OoOoO

"Someone's coming!"

Hurried whispers and the clatter of metal falling together roused Lhara. She had fallen asleep against a tree trunk, and her back creaked in protest as she jerked fully awake. In the dim pre-morning light only shapes could be seen; Factionists running to stand together facing the fork in the road toward Moaan. Beneath the nearby clamor a low cadence could be heard. There were indeed many someones, close by to the south and getting closer with every moment.

Ignoring the tickle of insects beneath her borrowed clothes, Lhara scrambled to her feet. She marked Reyson out from the crowd of Factionists, all anxiously watching the road with hands on their weapons. Lhara joined him, Vinie and Kiiss where they gathered. For what felt like an age they stood waiting and listening to the rolling march.

Bronze breastplates and red cloaks were the first things they saw when the Moaanese Guard rounded the bend. Vinie let out an audible gasp of relief. On and on the spears of the Guard went, tall and sharp and gleaming beneath the first rays of dawn through the forest canopy like the undulating scales of a snake. At their head rode a small company, mounted on creatures that Lhara could only describe as deer-like. Their spiral horns jutted up proudly before the riders. Their coats were dark, with vertical white stripes along their sides and one single stripe between the eyes. Between the horns and a thick ruff of beard-like hair at the neck, they really were stately looking animals. It was well that they were, because the noble pair leading the Moaanese Guard would have been suited by no less. Lhara was relieved to spot Jath likewise mounted on one of the creatures with Gideo and Dhalad riding on either side of him.

Vinie strode out to meet the approaching company. She raised a hand in greeting and called out.

"Lord Xolani, Lady Oesu! I can't begin to put in words how glad I am that you've come."

"BlackPearl," Lord Xolani replied. "Your messengers came to us in the night with news of the army's coming. It goes without saying that the Moaanese Guard will go to restore peace in Utunma."

"Our offer is accepted then?" asked Vinie, and Lhara knew she was looking at Jath.

"It is," said Lady Oesu. "Let us see if Mahir will be reasonable when presented with one of his noblemen for ransom. Are your folk ready to leave?"

"We are. Shall we fall in behind the Guard then?"

"That would be well; the Guard has its own rank and file in which to travel." Xolani swept back his colorful red and orange shoulder wrap to reveal the glittering hilt of a blade tucked into his sash. He called up one of the Guards from the front of the column. "Place the prisoner in one of the Factionist carts, and assign two men to travel with him. BlackPearl shall ride at the front with us."

Lhara watched uneasily as two guardsmen approached Jath and helped him down from his mount; his hands were tied together and to the saddle horn. They disappeared with him into the crowd of Factionists, and Vinie was called up to take his seat. She swung herself up somewhat stiffly, exchanging a glance with Gideo. The two were obviously relieved at the presence of the Moaanese Guard, but there was tension and uncertainty in that look too.

Oesu stood up in the stirrups and called out to the merging companies of Factionists and the Guard. "Move on! The king's army is days ahead now, and Utunma cannot wait for us. Move on!"

OoOoO

It wasn't until the next day that Lhara worked up the nerve to approach the cart where Jath was being held. The oxen teams with their supplies were at the back of the column, and it took Lhara a while to fall back all the way past row after row of marching Guards and Factionists. She found Jath sitting comfortably enough in the back of a wagon, although his wrists were now tied to one of the sides. Despite his circumstances, Jath still brightened as he always did upon spotting Lhara.

"Are you alright?" he asked. "You look...uneasy."

Lhara could feel the eyes of the two Guards on her from beneath the rims of their polished helmets. The spears in their hands didn't make them any more approachable. Trying not to be rattled by their presence, she shrugged. The cart went over a bump in the road and she had to swerve to avoid stepping in it herself.

"I was going to ask you the same question. What happened in Moaan?"

Jath flexed one of his hands in a little waving motion at Lhara. "Well, I suppose it's obvious enough that the regents of the south were amenable to my solution." When Lhara didn't respond at his glib answer he turned serious. "They knew the royal army had passed by heading south, and they knew about Utunma's rebellion. When Gideo asked them for help they hardly seemed surprised at all. In fact, I think Lord Xolani and Lady Oesu may have already been prepared to march, and were simply waiting for Vinie to come to them."

