[Nyka location] The Farmlands

[Liar]

The Farmlands Yellow wheat fields predominate the land that stretches south from the city wall. They are harvested continuously throughout year, found at all heights at any given time. While this does make up a large part of the Nykan harvest, many other fields color the landscape around and between it. Other grains such as corn, oats, and barely stand beside sizeable flax fields; closer to the wall are planted squares of sugar cane and root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, yams and turnips. Apples, plums, and pears sprout from the orchard trees early in spring and late into fall, but they are not as prominent as the long dark lines of berry bushes: raspberries, lingonberries, blackberries, and gooseberries are a daily treat in many a citizens’ allotted ration. This extensive wheat crop, along with the perpetual success of all other food grown here, is granted by none other than Skerr’s blessing—a fact that is never forgotten by the monks that monitor the lands’ sowing and harvest. Theirs are the minds that organize the seasonal progress of crops, and theirs are the whips that keep the workers efficient. Filled with the songs of labor, these lands are often romanticized by the people on the other side of the wall, but frequent rains turn the soil to sticky mud and make the air sink hard into a man’s joints. The life is not glamorous, but it is rewarding to serve the populace with their most basic of needs. The wall itself is lined with stables: cattle and sheep are kept under close guard from the beasts who would try to steal them, though they are not without small rangelands close to the sea. The wool is used for monks’ robes and so mutton is not so easily spared as beef and cheese, which are second only to fish in a Nykan’s diet. A small collection of horses are raised here too, for transport around the wall rather than within it, as the streets of Nyka are hardly hospitable to hooves and carriages. There is always a small procession of them pulling fresh goods to the gates, but much of the fields’ product may also be stored in the stone warehouses that frame the stables. The animals in them have earned the bulk of the attention of Skerr’s night guard, when the farmers return to the safety of their homes in the evening.

[Xnnn]

Xnnn had returned to the place where meat being brought in from the farmlands was divvied up for distribution to the populace of the city. His earlier hesitance was now bolstered by the minimal but significant interaction that he had had with Grayson. Simply having some small contact with and reassurance from a human had greatly boosted his courage and his resolve. If he could be of service, he was happy. And to be of real help to Grayson, it was clear that he needed to find some way to sustain himself. So, this time, he paused only long enough to scan the milling crowd to try to guess at who he should approach. He had chosen a long robe – they were clearly in charge – and luck was on his side. For instead of being detained and asked for his non-existent papers, he had happened upon a monk in a good mood, who merely waved him aside, like a worrisome fly, with some vague words of “You’d have to check at the farms, if you want a job like that.” Well, Xnnn had seen enough of the city to know two things, at least. One – there were clearly no farms within the great encircling wall of the city. And, two - the only way in and out was through the one set of gates. So off to the gates he went, receiving only a casual glance from the guards, who were much more concerned with who was trying to get in, than they were with who was trying to get out. Once through the gates, he asked for the way and was pointed towards the south. Setting out on the well traveled road, he eventually came to the farmlands. Though the bulk of the animals on hoof might have been kept at a shorter and safer distance from the city – the stables being right up against the wall – there was an obvious reason for the slaughterhouse itself to be far removed from the place where humans lived or worked. And it was this very reason that Xnnn had no need to ask for directions at this point. He literally followed his nose and soon enough came to a large, low stone building that smelled of death. Entering into its shadows, he stopped the first man that he saw, saying, “I need to work – to help – can I work here, please?”

[Liar]

