"Queen Alin'at'acto ruled from her city for six hundred and fifty two years, long enough for the ancient scribes to document her reign and her conquests. From her self named city, the ancient elf ruled over the vast majority of The Hook, from the modern day island of Farg to the Chrzurub Mountains and the city of Keheath to the south. The islands of the west were the first to be absorbed into the queen's empire, followed by the western coast of The Hook several decades after. By the second century of the Evian Dounite(Elven Domination), the elves, led by Queen Alin'at'acto had conquered over two hundred cities and tribes." -Excerpt of Kieva's Mythological History
A night passed: Jiva's company until the sunrise made that fact that I may be murdered my first night away from home from either an angry barback or some deranged bandit a little bit easier to swallow. The morning came with a quick breakfast, and an even quicker exit as we left the city not long after the sun rose.
"Kurdu, what the fuck was that last night?" I asked once we were firmly on the road to the northeast, heading towards Hahyrst which would take a few days still.
"You mean Ossunnam?" He smiled, though I was not laughing.
"Yes, we mean the big angry dragon man who wanted to knock your head off." Va'tu replied, cutting a glance at Kurdu.
"Well we did some work at some point a few years ago." He said, his tone trying to remain inconspicuous and failing.
"You,'did some work'." Mire said, her tone mocking and unamused. "You think a bar fight is the best thing for us the first day away from the city?" She asked, levying a glare at Kurdu that he surely felt.
"Do you remember when I told you I met someone on a trip once?" His tone was rather different. He looked down and twirled a finger in his beard, a sign of concentration that was usual. "He was the person I met. That fucker."
"What in the Undercroft happened to make him so mad?" I asked, amazed that he could piss someone off that bad. This friend of mine was genuinely the nicest person I had ever met. He had to work hard to hurt feelings.
The road here was cobbled with red rocks from the surrounding hills cut between the underbrush of the forest, first after many decades and centuries of casual and tribal use and then eventually this stretch from The Tower to Hahyrst was paved during the later years of Evian Dounite by the the Southern Elves of what would become Siregal. Almost three thousand years had passed since then, with the elves losing their choke hold over the entire continent after what the Deep Elves called De Yeltan Fiqil, or The Dawn of Man, when the children of the First Men finally grew to realize their own power.
The only place now where an elf sat King among a council of only Elves was the island of Alina, though they tended to be rather distrusting of outsiders since the Pirate Wars almost one hundred years ago. Those were the years of my childhood, a time that I remember as turbulent though not much else.
The mainland of Ver-anda is home to many peoples, like the dragon-like kobolds of the Aranfarasi Desert, an inhospitable land that the small reptilian tribesmen have adapted to rather nicely. They already held traits of being warm blooded, making it easier to move about at different times for different tasks and being social and intelligent creatures, descended from dragons and elves if my people's stories are to be believed.
Then there are dragonborn, which our wonderful friend from the night before was, the large imposing descendants of dragons who still retain the ability to breathe a breath of fire or lightning and resistance to damage of their lineage.
They were often large and imposing but like any people of Ver-Anda, they were just as diverse as any other.
"We don't need to talk about the specifics, the tale is embarrassing," he seemed flustered, which did not happen often to him.
"He's your boyfriend," Mire's head snapped up and she locked eyes with Kurdu, who raised a hand to throw a glove at her. "Is that true?" she gasped, catching the glove with a laugh and throwing it back.
"He is not!" Kurdu said, his cheeks turning a bright red in embarrassment.
"You wanted him to be?" I asked, taking my horse between the two.
"I mean, we had a thing, but it was not meant to be." He said, his gaze lost in the distance as he said.
"Don't be so sure," Va'tu said, motioning behind us towards what seemed to be a large figure galloping towards us on a large horse.
"Va'act katen," Kurdu cursed in dwarven, a language that was similar to the elven I spoke but distinct enough that I had to really work to understand it.
We stopped in the road, waiting for the dragonborn to ride up to us, and eventually he came to a halt a few meters away from us, dust flowing past all of us from his ride. We stood in silence for a moment, and my gaze was split between Ossunnam and Kurdu as they gazed at once another with unwavering diligence.
The dragonborn spoke first.
"I would petition to join whatever great quest you have, Kurdu, to find whether you are the one who the god foretold." The horse he rode on was unruly still, tossing its head back and forth as it calmed from its long gallop. Ossunnam patted it on the back and eventually it stopped skipping from one hoof to the other and stood still.
"You want to do what?" Kurdu stumbled with his words in shock and apprehension. The gaze of Ossunnam towards Kurdu was rather unsettling, though Kurdu just looked at him with a stern gaze.
His face was impassable and the two seemed to have their own conversation in the moments that passed in silence.
"I wish to join you on your journey, Kurdu and friends." he said, smiling towards us.
"I mean, to be honest, I'll take all the help we can get," I laughed and looked towards Va'tu. He shrugged and looked towards Mirielye who was doing her best to ride ahead, unsuccessfully.
"I mean, you could seem less excited to have company," she looked towards Kurdu, who had been blushing a bright pink since the man had rode to us in the middle of the road. The dwarf huffed and spun on the horse, riding in a circle as he glared at Mire and then looked back at Ossunnam. The dragonborn, the color of the daytime sky, took another glance at Kurdu and the horse he sat on stomped the ground.
"Not only could I be of use to you, as a Warrior of the Sky Bound, but my destiny has tied me to this man here." His gaze lowered on the dwarf in the saddle of the gray horse. "Did you think that I would not make good on my word? Should I ever see you again, I would not let go again?"
