VIRAN

  Viran cleaned up the dummy and the trough, piling them with other equipment against the inner walls. The temple was loud with busy people, but the livestock stables and the wagon yard adjacent to them were blessedly quiet, until Viran started his work.

  Mirri was right about the oxen. They lowed and complained at being woken up, and the first one started kicking at the stall when he took the hood off, making the others restless.

  He left the new one for last after it kicked him in the thigh and left him hopping for a minute, but he had seen it give him a kind of look he recognized right before, and flooded the leg with mana to brace, so it only really bruised his scales and prevented him from putting its tack on for a minute. The rest of the animals were far more cooperative, even stirred up as they were by the noise.

  "I’m trying to let you see while you walk" he grumbled at the new aurochs, the animal unapologetic and stamping at the ground as he made eye contact.

  He pulled at the lead to turn its head away whenever it lowered its horns at him, not eager to go through the effort of winning that particular contest.

  Or explaining to Dovin why one of the pack animals had a bruised forehead.

  He patted the ungrateful animal after he finished rigging the harness, dodging a halfhearted swipe of horns.

  "Wouldn’t be fair to you for us to trade headbutts." He said, stepping backwards out of range. "I might break your horns."

  "I like a bit of risk in my life. Maybe if we started gentle and worked our way up?" Someone said behind him.

  Viran had to look down a little after he turned, finding a very close snout and a pair of fluttering eyelids that made him wonder if the priestess currently standing very close to him had a nervous tic, until he realized what was going on.

  The sky behind his head was very bright, and she thought he had been talking to her. About locking horns. As a stranger.

  Viran started to apologize, or at least tried to.

  "Hi. I wasn't uhhh, I mean, I didn't mean to—"

  "Sutai." Sutai introduced herself as her eyes stopped flapping. "I'm on my way through with the Venatrix, just stopping by for a while. We're on our way north after this."

  "Oh. I'm from there. Well, from that way. All the way up to where the Short Roads stop." Viran offered, stepping back to lean against the cart.

  Apparently personal space was different, wherever Sutai was from.

  "I've heard that before, but I think I believe it this time," She said. "Do they make them all like that up there?"

  "Like what? The wagon?" Viran asked, making space as she sidled up beside him. "I don't know where Auntie got it. All the oxen got made the same way though. Except this one. He still has his uhhh, circulation."

  Sutai giggled for some reason, hopefully not at Viran stuttering when she started picking at the laces on her armor under her arms as she replied.

  "I'm jealous of him then. I pulled this too tight, and we've been on the road for hours." She explained. "Do you mind if I stretch my wings? I only get a few minutes of freedom from this shell before I'm back outside the walls."

  Viran tried not to forget what he was doing when she peeled the reinforced leather just a few more handspans away from her chest and shook out her wings, tugging at a rumpled underlayer beneath her loosened armor without actually managing to fix it.

  If anything she made it harder to avoid looking as the muscles under her scales rippled, and Viran couldn't look away anywhere without looking like he was examining her wings too.

  She wasn't showing anything private, like her belly, but it was a close thing. Staring would be rude.

  Besides, they didn't know each other. Except names.

  Unless he had forgotten to give her his name.

  He didn't remember.

  "I uhm. Yeah. It's nice down there. Here. Both." Viran stumbled over his words, firmly pointing his chin at the flickering sky to be polite.

  The priestess let out a long sigh with her eyes closed, clearly enjoying the freedom to stretch without worry inside the temple walls as she shrugged more cloth off the sides of her shoulders.

  "Auntie Isha is the one who owns the wagons, right?" She drew his attention back, and Viran gave up on not looking down, instead doing his best to look at her eyes instead of anywhere else while he nodded. "You're Viran then. The Storm Sovereign's nephew."

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  "Yes. That's the closest one now. I don't have titles of my own yet." Viran admitted through a twin pang in both his hearts that wasn't Sutai's fault. "We're just... going to Eastwatch soon."

  "We? You're not on duty, right?" She said, thankfully missing his reaction. "This doesn't look like a uniform to me. Too tight."

  She was busy walking two curved claws up Viran's vest as she spoke instead, and he briefly wished he had worn the clean one that hadn't shrunk a little in the ocean. Auntie said he was supposed to look his best for visitors, especially ones from far away.

  "I am on duty, these are just my clothes. Auntie says it looks better than having me in her colors, especially to people from home." He explained.

  "Yellow was never my color either, but I'm not sure they'll let me stay anyways." Sutai pouted. "The Venatrix is thinking of perching somewhere, and I'm not sure my invitation under her wings is the permanent kind. Which is a shame, I'd love to talk again soon, when you're not so busy."

  Her eyes were back on him by the time she finished.

  "You could ask Auntie." Viran said hopefully, trying not to sound too excited about the idea. "She always talks about wanting more help, and you're working with Sanctum. That's good. Unless they need you somewhere else."

  The pretty priestess from far away cocked her head sideways at him under the sky, and Viran tried not to hold his breath.

