Chapter 11 - Part X

"I am Keubroc Mecmae.  That is the most important thing for you to know now."

Reiba looked up at the man who was still wearing his standard issue City Enforcer leggings and boots, but no tunic, as he stared at her directly in the eye.  He did not unbind her, but proceeded  to leave.

Reiba struggled in her braces but said nothing for a long while while until he approached the edge of the clearing. "Are you leaving me here for the mountain lions to eventually find me?"

His eyes narrowed in on hers suspiciously, "Who are you, exactly?"

"I am known as Zaexyl Archne.  You know this already." she spit with equal suspicion.  But before Keubroc could drop his gaze from her face in derision and disappointment, she added, "But I am Vel'Reiba." she replied, using the custom of family name first, in formality as was often done among the common class in Eirdred.  After all, only nobles were important enough to warrant distinction from their kin.

"And what would make Vel'Reiba think that it was a great idea to destroy the ancestral Archne Estate, when she had to know that the City Enforcers, not to mention the bei'thal, would soon be following her?"

Reiba had no trouble making the connection between the Eirdren term bei'thal and the Sandoran term bhe'hel, nor did she take long to put the pieces together that if the Second Sword made up the first part of that pair, then the dead man at her feet was the latter.

"He was bei'thal then?" she nodded to the corpse and Keubroc slyly grinned and knelt to meet her face to face.

"Then you do know of them."

"You have told me as much." she retorted quickly.

"Your face betrays you," he uttered in an even but stern voice,  "As it has betrayed others before.  This is not the first time their existence was made known to you."

Reiba was unmoved.  Unwilling to let on more than she had to, she admitted to nothing and the silence dragged on.  Keubroc gave her one last look, and pulled away from her.

"Unbind me.  You would leave a woman to die helpless and alone?  At least kill me if that is your goal."

"We live in an unforgiving world." was all he said as he rose and turned away.  "Surely you know that."

She stung back, "Then was it a lack of forgiveness that ended your companion's life?"

"I bore the man, personally, no grudge." Keubroc responded defensively, "but he was a warrior for an oppressor I cannot tolerate."

"Then our enemy is the same." she finally admitted.  "And you did not come to the Archne Estate that day to spy for her Wisdom.  You came to find out about my loyalties."

"You made my efforts useless.  I returned to a burned out hull, instead of the gilded Archne compound I had left."

She kept her hazel eyes zeroed in at the stout man, suspicious, but suddenly seeing him in a new light.  She decided to take a leap of faith by engaging with the nüdwuob in a different way. "Help me follow the gegleth.  Help me find out where it leads, help me prove that it is Yibouh that is using these creatures for something.  Our supposed leaders, our lords and ladies of whom I once considered peers are fractured and disorganized.  But something real, some visible threat will rally them.  If we can bring them real information about these creatures, and about your so-called bei'thal, we might be able to scare them into action; into rebellion." she pleaded though Keubroc by now she was speaking to his back as he started walking away.

Keubroc turned his head back and looked at her, stupefied with her outlandish claim.  "You killed off one of their own, insulted a few more, and destroyed a veritable palace of stone and oak that had weathered countless generations prior.  You cannot possible delude yourself enough to think any will listen to you?"

"I don't have to be the messenger." she retorted, "Somebody has to get their hands dirty, and" she looked about herself, and the soils and mosses that cradled where she lay, "I am no stranger to a little dirt."

"Then you are not alone in this?" Keubroc observed shrewdly.

"I have some friends." she replied simply.

"Who?" the man's brown eyes narrowed in focus on the woman.  Bound and uncomfortably strewn on the ground though she was, she did manage a dismissive head shake easily convincing the Second Sword that he would not get his answer anytime soon.

"You want my help but you will say nothing?"

"What you don't know may help your cause more by remaining a mystery."

Keubroc paused, not fully trusting her, she was far too dangerous to ever do that, but seduced by her claimed motivations. "How can you track this creature?  What stalking skills are taught to a woman of the streets?"

Reiba laughed at his poor choice of words, but returned to seriousness when she said, "I track smarter.  There is some usefulness to the things these 'bei'thal' can do."  She nodded in the distance, feeling the red pill dangling from her concealed necklace make contact with the bare skin of her sternum, "The creature is in that direction.  It's stopped running and is probably in a trot - maybe it no longer fears; but it heads due southwest.  They don't seem to be incredibly fast.  Tough, yes, and high endurance, but they cannot travel during the day so it is easy to catch up with them."

"Alright." he considered, "You may join me.  For now." and he began loosening her binds.  His thick fingers ran over delicate wrists now rubbed red with friction.  For the first time, he also noticed just how sallow her cheeks were, and how her thin skin clung to her now bony arms at every chance.  He would need to return to last night's camp to collect his pack anyway.  Whatever Vaughn possessed, he would not need any longer.  The bei'thal likely had rations that Reiba could recover.

