Take for example 'The lazy cat.' In Kemish Alermuric that would translate to 'alquti kusul'

'Al' = The, 'Quti' = Cat, 'Kasul' = Lazy.

Notice how quti (noun) is placed before kasul (adjective). This makes it read out as 'The cat lazy' if directly translated back into Kemish.

This is because, in Alermuric, the noun always comes before the abjective. This is why even some of the most fluent native Nuzi people still often get their sentences oddly jumbled when they try and speak in Kemish.

- Elementry Alermuric: by Patrick. C. Zimbermon

Natalie

“I’m bored...” Tien said, his legs lean against the hut wall as he laid on his back.

Walta had tried to stop him from laying in such a way but Tien would get back to it after ten minutes of doing so. Walta had given up trying to stop him as she began to doze in and out of sleep. She insisted that she was not sleepy when the other kids pointed it out; however, said that she was simply leaning against the wall whilst closing her eyes to think clearly. She would nod off, but doing so in a sitting position meant that she’d wake up suddenly tense and with a gasp in her throat. It always took her a long second for her to recollect that she and the others were now safe before she'd settle back down, yet despite this, she never dared to lay on her side. As Tien’s spoke of his boredom Walta had blinked out of her sleep just long enough for her to see Tien sigh out his complaint with a long sigh.

“Tien,” she mumbled as she forced her back off the wall. “You can't put your feet on someone else's wall,”

“I do it to my wall all the time, I don’t see the problem,” Tien grumbled back.

“Then your wall must smell like feet!” another kid perked up.

“No, it doesn't!” Tien exclaimed as he sat up and glanced to his side. “My room smells amazing and so do I! You're the one who stinks around here demon Damien! Everyone knows that demons stink like hell itself!”

An argument insured soon after...

Natalie could hear all this commotion going on around her but she was too busy peering through the walls beyond the hut with her angel sight, she’d been eyeing the young woman that spoke to her in broken Kamish just outside the village three hours before. Currently, she was kneeling by a man who stoked a large camp flame with a pot atop it. As she tastes tested its content she said something to the man who immediately moved deeper into what looked to be the kitchen.

“Stop that!” Damien said as he got to his feet and stepped up to Tien who was still chuckling to himself.

The man came back and handed the young woman a tray full of bowls. In each of them, the man poured in some of the content from the pot into each before giving a slight bow to her in respect. Goats meat Natalie knew for she had been watching as they slaughtered and sliced the thing an hour before.

“Demon Damien and his disgusting dark den of dung.” Tien laughed hysterically at that one, making him blind-sighted to Damien’s advance as he jumped on top of Tien and began hitting him in a fitful rage.

This got a guilty chuckle from some of the young onlookers, other kids got up off their backs, disturbed from their rest because of the noise. Most, although alarmed by the spectacle, did not look too surprised, as if this kind of thing was common between them. Natalie, who sat at one end of the room with her legs tucked under her chest, just watched with half an eye in silence. Although she made it her quest to see these kids return back to their home, what personal gripes or problems they had before they were kidnapped were none of her business to deal with.

As far as she was concerned she was an outsider, watching over children who have yet lost everything. To fight, to argue about such things was a sign of good fortune. It was proof of normalcy, proof that although their life was turned upside down they were slowly picking up the pieces and getting back to their childhood, their innocence. Why should she, one long devoid of any semblance of normalcy try and spoil that with her intervention?

That aside, however, there was something else taking up her thoughts. It involved the young woman. Thanks to her angel sight she’d been able to observe her go about her business around the village ever since she got them to wait in this hut. At first, she watched just out of simple curiosity. It was not until she witnessed her receive a whipping from an older looking lady with a switch did that vague interest became a more intensive study of not just her but the people of Nazi as a whole.

It was obvious that Walta did not understand Natalie’s lack of intervention in the fight at hand because the hopeful look she gave Natalie to be the voice of reason and help faded as she gritted her teeth and broke up the fight.

“Edith! Help me!” Walta shouted.

“Don’t order me around,” Edith sighed drearily but got up and assisted all the same.

Pulling Damien and Tien apart took some doing and so by the time they separated the two they were both panting and peach red from exerting themselves.

“That’s what you get for calling my room crap you snot eating horn nose!” Damien shouted as he was clenched and pulled back by Edith.

Although Tien was held back by Walta he was still able to throw in one last kick at Damien’s shin in response to his retort. Enraged, Damien redoubled his efforts to break free from Edith’s grip but Edith being a few years older than him simply put his arm into a lock that made him wince in pain and become as docile as a lamb. It was expertly executed. Twisting the wrist outward from behind the knuckle and pulling the arm up whilst forcing the shoulder down with the other hand.

They were trained Natalie noticed, with some of them being able to use knight's armor it did not really surprise her. There was always some level of hand-to-hand combat involved in the training process even if pentagon knights mainly were armed with a weapon. techniques like disarming, crippling, or immobilizing others were often taught in most villages as a springboard for discipline and effective training did not involve the kids swinging weapons at another even if they were training ones.

“You give?” Edith whispered to Damien.

“I give damn it now let go!” Damien exclaimed whilst tapping Edith’s hand with his free one, his face a mask of pain.

Nodding to himself Edith eased his hold on Damien’s arm allowing him to stand straight comfortably. As the commotion from the fight faded only the sound of panting made left evidence of a struggle happening at all. Walta looked between both of them with a slack face.

“Teacher would not be happy if he saw this.” Walta began. “It’s bad enough that you fight whenever he’s gone out the room. Now we are miles away from home and all you boys can think about is beating each other up?”

“Shut up Walta, go run off and tell on us! That’s all you're good at!” Damien shouted.

That left Walta stunned as she struggled to form words out of her hanging mouth. Edith’s arm lock on Damien that moment had loosened up enough for him to pull free. With a tentative rub of the wrist, he pointedly glared at Edith who shrugged and put his own hands into his pockets. With another look at Walta and Tien Damien walked off towards the other corner of the hut to be as far away from the other kids as possible.

“I’m too hungry for this,” he grumbled under his breath.

In a brief fit of rage, Tien broke himself free from Walta’s grip, striking her jaw in the process. As soon as he was free he fell idle in place. Walta, both stunned at the loose strike and the sudden outburst remained idle also for fear of setting him off again.

