"There were perhaps hundreds of kingdoms that rose and fell during the time of the first Queen of the Elves and perhaps hundreds have since fallen. The elves of now must know the extent of their vast history. Some scholars would contest whether the current Dynasty of Alina is the Sixteenth or the Seventeenth, on account of the Pirate Wars and the Pirate Lord, Sivantari, which decimated the kingdom in 291. However none of those scholars would argue the validity of the near mythical items of the Prime Being-" -An Excerpt of Kieva's Mythological History
Semsí
"W-What are you?" I stammered, trying to take a step back and noticing that my feet were firmly planted to the ground, whether I wanted them to be or not. The cavern that had brought me too, or forced me to hallucinate, continued to grow, the ceiling reaching further and further to the sky by the moment. The figure's shape also continued to change, from one that was supremely ancient unlike any I had ever seen. Its long elf-like ears were the only feature that I could discern, as its face changed shape with every passing second.
"I am all that was and ever will be." was all the being responded, its voice lowering slightly in volume as it gazed down at me. Deep crimson eyes looked at me, scanning me up and down with a wise and knowledgeable gaze. The burning iris of the beings eyes seemed to bore deep into my own being and within moments it felt like I had lived for another lifetime. What is it doing to me? I wondered, the feeling as strange as any I had ever felt, though it was not painful in the slightest.
"You have been running from your destiny, Semsi." The being's voice boomed, the sound reverberating within my skull and in whatever cavern I had been transported to.
"I don't even know what that is supposed to mean. Sujta je ta'lia'tao." My love has told me the same. Can they both be more cryptic? I thought.
"Korta, child, you will come to understand soon. The choices you make will have an impact that you are yet to see. I have come to tell you of a way to keep your love, and save what is important to her." The being leaned forward.
"What do you mean?" I asked, gazing at the being who now was nearly completely visible. Before me was a massive being, upwards of at least sixty feet and most likely bigger. On his face was a thick beard of white hair, coiled and curly like the wool of a lamb. Atop the head of the being was more of the curly hair which was cut in a shapely bulb atop his head.
"I mean that my siblings and children have never told the whole story, not that any of us can. They have told her that she must be sacrificed for the greater good of her people. In fact, only the evil of my brother's magic must be stopped. You are the bard who will write the next chapters of the Hu`te`dine and the Dras`si and how they are intertwined."
"Who are you?" was all that I could stammer out.
"I am the historian. The first to write what happened. The first to sing aloud. It is my story that has been passed down between all of the many tribes of life that calls my brother's corpse home. I sang as his corpse became the land and my sister's tears became the oceans. I wrote of the battles that turned my brother into what you call Ver-Anda. I am the Bard, I am He'evnar. You must meet her in the Sanctum of Calm Winds, there you will find the answer to the questions you seek."
I blinked and suddenly I was back in the shop, the crystal flute in my hand now glowing a bright purple. The energy within pulsated and vibrated, seemingly growing stronger by the moment. Then as quickly as it came, the power dissipated and the flute returned to its usual luster.
"Are you okay, Sem?" Mire asked, a look of worry crossing her face. I glanced around the shop which looked no different than before.
"He's seen something, that much is clear," The woman smiled. "What did he say?"
"What?" I stepped back, unsure of what she could mean.
"What did the being say?" Magorfica asked again. Her smile told me that she knew who I had talked to, though maybe I was reading too far into it.
"I hardly know what just happened to me, ma'am" I said, rubbing my temples as my head pounded. "Here, take this back." I motioned, holding the flute out for her to take from me.
"I believe that the bard has found a new instrument, you keep it. I've found it does not bode well to charge for such an item once it chooses its keeper."
"What do you mean, 'chooses its keeper'?" Mire cut in.
"You saw the same thing I did, kiin. You felt the magic of the flute resonate with his own." Magorfica almost sang as she spoke, her voice was naturally rather melodic. "It's almost as if it has a mind of its own."
"Well thank you, then." I said, looking back down at the flute in my hands. At least all the years of school will come in handy. I thought to myself. The instrument glimmered as I looked at it; there was little doubt that it was the most expensive thing I owned now.
"Now go on you two, I'm sure your friends are waiting for you." The woman smiled wide as she spoke.
"How do you know about our friends?" Mire asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Dearie, my top clientele is adventurer's, there's a good chance I'm right no matter what." Magorfica said, followed by a small chuckle.
"Fair enough, you have a good day," I said, eager to leave. Despite her hospitality, the store still made my skin crawl, even more after the experience I had. The two of us exited the store and began to walk towards the temple where we all had left Va'tu. It was visible from here; the tall pastel colored roof more like a landmark than anything.
"Can I ask you something about Va'tu, Sem?" Mire croaked as we walked, her voice giving a hint of nervousness.
