by Jeremy Dwyer
~~~
Several men and women carrying buckets of water – dirty waters of the Ikkith Tar Ocean that had little power due to their low purity – ran toward the burning ship and poured them it. It wasn’t enough to save the ship, but it was enough to prevent the docks from burning away. Captain Lyle’s corpse went down with the remains of the ship to the bottom of the shallow waters.
~~~
While the townspeople were busy fighting the fire, Fallavakara made her way, unnoticed, to a small fishing village near the shore, and used her dagger of blood to strike a woman dead and steal her clothes. The woman had no money on her person, or Fallavakara would have taken it as well. Now safe and secure, the witch could indulge in what was her favorite delight, so she drank of the woman’s blood, and it quenched her depraved thirst. She fled from the area before anyone could find her and traveled south by riverboat to a major port town on the southwestern coast: the Port of Kemalorin. Fallavakara used her powers over blood to kill a passenger and take his cabin on board the riverboat, as she had no money of her own to pay for transport.
Once she arrived in the Port of Kemalorin, Fallavakara concluded that she needed to have some money to accomplish her goals, so she made plans to kill another man and take his money. She reached for her dagger of blood, but it turned to liquid blood and spilled to the ground. She could feel the fire within her cooling and weakening. Even her very heartbeat wasn’t as strong as before. Whatever power over blood that she had gained was fading, and she had to act quickly to get it back.
The witch knew that her flesh had been burned horribly and that she was missing an arm, so this made it unlikely that she could seduce a man with her feminine appeal as she once could. A new tactic would be necessary to win favors, so she decided to play to some man’s pity. She wanted help, but going back to the demon Gadamalto to get his help was not going to be an option: any meeting with him would have been ruinous, as she had failed in the assigned mission to acquire the tiara and kill Victoria, and the demon warned her of a greater punishment if she failed after the assistance he gave her in the form of the ruby dagger.
Fallavakara went to the docks and approached a middle-aged looking sea captain, asking: “Sir, would you be so kind as to take a very poor old woman to the book city, so she could learn of her children, who moved away so long ago?” The term ‘book city’ referred to the ancient City of Emeth and its many libraries, and it was common in some places for people to refer to it that way. It was a term that older people sometimes used, and it was meant to make her seem simple, poor, old and worthy of compassion.
The captain looked at the pitiful woman, who was disfigured horribly, but saw little need to help her for free. “That’ll be two (2) platinum coins, lady,” he said. There wasn’t any compassion.
“Have you no pity on a poor and sickly old woman? I have no money, and wish to visit my children, who will take care of me,” Fallavakara said. Of course, she was lying, as the few children she ever had were used in her blood feasts. Her depravity was absolute, and there was no loyalty or love on her part – not even to her own offspring. She would have kept the children if they had been from a union with a powerful ruler, of course, but these were her children from peasant men, and were only worth their actual blood.
“I need to make money, not friends, old woman,” the captain said.
“My children will pay you, when I find them,” Fallavakara said.
“If you find them, you mean,” the captain said.
Fallavakara was angry now, and she needed to make a decisive move. Without money or good looks, and with her recently acquired blood magic having faded, she had to resort to trying something that was not terribly reliable – mostly because she was very poor at most things she did for lack of focus during her bloodlust or her overall lack of practice. She drank of the waters of the Zovvin Ocean that she kept in her vial with the dagger tip, and she was thereby energized. She then prepared to cast a curse using her spirit magic powers, and she thought of what to do to the man. Then, she decided to send him a terrible soul fright that would make him feel a dread of death if he didn’t obey.
The captain had a sudden feeling of dread in his very soul and his face turned white, as if he saw his own death approaching rapidly.
“You look as if you’ve seen a ghost … your own, perhaps?” Fallavakara asked him, knowing full well what she just did. It worked, this time, because she concentrated more completely on it, and her bloodlust was satisfied temporarily.
“I need to leave this place, now,” the captain said, seeming detached and afraid.
“Perhaps if you show kindness to a poor old woman, a spirit of good shall enter you, and guard you, chasing away the evil,” Fallavakara said.
“Where did you want to go again?” the captain asked.
“The book city,” Fallavakara said.
“That’s where I’ll take you. Let’s go, quickly,” the captain said.
“Yes, let’s go now,” Fallavakara said.
At this, they boarded his ship and the captain set sail southwest over the Medathero Ocean toward the land bridge where the City of Emeth was located.
CHAPTER 7: Greed and Resentment
In the northeastern regions of the continent of Waderav, only a few miles from the coast at the southern edge of the Nabavodel Ocean, was the castle of a nobleman named Count Perceval and his wife, Countess Genevieve.
Perceval was fifty-nine (59) years old and a drinker of the waters of the Gradaken Ocean, which gave him mastery over the animals and plants, although his own innate potential was more towards controlling the animals.
