“Diago?”

  Diago stirred a little but didn’t wake.

  “Diago, this is important.”

  Diago was sound asleep. It was only natural that Saarsken would split him and

  Aylah up and confine them to sealed rooms, but the lack of freedom still annoyed Diago. They also lacked the ability to plan their next move. Also annoying. Evening came and then passed into night. Diago was exhausted, so he fell asleep straight away, still sore from the race. Hours later, Thatch was now using the mental connection he made earlier with Diago to reach him.

  “Diago?” Repeated the voice.

  “Let me try,” came a second voice to the mental conversation, “WAKE UP

  SUNBURN!”

  Diago shot up, now wide awake.

  “Easy! It’s hard enough to maintain a three-way link without all the mental clamor!

  If I lose it I can’t remake it until I see you both again.”

  “It worked didn’t it?”

  A mental scoff then followed, “Diago, it's Thatch. Think your replies and we will be able-”

  “So, the loudmouth is Aylah then? Unsurprising,” Diago cut him off, annoyed and groggy.

  “Watch it, Sunburn!” Aylah sounded just as annoyed.

  “Enough you too, we have bigger problems to deal with right now. We need a way out of here.”

  “No,” replied Diago

  A pause followed before Aylah spoke up, “What do you mean ‘no’?”

  Diago wasn’t sure how to mentally sigh, but he assumed if he did it physically it would probably carry over, “not without more information out of you.”

  “Me?” Replied Aylah

  Diago then looked down and realized he was pointing in the vague direction he assumed that Thatch was in. He shook his head and put down his finger, “No, not you. Him.”

  “Me?” Replied Thatch

  “YES, YOU! Who are you? Why are you helping us?! What’s in it for you?” Diago hadn’t quite let go of his frustration from earlier and now he had the space to vent it, so vent he did.

  “Hey calm down Sunburn! Don’t forget it’s your fault we are in this mess in the first place!” Aylah had also not let go of her frustrations and was in a similar position as Diago. So, vent she did.

  “MY FAULT?!”

  “ENOUGH!” Yelled Thatch, who had managed to amplify his mental voice above the two bickering young ones. The two quieted as Thatch continued, “You two are worse than two jynx fighting over a carcass. Both of you quiet down. Diago makes a good point. You can’t fully trust me until you know who I am.”

  “See? I was right.” Diago’s smugness was short-lived. As soon as he had finished the words it felt like someone had pinched his brain

  “OW!”

  “Not another word,” Thatch warned. “I will share with you the necessary details, but we don’t have time for the whole story. Then, after, we will make a plan to get out of here. Deal?”

  Diago nodded.

  …

  “Oh, right. Yes…Deal.” Agreed Diago, who assumed Aylah had just rolled her eyes.

  He was right.

  “Alright then. My name is Thatch and I am one of the few mind weavers. This ability has allowed me to help a lot of people, but it has also landed me in lots of trouble. A year ago I was enslaved by Saarsken. One day, I was approached by the men at his command and they offered me a place to work for him. I refused, but while doing so I managed to glean some important information from the mind of the man who approached me. Where they were hiding out, for one, and their next raid, for another. After I refused they left and I went to one of the sentinels of my town to give them the information. I should have gone to the Honor Guard…the sentinels were all being paid by Saarsken and they captured me.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Thatch paused a moment. He did not like recounting this story.

  “Under his service, I have done some things I regret, but I cannot change. I felt hopeless and frustrated…mostly at myself. That’s how I was until a fade appeared before me.”

  He sounded awed by the fact. It meant more to him than either Aylah or Diago that he would be spoken to by a fade.

  “It told me that two young travelers would come and that I needed to go with them for their sake and mine. She told me that I needed to tell Diago that he needed to cross the finish line and use his hook. Which made no sense at the time, but now I understand.”

  “That makes two of us,” Diago said

  “She also told me that finding the man named Trig was necessary and that we needed to at all costs.”

  At this, Aylah felt a tangible weight release from her shoulders. After all, she had been wondering if they had been getting this all wrong. It was a shot in the dark to come to the racing tents, but it seemed to have been the exact thing they needed to do. This meant that Diago was brash in what he did, but right in doing it. If he hadn’t, they wouldn’t have found Thatch. She decided she would mention that to him and maybe apologize…but later.

