“I want to know about you.”
Aziten pushed his uneaten steak across his plate, ignoring the Threan sitting opposite him. After a few huffs and puffs, he finally looked up.
“Why do you want to know about me, kid?”
Arkay shrugged. He’d finished his dinner ages ago but had remained at the table to keep Aziten company. The other Ksa had all left a while back.
“All everyone has done lately is ask me questions. Who am I? What did I do for twelve years? What the hell is a kid like you doing in a place like this? Things like that. I don’t like being asked questions, I want to know more about everyone else here.”
With a groan, Aziten nudged the piece of meat to one side. The medics always insisted that everyone finish their meals, but Aziten simply wasn’t hungry. Arkay on the other hand was practically starving all the time. He’d already had seconds and thirds. A combination of medication and depression made Arkay permanently hungry.
“You want this?” Aziten pushed the plate towards Arkay. “If the medics find out I’ve lost my appetite again, they won’t be happy. It’s just I have a small stomach and have never eaten much anyway.”
“Sure. As long as you tell me a bit about you. No one else wants to tell me about themselves…” Arkay took the plate and Aziten’s knife and fork, and cut himself a piece of the steak.
“Fair enough.”
“This is nice…” Arkay grinned between mouthfuls. “I’m so sick of the boiled white meat they’ve been giving me… Anyway… How long have you been here?”
“I guess… I dunno. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve always been here. I was young and I went insane. Must have been younger than you. Considering I’m 39 now, it’s… eh… I’m used to it, I guess.”
“You just went insane?” Arkay slowed down his eating. It occurred to him that he didn’t want to rupture his newly fixed stomach.
“I had dreams. Horrific visions of monsters. Old Deitics and unknown beings tearing at each other like wild animals while mortals like us perished below them. I was told they were just nightmares, until the dreams started intruding into reality…”
Aziten’s face dropped. He stared blankly at the table, no longer making eye contact with Arkay.
“One day, I mistook the High General for one of the monsters in my visions. He’d requested that I assist him with one of his… procedures. Instead I attacked him, attacked the other N-Class Ksa present then ran. I… wasn’t in control.”
Arkay put down the cutlery, confused and curious. “What procedure?”
“One of his life-lengthening ones… Oh yeah. No one outside the N-Class was supposed to know about it.”
“What does he do?”
“Basically… He like, sucks the life out of you. And you wake up an hour later… I don’t know. I don’t remember. I woke up with both my wings missing, in a straight jacket.”
“They didn’t try and fix your wings?”
“No. I apparently tore them off and one of the wings was so badly damaged there was no way to fix them. I guess…” Aziten paused. “I guess you know how that feels better than I do.”
“It’s not fun…”
“Not at all.”
Arkay shoved the now empty plate to one side and edged closer to Aziten. “So they just locked you away in here?”
Aziten smiled. “Ah no. They put me in an asylum at first but I kept on breaking out. Thankfully some medic eventually worked out that I’d be less agitated if I was with other Ksa, and they moved me here.”
“Do you like it here?”
“No…” Aziten sighed. “At least, I didn’t at first. But Veeyel was nice to me, and I’ve been feeling so much better since you arrived. Not because you’re younger than me, but because you… brought me answers.”
Arkay blinked, not understanding what Aziten meant. “I don’t get it.”
“You showed me that the two forces that I saw in my visions, they were real. That it wasn’t all my own insanity. For that, I thank you.”
With a smile, Aziten stood up, picking up the empty plate and cutlery. He gave a little wave, then walked away.
“Uh… you’re welcome?” Arkay muttered, as he sat alone at the table, not sure how he was supposed to feel.