The Land of Ver-Anda: Destined

"Several beings gained prominence in the Primal War, chief among them a being who called themselves Vakti, a god of radiant light and the usher of a new age and her counterpart Varuk-Sin, the Shepherd of the Moons, who would establish worship in the holy places to them. The Tide Pool of the Lowest Tide of Varuk-Sin and the Highest Peak of Vakti." -Excerpt of Kieva's Mythological History

"What say you Semsì?" The elf's voice was light and airy, full of joy, which I had experienced less of today than him, by his tone and smile..

"I wasn't listening, Va'tu," I said, looking finally at the map that my closest ally had been holding out on the stone table we had been sitting at in the park in the distinct of Loftgreen, the small mostly elven and human district in Rency that I had moved into after my father had kicked me out of the house several years ago. It was a nice place, filled mostly with the city folk who lived and worked enjoying their day at the lake. 

I was not alone with Va'tu: Our other friend, a dwarf from the same mountains the both of us deep elves were from to the south named Kurdu was sitting between me and the high elf from the ancestral island of Alina, the land all sentient life was claimed to hail from, according to the high elves. This elf was a woman who went by the name Mirielye and her golden skin always seemed to stand out during the sunny days. She practically glowed during the most bright days, with long blonde hair that she had tied in a ponytail today. 

She had been the on and off flame with Va'tu for many years, and we have all known each other for longer than a century now. I had met them during my fifty eighth summer, during that year's winter solstice. Today happened to be the Winter Solstice of 2992 of the Common Reign, making the day rather commemorative, if anything.

"I found this in the market, Grogak sold it to me." He pushed the paper he had spent money on in front of me. It was a map of some sort, showing a patch of hills off a coast near the city state of Clethorpe, somewhere in the northern part of the territory if I could tell by the looks of it. It showed what seemed to be some sort of shipwreck on the coast line, in a strait that was rather dangerous from what I knew. 

"What did the orc tell you this was?" I asked, taking it for a closer look. The map was accurate as far as I could tell. My family had plenty of trade routes in this area so I had seen similar maps all over. 

"A map to a shipwreck, said that he knew the cargo was still onboard, filled with Qit'edsa, the blue dye worth thousands."

"And what do you think I could know about that? I've seen maps, sure, plenty, it's the northern territory of Clethorpe."

"I knew it," he said excitedly, taking the map and placing it in front of him. "I just know that this thing could make us rich."

There is no way you could think that this is what is going to make you rich. I looked to Va'tu, a tilt to my head to indicate the amount of sheer disappointment. He saw nothing but the parchment in front of him as he grinned down at it.

"Why do you think that this is your lead to riches?" I asked, letting him know exactly how I felt.

"This ship is filled, Sem, I promise you."

Am I a joke to you? 

"What do you think I meant by what I said?" I protested.

"Uh," he stammered and looked away from his map. "Sorry, I was not paying attention anymore."

By the gods, how are these the people that I call friends?

"What makes this different from any of the other things you have brought to this park?" This wasn't the first thing that Va'tu had brought here in the many years but this was certainly the strangest yet. It started many years ago, with a map to an old wizards tower to the south of Rency, which we at only 79 years old, rifled through for loot, which is actually where I found the rapier that I wore on my hip at almost all times. It felt like an old weapon, but still worked wonderfully at poking holes in things that I needed too. It's not to say that all of his discoveries led to such loot, on the contrary."

"This one is a journey, my friend." His smile told me that he truly believed what he was saying, a deep kind of trust had been formed over the years between us. Not the same as any of my other friendships, Va'tu was someone that knew of almost everything in my life, even of my sujta.

"What would you need?" Kurdu said, taking a flower he had picked from the ground and twirling it between his fingers, back and forth. 

"What do you mean? All I would need is you all," he laughed nervously, the daunting task that he had set out for finally dawning on him, at least that's what I assumed. As the moments ticked on and he looked around rather questioningly towards the other three of us, it became clear that he was one for starting plans and not finishing them. No matter, Clethorpe is only a few days from Jiva. I thought to myself. This could be the time. 

"Have you ever thought about what such a journey would take?" Mire asked, her eyebrow raising slightly.

"I mean, I was thinking we would pitch in for tents and horses and rations. The journey could be fun. Along the way, if we run into trouble,well I didn't train in the Heritan Guard for no reason." He smiled.

