The Land of Ver-Anda: Destined

"Finally after many years of being taught the 'Divine Ways', our ancestors, the early elves, were freed from their servitudes and subjugations. They were free to serve and subjugate amongst themselves. The peoples changed further and soon the seeds of the First Man were laid about the lands and islands, each one tracing their ancestry back to the first elves to leave Alina." -Excerpt from Kieva's Mythological History 

"I have come to a realization, last night," Va'tu fell back on the bench, the impact a solid thud. "I don't know what in the world I'm doing leading an expedition. I don't know the first thing about any of the intricacies or secrets."

"Did any of the great adventurers know the secrets when they started out?" Kurdu asked.

"No but, I don't know anything," Va'tu emphasized, slumping from the bench onto the ground, in a pathetic display of self pity.

"None of us do, Va'tu," I said, standing on top of the table. "None of the greatest heroes of our time started out with knowledge to get them all the way to the quest. Most like us, knew just enough to get started, like our resident mage, our talented friend from the Island of the Ancestors, or you Kurdu, you can hit anything with your bow."

"And luckily, we have you to hide and pay for passage when we need it," Kurdu smiled, leaving out that he had never beaten me in a duel before, but always including the one time I ran from a fight I had no business in. Sparks do in fact come in handy in many ways, especially when you actually cast a gout of fire to scare the big scary fighter while you escape through the shadows of an alley.

"I didn't lose money, or a hand, which Tollen has taken from several of his opponents, I might remind you. I choose my battles as carefully as I can. You can guarantee that I will make sure we stay safe along the road, at least." I retorted. 

"Semsi is right, he doesn't take bad fights." Va'tu edged in, "and besides, other than Tollen, who hasn't Semsi beaten?"

"Can you call what he does dueling though?" Mire questioned. "His fights sure seem,"she paused and put a finger to her lip, "brighter." She seemed pleased with her retort. 

"I can't help that my sword sparks more with this simple metal, blame the Prime metals it is made with." That statement surely was partly true, and by the look on her face Mire knew. Stay out of my head.

The sudden frown told me I was correct.

Wards were hard to set up, as evident by the fact that even Jiva could not break through her own wards without outside intervention. A good mage could prevent the reading of thoughts altogether. A good mage I am not. An okay mage? Sure.

"Don't discount your abilities, Semsi. You actually are a good mage, you just need something to focus your magic through, I think."

"I've been able to use my sword well enough so far to focus my spells plenty."

She frowned. "Are you serious? I saw the gout you summoned with just your hand, the sparks from your sword are measly in comparison. Tell me you know what a magic focus is?" The question felt more insulting coming from her for some reason, even though she was a spellcaster.

"I know what a magic focus is. You use your book, and it took you almost your entire childhood just to learn to read it." A light force pushed me in the back, just hard enough to startle me, but not enough to hurt.

"By Darsun!" I growled and swiped at the table in front of me, drawing up sparks and tossing them in her direction. Kurdu and Va'tu found themselves also showered in the shimmering glitter and they covered their faces, yelling at the both of us.

While the sparks were harmless, sometimes they could be hot, depending on what I made them on, the metal of a sword could render hot painful shards even, if I tried. The table was made of wood and they were my friends so the sparks were completely harmless, only meant for show.

Mire and I laughed together, I had always enjoyed that she could push me to better my own form of magic that I had made. My father thought I would take after him, so he pushed me to become educated in politics and business, but that just didn't leave me with any drive. The dueling was the only real glimmer of hope I ever saw growing up, in a family that didn't understand me. Well, little brother always understood.

"We will be fine, Va'tu," Kurdu said, "If anything happens, Semsi can do that and we can run away." He broke into a loud laugh, one that Mire and Va'tu did not hesitate to join. I chuckled but felt a sinking feeling about it. Pushing the feeling away, I focused on the conversion.

"You will all be ready to leave? I know it's most of our first time away from the city." I began, which was not wrong, I hadn't even been away from the city many times and the times I had was to accompany my father to mines or meetings, which as mentioned, I wasn't the most receptive to them as we know. "But why not now to break free from the comfort zones we have placed ourselves in?"

The silence was almost deafening as they sat and stared at me. Kurdu looked to Va'tu after he was done with me and took a breath to begin a tirade only he could.

Before he could speak a word, Mire cupped a hand over his mouth and began to speak herself, "I think that Kurdu would agree that we need a plan to continue on before things can be taken further," the piercing gaze that Kurdu held told me that he was not intending to say that and he slapped her hand away.

