Work Text:
The combat was intense but they were making progress. Only two enemies left, and they appeared to be on the verge of going down. Pim had been casting almost non-stop and he was starting to feel the strain. He’d already drunk his ether potion and eaten a handful of emergency biscuits from his pocket, he wouldn’t be able to keep up much longer. Luckily the others had cornered the remaining enemies, thus preventing them from retaliating and giving Pim a moment to breathe. He lowered his staff and reached back with his hand, looking for something solid to lean on while keeping his eyes on the fight. There was a wall behind him that was covered by a curtain. Pim didn’t stop to think why someone would hang a piece of cloth there, he was only grateful to have something sturdy that could take his weight. He wanted to sit on the floor, but had enough sense to realise it would be a bad idea when he still might need to react quickly so he just leaned back and took a deep breath. His exhalation came out as a surprised squeak when the wall behind him disappeared and he fell backwards.
Pim blinked. He had definitely fallen on the floor inside, but as he looked up from flat on his back, he saw the sky. He sat up instantly and looked around. The walls were gone. The tower they’d been in was gone. His companions were gone.
“Hello?” Pim asked, keeping his voice at a moderate level. He couldn’t see any movement, only a tall rock face next to him, some bushes in front, and a large body of water on the other side. He looked down but his staff was gone as well. There was only a narrow dirt path he was sitting in the middle of, surrounded by underbrush and typical forest debris on either side. Feeling his panic rise, Pim tried to remain calm. In case it wasn’t all in his mind, he had probably been transported somewhere against his will and without any input from him. The curtain. It had to have been hiding a portal or similar behind. And he foolishly hadn’t taken the tiny moment it would’ve required to check, or to reposition himself slightly to lean on bare wall.
“Focus,” Pim whispered to himself. This was not the time to berate himself for being careless. He had to find out where he was, and how to get back. With the rock rising on one side and continuing as far behind as he could see, and some ways in front as well, and the sea or lake on the other side, his only options were to continue on the path where his nose was pointing, or to turn around. Behind he saw a thick forest with imposing trees. He didn’t like how dark the spaces between them looked. The bushes in front of him appeared far less intimidating, and although they were thick, he figured he’d be able to slip through. Determined, he approached them and took a moment to make sure he couldn’t see any thorns on the branches. He started pushing through.
After some struggling and wriggling and getting his hair snagged on little twigs, Pim finally managed to reach the other side. He took a moment to catch his breath and brush tiny leaves off his robe before he looked up. The tall rock was still by his side, but he could see it end abruptly just ahead on a near vertical cliff. The body of water lapped against the craggy shore. A short distance from where the rocks turned into soft soil, there was a bright red sofa.
Pim blinked in surprise. The path he’d been following continued ahead, disappearing into the woods after a small clearing. He couldn’t see anything else that didn’t belong in a forest. Just rocks and bushes, and the red sofa. He approached it cautiously, but there was nothing special about it. A plush sofa on wooden legs that wouldn’t look out of place in any average living room. It didn’t show any signs of having been out in the weather for any length of time. The fabric was slightly worn but unstained, and the legs were clean, apart from a solitary beetle climbing up one.
While standing there and trying to decide what to do, Pim started to feel the rush of the sudden transportation dissipate and the exhaustion from the earlier combat make itself known again. As a test, he poked the nearest cushion with his finger. Nothing alarming happened. It probably wasn’t the brightest move to make at the moment, but the familiar haze of having cast extensively was descending on him and Pim felt his thoughts turn sluggish. The sky was overcast, hiding the sun, but it didn’t smell or feel like it would rain soon. It wasn’t too cold, even with the gentle wind blowing above the nearby waves. Pim decided he’d be perfectly fine taking a quick nap on the sofa, and when he’d wake up, he’d be able to think about his situation. He sat down and waited to see if he’d fall through or get ported to another place. Nothing happened. He lay down and closed his eyes, dropping off immediately.
*****
Pim had no idea how much later he woke up, but his mind felt clearer. He looked out to the sea or lake, seeing and hearing the endless waves breaking on the rocks. Probably a sea, bigger waves there he reckoned. He could swear he could smell salt in the wind as well. That was good, it would help him locate himself. As Pim sat up, another thought occurred to him. He reached up with his hand and activated his linkpearl to the company frequency.