"What is it?" I gave her a look out of the corner of my eye.
"Wèi se nekit'ni?" she said in Elven, perhaps not sure how she could word it in Common.
"Yu gyûvi." I responded.
"What do you mean you can't say?" She shot back, this time turning to eye me.
"Mire, Va'tu loves you but in his own aloof way. His brain works differently than yours and mine. Remember this is the elf who left an organization that is notoriously hard to leave. We've talked and he has assured me that he would not want to spend his life with anyone else."
"Okay, Sem." She said, putting a smile on her face.
"Is everything okay?" I asked, taking her by the arm and pulling her to the side of the street.
"It's not that anything is bad. I just don't know, Sem. I doubt myself sometimes and the decisions I make so I worry that he does the same. He could be in the temple right now praying on what to do with me and-"
"Mirielye, you are doing it again." I said, placing my hand on hers lightly, bringing her attention to me. "Take a moment to think, Mire. What are you worried about?"
"That he won't stay."
"That's fair. He does make impulsive decisions. But without him we wouldn't be going meet Jiva and treasure hunting. I would be by myself, preparing for something I have no knowledge of without the comfort of at least being close to my best friends."
Mire shifted as she walked and with a glance I could tell she was mulling over my words: on her face was a determined look with a creased brow and pursed lips.
"Thank you, Sem." She said, a smile spreading across her face. Ahead of us, the city dropped to the sea. We walked down the winding path, passing more merchants and stalls. On our left as the street opened to another plaza, this one before a large gate and a wall separating the districts from one another, a stall of snacks caught Mire's attention and she grasped my hand and dragged me off towards the vendors.
We brushed through a small crowd, gathered in wait for the very stall Mire led me towards. Gorna's Baked Goods was painted on the metal sign above the stall.
"I'm hungry." She smiled and began to read the menu that the half-orc woman who ran the stall passed her.
"Welcome, you two look new to the city." The vendor said, their voice cheery and upbeat.
"Why would you say that?" I asked, turning my head to the side. It had been a while since I'd been here, but I had been here before.
"I've never seen you around before, I keep a close eye on all the patrons that come down this street."
"Maybe we like to frequent other streets and their vendors normally," Mire responded, chuckling at herself.
"Fat chance, fair skin." The half-orc chuckled, "Now what can I get you? You look hungry." Mire pondered with her thumb under her chin as she looked over the various treats the man had. The food on the stall was mostly fried treats, orcish delicacies and dwarven mushrooms.
"What is this one?" Mire asked, pointing at a lump of fried meat on a stick.
"Skikaaga, Fried Sea Cow." The half-orc pulled his tongs from below and grasped the crispy meat treat and flipped it over. "I've also got kish'ga," he said, pulling a slimy octopus creature that I recognized as an Alinan food. Mire groaned and began to root around mindlessly in her bag for a few coins to give him.
"Sem, it's been so long since I've had kish'ga." Her mouth hung open in hunger. "How much?"
"Five silver," he said, beginning to place the creature in a container, which as it filled the space, I could see a lining of film forming around it. Yeah, she can keep that.
"Friend," I began, trying not to smell the pungent aroma that was now emanating from Mire's hands as she held that box. "Can I get the sea cow then?" The man put the Skikaga in a small towel and took a gold piece from me while handing it to me. He bid us farewell and we began down the hill again, this time with the food in hand. Mire slurped the kish'ga, chewing on the tentacles and smacking her teeth in ecstasy. I did what I could not to think nor look at her as she ate the food. If there was one kind of food I never got into it was the spongy and chewy cephalopods.
"Those things remind me too much of the tentacle faces," I shivered, thinking of the infamous Hrai'kan, the astral seafaring travellers, known as the Illitiid to most, who had once aimed their sights on Ver-Anda as the next notch in the Illithid Astral Empire.
"If we meet one of them, I might be tempted to try and see if they have a similar taste," she smiled, covering her face as it shone a bright red, before she burst out into a fit of laughter.
"Please, dont." I brought my palm into my face and suddenly had another thought. "Hypothetically, If you didn't share a mindflayer kish'ga with Va'tu, would he be mad?" She thought for a moment, chewing through some of the snack before responding.
"Absolutely." She smiled, slyly. "Kish'ga is one of his favorite snacks too, it's part of how we met."
"I thought you met in school?" I twisted my head, sure I had heard a story about the Heritan Guard and the College of Magic she went to.
"Well, we were both in school," she chuckled slightly as she thought back. "It was the last time I saw Alina by any means. It wasn't long after that the Heritan Guard took him away from us for nearly thirty years."