Lhara, jogging to keep up with the cart, huffed. "All signs seem to keep pointing toward what looks more and more like a war. Has Goran ever fought a war before?"

"Not for thousands of years, and certainly not against its own people. Not since the days of First King Amenthis and his campaign against the ancient beasts of this world, actually."

"Did anyone say what might happen to you when we get to Utunma?"

Jath shook his head. "No...but for now, I've made up my mind to enjoy not having to walk the rest of the way there." He chuckled softly, raising the eyebrows of his two guardians.

For a short ways Lhara followed the cart in silence. The Guards didn't seem particularly opposed to her presence. Swallowing her shyness of them, she boldly seized the edge of the wagon and hopped up into it. When Jath looked up at Lhara questioningly she folded her legs and settled down beside him.

"Well, if you're going to be lazy then I may as well too. Yidu says it's still some ways to Utunma." She winked. "Where were we in our Tale of Tales?"

Despite essentially being a prisoner of the cause he had fought for, Jath's smile seemed to warm his entire face. "I do believe the moth and the sparrow were on their way to the Wishing Waters."

The two passed many long hours on the road chattering away in the back of the cart. And if their Guards happened to find themselves getting quite wrapped up in the story as it unfolded, well, that was something the Guards kept entirely to themselves.

OoOoO

Vinie knew this stretch of road so well, she imagined even after twelve years that she could still walk it blindfolded. A twist to the right, a bend to the left, a short climb up a hill past where the stream tended to flood, out of the jungle, and there would be Utunma, cradled by the sea with beaches as white as a gull's wing. The urge to dismount from her antelope and run all the way home was practically irresistible. It had been almost two years since she'd seen the town where she grew up, and now that they were here Vinie was terrified. The royal army's company would have been here for at least a day already. Who knew what kind of justice they'd exacted on Utunma?

The mood of their company was likewise fraught with anxiety. The Factionists were quiet, and the Moaanese Guard fierce. Lord Xolani and Lady Oesu hadn't spoken much to Vinie during the journey from Moaan. She likewise had been too caught up in her own worries to talk. The antelope beneath her seemed to sense its rider's unease and flicked its ears often.

When they turned the corner to the right, something dark by the side of the road stuck out against the lush greenness of the jungle. The buzzing hum of flies reached Vinie, turning her blood cold and dropping her heart into her stomach. Her hands shook. Cries that she vaguely recognized as her own rang in the back of her mind, bubbling up unchecked from the memory that to this day haunted her dreams.

Chains...screams...death. 'From the sea, of the sea, to the sea'. A blade glowing with sunlight hanging in midair. Zaneo.

Vinie was moving, not even aware of having slid down out of the saddle. The rich, humid scent of life so familiar to these lands hung tainted on the air with a sickly sweet tang. What made up the little mound on the roadside grew clearer and more recognizable with every step; severed heads.

At least a dozen deep, the heads had been left deliberately piled to support the pike planted upright in their midst. Mounted on the tip of the pike, one head in particular was set to await the Factionists upon their arrival. The eyes were closed, features still contorted in what could have been a grimace of either agony or grief. Either way, Vinie knew Sahar, her oldest and truest friend, at once.

Vaguely, at a distance, some part of Vinie registered that someone was calling out to her from behind. She would allow no one to come between herself and the dead though. Reaching up, Vinie found the black pearl with numb fingers and tore it from her brow. She cradled Sahar, dear, loyal Sahar's head tenderly, pressing their foreheads together and breathing against slack lips which once so readily quirked open in laughter. Was this what had become of Zaneo's head too? Left out to rot in the heat, those beautiful blue-green eyes to be-

Strong, warm arms, so unlike Sahar's cool skin, wrapped around Vinie and dragged her down. She struggled, refusing to release her hold on Sahar's head until her arms were pinioned to her sides. Even then Vinie struggled, bucking and writhing against whoever held her, noises that could hardly be called human escaping from within her. She tried to scratch, nails digging into vulnerable flesh. In that moment of anguish, Vinie did not know herself anymore. All she knew was the animal need to be free.

"Vinie..."

"Vinie."

