I Just Want To Be Average

Come morning, I was the last to wake. No surprise. Dia woke me. It was just the two of us in the garden, under the warm blanket of the young sun.

She showed me to the guest room, which was Pratt's and hers when they visited. I went to the bathroom. She sat on the bed. The door only stopped the eyes.

"Why're you so quiet? Maybe you don't like strangers, like really. I'm not saying that's not right. But, it is unnecessary. These people aren't strangers. They're friends. And they're very nice. You'll surely like them. You just have to say hello, stay open. That simple."

I walked out. Smiled. And she saw. It was that complicated. The favourite question showed up on her face. The unchanging answer reflected on mine.

"One day," she said, ending the conversation.

We laughed lightly. She locked her arm around mine, showing me to the dining room. Everyone was waiting. All eyes looked toward our arms, and all lit up in different lights.

Maya and Pratt had prepared breakfast. I was sitting between Jerry and Dia, which made it easier. Jerry attracted all of the attention headed our way, making it seem like I was almost absent. Absence was so much easier than silence.

After a loud and lively breakfast, we got into the car. The twins were in the front, Pratt driving. Jerry was waving for a long time before closing the window.

"It's not far," Pratt said, as we nestled into a comfortable silence.

"Have you been many times? To the dig?"

I asked because I was truly confused. It wasn't just that Pratt could navigate without help. It was that they all seemed to know everyone and everything. It was almost no different from the academy. And it was all very strange.

"A couple of times," Pratt answered.

"More than a couple of times, actually," Dia corrected.

"Not unless you're also counting the holidays. So, no, just a couple of times. Actually."

"Why wouldn't you count the holidays? The question was if we've been to the dig many times. Not regarding the circ.u.mstances. Yes, more than a couple of times."

The two looked at me. Dia directly. Pratt in the rearview mirror. I shrugged. Did it really make a difference?

"More than a couple of times," Jerry said, settling the issue. "And they're all very good friends. Your confusion is understandable."

Jerry saw me looking at him, understood the words underneath, cleared his throat and turned into professor mode.

"A bit of history, for the sake of the first timer with us. We were very interested in the mystery surrounding the references in Mizhtawi runes. My team and I, that's we. Anyway, we had already drawn a parallel with the epics from the blue era. We had found traces of similarities, showing evidence that there could have been one civilisation that was held in particularly high regard. Sarah, you'll meet her there, had written a program that traced lines, currents of information flow. And we observed that there were several points of intersection. One of those being the outside of Phylin village in the Karsworp province. We started digging. And found the temple. The first proof of the higher civilisation. One among the greatest discoveries of our era."

"Why call it Faery?" I asked.

"In Mizhtawi literature, a famous epic is the battle of their ancestors with the lower gods. Bodeius, a god, had become enamoured with Clista, the wife of Deliviur, the general of the human army. Bodeius strived to win Clista's affections, and when he failed, he decided to take her. He was fine with even waging a war. Agreos, friend and even more a brother to Bodeius, led the army of the gods. Deliviur led the army of the humans. The war lasted a week, at the end of which the human army was razed, with little losses to the army of the gods. Accepting the burden of all the blood spilled, all the lives lost, for her, Clista called upon the ancient Faeries, paying her blood and life as tribute. Moved by her sincerity and her purity, the Faeries answered. They slit open the sky and stepped out. A small group numbering no more than a dozen. But such was their brilliance and their might, that the gods cowered. The dozen Faeries waved their arms together as one, and the army of gods was demolished. The war was over. The Faeries picked up Clista's body carefully, and disappeared through the slit, which closed after them. All of the gods in the battlefield, Bodeius and Agreos included, had perished. Deliviur was among the few humans who survived. He was brokenhearted over losing Clista, but he accepted her decision. He apologised to all his soldiers that had fallen. He retired as the general, and remained an adviser in the court until the last day. Clearly, Faeries were the highest in Mizhtawi, even higher than gods. Mizhtawi runes led us to the temple. We couldn't think of a more fitting name. Faery."

"But that would mean that nowhere in the runes is civilisation mentioned by name."

It was an easy observation. Why then were the three of them looking at me strangely?

"What?" I asked.

The twins shook their heads. Jerry took a minute longer to answer.

"It's just, that's a question that doesn't come up immediately, not in most heads. You're wired different up there," he said, pointing to my head.

"I think that's obvious," I replied.

I was sure it was only Jerry who the question didn't occur to. He was the one wired different up there.

"Right," Jerry said, reading my thoughts from my face. "Anyway, to answer your question, no. Nowhere in any of the runes is there a reference to a name for the civilisation. It's actually one of the bigger mysteries. Opened up a few alternate theories. We'll leave those for later. Since we discovered the temple, and since the reason we gave for the name was so convincing, everyone just accepted it. Thus, Faery civilisation. Faery runes."

"Interesting."

We were all nodding. After leaving the Sapphire city, the roads drove through quiet lands, until we saw billboards welcoming us to Phylin. It couldn't be merely a village. No village, no matter how big, could have enough money to put up so many billboards. As we drove in, and saw the many buildings and the many people and the air of business, I was even more certain. Phylin was no more a village. Maybe it was, at some point. It was now something else entirely. And that made me wonder, was the temple also now something else entirely?