Episode #1 - "Torn": Star Chasers (Volume 1) (4 page)

    
Phaylio was very happy to see Ty; and as the meal was already on the table, they ate without further delay. Phaylio regarded the two while they ate, noticing how much they had both changed in recent times. He also noted that they could be extremely thick headed. He saw the way they wanted to talk to one another but didn’t.

    
After dinner was finished, dishes cleared and cleaned, the three spent several hours playing a simple game of One Skip Two. The board and its pieces were one of the few trinkets Ty carried with him at all times. He genuinely enjoyed the game; but he usually won, and in some tight places it was an easy way to boost his monetary situation. He also carried it because rolled up it only occupied the space of a two-inch cube with rounded edges. Game play was short, normally only lasting about five minutes, yet it was still complex enough to hold the interest of most. Ty grew weary of winning on about the twentieth play, and finally he let Shilastar win a few times so that he could quit. Her gloating annoyed him and he found that he needed some fresh air again.

    
Phaylio found him a short time later staring up at the night sky. “You’re not leaving us yet, are you? You can stay as long as you like, you know you’re almost like family.” Phaylio’s spoke with a natural, powerful voice that echoed in the ears. “My sons are all grown, Aehrone was the last.” Phaylio paused and pointedly stared at Ty. “You know, we always thought he would be the last... but things happen, as they often do, and then Shilastar was born. She was the twelfth—eight sons and four daughters, I’ll have you know. She always took a liking to you Ty, and I told her, as I do most times, you have to know what you want, and then go and get it. And you know, I think she is. I wish her mother could have seen this day. Her name was... did I tell you that before? Ah, never you mind. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman to behold, but in her heart, a fire burned. And she loved and cared for me like no two others could have done. I wouldn’t have traded her for all the wealth I could lay my hands on, or the most beautiful woman I ever dreamt. Take Shilastar in there. She is blooming like a flower in spring. In my eyes she is by far the most beautiful, wonderful little girl I could have ever wished for. But sometimes I wish... Oh, I don’t know what I wish. Am I making any sense to you? Or should I just go back inside to leave you to your thoughts?”

    
Ty patted Phaylio on the back, nodding his head. “You always did know exactly what to say, even if you take a round about way of getting there. Join me for a drink?”

    
“No, no I can’t. Too far along in my years, you know, bad for. But go along without me. And Ty, remember what we just talked about. The door’s open for you when you want to come back. How long are you staying this time?”

    
“Phaylio, my friend, I think I can stay a few more days. After all, what can it hurt?”

    
Phaylio ambled back into his house, mumbling something that sounded to Ty like, “Good, good, good.” Ty shook his head, and walked back over to the inn. Triist was behind the bar, and Ty could see part of Friith’s form lurking in the kitchen. Ty took a place at a table instead of a stool. A quiet table secluded in a corner, forgetting again that he was penniless, though Triist was kind enough to give him his first drink on the house. She felt sorry for him, because he had worked so hard before and was unable to eat.

    
With his drink, she even brought him a side bowl of gruel and bread, which she knew was his favorite. Ty watched as she wiggled away. His mind started working overtime as he ate. He wondered if he was truly safe on Paliy. He wondered if Shilistar was the one. He thought of a distant place—the rift—not exactly home but it felt like home. The inn was still fairly empty, with only two men seated at the bar and a couple at a table behind him. He reached down into his deep pockets, searching through pants, shirt, and coat, but didn’t find the special object he was looking for. “There has to be another way,” he told himself, eyeing his half-empty mug.

    
Ty whittled away the better part of an hour scheming, but came up empty. Only one other patron had come in all that time, so perhaps it would be a slow night. He studied the closest man’s face.
A name,
give me a name.
He closed his eyes, but when nothing came to mind, he skipped on to the second man. A nickname came to mind:
Sed. Sed what?
Sedrew.
And by default he knew the next name.

    
Ty ran across the bar yelling, “Sedrew, Sedrew, it has been so long! Your father was just talking about you.” Ty plopped down next to him, setting his empty drink nonchalantly onto the bar. He knew manners well enough to know Sedrew would buy him a drink, even if he desired to do otherwise.

    
Triist carried over a new drink for him, giving him an ugly stare. “Thanks Sed...” and as he spoke the name, he recalled Shilastar telling him that he hated the nickname she had given him. He quickly added, “Who’s your friend? Haven’t seen him around here before.”