  She was taking in the story, but something was not adding up to her, “I don’t get it.

  You are a mind weaver, couldn’t you have just escaped?”

  Diago was also curious, “And why did you say ‘you better not disappoint’ when you were in my head earlier? I thought it was about your freedom at first, but you said it like there was more to it than that.”

  “There is…and as for escaping, I wanted to. I wanted to every second. Every passing day, I looked for anything that would give me hope to leave, but whenever something came up, it seemed impossible. Because-…because I wouldn’t be the one who suffered if something happened”

  Aylah remembered that Saarsken had said as much earlier. She didn’t have time to think about it then, but now it seemed clear.

  “He…has Rayna, my daughter.”

  Diago remembered the look Thatch gave him when Saarsken used Aylah to ensure his service. He understood now why he looked so sympathetic. Whatever frustration he had still been holding against Thatch dissipated in that moment. “I’m sorry”

  “There is no one to blame but myself. However, the condolence is appreciated”

  The weaver sounded tired and broken. Aylah felt for him, it was clear that the thought of escape for Thatch necessitates that his daughter escapes as well. She could only imagine what he must have been feeling all this while. Forced to be someone he despised, but doing it because it meant protecting his daughter. She felt a growing respect for Thatch.

  “Well then, we’ll get her free too” Aylah reassured, though she had no clue as to how to accomplish said feat.

  “Yeah, I’m sure together we can find a way out of this armpit of a canyon!” Agreed Diago.

  The weaver was silent for a moment, then, “Thank you”

  “Thank us when we do something cool, until then just admire my intense bravery” Diago replied.

  “Pipe down, sunburn! You are gonna give me a headache” Said an annoyed Aylah, but the last part of her sentence was broken up by the weaver’s voice over the two of them, but this time in the form of a laugh. The warm sound halted the bickering pair and caused the argument to subside. When the laugh stopped, Thatch spoke,

  “You two are not at all what I expected, but I am not one to doubt the Great One’s plan. So then, shall we?”

  The next few hours were spent discussing various strategies concerning the recovery of Thatch’s daughter and their subsequent escape. Thatch had discovered long ago that Rayna was being held close by, he had managed to weed the information from an unsuspecting guard only recently. Thatch had been in the practice of trying to gather any information he could for some time. This particular guard was coming to report to Saarsken and Thatch was not permitted to be present. This tipped him off that this guard would be a prime target to get as much as he could out of him. Thatch tailed him, waited till he fell asleep, and the rest is history.

  As for why she was kept close, Thatch assumed that she was nearby so that, should Saarsken need to abuse or manipulate his weaver by hurting his loved one, he could do so in short order. His cruelty would turn into their strategic advantage. Their biggest foe would be time. If they were discovered in their escape, Saarsken would be quick to move or harm Rayna. That is, only if he found out their subterfuge. Should they manage to succeed in their escape without his knowledge, they would have plenty of time to get Rayna and high tail it before he discovered anything.

  By the time they had finished, it was moments before dawn. There was little time and they would have to hurry.

  Saarsken woke with a start. He was sweating and breathing heavily. He could feel it, as he always did, someone was here. They tried to get into his mind. It was lucky he wasn’t entirely asleep, otherwise he might have been at the whims of the perpetrator. At first, he felt rage at Thatch for attempting something and was about to order a guard to find his brat and punish her harshly, but something wasn’t right. The pressure wasn’t the same…it was bigger and darker.

  Saarsken fell back and cried in pain as his mind felt like a dagger was digging into it with both precision and malice. He was writhing in wordless pain, choked up by the grip of this mental claw. When the pain subsided, the man sat back up and whinced.

  “Who-…who are you? What do you want?” He asked with his mind

  The voice that came back was haunting and vile. It sounded like an intense whisper. Like the trickle from a dam holding back a torrent of cruel waves. It sent chills all through Saarsken. It’s reply more ominous than the voice,

  “I am the firstborn and I want you.”