The moment Reiba was freed from the braces, she wrung her wrists gently, wincing and and gasping quietly in pain.  She quickly moved to unlock her ankles and carefully freed herself from constraints violently forced upon her.

"Perhaps they are compromised?  Are they bei?" Keubroc thought out loud.

"Bei?  You suggest that the art of the bei can be performed on the living, not just objects?"

"That is what I have been told.  It would give explanation to their cooperation with Yibouh."

Reiba considered this information for awhile and a thousand thoughts flourished in her mind on the possibilities, and the dangers of compromising a living being.  The idea fascinated her.  "Have you ever had the opportunity to sit on the outskirts of Eirdred City in the company of a multitude of Soan families?"

"Assuredly not.  Life as a City Enforcer does not cultivate any trust from those nomadic caravans, though their trade depends city populations secure enough to buy the gems they have to offer."

"Nor have I.  I've never left the city walls before now.  But the man who went in my stead informed me they are quite the festive event."

After the final meal is eaten in the evening, they all gather around the campfire, which is not too far from being a bonfire, but calm enough for a single voice to be heard.  And then they tell stories."

These stories, parables really, are passed from Starwoman to Starwoman - their story tellers -who lead the group in story, chant and drink.

But they are learned as a group, because they cannot be told without the audience providing the sound of steel on steel, or a herd of stampeding wehkax."

When I wasn't occupying myself with thoughts of the Empire, I was a benefactor to a number of small causes, including one man who wanted to record these oral histories and myths.  And one of those, the Keiyafhoa, was horrifying enough to stick with me throughout the tides.   It quickly surfaced to my mind when I first found the gegleth.  Your fellow said the Soa and the gegleth lived symbiotically, but my sources suggest it is rather parasitic instead.  They steal girls who have not yet had a child in their bellies, for what purpose I cannot know."

"Beyond the oral histories, what actually happens to Soan girls is uncertain, if it happens at all, but I do not think this story is pure imagination.  The blue skin, the subterranean habitat, these details in the oral histories that seem to match so closely to these creatures causes me to suspect at one time these gegleth abused the Soa, and their painful memory of that was cast into the myth of a bedtime story.  I have one version of the story in my satchel.  I'd be pleased to retrieve it for you if you permit me to return to the grove where I had been sleeping."

Suddenly Reiba found herself pushed up against the rough bark of a particularly old oak as Keubroc's hands searched her person for any hidden weaponry or tricks she might be carrying.  She didn't resist, even opening her hands in casual submission.  His hands slid over the small blood red pill necklace but he seemed uninterested.  A few seconds later, Reiba, now bereft of a couple of small daggers hidden in her boots, led the way back.

"I would have liked to hear that dead man speak a little more." she whispered subtly, as if to avoid raising attention from the newly dead.

"What did you say?" Keubroc perked up in attention as he followed her.

"Why would these gegleth serve the Empire?  The Soa saw them as monsters." she asserted.

"'Nothing less than the continuation of their species.' he had said.  If what he says is true, by threat or by bribe they are not simply offering Yibouh their services, they are fully dependent on the Empire."

The two left it there and there was an extended silence between them, punctuated finally by Reiba, "There is one more thing.  Why now?"

"What do you mean?"

At their destination she stopped and eyed him in earnest.  "You saved my life, whether you meant to or not.  Why did you kill the bei'thal now?"

The stout man brushed his fingers over his close cut bistre brown hair, clearing his wide head of the leaves and dirt he had earned in his pursuit of the lady.  "Miss Reiba, what you don't know may help your cause more by remaining a mystery."

"Fine." she mumbled curtly as she handed over a thin ledger of cleanly inked parchment.  She had offered him a chance at clear honesty, and he had turned it away without a thought.  She still couldn't read him yet, but planned to change that with time.  "Hurry up and read it.  Understand what we are dealing with.  We need to move soon if we are going to catch up."
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Keiyafhoa
As translated by Tsil Heurik
(Soan Cultural Notes to be deleted: 1) There is a Soan saying, that every man is part Geon - following the expectation that all men would of course want to become fathers, not to mention those who become merchants or cowboys of the wehkax - but not every woman is gifted with one of the faces of Dharaad.  Those who are, Shamans, Storytellers and Map-makers are held in very high regard. 2) every child is a reflection of Tseoh, one hopes that they reflect that of the hope or the beloved, and not that of the trickster)  3) coo => the onomatopoeia of being loved, u-hah => that of crying, gkeh => that of anger

Starwoman:
Keiya, lovely of her race.
Soil born and starlight bred, 
Soft black hair upon her head,
The form of Tsoeh's second face.

Response:
The form of Tsoeh's second face?
Truly a beloved by all who knew her.
coo coo coo

Starwoman:
Naive in her maidenhood.
At the age when youths draw glances,
When hearts flutter at touch and dances,
Paid for love more than she should

Response:
A girl's desires wholly fulfilled
Must always lead to weeping.
u-hah u-hah u-hah

Starwoman: 
Would you hear the lesson of Keiya?