“Tien it’s over, leave Damien alone,” she mumbled causally.

“You're not my mother,” Tien said between gritted teeth.

Natalie had just been watching the cook pour himself out a bowl of goat stew as the young woman carefully balanced the tray of food in her hands out of the kitchen at that moment. Hearing the word ‘mother’ pulled her out of her gaze beyond the hut back to the children who were arguing. Walta's mouth dropped to Tien’s comment as if she'd been slapped on the face.

“I’m... I'm not trying to-” Walta said before Tien cut her off.

“Then why are you acting all bossy and weird!?” Tien said. “Ever since we have been gone from home you’ve been nothing but a big mouth grumpy face who keeps shushing me!”

“I was just trying to help us escape! You were being a bother to Natalie so...” Walta said, her voice lost its confidence she glanced briefly at Natalie-eyes flustered and uncertain.

“Are you my mother?!” Tien shouted, taking a step towards her.

Walta who was seemingly withering back to the younger boy’s tirade froze in shock and looked him right in the eye.

“No stupid! I’d never-”

“Are you my mother?!”

“N-no I-”

“So why are you acting like you are!?” Tien exclaimed, his hoarse voice cracked as he blinked back tears.

Walta’s eyes began to glisten with tears also, her face looked as if she’d taken another harsh blow as she just stared blankly at Tien.

“I’m the eldest... so I thought that...I’m sorry.” Walta’s voice cracked on the last word as she began to sob quietly.

“Go tell on me,” Tein said, rubbing his eyes. “Find a grown-up and tell them what I did like you always do, but don’t ever act as if she’s dead because she isn't!!”

The silence was drowned by a melancholy breeze whistling outside the hut. As the falling sun peered into its entryway Natalie they could see the uncertain look of fear in their eyes. Now that it had been said it could not be put away, all thinking about it now. Natalie knew because she was thinking about it too. How she felt shortly after her own escape. About the state of her hometown. The well-being of her loved ones. Now that they were truly out of danger, now that the fragile order of carefree and security they lost slowly was returning to them their minds began to wonder about home. The burdens of survival had blurred that fine line of grown-up and child before now. With that burden gone all they now faced a horrid thought of whether their family was as lucky as them.

Although it had been over eight years, and even though those words were not directed at Natalie she still felt her chest tighten.

The changes they will have to come to accept were drawing near. It was times like these that Natalie wondered if what she was doing was really the right thing if saving them, allowing them to live through this, and confront their fate was even a good thing. She’d wondered the same thing for her own life. These conflicting thoughts along with the mood of the room caused her to swallow dryly and sink her head even deeper over her tucked-in legs.

If only Andrew was awake. He’d always seemed to know what to do to soothe her racing thoughts. And unlike her, he had the right to intervene with such arguments since he still had his family.

Walta who was now sobbing began to make her way towards the exit, she was about to leave until the young woman suddenly walked in and blocked her path. Bumping into them Walta staggered back until she recognized who it was she ran into.

Having long expected her return Natalie simply watched in silence as the young woman who’d spoken to outside the village walked in, her mature composure was only broken slightly as she looked down at Walata sobbing before her. Looking to Natalie and then the other kids in question Natalie gave her an indifferent look before staring onward at nothing in particular. It was not like she would understand even if she spoke her language so why bother?

Keeling down the young woman gently placed the tray of food on the floor before gently taking Walta’s hand into her own.

“Hurt?” she asked in her accented tone.

Stifling a sob Walta shook her bowed head emphatically. Her long messy hair masked her face. The young woman's eyes softened to that. Leaning in a little closer she lifted Walta’s chin up to eye level before asking the same question again but this time pointing at her chest. quivering lips Walta nodded before embracing her in a hug witch the young woman returned. As this went on most of the other kids had gotten up and gathered behind them, Damien switched from looking at the woman hugging Walta and the bowls of food on a tray beside her.

“Food?” he asked carefully.

Whilst still hugging Walta she nodded and repeated Damien's words as an answer. Without hesitation, Damien scrambled to the steaming bowels and took one before rushing back to his corner to consume it.

The other children quickly followed suit, with ravenous hands, the bowls snatched in a blink of an eye leaving only three behind. As Walta's sobs subsided she slowly pulled herself back from the young woman's embrace and glanced down at the remaining bowls of food with silent yearning.

With a nod from her comforter, she took one and began making her way among the other kids, with the sound of slurping and chewing filling the room the young woman who was still kneeling and watching the kids turned to Natalie with a flash of a grin she handed the second to last bowl to her which Natalie accepted in silence. The meat was mixed with cut herbs, peppers, and a colored plant that she'd never seen before. It all blended together in a brownish broth that looked clear and smelled inviting.

Although Natalie knew that she was hungry she did not want to eat just yet so she placed the bowl down beside her. When Natalie looked back up however she saw the young woman simply watching her in silent wonder.

Sitting down on the floor there was the briefest flash of pain on her face before it returned to its dignified expression. The flash of pain was so slight that she would have overlooked it had she not expected there to be one in the first place. She'd been watching her move around the village. Her elegant and upstanding posture clear thought her white glowing silhouette.

She entered a large hut in the center of the village along with the leader and the elder woman she stood by when first meeting her outside the walls. They talked with some others although Natalie could not hear what they said (Not that it would have mattered much).

She bowed as if apologizing for something to the group. Then the elderly woman stood up, led the young woman out of the hut and into another where she then picked up a switch and proceeded to whip the young woman with it on the backside. The young woman did not fight back and the ordeal continued until she was reflexively trying to cover the spot she had been repeatedly whipped on.

After the ordeal, the elder lady said some words and left. The young woman fell to her knees the moment she did seemingly sobbing to herself. There she'd remained for a quarter of an hour before she picked herself up, gathered her composure, and strode out of the hut with her head held high.

Since then she'd been partly in charge of making the food that the kids were eating. The whole thing flawed Natalie and she'd just been keeping an eye on her with her angel sight ever since.

"What is name?" She asked, her head tilted a slight.

Unprepared for such a question Natalie blinked repeatedly at her. Although there was a language barrier between them Natalie could tell that she held great interest in understanding her much like one would a rarely seen bird or animal.

