The Romani came and went as they pleased. There were a few of their homes, which are buildings on wheels, here in Groenplaats. The wheeled buildings look like the beer barrels, which hold beer or wine, but have wheels attached to the sides. On the far side of Father Sea, I could see the tops of their wagons just over the teepees. Many of the Romani live close but choose to live outside of the village. They travel a lot with taking crops and meat from this village to trade with the other villages.
Beer and wine were popular. It was the best way to make sure you were able to drink water without having to boil the water to make it safe to drink. The streams, which flowed through the land, were not safe to drink. Animals would die in it, which made the water unsafe to drink. Other diseases and parasites were in the water. The distillation of the beer or wine made it safe to drink.
Every week, the Romani traders would depart as a new group of traders would take their place. When the Romani travelers arrived, Naujee would declare Carnaval, as it was a day of celebration for our peoples. It was special, as we could learn of what had happened over the month from which we had seen them, and about the other villages.
Then, there were the four Mother’s wagons. Each of the villages had one, except for Centraleplaats, as they do not have a Mother for the village. In Centraleplaats, the four Mothers would all meet with Bunică on the Day of Leaving. The wagon with the Romani Mother of Groenplaats, Naujee, would travel to Centraleplaats to trade and discuss. Centraleplaats usually held little of the Romani in it, as the Romani thought this was a site to be reserved for the alţii, although the Bunică resides in Centraleplaats with the leaders of our realm.
When one of the Masters, the Grand Masters, or Elders decided, they could moved to Centraleplaats to educate the youth with the wisdom they had accumulated over their lifetime. They were also responsible for Centraleplaats Repository. Their tasks included taking out and transcribing any of the tomes which were too old or damaged. The originals tomes were sealed from the pupils in the vault below the grand building. As a pupil, you could take any tome in the upper library to a chair to read it. Unless the tome was a lesson tome, you were not allowed to take the tome from the building.
Oh, sorry. I digress. I do that occasionally as my mind is a ever so enthusiastic fan of wandering about.
I started walking East with the wind along a path, which would lead you past the teepees in the paved circular yard just before Father Sea. The path was one which wandered, like a river trying to find lower ground through our village. Many paths joined and left the path, but the path stayed strong as it carried the feet of our ancestors and the Old People. I let the path carry me along to Father Sea.
Father Sea is a special garden. The Old People called it a Japanese rock garden. It is filled with shiny silver pebbles of all sizes, though most were too small for jewelry or polishing swords. In the middle of Father Sea, there were four huge shiny silver stones, which sat in the middle of the waves made by the pebbles. If the pebbles were not lined out right, there was a rake next to Father Sea, then you could remake the waves again or disturb them if you desired. The only rule here was to be quiet, as to not disturb another person’s meditation.
I let my hands fall to the hilts of my weapons as I pushed down on the hilts of my blades, to push the blades out behind me as I sat. With my legs crossed, I looked into Father Sea. I found a pebble, five or six hands from where I sat, and stared into it. Upon the surface of the pebble, the sky reflected back to me black with white dots throughout, with the moons looking down upon me. It reminded me of how my sight is when I closed my eyelid, though it lacked the gray in the sight.
“What troubles you, young lady?” A male voice broke the silence.
My hands, of their own accord, flew across my body to the weapon hilts. A hand gently patted my hand to slow the pull of my saber. “You do not need these at this moment, young lady. Be at peace,” the male voice gently said, as it gave a smile to the words.
As my mind caught up with what was going on, I turned my head to see Grand Master Alexandrew had sat beside me without making a sound. He too was staring off into Father Sea with his eyes, as his bald head reflected the light of the moons.
I bowed my head while stammering out as fast as I could, “I am sorry, Grand Master. I did not mean to dishonor to you or bring harm upon you.”
“Be at peace child. You have the hands of a Samurai. Your mind was not here, yet your hands knew the work they are trained to do. They responded to your training. There is no dishonor in being startled,” the Grand Master said softly.
