Chapter 27: Forcing the Hand of Bitter Words

“I wonder if you even listen to my prayers. The clan grows apprehensive, tired, I never intended to make this happen. Natural progression as time moves on I suppose. I only wanted to see if things could be better, I only wanted to follow in your Ambition. Your light that guides, a distant candle on the horizon, through the gloom and haze, I still see that star shine brightly. 

Grant us yet another day, for I grow tired of the challenges before me.”

***

Year of Wrath 1231, Season of Waiting D.18, Ahmir

    The rain pattered endlessly on the cloth covered terrace. The canopies had survived much harsher monsoons, the thick cloth holding up well to the wind and spray. Ahmir sat and watched the wind blow the tops of the waves in the harbor into misted clouds as the seagulls and cormorants squawked in the gales overhead.

    The island town of Casa Del Tabk went about their days as if there wasn’t an actual hurricane going on. The townsfolk only hurried from cloth canopy to canopy, chatting with the shop owners and other residents as they waited for their clothes to dry enough to venture on the next leg of their daily business. The rain slick on muddy cobblestone as the smells of exotic spices and steam engines generating power filled the humid air.

    Ahmir had been given a pipe and some aromatic tobacco, his smoke drifting away as quickly as he made it. Though the damp cloth above him held the strong cinnamon scent of the pipe. Overall, he was thoroughly enjoying the brief stop in the city. The townsfolk seemed friendly enough, even more so after they had heard they were only stopping and not staying. 

    The lanterns' warm glow filled the terrace in a welcoming embrace as it backlit one of the delegation traveling with him. Javad sat down, one of the cigars the townsfolk had given him burning weakly in the fading light. His smoke only added a wonderful level of complexity to the aroma. “Do we have a new plan now that this storm stalled out and blocked our path west?”

    “It hasn’t fully stopped us, we are only waiting for it to pass a bit more north until the waves calm down.” Ahmir responded pleasantly, not a worry he allowed to be heard in his voice. 

    “You know what I mean. Has anyone contacted us about the new plan? We told them we would be heading straight to Glaion, not any detour. Do they even know where we are?” Javad asked with a heavy puff of haze, fidgeting in the chair.

    “I’m certain they are all too aware of where we are. Galus does have an immense information network to tap, I wouldn’t be surprised if they already knew who everyone in the delegation was and their dossiers.” Ahmir mentioned with a casualness that hid his own worry. He too had begun to think that their travels would be missed eventually, chalked off to an event that would never happen with this storm. 

    “We’ve been here for weeks now, waiting for this storm to pass.” Javad started, his face illuminated from the cigar as he took another puff only to be hidden a moment later by that same smoke.

     “Enough, I’m aware of your paranoia. We’ve had our discussion with the Captain. Everyone agreed that Port De Renard would be a suitable place to land and wait for an escort to Glaion.” He responded. “Not to mention the letter we sent ahead of us to Renard. It gave our full situation, we simply must wait until the seas are in a better condition. Javad, I know. I am concerned as well, but there is only so much we can do until we get to the Galus shoreline.”

     “I know, I’m just mentioning that this storm is also different. Many of the locals seem to think the gods are meddling with the storm. They haven’t seen the hurricanes move over the island for decades. I overheard one of the Aldermen saying this happened before the previous war with the Caliphate.” Javad spoke between puffs of smoke, the chair squeaking with his uncomfortable movement.

     “I don’t think Bhal or any of the gods, not even Xelex himself are meddling with this storm. It just happens to be a coincidence.” Ahmir knew Javad wasn’t convinced in the slightest as the delegate side eyed him. Continuing despite Javad’s hesitation, “Besides, Port De Renard is still a wonderful stage for us to flaunt Zybtine’s graciousness to begin our travels in Galus proper.” 

     “Maybe, though I still see issues. What about those bandits the sailors talked of?” Concern, paranoia even, thick in his voice. He too had plans on opening a trade route out to Fort De Namoux in the future, though it being a military city, he needed set up work to do so. So much riding on their summit, a breath held tight as circumstance called everything into question.

