Chapter 19: Transgression
THE night breeze gently brushed Unen’s cheeks.
She began to speak quietly, under the watchful eye of the star-filled sky. “When I started getting jobs to make maps outside of Yezero, I got an idea. If I continue to gradually spread my scope, so that one day I’ll come to make a map of the world, I might be able to see Hereh again. And this time, I want to thank him properly for all he did for me. I want to thank him for taking me with him. For raising me.”
The light from the lantern at her feet dimly detailed the surroundings. Only the flicker of its orange flames proved that they were in the here and now.
They were on the rooftop of the turret with the best view of the kingdom, the same place Unen had come under attack that very afternoon. Unen had ascended the stairs to the roof with Mouru and Ori following close behind after the banquet ended.
“We don’t have to worry about anyone overhearing us here,” Mouru assured.
Just as he had said, the land below the starry sky, for as far as they could see, was devoid of people. There was no one aside from them.
Unen finished telling the two men before her everything she had to share at last. She studied both of their faces closely, waiting for a reaction. “Hereh said he was being hunted by people he was once allied with. And…Ori, you brought up your ‘village’ when we were talking in that room just this evening.”
“Unen, you’re Hereh’s child who supposedly died, aren’t you?” Mouru had pressed her in the antechamber—only for Ori to immediately raise an objection.
“Her age doesn’t match up.” Ori glanced Unen over. “Aren’t you fifteen now? That man left the village over fifteen years ago.”
Repeating Ori’s words in her head, Unen firmly took control of the conversation. “I told you the truth, per our promise. Now it’s your turn to give me the truth.”
Mouru huffed loudly and shot Ori a dirty look. Then, the creases in his brow eased, and he shrugged. “Guess it’s my fault for purposely aggravating the situation by keeping to myself the possibility she might not be blood-related…”
“Purposely aggravating?” Ori cocked an eyebrow.
“Well, you know how my mind works. But this just goes to prove he didn’t run off to enjoy a second chance at life with a new wife and kid.” Mouru tossed Ori a sardonic smile, then faced Unen, the right corner of his lip curling up to accompany the ever-present cocky glint in his eyes. “By the way, I’m guessing your birthplace was in the outskirts of Roggen. How ‘bout it? Am I right?”
“All traces of Hereh disappeared completely around there,” Ori supplied.
“You’re giving away the information too soon, Ori!”
Ori turned his gaze coolly away from Mouru’s protests. They were in an unusually good mood, likely because they had obtained new information from Unen.
Unen was completely capable of deflecting his assertion that she was Hereh’s child. She had chosen to tell them the truth. In order to force their hand, she exchanged the information she knew to make them drop their own lies. But most of all, Unen was fed up with their ambiguous relationship, where it was unclear whether they were her friends or foes.
“You were trying to throw me off when you asked me to make a map of Roggen.”
“Perfect answer.” Mouru showed her a real smile. “No one ever imagined that Hereh had a child with him, after all. That’s probably why the tracks stopped temporarily at Roggen, didn’t they?” he said, looking over at Ori for affirmation.
“They did.”
Earning his partner’s agreement, Mouru brought his gaze back to meet Unen’s. “But it was only a matter of time before he would be captured again as long as he continued his work as a doctor. In that sense, he made the right choice to take you and seclude himself inside a forest after a year of travel.”
For six years, they had lived quietly in hiding, away from human habitation. To Unen, those days had been happy. But how had it been for Hereh? Once again, doubt clamored inside her, and she bit down on the inside of her cheek. Considering Hereh had left Yezero alone in the end, Unen’s existence had undeniably been a burden on him.
Mouru dropped his shoulders and made a reluctant smile that was a strange blend of deeply bitter and wryly amused. “Anyway, you’ve got me in a bind now. I feel like we have to return the favor to a degree since you’ve gone and laid bare all your secrets.” He looked at Ori beside him, both eyebrows raised as if to wordlessly ask for Ori’s opinion.
Ori loudly exhaled and stepped forward. “We’re from the same village as Hereh. We’re hunting him down to get back the Book of Secrets he brought out of the village without permission.”
Unen was a little surprised at how Ori, not the smooth-talker Mouru, was taking the lead, but she quickly gathered her thoughts and asked, “So being on a job for the Legendary Mage Notsors was a lie?”
“…Not all of it was a lie.”
“Then how much of it was true? For that matter, are the Notsors you speak of and the Notsors I know of the same person? While we’re at it, does Notsors even exist?”