The man pointed him to the back, and the man in the back rolled his eyes and said, “Wait here.” Xnnn waited for nearly an hour before he noticed a large woman in familiar brown robes advancing on him from the far hall, her dark eyes full of a distrustful glare. She probably could have smashed his head with one hand, but she seemed satisfied to fold her arms beneath her chest and look over this newcomer. Lucky for the Kelvic, his mother had given him a face that passed for Nykan in the dim light, and the dirt road between the gate and the slaughterhouse had painted his hair a few shades darker. She disliked him like she disliked any stranger, but even she knew she could not know everyone in the city. “Petching Henner,” she mumbled, mostly to herself. Her voice was hoarse and loud at the same time, like she had spent a lifetime yelling. “Yes, it’s true we’re missing more men than we need to be,” she revealed, then hastily added, “The reason’s no business of yours, stranger. Henner should have known not to send me anything but a Southerner. You’re scrawny, like a Xannos man.” It seemed the truth in her words was of no consequence, as long as she was allowed to keep talking. The leather ropes on her wheatwhip swayed at by her hip, threatening all who dared interrupt her. Assuming the sacred paperwork had already been checked, she continued, “What do you want, to carve up some corpses? Get your hands nice n’ bloody?” Inexplicably, she laughed. “That’s my kind of man.” And suddenly her face straightened again; the old frown returned to her plump, capricious lips. “Now tell me why I should pay you for the rest of your miserable life instead of investing in a few slaves. Where are you from, boy? What is your name?”

[Xnnn]

Xnnn had waited patiently, well used to having to stay quite still for long periods of time, waiting on food to appear. Finally, a long robe – obviously not food – stalked towards him and began talking – fast. The kelvic stared at the woman throughout her petty diatribe, having little idea what she was talking about. But he got the last bit. “I am Achym,” he replied in his near monotone, choosing the name that Grayson seemed to prefer. “I came from the room – where we will live, near the forge. By the place where they bring the meat. I know how to cut up bodies. I am fast, and good with a knife. Or a . . . " He tried to think of the word in common for hatchet, but realized that he did not know it. He moved his hands to show what he meant. "A small . . . axe – though it has been a while. I do not want coins – just meat, even the parts you throw away. I just need to eat, to help Grayson.” Well – that was all he had to say. He looked at the woman, like a dog waiting for a signal that it would get its reward – or be sent packing in disgrace.

[Liar]

The woman rolled her eyes. “A stupid one,” she observed despairingly, and yet there was a smile in her eyes as she said it. She reached over and clapped an approving hand on his shoulder. “But everyone here is. Wouldn’t be laborers if you had something better to do.” She sighed, shook him twice, and dropped her arm. “Sorry, Achym, but you en’t a slave, so you’ll be working for money. You can give it all to that Grayson fella, for all I care. As for your food...” She eyed him suspiciously, but it was hard to tell if the gesture was just another mistimed joke. “I’d be thinking you had rations enough to fill you. But who knows; I can’t say if the others eat the entrails—Oy!” She turned her head to one of the men at the front, who seemed to be taking his lunch on a piece of cold bread, and waved widely to get his attention. He looked up at her. “You! Have you been eating the scraps before they toss ‘em?” It must have sounded like an accusation, because he hastily shook his head and bowed to his meal. “A wretched thing, that,” the loquacious creature mentioned with a shrug. “But to each his own. We don’t waste much here, but more power to the man who can turn refuse into something he can use. Eat what you will, but don’t get the others thinking they can steal the good stuff. If my numbers don’t add up, I’ll be coming to you, hear?” She took the whips from her belt like a threat, and beat it once against the ground. “You start now,” she added. She was walking off as she said the only words that mattered. “We’re in the middle of a load now, so join in and don’t get in anyone's way. You’ll work mornings. I want to see you here every day, half-past dawn, and leaving at noon. Arrange your off-days with the one they call Mitkav.” She turned at the door that was apparently her office, and told him from across the room. “Ask for Kosya, if you need me again. But you probably won’t.”

[Xnnn]

Xnnn blinked, once again having missed half of what the long robe said. Truth be told, his brain was much more interested in the smell of flesh and blood that was filling his nostrils, which flared to sniff even deeper. But he did catch the bit about “start now,” and “I want to see you here every day.” So he took that for her assent to his working there. The rest, he figured, he’d pick up eventually. With his eyes lingering wistfully on the man who was even now finishing up his noonday meal, Xnnn cast about until he saw the wagons that other men and woman were busily loading. At a trot, he set out to join them, happy to finally think he might be of use to someone, and looking forward to a full belly and seeing Grayson again at the end of the day.