The Duke’s daughter condemned and sent to the plateau

Trinne, daughter of yarnt the brave, having anticipated the arrival of the angel on the duke’s plateau and convinced some noble and bourgeois families to leave, has been judged guilty on this suspicious behaviour, and imprisoned on behalf of treachery against the Imperatrix. She was the only person aware of the imminent attack, and the last one having seen a key witness in Redrick Darkstar’s assassination. The ruling was established behind closed doors, with Quar Birrebus leading the jury. The provisional leadership of Gite hopes this quick and effective judgement will lessen the burden and tragedy fallen upon the victims’ families.

Trinne had warned them. She had tried to save them. And in exchange, they sent her to die. Nay knew Quar Birrebus and could not understand why he had done such a thing. He was a thoughtful man, calm in all circumstances.

Did the Angel make them go all crazy?

“Nay?”

“Yes, Carle?” She answered weakly.

“I’ll bring you to your tent, ok?”

She did not have the strength so say anything back to him and let herself be led inside.

There was a simple mattress, a sleeping bag, and some of her personal belongings were stashed in well sorted out piles next to it. A candle was lighting up this nook of a home, but it was the outside fireplace mainly illuminating it.

Carle crouched down to enter, as she pulled her inside. He forced her to sit on the mattress, then scratched his head. He had clearly no idea of what his next step should be.

“Try to sleep? Your friend may still be alive, we can’t be sure. I need you to be strong…I…sorry, it’s not the right moment.”

Nay raised her head. “Are you feeling all right?” She asked.

He gave her a big smile. “Yes. You need to rest.”

She wasn’t going to sleep, this, she was certain of, but nonetheless, she nodded, and the boy left her alone.

Trinne could not be dead. Nay did not want to believe this. But she knew what an Angel was, and if her friend had been sent on the plateau, how could she have escaped that fate? Even Jarl the Bohemian had been unable to do something against the creature, while Trinne had assured her the God-Touched would have been able to destroy it.

Looking back at Trinne’s confidence, Nay could not understand why she had believed it.

Nay touched her lips and began crying.

She woke up at dawn, her mouth dry, her eyes still wet.

She exited the tent and began cooking. She took out her little bag of flour, a small container with salt inside, and Torrence herbs that she put in front of her. She also pulled out a piece of cheese and a bottle of Yaeda milk she had bought the day before. She didn’t have any pepper; it had been too expensive and she couldn’t afford it.

She cooked simple pasta with the flour and some oasis water. Then, slowly, she prepared the sauce that would accompany her dish.

She felt Carle’s Rreico even before he got out of Vestigio’s house. The latter was still sleeping.

“Good morning, Nay.” The young boy was looking quite awkward.

“Carle.” Simply replied Nay.

He came to sit next to her.

“What are you making?”

“Torrence herb Pasta.”

“Smells good.”

“Thanks.

There was a long silence.

“Nay, I didn’t tell you but, yesterday, when you went away with Vestigio’s friend, Sage Jormun appeared.”

Nay raised an eyebrow. “Ah?”

Her response seemed to disturb the young boy, who stopped talking for a few moments before continuing.

“Nay? You need to talk to him, remember? I am really sorry he appeared when you weren’t there, he doesn’t have much time left, and I wasted it asking questions I already had answers to.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Nay…I…I think I need help I…”

The young Legio turned around to look at him. His Rreico was strange, dull, almost transparent. “What is it?”

He met her gaze, then sighed and lowered his head. “Nothing. I’m hungry, and it’s making me say dumb things.”

Nay nodded. She felt the lie but was not able to face the boy’s gloominess right now.

They ate silently but were interrupted by Vestigio’s arrival.

It was Magdalena, truthfully, Nay knew it immediately sensing the Rreico.

“Hi Nay. Hi Carle. The both of you do not look so good.”

Nay gazed upon the old man but did not answer.

“No master, our current situation is far from ideal.” Carle responded. “Nay’s friend has gone missing, and I…well...I…”

“Yes, I know. Sage Jormun shared his memories.” Magdalena turned to face Nay. “I am sorry about your friend, Nay, I’m sure she’s safe.”

Nay stood up immediately, overtaken by a mixture of anger and sadness.

“I need to go.” And without waiting for an answer, she left, leaving her plate half-full.

She walked towards the oasis, she wanted to swim. She felt the need to take a shower since yesterday’s forced march, but a bath would do. She could feel her skin stuck on her clothes.

