The Unremembered

by Peter Orullian

  “I don’t understand.” Kett screwed on a confused expression. “We’re all in the Bourne.”

  The overseer patted his head with Quiet condescension. He strode back abreast of Elam, but facing the other direction. He turned his head and spoke into Elam’s ear. “Say good-bye.”

  Kett’s father shut his eyes a long moment. When he opened them, Kett saw failure there. Elam took half a step toward Kett, stopped. “You’re old enough,” his father began. “You don’t need my help any—”

  Elam’s mouth gaped open at some unseen pain. He slipped to his knees, and Kett saw the overseer’s blade pull from his father’s back, slick with blood.

  “No—”

  “Stop, dredge,” the Bar’dyn said. “Your father was right about one thing. You’re old enough to walk a muddy row on your own. I don’t want borrowed goods here anymore. The child is old enough to stomach hard food. Take it back to the ponds with you.”

  The overseer briefly stared at Asha in her cage. “And get that womb back into the pen.”

  Then the Bar’dyn left, shutting the door gently on his way out, as if he’d been visiting a friend.

  Kett went to his father, who tried to say something to him. But his words were husky and garbled. There was no final wisdom or expression of love. His father died in front of him for telling a story of escape from the Bourne.

  Blinding hate and anger and loss pulsed behind his eyes. The same ache as he’d felt for his mother came, too. But this time it stood at a distance. He wanted to scream and pound on something. He finally went out into the night to try and cool the heated thoughts racing through his head. Sedition. I’ll give you sedition. I’ll take every gods-abandoned Inveterae and human out of this place!

  But he had no knowledge of how to do so. No plan. No help.

  He had what? A couple of stories. He had dead parents. He had a little sister still sucking a teat for her meals.

  The only long familiarity he had left was back at the dredge farm, walking a row of mud-onions.

  The music was vibrant in his head. Not an echo of sound. A different vibration. One of life. Of living. But he couldn’t do anything with the music just now. He also knew he couldn’t dredge through mud forever, either.

  For a while. But not forever.

  He went back inside, and unlocked Asha’s cage. Then he picked up Sala Cotlyn from her cradle and sat again in his low chair until the human woman came out.

  “What will you do?” Asha asked.

  “The three of us are going to walk back down the Ailanthus road, past the gatehouse,” he explained. “If they ask, you’re my personal womb. And wet nurse to Sala. She and I are going back where we belong. And you,” he gave Asha a nod, “you’re going to try to get home.”

  He handed her Sala, then spent half an hour bending a thin knife into the shapes of his own brands before heating them in the coals of their fire.

  “It’s a long walk to the Pall. I’ve no food. No—”

  “Come here,” he said.

  Asha put little Sala down for a moment, and came close. She didn’t waver as he put the brands to her arm. They weren’t exactly the same dimensions, but they were close. They’d serve.

  And the smell wasn’t quite so unsettling this time. Maybe because the brands held a different purpose.

  “You look like chattel now.” Kett thought the rest through for her. “As you travel south, tell anyone who asks that you’ve been loaned out to a border post. A year’s time. The Quiet will believe you’ve been whored out to lonely troops. When you get to the Pall, you’ll have to take your chances getting over the mountains.”

  “And leave the others behind?” Asha asked, her tone belying the answer.

  “Alone you might make it.”

  He picked up his sister, and they left their shepherd’s home. In the yard, he bent and scooped up a handful of cool mud, and coated Asha’s brands with it.

  “It’ll ease the burn. And dirtied up, they won’t look so fresh,” he explained.

  She nodded, walking beside him as they made their way from the encampment.

  Half a league beyond the gatehouse they stopped. She gently caressed the crown of little Sala’s head, before doing something that shocked and pleased him. She took Kett in a full embrace. Young as he was, he was still taller and thicker than the woman, but she managed to give him a tight squeeze.

  Then she turned and cut south along a narrow road, leaving Kett alone with his sister-child. Sala would be hungry soon. He thought he could get back to the dredge farm and mash something up for her by morning.

