Closed Welcome to Kalinor (?)

[Poison]

continued from here.


Fal 53, 512 AV

„You are barren?“ the scarred Symenestra asked. He didn’t make any effort to hide his dislike for her kind. Zith were one of the reasons why the surface was so dangerous sometimes. „That’s strange. Don’t your kind normally breed like rabbits? Is that why you aren’t in the colony? Did they exile you?“

„That works“, his colleague remarked as she mentioned flying. He was suspicious of her as well, but a little more friendly. „We Symenestra do however not fly. We climb. Like this.“ He was about to climb the wall in front of them, but the scarred one stopped him. They exchanged a few words in their native language, then the scarred one pointed at Bear and shook his head. His colleague though nodded firmly, and then he gave Bear a sign to follow.

What harm could a single Zith do?

~~~~

A few moments passed, and then they were past the wall, and Bear saw Kalinor for the first time in her life. It was breathtaking. It was different from the colonies of the Zith and the cities of the humans. The houses of the people that called themselves Symenestra were not square like the houses of the humans, but roughly pear shaped and made of some sort of stone.

They didn’t stand on the ground, but hung from the ceiling. They had neither windows nor chimneys, and the doors were on the roof. There were no streets. All the houses were connected by thick ropes that the Symenestra walked effortlessly.

The few people she saw outside their houses wore strange clothes in jewel tones and made of silk, and their feet were bare. They all looked like the two guards, almost unnaturally pale, with eyes like jewels.

Those that were closest to the gate stopped and stared at her. Some seemed to be afraid, some were merely curious, and somewhere she could hear a child cry because it was afraid of her.

„We’ll go to the Sac first“, the younger guard said and pointed at a building in the distance. It resembled a floating cage. It didn’t have solid walls, but was made entirely of bars that were closely spaced. „Our superior is there. He’ll want to know about a Zith in Kalinor. And maybe we should let Hellebore examine …“

He broke off and abruptly switched to his own language to ask his colleague something. The scarred man nodded, and he continued, „We can’t just let a Zith walk around in Kalinor alone, at least not until we are completely sure that you are harmless.“

[Bear]

Although Bear knew the word barren, she didn't know what exiled meant, so she gave a simple nod to the first part of his question and then her attention strayed to her own thoughts. Idly, she took note of the fact that the Symenestra climbed, an odd but mesmerizing form of movement compared to the walking of humans and the flying of her own. The Zith's wings flapped, carrying her further up as they began escorting her into what they called Kalinor. There wasn't anything Bear had seen, ever, that could compare to the sight that emerged from the clearing above. Kalinor had formed from the inside of the cave itself, dropping from the ceiling in tear-shaped rock connected by thickly strung material that was as stable as any human bridge. There were more Symenestra, only a handful but plenty for Bear to stare at as moments before she had been aware that only two existed. Some were at the top of these hanging rocks, some balanced perfectly on the material that Bear knew she couldn't hope to stand on. How had they persuaded the earth to form in favor of their survival and how had they asked the spiders to create silk bridges strong enough for travel? The Symenestra eyes of familiar color shone like finely cut jewels, enchanting and rich, glorious compared to the rough, hard stone of the Zith. Such capturing tools of perception, Bear continued to stare at them, faintly realizing that some were also staring at her, although it seemed to be out of concern for their safety more than amazement. Perhaps the Symenestra had been born from the earth and darkness, and could speak to it with words of persuasion. Shortly after a startling cry of terror that sounded uncomfortably child-like, one of the original Symenestra escorts pointed ahead, towards a structure in the distance. From afar Bear could see it had some been constructed with help from some sort of material other than rock, possibly metal. The gaps of the bars weren't visible from the distance, the walls of the structure appearing to only have some odd vertical markings on it. "What is Hellebore?" Bear asked, understanding that they wished to take her to the odd building they called the Sac but not quite grasping what examine meant. When they continued in their own unique language, Bear's hold on what was happening was dashed away by the distracting movements of their mouths forming words that sounded more lyrical than practical. How did they learn such a language, and did their crying infants have such beautiful wails or were they as harsh as the echos of a crying Zith? Bear became so enthralled with the sound of Symenos that she nearly forgot to continue flapping her wings that still ached for rest, them failing her for just a second before she snapped to and corrected her focus. "No intention to harm." The Zith said again, hoping to confirm that they understood correctly. Truth and lie had no meaning to the Zith, as words were merely exchanges of present information, of what was useful and relevant at the time and what mattered most. Promises were implications that you were too weak to take care of your own needs and wants, words of dependency that always led to more promises being made. But intentions were communicated, for they were more useful than anything else to let others predict your actions. A promise spoken with the intentions of being broken has no meaning, but intentions clearly stated gave no disillusion.

[Poison]

„Hellebore is the name of the Head Medic at the Purging“, the younger guard replied. He didn’t mind explaining things to her. „The Purging is Kalinor’s hospital. Do your people have hospitals?“ He had to admit, he knew very little of Zith, and what he knew wasn’t particularly pleasant. They killed, stole and kept slaves. Did they have cities like the Symenestra or the humans?

The scarred man said something in their native language again, and the young man turned around. „He said we should go to the Sac and not chat“, he explained at which the scarred man frowned. In his opinion there was no need to explain anything to the Zith as long as she hadn’t been questioned and examined.

He gestured for Bear to follow them, and a few moments later they were in front of the building called the Sac. The curious – and sometimes frightened – looks of the Symenestra had followed Bear all the way, but no one had gotten close to her. She was with the Ochya, the guards. They would make sure that she wouldn’t be able to hurt anybody.

„The door is up there“, the young man explained and pointed. As he looked up, a couple of people looked down from between the bars. „We’ll climb. You can fly again.“

~~~~
The Sac was an incredibly strange building. There were no walls, neither on the outside nor on the inside. All the different rooms were just separated with bars so that they looked like big cages. The upper storeys of the Sac all contained similar rooms, with a bed, a chest and a chair. Most of those rooms were empty, but a few of them contained people that were clearly prisoners. The doors of their rooms (that were also only made of bars) were locked.

