Of Strangers and Exiles
Last Lament, Walano, the Summer Islands
The soft sigh of the waves mingled with the sound of voices lowered with the hush of eventide. Though Last Lament, like all great ports, never truly slept while the sea worked, it still fell into a soft torpor with the fading of the daylight. Clay lanterns in the shape of the birds and fish and beasts of the distant jungles were kindled and shadows fell thick upon the streets, winding in fractal mirrored patterns among tall houses, some of stone and some of humble clay according to the means of those who dwelt there. Locals still bargained and bartered, they spread gossip and news, they greeted kith and kin, but the sight of strangers away from the harbor was rare, not by some law or edict, but the custom of the city which did not look kindly upon rowdy sailors beyond the remit of those business which catered to them.
Yet a stranger there was abroad that evening, for all none who did not have eyes to pierce glamors could see his face or know his purpose, one of the dragon-men, or snake men, the terms were used interchangeably, sometimes with respect and sometimes not, though Andreo of Tyrosh anent of his Majesty's Inquisition had reason to suspect that the meeting he would be partaking in would be more of the former than the latter. Not for nothing did glamor hide his face.
As he passed through the door of the tavern, the smell of capucha hit his nostrils. He had heard others refer to it as 'Summer Islands Stew' which was in his opinion a travesty akin to calling Myrish glass fire-baked sand. His mouth was already watering slightly at the thought, though sadly he could not give his full attention to savory, slow-cooked mix of casava, fish, and sweet potato.
He was here to listen and to watch.
***
At first the bard was a strange shadow against the lanterns behind him, misshapen and hard to pick out, then one realized that the man was not strange, but the thing he bore was, the
jungjung, the great drum of war, that was commonly borne only in the greatest of raids. It was a strange choice for any tale that might be told in the comfort and security of Last Lament.... unless one thought the danger was far closer than others assumed. The man's dark gaze seemed to weigh upon Andreo as he met them briefly and for a moment he wondered if his ruse had been revealed, but it did not seem so. The storyteller moved on, weighing the crowd against some messure only he could guess at. "You have come to listen to the words of the past. Good, for those who forget the mistakes of yesterday shall be blind to the perils of tomorrow."
Boom... Boom... the drum beat, a heavy rhythm that seemed to echo in the stone of the floor and up through the feet as much as through the air. "Let truths be told and let no lies prosper," he spoke the traditional opening, the vow made between storyteller and audience, between counsel and king, and so much more. Thus by lantern light and by drum's echoes he spoke what would be later called in Andreo's notes the Tale of the Four Exiles.
"Four brothers there were once, devout in the service of Maati Wa, she who is mother of the waters and bringer of wealth and plenty. Through her gifts, they knew the waters and winds, and thus became great traders. At first they came and went to every port, dealing fairly and thus enriching not only themselves, but all whom they interacted with. But in time, the shadow of greed weighed upon their hearts and they began to short-charge and outright cheat others. With Maati Wa's gifts of foresight and fair winds, they outran the people they cheated out of their wealth and as all knew about the brothers fairness and the favor of their goddess, they branded those liars and slanderers who talked about their deeds.
"So the cheated people prayed to Maati Wa to reign in the four brothers and take her gifts from them, and thrice the goddess rebuffed them, remembering all the good deeds the brothers had done in her name. But the fourth whose prayers she heard was different. It was a simple woman, not a rich trader, and she demanded not justice like the others, but begged the goddess to give her a small favor after the brothers had cheated her out of house and home, leaving her to fend for herself with her two daughters.
"Thus, Maati Wa decided to see to the truth of the matter and disguised herself as a blind old crone, intending to see if the brothers had truly become so vile as the people claimed. The first one she came before with a bar of gold, seeking to sell it to have dowries for her granddaughters, but the first brother told her that she had been mislead and it was merely a bar of copper, paying but a single silver coin for it. To the next she went with a hand full of beautiful diamonds, but she was told that they were just simple quartz, and a few coins of copper were her only payment. To the third brother she brought a bag full of pearls, but he claimed them just pebbles and gave her a single copper for them, claiming he took pity on her.
