Call of the Abyss [Book 2 Complete]

"Here we have Sahmira, whom you've already met. Next is Nadhrûn," Talnîr said, pointing to a tall man with wavy black hair down to just past his chin. He had a fit-but-thin look to him that suggested he was lithe and dextrous—perhaps a dualist of sorts? Apparently, most of the Thornalûn tree were combatants of some kind.

He nodded to Julia with a serene expression on his angular face and in his vibrant amber eyes.

"Over here is Taliyah," he continued, pointing to a woman that was of average build, her long, sandy-blonde hair pulled back into a very loose tail that she threw over her shoulder. Her bright green eyes crinkled as she smiled and gave Julia a small wave.

"This is Ruhaj," he said as the line of parents moved forward. There were so many that they had to queue up to be introduced.

The man in front of her appeared as though a statue had come to life. He was nearly twice Julia's height, with brown eyes, his face crisscrossed by scars. He had no hair on his entire body, save his eyebrows.

Julia was aware of his hairlessness because unlike the garb of the rest of the family—which matched the flowy-robe aesthetic she'd become familiar with—he wore a loose robe with no sleeves over his torso. The holes where sleeves would be were wide open and breezy, showing his chiseled chest and abs off whenever he moved enough that the cloth shifted.

He nodded to Julia with a small smile.

"And finally, Selûneth," Talnîr concluded as a person around the same height as Julia walked up. They had long brown hair that was braided down their back. Freckles flecked their round face, and brown eyes studied Julia from behind a warm smile.

Julia recalled that this was the Weaver, and she confirmed this with a cursory glance at their hands. Slight discolorations in the palms and on the fingers indicated calluses from work other than holding a weapon.

"Yes, we all expected you to have questions for Selûn," Talnîr joked with a wink. Julia realized suddenly that she had made her inspection of Selûneth's hands rather obvious. Once again grateful that she could only blush if she allowed it, Julia wondered how she could get better at social subtleties as everyone in the room collectively chuckled.

"Questions can wait! Come, Julia. You've yet to have a proper Jadhariin meal, yes?" Sahmira asked, once again throwing her arm around Julia's shoulder and ferrying her into the dining room.

"Uh, yes. I—" she began before being immediately interrupted.

"Excellent! Have a seat anywhere!" Sahmira said, motioning to a low table on a floor mat of woven reeds. There were plump cushions positioned around the table, which Julia surmised to be the seats.

"Talnîr! Get your lazy ass over here and help set the table! You could use the exercise," Sahmira shouted as she disappeared around the corner.

"Why have you asked the only of your tahlûn that's missing an arm to help you carry things, Lala?" Talnîr sighed as he followed her around the corner. Muted discussion about the ethics of both making him carry things and calling him lazy in front of a guest could be heard from what was presumably the kitchen.

"Apologies, Dahm'Zahra. We told our walîn the entire story of our time outside the marsh, including meeting you and what you have told us of yourself. Please forgive them if they are overbearing, as a tree losing all its walîn is a tragedy among our people. They mean well," Nadhem whispered, sidling up close so that his voice didn't carry.

"Thanks, Nadhem. It's alright; I don't mind everyone being warm and friendly. You can just call me Julia, though. It's not like we're strangers," she replied as she took a seat at the table. As she expected, the cushion was comfortable. She practically sank into it—almost forced to sit cross-legged for balance, lest she wobble around precariously.

Nadhem sat next to her, while Sahira—absent up to this point—came through a door on the opposite side of the room with two small children attached to her legs.

"Ah, Julia—welcome! I see you have met the rest. These two little ones are the last. This is Teyem," she said, shaking the leg that a little boy with curly brown hair and bright brown eyes was clinging to.

"And this is Lunari," she introduced, shaking her other leg. A little girl with brown hair streaked with blonde highlights, covering most of her face and running down past her shoulders, clutched to Sahira, but after examining Julia closely, her eyes lit up.

"You're the Dahm'Zahra!" she exclaimed, dashing out from behind Sahira. She ran over to Julia's side of the table, where she was eye-level with Julia while seated. The girl's verdant green eyes shined with excitement as she stared at Julia—at the scar across her eye, probably.

"I'm Julia, yes. It's nice to meet you, Lunari," Julia said with a smile.

"You're the one who made the bloody tornado! How did you do that?! Teyem, come look!" she shouted, bouncing up and down from her heels to the balls of her feet. Teyem shrank back behind Sahira a little as his name was called—a stark contrast from the font of energy his sister had.

"Come, be seated, Luna. We can talk over lunch," Sahira chided as she corralled the kids into position beside her, across the table from Julia.

As the others filtered in to take their seats, Sahmira and Talnîr returned with their arms (or arm, in Talnîr's case) full. They placed down a large pot of some kind of soup, as well as a plate of something wrapped in leaves. There was also a plate of what looked like flatbread of some sort with various seasonings and spreads around it.

