"He does not know what that is," Cassian said with a sigh. He turned his gaze into the fire and said: "I promise you, Kota, I am no threat to you. You asked for my friendship, and shall treat you as a friend. I never break my word."
The man called Darius stepped into the circle suddenly and said in a loud voice: "I trust everyone has eaten?"
"Yes, sir," the Onkai soldiers around the campfire all said in varying pitches and volumes.
"Evening prayer!" Darius shouted. Instantly the men around the campfire set down their plates and utensils and rose. They moved into a straight line in front of Darius and many other young men followed, appearing from tents and from hiding places in the trees that Kota had failed to detect. Within a few heartbeats of Darius's command around twenty-five men stood shoulder to shoulder in stiff, disciplined poses.
Kota watched in wonder as Darius closed his right hand into a fist and pressed it into the palm of his left hand at the center of his chest. He began to speak words in a language of sharp syllables that Kota did not recognize at all, and after a moment the men began to speak perfect unison with him.
"They are praying in Dhavic," Cassian said in a soft whisper. "It is the language of the holy scriptures of their church. They are asking the Goddess to protect them and help them to defeat their enemies, and to speak for their souls if they die in battle."
Kota looked at Cassian and he tried to make sense what he had just learned of the young human. "You sense when I no understand something."
"Yes," Cassian said. He then cocked his head rather suddenly at Darius, who had begun speaking apart from the others again in the ancient language. Cassian was staring at the Onkai captain with an irritated expression, and Kota noted that for a brief moment Darius and all his men cast glances at Cassian.
"They are praying for me," Cassian said, rolling his eyes.
"You no want them to?" Kota said.
"No. I do not see the gods the way they do," said Cassian. There was faint touch of contempt in his voice. "It is a source of tension between them and myself." He sighed and gazed up at the stars. "Their hearts are in the right place. They want to bring me to the light so that I will not have to be executed by the church, or at least that is their fear."
It took Kota a moment to remember what 'executed' meant, and when he did his heart quickened. "Onkai going to kill you?"
"No," Cassian whispered. "Onkai do not kill their fellow man. Their Order dedicates itself entirely to protecting human beings from the dark and terrible things in this world." Cassian's gaze lowered to the campfire, and his expression become very dark as he said: "There is another order that also bares holy runes on their skin." Kota heard Cassian's heart quicken as he spoke. "They do not protect anyone," he said in a voice filled with unmistakable hatred. "These men see themselves as the acolytes of divine justice. They find people they determine to be sinners and take them prisoner. Most of the time they torture confessions out of these people, but other times... they kill them." Cassian stared unblinking into the heart of the campfire. "That Order is known as the Nemesai." The muscles around Cassian's right eye twitched as he spoke the name and at the same instant a log in the fire burst with a furious CRACK, sending embers spraying out in all directions.
Kota flinched back as several orange burning chunks shot at his face and chest, but Cassian's right hand whipped up and the embers stopped dead in the air. "My apologies, Kota," Cassian said in an even voice. He made a subtle motion with his fingers and the burning chunks whipped back into the campfire.
Cassian turned to the Onkai. They had stopped praying and were all staring in his direction. "We are fine," he said. His tone and the look on his face seemed to communicate that he had no intention of explaining further. After a brief moment the Onkai somewhat uneasily returned to their prayers.
Kota swallowed, staring at Cassian. He had never seen magic used before. Cassian seemed quite powerful, and that should have been terrifying to Kota, but instead the display of anger had somehow made Cassian more like a person and less like a strange, unknowable godling. A thought occurred in Kota's mind amidst his sense of wonder and he said: "The... Ne-me-sai hurt someone you love, no?"
Cassian stared at him for a long moment in silence, and then a bitter smile played across his face. "I do not wish to speak of such things just now. All the same, I am glad you feel more comfortable with me."
Kota hesitated, then blurted: "I no understand what you are. How you see what I think?"
"I do not see it," said Cassian. He seemed relieved at the change of subject and said in a wistful voice: "Have you ever had a dream where you shifted perspective?"
Kota did not understand the question and Cassian, seeming to sense this, said: "A dream where you were one person and then another, changing all the time, sometimes even removing yourself and looking at all the characters in your dream as something outside of them?"
"Ah.... sometime I think," said Kota, straining his memory, "I not always remember dream, but I think I know what you talk of."
"My mind is like that when I am awake," said Cassian. "Pieces of it stretch outward and sink into the consciousness of others. When the connection is weak all I can sense are emotions, but when I am focused on someone, perhaps someone who interests me, and that person has a thought, I have it too, like it came from my own mind."
"It must be strange," Kota said.
Cassian shrugged. "I suppose it was when it began. Now I cannot imagine perceiving the world in any other way."
"I no understand such things," said Kota. He stared at the Onkai, who were still chanting in Dhavic and said: "I not know as much as a human."
Cassian smirked "I know you do not understand all the words I use, but you are remarkably quick and clever at guessing meaning," he said. "And, for all your ignorance, I very much enjoy talking to you. It is relaxing. Most of the people I meet either want something from me or they are afraid of me."
"I afraid of you," said Kota with a smile.
"Not really – not the way most people are," Cassian said, and he gazed into Kota's eyes and said: "I can trust you. I knew that before I called out to you in the forest, and I swear on the souls of my parents that you can trust me."
"I trust you," Kota said, deciding this as he said it.
"Thank you," Cassian said.
Neither one of them spoke for a time. They sat by the fire and listened to the Onkai pray in their strange language. As Darius spoke the final alien words and then men broke apart, Cassian said: "The one we are hunting... we believe he is a Nathra. Do you know what that is?" Before Kota could answer that he did not, Cassian spoke again: "It is a sorcerer who has consumed the blood of a demon."
Kota swallowed. His people spoke rarely of demons, though the stories they did tell were fantastic and terrible.
"I thought you should know," Cassian whispered.
"Is... nathra very strong?" Kota said.
"Stronger than a normal sorcerer," Cassian said with an absent shrug. "His name is Grodus." He looked up at Kota, a troubled half grin on his human face. "He was one of my teachers."
Kota considered this information for a moment, then said: "Why he drink demon blood?"
"Because of me," Cassian said in a low voice, "at least to some degree. Grodus was a very arrogant man, and... my talents with magic made him very jealous." He put a hand on Kota's shoulder and said: I need to rest now, and I think you should too after you eat. You can sleep in that tent when you are ready." He gestured to the furthest right in a line of strange animal skin tents. "I will tell them to set up bedding for you. Goodnight, Kota, my friend." The worry was gone from his face.
Kota smiled. "Goodnight, Cassian."
Cassian stood and walked toward one of the middle tents along the rim of the fire pit. As Kota watched him go his mind raced through everything he had just seen. He thought about where he was. No shamalak he had ever heard of helped the legendary Onkai on one of their hunts, let alone befriended someone like Cassian. This was the most thrilling night of his life. He could hardly imagine sleeping. He gazed up into the stars and felt that it was wonderful where he was, and his imagination began to run wild with all that the next day might bring.