Zafran's company was pleasant for Cornflower, and in easy conversation he told him about everything that interested him: nature, animals and birds.
Cornflower liked that he did not ask unnecessary questions about himself or his purpose. The young men had much in common, including their views on the world and philosophy.
After all, they had both grown up spiritually in confined spaces - one had learned the world through the words of others due to a congenital illness, while the other had been cultivated in confinement.
Cornflower talked about a variety of topics, expressing his interest in everything that had to do with the Snake Clan, or rather, why the image created by rumour was so different from their actual way of life.
With a heavy sigh, Zafran began to tell his story in answer to this question, gently running his fingers over the goblet of water:
"It used to be that our ancestors were dashing bandits, but they only attacked merchants or other wealthy people who were down on their luck, for no one could recover their fortune after Snake Clan raid. That all changed during the last Great Battle eighteen years ago, when most of our clansmen with powers were recognised as worthy by the seals. I think you can see where I'm going with this. When the battle was over, only a few returned home, many of them maimed and unable to carry on the business of our clan. We had a hard time in those years. We had to find a new way for our clan. We were not good herders, but somehow it helped us to survive. Until news of our decline reached the capital."
He slammed his cup down on the table in anger, splashing water across the wooden surface.
"Because of our strength and ability to fight back, the nobles had always reckoned with us, but as soon as they saw our weakness, the first squad they sent out killed our remaining fighters. We had to negotiate. But the agreement wasn't fair, of course."
And bitter smile appeared on his face.
"We were taxed and all the women and children were taken away, except those who had been hidden. The fate of those taken was unenviable - the slave market or hard labour in the mines. Only the elderly, the crippled and my brother, who was young but had already assumed the status of elder and shaman because of his kinship with the elder who had been killed earlier and the awesome powers he had been born with left here. The messenger was probably just afraid of the strange young man, even by desert standards. I was too young to understand. My mother died giving birth to me, and my father was killed in battle, so I can be considered a son of the community, like most of the locals. So banditry is out of the question here."
Then the two of them spent some time in silence, pondering about fate in this world, each in his own way.
Then Cornflower asked:
"Do you know why there has been no winner in the Great Battle for centuries?"
After a moment's thought, Zafran replied:
"I too have considered the question. Who wouldn't want a blessing to enter the halls of the Ancients? But... But no one has been able to answer that question for me, not even those who survived the battles and returned home. No one knows exactly how many have received the mark, or where they are, until only the two strongest remain. Rumour has it that there is an unspoken rule among the strongest in the Great Battle to admit defeat to each other because some great truths of the world have been revealed to them. But perhaps this is simply romanticised and embellished by the uninformed."
With a searching gesture, Zafran gently touched Cornflower's arm.
"I must prepare for the feast, would you accompany me to my quarters and we can have a few more words?"
The young man willingly rose from the table and helped his newfound friend to his quarters.
It was dusk, and the Snake Clan swarmed noisily, but the silent crowd were setting up tables and wide benches, placing cushions on them, decorating the main square of the village and arranging plates. As the sun set, many of the people had changed into light, revealing outfits, and the glistening skin here and there gave these people a special charm.
Most of them had silver-white hair, but there were a few with hair as dark as pitch. There were also a few people, including children, with clean-shaven heads, as Zafran explained, as a sign of mourning for a deceased close relative.
Cornflower was used to the atmosphere of silence that prevailed here, for all members of this clan were able to communicate with each other at a distance through a special impulse energy, and with strangers through physical contact.
The only exception was Zafran, who had been born blind and, like most of the people of Epimetheus, could only communicate with his physical voice.
Left alone, Cornflower was drawn to a slender, bald girl with bright jasper-coloured eyes who, smiling shyly, touched his shoulder and told him that the Elder had asked him to choose a festive garment as their guest.
Two hours later, everything was ready for the festivities to begin. The semicircular tables were full of food. A fire was lit in front of the tables.
