Maelstrom Saga: Scion of the Moon

Tun woke up the next day just before the sun began to rise. Deep indigo light of early morning streamed in through the window, vitalizing him. Mel was still happily unconscious in her cot. They were still several months away from sleeping in the same bed; Until then he'd have to be content with sleeping in the same room.

He exited the room and walked downstairs, taking special care not to make the floor boards creek lest he wake up the many sleeping patrons of the Gend Inn. Reaching the diner Tun greeted an elderly man, presumably the father of the maid he had met yesterday and the inn owner. Tun asked for the two plates of food he had requested the night before and the man vanished behind the counter to cook it.

Tun made his way to a cozy table next to the fireplace and sat down, rearranging the chairs in the process to ensure Mel would sit as close to him as possible. He was left waiting there alone as several more early risers came down to claim their respective tables, those closest to the fireplace were quickly filled. Soon enough a familiar mop of short brown bedraggled hair descended the stairs. Mel spotted him and came to his table to sit down, back to the fireplace.

The owner and cook of the inn returned with two steaming plates of boiled celeriac and apricot porridge. They ate quietly, enjoying the external warmth of the fire and the internal warmth of the meal, the owner occasionally returned to deliver breakfast to the other patrons, many of whom were elderly couples. The sun was beginning to rise by the time they finished breakfast. They thanked the Inn owner and left.

There was still some time left before they were due to meet Vosa and her sister so they stopped by the water trough to wash up. Tun drew water from the pump next to it until it was filled. He dipped his hands into the bin and splashed the cool liquid over his face and hair before scrubbed his arms. When he was properly soaked he turned to Mel.

"Would you mind?"

She stopped brushing her hair and gave him an annoyed look, but conceded. She held her hands near his head and began to move the water from his scalp down his face and neck, then down his collar bone over his chest. His skin tingled as the water scrubbed, her water manipulation spells tended to itch too. Eventually the water passed his knees and with a sweep of her hands Mel lifted it off of his body. The airborne stream of water was brown with dead skin and dirt. She discarded the rancid liquid into the roadside ditch and turned to wash herself, raking her hands through the air around her body and cleaning herself under her clothes just as she had done Tun.

To this day Tun couldn't help but marvel at the precision with which she could control her water moving powers, of course she too envied him and the scale with which he could use his own earth moving powers, a skill that had earned him a lucrative career as a miner. She tossed her equally disgusting collection of filth into the ditch and they went on their way.

The town was alive with activity as shop keepers and restaurant owners prepared their wares and readied their places of business. The kiosks and caravans were already set up and ready to sell even this early in the morning. The path to the outdoor bar they had visited yesterday was an easy one to remember, just follow the trail of tarps and banners. Tun and Mel once again stood beneath a beautiful tapestry depicting the twelve constellation with perfect accuracy. Vosa and her sister had not yet arrived.

The couple sat down at the outdoor bar and ordered themselves two drinks, non-fermented this time. Their drinks hadn't even been delivered before twin heads of white hair came around the corner. It was Vosa and her sister. For a moment Tun thought they were biological sisters before the blue and violet robes caught his eye and he realized that her 'sister' was a nun of the lunar church and was simply old, as opposed to being albino.

"That explains her stoicism."

Mel giggled at his whispered joke, but regained herself just as their guides arrived.

"Good morning Vosa. When you said sister I didn't think you meant a nun. It's nice to meet you miss." He greeted. From up close it became apparent that she was middle aged and in excellent health. Her body was thin and her skin was tight even around her eyes and mouth. The only thing belying her age was her rapidly graying hair and demeanor. Living her life in the mountain air had preserved all of her other features.

"You as well, Tun, Mel. Vosa spoke at length about your conversation. It's rare to see her so excited." Excited? She had been excited?

"I am sister Muta, I was born in Foss and raised in the Lunar temple here in Quil. I hope you enjoy your visit to Veya's shrine." She said in the same monotone characteristic of the young girl beside her. At this rate somebody wasn't making it back to town alive tonight.

Tun called to the barista behind the counter and canceled their drinks. She returned their money and they left for the temple, Vosa in the lead.

They followed a new trail of wagons north and out of the town square. They passed many interesting stores and kiosks promoting goods Tun had never heard of, but was not willing to purchase in fear of wasting what little money he had. The shopping district petered out into the residential areas of Quil which turned out to be even more scenic that the gaudy marketplace they had left behind.

A small lake, barely more than a pond, sat in Quil's northern district over which a single bridge stretched, its design very unlike the other structures of the city as it was carved from a single slab of white stone and held a more megalithic aura than anything else in the fissure. Perpendicular to the marble bridge, atop a hill overlooking the lake, sat the tallest, widest building in the city with a hallow foundation of pillars underneath it where children could be seen playing.

