"I guess that means that I have to answer a few questions about myself then," the man said. "Start with something simple, will you?"
"How about your name?"
"My name?" The man said. "Now that's a hard-hitting question. To be honest, I've been on my own for so long that my name has become of little importance."
"But you have one, don't you? Everyone deserves a name," Sonder said.
"A name…" He mused. "Aestivate. And if you call Vellichor 'Vell,' then just call me Aest."
"Aest?" Sonder repeated it to see if she had heard it before, but it didn't ring any bells. But his name was solid, like the man himself. "It suits you."
"If you say so," Aest replied. "It's been a long time since anyone else has said it."
She hesitated only a moment before continuing. She wondered what she should ask him.
"I know you aren't a mage, but have you ever used magic? Even just a little?"
Aest laughed. "No, not once in my life. Or not that I know of, and you'd know if you did magic, wouldn't you?"
Sonder frowned faintly. "Never?"
"Never," he repeated. "I don't know the words, the gestures, or the theories, none of it. I've never cast a spell, never felt magic move through me, and I don't know any mages either. If I'm honest, before you walked through my door, I wasn't sure I believed half the stories I heard of. I still don't, not until I see some concrete evidence."
That didn't fit in Sonder's few at all. She still had some trouble seeing Aest unrelated to Vell at all, and Vell's identity was bound so tightly in him being a mage.
"But," Aest continued, tilting his head, "if you're asking what I can do-" he rolled one shoulder, muscles shifting beneath worn cloth, "-I'm a decent warrior. Better than decent, I think. I train. I keep my body in working order. I can use a sword, spear, axe, or bow. A knife and hands, if I have to. I've survived this long on that alone."
He gestured vaguely toward the world outside the hut, the cliffs and winds and isolation.
"This place isn't too kind and forgiving when it comes to surviving it."
"I see," Sonder said.
Of course his words were the truth. He didn't have the stance or posture of a mage. He was a warrior, like the people of Simeria, Inure, or Cadre.
There was nothing magical about him.
"Have you traveled?" she asked. "Across cities, courts, other lands?"
Aest shook his head without hesitation.
"No. Hardly anywhere at all. I've walked the nearby hills. Followed game trails. Gone as far as the valleys when I needed supplies. But the wider world?" He shrugged. "I've seen it from a distance. That was enough."
"And you've lived here for how long?" Sonder asked.
He looked around the hut, at the shelves, the hearth, and the low ceiling darkened by years of smoke.
He exhaled loudly. "A long, long time. Longer than I can count. Long enough for new trees to grow and mountains to rise, I guess. This isn't the first home I've built."
"Alone?" she asked.
"Yes."
There was no bitterness in the word. No pride either. Just fact.
Sonder leaned back in her chair while she watched Aest play with the featherling some more.
This didn't make any sense to her.