Ch 15: Histories and history

The teenager yawned and dullishly went through a stack books, stealing occasional glances at Lian under the cover of her ashy hair; judging her through a mental list of characteristics. " Age is right, short hair, think the height matches...could they be girl?" Maci's deliberations were intrerupted by a weird buzzing noise coming from a bookshelf.

-” Pssst! Maci, over here”, loudly whispered Brigid from between two books. “So… are you going to ask her? She fits some parts, right? About your sibling?”

-” I…” Maci's cheeks brightened in a red explosion and she hid half of her face under her cap. “It’s just like with Arim. Now that I see them, it feels so weird to ask them about it. Hi, I think we’re secret siblings because our dad is a salaud”. Overcome by frustrations, the teen picked and put back books at random, until she was face to face with the little coral assistant, Mincha, and got spooked by her own reflection in the firbolg’s large, glassy eyes.

Mincha -” Sorry, sorry, sorry!”, groveled the firbolg. “ Please forgive me, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I was…” but then a gentle pat from Brigid's knee reminded her that she wanted to say something to the teen. “ Miss told me about your sibling issue, and…maybe...I can help? I-I’ve got an older, twin, sister.”

Brigid smiled at her, giving the coral a taloned thumbs up, after which she tried to soothe Maci’s visibly confused thoughts: ” Yeah, I thought you might cold feet again, so I asked her to speak with you”.

Maci -”Ok?", she said, squinting for a moment. But then quickly got on board. "See, now that’s the kind of supportive thing I want from an brother/sister!” to which Brigit rolled her eyes, amused by what single child imagine having a sibling is like. " And your sure it can't be you?" The prodded at option for a while now, even though she already knew some of Brigit's history. Destroyed village, had to move in Caer and got lucky in getting adopted by the leader of the Union.

Brigit- "Hey, in my heart you're already my sister from another mother, ok? Anyhow, go now Mincha, give this lost little lamb some of your wisdom.”

All the talk raised made the coral sweat a bit, making her forget what her talking were supposed to be. Instead:” Right. So, about older siblings –because they are born first, everyone seems to put them on a pedestal”, started the little coral to mouth about;

-” Wait what?”, asked a suprised Brigit, but Mincha continued with her rant.

Mincha -” So if you want to do something, they’ll butt in and try to tell you how to do it, in a proper way”

As if summoned by Mincha’s energy, Lian forced her way into the conversation; the girl's weren't as silent as they thought, and the redhead could bits of it. But only now did something about the topic ticked her off more than normal. “ Yeah, well, maybe because the older sisters have to take care of the smaller ones all the time.” To her surprise, the shy firbolg who cowered behind cover for every interaction was quite combative when it came to this subject.

Mincha -” Nobody asked to, though! Maybe the older sisters shouldn’t just assume that the smaller ones need constant supervision and protection.”

Lian -” Oh please, you complain that we are so bad and don’t allow you to munch on THE OBVIOUS poisonous plant or mud, or furballs or…wait, why the hell am I so triggered by this?” asked a bewildered Lian. “Wait, do I have siblings? Is that what that spoon memory was about?”

Maci then started to back and forth between her and Lian, as if it was an easy question to comprehend.

Lian -” What?”

Maci -” I’m also looking for my lost sibling…”, said the teen in a slow, dilating voice.

Lian -” Oh?... Right, you just said something about that. Are they lost?”

Maci -” Ugh…no. Just found out they exist around a month ago.”

Lian -”Oh. That...sounds like a lot. If it helps, I can definitly say that it can’t be me. From what I can remember, I apparently lived with mine since I was tiny baby. And from how I feel when someone talks about little siblings”, she said with a frown directed at Mincha, “ seems like the-we pissed each other off quite a bit.”

Only Brigit nodded knowgly, while Mincha sighed.

A bit dissapointed, but overrall convinced, Maci striked Lian off her list. “That did helped, thanks. Well, for now let’s just continue looking for more information about the ritual; And Lian, if you need help with your search, I'm can help. If I can. Intensive reading is out of the deal though.”

By the end of the day, Goidel’s table became a miniature city with skyscrapers made from books and tomes. Most of them were carried there by Maci who tried to escape reading by pretending to be looking through them.

...

After a while of going through everyone's notes, Lian clapped her hands to gather everyone around and summarize all they found out so far about the ritual. “ So, Goidel will correct us if we’ve got anything wrong. Now, to point 1: From what Tommen found, humans first arrived in the layers around 4- to 5 thousand years ago. But all of them died out- as Tommen wrote out : stupid jungle rules of the past"

Tommen -” No entirely”, intervened the painter stroking his beard, “Forgot to ad that the period was more like : filled with intelligent deathtraps with some jungle elements. Totally different.”

