04.10.08
The Well-House.
Helith isn’t entirely sure how he ended up living with the other two. Oh, he’s pretty sure they faced the same problems he did, in trying to live closer to the Village – genderswapping spirits unnerve other spirits as much as they unnerve humans, if not more so.
That never bothered Helith terribly much. He only minded the long walk to the Green for meetings.
He minds a bit more, now that he has houseguests.
Shai was the first to show up, a haggard gray spirit hiding in the mist by the well’s feeder stream. He reminded Helith of nothing so much as a miserable wisp of smoke, trying to curl in on itself and out of existence.
So Helith invited him in, gave him some tea, and gave him a home.
A few weeks later, Inari showed up. The disturbingly androgynous spirit – disturbing even to Helith – was perched on the edge of Helith’s well, counting grains of rice into a small pouch and looking for all the world like he was right where he was supposed to be. Helith’s first instinct was to shove him in the well. Fortunately, he restrained himself.
Then Inari’s long sleeve slid up, revealing dark bruises around his wrist. So Helith invited him in, treated his injuries, and gave him a home, too.
The first few weeks Shai was there, he’d slept too much. Whenever he’d been awake, his eyes were filled with such despair that it paralyzed even Helith. He’d never been called on to treat depression before.
The first few nights Inari was there, he’d slept not at all. Whenever Helith saw him, the rice spirit was always remote, always haughty, but that haughtiness would dissolve into animal terror at the slightest perceived threat. Helith had never had so many giant spiders in his house before.
Then one night, as Helith was coming down the hall to check on his restless houseguest, he heard movement from the other room and stopped, curious, as a barely-awake Shai padded across the hall and opened Inari’s door.
To Helith’s knowledge, this was the first time they’d spoken to each other during their stay in his house. Refusing to eavesdrop, Helith stayed where he was until the voices and the pacing stopped, and then went to check on his guests. He found them curled together, half-sitting, Inari weeping silently, Shai with a sad smile on his face and something other than despair in his eyes.
Now, Helith thinks, the house is both quieter and not. Since those early days, since that night, both his housemates have begun speaking more, and Helith has watched, pleased, as the ice has fallen away from Inari and life has come back to Shai. Some traces of their trauma lingers, of course, and it is likely, Helith muses, that those traces will never leave. Shai always falls back into his bleak silence when visitors come, and it can take days to pull him out of it. Inari never leaves the house female, though in darker moments, Helith wonders how anyone knows.
Still, they are Helith’s now, happier than they were, stronger than they were, and starting, perhaps, to heal, and Helith never lets anyone hurt what is his.