While she moved away to avoid the unwanted attention, she heard Vestigio talk to Carle.

“I know you must not like me very much, with what happened yesterday, but you are not alone, you know? You can ask for help.”

Nay knew something was wrong with her young friend, but once again, she was unable to face his troubles right now.

Out of view, she undressed and stepped in the water. It was almost cold, and the feeling was reinvigorating. She started swimming. Her father had taught her, one of the many endurance training he had given her. The oasis was serene compared to the sea of the Western Plains. She drifted on her back, and closed her eyes.

The sun was plummeting on her body with more and more harshness, and she was getting hot. After some time, the feeling became unbearable, and she left the water to re-join the coast. She stopped mid-way. She was reaching the bottom and was watching, standing up, the place where she had left her clothing and weapons.

Something had changed.

“Carle?” She asked, knowing full well it was not him.

She would much rather have felt the Rreico of a peeping tom than the one she was currently experiencing. Helped by her sixth sense, she spotted a little sand mound that had appeared just next to her clothes. Something was hidden underneath.

Nay felt a menacing smile creep up her own lips. “I see, yesterday wasn’t enough, is that it?” She stepped forwards. “Very well!”. She knew it had to be one of those renowned Jivynn, but she was not afraid. Her patience was at its end. Let him attack her! She needed to unwind.

Her gaze stayed fixed upon the sand while she left the water. She did not even blink when she crouched to reach for her weapons.

It was at that specific moment that the creature attacked. Nay saw a beak the size of her head emerge from the yellow ground to rip out her throat. She did a combat roll on the side and dodged the assault she had foreseen with ease. But she did not manage to reach for her weapons, now buried by the emerging monster.

It was some sort of giant bird, with an absurdly long neck, that had to be seven feet tall. Its eyes were pitch black, and it had wings, but kept those glued to his body. He was covered in sand, and drool was oozing from its sharp beak.

“KIIIIIIIIIIIIII.” It whistled.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” She taunted it.

As if it understood her, it rushed straight towards her. She was surprised by its speed. Its legs were very long and twig like, and she had not imagined it could move with such swiftness or with such strength. Despite that, she was far from being unsettled, it only made her smile grow bigger. Such an obvious frontal attack wasn’t scaring her. She waited for the perfect timing, jumped, and with all her strength, met the giant’s bird attack with a kick straight on its skull.

The Jivynn crashed on its side, missing her completely. It got back on its feet immediately, stepping away from her. She felt the zest of fear, but the hunger was grasping it more. She knew it would only stop when dead.

“I’ve been told many stories about you! The usual: “no-one ever survives an encounter with you”. Well? What are you waiting for?”

“KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII”

It attacked again, in the exact same way as before, and exactly the same way, she met its assault with a kick on the head. It crashed on the ground again, but once more, immediately got back on its feet.

“You are a tough one, aren’t you? That’s good, I’m not even sweating yet.”

The Jivynn tried to rush her a few more times, but each time he was met with the same kick on the head.

She could see it stumble around now. But she was breathing hard as well. A human being would have died multiple times due of severe concussions, she had put all of her energy in her strikes.

It ran towards her, once again.

She took her defensive stance once more, ready to intercept, but just before coming in her reach, it stopped, and opened its wings. They were enormous, but looked extremely fragile, far from being strong enough to give it flight. Nay knew through the Rreico it would do this but did not understand what happened next.

Feathers spiked out of its wings, flying straight towards Nay.

Unable to dodge or block the numerous projectiles, she could only protect her face with her arms.

“Biach.” She swore, wincing in pain.

The feathers had not felt sharp when she had found them on the ground, but still, she was now full of cuts. Nothing serious at a first glance, but she could see the victorious Rreico in the soulless bird’s eyes.

She heard Marke’s reprimands in her mind.

She had underestimated her opponent. Not exactly because of pride, but the result would have been the same as that of it.

The Jivynn was waiting. She had no idea why, but it was nothing good.

She inhaled slowly. She felt her lungs fill with air; her belly grow.

She exhaled.

“So be it. This was the perfect moment to attack me, but I was not the right target.” She decided.

“KAK KAK KAK.”

She rushed it.

Taken completely by surprise, the Jivynn started to fall back, all the while trying to keep her at bay with beak strikes. She dodged the desperate attacks easily and struck with her right hand.

Her cartilage crushed its skull right between its two dark bulging eyes.

