A Castrovel Adventure: Part 5, Chapter 49
~O'mei Vaeol-Ile, o'adeni-ilamae, zheia ureazya koea shine.~ (In which Lady Vaeol, in the course of training, undergoes a fit of existential guilt.)
From the Daylog of Vaeol-Zheieveil Yaranevae be’Son
12. Ashelae, 24,547 - 15th Month in Qabarat
Semuane left today. I already miss her. Likely she will stay away a month or longer, since at Stormtide they cannot take boats through the marshes and must follow the treepaths. I reck what news they may bear back from Lost Hoshiasa and whether it will add to the map I beseeched, and also a foolish dread there may be no new secrets when at last I lead my own fetch next year from Son. At drilltide’s bath, Master Evauess asked how I had liked fighting dainty outriders three days ago. I answered I had listened to his bid and had also boded wider word to draw a bigger drill on the Fifteenth. He deemed it good and bade me tally who shows. I find myself both forelooking and fearing the Motorae. As I have strengthened this last yeartide, I want to win. Yet Newyear will also mean the time to come home to Son. Even if I get wish to lead a fetch to Hoshiasa, I must also meet my kindred and all their wicked manifoldness. My lady-sisters will owe little goodwill. And then my mother, who, although we have striven to forgive each other, I misgive will still withhold. 15. Ashelae, 24,547 - 15th Month in Qabarat
Today as forespoken, we held a bigger outriders’ drilltide, wherein we gathered a full score. Although we were a mere shard of the city’s full outriderhood, it fit our purpose. We got some good light spars and proof that my nameworth is spreading. I also met Lady Zheari of the Issendil Outriderhood, who gave a lively but overeager fight. Afterward, Lady Zheari told she too will fight in the Motorae Games. I welcomely beseeched we should ready together. Then we dared the others to cleave as well and show the whole city outriderly doughtiness. Unsure how many will cleave, but its stir made more whispers. When I asked Lady Zheari how many outriders kinderly fight the foot-trial, she answered truly few. I asked her knowledge of the city’s best Damaya fighters, whereof she told they are mostly Citadel drill-teachers and some flag-underlings who have fought their way up from the Marshfarthing. Sievae again walked watch among the outer crowd with Meiss. Afterward she came and told we have outwon in drawing watchfulness from outside. When I thought-asked whether any watchers wore heavier, unadorned harness (like a drill-teacher or flag-underling), she nodded. ~Real-imya niradaf, oe imere kiadaf,~ - “There is one name I have heard, and one I have met,” she wordlessly answered: Demante, whom she bespoke as yesteryear’s otherstead-winner. Eyesome she is this Motorae’s best bet. So our bait has drawn worthy prey. We will remind that name and learn more. 16. Ashelae, 24,547 - 15th Month in Qabarat
Today so soon as we came to the Embassy, a thane bade me await Her Highness Lady Sheneal. I found her in the windroom, and also Lady-Captain Veiemi the Issendil Outriderhood headmistress, and who had already bestowed some goodwill. I worshipfully bowed under her kindly hail, although why the outrider-mistress had sought Her Highness I had no good thought. Lady Sheneal then spoke the lady-captain had right told the good example I set among the outriderhood, heartening them to uptake the foot-trial. Lady Veiemi yaysaid, and also that Lady Zheari, whom yesterday I had met, had boded the tale and yielded high cheer. After Her Highness shared tea, Lady Veiemi had told Lady Zheari that she reckoned me among the foot-trial’s likeliest winners, to which the young outrider had answered that she deemingly had given me a good fight, and that, if we meet in the Gameyard, she liked her odds of beating me. I beread Lady Zheari lacks not eagerness, which word got the lady-captain’s laughter. Then she bemarked she had lately heard I was drilling at the Lemussa Yard. When I yaysaid, she bespoke it a wonder, since she had ere thought the Lemussa a Korasha weaponyard. I answered Master Evauess had bestowed sundry leave. She knew Master Evauess and named him: ~vaollaras horaea-sholas~ - a right cunning weaponmaster. An inkling bewared the lady-captain thought me funny. I asked whether something bequalmed her. Her antennae wavered, and, against my guess, she said Master Evauess seemingly wished win of unmerely one championship at the Motorae, but two. Although she said nothing else, and I read not her mind, I gleaned her stark thought. ~Ussi inyayelise, o’sheili stora haes?