“Hello! Can anyone hear me?” he asked and waited. No response came. Either he was too far out of range, or something blocked the signal. “Guess I’m on my own.” Pim left his pearl be and stood up. The path in front of him remained unchanged, but when he turned towards the clearing, he stopped and gasped.
Where there had only been bushes and trees before, now a bar counter stood. Pim stared in utter confusion as people milled around in the area, their heels clicking on a wooden floor. A sharply dressed hyur man was behind the counter talking to a viera in front of it. Bits of everyday conversation started floating into Pim’s ears. He walked closer, noting that the floor just started in the forest with no obvious boundary between them. The further he got from the shore, the more solid wooden walls he saw around him, but the back never materialised to cover the sofa and the sea. If he tried to focus on where the walls ended, his gaze automatically skipped away.
“What could I get you, sweetie?”
Pim jumped at the sudden voice. He turned to look at a pleasantly smiling miqo’te woman. She was carrying a round wooden tray under one arm and a large jug in her hands.
“I uh, not sure,” Pim managed to stutter out.
“You look a bit pale. Our hearty hhetsarro stew would surely set you right,” she said with a smile.
“Het… what?”
Pim felt her take his arm gently and guide him to a table by the wall. He sat down when he noted a chair, trying not to think about the forest directly on the other side. The other patrons in the bar seemed entirely unbothered by the missing back wall. But no one walked to the red sofa that Pim could see.
“Do you see the sea behind there?” he asked the miqo’te woman and pointed. She looked at him with a polite yet blank expression.
“My grandmother painted that picture. It’s the prairie at sunrise,” she said. Her tone didn’t waver, but Pim could sense he’d offended her.
“I’m sorry. Guess I’m a bit out of sorts. How much is that stew?”
She gave him the price, with some genuine warmth returning to her voice. Pim dug around in his pockets until he found the correct sum and a little bit of extra. He handed it over and watched the miqo’te woman disappear through a door by the bar counter. When she opened it, Pim could see the forest on the other side.
“Where am I?” he muttered quietly to himself. It was like he existed in two places simultaneously, unlike everyone around him, and neither was anywhere he recognised. People kept walking in and out of the main entrance that led directly to the path Pim had been following. He couldn’t even guess what they saw, and didn’t dare to ask lest they deem him insane. He’d eat, try to collect his thoughts, and then decide on his next move.
“Here we go, steaming hot hhetsarro stew, with a little sprinkle of thyme on top. Enjoy!” The miqo’te woman smiled brightly, emphasising the freckles on her plump cheeks. This close to her, Pim could see she looked a bit tired and worn. He thanked her and watched her go greet the next customer. He felt detached and slightly anxious about his situation, but he made the conscious decision to push that all aside and enjoy the meal. He didn’t know what hhetsarro was, but it tasted delicious. Soon enough he was scraping the last bit of sauce from the bottom of the bowl.
Having his belly full helped Pim gain some clarity. He started paying closer attention to the people around him, noting that most of them were wearing clothes made out of lighter fabrics or leathers, in colours ranging from pale tan to faded blue. Most had what he’d categorise as adventuring gear, but some were also wearing more casual clothes that would be typical in any town or city. One hyur however was dressed in a bright red jacket with colourful stripes and frills in a style Pim had never seen before. The face was covered by a large round hat and goggles. Pim didn’t really know what to make of it; larger cities tended to have very weird fashions at times.
As his strength returned, so did Pim’s awareness of the aether around him. He was always distantly conscious of it, but now he honed in on the sensation. He could often roughly tell where he was from the flavour of the aether alone. This time however, something new gave the aether a warmer tint, like he’d picture the colour ochre to taste like. He was curious to explore it further, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to leave the bar quite yet. Outside the door he could see the forest, but something about the people’s attires made him feel like they didn’t belong there. The colours would make them stand out, not blend in like many adventurers preferred. And the airy fabrics wouldn’t protect them from the ocean breeze by the shore. Pim felt like he was building a puzzle with pieces from two different sets that fit together but made a nonsensical picture.
Suddenly the door flew open and five people burst in. They looked tired and bedraggled, and not at all pleased. The miqo’te woman who had served Pim earlier hurried to them.
“Any news?” she asked with tangible hope in her voice.
