Flux

white hair, which was still very short. “Because you’re so fair-complexioned. Pale like a star.”
    “Oh,” Miner said, and then chuckled when the girl copied Ennek’s movements. “Well, gods don’t usually wear slave collars.”
    “But this one does! Well, maybe. The star god was a man once, a slave. And he fell in love with his mistress, who was a princess, so of course he couldn’t be anything to her but a slave. He served her faithfully, until one day he was walking with her in the gardens and a snake appeared. The man leapt between her and the snake, taking its bite himself, and as he lay there dying, his last words were of devotion. She was so taken with his loyalty that she prayed to the gods, and his…his spirit, I guess…was taken up into the sky where he could shine forever.”
    “As rewards go, I’m not sure it’s one I’d fancy.”
    “Why? You don’t want to be a god?”
    “I’d rather be mortal and spend a lifetime with my beloved.”
    Ennek smiled at him a little shyly and seemed about to reply, but then Luli and Yuening appeared. Miner gently shook the children off and rose to greet the women, who responded with welcoming embraces, as if Miner and Ennek were long-lost friends.
    At that point, Ennek got into a lengthy discussion with the adults, much accompanied by gestures and little pantomimes to aid his halting command of the language, while the children gave Miner a detailed tour of the courtyard, solemnly pointing out wonders such as a yellow spider in her web and a small stone with glittering bits of quartz and a low bush that bore red berries which, the children showed him, were good to eat. They were delicious, actually, and as soon as the little ones realized he liked them they began picking them with great enthusiasm, handing most of them to him but eating some themselves, until all three of them had hands and mouths stained bright red.
    Miner hadn’t even realized Ennek had approached until Miner heard his chuckle behind him. Ennek laughed even louder when Miner spun around. “I see you found a way to entertain yourself.”
    “You were talking for some time.”
    Ennek’s smile faded away. “Yeah. We need to talk. Not right now, though. Luli wants to prepare us a little feast, I think.”
    Even though Miner had just greedily eaten all those berries, a feast sounded good. He was worried about whatever it was Ennek had to say to him, but reckoned that if it were really horrible, Ennek probably wouldn’t wait to say it. “Is there someplace I could wash up, do you think?” Miner asked, holding up his discolored palms.
    Ennek smiled again. “I’ll ask. I wouldn’t mind getting this salt off me, as well.” He walked off to speak with their hosts. Meanwhile, the children had lost interest in their star god and were instead teasing a striped kitten with a black feather tied to a stick.
    Ennek returned a moment later with Yuening and a grin. “Come on, Mine,” he said.
    Yuening held up her hand for them to wait and hurried into the house. When she came out she had a pile of fabric under one arm and a basket in her other hand. She motioned to them and they followed her out of the courtyard, behind the house, and into a small stand of trees. There was a narrow path, soft and springy beneath Miner’s feet, and it twisted among the tree trunks and low bushes of golden flowers. Then they turned a sharp corner and Yuening stopped.
    In front of them in a clearing was a field of stone, smooth and slightly undulating as if it had been poured there from a giant pitcher. A little stream flowed into the stone, filling a large hole and forming a pool, before flowing out again on the other side and disappearing into the trees. Yuening set the fabric and the basket down on the rock beside the water, said something to Ennek, and then walked back the way she had come.
    Ennek stripped off his clothes very swiftly and hopped right into the pool, sending up a huge splash. “Oh! It’s warm!” he exclaimed when his head emerged again, his hair slicked down. “The sun’s heated it nicely. It feels wonderful. Do you think you could join me?”
    Miner walked to the edge and looked down. The pool was perhaps ten feet in diameter. It was difficult to tell how deep it was, but Ennek was having to tread water. Just a few days ago, Miner would have been too scared to get into that water. It wasn’t so long ago that the bathtub had terrified him, after all. But that was before he jumped