I’ve mentioned the new book is a story about roommates, cohabiting a big empty house and worrying about bills (and then something to do with a demon, but priorities!). I thought I might introduce you. Parenathi is myasi, a woodland elf, but his story is more complicated. He knows very little about his heritage, and that’s unfortunate: he could use some help.
But hey, that’s what friends are for, and now none of them are alone anymore!
it’s a story about roommates, so here one is: Nat
Parenathi woke with a terrified lurch in the depths of night. He lay for a minute on his back, staring at the dark ceiling, heart thundering while the frigid air bit at the sweat coating his face and neck. He was afraid but didn’t think he’d had a nightmare. He had felt as if something in his environment was threatening him. Threatening him or calling out to him. He sat up with a startled lurch when the thought occurred.
“Nat?”
“Something… something isn’t right.”
Sheshy had been sleepy before, voice fogged by dreams, but his next words came out hard. “Was it that natu? Did he do something?”
He rubbed at his face as he wondered how he could manage to be friends with Jendaiar – whom he already knew he loved and trusted – when his best friend had taken an instant dislike to him. The situation was irksome, but some people were worth being irked. He had spent enough time alone, and in the company of jerks, to know the truth of it. “I almost want to say something in this room…”
“What’s here, if not the people?”
“Who’s the visionary around here?” he asked, because the truth was that he had no idea. He had only partially undressed when he got into bed, shucking his shoes and coat and socks. That had been hours ago; the cake of aromatic fuel people burned here in lieu of wood had been spent long since, and it was icy. He snatched up a blanket and slung it around his shoulders as he stood.
“Where are you going? Nat?”
“I just need to look around. Hush.” He rested a hand on the man’s head as he went past, striving to reassure him.
He shuffled forward on hesitant feet; he couldn’t see a damned thing. The shutters had been closed before they went to bed. The fire was burned out and hadn’t seemed to give off nearly as much light as a woodfire anyway. It was a spacious room, but there were five people sleeping on the rug at its center and he didn’t want to kick someone or step on a hand and break their fingers.
As best he remembered, the younger men had settled slightly off to one side by themselves as if to reinforce their partnership. This was cute to him; he didn’t know the story yet, but the tension between the brothers was obvious. Forced to guess, he would say the younger one idolized his older brother and resented him for failing to live up to it.
Sliding his feet across the rug that was currently their home, he moved in the opposite direction. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for; this wasn’t a thing he was familiar with. Now that he was wide awake, he wasn’t sure what ‘this’ was that he was trying to understand. He almost tried to tell himself he had imagined it.
But there was something here. Something else. Something powerful that didn’t originate in his new friends, and he just couldn’t settle it in his mind, whether it was sinister or he was just afraid because this was all so strange. Because the warning, if there was a warning, was coming from a quadrant he detested and had always tried to ignore.
Finally, he went to his knees and reached out tentatively. His hand landed on something slick, an impression of indents and elevations describing texture against his skin. His first thought was carved wood, but this surface was too yielding, and he realized he was touching leather that had been embossed. Knowing that didn’t help him understand why he was groping it. Probing fingers found the cold bite of metal, and he traced the outline of a familiar shape: a buckle.
“Is someone there?”
“Um. Hey, Jen. It’s me. Parenathi,” he added, since they had only met earlier that day.
“What are you doing?”
Other than sleepy, he sounded simply curious; he didn’t seem to be upset that he had been roused by his new housemates sneaking around. Parenathi was embarrassed, though. He wasn’t accustomed to feeling a need to be ingratiating – it was an impossible task for a disgrace like him, and he’d surrendered to the inevitable years ago – but he badly wanted this to work. He didn’t think either of them had fully understood until yesterday how incapable they were of taking care of themselves or how close they were standing to disaster. They had found what might be the only person in this city who would give them a place to lay their heads while they figured out how they meant to pay him for this haven, along with a measure of patience, and they needed to cling to his goodwill.
“Sorry. Um. Something woke me up. I thought… I thought I heard someone calling to me.”
“Calling to you. Like in a dream?” He sounded fuddled by sleep. Mildly interested, and still not peeved.
“No, like in real life. It felt like there was someone in the room. Beckoning to me. When I woke up…”
“Do you still hear it?”
“No, but…”
“Now you’re over here.” He heard movement and gathered the man had sat up. “What you went for was Neyathi’s bag.”
It took him a minute to place the name, then he felt a cold weight settle in his stomach’s pit. He sat down rather heavily, Chekbey moving around behind him by touch so he could kneel at his back and hold his shoulders. “Oh.”
There was a short silence, and when next the natu spoke, he was considerably more alert. “I can’t see your face, but it sounds like you’re dismayed.”
“It’s…” He trailed off, wishing he need not explain this in its obnoxious totality to someone they’d just met.
“I looked. Earlier. It’s full of leaves.”
Photos by freestocks.org and Magova and Rakicevic Nenad on Pexels
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