Two voices broke through her delirious haze at once, one a broken sob and the other a barely-there whisper the likes of which Vinie had not heard in a long time. Through Gideo's choked repetition of her name, over and over into the nape of her neck as he held her from behind, Vinie recognized Sahar's soft, throaty voice. Once again, somehow, the dead were speaking to her.

"Sahar?" Vinie choked out, her own voice barely intelligible.

"Vinie...take care of them...protect them," Sahar whispered. "Love them as we loved you."

Hearing Sahar speak brought Vinie back to herself. She knelt doubled over on the ground, the severed heads of once-friends and neighbors piled before her and Gideo completely wrapped around her, his tall body wracked with sobs powerful enough to shake through them both.

OoOoO

A terrible cry had brought Lhara running to the front of the marching army. When she got there, the sight was truly awful. Vinie and Gideo knelt a short ways ahead by the side of the road, him tucked around her and both in obvious agony. Their grief rang out in eerie counterpoint to the deadly silence of the army. No one moved nor spoke. All stood nearly as grey-faced as the heads piled before Vinie and Gideo, including Lady Oesu and Lord Xolani. Even Kiiss, off to one side next to Reyson, seemed for the first time to actually look her age.

Tears instantly welled up and slid down Lhara's cheeks, dripping from her chin to water the earth unseen. She wept for Vinie and Gideo's pain, sharp enough to cut everyone present to the quick, but she also wept for Marden, Yelaina and Tarun. What if, by the time she made it to Geristan, Tarun had already been somehow lost? Trembling from head to toe, Lhara struggled to keep herself together.

Lord Xolani spoke, his voice low and unsteady with anger. "This will not be endured without recompense. The king will either make amends for such brutality or face the wrath of the sea folk."

"BlackPearl..." Lady Oesu called out softly even as she clenched the reins of her mount with tight fingers. "We are very near Utunma. Will you lead your Factionists?"

When at first Vinie did not answer, still folded over in front of the macabre guidepost, Lhara wondered if Vinie was truly in any fit state to be leading anyone. Then, slowly, Vinie rose to her feet, causing Gideo to have to unwrap himself from around her. Any last vestiges of youth or joy seemed to have drained away from both of their faces, leaving both BlackPearl and StarGazer with pinched, drained expressions and eyes that stared like the gaping entrance to Trosk's crypt.

"I will lead," was all that Vinie said, the words coming out short and hoarse.

Vinie made straight for her mount. The creature dipped its spiraling horns briefly before the BlackPearl vaulted back into the saddle. Gideo dipped briefly to one knee in front of the pile of heads, perhaps paying last respects Lhara imagined, before likewise rejoining the group. As the long column of sea folk passed by the grim marker by the road on their way to Utunma, Lhara could look back and see others briefly breaking away to pause in front of it too.

"From the sea, of the sea, to the sea," she could hear many of them say to the dead. Whatever it was; a prayer, a chant, a eulogy, it seemed to spread along the ranks of the marching southerners.

"From the sea..."

"...of the sea..."

"...to the sea!"

The chant grew in volume and fervor, with more and more taking up the cry wherever it reached their ears. With every step the marchers took up the rise in the road, muddied at its dip by a swollen stream nearby, they chanted louder.

"To the sea! To the sea! To the sea!"

Louder and louder and louder it grew. Now everyone around Lhara was shouting, and it seemed to have become, without intent or reason, a war cry. The Moaanese Guard slammed the shafts of their spears against their shields in time to the chant, making the forest reverberate around them like a drum. Even Xolani and Reyson had taken up the call, their booming voices adding to the din. Only Vinie and Gideo remained silent, Lhara noted, sitting stalk-still and frozen on their long limbed beasts.

And then, they rounded the bend. The jungle fell away, opening out onto a gentle slope at the bottom of which sat what to Lhara looked like the end of the earth. A town clung to the edge of the land, its docks winding outward from the shore like tree roots; the last markers of civilization before the world fell away into endless blue. So bright and blue and vast the ocean seemed, Lhara was almost too rapt to notice what lay between them and Utunma.

Soldiers, hundreds upon hundreds, more even than had come to Trosk. Black, red and gold banners emblazoned with the Gorian crown fluttered above Utunma's flat mud rooftops, and from the rows upon rows of men. Armor glinted in the hot sun. All of the grass between the jungle's edge and the town had been trampled underfoot by hundreds of heavy boots, flattening the slope and turning it from green to scarred brown. Scarred like the mountainside after the Battle of Trosk.