Perceval had been drinking Gradaken waters since his youth, at the age of fifteen (15), when he worked as a deckhand on board ships. He knew what was in the waters, including the poisonous sea serpents. And he knew very well how to control those sea serpents, so that they would never strike him, by using his high innate potential and the Gradaken waters he drank. The smaller ones were just water snakes, and could be as little as nine (9) inches long, while having enough venom to kill a grown man in two (2) hours. If Perceval chose, he could direct them to do just that. Other sea serpents grew to twelve (12) feet or more, and were not his weapon of choice at the time. There were rumors of ones that were over one hundred twenty (120) feet long, but these were hard to prove.
On occasion, during his youthful travels as a deckhand, Perceval would catch and use the smaller sea serpents to poison another sailor and steal his wages before his corpse was given a proper burial. Perceval was selective, so as not to be caught. He never bargained with anyone for their life using threats, lest his secret be learned. Murder was the first, and only, choice, as far as he was concerned. As the sea serpents were a regularity of life in some areas, the deaths weren’t questioned. Nor was his avoidance of them questioned, as most avoided that fate by being careful and checking their boots by shaking them out to be sure nothing was in there ready to bite them.
Perceval made out quite well, with the little bit of extra pay, here and there, and was able to purchase a small patch of farmland in Waderav by the age of nineteen (19). There, he made his living cultivating livestock, which he was able to control and raise to be of high quality, due to the Gradaken waters that he drank. The waters energized him and activated the power within his body, and he was then able to interact with the animals. Just by holding them and touching them, their own health and fertility and strength was increased many times over. This made him a highly successful farmer. Others drank the same waters, here and there, but one’s innate potential had to be high enough and the water had to be pure enough to give the more useful effect. The results were far higher in his case, due to a very high innate potential. He traded his livestock with merchants from all over the continent, who sent their servants to pay him for his high quality animals.
By the age of twenty-four (24), Perceval owned a farming town, with over twenty-five thousand (25000) acres of land, and had several assistants, to whom he paid subs
istence wages. His wealth grew rapidly, as did his land, until he owned as many as three hundred thousand (300000) acres of land and had a castle constructed, from which he ruled, and gave himself the title “Count.”
Count Perceval purchased ships with his wealth and sent them out to trade with the towns and cities in the nearby continent of Volaraden across the Nabavodel Ocean. His rates were high, but the merchants there were wealthy, as many of them were from the Jenaldej Empire, and they tolerated the higher prices that Perceval charged for high quality livestock, reasoning that it was worth its price.
Perceval, however, was quite greedy, and would occasionally want even more. He had, on a few occasions, gone out to sea personally, and alone, on one of his ships. Then, he would drink deeply of the waters of the Gradaken Ocean – of which he always kept several vials on hand – and sail to the areas rumored to be frequented by the larger sea serpents – some of them as much as seventy (70) feet in length. He would touch these sea serpents with his own hands and, with the Gradaken waters flowing through him, thereby exert his influence and thus gain control of the creatures. Just one such monster was enough to send against a cargo ship and kill all of its crew on deck. He would then board the ship, drop anchor, and return to his own ship, and sail back to his own castle. There, he would tell his hired sailors to travel out to a certain point in the ocean and they would find an abandoned ship, and should seize its cargo and return it. They never knew how he found out, and didn’t dare ask the “Count,” who still paid them better and more often than some of the other landholders they knew, despite not paying them terribly well.
Count Perceval’s reputation for wealth and prosperity grew and many women wanted to marry him, or wanted their daughters to marry him, if only for the financial security and presumably easier life. The villages and towns across the entire continent of Waderav succeeded on hard work producing scarcely more food and clothing and necessities than actually necessary, so surplus was not something they were familiar with. Perceval’s opulence was staggering, and made for an easy life – or, at least, the appearance of it.
At the age of thirty-one (31), he held a ball at his castle, and invited maidens from dozens of surrounding villages and towns. He married a woman by the name of Genevieve, who was thirty (30) and somewhat attractive.
~~~
Genevieve was a drinker of the waters of the Trerada Ocean, but not by her own choice. She believed in seeking understanding, and often read books that fed her hunger for knowledge of many subjects, including mathematics, chemistry and the water sciences. She considered what water might be best to drink from.
If she drank of the Kazofen Ocean waters, she would understand crystal and be able to alter it and form structures – if she had enough innate potential for that water, of course.
If she drank of the Medathero Ocean waters, she would understand logic and mathematics and be able to reason about extremely complex systems of equations in her head, and quickly – if she had enough innate potential for that water, of course.
If she drank of the Ursegan Ocean waters, she would be able to live for centuries, or millennia or tens of millennia, and have time to accumulate immense knowledge – if she had enough innate potential for that water, of course.
Genevieve also considered the spirit world – the Zovvin Ocean waters would give her access to that, but the spirit world – and death – were frightening subjects. The thought of having answers to these matters was appealing, but not enough to overcome the fright.
The Gradaken Ocean waters would give her control of plants and animals, but that was not nearly as interesting, so Genevieve put this at the bottom of her list, though she didn’t rule it out completely.
The Nabavodel Ocean waters gave strength and speed, and war fighting was not in her plans, so Genevieve summarily decided against that water, despite living only a few miles south of it.