Natalie could understand that.

Had the situation been different, had she at least known for certain that Andrew was going to be ok least then she'd been as curious of the young woman and her people. As things stood now, however…

I can at least give my name, she thought reluctantly.

"Natalie," she answered.

The young woman seemed to brighten at this as her smile grew more earnest.

"Aiyana, is my name." She nodded as she pointed to herself.

A dozen more questions danced at the tip of her tongue, a thousand more gleaming in her eye making Natalie mentally coil back. Not wanting to deal with this Natalie simply nodded.

"From?" Aiyana continued unaware of her withdrawal.

"From Null," Natalie forced out.

"'Null?'"

"A village to the far east,"

Aiyana looked confused which made Natalie rub her temple in frustration.

"My home is far away."

Aiyana's eyes widened in understanding.

"Null is home?"

Natalie nodded.

"Over Rahim?"

Confused and unable to care enough to ask what that meant Natalie rubbed her eyes in frustration.

"Did you tell your teacher about him?" she asked.

Aiyana's dancing eyes froze to this. Part confusion narrowed her eyes to Andrew laying behind Natalie.

"The… 'he' is ok. He won't die. Worry won't help." She said matter of factly.

The wise and elegant aura she exerted outside reasserting itself for just that moment as if to deem the matter closed. Either that or she did not want to talk about it.

"I just want a second opinion." Natalie continued. "The thing that's in him might be poisonous or worse."

Aiyana's lip drew into a thin line. Although she did not get all of the words she understood the tone behind them. As she stood there Walta silently walked by, looking both at Natalie and Aiyana before taking the last bowl of food and retreating back with the others.

"Minda Muraqib will come, but we can't help, only can wait for the awakenss."

"If you can tell her to hurry then I’d be grateful. Thanks for your help." With those words, Natalie turned to look over Andrew as if he needed attending which he did not.

Seeing the gesture for what it was, Aiyana’s lip flashed a frown before she stood up and strode out of the room.

As she left Natalie looked back beyond the confounds of the hut with her angel sight to see her stride towards a small din of people going about their day. Among them was the spare man she’d clashed with. Having made it up to Aiyana he stopped as if to grab her attention but she’d strode past him without so much as a look of acknowledgment.

As the spearman turned back to watch her go he paused, looked back at Natalie's hut before shaking his head and moving on.

Feeling a bit guilty Natalie resorted her eyes back to normal before burying her face behind her knees to sigh deeply. She’d tried to bury the matter but all she kept seeing was that open and wondrous smile on Aiyana's face breaking into rejection. She hadn't the mind for the kind of talk she was seeking.

It was better that things ended like this she knew but as she sat there in the hut with the sounds of spoons scraping the bottom of wooden bowls she couldn't help but feel a pit open up in her gut. That pit echoed back a protesting grumble of hunger which spurred Natalie to grab her bowl and begin eating its content. The soup had a distinct tanginess to it. That, along with mixed spices and herbs all hit her with a sense of familiarity that seemed to seep into her fatigued body helping to revive her spirits. This along with the bite-sized pieces of meat with peppers cabbages and a plant She could not place Natalie found that her hunger witch had barely been a bothersome distraction before had come to her in full force making her chow the food down in a slight trance.

She’d only noticed that she was done when the sound of her own bowl rang in her ear empty with that scraping of her spoon. An honest wash of disappointment came over her in that moment-one that she pushed back down for how ungrateful it was. Though she was no longer hungry there was still the feeling that she could easily eat more. Realizing that perhaps this is what the other kids were likely thinking as they scraped the bottom of their own bowls Natalie sighed to herself before taking a look at them.

They were all sitting up, either eating or just finishing the last of their meal. The few who had finished either just sat there a moment or went back to laying down upon the mats they were given. Tien, being one of the first to finish, placed his bowl to the side and lent himself back against the wall before closing his eyes. Damien who was already finished by the time Natalie looked was already fast asleep. As for Walta, Walta had sat against the beam that stood in the middle of the hut as she slowly ate. Her eyes were still red from crying.

Natalie recalled seeing her take the second bowl as Aiyana was talking to her. She said nothing about it mainly for the same reason she did not interfere in their kid's arguing. Natalie assumed that she going for her second helping, that was until she found that the last bowl was not only still intact but it stood right in front of Tien’s face. Tien had laid down ever since his argument with Walta and had not even bothered to get up, even if just to grab his share of the food.

Walta must have noticed this and came over to collect his bowl because despite everything that was said, despite the pain Taien’s words afflicted on Walta she still went out of her way to try and take care of him. She placed the bowl right where he could see it when he got up.

Tien ignored the bowl however and instead bragged his way up to Walta's lap and laid his head there as he curled up into a ball sobbed silently. Walta, who was still eating at the time, looked at Tien in surprise at first but then seeing him shake with tears she gently placed her bowl down to pat his head.

Natalie was again bombarded with nostalgia. Oh, how easy it was to forgive and forget back then. How even the deepest and complex problems seemed to have simple and clear solutions if you just wished hard enough for them. It reminded Natalie of her old home and her old friends… which just compounded her guilt. Feeling like she was the third wheel Natalie averted her gaze and proceeded to rest on the matted floor with her back to Andrew’s. She told herself that she would only close her eyes for a minute or two, but before she knew it she’d fallen completely asleep, her mind drifting away into a dreamless sleep.

~#~

She'd woken to the sound of footfalls entering the hut. Going by the dimming sunlight that cast shadows over the room Natalie guessed that at least two hours had passed since she nodded off.

The one who darkened the entryway was a thin woman, she wore an ankle length dress and a loose patterned shirt of brown and reds. Her hair whitened hair tied to a bun at the back of her head. Although she had a stooped posture something about her presence caused Natalie to shoot up straight beside herself. Something which she later regretted.

As she watched Natalie sit up, the older woman paused for a moment, eyeing her like how a baker does plain flour on a scale. Deflating with a huff the older woman stepped further into the hut waving an arm in dismissal at Natalie.

"Oh sit child, if I wanted to assassinate you then I would not have bothered feeding you. Would have been a waste of good food otherwise.” she’d grumbled.

Natalie's first inclination was to blink repeatedly.

"You speak Kamish..." she mumbled.

