"Pay the fee." Einervaene urges as she aggressively gestures towards the dismissive driver.
"He said it's fine." I remind her and she pouts.
"We took the ride here, we pay it!" she explains with a stomp.
"He's literally telling us right now not to worry!" I point out as I dive a hand into my bag to pull out the funds. I don't know what is up with her at the moment, she was aimless with her eyes on the wagon ride here and now she wants to pay for something that was free!
"Pay him!" she snaps before storming off into the distance, towards a small marker stone by a split in the road.
"I'm not wasting any more time on this..." I sigh as I give the man his money.
"I-It's fine, really... I sai-" he starts to say before I glare him into shutting up. He nods meekly and tips his hat, whipping the animal back into motion. Briefly following his departure, the feathered quadruped rustles its golden-plumed legs as it picks up the pace.
"Alright, talk, what's on your mind this time?" I ask as I come to a thunking stop in front of her. She looks away along a dirt road leading to a farm of some kind, one that's probably seen better days.
"Nothing."
"Einervaene." I say, sternly.
"Nothing!" she repeats as she throws her arms into the air, a brief golden flicker going across her right. She looks at it closely and that thing clearly says something to her. Quietly, I budge her along and sit on the small rock with her.
"Einervaene, I understand we talk about it a lot, there's no real way to avoid it. But, I am not having my patience worn thin talking about her with you. Anything, just ask." I say to her as she changes the way her legs are keeping her upright. Forcing myself slightly against the modest stone, I keep still, tilting it only slightly.
"It's not that... It is... Just not right now." she moans as she covers her face.
"Is it something private?" I shoot for the sake of it.
"Everywhere I went, when I still had my old copper hair, no one would look my way. A boy might whisper or speak to his friend, but that was it. No one cared until I told them my name and proved it, before I sailed away. Now, everyone sees me." she explains as she uses a finger to break apart one of her braids. Pushing through the fastened hair and securing the base, they drive down. All the way until she only has one braided side left.
She starts to redo the knots with well-practised, sub-conscious ease.
"It's all a lot more than you thought it would be?" I ask and she starts to nod as she lingers in her hair-doing.
"Ever since the sea-dragon, really. I've helped people, Lightning has done so much for them. Word of me travels faster than we do, everyone wants help. I need to get to Mother, but, I can't just turn a blind eye to everything going on around us... I can help." she explains further as she frustratedly throws the incomplete set of braids away. Falling back to her, they bounce off of her golden-tanned skin and dangle until motionless.
"You feel like you're being bogged down by everything?" I ask as I think back to my youth a little. You get all this power, you take on some jobs with a human connection and it's all you know. There's this sense of needing to help for the sake of it, it's why so many seemed so obsessive with what they wanted way back then. If they don't focus, they are drowned in real and mentally fictional expectations.
"I can help... I know I can, but, I need to get to Mother, I need to help her the most!" she cries tearlessly as she hides her face in cupped palms.
"You can reach one goal while also taking on others, Einervaene."
"But how...? I'm never going to get to her in time if I just keep dawdling and doing favours for everyone!" she snaps as we both likely think back to her generous nature. So many small things, small smiles as a reward, maybe something more.
"Einervaene, it's fine, we will get there and you will be able to be there for her. You've sailed for years, remember that." I say as she leans against me more assertively.
"But she's so close..."
"She's not going anywhere." I remind her, smiling. Coming up off the rock, I go around to her front and let her see it.
"When I left, I was so desperate to leave... Then I grew fine waiting, now, I want to rush on again." she tells me as I carefully wipe her eyes with my armoured finger.
"Then let's rush as leisurely as we can." I say, standing up by pushing on my legs, groaning as I reach my full height. I offer her my hand and pull her up in one clean movement.
"Any idea where we are? I forgot where the driver said he was going..." she sheepishly asks and explains. Chuckling slightly, I shake my head as it slipped my mind as well. All these foreign pronunciations, concepts I haven't heard in so long. They stick in my head purely for how different they are and nothing else.
