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Chapter 18 - Thirst
Metheus
I knew many beautiful women. Arrowspear had plenty of them, and they dressed as they wanted with cleavages out and dresses hugging their curves. It was not like in Mogochislenia, where everyone covered themselves up, only to strip for secret trysts. My mind inadvertently went to Luella’s fatal rendezvous. I had to shake off the unpleasant feeling it gave me.
Many Arrowspear women were attracted to me, but Cora was the most persistent. Many could not stand the chilly reaction they often received. I could not help it. It was just the way I was.
Then, Luella came along. There was something about her, not just beauty. I remembered how I hated her appearance. Her undisguised vanity. She never apologized for it. Instead, she held it like a weapon. As I discovered more about Luella, however, I realized that it was more like a shield. She flaunted her beauty to avoid being pitied.
Married to me, she regained some hope and clung to the illusion that we were a happy couple in love. She knew it was not real, but she still held on to it.
Watching the desert had calmed her, heat watching heat. She had rested her back on my chest, and I did not resist. Even though she had become my wife, she was practically a stranger. However, our intimacy seemed natural. She probably thought I was brave, allowing her nearness like that. For a moment, I felt like a fraud.
“It is still early, Luella. I will introduce you to a group of witches,” I said.
“Witches?” her voice had taken a cheerful tone.
“Yes, we have them, as well,” I said.
“D-do you have witch blood in you, Metheus?”
I felt the hope in her voice.
“No,” I said, firmly squashing that hope.
“Oh.”
We rode onto the desert. Soon, the sands made way to an oasis. Palm trees surrounded a pond. I knew little huts where The Seers lived could be found amid this formation. Of course, Luella was not aware of it. I wondered how she was taking everything in and whether she liked what she saw.
“The Seers live inside that oasis,” I informed her, no longer able to wait for her reaction.
“Are they telepaths? My mother’s friend Diana is one.”
“They are, in a way. However, seeing the future and distant lands is not their only talent. They can also make people see what they see.”
“I would like to see what they see,” she declared.
I had been to this oasis several times. However, each visit still felt like the first. Once you were right in front of it, you would feel engulfed. Even at my height, I felt small in the presence of such glory.
We walked in silence, side by side. When we entered the oasis, Luella gasped. I glanced at her, saw how her eyes widened at the sight of the pond and the huts, and knew that she was as awestruck as I was when I first came to the Seers’ Village.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked, knowing her answer, anyway.
“I love it! I know we cannot stay here, but I almost wish we could,” she gushed.
“Almost?”
“I – I do not want to impose on the witches, and everyone will worry about us.”
As we neared the huts, an old woman with pale, freckled skin and brown curly hair met with us. Her name was Aruna. She was older than my father, but looked only a few years older than I was.
“Metheus, it has been a long time,” she enunciated. Then, moving only her head, she turned to Luella. “And who is this?”
“She is my wife, Aruna. Her name is Luella.”
“I take it she is not from here,” Aruna observed, her eyes looking Luella up and down. I could almost feel my wife’s indignation at being so openly appraised, and not in a good way.
“No, she is a princess from Mogochislenia,” I said, but I knew Aruna could already see it. The pupils of her eyes were gone, possibly traveling into another world.
