Nights always went the same after that during their time on the path back to Aleledai’s camp.
Once a meal was consumed around the fire, the sixteen of them crammed in, coil to coil and sometimes overlapping, and the questions began. Selati had so many and more than once he had no idea where to start. In the end, Aleledai would smile for him and the questions jumbled as they tripped out of his mouth. It was a compulsion by that point. Aleledai’s smile might be the one thing in the whole of Selati’s life he hadn’t been able to resist.
Some nights, Selati ran out of questions before they fell asleep where the group lounged and Aleledai filled the gap with tales of heroic deeds by the Caniean or courageous acts. So far, Selati’s favorite was the story of Raeni, a healer whose conviction to s
