted Faiz went off to slumber, under the complex gaze of the impaled man next to him.