“Nothing,” one of the newcomers – a sizable hrothgar – said. He took off his wide-brimmed hat and sat at a large round table with his companions. “Seven search parties, not a single sighting. After three days, it ain’t looking good.”
The woman lowered her head in evident disappointment, but only for a moment.
“Thank you. Your order will be on the house,” she said and noted down what each person wanted.
Pim eavesdropped shamelessly. His first instinct was to ask what they were looking for and if he could help, but he controlled the impulse. He still wasn’t sure if he was fully there. When he turned to the back of the room, he could see the restless ocean and the trees and feel the breeze on his face. The front door seemed to lead to the same forest, but Pim wanted to test it. He drank the last of his water and stood up. No one paid any mind to him. He walked to the door and reached for the handle. The bar seemed to somehow grow more solid around him, and the sounds of the forest quieted. Feeling nervous, Pim opened the door.
A tumbleweed rolled past him. Pim lifted his eyes from the strange rotational pile of twigs and stared in awe at a scenery he’d never seen before. There were no trees anywhere in sight. The few bushes he spotted were scraggly and small, as if barely clinging to life. But it wasn’t a sandy desert like Sagolii, instead there was a dirt road in front of the building that was so dry it seemed to be disintegrating before his eyes with small dust particles rising into the air at the slightest agitation. The houses had wooden panelling at the front but it seemed hollow, as if only for decoration. Pim heard footsteps behind him and realised he was blocking the door. He stepped out, and when his feet left the wooden floor and hit the dirt, he felt a shift in his perception. All sense of plentiful life, the forest and the ocean breeze were gone, replaced by this strange place with yellow aether and nothing verdant in sight.
Pim had no idea where to go. He didn’t know how he’d ended up where he was, or how to find out. The people so far hadn’t been hostile, but that could change in an instant if he behaved too oddly. Evidently his green robe wasn’t out of place as no one had commented on it within his hearing or approached him with questions. He needed information. The best place for information Pim knew – outside of a bar like the one he’d just vacated – was a library. And that seemed like innocent enough of a question, asking where one could find a library.
Pim followed the road towards the largest building he could see. By his reckoning, the bigger the building, the more people around it. Hopefully he would just blend into the mass and not draw any attention.
“Mama, that man is green!”
“Shush! Don’t shout, it’s rude.”
Pim heard what was clearly a child’s voice, hushed by a woman behind him. He turned around, seeing a hyur lady with a child of about four summers. She smiled awkwardly at him.
“I do apologise. We don’t get many strangers here.”
“No worries, I don’t, uhh, often come here either,” Pim said. “Say, would you be able to point me to the library?”
“The library?” the woman asked. There was no recognition on her face.
“Place with many books,” Pim said. He had a sinking feeling that he was even further from home than he’d realised.
“Ohh, the town archive! It’s that blue building next to the town hall,” the woman said and pointed at the large building Pim had been making his way towards. He thanked her and continued on his way, swishing his fluffy tail to the child’s immense amusement as he went by.
Finding the blue building proved easy. The other houses were red or brown or yellow, each one a different colour at the front. When Pim glanced to their sides, there was more often than not just untreated wood. It was curious, but irrelevant to his current plight. Pim had to smile at himself. A couple of turns ago he would’ve gotten distracted by the houses and forgotten about his purpose, possibly getting himself into worse trouble. Perhaps there was some point to it when the others noted he had become slightly more responsible.
The door to the archive building was open a slit. Pim hesitated for a while in front of it, wondering if he should knock or just enter. As he loitered, he realised there was a strange coolness coming from inside, contrasting strongly against the heat of the streets. His curiosity increasing, Pim pulled the door further open.
“Hello?” he asked before stepping over the threshold. He couldn’t see much inside the dim space, but he heard someone moving not too far away, perhaps in another room. Pim walked further in. There were several filing cabinets and books on shelves, but the wall behind them looked odd. Leaning closer, he found it to not just look like stone but feel like it too when he touched it with his finger. The building had appeared wooden from the outside, but perhaps that was just to make it look nice. He took another step deeper into the room. As he did so, he noticed the floor was uneven. A glance down revealed that he had stepped from smooth planks to a rough stone surface.
Pim lifted his gaze. What had just moments ago been the back of the room was now an uneven stone wall. He turned around, but the archive building was becoming distant in a disorienting haze that made him want to avert his eyes. He tried to resist, but found himself looking aside. As soon as he did, the last remnants of the room faded and he was left in a dark cave.