"I should hope so, otherwise I’d have to get the Hemerlains to translate for me and I’d rather not have them involved, not yet." The woman said.

Natalie's eyes widened as she realized that this was the woman that Aiyana said she would fetch for Andrew’s sake.

“Your name is Natalie, correct? Call me Minda, I am lead healer and stargazer to this village,” she introduced as she walked in.

Stumbling to her feet she watched the old lady as she looked around at the kids who were sleeping before finally resting her eyes on Andrew who lay behind Natalie. Her wrinkled eyes darkened.

“First things first,” Minda mumbled to herself.

Natalie allowed her passage as she moved over to Andrew before kneeling by his forehead to hover a hand over him.

“Stand back child, and do keep silent,” Minda said as she closed her eyes.

Clasping the red stone around her neck the old lady fell into an idle state. Instantly her hand loomed over Andrew’s chest as if drawn there by some kind of force. Her steady hand began to suddenly quiver as it held there over him. After a long moment of intense silence, she removed her hand and taking a slow controlled, trembling breath looked up to Natalie with a curt nod.

“He’s fine, just like Aiyana said.”

“That's a bunch of crap and you know it!” Natalie snapped. “He was stabbed by a black blade and now it’s doing something to him!”

“I said that he is fine,” she repeated more firmly. “I did not say he was unharmed.”

Natalie was about to open her mouth in protest again but fell silent instead. Minda seeing this continued.

“His will has been tampered with. Collide against a polarizing force, It won’t be the death of him but still… I don’t think it wise to wake him prematurely.”

"Can’t you do something about it?" Natalie asked.

“That won’t be wise,”

“Why not?!”

Minda looked down at Andrew, her eyes betraying a hint of trouble.

“This foreign energy that entered him is already melded deeply with his own, trying to separate his will from the intruding energies at this point would be like trying to perfectly divide the exact cup of water that was poured into a running stream. Unless he can identify he can isolate the imposter himself then we’d more likely cause irreversible harm trying anything ourselves..” she said.

Natalie frowned, this did not make any sense to her. Never in her years of schooling in the effects of elements had she come across such phenomena as this.

“You’ve never heard of such a thing have you, well no surprise there. As much as people beyond the Rahim like to gloat about their advances from the days of the fog wars, you are all quick to forget the great wisdom that we all held as common knowledge eons before that,” the old lady said, pulling Natalie off her trance.

Seeing the naked truth of her words on her face the lady continued.

“Sounds to me like you would rather gloat about what you have over us instead of telling us about it.” Natalie spat.

“If speaking my mind is gloating then I guess I’m tired of being humble,” Minda said. “We keep to ourselves and help preserve mankind's forgotten past. My people have lived within the Rahim for eons solely for that single reason,”

“Why does it have to be here?” Natalie asked.

“Life beyond the Rahim is a distraction, people are quick to forget the warnings when surrounded by the benefits the demon sword brings. When you look at the state of all the past nations fueled by ancient blades the issue becomes clear. And yet despite all that they still use its power, thinking themselves somehow different to the people who perished before them.”

Natalie mentally rolled her eyes at this. She was not really in the mood for a political debate but she felt it coming the moment Minda mentioned ‘people like you.'

“That's all well and good, but I fail to see why any of that is my business.” Natalie huffed.

“Then I could say for me and my people,” Minda said. “Just because we carry ancient wisdom doesn't mean we owe people outside the message.”

Natalie twitched her lip to that. She walked into that one by opening her big mouth and she knew it. This was just another reason why she never dealt with such things. Seeing Natalie avert her gaze in frustration Minda nodded in resentment to herself before going on.

“It's not as if we haven't tried to tell them,” Minda said. “Long before the great fall we told them what we rediscovered, you see there was a time that we too were as ignorant to our true past as they were. What fragments we were able to piece together we told to the powers that be at that time. But they turned a blind eye to its warnings. Instead many sought their own wisdom, they traded the revelation of unknown eons for the common knowledge of yesteryear. And we suffered their wars and invasion because of it.”

Natalie remembered being told briefly about all of the nations before the fog wars. A messy bit of history with one disaster leading into another. The day the world held its breath, and the fate of mankind hung on the balance on its shift.

“We were almost wiped out as a people. It was not until the great fall that we found some kind of respite from such a fate.”

That comment shook Natalie out of her lament.

“The near extinction of our race saved you?” Natalie asked.

“The great fall was a wake-up call to all,” Minda replied. “It was a chance to wipe the table clean and reroot ourselves to our true purpose. People could connect their will with the planet, some started to hear the will of the planet itself calling to them to take on its ordeal. Others caught whispers of demonic blades buried and forgotten to time. And here within the Rahim aldhaakira, where the will of the planet had always been the strongest this amplification of the world reached a point almost anyone can feel the memories of our ancestors retained as echoes in the earth's soil.”

“The memories of the dead?”

“Echoed footprints they left on the world. The dead say dead. We’d lost much over the years, even now there is so much more to uncover in the fragmented sea of imprinted memories that flow around this space. But thanks to this era of Ley Lines and planetary will, we are now able to uncover a lot of our past much quicker than at any time in our long history. That’s been our main calling since.”

She looked back down at Andrew however with an uneasy frown. “This… thing that was done to your friend however is forgotten knowledge even to my wisdom, a skill that was said to be common knowledge back long before the great fall, long before our one landmass broke into the five we know of today.”

“Before we were banished from Titan’s creek,” Natalie mumbled.

The Minda nodded.

“This seal is much like the ones they’d used to seal demons into steel weapons,” she said.

“You mean to say that Andrew’s had been sealed within himself like some weapon!?”

“Flesh makes for a poor substitute to steel when it comes to sealing. When dealing with the will and soul that is already in itself ephemeral. The soul being 'trapped' within a body is already part of its function.”

So in other words, sealing him to what he’s already bound to will not affect him? It did make an odd kind of sense.

“Then what is it?”

“His waking life will not be impeded. But his dreams, however, whatever seal they’ve placed on him has a stronghold on his cognitive senses. Though it does little harm to his physical body, in the dream it can leave him imprisoned in its confounds.”

“And there is nothing you can do about it?”

