Another Lux
1015 – 1018
Papa had betrayed her by finding some other family to replace his old one, and Mama had betrayed her by leaving her behind, both during the kill and in Shepherd’s End after their return. Yevhetsek was big now, as tall as she at only 11 Springs of age to her 14, and Zakhal looked too much like a real person instead of a baby, his limbs long and lanky instead of the chubby-fat of a five-year-old, and they both talked too much. Everyone talked too much at their return, exclamations and tongue-clucks and shouting between Mama and Papa and too many prying questions from the fake “twins” she was supposed to call siblings now.
It was paradoxically both too much the same as it had been and not enough.
There was always a room for her at the Cadne Ranch, but Ixtalan rejected it roundly. More than once, she tried to run away, in pretty much any direction she could, but the network of Sending and the protective eyes in Lux were too fast for her, and she was inevitably discovered and escorted back, sullen and bearing some fresh scrape or other from her attempts to fight the militia members bringing her in.
The furthest she ever got was the Temple of the Maiden Thrice, where she pretended to be an acolyte while waiting for the search to blow over before moving on. She made it two days before the young tiefling acolyte innocently asked a full sister about “the new acolyte” and Sister Salouis realized she wasn’t supposed to be there. (She made sure to subtly harass the tiefling after that in revenge for messing up her cover. She only stopped when she saw the girl start to cry after a perfectly-executed prank when Aureya thought no one was looking. It gave Ixtalan an uncomfortable feeling that she did not care to examine too closely, so she decided it was better not to feel that way and stopped doing anything. No, it wasn’t because Salinger Morel had noticed and started to hover around Aureya whenever she was in town. Obviously.)
Eventually she discovered that if she took the Cadne herds out onto the hills, she’d be left alone without people looking for her, and she could be away from all the prying eyes. It took a couple of times and a couple of irritating trips with the fake “twins” before the Cadnes trusted her to do it alone, but she bided her time, kept a careful watch, and was eventually rewarded with the ability to take them out unsupervised. Her attention slipped, then, though she never lost too many of the sheep, lest the job be taken away from her again; still, she spent most of her time trekking the hills, carving rude objects, hunting for her dinner and napping.
She discovered that some of the other youths in Shepherd’s End could be pretty entertaining—particularly the older ones, the ones who reminded her the least of her early childhood days there. Rostas and Eleni particularly enjoyed her stories (more false than not) of her travels beyond the sleepy village. Between them they were able to have more fun than any of them could alone, with one person acting as distraction or bait while the other two pulled tricks on the unsuspecting adults. Between Eleni’s cunning, Rostas’s muscles and Ixtalan’s quick hands, they were a reasonable force to be reckoned with in schoolyard fights, as well—at least, if they all agreed on it. More than once the other two, who had been friends since they were just toddlers, decided they didn’t agree with a fight she wanted to pull, like when she’d tried to protect Peach from some importunate sailors.
That particular alliance only lasted for a year or two, though, and dissolved particularly messily after Rostas discovered Eleni “comforting” Ixtalan after Ixtalan’s acrimonious breakup with Peach, even though Ixtalan knew of Rostas’s long-nursed crush on Eleni. Ixtalan and Eleni continued together for a few more weeks, but one day Eleni simply stopped talking to her. When next she saw her again, she was on Rostas’s shoulder and pointedly avoided looking at Ixtalan.
Fortunately, that was the year those two turned nineteen and the Tower fell to the earth. They were gone quickly after that, sent with all the other able-bodied of Shepherd’s End, and Ixtalan did not have to face that particular mess any longer.
By sheer lack of anyone else to spend time around, Ixtalan ended up mingling with her year-mates and those younger. Time and puberty had blurred the older memories of playing with them alongside Lati, and it was easier to pretend they were new people altogether. It wasn’t too far from the truth. Lily was the funniest of them, and while she rebuffed Ixtalan with a good deal of scornful laughter when Ixtalan suggested they go out, this paradoxically only tickled Ixtalan more. She never suggested it again, but they spent a good deal of time together, on the days when Lily’s razor tongue didn’t irritate Ixtalan more than it amused her.
Life became easier with fewer adults around, only the oldest and youngest left to carry on with everyday life, even though the actual taskload became heavier with fewer hands around. Still, the Tower beckoned. Ixtalan had tried to sneak off with a caravan heading toward the Tower, but was discovered just a day out and forced to turn back. She would make it there one day, though. Once she was eighteen and a full adult, she would either rejoin her mother, with no one to stop her, or leave with the rest to join the army at the mysterious edifice. Any place other than here, where there was nothing left for her.
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