Returning to Sarvas Part 3 - A Date

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“I… I wasn’t sure what to erm… plan,” Kirasiel said as she fumbled with the tea set, resolutely avoiding Ahsch’s eyes. She swallowed before continuing. “So I ah… I asked the others - Ariin and Mahat really - what a good idea might be. I never…” She paused, focusing on the tea for a moment. “They said that it was an _Earth _tradition, at least in your - er… Mitchel’s? - culture that courting couples would share a meal or snack together and simply talk, usually at a restaurant or cafe. I figured, given our standing and your recent…” She flushed, then coughed. “I thought, due to our circumstances, that sharing a drink here would be acceptable.”

“Kirasiel,” Ahsch interrupted, and her eyes shot to him anxiously. “Relax. You’re not being graded - and I’m flattered that you thought to use an Earthian tradition.”

She nodded repeatedly to herself, though didn’t seem to do much relaxing. Which, Ahsch had to admit, wasn’t surprising, given what had just happened with her sister. That they were still in the Celes suites probably didn’t help much on that front, but the hrafthi doubted that Stella would interrupt their date, especially so soon after the confrontation.

Noting that his date’s hands were shaking as she lifted the tea pot, Ahsch chuckled a sigh. “Relax,” he repeated softly.

Kirasiel hesitated, set the pot down, and took a few deep breaths. Steadied, she began to pour them tea. “Is… it true that the word ‘Earth’ just means ‘earth’ in your old language?”

Ahsch was caught off-guard by the question, and blinked at the girl a few times as he processed it. “Uh, yes, actually. ‘Earth’ does indeed mean earth, like dirt, ground, soil, and the like. I’m not certain why English used that word out of any; amusingly, the other word I know for sure was used to refer to the planet - at least, we did in works of fiction - was ‘Terra,’ which is just _another _language’s word for earth.” He thought for a few moments. “Some more… technical stories set in the far future sometimes used a sort of categorization system, referring to our star, which we normally called the Sun, as ‘Sol,’ which was also another language’s word for ‘the Sun.’” He paused. “Same language as ‘Terra,’ actually, an old, dead language called Latin, spoken by the Romans some two-thousand-ish years before I was born. Anyways, the system referred to all the planets in our solar system by their proximity to the Sun, so the closest planet, Mercury, was ‘Sol One.’ Earth, ‘Sol Three,’ was called ‘Sol Prime’ due to being the homeworld of humans, and the only naturally-inhabited world in the system.”

“Do you miss it?”

Ahsch froze. Did he? “Yes… and no. There’s certainly things I miss. Movies. Games. Some of the food - gods, what I’d do for a slice of pizza, or a bowl of ice cream! But there’s other things I’m more than happy to not have to deal with anymore.” He laughed at the first example to come to mind. “Though some of them I just deal with in a very different form, seeing as I’m technically a politician to some degree now.”

“Were you…” Kirasiel blushed. “I mean, did you… have someone…?”

Ahsch shook his head. “Thankfully, no. I was single when I reincarnated the first time.” He heaved a deep sigh. “My parents were… well, one was dead, the other distant. No siblings, no close relatives, no close friends. I’m sure _somebody _probably misses me back on Earth, but… I don’t think anyone’s heartbroken that I’m gone.”

“And you’re _thankful _to have been so lonely?”

Ahsch smiled across the table at his date. “I’m thankful that nobody’s really suffering from my death. My choice to leave and not be returned home.” Kirasiel flushed again, and he saw the flare of embarrassment, guilt, and shame in her emotions. “You hadn’t thought about how it might have affected others,” he said.

She ducked her head. “As I’ve said, I’m… not a good person. Self-centered and uncaring about others.”

Ahsch nodded his agreement. “But you still feel guilt for it,” he pointed out. “That shows that you don’t necessarily _want _to be so selfish, or that you are entirely apathetic about others.”

A shrug was her response. “Doesn’t help me figure out who I am though,” she muttered.

“Not a _complete _asshole,” Ahsch replied with a smirk. “Better than you used to be.” She gave him a small, grateful smile, then turned her attention to her tea. Ahsch leaned back, thinking for several moments. “If you were told that you had an entire day off, nothing that you had to do, no responsibilities or duties to attend to, what would you do for that day?”

“Huh?”

“What would you do to keep yourself entertained?” Ahsch clarified. “To have fun?”

“I…” Kirasiel frowned, her gaze drawn back towards the tea. Then she looked back up at Ahsch.

Even as her mouth opened, the hrafthi held up a finger to delay her. “And you can’t say ‘whatever you’d want’ or something like that. You have to make your own fun.” He smirked at her annoyed, defeated look.

It was a few minutes later that she finally responded. “I remember that I liked to read.” Ahsch looked over and saw that she was leaning back in her chair, facing the ceiling. “There were so many wonderful stories that I read as a child. Tales of heroes and villains, of epic quests and great battles…” she glanced slyly over at Ahsch. “Of the hero and his harem of beautiful, _eager _monsters.” A snort and roll of his eyes was the hrafthi’s response. “I haven’t read books like that since… since… well, many, many years. Not since I was younger than Stella.”

Ahsch smiled as he recalled his own book-dense youth. “Probably my favorite stories were written by a man named Dennis L. McKiernan - a lot of people called his works derivative, because they were heavily based on a prior author who was insanely famous, named Tolkien. The funny thing was, McKiernan’s stories were _meant _to be derivative - they were originally going to be sequels to Tolkien’s magnum opus! But one thing led to another and that wasn’t allowed, so McKiernan wrote his own stories, and I _loved _them. Reread them probably a half-dozen times.” He looked over at Kirasiel with a wry, sad smile. “Now that’s something I’ll miss from Earth. The ‘Tales of Mithgar.’”

She smiled back. “My favorites were a series as well. ‘Euphoric Adventures.’ They were set in an alternate version of Euphoria, where monsters were actually created by a trio of goddesses and were made to absorb faith from humans - in response, humans figured out how to become ‘binders,’ which sapped their magical capabilities to allow them to ‘bind’ monsters. Rather dystopian overall, but quite intriguing!”

Ahsch smiled. “I’d love to hear more. Maybe I’ll read them too.”