“If the invading energy was of opposing affinity to his own then maybe I could have tried some sort of separation on him, but his affinity and this seal are almost as identical as to be that of the same person. As noticeable as a cup of water thrown into a stream as I said.”

In frustration, Natalie gripped the fabric of her trousers. That bastard Epimetheus, even now, even after everything that happened he’s still got his claws on Andrew. Seeing her worry Minda let out a sigh and looked to Natalie with a confident stare.

“The body is a rather sturdy thing given everything, so long as it’s given the needed time and rest it can normally right any ordeals. All that’s left is a strong mindset.”

Natalie looked into the eyes of the old Stargazer, though it was hard to make them out clearly in the fading light within the hut she noticed that her pupils were strangely faded, it unnerved her a little at first. She thought for a second that she might be blind, or suffered an eye injury. But the way that Minda fixed her gaze at her. And the way that intense gaze seemed to look through her and yet still convey an understanding made Natalie drop her guard for a moment.

“It’s my fault that he is like this, if I had just been stronger” she mumbled, her head bowing in defeat. “I just wish I could do something.”

“Wishing for something without the belief is like hoping for sunshine whilst wearing a raincoat,” Minda said. Been thrown out of whack by the comment Natalie looked up to her with squinted eyes.

“What?...” she mumbled.

“If you really want change, if you really wish for something to be then all you gotta do is believe it’s already in your obsession. All you gotta do is go through the motions and let the world catch up to the fact.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I talk of things that people could only once dream of being a commonly known fact today. The planets will, pentagon knights, angels, and demons. Once upon a time, these were all just fanciful stories for the dreamers, myths told to appease the imagination. Now, these myths are real as you and I.”

“‘Some’, not all things,”

“Who sets the limits of what’s possible? The world is ever changing-has been for some time. Who’s to say what’s impossible now will remain so?”

At this point, Natalie was about ready to lay back down and fall asleep. With her apparent mind-reading skills not working on Minda and her inability to not start a lecture she rubbed her eyes and nodded drearily.

“I guess that is a nice dream,” she sighed.

“Do you?” Minda asked suddenly.

Natalie, who was thrown off by the question, looked up at her cautiously.

“Do I what?” she asked.

“Do you dream?”

It was such a strange question, a stupid question if asked for anybody else, ‘do you dream’? Of course, you dream everyone dreamed, even dogs dream. But ever since her escape from the lab eight years ago Natalie had not recalled having a single one. It was stupid to think. Not all dreams are remembered, and dreaming was not a sole indicator of a healthy mind. But deep down she’d always wondered if what she had was normal or a product of what had been done to her. What did not help was the recent development of this other presence in her mind.

This younger voice of herself responded to her when she’d passed out. It was perhaps the first time in a long time she’d recollected anything that could even be remotely labeled as a dream. With all this running through her head, Natalie attempts to respond and fell into a dull mumble. She’d hardly noticed Minda dismiss the subject until she stood up to her and made her way to the hut’s exit.

“All we can do now is trust in his own will to fix himself.” she’d said as she stared at the setting sun beyond the exit. “Walk with me.”

“Where are we going?” although skeptical she got up to her feet also.

“Corn needs picking,” she said matter of factly.

“‘Corn’?”

“It helps me think, I'd appreciate the extra help. Consider it repayment for the meal you received.”

Natalie glared at her back in a peeved manner but said nothing to it, she needed the distraction, and guests or not she always hated the feeling of debt even in someone else's debt. Besides, there was something in the way she said it, a look in her eye that implied that she was just making an excuse to get her out of the hut to talk in private. Taking one more glance at the kids fast asleep and Andrew she walked out into the late afternoon light.

~#~

The sun hung low in the sky tinting its horizon a golden red. As Natalie followed Minda out of the tent she immediately felt the presence of eyes on her. Everywhere she’d caught people just turning away from looking at her. And even though there was an air of winding down going throughout the village Natalie felt the sudden intentness vibe radiating off the old lady. Baffled by this Natalie gritted her teeth as she eyed her back and waited for her to speak.

Her silence along with the tense vibe she got from every person they walked across was killing her.

"You got the look of a knight about you.” Minda, her tone dry and distasteful.

“At least knights I’ve met don’t try and stab me with stone weapons,” Natalie shot back.

“You fear our weapons, and yet you keep no weapon of your own?" her tone was sassy and a little condescending.

“Maybe I’ve hidden mine,”

“I see. So my talk of assassinations still got you jumpy, has it? Well good. That will teach you to send bolts of thunder and lightning down out of the blue like that.”

“What’s your problem?”

“You’d announce yourself to every living thing on Rahim, with the amount of racket you made on the way here. It would be a mercurial if the other tribes don’t show up here soon demanding answers.”

Peeved Natalie folded her arms and looked at the old lady in defiance. She made her feel like a child and Natalie did not like it.

“It was nowhere near as exaggerated as you make it sound,” Natalie said.

“Oh, So not only are you an expert on what the ramifications of your actions have on this land and its people but you’ve got the mind to lecture me on what counts as exaggerated behavior?”

“I recall being jumped at by the gate,”

“Ba! The mouth on you. Why if you were one of my pupils I’d skin your hide for how you're talking.” she said.

“Like you did to your pupil earlier?” Natalie asked, one eyelid arced in question.

She’d witnessed Aiyana being beaten with a switch to her backside a good while before she came back into the hut with the food. She hoped that saying as much would get a surprised reaction out of her but all Minda did was look back at her and nod to herself slowly.

“So you really can see through walls then.” she mused. “You realize how much Aiyana was looking forward to talking with you, she’s a sharp girl, learns quickly but perhaps she’s too young to see that deep intrigued in someone's culture doesn't necessarily mean it will cut both ways. Well, no matter,”

She waved her hand as if that was a far gone subject and continued.

“The tussle you had with the shackled ones is not what I'm talking about, What I'm talking about is your great disregard for the implications your actions have not just on the land but on yourself and others. I could have tracked your passing on this plane just by keeping an eye on the storm clouds you created. You might as well have marked your trail here with an enormous X.”

Natalie was about to argue a point but something among the things the old lady said baffled her.

“‘Shackled ones’?” Natalie asked. They just came around a corner of a slightly larger hut, Natalie was sure it was the same one she saw Aiyana receive her thrashing.

