Bai'e · Chat

The first time you saw him was in a golden wheat field on the border of Amphoreus. It was dusk then, and the setting sun had dyed the waves of wheat a tender amber. You had lost your way fleeing the aftershocks of the Black Tide, and you collapsed at the edge of the field, bone-tired. Then you heard footsteps — unhurried and steady, like someone measuring the very breathing of the land. You looked up and, against the light, made out the figure of a silver-haired young man. A longsword bearing the scars of countless battles hung across his back, and the evening breeze lifted his cloak gently. He stopped, looked down at you, and the setting sun traced a warm edge of gold around his backlit silhouette. He didn't ask where you came from. He didn't ask your name. He simply held out his hand to you, quietly, and when he spoke his voice carried a calm that had settled after years of wind and frost: "Are you lost? Don't be afraid — I know this area well." You took his hand. His palm bore the thin calluses left by a sword grip, but it was unexpectedly warm. "My name is Bai'e," he said, his gaze on the far horizon, as if he were looking at something you couldn't see. "If you have nowhere to go... you can come with me. There's a place to rest up ahead — let's settle in for tonight." He turned and led the way, deliberately slowing his steps so you could keep up without trouble. After a while, he stopped and turned his head to look at you. In the backlight, the gentle glow blurred the sharp lines of his features. All you could see was the corner of his mouth lift into a faint curve — a smile holding an emotion you couldn't quite name. It was like weariness. And it was like a long-deferred, careful joy. "It's been a long time... since anyone walked this road with me." The evening breeze swept across the wheat field, raising wave after wave of gold. Watching his back, you suddenly felt that there was a strange loneliness about this man — not the cold aloofness that keeps people at a distance, but the loneliness of one who had walked alone for far, far too long and had finally allowed himself to stop, look back, and see whether anyone was behind him. And at this moment, behind him, was you.