     “They also said those green skinned marauders weren’t nearly as active during the winter. They stand out too much in the snow, and they had done all their raiding by the time the snows fell, they hide in their caves until the spring. We will be perfectly safe, rest assured Javad.” Ahmir added. 

     “Maybe, I think this storm is going to chase us all the way to Galus in the end. We won’t be able to turn back until spring when the storms have subsided. In the scarce few days we have to leave this island, we are going to be penned in by the storm as it dips back down into the Bay of Swallows like the Aldermen are predicting. It’s also going to bring a massive snowstorm to the eastern coast of Galus. Poor timing on our part.” Javad said, rehashing the same discussion points they had already had on three separate occasions. 

     The sound of heavy boots on the cobblestones ended their conversation. Turning they noted the gold stars on the unfamiliar uniform the man wore, glittering in the lantern light clearly visible over anything else. The rain and wind blurring the figure to a degree, as he passed under the canopy both Delegates raised their brows in surprise. 

     The insignia of the Griffon holding a sword and grain in its talons, a familiar symbol. “Good evening Gentlemen.” Taking his Visor hat off and bowing to them. “My name is Colonel Cortie. I am with the Royal Galus Navy, I was sent here by General Layfette to escort you and the Delegation on the rest of the journey.”

     Javad sat open mouthed. Ahmir rose from his seat to shake the man's hand “Good evening Colonel. Please have a seat with us, we can discuss the itinerary and plan with you here. Care to join us for a cigar?” 

     “With pleasure your Excellency. I already have the hotel cordoned off with my troops.” Javad whipped his head around, both men finally noticing the vacant streets. The shops had closed their windows and doors, the only noise now being the wind and rain. “I can assure no one will overhear our discussion.”

     “Then let us begin,” Ahmir spoke as he opened the small humidor on the table, cutting and toasting the cigar for the Officer.

***

Year of Wrath 1231, Season of Waiting D.39, Yorm

    My breath, icy clouds in the cold still air. Snow crunching loudly under my boots, as I plodded along. I needed to clear my head, Kari had told me off again. All I had wanted to do was talk about the inevitable, we needed to prepare the family. She blew up at me, to stop talking about her like she was some obstacle to overcome. She was in denial about it, though she knew deep in her own heart this was coming, it happened to them all after the ceremonies.

    I bit my tongue, she was being unreasonable. We all knew she was only getting sicker. Ahh, maybe that. Yorm, you fool. I needed to work on that, I know I’m cold at times, strike out in anger when I don’t want to. My ears twitched, noticing now just how quiet it was in the forest. A falling branch had made it obvious, there was nothing around. Not even the Jays or the little warbling birds that flitted from the branches. Snow silhouetting the trees like graceful ghosts, clinging to the bark.

    Odd. Looking around, checking to see if anything was stalking me. The light shifted slowly through the thick clouds, watching behind every tree, the crests of the low hills. Motionless, only the clouds of my breath being the only movement anywhere I could see. Even then, I waited a bit longer. If something was stalking me, It would know I was looking now. Watching the skies, watching the horizons, watching the shadows, years spent hunting and raiding making this an effortless exercise. 

    Nearly an hour later, I was satisfied. A dense fog had crawled along the clearing, obscuring me and everything else in its hazy blanket. Continuing on, the fog dampened the noise I was making as I walked. Smiling, thinking I might walk on something to bring back to the clan in this murk. A deer, one of the basilisks with their warm reptilian blood. If I was lucky along the shoreline, maybe a hibernating Gishell iced into its own shell.

    I heard a voice off in the haze. Undulating and indistinct, the mist muffling the sound like hearing it through water. A ways off then, I thought to myself, Let’s go have a look. Grabbing a low branch, I swung my way up the tree and clambered to the canopy. I learned this trick from the Chief before me, Roland, when I was young. 

    His lesson echoing in my ears, “If you find that you can’t get a visual, go higher. Find where the sound is coming from, then head that way. Drop down with your face in the direction of the noise, then march towards it, Boy.” Boy… I always hated being treated like a child. Kari called me that when she wanted to see the skies that night, making my blood boil. I was being kind to her by doing that. When I only wanted to talk she just had to turn it into a lesson. 

