Adah-kah sat silently above the vast basin which had once
been a great pool of water. The hood of
his cloak, so often worn up to hide his features in shadow, was thrown back and
his legs dangled over the edge. Below, other Nekhanj milled about, regaining
their strength and agility after years in stasis. Many of them were nude, having entered stasis
that way and not yet having gathered clothes.
The nudity didn’t bother him so much, he knew what the anatomy of his
race was and he’d had years to practice an understanding of separating sexual
urges from his moment-to-moment motivations.
Still, he was disquieted.
For a decade and a half he’d been alone.
His race a mystery and illusion, Adah-kah himself the only
representative most of the people he’d met had known. He felt more brotherhood for the other
members of Ioun’s religion than for the Nekhanj around him. I’m not sure what I imagined. Did I think I’d be connected to them?
The luminescence above the cavern twinkled and flickered, almost
like near stars. Adah-kah stared out
into the dusky light. Did they think
they’d be connected to me?
It was an uncomfortable thought. Like his companions, he was generally thought
to be the last of his race. And in
proving that untrue, Metkin had named him “chosen” and “waited for.” He was a key figure to a race he’d never
known. Their culture had very little to
do with his. And does it have any semblance
to what Nekhanj culture had been before?
These warriors who trained over and over to fight an enemy they’d never
seen? Who are, as a rule, little older
than me? What will they do when the
fight is won?
Glancing down at his hands, Adah-kah sighed. Will they look to me to lead? Am I ready to surrender my studies now that I’ve
found their goal, the people who I’d searched for? And if they turn once more to conquest?
Below, some of the Nekhanj saluted him and moved to climb
out of the basin. I would be forced to fight them. The world has suffered enough war. It’s time for peace, even if it cannot last. Regardless of all else, that I know.
Resolve returned, he sat once more in silence, meditating on
the questions he’d confronted himself with.
He sat there until someone came to retrieve him.
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