Fajitas said:
New update coming very soon. Promise.
What do you know? He's right!
Part the Forty-Eighth
In which: A dialogue is begun.
Some days pass. Benedic has been leading the party deeper into the woods, towards the territory of the Miyen elves. The woods are largely silent, save for the occasional rustle of birds or deer, running off as they take sight of the group. A November chill is in the air; the warming breezes off the Halmae mean that the winters are never
too cold, but all the same the passing of the seasons can no longer be denied. Sedellus is waning, and soon Kettenek will rise.
Pssst. Hey, boss?
Yes?
Did you know someone was following us?
Lira feels her heart skip a beat as she glances around them all. No one else seems to have noticed anything. In fact, Lira doesn’t see anyone herself.
What? Where? Who? Are you sure?
Of course I’m sure. Who you think you’re talking to? There’s two people back there. They’re hiding pretty good. I didn’t get too good a look, but they smell kinda like elves, you know?
Elves!
The Miyen, Lira thinks.
I guess they know we’re here.
She carefully picks her way up alongside Benedic.
“Don’t look now,” she says, quietly, “but I think we’re being followed.”
Benedic regards her with surprise. “Oh, you noticed? Yeah, they been there a couple of hours now. I didn’t think anyone else had spotted ‘em. You got pretty sharp eyes.” He flashes her a rakish smile.
Lira feels herself start to flush. “Thanks,” she murmurs.
What? Hey, those were my eyes that saw them. I’m the one with the sharp eyes, boss.
Shut up, Euro.
If Benedic notices Euro’s agitation, he doesn’t say anything. “I figured we’d press on a little bit. Make camp and wait for them to contact us. We get deep enough into their lands, they’ll stop in soon enough.”
They press on another hour or so before Benedic calls a halt. Lira quietly spreads word of their watchers among the others. Reyu expresses her admiration for the skill of the elves that stalk them. She hadn’t noticed them either. Anvil expresses his irritation that the matter had not been brought to his attention immediately. Eva makes sure she has a dagger within easy reach.
As if it’s not bad enough that we’re out here, tromping through the middle of nowhere, she thinks,
but now we’re being followed by elves I can’t see. Why oh why oh why did I sign up for this gig?
**********
The elves do not make contact until Reyu’s watch. Eva shares the watch with her, and is quite surprised when six elves emerge from the woods around them. They all have spears at the ready. Some of the younger ones look quite nervous. About as nervous as Eva, actually.
“Six? I thought there were only two?” Eva hisses to Reyu.
“As did I. It seems there are now… more.”
Reyu calmly rises to face the leader. A quick glance at his braids tells her that his name is MetiGuyen Eechi, of the Eechi Tribe of the Miyen Nation. He is a hunter, some years Reyu’s senior. She waits patiently, allowing him the same chance to study her braids. Finally, he speaks.
“You are far from home, little sister,” he says, in a thickly accented Elvish that even Reyu has difficulty understanding. “These are Miyen lands. Our hunt is closed to the Turin Nation, and to the humans you bring with you.”
“We did not come to steal the hunt of our Miyen sisters,” Reyu responds. “We came to talk. We are in search of a great power, which we have heard that may be found in Miyen lands. We wish only safe passage through your territory, that we may meet with the one we seek.”
At this, the eyes of the elves widen. The nervous ones look even more nervous.
“What did you say to them?” Eva asks in Common, warily eyeing the spears pointed at her.
“Only that we wished to speak with the great power in their lands.”
MetiGuyen studies Reyu even more carefully. “Are you then a servant of the health of the Miyen Nation?”
Reyu finds this a very strange question indeed. The health of a Nation, or
kai in Elvish, is a known concept among the elves. It refers to the strength, well being, and the overall good of an elven Nation. It is generally used synonymously with the Nation itself. Reyu has never before heard anyone referred to as a servant of the health of their Nation, but then, she supposes, it is the duty of all elves to serve the health of their Nation.
“I do not serve the health of the Miyen Nation, but I wish nothing but good health to the Miyen Nation,” she responds.
MetiGuyen takes a moment to think that answer over. He doesn’t seem at all sure what to make of it. Finally, he says, “Your quest for the health of the Miyen Nation is a matter beyond me. You and your companions will wait here. I shall fetch the breath.”
Now Reyu is quite perplexed. She begins to wonder if the Miyen speak an entirely different dialect of Elvish. She understands the words, but not the meaning. What does it mean to bring breath?
“I fear I am having trouble understanding you. We are not looking for the Miyen Nation itself. Merely for a great arcane power that we have heard dwells near here.”
MetiGuyen responds simply, “I shall fetch the breath.”
With that, he disappears into the dark. The other elves maintain their watch on the party.
“Well?” Eva demands.
“He said he was going to fetch the breath,” Reyu responds.
A pause. “Is that an elf thing?”
“I… do not know. Perhaps we should wake the others. Carefully,” she adds, as she eyes their nervous guards.
***********
It is several hours before MetiGuyen returns. The rest of the group is now awake, watching the elves watch them.
“I bet we could take ‘em,” Thatch points out.
“Perhaps. But we shall not,” Reyu counters.
“There’s only six of them.”
“And if you keep speaking that way, you will… antagonize them.”
“They probably don’t even speak Common,” Thatch says, but he wisely keeps it under his breath. He focuses his attention on Dennis and Eva’s card game, though neither of them is really focused on it.
MetiGuyn is leading another elf behind him. He stands aside and says to Reyu, “The breath.”
The other elf steps forward. She is middle aged, and her braids are very long indeed. LidoMana Eechi, they name her, mother of two, keeper of nature’s secrets… and, to Reyu’s surprise, Voice of the Eechi Tribe. Well, not quite. She bears a bead indicating this position, but it has been modified somehow. Lessened. Reyu has never seen anything like it.
Reyu bows deeply, in a gesture of respect. “I had not realized such an distinguished visitor was coming to us. In my Nation, your position is called the Voice of the Tribe. Not the Breath” she says.
When LidoMana speaks, she addresses herself only to Reyu. She doesn’t even look at the others. Lira translates for the benefit of those who do not speak Elvish. Whether or not this bothers LidoMana, none can say, as she seems to be doing her best to ignore the non-elves all together. “It is called the Voice to us as well. But I am no longer the Voice. I am now merely the Breath. The Miyen have only one Voice,” LidoMana says. Then, seeing Reyu’s obvious confusion, she adds, “It has been so since the coming of the health of the Miyen Nation. The health of the Miyen Nation is now the Voice for all the Tribes of our Nation. We who were Voices are now Breaths.”
A very strange thought crosses Reyu’s mind. “The health of the Miyen Nation. You speak of it as if it was a person.”
“It is,” she answers.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
