*** The Giant ***

I had been swimming in darkness for a while now. I don't know how long it had been. The last thing I remembered before everything went black was a searing pain tearing across my face.

It was almost like I was dreaming, with vague images and feelings flowing through my mind. None of them made sense.

I saw an island. On top of that island was a tree so large that it eclipsed the sun. It wasn't a normal tree either. Its trunk was made of twisting curling vines that wrapped around each other and stacked up into the sky. Those same vines pierced down into the Earth like roots. I remember hearing one of the doctors talk about roots, how they suck things up out of the ground in order for the plant to feed.

These roots were different.

They weren't taking things in. They were spreading them out. They created paths and tunnels beneath the ground spreading out as far as the edges of the world. But at the center of it all they joined together in a single twisted knot.

I hadn’t had a dream in so long that it was hard for me to say for sure, but something about it didn't feel right. It wasn't like I was seeing the tree. It was more like I was listening to someone else tell a story that wasn't meant for me. Like I just so happened to overhear it being told and instead of words, they were speaking in images.

That was the most vivid dream, but not the only one. The others were like scattered stories, the images that they provided faint and fluid. Like I was catching snip-its of other peoples’ distant memories. The odd part was that the people living those lives weren't human. They were something else.

They were too small and their faces didn't look right. I kept trying to place where I'd seen them before, but it never did any good. In that dark void, as soon as it felt like I was regaining my senses I'd be swept up again and pushed under like a wave crashing over me.

I had no idea how long it had been. It could have been seconds, it could have been years. It was all the same to me.

Then I heard voices.

They were distant and faint but they felt real, not like the dreams that came before them. I couldn't understand what they were saying but I knew that if I followed them I could find my way out. Sure enough, as I focused on them and willed myself onword, they became louder and clearer. A gentle light began to fill the void, warming me like sun on my face. That warmth grew and became more intense. Soon it was a searing pain above my eye, just like I had felt when this all started.

Then I woke up.

My whole body ached, not just my head. A dull pain throbbed through my limbs. My vision was blurry, but as I blinked and looked around things became more clear and I was able to take in my surroundings. I was in a musty room. The walls are made of stone and as I looked up I saw thatched-roof with wooden supports.

I was laying on my back looking straight up, but I could feel that my legs were bent awkwardly.

I tried to extend them but the dull throbbing became a fire beneath my skin. I pushed through the pain and my legs moved but only an inch or so. I craned my neck upwards to look down at what they had hit. It was the base of a bed, but one far too small for me which must be why my body was twisted up.

The rest of the room was cluttered and filled with all sorts of things I didn't recognize. There's a single door and a single window, although the window was small and high up, near the roof. I could feel a frigid Breeze coming in through it.

And then I heard the voices again.

They were coming from the opposite side of the door. Even though I could hear them clearly now I still couldn't understand. It must have been another language.

Where was I?

I tried to force memories of where I had been and what I had been doing back to me but they weren't there. How did I end up in this place?

I didn't have time. One of the voices was getting closer and I heard the footsteps approaching the door. The window was too high. I only had one way out and it was through that door. I rolled myself toward the edge of the bed, ignoring every burning nerve as they screamed out in defiance. I put my feet on the ground and tried to stand, but immediately collapsed to one knee. My legs refused to do anymore than that.

Alright, guess we're doing this from the ground then.

Using all four limbs I half crawled, half pulled myself toward the door. The hinges were on the right. I pulled myself over next to the door so I’d be behind it when it opened. The footsteps we're getting closer. I looked around for anything I could use to fight. There were wooden planks leaned up against the wall next to me. They were small, but I could tell just from looking at them that they would be too heavy for me to swing properly right now, but one of them was splintered in half.

I picked it up and held it close to my chest as I braced against the wall and used it to pull myself to my feet.

The door began to open.

“[sɪlˈɡʊlʒ mɑˈlʊnˌmu ˈdɛvɹɑb ˈsɑzɑ]”

A small creature barely more than waist height pushed through the door and spoke out into the room. It probably didn't speak English, but information is invaluable. I pushed myself forward off of the wall, stumbling and falling to my knee once again, but I managed to get just far enough. I grabbed the creature’s wrist to make sure it couldn't do anything and wrapped my other arm around its shoulder, pressing the shard of wood into its throat.

"Who are you and where am I? "

My throat felt like sandpaper trying to force those words out.

It probably wouldn't understand, but on the off-chance it did, now was the time to ask. Hopefully it would give up an answer before it tried to sound an alarm. Even in my weakened state, this creature was so small it would only take one quick flick of my wrist and I could move on, but I’d prefer to at least know something before I left. Either way, I needed to get out of there.

