Getting Along, Part III
“Concentrate on the threads. Feel how they intertwine with one another. Each one affects all the others around it. Together, they weave a tapestry of life. As people move, their threads move. As people live, their threads live. Feel all the life around you.”
Oshal had always been good at sensing emotions around him, whether he wanted to or not. No one had really offered him an explanation; some people were born like that, and that’s how it was. It meant he always knew what everyone around him was feeling. But there was so much more to the threads than he’d realized. His mother had tried to teach him, but even she hadn’t known everything.
Now, Oshal could feel it. He felt the threads intertwining, dancing around one another through life. Master Durwey was right; as everyone lived, their threads lived too. Swirling, gliding, dodging. Like another world connected to his own.
Nourd’s thread was intertwined with weaker threads from the forest. They weren’t weak to Nourd, but they weren’t strong to Oshal. He couldn’t sense much, apart from Nourd’s relationship to them.
His sister’s thread trembled. There was another thread connected to it, one that was connected to Oshal as well. He tried to ignore it, but then it moved. It strummed up and down, like a heartbeat. Or wingbeats.
Oshal screamed and snapped out of his trance. He knew to what it belonged. It connected straight to him, to his father, to his sister. The thread that had torn his family apart.
“Apprentice Oshal?” Despite not sensing her emotions, Oshal could hear the worry in Master Durwey’s voice. “Is everything—”
“Fine. Just… fine.”
Master Durwey didn’t say anything for a moment. Oshal was familiar with the silence; the silence of someone thinking about their next move, their next words. He often used it when talking to his sister.
“Is something bothering you?”
Oshal knew she wanted to hear about the thread, but he wasn’t willing to talk about it. Instead, he changed the subject to his current problem.
“My sister and Apprentice Kurgm are mad at each other. I don’t know what to do.”
“Why do you have to do anything?”
“I think they used to be friends. And… and I don’t like it when people are mad at my sister. Or my friends.”
“I’m sure it will work itself out without you getting involved. Why don’t you let them be for a while?”
Oshal nodded, although he still wanted to know the whole truth about Roshil. She couldn’t have enchanted Aonva, not on purpose. Maybe she’d accidentally enchanted the bracelet? No, he knew she’d enchanted someone. Maybe Kurgm misheard the situation? Maybe it was because someone had done something to Aonva. But Kurgm had said he’d been there. How could he have confused it?
After their lesson, Oshal made his way to the forge to find his sister. He didn’t need to check her thread. She was always in one of a few places, the forge being one of them. It was still one of her favorite places in the court, although the library might’ve been a close second.
He didn’t need an escort to get around. If he followed the signs, which were helpfully engraved in the walls, he could find his own way. People didn’t always understand that he wasn’t a victim. He could sense their pity, and it bothered him. Although, written words weren’t always easy to figure out by touch alone. He had to remember to ask Aonva about something easier to read by touch.
None of that was important right now, though. What was important was finding out the whole story from his sister. She couldn’t have enchanted Aonva. She couldn’t.
“Oshal?”
Oshal smiled at his sister’s voice. He could still imagine them all together as a family. All four of them, living happily together.
“Hello, Roshil. Are you going to the library?”
“How’d you know?”
Her mind shifted, barring his way in. Despite their mother’s constant reminders that weavers couldn’t tell what people were thinking, his sister remained paranoid (although their father described it as “cautious”).
“It’s not time for food, so you’re only going to be in one of two places. You’re leaving the forge, so you must be going to the library.”
Flickers of joy popped up in his sister’s mind.
“And people say I got all the brains. Why isn’t anyone with you?”
“I’m fine. I can find my own way, although it’ll be nice to walk with you.”
Roshil took his arm and helped him to the library.
“You can’t be going to the library,” Roshil said, “they don’t have anything you can listen to.”
“I wanted to talk to you.” Oshal took a deep breath. “I wanted to talk to you about the bracelet you made for Apprentice Aonva.”
Roshil stopped walking. Her mind flickered through anger and sadness several times before she cut him off.
“Kurgm told you?”
“Yes. I asked why he was angry at you.”
“He’s angry at me?” Anger took over inside her, pushing the sadness into a corner. “He brushed off Aonva like she was nothing! He had her attention, and he threw it away! What right does he have to be angry at me?! She—”
Roshil stopped herself from going any further.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you. Just stay out of it, okay?”
Oshal nodded. He didn’t like lying to his sister, but it was for her own good. He hadn’t gotten an answer about the bracelet, but he was sure there was nothing wrong. She wouldn’t have done anything to Aonva would she?
“Did you enchant Aonva?”
He could feel his sister’s glare on him. He could still see her green eyes glaring at him from inside his memories. They were different now, but he could still imagine how they used to be. How she used to be.
“Yeah.”
“But it’s Aonva. You wouldn’t—”
“I did, okay? I said to stay out of it! I don’t need Kurgm’s approval for anything! Me and Aonva are friends! If he doesn’t want to be friends with us, I don’t care!”
He heard his sister’s footsteps echoing down the corridor.
“Can you find your way?” she asked before she left.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Good. I’m… I’m sorry for yelling. Again.”
Oshal smiled at her. “It’s okay. Love you, big sister.”
“Love you too, little brother.”
Oshal knew there was more to the story. He felt bits of it in Roshil’s mind. If Aonva had forgiven her, then something else was amiss. Kurgm needed to know. The only person he’d believe was Aonva, and Aonva didn’t go anywhere without Roshil.
A plan began to form in Oshal’s mind. Roshil was the smart one, but he was good with people. And this was a people problem.