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Quin

“What kind of rock is that?” he asked, tentatively.

“The rocky kind,” answered Acyn promptly.

Quin blinked. Right…

“I know next to nothing about rocks, these just looked interesting,” Acyn went on.

“These have a far lower concentration of iron than where I’m from. The ground isn’t particularly rich in anything. Look, they’re gray, not red.”

Quin nodded. makes sense.

“Besides that, these are hard–look.” Acyn smashed one of the walls of the cave.

“That indicates we’re deeper underground than I thought. I thought I saw the sky outside, but it must be some kind of projection or simulation, since these rocks don’t form until hundreds of feet underground, and they’re all like that, it isn’t an odd one or two.” He stopped abruptly and almost interrupted himself with, “Sorry. You didn’t ask for a speech. I got carried away. Stop me if that happens, I know it’s annoying.”

He hurled the rock away, as if he were annoyed with it and trying to cover it up in a lighthearted toss. The miss fell short, and he apologized again.

Sahar laughed, and Acyn muttered something, in a language Quin didn’t understand. It sounded more like grumbling than joking, from the tone he used.

Acyn turned and looked at Qatar.

“He’s your brother, yes? Do you have any other siblings?” He asked, leaning idly against the wall and staring at the stream.

Quin looked down the stream, too, seeing another stream in another place, where the sun shone on the waving grasses outside his house.

“Yeah.” he seemed like he wanted to stop, but said after a moment, “Two: little sister Grace–she’s twelve, almost thirteen.  She has Pa’s blonde hair, and Mama’s dark eyes–as green as a fir tree. Then there’s Garrick. He’s twenty-two.”

For a minute he was quiet, then asked quickly. “And you–you’re an only child?”

He wished it back a moment later as he remembered Sahar’s over-sharing of Acyn’s background.  “Er, I mean to say, where did you grow up? What’s it like?”

Just then Niarok started talking  into the darkness. Quin and Acyn both turned toward them, and for an instant Quin wondered if he was feverish like his sister–first the wall, then the shadows. But a moment later a girl stepped out, pale and trembling. Niarok’s sword was pointed at her, as if he expected her to engulf him in flaming arrows.

Yila tottered up to Niarok’s elbow, knives drawn.

It’s just a girl, thought Quin with something like disgust. And a pretty one at that. Quin couldn’t help but notice how small she was, and how scared; he could see that in her face. That look she was wearing was one that felt all too familiar to him. He took a step closer.

She looks like Mama… Only she had had green eyes, instead of brown. But the black hair and smooth white skin looked so much like his mother…

Acyn was saying something, and Quin turned back to look at him, a little reluctantly.

“Sorry. You didn’t ask for a speech. I got carried away. Stop me if that happens, I know it’s annoying.”

I pitched the smaller of the rocks downstream, aiming for the edge of the tunnel.

I missed spectacularly, barely missing the armored man.

“Sorry, that was an accident,” I called.

I heard Sahar’s cascading laugh behind me.

“That’s why I’m never letting you touch one of my knives.”

I grumbled something under my breath and tossed the other rock in the stream with a splash.

I glanced back at Sahar and saw she was talking to a tall, dark-haired man who resembled Quin only very faintly.

“He’s your brother, yes? Do you have any other siblings?” I asked, leaning against the wall and watching the stream cascade by.