I needed to get home.

Then I heard the sound of wood bouncing off the floor.

What was that? Had I dropped my weapon?

Darkness began to creep in around the edges of my vision and I quickly lost feeling in the rest of my body.

I was thrown back into the void.

*** Mili ***

"What," was all I was able to say as I felt a huge weight crash into me from behind.

I expected some kind of answer but instead the weight just grew heavier. The sharp object pressed into my neck fell to the floor with a clatter. The giant was slumped over my shoulder, their full body weight pressing down into me.

"Hey, giant? Are you alright," I hissed through my teeth as I strained to hold their body up. They were heavy but I was just able to... Nope. My knee started to give out. I did my best to gently guide them to the floor, but all I really managed to do was cushion their fall with my body.

And now I can't breathe.

"Guisen!"

I was able to use the last of the air in my lungs to call out and a moment later, him and Makat came running in.

“Are you okay? What the heck happened,” Guisen started frantically asking as he rolled their massive body off of me. I gasped as air started flowing back into my lungs.

“They were awake,” I answered enthusiastically, immediately pulling myself up to check their vitals. Heart rate was elevated from what it had been for the last month, but it seemed to be slowing down again. Breathing was the same. This was good.

“They were trying to say something, but they passed out before I could figure out what it was. I’m going to try and treat them and see if I can get them back up,” I continued as I worked on them. “Help me get them back up on the bed.”

I knelt down to start pulling at their shoulder, but realized that Guisen wasn’t helping. He was standing there looking at me with a scowl.

“What were they doing on top of you?”

“When I came in, they were out of the bed. They must have been hiding behind the door, because they fell onto me from behind just after I closed it.”

“And what is this doing here,” he asked, kicking a splintered piece of wood on the ground, right where they had collapsed. I remembered the sharp sensation against my throat…

“I don’t know,” I lied. “They must have knocked some stuff around when they got out of bed.”

He didn’t buy it.

“Mili, did they attack you?”

“I think they were just scared and confused. They’ve been out for a month and they woke up in a new place. You’d probably lash out if the same thing happened to you. I’m sure they didn’t mean anything by it.”

He still didn’t look convinced.

“Mili, get away from that thing until we can figure this out,” he said sternly, stepping forward to grab me and pull me away.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I snapped at him, slapping away his hand and stepping in front of the giant.

He looked surprised. I probably had a similar look on my face.

Me and Guisen both stood stock still staring at each other.

“I’m sorry…” I said sheepishly, finally breaking the awkward silence. He looked down at me with a blank expression and didn’t say anything. He just nodded once and turned to leave.

That was unusual. It was rare to see him this sheepish. Had I upset him that much?

I glanced behind him as he left at Makat, who was looking on with a petrified look. I spoke Ang Perelan and even I wasn’t sure how to feel about what had happened, so I have no clue what he thought was going on.

“I’m sorry Makat. Don’t worry, everything is fine. Why don’t you go back into the other room with him and help clean up dinner,” I said to him in Mag’Kele, trying to be as reassuring as possible.

He looked like he wanted to say something, but ended up deciding against it, quickly turning and darting out of the room.

I was left alone with the giant who was still laying on the ground.

Now I’d have to get them up on the bed without help. I moved over to start and my foot accidentally kicked the shard of wood on the ground, bringing back the original concern to mind. Guisen was right about being careful. I kicked it away into the corner and got to work.

The giant was heavy. I guess that’s a little bit redundant, but I feel it needed to be said after all the work I put in. Putting my full body into it, I was able to slowly drag them, inches at a time, back over to the bed. Once they were there, I sat them upright and got up onto the bed to hoist their torso on as well. Then I moved each leg up individually and they were back on the musty cushion.

Finally, completely out of breath from the ordeal, I went over to the chair next to the bed and sat down to recover and ponder what to do next, but the only thing I could think about was what just happened with Guisen.

I don’t know why I did that.

Even as I said it, I knew that he was probably right to be cautious, but something about what he said set me off. No, it wasn’t just that. It was the way he said it too.

“Come on Mili. You’ve got to keep going until you can figure this out,” dad’s words rang in the back of my mind with the exact same stern tone of voice. He had said something along those lines to me so often over the last decade, egging me on to push myself just a little bit farther. It was just the two of us figuring out how to use my powers, so everything I had ever learned I had taught myself. The main limiting factor for what I could do was my own determination and sometimes he had to help me push past that.

It had nothing to do with what was happening right now, so why was I suddenly remembering it.

Was it just that I missed him…?

Tears started to well up in my eyes.

“Nope.”