"There. Now, let's all offer our thanks to the marsh for this meal," Sahmira said as she and the rest looked up toward the ceiling with eyes closed. Julia mimicked what she saw, though she didn't know what she was supposed to be doing in her mind—praying, maybe? After ten to twenty seconds, Sahmira clapped her hands together, the others following suit.

"Please enjoy, everyone!" she said with a warm smile. Plates and bowls were passed around, along with a serving of each item of food. Each plate got a leaf wrap, a couple pieces of flatbread, and a bowl of soup. Julia noted the kids immediately spreading a paste of some kind on their bread.

She unwrapped the leaf on her plate to discover a fish (some kind of carp?) had been steamed in it. Its head was removed, and it was filleted down the middle, both sides lying next to each other in the unwrapped leaf. Julia hadn't had a great deal of fish growing up in a forest town, so she was quite excited. She noticed most eating the soup first, though, so she decided to imitate.

The soup was a salty broth with mushrooms floating around, as well as sliced eggs of some kind. It was delicious, but its flavor was elevated by spooning a bit of the same paste the kids spread on the bread into the broth. She saw Sahira do this and decided it was worth a try. The paste added a richness to the broth and thickened it slightly.

"What kind of eggs are these?" Julia asked no one in particular.

"Those are brined ghamhûr eggs. They're soaked in a saltwater and waterweed-paste brine before being sliced and added to the broth," Sahmira answered happily. She was clearly the primary cook, so she was eager to discuss her dishes.

Julia was shocked to discover she was eating eggs from those crocfrogs. She wasn't against the idea, but they'd seemed so ferocious only a few weeks ago. To now be eating their eggs was quite the change.

"So, Julia," Sahira said, suddenly setting her palms down on the table rather forcefully. Julia looked up from her meal and flinched slightly at the intense focus Sahira was concentrating on her.

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"I hear that you were sent with Ithshar on a mission," she stated. Julia nodded, unsure of the direction of this conversation.

"Well? How did it go? What did you do? Did she use the silver flames?" Julia shrank back at the sudden flurry of questions. She saw a gleam in Sahira's eyes that she hadn't before—she seemed to be rather fond of Ithshar.

"Uh—well, I guess Seyatha didn't say that any of it was a secret. I suppose I could talk about it," she said.

Julia gave a quick summary of the events leading up to the party's confrontation with the Nashiin. The whole table listened with rapt attention throughout, even the children refusing to interrupt.

"Awesome," Sahira sighed as she leaned back and gazed over Julia's shoulder distantly. She seemed to particularly like the part where Ithshar melted the Barrowlord mid-sentence.

"This ritual bodes ill. Nothing good can come from Nashiin using magic that requires more intelligence than throwing rocks," Nadhrûn mused. The adults at the table were all exchanging knowing glances.

"Aye, the change of tactic itself is unsettling, even before factoring the ritual in," Taliyah agreed.

"Come now, you've made Julia talk herself hoarse. Let's refocus on the meal before us," Sahmira said, though most were finishing up by this point.

"I've been meaning to ask, how is there salt here? I'm aware you could trade for it, but surely the Nashiin siege prevents external trade, and this marsh is freshwater, yes?" Julia asked.

There were a variety of spices used in the cooking, and there were even shakers of salt and some kind of ground pepper available on the table.

She was unsure how salt could even be present here, as the salt she was familiar with was either mined or boiled from seawater. Julia thought it extremely unlikely that any mines existed in the marsh—any that weren't flooded, at least.

"Yes we could trade for it, were it an option, but we've no need. We collect the salt here, in the marsh. The water the Mother pulls up from the ground is actually salty, but Her roots filter a great deal of it out such that it is freshwater by the time it reaches the surface.

"The filtered salt collects in crystalline structures around Her roots, which we then collect," Ruhaj explained.

"Wait—I know She's huge, but one tree provides enough salt for the entire population?" Julia asked. That simply didn't seem possible.

The others all looked at her confusedly before Sahmira clapped her hands together.

"Ah, you've been to Tirn'Aleya? Seen the mural depicted there? Indeed, when the Mother was young, She was but one tree. Now, however, She is many.

"When we say She is the marsh, we are not exaggerating. You can't see it due to the water, but all the roots of all the trees connect back to the Mother. She is all, and all are She.

"Every single tree in the marsh draws from the aquifer below, which we believe is infused with salt from a vast underground basin. Each tree—each family—collects the salt discharged from their own home tree.

"Some collect more than average and trade it, while others collect less than average and buy it," Sahmira concluded.

Julia was having a hard time hearing the economics of it all. She was still stuck on the "She's every tree in the marsh" detail. That was huge! How had that never come up before?!