“B..b..but I..I do t..t..take offense,” came another voice from my right side, “T..t..that you only t..talk to him.”
My head snapped to my right, as I became startled for the second time, An Elder sat on my other side. Zoey’s head rested on his knee. He had his hair tied back while wore wolfs skins. It was Elder Thomas. FUCK!
I bowed my head even further as I was stammering out, “Elder, my apologies. I did not realize….”
“Young lady, we are not your instructors for a few hours. Please call me Alexandrew, and that buffoon is Thomas. He must be able to get his head through a door after all,” the Grand Master said teasingly.
Oh. “Oh.” Mouth, please quit repeating what I think! I will sew you shut if I must! “My apologies, again.”
“Never mind, young lady. Answer my question. What troubles you?” Alexandrew asked.
The question baffled me. What actually troubles me? That I do not understand the magik which I have? I doubt this is a trouble, as my evidence of it is empirical and noted in the most scientific way I could make. My mind ran with the question. Thoughts coming and going through my mind’s canvas. Ultimately, it was faster than my mind’s eye could follow. The canvas, which lasted in my mind, was my rapier laying on the ground. It was broken in half. The blade laid where it had landed, with the hilt where it had fallen, at my discardment of the broken weapon.
That thought rang true in my mind, as my mouth went on a walk about without my brain willing it to speak, “I..I..I am broken.” I stuttered with honesty.
Entry 3
8 Months Before
Moeraplaats
I knelt on my right knee, as my left foot was still stretched behind me. The pain in my left eye was tremendous. I knew the wound from his sword’s blow was bad. I could feel the blood seeping down my face before dripping off my chin. My eyes were still closed. My right arm still held out the saber fully extended.
I heard his sword hit the cobbles, followed by his body falling to the cobbles with a wet plop.
I defeated him. I knew I was his better.
I let go of my swords, to let them fall to the cobblestones. As they fell to the ground, I could almost see them falling to the cobbles before the ringing of the steel hitting the cobbles hit my ears. I let my hands start towards my left eye as I saw in the blackness of my mind a white form, which looked like mother, falling to her knees in front of me.
I saw a white oblong shape fall from her face. The barely audible sound of water hit the cobble below her before turning into a grayness, as her form turned to gray. Her hands worked furiously in white, as she was unrolling something from her arm.
“Do not dare touch your face, Sweets,” her soft voice rang out with command, which was a bit loud to my ears. “Your left cheek is a mess. He may have dealt you a Death’s blow, which will be more slower on the path of death, but I will defy Death if I must. Hold still! I need to bandage this first.”
I felt cloth wrap around my face as her arms encircled my face.
Wait. What in the hells? Her hands are behind my face. Okay, that is a new number to the weirdness scale.
I watched as her hands blurred around my head, as they wrapped my face in cloth. I felt light headed. I really want to lie down to sleep.
Well, why not!
“No, Sweets! You have to stay up. I know you are tired…Richard!…Get the horse…Damn you, hurry up!” Mom held such command with pai
n and worry sewn through her voice. I saw her head turn away from me, as the shod hooves of a horse fell to the cobbles. Papa was leading a horse towards us quickly. When he got within three steps of me, I saw his form.
The horse, which was in white and gray, stood majestic. White was around it’s mouth and nostrils. The horse let out a breath, which turned the air in front of it’s head to white. It rolled out like a fog coming off of the swamp in the morning. I followed the breath as it mixed with the gray air, before turning into a white cloud as it was being taken into their mouth, down their throat, then into their chest.
What the hell? I must have smoked from Tribe of the Star-nosed Mole’s pipe too much.
“Sweets! Come on….into the saddle,” mother called from atop the horse. Arms were behind me as they lifted me up to mother’s arms. Without turning my head, I saw the gray and white form of papa. He lifted me into the saddle, in front of mother. Her right arm wrapped around my waist, while in her left hand were the reigns. “Ya! Fast as you can North, girl. She is hurt. Baby, you gotta stay awake for me.”