I said, quickly clapping my cheeks and standing back up. There was work to do. I didn’t have time to feel sorry for myself.

“So then, Mr. Giant. What do you need to get you back on your feet,” I asked as I moved over to them and raised my hands, although they didn’t respond. The gentle glow appeared between us and their soul came into clear vision.

When I first saw it, their soul was mottled gray and black,and while the colors were still broadly the same, as they had gotten better there were subtle notes of a cool blue that started to shine through. As I looked on now, the blue had become just as prominent as the other two, pulsing and shifting beneath them. It must have been because they had finally broken through a threshold in their recovery.

This was good.

When I first started treating them, I honestly had no clue what I was doing. They were so different from everybody else I had healed before that I had to completely relearn how to treat them, but souls were nothing if not responsive. If you made a little change, it could cause massive shifts in the flow of its energy and once I was able to figure out how those flows correlated to their body, I was able to come up with treatments that worked specifically for them.

Surprisingly, the most effective technique was actually massaging it back into shape from the inside out. I was incredibly hesitant to try it after I had seen what being too direct with a soul could do, but everything was telling me that was the answer, so eventually I had to try and it worked like a charm.

It didn’t take me long after that to get their body as fixed up as I could do on my own, but they still didn’t wake up. I started to think that I had done something wrong since they were so unique, but then I thought about Paran’s condition and how it felt to treat it.

Sure enough, when I checked for something like that I felt a dwindling strength at the very center, where I was focusing my energy. A little bit of manipulation and it was starting to regain its strength. It even started recovering on its own after a certain amount of time. I must have gotten to them just as they were on the very brink of death.

Now, as I started to work on them, their soul was giving off the gentle thrums of a healthy body, so they were almost certainly completely recovered.

“Come on buddy, just a little bit further,” I strained to say as I felt the familiar sweat beginning to build up on my brow. I wouldn’t be able to keep it up much-

Their eyes shot open.

“Hah,” I let out a triumphant little cry as I let the light drop and felt the wave of relief rush over me, but it didn’t last long. The giant immediately started looking around frantically and started trying to sit up.

“Whoa, whoa. Don’t move around too much. You’ll tire yourself out just like before,” I said, starting to move forward and push them back down before I remembered the sharp sensation against my neck and decided to stay back, trying to urge them down from a distance. I tried speaking in Mag’Kele since they didn’t seem to respond to Ang Perelan before. If they did understand, they didn’t listen and instead struggled to swing their legs off of the bed and onto the ground.

They tried to stand, but their legs immediately started to shake. Without thinking, I stepped forward.

I wanted to catch them and guide them back down to the bed, but as I reached my hand forward, they struck out, knocking it away. It was barely a flick of their wrist, but it was forceful enough that it sent me staggering backward. I knew they were big, but they could barely stand. How could they still be that strong?

I stood in shock as they fell, but when they slammed down on their face and started to groan I was able to move again.

“This is why I said you should stay still. You’re gonna get hurt unless you settle down. Here,” I continued in Mag’Kele as I bent down to help them roll over. I could feel them tense up as I started pulling on their shoulder, but after a moment they just groaned and went with it, sitting up against the bed with my help.

“Let me see your face,” I kept speaking, more to myself than to them as I reached up to make sure they hadn’t hurt themselves in the fall. Once again, they pulled away from my hands as I moved, so this time I stopped and sat back for a second. I put my hands up, trying my best to show that I was trying to help.

“Look, I can tell you’re scared and worried, but I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to check your face,” I said, gesturing up to my own nose and down at the ground where they had fallen. They just kept their eyes locked on mine with unsettling stability considering their condition. Based on the intensity of their gaze, you’d hardly think they were too weak to stand.

I felt like they might lash out at any second if I showed even a split second of weakness, so I tried my best to match their stare once I finished gesturing. I couldn’t have been intimidating at all, but after a moment of staring each other down, they broke and did a quick flick of their head, like they were signalling that it was okay for me to check.

The thought that it could be a trap only briefly crossed my mind.

“Thank you,” I said with more snark than was really necessary as I sat forward. A moment later after feeling at their nose, cheeks, and brow I was satisfied that nothing was wrong. I couldn’t feel any breaks and they didn’t even wince at my prodding, so it couldn’t have hurt them that bad, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Alright, looks fine. Now, let's get you back up into bed and see if we can figure out what to do with you.”

It took a little more coaxing, but it was far easier to get them up into the bed with their assistance, and they seemed content to go with it at that point. Whatever sense of resistance they were putting up at first was gone, or at least diminished. They still flinched away from my hands as I reached out to them, but they at least let me help.

