Responsibility

Saif had to hold Instinct back as they watched Bron get dragged away, still calling out to him, and yelling about their wrongdoings.

One by one, the Greater Beings silently left the Hall, leaving Saif alone with Instinct frazzled and fuming. How was he supposed to do this? Saif put his head in his hands, falling to the floor. He slammed his pincers as hard as he could against the cold stone ground.

How could he ever think he was useful? All he does is bring suffering and pain, if not to himself than to others. He should have never tried to do good. He should have learned his lesson. He should have never been born-

A gentle hand patted his head. Saif looked up, finding an unfamiliar Greater Being looking back at him. It was a different one from those who let Bron be taken. They smiled, grabbing hold of his pincers and helping him upright. They grabbed hold of his new cloak, adjusting it to sit proper on his shoulders.

“Despair is not your friend, Saif Yousif Al-Salman.” His head shot up, eyes wide, heart beating a million times a second. How did they know his name? His full human name?
“As the Greater Being of Home, your humanity falls under my domain. It seems you’ve fallen on hard times in your human life, and those regrets have followed you to your next. In a war with no battlefield, only fools cast aside their pawns.” They waved their hand over him, sending a glimmer around him. “I give you my blessing, Hero of Ralmine, Hero of Shay Kha, Hero of the Avians, Hero of Time. For you are now known as the Hero of Home.”

A flame sparked inside him despite the sorrow and confusion. “Take care, hatchling.”

Saif made his way home alone. He deliberated on what to tell Hylfa, how to explain to her that her husband was illegally taken in for charges of a crime he didn’t commit because of Saif? And that it wasn’t illegal because the literal Being of Law demanded it?
Hylfa was asleep on the couch. Saif struggled, visions of memories flashing across his mind. How can he tell her? He can’t talk, his throat won’t open. He tried waking his mom like this once. He tried, it wasn't worth it. How can he wake her from her peaceful slumber and give her any sort of bad news?

Instinct took over.

It tapped Hylfa on the shoulder, dodging out of the way when she tried to pull it into her sleep. It tapped again, shaking a little. Nothing still. Instinct whispered, a low buzzing noise to anyone’s ears aside from Saif.

Hylfa woke up confused, cracking a singular grey eye open. “Hi honey. Where’s Bronnie?”

Instinct shook its head. Hylfa sat up, “what’s going on?”

Saif tried to stop Instinct from speaking, but it couldn't shape his mouth into words anyway. Hylfa grabbed a notebook and pen from the coffee table, Bron’s by the look of it, the sketches of insects on the cover gave it away. Flipping to an empty page, she handed it to him. Saif took over when Instinct stopped, though he didn’t trust himself to do a very good job.

Saif wished he had his fingers to write with. He recalled how he transformed into his human body that morning. Could he do something like that again now?

With the pen in his grip, Saif started to write. He was just dragging the pen across the page at first, creating scratches and random scribbles, but as he focused, he started forming actual words.

Saif wrote in an interconnected font from right to left. He wrote about what happened during the meeting, avoiding any details that showed how weak he was when he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Hylfa read the notebook as he wrote, occasionally glancing up at him.

His handwriting got better, more legible as he kept going, though he ignored most grammatical rules and spelled half his words wrong. It took a turn for the worse when he heard Hylfa’s gasp. He stressed, trying to get everything down on paper, but he gave up before finishing his last sentence, where he wanted to say he was sorry.

Hylfa took the notebook away and pulled Saif into a hug. “It’s always Greater at the root of every problem.” She spat with spite. “I’m sorry sweetie. We’ll get through this. I’m sorry you’re the one dragged into this.”

Saif shook his head, trying to tell her that he wanted to do this.

“We can go to the township office and ask them for Bron’s last sent mail. We’ll see if we can find out where Creatures’s underlings report to. We’ll also try the tavern and figure out what the word on the street is about them. Hatching,” She grabbed Saif by the shoulders. “You are not in this alone. We’re working on this together.”