Her left fist flew.

Then she dodged.

Then she met it with a kick.

She dodged the deadly beak again.

Then she truck twice, with her right and her left fist.

She sidestepped.

She kicked, with her right, then with her left foot.

It did not attack anymore.

She launched a roundhouse kick, and immediately followed up with a palm strike.

Every singly one of her attacks hit the Jivynn on the same spot, over and over, her aim diabolically precise.

She turned her body around for a last roundhouse kick, but it went through nothing but air.

The Jivynn was on the ground, not breathing anymore.

Nay inhaled. Nay exhaled.

She was bleeding all over.

She picked up her stuff buried under the sand, put on her clothes in a hurry, and went back to the camp. She sighed when realizing the state she was in. Her clothes were getting dirtied by her blood, and the multiple cuts would all need to be disinfected with that alcohol she hated oh so much.

She sighed again, then hiccupped.

She stopped, surprised. She never hiccupped.

Her hands were trembling.

“By Lebe’s cavernous vagina, I have a bad feeling about this.”

She stepped towards Carle and Vestigio, talking around the campfire. The young man immediately stood up when seeing her come closer. “Nay, what happened?”

Nay almost stumbled on her own feet. Her vision went fuzzy.

“Jivynn. I feel…weird. Cuts. Feathers. I…”

Vestigio/Magdalena also stood up, with a horrified expression on her face. “A Jivynn? Where? Did you get cut by its feathers?”

“Dead. Next to the water. Yes, I am bleeding. Blood loss?”

“Carle, catch her she’s…”

Nay did not hear what came next. In a morbid kind of blessing, her dark thoughts and ruminations ceased. She passed out.

“…is she…”

“No, but you…”

“She’s trembling.”

“…wipe her with the…”

Nay slept peacefully, in perfect darkness, without a single dream.

The sensation was more than enjoyable, and she wished she could bask in it forever.

This thought brought out a voice, sounding through the penumbra with strength.

“Proud of yourself, runt?”

“Dad?” She said.

“Really Nay, since when do you listen to what others tell you without asking question? You believe what those so-called gods say you are? Say you are going to do? Without making your own opinion first?”

“I…”

“You’ve got a slight fever, and you already think you’re dead?”

“But, I’m so tired…”

“Yeah, and that’s not over yet. Not by a long shot, believe me. So what? Are you going to give up? You’ll stay on the ground simply because you can’t win?”

Nay clenched her teeth.

No, she would never give up. She would honour her friend. She would honour her father.

Nay opened her eyes.

“Ah, there you are. You’re lucky I keep Jivynn antidote close-by, or the situation could have really gotten tragic.”

Nay saw Vestigio/Magdalena peer over her. The young woman was laying on the Master Legio’s bed, inside his house.

“Was I unconscious long?” The young Legio asked, terrified. She had to go back to Gite, as, if Trinne was still miraculously alive, she would need help. How much time had she lost because of her pride? Days? Weeks?

“Oh, a few hours. You sweated quite a bit, but I gave you the antidote on time, and, after a bit of a fever, you were better already. Carle was very worried. Really, he didn’t need something like that to happen now, you should apologize to him.”

Nay shyly got back up, ready to see her vision falter and the world turn.

Nothing happened.

She wasn’t exactly feeling well, and her belly hurt, but all things considered, she mainly felt like she had experienced a really bad night. Which definitely had been the case.

“Jivynn venom is not deadly in small doses, its purpose is to paralyse. But in larger doses, it can stop you from breathing, which is much more of an annoyance.” Magdalena explained.

Nay nodded. “Thanks.”

“Please, don’t. I know how you’re going to repay me already!” The angelic and feminine smile on Vestigio’s face was slightly creepy.

Nay grimaced, suddenly worried.

“Ah?”

“Oh, I’m not like the others, I simply wish that you could accompany me to Makaka to do some shopping.”

“Erm…it would be my pleasure, but I have to go back to Gite as soon as possible.”

“But you haven’t talked to Sage Jormun yet?”

“I cannot afford to wait any longer, I have to…”

“He will appear very soon.” Magdalena revealed with a little voice.

“Soon?” Asked Nay, surprised.

“Tonight. At the latest, tomorrow.”

Nay kept silent. She believed for a moment that she had been lied to, and that Vestigio had hidden the truth to her when saying he did not know when the Sage would appear. But the Rreico had felt honest, and she realized the truth. Carle had told her the Sage had appeared the day before. He had to have announced his next arrival, and Nay, not listening to the boy, must have missed that crucial information.