"You two didn't get official until after he came back from the Guard," I led on, hoping she would fill in some blank spaces in the timeline that I already had. We have known one another for nearly one hundred years, but shortly after our Cantari, Va'tu was sent off to the island of the Heritan Guard for training, and while he seemed to have learned quite a bit, the one thing the Heritan is known for didn't seem to stick. The Heritan Guard is best known for religious fanaticism in their followers, a kind usually only seen by those who worship the most extreme of the gods and Prime Beings.
"He figured out what he wanted in life, and honestly, he's perfect for me." She smiled, catching a glimpse of Va'tu in the crowd ahead. There is a plus to being practically the only two Deep Elves in this city, I thought as we approached, glad to see the other familiar faces of Ossunnam and Kurdu.
"Though sometimes he can get us in over our heads," I said, finally sizing up what Va'tu and the others were looking at in the street.
***
Va'tu
Tall sandstone pillars rose before him, five of them to represent the five oceans of Ver-Anda. Just under one hundred years ago, the Pirate Wars sundered the very oceans by fighting over the power of the Prime Beings, the lesson inscribed now on every temple dedicated to the Great Wave. Va'tu could safely assume that Semsi also remembered the Pirate Wars, where Sakari and Sivantari fought for total supremacy of the world's oceans.
The inscription on the Pillar of Kearap read, 'From greatness came the Hero's of Sakari, the fists of my might, who slew the evil that was my brother Sivantari from this world, whose goal was to unleash the havoc of Primals.'
Who were these heroes? Va'tu wondered as he walked further into the temple, into the darker corners of worship. He came to a pillar marked for the Garu'ud Sea, the very one they must cross and knelt before it. He'tu was not his patron deity but it only seemed natural to stop by his temple before trying to cross his domain.
'Honorable Wave Father, watch over my friends and I as we cross the Garu'ud. I told them that this treasure was the reason why we are going to the far flung end of Ver-Anda, and while I wasn't necessarily lying to them, I would hate for them to find out the real reason before the time comes." Va'tu said to himself before setting down an offering and burning it with a spark. He sat for a moment, enjoying the silence and peace. Presumably he was preparing for a rough few nights on the high seas and then they would be on Central Ver-Anda, the majority of the hard work already past them.
"The world must seem so large for one as young as yourself," the voice hummed, their tone velvety and melodic. Va'tu spun around and stood to face the voice with a snarl across his face.
"What are you doing here?" Va'tu growled, suddenly noticing that his hand had gripped his sword out of habit. That wouldn't work anyway. "What more could you want from me?"
"I just want to ensure you have remained focused on the things that are truly important, Rei'ka." The beings voice shifted into a threatening growl as they spoke. "If you disappoint me again, I will not be as kind as the last time."
"I won't." Va'tu breathed in a defeated voice, as the figure dissipated as fast as it arrived.
Sweat dripped from his forehead onto the sandstone flooring, creating dark splotches on the light brown surface.
Finally he took his hand off of the hilt of his sword and began to walk out of the temple. The walls had begun to feel like they were closing in behind him. Once outside at least, he was able to catch his breath and begin to head towards the docks. If I move quickly I might be able to secure passage for us on a good ship, maybe even one of the Sakar ships. He thought to himself, pushing faster down the street, weaving in and out of the throngs of people that crowded the market stalls and the doorways of shops.
The smell of the sea filled his nostrils, a scent that he was not unfamiliar with in all his years. He had spent several years on that island the Heritan's called home. The Citadel. The place that had tried to break his very will and turn him into one of their mindless cultists. That was all he could describe the Guard as, at least, a cult dedicated to bringing powerful objects into their possession. He had not been keen to tell any of his friends what he had been through either, just thinking about the way they treated him and the other aspirants was sickening, and not a thing he liked to think about.
While there were many reasons he left the Heritan Guard, the least among which were the humanoid-oid rights violations to himself and those he met within; he owed his escape to a single being. Wat'hara was the only name that the man went by or at least told to Va'tu. Despite his access to a good amount of records in Rency and Siregal, Va'tu had never been able to find any information about him.
If he knows I'm here already, that might throw off my plan. He thought, taking a moment to breathe as an ass pulling a wagon was stopped by the guards before heading further into the city. Glancing around, he happened to spot his friend, Kurdu, across the plaza coming out of a rather fancy-looking inn with the tall dragonborn at his side. As per usual, Kurdu had a scowl across his face, one that Va'tu had assumed was permanent unless he forced himself to smile.
The two seemed not to notice him, their attention on something that was inside the inn that they were exiting. No, fleeing. Va'tu realized, as the door crashed open and a large red scaled dragon-kin walked out, the horns atop his head denoting that one of his parents was a true dragon. A half-dragon, what now? Va'tu thought. Glancing around once again as Kurdu and Ossunnam turned to face the man approaching them, Va'tu spotted Semsi and Mire as they weaved their way through the crowd. While Ossunnam was large, this half-dragon was six inches taller even without the horns.