Bones of Salt

Roman

When I was a child, I was afraid the voices would never stop. They screamed inside my head all day, and they only got worse during the night.

And they didn't. But, at least, when I used my powers, they quieted down.

Yes, my powers. It turned out I was a Prophet.

The problem was, Prophets just weren't considered that big of a deal anymore.

I was busy massaging Immanuel's liver hoping it could tell me why the boy was hurting. I'd already scanned the rest of his body in proximity and could not come up with a vision.

For the first, and I hoped final, time I almost wished the voices hadn't stopped talking.

"I'd say it's the drinking," Anthony Metis said.

I knew the man was joking -- he loved talking nonsense, and, besides, the boy was too young to do any serious drinking. It wouldn't have been far fetched for common people who lived in Old Solima, but the Metis family and their immediate relatives were respectable people.

"That, or indigestion," Anthony added unhelpfully.

"Can I just work?" I interrupted him, more rudely than I'd intended. Spending years listening to the voices hadn't made me used to people interrupting my thoughts -- if anything, I was extremely susceptible to it.

"Sure," Anthony replied. "I wish Aurora was that eager to help out, whether in the tavern or the infirmary."

Aurora's family owned a tavern where they also patched up people who were too poor to afford an actual doctor.

"Hey," Aurora complained. "I also have my Watcher duties."

I was about to tell her to shut up, when something she said finally triggered my vision.

Watcher.

Times are changing, a voice said.

"I know it might sound crazy," I told Immanuel. "But did you meet a Creature?"

Before the boy could reply, I heard someone slapping my shoulder in a friendly manner. I immediately knew it was my older brother Atticus -- he was the only one I could stand to touch me, and, frankly, probably the only one who would dare try.

Atticus greeted Aurora warmly. They'd grown up together, and eventually they'd started dating.

Nothing substantial had appeared to have changed between them, but my life as a kid got significantly better. Atticus, who was already basically raising me on his own, since our father never really cared to do it, learnt a lot from the Metis family, and suddenly I didn't have to look for tavern leftovers to have something to eat, like most of the other kids in Old Solima, and even Atticus, growing up, had to do. Thanks to Aurora's family influence I could have canjeero and honey for breakfast, and a place to get fixed up whenever I got hurt.

That was useful, too, because, on top of being an accident prone, my powers could also leak out and hurt me, if I wasn't careful.

"Hello," Atticus said. "I was patroling with a friend of mine, when the subject of your powers came up, and he said he would be interested to meet you."

I briefly left Immanuel to his own devices, and went to greet the stranger, who was waiting nearby.

He was tall, with copper red hair the color of flames, and blue eyes.

"Dominic Morris," he said, shaking my hand. "But please call me Minx. Everybody but my girlfriend Mira does."

"Roman Sioban," I said, which, for whatever reason, made him smile.