Tuipa Comes Home

          Tuipa leads the way through the village, Biliao has headed back to his own home by now. Tuipa stops when they reach an arch, she turns to her friends "This is it!"

As the four walk in they are met with the sweet smell of spearmint. The paths are lined with large planter boxes filled with mint plants. “So, they don’t just grow mints here, right? They make the candies as well?” Reioi asks.

“Yep.” Tuipa smiles as she points to a building, “Over there is where we make the candies. We also sell some of our leaves to tea companies as well.”

“It’s nice that the owners let some of the workers live on company grounds.” Reioi comments.

“It beats having to commute across the village, everyone seems happy that lives here. Even the ones who don’t seem to enjoy working here that much.” Tuipa says.

“Is there anything your parents specialize in the company or just a bit of everything?” Rivhild is the one to ask this time.

“A little bit of everything, although they will be stepping back a bit now that my sister is grown.” The ginger haired woman answers.

Reioi becomes concerned. “Wow, your sister will be taking over for the both of them, won’t that be hard on her?”

Chimes then interrupts the conversation. “We are being stalked.”

A woman with auburn hair appears from where she was lurking. “My, my, the bird-man is perceptive.” She coos. “And what have you been telling people about me, dear sister, that Miss Bluebell thinks I am incapable of taking over for our parents?”

“This is my older sister; Peona.” Tuipa introduces the woman.

“Older?” Rivhild questions. “She looks younger than you.”

Tuipa puts her hands on her hips. “You look younger than me, Rivhild.”

“I am cursed with a babyface, being short doesn’t help.” Peona says. The group continues along the path as Peona speaks with her sister. “How was your trip, I see you made friends.”

“Pretty good, didn’t get any artifacts, but my friends found some books.” Tuipa tells her sister.

“Hey, where are the staff lodging?” Reioi asks. Peona points off in the distance, in the opposite direction they are heading. “Then why are we heading up to the main house?”

The sisters pause and turn to look at Reioi. “Ohhh!” Tuipa then realizes. “I thought you knew!” She half laughs.

“Knew what?” Reioi growls.

A well dressed old woman comes down from the steps of the owners’ mansion. “Tuipa! It is so good to see you back home!”

“Wait, Tuipa are you…” Reioi starts to stutter. “You’re rich.”

The old woman hugs Tuipa. “Oh you smell, dear. You and your friends come inside now, you can tell me all about your adventures over some tea.”

As the group goes to go inside. Reioi is hanging back, her face pale. Rivhild stops and looks to the black haired woman. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just never realized, Tuipa was part of the most powerful families in our village. Heck, her family has influence in several realms. They are like the richest of merchants, they border on aristocrats, and here I was telling her to watch her spending just earlier today!” Reioi claws at her face.

Rivhild and Reioi follow the others inside. Soon everyone is in an elaborately decorated sitting room. The old lady sips at her tea, “Our company is known for our ingenuity. We have machines that help us extract the oils from the mint leaves to make our candies, but that is not what we pride ourselves on the most. No, what we like to brag about is how well we treat our employees, we believe that if our employees needs are met, and they are happy, productivity improves.”

“Oh, so you actually care about your employees?” Rivhild asks.

“Of course.” The old lady answers. “Why wouldn’t we, without them, we wouldn’t be able to run our business. Now, tell me about yourself, child.”

“I am the goddess Rivhild. I come from the Destroyed realm.” The child tells her.

The old lady freezes, her teacup halfway to her lips. “Oh, a goddess, after all this time?”

“Grandma?” Tuipa questions. “Are you alright?”

The old lady sets down her teacup and reaches into the high collar of her dress. She pulls out a red amulet with a strange symbol on it and hands it to Rivhild. “Do you recognize this?”

Rivhild stares into the red gemstone for quite some time. “No, well, sort of. I feels…familiar. However, I don’t recognize it.”

Tuipa’s grandmother takes the amulet back and gazes at her fractured reflection. “This amulet was a gift, from a priest of the goddess of assassins. I was given this when I had completed my training, I was told that she would guide me to the proper target, that she would guide me to bring justice. Most would just say, it was blind faith, or some way to make myself feel better about taking lives.” The old lady begins to cry. “She was real, I could feel her power flow through me, and she guided me to meet my husband that fateful night, when we both went to poison that duke.” She sighs. “Oh, Peona, Tuipa, your grandfather still wears his amulet too, although, we can no longer feel our goddess’ power through it.”

“Why not?” Rivhild desperately questions.

The grandmother toils with herself in her mind. “I’m not supposed to say. Only the divine are allowed to know, anyone who was told by them were sworn to secrecy!” She blurts out.

“You had met your goddess?” Rivhild whispers barely loud enough for the room to hear her.

The grandmother hangs her head. “Yes, once. She had golden hair, sort of like yours, she came to my husband and I, not long after the king had banned the worship of deities. She ordered us not to kill him. Then she told us what had happened.” She pauses swallowing, then panting, her tears flowing vigorously down her face. “The one who destroyed the Riatruil realm, he was reeking havoc across the immortal plane. He was slaying the gods.” She finally admits, before shaking her head and burying her face into her hands.

“Th-they’re… dead?” Rivhild mutters as she begins to break down. Chimes immediately puts his hands on her shoulders to try and anchor her.

The old lady regains enough composure to explain. “They were at war with him. My goddess, she had a plan to imprison him. She told us not to fault the young king for banning worship. She said that hope would return to the realms of the mortal planes within our lifetime. We just had to be patient.” The old lady finishes explaining.

“Rivhild…” Tuipa utters. “Rivhild.” She repeats when the young goddess doesn’t look at her. She shakes her head, giving up on getting the child to look at her. “Rivhild, you are that hope.”

The goddess looks at Tuipa finally. “You really think so?”

Reioi speaks next. “The gods must have hidden you where the bad man who destroyed your realm wouldn’t look, your realm. He went to the immortal plane to kill all the gods, but they hid one in the mortal plane where he already had killed everyone, so why would he go looking for a baby there?” Reioi thinks for a moment, before looking at her friend’s grandmother. “You said she looks like the goddess of assassins, right?”

“I know what you are getting at, Miss Bluebell, I can’t confirm the relation, maybe all deities look the same.” She shakes her head. “It’s not out of the question though.”

“You think she was my mom?” Rivhild mutters. She inhales and cries more when she remembers the grandmother mentioning not being able to feel her power anymore. Everyone lets the child cry for a few minutes. Rivhild swallows. “What I want to know, is why did he destroy Riatruil realm first?”

“That I can answer easily.” The old lady almost growls. “Riatruil realm was the most technologically advanced realm. Much of the technology we use here came from Riatruil long ago. Some used to claim they were seen as near equals to the gods. There were rumors that they had discovered a way to travel to the immortal plane, but unfortunately, no one who went to investigate those rumors came back alive, as that was when the civil wars began. No doubt caused by, him; the one who would go on to destroy that very realm. I believe he destroyed Riatruil so they could not be reinforcements for the gods, who were his main target.”

“What is his name!?” Rivhild demands.

“His name, a curse, all fear to say it, fear is his power, thus, I shall tell you his name, so you may smite him if he still breaths.” The old lady takes a moment before revealing the name of the villain. “His name is… Tsuminoshowaru.”

Rivhild’s face twists in anger. “A bit of a mouthful, but befitting someone so evil.”