A Castrovel Adventure: Part 5, Chapter 1

In which Lady Vaeol crosses the Shemez Waste and confronts her worst fear.

From the Daylog of Vaeol-Zheieveil Yaranevae be’Son

15 Soelae, 24,545 - 12th Day of Retaea Clanmoot
Tomorrow is the Clanmoot’s Endsong with all the afollowing rites. Afterward, Clan Miniada will head back southward on the slow wanderfare that will bring them to their Heaventide Campstead, as samely with the other clans. I have found this clanmoot bittersweet. Even relieved as we are at war’s end, we cannot forget Vohyd’s death yesteryear. I have caught Vosaeth my oathsister staring from the crag, down to the moorstead where Vohyd had fallen, where both she and I had overknelt his body, trying to save his life and staining our hems orange. This war has left scars, upon my brow and cheek, upon her leg when the weather shifts, upon her heart, upon all our housemates wounded, and upon the Miniada who lost kin and clanmates all the Retaea Clans who suffered under Byreath’s greed. That harm, which cannot be undone, sorrows.
~O’shili hafiva o’yani-aveassi, oyei Azaryau tollodu ahantu zeio oshoau foayelu.~ - We can merely try to grow anew, like eldest and mighty Azaryau after a bough breaks.
Like the Clans, the Lea Trucebode will head to Tihes and take boat homeward. On our behalf they will bear a heedfully evenhanded word to Her Highness Lady Zhaene as to why we come not with them. We misdoubt that our deed will anywise befuddle Her Highness, nor that it will shift what she bodes further to Son. Yet she merely needs oue rightthought reason and may withdraw herself from our business, leaving my mother to her own behavior.
Whether my mother’s hand can reach so far as Ofu-Laubu, and how mightily, we will afterward see. Yet to that thought, Taiase has already been undercrafting. Yesterday, while atalk with Her Highness Lady Kueth of Ofu-Laubu, word upcame of that city’s ties with Qabarat, owing to their aiudara elfgate. Our elder queen outspoke wonder at that city’s tale, from Qabarat’s growth and mightiness, which had merely been a lone elfburgh while the Time of the Sage-Queens. She outsighed a mighty yearn to see it, adding it would make good thought that, after we have worthily fulfilled guesthood in Lady Kueth’s city, that we shall wend homeward by Qabarat’s way, and that it would be a lost shame if our trucebode were overswiftly called back to Son. Smilingly, Her Highness answered that Qabarat’s great lorehalls will doubtlessly wish to meet and guest our elder queen, to take straight share in history from twelve yearthousands ago. She forespoke to send farseer-word to her fellows and let them know of Taiase’s inthrift to see that greatest city of Western Asana. For Her Highness’s boon we are thankful.

16. Soelae, 24,545 - Endsong
Today after Endsong, we again met Her Highness Lady Kueth to overtalk our northward fare to Ofu-Laubu. As share, we met Adim of the Toaeva, one of the northern Shemez Clans who dwell and wander the great dry wasteland stretching until the Far Silvermounts in the Coldland. She will ride as our host-lead, ingathering an unsmall sith of Her Highness’s thanes and household. I wondered at a new steed they brook, the ~koeazu~, which are mis-seemingly tall but hardy beasts, canny to live under the harsh land’s unforgiving drought where the sun may shine even now in Blighttide.
Oddly, Adim and the other Shemez Clanfolk wear hoods even whelming their antennae, the reason whereof is to shield them from sunlight so strong that it can burn, as I had likewise witnessed at the Hall of Stars. In this wise, their clothing has some sameliness with the Retaea. Yet I caught a tightness between our host-lead and Vosaeth, since the Shemez and Retaea Clans are both unkith and unfriendly. Though they trade together at the Clanmoot, their only gatherdom else is raid and warfare against each other. When the Retaea come northward to Azaryau, the Shemez Clans at the same yeartide head further northward, forwhy Blighttide trends the mildest time to hunt and reap the furthest northland, which in Heaventide becomes too cold. Thus, unless these warlike but shed folks choose to go from their way, they meet not. From our stead, this is an odd heed, since, quoth our lorewardens, the Retaea are afterborn from the Elder Shemez who wandered southward and bore the Thief-Queens. Yet over yearthousands they have grown unlike and hold little meanhood. Also, the Shemez had never followed the Thief-Queens, and even fought against.
Adim and Lady Kueth’s house-thanes taught us something of livelihood among the wasteland, wherein drought becomes the greatest threat, both for our Shotalashu and us. Our wayfare will bear us to the Voliahu Rainwood’s outskirts, whither had gone Elarue and Devaeas my brother for their yesteryear huntfare.
We forelook longer than a month to reach Ofu-Laubu, though surely their Thakasa sky-steeds fare much swifter. This whit is merely one of many wonders we have heard of that city, which stands almost more in legend than soothness. I can tell Taiase thrills at the forethought. We will also get hap to better know Neish, Istae’s manlove who will afollow. We have endless fun teasing of her ~Yudas Honyaeas~ - Secret Manlove, as we have named him. We ask whether she can walk or finds a saddle easier to sit, or wickedly even if her byrnie sets tight on her belly, and also Taiase and Nelehi as they have shared her little sin.
Lastly, we have sung to Azaryau and Burning-Mother for safe thoroughfare and to meet welcoming friends at the end.

