SWNOVELS Chapter 10: Laeltilat
The four of them were sitting around the fire. Although the arqilunians were able to create food and water with spells, their menus were severely limited, as were their spell-creating internal life resources in general. They spent energy on spells, and the energy spent on spells was greater than the energy gained from a meal. Scones, scones, and scones again! Of course, the elven scones were tasty, and on an empty stomach they were insanely delicious, but still, survivors wanted something else.
“Why don’t you have an argiphone?” Laylith suddenly asked, as Arinella, with sadness in her eyes, took another bite of the scone.
“You know why. The connection is established peculiarly. I haven’t found my argiphone yet, and neither have you.”
“I think I’ll never find mine, I’m a half-blood!” Laylith answered sharply.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” the father intervened with sincere tenderness, ” you’ll have your argiphone, a bird it’s not some kinda toy…”
“I know it’s not a toy, Edelmer!” Laylith interrupted angrily. “What makes you think that I was going to treat the argiphone like a toy, huh? I’ll be twenty-one soon, father! Don’t you think that your daughter grew out of childhood and is now a grown woman?!”
“Hmm, hrr,” Edelmer choked on water. And Arel burst out laughing at that moment. Eder gave him such an angry look that it made Arinella smile.
Laeltilat walked away from them, tears welling up slightly in her eyes. She had thought about her father for so long, so dreamed of seeing him, expected... What did she expect? He is a snunorf after all, who had left her, left alone in a strange, hostile world. Although Laylith even now understood that she was exaggerating the tragedy of her past. She was loved by her mom, she was played with arqilunian children as equal, only maybe episodically and biased she was treated not well, and there were even some another unpleasant moments in her life, but in general, modern culture and customs of the forest elves did not give a reason to nurture a hatred of other races.
Arel got up and walked over to her. Edelmer wanted too, but Arinella shook her head. Snunorf sat down next to her.
“You still love me, right?” Eder suddenly decided to ask.
“Idiot!” with these words, Arinella stood up and walked away from the fire.
The warrior was left alone, and, looking at the fire and the shadows, suddenly said, “To Tarragorad’s mother, what am I doing wrong?!”
Tarragorad is the god of the snunorfs, god of vengeance, retribution and righteous anger.
Laylith just stood in the dark, she could feel the tears swell and then push out and slowly flow down her cheeks. Arel wanted to hug her.
“Don’t touch me!” Laylith pulled away.
“Sorry,” Arel said.
“It’s not your fault,” Laylith softened, “I just don’t want to be touched right now.”
“I see...”
She turned and looked at her father; he was sitting sadly, staring at the fire. Laylith’s eyes flashed with tears, and she turned away sharply as Eder looked at her.
“That’s not what parents do.” Eder jumped up and ran to his daughter. “My girl, you know that I left only because I was afraid that you would live in a world of pain, war and suffering! Of course, I also wanted to find my friends, the northerners from my small hometown, who had disappeared without a trace... But also a rumor of war had begun to spread throughout Ermir, and I so wanted to find out the secrets hidden behind the Belt of Twilight, so that I could use it against any evil... I was a naive arrogant idiot! I thought that I was capable of heroism, that I, Edelmer, would be the one to discover the secrets buried in the mountains. I didn’t understand at all that evil cannot be stopped globally, that everyone cannot be saved. And you certainly cannot help your loved ones if you are not with them! Now I understand it! And I didn’t expect to be stuck in the mountains for twenty years! Some ghost, I think his name was Dombard, told me that I was under the influence of eternal sleep. I was a complete fool! Expecting to return in one, maximum of two years, I was naive and short-sighted... I would like to see your birth… Even before birth I already loved you with all my heart... And I always loved your mother, as I loved Arinella too, in my own way...”
“Wait! What?” Laylith exploded.
Edelmer was silent, Laylith was waiting for an answer, Arel looked at her father and said, “Do you even think when you speak?”
Suddenly Laylith jerked from her place and ran into the darkness to hide her tears. Arel ran after Laylith, but soon lost sight of her, though the roots of the northerners should have made her speed slower than Arel, the purebred arqilunian, nevertheless, she was able to escape from him.
Arinella looked at Eder in strange confusion; she heard what he said.
