Page 104 of Guiding Reason

Rose snorted and held the curtain to the house open for Col and Avan.

“Then maybe you won’t have time to finish before Anandas returns to me. That would be best.”

While Rose went about making tea, Avan pointed at Col’s hands. “Wash, ma?”

“Oh. Yes, please.”

Col went to the room with the sink and washing facilities. During their first stay, everything there had struck him as painfully rudimentary but functional at the same time. While being in here for the first time, he’d had a memory of sitting in a large metal tub when he was a child, the water warm, and some floating toy next to him.My life before I became a Conduit.

Avan followed as if the Hound wasn’t sure Col was capable of washing his own hands, going so far as to hold out the wash paste to Col.

“Are you a healer like Anandas?” Col asked.

Avan bit his bottom lip and then gave a slow nod. He hummed but tugged on his left ear.

“Yes, I heal, but—”

He glanced at the door and opened it to say something to Rose, who stuck his head in while Col was drying his hands.

“Avan is learning to become a healer, but he hasn’t gotten rings for assisting during a birth or helping someone who wishes it die. He doesn’t want to pretend he is something he isn’t.”

“Uh, okay. Healer in training then.”

That didn’t seem to help with Rose’s sour mood. “Yes, but it’s all really important for a Darkling. Healers are well-regarded and respected, and you can’t pretend you know how to treat a life when you haven’t help start or end it.” He glanced at the young Hound. “I’ve seen him boss people around though, so he’ll make a good healer.”

Col huffed. “Our physicians are like that too.”

Rose crossed his arms. “Then why are you running around with the speedling while recovering from a concussion, ma?”

Avan interjected something in Houndish, and Rose responded.

“What?”

“Avan agrees with me that with a concussion, you should be resting, and your physicians should have made it so. Come, the tea is ready. And I want that tale of yours.”

Col followed Rose back to the hearth he’d sat down at not too long ago, a strange familiarity that wasn’t at all uncomfortable settling in him. He was handed a cup of the same tea they had shared before.

Avan smiled at him. “Drink. Taste is good.”

Col nodded. “Avan, you have an unusual name.”

Avan looked at Rose, who translated, clarifying the wordunusual.

“Not unusual,” Avan began, but then shifted to Houndish.

“He says it’s a family name on that side of the family, but says it’s funny you ask, because it has a story going back to before the city dwellers were city dwellers.”

Rose and Avan had a bit of an exchange then that had Rose roll his eyes. Col listened and wished he knew the Houndish tongue, at least enough of it to know what was happening. The only thing he could glean was that Rose was annoyed, maybe something to do with being anxious about Anandas being out to heal. In contrast, Avan spoke calmly and smiled a lot at the human with the oddly colored hair.

Rose cleared his throat. “This young healer says, because of his royal standing, I should tell you the tale of his name first even if I want to hear what happened with you. He’s just like Anandas, always in the right and not budging.”

Avan spoke and paused.

“Before there were walls and the city dwellers became what they are now, Darklings sought trade with them. Love had already fallen here and there between the two, and on occasion, the humans traveled Darkling paths, so it made sense to build and deepen relationships.”

Avan gave more of his tale, settling into a rhythm with him talking and Rose translating.

“Then, there was discord among the humans. They had disagreements among one another and fought. Their leader—not a king like the Darklings have them but a man who thrived on the vastness of his power—wanted nothing to do with Darklings, hating them with a passion grounded in nothing.