"The Guard you left a week before graduation?" I looked up, my thoughts being pulled away from seeing Ji'va for the first time in almost fifty years. No over.

"There were reasons why that happened and we don't need to go over them again, dammit." He shot back, shooting me a look of piercing daggers. The Guard had always been a sore subject, something I'd only let him tell. "You don't think that anything could come of this at all? A journey to find a sunken treasure filled with riches and the tales of who knows what?" The tale he just made up was something that was tempting by itself, and honestly, I was with him no matter what. I would be a side character to his journey to the ship wreck, if that would make him happy. He would certainly understand if I wanted to stop by my love afterwards. "This is now and this could be something that sets us apart from our predecessors and our contemporaries."

"I'm with you, Va'tu," I said, and he nodded and raised a hand to indicate that he would still talk with me privately. 

"Well, if the heir of the Prime metals joins, I see no reason why I wouldn't." Kurdu coughed as he passed the leaf of majiva to Va'tu.

If he would not bring that up, that would be wonderful. I thought, but kept it to myself, only glancing over to Kurdu, the dwarven man who wielded a longbow and a sword. I had never known him to be particularly good at hand to hand combat, but he could both stereotypically outdrink a tavern, and pin the tail on a donkey from one hundred meters away with his bow. He was exceptionally quiet for a dwarf, being rather light footed for his size and stature, which were once again stereotypically, dwarven in appearance. 

"I know you jest, but you know that this whole thing must be unanimous," I said, looking over to Mire. 

She had her typical look. Something that told me we had ignored her until a decision must be made and I will hear about it later. Whether it was secondhand from Va'tu or first hand from her, I would hear it. Her brow was furrowed as she thought, which meant she wasn't mad at least, and had just been quiet, which was good for me in the long run.

"Do you think we can walk around the Rift Valley without falling prey to the war bands?" I chuckled as she began to run through the things that would impede us on our way.

The Defrak Rift Valley was a place dominated by the Choopool Kingdom, the old city on the northern coast, between two massive mountain ranges that have been moving apart from the formation of the world, according to the stories. Not long ago, the valley had been plunged into war, after the city of Choopool conquered the southern city of Weewitch, the third attack in three decades in such an attempt. 

"Well, the war is over, I don't see why they wouldn't let us through their lands, and besides, I have family in the Turque's," Kurdu said," we could ask them for passage through the Undercroft if anything came up."

"I'm going to ignore that you said, 'Undercroft' and hope that the Valley is passable." Mire said, moving on to her next point. "What about our lives?"

Even I looked at her rather surprised: I knew I had it comfortable here in the city; the world we lived in was not a kind place for many folks, and there were plenty of reasons that I could name as to why, some of which my family may even have caused. No use crying over what grandfather did, might as well make it better now.

"We could sail across the Garu'ud Sea," Va'tu said, and looked around at all of us. Is he serious? The laugh that erupted almost at once from all four of us was tension breaking, something that was much needed from the conversion at large. 

"I will follow you as well, Va'tu." Mire smiled, "but we will work on this plan to arrive together in the morning. I must return home now and hide this from my entire family." She stood and gave Va'tu a kiss, leaving me to bid my own farewell and scamper away and quietly as I could. The sun was nearing the horizon and she would be with me soon, whether I was in my house or not.

My hand burned and I looked down. On my right hand, a stream of magical ink had been etched into my skin trailing up my arm to my bicep. It began to glow and tickle, almost like the first time I had it tattooed on me. 

"Oh wonderful."I mumbled, "Do not be mad at me, sujta." 

"You have had an interesting day?" she asked, stepping out of the shadows of an alleyway. She had almost a light glow about her in the moonlight and her smile was kind as usual. I had never known Jiva to have anger with me, even when I had practically insulted her and her people. 

"I have actually," remembering that I had news to tell her, "I think that I will be traveling soon."

The tilt of her head left me wondering what she was thinking. 

"You plan on traveling? Where?"

"The Clethorp League, rather close to you as far as I can tell." The sun finally set behind us as we walked and her form solidified, giving me the opportunity to finally intertwine my fingers into hers.

"You'll be close. What will you be doing?" Her tone was inquiring but something told me she held back.