~ wondered Lady Veiemi: “I wonder what you would do if you win?” I answered I would wield my nameworth to the best weal. ~Eria. Ziari sta ollaea nolya?~ - “Surely. Yet who would deem the weal?” Then she stood, as did we to match her worship. She wished me well, and to Her Highness forespook to meet again. After the lady-captain’s leave, Lady Sheneal asked what had happened. ~O’leazi-yei seilya-shyaldis vere inyassere,~ - “I had guessed you wished me to win,” I answered. She naysaid not but outspoke Lady Veiemi had doubtlessly outriddled my plan. I answered it recked not. Then she asked whether I had yielded offthank. I assured her I had not, and put forth Lady Veiemi may even bestow sundry uphold. My word called more asks on how I had won the lady-captain’s goodwill, which I offshucked that I had shown myself in behoofsome wise. With misgiftful antennae twisting, Her Highness gave leave. Evelae Treesong Eve, 24,547 - 15th Month in Qabarat
Today after drill, I bathed at the weaponyard, and then chose I should walk alone ere homecome. Remaue and Kaure eyed me queerly but bore my harness back to the household. Oshis shortly rumbled against letting me unhosted, until I stilled him. Then with Aeosel sitting on my nape and a napkin bag ashoulder, I went out to the city. I cannot easily bewrite my mood, else than I sought something greater than myself. I underwent an unforsooth namelessness, since I bore no ladyship mark: but a mother in a mere bodyshroud and girdle, bearing my son through market-crowded streetyards. I could be any of a thousand wives shopping or on some fetch. Yet even here, under motherhood and as a Damaya, I owned an inborn stallworth that upraised me over more than half the folk. When at a wineyard I took winewater and yielded the fee, the wineyard mistress giftfully withstood, bidding only a kiss from my babe (though I ware that, if I had income clothed outriderly in armbands and greaves, they would doubtlessly take my moonbit). Astreet, Korasha yielded way, even bearing burdens. At their deed, dread wonder overtook: did their worship stem from swainlike thewdom, or from Wiferight ruthlessly overwielded, ever with banhood’s threat if they caught my ill will? Could I even tell? To what outstretch do I share the root of these folk’s evil? How have my deeds, as an outrider, a reeve, and a lady, made their livelihoods worse? With the city bestowing my weapons, harness, and also gems bought with their tithes, and sending warriors under my leadership (which once I had led until death) how have their lives become more wantsome? If I am so highly stallworthy, am I thus deemfully so hateful? At a loss, and whirling up to overriddlesome philosophical fright, I sought haven in the highest ideals. No shock I first went to Burning-Mother’s temple, under the roof’s eyehole and Her face shining down. Yet the Sun Goddess, as our folk's foremost warden, too often bestands as the same order’s root I now afterguessed. With a rueful hymn I left outside. I overlooked the Templefarthing, its mathomtrees, and shrinegroves. I found a clue wherein so much grown and built is not Lashunta-wrought, but Elven, since our kind aftercame, slowly inslithered, and grew. I found a righter mood when I went to the Veialyshu Lorehall. Although that lorehall benames to godliness, it also learns the gods’ selfness. Thus I looked not merely on the gods’ idols, but on the sages’ stonelikenesses, who had taught and added to godlore. I also witted that almost half the sages here so shown are Korasha, and of them, some are wifely, right like my Kaure. Then as if omenlike, I beheld the likeness of Holy Yaraesa in a nook by the sidedoor. Behappenly, and I had erenever witted, They knelt in almost the same shape as my father had yesteryear carven Taiase: kneeling and hand upon a bookscroll, so that I could not withstand thought that he had copied this stonelikeness. At