Known

“… The Curse of the Sand Continent was shattered, and Elda Austin had reopen the gate for us all to once again step on the ancient soil. However the Continent’s secret is not yet known, for Elda herself had ensured it stayed a secret for all the returners.”

– Tales of Elda Austin the First Returnee.

“The elves are a lazy lot. They are scattered across the Continent of Vaelotz and are varied in appearance. One can hope to identify an Elf through her long, pointy and downward ears. If you are not an Elf or a Fäirie, then it is in your best interest not to get involved in serious matters with one, the Elves with their laxed attitude is never ideal to do business with… However, I do like the Elves of the South, the warm climate made them friendly and social, in contrast to the Northern ones…”

– “On Different Sentients,” Don Dubitoz.

Chapter 2: Known

“Cute!”

Under the shade of a large tree behind a building, near a well where no one are in sight, a bard is having her time with a newly found interest.

“Emerald eyes, pale skin, straight black hair, so light body. How could a small girl like you be here? Are your parents Magus from Relika?”

The bard questions and exclaims with a ringing voice as she raises – with hands under the shoulders of – the emotionless girl up to eye-level. The difference in heights makes Rune’s feet hang in the air one foot from the ground.

“Hmm… But your paleness isn’t like Fairman. From the North? Nanrwey? How did you come here then? And this adorableness and so clean skin, are you a runaway girl of a noble house?”

The bard, speaking Yriela, keeps talking to herself, until Rune frowns slightly, and speaks in a cute, quiet voice.

“Down…”

“Hmm?”

“Set me down.”

“Apologies.” – The bard says, with a warm smile on her lips. The blue eyes staring at Rune’s. – “Could you indulge me a little more? I have never had a chance of observing a pair of Magus’s eyes this close. They are true beauty.”

“Are they different from yours?”

“Of course.”

“Other humans didn’t have much to say about it.”

“Most here can’t smell the magical, I can.” – The pointy ears poking out of her chestnut hair wiggle. – “For am a bard, after all. I seek the unordinaries.”

“Can you tell me about it?”

“What?”

“The eyes.”

“Would you not have known all about it yourself, miss Magus? The folks here won’t know more than an ordinary Fairman in Relika, you need not worry.”

“No, I do not know. I do not know anything prior to a night ago.”

The bard is silent. Then, as she keeps the eye contact, the wind gather in the air around them. Rune sees the minute shiny particles radiating from the bard, filling the air with their faint whiteness. Her pupil follows the particles’ motions, which did not escape the bard’s attentive gaze.

“Can you repeat what you said?”

“I do not know. I do not know anything prior to a night ago.”

And then the glowing particles disappear, and the wind falls silent.

“You’re telling the truth. I have never heard of a Magus so careless in her experiments to suffer an amnesia.” – The bard sets the young girl down as she speaks. And she kneels down to look at the girl in the eyes again. She speaks, not with a charmful and melodic voice, but with a stern and clear one.

“Then this is your first lesson. Never reveal that to anyone you meet without careful consideration. You are worth hundreds of thousands of Reli being a bearer of Magus’s eyes, now you must be worth ten-fold. Anyone would think of exploiting you the moment they heard that.”

“Why would I be avoiding that scenario?”

The question was unexpected. The bard falls silent amidst her speech, and then bursts out a laughter.

“You’re funny, young girl… Let’s see, you would be annoyed, no? When your power is used for others’ sake and not yours? Is it not annoying when someone keep using your possession, without a regard to its rightful owner?”

“Would you?”

“Of course. Anyone would.” – But when she turns her eyes back to the young girl. She does not see the sense of sympathizing, nor imagining, nor understanding. The green eyes looking at her on an emotionless face, and aside of its beauty, void of all reflections, as if a doll looking at a human. It is not only the memory that is missing… The bard thought to herself, then she speaks again, in a lower tone.