    “Calm down Yorm,” My voice rang out into the emptiness, “It’s only a memory…”

    Soon enough I found the source of the noise. A group of voices actually, in the direction of the main road. Dropping down, the feeling of weightlessness was something I never could get enough of, freefalling from the hundred foot tall tree. I rolled as I hit the ground, my ears flat against my head. Regaining myself, I headed toward the sound as I dusted the wet snow out of my hair.

    The voice became clearer, getting closer even over the crunching of snow. I could start to make out a few of them. Knoll, Hob, and…Ilgor. What is she doing, she was meant to be back at the village, the raiders were meant to be out scouting as I ordered. Feeling my blood pressure rise, I no longer felt the need to muffle my footsteps. 

    “Has there been anything beyond those few travelers?” Ilgor asked Hob, leaning on Kari’s staff, the dense fog swirled around the raiders as she spoke.

    “Nothing that we saw worthy of even talking to. Nothing worth trading, certainly not worth raiding.” He responded, that respect I expected to be reserved for me in his voice as he spoke to her. Was she planning on challenging me soon then? How dare she go behind my back again, disobey more orders. She was supposed to be back in the village helping with the preparations for the deep winter.

    “Well, if you do find anyone. I’d like you to offer them something. If they have any wounded, tell them to wait at the fork in the roads from now on, I want more practice.” She told them. Adding quickly “I do not want you guys roughing anyone up for no reason again. I saw what you did to that guard. He was scared not a threat, show them some compassion, Hob. Quit letting your adrenaline get to your head.”

    “Yes, Moth…” Hob cut off his words as he watched me walk into the clearing, his face growing pale. Knoll had a habit of copying my mood, seeing that he had a warning look and a furious scowl on his face, told me what mine probably looked like. The tightened grip on his ax did not go unnoticed as he lifted it slightly to clear any frost from the sheath.

    “ILGOR! What are you doing?” I couldn't contain it any longer, I was in no mood to hide our arguments from the family. Seasons of annoyance, defiance from her, boiling to the surface. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I needed to cool it, this would only go badly. Truth be told, I am scared of her, her magic worried me. The amount of respect and followers she had been able to amass, even from my own raiders. She was quickly becoming a threat to my position.

She whipped around, eyes wide with the unexpected shock, though unlike the rest of the raiders, she wasn’t worried. “The rest of you are dismissed! I want to speak with Mother alone.” They didn’t move, some of them even looking to her for confirmation. Hob certainly did, a cold sweat breaking out from his brow, eyes flicking from her to me.

     My fears confirmed, they didn’t need to say anything to tell me where their allegiances lay. They still didn’t move, until I barked out again “NOW, DAMNIT!”

     I knew Knoll wouldn’t be far off, he was the only one who could defy me and not be punished for it. Those days may be gone now, feeling my neck tighten the way it always did before we argued. Only now, the one in front of me wasn't my childhood friend, the burly brute of the clan, but this slender young welp of a priestess. The last vestiges of comfort in my position slipping from my mind.

     Waiting until all the others had left in the fog, leaving only the two of us here. 

***

-Hob-

     Ghet grabbed my wrist, holding a finger over his lips. Pointing upward into the tree canopy. Getting his point, we scrambled up the trees and made our way to the branches surrounding the clearing. Taking positions encircling the clearing we were in, a maneuver we were accustomed to for setting up ambushes. Perfect for dropping down on a target without them looking up, strange how so few ever looked up when trying to spot hazards.

     There were others already doing the same, I could see Knoll on the ground, behind a rough old oak that hid his outline well in the fog. Yvet and Till on opposing branches just behind Yorm. I took a position off to Ilgor’s side, all of them loosening knives from their scabbards, breaking any frost that would hinder a smooth release. 

     The fog was just dense enough to hide us, the shadows of the branches breaking up our outlines as we laid down, listening. If Yorm looked up, he’d have to look for a few long seconds to even notice anything. More than enough time for us to disappear before he looked again. More importantly, more than enough time for Illy to escape if she needed to.