    
“Rhyess, Ty. Ty meet Rhyess.”

    
“Rhyess?” Ty spoke the same aloud to get a better feel for the name. He couldn’t recall Rhyess, and he didn’t look familiar. Sedrew interrupted him before he could say anything else, “He’s kind a stranded here. He came here on a transport several days ago, by accident, or so it seems. Isn’t that right?”

    
“Well, mostly a mistake on my part. I wasn’t paying attention. Got off at the wrong stop, you could say. You probably know how that is, right?”

    
Ty shook his head in agreement, even though he really didn’t know He could not recall riding on a transport, but he had always wanted to. “Do I know you from some place?” asked Ty confused, something in the voice seemed vaguely familiar.

    
“I don’t think so... Wait a minute! Were you ever on Sendian II?”

    
“Sendian II. I was born there...”

    
“Sendian II?” asked Sedrew.

    
Thinking quick, Ty glanced at the man’s face and hands. The hands were rough and worked, his shoulders were broad and muscular. “My father was a mine worker.”

    
“Your name is Ty, right?” laughed Rhyess, “That’s where I just came from. I’m going to work here in this system now.”

    
Ty new better than to prod any further about one’s work, so he began asking the other about Sendian II. It had been a long time since he had been home. The two started talking and hit it off. Later they returned to the corner tale Ty had occupied earlier, talking to the late hours of the night. Ty didn’t mind because Rhyess insisted on doing all the buying. Rhyess had said he knew what it was to be broke, and the rounds this evening would be on him. Ty hadn’t objected at all.

Ty
pressed his hand against the door and it opened. He listened to the gentle moaning and stepped forward, only to find the door sliding closed again. He touched his hand to its surface again and it slid did the same. Opened and immediately closed. Ty backed away from the door, confounded, and then hit it with his fist.

    
As it opened the third time, there stood Shilastar, enjoying his confusion. She snarled at him. “And just where have you been, might I ask? As if I did not already know. And now I suppose you would like to stay here and sleep away the day. Well, I don’t think so.” She closed the door on him a final time.

    
“Shilastar, you’re wrong. Open the door and we can talk!” hollered Ty. “And I already slept. Well, actually, I fell asleep sitting in a chair, but I did sleep.”

    
“Sitting in a chair?” asked Shilastar through the door, “Who were you with?”

    
“I wasn’t with Triist, if that’s what you’re upset about. Why do you care anyway?”

    
Shilastar stormed away, but loosed the lock for him. Ty chased her across the dwelling to her room, where she slammed the door in his face, the inner doors being conventionally styled. “His name is Rhyess. He’s from Sendian II, would you believe that?”

    
“Sendian II? Rhyess?”

    
Ty shut his mouth before he said anything further. He went to mope about in the foreroom, but, as he walked away, Shilastar came out of her seclusion. “Is it to the ruins today?” she queried as if nothing had happened.

    
“Ruins?”

    
“Yeah, yesterday was Ttuirre. You always go to the ruins the next day.”

    
“Well, not today. I promised Rhyess I’d show him around.”

    
“We can go together then, can’t we? I’ll pack an extra lunch.”

    
Abruptly, Phaylio came out of his sleeping chamber, his eyes still full of weariness. “So tired lately,” he moaned through a yawn. He scratched his head absently as he set about activating the blinds on the windows. “Sure is bright this morning, isn’t it. Sun’s coming right down upon us...” he broke off. “Would you look at that?” He pointed to a pair of withered, shrunken shrubs right outside the window where he currently fidgeted.

    
“Where you off to this early?” he inquired seeing the bag in Shilastar’s hand. Shilastar rattled off a hurried explanation and then swished out the door. “Better get after her,” chided Phaylio. He paused as if he to say something, but in a movement made difficult by age he bent down to pick up something from the floor. “That’s odd,” he said. “Better hurry up,” Phaylio rebuked again. “She’s a fast one, don’t let her get away.” He added the last part, grinning.

    
Ty stepped out the door, spinning around on his heel as Phaylio called to him. “Ty! Better give this to her, she’ll be missin’ it I’d say.” Phaylio handed Ty the object he had retrieved from the floor. Cramming it into his pocket without another thought, he started out the door a second time. This time, he spotted his game, which he folded up, and harbored away its pieces, and then stuck it into his pocket.

