by Ren Curylo
Ársa strode to the table and shrunk himself down just enough to sit in the small chair without breaking it, mindless of the comical sight he created, with his still large frame draping out of the delicate Fae wrought chair. He switched Adamen’s name with the one she indicated before writing down the information Erish had requested. “Would you like a copy of it for your records, Erish?” he asked. He knew he may rile her up by dropping her title and calling her by her familiar name, but if she was going to claim him a god, he was going to act like one, at least with her.
“Please,” she said with a nod. The only indication of her ire at what she perceived as disrespect was the slight tightening of the muscles in her neck and a clenched jaw.
Ársa waved his hand over the document and produced an exact duplicate of it. He rolled up the original and put it in his inside pocket along with the pen he had used. The other paper, he rolled up and passed to Erish. “Thank you, Queen Erish,” he said with a small bow. “I look forward to seeing you soon.”
“Of course, Ársa,” she said sweetly. She rang the bell and waited for Adamen to appear again. “Adamen, please see Ársa out, and back to the forest.”
“Yes, your highness,” Adamen said.
Erish watched him leave the room with her daughter and began preparing her speech to announce the trip to her people.
PART TWO
Lerien
Tarakal 10, 55
Pine Mountain Pond
Tiondel Province, Til’gaviel
Moriko In the time they had been here, between when they left their old, dying world and now, Moriko mused, a millennium or more had passed. They had passed quickly and without complaint, for everyone had been busy creating, forming, breathing life into lifeless things. They had long since stopped counting how many years, decades, or centuries had passed. Finally, they had their world formed, their life living again, both animal and plant. Only then did they resume recording time—and even that had been subject to much contentious debate among the Envoy. Some of them— Hermolaos’ group, specifically—hadn’t wanted to mark that time at all. They had been opposed to giving the humans of Lerien even a simple calendar. They had fought over it for ages while the humans established themselves on Lerien. Finally, Ársa’s side had won, and they started back to marking the passage of time with their old world calendar, though beginning with year One. They started at one because it was easier than going back and trying to figure out how many centuries had passed with a human presence in the world. Moriko was reasonably sure the quarrelling faction would pipe up again at some point. After the end of the Nascence, that unmarked passage of time when The Envoy was building and creating the new world, they moved into the next era and began counting time again. They were now into the fifty-fifth year of Lerien.
Things had been challenging for the humans in the time they had been in the world, to say the least. The Envoy still worked tirelessly, around the clock, many of them, to establish and divide them into tribes and villages on every continent. First, in the beginning, they brought out the bacteria and gradually worked their way up to bigger, more complex animals. All the creatures they had brought with them were currently living on Lerien, in small groups and tribes. They were basically, though barely, established. Once the environment was functioning properly, they had reawakened the Fae and other immortals to populate Lerien. The humans were the last creatures introduced.
Ársa’s crew had fought over how much help to give the first tribes they created and raised from genetic matter. They had fought bitterly over how much technology to allow them in their dawning of life. Hermolaos’ faction had wanted to do little more than set them loose on the surface once the first groups had been created and raised to adulthood by the Seirbhíseach on Lerien’s surface. Ársa’s group had wanted to give them technology and put them in the world with similar technologies as the last humans had enjoyed in the old world. It only made sense, he had argued, to give them as much of a head start as possible. The goal, he reasoned, was to establish Lerien as a viable place, not to make it as difficult as possible for all the creatures they had brought here.
Eventually, they worked out a compromise, but it had been quite a battle, and they suspected that Hermolaos’ group periodically tried to interfere with the progress of those living on the surface. Ársa’s group had wanted to give them technology— medicine, solar and wind energy generation, plumbing at the very least. Hermolaos’ group wanted to start them out with nothing more than fire and a few crude weapons—which was virtually nothing. They had argued for setting them on Lerien without any tools, even. Eventually, they had reached a compromise and agreed to give the inhabitants rudimentary homes, basic tools like plows, saws, hammers, spinning wheels, and looms. Neither side was happy with it.
Moriko loved the wilderness —the natural world they had created here on Lerien. It reminded her of their old world before things turned sour. She was a child of the land, the forest, and it felt like home. She spent as much time on the surface as she could. She stuck mostly to the forests, walking and inspecting the billions of acres scattered across every continent they had created. They had liberally placed both animal and plant life on each continent. They had started people out on each as well.
They had created five continents and one major island chain as well as several big islands off the coasts of the larger continents. There were small, uninhabited island chains scattered throughout the world, as well as some tiny individual islands randomly placed in various oceans, gulfs, and bays. Overall, they were pleased with the world they had created. Most of Ársa’s Envoy spent a good deal of time on Lerien, interacting with the newly populated areas, though they still, overall, preferred to live on Na Réaltaí and spent most of their time amongst themselves. They even began to reproduce and increase the population of Na Réaltaí. Ársa assigned them all positions as they grew to adulthood and they formed a council to vote on rules that all of them must follow.