Laylith ran straight into the Greywind Forest, which was relatively close to the Blood Swamp. All this time, the travellers effectively and quickly overcame the deserts of Kaushmanashtoon, and one of the last dashes remained, then they still had to cross the mentioned swamp, and they would reach the Eileenelia border. The Greywind Forest consisted of many different trees that seemed to be stuck in the endless late autumn as if trees had been scorched, although the dragons had nothing to do with this. The forest had ways been this way, with seemingly lifeless trees growing in it, located relatively close to each other, however, the forest was passable. When a strong desert breeze blew, it would bring a grey haze to the forest. The ground here was an ash color. But the lifelessness of the forest is deceiving. It could be dangerous in the forest, and Laylith was well aware of this, but when anger and grief are combined, it is impossible to predict what actions such combined emotions will lead you to.
Suddenly Laylith slumped beneath the ground and fell on something soft, reminiscent of straw. Then some mechanism began to move, and she realized that the room she had been trapped in was slowly descending. Lights appeared and the girl saw the underground city The city-state of the forgotten race of tukhtaash, a dark-skinned race with large noses and lips, mostly brown eyes. During the Great Conflict of Nations, in the dark millennia of the horrors of war and slavery, when the races did not yet have a higher moral development, the tukhtaashes were captured, tortured, killed, forced to work in the north and gather the Tears of the Dragon, a plant that had been used to make smoking soothing mixtures. In a past, the tukhtaashes lived in the territory of modern Eilinelia and the northern part of Kaushmanashtoon, but the origin of the dark-skinned people must be sought in the east, beyond the Daranfullash ocean. And so, during the Second Era of the great chronology of Ermir, there was an overflow of the ocean, groundwater came out and the eastern lands were partially flooded, and the connection with the eastern continent was lost. Not a single argiphone, not a single ship with the most skilful sailors, could no longer fly over or cross the vast ocean. None of those who headed east returned. And the local tukhtaashes, despite the most acceptable relations with the arqilunians, were forced to change their habitat, since the arqilunians did not interfere in the affairs of other countries, and other races believed that the tukhtaashes were their property. And so the dark-skinned inhabitants with unique skills in underground construction, for millennia, have been building their own, hidden from everyone, a city-state with a monarchical form of government, the kingdom of Itskel-taash.
The mechanism stopped, and long cobbled roads appeared before Laylith. There were lanterns along the road, as well as stone baskets with burning and not burning torches. In the distance to the right and left were similar cobbled roads that were illuminated. The forgotten kingdom hidden beneath the ground existed. There were some legends that the tukhtaashes still live in the arqilun, arnadacres and azdairiks lands, but no one believed in it. Even in dragons, many of the ermirians believed more than in a lost, forgotten race. Meanwhile, the tukhtaashes achieved prosperity, driven by a single goal, vengeance. Thousands of years ago, tukhtaashes were made slaves, knowing the pride and intransigence of the tukhtaashes, the ancestors of the arnadacres, the sand elves, the azdairiks, the races with narrow eyes, as well as the snunorf, the northerners, and partly the dwarf-tonnebeards did not take the lonely tukhtaash into slavery but took separated families. For example, a child was taken away by the sand elves and treated kindly by instilling local customs, raising, nurturing him, but forcing him to do the work of a servant, and his mother was sent into sexual slavery to the azdairiks, lovers of high art, and the father was sent to the northerners on the plantation to gather Tears of the Dragon... If someone escaped, the letter-delivery bird, the ehputaiven, could quickly fly to the neighbours, where the letter would tell of the slave’s action, and then torture could be inflicted on the family members of this renegade.
The forest elves tried not to participate in the exploitation of other races. Even the snunorfs were very kind to the tukhtaashes, and they gave freedom to many of them. There were cases that, for example, a tukhtaash man and a northerner woman fell in love with each other, but the customs of the tukhtaashes forced a man to return to his kin for a wedding ceremony, so there were no mixed families in the north. But in the underground country, in the kingdom of Itskel-taash interracial unions became the norm, which is why the tukhtaashes could vary greatly in appearance.
Laylith moved along the road, taking a torch with her. A huge city appeared before her gaze, and while the giant city gates and the city walls, inexplicably erected and fortified, looked impregnable, then two statues of giants made an indescribable impression, massive huge tukhtaash men stood bent over and propped the ground with their backs as if preventing the ceiling from collapsing onto the underworld.
Soon Laylith saw the open gate and three riders moved in her direction, one woman and two men. They were on a karkhashes! Laylith was as surprised as when she saw the underground city-state. Karkhashes, though unpretentious creatures, but animals need plains and fields, space for running... The riders drove closer, two men dismounted, one of them took the rope, and the woman remained seated on the karkhash.