“Help.”
Pim’s ears automatically turned towards the sound. It was faint but he got an impression of the general direction. He waited a moment to allow his eyes to adjust, but there appeared to be no light in the place. He started moving with his hands in front of him.
“Hello? Could you repeat that?” he asked and stopped to listen.
“Here,” someone said. A man’s voice, sounding weak and gravelly. Pim tried to head towards it but he encountered an obstacle. He ran his hands over what turned out to be a pile of rocks blocking his path as far as he could reach in each direction. Despite his eyes being generally good in the dark, he couldn’t see anything. He felt vulnerable without Moonsorrow and its reliable crystal.
“I can’t find a way through. Where are we?” Pim asked. He felt a larger boulder near the ground with his hands and cautiously placed his foot on it. Reaching with his hands, he was able to find an outcropping higher up that was the right shape and sturdy enough to hold onto. He pushed off the ground and stepped onto the rock.
“In the canyon. I’m trapped,” the person said.
Pim was none the wiser by the reply, but he heard the despair in the man’s voice. He felt around with his foot for another stone to climb on.
“Don’t worry, I’m coming to you. Are you hurt?”
“I think so. I’ve been pinned under this rock so long I don’t know. I can’t get out.”
“I’m sure we’ll find a way. Can you see anything?” Pim asked. He stepped on another stone, but this one slipped out of the pile the moment he put his weight on it and it slid down, causing a rumble and some debris to fall on him.
“What was that?” the man asked.
“Nothing, just… work in progress. What’s your name?”
“Colt Donovan. Please, get me out of here.”
“Nice to meet you Colt, I’m–” another crash, “Pim. How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. Time has been stretching and skipping, feels like an eternity but can’t be more than a couple of days, I’m still alive after all. Lost all my gear and water in the collapse.”
Pim nodded. “Solid logic,” he said and reached for another rock. He hadn’t felt any crevasses or cavities in the pile, but he hoped there might be space at the top, or at least that the rocks would be more sparse there.
“What are you doing?” Colt asked after a brief silence during which Pim climbed higher and set off more rocks sliding and rolling down.
“I’m trying to get over this pile to reach you,” he replied. He hadn’t made it high yet, seeming to lose as much ground as he gained with each step.
“It’s not a hill to climb over. There was an avalanche above me in the canyon that buried me under. The rubble could go all the way to the top. Best you return the way you came and bring in a rescue party to dig me out.”
Colt’s words made Pim pause. He hopped down from the rock he’d climbed on and landed on his knees on the uneven floor. From there, he kept his hands on the floor and moved towards the nearest wall that wasn’t the pile he’d been trying to climb. As he felt around, he realised there was no difference. Every direction he tried, he encountered a mass of sand and rocks and sharp craggy stones. There was no way out.
“Pim? You’ve gone quiet. Are you there? I didn’t imagine you, did I? Is this what death feels like?”
“I’m here,” Pim said after a pause. He closed his useless eyes and took a deep breath. This was not the time to get frantic, he needed to find a way to rescue Colt. And evidently, himself.
“What’s going on? Aren’t you going to get the search party?”
“Umm, about that. I don’t have a way out.”
Colt was silent for a beat. “Did you collapse the path with your mucking about?”
“No, I didn’t have one to begin with. I… I just appeared here.”
Pim could hear the disbelief in Colt’s voice. “You just appeared here. I am hallucinating after all. Forgive me Nawmezi, I don’t think I’m coming home to you. This is it. I wish we’d had more time together, but alas, my end has come. All my plans and dreams, extinguished by a rock slide. And I didn’t even catch the prey I was after. Everything for nothing. A life, so quickly snuffed out, a future–”
“Don’t give up so easily,” Pim interjected. “I didn’t lie when I said I just appeared here. I’ve been shifting between places, like instances of teleportation, and if another one occurs, I might be able to bring you along. I don’t know what’s been causing them, but they’ve been rather frequent ever since that tower. So cheer up, there’s plenty of hope left.”
“Who are you anyway?” Colt asked. He sounded calmer, but not in a serene way, more like his spirit had broken.
“Just an adventurer from the Shroud.”
“The what now?”
“The Black Shroud. Twelveswood. A very big forest.”
“You’ve come from far away then. There are no forests here.”