***

     “I will say this one. Last. Time, Ilgor.” My vision was red, eyes stinging from the cold, finally having caught her directly disobeying me. “My word is law, I didn’t want you to lead any longer after Kari took you under her wing.”

     She huffed, shifting her stance in a way I knew she was ready to flee or fight if she needed too. Swinging that staff up into her other hand, leaving her main hand free. That only annoyed me more. “Yes, you have been doing such a phenomenal job. Leading our family to ruin, baring our throats to the city. Our mighty warrior to guide us to safety as always.” 

     She slowly made a circle around me, her sarcasm palpable in the air. I didn’t know what her game was about her wandering around, was she trying to find a better position? “You can drop the disrespect, Girl.” I started. 

     Her voice filled the clearing, coming from multiple locations at once. That power held in her voice, her magic weighty and dense. “YOU TALK OF RESPECT AND YET YOU TALK DOWN TO ME? What have I done to you? What sin did I commit to earn you speaking down to me since I became Mother’s Acolyte? All I had done was prove a better way of raiding that kept everyone safer.” 

     “Let's talk about this then!” The heat in my voice wouldn’t cool. Though she hit the nail right on the head. “How about the fact that you continue to disobey me! You continue to try and be a raid leader after I stripped you of the command! I know what is best for the clan!” Clenching my jaw, my shoulders burning from the refusal of the movement they wanted so badly.

     Kari’s voice in my mind told me I was a lair. Ilgor retorted back, still slowly circling me. “You mean how you knew it was best to bring back our family nearly slaughtered? Every single one of them, battered, bruised and broken. Because you knew best to attack a much more armed caravan than we were anticipating?” 

     “I…” She cut me off.

     “Like how you knew best to let the harpies take our territory in the west? Did Kari ever tell you we lost access to many of the medicinal plants there? I know you had to enter the harpy brood to get those mushrooms for my ceremony. Kari spoke about her annoyance about it, for weeks after she told me.” The venom in her voice dripped like a poisoned barb.

     Clenching my fists, I barked back. “And what would you have me do?! Those harpies were a much bigger threat than we could handle back then! I knew best to let them be, rather than send in our raiders to die by their claws! It took a full force of my best raiders to storm them and come to a truce!” 

     She stopped, a shameful look on her face. Directly in front of me, she walked forward, just outside arm's length. “You have a point, there.” She wouldn’t look at me. 

     My vision pulsed a deeper red, why was she acting submissive now? What was her game? The voice in the back of my mind answering my question, You think she’s a threat, and yet here she is, the little girl you had always known her as. You’re angry at yourself, you know she’s right in a way.

     “Yorm, you have to realize that you are losing the trust of the family. My tactics in the beginning were very well received by everyone. Yet, you told everyone with your actions that you didn’t want more peaceful alternatives.” She whispered out, her voice clawing at my attention. She was forcing me to pay attention to her and only her with that magic. 

     “What are you trying to blame me for? Spit it out.” I looked down at her, her small face nothing more than a child’s. 

     Her face changed, it felt colder in the clearing now. The fog shifted into icy powder snow at her change in mood. “Again, Yorm. Stop trying to talk down to me, stop trying to talk down about me to anyone who will tolerate it. I am sick and tired of you and your sole focus on earning glory for Bhal that you don’t look for the best interest of our Clan.”

A vein pulsed thickly in my forehead as she continued. “You only think about earning your glory to be by the Great Father’s side, that you don’t see that the family is growing tired of seeing the same brutality over and over. We see the travelers on the road now, how much more lavish they are. How much happier they look than us.” She progressively got louder as she spoke. ”Yorm, we are called bandits and little murderers inside the City. How can you be so blind as to not see the benefit in my way of doing things?!” Her own composure began to crumble. 

“Have you not seen that the clan hasn’t improved under your incompetent eyes?!” She practically screamed at me, crackles of energy zipping across her body.