Cornflower, who had changed and rested, stood a little further away, out of sight, and watched the guests gather in a special hierarchical order, from the oldest to the youngest.
He felt a touch on his elbow.
"Why is the guest of honour hiding from everyone? " came the voice of Alsheikh.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just that your village is so unusual that I wanted to take a quick look around."
He turned to face the man.
"You know, I'm worried about something. Wouldn't such a celebration attract the attention of the people who came earlier today?"
"Don't worry, I've strengthened the barrier with my power, they won't know anything and no uninvited flies will come here. Come to the table, we can't start without the guest of honour."
And patted him on the shoulder, Alsheikh left.
After standing there alone for a minute, Cornflower suddenly had an insight. Such a barrier, such a defence, and the feeling he had experienced earlier with Alsheikh. He immediately opened his inner stream slightly and with a thin thread 'tasted' the aura of the place, then carefully directed a barely visible hair towards Alsheikh, who felt something jerk his shoulders and turn sharply towards Cornflower, who smiled slightly, embarrassed, and looked away.
This man was very unusual indeed. The Teacher had spoken earlier of people who, like the Ancients and the Spirits, could transform the flows of natural energy, but who did not possess the Ancients' inherent subordination to the true energy of the universe. In any case, such people were extremely rare, and to encounter one even once was an incredible stroke of luck.
Cornflower wondered if Alsheikh's son had inherited such a gift, but he did not dare to investigate further.
As soon as the young man approached the table, he immediately became the object of attention. Stripped of his robes and dressed in the colourful local garb of a white linen shirt generously decorated with silver thread patterns, wide azure flying trousers and light leather shoes, he looked like a creature that had descended to them for a feast from the Ancient Ones whom the Serpent Clan had worshipped for many hundreds of years.
He had braided his hair, which had grown out during the journey, into a light braid like those worn by the natives, and in the light of the festive fire it had a pleasant golden glow.
As Cornflower sat beside him, the elder's hand resting on his shoulder so that he could hear all the solemn words that followed from him and the others around the table, Alisheikh opened the feast with a few words in honour of the Gods and all those present.
As soon as the elder had finished, a torrent of supportive words from the other villagers exploded inside Cornflower like thunder.
It was so strange to hear so many voices at once, from people who didn't open their mouths, that it was hard for someone unfamiliar with the voice to guess who was speaking and when.
He glanced around the table several times, but Zafran was nowhere in sight. When asked about him, Alsheikh simply replied:
Then he removed his hand from Vasilek's shoulder, immediately silencing the inner voices and leaving him with only the sounds of cutlery coming from all sides.
After a small bite of tender meat and a sip of cactus juice, Vasilek politely declined the wine offered to him and was about to ask his question again when the sounds of drums and some wind instruments caught his attention.
After a short introduction, three figures appeared holding hands in the centre of the circle formed by the semicircle of tables and the festive fire. Two of them were beautiful maidens wearing jewelled tops that stopped just below their breasts, long skirts of the lightest material woven in a patterned weave, and in the middle of them, with a painted band over his eyes, stood Zafran.
He wore only trousers of the same colour and material as the two girls' skirts, and a leather belt around his waist with long strings of bluish shimmering pearls.
Every move he made was accompanied by the soft jingle of the aquamarine pearls.
As if from nowhere, daggers appeared in the girls' hands and they immediately demonstrated them to the crowd.
Touching Cornflower's hand, Alsheikh quickly explained:
"Now a ritual dance will be performed in honour of stars."
The music resumed and the ritual dance began.
The dancers, following the rhythms of the music, moved their bodies fluidly, their flexibility capturing the imagination of the onlookers.
Cornflower watched, as if in a trance, as the two girls and the man began to throw the daggers that had just been spun in their hands in synchrony, accompanied by elegant lunges. Indeed, there was a riot of snake spirit boiling in the blood of these people.