“Where is here?” Pim finally felt brave enough to ask.
“Shaaloani. A very big prairie.”
“I’ve never heard of that, but never mind. Do you have any magical powers?”
“None whatsoever. Do you?” Colt asked in a voice dripping incredulity.
“I do. The aether here feels slightly odd, not alarmingly so, just different. Like a batch of mixed berry jam with more rolanberry.”
“Don’t talk about food.”
“Sorry. But my point is, I got here by magic, so that must be the way out too. If I only knew how…”
“Can’t you just cast a spell and get us out?”
Pim sat down and leaned his back against the wall where he heard Colt’s voice the clearest. Considering how little Colt knew about magic, it seemed unlikely that he had somehow summoned him there. Pim didn’t think he was lying about it either.
“It’s not that simple. I don’t know how to transport myself or how to create portals. I didn’t arrive here voluntarily, someone else pulled me.”
“Who?”
“If I knew that, I could try to connect with them or maybe try to direct the movement. Get you out that way,” Pim said and paused. Just because he didn’t know who was transporting him, didn’t mean he couldn’t try to reach them. He probably should’ve done that at the first change of location. As always, he just didn’t think in time.
“I don’t care how you do it, just hurry,” Colt said with a dark voice.
Pim closed his eyes. He wished he had his staff, but it hopefully remained in the tower. Any other possibilities didn’t bear thinking about. Pushing everything else aside, he started drawing in aether and centring himself. Amongst the rocks and sand, there was a surprising amount of life. Pim spent a moment just taking it all in, allowing the ambient flow of the place to fill him and become familiar to him. Gradually, he started becoming aware of specific signatures. Colt was a bright spot in his consciousness but he ignored him. He tried to reach far out, but there were no presences that he could read that would’ve registered as strong enough to be people.
“Do you know any mages?” he asked. Colt didn’t think about his answer for long.
“No. I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen magic happen.”
Pim nodded and kept immersing himself in the flows. Patterns were forming, swirling in place, leading away and around.
“There were rumours that Nawmezi’s grandmother was a witch, but I never met her. Oh Nawmezi, my beloved. If only–”
Pim stopped paying attention to Colt’s words. When he mentioned Nawmezi’s name, Pim felt a spike of something at the edge of his awareness. As Colt kept droning on about his presumed partner, Pim tried to hone in on the sensation. A thin trickle of aether. Originating near Colt and reaching out. Pim sent his own aether to meet it, and the world tilted.
“What was that?” Colt exclaimed in alarm. Pim blinked his eyes open, to no avail in the darkness. He belatedly realised how close Colt’s voice was.
“I don’t know,” Pim said. After a brief pause, he felt someone touch him.
“How are you here now?” Colt asked.
“It must’ve been the same magic that pulled me along in the first place. Whether you’re doing it consciously or not, you’re sending aether out. I felt it the strongest when you mentioned Moomezi.”
“Nawmezi. She’s my wife.”
Pim felt the spike again. In such close proximity to Colt, he felt the place of origin more clearly and allowed his hands to reach for it. After some groping in the dark, he latched onto Colt’s hand.
“What are you doing?” Colt asked. He didn’t pull away.
“Are you wearing a bracelet or something?” Pim asked as he felt for something to explain the aether.
“No, nothing. I have a wedding ring though.”
“Is it enchanted?”
“No,” Colt said with an indignant tone. “It’s an heirloom from Nawmezi’s grandparents, she has a matching band.”
“From the one who might’ve been a witch? That could well be it. Perhaps there’s some connection between them, and you thinking about your wife makes your aether reach for her through the ring.”
“That sounds ridiculous. And how would you fit in with all of this then? Are you our child from the future or something?”
Pim almost considered it but he quickly shook his head. “No, of course not. Maybe my aether just somehow responds to the flavour of yours, or I was near a portal tuned to the right frequency, I don’t know. But we can maybe use this. Perhaps, if Nawmezi thinks about you too and reaches for you with her aether, I could somehow try to bridge the gap and unite you. If there’s an enchantment on the rings, it might physically bring us there.”
“I’m at a point where I’m willing to try anything. So how do we do this?”
Colt seemed to sense from how long Pim hesitated that he had no clue how to proceed. They sat in silence for a moment until Colt cleared his throat.
“Would it help if I told you about Nawmezi?”
