This was a dilemma. They couldn’t just kill the man after he had cooperated, but they couldn’t let him go back to the Red Hand either. Then there was what he said about the man named Martin Alicceson. Aliceson, son of Alice, Martin son of Gregory by Alice. It seemed to similar to be a coincidence, but all of Darin hoped it was just that. But if it wasn’t that meant things that Darin didn’t even want to think about. Did he leave to join the Red Hand or did that come later? Did she want the answer to that question? Why was she even asking these questions when it was possible it wasn’t the same man at all? The more important question was what was she doing to do with the prisoner now?

She stood and brushed off the seat of her pants, “I want to speak to him before I make any decisions regarding his fate. I owe him that much. Take me to him. Please.”

With that Darin followed Ridahne off the roof and towards a windowless hut guarded by two tajas. The temperature inside was much higher than outside, but it bearable and the human girl could tell that it had significantly decreased. In the center of the small room was a human man with a noose on his neck and his hands bound. He looked tired. He looked up as she entered. Darin fell to sit in front of him with one foot flat against the ground and the other tuck under her. She looked at him and resisted the urge to sigh. His dark eyes held a look of shock before becoming impassive. What was going on in his head.

Her voice was clear, “I am Darin. What is your name?”

^_^

Harai looked up in surprise as a The Seed-Bearer came into the hut. Her eyes were closed as she came in and for a brief moment, he foolishly thought that it was Martin Aliceson.Then her eyes opened to reveal that there were a shocking green color. She sat and Harai decided either he wasn’t remembering what Aliceson looked like properly or The Seed-Bearer and him were related somehow. That would explain why the Taja had been so interested in that name. Harai also thought it was interesting that the woman in front of him looked disheveled, wind-tossed, and salt covered. Almost as if she was pretending to be ordinary or didn’t care how she looked.

Her voice was clear, cool, and reminded the man of robin’s summer song, “I am Darin. What is your name?”

Harai tossed a quick glace at the female Taja behind the human girl before licking his lips and answering, “I am Harai.”

She nodded, “Harai. Tell me about your life?”

That was so far from what he was expecting that it caught him off guard, “What? You don’t want to know about the Red Hand.”

She gestured out with a hand, indicating the other woman, “I’m sure that my Taja questioned you thoroughly about the Red Hand. I’m sure she knows if you spoke truth or lies. I want to know about you. What was your life like before the Red Hand? What is it like now?”

Despite himself Harai found himself speaking about being the only son of a poor miner with six sisters and a mother that died giving birth to the youngest. He spoke about learning how to mine for coal in a mine running dry. He spoke of how the mines always seemed claustrophobic and how his sisters cried when he left, but he left with his family’s and his father’s blessing. That was all he left with as the family didn’t have anything to spare. He spoke of having not seen them for years and missing them, but guilt keeping away. Maybe if he had been there two seasons after he left his father wouldn’t have died in that mine collapse.

He spoke of the Red Hand and how they promised better lives for everyone. He spoke about how alluring it was to have money to send home for doing simple things like wander around and just listen for gossip. He related that the goal was to claim The Seed so more than one person would be in charge of Its safety. He recalled how he saw The Gardener just once, but he looked well feed and put together. How could someone like that ever understand what someone like him, who staved for seasons in a row to make sure his younger sisters had enough to eat, truly needed from The Seed and from society.

He ended his lengthy discussion with a question, “How can [i]you[/i], a person who has never starved a day in your life ever be able to help someone like me? Or is you plan just to help all the nobles and the wealthy?”

There was silence for a moment as The Seed-Bearer considered that. Then she spoke in an almost impossibly soft voice, “When I was fifteen my father left my mother and me in the middle of winter, leaving only enough supplies to last until planting if we rationed it very carefully. My mother lost herself to the heartbreak and vanished somewhere in her mind. And I starved for the rest of winter all the way till the end of harvest so that way my mother wouldn’t. It is not quite the same as siblings, but I do know what it means to starve for another person.” She stood, “You don’t have to like me. You don’t have to respect me. But I don’t know you, so don’t pretend to know me.” She nodded her head, “Good night Harai. I will see you tomorrow.”

Then she left and Harai was left staring at her back. If she was Aliceson’s daughter like he thought what did that say about the man that he would abandon his wife and daughter? He didn’t doubt that what she said was true. There was something about the way she said it that meant he couldn’t doubt it. She knew what it meant to starve. And it she clearly knew a thing or two about heartbreak. And she wasn’t afraid of saying it. She didn’t seem like some high born noble. Actually, the way she had spoken, the questions she had asked about the mines and his family led him to believe that she was ordinary, like him. Could The Seed-Bearer just be ordinary? And what did that mean if she was?

^_^

Darin didn’t know what to do. Harai seemed like a good man who was plagued by guilt and just wanted to help his family. He hadn’t actually committed any crimes and wasn’t attacking her or Ridahne or anybody. Just killing him felt wrong in way that made Darien want to be physically sick. Besides Ridahne and told him that cooperating would be worth it. Did she want to make her sister a promise breaker? That didn’t mean that she could just let him go back to the Red Hand either. She wasn’t sure what to do and she desperately wanted advice. Then with stunning clarity that meant the thought could have only come as inspiration from The Tree Darin knew who she could go to for advice. She let out a groan of frustration. She didn’t want to go to them. That would require the swallowing of pride and perhaps an apology and she didn’t want to. She let out another groan. The woman did lead a country and Darin did need to learn how to do that.

Then she grabbed a passing Taja, “I require a private audience with the Sota-Sol to discuss matters with her. I will be bringing my Taja and ask that she limit herself to one as well.” Darin steeled herself, “I await her invitation, but urge that it come quickly.”