The sentient inhabitants of Lerien began to think of them all as gods and goddesses and they treated them as such. Eventually, over the course of many years, some of the Envoy aboard the Na Réaltaí’s began to think of themselves that way. It never totally felt comfortable to Moriko, though. She spent less and less time there and confined herself almost solely to the forests of Lerien. Moriko returned to Na Réaltaí only when summoned to do so by Ársa.
Moriko walked through the pine forest that sloped down from the green mountain behind her, sniffing for direction. She knew that somewhere, here in the densest center of this forest, was a pond. She planned to camp on its shore, fish in its waters and enjoy a few relaxing days in this area. She walked silently, her Chikandi boots making no noise on the forest floor. It took her less than an hour on the downhill trail to make her way to the shore of the pond where she stood on the shore and admired the view.
It was beautiful here, a perfect clearing in the dense woods surrounding her. It was peaceful and calm and she knew none of her fellow Envoy members had been here before. Certainly none of Hermolaos’ faction. They all preferred the comforts of Na Réaltaí or some of the larger settlements on Lerien to the wild lands she loved. She was aware that they preferred to fraternize with the humans in those settlements and these wild places held no attraction for them.
She looked around the area and chose a flat spot on the sandy shore for her campsite. Once chosen, she began to unload her necessities from the laghdaigh bag she wore around her waist. The bag, which she had created using skills obtained in The Alteration, made her life as a nomad infinitely easier, for it allowed her to store everything she needed within the tiny confines of the hip pouch without the burden of weight. Moments later, Moriko had unloaded from it her entire campsite, complete with a full-sized tent, a fluffy soft sleeping bag, and cooking utensils, and a few essential food items. After her tent was set up, she set about gathering firewood, though she didn’t light it.
Moriko spread a thick, soft blanket out on the grassy area between the sand
and the trees. She lay down, looked up at the beautiful blue sky above her, and marveled at how breathtakingly lovely this world was. She was proud of their handiwork. It rivaled their last home for the sheer beauty of the place. If only they could stop the destruction of this one, as they had not been able to do with the last one, they would be ahead of the game.
After a while, the weariness began to leave her and she relaxed. She kicked off her boots, enjoying the cool breeze as the heat of the day lifted a bit from the land. It was summertime, and she knew it wouldn’t get much cooler even after night fell. She sat up, looked at the pond, and decided to enjoy a swim in its pristine waters. She pulled off her top and laid it on her boots. She stood up, stripped her tight-fitting Chikandi pants off, and dropped them with her shirt.
As Moriko stood upright and was about to stride naked to the lake for a swim, a furtive grunt caught her attention. She turned, ready to attack, only to see Ársa standing at the edge of the tree line, staring at her with a wide, leering grin.
“Ársa,” she said, “you dolt. How long have you been there?” She wasn’t the least self-conscious and she made no move to cover her nudity. She wasn’t the one intruding.
“I’ve just been enjoying the view, my darling,” he said, stepping toward her. “Mind if I join you for a swim?”
Moriko shrugged. “If you’d like,” she said, “it’s as much your pond as mine.”
He began to disrobe, dropping his garments beside hers. “Before we hit the water, how about a quick kiss hello? I haven’t seen you in months, Moriko.”
“If you want it, you’ll have to come down here to my level to get it,” she said. She wasn’t as put out with his presence as she sounded and she knew he knew it.
He bent and brushed his lips against hers, lightly at first, then with more fire and passion. Before she realized what he was about, he had effortlessly snatched her up from the ground and held her in his arms, her face level with his. “Or I can bring you up here with me.”
“I see that,” she said smiling at him, her white teeth contrasting against the brown of her skin.
“Now, don’t get a nosebleed from being so high off the ground,” he said with a laugh.
“Ha ha, Ársa you’re such an ass…”
He cut her words short by kissing her again.
She wasn’t aware that he had moved forward and now stood in the lake up to his bare thighs. When their kiss ended, he grinned at her mischievously and tossed her up into the air. She came down with a splash a number of feet distant, further from the shore. She sank like stone to the bottom and didn’t come up.
After a few moments, she could see Ársa move forward, out toward the spot where she had landed in the water and sank. She waited, like a hungry gator in a swamp. When he drew near, she pushed up from the sandy lake floor and launched herself through the water and up, out of it. She knew momentum was her only hope for payback. He was too big, and there was too much size difference for her to move him otherwise. Moriko landed on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. She used her momentum to flip herself over his shoulder, grabbing his neck and pulling him forward along with her. He landed face down in the water and she landed on her back, letting him go as they struck the surface.
They crested the water at the same time a few moments later. He laughed, opening his arms to her. “Well done, my love,” he said.
She fell into his arms and hugged him. “One good flirk deserves another,” she laughed. “I’m happy to see you, Ársa,” she said. “It has been far too long.”
“You can come up and see me anytime,” he said. “You know where to find me.”
“I hate Na Réaltaí,” she said passionately.
“I know you do, but you’re rather difficult to find down here, you know.”
“It looks like you managed,” she said. She leaned forward, encased in his arms, and kissed him. It was rare for her to initiate affection between them. She felt his heartbeat speed up.
They swam and played in the water and brought each other up to date on one another’s lives for the better part of the afternoon. They ended up lying next to one another on her blanket, drying their naked bodies in the last of the summer day’s sunshine.