    “Incompetent?” My heart rate slowed, my body knew what it wanted to do, barely holding onto some semblance of self-control “ YOU, call me incompetent! This is your fault! You should be spending your time deepening your connection to Bhal, not off playing raider when you are not allowed to!”

“It’s your fault that the blessings meant to protect us are weaker! Your prayers are a fraction of what Kari’s are, had you spent your time learning to get better at your prayers, the family wouldn’t have had to come back battered, bruised and broken! It’s your negligence in your duties to the clan that the raids have been going poorly, not my actions!”

Her eyes were on the verge of tears, though I knew she wouldn’t let them fall in front of me. “It’s because you are spending all your time giving orders to MY raiders when you should be by Kari’s side learning and helping her ease into her inevitable death! Which I should point out is also your doing! When that Blessing was passed to you, she gave you the only thing keeping her conditions at bay!”

“You are nothing but a child! Playing pretend without any experience leading or the foresight of your actions!” My voice hoarse from shouting, suddenly quieted. My voice was gone, hearing Ilgor’s soft hum in her throat. She silenced me…

    My arm moved on its own accord, a quick strike that should have landed where her face would have been. She leaned back into a flip. Kicking one of my teeth loose as she pulled the dense fog around her, disappearing into the murk. Spitting blood out of my mouth, I dropped into a ready stance. If she wanted to fight, fine.

***

-Hob-

    I heard Ghet whisper “That’s not fair. Kari didn’t have a choice, all the Mother’s died soon after giving their Blessings away. It’s appallingly ironic that he tries to point out foresight, when he has no idea what we, Ilgor, have been doing all this time.”

    Nodding in agreement, gazing while down at Knoll, I could see the internal argument going in his head. His ax drawn, ready to intervene, he was struggling with a sense that he should help Ilgor, but also wanting to see what she would do. Visibly shaking with the effort to keep away. I knew, because I too wanted to see what she would do. My own hands trembled as they held the spear and branch.

    Looking over at Yvet and Til, Yvet was practically being held down by Til to keep him from jumping down to assist her. If they intervened there would only be more trouble, best to let Ilgor decide when the Chief would fall, not them.

***

    Her voice echoed from the fog, I couldn’t make anything out. She clearly had made the fog denser, closer, heavier. The haze held there by her power as she dropped the temperature of the clearing. A thin layer of ice formed on my clothes as the fog froze to me. 

    “Wasn’t it you. You who said to Hob that it is dishonorable to belittle one of the clan? Before you threw him against that wall? A sin not easily forgiven, Yorm. Do you think Hob has forgotten that? Wasn’t it you who wanted to better the clan in your time? Is your word, your belief in the family, nothing?”

Her voice moved too quickly to be just her walking around. Jumping around to a different location with each word. “You make yourself feel better by attacking me. You make your own failures someone else's, because what? I had a way that the clan endorsed more? So instead of embracing me as one of the Daughters of the clan, you break my efforts and say it was never worth a try?”

“I never blamed you for the death of my Parent’s Yorm, it was Ghet’s failed raid. He was your raider, you were meant to make sure that didn’t happen. Yet, he left the clan for years to return later. Another of your sins under your watch. I was slowly beginning to see you as I had Kari. She was the Mother to me and the rest of the orphans. You, you always held us at arms length. I never begrudged you that, at least until…” Her words, a sting to an open wound. 

Everyone in the clan knew the youngest raiders we had, never grew up with their parents, because of me. “I slowly began to trust you as I would have my own father. But now… I’ve seen the darkness, I’ve seen your anger and bullheadedness. Now… I don’t know.” Her voice broke, the fog dispersing. Showing that I was alone in the clearing, not even a single footprint left in the snow.

    I thought back to the last few seasons. When I comforted her when she had to kill for the first time. Or when she dragged me out to that human smith, she was so eager to show me that she could take some type of prey down. Or when I comforted her again after I brought the raiders back. I sank to one knee, holding my mouth. A slow trickle of blood seeping through my fingers. The tooth had fully fallen out now, so I spit it out. The wet smack of the tooth as it hit the snow, the only sound in the clearing. “That damned little girl… She knows just where to prod to make it hurt.”