  He would have liked there to be stars as he walked the Ailanthus road back to the ponds. But there weren’t. It was dark. Extremely dark. But both moons shone a filtered light through the high clouds. Enough to travel by for a dredge.

  But he didn’t really go back just a dredge.

  Now, he had stories.

  And music.

  GLOSSARY

  Abandonment, the: The cessation of Creation at the hands of the Framers, and their subsequent abandonment and absence from the lives of men.

  Aeshau: From the Language of the Covenant, meaning “gathered.”

  Age: A reckoning of time roughly equivalent to a thousand years.

  Anais (Ah-NAY): An honorific used for women, derived from Anais Layosah Reyal.

  Ars and Arsa (AHRS and AHRS-ah): Alternate terms from the Covenant Language for “body” and “spirit,” denoting also the beauty and elegance of both sides of Creation individually and as a unified whole.

  Artificer: See Quietus.

  Ayron (EYE-rahn): A Far drink made of plain yogurt and water.

  Baenel (Bay-NELL): Covenant Language term meaning “eternally left behind.”

  Bar’dyn: Creatures created at the hands of Quietus to balance the efforts of the Council of Creation, and consigned to the Bourne at the Abandonment. Three heads taller than a tall man, they have a thick, fibrous skin as resilient as most armor. Due to its roughness, the skin often appears to move independent of the muscle and bone beneath. They have protruding cheekbones and long arms ending in hands with a thumb on each side of three taloned fingers. Still, they make use of weapons, and possess an unsettling intelligence belied by their brutish appearance. Their strength is expressed in a common folk myth that with their bare hands they could crush stone.

  Blade of Seasons: A blade forged from a block of metal folded a thousand times. It is said to have the power of remembering.

  boards, the: A term referring to the platforms where the human auctions take place.

  Bourne, the: The great area north and west of the Eastlands where the races given life by Quietus were sent and sealed behind the Veil.

  Castigation, the: When Regent Corihehn of Recityv sent the Sedagin people to almost certain death, the Randeur of the Sheason sent his Order into the court and council of every nation and caused them, upon threat of death, to reassemble in Recityv to honor Corihehn’s lie and go to help the Sedagin.

  Chamber of Anthems: A great round hall in Descant Cathedral, where the Leiholan sing the Song of Suffering.

  Change, the: See Standing.

  Charter, the: A legendary code of principles and dictums, said to have been authored in the Language of the Covenant by the Council at Creation, it sets forth the fundamental covenants of life, the model for joyful living, and the universal laws that govern all Forda I’Forza. It is said to be the mind of the Great Fathers, the hope of man. Yet it remains largely a myth, with but a few of its tenets still uttered on the lips of men, and these known only by oral tradition too old to be reliable. Still, invoking the very name of this treatise inspires silence and reflection.

  Children of Soliel: See Far.

  Civilization Order: Order authored by the League of Civility that makes rendering the Will, or asking a Sheason to do so, a crime punishable by death.

  Convocation of Seats: A council called first by King Sechen Baellor to answer the threat of the Bourne in the war of the First Promi
se. The convocation seated rulers from almost every nation known to Baellor. Its unified efforts helped bring the war of the First Promise to an end.

  court wastery: Sewage area of a big city or palace.

  Covenant Tongue (or Language of the Covenant): A language used by the Framers to put the world in place.

  Cradle of the Scar: A dead, white tree not far inside the Scarred Lands. The tree bears a hollow at a height just above the head of an average-sized man.

  Craven Season: The age that followed the High Season. Known as craven because the designs of the First Ones seemingly came to naught, leaving the land in a state of debility. During this period, the Veil weakened and gradually let slip those hidden up in the Bourne, resulting in the Convocation of Seats and the War of the First Promise.

  crest of Mira Far: White banner with two red swords described in vertical lines, one pointing up, the other down.

  crest of the Sodality: A quill dancing on the flat edge of a horizontal sword, typically rendered in white and black.

  crest of Vohnce: A tree with as many roots as branches, typically white upon a crimson field.

  collough (Kul-LAW): A term defining the standard military complement of the Bar’dyn; typically numbering about a thousand.

  dark hour: Midnight.