  Or look too far down. Just at her eyes, even if she had somehow snuck her other hand halfway around Viran's hip before she stepped away to arms length.

  It was a very distracting sensation against his scales.

  "I suppose everyone needs something to do somewhere. You said you'll be up at Eastwatch as well?" Sutai lilted.

  Viran nodded, searching for something to say over the staccato thrumming of both of his hearts.

  "Dovin says I'm sleeping in the back of the cart on the way there, as long as I don't mind a bed that smells like onions." His mouth settled the matter for him as he remembered the interaction from earlier.

  "Well now I'm almost disappointed I've got a patrol first." Sutai said. "But maybe we could have some fun somewhere that smells nice, if we both make it there?"

  There were games at the mess in Eastwatch. And a lake at the top, if she liked swimming. And they could talk more, when neither of them had anything else to do. It was perfect.

  Viran opened his mouth, and was about to ask her if she knew how to play Buul, when Dovin interrupted the conversation.

  "Oh I'm sure you'll both be plenty busy once the schedules are set. Your handler is waiting at the gates, by the way."

  "Doctore Dovin." Sutai said lightly, bowing at the waist as she spun around, taking her hands off Viran entirely.

  The first word she used sounded a little like High Avarean, but Viran didn't know what it meant, and it wasn't one of the titles Dovin used.

  "Refrain from using that title in this valley. To anyone." Dovin rasped.

  Viran had only heard Dovin's angry voice once before, but shrinking down would have just put them at eye level, so he stayed standing.

  "My mistake." Sutai said brightly, fixing her shoulders after she finished folding her wings. "I only meant you have the bearing. Isha is lucky to have found one without the ego."

  Dovin simply pulled his lips back a little further.

  "I have a great many insults I'd be proud of claiming my own before I'd reach for that title." He said, jerking his head towards the gate. "They're waiting for you."

  Viran mostly kept his eyes above her waist as she sashayed away, and then got distracted waving to Mirri by the gate when he realized where Sutai was going and looked ahead of her.

  Dovin looked tired, when Viran finished waving back to Mirri, and Sutai, who had turned and seen him.

  "I think she was trying to be polite to you." Viran said.

  "Please tell me you at least laid the practice dummy down before you started trying at that one?" Dovin asked, ignoring the attempt.

  "I cleaned up after. Mirri helped with advice." Viran said, and explained what he had done.

  Dovin looked a little less disappointed after that.

  "Good. Now we just need to teach you to recognize when you're being hunted, and one more of my headaches will go away."

  "You think there's still something big enough to eat me this far south?" Viran asked. "Is that why Auntie is having the Venatrix kill the Wyrm?"

  Dovin rolled his eyes.

  "I certainly wouldn't want you going with them right now. You're an unexpected quantity in a powerful position, which may as well be blood in the ocean to some types." Auntie's lieutenant explained. "You need training before that summer match of yours, not distractions."

  Viran looked over to the gate, but they were already gone.

  "Mirri said something about Saah interfering with my Proving match?" He asked.

  "We’ll talk more on that at Eastwatch with fewer prying ears, yeah?" Dovin said.

  Viran nodded slowly, and looked over towards the gate where Mirri had left with the Venatrix, unsure if he was allowed to ask other things.

  "Auntie said the comet was bringing more humans this year, right? How is Mirri taking it?" Viran tried, and then his mouth ran away with his worries. "Can we feed them all? Do we know if they're strong, if their world had mana? Are they scared of us or just confused?"

  Dovin held up a palm and pressed it to the air to slow Viran's questions.

  "She knows, and she's smart enough to know none of them are going to be individually powerful enough to be a threat to her unless their world was incredibly mana-dense, or they land lucky."

  "Land lucky?" Viran asked.

  Mirri didn't need more powerful humans who wanted her dead. Viran needed to know which ones would be dangerous to her. So he could help.

  "Somewhere so mana-dense they'll saturate quickly." Dovin explained. "A few of them might end up strong enough for Wardship late this year, if they catch a drink from the tributaries off the Fang quick enough, but the melt will go fast with this much heat in the sky. Most of it will go to the crops, as usual."

  Viran wasn't very good at his measures, but he knew how water flowed.

  "If the melt is happening all at once, won't that give anyone who does catch it more exposure to the... the particulates from the storms that run off?" He asked. "What if somebody lands in that?"

  Dovin looked like someone had fed him a lemon slice without any sugar on it. Maybe even a whole lemon, rind and all.

  "That would certainly make things complicated for them, if they survived the cold afterwards." Dovin finally said. "Try not to think it too loud, the gods might get new ideas for giving me a headache. Now climb in back, you need to be rested enough to help unload these when we arrive, and I know you haven’t caught a wink. We'll be at the crossroads around noon and I'll wake you there if you're not up."

  Doctor, most commonly associated with the practice of medicine or PhD level academic achievements in modern times, originates from the Latin word 'docere', which meant 'to teach.'

  Next chapter in a few hours!