Part 1
Ashan 62, Arc 720
“I think that he likes his new clothes”, Devin remarked and looked at their surprise visitor who had mysteriously ended up in their garden a couple of breaks earlier and who was sitting at the table in their living room now. The Sev’ryn was wearing one of his roommate Aidan’s old suits, because Devin’s clothes had turned out to be too narrow in the shoulders for him, and his hair was tied back with a velvet ribbon. “The navy-blue color looks really great against his tanned skin, don’t you think?” he asked the student.
“He does seem rather comfortable”, Aidan agreed and eyed the Sev’ryn appraisingly. The Sev’ryn looked at him and smiled, revealing perfect, pearly white teeth before he turned back to the notebook and the tin with differently colored pencils in front of him, a look of deep concentration on his face. “He seems to enjoy drawing”, he continued and came a bit closer, looking over their guest’s shoulder. “He’s not very good at it though.”
“I agree. I don’t think he’s an artist. Drawing doesn’t seem to trigger his memory either”, Devin decided. Devin and Aidan had decided to conduct a few experiments and make the Sev’ryn do different things in order to find out what he liked and hopefully make him remember – and give him new clothes to wear since their guest had very clearly told them that he didn’t like his traditional Sev’ryn outfit and wanted to stop wearing it.
He didn’t seem to particularly enjoy being a Sev’ryn.
It seemed as if whatever accident he had suffered might have brought out a side of him that he had suppressed so far. At least Devin didn’t think that most Sev’ryn openly complained about wearing leather and fur and such and admitted that they would rather dress themselves in silk and velvet.
“Maybe he could be an actor though”, he mused. “What do you think? Are you an actor, Mik’hail?” he asked. He had decided to call their guest Mik’hail after a friend from Desnind until he found out his real name. So far, the Sev’ryn didn’t seem to mind his new name. “Or maybe you like fishing – or want to dance? We already know that you like to eat bugs or things that look like bugs”, he remarked, remembering the dinner that Aidan had made for their guest.
It was just then that Aidan nudged him though and told him. “I need to talk to you about something, Devin. Mik’hail”, he addressed their guest who briefly looked up from his drawing. “Would you mind if Devin and I leave you for a bit? There is something that we need to discuss!” Having said that, he grabbed Devin’s hand and practically dragged him into his kitchen. Once they were alone, he turned to him again and informed him,
“I do not like how you treat this poor man, Devin. He’s not a pet, he’s a human … err … Sev’ryn being who has probably been through something terrible. You are not going to drag him to the theatre, put him on a stage and tell everybody that he’s a famous actor!” he informed him in no uncertain terms, crossed his arms over his chest and looked at him, his normally gentle brown eyes practically ablaze with anger.
“You said that!” Devin retorted. “I never planned on taking advantage of him like that”, he insisted. He’d only briefly considered it but changed his plan quite quickly because Aidan had looked at him like that, so very disapprovingly. Aidan was one of his biggest weaknesses. He could hardly bear it when the student was mad at him. He wanted him to be happy with him and like him and smile at him. And what more, sometimes, being near him actually made him want to do good deeds!
Of course, he’d never admit that a part of him might actually enjoy treating patients and such.
A little.
Sometimes.
Being a nice and good and helpful person was kind of lame, and it also didn’t make you rich!
“I just want to make him experience as many different things as possible because something might eventually seem familiar to him. I know that we talked about taking him to the Order of the Adunih, but do you really think they’d help him there? They wouldn’t work with him that much! He’d be stuck in a hospital bed all trial long, and every now and then a doctor would come, poke him with something and ask unpleasant questions. And hospital food sucks! He’d probably get terrible heartburn!”
He knew that from experience. The cycle before, he had worked as a doctor in a hospital in Desnind.
Aidan looked at him for a moment before he remarked in a gentler tone of voice, “I’m sorry then. Do you forgive me?”
“Of course”, Devin replied because he was in quite a generous mood that trial and smiled at him.