  Dissent: A legal term for a case or issue brought before a court.

  Dissenter: A legal term for one who brings a Dissent or dispute before the court.

  Draethmorte: Those first Adherents to the cause of Quietus, given the right and privilege to direct the Will by Maldea himself. Some believe they were created when the Artificer knew he would not be allowed to finish his work and at great personal cost formed from his belly and mind these sacred few to aid him in the ages that would follow.

  Drum of Nicholae: A mythic instrument that, when played, it is said, causes the hearts of all those fighting beneath its drummer’s banner to beat in unison, effectively creating one great heart to thrust upon the enemy. The legend tells that the drum is an inelegant thing, with a dark origin.

  dust gone up: A phrase used by traders and highwaymen to refer to the auctions held to sell human stock. It is derived from the chalk put to the feet of those to be auctioned. Alternately, the phrase refers to mortality, dust being the reduced Forda of mortal flesh, life.

  earthsky: A common term, meaning horizon.

  Emerit (EM-ehrit): A warrior with sworn fealty to men and women of station. His feats of prowess might only be surpassed by his keen intellect. It is a title bequeathed on only the greatest fighter by only the highest mantle of government.

  Estem Salo (EH-stehm SA-low): The seat of Sheason leadership, inhabited primarily by those of the Order and their families. It is said to be a small city of energetic thought and applied principle.

  Far: A race that lives in the Soliel Stretches and is known for exceptional speed and weapons handling. Legend holds that they live a shortened life, having been given a commission by the First Ones ages ago. Little is known about them, to the point that distant nations consider the Far nothing more than an authors’ story. Few have ever seen a Far, as they remain a reclusive and well-protected race in the harsh terrain of the Soliel.

  final earth: Euphemism for either death or a grave.

  First Fathers: See Framers.

  First Ones: See Framers.

  First Promise, the: A covenant to answer every injustice with an equal measure of justice. The First Promise was entered into by nearly every nation, kingdom, principality, throne, and dominion with a government to be represented at the Convocation of Seats. It was the beginning of the end of all things craven, and gave men hope again after the Abandonment. Fealty and honor meant something between friends and countrymen. Equity and fairness were the highest law, and scarcely anything needed to be codified or written, one’s word being as certain a thing as the dawning of another day.

  First Steward: The honorific given to one who stands as witness to a melura’s Change.

  Fleetfoot: See Far.

  Forda (FOHR-dah): From the Covenant Language, meaning “matter” or “body,” and sometimes “earth.”

  Forda I’Forza (FOHR-dah ee-FOHR-zah): The union of matter and energy, body and spirit, earth and sky, that makes up life. Even the First Ones are bound by the laws of this governing dynamic. One without the other collapses, and is brought to unhappiness or stasis. It is a delicate balance, upset by Maldea during the creation of the world and for which he was Whited and bound.

  Forgotten Cradle: See Cradle of the Scar.

  Forza (FOHR-zah): From the Covenant Language, meaning “spirit” or “energy,” and sometimes “sky.”

  Framers: The gods who created the world of Aeshau Vaal.

  gave me the crawls: A colloquial phrase meaning “it was creepy.”

  handcoin: Worth ten jots or plugs. Sometimes called simply “a coin.”

  Hargrove (HAR-grohv): A renowned poet, whose work often took historical themes.

  High Council: A body of select representatives empowered to enact change and provision for Recityv in particular and the nation of Vohnce in general.

  Hollows, the: A small town in the Hollows Forest. It’s name changed over time, as it was once known as “The Hallows,” consecrated to protect those residing therein from the Quiet, should they come into the land.

  hostaugh (Hoh-STAW): A poisonous serpent from the Mal.

  Inner Resonance: See Sheason.

  Inveterae (In-VEHT-er-eye): If the stories are to be believed, the Inveterae are those creatures given life at the hands of the First Ones (not Maldea, but the others of the Creation Council), yet still consigned to the Bourne alongside the Quiet. Most Eastland folk consider this folklore created to keep children in line.

  jaybird: A euphemism for the male genitalia.