“That is enough from me. Apologies, I should have known better that it is of no good to tell one to live when one has never lived… or forgot how to. Think about it nonetheless, young girl. Now, can you tell me why you sought me? Your eyes were staring since I sang for that crowd.”

The young girl set her eyes down for a moment, and then speaks:

“The story you were singing.”

“What about it?”

“How did it start?”

The bard realized. It was so simple and innocent a reason that it came off humorously and lift the bard’s lips into a smile. Then she stands up, spread her arm and speak as if in an energetic tone that muffles the sound of wind and leaves on the tree above them.

“It is my pleasure to indulge you on that request.”

Then she sits down on the roots of the huge tree and signals the girl to sit beside her. But the girl stands still, until the bard grasps her hand and pull her down next to the bard’s side.

~*~

This is one among the few stories that is known by many in both the Central Continent Vaelotz and Almosiat, or the Sand Continent as the Relika calls them.

More than two thousand year before the start of this Era, in the Wlyma Era where various gods roam the earth in warmth light of the El-dria – the creators of the world – far to the East of the place that would now be Cathenia, once lied a Kingdom whose realm expands across the sea, from deep in the desert to the mountain range of Laspone, North of Roma nowadays. And its border expanded to the East farther than any of our imaginations could fathom.

There was more gold and silver and salt in that Kingdom than the anywhere else, and they had maps and books that told about all the jungles and mountains. Adventurers returned from the North and East and various oceans, bringing with them knowledge, artifacts, and extravagant delicacies. The Kingdom had enjoyed its prosperity and peace for centuries, with no end in sight.

Ruling the Kingdom was a young King, who once took much pride in his realm, but after times had grown bored and arrogant of his power and wealth. “There is nothing out there that are not known in this Kingdom. Our wealth and knowledge have transcended above the Gods, even the Golden Realm of old or the Archive of the El-dria could not compare!” – the King exclaimed, and with it he challenged all to prove him wrong, by bringing him the most precious thing in the world.

The King’s remark angered many sentient beings who are direct creations of the El-dria and soon words came to various Gods across the land. The Fäirie were the first to come, they showed him the wings of the darkest Fäirie and many delicate flowers and fruits. Then the Lanessii with their white sand and a rare large flower of the Starus – a carnivorous plant. The Elves performed their most complicated magic, and a wandering Manus was said to have shown him her Magie Disk – masterpieces given to her kin by the El-dria. Messengers of the Nemaid brought from the sea mysterious tanks of gas, and those of the Maurus in the mountains sent the densest Magie-imbued gemstones. Many lesser Gods, who were powerful beings under the blessings of the El-dria, visited the King as well, one gave him a shiny feather, another their finest wine. The King was not amazed to any of the exotic items, his palace, however, soon became the cheerful gathering place for the sentient beings, feasting and showing one another their specialties.

One day, a Nameless God appeared, who came before the King not on his own account, but because of a retainer who insisted that he ought to have the King witness his miracle. And such a miracle it was, or we are just unfortunate that the chronicles did not tell; despite performing in front of the King, his retainers, the long-living Fäirie and other sentient beings, no one could ever recall what miracle did he perform, as if he never did. Whatever it may have been, and whatever it may have told the King, he was bewitched.

The Nameless God quickly became a close friend by the King’s side, they roamed the country in their journeys, and the God offered his wisdom for the wellness of the King’s realm. The King was put out of his arrogance and boredom, and for the subsequent years his Realm became livelier than ever, with sentients lived among men as if they were once.

Among their exploits, they made many travels to the East, and the verges of the maps they drew in those days are still the edges of our maps today. However, in the last of those journeys, the King returned alone, and seemingly out of his mind. He did not recognize his retainers, and as if he went into a frenzy, in the years following he ordered expeditions one after the other to the East. The soldiers fought monsters, encountered creatures and survived on plants they had never seen or could have ever fathom, most did not make it back to their home.