Lian -” Sure…Next up, Mincha's finds. So humans found a pattern to the disappearances from Earth, and it was discovered that the Domain Layer exists in different universe, and that the human and the layered world frequently intertwine between set dates: Once every 94 days”, Lian wiggled her palm, indicating more or less. “Addedum by...Maci?", to which the teen shook a victorous fist. " The problem is location: in the human world it can happen in random spaces, while here there are set points from which you travel between; Moving forward, the surviving humans that got luckier starting points become a new problem- some turned out to be out-of-control time bombs.”

-” Yeah, it was surprising to read about how many of them were able to lift firbolgs with their mind or disintegrate them with a yell”, added Brigid a bit disturbed.

-”...I want that”, whispered Maci.

Lian -” Finaly, my part. I found a memoir about the first recorded case of the ritual? Or is it a tale ?” Lian then turned to Goidel to confirm it once again. The warrior only shrugged and said that its a mix of both.

Lian-" I'll read a few passages then: { The child under my care couldn’t speak, as his voice dug into the ground. His words spew only poison and his body emanated bright light; Still, he screamed out -I saw him, I saw him- pointing towards the clouds; and from the sky he came, riding a carriage driven by dogs of war and strife.

Their master approached us with his menacing red gaze and pointed a spear at us. I thought that was it, our end was to come at the hands of this warlord; Instead, though, he brought salvation. At least that’s what he presented it as:

Story king -” This foolish creature has been given a chance at breathing once more; but only if you share part of the pain. So, what do you choose, shortsighted caretaker, are you prepared to carry a parasite on your back and smile?”

I didn’t know why his words contradicted his actions, but it was the last option I had to save the boy. So I took him up on his offer and}

Lian- ” Then they start explaining the ritual…yada yada…right, here is the next thing I highlighted.” the redhead then cleared her throat:

{The stranger looked uninterested, bored even, but his crimson sliver gaze was on us and our moves all the time. At the end of it, the child’s skin started to heal. He could breathe without wheezing and his body stopped shivering. I thanked the stranger and almost came close to kissing his gaunt feet, but he ignored me and crouched in front of the boy. He turned his cheek around without much care for his face. I could swear I even heard him making a disgruntled noise.

Story king -” Tsz, of course it worked,” he said out loud. He then poked the boy with this spear, and weird markers spread and I could see three colored lines glowing out of the little human. The stranger pondered for a second, then grabbed the red and yellow lines out of thin air and bottled them in a box. "I left him with the gift of two sights, the rest wasn’t needed. He’s now in your care- and I do mean it. If misfortune is brought on the human by your hands, prepare for the wrath of Dia to come down upon the."

The stranger then lifted his spear, swiped it behind him and everything vanquished in a second. I then knew that he was the wrath he mentioned.}

Lian-” End scene. Well I kinda learned something out this. Guessing Tommen did as well, but…” she then turned her questions toward Goidel.” But there’s no way to contact this messenger, right? Because he only appeared once, in that tale? And for the ritual to be complete, someone has to do that final thing right, when he removed those lights?”

Goidel nodded without saying a word, and Lian understood that she was on the right path. “So would he come now that we tried the ritual? I mean, what if Maci also has more than one light –ability– in her as well? But I still don’t understand why you couldn’t tell us about it.”

Goidel - “Tuatha decree. We, the Union, are under some rules imposed by them. And they...well, you already read about it. They don't trust humans that much, and we want something from them. And-"

Brigit- " And if keeping a few secrets is the price to pay, dad accepted it. Besides, it's not like we don't have a work around."

Goidel-" Yes, uhm, I wass getting to that. Actually, Captain Krass usually handles the split and storage of human powers. He was taught a while ago, but even if you ask him, he doesn’t know more from his Tuatha teachings.”

Lian -” So the one in the story is a/the Tuatha?

-” Hmm...sort of”, Goidel pondered on how to explain the issue to them. “ I’ll tell you some small historical facts, ok?- The Tuatha, simply speaking, are the second generation of beings that reside in a floating fortress. The one in the story is probably Lugh, their king. Now, next, a religious tidbit- The Sacred Beast and God are supposedly residing in a floating castle that’s flying in the void between layers”

Maci -” Oh...oh! Ok…so that Lugh prick is linked to gods now? What does that mean? Do you have to speak to one of those Tuatha about all of this…what even is this Lian? Why are even you so interested in this stuff?

The girl put her forehead on the cold table, showing the frustrations that she bottled up: “ I’m…not sure yet. You see, this world makes no sense to me. In all kinds of matters, I mean. Why humans are so special here, why firbolgs exist as they do –and why they’re so keen on accepting us and becoming our caretakers so easily…” She stretched her back leaning on her chair, with only the ceiling as the only visible witness for her thoughts. “ It’s fascinating, interesting, very annoying and puzzling and I wish to learn how it works…why it works like this. I want to find the linking points!”