"No. I think that thinking and planning too much will lead to us not even undertaking this quest to begin with. We have agreed to do something sure, but until we leave and get too far to turn back, then that is where the journey will truly begin." he said, before taking a drag from the roll of the flower that I had rolled into a flat and tasteless leaf from the forests to the southeast. 

The plant was a maj'iva, similar to the one that Jiva and her tribe used to speak to the divine but diluted and a different substrain that gave effects similar to alcohol or tobacco, rather than the more powerful version that they used.

"I think he's right," I said, rather tired of the questions that Mire and Va'tu, the two planners of the group, had to pose. "My father is dead. I can use my name as I please to allow us whatever grace it may allow, though I warn you, those who embrace my family name are not to be trusted." Va'tu passed the blunt to me, and I took a long drag as well, savoring the flavor of the leaf, which was rather difficult to procure, if I may add. It had a slight aftertaste of a white wine, which cost me a few more gold than a normal tasting leaf of similar quality. It helped that my family's merchants traded in wrapping leaves of all kinds. "When we leave the Republic, it is up to you all, my ties are few once we travel far."

I was not lying. My mother had left to return to the mountains after my father's death, returning to family and working with my younger brother who had been left as the head of the family here in Rency, and while we got along and he listened to my input, he had always been more talented at running the business our father had left. He had the mind for politics, that I didn't, I could see the structure and knew who I would need to talk to for certain things to happen and what wheels I could grease to see that occur, but Yur'tak could spin a disaster into a positive with the ranks of the company and turn the same disaster into a way to build for the future. 

"I think that should we return here tomorrow morning upon sunrise, our journey should be set forth with the quickest haste then." Va'tu said, placing his hand in the center of us. One by one, we all followed suit, first with me, and as I saw the others begin to place their hands I began to speak. They all looked at me though they never moved a muscle once their hands were placed atop mine and Va'tu's.

"I have another reason for going. I have been roped into a destiny of the world deeper than I know. I wish I could tell you more but," I paused and Mire grasped our hands into a sort of awkward group hold.

"Semsi, do you have any idea how well we know you?"

I looked up from my feet and saw a smile that conveyed more joy and hope than I think she knew how to voice. I didn't truly know she had that much joy in her body: She was almost as pessimistic as me.

"You have loved someone who has been far from you for longer than some humans have been alive, am I wrong. You have been linked with someone for so many years that some would call it love?" The memories poured over me. All of the talks about the divine that we had. All of the talks about the politics of our world. It had been almost sixty years since Jiva and I had met on the roof of that tower in Rency. It was on that tower that I made my first vow. To return every night upon the fall of the sun. "This person has been everything to you, haven't they, Semsi?" Mire was right, of course. She could tell she was right by the way I lowered my head slightly, and dropped my gaze to her shoes.

"My heart has ensured that this journey will happen whether you are with me or not, my friends. If you do not join me, I will hire some fighters of the guild to accompany me to the mountains to save the woman who has claimed me." Other than Va'tu, I hadn't told anyone of the woman who I had spent every night with for the last fifty plus years with. Of course that did not mean that elven society of the south thought that I was available, on the contrary. I had made sure at every opportunity to seem aloof to every aspect of noble life, after all. It had paid off in some aspects.

I should know better than to think that I could actually hide it though. Not to mention that every tabloid of the day suspected I had a secret wife when they would cover me. Maybe they were right; A wife I could neither be with nor claim in any sort of light here in Rency.

"You will never be alone if I live, Semsi," Kurdu said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "And even after I pass and you remain on the face of Yornus, I will remain to aid you. If I can, I would aid all of you, really." he said looking at the others of the group.

"You sappy bastard, you really are a warrior of pretty words." Va'tu said, a smile cracking open across his face. "I promise you all for my life that you will have my friendship and camaraderie.You will have a shield brother and an extra hand." 

Between our hands, a glow had begun that we didn't notice. Our focus had been on each other. The feeling was familiar. What we had begun was called neafam evatun, a type of bond magic. Our friendship and journey was being sealed for the divine to witness.

"I will follow my friend to the end of the earth," making eye contact with Va'tu, "you all know that, but if she is in danger," my voice wavered as I spoke, the energy tightening around us. 

"We know," they all said at once, and I took a breath of relief. 

"You know that what I brought to the table was a treasure map right, Sem?" Va'tu said. "The life of someone you love matters more than gold ever could, you know that?" The energy that had formed around us, a sort of swirling of leaves at first, had condensed into a series of runes that had coalesced around our outstretched hands in the center of us. The magic felt stronger than any one of us and burned a series of runes as it fused to us, the mark becoming permanent across my right thumb and onto my hand, a portion of the vow we had made to each other etched onto my skin. 

