"This is the truth. This world is flawed. For whatever reason, we are meant to suffer, to bleed, to be in pain, and to eventually die. It is not a pleasant truth I tell you. But it is the truth. A greater truth however is this: there is a reason behind it, and there is yet a way to end it. This suffering does not have to go down to your children, or your children's children. If we are resolute in our cause, then all can be made well. The Undying will be born. The Waiting ones will return. This world can be made beautiful again."
The people that could applauded. Jallin hated temple nights, when he was forced to listen to Counselor Dursus rant on and on about what heaven was like and why it could never be here and now.
The temple was not really a temple, not like a real church or temple. It was an old mansion, not too far from where Jallin used to live. The place where they gathered was merely a large empty room, probably the old dance hall or ballroom, maybe the dining room. It was completely unfurnished, with the exception of a table where people could recline and eat. It wasn't really a table though, but a series of empty animal crates lined up end to end and covered with a raig-chewed canvas sail. About twenty people could and did manage to fit in this room, most of them sick with some dire sickness. Jallin didn't like to look at them. After initially staring at them when he was first brought to this place, for pure curiosity, he tried his best to pretend they were not in the room. Unfortunately, now Eja coughed right next to him. The only conciliation was that her coughing broke up Counselor Dursus' sermon so that Jallin could only hear parts of it.
"...Trochaya has a place waiting for us all, a beautiful place, a glorious place, and we shall go there and be free of disease, free of pestilence...."
Probably every night it was the same speech. Jallin wasn't sure. Of course, the audience came and went. Jallin only recognized tonight a few of the faces, some because they were new and only just invited in; others, because their ailments changed them. One kunjel woman suffered from something similar to what his mother must have had, and withered, and looked like he'd lost half his weight in one week. He coughed as though in competition with Eja; he was winning. Occasionally, he dabbed his mouth with a filthy-looking cloth and brought trails of drool and blood with it.
Another kinto-shah came to the temple with rich brown fur, and by now she'd scratched most of it off, leaving patches of angry, reddened skin. Her claws even traced bloody lines across the raw flesh. She sat, almost completely naked, in a corner of the room, sometimes hugging herself and scratching, sometimes pushing her backside against the wall behind her, hoping that the old rough boards would relieve her. Long ago, she'd probably lost her mind to the fur-fire.
Jallin thought the one not far down, who sat closer to Counselor Dursus and who had the Dark Borrower after him, was named Heglon. Jallin couldn't remember now whether this one was a human or a kunjel, not since he lost both ears, one of his hands, and most of his legs and toes. At every place where something fell off of him, he had a blackened patch of skin to mark the loss.
Others moaned and tried to resist picking at scabs or poking at bubbles on their skin. Whether or not any of these afflicted had heard anything Counselor Dursus said was hard to say. Probably not. But they came anyway. Why? That was a harder question to answer. None of these so-called priests ever actually did anything for them, except give them a place to stay and something to eat. They never healed anyone. They prayed for them, and they touched them, and sometimes they even put the occasional balm or oil on their heads, but they never used medicines for them. Week after week, Jallin was forced to come and watch these people die, and take their promises of some hope with them to whatever afterlife Trochaya gave to them.
Aunty Hurga, who was, as yet, still healthy, served the dying and sick. She brought around the table plates of rice, bowls of broth, and loaves of bread. Not a feast, but perhaps more than most could get elsewhere. Jallin would not touch any of the food, no matter how many times Aunty Hurga came around to push the back of his head, or bump it with her hips. He stared at it, but would not eat it.
Eja had already finished her rice by the time Aunty Hurga brought her broth. Once again, in her chipped, stained bowl, Jallin saw a blue swirl in the liquid.
"I don't want it," Eja said, pushing the bowl away. "Jallin, do you want this? I can't eat it?"
"Why not?" Jallin asked, his eyes on the medicine. Ever since Eja started to cough, Jallin had wondered why he wasn't getting medicine like she was.
"It makes my tummy hurt."
"Well, you have to eat it," Jallin said. "It's going to make you well. Eat it."
She groaned, and after the next fit of coughing, she picked up the bowl and sipped at it. After a while, and between bursts of coughing, she finished her bowl and put it down in front of her on the table. Jallin had watched her so long, he'd almost forgotten his own food. When he remembered it again, it was cold; all the more reason he didn't want to eat it.
Aunty Hurga settled herself down between the two of them and, like always, praised the words of Trochaya that just seemed to pour from Counselor Dursus' mouth like pure water from a fountain. She compared him often to the famous fountain in Unity Square, where a member of each race represented in Sarkoshia poured water into a common pool while standing together on pillar in the middle, the waters mingling even though they fell in different directions and away from each other. Jallin had never seen this fountain, only heard of it as it was compared to Counselor Dursus.
"And you know," Aunty Hurga began again for the hundredth time, "he speaks and writes and reads Lel-Kirosha, Upper Gollithian, Morrigari, and Sarkoshian." For some reason, Jallin listened this time when she said it.