Response: 
Teach us, Starwoman, guide us by your light. 
Bring forth wisdom in the blackness of night.

Starwoman:
Then let's start at the beginning, as all stories must start.  
First there was Dharaad and there were none before her.
Second there was Geon, born of soil, and Dharaad used the stars to guide him to her.
Third came Tsoeh, child of Dharaad and Geon.

The first face of Tsoeh created the Soa race with the paint of hope and promise upon the walls of the Soasor Rhux.  
The second face of the Tsoeh made them made them beloved among all of nature.  
The third face, we do not speak of kindly.

Response:
May the Tsoeh's third face never appear.

Starwoman:
This lesson takes place in the second age, when the Rhux were still young, but happily living under the sky canvas.  In those days, the Soa did not yet know of death, they did not yet have despair, but lived to divine stars and pass on tales of skill and bravery.  Yet as Dharaad could not call the old and wounded to the stars, nor could Geon guide more Soa into being.  Children were woefully rare.  And two are lonely, but three fulfills the soul.

Response:
Two are are lonely, but three fulfills the soul.

Starwoman:
One day a couple found themselves joyously fortunate, as Geon had given them a single child.  The girl was kind and graceful, smart and beautiful, and so they named her Keiya, since she was like the music of the wind against the cliffs and caves of the Rhux.  

She grew up quickly though, as all children do, and before her parents eyes she became a young maid, in need of love.  And as her parents loved her dearly, they invited her to begin stitching her wedding dress and go to the village, where perhaps there might be some young man there to see her in it.

But Keiya was also inquisitive, and she did not go directly to town.  Like her namesake, she spent the day exploring the caves of the buttes where few dared travel.

Unknown to the villagers, there was indeed a youth that might attract the eye of a wandering girl within those caves.  When she first saw him, she did not know what to make of the man.  He was a man in face, that was clear, but his skin's hue was made of early twilight and his hair, worn long and without adornment, was metallic and silver.  

'We have met before, in the world of dreams,' said he.  'I have come to tell you that I love you and wish nothing more than to grant your every desire.'

Response:
coo coo coo

Starwoman: Keiya fell instantly in love.  Somehow, he had combined beauty and strength into one being and while she had never seen anything like him, she never felt more familiar with another.  She knew he must be hers.

'Tell me that you will make me yours and I will keep you forever.' he beckoned.  

Keiya returned to her parents telling her fortune and beg permission to wed the handsome stranger but they would not give it.  

Response:
ghek, ghek, ghek

'What of the herder's son?' Keiya's mother pleaded.

'I've heard it told that the mason's boy is kind as well as strong.' her father advised her.

But the heart of a young woman in love is more immovable than the Khayaha mountains.

Response:
A girl's desires wholly fulfilled
Must always lead to weeping.

Starwoman: Keiya returned to the caves the next day, fleeing from her parents and taking the betrothal dress she made.  She did not return that night, nor the next.  Longing to see their daughter's face once more, the man and woman sought out the caves Keiya had talked about.  Perhaps her new husband might at least give them a glimpse of their loved one's face.

They found only this: beads scattered, and the blood-soaked leather fabric of the dress in tatters at the entrance of one of the caves.

The father looked skyward and cried, 'Dharaad, let not your call send our daughter to the stars so soon!'

The mother looked at the ground and sobbed 'Geon, for what reason did you craft our child if you planned a violent fate?'

But the Daughter of Stars and the Son of Soil could do nothing to aid the bereaved parents, for Keiya was already lost to them.

In the bowels of the cave, the creature ate for the first time.  He, forever being incomplete of the triune, could not help but consume in his jealousy and hatred of the Soa.  He feasted on the heart of a woman because he could not have Dharaad.  He gorged on the womb, the nest of children because Tseoh would never be born to him.  His hatred consumed him, and slowly he grew termite legs, horns, and ant-like claws instead of hands.

But his face, he kept, for his hunger was not satiated.  Indeed, it was merely whetted.

Now, we call them geokeh, for they are part man, part insect, and they prey on the hearts of young girls still.  When they can find a child out at night and alone from her parents, they will strike, and they will never be heard from again.

Response:
Children, mind your parents.
Parents, mind your children.

Starwoman: For the geokeh stalk the caves and dark places where the stars do not shine.

a Poem

Is it a full circle,

the path we have seen?
If we could elect
The simplest of polygons

to represent hills, valleys
And space and time travel too
Would this one stroke

suffice?

No, I reject that.

Do we say then,

'The past is done; has been'?

'Accept it,

Mend the wounds, son,

But remember it.

Make it your own for it is part of you.'

Would this one platitude 

suffice?

No, I reject that.

For anguish and sadness

has warped me similarly

to the way a forgotten jacket may in subsequent days.

I may regret my choices for a time,

But neither will I shirk my next opportunity

Nor will unduly seek it.

I do not find myself back where I started.

Because I never made a turn.

You cannot reforge this cold steel

In spite of all your blows.