Turning down a dirt road Natalie saw the locked gate that one man was trying to break free when they approached the village on top of the guardian. The ax he used was still resting by the fence. She was about to pass her gaze over it until something about the whole thing struck her as off in comparison to everything else she saw so far.

The ax itself was completely normal, handmade, clearly more built for chopping wood than for battle. Its iron head could use some sharpening. A perfectly normal tool not out of place anywhere else but… here. It was the fact that it had an iron head that struck her. Why is it that a daily maintenance tool was afforded metal and men guarding the gates against intruders making use of stone-tipped weapons?

“The so-called ‘knights’ you fought at the gate, they normally hold another function, those two are currently undergoing the pentagon’s ordeal. Right now they are in the first ordeal,” Minda said.

Although Natalie was paying half an ear her mind still mulling her own question she set herself. As Minda opened a gate she entered a wide field covered with countless corn bushes most containing budded sweetcorn yellow that budded out of their planted casing.

Walking past the white goats Natalie followed suit, staring at the row and row groves in the soil lined up with branches for a mile on each side. Feeling a bit hesitant Natalie glared back at the path they left. She was a little peeved at how the people seemed to respond to her presence. It was not necessarily rude, just… uncertain. Like at any time she could turn on them. She did not want or need compensation for what she’d done.

She would have saved those kids regardless but thinking about her reception and how Minda was acting now she couldn't help but feel annoyance at everyone here, especially for the two who attacked her by the gate.

‘Shackled ones huh’? They used stone weapons like they were an era behind. It was kind of demoralizing.

“Should have had a tighter hold of their leashes,” Natalie grumbled.

If Minda heard or understood she made no sign of doing so, so Natalie continued.

“What I did may not have been perfect but it got the job done, nobody else seemed to be in a hurry to do the honors so I did things my way. Your inconvenience is a small price to pay for saving the lives of children.”

Minda let the comment hang in the air as they reached a large tent pegged in the middle of the cornfield. As they approached a tall man walked out with a basket placed on his back. Seeing the two of them cross paths he nodded his respects to Minda before leaving an unreadable glare at Natalie. As they entered the tent Natalie was met with six women all sitting down around a small pile of corn as they sorted them into smaller piles.

Most of them slowed down their work to get a look at them but they quickly got back to their work after identifying Minda. Natalie again realized that some of them were using metal knives to do their work. And again it made the fact that shackled ones were using stone weapons stick out all the more. As Natalie was distracted from looking at the women sorting corn she’d blinked when a basket was shoved in her face. Carefully taking it off Minda she hoisted one side of it on her back and followed the Stargazer out of the tent.

“Have you ever stopped to consider the implications of your actions?” Minda walked deeper into the rows of corn before deciding on a branch and began picking.

“Far as I can tell you are like those village trained knights, too confident in their powers. Causing storms of problems as they just lumber around moving from paycheck to paycheck.”

Natalie’s gut tightened to the mention of it, she knew well the type of people Minda was talking about. Those men see a job as nothing more than a means to get ahead. Who would willingly let someone die because the price is not right? The seven stars of halo may be scummy. But had the hunter systems that the knights were put under not been full of so many selfish individuals then their hidden hell holes would have been discovered long ago. It was aboard statement Natalie knew, now all of them were like this. She would have said as much but with her chest tightened from bitter memories. Feeling a little down Natalie clenched her fist and began to busy herself with pulling corn from their branches one after the other.

“Don’t compare me to them...” She mumbled.

“Your heart is in the right place at least. So then you're just short-sighted. Small comfort.”

“I saved people, children! One of them from your own village! What have you been doing while they kidnapped her?”

Minda said nothing, sniffing Natalie shook her head. Why was she even here?

“Forget it,” she said. “if you got nothing good to say then I'm heading back.”

“I will not argue with your reasoning, I am grateful that you brought Chenoa,” Minda picked up.

Realizing that she was responding to her last comment Natalie stopped to look back whilst folding her arms.

“Got a funny way of showing gratitude,” Natalie said.

“Thanks to your compassion, however, we’ve been stuck cleaning up the mess it left behind,” Minda said. That gave Natalie pause.

“What do you mean?” She asked carefully.

“I was hoping that you’d be able to tell me,” Minda said as she reached for a particularly high piece of corn on a branch. “But given what little you’ve got to say it’s safe to assume that even if you do not know the depth’s these deprived people are willing and able to stoop to for their own endeavors it would do us no good knowing. Well, that’s just fantastic, you would have earned my respect if it turned out that you at least knew the monster you mess with but here we are.”

“Something happened here...” Natalie mumbled.

“You have no idea, do you?”

Natalie had stopped picking for a while now, the act of the work could no longer busy her mind from what Minda’s words implied.

“Then tell me,”

Minda mocked with a snort.

“Fine, where do you want me to begin? Should I start with how the sun chief, moon chieftess, and I had parties of men already looking for Chenoa the day she up and vanished? Or how about the message we found scratched on the Sun chief's hut during the occupied hours? Though the room's only entrance was guarded by his men they were able to pull it off without witnesses. It was just like what happened with Chenoa. We had no witnesses; we had to resort to compounding the two guards that were on duty that day.”

Natalie’s body began to shiver. Although she did not have much to go off, she knew for certain who it was that kidnapped Chenoa and wrote the message.

Epimetheus…

There was no doubt in her mind, given what she saw him do in that brief moment made a sickening sense. He was the one who wrote the message, he was the one that kidnapped Chenoa. He’s probably taken her as she was sound asleep. Stole her with his power that can suck people away into a darkened void like quicksand. The thought of what must have gone through the poor girl's head, one moment asleep at home in your own bed only to wake to an unfamiliar ceiling, trapped in a cage with stranger eyes peering at you.

It was not far off her own experience and that just made her feel sick. Minda, unaware of Natalie’s racing mind continued.

“We were not the only ones this happened to. Our sister tribes were also paid a visit.”

“‘Sister tribes’?” Natalie blinked. The question served as a good distraction from her own thoughts.

“The Tamewi and Itsu tribes, splintered factions of us Nuzi people a hundred years back. We are still by far the largest of the three but… well.” Minda sighs long and loud.

