Prestigious

2. Ti Eiartan (The Earthen)

Gaius

Siguth became visible in front of me, a few lit huts poking timidly at the night sky. Angels moved about every which way, their Malust in full swing. The sounds of happiness and excess floated to me, inviting me to forget my madness.

It kept slipping my memory, the Malust celebration. I hadn't seen the new worker in Siguth, but I doubted I ever would. The majority of the workers labored in the fields from first light to the moon's peak, and only a couple of dozen were trusted enough to be personal attendants, so we'd likely never be introduced.

Though I'd never participated in a Malust celebration, I thought of them fondly when I heard the Workers singing praise to their new brethren. The music in the air ushered me deeper into the village. I swallowed back a guilty groan. Saera should not have missed this.

I saw a few other Prestigious Ones wandering through Siguth, never mingling but strolling around the village and commenting joyously to each other. In their pairs, my fellow Prestigious brothers and sisters had no idea how fortunate they were. Without my hanaji, I couldn't find my footing or my sense of peace.

I needed her. Instead of my heart, my head pulsated steadily. My chest was painfully still. I could feel the sweat break out on my skin as each bead formed. I pushed my palms to my temples to hush the rush of blood in my ears. I wasn't supposed to be feeling. I wasn't going to feel.

My feet led me close to the angels' homes; I enjoyed the string instruments the most. A Listener could never resist a soothing tune. I wondered if Tane would hear it from the torture she was in. I wondered if she, too, thought that it sounded like hope. It sounded like...her laugh.

I felt the breath shove out of me as that sound circled my head. I began sprinting from hut to hut, listening for the laugh again. It was Tane. It had to be. She'd escaped Abannon! I'd only heard her laugh once before on Earth, but the sound was all but imprinted against my eardrums.

Each hut looked and sounded like the last. Light spilled out from the windows along with music and idle chatter. My heart pounded like it had when I'd Initiated. I heard myself whimper in a pathetic flash of desperation. I needed another something. Another breath of her. Another anything.

"The pain is not a prominent thought tonight."

My smile was nearly violent, certainly manic. Two huts ahead on the left, in the largest hut I'd seen so far. My feet had never carried me so quickly. I burst into the hut—Prestigious Ones were not required to announce their presence. There were no doors inside of the hut, and I could see her.

She looked perfect. Then she was gone, shielded by the lumbering worker attached to her. His wings were an odd, pale gray, and fluffier at the shoulder blades. New wings on a worker that age? Not possible. Was this the dragged worker? I shook my head; it made no difference to me. Tane danced slowly with the worker; he was beneath her station. Or, at least, he had been once.

I could only see her profile; it was heavenly. How had I never appreciated her face, her hair, her hands before that night? My mouth was dry. My palms were sweating. My thoughts were eerily absent.

"Tane," I murmured, not loud enough for either of them to hear me. I ventured completely into the room. There was another worker there. Blue-black wings, black hair to match, and a dreamy look on his face. He held a clay jug limply, and when his eyes landed on me, he froze.

"Are you..." His speech was slurred and lazy.

I nodded as I turned to Tane. "Just visiting."

"Then I should be on my insignificant little way—" He rose in a sloppy manner.