"Well, yes, actually!" Kurdu stated, turning his horse around and coming to a stop in front of Ossunnam, forcing the large black horse to a stop as well.
"Let's go," I said to the others, letting the two have a moment to themselves, to sort out whatever they needed to sort out.
"Why didn't you ever come back?" the dragonborn asked as we walked away. His voice was wavering and rather sad. Kurdu had mentioned this person before, though we had never found out their name. Kurdu was rather infamous in Rency for his promiscuity, and his openness to sleep with those who he found worthy, though from what I could tell he was still rather selective.
This was not a man to choose anyone from Rency to please himself, and man from the Tower was certainly a feat. The Tower had a certain reputation that preceded it and the people that left were often tough and hardy, though it was not an easy place to survive.
"I just couldn't , besides why didn't you come to Rency?" Kurdu said, his voice fading as we trotted.
"Easy for you to say-" they argued, too quiet for me to hear eventually and the three of us continued along the road to the northeast.
***
The night came and we made camp along the road, just north across the river we could see the faint lights of the town of Briongrin and the several thousand people that lived there before the majority turned out for the night.
The dragonborn stayed with us, whatever the two had discussed had mended their break for the moment and they were able to relax enough to fall asleep in the same camp. Mire fell asleep next, hinting to Va'tu that she would not wait in their tent long though he stayed by the fire with Jiva and I a while longer, taking hits from the majiva.
"You keep speaking of Ossunnam," Jiva said, finally breaking into the conversation since she had arrived during the sunset. "Who is this you speak of?" Her look was one of intrigue and she took the roll of flower from Va'tu.
"You've met him, by all means." Va'tu coughed, and then laughed.
"That was Ossunnam?" her eyes widened remembering the night before, while I had been attacked by a half-orc and the dragonborn himself, Jiva had knocked the ally of the half-orc back into his own table and scampered back.
"Yes," I took the burning leaf and puffed. "The man could be helpful should things turn to a fight and he knows the republic as only a commoner does. He could help us for sure."
"You think he knows that much?" Va'tu took the majiva and took a puff, blowing smoke out before passing the leaf to Jiva.
"Like I know the mountains and forests and you know the cities." She said before taking a long drag, savoring the taste and flavor of the southern variety of herb. She held it in for a moment before slowly releasing it towards the sky.
"He will know the people?" Va'tu questioned, though neither Jiva nor I answered. Jiva passed the leaf back to me and I took a hit, enjoying the silence. The woods beyond were quiet and peaceful, the only thing one could hear was the crickets and the small mammals hunting those bugs. The shriek of an owl broke the silence every once in a while, their ever watchful eye on their prey in the dark a testament to the magic woven into the fabric of the world.
"He will know more than we do." I said, taking a final hit and passing the blunt to Jiva. The leaf was yet halfway finished but we were all more than affected from the potency of the flower.
Va'tu refused the pass from Jiva, standing and prompting her to pass back to me. I took it and followed my friend with my gaze.
"I cannot partake anymore. My sujta awaits." He made an exaggerated bow and left blowing a kiss on his way out.
"You really left." Jiva said once he was in his tent.
"Of course, I left." I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a slight tilt of my head. I did not think what I told her was plausible, only inevitable. I knew that I would leave by that night. Whether my friends were my company was another question that I did not yet have the answer to.
"I don't know why I doubted."
"Did you?" I questioned.
The response was after a short pause that led to a rather happy looking smile, "No."
"You know that this was all I wanted, to leave, I just found it hard to actually leave them all behind."
"What do you mean? Your family? You have family all over the bay, things will be fine." She was right. We of the Sevata were all over the cities of the Garu'ud Sea, from Gorbag to Keheath and all in between.
I meant mostly my brother and my father. My brother was the only other person I trusted other than Jiva and Va'tu, and he also knew about my trip, as well as the women who I left for, though they never met unlike Va'tu. And even though "the man" was dead. He still held a grip over me that felt like I could never escape, even now.
"You know, how everything I ever did was to make my father happy, until it all came crashing down?" I said, rather quietly, in between drags of the ever shrinking blunt. She only nodded, waiting for me to take another drag before beginning again.
"It was all so much, to pretend that it was what I wanted. To be a part of his world, with everything that came with it. The pressure and the meetings and everything. I just want to make music and exist. That is all."
"That wasn't what you were meant to do, Semsì. You have always known that, even before we met," she said after taking a drag from the leaf and twisting it in her fingers while she breathed out the smoke. "You knew long ago that you were meant for something different than what anyone has ever wanted for you. Tell me any different." She finished.
"You always seem to know more than I do about myself, Jiva. Why is that?"
"I know the way that the forces of our reality work more than you, at least. I don't know more about you, per say." She smiled slyly and stood from the fire with a stretch.
"I think you are the most divine being on the surface of this planet," I said.
She looked down at me and scowled, my blasphemy earning the ire of her gaze.
"Do not lie to me Semsì`vatu Sevata." She said, and placed her foot on my chest. I grapsed her ankle lightly and turned to my back.
"Oh why would I lie, my lady?" I said coyly, teasing her.
"Because," she smiled and reached down with both hands, grasping my own arms and hoisting me up in a fluid motion.
"Gods, that always makes you so hot," I said, taking a step to stabilize before standing up straight.
She kissed me before I could react and I leaned forward, grasping wildly at her belt and buttons while I made for the tent behind her.