| Title: Of Past and Present Author: Kitsune Spirit Warnings: little angst, sadness, G Part 9 ~talk to me~ A few days had passed before the priest started a conversation himself. �You were at the temple� the priest said looking up and over at Zesian. It wasn�t a question or accusation but merely stating a fact. Zesian was worried he knew this would come up but still had no idea of how to deal with it. On the way over to the priest he took more paper from the desk and the pencil that lay on the table next to the priest. Zesian nodded yes and sat down waiting for the priest to continue. �You didn�t let them kill me. Why?� Zesian looked at him, so the priest had recognized him, maybe this could be a little easier. He started to write and handed the paper to the priest �I may have been a merc but I am no killer�. The priest looked up at him, studying him and Zesian twitched under the stare. �Why did you do it? What was so important you had to ransack a temple ne?� the priests� tone was hard but remained calm in tone. Zesian still flinched back at it though; maybe it wasn�t going to be easy then again nothing was for him. �I was given the job to do, I was thinking of getting out, I didn�t know what to do. It was my men who attacked you, I just told them to watch out for you not to hurt you.� The priest looked at the paper processing the information, he closed his eyes and Zesian thought he had gone to sleep until he spoke. Opening his eyes wide he looked at Zesian not letting him turn his gaze. �You could talk then, I remember�I remember you yelling at them. What happened?� his voice was free of the anger but now held confusion. Zesian was afraid to answer; he got to his knees to stand but was stopped by a yank to his arm pulling him back down. A hand from the priest encircled his throat, at first Zesian thought he was going to be strangled but the hand turned palm up, fingers grazing the throat gently. Zesian had to gulp; he wasn�t sure how to react in such close contact. The priest caught his eyes once again before asking. �What happened?� then he dropped his hand, allowing Zesian to move if he so wished. Zesian took the paper and wrote� �It was the rule of the job, if anyone wished to leave Hawigas services we were to have our voice box severed so we couldn�t talk it was to stop us relaying information to anyone. He kind of overlooked that some of us could read and write we were just toys to him.� As the priest read this he shivered, looking up at the man sadly. �You did this for me?� he asked in wonder. Again Zesian wrote. �Not just for you, I wanted to get out, Hawiga was nothing but a pervert who kept�� he stopped writing the sentence he didn�t need to let the priest know how weak he really was. Once more the priest looked him over, as if regarding him in a new light. �Thankyou� he whispered and Zesian smiled. He stood up and turned, he had to go into town to pick up some gardening tools and seeds, the previous ones had broken in only a few days from rust and ill use. He walked over to grab his satchel not needing to check on the priest who was by now use to him leaving. As he got to the door a whisper reached him coming from the priest. �Kala-nesh�. Was all he said. Turning around Zesian looked at him, confusion written on his face. The priest smiled. �My name�it�s Kala-nesh�. Zesian gave a brief smile and a curt nod before leaving the room. |