She waited a few minutes, but Ori didn’t answer any of her questions. An unreadable veil cloaked his deadpan face per usual. He simply set his lips in a straight line and furrowed his brow until the creases had made deep trenches.
Unen threw up her hands and sighed at them. “You guys said that you’re observing me.”
Hearing that, Ori promptly shot daggers with his eyes at Mouru, the opposite of what had happened just a few minute ago. Mouru merely turned his face toward where the sun would rise with a shameless look of indifference.
Ori eyed Mouru with a frosty glare for some time, but he eventually gave up and returned his attention to Unen. Answering her as if carefully picking each word, he said, “Knowledge is power. And great, unnecessary power gives birth to needless discord in the world. What happened with Vrba is a good example of that.”
“But as far as I know, Hereh never caused any strife or discord around him. If anything, he helped a great many people.”
Mouru took over when Ori hesitated. “So far he hasn’t,” he countered.
What is that supposed to mean?
Reading the question on her face before she asked it, Mouru added, “There’s no guarantee anywhere that he will continue to be a good person. Besides, the actions he has taken for ‘good’ may eventually backfire on him.”
Unen made an incredulous expression. “The same goes for everyone—myself as well as you two. And I find you both more questionable than Hereh.”
Mouru rolled his eyes and shrugged dramatically. “Well, yeah, it’s only natural to have more trust in someone you’ve lived with for years than people you’ve just met. Sheesh.”
Unen gave Mouru a disgusted look. Then, mustering everything within her, she mercilessly shot them where it hurt. “That’s not the problem. You aren’t trustworthy because you’re still lying to me.”
Ori sharply caught his breath. Mouru’s eyes narrowed on Unen.
“Your objective isn’t just to bring back the Book of Secrets. I’ve fallen under your surveillance just for being taught by Hereh. Furthermore, Mouru said you want to prevent the spread of knowledge. Putting the pieces together, it’s easy to see that you need to drag Hereh back with you along with the Book of Secrets.”
Unen thought back on the things she heard Mouru say inside the antechamber that evening. Fighting off a second bout of that same bone-chilling fear, she summoned her determination and continued cornering them. “Yet for all that, neither of you even seems to be taking it into account. Additionally, there’s what your predecessors said to me, ‘Should Hereh ever come back, tell him that Notsors will never forgive him…’”
She stopped there to catch her breath and glared at the two men. “Be honest. You plan to kill Hereh.”
✦ ✦ ✦
A menacing burst of wind raced across the rooftop, throwing the three shadows cast by the lantern’s flames into disarray.
Neither Mouru nor Ori said a word. Wordlessly, motionlessly, they aimed silent gazes at Unen.
Understanding what their silence meant, Unen’s eyes angled sharply. “I won’t let you kill Hereh,” she said fiercely,
Suffocating stillness reigned for a long while; only the howling wind and flickering flames ticked away the seconds passing them by.
Abruptly, Ori drew a deep sigh. “To be clear, we haven’t received orders to kill him. However, we have been told it’s on the table depending on the circumstances,” he answered matter-of-factly.
Mouru brought his right hand to his forehead, evidently thinking, Now you’ve gone and done it.
Ori went on, his expression unchanged, “But I have no intention of killing Hereh either. He has a duty he must fulfill. We have to bring him back to the village alive. He can atone for his transgressions after that.”
“Transgressions?!” Unen shouted, “Teaching the child of a poor whore is a transgression? Saving the lives of the injured and sick is a transgression?! You guys like to claim knowledge brings disaster, but to me it’s you who’s the disaster!”
“Can you still say that even if it’ll destroy the human world?!” Ori yelled harshly.
The Murmur suddenly snapped inside Unen’s chest the instant she heard his tone. Ori stooped over holding his head at almost the exact same time that she gasped.
“Are you all right?! Ori!” Mouru ran over to Ori in alarm.
Using his partner’s hand for support, Ori slowly raised his head. His shoulders heaved up and down with his ragged breathing.
A memory was triggered as Unen watched Mouru help Ori off the ground. This same exact thing had occurred on numerous occasions during her travels—inside the forest, and when Hereh had taught her. Whenever the voiceless Murmurs vibrated unexpectedly in Unen’s ear, Hereh always grimaced and held his head as if enduring great pain.
“You okay?” Mouru asked again. His usual aloofness had completely fallen from his face.
“I’m fine,” Ori responded with a strained smile.
His voice overlapped with the smiling, “I’m fine,” Unen once used to hear.
However, her nostalgic memories were smashed to pieces by Ori’s next words.
“Hereh murdered an innocent person during his escape from the village. That’s the transgression he committed.”