Isel turned to Siphos with a dim expression; The tall man could only shrug in reply.
“Can you stay here with her? I’ll go talk with Charine.”
Siphos scratched the back of his head while he turned to Arlea. She didn’t bother to make eye contact with him.
“Yeah, sure.”
Isel lifted himself from the ground and stumbled out of the cave. After a brief pause, he figured he had an idea of where to go. Trawling through the tightly packed roots and sprawling plants once more, he found the familiar sight of the sea. Unchanging, blue, and massive—just as it had been the day before.
He turned his head to where the land protruded into the sea to make a mini peninsula, and sitting on the edge of the landmass was Charine. Her legs were hanging over the ledge and her feet were dipping into the sea. He slowly approached her, and despite the muted sound of his footsteps in the wet soil she turned as he grew near.
He came to her side and sat with his legs crossed. From here he could stare directly into his reflection in the almost still water. The two sat in silence as the water rose and fell slowly, swallowing and revealing Charine’s legs as they lay at rest in the sea.
“Have you thought?”
Her lips turned down as she looked up to the sky. It was always the film of light blue sweeping across the land. “No, I haven’t.”
Isel dragged his finger in the soil. “Well, we have nothing but time, right?”
Charine sighed before looking back to the sea. “I’d prefer not to be focused on one thing for long.”
“So why can’t you decide?”
Isel asked that, but he felt that he already knew where the issue was. It was something that influenced every choice she made, up to the very moment they were in.
“I can’t make a half-hearted choice... I can’t say I’m reluctantly going on with another decision when that path is really just the one that makes me feel the best.”
In between her pauses the shallow sloshing of the waters made itself clear.
She huffed. “I just don’t know.”
To see the person who was at his side since he first opened his eyes like this was jarring. Not even when they lay in the bath together did her voice tremble like it did now. The only time he could recall something similar is when they first exchanged words. The way she dropped her head to try and grapple with the fact that she would never see and never talk with the most important person in her life again. Now, he was next to that again. He looked down at the soil, and found that he had been vigorously scraping at the ground as Charine was speaking. A single question in his head vied for an answer.
How long could he be useless?
He mumbled after some hesitation.“Can I ask you something?”
Charine shook her head. “Do you think I’d say no?”
Isel sighed. “What do you want to do?”
Charine shook her head. “I want to help.”
Charine kicked her legs in the water softly. The sound of the usually calm water splashing brought to mind a much larger splash he caused on his own. He shuddered reminiscing on his involuntary bath in the ocean just the other day. Charine’s voice snapped him out of that thought.
“But it’s not the best thing to do for us, that’s all it comes down to. I know you understand that.”
He didn’t know how to continue; Charine carried on. “And I also know that at the end of the day I’m just a hypocrite.”
She took a deep breath and stilled her legs in the water. “It makes me wonder how long I can continue like this.”
The wind along the shore billowed just as calmly as it had the days before. The incessant rising and receding of the sealine was just the same as well. Nothing indicated that today was different than yesterday—that the night had come and gone. He let himself steep in that fact, and he wished he could brew within that feeling more, But his mouth moved again as his thoughts came to surface; things he decided to ignore ever since coming to shelter, ever since he spoke with her in the bath, and even since he woke up for the first time.
“You know, I’ve always wondered what you saw in those waters, in Lesvin.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
He looked out into the sea. It seemed to press up against the sky at the line of the horizon, the endless sea of Aeshval that will always remain, or at the very least give the impression of so.
Charine rested her head on her arm with a sigh. “What do you mean?”
“What was the ocean like? Was it like it is here?”
She responded after a pause. “No. But I never paid attention to that ocean.”
Hesitation started to seep back into Charine’s words, but her tone began to stabilize into her typical consistent coolness.
“All I saw was a path. Even if I thought it wasn’t for a reason, I saw an avenue to move forward. I left without ever observing the waters.”
A way to lead and live on. When you cannot muster the strength to pick up your feet, walk the path. It was something Isel adopted from the very second he opened his eyes as well. Even Charine herself had said something along the lines of it before to him as advice. But the way she said it now seemed different.
Isel watched the water pensively. “I don’t think I’m different from you.”
“Why do you say that?”
He could pretend to not have the answer, but he knew that he really just held it close to his chest.
“All I really know is… running away.”
Charine turned to him, but her eyes were still fixed towards the ground. They followed the trails in the soil he had been carving since sitting before he spoke with another exhale. “Theres always a question that I ask myself by accident. I always found that it’s… easier for me to live if I ignore it. So I ran. It’s hard to ask myself what I’m really doing here.”
Charine nodded slowly with a nervous chuckle. “I think everyone does it to some extent. You’d think there would be more people who actually knew what they were doing, right?”
He could only nod along. What he said was all he was able to present. It was unimpressive and incomplete. It was something that he avoided sharing or thinking about altogether because it would be harder. All because it would sow fear deep within their hearts. Another silence passed as they both turned back to face the sea. The tinge of salinity among the earthy accent of the forest felt stronger than usual.