"To the last brother she went with a beautiful serpent, as the rich and mighty of Walaano liked to keep as pets in that time, but it was also poisonous. So hurt she was by the acts of the three elder brothers that she had vowed that if the last one would cheat her too, she would bide the serpent to bite him, so that he would die in pain on the spot, and then send it out to hunt the other brothers too. The last brother started saying that it was just a common garden snake, but as he fished for his coin purse, he knew regret for what he was about to do, and as the serpent was already poised to strike, he said that it was the greatest garden snake he had ever seen, so beautiful and vibrant in color that he would give her a bag of gold for it.
"Maati Wa was moved by that act of kindness, and so her anger lessened, but still she felt she aught to punish the brothers for misusing her gifts. So she called them all to her temple and revealed to them that they had been tested and all but the youngest of them had failed utterly. But since the youngest brother had seen the errors of their ways, she would instead test them again. She bade them to sail out to the west, into the empty waters, and to only return to the Summer Isles once they had found something that they could gift the people to repay what they had taken from them.
"The first brother sailed for a week and he found an isle with a great mountain whose flanks gleamed gold. So he made himself a digging stick and begun to fill his boat with so much gold that it nearly sunk, and sailed back to Walaano where he gifted each passerby a hand full of gold. And thus he was forgiven.
"The second brother sailed for a two weeks and found and isle with a mountain on which flanks rested strange rocks. He went up and down the island, hoping to find something and when in his frustration he kicked one rock down the slope, it burst apart, revealing finest amethyst within. So he made himself a hammer and broke apart so many rocks that he could fill his boat with Amethysts, which he too gave away in Walaano and was thus forgiven.
"The third brother sailed for a month when he came upon an island with roiling hills, but he cared little for them, instead seeking food and water. After a day, he found a spring and slaked his thirst and after another day, he had found the strength to fish in the lagoon of the island. But not only did he find plenty of fish, he also found oysters full of pearls the size of his thumb, and corals in colors so bright that they rivaled the rainbow. So he loaded up his ship with pearls and corals and brought them to Walaano, where he gave them away and was forgiven.
"The last brother sailed for two months, and when he came upon a tiny island that barely rose above the sea, he was at the end of his provisions and strength. No water did he find, just brackish mud that could not slake his thirst, and no food he could find on the empty sand, except birds that he had no hope to ever catch in his state. So he sat there on the shore, his legs in the water and pleading to the sea, pleading to Maati Wa to have mercy upon him. Was it not him who had shown kindndess to her in the end? Was not he the one who deserved redemption more than his brothers? But the goddess did not answer.
"Instead a fish appeared from the waters and asked the brother why he was on this empty island. Once the story had been told, the fish asked why the brother would not join him under the sea, for there was plenty of food and water there. The brother said that he could not, for the water could not end his thirst and would drown him if he went into it, as the goddess had decreed when the land had been given to man and the sea to the fish. So the fish asked him why the brother cared so much about this order of the same goddess who had send him to this island to die. And to this, the brother had no answer.
"And never again was the fourth exile seen."
Here the bard paused in his telling and looked once more across the chamber at all the people who had been listening without so much as a murmur, for the skill of his words was great and the story not known to many in Last Lament. Then he shook his head darkly and said, "Never seen as a man he was, but alas in starless nights when no mortal eyes can witness him, still he comes to take children from their cribs for when he devours them he remembers, if only for a moment, what it is to be a man and he weeps tears of brine."
Boom... Boom... again the drum beat, though less for war and more in lamentation before the bard said in a weary voice "Should you see those who walk among us and say that greed is a virtue, know in your hearts that it is not so. Not quite a story like the other but they keep the same rhythm, yes? the greed, the snake, and the fish."
Well looks like I guessed right. Andreo's food was cooling in his plate barely noticed.
No friends of the Imperium are these... and they grow more numerous by the moment. What he did not expect, what he could not have known, was that his report would be on the desk of the Imperator before the sun dawned again over Walano.
Anti-Imperial sentiment on the rise in Walano
Do you tell the Prince of Walano what you discovered about the Far-Touched sunken island?
[] Yes, he deserves to know, his realm is most imperiled by it
[] No, you do not know if he and his court can keep the secret
[] Write in
OOC: Keep in mind the world does not stop turning just because you guys did not take and action in a particular place. Also as a note here @Azel is responsible for writing the actual form of the story being told here. Not yet edited.
