Revenant Slaves Chapter 54: Chpater 53: Zain

Read chapter 54 of Revenant Slaves by Zee on NovelPedia.

Chpater 53: Zain “You’re welcome. I felt like you needed a break from that Inquisition.” “Oh, really? How wise of you, Imam Zain. Are you sure you should be throwing around words like "Inquisition" so casually? They don’t suit your illustrious tongue.” “Why didn’t you ever get married? Was I really such a big burden?” “Do you even need to ask? Of course you were. But that's not it…” Maya took a breath, as her eyes wandered to Miru and her parents. “Then why?” Maya was silent for a while, and Zain didn’t probe further. “I don’t know, I wanted something like what my parents had,” “Makes sense.” “Wanna try convincing me of the opposite?” “No Appi, no I don’t.” Zain smiled, and he didn’t need to look up at her face to know she was smiling as well. They stayed that way for some time. Zain rested against his sister, his eyes closed, taking in this slow moment before it was lost to them. He felt Miru stir through the essence string he had bound to her. “Maya, Miru’s waking up, carry me over to her, please.” Zain drained himself of essence all over again, trying to heal Miru. Drained and exhausted, Maya carried him back to his corner. This time, he felt he had made an improvement rather than just stabilizing Miru; his control over his aspect and essence was improving. As he fought the exhausting urge to close his eyes and sleep, he caught the faint whispers of distant speakers urging people to gather. It seems the communications team was going ahead with their plans of assimilating the people of Mortrum into the wonderful concept of marriage. Zain didn’t wait long enough for the sermon to begin before he fell asleep. As Zain awoke, he struggled to open his eyes. His eyelids seemed to be too heavy to lift, so instead he focused on the surrounding voices. Miru’s mother was speaking to her daughter in a soothing voice tinged with grief. Somewhere closer to her, two more women were conversing; their voices were chippier than he expected. It was Maya and Rain. Zain was unfocused and tried to avoid butting into their conversation. It took him a little while, but he did eventually open his eyes again. As he adjusted to the light, the train car opened, and Ash entered. He was covered in ash, ironically, looking like a grey ghost. At the entrance, he took off his huge poncho, goggles, and mask, dropping them on the ground before approaching further. This was the first time Ash had come while Zain had been awake in the 4 days — or was it five? Zain couldn’t know how long he had slept — they had been in Cinderwake. Ash looked… better than he had ever seen him. He had actually even combed his hair; his face seemed neat, for someone who had lost nearly half of it. He had even swapped his dirty bandages with a red band over his missing eye. The clothes he was wearing underneath were also clean, with almost no tears or holes. They were long flowing robes of temple Apprentices that flowed down to his shins, with red trousers underneath and a golden flame insignia on his chest. ‘Why does he look like he’s about to do something foolish?’ Ash looked at Zain for a moment; their eyes met, and he almost felt Ash turn back. Then he shook his head violently, turned, and walked towards Maya and Rain. Zain gulped, ‘He IS going to do something foolish.’ Rain and Maya had stopped their conversation by now and were also looking at Ash. Maya stood up straighter, to her full height. She was wearing her exosuit, so when Ash came up and stopped right in front of her, he was a foot shorter than she was and almost half as wide. Ash didn’t raise his head to meet her gaze; he stood still for a second too long before he started talking very quickly, “Maya, I… I have come here to ask you to marry me in the tradition of your people. I have no merit and wield no power, so I can’t promise to protect and safeguard you, though I know you would protect me if you agreed to my proposal. But I promise to give you my all, I promise to try my best, until I no longer have anything lef