She sighed. Decidedly, she would need to apologize to her friend.

“I will wait for tomorrow then, but here and now, I need to talk to Carle.”

“Yes, of course, I will prepare for when Achid comes. It is my last day, I need to enjoy it.”

Nay looked at Vestigio/Magdalena in surprise. Achid? Last day? She shook her head, refraining from asking more. For now, she needed to see Carle.

She only had to exit the house to meet him, sitting next to the campfire, trying to painstakingly prepare what seemed to be tea.

“Carle? What kind of abomination are you trying to create with my ingredients?”

He stood up immediately, a fake smile on his face hiding his despair.

“Nay! You’re up!”

“Yes, and I have a distinct memory you helped with that. Thanks.”

He grimaced. “No, I didn’t do anything.”

“Kiddo, you are more than precious, I am the one who did nothing. I was so stuck up inside my world I forgot I wasn’t the only one suffering. On that note, what did the Sage tell you yesterday?”

Carle’s expression changed, and almost tears appeared in his eyes. He sat back down on the half-destroyed bench.

“Are you sure you’re fine?”

“I would enjoy a bit of rest, but unfortunately for me, I wasn’t educated to do that.” As she talked, she sat down on the ground next to him.

“I put disinfectant on your cuts. Its all I could do. You struggled at some point, I wanted to help but Vestigio stopped me. I could have died trying to hold you he said.”

Nay raised an eyebrow. She was quite happy the alcohol she hated so much had been put on her wounds while she was unconscious, but she heard something hidden behind the young boy’s voice.

“Carle? What did the Sage say?”

He lowered his head, avoiding her gaze.

“That I would never be cured. That the person most important in my life would never accept who I was. All things I already knew.”

“Oh Carle…”

“Nay I have to tell you…I’m starting to grow…My body…”

The Legio waited patiently for the words trying to escape the young boy’s lips to get out.

“…Nothing.” He decided.

Nay sighed.

“Carle, your appearance…You know….it is not a story I enjoy telling but, have you heard of the Canyon of Sables?

He looked at her quizzically.

“Yes, I heard of it.”

“A tribe lived there, in the past, and even if they weren’t like you per se, they were also a bit…different.”

“I didn’t know you could live in the Canyon.”

“If you know how to climb the cliffs and camp on the mountain, it is possible.”

Carle looked at her intriguingly, but once again, Nay didn’t like the Rreico she felt in him. Dull didn’t have its place inside him.

She continued her story.

“In any case…those people…it is an old story, and I have to be honest, I have forgotten much but…there were no men in their group.”

“Only women?”

Nay had a sullen look.

“In a way.”

“I never heard of such a group.”

“They are all dead.” Said Nay in a matter of fact.

“Oh, that is sad.”

“No. It is better like this. They were not good…people.”

Carle did not retort anything.

“Anyway, this clan was only composed of women, but some played the role of men. They had no choice in the matter, I think.”

“So, a bit opposite of what I am?”

“Yes. But, I’m telling you this just to explain that, others can go through what you’re going through. They may not have been Hu… they may have been quite different from you, but I am sure you could find people who understand you.”

He stayed silent for a moment.

“Your story is a pretty one, and I thank you for it, but really, it is nothing like what I’m going through. And honestly, a group of women residing inside the Canyon of Sables?”

“I swear it is…”

“Even if I believe you, Nay, it doesn’t change a thing. Even with the right body, I’m useless. You should not have saved me when…”

“Carle!”

Her voice shook the surroundings, and he shut up. Nay liked the Rreico she felt inside him less and less.

“Sorry Nay, I’d like to stay alone for a while.”

“Carle, I believe it is the last thing you should…”

“Nay! I let you be alone this morning when you were unwell!”

“And look at me now! I’m covered in bandages and I almost died!”

“Leave me alone!” The boy began crying, but in appearance, he looked exactly like a wailing young girl. He most likely realized the same thing, as he got back on his feet with an almost disgusted expression on his face and ran towards the house. Nay got back on her feet, looking for the right thing to do, but stayed standing there, unable to find it.

Carle almost crashed into Vestigio exiting the house, but the Master Legio, still with Magdalena’s Rreico, dodged him just in time.

The young boy kept his head low and entered the house.

Nay closed her eyes, overtaken by despair.

He had not believed her. He had not listened.