"We got two choices, that there town, or this here farm." I point out as I start to wander slightly towards the town as we're more likely to meet someone there. The crops look quite bountiful as well, so it might be a bad time to go on up to bother a farmer and his family.
"I would like to go to the farm first, it should be easier to speak to someone." Einervaene argues with a soft tone as a gloved hand gently points in its direction. I shrug with a heavy metal rustle and walk towards the farm. She follows behind and comes up alongside me as that thing inside of her curiously lashes out towards some of the plants.
"I feel like I am looking at fields of wires..." I comment as some vague, old memories come back. Smiling, laughing, the old group all together as we wander around, looking for our next adventure.
Einervaene suddenly starts to run, then, she stops.
"Einervaene?" I call out as I jog after her, going past her as I slow down. I grab a nearby fence post as I pull myself back her way.
"A thunder-shogun has been here." she comments with a mixture of awe and fear. She's trembling, but her hairs are also standing and she's bustling with happier movements.
"That doesn't sound good..." I remark as I try to remember what I can about these esteemed warriors. Like the Valkinvar of the Theocracy, these people are well-renowned fighters of great magical power as well. I believe they're involved with the imperial royal family of Eusorochii, but I can't be sure. All I can recall is the first-coming edict that they travel with at all times.
'To those who disturb the grounds of which we have set aside for prayer and meditation, death shall be dealt with certainty.'
"This isn't bad, is it?"
"N-No! Of course not, the painted stone right there, in that small, strange clearing. He's thanked the farmer for the quality of his wire reeds." she explains.
"Couldn't tell him directly?" I question as this kind of vandalism to the man's livelihood seems like it will escalate to something crippling. A modest circle doesn't seem like much, but even one tree can feed a family with its fruit for years to come.
"Thunder-shoguns are very recluse, extremely private. I think they leave a coin of thunder-shaken gold as well to pay for it."
"A coin of gold...? In a land that sees gold as the common man's colour?" I question with a cocked brow.
"No, gold is a colour of nobility. Everyone else has it by decree of the imperial family."
I raise a finger at the casual weather of the land, rumbling thunderstorms and arcing lightning, "No king is deciding what happens with that."
"You're a foreigner, you won't get it." she shrugs as we start walking again.
"I guess... At least I'm not striking through people's windows, thinking that is acceptable." I tease, burning her face red with a blush as she scratches her neck softly.
"I don't want to talk to you..." she quietly squeaks as her legs turn stiff as she speeds off.
"Honestly..." I breathe humorously as I put my hands on my hip plates. Brushing some of the wire-reeds, I let them sparkle in the strange, cloudy light of this land. Many of them seem to spark as I force the delicate-looking plants to flower with the electric life of the land.
"Arooooooo!" something cattle-like goes as the sound of a gate hinge slamming down rings out. Pulling Einervaene back, two-legged creatures with long, flat bodies stride across the road. Their diamond-shaped plates flush with colour and a few shake themselves awake as they go across. The young man tending to the animals glances at us briefly as he chews a wire-reed head.
His eyes pass over Einervaene before they return, wider than ever.
"W-Well, I'll be," he lets out as he makes a quick gesture of prayer, "the sky really do rain the most precious of things."
Einervaene blinks at the compliment and I keep on smiling as he notices me. His gaze mellows, but he's still quite curious. Pinning the wire-reed between two fingers, he takes it out of his mouth and points it at me. It wiggles as he likely tries to recall something.
"Germikran?"
"Jhermonikra." I correct as I slick back my age-tinted, silver-green hair.
"Don't see yer kind around her too often." he remarks as he chews on his wire-reed some more.
"Is the owner in?" I ask so we can get down to our mild business.
"Think he loading up for a trip into town, if you hurry along, you might be able to catch him before he slips you by." the young man helpfully answers. I nod in thanks, gesturing with my non-existent hat as Einvervaene's eyes linger towards his.
"I'll call you if I need you." I joke, making her red once again.
"Now that's sweet, nice and ripe." the farmhand laughs out, making her scorch an even deeper crimson.
"Play nice with her now, she bothers easily." I laugh loud and clear once as I carry on heading in the pointed-out direction.