“So…” I started to say once they were all settled. I had waited so long for them to wake up that I wanted to get straight into figuring out what had happened with them and Nephern out in the Helefiran, but now that I knew we couldn’t understand each other, that became far more difficult. Where to start?

“/hu ɑɹ ju and wɛɹ am aɪ/,” they said, turning their head to look up at me.

I guess they were probably thinking the same thing as me, but I had no clue what they were trying to say.

“Yeah, sorry. I have no clue what that was,” I said, trying to make my meaning clear with my hands. They sighed and started gesturing too, so I guess I got my point across. They kept speaking, repeating what they had said before, as they pointed at me and then around the room.

I guess I didn’t need to specifically understand in the first place now that I thought about it. That seemed like an obvious question when you just woke up after a month.

“Where am I?”

The problem was, how did I try and explain it?

“You’re in Anghelen. Does that sound familiar,” I asked, emphasizing Anghelen, but they just kept looking on in confusion.

“The Empire? Do you know where that is?”

Still nothing.

I tried again, saying the Empire’s name in Mag’Kele. That also got no sign of recognition.

That was weird. Even I didn’t know super specific places in the Empire, so it’s not that unusual for them to not know Anghelen, but everyone I had ever met was at least aware of the Empire.

“Do you know the Helefiran?”

Once again, nothing.

How did they not even know about the place where I found them? Where did they come from? I had even more questions than I started with but I still had no way to ask.

It went on like that for a while with me trying to explain where we were and how I had found them, but we had no common point of reference that without physically showing them what I was talking about we wouldn’t make any real progress. Still, I spent so long trying to speak with them that darkness slowly started to fill the room as the sun set and the only light left was the faint glimmer of the Sun Tree’s buds peaking over the top of Fort Heferal.

It was hard to tell since they didn’t speak much and their face was hard to read, but it seemed like they were also getting more and more frustrated as the conversation wore on so at least I wasn’t the only one.

No progress was made by the time the giant started to drift off. I got worried at first as they started having trouble keeping their eyes open, but quickly flicking on my powers showed that nothing was particularly wrong with them as far as I could tell. They must have just been tired so I just let them sleep after that. The sudden flash of light did make their eyes snap back open though. They stared me down while I was using it and kept staring even after I let it drop

After that I realized that I had gotten so comfortable using my powers here in this house that I didn’t even think about whether I should hide them from the giant. I guess it was too late for that now. I probably couldn’t have kept it up anyway since they were still in such bad condition and needed treatment, but now I had lost that option.

I mean, if they hadn’t even heard of the Empire, then what are the chances that they would turn me in. It should be fine...

They were still staring at me. I guess I should just call it a night.

“Good night Giant. I guess we can keep trying this tomorrow. Who knows? Maybe soon you’ll be able to walk again and I can show you around. Maybe that will be enough to get somewhere,” I said with an exasperated sigh as I stood to leave the room. I could feel their piercing gaze still on me the entire time.

I closed the door quietly behind me and stepped out into the main room of Guisen’s house which was lit slightly better than the side room where the giant was staying because of the gentle fire glowing in the hearth. Next to it were the makeshift beds where me, Kene, and Makat had been staying for the past month. They were both curled up on one and wrapped in thick fur blankets. At this point, Guisen and Paran were probably both asleep in their own room too.

I yawned as I felt the weight of the day pull me toward my own open bed, but stopped as the memory of slapping Guisen flickered through my mind on repeat.

Nope. Still not ready to deal with that yet.

Kelaren was probably also asleep at this point, but I had taken to using a bed at the clinic whenever I had to. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I let myself in. Just so long as I wasn’t here in the morning when Guisen woke up.

Plus I could pick her brain about how to handle the giant. It was perfect.

I picked up my thick fur cloak from the pile near the door and quietly opened the door, slipping out into the cold night air.

“Are you going somewhere Mili?”

I jumped and turned to see Guisen sitting in a rocking chair on the edge of the wooden porch, wrapped up in a blanket of his own.

Fuck.

“Oh hey Guisen. I didn’t expect you to be out here…” I chuckled awkwardly, trying to edge my way over to the edge of the porch.

“Yeah. I didn’t expect to be either…”

The silence hung heavy between us.

“I was just thinking about heading over to the clinic to talk with Kelaren about something. I’ll probably just sleep there once it’s all sorted out so don’t worry about waiting up for me,” I said, quickly turning and stepping off into the darkness before I got pulled back by his voice.

“Me and Paran had a son, you know?”

I stopped more out of curiosity and surprise at what he had said than a desire to talk with him. I still felt the awkward energy in the air enough that I probably would have ignored him and kept walking if he had said almost anything else.

“What?”