At the climax, the two girls simultaneously threw their daggers at Zafran, who in turn bent backwards so low that his head almost touched the ground. The daggers flew across his torso, within inches of his skin, and on impulse each flew to the opposite girl, who picked them up with a graceful twist.
Zafran pushing off with his legs, somersaulted and stood on his hands, spinning in a wild dance from which the pearls, as if in a whirlpool, accompanied by the glow of fire and moonlight on their surfaces, glowed so brightly that it seemed as if a whole scattering of diamond stars were appearing before the eyes of the spectators.
The sight of the shocked Cornflower amused Alsheikh so much that he smiled, put his hand gently on her arm and said:
"Wait, that's not all."
And in the heat of the passion that was unfolding on the improvised stage, Zafran dropped to his feet, turned around, stopped the dance of the "stars", turned to face the audience, and in one movement caught the daggers thrown at him and crossed them on his chest.
Then he took a deep breath and leapt backwards into the blazing fire to the accompaniment of a triumphant chorus of drums.
As soon as his figure disappeared into the flames, the peacefully blazing fire turned into a column of roaring blue light that soared upwards like a gigantic creature flying towards the stars.
Cornflower, who considered himself quite sensitive to all manifestations of energy, was puzzled by this, as none of the ones he was familiar with had just been used.
The onlookers looked up for a few more moments before one by one they began to raise their hands like a sea waving motion.
When it was Cornflower's turn, one hand taken by Alsheikh and the other by Zafran, who had appeared out of nowhere, Cornflower heard a song or a motif that sent sparks of light energy from person to person, a thought that praised the gifts of life and the hope of the grace of death.
Then there was a long pause, after which Alsheikh, with a clap of his hands, brought the fire back to normal and invited all present to enjoy the meal once more.
As the clatter of plates resumed, Cornflower could only marvel at Zafran's talent. He only waved away the comment that in this village even cripples could do something.
He gave no details of what had happened, and Cornflower decided not to ask, though the magic that had just taken place here made him wonder how much he didn't know about the world.
The celebration continued into the night.
As they began to disperse, Cornflower thanked them warmly for the honour of witnessing such an important feast for the Snake Clan.
Having agreed with Alsheikh to meet at noon, Cornflower did not immediately head for his assigned quarters.
As he approached the edge of the village, where only a few metres separated the bare earth from the sandy barchan, he marvelled at the countless stars in the sky.
What he had seen at the feast brought back memories of his first encounters with the energy streams and the time he had spent in the Sacred Tree, when he had rediscovered the world and everything had seemed incomprehensibly magical.
"Can't sleep? "
Turning towards the voice, Cornflower smiled and answered:
" In your country, the sky beckons with its distant paths of stars. I'm still impressed. How did you know where I was?"
"At night my powers are multiplied. Sometimes I think I can see, but it's more like sketching the aura of each person, animal or object with its own sound."
"And what sound does my aura make?" Cornflower was interested.
Smiling, Zafran replied:
"I confess that I find it difficult to describe it. Its sound is enchanting to my ears, a harmony I have never heard before. But at the same time I have the feeling that there is something wrong with it. Please don't take it personally, I know it sounds strange, but I'm afraid I can't explain it any other way."
"It's okay, I'm fine with those explanations, I've had a lot of people tell me about the flaws and I've gotten over them. I also feel that you are a kindred spirit, strange as it may seem... And I am sorry that you never had the chance to visit the Blooming Lands. If you don't mind, after I've completed my mission, I'd like to show you the green fields and meadows, so that you can smell the scent of wildflowers and herbs. "
Zafran touched his forearm.
"You know, it's been a long time since I've spoken as freely to anyone as I have to you. I treasure your company and your friendship. I know you have a long way to go, but I can see clearly now what my brother saw with his powers. You are the one who will be able to move mountains and change the direction of rivers in the future. If fate favours you, I will gladly accompany you on your journey. "
With that they parted, accompanied by the bright twinkling of the stars as they prepared to greet the dawn.
How lucky Cornflower was to see such an amazing sight...