Episode 40
Travelling Light E040S01 Transcript
H.R. Owen
Hello friends, Hero here with the Season One finale! Thank you all so much for for your enthusiasm and support over the last year, it's meant the world. We'll have some bonus content for you in the next few weeks, including our end of season Q&A. If you have questions for either myself or co-creator and artist Matt, send them in through the website, on social media or by email. And keep your eyes on our socials for updates and news about Season Two. Enjoy the episode, and we'll see you soon.
[Title music: rhythmic electronic folk.]
H.R. Owen
Travelling Light: Episode Forty.
[The music fades out.]
The Traveller
7th Bahna 850, continued.
I tried my best to make conversation with Annaliese and the others in the tavern. [sighing] But I found I could not get into the spirit. Before long, I made my excuses and left, retiring to my cabin on the Tola.
[sighing] I did not sleep well. After tossing and turning for a few hours, I think I drifted into unconsciousness sometime before dawn. The last I looked outside my window, sky was still an unbroken blanket of blue-black, without so much as a hint of light on the horizon.
I was so exhausted by the night's anxieties, I had thought I might sleep through the following morning. But when I opened my eyes once more, it was in the thin grey light of a barely-born day, and I was wide awake.
I could not lie still. I rose, and went about my morning routine as if it were not several hours before my usual time of waking. I found some comfort in the familiar movements, and in the reassurance that I had taken these habits with me from home and I shall take them with me wherever I go next.
I was not sure what to do with myself once I had finished. I looked about my room and my eyes fell on Óli's robe, still hanging in my wardrobe.
I left, sliding the cabin door closed as softly as I could, mindful of the others aboard who were likely all still sleeping. Slipping through the silent corridors, memories kicked up about my heels of the trip to Doyino, when Tsabec, Óli and I had drifted from the sleeping ship like ghosts in the dark before dawn.
I was lost in rememberance when I came to the refectory, and pulled up short. Someone else had got there first.
Dressed in sleeping trousers and a shirt I did not remember looking so cropped when I had last seen it on Tsabec, Resimus looked around as I entered the room and startled so badly they almost spilt the cup of tea they were holding.
“Oh! It's you!”
“It is.” I said. “And… you.”
“Y-yes. Sorry, I'll get out of your hair. I always wake up early after a night of drinking, I don't know why – I'm sure I'd much rather stay in bed!”
“You slept aboard?” I did not mean to be so blunt but surprise had knocked all my manners out of me.
Resimus's neck fluttered, the skin turning a delicate shade of blue in what I think was the equivalent of a blush.
“Well, yes, if you must know,” they said, leaving the 'and what of it' unsaid.
I stepped past them to get some tea of my own. “It is no business of mine,” I said. “Tsabec has already made their loyalties perfectly clear.”
I expected Resimus to leave at that, but they lingered, a pale, sinuous shape in the corner of my eye.
“You're awfully sure of your moral highground, for a smuggler.”
“I am not a smuggler.”
“No? What do you call it then, when you participate in selling stolen good across planetary bounds?”
I felt a hot spike of… something. Something I did not want to look at right now. I bit it back to snap, “Better a smuggler than a bounty hunter.”
“We took a perfectly legal contract from a paying customer-”
But I was too angry to let them finish. “And who bought our 'stolen' goods, anyway? Who vouched for their authenticity?”
It was a petty little dig, and I wished I had stopped to think before I spoke. My words did not have the effect I might have expected, however. A smile twisted over Resimus's face.
“Well,” they said, finally turning to leave. “Shows what you know.”
At least I can say this for the conversation – it quite did away with any lingering melancholy I was feeling, replacing it with hot, shame-tinged anger.
I did not want to think about it. I took my tea and stomped off towards the entry hatch. I would drink it outside, with some fresh air to clear my head.
But when I hit the hatch release, I found another, far more complicated situation waiting for me. Óli was standing on the dockside, looking up at the Tola. They spotted me, of course, and their expression was as unreadable as I have ever known it. Then, they huffed a wry laugh.
[laughs, then sighs] “Of course it would be you.”
I shrugged. “Who else?”
I came down from the hatch to stand with them, sipping at my tea, neither of us quite sure what to say.
“I could not sleep,” Óli offered, after a while.
“No. No, me neither. [pause] Where are you staying?”
“A lodging house, a little way into town.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I should have thought 'a little way into town' would be halfway out the other side in this place.”
Óli gave another little huff of laughter. [laughing softly] “Near enough.”
It was cold in the morning mist, and our breath gusted out in pale puffs of steam. Óli had on a thick travelling cloak, and stamped their feet to keep warm. I was forgetting my manners again.
“Would you like to come in?” I said. “Get something to eat, warm up a bit…?”
But Óli pulled a face. “I-I… I do not think I am quite ready. I did not mean to come here, really. It was only that I was awake and I wanted to get out of the room and I sort of… ended up here.”
