48.4 Fighting For Just Cause

General Summary

Compassion: Day 4 | Hope: Day 16

When we land in the city, Void and No Moon are waiting, grumpy and frustrated over a game of chess. At a quick glance, I can see that it is no longer a game of strategy and skill but rather one of brute attrition. Void sighs and tells us that they found Epsila, but she got away.   A light spirit, chased at night. And she still got away. I can see why Void is annoyed, but No Moon points out that light spirits are very quick and the two of them are very much not. She slipped into the canyons by Norcrack, and I have to imagine that she will be welcomed into their settlement. This is a good thing, as far as I’m concerned. Before Starfire and I share what we have been up to, she waves a hand and produces a shimmering heat barrier of silence around us. It’s very clever…not the sort of sound barrier I would have thought to create.    

Heat deforms anything, including soundwaves

    We explain the fight for water and intelligence, as well as the sacred stone that the spirits rely on to reproduce. The spirits are fighting for water, but also for respect. They are outnumbered 100-1 and are trying to prove themselves as a force to be reckoned with. But Norcrack is a young man, trying to figure out what to do to take care of his people. Norcrack seems, to both of us, like an easily influenced instrument of whatever Ta’az’baha can convince him of. He has no reason to distrust her, but she certainly isn’t recommending herself to me as a wise and thoughtful decision-maker in a dire situation.   Her inability to exert any influence over the visions received by other spirits might be true, or she may have chosen pessimistic visions of the future to further her own ends. The people who receive visions might naturally think them truth instead of probability.   No Moon nods thoughtfully.  

Nothing is worse than seeing two people fight for a just cause

  If his soldiers are under orders not to attack any but warriors then more of his people will get hurt in trying to show restraint, and their numbers will dwindle. Ta’az’baha might not be wrong to suggest a political marriage, but those things tend to only work out when they are between equals who are willing to sacrifice for the opportunity to save their respective empires. Too often, they involve a child of a leader who is being sacrificed for peace. Norcrack may be an emperor, but it still seems to both of us that he would be sacrificed to this marriage.   Unsurprisingly, the boys are on board with our kidnapping plan and we draft up a list of who to bring with us:

• Norcrack, of course.
• Epsila, if she can be found within the canyons. She would make a good balance between the spirits and the city.
• Morat-lun, whose steady heart and empathy recommends him well to the job.
• Kasheen, one of the condor spirit folk who carried Dakirim and I across the lake to skirmish. I recall him being a very decisive fighter, able to select a target and finish the battle very quickly. I noticed his respect and compassion even in the midst of the skirmish.
• Pashili, a half-spirit archer who is part light spirit and part snake. She shoots with light and fire very much like Lyssa’s lightning bow. She is very young for how powerful she is, sort of like Norcrack.

  We decide that Starfire will handle Ta’az’baha, likely by telling her that we are snatching her nephew to allow him to develop a relationship with Liva in their own time. I will persuade Shal’neyah to make a gift of water to the spirit settlement and try to open the lines of trade and commerce. Perhaps the group of us will return to a burgeoning economic relationship.  

Compassion: Day 5 | Hope: Day 17

  The next day, the city holds the celebration for Dakirim’s life, and is a little awkward. I sing throughout the city, especially where the spirits affected by the sands of fate lived. It eases the tension perceptibly and I see no further signs of conflict. Throughout the speeches and parades, I see Dakirim being celebrated by his army - he was clearly beloved. But he had no family to speak of and there is no partner, no children, no siblings or parents. As a spirit born from nature, he has no innate familial ties, and it seems he did not build any in his time here.  

Compassion: Day 6 | Hope: Day 18

  The day after, I go to find Shal’neyah to give him his mission mwhile the rest of us are gone. When I enter his office, he is sitting at his desk surrounded by papers, account books, and calculations. Clearly he is managing the finances of the previous day’s revels.   I am going to create an opportunity for you find a way to begin a new relationship with the Shattered Rock Empire. Will you be ready to take it?   Shal’neyah was a boy when the river dried up, be he remembers it flowing. When I point out that it used to flow to the spirit settlement, he connects the dots instantly and sees that of course they must be fighting for water, something that brings them life.   I tell him I’m going to kidnap some people and leave him as the only council member for some time, and I hope he will take advantage of the opportunity to make inroads with the Shattered Rock Empire based on what I have told him. He sighs and points out that some people would declare themselves Emperor with that opportunity. But he knows that that is a thankless, high risk, low reward job. He is a merchant, and has no desire to be an Emperor. I trust him with this, and he knows that he just needs to make one good first meeting with an overture of water to set the stage for a better relationship. Any trade that comes afterwards can be developed in time and with conversation.   He also does me the favour of helping me plot a travel route for this expedition, giving me a copy of a detailed map that he keeps in his office. The Shrouded Peaks are lush on the West side but not the East, and he recommends that we spend some time foraging to build the group bonds before having to face beasts, outlaws, and strange magic in the hills as we journey back to the city.  

When a man owes more than three debts to a person, he should give up his pride and accept his place as a servant of that person rather than cling to the notion that he will repay his debts

  After securing the city’s wellbeing while we are gone, No Moon and I collect up Morat-lun, Kasheen, Pashili, and all the supplies we will need, including communal tents and strong liquor recommended by Shal’neyah. Morat-lun says he can come along to lend his steady shoulder and skilled hands. He wants to teach privileged folk how to do things with their hands, and I think he will be incredibly helpful both in moral support and practical skills.   Finally, I find Liva in her garden, but none of her attendants are present and she is not lounging as she often is. Instead, she seems more vulnerable and tired than she has been, which I first interpret as a reaction to the stress of being one of the sole remaining council members. Perhaps she is not as cut out for the job of Empress as she had thought. I am only partially correct - she tells me that she has been projecting a great deal of strength of her people and that has taken a lot out of her, but she is also about to molt and so everything is even more uncomfortable than it would be.   I see no point in beating around the bush with her, not with No Moon at my back to simply make things happen if need be. I tell her quite honestly that I have arranged for her, Epsila, Norcrack, and a few other folk and half-spirits in the city to come with me and my friends on an expedition designed to help them understand one another. We will leave Shal’neyah in custody of the city, and I expect him to make strong headway in building an opportunity for trade between the oasis and the spirit settlement.   She is silent for a moment and then wonders aloud that I have already done far more to help her city than she had any right to ask. I have not betrayed her, nor done anything but encourage the wellbeing of her people. She says plainly that scheming to take her out of the city and install Shal’neyah on the throne she has built for herself would clearly be beneath me.   For just a second, I’m transported back to my own time to think of the Empress, lonely for millennia of leadership.    

A throne is terrible place from which to lead

    Liva nods again, and acknowledges that I’ve given her a lot of trust and that scheming and exploiting her unexpected vulnerability would also be beneath me. So she will come with us, and I am relieved that there is no need to call on No Moon’s strength for anything aside from transporting us to the coast.