"All carts and non-combatants, keep to the jungle," called out Lady Oesu from the front. Immediately the back of the company began to dissipate, spreading out to find shelter amidst the dense foliage.

"Lhara."

Startled to hear her name called, Lhara had to pull herself together from the past few overwhelming minutes before jogging up to Reyson's position just behind the leaders. The bald swordsman jerked his head toward where the carts were disappearing amongst the trees.

"Find a spot where you can see and be seen from the field. Have Madame Kiiss and anyone else you need help you to get an infirmary set up and ready. Mark it on the trees with a handprint; use anything you like to make the print, so long as it's clear."

"A handprint?"

"Healer's symbol, at least in the west. No army soldier with half a conscience will try to attack you if they see that mark, and then our wounded will know how to find you."

Lhara hadn't considered that she too might be potentially harmed in the coming conflict. Committed to finding something to use as paint as soon as possible, Lhara left Reyson's side with thanks. She was just about to leave the road and dip into the jungle when Jath and his bodyguards passed heading toward the front. Jath had been set free of the cart, but the fact that he was being led toward the battlefield instead of away from it made Lhara's stomach clench. Already in midstride and tasked with a mission, there was no time for Lhara to stop and exchange words with Jath. Instead they only caught one another's eyes; Lhara loping away into the heady darkness of the forest and Jath being escorted out under the glare of the coastal sun and a thousand Gorian soldiers.

OoOoO

Vinie, Gideo, Lady Oesu, and Lord Xolani sat astride their antelopes, watching the Gorian army array itself in front of Utunma. The town itself was still standing, although certainly worse for wear. Vinie noted that the harbor was mostly empty; so either the boats had been sunk, or else some people had been lucky enough to escape.

"You should have fled too, Sahar," said Vinie.

Gideo shifted in the saddle next to her. He looked tired, both in body and spirit. "She was always going to stay in Utunma, Vinie. I think, maybe even as early as the night we fled to Moaan, she knew she would never leave our home."

"Our home..." Vinie repeated.

"Our home." Sahar affirmed in Vinie's ear, sounding fierce, just like she had always been.

Something was happening amongst the Gorian army. A corridor opened down the middle of the company's ranks, making way for three riders on horseback. A ray of sunlight struck directly upon the golden crown the middle, tallest rider wore.

"Mahir," hissed Vinie.

"So he will talk with us...good." Xolani beckoned to Vinie. "Come, BlackPearl. We will address the king as the leaders of this company; you for your Factionists and us for the Guard."

"There is nothing I have to say to him that wouldn't be a point better made with a spear," said Vinie shortly.

Oesu reached across and slapped the rump of Vinie's antelope, urging in into a trot beside hers and Xolani's. "Like it or not, yours is the name and the symbol that started this rebellion. Do your Factionists not carry the flag of the BlackPearl?"

"Fine," Vinie relented through gritted teeth. But she had no intention of enduring the sight of Mahir alone, not after what the king had just made her see by the side of the road. "Gideo..."

Gideo caught up so quickly that Vinie imagined he would have been hot on their heels even without an invitation. Together the four of them rode down the hillside, out of the jungle's lush, protective shadow, down to meet the king of Goran on the road before Utunma.

If Vinie had been expecting the young, boyish monarch from twelve years ago who had given the order to execute Zaneo and his family while standing by in red velvet, she was mistaken. Just as the years had carved her and Gideo into rebels, so they had also made a warrior-king out of Mahir. Dressed for battle and un-ironically suited to his armor, Mahir was as fit and ready looking a warrior as any of his soldiers on the field. The crown in all its bloody, golden glory sat less like jewelry now on his mahogany locks and more like a banner, a proclamation of ownership of everything and everyone around him. That piercing, hawk-like gaze had not changed though. It bore straight into each of them in turn, measuring the leaders of the south and finding them wanting in comparison to the crown.

"King Mahir." Xolani was the first to speak, reflexively inclining his head as one would to a ruler.

