Jorvanultumn found his diare sitting on the edge of a rocky tor in the foothills between Chithishtheny and the docks. It was the spot Davorultumn had used when he wanted to be alone for as long as Jorvanultumn could remember. It was also a spot that he did not appreciate Jorvanultumn following him to. For that reason, Jorvanultumn had let him be alone for some time. However, on the walk to see Meleng and Sinit?a, Fevionawishtensen had pointed out that he could not let Davorultumn hide from him out here and avoid having the discussion they needed to have. Jorvanultumn had to come here whether his diare liked it or not.
Unfortunately, he had not expected to find two people here. Sitting beside Davorultumn was Hilkorultumn. Both of them were silent, staring out to sea. Jorvanultumn had seen this pose from Davorultumn many times. He could sit that way for hours.
Jorvanultumn could not remember ever seeing Hilkorultumn out here before though. Davorultumn and Hilkorultumn had other places where they usually met with one another. This was where Davorultumn went to be away from everyone, including his own diare.
Jorvanultumn glided down and landed several feet behind them and folded his wings. Dull pain throbbed through the injured one, though it passed after a couple seconds. There had been no choice but to fly out here, as there was no other way to reach this location—not without some extremely difficult climbing Jorvanultumn was reasonably certain he did not have the skill for.
Neither of the two older Isyar acknowledged him. It was unlikely they had not noticed him, so they had to be purposely ignoring him.
“What are you doing here, Jorvanultumn?” his diare said at last, without looking up. “This is my place. You know better than to come here without invitation.”
“You are staring at the sea. If you were meditating, you’d be looking at the sky.”
Jorvanultumn sighed and backed off a bit, but stopped. He had to do this. “No.”
“Diare, we need to talk and you know it. That is why you have been avoiding me.”
Hilkorultumn placed a hand on his siare’s shoulder. “You have been avoiding him, Davorultumn, and he’s right. You do need to talk.”
However, it only took a few seconds this time before Davorultumn broke contact, lowered his head, and closed his eyes. “Very well, we will talk. But I will start.” He opened his eyes again and pointed to the edge. “Sit.”
Hilkorultumn moved aside, and Jorvanultumn approached the edge. “Thank you, Diare.” He carefully lowered himself into a seated position, dangling his legs over the edge.
Hilkorultumn backed farther away from the edge, while Davorultumn sat close to Jorvanultumn, their wings overlapping a little so as to be reasonably close together. They sat in silence for a few moments before Davorultumn spoke.
Jorvanultumn opened his mouth to speak, but his diare held up a hand.
“Bursting into that meeting uninvited was inappropriate regardless of whether you had the legal right. The Lamdritta would have called you in eventually.”
“Custom and tradition is important. You’re still young. You don’t yet understand, but you will one day. Yes, I know there are some traditions that should change, and they will. But it is a slow process. It takes time. You must be patient. The elispt, however, is one tradition I support in its fullest. It should not be mocked.”
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“Diare, I don’t mean to mock the elispt. I dislike mine, but I know its importance. But there are things going on. I don’t know the extent of them, but they are more important than tradition. Even the elispt. You say you thought you taught me better. You did. You taught me to believe in myself. You taught me to stand up for what is right, to do what is right, and what I’m doing is right, even if it looks wrong. With due respect, Diare, you haven’t seen what I’ve seen. You haven’t seen Corvinian’s powers. He has them despite no magical talent whatsoever. You haven’t met Felit?a. There is something about her, and I believe in my heart she is...special. I’m certain Mikranasta would be able to confirm it. There is power in Felit?a beyond anything we’ve ever known.”
Davorultumn took a moment before responding, but then nodded slowly. “I would trust her judgement to the end of the world. However, it’s a moot point. We will never know her judgement.”
“I will admit, you spoke very persuasively to the Lamdritta, and Mikranasta has always had too much of a soft spot for you. If she were to do it for anyone, it would be you, even more so than Hedromornasta, her own siare.” Davorultumn shuddered and shook his head. “But I still believe she will do the right thing and not go with you.”
His diare actually smiled. “Jorvanultumn, you have clearly learned a few things in your time away. That’s good. That’s part of the point of the elispt. But there are things will need to unlearn.”
“But whether Mikranasta will go with you when you leave is not important to our discussion at the moment,” Davorultumn said. “It is the breaking of the elispt that we need to discuss.”
Davorultumn lowered his head again after a moment. “I consider your actions a breach of the elispt, but overall a minor one. Before you barged in on the meeting, my diare pointed out that the exact requirements of the elispt are open to some interpretation. Visiting everywhere could include visiting home. I don’t fully accept that, but if the Lamdritta do, I will accept their judgement. Regardless of their decision, I…” He took a deep breath and looked Jorvanultumn in the eyes. “I will forgive you.”
“On one condition. After you leave here, whether with Mikranasta or not, you will complete the remainder of your elispt before returning home again.”
“That was always my intention, Diare.”
Davorultumn smiled. “I know.”
They leaned towards each other, awkwardly shifting their wings out of the way to touch foreheads. They clasped hands and closed their eyes. It had been over two years since they had last held each other like this. Jorvanultumn had not realised how much he had desired his diare’s touch. Light sobbing came from Davorultumn, and Jorvanultumn joined him.
“Thank you, Diare,” Jorvanultumn said.
With a sigh, Jorvanultumn turned back to the edge and sat down again. Davorultumn sat on the same side as before, and Hilkorultumn on the other side. The older Isyar leaned over and put his hand on Jorvanultumn’s shoulder. “There are things about our family you don’t know yet. What we are about to tell you is normally revealed after the completion of the elispt, but it seems you’ve become involved in some of it without even realising.”
Jorvanultumn was not sure how to respond, so looked to his diare, who placed a hand on his other shoulder. “Darkness Worshippers and Volgs.”
“We wish to talk about the Pundritta,” Hilkorultumn said.
Pundritta? Jorvanultumn looked back at his diare’s diare. “I have not heard that word.” The structure of the word indicated a group, a council like the Lamdritta. Pun- referred to the night. A night council? “Darkness Worshippers?”
His diare shook his head vigorously and got to his feet as well. “No! You misunderstand.” He glared at Hilkorultumn. “I told you I should be the one to bring this up.”
Hilkorultumn was slower to get to his feet, his weaker legs shaking as he stood up. “My apologies, Jorvanultumn. I didn’t mean to give you the wrong idea. We are not the Pundritta. We are not Darkness Worshippers. Far from it. We stand guard against them. We hunt them. It’s our job to watch for their activity and put a stop to it whenever possible.”
Jorvanultumn stumbled over his words. “And the Pundritta are…”
“Isyar, yes,” Hilkorultumn said. “They serve the Lord of Darkness and do his will. We are not the perfectly noble beings we pretend to be.”
Jorvanultumn stood there in silence, staring into his diare’s eyes.
“I...uh...I invited my friends to dinner.” It was a completely irrelevant thing to say in the moment, but he could not think of anything else.
The discussion was both enlightening and terrifying at the same time.