Page 1453

~~((The 12 Pages of Christmas + Double Monday = Page 7 of 14))~~
Diego gave the man a smile. “How could I possibly turn down such a generous invitation?”

Jasirok nodded and took the lead.

They followed him down the next side street and came to a towering, pitch black staircase that spiraled both up AND down, Diego noticed. This rocky ground that he’d been walking on was the same level on which they’d first arrived in Himmekel, so he’d been thinking that the town didn’t go any lower. Apparently, that was not the case.

He and Yangéra followed Jasirok downward, through the narrow hole that soon branched out into a multitude of hallways, several of which they simply passed by as they continued their descent. Jasirok exited at what Diego counted to be the eighth floor below Himmekel’s ground level.

The corridor was much larger than he expected as well, gradually widening out enough so that four or five people could have walked abreast in relative comfort. But he couldn’t tell how far it extended, because only darkness lay ahead.

In fact, there was no light anywhere down here, save that which Jasirok and the other Hun’Sho emitted. Diego supposed that made sense. These people probably didn’t have much need for light sources of any kind, and if they were really as ‘close to the planet’ as they’d been saying, then Diego further suspected that they might also have something akin to a reaper’s extra senses.

He decided to ask about it. “Hey, Jasirok, can you sense where this hallway ends?”

“Of course,” the molten man said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He looked like he wanted to ask a question of his own, perhaps wondering why Diego had asked such a thing, but Jasirok held his tongue.

‘If you don’t mind my asking, how old are you?’ said Yangéra.

“I am only seven hundred and twenty-one,” said Jasirok.

‘Ha. You say “only,” but you are even older than I am.’

“Truly?”

‘Yes.’

“Oh my. But then, I am almost certainly not older than you in terms of genuine life experience, I should think.”

“Does that mean you were born here in Himmekel?” said Diego.

“Yes, and I have never yet left it.”

Diego exhaled silently through his mouth as he tried to imagine that. Growing up here of all places? In such confinement? He decided to ask a question that he’d asked of almost every other Hun’Sho he’d met. “Do you wish to leave this place?”

“Eventually, yes. I must admit, your presence here has sparked my curiosity a bit.”

“But you don’t intend to leave anytime soon,” Diego surmised.

“Certainly not.”

It was an easy conclusion to reach, considering every other Hun’Sho had told him much the same thing. “Why not?”

“The time is not yet right.”

That, too, was the answer he’d been expecting. Despite how many times he’d brought the subject up previously, he had yet to receive any real elaboration on that point. He decided to give it another try, though. Perhaps Jasirok would be more forthcoming than the others. “How will you know when the time is right?”