"Lord Xolani, Lady Oesu," replied Mahir, although his eyes still flickered to Vinie and Gideo. "Is your duty not the care and order of Moaan? It seems to me that you are quite a bit out of your way to come here and interfere in the restoration of law in Utunma-"

"We seek a new way," Oesu interrupted, immediately drawing sharp turns of the head from Vinie and Gideo to hear one of Moaan's regents quote the Factionist slogan at the king. "Clearly, something is amiss with Goran's laws if restoring order includes gory displays the likes of which we found on the road not far from here."

Mahir was quick on the rebuttal. "Clearly, it is previous laws that have been lacking in Goran, as well as the ones who were tasked to enforce them. Did I not entrust to you to subdue this rebellion before it reached such a fever pitch as to start costing lives like this? Arriving here in arms with the Factionists only proves to me, Lord and Lady Regent, just how thoroughly the pair of you have failed in your duties."

"Be that as it may, I think you'll find we have somewhat more popular support in these lands than yourself, O king," said Xolani coolly. "Especially after what has been done to the folk of Utunma."

"The opinions of the uneducated matter not. Blood determines the right to rule in Goran, as it has since civilization was won at the point of my ancestor's sword."

Mahir settled back in his saddle, apparently feeling he had settled the discussion. The soldier on his right, a pale man with hair, mustache and eyes as black as night, cleared his throat and unfurled a short scroll of parchment.

"By royal decree, the settlement of Utunma is under capital occupation, until such time as a new magistrate can be instated and sufficient civil strength put in place to ensure their authority. Those identified as the leaders of previous unlawful activities have been summarily punished. Unless the following conditions are met, the settlements of Danitesk and Moaan are to be considered similarly errant and subject to restoration of order by similar force.

Firstly, the current regents of Moaan, Lord Xolani and Lady Oesu, are to be removed from office immediately, to be replaced by candidates His Majesty the king deems worthy. The pair of them shall be henceforth barred from holding any public office or position of authority, under pain of death."

Xolani and Oesu glanced at one another. Vinie continued to stare straight at Mahir, as if she might somehow make her hatred of the man into a tangible force. The king's second was not finished though.

"In reparation for stirring unrest within Goran, every citizen of southern Goran will pay double taxes for the next ten years. All men of age are ordered to adhere to the royal draft, and serve in Goran's army or soon-to-be instated navy, until such time as the nation has been deemed once again at peace. This includes restoring obedience to royal authority in all of southern and eastern Goran."

Xolani cleared his throat. The mental abacus in Oesu's head could almost be heard frantically clicking at the demand of double taxes for a decade. Although Moaan did well as a trade hub with the east, smaller fishing towns like Utunma and Danitesk would break under such strain. Vinie well remembered how tight life had become each year at tax season, growing up in the house of a widower PearlDiver. There were others in all three southern settlements that lived even leaner than she and Bakko had.

"Double tax is much to require from the people, King Mahir..." said Xolani slowly. "Perhaps a gesture of good faith might encourage you to consider a more manageable burden...say taxes and a half?"

Vinie was incredulous, and furious. Were the regents actually suing for peace? Peace, after what they'd seen on the roadside?? Her hand closed around the pronged hilt of her belawa, itching to draw. Just barely she restrained herself. There were, after all, over two hundred men and women in her charge who had followed her here from Falerik. Vinie wanted blood, wanted it just as badly now for Sahar as she had ever wanted it for Zaneo. Still, the living people waiting at the tree line deserved at least a few minutes worth of restraint from her to see how this played out. Just barely she managed to ease her grip on the knife.

When Mahir raised an eyebrow at Xolani, the regent raised his arm. From the assembled Guards, two came forward with their charge led between them. They marched Jath down the incline, bringing him close enough for the king to see clearly. Vinie's anger only flared higher. If she had known that this was how the regents intended to use their 'insurance', she wouldn't have bothered trying to buy the Moaanese Guard at all.

"What is this?" asked Mahir, narrowing his eyes to raptor-like intensity as he got a good look at Jath. Jath for his part met the king's eye calmly, although Vinie did not miss the way he looked questioningly toward Xolani and Oesu first.

