...For Binding Things Together

(This is Part 2 of A Talent for Binding Things Together - Part 1 is the previous post)

Sloan is with Angus as usual. He's spent a lot of time with Angus as he recovers, slowly but surely, wounds healing and leaving scars, scars smoothing out. He's still marked; he will be marked forever, but Sloan is helping him pull himself back together. He's out working, was out soon after he came home, but now he pulls his weight, stands tall, is proud.

There is a soft knock and the sound of a throat being cleared. Its the noon rest-time, gleanings from the field still lying out in heaps, to be gathered when the air starts to cool.

Sloan gets the door, and standing outside is a lizard standing on its hind legs, swaying slightly, bright-eyed, carrying a chunk of slate in both hands like it can barely lift it. Its covered in some kind of scratchy scrawl and whorling lines intersecting each other.

It blinks. "You must be Sloan. I was told I could find you here."

"You were told right." Sloan flashes a grin, but there's a suspicious gleam in his eyes that doesn't leave. "You looking for me?"

It nods. Smiles uncomfortably. "Yes. I was. Am. We need to talk, you and I. I have a proposition for you."

"A - a what?"

Pause. "A quest."

Sloan's look smooths, says 'go on...'.

"It...it involves a Jevumm." He tenses. Jin quickly continues. "And the Griolsa Blade. And a great deal of mathematics, which - don't worry, that's my part - where was I? Yes. And a city called Star-Down. And saving the world."

Another pause. A laugh that threatens to swell out of control. "You too, eh? You missed your caravan, friend. All that's here is work and rest and mead, and every other good thing. I've got no notion of leaving."

"I have thought of that. Perhaps you are thinking that you are needed as a worker? In exchange for your help, I will help your village for years to come. I can design a barn from local materials which will reduce the amount of grain you lose to pests in the fall and winter dramatically. That means less hunger. No lean times, at least until your numbers swell healthily once again, and then you can build another barn like it. And the drainage of your fields encourages insects to lay their larvae in the standing water. You are all quite robust, but it would help not to get fevers every spring, yes? A few days of hard work and you won't have to worry about that."

"Look, lizard, I mean no offense, but -"

Surprisingly, Jin steps closer. Sloan can smell his breath, a slight burn in his nostrils. "Listen. I can't make you come with me. With us. All I can do is talk to you. Yes? So let's talk. You have some respite before you have to return to the fields. I will help your village either way, because I see that I can help you and not delay my mission significantly. A lot has happened recently, some of which you know, some of which I can only guess. But I can connect some things for you, bring some sense to it. There is...an elegant underlying symmetry, which is manifesting as we speak. It is elegant like an adder - if we do nothing, it is just as lethal. And you are part of it. Let me talk, and you just listen, for two hours. Then we will call your clan together and I will explain my plans for the barn and for the improved drainage. Then, if you wish, we will 'raise the barn', I believe the expression is, and dig the new channels. Then I will go, and I hope you will go with me. Yes?"

Sloan watches him for a moment, sips his mead, then sips it again, longer. "How did you learn Gogajin?"

Jin blinks. "That is another story."

"You want me to come with you, you say. But we just met."

"I can see patterns. I have someone with me who can seek things out. I need someone with a talent for binding things together. You may not know, but he" Jin points to Angus "will live a long, happy life because of you. You are capable of much more. Just two hours. Then we help your village. Then...then we will see."

Sloan nods slowly. "Alright. Talk, lizard, but I'm not going to stop drinking."

Jin's mouth quirks at the corners. "That is for the best. The alcohol will likely help. Now..." he enters the house, puts the slate down with a sigh and shakes his claws to get blood to return to them. He continues, "Now, imagine that you are the sun, standing in a flat elliptical field, surrounded by nine trees..."

It takes a lot longer than an hour.