If there was one thing that Cass would learn from this, it was that she absolutely hated the wilderness.

Compared to these mountains, the alleys and gutters of Tyine seemed positively welcoming. For that matter, the distances she was traveling made Cass wonder precisely how long she was kept unconscious. She had not ran into that orb again, and she wasn’t even sure if that was what kept her unconscious, but the distance was much further than what she had imagined. And it seemed that every inch of it was rock and wind!

“You know,” Odal said as he and Rowig laughed at Cass’s misery together. “After all of your schemes and cunning, and despite your strength and magic, you actually are pretty hopeless out here!”

Even Natalie joined in the laughter, and Cass sighed. First, Natalie was just as useless as Cass was right now and second, when the hell would she have ever learned to shoot a bow? Odal had initially tried to teach her, but Rowig had quickly put a stop to it after Cass wasted half a dozen arrows and broke her bow. She hated sleeping out in the wild, even in the carriage she would continuously wake up either from strange sounds in the night or because there was no sound at all!

They had joined a ‘caravan’ of sorts, made of people who managed to flee the city, but they were not particularly trusted by the group. Cass could understand, the others in the group were all people from the Stone and Sand who had not been involved in the rebellion and they were several castes below Cass and her group. Frankly, Cass was more concerned that they would attempt to steal their supplies than of anything else, but things seemed to be going fine for now.

“So,” Cass was sitting in the back of the carriage, which honestly was more of a wagon with benches and a roof, but it served Cass’s purposes. “What can you tell me about Vaila, Rowig?”

Vaila was the city they would be spending the winter in, and hopefully the city that would solve Cass’s problems. After they had stopped for the first night since their flight from the capital, and Cass had managed to clean most of the blood off herself, Cass and Rowig had made some adjustments to the original plan.

If Terresa had kept her part of the deal they would not need to do this, but as it was they would likely have to deal with the Voni in Vaila to gain a pass to leave through the border. Rowig and Odal had both insisted that the border was very secure, the mountains were either impassable or heavily guarded and reinforced. This could make the winter far more complicated than Cass would like.

“Well, it is less of a city and more of village that serves as a military waypoint.” Rowig grunted, “Not a whole lot there besides a bunch of miners, their overseers, and the Voni. They are the only permanent residents really.”

“Waypoint? So a lot of Warriors passing through?” That would be something to worry about Cass thought. It all depended on who won in Beergmutar…

“Not this time of year, and definitely not with what is going on in Beergmutar.” Rowig shook his head. “For that matter they likely won’t hear of that until we reach there really.”

“I’ve heard the Vailain Voni are the bravest and most honorable in the kingdom,” Natalie said excitedly. “My moth-”

Her voice faltered and she stopped speaking and Cass put her arm around the young girl next to her. She was not very good at comforting Natalie, or even distracting her. But doing nothing gave Cass an uncomfortable feeling and she always felt she had to try something.

“Well they are descendants of a tribe that held the mountains against the dwarves,” Odal came to the rescue this time with a way to move the subject onwards. “And they are the only Voni to actually fight.”

“Isn’t that the job of Warriors?” Cass asked curiously, it was an odd exception to the caste system if true.

“Ah, it's a bit complicated…” Odal grinned ruefully and rubbed the back of his head. Cass heard Rowig snort from where he was driving the carriage.

“Not so much.” He began to explain, “The tribe was made entirely of Warriors, even the women. They had no leaders that weren’t fighters, no craftsman that were not fighters, even their shamans would fight. Further, they did not resist the integration of the tribes, so they were not killed. In the end, the entire tribe became Voni, but they are not wholly part of the system.”

“That seems like a lot of work,” Cass could not understand why they bothered. “Why not just kill them if they won’t fall in line?”

“Ah, you probably have not heard the legend of their war with the dwarves,” Odal laughed. “Well this is as good a time to hear it as any I suppose.”

Natalie shifted in Cass’s arms to look towards Odal, well if it helped Natalie pull through this… “I agree, please tell us Odal.” Cass smiled, which still seemed to affect Odal even though he now knew what lay behind the mask.