Oesu nodded toward Jath. "A Vaelonese nobleman whom we found lost in the south. As you can see, no harm has come to him. Perhaps the safe return of Jatheryn, firstborn heir to the Saurivic family and a descendent from the same noble blood as yourself, might engender some leniency toward the sea folk?"

Vinie's belawa was halfway out of its sheath on its way to being flung, either at Mahir or Oesu she wasn't sure yet, when Mahir started to laugh.

"Forgive me, Lord Jatheryn," he chuckled. "It is not that I do not have sympathy for your current condition. It is just that I am struck by the irony of the situation. You see..." Mahir turned a very sharp-toothed sneer on Xolani and Oesu "...your attempt to beg and blackmail the crown is a very poorly timed one. Only a matter of weeks ago, I personally declared Jatheryn Saurivic formally dead. His place in the family succession has been formally granted to his cousin, Lord Taevrin. And so, again I ask that you pardon my laughter, but it really is as if I were seeing a ghost, both in the literal and figurative sense. Now, Captain Sabin, if you would continue the list of conditions."

The black and white captain quirked his narrow mouth in a sardonic smile. Further unrolling the parchment he held, he obeyed.

"In order to ensure that there is no further threat to be had from these self-named 'Factionists, all identified leaders are to be surrendered immediately. They will be escorted under heavy guard back to Amenthere, whereupon they will be tried for high treason and summarily executed. Chiefly, the one known as Vinie BlackPearl is to be publically beheaded before all in the capital."

It was, of course, no surprise to hear the order for her death spoken aloud. Still, after seeing Sahar's bloodied head mounted and left for her to find, and remembering Zaneo's execution in the same manner, Vinie felt like this must be the end. This must be her fate after all; to come full circle back to the darkness and silence of a prison cell, before meeting the death which she had escaped almost twelve years ago. Xolani and Oesu were going to surrender, she was going to be arrested, and she was going to die...

"If you think that any of that gulls' splat is going to happen, I swear by the stars that I will finish what I started and kill you."

Gideo had his sickle sword out and pointed directly at Mahir's face. He had driven his antelope forward, placing himself squarely between the king and Vinie. Fury seemed to grant Gideo a sort of fearsome aura that Vinie had never seen before from him; he bristled and snarled with the ferocity of a jungle cat, tattooed arms corded and teeth bared.

Mahir's captain was fast to react. With a flash of steel nearly too swift to follow, Sabin drew his own sword and crossed blades with Gideo, blocking any imminent assault on the king. Gideo remained where he was though, his challenge unbroken as he faced down Mahir.

Mahir for his part hardly seemed rattled. In fact, his frown was not of fear or surprise, but recognition.

"You had your chance, Gideo SkinPainter. Rest assured, I have a special justice in mind for your particular brand of treason. You were a threat to my son, and for that you will join your BlackPearl in death and then some. I promise you."

"That is quite enough." Oesu spoke up above the crackling hatred flying thick between the king and the Factionists. She did not sound dismayed that things had gone so sour. In fact, she sounded quite jaded. "It seems we have our final answer as to just how much 'your' peoples' lives mean to you, Mahir, whether they be from the south or from your own bloodline. A man who does not honor life is not fit to be a king."

Xolani nudged his antelope, placing himself directly beside Vinie. "Our decision is made. No more are the sea folk subject to the heirs of Amenthis. We will fight your company for Utunma's freedom, and continue to fight until the lines are firmly drawn between Goran and the south. Kill us if you will, but know that you no longer have claim to our lands or our people." Turning, Xolani threw a fist in the air, calling out to their waiting followers with a booming cry. "To the sea!"

"To the sea! To the sea! TO THE SEA!" The army of the south answered, their voices sending the jungle birds into flight as far as the eye could see.

A fierce smile of triumph growing on her face, Vinie turned in the saddle to look at Mahir. The king of Goran's face was set in grim anger. He met her eye, and two sized one another up as mortal enemies. Over the war chant of the sea folk, Mahir called out to her.

"You've given false dreams to these people, BlackPearl. Enjoy the moment; your dreams and your life are both going to end by my hand this day."

Vinie's smile only grew bolder still. "Come and take them from me then." Drawing her blade, she and the others turned to ride back to their roaring army, leaving Mahir to watch the flags of the Factionists rise high on Moaanese spears.

OoOoO