And right there at that moment, Natalie felt the age of this elder lady rear its head. The responsibility and conflicted decisions she’d had to make. Before she could really place it to a memory she slid back on as if never removed.

“Let’s just say that we had disagreements on how some things should be handled. In any case, we’d agreed on no contact between the three. Unless for trade or an emergency that stood to threaten all in the Rahim aldhaakira we will follow our own way. In the hundred years that this agreement had been in place before this recent mess, it was only broken once twenty years ago.”

Natalie by this point had stopped picking corn just to look at Minda in a slight daze. With the old stargazer still busy picking however all she shook her head back to and went to it.

“I only tell you this to make you understand the magnitude of things,” Minda said.

Natalie nodded. A lot can happen in twenty years, the fact that it’s only now that they choose to break customs because of something she’s involved with left her half wanting to not bother to ask what it is that happened next but the words were already out of her mouth before the better side of herself could get a check on it.

"Did they kidnap children from them too?”

Minda slowed down her picking and shook her head.

“They got the message of Chenoa’s location scratched within their chief's hut as well. They took her as bait and then fanned the flames of outcry to all tribes. They hoped that we’d break custom-like we did, we’ve all been played for fools. Our sun chief and I tried to warn the other tribe of this fact. The Itsu chief at least made an outward effort to act as if he was in agreement with our warnings. As for the Tamewi tribe's sun chief, he was outraged. Pointless debates dragged on, needless to say, we failed to reach a united decision.”

“You argued?”

A cold breeze whistled over the cornfield as storm clouds began to roll in at a sudden pace. Somewhere in another row of corn someone yelped and made what sounded like pointed comments at something out of place but Natalie was too far gone to really care of her summoned storm cloud was scaring locals. She just couldn't believe it. They had lived in the balance and all the ones in charge did was argue?

“The Tamewi have always been impulsive by nature, rowdy bunch. I guess being the runt of the three tribes they had to stand out somehow.” Minda said, if she noticed the change in the atmosphere brought on by the sudden storm clouds she made no indication of it.

“And because of that, you did not follow up on the message?” Natalie said in a low tone.

"We didn't, but the Tamewi did. The very next day they sent four of their own shackled to find and raid this place.”

The folding storm clouds began to slow down and fade when Natalie heard this. Maybe this woman was a lost cause but at least someone here took action. Calmed down Natalie went back to picking corn.

“Seems like me and the Tamewi have a lot in common, maybe I should have gone to them instead,” Natalie said.

It was meant to be a jive at the old stargazer to annoy her but she’d simply chuckled back as if knowing some twisted joke.

“Maybe you should have, it’s a shame,” she replied. “I’m sure they would have given you a warmer welcome given how skilled they are in comparison to our own shackled.”

That put Natalie back in a peeved mood again.

“So what happened?” Natalie asked.

“Chenoa and the other children were still there when you arrived? How else do you think it went?” Minda replied.

With her mouth going dry and her hand growing sweaty Natalie closed her eyes, she did not want to hear this but Minda paid her no mind

“They appeared in our village huts as body parts. All four limbs cut neatly from the torso. It always happened in a room that members were not occupied in but one witness claimed that they saw a black gate blink out of existence as it dropped the victim's head. Well, excuse me, I’ve gotten ahead of myself-you see the head was not the first body part that came but was in fact the last-”

“I get it...” Natalie pushed out, she was starting to feel numb-her heart was racing. Eyes were burning. This was her fault-she’d been the cause of this.

“It was the arms that appeared first, arms and then legs, torso came the next day, and then came the head."

“Look I said that I-”

“-By the next day it quickly became apparent that although they sent us a whole body’s worth of limbs not all of them were from the same person. It took the Itsu tribe to break custom again to gather before we were able to piece together the sickening picture of what had happened. One man's worth of chopped limbs mowed up and sent to each tribe's village in the space of a week.”

“I get it, ok! I get it...” Natalie shouted in a horsed breath. “It was a trap, we did not know what we were walking into. I had no idea that they’d go this far just to locate me.”

A rumble of thunder loomed overhead, but it was distant, lonely. Gripping herself tightly Natalie felt drained, her knees felt shaky, it took all she had at that moment to fight back tears. She’d hated involving others in her own battles, hated dealing with the consequences that path opened up. She learned her lessons early in her quest. She thought that she’d wisened to it-that she found a system that worked and yet still…

“Imagine our shock when we find out that all this happened because that demonic spawn of a man was simply trying to get your attention." When Minda turned back and saw Natalie was out of sorts her persona simmered down as she regarded her in brief silence.

"Well…” she picked up a moment later. “It was only thanks to that, that we were even able to assemble the three bodies back into the rightful place. Though we never found the fourth one. It's a slight that none of us are taking wall. None of our people should die and not be buried beyond the Rahim if it can be helped.” her voice sounded resigned as she turned on her heel on Natalie to gather more corn.

“Epimetheus.” Natalie pushed out.

Minda stopped when she heard this.

“Is that what that devil calls himself?” she asked.

Natalie nodded. “So you can release your guards, they are innocent,”

Minda scoffed at this.

“Those two have been set free since the first of the limbs came. One refuses to leave just yet, prideful fool. In any case, you needn't worry about them.”

Natalie’s face reddened to this as she glanced away.

“I was not worried,” she mumbled.

“Whatever you say, child,” Minda said, her voice laced with amusement. “Did you at least get your money's worth from the ordeal? I already know you did not kill him that much is clear from speaking with you.”

Feeling drained, and half angry at almost crying from the guilt Natalie remained silent, her head bowed.

“I saved lives,” she said.

"He spared you, didn't he?” Minda said as she walked up to her.

‘Respite‘ he called it. In the end, they only got away thanks to Chenoa calling forth those guardian rocks. After everything they did to get there just to be played as they had. It was infuriating. But that did not change anything, she’d come too far to dream of turning away now.

Enough...

"He’ll wish he’d kill me," Natalie said, she fixed Minda a fierce glare.

The stargazer seemed to be weighing it for a while before nodding to herself.

“I never started this,” she continued. “But I’ll sure as hell be the one to end it, whatever it takes,”

“Good,” Minda replied curtly. “Ignorance aside, I'm glad that you are still determined to keep at it.”

