Hessen was very careful to tell Suni to watch her behavior and speech; he wanted her to act the part of a divine messenger to gain their respect. It lasted for a little under two weeks, which was longer than he expected. Currently, a month after her first appearance in the mountain, Suni sat in a meeting, head resting in her palm and eyes crossed to look at the pencil she was wiggling between her upper lip and nose.

“Arha!”

The pencil fell from its perch and tumbled onto the floor.

[i]Leave it, Suni[/i]

Suni reluctantly abandoned the pencil and sat straight in her chair, turning her attention to the six men and women seated around her. 

Faro, the man who had first stepped forward for her a month before, handed her a folder, “Arha, the six of us have each written reports for you to look over. They will give you an idea of the current state of affairs here in Pale and the greater Vaharan mountain range, as well as our suggestions of how to move forward.”

Suni accepted the folder sagely. 

“If you don’t mind, we’ll go over the financial reports first.” Suni shuffled through the folder and brought one of the packets to the front. She looked at Faro and gave him a slight nod. He gestured to the woman sitting across from him. “Tilda?”

The woman was thin and had a pinched face with high cheekbones. She stood and cleared her throat, “It will be difficult for us to find the proper funds to repair the generators, but once the capital meets– Arha, you’re looking at the wrong report.” 

“Oh sorry, I can’t tell which is which.”

“Pardon?”

“Well, I can’t read them.”

Tilda blinked rapidly several times, “Why didn’t you tell us earlier you couldn’t read?”

“You never asked.”

“Now, now, no need to get worked up over this,” Faro said and motioned Tilda to sit back down. "Arha, we’ll arrange a tutor for you. With your intelligence I’m sure you’ll be able to learn in no time.”

Suni looked back down at the packet. The words on the smooth rock paper looked like masses of black horizontal blurs. “Oh, I don’t think that will be necessary. I can’t see well enough to read.” 

Faro pinched the bridge of his nose, “Arha, I will schedule a time to go over the reports with you. For now I suggest we adjourn our meeting.”

Suni glanced up at Hessen, who was resting on her head, his head dangling onto her forehead and front limbs splayed out to the sides.

[i]He means pause it until later.[/i]

Suni leaned back in her chair and kicked her feet up onto the table, face screwed into a glare. “I think we should hold off on doing anything drastic until I visit the capital. Nothing matters until everyone in Vaharan knows of my existence and our God’s presence. After that, I will go to Azoras and demand they share their resources so we can restore Pale and other cities here. Let’s say… in about six months.”

The advisors exchanged uneasy glances around the table, “Six months, Arha?” Gallen asked from next to Tilda,  “Should we not wait until you’re an adult?”

“No worries. I’ll be fully grown by then.”

It seemed preposterous, and yet made sense at the same time. In the short month she had been here, Suni had grown from a large child to a teenager that towered over the tallest man in the mountain. Tilda opened her mouth to protest, but Faro held up a hand to stop her. “Arha, if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

Somehow Suni had retrieved the pencil from the ground without anyone noticing and returned it to its rightful place on her upper lip, “A year and eight months now I think. I don’t really keep track.”

“That’s impossible,” Tilda muttered under her breath.

Suni sprang on top of the table in one fluid motion, the pencil clattered to the floor once more. “Are you accusing me of lying, Tilda?”

The older woman shrank back in her chair, “No, Arha! Never! I only, it’s just, outside the realm of my knowledge how such a thing could be possible.”

Suni sighed and shook her head, walking along the edge of the circular table, “I told you when I got here. I was sent here by your god. Don’t you see? He [i]made[/i] me for this. My sole purpose is to act as his messenger.” They looked up at her, eyes full of wonder and worship. Suni squatted down in front of Tilda, marble eyes unblinking. Her tail patted the woman lightly on the cheek. “There’s nothing to worry about. Six months from now I’m going to make the bastards from Azoras bow their heads to me.”

That evening, Faro came across Suni in the library. She was resting on her stomach, head cupped in her hands and legs bent over until they touched the ground in a scorpion shape. An open tome lay in front of her.

“Arha.”

“Faro.”

“What are you doing?”

Hessen turned the page with a flick of his tail. The barest hint of a smile danced on Suni’s face. “Why, reading, of course.”