12
Vinnie

Oh no… What’s Orias doing here?

Vinnie didn’t know how long he had been in the domain, but he was sure it wasn’t long enough for someone to come looking for him. And now Orias just saw him waltzing out like he owned the place.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I was looking for you,” Orias said. He scratched the back of his neck. “I worried I may have upset you.”

“Oh.” Admittedly, Vinnie had completely forgotten what Orias had said to him. Must have been about the rock. He shot finger-guns towards Orias. “Thanks.”

Vinnie waited for him to say something about the domain behind him, but Orias’ attention was everywhere else but him, flickering to whatever was capturing his attention on the bluff. He couldn’t help but to look up in response, but he was too close to the cliff side to see anything. For all he knew, maybe Orias saw a ghost. Or a deity— he seemed plenty scared of them.

“So, uh, should we get going?” He didn’t give Orias any time to respond as he began walking back towards the house. At the sudden movement, “the little one” born from Atropos’ wine glass poked its head out from Vinnie’s poncho, but he pushed it back in before Orias had the chance to see it.

Orias didn’t protest, falling in line beside him with haste.

Neither immediately attempted to make conversation as they walked back. Vinnie’s head was more preoccupied with running through possible excuses than with talking.

I could tell him I was exploring. It wasn’t a lie, but then he might ask about what he found, and he didn’t think it was a good idea to talk about Atropos.

Maybe just say I was looking around the building. But Orias clearly saw him come out the front door, and he wasn’t that good of a liar.

They passed the painted rock, same as it ever was.

“It’s a neat little spot,” Vinnie began. “The rock, I mean. Nice view of the strait from the top of it.”

“Good. I’m glad you liked it.” He kept his focused squarely in front of him.

Vinnie could have just left it there, but now the silence felt suffocating. He needed to hear one of them talk.

“It was nice of you to come looking for me.”

Orias just gave him an affirming hum, still refusing to look at Vinnie. It was like Orias was trapped in his own little world.

“Y’know, I was surprised to see that there was a domain here.” What are you doing?! he berated himself, yet he felt compelled to continue. “I don’t remember you saying anything about it.”

“Yes, well, it slipped my mind.”

Slipped your mind?! That’s a pretty big thing to forget! With how Orias fidgeted at the mere mention of a deity, he found it hard to believe that he would forget that he lived right next to one. And it looked identical to the one in Janahad. Does that not spark concern to you?

He’s lying, a part of him believed.

“Is everything alright?”

Only then did Orias look him in the eye.

“Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“It’s just…” You’re acting as suspicious as I am, Vinnie thought. “It looks like you have something on your mind.”

“Like I said, I was just worried.”

It took everything in him not to grab Orias and shake him.

Worried about what?!

~***~

Only when Vinnie was in the safety of his room did he finally let his guard down; he felt like he had been holding his breath the entire walk back.

Vinnie took off his poncho and threw it on the bed then reached behind him to peel off the little ink stain that had attached itself to his back. While not a big creature by any means, the little one still was about the size of Vinnie’s hand. It had a large eye in the center of its head untethered as it swam around the void of its body to look around. He had grabbed it by its tail, so the little one regarded him with as much annoyance as its singular eye could muster.

“Hey, don’t give me that look,” said Vinnie. “Maybe if you weren’t crawling around on my body, you wouldn’t be in this situation.” He set the small creature down on the dresser, then pulled out a small parcel from his pocket containing some cookies from the tea party. He offered one to the little one. “Here, an apology.”

Though still annoyed with him, the little one snatched the cookie from his hand. When it blinked, a large mouth opened across its face, and it took a large bite— large for its size at the very least. Vinnie took a cookie as well, grabbing the last lemon meringue before the little creature ate it.

“So what even are you?” Vinnie asked.

The little one shrugged, much more preoccupied with eating than with him.

“You don’t know, huh. Are you able to talk?”

It thought about it for a moment, then clawed a hand and growled, but that seemed to be all it could do.

“I’ll take that as a no.” He watched it wolf down another cookie. “Did Atropos call you by something? Other than little one, I mean.”

It slumped back, exasperated, and shook its head. Then it pinched its fingers together to mimic Vinnie talking.

He crossed his arms. “You know, you’re a rude little creature. Maybe I should have left you in the domain.”

The little one brought its hands to its chin and looked at him with puppy-dog eyes… eye.

Vinnie sighed, giving up voicing his complaints. He instead flopped onto the bed.

“So you can’t talk and you don’t have a name,” Vinnie said. “I have to call you something other than little one, why don’t I come up with something for you?”

He heard the little one’s chomping cease then scratching against the dresser. A moment later, the little one climbed up onto the bed and over to his face. It seemed interested, lying down on its stomach and propping its head up on its little hands.

“You kinda look like an inkspot. What about Inky?”

Though the little creature didn’t have eyebrows, it still managed to look at him like it was crooking one.

“Okay, maybe not. How about Shadow?”

Still unimpressed.

“Uhm…” Maybe he wasn’t that good at picking names. “Well, you’re from Atropos’ domain, right? What about Ropo?”

The little one crossed its arms like it was mulling the name over. It nodded satisfied.

“Ropo it is then.”

Vinnie brought his hand down for the newly named Ropo to step onto. It had no qualms about it, letting him pick it up.

Though Ropo was from Atropos’ domain and was likely not a danger to him, he still felt unnerved by its appearance. It moved with all the liquidy grace of the monster from the excavation site had. A shapeshifter.