“My name is Slu Tis” said the dark-skinned woman. She wore a dark hooded cloak and her hair was curly and coarse. “In the name of King Ikki Raak, please introduce yourself!” It was obvious that the woman was tired of formal monotonous phrases. “I am the authorized representative of the king, you are in the kingdom of Itskel-taash and for slavery, economic crimes, alienation of property...
Laylith already got into a fighting pose when two dark-skinned men approached her, and she didn’t hear what Slu Tis was saying next.
“Kras Vos Dracal!” shouted Laylith and three magical orbs flew into one of the men, who intended to grab her. He fell. Laylith jumped as the second man drew his sword, tossing the rope. Without waiting for the thrust, Laylith again wanted to start casting, but at that moment Slu, descending from the karhash, taking a huge staff, said, “Sai Les Mor Est,” and the woman hit the ground with the staff, a powerful wave of energy from the blow knocked both men and Laylith down, all the torches and lanterns went out. Karkhashes stand on end but didn’t fall.
Laylith tumbled and got up quickly.
“Kras Vos Dracal!” She shouted, but the spell failed. Probably, Slu was able to impose a “silence effect” with her magic or the shockwave from her staff that no one else could conjure.
“Give up,” said Slu, “you have nowhere to run, arqilunian. You’ll serve your year and return home. The arqilunians have done almost nothing wrong to our people, except that in the end they settled and increased their population on our territory, which the tukhtaashes were the first to colonize when they came from the east. Therefore, you will only work for one year.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Laylith, dodging the attacks from a dark-skinned man who wanted to catch the half-elf rather than injure her.
“We have been living underground for many thousands of years because of all of you!” Slu replied.
Slu moved towards, and Laylith moved away to the exit, playing more with the tukhtaash that was chasing her than wanting to run away. It was quite dark, but the half-blood had seen enough.
“Time to end this game, ” Slu said, “Kas Kar Arad Frahal!”
Laylith heard a sound from behind her, turned and saw a giant soil elemental appear instantly out of nowhere, who was quite nimble and grabbed the little half-elf with his hand.
“I tell you, arqilunian girl, you’ll only work for one year, although wait…”
Slu made the staff glow, and the elemental brought the resisting girl to the light.
“You are a half-elf!” Slu exclaimed, seeing that Laylith ears are not just hidden by hair, but small in size, “Sorry, girl, I see the snunorf blood in you, and in some ways you are lucky, but in others, you are not. Purebred snunorfs work for three years. Snunorfs mixed with arqilunians work for two years.”
Laylith tried to push down on the elemental’s clenched fingers over her body, to push herself out of his gigantic fist. Temporarily stopping to resist, she looked closely at Slu.
“You have a problem with racial identity. So I considered myself as an arqilunian, not a half-blood, although I knew who my father was. Living with the forest elves, any foreign citizen of Eileenelia, with even the smallest fraction of forest elf blood in his family, could apply for the citizenship of my country. He could be anyone, but he decided to consider himself as an arqilunian, even if he was not, and looking in the mirror he knew that he was different from the others in appearance.”
“Girl, you’re confusing race with civic identity,” Slu objected. “In your example, the citizen did not become an arqilunian but became an Eileenelian, a citizen of the forest elves country. And even if he puts on fake ears with different luminous tints, and dyes his hair with a gradient, like yours, it will not make him your kin.”
“I know that you, tukhtaashes, are obsessed with the racial-national issue, because I have studied a little history, and I’m so sorry about the tremendous horror and suffering that you have been able to experience. I’m sincerely sorry, but why do you punish the inhabitants for the sins of their ancient ancestors? A daughter should not be guilty of her father’s sins!”
“Because we were slaves!” Slu remarked sharply.
“And now you are slave owners! Great evolution and progress!” Laylith snapped irritably.
“You don’t understand what it means to be a slave!”
“Do you understand? Snunorfs, azdairiks, and tukhtaashes live for about a hundred years. How old are you, girl?”
“I’m twenty-five years old, girl,” Slu smiled.
“And how many years have you been a slave?”
“Do you want to increase your term, girl?” Slu noticed.
“You may be a tuchtaash, but you don’t know what slavery is!”
“I’m tired of this conversation,” said Slu indifferently, “take her away.”
Slu went to the recovering warrior, who only now regained consciousness after being hit by three magic spheres released by Laylith, held out her hand and helped him to rise. All three climbed onto the karhashes.
The giant elemental carried Laylith in his fist, and the riders followed behind the creature.