My mind drifted as my head dipped to my chest. I could hear the hooves hitting the ground, while I could see them too. The hooves were bright white as they hit the ground. From them, blue waves came out to splash onto the scenery, which unfolded in my vision. Where the waves collided, the blue turned to a deeper blue, before fading away. Where the waves collided with objects, the objects were bathed in a light blue light.
I really should just die. I have lived a lie my entire life. I am not normal.
The horse breathed fast as it was pushing white out in front of their mouth and nostrils. The white turned to gray as it was swept behind us. Behind us, where the horse passed, a white wave followed us as it flowed off to gray before turning into nothing.
Ahead, a branch started turning the blue color as the sound of the hooves collided with the branch. The branch, no….a tree…., was across the path, having fell after the last time the path was cleared. It was so clear, as it could have been a canvas in one of the tomes from Centraleplaats Repository. I watched as the horse jumped the fallen tree before landing on the other side, with a greater blue wave flowing from the hooves as they connected with the ground.
My time passed like this, as I watched the scenery play out in my mind. I must be imagining this. My mind must be taking the sounds and processing them into my mind’s canvas. I have heard of people loosing their eye sight, just to have their other senses heightened. Or maybe, this is how it is when you die. The world turns ghost. I do not think I will will find my clearing at the end of my path. I think I will find my way to my Hell. My entire life is a lie. I am a freak!
Mother’s voice cut through my thoughts, as it sounded far off to my ears. The blue waves, which came from her mouth, were bright in my mind’s canvas as her voice was lighting up two buildings…in a village? “Help! My daughter is hurt! Help!”
Mother let go of me, before I promptly fell to the ground, with a bright blue wave flowing out from the sound of my impact with the ground. Mother swore. She is a lady of many words. Hearing a swear word was…well…, I have never heard one from her. “Verdomme! Sweets, I am so sorry. Sweets, come on. Wake up!” I saw her dismounting from the horse before kneeling next to me, as she was rolling me over onto my back.
The door on the building to my….right? It has to be my right. Or is it my left? That door flew opened which banged against the wall. The sound sent out blue waves from the sound? I think that is how I will call it. The blue has to be connected to sound. A pair of feet sprinted towards us, as blue echoed from the footfalls.
“Move! Out of the way!” The very female voice called in a thick Romani accent. It was as smooth as honey, while it shone in a purplish color in my mind’s canvas. From the run, she fell to her knees before skidding on her knees the rest of the distance towards my side. Her hands flew over my body, while white spider webs fell over me. “She has lost a lot of blood. Her eye….it is gone. I can not repair it. The laceration to her face is deep… It has cut into her skull. Rahat….I do not know….” She trailed off. A warmth fell over me, from where the spider webs touched, as the warmth spread out into my body.
As more footfalls approached, this mysterious woman called out, “We need to move her, now. Medical building, triage. Get saline ready and type her blood.” I felt a finger touch my face, before the body attached to the finger ran away into the a building.
I felt myself lifted by the shoulders and feet by mother and another person, which had come from the building. The mysterious woman followed the progress by my side with her hands over my face, as she was still sending the white spider webs over my face. The spider webs seemed to numb the distant pain. Well….it was more a thrum of pain to be technical, not a constant pain. Nonetheless, it was distant from my mind. Everything felt distant. Then the darkness, which was encroaching on my mind, pounced.
◆◆◆
My mind slowly came awake. The white and gray were still showing me everything around me. A person sat in a chair next to the bed, watching me.
Everything came back to me. The memories of the fight, my eye and the horse ride flowed into my mind’s canvas. I sat up from the bed, which I was laying on. Confusion and panic exploded from my mind as I tried to open my eyes, which only showed me blackness.
“Shh,” the mysterious woman from my dream? It must have been a dream. Otherwise, I am mad as a hatter. Nonetheless, she was here comforting me. “Calm down, Relonor. My name is Vadoma. I am a Romani healer. You are safe here.”
I felt the tug of something in my right arm, before I froze my movements. “My eyes. I can not see anything!” Verdomme! I am blind. Now I am even more of a freak!