    
Ty glanced back and saw Phaylio watching him through the widow. He offered a wave, which was not repaid. Shilastar stood outside the inn, as he had expected. She wouldn’t set foot in that type of place, a matter of principle, unless provoked or if situations warranted. That idealism suited Ty fine, as long as he knew where he was coming from and going to.

    
Rhyess seemed to think the jaunt would prove more engaging than wandering around dusty streets. Introductions were short and proper, but Shilastar scrutinized the newcomer before she set out. When Rhyess wasn’t angered by it, Ty waived it off. She asked him the standard spiel of questions; and when sufficiently satisfied, satisfaction being merely circumstantial, she desisted.

    
Shilastar’s pace was slow and ambling today. She was in no hurry, the walk would require most of the morning. For a short space, she was content to rummage through her bag to ensure she had all the necessities. A survey of the sky in the four cardinal directions, once they had reached open ground, met with her approval. Still, she checked her parasol, which had been folded nicely in her bag until now. Folding it and returning it to the sack was a struggle, but she managed to fit it in.

    
They spoke little at first, but later Shilastar’s determination to give Ty the silent treatment waned. Rhyess wanted to learn as much as he could about Paliy.

    
“I have never really been anywhere and didn’t think I would ever get here,” he explained to Shilastar. He also retold the story of how he had accidentally ended up in Phaylio and that day after the next he would be leaving.

    
Subsequent to passing the separation barrier, the countryside became rough and torn. Rock juttings spread and stone walls sprouted abundantly. The three were careful to pick their way amid the obstacles, moving methodically. Ahead beyond a towering rise and a sharp decline, the ruins sat, still hours away.

    
“What is it like beyond Paliy?” Shilastar playfully asked as she circumnavigated a sharp crag with both arms lifted out for balance. Neither of them wanted to answer. “I mean, you two talk of places I have never seen and will never see. I don’t understand.”

    
Ty furrowed his eyebrows and squinted, dropping his conversation with Rhyess. Ty wanted to tell her how lucky she was. Paliy was one of the few places that had no apparent class separation. Rhyess, not knowing Shilastar well, responded, “I could live here forever. The sun and land are so beautiful. The work is clean and not ordered.”

    
“Why must you leave? Stay if you like. An honest day’s work will get you an earnest meal and a place to stay.” She added, further qualifying her statement, “Except if you are Ty.”

    
Ty objected, but Rhyess inadvertently cut him off. “I wish I could,” he said. “Could stay, that is.” He turned his hands palms up and looked a mound of calluses, a lifetime of labor. He glanced at his legs, the thickness of stout young trees, and the bulge of his arms. He turned his hands up again and sighed. “You know...” he began sadly. “You do something for all of your life, and it is all you know. “I mend steel and stone all day long and most times long after the darkness has come, if I am above ground.”

    
Ashamed, Rhyess turned his face away. looking out over the rock-strewn fields and hills they were in. He realized how tiny his life was compared to everything around him.

    
“There is always bed and meal here for you,” retorted Shilastar, misunderstanding.

    
She didn’t know what it was really like to work, pouring out the toil of your life. She only knew the world around her, and what she knew of the outside was through Ty and now also Rhyess. In her mind, Ty always came and went as he pleased, and she saw him as common as anyone else. She knew little about the classes, or her proper place in the order, for she didn’t have to worry about it. On Paliy everyone was equal, and it was through those eyes that Shilastar looked out on all else.

    
“Wow!” exclaimed Ty, changing subjects as delicately as possible, “Isn’t that magnificent?” He had marched on to the top of the rise and the view from its precipice was most rewarding. He made a full circle, chasing the horizon as far as he could see around him. The small band took a much needed reprieve at the summit. Shilastar retrieved several vials of cool liquid from a small functional box made of a thin, light insulated material.

    
The ruins in full view became the topic of conversation. Shilastar took an earnest interest in the telling of their history. Even if Rhyess hadn’t been with them, she would have told Ty the story again. She explained how they had been constructed twelve generations ago by the first settlers of Paliy, how the first families spread out across the land claiming distant provinces for their own, and how in turn the first city had come to fall to ruin.

    
“You know,” Ty said, “every time you tell that story...”

    
“I know, it gets longer and longer. You tell me that every time also. Let’s go, I’ll race you!”

    
“Down that? I don’t think so, I’ll follow you,” replied Ty, eyeing the downgrade.