“Moriko,” he said, turning toward her, “perhaps you’ve reconsidered our relationship.”
She grinned at him. “Oh, Ársa,” she said flirtatiously, “I love you madly, the same as always.”
“Will you…?” he asked hopefully.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. The thick ropes of her hair stayed wet a long time and droplets flung onto his chest as she sat up beside him. “You know I can’t and you know my reasons,” she said softly.
“Moriko, I only go to other women because you won’t come to me and be mine.”
Moriko laughed. “I know you keep saying that, Ársa, but I never see any evidence that you’d like to abstain from any of those women.”
“How can I if you won’t relent?”
“Well, we’re caught in a sad and sorry circle then, aren’t we?” she said. “I’m sorry, Ársa, I love you more than anything, but I cannot take the chance that you’ll break my heart. I would have to kill you if you betrayed me.” Her eyes were serious.
“If you share your life with me, Moriko, I would never, ever betray you.”
“Let’s talk about this another time, Ársa,” she said. “I don’t think you can keep that kind of a promise.”
“You have no faith in me,” he said slightly petulantly.
“Oh, Ársa, I have more faith in you than anyone in this world. But unfortunately, I know you for what you are. I love you the way you are. I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
“Why can’t we just make the physical aspect part of our friendship?”
Moriko looked sadly at him. “For you, this intimacy you ask for is nothing. It’s easy. You give it freely to so many women. But for me, it’s something special and precious and I only want you. It would break my heart to share you and I won’t do it. This is the only solution.”
“Won’t that ever change?” he asked her.
She smiled at him. “Ársa, you have such a long way to go. Someday, maybe we can get beyond this, but you have a lot to learn. You’re going to learn it, but you’re one of those men who has to learn it the hard way. I’ll be here for you, waiting when you do finally learn it, my love.”
“Even if it’s a million years from now?”
“Even if it’s a million years from now, Ársa,” she said.
7 years later Tarakal 12, 62
Springmeadow, Old Cliff Cardosa, Lerien
Anoba & Moriko “Thank you for meeting me here,” Anoba said, smiling and standing up when Moriko appeared in the clearing before her.
“No problem,” Moriko said with a smile. “You sounded concerned in your message. Is everything all right?”
“Yes, things are fine,” Anoba said, but she was tense and held her shoulders at a tight, slightly hunched angle.
“I bought some roasted chicken and some fruit,” Moriko said, rummaging in the pouch hanging at her waist. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes,” Anoba said. “I brought some cheese and crackers. I think I have a carafe of Apple Fizz, too.”
“Yum,” Moriko said with a smile. “We can have a picnic while we chat.”
“If you have a blanket, it will be just like old times,” Anoba said.
“When have you ever known me not to have a blanket?” Moriko said, pulling a sizeable blanket out of the small, flat bag that looked as though it wouldn’t fit her whole hand inside.
Anoba laughed. “Never,” she said, taking the blanket and spreading it out in the short, vibrant grass growing in the meadow.
Moriko turned her attention to pulling a whole roasted chicken out of her pack along with a net bag containing nearly a dozen assorted fruits, including mangos, papayas, and avocados.
“Where did you get those?” Anoba asked.
“I found them growing wild down in
the Spiorads,” she said.
“Hmm, I should spend more time there,” Anoba said. She stepped into the dense woods surrounding the small, well-shaded clearing and retrieved a wicker box.
They made small talk as they set up their picnic. As soon as they had settled into place and snacked a bit, Moriko turned to her companion and said, “What’s wrong, Anoba?”
“You can tell,” she said.
Moriko nodded. “I’ve known you for centuries, Anoba. Of course I can tell.”
Anoba sighed. “I’ve been having those dreams again,” she said.
“The same ones?”
Anoba nodded. “The difference this time is they feel more real—more intense than before. I’ve had them each at least ten times,” she said, “and they continue to escalate in intensity. Now, I feel that I have to do something about them.”
“All of them?” Moriko asked. She cut a slice of roasted meat, placed it on top of a chunk of bread, and handed it to Anoba.
Anoba ate the morsel before she replied. “Some far more than others,” she said after swallowing. “This chicken is delicious. Did you cook it on one of your campfires?”
Moriko shook her head. “I actually grilled it at the swamp house in Chinquapin Brake.”
“Good job,” she said before resuming their conversation. “I am particularly driven by one of these dreams. It gives me a most urgent sensation and I would like your help with it.”
“Of course,” Moriko said. “I’ll do anything you need.”
“I am hoping that once we’ve accomplished what the dream has laid out, I won’t have that particular dream any longer.”
“This is a good experiment,” Moriko said. “We’ll test that theory right away.”
“That’s why I asked you to meet me here,” Anoba said, looking around the clearing where they sat.
“Is it about this place?”
“Yes, it is. I don’t know how familiar you are with these woods,” Anoba said, “but I believe there’s something special here.”
Moriko looked around her appreciatively. “This forest has always been a little different than other places on Lerien. I am not exactly sure why. I think maybe we mixed the ground a little too rocky. And certainly, the clay content isn’t well balanced. It makes it too hard for early habitation.”