The Butterfly Effect

{-Demery-}

He was halfway out the door before realizing his sister wasn’t behind him. “Koyana, come on! We’ve got to get going before things get too busy.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming!”

Of course she had to be nowhere near ready. He only saw her for a moment, darting between each of the rooms collecting things.

“If you’d been ready earlier you wouldn’t need to rush now,” he pointed out. “Be careful. It’s just going to get worse if you end up breaking something.”

“It’s not my fault no one came stomping into my room to wake me up, is it?”

“It is that you need someone to do that.”

Finally, she walked out ready to go. “Have you gotten anything to eat yet?”

His silence was enough of an answer.

“I’ll ask Ms. Siavax if she has anything,” Koyana decided with a nod. She tried to look at the list in his hands. “We’re going to be heading there anyway, right?”

“They’ve got pretty much everything on here,” he remarked. “We’re going to be running around the whole town.”

“Still have to be back by lunch?”

“Someone’s got to start dinner. They certainly won’t.” He knew they could probably still hear him and he didn’t care. If anything, they were just annoyed that the two of them haven’t left yet.

Demery did a final check to make sure he had everything and motioned for Koyana to follow him.

Nearly anyone who saw them offered some form of greeting; she always returned it, but he was too interested in figuring out the first spot they needed to go. Sure, he may have waved at a couple of people or murmured a distant “good morning,” but it was nothing compared to the way she darted across the street.

At first, he was going to call her before entering one of the shops. Seeing her happily talking to some of the other townspeople, he decided to let her be—they didn’t need much from here anyway.

“I was wondering when you were going to stop by!” the shopkeeper said with a cheery smile. “You know, for a minute, I thought they’d come out themselves or they’d let you do it later. I assume it’s the same as usual?”

“Just what we need this time. They didn’t give me as much as they normally do.” He sat the coins down and, as she went to get the items, gave a casual glance around the shop.

“Koyana won’t be very happy,” she commented from the storeroom.

“She’s just going to have to deal with it right now. It’s not like we’re in a spot to complain about it.”

“You know, you’re both old enough to live on your own. We’d miss you here, but you wouldn’t need to depend on them.”

“Aside from the fact they’ve kept us from learning anything practical. I’d rather not still have to run around town in order for a halfway decent living.”

“I’m always looking for a shop hand and I’m sure others are, too. It’s not nearly as difficult as it may seem once you get a hang of things—and knowing you, that won’t take long at all.”

A small painting behind the counter caught his attention. “‘In a world of Darkness, His light will shine the way.’” He shrugged as she came back with the order. “I suppose we’re just going to have to see what Orestis has planned.”

It took her a moment, but she smiled and nodded. She’d heard that excuse many times before. “Most things only make sense to us mortals in hindsight, after all.” She handed him the order. “Have a good day, and tell Koyana I said hi!”

He mumbled his own farewell and left. Luckily, he didn’t need to go looking for Koyana; she wandered back to him on her own after realizing he’d come out.

Demery checked the long list of things they still needed and the comparatively small amount of money they had to get them. He sighed. “Can I trust you to just get some bread from Ms. Siavax? Don’t get anything we don’t need.” Before she gave an answer, he handed her a few coins. “This should be enough. If it’s more, then bring the rest back to me. We’ve still got a couple of things at home to eat, we don’t need to go buying them.”

It looked like she’d intended on arguing before something else caught her attention. “I… think someone’s watching us.”

He followed her gaze to a child across the street. The look he gave the siblings was more a part of nervous glances around the whole area; there was some kind of conflict in his expression, like he built up a resolve to move that got ruined every time someone walked near.

“It’s probably just a lost kid,” Demery pointed out in a mumble. “Someone else will notice him and figure out where his parents are. Do I need to remind you that we’re more or less on a time limit here?”

“I’ve never seen him before.”

“There’s a bunch of towns nearby, he probably wandered out and got lost.”

“I’m going to talk to him.”

“Ko—”

And she was already wandering over there, very unlikely to listen to a thing he would tell her. He sighed, praying it wouldn’t take too long before following her.

She had already knelt down in front of the boy, having a warm smile and a kind voice. “Hello, I’m Koyana.” Noting her brother beside her, she added, “And he’s Demery. What’s your name?”

The boy let out a sigh of relief at their names. “Aither.” He was almost too quiet to hear, and it seemed like he wasn’t done. He took a deep breath and worked up the nerve to say something else. “I’m looking for you.”

“You’re looking for us to help find your parents?” Demery tried. There was a part of him telling something, but he neither had the knowledge nor the practice to tell if it was good or bad.

Aither shook his head. “Just you.”

“Look, kid, this really isn’t the time or place to be playing games. Where are your parents?”

“That usually worked for everyone else…” A moment of panic flashed across Aither’s face before he took another deep breath. “I’m not playing any games. I came for the two of you—Demery and Koyana Tyrus.”

It was only after that point Koyana apparently noticed the oddness of the whole situation as well. “How do you know our last name?”

“That’s… not really something I can explain right now.” He looked out to the crowd, though it looked like no one was paying attention to them. “But I promise, if you’re willing to meet me somewhere else later today, I’ll tell you everything.”

“You’re, what, eight? Why should we assume anything other than you’re just a kid that heard someone else talking about us?” Demery stepped back and motioned for Koyana to do the same. “Come on, we’ve still got a lot we’ve got to do and I don’t think we’re going to get any of it done here.”

She frowned. “But—”

“You can tell Ms. Siavax about him. She can get one of her siblings to make sure he finds his parents.”

“W-wait, please, don’t go!” Aither quickly moved in front of them, then froze. It was clear how he was quickly trying to figure out what to say before they left. “You—you want proof, right? I got pushed around a little when I got here and I got cut.” He brought attention to a cut on his hand. It had been mostly cleaned up but the evidence he needed was still there. “This isn’t blood and this isn’t gold. It’s ichor.”

That just gave Demery so many more questions. “What’s someone like you looking for the two of us for?”

Only immortals bled ichor, and it was something that was pretty hard to fake.

“Meet me outside of town after whenever you eat dinner,” Aither instructed, “and I’ll answer it all then. But I really can’t go into detail here—there’s too many people and I may be risking it enough as it is.”

Koyana eagerly turned to Demery. “What do you think? Do you think we get to be a part of our own mystical adventure?” Aither also looked up at him with some hopeful expression.

“I really still don’t know how I feel about all of this,” Demery admitted. His attention was on Aither when he continued, “But you better have a damn good explanation for why you’re here and why it involves us.”

“I’m sure you’ll understand it a little better once you’re able to hear more of the story,” Aither said. He paused. “And it might not be as much of a mythical adventure as you might be hoping it to be, Koyana. A more accurate way to put it would probably be that we’re tying up loose ends—but I think you’re going to like what it ends up being.”

“We really need to get going,” Demery remarked. “We’ll meet you as soon as we can, assuming we can.”

“If all else fails, mention me and what I just showed you. I think they’ll understand.”