“Well, then,” I said, more cheerful than I quite felt. I knocked back the last of my tea and perched the mug on the entry ramp. “It is altogether too cold to be standing about. Let us walk a while. You can show me the town.”
“There is not much to show,” Óli warned, but they led the way all the same, out of the docks and into the quiet streets beyond.
It was easier to talk like that, walking together across the cobbles, without the fraught tension of the night before. I sifted through all my many, many questions, settling at last on, “How did you get here?”
“On a ship,” they said, but went on before I could glare at them. “I wanted to get here quickly, quick as I could. I knew you all were on your way, and I wanted to be sure I would… That I would not miss you.
The rest was just luck, I suppose. Luck that Scarry followed you and did not try to find me while I was travelling. Luck that I got here before he did, and had time to think of what to do when he arrived.
Back when I first told you how I got my berth on the Tola, you were surprised I had not chosen a more comfortable ship. Well, this seemed as good a time as any to indulge. I bought a ticket on a fancy cruise liner that would take me close to Kerrin, and hired a private shuttle to bring me the rest of the way.”
“Alright for some,” I said, bringing a small smile to Óli's face. “How did you pay for it all? All of your jewellery and so on is still aboard the Tola.”
Óli shot me a look half bashful, half delighted with themselves. “I put my parents' address on the invoice. They will know where I am soon, anyway, and I think they owe me.”
[laughing] “Fair enough!” I laughed.
We walked a while longer, listening to the sounds of the town waking up around us – shutters clattering open, vehicles starting, the whole world chuffing and grumbling into wakefulness.
“How, uh. How-how are you feeling? About, um. All that?”
Óli let out a long, shaky breath. [sighs] “Honestly? I have no idea how I am feeling. It has not really sunk in yet.”
I nodded, as if I could possibly understand. “Do you-” I started, but they cut me off sharply.
“Do not ask me if I am sure. This was my decision, and it was not one I came to lightly.”
“I was not going to ask that.” Óli shot me a look. “I am telling the truth! And even I I were to ask, it would be because I-I care. About you. Not because I doubt you.”
This seemed to mollify them. I went on with the question I really had intended to ask in the first place.
“Do you know what you will do next?”
Óli threw up their hands. [laughing] “Oh, that is almost worse than the other question! [sighs] Not really. [sighs] I am making this all up as I go. I have been making it all up for months, ever since I left home. I wish I did have a-a goal, or a destination in mind, but it has just been run, run, run, keep running, no matter what!”
I reached for their hand, pulling them to a standstill. They looked at me, their eyes shining with tears. “You can stop now,” I said. “It is done. It is over.”
Óli's breath was sharp and ragged. [tearful] “I… I want… I do not know…”
That was enough. I pulled them into a hug – a proper hug, my arms wrapped tight around their slender frame, their head on my shoulder, taking their weight and just holding them. They cried, and I rubbed their back and said over and again, “It is alright. You can stop now. It will all be alright.”
The rest of the day feels utterly inconsequential. We ate, talked, fell back into a rhythm with one another. They showed me their lodgings and I helped them collect their belongings from the Tola. They would deliver their robe to Scarry alone, they said. I think they needed the space.
Besides, I needed to start packing.
The Tola is scheduled to depart from Kerrin Port tomorrow and fly south on the business that had brought them so far from home in the first place.
My journey will continue too – north to our community in the town of Clanagh. I am excited to see them. And to introduce them to my travelling companion.
In all likelihood, I will not see the Tola again, or the friends I have made aboard. I cannot help but be reminded of my last great departure, saying goodbye to all of you who love me so much and so well.
I shall write to you all again when I am in Clanagh. I love you all, and I will carry you – and my friends from the Tola – with me, in my heart and in my prayers, as Óli and I take our next steps on this story, side by side.
[The click of a data stick being inserted into a drive that whirs as it reads]
The Traveller
Entry BA85007-8: An evening of farewells among the crew of the RSV Tola.
Key words: alcohol; community; occasions and ceremonies; the RSV Tola.
Notes:
All the recent excitement surrounding our journey to Kerrin had left me somewhat distracted. I had not forgotten, exactly, that I would be dismbarking the Tola once we reached the planet. But it was so far down the list of my priorities that I had given my actual departure no real thought at all.
Emotionally, this was rather a good thing. I had enough to lose sleep about, with Scarry and Óli and all the rest. But in practical terms, it did leave me with rather a lot to do before the Tola left for the south.
I had been quite proud when I left Emerraine that I had not given too much in to temptation and packed more than I ought. Unfortunately, in the five months I have been travelling, I have aquired a good deal more new possessions than I had realised.
Books and clothes, souvenirs and postcards, plants from Annaliese – and the grow lights she had donated to their cause. I worked up quite a sweat trying to get them all packed away, not to mention organising them so that I would actually be able to carry it all.