  Je’holta (Jeh-HOHLT-ah): A gathering of thought, feeling, and languor from things tangible—even if inanimate—and given form in a dark fog that coaxes those enveloped within it to experience their own fears. It carries voices that belong to souls lost while serving Maldea, tainted and languid because there is no redemption for them. They cry, their hollow voices audible within Je’holta, like a touchstone of awful remembrance. It is a unique instrument of the Quiet. It may be called spontaneously anywhere, having no imprisonment behind the Veil. See also Male’Siriptus.

  Jo’ha’nel (JOE-hah-nell): Legend holds him to be the presiding member of Quietus’s servants. Rumors abound of diaries held deep in the libraries of Estem Salo that bear the handwriting of this Quietgiven. It is said that he was the first to follow Maldea. There are old stories about his first fight with Palamon for the lives of men.

  Jurshah (JER-shaw): A compliment of four Leaguemen in which each of the four League disciplines is represented. Originally, each branch of the League represented simply the four directions on a map. Now, these disciplines pursue separate fundamental skills deemed needful by His Leadership: politics, justice and defense, history, and finance and commerce. Just as the directions on a map combine to indicate middling courses, so too are their factions with covert purposes unspoken of by His Leadership.

  Kaemen Sire (KAY-men SIGH-er): The second organized entrance into the Eastlands by the Bourne was led by a creature of unknown origin. Some believed Kaemen Sire to be one of Maldea’s first creations, others a Draethmorte, and still others are sure it was Inveterae. Whatever the truth, its madness and rage was said to blind men for merely looking upon it. The defeat of the Quiet during the War of the Second Promise did not claim this creature, which escaped back beyond the Veil.

  King Sechen Baellor (SEH-shen BAY-lohr) the Swift: The king of Vohnce—which later moved to a more representative government—at the beginning of the War of the First Promise. Baellor called the first Convocation of Seats.

  Latae: Used with “dance” or “stance” to describe a series of battle motions learned by the Far for battle.

  Layosah (LAY-oh-saw), the Great Defense of: Referring to one of the Wombs of War who shamed
King Baellor into calling the First Convocation of Seats.

  Leadership, His: Euphemism for the leader of League of Civility, currently Roth Staned.

  League of Civility: An association of presumably civic-minded militants who believe that enlightenment trumps all. Self-appointed administrators of the law, they are dedicated to the quelling of insurgency that runs counter to their described goals: peace, equality, and prosperity. In the interest of their creed, they have made strict enemies of the Sheason by forcing ratification of a “Civilization” order (death) executable upon evidence of a Sheason’s exercise of the Will. The League holds that rendering the Will is at best an arcane practice with unnatural and unholy origins, smacking of stories that assume the reality of the Great Fathers, and ultimately becomes nothing more than a cover for deception and manipulation of the working class. With four branches—politics, justice and defense, history, and finance and commerce—the League has evolved to have political representation in almost every nation. Their sigil is four arms in a circle, each gripping the wrist of the next, now extolled as a metaphor for unity of the people, though originally a symbol of its four branches, each branch coming to emphasize particular goals in the interest of the League.

  Leiholan (LAY-ih-HOLE-uhn): From the Language of the Covenant, meaning “Wrought by Song.” An inborn ability to exercise the Will through song. It is a gift of Resonance. The term is also used to refer to one who possesses the gift.

  Lesher Roon (LESH-uhr ROON): A race run at Recityv by children ages twelve and below. The winner occupies a seat at the regent’s High Table as the Child’s Voice, and is thus a member of the High Council, able to cast a vote in all decisions that relate to Recityv and the nation of Vohnce.

  Levate (LEH-vuht): One who practices the healing arts.

  Library of Common Understanding: A repository of laws and codified principles by which all residents of Recityv, and to a larger extent Vohnce, may be reasonably expected to be held. It is also the immense library that serves the nation of Vohnce.