***

"I think things are going to be changing tomorrow." I said, sitting upright in the bed, with Jiva's head in my lap. She played with my hair, a loc'd pattern specific to my people and which I was very protective of. When it came to hair, both of our cultures were very protective of what came from our head, only trusted friends or family were allowed to touch each of our heads. 

"Are you leaving?" her gaze had not changed a bit and was just as piercing as the day I met her. The years had angled our faces more, as the youth left for elven longevity but her eyes felt just as sharp.

"Come sunrise, we will be leaving as a group. If they chicken out, I will hire some guards anyway from the fighters guild here."

"They won't leave you alone, especially not Va'tu." she said, twirling a loc in her fingers.

"No, they won't. Especially Va'tu." I said, wrapping my arm around her warm figure.

"What do you think will happen, Semsi?" she asked, nuzzling into my embrace.

"I will find you and with the gold from the shipwreck, I won't have to worry about paying for my friends my entire life, is what I hope this whole thing will entail." I chuckled.

The stories my mother and father told me that life would never be that simple however. My father even made sure to teach me the lesson himself by kicking me out, and taking my inheritance, which I still have been unable to access, save for the inheritance of my last name given by the ones who don't know of my unfortunate fate. Which for my luck, would mostly be my own people who would know of my situation, and the high elves, wherever they could be found. They were known for knowing information unbecoming of them far too often in my own experience, but maybe I had been biased from Mire.

"Who knows, you may have to pay for their families too," she smiled mischievously.

"Don't even joke about it, I pay for basically everything Va'tu buys in some way or another." I groaned. 

"You are okay with this journey with them then?" She tilted her head.

"I mean, sure. Maybe he'll get his own money then and pay for his own things," I chuckled.

"Things are not looking great in the mountains, this time of year, I can tell you that." she said, tracing a finger along my chest slowly.

"The Vueti?" I asked, my gaze up at the ceiling as I enjoyed the light pressure of her finger across my chest. She seemed to be tracing a letter,though until I looked up at it I couldn't tell what it was.

"Yes, they continue to pressure my people to wage war or accept their terms."

"Terms" This was the first I had heard about a war between her people and another. She was rather open about the past of the Hu`te`dine, though many of the stories were full of allegory and metaphor that were hard to understand to someone who was not raised in the culture. She did her best to explain things, but It wasn't until she made parallels to my own stories my mother taught me as a child that it sunk in. The stories were so similar that it was scary. The beginning. The End. It was explained so differently but got to the same conclusion. That time would move on.

"That person you saw last night was Wata`aran, the Vueti stormmage who has wanted to end my grandfather for eight hundred years. He found the perfect way to end him now. The prophecy."

"The one that says you must choose between your desire and the future of your people?" she winced a bit as I said the word desire though I made no mention that I had noticed.

"Sure," She said looking away but continuing to talk, "You know that another word for desire in sylvan is?"

"The language of the ancient elves and the fae? I mean, sure, I know that Ocuac means more along the lines of 'desire of the heart', which is what you have along your arm there," I said, tracing where I knew the rune was laid out on her left arm, even though she had it under the covers of the bed. "Another word for desire in sylvan is waeruld, which if I remember means 'desire of the collective' which is directly under it." I paused to let her speak if she desired but she only looked at me with an expecting look, prompting me to continue. 

"Does your arm say that you will have to choose between the desire of our heart and the desire of your community? Are they asking you to-" she placed a finger to my lips and looked at me with her round brown eyes.

"They are telling me I have a choice. That is all. The other things I won't think about as long as you are here." her smile betrayed her feelings. She was not happy about her circumstances at all.

"I will not let you choose between me if that is what you think-" I tried to say, but she cupped my mouth with her hand and rose on top of me.

"It's not up to you, Semsì'vatu. I chose you long ago. Long before I knew the details of what this whole thing meant," she ripped her shirt off from the bottom, revealing the various runes and markings that had been put onto her body.

"This is just the beginning of a prophecy that I am just starting to understand, and it would just be wonderful if the one thing that I was sure I could trust, It would be great if he were there. Do you think that knowing that my own grandfather was so horrified for my future that it basically drove him to the grave is a nice thing to know? He could read my entire septave before anyone else and he fucking wept in front of me," she did not cry, only look at me with serious look on her face.

"Yu ta vi`ii. Gy'uy ta korta." I see you. You will remain understood. I said in elven to her.

"I know. Wa ta vi`ii." she returned the words to me. I see you too.