"I hate you!" Einervaene lies as I wave on my way around the bend. Nearly running into a stacked-up pile of pole-based tools, I tilt my weight away from them. Shaking my bemused expression free, I spot someone near a heavy-loaded machine.
"Excuse me!" I call out as clearly as I can, hopefully, with as little accent to it as possible so they can understand. The young man understood me well enough, most people do, but, can't be too careful.
"Stranger wandered onto me farm." the round-bellied man comments as he loads up something barrel-like, but wrapped in dirtied, white cloth and bound in rope.
"Haven't caught you at a bad time, have I?" I ask him as he eases up on his back.
"I am a bit busy." he grumbles as he pats a specific spot. Gathering up an orb of magic, I go up to him and place it near his mouth, surprising him.
"Just something for the aches." I explain as I take the lead in helping him load the machine further.
"Guess I have some time to talk." he tells me with a joyously raised tone. My armour clanks and thuds, as does his machine as I keep on adding to it.
"You able to give me any context as to where I am? We're heading for Bosphama lands."
"Oh... Those Bosphama lot are a bit strange, wanna stay away from them."
"Can't, important business." I say as I keep my tone in check. I understand he might not have the full story, but that family means a lot to me.
"Must be for a windy fellow such as yourself to come all the way here where the skies are always rumbling." he says as he gestures which thing he wants to be loaded up next. Obliging him, I fit the toolbox of some kind into a small, side-mounted box and I lock it.
"Yes, as such, should be a bit obvious I am a bit of a clueless wanderer right now. So, again, any pointers in the right direction?" I ask as he throws me over a heavy, metal hook attached to a cable.
"My farm." the farmer chuckles.
I shake my head, bemused.
"Uenfarmao is your closest town, from there you can head through the roads in the Copper Band Terraces." he explains as a small bit of voltage enters a device he's just picked up. Projecting an image, the arcane device briefly blips a path before vanishing.
"What can you tell me about the Terraces?" I ask so I can figure out if there are any potential dangers or something. Never seen an easy-to-cross terrace farm in my life.
"The sky is mighty attached to that place, so I hope you don't scare easily. Your armour there might end up being a hindrance if you do not know what you're doing." they explain as we seem to finish loading up and securing the backend of the machine.
"Any knick knacks I might be able to buy to make that less of a problem?"
"You can, but, I trust that you can handle it even without them." they comment as they hop onto the driver's seat. I walk to the other side so I can keep him in view and he waves me up. The machine tilts towards me as my heavy armour and luggage dictate their will to the suspension.
"And why's that?" I ask him as I gently sit down to avoid damaging his low internal-magic property.
"Those eyes of yours, they've seen a lot of danger. Might as well say you live for it." he tells me as he starts up the machine with an injection of lightning magic. A brief, pale spark jams its way inside and the engine chokes on its wake up.
"Right now, I'm living for only one thing in particular." I quietly remark as I look off in the direction Einervaene went. She might not be the one I am truly doing this for, even after being with her so intimately for a few years now. But, our goal is the same, keeping Eratheen safe, her mother.
"Work hard on keeping it, then. Losing it will mean losing everything. One goal is focused, but, you become aimless without it." he quietly tells me as his mind seems to lose its way in the memory quagmire. My eyes pass over the scars breaking up the strange, peculiar tan the people of these lands develop. Almost like burnt metal.
"You've seen a fair bit yourself?" I ask him as he gestures at a shrine tucked away at the entrance of his farm. Glancing up, I read the name of the place and I can't help but translate it.
My Dear Wife's Dream Farm.
"Not a lot of work sometimes, but someone always needs a thug in uniform or a back alley." he sighs as I nudge him slightly with my right arm.
"I'm sure she's proud of what you accomplished." I say and his eyes widen slightly. He looks back at the entrance to his farm and laughs a bit as he rereads the sign.
"You bet, even a thunder-shogun heaped praise onto us!" he laughs proudly as I frown at the spot that great warrior walked. Skilled swordsman, intuned with the land itself, as fast as what defines it so.
Do not cross into the prayerful land of the Thunder-Shogun...