The people in the Sac had little to no privacy. Everybody could see everybody else, and the people inside the Sac could see what was happening in Kalinor and vice versa.

The two guards led Bear down a narrow staircase that would probably have been impossible to descent for anybody that wasn’t a Symenestra or didn’t have wings. The lowest section of the Sac looked different. Here long silk curtains in intense jewel tones covered the walls, giving it the appearance of a gigantic tent. The room at the bottom of the Sac looked like some kind of office, with a desk that was covered with papers and a few shelves.

The only thing that was out of place was a small collection of different weapons in one corner.

A dour-faced middle aged Symenestra who probably never smiled, was behind the desk. As the two guards entered with a Zith, he abruptly rose, and his eyes widened. He said something to them, and then he turned to the Zith. „They told me that you are barren and alone“, he informed her. „But what they haven’t told me is your name. What are you called? And why are you in this part of Kalea?“

[Bear]

The Zith hadn't heard of a medic but recognized the word seemed to be shortened from medicine and supposed that Hellebore must be the name of someone with medical knowledge. The concept of hospital was foreign though, so Bear remained clueless as to whether or not Zith had them. Her kind had humans, and those humans had knowledge of things that the Zith weren't skilled in. One of those things was medicine, and Bear knew that her birth colony had humans skilled in medicine. She was about to answer, when the two began their musical way of communicating to each other, catching the Zith's attention and holding it. The Common that was spoken to Bear went in one ear and out the next, but she caught the motion to follow and did so. The Sac was a structure composed entirely of bars, and from it's apparent purpose, the design was ingenious. It seemed to be where the Symenestra kept their slaves, and offered no chance of escape as there was no privacy for escape. There were a small amount of Symenestra slaves locked in, making Bear wonder how valuable and skilled they must be that their own kind felt the need to hold them captive and safe. A small spark went off in her brain, causing the thought to appear that possibly, the Symenestra wanted her as a slave. But Bear was useless to them except for possibly her ability to fly, and with everything they had constructed without wings she could hardly imagine that it would give them much advantage. Bear understood that the entrance was above (and how clever to have put the non-Symenestra at a disadvantage) so she flew to it after allowing the others ahead of her, finding it easy to maneuver herself into the small space. They descended as far as they could down the steep stairway, Bear's height leaving her unable to see ahead while following the guards. When the two Symenestra stepped out of the narrow passage her eyes were caught by the colorful fabric hanging along the bars, draping down and providing a sort of marker that this was not a slave's quarters. Following them further, Bear continued to stare at the silk until she heard the abrupt sound of someone inhaling quickly, as if angry or perhaps startled. Scarcely furnished and inhabited by one Symenestra that seemed like the rest only more aged, this must be the room of the slavemaster. Words, more hurried and stiff, were exchanged, then the man spoke to Bear, but Bear's focus was losing as the sun must be close to breaking the horizon by now. "Barren, yes," she confirmed, her voice finding a steady rhythm that somewhat resembled other females of her race. "My human name is Bear. I need medicine," Bear sighed out of frustration, "Medic? Babies sick and no life." She tried to convey her confusion over her bad luck, hands unconsciously holding her stomach that once moved with life beneath it.

[Poison]

„Bear“, the ‚slave master‘ repeated and shook his head. „That’s a strange name. Do all your people have animal names? I’m Vass, Vass Vervein, and I’m the head of the Ochya, the local guard“, he introduced himself and then he paused, wondering what he was supposed to do with his guest. As far as he knew there had never been a Zith in Kalinor before. Symenestra didn’t take Zith surrogates. They were too barbarian, even for them, and they didn’t take Zith as prisoners either. If Zith attacked them, they usually just killed them all.

He could put her into the Sac, but so far she hadn’t broken any laws yet, and as far as Vass was concerned, the laws applied to all races (as long as they weren’t surrogates). Everybody deserved to be treated fairly, at least until they did something wrong. Besides, the prisoners might complain about being stuck with a creature like her. Killing her would be overdoing it, and he didn’t like it either. But allowing her to walk about freely among the people of Kalinor wasn‘ an option either, at least for now. She would scare them, besides there was a small chance that she was lying to them.

Sighing, Vass turned to her again and spoke.

„These two men …“ He gestured towards Bear’s ‚escort‘. „… are understandably worried about the presence of a Zith in Kalinor. You seem to be harmless to me – if a Zith can be harmless – but the people of Kalinor don’t know that. They’ll only see a creature that will kill them and steal their children. They might attack you. They might even try to kill you. We will try to make sure that you are reasonable safe in the city, but will you agree to an escort until then?“

„These two men can take you to Hellebore so that he can give you medicine. I assume your children were stillborn or so sick that they didn’t live long? Hellebore is very experienced and has already treated a lot of women that wanted to get pregnant or had problematic pregnancies. If you need a place to stay, we can arrange that as well.“

The Zith would not sleep at the local inn, he decided. There would almost certainly be complaints, and the inn would probably lose all its customers while she was there. Maybe … yes, if the Zith insisted on staying, she could spend a night at the Purging, and afterwards Sanairas‘ Larkspur’s old residence would be waiting for her. The house had been empty since she had died. Nobody wanted to stay there.