Of Speech and Story
Thirty-Second Day of Ikomi-eza (Ikomi Ascendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)
"As long as the bird isn't hurting anyone let it stay..." For all you had met plenty of strange things that were hateful and loathsome so you had met that which was merely odd and this owl had troubled you not at all. Over the next several days the only thing it damages is the supply of fish as Zaia tells the men to feed it some of their catch, he does not want a seemingly safe mystery flying away after all.
For your part the study of the Engur tongue hits a bit of a wall. Having mastered the fundamentals and enough words that you would not be entirely struck dumb in the company of those who do not know Anwari you discover that the actual structure of the tongue is as twisted as three sea knots end on end. Rather than adding more words to their sentences like reasonable folk, the Engur, whom you gather were a people who fled north out of what you would call North Africa about two and a half thousand years ago, added syllables to the words, in front, in the back and sometimes in the middle just to confuse you.
Well, perhaps not that last part. It was not that the middle of the word had something added to it, so much that it changed with the additions to the front and the back such as to be near-unrecognizable, to your ears at least. Zaia 'helpfully' exclaims that it reminds him of Georgian, a language which he had in his own words 'never had the time to learn', by which you assume he means it was a tangled nightmare.
Still even as your study of the language slows to a seeming crawl you do learn a bit more about the people who had come to these northern shores up from the Great Lands. Apparently they were no kin to the Agberi who Esha explained still had cities in the south, they were the folk of the red sand, only newly traveling as far as the coast to raise cities in imitation of the high gardens of Oromo. It is said in Orinilu that the people who would come to inhabit both the Tin League and the Orinilu itself had sailed north in search of untamed vistas and lands they could call their own without the dominion of kings as a yoke upon the backs of free men.
Given that the Priest Kings
of Orinilu had only been driven from the city as recently as three generations past you wonder at how that could be. Afke tells, or tries to tell at least the tale of Engi and his brother Lashun, how they had made a pact to go north and found a land where each might make their fate by their own skill asking from the gods only that which was within their domain, only for Lashun to renege on the bargain and stab the hero Engi in the back, forging a crown upon his bloody grave.
"Ah, but I am not teller of tales. You should pay to hear one, mayhap with song and the call of many drums, all bought with the silver of the journey," Afke says and from the gleam in his eye you guess that he is thinking of those riches and the recognition returning a part of them would gain him.
It seems to you a tale that fits too neatly onto the rebellion of Orinilu, but you keep any doubts behind your teeth. No reason to go looking for trouble in the city you are soon to call home at least for the remainder of the winter.
The waters are not so blue as they had been this summer, though the high walls that ring the island embraced by the Kime are still as high and stately as they had been even with snow having crowned their parapets. There are more men upon those walls and more ships in harbor, not just trade galleys come to ply their wares onto the every hungry market of the city, but also war ships, near as large as Marcella and flying banners of red and green and gold sowed with beasts real and fantastical. The war fleet of which you had heard in the summer had returned to the city, though whether in victory or defeat you cannot now say.
At the very least if it was defeat it cannot have been a costly one.
What do you do first on your return to Orinilu?
[] Accompany Antonio in his first dealings with House Koire
(Will go alone if not chosen)
[] Travel to the Temple of Ikomi, you have many more skulls you would wish to hear from, macabre as the thought might be
(Inge will take the skulls with an escort if this is not chosen)
[] Help Neios get in contact with his countrymen in the city, in the absence of all the material signs of his rank he does not seem a lord, but the company of men armed with steel and magic might bridge the gap
(Will go alone if not chosen)
[] Write in
OOC: Sorry this took so long. I had to roll world events before you actually made landfall in the city. 
(x10)