“Well as you imagine, the story starts a long time ago.” Odal began his story, “before the unification of the tribes and before the birth of the castes and our understanding of the spirits.”

“Humanity was not alone in these mountains, no we were haunted by an implacable foe. The name of this foe is lost to time now, but its presence drew the dwarves to the range, and at first they were hailed as heroes and champions.”

Odal spoke of how the dwarves helped humanity defeat their foe and the celebrations that followed, but it was not to last. The dwarves eventually turned on the human tribes.

“They would come to the surface and steal our herds and our children and there was little that could be done against such fierce warriors as the dwarves possessed.” Odal was actually a pretty good storyteller, Cass found herself really getting into it and she noticed that Natalie at her side was likewise absorbed. “No one knew why the dwarves did this either. What use are human slaves compared to the strength of the dwarves? Regardless of the why, the raids continued regardless.”

“The tribes lived in terror, unable to defend against the dwarves and their superior strength and technology. At least until the Vailain Tribe decided that enough was enough. The tribe had been fearsome warriors since time immemorial, and in their anger they descended into the dwarven tunnels and brought the fight to them.”

The battle raged on for decades, according to Odal. The Vailain Tribe fought in the tunnels, and would travel overland to visit other tribes that had been attacked to find the tunnel the dwarves emerged from and collapse it. Eventually the dwarves had only one tunnel to access the mountain range, one that was fiercely guarded by the Vailain Tribe.

“And then, to the surprise of all, the dwarves asked for a truce. They promised to never attack again in exchange for the opportunity to trade,” Odal spoke brightly about this segment of the story. “It was a golden age for the tribes, and during this time the tribes began to unify, though that is a different story. More importantly, the dwarves suddenly disappeared around this time, and no one knew where they went.”

“Some brave souls entered the tunnels to look for them, but none ever returned, and the Vailain continued and still continue their watch on those tunnels, waiting for the return of the dwarves and guarding against them to protect us all.”

“Interesting,” Cass remarked as Odal finished. “So is this story a true one?”

“As far as anyone knows,” Odal sat back and stretched. “We are taught during our training that the dwarves were indeed real, and that they are stronger and hardier than humans, but that is about it.”

“I have heard of dwarves before,” Cass thought back to some of the stranger rumors and stories on the streets of Tyine. “But I was never sure if they were real or not.”

It was Rowig who answered the implied question in Cass’s statement. “There are actually many non-human species out there. The Elhven are by far the most powerful of them, though the dwarves were a powerful nation before their disappearance. Other than them, goblins, orcs, and their kin have mostly been driven extinct, barring some tribes to the far southwest. If you had ever met a goblin or an orc, you would know why they were worth exterminating.”

“The world is so much bigger than I knew,” Cass sighed. “I suppose my own ignorance is to be expected though. This entire- well let us call it a trip- is showing me just how little knowledge I have about geography and the world.”

“Most people have no need to know that kind of stuff,” Rowig shrugged up front, throwing a glance over his shoulder. “Why bother?”

“Because I am stuck depending on others to tell me where I am and where to go.” Cass had to try hard not to grind her teeth as she thought about it. “And there is nothing stopping anyone from lying to me, and I would have no way to check or prove them wrong. I hate being at the mercy of others.”

“And yet,” Rowig countered. “You are returning to Haj, where you are a slave.”

Cass laughed, “fair enough, Rowig. Yes, there is one man I do not mind being at the mercy of, though frankly he is not a very merciful man.”

“Why?” A small voice from her side, Natalie had emerged from her sadness and was looking at Cass curiously, though Cass could still see the weariness and sadness hiding behind her eyes. “Why go back to being a slave?”

How would Cass explain…? It did not help that Cass was still not entirely certain of her own reasons, but even the parts she did understand were not easy to explain.

“I had nothing before my Master,” she began slowly. “He gave me power and my initial purpose, and even allowed me to meet someone who could help me dream. It is such a small sentence, seemingly such a tiny thing, but it saved me from that emptiness.”

“I think I would prefer emptiness right now…” Natalie muttered.

“I don’t blame you for that Nat,” Cass squeezed her tighter. “But I hope that you can have something better than that, and I will do whatever I can to make sure you do.”