the sight, a word aqueathed to the Wise Lady flew through my mind: ~Yeio’shili Korashyela, o avyri di ilaea,~ - “Merely forwhy they are Korasha, their wisdom is not less.” At that thought, I knew where I must go. I upbore Aeosel, who had been toddling about the lorehall, and left. My goal did not stand in the Templefarthing. Away, I shortly halted at the Blue Fey’s Shrine, where showed my father’s carven stonelikeness of Taiase, and there betrusted it indeed held the same shape as Holy Yaraesa’s in the Veialyshu. I bowed before my elder friend’s kneeling likeness, eyes rising Heavenward and crown forsaken. Then I let Aeosel set chubby hand on the footstone. ~Diol mora thondas,~ I whispered with a kiss to his antennae: “Your grandfather wrought this.” The thought overtook how much beauty my father has wrought into the world, also ingathering the angel’s likeness atop the Diremoshu’s spire and all his stoneworks back home in Son. He had so done while father to three children and serving both my mother and his wifemate, and merely beseeching to follow his craft to fulsomeness. That thought made me feel even unworthier. With a swift hymn before the Blue Fey herself (is this shrine itself not a temple to faircraft’s manifoldness?), I came to my goal: Yaraesa’s Bookminster, which stands right under the Battleyards. I trod the bookminster and beheld many folk busy about the hall, and could not help a slight bother: here are folk who have willfully forsworn our folk’s wont. They have forsaken starkness between Damaya and Korasha, and even between wife and man, to behave all as even. They do so even in speech and names, wherein they drop the ‘-e’ or ‘-as’ at their names’ ends, and instead use ‘-a’ to show meanness, as Holy Yaraesa Theirself did. Under this kindstarklessness, I thus bemet need to shift the wise I had behaved my whole lifetime. Yet all I met greeted kindly, and even worshipfully at my son in arm. The priests let me outseek this wonderfully outlandish temple to the hero-sage (though some bename Them an uprisen god) of lore and wisdom. I beheld bookscrolls, wall after wall whose shelves sagged under their weight: a hoard surely matching anything gathered at the city’s lorehalls. I could spend my lifetime here reading (which thought I shrive mistried me), could also teach Aeosel, and together could learn all bestowed. Furthermore, I witted not merely priestly ilk and lorekeepers, but also meanfolk: traders, workers, and warriors combing or reading among the books. The hall even held a teayard, on whose benches folk sipped while their eyes drank words. So endithered, I beseeched tea while I gazed about. An old Korasha, hunched and lame in leg, yielded a seat on his bench and cheered Aeosel as a fair lad. When the cup came, we shared it. I asked what the old man read, waving at his small handleaf. He named it a leed from the philosopher-poet Shiarei, and outread:
At his word, a qualm chilled, since surely the leed bespoke death, at which the old man begged sorrow. I asked how he had found this poem among the bookhoard. He answered the priesthood had taught him to read as they do for folk, after yesteryear his wifemate had died under the Breath-Thief. This poem’s soul rang to him, he said, since now he was too crippled to work and had long thought on recleaving his wifemate within the World-Soul’s dream. At his answer, I bowed nape and whispered a hymn for his wifemate. The old Korasha witted my upper-strath lilt and asked whether I had come down Father-Yaro to seek work. ~O thalma hiesha~, I answered: “Of a rather kind.” Then, since it was not rightly a lie, I told I had come with my fathermate after my mother had banned him from Son, since I would not shed my son from his father. ~O’loe haea-shyaldise,~ - “You have worthily done,” he blessed, and told his wifemate had also stood by him when he had gotten muddled in strife. ~Mivearyelise, o ollaea-rualyas,~ - “Stand by him, and he will do you right." I answered I surely should, while also I witted he spoke not the Yaraesa mean speechwise, but me as wifely and himself as manly, which made me wonder whether he was a worshiper or not. When I asked he told these Yaraesa priests are good folk and worthy. Yet he upholds not what he named their tiqovathi namathalmae - meankind witlessness. At last he stirred to rise, whereat I stood and helped him afoot, against his naysaith. ~Se hare!