'No, not again! No, no, no, no!' cried out the wanderer, his mouth shut against his instinct to scream. To scream at a travesty he felt familiarity to.
The wanderer fell knees first, into the river of blood that flowed over the Sixth Library Street right in the middle of it.
A memory wanted to surface within him, to overlay against the melody of blood in front of him. But the rule, 'remembrance is forbidden', was too strong. The wanderer in the brown overcoat was devastated, shaken, and scared to his very core.
Patnos knelt down beside him. He covered the wanderer's eyes, the pale blue eyes, with his hands.
"Cry out if you want to, but make it the last one for today", Patnos whispered into his ears softly as he could.
Patnos's axe on his belt was getting wet at both of its ends, in that river of blood.
Master Rhai placing his hands on the heads of both, "it's just another massacre."
He exhaled heavily.
"Apologies, we should just go back. And bring others up to speed. Patnos, make sure Sance doesn't run into this street until it's cleaned up. I don't want this kid nor the few that are in this city to see this", Rhai spoke with confidence. His eyes betrayed that.
His brown earthen eyes shook slightly at every sound he felt.
Patnos helped the wanderer in the brown overcoat stand up, patting him on the back. "I'll be back. Stay with Master Rhai until then."
He looked at the wanderer's hollow eyes, then at the bloodbath that was painted over all the buildings of the sixth street. No bodies in their vision but Patnos had an inkling where they were.
He looked up at the nearby roofs, "whomsoever it was. Master Rhai could take care of them, so you just get that mix. Remember, we came for that."
The wanderer nodded albeit it was a bit hesitated one.
"Life is…uh—I am no good at this. Let's go. Wait, for Patnos to come back", Rhai lead them both pushing them away through the same path as they came from.
Patnos was gone. The wanderer was sitting inside Master Rhai's store on a comfy chair, sipping water from a glass.
The wanderer heard a soft screeching, he looked in front of him. Undazed and staring at a plate filled with bread, stir-fried peas and potatoes, and few swimbeast meat steaks.
The brown table accentuated the white plate's content more. He hesitated, and looked up at Master Rhai his shadow was away from him. Again, the wanderer broke the one rule he had learned verily. 'To not gaze at things unless they have invited or given you permission.'
Master Rhai stopped his work, he was rearranging the arranged shelf of his store. Sighing, he said, "weakening now won't help."
He turned around and looked at the wanderer. Wanderer's brown overcoat had a few marks of blood on it. Taking notice Rhai suggested, "let me handle the cleaning, or you can use my washing area for those blood marks. They won't look good for the pioneering venture Patnos and you have begun."
The wanderer looked down at him realizing that Rhai was right. "I'll wash it later…..I still need the enhancing mix you are master of."
Rhai nodded. "Good, let's start there. Patnos can handle the rest, trust him. He is a good instructor and a good pioneer."
The wanderer ate a few from the plate as Master Rhai went around collecting stuff he needed for the mix. He placed them on the same dark brown table and waited for the wanderer to finish his plate.
The wanderer eyed him once but understood Rhai's intent.
After clearing his plate, Rhai removed it away. The wanderer asked, "so am I going to make it?"
"Yes, you aren't a local, and I don't believe you intend to stay, do you? You may need this knowledge someday." Rhai turned around and said this as he reached the wanderer's table.
"I do teach this enhancing mix to a lot of the citizens and they have learned it but several do forget. I, on the other hand, don't not because of the mix but because my body remembers a memory that my mind doesn't. You should know the opposite can also happen here", Rhai looked out of the window. He saw Patnos coming and going out of the same bypass road several times leading people in and out.
"Living beings can forget to be living beings, becoming a massacre like that. It has happened once before. It may have happened this time, but it was too clean this time." Rhai's eyes darkened as he theorized a possibility.
"Anyway, that's just one of possible effects of Kikren. No one's sure of that very much, but that's not we should talk of—sorry, I went off a tangent." Rhai shook his head.
"It's understandable. So, what do you need to know about how to make this mix?" asked the wanderer.
"Plenty. You need to be aware of the measuring units of time, length, weight, and volume. Do you know of that?"
The wanderer shook his head, answering, "I know league."
"Huh, atleast it's a start. So, 1 league is near to 300 times your height plus this hand-long bread you ate. That's length. For weight, it's unit is 'scoop', and a scoop is about the weight of this small plate, some say a scoop can be divided up to 132 times to get the same weight of each part to be about a medium sized rain drop. You following me?"
The wanderer nodded, thinking to himself, 'huh, so 300 times Litora's height? And 132 times the weight of a Beret coin. Doesn't Beret coins have words written over saying 1 gram each? What's a gram?' He then remembered a detail to himself he hadn't thought before, something that should have come to him earlier.
'Litora and Slin would have found here what their quest is.' His eyes hollowed a little, but he pulled himself. "And what of time and volume?"
"For time, the unit is 'second', and for volume it is 'nowl'. 1 nowl of pure distilled water is equal to 1 scoop of pure distilled water. And a second is just a moment. Simple as that. Got it?" Rhai quipped, but his eyes traced the wanderer's reactions matching his understanding.
"There are prefixes used with them to define larger versions of them. But you only need to know of 'leti', which is 25 times the unit. And time does have it's own another set of unit progression that is seconds, become minutes, hours, days, etc." Rhai ventured deeper into the details of units.
The wanderer listened. But then Master Rhai came back to the main process and it's start.
"The most important part of an enhancing mix is for the mix to realize the weakness it's going to purge or raise in a direction that makes you the drinker the stronger, enhanced one. It's the most crucial part, and the one we the makers of the mix have to make sure of", Rhai answered and he knew the wanderer's interest had been piqued.
'The kid sure does have a tendency to fight back the abominable rule. Patnos was right about him. He needs to be taught but he also need to go away from this cage.' Rhai's eyes this time steeled itself with his thoughts.