    
Shilastar went first, followed by Ty, and then Rhyess, They all held onto one another for safety and
ballast. Shilastar had just taken her fifth step downward when the sky blackened. It was silent and the air was completely calm. The three stood still. Shilastar and Ty nearly toppled backward as they strained to look up. An enormous craft settled into a staging orbit directly overhead, temporarily blocking out the light from both suns even in its outermost point of orbit.

    
It seemed like an elongated orbiting moon, which Ty held in absolute wonder. Rhyess didn’t budge from his spot, but he wasn’t awed or fascinated like the other two. In fact, he hardly seemed to notice. Eventually, he did turn to look at Shilastar and Ty; but not understanding their dismay, he finally began making his way down without them.

    
Ty was the last to move. He had never seen a ship anything like this, and all he could think of was that he was afraid for his life. He wanted to leave Paliy now. This instant. Run away and hide. He closed his eyes, mentally preparing himself, but then he froze still and became calm. “Rhyess?” he called out. He opened his eyes and saw Shilastar’s face in front of him. She took his hand.

    
“Come on, silly.”

    
Rhyess was already waiting at level ground. Neither Ty nor Shilastar looked up at all for the remainder of the day. Eventually, the shadow seemed to retreat and all was well.

    
At the ruins only dilapidated remnants of foundations and partial walls of various structures, but they captivated the threesome’s attentions for many hours. They danced on old floors, where Shilastar said a grand hall once stood. Shilastar served them lunch at the site of an inn. They played among the rocks, chasing one another about like children.

    
Afternoon was ebbing before they decided to start back, sweaty, dirty, and messy haired. “Catch up!” yelled Shilastar playfully as she chased Rhyess up the grand hill overlooking the ruins. Ty lagged behind, dead last even while trying his hardest. About half way up he was breathing so hard, wheezing and coughing, that he was forced to stop. He hunched over and panted for air he couldn’t seem to find.

    
Movement to his right caught his eye. Ty whirled his head about to get a glimpse it, and quickly realized it was Shilastar falling past him. He thought it was comical at first, but as she came to a sudden, crashing halt, he could see it clearly was not. Horrified, he cradled her in his arms. The back of her head was moist, and a check of his hands revealed more than sweat.

    
She looked up at him and plead, “Make the pain go away Ty, just as you did before?”

    
Ty searched her face and then checked for Rhyess, but the other was already standing next to him. His heart lamented as he saw the drops moisten the sullen dirty rocks. “I can’t,” he whispered almost apologetically. He set to rooting through his pockets. He felt something he probably should have returned to Shilastar then, but it wasn’t the time.

    
“I have some ointment in my bag,” spoke Shilastar softly. Her eyes pressed closed and her lips stilled.

    
“The bag! Find her bag!” wailed Ty to Rhyess and set to quick, concerted work to heal her using the power of his mind as Rhyess scrambled away. He could no longer bear the waste. Ty opened his eyes to find Rhyess returned with Shilastar’s pack in hand, staring at him.

    
“Quick open it!” he barked, “There is ointment inside. It should be a tube of some sorts, brownish, I think. Hurry!”

    
Ty lavishly rubbed the unguent, partially to mix it in well and partially to conceal his secret labors. Ty conveyed Shilastar to the crest, setting her down with her head across his lap. “The sun sets,” he whispered to her. “Night comes.” He had never been out during the fullness of night this far from habitation on Paliy, and he didn’t much relish the thought of it. Still, he knew it would prove best if they waited for a few hours before moving again. Rhyess seemed to think otherwise. “I should head back for help.”

    
“Starting back now would be foolhardy.”

    
“I can make it and I’ll bring Phaylio. He’ll know what to do.”

    
Ty said emphatically, “You would not make it back to the village and perhaps not even as far as the barrier wall. Picking your way in the shadowed light would be tedious. The half-light plays tricks on the mind.”

    
Throughout twilight they waited. The night air arrived, cool and hurried, blowing across the hilltop. Both suns sank below the horizon and the stars appeared one by one. Moonrise revealed a gibbous moon, and before they stirred to their feet, a second moon shone down on them. Unlike its sister, it was waning. Gradually, their eyes adjusted to the shrouded illumination around them. The shifting shadows were gone from the land. Rhyess was amazed when Ty woke Shilastar. Her eyes were bright and full, and the moonlight played in them, reflecting from the dark of her eyes back into his.