~ - “You are strong!” he wondered. Then he looked upward and first saw my raw scar, undandy without goldgum. He bemarked I had witnessed sorrow. I nodded, answering I had lost shieldmates and had shriven enough sins. He chuckled grimly and tapped his lame leg, telling had had broken it in youth’s firdhood when he had fallen on a treeclimb and it had never mended whole. Then he added he had lost two of three sons to war: one had died fighting the Formians in Valmaeana, and the other had also gone and chosen not to come back. When I asked of his third, he answered: ~Kezhtas~ - “He was banned.” Then he took leave, saying he must come to duskmeal. I tried to keep him from kissing my belly, gainsaying that Yaraesa couthness forbade. Yet he stubbornly knelt, even against his crippleness, and flirtily answered: ~ Soa-ma ollayela, o se zhehuode-ari o’romassi lara ulinarassara o steme yi rie,~ - “These priests are good, but you are too pretty to let them behave you as anything but a wife.” After he limped out, I sought a priest and asked the old Korasha’s welfare. They assured a neighborhood gathers a dole for such houseless folk, and that he also works odd jobs for the temple between loretides, wherein he had learned to read merely in the last year. Then an odd thought overtook, and I asked whether they knew the northern Retaea Clans, who take Thwartkind as priests to Elindrae the Moongod. They answered they had so heard. So I told my wifemate is so benamed Elindrae’s priest after our stay among the Retaea. They answered it was an reckful thought and would welcome hap to meet. With a bow I left, wondering that I had witnessed good done in the world where I had forelooked none, and maybe hope that it might forgive me.~Sti arae emi, hei o’thani-shahi? Theiama di laema hei vaearru.~“Why fear the night, but come mildly? The World-Soul weeps not but for the living."
Lashunta Words & Phrases:
- Real-imya (spir acc): one name
- Niradaf (1st-trans perf): I/we [have] heard
- Oe: and
- Imere (fem acc): one (female)
- Kiadaf (1st-trans perf): I/we [have] met
- Vaollaras (masc): weaponmaster; martial arts instructor
- Horaeas (masc): sharp; cunning; smart
- Sholas (masc): true; accurate; right
- Ussi (adv): if; as if; hypothetically
- Inyayelise (2nd-fem cond): if/when you win
- O’sheili (adv) wonder
- Stora (neut acc): what
- Haes (2nd-trans cond) you will/may do
- Eria (3rd-comm): Surely; (it is) sure
- Ziari (adv): yet; however
- Sta (comm): what
- Ollaea (spir acc): goodness; rightness; weal; welfare
- Nolya (3rd-comm cond): it/they may/will deem
- O’leazi-yei (adv): so guessing
- Seilya-shyaldis (2nd-trans perf honor): you [have] wished
- Vere (fem acc): me
- Inyassere (fem acc partic): winning
- Yeio’shili (adv): because/since merely
- Korashyela (3rd-comm depend): they are Korasha
- O: clause-marker
- Avyri (spir): wisdom
- Di ilaea (3rd-comm): is not less
- Diol (masc): grampa. Diminutive of ~Diatollas~
- Mora (neut acc): this (thing)
- Thondas (3rd-masc perf): he worked
- Sti (adv): why; how
- Arae (spir): night
- Emi (3rd-spir): it fears/is feared
- Hei: but
- O’thani-shahi (imp): come mildly
- Theiama (comm): world; planet
- Di laema (3rd-comm): does not weep
- Vaearru (comm alla/dat): to/for life/soul(s)
- O: in; at; on
- Thalma (comm): kind; sort
- Hiesha (comm): rather; relative
- O’loe (adv): worthily
- Haea-shyaldise (2nd-fem perf honor): you did/have done
- Mivearyelise (2nd-fem depend): if/when you stand by/support
- Ollaea-rualyas (3rd-masc cond humb): he will/may do well/right
- Tiqovathi (spir): witlessnes; nonsense
- Namathalmae (comm spir-possess): meankind; common-gender
- Se (fem): you
- Hare (fem): [she is] strong
- Kezhtas (3rd-masc perf): he [was] banned
- Soa-ma (comm incl): these priests
- Ollayela (3rd-comm depend): if/when they are good
- Zhehuode-ari (fem): too pretty/beautiful
- O’romassi (inf): to let/allow
- Lara (comm acc): them
- Ulinarassara (comm acc partic): behaving
- Steme (fem): anyone
- Yi: as; relative adverb
- Rie (fem): wife; female
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