Hylfa didn’t bother getting out of her pajamas. She tossed on her long coat and left the house with Saif right behind her right then, not wasting a single second to debate or second guess herself. She got the papers from the offices, scaring the poor workers there to death with her persistence, though she couldn't try the tavern since it wasn’t late enough in the evening for any interesting patrons to show up.

“If only the audit wasn’t tonight. I cannot miss a day of my job without a proper excuse, and somehow, my husband being taken into custody on false charges is not a valid excuse.”
She huffed. “Any letter of absence I send won’t make it to them in time anyway. I shall leave work as early as possible. There should still be some interesting folk in the early hours, if they aren't too drunk to respond that is. If not, then I’ll try again another time.”

Saif nodded, heading into the tavern on his own. He might not be able to ask directly, but maybe someone would steer the conversation there.

He was the first patron, though the bartender refused to serve him. As the night went on, Saif kept his ears open for any mention of Creatures, Bron or the Greater Beings in general.

He didn’t hear a single word of any of that. The closest he got was someone cursing the Greater Luck after losing a bet.

Sometime near midnight, Shay Kha walked in- or stumbled in- already drunk as a sailor. She dangled off of the sober human carrying her inside. The human kept their eyes glued to the floor as they booked a room for them both.

Laiton, Instinct reminded him of their name. “They’re engaged.” It said, “look at their matching ear rings.”
They were. Saif walked up to them, intending on giving his congratulations. But when Shay Kha saw him, she broke down into tears.

“HERO!” She cried, slow and loud, holding onto Saif’s shoulders. “I’M SO SORRY!”
Saif panicked, unable to fend her off without accidentally dropping her to the ground. He turned to Laiton, hoping for some explanation.

“Uh-” they mumbled, voice controlled, low and monotone, “Shay Kha thought she kicked you out of Willoguard. She’s been looking for you, actually. We followed rumors until they took us here.” They pushed their glasses higher up on their nose.

Saif pat Shay Kha’s head, but she kept crying. “I looked EVERYWHERE for you! I went to the new Avian village and to Fayspass and to Brightside, but you weren’t there! I told- hic- I told Laiton that you could be in the Queen’s Bay Harbor or in the middle of the volcano and I WOULDN'T KNOW! WE EVEN FOUND A LOST GREATER BEING BEFORE WE FOUND YOU.”

Saif tilted his head towards Laiton, who pushed up their glasses yet again. “News in Fayspass broke of a Metallum clock-maker getting into a fight with an unknown Greater Being. They were last seen escaping southward and diving into the river, presumably heading towards the harbor. Shay Kha is not referring to herself or mine when saying ‘we,’ instead referring to those of us within the Archaic Thicket as a whole.”

How curious, Saif couldn’t help but wonder why Laiton was so open to help Saif out while they seemed uncomfortable doing so. He tilted his head more, closing in on Laiton’s face.

“Um… can I help you?” They leaned back, trying to put some distance between them. Laiton hit the bar, but Saif kept coming closer.

“Ugh, Shay Kha was right when she said you were easy to read. I’m helping you because you helped me first. And I don’t like to keep an open score.”

“You freed the bugs, correct?” Saif nodded. Laiton dropped their head, shoulders rising to cover their ears. “I- I made a mistake, and you fixed it. You can consider us even.”

With nothing more to say, Laiton dragged Shay Kha into their room, bidding Saif a good night.

With a better idea of where Creatures might be, Saif headed home and told Hylfa all about it while she was getting ready for work.

“And you trust this 'Laiton' person?” Instinct didn’t let him nod right away. It knew something Saif hadn’t picked up on. “Not human,” Instinct whispered to him. “Undercover, harmless, moronic.”

Saif shrugged. It was the only piece of information they had.

Hylfa stood by the front door, squatting down to be face to face with Saif.

“I wished I could be with you for every step of this journey, my child. But I’m afraid our responsibilities drag us each in separate directions. I hope you know just how proud I am of you.”

Hylfa left the house with clenched fists, leaving Saif all alone in a house with no one to call home.