Charine spoke. “Thank you for coming to me.”
“It’s the least I can do for you, really.”
A small smile crept on her face. “You don’t need to act humble, but if you want to refuse so much I’ll return the favor instead.”
Isel faced her inquisitively, but she remained gazing at the sea. “You seem to love this view.”
Isel looked once more at the sea. He nodded. “Yeah, it’s nice.”
“You asked me if I saw the water in Lesvin. Well, there was never one time I looked to see the waves. Instead it was a path I saw, that road that allowed me to keep walking.”
Isel nodded as she continued.
“The water can be a path, too. But I couldn’t take that path. I couldn’t bring myself to see anything else in life but what I had to do live. But here, we have so much time to choose, so many places to go. We aren’t thrashed by rough waves or forced to do things by forces we can control.”
Staring into the sea, he could only bear a weak exhale. “I don’t know what to choose.”
“Looking at that water and swimming in it are two different things. It’s true that we could stay in that cave for the rest of our lives, only to walk out and stare at the beautiful sea. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, actually. I could give up life in Manichae right now, and I doubt they’d look for me.”
She paused briefly and ran her hand through her hair. With another deep exhale she continued. “I was disingenuous before. I told you to focus on Manichae because it's… easier to have a simple goal. But if you want to make your own choice, you need to move on your own.”
The two stood staring at the still sea that presented itself to them. Isel brought his knees up to his chin and rested it on them.
“It's beautiful.”
“Mhm.”
“I wish that I could stay here forever.”
Charine nodded. “Don’t become mired in tedium.”
then, with a sigh, she continued.” If you ever do, I’ll try to show you a path. Remember? You don’t need some kind of grandiose destination, and there’s nothing wrong with waiting for your grand idea, but at the least just… keep moving.”
Isel let out a quick exhale before rising. “I came out here to try and help you, you know?”
Charine turned and smiled softly. “Everyone needs help, don’t you know?”
He turned to her at the same time and scratched the back of his head. Perhaps the lighting from the water brought out some of her features he never noticed before, but his inner monologue ever so briefly stuttered. He shrugged off the thought. “So, do you still need time?”
She faced the sea once more. “…No, if she wants to go she can join us. But I do think I’ll stay here for a little longer.”
He steadied himself and walked away from the peninsula without another word. His back was towards the beautiful sea of Aeshval, but that sea will always remain beautiful, and that sea will always remain still. He knew that, ever since he laid his eyes upon the endless horizon. Leaving the sight, he trudged through the thicket of the forest only to come upon an odd happening.
Arlea was outside the cave, sitting in an upwards fetal position in front of a bush. Sitting with his legs crossed on the floor beside her was Siphos. The two sat in silence as Arlea wistfully gazed at the flowers between the tightly packed branches of the bushel. Siphos patiently sat, staring at the same flowers as her.
It had to have been some sort of dream. Siphos was unusually quiet, and Arlea moved more in the past few seconds than he had seen her do in the last day.
She stood up slowly with an odd and thorough grace before crouching down once again near another plant. This sight was almost too much to take in, and Isel stumbled through the remaining plants, to which the two nature-watchers casually glanced towards the sounds of his fumbling.
Siphos raised an eyebrow. “So? Did you get a verdict?”
Arlea turned to stare at a white flower budding on a tree branch while Isel crawled back up to his feet.
“We’ll take her to Manichae.”
“You managed to convince her?”
Isel shrugged. “She convinced herself.”
Siphos raised an eyebrow. “Well, as long as we have an answer. You should eat your fill; we already have.” He gestured faintly towards Alrea.
Isel pouted. “It looks like you can keep watch well.”
“Huh? Keep watch of what? Someone looking at a flower?”
Isel kicked up some soil almost involuntarily. “Yeah, actually. I had some trouble with it.”
“Hm, that’s sad.”
Isel frowned. “That’s not sad, she's just stubborn.”
Arlea whispered in direct response. “I’m not deaf, sir. But yes, perhaps ‘stubborn’ is correct.” She flicked a petal of a wilting flower.
Siphos turned to Isel with a mocking smile. He sighed and walked to the cave to eat what remained. Charine and Siphos had collected an assortment of wild vegetation—which he assumed Siphos had confirmed the safety of—and the cooked meat of animals he couldn’t identify. Isel took half the portion of the remaining food as he hadn’t seen Charine eat anything yet and sat his back on the cave, looking outside while eating.
Arlea had moved to stare at a different flower. From here, he realized she still didn’t have any footwear. She was still only in the ragged t-shirt and short pants. Siphos had started to pace the area just before the cave, occasionally checking to see which plant Arlea decided to gaze at in the current moment. She seemed as if she could do it forever. The way she stared at those flowers was confusing. All of that care seemed so misplaced. from which lens did she see the world? What does she see in front of her? But he found that he couldn’t bring himself to sit up and ask her. So he only chewed on the relatively fresh meat before he dozed off.
