Will Of Infinity

Descent - Part 3

"It doesn't work"

"Neither do you, but you're still here," Saakhi tipped her face up to the sun and looked back down at the compass. It wasn't supposed to be showing them the opposite direction no matter what they tried, was it? Maybe something was off with the weirdly shaped black screw in the center.

Nami didn't throw the wet slippers she was carrying and Saakhi was going to consider that an improvement. It was like training a baboon, maybe, kids. Use tricks and they play it back. Use words and they can't win.

"We're fine, Nami," Imay said amicably from his seat atop Raina, balancing Nami in front of him as he squinted into the distance, "By my calculation we should reach Ujwi soon and we can rest there. Saakhi!"

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember that merchant with the broken ceramic statue?"

"Hmm"

"Does he still owe you the favour?"

"Now he does," Saakhi put the compass away and leaned forward, hugging her horse lazily as she rested her head against Sahas, "What am I asking for?"

"How about a meal and a room to stay?" Imay suggested politely before correcting, "Make it two rooms. We've got a young lady with us."

Saakhi shot him a thumbs-up without looking and then turned the thumb down when she heard the kid's pleased hum. This time Nami didn't throw the slippers only because Imay caught them before they could be thrown.

They hadn't intended on taking the teen along when they had gone to eat lunch two days ago, but then Imay had got talking with her and Saakhi had been dragged into her bleeding heart brother's idea. For all that they had been taught to protect themselves first, Saakhi had always known that Imay would slip a good deed into his daily schedule to help digest his food better. The fact that Nami was an orphan like them and had been kicked out of her uncle's house had only added fuel to the unnecessary fire.

Imay had been the same age as Nami when Saakhi had first lied to him that they would be living on their own because they were grown-ups like Ma and Pa had been. He had liked the idea, him with his fascination of playing homemaker while keeping track of mostly empty vessels in the kitchen or charming the grocer into giving them an extra bag of rice. The lie had broken too soon but Imay had never blamed her for not being enough. He had just accepted that they would have to create their own version of 'enough'.

Knight and navigator. Trouble and troublemaker. Sister and brother. They were enough.

Of course, at times like now when he decided to play mother to clearly smart rugrats, Saakhi had no interest in helping him with his redefined definition of 'enough'. She was happy playing the obviously saner voice that kept Nami grounded and Imay from raising a duckling.

Just as Imay said, they reached Ujwi before sunset where Saakhi let her brother deal with the horses and the asleep kid before leaving to go find them a room.

Two rooms, she corrected mentally with a tired sigh.

They hadn't visited the town before but they had met one of the main-square merchants while on a mission at Odho. He hadn't been among the kindest of men she had met but Saakhi didn't only save the good ones, and the greedier ones had deeper pockets to dig into anyway. They had gotten a measly amount as thanks but he had promised a favour and it could come in use today.

Thankfully, a favour has proof that a word doesn't, she thought as she reached into the pocket of her waistcoat to pull out the tied up bunch of parchment.

"Let's see," she riffled through the pages as she walked, "Torni, Kohala, Andi - ah, Ujwi, got it. The esteemed Batu Jagira, signed and promised. Good."