"Do you think he'd teach me to read and write? Maybe if I asked him?"
Aunty Hurga gave Jallin a funny look. "Why?" she finally said, biting off a hunk of bread.
"I want to know how to read and write. Why not?"
"What use is it to you to know how to read and write?"
"Well, I want to know what it is you've been giving Eja. She says it makes her stomach hurt."
"I told you, that's not for you. Kir-Tuko makes it for her."
"Well, what's in it? What is it?"
"It's medicine. It's making her better."
"No, it's not. She's coughing as much as ever."
"Don't worry. She'll get better. We're all praying really hard for her here."
Jallin looked around, but he didn't see anyone praying. Some people were escorted by Counselor Yubrin back down to the wine cellar where they were kept. Others, those who could stand on their own, talked to Counselor Dursus. He didn't see a single soul praying for anyone. At least, he didn't see anyone ducking their head over their food like Kir-Tuko did over the bread they shared. That was supposed to be praying, he thought.
They finished eating. Aunty Hurga made Jallin go and help Counselor Dursus with his books and the ceremonial hat he wore. It didn't look all that ceremonial to him, just a three-corner sailor's hat, but he was required to give it due respect anyway and make sure it never touched the ground. Counselor Dursus, aside from telling him to stand up straight and keep the books and the hat off the ground, did not really look at him. He ordered Jallin to go up the staircase and put the objects he'd been given on the table in the first room on the right.
He didn't need reminding, as he'd been asked to do this before, and he really didn't even stop to look around again in the room with all the books in it when he did, except to briefly just admire the collection. He couldn't leave the room without stopping at least a second or two. The books in this room, maybe more than twenty, were worth a fortune. Probably. He knew people in the markets that sold books often sold other good things, and kept guards or putrights around to protect their investments. He wondered which of these books might be the most valuable, or which of them Counselor Dursus might notice was taken last. But as soon as plans started to grow in his mind, he left the room. He didn't want to be suspicious.
When he came back into the eating room, he noticed Counselor Dursus and Counselor Yubrin standing to either side of Eja, both with their hands on her head. Meanwhile, Aunty Hurga stood to the side with the tip of one finger in between her teeth, watching them. Jallin took a step towards them, at least to ask what it was they were doing, but Aunty Hurga took hold of his arm, hard, and pulled him back. He tried to protest, but she put her hand over his mouth and threatened to crack his head if he didn't stay quiet.
"...and let this young child be your implement, oh Great Trochaya, lord over sickness," prayed Counselor Yubrin.
They released Eja, glanced over their shoulders at Jallin, then went to attend the others in the room. Aunty Hurga released Jallin to get ready to go to Tho-Shiko's house. Jallin did not delay at all, and practically heaved his sister to her feet. The two children waited for Aunty Hurga outside.
Eja doubled over and grunted, while Jallin watched the house.
"I need to make," Eja finally said.
"Right now? Can't it wait?" Jallin asked. We'll be back home soon."
"No, now."
"There's nowhere to go now. Just wait. Tho-Shiko's got a place back at home, a nice deep hole to make in."
"No, now!" the child shrieked. Jallin flinched at her insistence and looked around for a suitable place.
The streets were dark here, as no one lit lamps down this way. Most of the people who wandered about at night were up to no good. In the more central areas, closer to the university and the palace and the tall houses of rich people, the streets were lit with sunstones at night, which magically charged themselves during the daytime. No one would waste a sunstone on the broken down old tenements in southern Sarkoshia, the vacated demesnes of people who didn't like to live near kinto-shah for whatever reasons. Probably the fleas.
Somewhere not far enough away, someone coughed.
"Well, where then?" Jallin asked her. "You lead the way."
Now Eja stood up and looked about herself. Where indeed? She took Jallin's hand and led him first to one dark corner and then another, both within sight of the temple's lit doorway. "Too close to the temple," she whined. Then she led him to the dark opening of an alleyway, running under the overhanging second stories of two houses close together. It would have to do. Eja seemed to agree, so they went under the overhanging edges and Jallin watched up and down the alley as Eja tried to relieve herself. He winced at the sounds she made, horrible sounds, and she whined and whimpered as though in terrible pain all the while. The smell finally drove Jallin out of the alleyway.
"Don't leave me," Eja cried out between coughing and squealing.
"I'm right here," Jallin said, unwilling to come back. He could hear her just fine anyway.
Then, suddenly, she screamed. Not the pitiful little moans she'd done before, but a soul-wrenching scream. Jallin ran back into the alleyway and crashed into Eja coming out. He bumped her head with his tooth and they both yelled, first at the pain of the situation, then at each other. Eja screamed 'monster' while Jallin shouted at her 'what?'
Then, Eja pointed into the alley, her finger dancing back and forth in a sliver of moonlight. She screamed 'monster' over and over again, no matter how Jallin tried to get her attention. He looked into the alleyway, but saw nothing. He heard something cough.
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