"That's the library." Muta informed them. "It was built atop the remains of an aqueduct, one left here from the now defunct Scill empire. This bridge is also a monument of theirs."

Abandoned structures of similar size could be found littering the Scij countryside and inner valleys, abandoned and for the most part inconspicuous; Tun had marveled at every single one of them, fascinated by their design and rugged strength against the ravages of time. He had never heard of the Scill empire though.

"Does the aqueduct still function?"

"Oh yes, just as well as the bridge we are walking on."

Incredible! Tun would have to read more into this lost empire of theirs. They reached the other side of the bridge and continued north. The buildings here were, for the most part, nondescript homes for the residents of Quil. The road they walked on was made of the same stone as the imperial bridge they had crossed, and when he asked her, Muta confirmed his suspicion that it too was a remnant of the Scill empire.

There was nothing else in Quil nearly as impressive as the stone remnants and library in the northern district but Tun contented himself to enjoy the aesthetic pleasures of Quils architecture. You would be hard pressed to find anything taller than two stories, but you would be just as pressed looking for a property that was at all unattractive.

They arrived at the northern mouth to Quil, which opened up into a wide spacious field closed in by the same overbearing cliffs as the rest of the town. Despite the weather outside of the Quil fissure the grass and trees were as green and healthy as they would be in summer. Apricot and peach trees lined the stone road and edges of the fissure between which were countless rows of the eggplant variant known as hosh.

Did they grow food year round here?

"It's not that far. Barely two kilometers ahead is a plateau at the far end of which is the temple." Muta said, pointing north.

Tun looked in the direction she indicated, and indeed there was a raised plateau connecting the fertile croplands with the back wall of the fissure; It, like the cliffs on either side of it, was a dark granite color and as smooth a surface as you've ever seen.

"Let's go." Vosa commanded, sounding deceptively eager. Perhaps she was excited.

"Vosa, I was meaning to ask you, are you training to become a nun of the Lunar Church?" Mel asked the girl.

"Mhm. Sister Muta raised me since birth, and has been grooming me for the role all the while."

"But she cannot be elevated into the position until she is an adult, which won't be for another nine months." Muta interjected.

Nine months? She was fifteen? She didn't look like she a year younger than him, she had the body of a twelve year old. Poor girl, that last year of adolescence was absolute torture.

"Where does the initiation ceremony take place?" Mel prodded further.

"We will travel to Riplay on my sixteenth birthday where I will be deigned a fully actualized nun by the Cantor."

Tun tuned them out, completely uninterested in the rite of passage, as it did not pertain to him. He stared off into the fields, daydreaming as he was prone to do. He only now noticed the white stone pillars on either side of the road. They were tarnished, cracked, and worn so thoroughly by the elements that they resembled standing stones more than artfully carved columns, but Tun could see the remnants of the smooth engravings that once graced their surfaces. What were they meant to hold up?

"Isn't that right Tun?"

Tun returned to reality at the sound of his fiance's inquiry.

"Isn't what right?"

"Miss Muta just asked us if we identified with Veya."

"No, we consider ourselves patrons to Wren."

"That's what I just told her."

"Excellent. Well done. You're honesty is commendable."

She sighed exacerbatedly at his antics, unlike Muta who had covered her mouth to stem her laughter. Tun was quite pleased with this accomplishment, now if only he could elicit a chuckle out of the albino.

"I don't get it." Vosa interjected confusedly, her only emotive function aside from curious. Plus excitement, allegedly.

"Doesn't matter. It wasn't funny anyways." Mel told her.

The conversation trailed off into the realms of geography and occupations. Mel insisted on describing every nook and cranny of their hometown Roosk, the windmill town, and her job as a seamstress which was even less exciting to recount as it was to witness. Tun gave them the ever brief job description of "I'm a miner. I dig for metal ores and the occasional gemstone deposit." They would have to be content with that.

There was eventually nothing left to tell of their quaint hometown and they all stared off into their respective daydreams. Tun only now noticed the relatively small shacks littering the hosh fields, which served as homes to the farmers and their families. Just off in the distance a young boy was playing with his dog in the fields.

"This would be a great place to grow up as a kid. Having a farmer for a father must give you free rein over the worlds largest back yard." He thought out loud.

"Front yard too, but most of it is devoted to growing food so that restricts the games you can play." Mel answered. "The only real benefit would be the Farmer's Privilege."

Farmers are allowed to allocate as much food as they can store for themselves and their family, and sell the rest; This is called the Farmer's Privilege, never having to worry about food, or the lack thereof.

"Does Quil make most of it's profit from exporting food?" Tun asked, turning to Muta.