I was wrestling with my luggage, trying to force it to accept a pair of green corduroy dungarees I had bought on impulse after my colour analysis in Tauzig, despite the luggage in question being quite definitely already full, when there was a knock at my door.
Duyren grinned at me, wasting no time on pleasantries. “Pub?”
With a sigh as much relief as resignation, I agreed. The dungarees would wait.
We ended up in the same tavern as the night before. Duytren had said the others would meet us there, but I was not expecting the cheer that greeted me when I entered.
Hesje skipped up to me, pushing a mug of beer into my hand and leading me to a table full of snacks and drinks around which the others were sitting.
[laughing] “What is this in aid of?” I laughed as I took a seat.
“You, of course,” said Aman.
“Party!” Wolph confirmed. “Say goodbye properly.”
“You didn't think we'd just let you sidle off tomorrow without making a fuss, did you?” Annaliese teased.
It was such a sweet contrast to the previous evening – a chance to spend a few more precious hours with the people who had become so important to me in the last few months.
Everyone was in high spirits, sharing their best wishes for my ongoing journey and their hopes for their own. Only Tsabec was a little more subdued than usual.
I caught their gaze, and raised my eyebrows at them over my drink. “Do say goodbye to Resimus for me,” I said.
Tsabec tutted, but I think it was a relief to bring the matter out into the open.
“Oh, stop,” they chided. “I'm terribly embarrassed. It never occurred to me they might be tracking the signal! I was just excited to speak to someone so… [sigh] So interesting.”
Annaliese patted them reassuringly on the shoulder. “I'm sorry it didn't work out.”
“What? No, we're fine,” said Tsabec. “These things happen. We've hashed it all out.”
“Is that what they call it these days?” I said. “Resimus certainly seemed quite content in the refectory this morning.”
At that, Annaliese, Duytren and Wolph all exploded in half-mocking, half-congratulatory cheers. Tsabec looked precisely as embarrassed as they were thrilled, though Wolph's back slapping was perhaps a little more enthusiastic than they would have preferred.
“What a racket!” came a voice from over my shoulder. I turned and found Óli smiling their quiet smile, shaking their head at our raucousness. “You sound more like a ruyfo team after a match than a bunch of academics."
They slipped into a seat beside me and knocked their knee against mine in a companionable gesture. “Sorry I am late,” they said. “I had to dress.”
They had collected their belongings from the Tola earlier, and I saw familiar embroidered cuffs and skirts mixed in with their newer, plainer clothes.
“You are not giving up all your finery then?”
They scoffed. “I am abandoning my family, not my dignity.”
I squeezed their knee, full of fondness.
The drink and conversation flowed, and I was feeling quite pink the cheeks when Hesje stood, clearing their throat.
“Oh, much we make speeches?” Aman complained.
“I won't take long,” Hesje said. “I just want to say a few words.”
They looked at me and Óli, and spread their arms, including us both in their address.
“I don't think any of us expected, when we took passengers in Port Taroth, that you would become so important to us. That we would come care so much about both of you. But I for one am extremely pleased, in this case at least, that our reality was so very different to our expectations.
There is not much to say, really. Only to raise our glasses-” At Hesje's lead, we all obliged, “-and to say from the very bottom of our hearts, good luck, may the stars shine favourably on your both, and safe travels.”
The others cheered, clapping and wishing us well. Annaliese threw an arm around my neck, pulling me sideways to whisper in my ear, “Look after yourself, dear thing. And do write if you can.”
I grinned as she planted a none too sober kiss on the side of my head. “I will. I promise.”
On the other side of the table, Aman reached into a bag hanging from the back of her chair and fished out a pair of brightly wrapped parcels. “For you,” she said, handing one to me and the other to Óli. “To remember us by.”
“Oh, you did not have to-” I started, but Óli was already tearing the paper from their gift with a cry of delight.
They unwrapped a small leather box with a swirling maker's mark stamped on the lid. Inside were three earrings, intricately wrought and glittering in the tavern lights.
“They are beautiful,” Óli sighed, running one long finger over the metal. “Who picked them out?”
Duytren made a slightly bashful gesture. “I thought you'd like them,” she said. “They'll go with your others.”
I went next, unwrapping my gift with a little more care than Óli had shown. It was a box, quite a bit bigger than theirs, and I opened that to find a shining new camera, complete with film.
“Send us a souvenir,” said Wolph. “Let us know you're alright.”
I beamed at them all. Indeed, I do not think I stopped smiling for the rest of the night.
Eventually, the tavern closed and we staggered back to the Tola together, laughing and, in Tsabec's case, singing a very dirty song about vegetables.
[Title music: rhythmic instrumental folk. It plays throughout the closing credits.]
H.R. Owen
Travelling Light was created by H.R. Owen and Matt McDyre, and is a Monstrous Productions podcast. This episode was written and performed by H.R. Owen.
This week’s entry to the archives was based on an idea by Matt McDyre, with accompanying artwork available on our social media accounts.
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