“So Ropo,” Vinnie began. “Atropos said you’d know why that shapeshifter attacked us.”

Ropo looked up and pointed to itself.

“Yeah, you. You’re my ‘new companion’, right?” Somehow, he knew it wasn’t going to be that simple. It never was with deities. “I don’t know how you’re supposed to tell me anything. You can’t even talk.”

Ropo still seemed surprised that he was referring to it. Then it took its hands and smoothed down the ink spikes making up its head until it resembled wavy hair. Then Ropo hunched over and started to look around the room, pretending that it was scared.

“Kinda reminds me how Orias was acting,” Vinnie commented, which Ropo then nodded. “Is that who I’m supposed to ask?”

Now that he thought about it, Orias had used some kind of “trick” back at the excavation site. When he had rescued Vinnie, something sludge-like had come out of his back and turned into a pair of wings. And when the two of them hit the ground, Orias seemed to bleed a similar substance.

I wonder…

~***~

When the next day arrived, Vinnie devised a plan to learn more about Orias. Given the kind of man he was, he doubted Orias would be honest when confronted about his trick, so if Vinnie was going to learn anything, he needed to try someone else.

He found Briar outside with her wrangler, fiddling with something on the engine. A radio sat nearby tuned to a station playing upbeat jazz that she was singing along to, but he wasn’t entirely sure what it was being powered by. She was so absorbed in her work that she didn’t hear Vinnie approach.

“Hey, Briar—”

“Gah—!” She dropped her wrench, fumbling to catch it as it clattered to the ground. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” she exclaimed, holding a hand over her chest. “Took a few years off my life there.”

“Sorry.” He scratched the back of his head. “What are you doing?”

Briar picked the wrench off the ground then focused her attention back on the engine bed. “Just making a few tweaks. This thing’s old and not really meant to drive long distances anymore, but she’s gonna have to if I’m driving to Port Ashur. You ever been there?”

“When I was very little,” Vinnie replied. Port Ashur was located at the north-eastern most point of the Dearthain region. Even with the speed the wrangler could achieve, it would still take a couple weeks for her to get there. “What are you going there for?”

“My old teacher wants me to come back home for a ‘family reunion’ of sorts. She does one every year so she can see all of her students again,” Briar explained. “But you’re probably not here to learn about my teacher, so what d’ya need?”

“Well,” Vinnie began, “I was hoping to ask you about some Sigil Mastery,” said Vinnie.

“Then I’m your girl,” Briar said. “And lucky for you, I’m the best in the entire world. Whatcha wanna know?”

“It’s about the trick Orias used to get us out of the domain,” Vinnie explained. “I wanted to know what he did to make those black wings.”

Briar didn’t look up at him, but he noticed that she had paused the work she was doing.

“That might be a bit complicated for a beginner,” she said, now turning to face him. “We can start with something easier. I know some sigils that are good for household tasks—”

“I think I’d rather learn more about what Orias used.”

“This isn’t actually about Sigil Mastery, is it?” Briar said. “You were acting weird when you two got back yesterday. Did something happen?”

“No, it’s nothing, just…” Perhaps he should have been less direct. “I’ve just been thinking a lot about what happened at Janahad, about Reese and that creature, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that there’s something odd about Orias, but I don’t know what. I was hoping you might know something.”

She mulled over his words, her face growing stern. “It’s not my place to tell you,” she said curtly, then turned back to focus on the wrangler’s engine. “If it’s something you really want to know, you have to ask him yourself.”

He had hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that.

~***~

What am I even supposed to ask? He didn’t want to confront him directly about it. If Orias was related to that shapeshifter, then it could end badly for Vinnie. But then what am I supposed to do?

He could stop asking questions, that was an option. It was clear he was getting dragged into something beyond him, and he should stop now before it got worse. Atropos could be just as dangerous as the shapeshifter he encountered. Orias, in turn, could also be dangerous, or Vinnie could be entirely wrong about him.

There’s only one way to know.

Vinnie peaked into the study. He could see Orias sitting at his desk tucked behind one of the bookcases. He was hunched over a book, scribbling notes down on a pad of paper beside him. Hesitantly, Vinnie knocked on the archway.

Orias looked up from his work. He was wearing a pair of glasses with rectangular frames. That paired with his swept hair made Orias look like one of the tired professors he’d see around Janahad. When he realized it was Vinnie visiting him, his face softened into a smile.

“Ah, Vinnie,” Orias began. “Is there something you need?”

“Yeah, actually. There’s something I wanted to ask you about.”

Vinnie choked on what he was supposed to say next. He was starting to regret confronting Orias.

A moment passed that had been too long of a pause.

“I’ve just been thinking a lot about what happened back in Janahad and when you rescued me from the domain,” Vinnie explained, doing little to hide his uncertainty. “I wanted to know… what was the black substance that came out of your back?”

“That?” He waved a hand. “Like I said before, it was something Briar had taught me. She’d be better at explaining it—”

“She couldn’t,” Vinnie said, “or wouldn’t, more like. She told me to ask you.”

“Did she now…”

Neither spoke immediately. He waited for Orias to say something, but his host no longer kept eye contact with him, casting his glance back to his work.

“There’s nothing I can tell you,” he said.

This was the inevitable outcome despite Vinnie’s hope otherwise. If Orias wasn’t going to be truthful with, then he would speak to someone who would reveal that truth one way or another.