The King’s fanatical obsession with the East weaken his Kingdom, the sentient beings left him as his retainers cursed the evil Nameless God who had enchanted their King, but it was not until the beings in the East decided to put an end to the expeditions did the Kingdom fell completely out of grace. A dark wave of monsters from the East and South submerged the Kingdom in blood, powerful creatures summoned water and sand to bury the Kingdom’s remains both from sights and from history.

Man left the sands and mitigated to the mountainous and cold Continent of Vaelotz, the shape of the Almosiat Continent was forgotten from minds except for the vague depiction in this story. That was, until a scouter named Elda successfully returned from the sands of Almosiat.

~*~

The sun is about to set, its light paints the yellow wall orange above the growing shadow on the roads of the town. The bard walks on the stone street, with the young girl close by her arm. They stop at a street vendor, where most visitors are soldiers dining in their white tunics with short swords by their sides.

“Ah! The bard traveler. Is that your daughter?” – A man at the front says as he sees the small figure with long black hair under the hood.

“Yes, a mischievous one, took me whole day to find.” – The bard said as she nervously stroke the girl’s head through the cloak, she can feel the green glare. – “Grilled fishes and bread rolls, two of each.”

As the man turns to transmit the order to his colleagues, the bard produces from a small porch hanging from her belt four brown coins, each as big as her thumb, and drop them on the counter.“These are Nalie, one of Relika’s currencies, good for nothing at Roma but used the most here at Catalina.”

The girl watches the coins bouncing slightly on rough surface while the man return to them with their food wrapped in thick parchment. The warmness through the smooth material intrigued the girl, she holds it in both of her palms.

They walk away from the vendor and shortly after settling down on the roots of a big tree in a corner of the town. The bard unwraps her food by turning over a layer of parchment, which the girl sees and repeats after.

“I did forget to ask, little Magus.” – The bard says, and she waits for the girl’s stare to come to her eyes before continuing – “Do you know what you call yourself?”

“Rune.”

“Did you remember your name?”

The girl does not respond to the question.

“I will remember it. My name is Liela, although I reckon it is not worth remembering.”

Just before Liela starts eating, she notices the girl has been staring at the grilled fish on her hands. With a correct guess, Liela waves her left hand to catch Rune’s attention and proceeds to show her an exaggerated act of clenching her teeth on the fish, and chewing for a long while with her jaw. Rune did not need the demonstration however, as her body knows what to do although the mind does not, her teeth grit and tear out a small piece of meat from the fish’s back, and chew silently. Her eyes stop blinking – a sign Liela has come to see as her being attentive – but the stare is not placed at somebody, but down at her food and the sensation in her mouth.

It was an intriguing reaction for Liela to watch. Cases of people having an amnesia that could make them forget even the most basic act of survival will be a thing worth looking into when she gets back to Roma, Liela thinks to herself before continuing to eat.

It was not until when they start tasting the bread that Liela speaks about the story she has told Rune.

“Then, what did you think about it?”

“…”

“About the story, only if you like talking while eating.”

Rune stopped eating, and slowly words come out of her mouth.

“Were them all truthful?” – Said the girl before she tear out another bit of the grilled fish skin. She’s enjoying it.

“I don’t believe so. The story was after all more of a folktale that teaches the karma of arrogance, naivety, gullibility, and to be afraid of mysterious sentient beings. But it might be in some parts truthful, no one knows.”

“Hm… It still felt good to listen to.”

And after a long while, when they are about to finish their humble meal and stand up, Rune speaks as if she’s finally found the word she wants:

“Thank you.”

To which the bard smiles.

…Rune slowly opens her eyes.

A rough sensation comes to her on her wrists, which is roughly restrained by layers of thick ropes. The same applies to her feet, but the sensation is more familiar, since it is not ropes but metal chains. She cannot open her lips.

Surrounding her is complete darkness, and she can sense nothing other than the rugged surface upon which she is lying and the ropes and chains she is restrained in. But she recognizes the sound coming from the surface. A wheel rolling on sand.