The Atrejan Ocean waters let a person listen to the stars and know their paths and positions, but that didn’t seem to be as interesting a subject, and offered little opportunity to understand much else, so Genevieve dismissed this possibility.
The Lujladia Ocean waters gave powers of long distance vision, seeing around corners, generating light, and, some even said, creating illusions. These seemed useful, and Genevieve ranked this possibility somewhere in the middle.
The Ikkith Tar Ocean waters gave powers of darkness and creating cold from that darkness, as well as dispelling light. None of these sounded interesting, and Genevieve knew that they were used by spies and assassins, rather than searchers of knowledge, with the exception of that group that was called the Obscure Watchers, who spied on kings and reported their battle plans to the ordinary folks who lived along the intended warpath, so they could possibly hold on to their lives. This was a noble use, of course, but not interesting.
The Pirovalen Ocean waters gave powers of music and song, and these were beautiful, and versatile. Singers, however, were known for their entertainment value to soften the edges of a hard world. This was also a noble cause, but not one associated with gathering new knowledge, as far as Genevieve was aware.
The Elanatin Ocean waters presented an interesting dilemma to Genevieve, however. They gave power to sense emotion and thought, but these were intimate matters, and it was more than rude to reach into someone’s mind without permission. Of course, not many had the innate potential to actually use it, but those who could were capable of stealing secrets. Also, it was associated with emotional trickery to win favors, rather than genuinely connecting to others. She was disgusted by the thought of using such a power.
At the age of thirteen (13), Genevieve’s mother told her that “a woman should be beautiful, and turn to her husband for his wisdom and wealth.” Although arguments ensued, her mother took her, held her jaw in one hand, and poured a vial of the waters of the Trerada Ocean into her mouth with the other hand. Genevieve spat them out, but a small amount was swallowed and formed a waterbinding. At that point, Genevieve had no choice but to proceed to drink the Trerada waters. She didn’t have a high innate potential for it, but it did make her more than attractive enough to be courted by many boys, most of whom were blithering idiots in her estimation. Genevieve, therefore, ignored them, and pursued her studies anyway.
Genevieve had to go slowly and read carefully whatever books she could find or earn by hiring herself out as a caretaker for young children of working mothers, or for cooking or cleaning chores. She would take her small payment and give some of it to merchants to bring her back books that had copies of writings from Emeth. She asked for books of crystal chemistry and systems of mathematical equations and eventually had two (2) good ones, from which she learned a great deal. She spent other money buying glass tubes from local glassblowers, and put markings on these to help her measure out different amounts of waters and salt crystals and other minerals for use in her personal studies, which were mostly conducted at night. At times, she wished for a Lujladia Ocean waterbinding, for it might have granted her some modest light generation abilities, which could have outstripped the dim light of the small red suns which lit the night sky. In time, however, she learned to mix potions of various sorts that produced glowing liquids that would light the way for her studies, which sped her up somewhat both by the illumination of the rest of her work, and by the understanding of the minerals themselves upon which she built a greater understanding. She was in love with the possibilities, but it took her longer to develop these techniques than if she had been a drinker of the Medathero Ocean waters. Doing the complex calculations in her head, very quickly, as those waters allowed one to do, would have accelerated her learning. She was also slowed down by being forced to do them at night, while tired from hiring herself out for her usual jobs of baby care, cooking and cleaning for the families in her village who needed such services.
~~~
When Genevieve was thirty-one (31) years old, the immensely wealthy Count Perceval held a ball at his castle and Genevieve went to meet
him. Husbands were not of interest to her, but a rich husband who could pay for the raw materials for her experiments and even more and better books, did have his appeal. She knew how to act like a proper lady – and she kept her spotless virtue through the years, not wishing to create an unpleasant situation or develop any sort of reputation – and so she used her smile and charms and soft voice to win over Count Perceval.
When she arrived in the Count’s ballroom, along with two hundred nine (209) other women, she saw that the competition was stiff. These were some of the most beautiful women in the land, despite their poor reputations, bitter dispositions, or even outright slovenly dress. Genevieve had made a gamble – she took one of her few outfits and doused it with a powder that would make it glow like a finely cut ruby glimmering in the suns. If this didn’t work, she thought, the dress would be useful as a large candle for her laboratory.
Genevieve approached Count Perceval gracefully, and spoke softly: “My lord, I should like to have a dance with you, as you are surely gifted with finesse and good form and strength and agility to enable your many accomplishments.”
“My, how sure you are of yourself to ask me for the dance. Never has a woman been so…quick to confess my many fine virtues. Very keen of you,” Count Perceval said.
Count Perceval leered at Genevieve, filled with lust, but did not take any untoward actions. He was a beast, but one tempered with guile, knowing that appearances must be kept, and atrocities and improprieties must be hidden.
After their dance, Count Perceval said to her: “You are to leave, and return in seven (7) days.” Genevieve left, and then Perceval danced with many other women over the course of three (3) days, and considered some of them less than desirable due to poor manners or hygiene or lack of youth.