“Shh….You lost your left eye. I could not save it. The right eye is covered in a bandage the alţii have placed over it. I have healed as much as I can, though I cannot do anything more for your left eye,” Vadoma said soothingly, as her tone held a bit of regret to it.
My heart slowed with her reassurances. I closed my eyes to find the gray scale vision had came back to me. I noticed there was something attached to my right inner elbow. I slowly let my left hand wander to it, as I was uncertain what the line which led up to a bottle, which hung above my head, was.
“It is an IV. We started it when we got you inside. You had almost bled out. We put blood back into your body, while I healed as much as I could of your injury. Right now, it is just water with vitamins and minerals to help your body heal. The alţii insisted,” her voice turning whimsical, “They give you an antibiotic to stop any infection which may occur, like you need antibiotics with me around. We also have your medicine in it.”
I froze as cold gripped my heart. She knew the secret which I have kept for so long. I realized my Kikko armor was off. I relaxed a hair when I saw it hanging on an armor post in the corner, with my swords hanging in their sheaths off of an arm of the armor stand. But I had another chemise on. It was longer than the one which I was wearing during the duel. They had changed me. Panic gripped my heart for the second time in as many moments.
Entry 4
8 Months Before
Moeraplaats
I sat in my room. Papa had told me about how Aiden had asked for my hand in marriage, a few days beforehand. I never thought someone would be interested in me.
I had already dressed in my Kikko armor with my best doublet. I will never admit to putting on every doublet I have and checking myself in the mirror. Fine! I did do that. Twice.
Aiden was coming over for a family meal in the communal room to meet me. Each building of the village has a communal room. This is where you can cook, eat, and talk with other people. Everyone in the building shared the space.
Mother was already in the communal room cooking sun’s fall meal, as papa told me to wait in my room. He would come to get me when Aiden arrived. That was supposed to be half an hour ago.
I opened the door while I looked down the hall to the time candle. The black candle, which showe
d it was night time which was lit at sun’s fall, as a white candle is used during the daytime, was burning. Along the candle, there were nails. The distance between each nail was one hour. The second nail, which was in the candle, was about to fall to the metal bowl. In theory, when the nail hits the metal bowl, that is the next hour. When the candle went out, it was supposed to be sun’s rise. It was two past sun’s fall. The candle was big and bright enough to illuminate the hallway in a dim light.
I glanced down the other way of the hall way. My glance showed unto me the latter, which would take a person outside, and the closed doors to the other sleeping quarters, as the signs make soft banging sounds against the doors, as the wind disturbed the signs.
I turned around to reenter my room before going over to the mirror in the room, which hung on the worn, lightly stained, wooden planks on the wall. Just to the right of the mirror, there hung an wooden weapons rack with two slots empty for the swords, which were at my hips: my grandfather’s saber and my rapier. Hung on the rack were two daggers of the same length in their black leather sheaths and frogs. Black leather was wrapped around their hilts.
Below the daggers, there hung a main gauche. The basket of the main gauche, which wrapped around the hilt, was a polished metal. The hilt was wrapped in black leather and a fine metal wire, which wrapped over the leather to add more grip to the hilt. Where the basket met the guard, there extended three side guards, each a fingers length long. The polished blade rested in it’s black leather sheath and frog, which would attach it to my weapons belt when I would attach the frog to my belt.
Below this hung an unstrung war bow. It was a re-curved bow with a metal wrapped grip, as it had a metal guard with metal spikes, which came out of the front of the guard.
I glanced to my favored weapons of choice. My eyes rested on my rapier, which was on my right hip, and my grandfather’s saber, which rested on my left hip. Both were polished often, while the hilts had been re-wrapped often in new black leather with a fine silver wire. I went with the simple weapons choice today, of family and my favored above all rapier. The sheaths were a black leather, which they are thinner than the typical sheaths for a lighter weight on my hips. The frogs held the sheaths of my blades to my black leather belt, as they are just black leather themselves.
Relonor's Journal Page 3