"No, our textile industry is much more lucrative. We also get many visitors trying to escape the elements, so there's a small tourist industry here as well."

Tun suddenly felt a bit used.

"But the territory does sell quite a bit of food to the larger territories in the Scij mountains, particularly Scij City itself."

He would be sure to purchase whatever dishes the chefs of Scij made with the unique eggplants. He was interrupted from that thought when Muta stopped suddenly. He nearly trampled over the feeble woman. They had reached a stone staircase carved into the cliff wall leading up to the plateau above. On either side of them were small stone houses, too small for a dog to rest in, beyond which was an expanse of stone rods embedded into the ground, many of which had illegible writing on them.

Vosa and Muta clasped their hands in prayer and bowed to the monuments. It took Tun a moment to recognize the twin fields as urnyards, where the cremated remains of many generations were buried in ceramic urns and marked by the stone rods in place of headstones. He and Mel bowed in turn, offering their sincerest respects to the deceased.

With that solemn affair behind them, Tun and his temporary harem proceeded up the steps, which were deceptively steep. Tun and Mel were well acclimated to walking up steep mountains and peaks in the high altitude of the Scij range and thought nothing of the climb when they reached the top. Vosa was no worse for the wear either, but Muta was huffing and puffing as if she had just jogged a mile. She did not excuse this on her age however and continued on down the trail. Tun followed her with Mel and Vosa at his heel, but he had been so focused on the winded nun that he failed to notice the condition of the plateau.

Jagged boulders littered the plateau, many larger than the Gend inn and sharp as a blade. A group of earth movers had gone through and cleared a straight path through the granite heaps, to where the stone road they had been blazing was clear to see, but was enclosed in a ribcage of jagged spires.

"Vosa. I think you might have understated the severity of the rockslide." Tun managed to say through his shock.

"I never told you how severe it was at all."

This was true.

"Nearly twenty people died in the event and just as many homes were demolished." Muta recounted. "We have much to thank the earth movers for, as do the thirty people they rescued. They just finished their work the other day."

Tun always welcomed the chance to meet a brother in the earth moving arts. He would have to ask Muta to introduce him when they got back to town.

They entered the artificial tunnel and were embraced by semi-darkness, which was not at all unpleasant, nor was the cool breeze that flowed through it.

Their footsteps echoed loudly as they proceeded through the granite forest, the gaps between the trunks revealing yet more stone pillars. The walls opened completely at several points on either side of them, always exposing the depressing sight of a home crushed into splinters. Tun made a habit of averting his gaze whenever passing them.

They followed the winding path for several more minutes until it opened into a clearing. A pond lay in front of them, at least seventy meters wide. It sat in a depression somebody had made in the solid bedrock and at its center sat a rectangular stone, taller than the walls surrounding the lake, walls formed of the same jagged rocks that enclosed the path behind them. This time the granite spires formed a topless dome as opposed to a semi-tunnel.

"So, where's the temple?" Tun asked.

"Just on the other side of the lake." Muta said. "You can't see it behind the monument."

Muta and Vosa continued on around the lake on a clearly laid out path. Tun and Mel followed them. The lake branched off into several streams, barely big enough to soak your feet in. Ornamental bridges made of the same black granite as everything else stood over them. They crossed over the first miniature bridge and the temple finally came into view.

It was not made of black granite, but white marble, just like the imperial bridge and aqueduct in Quil and just as amazing to behold. Five white pillars held up an ivory, angular roof. Shingle patterns had been notched into it with the utmost care and the feminine figure of Veya could be seen in all her glory, hidden by the white prison bars that kept her there. Another monument sat in front of the temple, metal and amorphous. Tun couldn't tell what it was meant to resemble, but he recognized the figure kneeling before it as a man.

"Mister Kalen!" Vosa called out to the man and quickened her pace, sprinting towards the man. Now that is what excitement looked and sounded like.

Tun made to run after her but decided it was unnecessary when he saw Muta's complete lack of concern. Moments later Vosa had managed to run the thirty or so meters to where he stood and tackled the inattentive man with a hug; A hug which he, upon regaining his balance, reciprocated. The three of them continued around the pond at a leisurely gait but eventually reached Vosa and the stranger.

"Hello mister Kalen. It's good to see you again." Muta greeted politely.

Mister Kalen was an elderly man, much more-so than Muta, with a body similar to Tun's own; Broad shouldered, husky and perpetually dirty. The body of a carpenter. The body of a miner. The body of an earth mover.

"This is Tun and Mel, they wished to visit Veya's temple so that they might pray for a happy marriage. They are engaged." Muta introduced them.

He shook their hands in turn, introducing himself as Mika Kalen. "But I prefer to be called Kalen, or mister Kalen if you must. Congratulations on your engagement." He had such a kindly demeanor.