“Well it can’t hurt. Maybe I could get some sort of feeling about her, and would know what to look for and try to reach out aetherically again. Go on.”
Colt didn’t need more encouragement. “Nawmezi is the most beautiful woman that ever lived, and I don’t mean just how attractive she looks. She’s kind to everyone, the most caring person you’ve ever met, and when she swings those hips, you’ll want to saddle up and say ‘yeehaw’. She has soft brown eyes and full cheeks full of freckles, each of which is worthy of a kiss.”
Pim pictured a face in his mind. There was something vaguely familiar in Colt’s description but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He reached out with his aether, trying to filter all the ambient flows and focus on any rogue tendrils that came across as determined.
“She works at the saloon. Her family owns it. Her grandfather built the house with his own hands, as he never lets anyone forget. Nawmezi is proud of her heritage, and dreams of one day running the place. At the moment she’s a waitress, and folk come in from all over the prairie just to see her. But her heart belongs to me, and me alone.”
“Saloon is like a restaurant?” Pim asked, starting to draw a connection.
“Yes, or a bar. They have food and drinks and merriment. She–”
“I think I met her,” Pim said. The woman who had served him in the place with the red sofa. She fit the description.
“I thought you just popped here from your world?”
“No, I first ended up in a forest, then a bar. Or the saloon. Maybe it was she who was pulling me in all along.”
Instead of arguing, Colt asked: “Does that help us somehow?”
“Maybe. Give me a moment.”
Pim thought back to when he woke up on the red sofa. He’d been confused and a little bit scared, but he remembered the sounds and smells around him. The miqo’te woman with the round tray and apron. He hadn’t been actively reading her, but something of her aether must’ve registered to him. He tried to think about anything he would’ve felt, any subconscious observations he might’ve made but not paid attention to. All he could really remember was her smile and kind tone.
“She is the sun of my life,” Colt noted.
Yes. Radiant, warm, bright. Pim held the image in his mind and opened himself up fully. The aether trail from Colt’s ring rose near him. He followed its trajectory and reached out, pushing his aether further away. Time meant nothing, distance was immaterial, he was an arrow of aether travelling into the wide sky. The ambient flows kept circulating, but there were occasional disruptions in the patterns. A lizard. A bird. A brush of something weak yet potent. Pim turned his being around and chased after the sensation.
“What’s going on? You’re panting like you’re running a race.”
Pim didn’t hear Colt’s words. He didn’t feel the hard ground under his head. His entire essence was stretching for the bright trail of aether that was quickly fading. Another burst and he could push out a tendril to touch it.
Somewhere not too far away, a miqo’te woman jolted so violently she dropped the tray she’d been carrying. Five pints clattered to the floor and spilled beer everywhere. Amidst the exclamations of surprise and calls for a mop, she felt rather than heard someone speak her name.
“Yes?” Nawmezi said, feeling too disconnected from reality to know whether she was talking out loud or not.
“Think about him. Colt. Put all of your being into it,” the voice said. Nawmezi didn’t question the command. Simply hearing the name brought images of her husband to her mind. He was all she had been thinking about these days since he went missing. She whispered his name and saw nothing but his face, smiling in that roguish way he had. The bustle around her was so far away she could ignore it. Someone touched her and asked if she was alright, but that was easy to brush aside as well. Colt was all that mattered. She raised her ring to her lips and kissed it gently.
“Come back to me,” she whispered.
Back in the canyon, Pim barely managed to contain the sudden flow of aether pouring in from her. He clung to the mass with his own aether and directed her towards the small trail emanating from Colt. All efforts of slowing her down failed, and they crashed into Colt with all the strength she had sent. Pim lost his grip and the world exploded in colours.
*****
For years to come, the story of how Colt was saved from the rock slide by the power of love was told. Nawmezi wouldn’t share much about her experience. Someone had called her name and directed her heart towards her beloved. That was all she needed to know. How that had resulted in Colt appearing in the middle of the saloon was anyone’s guess.
Colt himself barely knew more. He said someone had appeared there with him and connected the couple. Since there was no light, he’d never seen his saviour. He wasn’t even fully sure he’d been real.
A turn later when they had their first child, they named her Pimnezi. People wondered about the strange name that was not traditional to any tribe in the area, but Nawmezi and Colt refused to elaborate on it.
They knew why.