The God Wrought #2
an excerpt

Sar waved a wrinkled old hand, “Ignore me, please. I was merely investigating the lower levels of this place and became hungry.” a woman rushed to the cold box to find some chilled fruit, he shooed her away. What was her name again? “No, no, you have much to do and I'm sure I can find something for myself. May I sit there?”

He pointed to a table that had been pushed up against the far wall, out of the way. Every head nodded, still staring. Sar hobbled over to it, a plate of breads and fruits in one hand. When he sat down and began to eat, the cooks cautiously turned back to their dinner preparations. Minutes passed before any words were spoken, but when it became obvious the old man would not be leaving anytime soon, a woman who in Sar's estimation must have been bursting to finish her story, started up. Sar listened idly, a he mused over a verse of text he had read that morning.

“So... they say it's a,” her eyes darted to Sar, and she mouthed the next word, witch, “that's doing it all. I told that Henry he better go on back to wherever he came from if he wants to find that sort, cause we don't have them around here.” she punctuated her last words with a extra thump to the meat in front of her.

“But I don't understand, Tari. You says she burnt down her whole village. I can see that, fine. But that don't make her....” the second woman glanced his way as well, “one of them. Plenty of folk've done stupid stuff, that don't make them...” she cut herself off, gesturing to her friend.

Sar chuckled, quietly.

“Aye, you'd be on the right track there, but, according to Henry, mind I'm sure his information is third hand, she did it again! In that town, what's-it-called, the one you can just see off to the left, if you're standing in the garden.”

“Atif.” Sar interjected. Both women glanced uncertainly at him.

Tari looked uncomfortable, “Right.... Atif, thankyou.”

Sar nodded.

Silence. Only the sound of knives on wood. Sar waited, and was rewarded as the voracious apetite for gossip came bubbling out of Tari once more.

“Seems she lit group of men on fire! They weren't doing nothing to her, but as sudden as anything she's upon them, staring at them, nothing more, and WHOOSH, they explode into fire.” she lowered her voice, “I even heard that she was buried alive in that earthquake. When she came out... Well, that's what I heard, who knows. Henry's been known to stretch the truth for the attention it'll get him. Not that he's needing anything extra for my attention.” she winked at the other girl. The two seemed to have forgotten he was in the room, but this topic had perked his interest. All thoughts of his mornings work were left far behind.

“A whole group of men?” the other woman, What is her name, he thought again, frustrated, sounded incredulous, “I hardly think a person could just stare at someone and make them do anything of the sort. Besides if she's a Heti woman, then she wouldn't be staring any man in the eye now would she?”

She has a point, that one.

“Kissa!”

AHA!, the old man sat up triumphant.

“Would I ever tell you something I didn't think was true?” Tari continued, “Henry is as honest as the Sun, he wouldn't tell me something that wasn't true.”

Kissa didn't point out that the other woman had just admitted to his tall tales. She merely shook her head in disbelief.

“So, now she's gone and dissappeared and the man she was working for in Atif says she stole somethin' from him. Some family heirloom, a silly armlet or something... As if a man in Atif would have an armlet....”

“WHAT!” Sar cried out in surprise. Both women dropped their knives, one clattering to the floor as Tari jumped back. Both looked slightly pale.