14. Zielae, 24,545 - 16th Day Northbound; the Shemez Waste
Today we tarry to let the Shotalashu rest from the drought’s hardness, where even now a weighty mood holds me. We had fared northeastward until we reached the Voliahu’s edge, though against my brother’s tale, it is the oddest rainwood we have ever seen. The trees’ bark is hard and mossless, with merely a little lichen, and their leaves are thorny. Is this the homeland our foremothers came from thirty thousand years ago, when Tess first tamed Shotaviras and led the clans against the Moqeva? I almost cannot believe.
We followed the Voliahu’s edge northward to take shade, since here in Blighttide the sunlight is fiercely strong, and some days so bright that we may tell the Sun’s stead through the thin silvery sky. Also the Shemez know wise to find water in this drought, which the Shotalashu, both ours and the Lauba host’s, sorely need. When I marked we had not seen a baobab tree in a week, Her Highness Lady Kueth acknowledged. She nodded to the moor outstretching west of the woods, where merely stuntgrass grew with odd thorny shrublings. Even more whitsome, patches of dry red earth lay bare, so sandy I feared it dead.
~O’iqovi Shemezra~ she outnamed: “Behold the Shemez.”
Adim and the other Shemez Clanfolk ride their Koaezu, who they say may go a full three days without drink, out upon the Waste, wontfully at dawn or dusk to hunt. Quoth they, we will see no rain at Stormtide, and which will not come until next year’s Floodtide. Thus the land may forgo a whole year dry. Needless to say, we have learned all we can from our Shemez hosts for our Shotalashu’s welfare. Even so, I can tell the toll on Ess and our other steeds. Thus today we tarry and have them drink full, since we need them strong for at least another week ere we reach Ofu-Laubu.
Two days ago, we reached a hill, whereon stood a tall stone. At once I betook it as a waymark, although the first one we had seen even since leaving the Clanmoot. I could not withhold and asked its meaning.
~Ellu-Doamu,~ answered Her Highness: “The Winding Way,” and again waved into the Waste. To my shock, Her Highness then made a warding beck against plight.
Straightway I bewared a tale and asked of the Winding Way. Her Highness told it is an elder holystead lying within the Waste since ere history, full of weird mightiness, a broad maze built of stones outlaid upon the earth in a subtle manifold pattern. Wisdom-seekers come to the Waste, forwhy if one intreads and finds the maze’s heart, the Winding Way will bestow three mindsights: one of Yesterness, one of Nowwardness, and one of Towardness.
My reckfulness thrilled at forethought of faring to such a wonderstead. I beseeched Lady Kueth to head aside so we might see. ~O'imi doauza avyri-ya evolya,~ - "Only fools seek such wisdom," she said. I drove her riddle for answer, and even headed Ess toward the stone. Yet Her Highness grabbed my hand. ~Noe-nolantu,~ - “It is god-cursed,” she warned. I asked how so. Her Highness answered that, quoth the yoretales, if one strays off the maze-path while within its folds, one loses whatever one holds most dear.
I stared at world-edge, trying to reckon her answer's weight, how a stead, or even its ghost, might wit my greatest dearness, my greatest love, or evenmore somewise reave it. Her Highness read my thought. Her eyes flicked down to my babe abreast. A witless fear squeezed my heart, and Aeosel fussed in my arms, likewise overtaken, though he feared not for his own sake from lack of selfness. Yet wiselessly he craved our nearness, and I could not have yielded him even if my death foreloomed.
Laterward, I thoughtfully stared westward, where somewhere the Winding Way lay hidden in the dusty hills. I rued my cravenness even while I wondered what hidden truth the maze might show. Were I still a maiden, doubtlessly I would have hastened into the Waste, eager to find the maze and dare its secret. Yet could it show me anything I cannot learn elsewise? Would it now ever be worth the loss’s threat. ~Avyri avei eimi-bei oeo’laemi nisi,~ as the elder sages said: “Wisdom grows from fear and is rained with sorrow.”

Lady Vaeol, as part of Son's extended peace delegation headed by the ancient Sage-Queen Taiase, and having witnessed the end of Byreath's War, resumes her daylog in the wake of her maidenmate Kaure's moonsight prophecy, at the end of the Retaea Clanmoot, while her flag-house prepares to journey northward to Ofu-Laubu.

Lashunta Words & Phrases

• O'shili - merely
• Azaryau (animal): name of millennia-old soul-tree located in the Northern Retaea, site of the Retaea Clanmoot.
• Tollodu ahantu (animal): eldest and mighty
• Zeio oshoau foalyelu - 'after [a] limb breaks' Dependent phrase.
• Koeazu (animal): Castrovellian saurian draft beast native to the Shemez.
• Yudas (masculine): manlove; male lover
• Honyaeas - masculine adjective of ~honyaea~: secret; hidden
• O'iqovi - polite imperative of ~iqovassi~: to behold
• Ellu (animal): road; way
• Doamu - animal adjective of ~doama~: winding; twisty
• Noe-nolantu: god-doomed; god-cursed
• Avyri (spiritual): wisdome
• Avei - 3rd-person spiritual of ~aveassi~ to grow
• Eimi-bei - 'from fear'. ~eimi~ (spiritual): fear + ~-bei~: from; out of
• O'laemi - adverbial phrase: sorrowfully; with sorrow
• Nisi - 3rd-person spiritual of ~nisassi~ to rain