Yu hesitated. He was wary now. After his exchange with Fallem, he did not have the stomach for another cutting down. But was she dismissing him? She had stopped, yes, but was she withholding information on purpose? It felt like it, yet at the same time, this did not seem like an attempt to denigrate or insult him. Shamans were known for their neutrality, were they not? For their detachment —
The shaman tilted her head towards him. “Let it surprise you,” she said.
“Oh, um. Yes,” Yu’s reply came awkwardly. He had no idea how else to reply, especially because whichever ulbatan was outside was still howling with laughter and, from the sound of it, possibly crying as well.
As Yu desperately searched for something else to say, anything at all to make him seem normal, somewhere, from the back of his mind, a faint scrap of etiquette surfaced.
“I’m Yu. A new guard —” He stopped.
She knew that.
She knew his name.
She had greeted him by name.
She also knew he was a guard.
She had spoken of the ceremony as if it concerned him — which, if it was a guard’s farewell, it likely did only because he was, or, at least, was to become, a guard.
OH GOD.
Why the fuck
was he
SO. DAMN.
STUPID?
“So I heard,” she said. “I assume you expect me to say my name. Is that right?”
Yu hesitated. The bluntness threw him. “Yes?”
He had not thought that far ahead. He had not thought at all, really, but at this point, he would say anything to shift this conversation away from himself.
“I cannot give you that,” the shaman said. “Over the course of the Enfolding, we relinquish our names. Shedding our original identity is part of the transformation. We become shamans and are known as such. For now, I am the shaman of this guild. After the Relief of Duty, I will be a wanderer, a returner. After that, where I settle will determine my new name.”
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