Thinking about it, Julia supposed that it was common sense for the elves. It was their home, and everyone likely knew its structure from a young age. It wouldn't have come up since everyone already knows it.

A few chuckles were exchanged around the table as they all enjoyed Julia's obvious flabbergast.

"That armor is lovely, Julia. May I inspect it?" Selûneth asked.

"Huh—oh, sure," Julia replied rather lamely, still trying to process the many-trees thing.

"Mmm, I see. This is very similar to a Weaving, though it is mana I am not familiar with," they said as they turned the gauntlet Julia had handed over about.

"Yeah, I made it by saturating it with my spiritual mana. My mana is me, so it might be more accurate to say I infused it with my essence," Julia said, her curiosity piqued at the mention of Weaving.

"Ah, that makes sense. You do naturally as a ruwāh what we attempt to copy with our Weaving. This is phenomenal work," they said, handing the gauntlet back to Julia. She'd debated coming without her gear, but she hadn't felt safe enough to do so in a long time. It felt like—even in the heart of the marsh—the Nashiin could attack at any time.

"What do you mean? You attempt to copy Spirit Forging with Weaving?" Julia inquired.

"I do not know about Spirit Forging, but materials from the Mother are naturally more receptive to mana than non-living ones. Weaving is a practice to infuse our own mana, which carries a purpose we give it, into the Mother's materials for crafting and use.

"Her bark, for example, is the most common of her materials, as She sheds bark much more frequently than any other part of Her save Her leaves.

"Being a part of her, it carries part of her spirit. While this makes it extremely receptive to mana, her spirit interferes with the will that external mana carries. We attempt to overcome this through Weaving.

"I say what you have done is what we attempt to copy because you have created a material that is essentially a part of your spirit just the same as the Mother's materials are a part of Her. You can bend this material to your will naturally—without additional steps.

"It is truly incredible. I have never had the pleasure to meet another ruwāh or see their work, so this is a wonderful treat. Thank you, Julia," Selûneth thanked as they bowed their head slightly.

"The pleasure is all mine! I'm always happy to learn about new forms of magic," Julia exclaimed, returning the bow.

The conversation continued into the late afternoon before Julia made to leave. Sahira nearly had to pry the kids off her with a stick. They loved all the stories Julia told about her time in Rockyknoll and Striton just as much as Julia enjoyed hearing stories of the outside world from Braden. Even Teyem, who was so shy at the beginning, had opened up and enjoyed the stories.

As the kids were being dragged away, Julia sidled up to Talnîr.

"So, who exactly is…uh…you know…who gave birth to you? Who are your mother and father?" she asked hesitantly. She didn't want to be rude, but she also didn't want to be ignorant of her friends' family dynamic.

"Oh, I see. Our living arrangements must seem quite foreign. All are my parents, but to answer your specific question, I don't know. We don't place a great deal of importance on who specifically 'planted the seed,' so to speak, nor who actually delivered whom.

"All our walîn love each other, and my understanding is they purposefully withhold knowledge of who gave birth to whom to emphasize that it's unimportant. The important thing is to all love each other," he explained.

The dynamic was strange to Julia, but she saw how much they all clearly cared for each other. Though, she immediately had several questions jump into her mind. She shooed them away, deciding they were too invasive.

"I see. Thank you for explaining. I was afraid to offend by asking, but I also want to learn about your family," Julia said quietly.

"No problem. You can ask me anything. I'm not easy to offend. Speaking of which, I know you just thought of a lot of things all at once—a lot of biological things. I will tell you that while everyone loves each other equally, everyone does have their individual preferences.

"Nadhem, for example, seems only interested in chasing ghal. When he leaves our tree to join a new one eventually, it will not be because he found a sahri he likes," he explained loudly while chuckling. Nadhem shook his head in disapproval from across the room.

"'Ghal' is roughly translated as 'root,' while 'sahri' is 'petal.' I'll let you infer what I was referring to with those words," he clarified, likely noticing Julia's confusion.

Julia pondered for a second before once again having to suppress the heat that tried to color her face. That was so blunt! Honestly, being able to control whether she blushed might be the most useful part of being a spirit.

"Ahem—thanks for teaching me about your family. I had a great time eating and learning with you all," Julia cleared her throat and said to everyone gathered at the entryway.

"It was our pleasure, dear. Do come back sometime soon. One meal isn't enough to say you've experienced what Jadhariin cuisine has to offer," Sahmira said, walking up to Julia and embracing her.

Julia was a little surprised by the gesture, but she was even more surprised when the remaining four adults collectively embraced her in a group hug.

It'd only been a month since she was in Striton with people she loved, but it felt so long ago since she'd experienced such warmth and welcome. She couldn't help getting a little choked up.

Such a warm moment in the midst of the encircling darkness was a welcome, but temporary reprieve.