Natalie, confused, looked back at her. Minda catching this shared a puzzled look back.

“What is it, child? Well speak up!” she said

“I thought you were angry at how this affected your tribe and people,” Natalie said.

“I am angry at that,” Minda said as she walked on, “But the beans had been cast long before you or anyone could have foreseen it. Perhaps it was always intended to be cast and you just sped up that process. No matter how you look at it the game was rigged. I can’t entirely blame you for the oversight. If you were to have backed down afterward, however, then I would have been fuming.”

So, this whole time she was testing me? She was not sure how to feel about that.

“This leads me to another issue.” Minda picked up.

“Wasi alsukhur is still bound to bring the other kids back home, how soon do you think you’d be ready to fulfill its pledge?”

Confused Natalie silently tested the word in her mouth allowing instant recollection to hit her. It was the same words that Chenoa uttered as they stood by her as if pets beckoning a master’s call.

“Guardian rock?” she said uncertainly.

That offered her a muted stare from Minda making Natalie self-aware and try and look anywhere but at her face.

“I can leave as soon as Andrew wakes,”

“It cannot wait that long,”

“Why not?”

“The guardian rock may seem docile now but that doesn't make it safe. It’s like a force of nature, tamed for now but prone to change due to intense emotions. Much like your control over the weather I guess.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?!” Natalie spat, a rumble of thunder echoed like a reverberating wave over the mountain plane.

Minda simply looked up at the sky and then at Natalie as if her point was proven. Gritting her teeth and trying to hide the embarrassment on her face Natalie readjusted the basket of sweetcorn on her back.

“In any case, I'd rather not take any chances. The sooner it’s off the better,” Minda said simply.

“And what about Andrew?”

“I’ll see to Andrew’s wellbeing in the meantime.”

Natalie shook her head. Three people (two women and a man) were walking past the other stack of sweetcorns on the other side, seeing Minda they fell to hushed voices, nodded their respects to her, and went on their way.

“Some of your people tried to attack him all of a sudden by the gate,” Natalie said.

“And Muraco and Wapi came to his defense did they not?” Minda said.

‘Muraco and Wapi’? Are those the names of the two guards?

They were the ones that circled around Andrew after everyone's knee-jerk reaction suddenly came to a frenzy at Aiyana’s words. True, they came to his defense. But there laid the rub.

“You mind telling me what that was all about? Why did they react like that? What did Aiyana even say?”

“That will take some explaining, the short of it is a simple misunderstanding. The girl spoke of things that she hardly knew about herself. I personally saw Aiyana punished for that, you apparently saw that much.”

Natalie remained silent.

“I can explain that and more but right now I need you to make the decision to finish what you started and quickly before-”

Just then the sound of bells chimed over the cornfield making everyone around them hold their breaths and keep deadly still. Natalie knew they all did so in order to wait for rhythmic chimes to help divulge what kind of announcement it was.

Minda however simply groned to herself and began making her way towards the tend but this time with more speed.

“It’s too late, they're here,” she said.

Natalie quickening her pace to reach her side looked at Minda in confusion. Other men and women who had baskets on their back began to move at a brisk pace towards the tent.

“What do you mean, who’s here?” Natalie asked. Eyes darting nervously between the groups of people suddenly rushing around her.

At first, she thought it was a potential attack, much like when she heard them chime when she approached the guardian rock. There was a relaxed eagerness to them, however. Like they were about to reacquaint with an old friend who’d gone through a rebellious phase.

“For better or worse you’ll see,” she grumbled. A young boy sprinting over to Minda shouted something in Alermuric witch Minda gave a curt response, dropped him her basket full of sweetcorn, and watched him break off towards the direction of the tent.

“Just get a move on with fulfilling that guardian rock’s pledge,” she said as she locked her hands behind her back. “It was already a hazard with just our village’s influence to worry about, guests just complicate things further.”

“But how I can trust you with-”

“-Oh cycles above! This is why I can't bother dealing with people beyond the womb. They are just so rigged-minded.”

“If you can’t trust us then take him with you-though I would not recommend it, I wish to talk with you a bit longer but I have to deal with this mess first.”

And with that, she left Natalie standing there in the field of sweetcorn as the last of the locals in the cornfield passed her by. Left baffled and ticked off by her talk with the Stargazer, Natalie stormed her way back to the tent, threw her meager collection of sweetcorn on the pile, and proceeded to make her way back to the hut with Andrew and the kids.

She wanted her to get going, did she? Wanted her to make it quick to spare her an inconvenience?

It’s not like I want to stay here like this.

She already had it in mind to leave as soon as she was able but to hear Minda request it like it was an order only ticked her off further. Well, as much as it bothered her Minda was not the problem. If the guardian rock was anything like she said it was then it seldom mattered what she did or did not want. This had to happen and soon. She did not want to delay the children from their loved ones any longer than necessary but Andrew…

She could not risk moving him, and yet she could not fully trust Minda’s word on his safety. Although she believed that Aiyana had said something out of ignorance Natalie had the feeling that that part that was not explained would turn that miss conception on its head. The moment was brief but how quickly everyone reacted on both sides left an impression on her.

Why did those two come to their defense against their own people? Just what did a shackled mean, how were their powers different from a knight? Could she really trust them? So many questions on her mind. And with no real way of communicating with them having a quick stern talking was not going to get her anywhere.

By the time Natalie made it near the hut Andrew was in she figured out who it was that approached the village. It was the Itsu tribe, that single world stuck out like a weed in the undifferential pattern that was the Alermuric tongue. She guessed that was the third time their custom had been broken in the month. Minda had made it out to be such a big deal but she was beginning to wonder if that was not exaggerated.

It was not until she was about to step into the hut that she heard it. Another word she recognized among the endless many spoken.

‘Hemerlains,’

Hymn singers and storytellers known the world over. But most importantly for Natalie was one thing Minda said offhandedly when they first spoke. Translate, they could translate Alermuric into Kemish. With her sights set Natalie began making her way towards the gathering crowd of people by the entrance of the village. Before her grace period with the guardian rock ended. Before she risked waking up Andrew and undoing any healing his body is desperately trying to make she’d need a translator to help build a brigade of mutual understanding between her and these shackled ones before the day was through.