“We had a son. Or I guess you could say we might still have one, although we haven't seen him in over twenty years.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He was conscripted into the Imperial Army.”

That didn’t really answer my question, and my silence must have said that much. He continued.

“You’re not from the Empire, so I guess that wouldn’t mean much to you… When the Light selects you for the Imperial Army, something weird happens. It’s like you become an entirely different person. He was always such a kind boy and never really had an interest in fighting or the military at all. But the moment that Sun Lord Guinang announced that some of the Anghelen children had been chosen, it was like he froze over. He immediately started marching home and packing, barely listening to anything we said or did.”

His voice cracked in that last sentence.

“We wanted him to turn it down. Once you enter the Army, you serve until you die. It becomes your life and you’re expected to abandon every other aspect of it. No breaks, no contact with your family, nothing. Your family isn’t even notified if you end up dying. It’s like you disappear off of the face of the world the moment you leave.”

“Most people think it’s an honor to serve the Light like that, but I never gave two shits about the Light, neither did Paran, and until the announcement neither did Thalam. I figured he still felt that way, so I tried convincing him to just leave. Abandon it and become a dark trader. It would hurt to see him disgraced like that, but at least we’d be able to see him when he came back into town. He refused to listen. I tried to grab him. He hit me…”

Oh… That’s where this was going…

“He actually did a number on me,” he chuckled a little bit to try and relieve the tension but his voice cracked again. “Knocked me right out. By the time I was back up, he had left and that was that.”

“Guisen, you don’t have to-”

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about what happened earlier. I hadn’t realized it until that moment, but you actually remind me a lot of Thalam. It’s been nice having you around recently and I don’t want to see that change. I’m sure you had your own reasons for acting the way you did, but I need you to understand that I only wanted to keep you, and everyone else in the house, safe. We don’t know what that creature is, what it wants, or what it is capable of. We can’t just-”

“I can’t just not help them,” I burst out, the same red hot frustration I had felt earlier welling up as he spoke. “I know they might be dangerous, but they need help right now. They are alone in a new place, unable to even walk. If they were one of the people that had attacked us, that would be one thing, but they haven’t done anything against us other than be hurt and scared.”

“I’m not asking you to not help, I’m just saying that you should-”

“What? Wait? Sit around wondering about all of the things that might go wrong while someone lies on the ground, potentially dying in front of me?”

There were the tears. Warmth rolled down my face. The image of dad lying still in the bed of our wagon flickered through my mind. I tried shoving it back to the back of my mind like I had every time before, but all that I could focus on was the burning frustration in my chest. The anger. The disappointment in myself.

“I’m not going to make that mistake again. If that giant in there kills me, then so be it, so long as I don’t have to think- think about-”

The words caught in my mouth as I started to choke on them. The burning warmth in my chest that was fueling my words kept coming though, turning into sobs that wracked my body as I dropped to the ground.

Thoughts and images flashed through my mind as I tried to keep everything straight in my mind but I had completely lost my sense of self. I was just memories. Memories of failure - of bitter disappointment.

Dad just laying there. Natalar and Mak’tang, Makat’s parents, desperately fighting behind us as I ran. Milur, Kethmi’s partner, his body twisting and blackening as the infection tore through him. Nephern who probably only passed moments before I got there, dead on the ground with Kene and the giant. Sterthen, completely gone.

Thalam hitting Guisen.

Suddenly, the images shifted. They weren’t of my own memories anymore. I was seeing the fight that Guisen had just told me about through his eyes, just as vividly as if I was him. The feeling of Thalam’s rough hewn shirt as I grabbed it in a balled fist and began to pull. The burning in my throat as I screamed at him to listen to me. The weight of the impact.

What was happening?

I suddenly became aware of the warmth and pressure all around me. I opened my eyes and came back to my senses.

I was on my knees on the ground with Guisen’s blanket wrapped completely around me and him hugging me tight around that. I could see him clearly, even though it was night. Was there a fire nearby?

No…

I looked down and saw that my whole body was giving off a faint light, just like it did when I used my powers. Had I lost control? Had I-?

“Guisen! Are you okay?” I cried out and looked up at him. He looked down in surprise, tears of his own streaking down his cheeks.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you okay? What was all of that? You started glowing, so I tried to cover you up before someone saw, but when I touched you I started seeing all of these horrible things.”

Does that mean…?

“Did you see Nephern on the ground with Kene and the giant?”

He looked down at me with a grave seriousness.

“I did… How did you know that?”

I couldn’t find the words to express myself. I just lurched up and wrapped my arms around his neck, still sniffing back tears, but now able to force the memories out of my mind once again.

I had figured out how I could speak with the giant.