Ni'Srilan: The Desert: catatonic overload; AVERNA and AMARO

"The two most common elements in the world are hydrogen and stupidity"

Perhaps if he’d been less hard-headed – less assured of the adequacy of his raw explanations, he would have seen the absurdity of his own argument. With the same certainty that he maintains the mundane chance of his condition (he would probably object that it could happen to anyone with two Fire genes), someone else could propose that, perhaps, there is a reason for this that transcends such simple (yet elaborate) terms.

Kurai, Cyan’s grandfather, is one of those horses.

She mentions her son, and his eyes dart across the edge of the Oasis to where the colt lay sleeping. “Freaky?” Cyan echoes, inclining his handsome jet-black head to one side and scrutinizing the foal with emerald eyes. He looks back to Averna. “He seems fairly normal to me,” of course he knows that he can’t tell anything from what he’s seen of the child, but he’s curious – curious because it is as close to sympathy as he can get. He can only think it wasn’t easy for his mother, Lebanon, to deal with the fact that her kid was glowing.

Cyan didn’t have many friends growing up. He doesn’t have many friends now. He can’t decide whether to attribute it to his strange appearance, or his cynical, manipulative attitude. Maybe he doesn’t care.

But he’s interested in this soon-to-be scholar and her son who is not what he seems. “The Academy is an excellent place to study,” he remarks. “And don’t worry – the heat loses its effect with time. Or you die of heat stroke. Whichever comes first.” he shrugs, casually blurring the line between jest and gravity with that uncanny ability to remain inexorably calm.

His gaze drifts back to Amaro, involuntarily – he wonders, watching the sleeping child, what absurdities lie inside that small sienna form.

He wishes it were all as simple as asking questions.

C Y A N;
break this empty shell forevermore;
FIRE III