"Va'tu wants to find a shipwreck or something, it was a map that he bought in the market. It looks real to be honest."

"And if he goes, you go." She smiled and kissed me on the cheek. "You always were the most loyal person, Sem."

"I'd argue that it is you, and I come in at a close second." I said, kissing her in the forehead quickly and then unlocking my front door. 

The room was colder than usual, something that gave her goosebumps and gave me a chill. I put her behind me and stepped forward.

I sniffed the air and could smell the faint smell of a strange gas that filled the room. It was unusual to say the least and I pushed forward into the small living room past the entrance. 

"You're finally here, child," a chilled voice spoke from the depths of the house and what seemed like all around us. The baseboards and tile almost shook from the vibrations.

"Oh no, not now." Jiva said, breathlessly, almost at the same time the door behind us slammed shut. Her voice was almost as light as a whisper, but I heard it like she was screaming into my ear.

"Who are you?" I said, drawing my rapier from my belt.

A laugh as chilling as a winter storm atop the Soms Mountains erupted from the walls, shaking them from the foundations. A swirl of energy, twisting of dark and green magic erupted from the floorboards and condensed into a sickening blob in the center of the house.

"You do not know me, deep elf, but the Chosen of Des`eva will be mine. If you stand in my way, I will turn your life into a shell of what you know of it now and you will wish you were but a slave to a mortal man."

With that the wisp went as it arrived, and the room's ambiance returned to normal as it had been when I left a few hours earlier.

"What was that, Jiva?" I stammered. 

"Wata`aran seems to have been able to get through my grandfather's wards, finally." She whispered, her tone low and for the first time in all our years together, I heard a wisp of fear behind her voice. She dropped her head and held her left arm as a tendril of ink lit up, first a bright blue color and then a deep purple before the magic seemed to seep into her skin, discoloring it slightly the same color as the ink.

"Who in the Underworld is Wata`aran?"I began, before beginning a tirade of other questions, "What just happened to your arm? Do you feel okay? Sit down, haki. What is going on?"

She looked at me for a moment. Her eyes seemed older than they should, even for an elf. She had always had eyes older than her years. She had always seemed to know more than she seemed and maybe that was all a part of her situation. The magic of each culture on Ver-Anda was a specific and unique one, even if it stemmed from the same source.

"You deserve to know the whole truth. There was once a prophecy of a child who would be born after the time of Evia, our people." Evia was the word in the ancient language that meant 'elven kind' from which the various subspecies come from. "That child was me. They would know because of the time when my tattoo's would be started. The 'magic of the forest' takes control of the artist during that time after they take the majiva, a plant that induces a trance-like state in which allows the shaman or medicine man to commune with the divine."

"Your grandfather didn't do it?"

"No, another of the medicine men was tasked with the first round. It was only after the first, that my grandfather stepped in to observe" she said, pulling up her right sleeve to reveal the intricate designs and script, only some of which I could read, even with my education, which started from her knuckles and went in a set of four lines, which led into another set of inscriptions along her upper arm, this time, two that read like a splitting story.

"The story begins with the birth of the child, this one named Jiviuita, child of Gerak of the Large Tree Clan and Huen of the Cold Mountain Clan, she will pledge herself to the advancement of the Tribe of Lefork River and Misty Mountains forever onward with," She said as she traced the lines on her hand. As she read on, she continued down her arm, reading with a shake to her voice, "The child Jiviuita has been seen by the All Knowing and given reign to their choices. The child will choose between a future with their desire and the very future of their tribe, where one choice makes the other impossible."

"Jiva?" I said, grasping her hand and she spoke. "You don't have to read anything to me, if you don't want to."

"No, Sem, you don't know do you?"

"What? That I'm involved in this? I've known that since my father came back cursing the wood elves so long ago after he said that your family cursed us." I laughed, and she placed a hand on my shoulder, a serious look on her face still.

"Your father included himself by not hearing our plight all those years ago, though I don't take pride in it."

"It's fitting really, He didn't know they would forget him once my mother wiped him from the face of the company after he died." Maybe he did actually, it was his greatest fear.

"Either way, I'm not sure you understand. You are written into a story now, Semsi, that you cannot escape. You have made your choice." I turned my head and looked deep into her eyes for a moment.

"I would never leave you, Jiva. Not even a Primal could stop my love for you."