"Thank you. Are you one of the earth movers who cleared this place out?" Tun couldn't help himself.

"That I am, good sir. We haven't finished work on the areas near the cliff walls, but my team and I will work on them later." He explained. "Just finished smoothing out the cracks and indents in the floor around the temple; I'm an excellent melder." A melder is an earth mover who specializes in fusing solid materials together by simply touching them. Stone and steel turned to clay in their hands.

"You can't tell any harm was ever done to the floor. The place almost looks like it was designed to incorporate the rubble to begin with." Tun admired. Vosa didn't want to be left out of the conversation though.

"Tun is a miner from Roosk. He can move earth too."

"Is that so? Mining huh. I don't envy your job. Do they have you down there digging?"

He had hit a nerve, but Tun didn't let on to his embarrassment. "I'm too young to be going down there. My elders mostly have me on security duty. The only times I get to use my seidr abilities is to help clear out cave-ins, which are much more common than anyone would like to admit."

Kalen waved the topic away. "We all start off on the bottom. You're skills in the arts probably aren't fully developed so it'll be a while before you'll be challenged."

Truer statement were rarely made. "So I've been told. Would you mind telling me what that thing is?" He said, indicating the rectangular pillar at the center of the pond "And 'that' is." He finished, this time indicating the metal sculpture Kalen had been kneeling in front of.

"That is a monument to the dead and injured from the avalanche, which will later depict the names of the future dead." He explained, indicating the pillar. "We'll be having a ceremony honoring the event in one week, when we'll carve their names into it."

That was a lot of work to put into one funeral, but then again it was meant to represent every funeral until the end of time. A very powerful monument to the unborn.

"And this is a damascene statue of the moon."

Tun wasn't sure he had heard him correctly. He took a closer look at the twisted clump of metal, and a few moment of scrutinizing revealed the artists intent. He could see the elliptical form of the moon carved into the left half of the statue, whereas the entire right half depicted it's tails as a solid mass of pearlesque steel, very unlike the clouds of dust and ice that made up the real moons tails.

"Why does the metal have different hues?"

Kalan answered without missing a step. "It's damascene. When it was made it was folded over hundreds of times in the smithing process, and between each fold it was dipped in various acids to cool down, dying each layer a different color."

What kind of blacksmith could fold a two ton chunk of steel over and over again? And how did they manage to heat it and work with it? It had to have taken at least two people. A fire caster and an earth mover; or possibly a lightning summoner. They sometimes had the odd ability to control metal.

"Where was it made?"

"Shipped here directly from Scij almost forty years ago. Custom made by the legendary smithing trio."

Tun gawked at the masterpiece a moment longer, until Muta once again woke him from his stupor.

"Didn't you come here with a purpose in mind?"

Tun looked at her stupidly, wondering what on earth she meant. He turned to Mel who clasped her hands together inconspicuously, like a person in prayer.

"Oh! Right. Of course. Come with me, wife to be."

He took Mel by the hand and guided her up the steps, leaving the white haired trio behind to their new conversation. He did his best to ignore the patronizing look Mel was drilling into the back of his head. The hike up the marble steps felt excruciatingly long despite being smaller than the staircase they had climbed up to the plateau.

He passed the line of pillars and into Veya's threshold. The statue to the goddess was in complete disarray compared to the rest of the temple. She was half destroyed, missing an entire arm and foot and was cracked down the middle. Her shoulders and back were fused with the rough, black granite behind her which served as the back wall of the shrine. The temple almost looked like the cliff behind it had been dropped right on top of it, eviscerating it; This of course was impossible and Tun knew full well that it must have been carved and then placed here.

He shook off the strange impression the temple gave him and kneeled in submission. Mel did the same beside him. The marble floor was cool against his knees, and he felt no discomfort when he bowed his head in prayer until his forehead touched the ground.

He pictured his future, his and Mel's future. The cottage he was due to inherit from his grandfather central in his mind along with the prospect of coming home every day to that cottage full of children, who would greet him as gleefully as Vosa had Kalen. That's what he wanted, and that was what he asked of Veya, and Wren, and Ontan. That was all he asked for. Nothing more, nothing less. It wasn't an unreasonable request by any stretch of the imagination, and yet so few people were granted that wish. Tun prayed that they would be an exception.

Tun and Mel descended the stairs to the three Quilians who had been so patient in waiting for them. They stood back up, having sat down to talk, and greeted them warmly. The sun had risen above the cliffs that enclosed Quil and reflected off of the damascene statue. Hues of red, blue, and even green danced off of its surface and onto the water of the pond.

Tun would never buy anything from that map-maker again.